We can’t always tell where black mold grows in our homes. This is because they generally grow in obscure places where it is humid and dark. Molds thrive where there is little sunlight and where there is a lot of moisture, and these places are usually hidden from view.

You can easily tell whether a room in a house carries mold just by the smell. Mold gives off a pungent, earthy smell - similar to the odor you inhale as soon as you enter an abandoned building that has been waterlogged for a long time, for example.

Now, we don’t have to give much thought to whether or not this particular abandoned house has thousands of mold colonies, but we do have to be concerned when it comes to our own homes.

Not a few people have stumped their GPs, telling about sinusitis-like symptoms when they haven’t had sinusitis ever before. Others mysteriously develop rashes, some suffer with itchy, irritated eyes, and still others experience asthma attacks even when the weather seems fair.

All these could very well be health-related mold problems. They may not be as severe as other illnesses, but they should at least make us aware that an old or faulty house is worth inspecting to make sure that all areas where mold grows are eliminated.

What these health-related mold problems are:

Wheezing or coughing. When a large number of mold spores are inhaled, a person may react by incessant sneezing or continuous coughing, as if one has a sore throat.

Irritation of the eyes. “Mold” gets in your eyes, in this case. Exposure to the mold can make you feel like rubbing your eyes out as if you were left standing in a cloud of dust, leaving your eyes red and itchy.

Itching. When your skin comes in contact with the anaerobic spores, you may tend to develop an itch, especially if you have sensitive skin. Those with skin allergies could react severely to mold exposure, so these people shouldn’t even attempt to clean out a mold-infested basement all by themselves.

Another of the most common health-related mold problems is known as the ’sick building syndrome.’ It is named such because of the way Black Mold proliferates in old, dilapidated buildings which have been exposed to the elements and left in a state of disrepair. The symptoms of the sick building syndrome are fatigue, headaches, and other problems with the respiratory tract.

There are causes of the sick building syndrome other than mold, but if you exhibit any of these symptoms, it’s a good bet that there may indeed be mold working its way through your walls, ceilings, or under the carpets. Do the ‘nose test’ to find out where they breed and eliminate these spots early on to stop all health problems related to mold. Remember, prevention is still the best cure.

By Gerard K. Lawson

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Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve” - W. Clement Stone

Like any learned skill, there are certain basics that must be mastered first. The very bedrock upon which all health and fitness achievement rests are thoughts. Everything man-made in the world or any action you’ve taken in the past all started with a thought. There is not one man-made object or goal that didn’t start as a thought in someone’s head that was then made into reality. Your toaster, your TV, your automobile, your desire for better health.

A single thought ultimately transformed into physical reality.

In order to achieve any health or fitness goal you must start with this basic concept; thoughts are things. Thoughts are the foundation upon which you build the framework for attainment of your goal. Every thought has a physical manifestation in our bodies; every thought produces physical substances called neuro-transmitting enzymes that have instant effects on how we feel and who we are at the cellular level.

Don’t believe me? Think of biting into a big, juicy lemon or think about fingernails slowly running down a chalk board and tell me you didn’t have an immediate, physical response.

Or how about a thought that changed the world?

Every day, thousands of times a day, all over the world people fly from destination to destination. It’s amazing that a person can step into a device that lifts them off the ground and flies through the air at great speed sometimes over great distances safely carrying them to their destination in a matter of minutes or hours! Only a bit over a hundred years ago that would have been considered impossible or a miracle. Yet it happens every day today and it started with a thought in someone’s head that man could fly. On December 17th, 1903 the thought that man had had for generations to fly, became reality.

That is the power of thoughts!

If you can have that kind of immediate response from such a simple thought, just imagine what you can accomplish with a focused, burning desire backed by faith and persistence!

Life isn’t fair or normal, there’s just life. But that should be a comforting thought. If life were fair all things would be equal and all people would be equal. The logical conclusion is that there could be no social movement up or down, no bettering of yourself nor worsening, no getting healthier, just stagnation. Because life isn’t fair it means you have the ability to control whether you improve your life or make it worse but at least you have the ability to make change.

What about external influences which you have no control over? Say your significant other is killed in a car accident or you become paraplegic in a skiing accident. The list could go on and on. But there is one thing you have total control over.

Viktor E. Frankl, a concentration camp survivor, put it best in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning,”

“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitudes in any given circumstance.”

The only absolute freedom you have is choosing how you react to life. And how you choose starts with a thought.

Who you are right now is the sum total of what you’ve thought about up to this moment. If you’re not satisfied with who you are right now, the good news is who you will be from now on is entirely up to you. Change your thoughts and you can start changing yourself. If you want to lose weight or be more fit, it all starts with a thought.

By: Jeff Baker

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When it comes to the health of men, you really can’t be too careful. Katie Couric lost her husband to colon cancer, and has been fighting to raise awareness ever since. As a result, more and more men are starting to ask their doctors about getting checked for the ailment. Because more and more frequently the cancer is getting caught in its early stages, more lives are being saved. Also, the sooner you catch cancer, the easier and less expensive the treatments seem to be. While colon cancer can cross gender lines and affect women as well as men, testicular cancer and prostate cancer are exclusive to guys.

Other health of men concerns include erectile dysfunction. Such a problem has the potential to put a huge strain on a relationship, and many men choose to treat erectile dysfunction with pharmaceutical drugs. While these can be very effective and provide immediate relief from the disorder, there are other alternatives available. For example, some men choose to treat it with diet and exercise. While this may take quite a bit longer than popping a blue pill does, it provides more long term relief. Also, depending on whether or not you have health insurance, diet and exercise may be a more affordable option.

Besides just men, entire families are concerned with the health of men. For example, if a man is working full time and is the primary breadwinner in a family, if he falls ill and can no longer do his job the whole family suffers. The woman of the house may have to pick up a job (or even a second job) to make ends meet. The best thing to do if you’re a man and worried about your health is to get regular check ups. Visiting your doctor regularly can help you to stay healthy much longer than if you don’t.

By: John R. Davis

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3 Factors That Affect Your Caloric Requirements

There are three main factors involved in calculating how many calories your body needs per day, basal metabolic rate, physical activity, and thermic effect of food.

Basal Metabolic Rate

Your basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy your body needs to function when resting. This accounts for about 60-70% of calories burned in a day and also includes the energy required to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, your eyelids blinking and your body temperature stabilized. Calories burned in a day is really important. Men have a higher BMR than women.

Physical Activity

The next factor in the equation is your physical activity. Physical activity also includes everything from brushing your teeth in the morning to running a mile. The number of calories burned in a day actually has to do with your body weight. Calories burned in a day are very important.

Thermic Effect of Food

The thermic effect of food is the final calculation to formula of calories your body burns. This is the amount of energy your body uses to digest the food that you consume. It takes energy to breakdown you food. To calculate the number of calories you disburse in this process, multiply the total number of calories you eat in a day by 0.10, or 10 percent

By Garen Arnold

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The type of people today is changing by the means that they move and live their lives and so this also goes with the way that stress affects these people. The number of stressed people is actually increasing and the effects of stress in a person are also adding up. With more people feel stressed, there are others that consider stress as a common situation in their life but they do not see that they are risking their health too much when they simply let stress take over their body.

With recent changes in the way that we live our life, every individual must be careful not to let these situations affect him too much. With the many tasks that must be accomplished, this must not always make him feel stressed. Coping up should still be done and having a clear mind should be maintained. There can be many ways that a person can do to manage his life better and to avoid stress to take in control.

With the changes in the way that we live, we must learn to adapt and make our body suit it. If not, then it would be better to change our lifestyle to suit our body’s needs.

By Sofi Emerald

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As hundreds of scientists, doctors and researchers continuously try to find better ways to improve the health of human beings, new methods of fighting diseases and staying healthy is being published almost every day that if you wait for a month to get your health magazine, you may miss out on some of the most exciting discoveries.
As you may already know, developments in the health sector is often very rapid that the health news of last month may no longer be as relevant as today.

Some of the best sources of information andhealth news are
online news channels, the medical websites and other reliable sites
run by notable organizations that are into healthcare.

You can subscribe to some of those electronic newsletters that feature health news. Just make sure that the electronic newsletter that you subscribe to is reliable otherwise you will end up with bogus health news that will not really do you any good.

If you do not really care about getting information about the daily progress of some important developments in the field of health, and you just want to enjoy reading about the new discoveries, you might want to stick with those health magazines that feature the most important discoveries of the month.These types of magazines have reliable health news that is informative and easy to understand for everyone.

By Leslie Tepper

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Which course is right for you? Since you’ve already decided to pursue a career in natural healing, the next course of action should be to explore potential schools of natural health to determine which career-training program will best suit your professional goals. For example, if you would like to become a holistic wellness counselor, there are academic programs that offer certificates and/or diplomas upon completion of your studies in this field.

Schools of natural health are also very popular in offering unique training options in hypnotherapy, spiritual and emotional healing, energy therapies, reflexology, massage therapy, holistic nutrition, herbalism, and iridology, among others.

If you prefer working with your hands, a great number of specialty schools of natural health provide certification (and even associate degree) programs in therapeutic massage. While each academic course may vary from one to the next, basic studies entail anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology; but the greater variation presents itself in the specific modalities that are taught in each program. For instance, if you would like to learn Eastern bodywork modalities, there are schools of natural health that offer basic somatic training in Swedish massage, sports massage, and deep tissue massage, as well as Tuina, acupressure, and/or Shiatsu.

Additionally, natural healing schools that offer massage therapy as part of the curriculum typically entail 300 to 500 training hours; and depending on the level of education you would like to achieve, may well exceed 1,000 training hours.

Schools of natural health that provide herbology courses may integrate other alternative medicine modalities like iridology, flower essences, and essential oils into the overall curriculum. Though many Chinese medicine, naturopathic, and homeopathic programs include herbal medicine training; there are many schools of natural health that offer concentrated studies in master herbalism, botanical medicine, and even degrees in applied sciences in nutrition and herbal medicine.

If you (or someone you know) are interested in learning more about these or other natural healing schools, let professional training within fast-growing industries like massage therapy, naturopathy, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, Reiki, and others get you started! Explore schools of natural health near you.

By CarolAnn Bailey-Lloyd

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Due in part to Nintendo’s release of the “Brain-Age game” and now the second version of that game, the industry’s income is expected to grow again and again over the next several years. By 2015, analysts expect to see the industry take in billions of dollars.

Want more of the brain health news for today? While the majority of the games and puzzles target aging baby boomers, teenagers and college students are also getting into brain exercises.

Some teachers are using the techniques to improve their student’s ability to remember facts, dates, names, etc. It is estimated that the K-12 market accounted for $60 million worth of the earnings in 2007.

Will any of these techniques help you, specifically? There’s a bit of a question mark on that. While some techniques work for some people, they don’t necessarily work for everyone.

All that you have to do is read a few software reviews to see that. Some people love the games and teasers. Others are not impressed.

In May of 2008, the brain health news was all about the introduction of Posit Science’s new “cognitive behavioral training”. If you took any psychology classes, that term may bring to mind names like Pavlov and B. F. Skinner, whose techniques were not always pleasant.

But, the term actually encompasses a broad range of behavioral therapies that relieve conditions such as depression, anxiety and even schizophrenia. It is common today to rely on mood altering drugs for those conditions, but when cognitive therapies are combined with drug therapy, the results are always more positive.

Posit Science’s program is rather expensive at $395, but it does combine a kind of personalized program with regular assessments for effectiveness. Instead of a single exercise, the program includes a variety of techniques aimed at improving memory, multi-tasking abilities and mental clarity.

In August of 2008, the brain health news from the Washington Post was a little different. While many of us are exciting about the growing number of available options, some experts warn that consumers may be just as well off to save their money.

The Nintendo game, for example, is very inexpensive and the teasers range from a kind of “rock-paper-scissors” to telling time on an upside down clock. Researchers have shown that video games improve a person’s cognitive function, but only when the volunteers were “non-players”.

Well, that’s it for the brain health news of today. The experts all agree that the best advice is to never stop looking for new challenges

By Mike Logan

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Some have said happiness is simple what you feel when what you want to happen eventually occurs. Or, it may involve a series of events that ultimately lead to a final result that makes us emotionally happy and contented. Unfortunately, throughout history and from all Continents of the World, many powerful rulers, wealthy persons, gifted university academics, talented artists, geniuses and the average person have all searched all the days of their lives and still never really achieved the happiness they desired. Some may have received short periods of contentment with some happiness, but not the real daily substantial happiness they personally needed in their lives. Some see this problem as troublesome when we want something or the other every moment of our lives. Our desire then become a problem which contribute to our unhappiness. Hence, we must explore the possibility of a life of no desires or at least minimum desires. Realistically, this may mean adjusting our life desires in line with our abilities and our real world provisions. But his does not exclude new ideas and explorations that can result in contributing to our happiness. See What is Happiness: How can we achieve Happiness…at www.akgupta.com.
In our daily lives, we may have observed and have been informed that some people do take some essential and necessary things for granted in their lives. In the developed world, for example, it is said that some people take shelter, breakfast, lunch, dinner, clothing, cars, televisions, computers, vacations, freedom of speech, and thousands of other conveniences for granted. This can lead to their unhappiness as they demonstrate irritations and grumble often about simple delays or errors in their daily lives from interactions with some of those conveniences. While, there are millions of other people in countries around the world who are still waiting to receive access to many of the above example conveniences.

A scientific report stated that the countries (that is, people) that are happiest are those that are healthy, wealthy, and wise. But factors such as level of poverty and access to basic education do matter. Social cohesion and a stronger sense of national identity from small population have helped to produce better happiness. But of course, money matters. See Rating Countries for the Happiness Factor from Business Week at www.businessweek.com. The key to happiness is still good health, but having money assist in achieving the desired good health and hence happiness. So countries like Denmark and Switzerland, for example, unlike most African countries that have not much wealth, are considered to have happier people. But in many countries, unfair economic free-market systems can be blamed for producing unhappiness due to insecurity and competition. So the frustration of the 21st century modern life and world system can play an adverse role in the endeavor to become a happy individual or nation.

Nevertheless, we need to know that happiness involves gratitude, appropriate forgiveness, optimism, hope, integrity, benevolence, and the ability to foster good harmonious relationships. These will benefit not only ourselves, but also the other people around us who come in contact with us on a daily basis. On the other side, there are behaviors that decrease happiness. These include, envy, some gossip, holding a grudge, sitting around doing nothing for a very long period of time when the opposite would help our happiness, pessimism, ingratitude, irresponsibility, lack of empathy, contempt and violence, among many others. And of course, these have undesirable effects upon other people as well. See Why is Happiness a Virtue at http://drjoelwade.blogspot.com. So our own happiness and good health have a lot to do with our personal thoughts and eventual manifestation of actions, that can then be considered to be not contributing to our happiness and health.
We need to know and be reminded that happy people do have younger hearts, arteries, and other vital human organs. When we are happy, we will more likely recover quickly from surgery, cope better with pain, have lower blood pressure, and have longer life expectancy than unfortunate unhappy people. Those who do regular check-up and exercise more are often happier people. And we are told that happy people may have stronger immune systems, and as such are less likely to get colds and flu viruses. If they do get those, their symptoms may very well only be mild. See Happiness and Your Health at www.realage.com. Being positive is also a plus against colds and flu. Positive emotions play a larger and more important role in disease risk and health complaints. And of importance, we are reminded that depression is a mix of high negative emotions (such as sadness) and low positive emotions (like happiness).

Some would like us to know that, for those of us who are more concerned with creating a better world than a happier world, becoming much happier and helping others become happier may very well prove to be more effective means to this end. Happiness is not only essential to our personal and social lives, it is important to our global community. This is considered to be true because we are being told that unhappiness can breed wars and terrorism. Sometimes, a county may attack another because of dissatisfaction with certain international realities. Various social, political, religious, economic and other factors that are considered adverse to an individual and country welfare, can cause war – happy people, it is said, will not initiate unjust wars or commit acts of terror against others. See Why is Happiness so Important…at http://thehappinessshow.com.

Base on the above therefore, we are aware that happiness is really very important for our good health. Happiness will depend on the individual perspectives and actions in life, as well as the characteristics of the country in which they live. Happiness is not elusive, but takes consistent effort, honesty, sacrifice and other personal adjustments in life for it to be achieved in the interest of our good health.

By MichaelTaylorOnline.org

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To understand that, let’s review 10 important events that took place in 2007, a seminal year for the field.

1. In January, many mainstream media publications, such as Time Magazine and CBS News, started to publish major stories on neuroplasticity and “brain exercise”, following the publication of the ACTIVE study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2006, where significant percentages of the participants age 65 and older who trained for five weeks improved their memory, reasoning and information-processing speed. Even more impressive, when tested five years later, the participants in the computer-based program (for information-processing) had less of a decline in the skill they were trained in than did a control group that received no cognitive training, and the results were more clear and consistent than in the non-computer-based programs (for memory and reasoning). In all programs, though, the payoff from mental exercise seemed far greater than we are accustomed to getting for physical exercise - as if 10 workouts at the gym this month were enough to help keep you fit five years from now.

2. January: two superb popular science books, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain (Ballantine Books) by science journalist Sharon Begley, and The Brain That Changes Itself (Viking) by psychiatrist Norman Doidge, make neuroplasticity research accessible to a general audience, exploring the research and rationale behind a variety of structured “mental exercise” programs, both computer-based and not (like meditation).

3. May: A 10-question Checklist is released to evaluate the growing number of programs making brain-related claims, at an event co-sponsored by the American Society on Aging and SFSU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

4. June: The Journal of Gerontology publishes a special Summer Issue fully devoted to Cognitive Training research studies.

5. June: Nicole Kidman becomes the face of “Brain Training”, highlighting the commercial success of Nintendo Brain Age in the US and Europe, following the previous success in Japan. Brain Training becomes a household expression.

6. June: The Center for Disease Control and the Alzheimer’s Association release a Cognitive Health Roadmap to guide the growing research and improve public health education in order to “To maintain or improve the cognitive performance of all adults.”

7. September: Susan Greenfield, neuroscientist and Director of the Royal Institution in the UK, endorses MindFit program, which trains 14 different cognitive skills.

8. November: At the Gerontology Society of American meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Elizabeth Zelinski of the University of Southern California Andrus Gerontology Center, who led the IMPACT study based on Posit Science’s program that trains auditory processing, reports very positive initial (not yet published) results.

9. November: The Brain Resource Company, specialized in developing cognitive assessments for clinical trials, signs a multi-million dollar contract with an insurance company to develop more sensitive diagnostic brain “markers” and assessments to enable wider adoption of cognitive assessments.

10. December: PBS releases an special program on neuroplasticity, featuring Michael Merzenich’s research and Posit Science Brain Fitness 2.0 program.

Now you see why this field is growing so rapidly. Please stay tuned!

By Alvaro Fernandez

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