Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an ancient healing art that helps temper an overactive immune system. It can also provide immediate relief to swollen, irritated nasal passages. Sterile acupuncture needles are applied to the face, while far away points in the hands and feet help re-balance the energy meridians. Source

What You should know more about Sucralose

While sucralose, better known by its brand name, may originate with sugar, the end product is anything but natural. It's processed using chlorine, and researchers are finding that the artificial sweetener is passing through our bodies and winding up in wastewater treatment plants, where it can't be broken down.

Tests in Norway and Sweden found sucralose in surface water released downstream from treatment discharge sites. Scientists worry it could change organisms' feeding habits and interfere with photosynthesis, putting the entire food chain at risk. The chemically derived artificial sweetener acesulfame K was also detected in treated wastewater and tap water.

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Stretching Before Exercise

The idea here is that stretching before and after you exercise can prevent injury while you’re working out and muscle soreness afterward.

While stretching does promote flexibility (something you should strive for as an element of overall fitness), a study published in British Medical Journal found no scientific evidence to back up the notion that stretching before a workout reduces injuries or that stretching before and after can prevent muscle soreness.
Exercise Speeds Metabolism for Hours

While partly true--your metabolism does amp up during exercise and for a few hours afterward--the truth can be a big disappointment: the number of calories you can expect lose thanks to the afterburn is negligible, only 20 extra ones for the whole day according to one study.

But (and this is a really big “but”) you may be able to set your metabolism on high for hours after your workout if you can exercise intensely enough to reach the top of your VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen you can take in during exercise) and continue at that high level for 45 minutes. A tough prescription, but if you can manage that, a recent study found that you could burn as many as 190 extra calories in the hours after exercise.

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Crunches Lead to Sixpack Abs?

Sure they will as long as you also get rid of any belly fat that obscures your abdominal muscles. While crunches strengthen muscles, they won’t burn off the fat in your belly.

To flaunt your newly crunched abs you’ve got to trim the fat via diet, cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. And, of course, for crunches to work, you’ve got to learn to do them right.
Running on a Treadmill is Easier on the Knees

Sorry, but it is the running itself that stresses the knees, not the surface you’re pounding.

To ease the impact on your knees, experts advise varying your aerobic activities: mix running with riding a stationary bike or using the elliptical machine at the gym.

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You forget to take your vitamins, why it's no so bad?

Although vitamins can fill in the gaps to make sure you get all the nutrients your body needs (a perfect diet all the time is next to impossible!), there's a downside to always popping a vitamin. It may make you reach for the bag of potato chips instead of an apple-and skip your workout to boot, reveals a new study published in Psychological Science.

Researchers found that taking a multivitamin every day may make you feel like you have the leeway to blow off other healthy habits-like grabbing dinner at the drive-thru rather than eating right or channel surfing instead of taking a walk, notes Benjamin Caballero, MD, PhD, a professor of pediatrics, nutrition and international health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

In general, your body best absorbs nutrients in their natural form, so rather than relying on vitamins, focus on eating a healthy diet packed with whole foods. If you do take vitamins, remind yourself that they don't replace a healthy diet and exercise or provide a buffer against unhealthy habits.
Find out which 5 nutrients you need the most-and how to get them.
You get angry-and show it!

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You get stressed about the little stuff, why it's not so bad?

Chronic stress is linked to conditions like heart disease, but short-term stress actually has a positive side, pushing you to get things done-and succeed at them. "Stress triggers the hormone cortisol, which helps energize us, revving up our systems to handle the day," says Judith Orloff, MD, author of Emotional Freedom. "It also motivates us to do better on the things we care about and problem-solve."

So know that the brief stressed-out rush you get before a presentation at work will help you perform better, and when the car breaks down, a little stress will help you fix the situation quickly. Balance is key, though, so it's important to recharge your batteries every day so those once-in-awhile stressed moments don't turn into a constant thing, says Dr. Orloff. Her suggestions: Spend five minutes every day doing an activity or hobby you love, or if you prefer peace and quiet, sit in a dark room and breathe deeply.

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How A Woman's Sex Drive Declines

A happy, healthy relationship and sex life are all very well, but when it comes to measuring a woman's sexual desire, all scientists really need to know is how long a couple has been together. Women's sex drives gradually ebb over time, say the authors of a new study, while a man's stays at around the same level. In fact, on a desirability scale, women's yearnings decreased steadily with every passing month of a relationship, making it possible to gauge a woman's sex drive just by looking at a union's duration.

170 men's and women's desire levels were monitored and rated on the Female Sexual Function Index. Participants, all in heterosexual relationships ranging from one month to nine years in length, were all undergraduates at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, where the author's lead researcher, Sarah Murray, is based.

Ranging from 1.2 to 6.0, the scale quantifies sex drive so accurately that Ms Murray and her research partner Robin Milhausen found 'specifically, for each additional month women in this study were in a relationship with their partner, their sexual desire decreased by 0.02 on the Female Sexual Function Index'.

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Coffee may help promote a healthy weight

Drinking an espresso or cappuccino after a meal is more than a relaxing habit. "When you drink coffee after a meal, it causes your body to more slowly process the meal you just ate," says Chris Kilham, medical researcher, founder of Medicine Hunter, Inc. and author of Psyche Delicacies.

According to David Levitsky, PhD, professor of nutritional science at Cornell University, "Caffeine decreases the rate at which the stomach dumps its contents into the duodenum-a part of the small intestine where digestion takes place-and also increases metabolic rate."

Keep in mind, though, that java isn't a miracle brew: Downing it after dinner won't make the pounds melt away; rather, sipping a cup post-meal could, in small part, help promote a healthy weight.

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Love is good for almost everything

The power of love to keep us well comes from a study showing that health suffers after a divorce or when one spouse dies. The researchers found that being single after being married brings about a decline on physical health. The divorced and widowed in the study had 20 percent more health problems such as heart disease and diabetes than mid-life couples who remained married to their first spouse.

Even worse, the positive health benefits of marriage were cancelled out for the divorced and widowed people in the study: they had worse health problems than men and women who had never been married.

Here are some startling statistics illustrating how vital love is to our mental as well as physical well-being: rates of major depression are nine times higher in unmarried men; divorce or separation more than doubles the risk of suicide in men; married men and women drink less alcohol and use less marijuana and cocaine than the unmarried; 70 percent of chronic drinkers were divorced or separated - only 15 percent were married.

So there you have it, love is good for almost everything. The only exception: it doesn’t help you lose weight.

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Can Ice Ease Muscle Pain?

Applying ice to a sore muscle can numb it so it feels better, but a new review of evidence from 36 earlier studies concluded that icing doesn’t help heal muscle tears and can actually reduce muscle strength and power temporarily. This makes it a poor strategy for football players and other athletes who are itching to return to the action immediately after icing.

The researchers suggested that it is okay to ice sore muscles provided you don’t go right back to exercising. And they noted that more study is needed to learn more about the effects of icing, but this will be tough to accomplish since, for comparison purposes, there’s no placebo that feels like ice.

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Work Gossip is Good for You?

You might have heard that it's bad workplace etiquette to gossip, but if you've witnessed someone with bad behaviour, feel free to spread the news. "Prosocial" gossip - the kind that helps prevent others from being taken advantage of - does not only benefit the greater good, but also improves the health of the gossiper, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (via the ScienceDaily).

"Gossip gets a bad rap, but we're finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the maintenance of social order," said Robb Willer, a psychologist and co-author of the study.Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley says that gossip is actually therapeutic and can lower stress levels for participants. In one experiment, participants were hooked up to heart rate monitors as they observed two people playing a game. After a couple of rounds, the participants saw one player not playing by the rules, which caused their heart rates to increase. When the observers were able to pass along the "unsavory characters" to other people, their heart rates decreased.

"Spreading information about the person whom they had seen behave badly tended to make people feel better, quieting the frustration that drove their gossip," Willer said.

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Indonesians Seem to be The Most Contented People on The World?

Despite economic woes,wars, conflicts and natural disasters the world is a happier place today than it was four years ago and Indonesians, Indians and Mexicans seem to be the most contented people on the planet.

More than three-quarters of people around the globe who were questioned in an international poll said they were happy with their lives and nearly a quarter described themselves as very happy. “The world is a happier place today and we can actually measure it because we have been tracking it,” said John Wright, senior vice president of Ipsos Global, which has surveyed the happiness of more than 18,000 people in 24 countries since 2007.

Brazil and Turkey rounded out the top five happiest nations, while Hungary, South Korea, Russia, Spain and Italy had the fewest number of happy people. Perhaps proving that money can’t buy happiness, residents of some of the world biggest economic powers, including the United States, Canada and Britain, fell in the middle of the happiness scale.

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The Incredible Cat-eye Boy Who Can 'See in The Dark'

A young Chinese boy who was born with brilliant blue eyes - like those of a Siamese cat - claims to have the ability to see in pitch darkness. Nong Yousui from Dahua has eyes which, it is claimed, reflect neon green when when a light is shined on them.

Nong who enjoys playing outside with his schoolmates but struggles with in bright sunlight, claims he can see perfectly clearly even in complete darkness.
His father said: 'Two weeks after he was born I was told his eyes were different.

To test his abilities, a Chinese journalist recently prepared a set of questionnaires which he was able to finish in a pitch black room. Video footage of the youngster, whose current age has not been revealed, first emerged in 2009, but has only recently been picked up online.

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Age spots should really be called “sun spots”

Those brown spots that tend to crop up with age have little to do with the passing years, and much more to do with soaking up rays. “Age spots are the result of cumulative sun exposure and subsequent damage,” says Dr. Fusco.

“They appear because pigment cells have accumulated in the top layer of skin.” To prevent sunspots, apply sunscreen in the morning every single day—and every few hours afterward if you’ll be in direct sunlight. “The minimum SPF you should use is 30; be sure that it’s broad spectrum to block UVB and UVA rays.” advises Dr. Fusco. Aim to use a marble-sized amount of block for your face and a shot glass–sized amount for your body. Though age spots aren’t directly related to age, seborriheic keratosis, benign hereditary moles that usually stick out from your skin, are.

They vary in color from white to black, says Dr. Oppenheim, and tend to appear on the face, scalp and torso (but can show up anywhere except your palms, the soles of your feet and your mouth) as you grow older.

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Are vegetarians thinner?

It’s well-documented that vegetarians are healthier than the general population. People who do not eat meat, fowl, or fish have a lower risk of heart disease, lower cholesterol, less incidence of type 2 diabetes, lower rate of hypertension, and lower overall cancer rates.

Now research shows vegetarians are skinnier, too. Because of the way the body metabolizes different types of food into energy, a plant-based diet can actually boost calorie burning by up to 16% for three hours after eating a meal.

Vegetarians tend to consume less fat, especially saturated fat, which mainly comes from animal products. Vegetarians consume more fiber, which is found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, but not in animal products.

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Do Women Feel Pain More Acutely Than Men?

Millions of women who have soldiered through natural childbirth while their male partners wilted beside the bed may be shocked by a new study published in the Journal of Pain. According to the authors, who pored over the records of over 72,000 medical patients, "Women report more intense pain than men in virtually every disease category."

The study's senior author, Atul Butte, MD, PhD, points out that there have been other reports on men versus women and pain, but their investigation is the first to indicate that women feel pain more intensely than men. Butte's team looked at self-reported pain scores from 1 to 10 in over 160,000 cases across 250 diseases. "We saw higher pain scores for females practically across the board," said Butte.

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Fitness Myths, Busted: No Pain, No Gain

Here’s a top evergreen exercise myths that you’ll probably hear but can safely ignore:

Maybe this one took on a life of its own because it rhymes and is so easy to remember. Forget it. If an exercise causes pain, you’re either doing it wrong (a session or two with a personal trainer can set you straight) or you’ve already managed to hurt yourself.

Be sure to separate pain from muscle soreness, which comes on after you tax a lax muscle and will wear off in a few days. Actual pain can mean that you’ve exhausted a muscle or torn a ligament. If what you’re doing really hurts, STOP!

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Porn Actors WILL Have to Wear Condoms

Porn stars will have to wear condoms while shooting films under new rules proposed for Los Angeles. The city council's measure means porn producers would have to provide and require the use of condoms on set in order to obtain permits to film in America's second-largest city.

The council voted 11-1 for the proposal earlier this week, but the plans still require a second vote next week for final approval. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been calling for mandatory condom use in adult films and urged council members to approve the 'ordinance'.

Foundation President Michael Weinstein said after the initial vote: 'This long struggle to move us to a place of making Los Angeles a safe place to make adult films has taken a huge leap forward today.' However, the Free Speech Coalition, the porn industry's trade association, issued a statement criticising the vote and the incursion of government into sex films.

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Woman Has Two Vaginas

Hazel Jones always wondered why she suffered from terrible cramps and heavy periods during puberty. But it wasn't until she turned 18 that she was given her astonishing diagnosis - she had two vaginas.

The blonde 27-year-old from High Wycombe has the million-in-one condition uterus didelphys, which means she has two separate uteruses and cervixes as well.
But she told ITV's This Morning she was comfortable with having the condition, despite the fact she had to effectively lose her virginity twice.

'Once I found out what it was I told everybody,' she told TV hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield. 'I thought it was amazing and it's definitely an ice-breaker at parties'

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Coffee doesn't necessarily cause stomach pain

If you've ever blamed java for stomach discomfort, you might want to visit your doctor to see what else could be at the root of the problem. According to Lauren Gerson, MD, MSc, associate professor of medicine and gastroenterology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, "There is no evidence from reviewed studies that coffee causes ulcers or more pain in patients with documented ulcers."

She also notes that there is no evidence that coffee could be the cause of stomach pain in patients with indigestion. However, there is one type of digestive issue that coffee can aggravate; Dr. Gerson explains that drinking coffee may worsen heartburn symptoms, since it stimulates the stomach to produce gastric acid.

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