What Exactly is Good Nutrition?
Secretly we all want just a few things in life — none the least of which is to live a life that is healthy and energetic. One way to accomplish this is to eat a well balanced diet that fuels the body to take on life's challenges.
Soy Milk Alternatives
Maybe you’re a vegetarian who’s decided to go vegan, or perhaps you’ve just opted to give up drinking cow’s milk. Either way, there’s a good chance you’ve reached for a carton of soy milk to replace the dairy.
Cranberries Show Their Strength
When is the last time you ate cranberries? Was it with a turkey dinner? With all the research pointing to the amazing health benefits of this simple berry, shouldn't cranberries be more than a once-a-year side dish?
Why Has Yoga Become So Popular?
Did you know that over 15 million people practiced yoga in 2003, according to a landmark study by Yoga Journal magazine? And the numbers are expected to increase dramatically in subsequent years.
Dieters Need More Calcium
Women on diets need more calcium than normal to avoid bone loss, say Rutgers University researchers.Studies showed a weight loss diet of 1.5 pounds a week for six weeks cuts absorption of calcium.
Candida: Restoring Balance with Ayurveda
Candida albicans is a yeast-like fungus that lives in the mouth and throat, the intestinal tract and the genital tract. Normally, the population of candida is in healthy balance with other intestinal flora. However, sometimes its population explodes because of various factors such as an improper diet, bursts of intense stress or ongoing low-grade stress that isn't managed effectively combined with poor sleep/exercise routines or antibiotics or oral contraceptives.
Decoding Food Labels
Whether you're concerned about cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or simply losing weight, you want to eat a healthy diet and focus on foods that are high in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients and balanced in fats, carbs, proteins.
Home Remedy for Coughs
Here are two of my favorites (excerpted from my book, Gentle Healing for Baby and Child ... A Parent's Guide). The first is prepared and consumed right away, while the second may be prepared and stored in your refrigerator all winter long.
Mother Nurture: Letting Go
A mom is dealing with so many feelings and needs and wants in her children and partner that the stress builds up over the course of a day. It's normal to feel like you describe. Plus, many women have been taught various ways to keep a stiff upper lip and not to say anything that seems like a complaint, which just keeps things bottled up and festering.
10 Smart Reasons to Use Fish Oil
We are in the grip of an omega-3 fish oil wave. Every day, more studies are published showing just how important this nutrient is to us. Last week, it was children with concentration problems; this week, it is children with autism.
Building a Regular Yoga Practice
People come to yoga looking for various things: peace of mind, stress reduction, improved concentration and weight loss. Yoga can help you to accomplish all of this, but "yoga works, if you work!" You have to do the practices on a regular basis in order to get the results.
The Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners
Back to school time often means thinking about what to put in your child’s lunchbox. If you’re like most parents, you’re probably concerned about the increasing rate of childhood diabetes and obesity.
Homeopathy and Toxic Exposure
As I have taken steps to live a more natural lifestyle, I have found that industrial waste is not limited to the Hollywood-sized vat. Toxins can be found everywhere (just what your favorite paranoiac wants to hear). Pesticides, vaccines, and even terrorist tactics involve toxins that — well, hey, they won’t make your face melt off, but they do pose a myriad of threats to our health.
Meditating Mamas
If we want to enjoy our daily lives, it is exceptionally helpful to slow down for part of the day and focus on your breath. Research has shown that periods of meditation — of focusing on your breath — helps us transcend worries, lowers our anxiety, diminishes depression and increases clarity. Meditation balances our moods and enhances our ability to connect fully with who we are.
Got Stress? Go Gardening!
In its purest form, gardening is about connecting with the earth and resetting our clocks to the simple, natural rhythms of life. Try as we may, we can't really speed up a tomato plant and make it grow by our timetable. We must adapt, and in doing so, gardening offers us a gentle reminder about what's really important in life: food, water, warmth, a bit of loving attention and some room to grow.
Local Honey: Can It Alleviate Allergies?
As one who makes his living by writing about allergies and asthma, I am often asked about the potential health benefits of using local honey. Here I am talking about alleviating allergy symptoms, not “curing” allergies, which is far easier said than done. Honey contains bits and pieces of pollen and honey. As an immune system booster, it is quite powerful. In talks and articles and in my books, I advocate using local honey. Frequently I’ll get e-mails from readers who want to know exactly what I mean by local honey, and how “local” should it be. This is what I usually advise.
Why You Should Go No ‘Poo
Almost three months ago, I was introduced to the idea of no longer using shampoo. I was intrigued. After looking into it somewhat, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose. So I picked up some baking soda and apple cider vinegar and then took the plunge. I love the results! There was an adjustment period where I had to play around with the measurements a bit but I finally got the hang of it. I have straight-as-a-board, baby-fine hair that has never held a “do.” After “no ‘poo,” I don’t even have to use styling products. I just blow dry and go; my hair now keeps any style. It’s awesome!
The Arthritis Sufferer’s Diet
Arthritis affects more than 40 million Americans and is referred to as the most common chronic disease in people over 40. Doctors believe there are over 100 different forms of arthritis, all sharing one main characteristic: they all cause joint inflammation. What can you do to relieve the symptoms of arthritis? A lot. There is a great deal of debate in the medical world about the effects of overall diet on arthritis and using diet toward alleviating the condition.
Natural Alternatives for Lupus Symptoms
Making healthy diet and lifestyle changes will enable you to better manage the symptoms of autoimmune disorders such as lupus, fibromyalgia and Sjogren's syndrome while moving towards healing and wellness. The following lifestyle modifications will not only benefit autoimmune conditions — minimizing discomfort and maximizing healing — but will also help reduce your risk of every common degenerative disease affecting Americans today.
Get more Time, Energy and Money!
Time, energy and money are chronically lacking in parents’ lives. They are too tired because their children keep them up at night, they are strapped for time between juggling work and family, and they spend all their resources on their kids, the house, the car and the mortgage. Everybody has a dream. Whether you know it or not, at one time you dreamed all the time. As children grow, their imaginations grow with them. Then they become adults, and the reality of the world sets in. Have you forgotten how to dream? Do you feel as if you have no time to breath, much less make your dreams reality?
I’ve heard that when using homeopathic remedies, my symptoms will get worse before they get better. Why is that a good thing? What's the point? First, may I point out that while your symptoms do worsen with the correct remedy, in the end, you actually feel better. You gain mental clarity. I know I get all foggy when I'm sick, so the mental clarity helps brighten my outlook.
Yoga for Kids and Parents
“Baby yoga! Baby yoga!” This is my daughter’s chant any time she reaches over to place her hands in front of her toes, in essence doing the toddler version of downward facing dog. I fantasized about doing yoga with my children before becoming pregnant, but I never pictured it like this.
Breathe to Stop Pain and Relieve Stress
Do you ever stop and think what an amazing thing our breath is? Probably not. Most of us never give it a thought. It is something we take for granted. Rarely do we stop and think about how it, along with our souls, is our life force and without it we would not be alive.
The Mother-Child Weight Connection
As the old saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. When it comes to predicting whether or not a child will be overweight as an adult, you don’t have to look much farther than his mother. Maternal obesity is the single most important predictor of obesity in children.
Natural Care for Varicose Veins
Our circulatory system is made up of a complex web of arteries and veins. Our arteries carry oxygen rich blood to the cells of our bodies, while the veins are designed to pump oxygen-poor blood back to the heart. This is accomplished through a series of one-way valves that do not allow blood to flow backwards into the vein.
Immune-Boosting Supplements for Winter Health
Holiday cheer isn’t the only thing that abounds this winter: Cold weather ushers in the sniffles, sneezes and coughs of cold and flu season. Check with your health care provider to see if any of these supplements can help your family avoid illness or feel better quickly in the event you do get sick.
Avoiding Bladder Infections
Most of us are not used to thinking about our body's maintenance beyond eating three square meals a day, getting proper exercise and drinking bottled water. But as we age, bladder health becomes more important, especially for women. So much can happen, between childbirth and infections, that a woman needs to know how to take care of herself.
Meditation on the Move
Simply put, walking meditation is meditating while in motion. It might be a good option if you have a hard time staying focused, tend to get antsy from sitting still or have little ones who like to keep on the move.
Natural help for Uterine Fibroids
Uterine fibroids are solid muscle tissue growths in the uterus. They are also called fibroid tumors, myomas or leiomyomas. Fibroids occur so frequently (in up to half of all women over 40) that they could be considered a normal irregularity. The occasional fibroid can become enormous -- medical literature reports one that was 100 pounds! -- but the majority (80 percent) remain as small as a walnut.
Five Easy Things You Can Do Now to Help Prevent Breast Cancer
The following tips may amaze you, since the actions and foods they suggest run counter to many alternative views of cancer prevention. They are supported with strong research, however -- from the lab, with animals and in long-term human studies. Thus, each of these tips has a solid scientific basis.
Do You Really Need a Mammogram?
Perhaps no aspect of breast cancer is more widely publicized than screening mammography. Ads on television, in magazines and in the daily paper urge women to deal with fear about breast cancer by having a yearly mammogram. We’re even told that doing this is a way to “really care for yourself.”
Healthy Bones the Wise Woman Way
Every woman I know is concerned about osteoporosis. Frightening stories equate it with broken hips, bent spines, wheelchairs and death -- things we all want to avoid. What can we do? Should we take calcium supplements? Hormones? Fosamax? Can we rely on our green allies?
Have a Little Mother[wort] Around the House
Grandmother Edith's love affair with motherwort began when her hot flashes knocked her out in the supermarket. It continued as motherwort mended her husband's heart and grew and grew as her five daughters found relief from PMS and menstrual cramps, constipation and the crazies with the help of the little mother, motherwort.
Fertility & Menopause
Sage: More Than Poultry Stuffing!
Homeopathy for PMS
Power Surges: Homeopathy and Menopause
10 Tips for Women With PMS
How do we know if we’re ready to have another baby?
Try These Herbs for Fertility, Periods, Libido, and Avoiding Conception
Pregnancy Nutrition Starts Before Conception!
Minerals Make the Difference
You Must Be Pregnant, Right? Not Necessarily
Fertility - Natural Family Planning
Try These Herbs for Fertility, Periods, Libido, and Avoiding Conception
So you want to try natural family planning
Fertility awareness: We’ve come a long way since the rhythm method
Fertility After Childbirth: When You’re Ready but Your Body’s Not (and Vice Versa)
Red Light, Green Light: Let Your Computer Do the Analysis
Natural family planning: A man’s perspective
For the Mind
Internal Cleansing
