Vitamin Supplements: A Scam?

Here is yet more evidence that vitamin supplements are not necessary.  While there is some evidence that Vitamins D and E are useful, causality has not necessarily been proven -- even for these vitamins!

Read more here:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dont-take-your-vitamins/

Ebola outbreak

The ebola news story is growing, especially with two American patients with ebola being transported to Atlanta.

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has surpassed 700, according to the World Health Organization. It's the deadliest outbreak ever recorded. U.S. health officials are warning Americans not to travel to the three countries hit by the outbreak: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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Two Americans with Ebola to be flown back to U.S. for treatment

Amid fears that air travelers could spread Ebola to other countries, many are asking questions about the disease and how it is transmitted. Here's what you need to know about Ebola. The information comes from WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

7 Ways to Boost your Metabolism

Many of us have a sluggish metabolism. This can make it really difficult to lose weight and extremely easy to gain weight. A slow metabolism can also make you tire out easily so you don’t get to enjoy all that life has to offer. However, there is good news. You can easily boost your metabolism naturally if you know how. Below, you will find 7 ways to increase your metabolism:

1. Early Morning Intense Exercise – A short burst of intense exercise when you first get up can do wonders for your metabolism. Dr. Oz has advocated for this method of speeding up the metabolism. The best part is you only have to do about five minutes of intense exercise to reap the benefit all day. The exercise you do can be really simple. Examples would include running in place, jumping jacks, and lunges. Of course, if you have a stair master or a jogging machine, that would work too. Just get your heart rate up for five minutes and cool down for two minutes.

2. Eat More Spicy Foods – Hot spices like curry, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cumin, and turmeric all help the body speed up your metabolism. There are other “hot” spices that you may not think of as hot but they react in the body in this way. They include cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Try adding these tasty spices to your soups, stir-fries, casseroles, and other dishes. Curry goes great in some type of salads like quinoa salads. Some people love the taste of cinnamon in their coffee. Just add it to the grounds before you brew it.

3. Drink Lots of Water – Water is magical in this way. Drink a lot of water and your metabolism will magically increase because the metabolic process needs water to fuel it. It’s even better if you make sure you are drinking alkaline water.

4.Keep Your Thyroid Healthy – To work efficiently, the thyroid needs selenium, zinc, copper, and iodine. However, the American diet is notoriously low in these important minerals. To get more of these minerals, eat more seafood and nuts.

Read more here:
http://www.fitnea.com/7-ways-of-boosting-your-metabolism/

Health Tips: How to Live to 102

Some good health tips: Forbes reports:

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mkg45lfkk/how-to-live-to-102/

• Eat grains, veggies & fish
• Avoid soda
• Indulge - but just a little (snacks; wine)
• Stay active
• Do puzzles (keep the mind active)
• Avoid negativity.

Photo credit: Forbes Magazine of Daisy McFadden, age 102.

Dental Tip

Here's a dental tip from a quality dentist in the South Jersey / Philadelphia area: Dr. Mereminsky, DMD.  Dr. Mereminsky is the owner of the private dental practice, Mereminsky Family Dental.

Dental Tip

Avoid sticky sweets, such as taffies, toffees, soft candies, and pastries. These types of foods stick to your teeth and feed decay-causing bacteria.

When you do eat sweets, eat them with or after a meal (when candies are eaten alone, they are more likely to remain stuck between your teeth).

Also, please try to brush your teeth within 10 minutes of consuming foods high in sugar, such as candy. This will greatly reduce the damage that decay-causing bacteria can do to your teeth!

Dr. Edward Mereminsky DMD - Mereminsky Family Dental

6021 Mansion Boulevard, Suite B - Pennsauken (or Merchantville) - NJ 08109

Phone: (856) 662-2333

http://www.mereminskyfamilydental.com/

Home Remedy: Cold Sores

It is autumn and "back-to-school" time for students.  This means more germs, colds -- and sometimes cold sores.  In fact, many people feel that cold sores are a function of sickness and a lowered immune system.  Some people swear by over-the-counter medication (see below) -- and others feel that the home remedies below work better:

• Salt water: swish salt water around the area of the cold sore (or use a cotton swab/Q-Tip if the cold sore is on your lip).
• Hydrogen peroxide: For the sensitive skin/membranes use a cotton swab or Q-Tip.  Dab the cold sore with a cotton swab or Q-Tip soaked with hydrogen peroxide.  For the sensitive skin/membranes of the mouth, some people water down the hydrogen peroxide with an equal part of water. Rinse immediately afterwards (because the hydrogen peroxide is harsh for the mouth).
• Remember to keep the cold sore as dry as possible.  

Avoid citrus, which can irritate the cold sore.  If particularly painful, you can use Anbesol.  And, remember to get rest and drink lots of fluids to help your immune system recover.

10 Things we know about Cancer (that we didn't 10 yrs ago)

Here is an interesting article about cancer:

"...humans may have lived with cancer for millennia but, until recently, we knew next to nothing about it. Now, it seems the every day brings promising new research on cancer’s causes, its weaknesses and ways to thwart it.

Some developments, such as vaccines for cervical cancer, are now established; others, such as experimental therapies using viruses, are still very much experimental. We also know now that restraint in diagnosing and treating cancer is better than aggressive therapies that carry harmful side effects.

We compiled a list of cancer breakthroughs and new directions that have happened in recent years (though some of them obviously have roots in earlier decades)."

Please click here to see the list:

http://www.txchnologist.com/2011/10-things-we-know-about-cancer-that-we-didn%E2%80%99t-know-10-years-ago

Skin care: Naturally

Here's a good article and website on natural skin care (dandruff, rashes, etc.).  A link to the website is below.

I think health nuts are right when they emphasize skin health for total health. Your skin is your body's largest organ, and virtually the only organ that you can watch. So many people have skin rashes, dryness, sores, blisters, corns, dandruff and such that more attention needs to be given to what holds you together.  Do you realize what you'd look like without skin? A heap of organs on the floor: how explicit!  The skin also excretes many wastes from the body.  That's what sweating does, in addition, to automatically cooling you.

 Naturopathic theory holds that rashes, pimples, eczema, and illnesses like chicken pox or measles are attempts by the skin to clean itself out.  This idea will never cease to come up as long as we talk of nature's way in health: the body will try, must try, to clean itself of toxins, foreign chemicals and poisons. Nature eliminates wastes. You may not like it; it may not look romantic; it might even itch. However, the toxins must be expelled.  Since the skin is your largest organ, it will by nature want to do a lot of cleaning out. The more it does so, the more you needed it to.

 "So that's where all those hives and rashes come from," you might think, and you'd be essentially correct. Take a VERY common complaint: dandruff. An over-abundance of mucus-producing items in the diet seems to be a basic cause. Persons with dandruff have found that if they reduce their consumption of milk, ice cream,yogurt and eggs that their dandruff goes away. No medications, no special patent shampoos. I have seen this in my own experience, and if you will pardon me, on my own scalp. Cottage cheese and the aged cheeses seem to be less involved in making up what comes off us as dandruff.

http://www.doctoryourself.com/skin_care.html