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When you don't know what to do in an emotional situation things can get pretty tense. This is heightened when there is tension between you and a loved one.

I recently read about a Seattle couples therapy or in some cases it is for whole families. The sessions are held with Brien R. Wood, MA, MHC, MFT.

He is devoted to helping couples and families improve strained communications. His philosophies stem from research that shows "couples with well functioning relationships are less likely to get physical illnesses like cancer and heart disease, have stronger immune systems, and increased ability to handle stress and anxiety. Long term committed relationships are hard work, worth the effort, and provide a safe haven in a complex and uncertain world."

He will help you to "explore the benefits and limitations of your habitual ways of responding to the environment and experiment with increasing your power to choose behavior, and ability have deeper and more meaningful interactions with yourself and others."

Communication is key. It is not wrong to seek a third party to help you with learning better communication techniques. In fact, it shows you are mature enough to admit you may not know it all and responsible enough to do something about it. =o)

This post has been sponsored.

Labels: Emotional, Mental, therapy

"Sara Lee Food & Beverage has issued a precautionary recall of selected whole-wheat breads that may contain small pieces of metal."

Oh lovely! That really has to suck for them.

You should check out which breads were recalled if you purchase Sara Lee bread, because there are about two dozen packages that could be damaged.

Consumers can call Sara Lee's consumer line at (800) 683-3466 with questions or concerns from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. central time.

Labels: recall

No salt. No sugar. No preservatives. Might not float your boat but here is the good part. You can put the Daily Veggie powder into your regular foods. If you're not into mixing a drink of veggie juice, then sprinkle it onto your favorite dishes. You can even use this to make a delicious and healthy vegetable dip.

Why? Well, because this may be the only way to make sure your stubborn, picky eater will get their recommended about of vegetables. Each single-serve packet of My Daily Veggies contains two full servings of whole vegetables, as defined by the USDA.

Curious, but scared to try, it's okay, you can grab a My Daily Veggies Free Sample. I personally love V8 but compared to this mixture, I can see I haven't been really paying attention to the V8 label. One serving of V8 has 720mg of sodium! My Daily Veggies has 9mg of sodium. To me that difference is quite shocking. That fact in and of itself is convincing enough to me to tell me I need to switch.

Combine this with some exercise and sunshine and you've got yourself a routine that will keep your heart happy and your cholesterol low.

This post was sponsored.

Labels: vegetables

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia among adults, accounting for 40% of the cases. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is predicting about 15,5340 new cases of CLL will be diagnosed in 2007. About 95,579 people are living with CLL. Those are alarming numbers, but the good news is that progress is being made daily on better treatments.

The Institute of Cancer Research has just published an article discussing combo drug treatments for Leukemia patients.

"Patients with the most common type of leukemia achieved better responses to treatment with two cancer-fighting drugs than one in a large international study.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients also had much better survival rates without disease progression when treated with a combination of the chemotherapeutic drugs fludarabine and cyclophosphamide than patients treated with fludarabine alone or another single-agent chemotherapy, chlorambucil." (Source WebMD)

This information comes to us not long after hearing about a drug called CD37-SMIP, which targets a protein called CD37 on the surface of leukemia cells.
The study shows that it can successfully attach to the protein on the leukemia cells and kill them.

If you would like to help support finding a cure for leukemia you can sport a "relentless" red wristband. The bracelets cost $1 and proceeds go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Labels: cancer, leukemia, new drugs

Now I know you didn't expect to find this kind of post here. But I'm always talking about all the dating sites online these days. You can find hundreds of site that promise to match you with a person that matches your interest.

Now there is a Fitness Dating site. Oh yes. This site features single men and women who are interested in in dating someone who cares about Fitness and Health. The categories of people you can find include muscular women and buff guys. I'm not much for those labels, but you get what they mean.

Of course you register and join for free. Then you are matched to people who seem to mesh well with your profile. And you can choose to send your matches a message or take a more rejectionless approach and send them a "flirt note." Hehe. Reminds me of middle school, do you like me, check yes or no.

I think this site is meant to reach those of you are would like to try online dating but don't want to end up with lazy people who just sit in front of their computer all day long and don't go out and do anything. So, hopefully it will work for you if you give it a try.

Labels: fitness, social network

After wearing my very cool chunky glasses on a hot and humid day, I realized there really are some valuable perks to perhaps having contacts on hand. Especially if I could get contact lenses that reduce sunglare.

Well golly folks, YOU CAN get contacts that reduce sunglare. Why? Because Nike is in cahoots with Bausch & Lomb. Aw snap! Nike MaxSight Another cool fact about these contact lenses is they are available in both vision corrective contact lenses and non-corrective lenses, for patients who want the beneficial tinting effects without a prescription lens.

There are two types you can buy.

Grey-Green tint are designed for golf, running and other sports played in bright sunlight where glare is a concern.

Or.

Amber tint are designed for soccer, tennis, baseball, football and any other sport that requires tracking a fast moving ball.

Pretty snazzy, huh? You can get a box of six for $47.49 after a small rebate and there is free shipping which is a deal for a new product you'd like to try.

This post has been sponsored.

Labels: eye protection, vision

Oh yeah.

A news release issued by American Physical Society has stated that scientists have created self-propelled polystyrene balls about as wide as a strand of your hair.

What's the fuss all about?

These platinum dipped balls are tiny enough to navigate narrow channels such as the human circulatory system. Ahhhh, does one see how this could be good now? =o)

Pretty snifty isn't it?

Labels: nanotechnology

Man, you know they are always doing studies to throw me off the beaten path. My own beaten path of eating like a hummingbird that is...

The July edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study in which over 4,000 people between the ages of 55 and 80 took part.

"The researchers tracked AMD by eye, not participant, because some people may have had AMD in one eye but not the other.

Most eyes showed no signs of AMD. But 602 eyes had advanced AMD.

People with the diets highest on the glycemic index were the most likely to have advanced AMD in at least one eye."

So what does this mean? Well, let me break it down for you. Macular degeneration is a disorder that includes a variety of eye diseases that affect central vision. There are two types of age-related macular degeneration: dry and wet. The disease destroys the macula, the central portion of the retina, impairing central vision.

Central vision impairment doesn't mean you will go blind, but it does mean you will have severe difficulty with your fine eyesight. With normal central vision, we are able to read, drive, and perform other activities that require fine, sharp, straight-ahead vision.

Glycemic who-be-whatie? The Glycemic Index (GI), is a system that ranks foods by how they affect your levels of blood sugar. So no one is suggesting you stop eating foods with sugar in them, I mean that would just be impossible for me. But you should pay attention to whether or not the food you are eating is hard on your body by spiking your sugar level too quickly.

The study actually shows that a fifth of the advanced AMD cases could have been prevented by eating foods low on the glycemic index.

And there you have it. =o)

Labels: eyesight. sugar

Let me first explain, I don't think I'm overweight. I just think I could be more toned and it's something I really need to be more diligent about.

There are so many websites that claim they can help you lose weight. Diet pills, diet shakes, starving yourself...those things just aren't the way to go when you want to look more healthy and fit. Especially if you would like to maintain that look.

MyFitnessPal.com is a 100% free website that knows losing weight and staying fit is NOT easy. So they want to help you. They have a searchable food database of over 6,000 items to help you with calorie counting. And to make it even easier you can use their own calorie counter tool.

What ends up happening is you will build your own personalized diet profile by logging your snacks and meals and exercise. Plus, their free calorie counter will help you to know exactly how many calories you are burning depending on the type of exercise, your weight and how long you did the exercise. It's as easy as that!

AND they have a community forum where you can talk to other people using the same program. You can share recipes, give support, be supported and discuss nutrition with people who are in the same boat as you. So beaches and bikinis are your enemies, why don't you try out MyFitnessPal and make them your friends.

This post has been sponsored.

Labels: diet, fitness, health

Ooooh, this sounds promising!

Living with an alcoholic is like having a tornado rips through your home. No one on the outside notices a thing, but inside everything is in an upheaval.

A new study shows the quit-smoking drug Chantix may help treat alcoholism. The study appears in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The FDA approved Chantix in May of 2006. "Chantix acts at sites in the brain affected by nicotine and may help those who wish to give up smoking in two ways: by providing some nicotine effects to ease the withdrawal symptoms and by blocking the effects of nicotine from cigarettes if they resume smoking."

Pfizer Inc. developed varenicline specifically as a stop-smoking aid and has sold it in the United States since August under the brand name Chantix. The new study suggests not just nicotine but alcohol also acts on the same locations in the brain. But several experts also stress there is no such thing as a magic cure-all for addiction.

Labels: addition, alcoholism

Sunset Malibu offers an extensive variety of treatment programs and resources to assist our clients in finding the best treatment options for their specific needs whether with alcoholism or painkiller addiction or even with mental illnesses such as eating disorders and depression.

Don't pay attention to the silly gossip like Lindsay Lohan, cocooned in high-class rehab in Malibu after crashing her Mercedes on Sunset Boulevard, had stepped off the premises to go to the gym. Sunset Malibu is a true blue treatment program that really wants to help people and they take their job seriously regardless of who you are.

Painkiller addiction victims are no more to blame for their conditions than cancer patients are to blame for theirs. Such is the nature of disease: You're sick because you're sick, not because you want to be. Sunset Malibu understand and respects that fact.

Their addiction treatment incorporates a variety of traditional and non-traditional methods. Their philosophy is one that incorporates a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional methods utilizing the talents of the best practitioners in the world.




Disclosure:
This post has been sponsored.

Labels: drug abuse, drug rehab

Let's talk about ways to cool down!

I live in a basement, no windows and lots of moisture. You'd think it would be cool, but it's not, because the walls are heavily insulated and it seems to store heat like a sauna.

But I don't want to waste energy and I certainly don't want an electric bill that is impossible to pay. My Mom keeps her a/c set at 80 or 82 degrees. She firmly believes a higher set thermostat in conjunction with all her fans is the coolest way to go for the buck.

Drink more water, ICE COLD water. You won't get heated as quickly if you keep your body hydrated.

I don't use much, if any, hair products, but if you do it will act as a shield on your scalp and sometimes keep the heat from rising and escaping through your head. Plus, anything with oils is a heat attractor, and when it is 100 degrees outside attracting heat is a no-no!

That's all I can think of at the moment, feel free to leave comments and add more tips. We're all in need of some cool advice. =o)

Labels: heat, stay cool

Call me a tomboy if you will, but I prefer running around in barefeet. That includes out in the lawn, sticks and stones will not be breaking my feet bones. Oh yes, my feet are not so pretty. I must say, they are worn well. =o)

But, I was just reading WebMD and their article on ways to treat your feet better. Of course number one on the list is not to walk in barefeet.

What most interested me though is the part about protecting your feet from contaminated water. How am I supposed to know if the water is contaminated or not? There are, of course, some summertime tips to help you look out for your feet.

It's an interesting article and their are five summer time feet treat tips. So you might want to give it a read or two. =o)

Labels: feet, WebMD

As we head deeper into July parents will begin their countdown until their kids are back in school. Kids will begin the countdown until doom's day. Right?

It's not easy being a teen these days, that's for sure. Not that it ever really was easy. But it just seems like today's world offers many new obstacles and challenges for teens and high school can be a terrifying place.

There is Help For Troubled Teens and this includes help for their parents to be able to better understand and provide better encouragement. Please, don't think that it means you can't handle your own child, it just means sometimes you need a different, outside perspective of someone who may be able to relieve stress and alleviate miscommunication.

I was a wicked teenager for my Mom. I thought she was against me, didn't understand me and didn't care. So many night I locked myself in my room, growing deeper and deeper into a depression I didn't understand. My Mom felt hopeless. It wasn't until my first year of college that we were able to talk about my depression and see I needed outside help. There is NO shame in that at all and anyone who tells you there is, well, they have a lot of hard times ahead of them and they'll be alone. It is not something to be embarrassed about or to try to hide from others. In fact, I firmly believe hiding it or feeling shameful will further hinder any sort of progress in moving through and passed these difficult times.

Help For Troubled Teens is a website which discusses a variety of things. It will help you to understand if your child needs help at all and it offers many suggestions. You'll read about how important, consistency and consequences are for children and teens.

There is also a helpful questionnaire to fill out and once it is done and scored you will receive recommendations based on the results of your own responses. So whether your child may be involved in drugs or is hanging with a dangerous crowd, or is feeling depressed, "Help For Troubled Teens" can be a great resource.

Disclosure:
This post has been sponsored.

Labels: helping, teens

You know me, I'm all about the alternative and/or natural approach to healing, right? Well there are natural remedies for sleep! And since I have a very hard time sleeping at night, I thought I'd look them up.

I'm sure you have all heard drinking Chamomile tea is supposed to soothe and relax you while trying to fall asleep, but I need something more than that, because my insomnia is ridiculous. I'm asleep, awake, asleep, awake and by the time I'm knocked out with exhaustion I only end up getting 2 or 3 hours of good sleep.

Altmedicine.about.com had the following tips to offer...

"Lack of exercise can contribute to poor sleep. Muscle tension and stress build in the body. Exercise can promote deep sleep that night. However, intense exercise too close to bed can increase adrenaline levels, leading to insomnia."

"Acupuncture may help with insomnia. A University of Pittsburgh analysis concluded that acupuncture may be an effective treatment for insomnia. A preliminary study found that five weeks of acupuncture increase melatonin secretion in the evening and improved total sleep time."

And the one that most interested me is...

"In traditional Chinese medicine, insomnia often stems from kidney energy weakness. This syndrome is not necessarily related to kidney disease in Western medicine. A few signs of kidney energy weakness are low back ache, tiredness and fatigue, and a burst of energy at about 11 pm in the evening." Well I'll be! That sounds like me....kidney issues...I am peeing a lot more than normal these days. Maybe I need to buy myself some cranberry juice. =o)

Labels: insomnia

You may ask yourself, why a post about Termites would reside on a Wellness blog. But think about it this way if you will...what exactly is uses to kill termites? Pest control can be quite toxic.

There are a few ways to get rid of termites including termite bait, Borate Termite Treatment and Liquid Termite Treatment. But my advice to you would be to read up on preventing termites which I know is a major issue in California.

Learn about what exactly termites can do and how to detect if your home has an infestation.

If you do end up needing your home fumigated, you can then have your air samples to make sure the levels of chlorinated hydrocarbon are not too high. If they are too high you can neutralize with vents and putting new top soil down around your home.

Disclosure:
This post has been sponsored.

Labels: termites

Just kidding, I swear! I have eye issues myself, different than most people since it is from my optic nerves being scarred thanks to the MS. But eye issues all the same.

WebMD featured ways to protect your eyes this summer.

1. Wear Sun Protection

2. Wear Serious Eye Protection While Doing Home Projects

3. Protecting Eyes During Sports

4. Avoid or Protect Against Chemicals

5. Protect Against Oddball Events

Now, I'm not an optometrist, but all of those should be a given all-year round, right? Though I'm really not sure how much protect you can have against oddball events without becoming an OCD paranoid person looking out for the estranged dart, but to each their own.

So, like my son Brae, just keep sunglasses with you at all times. It'll stop you from getting those pesky eye wrinkles, too. =o)

Labels: eye protection

You may wonder why I would think about Affordable Life Insurance Quotes at all. And I really haven't given it much thought until recently. I'm only 26 years old and I firmly believe I will live to be 120 years old. But so as not to tempt fate, it is important for me to have the reassurance of life insurance because I have a three-year-old child who depends on me as his primary provider. And I do have health issues because I have Multiple Sclerosis.

Coming from someone who has no idea what these things are about, I didn't even know where to begin looking for Affordable Life Insurance Quotes. And again, I always fall to my lovely friend of the world wide web. There is a wealth of resources out there and to find a collection of them pertaining to the topic you are interested in learning about; well that's just treasure!

I have to admit, the site I'm looking through isn't the prettiest of sites. But then again most sites that are created strictly for data and knowledge aren't necessarily done up to be beautiful. After all, brains before beauty, right?

Morbidly enough one of the first things I learned is typical funeral where you are buried can cost $7000. I would never, ever dream of someone having to deal with that cost while also dealing with their grief. Morbid, yes, I know. But it is something I must ponder now. So at this site, I can find Affordable Life Insurance Quotes and also information on Term Life Insurance, including the best prices and rates that are currently available. They even have information that pertains specifically to women which I found to be quite helpful. And most importantly, the site includes its own glossary to help with the ridiculous terms and jargon.

So morbid and as somber as it might be, I'm glad there is a place where I can find all the information I need. So many questions are circling in my head and Insurancesalesman.com has the answers I need.

Disclosure:
This post has been sponsored.

Labels: life insurance