Do you kids eat their Veggies?

Many parents come to believe that their children have an inbuilt disliking to certain foods, in particular vegetables. Research done at the Deakin University in Melbourne suggests that children can be successfully introduced to new, healthy foods, when they are regularly exposed to it, and when the experience of eating them is made enjoyable!

In an interview with Dr Gie Liem, a lecturer in social and behavioural nutrition in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University, explains the findings of his research in what motivates children to like or dislike food.

http://www.nutrenews.com/archives/children-like-food-64

Brain Activity

Your brain co-ordinates your ability to rest, relax, sleep, process information, remember data, concentrate, produce energy, and cope with stress.

If you knew a way to enhance your brain activity would you do it? If so, you may find the article below interesting.

http://www.yourspine.com/Chiropractic/Chiropractic%20Improves%20Brain%20Function.aspx

Are anti-depressants the answer?

Over the past decade the use of anti-depressants has skyrocketed…….to frightening levels.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005. Of those, 118 million were for antidepressants.

Adult use of antidepressants almost tripled between the periods 1988-1994 and 1999-2000.

"It's hard to believe that number of people are depressed, or that antidepressants are the answer,"……

The article below discusses the possible causes of depression, questions the effectiveness of antidepressants, the potential side effects of these drugs, and explores other options for the relief of depression .......

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/medications_depression.htm

Antidepressants aren’t a silver bullet for depression, and they come with their own side effects and dangers. Plus, recent studies have raised questions about their effectiveness. Learning the facts about antidepressants and weighing the benefits against the risks can help you make an informed and personal decision about whether medication is right for you.

Zzzzzzz…….

Zzzzzzz……..why we need a good nights sleep, and tips to improve your sleep

With longer working hours, the internet, TV and other distractions of a modern life, more and more people are finding it difficult to turn off their internal mental chatter and get a full night’s sleep.

Beyond the bleary, blood shot eyes, a lack of sleep may have wide-ranging effects - it may make you cranky, moody, short tempered and less able to cope with stress. It may even trigger over-eating! When you’re sleep deprived, you can be less alert, your decision-making and performance can deteriorate and you may not even realise it. Sometimes you can get so used to sleeping less that you don’t attribute these things to a lack of sleep!

So, how much do we need? Generally, eight hours of sleep is considered to be a ‘good night’s sleep’. However, being the diverse creatures that we are, we know that this isn’t the case for everyone and some people need more or less sleep. And, if you suffer from difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, you are considered to have a ‘sleep problem’ of some sort.

Short-term Sleeplessness can last from a few nights to a few weeks. It usually arises from an event that causes worry, anxiety or excitement (e.g. wedding day or starting a new job).

Chronic Sleeplessness can develop from poor sleeping habits (e.g. having children who wake during the night or irregular sleeping patterns caused by shift work) and anxiety about sleep.

It can also be caused by distressing events such as divorce or bereavement. If this is the case, you may wish to seek counselling.

Common causes of Insomnia and sleeplessness

• Medications – such as blood pressure medication or asthma medication

• Environmental changes – travel or jet lag

• Stressful events – life changes, grief, conflicts or pressures at work
• Psychological conditions – such as anxiety

• Hormonal imbalances – menopausal and menstrual changes (your Naturopath may be able to help normalize hormonal imbalances naturally)

• Faulty sleeping habits – excessive daytime naps, caffeine and nicotine consumption late in the day

• Not having a peaceful sleeping environment

TRY THE FOLLOWING TIPS FOR A BETTER NIGHT’S SLEEP

• Establish a regular bedtime by going to bed at the same time every night.

• Get up at the same time every morning, even on weekends.

• Before going to bed, do something that relaxes you and takes your mind off any worries.

• Don’t watch TV, read a book or think about problems in bed. If you must do these things, go to another room to do it until you become sleepy.

• Keep your bedroom quiet, dark, cool and conducive to sleeping.

• If you’re a worrier, write problems down before going to bed, together with possible solutions.

• Don’t stay awake in bed. If you aren’t asleep within 15 minutes of getting into bed, get up and do something relaxing until you become sleepy again.

• Avoid alcohol – its sedative actions are short-lived, meanwhile your bladder fills and it’s time to get up again. Alcohol often leads to a broken nights sleep.

Your Chiropractor may also help you, as interference to your nervous system from spinal imbalances can also effect sleep patterns, and getting regular chiropractic adjustments can be extremely beneficial zzzzzz

Be informed!

Today is the national release of the free swine flu vaccine …… will you blindly take the word of the government and the pharmaceutical industry and get your jab?

In 1976 a similar vaccine to fight swine flu was released to the public, only to remove it from the market shortly after, due to the high number of reported neurological consequences.

A letter, warning about the swine flu vaccine was written by Professor Elizabeth Miller, head of the Health Protection Agency's Immunization Department. It warns neurologists that the influenza vaccine of 1976 was linked to a devastating neurological condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). "The vaccines used to combat an expected swine influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were withdrawn from use," says Prof Miller.
 GBS can cause paralysis and death.

A second letter has also surfaced with a warning about the swine flu vaccine. It's from the Association of British Neurologists and is authored by Dr. Rustam Al-Shahi Salman and Professor Patrick Chinnery. It says "Following the 1976 program of vaccination against swine influenza in the US, a retrospective study found a possible eight-fold increase in the incidence of GBS."

Adding to the concern, Dr. Tom Jefferson from the Cochrane Collaboration is on the record saying "New vaccines never behave in the way you expect them to. It may be that there is a link to GBS, which is certainly not something I would wish on anybody. But it could end up being anything because one of the additives in one of the vaccines is a substance called squalene, and none of the studies we've extracted have any research on it at all."

In other words, what we really have with the swine flu vaccine is an untested, potentially dangerous cocktail of chemicals and viral fragments that could plausibly be linked to a devastating neurological condition.

These doctors and scientists are warning about the possibility of dangerous neurological side effects precisely because the government is failing to do so. Governments and pharmaceutical companies don't want the People to know about any of the risks associated with the vaccine, so they don't talk about them. Nor do they reveal the rather startling fact that the vaccine has never been tested on children or expectant mothers even though those are the two primary groups being targeted for the vaccine.

Rather than taking the risk, and subjecting yourself to this potentially toxic cocktail, you may wish consider how else you could protect yourself.

It makes sense to me to focus on strengthening your own immune system – good nutrition, regular exercise and ensuring you have a healthy nerve system are key to your body’s ability to fight infection.

Make an informed choice….please do your research!

You may wish to review the following articles;

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=260781

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs082/1101800214009/archive/1102737518795.html

Can you trust what your doctor prescribes?

Did you know that Pharmaceutical companies employ Medical Writing Companies to write manuscripts for publication and then find an expert to be the 'author'. "These documents below amount to one of the most compelling expositions ever seen of the systematic manipulation and abuse of scholarly publishing by the pharmaceutical industry and its commercial partners in their attempt to influence the health care decisions of physicians and the general public."

PLoS Medicine: Ghostwriting: The Dirty Little Secret of Medical Publishing That Just Got Bigger

Source: www.plosmedicine.org

PLoS Medicine is an open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal that publishes outstanding human studies that substantially enhance the understanding of human health and disease.

'just doesn't make sense to me!

It's yet another case of the 'supposed' cure being worse than the disease.

In the UK, more than half of the kids who have taken Tamiflu – the antibiotic weapon of choice to combat the H1N1 virus – have experienced side effects.

Although most of these side effects have been minor (such as stomach cramps and nausea), as many as one in five of these kid have had disturbing bizarre, "neuropsychiatric" reactions to the drug.

Reports say that kids have had an inability to think clearly, have suffered from nightmares, and have behaved "strangely."

Unfortunately, these reactions are nothing new. The dangers are Tamiflu are well- documented. It's even been linked to the deaths of some children and teenagers.

In the U.S., the FDA has acknowledged that there have been as many as 1,800 reports of "brain effects" such as abnormal behavior resulting from the use of Tamiflu by kids. In Japan, they've actually banned the use of Tamiflu by kids.

But because the UK is in such a cold panic over swine flu, they're handing out Tamiflu like candy. Believe it or not, there's even a telephone hotline and website where people can order a prescription for Tamiflu.

So far, as many as 150,000 people have been prescribed the drug in this manner.

No wonder so many kids are having so many side effects. At the first sign of a runny nose or a headache, their parents are pumping them full of Tamiflu...... it's frightening!

All of these risks in order to reduce the flu symptoms by less than two days. That's right: according to the makers of Tamiflu, clinical tests have show that the drug only has the ability to reduce the duration of symptoms by about 36 hours.

How about just allowing the body do, what it innately knows how to do, without the potentially devastating effects of drugs??