May 30, 2013

13 Surprising Uses for Rice


May 29, 2013

Rice isn’t just for dinner! This staple is a multi-purpose wonder: it keeps your feet warm, it rescues your fancy electronics, it does difficult cleaning jobs, and even keeps your pet entertained. Click through to read these and more clever ways to use rice.

Home & Pets.
1. Clean Dirty Vases and Other Unusually-Shaped Bottles. What’s that, you don’t have the world’s smallest hands? Cleaning vases and bottles with slender and unusually shaped necks is a total pain — until now. Drop in a couple tablespoons of rice, pour in some warm water, and let it soak for about 10 minutes. Then shake, shake, shake, pour it out, rinse, and marvel at your newly-cleaned vase.
2. Rescue Wet Electronics. As the ultimate klutz, I’ve had to use this trick more than once. When you drop your electronics in water, remove the battery if you can, and bury the phone in rice. Trust me, it works!
3. Make a Pet Toy. Make a small satchel, fill it with a combination of rice and catnip, sew it up, and watch your cat go nuts!
4. Clean Coffee and Spice Grinders. As much as we love them, keeping coffee and spice grinders clean can be a pain. Remedy that with rice: remove as much debris as you can, cover the area with rice, and run it through the grinder. The rice will magically absorb a lot of the buildup. Some of the country’s most prestigious roasters use this trick. It works especially well with instant rice!

Food.
5. Check if Oil is Hot Enough. Want to check the temperature of the oil you’re using to deep fry? All you need to do is drop a grain of rice into it. If the rice pops up to the surface of the oil and begins cooking, the oil is ready for frying. In my experience, it’s much more reliable than a deep fry thermometer.
6. Bake a Perfect Pie. Fancy stores sell $15 jars of pie weights, the little beads placed on unfilled crusts when you blind bake them. What a racket — rice works just as well. You wouldn’t want to cook with the rice afterward, but you can use them again as pie weights.
7. Keep Salt Separated. A classic restaurant trick: store a few grains of rice in your salt shaker to prevent that annoying clumping.
8. Ripen Fruit Faster. Just can’t wait for that fruit to ripe? Store fruit in a container of rice to speed up the ripening time. Just make sure to check on it twice a day so it doesn’t get too ripe. And yes, you can cook with the rice!
9. Make Rice Milk. DIY project alert! All it takes to make rice milk from scratch (other than rice, of course!) is water and salt. Click here for directions.

Health & Beauty.
10. Make a Heating Pad. Sew a little pouch with a natural fabric like cotton or wool. Fill the pouch up with some rice, sew it shut, and you’ve got yourself a heating pad. If you’re not feeling that ambitious, you can just fill an old sock with rice and tie the end close. When you’re ready to use the heating pad, heat it up in the microwave. It’ll stay warm for up to an hour.
11. Get Glowing Skin. If you’re like me, you just never get the amount of water right when you’re cooking rice. It always seems like there’s not enough water, and then you overcompensate and the rice is drowning. Don’t stress — save that leftover rice water and put it to use! Let it cool, refrigerate, and use to it wash your skin. For best results use brown rice water and use within 3 days.Apply it with a washcloth and rinse. Brown rice is high in vitamin E, and will give your skin that radiant glow it deserves.
12. Make Toasty Slippers for Cold Winter Nights. I once lived in a home with tile floors throughout. Nice in the summer, miserably cold in the winter. If only I knew about this great craft project then! Check out detailed instructions here.
13. Mittens, Too. Ooh! Best idea ever!


Katie is a freelance writer focused on pets, food and women’s issues. A Chicago native and longtime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Katie now lives in Oakland, California.



Bynaturael Products:
Natural Shampoo
Liquid Castile Olive Soap
This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you.
Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com

New Laws Add a Divisive Component to Breast Screening


October 24, 2012



In a move that has irked medical groups and delighted patient advocates, states have begun passing laws requiring clinics that perform mammograms to tell patients whether they have something that many women have never even heard of: dense breast tissue.

Women who have dense tissue must, under those laws, also be told that it can hide tumors on a mammogram, that it may increase the risk of breast cancer and that they should ask their doctors if they need additional screening tests, like ultrasound or M.R.I. scans.

The issue is pitting angry patients against the medical establishment. Advocates say women have a right to know, but medical groups argue that the significance of tissue density is uncertain and that reporting it may panic women and lead to an avalanche of needless screening tests and biopsies.

Laws requiring disclosure have been passed in Connecticut, Texas and Virginia, and most recently in California and New York, where they will take effect next year. A bill calling for a federal law has been introduced in the House.

The laws owe their existence mostly to Nancy M. Cappello, 59, of Woodbury, Conn. She was not told that she had dense breast tissue until after doctors found an advancedcancer that mammograms had missed. She took her story to legislators, and in 2009, Connecticut became the first state to require that women be told if they have dense breasts and that insurance companies cover ultrasound scans for those women.

“I want to help other women,” said Ms. Cappello, formerly the state’s chief of special education. “I can’t help myself. My cancer should have been detected at a much earlier stage.”
“Dense” breasts have a relatively high proportion of glandular or connective tissue, which blocks X-rays. Non-dense breasts have more fat, which X-rays penetrate easily. Over all, about 40 percent of women who have mammograms have dense breast tissue. It is not abnormal, just one of nature’s variations. Younger women are more likely to have dense tissue, but as many as 25 percent of older women do, too. Density cannot be judged by touch; it shows up only on mammograms.

For many women, the legislation will bring about a big change. Though some radiologists already tell women about density, in most cases the letters sent to patients about mammogram results do not mention it.

Though some doctors favor the laws, others resent them, and professional societies of radiologists, gynecologists and cancer experts have raised medical concerns.
The medical groups say telling a woman she has dense breasts may not help her and might even do harm by propelling her into unnecessary tests and treatment. The groups argue that identifying dense breast tissue is subjective, and so two doctors reading the same mammogram may rate the tissue differently. And information about density may confuse women, scare some needlessly and give others a false sense of security, the groups say.

Detractors also warn of a flood of phone calls to already-overburdened doctors and a demand for additional tests that will strain the health care system. There is already a shortage of experts in ultrasound screening, and many doctors simply bristle at the idea of laws controlling what they tell patients.

“I’m always worried when politicians start legislating the medical conversation, especially when it’s a medical conversation where the experts don’t know what needs to be said,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, the chief medical officer and executive vice president of the American Cancer Society and a professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.

But Dr. Brawley said doctors should tell women if they have dense breasts, and he freely admitted that his position seemed contradictory.
“I’m saying I object to legislation that says doctors should have a conversation with their patients that I believe they should have with their patients,” he said.

The National Cancer Institute calls dense breasts “a strong risk factor for developing breast cancer.” Various studies have estimated that compared with other women, those with dense breasts are two to six times as likely to develop breast cancer. The reason is not known. But dense breasts have more milk ducts and lobes, where most cancers form, so some researchers think the added risk may come from having more of that tissue.

On mammograms, dense breasts look white, and so does cancer, so the tissue can hide tumors. Fatty breasts show up mostly black, so tumors stand out.
Studies have found that when women with dense breasts were given mammograms and then ultrasounds, the ultrasound found tumors that the mammograms missed — but also produced many false positives that led to biopsies.

Studies of women with dense breasts that were published in June in the journal Radiology and in April in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that for every 1,000 women screened, adding ultrasound found three to five cancers that mammograms missed. But in one study, 63 biopsies or other invasive procedures were performed to find three tumors.

M.R.I. exams can also find tumors that mammograms miss, but they produce even more false positives.
Despite its shortcomings, mammography does find some tumors in women with dense breasts — including some that ultrasound misses — so doctors emphasize that these women should not skip mammograms.

No studies have been conducted to determine whether finding the hidden cancers with ultrasound or M.R.I. scans saves women’s lives. In theory, the tumors found could be the kind that never would have killed the patients anyway. The United States Preventive Services Task Force, which makes recommendations about screening tests, has not given any advice on breast ultrasound.
This year, 226,870 new cases of breast cancer and 39,510 deaths from the disease are expected in the United States.

Dr. Thomas Kolb, a radiologist in Manhattan, said that like mammography, ultrasound can find early cancers and therefore should reduce the death rate.
“It doubles the detection rate in women with dense breasts,” he said.
But Dr. Carol H. Lee, a radiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a spokeswoman for the American College of Radiology, said that while there is an increased overall cancer risk for women with dense breasts as a group, it is not known whether the risk is borne equally by every woman in the group. So the best advice for an individual woman is not clear.

Dr. Lee said that the radiology group did not oppose the idea of informing women but did not think it should be mandated by law. The group issued a statement warning of “possible harms and unintended consequences” of the state laws, including confusion, “undue anxiety,” a loss of faith in mammograms and “demands for additional non-mammographic screening.”

Some insurers may not cover the additional tests, so women who cannot pay out of pocket may not be able to afford them. Even when insurance does pay, the reimbursement rate is often so low that many doctors say it does not come close to covering the time and expertise needed to perform and interpret the exams. In addition, while mammography centers must meet strict standards, there are no such requirements for ultrasound screening, so the quality may vary.

Ms. Cappello, the woman who started the movement to inform patients, began having yearly mammograms at age 40. In 2004, when she was 51, her doctor felt a lump in her breast — only six weeks after a mammogram had looked normal. Even after the lump was detected, mammography still could not find it. Only then was Ms. Cappello told that she had dense breast tissue. The cancer had already spread to 13 lymph nodes. She needed a mastectomychemotherapy, radiation and hormone treatment.

Ms. Cappello was outraged. If she had known she had dense breast tissue, she said, she would almost certainly have had an ultrasound exam. She believes that the tumor would have been found earlier, perhaps even before it had begun to spread.
“It was probably growing for four or five years,” she said, “and it was missed.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/health/laws-tell-mammogram-clinics-to-address-breast-density.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Related articles:

Breast facts in an
interesting video
The Cancer Lobby


This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you.
Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com

May 29, 2013

The Power of Lavender Essential Oil

The scent of lavender is calming, helping to reduce stress and anxiety


Bynaturael Products:
Natural Shampoo
Liquid Castile Olive Soap

This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you.
Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com





Pole dance your way to a better body


TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2012

If your brief is to tone up, improve fitness, and have fun along the way, then this latest exercise craze could be just right for you, writes personal trainer Andrew Cate.
Pole dancing — sleazy? When it lifts your fitness, mood and energy level, we think not. Pole dancing as exercise continues to grow in popularity as an alternative or complement to traditional fitness classes.

What are the benefits of pole dancing?
Some of the health and fitness pluses associated with regular participation in pole dancing classes include:
·         Improved cardiovascular fitness
·         Increased flexibility
·         Improved strength and muscle tone
·         Improved balance, posture and core stability
·         Improved self-confidence and body image from learning a new skill
·         Enjoyment and laughter
As part of an overall health and fitness program, pole dancing can also contribute to increased bone density and a reduced risk of heart disease.

Will pole dancing help with weight loss? 
While not ideal for using body fat as fuel, a pole dancing class can be a beneficial component of a weight-reduction program. Combined with other fat burning exercises such as fast walking, pole dancing will challenge your body in a different way and add variety to your routine. What's more, you will burn more than 1000 kilojoules per class.

What's involved in a pole dancing class? 
Pole dancing classes are a fun fitness workout and are in no way associated with stripping or seedy smoke-filled rooms. Most pole dancing rooms look like a typical dance studio, with the addition of several poles fixed from floor to ceiling. The class usually includes a warm up, an aerobic phase, dance moves on the pole and some mobility work, with stretching to finish.
The dancing consists of spins, swinging, swaying, pole tricks and floor work to music. Dancing on the pole is the most strenuous part, which helps to develop muscular strength and tone in your hands, arms, upper back, abdominals, thighs and bottom.
Advanced pole dancers can even hang upside down, although most of the exercises have variations to help cater for different levels and abilities. A good instructor will make you feel at ease and have you performing some basic moves after your first class. Most classes are for women only.

Getting started
If the thought of going to a pole dancing class is a bit intimidating, find a friend to go with you. Wear clothes you feel comfortable in, though bare arms and legs make it easier to grip the pole. It's also best to avoid oils or creams that make it harder to grip the pole.
You don't need any dancing experience to get started, although some positions are harder to learn than others. Like anything, it takes practice to master a new skill and time to develop the strength required to perform it well. Some participants have even been known to install a pole at home so they can practice.
If you can get over the stigma, you'll have a great time. Look for a fitness class in your area.

Source: http://health.ninemsn.com/fitness/exercise/695267/pole-dance-your-way-to-a-better-body

This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you.
Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com

Related articles:

May 28, 2013

Why Fitness Matters: Cancer, Heart Disease and Longevity


May 20, 2013  by Bob Barnett

You may have heard the big news that fitness for men in middle age is associated with a lower risk of several different cancers. The study looked at 17,000 men and found that those who were fittest at age 50 were much less likely to develop lung and colon cancer, and much less likely to die from prostate cancer—20 to 25 years later.

So it pays to get fit and stay fit. One intriguing finding: Simply increasing your fitness level by one “metabolic equivalent”, or MET, was associated with a 14 percent lower risk of cancer mortality—and a 23 reduction in cardiovascular mortality. Other research has found that increasing your fitness by one MET reduces your risk of dying from all causes by 15 percent or more.

So it seems like this is a pretty key thing to do. But what does it mean to increase your fitness by one MET? To find out, we turned to Richard T. Cotton, MA, national director of certification for the American College of Sports Medicine. “A MET is a unit of oxygen consumption and metabolic rate—and therefore, exercise intensity,” he said. It’s kind of a research thing, he said. So it takes a little translation to make sense of it for everyday life.

Bottom line: It’s important to get not just enough aerobic exercise each week, but also to improve your ability to exercise intensely. In other words, fitness matters.

Moderate versus Vigorous Intensity
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that healthy adults get 150 minutes a week, spread out over five days, of moderate-intensity exercise. That’s the kind you can do while speaking in full sentences without gasping for breath.

But ACSM also suggests that you can get the same benefit from three 20-minute bouts of vigorous-intensity exercise. That’s the kind that leaves you breathless after speaking just a few words, not a full sentence. If you calculate heart rate, moderate intensity exercise is 60 to 70 percent of your maximal heart rate, while vigorous is 85 percent. (You can estimate your maximal heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Thus, if you’re 40, it’s 180.) Or you can combine moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity exercise over, say 90 minutes a week.

Increasing your fitness by one MET means you can go faster or harder without running out of breath—or having to stop from exhaustion.

Go MET!
“A low-aerobic fitness in a middle-aged man is about 8 METS,” says Cotton. “Average is about 11, and high aerobic fitness is greater than 16.” In research studies, MET is measured by putting people on a treadmill and increasing speed until they’re so exhausted they can’t continue. But you can get figure out your exercise intensity by paying attention to how fast you do a regular aerobic routine, like a run or a bike ride. “Get a sense of the MET value of your typical continuous workout, and then compare it with the subsequent MET value for the same distance,” says Cotton.
Here’s an example: You can walk a mile in about 17 minutes. That’s 3.5 miles per hour (m.p.h.). It’s reasonably brisk walking pace. If you go faster, you run out of breath. But you try to go a little faster each day, and at the end of a month, you can walk the mile in 15 minutes. You’ve increased your MET by 1.3. Another example: Increasing your running speed for a mile from 10 minutes to 8 and a half minutes—that boosts your MET by 1.2.

Or let’s say you’re walking that mile in 17 minutes. That’s an MET of 4.3. Now you start jogging. Within a few weeks, you’re jogging that same mile in 11.5 minutes (5.2 m.p.h.). Your MET has increased from 4.3 to 9. “That’s a 4.7 MET improvement,” says Cotton. (If you want to look up your own activity level in terms of MET, Google has a site for that.)

If we pushed the numbers in the recent study, that kind of improvement, sustained over a lifetime, would be associated with a 66 percent reduction in cancer risk. Pretty amazing—but also speculative. For one, the study hasn’t even been published in a peer review journal—it’s being presented at a cancer conference, and will be published later. It’s an observational study, so it’s not showing cause and effect. And the benefits are greatest in going from the lowest level of fitness to a moderate level, so you can’t expect to keep lowering your cancer risk indefinitely as you get progressively fitter.

But the new research, combined with existing research on benefits in terms of heart disease and a longer life, add to a growing body of evidence that fitness intensity makes a difference. One interesting finding of the current study is that fitness was linked with lower cancer risk independently of body weight.

So get your moderate aerobic exercise. Being more active on more days of the week is still a core goal for cardiovascular health. So is strength training, and flexibility.
But fitness intensity matters too. So push it, guys.

Bob Barnett is the Men’s Health, and Family Health, editor for Knowmore.tv.
Source: http://knowmore.tv/men-2/why-fitness-matters-cancer-heart-disease-and-longevity/

Related Articles:

Questions people ask about
cancer - part 1
Stricter EU rules on paraben


This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you. Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com


Foods For Hair Growth


A healthy diet filled with vitamins and proteins can help grow your hair faster. Take a hair growth vitamin and eat these foods for faster hair growth.
Hair needs certain nutrients to grow long and healthy. A well-balanced diet can add essential vitamins, minerals, and proteins that will help your hair grow faster and healthier. Some of the best foods for healthy hair include:
Salmon: Lean protein; high in protein and healthy Omega-3 fatty acids
Legumes: Beans, peas, and peanuts; provide zinc
Veggies: Broccoli and other dark green leafy vegetables; high in iron
Eggs: Excellent source of biotin and Vitamin B12


Foods For Hair Growth

Courtesy of HairFormula37.com
Bynaturael Products:
Natural Shampoo
Liquid Castile Olive Soap
This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you.
Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com




May 27, 2013

The Best Hair Oils For Shiny, Happy Hair


The Huffington Post  |  Posted: 08/02/2012 9:16 am EDT Updated: 10/11/2012 11:26 am EDT

Many women balk at the idea of intentionally putting oil in their hair for fear of potentially greasy results, but hear us out: It's a miracle worker for taming dryness and frizz, but also amazing at balancing oilier hair types. It can add shine to dull hair, work as a styling agent and even undo a summer's worth of damage. Need we say more? Check out our guidelines to find out the best hair oils for your hair type.

Repair fried hair daily: Hair oil disguised as a styler is an excellent way to sneak in extra moisture and tame unruly hair. The key is to focus on the ends. Apply mid-way through your hair and work down. There's no need to add oil to the roots -- no matter how dry your hair is, it will end up looking greasy. You can also find shampoo formulations that include oil, which will also add a boost of much-needed hydration. Especially for hair that's color-treated or has just seen a lot of sun, salt water and chlorine this summer. Look for out these nourishing oils: argan, coconut, avocado.

Add shine to blah hair: Lightweight oils like sweet almond, grapeseed and camellia will add an overall healthy sheen without weighing fine hair down. They're also great at targeting cowlicks and random flyways.

Apply a hot oil treatment once a week: A nod to popular at-home deep conditioners of the '80s, there are now self-heating blends that offer the same ultra-hydrating results. You can expect to see shiny, smoother hair after just a minute or so. Opt for ultra-reparative argan or jojoba oils.

Keep oily hair in check with ... oil: Rose geranium, orange and tea tree essential oils are fantastic at controlling an oily scalp. Add a few drops to your shampoo to help balance oil production.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/best-hair-oils_n_1721051.html#slide=1303785

Bynaturael Products:
Natural Shampoo
Liquid Castile Olive Soap
This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you.
Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com




The Real Lesson of Formaldehyde In Baby Shampoo


Aug. 22, 2012

The scent of childhood to me was Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo. My mother used it on me when I was a baby, and I used it myself when I was a teenager; when I became a mother I cradled my babies’ tiny heads in my hands and slathered their scalps with the stuff. Johnson & Johnson’s hold on the marketplace was such that, for many of us, the mere smell of their products came to define clean children. And what exhausted new mother could resist the promise of “No More Tears”?

So when Johnson & Johnson made a stunning announcement that it was phasing certain chemicals out of its formula, it was shocking to learn that ever since it was brought to market in 1953, the “pure and gentle” shampoo has contained traces of formaldehyde, recently classified as a known carcinogen, and 1,4 dioxane, which, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is “reasonably anticipated” to be a human carcinogen.

Naturally, as a mother, my first thought was of my sons’ bath ritual. Had I been poisoning them? Not exactly. But the company’s decision underscores a dismaying breakdown in consumer trust, not only in the products we buy and the stores that sell them, but in the government agency that we assume is properly regulating them.

How did formaldehyde get into baby shampoo in the first place? Formaldehyde isn’t listed as an ingredient in our beauty products because it isn’t added purposefully. Rather, it is released over time — and manufacturers know and expect this — by any number of commonly used preservatives such as quaternium-15 and DMDM hydantoin. The same is to be said for 1,4 dioxane, which is a by-product of a process used to process certain chemicals to make them less harsh.

The truth is that most leading brands of cosmetics contain small amounts of troubling — or downright toxic — ingredients. Cosmetics — any personal care products you apply to your body — are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which due to lax laws dating back to 1938, does not have the legal authority to review or regulate products before they are sold. Most of us shopping at our local Target — or at high-end Sephora — are blissfully unaware that our lipstick probably contains lead, a proven neurotoxin, and our perfumes contain phthalates, a class of chemicals linked to hormone disruption.

Cosmetics companies are not even required to report to the FDA any health problems associated with their products or share any studies. What the FDA can do is conduct studies. The FDA has been measuring 1,4 dioxane levels since 1979. By 2000, it was recommending that manufacturers reduce 1,4 dioxane limits — voluntarily.

But it gets more complicated. Johnson & Johnson’s global toxicologist, Susan Nettesheim, explained that the formaldehyde in solution (as in shampoo) is not the same as the formaldehyde gas that, when breathed, is carcinogenic. “Almost all living organisms contain formaldehyde. Our cells contain formaldehyde,” she said. “The formaldehyde that occurs in our shampoo rinses off, biodegrades, and doesn’t turn into gas—shower water isn’t hot enough. There is more formaldehyde in one apple than in 14 bottles of shampoo.” But the company decided that this was simply too complicated and subtle a message to allay fears. “We know there is a great deal of conversation going on about chemical safety. We decided that it is very important for us to have a voice in that discussion.” And Johnson & Johnson is working with both houses of Congress to strengthen oversight of the FDA.

Their effort to respond to their customers’ concerns is laudable—and bold, although the company has an obvious vested interest in protecting its reputation. But the problem is that we—as consumers—no longer have a sense that we are protected, or safe. Perhaps the general erosion in trust began decades ago, when we learned that the tobacco industry was covering up—and lying about—research demonstrating that smoking causes cancer.

Today, it is almost impossible for consumers to know whom to trust, and what to believe. And that feeds the sense of panic when we hear about certain chemicals in our products. We have a regulatory system in place that demands a level of proof of harm from a chemical almost impossible to provide: it requires a direct causal link between disease and chemical, when in the vast majority of cases that is impossible to establish. Diseases are complex, and multiple factors contribute to them. In many decades, only asbestos has been directly linked with a disease: asbestosis. One need only to think about the many decades it took to prove that lead exposure was dangerous—and think how many children were adversely affected during those years.

All of this makes us feel as if we are the guinea pigs for the industry, letting them try chemicals out on us—even though responsible companies regularly test the ingredients in their products. Johnson & Johnson has launched a new website that contains a great deal of information about the way it ensures the safety of its products. 

People who remain nervous about the burden of chemicals we are absorbing into our bodies can shop carefully to avoid them, but that’s hard to do when products contain elements that are not even listed in the ingredients. It doesn’t have to be this way. While we can be smart consumers, we have to be even smarter citizens — and demand that our political representatives support strong standards for safety. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 is a more promising place to begin than your local beauty counter. Hopefully—at least in the area of personal care, anyway—we can get to a place of “No More Fears.

Bynaturael Products:
Natural Shampoo
Liquid Castile Olive Soap
This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you. 

Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com

May 23, 2013

Neck Cracking, Dangerous? Spinal Manipulation May Increase Risk Of Stroke

The Huffington Post  |
By Meredith Melnick Posted: 10/03/2012 8:27 am Updated: 10/03/2012 12:12 pm

If you crack your neck to relieve pain, you aren't alone. By one estimate,chiropractors perform between 18 and 38 million cervical spine manipulation treatments each year. That involves quick motions to loosen the joint and ligaments, which often makes a "pop" sound -- and that helps explain the colloquial term we often use: "cracking."

Cracking isn't just reserved for necks -- people commonly crack their knuckles, lower backs, hips, ankles and toes. Any joint can be "cracked," either by a professional or at home. Here at Healthy Living, several members of our team, along with readers who have written in, want to know if their own cracking is safe.

So what exactly is going on when a neck -- or really any joint area -- pops? Our joints contain fluid and gasses like nitrogen and carbon dioxide. When you put the liquid under pressure, as happens when force is applied to the joint, the gas exits, creating a pop sound, explained Dr. Stephen Perle, a chiropractor and Professor of Clinical Sciences at the University of Bridgeport. Interestingly, though we associate the pop with the dissipation of tension in the ligaments, they just coincide as a result of the movement -- they are unrelated.

Neck cracking was a subject of great interest when the British Medical Journal released commentaries from two sides of a debate: is neck manipulation worth the (admittedly) small risk of grave injury?
Although the practice, which is most popular among chiropractors (the commentary dealt specifically with professional manipulations) is not high risk, rare side effects include stroke brought on by a tear to the lining of the vertebral artery, which supplies blood to the brain. Does the risk outweigh the benefits? As might be expected, divisions within the medical community run along specialist lines. While many chiropractors think the manipulation is useful and safe, orthopedic surgeons are apt to disagree.

Because the rate of injury is so low, the treatment looks safe from a public health perspective.
Arguing against neck manipulations in the BMJ, three clinical therapy professors pointed to studies that suggested neck manipulation was no more effective than other treatments, like exercising the muscles that support the spine, that are meant to alleviate the same pain. Given the association between neck cracking and stroke, however inconclusive, why risk it?

In contrast, arguing in favor of the treatment, epidemiologist Dr. David Cassidy of the University of Toronto and colleagues points to the tremendously low risk of stroke, and additional research that shows how neck manipulation can alleviate pain in ways that other treatments cannot. Perle, who is currently researching the relationship between cervical manipulation and stroke, agrees with Team Cassidy.

"We know that spinal manipulation causes stimulation of areas of the brain that block pain, changes the function of the muscles that help support the spine and changes the flexibility of motion segments in the spine," says Perle. "Exercises can help loosen the muscles and other treatments can help with pain, but the flexibility of the joint -- that's uniquely aided by manipulation."

But Dr. Michael R. Marks, an orthopedic surgeon who is a spokesperson for the American Association of Orthopedic Surgery, remains cautious. "When we talk about medical complications, they can be really small, say one percent," says Marks. "But if it happens to you, it's 100 percent."

He suggests that age may be a factor. "If you're a relatively young person, a spinal manipulation is relatively safe because you've got muscle strength, strength in the ligaments, bone strength. But as you age and your blood vessels get a little bit hard, you have some atherosclerosis -- because of the chiropractic manipulation -- you run the risk of artery eruption."

That's not the only age-related concern when it comes to a cervical spine manipulation, according to Marks. Older adults have more porous bones that are more prone to fracture. A quick, forceful motion is more likely to cause fracture in old bones than younger ones.

Luckily, one area where older adults do not need to worry when it comes to manipulations is arthritis. While it's a common myth that joint cracking can lead to arthritis later in life, research consistently shows that there is simply no association.

The bottom line is this: the odds of getting a debilitating injury -- either a vascular injury that results in stroke or a fracture or, a third rare option, nerve damage -- is very low, particularly if you have healthy, strong bones, ligaments and muscles. But do you want to take the chance? Maybe not. Just don't worry about arthritis -- there's no relationship at all.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/neck-cracking-dangerous-spinal-manipulation_n_1929690.html?utm_hp_ref=health-and-fitness&ir=Health%20and%20Fitness

This document is provided for reference purposes only and not necessarily reflect the opinion of bynaturael’s team . Train your mind to test every thought and keep on searching the final truth that satisfies the conscience inside you.
Please visit our blog: bynaturael.blogspot.com