An interesting study was released a while back from West Virginia University is getting some play on CNN today. The study followed over 100 people and looked at how regular coping mechanisms worked compared to using meditation and mindfulness to combat stress.

An intensive program that teaches meditation skills may help people reduce the psychological and physical effects of high stress, according to a new study.

Kimberly A. Williams, Ph.D., at West Virginia University in Morgantown, and her colleagues assessed the benefits of the program that taught participants to “discern a relaxed from tense body and come to understand experientially how mental and emotional states influence the body and vice versa.”

They recruited 62 “stressed-out” subjects from the community. Past studies of similar training programs have shown the benefits in patients with confirmed psychiatric diagnoses and/or chronic illness. This is the first study to examine the benefits of such a program within a community setting, in people who reported abnormally high stress but not at a level that constitutes a psychiatric disorder. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: Alternative Medicine, CNN, Kimberly A. Williams, meditation, Morgantown, Prevention Research Center, psychiatric disorder, the American Journal, West Virginia University

So how fast should you walk when you are getting exercise? A new study from San Diego State University seems to answer that question.

People who walk for exercise should aim for a pace of 100 steps per minute to ensure their workout is intense enough, according to researchers.

Many people who want to keep fit use a pedometer to keep track of how many steps they take. However, the device gives no information on how intensely they’re exercising — that is, whether their heart rate is being raised enough to improve physical fitness. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: average walker, lead researcher, San Diego State University, Simon J. Marshall, the American Journal

If our bodies need to burn a certain number of calories to maintain our body weight, then it should be easy to lose weight, shouldn’t it?

Common sense would say that all we have to do is slash the number of calories that we consume.

Unfortunately there are a lot of studies that show that this does not work long term. A study published in the American Journal of Nutrition, for instance, showed that a group of individuals on a low calorie diet, who lost an average of 26 percent of their body weight during the course of the study, were not able to keep that weight off.

EVERYONE  in the study regained almost 75 percent of their lost weight within three years of completing the study. And many studies show even worse results than that. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: datestring, feast and famine, food, food supplies, long term weight loss, low calorie diet, the American Journal, the Journal of American Medicine

In one of the most rigorous studies ever conducted to determine how well people comprehend the information provided on food nutrition labels, researchers have found that the reading and math skills of a significant number of people may not be sufficient to extract the needed information, according to an article published in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

So after seeing that report and of course precious little on what the problems really were that people had trouble with I thought I would pull out a box of Honey Nut Cheerios (They are for the kids, really I am not just right now popping them in my mouth as an evening snack) and a box of Kellogg�s All Bran and am going to try to decipher what the lies are on the labeling.

A List of Food Labeling Lies

1. First of all we all need to know that labels lie. The best example of lying on labels is that PAM cooking spray is low in fat….It is all fat folks but the “serving size” is so low in actual grams of fat that the company can call it fat free or some ridiculous thing.

2. Serving Size - This is dumb but on the Honey Nut Cheerios it says that a serving is 3/4 of a cup or 30 grams I think because they want to use the fact that it is only 110 calories a serving (without milk, I tried to eat my cereal this morning with water instead and it was terrible), my Kellogg�s All Bran says that a serving is 1/2 cup which is actually 36 grams. The difference in this case is that the All Bran wants to use the number of 12 grams of Fiber per serving so they decided that I should eat a half cup as a serving (I really eat about a cup instead in real life).
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: allergies, Canada, fda, food, food label, food labeling, food labels, food nutrition labels, Honey Nut Cheerios, Kellogg, nut allergies, the American Journal, unknown chemicals, vitamin a, Vitamin D

The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, using it to treat everything from headaches to depression. I was so impressed when I started researching the benefits of Green tea that I started a Chinese Green Tea website.

In fact Chinese Green tea has been researched and linked to help all of the following conditions.

* rheumatoid arthritis
* high cholesterol levels
* cariovascular disease
* infection
* impaired immune function
* Cognition
* Stopping certain neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimers
* Treating Arthritis
* Treating MS
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: allergy, arthritis, Asia, beriberi, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cariovascular disease, chemical, CVD, depression, Eisai, energy source, esophageal cancer, fatigue, food, headaches, heart disease, high blood pressure, HIV, hyperthyroidism, indigestion, insomnia, Japan, kidney disease, light processing, National Cancer Institute, nervous disorder, nutraceuticals, rheumatoid arthritis, skin cancer, skin disorders, Switzerland, Tea Increases, Tea Work, the American Journal, the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, tumor, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, University of Geneva in Switzerland, University of Purdue, Zen priest