US Ranks No. 68 in 'First Day' Newborn Deaths
US Ranks No. 68 in 'First Day' Newborn Deaths |
- US Ranks No. 68 in 'First Day' Newborn Deaths
- 6 Steps To Healing Yourself
- Early Morning Meditation Inspiration - 5/7/2013
- A more intense dream
- Cultivating compassion
- Gonorrhea Not 'Worse Than AIDS,' Experts Say
- The Ultimate Quick Fix: Solve Any Problem In Your Life In Three Steps
- Are mindfulness benefits too good to be true?
- Grocery Shopping While Hungry Not Good Idea, Science Confirms
- FDA Proposes Stronger Warnings on Tanning Beds
- It’s not what’s happening…it’s how you respond
| US Ranks No. 68 in 'First Day' Newborn Deaths Posted: 07 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT
In the United States, more babies die on the first day of life than in any other industrialized country, according to a new report. Each year, about 11,300 U.S. babies die the day they're born, which is 50 percent more deaths than all other industrialized countries combined, according to the report from the charity organization Save the Children. When the organization ranked countries by the rate of death on the first day of life, the United States placed behind 67 others, including Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The report ranked 186 countries in all. Somalia has the highest first-day death rate, with 18 deaths per 1,000 live births, while Luxemburg, Singapore and Sweden have among the lowest, with less than 0.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. The rate of first-day death in the United States is 2.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. The relatively high rate of preterm birth in the United States compared to other industrialized countries contributes to the nation's high rate of first-day deaths, said Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children. And a lack of access to prenatal care for poor women contributes to the high rate of premature birth, Miles said. Women need access to proper prenatal care, in part to understand their risk of preterm birth and other pregnancy complications, Miles said. Although overall mortality has dropped worldwide for children under 5 years old, from 12 million deaths in 1990 to 7 million yearly deaths today, less progress has been made in reducing newborn deaths. In 2011, 3 million babies died in the first month of life, one-third of whom died on the day they were born, Save the Children says. Globally, India has the most first-day deaths, with more than 300,000 yearly, followed by Nigeria, with 90,000 a year, the report said. In developing countries, simple solutions could reduce the rate of first-day deaths. More than 1 million babies could be saved each year with access to four low-tech products, costing between 13 cents and $ 6, Save the Children says. These products are: resuscitation devices to help babies breathe; the antiseptic chlorhexidine to prevent umbilical cord infections; injectable antibiotics to treat infections; and antenatal steroid injections to help preterm babies' lungs develop. "It really it's about simple solutions," Miles said. Pass it on: More than 1 million babies die yearly on their day of their birth, according to a new report. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily .  Read More @ Source | |||
| Posted: 07 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT Editor's note: This is a guest post from Lissa Rankin of 6 Steps To Healing Yourself.Take a moment and check in with yourself. How is your body feeling right in this moment? If you're generally healthy, check in for subtle symptoms. Is your neck feeling tense? Does your lower back ache? Do you have a headache? Are you exhausted — again? Or perhaps you're battling a more serious health diagnosis and you're experiencing symptoms from your health condition. Whether you're experiencing the nuisance of a minor physical symptom, the more concerning stress of a serious health condition, or simple curiosity about how you might maximize your vitality and longevity, I'm psyched to share with you something they never taught me in medical school. The Body Knows How To Heal ItselfYour body is beautifully equipped with natural self-repair mechanisms that are under the influence of thoughts, feelings and beliefs that originate in your mind. It knows how to kill cancer cells, fix broken proteins, slow aging, eliminate toxins, fight infections, get rid of foreign bodies, and otherwise keep you healthy. Things go awry and disease manifests when these self-repair mechanisms fail to function properly. But here's the kicker. Your nervous system has two operating systems — the "fight-or-flight" stress response dominated by the sympathetic nervous system and the relaxation response run by the parasympathetic nervous system. Only when your nervous system is in a relaxation response do your body's self-repair mechanisms function! The stress response is there to protect you in case a tiger chases you. But these days, we're pretty safe from tigers, and yet our stress responses get triggered, on average, over 50 times per day. How? The amygdala in your lizard brains perceives negative thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, such as financial fears, relationship worries, work stress, loneliness, or pessimism, as threats equally scary as a tiger. Then BOOM. The scaredy-cat amygdala goes on red alert, and when this happens, our bodies can't repair themselves. No wonder we get sick! 6 Simple Steps To Activate Your Body's Self-Repair MechanismsYou don't have to be at the mercy of your stress responses. As I teach in my new book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, you can be proactive about activating your body's natural self-healing. Try these scientifically-proven steps as a health prevention strategy or as treatment for any health condition you might be battling. Step 1: Believe You Can Heal Yourself Don't believe that positive belief can cure the body? Think again! The medical establishment has been proving that the mind can cure the body for over 50 years. We call it "the placebo effect," and it has been proven to cause resolution of symptoms- and real physiological change — in 18-80% of the patients in clinical trials who are treated with nothing more than sugar pills, saline injections, or fake surgeries. As long as you believe your condition is "incurable" or "chronic," it will be. Don't believe your health condition could possibly resolve? Check out the Spontaneous Remission Project, a compilation of over 3,500 case studies proving that spontaneous remission has been reported for just about every illness out there- Stage 4 cancers, HIV, diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid disease, autoimmune diseases, even an untreated gunshot wound to the head! For my skeptical physician mind, reading through all these case studies was a paradigm shift. It's kind of like the story of the 4-minute mile. Exercise physiologists used to think the body was physiologically incapable of running a mile in less than 4 minutes — and so no athlete ever did it. Then in 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in three minutes and fifty-nine seconds. Once that limiting belief was shattered, virtually every athlete that competes in a world-class event has run the mile in under four minutes. Today's world-record time for the mile is 3:43:15, more than 15 seconds under 4 minutes. What if your belief that the body can't heal itself is like the 4-minute mile? For some mind-blowing stories about how positive belief can radically affect your health, watch my TEDx talk Is There Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself?. Scientific data proves that once you believe healing is possible, it can be. So what do you believe? Step 2: Find The Right Support To say that you can heal yourself is sort of a misnomer because the scientific data proves that, equally essential to positive belief is the nurturing care of a true healer, someone optimistic who shares your positive belief, includes you in true partnership, respects your intuition, cares for your wellbeing, and ensures you that you won't be alone on your self-healing journey. Do you have the right healers on your health care team? Step Three: Listen To Your Body & Your Intuition Nobody knows your body better than you, not even a doctor. We doctors may know the arteries of the leg or the anatomy of your organs better than you, but you know what's best for your own body better than anyone else. When my literary agent first read Mind Over Medicine, she said, "Lissa, before I read this book, I honestly thought my body was none of my business. Now I know better." Yes! Your body is indeed your business. So listen to your intuition and trust what it tells you. Not in touch with your intuition? Then listen to your body, which is one vehicle your intuition uses to speak to you. If you have a physical sensation in your body — pain, tightness, nausea, clenching, dizziness — ask your body what it is trying to communicate to you. Then listen up! This is the voice of your inner wisdom and it will always lead you directly to your true north. Step Four: Diagnose The Root Causes Of Your Illness Your doctor may give you one kind of diagnosis- migraines or irritable bowel syndrome or breast cancer, for example. But the kind of diagnosis I'm talking about gets at the root of what might have triggered stress responses in your body and deactivated your body's self-healing mechanisms, thereby making your body vulnerable to illness. What aspects of your life are activating your stress responses? What relaxation response-inducing activities — like meditation, creative expression, laughter, engaging in work you love, massage, yoga, or playing with animals — have you been neglecting? Illness is often a wake up call, forcing us to get down and dirty with what's really true in our lives. We can either play the victim or we can use illness as an opportunity to awaken. If you're struggling with a physical issue, what might lie at the root of it? For more ideas about what might lie at the root of your illness, check out my TEDx talk The Shocking Truth About Your Health. Step Five: Write The Prescription For Yourself This won't be the kind of prescription you fill at a pharmacy, though it certainly may include elements of Western medicine. It's more of a self-guided action plan intended to make your body ripe for optimal health and full recovery. So ask yourself, "What does my body need in order to heal?" Your Prescription may include diet changes, an exercise regimen, and a conventional medical treatment plan. But it may also include getting out of a toxic relationship, quitting a soul-sucking job, adding a meditation practice, taking steps to get out of debt, or following a passion. Be as specific as you can. Then muster up the courage to put your plan into action! Step Six: Surrender Attachment To Outcomes What if you've adopted a positive attitude, found the right healer, tapped into your intuition and your body, diagnosed the root cause of your health condition, written The Prescription for yourself and put it into action- but you're still sick? Are you doing something wrong? Is it your fault you're still sick? Absolutely not — and any talk of guilt, blame, or shame for someone on a healing journey only activates more stress responses and harms the body. So what's the deal? This is where the art of surrender comes in. Some patients do everything "right" and spontaneous remission happens. But others are the proverbial choir- and they're still sick. Why does this happen? Honestly, I don't know. The only real answer is a spiritual one. Perhaps our souls come here on this earth to learn lessons, and illness can be a spiritual practice, a way to learn our life lessons and a part of our soul's destiny. What I can say is that if you've followed the 6 steps, you've done everything within your power to make your body ripe for miracles — and the rest is out of your hands. So take a deep breath, trust The Universe, surrender attachment to any particular health outcome, and let any health condition you face be an opportunity for spiritual awakening. Ready To Heal Yourself?Are you motivated to put each of these steps into action? Will you do what it takes to reduce stress responses in your body and increase relaxation responses so your body can repair itself? Read more from Lissa Rankin, MD on her blog, LissaRankin.com, where you can download the free eBook 10 Secrets to Healing Yourself. Her book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, offers all the scientific proof skeptics will need in order to believe the mind really can heal the body. It also guides you through a series of exercises to help you implement the 6 Steps To Healing Yourself so you can make your body ripe for miracles. Read More @ Source | |||
| Early Morning Meditation Inspiration - 5/7/2013 Posted: 07 May 2013 09:00 AM PDT  "Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others." ~The Buddha      Read More @ Source | |||
| Posted: 07 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT I say sentient beings are like dreams and magical delusions. — Subhuti, Prajnaparamita Sutra
Having fully awakened from a dream, if our dream greatly caught our attention, we would sound foolish to tell our friends of our wish to go back to the dream and live there. Our friends would tell us that our dream, including the landscape and the people in it, do not ultimately exist. Nothing in the dream can be obtained, in other words. Its reality consists in shunyatâ (emptiness/barrenness). According to the Bhavasankrânti Sutra the ordinary worldling (prithagjana) is in the same boat as our foolish dreamer who desires to return to his dream, believing it to be real. But nothing of the ordinary worldling's world is real—it's a more intense dream we could say. Still, it is as unreal as a dream. Its reality is also shunyatâ when viewed from the attainment of pure Mind which alone is real. We cannot underestimate the importance of 'awakening' from the worldling's dream world. It is the end of being mesmerized by phenomena which are never other than illusory and empty (shunya). By awakening, we see for the first time the non-illusory noumena from which our dreams are spun. It is an introspective cognizance (pratyâtmavedya) of the highest order.
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| Posted: 06 May 2013 10:07 PM PDT
The meditation of cultivating compassion is called karuna bhavana. Karuna is compassion, and bhavana means "development" or "cultivation." Metta, or lovingkindness, is the desire of bringing that which is welfare and good to oneself and others. Compassion is the desire to remove suffering, especially from others. The Vimuttimagga, a very early meditation manual dating from just a few centuries after the Buddha's death, says:
The word "karuna" comes from a Sanskrit root meaning "to make or do" and so it has an active quality. It's been termed "holy action." If you've done lovingkindness meditation then you'll almost certainly have slipped into cultivating compassion as well, so this meditation won't be particularly foreign to you. Compassion is simply what arises when a mind imbued with lovingkindness meets suffering. We want others to be happy; they are suffering; therefore we want them to be free from suffering, and to relieve their suffering if we can. And I'm sure it will have occurred to you, while you were cultivating lovingkindness, that a person you had in mind was suffering. Therefore, you're already familiar with cultivating compassion. In fact the phrases I was taught to use for cultivating lovingkindness were "May I (or you, or all beings) be well … happy … free from suffering." These days I try to keep a bit more separation between the two practices, so I'm more inclined to say "May I (or you, or all beings) be well … happy … at ease." But it's not a big deal if the karuna bhavana and the metta bhavana melt into each other a little. Compassion shouldn't be a heavy experience. When it does seem depressing, it's likely that what we're doing is responding to suffering in an unhelpful way. The Visudhimagga, a meditation manual a few centuries more recent than the Vimuttimagga (I know, the similar names are confusing!), talks about compassion having a "near enemy." The near enemy is a quality that can be confused with the genuine article. By way of comparison, if you're selling Gucci purses your real competition is not purses sold in Target, but fake Gucci purses that devalue your brand. This near enemy is often described as "pity," but the Visudhimagga has it as "grief." Specifically it's the grief that comes from "the household life."  If you like my articles, please check out my books, guided meditation CDs, and MP3s, including The Heart's Wisdom, which includes all four lovingkindness meditations. What does this mean? The Visuddhimagga makes it clear that the "grief of the household life" doesn't have anything literally to do with households at all. What it refers to is the grief, or suffering, of not having what you want. How I interpret this is that we are aware of others' suffering, and we do want that suffering to end, but the reason we want it to end is because it's uncomfortable for us, not because it's uncomfortable for them. You turn on the TV news, and there are scenes of disaster from around the globe. And it feels bad. Maybe you'll give some money to the Red Cross to help, or maybe you'll just feel bad. Maybe you'll change the channel to avoid feeling bad. But this isn't genuine compassion because you're not really feeling for the other people. You're attached to your normal range of mental states, and now you've lost those, because of these poor people. You're feeling the loss of your own happiness and wellbeing. This can feel rather heavy, especially if you get into feeling guilty or despairing. I used to see this a lot when I trained as a veterinary surgeon. People would come in with a beloved pet dog that had been in a car accident and needed an amputation. Now a dog can get around perfectly well on three legs, and often the dog would be standing there, just after its accident, with a mangled, bloodied leg and its tail wagging. Even then, having just experienced trauma, the animal was very resilient. But the owners would be so overcome by the trauma of having a mangled dog — their own trauma — that they'd insist on having it put down. They'd say they were putting the dog out of its misery, but actually they were putting the dog out of their own misery. Compassion actually recognizes that others are suffering. I'm not saying it can't be heavy, just that it's not an response that makes you feel crushed and helpless. But as the Visuddhimagga says, compassion "fails when it produces sorrow." Compassion may lead to an ache in the heart, but it's not sorrowful. The "far enemy" of compassion is cruelty, and I think cruelty is often a way of keeping "grief" at bay. If you deride those who are suffering, then you don't have to admit to your own vulnerability. In future posts I'll say more about the practice specifically, but for now, just see if, in your lovingkindness practice, you can be a bit more aware of your own and others' suffering. Read More @ Source | |||
| Gonorrhea Not 'Worse Than AIDS,' Experts Say Posted: 06 May 2013 07:10 PM PDT
Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is a serious public health issue, but comparing the illness to AIDS, as a recent article did, is misleading, experts say. A recent CNBC article with the headline "Sex Superbug Could Be 'Worse Than AIDS'" quoted Alan Christianson, a naturopathic doctor, as saying that an antibiotic-resistant strain of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea "might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly." However, some experts called the comparison hyperbolic. "I disagree with the general comparison," said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an attending physician in infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. "The rate of complications from gonorrhea in terms of systemic problems is so much lower than the rate of complications from untreated AIDS infection," Hirsch said. The CNBC article says that this particular strain of gonorrhea "might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days." But Hirsch said that the rate of life-threatening complications, such as sepsis, from gonorrhea, is about 1 percent, while the rate of death from untreated AIDS is 98 percent. "At this point in time, AIDS is a fatal infection," while gonorrhea patients very rarely die from the condition, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, chair of the Global Health Department at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. However, both experts stressed that antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea was a very serious problem. "There really is no reason to compare it to anything else," del Rio said. Gonorrhea is becoming increasingly resistant to the antibiotics doctors have to treat it. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that there is just one drug left that can be used as a first-line treatment for the disease. The drug, ceftriaxone (an antibiotic delivered by injection) is recommended to be used along with other antibiotics, such as such as azithromycin or doxycycline, for seven days. So far, the United States has not seen any cases of gonorrhea that were completely resistant to antibiotics, the CDC said. In 2011, there were more than 300,000 cases of gonorrhea reported to the CDC. Gonorrhea is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea and is spread through sexual activity. People with gonorrhea often show no symptoms (men are more likely to have symptoms than women). In some cases, the disease can cause serious complications, including infertility and chronic pelvic pain in women, and in men, epididymitis, a painful inflammation of the ducts attached to the testicles if left untreated, according to the CDC. If gonorrhea becomes resistant to all antibiotics, "then we're going to be in the same situations that were we in the 1800s," Hirsch said. The CDC says urgent action is needed to stop the spread of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, including the identification and study of new antibiotics treatments. Proper use of condoms can reduce the risk of getting gonorrhea. The best way to prevent the disease is not to have sex, or to be in a monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested for the disease and is known not to be infected, the CDC says. Pass it on: Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is a serious problem, but experts disagree with the comparison of the illness to AIDS. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily. Read More @ Source | |||
| The Ultimate Quick Fix: Solve Any Problem In Your Life In Three Steps Posted: 06 May 2013 06:00 PM PDT  By going through life hiding from this fact and pretending we are perfect, we just make things worse, and expect perfection from other people, which will only cause disappointment. Instead, by acknowledging it as adults, we can accept we are human, but learn how to minimise the damage, solve the problem or stand up for ourselves: We can let go and forgive ourselves. Deep down, we all want a quick fix to a problem or a happy life. You will find endless blogs and articles filled with advice and ideas, but really there is only one real easy solution to making our lives better – and most people do everything they can to avoid it. Here are three simple steps to solving many problems in your life. Step #1: Be honestStop and be honest with yourself. Tell yourself the truth about how you feel about a certain situation, a relationship, a job or something in your life that isn't as you say you would like it to be. Do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable? If you're bitching, moaning or blaming, clearly it feels uncomfortable and you might feel guilty. It's called 'the uncomfortable truth' for a reason, and there is some responsibility for you to own. Step #2: Take personal responsibilityTaking responsibility is not about saying, 'Everything is my fault; I'm bad, I'm wrong': if you're doing this then you're just blaming, shaming and persecuting yourself. Instead, it is about putting your hands up and acknowledging that you have chosen to behave in a certain way, which may have been a mistake (whether conscious or unconscious) at the time, but now you are taking responsibility for that behaviour. Saying it out loud, being honest and tell! ing the truth to other people about that choice or action is part of taking responsibility, because it makes it real. Step #3: Take actionOnce something is real and out there, we can't avoid it, so we have to choose how to deal with it. The answer is not always to make changes but can simply be to accept what is. Accept that we don't actually want to change, so we don't have to keep pretending to want something that we don't. Or, if we do want change, then we can take action – whether that is apologising, or changing your behaviour, or doing something new and different. These three steps can be applied to almost any problem, so here are a few examples… Are you sick of not losing weight?Honestly, I adore food; I love chocolate and have a sweet tooth. The truth is, I am not willing to give them up. I take responsibility for my health by doing plenty of exercise and drinking lots of water, and I balance things out by eating plenty of greens and healthy food too, but I will never be a skinny size 6 – and that is my choice. I choose to be healthy and fit. There is no point bitching and moaning if my weight increases, as no one else is to blame for my jeans getting tight. When they do, I sometimes choose to cut back on sugar-based food for a bit and increase the amount of exercise I do. If you are not happy with your weight and you really want to lose some, it is simple: be honest with yourself about your food intake (how much and what kind) and weight. Take responsibility and take action by eating less crap, eating smaller portions and exercising more, so that you burn off more than you eat. Are you fed up with your debts?I struggled with debt for a long time and I still have some which I am paying off. I hate debt, but I am not in debt because I spend too much, as I struggle to spend money on myself. Instead, for a long time I undervalued and undersold myself, as I didn't want to accept my r! eal value! and so I settled for what I was given. Therefore, I was always struggling financially to survive. Taking responsibility and action meant learning to respect myself more, and my value, so that I could demonstrate to other people how to do the same by charging more, asking for more, demanding more, and selling and promoting myself more to get a fair value in relation to my skills, knowledge and experience. This meant I had to be honest with everyone about who I am and what I can bring to the table. Many people who accept low-paid or non-challenging jobs are in the same situation; often they are really miserable, bored and scared of trying something new so they choose to undervalue themselves. Instead, they can choose to take responsibility and action by getting more qualifications, choosing to face their fear and trying something more challenging to increase their skills. Of course, the opposite is true too – some people simply spend more than they earn and waste money on things they don't actually need (food, rent/mortgage, and other basics don't count) but things that they want. It is your choice to change that, or to accept that you don't want to change things and spend less. No more bitching and moaning: just accept that you choose to have debts like a noose around your neck: they are still your responsibility to pay off. Are you unhappy in your relationship?There must be trust and honesty in a loving relationship. Trust grows from honesty. All loving relationships develop and thrive, not because people don't make mistakes, get cross and frustrated or hurt each other, but because they do. When both people take personal responsibility for their actions and behaviour, and are honest with their feelings, apologising and making amends if they haven't demonstrated love to themselves or the other person, then that is when relationships grow. I struggled in relationships for a long time because I took responsibility for everyon! e else'! s mistakes as well as my own, and became untrusting of the other party because it felt as if I was the only one who made mistakes and I was to blame. By being honest with myself, I could take responsibility for the fact that I had chosen to play the role of the victim because I was afraid of standing up for myself and telling people how I felt. Learning to voice my feelings calmly and clearly meant that the other person could take responsibility for their actions if they chose to, and I could choose to either forgive or move on. The same can be said about not having relationships: some people may moan about the opposite sex and complain that they are single because they never meet any good men/woman – when, in truth, they don't put themselves out there in places or ways to meet 'good' people, because deep down they actually want to be single; maybe because it's safer, but don't want to admit it. Learning a new skill or achieving a goalI started learning to play the piano two years ago; I had said for so long that I wished I had learned as a child. In honesty, that was because I wished I could do something I could enjoy – but I didn't want to put in the hard work, time and practice to become good at it. I took lessons for a year and, even though I enjoyed parts of my lessons, I still didn't really want to practice and do the homework. After I finally decided to end the lessons, I only touched the keyboard once in the following year! The pleasure and achievement didn't seem to outweigh the struggle of practicing. So, in truth, I didn't want to do it anymore. Ever since I have been honest and accepted the truth, I have stopped feeling guilty about it. I may change my mind again in time and try again, and that's OK too. On the other hand, I acknowledge that (unlike playing the piano), I love to surf, but I didn't practice for a while and so my surfing skills and fitness have deteriorated. That really annoys! me, so I! cut back on the sweet foods and have been getting in the sea more to practice. So is it time for you to uncover the uncomfortable truth that you've been avoiding, and find out what you can take responsibility for? It's your choice to act, make a change, make amends for any wrongdoing, or just plain accept the truth that you don't want to change and that actually deep down you're OK with that part of your life.
Have a bucket list? Create yours today with this list of 101 things to do before you die! Grab your free pdf e-book in the next second by signing up for the free newsletter.     Read More @ Source | |||
| Are mindfulness benefits too good to be true? Posted: 06 May 2013 05:00 PM PDT
Would you be skeptical if I told you that without taking a pill or seeing a therapist, you could lower your blood pressure, raise your self-esteem, experience equanimity in the face of stress, improve the quality of your sleep, reduce chronic pain, get greater enjoyment from eating even while eating less, increase your energy and make better decisions? That you could be happier and see the world around you more positively? The practitioners of mindfulness make these and other remarkable claims—and their claims are not… Read the original article » Read More @ Source | |||
| Grocery Shopping While Hungry Not Good Idea, Science Confirms Posted: 06 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT
If you've ever gone grocery shopping while you're hungry, you know the task can be a challenge: Everything looks good. Now new research confirms that grocery shopping when your stomach is rumbling is probably not a good idea. To hungry shoppers, high-calorie foods may be more tempting than usual, the researchers said. In the study, researchers asked 68 people to come to their lab and to avoid eating for five hours before they came. Upon arrival, half of the participants were told they could eat as many wheat crackers as they wanted, while the other half were not given any food. Both groups of participants were then asked to grocery shop in an online store that offered high-calorie foods, such as candy, salty snacks and red meat, as well as low-calorie foods, such as fruits, vegetable and chicken breasts. Participants who were hungry purchased more high-calorie products, the researchers found. On average, hungry people purchased 5.7 high-calorie products, while the group that ate before shopping bought 3.9 high-calorie products. In a second experiment, the researchers, led by Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, analyzed purchases of 82 people in a real-world grocery store. They compared the purchases of those who went shopping between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. (an "after lunch" period when people are less likely to be hungry) to those who went shopping between 4 and 7 p.m. (when people are more likely to be hungry). Those who shopped between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. bought fewer low-calorie products compared with those who shopped between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. (buying eight products versus 11 products). "Even short-term food deprivation can lead to a shift in choices such that people choose less low-calorie, and relatively more high-calorie, food options," the researchers wrote in the May 6 issue of the Journal for the American Medical Association. The findings suggest "people should be more careful about their choices when food-deprived and possibly avoid choice situations when hungry by making choices while in less hungry states," the researchers said. Pass it on: Grocery shopping while hungry may lead to unhealthy food choices. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily . Read More @ Source | |||
| FDA Proposes Stronger Warnings on Tanning Beds Posted: 06 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT
Tanning beds could be required to meet stricter federal regulations and add labels that warn of the risks of skin cancer, particularly for young people, if a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposal becomes final. If the proposed changes are finalized, tanning bedsand sunlamps would come with a warning saying they should not be used by people under 18, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said at a news conference today (May 6). However, the changes would not prohibit young people from using tanning beds, the agency said. Tanning bed manufacturers would also be required to have their devices cleared by the FDA before they go on the market. Manufacturers would need to show that their devices meet certain performance requirements, and include features to better ensure users' safety. The FDA has received reports of people getting burns from tanning beds, Shuren said. Under the proposal, labels that discuss the risks of using tanning beds, and recommend against their use by people under 18, would be on beds as well as brochures and websites that advertise the devices, Shuren said. Tanning bed use is associated with an increased risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, the FDA said. Some states have age restrictions on tanning bed use. For instance, Georgia, Illinois and Maine prohibit the use of tanning beds by children under 14, according to a Reuters report. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily . Read More @ Source | |||
| It’s not what’s happening…it’s how you respond Posted: 06 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT
The monkeys apparently were interested in golf too, and their way of joining the game was to go onto the course and take the balls that the golfers were hitting and toss them around in all directions. Of course the golfers didn't like this at all, so they tried to control the monkeys. First they built high fences around the fairway; they went to a lot of trouble to do this. Now, monkeys climb…so, they would climb over the fences and onto the course . . . that solution just didn't work at all. The next thing they tried was to lure them away from the course. I don't know how they tried to lure them—maybe waving bananas or something—but for every monkey that would go for the bananas, all their relatives would come into the golf course to join the fun. In desperation, they started trapping them and relocating them, but that didn't work, either. The monkeys just had too many relatives who liked to play with golf balls! Finally, they established a novel rule for this particular golf course: the golfers in Calcutta had to play the ball wherever the monkey dropped it. Those golfers were onto something! We all want life to be a certain way. We want the conditions to be just so, and life doesn't always cooperate. Maybe it does for awhile, which makes us want to hold on tight to how things are, but then things change. So sometimes it's like the monkeys are dropping the balls where we don't want them, and what can we do? Often we react by blaming…ourselves, or others or the situation. We might become aggressive. Or perhaps we feel victimized and resign. Or sometimes we soothe ourselves with extra food or drink. But clearly, none of these reactions are helpful. If we are to find any peace, if we are to find freedom, what we need to do is learn to pause and say, "Okay. This is where the monkeys dropped the ball. I'll play it from here, as well as I'm able." So, how do we do that?
One of the great teachings in spiritual life is this: It doesn't matter what is happening. What matters is how we respond. How we respond is what determines our happiness and peace of mind. |
There are four related dimensions of lovingkindness, together called the "divine abodes," or Brahmaviharas. These four are (1) clovingkindness itself, (2) compassion, (3) appreciation, and (4) ceven-minded love. I devoted the first quarter of our 100 Days to lovingkindness, and I'm going to write about compassion, the second of these practices, for the second quarter.
Carole Carson, AARP blog: Is Mindfulness the Latest Fad? Are the Benefits Too Good to Be True?
One of my favorite stories took place a number of decades ago when the English had colonized India and they wanted to set up a golf course in Calcutta. Besides the fact that the English shouldn't have been there in the first place, the golf course was not a particularly good idea. The biggest challenge was that the area was populated with monkeys.
What if you pause right now, and take a moment to be quiet. Can you think of a place in your life where things are not cooperating with how you would like them to be? Whatever unfortunate place the monkeys have dropped a ball in your life, bring your focus to that. It could be something that happens in a relationship with another person, where you get reactive. What would it mean to "play the ball" here? If you could tap into your deepest wisdom, your true compassion, how would you like to respond to these circumstances?| You are subscribed to email updates from BuddhaRocks ☸ To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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