We knew it was good for us and now science has proved it. A new study has confirmed that watercress is a super-food. There’s something really refreshing about a superfoods salad, with a fresh, poached wild salmon with loads of watercress which, according the same study, contains nutrients and ingredients that help prevent damage to the body’s cells and DNA. Research subjects, half of whom were smokers, ate 85g of watercress a day for eight weeks – the equivalent of a small bag of pre-prepared salad – in addition to their regular diet. The results of blood tests showed a 22.9% reduction in DNA damage to white blood cells, a 100% increase in lutein and a 33% rise in betacarotene, both antioxidants that help cells defend themselves against damage. The benefits of eating watercress were especially notable among smokers. This could be because they had significantly lower antioxidant levels at the start of the study compared with non-smokers.

Dreaming Monk

Today the word “habit” seems to have negative connotations. Here are a few positive habits that lead towards happiness and that all day smile.

• Develop the habit of getting up early and sitting in silence.
• Read a peaceful thought and reflect on it.
• Write down some ideas about this thought.
• Return to silence, allowing these ideas to take root inside you.
• Share your ideas with a person close to you.
• Do a “good turn” for someone else, preferably without them knowing it was you.

This practice will help you accept and cope with conflicts and difficult situations. It will help you stay happy and peaceful for the rest of the day.

Dr Piccirillo, Professor of Otolaryngology says that “The study showed that antibiotics aren’t necessary for a basic sinus infection as most people get better on their own”. As many as one in five antibiotic prescriptions are for sinus infection. The researchers believe that antibiotics are over used in the primary care setting. They say they hope this study provides scientific evidence that doctors can use with patients to explain that an antibiotic is not likely to help an acute sinus infection.

Instead of giving antibiotics, they suggest treating symptoms such as pain, cough and congestion along with watchful waiting to see whether further treatment is necessary.

A group of 166 adults with acute sinus infection took part in the study. Their symptoms were classified as moderate, severe or very severe. They had to report pain or tenderness in the face and sinuses and nasal discharge that lasted between seven and 28 days.

They were randomly assigned a 10 day course of either amoxicillin or placebo. They all also got medications to relieve pain, fever, congestion and cough. At day three there was no difference between either group. At day seven a small improvement was seen in the antibiotic group but this was not a noticeable relief of symptoms. This small improvement disappeared by day 10 when both groups reported their symptoms very much improved or cured.

The researchers also found no difference between the antibiotic and placebo groups in the amount of medications patients chose to use to alleviate pain, fever, congestion and cough.

“It’s a nasty disease,” says lead researcher Dr Jane Garbutt. “People have significant symptoms. They feel miserable and miss time from work. If an antibiotic is not going to be of any benefit, then what is? That’s a question we haven’t answered yet. But we are working on it.” The study, carried out at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis , is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Call for an appointment at the Smiling Body Clinic if you suffer from Sinus Infections

Think carefully about what you need to communicate.

Can you do it with fewer words?

Speak less, engage others in the conversation and they’ll become more willing to listen.

Be economical, be thrifty with words and you’ll communicate more effectively.

Why is it that no one else is effected by our pain, our sorrow, our burden. We need to realise that this is not “our” pain, “our” sorrow, “our” burden. We need to realise that we are in fact taking ownership of this pain, this sorrow, this burden. The more we allow ourself to experience sorrow, the less time we have available to be happy and contented.

This realisation brings us freedom from “that” pain, “that” sorrow, “that” burden. We no longer own it, it no longer owns us.  It sounds ridiculously obvious, but “am I aware of the value of happiness”? It is a rare gift today, but like all gifts, the cost is negligible and the benefit is incalculable. This is my life, and I live it, I can choose to be happy or not today, and the contradiction is that in order to hold on to this gift, I need to pass it on to my family, my friends, my society, my community. This is like putting happiness in the bank for that day when I will receive it back with interest.

Anyway back to the question about the pros and cons of green tea dissolving fatty deposits in our bodies. It’s interesting to note that we have assumed that green tea is good for health but a vast amount of people especially today are interested in knowing if green tea is good for weight loss. The problem comes when we believe that green tea alone will help us lose weight. Dr. K Aggarwal a prominent consultant for Medicine and Cardiology at Moolchand Heart Hospital, New Delhi says, “While green tea may boost metabolism; this is not enough to make one lose weight fast, unless people complement it with physical workouts and other alternatives.”

Your one cuppa per day green tea solution isn’t a healthy solution to weight management. The cuppa green tea stimulates digestion, but that doesn’t mean that it will dissolve body fat. We should never substitute a cuppa Green, black, red, white or purple tea for exercise, stress reduction and good nutrition. It’s important to realise that healthy weight loss should be a combination of healthy activities and behaviours. It’s interesting to note that the Chinese government announced a special budget to encourage their government officials to go to sports clubs, despite green tea being a preferred drink amongst its elite bureaucrats.

The scientists tell us that Green tea is loaded flavinoids, and their diverse health benefits. They also inform us that black tea has theaflavins, the antioxidant polyphenols that are formed fermentation of tea leaves and are the subject of many positive studies into health attributes of black tea.

All the studies that demonstrate scientifically that green tea is beneficial are based on large quantities consumed, for example 8 to 10 cups/day which is not advisable. They advise that drinking 2-3 cups/day gives us better bowel movements, prevention of gastrointestinal bacterial infections and better immunity provided fresh fruits and vegetables are a part of the daily diet. It is not advisable to take any concentrated supplements of green tea since the primary source of antioxidants should be natural foods, so drinking it as hot water flavoured with green tea bags is good enough.

Green tea can help in your weight loss plan, however it should be only one part of that programme. It would be prudent to have a well thought out and complete programme which includes an appropriate diet based on your age, weight, your activity levels and your stress levels. Green tea, healthy and tasty as it is, should never substitute a well balanced diet and exercise programme as well as relaxation / meditation (Zen Relaxation or Senses Meditation). Acupuncture is also an excellent complementary therapy that can help in healthy weight programmes. At the Smiling Body Clinic programme includes advice and treatments that can help.

In the first study that measures the effectiveness of both acupuncture and herbs in combination with IUI infertility treatment, Dr. Shahar Lev- Ari and Keren Sela of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center say that the results, recently published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine, show a significant increase in fertility when the therapies are given side by side.

When combining IUI with TCM treatments, 65.5 percent of the test group was able to conceive, compared with 39.4% of the control group, which received no herbal or acupuncture therapy. The method is as “close to nature” as possible and can be used by women getting sperm donations or after a partner’s sperm is centrifuged to enhance its motility in the uterus.

Lev-Ari, a cellular biologist and head of the integrative medicine unit, works with both medical doctors and TCM practitioners at the Tel Aviv hospital’s fertility research institute.

He and Sela, a TCM practitioner specializing in women’s health, have long been wondering if acupuncture and herbal therapies could raise the success rates of Western- style fertility treatments.

In a retrospective study, Lev-Ari and Sela followed the progress of 29 women between the ages of 30 and 45 who were receiving IUI treatment combined with TCM therapy, and compared their results to a control group of 94 women between the ages of 28 and 46 who were undergoing IUI treatment alone. In addition to their IUI treatments, the 29 women in the first group received weekly sessions of acupuncture and a regime of Chinese medicines, which consisted of powdered or raw Chinese herbs such as Peonia Albae and Chuanxiong. All herbal preparations had Health Ministry approval.

In terms of both conception and take-home baby rates, the test group fared far better than the control group. Out of the 29 women in the test group, 65.5% conceived, and 41.4% delivered healthy babies. In the control group, only 39.4% conceived and 26.9% gave birth. The large gap in success rates is even more surprising when the age of the average participant was taken into account, Lev-Ari and Sela note. “The average age of the women in the study group was 39.4, while that of the control group was 37.1. Normally, the older the mother, the lower the pregnancy and delivery rates,” they explain.

According to the researchers, TCM is aimed at correcting imbalances in the body’s natural energy flow, promoting an overall sense of well-being.

There are several theories why Chinese medicine can be beneficial to fertility rates, including the possibility that acupuncture and herbal remedies can affect the ovulation and menstrual cycle, enhance blood flow to the uterus and enhance endorphin production and secretion to inhibit the central nervous system and induce calm – all of which can contribute to successful conception.

Now that the researchers have shown that TCM can have a major impact on the success of fertility treatments, they plan to design randomized clinical trials, including placebos, to further validate their findings. Original Article

Researchers at the University of Ulster and University of Limerick in Ireland studied and reviewed almost three dozen historical studies of the effects of using ice to combat sore muscles, a practice that many who exercise often employ. Ice is, after all, the “I” in the acronym RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), which remains the standard first-aid protocol for dealing with a sports-related injury. Icing is also widely used to deal with muscles that twinge but aren’t formally injured. Watch almost any football, basketball or soccer game, at any level, and you’ll likely see many of the players icing body parts during halftime, preparing to return to play.

Chinese medicine practitioners have always known this and sometimes suffered at the talk from the “experts” in sports injuries, advising cryotherapy to assist healing of damaged tissue. We use a very simple diagnostic method to ascertain if the tissue needs cooling or heating. Read more from the research here

The Flu (Influenza) is a viral condition characterised by high fevers, chill, severe muscle pains, headache and a profound feeling of fatigue. Influenza can be transmitted by coughs and sneezes, but also by touch. Frequent hand washing significantly reduces the risk of infection. Thousands of people die each year from complications caused by influenza. It is especially serious for those with underlying medical conditions. Read original article here