HEAL

Healing...

"Heal" is a film by Kelly Noonan Gores about the power of the mind to heal the body. It's available on Netflix. "The documentary takes us on a scientific and spiritual journey where we discover that our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions have a huge impact on our health and ability to heal. The latest science reveals that we are not victims of unchangeable genes, nor should we buy into a scary prognosis. The fact is we have more control over our health and life than we have been taught to believe. This film will empower you with a new understanding of the miraculous nature of the human body and the extraordinary healer within us all."

What can we do to improve our health?

There are nine measures that were taken by people who had spontaneous remission from serious illnesses.

Radically Changing your Diet

Taking Control of your Health

Following your Intuition

Using Herbs and suplements

Releasing Supressed Emotions

Increasing Positive Emotions

Embracing Social Support

Deepening your Spiritual Connection

Have a Strong Reason for Living

To see the trailer click on "HEAL"

Click HEALTrailer

What to Eat to Help You Sleep

Lack of sleep can be influenced by many factors, from medical illness to side effects of drugs to simply having a lot on your mind. Before trying to remedy your sleep deficit on your own, make sure you investigate whatever might be behind your sleep difficulties and seek proper professional attention. Doing so could save you time, money, and many more sleepless nights.

Prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids unfortunately don’t address the root cause of a sleep disorder. They are a temporary fix until the driving force behind the problem can be addressed. Diet and lifestyle changes may be a natural alternative worthy of discussing with your doctor. The types of food and beverages you choose and the way that you consume them can play a major role in influencing sleep.

First, here are a few tips on how to make a bedtime snack really work for you:

• Time your snack. Research suggests that bedtime snacks are most effective when they happen an hour before bedtime (not sooner) and contain carbohydrates plus a little protein. A small nutrient-balanced snack causes the brain to produce serotonin, which helps calm and prepare you for sleep.

• Plan an early bedtime. Short sleep times can cause an imbalance of the hormones leptin and ghrelin; this imbalance increases hunger and decreases satiety cues. What does that mean? It means not getting enough sleep every night can cause you to eat more and feel hungrier, which can make it difficult for you to fall asleep. So, eat a small snack around 9:00pm and try to be in bed by 10:00pm.

• Avoid caffeine and alcohol after 7. Caffeine works as a mild stimulant that causes jitters and gets the brain working into overdrive. If you must have caffeine, make sure you have it no later than two to three hours before bedtime. Foods and beverages that contain the most caffeine include coffee, green and black tea, energy drinks, caffeinated sodas like cola and root beer, and chocolate. And research shows that while a drink or two may help you get to sleep, alcohol is disruptive of restful REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

With those tips in mind, here’s what to chew to help you snooze:

1. Cherries are one of the top foods rich in naturally occurring melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep. One study found that healthy adults experienced improved sleep time and a 5 to 6 percent increase in overall sleep efficiency after drinking two servings of tart cherry juice for a week.

2. Carbohydrates before bedtime are one of the best fuels for cranking out sleep-promoting serotonin. But don’t have fatty fries or chips. Have some warm oatmeal or two slices of whole grain toast with almond butter.

3. Milk is the largest contributor of calcium, vitamin D, and potassium to the American diet. Although the scientific literature is a bit thin on milk’s effect on sleep, the nutrients in milk –specifically calcium and tryptophan–are known to induce sleep. Calcium helps the brain use the amino acid tryptophan. Milk’s carbohydrates help tryptophan work more effectively, too!

4. Salmon is rich in omega-3 fats. Research shows that omega-3s deficient diets negatively affect the sleep hormone melatonin and its function, and throw off the natural sleep cycle called “circadian rhythm,” which can lead to sleep disturbances.

5. Chicken is naturally high in the amino acid precursor to melatonin called tryptophan. I’m sure you were thinking that turkey might have a leg up on the competition, but that’s not the case. Tryptophan helps produce the neurotransmitter serotonin, which in turn makes us feel more relaxed and sleepy.

6. Pumpkin seeds are an excellent source of the mineral magnesium, as well as an excellent source of tryptophan. Low magnesium levels have been associated with a poor night’s sleep. Eating a handful of pumpkin seeds was found to be as effective in improving tryptophan levels in the body as taking tryptophan supplements.

7. Walnuts contain a number of nutrients that support a relaxed and healthy nervous system. These include omega-3 fats, vitamin E, folate, and melatonin. Research shows that the melatonin in walnuts is well absorbed and will raise blood melatonin concentrations when eaten in moderation.

David Grotto, RD, LDN, formerly the national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, he is now the founder and president of Nutrition Housecall, a nutrition consulting firm that provides nutrition communications, lecturing and consulting services, and also offers personalized at-home dietary services. He is the author of 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life and 101 Optimal Life Foods.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/what-to-eat-to-help-you-sleep.html#ixzz2Pmytku1X

Lose Weight for a Better Memory

Wondering how to prevent dementia? 

A new study reveals that obesity can put people older than 60 at greater risk for dementia. The good news is we have some tips that can spare your aging brain from weight-gain brain-drain:

* Take a walk for at least 45 minutes a day, six days a week. Also do strength-building exercises two to three days a week. It's especially good for you if you're advanced in your years and out of shape. Yes, AARP member, you can do it!

* Add friends, family, and lovers to your social mix - face to face, not using FaceTime on your cell phone. Loneliness is associated with everything from higher blood pressure and less happiness to weight gain.

* Substitute heart-stopping saturated fats (think burgers) with healthy fats, such as salmon or monounsaturated olive oil. Losing weight is about healthy eating, not starving.

*Combine these steps with Dr. Mike's secret for weight control: walnuts and almonds. Starting a meal with six walnut halves or 12 almonds can help you shrink belly fat by 50%. The walnuts are good for your brain and heart, too, so go nuts (and have a fun-filled - and longer - life)!

(adapted from Real Age)

Coffee for the Heart

Coffee drinkers who've been upping their java consumption in light of reports about coffee's various health benefits can rest easy (if all that caffeine lets you rest at all): Coffee drinking isn't associated with a greater risk of heart arrhythmia. In fact, contrary to popular belief, a new study finds that people who drink four or more cups of coffee daily were actually 18% less likely to be admitted to the hospital for a heart-rhythm disturbance than coffee abstainers. Researchers confessed to being surprised by the results, because patients sometimes report forceful heartbeats or palpitations after drinking coffee. If you have trouble tolerating caffeine or coffee, the scientists added, their study shouldn't change the advice to avoid both, nor should you take up the habit in hopes of preventing arrhythmias. But moderate coffee drinkers should take comfort in the results. Sorry, tea lovers, the seven-year study of 130,054 men and women found no similar benefit for tea drinking. - American Heart Association

Read the full report

Aging with Grace

Written by David A. Snowdon, the book "Aging with Grace" is highly recommended. It can be bought at Amazon.com.

De A Sorrir

"Since 1986, the author, an epidemiologist, has directed a research project dubbed the Nun Study. According to Snowdon, who previously studied Seventh-Day Adventists, religious group members make ideal subjects because of their similar and somewhat insular lives. Specifically, he has been tracking the lives of 678 elderly nuns who are members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, to assess the effects of aging. Snowdon describes in detail a pilot study he conducted with the sisters in Mankato, Wis., on the link between level of education and disabilities related to aging. This initial research convinced him to expand his base to other convents and to focus primarily on Alzheimer's disease. The participants, ranging in age from 75 to 104, agreed to provide access to their medical and personal histories and, after death, to donate their brain tissue to the project. What distinguishes this study is Snowdon's decision not to maintain the usual "objective" distance from his subjects but rather to become emotionally involved with them. His commitment to treat them with "care and respect" is readily apparent in the many warm and sympathetic anecdotes and his expression of deeply felt grief when any of the sisters becomes incapacitated by Alzheimer's or dies. Among the project's findings is a clear correlation between a low rate of Alzheimer's and high linguistic ability. Snowdon has also found a positive relationship between the consumption of certain antioxidants (e.g., lycopene, found in pink grapefruit, tomatoes and watermelon), an exercise program and an optimistic outlook and aging successfully. Although the study is still under way, readers will certainly appreciate the early insights to be gleaned from Snowdon's human- (rather than statistic-) centered and compassionate story." (Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.)

What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter?

By Gretchen Reynolds


Allow a laboratory mouse to run as much as it likes, and its brainpower improves. Force it to run harder than it otherwise might, and its thinking improves even more. This is the finding of an experiment led by researchers at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and placed online in May.

(...) For some time, researchers have known that exercise changes the structure of the brain and affects thinking. Ten years ago scientists at the Salk Institute in California published the groundbreaking finding that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells. But fundamental questions remain, like whether exercise must be strenuous to be beneficial. Should it be aerobic? What about weight lifting? And are the cognitive improvements permanent or fleeting?

(...) Why should exercise need to be aerobic to affect the brain? “It appears that various growth factors must be carried from the periphery of the body into the brain to start a molecular cascade there,” creating new neurons and brain connections, says Henriette van Praag, an investigator in the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging. For that to happen, “you need a fairly dramatic change in blood flow,” like the one that occurs when you run or cycle or swim. Weight lifting, on the other hand, stimulates the production of “growth factors in the muscles that stay in the muscles and aren’t transported to the brain,” van Praag says.

(...) “It would be fair to say that any form of regular exercise,” Chauying J. Jen says, if it is aerobic, “should be able to maintain or even increase our brain functions.”

Complete details at the NYT site:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/what-sort-of-exercise-can-make-you-smarter/?emc=eta1

Chales Terra Nova

We had a great time at Chalés Terra Nova, inside the Itatiaia National Park. Surrounded by nature, birds, good music and tasty food at the restaurant, sleeping in a cabin with fireplace, it was almost like heaven!

Kids and dad enjoyed the warm swimming pool, the bikes and still walked among the trees (arvorismo). The other day we went to visit the National Park and the city of Penedo, where we found those delicious ice creams (Sorvete Finlandês). We will come back for more!

Brazilian baby from abdominal pregnancy is alive and healthy

At Hospital das Clinicas, São Paulo, a baby was born in amazing conditions. The embryo developed outside the uterus, below the mother's stomach. Maria Benedita is very happy. In spite of the life threatening warnings, she went on with the pregnancy until the 8th month. After 2 hours of surgery, she was rewarded by her courage and faith. Valdir Gabriel was born with 2 kg and 42 cm. "Thank God I won, I didn't give up!" - she said.

The embryo was protected by the epiplon (an internal layer of fat that protects the organs) that surrounded the placenta and foetus. More than ever, it's crystal clear that life begins in the moment of conception.

Dr. Waldemir Rezende said: "Gabriel was a true hero. He managed to find a place to ensure his growth and life. We didn't know what to find until we opened the abdominal cavity. He was the surprise. This smile is priceless", adds the doctor, looking towards Maria Benedita.

Zack Dunlap and Brain Death

Zack Dunlap doesn’t remember much from the day he died, but he does remember hearing a doctor declare him brain-dead. And he remembers being incredibly ticked off.

Doctors have no explanation for why Dunlap is alive. He had been riding his souped-up ATV with some friends on that fateful Saturday, less than a week before Thanksgiving. They had participated in a parade that morning, popping wheelies and impressing the crowd, and then they had gone out riding on their machines. He did not wear a helmet.

Dunlap fell behind his friends on a highway just outside of Davidson, Okla., not far from his home in the ranching town of Frederick and near the Texas border. He gunned his machine to catch up, doing another wheelie on the back wheels. When he dropped the front wheels back to the pavement, he saw that he was going to crash into a friend’s machine that had stopped a short way up the road.

Dunlap tried to swerve, but flipped his machine and went flying, smashing headfirst and facedown on the asphalt. He remained there motionless, unresponsive to his friends, who quickly called 911.

Taken first to a local hospital, he was airlifted 50 miles away to United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, where there was a trauma unit that might be able to treat the severe damage he had done to his brain. But 36 hours after the accident, doctors performed a PET scan of his brain and informed his parents, along with other family members who had gathered to keep vigil at the hospital, that there was no blood flowing to Zack’s brain; he was brain-dead.

Zack had declared on his driver’s license that he wanted to be an organ donor, so his parents gave permission for doctors to keep his body alive until the organs could be harvested.

The decision made, there remained only a wait of several hours while an organ-harvesting team flew in by helicopter. The family spent the time saying goodbye.

During her time with him, Zack’s grandmother, Naomi, prayed. Her request was straightforward — “just a miracle,” she told Morales. “He was too young for God to take him.”
Some four hours after doctors declared Zack dead, a nurse began to remove tubes from Dunlap. His cousins, Dan and Christy Coffin, both of whom are nurses, were also in the room. Something about Zack’s appearance made them think that he wasn’t as dead as the doctors said. On a hunch, Dan pulled out his bone-handled pocket knife and ran the blade up the sole of one of Zack’s feet.

The foot yanked away, but the other nurse said it was a reflex action. So Dan Coffin then dug a fingernail under one of Zack’s nails. Zack yanked his arm away and across his body, and that, the other nurse agreed, wasn’t a reflex action. It was a sign of life.

Doctors warned the family that Zack could have profound brain damage that would prevent his leading anything resembling an active life. But within five days he opened his eyes, and 48 days after the accident, he walked out of a rehab center and returned home, where the entire town gave him a hero’s welcome.

If you want to see the video of Zack talking on NBC, click on the link below:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23775873/from/ET/

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