Health
DASH Diet is Number One Again
U.S. News & World Report’s Best Diets 2012 was announced earlier this week and the DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), which was created by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, finds itself in the top spot for the second year in a row. Originally developed as a way to lower blood pressure [...]
Omega 3 EPA May Help Search and Destroy Leukemia
As if there weren’t already enough amazing benefits of omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oil, along comes a new study from Penn State researches, published in the recent issue of Blood (Blood 2011 118:6909-6919), with the promise of a possible cure for Leukemia. Granted, there is much more to learn about this connection, [...]
Business
Five Ergonomic Tips for Telecommuters
Beginning February 27th, the country will celebrate National Telecommuters Week. With this week of awareness, it is a perfect time to discuss health issues for those who telecommute. The luxury of working from home can have its advantages but the comfort and relaxed nature of doing so can lead to certain health issues. Ergonomics is [...]
Hostess Down; Health Up
An all-American classic of unhealthy food may be on its way out of existence. Hostess Foods, the maker of Twinkies, Ho Hos, Sno Balls, and Wonder Bread, has officially filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Several factors converged to weaken Hostess’ revenue. First, several large companies began offering competing products. Hostess wasn’t able to maintain the [...]
Travel
Vacation Saving Opportunities 101
Tough financial times sometimes call for a decrease in expenditures. While families can save money on vacation, they should not have to do away with them completely. Vacations need not be a financial burden. There are many ways to save money while planning and throughout a vacation. Savings on Accommodations Consider renting a condo, house, [...]
Tips for Camping with Kids
Camping with your kids can be a lot of fun, however, it can also be a lot of work. There are several challenges to camping as a family, including meeting everyone’s needs. As you prepare for this year’s camping season a few simple tips will help you plan for a much more enjoyable family vacation. [...]
Lifestyle
Downsizing and Lightening Your Load
Americans pull up stakes and relocate an average of 11 times during our lives. Are we gluttons for punishment or what? For whatever our reasons, wanting to buy a new home, change neighborhoods, employment opportunities or better school options to name a few, we Americans change houses typically every 7 years. For my husband and [...]
Mommy Bloggers Effectively Use Social Media to Speak Up
A group of social marketing savvy women, collectively referred to as the “mommy bloggers,” clearly demonstrated the power of social marketing when they successfully used their blogs to rally massive opposition – 23 million Twitter impressions in one hour on January 27 – against a hospital’s misguided media campaign against childhood obesity. The mommy bloggers [...]
Technology
XBOX 360 Achievements
There is no doubt that many people have purchased a new Xbox 360 for themselves, their family or their kids this year along with a few new games. However, if you’re new to the Xbox 360, you might be a bit confused about those little things that pop up at the bottom of your TV [...]
Thanks to Gorilla Glass Modern Touch Screens Get Thinner & Stronger
We seem to want everything to be thinner and lighter today, particularly our technology. Televisions that took up considerable space even in large rooms are designed to hang on the wall, mere inches in thickness. Computers that occupied buildings are now inside inch-thick, portable laptops. Smart-phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, computer monitors, even wristwatches are [...]
Favorites
XBOX 360 Achievements
There is no doubt that many people have purchased a new Xbox 360 for themselves, their family or their kids this year along with a few new games. However, if you’re new to the Xbox 360, you might be a bit confused about those little things that pop up at the bottom of your TV screen and make a “blink” sound. Well, those are called achievements. In fact, once you learn what they mean, achievements are one of the most fun things about the Xbox 360!
To start off, achievements are based on a profile scoring system called Gamerscore. In order to understand how achievements work, you first have to understand how Gamerscore works. How it works is whenever you unlock a new achievement it adds a certain amount of points to your Gamerscore.
The amount of Gamerscore an achievement gives you depends on the difficulty of the specific achievement. For example, achievements that you acquire early on in a game will reward you with around 5 or 10 Gamerscore. On the other hand, achievements that are very difficult or take a long time to unlock will reward you with 25, 50 and even 100 Gamerscore in some cases.
If you want to raise your Gamerscore quickly, it’s important that you are strategic about which Xbox 360 achievements you try to unlock. For example, if you want to quickly raise your Gamerscore quickly, I recommend unlocking as many simple achievements as possible before you try to unlock more difficult achievements which will take much longer.
Some achievements require you to have an Xbox Live account to unlock them. For example, games like Halo Reach and Forza Motorsport 4 both have achievements that need to be unlocked through online multiplayer which require that you have an internet connection and an Xbox live Gold membership.
Anti-Aging Skin Care Strategies
Every single one of us has looked in the mirror at some point and thought, “Wow, that is not what I was expecting.” While there may be times that you then pat yourself on the back for looking better than usual, the hard truth is that far more often that “wow” sentiment is accompanied by something to the effect of “I look rough.” Fortunately, with a little moisturizer, foundation and bronzer, most women can work miracles, continuing on throughout the day without dreading the next encounter with their reflection. However, this “quick fix” is a temporary one, and once the cosmetics are removed you may once more find yourself confronting a visage that you would prefer to not put on display.
Let’s be clear: often our perceptions of ourselves and our looks are largely in our heads. An objective observer is pretty unlikely in most cases to agree with your harsh rating of yourself. However, your personal perception of yourself plays a major role in your confidence and your daily behavior. This makes it vitally important that you are taking the steps necessary to keep yourself looking and feeling healthy and attractive.
One of the biggest problem areas for women and men in terms of perceived and actual beauty is physical aging. Over time, your skin succumbs to the daily ravages of gravity, weather and your own facial expressions to create lines, wrinkles, furrows and discolorations. Your face, probably the most active part of your body, is particularly prone to these issues and also is the first part of you that most people notice. As a result, keeping your facial skin smooth and intact is very important to keeping yourself looking youthful and attractive.
While you have probably heard of wrinkle cream products that promise to turn back the clock, there are also some simple things you can do to literally stop wrinkles in their tracks. Even better, most of them will not cost you a thing. Taking care of your skin the right way will save you tremendous time, energy and money later on in life. Follow these three simple guidelines for anti-aging, anti-wrinkle skin care that will literally stop wrinkles in their tracks. [Read More...]
New ALMS Car Pack is Now Available for Forza Motorsport 4
Forza Motorsport has announced that their new ALMS DLC Car Pack is now available for purchase on the XBox Live Marketplace. This pack adds 10 cars to the Forza Motorsport 4 car list. Some of the cars included are past and present Le Mans race cars while others are group B rally cars and American Muscle Cars. The ALMS car pack is the 4th DLC pack to be released for Forza Motorsport 4 and will retail for 560 microsoft points.
The ALMS car pack includes the following cars: 2011 #2 Audi Sport North America R18 TDI , 2011 Panoz #050 Panoz Racing Abruzzi, 2010 Dodge Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Challenger SRT-8, 1991 Mazda #55 Team Mazdaspeed 787B, 2011 Bentley Platinum Motorsports Continental GT, 1986 #2 Audi Sport Quattro S1, 1992 Alfa Romeo 155 Q4, 1995 Ford Mustang Cobra R, 2011 Holden HSV GTS and the 2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI.
More information about Xbox 360 can be found online at http://www.xbox.com .
DASH Diet is Number One Again
U.S. News & World Report’s Best Diets 2012 was announced earlier this week and the DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), which was created by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, finds itself in the top spot for the second year in a row.
Originally developed as a way to lower blood pressure through diet, this eating plan focused on high fiber foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables; low fat dairy products, poultry, legumes and nuts. As a result, it is high in fiber and low in sodium, saturated fat, cholesterol and added sugars.
A typical day on the DASH Diet will find you consuming the following:
- 7 to 8 servings of whole grains,
- 4 to 5 servings of vegetables
- 4 to 5 servings of fruit
- 2 to 3 servings of low fat dairy
- 1 to 2 servings of meat, poultry or fish
- 2 to 3 servings of fats and oils
One a weekly basis, you can also add in:
- 4 to 5 servings of nuts, seeds or legumes
- less than 5 servings of sweets
The U.S. News & World Report’s Best Diets 2012 results were calculated by 22 member of a panel with expertise in obesity, nutrition, diet, food psychology, diabetes and heart disease. Twenty-five diet plans were considered for the honors. The experts look at the following categories when evaluating the plans: is the plan easy to follow; what type of long term and short term results do they produce; nutritional profile and completeness; safety and effect on heard disease and diabetes.
Omega 3 EPA May Help Search and Destroy Leukemia
As if there weren’t already enough amazing benefits of omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oil, along comes a new study from Penn State researches, published in the recent issue of Blood (Blood 2011 118:6909-6919), with the promise of a possible cure for Leukemia.
Granted, there is much more to learn about this connection, since the studies have only been performed on mice at this time, but the possibilities are exciting. According to researchers, our bodies have the ability to produce a compound from EPA, an omega 3 fatty acid, which actually targets AND kills stem cells of “chronic myelogenous leukemia” or CML for short.
This compound, called “delta-12-protaglandin J3 (or D12-PGJ3), is the only thing that’s been shown to kill leukemia stem cells. In fact, the mice in the study were not only cured, but their biomarkers returned to normal and the leukemia never returned.
Currently, the only approach available for treating leukemia fails to completely cure the patient. It will lower the number of leukemia cells and extend their life, as long as the person keeps receiving therapy, but it will not kill the stem cells or give them any hope of complete recovery. So you can see why this breakthrough is so exciting for researchers and leukemia sufferers alike.
But the excitement doesn’t end there! Apparently leukemia stem cells have a sneaky ability to “hide” from the current form of treatment, frustrating both doctors and patients. Later down the road these hidden stem cells can easily give rise to more leukemia cells, compounding the problem. However, D12-PGJ3 has the ability to search and destroy leukemia cells, so if they are trying to hide the D12-PGJ3 will find them and kill them.
We look forward to more studies into the benefits of D12-PGJ3. Can you imagine a world without leukemia?
High Protein Diets Are Off the Hook
Good news for all of you body builders and dieters out there. Research recently conducted at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La has suggested that diets focusing on high protein foods are no more likely to increase body fat than diets low in protein. Researchers went on to conclude that “calories alone, however, contributed to the increase in body fat.”(JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2012; 307 (1): 47 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2011.1918)
The main objective of the study was to “To evaluate the effects of overconsumption of low, normal, and high protein diets on weight gain, energy expenditure, and body composition.” The scientists studied 25 healthy men and women volunteers between the ages of 18 and 35. The study started with the first volunteer in June of 2005 and concluded with the last volunteer in October 2007. All study participants were kept in an inpatient metabolic unit for 10 – 12 weeks.
For the first 13 to 25 days, these volunteers were fed a weight-stabilizing diet – in other words, their weight stayed the same. For the remaining 8 weeks, volunteers were overfed one of 3 different diets – low protein (5%), normal protein (15%) or high protein (25%), with the intention of weight gain.
All of the study volunteers, both men and women, gained weight on the 8 week, overfeeding plan. However, all 3 groups gained similar amounts of body fat. The study authors summarized their findings with this statement, “In summary, weight gain when eating a low protein diet (5 percent of energy from protein) was blunted compared with weight gain when eating a normal protein diet (15 percent of energy from protein) with the same number of extra calories. Calories alone, however, contributed to the increase in body fat. In contrast, protein contributed to the changes in energy expenditure and lean body mass, but not to the increase in body fat.”