Flax seed is a great source of fiber. In fact, one serving has over 11 grams of fiber in it. And as we all know fiber is essential to a healthy heart. Heck, we learned that in kindergarten. However, why is fiber essential to a healthy heart? Now that’s something we don’t all know.

There are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber forms a gel when mixed with liquid. Insoluble fiber does not form a gel at all and passes through our digestive tract largely intact. Both types of fiber are important to our diet and provide benefits to the digestive system by helping to maintain regularity. However, soluble fiber offers some additional benefits to our heart. Where does flax seed fit into this? Well, flax seed is packed with soluble fiber.

Soluble fiber has been scientifically proven to reduce blood cholesterol levels, which may help reduce your risk of heart disease. I have heard testimonies from flax seed consumers that once they started eating flax seed their cholesterol had significantly dropped. Of course, I’m referring to the “bad” cholesterol – LDL. Because when too much LDL cholesterol circulates in the blood, it can slowly build up in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain and form plaque, a thick, hard deposit that can clog those arteries. We don’t want that happening!

To make a long story short, flax seed has a lot of heart because it cares for ours. Just consume one to two tablespoons of ground flax seed daily and your heart will be very thankful. To make it even easier for you, golden flax seed has a sweet, nutty flavor that is tasty. It actually adds flavor to some of your favorite foods like yogurt, icecream, cold cereals, oatmeal, chocolate milk, and pudding just to name a few. If you bake with it or cook it in dishes you like, such as pan sauce, meatloaf, and hamburgers, you still get the benefit of fiber that ground flax seed offers to you and your family.

So if you haven’t already done it, you should get out there and make flax seed a new friend to your family’s diet. Flax seed has heart, and that’s good for yours!

About The Author: Brought to you by Bruce Maul of http://www.goldflaxseed.com.

Many women and future children benefit from the nutrients that prenatal vitamins provide. Despite the name women who are currently pregnant can also take prenatal vitamins. They are especially beneficial if you are in the middle of morning sickness and can’t keep food down. In fact your body can absorb more synthetic folic acid from supplements than you can from natural foods.

Folic Acid is one of the more commonly known prenatal supplements. Its recommended that you get four hundred mcg daily as an adult and if you are pregnant, could become pregnant or lactating you should get between six hundred and eight hundred mcg. daily. This is plus the folic acid you get from food. So you may already have noticed that folic acid is considered very important.

Its been shown in studies to help reduce the number of birth defects in babies. Women who had low levels of folic acid in their blood gave birth more often to premature infants, low birth weight children, and babies with spina bifida, cleft palate and cleft lip, limb defects, heart defects and other neural tube defects. In fact by taking folic acid you can reduce the risk of giving birth to a baby with a neural tube defects as much as seventy percent.

Doctors sometimes recommend that you take up to four thousand mcg. of folic acid daily if you’ve previously given birth to a baby with a neural tube defect-and the sooner you start taking it before getting pregnant the better. Because your baby’s neural tube begins developing at three weeks which is about the earliest you can learn you are pregnant.

Your doctor will probably suggest that you get started on a prenatal vitamin during your first prenatal check-up if you haven’t already started one. Many doctors will provide a prescription for prenatal vitamins in high doses that you wouldn’t normally get in one pill of over the counter prenatal vitamins. Although if you are having trouble keeping your prescription vitamins down you might be able to take some over the counter flavored chewable vitamins, just take more of them. Do talk with your doctor before doing this though.

Folic acid is needed by the body for the creation and maintenance of DNA and RNA. Thus folic acid is an essential part of the nutrients needed during the intensive process of pregnancy. Folic acid is also helpful in the creation of red blood cells so it can help prevent anemia, and aids in the production of nor epinephrine and serotonin and it helps to keep a compound called homocysteine from reaching high levels in your blood.

The upper limit for folic acid is set at one thousand mcg. But this is due to the fact that folic acid has a tendency to mask the symptoms of a vitamin B12 deficiency as this deficiency usually presents initially with anemia. A healthy young woman should have no fear of B12 deficiency, except unless you are a vegetarian and don’t eat dairy products.

Visit http://www.stanley-home-products.com

About The Author: Vincent Platania represents the Stanley Home Products. Stanley Home Products has been in business since 1936, and offers high quality home and personal care products to keep your home and your body clean.

Visit http://www.stanley-home-products.com

The differance between heavy drinking and alcoholism is based not on the amount that is being drunk but on the way, the drinking is affecting the life of the drinker.

There are Seven Key Signs of Alcohol Dependence

1) The person develops a tolerance for alcohol. This means that it takes more and more alcohol to feel the same level of intoxication.

2) The person has withdrawal symptoms. This means that they feel sick when there is no alcohol in their body. These symptoms include nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety.

3) The person often drinks more than he does or she had originally intended to drink.

4) The person attempts to cut down or to stop drinking but all attempts on their own are failures and they just continue to drink more and more.

5) The person spends a lot of time and effort making sure he or she can get alcohol.

6) The person gives up opportunities for social, recreational, and professional activities because of their drinking.

7) The person continues to drink despite having physical and psychological problems because of the drinking.

Signs Of Alcoholism

For the purposes of diagnosis among professional diagnosticians, if a person has three of these seven signs then they are considered alcohol dependent. There are some other “less formal” type signs that can be used to determine if someone is drinking too much.

1) The person begins to miss work or is less successful at work.

2) The person seems angry or sad a lot.

3) The person hits or physically abuses members of the family.

4) The person emotionally abuses members of the family.

5) The person has blackouts (cannot remember what he or she did while drunk).

6) The person has hangovers (feels really sick the day after drinking).

Alcoholism doe not go away by itself so it is extremely important for friends and family members who recognize any combination of these symptoms or signs to encourage the person to seek treatment. In the long-term alcoholism can cause cirrhosis and cancer of the liver, heart and central nervous system damage, memory loss, impotence and a high risk of over dosing.

Alcoholism Facts

People who abuse alcohol may not want to admit that they have a problem because they are ashamed or embarrassed or maybe even they do not want to change their lifestyle.

Alcoholism can affect anyone and does not discriminate based on race, age, or circumstances. It is a treatable disease, but the person seeking treatment must be willing to give it up entirely. The treatment community for alcoholism typically supports a zero tolerance complete abstinence-based approach to treatment.

Research has shown that very few alcoholics can simply cut down on their drinking and be able to know when they have had enough and can stop. Once that tolerance is built up, the body craves the feeling of intoxication and the only way to rid the body of those cravings is through total abstinence.

Treatment For Alcoholism

Alcoholism, most importantly, is a treatable disease. It cannot always be controlled but there are large success rates with treatment. The alcoholic must remember that they will still have the disease even if they are no longer drinking and they will always be considered to be “recovering”.

Group therapy and psychotherapy

The form of group therapy that appears to be of the most benefit to people is the “mutual-help-group-counselling” approach that is often put on by a variety of helpful organizations, either by themselves or in combination with others. These include Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Women For Sobriety, Rational Recovery, Smart Recovery and LifeRing Secular Recovery.

About The Author: Ron Keegan is a successful Webmaster and publisher of http://ArticleBankOnline.com a Health/Lifestyle Directory with up to date information on health and lifestyle issues. signs of alcoholism at http://www.articlebankonline.com.

Vitamins are a very important part of a healthy balanced diet. They are essential for speeding up chemical reactions in our body and are also needed to prevent certain diseases. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the main sources of nearly all kinds of vitamins. Eggs and milk also provide a lot of vitamins. However, when we don't eat enough of these foods, it can cause vitamin deficiency within our body. This vitamin deficiency can be cured by taking a handful of multivitamin nutritional supplements. Vitamin supplements are important because other nutrients, such as minerals, work with the vitamins in the form of enzymes and coenzymes to help fight against certain diseases.

A few years ago people thought that eating a healthy diet was sufficient enough to keep an individual fit and healthy. However, recent research has shown that taking supplements is beneficial even for people that eat a healthy diet. This is because modern methods of farming reduce the overall quality of vegetables, add to this the amount of time the vegetables sit on the shelves and it's no wonder that the amount of nutrients in these vegetables is reduced.

It has been established that water-soluble vitamins, like B vitamins (B6, B12 and folic acid), and vitamin C are the ones that get absorbed by the bloodstream and often leave the body when we urinate. As a consequence, even healthy diets alone are not enough to keep these vitamins at a certain level in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle which is necessary to keep a person fit and healthy. There are no clear symptoms to detect vitamin deficiency in body. However, you can correct vitamin deficiency if your daily food intake does not conform with a prescribed healthy and balanced diet.

Although it's very important to consult a diet professional before consuming any kind of vitamin or mineral food supplement, it's also necessary that you do a little research of your own to find out how to choose a particular nutritional supplement product.

There are some precautions that you must consider before choosing which nutritional supplements you should take. First of all, you need to know that there's nothing like a properly functioning and healthy body. Vitamin supplements are no comparison for natural foods, but if you think you need vitamin supplements, always put quality first. Don't go for cheaper products merely because they are cheap. Expensive products are often the ones that contain natural substances which and nearly as effective for the body as natural food sources. Your body's nutrition is very important; it is worth investing in.

Always choose supplements which use ingredients that have been suggested by renowned scientists and dietitians. A combination of Flavonoids and Phytochemicals, along with the necessary vitamins and minerals, is thought to provide a balanced supplement and is useful for improving the overall health of an individual. Green tea is an excellent source of Flavonoids. Just another thing that we can thank the Chinese for! If supplements have to be consumed, make sure they are made out of concentrated plant material.

One of the quality measures is to see if these vitamin products are coated with a colored or sugar coating to make them attractive. Don't go for these types of products, since they probably don't contain the essential substances that should be a part of any nutritional supplements. Good nutritional supplements are often composed of large tablets that smell of compressed plant-like material.

Always make sure that the company you are going to buy a vitamin supplement from is an authentic one and is either licensed or certified in providing health services. You can e-mail them or telephone them directly to ask some questions about their product. If they are accessible and provide satisfactory answers to your questions, you can consider buying their product. Your body is your temple, so when choosing supplements choose ones that you can trust!

This list of tips is by no means comprehensive, other tips and precautions must be considered before choosing the correct nutritional health supplement. Make sure that you buy a quality product that will prove to be useful for your body in the long run.

About The Author: Christopher DiCicco is the owner of the online Nutritional Supplements Store http://www.Flexhealthnutrition.com/ and has been involved with health and nutrition for over 20 years. He has written many articles on such topics as Nutritional Supplements, Bodybuilding & weightlifting supplements.

Every day, you here such a lot of advice how to lose weight that you probably feel ashamed, that you are over weight.

All these so-called "experts" have arguments that sound completely logical. Sometimes they even give you a long list of scientific references to back up their claims. But who are you supposed to believe? You are frustrated, bewildered and confused by all these conflicting information.

Everyone knows that to lose weight you need to eat responsibly and do some type of exercise. If you do some type of exercise and maintain the same diet and calorie intake you will almost certainly lose weight. Remember, do not exercise to lose weight but rather exercise because you want to have a healthy body.

People diet for two primary reasons, to lose weight and to improve there health. Many people who diet fails to lose weight and if they do lose that weight fail to maintain the level of weight over the long term.

How many times have you heard that the only way to lose weight through diet is to eat less? The only way to lose weight and keep it, is by eating properly and exercising on a regular basis. By taking full control of your eating habits you will begin to lose weight the best way possible slowly and steadily.

Many people who ever tried to lose weight have found it challenging. Getting motivated to lose weight can be hard, especially if you have tried to lose weight in the past.

Almost every week they bring out the next diet designed to help you "shed the pounds." The problem is that most of these programs are not effective. Some work for a few days, but the weight comes back.

The key to effective weight loss is a lifestyle of health. Tired of fighting to lose weight only to gain it back, again and again? It is a horrible cycle and it is also depressing. A lifestyle of health is paramount to lose weight. This includes sensible eating and moderate exercise.

Like any machine, our body needs fuel in order to operate. Unfortunately, the fuel or food that most people use is not what the body needs or desires. In order to operate at peak efficiency, the body needs proper food.

Building lean muscle, burning additional calories, and improving overall health are just some of the benefits of consistent exercise. This may include walking, jogging, riding a bike, playing with your kids or grandkids, or any other type of activity. Make it something that you will enjoy.

About The Author: Willem Steyn is retired, started a home business and to stay productive, motivated and healthy, he takes his dog for walks on a regular basis. He still plays an active part in the local society. For more information, on how to start your own internet home business opportunity and to find out how you can achieve your goals, Visit http://www.profit-online247.com.

While most people enjoy casino gambling, sports betting, lottery and bingo playing for the fun and excitement it provides, others may experience gambling as an addictive and distractive habit. Statistics show that while 85 percent of the adult population in the US enjoys some type of gambling every year, between 2 and 3 percent of will develop a gambling problem and 1 percent of them are diagnosed as pathological gamblers.

Where can you draw the line between harmless gambling to problem gambling? How can you tell if you or your friend are compulsive gamblers? Here you can find answers to these questions and other questions regarding problem gambling and gambling addiction.

What is the Meaning of Problem Gambling?

Problem gambling or compulsive gambling is defined as an uncontrollable urge to gamble despite the destructive effect of gambling on the gamblers life and despite feelings of guilt and remorse. Problem gambling tends to have a negative effect on the gamblers financial state, relationships and daily life. Severe cases of problem gambling can be defined as pathological gambling.

Am I a Compulsive Gambler?

1) Do you gamble until your last penny runs out?
2) Do you gamble to win back your former losses or debts?
3) Did you ever had to borrow money to continue gamble?
4) Did your gambling habit ever made you lie to your friends or family?
5) Did you ever skip work or other obligation to gamble?
6) Do you tend to gamble to forget about your personal problems or to celebrate happy occasions?
7) Does gambling have a negative affect on your daily life or relationships?

If you have answered yes on at least one of the questions listed above, then you have a problem.

Can Anyone Become a Compulsive Gambler?

Theoretically, yes. Any gambler can develop gambling problem regardless to the type of gambling he is occupied with, the amount of money and time he is spending on gambling. Researches show that slot machines that can be found in bars and convenient stores are the most addictive type of gambling activity, while lottery draws and bingo games are located on the other end of the scale. Gambling addiction is an emotional problem; its symptoms, causes and treatments are similar to any other form of addiction.

How Can I treat Gambling Addiction?

1) Group Therapy:

Gamblers Anonymous offers a 12 step self help program similar to the one offered to alcohol addicts in Alcoholics Anonymous. Group therapy also offers gambling addicts advice and support from professional counselors and other gambling addicts in different phases of their recovery process. Gambler Anonymous centers are available in more than 1,200 locations statewide.

2) Individual Therapy:

Cognitive or behavior therapy can help gambling addicts to identify their unaware thinking and acting patterns, which led them to gamble compulsively, and to replace them with controllable and healthier ways of thinking.

3) Psychiatric Medication:

It has recently been proven that antidepressant medications from the family of SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can be affective in treatment of gambling addicts.

About The Author: As the editor of a guide to http://www.gambling-portal.com online casinos Jack Reider has had to deal with gambling addictions in all forms. He has helped users and Gamblers Anonymous organizations connect.

If you've lost weight too rapidly or if you've followed a very low calorie "starvation diet" in the past, then you may have damaged your metabolism. Once this occurs, it can become extremely difficult to achieve any further loss of body fat at all. If you've ever experienced a "weight loss plateau" where the scale won't budge, even when it seems like you're working hard and doing everything right, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. The good news is, metabolic damage can be "repaired." All it takes is the right combination of metabolism-stimulating exercise and metabolism-stimulating nutrition (NOT just a "diet"), all done consistently over time

The big irony is that most of the diet programs that claim to help you get rid of excess weight, only end up making it harder for you in the long run because they use harsh metabolism-decreasing diets and not enough exercise (almost never any weight training).

It may take a little longer if you've been a "diet dummy" and you've really messed things up with severe starvation dieting, (especially if you've lost a lot of lean body mass), but it's never hopeless. Anyone can increase their metabolism.

Most people get an almost immediate boost in metabolic rate when they make a few important changes to their eating and exercise routines. However, the results are not going to be "overnight." Give it a little time...

Within 3 weeks your metabolism will already be more efficient. Within 6-8 weeks, it's burning hot. Give me 12 weeks of consistent diligent effort, sticking with all the metabolism boosting strategies I teach, and your metabolism will become like a turbo charged engine, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

What's most important for upping your metabolism is CONSISTENCY in applying the nutrition and training principles every single day.

That includes:

• Meal frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day

• Meal timing: eat approximately every 3 hours, with a substantial breakfast and a substantial post workout meal.

• Sufficient Caloric Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss: 2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for women; adjust as needed)

• Food choices: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs)

• Cardio training: Push up the intensity a bit if you really want to get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but higher intensity is more metabolism-stimulating

• Weight training: The basic exercises that include the largest muscle groups or even call into play the entire body as a unit (squats, split squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, overhead presses, rows and full body core exercises) will have a much greater metabolism-stimulating effect than isolation exercises (concentration curls, crunches, calf raises, etc)

The weight training is extremely important in cases of "metabolic damage" because this is the stimulus to keep the muscle you have and begin rebuilding new muscle tissue, which is the engine that drives your metabolic rate.

The men don't usually have a problem with the weight training, but I still hear women say they don't want to lift weights as part of their fat loss programs. Well, people who wont lift weights can expect a very, very long metabolism "repair process" if they achieve it at all.

Consistency is the key.

Nothing will undermine the "re-building" of your metabolism like inconsistency. If you stop and start, or skip meals and workouts often, you will not even get off the ground.

After your metabolism is back up where it should be, it takes continued "stoking" of the metabolic furnace to keep it there. Once you get your metabolic engine running, you've got to keep feeding it fuel or the fire will die down.

Picture an old fashioned wood burning stove...

Imagine you're in a cabin up in the mountains in the winter. It's cold in there and you want to keep the cabin warm. Can you achieve this by feeding the fire once or twice per day? Nope. Not enough fuel to burn, so not much heat is generated.

What if you just toss an entire pile of wood in the stove all at once? Will that work? Nope. Lots of fuel, but can't all be used at once... it just smothers the fire and the excess just sits there.

How about if you throw some tissue paper or crumpled newspaper in the stove, will that work? Nope - too quickly burning.

You have to keep putting small amounts of wood (the right type of fuel) on the fire at regular intervals or the fire burns out.

It's also difficult to get the fire lit again. In the case of metabolism, it's like going through those initial few weeks of overcoming inertia all over again.

Your goal is to get your metabolism burning hot and keep it burning and this cannot be achieved by missing meals, missing workouts or with sporadic, infrequent training.

I have only seen a handful of cases where all these things were done properly and there was still a longer "repair" process.

For example, one case was former ballet dancer. At 5' 5", she was previously 110 lbs and had increased to about 145 or so. She didn't want to reach her previous 110, but find a happy medium of about 125 lbs.

I figured with 20 lbs to cut, this would be a simple and predictable process, but she had a challenging time (and I didn't know why at first).

I later found out that she had been anorexic and bulimic for many years. This had caused a lot of damage, and although she did reach her goal, it took about twice as long as we had anticipated.

The good news is, even in this extreme case, the same nutrition and training principles worked! It just took a little longer. And by the way, her program included some serious training with free weights and she ate a lot more (clean) food than she had ever eaten before. No "starvation!"

Trying to starve the fat with crash diets is what causes metabolic damage in the first place! You have to Burn The Fat And Feed Your Muscles!

About The Author: Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength coach (CSCS) and author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting: http://www.burnthefat.com . Visit Tom's fat loss support community at http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com.

Today almost every other person you talk too is living with daily joint pain. It does not matter what the age or physical shape of the person, daily pain seems to be a common complaint. Living with chronic pain can wear a person down, affecting energy levels, mood and overall stamina. The cause can vary however Arthritis is typically the root problem. Arthritis comes in more than 100 forms and one does not need to be of old age to have this debilitating disease. The cost of arthritis around the world is approx $400 billion in medical expenses and lost productivity.

Let’s face it preventative health care is boring and as a result most individuals do not provide their body with nutritional supplements until they are sick or in pain. We do not eat properly to get the nutrition required and even if we attempt to do so there is very little in nutrients remaining once we cook our food at high temperatures. Therefore it is very important to begin to nourish our joints at a young age to prevent Arthritis however very often this is not done until we can no longer stand the pain.

The fight against Arthritis is to begin early in life with good nutrition. Good nutrition also means the taking of daily nutritional supplements along with a balanced diet. A person should begin to supplement the diet as early as 30 years of age to fend off Arthritis symptoms later in life. As we get older our joints begin to lose lubrication, this can also happen earlier due to an injury or excessive stress on the joints as a result of sporting activity or repetitive motion. Once the joint begins to lose moisture we experience the loss of flexibility, and an increase in inflammation which results in stiffness and pain. We need to preserve the cartilage and fluid in all of our joints to maintain flexibility and live an active life.

Once symptoms begin the first thing most people resort to is pain medication however this just masks the underlying problem and does not provide nourishment to improve lubrication to the affected area. Natural supplements Celadrin, MSM, Glucosamine, and Chondroitin have been on the market for years and commonly taken to alleviate arthritic symptoms. Taken in pill form these supplements may take up to several months before individuals begin to feel better therefore most people give up before they even begin to see results. Pills are required to be broken down by the digestive system before the necessary ingredients can be absorbed by the bloodstream and intestinal track and it may take that long to get enough of these ingredients into the body to be helpful. Gel-nutrition is a new natural alternative which takes these same proven ingredients and keeps them in a pre-hydrated state so that the body can quickly absorb them into the bloodstream for quick relief of pain and they begins to nourish the body and its joints with-in one hour after ingestion. Positive results have been seen with-in 4 to 72 hours depending on the individual. Now just imagine all 4 natural supplements combined into one powerful gel formula, no more need to take a hand full of pills each day.

Just exactly what are these ingredients and what do they do?

Celadrin – or cetyl myristoleate is a blend of cetylated fatty acids that provides lubrication to the joints. Blended, invented and patented by chemist Harry Diehl PhD cetyl myristoleate was found to circulate in the blood of mice and made them immune to arthritis. Celadrin may also act as an anti-inflammatory agent.

MSM – or methylsulfonylmethane is a naturally occurring, organic, sulfur compound. Taken as a nutritional dietary source of sulfur, which is the 4th most abundant element in the human body, MSM is necessary for making and repairing cartilage. MSM has been shown to relieve pain as a result of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis

Glucosamine – is a small carbohydrate molecule which is naturally synthesized (produced) in the body. This synthesis declines with aging therefore the need to supplement. Glucosamine supports cartilage maintenance and strength therefore reducing and relieving joint pain.

Chondroitin – or chondroitin sulfate is naturally synthesized in the body and supports strong cartilage. Chondroitin protects existing cartilage by reducing water loss and by slowing the breakdown of the cartilage. Glucosamine and Chondroitin work together to protect the cartilage from wear and tear and help it maintain its strength.

As you can see each ingredient has its own job to do and how all 4 are necessary to maintaining healthy joints and reducing pain. To learn more about gel-nutrition visit www.agelhealthandwellness.com.

My Story – The straw that broke the camels back was the day that I broke into tears at work over a situation that I found to be frustrating. Never in my 27 year career had I lost emotional control in my work environment. Growing up in a stiff British home very seldom did I ever lose emotional control over anything? The problem….chronic pain. After years of working on a computer that was not properly set up for my work station I had developed osteo-degenerative arthritis in my neck. I lived every day with a stiff neck, to the point that I had difficulty driving a vehicle and I was having weekly migraines. I was eating over the counter pain pills like they were candy and my doctor eventually put me on a pain medication called Vioxx. This drug was pulled off the shelves after I had taken it for 18 months and could no longer be prescribed. I spent over 2 years and thousands of dollars trying to get rid of the pain and put some mobility back into my neck. I worked with a message therapist, physio therapist and a chiropractor on a weekly basis to get the situation under control. Sound familiar to any of you. Well the pain became manageable however it never fully went away until I began to take a gel-nutrition formula which contained all of the above noted ingredients. The pain medication just masked the problem and all the therapy in the world was not going to put lubrication back into my joints, calm down the inflammation and strengthen the cartilage between my vertebrae. Now having said that, the therapy was also necessary to ease the muscle tightness which had happened around the affected area.

Like many I had tried MSM and Glucosamine in pill form however became impatient due to the slow results. People who are living with chronic pain want quick results even thought I fully realized this problem took years to create and would not be fixed over night. Today I am happy to say that I am pain free, even my ankles, which suffered many years of abuse from jogging and sport activity. My pain and stiffness eased after giving my body the proper nutrition for only 1 week. My symptoms were gone after 2 weeks.

Do your body a favor, educate yourself on gel-nutrition and begin to enjoy life.

Celadrin is a Trademark

About The Author: Pam Hallihan. Having spent 29 years in the financial industry took a terrible toll on my health. Call it major burn out! My mission now is a health and wellness focus. It is extremely expensive to try and regain your health once it is stressed, I consider myself very fortunate as some people never regain their lost health. One of my favorite quotes is by Jim Rohn "Take good care of your body, it's the only place you have to live".

Copyright 2006 http://www.agelhealthandwellness.com

Rumors have been going around for years that the Mayo Clinic's get-thin-quick weight loss routine says it's okay to eat all the vegetables, fruits, meat and fat you want. The genuine Mayo Clinic has made statements repeatedly for years that they have nothing to do with the "Mayo Clinic Diet," and they do not in any way endorse it. The real Mayo Clinic have even issued statements saying that it may be unhealthy for many people.

The Mayo Clinic site is the place you should go to if you want the truth. On this site you will find information for the REAL clinic, with tips and guidelines for healthy eating and diet information.

The Basics

When you lose weight, you are using up more calories than you are taking in. You have to take in less calories than you use everyday in order to lose weight. Eating a healthy, balanced diet that suits your particular lifestyle, and being physically active everyday, is the only way to lose weight.

A diet has to be individualized to your particular lifestyle in order to be effective. There is no one-size-fits-all, standardized diet. In fact, your dietary needs will change over your lifetime. You need different things at different times, and you have to always pay attention to what is happening with your body and adjust your diet accordingly.

7 Rules of Dieting

1. Try to have more fruit in your diet than vegetables.
2. Avoid or decrease intake of cholesterol and saturated fats.
3. Watch your intake of salt and sweets.
4. If you drink, be moderate and don't drink too much.
5. Think about food portion size and make sure meals aren't too big.
6. Keep an eye on your calories.
7. Make sure to get some kind of physical exercise everyday.

Carbohydrates

These provide most of the energy for your body. Foods such as whole grains, legumes and many types of beans are called "complex carbohydrates." Foods containing these complex carbohydrates are common in the Mediterranean where the incidence of obesity, heart disease and diabetes is rare.

You should get 45-65% of your calories everyday from carbohydrates. If you want to keep those carbs balanced, get lots of fruit, milk and complex carbohydrates, and watch your intake of sugar and white flour.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol actually has a vital function in our body: the function of building and maintaining cells. Cholesterol makes it easier for the cells to do this. However, our bodies make pretty much all the cholesterol we need which means that all the cholesterol from meat, eggs and dairy end up lining the sides of our arteries.

It's best to take in no more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol every day.

Fat

Fat is also useful for the body. It contains energy concentrated, providing more than protein or carbs. Fat is used in the body to metabolize certain vitamins. It also contributes to healthy cells and neural pathways in the brain. But, some fats are more damaging than beneficial. Red meat, for example, contains trans and saturated fats, which have lots of cholesterol and can cause heart trouble.

Try to get only 20-35% of your calories from fat everyday, and try to get them from nuts, vegetable oil, fish oil and other non-animal sources.

Fiber

The tough part of vegetables is fiber. There is both soluble and insoluble fiber, and you need both. We get fiber from wheat, green vegetables, fruits, bran and oats.

Women should get 21-25 grams of fiber everyday. For men, it's 30-38 grams.

The real Mayo Clinic recommends a balanced diet of complex carbohydrates, vegetables and moderate servings of meat. It recommends you watch what kind of fat you eat. It is stressful to lose weight suddenly and can cause health complications. The Mayo Clinic recommends losing weight over a longer period of time, so your body has time to adjust to the changes. Diet plans that sell quick weight loss plans should be avoided. Here are some guidelines according to the Mayo Clinic's Nutrition Center:

Protein

Protein is important for nearly every part of the body's system. It's in your muscles, bones, skin, organs, blood, enzymes and hormones. You get protein from a variety of sources like meat, poultry, legumes, seafood, nuts and seeds.

You should get 10-15% of your daily calories from sources rich in protein.

Find Your Own, Personalized Diet

As we said earlier, the Mayo Clinic emphasizes that you must individualize your weight loss plan. Everyone is different, and your own personal diet should match you perfectly. On their website, they provide the Daily Calorie Calculator. You can use this to help you plan an appropriate weight loss plan.

For example, this is what a typical plan might look like:

Subject: Female, 225 lbs, 5' 6"
Recommendations (these are daily amounts):
Sweets and candy: no more than 75 calories
Fats: 3 servings
Protein/ Dairy: 3 servings
Carbohydrates: 4 servings
Fruits: at least 3 servings (more is okay)
Vegetables: at least 4 servings (more is okay)
Vegetables: 4 or more servings

On the site, you can also find sample menus that include number of calories and special ideas to help you lose weight. Here is an example of the type of tips you will see:

Eat more vegetables and fruits with all your meals
Try out some foods you are not used to and also try different combinations of your favorites
Eat a salad or soup before your main meals
Open a health food cooking book and grab some healthy cooking ideas
By the way, have you ever heard about energy density?

What Is Energy Density?

This is rate the Mayo Clinic uses to determine how much energy a given food will provide. It is a comparison of the number of calories in a food and food portion size. If, for example, you consider a sugary desert like chocolate cake, it is high in energy density, so a small amount of cake will give you lots of energy. However, it takes more cake than other, less energy dense foods, to make you feel food. Broccoli, on the other hand, has very low energy density, so you eat much less broccoli and feel full.

The ideas of the Mayo Clinic are really nothing new, but they are based on sound dietary concepts. They emphasize eating a balanced diet and shedding pounds slowly and steady over time. Beware of imposters who use the Clinic's good name to sell their get-thin-quick diet scams!

About The Author: Gary Holdon is a writer and internet publisher who likes to publish Weight Loss Information. You can check out http://www.11-weight-loss.net for more.

Do you ever wonder what happened to the Food Guide Pyramid?

The Food Guide Pyramid was created more than ten years ago by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Pyramid illustrated what the USDA said were the elements of a healthy diet. The Pyramid was taught in schools, appeared in the media and brochures, on cereal boxes and food labels. It seemed like the absolute final word on what we should really eat.

The Food Guide Pyramid is now like a fairytale. It did not point the way toward healthy eating. We are told now the Food Guide Pyramid was based on shaky scientific evidence. It still has not changed over the years to reflect major advances in our understanding of the connection between diet and good health.

Recently, the USDA retired the old Food Guide Pyramid and replaced it with MyPyramid, a new symbol and “interactive food guidance system. This revision is basically the old Pyramid turned on its side.

Good news about the new MyPyramid:

• It tears apart and buries the flawed Pyramid.

Bad news about the MyPyramid:

• The new MyPyramid does not give us enough information to help us make informed choices about our diet and long-term health.

• It continues to recommend foods that are not essential to good health.

• The food quantities recommended may even be detrimental to our overall health.

So…..what do we eat to become and stay healthy?

According to a new dietary guideline released early in January of 2005:

• We are to continue to concentrate on controlling weight;

• Fats were once considered bad. The new guidelines emphasize low intake of Trans fats and to limit our saturated fats. There is not an artificially low cap on fat intake. The latest advice recommends getting between 20% and 35% of daily calories from fats. The new guidelines also recognize the potential health benefits of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats;

• Complex carbohydrates was a term used in the past that has little biological meaning;

• The new guidelines advise Americans to limit sugar intake and stress the benefits of whole grains;

• The guidelines suggest eating half of our grains as refined starch, although refined starches behave like sugar, add empty calories, have adverse metabolic effects, and increase the risks of diabetes and heart disease.

• The guidelines lump together red meat, poultry, fish, beans and soy products and tell us to judge these protein sources by their total fat content. This means to make choices that are lean, low-fat, or fat-free. This advice ignores the evidence that these foods have different types of fats. It also leaves out evidence that replacing red meat with a combination of fish, poultry, beans, and nuts offers numerous health benefits.

So…..if we follow this new dietary guideline we still may not be eating “right,” according to the Harvard School of Public Health. The Harvard School of Public Health nutrition experts created the “Healthy Eating Pyramid.” It is based on the best available scientific evidence about the links between diet and health.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid is based upon daily exercise and weight control. Evidence proves daily exercise and weight control influences your chances of staying healthy. They also stress what and how you eat and how your food affects you.

Some highlights of the Healthy Eating Pyramid are outlined below:

• Whole grain foods (at most meals).

• Plant oils: Good sources of unsaturated fats include olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut, and other vegetable oils and fatty fish such as salmon.

• Vegetables (in abundance) and Fruits (2 to 3 times per day).

• Fish, poultry, and eggs (0 to 2 times per day). Eggs which have been a long time noted as being “bad for you” because they contain fairly high levels of cholesterol, aren’t as bad as once thought to be. An egg for breakfast is much healthier than a bagel made from refined flour.

• Nuts and Legumes (1 to 3 times) are excellent sources of protein and contain healthy fats.

• Dairy or Calcium Supplement (1 to 2 times) Dairy products have been American’s main source of calcium. Cheese has also been another popular choice for calcium needs. Try to stick with no-fat or low-fat products. If you don’t like dairy products, calcium supplements are the way to go.

• Red meat and butter (use sparingly): If you eat red meat every day, switch to fish or chicken several times a week to improve cholesterol levels. Switching from butter to olive oil will also improve cholesterol levels.

• White rice, white bread, potatoes, white pasta, soda, and sweets (use sparingly): This group of foods can cause fast and furious increases in blood sugar that can lead to weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic disorders.

• Multiple vitamins: Taking a daily multivitamin, multimineral supplement offers a nutritional backup. They do not replace healthy eating or make up for unhealthy eating. A standard, store-brand, RDA-level is fine. Look for one that meets the requirements of the U.S. Pharmacopeia, an organization that sets standards for drugs and supplements.

• Alcohol (in moderation): Many studies suggest that having an alcoholic drink a day lowers the risk of heart disease. For men: 1 to 2 drinks a day. For women: One drink a day.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid certainly summarizes the information I personally have been reading recently as the best dietary information available to us. It is not something set into stone because nutrition researchers will continue to turn up new information in the years ahead. The Healthy Eating Pyramid will change to reflect the new evidence.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid is not the only up-to-date guide for eating healthy. It does take advantage of more extensive research and offers a broader guide that is not based on a specific culture, such as the Asian, Latin, Mediterranean and vegetarian pyramids.

To sum it all up the number one tip for eating for improving your health would be eat foods that have a lot of vitamins and minerals as well as foods that are not high in fat. Exercise moderately.

More Healthy Tips:

• Find the strong points and weak points in your current diet and improve in those areas where you are weak.

• Make small, slow changes.

• Keep track of your food intake by writing down what you eat and drink every day. Use this record to help you see where you need to improve.

• If you have medical problems talk it over with your doctor or a nutritionist before making any significant changes.

• Good nutrition does not come in a pill. Get your doctor’s recommendations on vitamins and mineral supplements. Your body will benefit the most from eating healthy foods.

• Eat a variety of foods, and learn to try new foods.

• Prepare your meat either by baking, grilling or broiling rather than frying. Take the skin off chicken before eating. Eat fish at least once a week.

• Cut back on extra fat like butter, margarine, sour cream and salad dressings.

• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables with your meals and snacks.

• Drink no- or low-calorie beverages like water, unsweetened tea and diet soda.

• Exercise moderately daily.

Balanced nutrition and regular exercise are good for your health if your weight never changes. Don’t be discouraged because you don’t loose weight after months of regular exercise. The regular exercise offers you a multitude of benefits toward keeping you healthy.

About The Author: Connie Limon. Visit us at http://www.selfimprovementbook1.com and sign up for our helpful newsletters. Self Improvement Book is a guide to information about self improvement, personal growth and self help tips. It is an organized directory referencing information in other websites on the World Wide Web.