health
Saving Energy Helps You Lose Weight
Please excuse the sensationalist title, but it was just too good to pass up, and oddly true at the same time. Research into the links between the increase in weight and the warming temperature of our homes has resulted in some startling news- Warmer homes contribute to weight gain.
Now before you turn your house into a meat locker, you ought to know that small changes can have an effect. Just turning down the thermostat a few degrees can not only boost your energy savings, but also help shed ‘brown fat’, which lingers around the necks of adults.
The research focused around 1500 adults and found that over a six year period, those who kept their home temperature warmer (in the top third of the group), were twice as likely to become obese. To think that for every degree (F) you lower your thermostat below 68, you will save 3-5% off your heating costs. › Continue reading
DIY and Homeopathic Cold and Flu Home Remedies
I recently had a really bad cold or flu which lasted forever. During that time I found myself dreading taking another Advil, aspirin, NyQuil, cough syrup or throat lozenge. Was I just prolonging the sickness, and what kind of damaging effects could all of this harsh medicine have on my body? Near the end I found myself replacing the cough syrup with warm water, lemon juice and honey and then gargling salt water before bed.
Deep in my medicine cabinet I found an old bottle of ‘Rainforest Remedies’ that I got from a trip to Belize a while back. The ingredients were simple, with the main ingredient being simply cayenne pepper. I recall coconut water being another thing that really helped in my travels, which makes sense due to the fact it is a great natural hydrator and is full of electrolytes.
There are still many parts of the world which does not have easy access to modern medicine, and while for treating disease and serious illness there really is no substitute, what I was experiencing was more of an inconvenience that could probably be solved by traditional and homeopathic remedies. › Continue reading
Reusable Grocery Bags and Bacteria
Society has seen a quick adoption of reusable grocery bags, especially with legislative measures in their favor in several cities/states/countries (like Washington DC and the Republic of Ireland). This progressive adoption is understandable on at least three counts outside of these two places as well. Firstly, as these bags are convenient for grocery stores, which in turn will save money on paper and plastic bags. Secondly, as they’re also convenient for shoppers who no longer have to hope the bag boy didn’t over-stuff the flimsy plastic/paper bags they would normally use. And finally, convenient for the environment as it results in less dependency on plastic bags which would to take millennia to biodegrade. 
The quick spread of these bags comes at a cost though as the people adopting them aren’t properly informed as to the measures they’d need to take in order to safely use them. They’re bags, is there really anything non-intuitive about their use? It seems that there is. They’re meant to be washed on a regular basis, but the people who purchase them don’t seem to be aware of this fact by far as a recent study indicates that as much as 97% of randomly selected interviewees were completely unaware of this health precaution.
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