Myself  have done without pain killers through out my life  and here is a good example why.

At the end of January the FDA held a public hearing to reconsider the safety of Darvon, a painkiller that has been on the market since 1957. The panel voted 14 to 12 in favor of withdrawing the drug from the market, following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom which banned the drug in 2005 after concluding the benefits of Darvon did not outweigh the serious risks.

Kind of a good reason to hang onto your old mattress, don’t ya think?

Mattresses today aren’t like the ones manufactured forty years ago. Now they come to us manufactured with chemicals that include flame retardants, petroleum based foams, plastics, vinyls, fungicides and pesticides. Most mattresses are made almost entirely of raw ingredients from the petroleum industry.

Avoid Over-the-Counter Drugs

Although these medications claim to be helpful, they can turn your cold into a nightmare. A runny nose may be irritating, but drying up nasal passages with decongestants is a sure fire way to encourage the build-up of bacteria. Instead, keep you sinuses clear with natural saline sprays.

You can also make your own saline solution at home with a half teaspoon of salt dissolved in a cup of warm water. Use a bulb syringe to place three or four drops of the liquid into each nostril. Gently breathe in and avoid blowing your nose for at least thirty seconds. This gives the mixture time to break down some of the build-up in your sinuses. Repeat this several times each day until nasal passages are clear.

Over-the-counter cough syrups should also be avoided. Instead, mix lemon juice with warm water and add a bit of honey. This home remedy can soothe your cough and works equally well for sore throats.

Sinus pressure and pain is often treated with over-the-counter pain medication like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. These are only moderately effective and are known for their potential toxic side effects. Try placing a heating pad or warm washcloth over the area instead. Repeat as needed.

You know cold season is hitting its peak when crumpled tissues start piling up next to bottles of cough syrup and antibiotics. It seems the moment someone gets the sniffles they feel compelled to visit their doctor, and more often than not, they leave their appointment with multiple prescriptions in hand. You have to wonder: is all this medication necessary?

The answer is no. Home treatment for colds can be even more effective than medications, and without the harmful side effects. Old-fashioned cold remedies can often be made with what you already have in your pantry, and the cost is much less prohibitive than the expense of a doctor`s visit and several prescriptions.

Sometimes it may take years for us to find out what we are really after-it is to be happy. The Elders say, lead a simple life. This doesn’t necessarily mean poor, it means simple. There are some things that makes life complicated such as needing control, needing power or being resentful or angry. These things make complications happen. We need to walk in balance in every area of our lives.

Just one extra hour of sleep a day appears to lower the risk of developing calcium deposits in the arteries, a precursor to heart disease.

There seems to be a lot of question about which healthy spreads should be used to replace butter. Since the word is finally spreading about the harmful nature of trans fat, margarine has been officially declared as a substance which should be avoided. Of course, in its place have rushed countless other butter alternatives which do not contain hydrogenated fats. But now that refined vegetable oils, additives and preservatives are coming under fire, it leaves the question what in the world can we spread on our toast? The answer is simple and natural: go back to butter.

Sound Advice.

So why is relative humidity misleading?

The answer is that more moisture can be present in warm air than in cold. Some people like to say warm air can hold more moisture than cold air. While that’s not scientifically correct, it is a convenient way to think about it.

What that means is warm air at 30 percent relative humidity and cold air at 60 percent relative humidity may actually have the same amount of water in the air.

So, while the cold air sounds moist, it might be pretty dry – just what the Flu likes.

Absolute humidity is expressed in weight of water, grams or pounds, in a volume of air, such as a cubic meter or yard. The higher the reading the wetter. The wetter the less likely of catching the Flu

“In some areas of the country, a typical summer day can have four times as much water vapor as a typical winter day – a difference that exists both indoors and outdoors,” “Consequently, outbreaks of influenza typically only occur in winter when low absolute humidity conditions strongly favor influenza survival and transmission.”

Kind Of Makes One Think Huh?

What if a diagnostic test actually triggers the life-threatening disease it is supposed to detect? According to a Johns Hopkins study just published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, that may be exactly what happens when women at risk for genetic breast cancer are subjected to radiation exposure from annual mammograms.

What’s the difference between white and raw sugar in terms of environmental impact? What about raw and brown sugar – are these the same product?

Let’s take a brief look at how each of these cane sugar variations are created.

How raw sugar is made

Sugar cane is initially pressed and the juice is then mixed with lime to achieve the desired ph balance and to help settle out impurities. The resulting liquid is reduced through evaporation, then a centrifuge used to separate sugar crystals. It is then dried further to produce granules. The brown color of raw sugar is due to presence of molasses.

How white sugar is made

“White” sugar is created in a couple of ways.

Mill white sugar is the result of sulphur dioxide being introduced to the cane juice before evaporation. It effectively bleaches the mixture.

In the production of refined white sugar, which is the most common product in the Western world, the raw sugar syrup is mixed with a heavy syrup and run through a centrifuge again to take away the outer coating of the raw sugar crystals.

Phosphoric acid and calcium hydroxide are then added to the juice which then combine and absorb or trap impurities. Alternatively, carbon dioxide is used to achieve the same effect.

The resulting syrup is then filtered through a bed of activated carbon to remove molasses and then crystallized a number of times under vacuum. It is then further dried to produce white refined sugar like we buy in the store.

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is refined white sugar with a molasses syrup mixed in, then dried again.