Conscious Life Magazine Free - June - July 2019 ed 57

Getting Fit At Your DESK

Relief for ACNE?

How Sleeping Positions Relate to Your Dog’s Mood

How Positivity AFFECTS HEALTH

4 Steps to HEAL LEAKY GUT

Best Natural HAIR LOSS REMEDIES

OMEGA-3 Why It’s A No Brainer

Toward GREENER PLASTICS

Conscious Life Magazine

CONTENTS [

SELF DEVELOPMENT & PERSONAL GROWTH ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – HOW A POSITIVE OUTLOOK AFFECTS YOUR HEALTH A POWERFUL 5-MINUTE MEDITATION TO OPEN YOUR HEART WHY SOME PEOPLE GET UNDER OUR SKIN & HOW TO WORK THROUGH IT

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NATURAL HEALTH & WELLNESS THE BEST NATURAL HAIR LOSS REMEDIES TOP BREATHING TECHNIQUES FOR BETTER HEALTH OMEGA-3, WHY IT’S A NO-BRAINER HOW BAOBAB OIL HELPS ACNE 4 STEPS TO HEAL LEAKY GUT & AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

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CONSCIOUS HEALING THE VEIL

R

HEALTHY INTAKE HEALTHY BEVERAGES WHAT IS GOLDEN MILK & WHAT MIGHT YOU GAIN IF YOU DRINK IT? WINTER VEGETABLE PIE SAGO CRÈME BRULEE

b CONSCIOUS BODY WHAT IS KENDO AND HOW WILL IT BENEFIT YOU? 20 EXERCISES TO DO AT YOUR DESK – GET FIT AT WORK!

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CONTENTS H

GREEN LIVING TOWARD GREENER PLASTICS

_ ANIMAL WORLD 6 DOG SLEEPING POSITIONS AND WHAT EACH SAYS ABOUT YOUR DOG’S MOOD STUDY COMPARES THE HEALTH OF INDOOR VS OUTDOOR CATS

P WORKSHOPS, COURSES & RETREATS UPCOMING COURSES AND RETREATS

P

GETAWAYS, SHOWS & EVENTS SUNFLOWER FUND GOLF DAY, WOMEN’S DAY LUNCH, RIDE 4 HOPE, & MORE GREENPOP FESTIVALS THIS YEAR TRANQUIL GETAWAYS

_ REACH OUT REACH OUT & HELP: DESERVING CHARITIES AND CAUSES

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Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life How a positive outlook may buffer us from stress and ward off health problems

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By Bob Holmes – Q&A — Psychologist Sarah Pressman – Knowable Magazine

A sunny disposition isn’t just good for your mental health. It’s good for your body, too. It can even add years to your life. Sarah Pressman, a health psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, has spent her career investigating the link between positive emotions and physical health.

In the 2019 Annual Review of Psychology, she and her colleagues explore why a positive outlook generates physical health benefits. Knowable asked her about some of the high points, and how doctors and their patients can make use of the knowledge. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you get interested in studying this?

For decades, researchers have been studying all the detrimental ways that stress can make us sick and lead to pain, and minor and major illness. As a graduate student, I got interested in the opposite: What can protect our bodies against the harmful effects of stress? At that time, in the early 2000s, the field of positive psychology was really just starting. I saw a natural synergy there — there are these positive factors, and maybe they could be protective against stress and have health benefits, or at least protect us against health harm.

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And does a positive outlook make a measurable difference?

The negative effect on your health of being socially isolated is stronger than the effect of being overweight, a regular smoker or a heavy drinker. That kind of comparison hasn’t been done yet in positive emotion research. But there’s a host of studies — probably in the dozens now — that show that people who are more positive tend to live usually five to 10 years longer than those individuals who are less positive. That’s a pretty large effect.

What causes this effect?

We have a lot of hypotheses. Positive emotion changes our stress perception so stressors don’t seem as bad. It changes how we react to stressors, and it helps us recover. Both our stress reaction and our stress recovery have been shown to predict important outcomes. Pick a disease — heart disease, for example. If you feel calmer, your blood pressure is lower, your heart rate is lower. And we know one of the things that predicts heart disease is arteries blocked up with plaques. And where do those plaques come from? Partially, from damage from high-speed, high-pressure blood. If your blood pressure is lower, and your heart rate is lower, you have less of that turbulent blood flow, and therefore over time you might have less damage to arteries and less plaque.

Positive emotions also change how our immune system works. We don’t know exactly how, but we do know that if I make you feel positive, if I make you feel calm, we change the numbers of your immune cells, and we tend to drop your inflammation level. For example, there’s a marker of inflammation called interleukin 6, or IL-6. People who are generally more positive, or who are induced to feel more positive, have lower levels of IL-6.

But even aside from that, when we are feeling positive, we’re much more likely to engage in healthier behavior. We take better care of ourselves, we’re more likely to sleep better and exercise, we have a better diet. People who are more positive tend to have more relationships, better-quality relationships. They’re more likely to be married and stay married for longer. If you have good relationships, those people will encourage you to take care of yourself.

That gives us some really compelling pathways for how this can happen, both on the behavioral end and by directly altering cardiovascular function, hormonal function, immune function. If I’m happy today, that doesn’t mean I’m going to live longer. But if I’m happy for a few years, that might make a difference.

How do we know that positive emotion causes better health, rather than the other way around?

To do the perfect study would require that we experimentally assign people to an intervention that makes them happier, or less happy, and see if that affects longevity. That has not been done. But we have a lot of studies of groups of people where we know the health and the emotional state of each person at the start. We control for sociodemographic factors, we control for medications and immune function. So we know that those people who were less happy at the beginning weren’t less happy because they were already more sick.

Then we can look over time. If you control for smoking and health at the start and you still see the effect of positive emotion five or 10 years later, it’s more suggestive than a study looking at Conscious Life Magazine

people at just one point in time and just saying, “Oh, happy people feel healthier.”

In a classic study, people with a more positive outlook were less likely to get sick after experimenters introduced cold viruses into their noses. The researchers measured the volunteers’ sickness both objectively (by weighing a day’s worth of used tissues) and subjectively (by asking the volunteers if they had a cold).

Have you also done experiments?

We measured people’s naturally occurring positive emotions. Then they were experimentally wounded. It was kind of a nasty study, actually. We damaged their skin by putting tape on it over and over and ripping the tape off. We monitored to see how quickly water was being lost from the skin surface. As that water loss decreases, we know the skin cells are healing. This is really an immune-system function test, because the more quickly your immune system is able to traffic white blood cells to the injury, the faster you will heal. We saw about a 20 percent shorter healing time for those individuals who were more positive versus those who were less positive.

There is another study, not yet published, where we manipulated positive emotion. There’s something called the facial feedback hypothesis, where if you fake an emotion, it sends a message to your brain that you’re feeling that emotion. If we trick people into smiling by holding things in their mouth, it can trigger a positive emotion.

So we had people smile while getting a fake flu shot. Some people were smiling and others were not. Those who were smiling had about 40 percent less pain from that needle, and their heart rate recovered faster from the stress of it.

Do we know that positive emotions — and not just the absence of negative ones — are causing the benefit?

That we actually know really, really well. Through the last 20 years of research, almost every study does a good job of accounting for that by controlling for negative emotions.

Time and time again, you see that it really does seem to be the presence of positivity, independent of negativity, that’s driving health effects. It’s the presence of positive emotions, not the absence of negative ones, that can help undo stress. If I have to give a talk and I’m feeling neutral, that isn’t helping me — but if I can say, “Actually, I’m really excited about giving this talk,” that can change my stress trajectory. That’s very different than the absence of a negative emotion.

Are there health conditions where a positive attitude doesn’t help?

For individuals who have a serious chronic illness that’s far gone — stage 4 cancer, end-stage kidney disease — the data are inconsistent. Some studies show benefit, some show harm, some show no effect. If we’re talking about a minute immunological change from laughing, that’s not going to kill millions of cancer cells.

On the other hand, if you are feeling hopeful and positive, and able to adhere to your doctor’s recommendations, and take the medications that you’re supposed to, and exercise when you’re Conscious Life Magazine

supposed to, and quit smoking, those things are helped by positive emotions, and can have an important role in helping at earlier stages.

This is something we have to work on, because if people want to design positive interventions for these severe illnesses, we have to really understand when it will be helpful. That’s a really important next step for the field.

Isn’t there a risk that people with serious diseases will be stigmatized into thinking it’s their own fault for not being more positive?

We certainly don’t want to say that. There’s absolutely no evidence in health psychology that being unhappy causes cancer, or causes disease to happen. If someone gets diagnosed with cancer, you don’t want to tell them to be happy all the time. There’s good evidence that keeping negative feelings locked up inside is harmful to our health. They have to go somewhere. You have to let it out — express your negativity and process it. Once you’ve accomplished that, we can try to teach you how to find benefit.

It is very important for people to deeply understand the power of mind over body, because if you are depressed and you are stressed it can be hurting you, and we want to help you cope with that. There is value in pursuing happiness. It’s not a selfish, silly, soft thing that you don’t have to do. This is actually an important piece of being a healthy human. And at a time when your health is compromised it can be especially important.

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Are there ways to change people’s happiness level? Aren’t some people innately Eeyores and others Poohs?

Some work suggests that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of happiness is based on genetics — you just luck into being born a more positive person. But that leaves a lot of room to manipulate.

Although some people naturally tend toward a more positive or negative outlook — like Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore — studies suggest that happiness is based on much more than genetics or innate setpoints. Exercise, relationships and personally meaningful activities can help an Eeyore see the bright side, which may also impact health.

A good amount of our day-to-day wellbeing — maybe 30 percent to 40 percent — is due to how we choose to spend our time. We can choose to spend our time on things we know improve positive emotion, like spending time with the people we love, having good relationships, getting enough sleep, exercising.

But on top of that, there are some specific, well-researched interventions — little tweaks that can help you focus on positive things. We can train our brains to hang onto positive emotions, which should help promote that positive emotion in our daily lives. Some of the more popular activities are gratitude exercises, where before you go to bed you write down three things you’re grateful for, and meditation.

The nice thing about happiness is you don’t have to buy some expensive medicine. Much of this is free. Happiness is not just a luxury that rich people should be pursuing — it’s something that absolutely everyone should be investing time in every day.

10.1146/knowable-051319-1

Bob Holmes is a science writer in Edmonton, Canada, who tries to be as cheerful as possible.

“Knowable Magazine is an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews.”

Conscious Life Magazine

Have you thought about starting a meditation practice? I began meditating many years ago using a mantra. This can be an Indian Sanskrit word like Om or Hu, or a soothing word such as love or peace.

You may use a phrase such as I Am Love or All Is Well. Or it can be as simple and powerful as doing mirror work to improve your selfesteem and well-being.

If you want to learn more about mirror work, check out my 21-Day course on mirror work that I did with my dear friend Robert Holden, Ph.D. Mirror work is so powerful because self-love is one of the most healing gifts you can give yourself.

The Start of Something New and Healing Before I learned how to meditate daily, I was so uptight and frightened at the time. And every time I meditated I would get a headache.

This lasted for three weeks. As my body and mind began to relax, perhaps for the first time in my life, the headaches went away.

I have been meditating ever since, and I have attended many classes over the years. They each offer a slightly different method of meditation. All methods have benefits, although they may not be right for you.

Many people try to start a daily meditation practice, but they never get started because they think that there are rules to follow or they worry they are not doing it right.

I want to share with you 8 simple steps so you can practice your own 5-minute meditation daily.

A 5-Minute Meditation to Open Your Heart Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in and breathe out and just let go of all that stuff that is stuck inside you.

This is a special day and we don’t want to carry any old stuff with us.

Put one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly. And as you breathe quietly, notice how comforting that feels. Be aware that you can do this anytime and anywhere and take care of yourself.

You can make yourself feel better with simple gestures and your own breathe. How it calms you down. It lets yesterday go. It gives you a feeling of safety. You are here for yourself.

And as you release yesterday and even this moment, you allow your full attention to come into this day, this hour, this time. Turn your full attention to this wonderful, wonderful day.

Let your heart open and make room for all the good of the Universe to come in.

All is well.

Meditation is one of the best gifts you can give to your body. It loves and supports you every day, and it feels good to give it something in return.

Remember, meditation is merely a way of you getting in touch with your own inner guidance. While we are always connected with this guidance as we go about our day, it is easier for us to consciously connect when we sit quietly and listen.

Let’s affirm: I am divinely guided at all times.

Why Some People Get Under Our Skin & How To Work Through It

Photo by Moose Photos from Pexels

By Simon Wing-Lun

If someone's behaviour triggers you or hurts you, it is a sign that on the deepest level you need to love the part of yourself that could behave in the same way, or contains the same energy.

For if you did not contain an aspect of that energy and behaviour, it would not show up in your reality. Or you would actually be completely unaffected by it.

So if you find yourself affected by someone's anger, you may feel fear, sadness, anger, or any mix of emotions in response.

Yet at the core there will always be a corresponding pattern of your own anger which needs to be accepted, loved and released in order to permanently shifted in your own life.

Same things for any other experience, such as being affected by someone else's fear or withdrawal from you. You may have several layers of response to the experience, but you would not be experiencing it if you did not have the energy of fear within you in the first place.

This is really the core of understanding how responsible you are for everything that you experience, and also how powerful you are.

Accepting this level of total self-responsibility for your experience can be confronting on multiple levels, but it is also the most empowering place to live your life from.

Conscious Life Magazine

It is confronting to the part of us that takes comfort in blame, and in the paradigm of duality we've been born into.

For if everything you experience is a reflection of what you contain in you're own being, then nothing that happens is ever anyone else's fault. There is no one else to blame for anything, for everything is created from within you.

If you take this to mean you are to blame and at fault for everything, it would create more pain within your consciousness than you can handle.

And so in order to integrate this into your consciousness, you need to simultaneously realise that there is no fault or faultiness in reality at all. There are only different projections and opportunities for the experience of love generated from within your own being.

This total spiritual responsibility can also be confronting to the part of ourselves which is attached to being the saviour or rescuer of others.

For when we see others as lacking the love that we contain, then why try and take from our own resources and give to those in need. But this is like seeing that your reflection in the mirror needs food, so you take from your own stomach in order to feed it. Nothing is really gained, except perhaps a new experience of messiness.

Rather when we see that lack in others is actually a perception of lack within ourselves, we see the logical thing is to actually find love and abundance within and truly act from this place. From the revelation of love within, greater and more abundant love can then emerge in your reality, without you needing to sacrifice or hurt yourself.

In other words, you can't take from yourself and give to life. Rather know that what you discover in yourself will emerge in your life, and what you see lacking in others is what you are being called to more fully discover within.

So if you are triggered, upset or hurt in any way, it is always an opportunity for growth, self-love, and self-discovery.

And it is also often likely there will be an element of someone being to blame, or someone needing saving in the pattern.

You can experience this in the most empowering, loving, and even exhilarating way, when you see through these patterns of blame, lack, and separation, and into the true unity of your life and consciousness.

From accepting your experience of life as your reflection and projection, you can the accept your powerful place as the creator of your own reality, and the power of your love to transform every aspect of your experience.

Life can then truly be a game without blame or rescuing, without victims and perpetrators, and instead a vision of the rich tapestry of your own soul, into which you can more fully infuse the vibrations and colours of love, with every choice and every moment.

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The Best Natural HAIR LOSS REMEDIES

By Georgina Berbari of mindbodygreen

By Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DMN, CNS

There’s no doubt about it, we all want a luxurious, full head of hair.

Although hair loss is most commonly associated with men, women also suffer from this problem — and sadly hair loss in women is a lot less acceptable in society today. According to the American Hair Loss Association, women actually make up 40 percent of American hair loss sufferers. (1) Such a common problem among both and women, it’s unsurprising that so many people look for hair loss remedies far and wide.

Have you noticed more hair in your brush lately than you used to see, or is you hair falling out in clumps? Do you look in the mirror and see scalp where you used to see only hair?

Losing anywhere from 50 to 150 hairs per day is considered normal, but when you start losing more than that it becomes problematic, not to mention visibly noticeable. What’s really behind your hair loss, and how can you treat the cause, not just the symptoms, with effective hair loss remedies?

It’s common for hair loss sufferers to turn to hair replacement surgery and topical hair loss products in hopes of regaining their full heads of hair — or at least some of what once was. But is that the best course of action to take with hair loss? When it comes to any problem, the first step is to find the root cause.

Let’s talk about the real causes of hair loss and what you can start doing today to naturally stop Conscious Life Magazine

and hopefully reverse your hair loss. For starters there are many foods and vitamins for hair growth that won’t break the bank but can really make a difference. There also many other natural hair loss remedies like rosemary essential oil that have been shown to work as well as conventional topical products. (2)

Natural Hair Loss Remedies The good news is that with lifestyle changes to reduce stress, dietary improvements and the use of other natural hair loss remedies you can improve hair growth fast.

Top Hair Loss Remedies: Foods to Eat A whole foods, nutrient-rich diet is crucial to supporting healthy hair growth. There are many food choices that can help to fend off hair loss, but these are some of my personal favorites: • • • • • • •

Organic foods — Choose these foods because they’re free of chemicals. Chemicals can act as endocrine disrupters interfering with hair growth.

Pumpkin seeds — Pumpkin seeds are one of the top foods high in zinc, which is necessary for healthy hair health. Research has also shown that a zinc deficiency is linked with hypothyroidism and hair loss. (3) Wild-caught fish — Wild-caught fish like salmon are high in omega-3 fats, which decrease inflammation while supporting hair growth and hair thickening.

Green tea — Green tea helps promote detoxification and contains antioxidants that promote hair growth. It also may stop the conversion of testosterone into DHT. Super seeds — Chia, flax and hemp seeds are high in fiber and healthy fats that can help aid hair growth.

Bone Broth — High in protein, collagen and amino acids, bone broth the perfect food for encouraging healthy hair growth.

Caffeine — Yes, not technically, a food, but caffeine has been show to spur hair growth. According to research, caffeine stimulates hair shafts and helps them grow faster, by damping down the effects of DHT, a substance that infamously slows hair growth. (4)

Top Hair Loss Remedies: Foods to Avoid There are also foods that I recommend eliminating or avoiding as much as possible like: • • • • •

Trans fatty acids — Unhealthy fats like trans fatty acids have been shown to increase inflammation and production of DHT, which can cause hair loss. Stay away from hydrogenated oils like corn oil and soybean oil, which are loaded with trans fats.

Sugar — Sugar plays a role in hormones imbalances, contributes to insulin resistance, increases DHT and causes inflammation, all of which can lead to hair loss.

Processed foods — Foods that are highly processed are often loaded with unhealthy fats, sugar and sodium so they’re very counterproductive to healthy hair growth.

Alcohol — Alcohol can increase inflammation and cause liver toxicity, leading to hair loss.

Heavy drinking as well as smoking have both been linked to increased risk of hair loss. (4b) Caffeine — Wait, didn’t I say the opposite above? Yes, in small amounts, organic coffee and tea can be beneficial to hair health, but you don’t want to overdo it because too much caffeine can cause dehydration, hormone imbalances and even production of DHT. Conscious Life Magazine

Top Hair Loss Remedies: Supplements 1.

Protein Powder from Bone Broth (1–4 servings daily depending on body weight and individual needs): You can also get your daily dose of bone broth from a protein powder.

Bone broth powder is rich in protein, collagen, gelatin, glucosamine, chondroitin and key minerals often missing in the average diet. These vital nutrients support and promote healthy hair growth as well as a wide range of additional health benefits.

2. Saw palmetto (320 milligram daily): A natural DHT blocker that can greatly improve hair growth.

3. Pygeum (100 milligrams 2x daily): Addresses the cause of hair loss by blocking DHT binding sites and improving prostate health.

4. Pumpkin seed oil (8 grams or 1 tablespoon daily): Inhibits DHT formation throughout the body and contains fatty acids that support thick hair.

5. Fish oil (1,000 milligrams daily): Fish oil helps reduce inflammation and thicken hair.

6. Aloe vera juice (1/2 cup 2x daily and shampoo): Aloe vera juice can help naturally thicken hair.

7. Ashwagandha (500 milligrams daily): Adaptogen herbs like ashwagandha help your body adapt and deal with stress, balance hormones and reduce cortisol levels (also known as the aging hormone), which all help encourage healthy hair growth.

8. Rhodiola (500 milligrams daily): Another awesome adaptogen herb to fend off stress and foster hair growth.

9. B-Complex vitamins (1 tablet daily): B vitamins aid in healthy stress management. Biotin or B7 helps thicken your hair naturally and vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) supports your adrenal glands.

10. Zinc (8 milligrams daily for women/11 milligrams daily for men): One of the signs of a zinc deficiency is hair loss. Zinc also boosts your immune system and helps repair your gut.

Top Hair Loss Remedies: Essential Oils and Other Oils for Stimulating Hair Growth Wondering how to regrow hair naturally? You can use essential oils to make some of best topical home hair loss remedies.

•

•

•

Rosemary is one of the top essential oils when it comes to enhancing hair thickness and growth. Rosemary oil is believed to increase cellular metabolism that stimulate hair growth.

Research published in 2015 even shows that rosemary oil appears to work as well as minoxidil, a conventional topical hair loss treatment.

Spikenard oil is known for promoting the growth of hair and slowing down the graying process of graying. A 2011 animal study found that spikenard oil showed positive effects on hair growth activity. When using spikenard extract, there was a 30 percent reduction in the time it look for the hair to grow back on the tested rats, which makes it promising for human use. (5) Lavender, thyme, cedarwood, sage and peppermint are other great options that may help increase scalp circulation. One recommendation to stimulate new hair growth is to combine three to four drops each of peppermint, rosemary and sage in one tablespoon of olive oil (I also recommend coconut oil or jojoba oil). Then you simply massage the mixture gently into the area(s) of concern one to two times each day.(6, 7)

You may also want to try my Rosemary, Cedarwood & Sage Hair Thickener, which is an essential oil triple threat against hair loss.

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Reduce Emotional Stress Emotional stress can also be a major causative factor in hair loss. Get plenty of sleep, and schedule times of rest and fun into your week. It’s also a great idea to incorporate therapeutic massage into your life as much as you can, along with other natural stress relievers. Massages not only helps reduce overall stress levels, but they also help increase your overall circulation, including blood flow to your scalp. Better blood flow to the scalp helps encourage hair growth.

Bonus tip: Getting rid of a dandruff issue can help with natural hair growth.Dandruff has been linked with an increased risk of hair loss so addressing any dandruff issues can have a direct positive effect on hair growth. (8) Thankfully, there are a lot of effective natural dandruff remedies.

Causes of Hair Loss There are typically four main causes of hair loss: (9) • Heredity (family history) • Hormonal changes • Medical conditions • Medications The medical term for a loss of hair is alopecia, and there are two main types. First, alopecia areata is the diagnosis when the your body’s own immune system attacks the hair follicles, causing your hair to fall out. Androgenetic alopecia is an inherited hair condition in which there is hair thinning and then it eventually falls out. This is the genetic hair loss known as male or female pattern baldness.

Hormones in both men and women are responsible for many body processes. When it comes to hair, hormones play a significant role. Hormones can play a part in the hair pattern found on your head as well as the rest of your body. Hormonal changes and imbalances that affect hair growth can be due to pregnancy, childbirth, menopause as well as thyroid problems. The good news is that hormone-related hair loss is typically temporary, and normal hair growth will return once hormonal balance returns.

If you’re a mother, you probably recall during pregnancy how full your hair was. Many women say that the times when they’re pregnant are the times when their hair looks its best. And then you undoubtedly remember the aftermath of those months of gorgeous hair. All the hair that should’ve fallen out little by little now comes out in huge amounts of hair loss in just a short period of time. This is called telogen effluvium. This occurs in 40 percent to 50 percent of women, and it’s due to the change in hormones during pregnancy. Thankfully, it’s only a temporary hair loss. (10) The hormones that we speak about when it comes to hair loss are the group of hormones called androgens. The three types of androgen hormones are testosterone, androstenedione and dihydrotestosterone, more commonly known as DHT. All of us have heard of testosterone and probably associate it with the male “macho” hormone. In fact, both men’s and women’s bodies contain all three of these hormones in some amount, and their imbalance can contribute to hair loss in both sexes.

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Male vs. Female Hair Loss By the age of 35, 66 percent of American men have some amount of detectable hair loss. A high percentage, right? By the age of 50, about 85 percent of men have significantly thinning hair, according to the American Hair Loss Association. (11)

The cause of hair loss in men is due to the hair follicles’ sensitivity to DHT (5α-Dihydrotestosterone).

DHT is a male androgen hormone that causes follicles to shrink, resulting in a shorter life span and decrease hair production. Normally after hairs fall out another hair starts to grow from this same follicle, but if DHT is high hair growth decreases. Male pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia in men) follows a pattern of a receding hairline that progresses to an “M” shape and then continues to the familiar “U” shape.

Female pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia in women) is characterized by thinning on the top or the center of the head.

Female hair loss is generally due to high levels of stress, hormone imbalance, thyroid conditions or toxic exposure. Women are actually most likely to suffer from hair loss due to hormones. Think pregnancy, menopause, birth control pills and other hormonal changes that women so commonly go through. Having polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is another hormonally related health problem that can contribute to hair loss from the scalp but unwanted hair growth in undesirable places.

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Research also shows that there might be a male equivalent of PCOS related to male hair loss.

One study found that men with premature male pattern baldness had hormonal profiles similar to women with PCOS and they also had significantly higher insulin resistance. (12) This shows how proper hormone balance in men is also important to health, specifically hair health.

Conventional Hair Loss Treatment There are several options when it comes to conventional treatment of hair loss, all of which come with significant side effects unless you opt for a wig or hair piece. The most common conventional hair loss remedies include topical minoxidil, oral finasteride, topical or oral hormones and steroids, hair transplants, and hair restoration surgery. (13) An example of very commonly used and conventional topical treatment is minoxidil. One of the most well-known versions is Rogaine. Conventional hair growth products like Rogaine are available without a prescription and can be used by both men and women. Finasteride is an oral medication for hair loss in men only and requires a prescription. Both minoxidil and finasteride do not get to the root of hair loss and only work to regrow hair as long as you use these medications. Once you stop using them, the hair growth, if any, will stop.

Surgery is another conventional option that’s more costly and invasive. First there is hair transplantation surgery, which takes hair from another area of the scalp where hair is growing well and moves it to a balding or thinning area. This surgery is most commonly performed for male pattern baldness. Only around 5 percent of female hair loss sufferers are said to be good candidates for hair transplant surgery. This is due to the fact that unlike men who tend to lose hair in concentrated areas, women typically experience hair loss all over their scalps. (14) Hair restoration surgery is another conventional treatment option and can be done in a few manners. One way is to remove bald scalp and bring the hair-producing scalp closer together to reduce the area of balding. Another form of surgery involves putting devices temporarily underneath the scalp to stretch the areas currently producing hair so that decreases the area of balding. There is also scalp flap surgery, which takes a piece of scalp producing hair and surgically puts it where there is balding.

A more recent conventional treatment option for hair loss is low level laser therapy that uses light and heat treatment for genetic hair loss (androgenetic alopecia) in both men and women.

To date, doctor opinions of this treatment are mixed with many rejecting it completely. (15)

Precautions Regarding Hair Loss Remedies When it comes to conventional treatments for hair loss, there are a lot of possible side effects you should be aware of before using any of these options. Make sure to read warnings carefully and take them into serious consideration because a lot of the side effects are quite serious. For example, serious side effects of minoxidil products like Rogaine can include unwanted facial/body hair, dizziness, fast/irregular heartbeat, fainting, chest pain, swelling of hands/feet, unusual weight gain, tiredness and difficulty breathing. (16) Side effects of finasteride may include impotence, loss of interest in sex, trouble having an orgasm, abnormal ejaculation, swelling in your hands or feet, feeling faint, headache, runny nose, and skin rash.

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With hair transplant surgery, it’s important to know that it does not give you an instantaneous perfect head of hair. It’s common for the hairs to fall out of the grafts right after the transplant, and then they don’t regrow for about three months. Possible side effects and complications from hair replacement or transplant surgery include pain, temporary numbness or tightness, bleeding, infection, swelling of the face, scarring, poor growth of grafts, and an unnatural appearance of the transplanted hair. (17) If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding or have any ongoing health concerns, make sure to speak with your doctor before using any conventional or natural hair loss remedies. You should also make sure that your treatment option does not interact with any current medications or supplements.

In addition, combining natural and conventional treatments (like minoxidil with essential oils) may cause unwanted side effects.

Final Thoughts on Hair Loss Remedies Hair loss is typically more than just an annoying physical problem. For many people experiencing hair loss, the daily suffering is very real and takes a huge toll on them in many ways. Research has shown that hair loss can cause “dramatic and devastating emotions in patients, which can negatively impact their self-esteem, body image, and/or self-confidence.” (18) Your hair loss might not make you look like your ideal self, but it’s important to keep things in perspective because going downhill mentally and emotionally over your hair loss will only contribute to, rather than help, your problem. There is no doubt that lowering your stress will help the state of your hair (and your life) so try to reduce the negative self-talk for the sake of your hair health as well as your total body health.

If you’re a woman experiencing hair loss, it’s an especially good idea to have your thyroid health evaluated to see if hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism could be at the root of your hair troubles.

Experts concur that the hair on your head is an indicator of your overall health so what you do to improve your overall health can have a direct positive impact on your hair.

I know it can be frustrating to lose your hair, but don’t lose hope. With a healthy diet and lifestyle along with consistent use of natural hair loss remedies and a dose of patience, it’s truly possible for your hair to grow faster and thicker in the near future.

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Top Breathing Techniques for Better Health

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

Breathing wields incredible power over your health, as it supplies your body with oxygen and removes excess carbon dioxide (CO2) to keep you alive. However, the way you breathe — whether fast or slow, shallow or deep — also sends messages to your body that affect your mood, stress level, blood pressure, immune function and more.

What's interesting about breathing is that it's both a voluntary and an involuntary process. While your body breathes automatically, you also have the ability to consciously control your breathing — the speed, the depth and whether you breathe through your mouth or your nose.

So, simply by changing the way you breathe, you can actually influence your health in a variety of ways. Here, I review some of the most important basics of proper breathing, and share several effective controlled breathing techniques shown to have a positive impact on health and psychological well-being.

Always Breathe Through Your Nose — Even During Exercise Perhaps the most basic of all breathing techniques is to make sure you're always breathing through your nose. Mouth breathing tends to promote hyperventilation, which actually decreases tissue oxygenation. Mouth breathing also results in diminished levels of CO2 in your body and a decreased ability to filter toxic pollutants from the air.

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Your body needs a balance of oxygen and CO2 for optimal function. CO2 is not just a waste product but has actual biological roles, one of which is assisting in oxygen utilization. When your CO2 level is too low, changes in your blood pH impair your hemoglobin's ability to release oxygen to your cells (the Bohr effect).1,2

Pavlovich Buteyko,5 a Russian physician, discovered that the level of CO2 in your lungs correlates to your ability to hold your breath after normal exhalation. You can use a stopwatch or simply count the number of seconds to yourself. Here is the process:

Mouth breathing can also elevate your heart rate and blood pressure, sometimes resulting in fatigue and dizziness.3 The elasticity of your lungs also depends on nasal resistance, which you only get from nasal breathing due to the smaller diameter of your nasal 4 passages. Poor breathing is even associated with poor posture.

2.

So, breathing through your nose helps maintain your health in a number of important ways. While huffing and puffing through your mouth may be particularly tempting during physical exertion, really try to avoid this tendency. You should be exercising only to the extent that you can continue breathing through your nose the vast majority of the time.

If this means backing off on intensity, then that's what you need to do, realizing that it's only temporary until your body begins to adjust to your slightly increased CO2 levels, which will happen fairly quickly. You just have to get used to "air hunger" (an admittedly uncomfortable feeling of mild suffocation), and realize it's normal and safe.

So, the rule of thumb is to not push yourself to the point where you are unable to maintain nasal breathing. If you feel the need to open your mouth, then slow down and recover. This helps your body to gradually develop a tolerance for increased CO2.

Assess Your CO2 Tolerance There's a simple self-test for estimating your body's tolerance to CO2. Dr. Konstantin

1.

3.

4.

5.

Sit straight without crossing your legs and breathe comfortably and steadily.

Take a small, silent breath in and out through your nose. After exhaling, pinch your nose to keep air from entering.

Start your stopwatch and hold your breath until you feel the first definite desire to breathe.

When you feel the first urge to breathe, resume breathing and note the time. The urge to breathe may come in the form of involuntary movements of your breathing muscles, or your tummy may jerk or your throat may contract.

Your inhalation should be calm and controlled, through your nose. If you feel like you must take a big breath, then you held your breath too long.

The time you just measured is called the "control pause" or CP, which reflects the tolerance of your body to carbon dioxide.

Here are the criteria for evaluating your CP: •

CP 40 to 60 seconds — Indicates a normal, healthy breathing pattern and excellent physical endurance.

•

CP 20 to 40 seconds — Indicates mild breathing impairment, moderate tolerance to physical exercise and potential for health problems in the future (most folks fall into this category).

To increase your CP from 20 to 40, physical exercise is necessary. You might begin by simply walking with one nostril occluded. As your CP increases, begin incorporating jogging, cycling, swimming, weightlifting or anything else to build up an air shortage.

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•

•

CP 10 to 20 seconds — Indicates significant breathing impairment and poor tolerance to physical exercise; nasal breath training and lifestyle modifications are recommended. If your CP is less than 20 seconds, never have your mouth open during exercise, as your breathing is too unstable. This is particularly important if you have asthma.

•

When you need to breathe in, let go of your nose and breathe gently through it, in and out, with your mouth closed.

•

Calm your breathing as soon as possible.

Repeat this exercise several times in succession, waiting 30 to 60 seconds between rounds. Also, be sure to do it on a regular basis, ideally daily.

CP under 10 seconds — Serious breathing impairment, very poor exercise tolerance and chronic health problems.

Breathe Less and More Lightly

Short CP times correlate with low tolerance to CO2 and chronically depleted CO2 levels. As a result, the shorter your CP, the more easily you'll get breathless. The good news is that you will feel better and improve your exercise endurance with each five-second increase in your CP.

Improve Fitness and Endurance

by Raising Your CO2 Tolerance The first step to increase your CP is to learn how to unblock your nose with the following breath hold exercise. While this exercise is perfectly safe for most, if you have any cardiac problems, high blood pressure, are pregnant, have Type 1 diabetes, panic attacks or any serious health concern, then do not hold your breath beyond the first urges to breathe.

•

Sitting up straight, take a small breath in through your nose and a small breath out. If your nose is quite blocked, take a tiny breath in through the corner of your mouth.

•

Pinch your nose with your fingers and hold your breath. Keep your mouth closed.

While "breathe less" might sound like a terrible recommendation, most people chronically over breathe, meaning they breathe more than is needed, which depletes their carbon dioxide reserves. Typical characteristics of over breathing include mouth breathing, upper chest breathing, sighing, noticeable breathing during rest, and taking large breaths prior to talking.

Clinical trials6 involving asthmatics show they breathe between 10 to 15 liters of air per minute and people with chronic heart disease tend to breathe between 15 to 18 liters of air per minute. On the other hand, normal breathing volume is between 4 and 7 liters of air per minute, which translates into 12 to 14 breaths.

This suggests breathing less is a sign of better health. Conversely, the more you breathe, the more likely you are to experience significant health problems. What's more, if you are breathing through your mouth during the day, odds are you're also doing so at night, which can lead to health problems such as dehydration, snoring and sleep 7,8,9,10,11,12 apnea.

Mouth breathing is associated with several other health problems, including: •

•

Gently nod your head or sway your body until you feel that you cannot hold your breath any longer.

Bronchial asthma and exercise-induced asthma — In one study,13 young asthma patients had virtually no exercise-induced asthma after exercising while breathing

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through their noses. However, they did experience moderate bronchial constriction after exercising while mouth breathing.

•

•

Abnormal facial development — Children who breathe through their mouths tend to develop longer faces with altered jaw structures.14,15,16,17,18,19 Poor oral hygiene — Loss of moisture dries out your saliva and contributes to poor oral hygiene; dehydration causes your airways to constrict and makes nose breathing even more difficult, creating a vicious cycle.

•

Reduced oxygen delivery to your heart, brain and other tissues due to constricted arterial blood flow.20

•

Crooked teeth, poor concentration, allergies, poor sports performance and ADHD have also been linked with mouth breathing.

The trick to minimize these problems is to breathe more lightly, and this happens automatically when you shift from breathing through your mouth to your nose. Remember, the deeper and more quickly you breathe, the more constricted your blood vessels will be and the less oxygen will be delivered to your tissues.21 Breathing through the nose, on the other hand, slows down and regularizes your breathing, thereby improving oxygenation.

Nasal breathing also has a calming effect because it activates your parasympathetic nervous system.22,23

calm, meditative state while lowering your blood pressure and reducing nasal congestion for easier breathing.

You may feel a slight air shortage at first, but this should be tolerable. If it becomes uncomfortable, take a 15-second break and then continue.

1.

Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your belly; feel your belly move slightly in and out with each breath, while your chest remains unmoving.

2.

Close your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose. Focus your attention on the cold air coming into your nose and the slightly warmer air leaving it on the out breath.

3.

Slowly decrease the volume of each breath, to the point it feels like you're almost not breathing at all (you'll notice your breath getting very quiet at this point). The crucial thing here is to develop a slight air hunger. This simply means there's a slight accumulation of carbon dioxide in your blood, which signals your brain to breathe.

After three or four minutes of air hunger, you'll start experiencing the beneficial effects of CO2 accumulation, such as an increase in body temperature and an increase in saliva.

The former is a sign of improved blood circulation, the latter a sign that your parasympathetic nervous system has been activated, which is important for stress reduction.

Three Steps to Proper Breathing

Breathe Vertically

Horizontally,

Not

The following steps will help your breath become lighter, such that the hairs in your nose barely move. Again, this type of light breathing helps you to enter and remain in a

Another near-universal breathing abnormality is breathing vertically rather than horizontally.

This is something clinical psychologist Belisa Vranich points out in her book "Breathe,"

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which details her breathing program.

Vertical breathing makes you feel a bit taller on the in-breath, as it raises your chest and shoulders. The problem is that this kind of breathing actually triggers your sympathetic nervous system, basically signaling your body that you're stressed.

Correct breathing will cause your midsection to widen, while not raising your shoulders or puffing out the upper part of your chest. This is the horizontal breath. At first, you may find it difficult to take a proper breath, as your midsection and diaphragm may be tight. To relearn proper horizontal breathing, Vranich suggests the following exercise: •

Begin by relaxing and unbracing your midsection.

•

Take a deep breath in and actually feel the middle of your body get wider. Let your belly go.

•

On the exhale, roll backward, tipping your hips underneath you while pressing your fingers gently into your belly, giving it a little squeeze.

Eventually, this exercise will teach your body to use the diaphragm to breathe. A related problem here is feeling short of breath, which is caused by insufficient exhalation that leaves excess residual air in your lungs.

Engaging your diaphragm and intercostals — the muscles that run between your ribs, allowing your chest wall to move — will allow you to take more complete in and out breaths. You can also train yourself to exhale more fully by making sure your exhale is slightly longer than your inhale, and by engaging your diaphragm to really squeeze the air out as you allow your midsection to collapse inward.

In the 4-7-8 exercise below, for example, your exhale is twice as long as your inhale. The condensed version of Vranich's interview is included above for your convenience. For the full interview, see "Breathing Program to Improve Mental and Physical Health."

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Deep breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which induces the relaxation response.24 There are many different breathing practices that will accomplish this, but the following is both powerful and easy to perform.

I first learned this exercise when I attended a presentation by Dr. Andrew Weil at the 2009 Expo West in California. Here's a quick summary of the process.25 Weil also demonstrates the technique in the video above.

1.

Sit up straight.

2.

Place the tip of your tongue up against the back of your front teeth. Keep it there through the entire breathing process.

3.

Breathe in silently through your nose to the count of four.

4.

Hold your breath to the count of seven.

5.

Exhale through your mouth to the count of eight, making an audible "whoosh" sound.

6.

That completes one full breath. Repeat the cycle another three times, for a total of four breaths.

You can do this 4-7-8 exercise as frequently as you want throughout the day, but it's recommended you don't do more than four full breaths during the first month or so of practice.

Later you may work your way up to eight full breath cycles at a time. The benefits of this simple practice are enormous and work as a natural tranquilizer for your nervous system.

Ease Stress and Anxiety With Controlled Breathing Another powerful technique is the Buteyko Breathing Method, which will help reverse health problems associated with improper breathing, the most common of which are overbreathing and mouthbreathing. When you stop mouthbreathing and learn to bring your breathing volume toward normal, you have better oxygenation of your tissues and organs, including your brain.

The Buteyko Breathing Method and many other controlled breathing methods are also very effective for controlling anxiety and quelling panic attacks. As reported by Scientific American:26 "[R]espiratory techniques do not work only for acute stresses or sleep problems; they can also relieve chronic anxiety. They are particularly effective in people with psychiatric disorders such as phobias, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder ‌ Breathing exercises also help to counter the accumulation of minor physical tension associated with stress. Therapists recommend doing them regularly during the day, during breaks or at moments of transition between two activities: you simply stop to adjust your posture and allow yourself a few minutes of quiet breathing.

Therapists often suggest the '365 method': at least three times a day, breathe at a rhythm of six cycles per minute (five seconds inhaling, five seconds exhaling) for five minutes. And do it every day, 365 days a year.

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Photo by Ingrid Santana from Pexels

Some studies even suggest that, in addition to providing immediate relief, regular breathing exercises can make people less vulnerable to stress, by permanently modifying brain circuits.”

Research27 also shows the relaxation response enhances "expression of genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance," and reduces "expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress-related pathways.”

Scientific American lists six breathing techniques shown to relieve stress, anxiety and panic attacks, including alternate nostril breathing and abdominal breathing. The Buteyko Breathing Method is also indicated for this, as it allows you to retain and gently accumulate CO2, which calms breathing and reduces anxiety: 1.

Take a small breath into your nose, followed by a small breath out

2.

Hold your nose for five seconds in order to hold your breath, and then release your nose to resume breathing

3.

Breathe normally for 10 seconds

4.

Repeat the sequence

For Better Health, Control Your Breath Typically, the respiratory rate of humans is about 10 to 20 breaths per minute. Slowing your breathing down to a rate of four to 10 breaths per minute appears to offer many benefits, however, including effects on the respiratory, cardiovascular, cardiorespiratory and autonomic nervous systems.28 Further, according to research29 published in the medical journal Breathe, optimized respiration in humans may be in the range of six to 10 breaths per minute, done in a way that activates your diaphragm. The researchers also note that nasal breathing (such as taught by the Buteyko method) "is also considered an important component of optimized respiration," and that: "Controlled, slow breathing appears to be an effective means of maximizing HRV [heart rate variability] and preserving autonomic function, both of which have been associated with decreased mortality in pathological states and longevity in the general population …

This is easily achievable in most individuals with simple practice and there is yet to appear in the literature any documented adverse effects of respiration in the 6 to 10 breaths per minute range."

Aside from the techniques already mentioned, there are many others. Following is a short list of a few additional breathing methods you can try, all of which are backed by scientific evidence30 showing their beneficial influence on human health.

Nadi Shodhana/Nadi Shuddhi (alternate nostril breathing) — With your right thumb, close the right nostril and inhale through your left nostril. Closing the left nostril, exhale through the right, following which, inhalation should be done through the right nostril. Closing the right nostril, breathe out through your left nostril. This is one round. The procedure is repeated for the desired number of rounds.

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Surya Anuloma Viloma (right uninostril breathing) — Closing the left nostril, both inhalation and exhalation should be done through your right nostril, without altering the normal pace of breathing.

Chandra Anuloma Viloma (left uninostril breathing) — Similar to Surya Anuloma Viloma, breathing is done through your left nostril alone, by closing the right nostril.

Surya Bhedana (right nostril initiated breathing) — Closing the left nostril, inhalation should be done through your right nostril. At the end of inhalation, close the right nostril and exhale through the left nostril. This is one round. The procedure is repeated for the desired number of rounds.

Ujjayi (psychic breath) — Inhalation and exhalation are done through the nose at a normal pace, with partial contraction of the glottis, which produces a light snoring sound. You should be aware of the passage of breath through your throat during the practice.

Bhramari (female honeybee humming breath) — After a full inhalation, closing the ears using your index fingers, you should exhale making a soft humming sound similar to that of a honeybee.

Sources and References: 1

Buteyko.com FAQ Concerning a Biologically Important Relationship - The Influence of the Carbon Dioxide Content of Blood on its Oxygen Binding 3 Biol Psychol. 1998 Sep;49(1-2):83-94 4 Breathing.com 5 Buteyko.com 6 J Appl Physiol. 1995 Sep; 79(3): 892-901 7 Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2011 Apr;268(4):533-9 8 Respiration. 2010;80(6):488-94 9 Acta Otolaryngol Suppl. 1996;523:228-30 10, 11 Laryngoscope. 2007 Jun;117(6):1102-6 12 Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 1998 Oct;81(4):279-87; quiz 287-90 13 American Review of Respiratory Disease July 1, 1978; 118(1):65-7 14 American Journal of Orthodontics April 1983; 83(4): 334-340 15 Angle Orthod 1990 Fall; 60(3): 167- 76 16 Laryngoscope 2010 Oct; 120(10): 2089-93 17 Braz J Otorhinolaryngol. 2011 Sep-Oct; 77(5):656-62 18 J Bras Pneumol. 2011 Jul-Aug; 37(4)):471-9 19 Journal Pediatrics (Rio J) 2011 Jul-Aug; 87(4)):471-9 20 Western Journal of Medicine 1983 May; 138(5): 733–736 21 American Journal of Psychiatry 1992 Nov;149(11):1589-91 22 Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2007: 5323-5325 23 Indian J Med Research 2004 Aug;120(2):115-2 24, 26 Scientific American January 15, 2019 25 Drweil.com, Breathing Exercises: 4-7-8 Breath 27 PLOS One May 1, 2013 28, 29 Breathe (Sheff). 2017 Dec; 13(4): 298–309.

30 J Ayurveda Integr Med. 2018 Jan 30. pii: S0975-9476(17)30322-4 2

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OMEGA-3.

WHY IT’S A NO-BRAINER

By Jurgen Kerschbaumer.

It is not news that healthy fats are incredibly important to wellness. Since the 1990s it has been a topic of discussion in “natural health” circles. For that matter cod liver oil supplements have been around for what seems like generations. So much so that talk of Essential Fatty acids and Omega-3 seems a bit passé.

Fortunately, the research into how EFAs benefits us continues unabated. We say fortunately, because some of what has emerged is rather astounding.

Here are some of my favourite outtakes, in bite size, attention grabbing tweet style.

Taking Omega-3 means there is less risk of asthma and allergies.

There is pretty good evidence that this may well be the case. The research included 399 subjects (persons, in non-academic terms).

What is even more astounding is that the

So despite the fact that the supplement is in the body for a short time, and has to be taken regularly, the benefits seem to endure for many years later. Perhaps here one should point out that giving our children the very best opportunity to fulfill their potential, is not a sprint, but an ultra ultra marathon. And every meal, every hour spent reinforcing healthy habits, is an immeasurably valuable investment.

Another study which was conducted with 145 one-year olds, showed a similar promising result.

Supplementation by the mother during pregnancy and breastfeeding showed the potential decreased risk of food allergies in the one-year old babies. “This may be due to the fact that fish-oil supplementation has been associated with decreased levels of body cells associated with inflammation and immune response.� Any parent who has had the experience of a child with food sensitivities would be calling for those Omega-3’s round about now!

Omega-3 will make your child smarter!

A rather small study of 44 moms and their babies concluded that at 9 months old those that had the benefit of supplementation showed greater problem-solving abilities. For the curious: This was done using something called the Fagan infant intelligence test. This involves measuring how long an infant focused on or responded to stimuli.

Fagan and some of his associates followed some of the infants through to school attendance to verify the relevance of this testing protocol. Several studies confirmed the benefit of omega-3 supplementation during pregnancy in terms of proper development of the brain and retina .

Yet another small study drew correlations between supplementing the mothers and the improved hand-eye co-ordination of their children at 2.5 years.

How should we understand this? There are two main essential fatty acids, namely EPA and DHA. DHA is the more important fatty acid for cell membrane function. The most likely explanation is this: during the third trimester of pregnancy, vast amounts of DHA accumulate in foetal tissue.

The two areas where this is most densely concentrated, are the eyes and brain. Hence the correlation with normal eyesight and brain function.

Right-wing Italian political party proposes a law to make it illegal to feed your child a vegan diet True story. And such an inflammatory headline. Based on evidence of the importance of EFA supplementation for early childhood brain development, politicians thought this kind of overreach into the home and parenting is a good way to show old school family values. Good sense prevailed, and the proposal did not, to the best of our knowledge get passed into law.

But it provides the perfect segway for talking about how we should be looking at different ways to see to the nutritional needs of human beings.

There are many well substantiated reasons to reduce or eliminate animal proteins from the diet. Regardless of whether the environmental or ethical imperatives weigh more heavily on your mind, it is impossible to ignore these facts: Intensive agriculture for meat and dairy production is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, which drive climate change. Feed crops for cattle also drive deforestation, which amplifies the destructive environmental impact.

The massive international trend towards a vegan diet has given rise to many new products, books, recipes and launched more than a few Instagram sensations. Algae as a potent source of protein, vitamins and minerals to augment a “plant-based” diet is well established. But one really needs to eat fish to get Omega-3, right?

Wrong. In the same way that humans do not synthesize Omega-3 fatty acids effectively, fish also do not produce it either. The EFAs are “bio-accumulated” in larger fish that eat smaller fish to the level that the small guys have algae as their source of nutrition. This algal oil rich diet is the real reason that oily fish are regarded as such healthy foods.

Jurgen Kerschbaumer Jurgen has 25 years of experience in the complementary medicines industry, and has an indepth knowledge of manufacturing in the field. He is passionate about music, natural wines, great food and the connection to the soil. As a consequence he has a keen interest in gardening, urban greening and -agriculture. When not he does not have a spade or ladle in hand, he can at times been seen around Cape Town on a bicycle.

How Baobab Oil Helps

ACNE

Image by jensfriislund from Pixabay

This nourishing amber-gold oil is cold pressed from the seeds of the baobab fruit pod. It’s a rare, naturally light oil which doesn’t clog pores and absorbs rapidly without leaving a greasy residue. Baobab oil has a unique fatty acid profile with exceptional quantities of Omega 6 and 9, helping to retain moisture and regenerate new skin cells. It’s also particularly recommended for healing scar tissue.

It’s rich in Linoleic acid and applying it to problem skin can result in improved sebaceous gland function and the prevention of acne formation. A recent study on baobab oil shows that it has high levels of linoleic acid making it an excellent therapeutic choice for acne.

We’ve boosted baobab’s deeply moisturising and natural anti-inflammatory properties by adding Calendula, Tea Tree and Evening Primrose. This synergistic blend works to reverse Acne and take your skin back onto a healing path.

By Dr Josh Axe

Leaky gut syndrome is a rapidly growing condition that millions of people are struggling with and don’t even know it. From the sound of it, you might think leaky gut syndrome only affects the digestive system, but in reality it can lead to many other health conditions.

According to research, the cause of your food allergies, low energy, joint pain, thyroid disease, autoimmune conditions and slow metabolism could be leaky gut symptoms progression.

In this article, I will outline specifically how you can heal leaky gut syndrome and break through the health problems you’ve been struggling with.

What Is Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Think of the lining of your digestive tract like a net with extremely small holes in it that only allow specific substances to pass through. Your gut lining works as a barrier keeping out bigger particles that can damage your system.

When someone has leaky gut (often referred to as increased intestinal permeability), the “net” in your digestive tract gets damaged, which causes even bigger holes to develop in your net, so things that normally can’t pass through, are now be able to.

Some of the things that can now pass through include proteins like gluten, bad bacteria and undigested foods particles. Toxic waste can also leak from the inside of your intestinal wall into your bloodstream causing an immune reaction.

Leaky Gut Symptoms and Progression This leads to inflammation throughout your system and can cause symptoms, such as:

•Bloating •Food sensitivities •Thyroid conditions •Fatigue •Joint pain •Headaches •Skin issues like rosacea and acne •Digestive problems •Weight gain •Syndrome X

One of the biggest warning signs that you may have leaky gut — I recommend that you take a leaky gut test — can be that you’re experiencing multiple food sensitivities. Partially digested protein and fat can seep through your intestinal lining, making their way into your bloodstream and causing an allergic response.

This allergic response doesn’t mean you’ll break out in a rash all over your body, but it can lead to one of the symptoms I’ve mentioned above. If left un-repaired, it can lead to more severe health issues like inflammatory bowel disease, IBS, arthritis, eczema, psoriasis, depression, anxiety, migraine headaches, muscle pain and chronic fatigue.

According to the Journal of Diabetes, there is a strong body of evidence pointing to leaky gut syndrome as a major cause of autoimmune diseases, including Type 1 Diabetes.

Another problem with leaky gut is that it can cause malabsorption of vital minerals and nutrients including zinc, iron and vitamin B12.

What Causes Leaky Gut? There are four main causes of leaky gut which include: •Poor diet •Chronic stress •Toxin overload •Bacterial imbalance The most common components of food that can damage your intestinal lining are the proteins found in un-sprouted grains, sugar, GMO’s and conventional dairy.

The problem with un-sprouted grains is that they contain large amounts of antinutrients or nutrient blockers called phytates and lectins. Lectins are sugar-binding proteins that act as a natural defense system for plants that protect them from outside invaders like mold and parasites.

This is good news for plants but bad news for your body. Your digestive lining is covered with sugar-containing cells that help break down your food. Lectins gravitate toward this area and when they attach to your digestive lining, it damages your gut and causes inflammation.

Lectins and Foods that Cause Leaky Gut Lectins are found in many foods, not just grains, and consumed in smaller amounts, your body will do just fine with them. But foods that have large amounts of lectins are more problematic.

Some of the lectins and foods that cause leaky gut include wheat, rice, spelt and soy.

Sprouting and fermenting grains reduces phytates and lectins, making these foods easier to digest. GMO and hybridized foods tend to be the highest in lectins since they have been modified to fight off bugs. Also, gluten–containing grains will damage your intestinal lining and cause leaky gut syndrome.

So while you are working to heal leaky gut and cure autoimmune disease, stay away from all grains, especially ones that contain gluten like wheat. Once your gut is healthy, you can add back in grains that have been fermented and sprouted to eat occasionally.

Conventional cows milk is another food that can cause leaky gut. The component of dairy that will harm your gut is the protein A1 casein. Also, the pasteurization process will destroy vital enzymes, making sugars like lactose very difficult to digest. For this reason, I only recommend buying dairy that is raw and from A2 cows, goats, sheep, or buffalo.

Sugar is another substance that will wreak havoc on your digestive system. Sugar will feed the growth of yeast, candida and bad bacteria, which will further damage your gut. Bad bacteria actually creates toxins called exotoxins that damage healthy cells and can eat a hole into your intestinal wall.

Other Factors that Cause Leaky Gut Chronic stress: It weakens your immune system over time, which cripples your ability to fight off foreign invaders like bad bacteria and viruses, leading to inflammation and leaky gut. To reduce stress, I recommend getting more sleep, schedule fun into your week, rest one day a week, meditate on scripture, and hang out with positive, uplifting people.

Toxins: We come into contact with over 80,000 chemicals and toxins every single year, but the worst offenders for causing leaky gut include antibiotics , pesticides, tap water, aspirin and NSAIDS. I recommend buying a high-quality water filter to eliminate chlorine and fluoride and look to natural plant-based herbs to reduce inflammation in your body.

Dysbiosis: Finally, one of the leading causes of leaky gut is a condition called Dysbiosis, which means an imbalance between beneficial and harmful species of bacteria in your gut. For many, this imbalance can begin at birth because of a C-section or because the mother didn’t have a healthy gut herself. The overuse of prescription antibiotic drugs, tap water with chlorine and fluoride, and the lack of probiotic-rich foods contribute to this imbalance of good and bad bacteria.

Leaky Gut and the Brain Another topic I want to quickly discuss is how leaky gut can affect the brain.

If you’ve ever seen a child with autism experience a mood swing, this can be caused by intestinal permeability.

Gluten-free and casein-free diets have proven effective for many children with autism because these proteins can leak through the gut and then recirculate and act on the brain similarly to an opioid drug.

This is also why leaky gut syndrome has been linked to other psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder.

So, in many cases, if you can heal the gut, you can heal the brain.

The 4-Step Plan to Heal Leaky Gut The good news is there’s a solution to successfully healing leaky gut. There is a four-step process that includes:

• • • •

REMOVE foods and factors that damage the gut REPLACE with healing foods REPAIR with specific supplements REBALANCE with probiotics

Here’s the protocol I have used with my patients over the years that has helped them see incredible results.

Remember, the top foods to remove that cause leaky gut are sugar, grains, conventional meat, conventional dairy and GMO foods. The top toxic exposures to eliminate are tap water, pesticides, NSAIDS and antibiotics — but remember to always consult with your physician if he or she has prescribed these for you.

The Leaky Gut Diet and 5 Healing Foods If you suffer from leaky gut syndrome, you’re overdue to consider adopting a leaky gut diet. Here are the five foods and supplements to heal your leaky gut.

#1 Bone Broth – broth contains collagen and the amino acids proline and glycine that can help heal your damaged cell walls. I’ve had many of my patients do a bone broth fast for three days to help heal leaky gut and cure autoimmune disease. #2 Raw Cultured Dairy – contains both probiotics and SCFA’s that can help heal the gut. Pastured kefir, yogurt, amasai, butter and raw cheese are some of the best.

#3 Fermented Vegetables – contain organic acids that balance intestinal pH and probiotics to support the gut. Sauerkraut, kimchi and kvass are excellent sources. #4 Coconut Products – all coconut products are especially good for your gut. The MCFA’s in coconut are easier to digest than other fats so they work well for leaky gut. Also, coconut kefir contains probiotics that support your digestive system.

#5 Sprouted Seeds – chia seeds, flaxseeds and hemp seeds that have been sprouted are great sources of fiber that can help support the growth of beneficial bacteria. But if you have severe leaky gut, you may need to start out getting your fiber from steamed vegetables and fruit.

Also, consuming foods that have omega-3 fats are beneficial — anti-inflammatory foods like grass-fed beef, lamb and wild-caught fish like salmon.

Top 5 Supplements for Healing Leaky Gut There are many supplements that support your digestive health, but I believe the most beneficial leaky gut supplements are l-glutamine, probiotics, digestive enzymes, aloe Vera juice, quercetin, NAG and licorice root. #1 Probiotics are the most important supplement to take because it helps replenish good bacteria and crowds out bad bacteria. I recommend getting probiotics in both food and supplement form. I see people all the time only follow part of the protocol in healing their leaky gut syndrome by removing the damaging irritants. But the part they often leave out is reinoculating their gut with beneficial bacteria that will keep bad bacteria at bay.

So load up on BOTH probiotic-rich foods and take AT LEAST 50 billion units of probiotics daily from a high-quality brand. #2 Digestive enzymes (one or two capsules at the beginning of each meal) ensure that foods are fully digested, decreasing the chance that partially digested foods particles and proteins are damaging your gut wall. #3 L-Glutamine is critical for any program designed to heal leaky gut. Glutamine powder is an essential amino acid supplement that is anti-inflammatory and necessary for the growth and repair of your intestinal lining. L-glutamine benefits include acting as a protector: coating your cell walls and acting as a repellent to irritants. Take 2–5 grams twice daily. #4 Licorice Root (DGL) is an adaptogenic herb that helps balance cortisol levels and improves acid production in the stomach. DGL supports the body’s natural processes for maintaining the mucosal lining of the stomach and duodenum. This herb is especially beneficial if someone’s leaky gut is being caused by emotional stress. Take 500 milligrams twice daily. #5 Quercetin has also been shown to improve gut barrier function by sealing the gut because it supports creation of tight junction proteins. It also stabilizes mast cells and reduces the release of histamine, which is common in food intolerance. New studies have also shown its effectiveness in healing ulcerative colitis. Take 500 milligrams three times daily with meals.

If you can follow the above protocol, you are well on your way to successfully treating your gut for good.

Dr. Josh Axe, DNM, DC, CNS is a certified doctor of natural medicine, doctor of chiropractic and clinical nutritionist with a passion to help people get healthy by using food as medicine. In 2008 he started Exodus Health Center, which grew to become one of the largest functional medicine clinics in the world.

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The

Veil

Photo by Davide De Giovanni from Pex

BY MICHAEL HOWARD

What’s your veil? What keeps you from seeing further into reality? Is an attachment to someone restricting your freedom? Or a religion keeping you deluded?

Is alcohol, or another drug- maybe a prescribed one – dulling your sensitivity ? Maybe it’s positive psychology, pep talks and self-help gurus that have you blindly affirming, chasing your goals unconsciously. Or is your day-to-day bump and grind so deeply ingrained that you simply don’t have the time, or the inclination, to look deeper.

What is it that keeps you from going crazy in this insane world? Wait… do you even realise that there is insanity? Do you know that your happy facade might implode if you stopped and really examined things? Don’t say it wouldn’t, unless you’ve tried breaking the facade and looking behind the veil. What drives you to keep living your life, without collapsing into a heap of existential meaninglessness?

Rat races Are you aware that absolutely everything you spend your time doing or believing, is aimed solely at keeping you from breaking down? Our lives are rat races, games of survival of the fittest, where the aim is to beat the opposition in order to boost our egos and keep our masks intact.

If you stop, you’re in trouble. We all are.

Why?

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Because the false self builds identities and insensitivity to keep us going. Because when we stop and look beyond the veil, the suffering and pain is too much to bear. The experience of our failures and faults is devastating to everything we spend our lives trying to create. The full illumination of our sick world cripples us with sorrow and compassion.

When you get a peep through the veil, a troubling question arises: what is the meaning of this sick world, this short and painful existence of an isolated self? This question is deeply upsetting to ‘normal’ life, because it lays out the human condition, raw and festering. And we have no answer. We have no replacement for the identity we clung to.

So we draw back and stay content in our delusion again, we stay secure behind whatever veil has come to keep us from confronting that disturbing question.

Living a good life Ah, but doing good and spending my time in the right ways gives me peace, you argue. I find meaning in my life by keeping busy with worthwhile activities.

But spending your time doing the ‘right’ things only gives you a sensory experience of meaning.

It does not address the existential question, what is the meaning of it all?

So in a way, spending my time ‘right’ is like thickening the veil of delusion. It’s like keeping the attention distracted so the trick is missed.

We can live busy, fruitful and successful lives, all the while keeping ourselves docile and drugged, trying to avoid the real angst that is unavoidable and unsolvable. In fact, the most successful ones in this world are often most adept at reinforcing the delusion – most adept at thickening their own particular veils.

A lifetime of delusion We can, and very often do, spend entire lifetimes never asking the existential question: what is the meaning of it all?

And those that do ask, and suffer under the weight of this agonisingly unanswerable question, we cast aside as unsuccessful, antisocial, depressed, heretical or simply weak-livered. They are the poor, the weak in spirit. They have not found the way to live right, because they have not thickened their veil and deluded themselves into happiness.

Ancient wisdom holds: blessed are the poor in spirit, for it is harder for a rich man to get to heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

I’ve seen it too many times. The rich – the ones with a good veil – are unprepared for the most inevitable thing in life. Their death. I’ve seen devout religious believers on their death bed clinging to this life, unable to accept their imminent departure from it.

And I’ve seen those that are ready to go. Their’s is the kingdom of heaven. In their eyes I see true peace. The peace that comes from looking beyond the veil, accepting the pain of detaching from delusion, and breaking through to light on the other side.

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I don’t know what they see. But whatever it is, we should be preparing to see it too. After all, there’s no escaping death.

We should be preparing by spending time staring through the veil of things that keep us busy.

We must sit as often as possible contemplating life and death, pain and suffering, and, in deep humility, our flawed and intrinsically selfish human condition. In this meditation, we should open ourselves completely to the possibility of nothingness – the possibility that it is all really and truly meaningless. We should authentically accept the unbearable sadness, with powerful waves of compassion and sorrow washing over us.

Grace If you are willing to do this, a strange thing happens. A peace and love will graciously come over you. In the silence, staring into the cloud of unknowing behind the veil, an altogether different sense of existence will dawn upon you, usually only for a brief moment. I can only use the language of people who have experienced it before to describe it:

non-dualism or mystical union or true self or universal love or God. Those are the words used by the wise to describe the experience that follows the darkness of lost identity.

But they too can become a veil, something we simply attach to again to give our egos the identities they constantly demand.

Forget the words and language. Forget everything. Just let go. Sit in the silence of not naming – of not knowing.

And wait on the grace of the all-peaceful, all-loving mystery beyond the veil to come upon you.

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Then you will be free. Free of your veil, and free of the pain you thought you could not bear.

And when you rise from your silence, you will be energised to live every moment in full joy and gratitude, courageous and indifferent to self, ready to follow and serve, in humble acceptance of your smallness in the awe of the mystery of this unknown existence.

For a while you will have dropped your veil… until it rises to delude you again. You will have tasted truth. You will have prepared yourself a little for the ultimate truth – the new light that comes, to stay for good, when your turn comes to die.

______________________________________________________________

Click on the cover below to buy my novel: Death is a delusion. See for yourself. Greta, Anne and Mark make an unusual love triangle. Greta is the late wife who died of Huntington’s disease. And Anne, the volatile second wife, sees dead people.

Husband Mark is a consulting engineer with no inclination toward flights of fancy, until Anne’s shocking death. He’s convinced he spent hours in conversation with her, but she was already lying lifeless in a coroner’s office miles away. The doctor tells him his experience is typical of psychotic episodes induced by trauma.

So begins Mark’s journey into the paranormal. He worries his experiences are symptoms of his cracked mind, but the enlightening presence of Anne, and a spiritual teacher’s wisdom, begin to convince him otherwise.

Then indisputable proof. Mangled metal and dismembered bodies fade from his sight as he enters the eternal sea of consciousness. It is time to know that the good doctor’s diagnosis was wrong. Time to look and see for himself that the line between this world and the next is blurred, and death is a delusion.

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What is Golden Milk & What Might You Gain If You Drink It? Br Dr Mercola Many people like to end their day by sipping on a cup of chamomile tea, but even devoted tea drinkers may be tempted by a warm cup of golden milk. In fact, while some people find it soothing, and perfect before bed, others enjoy it first thing in the morning and even drink it in place of coffee.

What is golden milk? It's not actually milk at all, at least not in the dairy sense. The basis of golden milk is a combination of the warming (and golden-colored) turmeric spice along with coconut milkand/or coconut oil (depending on the recipe you prefer).

Turmeric is most well-known for its use in curry dishes, but it's earning a name for itself as a potent medicinal food.

Turmeric has actually been valued for its medicinal properties for centuries, but in the Western world, particularly the US, it's not commonly consumed. Golden milk has the potential to change that, as each cup provides you with a healthy dose of this "spice of life.�

Turmeric Has Over 150 Potentially Therapeutic Activities It's difficult to describe turmeric in brief simply because it has so many beneficial properties.

That's why the "spice of life," as it's known in India, sums it up wonderfully.

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Traditional medicinal uses in both traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as well as Ayurvedic medicine include the treatment of liver disease, skin problems, respiratory and gastrointestinal ailments, sprained muscles, joint pains, and general wound healing.

Turmeric's benefits have since been well documented in the medical literature, and curcumin — one of the most well-studied bioactive ingredients in turmeric – has been found to promote health and protect against a wide variety of health conditions.

It actually exhibits over 150 potentially therapeutic activities, including anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity, as well as potent anti-cancer properties that have been intensely studied.

Researchers have found a number of different mechanisms of action for curcumin, and part of the answer as to why curcumin appears to be such potent medicine is because it can: Modulate about 700 of your genes Positively modulate more than 160 different physiological pathways1 Make your cells' membranes more orderly2 Affect signaling molecules.3 For example, curcumin has been shown to directly interact with:

Inflammatory molecules

Cell survival proteins

Histone

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV1) integrase and protease

DNA and RNA

Various carrier proteins and metal ions

Turmeric Lowers Inflammation and Blood Sugar Levels Curcumin is one of the most potent anti-inflammatories in nature, which is why, if you're struggling with any inflammatory disorder, golden milk is a beverage worth trying.

Many chronic diseases have inflammation at their root, and even if you're currently healthy, you may benefit from an anti-inflammatory beverage like golden milk, particularly if you eat an inflammatory diet (one that is high in processed foods, sugars, and/or grains).

Curcumin can inhibit both the activity and the synthesis of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) and 5lipoxygenase (5-LOX), as well as other enzymes that have been implicated in inflammation.

A 2006 study also found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids (curcumin is the most investigated curcuminoid) blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the launch of a protein that triggers swelling and pain.4 Separate research among people diagnosed with metabolic syndrome also set out to determine curcumin's effects on inflammation. Half of the participants took one gram of curcumin powder

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daily for eight weeks while the other half received a placebo pill.

At the end of the study, the curcumin group had lower levels of three blood markers of inflammation, including C-reactive protein (CRP), along with lower fasting blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c (a measure of longer term blood sugar levels).5 For comparison, the placebo group had higher blood sugar levels and increased inflammation after the eight weeks. When the researchers evaluated eight previous studies, they, too, confirmed that curcumin lead to reductions in CRP levels.

They concluded that short-term supplementation with bioavailable curcumin significantly improves oxidative and inflammatory status in people with metabolic syndrome, and could be regarded as a "natural, safe, and effective CRP-lowering agent."6

What Might You Gain By Sipping on Golden Milk?

Curcumin in turmeric has the ability to modulate genetic activity and expression — both by destroying cancer cells and by promoting healthy cell function. It also promotes antiangiogenesis, meaning it helps prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth.

Curcumin appears to be universally useful for just about every type of cancer. In addition, according to an ever-expanding clinical body of studies, curcumin may help:

Support healthy cholesterol levels

Prevent low-density lipoprotein oxidation

Inhibit platelet aggregation

Suppress thrombosis and myocardial infarction

Suppress symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes

Suppress symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis

Suppress symptoms of multiple sclerosis

Suppress symptoms of Alzheimer's disease

Inhibit HIV replication

Suppress tumor formation

Enhance wound healing

Protect against liver damage

Increase bile secretion

Protect against cataracts

Protect against pulmonary toxicity and fibrosis

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A study published in Natural Product Reports in 2011 further described curcumin as being therapeutic for a wide range of diseases, including: Lung and liver diseases

Neurological diseases

Metabolic diseases

Autoimmune disorders

Cardiovascular diseases

Inflammatory diseases

Coconut Milk and Coconut Oil: The Other 'Magic' Ingredients in Golden Milk There are many variations of golden milk you can try, but most are made with coconut milk (and some include coconut oil as well). Blending turmeric in with coconut milk not only adds a soothing, creamy base but also additional health benefits.

Coconut milk is made from the expressed juice of grated coconut meat and water. About 50 percent of the fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, which is rarely found in nature. Your body converts lauric acid into monolaurin, a monoglyceride that can actually destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes, influenza, measles, gram-negative bacteria, and protozoa such as Giardia lamblia.

Lauric acid is a type of medium-chain fatty acid (MCFAs), which is easily digested and readily crosses cell membranes. MCFAs are immediately converted by your liver into energy rather than being stored as fat. There are numerous studies showing that MCFAs promote weight loss, including one study that showed rats fed MCFAs reduced body fat and improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.7 Yet another study found that overweight men who ate a diet rich in MCFAs lost more fat tissue, presumably due to increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation from the MCFA intake.8 In addition, coconut milk is rich in antioxidants and nutrients, including vitamins C, E, and B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron.

Coconut oil has similar health benefits and is useful for making "golden paste." You can make golden paste ahead of time, which allows you to quickly whip up a cup of golden milk whenever you're in the mood. As an added benefit, turmeric is fat-soluble, so the use of coconut milk and oil helps to increase its benefits.

Photo by Dana Tentis from Pexels

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How to Make Golden Paste and Golden Milk Golden paste acts as a "starter" to blend the perfect cup of golden milk. It includes not only turmeric and coconut oil but also black pepper, which has been found to increase curcumin's bioavailability by 2,000 percent.9 Here's a simple recipe to make your own from Health Impact News:10

Golden Paste11 Ingredients: • • • •

1/2 cup organic turmeric powder 1 cup water 1.5 teaspoons black pepper 5 tablespoons virgin coconut oil

Directions: 1.

2.

3.

4.

In a stainless steel pot, cook the water, turmeric, and black pepper until it forms a thick paste, stirring and cooking for about 7 to 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and add virgin coconut oil, using a whisk to fully mix in the coconut oil.

Transfer the Golden Paste into a glass jar with a lid, and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

You will use this paste to make your Golden Milk as seen on the next page

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Once you've made your golden paste, you're ready to make golden milk. The recipe that follows, also from Health Impact News, is simple and can be suited to your tastes:12

Golden Milk13 Ingredients: • • • • •

1 teaspoon Golden Paste 2 cups coconut milk 1/8 teaspoon vanilla (optional) Raw honey [or stevia] to taste (optional) Pinch cinnamon (optional)

Directions: 1.

2.

3.

In a stainless steel pot, gently heat, but do not boil, 2 cups of milk with 1 teaspoon of golden paste.

A whisk is helpful to fully mix the paste into the milk.

Add optional vanilla, honey [or stevia], and/or cinnamon.

If you've never tried golden milk, you're in for a pleasant surprise. Many people enjoy it especially during the fall and winter months (and cold and flu season), but it's just as delicious and soothing in the summer, too. One final tip – when cooking with turmeric wear an apron and don't let your pot boil over. This spice will stain your clothing and countertops easily, so unless you want a yellow kitchen, be very careful with spills.

+ Sources and References Health Impact News September 14, 2015 Prevent Disease September 3, 2015 1 Greenmedinfo.com July 10, 2013 2 Journal of the American Chemical Society 2009 Apr 1;131(12):4490-8 3 Natural Product Reports 2011: 28; 1937-1955 4 Arthritis & Rheumatism November 2006: 54(11); 3452-3464 5, 6 Clinical Nutrition January 7, 2015 7, 8 Obes Res. 2003 Jun;11(6):734-44.

9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Health Impact News September 14, 2015 14, 15 Prevent Disease September 3, 2015

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Winter Vegetable Pie From Nature’s Choice

You do not have to be the world’s best chef to create this delightful dish. To add to the flavour, we’ve used some of our products to create it. We hope you have as much fun in the kitchen as we did.

Ingredients • • • • • • • • • • • •

2 tbsp Nature’s Choice Coconut Oil 2 Sliced Onions 1 Sprig of Rosemary 200 g Fresh Peas 400 g Chopped Tomato 2 Diced Large Carrots 1 tbsp Nature’s Choice Gluten-Free Cake Flour 4 Garlic Cloves (Chopped) 900 g Potato (Peeled and chopped) 200 ml Coconut Milk (You can use Nature’s Choice Milk Powder to make) 250 ml Water 1 tbsp Butter

Method 1.

2.

Heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a non-stick pan over a medium heat.

Add onions and cook for 10 minutes until softened, then stir in the flour and cook for another 2 minutes.

3. Add carrots, cauliflower, garlic, and rosemary, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until they begin to soften.

4. Add tomatoes and water into the vegetables 5. Cover with a lid and let them simmer for 10 minutes, then remove the lid and cook for 10 to 15 minutes more, until the sauce has thickened and the vegetables are cooked.

6. Season and stir in the fresh peas and cook for 1 minute more.

7. In a separate pot, boil the potatoes until tender.

8. Drain the potatoes, and mash.

9. While mashing, add small amounts of milk to reach a fairly soft consistency, then add butter and season.

10. Heat the oven.

11. Spoon the vegetables into a pie dish, top with the mash, level with the spoon and make sure all the vegetables are covered and then drag a fork lightly over the surface.

12. Place under the grill for a few minutes until the top is crisp golden brown.

The Nature's Choice Story Nature’s Choice traces its roots back to 1985 when the company was founded as the retail arm of the Natural Health Foundation. We strive tirelessly to harvest the basic purity in the way that it was intended, to produce foods that are nourishing, uncompromised and unerringly pure. It is our duty to respect this natural order and to work with the earth, as we are a part of it and our bodies are designed to derive their full potential from it.

Our Vision is to be the standard bearers and benchmark of an infinitely healthier way of living because we believe that “the right thing will prevail’, always. So much can be done and so much can be prevented and cured by adhering to this basic law of the land.

What Sets Us Apart: Ethics and integrity form part of our cornerstones. We are honest, sincere and pride ourselves in being human, informative, intelligent, positive, purpose-driven and staying relevant in a pure and simple manner which is key to our values.

Nature’s Choice carries the most extensive range of wholefoods and has been trusted since 1985 for bringing our consumers the best quality. Our factory is the only wholefoods company that is FSSC 22000 accredited. This Food Safety Management System provides a framework for effectively managing our food safety responsibilities and implementation of the strictest food handling controls. Nature’s Choice also invests in the processes and checks that are needed to certify our products through Internationally Accredited KIWA BCS Organic as well as Kosher and Halaal.

Sago Crème Brulee

By Ginger & Lime for Green Monday SA

Photo credit: House of Vizion

Ingredients • • • • • • • •

2 litres almond milk 1/2 cup coconut cream 3/4 cup unrefined brown sugar (or coconut sugar) 3 tablespoons sugar for the top 1 cinnamon stick pinch ground cinnamon and nutmeg 2 teaspoons vanilla essence 1 cup sago

Method 1.

Combine almond milk, coconut cream, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in a pot and heat up.

2.

When hot, but not boiling, add sago and reduce the heat slightly.

3.

Simmer for 2 -3 minutes till translucent, and thicker (about 20 mins).

4.

Once it is dense, remove from heat and cool for 5 mins.

5.

Remove cinnamon stick.

6.

Scoop in bowls, sprinkle the rest of the sugar on top and caramelize with a blowtorch.

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THE NUMEROUS GIFTS OF THE KENDO JOURNEY:

20 Exercises to Do at Your Desk.

Get Fit at Work?!

By Chelsea Axe, DC, CSCS, courtesy of www.draxe.com If you are sitting down and reading this article right now, you should stop! Okay, well don’t stop reading, but you might want to stand up to finish it. I will make sure to give you some exercises to do at your desk later, and you’re going to want to.

Why? Well, if you are like most people today, chances are you are spending too much time tied to your desk buried in emails. Or maybe you’re whiling away the time mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram because you have a fear of missing out.

Our modern lives have been engineered so that we can spend most of it sitting down.

Unfortunately, sitting is literally killing us.

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 3.2 million deaths can be attributed to lack of physical activity. (1) Our sedentary lifestylesare responsible for increasing our risk of diabetes and heart disease as well as a loss of muscle and bone strength. Perhaps even more alarming is that people who exercise regularly are probably still not getting enough movement in their lives to counteract the deleterious effects of sitting too much. (2)

All That Sitting Is Making You Fat On average, we spend about 9.5 hours a day sitting. Compare that to the 7.5 hours of sleep we are getting on average, we are doing a lot of sitting.

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Then let’s look at the typical work day.

Most likely, you commute to and from your job in a car with comfy bucket seats. Or at the very least you may be sitting on something a little less comfortable if you commute by train or bus, but still sitting. You roll into the office and sit down at your desk and stare at your screensaver of a remote tropical beach while listening to voicemails. Meetings, conference calls, and maybe even a little gossip session, probably all done while sitting.

Did you have your lunch delivered so you could eat at your desk and keep working? At the end of the day, you sit down for the commute home where you most likely can’t wait to hit the couch.

See how much and how quickly it can all add up? That’s the reason that hour on the elliptical isn’t going to save you!

The impact of all that sitting is an increased rate of obesity. (3) The good news is that with a little more activity throughout the day, we can actually reverse the inevitable weight gain — maybe even lose up to 20 pounds — associated with such a sedentary existence.

One study looked at the resting metabolic rate (RMR) of obese women.

The original assumption was that their RMR was going to be lower than their leaner counterparts. What they actually discovered was the obese group sat an extra 2.5 hours a day. By increasing their daily physical activity alone, they could expend an additional 300 calories a day. (4) Little changes here and there can go a long way in keeping you healthy and happy.

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Also, We Are Sitting Wrong There are countless ways you sneak more activity into your day, aka exercise hacks. There are exercises to do at your desk, such as chair exercises and stretches you can incorporate into your daily routine. But before we get into the various ways you can exercise at your desk, one of the best ways to eliminate back pain and stiff necks is to make sure you are sitting properly.

Let’s be honest here, for all the sitting we do, we aren’t very good at it. We do a lot of slouching and craning our heads forward. Our heads are heavy, and the further forward we have them as opposed to being aligned with our spine, the heavier they become.

By maintaining a forward head posture, you are constantly compressing all the nerves that lead to those awful headaches at the base of your skull. Being chronically out of alignment causes fatigue and aches and can have consequences as severe as asthma, sciatic nerve pain, disc compression and arthritis.

Making sure your desk chair is the right height can drastically reduce neck and back strain. Your feet should be able to be flat on the floor and your knees and hips at a 90-degree angle. Keep your lower back pressed against the chair to help maintain good posture. One of the most important things you can do to avoid forward head posture is to make sure the top one-third of your monitor is above eye level.

Stretch at Your Desk These 10 stretches you can do at your desk will keep you bendy and feeling good. Like yoga … at your desk.

1.

Rubber Neck Sit up tall and drop your right ear down towards your right shoulder (you don’t have to touch it!) and hold for a few seconds and repeat for the left side.

2.

Reach for the Stars Interlace your fingers and reach up towards the sky, as high as you can … keeping your palms facing up towards the ceiling.

3.

Look Around Turn your head the left and try and look over your shoulder and hold for a few seconds … repeat on the right.

4.

Bobblehead Drop your chin down towards your chest and GENTLY roll your head from side to side.

5.

Shrugs Raise both shoulders up towards your ears and hold for a few seconds and release. Repeat a few times for good measure.

6.

Chest Opener Bring your hands behind your back, press your palms together, sit up tall and hold for 5–10 seconds.

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7.

Seated Toy Soldier Sit up tall and extend your right arm all the way up towards the ceiling. Straighten your left leg out and raise it up as you bring your right arm down and try to touch your left foot. Do 8–10 on each side.

8.

Knee Hugger With a bent knee, lift your right leg up and grab it with your arms and pull it in as close to your chest as you can. Hold for 5–10 seconds and make sure and do it on the left side, too.

9.

Reach and Bend Extend your right arm over your head and reach out as far as you can to the left and gently bend over. Hold for a few seconds and do it the other way.

10. Knee Press This one stretches out the glutes. With your right ankle on your left knee, gently press against the right knee a few times. Of course, after you’re done with the right side, be sure and give the left side some love, too.

When You’re Ready to Upgrade, Exercise at Your Desk Stretching is fantastic, and it’s definitely something you should be including in your office workout plan, but what if you’re ready to take things to the next level? Check out the following 10 exercises to do at your desk. Go ahead, mute that conference call you are on, get your blood flowing and challenge your muscles.

1.

Walk/Jog/Run in Place 30–45 seconds. 3–5 times. This one is as simple as it sounds. Stand up from your chair and get to it. Anyone can do this one, you are in control of the intensity based on the pace you choose. Want an even bigger challenge? Bring your knees up to waist level.

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2.

Push-Ups Now, before you panic at the thought of getting on the floor in your office … don’t! Remember, you are saving your life! Plus, there are options besides the floor. The modifications are to do them on the wall or on the edge of your desk. If you are going to do them against the wall though, make sure it’s not a cubicle wall or you could end up on your co-workers desk. 10 reps. 3 times.

3.

Squats From your chair, stand up, sit back down and repeat 10 more times. Simple!

4.

Tricep Dips Tricep dips can be done pretty much anywhere. Use your desk or your chair if it doesn’t have wheels on it. Position your hands shoulder-width apart on that desk or chair, then move your butt off the front with your legs extended out in front of you. Straighten your arms, keeping a little bend in your elbows to keep tension on your triceps and off your elbow joints.

5.

5. Pretend Jump Rope Hop on both feet at once, or alternate. Increase the intensity by adding the arm movements you would do if you had a rope.

6.

Calf Raises Stand up behind your chair and hold on for support. Raise your heels off the floor until you are standing on your toes. Slowly lower yourself back to the floor. Do 3 sets of 10.

7.

Glute Squeeze This is an isometric move. Squeeze your glutes as hard as you can and hold for 10–30 seconds.

8.

Shoulder Press Look around the office and find an old phone book or a ream of paper, something that weighs a few pounds. Hold it at shoulder height and then raise it all the way overhead. 10 reps. 3 times.

9.

Wall Sit Another great isometric move. Stand with your back against the wall and slowly lower yourself into a seated position and hold for 10–30 seconds at a time.

10. Lunge You can keep this move stationary and do it at your desk, or you could go all out and lunge down the hall to the printer and back. With one leg in front of the other, gently lower the knee of your back leg down towards the ground. Like you were going to propose to a coworker. 10 times on each leg.

Leave Your Desk, Exercise Everywhere Burning some extra calories at your desk is one thing, but how about getting even more movement throughout the day? These next 10 ideas are pretty ambitious. I would recommend picking one or two to start with and not trying to implement them all at once.

1.

2.

Park farther away There is something strangely gratifying about the ability to get the nearest parking spot to the entrance, but parking at the edge of the lot will help you get a lot of extra steps in your day.

Take the stairs Don’t like making small talk on the elevator? Take the stairs instead. The stairs are a great way to increase your heart rate and tone up those legs.

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3.

Do it yourself Having an assistant may be a perk of your job, but if you got your own coffee and walked over to the copier more often you would be spending less time sitting.

4.

Stand up If you have to be on the phone a lot, what better time to stand up and do some stretches. Seriously, go ahead, the other person can’t see you!

5.

Take a walk break Schedule 10–15 minutes a day to just walk. See how many steps you can get on your fitness tracker. If it’s nice outside, go get some fresh air. Put it on your calendar to make sure it happens. Better yet, find someone to go with you and hold hold each other accountable.

6.

Live chat What if instead of picking up the phone or sending an email over to Bob in accounting, you actually went and paid Bob a visit? You get to move more, and I’m sure Bob would appreciate the company once in awhile.

7.

Walk and talk Why not have a walking meeting next time instead of sitting in a cold conference room at a table with stale donuts? And because exercise improves brain function (5), you may come up with some of your best ideas!

8.

Commute differently If you live in a city and rely on public transportation, try getting off the train or the bus a stop or two away from your usual stop and get some extra steps in. If you live close enough to work, skip the bus and hop on your bike or lace up your sneakers and hit the pavement.

9.

Get to cooking When you spend time in the kitchen chopping veggies and looking in the oven you are being more active than you realize. The added benefit of this is preparing your own meals is a much healthier alternative to fast food or something you just throw in the microwave.

10. Walk and fly If most of your time is spent in airports waiting to go to the next town, use that time to your advantage. Airline travel can be frustrating with all the layovers and delays, but walking around instead of resigning yourself to your gate for another hour could actually relieve some stress. (6)

The Takeaway You now have an arsenal of tips and tricks you can use to help boost your health and reduce your waistline. The most important thing is to be aware of how much time you spend sitting and get up and do something.

Ideally you should get up from your desk at least once an hour, even if it’s not exercises to do at your desk. Set an alarm to remind you to stop squinting at that Excel worksheet and get up and move. Walking for just two minutes an hour can reduce the negative effects of sitting. You aren’t still sitting right now are you? Get up, get moving!

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Greener Plastics Image by Francis Ray from Pixabay

Researchers and companies are working on new kinds of biodegradable packaging, bottles and other products that break down like compost.

By Marcus Woo, Knowable Magazine Plastic is kind of a wonder material. It’s cheap, light and durable. But the reason it’s so great is also why it can be the worst. It’s so cheap that it’s discarded with nary a thought. It’s so durable that it can persist for centuries, filling landfills and spilling into the oceans, where it is eaten and propagates up the food chain. Plastic breaks down into bits of microplastic that fill bird and fish stomachs, causing them to starve, and sops up toxic pollutants, which can poison wildlife when ingested.

While we can and should use much less plastic, we probably can’t forego it altogether. Plastic packaging, for example, keeps food fresh — crucial for feeding the world. So researchers and companies have been developing biodegradable versions of the material. They’re producing these materials from plants and — in pushing toward a future when everything is recycled and nothing is wasted — even food scraps and sewage. Unlike traditional plastics, which retain their chemical structure even when they break down into smaller pieces, these biodegradable plastics decompose into molecules that can safely reintegrate into the environment.

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“Synthetic plastics break down like rocks — they get smaller and smaller,” says Taylor Weiss, a biophysicist at Arizona State University. “Biodegradable plastics break down like wood.”

But not all biodegradable plastics are created equal, and much of the challenge is to design, or identify, the right material for the job.

Better plastics Many environmentally friendlier plastics are already in the market, including plastic cups and bottles made from plants. Compared with traditional, petroleum-based plastics, these bioplastics are an improvement. They have a smaller carbon footprint — they don’t release extra carbon that’s been locked up in fossil fuels — and are based on renewable resources. But just because something is made from plants doesn’t mean it’s biodegradable: Some bioplastics aren’t, while some petroleum-based plastics are, says Ramani Narayan, a chemical engineer at Michigan State University.

Plastics consist of long molecular chains called polymers, made up of repeating subunits strung together.

Whether they’re biodegradable depends on the strength of this chain. For common plastics like the polyethylene and polypropylene used in bags and bottles, or the polystyrene that’s commonly known as Styrofoam, the links of the chain are particularly strong.

“It’s like a string of pearls,” says Curt Frank, a chemical engineer at Stanford University.

“These pearls are connected by carboncarbon bonds, and those carbon bonds are very strong.”

The links in biodegradable plastics are weaker, often involving chemical groups called esters, for example. Water, acids and enzymes — including those produced by certain microbes — can break those ester links, eventually leaving compounds such as carbon dioxide

and water, which can be consumed by nature, and methane, which can be captured as fuel or fed to microbes.

But biodegradability in itself isn’t necessarily meaningful, Narayan says. (“Human feces is biodegradable,” he says. “That doesn’t allow you to throw it anywhere.”) Different materials biodegrade under different conditions, and if those conditions aren’t available, then the material can be just as bad as regular plastic. For example, those increasingly familiar corn-based cups — made from polylactic acid, or PLA — are labeled as biodegradable, which is technically true. But PLA breaks down only in industrial composting centers. So without the infrastructure to collect and compost, biodegradability alone may not be as beneficial as it seems.

Nor can one replace all plastics with biodegradable ones. For some applications, such as PVC pipes or bulletproof vests, the last thing you want is for the material to break down. The key is to develop the right material for the right application, and that adds yet other challenges. For example, the temperature needed to mold, shape and process biodegradable plastics is often near the temperature under which it degrades.

“The chemical linkages that make them biodegradable also makes them hard to process,” Frank says. “That’s the conundrum.”

To raise the degradation temperature, for instance, researchers can add chemicals that prevent or impede the polymer chain from breaking down. Or they can use tactics to lower the melting temperature, for example by using additives called plasticizers.

While it’ll take time to develop the right processing techniques for every application, researchers are working at it. Frank, along with Sarah Billington, a civil engineer at Stanford, is developing a biodegradable

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version of Styrofoam for use as building insulation. Researchers at the University of Georgia are using polyhydroxyalkanoates, or PHA — which are compostable under broader conditions than PLA — to make plastic straws that can degrade even in the oceans.

Companies such as PepsiCo and Nestlé have announced plans to use PHA for packaging and bottled water, and a new California startup called Cove aims to sell water in PHA bottles that it says degrade in oceans and landfills.

Going full circle Yet other researchers and companies are finding better ways to produce the plastic.

Most of the ostensibly biodegradable plastics on the market today — typically PLA — are made from food crops such as corn, potato and sugarcane. Microbes munch on sugars derived from these crops and produce lactic acid, the building block of PLA. This is potentially a great approach, Narayan says, provided that the underlying agricultural practices are sustainable. The infrastructure already exists, rural agrarian economies could benefit and, according to his calculations, just 1 percent of the globe’s total arable land could grow enough crops to meet the world’s plastic production as it was in 2016.

Still, critics are concerned about competition with food supplies: Ethanol fuel produced from corn already has been blamed for driving up food prices. To avoid potential problems, Weiss has developed a technique to make plastic from just sunlight and two microbes.

Microbe No. 1 is a cyanobacterium that converts sunlight into the sugar sucrose via photosynthesis. (By growing the microbe inside a gel called alginate, Weiss restricts the cyanobacterium from reproducing, thus forcing it to put all its energy into sucrose production.) The sugar is then fed to microbe No. 2, a bacterium that converts sucrose (as a way to store extra energy for itself) into a type

of PHA called PHB. But what might be even better is to harness waste products. Kartik Chandran, an environmental engineer at Columbia University, is turning ground-up food waste and sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants into fuels and useful products, including plastics. He has built bioreactors that use a mix of microbes to first break down the waste into volatile fatty acids.

Then, in a second step, another mix of bacteria stitches those acids together to produce PHA. “To me, these are not waste streams,” Chandran says of the sludge and trash. “These are enriched streams — these are partially refined streams. There’s no sense in dumping them out or even putting more resources into cleaning them.”

Startups such as Genecis in Canada and Full Cycle in California are also making PHA from organic waste. And Mango Materials in California — whose advisory board includes Frank — is using microbes to produce PHB from methane captured from facilities such as wastewater treatment plants and landfills.

These plastics can then be composted, part of a closed-loop production cycle in which nothing is wasted. Chandran envisions a future with facilities in every community that collect and process waste, turning it into not just plastic, but fuel and other materials. “It could potentially touch everything we do and the way we live,” he says. “This is allencompassing.”

Marcus Woo is a freelance science journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Follow him @sucramoow.

“Knowable Magazine is an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews.”

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6 Dog Sleeping Positions and What Each Says About Your Dog's Mood Analysis by Dr. Karen Shaw Becker Dogs typically sleep for about 12 to 14 hours in a 24-hour period, taking on any number of sleeping positions during that time. You've probably seen your share of interesting poses, especially if your pet often snoozes by your side.

Aside from the fact that dogs, like people, may choose a position based solely on comfort, the way your dog sleeps — curled up in a ball, spread out over the entire bed or on his back, for instance — can give you insights into your dog's mood. You may even be able to read some of his body language while he sleeps.

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Doggy Sleeping Positions, Revealed • The Lion Pose — Stanley Coren, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and author of "Do Dogs Dream," describes the lion pose as your dog sleeping with paws stretched forward and his head resting on top, sort of like a lion statue that might sit in front of a museum. "If you see a dog in a lion pose … the dog is apt to be simply dozing and not in a deep sleep state," he told PetMD.1 Side Sleeper — Sleeping on his side with his legs outstretched is a sign of a fully relaxed, confident and content dog. Dogs sleeping on their side typically have a strong bond with their family and pack2 and trusts that he's safe while sleeping in this otherwise vulnerable position. A dog stretched out on his side on a cool surface may also be doing so because he's hot.

• Curled Up in a Ball — Dogs often sleep curled up in a donut shape, with their nose nearly touching their tail. This conserves body heat, helping your dog stay warm, while also protecting his organs from predators. In the wild, dogs would dig a nest and curl up in a ball for both warmth and protection, and many pet dogs continue this in their homes.

Your dog may also "dig" a nest for himself in a pile of blankets prior to taking on this sleeping position. You might even compare it to the cozy "fetal position" humans may use during sleep.

• The Flying Superdog — Does your dog stretch out on his stomach, with his front and back paws extended? This superdog pose is most common among puppies and small dogs, perhaps because it's not as comfortable for larger dogs to rest in this position. Your dog may also try to lay his belly on the floor to cool off. Coren told PetMD:3 "What you call the 'Superman position' — with limbs outstretched and belly against the floor — is also a response to a warm environment, but usually occurs in situations where the surface that the dog is lying on is relatively cooler than the air around him.”

• On His Back — A dog sleeping on his back, perhaps with his legs up in the air, is confident in his surroundings. This position is typically not done in the wild, as it leaves the animal vulnerable to predators, but pet dogs may find this sleeping position comfortable, especially if they feel very safe and relaxed.

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• Up Against You — If your dog prefers to sleep pressed up against you or perhaps another dog in your family, this likely goes back to his days of being a puppy, when he and his littermates piled together for security and warmth. Dogs are pack animals, and you're part of his pack. It's natural for him to want to sleep close by, and many dog owners enjoy it as well. Surveys suggest that 56% of dog owners sleep next to their dogs, with about half sharing the bed.4

Is Your Dog Getting a Good Night's Rest?

While dogs' sleeping patterns are much like humans', dogs don't sleep straight through the night the way we do. During an eight-hour nighttime period, one study found that dogs averaged 23 sleep-wake episodes, with the average sleep-wake cycle consisting of 16 minutes asleep followed by five minutes awake.5 This doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be aware your dog is awake during that time — he'll likely lie quietly. It also doesn't mean that he's not getting quality rest, but if your dog seems especially restless or is unable to find a comfortable position to sleep in, you should have him checked out by your veterinarian to rule out pain or other symptoms and health conditions that could be keeping him awake.

Something I recommend for all pet parents is a grounding mat, which can help balance his circadian rhythm, particularly if your dog doesn't spend much time outdoors. Wild animals are naturally grounded to the Earth, which provides numerous benefits due to the transfer of electrons from the ground to their body.

You can also unplug wireless routers at night to give him a break from electromagnetic fields (EMFs). For dogs who seem unable to settle down, a grounding mat can make all the difference.

You may even find that your dog starts sleeping in entirely new positions once he has access.

Choose a Dog Bed With Your Dog's Favorite Sleeping Positions in Mind In addition, be sure to provide a comfortable, adequately sized bed, made from natural materials, in a quiet, cozy spot. Depending on your dog's favorite sleeping position, you can choose a dog bed to match.

For instance, dogs who sleep curled up may like a round bed with deep sides, whereas side sleepers may prefer a cushioned, flatter surface to spread out on. For belly or back sleepers, an elevated bed may help keep your dog cool and supported. If your dog uses many different sleep positions depending on his mood, that's fine too. Provide a variety of sleep surfaces and let him choose the type he likes best.

- Sources and References 1, 3 PetMD, 5 Dog Sleeping Positions and What They Mean 2 Animal Channel 4 CDC, Zoonoses in the Bedroom January 26, 2011 5 Applied Animal Behaviour Science Volume 36, Issues 2–3, April 1993, Pages 233-248

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Study compares the health of indoor versus outdoor cats Analysis by Dr. Karen Shaw Becker For years now I've assumed it's common knowledge that cats who live indoors are generally healthier with longer lifespans than freeroaming kitties who spend most or all of their time outdoors.

However, the "surprise" results of a recent study have me secondguessing myself!

A group of Auburn University researchers evaluated nearly two dozen studies from around the globe and arrived at the conclusion that outdoor cats are much more likely (three times as likely) to come into contact with infectious parasites than indoor cats. The research team was surprised by these results, which is, well, surprising!

"I was expecting that maybe infections that were spread from cat to cat wouldn't be as influenced by outdoor access," lead study author Kayleigh Chalkowski to The New York Times, "but they were all influenced the same."1 Hmm. While it's true certain infections can be spread from cat to cat indoors, the parasites that host such infections are generally found outdoors. It seems obvious, at least to me, that cats who live entirely indoors either as only pets or with other indoor-only kitties have very little chance of being exposed to outdoor parasites.

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Across the globe, indoor cats have minimal risk of parasitic infection The research team analyzed at a total of 21 studies from the U.S., Europe, Australia, Pakistan, Chile, Brazil and other locations that looked at parasitic infections in indoor-only cats compared to outdoor and indoor-outdoor cats, excluding feral cats. Their findings were published in the journal Biology Letters.2 "Over so many different studies, with so many different parasites, in so many different countries: No matter where you keep your cat indoors, it reduces risk of parasitic infection," Chalkowski told the NYT. Again, I'm surprised at the tone of surprise; it seems obvious to me that indoor animals would have substantially less exposure to parasites and therefore fewer infections. This is one reason I'm completely opposed to the "routine deworming" of indoor animals; it's unlikely they would acquire parasites because most modes of transmission happen outside the home.

Perhaps the Auburn researchers have been influenced by the manufacturers and retailers of chemical pet pest prevention products who would like us all to believe the average housecat is crawling with fleas, ticks, mites, intestinal parasites and other assorted bugs. The commonsense truth is that if your feline family member never goes outdoors, there's not much chance she'll run into any bugs at all.

Other dangers indoor-only cats avoid Parasitic infections are but one of many threats faced by indoor-outdoor and outdoor-only kitties. The biggest is actually trauma, usually involving getting hit by a car. Thanks to KittyCams, researchers have been able to learn plenty about the kinds of risky business free-roaming cats get up to when they're wandering around outdoors, including:3 Crossing roads

Climbing trees

Having non-aggressive contact with unfamiliar cats (infectious disease risk)

Climbing on roofs

Consuming solids or liquids not left by owners

Having contact with wild animals (injury and disease risk)

Entering storm drains

Crawling into car engines

Cats are also prey for wildlife such as coyotes, mountain lions, wolves and raptors, and fights among outdoor cats can also lead to serious injury and infections, including bite abscesses. Sadly, cruel humans also pose a grave risk to cats through gunshots, poisonings, burnings and asphyxia.4 As discussed earlier, infectious diseases, several of which are zoonotic (can be spread to humans) commonly sicken and kill outdoor cats, including feline retroviruses, mycoplasmosis, toxoplasmosis, bartonellosis (cat scratch fever), tularemia, plague and rabies, along with worms, ectoparasites and fungal infections.

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Bottom line — Keep your cat indoors The takeaway message here is that if you want your cat to remain healthy, with a nice long lifespan, she should live exclusively indoors. While being indoors all the time isn't what most cats would choose, it's by far the safest life we can choose for them.

Indoor living isn't an entirely natural environment for your cat but letting her run around loose outside presents much more risk than keeping her "captive" in your home. However, just because your kitty lives inside doesn't mean she can't go on supervised visits outside to bask in the sun, exercise and ground herself on a daily basis, if she chooses. Think of housecats like toddlers; they should live inside but should have some outdoor time daily, weather permitting.

Outdoor adventures are wonderful for cats, as long as they're safe.

I recommend walking your cat in nice weather using a harness. This gets him out into the fresh air, stimulates his senses and gets his paws in direct contact with the ground. An alternative is a safe, fully enclosed catio that prevents him from getting out and other animals from getting in.

Tips to help your 'captive' cat thrive indoors Here are a few recommendations that can provide your cat with an optimal life indoors: • Feed a moisture-rich, nutritionally balanced, species-appropriate diet — Feeding your cat an optimal diet is the single most important thing you can do to help her have a long, healthy life.

That's why it's important to understand that some foods are metabolically stressful, for example, all dry (kibble) formulas, processed pet food (canned or dry) containing feed-grade (versus human-grade) ingredients and diets containing grains, potatoes or other starchy foods.

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The nutrition that generates the least amount of metabolic stress for most cats, regardless of age, is their ancestral diet: whole, raw, unprocessed, organic, non-GMO and in its natural form. Animal meat should be the foundation of your kitty's diet throughout her life. Filtered, pure, fresh water offered out of nontoxic metal or glass (not plastic) bowls is also important.

• Keep your cat at a healthy weight — Tragically, the majority of cats in the U.S. are overweight or obese. The obesity-related diseases overweight kitties inevitably acquire shorten their lifespans and often destroy their quality of life along the way. If you want your kitty around and able to get around comfortably for 20 years, one of the worst things you can do is encourage him to get fat.

The first step in keeping your cat at a healthy weight is to feed an optimal diet as I described above. It's equally important not to free-feed. It's also important to calculate kcal (kilocalorie) requirements for your cat's ideal weight and include treats in his total daily calorie count.

• Make sure she gets daily exercise — Consistent daily exercise, including at least 20 minutes of high-intensity activity will help your cat burn fat and increase muscle tone.

Make sure she has things to climb on, like a multilevel cat tree or tower. Think like a cat and choose toys and activities that answer her need for hunting, stalking and pouncing on her "prey.”

Because our cats don't have the freedom they would in the wild, it's up to us to give them opportunities to practice those natural instincts. A great way to do that is to have your kitty "hunt" for her food. Try separating her daily portion of food into three to five small meals fed throughout the day in a variety of puzzle toys or indoor hunting feeder mice.

This will encourage your cat to "hunt" and eat on a schedule similar to his wild cousins, and as an added bonus, he might just sleep through the night thanks to the puzzle toy you give him at bedtime.

• Enrich kitty's indoor environment — The term "environmental enrichment" means to improve or enhance the living situation of captive animals to optimize their health, longevity and quality of life. The more comfortable your cat feels in your home, the lower her stress level. Reducing kitty's stress is extremely important in keeping her physically healthy.

Enriching your cat's surroundings means creating minimally stressful living quarters and reducing or eliminating changes in her life that cause anxiety. Jackson Galaxy has written several books on creating feline environmental enrichment around the house that I highly recommend.

The essentials of your kitty's life — food, water and litterbox (which should be kept immaculately clean), should be located in a safe, secure location away from any area that Photo by Alice Castro from Pexels is noisy enough to startle her or make her feel trapped and unable to escape. Cats are natural climbers and scratchers, so kitty needs approved places for climbing and scratching in her indoor environment. She also needs her own resting place and a hiding place (sometimes these are the same spot) where she feels untouchable.

Think about what you can do to appeal to your kitty's visual, auditory and olfactory senses. For example, some cats can gaze out the window for hours, while others are captivated by fish in an aquarium. Some even enjoy kitty videos.

When you're away from home, open all your shades and blinds to provide natural light during the day. Provide background noise for

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kitty that is similar to the ambient sounds she hears when you're home, for example, nature music or a TV at low volume. You can stimulate your cat's keen sense of smell with cat-safe herbs or synthetic feline pheromones.

• Schedule regular veterinary wellness exams — I recommend twice-yearly wellness visits because: • • •

Changes in your kitty's health can happen in a short period of time, especially on the inside where you can't see it, like sudden changes in kidney health Sick cats often show no signs of illness, but early detection allows for early intervention Semi-annual visits give you and your veterinarian the opportunity to closely monitor changes in your kitty's behavior and attitude that require further investigation

At a minimum, younger healthy cats should see the vet once a year. Kitties over the age of 7 and those with chronic health conditions should be seen twice a year or more frequently if necessary.

I recommend that you find a veterinarian whose practice philosophy you're comfortable with.

This may be a holistic or integrative veterinarian, or a conventional veterinarian who doesn't aggressively promote vaccines, pest preventives or veterinary drugs at every visit. Housecall vets can be a great, lower stress option for indoor kitties.

Generally speaking, if you're dealing with a conventional vet, you'll need to advocate for your cat and push back as necessary, politely but firmly. Always remember that you have the final say in what treatments and chemicals are administered to your pet.

- Sources and References 1 The New York Times, April 17, 2019 2 Biology Letters, April 17, 2019 3 Veterinary Record (2013) 4 Science-Based Medicine, May 11, 2018

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Dear Reader, Because of animal lovers like you, Humane Society International is working around the clock to fight the gruesome dog meat industry – to end it for good.

We’ve slammed the doors permanently on nine dog meat farms in South Korea and rescued more than 900 dogs. Not only that, but we’re lobbying hard for better laws throughout Asia to fight the cruelty, transition farmers out of the business of cruelty, and so much more.

Here is one transformation that we can't stop smiling about. Sophie was rescued just this year from a horrible life on a dog meat farm. Now, she is running free and playing in the grass, surrounded by the love of her forever family:

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This kind of ending never gets old, but so many other dogs still need you.

You can make a difference for dogs caught up in this brutal industry: Sign the dog meat pledge today.

With you by our side, we're committed to this huge fight against the dog meat trade. We’re closing farms and rescuing the animals; we’re raising public and political awareness of the cruelty involved; and we’re growing substantial support for a phase out and ban of South Korea’s dog meat farms. Become a part of the global campaign to end the dog meat trade—sign your name right now.

Thank you, for protecting animals from cruelty all across the globe.

Sincerely, Kitty Block President Humane Society International

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Conscious Life Magazine

For a full list of events and to book a stay, please visit out page by clicking on our logo below:

Welcome To The Angel Connection School of Africa The Angel Connection School of Africa, established as a non-profit organisation, for the highest good of all, will incorporate all forms of Spirituality continuing with the basic teachings of Angels, Ascension, Atlantis etc. which we all know to be Universal.

The teachings of various modalities will however, be enhanced by adding the specific requirements of our culture and ethnicity, whilst retaining flexibility.

The mission statement of the school is:“To Light up Africa so that Africa can Light up the World”

A Letter From The School Principal – Margi McAlpine

Angel Connection Day

Meditations

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The Buddhist Retreat Centre, where people of all religions, and none, come to experience peace and tranquility.

How to Retreat The Buddhist Retreat Centre offers various types of retreats, ranging from those investigating Buddhist thought and philosophy, through to practice retreats where the emphasis is on meditation; as well as retreats featuring bird watching, cookery, drumming, pottery and photography. At first glance the latter might appear to be unrelated to Buddhism but even these retreats will contain some element of meditation, of mindful awareness, refracting the chosen subject matter through a Buddhist lens.

People from all walks of life come to these retreats with a variety of motivations and expectations. Perhaps they want to deepen their meditation practice, to take some time out from a hectic working life; to reflect on a tense domestic situation; to consider the trajectory of their lives; to make a decision about a way forward. Maybe they just want to learn how to take a good photograph. Each person will have a different reason for going on a retreat. Different paths will have led them to this place.

We all need to make an appointment with ourselves from time to time. To re-connect with who we are; to maintain balance; to recharge exhausted batteries. To make time to go on a retreat is a necessary and healthy step for anyone.

General Information The Centre has been established on an exquisite 125-hectare country estate near the village of Ixopo, KwaZuluNatal 90 kilometers south of Pietermaritzburg, one and a half hours’ drive from Durban.

Set in hilly grasslands amongst dams, indigenous bush and forests, it overlooks one of the great valleys in the Umkomaas river system. CNN featured the BRC as one of the ten finest retreat centres in the world. It was awarded Natural Heritage status by President Nelson Mandela in recognition of its success in establishing indigenous vegetation on the property and providing habitats for wildlife to return, including the endangered Blue Swallow. It is a birder’s paradise with more 160 species recorded.

Walks lead to many interesting sites and viewpoints on the property, including evidence that Bushman lived there and Voortrekkers and Settlers passed through. In 2000, the BRC facilitated the founding of Woza Moya, the community-based NGO, located in Ufafa valley. It continues to support the organisation in a variety of ways.

MAR-APR 2017

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Accommodation Fifty retreatants can be accommodated in single and twin-bedded rooms, en-suite cottages and thatched chalets overlooking the secluded valleys on the property – a short distance away from the dining room, office, library, studio and meditation hall.

The Centre is justly famous for its fine lacto-ovo vegetarian cuisine which is featured in its own bestselling recipe books, Quiet Food, The Cake the Buddha Ate and Plentiful: The Big Book Of Buddha Food. The BRC menu includes organically grown vegetables and farm-baked bread.

Observances The Retreat Centre offers a tranquil environment for the study and practice of philosophy, psychology, meditation and the arts associated with Buddhist culture. The Centre therefore encourages adherence to traditional Buddhist moral principles during retreats, such as respect for all forms of life and abstinence from alcoholic drinks and hallucinogenic drugs. Noble Silence is maintained from the last meditation at night until the first session after breakfast in the morning.

During some retreats, Noble Silence is maintained throughout. Pets are not allowed at the Centre. Only some retreats are suitable for children: please check with the Administrator.

Forthcoming Retreats: For full details of each retreat please go to the website page: http://www.brcixopo.co.za/retreats/detailed-list-ofretreats.html

Email: brcixopo@futurenet.co.za Tel: +27(0)39 834 1863 or 0878091687 Mobile: 082 579 3037 www.brcixopo.co.za

MAR-APR 2017

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The Beautiful Hopi Indian Labyrinth at Thirsty Falls Guest Farm

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Conscious Life Magazine

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The Antbear Drakensberg Lodge is a thatched, whitewashed lodge built high on a natural platform overlooking the Bushman's River and Giants Castle.

Antbear Drakensberg Lodge offers various Drakensberg accommodation options in en suite double rooms, luxury suites, family units and also boasts a luxury cave too.

Antbear Drakensberg Lodge is one of those smaller intimate kind places which has been lovingly put together. The natural setting of the accommodation is stunning and we have managed to encase all this beauty with an atmosphere of comfort and ease.

The cottages are smartly appointed and individually designed and the fact that we are a small place makes for an intimate and personal accommodation experience. Each of the accommodation units are different and are decorated with uniquely eccentric and artistic wooden furniture.

It is a bit off the beaten track and is more of an insider tip than just another bed and breakfast. We cater for small intimate groups and never have more than 45 guests at a time. It's a laid back, lovingly cared for kind of place where you feel a sense of happiness and peace. Honeymoon stays turn into anniversary commemorations just as guests become friends. Even foreign tourists return for a second and third taste.

Attractions Drakensburg Hiking Trails Bushman Rock Art Giant’s Castle Kamberg Weenen Game Reserve Royal Natal National Park Drakensburg Boys Choir

Horse Trails Injasuti Nature Reserve Monks Cowl Natal Midlands Tugela Falls Sani Pass Fly Fishing

Retreats The Antbear Drakensberg Lodge is the ideal retreat venue where we can provide all the services and accommodation for your retreat. Situated 4 hours from Johannesburg and 2 hours from Durban with easy access from the N3 Antbear Lodge is easy to get to but has the feeling of being far from the madding crowd. This wonderful place for group retreats offers spectacular views, vast spaces, wild winds, rain, sunshine, clouds and rainbows and in all of this – silence and peace.

Retreat groups can book the whole lodge for their exclusive use.

The Lodge can accommodate 44 persons in 15 separate accommodation units Antbear Drakensberg Lodge has a spacious dining room with a wood-burning fireplace, a comfortable lounge with a fireplace and spectacular views, a breakaway meeting room, a large veranda and a large meeting room for retreat, team building or training activities. We provide excellent meals and will fit our menu to your expectations.

Conscious Life Magazine

Conscious Life Magazine

Because food is an important part of your stay Meals are part of the real surprises that the Antbear Lodge has to offer where home grown cooking is part of the deal. We like to use our own home grown organic vegetables and if we haven’t got, then we lean heavily on those local providers with similar attitudes to our own. Conny and Andrew both like cooking and are up to changing just about anything to suit tastes or philosophies. Our cooking experience is in part a journal, a record of events and memories expressed in recipes. In the course of our travels we have filed away many recipes and with them images of people and places and their lives. How food tastes has much to do with the associations we make and if you would like to hear the tales of our meals we would love to tell them.

Sustainable & responsible tourism is our social responsibility and what we do to give something back to our community and environment We believe in sustainable tourism and social responsibility. We live is a spectacularly beautiful place called the Drakensberg and our standard of living here is exceptional.

But around us lie contrasts of poverty and lack of development. If we are to keep our way of life then it surely follows that we must do everything in our power to contribute to the upliftment and prosperity of this rural area. We believe that the future of South Africa is linked to the prosperity of the people, and that upliftment is linked to education. And as such we have chosen to support our local primary school called Vulakani Primary School.

Pet friendly accommodation Drakensberg One of the few pet-friendly places in the Drakensberg. Beautiful, vast views of the Drakensberg with plenty of ground for my dogs to roam. Walk for hours.

Your dogs will be happy with lots of dams to swim in and horses to discover. One of the accommodation units at Antbear Lodge is fenced in so its really easy to leave your dog behind if you would like to explore some of the sights where pets are not that welcome. If country life is for you and you would love to take your pet with you then Antbear Lodge is a great accommodation choice. Your hosts will advise you on all the activities available. Antbear Lodge prides itself on being both family-friendly and petfriendly.

CONTACT Mobile 076 441 2362 Email: reservations@antbear.co.za Web: www.antbear.co.za

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EVERY HOME NEEDS A LOVING PET! THERE ARE SO MANY BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS WAITING TO BE ADOPTED – PLEASE REACH OUT! WE ALSO ENCOCURAGE YOU TO REACH INTO YOUR HEARTS FOR THOSE WHO ARE LESS FORTUNATE AND REALLY NEED OUR HELP.

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Who we are: The Monkey Helpline, started in 1995, is a volunteer group, based in Westville near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, but operating throughout the province and also anywhere else in South Africa and abroad where our assistance and advice are requested.

Our team of dedicated rescuers and rescue assistants, veterinarians, educators, monitors, fund-raisers, administrative assistants and supporters is what makes this project the success that it is today.

Monkey Helpline is a registered NPO. 130-166 NPO What we do: As a team we devote our time to educating people about the reasons why the monkeys are here, why monkeys behave the way they do, the things people should do or not do when monkeys are around, and how to humanely keep monkeys away from those places where they are not welcome. Just knowing that monkeys will NOT attack and bite people, and that they DON’T carry rabies, is usually enough to change antagonism and fear into tolerance, and frequently into appreciation.

We also run a rescue operation and a “high care” unit. We rescue an average of three monkeys every two days, and their injuries range from wounds sustained during fights with other monkeys, dog bites, being run over by motor vehicles, electrocuted, snared, trapped or poisoned, shot with airguns (pellet/BB guns), catapults, paintball guns and firearms, as well as being caught or injured on razor-wire. Many are babies who are orphaned or injured when mother monkeys are attacked by dogs or other monkeys, or are severely injured or killed in human-related incidents.

Over eighty percent of the monkeys we rescue, irrespective of the reason why, have got air-gun pellets lodged in their bodies. Lead pellets cause terrible pain, suffering and a lingering death and no person, adult or child, should ever shoot monkeys, or any other animals, with an air-gun.

As the only dedicated monkey rescue project in KwaZulu-Natal, the Monkey Helpline is available to do rescues 24 hours a day, every day! On any given day we are treating ten or more monkeys in our home-based high care unit – frequently in excess of twenty monkeys! Once they have recovered from their injuries these monkeys are released back into their home territory, transferred to a rehabilitation facility or placed in a sanctuary.

Education is a vital tool in our hands and we distribute thousands of information leaflets, and visit many schools (at least two schools per week) to do educational talks about the monkeys. During 2009 we spoke to over 40 000 school learners and their teachers. We also do talks to many other interest groups such as police cadets, garden clubs, public service groups, conservation bodies, body corporates, etc. In addition, we advise farmers, businesses, hotels and casinos, housing and golfing estates, botanical gardens etc on the best ways to manage human/monkey “conflict”.

Monkey Helpline networks with a number of other Vervet-related individuals, groups, and general primate- and animal-care NGO’s.

NB. There is no charge for the services we offer, but donations towards the cost of running the project are welcome. Without your support we would not be able to change attitudes and legislation in favour of the monkeys nor would we be able to rescue the hundreds that we do every year and alleviate their suffering.

Hotel Hope Ministries is a fully registered South African non-profit organisation established with aim of ensuring that each and every child is brought up in a safe, happy and healthy home so that they can grow up and develop into responsible and positive adults. Although children are our main focus, we have a holistic approach to the problem of orphaned and abandoned children. We realise that we need to focus on the cause of the problem too and not only the symptoms. So we have projects to focus on assisting Mothers and Fathers, so that they can look after themselves and their children.

We group our projects under three focus areas: BABIES IN NEED Creating and supporting several small family style foster homes for orphaned and abandoned babies.

MOTHERS IN CRISIS Providing young mothers facing unplanned pregnancies with counselling, guidance and practical support.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE Helping Mothers and Fathers to help themselves by providing jobs and skill development opportunities through our fundraising and trading projects.

As a fully registered South African charity we are registered with the following authorities: · Section 21 company without share capital - 2010/006792/08 · Non-Profit Organization (NPO) number – 084 289 · Public Benefit Organization (PBO) number – 930 034 387 Mission statement: To engage the local Church Worldwide to embrace its God given responsibility of taking care of destitute mothers and orphaned and abandoned children.

Vision statement: To see a full service (either ourselves or in partner with others) covering: •Children’s homes •Adoption advocacy •Mothers in crisis •Counseling centres •Training Academy •Charity shops / trading

Our fundraising model: We have a unique funding model in place where we are able to generate funds to cover 100% of our administrative costs through our Charity Shop(s) as well as the output of our carpentry workshop and sewing workshop. We are extremely committed to Social enterprise as it creates employment in South Africa, funds for the Charity, volunteering opportunities as well as a lowpriced outlet for customers from low-income groups. Furthermore we can assure donors that 100% of their support will directly benefit the children in our care as well as mothers in crisispregnancy situations.

Thank you to our donors and corporate sponsors: As an organisation we are incredibly blessed to have many active supporters, individuals and corporates, who make it possible for us to do what we do and to make a difference. People often comment that it must be difficult to work in our environment hearing sad stories all the time, and it is sometimes hard, but it is also so rewarding to see those stories turning into stories of hope and it is so inspiring and such a privilege to witness people, like our supporters, coming forward to help and to give so generously. There are amazing people out there in the world, click here to see who some of them are and how they have made a difference‌ Click here Our Sponsors:

DONATE FINANCIALLY Deposit or Electronic transfer directly into our account First National Bank Account name: Hotel Hope Account number: 62194003382 Branch: Melville, Johannesburg Branch code (sort code): 256505 Account type: Cheque account SWIFT code: FIRNZAJJ (For international deposits) Reference: Donation (your name) OTHER WAYS TO DONATE/HELP US

At Operation Smile we believe every child suffering from cleft lip or cleft palate deserves exceptional surgical care.

For too many families around the world, safe surgery is not an option.

At Operation Smile we believe every child deserves exceptional surgical care. We believe all children deserve to be treated as if they were our own.

EVERY 3 MINUTES, a child is born with a cleft lip or cleft palate and may suffer from torments, malnourishment and difficulty with speech.

We dream of a world where no child suffers from lack of access to safe surgery. Learn why we do what we do in the video below.

That’s what drives each and every one of us: our global network of medical professionals, who donate hundreds of thousands of hours toward the care of children around the world each year, and our supporters who are moved every day to make a difference in the lives of children they’ve never met.

How you can help Operation Smile South Africa Building 17, 103/104, Waverley Office Park 5 Wyecroft Rd, Observatory 7925 (+27) 021 447 3608 infosa@operationsmile.org NPO number 083-117 NPO

A child’s cleft lip or cleft palate can be repaired for as little as R5500 and in as few as 45 minutes, but your gift is more than a surgery. All of our supporters give renewed hope to children and families around the world.

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Help us bring hope to girls without and choices to those with none.

Founded in 2000 by Khanyisile Motsa, and run under her diligent care ever, Home of Hope for Girls is an autonomous, self-started initiative to provide real care for exploited, trafficked and abused children in the city of Johannesburg.

It is more than just a residential shelter; it is a loving home where dignity is restored, the past is healed and the girls are given the tools to take control of their futures. Home of Hope also reaches out to the community offering the most vulnerable members support, practical help and a lifeline.

The Background to Home of Hope An estimated 10,000 children are prostitutes in Johannesburg and this figure is increasing.

When Khanyisile Motsa relocated to Hillbrow she was shocked to observe girls as young as nine working as prostitutes and selling drugs on the streets at night. The truth about these forgotten children is: • • • • • •

Child Prostitute. Photo by Tseliso Monaheng

Criminals pay agents to recruit children They usually target often orphans or/and those from very disadvantaged rural communities Victims are trafficked or seduced to leave with lies about a life in the city Their IDs are frequently taken from them to make escape and identification difficult Their IDs are often sold on the black market ‘Owned’ by their exploiters they are prostituted, abused, made to sell drugs

Email: info@hopehome.org.za Mam Khanyi: 073 250 2086 Telephone: 011 614 0861 Conscious Life Magazine

Call 012 430 7775 Lines open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In South Africa and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

We need your help to ensure that no child is left behind.

In a tough funding environment, we have ensured we have multiple avenues of funding and are proud to have 11,000 generous individual donors contributing monthly. We will continue to be innovative in securing funding to enable us to reach more children and will work on increasing unrestricted and consistent funding streams.

You can help us make a difference. Even just by becoming aware of our work by reading our annual report.

To download and read the full annual report, click here.

Help us do whatever it takes to save the children.

Thank You Gugulethu Ndebele CEO

www.savethechildren.org.za Conscious Life Magazine

With much appreciation to our advertisers, contributors, endorsers and of course, our readers Namaste

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