25 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Your Body and Health

Today’s Re-Powering Information. First read an article with the 25 Things about Your Body and Health and then Read Dr. Mercola’s take on them below it including his list of top ways to optimize health.. The list will look familiar!





25 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Your Body and Health



1. Rinsing your nose with salt water can help keep you healthy and ward off allergy symptoms.

2. Dogs can smell cancer and low blood sugar. A study showed that it is possible to train dogs to identify, based on breath samples, which patients had lung and breast cancer. For diabetics, the dogs can smell ketones in urine and on the breath when blood sugars are high. Dogs can pick up on other smells that humans can’t when glucose levels drop.

3. Researchers found that people who pass through an entryway near the kitchen tend to eat 15 percent more than those who use the front door.

4. You're more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday, or up to three days after you've been diagnosed with the flu or a respiratory tract infection.

5. You can't get a tan from your computer screen. The Computer Tan Web site was created as a hoax to raise awareness about skin cancer.

6. Obese people spend approximately $485 more on clothing, $828 on extra plane seats, and $36 more on gas each year than their thinner counterparts. An overweight driver burns about 18 additional gallons of gas a year.

7. Smokers are four times as likely to report feeling unrested after a night's sleep than nonsmokers. Smokers often experience withdrawal symptoms at night, thus causing periods of restlessness and waking.

8. Eating fruits and vegetables may help your body make its own aspirin. Benzoic acid, a natural substance in fruits and vegetables, causes people to produce their own salicylic acid, the key component that gives aspirin its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.

9. A 20-minute nap can improve your overall alertness, boost your mood, and increase productivity. In addition, your heart may reap benefits from napping -- a six-year study found that that men who took naps at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.

10. Your kitchen sink is dirtier than your bathroom. There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in its drain, and the faucet, basin, and sponge are crawling with germs as well.

11. Four out of five doctors in the UK don't work out enough. Heavy workloads, lack of time and poor motivation contributed to the lack of exercise.

12. Baking soda can whiten teeth, garlic can help treat athlete's foot, and honey can soothe a hangover.

13. Using a food diary can double your weight-loss efforts. Your food diary makes you accountable to yourself and provides you with clues on where the extra calories are sneaking in.

14. Regular exercise can lower a woman's cancer risk -- but only if she's getting enough sleep. The National Cancer Institute followed nearly 6,000 women for almost 10 years. Women in the top half of physical activity levels showed an approximate 20 percent reduction in cancer risk, but sleeping less than seven hours per night resulted in a decreased benefit.

15. Watching yourself run in a mirror can make a treadmill workout go by faster and feel easier.

16. Third-hand smoke -- the particles that cling to smokers' hair and clothing and linger in a room long after they've left -- is a cancer risk to young children and pets.

17. Walking against the wind, in the water, or while wearing a backpack burns about 50 more calories per hour than walking with no resistance. People who wear pedometers also tend to burn more calories and lose more weight.

18. Trained sexologists can infer a woman's orgasm history by observing the way she walks. In other news, men find women who wear red sexier than those who wear "cool" colors such as blue and green.

19. Foreign accent syndrome and exploding head syndrome are real (but very rare) medical conditions. A person with exploding head syndrome experiences a loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside their head.

20. Vitamins don't seem to help older women guard against cancer or heart disease.

21. Some men experience pain, headaches, or sneezing as a result of ejaculation. The increased activity in the nervous system during orgasm may be the culprit.

22. Germ-killing wipes can spread bacteria from one spot to another if you reuse them.

23. Oatmeal, citrus fruits, and honey can boost your sex drive and improve fertility. Oats produce a chemical that releases testosterone into the blood supply, vitamin C improves sperm count and motility, and vitamin B from honey helps your body use estrogen, a key factor in blood flow and arousal.

24. Twenty-nine percent of Americans say they have skipped filling a prescription due to the cost, and 23 percent use pill splitting as a way to save money.

25. Facebook may be good for your health; studies show that staying in touch with family and friends can ward off memory loss and help you live longer.


Sources:


MSN Health & Fitness April 21, 2009





Dr. Mercola''s Comments


Dr. Mercola's Comments:



The 25 items covered in the article above are not necessarily critical knowledge to help you live a healthier and longer life, but it’s clear there is much confusion over what’s truly necessary for optimal health. And as the examples listed below will show you, the shortcuts to health and beauty are many, but the potential hazards are just as numerous.

When it comes to the intricate workings of your body and your health it’s clear most people (including health professionals and scientists) know less than we’d like to believe. Just take a look at some of the most common health myths I covered in a previous article and you’ll get a sense of what I mean.

Not only that, but people do all sorts of things to their bodies, thinking it will make them happier, healthier, or more beautiful, or at the very least that it will not harm them.

Here are a few examples you may not know could be harmful to your body and health:

Laser Hair Removal: The treatment disables hair follicles and can lead to scarring if not properly done. In addition, it doesn’t remove all the hair, and it might only last for a couple of years.

Body Piercing: Piercing delicate places like nipples, genitals or your tongue can interfere with breastfeeding; increase the risk of spreading STDs; increase your risk of allergies; and chip your teeth, respectively. Less obvious problems may result from disruption of your body’s subtle energy fields. Inserting pieces of metal into your body can disrupt vital energy flow. If you are healthy you probably won’t notice any difference, but piercings can be a problem if you have a more serious health challenge.

Bariatric Surgery: Over 40 percent of these surgeries result in major complications within six months, such as diarrhea or hernia.

Skin Whitening: Some topical whiteners contain mercury, which causes nerve and kidney damage. Others contain hydroquinone, a carcinogen banned in Europe that blotches your skin.

Botox: Botox, which paralyzes your facial muscles to rid you of wrinkles, can cause respiratory failure and death.

Liposuction: Liposuction removes only about 10 pounds of fat after four hours of dangerous surgery. Recovery is long and painful, and the fatality rate is the highest of any elective surgery.

Do You Know What Your Body Needs for Optimal Health?

It’s important to realize that optimal health and beauty are side effects of an overall healthy lifestyle. There are no shortcuts; no magic pills.

However, there are certain basic tenets of optimal health -- which includes maintaining a healthy weight and radiating true inner beauty – that are permanent truths. These strategies won’t change, regardless of what modern science and conventional medicine comes up with next:

1. Eat a healthy diet that’s right for your nutritional type (paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down)

2. Drink plenty of clean water

3. Manage your stress

4. Exercise

5. Sunlight

6. Limit toxin exposure

7. Consume healthy fat

8. Eat plenty of raw food

9. Optimize insulin and leptin levels

10. Get plenty of sleep

If you memorize these ten items and incorporate them into your lifestyle, you’ll be way ahead of the rest of the pack toward optimal health and longevity.