Foods that pack a nutritional punch: Calcium

Calcium is key to strong bones and teeth, as well as proper nerve and muscle function, and while milk is instantly considered as a source of calcium, there are many other foods that can help you get the calcium you need:

Milk, other dairy products
Cornmeal
Wheat flour
Collards
Rhubarb
Sardines
Spinach
Soybeans
Turnip greens
Salmon, canned with bone
Kale

SUPER SPORES

An Asian mushroom may prove to be nature’s new nontoxic weapon against prostate cancer. Researchers at Boston University treated cancerous prostate cells with a small dose of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin and an extract of Phellinus linteus, a Korean mushroom. The duo was as effective at killing cancerous cells as larger doses of chemo, but didn’t harm healthy tissue. Further studies are planned.

The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007

This is in response to my friend Eddie from Malaysia. A wonderful blog from the Philippines called Reflective Thinking taking on a project to determine the new influential blog around. This is my entry:


1. Searching For Love - Malaysia

2. Stuck in Cutoms - Thailand


3. Somehwere in this World - Japan

4. BISEAN - Thailand


5. Bitchy Mikey Mike - Malaysia


If you want to join and help find who are really the emerging influential blogs, click this: The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007 and let’s have fun!

Stay healthy!

FLIGHT RISK

A new Lancet study has revealed that men are twice as likely as women to suffer from deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), a potentially deadly blood clot that can develop on long plane trips. If you have a family history of DVT and plan on taking a long fl ight, ask your doctor for a thrombingeneration test (just developed by Austrian researchers). If your level and risk are high, a prescription blood thinner - such as warfarin - should help you touch down safely.

LOW Z’S, HIGH BP

Something else to keep you up nights: A new study reveals that lack of sleep can permanently raise your blood pressure. Columbia University researchers examined survey data on 4,810 people, excluding those who were overweight or suffered from sleep disorders, and found that logging less than 5 hours a night increased the incidence of high blood pressure by 60 percent. Sleep deprivation stimulates stress hormones, which cause short-term spikes in blood pressure. Miss sleep regularly and you may suffer lasting damage to heart valves. “Sleeping less Some environmental hazards are obvious: tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes, for instance. But the land you live on may be endangering your health in ways you don’t recognize. Check your local landscape and the chart below to derail the natural disasters that could be lurking in your backyard. raises average 24-hour blood pressure and heart rate, which, through increased strain, can set up the cardiovascular system to persistently operate at an elevated pressure,” says James Gangwisch, Ph.D., the study’s lead author. Evening exercise can lower your core body temperature, which may help you fall asleep faster.

STARVE HEARTBURN

Adopting a new diet could extinguish that fire in your chest. Cutting out carbs helps relieve heartburn, according to a recent study from the University of North Carolina. The scientists report that within 4 days of initiating a lowcarbohydrate diet, overweight patients experienced a 44 percent reduction in the severity of heartburnlike symptoms. What’s more, the pain-causing acid in each person’s esophagus decreased by an average of 60 percent. The scientists aren’t sure why reducing carbs worked but report that in a previous study, patients’ symptoms returned once they started eating a carbohydrateheavy diet again. We all know how low carbs can help you lose weight. There’s a dual benefit: Losing weight helps relieve heartburn, too.

BARE ASPIRIN FOR YOUR HEART

An aspirin a day keeps the ambulance at bay? Only if you swallow the right kind. Coated aspirin may not be as effective as plain aspirin at preventing coronary heart disease, according to a new study published in the journal Stroke. Researchers gave 71 healthy people different forms of aspirin to take for 2 weeks at a time, then tested their blood for thromboxane, a substance that contributes to blood clots. Levels were 87 percent lower among those taking plain aspirin than in those swallowing coated pills. “Doctors normally prescribe coated aspirin to protect the stomach lining,” says lead study author Dermot Cox, Ph.D., “but the coating may impede absorption.” Consider swallowing a 75- milligram uncoated pill. “It will provide all the benefits with the lowest chance of side effects,” he says.