I cherish the memory of the good old days when my dad used to come over for a visit on Sundays with a box of delicious cookies from mom and a beautiful bunch of fresh flowers from their garden. What he wanted in exchange was a cup of coffee and our talk over it. We had such a great time together! And the coffee was delicious!

My mom did not drink coffee, but she got me acquainted with another warm friend: tea. My family is still laughing when they remember of how my uncle, who was just a teenager at the time, went home after a visit to my parents, and told his mom that his auntie was a great cook. “What did she cook?” she asked about her daughter-in-law. And the answer was: “The most delicious tea I have ever had!” She made her own mixture of several plants and black tea and the outcome was very savory.

Later on I discovered another delicious drink that would soothe my afternoons, accompany me on a journey to other times and places with a book in my lap, and share a great time with friends coming over for a chat. It’s name is green tea. At first I liked to drink it with a slice of lemon in it, but as time went by and we got acquainted better, I saw it went well in different combinations. Now I think I like it most with jasmine.

I still drink coffee from time to time, it is still an old friend, so I won’t say anything bad about it. But I only have a cup occasionally, because I saw drinking several cups every day, as I used to for some years, did not do good to my health. Green tea, on the other hand, has remained a good companion over years. Besides being a delicious drink, everybody knows that green tea is also very healthy.

And I cannot end my post without mentioning a potion I have discovered most recently, called GreenTeaPure. It is just as delicious as green tea and it also contains all of its benefits. The difference is that you can get in just a few drops the benefits that you would get from 12 cups of regular green tea. I usually mix my drops of green tea extract in a cup of cold water and enjoy my iced tea, but you can also mix it with hot water.

So, would you like a cup of coffee or tea? Black tea, green tea, jasmine or maybe Green Tea Pure?

After reading all kind of presentations and testimonies about the Chi Machine, you may also be interested in seeing a scientific research report on it. It might be not as easy to read as a testimony, for example, but it comes from a professional source and it is worth having a look at.

Flinders University, Adelaide (part of Australia’s Department of Health, Faculty of Health Sciences School of Medicine) developed a medical research project starting June 15, 2000, at the request of Hsin Ten Enterprise Australia. The project was meant to look into the benefits of the Chi Machine, especially for those suffering from secondary lymphoedema and venous oedema, but the results also showed an improved condition of the people with no medical problems participating in the research.

Secondary Lymphoedema of the legs affects 30% of people after surgery and radiotherapy. Venous Oedema affects 5% of the adult population. Both result in swelling, discomfort and can interfere with the quality of life. Conventional treatment is expensive and ongoing, with little patient control. There is no good cure for either condition. The goal of the study was to find and test the effectiveness of a treatment that would be convenient, affordable, effective and able to empower sufferers.

The research results showed benefits not only for the subjects suffering from secondary lymphoedema and venous oedema, but also for those with no medical problems. The subjects with no medical problems experienced a reduction in weight, a slight reduction in fluids to the limbs and a reduction in percentage body fat. The people with secondary lymphoedema and venous oedema experienced a significant reduction in limb volume and circumference, a significant loss of oedema fluid from the limbs, a significant loss of weight, a reduction in percentage body fat, an improvement in lymphatic drainage, a significant improvement in subject symptoms, satisfaction with the treatment and an improvement in the quality of life.

To read more details about this study follow this link:

http://ezinearticles.com/

Image via Wikipedia

We all know how harmful smoke and second-hand smoke is to health. But I have never heard of third-hand smoke before today. I was just listening to NPR radio, Talk of the Nation, and heard this interview with Jonathan Winickoff about his study on third-hand smoke. The interview was not long but it drew my attention. I wanted to find out more, so I looked it up on the internet. I googled “third-hand smoke” and was quite surprised to find it on BBC News, The New York Times, Scientific American, and hundreds and hundreds of sites about health, parenting or science. It was then that I started to realize this is an important issue and, looking more deeply into it, I learnt new things everybody should be aware of.

What is third-hand smoke?

If you don’t smoke, but stay even for a short while around a person who does, hours later people will be able to smell the smoke in your hair and clothes. Well, it is scientifically proven now that it is not only the smoke smell that clings to you. A layer of toxic substances covers all the surfaces smoke has got to –clothes, hair, skin, walls, furniture, carpet… all the space is contaminated. And it is worse with cars because the space is smaller!

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said the phrase third-hand smoke is a brand-new term that has implications for behavior. “The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke,” he said. “There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.”

What harmful substances are there in third-hand smoke?

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The 2006 Surgeon General’s Report says there is no risk-free level of tobacco exposure. There are 250 poisonous toxins found in cigarette smoke. One such substance is lead. Very good studies show that tiny levels of exposure are associated with diminished IQ.

Among the substances in third-hand smoke are hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic, that is a poison used to kill rats; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Eleven of the compounds are highly carcinogenic.

Why are children most affected by these toxic substances?

Children and pregnant women are most endangered by third-hand smoke because the developing brain is uniquely susceptible to extremely low levels of toxins. Children ingest twice the amount of dust that grown-ups do just because their respiration is faster and they are closer to dusty surfaces, such as floor, for example. Children also tend to touch or even to put their mouth to contaminated surfaces.

Studies in rats suggest that tobacco toxin exposure is the leading cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

There is very clear scientific evidence children are affected by the exposure to third-hand smoke. Toxic substances were detected in bodily fluids of children who have been exposed to third-hand smoke. “There are markers of the tobacco toxins in their blood and urine”, says Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

Here is a brief powerful video that shows very clearly all that I have been talking about:

Third Hand Smoke NBC Today Show 05JAN09

Conclusion

What else can I say? After reading the information everyone can draw a conclusion. As clear as it may be for some, it is amazing how much controversy it has given place to. What is your opinion about all this?