Having a Healthy Halloween

With Halloween just around the corner, I'm happy to report that I am ready for a healthy halloween. I've prepared a lot of home baked goods, and even got some of Wai lana little yogi snacks for giveaways.


I read this interesting and useful article on Halloween Candy and how they can cause heart burn.

Halloween Candy Without the Heartburn

Have goodies without GERD

By Mara Betsch

Halloween is tricky for anyone watching her waistline, but for chronic heartburn sufferers, all those goodies can make for a miserable night. "When it's not treated, chronic heartburn can have serious consequences. The good news is that heartburn and GERD are things you can control," says Pat Baird, RD, and board member of the National Heartburn Alliance.

Certain foods trigger heartburn in some patients and not others, but Baird lists citrus products, fatty foods, chocolate, and peppermint as common heartburn triggers. Besides avoiding certain foods, scare heartburn away from your haunted house by leaving the spandex costume at home. Tight, constrictive clothing may cause GERD symptoms. And if a chocolate binge happens, Baird recommends avoiding lying down 2–3 hours after eating.

Here, she gives us tips to sort through the tricks and treats in the candy bowl.

Twenty-two pieces of this fat-free, colorful candy will cost you 140 calories. Though it’s high in sugar, Baird says it’s unlikely to cause heartburn symptoms.
Trick: Snickers

An excess of fat triggers GERD symptoms, so Baird recommends you stay away from chocolate, a known trigger of heartburn. Studies show eating it may release serotonin, which causes the lower esophageal sphincter to relax and allows acid to back up into the esophagus. Plus Snickers contains nuts, which add up to 3.7 grams of fat in a fun-size bar. And who stops at one?

Have a happy weekend everyone!

Top Weight Loss Secrets: How Women in the Army Lost the Baby Weight

I drank a lot of juice (I got Wai Lana's favorite juice book as a gift), and that really helped me lose the weight I couldn't seem to shake off.

Top Weight Loss Secrets: How Women in the Army Lost the Baby Weight

Any woman who’s ever had a baby can relate to the not-so-joyous side of life after pregnancy: Your body’s changing, sleep is hard to get, and sometimes things between you and your man are strained. Caring for a whole new life can be overwhelming, and postpartum depression may set in. For women who are also soldiers in the Army, add a cold shoulder from your co-workers and boss, and the possibility of losing your job if you don’t drop the baby weight.

Ruby Murray, a master sergeant at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, came close to losing her job—because of 90 pounds of baby weight. Read how she lost the weight and started a no-fail weight-loss program to help her fellow Army women team up to trim down. View the slideshow.

Autumn foods

Just as we change our clothes according to season, we should also change our diets or at least vary our diets according to the season. Now that it's getting colder, it's important to stay well. Eat more ginger. Wai Lana just posted this nice little message on her facebook:

Ginger for Winter Ills
Ginger is well known for its spicy bite in Asian cooking, but not everyone knows it's also an effective remedy for a number of ailments, including colds and flu. Ginger is a stimulant that helps increase agni, the internal fire that regulates the digestive and circulatory systems. Low agni causes blockage and constipation, allowing toxins to accumulate, which creates a breeding ground for disease. Ginger helps by increasing the agni, which, in turn, burns away toxins and waste matter, improves digestion, and paves the way to recovery. Ginger even helps eliminate harmful bacteria and parasites.

Ginger is especially good during cold and flu season. It helps clear the sinuses, relieves congestion headaches, and reduces fever. It's also an expectorant that expels mucus from the lungs and throat. The most effective way to take it for colds and flu is ginger tea. Here's a simple recipe:

2 cups water
¼ cup diced fresh ginger
2 tsp. honey

Boil the water, then add the ginger and simmer for about 20 minutes. Strain into a cup and add 2 teaspoons of honey (or to taste). If you like, you can add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne pepper to the pot to increase the stimulating, heating effect. Let me forewarn you now, though: This tea is fiery! Sip it—don't gulp it down.

Here's some good advice from health too:
Heat up the kitchen

The weather may be cooler, but your produce choices are heating up. These amazing seasonal foods are the perfect excuse to visit your local farmers' market during the day and heat up the kitchen on cool nights.

Apples

Sweet or tart, apples are satisfying eaten raw or baked into a delicious dish. Just be sure to eat the skin—it contains hearty-healthy flavonoids. Health benefits include:

* Full of antioxidants
* 4 grams of dietary fiber per serving

Harvest season: August–November

Of course, one of my favorite ways to heat up the kitchen in this season is to try one of Wai Lana yoga's many soup recipes. They are delightful. :)

H1N1 flu causes unusual damage to lungs: studies

I've been very busy teaching for the past few days. It's been quite nice though. I thought this was a little alarming:

H1N1 flu causes unusual damage to lungs: studies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new pandemic H1N1 flu may cause blood clots and other unusual damage in the lungs and doctors need to be on the lookout, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Two studies published in the American Journal of Roentgenology show the need to check X-rays and CT scans for unusual features, and also point out swine flu can be tricky to diagnose in some of the sickest patients.

H1N1 flu is causing a pandemic, and while it is not particularly deadly, it is sickening many younger adults and older children who usually escape the worst effects of seasonal flu.

"It is therefore essential that clinicians be able to recognize possible cases of pandemic H1N1 influenza in high-risk groups so that they order the appropriate diagnostic tests, begin specific antiviral therapy, and prepare to provide intensive supportive measures as needed," Dr. Daniel Mollura of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland and colleagues wrote.

One middle-aged man who died was not diagnosed until after death, but unusual findings on his X-rays may be able to help doctors save other, similar patients.

Mollura's team found irregularities called ground-glass opacities in the patient's lungs using a CT scan. Although the patient was severely ill and had a fever, he tested negative for flu and doctors did not treat him for it.

The man died five days after he went into the hospital and the autopsy confirmed he had swine flu. The lung lesions seen on his CT scan matched lung damage done by the virus, Mollura and colleagues said.

In another study in the same journal, CT scans of patients with severe cases of swine flu showed many had pulmonary emboli, which block the arteries in the lungs, a team at the University of Michigan found.

Anticoagulant drugs can break up these clots and save lives.

Dr. Prachi Agarwal and colleagues examined 66 patients diagnosed with H1N1, 14 of them who were in the intensive care unit. All 66 got standard X-rays, which can show if a patient has pneumonia.

They performed enhanced X-rays known as computed tomography or CT scans on 15 of the patients, 10 of them who were in the ICU on ventilators to help them breathe. Five of the ICU patients had the blood clots in the lungs, Agarwal reported

"Our study suggests that patients who are severely ill with H1N1 are also at risk for developing pulmonary emboli, which should be carefully sought for on contrast-enhanced CT scans," Agarwal said in a statement.

"The majority of patients undergoing chest X-rays with H1N1 have normal radiographs (X-rays)," she added. Pulmonary emboli are also not normally seen in flu, she said.

"CT scans proved valuable in identifying those patients at risk of developing more serious complications as a possible result of the H1N1 virus, and for identifying a greater extent of disease than is appreciated on chest radiographs."

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Cynthia Ostemran)

Now that winter is here, already! :( - I am keeping myself well doing Wai Lana Yoga and taking Wailana's natural supplements. Of course we're also washing our hands often and trying to keep as well as possible.

:) Happy warmth and wellness to everyone!

At more risk for getting swine flu?

Well, according to Health news, if you worry too much, hug/kiss/shake hands, smoke (I knew that!), drinking alcohol, solely using anti-bacterial gel.. and etc.

So, I'm guilty of worrying too much, hugging/kissing others, shaking hands and the gel. Now what? Well Wai Lana supplements are on sale. I got myself some nerve toners and things that can calm me down (the kids will be happy), and the immune booster vitamins. That will be good for all of us all around.

On side note, I've been rather depressed of the late. Maybe just because of what's been happening at work and that kind of thing. I should be all right. I cheered up today a little after doing yoga with Wailana and especially after the fun yoga sound at the end of her shows.

Have a good weekend y'all!

Become aware of your environment

It's great to do yoga outdoors for many reasons. I think that, for example, people like Wai Lana, who do yoga outdoors, are able to utilize nature's many gifts. However, in order to know about or even notice - and later on, appreciate nature's gifts, it is necessary to become aware of nature. It is unfortunate that too many people these days just grow up in cement boxes, completely oblivious to the breath taking beauty of nature and her wonders.

For many people, their biggest window to nature would probably be their television set, given they watch National Geographic or some other nature-documenting channel. But it really doesn't and shouldn't be that way.

Several years ago I read Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods". Being a teacher, I easily related the symptoms of the children and people he say have what he calls "the nature deficit disorder". That's another reason why Wai Lana's Little Yogis is excellent. It promotes a healthy consciousness which then promotes environmental awareness.

Staying healthy

For any parent, keeping the whole family healthy is a big issue. Kids, and adults as well- we all have quite a time trying to keep off disease. Of course there are lots of ways and things we can do to stay healthy. In my house, what we do is we try to eat well. I've been trying out a lot of soups from Wai Lana's Favorite Soups. Now that autumn is here, it's great to have all these hearthy soups.

I also make sure everyone does exercise, and take supplements. My kids just love Wailana's goji juice. And I can definitely see why. It tastes great and feels equally good.

Good to celebrate national breast awareness month too! A friend of mine died of breast cancer two years ago. It's still fresh in our minds.