Your Best Health and Wellness Online

I recently travelled from my home where it was in the 70’s to Washington DC where the temperature was a record breaking 22 - 31 degrees. I was freezing! I started to get sick with a stuffy nose and a really sore throat. So I got to thinking, does the cold weather really give one the cold?

First what is a cold? According to the Mayo Clinic “The common cold is a viral infection of your upper respiratory tract — your nose and throat.” Certainly sounds like what I cought. There is much more information on the Mayo site.  So establishing that I was cold and in cold weather and I have a cold. Is that the cause?

The cold is viral so could it be a particular virus that inhabits and lives only in cold weather? My instincts tell me not. If that were the case then why do people get colds in warm and hot clients? It’s not like they have a sickness called the ‘warms.’

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So sorry for no post the last few days… Still working on a couple articles that I wish to inform the world about. Items that the information is out there on but that I wish to provide easy access too here.

Still with being sick recently and totally stressed out I got to thinking if stress is something that is affecting any of my readers? Stress can come in from many situations. It can come in from pressures and issues from school, work, friends, bosses, teachers. It can come from financial situations beyond our control. Truly there is a lot of that kind of stress going on.

I urge you to take a deep breath and realize that it is invariably not as bad as it initially seems. We can get through any situation once we step back and take a good look at it. Find ways to calm down. For me that is a good video game, book, cup of coffee or even a beer.  For others it is whatever you might enjoy! Take your mind off the situation and relax with a good book and a hot bath.

For now I will destress myself and get back to providing good information for you all to read. Signing out..

I just ran across this link to 12 natural remedies online and I thought I would share it. Not sure how many people are aware of some of these and I know they do not work for everyone.  Still I always liked trying to hit the problem at the root cause rather than just the symptom and sometimes these cures help a lot.

My personal favorite is tea for sore throats. I have a few herbal teas I take and they really do soothe and help me get through.

Do you have any that help you? Share them with everyone below.

I was working on my High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) article and research when I came across this wonderful article on Digg which shows that American fast food is mostly corn.

Pretty scary indeed. Now I have nothing against good proper corn, specially when it is organically grown, but I also believe that everything should be eaten in moderation.  This is a case where not a lot of moderation is happening.  Already a good portion of our processed diet consists of corn via HFCS in one form or another, but the prevalence of corn in our diet is amazing.

To me our body was made to take in many kinds of food and be the most efficient when its in balance. This is a case where there is no balance. Whether it is corn or soybeans or sugar are any of the other major food products that seem to find their way into our mainstream food, too much of it is bad. Even the silly commercials from the Corn Industry that try to convince us that HFCS is ‘all natural’ and OK to eat state it by saying ‘in moderation.’ Please where is the moderation in this?

What do you think?

Since it has come up from a few of my friends that have visited this humble blog I thought I would say a few things about me, the main contributor to this site. I was your normal American male eating a normal American diet full of soda and processed foods for much of my life. I am basically working 60+ hours a week and am as active as any normal male, but that changed about two years ago.

I started to work more and more and my activity dropped. Further my ‘normal’ diet of processed and fast foods started to catch up with me fast. Unhealthy, fatigued, over worked, stressed out and 207 pounds I felt I needed a change.  My wife also wanted to make many changes in our life and together we researched what we could do.

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After my little post about saving money by using a Co-op I was informed that there are also more ways to save money. How? Well by volunteering at one!

One of our future contributors mentioned that she volunteers every time there is a chance. Why volunteer? Well since the organic buying club she belongs to are 100% volunteer based, it is just a good thing to do. Someone has to separate out all the deliverables into the individual packets to be handed to all the organic buying club members. So why does this help save more money?

Well by using volunteers the buying club or co-op does not have to spend money for employees hence the food stays cheaper. But it gets better than that! At her buying club the volunteers get to save 15.00 dollars off their individual bags for helping that week! How awesome is that?

Not awesome enough you say? They also have to separate out the slightly damaged food, but they don’t throw it away. Any volunteers that might want it, can have it by splitting it amongst themselves. This means any bruised fruit or vegetables that are still good get to be added to the volunteers now cheaper bag. Also some volunteers do not like certain foods and they usually have left overs.. that’s right.. The other volunteers get to split it amongst themselves!

In the end she says she usually gets two or three bags of food, while providing a needed service and for a cheaper price than normal. It really pays to volunteer!

If you have any further tips on using a coop or any comments on this article please share it below. We would love to hear from you!

Recently I was offered a Trace Metal Analysis done by Biochemical Laboratories out of Edgewood, New Mexico. I have never had one before so I did not know what to expect. What is a Trace Metal Analysis you might ask? Well according to the documentation from the lab report, it is:

“A useful indicator of dietary availability and metabolic utilization of trace metals. TMA also reveals exposure to toxic metals. Results are influenced by general state of health, diet, exposure, exercise, digestion and absorption, hormone balance and genetic factors.”

First this is they take about half a gram of hair for the analysis. OK, pretty painless so far outside some missing hair and perhaps an additional visit to the hair cutter to straighten it up. Then they send it off to the labs.

Here is what they return. A list of all the metals and whether I am too high or too low in them such as Calicum, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Copper, Zinc, Iron.. the list goes on. So along with the normal levels for each item, whether one is too high or too low, they also include some basic information on what factors may influence your state. Let me give you an example from my report.

Your Calcium level is 80.0, the Normal Value is 30.0 - 60.0. High calcium levels may indicate mobilization from the bone due to poor absorption and utilization. High calcium is consistent with joint problmes. High calcium may indicate poor bone and dental health… etc..

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In these tough economic times it can be so hard to stay healthy.  I see more and more of my friends and co-workers cutting back on healthy food purchases and buying cheaper more processed foods.  So, is it possible to save money and eat healthy?

Luckily the answer is a resounding yes! One of the goals of our site is to show you how you can save money while staying healthy. While it is tempting to cheat a little here and there it is possible to save a few dollars on your organic food purchases.
The first way that we have found that works very well for my family is by a local Organic Food Buyers Club.  What this club does is provide a way for locally grown organic food to be distributed directly from the growers to the buyers while avoiding the middle man. Sometimes these clubs are also called coops or co-ops.  No matter what it is called you can get your healthy fruits and vegetables much cheaper than by going to your local healthy food market.

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Just as a heads up I have been compiling a few articles based on information my friends and family are always asking me about. Since this is really your community I thought I would give you a chance to also chime in and make some request on your own!

Coming soon:

• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) - Is it really bad for you?
• How to eat healthy and organic for cheap
• Some of my favorite healthy recipes Part 1
• Candida - What is it really and what can you do about it
• How to have younger healthier skin
• Simple exercises you can do anywhere
• Simple money saving tips for daily living

Of course there will be much more and we are always welcome to have some suggestions for articles. Comment and let me know what you might want to hear most about first!

Welcome to Your Best Health and Wellness Online! This is where we (and I do say we as there is a team of people behind this blog) will be providing you all sorts of information on how to live your best life yet. We believe that by eating healthy and following some simple healthy lifestyle tips you can begin to achieve just that!

Some of the things you can expect to find here are:

• Organic food information
• Alternative medicine information (truth and false information)
• Exercise tips
• Information on how to fight common problems like Candida
• Healthy home tips
• Financial tips because we believe health and wellness also means in your wallet
• Happiness tips - real health and wealth begins with you and your happiness

There may be more as we grow. If there are any topics of interest, please let us know. We welcome all comments.