finding your ness

Do vitamin supplements really work?

As recently seen on CBS news, vitamins take another health hit.

CBS News learned six weeks ago that more than 35,000 patients in the largest prevention trial of its kind were told to stop taking them, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports. Tuesday, it became official.

"Taking Selenium or Vitamin E at the doses that we used in the select trial for an average of five years did not prevent prostate cancer," said Dr. Eric A. Klein of the Cleveland Clinic.

Vitamin E: "We have exhausted the possibilities for its role in chronic disease prevention."
Vitamin C: "No effect for cancer prevention."
Vitamin B: "For the prevention of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer, the evidence does not point to a benefit of B vitamins."

And what about taking a daily multivitamin? "There is a lack of ... solid evidence taking multivitamins regularly have an impact on disease prevention," Coates said.

There are some useful supplements. For example: folic acid during pregnancy, Vitamin B12 for patients who can't absorb it and calcium when dietary sources aren't enough.

So I guess we need to use our own judgement if we should take them or not depending on how they make us feel. The only proven prevention for disease thus far is a good diet and exercise.

Net Granny

So I couldn't help myself and had to write about this adorable website. It is called "Net Nanny".
This ingenious site lets you choose a real-life Swiss grandmother to custom-knit you a pair of socks. You just click through photos and select a crafter, place your order, and then wait a few weeks for an airmail package to arrive. There are a couple of drawbacks: The site is all in German (but features a translate-to-English function). Hey we all have to make a buck somehow and look at the smile on Annie's face - priceless really.

http://www.netgranny.ch/sockenshop/

Travel Sizes Galore

In my search for fun new trends and ideas I came across this cool website called Minimus.biz. This site offers hundreds of three-ounce-or-less personal-care products, from toothpaste to deodorant—and strives to find highly specific products that are elusive even on drugstore shelves, like bitsy cans of Static Guard and miniature Evian face misters and the prices are very affordable. This site could definately help lessen the frustration of going through airport security and watching all of our personal hygenine products thrown into the nearest garbage can. So hail minimus.biz like your slogan says "minimum size, maximum convienence".

http://www.minimus.biz/

Can men and woman be friends?

You may be surprised by the answer. If your answer is no, wrong, relationship experts have said. "The belief that men and women can't be friends comes from another era in which women were at home and men were in the workplace, and the only way they could get together was for romance," explained Linda Sapadin, a psychologist in Valley Stream, New York. "Now they work together and share sports interests and socialize together." This cultural shift has encouraged psychologists, sociologists and communications experts to put forth a new message: Though it may be tricky, men and women can successfully become close friends. What's more, there are good reasons for them to do so.

The movie"When Harry Met Sally set the potential for male-female friendship back about 25 years," said Michael Monsour, assistant professor of communications at the University of Colorado at Denver and author of Women and Men as Friends. Television hasn't helped either. "Almost every time you see a male-female friendship, it winds up turning into romance."

Defining the Relationship: Friends or Lovers?

Platonic love does exist, and a study of 20 pairs of friends published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships lends credence to the notion. In it, Heidi Reeder, at Boise State University, confirmed that "friendship attraction" or a connection devoid of lust, is a bona fide type of bond that people experience. Distinguishing between romantic, sexual and friendly feelings, however, can be exceedingly difficult.

Psychology Today Magazine

Anti-aging Produce

I have been reading several articles about people who consume diets loaded in fresh fruits and vegetables have lower disease rates, more energy and less risk for weight gain then people who don't.


What's the magic ingrediants??? Well, they are fiber rich: Eight servings of fruits and vegetables daily supplies 27 grams of fiber. Fiber rich foods lower a person's risk for developing age-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and hypertention.

Fiber rich food are also low in calories, yet they help fill you up but not fill you out. Diets rich in antioxidants prevent disease and premature aging. Antioxidants also stimulate the immune system and protect the nervous system and brain from the oxidative damage associated with age-related memory loss.

Lower your intake of foods containing fat and sugar but continue to eat foods chockful of nutrients including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nonfat milk products.

Happy, heathy, eating........

It's a Barbie World and We're all Barbie Girls!

Barbie turns the "Big Five-O" this year. She was born in 1959 and has had more than 50,000. make-overs since then. Barbie is an icon she is every little girls best gal pal and we all wanted to grow up to look just like her. Barbie represents true beauty and not only for little blond white girls everywhere but for all races. Barbie proved that no matter what your skin coloring is that you are still beautiful. I wasn't big on baby dolls growing up but I have to say I loved my Barbie Doll so Happy Birthday Barbie and thanks for being my friend.

Finding your "Ness"

I recently watched the movie Me, You and Dupree and in one scene Owen Wilson refers to finding your "ness" - the essence of who we are.

This line got me thinking about what is my Karen-ness. I don't believe it is something we just learn over night but maybe after many years of soul searching we do get closer to knowing who we are and why we are here.

Growing up one of my favorites books was Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. It is an amazing inspirational story about if you truly believe in yourself that nothing is impossible. I believe this is a big part of finding our "ness". If we just stop over thinking and worrying that we can slow down and enjoy each moment we live and only then can we find the clarity to embrace our inner "ness".

Read this book for free.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6710991/Jonathan-Livingston-Seagull

To learn more about finding your "ness" refer to this great article by Eileen Bennett. http://www.inspirationpeak.com/cgi-bin/ideas.cgi?record=17