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Move Your Lymph

Move Your Lymph

Most everyone is familiar with the cardiovascular system that helps to pump blood to the body’s tissues. Did you know there is another series of vessels that carry a clear liquid called lymph? It’s important to move your lymph to improve your health.

Move Your Lymph

While nutrients and oxygen are delivered to the body through blood, lymph has the task of collecting waste, toxins, and debris while also distributing immune cells through the body. Keeping your lymph flowing smoothly is critical for your body’s wellbeing.

Your lymphatic system is a network of vessels and lymph nodes working together to carry fluids from your tissues to your blood. It is basically your body’s inner drainage system.

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Are Your Symptoms Aging or Inflammation?

Do you have a friend (or two) who claims that “getting old sucks?” Many struggle with growing numbers of symptoms that they attribute to aging, but few realize that most of those symptoms are actually caused by inflammation. What about you? Are your symptoms aging or inflammation?

I firmly believe that many of the symptoms we attribute to age are avoidable. Some call this inflammation that comes with (or accelerates) aging “inflammaging.” Yet there is good news! With proper nutrition and lifestyle strategies, you can slow this inflamm-aging process and reduce your risk of health issues. Read more

We have come through a holiday which is focused on giving thanks. Have you discovered the power of words on your life? Gratitude and praise lift the spirit.

The Power of Words on Your Life

We have just come through a holiday which is focused on gratitude, on giving thanks. Have you discovered the power of words on your life? Gratitude and praise lift the spirit. And do you remember the effect of hurtful words when you were a child … or even recently? Did they crush your spirit?

In his book, Love as a Way of Life, Gary Chapman uses an effective metaphor for words as being either bullets or seeds. When we speak with condemnation, our words act as bullets, tearing down relationships. Yet when we use our words as seeds, spoken in a supportive manner with good will for our audience, we are building relationship in positive, affirming ways. Read more

Got Milk – Do You Really Need It?

Do you have a friend or family member who follows a dairy-free approach to eating? Does it seem like an odd choice – one that feels slightly un-American? Do you really need milk?

We’ve all seen the “Got Milk” commercials and print ads, and I’m sure you heard your Mom tell you to drink your milk for strong bones. But is milk truly beneficial to your body? Maybe, maybe not. Read more

Why Ditch Your Sugar Habit?

Do you have a firm grasp on the amount of sugar you consume? Most people do not. It’s been said that the average person consumes more than 40 pounds of sugar in a calendar year, but I found more updated information indicating that the average amount is actually closer to 150 pounds — quite alarming, don’t you think?

When we think of sugar, sweet desserts such as cakes, donuts, candy, and cookies come to mind immediately. But there are tremendous amounts of sugar hiding in everyday things we consume, and when we consume them regularly, they add up fast. Read more

Inflammation … Friend or Foe?

We’ve all experienced wounds of varying sizes. Think back to a recent wound – the event that caused it, the pain and probably blood. Within a few hours the spot was tender, red and swollen; yet that subsided after a short time as a scab developed and healing began.

That tender redness was the result of inflammation at the site – your body’s process of “mustering in the troops” to fight off germs and support the healing process. It is a normal process for our bodies, whether you actually see the wound on the outside or not.

Inflammation is necessary to protect and heal, but when it continues unchecked, it can begin to work against us. Read more

Dump the Vegetable Oil!

For the past four decades, the U.S. government has warned that eating cholesterol-rich foods and saturated fat would promote heart disease. In that time, low-fat and fat-free foods have become more prominent on the grocery shelves. But have these changes made a difference in our overall health?

Dr Christopher Ramsden, of the National Institute of Health, unearthed raw data from Keys’ largest, most rigorous trial of its kind. Analysis of the data clearly showed that lowering cholesterol by consuming vegetable oils instead of saturated fat actually raised the risk of death from cardio vascular events. Read more

Are You Stoking the Fire?

CampfireWe’ve all experienced the benefits of inflammation in response to injury or illness. This aspect of our immune system causes pain, swelling and heat as it rallies resources to the site to enable the body to heal.

Such acute inflammation is vital, yet when the fire continues to smolder, it becomes the chronic inflammation that leads to disease, faster aging and weight gain. Could you be inadvertently stoking this fire with the food and drink you are consuming?

It is quite possible if you are ….  Read more