The Health Benefits of Candy Canes

Stop bothering your kids and let them eat all the candy canes they want.

New studies on peppermint, the key flavoring in traditional candy canes, reveal the herb may do everything from kill germs to treat digestive troubles. Read more

Six Easy Exercises You Can Do at the Offiice

Fitness experts Diana Nyad and Bonnie Stoll of the fitness company Bravabody describe a workout called The Office Six, six easy exercises you can do at the exercise (with video).

With New Year's just around the corner, many Americans will be making a resolution to get in better shape. But many people simply do not have the time to hit the gym for hours on end.

Have no fear. Fitness experts Diana Nyad and Bonnie Stoll of the fitness company Bravabody are masters of The Office Six -- six easy workouts everyone can do while at work to keep that body toned. Read more

Skimping on Sleep Linked to Hardened Arteries

Researchers have found that skimping on sleep is linked to hardened arteries

Just one extra hour of sleep a day appears to lower the risk of developing calcium deposits in the arteries, a precursor to heart disease, US researchers said on Tuesday. The finding adds to a growing list of health consequences - including weight gain, diabetes and high blood pressure - linked to getting too little sleep. Read more

How to Get Rock Star Abs

Chris, at Zen to Fitness, explains how to use a five-minute circuit of unconventional abdominal exercises to get rock star abs.

I decided to title this post a ‘Guide to Rockstar Abs’ as I aim to show you simple unconventional ways to achieve strong functional abs not blocky and bulky midsections the magazine’s workouts will get you, Also it sounded cool. Most these training methods can be done without a gym and integrated with you workout. Read more

Wine That Clears Your Arteries

Isn't it great when something good is also good for you? An Australian doctor is producing wines with up to 100 times the antioxidant content of standard wine, creating what he calls "vascular pipe-cleaners."

It sounds too good to be true, but an Australian doctor insists he has created the world's healthiest tipple: a wine that cleans the arteries as you drink it, reducing the risk of heart attack. Read more

Warning of Nut Allergy 'Hysteria

Nut allergy hysteria is becoming increasingly absurd. Schools are being declared "nut free zones," with all foods that don't have their ingredients clearly labeled— including lunches brought from home—being banned, despite the evidence that for most people nuts are healthful foods.

Measures to protect children with nut allergies are becoming increasingly absurd and hysterical, say experts.

A peanut on the floor of a US school bus recently led to evacuation and decontamination for fear it might have affected the 10-year-old passengers.

Such extreme steps to reduce exposure to nuts are not isolated and are fuelling fear and anxiety, reports the British Medical Journal Online. Read more

Marijuana for Memory

Is there anything that marijuana isn't good for? scientists are finding new evidence that specific elements in marijuana can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells.

It's not as dangerous as scientists think it should be, and it can even be considered medicine. Also, it may affect different people in different ways.

The more researchers study the effects of marijuana, the more evidence scientists find that specific elements in it can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells. Development of a legal drug that contains certain properties similar to those in marijuana might help prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Though the exact cause of Alzheimer’s remains unknown, chronic inflammation in the brain is believed to contribute to memory impairment. Read more

The Inquisition over Vitamin Pills Begins

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) survey shows that 60% of Americans take dietary supplements or use alternative therapies. The NIH, in league with the drug companies, doesn’t like Americans spending $40 billion a year on alternative care. So the NIH is issuing "Time To Talk" kits to doctors, encouraging patients to "confess" to taking dietary supplements.

Oh, it was a bad week for modern medicine. But Tara Parker Pope of the New York Times didn’t think so. She wrote an article entitled "News Keeps Getting Worse For Vitamins." (Nov. 20, ‘08 NYT) But then again, we could slip a fast one by Tara any day since she doesn’t know how to read the pseudo-science now being used to denigrate dietary supplements. Hey, Tara, you didn’t say whether YOU take vitamins pills. Never mind surveys show the most educated are more likely to take vitamin pills, or other studies which show the typical American diet leaves most Americans deficient in vitamins C, D, E, B12 and folic acid.

Breast cancer cooking machines

The zinger was the report showing breast cancers just disappear if you leave them alone, stop clamping breasts in mammogram machines, stop zapping women’s breasts with radiation machinery (mammography) and stop lancing breasts with biopsy needles. (Archives Internal Medicine Nov. 24, ’08). Yep, the body’s immune system just engulfs these developing tumors. Read more