Contaminated drywall from China, used to build more than 60,000 homes in at least a dozen states, may be emitting toxic levels of chemical pollutants like sulfur into new homes.

More than 500 million pounds of potentially tainted Chinese building materials may have been imported into the United States, particularly to Florida, at the height of the housing boom, according to shipping records reviewed by The Associated Press (AP).

The drywall lets off fumes that smell like rotten eggs and are potent enough to corrode copper pipes and make jewelry and silverware turn black. In fact, one of the telltale signs that a home may contain Chinese drywall is corroded piping and wiring that causes electronics and appliances, including air conditioners, to fail.

Some homeowners have also issued lawsuits alleging the drywall has caused health effects ranging from headaches and sore throats to dizziness and respiratory illness.

“This is a traumatic problem of extraordinary proportions,” said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler in an AP article.

Wexler has introduced a bill calling for a temporary ban on Chinese-made building imports until their chemical makeup is investigated further. Florida has been particularly hard-hit with Chinese drywall problems.

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Your arteries are blood vessels that transport oxygen and nutrients from your heart to the rest of your body. In order for this important process to occur, your arteries should be flexible, strong, elastic and clear of any deposits.

However, over time deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol, cellular waste products, calcium and other substances can build up in your arteries. These plaques can severely restrict blood flow and, even more seriously, they can cause your arteries to rupture, leading to blood clots. Blood clots can then block your blood flow entirely, leading to heart attack and stroke.

In fact, a build-up of plaques in your arteries, known as atherosclerosis, is the main underlying cause of heart disease.

So keeping your arteries clean is not only a key part of your heart health, it’s a key to your health overall.

Exercising on most days of the week is an excellent way to keep your arteries healthy and so is smart supplementation. Vitamins D and K are important for strong bones and teeth and a healthy immune system, but did you also know that this pair are essential to arterial health? Vitamin D is essential for absorbing calcium while vitamin K helps your body better utilize calcium and keep it out of the arterial walls and protect our arterial elasticity. 

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As you read this, you’re probably sitting — a motion done by all of us countless times a day. We sit to eat, to work, to relax, to converse, to socialize … to engage in infinite moments of our lives.

Yet as research would have it, this very simple and often necessary act could be insidiously harmful to your health in a surprising number of ways.

“Chair time is an insidious hazard because people haven’t been told it’s a hazard,” Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri in Columbia, told Ivanhoe Broadcast News.

According to Hamilton, numerous studies show rates of heart disease, diabetes and obesity are doubled and even tripled in people who sit a lot. Part of the problem with sitting is that it stops the circulation of lipase, an enzyme that breaks down fats. So instead of being burned by your muscles, when you’re sitting fat recirculates in your bloodstream where it may end up stored as body fat, clogging arteries or contributing to disease.

In fact, simply standing up as opposed to sitting engages muscles and helps your body process fat and cholesterol in a positive way, regardless of the amount of exercise you do.

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Most people are now well aware of the health benefits of keeping their weight within a certain ideal range. This is conventionally measured by BMI, or body mass index, a standard for measuring your weight-to-height ratio. But here’s something you may not know…

You may be carrying unhealthy excess pounds even if your BMI and weight are in the recommended ranges, and these pounds may be devastating to your health.

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What is your ideal target age to live to? Many people today live to and past 100. We all want to live a healthy life filled with happiness and no regrets.

We will share how to live your life healthier now and at a higher quality of life with less potential ill concerns for many more years to come.

We all have different reasons to live longer, but yet most end up the same: To spend more time with our children, grandchildren and loved ones. We nearly all have loving memories of our cherished grandparents, which we seek to have as many years as possible while in good health with those we too love so dearly.

The average life expectancy in the United States is 77.7 years. However, as far as aging goes, the rate is far from average. Individuals age at entirely different rates. Even different organs within the same person can age at varying speeds.

In order to reduce your “physical stages of dying” too early, it’s wise to first find out what your greatest risks of death are from … and then learn the steps to help prevent them. The good news is that many of the top risks can be dramatically influenced by your own habits and behaviors.

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Metals and other elements in your child’s food could be contributing to aggressive or anti-social behavior in children, according to Neil Ward, professor of chemistry at the University of Surrey in the UK, and a lead researcher in the field.

While excessive amounts of metal in food can clearly be dangerous, strong evidence now shows that some trace elements may be toxic as well. And while some metals, such as copper, manganese and zinc, actually act as nutrients that can be beneficial for health, others have no known benefits. These potentially harmful metals include:

• Arsenic
• Cadmium
• Lead
• Mercury
• Aluminum

These elements can actually act as “anti-nutrients,” which means they hinder the absorption of essential nutrients, a condition that can be particularly dangerous to children, according to Ward. For instance, he explains on FoodNavigator.com:

“Lead acts as an anti-nutrient, hindering the utilization of magnesium, zinc and vitamin B1. High lead levels have been linked to a reduction in IQ, negative classroom behavior ratings by teachers, juvenile delinquency and increased violent behavior.”

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Even though we all do it, pooping is one topic that most people would rather NOT discuss — even with their doctor. Yet, your bowel habits — from the frequency to the shape and color of your poop — can give you invaluable clues about what’s going on inside your body. You may find it crude, embarrassing or just plain gross, but the truth is that from a health standpoint your poop is not something to be ignored.

Dr. Oz on Poop: “S Shaped” is Best

You may have seen Dr. Mehmet Oz’s appearance on the Oprah show several years back during which he talked all about poop. According to Dr. Oz, your bowel movements should be “S shaped” and hit your toilet with a “swoosh” sound. Pellet-like poop that plops into the water is a sign of constipation.

Dr. Oz shares on Oprah.com:

“It [Poop] should be an S shape and you want to make sure the color’s normal because the color of the poop tells you a lot about how you made it. You don’t want [pieces]. Food is a medicine for you. It helps you.

[If the stool is in pieces] by the time you finished digesting your food, you don’t have enough of it left to poop out in the right way and probably it’s hurt the colon that has to process it. At the end of the day you can analyze your body really effectively by looking at what comes out of your body.”

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Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, the ancient healing system from India, both recommend springtime as the ideal season to detox your body. The rebirth of nature that happens during this time harmonizes with a cleansing and renewing of your body. Plus, some of us tend to get lax about our diets and exercise routines during the cold winter months, which means come spring we’re ready to come out of hibernation.

Why Do You Need to Detox?

Modern living isn’t exactly pure. Every day we’re exposed to chemicals in our food and water, pollution in our air, and emotional stress in our lives. Over time, these toxins accumulate in your body and can manifest as insomnia, fatigue, digestive problems, aches and pains or even chronic disease.

Detoxification gives your body a chance to rest, clear out toxins and become nourished. Generally this is done by first removing and eliminating toxins, then providing your body with healthy nutrients. There are numerous over-the-counter supplements you can take to aid in your detox, and some people even do so by fasting.

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In our pursuit of the American Dream, most Americans are willing to put up with quite a bit. Very long work hours, sacrificing vacation time, missing out on milestones in their kids’ lives … and maybe even suffering from a few stress-related illnesses.

You may very well have enough activities crammed into each day that you barely have time to think … let alone to eat healthy, exercise or (gasp) relax — and that is just from the external pressures.

On the inside all of this stress and 24/7 lifestyle can leave you with racing thoughts so severe you have trouble sleeping or, on the flipside, feeling like your brain is completely fried, numb and on the verge of a complete meltdown.

And for all of this strife, many of us are still spending our free time worrying about finances, the state of the economy, terrorist threats or coming down with a bout of flu.

This begs the question: for all that we’re sacrificing, how many of us feel truly happy? And could it be that the quest for happiness lies not in how many hours we can work in a week, but in how many we can thoroughly enjoy?

With that in mind, we urge you to audit your life and decide if you could benefit from slowing down and reducing out of control stresses, so that you, as a human being, can free up more time for relaxation and fun.

And if you decide the answer is YES … here are important tips to get you started.

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The first form of aspirin — today one of the most widely used drugs around — existed all the way back in the 5th century B.C., when the father of medicine, Hippocrates, used willow bark and leaves to relieve pain and reduce fever. It wasn’t until the 1820s, however, that scientists identified the active component in willow bark: salicin.

Salicylic acid derived from willow bark worked to fight aches and pains, but there was a major drawback: it upset the stomach. So, a few decades later, French chemist Charles Frederic Gerhardt found that combining salicylic acid with acetyl chloride made it less irritating.

But Gerhardt, thinking the compound was too complex to make, abandoned the idea. It wasn’t until 1899, when Felix Hoffmann, a German chemist, came across Gerhardt’s recipe and found the compound really worked, that aspirin came to be.

Hoffmann worked for Bayer and convinced the company to make the drug, named Aspirin (the names comes from acetyl chloride [A] and spiraea ulmaria, the plant that salicylic acid comes from [spir] along with an [in] ending).

Bayer released Aspirin tablets in 1915 (it was previously sold as a powder), but, interestingly, had to give up the trademark after World War I as part of Germany’s war reparations. At the Treaty of Versailles, the trademark (along with the trademark for Heroin) was given to France, England, Russia and the United States.

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