You may have just celebrated your 30th, 50th, or 75th birthday, but the cells that make up your body are actually much younger than that. If you go by the numbers, your cells are, on average, around 10 years old, or less.
In fact, most of your body’s cells are constantly being replaced, although its DNA stays the same from the moment the cell is first created (by its parent cell dividing).

Because of this, Jonas Frisen, a stem cell biologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was able to develop a method to determine just how old your cells really are.

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Athlete’s foot is one of the most common skin infections around, and usually attacks your feet in the dark, damp areas between your toes. Fungus, of course, love moist environments of all kinds, including showers, swimming pools and locker rooms, the latter being why this infection got the name “athlete’s foot.”

Top Symptoms of Athlete’s Foot

If you have one or several of the symptoms below, you could have athlete’s foot:

• Itching, stinging or burning between your toes or on the soles of your feet
• Itchy blisters
• Cracking and peeling skin between your toes and on the soles of your feet
• Excessively dry skin on the bottoms or sides of your feet
• Thick, crumbly toenails that are discolored or pulling away from the nail bed

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Women who live in heavy traffic areas such as the Northern Manhattan and South Bronx areas of New York City, could give birth to children with an increased risk of asthma due to what are called toxic PAH’s (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons).
The finding came from a study of the umbilical cord blood from New York City children, in which researchers found a change in a gene (called ACSL3) associated with prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Most commonly, PAHs are released into the air when fossil fuels, gasoline and garbage are burned, and as such perhaps the most common route of exposure to these chemicals is by breathing contaminated air. PAHs exist in cigarette smoke, wood smoke, vehicle exhaust, diesel exhaust and asphalt roads, as well as in the air of industrial coking, coal-tar and asphalt production facilities, along with trash-incinerating facilities.

Because of this, air in urban areas may have PAH levels 10 times higher than those in rural areas.

While exposure to PAHs has previously been linked to cancer, childhood asthma, cataracts, kidney and liver damage and other diseases, the new study found the chemicals result in epigenetic changes that may disrupt the normal functioning of genes by altering their expression.

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“Disease cannot live in a body that’s in a healthy emotional state,” at least, so says author Bob Proctor in the film, “The Secret.” “The Secret” — which was not being shown in theaters, but rather was spread through a viral, grassroots marketing campaign — discussed a centuries-old principle that has earned a “new-age” reputation.

“The secret is the Law of Attraction. Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you’re holding in your mind,” Proctor said.

The idea is simple and very general: whatever it is that you focus on, think about and occupy your thoughts with will appear in your life. Humans, in this way, are like magnets, attracting into their lives whatever it is their emotions, beliefs and thoughts focus on.

However, says Katherine Puckett, LCSW, director of mind-body medicine at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, while stress and negative emotions can certainly contribute to illness, things aren’t always so black and white.

“We’re always emphasizing at [the] Mind-Body [Center] that you never have to be hard on yourself about being sick, you never deserve it, and it never is helpful to be hard on yourself … there are lots of people who worry, and who don’t get cancer, there are people who are afraid they’ll get sick who don’t get sick, and then there are people who live a really clean life and are fairly stress-free who do get sick, so I’d don’t think it’s always so simple.”

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Inflammation is your body’s natural response to outside invaders it perceives as threats. Specifically, it’s a process in which your body’s white blood cells protect you from foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses.

However, when your body is in a chronic state of inflammation, the inflammation can lodge in your muscles, joints and tissues. In fact, chronic inflammation is a leading cause of many diseases, both physical and neurological, including heart disease.

Is Inflammation Serious?

Inflammation is associated with a host of diseases like Crohn’s disease, colitis and arthritis, and many of them are life threatening. Said pathologist Ed Friedlander, M.D., “Probably your own death will be caused by your last inflammatory response … Whole body inflammation, formerly a popular term used especially by surgeons for the patients who they could not save, is going out of fashion in favor of multiple organ failure.”

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It’s somewhat instinctive to warm-up before a workout. You may jog in place a little, shake out your arms, do a few stretches, and some other movements to get your heart pumping and your body feeling loose before you exercise. After you’re done exercising, however, you may be tired, and taking the time to cool down and support your body post-workout may be the last thing on your mind.

But as you may suspect, establishing a proper after-workout routine is incredibly important. Taking care of your body after exercise will impact your muscles (their strength and soreness), how well your exercise is received and even how much strain you put on your heart. So if you’re taking the healthy step of exercising, be sure to extend it to include these simple, yet essential, after-workout tips.

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This article may very well be the “most important article you read this year”… for your better health. You may even want to print out relevant sections and or simply pass it along in its entirety to friends and loved-ones. It covers a lot of health related information we hope you find helpful.

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion compiled their Healthy Eating Index, they found only a slight reason to smile. Ten percent of the population had a good diet.

This was based on 10 aspects including how many servings of fruits, vegetables and meat were being consumed, along with how much sodium and cholesterol, and variety were in a person’s diet.
The rest of their findings left something to be desired:

• 16 percent of the population had a “poor” diet
• The rest of the population (74 percent) had a diet that “needed improvement”

As the USDA pointed out, poor or inadequate diets are linked to four of the top 10 causes of death — heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. And as it turns out, most of us have less-than-ideal diets that essentially leave our bodies starving for more nutrients.

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Although single men may tout the joys of living the carefree “bachelor’s life,” it turns out married men may have an advantage. Numerous studies have proven that married life is good for men, physically, mentally and spiritually as well as women.

In fact, a recent study by UCLA researchers, published in an issue of the journal Cancer, found that, compared with single men, men with prostate cancer who are married, or even just in a relationship, reported:

• Better psychosocial and spiritual well-being
• Fewer adverse effects from treatment
• Less fear and anxiety about their cancer coming back

Said Dr. Mark Litwin, the study’s senior author, a UCLA professor of urology and public health, and a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher, “The message for men with prostate cancer is this: It is good to be partnered and have a support system following treatment … Now we need to find a way to encourage the use of support groups and support systems in patients who aren’t married or in relationships so they can do better, too.”

But the positive effects of marriage extend to healthy men too …

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Empathy is the ability to put yourself into someone else’s shoes — to understand them, to feel their pain, to take on their concerns, worries and regrets, as well as their joys, their elations and their excitement. As basic and elemental as this may sound, it’s not an easy thing to do. But it is beneficial.

Empathy is a key emotion sought after in leaders, in upper management, in spouses, in students, in children and in friends. It’s been scientifically proven to promote “prosocial” behaviors (acts that help others, especially altruistic ones), contribute to “emotional intelligence,” and educators are even pushing to instill it in grade school students. Why? Because empathy makes the world a better place, for you and for those around you.

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