Eating healthy is on a lot of people’s minds these days, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has found that many Americans’ diets are still not up to par. The problem is not a lack of food, but rather a lack of nutritious foods that supply the vitamins and minerals our bodies depend on to function.

In fact, about 30 percent of the calories that Americans consume daily are from nutrient-poor junk foods like sweets, desserts, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and salty snacks, a study published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis found.

“What is really alarming is the major contribution of ’empty calories’ in the American diet,” said Gladys Block, professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley. “We know people are eating a lot of junk food, but to have almost one-third of Americans’ calories coming from those categories is a shocker. It’s no wonder there’s an obesity epidemic in this country.”

Further, as a result of not eating nutritious foods, many Americans are laking in crucial nutrients. Ironically, Block points out, it’s possible to be overweight and still be undernourished.

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About 10 million people in the United States suffer from fibromyalgia, a syndrome characterized by chronic widespread pain, sleep disturbances, fatigue and, often, psychological distress as a result. Of them, about 75-90 percent are women, according to the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA).

Because people with fibromyalgia often “test” healthy according to typical medical diagnostic procedures, it takes an average of five years for a person to be correctly diagnosed. There are currently no laboratory tests that can detect it, so doctors rely on patient symptoms, medical histories and a “manual tender point” examination.

If a person experiences widespread pain in the body’s four quadrants for three months or more, along with tenderness or pain in 11 of 18 specific “tender” points upon pressure, a diagnosis of fibromyalgia is typically given. There is also a new set of criteria — a “widespread pain index” that also measures symptom severity — that the American College of Rheumatology recently approved as an effective new diagnostic tool.

For many years, people were told by their doctors that fibromyalgia was all in their heads, but with recent advances the medical community is beginning to accept the syndrome as a real medical condition … one that demands safe and effective treatment.

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Every 71 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s Facts and Figures. While over 5 million people in the United States are already living with the disease, it’s estimated that 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s during their lifetime — and this number is expected to triple by 2050.

The prevalence has grown so much in recent years that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, even surpassing diabetes.

Aside from the devastating emotional toll this disease takes on those afflicted and their families, it also costs the United States more than $148 billion each year.

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 Most of us clean our homes regularly, but when was the last time you cleaned out your home’s clutter? Clutter can be anything from stacks of mail taking over your kitchen table to too many toiletries under your bathroom sink.

Clutter takes the form of leftover Christmas wrapping paper and bows that you’re saving for next year to those coffee mugs your friends brought you from their trip to Disney World, which you just can’t get rid of.

While most of us revel in the clutter-free spaces that exist in nice hotel rooms, model homes and pictures in magazines, our own homes are typically far from serene — and our peace of mind is paying for it!

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Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, which resulted in 29 percent of all U.S. deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Meanwhile, more than one-third (37 percent) of adults reportedly have two or more of the six risk factors for heart disease and stroke, which include:

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Smoking
• Physical inactivity
• Obesity

In all, heart disease is thought to cost well over $403 billion for health care services, medications and lost productivity, according to the CDC.

What Exactly is Heart Disease?

Heart disease is actually a general term used to describe various heart problems. The most common type of heart disease in the United States is coronary artery disease (CAD), which occurs when your heart’s arteries buildup plaque and become hardened and narrowed. This reduces blood flow to the heart and can result in a heart attack.

Other common heart conditions include angina, heart failure, arrhythmia, peripheral artery disease and more.

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Reading aloud to children is one of the most important things you can do to ensure their future success, and more and more Americans seem to be jumping on the read-aloud bandwagon. While only 78 percent of families read to their pre-kindergarten-aged children frequently (three or more times a week) in 1993, this increased to 86 percent in 2005, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and is important to continue increasing for the sake of your children.

Kids of all ages (and adults, too) benefit from being read to, including even babies and toddlers.

“Children are never too young to have stories read to them,” says Nancy Verhoek-Miller, a specialist in early childhood education at Mississippi State University.

The benefits are so profound, and kids form so much of their intelligence potential during the early years of their life, that experts recommend reading aloud to your child as soon as he or she is born, and continuing indefinitely.

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 To love is to hold dear, or to feel a lover’s passion, devotion or tenderness. And what better way to express those feelings of passion than with a kiss, right?

Well, not so fast.

Researchers from the University of Leeds found that kissing may have started as a technique to spread germs, and thereby boost your body’s immunity to illness.

Specifically, a germ called cytomegalovirus lives in saliva and is passed from man to woman during a kiss. While cytomegalovirus is normally harmless, if a woman catches it while pregnant it can kill the unborn baby or cause birth defects.

Kissing the same person for about six months appears to offer the best protection against this bug, researchers say.

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Do you feel constantly tired, moody and depressed? Do you wake up feeling tired even after a full night’s rest? Do you crave sugary and salty foods, and depend on your morning coffee just to keep your eyes open?

These are all common symptoms of adrenal fatigue — a condition caused, in short, by too much stress and work. It’s estimated that up to 80 percent of adults suffer from adrenal fatigue, yet it continues to be a largely ignored and overlooked health problem, according to Dr. James Wilson, author of “Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome”.

“Adrenal fatigue can affect anyone who experiences frequent, persistent or severe mental, emotional or physical stress. It can also be an important contributing factor in health conditions ranging from allergies to obesity. Despite its prevalence in our modern world, adrenal fatigue has generally been ignored and misunderstood by the medical community,” Dr. Wilson writes on his Web site.

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While it was once thought that fetuses in the womb were largely protected from environmental chemicals, it’s now known that a woman’s exposure while pregnant has the potential to harm the developing baby.

Studies show that babies are exposed to hundreds of potentially toxic chemicals while in the womb.

In fact, a study sponsored by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) tested the umbilical cord blood of 10 newborns and found that the samples contained an average of 200 chemicals … chemicals linked to cancer, brain damage, birth defects and more.

“This is conclusive evidence that babies are being exposed to hundreds of industrial chemicals throughout pregnancy,” said Sonya Lunder, an EWG scientist, told the Associated Press. “The placenta isn’t a magic shield.”

The implications of all these chemical exposures are completely unknown, and while it’s likely impossible to eliminate all exposures (most people already have countless environmental chemicals circulating in their bloodstream), it’s a wise idea to minimize your exposure as much as possible during pregnancy and if you’re planning to become pregnant.

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