Meditation as Medication

Meditators may seem serious, but taking time to clear your mind can boost your spirits and your immunity. That’s the word from a group of American scientists. Psychologist Richard J.Davidson and colleagues gave 41 people a flu vaccine. A little more than half of the subjects learned to meditate and followed a regular schedule of “Om time” for an hour a day, six days a week. Another group just got the vaccine. After eight weeks, meditators had higher levels of flu fighting anti bodies than those who didn’t meditate. They were also better able to deal with stress and had increased activity in the area of the brain linked to good moods. The results weren’t temporary: The feel-good effects lasted for up to four months after meditation training sessions ended. Meditation produces measurable biological changes in the brain and body. It’s safe and can be of great benefit. It may be a useful complement to treatments already underway.

Pros and Cons of Camera Phone

A camera phone is a cell phone can shoot and transmit digital images instantly. You press a button to switch the phone to camera mode, aim the lens at your subject and set up the shot by looking at the phone’s built in screen. Depending on the model you select the image quality press a button and the photo can be stored in your phone‘s memory or sent to an email address or another phone.

Pros. Impromptu snapshots of family and friends home-design ideas and new products in stores can be zapped directly to your e-mail address, eliminating the extra step of downloading digital camera images later. Vacation pictures can be sent to family member’s seconds after they are taken.

Cons. Phone to phone image transmissions are possible only between phones using the same service. In some cases the phones must be the exact same model. Images tend to be inferior to those taken by a similarly priced digital camera and few models have a flash.

Exercise for Your Back

Sitting is an occupational hazard nowadays. Abdominals and back muscles are in such a low active state that they lose tone. Even if we go to gym we can’t hold our backs correctly and do more harm than good, causing back pain. These exercises will retrain your core stability.

*Heel Slide. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet on the floor. Slide your fingers under your spine to form a slight arch. Gently contract the lower abdominals and slide one heel out ahead of you then back. Do not overarch the spine.

*Bent knee Fallout. Lie as above. Place your hands on pelvis. Let one knee fall slowly sideways to the floor, keeping the pelvis still. Raise knee back to starting point.

* Side-Lying Knee Raise. Lie on your side, head on arm, knees bent to 90 degrees. Contract the lower abs and maintain breathing. Keeping shoulders, hips and feet in line and your feet together, raise one knee. Don’t rotate the pelvis. Hold for ten seconds.

Route to Relief

All therapies are not boring. Some use fun activities to heal:

Dance. This therapy, in which patients express emotions in movements, can help children who can’t talk about their troubles. And arthritis sufferers who attended dance therapy were up to 40% stronger after three months.

Music. Not only does music reduces depression, but Parkinson’s suffers who attended music therapy had greater motor and emotional functioning after three months than those who visited physiotherapists.

Gardening. Researchers say that people recover more from brain injuries by working on motor skills by tending the soil.

Art. Cancer patients who took part in an eight week art therapy program reported less physical pain. Art is a wonderful medicine to get relieved from stress.

Animals. Caring for pets helps fight deprssion, manage stress and lower blood pressure. Two studies have found heart attack patients with pets were more likely to be alive after one year.

Could Your Marriage Survive An Affair?

Why do some people cheat on their mates? Canadian family therapist Ann Evans, who has counseled couples for 25 years says knowing the reasons why people do so can save a lot of potential heartache:

Lack of commitment. Problems arise when an individual in a partnership have a greater commitment to “self “rather than to “us”.

Unrealistic expectations. Some people expect a marriage to be hearts and flowers all the time, rather than a garden that needs constant tending. They want love only if it’s “magic”.

Need for revenge. For some, having an affair is a way of evening up the score after an emotional betrayal or a mate’s infidelity.

A cry for help. An affair may be a desperate way of signaling to a partner that something is fundamentally wrong with the relationship.

Midlife blues. A perceived loss of attractiveness often causes people to seek some kind of validation that they can still get a new partner if they want to.

Birth of a child. The distraction a baby brings into a household often leaves men feeling unwanted, or unworthy of attention.

Gum Is Good For You

You may have thought of chomping on gum as a kid’s habit, but there are plenty of adult reasons to blow bubbles.

Heart burn healer. A study from King’s college London suggests that chewing gum after a meal fights acid reflux.

Dental dazzler. Chewing sugarless gum slows cavity growth by lowering acid levels in the mouth.

Wake-Up call. People who chewed gum while staying up all night felt less tired in the wee hours than those who didn’t. If you are driving at night, try chewing gum to be more alert.