Nutritional Supplements - What Are They?

Nutritional supplements are a subject of some controversy among medical professionals. Some feel that a proper diet is all that's needed to keep you healthy, while others see a legitimate case for the judicious use of vitamin and mineral supplements. Let's take a look at some of the reasons you may want to add nutritional supplements to your healthy eating plan.

The commercial vegetable grower may not practice crop rotation, growing his green beans in the same location year after year. This causes soil depletion, robbing the crop of many valuable nutrients. The green bean that ends up on your dinner plate may not contain the vitamins and minerals a nutritional table leads you to expect. Many vitamins and minerals work in concert. If one is missing, another partner nutrient in the food may not be absorbed. There you have one case begging for  nutritional supplements.

As we age, certain nutrients become more difficult for our bodies to assimilate. This is particularly true of the B vitamins. Children and teens require some nutrients in greater  amounts than adults. Calcium, magnesium and zinc are especially important, as are vitamin A, C and E. Moreover, calcium, magnesium and zinc must be in specific ratios to do their jobs and many processed foods skew these ratios or even eliminate them, rendering them virtually useless. The teenager's bane of skin blemishes is often due to inadequate amounts of vitamins A, C and E. People with poor night vision usually suffer from a lack of vitamin A. Do you bruise easily? Perhaps a lack of vitamin D is the culprit.

Certain diseases and health conditions can be partially or completely remedied with proper nutritional supplements. For example, some women are more prone to yeast infections than others. Causes may be genetic or dietary. Yeast feeds on sugar, so excessive sugar intake may promote these infections. At the same time, vitamin K helps keep the bacteria candiasis in check with a proper balance of 'good' and 'bad' bacteria. Therefore, some women may benefit from nutritional supplements of vitamin K.

It's important to note that nutritional supplements are not all equally effective. Often, the cheaper supplements are not in a form that's readily absorbed or may even have undesirable side effects. Vitamin C made from rose hips are more readily absorbed and does not irritate your stomach like vitamin C derived from ascorbic acid. There's much to know when it comes to choosing the right nutritional supplements. It's a good idea to consult with a knowledgeable person at your local health food store or visit an online vendor of supplements to be sure you're getting a product your body can use.

Nutritional supplements can be a boon to your health when properly chosen and applied. Your family physician can provide valuable information on supplements as they may relate to your specific conditions. Do yourself a favor and look into the possible benefits for you and your family. To your good health!

It's the New Thing in Green and Frugal Living

When the economy was going great guns a few years ago, no one would have had any time for this kind of thing; if there was maybe one month left in the season and you needed a Weed-whacker, you think nothing of putting down $100 for one and then letting it rot in the attic. If you needed to call your work friends to a barbecue and if you knew you were not going to have another one for a year more, you still went out and bought an expensive grill and let it stand idle on your patio. It didn't pinch when the money flowed freely. We live in changed times now however. People make much less than they used to, and keeping up with the principles of frugal living is completely praiseworthy now.

The new concept in frugal living today is community ownership - or sharing for a fee, in everyday language. You usually never get to borrow  beyond your immediate circle; if you want to borrow a power tool for instance, you would go to a neighbor, you would call your sister or your friend; but  what do you know of resources available elsewhere? Certainly, you could go down to a rental shop, but there aren't as many of those, and they were expensive. The new concept therefore is something that resembles peer-to-peer sharing on the Internet. The idea was thought up by a particularly creative individual in California; he's founded a whole new Internet startup based on his idea of sharing for frugal living. And the business is a smash.

The company is called Rentalic; it's a clearinghouse for people who have things lying around that they never use, and people who want those things for a short time, and don't find it worthwhile to go and by the whole thing (kind of like wondering why you should buy a cow for a glass of milk). Open Rentalic.com, and it's fascinating for he kind of stuff you have access to. It changes the way you see the world when you know that everything you ever dreamed of, you could get your hands on for maybe $10. It empowers you in a way you would never imagine. Do you need golf clubs for a friend from another city who was dropped by? They go for $15 a week. Do you never need a computer printer, but you need one now for a bunch of flyers you need tro print out? How about putting down five dollars? Frugal living isn't just about saving money either; it could also be about saving Earth. If everyone who wanted a printer for use for just a week went out and bought one, that would one day contribute to so much more landfill.

The wealth of stuff available to rent on Rentalic is bewildering. You have textbooks, novels, snow tires, air conditioners, camera lenses, DVD's, you name it. They even rent out luxury stuff sometimes, like designer clothing.You just go to the website, put down what you're looking for, and where you are, and often, you get something within a 5 mile radius. The idea is so successful that there are other companies too trying out the same thing. Neighborhood Fruit for instance, tries to get everyone in the neighborhood together to share the fruit that grows on trees in everyone's backyards. Try the new blogs Shareable and The Sharing solution for more news on the sharing industry. But enough people have to get on the bandwagon to really make this work. If you want to rent a fan for a dollar a day, it had better be really close to where you live. And for that to happen, there have to be millions of people who come on board. It's a great idea of its times; if enough people buy into it, what could be in for a grand time.

Self-Hypnosis - What Is It All About?

One of the techniques being used right now anywhere from fighting off addictions as well as in improving  concentration and learning is self-hypnosis, which is one form of hypnosis that allows the person to take on the responsibility for the procedure. This, for some, is vastly preferable as some sectors are still not comfortable placing a person under the control of another. With self-hypnosis, the control is entirely in the individual’s hands.

One of the most common problems that self-hypnosis is used for is for self-improvement. People who want to improve their social skills or manage their anger better can utilize self-hypnosis to unlearn or relearn what they need to. There are also some in the medical fields that use this procedure in order to lessen the impact of pain and physical symptoms. Self-hypnosis after all can fool the brain and make it believe that there is no more pain.

Critics of the procedure have however argued that the change in behavior and in overall wellbeing is not true and is only temporary. It is only there as long as self-hypnosis is effective but the change is only artificial and the root of the problem is only masked and not removed.

Still fans of this procedure have attested to its effectiveness especially in getting rid of bad habits and freeing themselves from chronic body pain. Besides, as they would argue, these people have learned these bad habits and that self-hypnosis will only make unlearning it easier and faster. Still, if you feel that you are comfortable with a professional controlling you, it is recommended that you have a professional perform the hypnosis instead of doing it yourself. Besides having full control over the procedure, they will also be more in the know regarding it.

To get started with self-hypnosis, you will of course need a professional hypnotist to guide you. These people will be the ones to help you with the instructions and the procedure. The whole procedure is different for every person. Some people will find it easier to manage while others can completely lose into it. After all, they will basically depend on the subconscious and will need to have the strength of mind to deal with it.

Self-hypnosis may not however be as effective as being done by a professional but the peace of mind and independence that you get from knowing that you are in control can mean a lot to some people. This knowledge of having the power to change yourself sometimes make up for the limitations that self-hypnosis brings to the table. The progress for instance with self-hypnosis may not be as fast with one professionally done. But as most patients have already implied, slow but sure is better than making a major change through the hands of an incompetent hypnotist.

There is no need to worry about safety. Just because you are doing it does not mean that it is any less safe. There is no truth to the claims that self-hypnosis can open the mind for the devil to enter or that people can get crazy because of it. A person under self-hypnotic state will have the same safeguards as with ordinary life. Actually, there is not much difference. The difference lies in the segment of the person’s personality that he or she wishes to change.

All in all self-hypnosis is an effective tool in curbing bad habits and lessening pain but the jury is still out on whether it can go mainstream.