June 4, 2010 This week on Healthy by Nature I interview an expert in drinking water. Learn what to do about the 2,000 thousand toxins that have been documented in drinking water and how to avoid health problems created by bottled water. You can get clean water for just 9 cents a gallon.
STRESSED?
Do you suspect that you are accumulating the effects of stress and need a break? Take the quiz at this link if you think you need to justify taking some time off. http://www.wisconsinjobcenter.org/publications/9441/9441.htm
TRAVEL HEALTH
A trip can often upset our digestion. Some extra magnesium in your vitamin packs can help keep you regular if travel tends to slow your system down. If your concern is the opposite problem—probiotics to the rescue. In my experience, chewing a couple capsules of my favorite probiotic, Dr. Ohhira’s 12 PLUS, with a meal heads off issues of both indigestion and bad food. Fortunately, the caps don’t need refrigeration and are in convenient blister packs.
AIRLINE TRICK
When Bill and I travel together we reserve an aisle seat and a window seat rather than 2 together. Usually the center seat isn’t filled and that gives us extra room to spread out our stuff. It’s a bonus that some Summo wrestler won’t be climbing over us to go to the bathroom…(Now that I think about it, that name doesn’t seem quite right on a plane since no bathing is allowed. “Restroom”? How can you “rest” with a line at the door?) Anyway, back to the seating. If someone does show up to claim the center seat, he or she is always quite eager to trade the center seat for the window. (Let’s please keep this trick a secret amongst ourselves so the airlines don’t come up with some rule against it.)
VACATION EFFECTS
STUDY: A study in the Journal of Occupational Health reviewed 7 studies on vacation. Researchers concluded that “vacation has positive [modest] effects on health and well-being… but that these effects soon fade out after work resumption…Our research further demonstrated that vacation activities and experiences have hardly been studied. Therefore, their contribution to vacation effect and fade out remains unclear.”*
MY 2 CENTS: Although that review as written in the Netherlands, the abstract didn’t say where the 7 studies were conducted. In the US a high proportion of people work more than 40 hours a week and cram their “free time” with other duties and activities. In most industrialized countries vacations are longer, the work week shorter and schedules build in more relaxation. That might affect the results.
MY OWN RESEARCH
If you wonder why this week’s newsletter is short, it isn’t just to average out last week’s long one. I said I might discuss Vitamin K, but first some Vitamin R and R. I’ve decided to test out this business of vacation effects myself. We’re actually taking a few days off to attend my high school reunion. I’ll report back.
IF YOU CAN’T GET AWAY
At this link there is some decent advice for reducing ongoing stress.
Don’t suddenly stop medications. Consult your health practitioner. This newsletter is educational and not a substitute for professional advice. Please stay well and help us spread the word that prevention is the best health care reform. You can help the show, as well as family and friends, by forwarding this email to them and encouraging them to subscribe to Health e-Notes. You might also alert your FaceBook friends.
New Book: Aloe Vera—Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy
1(J Occup Health. 2009;51(1):13-25. Do we recover from vacation? Meta-analysis of vacation effects on health and well-being. de Bloom J, Kompier M, Geurts S, de Weerth C, Taris T, Sonnentag S.)
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