Forget the extreme pain that comes with extreme makeovers, here are 5 quick tips to help you stay young....naturally!

1. Quit Smoking

When it comes to staying young, smoking is one of the most destructive things you can do to rob yourself of your youthfullness. While some people think it helps keep them slim, you only have to look at long term smokers to see its side effects like sallow skin, yellow teeth and lips, coughing, shortness of breath and those unsightly lip lines from pursed lips around a cigarette. Smokers also run an increased risk of developing lung cancer, they are severely depleted of essential nutrients like vitamin C and Zinc which can lead to frequent infections and further complications. Quit Smoking Today!

2. Eat Fresh Berries

Although much has been written lately about the very excellent blueberry, you will find that most berries are an excellent source of "age fighting" anti-oxidants. Try strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and blueberries ofcourse. Choose organic berries if possible as they are free from harmful chemicals and they taste better.

3. Boost Your Intake of Beta Carotene and Vitamins C and E

Beta Carotene is cleansing, nourishing and stimulating to the whole body. Vitamin C is one of the most important nutrients in repairing cell damage. Vitamin E has been shown in laboratory tests to slow down the aging process. Together, these three nutrients assist each other in having an even more powerful effect than either of them alone. You can take supplements or you can eat carotts, pumpkin and mango for beta carotene; citrus, tomatoes and capsicum for vitamin C; and nuts, avocado and whole-grains for vitamin E.

4. Give Yourself A Natural Face Lift

When done regularly, these exercises will strengthen your facial muscles to maintain a youthful elasticity. Scrunch up your whole face for a few seconds and release. Next, do the opposite by opening your mouth and eyes as wide as possible for a few seconds. Next, purse your lips and inflate your cheeks for a few seconds and lastly, grin widely and open your eyes widely for a few seconds.

5. Relax and Learn to Fight Stress

Learning to deal with stress is an effective way to keep your organs and body processes functioning normally giving your body numerous age defying benefits. Visit our stress relief pages for effective ways to deal with stress.

We go through many changes in our lives, the most noted are puberty & menopause. Like all changes, menopause can be a challenge, but armed with the right knowledge we can make the change less stressful.

Menopause signifies the end of a woman’s reproductive years and is often received with mixed feelings. Depending on your outlook, it can be seen as either a blessing or a curse.

For those women who see menopause as a blessing it may mean that they are free from the burdens of a menstrual cycle, they can devote more time to themselves and it becomes a “right of passage” for them to take a more mature role in the family and community.

Women who think of menopause as a curse will most often feel a sense of loss and go through a “grieving” process - they will feel a lack of attractiveness, inadequacy and fear.

Whichever view you hold, the physical symptoms accompanying the feelings can make the passage a greater challenge. Common symptoms include:

• Hot Flushes



• Heart Palpitations


• Dizziness



• Nervousness



• Depression



• Irritability



• Fatigue



• Dry Vagina



• Dry skin



• Headaches



• Weight Gain


• Insomnia

More serious problems include osteoporosis and heart disease.

The type of stroke that results when a blood clot travels to the brain -- called an ischemic stroke -- is more likely to occur on days when the air contains a larger concentration of particulate matter, according to a study published online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) examined air quality on a total of 37,000 days in nine cities. Risk of hospitalization for ischemic stroke was 1 percent higher on days with relatively high levels of air pollution, compared with low-air pollution days, reports lead author Gregory Wellenius, ScD, postdoctoral fellow in cardiology at BIDMC.

Third Cause of Death in US

"Although these effects sound relatively small," says Wellenius, "given the large number of people exposed to air pollution and the large number of people at risk for stroke ... the actual number of strokes could be significant."

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the US, affecting more than 700,000 individuals each year.

A "consistent increased risk" for cardiac health problems associated with exposure to ambient air particles was established in earlier research by Wellenius and coauthors Murray Mittleman, MD, DrPH, of BIDMC's Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit and Joel Schwartz, PhD, of HSPH.

"Air pollution has been shown to trigger heart attacks and to aggravate the conditions of patients with congestive heart failure," says Mittleman, who is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

"These new findings, demonstrating that incidence of clot-based strokes also increase, [are] in keeping with our earlier data showing a relationship between air pollution and heart and lung disorders," he notes.

The researchers also looked at the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke, which is caused by bleeding in the brain, during the same "high pollution" days, notes Wellenius, but found no association between the two.

Reducing Exposure May Lower Risk

The air pollution in question -- particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter -- includes particles from car and truck exhaust, power plants and refineries. The measurements were provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency from nine US cities: Birmingham, Ala., Chicago, New Haven, Conn., Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and Seattle.

The authors analyzed hospital admissions among a group of Medicare patients with an average age of 79. Seventy-five percent of the patients were white, and 61 percent were female. Their findings showed that during the course of their study, there were 155,503 hospital admissions for ischemic stroke.

The final analysis demonstrated a 1.03 percent rise in ischemic stroke on the days with the highest pollution measures.

"We don't know exactly what mechanisms are involved that trigger these cardiac events," says Wellenius. "However, we do know that particulates in the air promote inflammation, which is a significant risk factor for cardiac events; that exposure to particulates can lead to changes in heart rate and blood pressure; and that pollution can cause changes in coaguable states (related to blood clotting abilities)."

The authors say that future research will focus on finding out which pollutants are most toxic, as well as which patients are at greatest risk for health problems stemming from air pollution.

"Taken together with previous work, these latest results support the idea that reducing exposure to particulate matter may reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks," they conclude.

By: Rita Jenkins

Whether it's land, water or air; our environment is a precious resource that has a huge impact on our health.

We live in a modern world with many necessary industries and processes, but that doesn't mean we have to accept the levels of pollution we currently have. We're affecting climate change much faster than the natural rate and that means problems will manifest themselves much faster than we can cope with them.

The links on the left give you simple things we can all do to help preserve our planet.

There are many factors that could be the causes of bad breath, and many of the factors that could be causes of bad breath can be dealt with quickly and easily using simple techniques. In fact the causes of bad breath are so well documented that it is easy to find the factors which are the cause of bad breath for you.

So what are the causes of bad breath exactly?

Bad breath, which is usually halitosis, is caused by VSC's (Volatile Sulphur Compounds) in the mouth; these are the most common of the causes of bad breath. But what are they, anyway?

Bacteria in your throat and mouth help to break down certain proteins. When some Amino acids which have a lot of Sulphur inside, start to get broken down and then produce various foul smelling compounds from the back of the mouth and throat.

There is a common misconception that bad breath can come from your stomach, and although it may feel like that sometimes, the smell comes from the compounds produced your throat and mouth. Some foods however after they have been consumed encourage the production of certain chemicals that are then discharged via the lungs. So that extra helping of deep-fried onion rings is actually making a smell through your lungs.

So how can we avoid these great causes of bad breath?

Well many of the causes of bad breath are things that we take for granted and use everyday. Most toothpastes can be a cause of bad breath because the stuff that makes the foam actually promotes production of VSC's.

A dry tongue can also be a cause of bad breath. The bacteria that produce those nasty VSC's actually don't like oxygen, so a dry mouth is perfect and hence becomes a cause of bad breath.

The nasty stuff from the bacteria comes from the breakdown of Amino acids, which are found in protein. So high protein foods can be a cause of bad breath, even a generally high protein diet could be one of the causes of bad breath.

Once you have elevated levels of the bacteria in your throat, it becomes very difficult to fight off the bad breath as those bacteria can use anything to be the next trigger for your bad breath. By successfully reducing the amount of bacteria in your throat you can make sure that it becomes that much more difficult to get the bad breath in the first place.

You literally zap the cause of bad breath at its source.

So one of the causes of bad breath are those things that allow the bacteria to produce more VSC's, so avoid or treat these and you will rid yourself of your cause of bad breath. Otherwise hit at the source and reduce those bacteria.

By: Peter Stewart