Krystal Golds Spa

What are Blackheads

2009-04-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

A blackhead is a yellowish or blackish bump or plug on the skin. A blackhead is a type of acne vulgaris. It is caused by excess oils that have accumulated in the sebaceous gland's duct. The substance found in these bumps mostly consists of keratin and modified sebum (an oily secretion of the sebaceous gland), which darkens (resembling dirt) as it oxidizes

Veggie Burger Recipe

2009-04-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Makes 8 good sized patties:

This quick, easy, kid-friendly vegetarian tofu burger recipe is a sure way to get your kids or anyone else to eat tofu. Tofu burgers are a favorite with all our family and friends.

Half the tofu burger recipe if you're a small family, or save the leftover mix for sloppy joes, or scambled tofu. Improvise freely with the seasonings and the grains. But if you want onions, use them on the outside, not the inside - too wet.

Add all your favorite veggie burger fixings, fries, corn on the cob, whatever you like. Or go healthy, and serve the patties with steamed veggies and brown rice.

Ingredients:

1 lb extra firm tofu
1/4 c each whole wheat flour, corn flour, & rolled oats
1/2 c parsley tops or fresh basil leaves, washed & dried
1 tsp each paprika, coriander, cumin
1/2 tsp dried basil or thyme
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch cayenne
1/2 tsp salt and/or 1 Tbsp liquid aminos or soy sauce

Instructions:

Heat a non-stick frying pan on medium with olive oil, or your favorite cooking oil. I add a pinch of asefetida (hing) to the oil for extra flavor. Garlic works too if you like it.
Cut tofu into 1 inch chunks, and add to food processor. If you don't have one, mash by hand or with a potato masher, and finely chop the parsley or basil first.
Throw in everything else and mix well by hand, or on low in the food processor just until it all clumps up.
Form into thin patties, and fry in small amount of oil, on medium heat, 5-7 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

The Power of Krystals

2009-04-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

Agate - helps to awaken your inherent talents, increases creativity and stimulates intellectual as well as analytical abilities. This stone gives you the confidence to be the best you can be in achieving success by instilling courage and dispelling fears in the wearer.

Amber - Amber absorbs negative energies and transforms them into positive forces that stimulate the body to heal itself. It can also help counteract suicidal or depressive tendencies.

Amethyst - has the power to calm the mind and emotions, creating a sense of peace. Amethyst also stimulates the intellectual and creative side of you. Amethysts are very powerful for people who suffer sleepless nights or for those with disturbing dreams and nightmares.

Ametrine - is an extremely energetic quartz of courage and harmony that contains both Amethyst and Citrine. Ametrine expels prejudice, stimulates creativity, strengthens concentration, promotes optimism and aids thinking things through.

Aquamarine - This beautiful crystal is reputedly able to dampen fears and gives its wearer a sense of confidence. It promotes communication and helps one to express oneselves. It is beneficial to wear it to examinations or while meditating.

Aventurine - This crystal promotes clarity of mind and self confidence thus reinforces decisiveness and amplifies leadership qualities. Aventurine helps you to focus and find creative solutions when you're feeling overwhelmed by problems.

Bloodstone - believed to have great magical and protective properties, possessing the ability to banish evil, keep out undesirable influences and dispel negativity. As its name suggests, Bloodstone is an excellent blood cleanser.

Carnelian - promotes happiness, creativity, steadfastness, confidence, courage, analytical power and assertiveness, and helps one to achieve greater success in career and personal matters.

Charoite - Charoite transmutes negativity and cleanses the aura. It bestows drive and vigor and is able to reduce stress and worry, bringing about a relaxed attitude. Charoite is also used to overcome obsessions and compulsions.

Clear Quartz - has very strong powers of protection against anyone who doesn't mean you well. Clear Quartz is a pure and powerful energy source which has the ability to transmit and receive energy.

Garnet - is also known as the stone of health, passion and romantic love. It enhances one's sexuality, sensuality and intimacy. Garnet also helps one to effectively deal with high stress, sadness, depression and critical situations.

Hematite - In physical healing, crystal healers credit Hematite with the ability to stimulate iron absorption, which in turn improves oxygen supply to the body and blood circulation.

Jade - is a desired stone prized for thousands of year in China for its protective powers and healing qualities. It is also said to stimulate creativity and mental agility, and enhance one's health. Jade is regarded as a symbol of the good and the beautiful.

Jasper - The powerful Jasper crystal is a stone that cools, soothes and calms the mind and nerves, hence reduces stress and brings tranquility. It enhances one's ability to relax and heal if necessary.

Lapis Lazuli - helps make one feel more empowered and cultivate a more fearless, adventuresome spirit and encourages taking charge of life. It also stimulates the higher faculties of the mind, bringing objectivity and clarity.

Moonstone - or Moonstone is most a great stone used to alleviate period pains, reduce emotional turbulence during menopause and enhances fertility. Moonstone helps bring out the best feminine qualities in a woman, provides emotional balance and enhances her sensitivity and intuition.

Obsidian - is perfect to boost your personal self-esteem and confidence. Obsidian is a very protective stone and is excellent for blocking out and dissolving negative energies, thus protecting you against evil intentions.

Onyx - is believed to be a powerful protection stone that absorbs negative forces and influences and transforms them into positive ones. Onyx is also said to have been helpful to people who are trying to move on after a bad relationships or let go of past attachments.

Peridot - is a helpful stone used to 'open' the heart and let go of "old baggage" such as people or the past, and to assist one to admit mistakes and move on. Peridot is also reputed to be a great stone to alleviate jealousy, anger, resentment and spite.

Prehnite - is a stone of unconditional love and the crystal to heal the healer. Prehnite enhances precognition and inner knowing. It is a stone that enables you always to be prepared, no matter what.

Rhodochrosite - is a crystal that represents selfless love and compassion, excellent for the heart and relationships. It is also a helpful stone used to remove denial, lift depressed mood, promote positive attitude, self-worth and acknowledgement of painful feelings.

Rose Quartz - Widely known as the 'Love Stone', Rose Quartz is most favored for its ability in speeding up the process for those seeking true love, mending broken relationships and jazzing up your existing romance life.

Ruby - is a very energetic stone that imparts vigor to life, fires enthusiasm, encourages passion for life and motivates one in achieving goals. Like citrine, it is also a stone of abundance that has the power to help prevent financial losses

Rutilated Quartz - is said to be the most energizing and uplifiting stone with anti-depressive effect. Rutilated Quartz is believed to relieve loneliness, attract love and stabilize relationships. It is also used to bring new hope, relieve guilt, aid sleep, assist decision making and enhance creativity.

Sapphire - is known as the wisdom stone. Blue sapphire is traditionally associated with love and purity. It focuses and calms the mind and releases unwanted thoughts and mental tension. Place on the throat, sapphire releases frustration and facilitates self-expression.

Smoky quartz - is a good stone to overcome lethargy. It encourages concentration and pragmatism. It is also an excellent stone used to absorb electromagnetic smog (detectable electromagnetic field that can be very harmful to sensitive people).

Sodalite - is a stone that instills a drive for truth and an urge toward idealism, making it possible to remain true to yourself and stand up for your beliefs. Sodalite clears electromagnetic pollution and can be placed on computers to block their emanations

Tiger's Eye - gives out energy that encourages your passion for life to blossom and stimulates your willpower and the desire for success. Tiger's Eye also promotes self confidence, self esteem, integrity, positive outlook on life as well as arms you with strength, courage and determination.

Turquoise - gives you tranquility refreshment and pushes you through with resourcefulness and enhances communication. It creates self awareness and promotes foresight.
Turquoise is reputed to be responsible for faithfulness and reliable relationships.

Watermelon Tourmaline - is a crystal particularly effective in promoting self-love and opening one's heart up to accept love. It increases happiness, serenity, compassion, tolerance and understanding in its wearer.

Zoisite - is a crystal that has the ability to transmute negative energies into positive ones. It is also a helpful stone used to dispel lethargy and promote expression of repressed feelings and emotions. Mentally, Zoisite increases creativity and focus.

Sauna Benefits

2009-04-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

Our modern lifestyle makes most people's skin inactive. Many of us don't sweat, especially during the winter months. Modern synthetic fibres or tight clothing that doesn't allow the skin to breathe, can damage our skin and our natural ability for elimination, as does excessive prolonged sun exposure. A sedentary lifestyle also inactivates the skin.

Our skin is exposed to hundreds of chemicals during the course of our life, and is affected by them. From innocent bath products such as shampoos, shower gels, lotions and soaps to deodorants. Household cleaning solvents, detergent residues on clothes and chemicals from the bath or shower water also affect the skin.

Regular use of the sauna gradually restores the skin's elimination ability. Sweating removes toxic chemicals and metals faster than other detox method. It is a good habit that pays many health dividends.

The sauna's benefits are numerous. Not least because it is so relaxing and leaves your body soothed and your mind serene. It's main advantage lies in the fact that it promotes sweating, helping the body to rid itself of toxins. It is also believed that exposure of the skin to heat stimulates the production of white blood cells and strengthens the immune system.

Other benefits of the sauna include:

Improved blood circulation: The sauna increases and improves the rate of blood circulation and breathing.
Weight loss: Sauna is similar to mild exercise, it burns about 300 calories per average session. Regular sauna treatments combined with a healthy diet and moderate exercise will help you lose weight and stay fit and healthy.
Skin cleansing: A profuse sauna-induced sweat followed by a shower cleanses your skin far more thoroughly than just taking a shower. It makes it soft and healthy with immediately noticeable effects.
Body relaxation: Stress build-up creates tension in the body manifesting in various aches and pains. The heat and humidity of the sauna diffuses the pain and relaxes tired muscles. A sauna in the evening will leave tense muscles and sore limbs totally relaxed. Sauna also temporarily relieves arthritic pain.
Mind relaxation: The sauna is essentially a place to relax. Regular sauna adepts all agree that it effectively helps relieve physical and mental fatigue and stress.

The sauna enhances circulation and oxygenates the cells, tissues and organs. It increases the body's ability to produce energy, which promotes healing. At the same time, heating the tissues speeds up the metabolism. Your cells are gradually capable of eliminating toxins much more effectively.

What is Alpha Lipoic Acid

2009-04-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Scientists discovered the importance of alpha-lipoic acid in the 1950s, and recognized it as an antioxidant in 1988. The body needs alpha-lipoic acid to produce energy. It plays a crucial role in the energy-producing structures in cells. The body actually makes enough alpha-lipoic acid for this basic function. Alpha-lipoic acid acts as an antioxidant, however, only when there is an excess of it and it is in the "free" state in the cells. There is little free alpha-lipoic acid circulating in your body, unless you consume supplements or get it injected. Alpha-lipoic acid is a versatile antioxidant—it helps deactivate an unusually wide array of cell-damaging free radicals in many bodily systems.

Claims, purported benefits: Alpha-lipoic acid is said to prevent or treat many age-related diseases, from heart disease, and stroke to diabetes and Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as declines in energy, muscle strength, brain function, and immunity. Alpha-lipoic acid is also being studied for HIV disease and multiple sclerosis.

About Hypotension

2009-04-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

Low blood pressure is known as hypotension. It is in essence the opposite of high blood pressure, and happens when the heart does not need to do much work at all to push blood.

Since most people are aiming to lower their blood pressure from too-high levels, and since exercisers and others in very good health often have low blood pressure, it is not necessarily a "bad" state to be in.

What doctors call low blood pressure is when someone's blood pressure is lower than their NORMAL range. So say your normal blood pressure is 120/60. Then say you have some sort of accident and loose a lot of blood, and now your blood pressure is down to 90/30. You have very low blood pressure now because you are MISSING blood in your body and need to get some added back in.

In the same way, say your typical blood pressure was 200/150. This would be very high blood pressure. But say you had an accident and lost a lot of blood. Your blood pressure could now be down to 120/60. For many people this would be "OK" and healthy. But for YOU this is very low and dangerous, because your body is used to having a much different situation. You would need to be restored to your typical levels.

Causes of unhealthy low blood pressure include:

* dehydration
* injury or trauma
* allergic reactions to drugs

Low blood pressure also happens in older people if they stand up too fast - the blood does not get to their head quickly and they get dizzy. Sitting or lying down can help with this. In the few cases when an individual has a truly low blood pressure, they will have a lack of energy and frequent dizziness.

If your blood pressure is normally below 90/60, it might be good to talk to your doctor about hypotension. Also, if your blood pressure drops 30% or more below your normal blood pressure levels, this is also considered a situation worthy of examining.

The Farmer's Walk

2009-04-02T23:08:00.000-07:00

This is a move you sometimes see in competition. In the traditional version, you pick up heavy weights in each hand and walk as fast as you can for as far as you can. In this version, you push a heavy weight overhead and walk, keeping your arms locked and your core very tight to support you. You can use a barbell or heavy dumbbells...or anything heavy that you can get a good grip on. Simply push the weight overhead (have a spotter nearby to help if you need to) and walk across the room holding the weight overhead (or at your sides). Repeat for as many laps as you can handle. You'll notice you have to use every muscle in your body to stay in control, so this is a wonderful whole body exercise.

Krystal Golds Pricelist

2009-04-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

While everything seems to be going up in price, Krystal Golds tries to help out consumers by deferring price increases. In our own little way, we hope to provide quality affordable wellness solutions to the general public.

PRICELIST

FOOT LEG TENSION RELEASE PROGRAM (65 MINS) – P 460

FOOT/BODY DETOXIFICATION (90 MINS) – P 1200

DI STRESSING MERIDIAN (90 MINS) – P 1200

FOOT ACUDETOX (65 MINS) – P1200

LYMPHATIC DETOX (60 MINS) – P 198

HOLISTIC ENERGY HEALING SHIATSWE MASSAGE WITH BS – MAGARAO PARA HILOT SEQUENCE (60 MINS) – P 298

ANTI-AGING FACIAL MASSAGE AND JADE KRYSTAL (60 MINS) – P 480

HEAD / HEART BLOOD BALANCER (30 MINS) – P 450

HAND ACU THERAPY (45 MINS) – P350

BODYWORX STIMULATION (30 MINS) – P 280

CRYSTAL BED THERAPY (60 MINUTES) – P 1600

TOTAL PAIN MANAGEMENT (60 MINUTES) – P 1800

BODY DETOX (60 MINUTES) – P 1800

GALVANIC ANTI-AGING FACIAL – P 700

AEROMA TAICHI CLASS – P 400 PER 90 MINUTE SESSION

Importance of Vitamin B1

2009-03-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

Vitamin B1, also known as thiamin, helps fuel your body by converting blood sugar into energy. It keeps your mucous membranes healthy and is essential for nervous system, cardiovascular and muscular function.

Nutritionists categorize vitamins by the materials that a vitamin will dissolve in. There are two categories: water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins, which include the B-complex group and vitamin C, travel through the bloodstream. Whatever water-soluble vitamins are not used by the body are eliminated in urine, which means you need a continuous supply of them in your food. Vitamin B1 is a water-soluble vitamin.

How Much Vitamin B1 Is Enough?
Women should have 1.1 milligrams every day, and men should have 1.5 milligrams every day.

Sources of Vitamin B1
The best sources of Vitamin B1 are yeasts and liver. The following foods are good sources of Vitamin B1:

Pork

Whole-grain cereals

Rye and whole-wheat flour

Wheat germ

Navy beans and kidney beans

Can You Have Too Much or Too Little?
It's pretty rare in the United States for a person to be deficient in this vitamin. A lack of it can cause beriberi, a condition that involves confusion, muscle wasting, nerve problems and a rapid heartbeat. It's usually only seen in the United States in babies who are fed formula that isn't supplemented with Vitamin B1 or in people who drink large amounts of alcohol. People who drink heavily should talk to their doctors about how to quit drinking and whether they need vitamin B1 supplements.

Vitamin Storage
If you want to get the most vitamins possible from your food, refrigerate fresh produce and keep milk and grains away from strong light. Vitamins are easily destroyed and washed out during food preparation and storage. If you take vitamin supplements, store them at room temperature in a dry place that's free of moisture.

Sea Buckthorn Health Benefits

2009-03-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

Preliminary findings suggest that Sea Buckthorn (particularly extracts of the oil, juice, leaves and bark) may help improve a wide variety of health conditions, including heart disease, cholesterol balance, high blood pressure, stroke, gingivitis, eye diseases, immune function and red blood cell production after chemotherapy.

Nutrient and phytochemical properties of Sea Buckthorn berries, particularly oils, have exceptional properties as antioxidants possibly relevant to inhibiting inflammatory disorders, cancer and numerous other diseases. The seed and pulp oils have been specifically studied for nutritional properties under different methods of processing.

The fruit of the plant has a high vitamin C content - about 12 times greater than the amount found in oranges which makes it one of the most enriched plant sources of vitamin C. The fruit also contains dense contents of carotenoids, vitamin E, amino acids, dietary minerals, β-sitosterol and polyphenolic acids.

RESEARCH
There are five areas of research that have been focal points for their use: as an aid to patients undergoing cancer therapy; a long-term therapy for reduction of cardiovascular risk factors; treatment of gastrointestinal ulcers; internal and topical therapy for a variety of skin disorders; and as a liver protective agent (for chemical toxins) and a remedy for liver cirrhosis.

CANCER THERAPY
Most research in this area has been done with laboratory animals. A group in India has published several reports on the potential of a Sea Buckthorn extract to protect the bone marrow from damage due to radiation. Their studies also showed that the extract may help speed up recovery of bone marrow cells.

Protective effect of RH-3 with special reference to radiation induced micronuclei in mouse bone marrow
Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 2002 May

A study conducted in China suggested faster recovery of the hemopoietic system after high doses chemotherapy in mice fed the Sea Buckthorn oil.

Study on the effects of the oil from Hippophae rhamnoides in hematopoiesis
Chinese Herbal Drugs 2003

Preliminary laboratory studies have also found that the seed oil enhances non-specific immunity and provides anti-tumor effects.

Effects of Hippophae rhamnoides juice on immunologic and antitumor functions
1993 Acta Nutrimenta Sinica

Effects of the total flavonoid of Hippophae rhamnoides on nonspecific immunity in animals
Shanxi Medical Journal 1989

More well-designed clinical studies with Sea Buckthorn are needed to determine its effectiveness on cancer patients in humans.

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES
In a double-blind clinical trial conducted in China, 128 patients with ischemic heart disease, patients showed a decrease in cholesterol levels and improved cardiac function with less angina than those receiving the control drug. The study indicated no harmful effect in renal or hepatic functions.

Treatment of ischemic heart diseases with flavonoids of Hippophae rhamnoides,
Chinese Journal of Cardiology 1987

Sea Buckthorn oil may result in reduced stress of cardiac muscle tissue by regulation of inflammatory mediators.

The inhibitory effect of total flavonoids of hippophae on the activation of NF-kappa ß by stretching cultured cardiac myocytes
Sichuan University Medical Journal 2003

In a laboratory animal study, the flavonoids of Sea Buckthorn were shown to reduce the production of pathogenic thrombosis in mice.

Inhibitory effects of total flavones of Hippophae rhamnoides on thrombosis in mouse femoral artery and in vitro platelet aggregation
Life Sciences 2003

Formulas containing Sea Buckthorn have been developed recently for treating cardiac disorders. One such formula is a liquid preparation of Sea Buckthorn flavonoids with carthamus (safflower) and licorice, called Ai Xin Bao which is intended for use in treatment of coronary heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, by improving blood circulation and restoring cardiac function.

GASTRIC ULCERS
Laboratory studies suggest that Sea Buckthorn is effective in the treatment of gastric ulcers. It is believed that it normalizes output of gastric acid and reduces inflammation by controlling pro-inflammatory mediators.

Antiulcerogenic effect of Hippophae rhamnoides
Phytother Res. 2001 Nov

Effects of Sea Buckthorn seed and pulp oils on experimental models of gastric ulcer in rats
Fitoterapia 2002

LIVER CIRRHOSIS
In one clinical trial, researchers found that that Sea Buckthorn extracts helped normalize liver enzymes, serum bile acids, and immune system markers involved in liver inflammation and degeneration. In other studies, Sea Buckthorn oil was shown to protect the liver from damaging effects of toxic chemicals.

Effect of Sea Buckthorn on liver fibrosis: a clinical study
World Journal of Gastroenterology 2003

Acute toxicity of flesh oil of Hippophae rhamnoides and its protection against experimental hepatic injury
Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 1990

CONCLUSION

There is a vast amount of experimental data confirming the important properties of Sea Buckthorn. It has the potential to play an important role in human health, but the studies are from from conclusive, and much more research on humans will be required. With such exceptional nutrient density, Sea Buckthorn is sure to be a focus of intense research and product development for years to come.

History of the Reishi Mushroom

2009-03-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

In Chinese, they are called “”ling-zhi.”" Reishi is a large, dark, mushroom with a glossy exterior. Reishi differs from the supermarket varieties in that its texture is similar to wood. In traditional Chinese medicine, Reishi is in the most highly rated herb category in terms of multiple benefit and absence of side effects. It is the only known source of a group of triter penes known as ganoderic acids, which have a molecular structure similar to steroid hormones. It has the most active polysaccharides (long “”chains”" of sugars) among medicinal plant sources. Reishi also contains ergosterols, complete proteins, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

Wild Reishi is scarce and suffers from adverse environmental conditions such as insect infestation, lack of proper nutrients, non-optimum temperatures, and lack of humidity. The timing of the harvest cannot be controlled, and the mature Reishi has already lost most of its digestible active ingredients. The active ingredients in the dried mushroom may also have lost much of their beneficial biological activity. The 6 different types of Reishi (differentiated by color: red, purple, blue, yellow, black, white) recorded in Chinese pharmacopoeia are actually one species grown under different conditions. In 1972, a Japanese researcher who pioneered the growing of Reishi demonstrated that by varying the conditions of growth, Reishi of 6 different colors can be grown from the same species.

Reishi are polypore mushrooms. Mushrooms are the fruiting body and reproductive structure of a higher order fungus organism, much like an orange is the fruit of an orange tree. The actual mushroom organism or “”tree”" is a fine thread-like network called mycelium. This mycelium is for the most part subterranean, living in soil, logs and other organic litter.

Unlike green plants, which produce many of their own nutrients by photosynthesis, mushrooms primarily source their nutrients from dead organic matter or soil. Mushrooms and their mycelium are nature’s original recyclers. Without them, the Earths’ surface would be piled high with dead, decaying material. Mushrooms rise out of the mycelium when the right nutrients are amassed and the right environmental conditions are present. Mushrooms release spores at maturity. The wind spreads them and when they land in suitable locations, the cycle recommences.

Numerous studies of Reishi mainly in China, Korea, Japan and the United States show effectiveness of Reishi for a very wide range of diseases and symptoms. But the studies have not given indisputable explanation on its healing mechanism because none of its presumed and known active components taken alone have given better results as a whole than the intake of Reishi itself.

Its effectiveness applies to many areas so it is difficult to classify each of them and conduct research in each field. It is perhaps more comprehensible at this time, to explain Reishi’s “”miraculous powers”" from the Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view.

In the West, we have separated and classified each disease meticulously, and have specialized in each of them to such a degree that it seems today as if each disease is autonomous and standing alone.

Oriental Medicine, resulting from knowledge accumulated through 4000 years of human observation, asserts that health can be maintained by sustaining the right balance within the body and that diseases can be cured by restoring this balance through nutrition, including medicinal herbs, exercise and mental peace. In other words, a disease is believed to be the tip of an iceberg, the result of the underlying imbalance of the body which must be restored.

The 2000 years old medicinal book “”Seng Nong’s Herbal Classic”", considered today as the oldest book on oriental herbal medicine, classifies 365 species of roots of grass, woods, furs, animals and stones separates herbal medicines into 3 categories. The first category, called superior, includes herbs effective for multiple diseases and mostly responsible for maintaining and restoring the body balance. They have no unfavorable side effects. The second category, middle, comprises tonics and boosters and their consumption must not be prolonged. The third category, low, must be taken usually in small dosages and for specific ailments. This category includes some poisonous herbs. Reishi, ranked number one of the superior medicines, was the most exalted medicine in ancient times.

All observations show that Reishi has no side effects and can be consumed in high dosages and in parallel with other medications. Its main properties are the cleansing of blood, enhancement of the immune system and the lessening of nervous tension. These properties are conducive to normalizing and balancing the body and as a result preempt cure a multitude of diseases from within.

Dragon Fruit Nutritional Information

2009-03-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Nutritional information

The typical nutritional values per 100 g of raw pitaya (of which 55 g are edible) are as follows:

Water 80-90 g
Carbohydrates 9-14 g
Protein 0.15-0.5 g
Fat 0.1-0.6 g
Fiber 0.3-0.9 g
Ash 0.4-0.7 g
Calories: 35-50

Calcium 6-10 mg
Iron 0.3-0.7 mg
Phosphorus 16 - 36 mg

Carotene (Vitamin A) traces
Thiamine (Vitamin B₁) traces
Riboflavin (Vitamin B₂) traces
Niacin (Vitamin B₃) 0.2-0.45 mg
Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) 4-25 mg

Galvanic Spa in MSNBC

2009-03-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

Krystal Spa's House Tea

2009-03-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

Krystal Spa offers its guests a cup of complimentary Ginger Chamomile Tea. Ginger Chamomile Tea is distinguished by its unique taste, aroma and soothing qualities. Aside from being an act of hospitality, Krystal Spa offers Ginger Chamomile Tea tea since it has a lot of health benefits. So visit Krystal Spa today and enjoy a cup of revitalizing Ginger Chamomile Tea.

Health Benefits of Chamomile

-boosts the immune system and fight infections associated with colds

-relieves muscle spasms and menstrual cramps in women

-relaxes the nerves

-soothes the stomach

-reduces inflammation

-improves liver function

-helps relieve back pain

-helps relieve rheumatism

Health Benefits of Ginger

-relieves nausea

-combats motion sickness

-helps digestive processes

-combats inflammation

-reduces dizziness

-limits flatulence

-controls chronic pain

-eases the pain of muscle aches and rheumatoid arthritis

-minimizes symptoms of the common cold, allergies, and other respiratory conditions

Stress Relief Starts At P298

2009-03-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

What could P300 get us nowadays? Load for our prepaid phone? Two burger meals for you and your partner? Well not much. But at Krystal Wellness we aim to introduce products which are value for money. We want our products to be the best they could be at a price everyone could afford.

For only P298 you could avail of our best-selling combo massage. This massage combines Swedish, Shiatsu, Body Works Stimulation, Magarao Parahilot and Holistic Massage. The purpose of this combo massage is to stimulate the body's natural flow of energy to promote overall health. Not to mention help the body to detoxify, relieve aches and pains and to induce relaxation.

Try this out and visit Krystal Wellness today!

Chino Trinidad Enjoys A Session

2009-03-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

Chino Trinidad, a popular sports celebrity takes time off from the rigors of his daily work to have a massage at Krystal Wellness!

Well you do not have to be a celebrity to be pampered, even ordinary people like you and me deserve the superb service and the unique products that only Krystal Wellness could deliver. You could try to have your own session at their relaxing facility or at the convenience of your own home!

Just call 9732045 / 09178712813 for home service!

Chicken Soup with Vegetables Recipe

2009-03-15T04:59:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) whole chicken
1 onion, cut into thick slices
5 stalks celery, thickly sliced
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon packed fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
5 carrots, sliced
1 yellow squash, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
12 ounces fresh tortellini pasta
2 tablespoons chicken soup base
2 cups uncooked egg noodles

Instructions

Place chicken, onion, celery, salt, basil, and pepper in a 10 quart stock pot. Fill stock pot with water until ingredients are fully covered and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 1 and 1/2 hours or until chicken is tender.
Remove chicken from pot with slotted spoon and set aside for later.
Add carrots, squash, zucchini, mushrooms, red pepper, tortellini, chicken soup base and uncooked noodles to stock pot and increase temperature to medium heat.
While noodles and vegetables are cooking, tear chicken apart from bones. Cut up into pieces and add to soup in stock pot. Be sure to add additional water if ingredients are not fully covered. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 10 minutes or just until noodles are cooked. Enjoy

Head Heart Balancer

2009-03-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Many of the health problems that we have stem from inadequate blood circulation. Thus we have the head heart balancer which helps regulate the blood supply meridian channel. This helps people with hypertension, hypotension, falling hair, stress and headache. This treatment also helps get rid of harmful radiation and helps balance your body system.

Krystal Spa offers this service at a very reasonable price and gives a BONUS of 15 minutes of Bodyworks stimulation.

Kimchi Recipe

2009-03-13T03:54:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

1 lb sized head Chinese cabbage
2 tablespoons sea salt
4 cups cold water
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tablespoon green onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons dried chili pepper flakes
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt

Procedure

Separate and wash the cabbage leaves.

Sprinkle them with the 2 tbsp of salt.

Place them in a non corrosive dish (Pyrex) and pour in the 4 cups cold water, cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge over night.

The water should cover the leaves if not place a heavy object on them to keep them submerged.

After sitting overnight pour off the water and rinse the leaves well, shake out excess moisture. ( I used my lettuce dryer to remove the extra moisture).

Mix the garlic, ginger, green onion,chili flakes,sugar & 1 tbsp salt, stir together.

Pour 11/2 cups of very hot water over the mixed seasoning.

Place cabbage leaves in a large zip lock bag or in a bowl, pour in the seasoning, mix well so the seasoning is on every leaf.

Place in the fridge for two days. Flip the bag every time you open the fridge door.

To serve cut the leaves into 2" strips and serve as a side condiment.

To store pack the cabbage into a jar and store in the fridge it will keep for several days to a week or more.

Healthy Granola Bar Recipe

2009-03-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

GRANOLA BARS
1/2 c. soft butter 3/4 c. brown sugar 1/3 c. corn syrup 1 egg 1/2 tsp. vanilla 3 1/2 c. quick oatmeal 1 c. chocolate chips Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan. Beat butter, sugar, and syrup until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and vanilla. Add and mix oats and chips. Press firmly into pan. Bake 20 to 23 minutes. Cool a couple hours. Cut.

Bodyworx Stimulation

2009-03-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

Get rid of back aches, pains and backaches!

Try our Bodyworx Stimulation TODAY!

Galvanic Spa Video

2009-03-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Chicken Soup Recipe

2009-03-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

For generations parents have given chicken soup to soothe colds. Here is a healthy chicken soup recipe.

Stock
1 chicken, about 3 1/2 pounds
8 cups chicken broth
few sprigs rosemary, or about 1 teaspoon dried
few sprigs thyme, or about 1 teaspoon dried
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 carrot, cut in chunks
2 ribs celery, cut in chunks, with leaves
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
-
Soup
1/4 cup butter
2 shallots, minced
1 carrot, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
6 green onions, with green, thinly sliced
6 tablespoons flour
6 cups reserved chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas
2 to 3 cups diced chicken breast
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

In a large stockpot, combine chicken with the broth, sprigs of rosemary and thyme (or dried), garlic, carrot chunks, celery chunks, and coarsely chopped onion and coarsely ground black pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 1 hour. Strain broth into a bowl; cover and refrigerate. Put chicken in a bowl; cover and refrigerate.

When broth has cooled, skim excess fat off the top. Measure 6 cups into a separate bowl; set aside. Dice chicken breast and transfer about 2 1/2 to 3 cups to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate. Refrigerate remaining chicken for another use, such as a casserole or chicken salad for sandwiches.

In a large saucepan or the same stockpot, cleaned, melt 1/4 cup butter over medium-low heat. Add minced shallot, diced celery, and diced carrot. Sauté for about 6 minutes. Add green onion and sauté for 1 minute longer. Stir in flour until well blended. Add the 6 cups reserved chicken broth. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are just tender, about 10 minutes. Add peas and chicken; continue cooking for about 5 minutes longer. Stir in the heavy cream. Taste and add salt and pepper, as needed. Serves 8.

Galvanic Spa on Fox News

2009-02-28T08:35:00.001-08:00

The Healthy Pineapple

2009-02-26T04:49:00.000-08:00

Health benefits of pineapples

One of the most important enzymes in pineapples is bromelain and it is bromelain that holds the key to many of the pineapple's health benefits. Fresh pineapple is full of these sulphur-containing, protein-digesting compounds so, what can they do for you?

Bromelain and pineapples

Bromelain has been found to be a useful anti-inflammatory, effective in reducing swelling and assisting in the treatment of conditions such as acute sinusitis, sore throat, arthritis and gout. For increased effectiveness, pineapple should be eaten between meals without other food. This is because of another of bromelaid's properties, that as an aid to digestion. If eaten with other food, bromelaid's health benefits will be taken up in helping to digest the other food.

Pineapple is high in anti-oxidants

A very good source of vitamin C, pineapple offers your body an excellent protection against free-radicals, substances that attack healthy cells. A build up of free-radicals can lead to atherosclerosis and diabetic heart disease, an increase in asthma attacks and an increased risk of developing certain cancers, such as colon cancer. Free-radicals have also been shown to accentuate the problems associated with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Vitamin C, your body's most important water-soluble anti-oxidant has proven itself invaluable in fighting against and aiding treatment for these conditions.

Vitamin C is, of course, also an excellent cold and flu fighter due to its importance to the proper functioning of the immune system.

Manganese

Pineapple is also an excellent source of manganese, a mineral essential in some of the enzymes necessary in the body for energy production. It also has very good amounts of thiamine (vitamin B1) which is also important in these energy producing enzymes.

Macular degeneration

Pineapple and other fruit has been shown to be important in maintaining good eye health, helping to protect against age-related eye problems. Three serves of fruit a day, in particular those high in anti-oxidants, has been shown to lower your risk of developing this potentially debilitating condition.

Pineapple stems

There are even some beneficial molecules hidden in the stems of pineapples, Australian research has found. These molecules have been seen to act as a defence against certain types of cancer. The types of cancer benefited by these molecules are ovarian, breast, lung, colon and skin cancer.

Facts About Water

2009-02-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

The human body, which is made up of between 55 and 75 percent water (lean people have more water in their bodies because muscle holds more water than fat), is in need of constant water replenishment.

Your lungs expel between two and four cups of water each day through normal breathing - even more on a cold day. If your feet sweat, there goes another cup of water. If you make half a dozen trips to the bathroom during the day, that's six cups of water. If you perspire, you expel about two cups of water (which doesn't include exercise-induced perspiration).

A person would have to lose 10 percent of her body weight in fluids to be considered dehydrated, but as little as two percent can affect athletic performance, cause tiredness and dull critical thinking abilities. Adequate water consumption can help lessen the chance of kidney stones, keep joints lubricated, prevent and lessen the severity of colds and flu and help prevent constipation.

Health benefits of water

Water is crucial to your health. It makes up, on average, 60 percent of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on water.

Lack of water can lead to dehydration, a condition that occurs when you don't have enough water in your body to carry on normal functions. Even mild dehydration - as little as a 1 percent to 2 percent loss of your body weight - can sap your energy and make you tired. Dehydration poses a particular health risk for the very young and the very old. Signs and symptoms of dehydration include:

Excessive thirst
Fatigue
Headache
Dry mouth
Little or no urination
Muscle weakness
Dizziness
Lightheadedness

How much water do you need?

Every day you lose water through sweating - noticeable and unnoticeable - exhaling, urinating and bowel movements. For your body to function properly, you need to replace this water by consuming beverages and foods that contain water. So how much water, or more precisely fluid, do you need?

This isn't an easy question to answer. A healthy adult's daily fluid intake can vary widely. Most people drink fluid to quench thirst, to supply perceived water needs and "out of habit." At least three approaches estimate total fluid (water) needs for healthy, sedentary adults living in a temperate climate.

Replacement approach. The average urine output for adults is 1.5 liters a day. You lose close to an additional liter of water a day through breathing, sweating and bowel movements. Food usually accounts for 20 percent of your fluid intake, so you if you consume 2 liters of water or other beverages a day (a little more than 8 cups), along with your normal diet, you can replace the lost fluids.
Eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Another approach to water intake is the "8 x 8 rule" - drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day (about 1.9 liters). The rule could also be stated, "drink eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day," as all fluids count toward the daily total. Though this approach isn't supported by scientific evidence, many people use this basic rule as a guideline for how much water and other fluids to drink.
Dietary recommendations. The Institute of Medicine recommends that men consume 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day and women consume 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day. These guidelines are based on national food surveys that assessed people's average fluid intakes.

You can choose any of these fluid intake approaches to gauge your fluid needs. But your current total fluid intake is probably OK if you drink enough water to quench your thirst, produce a colorless or slightly yellow normal amount of urine, and feel well.

Factors that influence water needs
You may need to modify total fluid intake from these recommended amounts depending on several factors, including how active you are, the climate, your health status, and if you're pregnant or breast-feeding.

Exercise. If you exercise or engage in any activity that makes you sweat, you'll need to drink extra water to compensate for that fluid loss. Drink 2 cups of water two hours before a long endurance event, for example, a marathon or half-marathon. One to 2 cups of water is also adequate for shorter bouts of exercise. During the activity, replenish fluids at regular intervals, and continue drinking water or other fluids after you're finished. During intense exercise involving significant sweating, for example, during a marathon, sodium is lost in sweat, and you may need a sports drink with sodium rather than just water.
Environment. You need to drink additional water in hot or humid weather to help lower your body temperature and to replace what you lose through sweating. You may also need extra water in cold weather if you sweat while wearing insulated clothing. Heated, indoor air can cause your skin to lose moisture, increasing your daily fluid requirements. And altitudes greater than 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) also can affect how much water your body needs. Higher altitudes may trigger increased urination and more rapid breathing, which uses up more of your fluid reserves.
Illnesses or health conditions. Some signs and symptoms of illnesses, such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea, cause your body to lose extra fluids. To replace lost fluids, drink more water or oral rehydration solutions (Gatorade, Powerade, CeraLyte, others). When water loss can't be replaced orally, intravenous water and electrolytes may be necessary. Increased water intake is nearly always advised in people with urinary tract stones. On the other hand, you may need to limit the amount of water you drink if you have certain conditions that impair excretion of water - such as heart failure and some types of kidney, liver, adrenal and thyroid diseases.
Pregnant or breast-feeding. Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding need additional water to stay hydrated and to replenish the fluids lost, especially when nursing. The Institute of Medicine recommends that pregnant women drink 2.3 liters (nearly 10 cups) of fluids a day and women who breast-feed consume 3.1 liters (about 13 cups) of fluids a day.

Beyond the tap: Many sources of water
You don't need to sip from your water bottle all day to satisfy your fluid needs. Your diet, including the beverages you drink, can provide a large portion of what you need. In an average adult diet, food provides about 20 percent of total water intake. The remaining 80 percent comes from beverages of all kinds.

Fruits and vegetables - besides being good sources of vitamins, minerals and fiber - contain lots of water. For example, oranges are 87 percent water, and cucumbers are 95 percent water. Milk, juice and other beverages also have large amounts of water. Conversely, dried fruits, nuts, grain products and baked goods generally contain less water.

Make it count: Meet your water needs through food and beverages
Alcohol - such as beer and wine - and caffeinated beverages - such as coffee, tea or soda - can contribute to your total fluid intake. But your best beverage is still water. Water is calorie-free, inexpensive when drawn from a faucet or fountain, and readily available in and out of your home.

Thirst not always a reliable gauge

If you're healthy and not in any dehydrating conditions, you can generally use your thirst as an indicator of when to drink water. But thirst isn't always an adequate gauge of your body's need for fluid replenishment. The older you are, the less you're able to sense that you're thirsty. And during vigorous exercise, an important amount of your fluid reserves may be lost before you feel thirsty. So make sure that you're sufficiently hydrated before, during and after exercise.

Increased thirst and increased urination, both in volume and frequency, can be signs and symptoms of diabetes. With diabetes, excess blood sugar (glucose) in your body draws water from your tissues, making you feel dehydrated. To quench your thirst, you drink a lot of water and other beverages and that leads to more frequent urination. If you notice unexplained increases in your thirst and urination, see your doctor. It may not necessarily mean you have diabetes. It could be something else. And some people consume large amounts of water and experience increased urine output not associated with any underlying disease.

Galvanic Facial Gel Before and After

2009-02-20T07:43:00.000-08:00

The Galvanic spa facial treatment could literally wipe ten years of aging in a short span of time. It could get rid of wrinkles, fine lines, laugh lines, crows feet and sagging. The device has often been called the wrinkle iron for its ability to restore your face back to its full glory.

What Is Transfat?

2009-02-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

Scientific evidence shows that consumption of saturated fat, trans fat, and dietary cholesterol raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad cholesterol," levels, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, more than 12.5 million Americans have CHD, and more than 500,000 die each year. That makes CHD one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration has required that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol be listed on food labels since 1993. Starting Jan.1, 2006, listing of trans fat will be required as well. With trans fat added to the Nutrition Facts panel, required by Jan. 1, 2006, you will know for the first time how much of all three--saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol--are in the foods you choose. Identifying saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol on the food label gives you information you need to make food choices that help reduce the risk of CHD. This revised label will be of particular interest to people concerned about high blood cholesterol and heart disease.

However, everyone should be aware of the risk posed by consuming too much saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. But what is trans fat, and how can you limit the amount of this fat in your diet?

What is Trans Fat?

Basically, trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil--a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats.

Trans fat can be found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. Unlike other fats, the majority of trans fat is formed when food manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine. A small amount of trans fat is found naturally, primarily in some animal-based foods.

Trans fat, like saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raises the LDL cholesterol that increases your risk for CHD. Americans consume on average 4 to 5 times as much saturated fat as trans fat in their diets.

Although saturated fat is the main dietary culprit that raises LDL, trans fat and dietary cholesterol also contribute significantly.

Dangers of Ephedra

2009-02-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

Ephedra is a compound that is often used in weight loss products. It is actually one of the world's oldest medicines, with documented usage in China occurring over 5,000 years ago. The drug has once again found popularity, this time in America's search for the perfect weight loss drug. It is known to cause many changes in the body; an increased metabolism, increased weight loss, relaxation of the air passages in the lungs, and increased energy are some of the effects reported. One of the major distributors of ephedra was a weight loss drug that is known as Fen-phen. This drug consists of a combination of ephedra and St. John's Wort, a natural anti-depressant agent. Over the past few years, plenty of other weight loss drugs on the market also included ephedra. Xenadrine RFA-1, Stacker 2, Stacker 3, and Ripped Fuel all contained ephedra.

However, there is a dark side to ephedra. It has been recently banned for all usage by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America. In addition to its weight loss purposes, ephedra also causes some negative side-effects that can be quite severe. Ephedra is known to raise the heart rate, as well as the blood pressure of a person that ingests it. Anybody with high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease can be seriously in trouble if they take this supplement. A whopping eight hundred people have reported injury due to this weight loss drug, and a full fifty people have died from it. This includes Steve Bechler, an athlete who pitched for the Baltimore Orioles that took the drug during spring training and lost his life. An autopsy showed that indeed, ephedra had contributed to his death. Ten days after this shocking event, the FDA went into action, banning the use of ephedra in all weight loss supplements. The serious consequences reported by those who were damaged by the drug include hypertension, stroke, heart attacks, seizures, and full-on cardiac arrest. As you can see, this weight loss supplement's risks surely outweigh its benefits. If you or someone you know is taking this drug, its crucial to stop taking it. There are many ways to lose weight, and there are definitely other supplements that do not wreak havoc on your body like ephedra does. While the drug is illegal, it is still commonly sold, most often online but at the occasional party store. It's important to realize exactly what a detriment this drug can be to your health. Fitness should not come at the cost of poor health.

Give the Gift of Health

2009-02-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas is not the only time to be generous and in the mood for gift giving. Gifts range usually from new clothes, new toys and new gadgets. How about giving the gift of health?

Here at Krystal Wellness we are happy to help your friend or relative achieve the benefits of good health. We have gift certificates available in P300, P500 and P1000 denominations. Just drop by Krystal Wellness and we would be happy to service you.

Give your loved ones the gift of health today!

Vegetable Lasagna Recipe

2009-02-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

1 (16 oz.) pkg. curly edge lasagna
3 lbs. ricotta cheese
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. minced onion
2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. garlic powder
4 c. fresh vegetable mixture (broccoli florets, shredded carrots, zucchini slices, chopped red pepper, sliced mushrooms)
4 c. (16 oz.) shredded Mozzarella cheese
3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

Procedure

Cook lasagna noodles as directed on package; drain. Rinse with cold water, drain and lay flat on paper towels in single layer until needed.

Meanwhile, mix together Ricotta cheese, cream cheese, onion, basil and garlic powder. Stir in vegetables. Spread 3/4 cup mixture on bottom of 13"x9" baking dish. Arrange layer of noodles, one fourth of remaining vegetable mixture and sprinkle with some of the Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Continue to layer, ending with cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until hot. Let stand 10 minutes. 8 servings.

The Art of Tai Chi

2009-02-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

Tai chi: Improved stress reduction, balance, agility for all

The ancient art of tai chi uses gentle flowing movements to reduce the stress of today's busy lifestyles and improve health. Find out how to get started.

The graceful images of people gliding through dance-like poses as they practice tai chi (TIE-chee) are compelling. Simply watching them is relaxing. Tai chi, in fact, is often described as "meditation in motion" because it promotes serenity through gentle movements — connecting the mind and body.

Originally developed in China as a form of self-defense, tai chi is a graceful form of exercise that has existed for some 2,000 years. Practiced regularly, tai chi can help you reduce stress and enjoy other health benefits.

Understanding tai chi

Tai chi, sometimes called tai chi chuan, is a noncompetitive, self-paced system of gentle physical exercise and stretching. To do tai chi, you perform a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner. Each posture flows into the next without pausing.

Anyone, regardless of age or physical ability, can practice tai chi. It doesn't take physical prowess. Rather, tai chi emphasizes technique over strength.

Tai chi is used to:

Reduce stress
Increase flexibility
Improve muscle strength and definition
Increase energy, stamina and agility
Increase feelings of well-being

Tai chi has more than 100 possible movements and positions. You can find several that you like and stick with those, or explore the full range. The intensity of tai chi varies somewhat depending on the form or style practiced. Some forms of tai chi are more fast-paced than others, for instance. However, most forms are gentle and suitable for everyone. And they all include rhythmic patterns of movement that are coordinated with breathing.

Although tai chi is generally safe, consider talking with your doctor before starting a new program. This is particularly important if you have any problems with your joints, spine or heart.

Stress reduction and other benefits of tai chi

Like other practices that bring mind and body together, tai chi can reduce stress. During tai chi, you focus on movement and breathing. This combination creates a state of relaxation and calm. Stress, anxiety and tension should melt away as you focus on the present, and the effects may last well after you stop your tai chi session.

Tai chi may also help your overall health, although it's not a substitute for traditional medical care. Tai chi is generally safe for people of all ages and levels of fitness. Older adults may especially find tai chi appealing because the movements are low impact and put minimal stress on muscles and joints. Tai chi may also be helpful if you have arthritis or are recovering from an injury.

Despite its ancient history, tai chi has been studied scientifically only in recent years. And that research is suggesting that tai chi may offer numerous other benefits beyond stress reduction, including:

Reducing anxiety and depression
Improving balance and coordination
Reducing the number of falls
Improving sleep quality, such as staying asleep longer at night and feeling more alert during the day
Slowing bone loss in women after menopause
Lowering blood pressure
Improving cardiovascular fitness
Relieving chronic pain
Improving everyday physical functioning

Learning to do tai chi

Wondering how to get started in tai chi? You don't need any special clothing or equipment to do tai chi. To gain full benefits, however, it may be best to seek guidance from a qualified tai chi instructor.

A tai chi instructor can teach you specific positions and how to regulate your breathing. An instructor also can teach you how to practice tai chi safely, especially if you have injuries, chronic conditions, or balance or coordination problems. Although tai chi is slow and gentle, with virtually no negative side effects, injuries are possible if tai chi isn't done properly. It's possible you could strain yourself or overdo it when first learning. Or if you have balance problems, you could fall during tai chi.

You can find tai chi classes in many communities today. Contact your local senior center, YMCA or YWCA, health club, community education center or wellness facility for help finding qualified instructors.

During tai chi classes, the instructor can give you personal guidance and correct any errors in your style before they become habit. Eventually, you may feel confident enough to do tai chi on your own. But if you like the social element, consider sticking with group classes.

Putting tai chi into practice

To reap the greatest stress reduction benefits from tai chi, consider practicing it regularly. Many people find it helpful to practice tai chi in the same place and at the same time every day to develop a routine. But if your schedule is erratic, do tai chi whenever you have a few minutes.

You can even draw on the soothing concepts of tai chi without performing the actual movements if you get stuck in stressful situations — a traffic jam or a work conflict, for instance.

Benefits of Calcium

2009-02-13T23:47:00.000-08:00

Calcium is one of the main nutrients that the body requires in order to overcome the problems of high blood pressure, heart attack, premenstrual syndrome and colon cancer. One of the main health benefits of calcium is that it helps in keeping the bones strong and healthy. Read further to explore information about calcium health benefits…

Owing to the advantages of calcium, the market today is flooded with innumerable kinds of calcium supplements including calcium carbonate, calcium gluconate, calcium citrate, calcium citrate malate, calcium lactate and calcium phosphate. Calcium helps to ensure that your teeth are strong and thus prevents dental problems from torturing you.

The consumption of calcium helps in facilitating the movement of nutrients across cell membranes. By keeping the bones healthy, calcium paves way for prevention of osteoporosis. Calcium intake helps in relieving backache by strengthening your backbone.

Calcium helps to keep a check on the blood pressure and also it aids in muscle contraction, thereby enabling the heart and blood vessels to perform their functioning effectively. The best sources for calcium intake are low fat dairy products, fruits and vegetables. So, make it a point to drink milk regularly and also consume other calcium rich foods, so as to promote your health fitness.

Vegetable Soup Recipe

2009-02-12T06:06:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

2 (14-ounce) cans vegetable or chicken broth
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) can extra-thick and zesty seasoned tomato sauce
6 medium (2 cups) new red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 medium (2 cups) carrots, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 medium (1/2 cup) onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (10-ounce) package frozen creamed spinach, thawed
4 ounces (1 cup) Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Directions

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker except creamed spinach and cheese.
Cover; cook on Low heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or until carrots and potatoes are tender.
Increase heat setting to High. Stir thawed spinach into hot soup mixture, stirring constantly. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soup is thickened (6 to 10 minutes).
To serve, spoon into individual serving bowls; sprinkle with cheese.
Recipe Tip
For an easy shortcut, you can substitute coleslaw mix in place of the shredded cabbage.

About Diabetes

2009-02-11T04:19:00.000-08:00

What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes means that your blood glucose (often called blood sugar) is too high. Your blood always has some glucose in it because your body needs glucose for energy to keep you going. But too much glucose in the blood isn't good for your health.

How do you get high blood glucose?

Glucose comes from the food you eat and is also made in your liver and muscles. Your blood carries the glucose to all the cells in your body. Insulin is a chemical (a hormone) made by the pancreas. The pancreas releases insulin into the blood. Insulin helps the glucose from food get into your cells. If your body doesn't make enough insulin or if the insulin doesn't work the way it should, glucose can't get into your cells. It stays in your blood instead. Your blood glucose level then gets too high, causing pre-diabetes or diabetes.

What is pre-diabetes?

Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but are not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. People with pre-diabetes are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes and for heart disease and stroke. The good news is if you have pre-diabetes, you can reduce your risk of getting diabetes. With modest weight loss and moderate physical activity, you can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes and even return to normal glucose levels.

What are the signs of diabetes?

The signs of diabetes are

being very thirsty
urinating often
feeling very hungry or tired
losing weight without trying
having sores that heal slowly
having dry, itchy skin
losing the feeling in your feet or having tingling in your feet
having blurry eyesight

You may have had one or more of these signs before you found out you had diabetes. Or you may have had no signs at all. A blood test to check your glucose levels will show if you have pre-diabetes or diabetes.

What kind of diabetes do you have?

People can get diabetes at any age. There are three main kinds. Type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is usually first diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults. In this form of diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas no longer make insulin because the body's immune system has attacked and destroyed them. Treatment for type 1 diabetes includes taking insulin shots or using an insulin pump, making wise food choices, being physically active, taking aspirin daily (for some), and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

Type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, is the most common form of diabetes. People can develop type 2 diabetes at any age—even during childhood. This form of diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance, a condition in which fat, muscle, and liver cells do not use insulin properly. At first, the pancreas keeps up with the added demand by producing more insulin. In time, however, it loses the ability to secrete enough insulin in response to meals. Being overweight and inactive increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. Treatment includes using diabetes medicines, making wise food choices, being physically active, taking aspirin daily, and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

Some women develop gestational diabetes during the late stages of pregnancy. Although this form of diabetes usually goes away after the baby is born, a woman who has had it is more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life. Gestational diabetes is caused by the hormones of pregnancy or a shortage of insulin.

Why you need to take care of your diabetes

After many years, diabetes can lead to serious problems in your eyes, kidneys, nerves, and gums and teeth. But the most serious problem caused by diabetes is heart disease. When you have diabetes, you are more than twice as likely as people without diabetes to have heart disease or a stroke.

If you have diabetes, your risk of a heart attack is the same as someone who has already had a heart attack. Both women and men with diabetes are at risk. You may not even have the typical signs of a heart attack.

You can reduce your risk of developing heart disease by controlling your blood pressure and blood fat levels. If you smoke, talk with your doctor about quitting. Remember that every step toward your goals helps!

Later in this guide, we'll tell you how you can try to prevent or delay long-term problems. The best way to take care of your health is to work with your health care team to keep your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol in your target range.

Dr. John R. Lee on Pharmaceutical Drugs

2009-02-10T06:59:00.000-08:00

"Most over-the-counter and almost all prescribed drug treatments merely mask symptoms or control health problems or in some way alter the way organs or systems such as the circulatory system work. Drugs almost never deal with the reasons why these problems exist, while they frequently create new health problems as side effects of their activities." -Dr. John R. Lee

What is Acupuncture?

2009-02-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

The intent of acupuncture therapy is to promote health and alleviate pain and suffering. The method by which this is accomplished, though it may seem strange and mysterious to many, has been time tested over thousands of years and continues to be validated today.

The perspective from which an acupuncturist views health and sickness hinges on concepts of "vital energy," "energetic balance" and "energetic imbalance." Just as the Western medical doctor monitors the blood flowing through blood vessels and the messages traveling via the nervous system, the acupuncturist assesses the flow and distribution of this "vital energy" within its pathways, known as "meridians and channels".

The acupuncturist is able to influence health and sickness by stimulating certain areas along these "meridians". Traditionally these areas or "acupoints" were stimulated by fine, slender needles. Today, many additional forms of stimulation are incorporated, including herbs, electricity, magnets and lasers. Still, the aim remains the same - adjust the "vital energy" so the proper amount reaches the proper place at the proper time. This helps your body heal itself.

Acupuncture is just one form of therapy used within the coherent system of healing known as Oriental Medicine. Oriental Medicine includes herbology, physical therapy, dietetics and special exercises (such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong), and is a complete medical system unto itself and is not another branch of modern Western medicine. Acupuncture evolved from principles and philosophies unique to Oriental thinking and Oriental Medicine, and is most effectively applied when done in accordance with those principles.

Krystal Spa Offers Swedish Massage!

2009-02-08T22:19:00.000-08:00

Krystal Wellness now offers the ever popular Swedish Massage! This popular and relaxing form of light massage involves vibration, tapping, kneading, stroking and friction to relax muscles and enhance oxygen flow. This technique promotes flexibility and and relaxation, eases aches and pains and is even researched for benefits to osteoarthritis patients. It involves long gliding strokes usually using oil along the muscles. It is the most popular form of massage in America and is being brought to Filipinos by Krystal Spa! Try it today!

Side Effects of Aspirin

2009-02-07T04:33:00.000-08:00

Side Effects

On any one day, many millions of people around the world take aspirin. The last century of such use has confirmed its safety profile and progress has been made in developing products which are even better tolerated. However, no drug is wholly without unwanted effects.

Aspirin's side effects, such as stomach trouble, occur more often with higher doses and with long term use. At very high doses, dizziness, ringing in the ears and vomiting occur.

Indigestion

Less than six in every 100 people taking the usual painkilling dose of aspirin find that the drug "upsets their stomach". They complain that aspirin causes dyspepsia, heartburn, nausea and more rarely vomiting. Such complaints are minimised by taking aspirin after a meal.

Bleeding

In some people aspirin has been reported to irritate the stomach lining causing a small amount of blood to be lost, the amount being no more than would be lost by a small graze. Occasionally, someone who has taken aspirin loses more blood than this.

However, a large American study has shown that aspirin taken in the normal way for headaches or colds rarely causes bleeding. Large doses of aspirin may make a peptic ulcer worse.

Allergy-like Reactions

True allergy to aspirin has not been established. About one person in 500 develops a reaction to aspirin which shows itself as an intense itch or asthma. People with chronic hives - "urticaria" - may become worse with aspirin, and should avoid it.

In Pregnancy

Pregnant women are advised to avoid all drugs, including home remedies, tobacco and alcohol wherever possible. For this reason, they should not take aspirin unless there are special circumstances such as those described earlier, when it can be used to protect mother and foetuses against toxaemia.

Reye's Syndrome

In some countries there are restrictions on the use of aspirin in children under 16 except on the advice of a doctor. This very rare illness seems to occur after feverish virus infections such as influenza or chickenpox.

Although the direct association may be open to argument, aspirin product manufacturers in these countries decided to withdraw special children's Formulations of Aspirin-containing products from the market.

Fruit Salad Delight

2009-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

FRUIT SALAD DELIGHT

2 bananas, thinly sliced
Powdered sugar
Lime, lemon or orange juice
2 oranges, cut into thin slices (seeds and peel removed)
1 lb. fresh dark cherries or 17 oz. can dark sweet cherries, pitted
1 lb. seedless grapes
1 cantaloupe, chunked or watermelon chunks
1 to 2 apples, sliced
2 c. strawberries, halved
1 c. flaked coconut
3/4 c. chopped walnuts

Using a large clear glass bowl, layer banana slices in bottom. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar and a squeeze of lime, lemon or orange juice. Continue to layer all fruit in bowl, between each layer sprinkle powdered sugar and lime, lemon or orange juice. Top salad with coconut and walnuts, garnish with some of the most colorful fruit.

Benefits of Massage

2009-02-05T21:55:00.000-08:00

What are the benefits of a massage?

-Helps relieve stress
-Aids in relaxation
-Helps relieve muscle tension and stiffness
-Alleviates discomfort during pregnancy
-Fosters faster healing of strained muscles and sprained ligaments
-Reduces pain and swelling
-Reduces formation of excessive scar tissue
-Reduces muscle spasms
-Provides greater joint flexibility and range of motion
-Enhances athletic performance
-Treats injuries caused by sport or work
-Promotes deeper and easier breathing
-Improves circulation of blood and movement of lymph fluids
-Reduces blood pressure
-Helps relieve tension related headaches
-Helps relieve eye strain
-Enhances the health and nourishment of the skin
-Improves posture
-Strengthens the immune system
-Treats musculoskeletal problems
-Rehabilitation after operation or injury

What is Osteoporosis?

2009-02-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. If not prevented or if left untreated, osteoporosis can progress painlessly until a bone breaks. These broken bones, also known as fractures, occur typically in the hip, spine, and wrist.

Any bone can be affected, but of special concern are fractures of the hip and spine. A hip fracture almost always requires hospitalization and major surgery. It can impair a person's ability to walk unassisted and may cause prolonged or permanent disability or even death. Spinal or vertebral fractures also have serious consequences, including loss of height, severe back pain, and deformity.

The Fruit From Heaven

2009-02-03T04:42:00.000-08:00

Most people have never heard of gac fruit, yet it is very popular in South East Asia, particularly in China and Vietnam. The fruit is grown on vines that reach the size of a cantaloupe and from North East Australia across to China and Vietnam it is used as both a food and a medicine. It is only fairly recently that it has found use in the West as a health food

So what's so special about this fruit, known also as baby jackfruit and sweet gourd? Its bright red color should provide a clue, since it is jam packed full of beta carotene, lycopene and other strong antioxidants that not only helps to support the immune system, but also helps to retard the effects of aging. It has been used in Vietnam in particular to overcome the effects of an endemic deficiency in vitamin A, and is rich in provitamin A carotenoids. It is also widely used in Chinese medicine to treat a variety of complaints.

Antioxidants and Free Radicals

Antioxidants can boost health in a number of ways, and it might help you understand better the benefits that gac fruit can provide to explain what antioxidants do and why they are such an essential part of our diets. Every millisecond of every day of our lives, our natural metabolism of the conversion of blood glucose to energy generates small oxygenated molecules known as free radicals.

Free radicals are molecules that possess an unpaired electron and are highly unstable. Electrons generally travel in pairs, and when one of that pair is lost through a chemical reaction, the other electron has only one purpose in its short life: to pair up with another electron and it will do whatever it has to in order to achieve that. It is called a free radical, and its life is short. Free radicals destroy body cells, and this can have a dramatic effect, both visually on your skin, and internally on your general health

Apart from those generated by your body's own biochemistry, free radicals are present in car emissions and other pollutants such as pesticides, smog and fried and barbecued foods. They are also formed in your skin by excessive exposure to the UV component of the sun's radiation. That is why the skin of those living in hot climates tends to age earlier.

Free radicals are what make you look older as you grow older: they destroy skin cells as they are formed, but that is one of the least of their effects. They can also oxidize low density lipids (LDL) that carry cholesterol around your body, causing it to deposit fatty plaques on the walls of your arteries, which is a serious cardiovascular condition known as atherosclerosis.

Antioxidants can donate an electron to free radicals without then becoming free radicals themselves, and so destroy them as they are formed. However, the antioxidant can then lose its reducing power. Free radicals do not roam the blood seeking victims as many imagine them to, but react almost instantly, as soon as they are formed. It is important, therefore, that antioxidants are present in or close to every cell of your body. To achieve this, they must be bound to a fatty molecule, and the problem with many phytonutrients is that they have no associated fats or oils to carry them into the fatty tissues of the body.

Nutritional Constituents of Gac Fruit

Not so with gac fruit, because in addition to the beta carotene and lycopene content, it is also rich in long-chain fatty acids, particularly linoleic and alpha linoleic acids. Not only that, but its beta carotene content is around ten times that of carrots, and it contains 70 times the lycopene of tomatoes! Vitamin C is another very powerful antioxidant, and gac contains 60 times the Vitamin C of oranges. It is also rich in other free radical busters, such as xeoxanthins and alpha-tocopherol, a form of vitamin E.

Altogether, gac fruit contains a free radical killing arsenal that should be enough to scare even the most courageous free radical back to where it came from. Other constituents of gac are numerous minerals, particularly zinc and iron.

That is why the sweet gourd is such a prized fruit, and why Southeast Asian women have skins that western women of the same age would die for! Antioxidants help to prevent the disruption and destruction of skin cells that are the major reason for aging looks, and why skin creams are packed with vitamins A and E, both strong antioxidants.

Health Benefits of Gac

Most of the health benefits of gac are provided by its antioxidant properties. Thus, if you have a high cholesterol level, gac can help you to avoid atherosclerosis by preventing the oxidation of the LDL cholesterol, which is the precursor to it depositing on your artery walls. The body needs cholesterol, but levels should be kept to within certain limits or the resultant atherosclerosis can narrow your arteries leading to cardiac problems and strokes, particularly in the very narrow arteries of the brain.

Gac also supports the immune system and helps to maintain prostate health, largely through its alpha tocopherol, or vitamin E content. Vitamin E is easily destroyed by free radicals, which is where the beta carotene is of benefit. This is the body's first line of defense against free radicals, and each molecule can neutralize up to 20 free radical molecules before it is destroyed. This helps to save other antioxidants such as vitamin E.

Lycopene is particularly beneficial to the prostate and current research indicates that it can help to prevent prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease, plus some other diseases such as macular degeneration that affects your sight. Perhaps this is one reason why the gac fruit membranes are used in Vietnam to promote healthy vision, and they also help to cure dry eyes. Lycopene remains in your body fat longer than normal beta carotene, and recent studies have found that men with high amounts of lycopene in their body fat are up to 50% less likely to suffer heart attacks as those with low amounts.

Gac fruit is jam-packed full of nutrients and antioxidants, and has no known side effects. It is used in Asia for weddings and other special occasions, and is grown on lattices in many gardens, although it has a short season. However, gac fruit is not known as the "Fruit from Heaven" for no reason, and if you were allowed the choice of only one fruit in your life, then this would be the one.

DASH Diet and Hypertension

2009-02-02T05:03:00.000-08:00

Quick Facts...

Calories and body weight go hand in hand. Excess body fat leads to an increased risk of health problems.
Potassium has an important role in blood pressure treatment.
Low calcium intake may increase risk of hypertension.
Excessive sodium intake is linked with high blood pressure or hypertension in some people.
Dietary recommendations suggest avoiding too much sodium. The suggested range is 1,100 to 3,300 mg per day.
Table salt is 40 percent sodium. One teaspoon has about 2,000 mg sodium.

Hypertension (high blood pressure) affects one in four adults in the United States. Another 25 percent of adults have blood pressure readings considered to be on the high end of normal.

Your blood pressure is the force exerted on your artery walls by the blood flowing through your body. A blood pressure reading provides two measures, systolic pressure and diastolic pressure, which are expressed as millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), or how high the pressure of blood would raise a column of mercury. Systolic pressure is measured as the heart pumps. Diastolic pressure is measured between beats, as blood flows back into the heart.

High blood pressure is often called the “silent killer” because it has no symtoms and can go undetected for years. It is important to have your blood pressure checked regularly. Table 1 below shows how to classify blood pressure readings.

Table 1: Know Your Numbers.
	SYSTOLIC (MM HG)		DIASTOLIC (MM HG)
Normal	<120	and	<80
Prehypertension	120 – 139	or	80 – 89
HYPERTENSION
Stage 1	140 – 159	or	90 – 99
Stage 2	≥160	or	≤100
Based on two readings taken 5 minutes apart with a confirmation reading in the contralateral arm.

Hypertension cannot be cured, but it can be controlled through lifestyle changes and prescriptive medication. While medications to treat hypertension are available, research has shown that modest lifestyle and dietary changes can help treat and often delay or prevent high blood pressure.

People trying to control hypertension often are advised to decrease sodium, increase potassium, watch their calories, and maintain a reasonable weight.

For sodium-sensitive people, reducing sodium is a prudent approach to reducing the risk of hypertension. The recommendation for daily sodium intake is 1,500 to 2,300 mg a day.

The amount of potassium in the diet is also important. Potassium works with sodium to regulate the body’s water balance. Research has shown that the more potassium and less sodium a person has in his/her diet, the greater the likelihood that the person will maintain normal blood pressure. However, the evidence does not suggest that people with high blood pressure should take potassium supplements. Instead, potassium rich foods should be eaten everyday.

A newer area of interest is the relationship between calcium and high blood pressure. People with a low calcium intake seem to be at increased risk for hypertension. Everyone should meet the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for calcium every day. For adults, this is 1,000 mg per day. For adults over 50, 1,200 mg is recommended.

Maintaining a reasonable weight is important to minimize the risk of several major diseases, including hypertension. For people who are overweight, even a small weight loss can dramatically reduce or even prevent high blood pressure.

Use Table 2 to assess sodium, calorie, calcium and potassium content of foods. Learn to read labels to identify differences between brands of food. Be a wise shopper.

Untreated hypertension causes damage to the blood vessels over time. This can lead to other health complications such as strokes, kidney failure, impaired vision, heart attack, and heart failure.

The DASH Diet

A landmark study called DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) looked at the effects of an overall eating plan in adults with normal to high blood pressure. Researchers found that in just eight weeks, people following the DASH diet saw their blood pressure decrease. A subsequent study called DASH 2 looked at the effect of following the DASH diet and restricting salt intake to 1500 mg per day. Under the DASH 2 diet, people with Stage 1 hypertension had their blood pressure decrease as much or more than any anti-hypertensive medication had been able to lower it.(See fact sheet, 9.374, DASHing to Lower Blood Pressure, www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/FOODNUT/09374.html.)

Recommended by the American Heart Association and the National Cancer Institute, the DASH diet is an overall eating plan that focuses on what people should eat, rather than what not to eat. Rick in rich in fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates and low-fat dairy products, the DASH diet is lower in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium, and higher in potassium, magnesium, and calcium than the typical American diet. The high levels of potassium, magnesium, and calcium in the DASH diet are thought to be at least partially responsible for its results. Table 3 below outlines the DASH eating plan.

Table 3: The DASH Diet.
Food Group	Daily Servings	Significance to the DASH Diet
Grains and grain products	7 – 8	Carbohydrates and fiber
Vegetables	4 – 5	Potassium, magnesium and fiber
Fruits	4 – 5	Potassium, magnesium and fiber
Low-fat or fat free milk or milk products	2 – 3	Calcium, protein, potassium and magnesium
Meats, poultry and fish	2 or less	Protein and magnesium
Nuts, seeds and beans	4 –5 a week	Magnesium, potassium, protein and fiber
Source: “A Clinical Trial of the Effects of Dietary Patterns on Blood Pressure.” New England Journal of Medicine. 1997.336:1117-1124.

Table 2: Sodium, calorie, calcium and potassium content of foods.
Food	Amount	Food energy Kcalories	Sodium (Na) mg	Potassium (K) mg	Calcium (Ca) mg
BEVERAGES
Fruit drinks, dehydrated, reconstituted:
Lemonade	1 cup	102	13	33	71
Orange	1 cup	115	12	49	61
Fruit juices, unsweetened:
Apple cider or juice	1 cup	117	5	250	15
Grapefruit juice	1 cup	75	4	360	32
Orange juice	1 cup	120	5	498	25
Grape juice, bottled	1 cup	159	8	279	27
Prune juice	1 cup	192	5	588	35
Cocoa mix, water added (Carnation)	1 cup	110	232	176	107
Coffee, freeze-dried (using 2 tsp.)	1 cup	6	2	166	6
DAIRY PRODUCTS
Natural cheese:
Cheddar	1 ounce	112	176	23	211
Colby	1 ounce	110	171	35	192
Cottage, 4 1/2% milk fat	1/2 cup	120	457	260	108
Cream	1 ounce	99	84	34	23
Monterey Jack	1 ounce	105	152	23	209
Mozzarella, part skim milk	1 ounce	72	132	24	183
Cream, sour	1 tablespoon	26	6	17	14
Milk:
Skim	1 cup	89	126	406	296
Whole	1 cup	149	120	370	290
Ice Cream:
Vanilla	1 cup	290	112	193	208
Yogurt:
Regular plain	1 cup	152	105	323	272
Fruit flavored with nonfat milk solids	1 cup	231	133	442	345
EGGS, FISH, MEAT, POULTRY AND RELATED PRODUCTS
Eggs, whole (boiled)	1	78	59	62	26
Fish:
Salmon, broiled	3 ounces	156	99	378	127
Sardines, canned	3 ounces	174	552	501	372
Trout, brook, raw	3 ounces	86	67	319	12
Tuna, canned in water	3 ounces	108	288	237	14
Shellfish:
Clams, raw, hard	3 ounces	68	174	264	58
Crab, canned	3 ounces	86	425	94	38
Lobster, boiled (northern)	3 ounces	80	212	153	55
Scallops, steamed	3 ounces	95	225	405	98
Shrimp, canned	3 ounces	324	1,955	122	9
Meat:
Beef, lean hamburger, cooked	1 patty	140	55	480	14
Pork:
Bacon, cooked	2 strips	96	274	34	2
Ham	3 ounces	298	1,114	284	4
Poultry:
Chicken, roasted, breast without skin	1/2 breast	142	63	220	13
Turkey, roasted, breast with skin	3 1/2 ounces	189	67	289	21
FRUITS
Apples, medium (2 1/2 inches in diameter)	1 apple	87	2	165	10
Apricots	3 apricots	51	1	281	17
Avocado, raw, peeled	1	167	22	604	10
Banana, raw, medium	1	127	2	550	12
Strawberries, raw	1 cup	55	2	244	31
Cherries, raw, sweet	1 cup	82	150	223	26
Grapefruit, pink, raw, medium	1/2	40	1	135	16
Oranges, raw	1	71	1	311	65
Grapes	10	31	1	72	7
Cantaloupe	1/2 melon	60	24	502	28
Peaches, raw	1	38	1	202	9
Pears, raw	1	122	1	260	16
Pineapple, raw	1 cup	69	1	195	23
Plums, raw	1	33	1	150	9
Raisins	1 cup	462	17	1,221	99
Watermelon	1/16 melon	152	10	560	38
GRAIN PRODUCTS
Bread:
White	1 slice	62	114	24	20
Whole Wheat	1 slice	56	132	63	23
Cereals:
Cream of Wheat, regular	3/4 cup	100	3	17	10
Oatmeal	3/4 cup	111	1	98	16
Crackers:
Graham	1	27	48	27	3
Saltine	2	28	70	7	1
Whole wheat	1	16	30	120	1
Macaroni, cooked, no salt	1 cup	151	2	85	11
Muffin, English (Wonder)	1 medium	131	293	N.L.	80
Noodles, egg, cooked, no salt	1 cup	200	2	70	16
Rice, brown, cooked, no salt	1 cup	178	10	105	18
Snacks:
Corn chips, Fritos	1 ounce	154	231	23	35
Popcorn with oil and salt	1 cup	41	175	256	1
Potato chips	10	114	200	226	8
Pretzel sticks, Frito Lay	3	324	17	99	21
DESSERTS AND SWEETS
Cookies:
Brownies, iced, frozen	1	126	69	54	12
Chocolate chip (commercial)	2 cookies	104	69	30	8
Oatmeal and raisins	2	126	55	104	6
Sandwich type (round)	2	99	96	8	5
Sugar	1	89	108	15	16
Doughnut, cake (plain)	1	125	160	29	13
Cakes, from mix:
Angel	1/12	121	134	40	4
White	1/12	187	238	38	31
Pies, frozen:
Apple	1/8 of pie	160	208	76	13
Cherry	1/8 of pie	100	169	82	12
LEGUMES AND NUTS
Almonds, roasted and salted	1 cup	984	311	1,214	369
Beans, baked, no pork	1 cup	236	606	832	100
Beans and peas, dry, cooked:
Northern	1 cup	118	5	416	50
Blackeye, cooked	1 cup	178	12	625	40
Pinto, calico, raw	1/2 cup	349	4	984	135
Split, cooked	1 cup	208	5	536	20
Kidney, canned	1 cup	225	844	660	72
Cashews, roasted	1 cup	561	1,200	464	38
Peanuts:
Dry, roasted, salted	1 cup	838	986	1,009	104
Unsalted	1 cup	838	8	1,009	104
Peanut butter	1 tablespoon	86	81	123	11
Pecans	1 cup	696	1	420	74
Pistachios	1 cup	594	6	972	131
Walnuts, English	1 cup	781	3	540	119
VEGETABLES
Asparagus, canned	4 spears	14	298	127	14
Snap beans, canned	1 cup	43	326	227	81
Beets, cooked, fresh	1 cup	54	73	344	24
Broccoli, raw	1 stalk	32	23	382	103
Cabbage, green, raw	1 cup	24	8	233	49
Carrots, raw, grated	1 cup	46	34	375	41
Cauliflower, raw, flower pieces	1 cup	27	17	295	25
Celery, raw	1 stalk (outer)	8	25	170	20
Corn:
Cooked, fresh	1 ear	70	1	151	2
Frozen	1 cup	130	7	304	5
Cream style, regular, canned	1 cup	210	671	248	8
Cucumber	7 slices	4	2	45	7
Lettuce, iceberg, chopped	1 cup	7	4	96	11
Mushrooms, raw	1 cup	20	7	290	4
Onions	1 medium	38	10	157	27
Peas:
Cooked	1 cup	106	2	294	34
Frozen, regular	3 ounces	58	80	116	16
Potatoes:
Baked or boiled without skin	1 medium	139	5	755	14
French fried	10 strips	137	15	427	8
Mashed with milk and salt	1 cup	137	632	548	50
Pumpkin, canned	1 cup	76	12	552	58
Spinach:
Raw, chopped	1 cup	14	49	259	51
Frozen, chopped, cooked	1/2 cup	23	65	333	113
Squash, summer, cooked	1 cup	28	5	282	50
Squash, winter, baked, mashed	1 cup	126	2	922	56
Sweet potatoes:
Baked or boiled	1 sm. potato	141	20	300	40
Canned, solid packed	1 sm. potato	108	48	200	25
Tomato, raw	1 med. tomato	33	14	366	20
Tomato paste	1 cup	215	77	2,237	71
Tomato sauce	1 cup	97	1,498	1,060	32
CONDIMENTS, FATS AND OILS
Catsup	1 tablespoon	16	156	55	3
Mustard, prepared, yellow	1 teaspoon	4	65	7	4
Olives, green, large	4 olives	18	323	8	10
Pickles, dill	1 lg. pickle	11	928	200	26
Sauces:
A-1	1 tablespoon	12	275	51	3
Barbecue	1 tablespoon	15	130	28	3
Worcestershire	1 tablespoon	12	206	120	15
Butter, regular	1 tablespoon	108	116	4	4
Margarine	1 tablespoon	108	140	3	3
Salad dressing:
Blue cheese	1 tablespoon	71	153	5	11
French, bottled	1 tablespoon	57	214	11	2
Italian, bottled	1 tablespoon	77	116	2	2
Mayonnaise	1 tablespoon	61	78	1	2
Thousand Island	1 tablespoon	70	109	16	2

Galvanic Spa Comes to Krystal Wellness

2009-02-01T03:35:00.000-08:00

The Galvanic Spa is now available as a service at Krystal Wellness Center!

Galvanic Spa

The Galvanic Spa brings the day spa home to you – clarify your complexion and fight the signs of aging with the advanced technology of the Galvanic Spa Facial Gels and Galvanic Spa System.

Using advanced technology used in leading Salons and Day Spas, this patented technology works in two stages to leave your skin in optimal condition à Pre-Treatment Stage and Treatment Stage – just like a professional facial. The Galvanic Current adjusts to your individual skin needs and works together with the Galvanic Spa Facial Gels to drive the ingredients deep within the skin, and to remove any impurities and pore clogging debris.

Benefits of a Galvanic Spa Facial

Lifts, tightens and firms the skin
Erases fine lines and wrinkles and softens moderate to deep lines and wrinkles
Eliminates skin dullness caused by ageing or stress
Hydrate and infuse your complexion with essential extracts from marigold, sea kelp and vanilla
Arginine eliminates signs of stress such as dullness, under-eye bags and shadows
Magnesium, rose, sandalwood and jasmine extracts revive the skin and promote skin radiance
Removes impurities from deep within the skin, resulting in skin clarity and reduction of blemishes

Galvanic treatments are usually available at big salons and dermatology clinics for P3,000 per session. Our galvanic treatments however are priced at a fraction of the cost. Galvanic treatments are the secret of celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt and Sophia Loren.

Magarao Parahilot

2009-01-31T06:34:00.000-08:00

Krystal Wellness in proud to bring to you straight from the Bicol province, the Magarao Parahilot. Magarao is a small town in Bicol popular for its massages. But you do not need to travel hundreds of kilometers as we have brought Magarao to you. The Magarao Parahilot could help get rid of your aches and pains and give you and your body the pampering it needs.

Visit Krystal Wellness today!

Magarao Parahilot in DTI OTOP Program

2009-01-30T05:26:00.000-08:00

Region V : Camarines Sur

HILOT of Magarao

Tourism, Health & Wellness

Magarao is famous for its “parahilot”. A "parahilot" is the person who provides "hilot", which is now commonly known as the "Philippine Touch Therapy". They are sought for their prowess in healing dislocated bones and joints, healing body aches and pains and preventing sickness such as colds, cough, fever, and other diseases. Treatment is done with the use of the bare hands and application of touch therapy.

Product Description

Magarao is famous for its “parahilots”. Parahilots in Magarao are known for bone setting and traditional therapeutic massage. They are sought for their prowess in healing dislocated bones and joints, healing body aches and pains and some are also famous for exorcising evil spirits.

Product Lines

Services – bone setting, traditional massage, massage therapy including reflexology and swedish massage.

Product History

“Hilot” is an age-old tradition in Magarao that’s been handed down from age to age – they say that parahilots existed in the area even before the Spaniards came. As you enter the town of Magarao, you will notice billboards of the famous parahilot, the “tunay” or genuine parahilot, the “original” parahilot and many other signages pertaining to each parahilot’s expertise, uniqueness and specialty. Complain about body aches, pains and fracture and you’ll be referred to go to Magarao for the cure. Though the place is very famous for the “parahilots”, patronage of their services has become low as modern science and technology advanced. In the early days, all that are sick would go to the local quack doctor but now, with the presence of doctors and other medical practitioners, consultations with the parahilots were discouraged and have dwindled because of their lack of scientific knowledge.

This decade is the health and wellness age however, and age-old traditions and cures are being revived as the more ideal remedy. People today tend to go back to the traditional combined with modern technologies when it comes to therapies. Hence, the revival of the parahilots in Magarao is just in time. The OTOP project paved the way to make the parahilots in Magarao become popular again as they participated in trade fairs and local events. They even participated in the Orgullo kan Bikol trade fair in Metro Manila and got a lot of attention and patronage. To upgrade the parahilots to world-class standards they were given training on human physiology and anatomy, good housekeeping and grooming. Thirty new generation parahilots were also given skills training on traditional massage and reflexology.

Among the 8 OTOPs of the province, the most happy and contented beneficiaries are the Parahilots of Magarao. According to them, they have never been this busy in their entire career as parahilot. Many people are now seeking their services on a regular basis and their income has never been this high. According to them, servicing clients are now their major occupation instead of being a sideline. They have now 3 registered firms and a family corporation. People need not go to Magarao to avail of their services because they now have a clinic in Naga City and Legazpi City. They have also invested in cellphones which they have never thought of having as a necessity for the trade.

The DOH’s attention was also caught by the group and they were featured by the PITAHC.

DTI has also facilitated the registration of the family corporation and the association with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

NYTimes Article on Melamine 10/08/2008

2009-01-29T05:12:00.000-08:00

China said Wednesday that it had established limits for the allowable trace amounts of melamine in dairy products that officials assured would make the items safe. The toxic industrial chemical is at the heart of one of this country’s worst food contamination crises.

The imposition of the limits, announced by the Health Ministry at a news conference, was the latest in a series of steps undertaken by the government to rebuild consumer confidence after revelations last month that at least three babies had died and 53,000 children had been sickened by drinking milk products adulterated with melamine, which was used illegally to artificially inflate protein levels. Consumption can cause kidney stones and other complications.

But ministry officials refused to provide updated statistics on the total number of victims. Late Wednesday they said 10,700 children were still hospitalized and 36,100 had been discharged. They added that on Wednesday alone, 539 children were admitted to hospitals.

The crisis has expanded into an international problem for China because melamine has been showing up in a wide range of products that include Chinese dairy ingredients. A growing number of countries have banned or limited suspect food imports from China as a result.

Health Ministry officials said at the news conference that traces of melamine are found in many food products because melamine is used to make plastic, and can seep into food from packaging. A certain amount of melamine can be tolerated, they said.

Previously there had been no standards for safe levels of melamine in food, the officials said.

The government has now set limits at one milligram per kilogram of infant formula and 2.5 milligrams per kilogram of liquid milk, milk powder and food products that contain more than 15 percent milk. Any dairy products with higher levels are banned. The new limits are supported by assessments by the Hong Kong government, the World Health Organization and the United Nations, the officials said.

Wang Xuening, deputy chief of the ministry’s health inspection and supervision department, said the new limits were guidance for how much unintentional seepage of melamine into food should be permitted by inspectors.

“Melamine is neither a raw food material nor a food additive,” he said. “Deliberately adding the chemical to food items is prohibited. Once such cases are spotted, they will be investigated according to law.”

Health Ministry officials at the news conference and later by telephone said they would not release an updated figure of the total number of children sickened by melamine-tainted food.

A check by The New York Times of statistics on the Web sites or official news media outlets of 8 of China’s more than 30 provinces and province-level administrative areas shows that in those 8 territories, about 52,000 people have fallen ill from tainted milk. Some of the numbers were published this month and others in September. Extrapolating from those statistics, the number sickened across all of China would be much higher than the 53,000 announced by the Health Ministry in late September.

Two lawyers representing separate cases of 1-year-old children from Henan Province who fell ill — one fatally — said by telephone Wednesday that they were awaiting word on whether local courts would hear their cases.

One lawyer, Chang Boyang, said that lawyers in Henan had been told they should tell the government if they represented any clients in the milk scandal, which amounted to a certain level of “psychological pressure,” but that there was no overt ban on working on the cases.

“We are told to report to them if anyone decides to handle a milk powder case,” he said. “But they never said we can’t do it.”

Strawberry Nutritional Information

2009-01-28T05:47:00.000-08:00

Strawberry Nutrition Information
All nutrition information is based on 1 cup (8 to 10) fresh strawberries

- Calories: ca. 50

- Protein 1 g
- Fat 0.6 g
- Carbohydrates 11 g
- Sugar 7 g
- Fiber 3.5 g
- Iron 0.6 mg
- Sodium 2 mg
- Calcium 22 mg
- Phosphate 30 mg
- Riboflavine 0.1 mg
- Vitamin C 85 mg
- Potassium 240 mg
- Zinc 0.2 mg
- Niacin 0.4 mg
- Vitamin B6 92 mcg
- Folate 34 mcg

Dangers of Margarine

2009-01-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

Did you know?

-Margarine was originally intended to be food for turkeys.

-It killed the turkeys so they stopped using it.

-The people who invented margarine needed to recoup their investment so they put flavorings in the margarine and marketed it as a replacement for butter.

-Margarine is very high in trans fatty acids.

-It triples the risk of coronary heart disease.

-It increases total cholesterol. It increases bad cholesterol (LDL) while decreasing good cholesterol (HDL).

-It nearly quintuples the chance of getting cancer.

-It lowers the quality of breast milk.

-It decreases immune response.

-It decreases insulin response.

-Margarine is one molecule away from being plastic!

Dangers of Anabolic Steroids

2009-01-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

Anabolic steroids (AS) are effective in enhancing athletic performance. The trade off, however, is the occurrence of adverse side effects which can jeopardize health. Since AS have effects on several organ systems, a myriad of side effects can be found. In general, the orally administered AS have more adverse effects than parenterally administered AS. In addition, the type of AS is not only important for the advantageous effects, but also for the adverse effects. Especially the AS containing a 17-alkyl group have potentially more adverse affects, in particular to the liver. One of the problems with athletes, in particular strength athletes and bodybuilders, is the use of oral and parenteral AS at the same time ("stacking"), and in dosages which may be several (up to 40 times) the recommended therapeutical dosage. The frequency and severity of side effects is quite variable. It depends on several factors such as type of drug, dosage, duration of use and the individual sensitivity and response.

Liver Function

AS may exert a profound adverse effect on the liver. This is particularly true for orally administered AS. The parenterally administered AS seem to have less serious effects on the liver. Testosterone cypionate, testosterone enanthate and other injectable anabolic steroids seem to have little adverse effects on the liver. However, lesions of the liver have been reported after parenteral nortestosterone administration, and also occasionally after injection of testosterone esters. The influence of AS on liver function has been studied extensively. The majority of the studies involve hospitalized patients who are treated for prolonged periods for various diseases, such as anemia, renal insufficiency, impotence, and dysfunction of the pituitary gland. In clinical trials, treatment with anabolic steroids resulted in a decreased hepatic excretory function. In addition, intra hepatic cholestasis, reflected by itch and jaundice, and hepatic peliosis were observed. Hepatic peliosis is a hemorrhagic cystic degeneration of the liver, which may lead to fibrosis and portal hypertension. Rupture of a cyst may lead to fatal bleeding.

Benign (adenoma's) and malign tumors (hepatocellular carcinoma) have been reported. There are rather strong indications that tumors of the liver are caused when the anabolic steroids contain a 17-alpha-alkyl group. Usually, the tumors are benign adenoma's, that reverse after stopping with steroid administration. However, there are some indications that administration of anabolic steroids in athletes may lead to hepatic carcinoma. Often these abnormalities remain asymptomatic, since peliosis hepatis and liver tumors do not always result in abnormalities in the blood variables that are generally used to measure liver function.

AS use is often associated with an increase in plasma activity of liver enzymes such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (AP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). These enzymes are present in hepatocytes in relatively high concentrations, and an increase in plasma levels of these enzymes reflect hepatocellular damage or at least increased permeability of the hepatocellular membrane.

In longitudinal studies of athletes treated with anabolic steroids, contradictory results were obtained on the plasma activity of liver enzymes (AST, AST, LDH, GGT, AP). In some studies, enzymes were increased, whereas in others no changes were found. When increases were found, the values were moderately increased and normalized within weeks after abstinence. There are some suggestions that the occurrence of hepatic enzyme leakage, is partly determined by the pre-treatment condition of the liver. Therefore, individuals with abnormal liver function appear to be at risk.

Anabolic Steroids and the Male Reproductive System

AS are derivatives of testosterone, which has strong genitotropic effects. For this reason, it will not be surprising that side effects include the reproductive system. Application of anabolic steroids leads to supra-physiological concentrations of testosterone or testosterone derivatives. Via the feed back loop, the production and release of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulation hormone (FSH) is decreased.

Prolonged use of anabolic steroids in relatively high doses will lead to hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism, with decreased serum concentrations of LH, FSH, and testosterone.

There are strong indications that the duration, dosage, and chemical structure of the anabolic steroids are important for the serum concentrations of gonadotropins. A moderate decrease of gonadotropin secretion causes atrophy of the testes, as well as a decrease of sperm cell production. Oligo, azoospermia and an increased number of abnormal sperm cells have been reported in athletes using AS, resulting in a decreased fertility. After stopping AS use, the gonadal functions will restore within some months. There are indications, however, that it may take several months.

In bodybuilding, where usually high dosages are uses, after stopping steroid use, often choriogonadotropins are administered to stimulate testicular function. The effectiveness of this therapy is unknown.

The various studies suggest that using more than one type of anabolic steroid at the same time ("stacking") causes a stronger inhibition of the gonadal functions than using one single anabolic steroid. After abstention from anabolic steroids these changes in fertility usually reverse within some months. However, several cases of have been reported in which the situation of hypogonadism lasted for more than 12 weeks.

A well known side effect of AS in males is breast formation (gynecomastia). Gynecomastia is caused by increased levels of circulating estrogens, which are typical female sex hormones. The estrogens estradiol and estrone are formed in males by peripheral aromatization and conversion of AS. The increased levels of circulation estrogens in males stimulate breast growth. In general, gynecomastia is irreversible.

AS may affect sexual desire. Although few investigations on this issue have been published, it appears that during AS use sexual desire is increased, although the frequency of erectile dysfunction is increased. This may seem contradictory, but sexual appetite is androgen dependent, while erectile function is not. Since sexual desire and aggressiveness are increased during AS use, the risk of getting involved in sexual assault may be increased.

Anabolic Steroids and the Female Reproductive System

In the normal female body small amounts of testosterone are produced, and as in males, artificially increasing levels by administration of AS will affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. An increase in circulating androgens will inhibit the production and release of LH and FSH, resulting in a decline in serum levels of LH, FSH, estrogens and progesterone. This may result in inhibition of follicle formation, ovulation, and irregularities of the menstrual cycle. The irregularities of the menstrual cycle are characterized by a prolongation of the follicular phase, shortening of the luteal phase or amenorrhea. Although these changes are generally more pronounced in younger women, large inter-individual responsiveness to anabolic steroids exists. The effects of AS dosages as generally used in sport, on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in females are hardly studied.

Other side effects of anabolic steroid use in females are increased sexual desire and hypertrophy of the clitoris. The few systematic studies that have been conducted suggest that the effects are similar to the effects in patients, treated with anabolic steroids.

Anabolic steroid use by pregnant women may lead to pseudohermaphroditism or to growth retardation of the female fetus. Anabolic steroid use may even lead to fetal death. However, these side effects have not been studied systematically. It is likely that the severity of the side effects is related to the dosage, duration of use and the type of the drug.

Additional side effects of anabolic steroids specifically in women are acne, hair loss, withdrawal of the frontal hair line, male pattern boldness, lowering of the voice, increased facial hair growth, and breast atrophy. The lowering of the voice, decreased breast size, clitoris hypertrophy and hair loss are generally irreversible. Females using AS may develop masculine facial traits, male muscularity, and coarsening of the skin.

When anabolic steroids are administered in growing children side effects include virilization, gynecomastia, and premature closure of the epiphysis, resulting in cessation of longitudinal growth.

Serum Lipoproteins and the Cardiovascular System

AS also affect the cardiovascular system and the serum lipid profile. Relatively few studies have been done to investigate the effect of anabolic steroids on the cardiovascular system. No longitudinal studies have been conducted on the effect of anabolic steroids on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Most of the investigations have been focused on risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, and in particular the effect of anabolic steroids on blood pressure and on plasma lipoproteins. In most cross-sectional studies serum cholesterol and triglycerides between drug-free users and non-users is not different. However, during anabolic steroid use total cholesterol tends to increase, while HDL-cholesterol demonstrates a marked decline, well below the normal range. Serum LDL-cholesterol shows a variable response: a slight increase or no change. The response of total cholesterol seems to be influenced by the type of training that is done by the athlete. When a great deal of the exercise consists of aerobic exercise, the increasing effect of AS is counterbalanced by an exercise-induced increasing effect, which may result in a net decline in total cholesterol. Aerobic training does not seem to be able to offset the steroid-induced decline in HDL-cholesterol and its subfractions HDL-2, and HDL-3.

The precise effect of anabolic steroids on LDL-cholesterol is unknown yet. It appears that anabolic steroids influence hepatic triglyceride lipase (HTL) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL). Males usually have higher levels of HTL, while females have higher LPL activity. HTL is primarily responsible for the clearance of HDL-cholesterol, while LPL takes care of cellular uptake of free fatty acids and glycerol. Androgens and anabolic steroids stimulate HTL, presumably resulting in decreased serum levels of HDL-cholesterol.

The effect of anabolic steroids on triglycerides is not well known. It is suggested that relatively low doses do not affect the serum triglyceride levels, while it cannot be excluded that higher doses elicit an increase.

No unanimity exists about the influence of anabolic steroids on arterial blood pressure. The response is most probably dose dependent. There is some data suggesting that high doses increase diastolic blood pressure, whereas low doses fail to have a significant effect on diastolic blood pressure. Increases in diastolic blood pressure normalize within 6-8 weeks after abstinence from anabolic steroids. It appears that repeated intermittent use of anabolic steroids does not affect diastolic blood pressure during drug free periods.

There is evidence that the use of anabolic steroids does elicit structural changes in the heart and that the ischemic tolerance is decreased after steroid use. Echocardiographic studies in bodybuilders, using anabolic steroids, reported a mild hypertrophy of the left ventricle, with a decreased diastolic relaxation, resulting in a decreased diastolic filling. Some investigators have associated cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, and cerebro-vascular accidents with abuse of anabolic steroids. However, a possible causal relationship could not been proved, because longitudinal studies that are necessary to prove such a relationship, have not been conducted yet. There is convincing evidence that oral administration of anabolic steroids has stronger adverse effects on the mentioned variables than parenteral administration.

Although the effects of anabolic steroids have an unfavorable influence on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, no data are available about the long term effects. Most of the mentioned effects appear to reverse within 6-8 weeks after abstention. It is unknown, however, whether the structural changes as reported in the heart, are reversible as well.

Psychological Effects

Administration of AS may affect behavior. Increased testosterone levels in the blood are associated with masculine behavior, aggressiveness and increased sexual desire. Increased aggressiveness may be beneficial for athletic training, but may also lead to overt violence outside the gym or the track. There are reports of violent, criminal behavior in individuals taking AS. Other side effects of AS are euphoria, confusion, sleeping disorders, pathological anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations.

Anabolic steroid users may become dependent on the drug, with symptoms of withdrawal after cessation of drug use. The withdrawal symptoms consist of aggressive and violent behavior, mental depression with suicidal behavior, mood changes, and in some cases acute psychosis. At present it is unknown which individuals are particularly at risk. It is likely that great individual differences in responsiveness may exist. Some individuals try to minimize the withdrawal affects by administration of human choriogonadotropins (hCG), in order to enhance endogenous testosterone production. However, it is unknown in how far the hCG administration is successful in ameliorating the withdrawal effects.

Additional Side Effects

In addition to the mentioned side effects several others have been reported. In both males and females acne are frequently reported, as well as hypertrophy of sebaceous glands, increased tallow excretion, hair loss, and alopecia. There is some evidence that anabolic steroid abuse may affect the immune system, leading to a decreased effectiveness of the defense system. Steroid use decreases the glucose tolerance, while there is an increase in insulin resistance. These changes mimic Type II diabetes. These changes seem to be reversible after abstention from the drugs.

There are some case reports suggesting a causal relationship between anabolic steroid use and the occurrence of Wilms tumor, and prostatic carcinoma. In the literature also sleep apnea has been reported, which has been associated with AS-induced increased in hematocrit, leading to blood stasis and thrombosis.

AS use may affect thyroid function. Administration of AS has been found to decrease thyroid stimulation hormone (TSH), and the products of the thyroid gland. In addition, thyroid binding globulin (TBG). These changes reversed within weeks after discontinuation of AS use.

A serious consequence of AS use may be the multiple drug abuse. On the one hand athletes use different kinds of drugs in an attempt to counterbalance the side effects: hCG, thyroid hormones, anti-estrogens, anti-depressants. On the other hand people try to support the anabolic effects of AS by using additional anabolic hormones as for instance: different types of AS at the same time, growth hormone, insulin, erythropoietine, and clenbuterol. Because most of this takes place outside the official medical circuit, it is likely that these practices may lead to serious conditions.

Benefits of Yoga

2009-01-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

Physical Benefits

Flexibility: Stretching your tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. Over time, you can expect to gain flexibility in your hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips.

Strength: Many yoga poses require you to support the weight of your own body in new ways, including balancing on one leg (such as in Tree Pose) or supporting yourself with your arms (such as in Downward Facing Dog). Some exercises require you to move slowly in and out of poses, which also increases strength.

Muscle tone: As a by-product of getting stronger, you can expect to see increased muscle tone. Yoga helps shape long, lean muscles.

Pain Prevention: Increased flexibility and strength can help prevent the causes of some types of back pain. Many people who suffer from back pain spend a lot of time sitting at a computer or driving a car. That can cause tightness and spinal compression, which you can begin to address with yoga. Yoga also improves your alignment, both in and out of class, which helps prevent many other types of pain.

Better Breathing: Most of us breathe very shallowly into the lungs and don't give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.

Mental Benefits

Mental Calmness: Yoga asana practice is intensely physical. Concentrating so intently on what your body is doing has the effect of bringing a calmness to the mind. Yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as watching how you breathe and disengagement from your thoughts, which help calm the mind.

Stress Reduction: Physical activity is good for relieving stress, and this is particularly true of yoga. Because of the concentration required, your daily troubles, both large and small, seem to melt away during the time you are doing yoga. This provides a much-needed break from your stressors, as well as helping put things into perspective. The emphasis yoga places on being in the moment can also help relieve stress, as you learn not to dwell on past events or anticipate the future. You will leave a yoga class feeling less stressed than when you started. Read more about yoga for stress management here.

Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Over time, this will increase your level of comfort in your own body. This can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.

Health Benefits of Miso Soup

2009-01-24T10:36:00.000-08:00

The benefits of miso soup are the following:

1) It is a great source of trytophan, manganese, vitamin K, protein, zinc, copper and dietary fiber.

2) It can help prevent breast cancer.

3) It helps boost immune function.

4) It helps boost your energy level.

5) It helps strengthen bones.

6) It helps increase the integrity of your blood vessels.

Strawberry Sherbet Recipe

2009-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

1 pint strawberries

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup strawberry fruit spread

2 tablespoons non-fat yogurt

Directions

Hull berries and cut in half, if large.

Arrange on baking sheet lined with waxed paper and freeze until solid, about 40 minutes.

Once frozen, they can be used right away or frozen for several months, stored in an airtight plastic bag.

Put frozen berries in food processor with sugar.

Pulse processor on and off several times to chop berries.

Process continuously until berries are minced into tiny chips, stopping often to scrape down sides of work bowl with rubber spatula.

Remove cover, and add fruit spread and yogurt.

Process until mixture is smooth, about 5-8 minutes, stopping as necessary to scrape down sides of work bowl.

Can be served immediately or frozen.

Let soften slightly before serving. When ice crystals form, let soften just enough to spoon back into work bowl.

Process again, until smooth.

Makes 3 Cups.

Benefits of Omega 3

2009-01-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

Benefits of Omega 3

1. Freedom from pain and inflammation. Omega 3 fish oil fatty acids, particularly EPA, have a very positive effect on your inflammatory response. Through several mechanisms, they regulate your body's inflammation cycle, which prevents and relieves painful conditions like arthritis, prostatitis, cystitis and anything else ending in "itis."

2. Better brain function and higher intelligence. Pregnant and nursing mothers can have a great impact on the intelligence and happiness of their babies by supplementing with omega 3 fish oil with DHA. For adults, fish oil improves memory, recall, reasoning and focus. You'll swear you're getting younger and smarter.

3. Feeling better with much less depression. Making you smarter is not all that fish oil does for your brain. Psychiatry department researchers at the University of Sheffield UK, along with many other research studies, found that fish oil supplements "alleviated" the symptoms of depression, bipolar and psychosis. [Journal of Affective Disorder Vol. 48(2-3);149-55]

4. Lower incidence of childhood disorders. Just to show how fish oil fatty acids leave nobody out, studies show that children (and adults) with ADD and ADHD experience a greatly improved quality of life. And those with dyslexia, dyspraxia and compulsive disorders have gotten a new lease on life thanks to fish oil supplements.

5. Superior cardiovascular health. Fish oil's DHA, EPA and DPA have also been proven to work wonders for your heart and the miles and miles of arteries and veins that make up your cardiovascular system. They help lower cholesterol, tryglicerides, LDLs and blood pressure, while at the same time increasing good HDL cholesterol. This adds years to your life expectancy.

6. Protection from heart attack and stroke. When plaque builds up on arterial walls and then breaks loose, it causes what's known as a thrombosis, which is a fancy way of saying clot. If a clot gets stuck in the brain, it causes a stroke and when it plugs an artery, it causes a heart attack. Research shows fish oil fatty acids break up clots before they can cause any damage.

7. Reduction of breast, colon and prostate cancer. And finally, fish oil has been shown to help prevent three of the most common forms of cancer – breast, colon and prostate. Science tells us that it accomplishes this in three ways – by stopping the alteration from a normal healthy cell to a cancerous mass, by inhibiting unwanted cellular growth and by killing off cancer cells.

Holistic Touch Therapy

2009-01-21T06:17:00.000-08:00

Krystal Wellness is proud to offer Holistic Touch Therapy Lympathic Detox Massage. This massage was designed to drain our lympathic system of toxins and other impurities. The lympathic system is our body's natural drainage system / sewerage system which helps facilitate the removal of unwanted substances out of the body. Among such substances include harmful pathogens which cause illness and disease.

David Corfield's Battle Against Alcohol

2009-01-20T04:08:00.000-08:00

NEW statistics show that over a third of men and one fifth of women are putting their health at risk through excessive alcohol consumption. Many, like David Corfield, won't recognise it's a problem until it is too late.

After a successful liver transplant, he talks to Carmel Thomason about being given a second chance.

The premature death of George Best proved that alcohol can destroy the most gifted and fittest among us.

However, as David Corfield found out to his cost, you don't have to be a an alcoholic like the former Manchester United legend for drink to take its toll.

Four years ago, aged 52, David was diagnosed with chronic cirrhosis of the liver. From then, it was less than two years before his health deteriorated to such an extent that a liver transplant was his only hope of survival.

Unexpected

"When I thought of someone who had cirrhosis of the liver I imagined an alcoholic ' basically, someone who didn't do much except drink, every day, from morning 'til night,' David remembers.

We all have our preconceptions, but it doesn't always happen like that. In David's case, he knew, in the months leading to his diagnosis, that perhaps he was drinking more than he should, but he had no idea of the consequences would be.

'I thought I was in control, but now I look back and think, was I?'' he admits.

'I'd never consider myself a person who got up in the morning wanting a drink. I could go out, down five or six pints and then not touch a drop for three or four days without a problem.

'I held a steady job with the police for 30 years, I was never drunk on duty and I wouldn't have a drink for a good time before I went on duty.

But, at the weekends, by gum could I put some away ' not falling over or anything like that, just too much drinking so that my liver couldn't recover.

It's easy to get into a culture where you can take a drink, you can walk home fine, you don't cause any trouble, so you think it's OK. But if you can drink 10 pints and still stand, that should be telling you something.

Your mind and your reflexes may be becoming more tolerant to alcohol, but that tolerance is not necessarily carrying on with the liver. I just didn't realise that at the time.'

Problem

David feels that the growing accessibility of alcohol, particularly the rise of drinking alcohol in the home, has made it easier for people to get into a habit of supping too much without realising.

As a young man, alcohol was seldom found in the home and finances restricted his drinking to going out no more than twice a week.

'When I was younger, it was a case of when you could afford it you would go out and have a drink,' he says.

'Now alcohol is much more available. In the last four or five years, I would enjoy a drink every night. I was on a regular day job and it was easy to come in from work and go and get a can out of the 'fridge.

I didn't drink shorts, I never have done. But, again, that's a fallacy people fall into. What I was doing, unconsciously at the time, was starting to drink three to four pints, every single night. It's like anything else, it creeps up on you and smacks you round the head.'

In 2001, David broke his back in an accident and three months later retired from the police.

Alcohol was already an everyday part of his life but the accident and other stressful circumstances only compounded this.

Habit

"There were circumstances where, when I look back on it, I used alcohol as a crutch,' he admits.

'When I was on the sick I could have three to four pints at dinnertime and another three to four pints at night ' it mounts up.

Towards the last two years, I drank far too much, I've no bones about that for whatever reason. You can't make excuses and I don't try to, but I got into a situation where I was drinking too much and my liver could not recover.'

The first hint David had that something was wrong came six weeks before his diagnosis, when he spotted some yellow in the corner of one eye.

The following day it was gone, and he put it to the back of his mind. However, a few weeks later, David could ignore his symptoms no more when his skin turned yellow from head to foot.

'When I got to the doctor, I said, 'I've had a fall, my legs have swollen up' and eventually I got the courage to say, And I think I've been drinking too much.' It wasn't easy.

'The doctor said, 'Yes, I think you have. Do you want an ambulance now?' I nearly fell off the chair.

'I was admitted into the trauma unit and the first consultant who saw me said, 'My God, the last time I saw a face like that was on George Best.' It started to come home then. I've not drank since and I don't intend to.'

Shock news

It soon became clear that a transplant was David's only hope. He worried that, because his condition was caused by alcohol that he would not be offered the chance.

However, in April, 2004 a suitable donor was found and David had his six-hour, life-saving operation.

'If they give you a liver they've got to put trust in you, which I'm so glad to say they did in me,' he says. 'I can't believe I'm sitting here now. I'm so lucky. I don't take anything for granted in life.

'I've not touched a drink since I was diagnosed and it's the best thing I've ever done. The doctors told me that organ donations suffered after the revelations of George Best.

Yes, that was George and God bless him. He was a wonderful person but he couldn't stop drinking and there's a big difference.

There are a lot of people out there, like myself, who say 'yeah, I've been stupid', but I've got a new liver and by goodness I'm looking after it.

'I'm not saying that people can't still go out, have a drink and enjoy it. But as Christmas approaches all I'd say is, think about it.

Careful

'You've got the opportunity to drink every day and every night. Your mind might cope but think what your liver's doing.

'If you've had a lot to drink, leave it for a week. Let your liver recover, because it's the most forgiving organ in the body. I didn't and I ended up with a transplant.'

-Published in the Manchester Evening News December 4, 2006

About Green Tea

2009-01-19T22:18:00.000-08:00

About Green Tea

-Made from the leaves of Camellia Sinensis
-Originated in China but is popular in Oriental cultures
-Green tea was brought to Japan by Myōan Eisai, a Japanese Buddhist priest
-Consumption is China dates back to 4,000 years

Benefits of Green Tea

-Helps in combating free radical damage from the body's own metabolism, diet and from pollution
-Helps oxidize fat which helps in weight loss
-Helps increase sensitivity for insulin which is good for diabetics
-Helps in preventing metastasis of cancer cells
-Rich in antioxidants

Kiwi Nutritional Information

2009-01-18T03:34:00.000-08:00

Kiwifruit, fresh, raw
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 60 kcal 260 kJ

Carbohydrates	14.66 g
- Sugars 8.99 g
- Dietary fiber 3.0 g
Fat	0.52 g
Protein	1.14 g
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.027 mg	2%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.025 mg	2%
Niacin (Vit. B3) 0.341 mg	2%
Vitamin B6 0.63 mg	48%
Folate (Vit. B9) 25 μg	6%
Vitamin C 92.7 mg	155%
Calcium 34 mg	3%
Iron 0.31 mg	2%
Magnesium 17 mg	5%
Phosphorus 34 mg	5%
Potassium 312 mg	7%
Zinc 0.14 mg	1%
Manganese 0.098 mg

Percentages are relative to US
recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient database

Dengue Facts

2009-01-17T09:05:00.000-08:00

What is dengue fever? What is dengue hemorrhagic fever?

Dengue fever is a flu-like illness spread by the bite of an infected mosquito.

Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a severe, often fatal, complication of dengue fever.

What is the infectious agent that causes dengue?

Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever are caused by any of the dengue family of viruses. Infection with one virus does not protect a person against infection with another.

How is dengue spread?

Dengue is spread by the bite of an Aedes mosquito. The mosquito transmits the disease by biting an infected person and then biting someone else.

Where is dengue found?

Dengue viruses occur in most tropical areas of the world. Dengue is common in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Australia, and the Americas. It is widespread in the Caribbean basin. Dengue is most common in cities but can be found in rural areas. It is rarely found in mountainous areas above 4,000 feet.

The mosquitoes that transmit dengue live among humans and breed in discarded tires, flower pots, old oil drums, and water storage containers close to human dwellings. Unlike the mosquitoes that cause malaria, dengue mosquitoes bite during the day.

What are the signs and symptoms of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever?

Dengue fever usually starts suddenly with a high fever, rash, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and muscle and joint pain. The severity of the joint pain has given dengue the name "breakbone fever." Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite are common. A rash usually appears 3 to 4 days after the start of the fever. The illness can last up to 10 days, but complete recovery can take as long as a month. Older children and adults are usually sicker than young children.

Most dengue infections result in relatively mild illness, but some can progress to dengue hemorrhagic fever. With dengue hemorrhagic fever, the blood vessels start to leak and cause bleeding from the nose, mouth, and gums. Bruising can be a sign of bleeding inside the body. Without prompt treatment, the blood vessels can collapse, causing shock (dengue shock syndrome). Dengue hemorrhagic fever is fatal in about 5 percent of cases, mostly among children and young adults.

How soon after exposure do symptoms appear?

The time between the bite of a mosquito carrying dengue virus and the start of symptoms averages 4 to 6 days, with a range of 3 to 14 days. An infected person cannot spread the infection to other persons but can be a source of dengue virus for mosquitoes for about 6 days.

How is dengue diagnosed?

Dengue is diagnosed by a blood test.

Who is at risk for dengue?

Anyone who is bitten by an infected mosquito can get dengue fever. Risk factors for dengue hemorrhagic fever include a person's age and immune status, as well as the type of infecting virus. Persons who were previously infected with one or more types of dengue virus are thought to be at greater risk for developing dengue hemorrhagic fever if infected again.

What is the treatment for dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever?

There is no specific treatment for dengue. Persons with dengue fever should rest and drink plenty of fluids. They should be kept away from mosquitoes for the protection of others. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is treated by replacing lost fluids. Some patients need transfusions to control bleeding.

How common is dengue?

In tropical countries around the world, dengue is one of the most common viral diseases spread to humans by mosquitoes. Tens of millions of cases of dengue fever and up to hundreds of thousands of cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever occur each year.

In the United States, approximately 100 cases of dengue are reported each year in travelers returning from tropical areas. Many more cases probably go unreported. A few persons have become infected with dengue while living in the United States. Aedes mosquitoes are found in Texas, Florida, and other southern states, and locally acquired dengue has been reported three times since 1980 in southern Texas.

Is dengue an emerging infectious disease?

Yes. All types of dengue virus are re-emerging worldwide and causing larger and more frequent epidemics, especially in cities in the tropics. The emergence of dengue as a major public health problem has been most dramatic in the western hemisphere. Dengue fever has reached epidemic levels in Central America and is threatening the United States.

Several factors are contributing to the resurgence of dengue fever:

No effective mosquito control efforts are underway in most countries with dengue.
Public health systems to detect and control epidemics are deteriorating around the world.
Rapid growth of cities in tropical countries has led to overcrowding, urban decay, and substandard sanitation, allowing more mosquitoes to live closer to more people.
The increase in non-biodegradable plastic packaging and discarded tires is creating new breeding sites for mosquitoes.
Increased jet air travel is helping people infected with dengue viruses to move easily from city to city.

Dengue hemorrhagic fever is also on the rise. Persons who have been infected with one or more forms of dengue virus are at greater risk for the more severe disease. With the increase in all types of virus, the occurrence of dengue hemorrhagic fever becomes more likely.

How can dengue be prevented?

There is no vaccine to prevent dengue. Prevention centers on avoiding mosquito bites when traveling to areas where dengue occurs and when in U.S. areas, especially along the Texas-Mexico border, where dengue might occur. Eliminating mosquito breeding sites in these areas is another key prevention measure.

Avoid mosquito bites when traveling in tropical areas:

Use mosquito repellents on skin and clothing.
When outdoors during times that mosquitoes are biting, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into socks.
Avoid heavily populated residential areas.
When indoors, stay in air-conditioned or screened areas. Use bednets if sleeping areas are not screened or air-conditioned.
If you have symptoms of dengue, report your travel history to your doctor.

Eliminate mosquito breeding sites in areas where dengue might occur:

Eliminate mosquito breeding sites around homes. Discard items that can collect rain or run-off water, especially old tires.
Regularly change the water in outdoor bird baths and pet and animal water containers.

Escape the Stress of Urban Living

2009-01-16T05:55:00.000-08:00

Living in the city is quite stressful. The fast paced lifestyle along with the pollution, traffic and an unhealthy diet could quickly damage our body. For this we need to take some time off and relax. We need to be in an environment which is condusive to re-energizing ourselves and to getting rid of stress.

Let us offer to you Krystal Wellness Center. The center offers a wide variety of massages and treatments that could relieve stress, aches and pains and make you look and feel younger. The facility is fully equipped with the latest in health and anti-aging technologies. Our staff is also well trained and courteous.

For more information contact Krystal Wellness 209 Aguirre Ave. BF Homes Paranaque 9732045 / 09178712813. We look forward to servicing you.

Fruit Shake Recipe

2009-01-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

1 cup fruit yogurt
1 piece banana
4 ounces frozen orange juice
½ piece apple
6 ice cubes

Blend until smooth

Jasmine Tea Benefits

2009-01-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

About Jasmine Tea

Cultivated widely for its beautiful flowers, jasmine is any of the diverse subtropical and tropical plants with more than 200 species and fragrant flowers of white, yellow and red. Its blossoms are generally picked around midnight when they are in full bloom. Then these flowers are placed over the green tea leaves with the aim of transferring the fragrance, which creates a strong taste and a powerful scent of green tea jasmine. However, jasmine teas are made not only on the base of green teas, but also some variations of black tea flavored with various herbs.

Benefits of Jasmine Tea

Regarded as one of the healthiest teas enjoyed by tea drinkers all over the world, jasmine tea health benefits are considerable. By eliminating free radicals it prevents some forms of cancer, which also arrests aging. It also connects with cholesterol and blocks it, decreases level of cholesterol in blood, as well as prevents bad cholesterol, caused by oxidation. The impact of jasmine tea on circulatory system is even more beneficial, since it is believed to prevent brain strokes, heart attacks, thrombosis and arterial sclerosis. It is good for diabetes prevention and reducing high blood pressure.

In addition, jasmine tea fights viruses and bacteria, preventing thus influenza, cavities and food poisoning, including cholera, dysentery, mouth bacteria damaging teeth and piccoli causing gastric ulcers. One of the jasmine tea health benefits is to improve intestine conditions by blocking development and growth of bad bacteria and strengthening good bacteria. Connecting with such substances as human waste, meat, fish and breath, the tea prevents odor. Gargling with jasmine green tea is also believed to be one of the most effective ways to protect oneself from influenza, as the tea performs anti-viral functions.

Apart from such jasmine tea health benefits as prevention of cancer and heart diseases, recent studies show that drinking jasmine tea may fight fat. People who consumed tea with green tea extract during the period of three months lost more fat as compared to those who consumed regular oolong tea. According to researchers, substances found in jasmine tea, known as catechins, trigger weight loss by decreasing body fat and stimulating body to burn calories.

The content of catechin generally varies by the amount of jasmine green tea used, as well as steeping time. However, it is recommended to consume at least four cups a day. Also available are green tea extract supplements, which reduce LDL bad cholesterol. Thus, drinking jasmine green tea has proved to be an effective means of lowering cholesterol and burning calories, as well as reducing body fat.

Other jasmine tea health benefits include the ability to reduce the risk of blood clot, prevent allergy and flue, reduce high blood pressure and blood sugar, keep fluid balance, boost the immune system and provide oral care and fluoride that helps protect cavities and prevent tooth decay.

Most green teas with jasmine contain a significant amount of polyphenols, plant-based substances which have proven to have antiviral, anticancer and antioxidant properties.

Thomas Edison on Health

2009-01-13T06:53:00.000-08:00

"The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease" - Thomas Alba Edison

Dangers of Microwave Cooking

2009-01-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

In a study published in the November 2003 issue of The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that broccoli cooked in the microwave with a little water lost up to 97 percent of the beneficial antioxidant chemicals it contains. By comparison, steamed broccoli lost only 11 percent or fewer of its antioxidants.

When microwaving, caracinogenic toxins are leached from the plastic containers or plastic wrap used to microwave foods.

If you are familiar with homeopathy, you will instantly realize the problem. Microwaves heat your food by causing it to resonate at very high frequencies. While this can effectively heat your food, it also causes a change in the chemical structure of the food that can lead to health issues.

Microwave cooking changes the molecular structure of food. In test subjects who ate microwaved food, the following changes in blood chemistry were observed:

Decrease in hemoglobin values
Decrease in HDL Cholesterol (the good kind)
Decrease in lymphocytes and leukocytes (white blood cells, the ones that kill germs)
Increase in luminous power by luminous bacteria exposed to blood of volunteers (in essence, radioactive energy was passed on from the microwaved food to the blood cells of those who ate the food)

In other words, the implications are that a person who eats microwaved food for an extended period could become anemic due to destruction of hemoglobin, have an increase in heart disease from the decrease in good cholesteral and the ratio between good and bad cholesterol, and could become subject to a host of contagious diseases due to immune system compromise.

It has also been discovered that when microwaved, molecules are torn apart and deformed. These cells become extremely vulnerable to viruses, fungi, and other micro-organisms. These cells' ability to repair themselves is suppressed so that rather than producing water and carbon dioxide in the process of cell repair, hydrogen peroxide and carbon monoxide are produced. Can you imagine eating food filled with carbon monoxide? Can you imagine your own cells producing this compound?

When food is exposed to microwaves, the destruction and deformation of the molecules produces substances called radiolytic compounds, and the effects of these substances upon health is unknown.

Caesar's Salad Recipe

2009-01-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

For the Croutons:

2 large garlic cloves
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons virgin olive oil
2 cups French baguette slices cut up into 1/2 inch cubes (white bread works too)

For the Salad:

1 large egg
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 medium garlic clove, crushed
1 pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste or 4 flat anchovies
1 teaspoon capers
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup virgin olive oil
2 medium heads of romaine lettuce -- outer leaves removed
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese -- grated

Prep Work

Prepping the croutons - Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Crush the garlic cloves with the side of a chef's knife (be very careful) or with a garlic press. Slice up the baguette and cut them into 1/2 inch cubes.

Prepping the salad - Again crush the garlic. If you are using flat anchovies out of a can, mince one or two to make 1 1/2 teaspoons worth. Grate the Parmesan cheese. It's always better to grate it yourself if you have the opportunity.

How to Make at Home

Croutons - Combine garlic, oil, salt, and bread cubes in a bowl. Mix until cubes are coated evenly. Spread the coated cubes onto a baking sheet and bake until the croutons are golden. This should take about 10 minutes.

To make the salad - Bring a pot of boiling water to boil, add egg and cook for just 45 seconds....NO MORE. This is coddling the egg. Remove from heat and let it cool off.

Meanwhile, mix the Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper, anchovy, mustard and capers in a bowl. Crack egg and add to these ingredients. Whisk until smooth.

Now for the tricky part. Slowly add the oil in a steady stream while constantly whisking again until smooth. Reason: if you add the oil too quickly, the dressing will be separate and not emulsify.

To serve:

Tear the romaine lettuce into 1-2 inch pieces and add them to a large bowl (wooden if you have one). Add half the dressing, toss, add remaining dressing, Parmesan cheese, and croutons and toss again. Serve on chilled plates.

Whats On & Expat Features Magarao Parahilot

2009-01-10T05:37:00.000-08:00

More than Massage

Next to Naga City is the town of Magarao, where a similarly impressive church built in 1750 stands.

But what I find more amusing are the signboards “Parahilot” found in almost every alternating home throughout the town. Intent to find out what it means, I stopped to get a word with the “Anfamosong Felizardo B. Villamer alyas Legid” (The famous Felizardo B. Villamer also known as Legid) whose house has a parked ambulance outside. He wouldn’t budge, saying he has a very ill patient.

Parahilot is a Bicolano vernacular meaning a masseuse employing the traditional Filipino massage called hilot. If the signage says Babaeng Parahilot that means it’s a lady masseuse. There are more men who practice this art of healing massage that goes beyond the mere physical kneading of knotted muscles, says Novie Rosalinas, a babaeng parahilot. The hilot here promises to cure, if not alleviate, medical conditions from skin diseases and arthritis to goiter and other internal sicknesses with the use of a mix of secret oils and of course, prayers.

Featured 11/25/2007 - 12/01/2007

Happy Birthday Jeffrey

2009-01-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

Krystal Wellness Center is not merely a business enterprise concerned with the health and wellness industry but is a family. On this day we celebrate the birthday of Jeffrey, the godson of the founder of Krystal Wellness Center. He celebrates his birthday of November 13. He was formerly a part of the showbiz industry as a talent but is now lending his talents and expertise to Krystal Spa.

This maybe a new field of endeavor for him but he has given his best in this new field. Happy birthday Jeff!

Dangers of MSG

2009-01-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

U.S. Government Food Safety Warning. Because there is so much concern about MSG, the FDA commissioned a study be conducted by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). The study resulted in a 350 page report completed on 31 July 1995. The research determined that MSG consumption can result in the following side-effects:

* burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest
* numbness in the back of the neck, radiating to the arms and back
* tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms
* facial pressure or tightness
* chest pain
* headache
* nausea
* rapid heartbeat
* bronchospasm (difficulty breathing) in MSG-intolerant people with asthma
* drowsiness
* weakness

Krystal Spa Offers FREE Tai Chi Classes

2009-01-07T06:16:00.000-08:00

Krystal Spa is offering FREE Tai Chi classes for all patrons. Classes are to be conducted by expert Jo Baldonasa who has spent years honing in this ancient art . Come and learn the art of relaxation from the master himself!

For details please contact Krystal Spa at 973-20-45

Vitamin C

2009-01-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

Facts about Vitamin C

-In 1912 Polish-American biochemist Casimir Funk developed the concept of vitamins.

-British chemists Sir Walter Norman Haworth and Sir Edmund Hirst were able to synthesize Vitamin C between 1933 and 1934 making it the first Vitamin to be synthesized.

-Commonly found fruits like the kiwifruit, guava and lychee have high concentrations of Vitamin C.

Functions of Vitamin C

-Helps strengthen the immune system to ward of diseases.

-Helps maintain healthy teeth and gums.

-Increases the absorption of iron and calcium.

-Improves the integrity of blood vessels.

-Promotes the healing of wounds, fractures, bruises, some hemorrhages.

-Aids in the production of collagen.

Krystal Spa Offers Shiatsu Massage!

2009-01-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

Krystal Spa brings to the Philippines the Shiatsu. Shiatsu, also known as acupressure, is a finger pressure massage technique. that is sometimes confused with acupuncture. Shiatsu massage therapy and acupuncture are founded on the Chinese meridian system. The therapist applies pressure with his thumbs, finger, and palms to specific areas of the client's body that have been determined during an assessment period prior to the massage session. There are no needle pokes involved with Shiatsu. Massage techniques like tapping, squeezing, rubbing, and applied pressure are applied along the meridians to unblock energy blockages and reintroduce the optimal flow of ki.

Benefits of Shiatsu Massage

Deep muscle and tissue relaxation
Stress reduction and management
Releases toxins from the body
Dis-ease preventative
Increased flexibility
Improved blood circulations
Reduces blood pressure
Reduces mental anxieties
Balances ki (chi)
Calms nervousness
Increases mental and spiritual awareness
It feels good!

Minestrone Recipe

2009-01-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

1 cup dried cannellini beans
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 small russet potato, medium dice
2 medium celery stalks, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, peeled, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
1 medium bay leaf
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juices
6 ounces green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 cup frozen peas
4 cups (1 quart) low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup ditalini, tubettini, or other small pasta
1/2 cup finely chopped Italian parsley (from about 1/2 bunch)
Grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese, for garnish

Procedure

Place beans in a large saucepan, fill with about 5 cups heavily salted water, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until beans are tender all the way through, about 2 hours. Reserve 4 cups of bean-cooking liquid. Drain beans and reserve.
Heat butter and oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Once butter foams, add onion and garlic, and cook until onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add potato, celery, carrot, and bay leaf, and stir to coat. Cook until celery is just soft, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juices, season with salt and pepper, stir (scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan), and cook until juices are almost completely reduced, about 2 minutes.
Add 1/2 of the green beans, 1/2 of the zucchini, 1/2 of the peas, and the broth and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until zucchini just begins to soften, about 10 minutes. Stir in reserved beans and bean-cooking liquid; remaining green beans, zucchini, and peas; pasta; and 1/2 of the parsley, and simmer until pasta is al dente, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove from heat, stir in remaining parsley, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed. To serve, place soup in bowls, garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle grated cheese over top, and season with freshly ground black pepper.

Wellness

2009-01-03T07:48:00.000-08:00

Health and wellness seems to be in vogue nowadays. You could clearly see that with the proliferation of spas, massage parlors, supplements and all sorts of health related products, services and gadgets. People have realized that it is better to go on the preventive side than to be ill with a chronic disease like cancer, diabetes or coronary heart disease.

This is a good development as this would lead to a better quality of life. People live better and live longer. It is after all futile to live a long existence when you are bedridden or are afflicted by a chronic disease.

There also seems to be a decline in the sickness industry and that of prescription medicines because people have found that it would be more cost effective and efficient to nip the rose in the bud and take care of the problem before it even becomes a problem.

The great inventor Thomas Edison stated it best. He said that doctors of the future would give no medicine but administer the care of the body temple. This may not be a hundred percent true yet. However, this is slowly coming into fruition.

Benefits of Aromatherapy

2009-01-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

Benefits of Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy stimulates the immune system, strengthens resistance to disease and helps to combat infections. It is especially helpful for women's problems - PMS, menopausal distress. It aids digestion - eases constipation and abdominal spasm - and optimises the functioning of respiratory system - helps with coughs, tonsillitis, and sinusitis. It eases muscular aches and pains and promotes muscle relaxation and tone. By improving circulation and lymphatic drainage it helps to eliminate cellulite and toxins from the body. Aromatherapy can lower blood pressure, reduces stress level, will combat insomnia and other stress related disorders. It can alleviate tension headaches and helps to deal with different emotions, such as anxiety, mild depression, grief, etc.