Awareness & Choice

Age old home remedies for common ailments

2011-12-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

Age old home remedies for common ailments

Home Remedies: Age Old Practice Passed Down From Generation To Generation

2011-12-18T03:33:00.000-08:00

Natural home remedies for common diseases are an age old practice and have been passed down from generation to generation. Even today, in spite of such progress in modern medicine, these remedies are followed in several countries and give relief to millions. As they are completely without side effects, their continuous use causes no harm.

Most natural foods like fruits, vegetables, cereal, grains, seeds and nuts as well as other natural substances, possess many medicinal virtues. Home remedies are based on these and a combination of these to create astonishingly effective natural cures.

They are easy to make and most ingredients can be found in our kitchen in items that we use daily in our food. Items that we use daily in our food. The right combination of these items create remarkable medicinal values to cure several common ailments, which we either neglect and continue to suffer or try to suppress with strong medicines. This website deals with those common ailments from which none of us can escape and shows how to get the maximum relief in the shortest possible time, eliminating the use of harmful drugs.

Child Abuse

2008-08-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Most of us dismiss child abuse as stories we see on the news on the T.V. set, the Internet, in newspapers, or learn about through other media sources. Child abuse is not that. It is happening next door, down the street, and within our own community. And it’s time the problem is taken seriously.

Child abuse wouldn't be such a problem if people acknowledged it instead of living in a world where they believe that it doesn't exist. Many people think child abuse either does not exist or exists only among poor households and in movies. This is because there is a fine line between punishing a child and child abuse. When grown ups hit children with knives, wood, glass, cups, high heels, it hurts. But it goes beyond that for some children, the abuse reaches beyond physical pain when the adult uses verbal abuse.

Even a few month old infants are not spared. Shaken baby syndrome is a form of child abuse caused by someone, in most cases by a parent or a care giver, vigorously shaking an infant or small child.

Reaching epidemic proportions

Child Abuse in our troubled world is reaching epidemic proportions. Child abuse is an uncomfortable issue most of us don't want to deal with. We hear the screams of a child at night and believe that the child is only throwing tantrums. We take bruises on a child as some kind of health problem and leave it to their parents to solve. We see a child, skinny and sickly, who never plays with other children and pay no attention to him. If we see a child in dirty clothes we blame the parents for not taking adequate care of him

Even parents, don't want to deal with it. It can't happen to our kids, they say. But it does. Children are under threat of abuse wherever they go -- to the school, the playground,in the own bedrooms and on the internet. The only way forward is --

To become conscious that abuse happens.

To empower children to recognise the warning signs of abuse.

To understand and learn how to create a truly safe environment for children.

To create an open environment in which children are able to tell parents or caregivers that they are being abused.

To understand how best to deal with abuse if it has already happened.

What Is Child Abuse?

Child Abuse refers to the harm, or risk of harm, that a child or youth may experience while in the care of a person they trust or depend on, including a parent, sibling, other relative, teacher, caregiver or guardian. Harm may occur through direct actions by the person (acts of commission) or through the person’s neglect to provide a component of care necessary for healthy child growth and development (acts of omission).

To make this simpler, child abuse is of two forms neglect and abuse.While abuse is more active in the way it is inflicted, it is abuse when something is actually done to harm the child. In the case of neglect, harm comes to the child because something is not done which should have been. Thus sexual molestation of a child is abusive whereas depriving a child of adequate food and exercise is neglectful. One similarity between abuse and neglect is that both if carried far enough, can be fatal.

Kinds of Child Abuse

There are five types of child abuse:

physical abuse

sexual abuse

neglect

emotional harm

Emotional child abuse

Emotional or psychological abuse, though the most common and damaging, is the least understood and hardest to prove form of child abuse. A child is said to be emotionally abused when he/she undergoes serious physical or emotional neglect caused by acts or omissions of the child's parents or other persons responsible for the child's welfare.

A child is said to be emotionally abused when she is suffering under any of the following conditions:

Inadequate physical care

Absence of medical attention

Inadequate medical care.

Cruel or abusive treatment

Improper supervision

Exploitation of the child's earning capacity

Unlawfully keeping the child out of school

Exposing the child to criminal or immoral influences that endanger her/his morals.

It is estimated that 90% of the time, parents are responsible for committing child abuse, including emotional abuse and neglect. Fathers and mothers are nearly equally responsible for committing emotional child abuse and neglect. Of course, caretakers and other family members can also commit emotional child abuse and neglect.

There are many reasons why parents abuse their children. Most abuses take place when unhappy parents project their day-to-day frustrations on their children. Such neglectful parents are isolated and have difficulty forming relationships or are burdened by anger and sadness because of unmet childhood needs and difficult current circumstances.

Source: Child Abuse

How “food scare” originated

2008-04-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

The healthy, wealthy, comfortable middle classes of the late twentieth century discovered “food scare.” Even a small theoretical risk based on studies of, say, a 'known' carcinogen in rats is enough to spread panic across the globe. And a new food scare is born, even if there is no death and the outcome in humans is unproven.

To top it all, a plethora of organizations, including the news media, have a vested interest in making the story run and run. For instance, a vegan pressure group might commission a study proving all meat is unsafe.

Thus we found reports of a study in an American journal that salmon contain 'significantly higher' levels of cancer-causing pollutants than wild salmon. And headlines like 'Coffee drinking linked to higher miscarriage risk' in The Daily Telegraph

Information on food labels

These growing incidences of food safety scares are making consumers, especially in the Western countries, increasingly turn to the information on their food labels. There was a time when people died for lack of food. Today food is among the bigger killers. Main reasons:

• Increase in cut-price food

• Intensive factory farming

Food scare to end all food scares: The Mad Cow Disease

Food scare dug roots with the Mad Cow Disease. Though the disease was first recorded as far back as 1732, it was not until 1995 that it became a serious problem for humans, as the practice of using meat by-products in cattle feed became increasingly common. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, more than 100,000 cattle were diagnosed as having the disease and, in 1995 the first case of BSE-related CJD in a human was reported.

E. coli poisoning followed and the scare intensified.

Then came genetically modified food

Then came genetically modified (GM) food. Some scientists fear that genetically engineered plants may contaminate wild plant populations, exacerbating weed problems.

It is also feared that engineered fish may alter ecosystems and even drive some wild populations to extinction. It is also feared that GM food could produce new allergens or toxins. But supporters say that GM plants can produce bigger yields and better, longer-lasting crops, and that crops modified to resist pests reduces farmers' dependence on chemicals.

And the current debate over GM food is likely to rage on for years, if not decades, to come. Till we come up with something new to engage ourselves with.

A glass of red grape juice for better heart and head

2008-04-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

For long nutritionists were baffled at the low rates of heart disease among the French. Successive studies found the answer in the red wine that the French favour. The benefits of red wine and also red grape juice hit both the head and the heart

High intensity exercise can speed up ageing. Such exercises bring on oxidative stress, where free radicals attack tissues. Research had found that grape juice and grape extracts are linked to improvements in oxidative stress markers after excessive exercise. In 2006 researchers from San Antonio Catholic University in Spain, showed that a drink containing black grape, raspberry and red currant concentrates reduced protein oxidation by 23 per cent following excessive exercise.

Oxidative stress has been linked to an increased risk of various diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's, and cardiovascular disease.

New study of red grape juice

A new study, said to be first report of its kind in humans, dietary supplement of red grape juice may reduce the activity of an enzyme linked to cardiovascular disease. The new research further found that red grape juice also increased HDL cholesterol levels.

The report of this research has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition http://www.ajcn.org/

Earlier, an animal study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found that a flavonoid found in grapes improve blood flow in the brain by 30%, thus greatly reducing the risk of stroke.

Animal Factories Replacing Traditional Farms

2008-04-23T00:27:00.000-07:00

Animal Factories Replacing Traditional Farms

Ahimsa Products – Promoting Veganism in Diet and Lifestyle

2008-04-20T02:21:00.000-07:00

Ahimsa Products – Promoting Veganism in Diet and Lifestyle

‘The world’s local wisdom bank’ - CopperWiki

2008-04-20T02:19:00.000-07:00

‘The world’s local wisdom bank’ - CopperWiki

HEALTHY LIVING: IN ABILITY TO EXPRESS EMOTIONS MAY BE THE CAUSE FOR YOUR SLEEP DISTURBANCES

2008-04-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

HEALTHY LIVING: IN ABILITY TO EXPRESS EMOTIONS MAY BE THE CAUSE FOR YOUR SLEEP DISTURBANCES

Anti-Ageing from within

2008-04-05T00:29:00.000-07:00

US firm NutraGenesis has combined two of its ayurvedic extracts in a new 'beauty-from within' dietary supplement ingredient, which the company says can help rejuvenate the skin and reduce signs of ageing.

The new branded ingredient - Sendara - uses two of the company's existing products: Sensoril, a mood enhancer, and Capros, an antioxidant.

According to NutraGenesis, the combination of these two patented extracts can help maintain beauty by acting both internally and externally: it helps combat stress, which is thought to be a major contributor to physical signs of aging; and it helps fight against external causes of aging, such as exposure to the sun or poor nutrition.

Stress relief

The anti-stress component of the new product comes from the company's branded ingredient Seonsoril, an extract of the 'mood food' Ashwagandha (withania somnifera).

Ashwanganhda has been used by ayurvedic practitioners in its native India for thousands of years. Its root is rich in flavonoids and steroidal lactones called withanolides, which are thought to have a number of beneficial properties, including anti-stress, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, mental cognition-boosting, immune-enhancing, and rejuvenating.

NutraGenesis obtains its ashwanganhda from cultivated sources in India, where it is extracted from the root and the leaf using a patented process involving water and methanol.

See also Anti-ageing Beauty Products
http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Anti-ageing_Beauty_Products

Fruitarianism

2008-04-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

A broad range of fruits covers all our nutritional needs, and in reality, it is all we need to eat. Fruitarianism frees a person from all bad consequences of cooked food addiction. Fruitarianism promotes a pleasant, light and airy mental feeling which some interpret as “spiritual."

Fruitarianism is freedom from junk food. But often the biggest weakness of an aspiring fruitarian is craving for junk food.

Who are Fruitarians?

There are different types of fruitarians. There are those who prefer to eat without killing and go for only what falls naturally from a plant. These are primarily of culinary fruits, nuts, and seeds. Others avoid grains, because they believe it is unnatural to do so, and some fruitarians feel that it is improper for humans to eat seeds. Additionally, there are fruitarians who believe they should eat only plants that spread seeds when the plant is eaten. Others eat seeds and some cooked foods.
Many consume pulses, while another group prefers green leafy vegetables and/or root vegetables in their diet. Some occasionally consume some dairy products as well.
There is yet another group which has become fruitarians because they believe it to be the original diet of mankind and wish to return to an Eden-like paradise.

Fruitarian Lifestyle

In a fruitarian lifestyle all forms of cooked food is considered non-healthy, which causes unbalanced nutrition, all kinds of disease, mood swings, cravings for synthetic nutrients and chemicals, decrease of vitality, loss of external beauty and loss of inner happiness, depreciation for life and lack of wisdom.

Fruit diet cleanses the body of all toxins and, because it contains fiber and water, it helps in smooth functioning of the digestive system. Switching to a fruitarian diet helps lose weight, reduces cholesterol and gives a lighter and healthier body.

Practice Guidelines

• Do not mix different types of fruits. Keep a difference of 90 minutes to 2 hours if you eat a different type of fruit.

• Eat only when you are hungry, but when you do, eat till you are fully satisfied

• Eat a small portion of dried fruits during some time of the day

• 100 percent fruitarians need not drink water as all the required water is present in the fruits and absorbed in your body in the best possible way. Drinking extra water will not bring in any extra benefit.

• In case you sweat due to over-exertion then drink natural fruit juices or eat fruits with plenty of liquids (Orange, melon, pineapple, coconut, etc.)

Balanced Diet Formula

Early Morning

• Juice of 3 to 5 lemons, or more…(right after waking up)

• Melons (all types). Eat the melon or make melon juice as much as you want

• Dried grapes

9 a.m. to Noon

• Apples (all kinds)
• Pineapple
• Figs (green/violet)
• Pears
• Grapes (green/violet)
• Plums (yellow)
• Lima
• Kiwi
• Cucumber

3 to 6 p.m.

• Oranges, Tangerines
• Peaches (all kinds)
• Apricots
• Papaya

6 to 9 p.m.

• Grapes (violet), eat many of them…
• Blackberries
• Raspberry

9 p.m. to Midnight

• Mango
• Cherry
• Strawberry
• Plums (red)
• Persimmon
• Pomegranate
• Water-melon
• Tomato

Extremely Difficult in Practice

According to idealistic dietary theory fruitarianism is possible but is extremely difficult in practice. The diet has many pitfalls that can cause serious problems for the would-be fruitarian. Modern fruit is the product of generations (in some cases, thousands of years) of human-directed plant breeding. Modern fruit is also expensive, and often loses its freshness as a result of shipping, refrigeration, fumigation, and other post-harvest processing.

Fruitarianism often results in excessive weight loss and it is extremely difficult to gain weight on a fruit diet. In most cases a fruit diet is neither physically nor psychologically satisfying. There are numerous cases of backsliding, cheating, and binge eating

As modern fruit is high sugar content, a diet of only fruit may provide excess sugar intake, resulting in diabetes-like symptoms, such as

• sugar cravings
• excessive urination and thirst
• sugar highs/blues
• fatigue

In the long run excessive sugar also affects the pancreas. Fruitarians are, therefore, advised to supplement their diet with some dark, bitter, leafy greens.

Maintaining Nutrient Levels

Fruitarians should ensure sufficient consumption of certain nutrients, by identifying and including the appropriate sources of:

 calcium
 energy
 iron
 riboflavin
 vitamin B12
 vitamin D

It is not a diet recommended for pregnant women, or for young children.
Very few people have succeeded in their efforts to be 100 percent fruitarians. That’s probably the reason why historically, even prominent fruitarians have eaten a mixed diet, because it is viewed to be healthier in the long term.

For details refer to THE ORIGINAL FRUITARIAN GUIDEBOOK

Apples to prevent colon cancer

2008-03-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

Apple pectin and polyphenol-rich apple juice have an anticarcinogenic effect on the colon, encouraging the production of suspected chemopreventative metabolite butyrate, say researchers.

A recent study in California found low doses of freeze-dried grape powder could inhibit the development of colorectal cancer thanks to the polyphenol resveratrol and synergistic effects between the grape compounds.

The study presents some sound findings to act as a base for further study into colon cancer prevention, which is the third most prolific type of cancer in western industrialised countries, causing 650,000 deaths a year.

Life of all leather products begins in the slaughterhouse

2008-03-31T04:52:00.000-07:00

It is true that the life of all leather products begin in the slaughter house. Every year, the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals and tans their skins and hides. Even exotic animals like alligators are plucked from their habitat and factory-farmed for their skins.

Our soccer shoes come from kangaroo skin. Kid goats may be boiled alive to make gloves and the skins of unborn calves and lambs—some purposely aborted, others from slaughtered pregnant cows and ewes—are considered especially “luxurious.” An estimated 2 million dogs and cats are killed in China to meet the demand for their skin.

This much for cruelty.

Post cruelty the animal skin is turned into finished leather with a variety of much more dangerous substances, including mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and various oils, dyes, and finishes, some of which are cyanide-based.
Western countries have enforced stringent environmental controls on leather manufacturing, forcing them to import products from Asian countries.

The uncontrolled discharge of untreated effluent from tanneries is a growing problem in these countries. Not only are people living close by affected, the effluent also contaminates the sea as well as the inland water supply. Pollution of water supply also affects the food supply for the population. Burning tannery residuals into the atmosphere also causes pollution.

In my search for ecologically sound alternatives I came across ‘Ahimsa Leather’ – the non-violent way to footwear.
http://copperwiki.org/index.php/Ahimsa_Leather

It’s the next best thing to being barefoot.

There are in fact several related articles in this open collaboration platform for people seeking choices for living a responsible life. A quick reference tool when in doubt.

http://copperwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page

The great part is that it is an ‘editable’ organization which subscribes to the wiki philosophy of an ‘anyone can edit’ where good people, with good intent and good work prevail over the not-so-good, the not-yet-great-enough, and sometimes the downright bad ones.