Someone sent me this article and I thought it important enough to post it as is. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. ……

As if being obese isn’t bad enough with all the problems it brings to our human psyche and physical bodies. How really discouraging it can be to be so overweight. It’s not just our image that’s taking a bad rap, but the human body we live in suffers tremendously by having to try to function normally under all that extra poundage. Lets try and get those excess pounds off as soon as possible! There’s nothing, and I mean NOTHING good about being so fat!!! ……

Don’t forget to eat that grape, blueberry and strawberry! ……

Everybody has his own theory about how to increase ones’ life expectancy. However, if we take examples from people living in areas of the world where whole populations live a long healthy life, we may be able to learn some things.

One such area is on a small, 99-square-mile, mountainous island in Greece called Ikaria. It has been found on the island that a very high percentage of it’s inhabitants outlive just about everyone else in the world, One in three members of it’s population are found to be reaching at least 90 and many of these Ikarians are living past 90 years. ……

I started turning gray at around 26 years old. At that time my uncles on my mother’s side of the family all had lots of pure white hair. It was beautiful because they all had lots of hair and the white was pure white, not yellowish.

Until I found this article I didn’t knowwhy this happened. So, I have given you this article in it’s original form as I found it on the AOL health site. It was written by Michelle Burford

When you begin to see the first signs of gray hair, you likely blame your stressful job, your lack of sleep and even your children. But here’s the truth about your silver locks: You wouldn’t gray any sooner or any more if you got all the sleep you needed and had angels for kids. “It’s based on a collection of genes,” says Jerry Shapiro, MD, adjunct professor at New York University’s Lagone Medical Center, adding that scientists don’t know whether the gray gene is passed on maternally or paternally. Most people begin graying in mid-life when the cells that produce pigment in hair become depleted, but the timing of that process is pre-programmed by your DNA. There are certainly other factors that affect gray hair — and many that don’t. Here, Shapiro helps us separate fact from falsehood.

Fact: Ethnicity is a Factor

By age 50, most people can expect 50 percent of their hair to be gray, but when gray first appears seems to be determined, at least in part, by ethnicity. According to a 2005 study published in the “Journal of Investigative Dermatology,” a white person will begin graying in his or her mid-thirties, Asian people will start noticing a little silver in their late thirties — but black people generally ward off the gray strands until their mid-forties.

Myth: White Hair Is Reversible

When it comes to preventing or reversing gray, tales abound about what might do the trick from massaging your scalp with a coconut oil and lemon juice cocktail, to eating iodine-rich foods like bananas and washing hair in butter. According to Dr. Shapiro, such claims are unsubstantiated malarkey. “There is absolutely nothing you can eat or take to make your hair dark again,” he says. Dr. Shapiro suggests that you save yourself the headache of battling nature — unless, of course, you do so with a bottle of hair dye.

Myth: Gray Signals a Short Lifespan

Your salt-and-pepper mane has nothing to do with longevity. Scientists in Copenhagen studied 20,000 people trying to examine the link between mortality and signs of aging such as gray hair, baldness, and wrinkles. The study’s conclusion: Gray hair doesn’t signify that you’ll have a shorter lifespan than your non-gray counterparts.

Myth: Plucking Speeds Growth

Think you’ve spotted two gray hairs in the place where you’ve pulled out one? You might have, but it’s not because removing one strand leads to a garden of gray. “Plucking simply doesn’t accelerate the growth of gray hair,” Dr. Shapiro says. Once you uproot the silver hair, the follicle that produced it will bring you another strand exactly like it, since once a follicle goes gray, it will never revert. Then over time, says Dr. Shapiro, the neighboring follicles will join in the party, whether you pluck them or not.

Fact: Hormones Play a Part

Though gray hair isn’t usually a symptom of your body’s overall health, there are rare cases in which gray can indicate a hormone imbalance or a thyroid condition. Talk with your doctor if you notice gray hair cropping and also are feeling unlike yourself.

Fact: Gray Hair is Hard to Dye

Ever noticed that your silver strands seem to stubbornly resist chemical coloring? Dr. Shapiro says it’s not your imagination: Each fiber of gray hair is wider in diameter and contains a central core of air that makes it less permeable than non-gray hair. “That’s why gray hair doesn’t take to dye as easily,” he says.

Myth: Sun Increases Gray

Too much exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays is known to be harmful to your skin and eyes — but there’s zero evidence that the sun actually turns your tresses gray, says Shapiro. “Gray hair is produced in the roots,” he says. “The sun can lighten the hair that has already grown out of the roots — but it cannot make your follicles begin producing gray hair.”

Myth: Smoking Worsens Gray

While it’s true that smoking undermines one’s general health and can lead to premature aging, smoking doesn’t hasten the onset of gray. Says Dr. Shapiro: “There is no scientific proof that smoking causes or speeds gray.”

Myth: Stress Causes Gray

“Many people ask me whether President Obama is graying faster because of the pressure he’s under,” Dr. Shapiro says, and as onerous as the job of leader of the country is, Obama’s graying hair is likely the result of age, not his demanding schedule. “Stress has nothing to do with it — the timing of our gray is based on our genetics,” he says. There’s one rare exception, notes Dr. Shapiro: alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that causes the loss of pigmented hairs and can leave a person gray in as little as two weeks. The condition’s cause is unknown, but scientists think it is stress-related.

By MICHELLE BURFORD
2009-08-03 10:46:09

You can’t beat shrimp for a nutritious addition to your diet. Both the wild and organically farmed raised shrimp are nutrient-rich.  

And, for all you calorie conscious consumers, Shrimp is also a low calorie seafood, making it a “safe” item on your diet. Its rich in vitamin D, B-12 and selenium, a combination of nutrients rarely found in one food, especially in the American diet.

Many people don’t realize how shrimp’s low mercury levels make it safe for those who must pay attention to their exposure to mercury. The level is 1/10th of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Action Level for mercury in fish and shellfish.

There is however, one concern about shrimp that should be mentioned in the midst of all this praise. If some of you need to limit your cholesterol intake, shrimp does contain a higher cholesterol level. There are about 220 milligrams of cholesterol in four ounces of cooked shrimp. This could be an issue for some people.

All in all, however, shrimp is a very good addition to our diets.

Melting chocolate is a simple task that can go so horribly wrong if you don’t know what you are doing.
We’ve found a video to help you conquer this task! ……

Everyone, old and young alike, can benefit from increased daily exercise; And, just what is increased physical activity? ……

From what science already knows about age-related disease, “With calorie restriction, if your genetic predisposition is to live to 65, calorie restriction may add 15 or 20 years, and that’s huge.” ……

A good question…one, all of us would like to be able to answer, “YES” to! ……