My mother was both a Registered nurse and a Home Health Care Provider during her working years, and her number one complaint was always the paperwork. Even during her last stint as an R.N., when she was required to keep records on the computer, she still had to deal with paper.

With the inception of electronic medical records, this complaint has been sounded fewer and fewer times by those who would be her colleagues today. And this software doesn’t just relieve hospital and long term care staff of their workload. It also automates record-keeping processes, eliminates duplications, and makes clinical records more accurate. Furthermore, these records are available for information or audit at any time.

This last benefit of the software makes it a great asset to the health-care facility itself. As well, use of this software lowers operating costs and helps to control operations more effectively and efficiently, therefore increasing the bottom line.

Such software includes products ranging from electronic charts that can be accessed from any computer, to integrated electronic health records that enable multiple caregivers to provide the results of various assessments – as well as individual notes – in one location. While our goal is, of course, to never have to enter into a hospital or long-term care facility, stuff does sometimes happen. And when it does, the patient has a better chance of getting the right care when all the records are in order and easy to access.

Managing stress is a vital skill to learn for anyone serious about maintaining high levels of health and energy. (In the process, you also learn how to naturally treat mood swings.) In the ideal world, you would reduce your stress levels down to practically nothing by eliminating deadlines, relationship conflict, dreadful jobs, and so on.

But let’s get real: while there is a lot you can do in the way of stress reduction, our modern world makes it difficult to get stress levels down to where they should be – almost non-existent. So learning to deal with it as it comes is out number one weapon against it.

What is stress?

Stress is the body’s response to danger you sense, whether the danger is real or just in your head (can you say, “worry”?). When the danger is real, the stress response is often life-saving, allowing our bodies to function in ways that help to preserve our lives, such as sharpening our reactions or giving us almost supernatural strength and stamina. When it’s just an occasional response, it causes no obstacle to good health whatsoever.

However, over the last 150 years or so stress has gradually become much more than occasional. For most modern-world citizens, the stress response occurs several times daily, sometimes seemingly non-stop all day. As a result of both the non-stop attack on your mind and the constant flow of stress hormones into the blood, any one of the following can result:

• pain
• frequent illness
• degenerative disease
• depression
• emotional eating, leading to obesity
• depression
• mental confusion and cloudiness

Causes of stress

Stress can be caused by both positive and negative events, as well as by both internal and external factors. Once you understand the causes, managing stress becomes much more within reach. Following is a non-comprehensive list of possible causes of stress:

• a demanding work schedule
• working at a job you don’t like
• conflict with loved ones
• getting married
• buying your first home
• rush hour traffic
• financial problems
• an overloaded schedule
• caring for several small children
• pessimism
• constant negative self-talk
• perfectionism
• inability to accept uncertainty

Healthy ways of managing stress

Many people turn to overeating, drug abuse (including alcohol and smoking), oversleeping, violence, promiscuity and other unhealthy techniques to reduce their stress levels. But there are much healthier (and much less costly!) ways to deal with stress.

They include:

• taking control of your environment; i.e., making alternative choices whenever possible to reduce the stress your normal routine causes
• learning how to say “no”
• avoiding people who stress you out
• learning to be more assertive so you don’t constantly feel like a victim
• time management
• willingness to compromise, when this is ethically okay (it’s better to be healthy than to be right all the time)
• change your perspective
• learn to forgive
• accept the things you cannot change
• set aside time to relax every day
• connect with other people
• laugh
• participate in a fulfilling activity every day
• eliminate processed foods from your diet, because foods high in sugars and toxic chemicals mess with your brain
• exercise several times a week
• get enough sleep

Managing stress is not rocket science, but it is essential if you want to reduce your risk of illness and disease as well as live longer with more energy, joy and fulfillment. Put the above strategies into action today, and don’t miss my e-book Weird Health to learn the rest of the pieces of the healthy living puzzle!

So far in our search for a healthy diet, we’ve looked at raw food veganism and the Pritikin program. Next up: the diet that was greatly in vogue in the 1980′s and ’90s, and still hangs around despite its many problems.

Known alternatively as a “high protein” or “low carb” diet, the Atkins diet has persisted for years, gaining more and more popularity with time. If you have never tried the diet, you most certainly know someone who has.

I have to admit that the “new” Atkins diet that came out a few years ago is a far sight healthier than the original one. The basic premise of the diet is that, if you avoid all high-carb foods, such as fruit, grain-based foods (such as bread and cake) and potatoes, you will lose weight.

The first edition of Dr. Atkins’ book was that basic. Eat eggs, meat, and cheese all day, and avoid everything else, and weight loss will soon follow. No calorie counting required.

In the most recent edition, Atkins clarifies that vegetables are a necessary carb that won’t promote weight gain, and includes them much more liberally in his eating plan than he did previously.

But does the addition of vegetables make the Atkins diet truly healthful?

How the Atkins diet fails

In reality, this diet has several serious problems:

1. Excessive protein consumption causes ketosis. Ketosis happens when the body doesn’t have enough glucose to get the energy it needs. So it converts fats to energy, a byproduct of which are ketone bodies. Suffice it to say that ketone bodies are a kind of toxin not normally found in the body.

In his latest book, Atkins claims that studies have shown that ketone bodies really don’t cause any kind of problem. Maybe that’s true, maybe not. However, people with certain pre-existing conditions like diabetes can be poisoned by ketone bodies.

My question is, if it’s not good for sick people, can it be completely harmless for well people?

2. The diet doesn’t differentiate between fats. Atkins says that “the basis of the metabolic disturbance in obesity doesn’t have to do with the fat you eat.” If he would have said, “doesn’t have to do with the saturated or raw mono- and poly-unsaturated fat you eat,” I may be more inclined to agree with the statement.

However, nutritional research has shown that many (most?) kinds of fats, when subjected to high heat, do cause weight gain (as well as disease). Of course you’ve heard about the danger of trans fats, which are fats that have been hydrogenated. No self-respecting scientist today will tell you that consuming trans fats (which would be found in the Atkins diet in nuts roasted in vegetable oil) does not contribute to weight gain.

3. The success of the diet depends on following twelve rules. Rules are exactly what we don’t want in developing healthy eating habits. Yet, Atkins says, “I want you to memorize [these]…twelve rules as though your life depends upon it.”

4. Atkins speaks out of both sides of his mouth regarding the weight loss issue. At the beginning of the book, he practically guarantees that you will lose weight on the diet. Later on, he says that you may at some point (and who knows which point) stop losing weight before you get to your goal.

His reasoning? Either you’re not following the twelve rules to a tee, or your body just refuses to cooperate with your desire. He doesn’t offer much explanation for the latter point, other than to say that everyone is unique.

Either way, he all but admits that the diet may not give everyone the results they were after when they started. Indeed, I have heard that few people have lost any significant weight on this diet, despite following the rules. Mainly, because calories do count.

5. The diet allows for some processed food, including sugar substitutes. Um, I thought we were trying to get thin here. Studies have shown that people drinking sodas with artificial sweeteners gain more weight than those drinking sodas with sugar.

6. The diet does not differentiate between raw versus cooked food. Raw foods are vital to good nutrition, as they still contain all their enzymes and nutrients. Cooking destroys all the enzymes, which assist our digestion and generally support the health of our bodies. Cooking foods on high heat also kills and a large amount of their vitamins.

Atkins gives a nod to raw vegetables by including “small” salads with lunch and dinner. Other than that, the importance of eating raw foods seems to elude him. There is no discussion of the fact that the fat in roasted nuts is the kind that can lead to clogged arteries and heart attacks, while the fat in raw nuts is actually good for the body and conducive to weight loss.

He does not encourage the consumption of cheese made from raw milk over cheese made from pasteurized milk. He does not even touch on the fact that the traditional societies around the globe that consume a high-protein diet and stay thin and disease-free eat their animal products, including meat, raw.

7. The diet does not differentiate between factory farm meats and “clean” meats (such as grass fed beef, free-range chickens, etc.). Conventional meat comes from animals that are forced to live in small quarters under unnatural circumstances and eat unnatural food.

To keep them from getting sick due to the unnatural diet, they are injected with antiobiotics. They are also artificially given steroids to make them unnaturally larger and/or fatter.

Despite the antiobiotics, those poor animals die of cancer, infections, and other painful diseases.

And end up on your dinner plate.

Yes, the disease and drug toxins do get transferred into your body. No matter how well you cook the meat. But the “healthy” Atkins diet does not even begin to address that fact.

8. The Atkins diet is severely lacking in antioxidant-rich fruits. As a matter of fact, you can’t eat a fruit unless it’s a berry. Never mind the vast array of nutrients and cancer-preventing antioxidants you get when you include a variety of fruits, such as apples, peaches and melons in your diet.

Too much sugar—even natural sugar, like the fructose in fruits—can be detrimental to your health and impede needed weight loss. However, many people consume several servings of non-berry fruits per day and remain in excellent health.

9. The diet ignores the fact that individual bodies have different nutritional needs. Some people, like me, don’t do well with a lot of grains. Others don’t digest red meat well. Many Americans cannot tolerate pasteurized milk.

Whew! After reading all that, you might wonder if the Atkins Diet has any redeeming qualities. It does, but—in my opinion—not many.

Where the Atkins Diet triumphs

• Dr. Atkins does admit that each of us has a unique body, and that not every body will conform to the medical height/weight chart, no matter how hard the owner of the body tries.
• In the restricting of carbohydrates, Dr. Atkins does restrict most processed food, which is one of the leading causes of America’s skyrocketing disease rate.
• He insists that his readers get on an exercise program, because it is critical to health.
• The Atkins Diet does not leave you feeling deprived or hungry.

The Atkins Diet take-away

Cutting refined foods out of your diet does a lot for you in the way of health and healthy weight maintenance. But as for counting on his regimen as a healthy diet, one that will provide all your nutritional needs and help you lose weight, forget it.

“Laughter is the best medicine,” they say, and it is definitely one of the best ways for how to cure mood swings naturally. Norman Cousins, in his book Anatomy of an Illness, reported that watching the Marx brothers alleviated his pain. He also asserts that this daily dose of laughter was one of the reasons his body was able to heal from the rare, debilitating condition from which doctors were convinced he would never recover (Cousins did, by the way).

Flipping through the latest Parks and Rec course catalog from my city, I found a class entitled “Yoga Laughter,” or something to that effect. I’m guessing it teaches people to laugh deeply and often. There is a medical doctor in India who gathers people in his village every morning for the purpose of starting the day with a big dose of laughter.

Why? Does laughing really improve your health so much?

Read the following health benefits of laughter, and tell me whether or not you believe laughter is the best medicine – or, at least, an important one to engage in daily. Laughter:

• Lowers blood pressure;
• Increases blood flow and oxygen levels in the blood (one of the major factors in premature aging is a lack of oxygen in the body);
• Strengthens the abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles, as well as the diaphragm;
• Reduces stress hormones;
• Boosts the immune system response;
• Increases memory and learning; and
• Improves alertness and creativity.

You know those crunchers you feel guilty about not doing? (By the way, those really aren’t good for women anyway.) Having a few good belly laughs every day will strengthen your core in the same – probably better – way…without you having to do any work!

And yes, allowing children to laugh at school and adults to laugh at work does not decrease productivity, but actually increases it.

An almost non-existent level of stress is one of the major common factors among the longest-lived people in the world, and one of the best ways to keep stress at bay is to laugh early and often.

Next to a proper diet and exercise, laughter is the best medicine as far as the natural health world is concerned. So, stick in that comedy DVD and let the gales begin!

Is there such a thing as healthy fat? Or is it a sinful food you can legally splurge on during the holidays, and must resolve to give up come New Year’s?

The main problem with the fat in conventional Christmas treats is that it tends to be trans fats, that hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that is the real cause of high LDL cholesterol and clogged arteries. If you can find (or even better, bake yourself) treats made with butter (and organic so much the better) and stick to olive oil, coconut oil, and butter as your greases of choice when cooking holiday dishes, you can feel much less guilty about splurging.

There are three kinds of healthy fat to include in your diet:

1. saturated fats,
2. monounsaturated fats, and
3. polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids.

Health benefits of saturated fat

Yes, you read that right. Saturated fat is NOT the enemy. In fact, it is essential for optimum function of several body processes, including:

1. cell membrane health and integrity,
2. absorption of calcium,
3. protecting the liver from toxins, and
4. enhancing the immune system.

“But,” you may be thinking, “what about butter?” Butter, after all, has been one of the most blacklisted foods in recent years.

On the contrary, butter should be considered a health food. Here are just a few reasons why:

• Butter contains all the fat soluble vitamins, as well as some of the trace minerals.
• Adding butter to grains and vegetables helps the body to absorb the minerals in those foods.
• It contains arachidonic acid, which has nothing to do with spiders. Rather, it is vital for optimum brain function. (Know anybody on a low-fat diet whose brain is always in a fog? That’s why.)
• Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid, which has anti-cancer properties.

In other words, if you’re spreading your bread and topping your veggies with something that you can’t believe isn’t butter, throw it out and replace it with the real deal (preferably organic).

Another reason to embrace not just the saturated, but the other two healthy fats listed above, is that all fats help the body to assimilate the fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K. In fact, if you consume a low-fat diet you may be deficient in those vital nutrients.

Trying to lose weight? The shocking fact is, healthy fat loss requires – drum roll, please – regular consumption of healthy fat! Imagine, losing a couple pounds over the holiday season instead of experiencing the usual gain.

If you do a lot stir-frying and sautéing, monounsaturated fats should become your good buddies. Unlike the polyunsaturated fats, they remain stable when heated, and therefore are not toxic to your body. Olive, peanut, and avocado oil are three of the most popular cooking oils. Peanut oil, however, contains a high amount of the omega-6 fatty acids, so you should limit its use.

What about the omega-3s? What makes them so great? Three main reasons:

1. They promote the body’s production of certain chemicals that help reduce inflammation.
2. This reduction in inflammation in turn reduces your risk of developing unhealthy conditions such as arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and heart disease.
3. The omega-3s boost the immune system.

So, what’ll it be this coming year? A low-fat diet, or one peppered with a moderate amount of rich and satisfying healthy fat? Remember, if you want to lose some weight, the latter will help you with healthy fat loss.

Don’t miss today’s episode, as I explain the original intention of the Weird Is Great podcast, as well where the success-oriented podcast is going move.

Here I provide for you the best products in the area of healthy living. How do I know they’re the best? Because I use most of them myself!

APPLIANCES

Excalibur Food Dehydrator Since I believe in eating as much raw food as possible, I use a dehydrator to dry my soaked nuts and seeds. I can dehydrate them on a low temperature (which is not possible in an oven, even on the lowest setting), keeping all the enzymes intact. Believe me, there is no dehydrator like the Excalibur. I have heard many complaints about the cheaper ones found in department stores.

Vita-Mix 1700 I couldn’t live without my Vita-Mix! Okay, I could, but it would be very difficult to make smooth smoothies and green soups. Believe me, your regular run-of-the-mill $50 blender will NOT be able to pulverize greens and frozen fruits like a Vita-Mix. Plus it lasts a long time–I’ve had mine for over ten years.

Cuisinart Food Processor As far as I’m concerned, Cuisinart is the small appliance brand. Its food processor has a powerful blade that makes making nut butter, chopping vegetables, etc. a breeze.

Aquasana AQ-4100 Deluxe Shower Water Filter System with Adjustable Showerhead

Air Wise Air Purifier I wrote an article on this topic.

Countertop Reverse Osmosis System Tap water is poisonous! You need to drink filtered water. Although we don’t have this exact system, we have something similar.

NATURAL HEALTH REMEDIES AND SUPPLEMENTS

There is an essential oil for every health condition you can think of! Read here why Be Young is the only brand of essential oil you should buy.

Masaji contains almost every nutrient that the human body needs, is high in antioxidants, and also helpful in weight loss. Besides that, it tastes great!

Be Young Meal Replacements make for nutrition-packed, tasty quick meals.

Fermented cod liver oil is essential for anyone with chronic tooth decay and/or who doesn’t like eating fish. The fermented kind is not available in stores (as of this writing), but should be preferred over regular cod liver oil. This article explains why.

Garden of Life Coconut Oil In my opinion, the best-tasting coconut oil there is. Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is the second-best (and still very tasty), and since you can buy it in larger sizes, is less expensive than the Garden of Life brand.

Check out eatwild.com to find a farmer near you that provides grass-fed and pastured meats.

Likewise, realmilk.com is the place to find local farms that sell raw milk – assuming it is legal in your state.

Websites/podcasts with great info on organic gardening, nutrition and homesteading:

Growing Freedom  Travis Warner talks about how he is setting up a natural, self-sufficient garden and homestead, and tells you how you can do it as well.

The Survival Podcast Jack Spirco talks about how to be prepared for any lemon life may throw, from a power outage to a collapse of the economy. I like it especially b/c he talks a lot about gardening and permaculture.

AgriTrue Jack Spirco founded this as a non-governmental way for backyard gardeners and commercial farmers alike to disclose that they meet certain standards of excellence in food production.

The Dinner Garden These people are teaching low-income families to fish by providing training on how to garden, as well as free open-pollinated seeds to be able to feed themselves.

The World’s Healthiest Foods While I don’t agree with every part of George M.’s nutrition philosophy, I have to recommend this site because it has the basics of what you need to know regarding which foods are high in which nutrients, as well as the function of various nutrients and possible deficiency symptoms.

This hubpage about going green explains how modern technology helps us to live greener.

Gardening and green living

All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! by Mel Bartholomew makes gardening simple, fun and fruitful!

Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden by Sally Cunningham is not only beautifully illustrated, but full of tips and ideas on how to make your organic garden flourish.

Clean House, Clean Planet: Clean Your House For Pennies A Day, The Safe, Nontoxic Way by Karen Logan contains recipes for chemical-free homemade household cleaners are simple to put make and effective.

Fitness and nutrition

Fitness After 40: How to Stay Strong at Any Age by Vonda Wright, M.D. This book is great for anyone of any age needing specific information about fitness routines and strength exercises.

The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss by Natalia Rose is a great primer for anyone wishing to incorporate more raw foods into their diet. Although I disagree with her theory about what kind of person should be consuming a 100% raw food diet – and the hows and times said diet should be consumed – her philosophy of eating is much more inclusive than most raw food experts. The book also contains an array of delicious recipes.

Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Wayby Carol Alt saved me. This book taught me that you can be an omnivore and still eat an 100% raw food diet.

Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples by John Robbins is a must-read for anyone who cares about living healthy and long. The one thing that annoys me about his theory of eating is that he ignores the fact that peoples who consume saturated fat in its raw form are as heart-healthy as anybody. But everything else is so marvelously laid out in a factual, well-written way that this one glitch in his thinking detracts nothing from the book as a whole.

Never Be Sick Again: Health is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It by Raymond Francis fills in the few blanks that John Robbins leaves in his book.

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon is a health-conscious person’s delight. Personally, I believe she doesn’t emphasize the importance of raw foods enough, and that her emphasis on meat is too strong. But she does pack a lot of information that most diet and nutrition books miss, such as the need for saturated fat int he diet, the correct way to prepare grains, and the benefits of eating lacto-fermented food.

Natural health

Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective? by Neil Miller answers the question in an objective manner filled with undeniable scientific facts.

Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., is a humorous but eye-opening perspective on the dangers of Western medicine.

Natural parenting

How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor, also by Dr. Mendelsohn, is worth a read to any parents who have a healthy skepticism of modern-day medicine.

Natural Baby and Childcare: Practical Medical Advice and Holistic Wisdom for Raising Healthy Children by Lauren Feder, M.D., teaches everything from breastfeeding basics to under what circumstances you should have your child seen by a pediatrician. Although I wish she would give essential oils as fair a shot as she does homeopathy – in my experience unadulterated oils are more effective – I can only commend a Western-medicine trained pediatrician who doesn’t vaccinate her own children.

Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves tells the story of one family’s journey into relaxed homeschooling.

Biblical Parenting by Crystal Lutton provides a unique perspective on what the Bible teaches about disciplining children.

If you’re visiting this page, I assume that you have compassion for those in need and are looking for a way to express that compassion. I would, in that case, like to present to you a wonderful opportunity to give into the lives of others.

My pastor, who regularly travels to Africa on mission trips,  runs a non-profit organization called “Africa WEEPS.” The acronym stands for “Widows Entering Entrepreneurial Partnerships.” For fifty US dollars, a widow in Africa can start her own business such as raising goats for milk or chickens for eggs, or making jewelry. A mere fifty dollars can lift a widow and her children out of dire poverty and provide a decent living.

There are two ways to give to this great ministry: the first is to make a donation directly to Africa WEEPS. My pastor uses every single dollar to help the widows; none of it goes to any kind of overhead or personal profit.

The second way is to make a purchase from Be Young Essential Oils. If you already purchase whey protein shakes, antioxidant supplements and/or essential oils, why not try Be Young? First of all, I give 70% of all retail commission I make from the company to Africa WEEPS. Second, no other company comes close to Be Young in the purity of its products; you can read more about the integrity of the company’s owner and founder on this blog.

Whichever way you choose to give, I thank you for taking the time to visit this page, and pray that you would receive a hundredfold return for blessing the widows and orphans of Africa.