But are these drugs really beneficial? Not so much for women, researchers say.

Research shows that women do not get the same protective benefits from statins that men do. They are also more likely to experience serious side effects than men, including severe muscle pain, diabetes and memory loss.

So why are so many women taking these drugs? Because they’re afraid of dying of heart disease.

Yet high cholesterol is not a blueprint for heart disease. It’s one possible risk factor. What’s more, in most cases, cholesterol can be reduced with a combination of diet, exercise and fish oil. These same factors strengthen and tone the heart, improve circulation and reduce inflammation.

And learning to de-stress regularly with Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Meditation or deep relaxation removes the real major cause of heart disease and emotional stress.

Here are a few more tips to help keep your tummy quiet and happy. Try just a little to begin with to make sure that you do not react to the natural essential oils found in these plant foods.

Rosemary is especially good at helping the body digest lamb and lamb fat. This herb has strong essential oils, so don’t eat it raw. Instead, cook it with the lamb. It adds wonderful flavour and aroma!

Mint is a a good digestive cleanser. I eat it raw and in my smoothies. It’s also good as an after-dinner cup of mint tea, and to help releive indigestion.

Cardamon is a spice that increases the flow of salivary enzymes which improves digestion. A seed or two in hot water makes a flavourful tea to drink before a meal! In the Middle East, they add a seed of cardamon to their gut wrenchingly strong coffee. In India, it’s often used to flavour warm milk and milky desserts, making them more digestible.

A new study confirms that a vegetarian and gluten-free diet (no animal products, wheat, rye, or barley) significantly improves rheumatoid arthritis. After 12 months, patients on a vegan diet experienced substantially decreased symptoms. The study from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden was published in Arthritis Research and Therapy.

Other studies show that vegan or vegetarian diets also result in easy weight loss, lowered blood pressure and decreased cardiovascular disease.

You don’t have to go vegan or completely vegetarian to reap benefits. Just eating fewer animal products can benefit many health problems and improve wellbeing. Excellent non-animal sources of protein are plant greens, nuts, and legumes.

It is very tempting when confronted with basketfuls of colourful chocolate and candy eggs and other sweets to eat more than is good for you. That’s part of the fun, isn’t it? Just keep in mind that the sugar, chemicals and trans fats found in most Easter sweets are very hard on the system. They can disrupt normal body processes, make your body more toxic, affect your moods and brain function, and increase allergies in many people.

Easter is a time for family traditions. Whether your tradition includes breaking a fast with an after- midnight feast or a family gathering at the beach, why not make it healthier? Go for quality over quantity.

Choose dark (if possible), good quality chocolate. Bake your own hot-cross buns with whole meal or organic flour, perhaps a combination of wheat and quinoa or rice flour. Try out a cake recipe using polenta, almond meal or egg whites instead of wheat. Enjoy your sweets in moderation.

Make sure your children eat a good breakfast and lunch so that they’re satisfied with fewer chocolate eggs after their egg hunt, and want less sweets. Provide more of the healthy stuff: large salads, seafood, grilled chicken, fresh, raw or lightly steamed veggies with hummos or avocado dip.

Plan more activities: a family walk at the beach; a hike in nature, egg-in-spoon or sack races. Feed your soul a little more, your sweet tooth a little less. And enjoy your blessings.

But there’s lots of research to show that we actually need to sleep more. Professor Stanley Coren from the University of British Columbia in Canada, author of ‘The Sleep Thieves’, says that the standard 7-8 hours sleep a night leaves us chronically sleep-deprived. It’s affecting our mental skills, our motor skills, our emotional wellbeing and our health.

Also, he says, it affects road safety. Canadian traffic statistics show that with the loss of just one hour’s sleep each night after the switch to daylight savings time, there is a 7% jump in traffic accidents. When daylight savings ends in Autumn, there’s a 7% decrease in traffic accidents.

When you sleep is just as important as how long you sleep. When we sleep later, we disrupt our biorhythms which regulate our body’s ability to heal, repair and rejuvenate. If you chronically sleep late, you create hormonal imbalances that affect your health, energy levels, mental performance…and your beauty.

If you want to feel and look your best and get more out of life, go to bed early and get at least eight hours of sleep every single night…even 9 or 10 hours if you need them. The earlier before midnight you go to bed, the more your body will be recharged. This is the best thing you can do to stay young and healthy, and be at your mental best.

Why the deficiencies? Well, with all the concerns about skin cancer, more people are avoiding sunlight, the major natural source of Vitamin D or using sunscreens that block the body’s access to vitamin. Yet if you are fair skinned, you only need 5 to 10 minutes of direct sunlight on as much skin as possible to give you all the vitamin D you need, and about 10-20 minutes for dark-skinned people. In winter, when the sunlight is weaker, you can safely sunbathe for a little longer without risk of skin cancer.

Also, we tend to eat less of the foods that are rich sources of this vitamin, like sardines, mackeral or salmon and organ meats. In my mother’s day, children were often given a daily dose of cod liver oil, an excellent source of vitamin D, and another source, butter, came from healthy pasture-fed cows, not cows stuffed with grains in feed lots.

Most people know that vitamin D is good for our bones, butr did you know that it’s also necessary for healthy immune function, strong muscles and the health of your heart? Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to muscle weakness and pain, increased risk of hypertension and congestive heart failure, and autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition also showed a correlation between low levels of vitamin D and weak, senstive airways, and children whose mothers had low levels of vitamin D during pregnancy are at higher risk of developing asthma.

How much vitamin D do you need to get its protective benefits? Lots more than the recommended daily allowance. Your practitioner can help you determine just how much you need, and whether or not you might need supplements. To talk to a natural health practitioner with a sound understanding of nutrition, email the Renew You Centre for Wellbeing and Longevity at info@rycentre.com

More information can be found in its website: http://renewyoujourney.com.au

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fry1_eKln98

What most people (those who’ve even heard of shingles) don’t realise that it is caused by inflammation of the nerves that are just beneath the skin surface. Imagine the worst case of pins and needles you’ve ever had. That’s how inflamed nerves can feel, except you can’t stop the pain by moving.

Shingles can arise in a person whose immune system has been weakened due to severe or prolonged illness, immune suppressing medications of extreme stress. It must be treated.

Natural treatments include:
• Cold compresses on the affected skin.
• Lysine cream or hypericum oil applied to the skin (find them in health food stores)
• Vitamin E oil squeezed directly from vit E capsules on the skin
• Calamine lotion applied directly to the lesions
• Vitamin C (2-3 gm taken in 1 gm doses)
• Vitamin E (600 I.U. daily)
• Lysine (500-1000 gm three times daily)
• Vitamin B12 injections have been known to relieve lingering pain after treatment.

A study reported in the Journal of the Americal Medical Association (JAMA 253:1) showed that 85% of patients receiving intramuscular injections of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) were free of pain within three weeks.

“No recurrence of pain or lesions was experienced from three to 18 months after the end of treatment. Adenosine monophosphate, a natural cellular metabolite, showed no side effects or toxicity during and after the treatment.”

I post this material for information purposes only. Consult your doctor before taking supplements or seeking treatment with AMP, especially if you are on medications or have other health issues.

Mouthwashes can cause oral cancer, a particularly nasty and difficult cancer to treat. The main cause is the high alcohol content in many mouthwashes. Some popular brands contain more alcohol than wine or beer!

In 2008, Australian researchers reported, “There is now sufficient evidence to accept the proposition that alcohol-containing mouthwashes contribute to the increased risk of development of oral cancer”. For smokers, the risk of developing cancer of the mouth is even higher.

Apparently, as you swish many well-known mouthwashes around your mouth, the alcohol forms a chemical called acetaldehyde, a toxin that is also known to be carcinogenic and to be toxic to your organs and nervous system. It’s also one of the chemicals in alcohol that toxify your liver and kidneys and cause hangovers. Acetaldehyde has been ranked as one of the most hazardous chemicals to human health.

So if you’re concerned about dental health or bad breath, don’t reach for a popular brand mouthwash. Dissolve sea salt or baking soda in warm water and rinse.

For bad breath, chew on a mint or parsley leaf. Better yet, recognise bad breath for the symptom that it is, and get professional help to identify and eliminate the underlying cause.

Research shows that stress even alters the DNA in our cells, causing them to age much faster and shortening our lifespan. But when we are calm and positive, explains research scientist Bruce Lipton, a pioneer in the new, holistic approach to biology, “we send totally different messages to our cells and reprogram their expression”.

But how do we find calm in this high stress world? Well, aside from nurturing our bodies with whole foods, pure water, exercise, rest, a clean environment and good health care, we can tap into our deep inner place of calm.

Here is a simple method that I use to calm myself in times of stress and centre myself in the present. It might take you a few practices to get the hang of it, but when you do, it works.

- Sit with your back straight (on the floor or a chair, as you prefer)

- Touch the tip of your tongue to the palate just behind your teeth. (This connects different areas of your energy body). Gently hold your tongue in that position throughout the exercise.

- Exhale completely through your mouth. You should hear yourself exhaling.

- Hold and count to 7 before inhaling.

- Inhale slowly through your nose to the count of 7 (Your abdomen should expand naturally)

- Hold the breath for the count of 7 (not to the point of discomfort)

- Repeat this breath cycle 3 times.

Use this breath whenever you find your self becoming upset or anxious, and want to develop a more positive attitude.