Top Four Health Mistakes Teens Make

You probably don't always think about your health, or the effects certain factors can have on your body. You tend to roll through life, taking care of day-to-day issues, and enjoy as much of life as you can. But if you're not careful, you can end up facing consequences to your health that could have been avoided. To prevent this, avoid these top four health mistakes teens make.

1. Most teens stay up late studying or hanging out with friends and don't get enough sleep. By not having a regular sleep pattern, you could be doing your body damage. You may think you're sleeping enough, but your body may not be getting the amount of rest it really needs. Teens need eight to ten hours of sleep a night to function best.

2. When you munch on a lot of junk food while studying, hanging out with friends, watching TV, and at the movies, you're causing serious damage to your health. Eating too much junk food can cause serious weight issues, heart disease, diabetes, and other major medical issues. To avoid them, eat some healthy munchies throughout the day, instead of just chips and sweets. Try carrot sticks, crackers, pretzels, cheese, and nuts. You can still munch, but munch healthier foods.

3. A lot of teens tend to skip breakfast, especially if they're running late in the mornings. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" is not just a slogan. It prepares your body to face the day ahead, allows you to think clearly, and keeps you awake. If you don't have time or the appetite for a big breakfast, try a small bowl of cereal, breakfast drink, granola bar, or muffin. You can take most of these with you and eat them on the way to school.

4. You may be enrolled in a gym class, but that doesn't mean you're getting enough exercise. If you tend to sit around playing games during your time off, you're not doing your body any favors. Get up and go for a walk or bike ride. Go out for one of your school's sports teams. If you are a big gamer, try games that get you moving around, not just sitting on the couch with a remote in your hand.

These top four health mistakes teens make could and should be avoided. To make sure you're taking proper care of yourself, take a look at how you live, and make the necessary changes. You'll feel better, and be glad you did.

For more tips and trends for young adults, sign up for my newsletter at http://www.andreabuginskyauthor.blogspot.com.

How Can Olive Oil Benefit a Human Body?

Olives are commercially grown to extract oil out of it. The fruit is used for consumption as well but mostly found in the form of oil. This oil is used as an ingredient in several medicines and cosmetics. It is effective in the body after consumption as well as after application on the outer body. The various benefits of it may be listed as follows -

• Curbs cardiovascular problems - The daily consumption of olive oil with food leads to the reduction of common problems people face like hypertension, high cholesterol levels, etc. The goodness of the oil starts to show an effect from the first day of consumption. Research indicates that people who consume the oil in their food has lesser cardiovascular issues to face and seldom visit the doctor.

• Reduction of strokes for the elderly - After certain age, people tend to have a lower metabolism and strength to endure stress. They tend to experience frequent strokes that may turn fatal after a certain time. The inclusion of olive oil in salads, dressing, cold meals, etc. has proven to keep the body fit and fine with lesser stroke rates.

• Less Depression - The consumption of processed food containing trans-fats are known to affect the brain and its functions. It leads to lesser hormone production leading to depression. As the oil contains polyunsaturated fats, it has a good impact on the body and helps to keep the brain healthy.

• Reduced chances of cancer - This oil has been proven to destroy cancer-causing elements in one's body by stimulating the eradication of tumor cells, prevents the damage of DNA, etc. daily consumption of extra virgin olive oil helps reduce the chances of cancer and keeps the body healthy.

• Healthy option for women - The oil lets the woman's body be strong. It fights osteoporosis, breast cancer, skin cancer, ovarian cancer, etc. and thus making a woman's body strong to endure the possibilities of fatal health problems.

• Cosmetic uses - As the oil is rich in Vitamin, minerals and antioxidants, it is known to have healing properties to the skin which enhance the elasticity, reduces wrinkles, removal of fine lines, and prevents the skin from ageing. It lets the skin stays supple without letting it loses its moisture. The oil is also used for body massage for adults as well as babies. While using it for babies, it aids in strengthening the bones and helps to develop their muscles.

The author Cathy Smith had conducted personal research on the production of the fruit and its benefits. She intends to let people know about olive pruning as well as about olive oil processing machines and other facets of its processing.

Ovulation Tests Might Help You Get Pregnant

If you decide to get pregnant then you probably want it to happen right away. As a woman with PCOS syndrome and irregular menstrual cycles I know that getting pregnant is not automatic and it might be long and nerve-racking process. Remember - infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after regular, unprotected intercourse after 1 year.

Most couples are trying to make a baby on a wrong days of woman's cycle. There is only a very small time each month when you can actually conceive. So, correctly gauging your menstrual cycle is extremely helpful in increasing your chances of becoming pregnant. The most used way to find out your fertile days is to use home ovulation tests.

your two most fertile days are the day of ovulation and the day before. As your partner's sperm can survive for several days, you can also get pregnant by having sex before ovulation.

Many women think that ovulation takes place around 14th day, but this is not always the case. It depends on your cycle length, because not all women have 28-day cycle. The key to timing intercourse is to know the length of your cycle so you can more accurately estimate your ovulation. This "fertility window" can be very unpredictable even if a woman's menstrual cycle is usually regular. Some women ovulate like clock work on the same day of their cycle every month, others ovulate on varying days each month.

First thing you can do to determine your ovulation is to use ovulation tests. Charting ovulation is unfortunately the least precise way to test ovulation. Ovulation predictor kits are easy to use and without doctors prescription.

Getting pregnant is a very intimate process and if you don't feel comfortable buying ovulation tests on your local store you can also consider buying them online.

Besides ovulation test kits are available on the markets fertility monitors, ovulation microscopes and basal thermometers. Fertility monitor is wise if your menstrual cycle is irregular, because you can use it over and over again.

Ovulation test kits work by picking up the luteinizing hormone (LH) from your urine. It is always present in your body and increases 24-48 hours before ovulation.

To use ovulation tests is as simple as using a pregnancy test. you need to hold the test stick in your urine stream and you see the result in a window on the test stick. Simply follow directions on the package.

you can have accurate results in few minutes. Unlike different charts, ovulation tests anticipate ovulation - not just confirm that it has taken place.

If you want to do something more to get pregnant sooner than ovulation tests can be a solution for you. They are also good if your partner is often away and you need to plan your intercourse. Don't worry, have plenty of sleep and hopefully your dreams come true.

Visit [http://ovulationtestsonline.com] if You want to read more about ovulation testing and want to buy everything You need for getting pregnant sooner.

Using Ovulation Tests When Trying To Conceive?

Ovulation tests may help a woman who is attempting to get pregnant to determine their most fertile period. Ovulation tests are available in various forms. The most common tests are slightly similar to pregnancy tests and are meant to work by detecting the presence of LH, Luteinizing Hormone which is present always in the urine and tend to increase 24-48 hours before ovulation. The surge of the LH triggers the release of the egg from the ovaries, a process known as ovulation.

Some women find ovulation tests useful when they are doing natural family planning while other women utilize them as a way of increasing their chances of becoming pregnant during the most fertile period of the month.

Luteinizing Hormone starts to be released in a woman's body right before ovulation takes place, and usually its presence can be detected in the urine. With either test strips or mid-stream testing, inserted into the collected urine, a woman can be able to get a negative or positive outcome on the ovulation test, suggesting that she is about to ovulate.

Because a woman can only be pregnant when a sperm fuses with the released egg, ovulation tests provide a good indication of when couples can try for pregnancy. The highest chance of becoming pregnant always occurs when sexual intercourse takes place within 6-24 hours following a positive test result. However, the test may not be able to show whether ovulation causes the release of an egg or the egg is viable. A disadvantage of this method is figuring out when you can test for ovulation in your cycle.

Although many women usually ovulate halfway through their cycles, for unpredictable tests starting to count from day one of their last period may mean having to use various tests. The cost of a mid-stream test is slightly lower than $2.00 and strips can cost much lower. A good way of buying them is to order in bulk as it might take some time for one to work out the best time to test, particularly for those women who do not have a regular cycle.

Other types of ovulation tests include fertility monitors which are also used to detect Luteinizing Hormone through the use of urine test strips, although in addition they do evaluate other hormones such as estrogen. For a couple who may be having a difficult time to conceive, fertility monitors are the best to use, although they are pricey. The monitor may cost around $200, while test strips can cost slightly over $10 per month. Women test daily with this type of monitor, and know that they are approaching ovulation when they get "high" readings in a number of days.

Ovulation tests that examine potential ovulation in various ways consist of saliva testing. As a woman approaches ovulation, the saliva collected when examined through special lens reveals a fern like pattern. With this method, a woman uses a small microscope for analyzing saliva samples to detect these fern like patterns. The cost is almost similar to test strips, especially if one plans to check ovulation for several months. There may be human error when reading these patterns making some women very comfortable in using ovulation tests such as fertility monitor or urine strips.

Read about ovulation testing [http://www.ovulationtestsonline.com/ovulation-testing/] and everything You need to know about how to get pregnant sooner.

Breaking Free of the Money Trap

Responsibility & Fantasy Land

Getting our money aligned with our values is possibly one of the most powerful actions of sufficiency we have available. Declaring money as an extension of our life force, a form of communication and energy flow, we can direct this flow towards that which continually generates healing, love and wholeness for ourselves and communities beyond ourselves. When we look at our relationship to money we can clearly see our more is better story and we get to confront what it would really mean to take a recess from excess. Given the power money has in our world both personally and collectively, let us use it to explore how we can dive deeply into exquisite sufficiency.

Most of us are in a suspended state of waiting until we feel like we have enough before we "give back." We may also allocate other resources we have to offer such as time, expertise and material items in lieu of a financial contribution. No matter our income level, living in exquisite sufficiency calls us to be in the flow of currency, of resources. The systems and structures (corporations and projects) we feed with our energy - money, time, and resources - directly corresponds to the world we are aspiring to create.

We have discerned three steps to breaking free of the trappings we might have about money itself, since the money conversation is often so loaded we thought this would be a great place to begin.

Step 1: Tell the Truth

To break free of the money trap we begin by ceasing to define ourselves, and others, by the amount in our, or their, bank accounts. We stop keeping secrets about our financial situation. We tell the truth about it, shine some light into the darkness. Here are some places to look:

• How much we earn

• How much we owe in taxes

• How much debt we carry

• If we missed a major payment for the car loan, rent or mortgage

• How close to the edge we really are

• How easy we have it because of hard work, a relative's gift or just plain old luck

• How much wealth we have in trust

What secret about money are you willing to admit to yourself, and to one other person?

Are you willing to stop letting the amount of money you have or don't have define you?

Step 2: Find Flow

We then understand when we are being responsible and when we are in Fantasy Land while keeping ourselves grounded in sufficiency. While responsibility can seem boring to some of us, Fantasy Land is exciting - there is drama and the stimulation of buying things that we haven't allocated the money for. When we use credit cards with no thought of the next bill, when we buy the next thing and the next thing and we have not opened, read or completed the last thing. The opposite extreme is also true, if we are stingy with our money, uncertain of what we have, we may hoard to protect ourselves. Either way, the symptoms of Fantasy Land are the same: we lose focus, don't know what is in the bank, how much we have spent, what we owe or what is owed to us. When we are deep in Fantasy Land, we may feel trapped and breathless by money.

We also know we are in scarcity when we don't believe we have enough, when we define ourselves by what we have in the bank. When we feel failure, fear, resentment, doubt, impatience, vulnerability, shame or when we are hoarding or comparing our money to someone or something else are some indicators that scarcity is present in our lives. We know we are in sufficiency when we feel fulfillment, flow, gratitude, ease and appreciation about money. We feel sufficient when we honor and trust ourselves and allow for anything to happen.

Often we are more familiar with the experience of scarcity - not enough and the landscape of Fantasy Land. What would it look like, feel like, taste like, to live inside of responsibility? How do we know we've had enough? This is one of the gifts of exquisite sufficiency: that we allow ourselves to live by present moment inquiry while honoring our commitments, which is a much less boring version of responsibility!

What is enough money for you?

Step 3: Align Resources

The final step is to reallocate the flow of our money toward the people, causes and organizations that speak to us, that honor what we think is important. This will allow us to be stewards of the planet in our own way.

For some of us, reallocating our money may be an internal focusing on debt reduction or being responsible about paying off a loan from a relative, buying long term care insurance or saving for a child's future education. Or, reallocation could look like an investment in ourselves or to develop and expand our business to the next level. Whatever you declare, do it. This is you aligning yourself, your thinking and your actions, with you values and what you care deeply about.

What do you care about? And, where does your money go?

Reflection & Inquiry: Resource Allocation

Use your journal to reflect on the following:

• Step 1: What stories and assumptions do you have about your financial situations? About others? What do you notice about how those stories influence you, your relationships, your sense of possibility in the world?

• Step 2: Where are you in Fantasy Land about your money situation? Where are you willing to open up to "being responsible"? What does responsibility mean to you?

• Step 3: Where are your resources going here and now? Quickly scan your bank account statement, your credit card bill and you calendar. What individuals, companies and organizations are getting your energy flow? What declarations will you make about reallocating your money and time?

Seven Stones Leadership http://www.sevenstonesleadership.com

Money Is More Important Than Love

Love is said to be the most beautiful feeling on Earth. The people who experience this feelings are said to be the luckiest people on Earth. People often say that they can live their life happily if it is filled with love and that they can live without money. But when we go deeper in this statement it proves to be false. It is true that money cannot buy love and happiness, but money certainly can buy things through which an individual can express his or her love and also buy essential stuff which would make them happy. It is better to be comfortably unhappy than being uncomfortably unhappy.

'Love makes the world go around but money buys the riches.'

Love is essential in each and every individual's life but money is also extremely essential to live a luxurious life because we are humans not animals. It is money which improves our condition or else what is the difference between a human being and an animal. Human beings stay in cozy homes, eat whatever they want, do whatever they feel, travel the world, just with the power of money. Ask anyone how many famous lovers they can compared to naming famous millionaires. If only love would have been sufficient for an individual to be happy all the poor people today would be content and happy. It is wrong to think that love is all we need, money too is equally important. It is only in fairy-tales that love alone can make people happy. We live in a practical world where falling in love is easy but maintaining that love with empty pockets is impossible. Life without sufficient amount of money is extremely depressing and frustrating. If an individual cannot fulfill his or her daily needs, it would be impossible to think about anything other than money, leave alone love.

Money answered all things, but is the root of all evil according to the Holy Bible.

In this 21st Century World, money is so important that today in most of the households, almost every adult member earns their own living. It's raising standards today because people who have more money are considered to be more important by everyone. This is a better truth and also hard to digest but turn your eyes a bit and you will understand the significance of this truth. Moreover, can you contribute for the development of the society and even your own family if you do not possess sufficient money, you cannot. It is therefore essential to use your mind instead of your heart when you try to understand the importance of money.

More Solar Energy Now That Obama Has Been Elected

Now that Barack Obama has been elected, solar energy will be increasingly looked to as a key source of energy. The use of energy from the sun has its pros and cons, but the solar industry is growing by leaps and bounds every year. The success of solar will depend on our ability to overcome the barriers that exist.

The sun has been producing solar energy for many billions of years. This energy comes from the rays of sunlight that reach the earth every day. Without the sun's rays, life on earth would not be possible. We only need to look to the planets in our solar system that are further from the sun than earth is, to see brutally cold environments that are inhospitable to life.

The problems encountered with using solar are not mainly due to the production of energy, but are due to the ability or inability to harness this energy for our use. One obvious problem is that the sun does not shine twenty four hours a day at a given location on earth. So there are periods of the day when your home receives an abundance of solar radiation and other times when none is received.

Solar power is harnessed for conversion to electrical power by the use of solar panels. Solar panels are still expensive for most consumers. The recovery of the price of a solar panel purchase through utility bill savings will take a long while. Many consumers are not ready to make such an expensive upfront investment in solar panels.

We are waiting for research and development efforts by companies to produce efficient, reliable solar panels that can be mass produced at a much lower cost. For those of us who want energy savings now, what we need is inexpensive, do it yourself solar energy. We need safe, easy step by step instructions that can be followed and implemented by most people.

Are you ready to make a difference now?

Pick up your step by step guide to producing your own renewable energy at http://www.earthmyenergy.info now, while it is still available.

Eye-Care - Herbal remedies for Eyes

Most people tend to neglect simple eye-care,taking a gift of vision as something that will always stay with them.In order to preserve normal eyesight a body must receive all the necessary nutrients. So it is important to pay attention to what we eat. However, except foods, necessary for eye care, there are also some herbs and easy exercises that are beneficial to the eyesight and can fight eye diseases.

Carrot juice is a perfect provider of nourishment for healthy eyes, as it is a richest source of vitamin A. This juice can be taken in any amount and at any time. Twice a year use carrot juice as a treatment-drink 1 glass of it every morning during 1 month.

Parsley juice is very effective at many eye diseases. Cataract and conjunctivitis are among them. It is one of the strongest juices; therefore it is not advisable to drink more than 30-40 ml a day. Use mix of parsley and carrots juices.

Beet juice provides a good eye-care by cleansing the eyes, blood and the whole body. Add 2 tbsp of beet juice to the mix of carrot and parsley juices.

40 g of crushed calamus (sweet flag) roots put in 200 g of 40 % alcohol or vodka, cover with tight lid and let stand in dark place for 8 days, squeeze out and filter. Take 20 drops 2 times a day before meal.

2 tsp of sweet flag roots put in 1 cup of boiling water and steep, covered, for 2 hours. Filter and take ¼ cup 3 times a day 30 min before meal.

1 part of crushed barberry leaves combine with 5 parts of 40% alcohol or vodka, let stay for 5 days and filter. Take 30-40 drops 3 times a day before meal.

10 g of dried crushed schizandra berries put in 1 cup of boiling water and boil for 15 min at low heat, filter and add boiled water to make full cup again. Take 1 tbsp twice a day. (Both times before lunch.). Schizandra is not recommended at insomnia, hypertension and heart and vascular diseases.

1 cup of wheat kernels mix with 1 tbsp of sugar and warm boiled water, just enough to moisten the wheat. Let stand in dark place for 12 hours. After that keep the wheat in fridge. Take 1 tbsp in the morning on empty stomach. When this portion is done take a break for 10 days and repeat. For the full course of eye-care treatment you will need 3 cups of wheat kernels. It is a powerfull eye care remedy.

This remedy is believed to be able to treat myopia at any stage. Place layers of elder berries and sugar in glass jar and let stand for 3 days outside in the sun. Take 1tsp 3 times a day 15 min before meal for 1-2 months. Repeat 1-2 times a year if needed.

Take 1 tbsp of fresh onion juice, mixed with equal amount of honey, 2-3 times a day.

Combine mash of rue grass (10 parts), mash of parsley (1 part) and honey (1 part). Take 1 tsp 3 times a day 30-40 min before meal.

Every day wash red, tired and scratchy eyes with strong tea.

Puffy eyes:

Peel and grate small raw potato, squeeze out excess juice and cover 2 pieces of cheese cloth with the mash. Place them on eyelids for 10-15 min.

Cut raw potato and place pieces over each eye. Keep on for 15 min.

Dissolve 1 tsp of salt in 1 cup of hot water, soak cotton balls and place them over the puffy areas.

A mix of 1 tbsp of parsley, 1 tbsp of fennel and 1 tbsp of mint put in 1 cup of boiling water. Let stand for 10-15 min. Wet cotton swabs and place on eyelids for 10 min.

In 1 cup of boiling water put 15 g of crushed motherwort herb and steep for 40 min. Filter and take 1 tbsp 3 times a day before meal. Also can be used as compresses for eye-care.

Fill a bowl with very cold water. Lower a face into the water for 25 seconds. Pick it up and wait for 30 sec, then again lover upper part of the face (eyes and forehead) into the water and open eyes for a few seconds. Repeat few times.

Add 5 tsp of dried eyebright grass to 1 L of boiling water and steep for 20-25 min. Filter and drink 1/2 cup 3 times a day. Also use as eye drops and compresses for eye inflammation. The remedy believes to improve vision as an eyebright herb considered to be the best for eye-care.

Mix together bilberry berries and bird cherry. 2 tbsp of mix put in 1 cup of boiling water. Steep for awhile and drink 1/3 cup 3 times a day.

Home Theater Decorating Tips

A home theater needs to be functional before it's anything else. Those who have put in the expense to build a "theater" in their home need to be sure the sound and visual and placement of seating is just right before they'll delve into decorating, but when that time comes, there are some tips to add to the room aesthetically without taking away any of the functionality.

A room of this sort is bound to have floor speakers, and speakers that surround your peripherals and centrally located speakers for both the front and back of the sitting area. In some of the newer homes or the more expensive remodels, some, if not all, of these speakers may be placed in the walls of the home. Yet usually the floor speakers will remain out and near the television. The tops of which may be a prime opportunity for knickknacks when decorating. There may be shelving on the walls in this room for speakers or for remote controls. Those shelves are also a great place for decorative touches.

A typical theater room is designed something like this: The television is centrally located either mounted on the wall or standing just in front of it. There are floor speakers on either side of the television and another smaller speaker centrally located above the TV. There will be more speakers either mounted or on stands placed on either side of the seating area and one more speaker centrally located behind the seating area. Finally, there will be a special speaker called a subwoofer placed somewhere to the side of the seating area. The seating area is located around what some refer to as the "sweet spot" because during the action scenes in intense movies when the music swells, the vibrations of that sound are felt in the seating area. All of this is necessary for the functionality of the theater room. What's left is what you have to decorate.

In order to keep the functionality of a theater room, you must realize that the room needs to be dark. This is no room for growing plants or bright colors painted on the wall. Rich earthy tones will work here. Along with this, keep knickknacks to a minimum. This room is for viewing the television, not your china collection. Do not place fragile things in this room. There will be much vibration in this room and that may cause a fragile item to fall from its perch and break. Keep your decor simple here. Use rugs to add color to the room and hang pictures to add depth to the walls. Do not clutter up this room with much more than this.

Before anything else, a home theater needs to be functional. If you'll also entertain in this room, keep your decor to a minimum and use unbreakable items. Add color through the means discussed above and be okay with a sparsely decorated room. It will provide much enjoyment and sometimes simple really is best.

Article written by Lee Dobbins.

My dream home theater system

Nothing beats having a killer home theater system. Big screen TV with high-definition, surround sound where I can plug in my iPod Nano, the latest DVD technology, video on demand, an Xbox 360, a hookup for my digital camcorder - the list goes on and on. Man, I'd love to have an awesome home theater inside my house. I'd never go outside if I did! And there's just some much stuff to choose from when it comes to building your own home theater. Seating, systems, design, brand names, video games; I could easily spend thousands of dollars creating my dream home theater system. Of course, I don't have thousands of dollars to spend, but I can still dream about it!

My perfect home theater system would be completely wireless. No cables or cords whatsoever. And it isn't as far fetched as it sounds. More and more home theater systems are being built and designed to be wireless. That doesn't just include the home theater itself. That includes other aspects of the home theater like video games, PVRs, DVD players, video cameras and more. Pretty soon, the home theater cable connection won't even have a cable to connect! Now how awesome is that?

I'd have a big screen HDTV with crystal clear surround sound that would blow my mind. And when I got my home theater installed, up and running, I would plop myself on the couch with a seven-pound bag of popcorn and watch anything and everything that I can. Hey, that's the point of having a great home theater sound system, to watch stuff! The images would be clear, the sound immaculate and it would all work with only one remote control. Now that's a great home theater!

Of course, I would have an Xbox 360 or Playstation hooked up to this bad-boy. High-definition games played on a massive, high-def screen? I'd have every video game humanly possible and would completely immerse myself playing them!

A home theater allows you to experience TV rather than just sit and watch it. Imagine watching a hockey game where a hard body check on the boards rattles your bones too. Or watching war movie thinking you're going to be shot at. Or watching your home-movies on such a screen that it makes you feel like you're at the event all over again! Or playing the hottest and coolest Xbox or Playstation games! With your own home theater, seating is always at a premium and it's an experience like no other. And when you want to listen to music, just hook up your stereo system to your home theater. Imagine listening to Dark Side of the Moon on high-definition, high fidelity surround sound speakers? Any music fan will tell you that it would be the ultimate audio experience, and a home theater allows you to enjoy just that!

In the early 1990s, people decided to cocoon, or stay home rather than go out. Not so far after, home theaters got more and more complicated and detailed. Home theaters used to be exclusively for the super-rich, and their home theaters are actually movie theaters right at home, with home theater seating and everything. But with some careful saving and research, anyone can have a great home theater to fit their budget, lifestyle and space. As for me, one day I'll have an awesome home theater of my own, with a huge TV, amazing sound - all wireless of course! Until then, I'll just keep on dreaming about it!

Jeff Saunders

Folate-Rich 'Super Tomato' Could Cut Birth Defects

WEDNESDAY, March 7 (HealthDay News) -- You say tomato, scientists say "fewer birth defects."

U.S. researchers say they've created a folic acid-enriched "super tomato" that could cut the rate of birth defects, anemia and other folate deficiency-linked problems in the developing world.

"We used the tomato, because it is a very good model to work with," explained study co-author Andrew D. Hanson, professor of plant biochemistry at the University of Florida at Gainesville. "Now we want to move the strategy we have developed into cereal and tuber crops such as sweet potatoes."

Hanson's group published its findings in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Folate deficiency is associated with birth defects such as spina bifida and also with heart disease and some cancers. Grain products in the United States and other western countries are now fortified with folic acid, and pregnant women are advised to take folate supplements if necessary.

Unfortunately, folic acid supplies are much harder to come by in less developed countries, Hanson said, so genetically engineered crops could help prevent deficiency in those areas.

Hanson worked in close collaboration with Jesse F. Gregory III, professor of food science and human nutrition at UF. They targeted two molecular pathways by which tomatoes (and other plants) make folate -- one that produces a molecule called pteridine, the other producing another molecule, p-aminobenzoate (PABA). Those two molecules eventually become linked in the process that creates folate.

"Humans don't have the ability to produce parts of those pathways, which is why we require [folate] as a vitamin," Gregory explained.

In 2004, Hanson and Gregory reported that they had added a gene to the pteridine pathway in tomatoes. That doubled the tomato's production of folate.

"It was a synthetic gene, a DNA sequence based on a mouse gene," Hanson said. "But that engineered tomato plant was not good enough."

Keeping the engineered tomato plant intact, they added a second gene, this time one extracted from a weed calledArabidopsis. The gene is commonly used in plant genetic work on the PABA pathway.

That genetic manipulation resulted in amajorincrease in folate production, Hanson said.

"The tomatoes that we are reporting in this paper have very substantially elevated levels of folate," he said. "If the fruit is ripened on the plant, there can be 25 times more folate than normal."

The work is just beginning, he emphasized. "We have produced a few experimental plants," Hanson said. "This is a proof-of-concept study. With just two genes, it is possible to substantially increase the folate level of fruits. This is a demonstration that it can be done."

Now the goal is to show that the same increase in folate production can be achieved in plants that are dietary staples in many countries, he said.

"The most important targets of future work are cereal crops that are used around the world," he said.

"Rice would be a major target. Various groups are working on this, and we are in partnership with them."

The Florida researchers have collaborations with centers in Britain, France, Belgium, Australia and African countries, Hanson said.

"We will also be trying other genetic engineering strategies," he said.

More information
There's more on folate deficiency at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
SOURCES: Andrew D. Hanson, Ph.D., professor, plant biochemistry, and Jesse F. Gregory III, Ph.D., professor, food science and human nutrition, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Gainesville, Fla.; March 6-9, 2007,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Fertility Test: One Effective Way to Ensure Pregnancy

From the early generations up to the contemporary times, infertility is a problem that continuously presses on individuals of all times. Infertility is a medical and social concern that dawn on almost everybody regardless of the economic and social statuses, age, religion, color, and race. As far as medical science is concerned, infertility is a disease that affects the reproductive system. Infertility on either of the parties can cause a severe trauma to both the psychological and emotional well-beings of both the male and the female partner.

Couples feel all the happier when the news of pregnancy hits them. They feel almost complete by the mere thought that their beloved child is on the way. The husbands somewhat become more careful and more loving to their wives. On the other hand, the expectant mothers are more health-conscious as they do want to secure that their baby will be healthy. The moment of truth now lies in the couple's capacity to conceive. Both partners may seem normal and health-wise. But there are still millions of cases when fertility seems to be far within reach of plenty of married individuals.

Some women are blessed with the gift of getting pregnant hassle-free while there are those who face traumas and a lot other difficulties to conceive. Women who don't easily get pregnant must face the fact that there are a lot of factors which may bring about a difficulty in their fertility. Among the many reasons are one's physical condition, age, and stress.

Are you experiencing various difficulties in getting pregnant? Have you tried all methods but still your efforts are for nothing? It may have been several years since you've tried conceiving but then there is no positive result that greets both of you. Now you should come to terms with understanding the truth that women are all different. But to make things easy for you, the medical society makes available the necessary tools for you to take the fertility test.

Types of Fertility Test

The fertility test allows you to know the very reason as to why you find it hard to get pregnant. You may consult your most trusted fertility specialist for this matter.

The Hormone Testing. Various blood tests taken in diverse times are required for the hormone testing. The test is chiefly for the detection of the normal production of hormone. The test hence evaluates the quantity of progesterone you possess and if you will be able to sustain a pregnancy. One of the blood tests done is to verify your prolactin level. It is the hormone that produces the breast milk. Another test is to examine how your thyroid functions.

The Ovulation Test. For this process, your gynecologist will be looking into the regularity of your menstrual cycle. The tool to be used is called the ovulation prediction kit.

The Chlamydia and Gonorrhea Cultures. This test is performed in order to detect the possible presence of these viruses which are possible causes of infertility. They can be prevented but then its detection is difficult.

The Sperm Analysis. The test is conducted to your partner to see the quality and count of the sperm.

The fertility test is one way which helps your doctor detect where the problem lies. Getting pregnant may be possible when the mistake in your body system is corrected.

Green Tea Side Effects During Pregnancy

Pregnant women would be wise to limit the amount of green tea they drink during pregnancy, and should be careful about taking any green tea supplements. Green tea is rich in antioxidants, and has a host of health benefits relating to dental health, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, and weight loss. But researchers have found, whilst examining the active constituent of green tea, the epigallocatechins, or EGCG for short, that it may affect the way the body uses folate. Folate is important for pregnant women as it prevents neural tube birth defects in babies.

The problem of green tea during pregnancy is that the EGCG molecules are structurally similar to a compound called methotrexate. Methotrexate is able to kill cancer cells by chemically bonding with an enzyme in the body called enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Healthy people have this enzyme also - it is part of what is called the folate pathway, which is the pathway, or steps, the body takes to transform nutrients like folate into something that can be used to support its normal functions.

But this chemical similarity means that the EGCG in green tea also binds with the enzyme DHFR, and when it does this, it inactivates this enzyme. When this enzyme is inactivated, the ability of the body to use folate is going to be affected. How much green tea is able to be consumed, or precisely how much folate absorption is affected, is unclear. Though the research article did say that drinking 2 cups of green tea a day can stop cancer cells (which is what methotrexate is targeting) from growing.

The good news on caffeine drank during pregnancy, from coffee and tea, is that a moderate amount is fine. Two studies, one by Danish scientists who interviewed more than 88,000 pregnant women, and the other by the Yale University School of Medicine, had similar findings on caffeine during pregnancy.

The concerns over caffeine were that it would lead to low birth weight or miscarriage. And this is still true of a very high daily intake of coffee. The Yale team found that drinking about 600mg of caffeine a day, which is about 6 cups of coffee, would reduce birth weight to levels that were clinically significant. The rate at which birth weight was reduced was established at being 28 grams per 100 mg, or 1 cup, of coffee per day. But they emphasized that this would not be significant for moderate caffeine consumption.

The Danish study found that drinking 8 cups or more of coffee per day (this would be about 16 cups or more of tea), would increase the chances of miscarriage, or stillbirth, by 60% compared to women who did not drink caffeine. They also found that moderate coffee or tea drinking did not pose significant risks. For those drinking half a cup to 3 cups of coffee a day, the risk of fetal death was 3% higher compared to non-caffeine drinkers. And for those drinking 4 to 7 cups of coffee a day, the risk increases to 33%. One cup of coffee equals about 2 cups of tea when comparing caffeine levels. The recommended amount of coffee drunk is up to 3 cups daily, or 6 cups of tea, by the UK food agency.

Too Late f. Res > Train of Thought > Reflection Eternal

Nowadays rap artists
coming halfhearted
Commercial like pop,
and underground like black markets

Where were you the day HipHop died?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?

Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?

Is it too late to ride? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too late to ride? Is it too late to ride?

Too Late - Too Late?
Too Late - Too Late?

Taking a break

typhoons come
destroying nights
everythings boring
nothing seems right

so I'm home
reviewing documents
strategizing
shunning compliments

thinking deeply
how to make money
without actually working
realife can sound funny

but I will achieve
because I do believe
to stay on vacation
yet work for my nation

you just wait
no pause no stop
see me in my t-shirt
and green flip flops

i'm laughing, smiling
you may not understand
but its all Reginald B...
an amalgamation of a man

Grace (the designer)

your the miracle
and heaven sent
you helpmed me
when I had no rent

I was jobless
and homeless
no money
you knew this

the school fees
the bills they
pilled up
were so grey

but now we
are stronger
and closer
no longer

the arguing
the spiteful
your Janet
I'm Michael

the jacksons
the jetsons
the flintstones
all bets-in

its cool now
you've got me
i tripped a little
you shot me

but yes I
got you
and tripped a little
but you knew

we're friendly
designing
creating
advertising

so I sing
a thank you
the wet hands
the real you

the PowerBook
the iBook
the G4's
the new look

the bluetooth
the touchpad
use mighty-mouse
we ain't mad

so play on
do your thing
i'm happy for
your new dream

the US
the stateside
you'll be back
head high with pride

Folate: What is it?

Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in food. Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate that is found in supplements and added to fortified foods.

Folate gets its name from the Latin word "folium" for leaf. A key observation of researcher Lucy Wills nearly 70 years ago led to the identification of folate as the nutrient needed to prevent the anemia of pregnancy. Dr. Wills demonstrated that the anemia could be corrected by a yeast extract. Folate was identified as the corrective substance in yeast extract in the late 1930s, and was extracted from spinach leaves in 1941.

Folate helps produce and maintain new cells. This is especially important during periods of rapid cell division and growth such as infancy and pregnancy. Folate is needed to make DNA and RNA, the building blocks of cells. It also helps prevent changes to DNA that may lead to cancer. Both adults and children need folate to make normal red blood cells and prevent anemia. Folate is also essential for the metabolism of homocysteine, and helps maintain normal levels of this amino acid.

Food: The Loves and Hates of a Kid

Breast-feeding, according to the child experts, is to be recommended. It isn’t only a matter of nutrition. A child’s future personality is also nurtured by it. It helps, apparently, with confidence-building. But what about when you’ve been weaned and are confronted with food you dislike?

Quite a few foods shook my four-year–old confidence in the possibility of survival and I am, to this day, apprehensive when friends invite me home for dinner. Suppose the hostess has prepared some cordon bleu dish I simply cannot eat?

I wonder if most people disliked certain foods when they were little. Movie stars don't look as though anything could have fazed them. Did spinach ever shake the confidence of any of the famous actors? Did Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears and Shakira, for instance, like rhubarb and custard when they were three or four? What was Brad Pitt’s tolerance for broccoli? Did Johnny Depp relish eggs? My guess is they took everything in their stride as they seem to do today.

But, as one of the rest, I hated eggs as a small child. A cousin of mine, whom I knew when he was three and I was fourteen, just didn’t want to eat anything. “Naah!” he would yell when a plate of food was put before him. Then, he would jump off his chair and dash for the garden.

His mother would run after him, the plate in one hand and, as often as not, his pyjama jacket, which he had wrenched himself out of as she grabbed at him, in the other. They would run several times round the garden. It was a futile exercise. He never ate whatever it was he was supposed to. He seemed only to drink milk.

I sympathised with him. I also envied his getting away with such behaviour. My mother would have given me a resounding wallop.

But it was my grandmother most of the time who presided when my brother and I were eating at breakfast and our parents were downing coffee and hurrying off to work. Gran was more tolerant and, for whatever the reason, I never thought of escaping into the garden.

There were several foods I couldn’t, or wouldn’t eat. Spinach, okras and semolina pudding were high on the list, but those didn’t appear on the table every day. Eggs, however, were another matter. We were confronted with them almost daily at breakfast.

Gran fried them, boiled them, poached them and scrambled them. No go.

Fortunately, Gran didn’t sit at the table, eagle-eyeing us all the time. She busied herself between the dining-room and the pantry fetching this and that. So, when her back was turned, I was sometimes able to throw a fried egg under the table, or put it on my knee for Sam or Suzy, one of our Labrador retrievers to slurp up.

My younger brother, Yazeed, seems to me to have been exceptional. He could—and did—eat everything put before him. Gran sometimes said: “Yazeed puts himself outside the food. He surrounds it. You barely put it inside you.” He later turned into a self-confident Gulliver of six foot among his 11-year-old peers.

In desperation, one day, Gran chopped up a boiled egg, melted butter into it, and tried to spoon-feed me like a baby. The humiliation was great, but the block to eating wasn’t that. It was the smell. I threw up.

Then, one day, the family went on holiday. My mother ordered a baked egg at breakfast the first morning at the hotel. To my amazement, it smelt really good and I ordered one myself the next day. The egg was buried under a crust of melted Cheddar and Stilton cheese and under the egg were chopped onions, olives, tomatoes, basil and garlic cooked in butter.

Ah, the aroma! The taste! Scrumptious! My egg problem was suddenly solved. Gran was delighted.

Many years later I discovered why grownups are so insistent on children eating eggs. My children were never fussy about food, thank Heaven, but a paediatrician once told my wife: “If you can get them to eat an egg in the morning, you needn’t worry about what they eat the rest of the day. Eggs are an almost perfect food.”

Incidentally, just in case you want to try a baked egg on your kid, you need to know it takes 17 minutes at 180 degrees C in my pre-heated convection oven to get the yoke into a non-runny state. Maybe you can improve on the speed by raising the temperature. I keep it at 180 C in line with the instructions for my ovenware. I hope, though, you only want to give your kid a change of fare and that you have a beautiful child who likes all food and will become a star.