benefits of laughter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9Lu2MG18g

Preventing kidney stones

Home Remedies for Kidney Stones . . .

One of the most crucial organs in your body is the kidneys. This is because the kidneys function in not only enabling your body to detox, but get rid of impurities from our blood stream in addition to waste products from your urine. Unfortunately, these vital functions of the kidney can be hampered by numerous ailments.

The formation of stones in the kidneys is a very common health problem. Kidney stones are formed from the chemicals such as uric acid, phosphorous, calcium and oxalic acid found in the urine. Other common causes of kidney stones are excessive consumption of Vitamin D, mineral imbalance, dehydration, gout and improper diet. Irrespective of the size of the kidney stones it can cause severe pain. Other symptoms of kidney stones are a desire to urinate frequently, painful urination, nausea, vomiting and excessive sweating.

A majority of cases of kidney stones can be treated successfully with the help of natural ingredients. These natural treatments are safe and effective and at the same time they do not have any side effects.

Here are the home remedies for Kidney Stones.

Water

When you are suffering from kidney stone, you need to drink plenty of water.

Make sure you are drinking sufficient water every day to keep your body and kidneys hydrated. When you consume eight to ten glasses of plain drinking water along with other kinds of fluids, the color of your urine will become clear like water which is a good sign. It is recommended to drink mineral water as it is free of sediments. Mineral water will help in reducing the concentrations of calcium and uric acid from the urine, thus making it less alkaline in nature. At the same time mineral water will not allow the kidney stone to increase in size.

Watermelon

In comparison to other types of vegetables, watermelon is packed with potassium salts. Moreover, it is made up of high water content that helps with hydration. For years, doctors and nutritionists have recommended watermelon as it is regarded as a best diuretic and as such can also be used as natural remedy for kidney stones.

Grapes

Grapes have long been regarded as the best home therapy for kidney stones. Grapes are made up of unique diuretic importance with respect to their excessive water substances as well as potassium salt. As a result of its minute sodium chloride plus albumin matter, grapes are of great importance when it comes to eliminating kidney issues.

Lemon Juice

The citric acid present in lemon helps to break down the calcium-based kidney stones and at the same time stops the further growth of such stones. Two to three times a day drink a glass of water with a few drops of lemon juice. When you drink lemonade, the volume of urination will also increase which is really good for those having kidney stones. Else you can mix one tablespoon of lemon juice with one tablespoon of organic olive oil and drink it straight followed by half glass of mineral water. After half an hour add the juice of half lemon in half glass of mineral water and one tablespoon of organic raw apple cider vinegar and drink it.

Pomegranate Juice

Both the seeds and juice of pomegranate can help in the treatment of kidney stones due to their astringent properties. Try to eat one whole pomegranate daily or else drink one glass of freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice. You can eat this fruit in the form of a fruit salad also. Another option is to take one tablespoon of pomegranate seeds and then grind it to make a fine paste. Now take this paste along with a cup of horse gram soup once daily. This remedy will help in dissolving the gravel in kidneys.

Horsetail Tea

Diuretic horsetails are easily accessible in the market and can be used in making horsetail tea. By drinking up to 4 cups of horsetail tea in a day, which is an equivalent of two grams of the thyme pill per day will enable you to eradicate the signs and symptoms triggered by kidney stones.

Bran Flakes

When suffering from kidney stones, it is very essential to eat food items that are rich in fiber content. When it comes to fiber rich food nothing can be better than bran flakes. The fiber present in bran flakes will help in getting rid of the calcium present in your urine and thus cutting down the risk of kidney stones. One bowl of bran flakes when consumed daily can give your body some 8 mg of fiber. So, to cut the risk of kidney stones, eat bran flakes daily without any fail.

Whole Wheat Bread

Whole grain food items such as bread can help a lot in lowering the risk for kidney stones. Whole grain breads are a rich source of nutrients, fiber, and protein along with magnesium. Especially the mineral magnesium can help in the coalescing of crystals in the kidney to form larger stones. So, those suffering from kidney stones must eat two to three pieces of whole wheat bread slices daily for prevention and reduction of stones. Along with bread, one must also eat whole grain cereals, pasta and so on to increase the intake of fiber and other nutrients.

Kidney Beans

Kidney beans are very effective in the treatment of any kind of kidney and bladder problems, including kidney stones. Simply remove the beans from inside the pods, then slice the pods and put them in hot water. Now allow the water to boil on low flame for hours until the pods become soft and tender. Finally strain the liquid and then allow it to cool. To ease the pain, it is highly suggested that you drink the liquid throughout the day. This decoction should not be kept for more than 24 hours as it will lose its therapeutic properties. At the same time one can also take kidney beans in soup or salad form.

Celery

If you are having kidney stones, then a glass of raw celery juice can help in getting relief from the pain due to its antiseptic properties. Celery juice helps in clearing the toxins that causes the formation of kidney stones. At the same time raw celery juice is a diuretic, which means it can help the stone to break down. One must drink a glass of celery juice daily in order to prevent the further formation of stones. Along with the vegetable you can also use celery seed in the treatment of kidney stones. You can use celery seeds to make an herbal tea to treat kidney stones formed due to uric acid accumulation.

Detox your kidneys

Your kidneys are about the size of your fist. They may be small but they are powerful organs and have many functions. Every day your kidneys process about 200 quarts of blood to move to about 2 quarts of waste and extra water. (1)

Kidney Detox - Besides helping get rid of wastes, your kidneys are also responsible for releasing several hormones:

1. Your kidneys release the hormone erythopoietin. This hormone stimulates the bone marrow and "tells" it to make red blood cells. (1)

2. The second hormone that is released by your kidneys is renin. Renin is important inregulating blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the underlying risks of heart disease. The higher your blood pressure, the more your heart has to work to pump blood throughout your body. Over time if this continues your heart may enlarge. (1)

3. The third hormone that is release is called calcitriol. Calcitriol is the active form of Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps keep calcium in bonds and is important for proper chemical balance in your body. (1)

The two most common causes of kidney disease are diabetes and high blood pressure. (1) Both can be preventable and controllable. Many people have a risk for diabetes and high blood pressure in their family history, but even if you do you can do things to help prevent the risk for these conditions.

With all this functions that your kidneys are responsible for it's important to help your kidneys function at optimal levels. This means you have to give your kidneys a break by first and foremost eliminating unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, eating processed foods and so on.

Use this simple steps to "help" your kidneys and detox them

Step 1

Eat fresh vegetables. Cut out the processed foods. Stop eating food out of a box. The more junk you eat the more your body has to work to get rid of it. Cook your own food. Knowing what you put in your body is important and when you cook your own food you know exactly what ingredients you're using. Aim for organic products, especially if you eat meat.

JUICE! Juice. Juice. Juice fresh dark green leafy vegetables. Chlorophyll does wonders for your body.

Eat and juice alkalizing foods. Keeping your body's pH at the desirable level (neutral pH) is important because you're helping your body work at an optimal level without having to work overtime to get rid of unwanted and harmful toxins. The better you eat, the healthier you eat and the more you MOVE then the less your body has to spend time working to eliminate toxins and has more time to make you feel good by giving you energy and helping you feel your best.

There are simple things you can do to detox...like again eliminating processed foods and at least juicing fresh organic vegetables 2-3 times a day.

Step 2

Cranberries are excellent for your kidneys and bladder, especially for preventing and treating urinary tract infections. Cranberries contain a compound called hippuric acid. Hippuric acid helps acidify the urine and inhibit bacteria. This is important for people with bladder infections. Cranberries are great for your kidneys because they contain an antioxidant called proanthocyanidin. (2) Not only are cranberries beneficial for your kidneys and bladder but they are also great for reducing risks of heart disease, have anti-cancer properties, are great for your gums and much more.

It's best to either juice fresh cranberries or blend them. Store bought juice (even organic) is packed with sugar. If you can't find fresh organic cranberries, try frozen organic cranberries and blend them up.

Check out how to make your own cranberry blend yourself.

Step 3

Magnesium deficiency is not beneficial for helping your kidneys. Magnesium plays a key role in regulating blood pressure naturally. Magnesium supplements and a diet including plenty of fruits and vegetables, which are good sources of potassium and magnesium, are consistently associated with lowering blood pressure. Magnesium is also important for diabetes, preventing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and much more.

Step 4

Going on a simple 3-5 day juice fast is a great way to detox your body. When you juice dark green vegetables you are instantly getting high amount of nutrients and vitamins.

1. Many people ask me why they should juice when they could eat the vegetables or fruits.When you extract the juice from the vegetable all you are left with are beneficial micro-nutrients. Since your body doesn't have to break down any components like insoluble fiber, your body is quickly absorbing micro-nutrients  antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and much more from the juice. That’s why often you get instant energy after having a juice!

2. Juicing also allows you to consume the needed vegetables and fruits that your body craves and needs for optimal health. If you find it difficult eating raw vegetables and fruit, then juicing is perfect for you. With juicing you are also getting a wide variety of different vegetables into your daily intake.

3. Juicing is a way to change the way you eat and will change the way you live. After you juice for a week, you will see and feel instant results. Often after the first week of the Alpha Reset, my clients tell me how much more energy they have, how their skin has improved and how much overall mental clarity  they have. Also, a juice detox program like the Alpha Reset, can help you change your taste buds and quit bad habits like smoking

3 unlikely immune boosting foods

 

Today, we're going to talk about 3 natural antibiotics to boost our immune system. These are the following:

• Wild Oregano Oil
• Honey
• Garlic

These 3 natural antibiotics are going to help you live a life vibrantly. They can be perfect additions to juices.  So let’s get into this.

# 1 Oregano Oil

Oregano oil is full of antibiotics. It is very easy to use. You just have to put about 2-3 drops of it into the juice using a liquid dropper. It’s going to be spicy. It’s anti-microbial. You can find this in grocery stores or groceries called Oreganol P73. You can also order it in Amazon.

# 2 Honey

The Manuka Honey which come from New Zealand and Australia are the most delicious as we know it today. It contains the Methylglyoxal (MGO) which is its major antibacterial component. It kills the bacteria that forms in the gut, crippling resistance coming from these microorganisms.

[Honey is also good for cough, just add to tea with lemon for home made cough syrup.]

# 3 Garlic

Garlic is a good addition to many recipes not just because it completes the taste, but because it’s also accessible everywhere. We use garlic in almost every single day. It’s a great addition to your juice but you have to be cautious about how much you’re adding.

I am using an Elephant garlic which is actually not a true garlic, but tastes only a little milder from garlic. Elephant garlic is much more palatable to human taste than garlic so use this one if available.

It's great in lowering your blood pressure. Add garlic into your lifestyle because medicine is in our food and food is our medicine.

After all, our goal is to make you feel good. When you good, you're definitely going to look good.

- Drew Canole

Introducing the next stage of cancer

onions!

For all you monkeys...

7 ways McDonalds is hyjacking your brain

Source: (Psychology Today) When McDonald's began advertising its $1 menu featuring the Big N' Tasty burger, some franchise owners were forced to sell them at a net loss; the popular item cost $1.07 to make.  How could they afford to do this?  Because McDonald's already knew you were going to buy fries and a Coke—products with big profit margins.  It costs pennies to fill up a large drink, but you're charged more than a buck  for it.  This is a great deal for them and not such a great deal for us, but we can't help ourselves, because sugar lights up our brain's reward pathway. Many recent neuroscience discoveries about food's effects on our brains and how we make decisions about food are actually gold-standard trade secrets from super chains such as McDonald's. With billions and billions served, they must be on to somethin

1.  Addictive properties of sugar.

Nearly everything on McDonald's menu contains some sugar, from the drinks to the ketchup to the hamburger buns and fries.  McDonald's knows that most people are going to shell out an extra dollar for a soft drink because sugar is addictive.  Just as you can develop a physiological and psychological dependence on cocaine, you can become dependent on sugar. Here is a video I made in regards to the 3 most addictive foods. <-- 

Recent experiments have shown that sugar offers the hallmarks ofaddiction: bingeing, withdrawal and craving.   Researchers kept rats from eating for 12 hours, then gave them unlimited access to food and sugar water for a brief period, and then took the food and sugar away again.  They repeated this schedule for a few weeks.  The rats formed a cycle of bingeing when given access to sugar, and over time they increased their intake to twice the amount from when they started.  When the researchers stopped offering sugar or gave the rats an opioid blocker, which prevents the high by blocking some of the pleasurable effects in the brain, the rats showed signs of withdrawal, such as teeth-chattering and body tremors.

McDonald's recently added new menu items, including McCafe fruit smoothies, which pack in more sugar per serving than Coca-Cola.  With that much sugar, McDonald's slogan is probably right: we're lovin' it.

2.  The push of convenience

The fact that you can go to almost any city in the country and find a McDonald's within five minutes of driving contributes to the likelihood of compulsive eating.  Similarly, recent epidemics of addiction to cocaine and heroin have accompanied increased availability and affordability of these drugs.

Part of the reason that convenience sways us so much is that we have a limited amount of impulse control.  Some of us are better at resisting temptation, while some are more likely to give in.  Dopamine activity in your nucleus accumbens, the brain's reward center, can disrupt your brain's decision making ability by interfering with your prefrontal cortex, the brain's impulse control region.

Dopamine has five unique types of receptors, numbered 1-5, but dopamine2 (D2) receptors seem to be most important for compulsive eating.  Imaging studies show that for obese participants, fewer D2 receptors correspond to higher body-mass index.  With fewer D2 receptors, they're more likely to eat compulsively; it becomes even harder to resist super-sizing their meal.

3.  The brain's economy and the Value Meal

Low prices minimize the pain associated with parting with your hard-earned money.  Decisions become difficult when two opposing forces try to sway you, in this case, spending money versus eating.  The brain weights the costs and benefits of a decision in a region called the orbitofrontal cortex.  Brain-imaging has shown that losing money can cause your brain to experience the same pattern of activity as when you stub your toe.  Losing money hurts.  Yet McDonald's manages to sidestep this problem by pricing a sandwich cheaper than the Sunday newspaper (which helps make up for the pain of your $40 filet mignon the night before).  At McDonald's, you get the rewarding meal without the pain of losing money.  They make the decision easy for your brain.

4.  Our brains prefer high-calorie foods

As suggested by Jonah Lehrer in "The Frontal Cortex," our brains evolved during a time when food was scarce, so we became adept at choosing foods that packed calories.

In one recent experiment, scientists used genetically engineered mice that were missing sugar receptors and therefore unable to detect sweetness in food.  The researchers then gave the mice free access to two water dispensers, one with sugar water and one with regular water.  Initially, the mice showed no preference; sugar water tasted just like regular water.   However, after several hours, the mice shifted to drinking almost exclusively from the sugar water dispenser.  To ensure that the mice preferred the calories, but could not detect the taste, the researchers offered them water sweetened with sucralose (e.g. Splenda).  The mice didn't take it.

When the scientists analyzed the mice brains, they found that the mice released dopamine in response to sugar water, even though they couldn't taste it, but not in response to regular water or sucralose.  Our brains can tell the difference between high calorie foods and diet foods even if they taste the same.

5.  Addictive properties of speed

Drugs have a hierarchy of addictive potential based on the speed that they reach your brain.   Pills have to be swallowed, broken down in the stomach, pushed into the digestive tract and then absorbed into the blood stream before they can reach your brain.  The reward you experience comes relatively long after you take the drug.  Heroin skips the lag time; injecting it directly into your bloodstream sends it to your brain within seconds.  The closer you can pair a stimulus with a reward, the stronger the association will be.

Similarly, fast food provides a quick fix for hunger.  You don't even have to get out of your car to pick up a Big Mac.  You place your order at the drive-thru and within two minutes you can take the first bite as you drive home.  You can hardly get a pan hot enough to fry in that time.  The sooner you have the burger in hand, the sooner it can trigger the release of the cocktail of rewarding chemicals in your brain.

6.  Brains like branding

Just as Pavlov was able to get a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell, McDonald's gets your juices flowing anytime you hear their jingle.  Pavlov showed that if he rang a bell before giving food to a dog, eventually the bell itself would whet its appetite.

Across the nation, McDonald's provides a consistent experience every time you enter its doors.  The employees recite a scripted greeting, the menu looks the same, and the same images and logos are posted on the walls.   The more consistent the experience, the more strongly your brain associates the Golden Arches with the meal that follows.

The brain's reward chemical is dopamine, a molecule that's released when you experience something you enjoy.  However, one of the brilliant aspects of the brain is its ability to learn and make predictions about the world based on past experiences.  When the brain learns that a certain cue is associated with a reward, dopamine neurons learn to fire whenever the cue appears, even before the reward is given.   Dopamine does more than simply reward you; it also motivates you to seek the pleasure again.  As soon as you see the cue, your brain begins to anticipate the reward.  The anticipation is part of the pleasure.  Would you like fries with that?

7.  McNuggets stoke your memory

In a recent study, researchers gave children chicken nuggets in an unmarked container or in McNuggets packaging.  Not surprisingly, kids preferred the ones that resembled a Happy Meal.  Neuroscience research has shown that a big part of the pleasure of eating stems from memories tied to the food, not taste alone.