The Easiest, Cheapest Way to Stay Healthy

An easy action that takes just 20 seconds can cut your risk for catching a cold, flu or other contagious diseases by up to 51 percent, recent studies show. And if everyone made it a regular habit, one million deaths a year would be prevented, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which calls this habit the single most important way to avoid spreading infection.
Frequent hand washing with soap and water can save you money—and misery—by helping you avoid medical bills, missed workdays, or having to stay home with a sick child. And you’ll also protect your friends and family: A CDC survey found that 40 million Americans a year fall prey to illnesses spread by hands, which can harbor up to 500,000 bacteria per square centimeter.
The 11 Germiest Places in Your Home

Clean Hands Save Lives

Not only does lathering up protect you from respiratory illnesses like colds, but it also helps ward off more serious conditions, including hepatitis A, meningitis, and potentially life-threatening superbug infections, such as MRSA. Overall, 80 percent of all infectious diseases are spread by touch.
Here are just a few research findings that illustrate the protective power of clean hands:

• Kids who washed their hands four times a day had 25 percent fewer school absences due to contagious diseases and 57 percent fewer sick days due to GI bugs. 
• When 40,000 Navy recruits were instructed to wash their hands five times a day, their rate of respiratory infections fell by 45 percent, according to a study published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
• A 2011 study found that when students disinfected their hands three times a day with ethanol gel sanitizer, there was a 66 percent drop in pupils who missed four or more days due to illness and a 20 percent rise in students with zero absences, compared to data from the previous year.
• Hand washing reduces risk for colds and other respiratory illnesses by 21 percent, according to the CDC.
• Washing with soap and water lowers risk for diarrhea and severe or fatal intestinal infections by up to 59 percent, a systematic review published in Lancet reported. 

At-Home Remedies that Really Work

Our Dirty Little Secrets

Ninety-one percent of Americans say they wash their hands after using a public toilet, but an observational study conducted in the six US airports found that only 26 percent of men and 17 percent of women actually did. And here’s something to ponder before you shake someone’s hand during cold and flu season: A recent survey also found that only 24 percent of men and 39 percent of women always wash their hands after they cough or sneeze.
Hand hygiene among doctors is even worse, with 73 percent of pediatric ICU physicians claiming that they soaped up between patients, but when the MDs were secretly observed, only 10 percent actually washed. If doctors and nurses were more diligent about hand hygiene, up to 80,000 Americans lives would be saved each year.
Experts caution patients to ask healthcare providers a simple question before any hands-on exam: “Did you wash your hands?” That’s important even if the provider is wearing gloves, reports Texas Health Resources Infection Control.

When to Wash Away Germs

To stay healthy and avoid spreading germs to others, the CDC and other experts advise washing your hands before and after preparing food, before eating, after changing diapers or using the toilet, after sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose, after touching an animal, and after touching garbage.
Follow these simple steps:

• Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold) and remove jewelry. A recent study compared bacteria counts on the hands of 50 healthcare workers who wore rings to 50 who didn’t. Hand washing lowered levels of staph bacteria by nearly 50 percent for those without rings, but only 29 percent among ring wearers.
• Lather up with soap. Avoid antibacterial products, which don’t work any better than regular soap, according to the Mayo Clinic, and can even lead to bacteria becoming resistant to that antimicrobial ingredient.
• Rub hands together for at least 20 seconds. To get the timing right, kids can recite the alphabet as they scrub. Pay equal attention to all surfaces of both hands: Research shows that righties don’t wash their right hand as carefully as the left, while the opposite is true for lefties. Fingernails and fingertips typically harbor the most microorganisms.
• Rinse thoroughly under running water—the force of the stream sweeps dirt and germs down the drain. And be sure to dry well, which helps rub away remaining microbes. A study published in Epidemiology and Infection found that when people touched someone else with freshly washed, but damp hands, they transferred a whopping 68,000 microorganisms, compared to just 140 when their hands were dry.
• The CDC says that while soap and water is best, hand sanitizers containing at least 60 percent alcohol can do in a pinch. However, they don’t eliminate all types of germs.

 By Lisa Collier Cool
 Jan 11, 2013

A Recipe for Positive Mental Health

• Balance is a concept that can be beneficial to every aspect of your life--but especially when thinking about your personal health as a woman.  Work must be balanced by play. Exercise must be balanced with rest.  Nutritionally, we must also bring our bodies into alignment and balance by nourishing ourselves with the right amounts and kinds of foods, the proper supplements that will enhance the the efficacy of the foods we've ingested, and the proper amount of hydration for our body weight.  When we apply the concept of balance in a conscious and deliberate manner daily, it helps us cope with the onslaught of challenges we face, and even find the humor in them.

• Bliss is fleeting, but its benefits can serve you long after it dissipates.  Keep a list of positive affirmations in your journal or a small spiral notepad and keep it with you everywhere you go.  Write yourself a note when you're feeling joyful and positive and later refer to it when life feels like it is sucking the wind out of you.  Remind yourself that every human condition and emotion is fleeting and subject to change.

• Recharge yourself!  Women must time to renew ourselves, and if you aren't quite sure how to best do that, employ the advice or services of a friend who is exceptionally good at self-care.  Ask her how she does it and adapt her answer to fit your life.  As women, we forget to take the time to do the things that will renew our energy source.  If praying will get it done, fall to your knees on a daily basis! Have a cup of tea. Paint your nails.  Pick up your guitar (or that hairbrush and pretend it is a microphone) and belt out the most stirring rendition of your favorite feel good song at top of your lungs.  Listen to or watch a stand-up comedian.  Perhaps a roll around the skating rink will do it for you, or just sitting down with a good book. One of my coolest memories of my mother is her telling us to give her "twenty quiet minutes" when she came in from work so she could get her head together and change into her mother hat.  This small action taught me that, as a woman, you have to demand that your needs get met along with the needs of others around you.  Whatever that thing looks like for you, do it!  It is so okay to do something nice for yourself and focus on just yourself for a nice minute.  I promise you that the world won't fall apart! Initially, you may feel guilty about it but "me" time, for a woman, is as crucial to well-being as any of the other things we do for others.  

Compassion Creates A Place of Peace Within

Making peace with your inner enemies begins when we understand that there are no inner enemies, but rather, different inner voices attempting to move us toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and our deepest needs.  As each of these  counter-voices is acknowledged, accepted and brought to the surface and allowed to be expressed, it ceases to be problematic and, instead, it becomes an interesting ally.  You can feel your energy shift within yourself when you allow yourself to view your issues from this perspective.

An exercise that I employ and one that could work for you, is to picture yourself at your absolute worse--mean, harried, depressed, nasty, evil, ugly-acting, belligerent to the point of being a real B&%#.  Now, appreciate yourself for noticing how you feel and where you are, then tell yourself that you are still very loveable and forgive yourself for allowing the expression of even the worse of aspects of yourself. 

We are unable to forgive others for being their worse if we are not able to forgive ourselves.  Self forgiveness softens, dissolves negative feelings of bitterness and enlarges our ability to be compassion and accept the flaws of others around you.  Forgiveness is not about forgetting but it is about being able and willing to let go. It's coming to the realization that the hurt we have experienced is as a result of holding on to the painful way we have perceived them. 

Try recalling something you have done, said or thought that was against your better judgment.  Does this incident still haunt your memories? Is it causing you to suffer?  How willing are you to re-remember it?  How willing are you to hold on to the pain?  Observe how willing you are to hold onto the worse memories and make them larger than life!

We cannot show compassion toward other if we don't practice being compassionate toward ourselves.  Recognize your own struggle to attain happiness and avoid hardships and you become aware that we are all human, doing the best with what we have.  Immediately, you will begin to feel compassion for everyone around you, especially ones engaged in some of the same struggles you are dealing with.  These feelings of compassion allow us to do whatever is needed to bring awareness to a situation.  Compassion is not pity or sympathy but it is a way of looking at life and all humans and if everyone matters.

Breathe acceptance into yourself deeply and create that place within.  You can do it! I believe in you.