Positive steps to stay healthy

[Maria]

I am allergic to chocolate and coffee (same family).

And I crave both of these beans. Nativity and Pascha are difficult times due to all the chocolates in the stores.

[Barbara]

Oh no, Maria ! That would be difficult to endure looking at all those milk chocolate "eater bunnies" I wrote by mistake but
probably not really coincidentally, for they encourage children to start out young with the chocolate-eating habit.
Remember all that shredded plastic green grass that adorns the Easter baskets, always with foil covered - chocolate - eggs ?!

I am glad I never ate them !

We can at least train the next generations to not crave these things by feeding them Magnesium - rich sound, healthy foods regularly. Not once a week, but every day !

[Maria]

http://www.fhfn.org/palm-acupressure-points/

This is a wonderful visual. And it works, not by magic, but it is the body's way of healing.
God created us this way. We have a tendency to massage a sore point on the body.

[Barbara]

That is the BEST Reflexology chart I have ever seen !
It's so detailed. Way better than my little credit card-sized ones, one each for hands and feet.
One can hardly see the locations which correspond to which organ or place.
I would like about 50 copies of THIS chart ! It would be useful to study while waiting in line or just for fun.

I have been a fan of reflexology since I got out of college. It WORKS !

[Maria]

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/me ... -the-brain

Gray matter atrophy: Multiple studies have shown atrophy (shrinkage or loss of tissue volume) in gray matter areas (where “processing” occurs) in internet/gaming addiction (Zhou 2011 (link is external), Yuan 2011 (link is external), Weng 2013 (link is external),and Weng 2012 (link is external)). Areas affected included the important frontal lobe, which governs executive functions, such as planning, planning, prioritizing, organizing, and impulse control (“getting stuff done”). Volume loss was also seen in the striatum, which is involved in reward pathways and the suppression of socially unacceptable impulses. A finding of particular concern was damage to an area known is the insula, which is involved in our capacity to develop empathy and compassion for others and our ability to integrate physical signals with emotion. Aside from the obvious link to violent behavior, these skills dictate the depth and quality of personal relationships.

Perhaps this is why people do not pray much and cannot focus on tasks at hand.

[Barbara]

I hate that "kindle" - even the name is so poorly chosen. Hardly inspiring but sounds like a robot created it !
Seemingly, the goal might be to foster MORE robots in this society.

People really have problems interrelating. I see it as not just an organic brain deficiency but something to do with demons surrounding one who looks at the wrong things on a computer, or spends time spent blabbing emptily on a 'smart phone.

Probably there are many elements involved in this sea change happening.
Glad to see the results shown by this article, which do contribute to our understanding and validate what I felt all along.

However, I know people who are rarely on computers or not at all, and don't have smart phones, let alone kindles, who unfortunately exhibit exactly the same symptoms described in the paragraph.

That is why I suspect that the generalized problems listed by the excerpt go beyond the computer / gaming / texting on smart phones addictions.
I think thoughtful people must keep on top of this widening problem, because it affects all of us.
If someone can't obey the rule to keep their cell phone turned off in Church, for example, then that impacts all present.
We need to understand the real roots of not just these small manifestations, but the alarming rise in antisocial behavior in North America.

I would say that the computer / gadget / dumb-phone scenario is only mid-level in depth. There are more deep sources of the inability to focus. What they are is not always easy to pinpoint.

[Maria]

http://www.realfarmacy.com/pregnant-medicine-autism/

As many as 65 percent of women are said to take it during pregnancy. But Tylenol, the active ingredient of which is acetaminophen, has been linked in a new study out of Norway to causing autism in children. Expectant mothers who took the drug while pregnant to deal with headaches or mild fevers were found to be significantly more likely to bear children with behavioral problems, poor language and motor skills, and communication difficulties, compared to mothers who did not take the drug.
Click the link above to read the complete article.