PA Needs to Ban Smoking in Bars

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/email_list.cfm?body=H

As a student at a school in Pennsylvania, I’m SO tired of constantly reeking of smoke from just an hour or two of time in a bar. Click HERE to send a note to the state legislators of PA - of your district -  (Call or Email) regarding the ban of tobacco in bars. Pennsylvania is so behind the times. The topic is currently being debated in committee now for 4 or 5 months. A total ban in bars AND casinos they felt was “too harsh.” Second hand smoke is criminal. Let’s try to speed up the system to ban smoke in bars!

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/email_list.cfm?body=H

Prescription Drugs in Water Supply

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/10/pharma.water1.ap/index.html

This is an article from cnn.com today that just confirms what I’ve been hearing for a while now! Apparently, because of all the prescription drugs and antibiotics that Americans rely on, they are now in our water supply.

Even if your water is deemed “safe” to drink, I wouldn’t be too sure.

Definitely drink bottled, purified, distilled water rather than tap water when you can. Icky.

Calorie Free Sweetener? Try Stevia.

If you have been feeling a little bit nervous about using artificial sweeteners these days, you have good reason. Many studies have been linking these sweeteners (such as Splenda, Sweet and Low, and Equal) to cancer. The main ingredient, (Aspartame - which is put in most diet sodas) was used in a laboratory study with rats. In the study, experimenters actually found more lymphomas, leukemias, and brain tumors in rats fed very high doses of aspartame (equivalent to drinking a few diet sodas per day).

Instead of using these potentially harmful substances, try a naturally sweet, calorie free sweetener. My mom told me about it a long time ago, and I am starting to use it often and I love it!

The website, http://www.stevia.com/ describes it as “a South American herb that has been used as a sweetener by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay for hundreds of years. The leaves of this small, green Stevia rebaudiana plant have a delicious and refreshing taste that can be 30 times sweeter than sugar.” With this statement I will just give you a bit of warning - don’t put too much stevia in your drink or recipe! It can be a very powerful sweetener, in that it actually can make the concoction bitter if too much is put in. That being said, however, I would highly recommend it to anyone. I use it to make iced teas, baked goods, hot teas, coffee, lemonade, literally anything!

Take a look at the website. It has recipes, listings of the different products (you can get sugar-like packets of stevia, or a liquid dropper, etc…and they now have different flavored stevias). It can be bought in most health food stores (especially Whole Foods) and online. It is all natural, and for your own sake, why not? One less thing you have to worry about.

http://www.stevia.com/

I Said Blue TUBE, Not Tooth!

So cell phones have been declared illegal when driving according to many states. New Jersey is the newest one that I know about. This is a good thing. I can’t tell you how many times I have been behind someone who is driving super slow in the left lane, or weaving slightly back and forth in a lane or between lanes…and then I get past them to see that they are driving, texting, and/or talking on their phone.

I’m sure with this happening, Bluetooth headsets are going to be on the rise. Not to scare anyone, but you know the radiation that comes from a microwave which can cause brain tumors, etc? Cell phones have that same radiation, maybe slightly less, but you make up for it by putting the phone right up to your ear. You might say, no big deal, I just bought a bluetooth headset, or wire-jack headset, so I’m fine. I don’t put the phone up to my ear anymore. But, as studies have been showing, you actually amplify and increase the radiation waves sent to your brain via these headsets, especially the bluetooth. I recently found a website/company that makes headsets and radiation wave deflectors. I bought a few of them, to stick on my laptop, cellphone, and got a hands free wire-jack….all which reduce radiation emitted from the phone.

This is the website

http://products.mercola.com/blue-tube-headset/

Notice…it is a Blue TUBE, NOT a Blue TOOTH! If an ad comes up when you click on the link, just refresh the page. It’s worth it. Apparently, besides brain tumors, cell phones are now thought to cause a decreased sperm count. Lovely.

http://techfreep.com/cell-phones-lower-sperm-count-study-says.htm#more-317

Cage Free Eggs…Duhhhh.

Chickens packed in wire cages usually have less than half a square foot of floor space per bird. 6 hens in one cage can become immobilized and die of asphyxiation or dehydration. Decomposing corpses are found in cages with live birds. Tens of millions (approximately 14%) of egg-laying hens die during production each year.

While AAA or AA or A regular eggs (I haven’t bought them in so long I don’t even know what they are called) might be the cheapest deal at the grocery store, I encourage you to buy cage free, organic eggs. You’re saving chickens as well as yourself.

I’ll tell you the abbreviated version about where the regular eggs come from. And, yes, they come from chickens. But they don’t just come from the type of chicken you’d imagine. Eggs that are NOT cage free or organic come from chickens that are plump, forcefully fed, and loaded with drugs and antibiotics. They don’t have free space to roam, and sometimes they are actually fed with carcasses of other chickens! Just think about all the antibiotics that you are ingesting by eating the eggs or meat of chickens that are not cage free and organic.

On the other hand, cage free eggs come from chickens that are free to roam and not cooped up in over-capacity cages as well as fed vegetarian diets, rather than turning to cannibalism or being force-fed chicken carcasses.

Just do a little research on cage versus cage free eggs on the internet. I assure you next time you go to the grocery store you will be begging for the cage free eggs after just a little online research. Or you can just take my word for it…

Eye Twitches…What Gives!?

For the last couple of weeks, I had this AWFUL eye twitch. It was on the left side of my eye, the lower eye lid, in the left corner. It was more like a pulsation, and it was incredibly annoying and bothersome.

All I kept hearing to cure it was reduce your stress, don’t use the computer as much, relax, relax, get more sleep, relax….I even called my optometrist to see if there was anything I could do. Nope, nothing …but reduce stress. Or inject BOTOX. Ha Ha. Yeah right. I’m 21.

Problem is, as a graduate student, HOW can I get more sleep? And stop using the computer? And reduce my stress with midterms, papers, and finals ??
Being the slight hypochondriac that I am, I decided to research all the different stuff that could be causing the eye twitch. I got some results.

Eye twitching can be caused by:
* Stress
* Irritation of the Cornea or Conjunctiva
* Fatigue
* Lack of sleep
* Prolonged staring at a computer screen or television
* Nervous system disorders
* Alcoholism
* Multiple sclerosis
* Brain tumor
* Congenital blindness
* Albinism

I know I can probably rule out the last 5 causes, but of course I still worry. And wouldn’t you think stressing about an eye twitch which is caused by stress is quite ironic??

Thankfully, the last week or so it has eased up. Probably due to midterms being over, and a much needed professional massage that I got last week. I highly recommend that if you have an eye twitch, although easier said than done, really look to the root of your stress. Try to back into it. Start doing some yoga, take a long, hot bath, or do some deep breathing exercises. Ask your significant other to give you a massage, or get a professional one. Remember to look up from the computer as often as you can, because prolonged staring at the computer can really affect your eyes. I’ve even heard that increasing your levels of potassium (i.e., eat a banana, kiwi, lentils, nuts, an orange, a peach, a potato, raisins, or salmon) can help. Lack of magnesium (i.e., eat some brown rice, almonds, spinach, lima beans, or avocado) has also been said to be a factor in eye twitches.