“If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.”
- Thomas Sowell, American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author
“It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.”
- Thomas Aquinas
“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that is has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark.”
- C.S. Lewis
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
- Lao Tzu
TIME TO WAKE UP!!!
The collapse of the American Dream...
The truth about your birth certificate...
How World War III may begin...
Ultra-Ever Dry!
50 predictions for 2013...
Google easter eggs...
Bunnies love snow...
10 must see pedestrian bridges...
Introducing artist Irving Harper...
Gerald Celente on 2013, gold and silver, and WWIII...
Welcome to Rancho Obi-Wan...
While you were watching the Super Bowl...
Fructose spurs overeating...
Debt ceiling 101...
Records made of ice...
This is not a photograph...extreme pencil art...
Mankind by the numbers...
Sandy Hook official story is full of question marks...
The REAL history of the United States of America...
Why I'll never get a flu shot...
Beware the flu vaccine propaganda!
Own your own drone...
Unintentionally scare the kiddies...
9 key facts about the media...
Run for your life...just not too far or too hard...
Teen invents cancer screening test using Google...
Jellyfish are immortal...
DNA can be reprogrammed by words and frequencies...
Dubstepping violin...
Back flipping truck...
Test your positivity...
Hey man...nice shot!
360 degree views...
DHS kills the 4th amendment...
How tall can you stack Legos?
Why is the lamestream media encouraging conspiracy theories?
Washington D.C. truth teller?
10 reasons why dolphins are awesome...
Trippy music video...
15 deadly corporations...
Veil of death descends over America...
Intermittent fasting may be highly recommended...
Learn some knife skills in the kitchen...
A nutrition guide for wild game...
Ancient markings found in the Great Pyramid...
Portable kitchen...
A personal journey of health...
Cancer is a busine$$...
Sandy Hook official story is full of question marks part II...
Psy-ops...did you take the bait?
Funny Christian memes...
Cannibis...a powerful therapy to reduce chronic meds and prevent disease...
Medicines used during ancient times...
12 steps to fitness...
Snow art...
Muslims have infiltrated the White House...
Space age magic soap...
O-TAY!
Prescription for violence...
Secret excavations in Babylon...
Fluoridegate...an American tragedy...
Test Could Reveal Which Side of the Looking Glass We're On
| OK, so let's assume that nothing is real
in the sense that we understand reality. We and everyone and everything
we know are part of a computer simulation created by an advanced post-human
intelligence. Scientists have considered the theory and come up with arguments
for and against it. Before now, though, no one has suggested a test could
be run to find out one way or another. Do we want to know? [See Full Story] |
Google's Cloud Is Alive With the Sound of Free Music
| Google is luring music lovers into its
cloud with an offer of free storage for up to 20,000 tracks -- and all
they have to do is say 'sure.' Google does all the work of scanning their
hard drive for songs it holds in its own vast library. When there's a match,
the tune goes into the user's cloud locker -- regardless of how it may
have been obtained in the first place. [See Full Story] |
Arm your home from your phone
The Food-Sleep Connection
Dear Reader,
If you use insomnia medication, I hope you know about last week's announcement by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Manufacturers of prescription sleep aids that contain a sedative called zolpidem are required to reduce the currently recommended doses. (Zolpidem is found in Ambien, Edluar, Zolpimist, and Intermezzo.)
If you're taking an insomnia drug containing zolpidem -- or if you feel drowsy or can't concentrate the morning after taking any insomnia medication -- medical experts suggest talking to your physician about reducing the dosage. Women process these drugs more slowly than men do and are especially likely to experience grogginess and other unwanted side effects the day after, so they may need to reassess dosages.
Better yet, why not explore a safer way to get to sleep, using natural methods like food? My patients are often surprised to hear that what we eat can make a difference in how we sleep -- or don't sleep -- each night. Although caffeine's role in keeping us awake is well established, there are quite a few other mealtime considerations to keep in mind.
Food, Beverages, and Behavior That Promote Sleep
One key to a good night's sleep is to consume a bedtime snack consisting of good (complex) carbohydrates and the amino acid tryptophan, a recognized sleep promoter. Let's review why sleep is so important and which foods and beverages can help you get a good night's rest.
Why Sleep Is So Important
As I've mentioned before, sleep is not just a pleasant way to spend a few hours. It's absolutely necessary for helping your body make repairs that keep the cells and various organs healthy, as well as for producing healing hormones, including human growth hormone and testosterone. Sleep is so important that one of the first questions I ask my patients is, "How are you sleeping?" When I hear an answer like "I only need four or five hours' sleep," I cringe!
A patient I'll call Dennis is typical of the sleep deniers. Dennis was an admitted workaholic who believed sleep was a waste of time, a self-indulgence meant only for babies. Of course, Dennis's health reflected his disdain for sleep. He had high blood pressure and low testosterone, and he needed to lose about 100 pounds. Yet, he insisted that sleep was for sissies and had nothing to do with his health problems.
It took months to convince Dennis that what he really needed was more rest, but eventually I wore him down. After the first week of sleeping 7 to 8 hours a night, Dennis grudgingly admitted that he was accomplishing a lot more during the day. A year later, all his health markers had improved, and he had lost nearly all the excess weight. That's the power of a good night's sleep!
Here are the points I passed along to Dennis and other patients who have sleep issues.
How to De-stress Every Day
Maybe you've noticed that sleep is more challenging on days when you've dealt with a stressful situation. This is why I encourage my patients to utilize some form of stress management every day. Practicing mindfulness or another form of meditation, listening to relaxing music, praying, and writing in a journal are all valid ways to reduce stress. Of course there are others, which is why I recommend my patients experiment until they find one that works for them.
What to Do if You Can't Sleep
Research repeatedly shows that staying in bed when you can't get to sleep is the wrong approach. Instead, after 15 minutes or so of lying awake, try getting up and doing something that's not particularly exciting, such as reading, knitting, or working crossword puzzles. After 20 minutes or so, you should be drowsy. You'll probably have to repeat the process for several nights until your body gets the message, but this method is a proven and effective insomnia remedy.
How Foods Containing Healthy Carbs and Tryptophan Can Help
Remember that drowsy feeling you experienced after eating Thanksgiving dinner? Turkey contains tryptophan, an amino acid the body can't produce and that we must obtain from food or supplements. Tryptophan helps us relax and plays a role in sleep. It also assists the body in producing serotonin, a hormone known for its ability to help us unwind and feel good.
Signs of too little serotonin include:
• Depression • Irritability and/or impatience • Problems with focus or concentration • Weight gain or weight loss without dieting • Carbohydrate cravings • Overeating • Anxiety • Trouble sleeping In addition to turkey, here are some healthy foods and beverages that are known to encourage relaxation and sleep, including many that contain tryptophan and/or melatonin (another sleep essential):
Foods and Beverages to Help You Sleep
• Bananas
• Halibut
• Lentils
• Whole-grain bread
• Honey
• Shrimp
• Beans
• Oatmeal
• Chicken
• Cod
• Sunflower and sesame seeds
• Warm milk with honey
• Tart cherries, fresh or dried
• Eggs
• Chickpeas
• Nuts, like walnuts, hazelnuts, and peanuts
• Salmon
• Herbal teas, like chamomile and valerian
• Dairy products
• Whole grains, like brown rice
Just eating tryptophan-rich foods, however, isn't quite enough; you need to combine the tryptophan with a food that contains healthy carbohydrates. That's because getting the tryptophan into your brain, where it can work its magic, requires moving other amino acids out of the way. The healthy carbs provide a target for those amino acids so the tryptophan can access the brain.
As I explained to Dennis, a nighttime snack consisting of healthy carbs from whole grains or veggies paired with a source of tryptophan is a recipe for a good night's sleep. Here are some examples:
Healthy Bedtime Snacks for Better Sleep
• An open-faced scrambled- or fried-egg sandwich on whole-grain bread
• Whole-grain cereal, like oatmeal, with warm, low-fat milk
• Brown rice with beans or lentils
• Hummus with whole-grain crackers
• An open-faced banana, sesame butter, and honey sandwich
• Chopped bits of turkey on whole-grain crackers
Remember, these sleepy snacks are not supposed to be meals, but very small mini-meals of less than 200 calories. Ideally, you should eat your sleepy snack at least an hour before bedtime to allow yourself time to digest it. And that brings us to my second bit of advice for getting a good night's sleep ...
What Not to Eat or Drink Before Bedtime
Caffeine
The obvious no-no is caffeine before bedtime. But what many people don't know is that coffee and tea aren't the only sources of caffeine. It's also found in chocolate, quite a few sodas, certain prescription medications, and many over-the-counter remedies, particularly pain relievers and "non-drowsy" products.
Heavy meals
I recommend avoiding heavy meals with large amounts of fat or protein, as well as spicy fare, before bedtime. These foods tend to rev up digestion, a process that can last for hours.
Excessive water
Staying well hydrated during the day is important, but if repeated trips to the bathroom are keeping you awake at night, try drinking as little water as possible after 6 p.m.
Alcohol
Like water, a nightcap with alcohol can cause numerous bathroom visits during the night. But alcohol has other downsides. Even though many people believe it helps them get to sleep, alcohol actually disrupts the healing processes that occur while we're sleeping, and it interferes with melatonin production. In addition, when the alcohol wears off, you're likely to wake up and find it difficult to get back to sleep.
Marian, a long-time patient, discovered the benefits of sleeping without alcohol when she had surgery. Forced to give up drinking while in the hospital for a week, Marian reported that, for the first time in years, she slept through the night all week. "And here all this time, I thought the gin and tonics were the only things keeping me from full-blown insomnia," she told me after the experience. "I sleep much more soundly without them, though. And no more going to the bathroom two or three times every night."
Considering all the healing processes that take place while we sleep, I think you'll agree that getting plenty of deep, restorative sleep is extremely important. You can help make that happen without resorting to prescription drugs with questionable benefits and serious side effects. If sleep is a problem for you, plan to add a small, healthy snack to your evening. If you need additional help, I recommend supplementing with natural sleep aids, including 5-HTP (take 100 to 400 mg daily), GABA (take 400 mg up to 4 times daily), and the antioxidant melatonin (men should take 3 mg about 30 minutes before bedtime; women, take 2 mg). Most of my patients find that the right combination of foods and supplements provides results that are well worth the effort, and I hope you do, too.
Thrive in Health & Wellness,
Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D.
| The Daily Reckoning Presents |
| “America Has Become a Piñata...” By Addison Wiggin [This article originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning on Monday, May 7, 2012] |
| “America’s national government has moved way beyond a political
spoils system,” wrote Charles Goyette in his book The Dollar
Meltdown. “A spoils system leaves the host alive so that a
politician’s occasional ne’er-do-well brother-in-law can be put on
the payroll.” In contrast, Goyette suggested, “America has become a piñata: Everybody gets a crack at it. Presidents and other elected officials pass the big stick around as a reward to those who help keep them in charge of the piñata party.” Goyette’s book came out in 2009. Since then, we have learned that the party is even more debauched, nay demented, than he ever imagined. And you, dear reader, were not invited...
Before you object too loudly, we daresay you might wish to consider the consequences. The Repeal of Habeas Corpus? When Free Speech No Longer Matters On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the Department of Defense Authorization Act into law. This is normally the routine annual budget for the Pentagon. But inserted into this year’s bill is language giving the president the authority to use the military to imprison terrorism suspects — including US citizens — indefinitely, and without charges. In other words, the “great writ” of habeas corpus is in danger of repeal. No longer would the government have to justify to a judge why it holds someone in custody. “Take away this great writ,” writes The Future of Freedom Foundation’s Jacob Hornberger, “and all other rights — such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, gun ownership, due process, trial by jury and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishments — become meaningless.” Without habeas corpus, you could be thrown in prison for the “terrorist” act of criticizing the government and the government would never have to declare the precise reason it hauled you away. And in theory at least, the First Amendment would still be in force! “This defense bill,” says The Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead, “not only decimates the due process of law and habeas corpus for anyone perceived to be an enemy of the United States, but it radically expands the definition of who may be considered the legitimate target of military action.” “This bill will not only ensure that we remain in a perpetual state of war — with this being a war against the American people — but it will also institute de facto martial law in the United States.” 135 SWAT Raids per Day: “Life Goes on, But It Is Debased...” Rampant corruption and the apparatus for wide-scale repression: These are the hallmarks of what military theorist John Robb calls “the hollow state.” “The hollow state has the trappings of a modern nation-state (‘leaders,’ membership in international organizations, regulations, laws and a bureaucracy), but it lacks any of the legitimacy, services and control of its historical counterpart,” Robb wrote in 2008. It is merely a shell that has some influence over the spoils of the economy. “The real power,” Robb continues, “rests in the hands of corporations and criminal/guerrilla groups that vie with each other for control of sectors of wealth production. For the individual living within this state, life goes on, but it is debased in a myriad of ways. The shift from a marginally functional nation-state in manageable decline to a hollow state often comes suddenly, through a financial crisis.” It is in this context that the growing “militarization” of police looks even more ominous than it does on the surface. The Pentagon has distributed $2.6 billion in military surplus to local police agencies since 1997. Thus do towns of only a few thousand people have their own SWAT teams. Time was their use was limited to hostage-takings and other high-stakes situations. SWAT raids nationwide numbered only 3,000 per year in the early 1980s, according to University of Eastern Kentucky criminologist Peter Kraska. Nowadays, SWAT teams are used to serve routine warrants. By the time Kraska stopped counting in the mid-2000s, the annual number had exploded to 50,000 — an average of more than 135 per day. What happens when the tinder-dry combination of piñata-party corruption and a police-state structure meet the spark of violence? We don’t know where all this is going... but we know it makes us uneasy...which is why we are increasingly interested in casting our gaze for investment opportunity far, far away from US shores. The US remains a land of (some) opportunity, but it has lost its monopoly... |
Posts
