Five Keys Toward Detoxifying Your Body

To detoxify your body simply means to cleanse your body of any toxins it may be harboring. We know, for instance, that some chemicals and pesticides, or certain fumes we breathe, can be toxic to us. In addition, many of our modern day food choices can create a toxic environment that slowly lowers our overall immunity. The phrase Toxic Load refers to the condition of our cells and tissues - the inner terrain - that develops when we consume, year after year, highly processed foods. While the liver and the kidneys are natural detoxifiers, organs whose job is to filter out impurities, there are several other ways to help your body detoxify itself. While some of these ways may be viewed as extreme, such as dialysis or a lengthy juice fast, there are several every day things that can be done to detoxify your body with subtlety and consistency.

Nutrition
No amount of great nutrition in the world will work very well until our body stops receiving the massive amounts of processed and fake foods that create a toxic inner terrain. Fortunately, it's easy to learn what is hard on your body; there are no complex charts to memorize. Rule One: the more processed a substance, the larger the toxic load. Simply examine your weekly intake. Eat less of them. Find healthier substitutes. Or, better yet, drop them altogether.

Select organic, whole, unprocessed foods, whenever possible. Stop eating foods with additives and preservatives. Get your oil needs from olive oil, nuts, seeds, such as flax, psyllium, etc. Slow down or eliminate: processed meat (highly processed beef, chicken, lamb, sausages, pate, luncheon meats, bologna), most seafood (bottom feeders, such as mussels, clams, lobster, highly processed anchovies and sardines), pasteurized dairy (milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, yogurt), processed oil(hydrogenated, lard, canola), flour products (bread, pastries, cookies, cakes, pies, donuts, crackers), caffeine (coffee, black teas), tap water ( use filtered or bottled spring water), alcohol (beer, wine, sake, scotch, gin, vodka), processed sugar (candy, sweets, chocolate), sodas (diet coke, sugared drinks), and fake foods (artificial anything!).

Re-hydrate
Our bodies and our world are both largely composed of water, making water a vitally important element to the human race. Thus, its no surprise that water is a huge factor in overall health, as well as detoxification. Re-hydrating helps detoxification in several ways. First of all, water is a natural appetite suppressant, keeping people from ingesting things, such as fast food meals, that may add toxins to the body. Secondly, water stimulates the kidneys, helping them to do their job of filtering. Water also aids in digestion; without water, digestion can not occur, leaving the intestines without the ability to remove waste.

One of the most important reasons for re-hydrating is the lymph system. The lymph system is the often overlooked set of vessels used to transport metabolic waste out of the body. Drinking water to re-hydrate helps prevent the lymph system from becoming overwhelmed with old, necrotic material.

While it is recommended that the average person drink at least eight glasses of water a day, people often forget to do this, compromising their bodys natural health driven abilities. Some suggest taking your weight in pounds and dividing it in half. This is the number of ounces of water you should drink a day. Buy a bottle, somewhere around the size of a gallon. Fill it each day, and drink it empty each day. It is a great way to measurably know how much water you are using. If you don't have access to spring water, then filter your tap water with a carbon filter.

Brush Your Skin
Brushing your skin may seem like an odd concept, an act that is typically reserved for a head of hair. But, the pores in our skin are often an open doorway to innumerable toxins we may encounter. Because our skin absorbs whats on it, it will absorb any toxins present. Brushing these toxins away, however, can minimize the amount of toxins that enter the body through the pores. Our skin can be considered our largest elimination organ, especially during a change in nutrition. To help this process along, purchase a long handled skin brush and dry-brush your entire body for two or three minutes before bathing or showering each day. It may sting a bit the first few times, but you are conditioning your skin to breathe more. This also improves circulation, releases toxins and stimulates new skin production. For some, wet-brushing while bathing can be just as effective.

Take Alkalinizing Baths
Another good idea is Alkalinizing Baths. For these, toss a cup of sea salt or a cup of baking soda into a bath. Get in and slowly increase the heat until you are sweating. The object is to make the outside water more alkaline than the body and blood itself. It is relaxing, and very powerful when combined with skin brushing.

Do Yoga, Be Yoga
Yoga is one of the best detoxifying exercises you can practice. Because one of the foundations of yoga is breathing, and one of the ways to detoxify yourself is to simply breathe, yoga can teach you correct ways to breathe, giving you the ability to make the most out of every breathe you take. The poses, or Asanas, practiced in yoga also aid in detoxification. Freeing the body of restrictions, these Asanas stretch muscles and limbs, loosening them and letting the muscles and limbs become more relaxed and nimble, freeing the toxins that muscle knots may harbor. These Asanas aid in circulation the circulation of blood is greatly enhanced through flexibility and these poses make you physically and mentally flow better. When things flow correctly, the body rids itself of toxins much more easily.

Yoga also circulates positive thinking, which removes toxins from the body in more ways than one. A person bent on negative thinking will not only perpetuate thoughts laden in toxicity, but they are also more likely to engage in an overall unhealthy lifestyle, a lifestyle that invites impurities rather than fights them. Yoga, however, because it helps people feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually better, allows a positive life force to circulate within, a life force bent on removing toxins. It also arms people with a mindset that allows people to embrace and embody health and wholeness, adopting an internal environment where toxins dont want to remain, packing up and leaving instead.

TWISTED is a medical yoga studio at the Center for Osteopathic Medicine in Boulder, colorado. Twisted integrates osteopathic medicine, hatha yoga and mindfulness practices to teach optimal balance between physical, mental, and emotional health. It aims to educate and help people to live a healthy life from the inside out. Rehabilitation programs offer a comprehensive treatment regime for the whole being, empowering each person one breath at a time to stimulate the bodys natural healing potential.

jennifer Jordan is senior editor of http://www.yogatwisted.com. Specializing in articles that not only teach yoga techniques, but also teach techniques on fulfillment and enrichment, she aims to educate students proudly enrolled in the school of life.

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Golf Teaching Tools - Chipping Problems

The golf teaching tool is conventional way of chipping the golf ball. You could use a 5 iron, a 7 iron and a 9 iron to chip with. I like doing this, 5 for the long chip shots, 7 for the medium chip shots, and 9 for the short chip shots.

Let me tell you the method and how easy it is to use. If you have a small chip shot, use your 9 iron and put the ball in the middle of your stance, put a little weight on your left leg, and push the handle over to your left leg. From there, make an arm swing with a little chop of the club head.

Now, if your shot has to go to a little further, take a 7 iron. Dont change the golf swing; same golf swing, same method, but choose a golf club that will send the ball a little further.

Using this club will probably get the golf ball to go back up towards the pin. again, ball in the middle of your stance, weight left, handle left, arm swing. And, it will go a little bit further.

Now, lets just say that you had to hit a golf shot where the ball had to go all the way to the back of the green. Now you're going to use a 5 iron. Here it is, ball in the middle of the stance, weight left and handle left; same golf swing, an arm swing with a chop. And that 5 iron will send the ball a lot further. Thats a great golf teaching tool that should help you going forward.

Now, you may struggle with your short chip shots. And if the grass is mowed down, dont ever hesitate to putt the ball.

Do everything the same that you normally do when you putt a golf ball. The only challenge is, is that sometimes it comes out of the rough, bouncing a little bit, or when the fairway is mowed and its not perfect like the putting green.

Now heres the last golf teaching tool for you. You may struggle with your conventional chip shots and you dont like to putt the golf ball. So, why dont you try this utility wood? This is the 3 iron. The difference is, is that its built like a wood. So the bottom of it, the sole plate, is a little bit longer and itll stop you from stubbing the golf ball.

So, here it is. Approach it just like a putt and grip it like a putter, stand to it like a putt, and stroke it like a putter. And if you do that, the golf ball will take off and head to the hole. And thats when you use a utility golf club.

I hope this gives you some insight into making your short game a little easier when you're in and around the fringe. Dont forget to putt, use a flat-faced club like a putter, try your 3 wood, try your 4 wood, and lastly, do the conventional way, and I guarantee you that will help you.

Copyright 2006 David Nevogt

David Nevogt writes golf instruction material that helps golfers of all levels reach their full potential and lower their scores. David is the author of "The simple Golf Swing" which guarantees to have you shooting 7 strokes lower in only 1 week from today. You can find more of his golf instruction by going to http://www.golfswingguru.com

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How A Home Water Filter Can Reduce Your Child's Risk Of Learning Disabilities

Lead is one of the most dangerous toxins a person can be exposed to in his lifetime. Besides damage from radioactive or nuclear chemicals, significant exposure to lead can cause some of the most severe and even fatal health effects possible.

It seems to be fairly common knowledge that lead is dangerous and that one should avoid exposure to lead whenever possible. Fewer and fewer paints are lead-based and leaded gasoline has been almost entirely phased out. People all over the world are now making concerted efforts to protect themselves from this dangerous metal.

Without doubt, most, if not all, parents would agree that they would like to protect their children from the damaging effects of lead exposure and ingestion. Most parents would also agree that they are doing an adequate job of protecting their children from lead exposure. Still, these same parents (unknowingly) may be exposing and even encouraging their children to take lead into their bodies each and every day.

So, where does this lead come from and why does nobody seem to know about it? The answer to these questions lies in the water we take into our bodies each day. The seemingly safe tap water of most homes in the United States contains lead. When we drink this water untreated, we are consistently allowing lead to poison the inner workings of our bodies.

In most homes built before 1978, lead from lead-soldered pipes in the plumbing system corrodes into drinking water as that water passes through pipes on its way to faucets. From the pipes to the faucet, lead infiltrates our drinking water and makes its way into our bodies and our childrens bodies. Municipal water treatment plants cannot control for this contaminant in water; therefore, lead continues to make its way into our water, with little or no regulation. In order to remove this dangerous contaminant from drinking water, it is absolutely vital to employ a point- of-use water filter.

Clearly, we all know that lead is dangerous and that we should make efforts to avoid it, but what exactly is so very dangerous about lead? It is only a naturally occurring metal, after all, and iron--another naturally occurring metal--is supposed to be good for the body. Lead, however, while dangerous for all people, leads to particularly damaging health and mental problems in babies and young children. Lets first examine the general damaging health effects of lead ingestion and then focus specifically on the results of lead poisoning for babies and small children.

General health Effects of Lead
Short-term exposure to large amounts of lead has been known to cause severe vomiting, cramping, convulsions, coma, and even death. While such exposure is increasingly unlikely in todays world, even relatively low-level exposure to lead can cause some significant health problems. Lead is a leading cause of anemia, a syndrome that affects more than 3.5 million people in the United States. Continued exposure to lead can also affect nervous system functioning, resulting in impairment of mental functioning, difficulty in memory and concentration, and inability to sleep. A lifetime of exposure to lead can adversely affect kidney functioning. Lead poisoning is also a leading cause of high blood pressure, one of the current deadliest conditions for individuals in the United States. Consistently rising numbers of high blood pressure and anemia cases--syndromes that have not traditionally been connected to lead poisoning--should certainly be considered when discussing the role of lead ingestion on the body.

Effects of Lead Poisoning on Babies and Young Children
Lead is especially damaging to babies and small children, due to the relative ease at which their bodies absorb the contaminant and the sensitive nature of their developing brains. Concerning the impact of lead poisoning on children, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency recently stated, Childhood lead poisoning remains a major environmental health problem in the U.S.. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one out of every 22 children has high levels of lead in his blood.

Lead poisoning gives rise to several damaging health conditions in young childrens developing bodies. The younger the child is, the more damaging lead poisoning can be. The long-term effects of exposure to lead for young children include learning disabilities, hyperactivity, depressed growth, hearing impairments, and even brain damage.

For pregnant women, ingestion of lead can result in a host of birth defects and developmental problems for their growing babies. Ingestion of lead is particularly harmful to babies during the critical third trimester of pregnancy. Lead can pass into a babys body through breast-feeding, as well.

Diagnoses of hyperactivity and learning disabilities are growing by leaps and bounds in public schools, perhaps because of so much unknowing exposure to lead and increasing cases of lead poisoning.

What You Can Do
Knowing what we do about lead and its effects on our children and ourselves, what can we do to prevent exposure to this dangerous metal? There are several approaches--all of them important--that you can take now to protect yourself and your family. Firstly, it is important to keep your home clean and dust-free because much of your childs exposure to lead comes from dirt and dust on the floor. It is also incredibly important to have your child tested for lead poisoning if you suspect or notice any of the symptoms. With early treatment, many of these problems can be quickly alleviated.

It is also absolutely vital to begin, or continue using, a home water filtration system. Untreated tap water is likely the culprit of the majority of you and your childs exposure to lead. A simple home water filter can remove lead quickly and easily to ensure that you and your family are protected from the volatile, dangerous nature of this metal.

Every parent wants to give her children every opportunity possible to succeed; taking a few minutes to provide clean, healthy water to drink is one of the best and easiest ways to accomplish this goal.

Vanessa Lausch is a writer for http://www.historyofwaterfilters.com/ - online source for water information.

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