Relaxation in a bar
No, not AT the bar – that was just your wishful thinking.  We are well used to the idea of meal replacement bars, healthy and unhealthy alike, but there is now a new take on the idea. WILDBAR, apart from its odd name for something meant to relax you, has a unique ingredient in the blue-green algae called Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA) which is phenylethylamine.  Rather than scraping down the side of the fish tank, this is in a palatable form combined with raw cacao, also high in phenylet

Oh really – retirement and sleep
You have got to admire those researchers, they keep coming up with ‘new’ ideas.  Apparently a new study in the journal Sleep shows that retirement is followed by a sharp decrease in the prevalence of sleep disturbances, particularly in men, management-level workers, employees who reported high psychological job demands, and people who occasionally or consistently worked night shifts. No, really?  Guess why? Because the researchers have concluded that once you have no work-related

Natural Help For Cold Feet
If you suffer from that partnership-threatening condition known as cold feet in the back during the night then copy this out and show it to your partner. Sometimes it is just a simple matter of not being warm enough and a cosy pair of bedsocks in a natural fibre like wool, cotton or – best of all – cashmere.  For many this can solve the problem, but for others it is a year round problem and tends to be related to circulation issues.  Certain conditions such as anaemia, diabetes a

Another ‘benefit’ of statins?
The ingenuity of the pharmaceutical industry is a cause for celebration – really why Gordon Brown hasn’t handed over the economy to them is a mystery to me.  Give them a problem, like say your drug for lowering cholesterol is now marked as causing health problems, and they wave their magic wand and come up with another use for it. Now, based on a 2007-2008 analysis of 2,800 people hospitalized for flu complications during that period in Portland, USA, they are claiming that it can reduc

Tai Chi Reduces Knee Osteoarthritis Pain
I am a fan of Tai Chi for many reasons: it benefits health, stamina, flexibility, co-ordination and reduces stress.  Now it seems it can also help with osteoarthritis – particularly if you are over 65 years of age. Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine in the USA studied a group of people of that age with knee osteoarthritis and found that if performed regularly Tai Chi exercise im