Grapefruit May Turn Your Medications Deadly, Study Finds

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The amount of common medications that interact poorly with grapefruit juice is steadily increasing, says Canadian researchers -- and the results can be deadly.

“When I say sudden death, I’m not being sensational,” said Dr. David Bailey, a clinical pharmacologist who is the head author of the study linking grapefruits to health risks for those on meds.

Wil Wheaton Opens Up On Depression

Wil Wheaton image from Wikipedia

"I haven’t ever talked about this in public, but today’s a good day to start."

Inspired by a post on suicide by Jenny Lawson,  actor and blogger Wil Wheaton opened up on his own thoughts about -- and experiences with -- depression. What followed was a frank and inspirational snapshot of his own struggles and triumphs:

Your Facebook Friends Might Be Stressing You Out

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We think of the time we spend on social media sites like Facebook as being something relaxing -- a rare treat in a day full of work and stress. But what if Facebook itself is adding to our stress?

That's the subject of this article from the Atlantic, that cites an University of Edinburgh Business School study's surprising findings: the more friends you have on Facebook, the more stressed out you are about maintaining them.

"Ideal Weight" For Americans Increasing, Study Shows

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The "ideal weight" Americans feel they should strive for has increased in the last two decades, a recent Gallup poll has shown -- with the average "ideal" cited as 165 pounds.

According to the poll, U.S. men claimed their ideal weight to 185 pounds, their actual weight being on average 196 pounds. This ideal weight goal is 14 pounds heavier than the "ideal" 20 years ago.

5 Reasons To Wake Up Early

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I've made it a habit to get up earlier nowadays, around 5:30 in the morning. Doing so, I'm following in the footsteps of what apparently a number of successful people have done and do every day; this post from Business Insider lists 23 such individuals, including Disney CEO Bob Iger (4:30), Benjamin Franklin (5:00) and Brooklyn Industries CEO Lexy Funk (4:00).

It might seem hard to get up earlier -- but I've found no great feeling of "sleep deprivation" by doing so. Which is to say, I don't really "miss" the extra hour or two of sleep I don't get.

Here are five reasons waking up early can be to your advantage:

Five Steps To Achieve Your Heart's Desire

image by aussiegall on Flickr

There's a quote from "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho that I've always been very inspired by:

"When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."

Did you ever really want something so much -- like to get that big break, or find the perfect home or car -- and then a bunch of coincidences happened that almost literally led you your goal? Maybe you met the right contact at the right time, or saw an ad in a particular website, or took a way home from work different than you usually do?

Chia Seeds Make The Jump From Novelty To Health Food

what chia is most commonly known for

I'm sure everybody knows about Chia Pets, those clay figurines that grow "hair" and "fur" in the form of plants. Now chia seeds themselves are becoming the latest health fad, being recognized for its fiber, protein and -- most importantly -- omega-3 fatty acid content.

Getting "Clean" And Kicking The Toxins Out Once And For All

Image by kaibara on Flickr

Over the past several years, I found myself settling back into a routine I thought I had left behind: eating poorly, relying caffeine and sugar as my "fuel" for the daily work grind, and kicking back at night with alcoholic beverages. My daily "ritual" didn't seem to be that much different than that of large sections of my peer group: it was all "normal" ways to stay productive, unwind, and generally "enjoy life."

My body was crap. It felt like crap.

Two months ago, I decided to attend a free "wellness" evaluation at my place of work. Blood test, body mass index, weighing, blood pressure, etc. And what the registered nurse told me shocked me. No, actually it didn't shock me at all. But it was bad:

5 Tips For Remembering Your Dreams (And Making Them Memorable!)

I've been recording my dreams, on-and-off, since 1992. That's a lot of damn dreams. Through it all, via book research & personal observation, I developed a methodology of dreaming that you might find helpful.

WARNING: The more you record & pay attention to your dreams, the more vivid and long and weird they are going to get. Trust me. If at any time during this experiment (which would take several weeks to really kick in) you are too freaked out, just stop recording the dreams. Drop all attention to them, and they will fade out. The Dreamtime can be like an "attention whore".

The Quest For Quiet

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"The Quiet Ones," an op-ed in the New York Times by Tim Kreider, addresses an issue I personally struggle with on a daily basis: noise pollution. It makes you irritable at best, and at worst, according to this article, it could even be detrimental to your health.

In the Big City, I just can't avoid noise. But neither, in appears, can the people on Amtrak's "Quiet Car":

"Not long ago a couple across the aisle from me in a Quiet Car talked all the way from New York City to Boston, after two people had asked them to stop. After each reproach they would lower their voices for a while, but like a grade-school cafeteria after the lunch monitor has yelled for silence, the volume crept inexorably up again. It was soft but incessant, and against the background silence, as maddening as a dripping faucet at 3 a.m. All the way to Boston I debated whether it was bothering me enough to say something. As we approached our destination a professorial-looking man who’d spoken to them twice got up, walked back and stood over them. He turned out to be quite tall. He told them that they’d been extremely inconsiderate, and he’d had a much harder time getting his work done because of them."

Glenny's Low Fat Soy Crisps: God's Gift To Dieters

Well, this is pretty much the perfect snack food for me, at any rate. Picture it: you're at the office and need a quick "munchie". You go downstairs to the magazine shop or deli and are looking for a healthy alternative to potato chips and the like -- well, good luck with that! Unless your shop stocks Glenny's Soy Chips.

And many shops do, which makes them the ideal"last minute" snack for me. Their low-fat & lightly salted variety is indeed low on fat (1gram, no trans fat), relatively low carbs and sugar (9g and 1g, respectively, with 1 g of dietary fiber), and high on protein (5 grams!). Only 70 calories per serving.

A Secret To Abundance: Give, And Ye Shall Receive

Image by Hamed Saber on Flickr

Holding On = Low Abundance
 Let's start this off by establishing that I have been, by nature, a low-grade hoarder. High-grade hoarder, to me, would be like having mummified cats under ancient boxes of stuff inside your house. Medium-grade would be no mummified cats or hazmat-level foul odor, but a deep resistance/hostility to decluttering. I consider myself low-grade because while I do accumulate "stuff" (often needlessly), I also regularly declutter with a vengeance.

I find that in my periods of accumulation and hoarding, I experience a lot of "stuck" energy. I feel at those periods of my life like I'm in a rut, and nothing is moving. Also, while I do have so much stuff surrounding me, I also feel a great "lack" -- a lack spiritually, and often a lack monetarily. The lack of money happens whether I'm spending money on my "stuff" or receiving them for free. Hoarding = low heavy energy surrounding me and my "stuff" in one big LUMP.

"Healthy" Cereal With High Sugar Content

image by kaibara87 on Flickr

Here is a current bugaboo that is bedeviling me as I write this, my soggy plastic cup of sugary cereal staring at me from my desk.

I didn't have much time to get into work today, so I decided to buy my breakfast at a little bodega-type place. Truly healthy options seemed slim, but one item was promising: Kellogg's "Smart Start Antioxidants" (yes, that is the real title) cereal, packaged in a handy, single-serving size.

This cereal seemed to have it all: "Original Antioxidants" in big letters, STRONG HEART posted under that (with a helpful graphic of a heart). On the side of the container was a green "call out" that boasted "Good Source of FIBER."

5 Divination Methods You Can Do Yourself

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With a bit of research, a lot of practice, and some faith, you can be your own "fortune teller." While I can't promise you will always "see" the future like a Nostradamus, using divination techniques can be a great tool for self-discovery.

Here's a quick introduction to five methods of divination I am very familiar with that you can learn to do yourself.

The Socrates "Three Questions" Test For News And Gossip

art by Tom Richmond

I really liked this anecdote attributed to Socrates -- which I came across in the book "The Attractor Factor" by Joe Vitale -- about avoiding the poison of negative news and gossip. Please don't feel like I'm translating this direct from the original Greek -- I'm paraphrasing.

One day a man ran up to Socrates, shouting to him: "I've got some mind-blowing news to tell you!"

Socrates held up his hand calmly and interrupted the man:

"This sounds cool, but I have three questions to ask you before you impart this news to me."

How To Navigate Through Negative Online News

How do we avoid the clutter of negativity?
(photo credit: The Sean & Lauren Spectacular on Flickr)

Currently, I'm reading a book by Joe Vitale called "The Attractor Factor," about how we can bring more abundance into our lives by clarifying our goals and keeping a positive viewpoint. In a chapter called "Step One: The Springboard," he discusses how we "create" our own life situations by our mindset, and how the world outside us is a reflection of that. More specifically, Vitale advises that what we "take in" to our mind will work to create our life situation (positive or negative):

"One way to protect yourself from the negative influences of the world at large is to abstain from them...I don't watch the news or read the papers. After a while you begin to see how you are fed one-sided, negative heavy news. None of it is designed to help my well-being."

Nostalgic "Real Sugar" Soft Drinks: A New "Health" Fad"?

Recently, I tried a soft drink called Moxie Original Elixir. I try to avoid anything with a large sugar content -- that covers most soft drinks in general -- but was assured by my hubby that if I had to drink any soda at all, it should be one that has real cane sugar like Moxie -- not containing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is the industry standard.

BUT

After checking on the official Moxie website, I found out that normally, the soft drink DOES contain high fructose corn syrup. What I drank in a Park Slope, Brooklyn bar was the nostalgic version of Moxie. Moxie Original Elixir uses cane sugar. Moxie "regular" lists high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar" as its second ingredient, after carbonated water.

Glutino Cheddar Crackers Really Puts On The Ritz

If you're looking for a gluten-free alternative to Ritz Crackers, you could do no better than Glutino's cheddar alternative. As you munch on these Glutinos, you'll definitely get "Ritz" flashbacks -- but without the gastronomical distress for those with gluten intolerance and celiac disease.

Each box contains two convenient separate foil bags of crackers -- better to discourage an addictive snacking of the entire package. Share one of the packages with friend or family, and you've just had your serving portion for the day; the rest of the crackers remain fresh in the second package.

Learn When To Sway: Lessons Learned From Hurricane Sandy

World turned upside-down, roots coming to light

I haven't updated this blog in a good long while...so long, in fact, that I was actually embarrassed to go back to it. Like a cat who trips or accidentally walks into a wall, then acts like it meant to do it. "Oh, I had started this thing, but then it dropped off the map like so many things do..."