While I am not recommending that you actually just read emails to lose weight, but here is the point. A steady diet of e-mails can change people's outlook and behaviour regarding healthier eating and increased physical activity, according to a new study of about 2,500 Canadian workers. In an article published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, the 12-week study looked at the effectiveness of e-mails received at the workplace in promoting healthy exercise and eating regimes.

In other words, if you are somehow fed with positive messages about weight loss, dieting, and healthy eating, you are more likely to respond to these by actually doing the things that help you lose weight - that is, proper diet, fewer calories, and regular exercises.

The study "must be viewed with caution since the changes reported are based on self-report and the effect sizes are generally small," said Dr. Jennifer B. McClure, a scientific investigator with the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle. Nevertheless, she said, "The findings are encouraging and they add to other recent data which suggest that using e-mail to deliver well-designed communications could be an effective way to encourage and promote health behaviours."

How to get positive messages about a great body?

1. Visit websites to articles on health and fitness. Some websites also have newsletters that you can subscribe to. Subscribe to magazines and buy books that appeal to you.
2. Find friends that are also interested in a healthy lifestyle or are trying to lose weight and form a group. Then ask each one to help others by sending positive emails or text messages about cooking, dieting, and exercising.
3. Ask a healthy friend or family member to be your Great Body Mentor. This person can be there to motivate you to work on your goals for dieting and exercising.

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Yoga is no doubt a very relaxing exercise, but it is also physically demanding. It gives great flexibility to the body and increases muscle strength. Yoga also helps to practice good breathing and calming techniques. At the same time, it puts you in touch with your body. These are some of the reasons why yoga is great during pregnancy. (Related article: Birth control choices for women)

No wonder then that Yoga is very popular in Hollywood, especially among famous actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Cindy Crawford, and of course, the drop-dead gorgeous Reese Witherspoon. These busy moms have practiced yoga prior to getting pregnant and continued the practice during and after pregnancy.

Yoga has reportedly helped skinny Reese Witherspoon to stay fit during pregnancy and recover her figure after that. Reese took classes with Gurmukh, the famous kundalini yoga teacher and creator of the yoga for pregnancy technique called “The Khalsa Way.”

Cindy Crawford also took classes with Gurmukh during pregnancy. One of her labors lasted 17 hours. Cindy has declared that yoga helped her to recover her figure after the pregnancy.
It is said that Gwyneth Paltrow practices 90 minutes of yoga a day. Gwyneth also practiced yoga while pregnant.

Should you also do Yoga if you are pregnant?

While yoga is popular, it is not quiet mainstream as yet. However, many people have the misconception that yoga is boring, too quiet, linked to eastern religions and many other myths. Yoga is quieter than heart pumping aerobics with rock music in the background. While Yoga started in ancient India and was an integral part of Hinduism, most practitioners of Yoga can choose to practice the secular version. It does not have to be linked to any religion. You do not even have to be a religious person to practice Yoga.

We also do not think it is boring. It has a lot of postures and breathing exercises that make it different, but if you do not enjoy exercises that require concentration, perhaps Yoga is not for you. There are many types of yoga and some can be extremely challenging.

Can you practice yoga during pregnancy if you have never done Yoga before?

You have to ask your doctor and check in your area for yoga studios that offer yoga for pregnant women. Generally speaking, you can practice yoga during pregnancy even if you have never practiced it before. There will be positions that maybe to challenging for you and your instructor will give you instructions, but still you can benefit from the breathing exercises and positions to increase flexibility and stamina.

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For the longest time, scientists were intrigued that people in the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Srilanka) had practically no instances of skin cancer. Sunscreens are practically unknown, and in a region where home heating is non-existent, the only way to stay warm is to sit in the sun during cold winter months. Initially it was assumed that the low rate of skin cancer was due to their darker skin color. But in this part of the world, not everyone is dark, and still skin cancer is rare. And so are other cancers. The incidence of the top four cancers in the US is ten times lower in India. Scientists may now know the answer and it may provide some natural choices for those who want to avoid skin cancer.

The secret lies in the delicious curries that people in the Indian subcontinent consume every day. And a curry simply cannot be cooked without using turmeric powder which contains a compound called curcumin. Scientists from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center conclude that curcumin stops laboratory strains of melanoma from proliferating and pushes the cancer cells to commit suicide.

Ground from the root of the Curcuma longa plant, curcumin is a member of the ginger family. It has long been utilized for multiple uses: as a food-preservative, a coloring agent, a folk medicine to cleanse the body, and as a spice to flavor food (two to five percent of turmeric is curcumin, for example).

So how can you add turmeric to your diet?

While regular meals at Indian restaurants may provide you with some turmeric, what will really be effective is to make turmeric a regular part of your diet. And in order to do so, you do not have to eat only Indian curries. Since saffron became expensive, Mexican chefs have been using turmeric as a substitute. It gives the color and hardly anyone notices the difference. In other words, no matter what you cook, you may be able to add a little bit of turmeric to some of your dishes.

You may also want to learn to cook some Indian dishes at home. While Indian cuisine sounds very exotic and difficult to cook, the reality is that once you have all the spices, it is easy to make a curry. Curry goes well with rice and almost any type of bread from the supermarket. I personally like to put curry as a spread on Italian or pita bread.

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Tom Cruise, Scientology, and depression

Tom Cruise has recently started to attack anti-depressant drugs and has dragged Brooke Shields into the controversy. She did not sit quiet after she was criticized and has struck back in an op-ed piece in The New York Times, criticizing Cruise's "ridiculous rant." This controversy among two people, who are not scientists, has left most people highly confused. Here are a few facts to remember:

1. Cruise's beliefs are based on his religion - Scientology. The founder of Scientology was neither a scientist nor did he use any scientific principles to formulate his theories. Like any religion, these are beliefs based on faith. For those who believe, they are true; for those who don't, these are baseless arguments.
2. Apart from the followers of Scientologists, no one else takes seriously the theories of psychiatry developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. There is no body of evidence that shows that any of the principles proposed by Hubbard can stand scientific scrutiny. However, decades of research and data support psychiatry and psychology.
3. The market for anti-depressant drugs like Prozac, Adderall, Ritalin, etc. is huge, adding up to tens of billions of dollars worldwide. Some of the world's largest drug firms sell drugs to combat depression. The number of Americans using antidepressants is so high that the US is often referred to as the "Prozac Nation."
4. Drug firms fund most of the research in the United States and can not only influence the outcome of a study but can also bar publication of data that may be harmful to the prospects of a drug.
5. The FDA has very close ties to the drug industry and not only relies on it for funding but also for research data. It rarely takes a view that is likely to harm the interests of the industry.
6. American doctors and scientists often receive research grants and other favors from the drug industry and rarely question the pharmaceutical industry.
7. The American political system relies heavily on lobbyists, advocacy groups, foundations, research establishments, think tanks, etc. that often publish studies and data without disclosing their contributors. A lot of these studies make it appear as if diseases are exploding and more drugs is the solution.
8. Antidepressant drugs are currently being investigated by the FDA for increasing suicidal tendencies.

So what does it mean for you?

• Mental illness is a reality. Researchers supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have found that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, and that despite effective treatments, there are long delays — sometimes decades — between first onset of symptoms and when people seek and receive treatment. The study also reveals that an untreated mental disorder can lead to a more severe, more difficult to treat illness, and to the development of co-occurring mental illnesses. The survey found that in the U.S., mental disorders are quite common; 26 percent of the general population reported that they had symptoms sufficient for diagnosing a mental disorder during the past 12 months. However, many of these cases are mild or will resolve without formal interventions.
• Mental illness patients can receive tremendous benefit if they are in a loving environment and friends and family members who support them as they fight the illness. Most doctors agree that professional help, including prescription of drugs, can significantly reduce the recovery time.
• In other words, if you are suffering from depression or any other mental illness, it makes sense to work with your doctor, while seeking the support of friends and family members.

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