Holistic Blog

The BBC has news about a very sensible report about the link between mobile phones and disturbed sleep:
BBC NEWS | Health | Mobiles linked to disturbed sleep

"This research suggests that if you need to make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line, and don't have your mobile by your bedside table."

What I like about this report is that you can simply prove it for yourself whether your mobile phone disturbs your sleep or not. If you are having disurbed sleep try switching off you mobile (and also not using it just before sleeping) for a week or so and see if that helps.

I have a colleague at work who claims he is sleeping much better now that he no longer keeps his mobile on while sleeping.

Maybe if you have to keep your mobile on while you sleep you can at least position it well away from you.

Mind you I can't help wondering whether part of the improved sleep has to do with knowing that the darn mobile is switched off and therefore can't ring and wake you up. However, that was not a factor in the tests in the report because of how they were conducted.

Posted by William Martin at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I heard recently about ginger being really good for motion sickness, so when my girlfriend sent me an email saying that she was getting sick on a bus journey she was taking fairly often I recommended ginger.

She does not normally get motion sickness, but she does on this particular dramatic bus trip with lots of ups and downs and lots of swerving left and right. So she tried ginger - with remarkable results.

She made some ginger tea and sipped it before and during (as cold tea in a bottle) the journey. Not only did she not feel sick, she felt comfortable enough to fall asleep on the bus. Normally she would get off that bus and have to lie down in the bus terminal seats to wait for her stomache to calm down. Not after taking ginger tea!. She was competely fine with no nausea or discomfort at all. She was delighed and I was her hero - for a little while anyway...:)

Ginger is also reckoned to be good for indigestion, fever, and infection and even weight loss.

I suspect that ginger is a good travel remedy to have around for other reasons too as it helps prevent food poisoning - which is perhaps why the Japanese often have it with sushi.

Posted by William Martin at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SDonald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas, said that of 13 major nutrients in fruits and vegetables tracked by the Agriculture Department from 1950 to 1999, six showed noticeable declines -- protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C. The declines ranged from 6 percent for protein, 15 percent for iron, 20 percent for vitamin C, and 38 percent for riboflavin.

Fruits, vegetables not as nutritious as 50 years ago

Posted by William Martin at 04:04 AM | Permalink