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From Handling Holiday Stress to How to Dress the Table, Life123.com Can Help

Thanksgiving celebrations are as typically American as Apple/Cherry/Pumpkin pie and as individual as the reasons people have to be thankful. Still, hosting or attending a Thanksgiving dinner is often not an easy, stress-free experience.

For starters, Thanksgiving requires lots of advance planning and prepping, made more challenging because it always falls during the workweek. And, for those mini-Marthas that need to create spectacular centerpieces and positively perfect place-settings right down to the autumnally festooned napkin rings, the house can be abuzz with arts and crafts before Election Day ends.

Even guests, though spared the cares of the pre-company house cleaning; home-cooking, and the annual defrosting of behemoth-sized birds in the bathtub, often endure arduous hours of travel or worse, hours of mind-numbing waiting to travel.

Thanksgiving is also frequently fraught with the pressures of maintaining family traditions from replicating Mom’s recipes to whose Mom’s recipes to use; who carves the beast, and whether it is necessary to have the relish style fresh cranberry sauce and the jelled variety with its elegantly shimmering can lines.

Far more than a cranberry sauce resource or a time/ temperature guide to roasting turkey, Life123(TM) tackles the thorny questions that make many other sites head for the sidelines.

Indeed, www.Life123.com visitors need only type “Thanksgiving” into its search box to pull up tips on everything from hosting a first Thanksgiving and creating crafty table settings and cornucopia to safe food handling and recipes for savory cornbread, varieties of fresh Cranberry relish, and that sweet seasonal staple, pumpkin pie. For those imbued with a love of historic Thanksgiving traditions, there’s even a section of Native American and Colonial recipes. (For a related topic, type “football” into the site’s search box).

Like life, Life123.com is not comprised solely of heaping helpings followed by days of leftovers (though there are five recipes for turkey casserole on the site). There’s also a wealth of money-saving tips; ways to cope with holiday stress (like those intrusive questions from well-meaning relatives) and even pointers on how to not completely decimate one’s diet.

And lest we forget … According to Life123.com’s feature Hold Your First Thanksgiving Dinner Without Going Crazy, “a turkey needs approximately 20 minutes per pound to cook (based on a 325-degree oven).”

Source: Life123.com

Filed under : Advice, Chat, Family & Home, Food

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Mothers Who Smoked During Pregnancy More Than Twice as Likely to Have a Baby With a Cleft Lip or Palate

Babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were more than twice as likely to have a cleft palate or lip as those whose mothers didn’t, according to research results released today.

Although the study confirms earlier findings, it is unique because it did not rely on women’s self-reported smoking habits during pregnancy. Instead, researchers used the more reliable method of measuring the levels of cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, in the blood from about 500 pregnant women.

“This research is the first time we’ve been able to measure something — in this case cotinine — and determine the risk of smoking during pregnancy for oral-facial birth defects,” said Gary M. Shaw, PhD, research director and senior epidemiologist of the March of Dimes California Research Division, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, Calif.

Nearly 7,000 babies are born annually with an oral-facial cleft in the United States. Children with oral clefts often have difficulty feeding, frequent ear infections, hearing loss, speech difficulties, and dental problems. Surgery often can repair these birth defects, which typically occur by the seventh week of pregnancy.

“The message to women is simple and clear: Don’t smoke during pregnancy or even if you are considering becoming pregnant,” said Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes.

“This research supports our 2008 Petition for Preemies, which calls on federal and state officials to include smoking cessation programs as part of maternity care. If we can help mothers quit smoking, we can help give more babies a healthy start in life,” Dr. Howse continued.

“Mid-Pregnancy Cotinine and Risks of Orofacial Clefts and Neural Tube Defects” by Shaw’s California group along with colleagues from Norway, The Netherlands, and Texas, and made possible by the California Department of Public Health soon will be published by The Journal of Pediatrics. It is available Nov. 5th online DOI reference number: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2008.08.006.

The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. Its mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. For the latest resources and information, visit marchofdimes.com or nacersano.org.

Source: March of Dimes

Filed under : Advice, Chat, Family & Home, Health & Fitness

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The art and science of hormone balancing vs. hormone replacement (HRT) is becoming the ‘new normal’ among many experts who believe that breast cancer and its risks can be prevented. According to David Zava, PH.D., biochemist/cancer researcher and co-author of the landmark book, “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Breast Cancer: How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life”, nearly all risk factors associated with breast cancer stem from an imbalance of high estrogen levels in the body.

Also known as “estrogen dominance” it is common during menopause, and in younger women who can’t ovulate regularly, causing imbalances in hormone supply.

Dr. Zava points out that, “breast cancer differs from other cancers in that it can be promoted and stimulated by specific hormones, and also slowed or stopped by specific hormones.” So as estrogen grows, multiplies and divides cells in the body, its alter-ego progesterone, acts as a check and balance to regulate growth and promote balance between these powerful hormones.

Of the thousands of lives breast cancer will claim this year the majority will be among baby boomers, posing special dangers for the millions of forty to 60-year-old women still using HRT for menopause relief. Since the Women’s Health Initiative was halted in 2002 citing greater risks for breast cancer (and other diseases) among HRT users, some two million women have switched to bioidentical hormones which mimic the body’s own natural supply. Lifestyles of natural hormone balance show a big shift towards hormone-free foods, ‘green’ products, and exercise programs designed to counteract stress.

ZRT Laboratory, founded by Dr. Zava, has pioneered research into the hormonal links to breast cancer and testing to detect hidden hormonal imbalances that can put women at risk. ZRT’s home collection kits make it convenient to collect saliva and blood spot hormone samples at the right time of the day or month and to send them to the lab by regular mail for processing. Now in its eleventh year, ZRT works with thousands of health care providers and has run over a million hormone test results.

To find information on hormone testing and a referral to a natural hormone friendly provider, visit http://www.zrtlab.com/ Women in Balance provides up to date information on natural hormone balance at http://www.womeninbalance.org/

Source: ZRT Laboratory

Filed under : Advice, Chat, Health & Fitness

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