Most Recent Health Tips, Health News, and Easy Healthy Recipes

If you have a health challenge that is being caused by compromised blood circulation and/or chronic inflammation, I encourage you to remember the following point:

By consistently making healthy food and lifestyle choices, including the choice to get adequate physical and emotional rest, your body's self healing mechanisms stand a good chance of restoring your health.

Omega-3 fatty acids. You've probably heard a lot about their value to your health, but do you really understand the ways in which they are beneficial to your health and which foods to get them from?

If not, I hope that this article will help you make sense of omega-3 fatty acids and help you make food choices that will ensure that your cells are nourished with them on a regular basis.

While some people can overcome constipation by eating large quantities of vegetables every day, simply eating more fiber is not a guaranteed solution for every person who suffers with chronic constipation.

What follows are several action steps that I have found to be helpful for most chronic cases of constipation:

Over the years, I have found that many people aren't aware that soap should not be used to clean the vaginal opening, the tip of the penis (urethral opening), or the anal sphincter.

Regularly applying soap to these areas can cause the mucosal lining in these areas to become dry and unhealthy. A chronically dry mucosal lining can lead to a number of uncomfortable health conditions, such as anal fissures, lichen sclerosus, chronic inflammation, and a tendency to experience infections.

If you experience intermittent neck pain and/or stiffness, you may benefit from a simple routine of stretching and strengthening the dozens of skeletal muscles and ligaments that line your neck.

The most important requirement for healthy ligaments and muscles is steady blood flow to these tissues. And stretching the ligaments and muscles that line your neck is the most effective way to promote and maintain a rich supply of blood in this region.

Some thoughts from Erma Bombeck that never fail to inspire:

If I had my life to live over...

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

In July of 2008, the New York Times published an article that raised public concern over potential health hazards of living around granite countertops and floors.

At issue is whether granite emits dangerous amounts of radon, a colorless and odorless gas that is known to cause lung cancer.

If you don't have trouble digesting whole grains that contain naturally occurring gluten, oats make for a healthy and satisfying meal - a bowl of hot oatmeal is especially nice on cold fall and winter mornings.

Of the many varieties of oats on the market, your best choice is steel-cut oats, which are whole oat groats that have been cut into small pieces. Steel-cut oats are more nutritious than varieties like rolled or quick oats, which are somewhat nutrient-depleted due to heavier processing.

Originally published on January 9, 2009, updated on September 28, 2009

Over the past couple of years, I've had dozens of people recommend The Secret, a popular self-help book on the law of attraction. I have yet to read this book, but my understanding is that "the secret" boils down to this: we should continuously focus our thoughts on everything we want in life, as we tend to manifest what we regularly think about.

Most people would probably agree with the idea that visualizing a desired outcome is just one important step to manifesting that outcome. Visualizing all day long and not taking action to realize one's hopes just doesn't inspire confidence, at least not for the masses.

The star of this dish is a highly unique Korean food product: glass noodles that are made with sweet potato starch.

These gluten-free noodles are often called glass noodles because when cooked, they take on a brilliant, translucent look.

In Korean, these noodles are called dang myung, and they look like this right out of the package: