When you lay your head on your pillow tonight, will you be happy with who you are? As you reflect on the day, are you pleased with life as you know it and as you live it?

Check out Maria’s story . . .
My husband and I were married for 7 years. In the beginning, it seemed as though he loved everything about me, but after a year, things began to change. Maybe I took it for granted at first that he must have been happy with me, since he always seemed to be happy.

During the pregnancy of our first child, he began to criticize my appearance. No matter how I dressed or how I wore my hair, he wasn’t satisfied. I knew that he was embarrassed to be seen in public with me as my size increased more and more. After our daughter was born, I joined an aerobics class, watched my diet and returned to my weight that I maintained before we were married. However, he continued to be critical of what I wore and how I looked.

Written by Judith Blakley

I teasingly tell my family and friends that I’m stocking up on pau d’arco for the bird flu. It’s not my cure for the bird flu, its only one part of my arsenal against this impending doom. Laugh, but I’m serious. Pau d’arco has become my miracle cure for just about everything.

I found this herbal product while searching desperately for something to get rid of a thrush infection that was due to the strength of the antibiotics I had been taking. Amazingly, I got this infection in spite of eating yogurt everyday. I was not in the mood to sit at the doctor’s office, so I went to the health food store. I found several herbal remedies for thrush, which all included pau d’arco. I became intrigued and asked if they carried it in a stand-alone product. They did. It came in pill and liquid form. Having used herbal remedies for over fifteen years, I knew that whenever you could get something in a liquid form, take that option.

Written by Judith Blakley

Rooibos tea is also known as African Red Tea for its location and rich red color. Rooibos is grown in a relatively small area of South Africa and is named for the African word for red bush. Even though it has been used for generations in South Africa, it is quickly becoming a favorite around the world due to its unique flavor and great health benefits.

We cannot keep rooibos tea in my household because everyone loves it. Celestial Seasonings has five varieties of herbal teas which feature rooibos, and our favorite is Madagascar Vanilla Red. Rooibos tea has a sweet fruity, yet nutty flavor that requires no added sweeteners. This interesting mixture of flavors is why we keep going back for more.

Written by Judith Blakley

I suffer from chronic pain, but do not want to live my life medicated. I search for alternative ways to deal with my arthritis and fibromyalgia. My doctor is fantastic in that he acknowledges and understands the uses of herbal remedies. He helps his patients find a balance of natural remedies and prescription drugs. I appreciate this approach to medicine and find myself sending patients his way.

Written by: Judith Blakley

I was talking with a new friend about various different pain remedies, and she mentioned that she had a problem with migraines. I shared my methods of dealing with them, and realized I need to share them with everyone. I find myself telling people how I get rid of my migraines all the time. I’m one of those people who talks to everyone in the supermarket.

I get migraines off and on throughout the year. I may go a whole year without one, and then be bogged down with one attack after another. Fifteen years ago, I even took medication for them. I hated the way they stole your day and forced you to lie in bed hoping the nausea would go away.

I know there are many new medications on the market, but I live with chronic pain, so I try to avoid adding more prescriptions with all their side effects. Through trial and error, I found three remedies which work well for me.

Eucalyptus Oil

Written by: Judith Blakley

Managed care programs and health insurance companies, who successfully cut costs by shortening hospital stays, have inadvertently caused an increase of referrals to long-term care facilities. Physicians have begun sending patients to nursing homes for post-surgical and extended medical care. Accident survivors, slip and fall victims and those injured while working, are finding themselves in these long-term care facilities.

Nursing homes are changing their names from nursing facilities to rehabilitation centers. The demand is higher for extended nursing care than traditional geriatric care. In many cases, the name change does little more than change the business' name. Federal and State regulations are still geared towards geriatric needs. The nursing and therapeutic needs of these new patients is greater, and the staffing within these facilities has not changed to meet those needs.

Check your freedom at the door

My grandfather told me once that he drank a cup of hot water with a mixture of vinegar and honey stirred in every day. He claimed that it gave him energy and stamina.
Gregory Nestor, one of the world’s oldest humans, credits his longevity to barefoot walks, sour milk and never being married. Bi Deben from Beijing says he must eat meat every day. Deben, who is now 103 says he feels uneasy without his daily intake of meat.

Centenarians share many similarities with healthy habits, including exercise, strength training, diet and stress reduction. Many believe that being socially active is key to a long life and studies have shown that they experience less depression, stronger immune systems and lower incidence of heart disease.

By JAMES RAIA
www.montereypeninsula.org

More than childhood baseball with my father as coach, home-cooked meals are what I remember most about my youth.

My parents enjoyed preparing and eating food with our family of four. My mother is of German heritage, my father Sicilian. Through the years, that meant the cuisine in our home ranged from Pasta Fasul (white bean with spaghetti) to Rouladen (bacon rolled inside red meat slices). My mother was (and still is at nearly age 80), as good a cook as any renowned chef. My father learned along the way during their 42-year marriage.

"What would you like to have for dinner?" my mother often asked when we were sick, celebrating birthdays or visiting from college. (Even today, she still treats us to "comfort food.")

The term comfort food wasn't commonly used, but that's what the occurrences were — family visits centered around the comforts of home-cooked food.