Natural Remedies for Mosquito Bites

A mosquito bite is not like the sting of a wasp or bee which is an injection of poison. Mosquitoes just want a little taste of your blood, but to stop it from coagulating so that they can easily drink it, they also deposit a protein which causes an allergic reaction in some people.

It seems that some people get bitten constantly and others never have a single itch, but this is probably nothing to do with whether the insects like you. The truth is that some people do not get an allergic reaction, so they do not know they have been bitten.

The best natural remedies for mosquito bites, of course, are those that stop the little critters biting in the first place, but if it is too late for that, there are still a few things that you can try. If you ask a hundred bite-scratching people what they recommend, you may get a hundred different answers. Here are some of the most popular remedies:

Reduce Hypertension with Chocolate, Beets, Oats, and Lavender

High blood pressure is a serious condition, which may lead to heart attack or stroke. However, pharmaceuticals are not the only way to treat the condition. Home remedies, such as chocolate, beets, oats, and lavender, have been proven to help, also.

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure or HBP, affects more than 70 million Americans. High blood pressure causes damage to the blood vessels and eventually can lead to numerous side effects, such as heart disease, stroke or kidney failure, warns the American Heart Association. Home remedies can help lower blood pressure but should be undertaken with care, as hypertension is a serious medical condition. Read more

Lose Weight by Drinking Green Tea

Green tea is packed with health benefits. But did you know it also burns fat and boosts metabolism?

Using Herbs to Cure Insomnia and to Stay Asleep

If you suffer from insomnia, sleeping pills are not the only answer. Merlyn Seeley reveals how herbs can cure insomnia and help you to stay asleep.

Some time ago there was this woman from the US that said she had trouble sleeping and not just going to sleep but staying asleep as well as waking to find that she felt like she had not even slept at all. She went on to state that she had a few friends that had visited a Buddhist monastery and learned to meditate. She said that the two friends came back home and from that day on had the best sleep in their lives and never again had any sleep problems. Now this is a true story but what did the two ladies find that caused their lives to change so much? The answer is they found peace of mind. With the meditation they had learned from the monks they were able to control their thoughts and calm their minds, when a mind becomes calm the body follows along. Read more

Eating Fish Helps Prevent Eye Disease Later in Life

Many people develop eye diseases, such as macular degeneration, as they age. A new study has found that eating fish helps prevent eye diseases later in life.

A study that recently appeared in the journal Ophthalmology has found that people who eat fatty fish at least once a week are less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye disease that gradually causes vision impairment and blindness in senior adults. The study findings add to the growing list of health benefits gained by eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Read more

Natural Remedies to Lighten Hair

There are some great natural remedies to lighten hair - no need for purchased hair dyes if you have dirty blonde or mouse colored hair.

Sun

The best, purest and most natural way to get those real blonde highlights is to be out in the sun. Lie face down with clothing covering your skin and spread your hair out to drink in the rays of sunlight. Or just get out in the sun more. Anyone with blonde to medium brown hair will find that it is always lighter in summer - provided you do not stay indoors all of the time.

Do not overdo it of course. You must be careful not to become sunburned. Use a strong sun blocker on all exposed skin, and you may also consider using sun cream on your scalp.

Swimming

Swimming in either a pool or the sea and then letting your hair dry in the sun is a great way to lighten it. It's great exercise, too!

However, some of us live in climates where there is very little sun for many months of the year. What do we do then?

Hydrogen Peroxide

Mix small amounts of household ammonia and hydrogen peroxide in equal quantities. Warning: it will smell bad! Test on a small area of skin near the ear and wait 24 hours to see if there is any allergic reaction. If not, mix a fresh batch and apply to hair. Rinse off when developed. You may also want to test on a strand of hair.

Never use household bleach or any other chlorine-based product on your hair. This can destroy your hair, cause terrible damage to your skin, and possibly kill you with the fumes.

Lemon Juice

Squeeze one fresh lemon. It should give you about two tablespoons of juice. Mix this with three times the quantity of water and apply to dry hair. Leave for several hours before rinsing out. Do this every day, and your highlights should become lighter in a very natural looking way.

You may want to use more of the lemon juice/water mixture if you have very long hair and less if you have short hair.

Tea

Ordinary tea can lighten brown hair - seems crazy given the color that it is - but it's true! Make tea to a normal strength that you would drink, let it cool and then rinse your hair with it.

It is best to test a strand before using tea on your whole head. If your hair is already a light shade, it may darken it.

Some of these methods can leave your hair rather dry, so be sure to use a good conditioner for blonde hair. Shampoos and conditioners containing chamomile are great for fair hair.

Going out in the sun after using any of these natural remedies to lighten hair will increase their effectiveness.

Laugh Yourself Slim? 50 Unlikely Diet Tips That Work.

Laugh yourself slim? That's just one of the 50 very unlikely - but medically proven - diet tips that work.

We all know that in order to lose weight we need to eat less and exercise more – but research suggests there are a few other tricks when it comes to shedding the pounds. From how acupuncture can help you lose an extra 10 lb in three months to why carrot juice should be part of any slimmer's daily diet, here we give a round up of the Top 50 diet tips.

1. To work out just how many calories you can eat daily, multiply your ideal body weight in pounds by 14.

2. People who have acupuncture once a week lose an extra 4.5 kg (10 lb) in three months. Applying needles at pressure points is thought to trigger electrical pulses that suppress appetite.

3. Sprinkle cinnamon into a yoghurt each day to burn fat. The spice is a powerful metabolism-raiser. Half a teaspoon a day is enough to burn an extra kilo a month.

4. Take lunch breaks away from your desk. You'll consume 250 fewer calories in a day than those who eat as they work.

5. Have a laugh. A good strong laugh for 10–15 minutes a day increases weekly energy consumption by up to 280 calories. Read more

Your Herbal Medicine Cabinet

One of the world's top herbal authorities advises us on how to get the most out of natural remedies ranging from aloe vera and ginger to slippery elm and elderberry.

Fish Oil May Reduce Cancer Risk

Fish oil is an easy-to-find and relatively inexpensive dietary supplement, which helps heart health and inflammation. A new study finds that it may also reduce cancer risk.

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil supplements may help reduce the risk of breast cancer, a new study suggests. The findings, though preliminary, are very intriguing, said Marie Savard, M.D. on Good Morning America.

As part of a larger study investigating a link between cancer and supplements, 35,000 women completed an extensive survey using 15 different supplements, with fish oil being the only one found to have a significant effect. Read more

101 Problems That Yoga Can Cure

Yoga has a number of health benefits. In fact, there are 101 problems that yoga can cure.

Many people probably consider yoga as the sole domain of pretentious yuppies appropriating the tenets of another culture in order to seem sophisticated and hip. In reality, the discipline actually boasts an impressive plethora of health benefits suitable for people of all ages and physical conditions. Patients suffering from diseases as diverse as cancer to obsessive-compulsive disorder can find some facet of yoga to ease much of their physical, mental and emotional pain. The following list peers into the various ways in which yoga can actually benefit treatment, though it does not intend to replace or reflect professional advice in any way. As with any physical activities, be sure to consult a physician before attempting a yoga regimen in order to understand any limitations that may possibly result in an injury. Read more

First Sleep, Second Sleep: Our Natural Sleep Pattern

Many people think waking up in the middle of the night is insomnia and take sleeping pills in order to sleep through the night. History tells us, though, that broken sleep is natural sleep.

Sleep in times past
In the course of gathering information for his book about night in preindustrial times (At Day's Close: Night in Times Past), A. Roger Ekirch, professor of history at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, uncovered the fact that before artificial illumination was widely used, people typically slept in 2 bouts, which they called first sleep and second sleep.¹ In those times, sleep was more closely tied to sunset and sunrise than it is now. Within an hour or so after sunset, people retired to bed, slept for about 4 hours, and then woke up. They remained awake for a couple of hours and then returned to sleep at about 2 am for another 4 hours or so.

Written records from before the first century onward indicate that the period between first and second sleep afforded a chance for quiet contemplation, but people also got out of bed during this interval and did household chores or visited with family and friends. Although diaries, court documents, and literature of the time indicate that this sleep pattern was widely known and acknowledged, until Ekirch's work this bit of history had been lost to the current era. This pattern of sleep is no longer the norm in developed countries, where artificial light extends the day, but anthropologists have observed a similar pattern of segmented sleep in some contemporary African tribes.¹ Ekirch notes that the Tiv people of central Nigeria even use the same terms—first sleep and second sleep—used by the Europeans of times past. Read more

Natural Sex Enhancers

From chocolate to yohimbe, find out how natural sex enhancers and sexual herbs can be helpful to your sex life.