No mints? Here's help.

Want some sweeter breath?

Women's Day says that you don't need a breath mint; try grabbing an apple, some yogurt, or parsley!

Yep- apples can help remove plaque from your teeth, and the fruit helps you produce more saliva, which can stop bad breath. The American Dietetic Association claims that people who ate yogurt every day for 6 weeks were able to decrease levels of smelly hydrogen sulfide by 80%, and as for parsley? Turns out the sprig isn't just for decoration; it contains chlorophyll, which helps freshen your breath from the inside out.

Make your own costume

Halloween costumes can cost you a small fortune so why not make yours and save some money?

Need some ideas?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Kids in the United States aren't getting the health care they need, especially in the area of prevention, a new study shows.

"Children in the U.S. receive only 46 percent of the care that they should be getting, so they receive worse care than adults in this country, who get 55 percent of needed care," said the study author. Information on the quality and safety of adult health-care in the United States has been well-documented, but information on children's health care has been scant, the study authors stated.

Physicians need to be trained better in preventive care. Right now, the emphasis is on dealing with acute illness.

Ladies, talk about sex - it's good for you!

Ladies, think twice before you decide to hold back your sexual frustrations from your partner.
It’s not only bad for your relationship, it could also be harmful to your health, according to recent studies. Not surprisingly, sex is one of the main reasons people argue, often above money, housework and other common sources of conflict. Sex is also one of those subjects that women tend to keep bottled up because they’re afraid of an angry reaction. You can be lying in bed next to someone and feel a million miles apart from them. But self-silencing and bottling up emotions around sex leads to sever depression, anxiety and often infidelity.

Hide veggies in Popeye soup

Popeye Soup recipe

-3 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 package of spinach
- a ‘bunch’ of collard greens
- a ‘bunch’ of kale
- A small package of baby carrots (or any you may have….but,baby carrots add a sweetness)
- ½ a head of colliflower
- 1 piece of pumpkin
- a handful of green beans
- ½ an onion
- a sliver of green papper
-chicken boullon cube

First I cut up the onion and green pepper. I cook them in the pan with a bit of olive oil (or vegetable).I throw in the three chicken breasts just for a couple of minuites to bring out the flavor (approx 2 minuites per side). Then I put in the water(nearnly to the top of the pan. I add one chicken boullon cubeand salt or seasoning of your choice.I boil this for about 20 to 30 min.(depends on the pumpkin).When the pumpkin is begginning to become tender I add everything else and let it boil for another 20 to 30 min. This is an extremely simple recipe to make. You can skip the first steps with the chicken breast and just throw everthing in the pot and let it cook.Then you puree it all.You will probably be getting different colors out of you puree depending on what you put in the blender that particular time but don’t worry you mix everything when you finish.May need to re salt before eating but that is up to you!

Popeye song
I’M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN…TOOT TOOT,
I;M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN…TOOT TOOT
I’M STRONG TO THE FINISH CAUSE I EAT MI SPINACH,
I’M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN TOOT TOOT!!!

Compliments of Martha Matias from Hialeah

Hackers! Worms! And Viruses! Oh my!

Last night I'm sufing the web looking for show content and some how I ended up on a naughty website...funny how you put an innocent word in a search engine and you end up in the gutter.

The mili-second your computer goes online, you might as well throw out a welcome mat in front of your virtual door inviting a not-so-friendly-neighborhood hacker to come on in, at least that's what the authors of Internet Privacy for Dummies say.
Those authors -- John R. Levine, Ray Everett-Church and Gregg Stebben -- have come to the rescue jam-packed with info in the usual wacky-fun spirit of the Dummies series.
You'll ogle oodles of tips in an easy-to-read way such as there six things your ISP doesn't want you to know it knows:

Every Web site you've ever visited -- even the ones you mistakenly visited
Every e-mail and instant message you've ever sent and received and perhaps even written but then thought better of sending
Everything you've ever said in every chat session you've ever had
Everything you've ever bought over the Internet
Everything you've ever considered buying over the Internet
Possibly who and how much you have paid if you pay your bills online.

Catch your breath yet? As scary as it all seems, at least you'll be laughing all the way through the 351 pages.

Deceptively Delicious veggies

Did you turn your nose up at vegetables when you were a kid? Things haven't changed much. The other day I caught Jerry Seinfeld's wife on Oprah with a new way to get your kids to eat veggies.

Deceptively Delicious is a new book on healthy food recipes by Jessica Seinfeld that makes it easy to make mouthwatering healthy recipes for family and children.

As a mother of three, Jessica Seinfeld, like many busy parents, used to struggle to get her kids to eat right. In Deceptively Delicious, she shares her solutions: easy, mouthwatering recipes that even the most overwhelmed families can make — stealthily packed with unseen veggies, puréed so kids will never suspect. Deceptively Delicious is a godsend for all parents who want healthy kids, peaceful family meals, and never again having to say, "Eat your vegetables!"

Try some of her recipes!

Symptoms of ovarian cancer

A new study found a distinct pattern of medical signs and symptoms that occurred prior to the detection of ovarian cancer.

According to the study, the conditions patients experienced before an ovarian cancer diagnosis included abdominal pain, urinary tract conditions, menopausal disorders, female genital symptoms, and gastrointestinal symptoms. These symptoms were most pronounced in the 30-90 days prior to diagnosis. This study found that while the presence of ovarian cancer-related symptoms and conditions prior to diagnoses was documented in the medical claims data, this increase was most pronounced in the two to three months prior to diagnosis. Still, there remains a challenge to link symptoms with ovarian cancer, as many of the related symptoms are also present for several other disorders and diseases.

Not just a pretty face

The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry
By Stacy Malkan

Lead in lipstick? 1,4 dioxane in baby soap? Coal tar in shampoo? How is this possible?
Simple. The $35 billion cosmetics industry is so powerful that they've kept themselves unregulated for decades.
Not one cosmetic product has to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration before hitting the market. Incredible? Consider this:
The European Union has banned more than 1,100 chemicals from cosmetics. The United States has banned just 10.
Only 11% of chemicals used in cosmetics in the US have been assessed for health and safety – leaving a staggering 89% with unknown or undisclosed effects.
More than 70% of all personal care products may contain phthalates, which are linked to birth defects and infertility.
Many baby soaps are contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical 1,4 dioxane.
It's not just women who are affected by this chemists' brew. Shampoo, deodorant, face lotion and other products used daily by men, women and children contain hazardous chemicals that the industry claims are "within acceptable limits." But there's nothing acceptable about daily multiple exposures to carcinogenic chemicals — from products that are supposed to make us feel healthy and beautiful.
Not Just a Pretty Face delves deeply into the dark side of the beauty industry, and looks to hopeful solutions for a healthier future. This scathing investigation peels away less-than-lovely layers to expose an industry in dire need of an extreme makeover.

10 Habits of highly annoying co-workers

Habit No. 1: You make a daily call to your partner to "check in," which can last anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes and, depending on how you two are getting along these days, can result in either a nasty fight or the sweet murmurings of baby talk.
Habit No. 2: You just can't seem to make it to those early morning meetings on time. If only the wait at the Starbucks next door weren't so slow, you'd never have to ask your co-workers what you missed.
Habit No. 3: You almost always leave the office early "to beat traffic." You're positive that you have the worst commute of all your officemates.
Habit No. 4: You buy a huge gift basket for someone in the office without consulting any of your co-workers, and then tell everyone that they owe you $10 to chip in.
Habit No. 5: You borrow your neighbor's stapler without asking and only remember to return it when your neighbor complains that he or she can't find it.
Habit No. 6: You can't understand what the big deal is whenever you ask your co-workers for "a tiny favor." Don't they know how much work you have piling up? You talk about it all the time.
Habit No. 7: You've once again forgotten to take home and wash the container that has the remnants of your tuna salad lunch a few days ago.
Habit No. 8: You answer questions or reply to comments with "That's what she said."
Habit No. 9: You don't see the need to learn how to send a fax or fix a paper jam when there's always someone around to help you do it.
Habit No. 10: You play your favorite boy band CD on repeat. All day. Every day.

The most important health number

Here's an important health number to remember : it's 5.

That's the minimum number of years you should maintain a steady, healthy weight- no yo-yo dieting! Experts say the more consistent your body weight is, the stronger your immune system. That's because weight fluctuations impair the body's ability to produce infection-fighting cells. Get down to a healthy weight, and try to maintain in for as long as possible.

Are you over-extending your kids?

It’s pretty common to hear parents talk about racing their child from one club sport, to the next—or to an academic debate, school club or other roster of activities.
For some children, adding extra-curricular activities may be due to the pressure of building a resume to get into a good college, while others feel peer pressure to hang out with a group of friends.
Some parents might feel their child is “missing out” if he isn’t constantly occupied. There are various reasons, but it all adds up to overload.

Look for signs of being over-loaded, such as: Feeling tired, exhausted or depressed. Not enjoying the activity they once loved. Lower grades in school. Complaining of headaches or body aches, which may be due to stress or lack of sleep. Having stomach pain, which may be due to missed meals or stress.

Let men worry about the pill for a while

Wouldn't it be great if men could play a bigger role in preventing unplanned pregnancies?

According to an article from Ms. magazine, recently 140 male contraceptive researchers met in Seattle. During the "Future of Male Contraception" meeting a number of practical methods of birth control for men were presented. Among them is a hormonal method of birth control that has been shown, in clinical trial, to kill sperm in 90 percent of men. It's clear that more choices in contraceptives for men will one day be a long overdue reality.

Do you sleep better together or apart?

Men sleep better next to their mates
Rest was more fragmented for females in shared bed, study found
By Linda Carroll
MSNBC contributor

Lori Taylor would love to sleep next to her husband — if his snoring and thrashing weren’t guaranteed to keep her awake all night.
Still, the 48-year-old New York City teacher has mixed feelings about choosing to sleep in separate beds.
“There’s something nice about the warmth of a human body next to you, even if you’re not sleeping as well,” says Taylor, who has slept apart from her husband off and on for the last five of her 11-year marriage. “When you’re in bed together you’re in a little private space on your own time. Cuddling up on the couch with the phone ringing isn’t the same.”
Taylor's trouble getting a good night's rest next to her husband isn't unusual. Women sleep less soundly when they share a bed with a romantic partner, a study published this month in Sleep and Biological Rhythms found. Surprisingly, men actually sleep better when they sleep next to a woman.
There are a lot more couples sleeping separately than you might guess, says Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis and a professor of neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. An estimated 23 percent of American couples sleep apart, according to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation. A Canadian study reported that 34 percent of couples hit the sack separately.
Women may have a tougher time sharing a bed because men are much more likely to be snorers, says Mahowald. And often, it’s the woman who has to move to a different bed — or room, in some cases — when the decibel level of her husband's snoring crescendos to an intolerable level.
But snoring may not be the only problem for women who’d like to spoon all through the night.
Device measured movementsFor the study, Austrian researchers asked 10 committed couples, ages 21 to 31, to wear a small device called an actigraph on their wrists while they slept at home. An actigraph, which resembles a wristwatch, keeps track of a person’s movements during the night and chronicles their periods of sleep and wakefulness.
The actigraphs showed that the women’s sleep was more fragmented on nights when they shared a bed, than when they slept alone. The differences weren’t huge, but they were significant.
The researchers speculated that women's fretful sleep might be caused by brain wiring differences between men and women. Women tend to be lighter sleepers because they historically have been the ones caring for infants, the researchers suggested.
The actigraph's measurements would most likely have been even more distinct if the couples in the study had been older, says sleep expert Michael Perlis. That’s because snoring becomes more of an issue as men age, explains Perlis, director of the Sleep Research Lab and an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.
Psychologist Wendy Troxel isn’t surprised to see that men do better when sleeping in a shared bed. Studies have shown that men are very dependent on close relationships — contrary to popular stereotypes, says Troxel, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied how the quality of a relationship affects overall health and sleep in men and women.
In general, men show much clearer benefits from committed relationships, Troxel says. “My research shows that married men are much happier and healthier than unmarried men," she adds. “The findings are much less consistent with women.”
Willing to sacrifice for a snuggleNoting that a good night’s sleep is important to daytime functioning, the Austrian researchers suggested that couples might consider the possible deleterious effects of sleeping together and choose separate beds instead.
But Perlis and other sleep experts aren’t convinced that this is the best plan.
“At the end of the day, there’s something essentially comforting about this behavior — so much so that people are sometimes willing to sacrifice perfect sleep to get it,” Perlis says. “I’d be hard pressed to imagine recommending with a cheerful heart for people to sleep apart.”
Perlis and other experts suggest couples look for solutions to snoring and other sleep problems before turning to separate beds. “I’d recommend ear plugs, whatever it takes,” Perlis says. “That’s also partly a personal judgment.”
Ear plugs have helped Taylor and her husband sleep through the night on vacations when the couple needed to share a bed. But, she says, they don’t help enough to make a shared bed work at home.
“I’d like him to go get a sleep study,” she adds. “But so far he’s been unwilling to do that.”

How to say "No"

While it's easy to say no when it comes to extended warranties and 6 a.m. sex, most women would much rather rapid-fire a yes to any question they're asked.
Yes, you'll take on more work. Yes, you'll meet your mother-in-law for coffee. Yes, you'll feed your neighbor's cat for a week. Yes, yes, sure, of course, yes. "Women like saying, 'Look, I can do these 14 jobs and take the laundry to the river on my head. Aren't I amazing?'" says Ronna Lichtenberg, author of Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself And Still Succeed.

The trick to saying no — to the people who most want your yes — is not only in what you say, but also in how you say it.

Say No To: Your kids
How: Simple repetition
According to Ann Pleshette Murphy, author of The Seven Stages of Motherhood, parents often make the mistake of speaking in a calm, grown-up voice when their kids lose control. "It's better to match their intensity as a way of communicating that you understand how upset they are. Your voice should sound pitiably sad, not stern and cold. And your words should be simple and repetitive: "I know you want those chips. You want them now, but you can't have them until after dinner." The discipline is good for them. "You're actually teaching your child to delay gratification and to master tough emotions like anger and frustration," says Pleshette Murphy. "Especially if your approach is, 'I know you're upset, but I know you can handle it.'"

Say No To: Your man
How: Agree with him — at first
He wants you to meet his parents; you think it's premature. If you reject him outright, you'll probably start one helluva fight. Soften the blow: "I'd love to have dinner with them. But let's do it after we've dated a few more months." That way, you'll have agreed with him initially. "You ensure that he understands you're not rejecting the idea because it's his," says Suzanne Zoglio, Ph.D, author of Recharge in Minutes.

Say No To: Your boss
How: Respond with questions, not answers
The next time your boss asks you to restructure the office tech system — by tomorrow morning — figure out what you can do, and then outline the plan: "Are you more concerned about the budget or the deadline?" Wrap up your solution by asking a question that leaves the ball in her court: "Does that make sense?" You won't have said no, but you'll also have set the parameters for how the project should go. "Help get the boss what she wants" without being a naysayer, says Steven McCreedy, the national accounts manager for the Brooks Group.

Appeared in the February/March 2005 issue of Women's Health

A healthy Halloween for your child

HEALTHY HALLOWEEN:
A good meal prior to parties and trick-or-treating will discourage youngsters from filling up on Halloween treats.
Consider purchasing non-food treats for those who visit your home, such as coloring books or pens and pencils.
Wait until children are home to sort and check treats. Though tampering is rare, a responsible adult should closely examine all treats and throw away any spoiled, unwrapped or suspicious items.
Try to ration treats for the days following Halloween.

A health vault for your medical information

Microsoft has launched a web site for managing personal health and medical information. The site is part filing cabinet, part library and part fax machine for your medical records and notes. Its called Healthvault.

Fight aging with Jellyfish?

Prevagen is a novel dietary supplement designed to fight aging. The only supplement from a jellyfish, Prevagen has been demonstrated to keep cells alive longer.