Health

Slow Down, Improve Your Life

- Adam Clare

Carl Honoré wants us to slow down and take things easy, that doesn’t mean that he wants us to become lazy though. He wrote a book “In Praise of Slow” to let us know about the slow movement. In a world in which everything (including walking speed) is speeding up we no longer take time to stop and smell the roses – let alone deliver them on a unicycle.

CNN, the 24 hour information-overload news network, has a good article on why we should slow down.

If it all sounds to you like the musings from a slacker’s manifesto, you’re not yet in tune with the concept of the slow life. Resist the tug of technology: turn off your mobile, don’t send that email just yet and try and forget, just for a few minutes, about the thousand tedious tasks that you feel need to be done.
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As well as the slow food movement, there are slow towns, aiming to improve the quality of life for inhabitants and making them more pleasant places to live. It’s more a philosophical statement rather than a directive. Ludlow was the first UK town to achieve slow town status, but admittedly, life in this Shropshire market town has never been anything other than sedate

Echinacea Prevents colds

- Adam Clare

Echinacea is a good herb to use to fight off colds, it’s remarkably successful at prevention according to new research. The herb apparently improves the body’s immune system, but researchers don’t know exactly how it works yet. Echinacea can reduce incidences of colds by 65%, even more powerful when taken vitamin C!

Researchers, led by Dr Craig Coleman from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, combined the results of 14 different studies on Echinacea’s anti-cold properties.

In one of the 14 studies the researchers reviewed, echinacea was taken alongside vitamin C. This combination reduced cold incidence by 86%.

Urban Farm Towers

- Adam Clare

farming

Urban farming is not a new idea, it’s such a great idea that it is often forgotten though. A solution to transporting food and improving urban air quality is literally under our feet, and can soon be over our heads. There is an ever growing need for using buildings in cities as farms and more companies are now behind the idea. Skyscrapers as farms just sounds cool!

Not to mention locally-grown produce for the residents of central London, Manhattan and Tokyo, eliminating the environmental costs of transport (with fresher lettuces to boot).
Skyscraper farms can operate year-round with artificial lighting, so, on average, one indoor acre is the equivalent to between four and six outdoors, and companies are vying to reap the financial rewards that come from this increased efficiency.

Via Tree Hugger

Cuddle or Kudos Stress Away

- Adam Clare

We all deal with stress in our own way, but new research has come out that suggests that men and women have different ways that they like to get support when dealing with stress. Women like affectionate human contact when they are under stress while men like to hear how good they think they are.

From Wired Berries:

In other words, women need cuddles and men need kudos. We may have instinctively guessed as much, but now we have some scientific proof. You’ll both be set if you have him hold you close while you whisper sweet words of encouragement in his ear.

LifeStraw for Clean Water

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

lifestraw

Newsweek is running a story with an accompanying video about the the LifeStraw -a $3 gadget that cleans water. Regular readers here will remember that we covered the LifeStraw back in OCtober when LifeStraw was doing preliminary tests.

Most of the LifeStraw’s users will never drink anything fancier than plain water through the device. But its impact on their lives can’t be overstated. More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, and 6,000 people die each day of waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera and dysentery. In regions like sub-Saharan Africa, half of most people’s water consumption takes place outside the home—either while they’re working, or walking to and from school. Vestergaard Frandsen S.A.—which also produces mosquito nets and plastic sheeting coated with insecticide to fend off malaria—hopes that the $3 LifeStraw will drastically lessen their chances of getting sick.

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