Skip to content

By Gemma Curtis – Sleep Matters Club Journalist

Some people can’t sleep without reading, but for others, the bedtime story is left in their child years. Reading before bed is an age-old tradition. Some people can’t sleep without reading, but for others, the bedtime story is left in their childhood. In recent times, reading interest has surged enormously. Whether it’s because people are running out of hobbies to try when they’re stuck at home or because they’re looking to expand their vocabulary is up for debate. Yet, the key question still remains: can the practice of reading before bedtime be beneficial? We explore how it affects the brain and see what the experts have to say.

Bedtime reading reduces stress

Reading before you sleep could relax you significantly. A study highlighted in the Telegraph by the University of Sussex raised a number of participants stress levels and then attempted to reduce them. Cognitive Neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis found that ‘reading worked best, reducing stress levels by 68 per cent’. It was better than listening to music (61%), drinking tea or coffee (54%) and taking a walk (42%). It only took 6 minutes for participants’ stress levels to be reduced.…

I'M RESEARCHING ON ANTI-AGING, OUR BRAIN AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE THIS WEEK AND DISCOVERED THIS FASCINATING NEWS SOME PHYSIOS AND COACHES ARE MAKING KNOWN IN RECENT TIMES. NEUROSCIENTISTS ARE COMING UP WITH SOME INTERESTING DISCOVERIES NOW FOR OUR BRAIN, AND SO ARE SOME PHYSIO THERAPISTS. LET'S SEE WHAT THEY HAVE TO OFFER US. IT HAS OTHER BENEFITS AS WELL. WOULD MAKE A GOOD DISTRACTION TECHNIQUE FOR STRESS - WE WOULD START LAUGHING INSTEAD OF FROWNING AT OURSELVES MAYBE:)

The Health Benefits of Walking Backward, According to Fitness Experts

By Karla Walsh

See the very real physical and mental health benefits of turning your steps around.

You've heard it time and time again: Walking is one of the best forms of exercise for your body and your brain. In addition to being free and easy to do inside your home, on vacation, using poles as part of a hike, with your pup and beyond, walking has been proven to boost mood, promote weight loss, boost heart health and so much more. (And if you've been convinced that only running and higher-impact exercise "counts," we can confirm that walking can be a legit, super-effective workout.)…

I FOUND A REALLY GOOD ARTICLE TODAY, THAT EXPLAINS SEVERAL REASONS WHY IT IS NOT GOOD FOR US, COVERING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF HEALTH. THE INFORMATION IS EXCELLENT, AND I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE IT WITH YOU WITH THE LINK. SOME OF YOU COULD BE SO PLEASED YOU READ IT BECAUSE IT COULD GIVE YOU ANSWERS ABOUT WHY YOUR METABOLISM OR HEALTH HAS BEEN AFFECTED IN SOME WAY. SHALL WE GO?

9 Reasons Why Skipping Breakfast is the Biggest Mistake of Your Day
Time to eat breakfast like a "King"

Srishti Seth - University of Delhi

"Eat your breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper."

You must often hear or read this valuable and long-known phrase, but have you ever pondered why breakfast is a quintessential meal of your day? Well, the answer in most cases will be no because, somewhere in our busy lifestyles, we've lost the time to actually find the reasons behind all those things that we're told.

So, lets be rational for a few minutes and understand why skipping breakfast everyday is our biggest mistake.

THEY ARE

  1. Causes Weight Gain

If you're dieting or dreaming of a "perfect body", you tend to miss breakfast as a part of your weight loss regimen.…

San Francisco. When the roads emptied of traffic in March and April because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bay Area residents reported hearing more birds—and they were halfway right.

Jennifer Phillips, a researcher at Cal Poly, and Elizabeth Derryberry, a professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, collaborated to evaluate whether and how songbirds responded to the quieter environment with much less traffic.

They compared the soundscapes and songs of the white-crowned sparrow recorded across the San Francisco area prior to and during the statewide shutdown.

“When I saw photos of an empty Golden Gate Bridge, it struck me just how little traffic there was,” said Derryberry, lead author of the study. “I realized we were in a unique position to look at how changes in human behavior might affect wildlife and what the noise reduction might mean for the songbird we study.”

The researchers found that the birds responded by producing softer songs that could travel over a larger distance, unimpeded by noise. The urban songs also became “sexier” in terms of vocal performance—meaning birds sang a wider range of notes in their song, in a wider bandwidth, during the shutdown.…

So many are told to "Stay Away From Sunshine" in Western Countries like USA and Australia. That is based on Flawed Health Science. The Medical Profession is into a lot of that. Many times, if something is GOOD For You, they will tell you it's Bad for you, and Visa-Versa. I've found that through the years. As for taking our beautiful SUNSHINE away, no wonder so many people are feeling Bleak. Let's have Sunshine Inside (of us) and Outside. Both are Healthy, hey!?

Let's Have Sunshine And Brighten Up Our Days!!!

By Dr Al Sears Integrative Medicine Practitioner/International Researcher

Remember the first day of Spring when you opened the blinds to let the Sunshine in? Remember that full-of-energy, ‘happy-go-lucky’ feeling? Have you been missing those Sunny Days?

Many of my patients avoid the Sun like the plague. All they hear is that Sunshine poses serious threats to your health. With all these warnings about the Sun, why wouldn’t they?

Despite the bad rap it often gets, Sunshine is Good for You — if, like everything else, you don’t abuse it. Today, I’ll share some of the benefits of enjoying Sunshine each day – to Lift your spirits and Improve your Health.…

ABC Rural / By Kim Honan

As a forager for more than 40 years, wild food researcher Peter Hardwick is no stranger to finding all sorts of uncultivated native foods in the bush.

Discovery Of Australian Native Raspberry

But it was his discovery of a thornless native raspberry seedling next to a car park five years ago, on Bundjalung Country in north-east NSW, that has the potential to be a game changer for the native food industry. 

“I grabbed a couple of suckers and took them home and one or two struck, and from that I’ve managed to propagate it, and I’ve grown it on and seen how it performs and here we are with a very nice specimen," he said.

"It's quite productive; it's juicy and it’s tasty. Having no thorns makes it approachable."

While native raspberries are a popular indigenous fruit, they have thorny stems and producers find them challenging to harvest.

"Usually these plants are very, very thorny ... They're recurved, and you’re lucky to get out of wild harvesting raspberries without a scratch," he said.

"So, to find a thornless one is fantastic because it means we can put this into backyards, schools, council parks and that sort of thing."…

The cows kept by small-scale farmers in Africa are notoriously unproductive. The average dairy cow, for example, produces about 540 litres of milk per lactation. By contrast, dairy cows in North America that belong to commercial or intensive farmers can produce up to 10,479 litres of milk per lactation.

Grass-Fed Is Always Better Than Grain-Fed
Brachiaria Is The Best For Dairy Farms

One of the main differences between the two animals lies in the quality of their feeds and forage. Simply put, the more nutritious cows’ diets are, the more and better quality milk they produce. And small-scale farms – of which there are about 33 million in Africa, contributing up to 70% of the continent’s food supply – usually cannot afford more nutritious feed.

Brachiaria – the genus name of Urochloa – consists of about 100 documented species of grass of which seven species used as fodder plants are of African origin. This grass may hold the key to improving milk yields from cows kept by small-scale farmers. Why is this an important goal?

First, it will help to meet rising demand for animal-sourced foods – like cow milk – as the continent becomes more urbanised and its population grows.…

DID YOU KNOW THAT 75% OF FOOD WORLDWIDE IS LIMITED TO 12 PLANT CROPS (and 5 animal foods) AND THAT WESTERN COUNTRIES......... MORE INTERESTING FACTS IN THIS POST, PLUS WHICH FRUITS AND VEGGIES THE AFORE MENTIONED ARE AND SOME INSIGHTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ENCOURAGING BIODIVERSITY HERE IN AUSTRALIA. ON A LIGHTER NOTE, I WILL ALSO MENTION SOME IMPROVEMENTS WE'VE HAD IN OUR FOOD CULTURE IN RECENT DECADES AND RECENT TIMES, TO WHAT WE HAD YEARS AGO. I HOPE YOU READ THIS POST.

According to TheFutureMarket.Com  we only grow a small percentage of Plant Food Crops in Western Countries that does not allow for much Food Diversity in our Diet or our Health. As mentioned, they state that 75% of the World’s Food comes from 12 Plants (and 5 Animals).

In this order, the highest turnover of Plant Foods produced are 1. Sugar, 2. Corn, 3. Rice, 4. Wheat, 5. Potatoes,  6. Soya Beans, 7. Cassava, 8.Tomatoes, 9. Bananas, 10. Onions, 11. Apples and 12. Grapes. We eat only 150 out of 30,000 edible plant species (worldwide). For example, the USA has lost 90% of it’s Fruit and Veg varieties since 1900.…

By Heather McKern From Diggers Garden Club Magazine Late Spring Edition 2020. Heather encourages us to increase our intake of dietary plant foods.

The old saying "variety is the spice of life" may be truer than ever. Studies into health are showing that eating at least 30 different plant foods a week  is critical to gut health and considered key to a healthy diet.

Eating a  broad variety of different plants not only increases the amount of fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants we consume. That supports our immune system and lowers our risk of diseases like certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes and mental health issues.

There are six different categories of plant foods that are counted towards our weekly total, and excluding any specific Dietary restrictions we want to include a variety from each group. They are fruit, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and legumes.

To get the most benefit. We want our plants to be as close to their original state as possible. And to be mindful of what we or others do to prepare them before they are eaten. There is little benefit if you are having a large variety of greens in salads everyday but smothering those greens in oil.…

YES, THEY PROMOTE OUR HEALTH RATHER THAN DEMOTE IT. FOOD MANUFACTURERS HAVE THOUGHT OF ONE CLEVER DEMISE AFTER THE OTHER, PROMOTING SYNTHETIC AND PSUEDO FOODS WE ARE NOT MEANT TO INGEST - INFLUENCING GOVERNMENT HEALTH DEPARTMENTS AND ALL, MAKING THEIR ARGUMENTS SOUND LEGIT, MAKING THE PUBLIC SICK. AND BIG PHARMA WITH THEIR MEDICAL AGENTS HAVE BEEN ONLY TOO HAPPY TO RAKE IN THE PROFITS. BUT AN AWAKENING IS STIRRING THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DISCOVERING THE BENEFITS OF REAL FOODS: YES OLD THINGS BECOME NEW. THIS IS INSTIGATED BY PROFESSIONAL NATURAL HEALTH ADVOCATES AND MANY HEALTH SCIENTISTS ALIKE WHO ARE NOW SIDING WITH NATURE, PROMOTING IT'S MERITS AND IT'S WAYS.

I Will Show You Some Real Health Promoting Foods That Are So Beneficial For Our Health That Have Been Drastically Altered Or Replaced (they now clash with our natural body chemistry) In Western Countries Like Australia, And A Few Really Beneficial Foods that are Very Nutritious for our Families!

Through the years in Australia – and Western Countries – we have been buying foods that are so different to food staples our Great Grandparents had and our Great Greats.…