Healthy Living

It's like a black hole that occasionally swallows me up, from out of nowhere. I can't work, I can't sleep--and yet I can't stay awake--I can't take care of myself, and all the color and hope drains from the world.

"It" is depression, and for me it's a chronic condition that cost me jobs and relationships before I finally found effective help. For me that help was pharmaceutical, but I use several natural methods as well to keep the black hole at bay.

In the two years since my son Ryan, now four, was diagnosed with a severe milk allergy, we've learned a lot. Maintaining a milk-free diet isn't easy, and the misperceptions of people around us haven't helped.

Now we're vigilant consumers of food, from grocery-store items to fast food. Even if you don't have a child with a milk allergy, understanding what it is and management strategies might be useful if your child has an allergic friend.

What do your kids do for fun? If you answer "watch TV" or "play video games," your kids may be facing a serious health challenge, especially later in life. Obesity and inactivity are sharply up among today's children, and while schools are trying to reverse the trends, the real battle is on the home front. You have to get them moving, and you can't depend on your child's school to do it for you.

What is THAT!" hollered Josie when I opened the box we'd just gotten in the mail. Floating in the plastic bag inside was a whitish disk with brownish threads hanging from it that looked more than a bit like a very flat jellyfish.

"That," I said, "is a kombucha...thingie," I finished lamely. How to explain to a child what a symbiotic collection of bacteria and yeast (aka "scoby") is? Because that's what we'd just gotten in the mail, a "thingie" commonly called a kombucha mushroom, even though it's not a mushroom at all.

Time was, herbs were the only way we had to take care of our skin. As synthetic products came on the market, we gradually forgot the plant wisdom of our grandmothers.

Now, herbs are all the rage in skin care products, but the commercial versions have drawbacks. Often, they're not really herbal at all, but just add scents or a little splash of essential oil to make them appear herbal. The "real" herbal ones are often only available in specialty stores. And both can be prohibitively expensive.

What do your kids do for fun? If you answer "watch TV" or "play video games," your kids may be facing a serious health challenge, especially later in life. Obesity and inactivity are sharply up among today's children, and while schools are trying to reverse the trends, the real battle is on the home front. You have to get them moving, and you can't depend on your child's school to do it for you.

This week I received a newsletter from my local hospital. It reminded me of the many outreach programs that every community has available for those in need of health-related information, advice, support or training. The catch is that you have to know where to look and who to ask. In my area, the hospital is one obvious resource, but within a 20-mile drive, or a quick phone call there are many others.

Diabetes, known formally as diabetes mellitus, affects 20 million Americans, with many more at risk. Adult onset, or type II, diabetes continues to rise. People with diabetes cannot either make or use insulin, which is a hormone produced by the body that assists in the breakdown of sugars in our food for fuel. When the body can't do this, the blood stream and the urine become full of sugar molecules, called glucose.

Finding a meal that will please the entire family is often difficult. But what if you ALSO have to take into consideration someone's food allergies? Even an old standard like spaghetti or macaroni and cheese may no longer be an option if your child is allergic to wheat or dairy.

Initially, you may decide to make separate meals for the allergic child, and feed the rest of the family normally. After a while, however, this gets REALLY old--twice as much cooking, and you may still be getting complaints of "I don't like that!" from both sides.

B vitamins. You hear about them all the time, but what do they actually do? It's not too far a stretch to say that the B vitamins keep your body running properly. Just about all of the body's functions rely on B vitamins to perform, from the brain to the heart to just about every other organ in the body.