by Fern Shaw | Apr 2, 2015 | Health and Hydration
There’s long been debate about how best to maintain and prolong your body’s health. Now it turns out, you don’t have just one brain to take care of so it takes care of you, but two. Who knew?!
This is the case, apparently:
Brain 1 is the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) that controls almost all voluntary and involuntary activities within your body. For example, a voluntary action would be slicing your veggies, while an involuntary action would be blinking, breathing or falling in love. The involuntary actions carried out by your central nervous system are constantly at work taking care of you.
Brain 2 is in your stomach. Yup, it has a mind of its very own. Your stomach’s ‘brain’ is known as the enteric nervous system. This system is home to 100 million neurons within your intestinal wall. These little neurons transmit important information throughout your body. They also control digestion and send status updates to the brain, letting it know how things are going in your digestive system.
Your two nervous systems have an intricate relationship that’s just now being explored by scientists through the field of neurogastroenterology (try digesting that easily). While the enteric nervous system initiates and sustains digestion on its own, signals from the brain, such as stress and anxiety, can have dramatic effects on how well it works.
About sixty to seventy percent of your immune system lives in your stomach. When pathogenic bacteria (bacteria that can cause infection) visits your GA tract via food or your environment, specialised immune structures called Peyer’s patches that are filled with immune cells, such as B cells and T cells, trigger your immune response to prevent them from passing through the gastrointestinal wall.
Before you stress out (not good for your stomach health, by the by) worrying that you now have two brains to take care of, don’t.
The important thing here is to remember that both brains are very much connected, so that by eating a balanced diet (more about this in Part II), keeping hydrated and your good bacteria levels up, this should pretty much ensure two happy, healthy and balanced brains.
Oh, and because both of my brains are pretty scattered, the blog title stems from that rather catchy ‘It’s all about that Bass’ song. Do yourself a favour and go and have a listen – I guarantee that it’s happy brain food for both regions.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 22, 2015 | Health and Hydration, Water
In a previous blog, I spoke about the rather disturbing trend where almost every single day of the year has been tagged as a Day of Something or Other. One seems hard pressed to wheedle out a day that has actual significance or some real meaning or; that is of importance and is worth commemorating.
A day that is worth marking though is World Water Day, which this year, will be held on the 22nd of March 2015. In case you’re wondering why – as you may have all the water that you need and believe that’s all there is to it – here are just a few reasons – from a personal perspective:
- Water is essentially life giving.
- There is no spectrum of our lives that is possible without water – this starts with the fact that our physical make-up is around 70% water.
- Water is a scarce resource and as about only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh water, it is a resource that needs to be protected and used wisely.
- Short of developments in nuclear fusion, we cannot ‘make’ water, so we need to ensure that the water that we do have is used in a sustainable manner going forward.
The theme for the 2015 World Water Day is Water and Sustainable Development. Some pertinent facts according to the World Water Day website:
- Water is health – Clean hands can save your life.
- Water is nature – Ecosystems lie at the heart of the global water cycle.
- Water is energy – Water and energy are inseparable friends.
- Water is food – To produce two steaks you need 15 000 litres of water.
- Water is equality – Every day women spend 200 million hours carrying water.
- Water is urbanization – Every week, one million people move into cities.
- Water is industry – More water is used to manufacture a car than to fill a swimming pool.
Taking all of these factors into consideration, I think it’s safe to say that the world’s water is of concern for us all and that creating and maintaining a sustainable supply is imperative.
Here at AquAid, a very important part of our ethos is assisting in the creation of a sustainable water supply globally, for those less fortunate, in order for these communities to empower themselves and their future generations.
You can follow this link to see what events are being held where this World Water Day 2015.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 14, 2015 | Charity, Health and Hydration, Water
In this month of love (being February) I can hear the howls of protest from many an individual as they scarper to warmer climes, (or just anywhere else) to avoid participating in Valentine’s Day.
I have my own personal rules regarding the day in question – I call it Anti-Valentine’s – but that’s for another story and those of you with a stronger constitution than most.
To change perspective a little, I skipped along the web looking for romantic tales/rituals involving water, splashing merrily as I do. I found some truly lovely practices and rituals, but the nicest, by far, was sent to me by our co-ordinator extraordinaire, Michelle. As we‘re very invested in charities, as with The Africa Trust, which provides safe drinking water to people throughout Africa, I thought that this was quite fitting:-
It’s a folk tale from Kenya called The Fire on the Hill:
Long, long ago, there was a lake of cold water in Kenya. Many animals came at night to the lake to drink some water. But people never came to the lake at night. The animals could kill and eat them. Now, a rich man who had a beautiful daughter once said, “The young man, who will go to the lake in the evening and stay in the cold water till morning, will have my daughter for his wife.”
There lived a poor young man who loved the rich man’s daughter very much. He said to his mother, “I shall try to stay all night in the lake and then marry my dear girl.”
“No, No,” the mother said, “you are my only son! The water in the lake is very cold and the animals will eat you up. Don’t go there!”
She cried and cried. But her son said, “Mother, don’t cry. I must try. I love her so much!” So the young man went to the girl’s father. He told him that he wanted to go to the lake and stay in the cold water all night. The rich man sent his servants to a place where they could watch the young man.
When night came, the young man went to the lake and his mother followed him. But he did not see her. There was a hill forty paces away from the place where the young man went into the water. The woman climbed up the hill and made a fire there. The wild animals saw the fire and were afraid to go near that place.
The young man saw the fire, too. He understood that his mother was there. He thought of his mother’s love and it was easier for him to stay all night in the very cold water. Morning came. The young man went to the rich man’s house. The rich man saw him and said, “My servants say that there was a fire on a hill forty paces from the lake. It warmed you and that is why you could stay all night in the water. So you cannot marry my daughter. Good-bye.”
The young man was very angry. He went to the judge. “Well,” the judge said, “this is a very simple case.”
The next morning the young man with his mother and the rich man with his servants came before the Judge. There were many people there who wanted to hear the case. The judge asked for a pot of cold water. Then he walked forty paces from the pot and made a fire.
“Now,” he said, “we shall wait a little until the water is warm.”
The people cried, “But the fire is so far away, it cannot warm the water in the pot.”
Then the judge said, “And how could that young man warm himself at a fire forty paces away?”
So the case was over and the young man married the rich man’s daughter. They lived happily for many years.
Now I’m sure your swain is not expecting you to take a dip in an icy pond at the common to prove their worth this February, but as far as grand romantic gestures go, this is pretty impressive. Think about it before you go off and spend your hard earned dosh on some screaming pink, polyester-haired teddy.
by Fern Shaw | Jan 1, 2015 | Health and Hydration, water cooler, Water Coolers
I personally don’t ‘do’ New Year’s resolutions. Why not, you ask? Well, think about it: you put yourself under inordinate amounts of stress (which kind of puts paid to resolutions like, ‘I won’t stress as much’) which pretty much sets the pace for the rest of the year, which means that your resolution typifies the identical behaviour for the previous year. Make sense? It should.
Just in case you misguidedly decide on making New Year’s resolutions, please, Louise, try to make them original – none of this ‘I’m going on diet’ nonsense. ‘Drink more water’ should now, of course, be a given, so none of that as a special effort either!
To get you going I found a few which made me snort with laughter:
*I will find out why the correspondence course on ‘Mail Fraud’ that I purchased never showed up.
*Eat more nice things like sweets, Big Macs, popcorn and ice cream. Eat less rubbish like fresh fruit, vegetables and soy nuts.
*New Years Resolution: do a series of jazz-flute instructional tapes. Maybe I’ll call it “Ron Burgundy: A Jazz Flute-orial.” ~ Ron Burgundy
*My New Year resolution is: 1024 by 968 pixels!
*Learn what the heck “resolution” means.
*Learn more resolve.
*My New Year’s resolution is to be less prefect ~ Jim Gaffigan
and my personal favourite:
*My New Year’s resolutions are:
- Stop making lists
- Be more consistent.
- Learn to count.
However you choose to ring in the New Year, may we wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead.
by Fern Shaw | Oct 7, 2014 | Health and Hydration, Water, water cooler
There I was, playing with the water cooler bottle (I love making the water gloomph, Mrs Furtheringstoke not so much) when it suddenly occurred to me – what makes a water fall a waterfall? Is it a height, volume, water per second thing or what?
Inspired, I made the water gloomph one more time before racing back to my station and hopping on web. The nitty gritty:
Height
The primary qualifier is the height of a waterfall as it is the most visually indicative of a change in elevation. Depending on the average discharge of the stream along which the waterfall occurs, there are two different qualifiers for the height of a waterfall:
- Perennial Streams – Waterfalls occurring along streams which maintain a discernible volume of water throughout the year must drop at least 15 vertical feet (4m) to qualify for inclusion.
- Intermittent Streams – Waterfalls occurring along streams which run dry for part of the year must drop at least 50 vertical feet (15m) to qualify for inclusion.
Additionally, the drop of the waterfall in question must conform to the definition of Waterfall:
“A well-defined change in slope, velocity, aeration or agitation of the water within a stream over an immediately abrupt distance, where an identifiable loss in elevation may be perceived due to non-uniformity of the underlying geologic structures.”
… and as such must have an easily identifiable top and bottom, and must fall as a result of contacting or being interrupted by solid bedrock rather than talus, boulders or rock lying on top of the earth.
Seasonality
Should a waterfall along an intermittent stream qualify based on height, it needs to meet a secondary requirement of flowing consistently for at least one month out of the year. This stipulation is meant to prevent rainstorm fuelled waterfalls (such as those seen throughout Arizona’s Grand Canyon) from being included when they meet the 50-foot requirement.
After all this fact, being me, I got totally distracted by all the pretty waterfalls. These are 5 of the most beautiful around the world:
Nohkalikai Falls is found in India. Water falls down for 1100 ft. (335 m). Although the feeding stream is only 1.5 miles (2 km) long, Nohkalikai is still very impressive. A pool is formed below the fall, in which the water receives its green colour.
Sutherland Falls are located in Fiordland, New Zealand. With its 1902 ft. (580 m) plunge it is one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. It falls in three cascades that create this unique landscape. It was named after its discoverer Donald Sutherland in 1880.
Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America. It drops 2,425 ft. (739 m) in the Sierra Nevada, California. The source of water is melting snow, therefore sometimes the stream may cease due to a little amount of snow. Plitvice Falls are found in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia. They are not very high falls, but are stunning due to the many cascades the water has to overcome. There are hundreds of waterfalls. The colour of water varies from crystal clear to azure, to turquoise.
And finally, we have the Gullfoss (Golden Falls) in Iceland. Gullfoss is a magnificent waterfall located in southwest Iceland. Not particularly high (two 36 ft. /11 m and 68 ft. /21 m plunges), however, it is very beautiful. Due to a crevice, the river Hvítá seems to disappear into the abyss.
Next week we have a look-see at the top 5 out of 10 most beautiful waterfalls around the world. As for me, I’m back off to make the water gloomph again. Shaw out.
by Fern Shaw | Sep 10, 2014 | Health and Hydration, Water
Our local whizz, Shelly, just added a page about healthy water drinks ideas, all containing a herb or spice that packs a power punch of health, with the added bonus of tasting good too. Then there was a mention on social media about the incredible healing powers of garlic and it got me to thinking – just how beneficial is garlic to our well-being?
There are apparently numerous benefits – I’m detailing just a few cloves worth here:
- Garlic strengthens the immune system as well as helps to fight chest infections, coughs and congestion. In the winter months garlic is a great food to boost your immune system and ward off colds and flu.
- Cardiovascular disease can be reduced by ingesting garlic. LDL cholesterol is no friend of garlic and the aortic plaque deposits that gather on the walls of your body’s veins can be reduced with the use of garlic too.
- Fungal and bacterial vaginal infections are toast when treated with garlic. When crushed or bruised, garlic releases Allicin which is a sulphuric compound that is a natural antibiotic. WWI soldiers even apparently used crushed garlic on infected wounds suffered in battle. If you decide to take garlic in tablet form be sure to use powdered capsules. The processes used to create garlic tablets destroy the Allicin that is present.
- Garlic regulates blood sugar as it enhances the level of insulin in the blood. This may assist in the control of diabetes. Seek medical advice if you believe the use of garlic could help your condition.
- Garlic is a great source of vitamin B6 which is needed for a healthy immune system and the efficient growth of new cells. Vitamin B6 can also assist with mood swings and improve your cheery disposition!
So, there you have it – 5 fabulous ways to improve your health and general well-being all packed into a clove or two. I wouldn’t try garlic steeped in water though, perhaps leave that one out.
