By Linda Spangle, RN, MA

www.FoodisEasy.com

The words slip out so easily. "If I eat something, maybe I’ll feel better." When you’re tired, stressed or physically ill, food is often the first thing that comes to mind. It provides an appealing cure for everything from a cold or the flu to exhaustion after a long day.

If you’re tired because your body is needing fuel, eating probably will make you feel better. But having an energy drop doesn’t always mean it’s time to eat. Make sure that you can recognize the difference between your fuel needs and wanting an emotional fix.

Singer Kelly Osbourne, who turned 22 in October, grew up in England. Upon moving to Los Angeles at 13 and later becoming an overnight celebrity on MTV’s hit reality series “The Osbournes” (alongside Dad and Black Sabbath alum Ozzy Osbourne), she was best known in the tabloids for her real-women-have-curves adolescent body. Magazines like “US Weekly” had a field day at her expense, Osbourne revealed in a 2006 interview with “Marie Claire,” calling her “fat and ugly and [saying] I dressed badly,” she says.

Illustration courtesy of the CDC

“We don’t know exactly why prostatic enlargement happens as men get older,” Dr. Misop Han explained at the American Medical Association’s 24th Annual Science Reporters Conference, held last November. “It is our assumption that it is part of the aging process because of changes in hormones and growth factors,” adds the assistant professor of urology at Northwestern University and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. “But what throws us off is that not all men have BPH. If it was a normal aging function, all men would have it.”

When you spend enough time working with people who are in pain, you hear it all: anger, fear, hope—but mostly frustration. Whether you are going through a treatment program for your back pain with a chiropractor or physical therapist, or trying your own exercise program (Yoga, Pilates, pumping iron at the gym, etc.), if you’re not getting relief, let me share with you a widely known “secret.” 

Knowledge Is Power

Our mission is to inspire you through education. We know that people who understand their situation and their condition get better care and faster results, regardless of the type of treatment they are going through. The reason is simple: They have more control. 

The American Cancer Society estimated that more than 211,000 women would develop  invasive breast cancer last year (the latest available statistics). Even a small percentage of men, while genetically at low risk for the disease, develop it. Science, however, has yet to identify a clear and distinct cause.

Dr. Philippa Darbre, a senior lecturer in oncology at the University of Reading’s School of Biological Sciences in England, published a report titled “Environmental Oestrogens, Cosmetics and Breast Cancer” in the March issue of Best Practice & Research: Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Vol. 20, No. 1, 2006). Her article explored a possible connection between breast cancer and the daily application of cosmetics that contain estrogenic chemicals. Other factors considered were environmental estrogens that enter the body through food, water and air.