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Time for a real vacation

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My husband and I haven’t been on a true vacation in years. It always seems that whenever we get a chance to go away we end up going someplace where we have relatives and end up staying in there home.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind visiting with relatives – especially ones I don’t see often and staying in their home certainly cuts down on expenses … but I’m starting to long for a real vacation. Maybe in the spring we’ll try out one of those Outer Banks vacation rentals or even just go away to Niagara falls for a long weekend.

Do you take regular vacations? If you do – are they always to someplace where you stay in a hotel or are you like us and you end up staying with relatives or friends while on holiday?

Hormone Replacement Therapy Side Effects

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The results of the second part of the Women’s Health Initiative (WIH), a federal study on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer, were released December 13, 2008 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The new findings show that a much higher risk of breast cancer is one of several hormone replacement therapy side effects.

HRT Side Effects

The results of this new study indicate that the risks of HRT far outweigh the benefits for most women. Hormone replacement therapy includes estrogen and progestin, which doctors though would help women to avoid heart disease, bone loss, and other post-menopausal problems.

The WIH had two parts. More than 16,000 women, matched by weight, age, and other health factors, participated in the first study. These women were randomly assigned to a group that took estrogen and progestin pills, or or to one that took a placebo.

The researchers found much higher risks of heart problems and breast cancer in women using female hormone replacement therapy. In fact, the risk of breast cancer increased by 26% among women using HRT, espcially for those women who used HRT for five years or more. This finding caused an early end to the first part of the WIH in 2002.

All the questions researchers had weren’t answered, however. Did women who started on HRT when they first entered menopause in their 50’s, and who used HRT for shorter periods of time, still face higher risks of breast cancer and heart disease? Most of the women in the first study were in their 60s and well past menopause.

In the new study, researchers followed over 15,000 women who met the new criteria through July 2005. The researchers kept track of breast cancer cases as they occurred over time.

The results? The risk of breast cancer increased when women started HRT, hit a high point when the study ended, and then fell as nearly all the women stopped taking estrogen and progestin pills. Results at the high point showed that the breast cancer risk for HRT users was twice that of the others.

Hormone Replacement Therapy And Safety?

Conventional medical practioners are quick to reassure their patients that most women won’t get breast cancer if they use HRT for a short time. They say that the increased cancer risk from using HRT for two years amounts to only a few extra cases of breast cancer per year for every 1000 women using estrogen and progestin pills.

That’s easy to say, but what if you’re one of the women who develops breast cancer. Plus the risk of breast cancer does go up the longer a woman uses HRT.

Natural Treatment For Menopause

Women have always gone through menopause. This is nothing new. It’s a normal part of every woman’s life. Menopause is not an illness and shouldn’t be treated like one.

For centuries women have used herbal remedies for menopause. These natural remedies have few, if any, side effects.

The link between HRT and breast cancer is a subject women should know more about. Natural menopause treatments are readily available and quite inexpensive. It may be possible to find relief from common menopause symptoms without increasing your risk of breast cancer.






Three Things to Consider About Instant Wrinkle Removers

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It seems like every time you turn your head there are new instant wrinkle removers on the market. The truth is that the use of any of these products for one night will instantly remove the wrinkles. You must do your homework to do your own homework to find out which product is best for you even though a celebrity will claim that their product is the best for healing wrinkles. You can find some great producsts to make you look younger as long as you ae not expecting miraculous, instant results.

If you want a product for healing wrinkles, what should you look for? The top three reasons that you should (or should not!) buy a skin care product.

1. Does the product address your needs?

You may be concerned about sagging skin that is highlighted by your wrinkles. Or you may have bags under your eyes. For a variety of reasons, instant wrinkle removers appeals to both men and women. Choose the product that addresses your specific problem. Any reputable company will have a few specific well done products that addresses each skin care need.

2. The products contain what chemicals?

Many companies that say their products are superior for healing wrinkles use harsh chemicals that can damage your skin more. Look at the ingredients. One chemical that is in many skin care products is dioxane. Dioxane is considered a carcinogen by the state of California. Do you want to put a cancer causing agent on your skin? Something that may also damage your skin is the fragrances in that in instant wrinkle removers. And even after years of research that proves that alcohol dries your skin, some of the leading skin care companies continue to put alcohol in their products.

3. Any product that has many high-paying celebrity endorsements is one that you must be aware of.

Likely these skin care companies are spending more money on marketing than on research. When large amounts of cash are offered, even celebritites will stretch the truth about instant wrinkle removers. Do you want to buy products from a company that cares more about making money by selling a product or a company that sells a quality product? Before you are swayed by celebritites, please research products that are for healing wrinkles on the Internet.

If you need a product that will help in healing wrinkles, will you let yourself be taken in by celebrities that tell you your skin is bad. Here is some advice: Find a product with CoQ10, which is not found in many of those advertised products that claim to be instant wrinkle removers. This ingredient is a powerful anti-oxidant that works like a vitamin on your skin. One form, Nano-Lipobelle H-EQ10, penetrates deep into the skin. You will see the results after a few days of use.

Public restrooms – can’t stand them!

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We are the proud new owners of an HDTV. Our first Plasma! We got it on Saturday after a three week wait for the back ordered TV and we’ve been watching just about everything we can ever since!

Any other Plasma owners out there? A few people tried to discourage us from getting a plasma because they tend to work best in dark rooms, but the one we got (a Samsung PN50B850) has quite a bright picture and the room we put it in, our living room, is on the North side of the house so it’s never very bright.

We love it so far.

What I didn’t love was the wait at the store when we went to pick up the new TV. My husbands cousin kindly met us at the store with his SUV so he could help us get our new TV home and once we got in the store we had to wait for the salesman that we’d been dealing with for about an hour. Sure, I could have been served by someone else, but he’d redone our bill so our warranty would start on the day we picked up the TV rather than when we’d paid for it three weeks before and there was a mistake on the bill so I had to talk to him.

While we were waiting I had to use the washroom at the store. That’s one thing I dislike doing … using public washrooms. I don’t know why … well … ok, the fact that most of them are dirty and smelly is probably the main reason. Oh and I hate using the type of hand dryers where you have to push the button to start it. I’d rather use the ones that just start automatically. With the push button ones I kind of feel like i have to wash my hands again or use Purell to clean them.

Hey I’m a nurse and I know how many germs are out there sitting on things!

So – do you cringe when you have to use a public washroom too or am I just a little too much of a germaphobe?

Nokia has a free maps application for their cell phones

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I was reading a fellow bloggers blog yesterday and I learned that Nokia has come out with a new free map service for their cell phones isn’t that great?

It’s called Ovi and as far as I can tell it’s a simple application download. It’s a navigation map application so you can get easy driving or walking instructions.

I checked it out yesterday at maps.nokia.com and it works for most of their cell phones, but naturally, it doesn’t seem to work on my older 2007 Nokia smart phone.

My phone still works great and I got it for free in a marketing promotion … but lately I have been thinking of getting a newer phone so I can take advantage of some of the cool applications like this one.

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