Natural Awakenings - January 2015 Read the January 2015 edition of Natural Awakenings. Hormone-Happy Foods: The Right Choices Make Our Bodies Hum The chemical messengers called hormones influence our energy and moods—and food, not age, turns out to be the critical factor in healthy hormonal functioning. Read More » Eco-Friendly Floors: Sustainable Beauty Underfoot Eco-friendly flooring can be found in a wide range of thoughtful choices—from wood, cork and stone to linoleum or concrete. Read More » Interval Training Knocks Down Blood Sugar: Exercise Bursts are Fast and Effective Working out three days a week in intense bursts, whether sprinting, rope-skipping, or running up stairs, improves fitness and reduces abdominal fat. Read More » Pet Anesthesia: How to Make it Safe and Easier on Everyone By understanding how anesthesia techniques have advanced, we can ask better questions of vets and make better choices for our pets. Read More » Body Symmetry Correlates with Male Strength: Proportion Associated with Muscle German men whose left and right sides match in measurements were found to have stronger handgrips. Facial symmetry suggests additional benefits. Read More » Louise Hay on Loving Yourself to Ageless Health The key to happy, healthy longevity is loving and forgiving ourself and others, treating our body well and staying positive, advises this pioneering self-help teacher. Read More » Eucalyptus Oil Inhibits Spread of TB: Natural Remedy Helps Disease Management Several compounds in eucalyptus oil halted the spread of tuberculosis germs by 90 percent in a University of Illinois study. Read More » Low Magnesium Levels Linked to Kidney Disease: Association with Higher Risks of Serious Illness People with low levels of magnesium in the blood—which can result from diarrhea, chronic stress and certain medications—run the risk of serious kidney disease. Read More » Legumes, Nuts and Corn Cut Risk of Breast Cancer: Foods That Protect Girls that ate lots of peanut butter, legumes ad corn during their teens later had one-third the risk of breast cancer as their young-adult peers, reports a Harvard study. Read More » Yoga Breathing Helps Ill Kids’ Lungs: Practice Improves Function Hatha yoga breathing exercises, done three times a day for 10 months, strengthened the lungs of Brazilian children with muscular dystrophy. Read More » Secondhand Smoke Damages Children’s Hearing: Dangers of Lighting Up Around Kids Mounting research points to damage to the middle-ear cells of children exposed to secondhand smoke. Exposure to diesel gas has a similar effect. Read More » Phototherapy Reduces Knee Pain: Pulsed Lasers and LED Therapy Brings Relief Patients receiving 12 pulsed laser phototherapy sessions experienced much less pain and a better quality of life. Read More » An App a Day Keeps the Doctor Away: Keep Kids Engaged in Healthy Living Kids are glued to their devices, but they won’t be wasting time if they use new apps that teach them about healthy foods, emotional intelligence and the great outdoors. Read More » Energy Boosters: Four Ways to Recharge No matter how crazy our days are, these four simple strategies will banish energy drains and increase our get-up-and go. Read More » It’s All About Metabolism: Getting to the Root Cause of Disease Doctors often reach for a prescription pad in taking an piece-by-piece approach to treatment, but the actual key to our health is a balanced, robust metabolism. Read More » New Year, New You: When ‘Good Enough’ Is Perfect Over-perfectionism can drive us and our loved ones crazy, but by rethinking what ‘perfect’ means, we can reorient our lives and attain a more perfect happiness. Read More » Super Suds: Score Healthy and Eco-Friendly Points at Parties Small breweries are using water recycling, solar power, biofuel and other planet-friendly strategies to deliver beer that does good while tasting good. Read More » Dignity First: Most End-of-Life Care in U.S. Neglects Patient Needs A major report has found that the U.S. healthcare system poorly addresses the concerns of the dying and their families. Read More » Corn Guzzler: Downsides of Ethanol Federal standards requiring corn-derived ethanol in gasoline are driving up prices for food and farmland while actually increasing our carbon footprint. Read More » Water Cartons: Paper Can Easily Replace Plastic To lower the high eco-costs of plastic water bottles, a Michigan company is boxing water in milk-type cartons. Read More » Smart Solar: Japan Floats New Nuclear Alternative Solar-power islands floating on reservoirs may lower Japan’s reliance on nuclear power plants. Read More » Om-Based Care: Holistic Healers Reach Out to the Underserved Holistic clinics, alternative practitioners and yoga studios are increasingly providing free or low-cost services to people in need. Read More » Safer Groceries: Landmark Food Law Being Enforced A court settlement has set firm enforcement deadlines for a 2011 law mandating food safety measures. Read More » Pristine Protection: America’s Huge New Underwater Park A section of remote Pacific Ocean waters twice the size of Texas has been set aside to protect it from deep-sea mining and fishing. Read More » In-Print