7 Ways to Change Your Life in 7 Days, and other Weekend Reads

Here are this weekend's reading diversions for your enlightenment and enjoyment. Have a awesome, restful weekend!

The Healthiest Breads: 6 Types Explained

The bread section is probably the most popular aisle at the grocery store. It's also the most confusing. Faced with labels ranging from "organic whole wheat" to "seven grain" to "flax and grains," it's enough to make your head spin.

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10 Foods to Avoid if You Have an Overactive Bladder

Citrus tends to irritate the bladder (even though, in general, it's wise to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables for their healthy, vitamin-rich liquid and fiber). Beware especially of oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, and tangerines. Pineapple, not technically a citrus fruit (even though it often appears in the same tropical salads), is also a culprit because it's highly acidic.

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7 Ways to Change Your Life in 7 Days

If you start implementing these seven habits today, you will see a positive change in your life within a week’s time, guaranteed.

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At Risk For Stroke? Cognitive Problems Could Follow, Study Says

Researchers found that simply having risk factors for stroke, including the number-one risk factor, high blood-pressure, and an enlarged heart, upped the risk of cognitive impairment among adults who were stroke-free and cognitively "normal."

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Gretchen Rubin: 9 Tips for Dealing With Difficult Relatives Over the Holidays

For many people, the holidays are a joyous time; other people dread them. If you anticipate that you might have to spend time with difficult relatives, here are some strategies for keeping family dinners pleasant:

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Many Uses For Everyday Items

Before you buy more things that will clutter up your apartment, sometimes the products you need are already sitting in your kitchen cupboard, bathroom, or other places around the house. Reusing items is a great way to save money and to be green. Read on for 48 ways to recycle these nine everyday items.

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Remembrance Day: Why the Poppy?

Thanks to the millions of Canadians who wear flowers each November, the little red plant has never died. And neither have Canadian's memories for 116,031 of their countrymen who died in battle.

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Your kid's a perfectionist? That's not a good thing - The Globe and Mail

“Perfectionists really seem to struggle to play nicely with others, including their romantic partners,” says Dr. Sherry. And not only can they not enjoy success, he says, but perfectionism often stymies success. A recent study he co-authored found that psychology professors with higher perfectionist traits published less often than colleagues who weren’t perfectionists.

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Shyness in teens is not social phobia, researchers say - The Globe and Mail

The controversial diagnosis “social phobia” is a legitimate psychiatric condition and is not the same as shyness, U.S. government researchers say in a new report.

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Touch At Your Own Peril

The scientists found that gas pump handles narrowly out-germ’d mailbox handles, which were contaminated 68 percent of the time. Escalator rails, ATM buttons, and parking meters were also pretty gross.

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Men's Health: Outsmart Your Hormones, Keep Weight Off | Men's Health News

“The majority of dieters regain the weight eventually,” says study author Joseph Proietto, Ph. D., from the University of Melbourne. His findings indicate it isn’t just due to a failure of willpower. Scientists can’t yet explain why the hormonal changes happen, but Proietto says it’s more evidence your body has a set weight at which it’s happiest—and it fights to stay there, despite the potential health problems obesity can cause.

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Your Child's Cough

Coughs are one of the most common symptoms of childhood illness. Although a cough can sound awful, it's not usually a sign of a serious condition. In fact, coughing is a healthy and important reflex that helps protect the airways in the throat and chest

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Truth about potato chips revealed: Baked is not better than fried - Healthzone.ca

Reports from the United States confirms that baked chips — although featuring a lower fat level — have high levels of acrylamide, a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical

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A Cure for Crohn's Disease?

Crohn's disease is a more serious form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that usually develops in the lowest parts of the small and large intestines but can also occur elsewhere in the digestive tract. Symptoms include loss of appetite, chronic diarrhea, cramping, pain in the abdomen, and weight loss. Stress can worsen symptoms but doesn't cause the disease.

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Turmeric for Depression?

It may turn out to be helpful. Turmeric, the yellow spice that colors curry and American yellow mustard, is a potent natural anti-inflammatory agent. Its active constituent, curcumin, has shown promise as an antidepressant in animal models, and curcumin also has been found to enhance nerve growth in the frontal cortex and hippocampal areas of the brain. Researchers in India have suggested performing clinical trials on humans to explore turmeric's efficacy as a novel antidepressant.

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David Katz, M.D.: Of Course Food Is Addictive! Why Is Anything Else?

There has been an impressive concentration of recent public opinion on the matter of food addiction. Journalists ask if food can be addictive, and academics opine -- some to say no, most to say yes, and many to spell out the implications, including legal ramifications for food manufacturers.

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Raw apple crumble pie | Chatelaine.com

Did you know the pectin in apples helps lower bad cholesterol by as much as 16 percent? This raw apple recipe is an easy way of spicing up your everyday apples, and turning them into a healthy gourmet treat.

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The Remembrance Day Poppy & In Flanders Fields Poem

The poppy is the recognized symbol of remembrance for war dead in Canada, the countries of the British Commonwealth, and the United States. The flower owes its significance to the poem In Flanders Fields, written by Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) John McCrae, a doctor with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, in the midst of the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium, in May 1915.

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Is your thyroid on the fritz? - TODAY Health - TODAY.com

Much easier to identify is hyperthyroidism (Graves' disease is a common type), in which the thyroid unleashes a flood of excess hormone. This can shock your body into sudden weight loss, rapid heartbeat, insomnia, or bouts of diarrhea. Sufferers can feel constantly wired, warm, and shaky, as if they're hooked up to an IV filled with espresso. Similar to the warning signs of hypothyroidism, the symptoms of hyperthyroidism can become worse or more persistent over time--but both conditions are highly treatable with prescription meds

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