Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Soap for best all-over body wash.

 

 

 

If you have a phone that can check e-mail, search for local Italian restaurants and organize your monthly meetings, why shouldn’t you also use a body wash that can also step in as dishwashing soap, shampoo and laundry detergent? Dr. Bronner is the ultimate multi-tasking cleanser. Made from organic coconut, olive, hemp and jojoba oils, the no-frills soap has been a staple of the camping set for years (one little bottle covers lots of ground), but it has increasingly been making its way into the homes of those who are anything but outdoorsy. While it is safe to use for household cleaning and on any part of your body (including hair, feet and face), the liquid soap serves its purpose best as a highly effective daily body wash. Warning: The peppermint is extremely pepperminty. I turn to the lavender (made with organic essential oils) when I need a break from the frosty mint.

Clean up your act! The best all-natural soaps

Having trouble keeping up with our increasingly organic, eco-friendly world? Let me be your guide! From all-natural makeup to the best in eco-conscious jeans, I will test and review the products and treatments that are best for you and the planet.

I don’t know about you, but I take showers and baths for one primary reason: to get clean. (Secondary reasons: to relax, reduce stress and push through writer’s block.) But if you dissected the average bar of soap or broke down a teaspoon of a popular body wash, you’d probably find a handful of highly unsavory ingredients — harsh detergents, synthetic preservatives, artificial colors and fragrances, greasy mineral oils, even animal fats. How clean is that?

As with all personal care products — I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but I can’t stop … I just can’t stop! — it is essential to read the label on that bar of soap or bottle of body wash before you decide to take it home with you. The ingredients should either a) be extremely easy to decipher; B) be accompanied by clear explanations; c) all of the above. And when shopping for soap, be on the lookout for two of the most common ingredient red flags:

• Parabens (petroleum-based preservatives): These toxic ingredients often sneak into even the most “natural” products. They can be (loosely) disguised by the addition of prefixes like “propyl” and “butyl.” Parabens have been linked to breast cancer, impaired fertility and skin irritation — from mild itching to scaling and blistering.
• Sodium lauryl sulfate and propylene glycol (petroleum surfactants): These synthetic ingredients are often used as foaming agents to create extra-fluffy lather in soaps and shampoos. They’ve been connected to skin irritation and, more alarmingly, to disrupting the structure of the skin to allow deeper penetration of other toxins.

The 10 health ‘rules’ you should break

The food pyramid almost crushed Elaine Monarch. She'd always enjoyed whole-wheat bread and the other healthy carbohydrates that form the pyramid's foundation, but her resolve to eat plenty of grains grew even stronger after she went to her doctor complaining of bloating and diarrhea. "He told me I needed more fiber in my diet," she says. "That advice practically killed me."

Monarch, it turns out, has celiac disease: Her immune system attacks the gluten from grains, damaging her small intestine in the process. The founder of the Celiac Disease Foundation, she is still diligent about consuming enough fiber — but these days she gets it from fruit, nuts and supplements instead of grains.

Americans are constantly bombarded with expert health advice, and many of the messages are unquestionably right for everyone. No one will ever get sick from avoiding cigarettes or trans fats. But some of the most commonly repeated pieces of advice actually aren't meant for everyone. After all, the USDA couldn't equip its pyramid with a section just for people with celiac disease. Health recommendations are sometimes based on studies that didn't include a good cross section of the general public. And even when broadly representative studies trumpet a 94% success rate, that still leaves 6 people out of 100 looking for answers.

Your Fitness Routine Smart advice: Vigorous workouts do more for you than moderate ones.

Tailor it if you're sedentary and your main goal is weight loss. If you work too hard — and tire too quickly — you may not burn enough calories to make a real dent in your weight. A 2003 study of 184 women found that walking at a moderate pace for at least 150 minutes each week for a year was just as slimming as working out more intensely for shorter periods of time. In fact, women assigned to long sessions of moderate exercise lost about the same amount as women who worked harder for shorter bursts — 15 to 18 pounds, on average. To drop weight, exercise most days of the week at a pace that you can sustain for 30 to 40 minutes. You should be able to talk without gasping for air.

5 surprising things that give you headaches

 

 

5 headache triggers
You've been at the computer for hours. You’ve worked late all week and have in-laws coming this weekend. You have a raging case of PMS. Eyestrain, stress, and hormonal shifts are fairly common causes of headaches, which afflict 45 million Americans (most of them women). But sometimes the usual suspects don’t explain that pain in your head. That’s because some triggers are just plain weird — like perfume, storms, earrings... or even orgasms. Health magazine shares smart tips on how to identify the source of your headache so you can send it packing.

India and China pledge to strengthen trade, military ties

BEIJING: China and India pledged Monday to strengthen trade and military links and seek a solution to a border row, as India's prime minister sought to cement a rapid improvement in ties with a landmark visit.

The friendly atmosphere was tempered, however, by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's call for China to make concessions to reduce a growing two-way trade imbalance.

The Indian leader said he and his host Premier Wen Jiabao signed a broad agreement to push an often testy relationship to a new level of cooperation.

The pact lifts the target for bilateral trade -- which soared to 38.7 billion dollars last year -- to 60 billion dollars by 2010, and pledges a renewed effort to solve a Himalayan border dispute over which they fought a brief war in 1962.

It also commits the two sides to another joint military exercise this year, following their first-ever exercise late last year, and to pursue a possible regional trade agreement, said Singh, who arrived on Sunday.

Singh called the document "an important milestone in the evolution of our relations."

"The profound changes taking place in the world today present both our countries with a historic opportunity to work together towards a 21st century that is conducive to peace and development," he told reporters.