Friday, March 20, 2009

Four foods to avoid at the mall's food court

In this ABC video with Men's Health magazine writer Matt Bean you'll find out why you should eat before you go to the mall. The food court at your local mall is dangerous to your health!

For example, did you know a single Cinnabon cinnamon roll contains 56 grams of fat and over 1,100 calories? Or that a large Smoothie King smoothie has more than 250 grams of sugar? That's more sugar than is in a baker's dozen of chocolate frosted Dunkin' Donuts.

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Monday, March 9, 2009

Monika Ponton-Arrington joins Wellness Center staff

Monika Ponton-Arrington, a Native American healer, has joined the staff at the Natural Wellness Center of Ellijay.

Monika is an enrolled member of the Taino Nation and has lived in the north Georgia mountains since 1973. The first-born of a family of long ceremonial standing, she knew from an early age that her lifepath would be one of health and counseling. The teaching and guidance of the family's elder women, as well as being a caregiver to younger siblings provided her with a solid foundation for this path.

Married to a Cherokee, Monika studied the "mountain medicine" as well as the traditional ways of her husband's people for many years before returning to the Caribbean isles to study more closely the ways of her own people, under the guidance of the Taino Abuellas, or "grandmothers."

Armed with the understanding that all wellness is holistic in nature, Monika has sought formal knowledge as well. A graduate of the Native Wellness Institute, she is blessed with "book learning" as well as the intuition of a native healer.

Monika has worked and continues to work with physicians, therapists and counselors since the late 1990's.

She is the mother of four grown children, and lives near Fort Mountain and the Cohutta Wilderness near Ellijay, Georgia.

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Saturday, March 7, 2009

MRSA outbreak: Elephant infects 20 zoo employees

No sooner than I had posted an entry on AltHealthNews.com about the high levels of bacteria found on hospital workers' cell phones, including the deadly Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bug, MSNBC hit the wire with this story about how a baby elephant infected 20 employees at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

As Professor Randy Pausch said in The Last Lecture, you should always acknowledge an elephant in the room.

This is the first known instance where MRSA has crossed over from an animal to humans.

Not only should you wash your cellphones... now you have to wash your elephants, too!

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