The Listeria Peril — And What the Hell Is Listeriosis, Anyway?
Chances are, you aren’t buying canteloupes these days, scared off by the latest scare in food-borne illnesses. Canteloupes from a Colorado farm were found to be contaminated with Listeria, and have now sickened hundreds of people and killed 29, the highest death toll ever from a food-borne pathogen. The problem is, this is just the [...]
5 Foods to Help You Sleep
When you open the cupboards in search of a midnight snack, it helps to be aware that some foods can bring on insomnia, while others help you sleep more deeply. So choose carefully! Here are five foods proven to help you drift off: 1. Toast. Carbohydrate-rich foods cause a spike in blood sugar levels, triggering [...]
A New-Old Insomnia Cure: Darkness
Studies have shown that the light from backlit computer screens and iPads — and to a slightly lesser extent, TV — are seriously sabotaging modern sleep habits.
Bed Bugs Begone: Best Anti-Bedbug Tips
Toronto fights bed bugs with signs Once almost completely eradicated from the U.S., bedbugs are back with a vengeance. First spotted in hotels on the east coast, they’re now making themselves at home in movie theaters, office buildings, apartments, public buildings, and college dorms all over the country. Recent bedbug attacks:• New York: Abercrombie & [...]
Best Anti-Aging Creams Ever!
In the fall, I spent a week at Rancho La Puerta, the original wellness retreat in Tecate, Mexico, with a group of travel bloggers. Another member of our group, Chicago TV reporter Nancy Loo, told all of us about an all-natural product line called Maylán that was developed by a Chicago chemist for his wife’s [...]
Finding a Cure for Back Pain at Rancho La Puerta
I went to Rancho La Puerta, the legendary wellness retreat and spa in Tecate, Mexico, to whip myself into shape and get healthy and centered. Certainly those goals seemed ambitious enough for one week. What happened instead was quite unexpected; I discovered a series of classes and activities that allowed me to focus on alleviating [...]
Dark Circles Begone: An Eye Cream that Awakens Tired Eyes
If I have one beauty bugaboo that bothers me more than others, it’s the dark circles under my eyes. They’re a permanent fixture, unfortunately; the genetics in my family have seen to it that by the age of 35, my three sisters and I had all developed what we commonly refer to as “eye bags,” [...]
Best Healthy Aging Advice Ever from Rancho La Puerta
One of inspiring aging-related messages at Rancho La Puerta I haven’t had a lot of examples of healthy aging in my personal life; sadly, both of my parents died at relatively young ages. So I find myself constantly on the watch for role models to learn from; I’m hungry for the example of others as [...]
Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite: Bed Bug Report Part II
It’s amazing what it’s possible to find out about Web traffic. A few clicks reveals that the most popular post ever here at Health*Conscious*Travel was my bedbug report: what to know before you go a few months back. The timing was good, because since I posted the national news has continued to feature one report after [...]
Bed Bug Alert: What to Know Before You Go
Okay, it’s gross and no fun to read about, but frequent travelers everywhere are buzzing about…bed bugs. Is this for real? Apparently it’s all too real; a pest we thought was a relic of depression-era tenements is now taking up residence in hotels across the globe. What surprised me the most, I must confess, is [...]
