Healing Benefits of Negative Ion Therapy in Salt Crystal Lamps

Negative ion therapy is believed to improve health and help relieve respiratory ailments such as allergies and asthma. It uses naturally occurring negative ions to rid the body and the air of toxins that can lead to health problems. The treatment is often received by Salt Lamps containing salt crystals, nature’s natural ionizer.

How Do Salt Lamps Work? Crystal salt is one of the few minerals whose atomic structure is bound electrically rather than molecularly. This unique characteristic enables the crystal to change back and forth from crystalline to liquid. These ancient bio-energetic crystals are hand excavated into various sizes and drilled inside to accommodate a light source.

The  lamps are lit by a small, energy efficient bulb of 15 watts or less. The gentle heat of the bulb in the salt crystal creates a higher surface temperature than the surrounding air. The humidity in the air is attracted to the warmer crystal surface causing condensation on the crystal surface of the lamp, enabling the electrically bound sodium chloride mineral to split into independent (positive) sodium and (negative) chloride ions.

The atomic structure of crystal salt contains more negative chloride ions than positive sodium ions resulting in the emission of negative ions during the natural ionization process. These negative ions become dust collectors, attaching themselves to positively charged particles, purifying the air from dust, smoke, bacteria and other pollutants.

This natural ionization creates an electric charge. Each time the water molecules evaporate the sodium and chloride ions turn back into their crystalline mineral form. The same process occurs when the sun heats up the oceans on a much larger scale. This natural ionization process takes place over & over millions of times without influencing the quality of the crystal similar to the process where tree leaves absorb dangerous dioxides and transform them into essential oxygen without damaging the plant.

So, aside from being a beautiful light source, the lamps are natural air purifiers that may significantly help people with various health conditions including allergies, asthma and other respiratory ailments. Lamps can be used safely in any room in your home and office and should be left on as much as possible when people are present.

To learn more, watch this video that explains how the lamps work from Solay Wellness.

Run! Run! Run! June 2 is National Running Day!

The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step- Lao-tzu

An entire day has devoted to bringing awareness to the numerous benefits of running.  Who knew? National Running Day is an initiative to nationally promote running as a healthy, easy, and accessible form of exercise.

I have personally benefited from running since I have begun training for a half marathon through an amazing program: Team in Training that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Whether it’s five minutes, 15 minutes, or 45 minutes, every little bit of time spent running makes a difference in the goal to live healthy, happy, and heart strong.

You can participate in National Running Day anywhere—you don’t have to be in one of the cities hosting events to take part. At the least, all it takes is to wear your running shoes throughout the day, go for a run, and invite a friend to join you.  Join us for National Running Day on Wednesday, June 2, as we come together as a nation to take strides toward leading healthier, fitter lives.

Salt Lamps: Light Your Way to a Healthier Life

It may just look like a pretty light, but buy welcoming your home to a new salt lamp, you are doing so much more for your body, your health and your environment. There is a multitude of benefits to including one of these beautiful naturally occurring pieces in your home.

Crystalline salt helps to increase negative ions. Negative ions purify the air we breathe and balance out the number of positive ions that are around us. Don’t be fooled at the word ‘positive’. Positive ions represent pollutants and harmful agents. Turning on your salt lamp will increase the number of these negative ions in your living space to balance the amount of positive.

Another benefit of salt lamps is their absorptive nature of water. If you live in a damp area and suffer from a moldy home or just a humid-overdose, having a salt lamp will absorb the water in your living space again keeping it pure and clean.

We have all experienced the benefit of negative ions. The feeling generated by negative ions is one that you find at the ocean, or what you might feel in a big storm or waterfall. Places that are more open and without pollution have a higher negative ion count, while places like New York and LA have a very low negative ion count. Crystalline salt is a natural air ionizer that boosts these ions in the air. Lit lamps have been shown in tests to attract these positive ions, or pollution and to neutralize them, then releasing them back into the environment.

Natural salt lamps are made from salt mined from deep within the Earth and it naturally occurs in white to coral colors. Many salt lamps are from crystals mined in the Himalayas.

Change You Can Bite Into

In 1971 Frances Moor Lappe released her now-classic book, “Diet For A Small Planet”. This groundbreaking book helped millions of readers understand the root causes for hunger and her core message was that food remains the central issue through which to understand world politics. As a continuation of her message of how the food system is broken and what needs to happen to fix it, her daughter Anna Lappe recently wrote a powerful book focusing on a different cause but the same solution.

Anna Lappe’s new book, “Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork, and What You Can Do About It”, falls into the category as being one of the most important books of the year. The book acts as a reality check from specific situations that support the notion that climate change is having substantial effects on our planet right now.

Lappe exposes the truth, based on well-documented science, on how agriculture can be part of the answer to fix a broken food system. In this book, Lappe lays out 7 principles for a climate friendly diet. The dietary advice found in the book gives insight as to what foods to choose for good health; not only trim down your waistline, but also what foods to pick to help reduce carbon footprint. Lappe heavily argues that the key factor to understanding how to help your health while also helping the planet is to understand where your food comes from.

If you take interest in knowing more about how to reduce carbon footprint by adopting a planet friendly diet, join the live discussion on Alternet with Anna Lappe tonight 8pm EST/5pm PST tonight, Monday, April 5.

Organic Bug Spotlight On Healthy Child Healthy World

It is exceptionally rewarding to work with an company whose mission is to carefully examine the materials that are in our products to ensure they are natural, organic, safe, environmentally sustainable and free of harmful chemicals that are frequently found in seemingly harmless every day products.

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

For The Health of It!

No doubt about it, there is a growing interest in bicycling to promote green transportation and to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. The number of people riding bicycles has exploded within the past year or so, in cities and towns all over the country. As wonderful as this is for our environment and our health, the frustration from some is overbearing as we can’t seem to find a way to share the road.

Research shows that bicycling health benefits include reduction in cancer, heart disease and diabetes-which outweigh its risks 20-1. So as great as it sounds to become a cyclist, there are things that raise a few red flags as to why cyclists are at risk sharing the road.

Many people choose to find a solution by pushing for more money to be spent for alternate bike lanes and paths. The money could also be allocated to build and sustain infrastructure that is well suited for cyclists’ safe transportation in and around a town or city.

Many people believe that the future of bicycles is not on the same paths as cars but rather built upon separate paths and lanes, not shared. However, the controversy lies not only on how to make bicycling safer but also how to include them in the normal routes of transportation so they are seen as equal.

With more bikers on the road and more frustrations on the rise how and what do we change so everyone can commute happily and safely? What do you think? Here’s what I have come up with:

If you are a cyclist, ride your bike as you would drive your car. Try and make the road a safe place for everyone, whether they ride on 2 wheels or 4, we are all human, with somewhere to go and more often than not, crunched for time. Be patient, road rage won’t get you anywhere but behind bars.

It goes without saying but every form of transportation necessitates a safety precaution, seat belts and helmets are encouraged and in some places mandated. If you do find yourself becoming increasingly frustrated with cyclists, take a deep breath and remember they are doing something positive for our beautiful planet. If that doesn’t help, just switch lanes.

What are your suggestions and comments?

Turning Your Dinner Party Green!

With the Holiday season just right around the corner, your busy schedules probably just got slammed with a number of dinner parties to attend. Attending dinner parties are fun but hosting dinner parties can be fun too! Whether you are having a small get together or many people over for a green celebration, planning does not have to be stressful and hopefully this article will ease your list of things to do.

So you’ve decided you’re going to have a dinner party. Next step is figuring out how you’re going to send your invitations. To go green and ease the carbon footprint on getting your attendees attention to save the date, may we suggest using social media? What a quick and easy way to contact your network of friends. Remember, just because its online doesn’t mean you can’t get creative. Send your invites a jazzed up email, they will be excited to open it making them even more excited to attend, we like to use Evite.com.

Another idea is to suggest a prize for those who arrive by alternative forms of transportation other than by car, but whatever the prize is, make it green and make it good. When you decorate for your party create displays of fresh flowers and soy candles and get creative with the seasons offerings. Pinecones, lemons, leaves, and oranges are all things found in or around your house that can add to the fall season and add to the mood of a comfortable environment.

Don’t forget to invest in some ‘green wine’; no, the color of the wine is not green but you can compliment any dish by supporting an ecologically sensitive winery.  Or, you can have green drinks by supporting a local micro brewery, as more and more breweries are using organic ingredients. When shopping for your dinner party, don’t forget about the after dinner coffee which you can go green by supporting fair trade. If there are leftovers, send everyone home with whatever is left, or compost your scraps for your garden. When you’re cleaning up, make sure to skip the prewash, however if you don’t have a dishwasher, use some eco friendly soap to hand wash your dishes like Seven Generations or Shaklee. You should always seek out green household cleaning products because they are good for your health and good for the environment too.

As you can see these are quick and easy steps to use when you’re plan for your green celebration. We aren’t asking you to make drastic changes in the way you plan but as you can see by changing a little, you can and will reduce your holiday dinner party carbon footprint. All of these things are easy on your wallet; health and the environment too. Have fun and stay green this holiday season!

What Do You Sacrifice To Afford Health Care in America?

Sara Robinson has the distinction of being one of the few trained social futurists in North America and is currently a Fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future. Among other interesting projects, Sara is a founding member of Group News Blog and lives with her family in beautiful Vancouver, BC.

I ran across a recent article on AlterNet Sara wrote asking some thought provoking questions regarding what ALL Americans sacrifice to afford health care as we know it. Her extremely insightful approach is based on her experience living in both the American and Canadian cultures.

Providing a litany of quality-of-life comparisons to our northern neighbors, you may experience an intense sadness like I did OR you may simply be outraged. Whatever the emotion that erupts from within, any thought of politics and partisanship will melt away leaving you wanting more than just business as usual in our great country.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Read on…

We’ve Been Trapped Inside a Bad Health Care System So Long, We Don’t Even Know How Much We’re Missing