As Good As Taking A Chill Pill

If life has you feeling irritable and edgy there is no need anymore to ask the doctor for a valium. Mother Nature has a pharmacy full of natural cures for nervous tension, worry and other problems.

When people are worried they tend to turn to foods that are high in carbs and sugars. That is when it becomes time to consume some yams. These work as powerful stress-busters. They are high in fiber and full of vitamins that support the nervous system such as Vitamin A and E.

Peanut butter can help you if you feel irritable and exhausted from a lack of good sleep. Peanuts are high in Vitamin B6 which helps regulate blood sugar and stabilize mood. It is best eaten on whole wheat toast so that it breaks down slowly in your body. The reason you want to have it on whole wheat toast is because this type of bread contains complex carbohydrates. This is known as the 'feel-good hormone.' If you want to enhance your mood even more try eating a peanut butter, banana, honey and whole wheat bread sandwich.

If you feel as if you cannot get your body to settle down and relax then drink some chamomile tea. It has been shown especially effective when it comes to suppressing muscle spasms.

Dark chocolate is another stress reliever. Just 1.4 ounces of dark chocolate can lower the stress hormones of cortical and ctecholamines in the body. This helps relieve anxiety.

St. John's Wort is a herb that is sometimes called 'The Break Up Remedy. It is useful for treating mild to severe depression. It can be taken in pill form as a supplement or you can take it as a tea.

If you are having trouble falling asleep then try having a few slices of turkey. Turkey contains tryphotan which helps people doze off. However although it may help people fall asleep it does not necessarily help them stay asleep.

Another herbal tea that can help with anxiety, especially the kind that has you worrying about finances or health, is Passionflower. It is very common and is a well –recognized over the counter sedative.

Valerian root is another common herb used to calm people down and put them right to sleep… You can but it as jukes, tablets, teas, tinctures. It is known as Nature's Valium.

Of course before taking any herb or any food in excess you really do need to consult with your doctor to make sure it will not conflict with any existing health conditions or mediations you are taking.

Gattaca is Here

Remember the science fiction movie 'Gattaca?' In that movie a world was depicted where parents could choose the characteristics of their children or have the talents and looks of their natural children assessed. Occupations were then chosen for the children based on these considerations.
Well these days are closer than you think. There is a clinic in Los Angeles called The Fertility Institute that is advertising a new service in which you can select your baby's sex, hair color, eye color and even more.
The website at the Fertility Institute posted this futuristic statement on their website -“For the first time ever, patients having genetic screening for abnormal chromosome conditions in their embryos will be able to elect expanded testing that can greatly increase the odds of achieving a healthy pregnancy with a preselected choice of gender, eye color, hair color and complexion, along with screening for potentially lethal diseases, screening for cancer tendencies (breast, colon, pancreas, prostate) and more.”
Wow! The future is finally here! Initially this type of screening was supposed to be used to prevent us from having children with cancer and other fatal diseases. Now it is used to create a race of super children. It is very much like something Hitler and his cronies would cook up.
I am surprised that we can start fooling with Mother Nature like this at all. I think it is also something that is very petty. Since when do we judge kids so much on appearances in the first place? Isn't it almost a crime to choose a red head over a blonde if your DNA assigns you the blonde kid over the first place? I am not even going to get started over the racial and sexual discrimination that also might result from this.
The other thing that is disappointing about all of this is the lack of surprise at the end of the pregnancy. I am one of those moms who just do not want to know the sex of the child before the day it is born. I like the surprise of it all. I love not knowing what color of hair or eyes my child will have. It is part of the joy of being pregnant.
In fact that is what that movie Gattaca was partly about. Choosing your baby's chromosomes are not only discriminatory it is also not very human. In a way too it is an insult to Mother Nature who creates human beings to adapt to our environment so who knows what kind of chaos or disease we are courting by bringing selective human beings into the world.