Should A Natural Health Practitioner Market A Health Product From A Direct Sales Business?

Have you ever wanted to promote a natural health product and shyed away from doing so because it was affiliated with a network marketing company?

It's totally understandable why a practitioner would shy away from such a thing. Afterall, you don't want your clients thinking your trying to make money off of them right? Well from Practitioner to Practitioner I'm here to tell you to just get over it! The health and wellness industry is growing by leaps and bounds. Lets face it a practitioner can only make so much money selling at retail. You either have to hike your consultation prices, recommend more product, or see more clients to make ends meet. And we all know seeing more clients is trading time for dollars. Wouldn't you rather be spending your time at a spa or on vacation?

Most practitioners are looking for a way to bring in extra cash to help pay the extra overhead expenses. However, most are quick to shun products that come from network marketing companies. Don't let an valuable product that could help your clients and add to your cash flow pass you by just because its affiliated with network marketing. Some of the best quality health products come out of network marketing companies.

Ofcourse natural health practitioners are the first ones to get bombarded with hungry distributors. These distributors are thinking your the perfect prospect! Perhaps they have more hope in you than you do? It is your ethical responsibility to research that particular health product they are sharing with you to the fullest extent. Afterall, you do need to stay up with the latest health information out there. Plus don't you want to have the appropriate answers for your clients incase they ask about a particular product they heard about? Better yet don't you want to be informed? Ofcourse you do! Nothing worse than a client being more informed than you.

There are many health practitioners finding success in marketing natural health products that come from the network marketing industry. Natural health practitioners such as N.D's, Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Massage Therapists, Nutitionists, Bowen Tharapists etc, are all finding success in one form or another by means of helping people feel better and by doing so are making a good stream of extra income within their practices. Can't get any better than that. Doing what you love to do and making more money.

Don't let your misconceptions of network marketing stop you from helping alot of people and making tons more money doing what you love to do.

Travel Health: Useful Medical Information For Good Health Before Your Departure, During Your Trip And After Your Return

The diseases most commonly seen in travellers are diarrhoea, malaria (if you travel in a malaria-infested area), accidents (when travelling by car or swimming), wound infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

- Diarrhoea is caused by contaminated food and drinking-water. You must therefore be careful if your are travelling in poor hygiene conditions.

- Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, so the first thing to do is to protect yourself against these mosquitoes.

- In order to prevent accidents during travelling, it is wise to apply the same precautions as those taken at home. In addition, it is very important that all wounds should be thoroughly disinfected in order to avoid infection.

· TRAVELLER’S DIARRHOEA

Many intestinal infections are attributable to infections picked up by mouth or hands. With a little care most of these illnesses can be prevented. Hepatitis A, typhoid fever, polio and cholera still occur in countries with poor hygiene, but these diseases are easily prevented.

However, the chance is rather large that you will still contract a light and/or nondangerous form of traveller's diarrhoea. Traveller's diarrhoea almost always spontaneously clears up after a few days, but can nevertheless be irritating. And a risk to your overall and travel health.

In the first place measures must be taken against dehydration. Likewise, treatment of the symptoms must be considered in order to reduce the number of bowel movements and relieve other symptoms such as fever, vomiting and stomach cramps. Sometimes a more serious form of diarrhoea occurs, for which specific treatment with antibiotics is indicated or where hospitalisation or fluid replacement appears unavoidable.

It takes only a few basic preventive measures to make your trip a success : Total prevention of traveller's diarrhoea is impossible and it is obvious that preventive measures can seldom be strictly followed at all times. But following preventive measures do significantly reduce the risk of contracting serious diarrhoea: In order to maintain good travel health wash your hands before eating and avoid (if possible):

- raw vegetables and fruits that you have not peeled yourself
- uncooked or unpasteurized dairy products
- insufficiently cooked sea foods (+ Hepatitis A !) and meat
- “local meals” which do not smell fresh
- ice-cream bought from street merchants (industrial ice straight from the deep-freeze is probably safe).

Cooked meals should be served hot. The place where you eat is also important. A meal taken from a stall presents a greater risk than a meal taken in a restaurant. Avoid restaurants where there are a lot of insects.
Avoid tap water and ice-cubes. Bottled water and soft drinks are safe. Watch out for bottle caps that have already been used.

It is very important to disinfect drinking-water on adventure trips. Total sterilisation of drinking water is impossible. The following measures considerably reduce the contamination risk and safeguard your travel health:

- Boiling the water is very effective.
- A good alternative is chemical disinfection with chlorine drops (e.g. Hadex®, Drinkwell chloor®; available in sport shops specialized in outdoor activities) or chlorine tablets (Certisil Combina®; chloramine tablets; available at the pharmacy). Their effect can be improved by first filtering unclear water. Silver salts (Micropur®, Certisil Argento®) are not very suitable to disinfect water, but they keep disinfected water germ-free for a long time.

For adventurous travellers conscious to travel health it is best to buy a portable water-filter. The use of antibiotics in order to prevent diarrhoea before it occurs can be dangerous + Also the use of other preventive medications is not recommended.

. How to treat diarrhoea?

It is extremely important to consume sufficient liquid and salt in order to prevent dehydration. You can do this by taking salt solutions, but tea with lemon, broth, soft drinks and fruit juice, supplemented with salt crackers are tastier. Commercial salt products are available on the market (ORS-solution).

Taking an anti-diarrhoea preparation (loperamide, e.g. Imodium®) can greatly reduce the number of bowel movements, with a considerable reduction of the complaints as a result. Imodium® may only be used by adults and older children and only for treating ordinary watery diarrhoea: 1 capsule after every loose movement up to a maximum of 4 per day.

Antibiotics are indicated :

1. If blood, mucus or pus are present in the stools.
2. If after 24 to 48 hours, there is no sign of improvement and the diarrhoea is accompanied by fever (above 38.5 C) or severe abdominal cramps, or if there are more than six stools per 24 hours and especially when these also occur at night.
3. Or if because of travel circumstances a quicker solution is absolutely desirable . Appropriate antibiotics are only to be used on doctor’s prescription

· SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

Casual sexual contacts tend to be higher while on holiday abroad. Sexually transmitted diseases, particularly AIDS, form therefore an important risk for travellers. Quite often unintentional and unsafe sexual contact takes place under alcohol influence. Prevention while on holiday abroad is no different from the precautions you take at home. Adequate use of a condom, preferably bought at home, is absolutely essential. Only a water-soluble lubricant should be used, but it only offers a partial guarantee (e.g. KY gel). Vaccination against hepatitis B is advised. Always consult your doctor if you think you are at risk, even when there are no symptoms.

· MALARIA (swamp fever, malaria)

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite (called Plasmodium) transmitted by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. There are four different types of which Malaria falciparum is the most dangerous and the most widespread. The incubation period – the time between an infecting bite and the appearance of the disease – varies from ten days to four weeks (rarely several months).

The symptoms include attacks of fever, but can initially be quite similar to influenza. If adequate treatment is not started in time, an attack may sometimes result in death within a few days.

. Where does malaria occur?

Malaria only occurs in those areas in which Anopheles mosquitoes are present : in the tropics and in a large number of subtropical areas. From a height of 1.500 to 2.500 m onwards, depending on temperature and climate, Anopheles mosquitoes are either rare or non-existent.

In most big cities there is little or no risk at all of infection, except in Africa where a real risk exists.

Risk also exists in the suburbs of the big cities in Asia (e.g. in India). In a number of areas the risk varies according to the season.

. How can malaria be prevented?

It is very important for travel health to avoid mosquito bites : the Anopheles mosquito only bites between dusk and dawn, is rather small and hardly makes any noise.

- In the evening wear light-coloured clothing which covers your arms and legs as much as possible. Apply repellent cream with a DEET basis (20 to 50%, for children and pregnant women preferably 20 to 30%) to the uncovered parts of your body. Repeat this every four to six hours (it will not protect you all night).

Non containing DEET repellents were less examined; Autan-Active. and Mosegor. are however excellent safe products.

- Sleep in rooms that leave no access to mosquitoes, (mosquito nets on the sills, electrically-warmed anti-mosquito plates, air-conditioning) or sleep under a mosquito net impregnated with permethrine or deltamethrine hung over the bed with the edges tucked under the mattress.

If these measures are carried out correctly, the risk of malaria will be reduced by 80 to 90% and travel health is maintained

. The intake of pills as prevention

There is no drug efficient enough to prevent malaria 100%, which means that quite often a combination of measures is preferable. Also the drugs used have changed over the years. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of drugs should be considered against the risk of malaria infection. These risks are dependent on the visited country, and on the region, the season, the duration of your stay and the kind of trip.

Some people might be troubled by the side effects while taking antimalarial drugs. These are usually mild and are not always a reason to stop taking the pills. Sometimes it may be necessary to change to another type of medication due to intestinal problems, allergic reactions or other intolerance symptoms.

Therefore it is the doctor who can best decide for each individual which drug to use. This explains why individuals from the same group may end up taking different drugs.

Finally, as no drug is 100% effective in preventing malaria, it is important that if an attack of fever occurs in the first three months after your return from the tropics, a malaria infection should be considered as a possibility despite the correct use of the drug prescribed.

However, it is reassuring to know that malaria, provided it is recognised in time, is easy to treat without any danger of recurrent attacks. The belief that "once malaria always malaria" is totally untrue.

You can find even more travel health tips in the next pages:

DISEASES FOR WHICH VACCINATIONS ARE AVAILABLE: http://www.spain-holidays-advisor.com/vaccination.html

MORE TRAVEL HEALTH TIPS : http://www.spain-holidays-advisor.com/more-travel-tips.html

CAUTION: The information provided here should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or for the treatment of any medical condition. A licensed physician should be consulted for any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies.

3 Easy Steps for Finding Effective Weight Loss Products. Big fines against well-known weight loss ma

by: Dave Perry

Chicago, Illinois, March 25, 2008. Recently, the federal government levied $25,000,000 in fines against 3 weight loss supplement manufacturers, including the highly publicized TrimSpa, featuring celebrity spokesperson, Anna Nicole Smith.

This shouldn't be a surprise.

Ms. Smith, who provided visible, physical evidence of the product's ability to help shed pounds, admitted to reporters over a year ago, that she lost much of the weight in ways other than ingestion of the TrimSpa product (Don't ask how she did it. It's not pleasant).

Beyond the appearance of results provided by Ms. Smith, the federal government looked deeper and found that little or no clinical evidence existed to support the TrimSpa’s weight loss claims.

TrimSpa, apparently, was a successful marketing ploy, rather than good science applied to an age old problem of excess weight.

Fortunately, there are companies out there that spend more on research, science and good weight loss product development, than on empty celebrity endorsements.

But, you need to know how to find them, and what to look for. Here are some guidelines for finding effective weight loss supplements:

#1 Look for a Product with claims substantiated by hard science

Many weight loss supplement manufacturers claim to be �clinically-proven", to have �documented results� or to be �backed by scientific research� to sell their products. But you need to see the research yourself. If a manufacturer is unwilling to provide substantiation, run like the wind.

#2 Not all Clinical Research is the same

Look closely at the clinical studies provided by weight loss manufacturers. Was it conducted by a reputable, recognized institution, such as Georgetown University Medical Center, Harvard or other known organization? If the manufacturer provides study results that were conducted by unspecified persons, under vague conditions, question their product claims

#3 What happens in the manufacturing plant

This can be murky. While a manufacturer may have scientific studies, conducted at reputable institutions that substantiate their product claims, they may not be putting the right ingredient purity, quality grade or dosage to help you realize the same results achieve in clinical studies.

Effective weight loss ingredients are expensive. One way a manufacturer can goose profits, is to lower the amount of active ingredients, while benefiting from legitimate result claims.

To make sure you'll be getting the same product as used in clinical testing, is to look for quality manufacturing verification from independent organizations, such as USP (US Pharmacopoeia), NF or Consumer Labs. Look for one or more of their symbols on weight loss packaging. If it's missing, avoid buying the product.

Getting beyond the hype of questionable, but often convincing celebrity endorsements requires some homework on the consumers’ part. But by following these three guidelines, it is possible to find a weight loss supplement that actually works.

About: Diab-X Natural Herbal Supplements for Type 2 Diabetics. http://www.provenresultshealth.com/diab-x/diabetes/natural/supplement/Qb.html Truth in Research: Blood Sugar and Diabetic Diet and Weight loss. Defeat Diabetes Naturally. You can find 200 real clinical studies on this site supporting proven natural, herbal supplements and how they can help diabetics return to healthy blood sugar levels and win this difficult battle with diabetic weight, plus get your old energy back again. Work this in with your current program. Testing indicates that you get results 3X Times faster than diet and exercise alone. Visit them or call the 800 Number to learn how Diab-X might improve your life. Toll Free Customer Service 888-600-6856 http://www.provenresultshealth.com/diab-x/diabetes/natural/supplement/Qb.html BLOG: http://www.provenresultshealth.com/naturalcuretalk/

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Child Dental Health

by: Seth Miller

You should start taking care of your child�s dental health even before the child�s first tooth comes in. To begin with, wipe your baby's gums with a soft damp cloth after feedings. That helps to prevent the buildup of bacteria. When teeth begin to show up, start using a soft children's toothbrush twice a day.

As your child reaches preschool age, brush his teeth with a tiny quantity of fluoride toothpaste. Kids have a tendency to swallow toothpaste, and too much fluoride can lead to permanent stains on their teeth. Fluoride strengthens teeth by hardening the tooth enamel. If your tap water lacks fluoride, your doctor may prescribe daily fluoride tablets when your child is about six months old. Although fluoride is a vital part of your child's dental health, its overuse should be avoided.

Children generally suffer from cavities, i.e., holes that are formed when bacteria in one�s mouth use the sugar in food to make acid which eats away at the teeth. To prevent cavities, avoid giving your child too many sugary foods like raisins, cookies and candy, and sweet drinks like fruit juice. If your child was born prematurely, weighed very little at birth, has ongoing special health care needs or has white spots or brown areas on any teeth, he/she might develop cavities.

All family members should take care of their teeth, as they can pass the cavity-causing bacteria to children. Apart from brushing twice a day and flossing once a day, everyone should see the dentist twice a year.

Avoid giving your child sweets, sticky foods and between-meal snacks. Follow a regular schedule for meals and snacks. Fresh fruits and vegetables, and cheese and crackers are good for teeth. Do not let your child walk around with a bottle, and teach him to use a drinking cup as soon as possible. Thumb sucking is normal for children unless it persists after age 4. It is advised that parents take their child to a dentist around his first birthday.

Dental Health Plans provides detailed information on Dental Health, Dental Health Plans, Dental Health Care, Child Dental Health and more. Dental Health Plans is affiliated with Dental Plans.

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Anti-Bullying Skills and Techniques for Children

Mark Lakewood, Relationship Specialist, Author, and Motivational Speaker

Bullying is a big problem in our schools today. However, bullying has always been a problem. The main differences between bullying today from the past are the nature of the bullying and the violence that occurs in the aftermath. Cyberbullying is becoming a popular and more destructive form of bullying than traditional bullying. More children today are bringing guns to school to seek revenge on others. Bullying has been around and will probably remain for years to come. Not only was I bullied as a child, but I continue to get bullied today as an adult. I do not believe that we have the power to rid the world of bullying. I believe the answer to the issue of bullying rests with all of us, especially the victims of bullying. I am not suggesting that victims of bullying are responsible for bullying. On the contrary, what I am suggesting is that victims of bullying have the power in themselves to think, behave, and react in ways that limits or eradicates bullying. As a society, we spend too much of our energy identifying and punishing the bully that we fail to spend enough time empowering the victims of bullying. We should spend more of our energy on the things that we can control rather than the things we have limited or no control over. We need to teach children about the power that they already possess. Let me elaborate on a few issues that parents should teach their children regarding the issue of bullying.

Let's first talk about the characteristics of bullying. Typically, bullies and their victims share the same characteristic - low self-esteem. It just depends on whether they internalize or externalize their feelings that will determine if they will become a bully or a victim of bullying. Typically, negative situations and events in the child's life can trigger low self-esteem. Externalizing feelings can cause some children to become bullies as they attempt to control their environment to compensate for their lack of control in their family. For instance, if a child's parents are divorcing and the child is very upset about the divorce, he or she might feel powerless in their ability to keep their parents together. As a result, the child might take out his or her rage on others for purposes of seeking control to compensate for his or her lack of control over their parents' impending divorce.

Given the same scenario (parental divorce), some children internalize their feelings by not talking or acting out how they feel. Instead, they become depressed and withdrawn feeling like a failure. Often, they develop a negative image of themselves and their physical appearance. They look at others and the world around them with shaded lens. When a bully validates this child's feelings about themselves, this child often reacts negatively to the validation because he or she feels the bully is correct in their interpretation.

Often times, children with high self-esteem do not respond negatively to bullies because they already know that whatever the bully says negatively about them is untrue and therefore they do not feel the need to defend themselves against the foolishness of others.

As human beings, our behavior, thoughts, and feelings are never dictated or controlled by others, situations, and events unless we allow this to occur. Simply said, others, situations, and events can trigger a reaction based on what we are thinking. In other words, if I really didn't want to go to work today and my car has a flat tire, I might experience happiness because I didn't want to go to work. On the other hand given the same event (flat tire), I might want to go to work today to take care of some undone business. Because the flat tire might delay or eliminate my chances of getting to work, this situation might cause me anger. How could the same event in both situations cause two different feelings? It wasn't the event at all that triggered the feelings. It was what I was thinking about the event that triggered my feelings. Therefore, manipulating the way we think can alter how we feel. We all have the ability to take ownership and control over our thoughts. We however have limited or no control over specific events, situations, and the behavior of others. Sometimes, we attempt to control events, situations, and others but become frustrated when our attempts fail.

Now, how does the paragraph above apply to the issue of bullying? The main goal of bullies is to attempt to get their victims to experience fear, anger, or sadness. Once their victim demonstrates signs of these emotions via the words he or she uses and/or their body language, the bully has complete and total control over them. The bully will continue to bully their victim until the victim no longer verbally and/or physically displays fear, anger, or sadness in response to the bullying. The bullying will end once the victim responds the opposite of what the bully expects.

How do we get children to react the opposite of what the bully expects? This is where role-playing comes in handy. Parents should regularly sit down with their children helping them learn to react the opposite of what bullies expect. Often times, this task is much easier when the parent knows what hurtful words or phrases bullies say that makes their children feel fearful, angry, or sad. Using these hurtful words and/or phrases in role-plays will emotionally prepare children when they are approached by bullies.

It is also important to teach children that they have the power to change or affect the agenda of bullies by the words they use. For instance, if a bully calls a child 'stupid', the child could defuse the bullying by stating to the bully, “That's nice�, “How about that�, “Oh, well�, and so forth. The worst thing that the child could do is respond by telling the bully that he or she is stupid or make any other negative statement. A negative response will only inflame the situation encouraging further bullying.

In addition, parents should teach and role-play with their children specified forms of body language that reflects a child with high self-esteem from a child with low self-esteem. Body language communicates feelings more so than spoken words. If a child yells at a bully that he or she is not bothered by their behavior, the bully knows that the child is bothered because of the yelling. Lack of eye contact, looking down, slouched posture, lack of hygiene, and low tone of voice can be viewed as symptoms of low self-esteem.

Parents need to teach their children that bullies rarely get angry with them. Bullies are typically angry at themselves and/or events that are or have occurred in their own life for which they have limited or no control. Bullies indirectly take out their anger on the ones they could easily control.

Parents should never teach their children to physically fight back when approached by a bully. The problem with fighting back is that children will get themselves into trouble for engaging in physically assaultive behavior. Think of it this way - bullies rarely ever throw the first punch. They always entice their victim into throwing the first punch. This way, when they are asked who started the fight, the bully could easily and truthfully state that their victim started it. In addition, there are significant legal ramifications that can arise as a result of physically assaultive behavior.

It is important to remember that physical violence typically occurs after a negative verbal interaction. Violence typically is provoked and rarely unprovoked. Therefore to avoid violence, the conflict can and should be defused during the verbal exchange. This is why the words victims say and their body language are so significant and detrimental to the outcome of bullying. Recent school shootings suggest that the shooters were bullied by their classmates. The bullying subsequently provoked the school violence.

Parents should be cautious when teaching their children to ignore bullies. The problem with ignoring is that the bully knows that their behavior is irritating, annoying, and controlling their victim. Therefore, the bullying will continue.

Parents should be cautious when teaching their children to constantly report bullying to an adult. Parents should encourage their children to first attempt to resolve the bullying on their own with the skills taught above. If their children are unsuccessful resolving these issues on their own, they should be encouraged to report the bullying. If their children automatically report the bullying without attempting to defuse the situation on their own, they will be perceived and labeled as a tattle-tale which will encourage more bullying.

Parents need to teach their children the correct definition of the word 'tattling'. Some children feel that reporting misbehavior to adults is considered tattling. Parents need to teach their children that reporting on others just to see them get into trouble is considered tattling. A child that reports to his or her parents that their brother is picking his nose is tattling. Children always need to report to an adult if they were physically, sexually, or verbally harmed by others or if they witnessed others engaging in destructive or illegal behaviors.

It is very easy to feel sorry and sympathy toward victims of bullying. However, it would be more helpful to the victim if we are more empathic to their needs by empowering them to diffuse bullying on their own. As a result, their ability to defuse the bullying would ultimately raise their level of self-esteem and self-worth.

If you would like additional tips and suggestions regarding bullying prevention skills or if you would like to attend an online educational seminar, please feel free to log onto the Building Strong Families National Seminar's website.

As a Motivational Speaker, Mr. Lakewood facilitates seminars on family-related issues. Graduating with a Master's degree in Social Work, Mr. Lakewood authored his first parenting DVD series entitled "The Sudden Compliance" program designed to help children significantly and swiftly improve their behavior at home, school, and within the community. He also authored the "Standing Up To Bullying" bullying prevention program designed to reduce bullying within schools, homes, and the community.

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