By Randy Dotinga, HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 5 (HealthDay News) — New research with mice suggests that intravenous doses of vitamin C could one day reduce the size of cancerous tumors in people.

The findings are preliminary and still must be confirmed in humans. And even if the treatment works, it’s not a cure but would likely be used in combination with other drugs, the researchers said.

Still, the research does show an unexpected use for vitamin C, which has previously been thought of as a nutrient, not a drug, said study co-author Dr. Mark Levine, chief of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section.

"There’s potential promise that [vitamin C] is part of the armamentarium for treating some cancers," he said. "Which ones? We’ve got to do more and find out."

Vitamin C has long been one of the most respected of all vitamins, lauded for its supposed powers to treat many ills, from colds to heart disease. The late scientist Dr. Linus Pauling increased the vitamin’s profile by touting it as a cancer treatment.

But getting heavy doses of vitamin C into the body is a challenge. Unlike some other vitamins, it’s virtually impossible for people to overdose on vitamin C since the body only ingests a certain amount through the mouth and then stops allowing it to build up, Levine said. "The body wants to get to a certain place and no more," he said.

Researchers have found that they can disrupt the body’s "tight control" over vitamin C levels by giving the nutrient intravenously and bypassing the digestive system, Levine said. The intravenous approach involves "short-circuiting the body’s normal control mechanisms and finding there’s an unexpected surprise that may be beneficial," he said.

In the new study, published in the Aug. 4-8 issue of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Levine and his colleagues found that intravenous vitamin C produced hydrogen peroxide, which proceeded to reduce cancerous tumors in the mice by 43 percent to 51 percent. The mice had ovarian, pancreatic and brain cancer.

It’s not clear why some tumors are immune to the treatment and others are not, Levine said, although normal cells are unharmed by the therapy.

According to the researchers, it’s possible to intravenously boost levels of vitamin C in humans to the levels used in the mice.

But Levine cautioned that the treatment isn’t ready for prime time with humans. "Should patients with any kind of tumor go out and get IV ascorbate [vitamin C]? That’s not the message here," he said.

Instead, he said, the study shows the need for more research.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said the research is interesting but not yet proven.

"Like so many things that are intriguing or appear to be promising, there appears to be a long way to go from the theory in the lab to the practical application in the clinic."

More information

To learn more about vitamin C, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

SOURCES: Mark Levine, M.D., chief, Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section, and senior staff physician, U.S. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.; Len Lichtenfeld, M.D., deputy chief medical officer, American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Aug. 4-8, 2008,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Click here to read the full article

It’s not all downhill after all: Research finds oldest Americans are the happiest

By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO

It turns out the golden years really are golden. Eye-opening new research finds the happiest Americans are the oldest, and older adults are more socially active than the stereotype of the lonely senior suggests. The two go hand-in-hand: Being social can help keep away the blues.

"The good news is that with age comes happiness," said study author Yang Yang, a University of Chicago sociologist. "Life gets better in one’s perception as one ages."

A certain amount of distress in old age is inevitable, including aches and pains and the deaths of loved ones and friends. But older people generally have learned to be more content with what they have than younger adults, Yang said.

This is partly because older people have learned to lower their expectations and accept their achievements, said Duke University aging expert Linda George. An older person may realize "it’s fine that I was a schoolteacher and not a Nobel prize winner."

George, who was not involved in the new study, believes the research is important because people tend to think that "late life is far from the best stage of life, and they don’t look forward to it."

Yang’s findings are based on periodic face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of Americans from 1972 to 2004. About 28,000 people ages 18 to 88 took part.

There were ups and downs in overall happiness levels during the study, generally corresponding with good and bad economic times. But at every stage, older Americans were the happiest.

While younger blacks and poor people tended to be less happy than whites and wealthier people, those differences faded as people aged.

In general, the odds of being happy increased 5 percent with every 10 years of age.

Overall, about 33 percent of Americans reported being very happy at age 88, versus about 24 percent of those age 18 to their early 20s. And throughout the study years, most Americans reported being very happy or pretty happy. Less than 20 percent said they were not too happy.

A separate University of Chicago study found that about 75 percent of people aged 57 to 85 engage in one or more social activities at least every week. Those include socializing with neighbors, attending religious services, volunteering or going to group meetings.

Those in their 80s were twice as likely as those in their 50s to do at least one of these activities.

Both studies appear in April’s American Sociological Review.

"People’s social circles do tend to shrink a little as they age — that is mainly where that stereotype comes from, but that image of the isolated elderly really falls apart when we broaden our definition of what social connection is," said study co-author Benjamin Cornwell, also a University of Chicago researcher.

The research rings true for 81-year-old George O’Hare, a retired Sears manager in Willowbrook, Ill. He’s active with church and AARP and does motivational speaking, too. His wife is still living, and he’s close to his three sons and four grandchildren.

"I’m very happy because I’ve made friends that are still living," O’Hare said. "I like to go out and speak in schools about motivation."

"Happiness is getting out and being with people, and that’s why I recommend it," he said.

"Happiness is getting out and being with people, and that’s why I recommend it," he said.

Ilse Siegler, an 84-year-old retired nurse manager in Chicago, has a slightly different perspective. Her husband died 35 years ago, and she says she still misses him every day.

She has vision problems and has slowed down with age. Yet she still swims, runs a social group in her condo building, volunteers in a retirement home and is active with her temple. These all help "make life more enjoyable," she said.

While Siegler said these aren’t the happiest years of her life, she’s content.

"Contentment as far as I’m concerned comes with old age … because you accept things the way they are," she said. "You know that nothing is perfect."

Cornwell’s nationally representative study was based on in-home interviews with 3,005 people in 2005 and 2006. While it didn’t include nursing home residents, only about 4 percent of Americans aged 75 to 84 are in nursing homes, Cornwell said.

It’s all good news for the aging population. However, Yang’s study also found that baby boomers were the least happy. They could end up living the unfortunate old-age stereotype if they can’t let go of their achievement-driven mind-set, said George, the Duke aging expert.

So far, baby boomers aren’t lowering their aspirations at the same rate earlier generations did. "They still seem to believe that they should have it all," George said. "They’re still thinking about having a retirement that’s going to let them do everything they haven’t done yet."

Previous research also has shown that mid-life tends to be the most stressful time, said Cornell University sociologist Elaine Wethington. "Everyone’s asking you to do things and you have a lot to do. You’re less happy because you feel hassled."

The new studies show "if you can make it through that," there’s light at the end of the tunnel, Wethington said.

[Read the full article here]

———

On the Net:

American Sociological Review: http://www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

I came across this very useful to-do list on different areas for developing yourself as a person in various aspects of our lives…

To-do list for self-development

Doctor Denis Waitley’s tips for getting on the path to a better you:

• Study biographies of individuals throughout history who have genuinely made a valuable contribution to improve life. Use them as role models.
• Realise that knowledge is the key to overcoming fear and prejudice.
• Believe in your own dreams, when they are all you have to hang onto.
• You usually project on the outside how you feel on the inside - be aware of what you are projecting to the world.
• Repeat to yourself: You deserve success as rightfully as anyone else.
• Always give more in service than you expect to receive in payment.
• Winning and losing are habit forming. Habits grow, with practice, from cobwebs into cables to strengthen or shackle our lives. Do something every day to move forward.

Use this to-do list to grow into a happier, more fulfilled and well-rounded person!

For more information visit www.waitley.com or www.knowledge-oasis.com

It may seem unusual, but science is, as always, taking us to new frontiers…

Caffeine Protects from Brain Damage in Multiple Sclerosis

By Sarah Vasques

Scientists with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation have found that when consumed in large amounts, coffee was found to protect against multiple sclerosis. It appears that caffeine blocks key steps in the development of the disease. The stimulant found in coffee blocked a compound called adenosine, which led, in mice, to the protection of brain cells from immune system cells which destroy the protective coating that surrounds the nerve cells, myelin.

The research will be published in the July 8 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but the results were already presented at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in San Diego, which took place in April.

In mid-June, a study carried on at the Autonoma University of Madrid, Spain, found that people who are dinking up to six cups of coffee a day do not have an increase chance of dying compared to people who don’t drink or drink less coffee. Furthermore, if you are a woman, drinking coffee might even diminish the chance of you dying of heart disease. Also, coffee seems to not influence cancer in any way, the Spanish study concluded.

An interesting thing was that both women who drank decaf and normal coffee had the same chance of getting a disease. What this means is that caffeine doesn’t seem to be the substance responsible for these good effects.

Also, in January, another study found that caffeine consumption could have a negative effect on people suffering from type 2 diabetes, raising blood sugar levels and possibly exposing them to other risks, US researchers revealed. The study’s conclusions appeared to be in stark contrast with previous research which showed that people who drink more coffee are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Caffeine is a xanthine alkaloid which behaves like a psychoactive stimulant drug. The substance can be found in coffee, hence its name, but also in guarana, mate, and tea. The alkaloid protects these plants and dozens more from most insects.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition which is characterized by the damaging of the central nervous system by the immune system, through demyelination.

Read this story….© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia

Canada Day celebrations range from silly to sombre

Coast-to-coast festivities ring in 141st birthday

Canwest News Service                                            Published: Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Across the country, Canadians came out to celebrate the nation’s 141st birthday on Tuesday in their own distinct ways, from embracing silliness to remembering those who gave their lives.

Before ending in a burst of fireworks and jubilation, there were bittersweet moments.

At the National War Memorial in downtown St. John’s, N.L., veterans, officials, Legion members, peace officers, nurses and military personnel gathered to honour soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Battle of Beaumont Hamel in the First World War.More than 230 soldiers were killed, 386 wounded and 91 went missing in action on July 1, 1916, when soldiers of the Newfoundland Regiment started to cross 200 metres of no man’s land toward a German position near the French town.

At Halifax’s Pier 21, the historic entry point for immigrants was packed as family and friends celebrated the country’s newest citizens. Sixty-one people were sworn in Tuesday from 27 different countries.

Florencia Berakha said she felt "proud and grateful" of acquiring her citizenship, adding she was "very happy and willing to contribute to my community and this province in particular."

In Montreal, organizers said a crowd of at least 100,000 attended the annual loud-and-proud Canada Day parade. Enthusiastic, flag-bedecked spectators, many in family groups, lined up patiently for slices of the traditional birthday cake at the end of the event.

A total of about 60 groups participated, including several marching bands. "It was very smooth," said Leo Fauvel, one of the organizers.

In Vancouver, German-born Katja Magarin, 30, was sworn in as a new Canadian at Canada Place.

After she and the 79 others had taken the oath of citizenship with its three promises — faithfulness to the Queen of Canada, adherence to the laws of Canada and fulfilling the duties of a good citizen — they were invited to approach the platform that included B.C.

Lt.-Gov. Steven Point and Rear Admiral Tyrone Pile, commander of the Joint Task Force Pacific region.

As the admiral shook Magarin’s hand, she leaned towards him and whispered: "I’m joining up tomorrow."

Magarin is applying for a commission in the Canadian Forces as an artillery officer. She already has military experience serving with the German military.

"But all they will allow women to be are medics," she said.

In Regina, partygoers flocked to the shores of Wascana Lake on the legislative grounds for free birthday cake and the fourth annual Plywood Cup competition.

Enterprising boatsmen armed with duct tape and plywood took up the challenge of building a water-worthy craft which they then attempted to paddle across the lake. Twenty teams took part — many of them sinking before they reached lan d.

And in Edmonton, thousands of revellers, including one wearing a Superman costume, crammed into the downtown for the city’s annual Silly Summer parade.

In Ottawa, tens of thousands of flag-waving people in red and white gathered on Parliament Hill, joining Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Mounties escorted a carriage carrying Jean, her husband and daughter, who waved to the cheering crowd. Jean then inspected a ceremonial guard as a 21-gun salute marked the occasion.

Shortly after CF-18s and Snowbird jets roared above the gathering, the prime minister spoke to the crowd on the Hill.

"On behalf of Canada, I wish you all a happy Canada Day," said Harper. "Today is the day we celebrate our home and native land."

The Governor General also spoke to the crowds. "Happy Birthday, Canada, I love you," said Jean.

© The Calgary Herald 2008

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

If you found the previous article last week useful, this is the continuation of the article on finances from UsaToday.com…

10 things you may not know about your finances

By Stephanie Armour, Anna Bahney, Sandra Block, Kathy Chu, Christine Dugas and John Waggoner, USA TODAY

1. You can’t just give away your money and then immediately ask Medicaid to pay for nursing home care

If you want Medicaid to pay for your nursing care, without touching your assets, you’ll have to give that money away at least five years before you apply for care. An elder-law attorney can suggest asset-protection strategies.

But if you use Medicaid to cover your long-term care, you’ll face a more limited choice of nursing homes. And Medicaid doesn’t normally cover at-home care. You might be better off using your money to buy long-term care insurance. Or save enough to cover at least a year in a facility. By law, a nursing home that accepts private-pay and Medicaid patients can’t force you to move to another nursing home once you run out of money.

2. Your best investment? T.I.M.E.

Thanks to the extraordinary magic of compounded returns, saving early is the easy way to a rich retirement.

Let’s assume your goal is to amass $1 million by the time you retire at 65. If you start saving at 22, and your investments return, on average, 6% a year, you’ll need to invest $413 a month to reach your goal. But if you wait till age 35 to start saving? You’ll need to invest far more each month to reach the same goal: $996 a month. And if you start at 50, you’d better have a high-paying job: You’ll need to save $3,439 a month to reach $1 million by age 65.

3. Grace periods on credit cards apply only to people who don’t carry a balance

If you pay the full amount you owe on your card each month, you’re basically enjoying an interest-free loan from the bank. But card users often don’t realize that if you’re carrying any balance at the end of the month, the card issuer will charge you interest starting from the day you borrowed the money, says Megan Bramlette, managing associate at Auriemma Consulting Group, which consults with banks.

4. You can find fascinating things in your mutual fund’s prospectus

Buried in a fund’s official literature are such nuggets as how much money the fund’s manager has personally invested in the fund. It’s nice to know if his or her money is at stake along with yours.

Or you can find out how much you’re paying a fund company to invest your money. If you invest $10,000 in Fidelity Contrafund, for instance, and it returns an average of 5% a year, you’ll fork over $1,096 to Fidelity over 10 years. Dodge & Cox Stock will charge you less — $653. The Vanguard 500 Index fund will charge just $192.

5. Mortgage lenders will question a cash gift used for a down payment

A cash gift from a parent can help a young adult buy a home. But it may come as a surprise that many lenders will raise questions when such gifts are to be used as part of down payments. Some see a big recent infusion of cash into a buyer’s account as a red flag that a cash-poor buyer may lack steady income. Many banks will want to see the origin of a cash gift.

In any case, parents should try to make any cash transfer at least a month — and preferably up to six months, some suggest — before a buyer begins applying for mortgages.

This story is courtesy of www.usatoday.com; read it by clicking here…

WASHINGTON (AP) —

Researchers have uncovered a new clue to the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

The brains of people with the memory-robbing form of dementia are cluttered with a plaque made up of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein. But there long has been a question whether this is a cause of the disease or a side effect. Also involved are tangles of a protein called tau; some scientists suspect this is the cause.

Now, researchers have caused Alzheimer’s symptoms in rats by injecting them with one particular form of beta-amyloid. Injections with other forms of beta-amyloid did not cause illness, which may explain why some people have beta-amyloid plaque in their brains but do not show disease symptoms.

The findings by a team led by Dr. Ganesh M. Shankar and Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of Harvard Medical School were reported in Sunday’s online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

The researchers used extracts from the brains of people who donated their bodies to medicine.

Forms of soluble beta-amyloid containing different numbers of molecules, as well as insoluble cores of the brain plaque, were injected into the brains of mice. There was no detectable effect from the insoluble plaque or the soluble one-molecule or three-molecule forms, the researchers found.

But the two-molecule form of soluble beta-amyloid produced characteristics of Alzheimer’s in the rats, they reported.

Those rats had impaired memory function, especially for newly learned behaviors. When the mouse brains were inspected, the density brain cells was reduced by 47% with the beta-amyloid seeming to affect synapses, the connections between cells that are essential for communication between them.

The research, for the first time, showed the effect of a particular type of beta-amyloid in the brain, said Dr. Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, director of the division of neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the research.

It was surprising that only one of the three types had an effect, she said in a telephone interview.

Morrison-Bogorad said the findings may help explain the discovery of plaque in the brains of people who do not develop dementia. For some time, doctors have wondered why they find some brains in autopsy that are heavily coated with beta-amyloid, but the person did not have Alzheimer’s.

The answer may lie in the two types of beta-amyloid that did not cause symptoms.

Now, the question is why one has the damaging effect and not others.

"A lot of work needs to be done," Morrison-Bogorad said. "Nature keeps sending us down paths that look straight at the beginning, but there are a lot of curves before we get to the end."

Dr. Richard J. Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, said that "while more research is needed to replicate and extend these findings, this study has put yet one more piece into place in the puzzle that is Alzheimer’s."

In addition to the Institute on Aging, the research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Wellcome Trust, the McKnight and Ellison foundations and the Lefler Small Grant Fund.

___________________________________________________

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Do you know these basic but potentially eye-opening facts about your money? Below is an excerpt from UsaToday.com that might just help you keep an eye on your nest-egg and maybe even help it grow…

10 things you may not know about your finances

By Stephanie Armour, Anna Bahney, Sandra Block, Kathy Chu, Christine Dugas and John Waggoner, USA TODAY

1. Medicare doesn’t cover nursing home care

Nearly 60% of Americans think Medicare pays for nursing care, and 52% assume that it covers assisted living, according to a 2006 survey by AARP.

Not so. Medicare’s coverage of long-term care is extremely limited. It’ll cover part of the cost of a skilled nursing facility while you recover from an injury or illness. But this coverage lasts just 100 days.

Medicare doesn’t cover custodial care, such as help with bathing and dressing. Need to enter a nursing home because you’re no longer able to take care of yourself? Medicare won’t cover any of your costs. Medicaid, by contrast, will cover nursing home costs — but only for people with little or no assets.

2. The way banks process checks and debit-card transactions can cost you BIG

Banks tend to process transactions from the largest to the smallest dollar amount, rather than in the order they’re received. This policy is another way for banks to boost profits, says Ellen Cannon, managing editor of Bankrate.com. That’s because processing first high, then low, dollar amounts makes it easier for banks to hit consumers with multiple overdraft fees.

Say you have $100 in your account, and you have four transactions processed one day, for, in order, $20, $45, $30 and $90. The bank will process the $90 transaction first, so it can charge you a fee — of up to $39 — for each of the three transactions that will then bounce. If the transactions had been processed in the order in which they’d been received, you’d face only one fee. Most banks charge more than $30 each time you overdraw. Some also charge a fee of $5 or more for each day that your account remains overdrawn.

3. Once you turn 50, you can put away more pretax money for retirement than younger workers can

Many older workers fail to exploit the 401(k) "catch-up" rule, which lets people 50 and older contribute an additional $5,000 a year to their 401(k) accounts.

At some companies, higher-paid workers aren’t allowed to contribute this year’s full $15,500 maximum to a 401(k) if not enough lower-paid workers at their company invest in the plan. But the catch-up rule lets all older workers — even the higher-paid ones — boost their annual contribution by $5,000. This is especially beneficial if only one member of a couple has access to a 401(k) plan, and the couple would like to boost their family retirement savings. It’s also helpful to women who return to work after an extended absence.

4. If you didn’t get a tax rebate this year, you might be able to claim it when you file your 2008 tax return

Millions of taxpayers have received rebates, or will by mid-July. But many others will get only a reduced amount, or none at all, because their 2007 income was too high. Congress phased out the rebates for single taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000, and married taxpayers with AGIs of more than $150,000.

Here’s what many taxpayers don’t realize: Some of them will get a second chance to claim the rebate. The rebate is actually an advance credit on 2008 taxes. But since the Bush administration wanted to get money into consumers’ wallets as fast as possible, the rebates were calculated using 2007 tax returns.

So if your income has dropped this year, you can claim the rebate when you file your 2008 return. This second-chance provision will also benefit those whose rebates were shrunk or eliminated because their 2007 income was too low.

5. Real estate isn’t a very lucrative investment over the long run

The real estate party over the past decade or so — even when you factor in the recent price drops — has left many people assuming that real estate is the surest long-term investment out there. Not so. Over the long haul, on average nationwide, returns from real estate fall far short compared with other investment categories.

Housing has returned a 4.7% average annually over the past 25 years, according to an analysis for USA TODAY by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com. Over the same period, the S&P 500-stock index produced an average return of 13.3%. Other investment options also outperformed real estate. The three-month Treasury bill produced a 5.4% annual return and the 10-year T-bond 7.1%.

This story is courtesy of www.usatoday.com; read it by clicking here…

Below are some beautifully crafted and well-thought out questions from Ode Magazine. According to theirs About Us page, Ode is

"A print and online publication about positive news, about the people and ideas that are changing our world for the better."

Hats off to them for their vision and hope.

The article below is by Michael Sean Symonds, a self published author and facilitator of personal growth and spirituality

10 questions for an emerging new world

1) What aspirations do you have for your life that if pursued, could provide the preamble for more passion, inspiration and transformation in your life and the world you live in?

1. 2) Do those dreams, desires, gifts, skills, and talents enhance and elevate the resilience you have too your own inner wisdom and the service you could provide to the one greater Earth community?
2.  
3. 3) How can the visions and aspirations you have for your life be synchronized in solidarity and kinship with others?
4.  
5. 4) What changes do you need to make in the way you live your life that if made, could improve the quality of your own well being and the larger living world?
6.  
7. 5) How can you live your life with greater admiration towards yourself and others?
8.  
9. 6) What unspoken words and conversations do you need to hear or have to foster a culture of peace in your experience and surroundings?
10.  
11. 7) What values do you need to enhance or adopt to form a solid foundation and personal sacred trust towards sustaining a new life and new world?
12.  
13. Recognizing that you are both interdependent and interconnected with all people and things, what three principles are you willing to commit too, affirm and cultivate in your life that will elevate a sustainable, ethical way of being for yourself and the planet you live on?
14.  
15. 9) How can you live your life with a greater reverence and humility, for the mystery of Being; for gratitude in the gift of life and for humility regarding your place in nature?
16.  
1. 10) What can you do to elevate the shared responsibility you have in the stewardship of the Earth and humanity towards a just, sustainable and peaceful global society?
2.  

3. The legacy of your life will not be what you have done or gained, but in who you have been while journeying on this little blue planet called Earth. The courage and risk needed for the success of this rare journey and adventure can only be enhanced once you acknowledge and recognize the only change you ever needed was not outside yourself, but in fact within.

   In the finding, cultivation and practice of innocence, you rediscover the divinity and peace that lies within you and the emergence of a new life and humanity dawns. The unfolding experience of awareness and inner wisdom is the only true door to the freedom and peace you seek.

Michael Sean Symonds is a self published author and facilitator of personal growth and spirituality. http://zenshredding.wordpress.com/

In a recent study, researchers at NASA showed that a thirty to forty-minute power nap increased cognitive faculties by approximately 40%!

What Exactly Is a Power Nap?

A power nap is a short nap, normally between 10 and 30 minutes long, taken in the middle of the day in order to reinvigorate and refresh you for the next part of the day.

Power naps are not similar to normal sleep, so you will not be groggy after taking one.

While you might have “dreams”, power naps are more similar to meditation, where thoughts are allowed to move from the sub-conscious mind to the conscious mind and back again without you concentrating on them.

Some famous self-proclaimed nappers include people like Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci , Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Johannes Brahms, John D. Rockefeller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gene Autry, Nikola Tesla, Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Napoleon Bonaparte, Salvador Dali and Sylvester Stallone.

Why Take a Power Nap?

Research also says that taking a nap of 30 minutes a day is better than sleeping in for 30 minutes in the morning.

Sleep is a daily need, as it is during this time that your body carries out cell repair, and it helps memory and hormonal functioning.

If you go short of a night’s sleep, your physical coordination (including reactions while driving); memory and judgment; energy level; patience; and general stress-tolerance drops. Lack of sleep affects all your bodily, mental, and emotional elements.

A power nap of 15 to 20 minutes can, surprisingly, bring all those functions back to or much closer to normal functioning than we might imagine.

10 Reasons Why the Power Nap is Beneficial and Healthy

• boost in productivity and energy at work
• increased motivation
• improved ability to concentrate,
• better mood
• improved hand-eye coordination
• improve emotional state
• increased learning
• maintain peak brain activity during the course of the day
• protect yourself from sleepiness
• decrease and eliminate stress

How To Take a Healthy and Effective Power Nap

• Time: choose a mid-morning or in the middle of the afternoon when everything is usually lulled.
• Have a silence place to power nap without interruptions or distractions, eg turn off the phone.
• Avoid eating too much caffeinated or sugary products before your power nap
• Use a blanket to stay warm if necessary, since your body temperature drops during sleep.
• Darkness is known to help you fall asleep faster.
• Plan the length of your nap and make sure you wake up at the planned awakening time
• Light sounds such as classical or jazz music help relax your mind so you can go to sleep especially if you’ve had a stressful day.
• Be proud of your nap - don’t be ashamed of telling people and asking them to help you separate naptime from the rest of the day by leaving you alone to rest.

This article is courtesy the Sleep Aid Centre’s guest writer Andy SZEN of www.egodevelopment.com