The natural world functions very well on its own. Left to their own devices, members of the tens of millions of species on our planet thrive and prosper without relying on outside agencies. In order to grow abundantly, plants consume carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients from the soil. Likewise, herbivorous

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What does the future hold in store? None of us can know with certainty, although some predictions are possible. Stock market indexes will rise. Then they'll fall. Then everyone will hope that the indexes will rise again. Hemlines will fall. Then they'll rise. Then in two or three years they'll fall again. The

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Many of us think of depression as a psychological condition. The causes of depression are sought in the person's childhood or in her personal circumstances as an adult. But within the last 10 or 20 years depression is increasingly being evaluated within a physiological context. Various disease states

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Plato's Ideas were perfect templates, of which everything we perceive are tangible representations. But the Ideas were not to be found in the world around us. Rather, they were conceptions of rational thought, transcendental objects of knowledge existing in a realm beyond our own. And yet, Plato's Ideas

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Cross-training refers to a combination of different methods of exercise. Specifically, cross-training refers to the combination of strength training and cardiovascular training in your overall exercise program. Whether you're a 14-year-old just starting out on your first fitness program, or whether you're

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Many people experience radiating pain as a component of neck pain or low back pain. A person with neck pain might have pain that radiates down her arm, possibly into the hand.1 A person with low back pain might have accompanying leg pain, possibly traveling into the foot. Such arm/hand pain or leg/foot

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The abs rule. As a result of this not-so-subtle imperative, a flat abdominal musculature is one of the primary goals of all exercise programs. Flat abdominals have great aesthetic appeal, not only to the "owner" of those abs, but also to the person's spouse or partner. Of course, a flat abdominal musculature

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Health insurance costs are out of control. We're all painfully aware of this inflationary spiral. Monthly premiums are through the roof. Co-payments keep going up and up. Out-of-pocket expenses are so high we often wonder what we're saving by purchasing health insurance at all. Every family has been

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In his 1856 journal, the great American philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote, "I love the winter, with its imprisonment and its cold, for it compels the prisoner to try new fields and resources." Thoreau, a fearless explorer of inner and outer landscapes, welcomed opportunities to learn

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The variegated songs of the mockingbird. The crack of the bat on the baseball diamond. The screaming of little children at play in the community pool. Wherever we turn, the sounds of summer surround us in a joyful uplifting cacophony. Summertime may mean barbecue and it may mean the beach, but it also

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"The Stress of Life" is a perennial bestseller by Hans Selye, written in 1956. Selye almost single-handedly introduced the notion of stress into the worldwide consciousness. By doing so, Selye changed the way we think about ourselves, our values, and how we conduct our lives. As Selye observed, stress

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We all know that Vitamin D is a critically important component in building strong bones and strong teeth. It turns out that Vitamin D has a vast number of additional functions. For example, recent research shows that low Vitamin D levels is related to increased risk for diabetes as well as cardiovascular

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Pasta, pizza, and peanut butter. We've all been there. For some of us, these three delicious, yet nutritionally limited, pantry items constituted our three main food groups for months, if not years of our 20s and 30s, possibly even our 40s. But there comes a time when the party's over and we need to

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The Macintosh operating system contains a subprogram called "Time Machine" that allows you to reset your status to any previously saved state. Provided that you have designated a location for backups, you can literally go back in time and recover documents, directories, and applications you may have

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Many adults begin to develop shoulder pain, even though they may not have sustained a specific injury. It's important to pay attention to such shoulder issues, as a healthy shoulder joint is the key to full function of the upper extremities. We all know at least one person whose ability to perform normal

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During a graduate nutrition course at the University of Minnesota, a professor posed a challenge to the class: Construct a 2000 calorie-per-day diet that at least met the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamins and minerals without the use of supplements. Most of the graduate

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