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	<title>Spice Up Your Life! &#187; Tips &amp; Tricks</title>
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	<description>Pepper Soriano&#039;s blog about everything</description>
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		<title>Think Before You Flush!</title>
		<link>http://www.peppersoriano.com/2010/06/23/think-before-you-flush/</link>
		<comments>http://www.peppersoriano.com/2010/06/23/think-before-you-flush/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:45:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pepper</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anything Goes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & Tricks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.peppersoriano.com/?p=298</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The best place for you to keep your toothbrush is not in the bathroom. You see, every time you flush your toilet, droplets spring out for about 6 feet; contaminating everything in your bathroom- including your toothbrush that you put in your mouth and your toilet paper. One remedy for this is have your toothbrush [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.peppersoriano.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/bathroom1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-300" title="bathroom" src="http://www.peppersoriano.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/bathroom1-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a></p>
<p>The best place for you to keep your toothbrush is not in the bathroom. You see, every time you flush your toilet, droplets spring out for about 6 feet; contaminating everything in your bathroom- including your toothbrush that you put in your mouth and your toilet paper. One remedy for this is have your toothbrush and toilet paper covered. Also, the bacterial mist usually float in the air for around two hours after  flushing! So, think before you breathe while you are in the bathroom! What you can do is cover the toilet before you flush.</p>
<p><span id="more-298"></span></p>
<p>Another item that you have to keep out of your bathroom , especially when you take a bath with hot water, is your medicine because some medicines need to be maintained within a certain temperature range and should not be stored in a humid environment.</p>
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		<title>Bill Gates Invests on Contraception</title>
		<link>http://www.peppersoriano.com/2010/05/18/bill-gates-invests-on-contraception/</link>
		<comments>http://www.peppersoriano.com/2010/05/18/bill-gates-invests-on-contraception/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2010 00:50:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pepper</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anything Goes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inventions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & Tricks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.peppersoriano.com/?p=195</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Bill Gates&#8217;s Foundation is doing further studies regarding male contraception. Researchers discovered that doing ultrasound on a male&#8217;s testis can make a guy sterile temporarily. Apparently, ultrasound stops sperm production for around six months. Quite an interesting alternative from surgical procedures or hormonal treatments. Question is would men be interested in this, or would they [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.peppersoriano.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/sperm.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-196" title="sperm" src="http://www.peppersoriano.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/sperm-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Bill Gates&#8217;s Foundation is doing further studies regarding male contraception. Researchers discovered that doing ultrasound on a male&#8217;s testis can make a guy sterile temporarily. Apparently, ultrasound stops sperm production for around six months. Quite an interesting alternative from surgical procedures or hormonal treatments. Question is would men be interested in this, or would they prefer women to undergo a procedure or have the hormonal treatment?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Vitamin Myths</title>
		<link>http://www.peppersoriano.com/2010/05/14/vitamin-myths/</link>
		<comments>http://www.peppersoriano.com/2010/05/14/vitamin-myths/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 03:14:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pepper</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anything Goes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.peppersoriano.com/?p=223</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Before popping a pill, here are several misconceptions about your well-trusted vitamins. Myth: A multivitamin can make up for a bad diet Last year, researchers published new findings from the Women&#8217;s Health Initiative, a long-term study of more than 160,000 midlife women. The data showed that multivitamin-takers are no healthier than those who don&#8217;t pop [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.peppersoriano.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/pill.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-224" title="pill" src="http://www.peppersoriano.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/pill-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="232" height="232" /></a></p>
<p>Before popping a pill, here are several misconceptions about your well-trusted vitamins.</p>
<p><span id="more-223"></span></p>
<p><strong>Myth: A multivitamin can make up for a bad diet</strong></p>
<p>Last year, researchers published new findings from the Women&#8217;s Health  Initiative, a long-term study of more than 160,000 midlife women. The  data showed that multivitamin-takers are no healthier than those who  don&#8217;t pop the pills, at least when it comes to the big diseases—cancer,  heart disease, stroke. &#8220;Even women with poor diets weren&#8217;t helped by  taking a multivitamin,&#8221; says study author Marian Neuhouser, PhD, in the  cancer prevention program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,  in Seattle.</p>
<p>That said, there is one group that probably ought to keep taking a  multi-vitamin: women of reproductive age. The supplement is insurance in  case of pregnancy. A woman who gets adequate amounts of the B vitamin  folate is much less likely to have a baby with a birth defect affecting  the spinal cord. Since the spinal cord starts to develop extremely  early—before a woman may know she&#8217;s pregnant—the safest course is for  her to take 400 micrograms of folic acid (the synthetic form of folate)  daily. And a multi is an easy way to get it.</p>
<p><strong>Myth: Vitamin C is a cold fighter</strong></p>
<p>In the 1970s, Nobel laureate Linus Pauling popularized the idea that  vitamin C could prevent colds. Today, drugstores are full of vitamin  C–based remedies. Studies say: Buyer, beware.</p>
<p>In 2007, researchers analyzed a raft of studies going back several  decades and involving more than 11,000 subjects to arrive at a  disappointing conclusion: Vitamin C didn&#8217;t ward off colds, except among  marathoners, skiers, and soldiers on subarctic exercises.</p>
<p>Of course, prevention isn&#8217;t the only game in town. Can the vitamin cut  the length of colds? Yes and no. Taking the vitamin daily does seem to  reduce the time you&#8217;ll spend sniffling—but not enough to notice. Adults  typically have cold symptoms for 12 days a year; a daily pill could cut  that to 11 days. Kids might go from 28 days of runny noses to 24 per  year. The researchers conclude that minor reductions like these don&#8217;t  justify the expense and bother of year-round pill-popping (taking C only  after symptoms crop up doesn&#8217;t help).</p>
<p><strong>Myth: Vitamin pills can prevent heart disease </strong><br />
An analysis of seven vitamin E trials concluded that it didn&#8217;t cut the  risk of stroke or of death from heart disease. The study also  scrutinized eight beta-carotene studies and determined that, rather than  prevent heart disease, those supplements produced a slight increase in  the risk of death. Other big studies have shown vitamin C failing to  deliver. As for B vitamins, research shows that yes, these do cut  homocysteine levels …but no, that doesn&#8217;t make a dent in heart danger.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t take these pills, the American Heart Association says. Instead,  the AHA offers some familiar advice: Eat a varied diet rich in fruits,  vegetables, and whole grains.</p>
<p><strong>Myth: Taking vitamins can protect against cancer </strong><br />
Researchers know that unstable molecules called free radicals can damage  your cells&#8217; DNA, upping the risk of cancer. They also know that  antioxidants can stabilize free radicals, theoretically making them much  less dangerous. So why not take some extra antioxidants to protect  yourself against cancer? Because research so far has shown no good comes  from popping such pills.</p>
<p>A number of studies have tried and failed to find a benefit, like a  recent one that randomly assigned 5,442 women to take either a placebo  or a B-vitamin combo. Over the course of more than seven years, all the  women experienced similar rates of cancers and cancer deaths. In  Neuhouser&#8217;s enormous multivitamin study, that pill didn&#8217;t offer any  protection against cancer either. Nor did C, E, or beta-carotene in  research done at Harvard Medical School.</p>
<p><strong>Myth: Hey, it can&#8217;t hurt</strong><br />
The old thinking went something like this—sure, vitamin pills might not  help you, but they can&#8217;t hurt either. However, a series of large-scale  studies has turned this thinking on its head, says Demetrius Albanes,  MD, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute.</p>
<p>The shift started with a big study of beta-carotene pills. It was meant  to test whether the antioxidant could prevent lung cancer, but  researchers instead detected surprising increases in lung cancer and  deaths among male smokers who took the supplement. No one knew what to  make of the result at first, but further studies have shown it wasn&#8217;t a  fluke—there&#8217;s a real possibility that in some circumstances, antioxidant  pills could actually promote cancer (in women as well as in men). Other  studies have raised concerns that taking high doses of folic acid could  raise the risk of colon cancer. Still others suggest a connection  between high doses of some vitamins and heart disease.</p>
<p>Vitamins are safe when you get them in food, but in pill form, they can  act more like a drug, Albanes says—with the potential for unexpected and  sometimes dangerous effects.</p>
<p><strong>Truth: A pill that&#8217;s worth taking</strong><br />
As studies have eroded the hopes placed in most vitamin supplements, one  pill is looking better and better. Research suggests that vitamin D  protects against a long list of ills: Men with adequate levels of D have  about half the risk of heart attack as men who are deficient. And  getting enough D appears to lower the risk of at least half a dozen  cancers; indeed, epidemiologist Cedric Garland, MD, at the University of  California, San Diego, believes that if Americans got sufficient  amounts of vitamin D, 50,000 cases of colorectal cancer could be  prevented each year.</p>
<p>But many—perhaps most—Americans fall short, according to research by  epidemiologist Adit Ginde, MD, at the University of Colorado, Denver.  Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin: You make it when sunlight hits your  skin. Yet thanks to sunscreen and workaholic (or TV-aholic) habits, most  people don&#8217;t make enough.</p>
<p>How much do you need? The Institute of Medicine is reassessing that  right now; most experts expect a big boost from the current levels (200  to 600 IU daily). It&#8217;s safe to take 1,000 IU per day, says Ginde. &#8220;We  think most people need at least that much.&#8221;<br />
Got this article  from Reader&#8217;s Digest, hoping that this can help you decide on taking your well trusted pill or not.</p>
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