How to Create an Environment For Learning

There are two types of learning environment: natural and prepared.

Natural Environment: Your family and the immediate surroundings are the natural environment. Family members communicate and interact with one another on a daily basis. When a family member leaves the house for work or school, she brings home with her the knowledge from the outside environment. A family grow with this knowledge which interplay with their own learning environment.

Prepared Environment: As the components in the natural environment embrace all information and knowledge from outside, a kind of system develops that need to maintain or sustain the knowledge in the family. This results in the formation of the prepared environment.

Usually the natural environment is richer in culture and practice, and it has greater influence on personal growth and development.

The prepared environment is something like this. You will use it it works for you, but store it somewhere on the shelf at home until it is appropriate for use. use it if it works. For example, the family buy and sell furniture, keep and donate used items, throw or store materials on a regular basis.

Knowledge is the same. For instance, after you have learnt and tried a new recipe, you let the family try it. If they enjoy the meal, you keep it as part of the family favourite recipe. You experiment on the knowledge.

With regard to language, you have to set aside space in the family living environment to combine the foreign with the native. This space need not be physical space. In my case, it is space in time. I choose to read Mandarin books to my daughter, 1 hour day. By physical space, I mean an area in the house where everything is foreign, from books, apparel or even to accessories.

The idea is to maintain a balance between the natural and prepared environment. One cannot influence change outside my natural environment. He also cannot force knowledge he has from a prepared environment upon what is already natural. He has to experiment the choices of components or materials create the learning environment we want.

By Hanifa K. Cook

Health and Fitness For Women

With all of the roles women are expected to play, health and fitness for women has become all the more important to consider. By realizing that being a mother, a partner, and a career woman are all exhausting tasks, you can see how a woman's body might need more attention. But by also being more likely to care for everyone else but us, it's not something that's easily done. Here are ways that you can start to take charge of health and fitness for women - and more importantly, you. By Lynn VanDyke

Health and Fitness Addiction

Yes...it's possible! The word "addiction" give us images of people in dark rooms, listening to bad music and sticking needles in their arms, but many addicts can be found in the gym or on the local school track, getting just as addictive a fix. In fact, the positive nature of the word "healthy" makes health and fitness addiction all the more alluring. Despite the positive media, health addicts have done as much damage to their families and lives as any other kind of addict. In this article, we'll look under the surface of health and fitness addiction and find a path to recovery.

How Can Something So Good Be Bad? In our modern Western culture, those willing to pay the price for fitness are to be applauded. There are just so many temptations to do otherwise. Exercise is mostly boring, painful and smelly, so those who endure it for about an hour, 3-5 days a week, have achieved a level of discipline most only dream of.

Health and fitness addiction is not about health or fitness...it's about a compulsion to use healthy activities to fill a void we see in ourselves. Addicts are compelled, not disciplined. The addictive chemicals involved in exercise are much the same as those in sex and porn addiction. This may explain why many people suffer from both sexual addictions and health addictions.

Types Of Health And Fitness Addiction: These are addictions to the activities of health and fitness, as opposed to the TV, Internet and shopping addictions which could involve health themes. Health and fitness addictions are compulsions to engage in "healthy" activities, like exercise, dieting, etc. In fact, anorexia and bulimia nervosa have both been described as severe health and fitness addictions. Two key symptoms of these mental disorders are exercise and dietary control to a compulsive and excessive extreme. The specific exercise or diet plan doesn't matter. It's an addiction when you feel compelled to do it.

By Glen D. Williams

Environmental health

Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting behaviours. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. This definition excludes behaviour not related to environment, as well as behaviour related to the social and cultural environment, and genetics.

Public health and environment

Health through a better environment

International programme on chemical safety

Health impact assessment

UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water

Proper environmental management is the key to avoiding the quarter of all preventable illnesses which are directly caused by environmental factors. The environment influences our health in many ways — through exposures to physical, chemical and biological risk factors, and through related changes in our behaviour in response to those factors.

Thirteen million deaths annually are due to preventable environmental causes. Preventing environmental risk could save as many as four million lives a year, in children alone, mostly in developing countries.

Natural Yarns For Health and Environment

It's becoming fashionable to be environmentalist but anything that helps in preserving the Earth is good. One outcome of all this hype about being eco friendly is that more and more people are turning to natural and organic clothing. However, one thing that most people do not realise is that when you give up using synthetics and turn to eco friendly, renewable resources for clothing, more than anyone else, they are helping themselves. Clothes made from organically grown natural fibres are skin friendly and keep you comfortable all day long. If you think that cotton and wool are the only natural yarns, it's time for a reality check. Various kinds of plants and weeds are made into yarns and clothes produced from such yarns have their own unique feel and quality.

One of the more popular yarns that have caught the fancy of the fashionista in recent years happens to be bamboo yarn. Depending on the climatic conditions and fertility of the soil, this plant can grow 3 to 4 feet a day. Yarn made from bamboo is very soft and silky which can be mixed with cotton as well as used alone to make cloth. Available in 16 shades, bamboo yarn is being hailed as the yarn of the future.

Though not as popular as bamboo, corn yarn is the novelty that everyone in the market is eyeing. Made from corn fibre corn yarn has a flat wide strand. It's fast overtaking all other natural fibres as clothes made from corn yarn are very easy to care. You can put them in washer as well as in dryer without damaging them.

Another hugely popular and much in demand natural yarn is soysilk yarn. Soft as silk, yet capable of keeping you warm, soysilk is spun from soy protein. Dress up in soysilk for complete chic look without compromising on your green principles.

Hemp fibre and yarn has been used for more than 10,000 years by Chinese and Taiwanese for making shoes, ropes, clothes and early form of paper. Hemp yarn is very strong but not very soft to touch so it is mixed with other fibres to produce cloth that is both durable and supple.

Lastly, I would like to mention seasilk yarn that is made from mixing seaweed fibre and silk fibre in the ratio of 30:70 which gives it both strength and softness. Hand dyed in rich, vivacious colours seasilk yarn is ideal for bold knits.

Wearing clothes made from organic and natural yarns is important not only to make a fashion statement but to conserve the environment and its delicate ecological balance. Such clothes make you appear beautiful and keep you comfortable at the same time reducing your carbon footprints.


Author is a freelance content writer

The True Nature of Health and Disease - Five Insights

1) Disease can be viewed as a disturbance of the synchronization between one's life-rhythm and the eternal cycles and imperatives of Nature.

In the 1930s, famed Swedish health teacher Are Waerland began his Sun Viking movement. Many of his students experienced greatly improved health and even recovery from serious illnesses. Waerland taught that disease was a disturbance of a person's life-rhythm, established through millions of years of biological evolution.

He told his students to look outside the body to environmental conditions as primary factors that create health or disease. Waerland felt that health could only be produced, and disease eliminated, by restoring the original human life-rhythm which depends upon an unhindered relationship between the human body and the external factors of Nature.

2) Disease: the body's attempt at self-cleansing and regeneration in order to self-heal.

The human organism is designed to strive toward health, not disease. Disease is often a defensive reaction brought about by poor lifestyle habits. Therefore, the power to cure disease resides only within the patient's body, but that innate power cannot fully prevail until wrong living habits stop and the fundamental elements of life and health, in necessary measure, have been set in place, namely: proper diet; pure water; fresh air; sunlight; adequate exercise, warmth, rest and sleep; emotional harmony; proper posture.

3) If a substance is not fundamental to the health of the body, it's also not fundamental to disease treatment.

From this view comes the most important therapeutic principle of traditional naturopathy: Disease treatment must be based upon the use of the fundamental elements of life in accordance with the needs and abilities of the patient. Accordingly, Paracelsus, the renowned 15th- to 16th-century alchemist and professor of physics, medicine and surgery observed: "The physician should pass Nature's examination."

4) "Through your stomach come all your ills."--Plato

In 1904, noted traditional naturopath Adolph Just wrote in Return To Nature: "Those who no longer listen to the voice of Nature become the victims of a thousand different diseases and miseries...Humankind can recover and again become happy only via a true return to Nature... [by choosing] the food that Nature has laid before them from the beginning and bringing themselves again into relation with water, light and air, earth, etc. which Nature originally designed for them."

Adolph Just was not suggesting that human beings forsake the comforts of modern existence, only that they reestablish their primal relationship with the life-sustaining elements of the natural world. For instance, instead of viewing diet as a form of entertainment, it should be seen primarily as a means for optimal survival.

5) "...disease is but the expression and result of a disturbance of the conditions natural to life. The only useful office of the physician is to restore those conditions."--Emmet Densmore, M.D., from his book How Nature Cures, 1892.

In the 19th and early-20th centuries, naturopathic doctors developed many creative, highly effective therapies using Nature's life- and health-giving elements. Originally, many of these therapies were applied within the setting of the numerous naturopathic health spas of those days which featured sunbathing, hiking in the fresh air, hydrotherapies, deep breathing, pure water, nourishing food, massage and lots of rest and sleep. However, with the introduction of "miracle drugs" came the misconception that simple naturopathic therapies were somehow quaint and outdated. And the hectic lifestyle of our era popularized a demand for the "quick-fix."

The use of surgery and drugs (even natural medicines such as herbs and homeopathy) can only act upon the superficial symptoms of the underlying disharmony in an individual if the fundamental elements of life are not restored. And such disharmony may eventually manifest in some other, and perhaps more threatening, form.

Hippocrates maintained that disease must be treated in accordance with natural laws. Also, when the great 17th-century physician Thomas Syndenham (renowned as the "English Hippocrates") lay dying, he told his weeping pupils that he was content to die as he was leaving behind three physicians greater than he ever was. One of the pupils eagerly inquired, "Three great masters? Who are they?" Syndenham replied: "Water, air and exercise."

Copyright 2010 by Joseph Ben Hil-Meyer Research, Inc.

Bruce Berkowsky, N.M.D., M.H., H.M.C.

Bruce Berkowsky, N.M.D., M.H., H.M.C.--registered naturopath, master herbalist, classical homeopath, nationally certified in massage and therapeutic bodywork--is President of Joseph Ben Hil-Meyer Research, Inc., formerly naturopathic advisor to the Institute of Applied Biochemistry and a member of The American Naturopathic Medical Association, The Registry of Naturopaths (UK) and the British Naturopathic Assoc. He is the founder/teacher of both Spiritual PhytoEssencing (SPE)and the Natural Health Science System (NHSS) which he designed during nearly 30-years of research and private practice, and includes traditional naturopathy, herbal medicine, nutrition, essential oils, exercise as well as East/West healing arts/bodywork and homeopathy.

By Dr. Bruce Berkowsky

Public Health Career Training Online

The general population has many needs that have to be met on a regular basis. Health is usually at the top of the list, which is why there are numerous health professionals working to improve and maintain health in society. Public health is a popular career because it allows professionals to work with a variety of people and areas. Online career training is becoming a prevalent way for students to earn a degree in public health.

The profession spans across a large range of areas and activities, but all the work focuses on the evaluation and regulation of health for the public. Professionals target general or specific areas, which can include nutrition or a metropolitan city's healthcare system. It is highly common for professionals to handle complex problems involving overall healthcare services and systems. They contribute to keep communities free from outbreaks of infections. They also work with individuals, families, and communities by promoting healthy behaviors. The field can have graduated students entering careers that have them working for wellness programs in schools, hospitals, universities, and government firms. With the field being incredibly diverse students have many options to consider before deciding on an online degree program. Family health, health education, epidemiology, and environmental health are just a few of the options that students can choose to focus their schooling on.

Online training for public health is commonly only available at the graduate level, which includes a master's or doctorate degree. This is because most careers need individuals who have more in depth training. Students can't enter a graduate degree without first completing a bachelor's degree. A bachelor's degree provides students with a general education that can be applied to a graduate degree program. A health science degree is the ideal option for students to gain a broad foundation focused on the medical field. Student's study includes biology, chemistry, health education, and healthcare administration, which provides the knowledge needed to succeed in a graduate degree program.

Graduate degree programs online include a master of public health or a doctor of public health. An MPH degree is a science-based program that incorporates specific information on how to use knowledge to improve public health, educate, and provide preventative measures. Education covers advanced training in health and administration duties. Environmental science, epidemiology, public health biology, management, health promotion, and disease prevention are some course subjects that are covered through a master's program. Master's degree programs prepare students to step into leadership roles as food safety inspectors, health inspectors, public health advisors, and more. Furthering education at the PhD level qualifies students for upper level management and roles in academia.

At the doctorate level students specialize in one specific area such as nutrition, behavioral science, child health, and epidemiology. Students enrolled in an epidemiology program will mainly study how diseases spread. The goal of education is to prepare students to contribute to the field by creating strategies to keep outbreaks in check. Courses that supplement specific fields of study include leadership, public health internship, and management. Students that want to be involved on the research side of the profession should consider entering an online training program at this level.

Searching out possible accredited online programs is the best way to begin the process of entering the profession. Utilizing the vast online resources to decide on a specific program helps students enter the field of their choice.

By Renata McGee

Design and Build Environment Friendly Houses

In today's world, where the impact of global warming and energy crisis is being discussed greatly, it is important for every individual to play a part in providing a solution to these imminent dangers. A simple step in this direction would be to design and build houses that are environment friendly. Some people are under the impression that it is a herculean task to design and build houses to accommodate nature. Well, those people cannot be farther from the truth.

The truth is that it is easier to design and build such houses are compared to the other traditional types of houses. With a few out-of-the-box ideas and innovative thinking it is possible to construct beautiful houses that are in harmony with nature and also energy efficient. A good eco friendly house is one that does not burden the earth and makes use of natural resources like the Sun and wind to generate heat and electrical energy that are needed to run household appliances. Let us see a few points that can guide us in that direction.

Keep it light

If you notice all the eco friendly houses that have been designed and built till date, all of them use materials that are light in weight. Wood is the most preferred material when it comes to building such houses. This is a material that offers flexibility and versatility that is needed when constructing houses that are environment friendly. There eco friendly houses that are build using enameled steel and corrugated metal too since these are light weight options.

Look out for barriers

If it is your aim to design and build your house in order to harness the potential of nature to generate energy for your house, then, ensure that there are no barriers to it. Trying to construct an eco friendly house when there are a lot of high rise buildings around the place, may be a wrong idea because you would not be able to tap into the complete potential of wind and Sunlight to produce energy. Also, ensure there are no barriers like transformers and power lines which may hamper the construction process. Consider the direction of the wind and the maximum exposure to the Sun when you design and build eco friendly houses.

Make provision for every generation and storage

The main purpose to design and build a house that is eco friendly is to harness the power of nature. Hence, you design should incorporate the ideas for good ventilation and penetration of Sun rays. The sunlight will illuminate the darkest part of the house too and curb energy consumption. By ensuring good ventilation you can minimize the use of fans and ACs. Also, opt for getting your house fitted with solar panels and photovoltaic cells which have the potential to convert the energy from the Sun into electrical energy which can be utilized to run the household equipments. The excess energy can be stored in the cells and utilized when needed.

By Charli Jhonson