Given my high frequency of sinus infections, I’ve personally found a pretty good regiment for handling the various symptoms associated with them. I’m not a doctor by any means, so you might want to run this by your doctor for your particular case. Anyhow, here’s what I use to manage the symptoms of short term sinus infections:

• Sudafed 24 Hour – You’ll probably have to ask your pharmacist for them since they are usually behind the counter, but they do actually last 23-24 hours. Helps keep your sinuses from getting too congested, and I have never noticed them making me drowsy. You’ll want to read all of the precautions as this medication is not for everyone, and may even keep you up.
• Ibuprofen – Ibuprofen works well any time you need to reduce swelling and pain. This helps calm down irritated sinuses, and also keeps your sore throat at bay. If you use a decongestant other than the aforementioned Sudafed 24 Hour, make sure it doesn’t already provide ibuprofen as many do.
• Lots of hot tea – Keeping hydrated is important to make sure the mucus stays thin and doesn’t keep building-up in your sinuses. Hot liquids are supposed to be the best thing for this purpose, and I’ve read that you should avoid cold things (ice cream, chilled beverages, etc). It will also make your sinus infection worse if you don’t keep hydrated, so if you don’t like hot tea, be sure to drink plenty of water or other liquid, and consume liquid-rich food items like soup which are low in sodium and don’t contain MSG.

As always, your mileage may vary, but I thought I’d post what seems to work well for me. Keep in mind this will only help with symptoms– you need to manage a sinus infection with your doctor with antibiotics and other similar treatments to actually end the infection.

Do you have any other suggestions on how to keep the symptoms from a sinus infection at bay?

s there a more maddening industry? They confuse us with silly product names (the Sealy Posturepedic Crown Jewel Fletcher Ultra Plush Pillowtop or the Sealy Posturepedic Crown Jewel Brookmere Plush?). They flummox us with bogus science (“pocketed coils”? “Microtek foundations”? “Fiberlux”?). And they weigh us down with useless features (silk damask ticking?). It’s like buying a used car, and almost as expensive—I’ve seen mattresses going for $7,000. What’s a consumer to do?

Link To Article

There is definately a lot of good information in here, including a few things I’ve adapted. For one I have a European style platform bed and have ditched the box springs. I also found myself nodding about the mattress being too thick, and eventually I’d like to replace mine with one that is much thinner. Lastly, I bought an inexpensive “memory foam” topper which really took the comfort level of my bed to the next level. I’ll elaborate on the topper in a future review (of which I already have a draft of).

Anyone over 50 can probably remember what “old” people were 30 or 40 years ago. Usually they were people over 50! Most boomers no longer consider themselves old, which is quite possible with life expectancy going up year after year. But we need our health to assure us of a quality of life into our sixties, seventies and beyond.

One thing which I think is missing from the list is getting married. Yes, this sounds strange coming from a youngish bachelor, but I’ve read many tidbits here and there about how being married is much better for your health. Although owning a pet is a good one (one of many reasons I adopted a dog), but you can’t replace a significant other with a pet.

Here are the foods which they list:

• Cayenne Pepper
• Salsa
• Hot Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Ice Water
• Green Tea (Iced or Hot)
• Apple Cider Vinegar Drink (eww!)
• Cabbage
• Celery
• Brussel Sprouts
• Broccoli and Cauliflower
• Lemon or Vinegar
• Vinaigrette Dressing
• Grapefruit
• Berries
• Fatty Fish
• Soup
• Oatmeal
• Pumpernickel Bread

Check out the article yourself to read more details about each one of these items.

While I wouldn’t consider this to be the ultimate source of Farmer’s Markets listings, it does provide a good overview of the popular ones. Luckily they are in the process of updating it to a database driven listing, so hopefully it will have more options available in the future.

Why shop at Farmer’s Markets? You are supporting local families and giving them fair market value for their product, getting the freshest produce possible outside of growing it yourself, and sometimes you can even find products from organic farms. While I haven’t personally compared prices, I would imagine you can find some great deals, especially when buying in bulk.

How I Trained Myself To Get Up Earlier in the Morning

I am not what you would call a morning person. I’m a writer, for heaven’s sake! But recently,when I’ve had a lot of work stacking up and I’ve added a blog into my daily routine, it felt as if there simply weren’t enough hours in the day. So I decided to make a habit of getting up earlier. This is how I did it:

Check out more about how to get up earlier here. Since I’m definately a night owl, perhaps I can adopt some of these tips to start getting-up a bit earlier.