help me be

[HEALTH] Forget fancy fitness trackers  - your floor might be the truest measure of your health!  The Sitting-Rising Test (SRT) is a quick and easy test that measures your muscular strength, flexibility, balance, and “risk of death” in less than a minute. HOW TO DO THE SITTING-RISING TEST Start by standing barefoot on a flat surface. Lower yourself to the floor without using your hands, knees, or arms for support. Get up again, without using any support. The ideal score is 10 points, 5 for the sit and 5 for the rise. You lose 1 point each time you use a hand, knee, or lose your balance. Half-points are also subtracted for slight instabilities. SCORING 8–10 points: Great mobility and physical condition 6–7.5 points: Fair, could have better flexibility or balance 3–5.5 points: Below average, showing a lack of functional fitness 0–2.5 points: Bad, with higher risks of falls and even mortality in the elderly WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? In 2012, a study published in the European Journa...

[HEALTH]   Tamarind is the sweet and sour fruit (botanically a legume!) of the tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica). Each large pod holds glossy brown seeds surrounded by tangy pulp.  From Pad Thai to Mexican tamarindo candy, tamarind’s tart charm travels the world. You’ll find it flavoring sauces, chutneys, refreshing drinks, and even the classic worcestershire sauce. And it's good for you, too!  1. Heart Health  A 2025 human trial showed that drinking tamarind juice for 4 weeks reduced systolic blood pressure and cholesterol ratio. A nimal studies also show that tamarind seed extract can reduce total cholesterol and triglycerides , and raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol.  The high potassium and fiber content may also support healthy circulation and a healthy heart. 2. Antioxidant Power  Studies show that tamarind pulp and seed extract contain many polyphenols and flavonoids. Antioxidants help protect against cellular damage from pollution, aging, inflammat...

[HEALTH] It started as a small study at a university in West Virginia. Ten women, two weeks, and a handful of walnuts. Scientists at Marshall University wanted to know if something as simple as daily walnut consumption could influence the biology of breast cancer. The women in the trial, all awaiting surgery for breast tumors, added two ounces of walnuts to their daily diet. Their Findings Researchers analyzed tumor tissue before and after the walnut intervention to see how gene activity changed.  What they found was remarkable: After consuming the walnuts for two weeks,  more than 456 genes had shifted their behavior . The ones that promote cancer growth and migration quieted down, while those linked to cell death and immune defense lit up. Of course, this was a small pilot trial, and it has not yet been clinically confirmed in larger scale studies, but this is one more piece of research supporting the idea that walnuts may be useful in cancer management and prevention....

[HEALTH] We've known that rose oil can calm the nerves and lift the mood, but apparently it's been hiding a secret superpower.  New research shows that this classic scent may do more than make you feel serene; it might actually rewire your brain for the better. Rose Oil Increases Gray Matter Volume In a study published in 2024 in the journal Scientific Reports, a group of 50 healthy women was asked to live their lives as normally as possible for one month. Half of the group was asked to wear a small amount of rose essential oil on their clothes each day, while the other half wasn’t. All participants had brain scans using MRI before and after the experiment. The results showed that women who wore the rose scent daily experienced a significant increase in gray matter volume in an area of the brain called the posterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in reflecting, processing emotions, and memory retrieval. In other words, simply by wearing a dab of rose oil each day, the br...

[SCIENCE] Early in the pandemic, researchers were frantically trying to work out who was most at risk from the new virus. But, to some scientists’ surprise, they were also intrigued by an early counterintuitive trend from hospitals: so few smokers were winding up in COVID wards. By July 2020, a paper suggested that current smokers are 23% less likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 compared to non-smokers.  In April 2021, the European Respiratory Journal  retracted the paper  after two of the authors were found to have financial interests with tobacco companies.  However, this initial data was astonishing and caused a surge of study and debate. It wasn’t the cigarettes themselves that drew attention (as one researcher aptly stated, smoking cigarettes to prevent COVID is like "drinking poison to quench thirst"), but rather one of their key components: nicotine. Could nicotine, a substance as reviled as any substance you could name, actually have a protective effec...

[BEAUTY] Onion juice might seem like a strange and pungent hair treatment, but it has been used for centuries as a natural remedy (popular in Aureyveda)  to promote hair growth and improve scalp health! Onions are rich in sulfur, antioxidants, quercetin, and antimicrobial compounds that can help strengthen hair follicles, reduce dandruff, inflammation, and breakage, and stimulate dormant roots.   Studies show that consistent use can result in visibly thicker, shinier hair within a few months. Clinical trials have tested onion juice as a hair loss treatment. A 2002 double-masked trial published in the Journal of Dermatology, where the participants had alopecia areata and applied onion juice to the scalp twice per day for 8 weeks, observed visible scalp hair regrowth in about 87% of participants (significantly more than a control group that used only tap water). The authors of that study concluded that the hair regrowth effect was due to the high sulfur content of onion juice (...

[HEALTH] The rain outside your window. The soft clink of a ceramic cup. The earthy aroma. A grounding sip of something warm and soothing. That’s what drinking kukicha feels like  - calm in a restless world. Kukicha , or twig tea, is a Japanese green tea composed primarily of stems and twigs of Camellia sinensis. Because the leaves are not used in kukicha, it contains very little caffeine, which means it can promote mental clarity without overstimulation. This tea offers: L-theanine:   This amino acid, which is present in many green teas, has been linked to relaxed alertness, as well as improved focus, and stress reduction.  Kukicha is especially high in L-theanine because the compound is produced in the roots making its way to the leaf last. Polyphenols and catechins: Kukicha contains a number of these antioxidant compounds that can help your body deal with oxidative stress and inflammation . Minerals: Kukicha is naturally high in minerals like calcium (some sources s...

[MIND] Pluto, the tiny but powerful planet of rebirth and transformation, will turn direct on October 13, 2025 . The last five months have seen Pluto in retrograde motion, asking us to release fears, patterns, and old ways of thinking that are no longer relevant or useful for who we are becoming.  At the end of each retrograde cycle, there’s always a burst of energy - can you feel it today? This is Pluto’s last hurrah! Behind the scenes, something truly beautiful has been happening. We have been clearing out our old emotional debris, remembering our power, and learning what it means to feel genuinely empowered.  The Pluto retrograde cycle has left many of us feeling raw and exposed, floating between one ending and the next beginning.  Sensing something big shifting on a soul level, even if we can’t yet see the whole picture . That is Pluto, though. It pulls apart what is false so that something more substantial and real can grow in its place. Now Pluto will move forward...

[SCIENCE] That's how dolphins roll, at least! In many places around the world, scientists have spotted dolphins engaging in an odd and fascinating ritual: swimming in circles and slowly passing a puffer fish from one individual to another. Why? Because this poor fish, once provoked, can inflate and release an intensely powerful chemical defense: tetrodotoxin . It’s one of the most lethal natural toxins found in the ocean. The dolphins, though, aren’t trying to catch or eat it. On the contrary, they seem to treat it with great care, nudging or mouthing the pufferfish before releasing it to the next dolphin. After a while, the pod can often be seen floating on the surface in a  trance-like state. Scientists have proposed two main explanations:  either the dolphins are purposefully subjecting themselves to tiny amounts of this toxin (just a little at a time), inducing a mild numbness or an altered state of sensory perception. Or they’re simply at play: dolphins are highly intell...

[SCIENCE]   She stepped into the forests of Gombe and stayed for forty-five years, listening, watching, learning- not as a conqueror, but as a guest among the chimpanzees . With no degree, only patience, wonder, and courage. The world would later give her a PhD from Cambridge, but the chimps had already given her her calling. She saw a twig become a tool and with it, she shattered old beliefs, proving that humans were not the only toolmakers. She named her companions- David Greybeard, Flo, Goliath- refusing to reduce them to numbers. Each was a friend, a life worthy of being known. The critics scoffed. They called her too emotional, too unscientific. But Jane trusted her heart. She knew from her childhood dog, Rusty, that animals have minds and feelings. And she was right. She showed the world that chimps laugh, that they grieve, that they love. And in their eyes, we glimpsed ourselves. The spark had been lit long before - a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee , a gift...