Tips and tricks to keep your house cool without airconditioning

After having survived the hottest two weeks of the past century, and hearing about the deliberate choice to switch of the power in some areas of California as it became impossible to match the demand for electricity, due to the massive use of airconditioning, this week's topic had to be about how to keep your house and yourself cool without needing to rely on energy-guzzling airconditioning.

How to make better food and lifestyle choices 

Particulate matter and your health

As the Dutch government decided to move away from natural fossilized energy sources, we are moving towards solar and wind energy.
Because solar and wind energy cannot provide all energy and a decision to also move away from natural gas, biomass plants seemed to be the perfect solution.

Biomass is plant or animal material used for energy production (electricity or heat). It can be purposely grown energy crops, wood or forest residues, waste from food crops (wheat straw), horticulture (yard waste), food processing (corn cobs), animal farming (manure, rich in nitrogen and phosphorus), or human waste from sewage plants.

Burning plant-derived biomass releases CO2, but it has still been classified as a renewable energy source in the EU and UN legal frameworks because photosynthesis cycles the CO2 back into new crops. In some cases, this recycling of CO2 from plants to atmosphere and back into plants can even be CO2 negative, as a relatively large portion of the CO2 is moved to the soil during each cycle.

However, over the past few months it has become clear how a lot of biomass comes from trees, that were previously pristine forests in the USA or the Baltics.
While in the best case, the use of biomass could even be CO2 negative, burning biomass will result in excessive CO2 output locally as well as of particulate matter.
This is why almost overnight, due to negative public opinion, politicians changed their mind. Too late though, there are already few hundred biomass plants that are being constructed due to substantial subsidies that were handed out, so we can expect a substantial worsening of air quality in the upcoming decade(s) because of the increased amount of particulate matter.

Heart disease: what are the differences between men and women?

Past week there was attention for new documentary called "De slag om het vrouwenhart", made by Hella de Jong, in which she relates about her quest for heart health. She suspected health problems, but wasn't sure why. After having been told her problems were psychosomatic, caused by her parents' traumatic WWII experiences, she wasn't satisfied and kept pushing for more research. Finally she got a massive heart attack while perfoming a stress test in the hospital.

This interview sent me on an immediate flashback to 1985, when my mom felt ill enough to visit the hopital after what was probably a minor heart attack. Her complaints weren't taken very seriously, yet they admitted her to hospital, though without being tied to a heart monitor. It was here she died that same day in the presence of my brother. When listening to Hella's story it seems there hasn't changed much in 35 years.

For a very long time, women were not taken into consideration when research was conducted on heart diseasae. Nor were they taken seriously when they went to their doctors with health complaints. Yet, among women, heart disease has also become the leading cause of death.

Determining heart disease risk in women

Women and men share many heart disease risk factors, but recent studies are showing what previous male-focused studies have not shown: Women also have their own unique heart disease risk factors.

Traditional risk factors common to both women and men:

• obesity
• smoking
• diabetes
• high blood pressure
• family history
• metabolic syndrome – the co-existence of high blood pressure, obesity, and high glucose and triglyceride levels
• high levels of C-reactive protein – a sign of inflammatory disease that can occur along with other cardiovascular risk factors

Some risk factors that relate specifically to women or that can affect women disproportionately include:

• relatively high testosterone levels prior to menopause
• increasing hypertension during menopause
• autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis – more common in women than in men
• stress and depression are more common among women
• low risk factor awareness: lack of recognition of many of the above conditions as risk factors for heart disease is a risk factor in itself

How to prevent or treat varicose veins with natural remedies?

Sometimes it seems like varicose veins come out of nowhere when you’re least expecting it. Most people over the age of 60 have some degree, and usually they’re not a big deal. But they could be, it depends on the general health of your veins.

Valves in your veins are supposed to work harmoniously to move blood in one direction, to the heart!
If your heart is weak, or your valves stop working, or your veins lose collagen and become weakened, then the blood stays in your legs and feet longer than it should. It pools faster if you’re standing for a long time or if you’re sitting for a long time like during a long plane flight. The pressure inside your veins makes them wider and after a while, micro amounts of blood leak out into the surrounding tissue.
Varicose veins form, that is what you see when you look at your legs and see those twisted, distended big blue veins. It causes venous insufficiency. You are not the only one suffering: a large amount of especially elderly people and those who have to stand for a long time in their jobs, have varicose veins. They mostly impact the legs and feet.

Beware the chair

Just 'hitting the gym' several times a week may not be enough to off-set the negative consequences when you spend most of your time sitting on a chair or bench. According to scientists, prolonged sitting should carry a public health warning.