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Take the "ouch" out of workouts by cooking with this spicy little root: ginger.

A new study shows that getting ample amounts of ginger every day could help decrease postworkout muscle pain by up to 25 percent.

"G" Is for Ginger
In the study, participants took about half a teaspoon of raw or heat-treated ginger daily -- or a placebo -- for 11 days. On day 8, they did a super-difficult arm workout as well. About 24 hours later, the pain levels of the ginger takers were about 25 percent lower than those in the placebo group. (Here are three other foods that fight postworkout soreness.)

Pain Be Gone
Turns out compounds in ginger have anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties similar to those found in nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. And those properties help inhibit enzymes and compounds involved in the pain process. Ginger may also have a dulling effect on nerves that process pain signals. (Think you know all there is to know about pain? Read this article that debunks five common pain myths.)

Avoid postworkout pain altogether by watching the right way to work out in this video from celebrity trainer Joel Harper.

Landmark Studies Yield Surprising Results

CHICAGO - A series of studies conducted on Sensa, a new weight-loss technology that works solely on the sense of smell, showed an average weight loss of nearly 30 pounds.

In the first study, conducted by the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, 1,436 female and male participants lost an average of 30.5 pounds, roughly equal to 15% of their total body mass, on average.

In a follow up study conducted by an independent laboratory in Los Angeles, participants lost 27.6 pounds and about 14% of their body mass.

What makes the results significant is that researchers asked subjects not to change their normal eating or exercise habits.
Researchers Identify Link Between Smell and Weight Loss

The purpose of both studies was to test whether enhancing an eater's sense of smell can help prevent overeating, a hypothesis first put forth by Dr. Alan Hirsch, M.D., founder and neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation.

"Contrary to what most people think, hunger is not controlled by your stomach - it's controlled by your brain, specifically the hypothalamus," Dr. Hirsch explains. "Certain scents can help set in motion a process that triggers your hypothalamus to send signals telling your body you've had enough to eat.
"What we've done is found a way to deliver the scents that can be added to food, in the form of flavorless crystals called Tastants, to prevent people from overeating."




Brain Trauma Research Leads to Weight-Loss Discovery

Hirsch is the first to admit that he's not a diet doctor. For much of his career, his focus was treating patients with smell and taste disorders.

But during the course of his clinical work with brain trauma patients who suffered smell disorders, he began uncovering important clues into the underlying mechanisms of hunger and appetite.

Specifically, he noted a trend where patients who had lost their sense of smell often gained 30 pounds or more. He theorized that if loss of smell leads to weight gain, the opposite might also be true - that enhancing smell could promote weight loss.

To test his theory, Hirsch developed Tastant crystals that could be sprinkled onto food to enhance olfactory input.
Will Powder: Can A Food Sprinkle Prevent Overeating?

Hirsch has conducted several large-scale clinical weight-loss studies on his Sensa Tastant crystals. In each case, the evidence showed that sprinkling Tastants onto food does help to produce weight loss. Subjects in Hirsch's tests lost around 30 pounds, on average.

Since Hirsch's initial findings were published, his Tastant technology has been incorporated into the Sensa Weight-Loss System. Recently, an independent laboratory conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled study on Sensa and found results very similar to Hirsch's, with an average weight loss of more than 27 pounds.

http://www.amazinglivingtools.com/WeightLoss/?pcode=40207215&plabel=LAT_ALL_ROS_Q309_300x600&ccode=k1216460&clabel=SA_SFT_LAT600_Amazing2_YahooHealthyLiving601_601194_300x600

The Worst and most Unhealthy foods in America

This story caught my attention because I find myself unsure about the safety of flu shots and vaccines in general.  I know there are many benefits from it, but there are also dangerous side effects that the pharmaceutical companies and doctors do not want you to know about.  I have developed a trust issue with bio tech/pharmaceutical companies etc...they make vaccines & get paid billions of dollars when people get injected with these...so it is obviously in their benefit for people to be sick...They make billions when there is a swine flu outbreak, they make billions when there is a bird flu outbreak etc...  Such a powerful company that has the ability to generate diseases and vaccines and make so much money off of if.  It is in their best interest for the general public to be sick or so scared that they will get sick after watching the news so that they will run out and get a shot.  They make money from us being sick...that doesnt sit well with me because they are powerful people and companies...benefiting from our poor health.  

Below is a story about a once beautiful healthy girl and her reaction to the flu shot!

You may have heard news reports about 25-year-old Desiree Jennings, the girl with the severe reaction to the seasonal flu shot. Her symptoms -- the inability to walk forward, but the ability to run forward and walk backwards -- even appeared as Google Trends, with searches related to her condition. Some believed it was all just a hoax. Her story is garnering celebrity attention, too -- Generation Rescue, the organization founded by Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy to raise awareness about health and safety issues related to vaccines -- has reached out to support Jennings. 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advises against getting a flu shot if you've ever had a severe allergic reaction to eggs or to a previous flu shot. Additionally, if you have a history of Guillain-Barré Syndrome -- a condition which includes symptoms of fever, nerve damage and muscle weakness -- that occurred after receiving influenza vaccine, you shouldn't get the seasonal flu shot. The risk of "serious harm" or death from a flu shot, the CDC's Web site explains, "is extremely small. However, a vaccine, like any medicine, may rarely cause serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. Almost all people who get influenza vaccine have no serious problems from it." 

Jennings, a Northern Virginian and AOL Employee (Full disclosure: This reporter and Desiree Jennings have never worked together before this interview.), who was healthy, training for a half marathon and a Washington Redskins Ambassador preparing to become a cheerleader, never suspected the health complications she is living with now. She is suffering from acute, viral post immunization encephalopathy and mercury toxicity with secondary respiratory and neurological deficits, which she believes is the direct result of the seasonal vaccination she received from her local grocery store chain in August 2009.

Initial reports and diagnoses indicated Jennings had dystonia, a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that are sometimes painful. But, as of the most recent interview, Jennings's treating physician believes she has acute, viral post immmunization encephalopathy, or a disease of the brain that alters brain function or structure and can include memory loss and personality changes. 

In an interview with AOL Health, Jennings, she explains her diagnosis and how her life is forever changed. Watch the video below to hear Jennings talk about her condition.