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by Real Simple Magazine, on Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:57pm PDT By Elisa Huang If you’re saving food in plastic bags, be sure to follow the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration guidelines for safe storage. Frozen foods can be stored indefinitely, but the flavor can change when food is stored past the time limits below. Raw Beef Roast and Steaks Refrigerator: 3 to 5 days Freezer: 6 to 12 months Raw Pork Roast and Chops Refrigerator: 3 to 5 days Freezer: 4 to 6 months Raw Lamb Roast and Chops Refrigerator: 3 to 5 days Freezer: 6 to 9 months Raw Veal Roast and Chops Refrigerator: 3 to 5 days Freezer: 4 to 6 months Cooked Meat Refrigerator: 3 to 4 days Freezer: 2 to 3 months Soup Refrigerator: 3 to 4 days Freezer: 2 to 3 months Raw Chicken Pieces Refrigerator: 1 to 2 days Freezer: 9 months Cooked Chicken Pieces Refrigerator: 3 to 4 days Freezer: 4 months

Nighttime is the right time to take years off your face. "Hormonal changes boost blood flow to the skin, brightening it overnight," says Melvin Elson, MD, a clinical professor of dermatology at Vanderbilt School of Nursing. Skin temps are higher, too, so age-fighting potions seep deeper for better results. And even though you're resting, your skin is hard at work. Studies show that cell turnover is 8 times faster at night, softening wrinkles. On the flip side, as anyone who's pulled an all-nighter can attest, the consequences — pasty-looking skin and dark circles — aren't pretty. "Even worse, not getting the recommended 8 hours increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which may slow collagen production, promoting wrinkles," says Jyotsna Sahni, MD, a sleep medicine doctor at Canyon Ranch in Tucson. To maximize your beauty sleep, follow this routine nightly to wake up with the complexion of your dreams. Wash Your Face Removing make-up, oil, and oth...

Sun Jun 20, 11:48 pm ET SATURDAY, June 19 (HealthDay News) -- A pair of new studies has uncovered evidence that low levels of vitamin D could lead to poor blood sugar control among diabetics and increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome among seniors. Both findings are slated to be presented Saturday at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Diego. In one study, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore reviewed the medical charts of 124 type 2 diabetes patients who sought specialty care at an endocrine outpatient facility between 2003 and 2008. More than 90 percent of the patients, who ranged in age from 36 to 89, had either vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, the authors found, despite the fact that they all had had routine primary care visits before their specialty visit. Just about 6 percent of the patients were taking a vitamin D supplement at the time of their visit, the research team noted, and those who had lower vitamin ...

Tue Jun 15, 10:00 pm ET PARIS (AFP) – Obese women are likelier to neglect contraception, obese men are more prone to impotence and both are far less sexually active than counterparts of normal weight, a study said on Wednesday. The findings highlight "a major reproductive health challenge," requiring doctors to pierce the twin taboos of obesity and sex, it said. The research covered 10,170 men and women aged 18-69 whose data was randomly chosen from a French survey of sexual behaviour carried out in 2006. Around two-thirds were of normal weight, a quarter were overweight and the remainder (411 women and 350 men) were obese. Overweight was defined by having a body mass index (BMI) of between 25 and 30, and obesity as a BMI of at least 30. Obese women were 29 percent less likely to have had a sex partner in the previous 12 months, compared with women of normal weight. Obese men were 69 percent less likely to report having more than one sexual partner in the same period and two ...

by Jason Gutierrez – Mon Jun 21, 1:09 pm ET MANILA (AFP) – A new sex education campaign in Philippine schools has sparked widespread debate in Asia's bedrock of Catholicism, where the high birth rate is blamed for desperate poverty. The United Nations-backed programme, which is being piloted this month in primary and high schools, aims to promote safe sex, limit the spread of HIV-AIDS and prevent unwanted pregnancies. However, the Catholic Church and powerful conservative crusaders have struck back with a high-profile campaign to shut down the project, saying it breaks the nation's religion-based moral codes. "Sex education in schools is not the answer to our population problem and poverty," Eric Manalang, head of the conservative political party Ang Kapatiran (The Brotherhood), told AFP on Monday. "It promotes promiscuity among children... it does not promote the proper values that we want our children to receive in schools and we believe sex education should st...

Clara Moskowitz Senior Writer SPACE.com – Mon Jun 21, 5:00 pm ET A group of seventh-graders in California has discovered a mysterious cave on Mars as part of a research project to study images taken by a NASA spacecraft orbiting the red planet. The 16 students from teacher Dennis Mitchell's 7th-grade science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found what looks to be a Martian skylight — a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars. The intrepid students were participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. The program allows students to frame a research question and then commission a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image to answer their question. The newfound hole on Mars resembled features seen on other parts of Mars in a 2007 study by Glen Cushing, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist. Cushing suggested that these anomalous pit craters are like skylights — places where a small part of the roof of a cave or ...

Stuart Fox LiveScience Staff Writer LiveScience.com – Sun Jun 20, 11:21 am ET For years and years now, millions of sun worshippers across the country would hit the beaches during summer to work on the perfect, golden tan. However, the advent of indoor tanning salons now allows Americans to sport a sun-kissed look year-round. And as more and more people pursue a perpetual summer-style tan, dermatologists have begun noticing a significant rise in skin cancer incidents, especially among young women. Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, still makes up just 3 percent of all skin cancers, and results in about 8,000 deaths a year, according to the National Cancer Institute. But three factors have doctors alarmed: The rates of this cancer are rising; it has become the most common cancer for young people; and many of the cases result from the preventable, but addictive, behavior of indoor suntanning. "In the last few decades, it's certainly been on the rise. And some people thi...

by Yahoo!Green, on Tue Jun 8, 2010 10:57am PDT Experts unanimously agree that you should NOT pre-rinse your dishes before loading the dishwasher. Why not? Because your dishes will not get any cleaner if you rinse them before loading your dishwasher. Pre-rinsing is therefore a complete waste of time, water, energy, and money. And, in some cases, it can actually harm your glassware. Still not convinced? Here are the details. Dishes will not get any cleaner if you pre-rinse them. Modern dishwashers and detergents have come a long way in the past couple of decades. "You will not improve your wash performance one bit by pre-rinsing," says John Dries, a mechanical engineer and owner of Dries Engineering, an appliance design consulting company. He points out that heavily soiled dishes are used in pre-market "wash tests," not pre-rinsed dishes. In most cases, all you need to do is scrape your plates over a trashcan to get rid of bones or chunks of food. One caveat: It...

GMANews.TV - Tuesday, June 15 President-elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III will take his oath as the Philippines' 15th president at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, his camp said Tuesday. Aquino spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Noynoy's inauguration and oath-taking would be held at the Quirino Grandstand because it could accommodate more people than the original preferred venue, the Quezon City Memorial Circle. "For security reasons na rin," Lacierda told GMANews.TV over the phone. In 1998, President Joseph Estrada took his oath at the historic Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan, and later delivered his inaugural speech at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. In 2004, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivered her inaugural speech at the Quirino Grandstand but took her oath in Cebu City. Aquino is expected to take his oath on June 30 before Supreme Court Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales instead of Chief Justice Renato Corona because Aquino is questioni...

By Zap June 16, 2010, 08:05 ET Next time you're feeling frazzled, cozy up to a nice warm cup of chamomile tea. In a small study of people with anxiety, stress symptoms dropped by about 50 percent when German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) was taken daily for 8 weeks. Calming Chamomile In the study, people took anywhere from 220 to 1,100 milligrams of chamomile extract daily. But chamomile tea is another easy way to get a daily dose of this herbal remedy. Just steep 3 or 4 heaping tablespoons in hot water several times daily. And the nicest news of all? There were few side effects from chamomile in the small study; just one person experienced stomach upset. (Get answers to all your herbal-remedy concerns with this pageful of frequently asked questions.) How Does It Work? Researchers suspect that the flavonoids in chamomile could have something to do with the soothing effects. Or it could be that compounds in chamomile bind to the same receptors as antianxiety medications do. Chamom...

Tip: Muscle Foods

By David Zinczenko Jun 11, 2010 Simpler is always better. Think about it: Would you rather have your job made simpler, or more complicated? How about your relationship? Your finances? Those instructions to assembling your new IKEA bookshelf? Simpler, right? Okay, how about your diet? Wouldn't you prefer to make your diet simpler as well? Especially if you knew that simpler was also healthier? Then why do so many of us insist on choosing the most complicated foods we can find, when the simplest foods are always better? Case in point: Let's say you had a choice between two seemingly similar products. Both had about the same number of calories, and had similar tastes. Based on these ingredient lists, which would you choose? Beverage #1: Water; high fructose corn syrup; concentrated juices of orange, tangerine, apple, lime and/or grapefruit; citric acid; ascorbic acid; beta-carotene; thiamin hydrochloride; natural flavors; modified food starch; canola oil; cellulose gum; xanthan ...

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday. The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati. The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m. Monday, Monroe police dispatchers said. The sculpture, about 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained Tuesday. The nickname is the same used for a famous mural of the resurrected Jesus that overlooks the Notre Dame football stadium. The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent a...

Yahoo Health June 15, 2010 15:23 ET Thinking about giving up cigarettes? If you’ve tried before without success, you may feel unsure about whether you can quit for good. You may also wonder how to prepare for such a big change. Start by learning everything you can about the health risks of smoking. Then consider how kicking the habit will affect your health and life. Finally, arm yourself with the latest techniques that can help smokers quit. There are now more aids to help smokers become ex-smokers than ever before. Up in smoke When you smoke, toxins are carried by your blood to every organ in your body. At the same time, the carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke keeps red blood cells from carrying as much oxygen as normal. As a result, the cells throughout your body are deprived of the oxygen that they need to work properly, the American Lung Association (ALA) says. Smoking increases the risk for these health problems: * Weakened bones and hip fractures in older women * Cancers of the b...

Maryclaire Dale, Associated Press Writer, On Monday June 14, 2010, 6:31 am EDT PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Chris Botticella knows the secret to those "nooks and crannies" in Thomas' English Muffins -- the way they cradle butter and jam, and after a good toasting, produce just the right crunch. It's a secret that the muffins' makers have gone to great lengths to protect over 75 years, allowing it to rack up $500 million in sales annually of the toaster treats. The company says only seven executives know all three parts of its winning formula for making the muffins -- including how much dough to use, the right amount of moisture and the proper way to bake them. So it became alarmed and sued in January when Botticella, one of the trusted seven, decided to bolt and join rival Hostess, maker of Wonder Bread and Twinkies. Hostess Brands Inc. doesn't make English muffins. But that doesn't matter to the lawyers seeking to protect the trademarked "nooks and crannies...

Sat Jun 12, 2:31 am ET BEIJING (AFP) – Rampant prostitution which has accompanied China's rapid economic growth is fuelling a 30 percent increase in syphilis infections each year, state media reported on Saturday. Syphilis was almost wiped out in China 50 years ago, but has increased 10-fold over the past decade to emerge as one of the country's top five infectious diseases, the China Daily said, quoting the ministry of health. The rate of mother-to-child transmissions jumped alarmingly to 57 cases per 100,000 newborns between 2003 and 2008, from a previous seven cases per 100,000, it said. The report follows an article in the New England Journal of Medicine last month that said one child was born with syphilis in China each hour as infected men pass it onto their wives, who in turn pass it to their foetuses. It added that at least a third of homosexual men were also married due to social pressures, further increasing transmission to spouses. Syphilis is a bacterial infection w...

Dating Humor : How To Get Rid Of A Hickey If someone has given you a hickey and you want to hide it, follow this VideoJug guide on how to get rid of a hickey. Potential embarrassment can be avoided when we reveal to you the simple secret to getting rid of a hickey. You will need Standard, AA or C-Size battery A hickey Step 1: Know Your Hickies To remove a hickey, the first thing you need to is to determine whether or not a hickey-like mark on your neck really is a hickey, as opposed to a rash, bruise, or other ailment. The way to do this is pretty basic: recall whether or not anyone recently kissed, sucked on, or had other lip contact with your neck. If so, it's safe to say you have a hickey. If not, you probably have a rash, bruise, or other ailment. So you should consult your local heath-care professional to find out what's going on. Step 2: The removal process Pick it up, and locate the end with the negative charge – the flat one. Now, rub the end of the battery against the ...

Zoё Macintosh LiveScience Staff Writer LiveScience.com – Sat Jun 12, 7:45 am ET An obscure compound known as pyrophosphite could have been a source of energy that allowed the first life on Earth to form, scientists now say. From the tiniest bacteria to the complex human body, all living beings require an energy-transporting molecule called ATP to survive. Often likened to a "rechargeable battery," ATP stores chemical energy in a form that can be used by organic matter. "You need enzymes to make ATP, and you need ATP to make enzymes," said researcher Terence Kee of the University of Leeds in England. "The question is: Where did energy come from before either of these two things existed? We think that the answer may lie in simple molecules, such as pyrophosphate, which is chemically very similar to ATP, but has the potential to transfer energy without enzymes." Obscure but important Prior theories for how life emerged from mere chemistry have considered that...

By RAY HENRY and BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writers – Sun Jun 13, 6:25 pm ET NEW ORLEANS – BP mounted a more aggressive response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as it deployed undersea sensors to better measure the ferocious flow of crude while drawing up new plans to meet a government demand that it speed up the containment effort ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to the coast. The financial ramifications of the disaster are growing by the day as the White House and states put pressure on BP to set aside billions of dollars to pay spill-related claims in a move that could quickly drain the company's cash reserves and hasten its path toward possible bankruptcy. BP was also trying to meet a Sunday deadline to respond to a letter from the Coast Guard demanding that it intensify the efforts to stop the spill. One of the actions BP took Sunday was to use robotic submarines to position sensors inside the well to gauge how much oil is spilling. The robots ...

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Mon Jun 7, 11:48 pm ET MONDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) -- For patients battling a type of cancer that affects the back of the mouth, the chances of survival increase if the tumor contains the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, new research shows. In fact, the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most important predictor of survival in oropharyngeal cancer, researchers from the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) found. "Previous studies indicated a relationship existed between the presence or absence of HPV in oropharyngeal tumors and patient survival, but they couldn't determine if other favorable factors present in these patients were responsible for their better outcome," lead author Dr. Maura Gillison, an OSUCCC-James medical oncologist and head and neck cancer specialist, said in a news release. "These findings close the door on the...

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jun 12, 11:19 am ET WASHINGTON – If Chuck Lacasse had gotten his pink slip four days earlier, Uncle Sam would have covered most of his family's health insurance while he looked for a new job. But Congress allowed emergency health care assistance for unemployed workers to expire May 31, and seems unwilling to renew it despite pleas from President Barack Obama. Not three months after lawmakers passed his $1 trillion insurance overhaul, Obama is facing a rare defeat on health care at the hands of his own divided Democrats. Moderates have rebelled against adding billions more to the deficit in a treacherous election year. "The same Congress that spent all this political capital trying to get people health insurance is going to take a crucial benefit away from unemployed people," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for the unemployed. On June 4, Lacasse lost his ...

By Laura Gilbert You know the type: the average-looking guy who can meet someone new while out buying light bulbs, or the rather plain Jane who comes home from a dental appointment with the name and number of a potential suitor. We set out to discover just what makes these people so adept at meeting others so you can try their best pick-up tips. Here are the four steps to follow when you see someone you’d like to meet and get to know better. Step #1: Smile and wave Don’t be afraid to use gestures that say, “I’d like to chat with you” — whether that means a smile, a nod, a wave or just eyebrows raised in expectation. Laura Lewis, 27, from River Falls, WI, recently spent much of her lunch hour in a long line at a bank. But instead of getting annoyed, she got a number from the cute guy standing behind her. “We were checking each other out the whole time we stood there,” she explains, “and just as I finished at the teller, I gave him a big, big smile. He gave me a cute little ‘hi there’ wa...

by Mike Krumboltz, June 11, 2010 Reasonable audiences could assume that a movie called "The Karate Kid" would be about a kid who, well, does karate. But, in the case of the newly released feature starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, that assumption is only half right. The truth is that Mr. Smith's character (aka "the kid") does not practice karate, but the art of kung fu. This inconvenient truth was picked up on in various reviews and blogs. Misleading? Maybe. But nobody seems too surprised that the forces behind the remake elected to stick with the well-known title rather than practice a little truth in advertising. Why mess with a successful franchise? Web searchers were quick to pick up on the minor controversy, sending online lookups for "kung fu vs. karate" and "difference between kung fu and karate" to significant gains. So what is the difference? According to a blog on the topic, kung fu, which is Chinese, features "'circula...