Vitality

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. This year Healthy Child Healthy World is celebrating its twentieth...

Scientists with the National Institutes of Health are on a mission—being called the Human Microbiome Project—to find out what these microbes do exactly. Which ones are fighting for or against us, and how might they have the potential to counteract disease?

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Health World Getting older. It's not easy. Nora always found a way to...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Saying goodbye to a feathered friend We lost her yesterday. It...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Taking control of your body may entail more than exercise and monitoring caloric intake. While those two things are essential, the missing key component that many overlook is the hormonal balance within the body. Hormones, chemical messengers within the bloodstream, are secreted by the endocrine glands, which are found virtually from top to toe. According to an episode of the Emmy Award-winning daytime talk show, The Doctors, “[These] glands are collectively known as the endocrine system, which influences a person’s metabolism, mood, growth, development, immune system, and sexual function.” The main three secretions to beware of, which the site calls the “Hormone Trifecta,” are cortisol, estrogen, and thyroid.

By Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEcoLiving.com When fighting cancer, we often think of disease management through any number of Western medical practices.  But wellness...

By Elizabeth Grossman, Author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden...

The story of sage is truly one that has come full circle. From being a prized herb for its healing and cosmetic qualities, to a useful culinary seasoning, to being relegated to holiday cuisine, then fading into obscurity only to be brought back to the forefront of alternative medicine. Find out more about this robust herb in the latest installment of "In the Spice Cabinet"

“Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore.” These are the first two phrases that Tosca sings in her famous Act 2 aria, “Vissi d’arte.” The English translation means, “I lived for art, I lived for love.” Puccini’s Tosca was one of Maria Callas’ most infamous operatic roles and the prime example of life imitating art. Callas’ life ended on September 16, 1977 in a Paris apartment. It is said that she died of a broken heart as did opera singer Floria Tosca at the end of the opera. Callas had an extra special gift which was reflected in the art form of opera. Transforming passion through music for the world to hear was what she sacrificed her life for.

LA Pollution: It may not go away any time soon! By: Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant Los Angeles: home smog contamination, congested freeways, smog, and long commutes. “No body walks in LA” as that famous pop song of the 80's astutely observes. And for the most part, they are right: no body does walk in LA. Which is creating more and more pollution in LA. Even the most casual observer covering ground in this megalopolis will take note of how few pedestrians there are. It is a car culture; people sometimes cover 40 + miles in a day just to get to work and back.

By: Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEco Living. Walking around plush suburban America in Hazmat suits because the environment is saturated with toxic chemicals? Well,...

By Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, Executive Director/CEO, Healthy Child Healthy World and a LuxEcoLiving Advocate   Is there a link between the environment and illnesses such as...

This article originally appeared in  The New York Times The ‘Busy’ Trap By TIM KREIDER If you live in America in the 21st century you've probably...

By Lorri Ballance Laird, LuxEcoLiving Advocate Male breast cancer is on the rise, according to researchers at the University of Leeds, yet awareness of the disease is low and most men are not aware they are at risk. The study, funded by Breast Cancer Campaign and Yorkshire Cancer Research, University of Leeds, reviewed male breast cancer cases in four Western countries: England, Scotland, Canada and Australia. According to the researchers, the incidence of male breast cancer in England rose over a 20 year period, from 185 cases in 1986 to 277 cases in 2006.

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Imagine if the very thing you used and depended on to protect you from skin cancer was capable of exacerbating the growth of epidermal lesions and tumors. Well that’s what the Environmental Working Group claims may be the case. A recent study shows that retinyl palmitate, a synthetic form of vitamin A, is carcinogenic on skin exposed to the sun.

How to navigate high fructose corn syrup and sugar substitutes to avoid harmful artificial sweeteners in favor of plant based alternatives. By: Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant What if products that contain high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, which are marketed to assist in living a healthier lifestyle, are actually the ones making us sick? As of 2007, American consumers were spending 21 billion dollars 21 billion dollars annually on diet, or low calorie, drinks. From the outsider perspective, this still seems like progress compared to the alternative statistic, with 64% of Americans qualifying as overweight or obese. But what if you found out that the sugar alternatives that many diet products promote are not only ineffective as weight loss methods, but are also dangerous to your health?

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant MyBike is an electric bicycle retailer based in Boston, MA that provides an alternative mode of transportation that reduces individuals’ carbon footprints, as well as the stress and hassle of sitting in traffic. With motor vehicles as the single biggest source of air pollution it’s about time we find less abrasive ways to get around.

By Nina Montee Karp a LuxEcoLiving  advocate for womens health and founding member of Healthy Child Healthy World Reposted courtesy of The Huffington Post You'd never...

By: Janelle Sorensen, courtesy of Healthy Child Healthy World Looking for a pediatrician is no easy task, especially if your concerns and parenting methods aren’t exactly the same as mainstream America. My husband and I scoured the city for a full year before finding the right one for our daughters. But, it totally paid off. We found an amazingly supportive and brilliant pediatrician whose philosophy was to tell us everything she knew and then let us choose what to do. She had only one provision; if she ever thought the results of a treatment were sub-par, then she would intervene with an alternate recommendation. That never happened and I was always overwhelmed with how much she knew. She could rattle off statistics about best practices in the EU, pertinent studies regarding alternative remedies, and recent outbreaks that could put my children at risk. She was a dream come true. But, alas, we moved. Now we are on the hunt again.

By: Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant What if products that are marketed to assist in living a healthier lifestyle, are actually the ones making us sick?...

By Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant Yoga-wear gurus from the company lululemon are telling us to get ready to sweat, and saying, “Take Your Asana Outside!”...

By: Lewis Perkins, Founder of Women Are Saving The World Now and LuxEco Advocate Article via Women Are Saving The World Now Last week, I had...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World I lost a very close friend. She was and remains...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Our very own LuxEco advocate, Olivia Newton-John was a guest on the taping of Oprah's show Tuesday. Oprah, filming two shows at the Sydney Opera House this week, had a star studded line-up for her travels Down Under.

By: Joanna Bateman, Luxeco Editorial Assistant I’m a mid-west girl who recently moved west to California to spread my wings and fly. And if it weren’t for this past August, I’d be one stressed-out-Sally in the big sea of crazy known as Los Angeles. I needed to ground myself so that I didn’t float away in La La land. I needed Yoga camp!

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World An Essay           Like you, I am stupefied. It is unconscionable to...

By Wendy Ross Kaplan, LuxEcoLiving Advocate The term “gluten-free” is becoming more mainstream these days, when a trip to the grocery store can be rewarded with more healthy choices for shoppers. But before the 1960’s, only nutritionists and a handful of health nuts knew what gluten free meant. Nowadays, “gluten-free” has almost a cult following of otherwise regular folks seeking better health benefits and those suffering from diagnosed celiac disease, its varying manifestations and debilitating effects.

By Nancy Chuda founder and editor-in-chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. Do drop in when in San Luis Obispo. Visit the...

“As a group, it's our intention with this album to create songs with a message of compassion and hope,” said Newton-John. “They are for anyone facing a time of challenge in their life, whether it is grieving a loss - or on the journey to health and recovery.”

by Elizabeth Grossman, Author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate As I wind down for the year I find myself thinking about a book called The Home Within Us and how much that says about my design philosophy. Everything I approach as a designer lies first and foremost in the feeling of comfort, well being, creating a place of safety and sanctuary. Problem solving, space planning, furniture and color selection comes later but it is driven by these things.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder Healthy Child Healthy World "Architect James Chuda's Green Home has been called the "Fabergé egg" of...

It's a safe bet to say that there aren't too many people in the world who haven't experienced the warm soothing smell of cinnamon as it slowly bakes into your grandmother's extra syrupy sweet potatoes, or as it blends with the apples and buttery crust from your mom's apple pie. What most of us, particularly in the Western World, fail to realize is that we are victims of a very cruel irony.

By Alanna Rosette Brown, a writer/filmmaker, LuxEcoLiving Advocate, and author of Moonpennies. Follow her blog at alannarosette.com Make a New Years Resolution: Stand-Up and Walk...

Corporate guru, David H. Murdock, advocates disease prevention through wellness with a lifestyle makeover for longer, healthier lives. By: Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEcoLiving.com Son...