Earthworms Reduce Weeds

It is an established fact that earthworms improve garden and agricultural soils but it's not so well known that earthworms also can help reduce weed growth.

The Blaine County Recreation District in Idaho is beginning a test project against noxious weeds this spring. They have teamed up with a local service, Whitehead Landscaping, who will apply the vermicompost tea to the weed infested land.

Research has shown that earthworm excrement, also called castings or vermicompost, improves the fertility, aeration, porosity, structure, drainage, and moisture-holding capacity of soil. The possibility of earthworms having the ability to aid in prevention of weed growth is a breakthrough for using less synthetic and harmful chemicals.

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Author: Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the
environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
Email: Current address on website
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Tea More Valuable Than Gold

In China, where the health benefits of tea is well known, some tea varieties are worth more than gold.

The health benefits of tea include prevention of cholesterol buildup, helps burn body fat, prevents rheumatoid arthritis, aids with diabetes, prevents cancers, suppresses the process of plaque formation on teeth, kills the bacteria which causes bad breath, kills seven strains of food poisoning bacteria including staphylococcus, clostridium and botulus, is a good treatment for diarrhea and many more too numerous to list.

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Author: Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the
environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
Email: Current address on website
*****************************************

Coffee Prevents Alzheimer's

By drinking a delicious three cups of coffee a day, one may just be able to prevent getting Alzheimer's disease.

As reported in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition studies show that coffee has a protective effect on the brain.

Most Alzheimer's patients die within ten years of being diagnosed so any possible cure that may help prevent the dreaded disease is well worth researching.

So in the future a doctor may just say to a patient "Drink 3 cups of coffee and call me in the morning."

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Author: Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
Email: Current address on website
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Pesticides Reduce Nitrogen In Soil

Pesticides are reducing the fertility of garden and agricultural soils.

For healthy gardens and agricultural crops, including vegetable gardens, nitrogen is a necessary nutrient. But some studies are revealing that pesticides are reducing the plants ability to use the available nitrogen in the soil.

According to an environmental scientist, Jennifer E. Fox of the University of Oregon in Eugene, despite increased amounts of nitrogen being added to soils fertility and crop yields have stabilized and even decreased over the last 40 years.

Fox, John A. McLachlan of Tulane University in New Orleans, and colleagues have discovered that the pesticides bind to the receptors on nitrogen that should be attaching to the roots of the plants.

A much safer and natural alternative to keeping soils healthy is to have plenty of earthworms in the garden. Earthworm casts are an excellent organic way to healthy, productive soils.

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Author: Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the
environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
Email: Current address on website
*****************************************

Eat Chocolate And Live To 100

Two chocoholics lived to be 122 and 119 years old.

The world's oldest centenarians, Jeanne Calment (France, 1875 to 1997) and Sarah Knauss (U.S.A., 1880 to 1999) were chocoholics.

There is news that chocolate milk is good for athletes as well.

Dark chocolate, has high levels of antioxidants called flavonoids. These help to remove free radicals in the blood.

Chocolate also appears to slow clotting of platelets for up to 12 hours after eating. This helps to prevent blood clots which can cause heart attacks and strokes.

Once again chocolate proves itself to be a healthful food. It helps to ease diarrhea.


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Author: Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the
environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
Email: Current address on website
*****************************************

Toxic Indoor Pollution

If you spend most of your time at work indoors you may be risking your health more than people who spend time outdoors.

The air inside modern tightly insulated buildings can be up to five times as polluted as the outside air according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Molds, chemicals from paint used on the walls, and furniture, glues to hold carpeting down, fumes from cleaning products, are some of the worst offenders making people sick.

When people spend 90 percent of their time indoors in this toxic environment headaches and respiratory illnesses increase. These chemicals can even cause lung cancer, aggravated heart conditions, and death.

It's not only the elderly and children who are adversely affected. Healthy adults are also affected.

While one can't control the air quality at work, one can use air cleaners
for a safe, clean environment in the home.

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Author: Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
Email: Current address on website
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Toxic Plastic Baby Bottles

If you are a mother of a new baby, or know someone who is, a warning about using plastic, instead of glass, baby bottles could save the child a lot of health problems later in life.

According to a report by the Environment California Research and Policy Center released in February, 2007, bisphenol A, a toxic chemical, leaches from the plastic bottle into the liquid being fed to the baby.

Bisphenol A is a chemical likened to the sex hormone estrogen and can cause all sorts of serious health problems ranging from breast and prostate cancer to insulin resistance leading to diabetes, and congestive heart failure later in life.

It can also cause impaired immune function, early onset of puberty, obesity, and hyperactivity at all ages.

The bottom line for baby feeding is the use of traditional glass bottles.

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Author: Marilyn PokorneyFreelance writer of science, nature, animals and the environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
Email: Current address on website
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