My long-time enjoyment of earth science, especially when it included fossil activities, had me doing earth science activities for kids from the time my own children were little ones. So when my middle school asked me to pick something to teach for six weeks that I just enjoyed, this was the first thing that came to mind. It was set up to be more like a club than a class, so while there were definitely learning goals, the most important goal was to have fun and enjoy ourselves. I knew I should include fossil activities in my lesson plans. There had to be a lot of hands-on kids’ activities with an emphasis on fun.

When I got my class list, I saw immediately that I would need to do some revisions in my plans: I had a small class, but it included several students with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. These were not going to be internally motivated kids. I knew that my most important class would be the first one. I needed an earth science activity that would get the students “hooked” on the subject right away.

I had seen an activity with younger students called the “magic bag.” It capitalized on the unknown and their natural curiosity. But these were middle school students-and some tough ones at that! I knew I’d have to have a pretty solid subject area-something that could intrigue and impress.

I placed a small fossil in enough velvet bags for each student to have his/her own. Before handing them to the students, I asked them to explore the contents of the bag without opening it. Since the students knew the topic was fossils, I didn’t give any clues as to the contents of the bags.

Instantly the air was filled comments: “It’s round!” “Mine is like a cylinder.” “Mine’s got ridges.”

Then speculation and conjecture: “I think this is that animal that looks like a clam.” “I think this could be a tooth.” “I know; it’s a snail!”

I had the students pass their bags to the next student and compare observations and guesses. Eventually they were begging me to open the bags.

But before we did, I asked them to tell me what they knew about ancient sea life. There were lots of pictures in their minds; some were accurate. Then I asked them to imagine which of those species might have left fossil remains. We talked about how fossils are formed.

Finally, as a last observation, I asked the students to guess at the animal contained in their bag, by either name or species. When fossil was finally revealed more questions, especially about identification and behavior, waited to be answered.

If this had been a research class, there would have been more than enough curiosity to compel these students on to further study. In this class, our next activity was to do a real fossil dig, with real fossils. The “magic bag” earth science activity had the students thinking, talking and ready for more fossil activities.

As kids’ activities go, The Magic Bag is at the top of the list for ease of use and enthusiastic student involvement.

Claudia Mann is a teacher, and a contributor to www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com where you will find information that will help you pump up the enthusiasm in your classroom or home school setting. Go to there now for The Magic Bag and other free fossil lesson plans, and activities you can use with your students today!

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Most of you have heard about “consumer directed health plans”. The Bush administration has been a strong supporter of this concept as a way to get a handle on soaring healthcare costs. The recent inaugeration of Mr. Bush signals that consumer directed health plans will increasingly make up a larger percentage of group medical plans over the next several years. In the past, consumer directed plan designs have taken on many forms: Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

Many experts consider HRAs and HSAs to be the first generation of viable consumer directed health care products. HRAs are typically paired with a high-deductible health plan and are employer-funded Section 105 defined contribution plans. HSAs are the latest version of consumer directed health care plans. The core components of HSAs include a high deductible insurance product and a cash spending account. HSAs combine the pre-tax treatment of a FSA, the portability and roll-over characteristics of a 401(k), and the tax-free distributions of a Roth IRA.

One of the main goals of any consumer directed health plan should be to get the consumer more involved in both the cost and statistical outcomes of certain healthcare procedures. Informed healthcare consumers will make wise healthcare decisions and typically these decisions will result in both lower costs and improved quality.

Although the advantages of HRAs and HSAs can be substantial, employers will want to do their homework prior to setting them up. Effective implementation will require a clear understanding of the consumer directed healthcare plan that best fits your organization as well as the administrative requirements. Employee education will be essential. Companies will also need to look into how the creation of a HSA or HRA may affect their HIPAA medical privacy compliance requirements.

Just like most endeavors, the successful implementation of a HSA or HRA will greatly depend on how much research your organization does on the pro’s and con’s of each alternative. The type of consumer directed health plan that best fits your company will depend on a combination of your corporate structure as well as the overall objectives of your group health insurance plan.

Although consumer directed healthcare plans are becoming very familiar to human resource managers and other benefit professionals, remember that your employees and their dependents will need a substantial amount of education and communication.

Michael Ertel is the President of Ertel & Company ( http://www.ertelandcompany.com ) and has over 15 years of experience in the health insurance business. He is the founder of http://www.MedicalInsuranceNow.com which is an internet based service that assists individuals, families, and small business owners by providing side by side comparisons of health insurance alternatives and the convenience of applying for health coverage online.

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Supplements, taken daily or when you feel “something” coming on, are an effective and inexpensive way to get your immune system functioning. Even if you take a vitamin after you feel a cold coming on, it can give the feel of wellness on its way — IF you make some other adjustments to your usual routine as well.

To get your immune juices flowing, here are five tried and true formulas that can
work for cold cures or flu onset.

1. Be aware of a seasonal change.

We often keep moving at our same speed even though the seasonal environment is
changing around us. Some things to keep an eye out for:

• Being prepared with proper clothing, more or less depending on the seasonal
change.

• Our body energy is affected by the change in light.

More light = More energy.

2. Rest.

Be sure to be getting the proper amount of rest for your body. If for some reason
you do not receive the amount you need, find a time to make it up. If you are having
trouble falling asleep or sleeping through the night, look into natural methods that
will help you be able to rest. This is crucial for ongoing health and prevention of
colds and other illnesses.

3. Eat for Energy.

Eating certain foods will keep your immune system functioning at a high level. Try
the following:

• Large leafy greens (especially watercress)

• Garlic

• Anis

• Citrus peel

• Sage

Avoiding or using certain foods in moderation will also help ward off colds. The big
ones are:

• Salt

• Dairy

• High levels of caffeine

• High levels of refined sugar

Eating certain foods will boost your immune system. Try the following:

• Parsley (fresh, simply chew)

• Basil (fresh, brewed into a hot tea)

• Ginger (fresh)

• Garlic

• Kudzu

• Lemmon

• Pepper

• Cinnamon

Eat less. Immediately reduce food intake and move to a liquid based diet (soups,
broths, tea) when you feel a cold or flu coming on.

4. Take a hot (as hot as you can stand it) bath.

Not a shower. Soak for at least 15 minutes. After getting out and toweling off, put
on big, warm socks (or double layered), comfortable sweats and sweatshirt, a hat on
your head and get in bed. Sweat it out. If you are really sweating, change your
clothing before falling asleep.

5. Herbs.

Hold any in the following list in your mouth for 20 - 30 minutes before swallowing.

• Dandelion

• Burdock

• Chamomile

• Honeysuckle

• Echinacea

• Golden seal

• Citrus seed extract

One Final Note:

Remember that your number-one goal is to “block” your cold right away! We’re all
bombarded with tons of germs and every day, so you have a limited amount of time
to “keep something at bay”.

Your best bet is to keep yourself laying low within one or two hours of not “feeling
right”. I can hear you saying, “BUT …”. I know, we all have lots to do. Would you
rather do it feeling really great or sniffling, sneezing and coughing? Do well by you;
you deserve it.

Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine? You absolutely can!
But here?s what you MUST include: Heather Dominick, “The Energy Expert”, is
founder of the EnergyRich Lifestyle Program, the proven step-by-step
program to help you achieve your best health and most energized life. To sign up
for her freebie how-to articles and no-charge teleclasses on creating your best
energy life, visit http://www.individual-health.net

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On credit repair forums everywhere you hear advice to “file suit” against those reporting your file for violations of credit laws.

But really, do you have to go to that extreme to repair your credit? In most cases, the answer is no.

The vast majority of credit repair issues are resolved well before any papers are filed. Of those few that do result in court papers being filed, the vast majority are settled without ever making an appearance in court.

If the idea of having to go to court over that pesky collection agency is keeping you from repairing your credit, don’t let it. The odds are about 1 in 1,000 that you will ever need to file suit. The odds of ever having to go to court because of your credit repair efforts is 1 in a million.

That being said, you should also be aware from the beginning that if you are going to beat some of these collectors you must build a strong legal case against them. Many times the evidence you have accumulated provides the leverage that keeps the case out of court and the account off of your credit file.

You will need to become a good record keeper so you can prove each violation they commit. And they will violate the law just about every time.

You will also need to understand the credit laws so you know when a violation has taken place. If you are unsure visit a credit forum and you will surely find a lot of good advice.

Lastly, all over the web you see these “official” looking sample letters that quote the law and sound like the writer swallowed a dictionary.

I strongly advise against using these sample letters. They are usually overly threatening and say way more than they need to. They basically tip off the collector that you are repairing your credit and not some poor sucker they have by mistake.

Always remember, the best way to get pushed by a collection agency is to make threats against them right off the bat.

The best way to beat a collection agency is to play by the rules and give no indication that you intend to sue them until after the papers are drawn up and you are ready to file them.

At that time, send them an “Intent to Sue” letter that outlines both the specifics of their violations and your evidence to support your claim. Ask them upfront to pay the money they legally owe or you will file the suit.

Many times, they will delete the account because you have shown them they will lose in court and you are ready to take them there.

In rare cases they will make you take the final step and file the papers. If you do it, they will most likely settle the matter out of court rather than incur the expense and still lose the case. You may actually collect a few hundred dollars for your efforts.

So be ready to fight the fight, but don’t expect to ever have to. Every account has three parties that can remove it from your file. The odds are very good that one of them will do it long before you ever approach the courthouse door.

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First and foremost, the very first thing you need develop in sales and negations is your confidence.

But be aware of the fools sense of confidence which plagues most salesmen, and that is the confidence which is based totally on bravado.

Let me explain!

Say you are a physically confident person. You would most likely tell yourself that you could cruise through life and be in total control of any aggressive situation, but when you’re put into a situation where you’re confronted by someone who’s a lot more intellectual than you are, (and I’ve seen this happen to people), all of a sudden your confidence is taken away. It has nothing to do with your strengths, it has to do with your weaknesses, and all of a sudden your confidence isn’t there anymore. When people have a weakness, and someone exposes that weakness, you lose total confidence.

Confidence isn’t something that you can just label based on a few things. Developing total confidence is a fairly complex subject, and it covers all areas of your life, not just simply the one or two areas that you are already convinced that you do have confidence in. It’s all about developing the confidence you need in the areas you are weakest and the areas in which you intend to apply yourself in.

Imagine a boxer that was getting hit a lot because he kept dropping his hands. Straight away his coach would say he needs to keep his hands up and that will stop him getting hit so much. He does this, it works, and now he has more confidence. But what if he had no one to tell him. What do you think would happen to his confidence? Either he will become tougher so that he can take more hits or quit all together, both are a losing situation to be in. So you need a mentor or coach to make sure you develop your confidence the right way.

So what are the right confidences? There are a few, but today I will be discussing technical confidence.

First of all you need to stay in one particular industry and learn as much about that particular industry as possible, so that you can build your technical confidence. Some people think that sales is about going out and faking your way through it with good looks and tricks. What I advise is that you get into a sales career in an industry that you can see a future in, and something that you will love and enjoy talking to clients or potential customers about, and, stick to it. Put in the time to develop your technical confidence.

Developing confidence in sales at the top level is going to be done over a couple of years. This is not just a fly by night sort of thing that you should be doing to fill in time. Success is something that has to be developed.

So get into an industry that you have a passion for.

Remember you are going to have to sit down one on one with a client and no matter what they ask you, you are going to have to be able to clearly and precisely answer their questions and do it fluently and without hesitation. As the saying goes, “he who hesitates is lost”, is very true when applied to sales. People pick up on hesitation and see it as being a weakness, and this is where you find you will lose most of your sales. You need to make sure that you have the knowledge to answer somebody’s questions or fulfill their needs and actually give them all the right information in a very controlled and confident manner so that they can make an informed decision.

So you’ve got to be totally fluent in your knowledge and language of the industry that you are in, and you’ve got to know your industry extremely well.

If you’re selling a particular product such as a motor vehicle, then you better know everything, not just about that vehicle, but also about the oppositions vehicles in the same price range that offer the same type of things. You’ve got to know the strengths and weaknesses of your opposition’s products. That’s one step towards gaining technical confidence.

Your mission for this week is to go out and start learning as much about your particular field as possible. Learn the terminology, the slang, the technology and the results of that technology and this will dramatically improve your technical confidence and this will show in your sales performance.

But remember, there are no short cuts, and what you have learned here today is only the first small step of many to becoming a successful salesperson.

Ray Turnbull has extensive knowledge and experience in sales and negotiation accumulated over a 4o year period. Ray’s mission is to pass on that knowledge with the help of his son Aaron Turnbull to people that want to get to the top as quickly as possible. Through his very personal teaching style he is able to give them the right direction to enable them depending on their ability to be successful in the shortest amount of time. Ray has valuable free resources at his website www.successthroughfailure.com

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If you’re having difficulty understanding what a brain concussion is, and how your son or daughter’s head-injury affects their further participation in sports, then you’re in good company. The nature and effects of concussions are still poorly understood by many athletes, parents, coaches, news reporters and, to a certain extent, even the medical community. But because the brain is a treasured organone that athletes should want to keep in good working order for the rest of their livesa good understanding of concussions is crucial.

Neurologists and neurosurgeons cringe when they hear sports-reporters make comments like, “Johnny had a CAT scan and it showed that he didn’t have a concussion.” The truth is that CAT scans don’t show concussions. They do show other serious consequences of head injuries, like bleeding within the brain, or hemorrhages that compress the brain. But concussionswhile no less realare invisible to brain-imaging tests like CAT scans and MRIs.

So what is a concussion? If a blow to the head caused unconsciousness, a concussion occurred. Most people know this. But a concussion can occur even when there is no loss of consciousness. Other symptoms after a head-injury indicating a concussion include:

1. impaired attention, e.g. vacant stare, slowness to respond, easy distractibility
2. slurred speech, or speech that doesn’t make sense
3. clumsiness or unsteadiness
4. disorientation, e.g. walking in the wrong direction, forgetting the day of the week
5. excessive emotional reaction, e.g. easy tears, overly upset
6. memory impairment, e.g. asking same question repeatedly, can’t memorize new facts

Other symptoms can develop hours or even weeks after the injury, including headache, dizziness, poor concentration, irritability, impaired memory, fatigue, disrupted sleep, anxiety, depression, and a lack of good judgment or insight.

You’ll notice that all these symptoms share a common featurean alteration in brain function. The normal brain processes, which depend on proper signaling among the brain’s 20 billion brain cells, are out of whack.

There can also be physical damage to the brain’s cells. Because brain-cells are so tiny, brain scans don’t detect them. Injuries causing more severe concussions can tear apart the cells’ axons (the long filaments that carry coded messages over long distances within the brain). As you can imagine, these rips in the very fabric of the brain can cause lasting impairments in brain function or require long periods of time for recovery.

One certainty about sports-related concussions is that they are very frequent. The Centers for Disease Control estimates there are at least 300,000 of them in the U.S. per year and they comprise about 20% of all head injuries. Research also indicates that the brains of high school athletes are more vulnerable to concussion than those of older athletes, and require longer periods of time to fully recover.

Individuals who have had one concussion are at greater risk for another. For example, in one study of high school and college football players, concussions occurred about six times more frequently in student-athletes who had experienced prior concussions than in those who had not. Moreover, repeated concussions can have more severe outcomes than first concussions.

A rare but particularly scary phenomenon has been called the “second impact syndrome” in which a second concussion occurring within days or weeks of an earlier concussion can produce catastrophic consequencesincluding deathway out of proportion to the apparent severity of the re-injury.

Because of the potentially serious consequences, athletes, coaching staffs and parents need to have a heightened awareness of head-injuries and their need for proper evaluation, including by medical personnel. Various guidelines have been created for decisions about when it is safe to resume participation in contact sports. These guidelines, while based more on expert opinion than on medical evidence, are still the best benchmarks we have until more studies are done.

All guidelines agree that an athlete needs to become symptom-free in all areasthinking, memory, emotions, coordination, balance, etc.before resuming play. After a first concussion, the athlete should have been normal for at least a week, and after a second concussion, for probably two weeks.

When should an athlete hang up his or her cleats and retire from the sport? How many concussions are too many? No one has a definite answer to either question. As Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” might ask, “Are you feeling lucky?” Three concussions in the same seasonor even in an entire sports careershould certainly raise concern about long-term damage to the brain.

Of course, student-athletes often pressure their parents to allow them to return to play sooner than might be wise. In these circumstances it is useful to recall that many professional athletes in football, hockey, boxing and other sports have retired from their lucrative careers rather than suffer additional concussions. If these high-profile individuals were willing to give up their big paydays in order to protect their brains, then perhaps your son or daughter will be able to follow their examples when less money is at stake. However, if you are the parent and are being pressured to allow an early return to play, you just might have to stand tall, do the right thing, and say no.

For more information about traumatic brain injury see the websites of The Brain Matters and The Brain Injury Association of America.

(C) 2005 by Gary Cordingley

About the Author

Gary Cordingley, MD, PhD, is a clinical neurologist, teacher and researcher who works in Athens, Ohio. For more health-related articles see his website at: http://www.cordingleyneurology.com

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You would like to increase your income by selling other
peoples` products but you just don`t have the money to
stock inventory.

On the other hand, perhaps you have lots of your own
product and would like to increase your sales, but you
don`t have a lot of money for advertising.

The solution to both problems may lie in drop shipping.

1. Sell Products You Don`t Own

You would like to sell a variety of products but you don`t
have very much money. Don`t worry! Your customers will
supply you with the necessary capital. You don`t have to
stock inventory. You can drop ship orders.

For example, you receive a credit card order for a product
retailing for one hundred dollars plus five dollars shipping.
You now turn around and fax (or e-mail or phone) your order
to your dropship supplier. You pay the fifty dollar wholesale
product cost plus five dollars shipping using your own credit
card.

Your dropship supplier now ships the order to your customer.
With no investment in inventory, your gross profit equals
fifty dollars.

2. Sell Products You Do Own

Would you like more sales of your own products? Consider
drop shipping your products for other dealers.

As an example, you may have a product that sells for
one hundred dollars plus shipping. Every time you sell that
product yourself, you will have a sale of one hundred
dollars. However, how many one hundred dollar sales can you
make personally?

Now consider the situation where you offer your dealers
a wholesale price of fifty dollars. You could have hundreds
or thousands of persons selling for you.

It is true that each product sale now only brings you
only fifty dollars in sales. However, these are sales that
you wouldn`t otherwise have. What would it cost you to
obtain these sales through traditional advertising channels?
Would your advertising even bring you the desired results?

Keep in mind that with this drop shipping arrangement, you
pay only for results. When a dealer retails your product
for one hundred dollars, he is really receiving a fifty
dollar profit for selling your product; you could view it
as a sales commission. You receive only fifty dollars per
product sale but sell way more than without drop shipping.
You ship directly to the customer for your dealer.

So, whether you sell other peoples` products or your own,
drop shipping can increase your sales, preserve capital,
and maximize business profits.

RESOURCE BOX:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc.,
has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits
for over twenty-five years.

For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

For additional information about drop shipping, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/dropship.html

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You wait for the mail carrier, hoping to receive a letter that
says; “Guaranteed credit card approval” arrives. In contrast,
you do not have to linger around if you own a computer and have
access to the Internet. Just sign online and type in keywords
that are relative to credit cards you are searching for and you
will find a list of cards online. If you have become aware of
some of the credit card offers, which include low introductory
rates with cash back or points, then you know that some cards
offer more than other cards. Credit cards are similar to
borrowing cash. If you apply for a credit card at your local
bank the representative will request you to fill out an
application and then sign a series of papers. Similar to
applying for a loan, credit cards applications take about two
weeks to hear an answer. You will take delivery of a letter in
the mail typically because most lenders don’t care to provide
you an answer over the phone.

Few credit card lenders will take longer to deliver an answer
than other card providers for their own purposes. The best way
out is to find a “guaranteed credit card” is to shop around the
marketplace, contrasting terms & conditions, as well as fees
before you make that final verdict. Annual Percentage Rates
{APR}, should be carefully drawn out, since the rates alter from
card to card, and some cards will include additional rates.

The last thing you will want is to be approved of a credit card,
all to find that the measure of interest rates and fees are
outrageous.

Grace Periods and Credit Cards You will also need to consider
the Grace Periods on credit cards, since some card providers
will permit avoidance of additional charges incurred, providing
you payoff your balance in full before the due date. If there is
no Grace Period stipulated in the terms and conditions, the
lenders may add additional financial charges, starting at the
time you take advantage of the card, or starting at the dates
the transactions are posted on your account.

Annual Percentage Rates Again Annual Percentage Rates or
otherwise known as Participating FEES vary from “$25 to $100″
generally these rates are found on Gold or Platinum Cards. Some
of these card providers may charge fees up to $75, reaching up
into the hundreds. It depends on the card provider.

The Guaranteed Cards may have transactional fees and other
incurred charges included in their terms and conditions. The
Guaranteed Card providers may offer cash advances, but there may
be additional charges attached to the amount borrowed.

Still, few credit card providers will charge an upfront fee to
approve you the cards. These cards are tricky; therefore, you
should pay attention to each detail thoroughly. Some companies,
such as Trust Benefit has been known to take the customers money
and fun. The customer is left without a card. Therefore, you
want to do an investigation of the card providers and the
companies to make sure that you DO NOT get taking for a ride. To
do this you will go on the Internet, type in BBB in the search
engine, and then you will be taking to a site where you will
type in the business name after selecting ‘business’ under the
proper channels. The Better Business Bureau will pull up the
information and you should read it carefully to make sure no
reports or complains has been filed against the company. If you
notice, any complaints go online and find another card provider
to stay safe.

Bad Credit If you have bad credit or no credit, then you want to
be extra careful since many companies are taking advantage of
the disadvantaged. The card providers that claim to approve you
of a credit card regardless of your credit history are notorious
for charging upfront fees. Again, this is when you want to check
with the Better Business Bureau to stay safe. The Guaranteed
Cards specifically have stipulations; therefore, you want to
read all the fine print in the terms and conditions, contract,
etc, before agreeing to any terms.

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Here are some facts about the relationship between coffee and asthma. Regular coffee drinkers have about 1/3 less asthma symptoms than those of non-coffee drinkers according to a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.

For the past several years, many experts have touted how horrible coffee was for our health and that the drinking of caffeinated coffee should be immediately ceased. Recently, however, several studies have shown that caffeinated coffee can actually be extremely good for people. One of the groups of people who can reap health benefits from drinking caffeinated coffee is those people who suffer from asthma.

In particular, drinking caffeinated coffee in the situation of an emergency onset of asthma can allow the patient to breathe easily. Doctors have recommended coffee as an emergency way of treating asthma patients who find themselves with a sudden onset and no medication for many, many years.

In Scotland, as evidenced by the Edinburgh Medical Journal, asthma and coffee are good for each other. While not recommended for exclusive treatment, one to two cups of strong coffee may help open airways.

This coffee and asthma treatment can help a patient who is suffering from an onset of asthma symptoms and finds himself without an inhaler breathe more easily until the inhaler can be obtained. This emergency treatment has proven extremely effective due to the similarities between caffeine and a tried-and-true asthma medication known as theophylline.

The similarities between these two chemicals lead doctors to routinely advise patients who are about to undergo tests for lung function to avoid coffee and other caffeinated beverages for one to two days prior to the time of the test.

Several large coffee and asthma studies conducted in the past few years have examined the relationship between drinking coffee and the prevalence of asthma. A study of over seventy thousand Italians showed that there was a significant reduction in the appearance of asthma amongst patients who would regularly drink coffee.

The risk of asthma symptoms fell by 28% when patients drank three or more cups of coffee every day.

In 1992, the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) examined over twenty thousand Americans. The study found that the risk of symptoms from patients with asthma going into the study fell dramatically (over 29%) when patients who regularly drank coffee were compared with patients who did not drink coffee on a regular basis.

In addition, the risk of patients suffering from wheeze fell almost 13%. A relationship was also found between the amount of coffee consumed and the effects gained by the asthma patients. Those who drank more coffee had fewer symptoms; those who drank less coffee had more symptoms.

Another smaller coffee and asthma study was performed on nine adult asthmatics using four daily doses of caffeine similar to the doses contained in coffee. This study showed a dose response effect of caffeine on forced expiratory volume (FEV), forced expiratory flow (FEF) and specific airway conductance (Gaw/VL). This data also suggests that caffeine is an effective tool to use in opening airways during an onset of asthma.

While doctors will never advise drinking coffee as the sole treatment for asthma as they did hundreds of years ago, they do agree that the caffeine found in coffee is particularly beneficial in an emergency situation. Anecdotal evidence shows that people have used coffee in situations where inhalers were completely unavailable, such as when on vacations and on an airplane. Coffee is particularly useful in these situations, as the patients might otherwise suffer serious consequences due to their inability to breathe properly.

Randy has more articles on coffee such as Colombian Coffee, Coffee and Alzheimers, and Coffee Breaks.

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If you’re traveling with your dog and want to avoid the mess left by dog hairs, etc., dog seat car covers can make your life and your dogs much easier. Designed to slip on easily, these seat covers form a protective barrier between dogs and the actual seat cover, allowing you to take your best friend everywhere.

Companies such as Kozy K9 Seat Covers, Handicapped Pets, Dog Bed Works, Orvis, Petsmart, CoverCraft, Doctors Foster & Smith, Auto Anything and SitStay.com are all dedicated in providing high-quality t dog car seat covers in different designs, shapes and materials. These companies usually offer a choice between a standard or customized cover depending on how much you want to spend. Some have straps to secure them to the seats firmly. While others, like those provided by Kozy K9, have a unique non-slip surface that just lies on the seat of your car.

Handicapped Pets offers customized seat covers ideally suited for elderly dogs and disabled pets. Like Dog Bed Works, their dog car seat covers are waterproof and made for all types of cars. Orvis offers covers in great designs and colors starting at $45.00. They are well made and come with a full guarantee. Equally efficient are car covers made by Browser Pet, Canine Covers and CoverCraft. These covers offer maximum protection against any damage and are backed by a ninety-day warranty.

The most important feature to look for in a dog car seat cover should be its durability, water-resistance capacity and its washing ability.

Car Covers provides detailed information on Buy Car Covers, Car Covers, Car Seat Covers, Cheap Car Covers and more. Car Covers is affiliated with Car Care Tips.

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