Gargling With Water Can Reduce The Chance Of Catching A Cold By 36%, Research Finds

The common cold is an unpleasant illness that leaves people feeling weak and tired. Lots of people wonder how to prevent a cold, and they try to avoid catching a cold by drinking lots of water and taking vitamins. However, there is a surprisingly easy way to prevent catching a cold.

According to The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, one of the best ways to reduce the chance of catching a cold is to gargle water. The study, which was published in 2005, followed 400 healthy volunteers for 60 days during cold season. Some of the group members were told to gargle water three times a day. At the end of the 60 days, the group that had gargled water had a 36% decrease in upper respiratory tract infections. Other studies have also found that gargling water can help prevent congestion and sore throats.

The best thing about this home remedy is that it is totally free and very effective. If you want to lower your chances of getting ill, here’s how to prevent a cold using water.

How to Prevent a Cold Using Water

Although you can gargle water by itself to reduce the chances of catching a cold, it is more effective if you use warm water with dissolved salt. The Mayo Clinic advises people to dissolve half a teaspoon of salt in a full glass of warm water, so there isn’t too little or too much salt. Gargle the water for a few seconds before spitting it out, and repeat this every couple of hours. You can also try warm water with lemon and honey (which you don’t need to spit out!).

Why Water Helps to Prevent Colds

Although scientists aren’t certain why gargling water helps to prevent colds, they have a few possible theories. One reason is that gargling loosens mucus in the throat and chest, helping to remove allergens, fungi and bacteria from the throat. Another possible reason is that the saline solution helps to draw excess fluid from the inflamed tissue in the throat, helping to remove irritants and reduce pain.

While water can be used as a preventive measure to reduce the chances of a cold, you should speak to a medical professional if you do catch a cold.

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12 Warning Signs You Have Poor Circulation Even If You're Young

Lots of people think that only older people have problems with poor circulation, but that isn’t necessarily true. Lots of young people suffer from poor circulation due to poor diets and a lack of exercise.

This can cause people’s health to decline, as blood carries oxygen and nutrients to all parts of your body. If you’re worried about your circulation, here are 12 warning signs of poor circulation.

1. Being Tired All The Time

If your circulatory system has slowed down, it will struggle to deliver oxygen and vitamins to your body. This can slow down your metabolism, so that your body will start to conserve energy. This will make you feel tired on a daily basis.

2. Cold Hands And Feet

If you have bad circulation blood struggles to travel to the furthest parts of your body, so you will notice that your hands and feet are much colder than the rest of your body.

3. Dark Circles Under Your Eyes

Dark circles under your eyes can be caused by a few things, but poor circulation is one of the most common reasons. Press under your eye and remove your fingers; if the area is lighter when your fingers are there but darkens when you remove them, it might be related to circulation.

4. Difficulty Thinking Clearly

Poor circulation means that your brain isn’t getting enough blood, so your mental abilities will slow down. You might notice that you aren’t thinking clearly, or that your memory has worsened.

5. Loss of Appetite

Another sign of poor circulation is a lack of appetite. This is because your digestion becomes impaired if your blood flow slows down, so you will feel less hungry.

6. Digestive Problems

A lack of blood flow to your digestive tract will also cause digestive problems, as your body will struggle to digest food properly. This can result in loose bowel movements and a feeling of nausea. You may also notice that you often feel weak and tired.

7. Numbness In Your Arms And Legs

Numbness in your arms and legs happens when the blood flow to them is cut off. This is often described as your limbs falling asleep, and you may also notice that your limbs tingle as the blood flow improves.

8. Swollen Feet and Hands

Swollen feet and hands are a serious sign of poor circulation. This is caused by nutrient imbalances and your body’s struggle to keep fluid in your blood vessels. The fluid can leak out into the surrounding tissue, creating the swelling.

9. Varicose Veins

Varicose veins are visible purple veins underneath your skin. This is caused by poor circulation, which causes the veins under your skin to swell and twist. They don’t always hurt, but they can become itchy and painful.

10. Weaker Hair And Nails

Brittle, weak hair and nails are caused by a lack of blood flow to the extremities. If your nails and hair chip and break easily, you may have poor circulation.

11. A Tight Feeling In Your Chest

One of the main symptoms of bad circulation is angina, which feels like tightening in the chest. This is because the heart isn’t getting enough blood flow, and it is a good indicator that you have poor circulation.

12. Leg Ulcers

Another symptom of poor circulation are leg ulcers that develop around the ankles and knees. This is caused by a lack of blood flow to the legs, and you may notice patches of sore, inflamed skin on your legs that won’t go away.

Do most of these signs of poor circulation apply to you? If so, arrange to speak to your doctor about the problem and possible solutions.

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Villa 20Situated on a rocky shoreline on the island of Koh...

Villa 20

Situated on a rocky shoreline on the island of Koh Samui, Villa 20 is a fabulous 5-bedroom oceanfront retreat, complete with all the pleasures of luxury island living.

Featuring a sleek, contemporary design, the property makes the most of its gorgeous setting with floor-to-ceiling windows and private terraces in all rooms. All spacious, light filled accommodations have a stylish, minimalist look and come with iPod docks, rain showers, and sexy, oversized bathtubs.

Villa 20′s open-plan kitchen and dining room are quite impressive, but the real highlight is the fabulous sunken living room, which seems to melt into the lustrous infinity-edge pool.

Why Unexpected Friendships Can Be The Best Ones

Friends are important parts of our lives. They laugh with us, share their joy, make us feel better when we are down, brighten up our days, and offer genuine support and advice. When we are mature enough to become well-acquainted with our interests, we seek out to find friends who are alike, so that we could spend hours and hours talking about the same books, music or movies we like. We believe that those are the people that we would get along with since we have so much in common. But have you ever tried to step out of your comfort zone and get to know people that are different than you? There is something good in the unexpected – we can learn something new about ourselves and become a better person.

When fate brought together an illiterate prisoner and an encyclopedia editor

For some prisoners, being incarcerated brings about retrospection of their lives and a desire to change for the better. This is what happened to Robin Woods during his time in Maryland Correctional Institution. His desire to change led to quite unusual friendship with Mark Stevens.

Woods, growing up in a housing project in Cumberland, Maryland, never really learned how to read as a result of resentment towards authority figures. He decided to learn how to read during his time in prison, which brought Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia in his hands. During one of his reading sessions, he spotted a mistake, and he felt the need to inform the editor, Mark Stevens, even though he wasn’t sure his message will reach him.

To his surprise, Stevens responded, and thus this unbelievable friendship started with exchanging many letters and later phone calls. They finally met in person after almost a decade since the first letter. At their first meeting, Woods honestly said to Stevens “I never met you until today, but I love you very much. You’re a good man.” These two people have nothing in common at first sight, yet they found something good in each other – inspiration, support to stay on the right path, and a whole new perspective on life.

When the number one tech guy met the big-shot investor

When Bill Gates first met Warren Buffett in 1991, at the request of his mother, he hardly thought they would get along as he believed they have nothing in common, since Gates considered himself “a technology nerd” and Buffett as “a big-shot investor.” However, on their first encounter, they started talking and as the hours went by, Gates realized he was wrong: “We were suddenly lost in conversation and hours and hours slipped by. He didn’t come across as a big-shot investor. He had this modest way of talking about what he does.” This friendship still lasts to this day, as they constantly learn something new from each other, challenge each other and grow together.

The key is to step out of your comfort zone

You may think some relationships seem improbable, but that doesn’t mean that they cannot be great and full of love and respect. Meeting people who are nothing like you will open completely new horizons to you, and bring new perspectives to life, and many new benefits.  Break the pattern and step out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve personal growth. Be open-minded and try to experience new views. Although these kinds of friendships might not look as they will last for a long time, they are the ones that last for a life time since there is so much you can learn from each other. This can bring benefits not only to you, but to community as well, as we can see from the example of Emily Farmer (25) and McEwan Voorhees (100) who became friends as Emily decided to play the piano to elderly people at Heritage Place in Bountiful. They’ve become close friends and learned so much from each other.

Challenge yourself to do something new every day – travel to some new place alone, and try to make friends by walking up to complete strangers and starting random conversations. Or, make use of so many meeting apps out there. You would be surprised at how many great friendships you could start once you open yourself to the possibility of meeting people who seem to not share any of your interests. Try out activities you’ve never dared trying before and by pushing yourself further, you will meet new people that will challenge and push you even more to reach your full potential.

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Planning A Meeting? Check Out Webinar Platform Solutions For Your Business Needs

First, let’s start with the question, what is a webinar?

Simply put, a webinar is a conference/ meeting/seminar carried out over the internet. A webinar is the very key when building a brand or business. It enables you engage with your audience and get feedbacks anywhere and anytime. Isn’t that cool?

ClickMeeting is an onsite platform to bridge the gap between you and your clients or prospects. You don’t have to worry about hosting a traditional meeting. It saves you a lot of time and money if you are running a small business or a large company, and you have everything you need. With ClickMeeting, your webinar can be done at the comfort of your home and it is not expensive as against the belief of most people.

There are various ways to run a webinar. For example, other webinar providers install a software on your system and this comes with a lot of problems and issues. But since Clickmeeting is an Onsite platform, this makes it very convenient for you to use and with its highly functional website which enables you to navigate, manage your audience and also access amazing features and flexibility.

The website is also integrated with quite a number of web apps ranging from Flickr, Slack, YouTube, SalesForce, Google Calendar, Office 365, and lots more which makes what you can do it with it endless whether you want to use it for sales, training, marketing, or education.

Getting Started

For a starter, using a webinar might be a little bit confusing. ClickMeeting is very easy to use and you get a tour, instructions and steps all the way.

From the main dashboard, you can access the navigation menu at the top where the schedule link is located and also get to access the green arrows that point areas of interests. You can schedule your events which make it a very good tool for organizing the meeting. You can also customize your interface whereby you can change the theme color of your webinar, skin and also add your company’s logo.

Inviting Your Audience

You can invite your audience by sending a branded and customized email, then ask them to fill a form to join the meeting or just send them a direct link. The former is preferable when you need the details of your audience while the latter is most preferred if you are engaging a large number of audience and you do not necessarily need their information.

Starting the Webinar

During the event, set up your camera and microphone if necessary. Thereafter, it allows you to create a waiting room that can display information about your business, company or documentary, this is done, so as to prevent your audience from boredom.

They can also get the highlights or agenda of the meeting from a short clip you display. Make sure you provide the most value you can, give them case studies, your achievements and your expertise too.

Moderating the Webinar

You can make use of a PowerPoint deck or just you in display talking. The interface is also powered for major browsers and also you have access to a live whiteboard where you can draw, type and write. Participants can raise their hands up in agreement or in disagreement to a discussion.

ClickMeeting is so unique, you can run surveys on your audience and also displaying the results at the same time for them. This creates a room for feedbacks and makes it effective communication tool. For the live videos you can enable or disable the voice and video, translation in various languages is possible and you can also have multiple presenters where you can create accounts for your other staffs and then they log in with their own credentials and then contribute.

Feedbacks and Closing

After your meeting, it gets the stats and analytics and then gives you the access such as the response of the attendees, devices used, interesting sections, the recorded session, number of attendees, and so much more.

You can also rate the performance so as to improve the webinar. Sharing the session on the YouTube is also very possible, follow up emails can also be sent to them, to thank them for participating, this on its own creates a brand loyalty.

Choose any Plan that Suits your Requirement

ClickMeeting is very cost effective. They have different plans and pricing options. The basic plan allows access to 4 video streams and 4 hours’ worth of recording, allows 2 presenters, recommended for attendees between 25 and 100. The Pro Plan gives access to 4 video streams and 6 hours’ worth of recording, allows 4 presenters, recommended for attendees between 50 and 500.

There is also an Enterprise Plan for large events, it can allow between 500 to 5,000 attendees and access to a highly customizable interface with add-ons and support. You get free access for 30 days to try its features and all you require to do this is just your email address.

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7 Effortless Ways to Earning Money Online

Are you looking for the easy ways to make money online? Then you’ve come to the right place! For a few years now, making money over the internet has been a hot topic. However, we all see the new ways of achieving those goals tend to pop up every day due to the ever-changing nature of the Web.

Here, I’ve compiled a list of easier and efficient ways that you can use to generate high incomes, and you won’t get caught off guard. Just have a look and choose from the list that best suits your taste.

1) Make Money With Affiliate/Referral Programs

As a matter of fact, the concept of affiliate marketing is becoming healthy for a few years now. When it comes to the affiliate or referral marketing program, it works on a concept of ‘you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours.’ It means that you can start selling someone else’s product or service or pass on traffic to that particular product or service.

Just spread the word by writing quality posts about it, adding a banner on your blog and highlighting it on social media platforms.

2) Make Money With On-Site SEO

Just know that if you aren’t ranking for the genuine reasons, link building won’t benefit you by any means. You have to invest time in keyword research because it’s significant to know what terms people use to search your product.

After that, go for internal link building and content (on-page) to match those keywords. It’s a fact that investing heavily in keyword research and optimization will pay the highest dividends ever along with the landing of quality traffic to your site.

3) Make Money With YouTube Videos

Making money on YouTube entirely depends on the level of people’s engagement with the advertisement. Here I refer to engagement as ‘ to click or watch a video for 30 seconds.’ As a matter of fact, the Adwords platform manages the YouTube advertising. For this, advertisers must have to select from a CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPV (Cost Per Video) model.

4) Make Money By Getting Links From Other Companies

A lot of businesses have a ‘retailers’  or ‘where to buy’ tab on their sites. You can ask them to add you to that list. But before that, just make sure that your site is up to the mark regarding design and quality. This way, you’ll have the option to get some testimonials on your site, which will ultimately increase the trust level of the company and show that you’re a reliable source of customers.

5) Make Money With Email Marketing

It’s somewhat easier to induce the existing prospect to buy your product rather than by selling it to the new one. If you’ve developed good relationships with the existing customers and the trust is already established then you can drive sales in a matter of days. Just take out the list of buyer addresses and there you go!

6) Make Money By Participating In Forums

Forums can be a good place to get engaged with your target audiences. Let’s say your niche has a lot of active forums. Just get involved in them and earn higher dividends in the short run. Always remember that ‘Nobody cares about your business except you.”

7) Make Money With Social Media

Nowadays, social media platforms are the greatest source of spreading a message and developing a fan base. However, if you want to drive more sales in shorter time span, it’s better to spend your time in long-term marketing techniques to enhance SEO rankings.

Modern-day businesses are using such tactics to make money online and are become more social media oriented to earn a lot. If you are a small business or a freelancer, make sure you adapt social media effectively and use any of the methods described above to generate extra income for yourself.

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8 Simple Tips for a Beautiful and Healthy Hair

Our hair is closely related to the nervous system and mainly composed of muscles, tissue, keratin, oils, proteins and silicon. Although, hair has biological functions that cause the body to “feel” and stabilize magnetically. However, to have a perfect hair you need to constantly provide different care because unfortunately our hair is exposed to many factors that can weaken and damage it.

There are many natural and easy ways to protect our hair to look beautiful, soft and with a spectacular shine.

Here are some simple tips on what you need to do to keep your hair super healthy.

1. Apply UV Protection

UV rays can damage not only the skin but can also ruin your hair if you do not protect them. Frequent exposure to UV rays and excessive heat will make our scalp dry and as a result, our hair loses shine and deteriorate in health with each passing day. Also, frequent exposure to the sun will make our hair to weaken and slow their growth.  Ideally, to prevent this type of damage is to reduce the exposure to heat by using UV protectors, scarf, and other hair covers.

2. Apply Hair Mask Once A Month

The monthly application of a good hair mask will give your hair nourishment and protection. For best results, choose a suitable mask for your hair type.

3. Never Use Hot Water

The use of hot water weakens our scalp, making it look dry and dull. But cold water or lukewarm water is very healthy for our hair because it seals the hair cuticles, which makes it shiny and silky. Obviously, we are not saying that you should rinse with cold water; but rinsing with moderately cold or lukewarm water will keep our hair healthy.

 4. Brush Your Hair Every Day

Brushing your hair every day and several times will stimulate blood circulation in the scalp, which makes our hair grow healthier. If you want a smooth and long hair, then it’s time to become an ally of combs and brush your hair two or three times a day.

5. Protect Your Hair While You Sleep

Pillowcases and cotton are great for the skin, but not for hair care, because they can dry the hair. Opt for a silk or satin sheath or wrap your head with a silk scarf before bed.

6. Alternate Hairstyles

Combing hair too tight can cause the fibers to break. Alternating between different hairstyles, high and low could really make the difference in keeping your hair healthy.

7. Dry Your Hair Carefully With a Towel

Avoid rubbing your hair when dry, It is preferable to wrap it with a towel while the towel soaks out the water from your hair. This method will simply save your hair from been rough handled during scrubbing with a towel which can result in breakage.

Afterwards, comb your hair easily, begin at the tip not by the roots, while using a wide-tooth comb. Then apply conditioner after each wash.

8. Maintain A Healthy Diet

Diet plays a very important role in the health of our hair, because the nutrient that gives us food, are also vital for the good health of our hair. The basic thing is to increase the consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy products, fish, and drink a lot of water a day. This will keep your hair strong and shiny.

Keeping a healthy hair is not limited to using chemicals and other elements. No wonder, blow dry bar and hair professionals  always emphasize that the more disciplined you are about looking after your hair the healthier, shining and good looking your hair will reward you while also responding well to more extreme styling when you need it for those formal occasions.

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