HEALTH AND WELLNESS

What would I do without tomatoes! Exclaims the Italian housewife. This is a sentiment shared by countless other cooks around the world. Indeed, the tomato features in recipes of many cultures. Homes gardeners grow it more than any other food. But is it a fruit or a vegetable? Botanically the tomato is a fruit because it is a berry containing seeds. However, most people think of it as a vegetable, as it is usually eaten with the main course of a meal. This tasty food has a fascinating past.                                                          COLORFUL HISTORY In Mexico the Aztecs cultivated the tomato for food. During the early 16 th century, returning Spanish conquistadores took it to Spain and, borrowing the Nahuati word tomatl, called it a TOMATE. Soon Spanish enclaves in Italy, North Africa, and the Middle East were enjoying the new delicacy. Later that century the tomato reached northern Europe. At first it was thought to be poisonous and was grown as a

                         INTERNAL HEALING MEDICINE CAN we overcome stress? If we can, should we? Today psychophysiologists are beginning to formulate models showing that stress, anxiety, and depression influence the body to create or aggravate mental and physical disorders. Greater stress and anxiety tend to degenerate the physical body and depress one’s mental outlook on the world.   Are there ways to reverse this process of physical degeneration while maximizing the condition under which positive attitudes, beliefs, and life-style changes can heal the afflicted body and mind?   The basic assumption at the root of current research is that there is both a psychological and a physical component to all disease. Another common assumption is that individual is able to exercise a marked degree of will power in the development, aggravation, and alleviation of these disorders.   From these assumptions one might conclude that a personal psychology or philosophy may ha

                               Assisted reproductive technology has given hope to many infertile couples who want to have a child. Does it matter which method or procedure is chosen?                          A BABY BOOM THROUGH ASSISTED REPRODUCTION On July 25, 1978, a unique birth took place in Oldham, England, when a baby girl named Louise Joy Brown entered the world. Louise was history’s first test-tube baby. Nine months earlier, Louise had been conceived in a laboratory through a process called IN VITRO FERILIZATION [IVF]. By means of this procedure, an egg extracted from her mother was united with a sperm in a glass dish. Two and a half days later, after the egg cell had subdivided into eight microscopic cells, this little cluster of dividing cells was inserted into her mother’s uterus to develop normally. Louise’s birth opened up a whole new chapter in the treatment of infertility. IVF gave momentum to what is now known as ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOG