Stressed Out? Spend Time With Girlfriends to Calm Down

Before marriage and kids, going out with my girlfriends was a regular part of my social calendar. We also used to talk on the phone all the time. But as life got busier and more stressful, our outings and chats have become much less frequent. It turns out that life would be less stressful for us if we made more time for each other, according to a landmark study.

Researchers at the University of California found that friendships among women produce a calming effect from the "feel good" hormone oxytocin.

While estrogen seems to enhance the effect for women, men on the other hand, produce testosterone when they are under stress, which reduces the oxytocin effect.

One of the authors of the study reported that oxytocin seems to buffer the "fight or flight" response while encouraging women to tend children and gather with other women.

No wonder a girls night out always makes everything better!

Pure & Natural Antioxidants Extracts

My daily antioxidant-filled smoothie just got turbo charged when a box full of Pure Inventions extracts arrived at my door.

I was asked by Pure Inventions to try their products and write a review. Honestly, I don't bother with many requests to review products because many that come my way are what I'd call "faux" healthy--have the appearance of healthy, but aren't. However, natural antioxidants from green tea, fruit and cocoa are definitely in the pro-health category so when Pure Inventions said that they'd like to send me a couple of their tasty, calorie and caffeine -free, natural extracts to sample, I thought sure. Bring it on.

While the company says that their extracts can be added to water for a pure shot of antioxidants, I prefer to add them to my already pro- health and beauty smoothie (click here for recipe). I figure all those antioxidants combined may give me an added synergistic effect and knock off an additional 10 years of aging (I can dream). Anyway, Pure Inventions sent me their Green Tea Extract, which comes in several flavors. One serving is equivalent to 100 mg of green tea--known for promoting younger skin, improving cardiovascular health, and increasing metabolism. I also tried their Cranberry + Elderberry Extract, which I was very glad to have on hand when the swine flu was making headlines, because elderberry is a known immunity booster and has been clinically proven to fight regular influenza.

My husband even likes the extracts and commented on how pretty the bottles looked. Yes, they have a spa-like quality about them. Maybe because some top spas do serve them up.

Each bottle of extracts contains 60 servings and the Green Tea Extract usually cost $30.75, which is 55 cents per shot. However, they are taking 20% off of that price until May 31. The fruit and cocoa extracts run a bit more. Until the end of May you can also get free shipping if you enter P22FREESHIP at checkout. This code is specifically for blog readers.

If you are looking for an easy way to get extra antioxidants in your diet, then I would highly recommend giving Pure Inventions extracts a try.