You may have needed a couple after a stressful day at work or one too many dirty martinis. The bottle of ibuprofen has saved you from many a headache, but can aspirin help in other ways? Could it be that your go to for pain relief is so much more than previously thought? The following are seven things you may not have known about this medicine cabinet staple.

Prevent cancer. A study designed by a research team at Washington University and posted in The Journal of Cellular Biochemistry shows that aspirin’s blood thinning property helps slow the spread of cancer cells. People who take aspirin regularly may have a decreased chance of developing some forms of cancer. It’s best to get a doctors opinion before starting any new regimen, so ask your doctor during your next check-up.

Soothe bug bites. You may have heard that it helps to put salt on a mosquito bite to stop it from itching. But, moistening the site of an insect sting and rubbing it with an uncoated aspirin can ease pain and discomfort. Remember this following your next run in with the business end of a bumble bee.

Jump your car. If you find yourself stranded and without jumper cables, check your purse or glove compartment for some aspirin. If you’re in luck, you may be able to get moving again. Adding aspirin to a car battery may help to recharge it enough for one last start of the engine. When it does, be sure to head to the nearest gas station.

Remove stains. From grass to perspiration stains, restoring dirtied clothing to its original condition is a frustrating task. Remove pesky stains by dissolving two crushed aspirin in enough warm water to soak the area.

Clear up pimples. Thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties, aspirin reduces the redness of breakouts. Crush two aspirin and mix it with enough water to make a thick paste. Apply this mixture before bed and you should awake to find that your pimple has cleared up dramatically.

Restore hair color. Blondes, natural and highlighted alike, can attest to the disaster that is hair dyed green after a swim in a chlorinated pool. If you find yourself sporting a less than desirable hue, dissolve eight aspirin enough water to saturate your hair. After about 15-20 minutes, rinse and wash and condition as usual. You’re now free to go back out in public.

Cause Reye’s syndrome. A potentially life-threatening illness, Reye’s syndrome usually occurs when a person is recovering from another viral infection such as influenza. While most people assume taking aspirin is a safe and effective way to relieve a headache, it could prove disastrous for children and teens. Reye’s syndrome, marked by fat accumulations in the liver, leads to organ failure and extreme swelling of the brain. While it can affect adults without the use of aspirin, children and teens seem to have a more marked vulnerability when aspirin is involved.

For one little pill, it contains a lot of potential. You may need aspirin for more than your next headache. Next time you leave the house, think about tossing a bottle in with the rest of your essentials.

You could be interested in nail fungus medicine. If you are, that could mean only one thing, you already have a nasty nail fungal infection you just can’t ignore anymore. Whether it’s a new case or a recurring one, people with nail fungus share a common concern– finding out which solution works and which doesn’t. Here’s what you need to know about nail fungal infection treatment.

How it All Begins

Don’t buy anti-fungal medicine just yet. It is important that you first understand why you have an infection in the first place. Understanding the origins of nail fungus can help you pinpoint the right treatment for you.

Fungal Exposure - You can get nail fungal infection if you get exposed to fungi. They usually thrive in moist and warm areas like public showers, pools and the like. Infection can begin if you have a skin cut or a gap between your nail and your toe flesh. Fungi can creep into the small opening. A nail fungal infection can begin as a small white dot on your nail. In time, it will begin to get worse. If you don’t do anything about it, you could end up with yellow or dark nails with ragged edges.

Infected nails are not exactly the best of sights to look at. This may encourage some to cover up with socks and shoes. Unfortunately, fungi thrive in warm and closed environments like footwear. Covering up with non-porous footwear can make the infection worse.

Possible Treatment

As mentioned, you have a lot of treatment options. These may come in the form of oral medication or chemical nail applications. For mild fungal infection cases, these may already be sufficient to take care of the problem. In some cases though, the treatment could prolong from six months to one year. There are also times when medication may not take care of the problem completely.

Taking Medications - There is one other problem related to fungal medication. Oral medication in particular can result in some side effects. If you use some medicines for a very long period of time, you could even suffer from liver problems.

Natural Treatment

Of course, you can opt for natural treatment. Some products with natural ingredients may not be as or more effective than chemical treatments. They however, have an obvious edge. Natural products don’t just work against the infection. They also help nourish the nails and skin and do not promote serious side effects. In other words, treating nail fungi with a good natural product will not put your health at risk. Some natural ingredients to look out for are jojoba oil, tea tree oil, lemongrass and vitamin E.

Prevention

Prevent It - You can save yourself a lot of trouble through prevention. Avoid walking barefoot in wet public places. You should also keep your feet clean and dry and your nails neatly trimmed. Whenever the occasion and weather will allow, consider giving your feet some air by wearing open sandals or flip flops.

Is it possible to teach yourself to be more compassionate? A study whose results came out in 2008 makes just that seem possible. The research was done at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging. This imaging suggested that emotions like compassion could be learned.

The scans showed that the brain circuits that detect emotion were extensively increased in people that had meditated for many years. The director of the study, Richard Davidson, said that basically everyone could find meditation useful for depression, to stop being a bully or for other emotional reasons. Davidson is a professor of psychiatry and psychology.

The researchers have a continuing study going on of some Tibetan monks and lay adherents and this particular researcher is an arm of that work. The people studied have to have at least 10,000 hours of meditation practice under their belts. This particular study included 16 monks that have developed compassion meditation practices. It also involved 16 controls that learned compassion meditation for two weeks prior to the study.

They requested that the controls focus on feeling compassion for their loved ones. When they had gained a little practice they asked them to cultivate the feeling of compassion towards people in general. The scans showed an increase in the activity of the insula, which is part of the frontal brain that is important in detecting feelings. It helps to map the body’s reaction to feelings like blood pressure and heart rate.

In 2006 researchers at Harvard, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered the initial evidence that meditation can change the brain’s structure. They did brain scans that showed that the part of the brain that handles attention, focusing, and sensory input was larger than normal in meditators with a lot of experience.

One part of the gray matter that was thicker was in a section where it becomes thinner with aging, but it was thicker in the older meditators. Sara Lazar, the studies leader stated, “Our data suggest that meditation practice can promote cortical plasticity in adults in areas important for cognitive and emotional processing and well-being.” (Harvard Gazette, William J. Cromie)

It is interesting to not that she said “These findings are consistent with other studies that demonstrated increased thickness of music areas in the brains of musicians, and visual and motor areas in the brains of jugglers. In other words, the structure of an adult brain can change in response to repeated practice.” (Harvard Gazette, William J. Cromie)

The comparison was made between 20 seasoned meditators and 15 people that didn’t meditate. Some of the mediators had practiced for years and others only about a year.

It is amazing to find that the brain actually increases gray matter when people meditate, especially for decades. It is also fascinating to learn that brain activity increases when people are concentrating on compassion, but more so that compassion can be cultivated.

We are just starting to understand what meditation can do and how adaptable to the brain is and the wonders of the brain and meditation are yet to be fully discovered.