It seems these days that people are more stressed out than ever before. Common reasons for this include long working hours, mounting bills and family problems, but the reality is that causes of stress are everywhere, and sometimes we are not even aware of them.

Recent scientific studies have shown that happiness is not determined by genetics and can be controlled. Scientists from the University of California last year reviewed 51 studies that tested attempts to increase happiness through different types of positive thinking, and found that these practices can significantly enhance well-being. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

A 16-year-old girl who was labelled Britain’s fattest teen has lost more than 12 stone since September, the American “fat camp” where she is staying revealed today.

One portion of macaroni and cheese. One slice of chocolate cake. One pair of svelte black pants. Do some very simple, if highly emotional, addition and subtraction, and you arrive at a whole new way to see yourself.

2009 The year of the Ox will be arriving on Jan 26th. Your sign predictions for 2009. What to wear on a new year eve.

Q: What’s the difference between Investment Bankers and London Pigeons? A: The Pigeons are still capable of making deposits on new BMW’s.

Occasionally, someone will ask why their low carb diet isn’t working as they think it should be. One of the first questions I ask is whether they are eating products with a lot of sugar alcohols such as maltitol. Although it doesn’t have the same impact on every individual, this one ingredient has been known to stall many a well-intentioned dieter. Here’s why.

"Joan, you are lying to me, you, bitch!" I couldn't believe I heard this from a person we've had a short-term business relationships. Pot-smoking has been linked to psychosis, delusion, depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, impaired judgment, difficulty thinking, hallucinations, suspicious thoughts and paranoia. Pot, also called marijuana, weed, ganja and skunk is the most popular and readily available illegal drug in the Western world. Perhaps the only illegal drug with more street names than heroin, marijuana is also widely misunderstood and misrepresented as being harmless and acceptable. You may talk a person, even live with a person for year or so and never know he or she is a drug-addict. It might be your friend, your husband and the worse - it's might be you child. You can detach from the troubling friend or business associate. You can divorce your husband. But if you are dealing with family members, you need to know how to handle the situation. First of all, you need to understand that drug-addicts do not have a same psychological reasons as normal people do. Therefore they can't be treated as normal people but patients. Understanding the fact that the brain of Marijuana smokers went through the series of modifications and not reversible changes may help you to not get all wrapped up emotionally by an addicts destructive behaviors.

Beauty is a characteristic of a person that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning or satisfaction. An "ideal beauty" is a person who is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture. Standards of beauty have shifted radically over time. Let’s see how.

A recent visit to the Brooklyn Museum of Art's stunning exhibit ''Exposed: The Victorian Nude'' left this viewer with the distinct impression that current representations of the ''ideal'' female figure bear little resemblance to what nature intended our bodies to look like. All but two of the paintings depicted well-formed, well-rounded women - not fat (at least, not by Victorian standards) but not stick-thin either like today's fashion models and movie starlets. The exhibit's two paintings of skinny, bony women stood out as sickly looking. Indeed, one was described as a widow who, in mourning, looked as if she hadn't eaten in weeks. Coincidental with this museum visit was the premiere of a network sitcom, ''Less Than Perfect,'' with a mate-seeking leading lady who wears size 12, and the continuing popularity of the movie ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' with its winsome Rubenesque star, Nia Vardalos.

Kristen Johnson, who was so wild and fun and larger than life on 3rd Rock from the Sun, is the latest Hollywood star to go all Skeletor skinny. These pictures of Johnson recently at a PETA event made my heart drop.

There's lots of reasons to buy organic. First, it's better for the environment. No pesticides means healthier soil, water, and wildlife. Buying organic supports small farmers. Organic farmers can earn a fairer price for organic produce compared to factory farming. Organic farming is good for biodiversity. Organic farmers are growing a wide variety of non-genetically modified (non-GMO) fruits and vegetables. Where factory farming has shrinked our choices in the supermarket to one or two types of any produce variety, organic farmers are resurrecting many heirloom varieties.

For some reason, this spring I don't have such a playful mood. Maybe working too much. Went to store and I see the man's eyes focusing on me, - hey, yeh, I lost 10 pounds lately. But I have this strange feeling like I'm missing something here. Guess, it's time to remember I am a woman too, not just a weight loss consultant. I hope you have a hot Spring Time this year, losing all this extra pounds! Weight management is great, but we all know - guys are looking for more than a perfect body shape.

In image-conscious France, it may soon be a crime to glamorize the ultra-thin. A new French bill cracks down on Web sites that advise anorexics on how to starve — and could be used to hit fashion industry heavyweights, too. The groundbreaking bill, adopted Tuesday by Parliament's lower house, recommends fines of up to $71,000 and three-year prison sentences for offenders who encourage "extreme thinness." It goes to the Senate in the coming weeks.

The world is a strange place - and not every country equates slimness with beauty. The Islamic Republic of Mauritania presents an opposite viewpoint to the West...

Italian scientists are testing a new diet pill that turns into a clear, gelatinous blob the size of a tennis ball that may help shrink waistlines by giving dieters a sense of satiety.

The pill, currently undergoing clinical trials at Rome's Policlinico Gemelli hospital, would be downed with two glasses of water at the first sign of a stomach rumble.

"The effect is like eating a nice plate of pasta," said Luigi Ambrosio, lead researcher on the project at the National Research Council's Institute for Composite and Biomedical Materials in Naples. "If you sit down for a meal with a stomach that already feels full, you'll end up eating less."

The unnamed pill is made from a cellulose compound of hydrogel, a material that's powdery when dry but plumps up to a cousin of Jell-O when wet. The gel can soak up to 1,000 times its weight.

The French eat rich foods, drink lots of wine and smoke. So why are they so thin and fit? Unraveling the Mysteries of Why it Works.

Americans are not the fattest people in the World according to the most recent estimates by the World Health Organization.

While we are worried about 50-80 pounds, Manuel Uribe from Monterrey, Mexico has a little "tiny" problem to lose 1,000 pounds. His original weight was actually 1234 lb, but he lost 400 pounds in the past year! See pictures of Manuel Uribe.