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Your health: Protect against bedbugs

Bedbugs easily hitch rides in luggage, backpacks, briefcases, purses, clothing and furniture, according to Harvard Medical School. Here are some measures you can take to minimize the chance of bringing bedbugs into your home:

• Travel precautions. When staying in a hotel, place your luggage on a table or luggage rack away from the bed and off the floor, or keep it in the bathroom. You may also want to bring along a large plastic trash bag to put your suitcase in. Check mattress seams for dots of bedbug feces; if possible, inspect the headboard, bed frame and underside of the box springs for signs of infestation. Keep bed linens off the floor. Upon returning home, unpack directly into the washing machine (placed on the “hot” setting) or run your clothes in a dryer for 20 minutes.

• Protect your home. Used furniture is one of the biggest bedbug sources. If you can't resist a bargain, inspect it before bringing it home. Place your mattress and box springs in protective mattress and box spring encasements, which eliminate bedbugs' access to favorite hiding places.

Adrenal awareness

Simultaneous feelings of exhaustion and being “keyed up” characterize early adrenal dysfunction, the subject of nurse practitioner Marcelle Pick's self-help book, “Are You Tired and Wired?” (Hay House, $24.95), The Washington Post says.

The adrenal glands are responsible for providing the fight-or-flight hormones in response to stress.

She suggests a 30-day plan to solve adrenal dysfunction, including dietary supplements, exercise, stress-reduction techniques and, the biggie, an adrenal-friendly diet with regular meal times and no processed foods.

Veggie news

VegNews, the lifestyle magazine for vegans, highlights 10 herbivores who are shaping the world, according to The Washington Post.

There are the famous people who are outspoken about their animal-free ways, including talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

Then there are the not-so-famous people, such as Jason Gaverick Matheny, who works with a research group whose aim is to develop vegan-acceptable food that looks and tastes like meat.

Elsewhere in the mag is the “Vegan Bucket List”: the 99 things all vegans ought to do “before you retire to that great tofu farm in the sky.”