Blog Posts by Mother Nature Network (mnn.com)

By Katherine Butler, Mother Nature Network

Strange spa treatments.

It's a cruel world out there - sometimes you need a way to relieve stress and retain your youthful glow. How about an exfoliation in which tiny fish nibble dead skin off your feet? Or a luxurious hair treatment made from bull semen? If those aren't to your liking, there's always a cactus massage or a hay bath. Spa treatments are getting wackier by the day - and the hipper, the better. "The sky is the limit as to what spa-goers will pay for a trendy treatment," said Pam Price, a spa consultant and co-author of "100 Best Spas of the World," in an interview with msnbc.com. Check out some of the weirdest ways that you can unwind.

Hay bath.

1. A hay bath to remember
The next time anyone asks for a roll in the hay, you should remember that it's considered a therapeutic spa treatment in several inns in South Tyrol, an autonomous province in northern Italy. In a hay bath, the body is wrapped in soaked hay, which is cut early in the morning or

Read More »from 8 of the Strangest Spa Treatments in the World

By Melissa Breyer, Mother Nature Network

Skin cancer accounts for nearly half of all cancers in the United States. Each year more than 2 million cases of basal and squamous cell skin cancer are found and melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, is expected to account for more than 75,000 cases of skin cancer in 2012, according to the American Cancer Foundation.

Roughly 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers and 65 percent of melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.

And of particular note to parents, a study from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland suggests that children who suffer sunburn very early in life are far more likely to suffer the most dangerous form of skin cancer.

Given those statistics, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that minimizing sun exposure for our kids is a prudent step in lessening the risk of skin cancer, not to mention decreasing premature aging of the skin.

Read More »from What Parents Need to Know About Sunscreen

By Laura Moss, Mother Nature Network

Shrek and the fox.

Studies show that owning a cat, dog or other pet has a multitude of health benefits. Animals can lower blood pressure and help prevent strokes - and sometimes a pet can even save your life. Check out these amazing stories of animals who came to the rescue and saved the lives of their owners.

1. Taking a bite for the baby
In October 2007, 17-month-old Charlotte Svillicic was playing in the yard of her family's Australian home when the family dog, a Doberman pinscher named Khan, began to snarl. A king brown snake - one of the world's most venomous snakes - was under the house. Khan tried to nudge the toddler away, but when she didn't move, he picked her up by her diaper and tossed her a few feet behind him. The movement startled the snake, which lunged and bit Khan on the paw, but after receiving antivenin, the Doberman made a full recovery.

Related: The 8 happiest dogs on YouTube

2. Making the call
Joe Stalnaker adopted his German

Read More »from 7 Heroic Pets that Saved People's Lives

By Laura Moss, Mother Nature Network

Shanthi the pachyderm musical prodigy.

Shanthi, a 36-year-old Asian elephant at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, has a (rather large) ear for music, and when her keepers discovered her love of sound, they decided to let her try her trunk at some real instruments as part of her enrichment.

"She likes to tap on things with the tip of her trunk, she likes to flap her ears against things that make noise, she likes to rub her leg up and down brushes and repeat that noise. So we thought, 'Why not go to harmonicas and horns and toys that she could blow and make sound with'?" says elephant keeper Debbie Flinkman.

Related: Humpback whale groups sing different tunes

Zookeepers provided the endangered pachyderm with a few horns and a harmonica, and without any prompting, Shanthi began to play. The elephant loves to blow into the instruments installed in her indoor habitat, and keepers say that she varies the force of the air to create different sounds.

Although Shanthi occasionally

Read More »from Elephant Makes Musical Debut with Harmonica, Horns

By Melissa Breyer, Mother Nature Network

In a perfect world, everyone (kids included) would snack on carrots and kale chips. For those who do, hats off. But for everyone else, once you step away from the produce aisle, the choice of snacks can run the gamut from nutritionally vapid to downright deleterious. And sadly, consumers are often at the mercy of the processed food industry with its seductive yet unhealthy ingredients and powerful marketing machines. It's all too easy to be swayed by items marketed specifically to children and parents - with enticing prices, misleading labels and the promise of convenience.

But when consumers start to dig a bit, they'll get a better picture of what's going on inside the snacks they devour. Following is a snapshot of some of the worst offenders. The list is by no means exhaustive, but these examples provide some clues about what to look out for in the snack aisle.

Read More »from 8 Alarmingly Unhealthy Snacks for Kids

By Morieka Johnson, Mother News Network

Hungry dog.

A friend recently shared that she would have a major problem if someone tried to control when, what and how much she ate.

"I would KILL them," she said. "And maybe eat them."

Pet owners dictate exactly how much kibble goes into those bowls each day - yet the majority of our pets are overweight. Perhaps those sad faces and lingering looks weaken our resolve. Whatever tactic your pet uses to score extra treats, a good offense often serves as the best defense. When one of her three cats was diagnosed as obese, Vryce Hough got creative and installed high-tech doors that limited each cat's access to kibble. Dog trainer Sarah Wilson offers a few low-tech options to help dogs shed excess baggage in multiple-pet households.

Separate pets during mealtime: "Feed the dogs in separate rooms and tether the one who finishes first," says Wilson, author of the book "Childproofing Your Dog." She also suggests tethering the overweight dog

Read More »from My Dog is Fat. What Should I Do?

By Laura Moss, Mother Nature Network

Truck-stop gyms are helping truckers keep fitness from taking a backseat.

Keeping up with a regular fitness routine can be a challenge when you spend your days and nights in the driver's seat and find yourself in a new city each day. But eating healthy and staying fit is becoming a little easier for professional drivers, thanks to expanding trucker-wellness programs and truck-stop fitness rooms.

Both TravelCenters of America (TA) and Pilot Travel Centers are adding new gyms to many of their U.S. locations, which could be particularly beneficial to those drivers who are logging a lot of time on the road. In fact, according to a 2011 study by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, people who travel most frequently for work are more prone to obesity than their counterparts who travel more moderately.

Related: Healthy traveler: Starting the day right

Glenn Keller, a pastor who's also worked as a trucker for 20 years, says being on the road for 250 days a year makes it difficult to

Read More »from Truck-Stop Fitness Centers Help Drivers Stay in Shape on the Road

By Morieka Johnson, Mother Nature Network

Here's how to make sure that time spent outdoors is safe and fun.

Ready for lawn parties, patio dining and treks to the dog park? Make sure your dog also has the tools to enjoy this season. Consider this your warm-weather pet checklist:

Stock up on preventatives
Pests will be pretty pervasive this spring and summer, thanks to unusually warm winter months. I just killed one mosquito the size of a Toyota Prius, and it's only April. Avoid the temptation to slack off on meds that help your pet fight fleas, ticks and heartworm, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Newly released generic formulations make it easier - and cheaper - to take action. You can purchase chewable PetTrust Plus heartworm tablets at Sam's Club and Walmart pharmacies, and Pet Armor topical flea and tick medication at major retailers such as Target and Walgreens.

"A lot of pet owners don't want to get dog's nails trimmed or give medication because it's so much trouble," says dog trainer Harrison Forbes. "Now it's easy and it's

Read More »from How to Help Dogs Beat the Heat