It took me the entire day yesterday, but I finally found the perfect free WordPress 3 column theme for this blog. Mixed Media Theme was chosen after trying tens of others. Apart from its beautiful color scheme, it loads really fast, so it thankfully replaces the other beautiful theme I was using called Zeke 1.0 which was really, really slouchy.

It comes pre-configured to accept three 125×125 banner ads and adsence 160×600 in the sidebar, perfect to put some affiliate ads and earn some advertising income from google when users click on the ads. The “about” box under the banner ads allow me to give a summary of what the site is about. The colors of the sidebar are clearly defined from the left column that contains the post. The posts are therefore well highlighted and easy to read.

The Mixed Media theme is pre-configured to work with several WordPress plugins but I am yet to upload and test them. I am happy that I could re-add one of my favorite plugins, Daily Top 10 Posts without losing much data. This plugin requires code to be added to each theme you use. I was worried my totals would restart from 0, but the overall and single post totals were sound. These statistics help me greatly in my online sessions so I din’t want to lose them. The Overall Top Posts Widget can be seen in the sidebar at the bottom left.

So…. welcome to the new look of Blog To The World and don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS Feed!

The time has come and you decided to start a blog. No matter what triggered you to do so - an ambitious plan to become the most popular blogger or the desire to get traffic - still you need to choose a quality blogging platform.

Basically the blogging solution is everything for you and your success. The blogging software will influence how easy will be blog management for you; it will influence how nicely is your blog optimized in terms of SEO; it will limit or expand your media publicity freedom.

Though the blogging itself started from the Google’s push of blogger as the way to publish your ideas in a simple and convenient way, since that time much has changes and the market today is full of different blog solutions or blog platforms.

What to focus my attention on?

Today we can say that the most widely spread blog platform is WordPress or WP. It is not that easy to explain the success of this platform, but perhaps this is the combination of good marketing and nice technology.

First of all WP was the first big blogging giant who gave people a possibility to run a blog on their own host. Yes, blogger (Google’s platform) also allows to attach a domain to the blog and change it from “something.blogspot.com” to “yourdomainname.com” But in any case the blog will remain on their hosting and WordPress gives you the full freedom - download it, install on your hosting and use it.

Another advantage of the WordPress is that it is a very easy to use blogging platform. It has made many people switch from using different site management software to using blog software. The best proof is that today - if you check what things people are searching in Google - you will see that the number of people who are looking for site manager for WP blogs is increasing. It is not easy to convince that huge mass of people to do that. And this is the best proof that WP is quite easy to use.

Another thing to consider - the number of plugins that are available on the market. Plugin is a tiny script that adds to the default functionality of the blog. For example, one plugin can make the vertical advertising banner move together with the page as you scroll it down or another plugin can help authors to share AdSense profits from one and the same page.

You understand that the more plugins, the bigger your functionality in terms of how you run, promote and monetize your blog. This is where WP blog is also a winner, because most of the plugins today are done for the WordPress blogs. There are free and paid plugins, but the most important is that the majority of the plugins are for WordPress and this is quite notable.

You can even find plugins that are working like blog posting software or even automated blog posting software which can be very useful in terms of blog promotion.

Though this article seems to be the promo of WP, but as there are no affiliate links to the WordPress platform and as this platform is free - no money is made from promoting WP. And the rest of the things are nothing but facts - WP is the leader on the blogging market.

If you would like web site hosting to start your new blog, check out Find Your Web Host at http://findyourwebhost.com for recommendations.

Arthritis is a disease that brings on stiffness and pain with swelling and it affects the muscles and the bones, especially the joints where it causes the most damage. The bones are protected in the joints by tissue called cartilage which acts as a buffer between the ends. The cells that the cartilage is made up of are known as the chondrocytes and function just like other glands and organs in the body. All chondrocytes will die and are usually replaced by new cartilage cells.

However, over time inflammation can kill more cartilage cells than the body can replace. This is more so if the body is undernourished and lacks the required nutrients to repair or the joint has suffered an injury. Lack of sufficient cartilage, can cause instability, joint weakness, pain and deformity, all of which affect and interrupt regular activities. Generally, arthritis can be treated with physical therapy, medication, and changes to the lifestyle the individual is used to living. Health care providers use joint replacement surgery as their last resort, once they have tried all of the less intrusive interventions, to try and relieve the discomfort.

Arthritis has two main categories which is based on the areas of the body affected, ‘localized’ or ‘generalized’; this is further divided in to sub categories. The two localized conditions are bursitis and tendonitis; they affect the soft tissues surrounding the bones and joints. A sub-category of this affects one or some of the joints like hip or knee joints. A generalized arthritis condition is a condition where the muscles and the soft tissues get damaged, in this condition there is no swelling or any kind of inflammation on the joints. Fibromyalgia, even though it isn’t associated with joint damage, is a very common form which can be placed under this particular category.

Another sub-category involves inflammation affecting the entire body. Gout, psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are examples of this condition. Still other generalized situations include polymyositis, involving muscles, systemic lupus erythematosus involving the skin, kidneys and or other organs and vasculitis where any organ is involved.

A person can have more than one type of arthritis and it includes more than 100 medical conditions that affect approximately 46 million adults and 300,000 children in the United States. Osteoarthritis is a condition mostly noticed in adults over 60 years, however, it can start at infancy too. The number of people suffering out of this condition is increasing proportionally with the increasing average age of the American population; with old age setting in people suffering with arthritis is increasing day by day.

Arthritis and related illnesses are the cause of major disability in the U.S. and costs over 124 billion dollars a year in medical care and indirect expenses. By taking the time to follow a couple of simple steps, most individuals can help to prevent osteoarthritis: The ability to maintain the appropriate weight and consume fresh vegetables and fruits are a really good source of vitamins D and C. Consumption of calcium is very important, adults must consume about 1000-1500mg calcium every day, exercising daily is a must and one must avoid injuries that may damage the joints.

For related information on arthritis cures or specific arthritis cures