Creating mindful awareness is the greatest benefit of meditative breathing exercises.
Although the evidence of it’s efficacy is anecdotal, doctors agree that the results are real and effective when targeted at reducing stress.
Here is a sample, follow the link for more exercises to calm your nerves.
Progressive Relaxation
How it’s done: To nix tension from head to toe, close the eyes and focus on tensing and relaxing each muscle group for two to three seconds each. Start with the feet and toes, then move up to the knees, thighs, rear, chest, arms, hands, neck, jaw and eyes — all while maintaining deep, slow breaths. Having trouble staying on track? Anxiety and panic specialist Dr. Patricia Farrell suggests we breathe in through the nose, hold for a count of five while the muscles tense, then breathe out through the mouth on release.
When it works best: At home, at a desk or even on the road. One word of caution: Dizziness is never the goal. If holding the breath ever feels uncomfortable, tone it down to just a few seconds at most.
The signs of gynecological cancer can be elusive to most women.
The most common symptoms; fatigue, bloating and back pain, can be mistaken as benign annoyances which happen from time to time.
So, when do you need to be concerned that there may be something more serious which needs your attention?
There will be nearly 90,000 cases of gynecological cancers diagnosed in the U.S. in 2012, with more than half of those being cervical cancer, according to estimates from the National Cancer Institute. About 30,000 women will die of these five cancers this year; the deadliest of the five is ovarian cancer, which will cause about half of these deaths.
Knowing what is normal for you is the best way help your doctor monitor changes and what those changes may mean for your health.
The New Scientist Magazine, September 3, 2012 issue explains the sugar-Alzheimer’s link as the condition by which our muscle, fat, and liver cells stop responding to insulin.
The cells no longer metabolize glucose properly thereby leading to insulin resistance or pre-diabetes.
This, then causes the pancreas to produce excess amounts of insulin even as excess glucose builds up in the blood causing insulin spikes which overwhelm the brain.
Insulin also regulates neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, which are crucial for memory and learning and is also important for the function and growth of blood vessels, which supply oxygen and glucose to the brain.
There’s also research tying brain dysfunction directly to excess sugar consumption. In a 2012 study, UCLA scientists fed rats a heavy ration of fructose (which makes up roughly a half of both table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup) and noted both insulin resistance and impaired brain function within six weeks. Interestingly, they found both insulin function and brain performance to improve in the sugar-fed rats when they were also fed omega-3 fatty acids. In other words, another quirk of the American diet, deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids, seems to make us more vulnerable to the onslaught of sweets.
Another facet of our diets, lots of cheap added fats, may also trigger insulin problems and brain dysfunction. New Scientist flags yet another recent study, this one from University of Washington researchers, finding that rats fed a high-fat diet for a year lost their ability to regulate insulin, developed diabetes, and showed signs of brain deterioration.
Government subsidies of corn and sugar have made these commodities incredibly inexpensive for the food industry which puts sweeteners in almost everything we eat.
This, at the same time Alzheimer’s costs $200 billion a year in health care alone.
The study found that on average, heavy drinkers who experienced a stroke did so at the age of 60, whereas non-heavy drinkers experienced a stroke at the age of 74, on average.
The early occurrence of stroke may be related to diseased or damaged small blood vessels, the authors wrote.
Among stroke patients younger than 60 who had a stroke that occurred in the deep part of the brain, heavy drinkers were more likely to die within two years of the study follow-up than non-heavy drinkers.
The researchers also found that heavy alcohol drinkers were frequently not living independent lives before the stroke.
Other alcohol related issues, including multiple falls, nerve problems, depression and chronic fatigue likely caused their dependence on others.
In addition, more than half of heavy drinkers had high blood pressure.
Although, there is controversy over the actual benefits of alcohol, the key seems to be moderation.
New research has shown that non-alcoholic wine provides greater health benefits than alcohol so this is something to consider when making the choice for your health.
Ancient Chinese medicine has utilized acupuncture for thousands of years and the West has caught on.
For decades, now, acupuncture has been used to treat a variety of maladies with glowing testimonials from those who have benefitted from this mysterious practice.
Anecdotal evidence aside, a new study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine appears to validate the legitimacy of acupuncture therapy to alleviate pain.
Acupuncture, which originated in China, involves placing needles in specific locations or “meridians” of the body in order to treat various ailments, especially pain. Acupuncture practitioners claim the technique relieves pain by modifying energy flow through the body. “Acupuncturists talk about concepts coming from outside traditional biomedicine,” Vickers explains. “Doctors will say, ‘I didn’t learn about energy flow in Physiology 101.'” Health.com: Natural remedies for arthritis The energy-flow theory has met with a great deal of skepticism in the United States and other Western nations, and researchers have failed to identify other, biological underpinnings for the treatment.
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This blog is for consumers of health care and medical services. Basically, it’s for everyone. For health issues you should always see a doctor or qualified medical professional - we are not dispensing medical advice. You should, however, be an educated consumer, so we offer information to help you start the process to become educated and to ask important questions. There are many excellent resources on the web, along with all sorts of conflicting opinions and advice. The key is to use a wide variety of resources to learn and access information, so you can ask the important questions when you are with your doctor or health professional.
