Healthy and Medical

How often do you find yourself saying, “I’m so stressed out!” If you’re like many people, such a statement is a part of our everyday lives. Often we don’t take the time to relax our bodies and minds, refresh our outlook, and give ourselves much needed time away from the pressures we face on a daily basis. Unfortunately, over time, ignoring the buildup of stress can affect both physical and mental health. Along with draining our energy and decreasing our level of performance, stress can also wear down our bodies, contribute to emotional imbalance, high blood pressure, decreased circulation, headaches, depression, and overall poor general health. Below are a few simple strategies you can bring into your life that can help you free your body and mind from tension.

1. Breathing

Breathing right can help improve your posture and lung capacity, as well as your peace of mind. The great thing about utilizing breathing techniques to decrease stress is that you can use them anytime throughout your day: at work, in your car, on the phone, even waiting in line at the supermarket. The first step to breathing properly is to become aware of how you breathe. Awareness is always the first step to making a conscious change. Most of us use our lungs sparingly; our breaths are shallow because they’re surrounded by tension. To try deep breathing, place your hand on your lower abdomen. When you inhale, concentrate on pushing your hand out with your belly first, then filling up the rest of your lungs so your breath comes in bottom to top. In this way, you are using the full capacity of your lungs. Inhale through your nose and exhale out through your mouth and take long, slow breaths. Even after doing this just ten times consecutively, you should feel your shoulders drop a bit, and your neck extend upward. (Note: if you become light-headed while deep-breathing, switch to your regular breathing pattern and resume deep breathing when the feeling has passed.) If you practice this type of deep breathing just once a day for five or ten minutes, you will soon become so familiar with the technique that you can put it to use anytime without even thinking twice. Soon you’ll be going through your day breathing deeply and feeling great. Read more…

The options for drinks seem to be at an all time high with energy and sport drinks, new flavored sodas, tropical fruit juices, fancy vitamin water, and even water with protein appealing to all ages. Sodas and sport drinks, however, can have as much as 13 teaspoons of added sugar. It is especially important to look at the serving size on the nutrition label. So if you quickly read that a beverage bottle says 80 calories, you may need to look again. For example, if the serving size sates 2.5 servings/bottle, you need to do the math. In this case, the 80 calories beverage actually contains 200 calories. Similarly, not all fruit juice is alike. Many do provide 100% juice but be careful of marketing. SunnyD may look like orange juice and sell you on it’s 100% vitamin C, however it’s second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup as well as other ingredients not found in juice.

So what is a parent to do? Certainly, 100% fruit juice can be counted as a serving of fruit in a child’s diet. Just be careful of portion sizes. Offering OJ in a small glass (4- 6 oz) is great at breakfast but shouldn’t be the main choice of the day. Orange slices would be a great option, providing beneficial fiber and phytochemicals. If the soccer moms are bringing in sports drinks, you may need to be the one to point out that water is just fine. Sport drinks can be useful for the athlete who vigorously exercises for more than an hour, but isn’t necessarily needed for kids, teens, or adults. It is more important that you child is hydrated. Have your son or daughter drink water at least a half hour before his/her practice. Bring a water bottle to ensure he can drink during breaks in the game. Offering watermelon after the game is great as it contains 90% water. Finally, most adults and kids get plenty of protein (think cheese, milk, peanut butter, chicken, tofu, etc). Adding protein to a beverage just comes down to marketing again. Similarly, children consume plenty of vitamins in real food as well as fortified cereals and bread. Drinking vitamin water adds no real health benefit.

When you are out and about doing errands with the kids, it is quite convenient to just to purchase sodas, Slurpies  and even a Jamba Juice for you family. Again, it is all about portions. A 16 oz Jamba Juice  Mango-A Go Go has 300 calories. Ask for an extra cup and split it up between your kids or just ask them to only fill it up half way (it is hard to stop halfway once it is in your cup). Even for yourself as you drop in to Starbucks for a 12 oz pick-me- upper café mocha (with whip cream of course) you’ll be drinking in 260 calories. Having young children have sips of your frosted mocha is not a great idea because caffeine can have more of an effect on children whose body weight is much less than an adults. Caffeine can cause upset stomachs and disrupt sleep. Read more…

Did you know that you can increase good health by making sure that you get enough water? Yes plain water that has
been purified in some way. The water most of us get from the tap is full of chemicals that is bad for our health. Do
not drink tap water, unless you have your own well, which you know is not contaminated.

Drinking water is essential for a healthy body. Water regulates body temperature, lubricates joints, keeps skin youthful and muscles strong.

Water is present in every cell and tissue and involved in so many biological functions: digestion, absorption, circulation and excretion. It helps us with keeping our
hormones balanced and our brain chemistry Relies on water for proper balance. Water gives us energy and strengthens the immune system.

Most people are not drinking enough water and are semi dehydrated. Your body cannot work at optimum level without the water it needs.

What happens when you don’t drink enough water?

I won’t go into all the details, but do want to mention a few things here. All the things mentioned above that water helps keep in balance and lubricated are affected when you don’t drink water. You will not feel as well as you possibly
could, your body does not have what it needs for good health and so your health declines. Read more…

By now, it’s almost a cliché to reiterate that smoking is the chief cause of preventable death in the United States. Yet approximately 46 million Americans are still lighting up, according to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With New Year’s resolutions still fresh in people’s minds, U.S. News spoke to clinical psychologist Daniel Seidman, director of smoking cessation services at Columbia University Medical Center, about his new book, Smoke-Free in 30 Days: The Pain-Free, Permanent Way to Quit (Fireside Trade Paperback Original). In it, Seidman draws on his 20-plus years of experience with thousands of patients and walks people through the quitting process—including how to prepare for the “quit day” and how to maintain their success. Here are edited excerpts from the chat:

Are you a reformed smoker?
My story is that both my parents were smokers and died very young from it, so I’ve been very concerned about this issue. My father was 47, and my mother was 59. My mother had lung cancer. She smoked [Kent brand] cigarettes. It was later found that [the brand's specialized filter contained] asbestos. [According to a 1995 article in the journal Cancer Research, the filter contained a form of asbestos for several years during the 1950s.]

What does your monthlong program entail, and what makes it unique?
It outlines what to do each day. What we’re saying to people is rather than think about this as just being [about] willpower, focus on things you can do each day that will help you change your behavior, change your attitude, [and] use medicine to the greatest effect. It’s sort of like playing the piano. Nobody says, “If you have enough willpower, you’ll be a good piano player.” They say, “Practice.” [Quitting] isn’t just about being strong. That’s sort of a trap that people believe: “If I’m strong, I can do it. If I’m weak, then there’s nothing I can do and I just have to smoke.” We’re saying [that] if you make these efforts and do these exercises and follow these daily recommendations, you can be successful. Read more…

This information is brought to us by our friend at Orchid Recovery Center for women.The first step did the creator of the program, forming in 1940, the facts are independent of the resort community of Alcoholics Anonymous High Watch Farm, in Connecticut. For the first time in a closed hospital medicine has been done in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Currently, the most famous is the Hazelden center in the U.S.. This led to the model of “Minnesota.” Currently popular in many countries. In Poland, the elements of the Minnesota model, began to introduce the first, led by Bohdan Woronowicz MD, First Department drug and later Dependency Treatment Center at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw.

American psychologist BF Skinner formulated the so-called. humanistic version of the steps:

1. We recognize that all our efforts to stop drinking alcohol, have failed.

2. We came to the conclusion that we must turn to someone for help.

3. We asked for help from other people, both women and men, especially those who face the same problem.

4. Made a list of situations in which alcohol is most likely.

5. We asked our friends to help us avoid such situations.

6. We are ready to accept help, which we donate.

7. We sincerely hope that they would help us.

8. We made a list of all persons who are guilty and which we intend to make amends.

9. We will do everything to make amends to those people in such a way that they do not hurt.

10. We will continue to draw up a list of injured people and update them as necessary.

11. We are deeply grateful for what our friends did and still do for us. find best program at Orchid Recovery Center.