Improve Mental Health - Learn How To Manage Stress

Learning how to maintain good health can be a great challenge in our current society. There are many stresses that we put ourselves under that can cause us to become sick. Stress has been shown to have many negative side effects to your health. It is important to learn how to manage stress in order to maintain optimal health.

An interesting study found that the majority of heart attacks occur at around 9am on Monday morning. What does this mean? Well most people are usually heading off to work at this time and most people unfortunately dislike their jobs so their jobs become a source of great stress. Learning how to manage stress can make a significant impact to your health and wellbeing.

It is important to find an occupation that you truly enjoy. This is a difficult task so be patient and give yourself time to find a job you enjoy. Find out what you really like and figure out a way to get paid to do that. Sometimes we focus on the wrong things even about our current job and this can cause great stress. By simply changing your mental focus you can reduce stress greatly.

Ask yourself what you like about your current job and choose to focus on that while you perhaps seek another job that is better suited to your interests. There are many other ways to manage stress. Deep breathing exercises can help to reduce stress. Simply take a few minutes each day and take 5 to 10 slow deep breaths. Laughter can also be very effective at reducing stress. Make it a point to watch more comedies on television or when you go out to watch a movie. Laughter can indeed be a very effective at improving your mental health and many doctors use laughter therapy to help their patients get better.

Regular exercise can also be useful at lowering stress levels in addition to helping your overall health in many other ways. Make sure to live an active lifestyle. There are basically 2 kinds of exercise and that is aerobic and strength training. Aerobic exercise usually involves either light jogging or walking for thirty to sixty minutes each day three to five times a week. Consider buying a good piece of aerobic equipment that you know you will like and use regularly. The recumbent exercise bike can often be a good choice as it is comfortable to use.

Weight training simply involves lifting weights to train your muscles in order to build and maintain their strength. Either purchase some free weights or a weight training home gym system or consider joining a gym. Pets can also be great at helping to reduce stress. Of course make sure that you have the budget and the time to take care of a pet as it is almost like getting a new family member. Dogs have been shown in many studies to be effective at relieving stress.

Yoga or meditation can also be very good for stress reduction purposes in addition to providing many other potential health benefits. The best way to define meditation may be that it is the pursuit of a quiet or silent mind. Many people that teach meditation believe that an overactive mind produces great stress. You can even tell this statement is accurate from experience because any time you worry too much or think too much you tend to experience a lot of discomfort. Learning to minimize your thoughts can really make a big difference to helping you feel better.

A simple meditation exercise involves concentration on the breath. This involves focusing on your inhalation and exhalation and the key is to only think about your breathing. If other thoughts try to enter your mind then simply return your focus on the breath. In time you will find that it will get easier to get to that quiet state of mind and you will experience fewer distractions. Use some of these strategies to lower stress and improve your mental health.All the best..

Improve Your Health: 5 Quick Tips

Health is not just about your fitness levels, or how quickly you can run 100 metres..

Improving your health really means changing negative habits and lifestyle choices, changing negative or ‘can’t do it’ attitudes, and beginning to make good choices with regards to your health and fitness. If you are in a position where I have been previously, and are not happy with your current state of health, today is the day to make some changes!

To get started, here are 5 quick ways to begin improving your own health:

1. Get more sleep. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? You might be interested in knowing if sleep is really that important. According to Harvard Health (www.health.harvard.edu), sleep helps your body in many areas - most notably:

* Learning and memory: In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later.

* Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.

* Safety: Lapses due to lack of sleep may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.

* Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.

* Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.

* Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.

2. Get some exercise. The benefits of exercise are well known - getting started and ‘baby steps’ is the key! Make a decision to start with some easy exercise, don’t have unreasonable or unrealistic goals or expectations. You can start with a 10 minute walk for instance. Before you eat breakfast tomorrow, grab your ipod and walk while you listen to 4 songs… then turn around and walk back.

3. Change your diet. Begin with some basics here - for this week, commit yourself to cutting out some of the unhealthy snack foods from your diet. Sweets, lollies, chips, ice-cream, soft drink, donuts… leave them alone this week! If you are hungry between meals, eat a banana! Have some low fat yoghurt. Drink some water, munch on a carrot - you will find after a week of cutting bad snack foods out, it’s easy to continue making healthier food choices.

4. Appreciate yourself. Take some pride in how you groom yourself, look and dress. Appreciate your uniqueness and self worth - the road to healthy lifestyle choices begins with liking yourself and looking after yourself.

5. Pray. Pray for the health and well being of your family and friends. Pray for yourself. Be specific - cast off your cares and concerns, ask for provision where you have needs. See here for more.

Making changes to your health and lifestyle begins with you deciding to change! Get started today on these 5 quick tips, and get yourself on the road to healthy living.
All the best..

Benefits of drinking water:Find out how water improves your health

The other day I finished reading a captivating book named "Your Body's Many Cries For Water". What impressed me the most from reading this book, is that the author establishes a clear link between the benefits of drinking water and our overall wellness.

Besides the other very interesting facts which stress the importance of drinking water, the author makes special reference to some common ailments that almost all of us suffer from now and then and shows that their most probable cause is dehydration. Below, I give you some examples:

When our head hurts

We all suffer from headaches, or even worse migraines from time to time. Some of us more and some others less severely. What you might find surprising to learn, is that more often than not, we should blame ourselves for not drinking enough water.

You see, three quarters of our brain consists of water and when it senses that there is shortage of it, it releases histamines which cause pain and fatigue. The intention is to make us slow down our activities, so as to preserve the minimum water quantity that will allow our brain to function properly.

So, the next time you think that your head will explode from a splitting headache, resist the temptation of taking an aspirin and do this: Drink a full glass of fresh, pure water and then sit back and unwind for half an hour. More often than not, you will be amazed. Your headache will just go away!

Back Pain

According to statistics, one out of four adults experiences at least once in his lifetime the pain and anguish associated with a sore back. As the author claims in his book, another one of the benefits of drinking water is that it helps mitigate our suffering.

Permit me to be more clear on what I mean.

The discs which our back consists of, have a hard external surface while inside they are filled with water. Provided that the quantity of the water is maintained at an adequate level, then the discs are performing their function well. This meaning that they are robust enough to help our backbone support the weight of our body.

When we move our body, then pressure is exerted and released on the discs depending on the type of movement. This creates a suction which allows fluids in the body to enter the disc, thus keeping them properly hydrated.

You should begin to understand now what causes this process to break down. When our body is deprived of water, then there is not enough of it to enter the discs. In consequence, the outer shell of the discs is no longer supported from the inside. So, all weight of the body is shifted on them, leading to excessive pressure. The symptoms are all too familiar: Pain and distress!

Hypertension

Water also plays a vital role in the biological process associated with high blood pressure.

As experts on internal medicine claim, one of the leading causes of high blood pressure is low blood volume. As the basic constituent of the blood is water (83% of our blood to be precise is just plain water), then you can understand that when we deprive ourselves of this valuable fluid, then the blood volume goes down.

Our body's internal mechanisms have the ability to monitor the level of our blood volume. When there is an alert that this volume has fallen below acceptable limits, then our body switches into an emergency mode, directing supply of blood only to active organs switching everything else off. This redistribution of the circulatory system more often than not leads to hypertension.

In conclusion, these are only a few of the examples that clearly demonstrate that by drinking enough quantities of water can dramatically improve your health.

One word of caution: In order to benefit the most and avoid any adverse effects on you health, both yours and your family's, make sure that the water you consume at your house is top quality. Considering now that, based on reports and statistics issued not only by private but also by government bodies, it is widely acceptable that both tap and bottled water quality leaves much to be desired, I should advice that time investigating your options about what you can do, will be time well spent.
All the best..

Back Pain Nerve

The spinal cord is the main part of the body's central nervous system.It conveys signals from the brain to the nerves throughout the body. Spine is one of the strongest parts in our body. It is made of solid bony blocks joined by discs to give it strength and flexibility. It is reinforced by strong ligaments and surrounded by large powerful muscles to protect.Simple back strains do not cause any lasting damage.
Your back nerve pain could be the result of a back or neck injury, so it is necessary to take care of spinal cord. It is the spine that keep us up right and give us support to get through our daily activities .

Most of us experience back pain sometime or another and the most back nerve pain will go away in a few weeks with some basic self-care. However repeated chances of getting back pain is still there. If the pain is severe or lasts a long time better to consult a doctor.

Back nerve pain is usually caused by overuse, strain, or injury. For example, people often hurt their backs while playing sports, working in the yard, from being jolted in a car accident or lifting something too heavy.

For some people, back nerve pain is the result of arthritis, osteoporosis, illness, or it is hereditary. Only a few people may need back surgery.If you have a slipped disc, or back pain with symptoms of nerve damage (such as numbness in your legs), even in these cases, most people can improve without surgery. Surgery does not always guarantee that the pain will disappear. so it is better to get a second opinion before deciding about surgery.

If you do decide to have surgery, events in your life will change drastically even after your back nerve pain surgery. Adopting new lifestyle changes to accommodate your back issues isn't easy, but with patience and motivation,you will get your life back.

Lumbago - Low Back Pain

Lumbago is a seldom used term to mean mild to severe low back pain. The pain can be acute or chronic and affects young and old people.

Lumbago is a common symptom of musculoskeletal disorders or of disorders involving the lumbar vertebrae and related soft tissue structures such as muscles, ligaments, nerves and intervertebral discs. It can be either acute, sub-acute or chronic in its clinical presentation.

Years ago doctors associated lumbago with rheumatism seemingly brought on by exposure to cold damp surroundings. Poor posture, sudden movement, coughing and sneezing were also thought to inspire episodes of lumbago. Not to discredit the reputations of yesterday's doctors, but medicine has since greatly advanced and the term lumbago has been replaced with accurate diagnostic terms.

Causes

There are many things that cause low back pain or lumbago. Listed below are some of the more common conditions
Herniated Disc (sometimes called a slipped disc)
Osteoarthritis or Spondylosis (spinal arthritis)
Osteoporosis (brittle bone disease, spinal fracture)
Rheumatoid Arthritis (progressive, sometimes destructive arthritis)
Scoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine to the left or right)
Spinal Stenosis (compression of the spinal nerves)
Spinal Tumor (benign or malignant/cancer)
Symptoms of Lumbago
Listed below are common symptoms of lumbago. Keep in mind that the primary symptom is low back pain.
Low back pain may radiate into the buttocks, back of the thigh, into the groin.
Back pain (lumbago) may be aggravated during movement. Pain from bending forward, backward or side-to-side may limit activity.
Spinal muscle spasms cause the back to feel stiff and sore.
Back pain and muscle spasm can be so acute that posture is affected. The patient may appear to be listing to one side.
Lumbago may cause tingling sensations to be felt in the low back, buttocks, and legs.
Rarely does lumbago cause serious symptoms that require immediate medical care. However, the following warning signs are good to know:
Loss of bladder or bowel control
Leg numbness
Loss of leg strength.
Treatment

Conservative treatment is the most likely course of action for most patients. Treatment options include rest, Traction, Short wave diathermy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, weight control, and steroid injections in step by step order.
If a patients does not get relief after 8 to 12 weeks of conservative therapy surgical intervention is considered.
As per Ayurveda Lumbago is called as Kateeshoola, with “Kati” referring to the lower back and “Shula” referring to pain and is classified under Kateegraham or Prustashoola. Vitiated ‘Vata’ is considered to be the principle dosha involved and the treatment in Ayurveda is aimed at to bring the vitiated 'dosha' back to the state of equilibrium.

Treatment comprises of three approaches, Elimination (Sodhanam) of the accumulated toxic products of digestion, metabolism and the disease process, Pacification (Samanam) and correction of the entities responsible for altered functioning and Rasayanam (Rejuvenation) of the bodily tissue to regain and maintain natural strength and vitality.
The strength of Ayurveda in the area of spinal ailments is globally appreciated. Since it addresses the root cause of the issue the results are better than surgical procedures.
The therapies like Abyanga swedam, Pathrapotala swedam, Choornapinda swedam, Pizhichil, Kativasthy, Navarakizhi, Vasti (Kashaya and Anuvasana) etc. are done as per the necessity and severity of the condition. These therapies are directed towards relieving the inflammatory changes, releasing the spasms and nerve compressions in the affected area, strengthening the supportive tissues holding the spine/joints, nourishing the joints through improving the circulation. Usually the treatment period is 3 – 5 weeks according to the severity of the disease.
Apart from medical management Diet, Life style modifications and Yogasanas if required are advised according to the necessity.
In four to six weeks, the majority of patients find their symptoms are relieved without surgery. If patient can come for the treatment in early stages, even total cure without recurrence is also possible.