Another Way To Relieve Stress

I have a colleague who has developed a home study course for relieving stress and anxiety and actually reversing some of the problems that stress and anxiety cause in the body. He has not released it, but will be doing so this Fall. I wanted to just make mention of the fact that alternatives to prescriptive medications exist which can help you alleviate stress and anxiety. Better still is to learn how to keep your body running maximal with energy medicine.

My colleague also has a basic course in energy medicine that will help you do just that. This again is not available except at a live event which will be happening in Denver on Sept 12. For more information respond to this blog post and I will get it to you.

Is This A Healthy Choice?

I was watching television, actually I just had it on in the hotel room. When I heard "Fruit Loops" was a healthy choice food. WHAT??? How could anyone say that? Don't they realize that this cereal is 41% sugar!! How can that be a healthy choice? Not to mention that fact that it contains processed flour and partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil.

I nearly fell out of the chair when I heard this. Then I heard this was being endorsed by Tuft's University. What I quickly realized is that just as the big pharmaceutical companies have the government in their pocket, so must the manufacture have Tuft's in its pocket. No one with a sound nutritional base could ever say this cereal was a "Healthy Choice". This has to be the food manufacturers creating yet another label to put on food to get consumers to buy it. What mother wuold not buy fruit loops if she thought it a "healthy choice". All I can say is consumers beware!!

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #10

Take some time for yourself. I just spent a very intense week finding my inner strength. Yes, it was stressful but a truly amazing experience. Yesterday, 2 new friends and I ventured into the land of the giant sequoias. These magnificent old soldiers have been standing for centuries. The strength that they conveyed just by being in their presence was amazing. While we were all tired from the strenuous week we had been through, we found an awesome peace amoung these giants.

I'm glad we took this day to be among these giants. Find a place where you can go to find peace. This will be one of my new guided imagery spots to go in times of stress when I can't actually get there in person.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #9

Yesterday I spoke about taking care of yourself. There is a great way to put yourself first and that is to go get a massage. A good therapist can work the tension out of the muscles to relieve pain and create relaxation. This will help your whole body to relax and let the stress drain away.

When you're done, know that you have done something wonderful for yourself and you will feel more relaxed, refreshed and revitalized to move on in your day and life.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #8

Another way to relax is with Yoga. This gets you in touch with your body so you can relieve the stress within. Yoga incorporates many aspects which will help you relax, such breathing, flexibility and strength. I've spent this entire week in a very stressful environment where we started each day with at least an hour of Yoga. It's unbelievable how much this helped all of us to cope with the stresses of the week.

Being in touch with your inner self even for a short period each day will help you find that calm, relaxing point to bring a feeling of well-being to you.

There are a plethera of yoga DVDs out there, get one and spend some time taking care of you.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #7

When I was a college professor years ago, I learned the value of guided imagery. This is something you can do for yourself at home or in the office. Just take a few moments. You don't need anything but you, however, if you have music that takes you to a place of peace then by all means put it on. My place of peace is the mountains and I have several songs that take me into the serenity that the mountains hold for me. I can get there in an instant.

You can close your eyes - this is often helpful until you become proficient at this. Visualize your place of peace. Where do you feel the most calm - the mountains, on the beach with the surf rolling in, on a boat, - where is your favorite spot? Visualize that spot and feel the feelings you feel when you're there, hear the sounds that are present around you. Take a deep breath. Stay in this place until you feel your body relax.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #6

A great way to release tension and stress is to exercise. Now I know if you are really busy, you're going to tell me you don't have time. Actually quite the opposite is true. You can't afford to not take the time to exercise. Not exercising could cost you your health.

Start with 10 minutes a day. If you're really stressed, you'll be amazed at how much less stress you feel just by doing some form of exercise for 10 minutes.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #5

Remeber the old song lyric "Slow down you move to fast, got to make the morning last." Well that was great advice especially if you are stressed. As we become more and more stressed we tend to put ourselves in hyper-gear! This just increases our stress. So slow down. Take a deep breath as I mentioned yesterday before you do something. You have time, don't feel like it is crushing you to death.

If someone comes to the door, take a deep breath before you answer it. If you are headed into a meeting, take several deep breaths before you enter the room or before they come in to meet with you.

Take it down a couple of notches and you'll live longer and healthier!

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #4

Here's something you can do anytime to decrease stress. Take a slow deep breath. We tend to breathe shallowly when we are under stress. This can lead to feeling even more stressed. So wherever you are, think about your breathing and take 5-6 slow deep breaths, feeling your chest rise as you inhale and feeling the tension in your shoulders and neck release as you exhale.Stre

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #3

How much water have you had to drink today? One of the causes of stress in our bodies is to become dehydrated. This stresses all of the muscle cells as well as our brain cells. We tend to take hydration for granted, but it is something we have to work at each day.

The average person does not drink enough water each day. Coffee and tea do not count. These both contain caffeine which actually dehydrates you more. Herbal teas are Ok because they do not contain caffeine.

How much to drink? Se my blog post on 3/05/09 to find out exactly how much water you minimally need each day.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #2

How's your posture? One of the things that can happen to us when we are stressed is that we let our shoulders droop and our posture becomes saggy. Physiologically what this does is increase the tension in the muscles of the shoulders, back and neck. This can actually lead to pain and discomfort in these areas, making us feel more stressed.

Remember to check your posture. Are you sitting upright - are you standing upright? Move those shoulders back and straighten your spine. You'll be amazed at how good this makes you feel.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #1

Remember to eat. This sounds pretty simple, but often times when we are stressed, we simply forget to eat. Eating 3 meals a day is critical to keeping up your energy.

Also, when you don't eat you can begin to develop symptoms of a body in need of food such as headache and fatigue.

The other side of this coin is also prevalent in our society today and that is that when we are stressed all we do is eat. While you need food, don't make it a comfort in times of stress. Eat sensibly and at appropriate times.

New Frontier in Wellness

Dr Oz on Oprah said that the next frontier in medicine is energy medicine. Well, it is here. My colleague and I will be doing our first hands-on course for anyone in the Denver area September 12, 2009. If you would like to come or you know people in the area who would like to know more about energy medicine, please signup on our Energy Medicine site.

There is a free audio on that site for you to get more information. I will be relaying more soon about ways to increase your energy, relieving pain and a host of other information, so stay tuned!

Think Your Weight is a Result of Your Genes

I have heard many times people say that they are fat because they have a genetic predisposition or it runs in my family. Runs is the operative word here. If you are overweight or obese you likely never run or even exercise. One of my coaching students was obese and lost over 100 pounds. She used to complain about all of the pain in her knees and hips and how she couldn't exercise because of her painful joints. Now she exercises without effort and doesn't feel any of the pain she used to feel.

Are you using your joint pain which is a result of the extra weight you're carrying around as an excuse not to exercise? You can start slow and easy, but the biggest factor here is to start. Learn how to start simply by getting some exercise in your every day routines. Pick up my free ebook on Too Busy To Exercise. Another good thing to do is to participate in the great summer free health giveaway.

Better Balance

We all need balance in our lives, but today I'm going to talk about the balance we need to keep from falling and injuring ourselves. As we get older, the risk from a fall is a fracture and if we don't get our arm or shoulder, we will very likely get our hip. Hip fractures can be lethal at any age, but particularly for people over the age of 65.

So there are some simple ways to improve balance. First is standing on one leg. Hold on to the back of a chair the first time you do this. Balance for a count of 15 and switch legs. Try not to wobble but to stand as steady as possible. The next step is to stand on one leg without the assistance of the chair. Start for a count of 5 and begin increasing that until you are able to stand for the full count of 15 without using the chair and without being overly wobbly. The next step is to close your eyes while you do this. I would definitely recommend that you keep the chair with you but see how long you can go without it. The longer you go the better your balance the less likely you are to fall and break a hip or an arm.

Breathing Art

If you are in a yoga class or a meditation class, you have learned that breathing is important. Learning to work with your breathing can be as healing for you as a medication. In fact, it is likely more beneficial than most medications.

If you've never taken a yoga or meditation class, I would highly recommend that you do so, just to learn about breathing. Concentrating on breathing takes you away from your constantly busy mind and makes you present to this moment as you breathe.

Exercise and Breathing

Breathing should be an integral part of your exercise routine. Many people tend to hold their breath during exercise, especially while lifting weights. Get in the habit of being aware of your breathing and if you are lifting weights, exhale as you lift the weight. Since you gain more from lifting if it is done slowly, this will help you in the process.

If you are walking, can you walk and talk at the same time. You should be able to carry on a conversation as you walk without feeling short of breath or breathless to talk. This is the first thing to work on if you are just beginning to walk. You may be amazed at how many people cannot really walk and talk. One of the signs of not being able to do this, is not just the breathless sound of the conversation or the pauses in between words, but often times the telltale sign is that these individuals will stop frequently while they are talking.

The Art of Breathing Part 5

Learning to use breathing as a relaxation tool is easy. The next time you are feeling stressed about something or you have some unwanted tension, or you're feeling impatient because you are in a long line, try the following:

Stand, sit or lying in a comfortable position, with your back straight, draw in a deep breath and count to 5 slowly. As you begin to exhale, let your muscles begin to relax. Repeat this 2-3 times until you are feeling completely relaxed. While you're doing this, imagine your favorite most relaxing relaxing place in the world. Natural scenes not only include the scene but the sounds that go with that scene, as well as smells.

The Art of Breathing Part 4

Some of you may experience breath holding. To determine this, pay attention to the transition between inhalation and exhalation. If you feel a little "catch" between these two, and you find that you have a slight difficulty in initiating the exhalation, you may be breath holding. This tends to happen most often during exercise.

You can reduce the breath holding by consciously relaxing the abdomen at the end of the inhalation. It is particularly important to breathe during exercise since you are increasing the demand for oxygen in the body. Be aware of how you breathe during exercise.

The Art of Breathing Part 3

Today I want you to lie down on your back and let your body just assume it's relaxed breathing rate. Now as you exhale, count the length of your exhalation. Don't force an exhalation or inhalation, just breathe as you normally would in this relaxed state and once again count the length of the next exhalation.

The first exhalation that you counted should be shorter than the second exhalation. If it is not, you may be an overbreather. As a test try to shorten your inhalation. If that causes you to feel distressed or stressed or uncomfortable, you are probably an overbreather. Since it is hard to not manipulate these tests, you may want to have somebody count for you when you are not aware of your breathing.

This particular piece is important as far as sleep goes. If you are having trouble going to sleep, become aware of your breathing and consciously make the exhale longer than the inhale. before very long, you will be asleep.

The Art of Breathing Part 2

Yesterday you became aware of what type of breather you are. Now, still lying on your back, put your hands around your lower ribs. Continue to breathe in your normal fashion, focusing on your hands. What you should feel is an effortless expansion of the ribs as you inhale and slow recoil as you exhale.

If you ribs remain motionless, your breathing is too shallow even if you are an abdominal breather. Many times people who are chest breathers will not feel any movement of the lower rib cage when they do this, because they are by nature of the way they breath shallow breathers.

Shallow breaths do no use the full capacity of the lung and decrease the amount of oxygen available to the blood stream and hence the rest of your body.

The Art of Breathing

Most of us just taking breathing for granted. We don't really spend much time thinking about it, we just breath. But there is an art to breathing. Taking a little time each day to think about your breathing will help you in many ways.

First just become aware of what type of breather you are. Lying on your back, put one hand on your chest and one hand on your abdomen. Just think about your hands and become aware of the movement of your hands. If the hand on the chest is moving and the one on the abdomen is not, you are a chest breather. If the hand on the abdomen is moving more than the hand on the chest, you are an abdominal breather.

Why is this important? Chest breather's are less efficient in their breathing. If you are an abdominal breather, you are filling the little air sacs in your lungs down to the bases of the lungs which is more efficient and gives your body more oxygen to work with.

Pulmonary Hypertension

Yesterday I mentioned the disease pulmonary hypertension. Today I want to explain a little about this complex disease. Pulmonary hypertension is basically a high blood pressure in the pulmonary system vasculature. It can be in the arteries, veins or capillary beds or a combination of these. Like the high blood pressure that we are all familiar with, this high blood pressure is in the lungs. This makes it difficult for oxygen to get into the blood stream and CO2 to get out of the blood stream. Hence you may become short of breath because your oxygen saturation levels will drop.

These high pressures in the lungs will put high pressures on the heart and result in a heart that fails. But these pressures don't just affect the heart, they also affect the liver and can result in liver failure as well.

While we do have earlier detection these days and we can closely monitor someone with this disease, the survival rate is not great beyond 3 years from the time of the diagnosis.

So if you end up with this disease as a result of a weight loss drug, is it worth losing a few pounds to the total detriment of your health?

Weight Loss Drugs Drawbacks

Lastly, I want to talk about Phenteramine (Adipex, Ionamin). This is one of the more dangerous drugs in terms of the side effects. While it can cause things like an increase in blood pressure, increase in heart rate, diarrhea, anxiety or restlessness, these are not the things to be mostly concerned about. The bigger risk here is the development of a disease called pulmonary hypertension. This is an insideous disease that comes on without any symptoms. Once we discover that it is present, we have very few things we can do to treat it.

This is a lethal complication for you and while losing weight is important, this drug can actually totally rob you of your future health and your future. The risk with this drug is just way too high to even consider using it.

More on the Weight Loss Drugs

The next drug which is fairly familiar out there is Meridia (sibutramine). While this drugs has a slightly higher weight loss average as compared to orlistat, the side effects are much more dangerous to your health.

First and foremost, if you are on this drug be sure that you are watching your blood pressure. Meridia not raises your blood pressure, but it can also increase the heart rate, compounding the problem with the blood pressure. You should never be using this drug if you already have high blood pressure or a problem with heart rate.

Additionally, this drug can cause nausea, constipation, dry mouth, or insomnia.

Having done some the clinical trials with this drug, I can tell you that the weight loss was fairly minimal at best.

Weight Loss Prescription Drugs

I have often been asked by patients for a prescription for a weight loss drug. My usual answer is no for several reasons. Mostly it is no because of the side effects of these drugs. First and foremost you need to know that no drug whether it is prescription or over the counter is going to be a majic pill for weight loss. Taking a pill to lose weight just is not going to do it.

The economy being what it is currently, for you to lose a significant amount of weight with any of the major prescription drugs is going to cost you upwards of $1000 a year. So cost in my mind is an issue for many, but it is not the most disturbing issue about these drugs.

The most disturbing is the side effects. Here's some of the side effects of the more common drugs out there. Orlistat (Xenical, Alli) cause oily stools which can leave oil spots on your underware and often causes a very uncomfortable urge to have a bowel movement. In addition it may cause a decrease in the absorption of vitamins which you normally get from foods that you eat. The studies have shown that an individual will lose about 6 pounds a year. That's not very impressive folks and you would do better to just eat sensibly and get some exercise in your life.

More tomorrow on some of the other weight loss drugs.

Joint Pain - Osteoarthritis

As we begin to age, many of us begin to experience joint pain. This is usually a result of osteoarthritis, often referred to as degenerative joint disease. The wear and tear on our joints does take a toll as we age. The joints most likely to be affected are the weight bearing joints like the hips and the knees.

The very best thing you can do for your joints is to lose weight. Because the joints most affected are those weight bearing joints, if you are carrying around an extra 10, 20 or 50 pounds, the effect on the joints is going to be dramatic. So as you begin to lose weight, the other thing that will help the joints is the healthy diet, high in antioxidants. The other part of that equation is exercise. Begin slow and easy and build it up. The more you can strengthen the muscles that support those joints, the better the joint will function. If you want to know how to get started with your exercise, go get my free eBook on making exercise simple.

Egg Labels

Eggs that are labels organic are the only ones that meet USDA standards and regulations. These eggs come from chickens that are allowed to roam freely outside. They are fed organic grain which does not contain any pesticides and the chickens are not given antibiotics.

Cage free eggs, just means that the chickens are not kept in a cage. It does not mean that the chicken ever sees the light of day - in other words they may still be kept confined in an enclosed area, just not a cage. The environment and eggs are not audited by a third party.

Use caution when the label says free range, natural, no pesticides or no antibiotics. These terms are not regulated and may be put on any label. The only term that is regulated is organic.

Egg Storage

Eggs should be stored in their original containers for a couple of reasons. I know we all have the nifty little egg container spot on the doors of our refrigerators, but this is not the best place to put your eggs. First of all the air at the door is warmer and if you are in and out of the refrigerator a great deal, this will not keep your eggs as cold as they should be. Secondly, eggs stored in your refrigerator door will absorb odors from other foods in the refrigerator.

Be cautious of leaving eggs unrefrigerated even for short periods of time. This can diminish freshness and can also result in the growth of organisms like salmonella. When I was in Egypt a number of years ago, I saw eggs - literally mounds of them in the open markets in the sun. I was very careful not to eat eggs in that country, but some of the people I was with ate them and became extremely ill. So be careful with this.

You can store raw egg whites for up to a week in the refrigerator. Yolks only keep about 3 days in the refrigerator. A better way is to freeze them. Don't freeze them whole in the shell, but crack the open. You can separate them or just freeze them in a container. They will last about 12 months in the freezer.

Egg Facts

The color of an egg shell is determined by the breed of the hen. White eggs are the most common, but we have all seen brown eggs. These are usually more expensive because the hens are bigger and require more feed. The fact to know is that the shell color has no effect on the nutritional value of the egg.

Here's a fact you may not know, the cloudier the egg white, ther fresher the egg. Aging causes the egg white to become more clear and thinner.

The color of the yolk can tell you a great deal about the egg. Deep yellow yolks are usually from chickens that are fed yellow corn and alfalfa meal. Hens that are fed barley or wheat produce pale yellow yolks. Deep orange yellow yolks come from free range chickens who are allowed to forage and eat a variety of grains.

Eggs - Good Food

Eggs contain many nutrients that can helps us be healthier. They are an excellent source of Vitamin B12 and also the antioxidant lutein. Lutein is very important in terms of our eye health.

The hype has always been that eggs are have too much cholesterol in them. Here is the facts from research. The effects of the cholesterol in 1 large egg eaten daily has shown to have no effect on the person developing heart disease.

The other things about eggs is to look at the free range eggs, which includes a diet of natural nutrients for the chickens, as well as meal which is enhance to provide more Omega 3. These can actually be very beneficial for the heart healthy or for someone who already has heart disease.