Today’s Re-Powering Information – Yesterday I shared breathing techniques for health and de-stress. Today Dr. Mercola shares more reasons and ways to relieve stress. I know the stress many of you are under, but we are made to be at peace. Read on to see all of the reasons why you don’t want to be in a chronic state of stress. I think you will be interested to read what happens to your body when you eat under stress. It gives a whole new meaning to stress eaters.
12 Compelling Reasons to Ditch Stress from Your Life
Dr. Mercola''s Comments
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
What is “Stress”?
The classic definition of stress is “any real or imagined threat, and your body’s response to it.” Celebrations and tragedies alike can cause a stress response in your body.
Some stress is unavoidable. Some mild forms of stress can even be helpful in some situations. But a stressor becomes a problem when:
* Your response to it is negative.
* Your feelings and emotions are inappropriate for the circumstances.
* Your response lasts an excessively long time.
* You’re feeling continuously overwhelmed, overpowered or overworked.
It’s important to realize that all your feelings create physiological changes. Your skin, heart rate, digestion, joints, muscle energy levels, the hair on your head, and countless cells and systems you don't even know about change with every emotion.
Marc notes that Americans, in general, tend to eat under a state of stress and anxiety.
While under stress, your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure rises, and blood is shunted away from your midsection, going to your arms, legs, and head for quick thinking, fighting, or fleeing.
All of these changes are referred to as the physiological stress response.
Under those circumstances, your digestion completely shuts down. So a major problem with eating while your body is under the stress response is that you could be eating the healthiest food in the world, yet you won’t be able to fully digest and assimilate that food, and your body will not be able to burn calories effectively.
How the Stress Response Affects Your Digestion and Health
The stress response causes a number of detrimental events in your body, including:
* Decreased nutrient absorption
* Decreased oxygenation to your gut
* As much as four times less blood flow to your digestive system, which leads to decreased metabolism
* Decreased enzymatic output in your gut – as much as 20,000-fold!
Many nutrients are also excreted during stress, particularly:
* Water-soluble vitamins
* Macrominerals
* Microminerals
* Calcium (calcium excretion can increase as much as 60 to 75 mg within an hour of a stressful event)
As if that’s not enough, your cholesterol and triglycerides also go up, while gut flora populations decrease. You’re also more likely to experience increased sensitivity to food and gastroesophageal reflux, or heartburn.
But perhaps most importantly, when your body is under the stress response, your cortisol and insulin levels rise.
These two hormones tend to track each other, and when your cortisol is consistently elevated under a chronic low-level stress response, you’ll likely notice that you have difficulty losing weight or building muscle.
Additionally, if your cortisol is chronically elevated, you’ll tend to gain weight around your midsection. We’ve known for some time that body fat, and especially visceral fat (the fat that gathers around your internal organs, around your midsection) is a major contributing factor to developing diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
The bottom line?
When you eat under stress, your body is in the opposite state of where you need to be in order to digest, assimilate nutrients, and burn calories.
Everyday Stress Relief
There’s no doubt that finding ways to relieve your everyday stress is an important, if not essential, aspect of optimizing your health. All the organics in the world can’t help you if your body can’t assimilate the nutrients you put into it.
Stress is a serious factor in the illness of nearly all of the patients seen at my clinic. Because in addition to everything mentioned above, stress also plays a major role in your immune system, and can impact your:
* Blood pressure
* Cholesterol
* Brain chemistry
* Blood sugar levels
* Hormonal balance
You cannot eliminate stress entirely, but you can work to provide your body with tools to compensate for the bioelectrical short-circuiting that can cause serious disruption in many of your body's important systems. By using techniques such as meridian tapping, you can reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life.
But there are many other strategies you can employ to help you deal with stress and unwind each day, including:
* Exercise. Studies have shown that during exercise, tranquilizing chemicals (endorphins) are released in your brain. Exercise is a natural way to bring your body pleasurable relaxation and rejuvenation.
* Proper sleep
* Meditation (with or without the additional aid of brain wave synchronization technology)
I also highly recommend you read the book Feelings Buried Alive Never Die. If you’re experiencing any type of physical or emotional challenge in any aspect of your life, this book does a great job of explaining feelings: what they are, how you experience them, how they are integral to your physical health, and, most importantly, how to work with and overcome those that are pulling you down.
Have a fabulous weekend!
Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stress. Show all posts
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Negative Nancy News
Today’s Re-Powering Information: Are you as tired as me hearing about the bad economy and the economic downturn? You must be b/c I don’t even watch the news and I am fed up. I understand that there are people hurting, however it makes more sense to do something about it than to listen to it and buy into it. This can put your mind in the gutter. You have 100% control over your mindset. You have complete control over your emotions and the decisions you make. Mindset is a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations. To simplify, it means you do the things you do based on what goes on in your mind at the current period of time.
Reactive people simply react to what’s happening around them and transform themselves into a negative mindset. Proactive people choose how they walk, talk, and feel regardless of the conditions around them enabling them to have a positive mindset. This came from a blog I found on the topic.
Negative News Equals Negative Mindset
Hanging around with negative people will lower your standards which I compare to immersing yourself with negative news. Think about it, is the news really that irresistibly interesting? “2 suspects were sent to jail today on suspicion of murdering their former teacher…” “The economy is doing terrible, 65,000 jobs were lost last month alone…” Why is it necessary to know this information? What good comes from this? Do you believe you are setting yourself up for a successful life? Do you really need to fill in that void with a daily “news fix”?
What do people get when they watch the news
* Shootings
* Murders
* Rapes
* Losing jobs
* Economic meltdown
* Mortgage crisis
* Real estate gone bad
* War
* Regulation
This is not productive. In fact the opposite is true. If you find someone wallowing about the down economy, find a way to turn it around or choose not to participate in the conversation.
Positive News Equals Positive Mindset
Whether you are looking to become wealthy or spiritually connected, you have a much better chance doing so by being around the right people. What you see on TV or read online has the same impact. The more positive news you read, the quicker you will allow yourself to emerge in positive thoughts. Positive thinking really does help you move forward when it is followed by action. Positive thinking is an ongoing action, meaning you must exert energy to keep your mind at a positive state. Read, watch, and listen to more positive news.
Why is the Media Persistent About Providing Negative News?
The media is like any other business, the only way it survives is by making profit for its shareholders. The media is only interested in making money which is done by advertising. The more people that watch, the more money they will make. If someone has the option on which they would rather see, a bank getting robbed compared to healthy babies being born, the answer would be obvious. The media is aware that more people would watch the story about the bank robbery compared to the new babies. This translates into people prefer negative stories rather than positive.
Empower Yourself and the World
Since we cannot simply boycott the news, how about we put 100% focus on positive news. The media will deliver what the public wants. If the public would rather be informed of more positive news compared to negative, that is what they will begin to deliver. You have the power to control the news. Every person who decides that they would rather better themselves by viewing positive news would see the dramatic impact in their mindset. Imagine the influence if 1 million people across the United States made the decision to ONLY watch positive news from now on. The outcome would be that those one million people would almost instantly see a change in their mindset which would allow them to focus on much more productive or spiritually enlightening things. Those 1 million people will create a ripple effect and possibly even help the economy.
Do you think this is possible? Can we really make vast change in the way we live our lives? Do we have the ability to influence the media conglomerate? Martin Luther King did and succeeded. Gandhi made a difference. Rosa Parks took the chance. Why wait around for someone else to take action when we have the power to simply do it? Only focus on positive news! Only talk about positive news. Only ASK for positive news. Start the movement today!
End
Have an outstanding news free day!
Reactive people simply react to what’s happening around them and transform themselves into a negative mindset. Proactive people choose how they walk, talk, and feel regardless of the conditions around them enabling them to have a positive mindset. This came from a blog I found on the topic.
Negative News Equals Negative Mindset
Hanging around with negative people will lower your standards which I compare to immersing yourself with negative news. Think about it, is the news really that irresistibly interesting? “2 suspects were sent to jail today on suspicion of murdering their former teacher…” “The economy is doing terrible, 65,000 jobs were lost last month alone…” Why is it necessary to know this information? What good comes from this? Do you believe you are setting yourself up for a successful life? Do you really need to fill in that void with a daily “news fix”?
What do people get when they watch the news
* Shootings
* Murders
* Rapes
* Losing jobs
* Economic meltdown
* Mortgage crisis
* Real estate gone bad
* War
* Regulation
This is not productive. In fact the opposite is true. If you find someone wallowing about the down economy, find a way to turn it around or choose not to participate in the conversation.
Positive News Equals Positive Mindset
Whether you are looking to become wealthy or spiritually connected, you have a much better chance doing so by being around the right people. What you see on TV or read online has the same impact. The more positive news you read, the quicker you will allow yourself to emerge in positive thoughts. Positive thinking really does help you move forward when it is followed by action. Positive thinking is an ongoing action, meaning you must exert energy to keep your mind at a positive state. Read, watch, and listen to more positive news.
Why is the Media Persistent About Providing Negative News?
The media is like any other business, the only way it survives is by making profit for its shareholders. The media is only interested in making money which is done by advertising. The more people that watch, the more money they will make. If someone has the option on which they would rather see, a bank getting robbed compared to healthy babies being born, the answer would be obvious. The media is aware that more people would watch the story about the bank robbery compared to the new babies. This translates into people prefer negative stories rather than positive.
Empower Yourself and the World
Since we cannot simply boycott the news, how about we put 100% focus on positive news. The media will deliver what the public wants. If the public would rather be informed of more positive news compared to negative, that is what they will begin to deliver. You have the power to control the news. Every person who decides that they would rather better themselves by viewing positive news would see the dramatic impact in their mindset. Imagine the influence if 1 million people across the United States made the decision to ONLY watch positive news from now on. The outcome would be that those one million people would almost instantly see a change in their mindset which would allow them to focus on much more productive or spiritually enlightening things. Those 1 million people will create a ripple effect and possibly even help the economy.
Do you think this is possible? Can we really make vast change in the way we live our lives? Do we have the ability to influence the media conglomerate? Martin Luther King did and succeeded. Gandhi made a difference. Rosa Parks took the chance. Why wait around for someone else to take action when we have the power to simply do it? Only focus on positive news! Only talk about positive news. Only ASK for positive news. Start the movement today!
End
Have an outstanding news free day!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
"Hunger hormones"
Today’s RE-Powering information – More evidence linking the importance of sleep to health and weight loss. In a nut shell, lack of sleep increases the hormone Ghrelin (think growlin’) stimulates hunger. The less you sleep, the more ghrelin is produced making you hungrier. See, it’s not in your mind – it’s in your physiology. Sleep more and less ghrelin in produced and you won’t be as hungry during the day. The second finding is that leptin is decreased. Leptin is the hormone that makes you feel full. So if you are not sleeping, you are never satisfied and always hungry. It’s physical and then it becomes emotional as well. As you are exhausted you make more emotional than rational decisions. Then as the habit progresses, the vicious cycle worsens.
The great news is that you can turn it around with sleep. Sleep and lose weight –yes it’s true. Also, you burn the greatest calories from fat while at the lowest intensity levels (sleeping). Now don’t just think you can sleep and skip camp. You burn more calories and more fat calories in camp than you do sleeping, the ratio of fuel being used from fat is just lower.
So enough technical stuff. The bottom line is to get to bed! We are a sleep deprived nation and we’d all feel better if we slept 7+ hours a night.
See the facts below.
"Hunger hormones" ghrelin and leptin affected by poor sleep
Insomnia has long been associated with poor health, including weight gain and even obesity. Now researchers at UCLA have found out why.
In a study to be published in the May issue of the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology and currently available online by subscription, Sarosh Motivala, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues looked at two hormones that are primarily responsible for regulating the body's energy balance, telling the body when it is hungry and when it is full. The study found that chronic insomnia disrupts one of these two hormones.
To date, no study has evaluated nocturnal levels of the two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, in primary insomnia patients. Ghrelin, a peptide secreted by the stomach, stimulates appetite and increases before meals. Leptin, which affects body weight and is secreted primarily by fat cells, signals the hypothalamus regarding the degree of fat storage in the body; decreased leptin tells the body there is a calorie shortage and promotes hunger, while increased levels promote energy expenditure.
In the study, researchers compared healthy sleepers with those suffering from chronic insomnia and measured the levels of the two hormones at various times throughout the night. They found that while leptin levels averaged out over the night to be roughly the same between the two groups, levels of ghrelin were 30 percent lower in insomnia sufferers.
On the face of it, a decreased level of ghrelin would seem to inhibit weight gain; it is an increase in ghrelin, after all, that stimulates appetite. But Motivala compared his findings with other, earlier studies on sleep deprivation and speculates that a switch may occur during the day: Sleep loss leads to increased ghrelin and decreased leptin, a "double whammy" that stimulates appetite. Motivala is currently working on a study to examine this switch.
"The current study shows that insomnia patients have a dysregulation in energy balance that could explain why these patients gain weight over time," said Motivala, who is also a member of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA. "This is an exciting finding because it highlights how diverse behaviors like sleep and eating are connected. We are just beginning to explore the possible consequences of these connections, but it is another example of the importance of a good night's sleep for the body."
For the study, 38 male participants were divided into two groups — 14 insomnia sufferers and 24 healthy subjects. Both groups had similar ages and body weight. Both groups underwent polysomnography sleep studies that monitor brain waves. Circulating levels of ghrelin and leptin were measured at 11 p.m., 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Ghrelin levels across the night were significantly lower in insomnia patients, while leptin were not significantly different between the two groups.
###
The UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology encompasses an interdisciplinary network of scientists working to advance the understanding of psychoneuroimmunology by linking basic and clinical research programs and by translating findings into clinical practice. The center is affiliated with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
The great news is that you can turn it around with sleep. Sleep and lose weight –yes it’s true. Also, you burn the greatest calories from fat while at the lowest intensity levels (sleeping). Now don’t just think you can sleep and skip camp. You burn more calories and more fat calories in camp than you do sleeping, the ratio of fuel being used from fat is just lower.
So enough technical stuff. The bottom line is to get to bed! We are a sleep deprived nation and we’d all feel better if we slept 7+ hours a night.
See the facts below.
"Hunger hormones" ghrelin and leptin affected by poor sleep
Insomnia has long been associated with poor health, including weight gain and even obesity. Now researchers at UCLA have found out why.
In a study to be published in the May issue of the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology and currently available online by subscription, Sarosh Motivala, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues looked at two hormones that are primarily responsible for regulating the body's energy balance, telling the body when it is hungry and when it is full. The study found that chronic insomnia disrupts one of these two hormones.
To date, no study has evaluated nocturnal levels of the two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, in primary insomnia patients. Ghrelin, a peptide secreted by the stomach, stimulates appetite and increases before meals. Leptin, which affects body weight and is secreted primarily by fat cells, signals the hypothalamus regarding the degree of fat storage in the body; decreased leptin tells the body there is a calorie shortage and promotes hunger, while increased levels promote energy expenditure.
In the study, researchers compared healthy sleepers with those suffering from chronic insomnia and measured the levels of the two hormones at various times throughout the night. They found that while leptin levels averaged out over the night to be roughly the same between the two groups, levels of ghrelin were 30 percent lower in insomnia sufferers.
On the face of it, a decreased level of ghrelin would seem to inhibit weight gain; it is an increase in ghrelin, after all, that stimulates appetite. But Motivala compared his findings with other, earlier studies on sleep deprivation and speculates that a switch may occur during the day: Sleep loss leads to increased ghrelin and decreased leptin, a "double whammy" that stimulates appetite. Motivala is currently working on a study to examine this switch.
"The current study shows that insomnia patients have a dysregulation in energy balance that could explain why these patients gain weight over time," said Motivala, who is also a member of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA. "This is an exciting finding because it highlights how diverse behaviors like sleep and eating are connected. We are just beginning to explore the possible consequences of these connections, but it is another example of the importance of a good night's sleep for the body."
For the study, 38 male participants were divided into two groups — 14 insomnia sufferers and 24 healthy subjects. Both groups had similar ages and body weight. Both groups underwent polysomnography sleep studies that monitor brain waves. Circulating levels of ghrelin and leptin were measured at 11 p.m., 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Ghrelin levels across the night were significantly lower in insomnia patients, while leptin were not significantly different between the two groups.
###
The UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology encompasses an interdisciplinary network of scientists working to advance the understanding of psychoneuroimmunology by linking basic and clinical research programs and by translating findings into clinical practice. The center is affiliated with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Lifestyle 'doubles stroke risk'
Today’s Re-Powering Information– I know you must say to yourself some days “Kelli, you are preaching to the choir –we know and live this stuff”. And for that I am thankful. Since I believe we all (me included) always have room for improvement, that knowledge is power AND I hope you pass this information on to the ones you care about, I am sharing another article on the effects of lifestyle on health. I can’t drive it home enough.
Before you read this, Lorine reminded me that Lent is about to begin tomorrow. If you observe Lent, it’s a season to prepare for the resurrection of Christ and in doing so, many people abstain from something. That something can be anything you like. Every year my sister in law gives up sweets and her husband gives up wine. Lorine is giving up alcohol. If you observe Lent or not, this is a good time to think about something that may be excessive in your life and giving it up for 40 days. If you would like to let me know what that is or if there is any way I can support you, let me know.
This particular study uses a point system to rate your lifestyle. This is from the BBC News in Brittan.
Lifestyle 'doubles stroke risk'
Drinking and smoking both increase the risk of stroke
Unhealthy lifestyles are associated with more than double the risk of a stroke, a UK study has reported.
Smoking, drinking too much alcohol, not taking enough exercise and eating few vegetables and little fruit contribute to the chances of a stroke, it found.
Just a small proportion of the 20,000 adults studied had healthy enough lifestyles to protect against the condition, researchers said.
Strokes cost the UK £7bn a year, the British Medical Journal article added.
Previous studies have shown that lifestyle behavior, such as smoking and diet, are associated with the risk of heart attacks and stroke, but the impact of a combination of risk factors in apparently healthy people has been less clear.
Even small changes to our lifestyle, such as an improved diet, drinking alcohol in moderation, not smoking and being active, can reduce your risk of stroke
Joanne Murphy
The Stroke Association
In the latest study, led by the University of East Anglia, researchers gave one point for each "healthy behavior" reported by the participants, aged between 40 and 79.
One point was given to those who did not smoke, one point awarded for drinking just one to 14 units of alcohol a week, one point for consuming five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and one point for being physically active.
A significantly higher percentage of women than men scored a maximum of four.
The study found those who scored zero points were 2.3 times more likely to have a stroke in the 11-year follow-up than those with four points.
For every point decrease in the scores, there was an increase in likelihood of stroke, the researchers said.
Some 259 people did not score any points, of whom 15 had a stroke - at a rate of 5.8%.
But the most common score was three - achieved by 7,822 individuals, of whom 186, or 2.4%, had a stroke.
Around 5,000 achieved the healthiest score of four, which was associated with an absolute stroke risk of 1.7%.
Findings 'worrying'
The researchers said the results could provide further support to the idea that small differences in lifestyle affect stroke risk.
Study leader Dr Phyo Myint said: "Over the study period we observed six people for every 100 participants who had no health behaviors suffered a stroke compared to about one to two people for every 100 participants who had four positive health behaviours.
"Together with the substantial existing body of evidence about modifiable behaviours and stroke risk, this may provide further encouragement to make entirely feasible changes which have the potential to have a major impact on stroke."
In an accompanying editorial, Dr Matthew Giles, from the Stroke Prevention Research Unit at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, pointed out that the small proportion of participants with a lifestyle that protected against stroke meant a huge shift in behavior would be needed to achieve any benefit.
Joanne Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Stroke Association, said that with obesity levels on the rise, the findings were worrying.
"A stroke is a brain attack, it happens when the blood supply is cut to the brain, it causes brain cells to die and results in brain damage," she said.
"It's the third biggest killer and if it doesn't kill it can leave you severely disabled.
"However, even small changes to our lifestyle factors, such as an improved diet, drinking alcohol in moderation, not smoking and being active, can reduce your risk of stroke."
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "The message is loud and clear. Just one of these healthy lifestyle changes can make a big difference to your risk of a stroke.
"And each additional change can bring it down even further. Every reason therefore to switch to healthier living, sooner rather than later."
Before you read this, Lorine reminded me that Lent is about to begin tomorrow. If you observe Lent, it’s a season to prepare for the resurrection of Christ and in doing so, many people abstain from something. That something can be anything you like. Every year my sister in law gives up sweets and her husband gives up wine. Lorine is giving up alcohol. If you observe Lent or not, this is a good time to think about something that may be excessive in your life and giving it up for 40 days. If you would like to let me know what that is or if there is any way I can support you, let me know.
This particular study uses a point system to rate your lifestyle. This is from the BBC News in Brittan.
Lifestyle 'doubles stroke risk'
Drinking and smoking both increase the risk of stroke
Unhealthy lifestyles are associated with more than double the risk of a stroke, a UK study has reported.
Smoking, drinking too much alcohol, not taking enough exercise and eating few vegetables and little fruit contribute to the chances of a stroke, it found.
Just a small proportion of the 20,000 adults studied had healthy enough lifestyles to protect against the condition, researchers said.
Strokes cost the UK £7bn a year, the British Medical Journal article added.
Previous studies have shown that lifestyle behavior, such as smoking and diet, are associated with the risk of heart attacks and stroke, but the impact of a combination of risk factors in apparently healthy people has been less clear.
Even small changes to our lifestyle, such as an improved diet, drinking alcohol in moderation, not smoking and being active, can reduce your risk of stroke
Joanne Murphy
The Stroke Association
In the latest study, led by the University of East Anglia, researchers gave one point for each "healthy behavior" reported by the participants, aged between 40 and 79.
One point was given to those who did not smoke, one point awarded for drinking just one to 14 units of alcohol a week, one point for consuming five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and one point for being physically active.
A significantly higher percentage of women than men scored a maximum of four.
The study found those who scored zero points were 2.3 times more likely to have a stroke in the 11-year follow-up than those with four points.
For every point decrease in the scores, there was an increase in likelihood of stroke, the researchers said.
Some 259 people did not score any points, of whom 15 had a stroke - at a rate of 5.8%.
But the most common score was three - achieved by 7,822 individuals, of whom 186, or 2.4%, had a stroke.
Around 5,000 achieved the healthiest score of four, which was associated with an absolute stroke risk of 1.7%.
Findings 'worrying'
The researchers said the results could provide further support to the idea that small differences in lifestyle affect stroke risk.
Study leader Dr Phyo Myint said: "Over the study period we observed six people for every 100 participants who had no health behaviors suffered a stroke compared to about one to two people for every 100 participants who had four positive health behaviours.
"Together with the substantial existing body of evidence about modifiable behaviours and stroke risk, this may provide further encouragement to make entirely feasible changes which have the potential to have a major impact on stroke."
In an accompanying editorial, Dr Matthew Giles, from the Stroke Prevention Research Unit at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, pointed out that the small proportion of participants with a lifestyle that protected against stroke meant a huge shift in behavior would be needed to achieve any benefit.
Joanne Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Stroke Association, said that with obesity levels on the rise, the findings were worrying.
"A stroke is a brain attack, it happens when the blood supply is cut to the brain, it causes brain cells to die and results in brain damage," she said.
"It's the third biggest killer and if it doesn't kill it can leave you severely disabled.
"However, even small changes to our lifestyle factors, such as an improved diet, drinking alcohol in moderation, not smoking and being active, can reduce your risk of stroke."
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "The message is loud and clear. Just one of these healthy lifestyle changes can make a big difference to your risk of a stroke.
"And each additional change can bring it down even further. Every reason therefore to switch to healthier living, sooner rather than later."
Friday, February 13, 2009
Feel Younger
Today’s re-powering information – Lets finish up today and the week on a positive note. Here’s a fact. Regular exercise can make your real age 9 years younger than your biological age. I’m not tooting my own horn, but I recently started using face book and have connected with some friends from high school. From what I can see of their head shots, many have round faces, the guys have full heads of gray hair and maybe I am kidding myself, but they look much older than me (I’ll be 40 this December – Yikes, I think that’s the first time I said that!). Exercise is your fountain of youth. When I was on the beach 2 weeks ago, I could clearly see the fit bodies confidently and briskly striding along the beach. You can tell that they are older, but they look younger and burst with energy. You have seen these people on the beach and can quickly identify the fit ones who exercise. In comparison it’s also easy to identify the unfit bodies who are meandering or sitting in lounge chairs with snacks in their mouths and supersized beverages in their hands. I’m not judging, but it’s clear the differences in lifestyle.
When exercise is an important part of your life it is the one thing that has the most far reaching effects on the rest of what you do here on earth. When you are fit, you make more conscious nutrition choices, you sleep better, you manage stress, have better mental clarity, more patience for relationships, are more concerned about your environment and much more. There is research to prove all of this which is in addition to the health benefits. People who exercise make more money, they live longer, they are happier, have higher self esteem, recover faster, have better immune systems and more and more and more! I know I am preaching to the choir, but I wanted to reinforce the importance of keeping exercise a priority in your life in hopes that you don’t take it for granted, but also being to positively influence those in your circle by your example.
End:
When exercise is an important part of your life it is the one thing that has the most far reaching effects on the rest of what you do here on earth. When you are fit, you make more conscious nutrition choices, you sleep better, you manage stress, have better mental clarity, more patience for relationships, are more concerned about your environment and much more. There is research to prove all of this which is in addition to the health benefits. People who exercise make more money, they live longer, they are happier, have higher self esteem, recover faster, have better immune systems and more and more and more! I know I am preaching to the choir, but I wanted to reinforce the importance of keeping exercise a priority in your life in hopes that you don’t take it for granted, but also being to positively influence those in your circle by your example.
End:
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Stressed Mothers Making Kids Fat
Today’s Re-Powering information. – I have spoke about some of the weight loss resisters including lack of sleep, toxicity, and stress. Here’s yet another study linking stress to obesity, but now not only is the weight gain attributed to the person who is stressed, but now children are sensing the stress of their mothers and it’s said to be another contributing factor or childhood obesity. We all need to chill out!!!
Stressed mothers may raise fat children: study
By Michael Conlon
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Millions of poor children in the United States may be getting fat before age 10 because their mothers are stressed out and the youngsters seek escape in unhealthy comfort food, researchers said on Tuesday.
The stress is rooted in poverty and can be brought on by money woes, work loads, insufficient health insurance and other factors, said Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois, who led the study.
"People will eat in response to feeling stress," he said in a telephone interview, and in this case children may be eating more in response to stress-related trouble at home.
The findings show there is a need for a firm social safety net for poor families with protections such as food stamps; better financial education to help people better manage money; and adequate health insurance coverage, he said.
Gundersen and colleagues at Iowa State University and Michigan State University looked at data on 841 children in families living below the poverty line who were part of a government nutrition survey conducted from 1999 to 2002.
"We found that the cumulative stress experienced by the child's mother is an important determinant of child overweight," the research team reported in a study published in the September issue of Pediatrics.
Children in stressed homes where there was plentiful food were more likely to be overweight or obese than those living in stressed situations where food was scarce, they added, because while both were reacting to stress, the former group had food available in which to find refuge.
"Children in food-secure households may have a greater ability to consume more 'comfort foods,' which are often unhealthy, in response to the (stress) they experience," they wrote.
Because most American children do not live in settings where food is scarce, the findings on maternal stress "may be an important factor for children in the United States who are overweight or obese," they concluded.
"Our findings are particularly relevant for children between the ages of 3 and 10," the researchers wrote, because older children can find release outside the home through friends or work.
An estimated 17 percent of U.S. children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese and another 16 percent are overweight.
"A number of mothers in this study suffer from at least one symptom of depression and anxiety. By providing these women with relevant medical care and counseling, these symptoms may be alleviated with the further indirect benefit of reducing childhood overweight," the researchers wrote.
End.
Lets chill out, simplify, dream, mediatate, relax and rejuvinate.
Your friend in fitness,
Kelli Calabrese
www.KelliCalabrese.com
www.DentonBootCamp.com
Stressed mothers may raise fat children: study
By Michael Conlon
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Millions of poor children in the United States may be getting fat before age 10 because their mothers are stressed out and the youngsters seek escape in unhealthy comfort food, researchers said on Tuesday.
The stress is rooted in poverty and can be brought on by money woes, work loads, insufficient health insurance and other factors, said Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois, who led the study.
"People will eat in response to feeling stress," he said in a telephone interview, and in this case children may be eating more in response to stress-related trouble at home.
The findings show there is a need for a firm social safety net for poor families with protections such as food stamps; better financial education to help people better manage money; and adequate health insurance coverage, he said.
Gundersen and colleagues at Iowa State University and Michigan State University looked at data on 841 children in families living below the poverty line who were part of a government nutrition survey conducted from 1999 to 2002.
"We found that the cumulative stress experienced by the child's mother is an important determinant of child overweight," the research team reported in a study published in the September issue of Pediatrics.
Children in stressed homes where there was plentiful food were more likely to be overweight or obese than those living in stressed situations where food was scarce, they added, because while both were reacting to stress, the former group had food available in which to find refuge.
"Children in food-secure households may have a greater ability to consume more 'comfort foods,' which are often unhealthy, in response to the (stress) they experience," they wrote.
Because most American children do not live in settings where food is scarce, the findings on maternal stress "may be an important factor for children in the United States who are overweight or obese," they concluded.
"Our findings are particularly relevant for children between the ages of 3 and 10," the researchers wrote, because older children can find release outside the home through friends or work.
An estimated 17 percent of U.S. children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese and another 16 percent are overweight.
"A number of mothers in this study suffer from at least one symptom of depression and anxiety. By providing these women with relevant medical care and counseling, these symptoms may be alleviated with the further indirect benefit of reducing childhood overweight," the researchers wrote.
End.
Lets chill out, simplify, dream, mediatate, relax and rejuvinate.
Your friend in fitness,
Kelli Calabrese
www.KelliCalabrese.com
www.DentonBootCamp.com
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