Women’s Health – Straight to the Heart
If people are thought men are more vulnerable to coronary disease than women, think again. Don’t wait for a warning sign – start looking after your heart today.
Statistics show one in three Australian women is at risk of heart attack, angina, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Worse still, two-thirds of women who die from a sudden heart attack have had no previous symptoms, according to The Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health. Age, smoking, a lack of exercise, weight gain, diabetes, and a poor diet all increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, as can family history.
The good news is that simple lifestyle changes can lower your chances of having a stroke or heart attack, says Professor Susan Davis, chair of Women’s Health at Monash University in Melbourne.
Regular exercise
Regular exercise is an extremely important factor in women’s health. Daily exercise can help control your weight and sugar levels, strengthen your heart, lower blood pressure, raise HDL (good) cholesterol, and lower LDL (bad) cholesterol. “A Women need to do moderate, endurance-type exercise for at least 45minutes, 3 times a week, and include more activity in their everyday life,” by Professor Davis.
Healthy heart diet
Eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables that are high in antioxidants and vitamins such as folate is also crucial for heart health. There is evidence that replacing unhealthy fats with polyunsaturated fatty acids found in oily fish, leafy plants, canola, and linseed oil can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Give Up Smoking
Giving up smoking will also improve your heart health. Nearly 40 percent of smoking-related deaths are caused by cardiovascular disease, according to NSW Health. This is because smoking increases an artery-clogging process called atherosclerosis.
Read MoreTypes of Yoga
The scripture defines various paths and methods for practicing yoga for an individual they are:
Bhakti yoga– Acknowledging, honoring, and worshiping God with your love for the divine and is characterized by total submission. Bhakti(worship) is a boon to gain control over emotional instability by properly harnessing the energy involved.
Karma Yog– It is working in relaxation that involves doing actions with an attitude of detachment to the fruits of action. Putting your utmost efforts skillfully and with good intentions and serving humanity selflessly. This makes an individual release himself from the strong attachments thereby brings in him a steadiness of mind which verily is a yogic instrument of actions and understanding.
Jnan Yog – The path of Jnan you is apt for the keen intellects and is centered around the analysis of happiness, the vital contribution of Upanishads. Studying scriptures, receiving wisdom directly from your spiritual master, and inculcating it. The basic questions are raised even involving to intellect itself to reach the basis of intellect.
Sankhya Yog– Sankhya is an enumeration philosophy that accepts three of six pramansa(proofs) as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge. These are perception, inference, and testimony. It regards the universe as consisting of two reality purush( consciousness) and prakarti ( matter). Jiva(individual) is that state which is Linked to Prakarti. And this fusion state leads to emergence of wisdom. The end of this imbalance, bondage is called liberation or kivalya or moksha
Hath Yog– With a keen effort and determination making all the utmost effort to achieve well-being of body and a sound mind, with the emphasis on practicing various Asanas and panayams techniques.
Raja Yog – culturing of mind is the key to success in almost all endeavors in our life. This yoga gives a practical and easy approach to reach higher levels of consciousness.
After putting effort one must come into a state of effortlessness thus living without a struggle. It is based on ashtanga yoga( 8 limbs of yoga – all asanas)
Read MoreWhat is yoga?
Yoga, in simple terms, is a union with God or divine souls. A large number of people mistake yoga for hatha yoga, which involves doing various bodily postures. However, yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline, and hath yoga is just a part of it. Yoga is an art and additionally a science. It is a science since it offers viable strategies for controlling the body and psyche. It considers the impact of each other on body and mind and brings them into common concordance.
It is called a skillful trick to calm down the mind. Yoga can be defined as a conscious process to accelerate the evolution into single life, by practicing just a few days or few years by controlling the behavior internally as well as externally.
The earlier systematic descriptions of the yogic practices and philosophies were codified into 196 aphorisms, classic treaties, and yogic sutras of Maharshi Patanjali dating back to 900 BC.
He had developed tools to flourish the power of concentration and focus with increased speed of thoughts. During ancient times, there were only a few mediums through which one could learn yoga such as sages or yogis. But today, thanks to technological evolution we can learn yoga online and that too at our own place, whether it could be home or office and at our own time.
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How Does Sleep Affect Mental Health?
Mental Health and Sleep
Since my circadian cycle is completely out of whack, I thought many others might be in the same boat. Lack of sleep or insomnia mental health negatively affects our mental and emotional health.
The University of California investigated what happens to our minds without sleep. I highly doubt anyone who has gone without sleep would be surprised by their findings.
It can affect our mood and lead to depression and anxiety. Really? Also, lack of sleep tends to bypass connecting to the prefrontal section of your brain and hits the locus coeruleus or primitive part instead.
What is still disputed by many is whether lack of sleep leads to mental illness or mental illness leads to a lack of sleep. It probably depends on the individual and their present situation or circumstances. Sleep disturbances would contribute towards making any existing mental illness worse.
“It’s almost as though, without sleep, the brain had reverted to more primitive patterns of activity, in that it was unable to put emotional experiences into context and produce controlled appropriate responses,” said Matthew Walker, director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory and senior author of the study, -journal Current Biology.”
I know from experience insomnia can lead to strange sorts of behavior. If you’re worried or stressed about something, that can interfere with sleeping. To make matters worse, worrying about not being able to sleep makes sleep even less likely to come.
Helping With Sleep Problems
Getting to the root cause of why you can’t sleep is not always helpful, especially since you might already know why you can’t sleep. So what can be done about it? An asleep specialist can help you sort it out but here are some other suggestions.
- Get up at the same time every day regardless of how much sleep you got the night before. It requires some discipline and may involve feeling zombie-like for a couple of days.
- Try exploring relaxation methods such as meditation, yoga, and deep breathing. Doing weird stuff like listening to loud rock and roll right before bed might not relax you. Not that I’ve ever done that.
- Limit or stop your caffeine intake since it is a stimulant. It’s also a diuretic, so it may interrupt your sleep because you might need to go to the washroom more frequently, which leads to the next point.
- Limit fluid intake.
- Don’t nap for more than a half-hour at a time if you must. Any longer than that, and it will interfere with your sleep, come bedtime. I don’t know about you, but I feel groggy if I have a nap that lasts for more than an hour.
- Exercise regularly. Don’t do this right before bed, or you’ll be all pumped up. Practice does make you sleep better, though, as long as it’s not what you do immediately before jumping into bed.
- Some have used light therapy with some success. I can see this being especially helpful for someone who doesn’t have many windows or lives in a basement apartment.
- Color therapy is also something some might want to consider.
Many sleeping pills and sedatives can become addictive, so they are not usually advised except as a last resort. They don’t help you cope long term either but maybe best for short periods in times of crisis.
Finally, do not hesitate to see a doctor or counselor for more professional advice or Joining in Drug Treatment Program. Sometimes, anxiety and depression need to be treated with therapy and medication to help regulate your sleep.
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Why Exercise
Exercise helps to promote an overall feeling of “wellness“. It helps to develop and maintain lean muscle mass which leads to increased fat burning. It increases your basal metabolic rate (BMR), and therefore, your fat burning capacity.
Exercise improves:
- Circulation
- Bone density
- Endorphin production (regulates pain response and relaxation)
- Blood pressure
- Sleep quality
- Ability to manage stress
- Blood sugar levels
- Flexibility/mobility
- Strength
- Muscle tone
- Energy levels
Here are some exercise tips:
- Aim for half an hour each day
- Generally for fat loss, exercise is most effective first thing in the morning, before breakfast. Eat within 1 hour after exercise.
- Vary your routine – try walking, swimming or cycling.
- Ease into your exercise program – don’t do too much, too soon.
- Remember – “No gain when in pain!” Avoid exercise that becomes painful.
- Don’t forget to warm up before exercising and cool down afterwards.
- Use stairs where you can – avoid escalators/lifts.
- Walk the long way home and utilize hills where possible.
- Invest in a set of 1-2kg dumbbells or resistance bands – you can do a full-body workout with just these simple pieces of equipment.
- Stretching the body will increase flexibility and reduce your risk of injury.
What is stopping you?
- Is your energy low? You may need vitamin or mineral support.
- Are pains and aches getting in the way? You may need a musculoskeletal assessment.
- Do you need help with motivation? Talk to us about diet and lifestyle.
- Do you have trouble finding out which exercise is fitting into the day? We can talk to you about ways to fit it in.
Keep Your Iodine Levels Healthy: Critical Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Advice
Let’s face it: pregnancy and breastfeeding can be really hard on our body, depriving us of normal vitamin and mineral levels we take for granted any other time. Your body, after all, is working harder to nourish your child and ultimately, to fuel your child’s physiological development.
One mineral that has been falling to low levels in pregnant and nursing mothers is iodine. So dire has the situation gotten that doctors have been voicing their concerns in papers published in some of the world’s leading medical journals.
From the research conducted concerning the low iodine trend, doctors are coming to a clear consensus.
Iodine supplements are essential for pregnant and nursing mums!
Iodine is absolutely important for growing babies and their mums, because it is essential for thyroid hormone production and foetal neurodevelopment. The thyroid gland helps keep metabolic processes kicking along nicely, and a deficiency of iodine can result in illnesses for you, that can also harm your baby.
Iodine helps babies develop neurologically, and a low level of iodine in pregnant women actually increases the likelihood of retardation in children. Iodine deficiency causes preventable mental retardation all around the world.
So what can you do to increase your iodine?
Although iodine is naturally found in dairy products, seafood, eggs, bread, select vegetables and iodised salt, your body will see iodine levels fall during pregnancy and breastfeeding. That’s why it’s best for you to find a good quality iodine supplement, geared specifically to pregnant and breast feeding mums.
You’ll find what you need by visiting a Naturopath.
The current recommended daily dose of iodine for pregnant women is 220mcg of iodine, so a supplement is definitely your best bet for yourself and of course, your baby.