Karen’s Free Health and Fitness Tips

Anxiety and dizziness: most folks would never link them. And I was no different until I suffered an agonizing anxiety attack (panic attack). I should have seen the warning signs. For several weeks before, I had been having short dizzy spells, maybe a couple a day. Not like the dizziness where your head spins like a top. Mine was more subtle, like standing up too quickly, a bit lightheadedness, you know what I mean? At first I didn’t think much of it, maybe a bit of stress, I certainly didn’t think of anxiety. So I let it go. (Warning: don’t leave things like me, always consult your doctor as soon as possible).

Looking back, there were other signs apart from dizziness that, had I known then what I know now, would have made me attend my doctor. But I knew nothing of anxiety and anxiety attacks, so I left things too late. The result was that I suffered a really frightening anxiety attack while driving. I won’t go into the whole story here, but at the time I really thought I was dying, and subsequently diagnosed with anxiety.

It was not so long ago that eating disorders, such as bolimia and anorexia, were thought to be purely the result of mental conditions. More recently, though, some physical factors have been attributed to these conditions. It is now thought that eating disorders can be triggered by a multitude of factors, in combination, including those of a psychological, behavioural, social, or biological nature.

How Can Yoga Help With Eating Disorders

As with many conditions, eating orders can better be dealt with through a calm and focused mind. Depression and low self esteem are problems often associated with eating disorders, and Yoga can help with both.

It has been proven that Yoga can reduce depression, restoring a state of balance and well being in the individual. Also, there are different yoga practices which encourage heightened levels of self esteem, and promote a positive view of your own body. These are crucial factors with eating disorders, and it has been shown that the application of yoga can significantly increase recuperation and healing. Through the elimination of self judgment, yoga establishes a strong connection between mind and body. This, of course, is the natural state of wellness. By re-establishing this strong connection, mind and body will work in harmony to repair the damage.

Allergy induced asthma is whereby the asthmatic condition is caused by an allergy. There are lots of things that one could be allergic to that could cause asthma. These are allergies to animals, foods, and an environment which is polluted by chemicals. This allergic reaction affects the respiratory system. Thus there is no sufficient air that is transported to the lungs.

Allergy induced asthma is found in both children, adults and infants. These allergies can be prevented by one not being exposed to the triggers of asthma. When one has this condition, the symptoms that can be seen are, shortness of breath, a tight chest, coughing and wheezing. These symptoms usually show up due to an allergic reaction. For allergies, treatments are given to control the allergy.

Such treatments may include steroid tablets. These tablets contain different types of steroids. The reason is because allergy induced asthma are different in persons. Since the allergy damages the immune system, when one has this condition, one should take boosters for the immune system. Boosters such as vitamin supplements and food rich in vitamins. This is to make sure that your immunity is at its peak.

In the United States alone there is an estimated 17 million people that suffer from diabetes. Of those 17 million who suffer this disease nearly 5.9 million have not been medically diagnosed. The reason for this could well be that many of the early warning signs of diabetes are shrugged off by those who suffer them because the symptoms do not seem that severe.

Even when those who heed the early symptoms of diabetes do go to the doctor they often express disbelief that they are diagnosed as being diabetic. In the early stages of diabetes the symptoms can be more of a minor annoyance, leading those who are diagnosed saying things like “I don’t feel sick”. In fact many people are diagnosed with diabetes when they visit the doctor because they think they have something else wrong with them. Many of the early signs of diabetes are often attributed to some other ailment or condition.

The sooner the symptoms of diabetes are recognized and diagnosed the better the chances of a managing this condition and avoiding many of the serious and sometimes life threatening complications this disease can bring. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death by disease in the United States today.

Diabetes is one of the conditions that are increasingly gaining the attention of medical practitioners and health experts all over the world. Its causes are simple enough and its prevention is easy enough to do, but once it develops, there is very little that can be done to reverse the condition. The only thing left for anyone who develops diabetes is to control the condition so that it does not progress any further. There are ways to lower blood sugar levels and prevent the development of diabetes, or for those who already have it, prevent it from causing any more harmful diseases.

Here are some tips that anyone who is possibly suffering from diabetes could benefit from in their quest to lower blood sugar levels:

1. Consult your physician. Get yourself diagnosed. You should not go around self-medicating. When it comes to anything that concerns your health, you should definitely go to your physician first before trying any kind of medication, therapy, and any kind of dietary and lifestyle changes. Your physician can actually help you or hook you up with a dietician or nutritionist to draw up a diabetic diet menu for you to reduce blood sugar levels.

In a research study conducted by Purdue University, it is found that women who take calcium based oral contraceptives are less prone to problems of bone loss, especially in their early lives.

However, in an earlier research study it was found that optimizing bone mass in teens and early adulthood averts low bone density and osteoporosis in later parts of life. Moreover, using oral contraceptives can decrease bone density too.

According to the experts at the Purdue, it is interesting to know that in United States, out of every 10 women, eight use oral contraceptives at some time during the years in which peak bone mass is developing. Also, this loss can be easily supported by using calcium in optimum level.

If we look at the figures provided by the National Academy of Sciences, the recommended dietary allowance of calcium for women age 19 to 50 is 1,000 milligrams a day. In addition, calcium’s recommended daily allowance for adolescents especially women aged from 9 to 18 is about 1,300 milligrams.

There are a lot of ways to detoxify your body that involve expensive or complicated medical programs but simply fasting may be the best way of all. When you stop eating solid food for a day or two and drink only water or juice the body shifts its focus away from digestion and expends energy on restoring bodily balance by detoxification and eliminating other wastes. The body, when left to its own devices, knows what it needs and what it doesn’t and works hard to get rid of the bad stuff given a chance. Fasting is the body’s way of cleaning house. In many ways it is a rest and regeneration cycle similar to sleeping.

Normally the body gets energy from glucose, which is a form of sugar taken from the food we eat. We either get this directly from food or the liver will store it in a form called glycogen. However, when you start to fast this sugar gets used up in the first day. If you continue to fast past the first day, the body shifts its type of glucose fuel supply from food over to fat from your fat reserves. This is called ketosis, but during this two to three day conversion there is not enough glucose from fat yet so the body also breaks down a small amount of amino acids from your muscles. This conversion of muscles into glucose is called catabolizing and is at its greatest on the second and third days of a fast. By the end of the third day of a fast, the body is running almost exclusively on body fat with only a reduced amount of muscle being consumed. If you were to water fast for two weeks in most cases you would lose less than a pound of muscle assuming you had enough fat reserves to last that long. It is crucial, of course, that you drink plenty of water during a fast. You can go without food for a fairly long period of time with positive health benefits all along the way but not drinking enough water is detrimental in almost all cases.

A friend of mine thought she broke her finger. It had swollen up and was painful to the touch.

We talked to someone known as an expert regarding this and it turns out the finger was not broken. It had calcium deposits on the joints… the early signs of arthritis.

In fact, as he checked her fingers it turns out that each finger had pain to varying degrees. The most painful being the finger she had noticed as swollen and thought was broken.

Hearing this, I took careful notes to not only help my friend, but to also make this information available to our readers.

Some may disagree with the following, but our expert assures me that it is the case.

Over time, we can get calcium buildup on the joints and it can cause swelling and painful joints. If left unchecked, this can then develop into arthritis.

Fortunately, there’s two simple things we can do to help with this condition.