Monday, May 21, 2012

The Health Police Are Wrong about Coffee

The health police are wrong about coffee. Coffee is good for you, new research shows. It can even help you live longer.
Too much caffeine used to be considered a bad thing. Now researchers say drinking coffee could extend your life.
They found following a study of 400,000 aged between 50 and 71, the more coffee you drink, the less likely you are to die from a number of different ailments.
These include heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries, accidents, diabetes and infections, but not cancer.
The US research published in The New England Journal of Medicine adds to evidence that coffee drinkers appear to enjoy better health. Read more

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Bring Back Butter, Cheese, Red Meat

Zoe Harcomb explains why eating fat won't make you fat.
I love butter. Smothered on vegetables or, best of all, melted over a juicy sirloin steak.

And I eat masses of red meat – lamb chops or my favourite, pork belly.

 Sometimes we’ll put a piece in the oven at lunchtime, and slow cook it to make the crackling really crunchy by evening.

My only two rules are that the meat has to be good quality and that all the fat is left on.

As a food expert, I spend my working life imploring the public to eat a nutritious diet – so I know these may sound like odd admissions.

What I am suggesting flies in the face of everything you have heard about healthy eating. Read more

Monday, May 14, 2012

Friday, May 11, 2012

6 Anti-Aging Nutrients to Take Every Day

Joseph Mercola discusses the six anti-aging nutrients he takes every day.
Vitamin D
Research has shown that those with higher levels of vitamin D are more likely to have longer telomeres, and vice versa. This means that people with higher levels of vitamin D may actually age more slowly than people with lower levels of vitamin D. Read more

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Sugar: Worse for Your Liver Than Alcohol?

Joseph Mercola explains how sugar, fructose, and artificial sweeteners can make you flabby and sick.
... While total calorie consumption has contributed to increases in diabetes rates around the world, they don't explain the whole story. In 1985, the year I finished my residency and started in private practice, the average number of calories consumed per day for the global population was 2,655.

At the time, 0.62 percent of the global population had diabetes.

By 2010, the average daily caloric intake had risen to 2,866 – an eight percent increase – but surprisingly, the diabetes rate rose by a whopping 727 percent, to 5.13 percent of the total global population.

When scientists dug deeper to determine what it is that people are eating that's contributing most to the global crisis in obesity and obesity-related diseases, they discovered that a calorie isn't just a calorie.

The source of the calories you consume makes all the difference in the world. They discovered that it's the increase in total fats and carbohydrates specifically that's causing the massive weight gain in people around the world. What's more, there's just ONE food on Earth that, because of its unique composition, metabolizes in your body as both fat and carbohydrate – and that product is sugar. Read more

Monday, April 30, 2012

Two Breathing Exercises for Better Sleep

Deep breathing is one of the best ways to lower stress in the body. This is because breathing deeply sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax. The brain then sends this message to your body. Those things that happen when you are stressed, such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breathe deeply to relax. Breathing exercises can help you relax, because they make your body feel like it does when you are already relaxed. Counting breaths and 2-to-1 Breathing are two breathing exercises to help you relax and fall asleep.

Counting Breaths

1) Lie in bed on your back with your hands by your sides or resting on your abdomen. Your body should be flat, so if you have a high pillow, remove it. Breathe slowly, smoothly, and deeply through your nose throughout the exercise. As you breathe in gently, expand your abdomen; as you breathe out, let your abdomen fall back into place. This ensures true, deep breathing.

2) All you have to do is mentally count your breaths up to ten. You can either count your inhalations or your exhalations. Here's the catch though: every time your mind wanders and you lose count, you must start from one again. Each time you reach ten, start at one again. Continue like this and you will fall asleep.

2-to-1 breathing

This breathing pattern relaxes the body by subtly stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby inducing a state of relaxation.

As you lie in bed, gently slow down the rate of exhalation until you exhale for twice as long as you inhale. You can coax a longer exhalation by contracting the abdomen slightly. Don’t try to fill or empty or empty the lungs completely. You are simply changing the rhythm of your breath. In the beginning, it may help to count to eight on the exhalation and four on the inhalation, or sex on the exhalation and three on the inhalation (or any other 2-to-1 ratio you find comfortable. Focus on the smoothness and evenness of your breath, gradually eliminating any jerks and pauses.

Do one of these breathing exercises every night whether you have sleep problems or not. It will improve the quality of your sleep and most likely reduce the amount of sleep you need.

Finally, there is a way to get rid of tiredness and start living a full and energetic life that doesn't depend on drugs, stimulants, or expensive treatments. Instead, you'll learn some simple and easy-to-understand information, apply it, and then start fighting tiredness the natural way. To find out how to end tiredness once and for all, click here.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012