Health and Fitness - Nurture Your Body for Ultimate Wellbeing

We live in an age in which a great deal of importance is paid to physical wellbeing and people focus a lot on health and fitness. There is a premium on looking and feeling good and people spend a great deal of time and money to achieve the perfect looking body. However, you'll realize that you feel a lot better about life in general if you view your body in a positive light instead of a negative light. In fact, true wellbeing comes from feeling great about yourself instead of judging yourself constantly by standards that are set by the media.

Food has a very important role to play in how you feel about yourself. If you view food as something that just keeps you alive or something that should be feared and controlled because it can make you fat then you are unnecessarily filling yourself with a lot of negativity. It is best if you could take a more positive attitude towards food and use it to nourish not just your body but also your soul, thereby ensuring that you have excellent health and fitness.

Food is something that needs to be enjoyed and relished and it should also be perfectly balanced. While you need the right amount of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in your diet you also need a whole lot of vitamins, minerals and nutrients as well. You can achieve this very easily by eating high quality foods that contain excellent nutrition. There are many superfoods that should definitely be part of your diet. Avocados, blueberries, broccoli, salmon, almonds, and walnuts, just to name a few, should be part of your diet in the right quantities. If you eat the right kind of food and focus on enjoying the experience you are unlikely to overeat. In fact, this healthy diet will keep you very svelte looking.

Exercise is also an important way to nurture your body and spirit. It increases your metabolism and keeps you fit and active. Exercise helps improve your blood circulation and aids in the elimination of waste. Your skin will look glowing if you work out often. In addition, it releases large quantities of endorphins into your bloodstream. It is a well-known fact that endorphins have the ability to keep you happy. As a result, you will look and feel really great if you exercise often.

Another great way to feel good about yourself is to practice yoga. This ancient form of exercise originally from India involved meditation and deep breathing in addition to a variety of stretching and bending exercises. Not only does it improve your flexibility but it also enables you to have immense peace of mind.

Health and fitness are an important part of self-love because they require you to put your wellbeing in focus. You will be able to lead a well-balanced life if you take care of your diet and lifestyle and will not suffer from most of the lifestyle related diseases that ail modern people. It is time that you made health and fitness your first priority if you have not done so already!

Endorphins Vs Chronic Pain

It seems to me that there are many people who would benefit by utilizing the endorphin/serotonin way of alleviating chronic pain, whether it has been cast upon us by osteoarthritis or pain developed from a sports or job injury. Or consider pain from your lower back, or fibromyalgia or shingles. No matter where it comes from it tends to become chronic or long lasting and has affected far too many people for comfort: The American Pain Foundation states that this is a complicated state to be in and it has downed 42 - 50 million Americans and only 58 percent of these are helped by a thoughtful prescription of pain killing drugs. Chronic pain has a psychological as well as a biological effect. We know the biology of pain, which tells us that an aberrant nerve impulse will hammer the brain in search for tissue damage that may or may not have ever existed, continuing to call that pain to our attention: In addition, a person with chronic pain can experience a negative or positive reaction which dictates who survives the pain and who caves in under it.

Sometimes pain elicits negative emotions and other times the emotions cause the pain. It is very important to treat chronic pain in all its aspects because when we are experiencing it, there is nothing that can surpass it. So, why can't we think, "Endorphin Boost", when pain is calling the shots? The brain chemicals, the endorphins, improve your pain resistance and your outlook on life. We know that not only does exercise increase the levels of endorphins that come naturally, and assists the pain reducing molecules, it lowers stress, depression, and therefore, pain. And while all this is going on, Serotonin has a leading part in changing our bad moods for good and pleasant ones: high stress increases our perception of pain.

Exercise, while lowering our perception of pain does more than that: it contributes pain reducing effects by strengthening muscles which help in preventing injury that creates more pain. Exercise will help you keep your weight down, lessen your risk for heart disease, and keep blood sugar under control. The stretches I have in mind are for painful knees: Hamstring Stretch, Knee to Chest, Calf Stretch, Straight Leg Raises. Try these exercises slowly at first and ramping up the numbers as you progress, keeping your body and mind open to changes that might indicate a " high" or pain reduction.

At the present time I wonder if my questions are a little farther out than contemporary research covers. How much pain relief can a person receive from endorphins stimulated by exercise? I see that "runner's high" has been documented by a study that claims that euphoria, a floating feeling, as if your feet are not touching the ground, a perception that the runner could continue on, even after the workout is over, without pain or struggle. This study was limited to the role of endorphins on the runner, but the speculation is that more studies may uncover a variety of brain chemicals namely dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline and others that work together to produce an euphoric feeling and to reveal how these chemicals effect pain reduction. The studies may also ask how much exercise and what intensity does it take to produce pain relief. Another question would be "How long does it last?" So, at least we know that we can achieve a "high" by exercising intensely for a 2 hour period, but look to the near future for better news on pain reduction by exercise. Also, I would not hesitate to say that there are substances in our bodies that, know it or not, are working for our good.

Tips For Dealing With Insomnia

Insomnia is when you have either a problem falling asleep, or when you have problems staying asleep long enough to get a proper night's rest.

Although many people have an occasional night with too little sleep even that can make you feel very tired the following day. If you're driving or operating machinery then this can be quite dangerous. If you have Insomnia for a longer period of time then this can have further impacts including health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Long term sleeplessness can also increase the chances of you becoming overweight.

Insomnia falls into two main categories. These are called primary and secondary insomnia. Primary insomnia has no obvious cause. Secondary insomnia is when the sleeplessness is caused by an underlying problem. This could be a medical condition or a psychological problem such as grief and depression.

Sometimes insomnia is a short term problem. If you have problems sleeping for a few days, up to about four weeks, then you have short term insomnia. If you have problems sleeping for more than four weeks then you have long term (or Chronic) insomnia

It appears that around one in four people suffer from insomnia at some point in their lives. Insomnia is more common in women than men and, as you get older, you're more likely to have difficulty sleeping. Half of people over the age of 65 have insomnia at some time.

Here are some Tips for combating Insomnia

• Don't have drinks with caffeine in the late afternoon or evening
• Avoid alcohol late in the evening, and cut back on alcohol consumption overall
• Avoid nicotine in the afternoon and evening, and better still give it up altogether
• Take regular exercise, but avoid strenuous activity immediately before going to bed..
• Don't take naps during the day.
• Try having a warm bath shortly before you go to bed
• Try having a milky drink immediately before bed.
• Try listening to soothing music to help you relax before you go to bed.
• Try to get into a daily routine to establish a sleep pattern. Go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning.
• Don't have heavy or rich meals, especially in the few hours before you go to bed.
• If you can't sleep, don't lay there getting stressed about it. Get up and read until you feel sleepy or, if reading isn't your thing do something else that you find relaxing. As a general rule don't watch television as this can stimulate your mind (although that may depend on the program you end up watching)
• Close the day down before you go to bed so you don't lay there worrying about what you haven't done. Write down any worries to deal with the next day, before you go to bed. This can help to clear them from your mind and prevent them re-surfacing in the early hours.
• Get you room at the right temperature, make sure it isn't too hot or cold.
• Try to avoid sleeping in a room that is too noisy, or close to something that is noisy. If necessary consider ear plugs.
• Be aware of the light in your room. If it's too bright consider darker curtains or wearing an eye mask.
• Have a comfortable supportive mattress on your bed.
• Use your bedroom for sleep and sex only - don't use it to work, read or watch television.