Reduce Holiday Stress With Yoga Lessons!

Reduce Holiday Stress with Yoga Lessons!

 

The Holiday season is fast approaching! Even though the  holidays are a time for being with family, for eating good food, for presents and fun, the holidays can also be very stressful. Dealing with the throngs of shoppers, family visits and endless holiday parties can take its toll on both the body and the mind. Yoga lessons are just the thing to ease the tension.

Studies have proven that yoga reduces stress and anxiety physically and mentally. According to University of Maryland Medical Center: Yoga improves fitness, lowers blood pressure, promotes relaxation and self-confidence, and reduces stress and anxiety. People who practice yoga tend to have good coordination, posture, flexibility, range of motion, concentration, sleep habits, and digestion. Yoga is a complementary therapy that has been used with conventional medicine to help treat a wide range of health problems. Studies show that yoga may help the following conditions:

• Anxiety and stress
• Arthritis, both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
• Asthma
• Cancer, as an additional therapy to reduce stress and strengthen the immune system. One study of 68 breast cancer patients found that those who practiced yoga has less anxiety and depression compared to those who didn't. Even the DNA damage from radiotherapy was slightly less in the yoga group compared to the control group.
• Long-lasting back pain
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Epilepsy
• Heart disease, by lowering cholesterol levels, lowering blood pressure, lessening stress, and reducing how often people had chest pain and how severe it was (when combined with a healthy diet)
• High blood pressure
• Hormonal problems
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Lung diseases
• Pregnancy
• Migraine headaches

In addition, yoga postures that stretch and strengthen joints in the upper body may improve grip strength and reduce pain in people with carpal tunnel syndrome.*

Yoga practice has also been shown to lower the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol in the body. Excessive Cortisol not only causes feelings of stress and anxiety but also depression, osteoporosis, diabetes, and heart disease. High levels of cortisol have also been linked to excessive abdominal fat and weight gain. Yoga induces a "relaxation response" associated with reduced nervous system activity and a feeling of well-being due to an increase in endorphins-a feel good hormone. According to  another  study, 'Antioxidant Effects of Regular Yoga Training,'  yoga  efficiently strengthens the antioxidant systems & decreases oxidative stress.  
Yoga studies have proven that regular yoga practice not only reduces stress but also helps in the treatment of stress related diseases. So this holiday season, grab your mat & come to yoga class!

The Drink Of My Dreams!

A couple of years ago when I was visiting my daughter in LA, she took me to a great vegan restaurant. There I discovered the drink of my dreams; grapefruit, kale, and ginger juiced! When I came home I experimented with this combination, often adding other ingredients, and came up with a lot of tasty concoctions. I do it in the Ninja mixer instead of the juicer so it still has all the fiber. Although my husband says it looks like sludge. The basic recipe is:  

1&1/2 grapefruits peeled
About 1 cup or a large handful of fresh organic kale
A chunk of fresh ginger
1 scoop of Garden of Life, Perfect Food Raw (raw organic green super food)

Besides being delicious grapefruit, kale and ginger have many benefits. In Baseline of Health, Beth Levine writes, "Pink grapefruit provides 80 percent of your daily vitamin C needs in a typical serving of half the fruit, is proven to bolster the immune system, can detoxify the body, and even slow the growth rate of tumors. It is also chock full of lycopene, which is an antioxidant that has been found to lower the risk of both bladder and prostate cancer. And pink grapefruit provides you with 6 percent of the RDA of vitamin A, another valuable nutrient that helps maintain the health of the retina, particularly important for our vision in lower light.
Yellow grapefruit is no slouch, either, in the vitamin and nutrient department. Just under its more colorful cousin, the yellow grapefruit health benefits include 73.3 percent of your vitamin C quota for the day, as well as an impressive 23.7 percent of vitamin A." http://www.jonbarron.org/article/celebrate-citrus-grapefruit?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Alerts&utm_content=DHT+3%2F6%2F13

In the article, Top 10 Health Benefits of Eating Kale, Alison Lewis reveals the many advantages to including Kale in your diet. Kale is high in iron and has more calcium than milk! It is a great source of vitamins A, C, & K .  Kale is filled with powerful antioxidants, carotenoids and flavonoids, that help protect against various chronic diseases. " Kale is a great anti-inflammatory food. One cup of kale is filled with 10% of the RDA of omega-3 fatty acids, which help, fight against arthritis, asthma and autoimmune disorders." Not only that but Kale is low in calories and high in fiber! http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4408/Top-10-Health-Benefits-of-Eating-Kale.html

Ginger has been traditionally used to treat colds and flu. Studies have shown that ginger helps kill influenza viruses, and increases the immune system's ability to fight infection. Ginger improves the absorption of essential nutrients in the body. It also relieves nausea, gas, and stomach cramps. And most importantly, the  Ayurvedic texts credit ginger with potent aphrodisiac powers. 
So enjoy a large glass of the drink of my dreams and maybe it will become your dream drink too! 

Are Your Products Are Filled With Toxins?

Are Your Products Are Filled With Toxins? 11/10/2013 0 Comments The Story of Cosmetics After viewing this video, I felt it was important to bring awareness to this serious issue. Many of the ingredients in the products that we use on a daily basis are dangerous to our health. “Your skin is the largest organ of your body and since it is porous, it absorbs whatever you put on it. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health looked into the skin’s absorption rates of chemicals found in drinking water. It showed that the skin absorbed an average of 64% of total contaminant dosage. Other studies found the face to be several times more permeable than broad body surfaces and an absorption rate of 100% for underarms and genitalia. And another peer-reviewed study showed 100% absorption for fragrance ingredients.” http://www.downtoearth.org/health/general-health/your-skin-it-absorbs Cosmetic companies are not regulated by the FDA. They are self regulated. So many of the products that go on the shelf are just not good for us. Some companies only care about profits and as marketing ploy claim their products are natural, when in fact, they are loaded with petrochemicals and toxins. These products often contain very little of the natural ingredients that we actually want to go on our bodies.  So what to do when so many products contain questionable ingredients?  It is wise to research the products that you use. The Environmental Working Group has reviewed over 78,000 products for safety. Go to EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ and enter the product name in the search box. When I looked into the products that our family used, I was really surprised by the results. Don’t assume that because it is sold in a health food store, it is safe. Read all product labels and avoid harmful, hazardous, ingredients. You can find a list of the worst chemicals to avoid on the Organic Beauty Talk website. http://www.organicbeautytalk.com/ingredients-to-avoid/ Buy from reputable companies. There are many businesses that are honest, transparent, and give a lot of information on their website about what they put into their cosmetics and grooming products. These companies consider our health, the environment and sustainability, when formulating the ingredients that go into their line.