Health Happiness and Holidays

Heart Healthy Food-Banana-Natural Cardiac Diet to Lower Blood Pressure

Banana is a natural, convenient and easy-to-digest cardiac diet or heart healthy food for those who are looking to manage their heart health. Watch the video on how banana helps in managing heart health.

Banana to lower blood pressure

As banana is a potassium-rich food, it works wonders for those willing to reduce their blood pressure. Before explaining how banana reduces or balances your blood pressure, let’s take a look at how potassium works and it is actually potassium in banana that brings your blood pressure down.

How and why potassium lowers your blood pressure

Continue reading “Heart Healthy Food-Banana-Natural Cardiac Diet to Lower Blood Pressure”

How male and female brains age

In our last post, we talked about aging in general or the signs of aging and how to reduce them. Though it is true that aging cannot be stopped, it is also true that you are as old as you think yourself to be. It depends on your brain or thoughts. If you can think like a young mind, your body will respond accordingly and you’ll feel young. Here, the role or thought process of male or female brains comes into picture.

Does female brain age slowly?

According to recent studies and a report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, female brains age slower than male brains. It is a great news for women, because now they can proudly claim to be mentally younger than their biological age.However, in some women, metabolic rate declines very fast around menopause, which may lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

An assistant professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, says “Females had a younger brain age relative to males,”

Read the full report here.

Higher metabolism of brain

We have covered metabolism a lot in our previous posts, but they mainly focused on physical metabolism. What about mental metabolism? The metabolism for your brains is what is responsible for your learning abilities and creativity.

This is quite noticeable in girls from the early age. Girls usually start speaking much before boys of the same age. The same is true for development of their creative skills, which develop more as girls start maturing. This is partially due to the structural difference between male and female brains.

You must have noticed that girls in general speak more than boys. The reason behind this is that they have verbal centres on both sides of the brain. Males have verbal centre only on the left side.

Major differences between male and female brains

Coming soon

Reverse the signs of aging- Number one tip that really works

When was the last time you learned or did something new? Don’t remember? Then chances are that you have signs of ageing and you are looking for ways to reverse the signs of ageing. Though you may not like it, the irony is that nobody can stop ageing as far as the number of years are concerned. However, the good news is that ageing has a lot to do with what and how you feel about yourself and not the number that get added to your age every year.

It won’t be out of context to mention that an 86 years old can feel as young as a 25 year old by believing that age is just a number. What really matters is how old your consider yourself. Here is a nice video by B S Patil Patil .

Bylahalli Raghunath Janardan 86 Old Marathon runner, the oldest cyclist , a role model for those who start feeling old after crossing 40 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R84plu9ldg

Is age really just a number?

Well, I think yes, as long as you can defy the signs of aging associated with that number. In order to do that, you need to keep growing every day instead of aging every day. Sounds unrealistic? It is not, if your think realistically and act accordingly. Read on.

Here are ways to grow to reverse the signs of aging

1.Learn something new every day

What exactly is your passion? If you haven’t thought about it, then it is still not too late no matter how old you are. Have you ever watched a kid enjoying the beauty of ordinary things such as cycling, running, playing or chasing butterflies? They enjoy these activities because they learn something or simply have fun by those activities. Why can’t you learn something new and enjoy that experience as an adult? What is stopping you from learning. Obviously, you need not run after butterflies. It can just a be a new word, a new language or any other activity/hobby you are passionate about.

2.Get out of your comfort zone

If you have already learned something new, don’t stop. Either upgrade your skill or learn something new, if you have reached your comfort level in doing that activity. Bottom line is that you must be active mentally and physically by every possible means. By trying to come out of your comfort zone, you are actually learning or doing something new. This keeps you energetic, and eliminates the signs of aging.

3.Meet more people, make friends

Have you noticed that politicians, media professionals and social activists often live longer than those spending their whole time doing a 9-5 job? At the core of this longevity is their interaction with different people every day. Every time you meet or speak to a new person, your mind is actually processing something new such as the name of the person, his/her issues that you are talking about and more. As they often need to meet them again, they remember their names and issues. Meet more people, make friends, not just online friends but other friends you can meet quite often.

Are you not good at remembering names?

If you believe that saying that you are not good at remembering names is a cool way of showing that you are cool, then is it a sign that your mind doesn’t want to accept anything new. You are in your comfort zone, unwilling to learn something new. In other words, you are aging now.

4.Quit smoking, if you do

No matter how much kick or high you get from smoking, it essentially weakens your learning abilities and triggers negative feelings after the initial kick fizzles out.

5.Cut down on alcohol

Well, I have mentioned in one of my previous posts that it is widely accepted that drinking alcohol is good for heart health. However, it does not mean that you need alcohol to keep healthy. In fact, quitting alcohol is what is recommended if you want to slow down aging process.

6. Physical fitness helps in reversing the signs of aging

The internet is full of tips, tricks and methods to remain fit. Choose what suits your body type the best. What really matters is fitness no matter what method what you choose. Physical fitness gives you energy, strength and zeal to try and learn new things.

How about spending just 90 minutes a week to discover new you and to slow the aging process to a crawl? Grab Old School New Body by Steve and Becky Holman if you want to look a decade younger.

Top excuse that makes you age faster

No time- I am afraid, that is not true. Nature or God, if that is what you’d prefer to say, has not done any partiality in allotting time to every individual. All have just 24 hours every day to enjoy, feel sick, stay happy, complain or crib. It is just a matter of your choice or priority that you spend your extra time on.

I have no time to do anything extra

Then you’d pay the price by falling sick, aging fast or simply getting depressed. Have you noticed that we eat our meals and do all our routine activities no matter what, within those 24 hours ? Why cannot you make time to do little activities that keep you happy or help you grow? In fact, I’d say that learning something new every day is the easiest way to keep growing, which will slow down your ageing process.

A 68 year old, perfectly healthy person keeps learning to stay fit

It would not be out of context to mention a few things about my conversation with a 68 year old person learning how to drive. I cannot forget the glow on his face when he proudly said that he could not learn how to drive due to many factors and circumstances during his youth, but he enjoyed learning this simple art or skill at the age of 68. On digging deeper about his life and experiences, I found that he has no blood pressure, diabetes or heart ailments. What keeps him healthy are his ability and inclination to keep learning new things. He further told me that he learned more new things after he retired than what he learned during his working life.

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combating sleepiness at workplace

chilli pepper to burn fat

Do you feel sleepy at workplace? Overcome sleepiness easily

Do you feel sleepy in office quite often? Is it because of the fact that you don’t sleep properly due to extra workload? Do you have any sleep related medical issue? If none of these is your problem, then what could be the reason behind feeling sleepy in office?

First and foremost, I must say that 7 to 8 hours of sleep is required by all adults. If your total number of sleep hours is less than that, then you must change your sleeping habits. Though I agree that sleeping habit cannot be changed so easily, it is worth a try. You will notice a remarkable difference in your overall energy level and performance.

Do you prioritise your sleep?

It is startling that only 10% of American adults prioritise their sleep over other activities, despite being aware of the fact that sleep is highly important for overall health. As per NATIONAL SLEEP FOUNDATION’S 2018 SLEEP IN AMERICA® POLL, that among U.S. adults with excellent sleep health, nearly 90% say they feel very effective at getting things done each day. Read the full report.

Obesity makes you feel sleepy

This is a no brainer. If you are obese or overweight, you will find it difficult to do physical activities. This will prompt you to find alternatives or to avoid doing them at all, whenever possible. This makes you more obese and worsens the situation. In fact, the more you fight your initial reluctance to get involved in physical activities, the easier it will be for you to overcome your sleepiness.

Slow metabolism behind sleepiness

Well, the real issue that makes you lazy and sleepy is your slow metabolism if you don’t have any sleep related issue. In order to boost your metabolism, you need to understand why your metabolism is slow.

Constipation

Are your bowel movements not regular or do you feel constipated often? This is one of the most neglected digestive problems. Constipation is the root cause of more than 15 diseases and obesity is one of them. When your digestive system is not able to digest food properly, the undigested food gets deposited in your colon. Initially, it results in bloating and flatulence, but later, the deposited food start producing toxins giving rise to many ailments including cardiovascular and heart issues.

Dehydration

Are you not drinking enough water? No matter how busy you are, make sure that you drink 8-10 glasses of water every day. Please note that you feel thirsty when your body needs water to keep its basic functions working. Dehydration starts much earlier. So, do not wait for feeling thirsty. Drink water whenever you can.

Sedentary lifestyle

As an IT professional, you cannot change your job profile to keep yourself physically active. However, what you can do is, avoid automated options if you can do certain activities manually such as taking the stairs instead of elevators, cycling to work if time permits or gardening on weekends. These activities will make you more active and healthy.

Hypothyroidism

Thyroid gland regulates many functions of our body, and metabolism is one of them. When your thyroid gland does not produce enough of these hormones, you are referred to as suffering from hypothyroid, which drains your energy, and you feel tired and sleepy.

Ways to combat sleepiness at work

Take a break every ninety minutes. Just take a walk, spend a few minutes with one of your colleagues you haven’t spoken to for weeks. Or simply drink a glass of water by walking to the cafeteria or coffee machine/water dispenser area.

Look away from your computer screen every 15-20 minutes. Simply looking at an object away from your screen will relax your eyes, and you’ll feel less tired than usual.

If you cannot keep awake, then start a conversation and continue it for a few minutes. This will energise you and keep sleepiness at bay.

Take a nap, if you can

Modern work culture encourages achieving end results and timely delivery. This simply means that it often doesn’t matter how you manage your work. If you work smartly, you can definitely save 15 -30 minutes for a power nap, which will boost your performance even more. However, care should be taken that you don’t violate the standard work ethics at your workplace by managing your power nap smartly.

Long-term solution to overcome sleepiness

As already mentioned above that slow metabolism, obesity and lack of physical activities are the root causes of fatigue and sleepiness, if there is no other medical issue. So,we can safely say that taking steps to speed up your metabolism to lose weight is the most effective way to remain alert, active and healthy.

Want to try a metabolism booster?

Why not start with cleansing and detoxing your body first? This will help your body prepare for weight loss. In fact, you’ll start noticing the difference as soon as toxins are flushed out of your body. Though there are many home remedies and methods to detoxify your body, you can try a few options that combine the benefit of home remedies and tested formulas. The Forskolin 250 and Detox Pure combo is one such formula that works wonders for those looking to boost their metabolism and burn fat simultaneously.

The current offer comes with a 60-day money back guarantee and is shipped across the world. Read more about Forskolin.

Chilli pepper | Calorie burning | fat loss

Do you eat raw chilli, red chilli pepper or any of its different variants? If you do, then chances are that your metabolism is quite fast. However, that cannot be the only reason to assume that you are getting all health benefits of chilli. It goes without saying that the moment we talk about calorie burning, fat loss is obviously the next topic that must be talked about.

Health benefits of chilli

It has been noticed that those who eat chilli or spicy food are less likely to suffer heart attack due to the fact that chilli can reduce the bad effects of LDL or bad cholesterol, which is often the reason behind cardiovascular diseases. The main compound of chilli is capsaicin, which works wonders for inflammation control. As many risk factors of heart diseases are reduced, chilli can be called good for heart health.

Lowers blood pressure

Vitamin A and C are considered good for heart health and muscles. Pepper boosts blood flow through your body and makes your cardiovascular system strong.

Chilli improves vision

Being a rich source of Vitamin A, chilli improves your clarity of vision, and also reduces the risk of cataract and molecular degenerative diseases that usually start as we age.

Works as anti-depressant

If you suffer from frequent mood swings and often end up spoiling your mood, then eating chilli may help. The capsaicin present in green chilli releases endorphin, which is a kind of ‘feel-good’ secretion that helps you keep your mood calm, happy and positive.

Chilli boosts immune system

Your weak immune system is often the reason behind frequent common cold and cough, allergies and similar issues. If you make chilli part of your diet, then you’ll remarkably boost your immune system.

Chilli-highly effective for preventing cancer

It has been proven that capasicin has the power to prevent the growth of cancer cells. It inhibits tumour growth. Medical News Today has cited that Capsaicin might actually have the ability to stop breast cancer. Researchers are at work to find out more about its anti-cancer abilities.

Good for cold, cough and nasal congestion

As chilli is full of beta carotene and antioxidants, your immune system gets a boost if you consume chilli on a regular basis. When your body temperature goes up after eating chilli, your immune system is triggered to fight cold, cough and nasal congestion. In fact, nasal sprays often contain capsaicin for fast effect.

Last but not the least, chilli or spicy pepper speeds up your metabolism, which results in fast calorie burning and reduced appetite. The combined effect of this is visible in weight loss. However, care should be taken in limiting the consumption of chilli to a comfortable level. Simply eating more chilli will not help you burn more fat.

Chilli or capsaicin based weight loss supplement

How about using a supplement that can offer you all health benefits of chilli in one or two capsules a day? In fact, this is an easy and effective way to burn fat without actually eating chilli, the taste of which is bitter, and is not liked by all. Capsiplex is one such weight loss supplement that works wonders for most people.

In fact, many celebrities such as Roxanne Pallett have used and endorsed this product after using it. The results are remarkable and you also get a 60-day risk-free guarantee if you buy if from its official site. Click the image above to order now.

Sleep deprivation | Lack of Sleep- Symptoms-Remedies

If you believe that working late until past midnight and getting up early in just 5 hours is a smart way to manage things, then think again. You must be paying a heavy price for it. You don’t realise when sleep deprivation kicks in. However, its symptoms can be noticed in your behaviour, inability to handle difficult situations and unnecessary anger. Lack of sleep is more common than you think. In fact, most people don’t realise that they are suffering from lack of sleep until the situation becomes really serious. We’ll take a look at lack of sleep symptoms and remedies.

Lack of sleep-Symptoms

Do you have difficulty concentrating on work at hand or do you feel tired in the office all day? Once in while, you may feel tired if you party whole night or stay awake for any reason and come to office the next day. However, do not take this tiredness or fatigue lightly if you feel so quite often.

Here are symptoms of lack of sleep

Feeling sleepy or drowsiness all day
Frequent mood swings
Increased anger
Inability to handle difficult or slightly stressful situations
Increased negative emotions such as anxiety and sadness
Impaired performance at work
Forgetfulness or temporary memory loss
Weight gain
High blood pressure and heart disease
Heart attack
Low sex drive
And more

How to minimise or reverse the effect of sleep deprivation

Avoid stressful situations– It simply means that you must not commit more than you can deliver. Try to finish your work before the actual deadline to avoid any last-minute rush or stress.

Do not keep your cell phone in your bedroom– It has been proven that waves emitted from cellphones interfere with our sleep waves. Though some people remain unaffected by keeping their phone in their bedrooms, others start suffering from lack of sleep. Keep your phone away while you are sleeping.

Waiting is better than rushing– Always try to reach your workplace before time. This will be less stressful as waiting is easier and less stressful than rushing.

Take power naps– 15-20 minutes of power naps at your workplace can work wonders for you. Though at most workplaces, a 15-20 minute nap should not be a problem, make sure that you manage it tactfully i.e without causing any harm to your job. You can often work more effectively after taking a nap, than working in a drowsy state.

Take coffee when you really need it– Caffeine will help you fight sleepiness effectively, so make sure that you take coffee when you really need something to maintain your alertness. Also, do not consume caffeine late in the evening as it may interfere with your night sleep patterns.

Sleep music

Do you remember lullabies your grandmother sung to you to make you fall asleep? While those are meant to make a child sleep, somewhat similar is the purpose of sleep music, which is fast catching on. It has been scientifically proven that music with a rhythm of about 60 beats a minute helps people fall asleep. Essentially, this type of music slows your heart rate, lowers your blood pressure and relaxes your muscles. These are the pre-conditions for sound sleep. The effect of sleep music help many people sleep quickly and for a long duration.

Sleep meditation

Those who want to get to the root of the problem by going the extra mile, may try sleep meditation or Yoga Nidra. Many people believe that sleep meditation and deep sleep are the same. They are different. During deep sleep, your consciousness is suspended, while during sleep mediation you are completely relaxed, but your conscious mind is at work. Practising this technique will help you achieve natural sleep effortlessly.

Click Here To Discover 7 Minute Mindfulness

Eat one meal a day-OMAD diet | Lose 1 pound a week

In one of my previous posts, I talked about intermittent fasting for those who can do it effectively. Another effective and relatively easier way to burn fat is to eat one meal a day for weight loss. I tried this method for 15 days and noticed a remarkable difference, i.e I lost 2.02 pounds almost effortlessly in two weeks. So we can safely say that by eating one meal a day or OMAD as it is popularly referred to across the web, you can lose one pound a week.

Continue reading “Eat one meal a day-OMAD diet | Lose 1 pound a week”

Yoga based cardiac rehabilitation highly successful

Have you had a heart attack recently, and want to prevent further attacks? You guessed it right, we are talking about cardiac rehabilitation program, but not the conventional one. It is the natural version of it. Yoga based cardiac rehabilitation, which is neither expensive nor inconvenient. A study was conducted by Indian Council for Medical Research and Medical Research Council (UK). Its result was presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Session in Chicago.

7minute mindfulness and relaxation

Natural therapy for heart attack patients

The researchers studied 4000 patients who suffered heart attacks and were discharged from hospitals. The participants were asked to undergo a structured YogaCaRe programme as an alternative to or additional cardiac rehabilitation programme.

What is Yoga CaRe (Cardiac Rehabilitation)

As the name suggests, it is a care programme for cardiac patients who have had a heart attack. The programme consists of 13 yoga sessions, which include:

Meditation
Breathing exercises
Heart friendly yoga poses
Lifestyle advice to be followed after a heart attack

Generic yoga plus modern lifestyle

The programme is essentially a combination of generic yoga and modern lifestyle practices that can be modified or improved for better health. As yoga can be practised by anyone following any faith or religion, the programme has been designed keeping in mind that it is suitable for all sects and faiths.

“The Yoga-CaRe Trial, the largest trial on yoga as well as cardiac rehabilitation, has shown the potential of yoga to be an alternative to the conventional CR programmes and address the unmet needs of cardiac rehabilitation for patients in low-and middle-income countries. It is safe, relatively inexpensive, does not need an elaborate infrastructure, culturally acceptable and improves quality of life.”

-Prof Prabhakaran, vice-president of the Public Health Foundation of India and principal investigator of the study. Read the full report here.

Benefits of deep breathing

I’d like to mention that despite breathing being the most essential body function, its importance is often ignored as it happens naturally. What really makes the difference is deep and conscious breathing, which we often don’t care about. Those who can make time for deep breathing every day realise and feel the positive difference due to:

High energy levels
Improved blood circulation
Improved digestion
Reduced inflammation
Reduced acidity
Improved posture
Calm mind and reduction in stress level
Natural painkilling effect

Though taking deep breath in the morning hours is most beneficial, you can do it anytime of the day, as long as the air is fresh and not polluted. There are many breathing techniques, which we’ll cover in another post.

Deep breathing to lower blood pressure

As we hardly breath deeply, we usually don’t get the maximum possible benefits of deep breathing. Those with high blood pressure can notice remarkable difference in their blood pressure after practicing deep breathing regularly. All you need to do is make time, some 5-10 minutes every morning to breathe deeply.

You may also be interested in Intermittent fasting for type 2 diabetes reversal

Want to reverse type 2 diabetes? Try intermittent fasting

If fasting is something you normally observe due to any religious faith or for general well-being, then here is a good news for you. How about fasting or intermittent fasting to reverse type 2 diabetes, if you are diabetic? Yes, that is what a recent study conducted on three men suggests. Well, fasting in general, gives your digestive system and related organs a relaxation time. It works wonders for overall physical wellness. Maybe that is the reason that many religious faiths recommend observing fast. On certain occasions or during festivals, many faiths recommend fasting, which is good for physical health.

Fasting to lose weight

Continue reading “Want to reverse type 2 diabetes? Try intermittent fasting”

5 health benefits and 4 side effects of Forskolin

If you are reading this post, then chances are that you are looking for Forskolin health benefits or supplements to burn belly fat. Well, you have reached the right place. Forskolin based supplements work wonders for those looking to lose weight naturally. However, before looking at 4 side- effects of Forskolin, and its 5 health benefits, we’d like to answer the question, “What is Forskolin?

What exactly is Forskolin?

Continue reading “5 health benefits and 4 side effects of Forskolin”