How To Party Proof Your Gut For Christmas

With shopping malls and supermarkets gradually bringing in more and more Christmas gifts, decorations and food, Christmas will be here before you know it. Your workplace and friends will be asking you to Christmas parties and gatherings across the upcoming weeks. If you're at University, there's a party every other night. No sooner do you recover from one and you're into another. No wonder your guts are tied up in knots. If you're a bit older and already struggling to manage a home, job, and three children, Christmas can make it a nightmare. The kids are already winding themselves up, your mum and dad have given notice they want to stay again, there's presents to buy, food to prepare and your partner needs more of your time as well. It doesn't stop after you're retired, your children feel it's their duty to visit and you've got to feed them and the grandchildren are so tiring. Christmas! Bah! Humbug! It's bad enough if you're perfectly well, but with IBS, it's just Strictly Come Dancing. You're bowels are doing their own version of the Rumba all the time! So what can you do? How can you party proof your gut and enjoy the festivities?

Well, the answer is to pace yourself. You don't have to stuff yourself silly, and drink yourself paralytic to have a good time. Quite the opposite. You will have a much better time if you keep within your limits. Top tips are:

    Enjoy your food, eat slowly, savour it. Don't eat too much, just have one helping of meat and not too many mince pies and please watch the sprouts. Eat until you are satisfied.

    Enjoy a glass or two of wine, but have plenty of water too. Drink enough, but slowly. Then relax, enjoy the company, stay in control. What you should aim to achieve is that mellow comfortable feeling, rather than reckless.

    Enjoyment is all about regulation. Try to keep to the routine your gut is used to. Try not to eat too late.

    Go to bed at a reasonable time. Try to wind down before you sleep, and don't wear yourself out. Some people may think of you as a party pooper, but that's their problem. The people that really matter will probably know you have a bit of a dodgy gut but will respect you for making the effort and envy you for keeping it together.

You may be the one that's doing most of the work, if so plan ahead, allocate times to get presents, work out what you are going to buy well in advance, organise shopping, prepare as much food as you can beforehand, so that you can relax when your guests come. Then if you know that your mum always winds you up, plan for that too, just think about how you can organise the time so you are both diverted by other activities, involve her, bring out the best in her. She will feel good and you will too. Get your partner, your family involved with the cooking. Switch off the television and talk, play games and basically enjoy each other's company. It's what bonds families together. You may, in some circumstances, not see each

Treating Addictions With Acupuncture

Addiction has become one of the major problems of society nowadays. Addiction actually takes many forms, from mere addiction to chocolates to substance addiction, and in any way, it can negatively affect the overall health and balance of a person.

Defining Addiction

Addiction usually results from long term and excessive consumption of what the person considers to be pleasurable substances and/or engagement in activities which affect the overall functioning of an individual. According to a medical dictionary, addiction refers to the physiological or psychological dependence on certain practices or substances that has gone beyond one's control. Some people would consider that addiction occurs when the substance or activity controls the person and not the other way around.

Addiction is classified into two types depending on the item which is being addicted to. It can either be substance addition or behavioural addiction. While substance addition refers to addiction towards harmful substances like cocaine, nicotine and alcohol, behavioural addiction meanwhile refers to extreme obsession towards engaging in activities like gambling, internet browsing, exercise to the extreme and sex.

At some point in time, users may not be aware that their behaviours are getting out of control and it already causes problems to other people. Aside from their inability to control their consumption or usage of certain substances, and incapacity to control themselves from engaging in certain activities, addicts have become so highly dependent on these substances to cope with their daily lives. When a person is addicted to a certain substance, they continue using it regardless of its adverse impacts on themselves and others around them.

According to research, frequent use of certain substances or undertaking certain substances provides pleasure to the brain. As time passes by, the user realises that the higher dose he takes, the greater pleasure he derives. Consequently, his tolerance with the substance increases also. According to experts, the higher the tolerance level is, the higher is the risk for addiction. In the long run, the user no longer finds pleasure in taking substances. More often than not, users are taking substances to prevent suffering from its withdrawal symptoms. Intake of substances can help them feel normal.

To treat addiction, the user must first acknowledge that he is actually suffering from addiction. Treatment normally involves joining in self-help groups, counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy and psychotherapy. Through time, acupuncture has emerged to be one of the most effective complementary treatments for addiction.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Explains Addiction

Acupuncture is an ancient form of medicine, whereby the insertion of special needles into the acupuncture points of the body, which lie along the meridians (pathways of energy) is considered to adjust the energy or qi of the body. Stimulating the flow of energy or qi alters many aspects of physical and mental functioning. In fact, it helps in promoting a natural process of detoxifying from substance abuse and addiction.

Those who practice and believe in the system of traditional Chinese medicine have different explanations with regards to the occurrence of addiction. The explanation is solely based on the concept of balancing the yin and the yang. Addicts are said to have yin deficiency. This imbalance of energy results to the feelings desperation and emptiness which drive addicts to use, consume and abuse. However, it only results to yin depletion which leads to further desperation.

Acupuncture Deals With Addiction

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which most often uses acupuncture, as well as specific herbs, is believed to be effective in reducing cravings and in promoting calmness and relaxation. Research shows that acupuncture actually helps in alleviating anxiety as well as in reducing the frequency of occurrence and intensity of withdrawal symptoms. Whether you are addicted to your morning coffee or you cannot control your use of heroine, acupuncture promises effective and natural process of detoxifying your body from substances.

According to research, auricular acupuncture is beneficial in treating various forms of addiction which include alcohol, heroin, morphine, cocaine, crack, methadone, caffeine, coffee, tea and even the use of pain medications such as oxycotin, hydrocodone and vicoden.

The NADA Protocol

According to the NADA Protocol, there are five acupuncture points which can be managed to treat addiction. These are the sympathetic point, kidney point, liver point, lung point and shenmen point.

Stimulating the sympathetic points creates a strong analgesic effect and it helps in restoring the balance of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. Stimulating the shenmen points induces a relaxing and calming effect which helps in alleviating nervousness and anxiety that usually come as withdrawal symptoms.

When the liver point is stimulated, it resolves aggression and anger and repairs the liver from alcohol and drug abuse. Aside from accelerating the process of detoxification, the stimulation of the lung point helps in strengthening the immune system which is important when dealing with the withdrawal symptoms. Lastly, stimulating the kidney point is beneficial in restoring the essence and source of energy which are usually damaged during substance abuse. It also increases the willpower to overcome addiction and resolves fear.

Acupuncture is usually preferred by many in dealing with addiction because it doesn't generally have any side effects. The treatment is normally given until a person becomes clean from their addiction. Once you cease taking substances, you can reduce your acupuncture treatments but experts suggest that you continue taking acupuncture treatments at least once a month to ensure long term recovery. In fact many ex-addicts learn the benefits along the way and enjoy to come for regular treatments, knowing that it helps their feeling of balance and well-being.

Improving Your Memory - How to Memorize Things for an Exam

Getting a strong memory always added benefits us in every way in our life. It does not only boosts our performance, also aids in occasions in many ways. Whether you are a student or a working person, a good memory is always essential. But to have a sharp memory, you have to nurture your brain like you nourish your health with food and. You have to do some work out to increase your brain power.

Here are few tips on how to enhance your memory. If you do exercise daily, your brain tissue are served with more oxygen along with the other cells of your body. It simply reduces the chances of memory disorder or memory loss. This is a way to keep it healthy. But there is another way you can work out your brain and that is playing chess. This is actually a very good and a common way of brain workout. Cause playing chess is all about playing with strategies and connected to brain. Even it is seen that people who are good in playing chess, also the owner of sharp memory. It is said that if you keep your brain lively, it increases memory power. Along with playing chess, Sudoku puzzle is also a very good game indeed. Some instances using challenges is also good. It may come with expertise and some mental efforts. It will undoubtedly help if you try to discover some new languages or play any instrument. however, it won't help if you do something that you are good at, and you do that. Try to do something that you are not familiar with, and take you out of comfort zone.

In today's life, we are so busy that we don't get enough time to sleep. But it is totally wrong. Overtime working is a big reason of dull memory, because less sleep is a reason of drained brain tissue. And if we don't have the expected sleeping time, our brain cell doesn't work appropriately. It is researched and proved that less sleep is a cause of poor overall performance and also reduces the ability of solving any problems quickly. Our brain performs at the stage when we are sleeping.

Stress is one of the biggest enemies of memory. Stress destroys brain tissues. There is a region in our brain called hippocampus. It aids to remove the old memories n exchange it new ones. chronic stress damages this region. So it causes bad memory power.

When it comes to nourishment, your brain also needs some healthy foods as your body. having right diet really assists. Polyphenols can be found in green tea. It is a strong antioxidant that protects your brain from free radicals which is a cause of damaged brain tissues. possessing inexperienced tea regularly enhances memory. it also slows getting older of your brain. eating more many fruits serves more antioxidants to your brain. green vegetables are also helpful in this case. possessing a good amount of complex carbohydrates is good for your brain.

These are just some tips or tricks to enhance your memory. right after all a healthy brain is all we need to have a good life.

Glen Gould is a blogger, writer, and internet marketer. Jack of all trades! Dedicated to helping others improve memory and have great mental health

Be Ripped Lose Fat

Would you would like that? But the thought of training in a gym or a fitness club just does not inspire you with a warm glow to be ripped. Getting a six pack sometimes requires changes in what you do but they need not be too radical, painful or expensive. A healthy looking mid abdomen on your tummy will boost your confidence and if it means getting rid of belly fat, then that is all the better. OK how do I get abs I hear you ask?

There is no doubt that dropping belly fat to be ripped is an essential process in achieving your aim to lose weight. That means in easy terms that the energy output or the calories burned will have to exceed the calorie intake. That is, burn more energy eat a nutritious diet which contains the proper fluid intake, in order to lose weight.

Your diet includes part of the changes in lifestyle needed such as eating fruit and vegetables with lean meat and no fries. A fat reduced milk for breakfast cereal and other uses is advisable to help be ripped. Chicken, (not fried) roasted is lean meat, for example. If you want to have bacon then remove the fat and grill it. Look at the fat which falls off! All these little changes add up to a huge change over a year. Or even better for the rest of your life.

If you cannot eat fruit because the taste does not appeal, you could always liquidise the fruit and or vegetables and drink it as a smoothy. You will soon learn in your quest to be ripped that you can adapt the taste and texture of the drinks to your preference.

Be Ripped Now

If you are totally out of shape and want to be ripped then use a large exercise ball which is very useful to help get some stretching exercise done as a warm up to stretch the tummy area. Make sure the ball is secured (It has a habit of rolling when you do not want it to.) Lean back with your back, on the ball to get the balance right. Then start gently reaching towards your toes or knees. Practice this exercise gently and start to gain confidence in what you can do. This can be done in the home and does not involve a large outlay of money to be ripped.

Look for an inexpensive set of hand weights from a retailer. With a hand weight, get the weight you are comfortable with, in each hand then start to rotate from the waste to the right and left alternately, side to side. This is the start of the exercises to be ripped. Keep your hips towards the front and do not move them as you rotate. Doing this, you should feel the rotation around your spine. TO START HOLD THE WEIGHTS IN CLOSE TO YOUR BODY. That is important to start with. When you have the space around you and are sure there is no one who could hit weights as you move you can extend them away from your body to increase the load and gain more calorie burn. In your goal to be ripped, starts off slowly and build up your exercise levels.

Do these exercises gradually. If you were to lose a pound a week and do this for a year, imagine the difference in 3 months time. Be ripped, not fat.

Diets That Work For Women - Tips to Lose Weight Easily

There is no doubt that diet is a very important way to lose weight but there is no consensus on what are the best diets that work for women. If you wish to lose weight then you certainly need to find the most suitable diet for you. Since dieting is unfortunately very difficult you need to make sure that the one program you select is easy to follow and is also very effective.

There are many different diets that work for women. These include South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, Mayo Clinic Diet, Weight Watchers Diet and Fertility Diet, just to name a few.

You need to select the right diet after considering various factors such as your lifestyle, current health status as well as your dietary preferences. Only if you are very comfortable with the diet will you be able to stick to it for the duration necessary to lose weight. For instance, there is no point going on a vegetarian diet if you really hate the taste of vegetables. The following tips have been found to be very helpful for a lot of women trying to lose weight:

1. Count calories at all times: An online calorie counter is a great resource for a woman who is trying to lose weight. If you input every single meal that you eat then you will be able to exercise proper control over what you are eating. You will be able to control one meal, supper for instance, if your calorie counter tells you that you have eaten too much at lunch.

2. Plan your shopping well: This ensures that you always have healthy ingredients at hand. If not, you might end up eating snacks or ordering unhealthy (and expensive) takeaway.

3. Sign up for a diet food delivery service: If you are at a complete loss regarding how to prepare healthy and low-calorie food then you should consider signing up for a tailored food package program. The company will deliver healthy meals and snacks to you based upon your dietary preferences; you won't have to struggle with recipe books any more.

All the diets that work for women require a certain amount of self-control from the dieter. However, it is a big mistake to agonize over your inability to follow a particular diet plan. If you cheat on the diet occasionally you should not feel very bad about it. You will be a lot more successful if you have a positive attitude towards dieting and weight loss.

Get useful tips to help you get best results from diets that work for women. Use these tips to lose weight for good.

Plyometrics Are a Safe and Effective Way to Increase Jumping Ability

There are two important elements in exercise science that should be understood: why a certain movement is made and what factors should be considered as part of risk injuries. Athletes are conditioned in their respective sports to mimic, or re-enact, game situations. Plyometrics, or jumping movements, are thought of as a way to prepare the body for unexpected situations. Risk factors dramatically increase when body movements are performed in an unstable environment. In their study, Weinhandi, Smith, and Dugan investigated the effects of repetitive drop jumps on join kinematics and kinetics. They focused on the lower body extremities of the knee, ankle flexors, and ankle extensors.

The study was performed in a controlled lab environment; the experiment did not simulate competition. The protocol and the criteria of measurements of the study were clearly explained to the 12 subjects prior to the testing. The subjects warmed-up on a treadmill for five minutes followed by an active warm-up consisting of 20 drop jumps from a height of 20 cm. Three maximal efforts were recorded for each subject, and the highest height was used during the protocol. The subjects were then fatigue-induced by continuously jumping from a platform every 20 seconds. Arm movement was restricted by holding a PVC pipe across their shoulders. Protocol stated that the exercise would stop once the subject could no longer reach 80% of the mean of their first five drop jumps for three consecutive trials. 3 subjects who successfully completed 200 jumps without change of 20% decrement were viewed as not giving full effort and were excluded from the data analysis. Ground reaction force was taken as each subject jumped down from the platform. Positive and negative values were given based on hip flexion, dorsiflexion of the knee and ankle, hip and knee extension, and plantar flexion of the ankle. Dependent variables that were analyzed were jump height, peak vertical ground reaction force, trunk and lower extremity joint positions at contact, range of motion, and minimum and maximum from joint power.

Results showed that even though peak VGRF had no significant difference, there was an increase in knee flexion and ankle plantar flexion at ground contact as a result of fatigue. An increase in ankle absorption was collected with a reduction in knee absorption. As an individual fatigued, the knee extensors were ineffective at handling the ground impact, leading to the absorption of the impact to the ankle. The idea of muscle damage may have disturbed the ability of the muscle to stretch and flex reducing performance. Fatigue's presence could lead to the knee joint requiring more control versus the hip or ankle joints, increasing the risk of injury. The authors give evidence that neuromuscular fatigue could be a limiting factor during prolonged activity leading to injury. With these changes, it is thought to negatively affect posture and landing structure. After repetitive drop jumps, the ability to produce force decreases and, as a result, landing becomes more stiff and places more pressure or stress on the ankle. During this action, the ankle is said to absorb the force of landing as a protective mechanism to the knee joint. Reducing the amount of force able to be generated at the knee joint puts the individual or athlete at a higher risk of injury.

8 Surprising Causes Of Ill Health

When you are feeling unwell and wondering what is the cause of your illness, your answer probably will be:

-Well, I've caught a virus/bacterial infection.

- One of my 'organs' (the liver, the heart but also the pancreas, the thyroid etc...) isn't functioning correctly

- Something in my body isn't functioning properly (such hormones imbalance, allergies...).

But what IF illness could be due to something else?

ILL HEALTH IN CHINESE MEDICINE

In Chinese Medicine, illness is seen as an imbalance in the body. This can be due to the 'invasion of a pathogenic factor' (quite close to what we call having caught a virus), but also to another 7 other causes!

1- Pathogenic factors

These are basically our viruses and bacterial infections such as a cold or the flu.

2- Food and Diet

Remember the saying 'We are what we eat'? Food has a huge influence on how well we are and a lot of the problems we have, including tiredness, hayfever, headaches, stems from what we eat.

As our energy comes from the food we eat, eating the right food for us is crucial to get and stay well. As a very general rule, a diet that is varied with no food that is preponderant (such as lots of wheat or dairy) is better. Eating according to the seasons (nice, warming and comforting foods in winter and lighter, cooler meals including salads in summer) also makes a big difference.

3- Emotions

We rarely think about emotions as a cause of disease, unless perhaps when talking about depression (and even then, emotions, such as anxiety, are the expression of the disease rather than the cause of it).

Stress is a big cause of ill health in our country. From IBS to chronic, recurrent headaches or back pain, stress is certainly one of the main causes of illness in my clinic.

However, this is just not about stress. For example, sadness and grief affect the Lungs in Chinese Medicine and we know that people tend to catch cold and chest infections more easily when they have just lost a loved one.

4- Climate

This is the climate that we are living in, such as a hot climate or a damp house. But it's also man-made climates such as air conditioning in a car or working in an extremely hot environment (eg close to a furnace in a factory). Even wearing a cold wet swimming costume for too long can have some dire consequences on some women.

5- Drugs

I am sure I don't have to tell you that some medicines have some strong side effects. Antibiotics can give bad diarrhoea, a sign that the antibiotics has weaken the digestive system (or to put it another way, that it destroyed the gut flora).

6- Overwork

This is another disease of our modern society. Even when someone doesn't bring work back home or works very long hours, we are always on the go, even when we are at home. Not content with long working hours, we also associate a frenetic game of squash or partying until 2am with relaxation, which are both as far it can be from true relaxation!

The lack of sleep is also a big issue in our society. We are currently sleeping about 2 hours less than our grand-parents but obviously still need the same amount of sleep. One simple rule is to always try and go to bed before midnight to be a restful night of sleep.

7- Physical work

This is both about having a hard manual job or being on your feet all day along and not getting enough exercise!

Obviously, being on your feet all day or having a physical job is more taxing on the body and the person will have to take particularly care of her energy levels.

But it's also about the right level of exercise for you (and your constitution). Within the western culture we tend to associate fitness with health, while they are actually very separate topics. It's possible to be a world-class athlete who has back pain, emotional instability, and troubled digestion. Super-fit, but not at all healthy. It's also possible to be perfectly healthy, without being able to jog more than a mile. While it's easy for this healthy person to develop greater levels of fitness, because their body is prepared and has plenty of energy to draw upon; the athlete is already nursing injuries and has used up available energetic reserves to build their body, so finds it difficult to cultivate wellness. You can see why it's important to match the level of exercise with your right level of energy/constitution so that exercise doesn't become taxing and 'unhealthy'.

8- Weak constitution

Weak constitution is linked with our constitution at birth. Some people are born with less pre-natal energy and it will show in illnesses such as asthma appearing in young children, some developmental delays etc...

WHAT ABOUT ACHIEVING GOOD HEALTH THEN?

What it means is that good health is the result of a careful balance between all these influences. Trying to beat an illness by addressing just one these factors, such your level of exercise, will only give limited results but having a balanced diet and lifestyle will ensure long lasting health.

Sabine Green is an acupuncturist practising in the Middlesbrough area (UK). She is also a member of the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC).