Eight Steps You Can Take to Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally

Cholesterol emboli (Photo credit: Boonyarit Cheunsuchon)

You have seen it on T.V. You read about it in news journals, and magazines, and your doctor may have even talked to you about it. Cholesterol. If you suffer from high cholesterol, you may have been prescribed medication that will lower your cholesterol, but may also have some serious side effects, as most of our medicine does. I have composed a list that will help you lower your cholesterol by taking a natural approach.
1. Eat more fiber. Studies show that fiber has a direct and dramatic cholesterol-lowering effect. You can get plenty of fiber by eating fresh, whole, unprocessed foods and a plant-based diet. Pectin, a soluble form of fiber found in apples, blueberries, and grapefruit, particularly helps reduce cholesterol. If you want to add more fiber, take 1 teaspoon a day of psyllium with 8 ounces if water or juice. Psyllium is the active ingredient in Metamucil, but the latter also has sugar, preservatives, and food colorings. Stick to the plain psyllium found in your health food store- it’s cheaper, too.

2. Make olive oil and fish oil your predominant dietary fats. They both can actually lower LDL cholesterol. However, don’t entirely neglect the other fats: Keep your nutrition in balance.

3. Add garlic to your diet, Garlic is a powerful cholesterol-lowering substance and lowers blood pressure too. Add it liberally to your diet and take it in capsules.

4. Have a glass of red wine with dinner or a cup of green tea, or take a bioflavonoid supplement such as grapeseed extract and/or green tea daily. Both are known to have a cholesterol-lowering effect. However, too much alcohol (more than two drinks per day) will raise cholesterol levels.

5. Take niacin.

6. Take your cholesterol-busting supplements.

7. Eat your cholesterol-busting foods.

8.Exercise, which will directly raise HDL cholesterol. It’s a must for healthy arteries.

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Its that time again! ALLERGY SEASON

Allergy starter (Photo credit: gibsonsgolfer)

If you are like I am, you have been suffering from allergies for the past three to four, perhaps five days. It is officially allergy season. The stuffy and runny nose, the itchy eyes, the itchy throat, the sneezing…all of this can be unbearable. But what types of medication do we take for which symptoms. I have found this Allergy and Sinus Symptom Evaluation to be very helpful. I though I would share this with you. Please be advised however, that treating allergies with antihistamines is a temporary stopgap measure that doesn’t address the underlying problem and shouldn’t be used for more than a few weeks at a time. If you want to avoid commercial antihistamines, you can try drinking ephedra tea or taking ephedra in capsule form. (Find it at your health food store)

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN YOUR EVALUATION

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Stress Can Be Dangerous!

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Stress; A word that you hear everyday! You job can bring you stress, your home life can bring you stress, heck, even your vacation can stress you out. It’s important to take the time to identify your stress and react to it. Learn about what stressed you out, and what impacts does stress cause you individually. Learn what triggers your stress and find coping skills to accommodate your stress. Lets learn a little bit about stress and see if we can come up with some exercises or remedies that may help you through the stress that you may be experiencing right now.

The term “stress” refers to any reaction to a physical, mental, social, or emotional stimulus that requires a response or alteration to the way we perform, think, or feel. Change is stressful- whether the change is good or bad. Worry produces stress. Indeed, stress is an unavoidable part of life. It can result from many things, both physical and psychological. Pressures and deadlines at work, problems with loved ones, the need to pay the bills, and getting ready for the holidays are obvious sources of stress for many people. Less obvious stresses, the ones we really need to pay attention to, include everyday encounters with crowds, noise, traffic, pain, extremes of temperature, and even welcome events such as starting a new job or the birth or adoption of a new child. Overwork, lack of sleep, and physical illness put stress on the body. Some people create their own stress;whether there is anything objectively wrong in their lives or not, they find things to worry about. For such people, stress becomes almost an addiction.

Some people handle stress very well, and it has little impact on their emotional or physical health. Others are very negatively influenced by it. Stress can cause fatigue, chronic headaches, irritability, changes in appetite, memory loss, low self-esteem, withdrawal, teeth grinding, cold hands, high blood pressure, shallow breathing, nervous twitches, lowered sexual drive, insomnia, or other changes in sleep patterns, and/or gastrointestinal disorders. Stress creates an excellent breeding ground for illness. researchers estimate that stress contributes to as many as 80 percent of all major illness, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin disorders, and infectious ailments of all kinds. Many psychiatrists believe that majority of back problems are related to stress.

Many people attribute their stress-related symptoms to “nerves” and in fact stress usually does affect the parts of the body that are related to the nervous system first, especially through the digestive organs. Symptoms of stress-related digestive disorders may be flare-up of an ulcer or irritable bowel syndrome. If stress that produces such symptoms is not handled properly, more serious illnesses may result.

So now that we know stress is very dangerous and harmful, we need to learn things that we can do to prevent or reduce stress from impacting our lives. Here are some recommendations to help you cope with or prevent your stress levels.

1. eat a diet composed of 50 to 75% raw foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables not only supply valuable vitamins and minerals, but are rich in compounds called flavonoids, many of which scavenge and neutralize dangerous free radicals.
2. Avoid processed foods and all foods that create stress on the system, such as artificial sweeteners, carbonated soft drinks, chocolate, eggs, fried, foods, pork, red meat, sugar, white flour products,  foods containing preservatives or heavy spices and chips and similar snack foods.
3. Eliminate dairy products from your diet for three weeks. Then reintroduce them slowly- and watch for returning symptoms of your “nervous” condition.
4. Avoid alcohol, tobacco, and mood altering drugs. these may offer a temporary solution, however the truth is the stress will still be there the following day.
5. Limit your intake of caffeine. Caffeine contributes to nervousness and can disrupt sleep patterns.
6. Get regular exercise.
7. Learn to relax. Relaxation is often difficult for people suffering from the effects of stress, but its necessary
8. Get sufficient sleep each night. This may be difficult, because stress can keep you up at night.
9. Try meditation. Many people find that regular meditation helps then to relax and handle stress. Meditation does not have to be spiritual or religious connotations. For example, you can meditate on a word such as “peace,” “calm,” “relax,” or “warm.” Or you may find it helpful to meditate on a pleasant person, place or event. It is good to have a store of pleasant thoughts to draw on during stressful times. While meditation can have some short-term benefits, it is more effective when practiced on a daily basis. Try meditation twice a day for ten to twenty minutes each time.
10. Practice deep breathing
11. Identify the sources of your stress
12. Take a day off – that is what weekends are for. Take a drive, listen to music, go to the beach or lake, read – whatever you find rewarding and relaxing.
13. Pursue a hobby
14. Do not repress or deny your emotions. This only compounds stress. Admit your feelings and accept them. Keeping strong feelings bottled up only causes them to resurface later as illness. Don’t be afraid to cry. Learning to cry  can help you to manage stress. Crying can relieve anxiety and let loose bottled up emotions.

There are many things we can do to help us deal with stress. I have given you some suggestions, however you need to find what works for you as everyone is different! I would love to hear comments back on this one to let me know what you do to release stress!

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What to Do in Case of a Snakebite

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As summer keeps moving on, many of us will take to the forests and the woods to enjoy some of the natures best camping facilities. Camping is a very fun and leisurely activity and a great way to spend quality time with family and friends. However, there are some dangers that we need to be aware of as well, such as snakes. What would you so if you were bitten by a snake? Would you suck the venom out? Would you run to the park ranger? Would you sit there like many of us crying and screaming not knowing what to do? Well hopefully this article will help you make the right decision if you encountered this situation.

If you or someone with you is bitten by a snake, it is vital to seek appropriate medical treatment. It is equally vital to avoid making inappropriate attempts at treatment; such mistakes can cause more problems that they solve. What to do in any particular case depends on the circumstances surrounding the bite.

What to DO

While not all snake bites are life-threatening, it is important to follow these simple step:

• Remain calm (or, if the victim is someone other than yourself calm her/her down)
• If possible, call for emergency assistance.
• Gentle was the area with soap and water.
• Apply a cold, wet cloth over the bite.

Get yourself or the victim to the nearest hospital emergency room for further treatment

What NOT to Do

The list of measures that should be avoided in response to snakebite include:

• Do Not  apply a tourniquet. This has been the cause of numerous amputations. It is possible that the application of a tourniquet is more dangerous that the snakebite itself.
• DO NOT pack the entire bitten area in ice. This can block circulation and cause injury to tissue, or even gangrene. An ice pack or some cubes wrapped in cloth, applied periodically to the skin, is the maximum you want to use.
• DO NOT cut the wound with a knife or a razor. Older first-aid kits contain cutters, but excessive bleeding can cause more damage. If you happen to cut an artery, the victim can bleed to death. Unless you happen to be a vascular surgeon, leave the razor blades in your pack.
• DO NOT use your mouth to “suck out” the venom. The average human mouth has so many bacteria in it that infection of the would almost be certain, complicating treatment in the long run.
• DO NOT drink alcohol (or give it to the victim)
• DO NOT use an electric shock, Taser, stun gun, cattle prod, or any such device applied to the snakebite. All you will do is make the victim more miserable, and the venom will not be broken down by the electricity.

OTHER MEASURES

IF you can safely kill the snake, do so and decapitate it. Bury the head and bring the body with you to the emergency room for identification. The correct antivenin can then be selected at the hospital. DO NOT BRING THE HEAD!!!  A decapitated snake head can bite up to an hour after its death!

There is one type of snakebite kit that is worthwhile. It is called Sawyer Extractor, and is available from Sawyer Products. It contains a syringe-like device that does work to suck out venom without requiring you to open up the fang wounds with a tool. This prevents excessive bleeding and contamination of the wound. This kit will probably out about half the venom if it is used quickly (within five minutes of the bite is recommended). These are available from many sporting goods stores and on the Internet for less than twenty dollars. If you are going to be someplace in snake country that is really far from civilization, having one of these kits in your backpack is a necessity. After you use it, transport to the nearest hospital is still required so that proper care can be administered!

Bottom line is, like everything we do, we need to be careful. We need to make sure that all precautions are taken and that we are prepared for any type of emergency. Before you leave on your camping trip, sit and think what could go wrong and plan accordingly. It is better to be over-prepaired than under. Make sure you call Goings Natural Health and Bodywork Center when you get back. We will make sure your to get your body back to its normal state with our body treatments or halth consultations.

www.goingsnatural.wordpress.com

916-877-HEAL (4325)

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Limit your use of Salt

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Although some sodium is essential for survival, inadequate sodium intake is a rare problem. We need less than 500 milligrams of sodium a day to stay healthy. this is enough to accomplish all the vital functions that sodium performs in the body- helping maintain norma, fluid levels, healthy muscle function, and proper acidity (pH) of the blood. Excessive sodium intake can cause a fluid to be retained in the tissues, which can lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) and can aggravate many medical disorders, including congestive heart failure, certain forms of kidney disease, and premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

One of the best ways to limit the sodium in your diet is to limit your use of salt when cooking and dining. Just as important, stay away from processed foods, which often contain excessively high amounts of sodium.

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So What are the New Changes?

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We are glad you asked! We are revamping our business to accommodate a different type of individual! We have noticed in the past couple of years that many people do not have the time to commit to spending an hour for a massage on a regular basis! We have also noticed that once someone has committed to this hour they are being given massages that are not working for them. Though these massages are relaxing and deserved, they are only masking the problem and are not giving the client the long-term pain relief that the client needs!  We understand the benefits of a GOOD massage and what it can do to your overall health.

That is why we have scientifically studied these scenarios and came up with a plan! A plan that will save you time and money and leave you feeling brand new! The process is simple! If you have not had a massage for 3 months or longer than we start you off with a full body maintenance massage treatment. During this treatment we will evaluate your situation and pin-point exactly where your pain and tensions are coming from. We then will proceed with the treatment. We will stretch and elongate any curled muscles. We will focus on the areas that are giving you daily pain by utilizing A.R.T. methods, medical massage treatments, deep tissue release treatments,  as well as trigger point therapy. Once you have completed this rigorous yet beneficial treatment, we will schedule you for a weekly maintenance treatment that are only 20 minutes long. Again this will save you time and money and is a great method for preventative care.

Our new methods of treatment is for the busy individual that is health conscious. We feel that there is a huge number of  people that visit the gym everyday,  and DO NOT STRETCH after their work-outs. This can cause discomfort and pain days after your work-out. Then they go back the next day to do it again and will work through the pain, only causing more damage without any stretching again prior to their work out. This is a vicious cycle that will cause an injury. We want to be the preventative treatment that will allow you to continue with your busy lifestyle and stay healthy as well. Throw us into your routine! You deserve it!

WE ARE REVOLUTIONIZING THE MASSAGE INDUSTRY FOR THE GOOD OF A NATURAL, AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLE!!

For more questions or concerns, please call us at 916-877-HEAL (4325)

Vitamin C a Fat Burner?

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Vitamin C helps you burn more fat when you exercise! In a recent study people who took 500 mg of Vitamin C daily burned 39% more fat while excercising than people who took less. Since it is difficult to get enough Vitamin C just from fruits and vegetables, take a Vitamin C supplement to be sure you get at least 500 mg per day!

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