Stress and the City

Living in a large, busy city can really take its toll on your stress levels. With long commutes, overcrowding, polluted air and as much pressure to socialize as there is to work long hours, it’s no wonder that the stress levels of those living in big cities is so much higher than those in smaller municipalities.

We all know that tension negatively affects our health, our beauty and our life expectancy, so what can we do to reduce our stress levels if we chose to live in the big smoke?

As with most health issues, exercise is a key tool in combating stress. Proven to lower the stress hormone cortisol, regular exercise not only keeps you slim, healthy and more alert but also helps you relax and unwind. If you can, finding green outside spaces, such as parks, in which to exercise maximizes the stress relieving effect.

Healthy Living Through Prevention

The benefits of healthy living are obvious, but for many, healthy habits don’t start until it’s too late and the body is already on the decline.  Instead of combating healthissues once they’ve begun to negatively impact one’s life, it’s important to prevent illness and unhealthy lifestyles before they start.  The following tips offer some tried-and-true methods for staying healthy, which will keep you living longer and feeling great.

Eat a Healthy Diet

Healthy eating doesn’t mean a diet of bland foods, and it certainly doesn’t require going hungry.  Lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and dairy are all available to healthy eaters. 

Are You Addicted to Coffee?

As far as blood sugarproblems are concerned, on the right, you have sugar and on the left, stimulants and stress. When your blood sugar dips, there are two ways to raise it. The first is to eat more glucose and the other is to increase the level of the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol. There are, in turn, two ways in which you can raise adrenalin and cortisol.

The first is to consume a stimulant like tea, coffee and chocolate or smoke a cigarette (yes, athletes, bodybuilders and serious fitness enthusiasts have been known to smoke too) and the second is to react stressful, causing a jolt in your own production of adrenalin.

Knowing this, you can see how easy it is to be caught in the vicious cycle of stress, stimulants and sugar, which will leave you fatigued, depressed and stressed most of the time.

How Does This Vicious Cycle Work?

Through excess stress, sugar and stimulants you lose your ability to control your blood sugar and wake up each morning with low blood sugar levels and too little adrenalin to kick-start your day. You do one of two things:

1. You reluctantly crawl out of bed and head to the kitchen to brew a superstrong cup of tea or coffee, light up a Marlboro or have some fast releasing sugar in the form of toast, butter and jam. Up goes your blood sugar and adrenalin level and you start to feel like a champion again. Alternatively …

6 Ways Coffee Can Be Good for You!

Those of us who are coffee drinkers get tired of people telling us, “You shouldn’tdrink so much coffee!” and “That stuff will kill you!” The simple truth of the matter is while an excess of anything is never good, in moderation,coffee can actually be good for you. Here are a few of the ways your body benefits from your coffee habit.

1. Coffee may protect against heart disease.

Coffee isn’t just your liquid wake-up call in the morning. It is actually full of powerful antioxidants called flavonoids, which help to prevent LDL cholesterol (the kind that’s bad for your heart) from oxidizing and causing heart disease.

2. Coffee may lower the risk of stroke.

Probably related to the lower risk of heart disease, is a lower risk of stroke associated with drinking coffee. This is especially important for women, who have a higher risk of having a stroke. According to studies, women who drink a couple cups of coffee a day reduce their risk by about 20 percent.

7 Ways to be Healthy on the Cheap

Being healthy doesn’t always have to mean hiring a personal trainer. (Although, there are tremendous benefits to it). Healthy living can start now with some loose change in your pocket and these tips:

1. Clear the brainstorm:For a little Zen in your life, breathe deeply for conscious relaxation and stress reduction. Meditation allows your body to tune itself up. Learn some basic techniques, find a meditation podcast and breathe into relaxation.

2. Switch to water: Remember the days from biology class? Water is essential for life, as it makes up over 70 percent of our bodies. Water is a solvent for nutrients and delivers those nutrients to cells. Use the 8×8 rule: Eight 8-ounce glasses per day. Make water your choice; it’s healthier (and cheaper) than soda.

How to RELAX and Fall Asleep?

Exercise can be a sleep aid or can make it more difficult to fall sleep.  It all depends on what type of exercise you do and when you do it.

Just Relax, You’re Feeling Sleepy

Aerobic exercise is a great way to release stress from the body.  Since stress can hinder sleep, you can fall asleep more quickly by getting 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least three days a week.

Some examples of mild to moderate aerobic exercise are:  mowing the lawn, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, active playtime with children, and taking a short walk around the block.

Forms of high intensity aerobic exercise include:  jogging, skating, swimming, biking, walking on a treadmill, and taking a brisk walk.

Children Snoring- A Health Alarm Bell?

While many may consider a child’s snore to be cute, or even funny, habitual snoring in children should be a serious cause for concern to parents. This is because children with sleep disorders associated with snoring can be misdiagnosed (with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, for example).

Snoring by children is fairly common. As a matter of fact, on average between 3% and 12% of children of preschool age, snore.  Most of these children, however, are perfectly healthy, having nothing more than a mild case of primary snoring.

Primary Snoring or Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome?