Year: 2021

Depression and Anxiety – Vital Facts For Overcoming Depression and Anxiety!

Depression and anxiety affect people from all walks of life with depression being the second most common disorder in the world. Both of these conditions are treatable providing the right treatment is received.

Normally, the first treatment offered is anti-depressant medication to help lift your mood. However, studies show that they are ineffective for more than 50% of people who take them and also have common side effects such as anxiety, hypertension, nausea, insomnia and weight gain, to name a few.

They have limited results as they only target one cause of depression and anxiety (i.e. low neurotransmitters), and do not address other important underlying causes. Initially they may help the person feel better but, without identifying and treating the underlying cause, the person may be sentenced to remain on them for the rest of their lives!

Natural products have proven to be equally as effective, if not more so, than antidepressants in helping lift peoples’ mood naturally.

If we hold the belief that depression and anxiety are caused either by “deficiencies in brain chemicals” or by “childhood upbringing and traumatic events”, then any treatment that only targets these two factors,will have limited success.

Depression and anxiety are caused by many factors; the only problem is that many mental health professionals do not take these into account. Biological models are used by doctors and psychological methods by psychologists.

Treating everybody with these two methods means limited success as people are individuals and have unique circumstances in their lives.

A more wholistic approach is necessary and other factors need to taken into account such as: social, dietary and lifestyle.

Depression and anxiety can arise from things such as lack of coping skills (psychological), excess toxic burden (biological), poor sleep (lifestyle) or Alcohol and drug use (dietary/nutritional).

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail” said Abraham Maslow.

Some doctors and psychologists fail to take into account any other causes because they have just been trained in one area and that may be all they know.

In order to make a full recovery from depression and anxiety, all of the above areas need to be looked at and treated, otherwise only half the job is being carried out, putting people at risk of being on harmful medication for the rest of their lives, and leaving them in a state of powerlessness to effect any change.…

Signs Of Hypertension

In our days hypertension or high blood pressure is one of the biggest health care problem. According to the statistics it affects about 72 million people only in USA. It represents a real danger also because its signs are not visible in the early stages and therefore the illness is hard to diagnose. Not without reason it is called “a silent killer”.

Though, what are the signs of hypertension which still should be known? In majority of patients the only sign is High Blood pressure. However, Examination of Eye Retina may reveal various abnormalities which are known as Keith- Wagener Retinal changes. These changes in retinal arteries are divided into 4 grades depending upon tortuosity of retinal arteries, arteriovenous nipping, hemorrhages, and papilloedema. The presence of heamorrages, exudates or papilloedema is diagnostic of Malignant Hypertension which demands urgent treatment.

If you do not know your blood pressure, you should have it taken. Often happens that people having high blood pressure do not feel sick. However, after some time when the symptoms become severe, such as often headaches, convulsions, walking difficulties, giddiness, depression and blurry vision the disease is very hard to treat. In major cases it can turn out into more complications.

Though hypertension is not regarded as a disease in itself, it can cripple you by severely affecting the functioning of your body’s vital organs. Therefore it is essential to control your health condition, to take care of your blood pressure and to know all the changes which happen.

If you find out that you have hypertension, it is necessary to keep it under control, strictly following the instructions of your health care provider and to take a serious course of treatment with proper medications.…

Stress and Its Effects on Blood Pressure

Stress as we all know is a part of our everyday lives.  Some of us are better than others at managing it, but stress is simply part of the human condition.  Many studies have looked at the effects of stress on our bodies, but what about blood pressure?  What is the effect of stress on blood pressure (BP)?

Intuitively we know that stress will raise blood pressure.  But does that result in high blood pressure, or hypertension, which requires treatment by a doctor?  Unfortunately the answer to this question is not easy and straightforward.

As mentioned, we know that stress affects our bodies.  When confronted with a stressful situation we feel emotional discomfort, of course, but our bodies also release hormones into the blood stream.  These stress hormones, adrenaline and cortical, are released in response to what is call the “flight or fight” reaction.  You may remember this term from your earlier biology studies. 

The body’s response to these stress hormones is a survival mechanism that increases heart rate and constricts blood vessels in an effort to increase blood flow to the core of the body as opposed to the extremities.  This, in turn, causes BP to rise.  This rise in BP is only temporary, though, so when the stress is alleviated, blood pressure returns to pre-stress levels.  This type of stress is considered situational and its effects are usually short-lived and go away when the stressful incident is over, causing no serious health problems.

On the other end of the spectrum from situational stress would be chronic stress.  Chronic stress, however, is not thought to cause high BP.  While researchers do not exactly what causes hypertension, we know the contributing factors:  being overweight, poor diet, lack of exercise, and alcohol to name a few.  Since stress can either directly or indirectly cause many of these factors, we can make this link between chronic stress and high blood pressure.  In other words, chronic stress can cause behavioral changes that may increase blood pressure.

Since we can identify many of the factors that may cause hypertension and we know that chronic, as opposed to temporary, stress can increase the occurrence of these risk factors, it’s important to look at the link between stress and blood pressure in terms of behavior.  That is, individuals who suffer from chronic stress should consult not only with their primary care physician, but a behavioral specialist (e.g. psychologists) as well.  By viewing the problem in both physical and behavioral terms, a better course of action can be developed. Over time, this should hopefully allow for more effective management of the stress in one’s life and therefore afford a more healthy and productive existence.…

Dieting to Reduce High Blood Pressure

You probably know that dieting to reduce high blood pressure can save your life! It will be one of the most important life choices you ever make that not only affects you but affects your family and friends. Think about what could happen if, you don’t make take action? That wasn’t a good thought right?

I’m not here to scare you into dieting but I want that light bulb in your brain to take note that high blood pressure can lead to grave health risks or death. By painting a picture of what could happened if, you continue to neglect your health I’m hoping that grave image motivates you to improve your health. Its best to prevent those images from occurring by taking action now.

There are many factors that cause high blood pressure such as your family history, your race, ethnic origin, your occupation and your living environment but it boils down to bad or a lack of a healthy diet and exercise routine. The real question is what are you going to do now?

You’re probably overwhelmed at your medical condition but the important thing is to know that by taking gradual steps to properly improve your diet and physical exercise you can get healthy and overcome it.

To get healthy start by dieting (pick a program that is flexible, suits your needs and lifestyle). Its ideal to combine a great diet program with an excellent exercise program to help you improve your health and lose weight. Research shows that just losing 4.4lb to 9.7lb can significantly lower your blood pressure.

When you’re dieting to reduce your high blood pressure choose a program that is flexible and suits your needs. A flexible program should allow you to be able to eat and prepare meals for any lifestyle whether you’re on the road a lot for business, work or school. This will allow have great convenience and will not deter you from sticking to the program which case when a program gets too complicated.

Make sure that you stick to your dieting routine and that you choose an affordable dieting program. There are many online programs that can be found for under $100. Assess your needs, choose a program, stick with it and you’ll start looking and feeling amazing in a matter of weeks!…

The Keys to Opportunity – Motivation and Self-Confidence

Motivation and self-confidence is something everyone needs. Unfortunately, many people today lack the motivation and self-confidence they need to be happy in life. They wander through life surviving in any job they can find and when they are not working, they spend their time waiting for something good to happen to them.

We were all taught to go to college, get a good job, and retire with a fat pension. But, today the world has changed and we need to change with it. We must be able to adapt to our new world or we will not grow. If we do not grow, we will cease to exist.

Today, even in our difficult economic times, the opportunities are endless. It is times like these that we need to use our creativity and think of new ways of doing things. We must use our creative imaginations to remove or go around the obstacles in our life as we strive to make our place in the world.

It is a little known fact that during the Great Depression, the United States produced more millionaires than any other time in history. Creative people began companies such as Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Ryder, Revlon, and La-Z-Boy.

There were other companies who, during the Great Depression, used their creativity to entice people to purchase their products. When Post Cereal decided to cut its advertising budget, Kellogg’s not only increased their budget, they came out with Rice Krispies. They constantly advertised Rice Krispies and people purchased it.

It takes a creative mind to survive trying economic times. It also takes complete motivation and self-confidence to do what others can’t or won’t do. And most of all, it takes courage to continue to do what everyone else tells you is impossible.

Nearly every country in the world was built upon the thoughts and ideas of self-confident, highly motivated, creative people. These are the people who made our lives easier by giving us the products, services, and basic necessities we use daily.

These people were, for the most part, average everyday people with ideas, creativity, and imagination. Some of these people had money, while others only had the shirts on their back. They knew they needed to make a place for themselves within our large ever-expanding world.

Everyone is born with creativity. It is an ability that is sometimes dormant until we run out of options within our life, thus we hit rock bottom. Once we hit rock bottom, there is nowhere else to go but up. This is when our creativity comes alive and we need our motivation and self-confidence the most.

Once we have our motivation and self-confidence, we can stop waiting for good things to happen to us and go out into the world and make them happen for us. It is our responsibility, as human beings, to use our talents and skills to survive and grow.…

Lower Blood Pressure Naturally By Changing Your Diet

When it comes to trying to lower blood pressure naturally, an honest review of your diet is the first place to start. Keeping a food diary for 10 days will provide you with a clear picture of what it is you are doing to your body. You may be shocked at just what and how much you actually do eat once you see it in black and white. It is so easy to snack here and there without realizing just how often and how much you are actually consuming.

When it comes to health, few things are as important as diet. Many people choose to diet as a means of losing weight, and the health benefits that come with maintaining a healthy body weight can be enormous. There are literally hundreds of diet programs and weight loss solutions, so finding one is not difficult. Shedding excess weight is a fantastic way to lower blood pressure naturally, plus it helps to keep all body systems healthy and functioning properly.

Following a healthy diet while you are attempting to lower blood pressure naturally has several benefits. Obviously it can prevent unnecessary weight gain and just as importantly, it can provide your body with the nutrients it requires to stay focused, energized, and generally healthy. Feeling better in general will help you build momentum with your healthy eating plan and it will become even easier to stick to this way of life. When trying to reduce hypertension naturally, weight loss is clearly an effective means of achieving this.

As you could imagine, there are many facets to a healthy diet plan and the requirements are usually different for every person. Since you are trying to reduce high blood pressure, it is most probable that your diagnosis of Hypertension was provided by your doctor or a health care professional. Certainly there are basic guidelines that everyone can follow if your desire is to reduce or eliminate your hypertension naturally. It is highly recommended that your doctor or a nutritionist be consulted so they can best devise a diet program to suit your specific needs and requirements. Make sure you tell your doctor or nutritionist that you are trying to lower blood pressure naturally. Once they are aware of this they are in a better position to work out exactly what foods you need to be eating and in what quantities. This will allow them to better tailor a program to successfully achieve your goal and be a match for your personal metabolism and body type.…

Overcoming Depression Naturally With Herbs

There are several herbs that have gained popularity for their benefits to mental health and two of the most powerful and readily available in most places are St. John’s Wort and Schizandra.

St. John’s Wort has been popular worldwide as a remedy for relieving depression by promoting feelings of well-being. This herb is useful for relieving anxiety, stress, and insomnia while naturally boosting mood. St. John’s Wort is so effective because it naturally enhances levels of serotonin in the body; serotonin is the “fell good” hormone that is secreted in during pleasant situations but is often lacking in the brains of those who struggle with depression. Please note that there is new research outlining the importance of avoiding St. John’s Wort if you are taking contraceptives, antidepressants, immunosuppressants (like cyclosporine), anticoagulants, Digoxin, HIV medications, blood thinners, seizure-control medicine, or cancer medications. If you are taking any of these medications, avoid the use of St. John’s Wort for depression to keep drug interactions from occurring.

If you’re feeling let-down because you are currently taking some of these medications or are startled at the long list of possible drugs that will interact with the herb, consider Schizandra.

Schizandra is a berry that has been popular in Chinese medicine for thousands of years and is only now gaining popularity in America. Schizandra is an adaptogenic herb meaning it addresses the body as a whole, not only a certain aspect of the system. We’ve learned through modern medicine that we can focus on a symptom of an illness and treat just one symptom at a time to feel well. For example, if you have the flu you may treat the headache with one medication, nausea with another, and fever with a third. Adaptogens work in the opposite way of this and support the system, not causes of illness.

What does this have to do with depression? By incorporating an adaptogen like Schizandra into your daily routine you’ll help your body maintain balance from your brain to your toes. Adaptogens benefit mood, help to detox the body, increase circulation throughout the body, improve concentration, and can safely replace any product you may take to address each of the issues individually.

Herbs can be so beneficial in the fight to overcome depression naturally. Don’t rely solely on the products found in a pharmacy or one created in a lab. Hippocrates said “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food” and I think this is close to what he meant. Nature provides us with outlets that can improve our quality of life tremendously without negative effects to other parts of our body.

Give yourself the opportunity for your whole body to heal. Stop addressing certain symptoms and support yourself, fully.…

Use Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure to Reduce Hypertension Naturally

These days the problem of hypertension or high blood pressure is a common medical condition. When the pressure is exerted on the walls of the arteries by the pressure of blood at the time of circulation then there is an elevation of systematic pressure and this condition is called high blood pressure. Usually the pressure of our blood is high, when the heart pumps the blood in to the aorta and the pressure decreases gradually when the blood reaches the smaller blood vessels like arteries, capillaries and arterioles.

The upper number in the reading of the pressure indicates systolic pressure and the lower number indicates diastolic pressure. There are various causes for the problem of high blood pressure. Some of the important causes of the high blood pressure are intake of contraceptive pills, physical inactivity, stress and anxiety, intake of tobacco and alcohol, obesity, aging, intake of some other medicines like diet pills, amphetamines, pseudoephedrine, family history and sodium or salt sensitivity.

There are lots of symptoms of high blood pressure. Some of the major symptoms of high BP are restlessness, confusion, fatigue, nose bleeding, headache, insomnia, nausea and vomiting, impaired memory, blurred vision, shortness of breath and pain in the chest.

The problem of hypertension can be cured easily with the help of natural remedies. Some of the important natural remedies to reduce hypertension are given below

1. Person suffering from the problem of hypertension must reduce the intake of salt or sodium and must increase the intake of potassium.

2. You must strictly avoid smoking and alcoholism.

3. Blood pressure can be controlled by taking baked potato.

4. You must strictly follow the routine of doing exercises. It will improve blood circulation, metabolism and it will also check obesity.

5. You can also check your hypertension by walking bare foot on green grass for about half an hour. It improves the circulation of blood.

6. Intake of 2-3 cloves of raw garlic daily is very helpful and effective for treating the problem of high blood pressure.

7. You must take the juice of Indian goose berry mixed with honey daily. This is a proven natural precaution against hypertension.

8. Your BP can be immediately reduced, if you take a juice of half lemon in a glass of water.

9. Intake plenty of water is helpful in reducing the problem of hypertension. It improves the circulation of blood and it is also helpful in checking abnormalities due to pressure.…

Eat Your Way to Reduced Hypertension

Eating our way to reduced hypertension is not a far fetched idea; after all, we are what we eat. Just as there are foods, such as salt, that can make our blood pressure soar there are also foods that have the opposite effect.

The problem is our modern diet which is high in saturated fat and sodium, both of which can elevate our hypertension. These are mainly found in the highly processed foods and snacks that we eat on a daily basis.

The solution is simplicity itself. Reducing the amount of saturated fat and sodium in our diet and increasing the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables we eat can lower our high blood pressure.

Which foods should we eat to reduce our hypertension?

Having skimmed milk on our wholegrain breakfast cereal each day can help lower our high blood pressure by as much as ten percent. Skimmed milk is almost fat free, but high in vitamin D and calcium, both of which are known to lower high blood pressure. Calcium can also be found in sardines, salmon, nuts, and dark green leafy vegetables.

Foods that are rich in magnesium, such as beans and spinach, also help to reduce our hypertension. Other sources of magnesium are figs, grapefruit, whole grains, almonds, and apples.

Bananas, oranges, watermelon and spinach are rich in potassium. Potassium helps our bodies to rid itself of extra fluid. That has two benefits. Firstly, it helps eliminate excess sodium; and, secondly our heart does not need to work as hard both of which help to reduce our hypertension. Eating foods high in dietary fibre, such as whole grains, fruit, and vegetables can significantly reduce our high blood pressure.

Not all fats are bad for our health. Our bodies need some fat. Omega-3 fats, typically found in oily fish such as mackerel and salmon, are known to help reduce our hypertension.

Replacing our high fat, salty snacks with fruits high in magnesium, potassium, or calcium is a healthy way to curb our hunger between meals without raising our blood pressure.

Such is the variety of foods that can help to reduce our hypertension it is easy to construct healthy menu plans when they are combined with fish and lean meat without having to eat the same thing every day. Studies have shown that eating enough of these foods in the right combination can be as effective as medicine for some people. We have a choice: we can continue digging our graves with our teeth or we can eat our way to reduced hypertension.…

How Teenage Depression Affects Teenage Self-Esteem

Teenage depression is a common problem faced by many teenagers. Even if they come from the healthiest environment, due to various hormonal changes in their body result in them feeling extremely low and depressed. If parents do not take it seriously it can result in loss of teenage self-esteem and ultimately teenagers can take extreme steps like committing suicide. It is therefore important to give teenagers lots of love and unquestioned support to help them navigate through this difficult phase of their life. Below are some of the symptoms that can help you recognise if your teenager is suffering teenage depression.

Behavioural Traits: Low teenage self-esteem and teenage depression can manifest themselves in the form of extreme behavioural traits like withdrawal or irritable behaviour and increased violence. They might get upset about the smallest of things and start shouting. Often they might throw things in the house or cause destruction in other ways. In some other cases they might withdraw completely and stop communicating with family members.

Suicidal Tendencies and Self-Harm: Suicidal tendencies and self-harm are both extreme symptoms of teenage depression and low teenage self-esteem. Following are some of the key symptoms of suicidal tendencies or self-harm:· Your teenager starts talking about committing suicide · They start associating with death in a positive manner · Some teenagers also go further by fantasising about death through personal diaries or poems and making comments on social networking sites indicating their thoughts· Others show reckless behaviour like driving too fast, hurting themselves and having lot of accidents· Your teenager might also start withdrawing from best friends and family · They can seek weapons and materials to commit suicide· Self harm can be noticed by cuts or scarring, a tendency to wear a different style of clothing to cover up the marks, or finding sharp objects or plasters in your teen’s room.

These behaviours are very serious and as parents you need to take your child to a doctor or psychiatrist immediately.

Eating Disorders: Another major symptom of teenage depression is eating disorders leading to excessive weight gain or loss. Low teenage self-esteem resulting from appearance, obesity or poor performance at school could lead many teenagers to go to the extreme of either eating too much or too little. If you start noticing these signals, it is worth probing to see if your teenager is suffering from depression.

Teenage depression is one of the major reasons for teenage suicides in recent times. Parents need to be extremely careful and should provide maximum support to their teenagers so that they can navigate through this difficult phase of their life with confidence. In the book “Solving Teenage Problems” over 100 tips are provided to help parents support their teenagers who are suffering from depression or any other teenage problem leading to depression. It is important for parents to use every tool within their means to keep their teenagers happy.…