First on the list is to get rid of bad vices. What I’m talking about are the ones that can worsen our body such as smoking and drinking alcohol. Since you want to live healthy, obviously, these things would not help you in achieving and maintaining a healthy life.

In the case of alcohol intake, most people, with exception to health experts, have no idea that alcohol can work fast enough to put someone to death. Not to mention the effects of it when you drank too much. In case you don’t know, alcoholic beverages are actually rich in calories. Did you know that approximately 4 ounces of martini being taken in a day can actually add about 600 calories? You will be surprised to know that it is almost close to the 1800 to 2000 total calorie requirement for an individual. Although at this time of drinking, a person may not feel dizzy or let’s say drunk, but what he or she don’t realize is that the alcohol is slowly compromising the process of producing the necessary supply of fuel for the body. In addition to that, did you know that the fat content from the alcohol you have consumed is collected and stored in your liver? If your liver will become highly occupied with fat, this condition can result in a disease called cirrhosis. And the disappointing thing is, people who consumes too much alcohol will not notice the fact that the liver is already destroyed – this is because cirrhosis doesn’t cause pain thus, the person wouldn’t feel anything – in short, cirrhosis is a silent killer.

On the other hand, another bad vice called smoking is also a great health risk. One form of cigarette is called tobacco. Experts in respiratory system or just about any health experts are quite against this thing. Even ordinary people knows how bad the effects of smoking can bring to one’s life. Basically, you are not just killing yourself but you are also endangering the lives of the people who inhale the smoke coming from your cigarette. If you really want to live longer and healthier, my advice is not to try smoking at all. Avoid it at all cost! If you are already a smoker though, quitting smoking is probably one of the best things you can do to make your life healthier and less risky. Remember that only you alone can prevent the effects of smoking and drinking alcohol from destroying your life.

Other ways to help you in achieving and maintaining a healthy life requires physical effort. Obviously, that includes engaging in physical activities such as exercise and playing sport and games that can enhance not just your body condition, but also your mental power. Having regular exercise such as jogging, walking, push-up, pull-up, skipping rope, etc. can greatly improve your cardiovascular system. Basically, exercising will make your muscle interact with your veins, forcing your blood to circulate properly through your heart. This will help the heart minimize its beating and heavy pumping of the blood. In short, it will lighten up the load of your heart, making it healthier. Besides the fact that exercising can improve the cardiovascular and circulatory system, it can also enhance the physical vigor and alertness of mentality of an individual, making you ready to face any challenges in life.

Another great benefit of these physical activities is that it can help you lose weight. As we all know, having a moderate weight can contribute greatly to one’s health. It can also help you have the self-esteem you need to face the world. If you are an overweight person and willing to trim down some fat out of your body, you should treat exercise as a must!

In addition to physical activities such as playing sport and exercising, traveling is also a great way to live healthy and enjoy life. If you have enough money to travel, why not take a vacation? There is nothing like going to different places and experience something you have never done before. Keep in mind that getting out of your everyday routine and finding some quality time to relax is a good way to revive the true essence of living. Do what you enjoy – explore more, live more! By doing these things, you are also sharpening your optimism. As what the saying goes, a joyful heart can work wonders and heals more than any medicine. Scientifically speaking, it has been proven that being sad and depressed can actually weaken the metabolic process of a person thus, creating a stressful kind of life. I hope by now you realized that happiness is a must if you want to live a healthy life.

A healthy life also needs some technical help from the experts in order to be maintained. What I mean to say is that, if you can, you can undergo a medical check-up periodically – in short, consult your doctor! Basically, your doctor will check your body condition. Vital body parts such as your heart, lungs, eyes, etc. will be supervised at the moment if they are working properly. If some thing is wrong, your doctor will suggest an action for you to take. Like in the case of having an x-ray of your chest, this process will tell if there is something wrong with your lungs and heart. Testing your blood pressure can also prevent hypertension from happening. In addition to that, I want you to know that having a regular check-up is something that you can consider as a necessity especially when you are already at your mid-30’s to 50’s. Most likely, you have experienced a lot of body pressure at the first 20 to 30 years of your life, accumulated a lot of cholesterol, inhaled smoke from cigarettes, cars, etc., drank alcohol (that is, if you are a drinker), and many more. These things will greatly affect your future health so it is advisable to have regular check-up for you to be aware of what is going on with your health at the present time.

Lastly, have some knowledge about the symptoms of various diseases so if ever you encounter a couple of symptoms that may lead to a certain complication, at least you already have the idea on how to deal with it and hopefully, you will do something to eradicate it before it will become worse. This is also the time when health experts will come to the rescue. That’s why, like I said before, it is advisable to consult your doctor regularly so they can help you in preventing symptoms from coming in. So that’s it! Keep in mind that by following these health tips I gave you, with exception to accidents, may actually increase your life longevity by up to 30 years and will keep you healthy throughout your years. And with that time span, you can surely do a lot of exciting things for your life. Despite the fact that your skin will wrinkle and your eyesight may blur as you grow old, but at least you have lived a healthy and fulfilling kind of life. So my last advice, start living “the life” right here, right now! And always remember the word, enjoy! Happiness is healthy!

Image via Wikipedia

When one patient’s tests came back showing she was suffering from breast cancer, she quickly realized biking, skiing and caring for her two young children and continuing her lifestyle was more important to her than her figure. Her first inclination was to have her whole breast removed and undergo reconstruction surgery. But after she informed herself of the possible side effects from the procedure, arm swelling, a frozen shoulder, scarring around the implant, she determined that a functioning shoulder was preferable.

After a diagnoses patients often gather up an odd assortment of medical information that is only half accurate. A patient may get the impression a treatment is going to effect a cure when it might only lessen the symptoms. Time is short and surgery for a torn ligament beats, to the doctors mind, trying rest, exercise, or physical therapy. Many doctors assume patients don’t want the burden of information or making choices, and most often patients do defer to their doctor although doctors rarely give comprehensive information. To help you make informed decisions go to www.informedmedicaldecisions.org

Patients who are well informed will often make different decisions than their doctors with no adverse outcome, and sometimes better outcomes. At the very least, take time to process the diagnosis and get your questions about treatments answered. Most situations are not medical emergencies. Ask in advance if you can tape record the office visit since people often do not retain information after leaving the doctors office. Get informed, take your time, and come to a decision that seems right to you.

http://healthmad.com/women/straight-talk-about-womens-health-problems/

http://healthmad.com/addiction/get-the-monkey-off-your-back/

http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/heart-surgy-anyone/

http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/signs-of-diabetes/

http://healthmad.com/health/keep-your-bones-strong/

Many doctors assume that patients don’t want to be burdened with the medical choices and options available to them. That is true in part, often the patient is unable to answer even the most basic questions about their illness, but simply goes along with the doctor. And most doctors don’t give comprehensive information. Time is short and other patients are waiting. It is up to the patient to inform themselves about their illness and their choices.

Image via Wikipedia

Decades of research at Dartmouth Atlas Project, which analyzes how medicine is practiced across the country, has shown that the treatment a person is given is influenced by the local doctors practice pattern. So depending on where you live, you will be more likely to get aggressive treatment when a lifestyle change plus medication would be called for in another area. More informed patients may have a larger range of options than they are aware of with better outcomes.

Image via Wikipedia

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Dem, is pitching a program to better inform patients and usher in joint decision making between patient and doctor. He wants to implement it for 11 conditions that make up 40% of Medicare spending on inpatient surgery, including early stage prostate and breast cancers, osteoarthritis of the knee, hip, and spine. It doesn’t take the doctors opinion out of the pot but it does give the patient a say so in the final choice of treatment.

Image via Wikipedia

For instance the doctor might recommend surgery that may improve symptoms of an enlarged prostate but it can also cause impotence, incontinence and retrograde ejaculation,or dry climax. When a man and his doctor share in the decision making, the focus is on patient values. How do you feel about impotence? Is it important to you? What about incontinence?

A doctor can prescribe DVDs and booklets to better inform the patient or the information can be found online. These decision making tools address all kinds of decisions from getting a flu shot to heart surgery. Besides the risks and benefits you will be helped to probe your feelings about any side effects, lifestyle changes and how you will deal with them. Some insurance companies offer decision-making tools. Call after a diagnosis is made to find out.

General information can be found on www.guidesmith.org

http://healthmad.com/healthcare-industry/hospitals-and-cleanliness/

http://healthmad.com/healthcare-industry/consult-your-pharmacist/

http://healthmad.com/medicine/medicine-and-genetics/

http://healthmad.com/medicine/food-and-drugs-that-don’t-mix/

http://healthmad.com/medicine/awareness-during-surgery/

The first step before you do anything should be talking to your doctor.  Explain to them that you want to start a diet and exercise plan.  Express your goals and give yourself a reasonable time frame to reach your goals in.  Your doctor will help you determine your limits, and they will give you crucial guidelines.  As great of a thing as it is to lose weight and decide to take care of yourself, if you’re currently unhealthy, you need to be careful.  While trying to better yourself, you can actually put your body into shock if you’re not careful.  Seeing your doctor is a crucial preventative measure.

Your second step should be to rid your house of all things bad.  This means getting rid of sugary, fatty foods.  Your doctor should give you a list of things to cut out of your diet.  These things should also be taken out of your home so you do not feel the pressure to eat these bad things.  Let’s be honest, if there is cake in the kitchen, it’s tempting to go have some.  It’s natural!  With it not even being in your house, it’s not in your sight, and thus, more likely to not be on your mind.  You should pull up charts off the Internet that enforce a better diet.  You can also see a nutritionist for a personalized diet plan.

Be sure to keep your diet plan in mind when you go out to eat!  Just because you’re out does not mean you can “slip up” on your diet.

Ease yourself into exercise.  Start walking and maybe even running a little bit.  Make sure you have the proper shoes for this, or you’ll be in some bad pain.  Join a gym, buy home exercise equipment; just do something!  It’s great motivation if you have someone with you, too!  You can motivate each other to go for a run or walk, instead of sitting in front of the TV.  You also can set times to go to the gym with your partner.  Do not allow yourself or the other person to say “maybe tomorrow, or next week”, because you know that isn’t going to happen.  If it doesn’t happen NOW, it’s not going to happen!

Get on a schedule.  Plan out your meals and when you’ll eat them at home.  Also, bring prepared food to work with you.  It saves money and saves you from making poor meal-decisions.  Try to work out and exercise at least 3-4 times a week.  We all have lives, so it’s understandable that everyday is not practical.  You should always give your body a day or two off when you start exercising.  This prevents damage and shock.  Ease into it.

Don’t obsess with scales.  Remember water weight and muscle.

You can treat yourself to a snack you like once a week, but no more!  Exercising or not eating a meal will not make up for the extra treat.  Have this weekly treat be a small one, and choose wisely!  It’ll be a whole other week before you can have another!  A very small piece of cake, 3 regular sized cookies, half a honey bun, etc.  Keep proportions small, and remember that you don’t have to leave your plate empty and clean.  Make a point to keep some food on the plate, to minimize your intake.

If you’re conscious of your goals, you should do fine.  Remind yourself of them often.  Write them down and leave copies of them around your home.  On the fridge door is a great place.  So are mirrors!  Remember that it isn’t impossible to lose your weight and be healthy.  If you do have any problems or irregularities, see your doctor as soon as possible, just to be cautious.

• Self-Confidence
  

  It may seem to be fairly uncommon to hear a man talk bad about himself and his physical appearance.  Men don’t usually say things, at least not in public, such as “I’m getting fat” in a demeaning way towards themselves because men tend to have slightly a bit more security in their physical attractiveness.  It seems that we have realized that we are who we are, and look the way we look, so either you’ll like us or you won’t.

• The Effects of the Erection
  

  Fact:  When a man has an erection, 7 times out of 10, he will not be able to think as naturally as he would without it.  Women can use this part of our anatomy to their advantage to get what they want out of us (hopefully you wouldn’t try to take too much of an advantage on us), especially if the male is also horny.  Theirs an old saying that “The body wants what the body desires,” but we take it to a whole other level if aroused changing it to something more like “The body wants what the body desires, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it!”

• The Ego and Need to be Needed
  

  Men seem to be born with the natural need to feel dominant, and alongside this feeling of dominance comes the will to be wanted.  Both the Male’s large ego and history’s shaping have given men the will to be cherished by their loved ones as a protector of them.  In other words, due to the inaccurate belief that most women could not protect themselves in the wild or from another offensive and/or aggressive male, the good men enjoy to feel like their woman or loved ones would call on him in case they needed protection or to be comforted.

I sincerely hope that this guide will have been a good source of information for all of you women out there who are trying to learn the thoughts and intentions of the male mind.  I will continue to make posts on this topic later on when I can further my search but until then, any suggestions and ideas are all welcome!

You probably already now that the only true way to reach true results is through commitment and hard work. Are the hopes lost? Not at all! Breathe in, roll your sleves back, and start your journey to a healthy life and fit body. The author of this article managed to achieve good results and keep them for a couple of years… no, no magic pills, only a lasting commitment.

This time we talk about healthy diet. You don’t need to threat starvation, neither you will have to eat carrots for the rest of your life. Healthy food can actually be delitious and surprise you (poasitively) every time. You may need to give your taste buds a month to get used to something less fat and sweet though.

Print this list, stick to your fridge, and, most importanty, enjoy your new life!

• Eat delicious, balanced meals that have proteins, good carbohydrates, good fats, and a good deal of fresh vegetables.
• Good carbohydrates are those that are slow to absorb, i.e., those that have lots of fiber: full-corn grain and their products (bread, brown rice), beans, nuts, vegetables, and non-tropical fruit.
• Good fat are Omega-3 and unsaturated fat, which are found in fish, walnuts, olive oil, avocado. Cut off butter and animal fat to small amounts (for example., consume only low fat milk and cheese), and remove trans-fats (dehydrated oils) from your diet completely.
• Healthy foods rich in proteins are lean fishes and meat, low-fat curd and cheese, soya and other beans, peas, nuts in small amounts, egg whites (and yellows in small amounts).
• Fresh vegetables with every meal are essential. Prepare salad with fresh lemon and olive oil sauce. Eat fruit in reasonable amounts for dessert or as a healthy snack.
• Eat soups, drink water and tea. Instead of juice, better eat a fruit that is full of fiber. You will feel full for longer.
• Eat rich desserts occasionally. Have a healthy version, when possible – it is a myth, that you will crave for more, if you choose a full-corn, low-sugar brownie instead of chocolate cake with cream and loads of white sugar. Healthy desserts can be very satisfying. In general, get used to less sweat meals, use healthy oils, and full-corn flower. Add dried fruit, nuts, oats, and pure cacao powder. To sweeten, use small amounts of honey, but avoid artificial sweeteners.
• Avoid alcohol – it is actually a sugar bomb, even if it’s not sweat, as well as an excellent apetizer. Moreover, it is easier to lose control after drinking. All that said, a glass of red wine with an enjoyable dinner has not fattened anyone yet.
• Do not let yourself starve. Eat a healthy snack, when you feel hungry: natural low-fat yoghurt with fresh fruit and nuts, vegetable salad, a slice of rye bread with low-fat cheese or meat and vegetables.
• Have a hearty breakfast, that will keep your stomach full until lunch. For example, eat warm oat porridge with fruit, nuts, low-fat milk, and extra fiber. If you wish, you can also have a dinner-like meal for breakfast, e.g., fish with vegetables and brown rice. If you prefer a sandwich with vegetables – that’s also fine. Discover, what fits you the best, or vary from day to day.
• Last, but not least, it is very important when and how much you eat, and what meaning you attatch to the food.

Let it be a natural, enjoyable part of your life, and by no way consider healthy lifestyle to be a torture, neither food to be an evil. Eat 5-6 times per day, including 3 hot meals. Stay busy, so that you don’t entertain yourself with eating. Work, spend time outside, meet friends, cook tasty dinners, occupy yourself with enjoyable activities. Do not refuse dinners with family and friends, but do be sure you have an enjoyable and healthy dish that fits your diet. Do not stay hungry, even if no vegetables are available, better eat a small piece of fat pizza than let your stomach eat itself.

Now that you have started with healthy food, you are ready to introduce more changes to your lifestyle. Yes, exercising is very important. The next article will give you tips on introducing more movement, as well as dealing with psychology of the weight loss.

Image source

Our health awareness is extremely low. It’ll be strange to know that this article will catch more reads. If it’s placed in the top ten of the hot list content, then it must be a miracle! Most people, particularly young generations aren’t interested to learn health knowledge as they think that they’re still energetic, younger and healthy, and thus HEALTH is not so important for them to place as their top priority in life. Only those who’re in the middle ages, elderly or the patients will they pay attention to their health as they’ve been tortured by diseases. But do you know that, according to the statistic, the death among the young generations is higher than those who’re 50 and above? You might be surprising to know that primary school children have engaged with hypertension, and by the time when they’re studying at the secondary school, they already have a problem of artery hardening. If young generations still ignore their health, the percentage of death among them will definitely increase in a surprising manner. How sad is this?

The current statistic shows that hypertension (high blood pressure) earns its “first prize”, the second goes to hyperlipidemia, while the third goes to cardiovascular disease. The mortality rate is found to be the highest in the age group of 30 to 50. The age is not the dominant factor for the mortality, as the culprit here are “high lipid/high cholesterol” and “high blood pressure.”

Image source

We all know that there’s an international standard which indicates that longevity is equivalent to 5 to 7 times of human mature period. That means, according to the nature rule, human life expectancy should be somewhere around 100 to 175 years old. But why can’t we meet this life expectancy? The reason is that every one of us has a very poor health care knowledge. Some even don’t bother to listen to health talks or seminars as they found them boring. If our health knowledge is not raised up to its level it should be, I fear that the global mortality will increase sharply. It’s sad to learn that the death here is not due to an old age, but it’s due to the ignorance of health as most of them die at the age they shouldn’t be. That means they die of way too young or too sudden. We should take appropriate actions to curb this type of mortality before the condition is getting worst.

On average, human life expectancy is 70 and above but the statistic shows that we’re at 67.88 years old, indicating that we haven’t reached to the expected average life expectancy. Of course, they’re some brilliant stars that have broken the record. One Englishman has been in the record as he had live to 209 years old. Besides this Englishman, there’s one Romanian woman who had live up to 104 years old, and in her life, she even gave birth in her age of 92 years old. Soong May-ling (or Soong Mei-ling), a former First Lady of Republic of China, also the wife of former President Chiang Kai-shek, died peacefully at her age of 105 years old. Despite of her old age, she still played a prominent role in the politics of the Republic of China. If these people can live up to 100 or beyond, why can’t we?

According to the natural law, mammals’ life expectancy is equivalence to 5-7 times of their growth period. And for human, the last grown out tooth (approximately 20 to 25 years old) is taken to calculate human’s growth period. Due to this calculation, the shortest human’s life span should be 100 years old, and the longest should be 175 years old. The recognizable life span in human life cycle should be around 120 years old. Within a period of 120 years, human should be able to live healthily up to 90 years old. This can be achieved by any one of us as it’s scientifically proven not to be a dream. That means, when you reach 70, 80, you haven’t developed any chronic diseases. In other words, the older you get, the healthier you are. Thus, living to 100 or more is easier for you to think of.

Image source

But what’s happening now? Those who should have lived to 120 years old die at the age of 70. That means they’ve less than 50 years to live on the earth. While analyzing the latest data, surprisingly, I found that most people have health problems at their ages of 40, and by 50 they already have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and/ or hypertension developed, and next, they disappear from the earth at the age of 60. This outcome tells me that, people nowadays have associated with diseases 50 years in advance, and thus death in advance of their actual ages is a common modern-day phenomenon. Therefore, you won’t be surprising to find them already engaged with 6 chronic diseases: hypertension, coronary heart disease, high lipid, heart failure, cancer, liver disease, coupling with diabetes, osteoporosis, AMD, Prostatic hyperplasia, Cataract, or to be more exact, their bodies have been a dumpsite for these deadly diseases. Sincerely, I feel extremely sad to look at this outcome. Hence, I urge you all not to die of ignorance. It’s a pity that many people nowadays have died of their ignorance of health.

It’s always appeared awe to me when I discovered that people in less develop countries seem to live longer. Vilcabamba in Ecuador, Hunza valley in India, and The Caucasus in Russia are home of the “Most Centenarians in the world.” In contrary, in most develop countries, people not lack of proteins as their main diets, generally has very less number of centenarian residents, and most of their life span, on average, not more than 65 years old. This is strange, right?

The healthiest countries are those whose consumption on vegetables and fruits is huge. If you don’t know how to care of your health by eating an appropriate diet, you’ll have your life shorter 5 to 6 years, and this figure will be added up every 10 years of your age. Someone claimed that the proper diet to maintain health is associated to authority, power and money. I strongly disagree to this point. We all know these three criteria are important for someone to success in life, but they aren’t determiners for a healthier life. Let me tell you why. The most powerful and authorized people can be attributed to the emperors in China during the reign of Qing Dynasty in the past. Out of 13 emperors, Tongzhi emperor died at 19, Shunzi emperor died at 23, Xianfeng emperor died at 31, Guangxu emperor died at 38, but Qianlong emperor died at 89. Of all of them, only Qianlong emperor lived longer because he knew how to care for his health. His health philosophy: exercise regularly, eating steamed cuisine, perfect combination of coarse and fine foods, travelling and eating healthily. From here we know that money is not everything, it won’t guarantee your health. The key factor here is health care. If you’ve piles of money, but don’t know how to live healthily, then you’ll have to wait for the death to knock at your door.

We often life live with a feeling of invincibility – as though we’re ready for anything. However obstacles can occur in our way when we least expect them to, causing us to veer off course. How ready are we to deal with these obstacles? Critical diseases such as heart attacks, cancer, and stroke can suddenly get in the way of a fulfilling life, striking the old and young alike. Without sufficient health knowledge and health care, the medical cost involved will not only affect us, but also our beloved ones.

Protect Yourself and Overcome any Obstacles!

Death and diseases do not discriminate age, gender, race, and social status. They can come to anyone, anytime and anyplace. In a nutshell, critical and chronic diseases can happen to anyone. That’s why adequate health knowledge and health care are essential in order to attain the best prevention and treatment in case of the unexpected. Are you ready to tide yourself through times of health knowledge need?

Be prepared for any obstacles in your life. By acquiring sufficient health knowledge, you’ll have a healthy lifestyle plan that can give you a comprehensive prevention guide towards diseases while maintaining your optimum health to reach your desire to live to 100 or more. Be healthily protected with a healthy living plan suggesting here. You don’t have to live in fear of critical illnesses ruining your hope and future, as I’m here ready to provide you a comprehensive guidance you need to live 100 percent.

Healthy Eating Habit is the Key Component in Anti-aging Planning

A Mediterranean diet is rich in colorful fruits and vegetables, olive oil and whole grains with few processed, refined or packaged foods. This low-fat diet has scientifically shown to be the best choice for disease prevention, healthy aging besides reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease more effectively than other diets. The studies by San Francisco cardiologist Dean Ornish agreed that low-fat but nutrient-rich foods help to prevent heart disease (the leading death in most western countries) and can help reverse it. In the study of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), a low-fat diet that includes 10 daily servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, plus 2 servings of calcium-rich dairy products have shown a significant decline in systolic and diastolic readings by 5.5mm and 3mm respectively for those suffering from hypertension. This experiment tells us that the dietary changes can result in reduced blood pressure.

Other studies indicate that the dietary changes could virtually eliminate hypertension that put 50 million elderly people in America at high risk of heart attack, kidney failure or stroke. Dr. Boyd Eaton, an Atlanta-based radiologist, once said, “Hypertension is not an inevitable part of aging.” He remarked in his book that Hypertension has become a disease of civilization. Scientists conclude that the low-fat, high fiber Mediterranean diet is an example for healthy eating and a long happy life. They also found that the hearts of those who had followed this diet pattern appeared 15 years healthier than those who betray this eating habit.

Antioxidant is a Powerful Booster for Your Immune System

Our body needs the antioxidants to fight off the “free radicals” (these substances are obtained either via foods or the environment around us, and they tend to cause the oxidation and breakdown of our cells). If our body is lack of antioxidants, these free radicals take a shortcut to cause a domino effect in cellular damage which will then prepare a quick “circuit” for “aliens” like cancer, aging and many types of diseases to colonize your “territory” (body). However, the presence of “good guys” (antioxidants) will help “compromise” (neutralize) with these damaging “culprits” (free radicals). Diets rich in antioxidants come mostly from a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The antioxidant and vitamins found in tomatoes and leafy vegetables help boost immune system, and delay the corrosion of aging cell membranes, while vitamin B help protect your heart. By increasing the intake of fresh plant-based foods (not the processed), you gain benefits of cancer-fighting phytochemicals, fiber to maintain the colon health and modulate blood sugar, and bone-saving calcium. The best thing of eating plants is that you won’t carry an overload belly or buttock (without getting fat). There’s no doubt that plant-based diet can benefit your body with the age-reversing effects. Why eating too much animal-based diet is not good for you? Read The Amazing Facts About the Meat and Think Before You Eat for more details.

Whenever possible, choose those foods that are pesticides and herbicides- free, and don’t dump these scary chemicals inside your body. Your body is not a cemetery to burry these chemicals. In other words, choose organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables for your optimum health and longevity. Restrict yourself on the intake of refined sugars and processed starches, and be sure to replenish your body with plenty and adequate amount of fresh, purified alkaline water.

“hara hachi bu” is a Strong Foundation for Staying Healthy Well Into Old Age

According to a 25-year study conducted by Drs Bradley Willcox, Craig Willcox, and Suzuki, as described in their book entitled The Okinawa Way that the Okinawans (in Japan) are populations renowned for their longest life spans. Furthermore, an Okinawan lifestyle has been regarded as the anti-aging lifestyle worldwide.

It doesn’t matter what Okinawans eat, but how much they eat. Their dietary philosophy is simple and practical. It’s known as “hara hachi bu”, which means eight parts out of 10 full. In simpler explanation, they stop eating once their stomachs are 80% full, making their daily intake less than 1,800 calories, as compared to 2,500 calories, the average intake of the American. If you eat ten parts out of 10 full, the 8 portion of 10 will be consumed by your body, whereas the remaining 2 portions will turn into waste products. This simple act of calorie restriction can have significant effects on longevity. Sadly to see people nowadays, as they’ve messed up their foods intake, in which animal-based foods is many times higher than plant-based foods, and there’s an obvious food imbalance between the coarse- and the fine-texture foods. So, how could they do not fall sick?

How to Have a Balanced Anti-aging Diet?

The general rule of thumb towards a long happy life is a balanced anti-aging diet. This diet should plan to have a division of 50 parts carbohydrate, 25 parts protein, and 25 parts fat. Take note that the carbohydrate here should include fresh fruits and leafy vegetables; protein should preferably from plant sources such as tofu and beans, with a little portion of meats; fat should be in the form of poly and mono-saturated, which is normally derived from nuts and olive oil instead of animal-based fat.

To make it simpler, your daily carbohydrate should be around 250 – 350g. But, this intake is not fixed as it’ll depend on your daily activity. For a fat female, who stays indoor without doing any tough physical activity which requires more strength, then her daily carbohydrate should be somewhere around 50 – 100g. Diet adjusting is vital to control excess weight or for those who’re on a diet plan. Once, there was an Italian singer, whose body weight was 151kg, and the doctor asked him to reduce his weight to 90kg. How could he achieve this figure? He used a diet control method to successfully keep his weight staying at 90kg.

The protein intake should be around 3 servings per day. It’s a general thumb of rule that the daily protein intake cannot be too little or too much. 3 to 4 servings per day are just nice. The more protein you take, the shorter your life will be. When too much protein is taken, there will be too much amino acids appear in your urine, which will definitely cause problem in your kidneys. Excess protein also causes indigestion, and eventually leading to the deposit of toxins in your intestinal tract which will later have negative impact towards your health.

The protein found in soy beans is not just served as a healthy food, but also it helps women to alleviate menopause syndrome. (Note: Menopause syndrome happens in women, and they’re more likely to have a sudden rise or sudden fall in blood pressure; their faces are more likely to suddenly turn into red or pale; they’ll have a sudden palpitation, sudden sweating, and in some cases, their tempers will become extremely bad).

Do you know why when females reach 50 years old, they become fat, accompanying by high blood pressure and osteoporosis, and very soon, they just look like old women? The reason is that they’re lack of estrogen. Estrogen plays its vital role by triggering the production of proteins (called metallothionein) which bind and store minerals in the body. Since estrogen influences mineral intake and thus it has proved to have thyroidal effects. As nuts boost estrogen levels in postmenopausal women to a stunning degree which helps to alleviate menopause syndrome, and thereby nuts (including almonds, pistachios, walnuts, hazelnuts and etc.) should be included in your daily diet. Other estrogen-like food is tofu which can also be considered as a daily diet. For everyone, not just restrict to females, you should have a 2-ounce handful of nuts daily for your health while stopping you from digging in the chips, candies, chocolates and snacks.

Consume grains and legumes that are in the form of sprouts to increase the fiber intake. Coarse- and fine-texture foods like corns, potatoes for example should place at your dining table at least three servings a week, but I recommend five servings a week for a healthier life. While for dairy products (free from Melamine), look for those that are “raw” milk, meaning that they’ve never been homogenized or pasteurized.

Choose energizing breakfast to start your day. The ideal food combination for breakfast include millet, tomato slices, fresh avocado, sunflower sprouts (or alternatively bean sprouts), seaweed, tofu, fax oil or olive oil (one to two drops), walnuts and basmati rice. Avoid having foods and beverages that are high in sugars and just simply plain carbohydrates (such as sweet rolls, pancakes, biscuits, muffins, maple syrup, ice cream, coffee, waffles, and etc.) and high in protein (such as sausage, omelette, grilled meat, barbecue, hamburger, nugget, and etc.) for your breakfast as these foods will eventually acidify your cells, muscles, tissues and blood.

Growing old can always view as a vitamin deficiency disease. This is because our body runs out of stream when we get older, and thus we need nutrients in the form of vitamin A, C, E and etc. But some of us have ignored the importance of including these vitamins in our daily meals. Do you know why aging Okinawans generally have a much lower incidence of Alzheimer’s or other forms of senility? This is due to that their diets are high in vitamin E, which seems to protect their brains in a good shape. Therefore, you should add vegetables and fruits that are rich in vitamins accordingly and appropriately, particularly vitamin E in your daily diet. By including your diet with essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements, your life span will increase significantly. This is due to their roles in preventing any possible deterioration in the cells, muscles, tissues, organs and system that may accelerate the aging process.

Here, I recommend you to eat an average of 7 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, 7 servings of grains or multi-grains, 2 servings of flavonoids-rich soy products in a day (alternatively, 60 – 120 g soy a day. Soy is rich in flavonoids–antioxidants strongly linked to low rates of cancer); omega-3 rich foods 2 to 3 times in a week; less than 6g salt intake in a day (about 3 teaspoons); less than 15% of oil intake in a day; and minimal intake of diary and animal-based foods. Your diet should include turmeric, mushroom, bitter melon, black fungus, hechima, huchiba, sweet potato, green tea, seaweed, ginger, carrot, pumpkin, tomato and etc. Remember to use either beans or tofu as the anchor to your meals.

Another healthy eating tip is that you should not eat when you are not hungry. 5 to 6 small servings throughout the day are better than 1 to 3 large meals per day. If you’re planning to keep on diet, make sure that you adjust your regular meals to smaller meals by eating some fresh fruits. Remember to avoid refined sugar which is normally added in many junk foods such as soft drinks, snacks and donuts. For your information, refined sugar is the main culprit found to indulge more production of cortical (an age-inducing hormone), which will turn your 20-year look into 30-year look or perhaps more. Try to chew your food 20 – 50 times depending on the size of food you ate before swallowing. This is important to promote better digestion while reducing the workload in your digestive system for maintaining the life span of the related organs.

“Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food” (Hippocrates, 460-c. 370 BC)

Red, Green, Yellow, White and Black: Perfect Food Combinations to Nourish Your Life

Previously, I wrote a related article entitled Five Great Colors for Excellent Health. Below is just some of the updated information.

Image source

“Red” here refers to tomato, chilli, red carrots, watermelon (with red flesh), grapefruit (with red flesh) and etc. One day one tomato helps male to cut off 45% of the risk of getting prostate cancer. Do you all know that eating tomato lower your risk from getting bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer? Lycopene has also been shown to lowered rates of prostate cancer, colon cancer and heart disease while warding off breast cancer. But, let me ask you do you know how to eat tomato? Some say they eat raw tomato, some say they eat raw slices tomatoes together with sugar, and worst still, some even eat tomato with beer. This eating habit is pointless as you won’t benefit from the tomato you ate and the tomato itself hasn’t prevented yourself from getting cancers. Generally, the cooked tomato is better than a raw tomato since the lycopene contained in the tomato is fat-soluble which means it’s easier to consume by adding olive oil or fats. That means when it’s cooked, then only it’ll help your body to assimilate its nutrients easily than if it’s eaten raw.  Attention, tomato won’t protect you from cancer if it’s eaten raw! If you’re a bit depressed or down, then you can eat appropriate amount of chilli to help restore your emotion. Carrots are another excellent food to add at your dining table, read on The Health Benefits of Carrots for further detail.

Image source

“Green” here refers to leafy vegetables, cucumbers, celeries, fruits and etc. I recommend you to eat green leafy vegetables and fruits for 500 g a day. The ratio between vegetable and fruit should be 8 servings to 2 servings or 8:2. You may also blend fresh vegetables into juices to obtain the alkaline salts, vitamins, antioxidants and fiber which served excellent for cleansing toxins purpose. Bear in mind that vegetables should be included in your breakfast, lunch and dinner. As fruits are generally high in sugar content such as fructose and thus they’re better to be eaten between meals.

It’s a sad thing if one is diagnosed for cancer. How to avoid yourself from getting cancer? The best option to prevent from getting cancer is to include green leafy vegetables and fruits (whenever possible choose these foods that are pesticides and herbicides- free) in your daily diet.  

Image source

“Yellow” here refers to pumpkin, potato, lemon, persimmon, yellow colored vegetables and etc. Why pumpkin is so good? A research conducted by East China Normal University found that pumpkin extract promotes regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells in diabetic rats, boosting levels of insulin-producing beta cells and insulin in the blood. This experiment suggests that compounds found in pumpkin could potentially cut the daily number of injections for diabetics. This is due to antioxidants and D-chiroinositol, a molecule that mediates insulin activity and thus people who always eat pumpkin can avoid from getting diabetes. For diabetes patients, I strongly recommend you to add pumpkin in your daily diet.

Image source

“White” here refers to banana, garlic, oat, ginger and etc. Oat, rolled or ground oats can be made into porridge, noodle, or bread. The former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was once diagnosed for high cholesterol but she refused to take medicine. Then, she ate oat made bread to keep her cholesterol to a safer level. One centenarian I met when he was at 101 years old told me that he used to have a bowl of oat porridge (alternatively, he boiled oat with water before serving) in the mornings. According to him, oat porridge had brought his cholesterol level down. Not only oat porridge can lower blood pressure but also it can reduce Triglyceride (a major component of very low density lipoprotein, VLDL and large lipoprotein particles called chylomicrons) in your blood. Indeed, oat porridge is an excellent food for both diabetes and hypertensive patients. It’s particularly good while dealing with hard feces due to its fiber content. Most elderly are living with hard and dried feces which can cause Cerebrovascular related diseases. Therefore, I strongly recommend them to have oat porridge as their breakfast. If you’ve high blood pressure, you must eat oatmeal, oat made bread, or oat porridge every day to help lower both your Triglycerides and blood pressure so that your blood lipids can be maintained in a healthy level.

Image source

“Black” here refers to black fungus, Japanese mushroom, black beans, and etc. Black fungus (also called tree ear, cloud ear, mouse ear, jelly mushroom and wood fungus) has a medicinal value for increasing the fluidity of the blood, improving circulation while reducing a hypercoagulable state (a medical term for a condition in which there’s an abnormally increased tendency towards blood clotting [coagulation]. When this condition happens, it can lead you to have a possibility of developing elevated blood clots in the veins, or thrombophlebitis). People who always eat black fungus can protect themselves from getting coronary heart disease, cerebral atrophy disease and cerebral hemorrhage disease.

Do you know who’re at higher risk of getting abnormally blood coagulation? If you’re fat/ obese, short, AB blood type, menopausal woman, or you’ve a relatively short neck, you must be aware of being placed in this dilemma. If you’re grouped under this description, please don’t feel worry. You must remember my advice here: drink herbal tea to promote good blood circulation; don’t lose your temper or angry, or else your blood will coagulate easily; just take red wine in moderation but not other alcoholic drinks and remember to limit the intake to less than 100ml a day; don’t eat peanuts; and lastly don’t watch television or surfing internet for longer hours as the longer you sit there without moving your body, your blood is more likely to coagulate unintentionally.  If a fat menopausal woman who has a short neck and AB blood type sitting there munching peanuts in an angry state, she’s more likely to be stricken by the attack of Myocardial infarction.

Nowadays, about 5 million Americans and more than 20 million people worldwide are living with a fatal brain disease called Alzheimer’s disease. Actually, this brain disorder is due to the blockage of micro-cells in the brain. This sudden blockage interrupts the cell’s factory from running properly. The unexpected blockage can cause half-body paradise, memory loss and internal brain bleeding, and further causing problems with thinking and behaviour that are severe enough to affect one’s work and social life. I therefore strongly recommend Alzheimer’s, hypertensive patients and those who suffer from atherosclerosis to try two remedies suggested here. Try yourself to see its positive effect.

Remedy 1: Consume 5 – 10g black fungus each day for 50-100 consecutive days. You can serve it as your side dish or soup.

Remedy 2: Ingredients: 10g black fungus, 3 pieces of ginger, 5 pieces of jujube (or Chinese red date) and 6 small Chinese bowl of water. Methods: Put them into a pot and boil to two bowls of water under slow fire. Remove it from the fire and add a pinch of sea salt (optional) before serving. Note: One serving for a day. This remedy should be followed for 45 consecutive days. I strongly recommend this remedy for the above stated patients. After 45 days, you’ll be surprising to discover that your blood clotting has been reduced accordingly. This is true as it has been scientifically documented and thereby I assure you with its effectiveness.

Other Powerful Foods that Boost Your Health and Lifespan

Image source

Bee pollen (food of the young bee) is the nature’s most completely nourishing super food as it contains all essential nutrients required by humans; and it is about 40% protein, of which half of its protein is in the form of free amino acids that are highly assimilated to be ready to use directly by the body. It has long been prescribed by traditional health practitioners (fathers of Western medicine Hippocrates, Pliny the Elder, and Pythogoras), and its consumption has been praised in most religious books, Bible, Egyptian and ancient Chinese texts for its extraordinary healing properties.

The former U.S. president Ronald Reagan had been said to survive an assassination attempt and a malignant tumor. He was then diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994 and died ten years later at his age of 93. Bee pollen was said to play a significant role for his health as he was alive despite of the assassination. Previously, Empress Wuzhetian and Empress Dowager CiXi used bee pollen for their beauty and health. And Japanese is one of the nations who have used bee pollen extensively to rejuvenate their body and beauty. Indeed, this bee pollen has remarkably shown its rejuvenating elements better than those present in brewer’s yeast and wheat germ. Bee pollen is found great to cure 95% of renal failure, bloody urination, and kidney tumor. Even so, there’s a rule of thumb that these conditions should be cured earlier before your kidneys wore off. Bee pollen is also called “police in the intestine” as it helps maintain the “traffic” in the intestine by enhancing proper digestive functions while relieving constipation. Over time, the consistent use of bee pollen will help enhance immune system, alleviate health problems, improve energy and stamina, and delay the aging process by improving your quality of life.

Image source

Potatoes (such as russets, reds, whites, yellows (also called Yukons) and purples), sweet potato, and Chinese yam are best known nutritional foods. They are great at their roles at absorbing water, fat, sugar and toxins. They absorb water to moisturise the intestinal tract; they absorb fat and sugar to prevent you from getting diabetes; they absorb toxins to prevent you from getting gastrointestinal related inflammation. Therefore, they should be included in your diet.

Image source

What on earth people have “lecithin” in their diets? Do you know why? The lecithin can prevent themselves from getting arteriosclerosis. But most of them don’t know that “lecithin” is found abundantly in an old corn, which costs them less. 

I have had a chance to understand a life of one centenarian who is now 80 years old. Despite of his old age, he’s full of energy and confidence, high spirited, clear vision, and his voice is loud and clear. I could hardly find any wrinkles around parts of his body. I was curious about his appearance. Then, I asked him the secret he maintains this youthful appearance. He responded me that he has been taking old corn porridge every morning for nearly 10 years. He further insisted, “You drink your milk, I take my old corn porridge, and see who can live longer then?”

Image source

Though bitter gourd has a bitter taste, it has been shown to alleviate many ailments of the liver, gout, rheumatism and spleen, while assisting to lower blood pressure, blood sugar and lipids in the blood. It has also been noted for its potent hypoglycemic components (a type of plant insulin) which have shown its highly beneficial result in treating diabetes. This is due to its mixture compounds of alkaloids and flavonoids which stimulate pancreas to produce insulin that helps control the blood sugar level in diabetics. I therefore strongly recommend diabetes, hypertensive, high-cholesterol, high-lipid patients and people who’re 50 and above to add bitter gourd as part of their daily diet.

Image source

Buckwheat is used primarily for making buckwheat noodles in Japan due to its excellent nutritional value. The USDA-ARS analyses reveal that buckwheat has an amino acid nutritionally superior to all cereals, including oats. It is also found rich in protein, particularly the limiting amino acid lysine as shown below:

Table above shows average amino acid concentrations in buckwheat. Source: Robinson, R.G., The Buckwheat crop in Minnesota, Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 539, 1980.

Diets that include Buckwheat have been associated with lowered risk of developing high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. As the Yi people in China have a diet rich in buckwheat (about 3.5 ounces or 100g per day), their blood lipid stays well below 800. Generally, the intake of buckwheat has rewarded them with lower LDL (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol that has been linked to cardiovascular disease), a higher ratio of HDL (high-density lipoprotein that promotes health) and lower total serum cholesterol. So, people who eat Buckwheat won’t get gastrointestinal cancer, rectal cancer and colon cancer as Buckwheat contains 18% of the cellulose. (warning: Buckwheat is not recommended to take in large quantities as it may cause a rash on the skin for certain individuals).  Buckwheat should become part of a diet for those who work in the office as they have a high risk of getting colon and rectal cancer.

Image source  Image source

Most people think that millet is just for the birds. In fact, this ancient prized grain-like seed is gluten-free and packed with vitamins and minerals. Traced back to its origin in China, millet has been one of the best-kept foods for our ancestor and it is even mentioned as a marvellous crop in the Bible. This grain rewards your health by acting as a prebiotic to feed important microflora in your inner ecosystem, provides serotonin to soothe and calm your moods, and helps hydrate your colon to keep you regular. The magnesium found in it helps reduce the effects of heart attacks and migraines, lower cholesterol (niacin (vitamin B3), reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, and its fiber has been shown to protect against breast cancer.

Nowadays, people suffer from insomnia causes them living in stress, neurosis, and depression. So, they swallow 2 to 4 tablets to get them sleep. Some even swallow 8 tablets but they still can’t sleep well. I advise you to take millet porridge. Then, you come to me and say, “Chan, I’ve a bowl of millet porridge, but I still can’t sleep.” “Hey, friend, how could one bowl work? It’s not a magic. Even you can’t expect morphine to react so fast.” If you want to have yourself slept well, at least you should eat millet porridge for 10 consecutive weeks. I’ve observed its effectiveness that people who consume millet porridge generally, have no problem with their sleep. I’d suggest you to have a bowl of old corn porridge in the morning and a bowl of millet porridge for your dinner to help you feeling soothing, have a good sleep and reduce your depression.

Image source

For over years, Spirulina (a variety of blue-green algae in the shape of a perfect spiral coil) has regarded as a super food or alkaline food that contains high concentration of whole food nutrients (highly valuable amino acids, vitamins, beta-carotene, pigments, 60% of all digestible vegetable proteins, trace minerals, and phytonutrients such as the rare essential fatty acid GLA, sulfolipids, glycolipids and polysaccharides), whose consumption is likely to provide better health particularly in enhancing the performance of the immune system, improving a specific bodily function.  It is always found to be an ideal supplement for a vegetarian diet. The chlorophyll (green) found in Spirulina helps cleanse the body toxins, phycocyanin (blue) supports protein absorption and healthy immune system, while beta carotene (orange) is a potent antioxidant.

Do you know why the Japanese are population with longest life expectancy in the world? Their average age is about 83.4 as compared to American whose average age is 72.5. One of their secrets for longevity is because of the food called Spirulina. They consume 500 tons of Spirulina in a year. When I encountered the Japanese tourists, I asked them why they brought along Spirulina with them while travelling. They smiled at me and said that 8g of Spirulina will sustain their lives (apart from their normal meals) for as long as 40 days. They further remarked that Spirulina is an ideal anti-aging food in Japan, 73% of those taking Spirulina are over 60 years old.

Image source

Nowadays, Spirulina has become a famous “star” in the world. If you are lack of nutrition, don’t forget of Spirulina as it’s a balanced diet. Spirulina is well assimilated by the body as it contains no cell walls, which helps combat problems like anaemia, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, free radicals which can lead to ailments like cataracts, arthritis and cancer, dissolve fat deposits due to the presence of gama linolic acid (GLA), prevent heart related problems, and reduce bad cholesterol. The National Cancer Institute of USA has announced its notable compound called sulfolipids which are remarkably active against the AIDS virus. The consumption of Spirulina, generally rewards you with increased anti-viral activity, reduced kidney toxicity, wound healing improvement, lower radiation sickness and immune system stimulation.

If you always get tired due to your work schedule, study or you can’t think clearly, taking Spirulina makes a big difference. Your body feels good and refreshing as Spirulina provides your body with essential nutrients for quick energy and nourishment. Unlike caffeine which acts like drug to drain your adrenals. The RNA deficiency due to mental exhaustion and tiredness which will always require the restore of RNA found in Spirulina. So, next time, when you feel tired, try to stick 2 to 6 Spirulina (the dose varies according to individual’s health) in your mouth to help restore your energy and concentration. The recommended daily intake for Spirulina is 1 to 5g. For adults averaging 120 pounds, you are suggested to take approximately 15 to 30 tablets, while for larger or smaller adults and children try adjusting the consumption accordingly.

Image source

It’s a nightmare to think of shortage of calcium in your body. First, you’ll have an occasional or constant bone pain. Second, the lack of calcium leads to bone density loss and osteoporosis, and when someone is having this disease, they have to suffer from waist pain, back pain, and/ or leg pain and dementia.  Third, you’re getting shorter and shorter as you age; your bones become brittle and crack easily, even a slight movement will get your bones injured and fractured. 

Our body needs about 800mg of calcium per day. Therefore, you should provide your body with sufficient amount of calcium by drinking milk. Milk provides an excellent source of calcium which is essential to maintain the strength and density of your bones. When shall you start drinking milk? You should start drinking it from 1 year old and till your life ends. Typical Japanese was short in height. However, after the World War II, Japanese government provided primary and secondary students with a carton of milk every afternoon. Since then, they’ve grown to an increased height till now.

Note: Make sure that the milk you consume is not tainted with Melamine.

While milk is good for health, about 70% people worldwide cannot absorb its lactose. In this case, you may consider of substituting it either with yogurt or soy milk.

If after consuming milk, you feel like vomiting, I suggest you to go for yogurt.  Yogurt has been cited for excellent health benefits for centuries, but many people don’t realize its important role in balancing the state of living organisms in our body which can eventually lead to living a healthy lifestyle. The balance of the state of bacteria means that yogurt promotes the growth of good bacteria, while eradicating the harmful bacteria. So, eating yogurt will make you less prone to illness.

Image source

Yogurt is made of milk or cream that is cultured with active live cultures or probiotics (living organisms that can result in an excellent health benefit when eaten in adequate amount) that are essential for your body and immune system to function at their best. These good bacteria help inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria that causes bacterial related infections and diseases, adjusting the microflora (the natural balance of organisms) in the intestine, preventing urinary tract infections, promoting digestive health and boosting the immune system. If you are taking antibiotics that will destroy the good bacteria present in your body, the intake of yogurt is an outstanding way to help restore your good bacteria level.

Yogurt is found to contain very high calcium since it is made from dairy products, which is highly beneficial for bone and teeth health, particularly for its excellent role to prevent bone density loss and osteoporosis. Yogurt eaters may also get a dose of animal protein (about 9g per 6-ounce serving), vitamin B2, B12, potassium and magnesium.

Image source    Image source

While purchasing yogurt, look for organic yogurts that say “live and active cultures” (contain probiotics) on the label. Yogurt with active cultures may help in inflammatory bowel disease, H.pylori infection, colon cancer, diarrhea, lactose intolerance and constipation. Also look for yogurt that is low in sugar, free of trans-fat or high fructose corn syrup, and it should be made with pasteurized cream or milk, but not any pasteurizing done after the culturing process. The latter can kill off the active live cultures and thus keeping you from reaping their outstanding health benefits. Choose for low-fat or fat free brand of yogurts, if you are on a low-fat diet.

Image source

If after consuming yogurt, you feel like vomiting, just substitute it with soy milk. Its estrogen-like compounds (such as isoflavones genistein and daidzein) are particularly good in preventing the growth of prostate tumors, heart disease, osteoporosis and more. The soy protein benefits you by reducing the bad cholesterol (LDL) levels while not affecting the levels of good cholesterol (HDL). As soy milk has about half of the calcium as compared to cow’s milk, you should consume it at a ratio of 2: 1 when you plan for the substitution of milk. People with hypothyroidism (as soy extract which contains isoflavone genistein may indulge thyroid problem) and people with existing cancerous cells in their bodies (soy milk may stimulate cells growth which might contribute to higher rate of recurrence cancer) are strictly not encouraged to take soy milk. However to prevent cancer, I advise you to drink a little soy milk. It’s not always a good thing to stop drinking milk, you can drink milk alternately with some soy milk to provide your body with essential nutrients. 

Other excellent foods have been documented as listed below:

• 10 Healthy Fruits to Promote Optimum Health
• Eight Great Fruits for Different Parts of Body
• Why Psyllium is Great for Health?
• Top Six Excellent Foods to Reduce Lipids and Cholesterol
• The Health Benefits of Celery
• 10 Extraordinary Super Foods that Boost Your Body and Immune System 1: The First Four
• 10 Extraordinary Super Foods that Boost Your Body and Immune System 2: The Last Six

Processed foods? No, thanks!

Preindustrial people tend to develop hypertension as they feed their stomachs more on refined, packaged and processed foods. The condition is totally different when you come across indigenous Yi people in southwestern China – these rural farmers never develop hypertension. You may ask why. The reason is very simple: they eat a traditional diet-rice, a little meat and lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, but they do not eat processed foods. Due to this reason, people in primitive settings have no change in blood pressure as they grow older. So, now you will not wonder why the lure of fast foods and even couch-potato can shorten life span for years. Specifically, living on fat, empty calories and salt can only put you in a nasty consequence of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The combination of high salt, high sugar, and high fat, generally, has brought negative impacts by damaging our brain and organs in an extreme extent, until one day you find hard to recognize or distinguish what is bad and what is good. Therefore, you should aware with the foods put into your mouth, before the foods trigger you to death or put you in affliction.

Image source

Why processed foods are dangerous to our health? The main culprit here is “salt”. Nowadays, many foods are added with salt or Sodium chloride in almost every stage of processing and preparation. Take for an example, a 4-ounce tomato has 9mg of sodium, and 4-ounce-bottled tomato sauce contains about 700mg – this figure sounds appalling! That means, each of us, nowadays, consume more salt than potassium. This diet pattern betrays the rule that is fixed by our ancestors 7 million years ago, in which the rule said that we should get 10 times more potassium than sodium in our diet. So, how could we not become the victim of hypertension?

Maintain Your Body pH

Image source

To maintain optimum health, your blood pH should ideally by 7.365 (= 7.4). This slightly alkaline pH level ensures microorganisms remain in harmony with the body while enhancing your body to function optimally. When healthy, the pH of spinal fluid and saliva is at 7.4. Half of the adults are found to have a pH of 6.5 or lower which indicates the calcium deficiency of aging and lifestyle defects. Cancer patients normally have their pH measured at 4.5, reflecting acidified body.

Why over-acidity (acidosis) is bad for your health? Cancer, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, gall and kidney stones and other degenerative diseases are an obvious indication of excess acidity in your body. The acidity condition interferes mineral absorption (calcium and iodine for example, are hardly being absorbed under a relatively acidic body), weakens immune system and circulation system, and thus leading to all sickness and disease including premature aging, obesity, heart attack, and cancer. When your body is over acidic, it becomes an ideal place for cancerous cells to grow (cancer cannot exist in an alkaline environment), your teeth and bones will be corroded or dissolved by the acidic substances in your body. The acidic body also becomes a bleeding ground for fungus, viruses and germs; these “aliens” will soon consume what you eat or drink and finally leaving you more acid waste excrements! In the worst cases, they will coagulate blood and finally get your capillaries clogged up. 

Photos credit: Labtest

Acidosis is a condition that will lead you to illness and it’s a result expressed via changes in your blood cells and plasma. Let’s have a look at healthy blood cells (left photo) and unhealthy blood cells (right photo). As you can see, the red blood cells in healthy blood are perfectly separated, repelling each other due to being negatively charged. Now, let me show you how acidosis has altered the individual’s healthy blood into a state of unhealthy, toxins, and damaged cells. Take a closer look on each of them.

Photos credit: Labtest

The left photo shows you a dried layer of blood of a healthy individual while the right photo shows you a dried layer of blood of an unhealthy individual who has cancer. The healthy blood portrays a clear fabrin network (or the black interconnecting lines), which is fibrinogen that describes one of the protein constituents of the blood. As you can see from the left photo, red blood cells are shown in the red-in between the black lines, but the right photo shows you that the blood cells fails to coagulate completely but has many white areas (polymerized protein puddles) due to the oxidative stress. The unhealthy blood cells here explain to you its degradation of the body’s extra cellular matrix from free radical activity which might contribute to the progress of other chronic diseases.

Photos credit: Labtest

These unhealthy blood cells are thought to be due to liver disease, bile insufficiency, increased cholesterol, lipids and lecithin content. The left photo clearly shows its 3 dimensional profile. 

Photos credit: Labtest

Photos show you platelets. The healthy platelets are neither square nor quite circular, appear in their typical color of very dark to black which can range in size from 2 to 4 microns. However, these descriptions are not the cases that you see in the photos. The increase of platelet count called thrombocytosis is dangerous to your health as it causes increased blood clot incidences, capillary blockage and poor circulation. The platelet excess is also a description of diseases such as chronic infection, cancer and certain blood toxicity or/ and diseases. It might be an indication of platelet deficit, in which a condition called thrombocytopenia occurs, or more exactly platelet count deceases in your blood. Typically, it appears more common in people either with excessive platelet destruction due to immune response or transfusion reaction, or a result of decreased platelet production due to chemotherapy and bone tumor. Excessive red meat, stress, chocolate, caffeine and stress, as well as extremely high triglycerides are some of its contributing causes.

Photo credit: Labtest

This photo indicates an excess dietary protein, poor assimilation, and often a case of poor protein digestion or might be due to an excess intake of animal protein. It might be an indication of the damage of pancreas, blood too toxic due to dehydration, cigarettes, excess intake of coffee, stress, anger, not drinking enough water and etc. These unhealthy blood conditions are particularly detrimental to patients suffering from occlusive vascular diseases since they can impair the blood flow in the small vessels (in which the red blood cells undergo gaseous exchange between carbon dioxide and oxygen). These unhealthy bloods can also be observed in some diseases states including diabetes, myocardial infarction, multiple myeloma, arthritis, and those who have an excess intake of alcohol.

Photo credit: Labtest

This photo shows you unhealthy blood cells that appear in hair-like, straight, and toothpick-like formations in its middle. They might be caused by toxicity (antibiotic, tobacco, cigarette, meat, drug and etc.), congestion, liver stress, bacterial overgrown particularly caused by bowel toxicity along with old, decaying and impacted feces. People with these blood states are always experiencing fatigue, headache, heartburn, bloating, autoimmune disease, indigestion, constipation, and backache.

Excess acidity forces your body to withdraw minerals from the bones, soft tissues, body fluids and saliva via a process called homeostatic mechanism to buffer/ neutralize the acid in order to remove it from your body. Your body then creates fatty deposits or cholesterol to store deadly crystallised acid substances away from vital organs such as heart, liver and kidney. Over time, the pH of these tissues or organs will fluctuate greatly, in which your body is more likely to become more acidic than alkaline. Therefore, replenish your body with an adequate amount of alkaline water is a must.

As your pH of saliva tells you the overall pH balance in your body, you can monitor your health progress in terms of acid/alkaline balance by testing your saliva pH. Don’t worry if your saliva is too acid. Just follow my recommendations here:

Increase the intake of alkaline foods, with 80% alkaline foods and the rest for acidic foods. Minimise the “strongly acidic foods” (such as meat, eggs, fish, sea foods, hard cheese) and “mild acidic foods” (such as milk, yogurt, legumes, nuts, grains, soft curds), but increase “strongly alkaline foods” that are rich in magnesium, potassium, magnesium, and “mild alkaline foods” such as leafy vegetables, berries and fruits.

Image source

The meat based foods and soft drinks should be reduced in your diet as they are regarded as acidic foods. Its acidity is due to the sulphur found in the concentrated protein of hard cheese, fish, meat, and the phosphorous in soft drinks and meat. Plant-based foods and drinks (such as coffee, wine, beer, juices of fruits and vegetables, herbal teas, tea, cocoa and etc.) are regarded as mild alkaline foods, and thus they should be included in your diet.

If your body is too acidic, then you should think of ideal ways to neutralize it by adopting alkaline diet for at least 3 consecutive months to eliminate or neutralize toxins and acids in your blood, tissues, muscles, organs, and lymph, while enhancing your blood circulation, and immune system. Try considering some of the recommended food choices here:

From → To:

Cow’s milk → Almond, soy or rice milk

Cold cereal, oatmeal, pancakes → Millet, buckwheat

Baked potato with butter →Basmati rice with olive or flax oil

Coffee, soda, alcohol, fruit juice → Alkaline water

1 liter/quart of water per day  → 1 gallon or more of water per day

Pizza, hamburger, fried chicken → Sprouted wheat tortilla with veggies

Iceberg lettuce salad → Spinach/red leaf lettuce with avocado

Vinegar/cream-based dressing → Olive oil-based dressing with lemon juice

Bread with jam → Oil/ tomato

Potato chips and ranch dip → Brown rice cake with almond butter

Candy, gum, cake, pie, donuts → Wheat tortilla chips with hummus or salsa

Meat and starch meals → Almonds, pumpkin seeds, raw veggies

Cooked or micro waved meals → Vegetables and low-carbohydrate meals; Raw, steamed or low-temperature meals

Replenish Your Body with Sufficient Amount of Water

Image source

Our body needs adequate amount of water to undergo biochemical processes. Water is also required for cleansing our blood, replenishing water loss due to exercise, working, or dehydration (particularly if you’re walking under a hot sun),  and promoting better bowel movement. Both water and fiber are crucial for a healthy feces. Remember, less water intake causes kidney stones. As water causes you feel less hungry, and thus who’re putting on weight may also think of drinking water.

After getting up from the bed in the morning, you should replenish your body with 500ml warm sea salt water (alternatively, you may also drink bamboo salt water) or warm alkaline water before washing up. This is essential for cleansing or flushing extra toxins and waste from your body and also for replenishing water loss during your sleep. Remember to drink water one hour before your lunch to promote better digestion. Replenish your body with water one hour after your lunch to help better nutrient absorption and also to accelerate blood circulation. Drink 200ml of water one hour before your sleep at night to help dilute the concentration of your blood. Make sure that you’ve replenished your body with 2100 – 2800 liter water in a day. The ideal way is to drink a little water every 15 minutes. Alternatively, you may also drink 2 glasses of water every 3 hours.

We’ve been told to drink 8-ounce glasses of water a day, but this guideline seems not to be suitable for all range of ages. Sedentary people, whose basic calory is less than 1500 – 2000 kcal a day generally don’t need so much water. I recommend elderly people to replenish 150 – 200 ml lukewarm water one hour before sleep at night, and wake up once in the middle of night to pass urine, and later replenishing with some water to reduce the occurrence of cerebrovascular related diseases. Similarly, people with high blood pressure, weakened heart and kidneys, coronary heart disease, kidney disease, liver hardening disease, high blood sugar or diabetics, are not encouraged to take large amount of water. Excess water, by contrast, will cause extra workload to your heart and kidneys. The basic rule is 1000kcal for 1 liter water. The more you exercise or eat, the more you’ll need to drink water.

As exercise causes water loss, you need to replenish your body with sufficient amount of water. You’re recommended to drink 400 – 600 ml water two hours before exercising. You also can drink 100 – 200ml water 15 – 20 minutes before exercising. Remember, don’t drink sugar-added water 20 – 60 minutes before exercising to avoid low blood sugar during exercising. The water you need during exercising will depend upon how much you’ve been sweating. The total water intake during exercising shouldn’t be more than 800ml to prevent workload that might be added to your stomach, heart, intestinal tract and blood circulation. The practical way is to replenish your body 150 – 300ml every 15 – 20 minutes during exercising or 100 – 200ml after walking or jogging for 2- 3km. If you’re doing outdoor physical activities under high temperature/hot sun, then you should replenish your body with 300 – 400ml for every hour you spent. If your outdoor activities are more than 1 hour, then you should replenish your body with sugar-added or electrolite water instead of plain water. And make sure that you don’t take cold drinks within this period.

Have Healthy Drinks to Nourish Your Life

Many studies have shown that you may live longer by drinking certain beverages which include red wine, coffee, green tea or tea. These healthy drinks in fact, help to nourish your life, so that you can take longer journey in your life.

Image source

A small volume of red wine has been found to benefit the health. Moderate wine intake helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, excessive drinking can lead to arteriosclerosis and increased hypertension-related complicated symptoms. The notable compounds known as polyphenols found in large amount in red wine is resveratrol, to which these substances are especially beneficial to health. Other particularly interesting compounds found in red wine are significant amount of flavonoids and red anthocyanin pigments which act as antioxidants to delay aging process while preventing your heart from a sudden trauma or stop beating.  Do you know why your heart stops beating suddenly? The first factor is due to your existing heart disease, second is that you have high blood pressure, and the third is related to foods that you’ve been eating are too coarse, too hard, too sticky and too hot.

Frankly speaking, I’m not promoting red wine here, but I’m here to bring you a health message about the intake of red wine. Some may even disagree with me as they say you ask people to stop taking alcoholic drinks, won’t you know that red wine also contains certain amount of alcohol. Well, I don’t ask you not to touch on alcoholic drink, but just ask you to take this drink in moderation. The daily intake should keep to two servings or less (one standard drink is equivalent to 5 oz, or 125ml, of 13% red wine) and the regular consumption does reduce mortality due to coronary heart disease by 10 to 40% among those age 35 or above. That means your daily red wine intake shouldn’t excess 100ml. For men, the recommended intake is up to 10 ounces a day, while for women is up to 5 ounces a day.

Image source

Some non-alcoholic drinkers pose me a question, “Chan, I don’t drink liquor. What shall I do?” I responded to them, “Don’t you know how to eat red grapes? Why don’t you eat them together with their red skins which are rich in abundant antioxidants?” If I don’t tell you about this, you’ll probably buy the white or green grapes. Now, you’ve no reasons not to eat red grapes as they are so good for your health particularly in relation to anti-aging or its age-reversing effects. Make sure you wash them properly before consuming, and remember to take grapes together with its skin. You may take out its seeds, but it’s always no harm for you to chew its seeds. I’ve tested on them, whether you eat bunches of red grapes, or drink red wine, the effect is about the same, so why do you matter much? If you can afford, then get yourself a bottle of red wine, otherwise just eat red grapes as recommended here.

Image source

Coffee is another potential “health drink”, as studies indicate that moderate coffee intake is found to prevent gallstones, Parkinson’s disease, kidney stones, diabetes, cirrhosis and even heart disease.

Warning: Chronic disease patients, pregnant mothers and people with hypothyroidism are not encouraged to drink caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea, and etc.

Image source

Tea, particularly green, black, putuo or oolong tea is good for health. Studies also indicate that you may live longer by drinking these healthy beverages more than 4 cups a day. Tea drinkers, in general, have lower rates of death from cardiovascular disease and other complicated symptoms.

Most people, nowadays, prefer to drink tea, particularly red tea. It has been popular at certain time in Europe that people liked to have red tea together with their breads, but it seems like this tradition has been reduced recently. As we all know, red tea brings us no health benefit as compared to green tea. At this point, you may ask me what the health benefit of green tea is. Well, green tea contains an aging property of polyphenolic compounds (30% of the dry weight of the leaves), of which (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is found more abundant aside with other substances like catechins, flavanols, chlorogenic acid, and one unique compound called theogallin. These compounds help to fight off cancer while delaying aging. Some people prefer to drink Jasmine tea. I asked them why they drink Jasmine tea and they answered me, “Its smell tastes nice.”

Image source

From the Japanese health statistics that I analyzed, I accidentally came across with the amazing result- Japanese who’re 40 and above, in general, have no records of cancer diseases at all. However, this is not a case for most westerners, to whom their bodies are mostly colonized by the cancerous cells. I suddenly became interested to investigate into this particular topic. After spending some time researching into this area of study, now I realize that why certain people are engaging with cancers while some are not. This finding shows me a close relationship between the intake of green tea and the occurrence of cancer disease. That means when you drink 4 cups of green tea in a day, even you have cancerous cells in your body they will not split out to spread to other parts of body in a tremendous speed. The split of the cancerous cells will generally be delayed to 9 years later. No wonder, the Japanese school children will have a cup of green tea before going to school. But most parents will not ask their children to have a cup of green tea as they have not been told to do so. Our school teachers as well as the doctors are also not telling us to do so either. Because of the health ignorance, we’re more prone to the attack of cancers.

Green tea is by far “ichiban” (no. 1 in Japanese) among the beverages. Though Jasmine tea tastes good, it does not benefit your health. Besides the polyphenolic compounds I mentioned earlier, green tea is also found to contain fluoride.  Now, you are scratching your head and turn to me to ask, “Chan, what on earth is fluoride for? I can obtain it from the toothpaste I’m using ..,” Let me explain to you here.

Long time ago, ancient Chinese made used of tea leaves for brushing teeth. Even the renowned Chinese poet, Sudongpo would use the used tea leaves to brush his teeth after every meal. Ancient Chinese at that moment did not know what fluoride was. They just knew that it could strengthen their teeth. But, Japanese are smart as they know the role of fluoride in strengthening teeth, fighting off cavities and eradicating the plaque as well. 

According to the dental reports, the dental plaque will appear 3 minutes after the meal. If you don’t get your mouth wash properly after the meal, you’re more likely to have unhealthy teeth. No wonder, many of us have relatively vulnerable and bad teeth. Neither they get their mouth wash with tea, nor wash with the plain or running water. How could their teeth not turn bad? Therefore, it’s not surprising to discover that people at 30 years old have a problem of teeth being falling off, and by 50 they don’t have even one tooth left. No wonder, the dentist’s and the dental department in the hospitals are always crowded with people. Has someone told you that most centenarians have good teeth? Can’t you imagine that good teeth mean a long life span, can you? After reading this article, if every one of you tries to employ concept of brushing teeth with tea as suggested, I assure you that not only you’ll have strong teeth, but also by the age of 60 and above you won’t have diseases related to teeth. If you’ve this done constantly and appropriately, you’ll be offered not just a healthy oral but also a quality health-span.

Warning: Those who’re in menses, or when your stomach is empty, or pregnant mothers are not encouraged to drink green tea.

Have Adequate Nap, Rest or Sleep

“Shall I take a nap, Chan?”

“Well, if you don’t have an adequate sleep, you’ve a low quality of sleep, or you’re facing sleep disorder, you’re always advised to take a nap. Also, taking a nap is very important for the elderly or patients if they didn’t sleep well at night or get up too early from the bed. If they’ve a nap in the afternoon, not only their bodies can be recharged, but also the risk of Myocardial infarction, recurrent occurrence of high blood pressure or any other related symptoms or diseases can be reduced to a minimal level.”

Image source

What is the best time to take a nap? The best is half hour (or 30 minutes) after your lunch. To benefit your body, you should take the nap for one hour.  Keep in mind that if you keep that up for too long, your health will suffer. While taking nap, make sure you are in a comfortable, well-ventilated, and slightly cool bedroom and you should not cover your body with a blanket.

Most of us need at least 6 hours to function properly. You might have the optimum energy throughout the day for a good quality of sleep. However, if you keep this up for too long, your health will suffer. This seems like has to do with our natural biorhythms and thus it is just one of the reasons to be “early to bed, and early to rise.” Your sleep should not be interrupted, but it should be in a dark, cool, comfortable and well-ventilated room.

Image source

Please don’t get confusing with the concept “early to bed, and early to rise.” It’s useless if you sleep at 7p.m. but get up at 12 midnight. In this case, you won’t benefit from the sleep. Therefore, I recommend you to sleep in between 10 to 10:30p.m. But, if you’ve to stay up late, make sure you sleep before 12 midnight. Please don’t disturb your sleep in between 12 a.m. to 3a.m, as within these periods, your body is in a state of deep sleep. If your body is fully charged within these 3 hours, you’ll wake up with the utmost energy the following morning. If you sleep at 4 o’clock in the morning, your body is at a state of bad quality sleep. Hence, it’s very important for you to know the degree of “how to sleep” and “don’t know how to sleep.” In a nutshell, every hour of sleep before midnight is worth 2 hours of sleep after midnight.

I also recommend you to have a warm bath (water temperature 40 to 50 degree Celsius) before sleeping as this will increase the quality of your sleep. I don’t object you surfing internet, playing games, or doing other activities at night, but make sure you switch off all the lights and stop all the activities you’re doing before 12 midnight. Nevertheless, in an inevitable condition, try not to let your body stays active up to 3a.m. There’ve been numerous reports saying that people who stay up very late (3a.m. or more) at night collapse into death suddenly. Furthermore, people who always stay overnight will have their cells, muscles and tissues age 10 years faster that their actual ages. Therefore, it won’t be surprising if you encounter 30-year-old people who stay overnight, have their skins become inelastic, appeared in rough texture, or even more wrinkles are obvious to your naked eyes as though they’re just a 70-year-old people in their external appearances.

Back to the discussion on “early to bed, and early to rise”, this concept is not suitable to all range of ages. If you are 70 years old or above, I advise you to get up from your bed slowly. A quick rise will cause the sudden blockage in your heart, and thus resulting in an unexpected death. The proper way for the elderly or those who suffer from diabetes, hypertension or other chronic diseases to get up from the bed is: you rest on the bed for 30 seconds, move your arms and legs slightly and gently (don’t push too hard on your movement), massage you heart gently, half-sit on your bed for 1 to 2 minutes, and then you get up from the bed slowly. (This method is also applicable for those who wish to stay healthy and longevity). By doing this, no one will get a sudden heart attack, stroke, unexpected heart blockage, insufficient blood supply in the brain, or the sudden rise of the blood pressure.

Keep Doing Exercise Regularly

Many studies show that regular exercise can protect heart and bones; improve mood, sleep and memory; ward off colon and breast cancer, while reducing the overall risk of dying prematurely. A Harvard Alumni Study reveals that people who regularly burned 8400kJ a week while exercising, who on average, are those who live 2 years longer than sedentary types. Specifically, people with burning of at least 2,000kJ a week (or roughly equivalence to 20-mile walk) enjoy the benefits of a low rate of heart disease. Though exercise has shown its benefits, vigorous exercise is extremely dangerous for people over 50 and for those with chronic diseases.

Image source

Why exercise is so important? By age 70 and above, we will only have approximately 50% or less of body strength. That means when we grow older, we generally lose about half a pound of muscle each year, as well as 50% reduction in the basal of metabolic rate. A decline in the basal of metabolic rate means that your body’s ability to convert the food into energy has declined steadily.  Despite of this reason, some of the calories that you obtain from food will turn into fat, and as you know, this undigested fat will later hide beneath the lower part of your skin, causing many obesity-related diseases. That is why you will notice that you are getting fatter and fatter but with less muscle. This is the reason why when you grow older, your body composition and appearance change and shrink automatically without you doing anything. This condition is natural and will happen on you, if you do no exercise but just keep on eating and sleeping.

Have you ever noticed how an elderly person shakes hands with you? You will feel his or her hands very weak enough to shake or you may even feel that he or she rejects to shake with you. This is not because he or she does not want to shake your hands but because the strength for shaking hands is no longer there. The decline in body strength leads to less functionality, less balance, less energy but more accidents. Therefore, increase strength via a regular aerobic exercise is deemed necessary.

Image source

Exercising helps stimulate your pituitary gland to release growth hormone (a key anti-aging hormone which delays aging process), which has a great reward in maintaining the longevity. There is no doubt that regular aerobic exercise (jogging, cycling and etc.) results in long-term and constant release of growth hormone in spurts in the blood for 2 hours or even longer after exercising. Interestingly, the moderate intensity of an aerobic-type exercise is enough to earn you a maximum “profit” of growth hormone production. Most anti-aging experts suggest allocating 20 to 30 minutes for an outdoor exercise or any other physical activities with at least 2 to 3 times a week.

While exercising, the blood will go towards the muscles to transport oxygen and nutrients. But, after exercising, the cardiovascular output will decrease and the by-product called lactic acid will be carried out of the muscular system. Therefore, it is recommended not to eat too much before the exercise as it will cause a decrease in a cardiac output in the muscle due to that the blood is being moved to gastric and intestinal tract for the digestion of food. Similarly, you are advised not to eat straightaway after each exercise program as a similar effect will occur in your body too.

Image source

For beating the aches and pain of aging joints, nerves, back, shoulders, and etc, the combination of Pilates and Yoga is the best option (Note: before doing this, make sure that you are guided by a professional instructor who has therapeutic experience to avoid any injuries). Resistance exercise like weightlifting or calisthenics also helps to strengthen bones and increases muscle density and size, reduce fat, increase stamina, and rejuvenate the hormone system. The simple yet effective exercise is walking. Almost all the centenarians that I come across prefer to walk every day. Try to walk everyday instead of driving. This is particularly important as we age, because the loss of muscle mass and bone density will become obvious, and if you ignore these side-effects product, you are going to face the death very soon or perhaps age faster than your actual age.

I have seen many elderly people wake up very early in the morning around 5 to 6 a.m. to do outdoor activities. However, at night, they will stay at home watching television. Exercising in the early morning is extremely dangerous and risky. At this time, our natural biorhythm is characterized by a high body temperature, high blood pressure, and Epinephrine or adrenaline (a hormone and neurotransmitter which is a catecholamine derived from the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. Generally, it refers to an adrenal gland situated atop the kidneys that secretes epinephrine) is 4 times higher than at night. If you do any intense exercises during this period, your life is at a high risk and in some cases your heart will stop beating abruptly. In 1998, there was a report saying that 4 elderly people from Beijing died abruptly after exercising in the early morning. Here, I do not object you to do jogging, or carrying out any outdoor physical activities, but just do it in an appropriate time. Its high risk is always unpredictable. It will not be a tragedy if they had not had a long distance running, jogging, climbing mountain and other physical movements. Well, we cannot blame on these old people because they died of ignorance of health knowledge. Nobody tells them what to do before this sad tragedy occurred. Therefore, I think the public need to educate as they are so neglected of their health and lack of health knowledge as well.

At night, when you are at home, your stomach has stuffed with carbon dioxide and your respiratory tract is stuffed with 100 over toxins. If in the early morning, you go outside to do exercise, the air is packed with carbon dioxide. Before the sun comes out, all green plants on the earth do not carry out photosynthesis which release oxygen as a main “vitamin” for your lungs.  Bear in mind that the oxygen is released to the air by the plants through a chemical reaction between the sunlight and the chlorophyll (a green pigment found in most green plants). At night and in the early morning before the sun comes out, the plants breathe in oxygen but release Carbon dioxide. As a result, the air is concentrated with carbon dioxide, plus your high body temperature, high blood pressure, and 4 times higher adrenaline than at night-time, people with heart diseases are at higher risk and normal people will also have high percentage to get cancer. 

As I mentioned earlier, exercising in the early morning is potentially dangerous to your health. That is why I recommend you to either do your outdoor exercise when the sun comes out in the morning or in the evening. You can stroll or walk about either in the park or in your garden 45 minutes after your dinner. It is always better for the elderly to walk instead of doing other types of physical activities and remember to fix it to 20 minutes but not more than 30 minutes. The best time for most people to walk is 6 – 7 o’clock in the evening. If you are planning to keep on diet, then I advise you to swallow 2 to 4 tablets of spirulina half to one hour before your meal as this will effectively reduce your instinct to eat more and at the same time you have no lack of nutrition.       

Image source

Of all the outdoor physical activities, walking is by far the most appropriate and best physical movements for every range of age. Scientifically, it has been regarded as the most effective way to soften the hardening of arteries. If one does this constantly and appropriately for more than 2 years, the blood hardening will be soften gradually. Walking is also found to be excellent for hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, high-lipid, high-cholesterol patients and of course, for those who are engaging with chronic diseases. Getting yourself for walking slowly and steadily about 3km (30 minutes and above for normal healthy person; for patient, elderly and those who are 60 and above, keep exercising about 20 minutes, 5 times a week, for a short distance less than 3km, say 0.5 – 1km) with at least 5 times a week is always crucial for your health. Therefore, whenever possible, try to use the stairs instead of the lif or escalator; walk down the street (for short distance) instead of driving a car; and  remember to spend time walking every day.

Now, let me ask you, do you know how to exercise appropriately? Before doing exercise, you should warm up your body for 5-10 minutes. For each section of exercise, you should relax your body for about 10 minutes to avoid muscle cramp and vascular constriction. Experts suggest that exercise can be done by calculating a heart rate. Its formula is (170 – age) times/ minute. For instance, if your age is 65 years old, then your exercise rate is 105 beats/ minute (170 – 65 = 105). You may also calculate the volume of exercise for each ending section with a pulse count. Its formula is pulse rate multiplied by 4 plus 10% of the pulse rate. That means if your pulse rate is 30, then your exercise rate is 132 times/ minute ([30x4] + [120 x 10%] = 132).

Avoid Unhealthy Drinks and Quit Smoking

Avoid alcoholic, caffeinated, sweetened as well as carbonated drinks can help you live 8 years longer than those who are engaged in these unhealthy drinks. Both unhealthy drinks and smoking are main risk factors for obesity, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and cerebrovascular disease. Alcoholic drinks add on calories which may definitely affect your health and weight. The reason is that they may stimulate your appetite by causing you to eat more than your normal meals. Drinking 12 ounce beers for instance, will provide your body with 600 calories and to burn these calories, you need to walk consecutively for as long as 3 hours.

Image source

Excessive drinking will increase fat loading in your stomach area, which is commonly known as beer belly. People with higher fat loading in their abdominal part, according to the clinical experiments, are those who are more likely to have heart disease developed. This doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy drinking alcoholic drinks but please enjoy them in moderation. Bear in mind that the daily alcohol intake should limit to 50ml or lower. For male, the daily alcohol intake is from 20 to 30ml, while for female it should limit from 10 to 15ml. Your daily white liquor should not be more than 10ml, while for the beer not more than 300ml. Any daily intakes excess this limitation is wrong and can bring negative impact to your health. Pregnant women and chronic disease patients should make an attempt to avoid these unhealthy drinks.

Image source

The cigarette or tobacco that you smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals which are found to cause adverse health effect as many of them are highly carcinogenic in nature. In fact, heavy smokers have a significant increased in the occurrence of hypertension, atherosclerosis (blood vessels become thickening gradually and finally causing vascular sclerosis) and heart disease which may cause sudden death. In fact, smoking can reduce 8 years from your life span.

If you’ve problem to quit smoking, try to reduce its volume that you used to smoke in a small quantity gradually. Bear in mind that you shouldn’t smoke more than 5 cigarettes or tobaccos in a day. The more you smoke, the higher you put your life at risk. Though you smoke less than five a day, they can still cause health effect. The potential health risk can be felt greatly if one smokes more than five a day. For the sake of your health, I thereby without any hesitate encouraging you to keep cigarette or tobacco away from your mouth.

Stimulate Your Brain

Image source   Image source

Our brain is made up of a bundle of muscle which needs to exercise to get it sharper and stronger. The “exercise” here includes knitting, keeping a journal, doing word games, puzzles, Sudoku or crossword puzzles, learning a new language, playing chess and working actively on your hobby. Scientists at Cambridge University said puzzles like Sudoku could help ward off a range of condition, from depression to schizophrenia.

Gene Cohen of the Centre on Aging explained that, “Think of the chemicals as squirrels leaping from one tree to another.  If the adjacent trees have more branches, it’s easier for the squirrels to leap from tree to tree.” (Note: Chemicals here refer to Neurotransmitters, type of chemicals that enable brain cells communicate to each other.) The New York Times also cites studies saying that if you stimulate your brain, you can increase these important interaction points by as much as 20%.

Image source

Researches also suggest bouncing a tennis ball with left and right palms alternately for as many as 50 times each palm respectively in a day as it is also found useful to exercise the brain to stay active.

Manage Your Stress

Stress is a normal body response towards physical, psychological and environmental stimuli. When we are angry, panicked or frightened, our body responds to this stress with a number of physical reactions and the factors that trigger this stress is known as stressors.

Image source

Do you know that stress can kill you? It is a silent killer. This is because stress increases the levels of cortisol production (a release of chemical substance) in your body which accelerates the aging process. Many clinical reports have shown that excessive stress or distress (due to the effect of prolonged excessive physical or emotional pressure on the human body) is linked to adverse health effects like diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and certain types of cancers. If you carry “this burden” (stress) all the time or you are in a continuous state of stress throughout the days, sooner or later you will become very sick and age faster. Those who’re always under stress condition will have their lives shorten to 9 years. The more you stress, the shorter your life will be. So, my dear friend, whatever you are stressed about right now, just lay it down or find ways to reduce it.

Image source

Here are some suggested ways to reduce your stress:

Mentality stress: listening to music, reading, praying, meditation, singing, and etc.

Physical stress: window shopping, walking, swimming, cycling, Taichi, Yoga, Taisho, Tai kwon do, and etc.

Functionality stress: massage, hydro-therapy and Qigong.

Note: You can mix or match these methods. Just find out which works best for you and remember to make stress reduction as your habit if you are serious to live longer.

To relieve stress, you should schedule your life with activities into your day. Don’t rush, but plan on being 15 – 30 minutes beforehand. Cut out any noise or limit time spend with the radio, MP3, computer, mobile phone or any other electrical appliances to let your mind rest from being stressed and pressured. Thorough mentality as well as phsysical relaxation are a main key factor to relieve yourself from being stressed or panicked, while helping you to live longer.

Watch Your Waist and Weight

Image source

If you are planning or serious on living to 100 or beyond, keeping a trim waistline is a must. This is particularly important if you’re a type with “overload belly carriage” in which you’ve to carry an overweight “baggage” in your belly that will pose health problems later. Bear in mind that the excess weight will contribute more chances to get heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases.

Image source

You should maintain your anti-aging weight, which accounts 5 to 10% less than your ideal body weight. Gentlemen, your ideal body weight is 106 lbs for the first 5 feet of your height, and 6 lbs for every inch more; while for ladies, your ideal body weight is 100 lbs for the first 5 feet of your height, plus 5 lbs for every extra inch.

Have Faith

Image source

Many scientific researchers have revealed that clergymen, nuns and monks are among the longest-lived men and women as compared to people who do not have faith in God. Their life expectancy is recorded to be excess 100 years old. In a similar manner, most centenarians have documented to have some kind of regular religious practice or belief.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek is another example here. She was diagnosed for numerous ailments, including breast cancer, but she outlived all her contemporary rivals. Do you know why? She credited her life fully to her religious faith. She said that she rose at dawn for an hour of prayer each day for the sake of her good health.

Let yourself be a part of a spiritual community. This is so important to deepen your existing spiritial responsibility. Upon seeking out a new spiritual or religious commitment or praying genuinely before your God, you’ll purify your mind in calm and tranquility while finding your existence in this world to be meaningful.

Healthy Living Forever

It’s an undeniable fact that most of us are a prescription for heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases as our modern-day-diet is packed with lots of fat and calories, coupling with exercise-free lifestyles. The Okinawans, by contrast, are those healthiest people with their traditional way of living style, which has driven them to a more tailor-made and healthier living pattern. In fact, I can conclude that the Okinawan lifestyle is very simple but put them close to the anti-aging lifestyle. Here is a bit description of their healthier lifestyle:

Photo credit: Uehara Sato

Seiryu Toguchi, 103, of Motobu, Okinawa, wakes up at 6 in the morning. Then, he’ll do stretching exercise accompanying with a radio broadcast before having breakfast. His every morning’s breakfast include whole-grain rice and miso soup with vegetables. Next, he’ll take 2 hours to pick weeds in his 1,000 sq. ft. field. In this patch of land, he plants reddish-purple sweet potato called imo in Japanese, a variety of bitter gourd or goya in Japanese, and some okras. From the sale of these vegetables, he makes his living. At 12:30p.m, he has goya stir-fly with egg and tofu for his lunch. He naps for an hour or so, before back to his field to work for 2 more hours. It’s has become a custom for him to play on traditional songs after his dinner. He smiled while remarking that, “By doing this, I won’t forget my Chinese characters. It’s indeed fun to do so as it keeps my mind sharp.” He makes his wine using aloe, garlic and turmeric for his nightcap. He further remarked while smiling, “A sip of the wine makes my head filling with things I want to do tomorrow.” In regrads to longevity, he says, “That’s easy-exercise, working in the fields and playing the sanshin.”

Besides the evidence of Okinawan lifestyle, much scientific evidences have showed us that lifestyle is the key to healthy aging. In most of the cases of centenarians, they use their bodies for walking, working or being fed themselves from the earth’s natural bounty. Indeed, they have designed and programmed their lives so carefully so that their aims to achieve the millennia can be attained.

Angry Does You No Good, but Kill Your Health!

Image source

The foremost thing to bear in mind is the state of your mind. If you risk your life getting angry, your blood will more likely to flow very slowly and you may wonder why you suddenly have tumors developed in your body. It’s a fact that getting angry will lead you to get tumors easily. The Stanford University has conducted an experiment by putting one nasal tube on one’s nose in order to catch his breath. Then, the researcher laid the nasal tube in the snow for approximately 10 minutes. If no color change is observed to the snow, meaning that one is in a state of calmness; if the color of snow changes into purple, explaining that one is getting angry. A scientist then extracted 1 to 2ml of this purple snow to be injected into the body of a mouse. Not soon after that, about 1 to 2 minutes, the mouse was found death.

From this experiment, we know that angry does you no good, by contrast, causing you to have tumors developed in your body. Therefore, I advise you if someone makes you angry, please do not angry. If you can’t bear for it, you can get angry for a while but not more than 5 minutes. Or else, your blood will turn purple, in which it’s dangerous to your health. You shouldn’t suspect on this fact, as this experiment has been awarded for a Nobel Prize.

We always talk about artery hardening, stroke, heart failure, and other chronic diseases. Our arteries in general, are not hardened within a minute but they require 10 years, 20 years or even more to get all our arteries being clogged up. When we reach 45 years old and above, our arteries will be narrowed about 1-2 % annually. If you’re a smoker who’re suffering from high blood pressure, and high-lipid, your arteries will be narrowed 3-4 % annually. In a case that you lose temper or angry, your arteries will be narrowed 100% within a minute. In a severe case, the person may die abruptly. Emotional fluctuation can cause your blood pressure to rise very high. This tells you that how scary is emotional fluctuation in your life!

Image source

What can you do if you can’t control your temper? Well, the experts have proposed five useful ways to prevent anger. Firstly, try to avoid thinking the things or person you’re angry at; secondly, transfer your anger to other things. For example, you go shopping, playing indoor or outdoor games, and the other alternative is that you pretend you don’t understand what the angry person had said; thirdly, learn to release, which means when someone scolds at you, you don’t scold at him or her, but you have other partner or reliable friend to listen to you. One should bear in mind that burying the anger or temper will not solve the problem, but instead causing you feeling very sick. Fourth, learn to upgrade yourself by treating the scold as a booster for you to step forward; and finally the fifth, you should learn to control your temper by thinking that no matter how you scold or angry at me, I’ll not waste my time to scold you back because bad temper will kill my health.  Thus, I’ll get rid of this poison out of my body by staying in calmness and peace.  

Let’s Laugh or Smile for Your Health!

Image source

Experts say, other than humans, all animals are not equipped with a feature to laugh. Funny though, humans were born with features to laugh, but not many of them understand how to make use of this “inborn tool” (laughing) in their living surroundings. Some say monkeys laugh, elephants also laugh, but have you seen these animals laugh in your life? In contrary to laughing, we always see animals shedding tears or screaming while they are being slaughtered.

Our ancestors used to say, “If you always keep yourself laughing, you’re ten years younger than your actual age”. The “younger” here does not signify the age, but it simply means the state of your health. Laughter brings you joy and health, why don’t you laugh? We all have the instinct to laugh, so make sure when you meet anyone, just give them a good laugh or smile with a genius heart.

Oriental nations used to laugh less particularly when they were dealing with their superiors, whose positions are higher than him or her. While welcoming the guest, they always behaved very seriously and strangely. But, nowadays, due to the influence of Japanese and Korean cultures, many of them have learnt how to smile. Smiling or laughing is no longer a tool to greet people but as a way to stay healthy.

I remembered someone told me that there’s a laughing club in the United States. The ultimate goal of the establishment of this club is to spread the benefits of laughing. Laughter here does not restrict to a welcoming symbol instead, it has been regarded as a natural way to cure many diseases. Laughter rewards you with fewer wrinkle, lesser tiredness as well as stress.

Image source

According to the latest research, scientists found that children generally laugh approximately 400 times in a day while adults only laugh about 15 times a day. Can you see its difference? C’mon, ladies and gentlemen, keep yourself laughing just like a photo shown above. See how happy this kid is. Don’t you admire this kid? 

Do you know why laughter/smiling can benefit you? The answer is that the possibility to get diseases is lower than those who seldom or never laugh/smile. Firstly, you won’t get migraine; and secondly, you won’t get back pain. You may ask me, “Chan, why do you say so?” When you’re laughing or smiling, there will be a powerful energy generated to gear the circulation system in your body. That means if your circulation system gets blocked, you’re more likely to suffer pain; but when your circulation system is functioning smoothly, not only your immune system is strengthened but also you’re not far away from a goal of living up to 100 years old or possibly more.  If in a case you’re suffering migraine, listen to my advice: keep yourself smiling or laughing hard but not too hard enough to harm your health. Remember, moderation is a key component for staying in health. If someone has a poor sexual instinct or weakened reproduction, just keep yourself smile or laugh in moderation. If you don’t believe me, try yourself by doing this experiment.

Let me tell you one trivial fact. Previously, I came across one 92-year-old Romanian woman who gave birth to a fat baby boy. Do you know what her secret is? She keeps herself busy smiling/laughing every day. By contrast, women nowadays, when they reach their ages of 30 or above, they seldom give birth to a healthy baby. Do you know why? They always tight up their faces by not allowing even a moment to smile/laugh.

Drs. Gael Crystal and Patrick Flanagan wrote in an article by stating that, “Scientists have found that laughter is a form of internal jogging that exercises the body and stimulates the release of beneficial brain neurotransmitters and hormones. Positive outlook and laughter is actually good for our health! More than ever, scientific evidence suggests that laughter really is one of the best medicines.” Also, laughing/smiling rewards the respiratory and digestive tract with the many proven health benefits. Don’t you believe me? Alright, try yourself to do an experiment. You touch your belly gently in a clockwise manner and then you laugh hard for 3 times. If you repeat this step five times a day you won’t get constipation or gastrointestinal cancer. We always exercise our upper and lower limbs, but have you thought of exercising your stomach? How to do this? It’s simple though. Don’t you know that laughing is a good exercise for your stomach? So, by now, you should have employed this 5 time-laughing method in your life with each section 3 times as suggested.

Image source

Laughter has long been regarded as a healthy trademark in the international arena. I have done numerous investigations in this study to bring you good news here. Laughter stimulates pituitary gland to produce the embryonic brain, which is a natural anesthetic. If you’re suffering arthritis, please don’t worry, but keep laughing as hard as you could. The laughter will let go all the pain you’re experiencing. Since there’re so many health benefits of laughter, so why not you give yourself a chance to burst into a laughter?

Now, I want to ask you. Do you think males living longer than females or vice versa? The surprising result is that females live longer than males. The females generally live an average of 6 years and a half longer than males. Each time, when I attend the seminars, conference or any public presentations, I observe that the laughter is always come from the females than males. Males generally look more serious in their physical appearances. This situation is more obvious for those who have higher positions in the institution, organisation or any other workplaces that they represent. It seems like females prefer to laugh more than males.

Image source

Hi, you guys, you’ve 6 and half years shorter life than females, so please laugh after reading this article. Everyone here, from now on, please laugh/smile to enable yourself to live extra years longer.  Someone asked me, “What shall I do, my husband doesn’t like to laugh?” I looked at her and said, “Sorry, Mdm., I don’t have any cure for this. Couldn’t you think of a way to make him laugh? If he still does not want to laugh, then he risks his life to live shorter than his expected age lol….” She gazed at me in suspicious, and then she started laughing and shouting at me, “You, Chan…You made me laughing…”

So, to feel better and boost your immune system, just laugh or smile, OK?

Positive Thinking Boosts You to Live Longer

Image source

You’re not going to see gray hair in the mirror, if you think negatively. So, what on earth to live a boring life if you can make your outlook youthful, go out young, always get yourself connected with people and current issue to leave “a good looking corpse”?

Undeniably, our life throws each of us a lot of curves. Life is described as being “born Vs death”, “freedom Vs responsibility”, and “comfort Vs affliction”. No one on this earth can tell you that they go through life without running into problems or obstacles. Though some of these problems or obstacles can be painful, but what’s important is how you face them with courage and confidence. If you think negatively, you can become ineffective in dealing with them. You can think positively by considering them as a blessing in life as they’re good teachers to teach you the real face of life and destiny. When you’re facing problems, think positively as below:

• If someone important to you does something negative to you, you should do something positive to them.
• If someone distrusts you, you shouldn’t distrust them.
• If someone treats you badly, you shouldn’t treat them worse.
• If someone despises you, you shouldn’t despise them.
• If a person wants to be your enemy, you shouldn’t treat them like an enemy.
• If someone treats you like an enemy, they should never deserve your resentment.
• If someone says something nasty to you, you should never say something nasty back.
• If someone has treated you badly or poorly, you shouldn’t return them with poor or wicked treatment.
• When someone hurts you, you should find a way they won’t know about to get even.
• If someone hates you, you should never hate them.
• A person who has contempted for you deserves no contempt from your side.
• You should give help to those who treat you badly.
• When someone treats you badly, you still act nice to them.

Thinking positively is important as it increases your white blood cell count which helps you fight off infection and disease. A positive thinker is always better equipped with a significantly stronger immune system. If you’ve bad emotion and think negatively, you’re risking your life for cancer, coronary heart disease, depression, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Specifically, if you’re optimistic towards your life, the world would become a beautiful masterpiece of art, or else, the world would appear scary and horrible for those who have more negative thought patterns. One philosopher once said, “A life is a mirror”. When you cry, it’ll cry; and when you smile, it’ll smile too. The bottom line: Not only positive thinking can make you happier and healthier but also longevity as well. It seems that positive thinking may also help with the way you cope with pain. It also appears to me that positive outlives negative. Peace reigns war. Love destroys hate and jealosy.

Crying : Natural Medicine for Health

Photo credit: Stephanie

There’s always logic for us to cry. Crying is not wholly owned by females. It’s very helpless to find a Chinese saying says, “Man does not shed tears easily.” Oops, this is going to kill many men! What’s wrong when man shedding his tears?

Crying is not restricted to a sad expression. Instead, it’s a way to stay healthy. Now, you will probably approach me wildly and ask, “What’re you talking about, Chan? Are you crazy?”

Do you know that normal people’s tears taste salty, diabetes people’s tears taste sweet, and people with sad tears will always have a bitter taste? When you’re sad, not only your tears taste bitter, but also they contain peptide and hormones which can poison your body. When these poisonous substances are kept for a longer time in your body, you are more likely to have tumors developed in your body which will eventually lead you to cancers. If you’re lucky enough to avoid cancers, you’re certain to either have a chronic colitis or inflammation in certain parts of tissue or muscles of your organs. So, next time, when you feel sad, please cry as loud as you could but not so hard until it causes problem in your health. Remember, moderation is the main key for you to open “a healthy” door.

Other Things to be Noted

The important thing that you have to know is the time to open your window. The two best time periods are at 9 to 11a.m. and 2 to 4p.m. respectively. Why? After 9a.m., the pollutants have almost submerged to the ground due to the atmospheric factor. When there’s less pollutants in the air, there will be no reflux phenomenon. Attention to everyone! When you open the window in the morning, don’t make a deep breath. This is because when you’re breathing deeply, the carcinogens and other substances that are brought downward from the air to the ground will enter your lungs via a breathing process, and despite of this reason, you’re exposed to a high risk of getting lungs cancer.  My last warning: 6 to 9a.m is the most dangerous time that leads to cancer, so make sure that you stick to this rule of thumb.

Be alerted for your personal hygiene. According to Dr. Trisha Macnair in his book entitled The Long Life Equation, washing hands add 2 years, and a good dental hygiene can add six more years in your life.

Feces and urine are both important parameters to check for your health and to know what’s going wrong with your body. So, be sure to make a healthy habit to check on them every day. Read on Is Your Urine Healthy? , Are Your Feces Healthy? and Are Your Feces Healthy? Two for more details.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Being alert with the signs of sickness may help you to go for the earlier treatment and your prompt action to adjust the diet and lifestyle accordingly. Below are some of the important health details: 

• 26 Signs of Illnesses You Must Watch Out For 
• Protect Your Heart Before It Gets Blocked and Clogged 
• 11 Alarming and Critical Conditions of The Eyes 
• Don’t Die of Ignorance Since You’ve Got 38 Fantastic Health Rules to Follow 
• Why HPV is Said to be More Dangerous and Threatening Than Sars? 
• Top Ten Health Screening Tests Female Should Do 
• How to Detoxify Your Body 

And also keep yourself abreast with my updated and latest health information here.

Summary

Living to 100 or beyond is not so hard for you to think of. The latest research has concluded that even people who have diabetes or heart disease developed in their late life have a decent shot to attain the century mark. It means that living to 100 or beyond is not entirely restricted to those who hadn’t developed chronic diseases. Age-related diseases might not be too much of a longevity factor as long as you adopt a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy and wholesome diet, exercising appropriately and regularly, praying to God, connecting to the world and current issues, replenishing your body with adequate amount of water, taking sufficient amount of vitamins, trace minerals and antioxidants, living healthily both mentaly and physically, keep yourself laughing/ smilling and crying, having adequate sleep and relaxation, managing your stress, and lastly monitoring and controling your temper. Though avoiding ourselves from getting chronic diseases are crucial to our health, it’s not necessary a requirement for you to live healthily to 100 or more. But, bear in mind that smoking, a stressful and pressured life, no exercise, fast food, processed food, drinking excessive alcoholic, cafeinated, and carbonated drinks, sleep disorder, anger and losing temper, negative thinkings and unhealthy lifestyle can strip away 20 – 30 years.

Before incorporating any nutritional supplements or altering dietary habits particularly for patients and food allergic persons, I advise you to seek for the advice of your doctor or health care professional. Bear in mind that information contained in this article is not mean to diagnose, mitigate, treat or cure your chronic state of diseases. Rather, this educational and health information is aimed to help lessen your affliction, and to improve your life and life span, and also your health condition in particular.

For elderly, chronic disease patients and those who’re 50 and above, take note of the things stated below: (by doing these suggestions appropriately and constantly, you’ll surpass the age of 60 years old, and the goal to live healthily to 100 or beyond might not be hard for you to think of)

• While exercising, don’t turn your head so fast, walk slowly and limit each of your physical activity to 20 – 30 minutes.
• Don’t get yourself bathing in an extremely hot water. If you plan to take a hot bath, then water temperature should be fixed at 30 – 40 °C. Take note that extremely hot bath may cause sudden insufficency blood supply to the brain or heart, which may cause unexpected incidence. Don’t bath for more than 40 minutes. The elderly people should first get their half bodies wet to promote better blood circulation.
• Don’t overeat as this’ll mess up the digestive system while adding workload to other organs, and eventually causing them wear out throughout the time.
• Don’t drink alcoholic, cafeinated or carbonated drinks but moderate red wine is recommended for your health.
• Don’t run, jog or exercise while your stomach is empty. You should select to do outdoor physical activities between or after the meals. Do remember to warm up your body before exercising.
• Don’t squat to push your feces out. Similarly, don’t force to push your feces so hard.
• Sleep adequately and be contended with your present life.
• If you cannot carry so many things, make sure that you won’t force yourself to carry extra loads at a time. Simply put, if you cannot carry five books at a time, then don’t force yourself to do so. Extra loads might cause blood rise, or any unexpected incidences.
• Pray deeply and spiritually.
• Eat healthily, and live healthily both mentally and physically.

Wow, all these ideas to live to 100 or beyond sound too simple! Remember, simple here doesn’t mean easy.You’ve to practice it with a strong will power, determination, preseverance and displine. I don’t recommend you to try to change your lifestyle or behavor at once. Try to select two or three to work on at a time. After that, you add in some to work on throughout the time. If you can sustain this change for more than 6 weeks, you should be able to sustain it for the rest of your life.

Remember, anti-aging is a life-long process. It’s no point hurry as it isn’t a sprint and no express way for you to achieve a century mark. It’s useless if you slack off after practicing for few months. Therefore, it’s important to set a goal that is achievable, meaning that a program you can consistently attain your minor goals. Again, don’t rush, but allow yourself for 2 – 3 years for the overall practices suggested here. Let a smaller goal be achieved in every 6 months or so.

It’s actually sad to know that many have died of too young, too suddenly, or prematurely, particularly when you know that it can be prevented with the knowledge of health and health care.

The intention of writing this article is to help people to pursue in their fulfiling life. I don’t plan to sell it as an E-book or distribute it via print publication. My intention here is clear to you that I’d like to benefit more people worldwide. This is also my little contribution to the world, particularly in helping people to stay healthily and happily. Hopefully, my efford and time for preparing this article will be appreciated.

I care for your health and also show how much I love you. So, please don’t take your life and health for granted! Let me pray deeply for your health, peace, security and happiness. Be safe, happy and healthy! Good luck , and have my cheers and best wishes!

Image source

Our heart is just like a car’s engine. It works every day non-stop to enable us to carry out our daily routine. If you ignore its existence, it will become a big problem as it will stop abruptly without your prior knowledge. Once it is stopped, our life ends. Therefore, we should learn how to protect our heart, so that it can be maintained in a good shape in the long run.

Image source

Let us see how our heart works for us. It works for us voluntary without requesting for any payments or commissions. Where could you get such a loyal employee like your “Heart” who works everyday, every minute, and every time for you without grumbling or complaining? Our heart is a very powerful pump, which functions every time without knowing what is termed as “tiredness.”

Image source

Our heart resembles an engine in the car. It helps to pump blood to every part of our body. Though it is an important gadget in human’s body, its weight is only 0.5% (approximately 300g) of the entire body weight. However, such a small gadget has to work heavily in order to sustain our life. How great our heart it is! Please salute to your heart for its brilliant service.

Each beat of our heart can pump approximately 70ml of blood, and each minute, about 5,000ml or 5l of blood is being pumped out. That means every day, our heart helps us to pump out approximately 700 million of blood, which is equivalent to 2 million times of our body weight.

Do you know that our heart have an average pulse of 70 times per minute (calculating from a healthy person. Different individual may have different pulses)? If our life span is up to 70 years old, our heart will have about 16 billion times of pulses. Let me ask you, what other thing in this world can you find to provide you free services as many as 16 billion times?

Our heart in general, is a muscular organ which responsibles for pumping blood via the blood vessels by repeated, and rhythmic contractions. It transports the blood to our whole body, and at the same time it transports the blood from our whole body to our lungs, and subsequently it eliminates the carbon dioxide via our lungs. Similarly, it transports the oxygen via our lungs to other parts of our body, so that each cell, tissue, muscle and even the system of our body are nourished with fresh oxygenated air. However, it is sad to learn that many of us do not understand its importance, and thus nowadays, we have so many problems related to the heart. As a result, many of us are suffering from heart diseases and other heart related diseases, in which heart disease has turned out to be a great threat and massive disturbance to human life. Therefore, it is not surprising to find people 30 years old or below (previously, heart disease was found to be more dominant for people who age 50 to 60 years old) having heart problem as this is due to their lack of knowledge in health.

What are the Causes of Heart Disease?

Heart disease has a close relationship with living habits. This may include smoking, eating habit, working pressure, and so forth. The nicotine found in the cigarette can indulge the heart to beat faster, the rise of blood pressure, while lowering the oxygen content in the blood vessel causing the hardening of blood vessel or medically termed as arteriosclerosis (Read more on arteriosclerosis here).

As for eating pattern, oily-, high cholesterol-, and high fat- rich foods can give rise to the cholesterol content in our body. If the presence of cholesterol is high in our blood vessel, it will lead to the narrowing of the artery. In the severe cases, the narrowing of the artery can get clogged the blood vessel causing coronary heart disease.

In general, people who always work under pressure are at high risk of getting heart disease. This is because when the pressure is larger, our body will release large amount of adrenal hormone. This hormone is not good for our health as it causes arteriosclerosis and the blood becomes too concentrated, in which, this condition can result in the occurrence of heart disease or any heart related consequences.

People with high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, hypelipidemia and hypercholesterolemia (see an example disease of hypercholesterolemia here) are high risk groups of heart diseases. This is due to that diabetes patient has a very high glucose level which causes blood vessel easily wears off or being clogged; while the elevation of lipid (Read more on lipid here) in the blood vessel will lead to the narrowing of the blood vessel or the blood vessel may get clogged or blocked easily, thus causing coronary or cardiovascular heart disease. The proper ways to prevent heart disease is to quit smoking and alcholic drinks, have a routine and healthy lifestyle, exercise regulary, healthy eating habit, and have your body checked annually. If you have accidentary encountered with the symptoms of heart disease, early medical treatment and diagnosis is always the most appropriate way to rescue yourself from being threatened by heart disease.

What are the Symptoms of Heart Disease?

If you have the following symptoms, you might have suffered from heart disease which requires immediate attention and treatment. If you are unsure about the symptoms you are experiencing, please do not hesitate to see the doctor for further treatment and advice. Generaly, heart disease suferers may have experienced a variety of symptoms other than the common symptom of chest pain including:

• Shorthness of breath
• Vomiting
• Nausea
• Neck and shoulder pain
• Abdominal pain
• fatigue
• Squeezing sensation, fullness, and/ or pain of the chest
• General epigastric (upper middle abdomen) discomfort
• No symptoms (1/4 of the heart disease cases have been reported to be no symptoms or without chest pain. These silent heart diseases are particularly obvious among the diabetes mellitus patients)
• Sweating
• Headache
• Toothache
• Jaw pain
• Upper back pain
• Indigestion and/ or heartburn
• Vague feeling of illness (general malaise)
• Arm pain (more commonly the left arm, but may be either arm)

Note:

At times, though the occurrence of the heart disease may be vague, mild, light or no symptoms, it is important not to ignore this consequence as it may sometimes become serious as well as life-threatening. Very often, most patients regard the symptoms of stress, fatigue or indigestion as a mild symptom, and thus delaying to seek for prompt medical treatment and diagnosis. Bear in mind that early treatment and diagnosis will save your life, while delaying in obtaining medical assistance can both be life-threatening and fatal. This is because the delay can result in permanently reduced as well as weaken function of the heart which will later cause the extensive damage to the heart tissue and muscle. The sudden onset of arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation always invites the death to knock at your door.

How to Prevent from Getting Heart Disease

• Increase more intake of vegie in your diet
• Promote good personal hygiene
• Reduce the intake of animal fat rich-, high cholesterol-, trans fat- foodstuffs
• Quit smoking
• Reduce the intake of alchoholic drinks
• Control your blood pressure and blood sugar
• Control your body weight
• Avoid yourself from being stress, panic and anxious
• Be cheerful, optimistic and happy always (Read How to make yourself happy)
• Maintain a routine, healthy and normal lifestyle
• Take an adequate amount of nap, sleep and rest
• Have your body checked regularly (Read Heart Health Screening)
• Keep up your exercise

Read Proven Methods to cut Heart Attack Risk for more details and thorough explanation.

What is the Normal and Healthy Heart Rate?

Heart rate refers to the number of heart beats per unit of time and it is often expressed as beats per minute. While resting or in a static state, the average male adult heart beats is approximately 70bpm, and for female adult is 75bpm. However, this rate varies considerably and significantly according to different breathing speed, body temperature, exercise, before and after meal, and individual age. Basically, the youngest the person is the fastest its heart rate is, and the oldest the person is the slowest its heart rate is. That means the baby will have the faster heart rate than the adult.

Below is a table that I compiled from various sources:

Age                               Normal and healthy heart rate (beats per minute)

Fetus                                     140 – 150

Newborn                               130 – 140

1 month -1 year                    110 -130

7 -14 years                           76 – 90

14 – 21 years                        76 – 85

21 – 60 years                        70 – 75

Above 60 years                    67 – 80

What is the Simple Method to Measure Your Pulse?

Pulse is the term used to measure the heart rate. When someone is in the case of arrhythmias, in which its heart rate is significantly higher than the pulse rate, this method of measuring the pulse will be inaccurate. This is also true for those having the cases of low cardiac output. Thus, a process known as auscultation (listening to heart beats using a stethoscope) is the most appropriate and accurate way to measure the heart rate.

Image source

It is easy to measure your pulse. Do this by putting your fingers at the neck and wrist as shown in the picture above. The thumb should never be used for this purpose as its strong pulse may interfere with your exact pulse. That means you may have added your thumb’s pulse accidentally which gives you an inaccurate pulse reading.

Do you have Heart Disease? Do this self-diagnose Test.

Eating habits, stress, genetic are some of the main factors that lead to the possibility of getting heart disease. If you have the conditions stated below, please tick behind each condition that applies to you otherwise just ignores it. Each tick earns you one mark.

1. Your age is between 30 to 45 years old
2. You smoke
3. Your family members have the record of smoking
4. You are a meat eater
5. Your breakfast includes two eggs or more
6. You feel sleepy easily
7. You are suffering from insomnia
8. You are always in a bad mood and/ or a hot temper
9. You have a close family member (a parent, brother or sister) with heart disease
10. You always work longer indoor and/or in the office
11. You like to watch television while having tidbit or snack to bite on
12. You eat less or none of fruits
13. You always sweat (the sweating is not caused by exercise or any physical movements)
14. You eat chicken or any meats together with their skins
15. Your body feels extremely weak or tired due to a busy workload
16. You prefer to eat out rather than to cook at home
17. You seldom or do not do exercise
18. You get annoyed or irritated easily
19. You always feel your stomach with something even though you do not feel hungry at all
20. You have a bad habit of drinking alcohol
21. You like to eat foodstuff that has a very strong taste or odor. That means your diet has many artificial coloring or chemical compounds add-in.
22. You eat less or none of the bean category foods
23. You eat less fiber rich foods. These foods include vegetables, wheat, grains, and etc.

Next, add up all the marks that you obtained from this self-test and see the result below:

0 – 6 marks

Congratulation! You are a healthy person. That means you have a very good health condition and healthy lifestyle. Your possibility of getting heart disease is extremely low, so you should maintain and make this healthy lifestyle as your habit.

7 – 12 marks

Oops! You are alerted for a warning status. At this stage, you should pay more attention to your health. That means you should adjust your daily diet, eating habit accordingly to maintain your body’s optimum health. Besides that, you are advised to keep up an aerobic exercise regularly, quit smoking, reduce the intake of fat- and cholesterol rich foodstuffs, and reduce the intake of alcoholic and caffeinated drinks. Additionally, you should find out appropriate ways to reduce your stress besides having your body regularly checked so that your heart health can be monitored from time to time.

13 – 23 marks

You are categorized under a high risk group of heart disease. Whether you are experiencing symptoms arising from heart disease, or you might have no symptoms to be alerted, your life can be life-threatening or fatal as the death can visit you anytime and anyplace. Therefore, you should not hesitate to seek for a medical treatment or diagnosis. As I have mentioned earlier, any delay at this stage can result in permanently reduced as well as weaken function of the heart which will later cause the extensive damage to the heart tissue and muscle. The sudden onset of arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation always invites the death to knock at your door.

What is the Daily Care to strengthen your Heart Health?

Here, I will introduce you a simple and easy to follow method to enhance your heart health.

Wear socks appropriately and Avoid Exposing your Back

The ancient Chinese practitioners tell us that all diseases begin at our foot. If every one of us wears socks including when we sleep at night, then our feet can maintain its warmth while avoiding the intrusion of cold air which tends to penetrate through our foot palm. As most Chinese practitioners believe that human’s back is the meeting point of “yang” breath, or in order words, the terminal of acupuncture points, it is easier to expose to any intrusion of “qi” or a parcel of air into other parts of our organs, which might further indulge unprecedented health consequences. Therefore, I advise you to wear socks to protect your feet and at the same time help protecting your heart. Similarly, keep yourself away from exposing your back is always a great advantage to maintain your heart health.

Soak your Legs to keep them Warm

As I have mentioned earlier, it is essential to maintain the warmth of our legs. For those who suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetic neuropathy, cardiovascular disease, and particularly for those who have edema at their lower limbs, soaking legs in warm water daily can be considered as a good measure as it aids in preventing the existing diseases from being developed into a chronic state. This is because of the increase flow of blood within the micro-vascular vessels at the lower limbs.

Do not Push your Feces too Hard

For those who suffer from cardiovascular disease accompanied with constipation, you are advised not to push your feces too hard. Many clinical reports show that patients with heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular and other chronic diseases have a significant rise of blood pressure, as during defecation they have pushed their feces too hard which results in the increase pressure in their abdominal part and eventually brings to the rise of the blood pressure. The rise of blood pressure is dangerous that it will increase the workload of our heart and thereby indulging the occurrence of stroke and heart attack. In the severe case, this condition can be life-threatening and fatal.

I recommend the heart disease patients to use the sitting toilet instead of the standing toilet in which they have to squat. That is because if the patient squats the limbs while passing feces, the blood pressure will accumulate at the lower limbs causing inadequate volume of blood in the heart. Besides that, standing straightaway after the bowel action may have caused the sudden flow of blood into the heart which incleases the workload of the heart and thus leading to other heart related consequences.

Coughing as a Method of Resuscitation

Coughing is a temporal method for a heart resuscitation. It helps many chronic disease patients escaping from being death.

When we cough loudly, about 75 Joule energy power can be produced. This energy is then converted as a bioelectrical energy which gives the nearly-death heart a chance to resuscitate.

For the heart disease patients, I sincerely advise you not to be panicked when you are facing with the conditions that get you down or collapse. At this time, try to cough few times as loud as you could. The intense coughing can stimulate the overall blood circulations in our body, so that the blood can be despatched back to our brain. Meanwhile, it helps compressing the circulation within our lungs, so that the blood can flow back to our heart. This helps to accelerate the contraction of our heart while adjusting the rhythm of the heart rate. When this condition is achieved, Systolic blood pressure (SBP) can give rise from 50 to 80mmHg. This in turns delays the time of treatment and thus the patient is benefited to get the real-time treatment.

Now, you may ask me, “Chan, how to do this?” Don’t worry, it’s simple to do. Let me explain in a way that you will understand better.

When you feel the onset of any symptoms related to heart disease, try to cough loudly every one to two seconds. Remember, you should cough consecutively five times as loud as you could within one to two seconds. Take note that this is the method to temporally delay the time of treatment, you still need to see your doctor for further diagnosis and treatment.

Final Remark

If you have the heart conditions stated in this article, your specific questions about your heart symptoms can only be answered properly and appropriately by your physician who is familiar with your heart test, your health and medication history. I can only provide you a generalized answer in regards to your questions. Therefore, I recommend you to make an appointment with your doctor to have your heart checked so that further evaluation of your symptoms can be carried out promptly. Take care and be in good health! Good luck!

Now, you can gain more health knowledge by visiting my health blog entitled HealthAssist. More upcoming updates and latest health information are right on the way!

1. WH Foods

   This superb and thorough site links 129 foods that are completely natural as the foundation for your healthy daily diet. This site only includes 100% “whole foods.”

   This site is truly first-rate and one of my favorites for exploring the health benefits of top foods as well as a description of each food chosen. This site also includes a very interesting history of the healthiest foods and how to select and store them. A safety and nutritional profile for each of the selected foods is also included. In addition the photographs are extraordinarily vivid and colorful. The photographs on this site make the particular food just jump off the page and are extremely appealing to the senses.

2. The 29 Healthiest Foods on the Planet
   

   This site offers a “healthy food hot list” that is made up of 29 super foods that give you the most nutrition for the amount of calories that they provide. These foods were also chosen because they are proven to reduce the risk of serious diseases. There are several good suggestions for making these 29 foods an easy part of your daily life.

3. 20 of the World’s Healthiest Foods
   

   This site makes the point that the more vibrant the color of the food, the more health benefits it has for our bodies. Often healthy foods are viewed as boring, but this site is most persuasive in pointing out the fact that healthy foods can be exciting.

4. The Top 10 Nutrition Myths Debunked by Dietitians
   

   I liked this site because it disproves common food myths like “sugar causes diabetes.” According to medical research, diabetes is determined by weight, genetics and inactivity.

   The sooner we separate the “food facts” from the “food fiction” the healthier we all will be.

5. The Seven Secret Foods That Only The Healthiest People In The World Eat
   

   This piece discusses the “super foods” that not only provide outstanding nutrition but also aid in mood building. These foods come from every part of the world and they are not the obvious choices that we are constantly hearing about. Have you heard of the Goji berry?

So spend some time on these sites. You will probably add one or two of them to your “favorites.” Here’s to a love of healthy eating and a long nutrition filled life!

Time is a precious thing. However, so are our minds and bodies. We have to take time out for ourselves. Time away from the kids, the husband, boyfriend or significant other. Sometimes as women and being natural caretakers, we tend to think relaxing or doing things for ourselves is wasting time. We feel we have to be productive in order to feel valued.

Many of us have people we live with on a daily basis, families who depend on us constantly. We have demanding bosses and nit-picky secretaries, teacher conferences, PTA functions, not to mention your child’s dance, soccer, baseball or piano lessons, which you can,’t be late for; how about daycare, dry cleaning etc. You get the picture! Sometimes relaxing is that thing we get only when we sleep at night. Let’s face it! Girl, we are “Wonder Woman!” At least that’s what everybody thinks, and life can be hectic. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed daily. So how do you relax for little or nothing?

Let’s start with regaining your self-awareness in your mind. This is not the time to think about the laundry, dinner or your kid’s schoolwork. If you can, get someone else to do it for a day.

While relaxing, think about who you are. What’s nice about you? Where are you going in life? What makes you a good person? What are some things you would like to change about yourself? These are all self-reflections every woman needs to face in her life. Questions to think about while your relaxing. Thoughts to reclaim your self-confidence after a long hectic week.

There are many ways to relax that can be cost-effective. Yoga is a low cost popular way a lot of people like to relax. A recommended exercise for relaxing, Yoga is total fitness for the body, mind, and spirit. Practiced for thousands of years, Yoga combines relaxing deep breathing techniques with physical postures that stretch, strengthen and align the whole body. After you finish you’ll feel empowered, relaxed yet energized, and physically free. You can find free Yoga techniques at
here. As with any exercise before starting Yoga, you should consult a doctor’s advice.

Here are a few helpful, simple tips that anyone can do to help relax, unwind, and recoup after a long day of work, family and friends.

• Create Ambiance

  Light several candles in your bathroom, and take a long, warm or hot shower and let the water run down your neck, shoulders, arms and back for about 5-10 minutes. When you come out of the shower, the steam mixed with the fragrant candle will provide a relaxing atmosphere.

• Saturate Your Senses.

  Wash your hair in warm water with a relaxing aroma shampoo like an herbal shampoo, ex: “Free me Freesia” with jasmine and aloe by Alberto VO5 is very nice. After washing your hair in warm water, turn on the cold water and stimulate your hair follicles. The cold water awakens your scalp and senses for relaxing.

• Rest Your Hair and Body.

  After washing your hair, give it and you a break by wrapping it in a warm bath towel straight from the dryer. Then kick back on a sofa or bed and relax without drying your hair this time.

• Free Your Mind & The Rest Will Follow.

  Read a romance novel or another comforting book like The Holy Bible in bed on freshly changed linen. (No mysteries, adventures, or horror books allowed. These will only intensify your anxiety and stress levels while reading.)

• Pamper Your Tootsies While Relaxing!

  Buy a “Homedics” or a “Spa Therapy” Foot & Bath Massager; turn it on slow to medium speed; sit back in your favorite easy chair with the remote in one hand, and submerge the other hand in a warm bowl of buttery popcorn. Then rent a “women up-lifting, not a women down playing,” drama flick. Turn off the lights and light a candle to increase relaxation. Note: (Don’t keep your feet submerged any longer than 15-minutes in the foot massager.)

• Have a Tranquil Nap.

  Unplug the telephones, TV, radio, doorbell, and answering machine. Take a warm fragrant bubble bath with a soft bath pillow placed behind your neck, or you can use a rolled bath towel. Close your eyes and take a nap. Note: (Make sure you don’t fill your tub too high with water for safety.)

• Day Dream Your Time Away!

  Get a pair of headphones and play a mellow, romantic jazz, blues, R & B or classical tune on your CD or cassette player. Move a comfortable chair by a window and stare out at the clouds in the sky. If it’s at night, raise the blinds and stare out at the stars and the moon. Try to tune out anyone who might enter the room.

• Create a soothing environment

  without the noise or lights. Turn off all the lights, TV, radio, computer, and open a window for a cool breeze to flow into the room, or if it’s noisy outside turn on a fan to blow air faintly towards you for relaxation. If the area you’re in is still noisy, put a couple of cotton balls or earplugs in your ears. Put on your favorite P.J.’s and go to sleep early.

• “Calgon, Take Me Away!”

  A great tip for a migraine headache remedy is to run a warm bath combined with the following essential oils and a emulsifier (cream or honey): add three drops of chamomile, 3 drops of lavender, and 3 drops of rosemary. This will alleviate tension and provide a relaxing aroma-therapy sensation to soothe your headache away.

Taking the time to do these simple tips will be well worth it as you awaken to start your new day, girl relaxed, ready and set for anything!