Tips on Taking Care of our Brain

In one of my posts, I talked about how our body affects our brain. I am pretty sure we all acknowledged the importance of taking care of our brain. This said, let us talk about how we could take care of our brain.

Eat healthy foods - This means fruits and vegetables. We know that fruits are packed with nutrients needed by our body. And because 40% of our body nutrients are transported to our brain, it would be wise to give our body foods of value.

Learn to deal with stress - Stress is part of life. In fact, I said in my post entitled  "Stress" that it can actually drive us to reach our optimum performance. It can keep us alert. However, anything that is too much is bad. This is the same with stress. Too much stress is like a venom. It finds its' way to your immune system until it weakens your defenses. Eventually, it will slow you down. Hence, welcome healthy stress. However, eliminate it on the early signs of being destructive to your mind and your overall health.

Exercise - Exercise is always associated with being sexy and hunky. We live in a society with a mind set that you are cool if you have a great body.  Well, i have news for you. Vanity is not the number 1 benefit of exercise. A healthy body is the no. 1 benefit of exercise. Vanity is just an extra flavoring. If there is one thing where vanity comes as no. 1, it is Al Pacino's line in "Devil's Advocate". Do you recall his line? "Vanity is my favorite sin!" Huh!! Sure, you can take vanity as your motivator. But do not forget that the main reason why you should exercise is to have a healthy body. A sexy body is just a bonus that comes with the package. Exercise regulates the oxygen in our organs. It also regulates the blood stream in our brain. This said, exercise gives you a healthy body, a sharp mind and a trimmer waist line.

I gave you three ways to take care of your brain. There are other tips on how we could take care of our brain. 

To know more, check out the article I wrote entitled "How to take care of our Brain". It is recently published in healthmad.com. I gave a more detailed information on my published article. So check it out and find out more.

Have a great week end, every one.

How our Body Affects our Brain

Do you know that your brain is at least 2% of your body weight?  1/4% of the oxygen that you breathe to your lungs goes to your brain. And about 1/4 of the blood pumping in your heart goes to the human brain as well. Above all, about 40% of the nutritious substance in your body goes to the brain.  However, if you will hold it in your hands, you might be flabbergasted with its size. It is tiny. 

So, how does our body system affects the health condition of our brain? The human brain absorbs the nutrients we give to our body. Therefore, if we give our body garbage, we are also feeding garbage to our brain. And really, it affects our brain big time. Had you ever wondered why we have difficulty thinking or studying when we are hungry?  Had you noticed how we have a head ache if some parts of our body are not functioning well? For instance, if our tooth aches, had you noticed that you also have a stabbing pain in your head? When I was in the call center, I had not had a decent sleep. As a result, I had a head ache while working. Less sleep and fatigue equals head ache.

There is a theory in computer operation. Garbage in means garbage out. For those who studies computer, they know that. In the human body, take a garbage in and it will surely have an effect to the functions of our body. The result is low energy, inability to think effectively, bad performance or worse, disease. Makes sense, right?

This said, it is only logical to conclude that what we do to our body, we also do to our brain. So, how do we take care of our brain, then. I think I already asked this in my previous post.

Let us talk about the easy tips on how we could take care of our brain, shall we? But then, that will be on another date and time. But I promise it will be sooner. But until then, have a great week every one.

By the way, image comes from braintraininggames.net

How is our brain?

I could not really say I am too old. However,  I had been experiencing forgetfulness. I had been asking my self, what could be the reason for such? Are you on the same predicament?

As some of my virtual colleagues had known, I had been in a call center industry for years. One of my supervisors had noted that a night being awake can pop out one of our cells. The cell affected has something to do with our memory. Honestly, I can not attest to the veracity of the word. However, I could not help but to think that maybe there is a shed of truth in it.

Our brain is one of the important facet of our body.  Every cell in our body reports to our brain. The senses acquired by the main sensory organs of our body is reported to the brain. Every movement in the smallest fiber in our body is connected to our brain. Above all, a sound disposition would require a fully functional brain. If compared to a computer, the brain is the mother board. Remove the mother board. Surely you will have no computer. 

I suppose the main question here is that, how do we take care of our brain? Let us go with the basics for now.

One significant step is to keep our brain busy. Challenge your self. Indulge to activities that would require you to think. Read books as well. Eat healthy foods. There are a lot of things that we could do in order to take care of our brain. We will go over to each of them on the next succeeding post. 

Hope I will be speaking this subject with you, on my next posts.

The picture came from DavidJParnell .

Always take care. 

 

Tips on How to Quit Smoking

I wrote about the Reasons Why You Should Stop Smoking. I also wrote about The Reasons Why It is Difficult to Quit Smoking. Let us now talk about the tips on how you could start quitting. Smoking is addictive. Hence, it is advisable to take it one step at a time. 

Fist thing to work on is your motivation. Even in losing weight, motivation is very important. This is going to be your driving force to continue especially during the craving moment. So, why do you want to stop smoking? Maybe because of health reasons. You do not want to have lung cancer. Just imagine the limitations once you acquire lung cancer. Or maybe, you are tired of unpleasant odor in your finger tips, in your hair or even your breath. Or maybe because it is becoming heavy to your budget. What ever the reason, make sure you can hold on to it with your firm grip. You will definitely be needing that during craving times.

Keep away from temptation, so they say. Therefore, remove your lighter, match, cigarette pack. Anything associated with smoking should be a hundred miles away from you. It is better if you will also avoid possible scenarios that would eventually tempt you to smoke, again.

Know what triggers your craving. Do you have the persistent craving to hit one stick after a meal? When you are stressed-out? When you want to relax? When you are watching TV? What are the instances that arouses your craving? Knowing what triggers your addiction could help you determine how to lessen the instances of those triggering moments.

Make an alternative. You can go with chewing gum. You know, maybe I could consider myself  lucky. I used to smoke. However, I am able to rid of smoking in cold turkey. Maybe because I was not your traditional  smoker. I did smoke and there was occasional cravings. My trigger was when I was stressed-out. The last time I hit a stick was 10 years ago. My son was ten or eleven years old then. Never had one ever since I stopped. Never went through withdrawals. Never back slide, even once.  How did it happen? I will tell you about it on my future post. Perhaps on my next post. I can tell you now that one of the alternatives I used was coffee. An alternative may not be good enough but it would do rather than nothing at all. 

Create an activity for yourself. Be busy. Cravings will be on its peak on the first weeks of quitting. On this stage, cravings will come pretty strong. You must be firm. The problem with cravings is that the more you say "No", the more it tempts you. Divert your thoughts. Enroll in a gym. If and when you have the cravings, go to the gym and work out. Have a hobby. Associate with a non smoker group. Talk to some one. Do something. Do not just allow the craving to get to you.

Some say that you should have a schedule. The problem with a schedule is that if you backslide, the effect is more damaging. This is  especially when you are almost near your target date and you back slide. Target date can be stressful. You will be expecting that at this point, you had already achieved up to a certain level of improvement. If you feel you had not, it could be very frustrating.  Also, once you reached the target date and you back slide after wards, the feeling of failure can be over whelming.

However, it depends on a person really. If a target date works for you, i say go for it. For me, i think focus on small results matters. Do it one step at a time. Until the time when you can finally stand on your own. Until you reach the time when you do not crave anymore. If you stumble, no pressure. Stand up. Gather yourself and start again. If it takes forever, so be it. Make it your personal battle to stop smoking. I think that is more effective.

There are more ways to stop smoking. I hope you are able to pick one or two from this post. Remember that it does not matter how many times you stumble. What matters is how many times you stand up. Never, never give up.  If I may repeat, giving up is NEVER an option.

Have a great day every one and always take care.

By the way, the picture came from izismile.com

Why is it Difficult to Stop Smoking?

Smoking has caused cancer and various terminal illnesses. It can be expensive because you have to support your vice on a regular basis. Because of this, cigarette becomes a  part of  our regular expense.

If you will really think about it, smoking is a hazard in every way. It gives us bad breath. It leaves a strong unpleasant odor in our clothes. It is not easy in our budget. It makes us its slave when we crave for it. It gives us cancer. With all of these, why is it difficult to stop the habit? Why do we still crave?

We know that cigarette contains nicotine. And I also mentioned in my previous post the description of the word. Merriam Webster defined nicotine as “a poisonous and addictive substance in tobacco that is used as an insecticide.”

Given the effects of nicotine to our health, let us talk about the reason why it is so difficult to drop it…..permanently. You see, one cigarette contains 10 milligrams of nicotine. Once we smoke, at least one or two milligrams are inhaled in our system. Nicotine then mixes up with our bloodstream. After which, it finds its way to our brain. From the brain, it secretes dopamine. A dopamine is a substance that produces gratifying sensation.

The release of dopamine makes the smokers  feel gratification on each stick of cigarette inhaled. This arises the tendency to go back for more. The problem is that in order to get a certain level of euphoria, you would have to inhale more.

On top of dopamine, cigarette works as anti-depressant as well.  The effect is only temporary though. This is the reason why smokers have the urge to grab a cigarette under a stressful situation.

The release of dopamine is one of the major reasons why it is difficult to quit smoking. There are many more.  Despite the gratifying euphoria, the fact remains that smoking is and will always be bad for our health.

I hope I am able to share something with you today.

Picture from flicker.com

Why Should One Stop Smoking.

I had been in a call center industry for more or less 4 years. With that span of time, i could fairly say that 85% to 90% of my co-workers are smokers. Some expressed an intention to stop smoking. Those are just words. After a while, I will be seeing them in the smokers' area again. They know that smoking is not good for their health. I think every smokers knows that. However, quitting seemed too difficult.

Really, why do they have to stop smoking?

Let us count the reasons....

One of the component of a cigarette is nicotine. According to Merriam Webster, a Nicotine is poisonous and addictive substance in tabacco that is used as an insecticide. One pack of cigarette contains 10 milligrams of nicotine. Once you hit that stick, 1 to 2 milligrams will enter your body. It will find its way to your bloodstream. Then as soon as it is already absorbed by your bloodstream, it will work its way up to your brain. Afterward, it will find its way to your organs. Once nicotine mixes with your bloodstream, it can not create oxygen. What is the result of this, it will result blood clot. Not abrupt. Blood clotting will transpire gradually as you pile up more nicotine when you inhale nicotine in your system.

This causes stroke, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. Statistically, the highest contributor of cancer is lung cancer. The highest percentage of lung cancer comes from smokers.

This said, what could be the sane reason why a person should persist on inhaling nicotine?

Please do not take my word for it. If this post touches you in anyway, make your own research.

Photo courtesy of flicker.com

HOW TO DEAL WITH STRESS

We did talk about stress. We also talked on how it could be detrimental to our health. Stress could lead to various serious health issues that could be fatal when not properly addressed.

But then, I also did say that stress could be a good thing, too. I said stress could make us swift and alert. However, when it reaches a certain level of extent, it could be fatal. It could bring serious health issues. So, how do we determine the boiling point? When is "too much" really too much? You and only you could determine that. Are you on that thin line between your breaking point and your sanity? Do you still have some space to breathe-in ? Even your love one can not tell you when enough is really enough.

I would prefer that we do not reach the boiling point. Kill the stress on the early stage of it. We need to sit down and determine what is causing this harmful stress. In troubleshooting, we do a "trial and error" experiment. The purpose of which is to isolate the real problem. We must know what the real cause of our stress is. Once we are able to isolate and determine the root cause of the issue, then we can already address it from there. Makes sense, right?

Also, let us breathe. I have a slipped disk. About a year ago, I had recurring attacks. Thinking that it is because of the slipped disk, I went to my therapist. She said it has nothing to do with my slipped disk. She advised me to slow down. Breathe the air of life, so to speak. She further advised me to go out of my nutshell and learn to experience life. I left her clinic pissed. What kind of prescription was that?

I tried reflexology. I tried to slow down, a bit. It has good effects, actually. Bottom line, when the situation is getting too tight and you could not breathe anymore, learn to relax. Be kind to yourself. Talk to your trusted friends. [Unfortunately, i did not have the advantage because i did not have the time]. Focus on the positive side of things. The situation will not change for us. Most often than not, the situation that may be causing your stress will not change. However, your perspective could adjust. Look at the things on a different perspective and you would be able to align yourself to the situation.

The reality is, the world will not change for us. We are the one who should adjust in order to survive the situation. We must learn how to cope because the world will not fit itself according to how we want it to be. We can not have perfect husbands, perfect children, perfect job. There is no such thing. There is, however, the capability to make the most out of the positive in order to overcome the negative. Always look at the positive side of the situation. Embrace the never ending world of the word "change". In the call center industry, the sentence "The only permanent thing in life is change" is very prominent.

It is difficult to see the positive side? It happens. It happened to me. If that is the case, how about this. There are certain occasion in my past when I felt like I faced a blank wall. No matter what I decide to do, I know I would be damned. Or was. It is like damn if I do. Damn if I don't. I said to myself then, I may not win this one, but I will not go down without a fight. Fight like hell. Fight for your life. Fight for the people depending on you. Fight for your love one. Think of them. I could very well say that it is always better to lose fighting than lose doing nothing.

The question is, are you going to simply allow stress destroy the best in you...and beat you?


The picture came from genuinestressrelief.com

LESSONS IN LIFE

As they said, life is never easy. One should really sweat and exert effort specially when you are a provider. When some one is depending on you. Regardless of whether we have a job or not, our bills would not go away. We can not say to Meralco or to Maynilad that we can not pay our bills because we do not have money or we do not have a job. If we have a child going to school. We can not say to the University "I can not pay the tuition because i do not have any money" Of course, you can get a promissory slip. However, a promissory note means a delay, not an omission of our obligation. Obligation will always be there and whether we like it or not, we have to meet them. That is one of the reason why a person can not afford to stop working. Once, i told myself i am ready to give anything and do anything to sustain my dependent. I did not care about my self nor my body nor my physical health. What matters was that i am able to meet my responsibility. I thought that was the way to do it. However, as years passed by, i realized one thing. We have only one body. Whether we like it or not, this same body will be the one we will be needing to meet those obligation. In business, manpower is the most important asset. I could not imagine how a business will operate without manpower. For an individual, the most important asset in order to continue moving and meeting our obligation is our health. I realized that if i am really smart, i should make sure that my body could sustain me for as long as possible so i could sustain my obligation as well. There should be a lesson learned on every corner as we go through this journey. It is different when we just hear them. It is entirely different when we are already the person in that position. I suppose life is an unending process of learning and living.

Have a great week day my friends and thank you for wishing me well.

Always take care.

SLEEP DISORDER CAN CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN

During younger years, i thought less sleep can make one lose weight. Hence, if one would like to reduce those unwanted fats, sleep less and in no time, you could lose weight. However, when i entered the call centre industry, this belief had been challenged. Having to work at night, i have to sleep in the morning. It is difficult to sleep when the sun is still up. I have to force myself to get up in the middle of the night because it is time for me to work. The result, I sleep less compared to the number of hours i slept when i was working in day time. For me, it took a lot of adjustments to force my body to embrace this odd schedule. My eating habits did not change though. However, i noticed that i am continuously gaining weight. Something i could not stop. I should be losing weight considering i had less sleep. Instead, i gained weight. Why is that?

I am able to name two hormones that were able to answer my question. One is Leptin. Leptin is a hormone in our body that is responsible with our appetite, metabolism and burning of our stored calories. Leptin transmits a message to our brain when our stomach is already full and our intestines are already busy working. It tells our brain it is time to burn those stored calories we took through our food intake. During sleep, leptin level increases. It transmits a message to our brain that we have enough energy and does not need to eat. However, if we have a habit of sleeping less than we should. Leptin decreases. Hence, it triggers a message to our brain that we should store energy in the form of food though there is still stored energy in our body. It makes us feel hungry. More so, drop of leptin in our body slows down our metabolism. We know that when our metabolism decreases its working capacity, there is a greater tendency to gain weight because our body can not burn those unwanted calories the way it normally does.

Another hormone that triggers weight gain if we have unstable sleeping habit is ghrelin . Ghrelin is a hormone that transmits message to our brain that it should already stop burning those calories. It tells our brain when our stored energy should be converted into fat. During sleep, ghrelin decreases. This is so because during sleep our body does not require energy as much as when we are awake. Less sleep causes an increased level of ghrelin. Just imagine if ghrelin would transmit to our brain to store our stored energy into fat- on its higher level. Theoretically speaking, can i safely state that it falls under messing up our body clock? Maybe.....maybe not!

Do you know that continuous unstable sleeping habit- under the above factors given- can lead to obesity? If i may point out, obesity is already considered a disease. Let us remove vanity at this point. Let us focus on health. Excessive unwanted fat can cause a lot of illness. To name a few, hypertension, diabetes and more. As i did state in one of my previous entries, proper sleeping is as important as eating and regular exercise. We have only one borrowed physical body. A television series, supernatural, calls it meat suit or vessel. I think we owe it to our selves and to the One who allowed us to borrow this body while we are in this life to take care of it. If we are not religious, let us look at the practical side of the situation. No one can deny that we do not have a spare body to use. If we are practical, we would ensure that this body could function well for us for as long as we are still in our journey in this life, right? I believe no one would like to live bearing a limited physical capability due to illness. As i had realized only recently, health is actually our wealth.

Always take care.

LOSE WEIGHT II

In the entry "Losing Weight", it has been specifically noted that it is important that we are on the right footing before we dive in to the challenge of losing those unwanted fats. Right motivation is a powerful tool to reach our goal. Also, we have to be realistic in our expectations when it comes to products that promises weight loss. I realized that the old fashioned way may take time but it is still the safest way to lose weight. Other angles to consider in order to lose weight are:

Food:
Keep tract of food intake and eating habits. How often and how much i eat. Most of the times, it is what we eat that matters. I replaced junk foods with veggie. In the morning [ which is 11:00pm for me] i eat carbohydrate. Enough rice to get me going for the whole days activities. For dinner [which is 12:00pm ] i eat salad. Another option is cooked vegetable. No rice. I stand for 15 minutes immediately after eating. A gym instructor told me that sitting right after eating can gradually built up those fats in our belly. I drink a lot of water. This makes me feel full. Drinking lots of water is also good for our body. I chew my food thoroughly. The disadvantage is that it took time for me to finish my food. The advantage is that because i chew it thoroughly, i already feel full with few bites. Hence, with standard amount of eating, i feel really full. If and when i want to indulge, i did not stop my self. I was informed by a nutritionist that when we stop ourselves from indulging into a food we yearned so much, there is a tendency to secrete more fattening tissues in our system. Instead, i take 0% calorie ice cream. There is actually one near our location. Another option for me is to buy those real dark chocolate. Unlike their counter part chocolates, dark chocolates are actually healthy. Mostly, i refrain from those in between meals.

Exercise:
I kept a regular physical work-out. Every day-off, i always go brisk walking every 5:00am. I used to run but because of my slip disk, running had been prohibited by my doctor. After hospitalization, i had endurance issues. Because of this, my doctor designed an exercise program for me. I have to push myself to my limit. Test the extent of my physical endurance. Every brisk walk, i would return home sweating all over. My shirt always soaking wet. Sometimes i would add more exercises on top of my brisk walk. I felt good and i could definitely say that it helps me lose those unwanted fat as well. My physical capability is already limited after my slip disk. But then, we do not stop because of our limitations. We make the most of what we got, right?

Enough Sleep:
Do you know that chronic sleep deprivation can ignite unwanted fat? I thought it was just me but now i know that it is supported by medical evaluation. Habitual unstable sleep habit can greatly affect two of our hormones. These are the hormones responsible for getting our metabolism going and our appetite in its normal cycle. These hormones are Leptin and Grehlin. Leptin is our hormone that controls our appetite. Grehlin is our hormone that increases our appetite. It gives a signal to our brain that our intestine has nothing to consume anymore. Hence, it transmits to our brain that we have to eat. The danger is that because unstable sleeping habits effects our metabolism, there is actually a food stock in our stomach ready to consumed by our intestine. Hence, food stock piling up. The end result, we are already gaining weight before we know it. I will talk about how unstable sleeping habits can lead to obesity on the next entries to come.

I gave birth at the age of 23. After a number of months, i was able to regain my waistline with discipline, exercise and proper eating. My waist line was then 26 inches. Upon reaching early 30s' my waistline played between 26 to 27 inches. I was able to maintain it up until late 30s'. I was pretty sure that i could maintain it up until i reach 40 yrs. old. When i entered the call centre industry, my schedule changed. i can not sleep because the sun was still up. I have to wake up in the middle of the night to work. It was a challenge to my body clock because i was and up until now a morning person. My sleeping habits changed. Habitual unstable sleep had been my life. Since then, i gained weight. Irony was that i did not change my food intake habits. My waist line went higher up to 32 inches. Last April, i was forced to take at least 8 hours sleep because of recurring attack of my slip disk issue. I started doing the things i am writing right now. From food to exercise to every thing. Gradually, i am getting a progress. Now my waistline is already 30 1/2 inches. Considering i am already in my 40s, i know i can not have the body i had ten years ago. However, getting 20 something inches for my waistline and i would be happy. Maybe, just maybe...I could already wear those pants i could not wear anymore. I felt lighter now compared to number of months ago. However, i am not light enough. I still have trouble breathing- sometimes. I know i have to work further. I also learned my lesson. When we mess up with our body clock, there is a consequence.

The improvement is very slow, i know. However, losing weight for my self is an advantage because i am not really in a hurry. No pressure. If i failed, i can always stand up and go back where i left of. The important thing is that i am not giving up and i am making progress. The more important thing is that i would like to maintain it. Maybe not long enough specially when i am not getting younger. However, keeping myself healthy is one way of fighting for myself.

We keep our selves healthy and there will be a good chance that we will be spared from lots of sickness. Keeping our selves trim should be for our health. Exercise is for health. Not for vanity. That much i can say, my friend.

LOSE WEIGHT I

For ladies, keeping ourselves fit and trim had seemed to be a life-long challenge. But then, we should first be on the proper footing when it comes to the reason behind our struggle to keep ourselves trim. I personally believe that the reason should be us, for ourselves. It should not be for another person. Not all, but some women strive to be trim to win the approval of her spouse, women friends or a social circle. I would like to lose weight and maintain a standard physique because i hate waking up with those bulges in my tummy every time i get up from my bed. During younger days, that could really ruin my day. I was not comfortable. Up until now actually. The difference between then and now is that i became patient with my self and more tolerant as i age. Another reason is because I prefer to feel light when i move around. One good reason to keep ourselves fit and trim is actually the health benefit it offers.

If we want to achieve a particular destination, it is not just the journey that we should prepare. It helps a lot to be on the proper footing - proper motivation. I will look in the mirror and will say to my self : "This is for me because i owe it to my self. "


Diet Pills:
With so many products in the market promising to deliver effective results, we could get caught in between. I recalled during teen years when i bought an expensive diet pill recommended by a friend. I spent my savings in exchange of a promise to lose weight. Unfortunately, as days go by taking the diet pills i suffered severe stomach pain. I have to stop taking those diet pills. Unfortunately, once i stopped i started gaining weight. I spent my savings for a product that could not delivery result. I felt foolish. For a while, i thought it was a hopeless case for me. I learned my lesson then. Like cosmetic products that works with certain skin types, one product may not work with Maria the way it worked for Mariana. This concept is the same with diet pills. I tried a different approach. Do not get me wrong, my friend. If one diet pill would work for you, that is perfectly fine.

I tried the natural and the old fashioned way. I have to admit the process was long but i am sure there are no side effect. Hence, perfectly safe. Slowly but surely:

We will talk more about losing weight on the next entry. Hopefully, you would be able to find a thing or two that could be useful for you, too!




Source of Picture:
http://www.tenerifenews.com/cms/upload/images_311/311LosingWeight.jpg

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

Sleeping is a basic necessity of our body. However, in a fast paced society where every minute counts, the waking hours is not even enough to cope with the demands of our living. Nowadays when work is not anymore limited to 8:00am to 5:00pm office works, working hours extended to the fullest. In an industrialized society, some people even have to work at night instead of doing the normal schedule of a human being when night falls, to sleep.

In some points of our life, we may have experienced sleep deprivation. Maybe because of the call of duty. Maybe some became used to night life. Regardless of the reason, chronic lack of sleep can lead to serious health condition. Evidence that sleep deprivation is bad to our health had been pilling up. The reality is that our body needs to rejuvenate . Rejuvenation prepares our body for the next days’ loads and challenges. Getting enough sleep is as important as eating. Start messing up with your sleep cycle and you messed up with your bodys’ metabolism, hormone levels and blood pressure.

Not allowing our body to rejuvenate thru proper sleeping habits have its consequence. Mild repercussion of chronic lack of sleep includes fatigue, irritability and blurry vision. Some serious effects include depression, heart disease and hypertension. More serious health issues may also come up. It can lead to heart disease. Not getting enough sleep releases stress hormones and proteins that creates risk of heart attack and stroke. It can also affect the way our body processes our blood sugar. Studies shows that healthy young male and female have the same level of insulin and blood sugar to those people who are on the verge of diabetes after sleeping for four hours a night for six days. Therefore, less sleep could raise the risk of diabetes. More so, sleeping less have a negative effect to our hormones. The hormones that controls our appetite will be out of its natural balance. Hence, risking obesity.

Proper sleeping habit is very important to be healthy. Just as proper exercise and eating is equally important. Unfortunately, most does not have much respect for sleep. Some of us feel that it is fine to stay up late. Some of us even longed for nightfall. As the night begins, life begins. I can always sleep for a few hours anyway. Little did we realize that by these lifestyle and habits, we put our body and our health in jeopardy.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Do you believe that our state of mind influences our physical health? Our lifestyle, attitude, and our perspective in life have a direct effect on our total well being. Hence, a healthy lifestyle, a positive attitude towards every occurences in our life can trigger a healthy body. In fact, there had been wellness programs established for purposes of creating as an alternative medicine. If these programs can actually improve physical health is controversial and a subject of much debate.

The idea of Wellness spread as a popular concept way back 19th century. However, studies shows that such concept had been found in the more affluent societies because wellness involves balancing the body state with the basic needs of a human being like food, shelter and basic medical care. This is much so that wellness had been defined as the state that combines health and happiness. So, can we really say that health and wellness can only be attained by those who belong to the upper class of the society? I have to agree that there is a logic to that reasoning. But then, regardless of the class of society we belong or the state of economic life we have, I believe that we should always be faithful to that fighting spirit within us. While it is said that wellness is a combination of health and happiness. It is also described as, to quote “the constant, conscious pursuit of living life to its fullest potential."


Source of the info. : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellness
Source of the pics : http://yoga-meditation.indiantravelportal.com/meditation.html