Nurture Yourself To Restore Your Mind And Body Health

"Once you choose hope, anything's possible."

Christopher Reeve.



"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by
people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

Dale Carnegie.

You sometimes feel overwhelmed with life's idiosyncrasies and vicissitudes. This can take away your enjoyment and ability to work well and be productive. It looks like you are not alone. Many people are going through the same feelings of stress and insufficiency at times. This can affect your work.

Pat Heydlauff has a recipe for these feelings that plague all of us. These are her prescriptions: Please, read on...

"Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome
danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm
inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is
meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there
is always tomorrow."

Dorothy Thompson.

Control Your Genes With Healthy Lifestyle Changes. A prescription For Your Mind And Body Health.

Poor health is not caused by something you don't have; it's caused by disturbing something that you already have. Health is not something you need to get, it's something you have already if you don't disturb it.

~Dean Ornish

The first wealth is health ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many of my patients with family history of cancer are terrified that they may fall victim to the same diseases their parents succumbed to. It is natural to feel this way. However, not everyone who comes from a family with a history of breast cancer or prostate cancer succumbs to the disease. Why is this so? This is the mystery which many scientists are working to unravel.

A recent study conducted by Dean Ornish, MD and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco tested the effects of dramatic lifestyle change on genes in the prostate. The study group consisted of men with a history of prostate cancer.

After 3 months of healthy eating, moderate exercises, psychotherapy and stress management, the investigators showed that biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle modification showed the genes that cause the prostate cancer were less active. Other genes that fight diseases were more active.

In 1995, Dean Ornish and his group showed similar results where they found lifestyle changes affected certain markers of prostate cancer, possibly slowing the progression of prostate cancer. Two of the cancer causing genes, RAN and Shock2 were suppressed in the study. The good news is that these genes are found in most types of tumors including breast and colon cancer.

"The implications may be much more widespread, and not just limited to men for that matter.”
Dean Ornish.

Though the results of the study are exciting, we have to await more studies to confirm the findings. However, what do you have to loose by embracing some the lifestyle changes included in the study? The following are some suggestions of lifestyle changes that may help:

• Find time to exercise. Exercise has other benefits that go beyond prevention of cancer. You do not have to spent money. All you have to do is walk. Keep it simple and build it into your busy schedule. The participants in the above study had regular exercise and ate the right foods.
• Eat the right food. Preferably, eat foods with complex carbohydrates and regard food as medicine.
• Find time to be spiritual. Spirituality builds resilience and cuts down your stress hormones that can damage your tissue at the cellular level and make you prone to diseases.
• Meditate daily. The relaxation response that you gain from meditation prevents the production of stress hormones such as steroids and adrenalin that can damage your cells and make you prone to diseases.
• If you're religious, practice your religion. For example, if you are a Christian and you believe in the tenets of the Bible, your daily devotion can give you hope. Jesus will become your psychotherapist as his words can restructure your thoughts and give you peace of mind. With Jesus in your boat, you should never be afraid of the storms in your life.

"In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships."

John Gottman, PhD

"We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are, someone with a wizard's power to melt stone to sunlight, who can bring us happiness in spite of trials, who can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical Someone is the face we see in the mirror: It's us and our homemade masks."

Richard Bach

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."

Author unknown

Reference: The New Scientist. June 18, 2008

Controlling Your Genes Wtih Healthy Lifestyle Changes Is A Prescription For A healthy Mind And A Healthy Body.

Poor health is not caused by something you don't
have; it's caused by disturbing something that you
already have. Health is not something you need to
get, it's something you have already if you don't disturb it.

~Dean Ornish

The first wealth is health ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many of my patients with family history of cancer are terrified that they may fall victim to the same diseases their parents succumbed to. It is natural to feel this way. However, not everyone who comes from a family with a history of breast cancer or prostate cancer succumbs to the disease. Why is this so? This is the mystery which many scientists are working to unravel.

A recent study conducted by Dean Ornish and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco tested the effects of dramatic lifestyle change on genes in the prostate. The study group consisted of men with a history of prostate cancer. After 3 months of healthy eating, moderate exercises, psychotherapy and stress management, the investigators showed that biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle modification showed the genes that cause the prostate cancer were less active. Other genes that fight diseases were more active.

In 1995, Dean Ornish and his group showed similar results where they found lifestyle changes affected the progression of prostate cancer. Two of the cancer causing genes, RAN and Shock2 were suppressed in the study. The good news is that these genes are found in most types of tumors including breast and colon cancer.

"The implications may be much more widespread, and not just limited to men for that matter,”

Dean Ornish.

Though the results of the study are exciting, we have to await more studies to confirm the findings. However, what do you have to loose by embracing some the lifestyle changes included in the study? The following are some suggestions of lifestyle changes that may help:

• Find time to exercise. Exercise has other benefits that go beyond prevention of cancer. You do not have to spend money. All you have to do is walk. Keep it simple and build it into your busy schedule. The participants in the above study had regular exercise and ate the right foods.
• Eat the right food. Preferably, eat foods with complex carbohydrates and regard food as medicine.
• Find time to be spiritual. Spirituality builds resilience and cuts down your stress hormones that can damage your tissue at the cellular level and make you prone to diseases.
• Meditate daily. The relaxation response that you gain from meditation prevents the production of stress hormones such as steroids and adrenalin that can damage your cells and make you prone to diseases.
• If you're religious, practise your religion. For example, if you are a Christian and you believe in the tenets of the Bible, your daily devotion can give you hope. Jesus will become your psychotherapist as his words can restructure your thoughts and give you peace of mind. With Jesus in your boat, you should never be afraid of the storms in your life

"In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships."

John Gottman, PhD

We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are, someone with a wizard's power to melt stone to sunlight, who can bring us happiness in spite of trials, who can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical Someone is the face we see in the mirror: It's us and our homemade masks.

Richard Bach

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."

Author unknown

Reference: The New Scientist. June 18, 2008

A Caring Father Is A Balm For His Children's Mind And Body Health

One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.

Anonymous



I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

Harry Truman

Today is fathers' day. it is a day to honor and remember our fathers who toiled to make us who we are. Today also reminds us of Tim Russert, the MNBC anchor for Meet the Press who died suddenly on 6/13/08. Mr. Russert honored his father who, even with meager resources, gave him the wings to fly. As a father, he also became the best friend and mentor of his son to the envy of fathers who could not devote much time and energy to their children.

Parents' role in the development of their children is important. Children, as little flowers in our garden, have to be nurtured so they can blossom. They respond to the attention and the time we devote to them. This makes them feel safe and make them less prone to stress. Stress produces steroids that can shrink the children's brain and predisposes them to depression and post traumatic stress syndrome.

Hence, if you're a father, find time to enjoy your children. Be their friend and find out what they really want to do with their life and be their best cheer leader. This is the only way they can give their best to any task they set their minds on. Your children's knowledge that you approve of their pursuits is enough to open the gates of their creative juices to be all they can be.

"Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing."

- Jim Rohn

"The work will wait while you show your child the rainbow, but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work."

-Patricia Clafford

Blueberries May Be Good For Your Mind And Body Health.

Memory loss with aging is normal most of the time. However when the loss interferes with your day to day function, then it becomes a problem. A study by a group of physicians from the University of Reading and the Peninsula medical School in England found that foods such as blueberries are effective at reversing age-related memory lapses.

Adding blueberries to the diet of the study participants for 12 weeks showed improvements in memory tasks after 3 weeks and continued throughout the study period. Although the authors did not know the precise mechanism of the blueberries on the brain, they postulate that the chemicals involved may pass through the blood to the brain and boost the existing nerve connections by improving cellular communications and improving cell growth.

"This study not only adds science to the claim that eating blueberries are good for you, it also provides support to a diet-based approach that could potentially be used to increase memory capacity and performance in the future."

-Dr Whiteman


Reference:The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (2008, April 12). Getting Forgetful? Then Blueberries May Hold The Key. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 8, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/04/080410115405.htm

Manage Stress In Pregnancy For Your Baby's Mind And Body Health.

If you are pregnant, think twice before taking on an extra project at work. Severe stress, even in the short term, may almost double the risk of having a stillbirth - although stillbirths are rare.

Nora Schultz-The New Scientist

A study conducted in Denmark on pregnant women by Kristen Wisborg and colleagues followed a group of pregnant women in their pregnancy and found that the women who were stressed had more stillbirths than those with less stress.

The results of this study are even more significant since women with problems like high blood pressure, premature labor and other significant health problems were excluded from the study.

Studies in monkeys show that stress hormones such as adrenalin reduce the flow of blood supply to the placenta. Although the effect is small, if the baby has any other problems, stress can cause more damage to the placenta and cause fetal death.

Other studies show that stress in pregnant rats in the last 3 months of their pregnancy impaired the growth of their offspring's brain. The babies developed fewer nerve cells in the areas of the brain that are involved with emotions (the cingular cortex and the orbito frontal cortex and other parts of the brain.

The nerves in the babies' brain showed abnormal branching pattern with different effects on boys than girls. Boys were more likely to develop attention deficit disorder while the girls tended to develop depression which is known to be due to shrinkage of the hippocampus.

“Early experiences, especially emotional experiences, shape brain circuits for later life. The susceptibility to stress continues after birth, with different types of stress and trauma leading to different brain effects, she adds." Braun.

The take home message of these studies is that we are connected to our outer and inner worlds. Babies, whether they are in their mothers' womb or outside, are influenced by their surroundings. If the environment is hostile, stress hormones are produced that have detrimental effects on them. Thus we owe it to our children that we provide them with a peaceful stress free environment for their proper growth while they are inside the womb and after birth..

Technorati Tags: sprituality, stress and children, mind and body health, healthy mind, healthy body, depression

References:

1. Stress in pregnancy hits offspring's emotional brain. The New Scientist 12:02. 12th July 2006
2. Stress increases risks of still births. The New Scientist. 30th May, 2008