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O Institute
Change the paradigm of Health
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Improper knee position can lead to injuries. This video will help make sure you are working out your legs safely and effectively.
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For the raindrop, joy is entering the lake.
Sufi poet, Ghalib
Note: What larger organization are you a part of that brings you joy?
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The benefits of Short term stress
Most of the conversation around stress nowadays revolves around the negative effects of stress and how it leads to disease. This is absolutely true.
Stress leads to an increased likelihood of weight gain, heart disease, diabetes as well as accelerated aging. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jordan_Smoller/publication/7198624_Telomere_Shortening_and_Mood_Disorders_Preliminary_Support_for_a_Chronic_Stress_Model_of_Accelerated_Aging/links/02bfe50dd35159bd4e000000.pdf
However, this connection with mortality and morbidity is in reference to long term chronic stress. Short term stress can provide the opposite effect.
Short term stress promotes a process in our bodies called HORMESIS: “a biological phenomenon whereby a beneficial effect (improved health, stress tolerance, growth or longevity) results from exposure to low doses of an agent that is otherwise toxic or lethal when given at higher doses.” Now this can be applied to certain chemicals, emotional factors or physical factors.
I like exercise as the best demonstration of this model.
When we exercise, we apply a physical stressor to our bodies This stressor forces the body to make changes to cope with this new demand. As an example, if we lift heavy weights our bodies will begin to make more muscle tissue in order to be able to handle the weight demand increase.
Studies with mice have shown that when mice are placed in water tanks and have to swim to survive, they develop greater cardiovascular tolerance. Thereby increasing their rate of survival while minimizing their risk of drowning.
Studies have also shown that people who ingest small amounts of alcohol on a regular basis have better liver function than those we consume no alcohol at all! (https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/pages/2012-04-19-alcohol-consumption-lowers-liver-disease-risk.aspx)
Whoohoo!
In fact, even intermittent sleep deprivation a.k.a. sleep fasting has been shown to be a beneficial treatment for depression. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1087079202902352)
The lesson: MODERATION.
A good balance of healthy foods, sleep and exercise will provide a foundation for great health. But sometimes you need to have a little GOOD STRESS in your life to push you to be even healthier.
So I’ll be up a little late tonight with a glass of wine!
Cheers!
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Stress in America
At the O Institute, our own questionnaire research recorded that work and relationship issues were by far the greater source of stress in our lives. The stressor (e.g. work) lead to feelings of anger and frustration as well as anxiety. Most people seemed to feel the stress in their abdomen, reporting feeling a burning type sensation or the quintessential “butterflies in the stomach.”
In traditional forms of medicine, the emotional aspect of our lives is not separated from the physical. In fact, it is taken into direct account as possibly being a root cause in some maladies. It is only recently in the US and other “developed” countries that the idea of emotional stress is taken into consideration as having an important component in the world of disease. Universities like UCLA’s Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology
(http://www.uclastresslab.org) performs cutting edge research on how our everyday stresses lead to significant health issues as well as predisposes us to metabolic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.
The bodies biochemical responses to stress via adrenaline and cortisol sets us up for slow and gradual degradation of the organ systems that keep us healthy. Use them in overdrive too much and they will eventually fail on you leading to system wide inflammation and immune dysfunction. Once that happens, you can guess where it goes from there.
So, what can be done?
There are many methods to reduce your minds perception of stress but sometimes your bodies response to stress are going to happen no matter what you do. For example, you may not road rage on the car that cut you off but you cannot stop the rapid heartbeat and blood pressure surge.
Traditional herbal remedies are available through your naturopath, ayurvedic doc and/or chiropractor to help repair the damage to the adrenals and other tissues. This would be in conjunction with improved rest, moderate exercise and proper diet to facilitate the healing process:
1. Supplements for repair
2. Healthy diet of increased protein and good fats, low sugar
3. Good sleep (primary repair time for your body is between 10pm-2am).
4. Moderate exercise (We recommend interval type exercises. Tabata.
Once the repair is done, you have to incorporate techniques to reduce your stress perception and load as well as increase your happiness, right?
The MOST EFFECTIVE way to do this is through Gratitude. Start a journal of gratitude. Write in it once a week. Write 3 things you are grateful for. Repeat every week for a year.
If you are already down that road of stress and poor health, be brave and ask for help. Take steps to make a change in your lifestyle. Be grateful. Start enjoying your life today and tomorrow!
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Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid of standing still.
Japanese Proverb
Note: Keep the momentum going
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Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind.
Novelist, Henry James
Note: Start and finish there
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You can neither win nor lose if you don't run the race."
Singer, David Bowie
Note: life is not a spectator sport
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Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
Note: Nothing fails like success.
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Bruce. The truth.
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Opportunities are never lost. The other fellow takes those you miss.
An Anonymous Writer
Note: Investigate why you didnt act when you had the chance.
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Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.
General, Chuck Yeager
Note: Create the path
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There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.
Writer, Robert Louis Stevenson
Note: Happiness is not only a duty but it is a choice. Choose wisely.
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4 toxic things to avoid
1. Neosporin and Other Triple Antibiotic Ointments
Most American first aid kits come with Neosporin or another triple antibiotic ointment. It’s the most popular topical antibacterial ointment in America. But it’s very rarely used overseas, which is why experts have linked it to the spread of a lethal strain of MRSA bacteria called USA300 (Staph, originated in N. America).
[Read: Are You Truly Healthy? 15 Questions to Ask Yourself]
What to Do Instead: Don’t slather triple antibiotic ointment on every cut and scrape. Instead, wash with soap and water and/or a silver oxide ointment.
2. Hand Sanitizer
Hand sanitizers and antibacterial soaps often contain triclosan, which builds up in the body and is an endocrine disruptor linked to cancer. Long-term use can also lead to bacterial resistance.
What to Do Instead: Wash with soap and hot water.
[Read: Are You One of the ‘Worried Well’? How to Build Your ‘Wellness Reserve’]
3. Receipts
If your store or ATM receipt is made of thermal paper (most are), then it is rubbing off bisphenol A, or BPA, onto your skin. BPA is a hormone-disruptor that has been linked to higher risks of many types of cancer and reproductive abnormalities.
What to Do Instead: Put your receipts in their own bag, not in your wallet. Decline receipts or get email receipts if possible. Don’t ever let your kids play with receipts. Always wash your hands after handling receipts.
[Read: The Hormone Reset Diet: Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days]
4. Shoes
An EPA study found that dangerous pesticides can be tracked into homes on shoes. Some experts think that ‘track-in’ level of pesticides may be more than the level from eating non-organic produce. Since young children spend so much time down on the floor, their exposure is high.
What to Do Instead: Consider having a shoe-free household or put rugs or carpet in entryways and clean them often. Research has shown that carpets at outer doorways do help to limit pesticide track-in.
By The Green Divas / Tools for Healthy Living / May 13, 2015
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Too often the opportunity knocks, but by the time you disengage the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarms, it is too late.
Singer, Rita Coolidge
Note: Why do we have so much protection? What are you protecting yourself from?
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Don't tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.
Industrialist, James Ling
Note: finish
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