Wellness Resource by Dr. Ben Kim

Posted on February 10, 2011 by admin

https://www.drbenkim.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=89

Check out the above link for anything health and wellness, great tips and products to support inner health.

Below is some info on the cost of stress, anger and frustration on the adrenal glands. So for all of us that lead crazy busy lives this is for you!

Liz x

The High Cost of Emotional Stress

Why is emotional stress one of the most significant causes of all chronic health challenges? Because your body cannot defend itself against the damage that emotional stress silently creates over time. Your body pays a heavy physiological price for every moment that you feel anxious, tense, frustrated, and angry.

Emotional stress sets off a series of reactions in your body that involve your sympathetic nervous system, the portion of your nervous system that would increase your chance of surviving if you were to run into a grizzly bear during a hike. In such a situation, your sympathetic nervous system would:

Speed up and intensify your heart and breathing rates, so that you could have more oxygen and nutrients available to your muscles to run or fight.
Divert the bulk of your blood supply to your large muscles groups to run or fight.
Slow or even shut down your digestive system so as to not waste blood, nutrients, and oxygen that could be used to run or fight.
Stimulate the release of extra glucose into your blood to give you a burst of energy.
Cause your adrenal glands to release epinephrine and norepinephrine to increase cardiac output and increase blood sugar.
Stimulate the release of cortisol from your adrenal glands to increase blood sugar and energy.
Increase the diameter of your pupils to allow for more light to enter your eyes and more acute vision for fighting and running quickly on any type of terrain.

Clearly, it is to your advantage to have a healthy sympathetic nervous system and healthy adrenal glands so that you are fully capable of experiencing all of the functions listed above during physical emergencies.

What you don’t want is for your body to experience all of the above on a continuous, low-grade level because of emotional stress. And this is exactly what many of us are suffering from in today’s hectic world.

There’s really no need to provide a list of health conditions that are partly caused by emotional stress, because every health condition is partly caused by emotional stress. Emotional stress always equals increased output by the sympathetic nervous system, which always equals accelerated aging and breakdown of your tissues.

I recommend trying Adrenal Refresh if you have already tried applying the following six suggestions to your daily life and still feel that you need extra support to re-establish healthy baselines for your endocrine and nervous systems.

1. Breathe deeply and regularly

Doing so can actually decrease the tone of your sympathetic nervous system and increase the tone of your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the portion of your nervous system that promotes relaxation and good digestion.

2. Spend some quiet time every day in prayer, meditation, or a purposeful relaxation session

All three have been scientifically proven to facilitate a relaxation response in your body that can decrease blood pressure, decrease pulse rate, and improve blood circulation. Meditation and relaxation sessions can be greatly enhanced by listening to any number of audio CDs that are designed to facilitate optimal relaxation and mental clarity.

The one that I use on a regular basis and highly recommend is called EarthRain.

3. Practice visualization

Almost all great athletes practice some form of visualization. As author Wayne Dyer says, “you’ll see it when you believe it.” Spend some time each day visualizing yourself going about your day in a balanced and emotionally poised manner. You can include visualization in your prayer/meditation/relaxation sessions.

4. Make sure that you are getting the nutrients that you need for a healthy nervous system

Your nutritional status can make all the difference between being able to handle a certain amount of stress without breaking down vs. quickly suffering health problems when faced with stress.

While it’s important to your overall health that you eat a well balanced and nutrient-dense diet, for emotional health specifically, it is important to ensure adequate intake of B vitamins, Vitamin D, and two long chain omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA.

5. Be honest about your feelings

There’s a reason why know thyself is a proverb in virtually every culture of our world. Striving to know yourself and what you are feeling on a daily basis is absolutely essential to preventing unpleasant but genuine emotions from becoming chronic states.

Anger, frustration, and anxiousness can all help fuel personal growth and character development if you are honest with yourself and seek to discover their root causes.

One of the best methods I can recommend to increase your awareness of what you are feeling is journal writing. The rules are simple: no censorship, no possibility of another set of eyes being able to read your thoughts, just pure flow of thoughts from your mind and heart onto a piece of paper or your computer screen. Regular journal writing in this manner can be extremely beneficial to your emotional health.

6. Move your body

It’s a well established fact that regular exercise is one of the best habits you can adopt to help you avoid depression and stay emotionally balanced. It doesn’t matter what kind of exercise you do. What’s important is to be active and use your joints and muscles on a regular basis.

If you find that regular application of the six measures noted above is not enough to help you feel emotionally balanced, I think it’s worth your while to try Adrenal Refresh, as I’ve seen it make a significant difference for some of the folks that I’ve worked with.

While it’s fine to take Adrenal Refresh on continual basis, I generally recommend using it for a period of 3 months to provide the momentum that is often needed to restore balance to the endocrine and nervous systems. During this 3-month period, I recommend concurrently following the six suggestions noted above, and after this period, to try going without Adrenal Refresh and observe if you’re able to maintain a strong sense of emotional balance without supplementation.Dr

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How to Meditate – 14 points to Meditation

Posted on September 15, 2010 by admin

The 14 Points of Meditation

Regularity of time, place and practice ar e important. Regularity conditions the mind to slow down its activities with a minimum of delay.
The most effective times are early dawn and dusk, when the atmosphere is charged with special spiritual force. If it is not feasible to sit for meditation at these times, choose an hour when you are not involved with daily activities, and a time when the mind is apt to be calm.
Try to have a separate room for meditation. As meditation is repeated, the powerful vibrations set up will be lodged in the area; an atmosphere of peace and purity will be felt.
When sitting, face North or East in order to take advantage of favorable magnetic vibrations. Sit in a steady, comfortable, cross-legged position with spine and neck erect but not tense.
Before beginning, command the mind to be quiet for a specific length of time. Forget the past, present and future.
Consciously regulate the breath. Begin with five minutes of deep abdominal breathing to bring oxygen to the brain. Then slow it down to an imperceptible rate.
Keep the breathing, rhythmic, inhale for three seconds and exhale for three seconds. Regulation of breath also regulates the flow of prana, the vital energy.
Allow the mind to wander at first. It will jump around, but will eventually become concentrated, along with the concentration of prana.
Don’t force the mind to be still, as this will set in motion additional brain waves, hindering meditation.
Select a focal point on which the mind may rest. For people who are intellectual by nature, this may be the Ajna Chakra., the point between the eyebrows. For more emotional people, use the Anahata or Heart Chakra. Never change this focal point.
Focus on a neutral or uplifting object, holding the image in the place of concentration. If using a Mantra, repeat it mentally, and co-ordinate repetition with the breath. If you dont have a personalized Manta, use Om. Although mental repetition is stronger, the mantra may be repeted aloud if one becomes drowsy. Never change the Mantra.
Repetition will lead to pure thought, in which sound vibration merges with thought vibration, without awareness of meaning. Vocal repetition progresses through mental repetition to telepathic language, and from there to pure thought.
With practice, duality disappears and Samadhi, or the superconscious state, is reached. Do not become impatient, as this takes a long time.
In Samadhi one rests in the state of bliss in which the Knower, the Knowledge, and the Known become one. This is the superconcious state reached by mystics of all faiths and persuasions.

If you meditate for half an hour daily, you will be able to face life with peace and spiritual strength. Meditation is the most powerful mental and nerve tonic. Divine energy freely flows to the adept during meditation, and exerts a benign influence on the mind, nerves, sense organs and body. It opens the door to intuitive knowledge and realms of eternal bliss. The mind becomes calm and steady.

Reference:

http://www.sivananda.org/

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Dr John Demartini

Posted on August 18, 2010 by admin

Dr John Demartini - Inspiration

“The definition of caring is knowing someone’s values and expressing your values in terms of theirs. Whenever something supports your values, you take away the rules. When something challenges or threatens your values, you set up rules. Nations do it, companies do it and you do it in relationships. Knowing both yours and your partner’s values assists you in mastering the art of communication and building relations” 18/08/10

“People who are clearly focused on their life missions draw to them opportunities that those who are scattered and uncertain will probably never become aware of. Their certainty of who they are, and where they are going, acts as a drawing card for others to align and assist. People love to be around those who are focused and purposeful”. 24/08/10

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something to think about…for a little peace of mind

Posted on August 17, 2010 by admin

Meditation for Peace & Serenity

You are not your mind!
You are not your thoughts!
You are not your ideas!
You are not your beliefs!

They may be yours, but they are not you.
They are instruments that you use. Do not let them control you.
What remains after they are rejected, is you, the real “I”.

When thoughts cease, you still exist. There is no vacuum. When the emptiness of no thoughts is reached, you begin to feel your existence, your being. This emptiness is filled with something great, wonderful, powerful and sweet. You start living in Peace. You sail on the water of the calm mind.

This is Pure Existence.

When you realize this state you are free from thoughts and worries.
Then you are really free.

In this state nothing can influence you.
You stop acting instinctively on the prompt of each passing thought.
You become a completely conscious being, alive, strong, beyond everything.

Think of serenity of mind as a feasible possibility. Calm your mind with concentration, meditation and affirmations, and start enjoying peace of mind.

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5 good reasons you must do cardio

Posted on August 16, 2010 by admin

Cardio training is good for your heart – The increased heart rate you will achieve during your cardio workout will improve the condition of your heart and lungs, by training your heart to pump more blood in fewer beats and your lungs to move more oxygen with less effort. The improvement you will gain in your cardiovascular health will reduce your risk of heart disease and improve your blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Aim for 30-60 minutes at least 3 days a week in order to achieve the best results for improving your heart.
Cardio Training Burns Fat - Strength training is vital to gain muscle, but the thirty minutes you spend on those elliptical trainer and treadmill is vital to burning fat. Mix up your training with intervals as least once per week. By going back and forth between cardio and strength exercises, you are improving your bodies ability to build to pump o2 blood around the body, training all muslce fibre types (fast twitch and slow twitch) giving you that great toned look. In addition, regular aerobic exercise causes the capillaries in your muscles to grow, which helps them to remove waste, such as lactic acid, from your body more easily. This will help improve the health of your muscles, and reduce muscle soreness after your workout. Also by being commited to doing four x thirty minute cardio sessions a week you will help rev up your fat burning capability. The fat loss you will see will help your toned muscles be even more noticeable.
Cardio Training Revs Up Your Metabolism – In addition to the fat you will burn during your workout, regular cardiovascular training will boost your metabolism for hours after your workout, too, helping you to maximize fat loss all day long.
Boost your immunity – People who spend thirty minutes in cardiovascular exercise at least three times a week are less likely to catch colds and other viral illnesses. It is believed that aerobic exercise improves your immune system, making it better able to fight off infection. Your Mental State Will Improve – Cardio training causes your brain to release endorphins, the body’s natural high. Endorphins act as natural painkillers and stress reducers. You Are
Longevity – Live longer, feel stronger.

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Don’t Forget to Breathe

Posted on August 10, 2010 by admin

Don't Forget to Breathe

Take a nice deep breath now!…in through the nose and slowly release through the mouth and nose. How did that feel?…I’m sure most of you out there reading this don’t even get a full inhalation and expansive diaphragmic breathe once per day. If you are one of the few that regularly deep breathe, think back to points through the day when you have found your self in a collapsed hunched posture until you catch your self and thought, ‘Liz sit up straight’. Quite a few right.

So many of the subconscious behaviors we perform day to day in auto pilot can well and truly become behaviors by our choices in lifestyle or quite simply a lack of awareness. As residents of a western world we are surrounded by many stressors, which as we all know can be counter productive to our health therefore our wellbeing.

Without going into too much depth on the physiological impacts of our lifestyle on our nervous system, (I will write another post on the sympathetic vs. parasympathetic nervous system and how this affects our potential for ultimate wellness). Suffice to say here that we must all “chill out a little bit”. Literally! So with having said that in the nicest way as possible of course. I would suggest starting this process by teaching yourself to breathe at regular intervals throughout your day.

All it would take is; before jolting out of bed at the sound of a frightening alarm, allow your self some time to breathe, mid morning or before lunch, breathe, mid afternoon when you usually get 3.30itis cruise around the office, grab a glass of water, breathe, when you get home, finish cooking dinner, sit on the couch, breathe. When your lying in bed, reading your book (providing you don’t pass out at this point) turn off the light, find comfort, breathe. Easier said than done. But if your like me and you have crazy long days and so many micro tasks and places to be. Slow the mind down with your breathing. Full, free breathing is the key to enhancing physical, emotional well-being.

As adults, we tend to breathe small and shallow, mostly in the chest, with little visible movement. To make matters worse, most of us literally stop breathing for short periods 50 to 100 times a day.

When we constrict or stop our breath, our minds race with thoughts — worry, anxiety, negativity, fear, compounding stress. By simply directing our consciousness back to breathing you can learn to let go of patterns of worry and tension which hold you back and return to natural, oceanic, full-body breathing (just like a baby).

Breathing is restorative. It can cleanse the body of toxins both physically and mentally (negative thoughts). It can help rid us of worries and tensions and bring us back to centre.

If your not into yoga, meditation or any of the spiritual stuff, try breathing. It is simple, you can do it anywhere, it is free and most importantly…it works…

INHALE….

EXHALE….AHHHHHH

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Bottled water or Tap Water

Posted on August 2, 2010 by admin

Have a read of this!

“The Natural Resources Defense Council, which carried out a four-year review of the bottled water industry, concluded “there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle, it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.”

How do you feel about that!!? Why not stop buying water bottles and filling them up. Invest in a canister or highly durable plastic bottle sold at chemists and camping stores and keep refilling the one bottle up.

If we don’t buy the retail (“designer”) water then sales go down and hopefully all those mass producing manufacturers don’t have to produce so many.

Please don’t use the same mentality that most people have, which is “what difference does it make if I don’t do it (recycle) they (manufacturers) will continue to produce it anyway”. This is the old skool attitude and behaviours we need to change. Just like voting, each and everyone of us count.

Another staggering quote to make it clearer…

“Worldwide some 2.7 million tons (2.4 million metric tons) of plastic are used to bottle water each year”.

Where does this all go? if your ultra special…you may not know that plastic does not decompose. So count how many bottles you have a week, multiply by 52 and then multiply by 6,697,254,041 (world population) then you will have a better idea of how much plastic is being consumed and this is just water bottles. If you live in 3rd world countries then maybe you have a case, but if you are in the worlds developed nations then tap water is probably safer for us to drink than bottled water. Who tests bottled water as frequently as tap water! Think about it…

Read the full article here…its worth the read!

National Geographic – Bottled Water or Tap Water

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Cardio – Low intensity V’s High intenisty

Posted on July 16, 2010 by admin

Everytime we set out on a mission to lose weight, no matter who you ask they will come back with the response. What are you eating? or are you doing the cardio. There are alot of mixed theories out there as to which is the best approach, high intensity, low intensity, long durantion, interval training, cross training etc.

Personally I prefer maximum pain in the shortest amount of time. LOL

Some of my favourite short painful high intensity cardio sessions include;

Stairs
Sand Running
Hills
Cross Fit Sessions
Intervals
Speed and Agility Training
Teaching my spin classes

Now if you live in Sydney, man-0-man are we lucky! We have all of these options readily available to us.

Stairs: Lady Macquarie Chair Stairs x 10 Sets; Potts Point / Wooloomoolo Stairs x 10 Sets; Dawes Point Stairs x 10; Birrell St Bondi Stairs x 8 (OUCH OUCH!!) Coogee Bay Stairs x 8

Hills: Awaba Street Balmoral; Sydney Park Alexandria

Sand: 30 Sec x 10 Sprints, Bondi, Bronte or anywhere Sand!OR Saturday morning 8am Kurnell Sand Dunes.

Cross Fit: Ultimo -Great Sessions

My least favourite things include;

Extremely Long Long Long Runs.

Don’t get me wrong, I still go the distance. I like to build endurance as it makes my CV stronger, gives me headspace (no ipod). I am happy with acheiving a good time for a 5km and 10km. Anymore than that and ummmm I get bored and my lower body is screaming at me. My advice here is to do the type of cardio you most enjoy, swimming, cycling, boxing, dancing. Moving with intensity for up to an hour has great calorie benefits during your workout and post workout. Keeping your metabolic rate up is the aim of the game, so find something you enjoy.

Here is some knowledge for you that will help you understand why it is important to mix up the cardio.

Obviously if your goal is to burn body fat, then the best option is without question to move as much as possible. But if you want ROI (return on investment) then understanding which approach is most suited to your goals lets have a look at both. Just quickly, “Keeping the body guessing to stimulate change is the most logical approach as you want your cardiovascular (CV) system to perform well no matter approach you choose”.

Low Intensity Cardio

Low intensity cardio is the most popular form of cardio and is pushed by many personal trainers for their clients on weight loss missions, the reason being is that it is low impact on the joints, it can be performed anywhere by anyone of any fitness level and various studies have shown that low intensity cardio uses fat calories instead of burning muscle carbohydrate calories for energy. If the body burns fat for energy the equation is simple, you will lose body fat.

The High Intensity Cardio

High intensity training involves pushing past your anaerobic / lactate threshold. High Intensity cardio can give great results in burning body fat as the total calories burned at a higher intensity are greater than low intensity cardio usually in a shorter period of time. With a mixed percentage of those calories come from your body fat and some come from glycogen (carbohydrates stores within your muscles). When you burn more calories in your cardio workout than what you consume, you create a calorie deficit. If you burn more calories during the day than what you eat in food, you will lose weight.

High versus Low

For Low intensity, getting your heart rate to the correct level (depending on your age, fitness level etc, usually 65% MHR) and keeping the HR stable for a minimum of 30 minutes will burn the body fat. High intensity cardio on the other hand is harder to maintain for a long period as you are working at maximum effort (75-85% MHR). Doing this consistently for over 10-15 minutes can be extremely difficult, unless you are conditioned to do so. A way in which you can improve your maximum effort is to use interval training. Over time your High Intensity output will increase, you will be able to work harder for during your workouts, more intensity means greater calorie expenditure during and post exercise, creating the desired result of calorie deficeit and improved CV funtion.

Get on to it!

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Milk Part 2 – Full Fat Milk or Skim Milk

Posted on July 10, 2010 by admin

Full Fat Milk or Skim Milk

Milk is considered as a single source of several nutrients. Traditionally, people have been drinking dairy milk or whole milk, without bothering about its calorie content. Skim milk, on the other hand has taken off with the help of health nuts all over the world. People ditched whole milk and went for the much lighter substitute, skim milk.

However, is skim milk your only option to healthy life? Who can really benefit from drinking skim milk? How do you evaluate skim milk vs whole milk? Let’s find out the answers to these questions.

Whole Milk
Whole milk is the dairy milk which has undergone only basic processing. Thus, it is more or less in its natural form. As a result it is rich in natural fat. The nutritional composition of whole milk for 1 cup is as follows:

Fat – 3.5%
Calories – 150
Calcium – 290 mg

Whole milk is considered as a best option for toddlers, who are not on breastfeeding, but are not on external diet yet. Whole milk provides them with all the essential nutrients for growth. Moreover, as toddlers do not have to worry about putting on weight, it can be safely consumed as a complete food. Additionally, it also tastes better than skim milk, hence, kids are more likely to go for it.

Skim Milk
Skim milk is a dairy milk, which has all of its fat removed, by processing. Conventional method of making skim milk involved removing a thick layer of fat from whole milk. However, these days a process called as centrifugation is used to separate the fat content from the milk. The milk that is obtained after removing all of its fat is called as skim milk. The nutritional composition of skim milk for 1 cup (16 oz) is as follows:

Fat – Less than 0.5%
Calories – 90
Calcium - 316 mg

It is a common misconception that whole milk is richer in terms of nutrients. You must have noticed that skim milk contains more calcium than whole milk, this is because, during processing some nutrients are often added to skim milk, in order to enrich it. This includes addition of some vitamins, like vitamin A and D, phosphorous, magnesium etc.
Skim Milk Vs Whole Milk
What is the difference between skim milk and whole milk? Skim milk is undoubtedly a healthier option and absolutely essential, if you are on a weight loss program. The other alternative being, remove milk from your diet. However, if you have no weight concerns, then you may go for whole milk, since it tastes better and also contains some good fats, which you may lose, if you go for the skimmed version. The nutritional value of both milk types is more or less the same.

Thus, while evaluating skim milk vs whole milk, one cannot mark skim milk as ‘good’ and whole milk as ‘bad’, since each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. You should take your pick considering your individual health and nutrient requirement. After all, skim or whole, any milk is good for health.

Wanna know more about milk, read stuff on organic milk vs regular milk.

Milk Part 1

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Milk Part 1

Posted on July 10, 2010 by admin

Talk about hot topics in nutrition. You google the word raw milk and you open a can of worms that leaves you asking more questions. I spent quite sometime reading up on my various ‘reliable sources’ (links listed below) and here is a high level over view of the conclusions I have drawn regarding milk. I have broken it up into a 2 part article to provide you with some eye opening ideas, controverises within the industry, what is nutritionally ideal and left you with enough information to make an educated decision for your self as to weather you will have milk in your diet and which source you will opt for.

You will have to read more to understand here what it is I am getting at because typically what is said to be better for you from a weight loss perspective may not neccessairly be better for nutritionally.

Raw Milk vs Pasturized Milk

The raw vs. pasteurized debate places the alleged health benefits of consuming raw milk against the disease threat of unpasteurized milk. Although worldwide regulatory agencies say that pathogens from raw milk make it unsafe to consume,while other organizations such as the Weston A. Price Foundation in its “Real Milk” campaign say that raw milk has many health benefits that are destroyed in the pasteurization process and that it can be produced hygienically.

In the USA 28 states DO NOT prohibit the sale of raw milk, here in our far away isle, government regulations prevent the retail sale of raw milk for drinking purposes. Though there are a few retailers have circumvented somewhat by selling raw milk as bath milk (cleopatra’s bath milk). The reason being is that, there have been a few cases in the past (read the ‘age’ article below for more knowledge) whereby people who drank raw milk became ill. Usually this only occurs because the cows where the raw milk has come from ‘the source’ was not fed a 100% grass fed diet.

So in conclusion to the raw milk debate, unless you know a dairy farmer then drinking raw milk is out of the question. For Aussies, I would not suggest drinking Cleopatra’s bath milk, as with the state of the industry (although much better off than USA) the cow’s in which they are getting this bath milk would have to be 100% grass fed cows. If we do not have this information then drinking this milk is an uneducated decision and you would be putting your self risk and legally would have no leg to stand on.

So, out next question should be; if I cant drink 100% grass fed cow’s raw milk, should I be drinking, full fat or skim milk, or what about soy?

It can be daunting. If your like me and your trying to watch what you eat, eating as close to nature as possible and as healthy as possible. Then making decisions on simple products as milk can be hard if you don’t know what to look for. I have recently reduced the amount of milk I consume (only a dash of full fat with a coffee as opposed to milk coffee of my ‘old skim latte’. The reason being is, whats the point of having the milk if I am not getting anything from it. In other words the milk that we have available to us is nutritionally empty. Despite what we are taught when we were brought up, ‘milk gives you calcium and makes you strong’ milk may provide you with comfort like nice cup of hot milk with ‘Milo or Malt’ or flavoured milks mmmmmmm. Those were the days. but if you are slightly concerned with what you put in your body have a ready a few interesting facts I have collected about pasteurized milk below and you may change your mind about drinking all those milk based coffees daily. Don’t think I am one of these people that say don’t to everything. For anyone that knows me, eliminating totally everything from my diet is not what I am about. I am very much from the school of ‘moderation’. I enjoy from a range of foods but watch what I eat when it comes to processed foods. Modern diets typically included a lot of conveince foods that are high in preservatives and life sustaining chemicals that when it comes to food allergies, intolerances and weight loss many people often wonder why they can lose weight or have gluten intolerance or in the case of this article lactose intolerance.

Skim or Full Fat

Click here for part 2 on Milk rant