5 Ways Diet, Yoga & Meditation Eased My Anxiety

Today I live a life that I love. But most of my childhood was marked by severe panic attacks, depression, OCD, and PTSD. I've had more panic attacks in eighteen years than you’d imagine — over 400. I don’t feel upset that I've suffered from so many anxiety attacks. I actually rejoice in gratitude because without them, I wouldn't be where I am today.

When I was 13, I was told, “You are never going to college. You are going to live at home for the rest of your life.” Most would be horrified at hearing that, and though I was, I thought, “I'm not going to let that happen.” That was said to me five years ago and I have yet to let any of those words stop me.

I came to the conclusion that I was the only person that could help myself. My parents couldn't take away my anxiety nor could friends. It was clear that if I wanted to enjoy my life, I was going to have to take charge.

So I got a little crazy — kale crazy that is! I started drinking greens. I’d bring spirulina drinks to classes with me. My teeth would often be stained green, but I thought it was cool. I openly shared with people what I was going through. I no longer felt like I had to keep my anxiety a secret and I made deeper connections with those around me.

Mindfulness became my saving grace as it allowed for me to see I had other thoughts I could choose — like positive thoughts. I learned to smile often instead of crying constantly as I had done in the past. I eliminated friendships that did not serve me. There was no room for negative thinkers, bullies, or unhealthy relationships. I realized it wasn't one thing that helped me survive with anxiety — it was a combination of many different practices and lifestyles.

I believe an empowered life is a lot like a recipe. There’s not one ingredient, but many and they can be interchanged at anytime. This is my recipe.

1. Eat what’s right for your body.

I can’t eat gluten or dairy because it’s a trigger for my anxiety attacks. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't. Be mindful of how different foods make you feel. Staying away from processed foods and sugars are key, but after that get playful with your eats!

2. Show your body you care.

This includes healthy eating, but goes much more beyond that. Working out is giving my body the time to strengthen itself. Sleep is my gift of to myself to recharge. Self-care is not a random thing I do, but an everyday practice.

3. Eliminate what does not serve you.

This can be a negative thinking pattern or an unhealthy relationship. If it causes you pain, anxiety, or stress, let it go.

4. Be patient.

I still have panic attacks every once and awhile. Though this used to frustrate me, I decided to choose a more loving approach: patience. I recognize that it takes time to make shifts and I welcome the journey.

5. Explore.

Find what makes you thrive and be open to trying all sorts of things! I recently have fallen in love with hot yoga as my workout and stress reliever. I resonate with a mindfulness practice over another meditation. I've discovered that ‘A Course In Miracles’ is the spiritual practice that jives best with who I am. But I didn't find these things overnight. I went on an exploration.

This is my recipe for my life, it may not be yours. But it’s up to you to discover the recipe for the life you love.

source:www.mindbodygreen.com

Do You Exercise Enough to Protect Your Health?

Exercise as Preventive Medicine

Preventing obesity and diabetes, reducing stress, and lowering your blood pressure are among the most obvious boons. Maintaining a fitness regimen can also go a long way toward warding off a stroke. Inactivity can raise your risk for a stroke by as much as 20 percent, research shows,3 when compared to those who exercise at least four times a week. But the benefits certainly do not end there.

I’ve long promoted the concept that exercise can be viewed therapeutically similar to a “drug” that needs to be taken as prescribed, in appropriate doses. Now other scientists are now starting to recognize the truth of this analogy as well.

In fact, researchers recently suggested that exercise is "the best preventive drug" for many common ailments, from psychiatric disorders to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.4 According to Jordan Metzl, a sports-medicine physician at New York City's Hospital for Special Surgery and author of The Exercise Cure:

"Exercise is the best preventive drug we have, and everybody needs to take that medicine.”

In terms of “dosage,” it’s important to note the changes in recommendations that have taken place over the past few years. While conventional aerobic exercise was long considered the “gold standard” of a good workout, research has refuted such notions.

Instead, high-intensity interval training (which requires but a fraction of the time compared to conventional cardio) has been shown to be far more efficient and effective, compared to longer, slower cardio workouts.

Vigorous Exercise Is Excellent Preventive Medicine Against Cold and Flu

When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) seasonal colds and influenza.

According to a recent Flu Survey5 by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, exercising vigorously for at least two and a half hours each week can reduce your chances of catching the flu.6 The survey suggests that 100 cases of flu per 1,000 people could be prevented each year this way.

Other studies have also shown that regular exercise will help prevent the common cold. In one such study,7 women who exercised regularly were found to have half the risk of colds of those who didn't work out. And the ability of moderate exercise to ward off colds seemed to grow the longer it was used. The enhanced immunity was strongest in the final quarter of the year-long exercise program, suggesting that it is important to stick with exercise long term to get the full effects.

Intense Exercise Is Key, But Do It Properly to Avoid Risks

Several recent studies have indicated that conventional cardio, especially endurance exercises such as marathon running can pose significant risks to your heart. It can result in acute volume overload, inflammation, thickening and stiffening of the heart muscle and arteries, arterial calcification, arrhythmias, and potentially sudden cardiac arrest and stroke—the very things you’re trying to avoid by exercising. 

Ideally, to get the most benefits from your exercise, you need to push your body hard enough for a challenge while allowing adequate time for recovery and repair.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is with HIIT, or high intensity interval training, which consists of short bursts of high-intensity exercise, which is a core part of my Peak Fitness program. HIIT maximizes your secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), optimizes your metabolism, and helps regulate your insulin and blood sugar. 

And nothing beats it in terms of efficiency. You can complete an entire Peak Fitness workout in 20 minutes or less. For detailed instructions and a demonstration, please see my previous article, High Intensity Interval Training 101.

Intermittent Movement Is Also Important for Health, as Is Walking with Good Posture

Unfortunately, many fail to get sufficient amounts of exercise. Worse yet, a majority of people may still endanger their health simply by sitting too much. Compelling evidence actually suggests that even if you exercise regularly, prolonged sitting is itself a risk factor for chronic disease and reduced lifespan.

I personally use XNote timer that can be downloaded for free. I go to the more section at the bottom and click on Always on top so the application doesn't get buried as i work on my computer. I then click on timer and set the timer to 15 minutes. I then click start and when the timer goes off no annoying alarm is set Just a flashing which is easily send and reminds you to stand up.

Overall, federal data suggest only 21 percent of American adults meet the government recommendation to engage in two and half hours’ worth of aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise each week, so there’s clearly a lot of room for improvement. Ideally though, you’ll want to exercise regularly AND frequently interrupt your sitting in order to optimize your health and longevity. For more information about the importance of “intermittent exercise,” or interrupting your sitting at regular intervals throughout your day, please see my previous article “Sitting Kills, Moving Heals.”

Another overlooked factor that can make a significant difference in your health is simple walking—especially if you walk properly, with good posture. Walking has been found to have significant health benefits, including the reduction of severe attacks associated with lung disease, and walking correctly will undoubtedly add to such benefits. I recently published details on daily walking benefits, which included instructions by “primal posture” expert Esther Gokhale. If you missed it, please see “How to Optimize Your Benefits from Walking.”

New Science Reveals How We Become, and Stay, Flexible

Speaking of posture, reduced flexibility, which tends to occur with age and inactivity, can create body movements and posture habits that significantly alter and reduce your mobility. Poor posture and chronic pain is a common outgrowth of poor flexibility. Besides stretching techniques such as active isolated stretches (AIS), yoga is one form of exercise that can make a significant difference in this area.

A recent article in the journal Cell8 discusses the discovery of a new form of “mechanical memory” that adjusts the elasticity of your muscles, based on how they’ve been stretched previously. The key lies in a chemical reaction that occurs in your muscles, which increases the elasticity of certain muscle proteins. As explained by Medical News Today:9

“Crucially, this reaction targets molecules that have been exposed to a stretching force. This finding changes our understanding of how muscles respond to stretching... ‘We discovered an effective way of tuning muscle elasticity,’ says Pallav Kosuri, one of the lead authors. ‘We first observed the effect on a molecular level, and then tested it all the way up to human tissue.’"

At the heart of this process is a protein called titin, which acts as a mechanical computer, providing the appropriate elastic output to every single muscle throughout your entire body, your heart included. When you use your muscles, such as during yoga or exercise, oxidation levels increase, which in turn affects titin. This protein appears to be particularly prone to oxidation, and when you stretch a muscle, titin becomes increasingly sensitive to this oxidation. One common form of oxidation is called glutathionylation. When a muscle experiences a stretching force, folded bundles of titin are exposed, which enables glutathionylation, and locks the titin bundles in this unfolded state. This in turn reduces the stiffness of titin, producing greater muscle elasticity. Furthermore, as explained in the featured article:10

“In the absence of oxidation, mechanical force can only generate transient changes in elasticity, lasting a few seconds at most. However, the effect of a mechanical force in combination with glutathionylation was much more persistent - the stiffness of the titin molecules could only be reset by reversing the oxidation.

Putting these pieces together can explain why the combination of exercising and stretching leads to long-lasting yet reversible increases in flexibility. Exercising facilitates oxidation reactions, but it is stretching that primes the muscle for oxidation. Once oxidation reactions occur, they lock the muscle proteins in an unfolded state and cause sustained increases in their elasticity. The muscle goes back to normal when the muscle cells naturally remove the oxidation, a process that can take several hours.”

According to one of the researchers, yoga poses such as downward-facing dog effectively unfolds titin, enabling the processes that makes titin “remember” that it needs to remain locked in the unfolded position, which tells the muscle to remain soft and flexible.

Aim for a Well-Rounded Fitness Program

While high intensity interval exercises are safer, and accomplish greater benefits in a fraction of the time compared to slow, endurance-type exercises like jogging, I do not recommend limiting yourself to that alone. Restricting yourself to simple walking will also be insufficient for most people, even though it has its merits. Ideally you’ll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates other types of exercise as well, including “intermittent exercise” during work hours to counteract the ill effects of prolonged sitting. I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program in order to truly optimize your results:

1. Avoid Sitting for More Than 15 Minutes. I usually set a timer for 15 minutes while sitting, and then stand up and do one legged squats, jump squats or lunges when the timer goes off. The key is that you need to be moving all day long, even in non-exercise, or as I now like to call them, intermittent movement activities.
2. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
3. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen, and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.
4. Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretches developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body's natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.
5. Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a one-set strength training routine will ensure that you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You can also "up" the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.

source:www.mercola.com 

High-Fat Diet May Boost Breast Cancer Risk

WEDNESDAY, April 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- For more than three decades, experts have debated whether eating a high-fat diet increases breast cancer risk.

Now, new research suggests it might boost the chances of three common types of breast cancer.

In a large European study evaluating more than 337,000 women in 10 countries over 11 years, researchers found that women who ate the most saturated fat were about 30 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate the least.

While the study showed an association between a high-fat diet and breast cancer risk, it didn't prove cause-and-effect.

"The results of this large study provide support for the hypothesis that breast cancer development is related to dietary fat," said study author Sabina Sieri, a researcher from the department of preventive & predictive medicine at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Naziolale dei Tumori in Milan.

The study is published April 9 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Sieri and her team found that a high intake of total fat and saturated fat was linked to an increased risk of breast cancer subtypes known as estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) and progesterone receptor-positive (PR-positive). High-fat diets also were tied to a raised risk of developing HER2-negative breast cancer, the investigators noted.

Cancers that are ER- or PR-positive grow in response to those hormones. Cancers that are HER2-negative have tested negative for the presence of a protein, HER2, which promotes cancer cell growth.

One strength of the new study is its large numbers, said Mia Gaudet, director of genetic epidemiology at the American Cancer Society. The breast cancer subtypes linked with fat intake are common, she said. "The majority of breast cancers in the U.S. and Europe are ER-positive, PR-positive, HER2-negative," she noted.

In the new study, women answered questions about their fat intake and other habits that could affect risk, including smoking, age at first period,pregnancy history, use of hormone therapy and their body mass index (a measurement of body fat based on height and weight).

To correct for measurement errors in the diet questionnaire, the researchers interviewed a random sample of 8 percent of the women, asking for a 24-hour dietary recall.

After an average follow up of 11.5 years, just over 10,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer.

When the cases of cancer were compared with fat intake, "we found an association between exposure to saturated-fat intake and breast cancer," Sieri said.

Women in the group eating the most saturated fat averaged 48 grams a day, compared to 15 grams in the group eating the least. A quarter cup of shredded cheddar cheese, for instance, has 10 grams of fat, 5 grams of it saturated.

The link can't be explained with certainty, Sieri said, but it's possible that the high-fat intake raises the levels of the body's own estrogen, which can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells.

"I think it's important these findings be replicated in other studies," Gaudet said. While the researchers ruled out many factors that could explain an increased cancer risk, they didn't rule out all possible factors, she said.

Until more study is done, Sieri tells women: "In general, it is recommended that the percent of total calories from saturated fat should not exceed 10 percent for women."

Gaudet agreed. "If you have a mainly plant-based diet, that is going to help you keep your fat intake low."

source:www.medicinenet.com

Do You Think About It Every Day?

I know a fellow writer and breast cancer survivor who recently posted about her “cancer-adversary,” her anniversary of diagnosis, on Facebook recently. One of the things she noted is that, three years post-diagnosis and two years post-treatment, she’s come to a point that she doesn't think about cancer every day.

I was diagnosed the year before she was. I’m not there yet.

I do think about cancer every day. I don’t brood upon it. I’m not super depressed about it. I’m not paralyzed by fear. I think the science of cancer is fascinating. Obviously, as a reporter, I interview people about cancer all the time. I accept my cancer. What choice do I have? But I think about it. Every day. Without fail.

Sometimes it’s in the shower. The left breast that’s been reduced by lumpectomy is full of scar tissue and still kind of sore if you touch it the wrong way.

Sometimes it’s when I kiss my husband. We have a good marriage; we are soul mates. But there is no way around the fact that the drugs I take tamp down my romantic urges. A lot. He’s very patient, but still. So, I think about it.

Or it might be when I realize that a party dress that used to look great on me no longer fits. Is the extra weight the result of cancer or of the premature menopause caused by the drugs I take to prevent a recurrence? I don’t know. But it makes me think about it.

And sometimes, it’s when I look at my 13-year-old daughter and think about how she’s so beautiful and growing up so quickly. I don’t mean to be really melodramatic, but I am very aware that there are no guarantees in life, and especially not in cancer. So will I be there to see her get married? Will I get to spoil my grand kids and be the crazy old lady who wears purple and skis and rides motorcycles and bakes too many cakes? I hope so. But when I think about those future dreams, I always think about cancer. Always.

I don’t expect that there will ever be a day for the rest my life that I don’t think about cancer. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing. It just is. It is my new normal.

I wonder if people who suffer other harrowing life events—divorce, bankruptcy, the death of a child, other illnesses like heart attacks, car accidents—feel the same quiet presence of their personal disaster each day. I suspect that most of them do, whether they talk about it or not. What do you think?

Source:www.webmd.com