Holistic Health, Natural Remedies & Homeopathy

6 Basic Supplements Everyone Needs

January 30, 2015 happyholistichealth Leave a comment

The question is always whether you should supplement your diet for good health or not? Generally it’s better if nutrients come from food. But most people don’t eat an optimum diet and so can’t get the nutrients they require from their food. Supplements can be useful as they can fill nutrient holes in your diet. On their own they will never be enough to reverse lousy eating habits. But well selected, high-quality supplements certainly have benefits.

Most people don’t need to take handfuls but there are some basic supplements that everyone in our society would benefit by taking.

MULTIVITAMIN & MINERAL

Even when they eat well, most Aussies don’t get the optimum 6-8 serves of vegetables each day, or even the 5-6 recommended serves. Nor do they always get the recommended 2 serves of fruit.

Unfortunately, Australian produce is affected by the low levels of minerals in our soils with the result that much of the produce we grow is also lacking in minerals and vitamins. This problem is worsened by modern commercial farming practices which further deplete the already starved soil and produce of nutrients.

If you only eat organic produce you may be getting enough vitamins and minerals from your foods. You will certainly get more than from commercially grown produce, as organic produce contains much higher levels of vitamins and minerals. But the reality is that most people don’t eat only organic foods.

When you combine the vitamin and mineral deficiency in produce with poor dietary practices it becomes obvious that many Australians are significantly deficient in basic vitamins and minerals.

To make certain you are getting enough a quality multivitamin and mineral daily is almost a necessity.

Be wary! There are many around that are poor quality. The vitamins and minerals in them are in a form that is not bio-available. This means your body isn’t able to absorb them properly and they pass through and out of your gut without being absorbed. Money down the toilet, so to speak.

Minerals come in many different forms and some forms are better for you than others. Many multivitamins include inferior forms of minerals that your body can’t really use.

You need a certain amount of vitamins and minerals for them to be effective. If there is not enough they simply don’t do what your body needs. It is important to have sufficient amounts of each nutrient in the multivitamin you take.

Don’t get sucked in by brands flaunting ‘A-Z Vitamins and Minerals’. Chances are you don’t need all of these, and the bigger the range of nutrients the less there will be of each one in the tablet, after all the tablets can only be so big!

Before you throw your money away do some research or talk to your natural health practitioner. Look for someone who is professionally trained in nutrition taught in natural health courses, including vitamin and mineral therapy. Most mainstream Medicine courses do not include much nutrition.

There are some excellent multivitamins around with the optimum balance of quality nutrients but often these are the ones you can only get from your Health Practitioner.
Cheaper products on supermarket shelves are frequently not worth your time and money.

OMEGA 3

Omega-3 essential fatty acids are wonderful anti-inflammatories and excellent for reducing the symptoms of chronic disease. They are essential for brain function and strongly support heart health.

As the name suggests, these oils are essential for good health. Your body cannot make them so you need to obtain them from food or supplements.

Omega-3 is found in a range of foods, and is particularly high in fish oils, including krill oil.

Vegans and vegetarians are particularly at risk for omega-3 deficiency. While there are a number of vegetarian sources for omega-3, flaxseed oil is usually used for plant-based supplements.

Research into the effects of fish oils has shown that in addition to its wide range of cardiovascular and cognitive benefits it is particularly helpful in the treatment of autoimmune disease. It has been shown to significantly reduce symptoms in Lupus, reduce joint pain and stiffness in Rheumatoid Arthritis, and assist in inflammatory bowel disease.

Omega-3 also plays a role in the prevention of many diseases and reduces the symptoms caused by inflammation in others.

Fish is an excellent source of omega-3 but many people don’t like it. Plus there are concerns about the presence of mercury and other heavy metals in fish. With a high quality omega-3 supplement you avoid these problems.

1 gram – 1000mg, of combined EPA/ DHA each day is recommended for maintenance. But to gain real benefits and boost your health, especially if your health is compromised, you need more, up to 5 grams a day.

Be wary about cheaper omega-3 supplements. In some the processing causes the oil to go rancid. This is actually harmful to you, creating free radicals and inflammation in your body. Omega-3 supplements are very much a case of you get what you pay for!

VITAMIN D

Most of us are deficient in Vitamin D, even in ‘sunny Australia’. We live and work inside far more than we ever did in the past and when we head outside it is under a thick cover of sunscreen, which prevents the vitamin D in the sun’s rays from being absorbed by the cells in our skin.

Vitamin D is essential for a huge range of body processes. One of the most important is to work with calcium to build and maintain strong bones and teeth. It is also crucial for an effective immune system. Deficiency can increase your risk for asthma and cancer, cause daytime fatigue and affect thinking processes

The current recommendation for adults is 1000IU a day. But this is the bare minimum maintenance dose, great if your levels are at an optimum level but nowhere near enough if, like most, your levels of Vitamin D are lower.

Don’t DIY Vitamin D because it is possible to have too much. Most doctors will happily order a blood test to find out your levels. Good levels are up around 75 ng/ml.

Once you know what your level is, it’s important not to get complacent as your levels of Vitamin D vary greatly through the course of a year, being at their highest in late summer and their lowest in early to mid-spring.

Discover how to optimise your time in the sun without sunscreen to get the most Vitamin D from the least exposure at Good Morning Sunshine: How Much Vitamin D Are You Really Getting?

To raise the levels in your body, rather than just maintain them, you need between 1000 and 5000 IU a day, depending on how low your levels are. Make sure you get the D3 form.

Again, there is quite a big difference between the quality of different brands and how well your body is able to utilize them. Be guided by your Natural Health Practitioner.

ALGAE

The two most commonly used forms of algae are spirulina and chlorella. These are some of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. Spirulina is one of my favourite supplements and I recommend it to clients regularly as well as taking it myself.

Chlorella is an amazing detoxifier which cleanses heavy metals from your body.

Spirulina is a great detoxifier but is higher in protein, so excellent to boost your energy when you feel flat, or simply every day. It is an excellent punchy source of nutrients and can help you feel healthier very quickly. Read more about it at Spirulina, The Supergreen Solution

Dosage requirements vary and you need to adjust for your requirements. Because algae are food you can’t overdose on them, and you can increase how much you take in times of greater need. But you may need to go gently especially if your health is poor because too much algae may provide too much stimulation for the body to deal with.

It is VITAL that your algae is well sourced. It MUST be organic or it will be loaded with heavy metals like mercury. Look for tablets or powder with an even dark green colour. Lighter specks indicate the presence of fillers.

PROBIOTIC

Probiotics occur naturally in your gut. They play an important role in your wellness, not only by improving your digestion, but also by boosting your immune system and keeping bad bacteria in check. They control yeast overgrowth and diarrhoea and inhibit lactose intolerance.

Our digestive system functions best with the aid of a quality probiotic. The trillions of good bacteria in your gut are essential for good health but can easily be destroyed or over-run by bad bacteria.

Numbers of these bacteria decrease as we age. Antibiotics are notorious for killing them. Poor diet or pollution can also destroy them. When numbers decline your system goes right out of balance and you can suffer many symptoms.

Probiotics come from two sources, fermented foods or a probiotic supplement.

Fermented foods include sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha tea, yoghurt and need to be raw or the probiotics will be dead.

If you don’t eat fermented foods every day taking a good quality, broad spectrum probiotic daily will repopulate your gut with good bacteria to fortify your health and return your digestion to normal.

Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria are the two most common and effective forms of probiotic. You need between 10 and 30 billion ‘live units’ each day.

COENZYME Q10 (CoQ10)

CoQ10 is a power packed antioxidant which delivers various substances including fat into your cells for a boost of energy. It is of great benefit in helping cells function properly and preventing cell damage.

CoQ10 provides great benefit for heart health, and offers anti-oxidant protection for a number of related cardiovascular conditions. It keeps your heart functioning efficiently.

As an anti-oxidant it protects cells against the stress of free radical damage and helps prevent chronic disease.

Once you reach the age of 25 the levels of CoQ10 in your body start to drop and you are likely to be deficient. When this happens DNA is damaged more quickly and you age prematurely. CoQ10 slows the process and may improve signs of aging like fine wrinkles.

CoQ10 seems to offer benefits for a wide range of diseases including chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia

When CoQ10 is used for specific diseases, dosage varies wildly. But for general health and antioxidant protection between 60-150mg daily is sufficient.

I hope this short list helps you select the supplements you need to include in your everyday health plan.

Disclaimer

All information and opinions presented here are for information purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before following any of the treatment suggested on this site, particularly if you have an ongoing health issue.

Source articles

http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/coenzyme-q10/evidence/hrb-20059019

Metaphysics & Intuition, Nature's Rhythms

New Moon Clarity: Discover Personal Insights for Lunar Manifestation

January 20, 2015 happyholistichealth Leave a comment

The New Moon is an especially potent time to birth anything new into your life. Creating a New Moon Ritual is a powerful way to stimulate new beginnings and bring about change.

Often when you live a life of wellness you get focused on the physical, eating healthy food, getting exercise or avoiding toxins. But the physical body is only the starting place. For good health it is equally important to focus on the other levels in addition to the physical. You need to manifest change on each of the levels of mind, body, emotions and spirit.

New Moon Rituals are a great way to address change in all four aspects of yourself, the mind, body, emotions and spirit. Ritual helps you to clarify needs, to form that need or desire into a goal and to set an intention to achieve it.

Harness New Moon Energy for Manifesting

Once every month I remind my social media followers the New Moon is coming up so they can prepare their Lunar Manifestation List. Some always prepare for the New Moon. But for the many who have never done New Moon ritual the response is often confusion.

For years I’ve held space for nurturing and empowering New Moon Red Tent Circles to coincide with the New Moon. They’re a wonderful supportive space for busy women to take a few hours’ time out just for themselves. They provide space to tune into yourself and identify what’s not working in your life, what’s really p*ssing you off, and most importantly, where you need to make changes and exactly what you want to start in your life.

It all happens within a group of women who offer unconditional support for you to gain understanding and clarity. All in the group can share without comment or advice from others and can even vent if they need. Everyone usually gets amazing insights.

Within the circle you also receive some self-care and sometimes a little creative play. Recently we played with finger paint. I had never done this before, and it was So. Much. Fun.

Why Hold New Moon Circles

The simple answer to why Circles are held at the New Moon is it allows us to harness potent energy brought by the New Moon together with Ancestral tradition.

Throughout history indigenous societies always honoured the time of the New Moon because it is the time when our intuition (those gut feelings you get) are at their strongest, especially for women.

Test this out for yourself. Keep track of what messages your subconscious sends to you in the few days around the New Moon. These messages often come through your dreams. Take notice if you wake up suddenly knowing the answer to something that has been troubling you.

This is also the time when many, especially women, feel extra weary. Your body may feel heavy, feeling overcome by sleepiness in the afternoon, craving early nights or you may feel less like going out and socialising.

This is you telling yourself that it is the best time to slow down and go within. This is the best time to access the intuitive and ancestral knowledge you already hold for a better, happier life.

The time of greater awareness varies from one person to the next but usually is for a few days around the New Moon time. Because the actual time of the New Moon varies from one location to another you need to check for the exact time and date in your area. Remember to set your own location in the search.

Lunar Manifestation Lists

Before closing my New Moon Red Tent Sessions each month, I always invite each person to create their own Lunar Manifestation List.

It’s so easy for us to roll along, one week passing to the next until we suddenly notice that another whole year has passed us by. We develop the habit of non-awareness.

Using the New Moon to set a Lunar Manifestation Intention List is simply a form of getting clear on your wishes for the month, like a monthly goal setting. But it is far more than just ‘goal setting’ as this one really comes from our heart and our highest wisdom.

Lunar Intentions for the Highest Good

It’s important to set your intentions for what you really do need in your life. So before starting our list we spend time going within to connect with our Highest Self for guidance. Whatever you decide to include on your list frame it with the intention of stimulating personal growth.

You may wish to change a bad habit, or release a relationship you have outgrown or invite one you are now ready to welcome in. There may be a material possession you would love. You may need more self-nurturing. Perhaps you would like to undertake some form of service to others or to allow others to be of service to you. It may even be to change the way you view a situation.

Whatever it is you wish to create can be added to your list.

Be Precise

When I look back on my own lists I am struck by how often what I wrote down came about.

For about 18 months I kept adding ‘New Car” to my list. But no new car appeared. Then one month I got precise and I wrote down the make, the model, the extra features and even the colour of the car I wanted. Six weeks later that exact car was sitting in my driveway, and I got it for an awesome price too.

When I got really serious and was more specific about my list, my focus and my energy was directed towards achieving that goal, like an arrow flying towards a target.

Take Your Time

Don’t just dive in. The result will most likely be superficial. This is time you need to get real. Spend time before starting to really tune in to your subconscious, your inner knowing. Allow it to guide you to discover deep insights about how to change for the best.

You can simply sit and write your list but if you spend some time beforehand to really tune in to yourself you receive greater clarity about the deeper issues that are holding you back. Also, you may find something you are ready to receive into your life that you were not yet aware of.

If you meditate this is an awesome way to tune in to your intuition.

If you prefer someone else to guide you through a meditation there are many guided visualisations available on Youtube. (I am creating a series of suitable guided meditations for the New Moon which will be available later this year.)

Keep things Simple

You don’t need to meditate, it’s not essential but it does lift your ritual to a higher level.

Simply taking some time to go somewhere quiet, some place where you won’t be disturbed is enough. It may be a special space in your home or somewhere you love in nature. Wherever you choose just make certain you are somewhere you will not be interrupted. (For busy Mums it may even mean locking yourself in the toilet!) Just find somewhere quiet and peaceful.

New Moon Red Tent Ritual

Make sure you have pen (it can be coloured) and paper with you. Your Lunar Manifestation List needs to be written by hand, don’t add it to your notes on your phone. A journal is perfect for keeping your Lunar Manifestation Lists together if you’d like to keep them to look back at later.

If you wish play some uplifting music, light a candle or do anything that has special meaning for you. But make sure it doesn’t intrude and draw your attention away from listening to your intuition.

When you are seated comfortably take a few moments to relax yourself. Start by loosening your toes and work your way up your body. Finally feel your shoulders drop, your jaw relax and your forehead un-crease.

Now take a few deep belly-breaths. As you breathe in imagine the Indigo Light of Intuition entering your body along with your breath and spreading through every cell of your body. As you breathe out feel the stress of your day and any negative thoughts you are holding leave your body along with your breath.

As you breathe in the Indigo Light on each breath feel yourself connect more deeply with your inner knowledge. Allow your breath to relax into a natural rhythm and sit for a while opening yourself to any thoughts or ideas that flow in.

Be creative and open

If thoughts about what you need to do today are blocking out anything else then maybe what you need to manifest right now are some organisational techniques so you can get all that stuff out of your thoughts. Bringing in techniques such as this will free up lots of brain space for other things in your life. So put it on your list.

What you need may come to you as a picture in your mind-eye, you may hear it or have a clear thought or even just a sudden flash of inspiration. Be open to receive.

Write your list in the present tense, as if it is already happening.

You can’t wish for change in others, that it for them to determine themself. However, you can wish for changes to yourself that may then affect them later or that support you in the situation.

Add up to ten things to your list. More than ten becomes too many and lessens their impact. Less is fine, simply putting greater focus on what you do add, but you do need more than just one or two.

Each New Moon of the year is associated with a different part of your life and your list is more potent when you focus your wishes on that area of your life. This New Moon at the start of Aquarius is about BIG Plans and seeking freedom in your life. This Moon also brings a link with the past and might be the perfect time to discover a new way to renovate, restore or revitalise an old problem or relationship.

Just one more step to do, which is to speak the list out loud. Giving a voice to your intentions empowers them and anchors them in the front of your awareness.

Finishing Your Lunar Ritual

When you have finished, thank your Higher Self, your angels, or simply the universe, blow out the candle and you are done.

Lunar Manifestation Lists are not like affirmations. You don’t have to keep repeating them. Once you have done the ritual you can put the list away.

What you do with your list is up to you. Some women burn their list, others put them under their pillow, some even bury them. I keep my Lunar Manifestation Lists in a journal as later I like to have the reminder of the power of positive intent. Sometimes reading through them refocuses me when I feel I’m getting nowhere.

Benefits of a New Moon Ritual

There is no time frame around when the things on your list manifest. If you find you’re including the same thing for month after month your intention may need to be re-phrased (as I did with my car). Or it may simply not be right for you or not what you need at this time.

Often when your intent is strong and focused you will find changes start to occur about two weeks later around the time of the next Full Moon.

I hope you decide to adopt this wonderful practice into your life. It literally only takes a few minutes and by regularly setting yourself this focus you’ll receive great benefits.

Catherine Bullard trained as a Red tent Facilitator with the Moon Woman at Star Of Ishtar.

Disclaimer

© Catherine Bullard and Happy Holistic Health, 2012. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Catherine Bullard and Happy Holistic Health with appropriate and specific direction to the original content

Metaphysics & Intuition, Nature's Rhythms

Set Successful New Year Resolutions With A Releasing Ritual

December 22, 2014 happyholistichealth Leave a comment

As the year slides to its close the energies of the New Year may already be affecting you. You may already be formulating goals and plans that you would like to birth in the year ahead as New Year resolutions begin to form. You may even be plotting pathways to achieve those goals.

If you are someone who likes to get a jump on the New Year so you to enter the New Year already clear about how you’ll achieve your goals for 2015 it pays to prepare ahead. One way to set the foundation for success with your goals is with a simple New Year Release Ritual.

For the past few weeks I’ve been surprised as I hear myself talking about things that will happen for me in 2015, ideas and plans I hadn’t even noticed were forming in my brain or my heart. But apparently these ideas were solidly there just waiting for me to notice.

Many have already formed plans even if they’re not yet conscious of them and you may find you are doing the same. This year-end you’re being urged to get real about what you want for yourself, to set a considered plan of action, and to get to it now.

It’s way too easy, especially in these fast-paced times to allow your life to slip past. Days flow into weeks, into months, years and suddenly a decade has passed you by. Trying to look back and see the detail of your life pathway becomes more and more difficult as time moves on if you’ve neglected to mark points along the way.

Markers for Your Life

In times past traditions and ceremonies provided marking points in people’s lives. They provided moments in people’s consciousness when they paused, finding time to take stock of themselves and their life.

We still hold on to some of these traditions – 18th or 21st birthdays, weddings, funerals – but many milestones are no longer honoured or even remembered. Many traditions we do still hold no longer require us to examine and consider ourselves and how our life to date has evolved.

We no longer have many occasions where we pause and examine our progress in life, acknowledging our achievements and successes, appreciating our blessings, recognizing our lessons, and planning changes.

Set Strong Foundations For Goal Success

Trying to establish goals and resolutions to guide you along the pathway to achieving your dreams without first pausing and taking time to appraise the road you have just traveled is like building your home over a sink-hole. Without solid footings the structure of your life will simply collapse.

A Release Ritual is your opportunity to establish a firm base on which to build your future. It doesn’t take long to do and provides you with deep insights and clarity to steer you to better results.

As the energies of 2014 begin to unravel set aside time to draw together the threads of the year just passed. Find the space for yourself to weave them into a strong support that will carry you into 2015. Take time to examine your experience, the rainbow of coloured threads of your life, both the weak strands and the strong, threads of extreme beauty, and threads of fragility.

Once you have examined the weave of your last year the signs that point to the new directions you need to follow next become apparent.

Old Year Releasing Ritual

Begin your reflection by settling down in a quiet corner with a pen, paper or a journal, and a relaxing herbal tea or coffee. Light a candle to signal the start of your ritual if this has meaning for you.

Life has a habit of drawing you back to the same old lessons, over and over, spiraling round, often revisiting them under another guise, until you reach awareness and understanding of that particular lesson for your life. Each time you revisit the lesson gets louder, as if the universe is shouting so you will hear.

To save yourself treading these same old well-worn paths yet again next year, begin your release of the old year by writing down the illuminating life lessons you learnt in 2014. What were those ‘Aha’ moments? What great insights occurred?

Next add the dreams that came true for you. It’s easy to forget what the dreams you once held even were once they have actually happened, and just as easy to forget how dearly you held them, hoping they would eventuate. Remember to include the small dreams as well as the huge ones. The small dreams of life often grow into the big important ones.

What did you achieve in 2014? Remember to include the small glories not just the major ones. What did you learn you could do that you didn’t realise before?

You’re now ready to consider how you have grown in the last 365 days.

How have you changed? What have you learnt about yourself? What changed you? What is it you now know about yourself that you didn’t know before? Write them all down.

What did you discover you had outgrown? What no longer serves you? What, or who, did you release from your life?

How did you surprise yourself – what did you do that you didn’t know you capable of? What have you done that swells you with pride? Was there something you were able to do that you have never managed before? Were you called to step up, and you did?

What was there in this last year that was a source of grating disharmony? What can’t you tolerate any longer? By now you know what it is you just have to change in your life. Write it down.

If there’s anything you need to get off your chest about this last year, do it now. Rant if you need to. If you feel the urge to cry honour it, it will bring release and relief.

Now finally, write down what it is you are grateful for, the gifts you received from 2014. Include every little thing. As well as the big stuff in my life, I include small joys in my gratitude lists like my morning cup of tea, or the slightly creepy but endearing smile my gorgeous dog beams at me whenever I arrive home.

Finished?

Closing Ritual

And now dear friend, you are ready to release the Old Year. You are now ready to face the year ahead. You are ready to set your resolutions, to clarify your dreams and your goals, to decide what is achievable for you, and to stride forth with purpose into the New Year.

Take some time now to close down your releasing ritual.

Close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply through your nose, down into your abdomen. Hold briefly and then breathe out slowly through your mouth making a small sound as you do. As you breathe out give thanks for the past year, for all your experiences, your joys and pains, the lessons you have been given and the insights you have received.

Breathe in again, drawing in with your breath the green light of healing, deep into your abdomen. As you hold it briefly allow the green light to flow into every cell of your body until your whole body shines with its emerald green glow. Breathe out again, slowly. Sense any negativity you have been holding in the cells of your body, any disharmonies from your past year, flow from you with your breath. Feel your shoulders relax as the weight is taken off them. Feel your body sink into your chair.

Once more breathe in deep into your abdomen this time drawing in the golden light of possibility. Feel it flow freely through you bringing renewed energy to your body, clarity to your mind, and generosity and fulfillment to your heart.

As you slowly release your breath allow the energy of the past year to ride on it. Allow it to float away, knowing that you hold within you all the loving positive energy you have earned in the last twelve months. You will always have the knowledge and insights you have gained.

Take your time and when you feel ready open your eyes and welcome with joy the new energies of the coming year.

Conscious Mindset, Holistic Health, Stress & Overwhelm

10 Top Tips To Survive The Holiday Season and Start the New Year Powered-Up

December 12, 2014 happyholistichealth Leave a comment

December, the end of the year – a time of good will and the ‘Season of Stress’. At this time of the year, we are all buckling under the weight of stress – at work, at school, shopping for the Holidays, coping with crowds, financial worries. For almost everyone, stress levels in their everyday life are ramped up right now.

And then there are the parties! With so much going on it’s almost impossible to reach the New Year without crashing in a heap.

There is no point waiting until after the damage is done and the celebrations have finished to try to pick up the pieces. The key is to get on top of the extra stress right now.

Which brings us right back to one of the big stress triggers – you have no time right now to add anything extra into your busy life.

Simple Strategies to Regain Calm Control

While the stress hormones, adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol were essential to life in the wild, our bodies haven’t caught up, so our stress hormones and lifestyle are not in synch. Too much of the hormones designed to save our life in cave-man days surging through our body today can have dire consequences on our health. The constant level of stress we live with keeps these hormones permanently switched on, constantly increasing our cell’s stress levels.

There are many quick and easy ways you can defuse stress in just two to five minutes. It’s simply a case of learning them and then remembering to use them.

Strategies to Reduce Stress Levels

These ten wellness hacks take less than five minutes and will get your stress levels down and have you on track to hit the New Year running. Try all of them out or just try one. But do yourself a favour this holiday season and practice a little self-care.

#1 Sweetly Scent-sual

Far more than just being pleasant aromas, the flower fragrance contains volatile plant compounds that can reduce stress as powerfully as certain drugs. Keeping fresh flowers or a plant close by in your workspace helps, but to get a powerful effect opt for aromatherapy essential oils. Carry the bottle or roller in your bag for quick application or sniff whenever you feel stress levels rising. Lavender is one of the best, with frankincense often the first choice to reduce stress. Rosemary is my favourite to also increase clarity and focus and peppermint is another good choice.

Simply take a long, deep breath from your bottle, or dab on your temples whenever you need it.

If you find your stress levels rising when you are out shopping duck into the closest florist and take some good deep calming breaths.

Flower Power can also be accessed through flower essences. Carry them with you and you simply drop a few drops on your tongue whenever your stress, anxiety or worry levels start to rise.

#2 Calm Racing Thoughts

Sometimes your thoughts can go a bit wild when you are under stress. Your mind is always busy as they run round and round your head, building up your anxiety and increasing your stress.

When you find this happening begin to focus on a single object, it can be any object, even just a pen. You need to really focus on it, concentrate so other thoughts don’t creep in.

Once you are focused start to breathe deeply and slowly, right down deep into your abdomen. If you are not sure about doing this, try it out a few times when you are calm to get the hang of the process. You can learn how to belly breathe on Mastering The Breath Of Life.

Keep the breathing going for three minutes while you maintain your focus. This is an excellent way to calm your mind and relax.

#3 Breathe…

You don’t necessarily need to focus and breathe when you feel stressed.

Deep diaphragmatic breathing alone soothes your nervous system and increases your alertness. Once you have mastered this technique it is easy to simply stop and do it. Even just breathing for two minutes can settle you down considerably.

Breathe down into your belly, through your nose, hold for a couple of seconds, then release slowly through your mouth.

#4 Tea Time

How often do we say “let’s have a nice cuppa tea” after some big drama is sorted out? Full of antioxidants, tea is the perfect way to calm down, especially if you stop rushing around and sit quietly to enjoy it.

Black, green and white tea, all have some calming effect. But if you want the big guns of relaxing teas you can’t go past some of the herbals.

Chamomile is the simplest and is usually available in most cafes so is a good one to fall back on. It is far more effective when it’s brewed up with lavender though and works well in many other blends.

Ashwagandha has been used in Ayervedic medicine for thousands of years to treat even severe stress. A great choice while you’re working as it calms your nervous system without sending you off to sleep. As a bonus it induces a sense of wellbeing and clears your mind.

Lemon balm, passionflower, skullcap, valerian, lime blossom and oats are just some of the others that calm and relax.

There are so many wonderful herbs already combined in excellent relaxing blends that all you need to do is select the combination that you like the most. Try out a few different blends until you discover your favourite.

#5 Talk With A Friend

Whether you vent, speed-talk, shed a few tears, or simply sigh, talking to a good friend who is ready to just listen, can make a huge difference to your stress levels. Research has shown that as well as getting stuff off your chest talking to a friend actually reduces your stress hormones as well as your blood pressure.

#6 Smile

Frowning or grimacing, clenching your jaw, or wrinkling your forehead all suppress your immune system and trigger the release of more stress hormones. Simple smiling boosts your levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and endorphins. These are the ones the one that induce good moods and make you happy. As smiling increases your endorphins it also lowers your levels of cortisol.

The more you stimulate your brain to release these mood boosters by just smiling the more relaxed you feel. But here’s the amazing thing. You don’t have to feel happy. It’s the simple act of moving the muscles in your face that triggers the action. Putting on a happy face starts the process.

#7 Visualise – Free Your Imagination

Your mind is a powerful tool and the gateway to escaping your stress. Remember how good you feel when you think of your favourite vacation spot? Or perhaps when recalling time spent with close family or friends?

By closing your eyes and taking your thoughts inside your minds-eye to your favourite perfect, beautiful scene or happy experience you can return to those times when you felt secure, happy and relaxed.

Simply closing your eyes gives you the space to spend a few moments to ground yourself and reduce the stress hormones surging through your body.

#8 Yuuummm…

Now here’s one you will love. Small amounts of dark chocolate really do make you feel better and reduce your stress. Eating dark chocolate increases serotonin and endorphin levels in your brain. Remember, these are the mood enhancers. Plus, it lowers your levels of that difficult stress hormone, cortisol.

Just 40 grams of dark chocolate a day for a couple of weeks does the job. And the darker the chocolate, the better. It must be at least 70% cocoa derived. Sweet, milk chocolate doesn’t offer the health benefits and don’t even think of white chocolate. But be sure to practice moderation, it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

#9 Meditate

Not only does meditating calm you in the moment, establishing a regular meditation practice changes the way your brain responds to stress.

Many people think meditation means sitting still for hours with a completely empty mind. But there are many forms of meditation, some still, some active and some taking just a few minutes.

Have you ever found yourself gazing at something, perhaps a magnificent scene, completely caught up in what you are looking at, your mind a blank? You are in a state of meditation. Anything that totally pulls your focus and allows you to switch off other distractions is meditation. Sometimes it can happen simply by watching something absorbing, at other times it helps to repeat a simple word or phrase in time with your breath. Words such as relax, I am calm, peace or serenity are all suitable choices. Find one that has the most meaning for you.

Concentrating on your breath is one way to focus and meditate. Zen masters may do this for hours on end but even doing it for just a few minutes has a powerful effect on your whole body, your brain, your nervous system, your emotions and your muscles. You can even meditate by concentrating on your breathing as you take slow measured steps in time with each breath.

#10 Meridian Magic

This is a different take on how to relax and calm yourself.

The Triple Warmer is an energy pathway running through your body which is related to stress. This twenty second exercise is an ancient healing practice that rebalances this energy pathway to reduce the stress effect. Realigning this meridian supports your immune system and improves your ability to manage stress and release tension, anxiety and fear. It’s so simple, quick and effective, you can do it anywhere, and it only takes seconds. This year, set yourself up to hit the New Year running.

We can’t totally eliminate stress from our life in these times because it surrounds us day and night. But adopting simple strategies to prevent the effects of that stress building up in your body before it reaches a level where you crash, just makes plain good sense. Perhaps even more importantly it gives you back control of your life.

Disclaimer

Ancestral Wisdom, Conscious Mindset, Healthy Home, Holistic Health

14 Awesome Books That Will Change Your Life

December 6, 2014 happyholistichealth 2 Comments

Christmas and the summer holidays are the perfect time to dive into some great reads. And as most of us want the New Year to be a fresh start with new plans and goals, it makes sense to read at least one life-affirming, soul-sustaining book to support you on your life journey and life purpose.

This post marks a major milestone. As I hesitantly wrote my first article in July 2012 I never dreamed I would reach 100 posts. To honour this 100-post-milestone I have collected a few of the books that offered me inspiration and guidance, and influenced my journey along the pathway to health, happiness and a fulfilled life.

I am a total book addict. Curled up with a book, reading in my bedroom, is my go-to-happy-place. These are not my favourite books although some are certainly ones I do love. These are books with a purpose.

Because I always want to know the answer ‘right now’ these are books that present a goal or a purpose and then tell me how to get there. Most importantly, they all definitely played an important part in signposting the pathway for me.

This selection can also give you the tools to make enormous life changes for yourself. Take a look and maybe find an inspiring book to add to your summer reading list, one that will open the doorway to allow big changes into your life in 2015.

WARNING: Long but awesome post ahead! Feel free to skim

LIFE CHANGING SUMMER READS

In no particular order (apart from which one I pulled off the bookshelf first)

#1. Love The Life You Live: Ten Steps For Happier Living by Anne Hartley

This book guided me to the Life Coaching course I chose. I‘d wanted to do it for over two years before I found a course that really resonated. During that time I stumbled across this book in which Hartley outlines her “Heart Process”, the essence of the Hartlife Coaching Course I studied.
The Heart Process is basically a guideline to reclaiming your “happy.” Starting with her own story Hartley takes you through a series of heart-based steps to find your joy in life again. This is solid stuff that has been around for generations, but it is presented in such a way that you don’t just get excited about the message, you are also guided as to how to achieve it in your own life. The book is packed full of helpful hacks for mastering each of the ten steps.
Anne has been a Life Coach for over twenty years during which time she has refined everything she has used in her work, and here you have her most successful techniques.

#2. Walking Meditation by Nguyen Anh Huong & Thich Nhat Hanh

The practice of mindfulness has recently taken the world by storm, but my introduction came a while ago from the Master of Mindfulness himself through this book. This is more a kit than a book and is a wonderful tool if you want to introduce mindfulness into your life. It contains an instructional DVD, a CD of 5 guided meditations to get you started, and a small book to guide you through so you get the most out of your practice.
Someone once said to me that women gained most from active meditation and men gained the most from still meditation. I don’t know if it’s true or not but the concept of women engaging in the active, masculine Yang, and men in the passive, feminine Yin has a beautiful poetic balance to it.
An excellent and simple meditation for all women (and men) to master.

#3. Goddesses In Everywoman – Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives by Jean Shinoda Bolen

This is the book that launched me into the healing work I do with women today. Exploring the goddesses from ancient Greek mythology Bolen opens up our understanding of the age-old psychological patterns that modern women still follow. This is one of those books that bring incredible ‘aha’ moments as you suddenly recognize yourself in one or another goddess. It places the patterns, whether actual or potential, that you fall into in your life right there in front of you, where you can’t help but see them for what they are.
I love this book – it was such a solid foundation to understanding women’s archetypes and led to my ability to hold space for women’s healing groups, as well as to presenting their life patterns in a far more easily understood way to my Coaching clients. It’s easy to read, easy to understand and very insightful.

#4. The Inner Goddess Makeover: A Step-By-Step Makeover by Tanishka

This is the book that inspired me to go train as a Red Tent Facilitator and then later, a Women’s Rites Of Passage Facilitator. I came across “The Inner Goddess Makeover” after I read about women’s archetypes in ‘Goddesses In Everywoman’ and was left hungry to discover more about the feminine archetypes we all embody.
Tanishka uses each of seven goddess archetypes to embody seven universal psychological feminine aspects. Each one also governs a chakra. As you work through the exercises for each, consciously exploring the issues raised, you experience energy shifts and clear old blocks that were limiting you and stopping you from experiencing your personal empowerment and potential.
I worked through this awesome and exciting journey, one chakra/goddess per month. Some of the goddesses were easy but with others I was really challenged. It was so empowering that after I finished I contacted Tanishka and went and trained with her.
This book is challenging but FUN. Even more fun when you set up your own goddess circle to work through it with the support of your Besties. Tanishka pulls no punches! Totally down to earth, her vibrant personality shines through, and she speaks to the reader as if you were both hanging out and chatting over a coffee.

#5. The Botany Of Desire by Michael Pollan

This is an odd book to have here but it is the book that galvanized me into opting for organic produce whenever I could, especially potatoes, changing my eating habits forever. It is about the reciprocal relationship between people and four domesticated crops. Pollan links four desires – sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control – with four plants that we use to satisfy them. He uses the story of the potato to illustrate control.
In his examination of how potato growing has evolved he visits commercial potato farms, an organic farm and Monsanto, the developers of genetically modified potatoes. Reading about the intense chemical spraying program and the permanent toxic state of the commercial farms was more than enough to turn me away from commercially grown potatoes forever. It also set me to investigate which other commercially farmed crops are highly toxic and which are relatively safe.
My very first post on this blog, ‘Tater’ Tales was inspired by this book and is about organic vs commercially grown potatoes.
The other stories about the apple, tulip and hemp are also fascinating.

#6. Healthy Home, Healthy Family by Dr. Nicole Bijilsma

Nicole is a Building Biologist and Sick Building Syndrome expert who is passionate about environmental medicine. Electromagnetic radiation (EMR), allergens, drinking water, and toxic chemicals pervade our living and working spaces and here Nicole shows you how to reverse their damage on your body, your mind, your emotions and your health.
Australia’s foremost Building Biologist with a young family of her own, she has produced a book full of practical ways to determine and remedy the levels of toxins you are being exposed to everyday.
This book contains lots of questionnaires and checklists to assess your own home. There is also advice on selecting cleaning products, air cleaners, plastics, and more. It even includes a guide for anyone about to buy, rent or build a house, with what you need to investigate or ask before you start.
With resource lists, useful websites plus so much more this is a great book to have on hand.

#7. The Complete Homeopathy Handbook by Miranda Castro

I was a Mum who used homeopathy for my family long before I was a professional Homeopath. Back then I needed a book that was comprehensive enough for me to find the correct remedy for the symptoms that presented, but not too complicated for my purely amateur ability.
Miranda Castro has written a book that nails it. It includes the history of homeopathy, principles, myths, how to actually take a Homeopathic case and work out a remedy, then a comprehensive Materia Medica and Repertory to guide your remedy choice.
This book has it all for the ‘Home Homeopath’ and clearly and simply presents everyday homeopathic prescribing as the individualized effective treatment system it can be, when it is done correctly and well.

#8. Eating For The Seasons by Janella Purcell

I rarely recommend diet or cookbooks. But this is so much more than just a set of recipes. This book is all about eating in tune with the seasons and the rhythms of nature. By so doing your body gets just what it needs for the time of year.
This means more than simply eating light, raw food in summer and heavier, warming food during winter. Purcell’s eating recommendations are based on the principles of Traditional Asian Medicine.
Recipes (with alternative suggestions) are grouped by season. Each section also contains advice about health objectives of the season, preferred seasonal cooking methods, what to avoid, and which body organs need support.
A great book to remind you of seasonal eating patterns, even if you don’t use any of the recipes, it helps to keep you connected, by tuning in and aligning yourself with the rhythms of the Earth and life itself.

Now available in electronic format.

#9. The Life You Were Born To Live by Dan Millman

I love numerology and once studied it avidly, but it was so complicated I didn’t get far. Not anymore! Dan Millman changed all that. He has devised the “Life-Purpose System” from the ancient wisdom of Numbers, and it’s amazing, clear, and easy to follow. As Millman says “ the drive to understand our life purpose is as important to our psychological growth as eating is to our biological survival.” And he sets out all the information you need to help you in your quest.
It’s a big book but you only need to read the sections that apply directly to you and can ignore the rest. Millman shows you the simple way to calculate what is relevant to you. As you work through your picture he breaks it down into detail that applies to you, along with specific issues in your life and guidelines for action.
Millman’s book can help you sort out conflicts in your life and help you find your life purpose.

#10. Excuses Be Gone by Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer has been turning out awesome books for decades. But I love this one. After doing lots of work learning to recognise my inner critical judge, this book taught me about changing the lifelong self-defeating habitual thinking that the inner critic thrives on.
It teaches about stepping up and recognizing that although we can’t control everything that happens around us, what we make of our situation, and how we deal with it, is completely up to us and the way we choose to think. Powerful stuff!
It is easy to recognize the excuses we habitually use that Dyer places before us here. He takes us through the Seven Principles of Excuses Begone, with exercises at the end of each principle to help cement them in place. He then looks at seven questions surrounding the paradigm shift such as “What would my life look like if I couldn’t use these excuses?” and “What’s the payoff?”
But what I really love and often go back to just to remind myself, are the Four Cardinal Virtues and how they manifest – reverence for all life, natural sincerity, gentleness and supportiveness.

#11. 29 Gifts: How a Month Of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker

There are so many “Challenges” around now – 5 day, 7 day, 30 day. But this 29 day story of the role that gift giving and the practice of generosity and gratitude played in Walker’s battle with Multiple Sclerosis is heart-warming and life-affirming.
She shows that by placing our focus outside ourselves and the problems of our own life we move the energy of our life away from our problems and illnesses and give ourslf the room to heal.
As she embraced the practice of Gratitude and Gift-giving on her month long journey Cami’s health and happiness turned around. Initially filled with thoughts of ending up in a wheelchair and in extreme pain her experience was transformative.
From her own experience Cami began a movement that has spread across the globe – millions of people on a 29 Day Gifting Challenge.
This is beautiful story of her journey that you can take on and apply to your life.

#12. The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle

We all talk about living in the moment, but not that many of us actually manage it. This basic message that we hear so often is the essence of Tolle’s book. But what makes it different is how he explains so clearly how our thoughts and emotions get in the way of achieving this, so we actually understand what is going on.
Tolle likens the mind to a destructive disease, and as long as you allow your mind to stay bonded to the inherited collective mind-patterns it will continue in its diseased state and you will continue to suffer.
He leads us to an understanding that enlightenment is found through consciousness, that through surrender we can find happiness and ultimately peace. It is presented as a dialogue with many questions you would ask yourself.
This book really helped me get through some tough times in my life.

#13. The Chemical Maze by Bill Statham

This tiny little book revolutionized my shopping. It lists by their number all the additives found in foods, personal care and cosmetics. Beside each it grades the danger the additive poses for you, what the adverse effects are (such as asthma, dermatitis, cancer), why it is added, along with the types of products it is used in.
Luckily for you it is now available as an app for iPhone or Android.

#14. Creative Visualisation by Shakti Gawain

One of the first books I read that turned me onto the path of creating the life I really want, this book was written over 35 years ago and still holds today. An anniversary edition has just been released and it is a great book to start with if you are just beginning your manifestation pathway.

So this is just a starter. It doesn’t include the writings of so many brilliant teachers. I hope you are drawn to one of the books on this list. Happy reading!

Please add the name of any book that has guided you to make huge change in your life in the comments section under “LEAVE A REPLY” below. I’d love to know, and am always ready to open the cover of a new book and discover another new life lesson.

Disclaimer

The Information contained on this site is for your general health information. It is not intended to be used as medical advice and should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes. The information is not a substitute for independent professional advice and should not be used as an alternative to professional healthcare. If you have a particular medical problem, please consult a healthcare professional.

Holistic Health, Natural Remedies & Homeopathy

MSM The Miracle Mineral

November 27, 2014 happyholistichealth 2 Comments

For some time now there has been a lot of buzz with good cause, surrounding the nutrient MSM (methyl-sulfonyl-methane). MSM is known to be especially useful for treating chronic pain, especially arthritis, and other inflammatory disorders in a natural way. But in fact it is very useful for treating many more health issues.

When you see the list of all the health problems it can help, MSM may look like an awesome cure-all. It is no wonder MSM is known as ‘the forgotten nutrient’.

WHAT IS MSM?

Sulfur is very important in the human body. It is an important part of human nutrition and is needed for a number of different processes within the body. Low sulfur levels in the body lead to many degenerative diseases.

MSM is a natural form of organic sulfur compound and is found in all living organisms. It forms a natural part of the earth’s food chain and is the main source of bio-available sulfur that the human body is able to actually utilise.

MSM is needed for healthy connective tissues, good joint function, proper enzyme activity, hormone balance and a well-functioning immune system. It provides one of the tools your body needs to heal itself and maintain its vitality.

MSM is really no more than a simple food supplement that is present naturally in diets that are not loaded up with processed foods.

However the MSM that occurs in our food is destroyed during processing. Given that most food in the food industry is processed in some way – by heating, irradiation or freezing – most of the food consumed in the western world no longer contains MSM. As a result most people are deficient in this essential compound, and this deficiency is likely to become even greater as you age.

MSM DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS

MSM deficiencies show up in many ways including pain, fatigue, depression, sensitivity to stress (both physical and psychological), and many degenerative diseases.

Chronic Pain

MSM supplements are often successfully used to help treat chronic pain and a range of inflammatory disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, bursitis, tenosynovitis, tendinitis and eye inflammation.

Aging

As they age most people become less flexible. Their tissues become less elastic, joints stiffen up, lungs and blood vessels lose elasticity, and their skin develops wrinkles. MSM levels in the body also decrease with age. When MSM is replenished these symptoms of aging are reduced.

Cell Health

MSM aids detoxification within the body by increasing the permeability of cell walls. As you age old cell walls harden and new cells are stiff and inflexible, affecting the movement of nutrients into the cell, and toxic waste products that lead to degenerative disease out of the cell. MSM helps the body replace old stiff cells with new, healthy, elastic cells which allows a more efficient passage of nutrients into the cell and elimination of toxins and waste products out of the cell.

Heavy Metal Exposure

Most of us are unknowingly exposed to a wide range of heavy metals, through the air, our food, even in tattoo ink. MSM can be really useful for anyone who has had exposure to heavy metals because it plays such a powerful role in eliminating them from the body, by inactivating them and hastening their removal.

Antioxidant

MSM is a wonderful antioxidant to help scavenge free radicals within your body. It also assists your body to make its own antioxidant, glutathione for detoxification. Free radicals are now considered to be behind all degenerative disease. They also play a part in the aging process speeding up all the signs of aging. You can read all about why free radicals are harmful in “Free Radicals Are Bad, Right…But Why?”

MSM For Muscles And Joints

MSM is best known for its wonderful benefit for connective tissue, particularly in skin, hair, bone and joint care. Some of the benefits you might expect from taking MSM are:

Improved joint flexibility
Reduced pain and swelling in joints
Reduced stiffness
Improved circulation
Improved cell vitality
Break up unhealthy calcium deposits
Improved collagen formation
Generated keratin production
Enhanced strength and thickness of nails and hair which happens quickly
Creation of new cells and repair of damaged tissues

MSM For Chronic Pain

MSM has been found to be a wonderful pain killer, very effective for relieving chronic pain. It acts as an anti-inflammatory as well as having an analgesic effect to naturally block pain.

Here are just some of the painful problems MSM has relieved:
Burns and scars
Injury from accidents
Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis
Fibromyalgia
Migraines and headaches
Bursitis
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
RSI
Sclerosis

MSM for Skin Problems

MSM is a genuine miracle beauty mineral that can radically improve skin, hair and nail health. It improves the production of collagen needed to keep skin supple, as well as keratin, both critical for producing healthy hair and nails. Hair and nails can become stronger, and hair thicker after just a few weeks of regular use.

Acne, rosacea, psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, dandruff, some fungal infections, and scars can all benefit from taking MSM. Aloe Vera is frequently used to heal damaged skin but in fact it is the MSM that is contained in the aloe leaves that really works the wonders, repairing the scrapes, burns or other damage. Instead of using aloe vera MSM can be applied topically as well as taken internally.

WHEN YOU NEED MSM

Neurological diseases
Alleviate allergies – food, contact, and inhalation. MSM inhibits histamine just as well as antihistamines, without the side effects.
Fights the inflammation associated with auto-immune disease. Experiments for arthritis and Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Disease (ALD), showed great improvement. In Lupus it had benefit before and after the disease.
Can protect against the onset of cancer
Has a strong action against, even killing, parasites including Giardia, Trichomonas, as well as various intestinal worms
Improves cellular glucose uptake in diabetes, as well as assisting pancreas repair
Eases sore and stiff muscles and cramps, it inhibits muscle spasms and relaxes muscles, and is excellent for exercise recovery
Constipation
Relieves stomach acidity
Improves oxygen uptake by the lungs. In emphysema it is often the deficiency in MSM combining with the smoke aggravation that leads to the disease
Stress
Prevents candida and yeast surviving anywhere in the body outside the intestines
Improves circulation by dilating blood vessels

ILLNESSES MSM MAY HELP

Arthritis – Osteoarthritis & RA                               Allergies
Gastrointestinal problems                                        PMS
Acne                                                                             Lung dysfunction (asthma, emphysema)
Muscle pain                                                                 Parasites
Heartburn                                                                   Lupus
Snoring                                                                        Breast and colon cancer
Parasites                                                                     Diabetes
Stress                                                                           Mental disorders
Eye health                                                                   Constipation
Acidity (maintaining pH in the body)                      Cramps
Headaches                                                                   Hay fever
Carpal tunnel syndrome

MSM FOR PAIN RELIEF

In pain relief MSM acts as an anti-inflammatory as well as having an analgesic effect to naturally block pain. It also improves the action of the hormone cortisol, which your body releases in response to inflammation.

MSM is an excellent energy booster. Because it increases the permeability of cells, allowing nutrients to pass more easily in and toxins out, your cells use less energy. Because it is easier for your body to absorb nutrients far less energy needs to be spent on digestion. So there is more energy left over.

MSM: FOODS OR SUPPLEMENT?

MSM occurs naturally in protein rich foods such as meat bones, poultry, eggs, fish and legumes. Good vegetable sources include raw leafy green vegetables, garlic, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, kale and wheat germ. It is also found in beer and coffee.

Raw milk has the highest naturally occurring amount of MSM, however, it is destroyed in the pasteurization process. MSM is also lost when food is cooked as it vapourises in the steam, or when food is stored for any lengthy time.

Unless your diet is excellent and you eat lots of MSM rich foods every day, you are better off getting your adequate amounts of MSM from a supplement.

MSM comes as a powder or capsule and is considered very safe and non-allergenic.

You can take a supplement knowing you can’t overdose with MSM. It has been shown to be extremely safe in toxicity studies. Even with a diet rich in MSM the amount you would ingest from your food would still be only a small fraction of the recommended therapeutic dose. So even if you are getting MSM through your diet you can safely take a supplement. Your body will take what it needs and eliminate the excess.

Dosage varies depending on your complaint. For most adults an effective therapeutic dose would be between 1.5 grams up to 10 grams a day, taken in three doses with a glass of water, 30 minutes before eating.

If you get nausea or headaches, diarrhea, a mild rash or swelling of the ankles (all detox symptoms) you may need to decrease the dose you are taking before slowly working your way back up. But be aware that your body is ridding itself of toxins and so you need to continue the MSM in order to finish the process.

While it is always better to get your mineral needs from the food you eat, sulphur and MSM may just be an exception. It is unlikely, even if you are eating a perfect diet, that in our society you are getting enough MSM to satisfy what your body needs.

Disclaimer

Source Articles

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/03/03/msm-benefits.aspx

http://www.bewellbuzz.com/wellness-buzz/5-msm-benefits/

Stress & Overwhelm

Food Intolerance – The Lowdown. Are Food Intolerances Leaving You Washed-Up?

October 8, 2014 happyholistichealth 2 Comments

The number of people recognizing they have one or more food intolerances have been rising dramatically over the last decade, with more and more people becoming aware that they have problems with certain foods. Many more are not willing to even entertain the possibility that food intolerance may be causing their symptoms.

The reality is that as the body demonstrates an adverse response after they eat particular foods more and more people are becoming aware that they have problems with certain foods.

Many people live with the debilitating symptoms of food intolerance for years without anyone being able to diagnose their problems. In spite of extensive testing nobody seems able to help them. Often it is only after eliminating a particular food from their diet that they discover where their problems come from, and the extent of damage that food is causing to their body.

FOOD INTOLERANCE OR FOOD ALLERGY

For many the distinction between allergy, intolerance and sensitivity is not clear, but they are actually very different.

Food intolerances involve a completely different response by the body to food allergies. In food allergy the immune system identifies an ingredient as harmful and reacts by creating antibodies. Read more about allergies here.

Food intolerance is limited to the digestive system and occurs when food is not properly digested and ferments inside the gut. Where this gets confusing is that digestive dysfunction often causes dysfunction in other parts of the body and so symptoms from intolerance can appear throughout the body even though they arise from the gut. They can be quite diverse ranging from depression to weight gain, chronic fatigue, eczema, thrush and many more.

Food sensitivity is a delayed food allergy and can be particularly difficult to recognize. These are the least predictable reactions because you may be able to eat a food sometimes with no consequences but at other times develop symptoms like nausea, cramps or reflux. Fructose malabsorption is an example of a sensitivity.

While food allergies are more common amongst children, food intolerances are more prevalent in adults, partly due to stress, alcohol, the use of various medications which all compromise the digestive system, as well as to the decrease in digestive enzyme production as you age.

The onset of problems caused by food intolerance and sensitivity is generally not as rapid as that of allergy. Reaction can occur from about thirty minutes to even a few days after the food was eaten.

Where food allergies can produce fatal anaphylactic responses, food intolerances are not life-threatening, but they can lead to many chronic diseases such as thyroid disease, heart disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and other autoimmune diseases.

Many of those with food intolerance are actually able to eat small amounts of an offending food without too much problem. Dairy foods are a good example of this. According to the Food Intolerance Institute of Australia, in December 2013 75% of the population were intolerant to dairy foods like milk, yoghurt, cheese and ice cream, and most of these people were completely unaware of it.

Often it is the very foods that are not tolerated well by the body that are the foods that you crave the most. Nobody really knows why we crave foods we do not tolerate although there are a number of theories. As a good rule of thumb any food that is regularly craved should be treated as suspicious.

It can take some time before a person is willing to accept that they may have food intolerance. For many it is not until their symptoms become unbearable that they will even consider the possibility. This may be more so if the food is also one they crave.

INTOLERANCES CAN SUDDENLY APPEAR AS AN ADULT

It is not uncommon for there to be no apparent problem with foods during childhood and for symptoms to appear as an adult. Typically, but not always, lactose intolerance symptoms appear in adulthood.

The most common food intolerances are dairy, gluten, wheat, additives, fructose, yeast, although many other foods including alcohol can be the culprit. Sometimes it will be a whole food group that is the problem, such as the dairy group or nightshade foods (potato, tomato, capsicum, eggplant, chilli), or just single foods from different food groups.

Generally avoiding a food that is not tolerated allows the digestive system a chance to heal from constant irritation and the person quickly recovers, feeling happier, more energetic and able to live their life fully.

SOME CAUSES OF FOOD INTOLERANCE

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

This is a chicken and egg situation…does the IBS cause food intolerance or does constant irritation and inflammation of the gut from food intolerance cause IBS? The symptoms are constipation, urgent diarhoea, and cramping.

Food Additives

Many additives including sulfites found in dried fruits, wines and the salads from salad bars, cause asthmatic reactions in many people. Additives are often a big contributor to ADHD and result in a wide range of symptoms including migraines.

Coeliac Disease

Coeliac disease is interesting as it is actually a gluten intolerance which resembles an allergy, because the immune system is involved as well as the gut. The symptoms are mostly digestive but can lead to many other symptoms through the body.

Specific Foods Or Food Groups

Certain foods, particularly dairy foods (milk, cheese, ice cream, yoghurt, cream) and grains containing gluten (wheat, spelt, barley, rye and oats) are often the most poorly tolerated. There are many other foods over a wide range of food groups that also cause symptoms of intolerance.

Enzyme Deficiency

Different enzymes are needed to digest particular foods. If production of any one enzyme is deficient, then the food it breaks down is not tolerated.

Processed Food

The processing of foods particularly grains, milk and soy products seems to play a part in food intolerance as the process makes the foods difficult to digest, leading to irritation of the digestive tract and a whole range of symptoms.

IDENTIFYING FOOD INTOLERANCE CAN BE VERY DIFFICULT

Often the symptoms of intolerance are very mild and so go unnoticed. Or, because of the time delay between when the food is eaten and when the symptoms occur, they are not connected with any particular food, or are attributed to a completely different cause.

When the problem is with a food that you eat every day, or even many times a day, it becomes virtually impossible to make the connection between the health problem and the food, unless the food is totally removed from the diet for a period of time, whereupon the symptoms improve or disappear.

If you have intolerance to more than one food it makes it extremely difficult to isolate all the foods or food groups that may be responsible for their unpleasant symptoms. Removing just one food only gives partial improvement at best.

Frequently it can take some time, even days, for the negative response to become evident. Given that you will have eaten a number of different foods in the intervening time it becomes virtually impossible to isolate the culprit.

SYMPTOMS OF FOOD INTOLERANCE

Symptoms caused by food intolerance can be mild or severe, specific or vague. If you suffer from persistent symptoms, or ones that recur more than twice a week, and they are not caused by another condition, you could suspect you are not tolerating one or more foods.

Bloating after meals or in the evening
Headaches, migraines
Eczema, skin problems
Asthma or cough
Nasal congestion, sinus pain, nasal discharge
Chronic diarrhea, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), constipation
Belching after meals, indigestion, abdominal pain
Muscular pain or weakness, generalized aching, back pain
Stiff, swollen or painful joints
Frequent mood swings
Poor concentration, memory loss
Depression
Repeated Urinary Tract Infections
Candida or thrush, vaginal irritations
ADHD
Food cravings
Low or no energy, tiredness and drowsiness
Poor balance, dizziness
Weight gain
Autoimmune disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Psoriasis

GETTING ANSWERS

Keeping a food diary can help you identify problem foods. Over the course of two to three weeks record every single food or drink you eat as well as any symptom that occurs. By looking at the list of food intolerance symptoms it is obvious that it is very easy to miss symptoms, as well as difficult to make the link with the offending food.

If a certain symptom always occurs after eating a particular food you can recognize which food seems to be the culprit. Then it is necessary to totally avoid that food for about ten days and to see how you feel. If that food is a basic like gluten, wheat or dairy it is essential to read every label, as these foods all occur in many processed foods and are not always obvious because they may be listed under many different names.

It can be quite difficult to conduct an elimination diet on your own and is much easier under the care of a Natural Health Practitioner.

TESTING FOR FOOD INTOLERANCE

Testing, such as the Scratch Test, is normally conducted to detect allergies and it measures the response of IgE anti-bodies, that is, the response of the immune system. It detects a true immediate allergy.

Because food intolerance involves a different and delayed response a Scratch Test will not pick this up. Many people are left confused after a Scratch Test when they get negative results for foods they felt sure were problematic. Often they have an intolerance rather than an allergy.

While blood spot tests used to test for food intolerance check for specific anti-bodies to specific foods, they are not always definitive, as many people react with foods in which the antibodies do not show up on the test. When this occurs eliminating the suspected food and noting the response, can be a way to identify whether the food is a problem or not.

I conduct testing in my work (no, not a Vega machine) which indicates whether your various body systems respond negatively to a food. While it does not distinguish between allergy and intolerance it does identify problem foods. Usually the person is sensitive to a number of foods, not just a single food. I find that if the foods indicated as being a bigger problem are totally removed, the other foods are usually better tolerated, as long as you do not overindulge.

BEWARE HIDDEN DANGERS!

Wheat, soy, corn and dairy, are foods frequently found to cause reactions and are ones that are commonly added to many other products. In processed foods they are often not simply called milk or wheat, but go by a vast array of pseudonyms. Go Dairy Free provides a list of other names for milk proteins. Wheat-Free.org lists alternative names for wheat in foods. To actually stop eating the offending food, at least for long enough to allow your digestive system to repair, you need to be quite vigilant about avoiding it in ALL foods, including where it may be hidden.

The length of time you need to avoid the food depends on how bad your reaction was. It may take six months of total avoidance and then only very occasional exposure to keep you healthy.

But, most people don’t miss the problem food after it has been removed for about a month as they feel so much better, and as the chemical process that sets up cravings for problem foods is broken they no longer even want to eat the food.

Disclaimer

All information and opinions presented here are for information purposes only. They are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation with your health care provider. Do not use this article to diagnose a health condition. Speak to your doctor if you think your condition may be serious or before discontinuing any prescribed medication. Please consult with your health care provider before following any of the treatment suggested on this site, particularly if you have an ongoing health issue.

Source Articles
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/food-allergy/expert-answers/food-allergy/faq-20058538
http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/weight+loss/diets/do+i+have+a+food+intolerancer,18769
http://nourishholisticnutrition.com/could-hidden-food-intolerances-be-sabotaging-your-health/

Hidden Dairy: Foods, Medication, and Beyond

http://www.customfitnutrition.net/allergy.html
http://www.ift.org/knowledge-center/learn-about-food-science/food-facts/food-allergens.aspx

Natural Remedies & Homeopathy, Stress & Overwhelm

Reduce Exam Stress To Stay Sane

September 26, 2014 happyholistichealth 4 Comments

reduce exam stress with natural remedies

With the run up to, and on through, the end-of-year exams it’s a very stressful time for VCE and Uni students and their families. For many students it’s the biggest challenge they’ve ever faced, and many succumb to exam stress. But natural medicine offers much help to overcome study and exam stress and give you the edge in exam performance.

Everyone reacts differently to challenges. While it’s normal to feel stressed at this time, for many the effects can spiral out of control. Read on for advice for managing study stress the easy way with the help of alternative medicine.

With so many high expectations, and so much riding on results it’s quite normal for students under pressure to suffer for many months causing a stress response in their body. The hormones released as a result of being under stress have far-reaching effects on every system in your body both at the time and later on down the track.

While some stress can aid performance, if stress continues over weeks and months it can take over and have detrimental effects. The immediate effects are often evident at the time but the long-term effects can continue after the exams are long over.

In addition, anxious and grumpy students have a big impact on anyone around them particularly on their family. Homes become a bed of tension, concern and even reach friction and confrontation if stress spins out of control.

EFFECTS OF STRESS

During worrying times stress hormones effect the neural connections of the prefrontal cortex. This is where your working memory is located, as well as functions vital for reasoning, planning and problem solving, and for regulating attention and emotions, all essential for academic success.

A sudent under great stress is therefore unable to function at their best in exams, no matter how much they study.

In addition, stormy emotions weaken the prefrontal cortex and this hampers thinking and learning ability.

Students suffering study stress don’t learn effectively or remember well what they’ve learnt.

In order to perform to their best and to present their ability and knowledge well in their exams, it’s essential for students NOT to be in a state of stress.

By actively reducing stress you increase learning capacity, memory, reasoning powers, and academic performance. By reducing stress you’ll feel calm, clear-headed, motivated and in control.

When you step in early to reduce the effects of stress you support your health and it lays the groundwork for better performance. Reducing your stress can also reduce the tension in the home and restore peace.

REDUCE EXAM STRESS

While there are a number of exercises and lifestyle practices you can do to reduce stress, the greatest impact is gained from using alternative medicine. Of these I see the best and fastest results with homeopathic medicines and flower and herb essences.

HOMEOPATHY

Homeopathic treatment offers great benefit for all the problems associated with study and exam stress.

Remedies are individually selected according to each person’s individual needs. This could mean the remedy treats their anxiety or difficulty focusing or remembering what was learned. Or it could be a remedy for problems sleeping, fear of failing, trouble settling down to study, irritability, feeling like giving up, or even mixing up information or getting it backwards.

When the remedies are prescribed according to Homeopathic principles they are very fast acting and effective.

There are some great Homeopathic remedies to calm exam nerves and reduce the anticipatory anxiety and shakiness students experience before the actual exam.

Here are a few of my suggestions:

Gelsemium

Gelsemium is a great remedy to take for performance anxiety. It’s perfect before an exam where there is a shaky or jittery feeling and a frequent need to use the bathroom.

Lycopodium

Lycopodium is an excellent remedy during study for someone who worries about being evaluated, who feels they know nothing and will look stupid in front of everyone, but who, once they get started performs wonderfully.

Nux Vomica

Nux Vomica is useful for an irritable person using too much coffee and other stimulants in an effort to push on through.

There are many other remedies for all those other consequences of study pressure and stress including:

feeling overwhelmed and out of control
self-criticism and negative thinking
irrational beliefs such as “nobody will respect me if I don’t score above 95”
feelings of catastrophe like “I’ll fail whatever so what’s the point”
inability to relax into sleep or waking up through the night and worrying
holding all the emotions inside until they explode
feelings of isolation and losing touch with friends
crankiness and irritability
problems getting motivated

Speaking to a professional Homeopath can clarify all the issues you are facing. They will put together remedies individually suited to YOUR needs.

FLOWER ESSENCES

Flower essences are easy to take, just a few drops on the tongue a few times a day. A few drops can even be added to a water bottle to carry around with you to sip in the moment they are needed the most.

Bach Rescue Remedy is a tried and true treatment for anxiety.

I find the Australian Bushflower Essence ‘Calm & Clear’ excellent for building and sustaining a state of calm in anyone, including students.

Australian Bush Flower Essence ‘Cognis‘ is great for the student who can’t settle down and focus on their study. It balances daydreaming, confusion and a sense of overwhelm and gives clarity and focus to help with the assimilation of ideas. This is a great treatment for the next few weeks when you are trying to consolidate your study.

Individual flower essences are also great for study – Bach’s Clematis helps focus, Gentian for self-belief, Larch for confidence and White Chestnut for clarity.

I like to use and prescribe Herbal Essences as they can be combined in a mixture that specifically addresses the way each person individually experiences exam stress. This means it’s not a “one-size-fits-all” treatment but one that’s tailored to each person. Herbal essences are great as they combine the thousand year old knowledge of the healing power of herbs with the positive effects on the mind and emotions of flower essences

ESSENTIAL OILS

There are a number of studies that show burning essential oils can induce brain power. All the oils can be used in an oil burner but will be more beneficial in a diffuser which disperses the droplets as water vapour. Here are a few to try.

Basil is one of the best for clarity and encourages concentration. Mix it with rosemary to stimulate memory recall.
Peppermint stimulates the brain and promotes clear thinking.
Lavender is soothing and relaxing and is useful if stress prevents sleep.

FOODS

While foods alone won’t turn your exam stress around (unless you’re bingeing) they do play an integral part in how you cope with exam stress.

It’s essential to eliminate all those that hold you back such as sugar, caffeine, alcohol, simple carbohydrates, junk foods and nicotine. But it’s just as important to add those that boost brain power to enhance your study and performance. Right now is when you need lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, meats and complex carbs.

Omega-3 enhances learning ability and boosts memory power. It’s found in many foods as well as fish oil or krill supplements, or sea buckthorn if you’re vegetarian. Some good sources are oily fish, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and flax seeds.
Avocadoes increase blood flow to the brain.
Chocolate increases endorphin production to improve focus and concentration, and dark chocolate helps cognitive skills by boosting blood supply to the brain. But don’t overdo the chocolate and opt for dark chocolate over the sweet, milky varieties for a much greater impact.
Nuts and seeds help memory and cognitive skills and are easy to munch while you study

SUPPLEMEMTS

Taking a multivitamin can help keep up vitamin levels reduced by stress. Vitamin B and magnesium are both depleted during stressful times. Take B vitamins in a complex rather than as single vitamins as they work synergistically.

RELAX

Deep breathing is a wonderful way to calm and relax your emotions very quickly in times of extreme stress. Focusing on the breath helps to exclude outside thoughts and stop panic before it escalates. For the most effective breathing technique click here.

Yoga is an excellent way to achieve relaxation quickly, and is perfect to introduce into your study routine. Alternatives are qi gong, tai chi or walking.

While it’s important to take time to relax, to take breaks, to eat well and get plenty of sleep, all the time allocated to study revision is no use at all if you’re not clear-headed, can’t retain the crucial information or are so strung-out you can’t even settle down to study. This is where alternative medicine steps in.

Here are a few final takeaways.

Worrying about the study workload or exam outcome only increases stress hormones like cortisol, which impairs your concentration and ability to learn.
Food can be your friend. Reduce caffeine, sugar, junk foods and alcohol. Add foods that support study.
Steer clear of performance enhancers like Ritalin.
Don’t beat yourself up with guilt if you haven’t got everything exactly right.
Take time off as studying 24/7 doesn’t work. Exercise is a great way to get back focus.

And crucially, now you know how, use Natural Medicine to gain the edge in your exam preparation and performance.

Disclaimer

Source articles

http://www.evokelearning.ca/the-impact-of-stress-on-academic-success/

Self Care, Uncategorized

Best Natural Anti-Aging Secrets

September 11, 2014 happyholistichealth Leave a comment

It seems like one of life’s ironies is that just as you are getting your act together in your thirties you start to notice the first small visible signs that you are getting older.

You have a great relationship, your career is on track, you are starting to really make it in the world, and you notice the little crinkles that were cute in your twenties are starting to get deeper and turn into proper crow’s feet. Telltale signs of long hot summers are starting to show as brown spots.

Hormone changes are at the bottom of these changes. Our bodies are designed to carry babies through our teens and twenties and after that our reproductive hormones start to decrease. Most hormone changes start about thirty and continue right on through menopause.

After the age of twenty-five we don’t produce as much human growth hormone (HGH) either and this means that we stop replacing cells as fast, collagen production slows and our skin becomes loose and dull. By the time we are thirty our levels of growth hormone might be only about twenty percent what they were when we were eighteen.

As oil production drops, older skin is not able to retain moisture as well as younger skin causing loss of elasticity and producing wrinkles. The decreased collagen in your skin results in thinner less flexible skin which is more likely to damage and is slower to repair.

If you nurtured your skin right through your teens and twenties, stayed out of the sun and off tanning beds, avoided any high living, ate perfectly and didn’t smoke you’ll probably look amazing at thirty. But chances are you spent lots of your twenties out in the sun, a glass of vino in one hand, a cigarette or burger in the other. By the time you reach your thirties your earlier vices become evident, you can see it in your skin. The normal effects of the hormonal changes in your body will be worse.

But don’t despair. There is still time to repair the damage and to turn those fine lines, saggy skin, blotches and dryness around.

HELP! HOW TO SLOW DOWN AGING

We’ve all heard anti-aging advice from our mothers since we were small. Brush your hair one hundred times, drink lots of water, eat lots of fruit and veges, get eight hours sleep and lots of exercise. While these are all important there is more to it.

There are two parts to supporting the regenerative processes of your skin and slowing the processes that cause it to age.

When we are identifying the causes of aging skin and hair we need to consider both internal and environmental factors. Of course, beauty does come from within and if we are not putting the right things into our body it will show up straight away on our skin.

Free radicals are produced by your body and are a natural part of metabolism. Your body can deal with a certain amount. But when you make poor food choices, are exposed to chemicals in your environment or the products you use on your skin and hair, you produce many more free radicals, far too many for your body to deal with, and this results in inflammation.

Free radicals are known to not only be the cause behind many chronic and serious diseases, but they also affect your skin by causing inflammation, destroying cells, and causing pigment changes.

EXTERNAL CAUSES OF AGEING

In your everyday life your skin is exposed to many harmful toxins, from those found in air pollution (both indoors and outdoors) to those in your moisturiser. There are the obvious toxins like petrol fumes or those used in nail salons, but there is also a myriad of others that are not at all apparent. And many environmental toxins can affect our skin through pathways that include our gut, liver, kidneys and lungs. No matter which way the toxin affects us, it creates free radicals in our body that lead to inflammation and the resulting signs of aging showing on our skin.

SUNLIGHT

Too much sun exposure can dramatically age the skin. It produces broken capillaries, wrinkles, age spots, dry, thickened, pigmented skin. Known as photo-aging, skin aging is accelerated by exposure to UV radiation. Wearing sunscreen may not be the best answer to the problem of UV exposure, as the chemicals in the sunscreen can sometimes react when they come in contact with the suns rays to speed up skin damage and promote aging.

Vitamins A and C are helpful in reversing the damage caused to your skin by the sun’s rays. Whether you take a supplement, eat lots of foods rich in these vitamins or find them in the products you apply to your skin, they will benefit. But don’t use products full of harmful chemicals simply because they have vitamins added. There will not be enough vitamins in the product to counteract the damage caused by the chemicals.

DIET

Antioxidant rich diets are the answer to slowing down the aging caused by free radicals, by both reducing them and producing beneficial anti-aging results for your skin.

Foods that are denatured, pesticide-ridden, genetically modified or processed are essentially ‘dead’ foods and toxic to your body.

SKIN CARE PRODUCTS

Read your makeup and skin care ingredient labels carefully.

Some chemicals in most makeup products are endocrine disruptors and mimic hormones. Makeup, skin care and hair care products should only contain natural products. A good rule is if you can’t eat it don’t apply it.

Be careful of synthetic cleaning products as they contain dioxin which also disrupts the endocrine system and interferes with the immune system.

ANTI-AGING SKIN CARE REGIME

Avoid soap or foaming or gel cleansers. They strip the natural oils from your skin and cause aging. Try a quality, chemical free, milk cleanser, or make one yourself. Avoid any cleanser that leaves your skin feeling tight as it could lead to dry, flaky, irritated skin.

Select a moisturiser that will keep your skin hydrated and protect it from the dehydrating effects of air conditioning and heating. BE CAREFUL, many chemicals are added to leave your skin feeling moist and soft but are actually dehydrating. If the humidity is less than 65% these humectants will draw moisture to the skin from the cells below the surface instead of from the air. This leaves your skin feeling soft but actually causes the skin to dry out.

NOURISHING OILS

As an alternative a light application of a vegetable oil such as jojoba, coconut, almond, apricot kernel, camellia, avocado or olive will nourish your skin and can be used as an alternative to face creams.

Even those with oily skin can use oils as a skin moisturiser. Vegetable oils, particularly jojoba, nourish your skin without causing pimples, acne or blackheads, which are caused by a combination of factors.

Jojoba oil is a liquid wax which was used to treat skin conditions like acne and eczema in folk medicine. It is said to be closer to human sebum than any other oil which makes it an ideal choice for skin care. Strange as it sounds to put oil on oily skin, it works because chemically oils break down other oils.

Gently massage a few drops of jojoba oil into your face. Place a warm washcloth over and allow it to cool before wiping off the oil. Rinse the cloth and apply a few more times until the oil is gone.

Don’t use these oils around your eyes, instead choose rosehip oil for the eye area which is rich in omega 3.

EXFOLIATION

Exfoliating helps to remove dead skin cells but needs to be done gently or it will accelerate aging and cause inflammation. Natural options include oatmeal ground in a blender with almond or rice milk added. Form it into a light paste and gently massage into your skin before washing.

TREATING WRINKLES

While it is important to take steps to minimise wrinkles forming the challenge becomes how to get rid of those you already have without resorting to toxic skin care. Here are a few home remedies you can try out to reduce wrinkles.

Coconut Oil is one of the best home remedies to minimise wrinkles and it is easy. Simply gently rub organic coconut oil over your face and neck before going to bed. It is rich in antioxidants and vitamins and has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Coconut oil contains an essential emollient to reduce wrinkles and make skin firmer and softer.
Aloe vera contains malic acid to improve the elasticity of your skin to reduce wrinkles. Simply cut the leaf off and extract the gel. Apply to your skin and leave on for twenty minutes then wash off with warm water.
Ginger is high in antioxidants and helps inhibit the breakdown of elastin. Drink ginger tea twice a day or eat a piece of finely chopped ginger mixed with a tablespoon of honey every morning.
Cucumber cut into thin slices and placed on the skin can soften the skin and help remove wrinkles.
Vitamin E massaged into the skin daily can help remove wrinkles (simply break open vitamin E capsules)
Rosehip oil patted gently into your face reduces wrinkles.
Apple is very high in malic acid. Mash a boiled or stewed apple. Add one tablespoon of honey and some milk powder (if you have it). Apply to your face and leave on for at least fifteen minutes before washing off. Apple improves your skin’s elasticity.

For healthy glowing skin avoid products which include parabens, paraffin, mineral oil, propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulphate, or acrylamide.

These preventions and treatments are not just for those in their thirties. Everyone will benefit from a natural skin care regime and no matter what your age you can always slow down the aging process.

While you can’t stop the ageing process entirely, taking a few simple steps can certainly slow it down and give you glowing skin along the way.

Disclaimer

Source articles

Jojoba oil for acne: Does it work, how to use it, and risks

What Causes Wrinkles & How to Treat Them – eMediHealth

Natural Remedies & Homeopathy

6 Natural Remedies For Depression

August 16, 2014 happyholistichealth 3 Comments

Along with the outpouring of sorrow that occurred this week with the news of the death of Robin Williams there has also been much discussion about depression, the nature of the illness, reminders to offer our support to those suffering with it and of how to deal with it.

Clinical depression is a serious illness that needs treatment from a professional western or alternative health practitioner. However, many of the symptoms of mild depression can be helped significantly by a variety of natural treatments that you can do for yourself or which a Natural Health practitioner can take you through.

There are many symptoms associated with mild or subthreshold depression including ongoing fatigue, poor sleep, appetite irregularities like lack of appetite or comfort eating, a lack of interest in relationships events or celebrations, low self-esteem, anxiety, an inability to find motivation, or a feeling of being cut-off from life.

1. MINDSET

Studies confirm that a person’s perception of life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. While depression is not all in the mind your frame of mind is really important for recovery. I am not suggesting you can just ‘snap out of it’, but while acknowledging that there is something wrong, losing the depression label is a first step to recovery.

When you buy into defining yourself with a label placed on you by someone else, whether that’s a doctor, family or a friend, you relinquish your personal power and undermine your ability to get well. If you allow your thoughts to focus on the label, you accept for yourself the role of someone who is mentally unwell. It may seem simplistic but changing your mindset and making the decision to overcome your illness is the first step that allows you to move forward.

It’s important to carefully examine how you are affected by the people you mix with. Tuning into how you feel after spending time with a particular person allows you to sort out any people that may be contributing to your low feelings. If you regularly feel disheartened after time spent with someone it is better for your frame of mind and wellbeing to minimise time with that person.

What your feelings tell you about your relationships with others can come as a real surprise. But acting in congruence with your feelings can turn around your mindset, lift your mood and support you in getting well.

It is also worth asking yourself if your low feelings are linked to your life. Are you expected to sell out your integrity in your work? Are there problems in a relationship that you may need to end? Do you have creative outlets? Feel spiritually disconnected? Is your body restricting you?

Being honest with yourself may help you find the source of your depression. Often having a counselor, psychologist or life coach to help you work through these and define a pathway to change makes things easier to achieve.

2. HOMEOPATHY

Many natural therapies have a good record with alleviating the symptoms of depression. Acupuncture, herbal therapy and EFT are just a few.

Homeopathy also offers many helpful options for depression. The Homeopathic remedy used depends on the particular symptoms you experience, as everyone’s experience of depression varies slightly, in both the expression and the emotions, thoughts and experiences behind it.

Homeopathy taken in accordance with homeopathic prescribing principles is particularly good at changing your mindset. It allows you to lift your head out of the depressive thoughts and start to move forward.

There are many Homeopathic remedies for depression. One of the first to consider for depression with obvious anxiety is Arsenicum album. These people are often quite particular about describing every little detail of their symptoms. They are often very worried that an illness has been missed and have often undertaken lots of investigative tests.

Another commonly used remedy, Ignatia, is a good remedy when depression follows bereavement or shock. These people are very emotional with lots of sudden mood swings and sudden tears, or they may frequently sigh deeply. They don’t want sympathy and often take well-meant help as criticism.

A person needing Natrum muriaticum responds differently to grief to the one needing Ignatia. This person builds a barrier and won’t release any emotion through crying. They hate sympathy from others although they are empathetic themselves and will readily care for others. They can be very sensitive and easily move into a lower mood from stimuli such as music.

As you can see Homeopathic prescribing is quite specific and individually selected. Two people may react to a similar experience in very different ways and so require very different remedies. In prescribing there is also the potential to make symptoms worse if the wrong remedy or potency of remedy is taken. Consulting a Homeopath who can match the correct remedy to your particular symptoms can result in significant improvement.

3. FOOD

Food most definitely affects our mood. What we eat and when we eat can have a huge effect. Staying away from caffeine, sugar, fatty foods and alcohol is a great place to begin as these foods actually make depression worse. Don’t keep them in your pantry and you will be less tempted by them. You will feel a lot better if you simply don’t eat them.

Replacing the poor junk foods with nutritious foods moves you towards recovery faster. The top foods to fight depression are:

Omega-3 is often lacking in depressed people so eating oily fish and other foods high in omega-3 can make a significant difference. One study showed taking just 1 gm of fish oil a day made a 50% difference in symptoms of depression. Take between 1-3 gm a day. Other omega-3 rich foods include walnuts, chia seeds and flaxseeds.
Brown rice is rich in B vitamins as well as trace minerals. Brown rice is great for reducing mood swings due to sugar-highs and lows. Don’t use ‘quick-cook’ varieties as they don’t have the same benefits.
Leafy greens are a great source of folic acid, one of the B vitamins helpful for symptoms of depression, as well as magnesium.
Bananas are high in tryptophan which is used in the body to make serotonin, the happy hormone. Other foods to enhance serotonin are healthy fats like coconut oil, protein rich foods especially free range turkey and wild caught fish high in omega-3.
Don’t skip meals and help keep your blood sugars stable.

4. SUPPLEMENTS

Many people suffer from a disorder known as Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) which is the result of insufficient exposure to sunlight and as a result, they have low Vitamin D levels. This disorder becomes worse as winter progresses and can persist through Spring until levels of Vitamin D build up in their body again. Taking Vitamin D as a supplement through the winter months can dramatically help SAD sufferers. Consult an Alternative Health Practitioner who will work out how much Vitamin D you actually need, it varies from one person to the next.
The B Vitamins are linked to a whole range of emotional disorders and if your levels are low taking a supplement can be a great way to keep your spirits up. Take 50 mg of a Vitamin B complex each day rather than individual B Vitamins as each one works better when the others are also present.
Magnesium deficiency can be another factor behind depression and mood disorders and there are many who have a deficiency of this crucial mineral.
SAMe can be very effective for treating depression. Take 200 gm on an empty stomach.
The herb St John’s Wort has long been used for depression. Check with your doctor before using as it can interfere with some pharmaceuticals. Don’t take this if you are taking anti-depressants

5. LIFESTYLE

Getting enough exercise is essential to beat depression, no matter how little you feel like it. Pushing yourself to get out for a walk will help improve your spirits. Even exercising along to music in your living room is good.

The effect of meditation on depression has been well-documented and it is known to greatly improve the symptoms. There are many different ways to meditate from simple breathing techniques that you can do in just a few minutes, through guided visualizations, walking meditations, mindfulness and binaural beats. It is all a matter of working out which is the right one for you.

6. HORMONES

There may be a physical cause for your depression. If your hormones are out of balance your mood can be quite affected. Finding out that your levels of thyroid, adrenal and sex hormones are wrong can offer some clues. Armed with the results, visit your natural health practitioner who can then work toward rebalancing your hormones naturally without resorting to pharmaceutical medicines.

Moving yourself out of mild depression requires a combination of strategies. Making lifestyle changes, dietary changes, examining your relationships and your behaviours all play a part. Seeking out professional help to put these strategies together to achieve the balance you need to move forward can set you on the path to recovery faster.

Disclaimer

All information and opinions presented here are for information only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before trying any of the treatment suggested on this site.

Source articles
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/owning-pink/201103/11-natural-treatments-depression-md-s-tips-skipping-the-prozac
http://www.britishhomeopathic.org/bha-charity/how-we-can-help/conditions-a-z/beating-the-blues/
http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/health/health+advice/treating+depression,7821

MULTIVITAMIN & MINERAL

OMEGA 3

VITAMIN D

ALGAE

PROBIOTIC

COENZYME Q10 (CoQ10)

Disclaimer

Source articles

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Harness New Moon Energy for Manifesting

Why Hold New Moon Circles

Lunar Manifestation Lists

Lunar Intentions for the Highest Good

Be Precise

Take Your Time

Keep things Simple

New Moon Red Tent Ritual

Be creative and open

Write your list in the present tense, as if it is already happening.

Finishing Your Lunar Ritual

Benefits of a New Moon Ritual

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Markers for Your Life

Set Strong Foundations For Goal Success

Old Year Releasing Ritual

You’re now ready to consider how you have grown in the last 365 days.

Closing Ritual

Take some time now to close down your releasing ritual.

Take your time and when you feel ready open your eyes and welcome with joy the new energies of the coming year.

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Simple Strategies to Regain Calm Control

Strategies to Reduce Stress Levels

#1 Sweetly Scent-sual

#2 Calm Racing Thoughts

#3 Breathe…

#4 Tea Time

#5 Talk With A Friend

#6 Smile

#7 Visualise – Free Your Imagination

#8 Yuuummm…

#9 Meditate

#10 Meridian Magic

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LIFE CHANGING SUMMER READS

#1. Love The Life You Live: Ten Steps For Happier Living by Anne Hartley

#2. Walking Meditation by Nguyen Anh Huong & Thich Nhat Hanh

#3. Goddesses In Everywoman – Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives by Jean Shinoda Bolen

#4. The Inner Goddess Makeover: A Step-By-Step Makeover by Tanishka

#5. The Botany Of Desire by Michael Pollan

#6. Healthy Home, Healthy Family by Dr. Nicole Bijilsma

#7. The Complete Homeopathy Handbook by Miranda Castro

#8. Eating For The Seasons by Janella Purcell

#9. The Life You Were Born To Live by Dan Millman

#10. Excuses Be Gone by Wayne Dyer

#11. 29 Gifts: How a Month Of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker

#12. The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle

#13. The Chemical Maze by Bill Statham

#14. Creative Visualisation by Shakti Gawain

Please add the name of any book that has guided you to make huge change in your life in the comments section under “LEAVE A REPLY” below. I’d love to know, and am always ready to open the cover of a new book and discover another new life lesson.

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WHAT IS MSM?

MSM DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS

Chronic Pain

Aging

Cell Health

Heavy Metal Exposure

Antioxidant

MSM For Muscles And Joints

MSM For Chronic Pain

MSM for Skin Problems

WHEN YOU NEED MSM

ILLNESSES MSM MAY HELP

MSM FOR PAIN RELIEF

MSM: FOODS OR SUPPLEMENT?

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FOOD INTOLERANCE OR FOOD ALLERGY

INTOLERANCES CAN SUDDENLY APPEAR AS AN ADULT

SOME CAUSES OF FOOD INTOLERANCE