Sugar onslaught – It’s just so bad for your health

Sugar is bad for us and we know it adds to obesity, being more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and can cause a whole variety of health issues. Sugar is highly addictive because it causes the release of opioids and dopamine, which increase feelings of pleasure in the body, but unfortunately your body gets used to the level of these quite quickly and craves even greater quantities of sugar. The maximum recommended daily intake of sugar is 6 teaspoons in a day which as a natural therapist I find pretty high. Given that there is a lot of added sugar in many foods we eat we probably have that level already in our daily intake without adding sugar to anything.

Fructose

Fructose, a simple component found in added sugars we use can affect the Leptin hormones, which tells your brain when you are full, thus running the risk of continuously over eating. Adding sugar to hot drinks to make them sweeter also adds to us eating too much sugar. This then causes excessive weight gain. By reducing the amount of sugary foods you eat and remembering to give your body time to adjust, usually about a couple of weeks, the addiction to sugar will get less. Take a walk to reduce cravings or eat some protein rich foods such as eggs.

Fructose can affect your organs in a negative way. Fructose can cause your liver to start to store fat even around itself and other organs. This excess sugar in turn raises our insulin levels which then can lead to insulin resistance, high blood pressure and other health problems like heart disease. Research from the USA has even found a link between insulin resistance, high fat diets and Alzheimer’s disease. The research also showed that the brain can be affected by the way it uses glucose. Rats that were tested showed that sweet and fatty foods are associated in triggering Alzheimer’s. Added sugar in your diet can also create an excess in unhealthy cholesterol in the body and too much sugar can lead to depression.

What to do 

These are just a few of the reasons it’s important to eliminate sugar from your diet so start reading labels of the foods you eat and no matter how healthy it says a product is remember, if it contains sugar, it takes away from any other healthy ingredients in it. Get rid of the packaged food and just eat two fruits a day, vegetables and a minimum of one serve of protein be it meat, fish, beans or lentils. Drink lots of pure, filtered water and exercise at least three times a week and very soon you will find many of your health issues will start to disappear.

Aussies and weight gain – there is a solution

Did you know that over half of us Aussies are overweight, despite the fact many of us eat lots of sugar free, fat free, light diet food and drinks. This is because, even though the food is labelled diet it doesn’t always mean it’s a healthy choice.

Low kilojoule meals are one example. These meals are great when it comes to portion control but they are full of carbohydrates such as white flour, rice potatoes and often full of sugar. These white refined carbohydrates can cause overeating as they lack fibre and are digested quickly leaving you feeling hungry sooner than high fibre, slow release carbohydrates such as brown pasta, sweet potato and brown rice. 

Another meal that can cause overeating because it leaves you feeling unfulfilled are protein shakes and meal replacement shakes. These shakes may help you lose some weight in the beginning but they are impossible to sustain for a long period of time and keep the weight off.

Low carb labels don’t always mean low kilojoules or that it is a healthy choice, as well as the low-fat labels. Be careful to what you are buying because these ‘diet’ products are usually full of sugar or artificial sugar which are both bad for your health, not to mention the high salt content. You need to pay attention to the nutrition labels on the back of the packet rather than the big labels on the front of a product that are marketed to sell.

For best results for not only weight loss but a healthier body is to eat a well-balanced diet of whole grains, vegetables, fruit and proteins such as lean meat, chicken, pork and fish. Also eating proper portion sizes is needed because even if you are eating the right things eating too much can contribute to weight gain. We also need to stay active and exercise. Drinking enough water is also important. It is recommended to drink up to two litres of water a day.

Your diet may not be the only reason you are gaining weight, other things that can contribute to weight gain include thyroid and/or hormone problems, digestive issues such as not going to empty your bowels every day and metabolic syndrome. If you are struggling with your weight the you may want to get your health checked out. Consult a nutritionist to ask about foods as that is what they are trained to help you with and a hypnotherapist for help with diet portions and to control your cravings.

Healthy habits that make you successful

Successful people make success a part of their lifestyle so to become successful we need to copy some of the things they do. This involves looking at future goals in order to make working towards these part of your daily habits. We need to first take care of ourselves with a healthy diet, some physical activity and good sleeping patterns so that we are healthy enough to work towards what we desire in our lives. There is no such thing as a quick fix and it’s important to start thinking long term about what you want your life to be. Setting small goals to achieve this will help keep you motivated to work towards that long-term goal.

It’s very easy to make excuses for not doing something and then beat up on yourself for not being successful. Excuses are a way of deflecting responsibility of weaknesses and past failures. In order to become successful it’s important to take responsibility for our own mistakes and learn from them. Excuses will just stop you from reaching your full potential. Once you put the source of the problem inside yourself you become empowered to do something about it. It is difficult to find perfection in an imperfect world but if you give of yourself 100% every time to reach your goals the very motivation and momentum will keep you going. This will make you the best you can possibly be. Sometimes we get stuck in the moment thinking that we cannot do something because our intelligence or talents are predetermined and that we can’t change this. If we change our way of thinking and remember that we can learn new skills then begin to work at it then it is possible to achieve anything.

Achieving our goals needs constant relentless attention. Find your dream and break it down easily into goals that are achievable. Put a time limit on each goal and work towards each one, one at a time. Be focused and do not diverse your attention. It is incorrect to split your energy and believe you will succeed. Multi-tasking is not a time saver because you are wasting time swapping from task to task and not giving each task your full concentration hindering the outcome. So stay focused and work your way towards success. Have faith and simply follow the path without needing to have vice grip control of everything. Some things need to gain their own momentum. Over control of situations leads to a lot of unnecessary stress over what we cannot control however it is important to remember that we can control the way we react to things. Change our reactions and immediately everything around them will change also.

To be successful you need to work smart, stay focused on your path, learn to discern what is not included in your path and say no to it, don’t let others distract you and don’t get side-tracked wasting time on other things.

 What are Haemorrhoids? How to treat them.

Haemorrhoids can be very painful and cause lots of different problems. Haemorrhoids are clusters of veins in the smooth muscle walls of the anus or lower rectum and can be also known as piles. This means they make you very uncomfortable when you need to open your bowels. They are caused by increases in pressure to the blood vessels in the anus. This can be caused by things such as low fibre diets, pregnancy, obesity and prolonged sitting or standing. Other factors that can contribute to the cause are diarrhea or constipation, spinal cord injuries, alcoholism, lifting heavy weight, aging and anal intercourse.

Symptoms are pain, and pain during bowel movements, itching and bleeding around the rectum and /or the anus. You may also find hard painful lumps and get mucus or faecal leakage. Haemorrhoids can go away on their own but here are some treatments that may help to speed up the recovery. It is important however to make sure that the symptoms are related to haemorrhoids and not something more serious.

The doctor will use medical history, symptoms and a physical examination to diagnose haemorrhoids. There are a few different types. Some bleed but are not prolapsed, others are prolapsed but get smaller on their own suddenly and others prolapse and have to be reduced manually whilst the worst prolapse but cannot be reduced.

Treating haemorrhoids, even though they can disappear on their own, can help to ease the symptoms faster. If you have the low grade haemorrhoids that bleed but do not prolapse you can try some at home remedies such as Epsom Salts and glycerine. Mix two tablespoons of Epsom Salts with 2 tablespoons of glycerine and apply to the painful area with gauze. Apply for 15-20-minutes and repeat every 4 to 6 hours. Or you can try Myrtus Communis essential oil to help improve bleeding, and itching. To help calm spasms you can try sitting in a Sitz bath or even a regular warm bath for 20min 2 to 3 times a day. Also eating more fibre or taking stool softeners, digestive enzymes and probiotics can help relieve symptoms.

If you are suffering from the higher graded haemorrhoids then you might need other products you can buy at the health food store or the chemist. If these don’t work then there are prescription medications from the doctor. In some cases, you may require more intensive medical procedures such as rubber band ligation, which is using rubber bands to cut off circulation to the haemorrhoid. Infrared coagulation and radiofrequency ablation therapy also work in the same sort of way. If all this fails you may require surgery to remove them. Take care of these when they just start and don’t let them become bad and uncomfortable. They are a symptom that your gut is not healthy or working properly. See your naturopath to find out what you need to improve your diet and gut health and very soon haemorrhoids will be in the past and your digestion will be working better. 

Managing productivity

Are you finding that your days are just going by and you’re not getting things done? Let’s help you become a bit more productive with a few tips.

Starting in the morning set your routine. Focus on yourself instead of work and emails. Take the time to get ready and eat a good nutritious breakfast. Spend some time working out, meditating or even just catching up with local news, a magazine or a few pages of a book. This will change the focus from the over anxious work day to a day that has you more present in the moment.

When you are ready to start your work thinking about what is the most important and make a list of what has to be done in order of the highest priority first to the least important. Doing this will help you decide how to prioritise and split your time so you don’t waste time on something that has a low priority of importance. Don’t worry about the less important things if you don’t get to them as long as your focus is on what really needs to be done first. The other things can flow over to the next day as top of the list or slip in a few extra minutes at the end of the day to get them off your to do list.

Remember to take breaks so that you refresh your brain and rejuvenate your body. This is very important especially if the job is challenging. By doing the most challenging tasks first you will feel a sense of fulfillment that they are complete and the breaks will refresh you to push forward with easier tasks making you more productive.

Very important is to prioritise your emails. Don’t let your emails boss you round and keep you glued to the computer screen. Answer the urgent ones, flag the next urgent and put the rest on the ‘to do’ list. Make it that you handle every email just twice. Once to see what it’s about and again to reply and file it. Once it’s filed move on to the next tasks and remember that although multi-tasking may seem like a good idea and make you feel as though you are getting through things faster in actual fact you are not because you are spreading your energies. This will have a negative impact on the quality of your work. It is always better to focus your full attention on what you are doing and move on when you are finished.

Even if you put just a few of these tips to use you will soon find your lifestyle and work ethic changes and you become more efficient giving you more free time to spend on other things that you love to do.

Vitamin P and Cancer

Vitamin P is not actually a vitamin. It is the name given to a group of super-healing plant substances discovered in the 1930’s known as flavonoids or bioflavonoids which have nutritional health benefits. These substances provide pigmentation to plants and enhance their flavour and smell. There is known now to be between 4000 and 6000 different types and research is being done continually to discover more about them. In plants they protect against fungi, pests and bacteria.

Flavonoids are full of nutritional benefits as they help with the function of most cells and organs. Some flavonoids that you may be familiar with are Quercetin, Luteolin, Curcumin and Rutin. Each of the different types of flavonoids play a different role in the human body but two of the most important benefits they supply are with the absorption of Vitamin C and they also help with the maintenance of bones and teeth, as well as the production of protein collagen. They are powerful antioxidants and they are used for preventing and reversing oxidative stress which is the key element in how flavonoids help prevent and assist in healing cancers.

Research over the years has shown that three of the flavonoids best known to help in healing when someone has cancer are Rutin, Quercetin and Curcumin. Quercetin is in apples, onions, berries and citrus fruits such as oranges. If you combine Quercetin with green tea extract then it can become a great healing cocktail.

Studies that have been done on rats show that mammary tumours that were treated using this cocktail reduced the severity of the tumour. Rutin works along with quercetin and protects sensory neurons as well as having anti-inflammatory benefits which can be helpful for such illnesses as rheumatoid arthritis. Other studies have shown that the flavonoids Rutin and Catechin have an effect on cancers such as breast tumours, prostate and ovarian cancer, as well as pancreatic, lung, skin, and brain cancers. The third flavonoid Curcumin is a main ingredient in the spice turmeric. This flavonoid works best when combined with Piperine, also has an effect on many cancers and studies done on ovarian cancer show that it can clear cancer stem cells as well. Of course it is hard to generalise as everyone is different so you need to speak with your natural practitioner and medical doctor and get them to work together on this.

It is good to remember that inflammation is a precursor for many illnesses, especially cancer and the lower our inflammation levels, the higher our alkalinity in our bodies, the better chance of us remaining or getting healthier. Eating a healthy diet of organic foods, rich in ones that contain these powerful flavonoids may help reduce the risk of cancer and also help with many other health problems as well.

Why women need more sleep than men

Women need more sleep than men during the night due to the complexity of their brain. Studies have shown that women generally need an extra 20 minutes sleep every night so their brain can do all the extra processing that a women’s brain needs to do.

Although 20 minutes may not seem like a lot of extra sleep it impacts the brain in a very positive way. A women’s brain is structured in a way that they are able to juggle a few tasks at a time where as the male brain can struggle with this, however we are not saying that all men cannot multi task or that all women can, this is just the findings of a study on the average brain.

One of the most important reasons we all need sleep is to repair the brain and give it time to recover and sort through all the thoughts, memories and issues from the day just gone. This is why women tend to need more sleep because multi-tasking tends to use more of the brain, which in turn requires the brain longer time to repair. A man who does a lot of decision making and thinking at work through the day may also need to sleep longer than the average man.

If you happen to be a poor sleeper and a woman than you may find that you struggle with your emotions and experience greater psychological distress such as hostility, depression, and anger which can cause you restlessness but these same findings were not found in men who slept poorly.

Usually we need around 6 to 8 ours sleep a night for the brain to complete its restoration process however you, as an individual, may find you need a little more to keep you feeling fresh and relaxed. Regardless of whether you are male or female if you are having trouble sleeping you can try setting yourself a routine just as we would for a young child so that the body and mind know that it is sleep time now and start to help you wind down from the day. Also, meditation and yoga can be helpful for relaxation and helping give your body that nudge it needs to fall asleep quicker. Try some aromatherapy oils, some natural sleep supplements in the short term only or simply a cup of chamomile tea may do the trick.

So, if you are finding that you are not getting enough sleep it could be simply because your brain has not had enough time to restore itself. When you are having troubles getting to sleep try the above-mentioned relaxation strategies and see if they help or you could talk to your health care practitioner who could recommend a natural melatonin tablet to help get your sleep pattern back on track.