Health Chasinglions: September 2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Guided meditation is used by many people not only to relax from a busy day but also to tune into their own bodies and minds. Since days have become more stressful, the world has become more crowded and more worldly problems have risen, many people are finding comfort, safety and bliss in a few minutes of guided meditation a day. With the help of a guiding voice, many people who are new to meditation have found it easy to achieve a much needed quiet moment during the day. Guided meditation can help the user to focus his or her thoughts and block out any distractions in order to experience the pleasure of silence for a moment during the day. The voice assists the user and keeps his or her on track. Guided meditation helps people to follow the stages of meditation, allowing a person to go as deep into the process as he or she decides they would like to go.

The benefits of properly guided meditation can span from relieving migraine headaches to relaxing cramped muscles to a simple moment of pleasure, satisfaction and quiet. Over-stimulation and stress are both problems that many people deal with on a daily basis. These daily stressful situations and the exposure to too many over-stimulating activities can seem to be normal and accepted conditions that everyone takes for granted as standard. Although most people are dealing with these situations on a regular basis, it doesn’t mean that these situations do not still put stress and tension on the body and mind. There are many people who may feel stressed and hopeless about their current home or work situation. Most people think that a vacation or a break from their daily lives is the way to relive this stress. However, a retreat from basic stresses is only a temporary fix from the anxiety of many people’s lives. In order to have the ability to deal with the tensions that life can put on their body and mind, many people are turning to guided meditation to teach them how to handle their daily lives with ease, patience and a clear mind.

By creating a moment in the day to connect the mind, body and soul in a calm and hushed manner, many people are finding their stressful days don’t seem as stressful anymore. Guided meditation can help a person to realize the many options he or she has when dealing with the daily tensions of the workplace or home environment. By possessing the foundations of guided meditation, the situations that can usually seem impossible to stay calm through can now seem easy to think through and figure out.

Guided meditation is a great way to help a person just beginning the process to concentrate better and easily achieve the full benefits of a meditative moment. Guided meditation can also help advanced meditation students to hold their concentration and learn new and more developed techniques to make their minds and bodies go deeper into the meditative state.

posted by Healthy Life @ 4:30 AM

Sunday, September 13, 2009

How Does Laser Eye Surgery Affect The Eyes?

In order to truly comprehend the effect of laser eye surgery, we must first consider the vision anomalies that it treats. It is a general belief that common refractive errors, such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism, are attributable to certain irregularities in the shape of the cornea. Due to such anomalies, light rays entering the eye don’t fall exactly on the retina (a layer of light sensing cells) thereby resulting in unclear vision. LASIK is a surgical procedure that aims to rectify these irregularities by reshaping the cornea.

LASIK restores visual acuity through precise ablation of the corneal tissue with the aid of a high precision laser, an excimer laser, which is a “cool” laser that precisely carves the cornea without heating or damaging the surrounding tissue. Once reshaped, the cornea enables the desired accurate refraction, since the light rays now fall precisely on the retina.

Laser eye surgery imparts enhanced visual acuity, without the need for corrective lenses. With the superlative technology at its disposal, laser eye surgery provides excellent results that are rather impressive. An estimated 98% of patients are within 1 diopter of their refractive error following surgery, possessing unaided visual acuity of 6/12 or better. Over half of the patients achieve unaided visual acuity of 6/6, which is the standard visual acuity. However, visual acuity may sometimes be worthless if vision quality is sacrificed in process. Though rare, laser eye surgery complications like halos, glare and double vision may cause vision quality deterioration, rendering blurry vision.

The complications, if any, may be a source of discomfort. The use of prescription eye drops and artificial tear drops helps in soothing the eyes thereby averting the irritable feeling in the eyes that creeps up after surgery. These side effects are known to subside within a few months and the refraction stabilizes within 3 to 6 months following surgery.

Nevertheless, LASIK is a viable, safe and efficacious procedure. Its effects are permanent on the eyes. That is, the refraction attained lasts forever unless otherwise altered due to age related eye ailments, such as presbyopia, which is known to affect almost every individual in their mid to late 40s.

If you find a LASIK surgery that you are confident with, you will be able to get more information about the effects of LASIK laser eye surgery.

posted by Healthy Life @ 4:30 AM

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Beer And Fitness - Can You Drink Beer And Stay Fit?

This week I was asked an interesting question concerning drinking beer and exercising. It seems that a former Navy Radioman has developed quite a gut since retiring, and was curious about whether he should give up his beer to lose weight? Not only does the gentleman enjoy drinking about 2-4 beers daily, he also has quit exercising. Moderate beer consumption is actually healthy, so I set out to define "moderate" as well as educate on the basics of caloric intake and caloric expenditure. The radioman is not suffering from a beer belly but an INACTIVITY BELLY! Yes, you can still drink beer and be very fit.

Over 90 million Americans enjoy drinking beer! Drinking moderately has been proven by many doctors, as well as the New England Journal of Medicine, to be a healthy component of longevity. In fact, moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, has been proven to reduce the effects of high cholesterol, heart disease, some forms of cancer and even impotence.

Anything done in excess is naturally unhealthy. "Moderation" is defined by most doctors as 1-2 beers a day. And NO, you cannot save up through the week and catch up on the weekend drinking 10-12 beers in an evening. That is NOT moderation. There is even a US Beer Drinking Team that links beer enthusiasts and promotes moderation, responsibility, and healthy living.

The average can of beer has over 100 calories. Drinking one beer is equivalent to eating a chocolate chip cookie. Drinking four is equal to eating a Big Mac Hamburger. In order to lose weight, you have to burn off these extra calories as well as the other calories that you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even the lightest of beers has the empty calories of alcohol, which is the cause of poor health if done in excess and without a regular exercise routine. Unfortunately, too many Americans live under one of the worst stereotypes placed on a human being - the BEER BELLY, or as I call it, the inactivity belly.

The "inactivity" belly is caused by excess calories in your diet AND lack of activity to burn the extra calories. The solution to lose your beer belly is as simple as calories in must be less than calories out (or expended through exercise).

Calories IN < Calories Out (burned) = Weight Loss

If you can add exercise into your schedule for 20-30 minutes a day, your daily consumption of alcohol (1-2 beers) will not have any additional impact on your gut. To lose your beer belly, you REALLY have to watch your food and beverage intake, drink 2-4 quarts of water a day, AND fit fitness into your world. THERE IS NO OTHER HEALTHY ANSWER! The exercise and workout ideas below can get you started on your calorie burning plan:

Workout #1: This is a great full body calorie burner:
Repeat 3-5 times
Walk, run or bike 5:00
Squats - 20
Pushups - 10-20
Situps or Crunches - 20

Workout #2: Swimming and elliptical gliding (cross country skiing) burn the most calories per hour (This workout can burn up to 1000 calories in one hour!)

Swim 20-30 minutes non-stop
Elliptical Glide 20-30 minutes

There is no reason why you cannot have "six pack abs" and still drink a six pack a week. Once again, excessive beer drinking is not recommended by anyone in the health industry. If you simply enjoy drinking beer and are serious about your health, moderation in drinking alcohol and eating foods high in calories, combined with habitual daily exercise is your ticket to reaching your goals. I now have a series of Workout plans that cater to all levels of fitness and can help you with developing a healthy diet with proper food choices - the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced 45 Day plans sold on StewSmith.com Store. For those who are into strength training, I have recently developed a weight training plan called "Beer and Barbells" that allows you to use the additional calories of beer, or milk shakes if you are under 21, to gain mass and strength.

Adding exercise daily and observing the dietary recommendations in these eBooks will enable you to be the person you were yesterday without changing who you are today.

posted by Healthy Life @ 4:30 AM

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