The herbal tea has been used in the purpose of treating illnesses and for pure enjoyment every since the antique Greece and Rome.
The power of plants has not been completely solved and year by year we find out more and more about their blessing properties for our health.
Whether you drink tea as a source of fun and a pleasant way of spending time with friends, or you use it for treating naturally some bothering affections, you should read this article as you might find out some surprising things about your regular tea.
1. Salvia tea. This is a tasteful tea, especially if prepared with one tea spoon of honey. It is great against respiratory affections like the cold, the flu, and cough. If consumed daily, this tea can stop excessive sweating. It is good for improving the memory and the central nervous system’s functions.
2. Ginger tea. It is great for preventing menstrual and gastrointestinal cramps. It is also indicated for eliminating nausea. In case you have the level of LDL cholesterol increased then you should drink this tea regularly as it will decrease the level of ‘bad cholesterol’.
3. Celery seed tea. This tea is indicated in renal affections. It is a good ally for those who have renal stone and an increased level of uric acid.
4. Sweet basil tea. Use it if you have high blood pressure, a slow digestion and for mild coughs.
5. Caraway tea. This tea is great if you suffer of intestinal cramps and if you suffer of aerophagia that does not respond to other treatments. You can also use it against a mild cold.
6. Butcher’s broom tea. Such a tea will keep you away from the psychiatrist as it is great in treating migraines and mild depressions. Drink it regularly and you will see how you state of mind will improve in time.
7. Raspberry leaf tea. It seems that this tea is helpful for reducing the body weight and for treating morning nausea. It tastes great and it is almost like raspberry juice.
8. Liquorice tee. Good for treating spring allergies as well as menstrual problems (cramps, irritability, too much bleeding). It also ameliorates cough and congestions.
9. Persimmon tea. Well, this tea is rich in vitamin C, is very tasteful and tonic and can be consumed all year long.
10. Peppermint tea. Besides the fact that it is easy to find, peppermint is great during the summertime as it offers a refreshing touch in the long, hot, summer days. Its medical use is for treating diarrhea, but only if it is drunk cold. If consumed hot it might have an opposite effect.
For a lot of people going to the beach can be a source of stress. This is because sunburns occur most frequent during the first days of relaxation on the beach. People are either using an inadequate sun-block cream for their type of skin or they don’t use it at all considering that the sun is skin friendly.
For those who have a mediterranean type of skin, sun should not be a problem when talking about sunburns. These lucky people can use a low factor sun-block cream or lotion as they will never get burned if lying on the beach. Unfortunately light skinned people are obliged to use during the first days of tanning a 40+ sun-block lotion, and some of them still get burned.
The good news is that in case accidents do happen and you get burned while tanning, nature is here to help you.
1. Chamomile. You can apply bandages with chamomile infusion or essential oil. This plant helps our body to quickly regenerate its damaged cells. Not to mention its antiseptic properties. Chamomile protects the skin against infections and reduces the well known unpleasant sensation caused by sunburns.
2. Marigolds. Are very efficient for calming down scathing. Apply bandages with marigold infusion over th affected skin areas. In one day you will see how the skin starts to heal.
3.Aloe Vera. If you have this plant in the house it is great, for you can apply directly on your skin the juice obtained from squeezing one leaf. If you do not have the plant you can buy aloe gel which is useful against sunburns as well.
4.Strawberries. Besides the fact that they taste great, they are also good for the skin. Apply a mixture of strawberries and yoghurt on the affected skin areas and rinse after 15 minutes.
Sun can be quite damaging for us if we do not learn how to protect ourselves against its heat. It is always best to prevent than treat, so I recommend you to use high factor protective skin lotions during the first days of tanning and later on to go for a lower grade of sun-block cream. This way you will not spoil your vacation and will not expose yourself to the risk of getting skin cancer just because you wanted to quickly obtain a tan.
4 different ways to improve your life, all around us we are bombarded with hints and tips on improving our lives, diet tips and ways to lose weight. We are all well aware of the do’s and don’ts of having a healthy lifestyle. What many of us are not aware of the more unusual ways to ensure we lead a healthier lifestyle & improve our life expectancy.
Sleep
We all know that regular and a long night’s sleep is an ideal steps towards a healthy life style. However did you realize that your mattress could be affecting how well (or unwell) you sleep.
The new style “Memory Foam” mattresses can have a positive affect on your nights sleep. These mattresses mould to your shape meaning you receive full body support, which ever position you sleep in. This results in less soreness and no more waking up stiff in the morning.
Neti Pots
If you are anything like me, you will not have heard of these, but it is well worth looking into. This is a nasal rinse technique - removing mucus and the build up of any other unwanted substances in your nasal passes. This means it can help prevent respiratory infections, cold and sinusitis as well as relieving allergies.
Look after your skin
Many of us are already in the habit of looking after our skin. Regular moisturizing helps ensure that our skin remains smooth and supple. Skin is the largests of all our body organs and it is important that it is looked after. Brushing your skin with a skin brush helps to kill any dead skin to give your body a healthy glow, it also helps to rid you’re your body of any toxins that may have gathered in your lymph glands.
Posture
The way we sit and stand may not affect us now, but in the long run the way our body is poised is very important, especially those that do lifting work or work in an office and are sat down for a long period of time. Poor posture can result in pains in your neck and back and long term poor circulation. You should always make sure you are sat up straight (siiting towards the front of your chair will help with this). Take regular breaks away from your desk and when you stand up ensure your back is straightened.
Addictive foods like Chocolate, Cheese, Meat, and Sugar and facts about them.
Interesting seminar about foods presented by Dr Neal Barnard. We’re all like kids but we don’t know.
This presentation by Dr. Neal Barnard, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, can’t be missed. Dr. Barnard talks about reasons for food addiction, breaking craving cycles, the health benefits of veganism, shocking facts about the meat and dairy industries, and much more. This 40-minute video will prove to be time well invested. Please share this with everyone you know!
Yoga is peace, rediscover you body and mind! You’ll enjoy this material.
Yoga is really a very simple, accessible, and in many countries around the world, ordinary thing to do.
In that light, this book is created with one goal in mind: to demystify yoga for you, and provide you with a clear,simple, and fun introduction to the topic.
If you’ve never been exposed to any kind of yoga (except for what you might have seen on television), then this book is for you!
Almost every one of us at some stage of our lives will experience a stressful moment that makes us feel depressed or disturbed. Some times we get severely affected by these depressions and are unable to lead a normal life. This type of mental stress can result in the following: inability to cope with day-to-day life, an exaggerated comeback to certain situations, to perceive reality in a distorted way, losing control over thoughts, feelings, and reactions.
There are different factors that affect the mental health some of which include excessive stress, low self esteem, bad eating and sleeping habits, imbalance in work/relaxation, drugs, loneliness, and loss of potential to lead a decent life. The intention of this article is to help you develop and maintain good mental health so that you can lead a quality life and efficiently buffer ups and downs of life.
According to Sigmund Freud, your personality is developed by your childhood experiences. Although you cannot change the past, you still have opportunity shape your personality.
Here are some very practical tips to manage your mental health.
• A balanced diet and sensible drink can protect you against anxiety and depression.
• Making good friends with whom you can share all your thoughts can relive you of your mental stress. Being a good listener will make a huge difference in your personality.
• Maintaining close family relationships will provide you with the sense of security and peace of mind.
• Apart form being great fun, regular exercises can greatly improve both your physical and mental health. Won’t you be excited if I say a good sleep is the best exercise for your good health?
• While laughter is certainly the best medicine crying also does a lot of good by venting out your worries.
• Silent endurance is certainly a virtue, but asking help from others will not only make your situations better but also give you the feeling of being accepted.
• In spite of your hectic schedule, setting aside a quite time for yourself will make you feel great.
By following the above mentioned strategies, you can avoid the common mental health problems, such as Anxiety, Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Phobias. You should never forget that this earthly life is temporal. The purpose of your creation is not just to survive or suffer, it is much more. Life without mixed feelings will be monotonous and boring. You have to learn the art of living. Although much knowledge can be acquired through reading, it is up to you to practice and live better lives.
It is wise to consult a physician if you find any sort of difficulty in coping up with your normal day-to-day lives. Modern medicines and equipments can help you greatly to overcome a variety of mental problems you face in your daily lives.
While the above mentioned tips will aid people under mental stress, it is very unfortunate that solutions for congenital issues are yet to be discovered. A humane attitude toward those unfortunate beings will help them lead a better life. Science is only as old as human beings, and it is still in search of answers for many a question. Whereas God is omniscient and can solve your problems in no time. The final statement by any human being whether it be a neurologist or a psychiatrist is the same, “Trust in God”. Your creator and provider is omnipotent and you can always trust in God who never fails.
During the summer it can often happen for us to get diarrhea. This can happen due to altered aliments we consume (even though we do not know this), due to traveling (when going in vacation) or due to negative emotions that some of us have to bear during the final exams. For all these diarrhea causes I have managed to make up a list of 5 easy to apply tips for getting well again.
1. Do not avoid liquids.
During a week of diarrhea a lot of liquids are lost by our body and this can lead to a serious dehydration. It is important to keep a balance between the liquid losses and the liquid ingestion. You can drink water as long as it is from a sure source. If you do not know if the water you drink is pure, you should boil it and let it cool down before you drink it.
2. Try peppermint tea.
Peppermint tea is very efficient against diarrhea. Not only it will cure your problem in 2-3 days but it will also keep nausea away from you. Nausea can accompany diarrhea, so it is good to know there is a special tea that can treat both affections at once. One more thing: do not drink this tea while it is still hot, as it will only make your intestines evacuate faster their content. Try to drink it at the room’s temperature.
3. Follow a light diet.
Diarrhea might make your stomach quite sensible to regular foods. I suggest you eat during the first day only toast (one or two slices three times a day). During day 2 you can add a little bit of rice, a banana (it contains potassium which is good for your body during such rush days), and chicken soup. Try to avoid foods that produce gas in the intestines: apples, peaches, sweets, ice-cream, milk, potatoes, cabbage and beans.
4. Use over the counter drugs.
If you want to keep your diarrhea under control you should try drugs that contain loperamide. Even though it is best to let your diarrhea follow its course and treat it with natural means, sometimes when you really need to leave the house, it is best to take the loperamide drug.
5. Keep away from the kitchen.
If you suffer of diarrhea you should not be cooking as you could easy spread the infection to other family members. Not to mention that the smell of cooking food might make you feel even worse that you already do, causing more nausea. Wash your hands carefully as often as you can.
Breathing is a vital element for us humans. We do it automatically, without considering too much the way we do it. Babies are natural deep breathers; they use almost the entire breathing capacity of their lungs. Unfortunately adults seem to loose this ability in time, and they only use one third or one half of their breathing capacity. I say unfortunately because a lot of our metabolic affections are caused by shallow breathing.
Daily stress and our body’s posture alter our natural deep breathing. Elder people are more exposed to shallow breathing as they suffer of spinal scrunching and osteoporosis. Fortunately, we can all learn how to breathe deep once again by adopting a few relaxation techniques used in alternative health therapies.
Here is one example:
Lie down in a quiet place where you can feel safe and relaxed. You can even sit if you don’t feel comfortable lying down. Place one had on your chest and the other one on your abdomen just above the belly button. Watch how they move while breathing. If you are a man you will see that the hand placed on your abdomen will rise higher than the hand placed on your chest. For women the situation is opposite.
Breathe in slowly, and then breathe out on your mouth. Think as if you wanted to breathe in all the air from the room. But do it slowly. Before breathing out try to hold your breath until you count to 7. At the beginning you might not be able to get to 7, but in time you will succeed.
Repeat this type of breathing for 5 times twice a day and then relax for a few minutes.
Deep breathing is very important. It will bring more oxygen to your lungs and then to the entire body. It is good for your nervous system as it helps you relax in stressful situations. It also seems to reduce pain and discomfort. This is due to the fact that endorphins will be released through this breathing technique, and the pain will diminish or even disappear. Deep breathing is also good for reducing anxiety.
Deep breathing is easy to practice and in time you will discover you will be able to apply it in crisis situations, keeping stress and anxiety far away from you.
At the beginning it is best to talk with a yoga teacher so that he can guide you on how to maintain a good posture while practicing deep breathing. It is essential to do this exercise in a correct way so that you maintain a balance between the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood.
I like to refer to carbohydrates as the fuel for our body, which is in reality quite true, they act as the main energy supplier for your body.
Our body is constantly burning energy, in a form of carbohydrates or fats. So it is pretty easy to figure out that when our body has too much fuel it has to store it somewhere, and the only logical place for our body to do that is body fat.
There are two basic types of carbohydrates, the simple and the complex carbohydrates.
Their names both come from their molecular structure. When we refer to simple carbohydrates we usually refer to refined sugars and processed food.
You should know that there are also some simple carbohydrates that are good for your body. But it is still best to stay away from all of them, just to be sure. Refined sugars are actually complex carbohydrates that had transformed their molecular structure and became simple ones, that have no nutritional value whatsoever, some like white sugar even have negative value, since they absorb minerals from your body. So stay away from them for all costs when dieting.
The other type of carbohydrates are the complex ones, that are usually found in vegetables like rice beans and potatoes. The best thing about these carbohydrates is that your body is completely able to absorb all the energetic value they provide.
Another good thing about them is that they will make you feel like you are full even if you haven’t really eaten that much. And they are the best way of maintaining your diet if you are coming close to your maximum daily caloric intake.
And they can prevent you from feeling any starvation or hunger.
You can find them in foods like broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, cauliflower, green beans, cucumber, spinach and many more. They sometimes contain up to 10x less in caloric value than other carbohydrates.
On the bottom line if you are consuming natural carbohydrates that are not refined or processed in any way, you should be fine, but if you are consuming a lot of processed carbohydrates, then it is time for you to change your nutritional habits, since you are doing more harm than good to your body.
It is very hard to completely remove all refined and processed carbohydrates from your menu, due to them appearing in so many foods these day. But you will achieve much if you simply try to avoid them as much as you possibly can.
Fats are supposed to be the great problem that is causing obesity and problems with excessive fat all over the world.
We are supposedly gain weight due to the fact that we are consuming fat calories that are being absorbed by our body directly into body fat.
There are more and more fat free products that are supposed to be solving the problem of obesity, but yet the percent of overweight adult population keeps increasing with every day. So why is that so? Why do people keep gaining weight even though people are consuming way less fat than before?
Well there is a simple reason behind this, the actual problem to people gaining fats are not fats but refined and processed carbohydrates. The reason this happens is, that while the carbohydrates are being processed they lose their energetic value, and give you body nothing but excessive calories it can’t use for normal body functions.
And therefore these calories that are absorbed by your body do go directly in your body fat and manifest in the form of excess weight. So now that you know that fats are not to blame, you should start learning the REAL facts about fats.
We divide fats into two different groups, the saturated fats and the unsaturated fats. The saturated fats are basically the fats I like to call »the bad fats« , if you are dieting, you should definitely avoid including large amounts of fats in your diet.
That is due to the fact that your body doesn’t at all require them to function properly, making them useless and harmful. There are some small amounts of them in poultry but that is good, since in small amounts they are not that harmful.
However in large amounts they are really bad for your health and can increase you cholesterol levels in your blood and have all kinds of other side effects. The most common food where saturated fats appear are the cheese, butter and chocolate. On the other hand we have unsaturated fats, that are the complete opposite from saturated ones, these have protective effects.
They improve the functioning of insulin, increase your energy and even help you lose body fat. They also lower the cholesterol levels in your blood. And they are the ones that contain the omega 3 and omega 6 fats, that are essential for our body but it can’t produce them itself. The saturated fats and the unsaturated fats have completely different molecular structure, making them almost two different compounds.
I advice you that you include like 20% of you daily caloric intake from fats, and the important part is that they are all unsaturated fats, I believe that it can really sky rocket you weight loss and improve your chances to success. You should always keep in mind that fats are actually the densest food types of all and that media is trying to trick you by writing the grams instead the energetic value of food on their products. One gram of fats is 9 calories, so be careful about that.
You can find them in foods like broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, cauliflower, green beans, cucumber, spinach and many more. They sometimes contain up to 10x less in caloric value than other carbohydrates.
