Acupuncture for Sleep Disorders

Acupuncture may be the answer for a cheap and effective treatment of sleep disorders. Obstructive sleep apnoea is the most common sleep disorder affecting about 4% of men and 2% of women.

Obstructive sleep apnoea is a sleep- related breathing disorder in which there is repeated obstruction to the upper airway, while the person is sleeping.

Apnoea literally means "without breath". A treatment called nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is considered the 'gold standard' treatment for the condition.

CPAP helps to hold the airway open and prevents collapse during sleep. Though it is nearly 100 per cent effective practice is difficult. Most of the patients do not tolerate treatment with CPAP. It was in this context that alternatives were sought. New research asserts that acupuncture is a good choice.

Acupuncture has been practised for thousands of years in China for the treatment of various diseases. It is a part of traditional Chinese medicine that treats patients by inserting and manipulating needles in the body. 

The past century witnessed the advent of electro-acupuncture (EA) as an effective alternative of the widely used manual acupuncture (MA). In EA, a small electric current is passed between pairs of acupuncture needles. It was applied extensively in clinical and basic research. Studies showed that the results of EA and MA differ.

Prolonged and multiple sessions of acupuncture are usually required to treat obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). The latest study concentrated on the immediate effect of a single session of OSA. It also weighed electro-acupuncture against manual acupuncture. The study took place at the Public Hospital of the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the Division of Sleep Disorders of the Department of Psychobiology.

 Forty patients were involved in the study and they were assigned into different groups randomly. All the participants, aged between 30-70 years, were ones with significant OSA confirmed by polysomnographic studies (commonly called 'sleep studies').

A single session of either MA or EA of 10 Hz was found to provide significant benefits for patients with obstructive sleep apnoea. A significant decrease in Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index, a measure of the severity of sleep apnoea was noted. The number of nocturnal respiratory events in patients was also found to have lowered.

Further research is hereby called upon since the positive results point to a cost effective means to improve the quality of life of multitudes suffering obstructive sleep apnoea.

Reference: Immediate effect of acupuncture on the sleep pattern of patients with obstructive sleep apnea; Anaflavia O Freire et al; Acupunture in Medicine.

9 Body Hacks to Naturally Increase Testosterone

estosterone, a hormone produced primarily by the testicles, is often associated with the epitome of "manhood" (although women have testosterone, too).
Indeed, it does play a large role in male sexuality and reproduction, impacting such factors as sexual and reproductive function, muscle mass, and hair growth, but also has some less "flashy," albeit equally important, roles like maintaining bone density, levels of red blood cells and a sense of well-being.
Beginning around age 30, a man's testosterone levels begin to decline, and continue to do so as he ages.
A wide range of chemical exposures included prescribed drugs like statins, adversely impact testosterone production in men. At the same time, estrogen levels typically increase due to widespread exposures to estrogen-mimicking compounds in food, water and environmental pollutants.

What are Your Options for Replacement?

If you're a man who's experiencing symptoms such as decreased sex drive, erectile dysfunction, depressed mood, and difficulties with concentration and memory, and you think low testosterone may be to blame, you can have your levels tested. Since testosterone levels fluctuate throughout the day, you'll probably need more than a blood test to get a true picture of your levels.
If your levels are indeed low, there are a number of synthetic and bioidentical testosterone products on the market, as well as DHEA, which is the most abundant androgen precursor prohormone in the human body, meaning that it is the largest raw material your body uses to produce other vital hormones, including testosterone in men and estrogen in women.
I only recommend using bioidentical hormones, and only then under the guidance of a holistic doctor who can monitor your hormone levels to ensure you need supplementation.
But, before you opt for this route, there are numerous strategies you can try to boost your testosterone levels naturally. These are appropriate for virtually anyone, as they carry only beneficial "side effects."

9 Ways to Naturally Increase Testosterone Levels

1.   Lose Weight

If you're overweight, shedding the excess pounds may increase your testosterone levels, according to research presented at the Endocrine Society's 2012 meeting. Overweight men are more likely to have low testosterone levels to begin with, so this is an important trick to increase your body's testosterone production when you need it most.
If you are serious about losing weight, you have got to strictly limit the amount of processed sugar in your diet, as evidence is mounting that excess sugar, and fructose in particular, is the primary driving factor in the obesity epidemic. So cutting soda from your diet is essential, as is limiting fructose found in processed foods, fruit juice, excessive fruit and so-called "healthy" sweeteners like agave.
Ideally you should keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day and this includes fruits. This is especially true if you have insulin resistance and are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol.
In addition to eliminating or severely limiting fructose, it will be vital to eliminate all grains and milk (even raw) in your diet. Milk has a sugar called lactose, which has been shown to increase insulin resistance so it will be wise to avoid it if you are seeking to lose weight.
Refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods also quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.
As you cut these dietary troublemakers from your meals, you need to replace them with healthy substitutes like vegetables and healthy fats (including natural saturated fats!). Your body prefers the carbohydrates in micronutrient-dense vegetables rather than grains and sugars because it slows the conversion to simple sugars like glucose, and decreases your insulin level. When you cut grains and sugar from your meals, you typically will need to radically increase the amount of vegetables you eat, as well as make sure you are also consuming protein and healthy fats regularly.
I've detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my comprehensive nutrition plan, and I urge you to consult this guide if you are trying to lose weight.
The foods you choose to eat will be the driving force behind successfully achieving your weight loss goals -- high-intensity, short-burst-type exercises, such as my Peak Fitness Program, two to three times per week, combined with a comprehensive fitness plan, is important too, and has an additional benefit as well (see below)!

2.   High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness (Especially Combined with Intermittent Fasting)

Both intermittent fasting and short intense exercise have been shown to boost testosterone.

Short intense exercise has a proven positive effect on increasing testosterone levels and preventing its decline.

That's unlike aerobics or prolonged moderate exercise, which have shown to have negative or no effect on testosterone levels. Intermittent fasting boosts testosterone by increasing the expression of satiety hormones including insulin, leptin, adiponectin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), colecystokinin (CKK) and melanocortins, all of which are known to potentiate healthy testosterone actions, increase libido and prevent age-related testosterone decline.
Having a whey protein meal after exercise can further enhance the satiety/testosterone-boosting impact (hunger hormones cause the opposite effect on your testosterone and libido). Here's a summary of what a typical high-intensity Peak Fitness routine might look like:

• Warm up for three minutes
• Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
• Recover at a slow to moderate pace for 90 seconds
• Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

As you can see, the entire workout is only 20 minutes. Twenty minutes! That really is a beautiful thing. And within those 20 minutes, 75 percent of that time is warming up, recovering or cooling down. You're really only working out intensely for four minutes. It's hard to believe if you have never done this that you can actually get that much benefit from four minutes of exercise. That's all it is.
Keep in mind that you can use virtually any type of equipment you want for this – an elliptical machine, a treadmill, swimming, even sprinting outdoors (although you will need to do this very carefully to avoid injury) -- as long as you're pushing yourself as hard as you can for 30 seconds. But do be sure to stretch properly and start slowly to avoid injury. Start with two or three repetitions and work your way up, don't expect to do all eight repetitions the first time you try this, especially if you are out of shape.
You can find more information about this in an article previously written on intermittent fasting.

3.   Consume Plenty of Zinc

The mineral zinc is important for testosterone production, and supplementing your diet for as little as six weeks has been shown to cause a marked improvement in testosterone among men with low levels. Likewise, research has shown that restricting dietary sources of zinc leads to a significant decrease in testosterone, while zinc supplementation increases it-- and even protects men from exercised-induced reductions in testosterone levels.
It's estimated that up to 45 percent of adults over the age of 60 may have lower than recommended zinc intakes; even when dietary supplements were added in, an estimated 20-25 percent of older adults still had inadequate zinc intakes, according to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Your diet is the best source of zinc; along with protein-rich foods like meats and fish, other good dietary sources of zinc include raw milk, raw cheese, beans, and yogurt or kefir made from raw milk. It can be difficult to obtain enough dietary zinc if you're a vegetarian, and also for meat-eaters as well, largely because of conventional farming methods that rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals deplete the soil of nutrients ... nutrients like zinc that must be absorbed by plants in order to be passed on to you.
In many cases, you may further deplete the nutrients in your food by the way you prepare it. For most food, cooking it will drastically reduce its levels of nutrients like zinc … particularly over-cooking, which many people do.
If you decide to use a zinc supplement, stick to a dosage of less than 40 mg a day, as this is the recommended adult upper limit. Taking too much zinc can interfere with your body's ability to absorb other minerals, especially copper, and may cause nausea as a side effect.

4.   Strength Training

In addition to Peak Fitness, strength training is also known to boost testosterone levels, provided you are doing so intensely enough. When strength training to boost testosterone, you'll want to increase the weight and lower your number of reps, and then focus on exercises that work a large number of muscles, such as dead lifts or squats.
You can "turbo-charge" your weight training by going slower. By slowing down your movement, you're actually turning it into a high-intensity exercise. Super Slow movement allows your muscle, at the microscopic level, to access the maximum number of cross-bridges between the protein filaments that produce movement in the muscle.

5.   Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

Vitamin D, a steroid hormone, is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell, and helps maintain semen quality and sperm count. Vitamin D also increases levels of testosterone, which may boost libido. In one study, overweight men who were given vitamin D supplements had a significant increase in testosterone levels after one year.
Vitamin D deficiency is currently at epidemic proportions in the United States and many other regions around the world, largely because people do not spend enough time in the sun to facilitate this important process of vitamin D production.
So the first step to ensuring you are receiving all the benefits of vitamin D is to find out what your levels are using a 25(OH)D test, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
A few years back, the recommended level was between 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml), but more recently the optimal vitamin D level has been raised to 50-70 ng/ml.
To get your levels into the healthy range, sun exposure is the BEST way to optimize your vitamin D levels; exposing a large amount of your skin until it turns the lightest shade of pink, as near to solar noon as possible, is typically necessary to achieve adequate vitamin D production. If sun exposure is not an option, a safe tanning bed (with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields) can be used.
As a last resort, a vitamin D3 supplement can be taken orally, but research suggests the average adult needs to take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D per day in order to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which is the absolute minimum for disease prevention.

6.   Reduce Stress
When you're under a lot of stress, your body releases high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This hormone actually blocks the effects of testosterone, presumably because, from a biological standpoint, testosterone-associated behaviors (mating, competing, aggression) may have lowered your chances of survival in an emergency (hence, the "fight or flight" response is dominant, courtesy of cortisol).
In the modern world, chronic stress, and subsequently elevated levels of cortisol, could mean that testosterone's effects are blocked in the long term, which is what you want to avoid.
My favorite overall tool to manage stress is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), which is like acupuncture without the needles. It's a handy, free tool for unloading emotional baggage quickly and painlessly, and so easy that even children can learn it. Other common stress-reduction tools with a high success rate include prayer, meditation, laughter and yoga, for example. Learning relaxation skills, such as deep breathing and positive visualization, which is the "language" of the subconscious.
When you create a visual image of how you'd like to feel, your subconscious will understand and begin to help you by making the needed biochemical and neurological changes.
7.   Limit or Eliminate Sugar from Your Diet

Testosterone levels decrease after you eat sugar, which is likely because the sugar leads to a high insulin level, another factor leading to low testosterone.
Based on USDA estimates, the average American consumes 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, which equates to about TWO TONS of sugar during a lifetime.
Why we eat this much sugar is not difficult to understand -- it tastes good, and it gives us pleasure by triggering an innate process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals.
What it is doing to us on both a physical and emotional level is another story entirely, and most people stand to reap major improvements in their health by cutting back on, or eliminating, sugar altogether from their diets. Remember foods that contain added sugar and fructose, as well as grains like bread and pasta, should all be limited.
If you're struggling with sugar addiction and having trouble dealing with cravings, I highly recommend trying an energy psychology technique called Turbo Tapping, which has helped many "soda addicts" kick their sweet habit, and it should work for any type of sweet craving you may have.

8.   Eat Healthy Fats

By healthy, this means not only mon- and polyunsaturated fats, like that found in avocadoes and nuts, but also saturated, as these are essential for building testosterone. Research shows that a diet with less than 40 percent of energy as fat (and that mainly from animal sources, i.e. saturated) lead to a decrease in testosterone levels.
My personal diet is about 60-70 percent healthy fat, and other experts agree that the ideal diet includes somewhere between 50-70 percent fat.
It's important to understand that your body requires saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources (such as meat, dairy, certain oils, and tropical plants like coconut) for optimal functioning, and if you neglect this important food group in favor of sugar, grains and other starchy carbs, your health and weight are almost guaranteed to suffer. Examples of healthy fats you can eat more of to give your testosterone levels a boost include:

Olives and Olive oil	Coconuts and coconut oil	Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw nuts, such as, almonds or pecans	Organic pastured egg yolks	Avocados
Grass-fed meats	Palm oil	Unheated organic nut oils

9.   Boost Your Intake of Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) from Foods Like Whey Protein

Research suggests that BCAAs result in higher testosterone levels, particularly when taken along with resistance training While BCAAs are available in supplement form, you'll find the highest concentrations of BCAAs like leucine in dairy products – especially quality cheeses and whey protein.
Even when getting leucine from your natural food supply, it's often wasted or used as a building block instead of an anabolic agent. So to create the correct anabolic environment, you need to boost leucine consumption way beyond mere maintenance levels.
That said, keep in mind that using leucine as a free form amino acid can be highly counterproductive as when free form amino acids are artificially administrated, they rapidly enter your circulation while disrupting insulin function, and impairing your body's glycemic control. Food-based leucine is really the ideal form that can benefit your muscles without side effects.

Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener Called Fructose Is Far More Deadly

A 2009 study from University of California, Davis takes its place in a growing lineup of scientific studies demonstrating that consuming high-fructose corn syrup is the fastest way to trash your health. It is now known without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll.
And fructose in any form -- including high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and crystalline fructose -- is the worst of the worst! Fructose, a cheap sweetener usually derived from corn, is used in thousands of food products and soft drinks. Excessive fructose consumption can cause metabolic damage and triggers the early stages of diabetes and heart disease, which is what the Davis study showed.
Dr. Richard Johnson also does a fabulous job of comprehensively reviewing this important topic in his new book The Fat Switch. In the study, over the course of 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver, and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems. Fructose is a major contributor to:

• Insulin resistance and obesity
• Elevated blood pressure
• Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
• Depletion of vitamins and minerals
• Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis, and even gout

A Calorie Is Not a Calorie

Glucose is the form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell in your body, every bacterium -- and in fact, every living thing on Earth -- uses glucose for energy.
If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it originates) as most people did a century ago, you'd consume about 15 grams per day -- a far cry from the 73 grams per day the typical adolescent gets from sweetened drinks. In vegetables and fruits, it's mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all which moderate any negative metabolic effects.
It isn't that fructose itself is bad -- it is the MASSIVE DOSES you're exposed to that make it dangerous. There are two reasons fructose is so damaging:

1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way from glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver.
2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.

Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of HFCS.
Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, but is also about 20% sweeter than table sugar. HFCS is either 42% or 55% fructose, and sucrose is 50% fructose, so it's really a wash in terms of sweetness.
Still, this switch drastically altered the average American diet.
By USDA estimates, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of added sugars, and most of that is HFCS. The average Westerner consumes a staggering 142 pounds a year of sugar! And the very products most people rely on to lose weight -- the low-fat diet foods -- are often the ones highest in fructose. Making matters worse, all of the fiber has been removed from these processed foods, so there is essentially no nutritive value at all.

Fructose Metabolism Basics

Without getting into the very complex biochemistry of carbohydrate metabolism, it is important to understand some differences about how your body handles glucose versus fructose. I will be publishing a major article about this in the next couple of months, which will get much more into the details. But for our purpose here, I will just summarize the main points.
Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. His work has highlighted some major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used:

• After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
• Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
• The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
• Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
• When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
• The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
• Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.

If anyone tries to tell you "sugar is sugar," they are way behind the times. As you can see, there are major differences in how your body processes fructose and glucose. The bottom line is: fructose leads to increased belly fat, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome -- not to mention the long list of chronic diseases that directly result. And eating sugar may accelerate the aging process itself.

Panic in the Corn Fields

As the truth comes out about HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association is scrambling to convince you that their product is equal to table sugar, that it is "natural" and safe. Of course, many things are "natural" -- cocaine is natural, but you wouldn't want to use 142 pounds of it each year.
The food and beverage industry doesn't want you to realize how truly pervasive HFCS is in your diet -- not just from soft drinks and juices, but also in salad dressings and condiments and virtually every processed food. The introduction of HFCS into the Western diet in 1975 has been a multi-billion dollar boon for the corn industry.
The FDA classifies fructose as GRAS: Generally Regarded As Safe. Which pretty much means nothing and is based on nothing. There is plenty of data showing that fructose is not safe -- but the effects on the nation's health have not been immediate. That is why we are just now realizing the effects of the last three decades of nutritional misinformation. As if the negative metabolic effects are not enough, there are other issues with fructose that disprove its safety:

• More than one study has detected unsafe mercury levels in HFCS^.
• Crystalline fructose, a super-potent form of fructose the food and beverage industry is now using, may contain arsenic, lead, chloride and heavy metals
• Nearly all corn syrup is made from genetically modified corn, which comes with its own set of risks.

The FDA isn't going to touch sugar, so it's up to you to be proactive about your own dietary choices. For a real eye-opener about what sugar has down to the health of America, I recommend watching a piece that 60 Minutes did on this issue.

What's a Sugarholic to Do?

Ideally, I recommend that you avoid as much sugar as possible. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. I also realize we don't live in a perfect world, and following rigid dietary guidelines is not always practical or even possible. If you want to use a sweetener occasionally, this is what I recommend:

1. Use the herb stevia.
2. Use organic cane sugar in moderation.
3. Use organic raw honey in moderation.
4. Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than fructose.
5. Avoid agave syrup since it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose. Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS. Agave's meteoric rise in popularity is due to a great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the original agave plant are processed out.
6. Avoid so-called energy drinks and sports drinks because they are loaded with sugar, sodium, and chemical additives. Rehydrating with pure, fresh water is a better choice.

If you or your child is involved in athletics, I recommend you read my article Energy Rules for some great tips on how to optimize your child's energy levels and physical performance through good nutrition.

Did You Know?

What Else Does the Science Say About the Health Impact of Fructose?

According to GreenMedInfo.com, scientific studies have linked fructose to about 30 different specific diseases and health problems. Select the hyperlinks provided to review how fructose may:

Raise your blood pressure, and cause nocturnal hypertension	Insulin resistance / Type 2 Diabetes	Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
Raise your uric acid levels, which can result in gout and/or metabolic syndrome	Accelerate the progression of chronic kidney disease	Intracranial atherosclerosis (narrowing and hardening of the arteries in your skull)
Exacerbate cardiac abnormalities if you're deficient in copper	Have a genotoxic effect on the colon	Promote metastasis in breast cancer patients
Cause tubulointerstitial injury (injury to the tubules and interstitial tissue of your kidney)	Promotes obesity and related health problems and diseases	Promotes pancreatic cancer growth and feeds cancer cells in general
Cause your brain neurons to stagnate

12 Best Health Goals for a Healthier Year

This year, I recommend you make a list of small healthy changes that can make a meaningful impact on your life. Then go about making one change at a time until you've checked them all off the list. You might want to try:
1. Eat Fermented Foods

The process of fermentation can transform ordinary vegetables into superfoods, a "secret" that has been embraced by many cultures for thousands of years. The culturing process increases the presence of beneficial microbes that are extremely important for human health as they help balance your intestinal flora, thereby boosting overall immunity.
Fermented foods are also some of the best chelators and detox agents available, meaning they can help rid your body of a wide variety of pernicious toxins, including heavy metals. Ideally, you'll want to include a variety of cultured foods and beverages in your diet, as each food will inoculate your gut with a variety of different microorganisms. Fermented foods you can easily make at home include the following

• Cultured vegetables (including pureed baby foods)
• Chutneys
• Condiments, such as salsa and mayonnaise
• Cultured dairy, such as yoghurt, kefir, and sour cream
• Fish, such as mackerel and Swedish gravlax

2. Include Sprouts in Your Diet

Sprouts are another superfood that can contain up to 30 times more vital nutrients than even raw organic vegetables. When seeds are sprouted, the protein and fiber content increases, as does the content of vitamins and essential fatty acids. Minerals such as calcium and magnesium also become more bioavailable. In general, sprouts have the following beneficial attributes:

• Support for cell regeneration
• Powerful sources of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes that protect against free radical damage
• Alkalinizing effect on your body, which is thought to protect against disease, including cancer (as many tumors are acidic)
• Abundantly rich in oxygen, which can also help protect against abnormal cell growth, viruses and bacteria that cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment

Sprouts are incredibly easy and inexpensive to grow at home, making them a nutritional powerhouse that virtually everyone can enjoy.

3. Rethink Your Breakfast

If you're still eating a sugar-filled, grain-heavy breakfast (bagels, pancakes, toast, cereal) this is among the worst choices for the morning. One study found that eating a breakfast high in protein, such as eggs and meat, makes you less likely to binge on junk foods later that night^, but even this may not be the best breakfast choice. However, omitting breakfast entirely, as part of an intermittent fasting schedule (see tip #4 below), can actually have a number of phenomenal health benefits, from improving your insulin sensitivity to shifting your body into burning more fat instead of sugar for fuel.
This is because eating first thing in the morning coincides with your circadian cortisol peak, that is, the time of day when your cortisol (a stress hormone) levels rise and reach their peak. The circadian cortisol peak impacts your insulin secretion, such that when you eat during this time it leads to a rapid and large insulin release and a corresponding rapid drop in blood sugar levels, more so than when you eat at other times of the day.
If you're healthy, your blood sugar levels won't drop to a dangerously low level (such as can occur with hypoglycemia) but they can drop low enough to make you feel hungry. So, although skipping breakfast goes against the conventional idea that you should not skip meals, omitting breakfast could actually make it easier for you to control food cravings and hunger throughout the day.

4. Try Intermittent Fasting

If you are one of the majority that struggles with insulin resistance then seriously consider intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting does not necessarily mean abstaining from all food for extended periods of time. Rather it refers to limiting your eating to a narrow window of time each day. Simply eat all meals or snacks during a limited window of time. For instance, you can try limiting your eating to a window of about 6-8 hours each day (say from noon to 6 p.m.), which means you're fasting daily for 16-18 hours. This is enough to get your body to shift into fat-burning mode, and applies whether you're restricting the number of calories you consume during this time or not.
Typically, you start by not eating anything for three hours prior to going to sleep. This will give you a head start to the fasting process so if you sleep for 8 hours you've already fasted for 11 hours when you awake. The next step is to wait as long as you can before you start your first meal or "break" your fast. You can gradually extend the time that you have your first meal by 15 to 30 minutes a day. So after several weeks you will be having your first meal at lunch. Generally, the more your body uses carbs as its primary fuel rather than fat, the longer this will take. Once you shift to fat-burning mode, modern research has confirmed some of the benefits to be:

• Normalizing your insulin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulin resistance is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer
• Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
• Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
• Lowering triglyceride levels
• Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage

5. Take Time to Chew Your Food

A good portion of your digestive enzymes is actually produced in your mouth, not in your stomach. Digestion actually begins in your mouth, and chewing your food longer allows the food to be broken down better. As you chew, enzymes from the salivary glands also begin chemically breaking down food molecules into a size your body can absorb. If you often find your stomach feels like a big knot after you've eaten, you're probably swallowing your food in pieces that are far too large.
Chewing your food properly has a number of additional beneficial side effects. For example, chewing your food twice as long as you normally would will instantly help you control your portion sizes, which naturally decreases calorie consumption. You're also likely to find that you actually enjoy the taste of the food more if you eat slower.

6. Eat Locally Grown and Organic Food as Much as Possible

There are a number of reasons why eating locally grown organic is better for you and the environment. Organic foods expose you to fewer pesticides -- about 30 percent on average while organic meats also reduce your risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by an average of 33 percent. Plus, research has shown that organic fruits and veggies can be more nutritious and better at fighting off diseases like cancer. For instance, one recent study showed that fruit flies had greater fertility and longevity when fed organic food. Another major benefit of organically grown foods is the reduction in your toxic load through reduced exposure to agricultural chemicals, such as synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, which can cause a wide variety of health problems.
From an environmental standpoint, organic farming is far better for the health of the planet and the animals being raised for food. If you're on a tight budget but want to improve your diet by shopping organic, animal products like meat, raw dairy, poultry and eggs are the place to start. Since animal products tend to accumulate toxins from their pesticide-laced feed, concentrating them to far higher concentrations than are typically present in vegetables, I strongly recommend you buy only organically raised animal foods, ideally from a small farmer or food co-op in your community.

7. Wake up at the Same Time Every Morning and Go to Bed Early Enough to Get 8 Hours of Sleep

Getting up at the same time every day (preferably an early time) is deceptively simple. Doing so will help regulate your circadian rhythm so you'll have an easier time waking and likely feel more energized. Plus, the habit of rising early every day is one shared by many successful people, as it enhances your productivity and focus. You can use one of the new fitness trackers that are exploding on the market to help monitor this and keep you accountable. Jawbone makes some of the best, as their software is truly top notch.

8. Express Gratitude for What You Have

People who are thankful for what they have are better able to cope with stress, have more positive emotions, and are better able to reach their goals. The best way to harness the positive power of gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal or list, where you actively write down exactly what you're grateful for each day. Doing so has been linked to happier moods, greater optimism, and even better physical health.

9. Dream Big and Surround Yourself with Positive People

Go ahead and dream big, as you'll be more likely to accomplish your goals. Rather than limiting yourself, when you dream big you're opening your mind to a more optimistic, positive state where you have the power to achieve virtually anything you desire. And while you're at it, surround yourself with positive people. The saying "misery loves company" is entirely true. That's why you need to choose friends who are optimistic and happy themselves, as you will be surrounded with positive energy.

10. Take 7,000-10,000 Steps a Day

You may be surprised to realize just how little you move each day. Setting a goal of say 7,000-10,000 steps a day (which is just over three to five miles, or 6-9 kilometers) can go a long way toward getting more movement into your life. A fitness tracker can help you monitor your progress. Remember that this should be in addition to your regular exercise program, not in place of it.

11. Sit Less

There are now more than 10,000 well-documented peer-reviewed studies showing the damage of excessive sitting. Don't be like me and wait till you're 60 to wake up to this fact. It turns out that regular daily movement may be every bit as, if not even more, important as regular exercise. It's not that you need one or the other; you need the synergy of both. It wasn't until I reduced my sitting to less than one hour a day that my chronic back pain finally disappeared. This goal merges well with the one above, as it is far easier to move and step when you are not sitting.

12. Live in the Present

Allow yourself to be immersed in whatever it is you're doing right now, and take time to really be in the present moment. Avoid replaying past negative events in your head or worrying about the future… just savor what's going on in your life now.

Want to Keep Your New Year's Resolution? 7 Psychology Tricks That Work

TIME magazine recently featured seven tips for making your New Year's resolution stick. Unlike most goal-setting advice, these tackle your resolutions from a psychological perspective, helping you to alter your mindset for lasting success.
1. Start on a Monday

Monday is the most popular day of the week for starting a diet or quitting smoking, and for good reason. It's easier to commit to a goal when it's started with a concrete benchmark in mind. New Year's day is a good one, but Monday, the fresh start of a new week, is also effective. According to The Monday Campaigns:

"Research conducted by Johns Hopkins concludes that health promotions utilizing weekly periodicity and the unique cultural associations of Monday as the beginning of the week have the potential to positively affect a range of healthy behaviors.
People view Monday as a day for a fresh start and are more likely to starts diets and exercise regimes, quit smoking and schedule doctor's appointments on Monday than any other day. And a Monday start helps them carry out their healthy intentions for the week."

2. Make an Actual Plan

Your good intentions probably aren't enough. You need a concrete plan in place on how you're going to achieve your resolution; those who make such a plan have far more success.
Ironically, upcoming research in the journal Behavioral Science and Policy found that the more you want a goal, the less you're likely to plan for it. Now that you know this bias exists, you can use it to your advantage and counteract it with a set plan.

3. Nix Your Backup Plan

People who have a "plan B" are less likely to attain their original objectives, perhaps because using a backup plan seems less like a failure and more like a reasonable alternative. Do yourself a favor and avoid giving yourself this option.

4. Choose a Round Number for a Goal

Let's say you want to lose weight or increase your salary. Choosing a round, even number (such as 20 pounds or $400 a month) may work in your favor. Research in marathon runners suggests that "individuals evaluate outcomes as gains or losses relative to a neutral reference point."
In the case of a four-hour marathon, runners who thought they might go over the four-hour mark sped up considerably at the very end of the race in order to come in under this reference point. Those who thought they would easily meet the four-hour goal slowed down at the end of the race instead.
It stands to reason that this theory might work for other goals, too, and setting a round number goal might make you work harder when you get close to the proverbial finish line.

5. Make a Monetary Commitment

People who agreed to pay cash if they didn't meet their weight-loss goals lost 14 more pounds than those without a financial incentive.⁷ You can apply this to any resolution, but if getting fit is your goal, try the free GymPact app.
First, you set goals, such as how many times you'll go to the gym in a week, as well as set a monetary amount you'd be willing to pay if you don't. If you reach your goals, you earn a cash reward. If you don't, you "donate" your money to a community pot that pays others who reach their goals.

6. Break Your Goal Into Manageable Parts

Making one massive goal can be overwhelming to the point that you don't know where to start. Breaking larger goals down into smaller parts makes them easier to achieve and is more gratifying, as you can check off each achievement as it occurs. For example, if your goal is to donate 100 hours to volunteer work this year, break it down into about two hours a week instead.

7. Use Your Willpower Wisely

Willpower is like a muscle in that you can only use it so much before you need to give it time to rest and recover. This is why you may have a harder time sticking to your goals at the end of the day, after you've already been putting your willower to the test all day long. In order to better resist temptations and keep your resolution, do your more challenging tasks first thing in the day when your willpower is fresh.
I would also add an eighth one, which would be perseverance. You need to stick with it for at least three months. Once you hit the 90-day window you can be virtually assured that unless you have some catastrophe you have created a lifelong habit.

Protect Your Baby's Health

Did you know, your oral hygiene habits may affect your baby’s health? Some studies have shown that women with gum (periodontal) disease may be up to 7.5 times more likely to have a pregnancy complication. As many as 18% of the 250,000 premature low birth weight infants born in the United States each year may be attributed to infectious oral disease.
Premature and underweight babies are more likely to have long-term health problems than babies who are born at the right time. Many babies do not survive, and those who do may face a number of serious health problems. Practicing good oral hygiene habits now may protect your baby from health problems later.
How can gum disease affect my pregnancy?
Gum disease occurs when certain bacteria in the mouth infect the gums. Your gums may become tender, red, and even bleed. If left untreated, this infection may lead to tooth loss. Meanwhile, the bacteria in your mouth can travel through your bloodstream, potentially harming your unborn baby.
How can I protect my baby?
The best way to prevent gum disease is to practice good oral health habits:

• Brush your teeth after every meal
• Floss daily
• Visit your dentist for regular cleanings and examinations

If you become pregnant and haven’t seen a dentist in six months, make an appointment to see your dentist right away. Diagnosing and treating gum disease now may reduce health risks to your baby later. And your baby’s health is worth it!

Homoeopathy and Kidney Stones

About Kidney Stones

Kidney stones is an affliction that has prevailed since early times. It is more common in males between 30 –50 years.

Kidneys are two small fist-sized organs, located behind the abdomen, on either side of the spinal cord. Their main function is to flush out the toxins from the blood in the form of urine. Kidney ‘stones’ is a medical condition that has found mention since prehistoric times. Archaeologists have found evidence related to the presence of kidney stones in the Egyptian mummies.

Men are known to suffer more than women from this extremely painful affliction which is generally seen in people between the ages of 30-50yrs.It is more prevalent in industrialized countries, possibly due to the adversely fast lifestyle, while in developing countries bladder stones are more common, especially among young children.

Kidney stones or calculi are formed when the urine becomes concentrated. They may occur anywhere along the urinary tract causing pain, obstruction and secondary infection. Of late, the incidence of kidney stones has increased among the general population, which experts believe is due, largely, to the change in lifestyle and dietary habits.

Common types of kidney stones

There are various types of renal stones depending on its components

Calculi of the urinary tract vary in size. They may be microscopic crystalline stones or large stones that are several centimeters in size. 90% of these stones usually consist of calcium in combination with oxalate or phosphate.

There are about five distinct types of urinary tract stones that are classified according to the material that it is composed of. They are:

Calcium phosphate stones

Calcium oxalate stones

 Ammonium phosphate stones

Cystine stones

Uric acid stones

Struvite or infection stones

Causes for kidney stone formation

Several factors, such as diet and lifestyle, contribute to the formation of urinary tract stones

Kidney stones are formed when urine becomes concentrated. Certain substances like calcium, oxalate, uric acid or cystine in the urine leaves small residues or crystals, along the inner surface of the kidneys. Most people have chemicals in their urine which act as inhibitors and prevent kidney stone formation. But these inhibitors do not function in everyone, leading to the formation of stones in them.

Several factors contribute to the formation of kidney stones. The chemicals that make up the stones, like calcium, are part of our daily diet. However many researchers believe that diet is likely only to influence a person who is susceptible to the condition. The other common causes of kidney stones are infections and obstructions of the urinary tract. Some of the most common causes are listed below:

Dietary factors seem to influence the type of stones that are seen among people from different parts of the world.

Hot climate and excessive sweating can cause depletion of body fluids. This can result in highly concentrated urine, precipitation and stone formation.

Certain pathological conditions are also seen associated with formation of renal and urinary stone formation. Obstruction, or infection of urinary tract may lead to formation of phosphate stones.

A person with a family history of kidney stones is more likely to develop the condition

Certain disorders of the kidney, like polycystic kidneys, increase the risk of developing kidney stones

Hyperparathyroidism and certain metabolic disorders increase the chances of developing the stones.

The pH of urine also determines the formation of stones in the urinary tract. If the urine is alkaline, calcium phosphate stones may get precipitated.

Signs and symptoms of kidney stones

Most patients with urinary stones are free of symptoms until a stone gets lodged in the calyces of the kidney or along the urinary tract, triggering acute pain

The most typical symptom is fluctuating pain, which can be excruciating. Many types of renal stones, particularly phosphate stones, are asymptomatic or ‘silent’, unless they accompany an infection or an obstruction. In most cases flow of urine is blocked and there is back pain or pain along the sides, just below the ribs.

Most patients complain of fixed, intermittent dull pain in the loins, or in region of the kidneys, which is aggravated by movement and gets better while resting. Severe pain occurs if the stone gets lodged in the ureter. Pain may increase steadily and peak in a few minutes radiating to the flanks, testis or labium.

Other symptoms are:

Profuse sweating and pallor occur with pain, at times

Nausea and vomiting

Chills and fevers

Blood tinged or cloudy urine

Foul smelling urine

Constant urge to urinate

Recurrent urinary infection.

Diagnosis of kidney stones

Diagnosis of stones in urinary tract is done by using X-rays, and other advanced scanning methods.

In most cases kidney stones are detected during a general health check up or the diagnosis of another health condition.

X-ray of kidneys and urinary bladder or a sonogram usually helps to pin point 90% of the stones. Pure uric acid stones are difficult to detect.

Excretory urograms or intravenous pyelography reveals the entire urinary system. A radio opaque liquid is injected (sodium diatrizoate) slowly. Radiograms taken after every 10 minutes reveal the physiological and anatomical details of the kidney. Stone in the ureter is seen as a dense shadow.

Ultrasound of the kidneys reveals pathological changes. Large stones can be easily detected while even the position of smaller stones can be observed.

Treatment of kidney stones - Conventional Management

Conventional treatment involves flushing out small stones or the surgical removal of larger stones that are difficult to dislodge.

Kidney stones are treatable and can be prevented with dietary changes and lifestyle modifications. With adequate water intake,three litres a day, small crystals can be flushed out spontaneously without causing damage to the kidneys.

Some of the steps involved in conventional management of kidney stones are:

Bed rest

Local heat application

Increased fluid intake ( 2 litres-4 litres daily). Small stones may pass out on their own, but larger stones need intervention.

Avoiding preparations that may contain Vitamin D

Spinach and green leafy vegetables avoided in the diet of those with oxalate stones

Lithotriptor is used to powder larger stones using shock waves under water, aimed at the stone, from the body surface.

Renal stones, when large, are required to be removed surgically

Adequate fluid intake and a healthy, well balanced diet helps to prevent kidney stones formation.

Homoeopathy and Kidney stones

Homoeopathy offers symptomatic relief without having to go through the throes of surgery.

Homeopathic remedies are prescribed on the basis of symptoms presented in the sick person. Different individuals, suffering from the same disease, can display entirely different symptoms. At times a patient may display certain symptoms that are not associated with kidney stones at all.

However, to make it easier to pinpoint the remedies that are most commonly used to treat a particular condition, the symptoms experienced by previous patients are grouped together in the homoeopathic repertory. Symptoms that are commonly experienced by patients who have kidney stones are listed along with the most commonly used medicines that would ease the symptoms.

Common Homoeopathic remedies for renal stones

Some of the most common remedies used for kidney stones are listed below.

Aconite-Useful in the acute stage. Urine is scanty, and hot to feel. Urine is at times bloody. Patient perspires profusely. Complaints are aggravated by lying on painful side.

Arnica-Dark brick colored sediment in urine. Painful urination.

Belladonna-useful remedy when urine is scanty, dark and cloudy, with lots of phosphate stones or when the region over bladder is sensitive. Also used in the treatment of blood in urine.

Berberis vulgaris-used in the treatment of patients who complain of sensation of some urine remaining after urination, or in those whose urine contains mucus with sediments. Also used in the treatment of bubbling sensation in kidneys, pain in loins and thighs during urination, marked soreness in lumbar region. With pain radiating to the groin

Calcarea carbonicum-Used when patient complains of dark brown colored urine. Urine is often bloody or with white sediments.

Cantharis-This is used when symptoms come on with marked intensity and rapidity. Burning is a marked feature in this remedy. Whole of the urinary system seems to be in an inflammed state. Desire to defecate while urinating is also present.

Colo cynthus-Intense burning along urethra when patient passes stools. Hard red crystals in urine, that sticks to vessel. Pain on urinating radiates all over abdomen. Pain is relieved by bending forward.

Nitric acid-Used for renal colic where pain is likened to that of splinters. Urine is scanty, dark and offensive. Typically, urine is strong smelling, like horse urine. At times urine is aluminous.

Lycopodium-Primarily useful in healing right sided complaints. Patient is emaciated from above downwards. The complaints seem to peculiarly aggravate between 4-8 P.M. There are many symptoms pointing to pathology in the kidney. Red sand appears copiously in urine in acute conditions. It is indicated for retention of urine.

Sarsaparilla-Very good remedy that helps during renal colic. Urine is scanty, sandy, often blood tinged. Urine dribbles on sitting. Renal colic in children can be treated with this remedy. Child screams in pain before urination, and there is sand in the child’s diaper. Pain radiates from right kidney into the flanks.