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Research has found that people who generally live longer do so partly because of good habits.  

Some of the goods habits should at least includes the following:- 

1) Laugh & have fun, don’t be gloomy

2) Let bygones be bygones. Dwelling on the past inflicts unnecessary stress. 3) Early to bed, early to rise, is healthy & wise.

4) Stay lean, being just 30% overweight is bad. Continue Reading »

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Breast feeding is also called  Lactation or Nursing. It is the most natural and inexpensive way of caring for the baby’s health and well being.According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Policy Statement on Breastfeeding, women who don’t have health problems should exclusively breastfeed their infants for at least the first six months of life.  The AAP suggests that women try to breastfeed for the first 12 months of life because of the benefits to both the mother and baby.Breastfeeding offers many benefits to both baby and mother.

Benefits to the BABY: 

• Breast milk provides the right balance of nutrients to help an infant grow into a strong and healthy toddler. 
• Breastfed infants, and those who are fed expressed breast milk, have fewer deaths during the first year and experience fewer illnesses than babies fed formula. 
• Some of the nutrients in breast milk also help protect an infant against some common childhood illnesses and infections, such as diarrhea, middle ear infections, and certain lung infections.
• Some recent NICHD-supported research also suggests that breast milk contains important fatty acids (building blocks) that help an infant’s brain develop. Two specific fatty acids, known as DHA and AA, may help increase infants’ cognitive skills. Many types of infant formulas available in the United States are fortified with DHA and AA, and all formula available for preterm infants is fortified with these fatty acids.

Benefits to the MOTHER:

• In response to the baby’s sucking, the mother’s body releases a hormone that makes her uterus contract and get smaller.
• Many mothers also get emotional benefits from breastfeeding because of the closeness of this interaction with the baby and from the satisfaction of helping to nourish their babies.
• Some research suggest that mothers who breastfeed their babies have fewer episodes of post-delivery depression.
• There is evolving evidence to indicate that certain types of cancer (such as breast, uterus, and ovarian cancer) occur less often in mothers who have breastfed their babies. 
• Interestingly, there are also some cases whereby some women illness like breast abscess or breast hardening are relieved as breast feeding helps to “empty” the breast.

There are some of the following unique situations where experts advise mothers not to breast feed their babies:

• A woman with certain health conditions, such as HIV or active tuberculosis, should not breastfeed because she risks giving the infection to her infant through her breast milk.
• Women who actively use drugs or do not control their alcohol intake, or who have a history of these situations, may also be advised not to breastfeed. Certain medicines, including some mood stabilizers and migraine medicines, can also pass through the breast milk and cause harm to the infant.
• Women with certain chronic illnesses may be advised not to breastfeed, or to take special steps to ensure their own health while breastfeeding. For example, women who have diabetes may need to eat slightly more food while they breastfeed, to prevent their blood sugar levels from dropping. If a mother stops breastfeeding before the child is a year old, then she should feed her infant iron-fortified, commercially available formula. Health care providers advise women not to give their infants cow’s milk until the child is at least a year old.

(Source:National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

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There is a particular therapy which does not cost anything but believe to keeps the heath healthy and also boosts one’s immune function and helps reduce stress – HUMOR THERAPY. What is more apt the term  ; “Laughter is the best medicine.”   

No one really understand the actual mechanism of enhancing health merely that  laughter increases the blood flow in our arteries and result in a reduction of stress hormones leading to a reduction in blood pressure. This in turn may reduce the risk of heart disease. When the laughter stops, the blood pressure returns to normal and stress hormones are reduced - actually strengthening the immune system. Furthermore, the benefits of laughter go beyond heart disease. Laughter has been found to decrease tension and reduce pain. It also appears to boost the body’s production of infection-fighting antibodies. Laughter even has the potential to help in the treatment of depression and other emotional illnesses.

So next time, besides watching your diet, cholesterol and exercise, add one more item: a good dose of laughter 

Following are some researches conducted on Humor Therapy  (NST) 

1. In 2005, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore had 20 healthy volunteers watch a 15-minute clip from the 1996 comedy movie King Pin. Then, 48 hours later, they viewed a clip from the 1998 war movie, Saving Private Ryan. After each movie, researchers used ultrasound to measure physical changes in blood vessels.On average, blood flow increased 22 per cent after the comedy clip, and decreased 35 per cent after the war film.
   The principal investigator of the study, Professor Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Centre, explained that laughter appeared to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow.“Given the results of our study, it is conceivable that laughing may be important to maintain a healthy endothelium and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” he said. “At the very least, laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endothelium.” He advised a generous dose of laughter every day for best results.“We recommend at least one funny film daily, though we’d suggest watching it while on a treadmill,” he said. “We’d suggest getting humour from a variety of sources, including bringing funny pictures of family members into the office, getting together with friends for a true happy hour on a regular basis and, of course, watching a sitcom or comedy.”

2. According to a more recent study, published in the The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine in December 2006,  people hit by severe diseases have better survival chances if they can laugh easily. The researchers, from the Norwegian University of Science and St. Olav’s Hospital in
   Trondheim, Norway, invited 52 patients who are completely dependant on dialysis, to answer questions designed to gauge their propensity to laugh.
   For instance, a question would describe a situation that different people might see as either comical or annoying; the participant would be asked whether he or she would likely laugh.
   If the patient belonged to the half of the group that scored higher on sense of humour, he or she “increased their odds for survival by on average 31 per cent”, independent of other known health characteristics, the researchers wrote.
   Up to 80 muscles are used during a hearty laugh, the blood pressure rises, the heart beats faster and blood oxygen levels increase.

3. In fact, a study released by German gelotologist Professor Gunther Sickl revealed that a one-minute guffaw has the same health benefits as a 45-minute gym workout.

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Further to my earlier article on fasting/hunger therapy, we have seen that this alternative healthcare technique can indeed cure diseases and to maintain our health.

Extracted from Medical Qigong/Chi-kung by Qigong master, Huang Runtian, we see the following simple example:

• to treat a cold, fast for 24 hours ( 0r 36 or 48 hours if the cold is severe)
• when you feel hungry during the time, you may drink water ( water can desalinize hydrochloric acid in gastric juice, overcome the hunger, purify the body and help to to cure the disease)
• but do not drink too much at a time nor drink nutritive beverage
• this hunger therapy does not apply to those who are suffering from shock caused by low blood pressure, low blood sugar and insufficient supply of blood to the brain, patients of severe diseases; people above 80 years of age and people weighing less than 30 kg.
• correct application of the method can shorten the duration of the cold without help of medicine. It has been proven that hunger therapy is effective for an intractable cold.

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Smiling is indeed a very powerful weapon against stress and calming our emotions and tensions .

First and foremost when you smile, all the muscles on your face will relax and if you can follow the below procedure qigong method of “healing smile” it can work wonders to all the organ in your body.

The trick is to learn to smile at your own internal organs which can release tension and generate relaxation. The purpose is to relax and prepare your internal yin organs, calm the mind and stablize the metabolism.

Steps:

1. Sit comfortably on a chair with both feet flat on the floor, knee shoulder-width apart and relax. Clasp your hands in fron of you in your lap with the right over your left, to seal-in your chi. ( this exercise can also be done lying down where you let your clasped hands rest on your abdomen wherever comfortable)
2. Close your eyes.If thoughts occur in your mind gently let them go and bring your attention inside yourself. Pay attention to how you feel.
3. Find a thought, a memory, an image or a picture which causes you to smile- one of those warm smiles which gently softens the corners of your mouth
4. Let the warm,soft gentle energy of this smile grow and accumulate.
5. Your energy follows your mind. Using your mind bring this smiling energy to the point on your forehead between your eyes, and allow it to begin to increase at this points, like warm water slowly filling a deep bowl
6. Connect the tip of your tongue with the roof of the palate in your mouth just behind the top of your teeth. This lets the energy flow through your tongue and throat into your torso. Using your mind you are going to direct and send your energy into your heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen and then gather it at your navel. Don’t worry that you do not know the specific place as along as you are focus at that area as the energy channel/meridian runs there and feeds into all of the related functions. In each organ, you can hold the healing energy of your smile as long as you wish, or for the count of a certain number of breaths, or until you feel it overflow-the amount of time depends on you.
7. Directing the energy with your mind, send this warm smiling loving energy to your heart. All day long and every day your heart is working for you. Say ” thank you” to your heart and give it your gentle love and care. Let your heart fill with smiling energy. Hold it there as long as you wish or feel the need to or until you feel it overflow.
8. Now send your smiling energy to your lungs. All day long and every day your lungs are working to bring fresh clear energy into you and to send out the old stale energy you have used. Say thank you to the lungs and appreciate your lungs and to send them your best love and care. Let your lungs fill with the smiling energy. Hold your chi there as long as you wish.
9. Now send your warm, smiling healing energy to your liver. Your liver is situated below your rib cage on your right side and is the largest organ in your body. All day long and every day your liver works for you. Say thank you to your liver for everything it does. Let your liver fill with the smiling loving energy. Hold your chi there as long as you wish.
10. Now using your mind send your energy to your kidneys. Do the same as the other organ.
11. Next send your warm gentle loving chi to your spleen. Do the same as the other organ.
12. Now finally use your mind to send your chi to your navel. When it is at your navel, let go of your smile from the corners of your mouth, so that your mouth is relaxed and neutral and bring your warm current of smiling energy through one organ after the other- your heart, lungs, liver, kidney and spleen slowing winding it until it all finally comes to rest in your navel.
13. If you are a man, place the centre of your left palmover your navel then cover it with the centre of your right palm. If you a women, do the opposite. Stay in this position and feel the warm energy in your navel. This is your chi. It is now in your Centre. Concentrate on feeling and experiencing it there.
14. Pay attention to how you feel and find a word,phrase, image or symbol to describe it. Remember this:it is you personal internal “key” to your own chi. Just thinking of this”key” can re-activate some of the relaxation you have experienced through this exercise
15. Relax your hands and let them take any comfortable position and slowly open your eyes and return back to the outside.

Every one knows the magic of smiling - we are familiar with giving our love to our special people in our life, similary the abovementioned process is to send your own warm, gentle, loving energy to yourself!

It is a simple practical way of taking care of and loving yourself. It releases tension and stress and generates deep relaxation. It calms your emotions, refreshes your sense organs and benefits the various tissues amongst other benefits.

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One of the most powerful Nature Cure is Fasting. Many diseases have been cured as a result of this “natural” act/cure.

Why is this so?

From naturapathy, experts concede that diseases can invade one’s body only if there are accumulation of acids and toxic substance in it.

Furthermore:

• “symptoms of diseases”- these are the efforts of the body to get rid of these harmful substances in our body.

• when the toxics accumulate beyond the normal limits, the body makes strenuous efforts to eliminate them. These constructive efforts are mistakenly regarded as “acute diseases.

Coming to the fasting - as mentioned above, the body concentrates all its energies on the process of healing,it therefore does not welcome any food intake hence signalling the “loss of appetite” and ” tasteless/unwelcome food”. Hence if we do not go fasting, these food taken at such time makes the energy of the body to get diverted to the process of digestion instead of focussing on the elimination of the toxics and the disease(s) either intensifies or become chronic.

Here there is a saying that ” food taken during illness nourishes the illness not the patient”

Incidentally,fever, cold,cought and most other similar diseases are normally cured by two to three days of fasting.

Some cautions/steps on longer fasting period:

• Where long standing or chronic diseases are concerned, fasting should be planned with some caree and foresight.
• Initially, one must take light uncooked or liquid diet for three to four days prior to the commencement of the fasting period. This helps to initiates the process of the purification of the blood. Morever, reserves of vitamins and minerals obtained from the raw foods begin to be built up in the body which come in useful later during the period of fasting.
• Fasting on a longer period should be supervised by an expert
• During this long period of fasting, the blood and urine need to be checked frequently. Any abnormalities being detected, the fasting should end.
• It is also important to bear in mind that when we iniate fasting and when we want to end fasting we should terminate it properly. Why? This is because the digestive organs have become relaxed during the fast. If discretion is not exercised in the quality and quantity of food after a fast, the digestive system is unable to cope with the sudden increase in the intake of food and the digestive process remains incomplete leading to the generation of toxic substances hence coming back to original square one position. Bearing this point in mind, let look at the following close in fasting:
• For a day fasting:- the next morning only fruit juices should be taken, followed by some fruits during the day and a bread with some boiled vegetables in the evening. Normal diet can be resumed in the third day
• For a two days fasting:-on the third day only fruit juices should be taken then only in the fourth day’s morning -fruit juices, afternoon:bread and some boiled vegetables and

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