Did you know there is a direct link to stress and health? It can be mental health or even physical health. There are many common ailments that can be prevented by living a relatively stress free life and the following article will give you some solid advice on how to start living that life today.

A great tip that can help you beat stress is to plan a picnic with someone you care about. Going on a picnic is great because it allows you to be in nature, eat great food and spend some quality time with a special person. There is no better way to fight stress.

Persistent headaches are one of the more common symptoms of stress. That’s why we often refer to an undesirable experience or task as a headache! There could, of course, be other underlying problems that are contributing to headaches but stress should certainly be investigated as one of the more logical culprits.

A fantastic way to help you keep your stress levels down is to meditate. There are many different ways to meditate. Meditation is great because it helps you forget about all of your worries for the moment. You’ll be able think more clearly just by meditating a little bit each day.

A cup of hot tea can be very relaxing in and of itself, plus all of the herbal remedies that can be added into them. A nice cup of hot chocolate is also a very relaxing thing to sip and enjoy. Find a nice hot beverage and snuggle up on the couch.

A great way to reduce stress or to prevent it all together is to not worry about the little things in life. By worrying about every little thing that happens in your life, you are naturally increasing your stress levels and the pressure on yourself. A great practice to follow is to prioritize the things that are happening in your life by picking the few most important things you are going to worry about and the let the other little things happen. You can’t control or change everything in life, so by letting the little stuff go, you are also reducing your stress level.

A great tip that can help you keep your stress levels down is to start practicing deep breathing exercises. Deep breathing exercises are a form of mediation and they allow you to feel more relaxed and peaceful. You’ll notice your heart rate slowing down and you’ll feel much better.

A great tip that can help you relieve a bit of stress is to clench your fists as hard as you can for five seconds. You’ll be surprised at how calm you feel after performing this simple activity. You can also do this anywhere as people probably won’t notice.

While all stress can not be eliminated from life, remembering these tips during a stressful period of time can be the key to reducing the mental or physical problems stress can manifest. Use these tips to help reduce or even see the disappearance of stress related illnesses, conditions and unhealthy behaviors.

Birth Control Pills and Weight Loss

Birth control pills have been around for many years and their success just shows that it can prevent pregnancies. In fact, there are so many of them around that despite the side effects women are still willing to make that sacrifice.

Side effects associated with birth control pills include light bleeding in between periods, skipped periods, nausea, weight gain, bloating and an increased risk of vaginal infections. You will probably experience either one or two of those mentioned since each person is different. Most of the time, this problem can be stopped by changing to a different pill.

But can birth control pills make you lose weight? Most studies have shown that you will gain weight rather than lose a few pounds because the hormone estrogen causes fluid retention in the body. So you can just imagine what a 50 mcgm pill can do compared to that of a lower dosage.

This is even if one pill called Yasmin, developed by Berlex laboratories made some women lose 2 pounds but then gained it back a short while after. Should the company be successful in proving that it can cause weight loss, the US FDA or food and drug administration may approve this as a weight loss aid.

Other changes in birth control pills include the volume of hormones. This means that there are fewer women these days that suffer from the side effects associated with hormonal changes or imbalances.

Since the objective of taking birth control pills is to prevent pregnancy and not to gain or lose weight, one effective way of doing this is by taking pills in 20mcgm dosages. Some examples that have this are Alesse, Levlite, Loesterin-Fe and MIrcette. You should also ask your doctor for other recommendations before you buy it from the drug store.

But if you are gaining weight as a result of the pill, you should have yourself checked by the doctor for insulin resistance. Should tests confirm this, you should go on a low carbohydrate diet. Exercise will also help a lot so you are able to shed off some of those excess pounds.

According to one population survey, more than 18 million women use one out of 40 birth control pills that are available in the market. All of them are prescribed by a physician and so if one doesn’t work, there are 39 others that you can choose from.

Birth control pills are not the only ones that can cause weight gain. The use of injectibles also produces the same result. The only difference is that most women gain about 5 pounds or less using pills rather than 6 to 7 pounds using the injection.

So, if you are considering using birth control pills or any other method, do some research about the side- effects? Gaining or losing a few pounds should be the least of your worries because other things may happen such as blood clots, heart disease, heart defects, a stroke and severe migraines to name a few.

You could end up in the hospital instead of looking much bigger than you were before. Sadly, this is the price you have to pay if you don’t want to raise a family or have kids anymore until a pharmaceutical company is able to make a more effective birth control pill or method.

Great Ways Of Destroying Stress Before It Affects You

Stress is a common problem that all people suffer from. Stress can have a negative effect on your health. The more stress you experience in life, the more discomfort your body will have and the more likely you are to suffer from headaches or worse. If you want to combat stress, then read this article.

Fix your posture. People who are unhappy and stressed tend to have poor posture, which lessens the amount of oxygen going to your brain. This makes your thoughts more negative and also affects muscle aches. By standing up straight, you get more oxygen to your brain and you feel instantly better.

In order to manage your stress, take a vacation. This is important because often times people will think that taking a vacation is not possible due to their work load, despite having the vacation time. Many times a change of scenery can help you obtain a clear head and help you straighten things out and get a fresh perspective on them.

To help manage stress, try making a list of things you are grateful for. It is easy to focus on all the bad things that are going on in your life, but there are plenty of good things, too. By shifting your attention to the things that make you happy, you can instantly lift your mood. No matter how bad things are, you can always find something to be thankful for if you look hard enough.

Personal finances can be one of the most stressful things a person can deal with. In this world, we are used to living above our means and this puts a constant strain on our minds and health. Our stress levels shoot through the roof as we imagine how we are going to pay the next bill everyday. Budget, and live within your means and try to take the stress of finances off of yourself.

One of the most tranquil things that you can do is a crossword puzzle in the morning. Instead of watching television, challenge your mind the moment that you wake up. This will not only help you get your thoughts off your troubles but help you to feel accomplishment as well.

A good tip that can help you keep your stress levels down is to find a hobby that completely captivates you. Having a hobby that you can fully immerse yourself in doing can go a long way in fighting stress. It can also potentially lead to a career.

If your life is stressful and hectic, one great way to get some stress out is to take a short nap. A half hour nap in the afternoon after work can make you feel refreshed and ready to continue the day, rinsing away the stress that has built up over the work day.

In conclusion, people suffer from stress. Stress has a negative impact on your health, by causing discomfort, headaches, and worse problems as stress accumulates. If you remember the tips found in the article above, then you can combat stress in your life and prevent your body from experiencing its negative effects.

Massage Therapy for Children

Countless studies and pediatric research have shown that massage therapy is supremely beneficial for a wide variety of conditions in young children. As a matter of fact, these studies revealed that massage therapy for young children is a crucially important supplemental treatment to conventional medicine. However, these studies further showed that, in many cases, massage therapy on its own works better in relieving symptoms of many disturbing conditions than do medications and other standard procedures associated with Western medicine.

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMA), more than twenty percent of all children, from newborns to toddlers and early school year children, are afflicted with eczema at some point in their young lives and roughly the same percentage is true for infants and young children suffering from traumatic burns. For that reason, the pain and suffering of trauma burns and eczema are counted among the most common pediatric skin conditions in the United States. Most studies bring to light the following findings:

• Young burn trauma patients who were treated with a massage therapy sessions for approximately thirty minutes before any kind of medical or nursing procedures, were more relax physically as well as mentally through the process and they, therefore, experienced less discomfort or pain.

It is important to stress here that the massage treatment was applied only to areas which were not affected by burns.

• Young children suffering from eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis) who were given massage treatments before and while being treated with skin medications such as emollients and ointments exhibited less apprehension and they were more willing to cooperate. In addition, the physical conditions of their skins dramatically improved as redness subsided, as did lichenification, scaling, excoriation and pruritus.

The therapy in these conditions ideally consists of two phases. First phase — to ensure smooth strokes during the massage treatment, the child’s body is moisturized with a dermatitis medication. Second phase — being very careful to avoid particularly sensitive areas of the body, a series of varied massage techniques is used on the child’s face, chest, stomach, legs and arms.

The Children’s Mercy Hospital of Kansas City, Missouri has been using massage therapy to alleviate chronic pain from headaches and migraines in young children and, in the process, also relieving their levels of anxiety and distress, lowering their heart rates, improving their gastrointestinal systems, promoting the release of endorphins and bringing their entire bodies to a state of calmness. And all these positive effects seem to be immediate or nearly immediate.

Applying massage therapies to infants and young children is not at all a newly discovered concept as it has been a daily practice in the Eastern and African cultures for many generations. They understood that the first sense to develop in humans is the sense of touch and that it is essential to health and wellness. Massage treatments for the young members among ancient cultures served to heal, to energize, to calm and to reinforce close bonding and the sense of trust and security.

Having been working zealously on the subject of massage for young children for the past ten or so years, Dr. Tiffany Field and her associates at the Touch Research Institute (TRI) in Miami, Florida insist that, “Every child, no matter the age, should be massaged at bedtime on a regular basis.”

The History of Acupuncture

Acupuncture comes from two Latin words namely “acus” which means needle in English and “pungere” which means prick. Its history originated in China more than 2000 years ago and has evolved into various forms.

Some of the techniques of acupuncture do not even use needles anymore. Vibrating objects, ultrasound and even the fingers of the practitioner have taken some of the work to make the person feel better.

The history of acupuncture is first discussed in an ancient Chinese medical text called the “Huang Di Nei Jing” or The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine.

But there have been a few who are skeptic as archaeologists have found a 5,000 year old mummy in the Alps with similar acupuncture points in the body. This gives some people the idea that it was used even before the Chinese did but sine there is no written text to prove that, no one is certain and credit to this ancient practice goes back to the Chinese.

In the 6th century, this knowledge moved to Japan. In the 17th century, a man by the name of Waichi Sugiyama wanted to make this procedure painless for the patient so he developed the insertion tube, a small cylindrical tube through which the needle is inserted. Believe it or not, this technique is still being used today.

But acupuncture only reached the US in the early 80’s with the establishment of a regulatory board called the National Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. As a result, various schools have been built and those who want to become licensed acupuncturists are now able to practice their profession.

Despite that, there were a lot of people who are not yet convinced on the positive effects of alternative forms of medication. It was only in 1995 that the US Food and Drug Administration decided to classify the needles used for acupuncture as medical instruments and assured the public that they are both safe and effective.

To further promote acupuncture, the NIH or National Institute of Health in 1997 has stated that this technique is very useful in treating various health conditions. These include ear, nose, throat, respiratory, gastrointestinal, eye, nervous system and muscular disorders. In some cases, acupuncture is able to prevent some of them from happening.

This was further strengthened by the fact that the side effects of acupuncture are much less than that of conventional drugs that are being sold by pharmaceutical companies.

So that people can avail of acupuncture, another recommendation by the NIH is for US companies to provide full coverage for certain conditions. If you do not quality, perhaps there is partial coverage which you should look up in your policy.

But despite that, more research needs to be done to see its effects on other health related problems. Some examples of these include addictions, autism, chronic low back pain, migraines and osteoarthritis of the knee.

If you look at the history of acupuncture, not much has changed since the needle technique used back then is still being used today. Even if various forms have developed through the years, one thing for sure is that it works.

In order for you to see how effective it is, you have to see a specialist who is not only qualified to treat your condition but also one is well trained.