How to get more Sleep and become a Snoozer

Add a Herbal Sleep Remedy, change a few things and become a Snoozer now.

Did you know we have a naturally occurring hormone controlled by light exposure that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin production is controlled by light exposure. Your brain should secrete more in the evening, when it's dark, to make you sleepy, and less during the day when it's light and you want to stay awake and alert.

So here's the thing  spending long days in the office away from natural light is no good.
 Instead

• Increase light exposure during the day
• Remove your sunglasses in the morning and let light onto your face.
• Spend more time outside during daylight.
• Try to take your work breaks outside in sunlight, exercise outside.
• Walk your dog during the day instead of at night.
• Let as much light into your home/workspace as possible.
• Keep curtains and blinds open during the day, and try to move your desk closer to the window.

 Here's the other thing bright lights at night—especially from hours spent in front of the TV or computer screen—can suppress your body's production of melatonin and make it harder to sleep.

• Turn off your television and computer. 
• Try listening to music or audio books instead, or practicing relaxation exercises.
• If your favorite TV show is on late at night, record it for viewing earlier.
• Don’t read from a backlit device at night (such as an iPad).
• If you use a portable electronic device to read, use an eReader that is not backlit
• Change your bright light bulbs, use low-wattage bulbs instead.
• When it’s time to sleep, make sure the room is dark.  
• Cover electrical displays, use heavy curtains or shades to block light from windows.
• Try a sleep mask to cover your eyes.
• Use a flashlight to go to the bathroom at night.
• If you wake up during the night to use the bathroom keep the light to a minimum.

Some other ideas

• Stick to a sleep schedule
• Pay attention to what you eat and drink
• Avoid stimulants such as nicotine, caffeine and alcohol. ht.
• Create a bedtime ritual
• Get comfortable
• Include physical activity in your daily routine
• Manage stress

Snoozer Herbal Sleep Remedy is available from
Cranes Pharmacy 62 Avenue Rd Mosman 9969 4700  &
Cremorne Pharmacy 49c Spofforth St Mosman  99531503

Angry Outbursts Trigger Heart Attacks.

Do you need them?

Listen to the scientists at the University of Sydney

"Dammit - angry outbursts trigger heart attacks University of Sydney (UoS) scientists have confirmed the widely held common knowledge that incidences of anger can lead to heart attack. The UoS research reveals that the risk of a heart attack is 8.5 times higher in the two hours following a burst of intense anger. "Our findings confirm what has been suggested in prior studies and anecdotal evidence, even in films - that episodes of intense anger can act as a trigger for a heart attack," said the lead author, Dr Thomas Buckley, of Sydney Nursing School, UoS, who is also a researcher at Royal North Shore Hospital. "The data shows that the higher risk of a heart attack isn't necessarily just while you're angry - it lasts for two hours after the outburst." Triggers for bursts of intense anger were found to be associated with arguments with family members (29 per cent), argument with others (42 per cent), work anger (14 per cent) and driving anger (14 per cent). The data also revealed that episodes of anxiety can also make people more likely to have a heart attack. "High levels of anxiety were associated with a 9.5-fold increased risk of triggering a heart attack in the two hours after the anxiety episode," Dr Buckley said."

Fear can Fuel your Disease. Find out how to beat it.

The goal is to move yourself from pain, paralysis and depression to power energy and love.

Let's start with saying that all fear is not bad. Have you ever felt fear and done it anyway?

To start off with it may not feel good but we realize it is good for us, good for others and good for the greater good.  We stretch our selves and feel exhilarated afterwards.  This can be like public speaking, we are scared before hand and then exhilarated after a successful presentation. That's growth and we love that.

What happens when it doesn't feel good, it's not good for others and not good for the greater good.  We are frozen in a place carrying around unwarranted fear.

I mean unwarranted because we all want some fear.  If you are standing on a road and a car is coming I want you to move fast.  What I'm talking about here is the unwarranted fear we may carry around long term, it may hold us back and actually cause disease in the body.

Let's look at 11 ways to beat the FEAR

Leave the Thoughts Alone

Think of a pink rabbit

Researchers validated this by separating people into two groups. One group they told to think about a pink rabbit and click a button every time they think about it. One group was told not to think about a pink rabbit and to click a button every time they do think about a pink rabbit.

The group that was told not to think about the rabbit clicked the button more, probably because when they were not thinking about the rabbit their brain said "hey, don't forget not to think about the rabbit" which, in turn, caused them to think about it. Those that were allowed to think about it all they want didn't need that reminder, since it simply didn't matter.

It's for these reasons that trying to fight your thoughts is counterproductive to your ability to stop anxiety. Accept that you have anxiety and be okay with any negative thoughts and you may have the thoughts less frequently.

Validating Your Fears

One of the greatest mistakes people make is trying to validate their fears. This is easy to do, our brains are always looking for similarities.

We do this all the time, when you have a cold, you notice everyone has a cold,

When you are pregnant you start seeing pregnant people everywhere,

Once you know someone with a specific disease the odds are that you will hear of someone else with a similar disease.  Our brains are trained to pick up information from our surroundings through our senses that mean something to us.

In this case GOOGLE is not your friend, don't validate and justify your negative emotions by finding extra information on the web, it causes more anxiety and makes it harder to get out of it.

Try little doses of Anxiety Stimuli

When you know for a fact that some thing or situation makes you anxious, another thing that makes anxiety worse is purposefully avoiding it.  Studies have shown that you can decrease your anxiety if you allow yourself to be afraid without trying to avoid it. 

Spending Time With Positive People

Spending time with happier people that bring positivity into your life is the best way to make an impact of your mental health.

Breathing slowly and evenly

Hyperventilation is common with panic disorder, and it causes many symptoms that contribute to the development of panic attacks, including:

• Chest pains
• Rapid heartbeat
• Lightheadedness
• Tingling limbs
• Shortness of breath

Slow down your breathing dramatically and fight the urge to breathe too deeply .

Activity

Everyone talks about the importance of exercise for living longer and staying fit. But perhaps the greatest reason to exercise is because science has shown that a lack of exercise can cause anxiety, and exercise can actually cure it.

Sleep

Sleeping with anxiety can be hard. Stress often keeps you awake. Create some stragegies around sleep to aim to get 8-9 hours sleep at night.

Some people with anxiety avoid sleep on purpose, and that's not good. Sleep debt makes it much harder to control anxiety. So you should make sure that you're doing everything you can to get a full night's sleep, and never purposefully trying to stay up simply so that you don't have to go to bed.

Poor Diet/Unhealthy Living

Your brain functions on mineral vitamins, essential fatty acids and proteins.  Leave them out and your brain cannot function well.  Healthy living is simply one of the most important things to having good mental health.

Forget Unhealthy Coping Behaviors (Drinking, Drugs, Etc.)

Unhealthy coping behaviors are a big problem.  It's ease  to go out on a drinking binge, but do it continually and your brain essentially stops trying to help you cope with stress on its own, and instead lets the drug cope with stress for you.  Your ability to cope without them shrivels away, and it takes a lot more work to get it back.

Stay Active and Busy  

One of the secrets to curing anxiety is staying busy and active. The more you can keep your mind off your anxious thoughts, the easier it will be for you to cope.

Spending time with friends, staying busy with fun activities, and trying to bring as much enrichment into your life as possible is actually a genuinely effective way to control stress and rebuild your natural coping ability. 

Adding Anxiety Into Your Life on Purpose

Anxiety can be a cumulative problem. The more you experience, the more anxious you feel, even if those experiences are unrelated. So make sure that you're avoiding activities that create more anxiety. 

14 Foods that Help Clean your Liver Every Day

We tend to think of liver problems being only something for an alcoholic to worry about.

Yet your liver is one of your most important detox organs.

It takes on the brunt of neutralizing and detoxifying the various chemical that enter your body through ingesting them, skin contact with them and inhalation of them.

It is important to continuously support and cleanse the liver to enable it to do its important work of digesting our foods, recycling hormones and detoxifying the normal waste products of human life.

Repeating this process of daily liver cleansing, you are gently cleansing your Liver of Toxins. This is the first step in allowing your body to heal itself, by providing the needed tools; whether you desire weight loss, increased energy, ridding your body of allergies, headaches, hormonal issues, etc.

The liver has over 500 functions;

• processing digested food from the intestine
• controlling levels of fats, amino acids and glucose in the blood
• combating infections in the body
• clearing the blood of particles and infections including bacteria
• neutralizing and destroying drugs and toxins  
• manufacturing bile
• storing iron, vitamins and other essential chemicals
• breaking down food and turning it into energy
• manufacturing, breaking down and regulating numerous hormones including sex hormones
• making enzymes and proteins which are responsible for most chemical reactions in the body, for example those involved in blood clotting and repair of damaged tissues.

Symptoms of an unhealthy liver include:

• Running out of energy in the afternoon
• Inability to lose weight
• Mood swings
• Bursts of anger, mood disorders, or anxiety
• Bloating and gas
• Occasional headaches
• Brain Fog and lack of mental clarity
• Muscle aches and stiffness
• Bad breath or body odor
• Brown spots on your skin or age spots
• Bruising easily
• Jaundice, or skin and eyes that take on a yellow color
• Dark urine
• Pale-colored stool or bloody/tar-colored stool
• Constantly itchy skin
• Abdominal pain and swelling
• Poor digestion
• Nausea
• Chronic fatigue

Another common problem is fatty liver disease, which often develops from the overindulgence or long-term use of alcohol. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease also exists, and can be brought on by certain medications, malnutrition, or other causes. One concern with fatty liver disease is that vague symptoms (generalized fatigue, weakness, nausea, confusion, impaired judgment, and loss of appetite) can build up for years before liver damage is implicated as the cause.

14 foods that help clean your liver-

1. Garlic

Just a small amount has the ability to activate liver enzymes that help your body flush out toxins. 

2. Grapefruit

A small glass of freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice will help boost production of the liver detoxification enzymes that help flush out carcinogens and other toxins.

3. Beets and Carrots

Both are extremely high in plant-flavonoids and beta-carotene; eating beets and carrots can help stimulate and improve overall liver function.

4. Green Tea

This liver-loving beverage is full of plant antioxidants known as catechins, a compound known to assist liver function. 

5. Leafy Green Vegetables

High in plant chlorophylls, greens suck up environmental toxins from the blood stream. With their distinct ability to neutralize heavy metals, chemicals and pesticides, these cleansing foods offer a powerful protective mechanism for the liver.

Try incorporating leafy greens such as  dandelion greens, spinach, mustard greens, and chicory into your diet. This will help increase the creation and flow of bile, the substance that removes waste from the organs and blood.

6. Avocados

This nutrient-dense super-food helps the body produce glutathione, a compound that is necessary for the liver to cleanse harmful toxins.

7. Apples

High in pectin, apples hold the chemical constituents necessary for the body to cleanse and release toxins from the digestive tract. This, in turn, makes it easier for the liver to handle the toxic load during the cleansing process.

8. Olive Oil

Cold-pressed organic oils such as olive, hemp and flax-seed are great for the liver, when used in moderation. They help the body by providing a lipid base that can suck up harmful toxins in the body. In this way, it takes some of the burden off the liver in terms of the toxic overload many of us suffer from.

9. Alternative Grains

 It's not only that you need alternative grains like quinoa, millet, and buckwheat in your diet, it’s that if you've got wheat flour,  it's time to make changes. The body does not have the enzymes to completely break down gluten and this can often set up for inflammatory changes.

10. Cruciferous Vegetables

Eating broccoli and cauliflower will increase the amount of glucosinolate in your system, adding to enzyme production in the liver. These natural enzymes help flush out carcinogens, and other toxins, out of our body which studies have shown can significantly lower risks associated with cancer.

11. Lemons & Limes

These citrus fruits contain very high amounts of vitamin C, which aids the body in synthesizing toxic materials into substances that can be absorbed by water. Drinking freshly-squeezed lemon or lime juice in the morning helps stimulate the liver.

12. Walnuts

Holding high amounts of the amino acid arginine, walnuts aid the liver in detoxifying ammonia. Walnuts are also high in glutathione and omega-3 fatty acids, which support normal liver cleansing actions. 

13. Cabbage

Much like broccoli and cauliflower, eating cabbage helps stimulate the activation of two crucial liver detoxifying enzymes that help flush out toxins. Try eating more kimchi, coleslaw, cabbage soup and sauerkraut.

14. Turmeric

The liver’s favorite spice. Try adding some of this detoxifying goodness into your next lentil stew or veggie dish for an instant liver pick-me-up. 

Just to recap;    Health Benefits of Doing a Liver Cleanse

• Improved digestion and elimination of toxins
• Helps the liver can break down fats more efficiently
• Balanced lipid profiles
• Increase in energy and vitality
• Feeling lighter and healthier
• Mood support
• Decreased bloating and gas
• Improved memory and cognition
• Reduced cravings for sugar and fatty foods
• May help remove liver and gallbladder stones which clog the liver
• Removal of toxic fatty deposits and smaller particles of buildup