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What about Cardiac Arrythmias – What can be done?

An arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, is a problem with the rate or rhythem of your heartbeat. Your heart may beat too quickly, too slowly, or with an irregular rhythm. It is normal for your heart rate to speed up during physical activity and to slow down while resting or sleeping.

A cardiac arrhythmia is a common heart problem that can be triggered by many factors. An arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rhythm, which can lead to many different health issues.

Find out what nutrition will help these problems.

Cardiac Arrhythmia

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Practical Ways to Use Self-Care for Personal Growth by Emily Graham

Deep down, all of us want to achieve personal growth throughout our lives. For you, it might mean improving at your job, returning to school, starting a family, buying a house, or tackling any other significant life change that helps you grow as a person.

However, it’s essential not to forget about your health and well-being in the process. You can become so busy “improving” yourself that you don’t recognize the fact that you’re neglecting your physical, mental, and emotional health. Don’t let that happen! Here are some simple tips for maintaining a self-care routine as you grow.

Get Away

If you need a fresh perspective and less stress, consider planning a weekend getaway. This will allow you to explore a new area and engage in self-care activities and relaxation.

You will come back a better version of yourself and likely have some fond memories to share. Go camping, see the sights, lounge on the beach, or do anything else that brings rest to your soul.

Start Something New

Another way to foster your health and well-being on your personal development journey is to turn your passion into a hobby. Maybe you love riding, and you could put your thoughts into a blog. Perhaps you have a knack for crafts, and you could open up an online store. Or, you could use your interest in nature and join a local birdwatching club.

Why not take it a step further and start a company out of your passion? With a bit of market research and a good business plan, you could launch a business that brings fulfillment each day and supplement your income.

Embrace Exercise

Exercise is an essential element of any healthy life. Keeping your body active each day —- whether it’s in the morning, afternoon, or evening —- will benefit your physical, mental, and emotional health.

Along with helping you manage your weight, regular exercise can strengthen your cardiovascular system, improve your balance, lower your stress levels, boost your mood, and much more. Find an activity you enjoy (e.g., jogging, swimming, HIIT, etc.). Then, commit to exercising for at least 20 minutes a day.

Find a New Home for a Fresh Start

Moving to a new home is a chance to leave behind negative memories and create a fresh start. It can also be an opportunity to declutter and simplify your life, getting rid of material possessions that no longer serve you. The physical act of packing up your belongings and moving them to a new location can also be therapeutic, helping you to let go of the past and embrace the future. To find a home in your budget, research home prices in your target area to determine if it’s an affordable location.

Improve Sleep

Sleep is also critical if you hope to grow personally without compromising your well-being. Our minds and bodies rely on restful sleep to perform at total capacity, and adults need at least seven hours a night for optimal health.

Create a bedtime routine that prepares your mind and body for sleep and ensures your bedroom is a restful atmosphere. It could be worth investing in blackout shades, essential oils, and turning the temperature down a few degrees at night. Finally, make sure this space stays neat and tidy, as a room filled with clutter can make you feel anxious — which can ruin your sleep.

Eat Nutritiously

Furthermore, focus your diet on nutritious foods like vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, lean proteins, and whole grains. You will have more energy throughout the day and sleep better at night. Switching out your sandwich for a salad at lunch can go a long way in helping you develop healthy eating habits.

Schedule Time for Others

Finally, make time for the most important people in your life. Proper self-care is not selfish, but you can go overboard and neglect your relationships. Avoid that pitfall at all costs!

If you’re motivated to take your personal development to the next level, it’s essential not to do it while compromising your health and well-being. Whether you’re starting a business or relocating to get a fresh start, consider the tips above as you continue your self-improvement journey, and keep looking for other simple ways to practice self-care. Here’s to taking significant steps and growing in mind, body, and soul!

Emily Graham

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How to Improve Your Eyesight and handle eye problems

If you ave Cataracts – yes there is something you an do.

If you have Floaters, yes there is something you an do.

Healthy Eyes and how to achieve this.   Here is an article and note the links to the above to problems.

Although most often people think of failing eyes as something that happens with age, our modern lifestyle can contribute to poor vision.

Things that contribute to poor vision are

Smoking
Being Overweight
Diabetes
Lot of time on the computer.

Instead of looking at eye vision surgery after your vision fails,

You can protect your eyes and build healthy eyes

What can you do to protect your eyesight?

Before talking about specific nutritional factors that specifically benefit your eyes, it’s important to address some of the lifestyle basics that can impact your vision.

These will help protect your vision now and as you age:

Quit smoking. Smoking increases free radical production throughout your body, and besides attacking your health in many ways, includes the risk of decreased vision.
Cardiovascular Health High blood pressure can cause damage to the tiny blood vessels on your retina, obstructing free blood flow.
Normalize your blood sugar. High blood sugars can also damage the blood vessels in your retina. Excessive sugar in your blood can also pull fluid from the lens of your eye. This can affect your ability to focus.
Diet. You need to eat plenty of fresh dark green leafy vegetables, especially kale. A diet rich in dark leafy greens helps support eye health.
Omega 3 essential fatty acids a study published in the August 2001 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology found that consuming omega-3 fatty acids was protective of your healthy vision. Due to pollution and fish farming, getting healthy fish oil means you need pure, cold water fish oil.
Avoid Trans fats. It appears that a diet high in trans fats contribute to macular degeneration by interfering with omega-3 fats in your body. Trans fat is found in many processed foods and baked goods, including margarine, shortening, fried foods like French Fries, fried chicken and doughnuts, cookies, pastries and crackers.
Avoid aspartame. Vision problems are one of the many symptoms of aspartame poisoning.

What is needed?

Antioxidants

The job of an antioxidant is to neutralize dangerous free radicals in your body, and this includes your eyes. Antioxidants are shown to be of particular benefit to your eyes (See Free Radicals and Antioxidants)

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts are the most common cause of blindness among the elderly. This is due to free radical damage. It is preventable through an antioxidant-rich diet.

What will help build eye health?

  • Whole foods that support eye health and have been shown to protect the eyes include black currant, bilberry, leafy greens and other colorful vegetables, and egg yolks
  • The omega-3 fatty acid DHA is concentrated in your eye’s retina. It provides structural support to cell membranes that protect retinal function.

Lutein & Zeaxanthin Helps Protect Your Central Vision

Lutein and zeaxanthin, found together in many vegetables, are potent antioxidants, they occur in high concentrations in the eye, including the lens, retina, and macula. For that reason, lutein and zeaxanthin are thought to be crucial to healthy vision.

They are found in green leafy vegetables, as well as yellow and orange fruits and vegetables: kale, spinach, collards, turnip greens, green peas, broccoli, romaine lettuce, green beans, Swiss chard, Brussel sprouts, papaya, eggs, and oranges.

See Macular Degeneration

Astaxanthin

It’s a much more powerful antioxidant than both lutein and zeaxanthin, and has been found to have health benefits for the eyes.

Astaxanthin also helps maintain eye pressure and supports the eyes’ energy levels and visual acuity.

Building Healthy Eyes through Nutrition

Your eyes are now subjected too much higher levels of oxidation than our ancestors experienced. There are more stressors in today’s environment,

Therefore, anything you can do to protect your eyes from these assaults will reduce your risk for eye problems.

The 7 Best Foods for Eye Health

1. Dark Leafy Greens – lutein and zeaxanthin are found in these vegetables.

2. Orange Pepper

According to one 1998 study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology orange pepper had the highest amount of zeaxanthin Zeaxanthin cannot be made by your body, so you must get it from your diet.

3. Organic Egg Yolks

Egg yolk is a source of both lutein and zeaxanthin along with healthy fat and protein; they’re also in a highly absorbable, nearly ideal form.

Add a couple of eggs to your salad which can increase the absorption of the whole meal. Cook the egg as little as possible.

4. Wild-Caught Alaskan Salmon

Rich in the omega-3 fat DHA which is concentrated in your eye’s retina. It provides structural support to cell membranes that boost eye health and protect retinal function, and research suggests eating more foods rich in

5. Astaxanthin

Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is a good source of this.

Compelling evidence suggests this potent antioxidant may be among the most important nutrients for the prevention of blindness.

Astaxanthin crosses the blood-brain barrier AND the blood-retinal barrier (beta carotene and lycopene do not), which brings antioxidant and anti-inflammatory protection right to your eyes.

Depending on your individual situation, you may want to take an astaxanthin supplement.

6. Black Currants

They contain some of the highest levels of anthocyanins found in nature and are also rich in essential fatty acids, lending added support to their anti-inflammatory properties.

For medicinal purposes, many opt for using black currant seed oil, which is available in capsule form. But eating the whole food is always a good option.

7. Bilberry

Bilberry, a close relative of the blueberry, is another nutritional powerhouse for your eyes.

Outdoor Light Benefits Your Eye Health

Spending time outdoors offers exposure to multiple types of light, which leads to the production of Vitamin D. Vitamin D supports the function of muscle tissue around the lens in your eye.

The Best Exercise to Correct Bad Eyes

If you’ve started to notice your eyesight going and are having vision problems, then chances are you’ve turned to glasses or contact lenses to help solve the issue. But corrective lenses don’t actually correct anything. They simply act as a crutch that your eyes become dependent on, and they lead to the need for stronger and stronger prescriptions as time goes on.

If you have eye problems, there is a better solution. Read on to discover the best exercise to correct bad eyes.

This eye exercise is something you can easily work into your routine every single day. It is so incredibly simple that you will be surprised.

How eyesight works

Light enters your eyeball through the cornea, and then it hits the lens. The lens is where light gets focused, which allows us to end up seeing a clear image rather than a blurry one. The lens must change shape depending on if we are focusing on something near to us or something far from us.

The ciliary muscles are muscles that surround the lens and help it change shape as we focus on different objects.

Anatomy drawing of the parts of the human eye, including the lens and ciliary muscles.

When the ciliary muscles are contracted, it allows us to see things close up. When the ciliary muscles relax, it allows things farther away to come into focus.

There can be many problems when it comes to eye health. You could develop nearsightedness or farsightedness, for example. Nearsightedness is being able to see things close up clearly while having trouble focusing on things farther away. Farsightedness is the opposite.

One of the most common problems that people experience is eye strain and a slow decline in clear eyesight due to harmful daily habits. Just as our daily habits can impact our mental health, digestive health, heart health, and skin health, for example, our daily habits can also impact our eye health.

Our eye health depends on our ciliary eye muscles going between moments of contraction and moments of relaxation. But what happens when we force them to be “on” all of the time, contracting constantly? Unfortunately, that’s what many of our daily habits force our eyes to do.

How daily habits can cause vision problems

Let me ask you a question: What do you spend the most time doing, looking at things close up or looking at things far away?

For many people, we spend the vast majority of our time looking at things close up. When was the last time you looked at the clouds or a tree or a bird or something far off in the distance?

When you look at things close up all day everyday like your phone, computer, notes, or an iPad, then your eye muscles have to be in a state of constant contraction. And when you contract your eye muscles 24/7, they don’t get the break they need and they don’t get to relax. This leads to a lot of eyestrain. Eventually, your lens and eye muscles will stop working well and they will actually atrophy.

Many of us work all day at computers, spend lots of time on our phones, and don’t get outside. We don’t spend enough time doing activities where we look off into the distance at the scenery, the city skyline, or even just the clouds. And our eyes take a toll because of this.

Luckily, there is an easy eye exercise that you can do every day that can help to reverse this problem and support your eyesight.

The #1 best exercise to correct bad eyes

This eye exercise will help give your eyes such a sense of relief, and it can reverse the problems that arise when you stare at screens and things close to you all day.

Eye exercise instructions

Here’s what to do:

  • Go outside.
  • Go for a walk.
  • Look at things far away from you, focusing on things like the clouds, trees, or distant objects.
  • Do this for 40-60 minutes every day.
  • It is as simple as that. No fancy instructions, no equipment necessary, nothing complicated. Just a nice walk out in nature where you can let your eyes look off into the distance.

We need to let the muscles in our eyes relax by looking far away. That will reverse the issue of constant contraction.

Try to make this eye exercise a part of your daily routine, even if just for a few minutes at a time. Find ways to fit it in, so that you end up spending a little more time looking far away, and a little less time looking at a computer or smartphone.

You can even practice this eye exercise while driving, by periodically looking far out into the distance.

Learn more about eye health

Interested in learning more about how to best take care of your eyes? Check out:

Cataracts

Eye Floaters

The bottom line

If you want to prevent wearing glasses or contact lenses and want to prevent vision problems down the line, then you need to do this daily eye exercise.

Simply spend more time outdoors every day where you can look far away.

This eye exercise will help you to reverse the problems that occur when we only look at things close to us all day, which forces our eye muscles to be in constant contraction.

Give the muscles in your eye a break with this eye exercise; your eyes will thank you.

What do you think of this best exercise to correct bad eyes? Will you give a try? Go ahead and do this simple exercise..

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS? EMAIL AND GET YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

 

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A Gallbladder Attack – what are the symptoms and causes

What is a Gallbladder Attack? – Symptoms and Causes

The gallbladder stores and concentrates bile salts. The bile salts break down fats. The bile salts also extract Omega 3 fatty acids as well as the fat soluble vitamins that need to be extracted from food so it can be used by the body.

Gall bladder attack is when a stone gets stuck in the tube, the liver itself or the gallbladder. The liver makes the bile which then goes down the tube and is stored in the sack. The back pressure of a stone being stuck will cause pain. You can have stomach pain, nausea, right shoulder pain, pain under the rib cage, cramping The right shoulder pain is due to a nerve that goes up to your neck. This causes different right side pain in any right sided muscle and even headaches.

Bile is made with lots of cholesterol. Bile will also eliminate excess cholesterol. High cholesterol can be not enough bile to eliminate from the body.

Read more and get educated on the Gallbladder, what can go wrong and what to do naturally

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The 8 Nutritional Challenges Facing Athletes

GET EDUCATED AND TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH

MCVitamins has been looking for supplements that work well for athletes and actually anyone who want to be fit. The below is what my research discovered

Read on……

Athletes face 8 nutritional challenges. Their bodies work harder and need good nutrition. What are the all-natural solutions?

Athletes want to enhance their performance. Nature provides us with the most effective and powerful choices.

The choice becomes clearer when you compare the long term muscle fitness and health building effects of whole food and nutritional supplements versus the well-documented health issues often associated with the artificial methods.

What is the needed nutrition that is the most proven and effective choice for enhancing performance – without breaking rules, laws, or endangering your body!

What are the Challenges?

The 8 challenges area as follow:

Core Nutrition
Muscle Building
Energy
Reaction Time
Hormone Balance
Recovery
Repair
Re-hydration

All these challenges must be met in order to enhance the ability to excel.

What are our recommendations?   Athlete Challenges and why we recommend them.

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How is your Metabolism?

This seems to be an attention getter, even for younger people let along menopausal women or older men. Find out what can easily help this is what MCVitamins found and which really works. We tried it as well and the first thing noticed is really good sleep…. the list of benefits goes on.

If you have high blood pressure, high blood glucose, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, excess weight around the waist you have a metabolic disorder – an imbalance or deficiency – that negatively affects the way your body functions. This also means you have an increased risk of a serious health condition, such as cardiovascular disease. If you have 3 or more factors this is commonly referred to as Metabolic Syndrome and your risk increases even more. You are not alone.

Metabolic Syndrome is increasingly common and up to 30% of U.S. adults have it and about 44% of people over 50 years of age are affected by it. Every 5 seconds someone is diagnosed with a condition caused by metabolic disorder and every 10 seconds somebody dies from a metabolic health issue. It is one of the most important health challenges we currently face.

Do you want a Healthier Metabolism?

Improving Metabolism

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How the Gut-Brain Axis Can Affect Your Health?

Medical science has recently discovered that a root cause of particular health issues involves the gut and the Gut-Brain Axis.

The Gut-Brain Axis is the communication system between the brain and the trillions of bacteria and enzymes living within our intestines – our gut microbiome.

The gut microbiome weighs about 2 kg and is bigger than the average human brain. It’s an active community of trillions of bacteria and microbes.

The gut microbiome is a crucial part of this gut-brain connection. It develops simultaneously with the central nervous system and has a powerful influence over many different mental processes.

Multiple studies have shown that the composition of our gut bacteria has a profound impact on mental health and the functioning of our nervous system.

Gut microbes make a number of chemicals that affect how our brains function. Gut microbes play a crucial role in brain development and the flow of signaling information across the central nervous system.

As neurotransmitters synthesized by the brain are involved in regulating mental health, emotions, behaviors, and mood, a disrupted gut microbiome can play a significant role in neurological conditions.

“The gut microbiome is the most important scientific discovery for human healthcare in recent decades,” says James Kinross, a microbiome scientist and surgeon at Imperial College London. “We discovered it – or rediscovered it – in the age of genetic sequencing less than 15 years ago. The only organ that is bigger is the liver.”

Professor Jack Gilbert, an award-winning microbiome scientist at the University of California San Diego and author, has stated, “Over the last 80 years and since the dawn of antibiotics, there has been a multi-generational loss of microbes that appear to be important for human health. They are passed from mother to child (during birth, via breast milk and skin contact) throughout the generations, but at some point, in the last three or four generations, we lost some. We’re not entirely sure if the cause was our lifestyle, our diet, cleanliness in our homes or the use of antibiotics. We’re missing certain immune stimulants that people in the developing world have plenty of.”

The gut’s microbiome is critical for short-term and long-term health. Given all the new data about the importance of the gut microbiome and the gut-brain axis, there are steps you can take to ensure you maintain a healthy gut microbiome.

Studies suggest having a diverse population of gut microbes is directly associated with better health.

The Canadian Digestive Health Foundation suggests the following:
“Make sure to eat your vegetables!
“Especially the leafy green ones. Vegetables are loaded with fibers which cannot be digested by people but are consumed by the good bacteria in your gut. It has been observed that people who follow a diet rich with fruits and vegetables are less likely to grow disease-causing bacteria. Some great examples of vegetables that feed your microbes are:
• Leeks
• Onions
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Spinach.
“Stock up on dietary sources of prebiotics
“Prebiotics are food for your microbiome! It’s important to feed these little guys to give them the energy they need to complete their very important task of managing your enteric (relating to the intestines) nervous system.

Here is a list of dietary prebiotics that should be staples in your home kitchen:
• Apples
• Leeks
• Onions
• Cocoa Extracts
• Garlic
• Bananas
• Asparagus
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Red Wine Extracts
• Root Vegetables
• Beans
• Lentils
• Chickpeas
• Green Tea Extracts.
“Fermented foods are gut-friendly
“Fermented foods are another great source of probiotics.

The crowd favorite is yogurt, however, if you’re going to be eating a lot of yogurt, make sure that it is sugar-free! There are several other options that are a great source of good bacteria. Kombucha is becoming a very popular source of probiotics. You can also eat things like pickles, kimchee, and kefir to ensure that you’re getting enough live cultures to keep your gut healthy and happy.”

Supplements Can Help, Too

Taking supplements that contain probiotics to support an optimum microbiome can help, too.

Improving your Metabolism 

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Is Chronic Inflammation Making You Hot and Bothered?

If you’ve ever stubbed your toe or suffered a minor paper cut, then you’re familiar with the effects of inflammation. The heat, redness, and swelling you experienced following that minor injury was the result of acute inflammation, which is part of your immune system’s natural response to trauma.

But there’s another kind of inflammation with which you may not be aware. Unlike acute inflammation, which usually involves pain and is short lived, chronic inflammation can be a “silent fire” and last for weeks or even years.

In fact, most people don’t even realize they’re “on fire” until they’re diagnosed with a serious disease. This may be why chronic inflammation has been identified as a factor in such diverse disorders as autoimmune diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, type II Diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

So, what is chronic inflammation? And more importantly, what can you do if you are suffering from it?

The Connection Between Inflammation and Your Immune System

Inflammation is an integral part of your body’s natural defenses. When threatened by harmful substances, such as a bacteria or viruses, your immune system sends wave after wave of white blood cells and chemicals to seek and destroy the offending organisms. This “inflammatory cascade” produces the heat, redness, and swelling which characterize acute inflammation. Once the offenders are destroyed the inflammatory cascade stops and healing begins.

During chronic inflammation, however, the inflammatory response is continual. Any number of factors can cause chronic inflammation.

Hereditary and environmental factors. Both may have a causal effect on autoimmune disease, such as inflammatory bowel disease or rheumatoid arthritis. In an autoimmune disease, your immune system mistakes its own tissues as “foreign,” unleashing the inflammatory response.

Typical Western lifestyle. Diets rich in sugars, fats, and food additives, as well as a sedentary lifestyle, may promote the production of inflammatory chemicals.

The “Fire” in Your Belly

Most people aren’t aware of the major role our gastrointestinal (GI) tract plays in our immune health. Besides digestion, our GI tract is home to nearly seventy percent of our immune system. It is a major source of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that plays a large role in defending the body against disease, and mast cells, which release histamines and other chemicals as part of an allergic response.

Calming the Flames—A Natural Approach

As home base for the majority of your immune system, your GI tract plays a vital role in your inflammatory response. By paying attention to your gut, you can minimize the effects of inflammation naturally. The following natural approaches can help:

Omega Essential Fatty Acids such as EPA and DHA may help decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease and support a healthy immune response. Although the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids are oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines, non-fish food options include flaxseed, flaxseed oil, and walnuts.
Ginger and rosemary have been shown to support the healthy metabolism of inflammatory chemicals.

Turmeric extract inhibits the activities of a wide range of enzymes implicated in pain and inflammation.

Rice protein has been shown to have a lower allergy potential than other protein sources, making it a safer alternative.
You can also minimize chronic inflammation by eating a healthier diet (including more vegetables and nutrient-dense superfoods) and getting regular, moderate exercise. Both will reduce the amount of fat in your body, which research suggests may incite the inflammatory response.

By Cindy Clayton-Sudalnik, D.C.

The Most Powerful Natural Antioxidant You May Never Have Heard Of

Antioxidants can play an important role in reducing inflammation in the body. Antioxidants help to counteract oxidative stress. They neutralize excess free radicals to protect cells, prevent illness, and reduce inflammation.

The most powerful natural antioxidant discovered to date is Hydroxytyrosol.

Hydroxytyrosol has an ORAC value (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity – its ability to absorb cell damaging free radicals) of 68,576 – which is considered to be 15 times higher than green tea and 3 times greater than CoQ10. It is recognized by scientists, because of numerous, well documented studies, for its powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effectiveness.

Hydroxytyrosol has the highest level of free radical absorption ever reported for a natural antioxidant. It has some very special characteristics that contribute to its effectiveness. It is:

* Rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and tissues where it can perform its free radical scavenging duties

* The only phenol (organic compound) that is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, which allows it to absorb free radicals throughout the central nervous system

* Both fat and water soluble, giving it the highest bioavailability of any antioxidant.

The Science Behind Hydroxytyrosol

In numerous human, animal and in vitro (test tube) studies, Hydroxytyrosol has been shown to:

* Reduce markers/indicators of inflammation

* Support healthy mitochondrial function and significantly increase ATP (a molecule that carries energy within cells) energy production

* Promote significant and rapid reduction of LDL (bad cholesterol)

* Boost eye health and reduce risk of macular degeneration

* Have a therapeutic effect on the heart and cardiovascular system.

What is Inflammation?