Affichage des articles dont le libellé est health. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est health. Afficher tous les articles

jeudi 30 avril 2015

10 Reasons Why Coffee Drinkers Are More Likely To Be Successful





I love coffee. I hope you do too. There is a ritual that comes with making it and the smell is wonderful. While others are yawning and trying to get their days going, coffee is like a punch in the face to wake you up into the real world. Perhaps you drink coffee all the time or merely sometimes, yet do not quite fully understand how pivotal it is to your success. If so, here is some news for you!

1. They are more physically active

When caffeine enters your blood stream, it acts like fuel. It also increases the adrenaline level in your body to significantly enhance your physical performance. Some suggest that you have a cup of coffee roughly an hour before you hit the gym or engage in a physically engaging exercise.

2. They have fewer health risks

According to some studies, those who drink coffee tend to have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Following this report, studies also showed that diabetics were less likely to die from the disease if they were coffee drinkers. Coffee also works against cardiovascular disease.

3. They are smarter

The caffeine in coffee blocks the adenosine in the brain, which is an inhibitory transmitter. That is why coffee drinkers have higher energy levels. Their brains function at significantly higher levels. Coffee improves reaction time, memory, and general cognitive function.

4. They have healthier brains

Studies have shown that coffee works against brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Although there are no cures for these diseases, coffee drinkers are less likely to have Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

5.They have fewer bouts of depression

According to a Harvard study, drinking several cups of coffee could reduce the risk of suicide in men and women by about 50 percent. Drinking cups of coffee keeps your spirits high, as it makes you 10% less likely to bedepressed. Although the protection from depression may not be attributable to caffeine, according to researchers, the coffee’s mood-lifting effect may be traced to its anti-oxidants.

6. They have longer life spans

According to studies and based on the health benefits attached to drinking coffee, people who drink coffee have a longer life span, as they are less susceptible to premature death and the negative effects of heart diseases, cholesterol intake, and blood pressure.

 7.They are not prone to obesity

Sluggishness and obesity do not belong to the coffee drinker. In most fat burning supplements, you will find caffeine. According to studies, caffeine is a fat-burning substance that boosts your metabolic rate by 3-11% and increases your fat burning by 10-29%.

8. They are funny and interesting to be with

According to a study conducted in the United Kingdom, those who drink coffee are more exciting to work with and add more fun to the workplace. They tend to be team players and love to engage others in a discussion or activity.

9. They earn more money

In a study conducted on workers in the United Kingdom, it was discovered that coffee drinkers earn 2,000 pounds more than their counterparts who drink tea. According to the study, coffee drinkers are less likely to be late for work than tea-sippers.

10. They are high achievers

In an article by the Guardian, it is noted that drinking coffee is part of the identity of high achievers. With a desperate need for time, a cup of caffeine is what drives and kick-starts a day. Rather than slowly rolling out of messy beds, the coffee drinker is ready to meet his goals as quickly as possible.
If you have enjoyed reading through this post, make yourself another cup of coffee and make a toast to success! You may have just increased your chances of being a success.

10 Easy Ways To Practice Mindfulness

In this fast moving external world, we have lost our inner connection. Every day is a struggle. Everyone is fighting for some position. You don’t have time for yourself.
You are always trying too hard to get noticed. But, have you ever noticed your inner world? You are always running after something. But, have you ever taken a simple walk in your inner kingdom? You are always frustrated after your hectic appointments. But, did you schedule any internal meetings?
This is the time to answer all these questions by practicing mindfulness

1. Live in the moment

Enjoy your present without connecting the events with your past and future. You don’t have to worry about anything because things unfold in a natural manner. Peel off all the insecurities and just concentrate on your work. Embrace the freshness of this moment to analyze the beauty of NOW. Mindfulness means to be aware of what is happening in the present moment.
In order to live this moment, you have to love your job, your surroundings, your life. Do everything with pure joy. Stop listening to all those people who try to dilute your presence. Start doing all the things you always wanted to do. Start making a wish list of all the things which are close to your heart.

2. Accept things as they are

It is a human tendency to wish for better things. Nobody is satisfied with their present conditions. But, a mindful person doesn’t judge. By accepting things, we realize their true worth. Things are not good or bad. We create all the mental tags.
You are  blessed with unique powers. So, build up your self-confidence and don’t try to modify your true personality. Surround yourself with people who accept you and have faith in you. Do not change things because you can’t accept them. Change only those things in which you enjoy the whole process of learning new things.

3. Use the Power of Visualization

Whenever you are feeling down, close your eyes and visualize your aim of life. In a matter of seconds, you will be transported to your dream land. It is an awesome place where you can do all the things you dream of in a free manner. You must take out some time for this exercise. You will definitely spend some quality time.

4. Practice Mindful Eating

Enjoy your food by chewing it properly. Chewing breaks down your food into small particles for proper digestion. Eat food for nourishing your body only. Recognize your non-hunger triggers to breaking free from food cravings and compulsive overeating. Do not upset your digestive system by eating more. It will have harmful effects on your body.

5. Start your day without any gadgets

What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed each morning? If you check phone, you are not alone. Many people start their day by checking their phones. Instead of checking office emails or the notifications of your social media profiles, take out some time for meditation. Plan out your whole day in a systematic manner. Don’t make any excuses and shift your focus towards this wonderful and productive exercise.

6. Accept your weak points

As nobody is perfect, you must accept your imperfections. If we are not fully aware of our mistakes, we may not only miss what is most significant in our lives but also fail to recognize our true potential. Instead of suppressing your mistakes, analyze them mindfully. A successful person learns from the mistakes only.
Highlight your weak points and start working on them. If you can’t solve your problem, ask for some assistance from trustworthy people. You will not become small by asking. Share your problems with your friends and stay away from ego clashes. It doesn’t matter if they laugh at you. Today, they are laughing at your foolishness. Tomorrow, you will smile at their innocence.

7. Take small steps

Design your successful road map by taking small steps. As Rome was not built in one day, your dream plan will also take some time.  You must give preference to quality over quantity.There is no need to rush into anything. Otherwise, you will spoil the essence of the whole journey.
Take small breaks from your work. Go out for a weekend trip with your friends and family. Make small targets and celebrate all small achievements. Start staying away from all the things that will deviate you from your real path. Don’t get carried away by the lavish lifestyle of the people, don’t waste time on ‘overnight success’ stories. In the long run, there is no shortcut to a successful life. Always remember one thing: Slow and steady wins the race.

8. Wait Patiently

Waiting at the red light, waiting for someone, waiting in the line for something. All these examples are very common in our personal life. The best way to tackle this problem is to shift your focus. Calm down and concentrate on the things around you. If this doesn’t work, focus on your breathing. You just have to observe your breathing pattern.

9. Free yourself from all distracting thoughts

Thoughts are the temporary guest only. You are not your thoughts. So, don’t get carried away by all your disturbing thoughts. In a state of mindfulness, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance only. You have the power to inflate or deflate their presence.You can’t stop this kind of thoughts completely. But, as soon as they enter your mind, you must disconnect them from yourself.
Start writing a journal every day. Without thinking too much, jot down your true feelings. It proves to be a great stress buster. In this way, you will clear all the distracting thoughts.

10. End your day on a positive note

Before going to sleep, recollect all the sweet moments of the whole day. Appreciate all the sweet and small moments. Be thankful for everything.  Do not waste time in getting irritated by your stressful moments. You will get nothing in return except more stress. Analyze your depressing moments of the day and look out for a positive solution.

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mercredi 29 avril 2015

The Easy Way to Lose Weight

The list of challenging weight loss strategies is endless, but there are a few relatively painless lifestyle changes you can make that have a big impact on shaping up, too. While eating at home instead of dining out is certainly an effective strategy to drop pounds, many people don’t realize it’s actually an unwise move to purchase the necessary ingredients for their home-cooked meals where they’d reasonably go to get groceries: the grocery store.
To lose weight effortlessly, never set foot inside a grocery store again.Let’s examine why, as well as a better alternative.

Three Reasons to Abandon Grocery Stores1. Option Overload
2. Your Senses Betray You
3. Availability of Junk
Food manufactures are constantly introducing new food products to the market, and the vast majority of them are processed and loaded with unnatural ingredients. This category of groceries is ever-expanding, and it can be difficult to avoid every bit of it to stick to a list of fresh foods instead—it feels depriving. This problem is intensified by the fact that the store itself is set up in a way that encourages you to walk down these aisles of junk food, increasing the temptation to pick up these tasty-but-nutritionally-void treats.
Supermarkets have the ability to import goods from anywhere, and they have a goal of meeting the needs—and desires—of a wide range of shoppers and their diets. As such, there are endless options. Coming prepared with a list helps, but the abundance and variety of products inevitably leads you to feel like you “need” more than you came for, and to adding unplanned items to your cart. Those of us with even the best of intentions will see a favorite food, and convince ourselves we “forgot” to add it to our list, or otherwise rationalize buying it.
On a related note, let’s not forget that our willpower is a finite resource. With so many options—and, therefore, so many decisions to be made—in a typical grocery store trip, we are bound to start slipping up and giving in when our willpower begins to dwindle.
There is a lot of psychology behind the way supermarkets are organized and the way their products are presented. Ultimately, a grocery store is a business, and businesses aim for revenue—in other words, they need you to buy stuff. A lot of stuff. To achieve this, certain items are displayed in a visually appealing fashion (for example, at eye level, as opposed to the very top or bottom shelf). Also, delightful smells are purposefully placed around specific products. Free samples of great-tasting foods are offered right next to their location on the shelf. Your senses are manipulated in a supermarket to influence your buying decisions.

See How Much Water You Use Everyday

Water is one of the most important aspects of human life on earth and yet most people have no idea how much they use on a daily basis. The abundance of water makes it easy to forget that all the technology we utilize can require upwards of 1,200 gallons a day in the rich world. A simple shower can use up to 11 gallons of water alone. A bath is almost twice as much.
Even the clothing that we wear can require thousands of gallons in order to create and a couple of pounds of meat can require the same. Overall, living in the rich world can be comfortable, but often leads to over consumption of water while there are over a billion people with no access at all. For all of us, this should be food for thought.

16 Natural Sore Throat Remedies



Salt and water
Try grandma’s sore throat remedy by mixing 1⁄4 teaspoon salt in 1 cup warm water. (Use the hottest water you can comfortably tolerate. Cold gargles are ineffective.) If you have it, add 1 tablespoon of Listerine for germ-killing power. The briny solution helps rinse away and neutralize acids in the throat, relieving the burning sensation and promoting fast healing of irritated mucous membranes. Note: Mix a fresh batch of gargle for every use. Better to waste a bit pouring it out than to leave it in your glass, where it might become contaminated with bacteria. Also, do not swallow the gargle; spit it out.
Lemon and water
Mix 1 teaspoon lemon juice in 1 cup water for this home remedy for sore throats; the astringent juice will help shrink swollen throat tissue and create a hostile (acidic) environment for viruses and bacteria.
Ginger, honey, and lemon in water
This home remedy mixes 1 teaspoon each of powdered ginger and honey, 1⁄2 cup of hot water, and the juice of 1⁄2 squeezed lemon. Pour the water over the ginger, then add the lemon juice and honey, and gargle. Honey coats the throat and also has mild antibacterial properties.
Hot sauce and water
The capsicum in hot peppers helps alleviate pain and fights inflammation. Add five shakes of ground cayenne pepper (or a few shakes of hot sauce) to a cup of hot water for sore throat relief. It’ll burn, but try this gargle every 15 minutes and see if it helps.
Sage and water
Sage can soothe a sore throat and ease painful or swollen nasal passages. One traditional home remedy calls for 1 teaspoon sage, 1⁄2 teaspoon alum, 1⁄4 cup brown sugar, 3⁄8 cup vinegar, and 1⁄8 cup water.
Turmeric and water
This yellow spice is a powerful antioxidant, and scientists think it has the strength to fight many serious diseases. For a sore throat remedy, mix 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon of salt into 1 cup of hot water and gargle.
Wheatgrass juice
Another good remedy: Wheatgrass juice. A quick rinse and spit with this chlorophyll-rich liquid helps prohibit bacteria growth and ease throat pain. Held in the mouth for five minutes or so, wheatgrass juice is said to help revitalize weakened gums and stop toothache pain.
Clove tea
Add 1 to 3 teaspoons of powdered or ground cloves to water, then mix and gargle. Cloves have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that can help soothe and heal a sore throat.
Tomato juice
For temporary relief of sore throat symptoms, gargle with a mixture of 1/2 cup tomato juice and 1/2 cup hot water, plus about 10 drops hot pepper sauce. The antioxidant properties of lycopene may help remedy a sore throat faster.
Green tea
Green tea is known to naturally fight infections. Next time you brew a cup, make a little extra and gargle with some of this remedy to kill any bacteria your sore throat may be harboring.
Apple cider vinegar and salt
If your throat is left raw by a bad cough, grab a bottle of apple cider vinegar because germs can’t survive in the acidic coating it’ll form on your throat. Gargle with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt dissolved in a glass of warm water; use several times a day if needed. For a gentler treatment, combine 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup honey and take 1 tablespoon every four hours.
Goldenseal and water
Gargling with the herbal germ-killer goldenseal (1 1⁄2 teaspoons goldenseal tincture in 8 ounces water) kills viruses and bacteria as it soothes inflamed throat tissue.
Echinacea and water
Echinacea is an herbal virus-killer. Add 2 teaspoons tincture of echinacea to 1 cup water and gargle this home remedy three times daily. In addition to easing sore throat pain, an echinacea gargle will give your immune system the boost it needs to fight the infection.
Myrrh and water
You may be able to speed the healing process with myrrh (a few drops of tincture of myrrh in a cup of water). Highly astringent, myrrh is superb at combating inflammation. It’s an antiseptic too. Gargle six times a day—a bit of an effort, true, but well worth it.
Licorice water
Licorice root can soothe a sore throat and eliminate cough-inducing phlegm; a 2009 study found that post-operative patients who gargled with a licorice solution were less likely to develop a sore throat post-surgery. Mix one teaspoon of licorice syrup or powder with eight ounces of water and swish.
Raspberry tea
Raspberry tea is an old home remedy believed to treat everything from the flu to open wounds. One recipe calls for pouring 1 cup of boiling water over 2 teaspoons of dried tea leaves. Steep for 10 minutes, then strain and let cool a bit. Gargle while warm.

11 Benefits of Green Tea That You Didn’t Know About

Why Green Tea?
  1. Weight Loss. Green tea increases the metabolism. The polyphenol found in green tea works to intensify levels of fat oxidation and the rate at which your body turns food into calories.
  1. Diabetes. Green tea apparently helps regulate glucose levels slowing the rise of blood sugar after eating. This can prevent high insulin spikes and resulting fat storage.
  1. Heart Disease. Scientists think, green tea works on the lining of blood vessels, helping keep them stay relaxed and better able to withstand changes in blood pressure. It may also protect against the formation of clots, which are the primary cause of heart attacks.
  1. Esophageal Cancer. It can reduce the risk of esophageal cancer, but it is also widely thought to kill cancer cells in general without damaging the healthy tissue around them.
  1. Cholesterol. Green tea reduces bad cholesterol in the blood and improves the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol.
  1. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It is said to delay the deterioration caused by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Studies carried out on mice showed that green tea protected brain cells from dying and restored damaged brain cells.
  1. Tooth Decay. Studies suggests that the chemical antioxidant “catechin” in tea can destroy bacteria and viruses that cause throat infections, dental caries and other dental conditions
  1. Blood Pressure. Regular consumption of green tea is thought to reduce the risk of high blood pressure.
  1. Depression. Theanine is an amino acid naturally found in tea leaves. It is this substance that is thought to provide a relaxing and tranquilizing effect and be a great benefit to tea drinkers.
  1. Anti-viral and Anti-bacterial. Tea catechins are strong antibacterial and antiviral agents which make them effective for treating everything from influenza to cancer. In some studies green tea has been shown to inhibit the spread of many diseases.
  1. Skincare. Green tea can apparently also help with wrinkles and the signs of aging, This is because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Both animal and human studies have demonstrated that green tea applied topically can reduce sun damage.
How Much?
Green tea has been used as a medicine for thousands of years, originating in China but widely used throughout Asia this beverage has a multitude of uses from lowering blood pressure to preventing cancer. The reason that green tea has more health benefits attached to it than black tea is (apparently) due to the processing. Black tea is processed in a way that allows for fermentation whereas green tea’s processing avoids the fermentation process. As a result, green tea retains maximum amount of antioxidants and poly-phenols the substances that give green tea its many benefits.
Here’s a list of some of its amazing benefits — benefits that you may not have been aware of. Some of these benefits are still being debated, so please do your own research if you want to use green tea for medicinal purposes.
These are some of the many benefits but the reality is one cup of tea a day will not give you all the abundant gains. The jury is out on how many cups are necessary; some say as little as two cups a day while others five cups — and more still say you can drink up to ten cups a day. If you are thinking of going down this route, you may want to consider taking a green tea supplement instead (it would keep you out of the bathroom).
Another thing to point out is that there is caffeine in green tea — so if you are sensitive to caffeine then one cup should be your limit. Green tea also contains tannins (which can decrease the absorption of iron and folic acid), so if you are pregnant or trying to conceive then green tea may not be ideal for you. You can try mixing green tea with other healthy ingredients such as ginger.