Meditation: Give Yourself a Gift

In this season of gift-giving, it is easy to become so preoccupied with searching for the perfect gift to give someone else that we forget to take care of ourselves. The altruistic spirit is a nurturing spirit when it is fully expressed. To be fully expressed it must come full circle-nothing in nature continues to exist only with the outflow. Everything flourishes in giving and receiving.

We all have the same amount of time, which flows, for eternity, in an endless stream of "now" moments. The illusion of not having enough time comes when we face the options, requirements, and opportunities that life presents to us as if we had to choose them all, or as if we cannot choose the ones we want because of obligations and forces beyond our control.

Here are some gifts you can give yourself that can make the holidays seem less hectic and more meaningful.

The Gift of Spirit:
The spirit with which we enter into everything influences its effect on us and on everyone around us. Before you go to any event, or even out shopping, do an attitude check. Use your option to say, "No" to those activities where your spirit will be agitated rather than lifted.

The Gift of Release:
Decide to let go of any rituals or activities that no longer have full meaning. Your family and friends may be just as ready to simplify their lives. Trim your card list; engage in meaningful activities and practice serenity in everything.

The Gift of Time:
Spend some time by yourself, either doing nothing or engaging in an activity which is refreshing to you, one in which you will come away renewed--not frazzled. You may also choose to combine one or more of your other gifts to yourself with this one.

The Gift of Music:
Music has the ability to soothe, uplift, renew, and inspire. Choose to have music, which evokes pleasant memories and feelings, in the background of your activities. Listen to soft music as you drive, prepare meals, or as you soak in a luxurious bath.

The Gift of Balance:
A frantic holiday season comes from keeping our attention fixed on all we have to do, or on the negatively imagined results of not being able to do everything. The ability to see and appreciate the sacredness and beauty of life comes to us only one moment at a time. Balance your activities with time alone. Allow enough time to get to where you are going without being pressured.

Opening Your Gifts:
You can begin by consciously choosing to align the way you spend your time with the needs of your body, mind and spirit. Bring your shopping, relationships, work, and resources into balance within the framework of the gifts you are giving to yourself. It is not so much what we do, or how much we do, as it is how we do it that produces a creative and peace-filled life.

To have a happier holiday season answer these question when you feel stressed:

1. How can I change the way I perceive this event? This person?
   
2. How does what I am doing right now contribute to the quality of my life or the life of others?
   
3. How can I bring the highest that is within me to this moment now?
   
4. What can I release, remove or rearrange to bring peace to my life?

Use these steps to remind yourself of your commitment.

• Be true in your actions to the spirit of your heart.
  
• Clarify your thoughts and focus on one thing at a time.
  
• Orient your choices toward satisfaction, flexibility, compassion and contribution.
  
• Affirm: Today I am at peace in my world. I move in my world with a deep spirit-nurturing attitude. This is my gift to myself and to the world.

Fighting Asthma with Food

Asthma is an inflammatory airway disease. It is a condition that causes reactions leading to respiratory distress. However, asthma is curable and can be treated by proper medication and a slight modification in your diet.

Eating to control asthma

You can control asthma attacks by eating a diet, which is:

• Moderately low fat, preferably vegetarian
• Rich in complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains and starchy vegetables
• Low in sugar
• Making proteins about 12-15 per cent of your diet, which is slightly lower than than the normal allowance of about 20 per cent
• Low in red meats and dairy products

Natural foods for controlling asthma

Here are some great fruits and vegetables that have been found useful in controlling asthma. Take your pick:

Banana: A low-cost, delicious fruit, which is available round the year. It has a high nutritional value with a rare combination of energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Banana is very useful for those who are allergic to certain substances and suffer from asthma. The reason underlying this is that banana is rich in those amino acids, which are anti-allergic to asthmatics.


Grapes: A high therapeutic value -- owing to their easy assimilation property - makes grapes beneficial for asthma. The fruit as well as its juice has a favourable influence in controlling the disease since being rich in moisture grapes increase the moisture of the lungs.


Orange: The most popular citrus fruit, orange is an effective remedy to control asthma. All you have to do is mix a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of honey in orange juice. Orange acts by its saline action on the lungs and protects from secondary infections.


Bitter gourd: Karela or bitter gourd has excellent medical virtues and has been used as a folk medicine for respiratory disorders from ancient times. A teaspoon of root paste mixed with equal amount of tulsi leaf juice taken for a month acts as an excellent medicine for asthmatics.


Garlic: A food, herb, medicinal plant and a beauty accessory since time immemorial, garlic owes its medicinal values to a volatile oil called allyl sulphade, that has a marvelous therapeutic value. The garlic pod is peeled and boiled in 120 ml of pure malt vinegar. This mixture is strained and mixed with equal amounts of honey and then preserved. A teaspoon of this mixture taken every day helps to reduce the severity of the attacks.


Ginger: A teaspoon of fresh ginger juice mixed with a cup of fenugreek decoction acts as an expectorant in asthma.


Spinach: This green vegetable is a rich source of essential amino acids, iron, vitamin A and folic acid. Infusion of fresh leaves prepared with fenugreek seeds and mixed with a pinch of ammonium chloride acts as an effective expectorant for treatment of asthma. It soothes the bronchioles and forms healthy tissue in the lungs, thereby increasing resistance against respiratory infections.


Safflower seeds: These are beneficial in the treatment of bronchial asthma. Taking half a teaspoon of the seed powder along with a tablespoon of honey acts as an expectorant and reduces the spasms by liquefying the tenacious sputum.


Honey: This sweetner is rich in ethereal oil and alcohol that is beneficial in asthma. Inhaling the air that comes in contact with honey brings relief and the patient is able to breathe deeper and easier.

Thus by consuming a diet rich in these foods, you can easily control your asthmatic condition.

Your Diet and Dental Health

Remember how often as a kid your mom used to restrict the number of chocolates or sweets you ate saying that they were bad for the teeth. Thanks to her you probably have a perfect set of pearly whites. It's true that your dental health is related to what you eat. In fact bad food is the main culprit for poor dental health.

Diet and tooth development

The development of oral cavity and teeth formation depends on adequate nutrients. Vitamins A, C and D and minerals such as fluoride and calcium play a very important role in the development of hard and soft tissues of the mouth during the early development as well as throughout life. Studies have shown that even a single incidence of malnutrition in the first phase of life, can severely affect the oral cavity development and also cause increased incidence of caries in the later phase of life.

Diet and dental decay

Dental decay or caries is the most infectious disease of the oral cavity and many fall prey to this. Caries is a result of nutritional deficiencies as well as a result of microorganisms such as bacteria, general hygiene and family history.

The tooth surface is covered with bacterial coating known as plaque. Dental caries results when acid producing bacteria dominate in this coating. When you eat food, there are fermentable carbohydrates in the food that can be metabolized by these bacteria and converted to lactic acid. The already acidic plaque gets more acidic, causing dental caries, leading to loss of tooth and further bacterial invasion.

Dietary considerations

Good dietary intake is the key to healthy teeth. However, prevention of caries is also dependant on the body's needs being met with certain minerals such as fluoride in adequate amounts. A balanced diet is unable to provide fluoride, so you have to take care that the water levels of fluoride are adequate. Or else go in for toothpastes and mouth rinses that have extra fluoride in them.

Caries is caused by your food intake: what you eat, how much you eat, how much time you devote to eating and the fermentable carbohydrate in your diet. Carbohydrates are classified as cariogenic foods, i.e. foods that dissolve slowly and remain in the mouth for a longer time, whereas fats and proteins are noncariogenic. Since all carbohydrates are broken down into sugars, they can result in caries due to bacterial action.

Foods such as cheese are considered as caries protective foods since they internally provide protection due to its components and also increase the flow of saliva, which prevents the formation of plaques. This stands true for all dairy products. In fact milk is a rich source of calcium, which is a necessary mineral for healthy teeth. High fat and protein foods such as meats and nuts are also protective since fat results in less stickiness of food in the mouth and hence less fermentation by bacteria.

Tips for healthy teeth

Avoid frequent snacking since snacks are basically carbohydrate based and hence increase the risk for caries. Thus carbohydrate foods should be taken in combination with fat and protein, as it reduces its exposure with teeth and hence less decay.

Avoid sticky foods such as chocolate and toffees since they remain in the mouth for a longer time and hence are available to the bacteria.

Restrict the intake of soft drinks. Being acidic in nature, they have the capacity to destroy the tooth enamel.

Frequent brushing of teeth with fluoridated toothpaste can help to reduce the contact of fermentable sugar with teeth.

Thus proper hygiene and good dietary habits can help in fighting the life long problem of tooth decay.

Vegetarianism is Healthy

If you are a vegetarian, you have company. In fact, lots of it. Currently, even in America the land of meat and ham, more than 12.4 million individuals are vegetarians by choice. Mahatma Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw and Albert Einstein were all veggies. So you are in hallowed company too. Vegetarianism, or the practice of excluding one or more type of animal products from your diet, is more than just a food habit – it’s a lifestyle that is here to stay.

Do you know why more and more people are embracing vegetarianism? Because it permits you to lead a healthier, disease-free lifestyle. Check out these amazing health benefits of vegetarianism:

• Veggies have lower mortality rates because they are less prone to certain cancers and heart diseases.
• Vegetarians have less chances of getting colon cancer.
• Vegetarianism is a natural substitute for anti-impotency drugs. In most cases of impotency, blocked arteries are to blame. Reducing or eliminating meat could help with this problem.
• Veggies have lower rates of coronary artery disease, hypertension and non-insulin dependent diabetes than non-vegetarians.
• They also have fewer kidney and gall stones.
• Recent research has shown that plant food diets or veggie diets are the best way of controlling diabetes

Did you know that vegetarians are of four kinds? Puzzled, then read on:

A vegan is someone who does not eat any animal flesh or products, meaning no milk or eggs either.
An ovo vegetarian is someone who doesn’t eat any animal flesh, does eat eggs but not dairy products.
Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat eggs and dairy products but abstain from animal flesh. And lastly, there are Lacto vegetarians who eat dairy products but avoid animal products and eggs.

A standard Indian balanced diet for a sedentary worker is a lacto vegetarian diet, where the nutrient composition of the diet fully meets with the recommended dietary allowance. An Indian vegetarian diet generally includes milk, legumes and pulses, nuts, vegetable oils, vegetables, fruits. And if you thought that vegetarians were lacking in any nutrient, you were wrong. A vegetarian diet is complete and able to meet all the nutritional requirements of your body more satisfactorily than a non-vegetarian diet.

People choose to be vegetarians for different reasons. It could be for ethical reasons, health benefits, religious reasons or simply a matter of food habits and preferences. Whatever be the reason, a vegetarian diet is a good safeguard against chronic diseases and definitely healthy, hip and happening.

How to choose herbal supplements?

Herb usually refers to a plant that grown for culinary, savory and even spiritual value. Traditionally, herbs are used to treat wide spectrum of health problems in China, India, Greek, and Roman. Many herbs are well known for their health benefits.

For example, Black Cohosh may improve symptoms of menopause and perimenopause, Ginseng helps boost immune system and energy, Evening Primrose is very beneficial for symptoms of PMS. Today, there is increased interest and popularity of herbal remedies. Many realized that many synthetic drugs have unpleasant side effects, and can be hazardous. Some of these drugs may not even be effective. Generally, herbs are used to maintain good health and are safer to use compare to drugs.

You need to be careful when you select herbal supplements. In U.S., herbal supplements are regulated by the FDA (Food and Drug administration) as foods. The safety of the supplements and the accuracy of the labels are not guarantee. The manufacturers are fully responsible of the potency, efficacy and safety of the ingredients used. Many herbal supplements have been found to be contaminated with metals, unlabeled prescription drugs, microorganisms, or other substances. Also, some herbal supplements are not scientifically formulated.

To choose the best quality herbal supplements:

1. Look for supplements with standardize herbal extracts. This means that the supplements contain the active ingredients that are responsible for the health benefits.
2. Each ingredient in the supplements must be supported by COA (Certificate of Analysis), which guarantees the potency and safety.
3. The label of the supplements should contain following information: descriptive name of the product (e.g. Ginseng), net quantity contents (e.g. 100 tablets), net contents of the product, complete list of ingredients and amounts, disclaimer (“this statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease”), name and address of the business of the manufacturer, expiration date. Note that the disclaimer mentioned above is required by law (DSHEA).
4. Look for products that have been tested scientifically. Check if the ingredients of the supplements have been proven scientifically for their health benefits. You may obtain the information from the website of products, or you can email the manufacturers. Consult your doctor about the quality of the related research.
5. Look for ingredients in products with the U.S.P. notation, which indicates the manufacturer followed standards established by the U.S. Pharmacopoeia.
6. Make sure that the herbal supplements have good bioavailability. Much of the active ingredients of supplements are destroyed by the acid of the stomach. Choose the quality product that is not affected by this process so that all essential nutrients are absorbed by your body.
7. Choose the herbal supplements with your health care provider who is profesionally trained in herbal medicine. Present the labels of the supplements to seek for their advises.
8. Purchase from merchants has refund policy for unsatisfactory products.
9. If you are targetting specific condition, it is best to buy herbal formulas that is theurapetic for that condition. Usually these herbal formulas contain few herbs that function synergistically. The primary herb targets specific ailment. Other supporting herbs enhance the primary herbs healing benefits and ensure overall effectiveness of the formula. Never mix and max your own’s herbs.

Reference: FDA, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Meditation & Spirituality: Ignore Nature - Ignore Yourself

Overcoming stress the natural ways. Here are some ideas.

Racing on freeways, we never lose our minds to the point that we forget to buy a daily cup of coffee, which tastes bitter to those who simply don't have an extra moment to spill sugar in the cup. The fanatical belief that "coffee will pick us up" doesn't actually come to our rescue, especially when we sit on the sharp edge of stress chronically provoked by life routine. There are other ways to put stress at bay - eat the right foods for your health and well-being and you will likely feel a lot less stressed.

I know people who would put 'life routine' as the least likable category in a list of dislikes. I am sure you've met them in your neighborhood. We all can identify with them by reflecting on their irritable disposition. We seem to know what we don't like, but there are times when we don't know what we like or what we should like.

During the change between summer and fall everyone comes to realize that summer is over, and it's time to unpack your autumn decorations, knowing that Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner. When fall knocks on your door, welcome its riches, and do it for your health.

Go to your local "farmer's market" and buy the seasonal fruits that will shake the stress off your body by giving you a naturally sweet and tasty shot of energy. Eat those for the whole season. Don't start eating strawberries, cherries, and raspberries yet. It's time to get the best juices out of grapes, apples, plums and melons! Such produce, picked from nature and brought directly to the market, provides the necessary nutrients for good health.

Wine-lovers tend to think that one of the secrets to good health lies at the bottom of an empty wine glass. Yes, the glass of red wine a day has been proven to benefit the health of our hearts. Following the studies revealing the benefits of red wine, researchers discovered an additional substance in grapes called resveratrol. Resverartol can block cancer during the three major stages of tumor development.

A cancer researcher from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Michael J. Wargovich, has discovered that grapes and other fruits have powerful natural compounds, that when ingested into the body work as a defense against cancer. In comparison, to match the daily intake of grapes, one would have to drink the equivalent of five gallons of wine a day. Obviously, it's much healthier to eat grapes!

Next time you are driving on the freeway, and you feel a serious case of "road rage" coming on, forget about going to Starbucks, eat some grapes instead!

Coenzyme Q10: Dietary Sources, Precautions

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), also known as ubiquinone, is essential for energy production. It is an antioxidant—a molecule that has been shown to counteract processes resulting in disease.

Uses


Coenzyme Q10 deficiency primarily affects the heart and leads to heart failure. This deficiency can result from impaired coenzyme Q10 production or an increased need for it resulting from cardiovascular disease. Also, coenzyme Q10 levels may drop as we age.

A growing body of research shows that using a coenzyme Q10 supplement alone or in combination with other drug therapy may be beneficial in the treatment of several health problems, particularly cardiac conditions and diseases, breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, immune deficiency, muscular dystrophy, and periodontal disease.

Coenzyme Q10 supplementation may be of special interest to patients with high blood pressure. The supplement has a tendency to lower high blood pressure after 4 to 12 weeks of use.

Some cholesterol-lowering medications may deplete levels of coenzyme Q10 in the body, so people with high cholesterol who take these medications should also consider taking coenzyme Q10 supplements.

This supplement can also be used as a pretreatment for cardiac bypass surgery. It has been shown to reduce oxidative damage and protect the heart during surgery.

Dietary Sources


Coenzyme Q10 is found in every plant and animal cell. Primary dietary sources include oily fish, organ meats such as liver, and whole grains. Most people get enough coenzyme Q10 in their diet. Supplementation can be helpful in individuals with certain health conditions and in the elderly, because levels of coenzyme Q10 can decline with advancing age.

Other Forms


Coenzyme Q10 is available as a supplement in several forms, including softgel capsules, spray, hardshell capsules, and tablets.

How to Take It


Pediatric

There are no known reports to date about use of Coenzyme Q10 supplements in children. Therefore, use in children is not recommended at this time.

Adult

The general recommended dose for supplementation is 25 mg twice daily. Experimental doses include the following:

• 100 mg a day in patients with heart disease
• 60 mg a day for 4 to 8 weeks to enhance athletic performance
• 120 mg a day for 28 days after a heart attack
• 400 mg per day for potential prevention and treatment of breast cancer, and possibly other forms of cancer

Coenzyme Q10 should be taken with a meal containing oil since it is fat soluble. The body does not absorb it as well in the absence of oil.

Precautions


Coenzyme Q10 appears to be safe with no significant side effects. However, the safety of supplementation during pregnancy and breastfeeding is unknown.

Possible Interactions


Coenzyme Q10 may help to reduce the toxic effects on the heart of daunorubicin and doxorubicin, two chemotherapy medications that are commonly used to treat a variety of cancers. Consult your healthcare provider before using coenzyme Q10 supplements while you are taking these medications.

In a scientific study, supplementation with CoQ10 in patients taking medications for high blood pressure (such as diltiazem, metoprolol, enalapril, and nitrate) resulted in the need for lower doses of these medications. More research is needed to verify these results; therefore, you should consult your healthcare practitioner before adding CoQ10 supplements to your existing medication regimen.

There have been reports that coenzyme Q10 may decrease the effectiveness of blood-thinning medications such as warfarin. Therefore, you should not use CoQ10 supplements if you are currently taking warfarin without discussing this with your healthcare provider.

In one study, treatment with CoQ10 in patients using timolol drops, a beta-blocker medication used to treat glaucoma, reduced side effects on the heart without decreasing the effectiveness of the medication. Consult your healthcare provider about whether CoQ10 supplements may be appropriate for you if you are being treated with timolol.

Please refer to the consumer depletions monographs for additional information on other medications that may reduce the levels of coenzyme Q10 in the body, such as gemfibrozil, beta-blockers, and tricyclic antidepressant medications, to name a few.

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