Health GlareEvery human being is the author of his own health or disease

Have you been wondering what an article on “Top 10 Health Tips” doing on a website dedicated to Beauty?

Are you one of those individuals who think “Top 10 Health Tips” and “Top 10 beauty Tips” are two separate concepts and need to be dealt individually? Have you been splurging an aweful lot of money trying to look “good” by getting Spa treatments, visiting Beauty Salons, Buying Designer Labels, Eating Health Foods, and yet every time you look into the mirror, you feel there’s something “lacking?”

If you think that way, you’re not the only one. Whereas most of us spend a whole lot of time, money and effort to make our skin, hair, face, hands and feet look beautiful, we often miss out on the critical role our health and wellness plays in making us look physically and mentally beautiful.

Follow these Top 10 Health Tips in your daily life to stay beautiful on the inside and outside:

1.Follow A Healthy, Balanced Diet: A balanced diet is the first step towards a beautiful, healthy body. Follow a healthy balanced diet that complements your lifestyle. An ideal diet should be high on fiber, low on fat, and must be supplemented with adequate amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Besides knowing what to eat, it is equally important to know the right proportions, meaning how much or how little to eat. Talk to a fitness expert and find out what’s your daily calorie intake. Make food choices that have high nutritional value but are low in calories.

2.Eat Different Types Of Foods: According to Ayurveda, the Ancient Indian science of healing, rotating your food habits not only strengthens your immune system, it can also protect you from most illnesses. Try to eat vegetables and fruits of different colors each day. Try eating a different food at least thrice a month. Begin your day with an apple a day as the apple pectin cleanses the body’s digestive system by removing toxins and therefore preventing degenerative health problems such as cancer.

3.Don’t Skip Your Breakfast: Are you surprised to see how some people manage to stay so fit, energetic and active the whole time and are able to stabilize their weight while you continue to put on weight and feel exhausted most of the time? Well, chances are, they eat a good breakfast and you don’t! According to nutritionists and health experts, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and skipping your breakfast can lead to serious health problems besides adding those extra pounds as a result of binging on unhealthy snacks later in the day. Besides re-charging your energy levels, eating regular breakfast has several long-term benefits like:

• It results in faster weight loss
• Your body get more nutrients everyday
• Breakfast rich in fiber foods and wholegrain helps keep the heart healthy especially if you suffer from metabolic disorders like fluctuating blood pressure, obesity and cholesterol. It also helps stabilize blood sugar levels
• A good breakfast early in the morning sets your mood right and enables you to handle stress better
• You stay overall healthy! So begin your day with fresh fruits, fruit juices, hard-boiled eggs, wholegrain cereals and breads and stay healthy all day!

4. Drink Lots Of Water: Drinking a minimum of 7 to 8 glasses of water everyday cleanses all the impurities and toxins from your body and helps to get healthy, flawless skin.

In addition, the fluid in your body is responsible for the functioning of your internal organs including the metabolic processes.  So if you’re dehydrated, this whole process gets affected and your body tends to slow down leaving you feeling low and lethargic.

5. Exercise Regularly: Who does not dream of getting those six-pack abs? Besides making you look sexy and popular, regular exercising is also the best natural “anti-aging” recipe because it helps you stay and feel young by raising your energy levels, stabilizing your body weight, and enhancing flexibility, which reduces the wear and tear in your body.

You don’t need to exercise for hours everyday, just take 15-20 minutes off your busy schedule everyday to sweat out that pot-belly or burn those extra-pounds that have been making it difficult for you to get into your favorite outfit! If you can’t, make one of these a part of your routine: take the stairs instead of elevators and escalators to climb; Make it a habit to walk about 15 minutes everyday. If holistic healing is your thing, enroll yourself for yoga classes. If not, go swimming, take aerobics lessons or start shaking a leg or two at the local dance academy-whatever keeps you going, juts do it! If you’re into sports, you can make it part of your fitness routine.

Remember, your external fitness is only a reflection of your inner fitness and a beautiful, healthy body reflects a fit, healthy mind.

6. Quit Smoking: Okay, so you’ve heard this countless times from your doctor, but here it comes again as one of our most important health tip-Quit Smoking! If you’re one of those people who smoke to lose or gain weight, we’d stay think again! While smoking may have been related to an increase in metabolism, it is certainly not a good enough reason to substitute it with the huge risk of dying from lung cancer!

If that doesn’t make you change your mind, this will. Recent studies have proved that smoking is also one of the leading factors that stimulate the process of aging in both men and women. So say no to cigarettes and stay young and healthy for the rest of your life!

7. Say No To Stress: We know what you’re thinking-easier said than done! Agreed, but leading a stressful life can only make matters worse. On the other hand, leading a relaxed, stress-free life will not only reduce the risks of health related disorders, it will also calm you down and let you enjoy your life better.

While planning your day, strike a balance between home and work. If you have trouble remembering things-make a list of all the “things-to-do” before going to bed each night or simply set a “reminder” in your cell phone so you don’t have to run around at the last minute. Staying positive and thinking happy thoughts is one of the most effective stress buster technique you can easily follow in your daily life.

Spend atleast 15 minutes doing something you love and enjoy each day. It could be a simple activity, like cuddling up in bed by yourself and watching a funny movie, enjoying a glass of your favorite wine, socializing with friends, reading, sweating it out at the gym, pampering yourself with a stress-releasing body massage, soaking in a hot tub, taking a stroll on the beach, playing with your dog, listening to your favorite music or simply lazing around and doing nothing!

8. Take Care Of Your Teeth: Remember the phrase “million dollar smile?” Well, your teeth have a lot to do with your smile and they can make or break your looks depending on how much or how little you’ve cared for them over the years! Dental health is an important aspect of your overall heath. One of the best ways to have healthy teeth, prevent gum-related infections and protect your heart is by flossing your teeth every day. Few of us know that gum infections if left untreated can cause inflammatory reactions in the body, which can lead to stroke and heart ailments.

9. Sleep Well: A good 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is a must for our body to reboot itself and feel energetic next day. Lack of sleep affects our hormone levels and slows down metabolism often resulting in weight gain. Studies have shown that deep, uninterrupted sleep helps cell growth and cell repair, which can increase the metabolism and help in burning calories. If you suffer from sleeplessness, try some of these simple remedies:

• Avoid alcohol before going to bed
• Stay away from stimulants like coffee, tea and chocolates before going to sleep
• Regularize your sleeping habit
• Keep your bedroom clean and uncluttered; Use decors and furnishing with peaceful and soothing colors
• Avoid taking longer daytime naps
• Follow relaxation techniques (for ex-meditation) to reduce stress

Keep Your Brain Active: Keeping your mind in “good shape” is just as vital as taking care of your physical health, so be sure to indulge your brain on a daily basis. An idle mind is not only the devil’s workshop, often the feeling of “aimlessness” or “nothingness” can cause boredom and can lead to depression and anxiety-related disorders.

One way to keep your brain engaged and busy is to constantly challenge yourself with new ideas and by learning new skills. Studies have shown than an active brain makes new connections between nerve cells that help cells communicate with one another. This allows our brain to store and access information easily, regardless of our age. Try some of these activities to keep your mind active and free from boredom:

• Learn to play a new musical instrument
• Learn a new language
• Indulge in crossword puzzles
• Play scrabble with a friend
• Participate in discussions and forums
• Maintain a blog and update it daily
• Switch careers or make a new beginning
• Read books on unfamiliar topics
• Pursue a new hobby
• Stay aware about what’s going on in the world

Follow these “Top 10 Health Tips” to stay physically and mentally beautiful for the rest of your life. Remember-”Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away!”

Our Brain

The brain together with the spinal cord, constitutes the nerves system and controls everything we do, and every thought we have. The brain works all the time. It is responsible for monitoring and regulating unconscious and voluntary actions in the body.  It is also the intellectual centre that allows thought, learning, memory and creativity. The spinal cord is a thick  bunch of nerves running from the brain down the spine. Branching off from it, is a complex network of nerves that runs to every part of body which carry signals to the rest of the body and back to the brain, from inside and outside the body. The information from outside is gathered by our five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Effects of Aging
Two thirds of all people eventually experience some  significant loss of mental lucidity and independence as a result of aging. 60 years and older experience significant cognitive decline, including declines in memory, concentration, clarity of thought, focus and judgment with an increase in the onset of several neurological problems like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke etc

Physically what happens to our brain as years go by….

Research has shown that as brain ages or as people get older, there will be a decrease in brain weight and brain volume, widening of the grooves on the surface of the brain and enlargement of the ventricular system (ventricles- a cavity or hollow part of the brain).

The decrease in brain weight and brain volume are probably due to loss of neurons (specialized cells transmitting nerve impulses) and extra cellular fluid. Man may have a  20% reduction in brain weight between the ages of forty -five and eighty -five and lose thirty to fifty thousand neurons a day from the brain and nervous system as they age. Enlargement of the ventricular system may be probably due to loss of cells surrounding the ventricles (the spaces in the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid).

Probable reasons for the change…

Surprisingly there is a certain percentage of people who function very normally even when they age. So the causes of loss of memory, concentration, focus and the inability to function independently as man ages may not be only due to the aging itself as previously thought. But may be due to a combination of other factors like Brain-unhealthy behavior and habits, insufficient mental stimulation, limited thought or response control strategies, brain unhealthy diet or inadequate supplements, lack of novel experience, lack of sufficient social interactions and cooperation etc.

Ways to delay effects of aging…

To stay mentally sharp, you need to work your mental muscles each and every day. Get involved in something that keeps your brain busy such as taking up a new class, exercise, martial arts, mind games etc. Any activity that involves concentration will help exercise the mind and keep it strong.

Mental stimulation
After 40, taking up a new language or any new course or art classes, whether joining a formal class or learning on your own is beneficial. As long as you learn something new, the nerve cells in your brain will grow and the connection between them will continue to strengthen.

As you age, find time to take up any art lessons like painting, wood working etc. that you always wanted to pursue but never had the time earlier. These help strengthen the part of the brain that controls spatial relations, the ability to recognize how things piece together.

To sharpen the hand -eye coordination and reaction time reflex, getting involved in some sports like table tennis, badminton etc. or  playing any music instruments and video games in the computer helps.

Get knowledge from books and try to keep remembering them to enhance your memory.  Regular reading of a variety of news papers is also helpful. Keep your brain active and sharp by playing like chess, cards, scrabble and doing crossword puzzle, jigsaw puzzles etc.

Diet and supplements
A deficiency in vitamin B-6, B-12 or folate (folic acid) can result in certain anemia and deterioration of the nervous system causing memory loss.  So a diet  high in Vitamin B-6, B-12 and Folate is essential especially after 40s. Natural sources of B-6 include beans, pulses and B-12 include seafood, meat, and dairy products. Folate is found in spinach, asparagus, beans, and fortified cereals.

Vitamin E,  an antioxidant comprises several compounds that are essential for the maintenance of cell membranes. The main sources of vitamin E are cereal, grains, green vegetables and eggs. Recent research has proved that antioxidant compounds like alphalipoic acid and acetyl -L-carnitine will boost memory. Taking small doses of ginkgo biloba a potentially safe and inexpensive herb, is shown to improve blood flow to the brain as well as other organs.

For individuals who cannot or do not consume an adequate variety of foods, a multivitamin/multi-mineral supplement may be beneficial. Along with the multivitamin/mineral supplement, 400 IU of Vitamin E , 100-500 mg of Vitamin C and 500 mg of Calcium (for people under 50 years) or 1000 mg (for people over 50 years) would be beneficial.

Social Interactions
Having a network of connections to other people is beneficial for brain health and well-being.  Humans appear to benefit and function more optimally when connected to other humans in a socially organized network. It is seen that people with a strong support network of family, friends, and acquaintances are less susceptible to stress-related problems.

Exercise

Keeping your body fit also keeps your mind fit. Practicing yoga, long term aerobic exercise or martial arts regularly during middle age is beneficial for boosting the brain.  Standing on one foot for  as long as possible and then switching to the other foot and repeating is a best single exercise which improves motor coordination that can be done at any time and without any special equipment. Try and see whether you can stand for thirty seconds, then slowly for longer periods and so on.

Walking…. go for it.
Research has shown that brisk walking regularly 3 days a week gives a 15 percent boost in mental functioning

Excess levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, may shrink the hippocampus, a part of the brain that’s needed to form certain types of memory. Yoga, meditation and breathing exercises which help to increase the action of the immune system along with socializing (sharing with others) are effective in lessening stress.

Recent research suggest that estrogen therapy may improve both verbal and visual memory in postmenopausal women with Alzheimer’s. Along with the above factors, avoiding smoking, abuse of drugs, excess alcohol and getting enough sleep goes a long way in keeping your brain healthy and young.