Does Insomnia have a hold on you...here are three tips to get a good nights sleep..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

On a rare night when you actually crawl into bed at a decent hour, you stare at the ceiling, eyes wide open, mind racing … and a good night’s sleep feels more like a distant dream with every passing second. You’re not alone. Every year, as many as 40 percent of adults have insomnia, an inability to fall or stay asleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. About 10 to 15 percent of people suffer from chronic insomnia, finding it difficult to get enough shuteye at least a few nights a week.
But regaining entry to the land of nod is key for your long-term health; over time, sleep deprivation can reduce immunity, up your risk of diabetes and heart disease and even make you gain weight. Here’s how to get the Zzzs you crave.


Make Cherry Juice Your Nightcap
Alcohol is a known sleep saboteur — it may make you fall asleep, but it disrupts normal sleep cycles, causing you to wake up in the middle of the night. Cherry juice, on the other hand, may help ensure restful slumber, because it’s naturally high in melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate your body’s sleep-wake cycles. In a 2010 study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, participants who drank tart cherry juice twice a day fell asleep sooner than when they drank a placebo beverage.

Relax In a Rocking Chair
It’s well known that babies fall fast asleep when they’re rocked gently back and forth in a carriage or a mother’s arms. Surprisingly, the same trick works with adults, say Swiss researchers. When study participants napped in a hammock-like bed, they fell asleep faster and entered the restorative deep-sleep phase sooner than when they slept in a regular bed. It seems that the gentle swinging sensation primes areas of the brain involved in deep sleep. While you can’t exactly doze off in a hammock every night, try chilling out in a rocking chair before hitting the sheets to mimic the motion and help your body feel sleepy.

Count Sheep… Backward
If your mind tends to race as soon as your head hits the pillow, put the brakes on this sleep-stealing habit by distracting yourself from rehashing the day’s events. One tip Breus offers his patients: Count down from 300 in multiples of three. “Because this task is mathematically complicated to do in your head,” he explains, “it forces your brain to focus on something else besides your worries.”

Good Maintenence Eating ~ Eat Italian — Live Longer!

Tomatoes, basil, and olive oil aren’t just the building blocks of delicious Italian cuisine — they’re also the perfect combination of ingredients if you’re looking to lose weight and eat healthier. How exciting is that? Here’s a look at how each of these superfoods can benefit your body.

• Tomatoes. Tomatoes are loaded with lycopene, a phytonutrient and antioxidant. Lycopene has been proven to protect against a whole slew of cancers, including colorectal, prostate, breast, endometrial, lung, and pancreatic…and it has heart-protective qualities as well! While fresh tomatoes are wonderful for your health, cooked tomatoes, such as those in tomato sauce or even ketchup, actually contain more lycopene than their fresh counterparts.
• Basil. This pungent herb is rich in antioxidants like vitamins A and C and flavonoids, which can help protect your cells from damage and improve your heart health. It can also inhibit bacterial growth — including dangerous strains of bacteria like staphylococcus.
• Olive oil. Not all fats are bad: This monounsaturated oil can be a cornerstone of healthy eating — and can also help you lose weight. Studies have shown that people who follow an olive-oil-rich Mediterranean-style diet have a lower incidence of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, asthma, and atherosclerosis — and may actually cut their risk of death in half. Be sure though if you are cooking with olive oil that you are not cooking it on a high heat. If you cook olive oil on a high heat it change the balance and actually makes the oil rancid.

So go ahead and serve a generous portion of tomato sauce with your favorite organic meat — or, even occasionally, whole-grain pasta. It’ll be a delicious way to get some key nutrients that will improve your health. By eating delicious, nutritious, wholesome foods to propel you toward a leaner figure, a healthier lifestyle, and an all-around better way of life.

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Two Worst Foods for Your Weight

For people trying to lose weight, here's the good news: Nutrition researchers have scoped out the enemy. And these two foods are the top waistline assassins: potato chips and soda.

Everyone knows to cut back on junk food. But in a recent, large study examining what foods were most associated with weight gain, potato chips and sweetened drinks stood out as the ultimate arch villains.

Not All Snacks Created Equal
The basic blueprint of healthy living is simple: Eat less junk food, stay active, get a good night's sleep, drink alcohol only in moderation, and don't smoke. But scientists have now started to suspect that when it comes to junk food, some snacks are worse than others.

So in a recent study, they tracked more than 100,000 Americans over two decades to see who gained the most weight and what foods they ate. And they found that regularly having potatoes -- especially chips -- and sugar-sweetened drinks was most associated with an expanding waistline.

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The Spice of Life

All those spices and herbs in your spice rack can do more than add a little extra kick to your meals — they can rev up your metabolism and improve your health at the same time. Many spices are considered superfoods because they are full of antioxidants! Consider adding two to three spices to all your meals to make them not only taste great, but also help detoxify your body at the same time. (Don’t you just love nature!?) Here’s a list of some of the herbs and spices that will give a healthy (and flavorful) boost to your foods.

• Basil is rich in antioxidants like vitamins A and C.
• Black pepper increases the hydrochloric-acid production in your stomach, aiding digestion.
• Cayenne pepper is a cardiovascular booster.
• Crushed red-pepper flakes contain capsaicin, a potent anti-inflammatory.
• Cumin primes the salivary glands and improves digestion.
• Curry powder combines all the benefits of cumin and turmeric in one quick pinch.
• Dill is a potent antioxidant and a good source of calcium.
• Fennel boosts levels of vitamin C and contains anethole, a phytonutrient that can prevent cancer.
• Garlic can help regulate the number of fat cells in your body and protect your cardiovascular system from disease.
• Lemon and lime brighten up the flavor of plain water — and boost your intake of vitamin C.
• Mint can help fight cancer.
• Nutmeg can help you get sleepy at night.
• Onion offers similar cardiovascular benefits as garlic.
• Oregano is, pound for pound, one of the most antioxidant-rich foods around.
• Paprika is an excellent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.
• Rosemary may be a weapon in the fight against cancer by preventing carcinogens from binding to cells.
• Sage contains the same cancer-fighting compounds as rosemary.
• Tarragon can aid digestion and help improve heart health.
• Thyme is a relative of mint and a potent antioxidant.
• Turmeric has been shown in several studies to have anti-inflammatory properties — and could help protect against degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
• Vanilla is not only a sweet flavoring but also a stellar antioxidant.

Variety is the spice of life! By learning how to incorporate delicious flavors into your meals, you’ll be one step closer to that lean, healthy body.

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The Hormone Makeover

Traditionally, hormone imbalance has been associated with PMS or menopause. But times have changed. Hormones are being disrupted by lifestyle factors such as refined foods and environmental toxins, in addition to natural fluctuations, and symptoms can manifest in subtle to debilitating degrees. Among women and men, signs of hormonal imbalance often include one or more of these experiences:
"I'm eating less and still gaining weight."
"I don't feel like myself."
"I've lost my get up and go."
"I can't get a good night's sleep."
These types of symptoms may be harder to pinpoint than ones commonly associated with menopause, such as hot flashes, mood swings, irritability, muscle stiffness or incontinence, or PMS symptoms. However, in all these situations, there are underlying lifestyle issues that aggravate monthly or mid-life hormonal fluctuations and, at any age, prompt imbalances.
“Our hormones are like an orchestra,” says Alicia Stanton, MD, an OB/GYN and specialist in hormone balance and wellness in Glastonbury, Conn. “They don’t work in isolation.” Although estrogen and progesterone get a lot of attention among women and testosterone among men, they are only part of the picture. Understanding two other hormones, insulin and cortisol, opens the door to creating balance.

Step 1Solve the Food-Stress SyndromeIn day-to-day life, we continually influence our insulin and cortisol levels by what we eat, and our choices drive hormones into or out of balance. Most often, explains Stanton, imbalance begins when we eat too many refined carbohydrates, as is customary in our culture. Blood-sugar levels spike to very high levels, and insulin works overtime to deliver the fuel to our cells as quickly as possible. And then, blood-sugar levels crash to below-normal levels.
The result is a sudden drop in energy after a “high” from a sugary or starchy treat. The crash portion of the cycle produces physical stress, and in response, our bodies produce above-normal amounts of cortisol, the stress hormone. Life stress also increases cortisol production, but its effects are dramatically magnified by dietary stress.
Abnormally elevated cortisol levels can cause sleep and energy problems, but they also disrupt other hormones. Cortisol, progesterone, and testosterone share the same building blocks, and when too many of these are diverted to produce the stress hormone, the other ones suffer. The most common scenarios, says Stanton, are these:

• Among women, elevated cortisol depletes progesterone, creating an imbalance with estrogen, and this leads to or aggravates PMS and menopausal symptoms. As an example of the dietary connection, a 10-year study of more than 28,000 women in France, published in Maturitas, concluded: “Among dietary factors, rapidly absorbed sugars and snacking were positively associated with the risk of onset of menopausal symptoms.”
• Among men, elevated cortisol reduces levels of testosterone, the “life force” hormone, and this has become a widespread phenom- enon. According to a study of more than 1,500 men in Massachu- setts between the ages of 45 and 79, published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, levels of testosterone have declined substantially in recent years, to a degree that cannot be explained by the aging process.

Hormone Makeover Checklist:

You can virtually eliminate the dietary trigger of physical stress and hormonal disruption by using food to keep blood sugar levels stable. These are some key things to do:

• Start the day with a breakfast that includes lean protein.
• Eat small meals every 3 hours or so.
• Throughout the day, avoid starchy and sugary foods and beverages sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners.
• Eat lean protein and vegetables at every meal.
• For snacks, choose vegetables or high-fiber fruits (apples, pears and berries work well) and a small handful of nuts in place of starchy foods.
• If you drink regular or diet soda, switch to herbal tea, organic sodas that are naturally low in calories and sugar, or water.
• Take a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement plus antioxidants to support healthy metabolism.
• Exercise regularly and pick activities that reduce your stress levels.
• Control stress in life. Give yourself a break to relax, if just for a few minutes, each day.

Step 2
Avoid Toxins
For many years, scientists have known that toxins disrupt hormones in humans and wildlife, and in 1996, Congress passed a law requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to screen chemical pesticides and other contaminants for their potential effect on hormones. However, such a program to test pesticides just began to be implemented in October 2009, and it will take some time for changes to occur.
In the meantime, there are simple things we can do to minimize our exposure to these types of chemicals, such as choosing food grown without chemical pesticides and drinking non-toxic water. And we can avoid two specific hormone-disrupting toxins in food and beverage containers and in synthetic fragrance, an ingredient in many beauty, grooming and household products:
BPA (Bisphenol A): Found in plastic containers and the linings of cans, BPA mimics estrogen, and has been linked to obesity, hormone-related cancers, hyperactivity, and brain damage. BPA-free reusable plastic water bottles, food storage containers, and canned foods are available and are labeled as such. Plastic containers marked on the bottom with a 3, 6, or 7 (the number is inside a triangle) are the worst sources of leached BPA. In cans, acidic foods and beverages leach the most BPA.
Phthalates: Pronounced “tha-laytes,” these chemicals also mimic and disrupt hormones. For example, phthalates can lead to artificially depressed levels of thyroid hormone, contributing to fatigue, weight gain, and other problems. These toxins are most often found within synthetic fragrance, which can be in cosmetic products, air fresheners, candles, laundry and cleaning products, and in “new car smell.”

Hormone Makeover Checklist:

These are some ways to reduce your exposure to toxins that disrupt hormones:

• When buying canned food, look for BPA-free cans.
• When choosing any products you put on your skin or use in your home, avoid those containing synthetic fragrance. Instead, select ones scented with essential oils or other natural ingredients.
• Drink water that doesn’t contain toxins.
• Use refillable water bottles made without BPA.
• In particular, avoid buying acidic foods, such as sodas, tomato sauces, and soups, in cans that are not BPA-free, as acidity promotes leaching of the toxin.
• For food storage, use BPA-free plastic containers or glass, ceramic, or metal ones.
• Choose organic foods and beverages whenever possible.
• Keep in mind that “microwave-safe” indicates a food container won’t disintegrate in the microwave; there is no guarantee that toxins won’t leach into food.

Step 3
Establish a Nutritional Foundation
Sound nutrition gives your body a foundation to withstand assaults from an imperfect diet and environmental toxins. While supplements can’t replace a healthy lifestyle, they can certainly enhance one.

Vera Tweed and Alicia Stanton, MD, provide a comprehensive plan for balancing hormones in their book, Hormone Harmony: How to Balance Insulin, Cortisol, Thyroid, Estrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone to Live Your Best Life.

Hormone Makeover Checklist:

Stanton recommends the following daily amounts from a multivitamin/mineral, and additional supplements as needed:

• Multivitamin: A product that includes 50 to 100 mg of B1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, up to 1000 mg of B12, 800 mcg of folic acid, 200 to 400 IU of a vitamin E-mixed tocopherol combina- tion and at least 200 mcg of chromium.
• Fish Oil: 3000 mg.
• Vitamin D: 1000 to 2000 IU.
• Calcium: A total (from food and supplements) of 1000 mg up to age 50 and 1200 mg after that.
• Magnesium: 400 mg (glycinate) or 600 mg (oxide) twice daily, with the second dose taken before bedtime for more restful sleep. If you experience diarrhea, cut back.
• Vitamin C: 1000 to 2000 mg and up to 5000 mg during times of stress.
• Flaxseed Oil: As an alternative to fish oil, 1 to 2 Tbsp. or the equivalent in capsules.
• CoQ10: After age 35, 50 mg, and 100 to 200 mg if you are overweight, have high blood pressure, or suffer from fatigue, diabetes, or heart disease.

And for specific situations, Stanton suggests the following remedies:

• PMS and menopausal symptoms: Black cohosh and GLA (gamma-linolenic acid).
• Stress, mood and sleep difficulties: 5-HTP and/or L-theanine.
• Digestive problems: Digestive enzymes.
• Constipation: Ground flaxseed mixed in food or juice.
• Vaginal yeast infections: Probiotics.
• Urinary tract infections: Pure, unsweetened cranberry juice.

This was taken from Better Nutrition Magazine


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The Power Of Sleep

If you have trouble sleeping, you have plenty of company. More than one-third of adults in the United States experience occasional sleep problems, and 1 in 10 suffer from chronic insomnia.
Making sure you get enough sleep is essential for optimal health and well-being. While you’re sleeping, your body performs many restorative functions, including detoxifying, repairing cellular damage, and searching out and destroying foreign invaders. A lack of restful sleep causes mood disturbances, impairs mental and physical performance, wears down the immune system, and even speeds up aging.
Try some of the following strategies and lifestyle changes to retrain your body and mind for a good night’s sleep.
1. Curtail Caffeine
This undoubtedly comes as no surprise, but cutting back on or eliminating caffeine is necessary for restful sleep. Caffeine is a common culprit in insomnia. The stimulant delays falling asleep; it can also cause waking in the middle of the night. People vary in their response to caffeine: some can easily metabolize a cup or two of coffee daily, while others are unable to tolerate even the trace amounts in decaffeinated coffee or tea. Many people also find that they become less tolerant of caffeine as they get older. If you drink coffee or tea, limit your intake to one or two cups in the morning to prevent sleep problems. If you’re relying on caffeine for an energy boost, consider drinking green tea. One cup of green tea contains approximately 20 milligrams of caffeine (coffee weighs in at an average of 125 milligrams per cup; black tea at 60). But green tea is unique in that it also contains L-theanine, a compound that promotes feelings of relaxed alertness. It’s also rich in phytochemicals that have numerous health-protective benefits.
2. Establish a Regular Bedtime
A regular sleep schedule isn’t just for kids–creating a set time for going to bed and getting up in the morning helps your body establish a healthful sleep-wake cycle. Although it’s tempting to try to make up for lost sleep by sleeping in, it’s more important to train your body to wake at a consistent time.
This practice helps to reset your biological clock and trains your body to sleep at night. Ideally, go to bed early enough so that you’ll wake naturally in the morning, but if necessary, set an alarm to help you wake up. Turn the clock face to the wall, though, so that you won’t be aware of time during the night. Fretting over time engages the mind and will only make getting to sleep more difficult.
3. Create a Tranquil Sleep Environment
Make your bedroom a tranquil haven by surrounding yourself with soothing colors. Blues, greens, and purples are traditionally thought to be the most calming shades, but recent thinking indicates that any color can be soothing if it’s a soft hue. If you love the color orange, for example, select a peach tint for your bedroom. Decorate with artwork and fabrics that you find restful, and ban televisions and computers from the bedroom.
Make your bed especially inviting with high-quality natural fiber bedding. Finally, clear away all clutter, including stacks of magazines and books. Be sure to clean under your bed too. According to the principles of feng shui, anything stored beneath the bed interferes with the regenerative energy that circulates around your body during the night.
4. Exercise Outdoors Daily
Studies show that exercise is as beneficial as prescription drugs for promoting restful sleep. Consistent, daily exercise is crucial for keeping stress, anxiety, and depression at bay—all of which are prime contributors to sleep problems. Plan for at least 30 minutes of exercise daily, but avoid vigorous exercise within three hours of bedtime or you may find that you’re too energized to sleep. If you exercise outdoors, you’ll benefit from the sun’s effect on harmonizing your body clock. Spending a half hour in the sun every day (particularly in the morning) modulates your body’s production of the hormone melatonin, which regulates sleep cycles.
5. Eat and Drink for Restful Sleep
What you eat and when you eat it has a profound effect on sleep quality. Plan to eat dinner at least three hours prior to bedtime to give your body plenty of time to complete digestion before sleep. You’ll sleep better if your stomach isn’t overly full, and you’ll also prevent nighttime heartburn. A light snack before bed, however, can ward off nocturnal dips in blood sugar that can trigger middle-of-the-night awakenings. Stay away from high-sugar foods, and choose instead a protein-rich snack that includes healthful carbohydrates and fats. For example, a piece of cheese or a handful of almonds with fresh fruit is a perfect bedtime snack.
A glass of wine with dinner is a relaxing ritual, but avoid much more than that. Although alcohol has an initial sedative effect, excessive alcohol stimulates the release of cortisol, which can cause restless sleep and awakening during the night.
6. Create a Relaxing Bedtime Ritual
To prepare your body and mind for restful sleep, engage in a bedtime routine. A nightly ritual signals your body and mind that it’s time to unwind from the day’s activities. Avoid stimulating activities in the hour before bedtime: this includes watching television or working on the computer. One hour before bed, begin preparing for sleep by taking care of nightly tasks: feed the dog, make tomorrow’s lunch, brush your teeth—do whatever you need to do to wind up the day. In the final 20 to 30 minutes before sleep, engage in a calming activity, such as listening to soothing music or reading an enjoyable book. Before long, you’ll find that you look forward to this nurturing ritual.

This was taken from Better Nutrition Magazine



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Ways to Boost Your Energy

Fatigue is one of the biggest problems of modern life, but we’re trying to fix that problem in all the wrong ways. Trying to “get” or “find” energy is like trying to grab a fistful of water. If you want water (energy) to sit in your hand, you have to first create the conditions under which it’s possible—in the case of water, keeping your fingers tightly together and your hand cupped while open will do the trick—but trying to grab the water will not. It’s the same thing with energy.
Energy isn’t something you get or grab, rather it’s the by-product of certain conditions that allow it to show up in your life. If your health, attitude, body, and mind are all aligned in the right way, there’s nothing else for you to do but feel energized. It’s the natural “side effect” of a healthful life—it just comes with the territory.
Let’s say you were a swimmer wearing a weight belt, and you wanted to increase your time in the 50-yard freestyle. You could spend a lot of effort researching the latest high-tech swim suit—which might add a second or two to your time—but wouldn’t it be a lot more effective to simply drop the weight belt? Most of us are carrying around weight belts and looking to increase our energy with coffee and stimulants, but if we just dropped the weight belt, we’d automatically go faster.
Some of the items that make up our weight belt are too little sleep, disorganization, toxic relationships, high-carb diets, undetected food sensitivities, and all sorts of other facts of modern life.The following are seven of the most important ways to help drop the weight belt from your energy tank. Do them and you may be surprised at what a boost in energy they give you.

Support Your Liver
You can help your liver do its job more effectively—and boost your energy in the bargain—by taking a daily dose of an herb called milk thistle. Also, eat liver-supporting vegetables, such as carrots, beets, beet greens, garlic, artichokes, and burdock and dandelion roots. I consider the liver the most misunderstood and underappreciated organ in the human body; when it’s not working right, your energy level is the first thing to suffer. Giving the liver all the nutrients it needs to perform its daily tasks is one of the most important things you can do to boost your energy.

Get 10 Minutes of Sun Every Day
“The sun gives you strength, lifts your spirits, and is a source of energy,” says my friend Al Sears, MD, author of Your Best Health Under the Sun. Like a growing body of health experts, Sears thinks we’ve become so sun phobic that we’re missing out on the myriad mood-boosting and energy-enhancing benefits that the sunshine vitamin has to offer.

Disconnect for a Day
One of the great energy drainers of the 21st century is information overload. We’re deluged with stuff coming at us from e-mail, RSS feeds, blogs, social networking sites, TV, magazines, radio, fax machines, Blackberries—you get the picture. Knowledge may be power, but information overload is just … well, noise. Try a media-free day and feel your own energy accumulate rather than letting it dissipate as you attend to millions of distractions, most of which—when you think about it—won’t make much difference in the long run anyway. (If you find the idea of disconnecting for a day is a frightening thought, you are exactly the person who needs to do it the most!)

Get up and move
We all know that exercise helps with energy. Even if it's a walk around your neighborhood or some yoga in your living room. Get up and move!!

Unclutter
 The more stuff you have cluttering up your life, the less energy you have. Believe it or not, the condition of your desk, office. and living space actually reflect a lot of what’s going on in your head.

Take the Right Supplements
While supplements don’t really “give” you energy, they can correct metabolic issues that are draining it. They can also speed along certain pathways that are nutrient- dependent and get sluggish when those nutrients are in short supply.

This was taken from Better Nutrition Magazine


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