Paschimottanasana – decreasing headache and alot more benefits
Paschimottanasana
Yoga is an effective therapy for not only giving you some physical pleasure but also turns about to be soothing and relaxing for your nerves hence
relieves you from all the stress and fatigue that accumulates in your body and mind every day.
This is why therapists and medical practitioners emphasize of allocating some time to yoga every day so that you achieve the desired results easily without any adverse after effects.
Paschimottanasana is a yoga exercise that gives you quite a lot of benefits like calming your nerves and brain, stimulating your kidneys livers, ovaries etc by giving a great stretch to your spinal cord, thighs etc.
It also helps in digestion, helping in decreasing headache, mental fatigue and effects of menopause.
In order to do this exercise properly you have to follow the following steps.
Begin with sitting on the floor while giving your buttocks the support of a blanket or something and your legs straightened right in from of you.
You have to press your heels and while mildly rocking your left buttock you have to move your right sitting bone away from your heel. Now you have to lift your sternum up.
The next step is that you have to keep your torso straight and breathing in. You also have to elongating the tail bone away from your pelvis. Keep your head raised up in the air with your thumbs on the sole and elbows totally extended.
In case you are holding a strap you have to loosen its grip and move forth with the exercise. Make sure that your stomach will have to touch the thighs before any other part starting with the lower apart of the stomach.
Meanwhile you have to keep breathing in and lift your rib cage so that air reaches in side and you get a good stretch. While you are exhaling you have to let it lose in the front part. You are required to do this exercise for about 3 minutes daily for great results.
Sarvangasana – recommended for asthma, infertility and sinusitis
Sarvangasana
Like all yoga exercises Sarvangasana is known for soothing your nerves and giving you a relaxed state of mind while also relieving you physically.
This exercise can do wonders to you by calming your brains and soothing your nerves that prove to be relieving your physical and mental stress.
Furthermore the Sarvangasana also tends to stimulate your thyroid and prostrate glands along with stretching your shoulders and neck and also toning your shoulders and also neck.
This exercise is recommended by physicians and therapists from all across the globe for patients of asthma, infertility and sinusitis.
However the key to achieving great results with this exercise is by following each and every step carefully and properly.
For this exercise you have need to wrap few blankets on the floor and then place a mat over it in order to support your body and the upper arm in particular.
Now you have to lie down on the blankets giving some proper support to your elbows. You have to rest your arms down on the floor with the torso while raising your pelvis and shoulders up in the air.
You have to inhale and then you will be bending your knees towards the ceiling and putting your thighs parallel to the blanket. Put your back of arms on the torso and then sweep your hands on the back.
Finally you have to put your knees in a straight position while inhaling and pressing your heels to the ceiling. Now you have to decrease tension in your throat and harden your shoulders blades against your back.
In this position you also have to place your forehead in a parallel position of the floor you are resting on. Now give the support of blanket and mat to the back of your palms while trying to life your spinal cord away from the ground.
If this your first time then you has to stay in this pose for about 30 seconds however later it can be increased to maximum 5 minutes daily for effective results.
Top reasons why to do yoga
Top reasons why to do yoga?
Yoga has enormous benefits that can’t be neglected. Flexibility, boost in energy level, controlled diseases, stress free lives are few of these benefits.
You should perform yoga to get various benefits. Here presenting various reasons why you should perform yoga.
Blood pressure is the major health hazards that can be reduced with regular sessions of yoga. Performing yoga daily at fixed time improves blood circulation and it also improves respiration. As a result decrease in blood pressure.
You should perform yoga to maintain the health of your heart. A healthy heart is one that pumps blood with lower pulse rate. Breathing techniques used in yoga makes your hearth strong by reducing pulse rate.
One should perform yoga to stay healthy and active. All organs must be in good working condition. Your skin, brain, heart and all other organs must be healthy and it is only possible when your body receives proper nutrition and oxygen. Yoga practices improve blood circulation which provides all necessary nutrients and minerals to the various organs of the body.
Some yoga practices are especially for immunity system, those who are looking to make immune system strong must start performing these yoga exercises regularly.
Those who want to remain in good mood with healthy mind and body must start focusing yoga. They will feel a definite change in their body, mind and health.
Stress release is possible through yoga. Reduce your stress with healthy yoga postures and deep breathes. Stay focus on your yoga practice to get relief from stress. This gives you mental relaxation.
Hormonal disturbance in a body creates various diseases. You can control these by following regular routine of yoga. Yoga not only removes negative thoughts from the mind but it also eliminates chances of getting involved in diseases like cardio diseases and cancer.
Share your personal reasons!
Happy yoga!
Why Yoga is important for healthy lifestyle?!
Yoga is a healthy activity that combines mind with body and soul. Importance of yoga is not limited to fascinating benefits against diseases and pains of body but it is essentially important for spiritual powers.
You breathe, your whole body involves in this yoga practice and your soul comes in piece.
Health improvements through yoga practice are a common desire of most of the individuals who start yoga. Let’s consider importance of yoga in improving health.
Back pain reduction through yoga:
According to research it has been proved that yoga practices reduce back pain within 12 to 14weeks if compared with other physical exercises that are advised by physicians to control the back pain. But, yoga practices in which more stretched movements and seated postures are involved are not recommending for back pain patients.
Happy and refreshing personality through yoga:
Your health is improved successfully when you stay happy all the time. Yoga is a healthy activity that reduced depression anxiety and bad mood. Those hormones are controlled and balanced which keep you depressed and stay out of focus. With yoga exercises you stay more focused, feel happy and get rid of anxiety.
Diabetes control through yoga
Patients having diabetes have bad health. Yoga exercises are considered as effective remedy for controlling Type 2 diabetes. Certain yoga postures lower the blood sugar which results in controlled diabetes.
Improved blood circulation through yoga:
Our entire health depends on the functionality of the heart rate and blood circulated in the body. If the circulation is not proper our body faces lack of nutrients and deficiencies.
Yoga improves blood circulation in all parts of the body. Healthy breathing and controlled blood circulation improves our health within few days. You will feel a great difference in your body after doing regular sessions of yoga.
Share your personal opinion with us, write a comment and let’s discussing!
Learn about healthier yoga poses
Yoga is all about the effective lifestyle that consists of diet, exercise program, mental and physical wellness. It was originally introduced in India and Kashmir, but now it has become popular all over the world.
There are different types and postures of yoga that are considered as healthier yoga poses. One of the poses provides stability and is very essential due to its stretching element.
The amazing thing is that now there are lots of professionals and celebrities who want to do yoga constantly to maintain their health. Only the effective postures and poses of yoga practice make yoga an actual exercise.
If you are among beginners for yoga practice, then you need to know about different postures and poses of exercise. This would help you to get optimum experience of enjoying exercise.
You must have an idea that which posture suits you best in order to be healthy. If you would use such poses that make you uncomfortable then you are wasting your time for sure.
Hatha yoga is most acceptable and common form of yoga. It basically uses different techniques such as breathing exercises and meditation along with several influential poses.
Hatha yoga is very helpful in bringing the support to muscles and body. It allows you to stretch your muscles as much as possible. Through stretching, it actually makes your body relaxed.
Among healthier yoga poses, Iyengar yoga is an exceptional for of yoga that focuses on alignment of whole body. Moreover, it uses the props such as mats, belts, music and blocks to add more magnificence to this practice.
It is most common for treating and reducing the depression. Further, Hot yoga and Vinyasa yoga also provide numerous influential and helpful yoga postures.
Get the right direction and learn about different poses of yoga that make you feel healthy not only physically but mentally too.
Get to know about Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy
It’s pointless to say that old and traditional treatments were favorable in their effects. They used to re-energize the mind and body connection and they allow people to look fresh, young and youthful.
One of the traditional treatments is Ayurvedic that is considered to be holistic and healing therapy for each aspect of daily life. It contains holistic approach towards life and could heal any ailment.
In spite of it, Yoga is also a traditional way to do mental and physical exercise that is considered to be important for satisfied and healthy life. Yoga offers everyone the life free of any ailment whether it is psychologically or physically.
What is Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy? It comes when both Ayurvedic and Yoga combine. They give the opportunity to attain whole illumination, energy, life, positiveness and full of youthfulness.
If we talk about Yoga Ayurveda more, then we come to know that traditionally Ayurveda was more religious-oriented but now things have been changed. Now it has been modified into a full length science that offers medical treatment as well.
At this moment, Ayurveda has grown up into eight different areas in newest and trendy western culture of medicine merely.
Yoga Ayurveda is now becoming popular in all over the world and there are lots of Yoga Ayurveda centers that offer practical way to do this exercise. But, the best blend of Yoga and Ayurveda can be found in Kerala that is considered to be magical place of India.
Many people throughout the world approach this place in the sake of getting experience of reunion of mind and body. There are many places that are famous for Yoga Ayurveda where one can enjoy the traditional therapy to attain a peaceful and much healthier life.
Now, if anyone asks you that “what is Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy” then, you must have a strong reply to this. You can assure others as well that it is the ever best method or therapy for physical and mental well-being.
Best Yoga Exercises for Reducing Back Pain
The research has been proven that in order to reduce the back pain, one must undergo with proper exercise. Muscles that are seen to be weak can be strengthened and retrained through appropriate exercise.
If the muscles become strong and balanced, they would support the spinal cord and help to re-attain the flexibility. There are lots of people who have inclined to Yoga exercises to get rid of back pain.
But, not all Yoga exercises can be helpful for this. There are several techniques that are considered to be best Yoga exercises for back pain.
The first exercise is sun salutation. It includes standing upright in comfortable and balanced posture. In order to do this exercise; you need to keep your hands near your chest just like in prayer position. Now lift your arms over your head very slowly while taking a long breathes.
If you feel comfortable with movement, then it is better to bend your arms forward to touch the yoga mat. But, if you are new to this exercise, then it is suggestible that just bend your arms to touch the knees with your hands.
Still, if you feel uncomfortable, then do it just by raising your hands.
The second important exercise is the corpse. This exercise has significant movements that need to be practiced orderly. At first, lie down at your back in comfortable position; keep your arms resting at sides with your knees expelled faintly. The, allow the tension and stress to leave your body while inhaling and exhaling smoothly.
The third one exercise is with the cat pose. First of all, balance yourself on your knees and hands along with your straight and flat back. Look at the floor with the erect head. Then, do few deep breathing in proper manner.
Although, these are best yoga exercises but still they should be done with caution and instructions from experts or professionals at the beginning till you feel enough confident.
Guide to Kundalini: Famous Yoga for Beginners
Kundalini is a latent female energy which in yoga pose is believed to exist in a coiled posture in the lower part of the spine.
Usually in ancient literature and traditional guides to yoga this force is known as the serpent force as it seems to lie down in a coiled position like that of a snake.
Furthermore when this force is perfectly awakened in you it gives you amazing strength and energy that helps you vitally.
Moreover Kundalini is known for being a physical, psychological as well as spiritual discipline which helps you massively by increasing your physical and mental strength and enhancing your stamina along with your demeanor and consciousness.
The reason why Kundalini is included in yoga exercises is to develop in people a threshold to speak truth, uphold morality and serve their fellows with compassion and sincerity.
If you feel tempted by its benefits then here is a guide which can help you. Consider few things for Kundalini which is as follows:
Wear loose fitted clothes unlike that in yoga and keep your shoulders and spine covered with anything. Do not wear any shoes and do it with bare feet. You may want to cover your body with a blanket after you are done with the exercise.
If you are doing Kundalini you have to take care of your diet. Do not eat anything at least about 3 hours before doing it. Try to eat as much as sattvic food (light and easy to digest) as you can. Avoid rajastic food (hot, spicy and salty).
Try to go for a warm up before you go for the actual pose since it can be harsh in the beginning.
Ideal time for practicing this exercise is early in the morning since the early morning fresh air is full of minerals that complement the pose.
Practice this at any place which is well ventilated since fresh air has a lot to do with it.
What is the role of Asana Yoga in Health
Asana is defined as the position of seating that is relaxed for specific time period. Asana yoga has two basic components. First one is the place of yoga exercise and the other one is a seating posture of yoga practice.
The posture should be therapeutic that means it should bring the feelings of liveliness, self-awareness and inner peace. Further the place should be well-ventilated, free of noise and comfortable as much as possible.
image: © Lev Dolgatsjov / Fotolia
image: © Lev Dolgatsjov / Fotolia
The role of Asana yoga in health is very important. One need to know that yoga involves the movement of total eight limbs.
In hierarchy, asana is treated as third limb that can only achievable after feeling internal peace.
The different and influential postures during Asana yoga contribute in increasing the satisfaction with life and shape the life in better way.
Asana yoga keeps a balance between movements and immobility. Moreover, it provides a way to make strong connection with God.
By doing Asana yoga, one can build up the will more strongly. It always allows the person to increase the spiritual practices and to offer the prayer in physical form.
You can realize that your body, mind and soul can be nourished due to the practice of Asana yoga.
There are different types of Asnana yoga that are Sun Obeisance, Essential Breathing, For the Head, The Louts, and Shoulder Stand.
Each type has different meaning for regulating health in terms of physical and psychological terms. Overall, the role of Asana yoga in health could not be neglected.
The unique advantage of this exercise is that it helps in improving memory, concentration and sensations. Especially for women, it assists in having long and beautiful hairs.
Last but not least, this specific form of yoga is suitable for both males and females. Anyone can enjoy practicing this, so you must start now to have a healthy life.
Renowned Yoga Breathing Exercises for Practitioners
Yoga is well-known exercise that makes your body flexible and strong. There are some essential components of yoga that need to be considered while doing yoga exercise. For instance, famous yoga breathing exercises focus on the art of breath control.
Most of the people found breathing exercises difficult in doing as they require hard effort. One must make conscious effort to concentrate on breathing to make the exercise effective and helpful.
image: © khubicek / Fotolia
image: © khubicek / Fotolia
One type of breathing exercise that is most favorable is known as Ujjayi.
In this exercise, you need to make a humming sound slowly while allowing the air to enter at the back of throat.
Sound should be produced during both exhalation and inhalation.
You would feel that your produced sound will be similar to the sound of wind in ocean and trees.
The logic of producing sound is that it enables the person to concentrate more deeply and attentively on breathing.
The other breathing exercise is pranayama that involves smooth rhythm and order to control breath.
In this, you have to sit straight and start deep inhalation and exhalation.
While exhaling, a hum sound would be originated at your throat just like whispering. Do this breathing few times but with caution and care.
At first, you have to do it consciously but afterwards, it would become automatic exercise for you. After doing breathing exercises, one must feel relaxed and contented. It seems strange that your face muscles should be in relaxed position while doing the exercise.
Moreover, collar bone must be raised and reduced marginally.
The famous yoga breathing exercises require correct posture and position of body to give optimum results. They can be easily practiced by lying down or sitting comfortably.
Likewise, props like folded blankets, yoga blocks and thick books can be used to enhance the breathing exercises. Whatever the requirement, just remember that you have to practice yoga exercises on daily basis to make it your habit.
Guide to Features and Functions of Meditation!
Emotions guide us throughout our life. We constantly think about negative events that make us feel rejected, helpless and worthless then, we constantly think about how we feel that represses our biological functioning and inhibits the excitement of “feel-good” chemical reactions. Eventually, it becomes difficult to deal with it.
The best way to deal with this situation is to begin meditation on daily basis. If you have been dealing with depression for long period, then obviously you want to get rid of it and want to have positive as well as inspiring life.
Psychologists insist to use positive statements like “I can deal with it” and to keep helpful images in house, car and accessible places so that you can make intra-dialogues in effective way.
Think about your brain as a computer, it would make a program based on your programming and then it plays it back that you call the life experiences. The features and functions of meditation is the same, it allows you to change your programming that directly affects your experiences.
Actually, daily meditation takes over the function of brain and can behave as a superconductor to bring the daily life experiences. If you are not happy and satisfied, if you do not feel passionate about your activities, if you are not living your desires and dreams right now then what are you waiting for?!
Start the meditation on yourself as early as possible.
Meditation is known to be effective technique to not only deal with depression, but with everything negative and bad. We are now spending our lives in extremely messy world and around many confused people.
Thus, it is very smooth to get emotionally plagued. There are lots of people who manage their lives according to media and technology.
In order to get maximum benefits of features and functions of meditation, one must minimize the use of technology to get free slot every day. Subsequently, start to consider meditation day by day.
Pranayama: Benefits and its Essence
This article is all about pranayama as it is known to be one of the principles of yoga that focuses on breathing control. It teaches how to focus on your breathe and how to do proper breathing.
It generally consists of different exercises that keep the person healthy and lively. It can be effective for beginners as training to do meditation. Without pranayama yoga, other exercises of Yoga could not be completed.
When pranayama works along with Yoga exercises, it brings wonderful cleansing of both body and mind. Therefore, you can say that through pranayama you can release your tension and have an inner peace ultimately. There are worthwhile advantages of pranayama.
At first, the advantage of pranayama is to bring oxygen to your body that is healthy. As all we know that oxygen is foremost need of our body. It regulates the functions of glands, brain, nerves as well as other internal organs.
Moreover, it cleans our blood concentration throughout the stream. By practicing pranayama, one can be expert in breathing properly. Normally, mostly people do shallow breathing that is not much helpful for our body maintenance.
Shallow breathing can affect the lungs as it does not allow the lungs to exercise. The other benefit of doing pranayama is that it improves your health condition by enhancing your metabolism.
As pranayama lets you concentrate, therefore it makes our body and mind more concentrated, stronger and more focused. It is considered to be important for stress and tension relief also.
This is all about Pranayama that should be acknowledged. Nowadays, most of the people face stress in their lives constantly, so yoga would be helpful for many people. It facilitates the elimination of bodily wastes and toxic material.
It eases the bodily processes such as digestion and respiration. It maintains self-control as well as positive energy and brings inner tranquility. Last but not least, it relaxes the mind and body along with developing mental concentration and focus.
Mannerisms of Breathing Yoga for Men and Women
It is surprising that Yoga offers great ways to deal with psychological and physical illnesses. But there were times when Yoga exercises used to be for females only, but now such exercises are common for males too. Generally, men face stress relief issues that can be deal with Yoga practices.
Breathing Yoga for Men and Women is most effective way to get rid of all issues related to stress. Breathing techniques can give anyone a chance to live a become relax.
In breathing exercise, one can have total control on one’s mental activities, one can concentrate on one’s feeling that calms the nerves and one can deal with the stress as well. There are some conditions to achieve optimum benefits from breathing exercises.
First of all, you must sit in comfortable position while using a mat or blanket. Your body parts such as neck, spine, and head should be in alliance so that it cannot hurt you while doing exercise.
Then, concentration on your breathing is very important part to get effective results. You need to forget all other stuff, all other activities and have to consciously concentrate on your breathing. Your mind should be cleaned and cleared of all toxic issues. This is difficult thing to attain but without it, you cannot have successful sitting.
Afterwards, start yoga breathing. You must inhale profoundly so that your lungs could be filled. You chest must rise while breathing. Taking pause at exhale and counting the seconds for exhale and inhale are also important tasks.
You would realize that after some breathing, your mind will become relax and calm. This will make your body relax then obviously you would feel much better than before.
Breathing Yoga for Men and Women can also be effective by adding simple movements to it such as yoga postures and reversing direction. Breathing exercise helps anyone to become relax and calm both emotionally and physically only if it is practiced in right manner.
Tips and Tricks for an Effective Bikram Yoga
Yoga is a journey of superfluous, comfortable and amazing workout.
If you find yourself searching for a healthy and satisfying way of yoga workout, you should at once dive in the midst of bikram yoga.
Bikram yoga is specially been invented to be the health restorer to your muscles and joints and to get rid of energy draining and muscle fatiguing
toxins that might make you feel sick and low most of the time.
The trick for losing these toxins is through effective sweating in the pre heated room which is maintained at 110 degree Fahrenheit with a 40% humidity accompanying it.
One of the many reasons for keeping the room warm during this particular yoga class is to loosen up your muscles and keep you flexible and relaxed during the workout.
When it comes to tips for bikram yoga and losing weight, we find that although bikram yoga reduces the water weight of the body yet if you drink loads of water it helps boost up your metabolism leading you to greater overall weight loss.
Bikram yoga being intense in nature is usually not for the people who cannot cope up with this level of work out. When it comes to pushing yourself, do it, but do not ‘over’ do it.
Even when you feel like quitting keep going on and you will find yourself polishing your endurance and stretching it up a lot. Yet don’t call an injury in trying to call the limit of your endurance.
Of course keeping a clean dry mat beneath you is going to be helpful if you r up for a great sweltering experience.
When you are ready to focus on all the little tricks and tips for bikram yoga above you are ready to get set go and measure your lean self in sometime. Good luck
Best yoga tips for a flat belly
Yoga is an effective way to combine your body with the mind, then mind with your soul.
This involves various breathing controlled postures that help in reducing extra weight.
Flat stomach through yoga postures is an effective technique used by many women. Here are few yoga postures for a flat belly.
Yoga posture 1:
One way to reduce your belly is to sit in the pose of boat. Bring your knees toward you and stretch your arms and finger outwards and place them on your knees.
Stretch your legs upward and forward. Repeat this step 5 times.
Yoga posture 2:
Second yoga posture is bit difficult. In this posture you have to follow the above poster for inhaling. Then continue inhale with changing your pose. Stretch arm outward and move legs upward. Place your back on the yoga mat. Then exhale. Then again go back in boat posture. Repeat like this and you will feel a better change.
Yoga posture 3:
This posture is another difficult one starts from the basic pose of boat of yoga. In this you have to make a scissor like posture in which your arms are holding your head and elbows are lightly above the head. Legs are stretched.
One leg is rolled back toward the belly to apply pressure on it.
This posture is effective is pressing bellies to get fast results of tight tummy. Continue inhaling and exhaling. Inhale while remain in boat posture and continue till you change your pose completely. After changing the posture, exhale. Repeat and enjoy yoga.
All the yoga tips are effective if regular flat belly exercises and diet plans are followed with full motivation.
How yoga is beneficial for weight loss
How yoga is beneficial for weight loss
Yoga benefits are unlimited. It has been practiced to enjoy tremendous benefits according to the body requirements.
Few want to improve blood circulation, diabetes, heart disease and some individuals want to perform yoga to get a slim and smart body.
Yoga weight loss benefits are affecting lives of millions of people worldwide. Along with healthy diet plans yoga exercises help in reducing several pounds in few weeks.
Yoga experts always recommend yoga poses for burning extra fat. Let’s discuss in detail how yoga is beneficial for weight loss.
Yoga stimulates liver functioning:
Weight losses occur due to malfunctioning of liver and less storage of glucose. Yoga postures including cobra pose and wheel pose are best exercises for stimulation the liver functioning of disposing off the fats.
Liver starts purifying blood efficiently and your make muscles strong by proving active enzymes to them. In this way your weight is reduced.
Yoga control thyroid hormonal secretions
Weight loss occur when body reduce its fat burning capabilities due to lower metabolism. This low level of metabolism occurs when thyroid stops secreting hormones which is responsible for regulating the metabolism in the body. Yoga postures including fish pose are effective to increase the hormone secretions, which boost up the metabolism and fat burns at faster rate. As a result you get several pounds weight loss.
Yoga overcomes stress
Most of the overweight problem occurs due to stress and depression. When you feel depressed your body work improper and you gain weight. Yoga posters are mediation techniques to relief body from intense mental stress and depression. Your nervous system is disturbed which can be balanced by adopting a regulate routine of yoga breathes and postures and get weight loss.
Yoga tough exercises need more calories
Perform yoga practices that need more calories. Your body utilizes extra fat while making muscles and moving body with full strength. Hence, several pounds are reduced.
Top 5 yoga tips for beginners
Top 5 yoga tips for beginners
If you are planning to start performing yoga first time then take some advices from your instructors and friends who are already doing yoga. Other than this option, here are effective yoga tips for beginners.
Find a qualified and experienced teacher
For beginners it is necessary to look for a qualified and experienced teacher, who knows well how to breathe and perform all yoga poses.
You should learn through styles and postures of a teacher instead of watching videos. Physical interaction with teachers at beginning builds more confidence.
Be positive in your first class
You are doing yoga first time and your teacher will definitely guide you again and again to correct your poses and movements. No need to take it on heart. Just do it as teachers say and stay light hearted and sit with full spirits of learning.
Do not compare
You may be the first person in class who came to start yoga first time. Other may be experienced. No need to compare your yoga practice with them as they know already how to breathe, move and bend. Learn by just concentrating on your on poses.
Do not overburden your body
As you are new in yoga practice, ask your teacher and heath specialists to advise you poses that will not affect your health. Start with small stretches and bend that do not affect your knees and ankle. Few poses are not recommended for beginners. Never try to start your yoga with these. Also, certain health problems do not allow few yoga postures. Avoid these and perform healthy yoga to build strength and strong mental abilities.
Healthy Breathing
Yoga is all about how to breathe in various poses. Inhaling and exhaling timing according to postures are defined. Learn how to breathe well to benefit whole body.
Air pollution boosts lung, heart risks: studies
PARIS: Long-term exposure to particulate air pollution boosts the risk of lung cancer, even at concentrations below the legal maximum, said a European study published on Wednesday.
A separate report said short-term surge in these particles or other gas pollutants in the air also increases the risk of heart failure.
European epidemiologists said they had found an unmistakeable link between lung cancer and localised air pollution by particulate matter.
The evidence comes from 17 high-quality investigations carried out among 312,000 people in nine European countries, according to the paper in The Lancet Oncology.
These earlier studies, which had already been published, were based on reliable records of the health and lifestyle of 2,095 people who died from lung cancer during an average 13-year monitoring period.
The team sourced environmental data around the individuals' home addresses, then calculated their exposure to levels of particulate matter -- the gritty residual pollution from fossil-fuel-burning power stations, cars and factories.
Particulate matter falls into two categories: PM2.5, meaning particles measuring no more than 2.5 micrometres, 30 times smaller than a human hair, and the slightly coarser variant, PM10.
Current EU air quality standards limit PM10 exposure to a yearly average of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre, and PM2.5 exposure to 25 microgrammes per cubic metre per year.
The UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) has guidelines recommending that annual exposure be limited to 20 microgrammes per cubic metre for PM10 and 10 microgrammes per cubic metre for PM2.5
Unexpectedly, the new study found a cancer risk at every level, and confirmed that the higher the level, the greater the risk.
The results took account of smoking, diet and occupation -- which can skew the risk picture.
"We found no threshold below which there was no risk," said Ole Raaschou-Nielsen from the Danish Cancer Society Research Centre in Copenhagen.
"The more the worse, the less the better."
Every increase of five microgrammes per cubic metre of PM2.5 drove the risk of lung cancer up by 18 percent.
And every increase of 10 microgrammes per cubic metre of PM10 boosted risk by 22 percent, including for adenocarcinoma, a type of lung cancer associated with non-smokers.
In an independent comment, Jon Ayres, a professor of environmental and respiratory medicine at the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Birmingham, central England, praised the design and scope of the study.
"There is now no doubt that fine particles are a cause of lung cancer," he told the Science Media Centre in London.
In a separate study in The Lancet, scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland carried out a meta-analysis of 35 studies in 12 countries.
It looked at PM2.5, PM10 and four air pollutants: carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone.
They found that even a brief spike in exposure -- the kind that happens when a city calls a smog alert -- caused the risk of hospitalisation or death from heart failure to rise by two or three percentage points. The only exception was ozone, a well-known respiratory irritant at the ground level.
Modelling the situation for the United States, the study suggests that if the average PM2.5 were reduced by 3.9 microgrammes per cubic metre, nearly 8,000 heart-failure hospitalisations would be averted each year and the country would save a third of a billion dollars annually.
Smoking bans, tax could save 9 million Indians: study
WASHINGTON: Banning smoking in the workplace and levying a tobacco tax could prevent more than nine million deaths from cardiovascular disease in India over the next decade, according to a US study.
In India, smoking is blamed for the deaths of one in five men, and one in three people report being exposed to smoking in the workplace. Deaths from cardiovascular disease linked to tobacco use there are projected to climb 12 percent over the next decade.
As questions persist over how effective anti-smoking measures may be in low and middle income countries, a team of scientists based in the United States, Britain and India made a mathematical model to compare suggested measures to reduce future heart attack and stroke deaths from 2013 to 2022.
They found that smoke-free laws and increased tobacco taxes were the single two most effective measures, according to the study in PLoS Medicine on Tuesday.
These two measures alone would reduce heart attack deaths by six million and stroke deaths by 3.7 million, for a total of 9.7 million, over the next decade, the paper said.
The study compared five different tobacco control measures: smoke-free legislation, tobacco taxation, provision of brief cessation advice by health care providers, mass media campaigns, and advertising bans.
India, along with 175 other countries, ratified the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2004, which advises these measures.
Researchers at Stanford University said the findings, though subject to uncertainties because they assume the Indian population would react to recommended measures similarly to other populations, are an "important" model for other developing countries looking to stamp out preventable diseases.
Strokes and heart attacks are on the rise in low- and middle-income countries due in part to tobacco. In India, consumption takes several forms: smoking cigarettes, smoking small, hand-rolled cigarettes called bidis, chewing tobacco and second-hand smoke.
A new diet is challenging conventional wisdom that simply eating too many calories is the driver of weight gain. Rather, it claims, food intolerances — chemical reactions to common foods, including “healthy” ones such as soy and egg whites — are triggers of weight gain for up to 70 percent of Americans.
“Your body is not a bank account. It’s a chemistry lab,” says JJ Virgin, author of The Virgin Diet, Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days, a book that became a New York Times best-seller just two weeks after its release in late November.
What Virgin means is this: Traditional diets view your body as a caloric bank account in which calories in must balance calories out. However, a more basic, hidden problem of food intolerance underlies the inability to lose weight.
What Is Food Intolerance?
We are all familiar with food allergies, which can trigger life-threatening breathing difficulties or hives when someone eats an offending food, such as shellfish or peanuts. These are reactions of the immune system.
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Food intolerances are also triggered by the immune system, but in a different way. They are subtle, may take hours or days to manifest, and can include a variety of symptoms, from bloating and gas to skin conditions, achy joints, and excess body fat.
Solve the Problem
Theoretically, food intolerance can be triggered by any food, and each one of us has a unique body chemistry. But in more than 25 years of solving the weight problems of athletes, CEOs, celebrities, and other clients, as a nutrition and fitness specialist, Virgin has identified these seven foods as the most likely culprits:
1. Gluten
2. Soy
3. Eggs
4. Corn
5. Dairy
6. Peanuts
7. Sugar and artificial sweeteners
She has devised a plan that enables anyone to identify which foods are causing problems and learn how to eat to lose weight for good. Although her book is called a “diet,” it isn’t one in the usual sense.
“It treats food as information,” she tells Newsmax Health, “connecting the dots between what you eat, how you feel, and what you weigh.”
3-Step Plan
In practice, Virgin’s “diet” has three steps:
1. Transform. For three weeks, eliminate the seven foods most likely to trigger reactions. In addition to being found in obvious places (soy in soy milk, or gluten in baked goods and pasta, for example), all seven are ingredients in many packaged and restaurant foods, so you need to be vigilant.
2. Test and Customize. Gradually start eating the seven foods, one at a time, and keep a diary of how you feel. This determines how much of a given food you can tolerate, if any, so that you get to know your own body chemistry and customize your diet.
3. Sustain. Continually eat the way that works for you, and you should never have to “diet” again.
To make this work, you have to follow the plan 100 percent — cheating during the first 21 days will put you back at square one. But most people who stick with it for at least a week experience significant weight loss, feel better, and continue, Virgin says.
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