Cope With Anxiety

Years way back I use to experience anxiety and nervousness when I sit for the primary school examinations. In particular, mathematics has always been my weakest subject and which I would usually spend more time studying and revising all those math tutorials. All the efforts seems to go to naught when I entered the examination hall.

My brain would seems to be completely lock up and I would suffer cold sweat when the examination math paper was place right in front of my desk. I would knock my head against the wall right after the exam is over for making all sorts of silly unthinkable mistakes. I guess I would never commit those silly math mistakes if I were not anxious or nervous, and of calm state of mind.

My inability to control and manage anxiety and nervousness has caused me to lost focus and inability to concentrate on what I need to do during the examination. It is heavy prize to pay with me having to resit some the papers. It is important to learn to cope with anxiety as it will make our life less unpleasant in the face of crisis or uncertainties.

Anxiety can manifest in many different ways and many a times we don't even realize nor recognize the symptoms. Our body and minds are wired to respond to stress in ways to save us from dangerous situations. The “fight or flight” response to certain stresses that we experience is normal and part of our human survival instincts. The adrenaline hormone is released into our body system to increase heart rate as well as providing energy to the muscles.

Individual has different tolerance to stress; some people are able to cope with stress more naturally and easily compare to others. Anxiety traits can run in the family. Some has higher tolerance to stress and some are known to be more sensitive to stress and suffers from inability to manage adrenalin hormone level in stress perceived environment.

Anxiety can cause various symptoms such as abdominal discomfort, chest pains, irregular heartbeat or heart palpitations, sleep disorder, loss of focus & concentration, migraines, headaches, increased irritability and lack of awareness just to name a few.

There are various ways to cope with anxiety. Activities such as meditation, exercise and other relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, qigong, taichi, massage, spa as well as counseling may help individual to overcome or cope with anxiety. A qualified counselor can assists to determine the type of anxiety that a person experience and the appropriate treatment with medications if necessary to reduce the symptoms.

You need not let anxiety ruin your life. Manage and take control of anxieties. After all, what does it help by feeling anxious if it does not help you to solve or deal with the situation? Speak to your heart and let it be known that the world is not going to end or that you are not going to die due to stress or challenges in life.

Anxiety Disorder

We lived in a stress filled world. It seems everything around us seems to demand so much of our attention. We are exhausted; sleep deprived yet struggles to get a good night sleep. Anxiety disorder is one of the biggest problems in today's ever-fast paced changing society.

Yes, there are many marvelous inventions that are suppose to make our life more comfortable yet amidst all these seemingly conveniences brought about by modern gadgets, we find our self-laden with worries and concerns about our daily life, our jobs, financial challenges, health, family and etc. Work stress and anxieties are the major causes of the premature aging and many illnesses that we experienced in our life.

One way or another we all experience anxiety or worry in life. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress or any other circumstances that require us to adjust our thoughts or actions. As we get familiar with the circumstances or when we starts to get used to the situation or anticipate the outcome of our actions in response to situations, we should become less anxious and get the better hold of our self.

When a person often feels very anxious without specific reason or unable to cope with situations arising out from day to day challenges in life, the anxiety build up may disrupt daily life and result in what is termed anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorder affects millions of people. People may experience different degree of anxiety disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobias and other generalized anxieties can ruin your life if you do not deal with it appropriately.

It is important for you to seek help if you think you are suffering from anxiety disorder. Treatment can help you to overcome such problem and enable you to move on with life. Loved ones such as family members, close friends, spiritual encouragements and doctors may be able to determine the course of the anxiety and recommend the best course of treatment.

Forget about the gym

Exercise equals to weight loss? The longer the exercise and the more strenuous is the workout the more calories you will burn and thus that will translate to faster weight loss? Not so, according to some weight loss experts.

As a matter of fact, the number of hours and efforts put into exercise may just help you to shed a few pounds here and there across six to one year of workout. I wouldn't consider that worthwhile efforts. I feel that those who spend time for workout in the gym to lose weight are just simply wasting their time.

Exercise is definitely good for health. If your main objective is to lose those extra pounds then may I suggest what goes into your mouth has more impact and bearing than exercise itself . The logic couldn't be simpler, the more you eat the more you will gain weight.

Cut down on sugar and carbohydrates, take more protein,fresh vegetables, fruits and you are on your way to a healthier slimmer body. If you are aiming to be super star wrestler than perhaps you should opt for the gym otherwise forget about those gym and other strenuous workout. Control your diet if you just want to stay healthy and keep your weight in check.

Massage Chair

What better way to relax after a hard day’s work by just lazing on a massage chair and have the pressure applied to the various acupuncture and meridian points in your body. Some people wouldn’t mind paying thousands of dollars to buy an OSIM or OTO massage chair in exchange for the comfort of massage at home.

Is there any standard scientific data to prove the existence of channels better known as meridian points in Chinese acupuncture term? In one of the most interesting experiment, scientist injected radioactive isotopes into the acupuncture points of a human and then track the isotopes movement with radioactive tracer and gamma imaging camera.

To their surprised, the injected isotopes were found to flow in the exact pathways as indicated by the acupuncture meridians. The radioactive isotopes were also injected into random non-acupuncture points and it was observed that the isotopes diffused into random circular patterns without any fix pathways.

How about a homemade massage chair that took 8 years to build using nearby scrap materials? Apparently a Beijing retiree did just that!.
Check it out at homemade massage chair

Boosting your immune system agains H1N1 virus

So finally the pandemic flu scare associated with the H1N1 influenza virus has subside. Singapore has decided to stay on yellow alert due to the low fatality rate associated with this virus. Even though the infection worldwide has soared past the 5,000 mark nevertheless, it is still relatively considered mild and not as dangerous as the SARS.
As the saying goes, ‘Prevention is better than cure’ thus it is important to strengthen your body immune system against flu infections.

One way to boost your immune system is by taking mushrooms. Mushroom contains AHCC compounds (Active hexose correlated compound) that help to increase body immune system via increasing the natural killer cells known as NK cells. NK cells are first front line defense against harmful gems that invades our body. Improving NK cells activity is important for achieving vibrant health and boost the body against infections. NK cells are also observed to destroy cancer cells while the tumor is still not detectable.

The Japanese have traditionally used natural compounds from mushroom to improve and boost up body immune system. AHCC compounds are used in hundreds of hospitals worldwide for treatment of cancer patients.

Thus try to include mushroom is your diet, it is rich in organic and beneficial compound such as the AHCC, it is rich in flavor and last but not least you can prepare various delicious dishes with it.

Swine flu

So finally it looks like the H1N1 influenza virus aka swine flu is neither as virulent nor dangerous as it is thought out to be. It seems that the existing flu vaccine ‘Tamiflu’ is effective for treating H1N1. Interestingly though, the H1N1 is some sort of mutated virus that consists of the bird, swine and human flu. Sometimes we human post a greater threat as mode of transmission for viruses as evident in this case whereby it is human which infected the pigs with the influenza virus and not the other way round.

We humans cull animals such as the chickens in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus and to avoid possible cross transmissions to humans. What about if the source of transmission is human? Don’t we have to consider culling human instead so as to prevent spread of virus to animals?

We often heard of advice to avoid kissing pets such as dogs or cats so as to avoid getting infection of gems, bacteria or virus from these cuties. Truth to be told, we humans in fact pose far greater threats to these animals that may lack the necessary immune defense against human diseases.

Against backdrop of cosmopolitan cities such as Singapore, the danger of a pandemic flu and other airborne virus disease outbreak is very real due to the close proximities between people in crowded areas such as public transports.

Furthermore, there are many people who have no consideration for others and would not mind or give it damn by coughing right in front of you without covering their mouth with handkerchief, let alone fat hope if you expect these people to put on mask.

It is not possible for us to avoid or stay away from people who are sick and down with airborne virus diseases all the time. Thus the best that we could do is to maintain a healthy body, and beef up our body immune system as first front line defense against viral infections.