Emotional Stress: How It Affects Your Body

September 28, 2016 by blogadmin Posted in Health, Life Tagged distress, emotional health, eustress, fight stress, stress

Stress is known to be a normal part of your life. The requirement of your body to react or adjust in any changes of the environment is stress. Your body reacts physically, mentally and emotionally. There are good and bad forms of stress which are all rooted from your thoughts, your body and your environment.

The positive stress, known as eustress, can be made from positive events in your life such as responding to a surprise marriage proposal, getting a salary increase and etc.. It keeps your body alert and even ready to avoid unfortunate circumstances. While the negative stress, which is called distress, happens to a person facing life challenges without relaxation in between. I’m sure we are all familiar with the “stress-reliever” excuse when somebody goes out to party or spends money on an overly priced spa. But this is actually true. It is indeed beneficial for all of us to relieve our bad stress from time to time. It depends on our emotional preference though, sometimes a quality time with the family could be a relief too.

So How Does Stress Affect Your Health?

Distress can cause physical symptoms. Your body senses that something is wrong by the way you think, feel or act. For instance, a person can experience high blood pressure or ulcer for a particular stressful event i.e. death of a loved one. Here are some of the symptoms that can tell your emotional health is out of balance:

Headaches
Insomnia
Palpitations
Stiff neck
Excessive sweating
Upset stomach
Sudden weight gain or loss
Sexual problems
Back pain
Change in appetite
Chest pain
Constipation or diarrhea
Dry mouth
Exhaustion

The “mind & body connection” truly exists. The heavier emotions you have, the heavier your body system moves.

Out of balance emotional health can weaken your body’s immune system, making you more prone to sickness. Also, when you are stressed, you have the tendency to over-eat, eat junk foods and rely on alcoholic beverages or on smoking.

I just reckoned all of the things I did when my life was in that stage. My personal relief was to be alone and I talked to no one. I understood all the lyrics of all the saddest songs in the world. It was a torture, and comforting over a few bottles of alcohol. The crying moments alone made it worst. It was a crazy move I know and I don’t want to go back to that stage again. Finally when I shared my anxiety and loneliness with my friends and health advisor, I’ve collected some good alternatives to overcome it:

#1 Express yourself (in good ways)

It is ok to let your loved ones know what is happening to you. Even if they don’t tell you, they worry about what they see in you. That’s the start. Your friends can come along too when you need some shoulders to cry on. But they can only listen and their knowledge about overcoming it is limited to what they know and learn from their experience. If the situation calls for it, go see a doctor, a counsellor or any religious advisor for a much more meaningful advice and support to improve your emotional health.

#2 Focus on positive things

You work for a living. It is important to remember and make it a habit to leave any work issues at work and not bring it at home. Sometimes we tend to get affected negatively of the things we have handled the whole day, and if we bring it at home this can ruin all the quality time left for yourself and for your family for that day. I’m not saying you just pretend that everything is ok. It is ok to deal with negative feelings but embracing them full time is neither healthy nor good for your life. When you feel down, focus on the good things that make you smile that day or even yesterday or last year. Laughter can help. Make time to enjoy little things that make you happy.

#3 Keep that positive outlook in you

The only constant thing in this world is change, so you also have to learn how to deal with all sorts of changes that happen in your life. Learn to accept things, if it is not meant for you to have then deal with it. When God closes the door, He always opens a window for you. In short, don’t deal too much with the things you can’t have, instead try to be positive that something greater is coming if you face failure of any kind. Be resilient.

#4 Calm your mind, body and soul

It is important to keep an eye on how or what method helps you to keep yourself calm from the outside world. There should be time for yourself to meditate and free yourself from physical and emotional stress. Meditation helps and there are stress-relief programs combined with expertise out there that are worth to try. I keep on coming to a good Melbourne nutritionist for her program and it has helped me cope with lots of my health issues. Yoga is also helpful. Volunteering to any church or charity related activities can help too. It depends on your preference. Finding the peace and tranquility in yourself to overcome emotional stress is really important.

The First Wealth is Health

September 7, 2016 by blogadmin Posted in Health, Life Tagged health is wealth, healthy routine, kidney stones, lifestyle

“The First Wealth is Health” – this is the famous phrase by an American Poet named Ralph Waldo Emerson. It does give a general realization on how life should be handled. In our busy world, sometimes we tend to forget the importance of health. We try to enjoy everything that is good, YOLO right? Well, you should note that I am writing this for myself as well. Who does not want to enjoy life? But it’s true that you will only know and realize it when you get busted or when one of your body system crashes and gives you pain big time.

A year before the time of this writing, I was forced to undergo Ureteroscopic kidney stone removal. The kidney stones went under medical treatment for two years before that wherein one instance led to flashing a stone out while I was urinating. The pain was excruciating as I can remember. Then everything went back to normal, so as my eating habits and bad lifestyle. Until I met that incident last year that made me not urinate even a single drop, so I was rushed to a hospital and they found out two 9mm stones blocking my urine tube. The surgery removed them and this event taught me to be more careful and wiser with my lifestyle now.

I recalled the old lifestyle I was enjoying before my kidney almost gave up on me, and having a list of what I was used to be doing back then, I gradually took more effort to remove any bad habits. So this was my life routine:

Skipping breakfast
Having heavy lunch
Smoking every after meal
Drinking sodas to make me awake
All day in the office
Eating salted snacks with soda
Going home and eating big dinner late at night
Drinking coffee outside
Most of the time, alcohol sessions with friends
Sleeping for 4 to 5 hours maximum
Then meeting the same routine

I realized that it was really unhealthy, the happiness was there though. But the lifestyle itself was threatening I believe. Having the same routine in years brought my kidney to almost stop functioning, to remind me that what I was doing was not good at all. Exercise was not there and so as drinking lots of water. It was just like trying to skip boredom of the routine life I had. Well I worked overseas for 7 years and that explains it. But I wish I had spent a much healthier routine…

So what did I learn?

There should be nutrition balance in my food intake everyday
Drinking lots of water should be put onto practice
Alcohol consumption is neither beneficial nor good for my health
Smoking is really bad and I should try to minimize until I decide to quit doing so (it takes time)
Sodas are good to have but they won’t make you stay healthy in the long run
Having good long hours of sleep is better than trying to force productivity in my system
Skipping breakfast is really a bad habit
Having no exercise at least once in a week is really unhealthy
Lastly, working all the time without adding some effort to freshen yourself physically makes you feel unproductive in the long process

Never neglect this from now on

Well, the list should go on with smaller details. But the bottom line is that I was doing it the wrong way. Maximizing what life has to offer is just second to prioritizing what makes me young and healthier. For every good and fun things happening in your life, there should be a thought process of keeping yourself healthy all the time. Awareness is the key to a perfect health. We feed our bodies with food that should give us energy to consume everyday. We also feed our soul with peace and inspiring words to help us get over all the negative thinking. Finally, we should feed our heart with proper nutrition and light emotions and reactions to help us keep moving with excitement to pursue our goals.

The lifetime goal is to be successful in what we do. Making this possible would mean making our health a supreme priority.

The lifetime goal is to be successful in what we do. Making this possible would mean making our health a supreme priority. You can be successful and at the same time sick and would not enjoy the fruits of your hard work. But you can be healthy, productive, reliable and successful if you choose to have a better lifestyle now.

You are wealthy enough to be called if you stay healthy and even find ways to make yourself healthier in this busy world.

The Borderline Between Health and Cosmetic Beauty: It’s still a Choice

August 15, 2016 by blogadmin Posted in Beauty, Health, Life Tagged BDD, beauy industry, cosmetic beauty, plastic surgery

Gone are the days when cosmetic beauty or cosmetic plastic surgery was part of a household debate. The world has seen it now as if it is just a matter of consulting a doctor for a regular headache. Before people were divided on the subject of natural beauty and that cosmetic surgery is a “sin” in terms of changing what has been believably given by God. Well I am not here to negate either side of the issue. Let us tackle what statistics say and how people nowadays react and respond to cosmetic beauty.

The Definition of Cosmetic Beauty

Cosmetic beauty refers to enhancement, restoration or improvement of one’s physical beauty. It is either done through the use of “cosmetics”, also known as make-up, which are substances or products used to enhance the appearance or fragrance of the body, or cosmetic surgery which involves a deeper enhancement or procedure where the body undergoes a certain surgery or operation.

Beauty Industry on the Rise

The beauty industry in the US has generated $56.2 billion in 2015 where hair care has contributed the most while skin care placed second and has also been growing fast. The growth is being driven in part by a generally increasing awareness of the importance of skin care but also specifically due to increase in the market for men. [Source: Beauty Industry Analysis 2016 – Cost & Trends, www.franchisehelp.com/industry-reports/beauty-industry-report/]

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has also seen continuous growth in cosmetic procedures over the years. Lifts have remarkably dominated the stats from 2000 till 2015: breast lifts is up by 89%, buttock lifts by 252%, lower body lifts at 3,973% and upper arm lifts at 4,959%. This clearly shows the increasing interests among women and even men to undergo body enhancements. Apart from these said procedures, the top 5 cosmetic surgeries performed in 2015 are breast augmentation, liposuction, nose reshaping, eyelid surgery and tummy tuck. There are numerous surgery types being discussed in the data but it was shockingly true to find out that men shared 40% of aesthetic breast reduction surgeries (Gynecomastia) too. [Source: New Statistics Reflect the Changing Face of Plastic Surgery, www.plasticsurgery.org/news/press-releases/new-statistics-reflect-the-changing-face-of-plastic-surgery]

The ASPS President Dr. David Song, MD, MBA, FACS has quoted that they are seeing more men undergo procedures that tighten and tone their problem areas (like breasts) since plastic surgical operations become common and accepted in them.

The Negative Facts

True enough, cosmetic plastic surgery made waves in the Hollywood and now almost anyone who can save a buck can easily get a body part done. However, there are also some horror stories around these procedures. And taking into account some of the famous failed surgical procedures, most of them are celebrities who were afraid of getting old with their looks, not to mention some who just wanted to enhance what they thought was hideous (which I personally found ok anyway). There have been cases as well, wherein a husband tried to sue (and won the case) his wife for having ugly children despite his and his wife’s good looks. This case resembles establishing honesty with your surgery since your old looks will still stay in your DNA even after numerous attempts to kill your old self. That’s a sad fact you cannot run away from.

Science has also defined a psychiatric disorder called Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BDD, which is characterized by a person’s intense preoccupation with an imagined defect in appearance. This disorder is afflicted with significant distress and/or functional impairment, as recounted by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. BDD is prevalent to those who seek cosmetic surgery.

Can you Compensate Health (or Life) for Beauty?

Physical, mental and even spiritual health are at stake when getting a cosmetic surgery procedure. If in case a certain surgery fails, your body system might be affected and a failure gives a lot of mental stress and lifetime worries. These people really care about how they look, and if something goes wrong along the way especially if the procedure ruins their intended looks and makes it even worst, this means a total disgrace. This case has actually led a lot of people to attempt suicide, and sadly a lot of them succeeded too.

The popularity of cosmetic surgery is perhaps stimulated by the impressive physical rejuvenation shown by media figures or TV shows. Let us face it, the multi-billion industry has always been leaving us in awe whenever we see how pleasing these stars appear on TV and in the movies. We also see how their face, body, skin and hair style change and sometimes we tend to ask our hairdresser to mimic our favorite star’s hairstyle just to follow the trend. This influence is also changing the way we think and decide for ourselves, sometimes without us noticing it. This is how beauty is known these days. In the old days, thicker lips and bigger butts looked awful but they seem iconic these days and women would die to have one.

Seeing beauty before our eyes is always fascinating. When there is beauty, everything seems light. We all have the freedom to do whatever we decide on doing and for as long as we can avail the costly operation that we may think will save us from being called ugly, then we are free to do so. Let us just all remember that every decision we make has pros and cons, it might be different to each and every one of us who wants beauty, but the thought process is always the same. If this would add a meaning to your life as you constantly hate what you have now, then might as well try it, it will save you from agonizing about your ugliness all the time. But if you still believe that beauty still lies in the eyes of the beholder, then go on and continue finding happiness outside beauty. It is still your choice anyway.