With the right preference of components you can tempo up your weight loss efforts dramatically. Rev up your calorie burn and curb your cravings with these exceptional foods.
1. Broccoli: Broccoli (cooked or raw) is well recognised for its cancer stopping properties and is high in diet C which helps to soak up the calcium we eat. Studies show that calcium aids in weight loss. Not entirely that, broccoli is moreover rich in phytochemicals that significantly improve our immune system, and helps to guard in the direction of sickness all whilst being very low in calories!
2. Apples: Apples are low in calories and fat, low in sodium, and comprise vitamins and minerals as properly as fiber. A Penn State University carried out a study, which revealed, that people, who ate an apple in the past than a meal, ate fewer energy traditional than those, who ate a awesome shape of snack. The motive for this is in apple’s very high-fiber status, which fills you up (each apple has about four to 5 grams of fiber). The fiber helps you experience full longer because it expands in your stomach so it takes an awful lot less food to fulfill your hunger.
3. Black beans: Black beans include a lot of protein (15 grams per cup) and don’t not incorporate saturated fat, which is existing in red meat, for example. Beans are extremely unique fats opponents due to the truth they comprise most useful combination of »fat melting« nutrient (protein, soluble and insoluble fiber, and a type of fat-burning carb known as resistant starch).
4. Coffee: Coffee raises your resting metabolism rate by means of the usage of about 15%. This can closing up to 4 hours and it can burn between 35 and 55 extra calories per day! That’s about 245 to 385 additional calories burned per week. The chlorogenic acids (certain sorts of antioxidants) are the important compound which slows down the manufacturing of new fats cells after a meal.
5. Low-fat Dairy: Low-fat every day is affluent in nutrients, it has the necessary calcium for fats burning and weight loss and it help to keep the digestive tract in terrific health.Research indicates that these who have deficiencies in calcium hold a increased fat mass and less control of their appetite. What’s more, studies have located that dairy sources of calcium — like yogurt, low- or nonfat cheese, and milk — are markedly more excessive first-class in accelerating fat loss than special sources.In one study about out of the University of Tennessee, researchers confirmed that ingesting three servings of dairy day by day appreciably lowered body fat in chubby subjects. If they restrained power a bit whilst persevering with with the equal dairy servings, it accelerated fat and weight loss.
6. Eggs: According to a research done by Rochester Center for Obesity in America consuming eggs for breakfast could help you limit the calorie intake by more than 400 calories throughout the day. One egg contains about 85 calories, but it makes you feel fuller for longer, so you’re next meal will likely be smaller. Eggs are also full of good nutrients like protein, zinc, iron and vitamins A, D, E and B12.
7. Grapefruit: This fruit alone, without changing anything in your diet, can help you lose up to a pound a week! You should try eating half a grapefruit before each meal. It will help you lower the insulin, which is a far-storage hormone, and that will lead to weight loss
8. Cinnamon: Like grapefruit, cinnamon also helps to keep your blood sugar in place and prevents a post-meal insulin spike, which triggers your the body to keep fats instead of burning it. Use ½ teaspoon every day to taste your food, which will deliver out the natural sweetness, as an choice than including “empty-calorie” stuffed sugar.
9. Wine: Grape skin contains resveratrol which is a well-known antioxidant that stops fat storage. A glass of wine can also increase your metabolic rate for up to 90 minutes. A new Spanish study suggests that drinking about 9 ounces of Merlot or a low-alcohol red wine changed the mix of good and bad bacteria typically found in the colon in ways that can benefit your health. A balanced combination of these bacteria helps to digest food better and more efficiently.
10. Green Tea: Green tea is a great metabolism booster and is rich in antioxidants which are good fighting cancer and heart disease. A study showed that people who drank at least a two cups of green tea per day, for three months, lost more body fat than those, who drank regular tea (5.3 pounds vs. 2.9 pounds). They also experienced a considerably greater decrease in BMI (Body Mass Index), waist size, and total body fat
There are many benefits to having passive income. It can be a great way to supplement your regular income or even replace it entirely. In this post we’ll explore some of the reasons why passive income is so important.
Passive Income Definition
Most people think of Passive Income as money earned with little to no effort. However, the IRS defines it as “income from trade or business activities in which you do not materially participate.”
In order to be considered passive, you must have already put in the work upfront and then be able to continue to reap the benefits without putting in any additional effort.
Benefits Of Passive Income
The reason why passive income is so important is that it has so many potential benefits including those listed below.
1. Provides a steady stream of revenue that can help cover your costs of living and leave you with extra money to save or invest.
2. It can help you achieve financial independence and retire early.
3. Can give you more freedom and flexibility in your life, allowing you to pursue your passions and spend more time doing what you love.
4. It can help you diversify your income sources and reduce your dependence on a single source of income.
5. May provide a hedge against inflation, helping you maintain your purchasing power over time.
6. Passive income can help you diversify your investments and reduce your overall risk.
7. It could provide tax advantages, allowing you to keep more of your hard-earned money.
8. Gives you the ability to generate income while you sleep, giving you more time to enjoy your life.
9. Helps you build wealth over time, providing you with a valuable asset to leave to your heirs.
10. Provides you with peace of mind, knowing that you have a reliable source of income that can help cover your costs if your primary source of income disappears
Benefits of passive income
How To Generate Passive Income
There are many ways to generate passive income, and our website can help you learn about some of the best options. From investing in real estate or stocks and bonds to starting an online business, we can provide you with the information you need to get started.
Passive income can provide you with a steady stream of income that can help you reach your financial goals, and we’re here to help you learn how to make it work for you.
There are many methods you can use to generate passive income including the following;
Interest income
Rental income
Dividend income
Royalty income
Profit income
Capital gains income
Ideas For Generating Passive Income
Let’s take a look at a few ideas to start generating your own passive income streams.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.
How it works:
A company looking to use affiliate marketing will first need to find affiliates to work with. This can be done by working with affiliate networks, which connect companies with potential affiliates. Once a company has found affiliates that it would like to work with, it will need to reach out to them and build a relationship.
Affiliate networks will often provide companies with tools, such as banners and links, that they can give to their affiliates to help them promote the company’s products. When a visitor clicks on one of these banners or links and makes a purchase, the affiliate will receive a commission from the company.
Affiliate marketing can create a source of passive income for anybody that is looking for ways to make money online. By finding affiliates and building relationships with them, a company can tap into a new source of customers and generate sales without having to spend a lot of money on advertising.
A “print on demand” store is a type of online business that allows you to sell custom-printed products without having to invest in inventory or manage production yourself.
This can be a great way to create a passive income stream, as you can set up the store once and then continue to earn revenue from it without having to do any ongoing work.
To get started, you’ll need to find a reliable print on demand partner that can produce high-quality products at a reasonable price. Once you’ve found a partner, you can start creating and selling custom products.
Blogging involves writing and publishing regular posts on a blog. Anyone can use blogging to create a source of passive income by writing about topics that they are passionate about and that others are interested in.
In order to make money from blogging, people can sign up for advertising programs such as Google AdSense, which pays bloggers based on the traffic they generate.
Affiliate marketing provides another method of blog monetization. You can incorporate banners and links into blog posts quite easily. It also provides plenty of content to write about including product reviews, comparisons, tests, how to guides etc.
A cash dividend is a distribution of a company’s earnings to its shareholders. If you own shares in a company, you may be eligible to receive a dividend.
To receive a dividend, you must be a shareholder on the company’s record date. The company will then send you a check for the dividend amount or deposit it into your investment account.
Dividends can be a source of passive income because you can receive them without having to do any work.
Rental income is the income derived from renting property or another asset you own. A passive rental income stream is one in which the property is leased to a tenant and the investor does not actively participate in the management of the property.
Royalty income is a type of passive income that comes from owning an asset that produces income from others using it. An example of a royalty income stream would be owning a patent on a new invention and collecting a percentage of the sales from companies that make and sell products based on that invention.
More Ways To Make Money
Of course there are other ways to make money that come from active income sources. Active income is income you earn from performing an activity, rather than from investing or from passive income.
An example of active income is wages you earn from working at a job. And whilst active income may provide high earnings, there comes with it a greater commitment of time, effort and resources.
Passive income is important because it allows you to have money coming in without having to work for it. This means that you can have more time to do the things you love, or even just relax.
Calcium is an important mineral that is required for the maintenance of bone health and teeth. Calcium is also needed by various systems of the body like the circulatory system that involves heart functioning, blood clotting system and nervous system needs calcium too. The 99% of calcium in the human body is bones and teeth and the remaining 1% is utilized for various physiological workings of the body. Calcium exists as a constituent in many vegetables, pulses, and other food products. Often in cases of low calcium oral supplementation of calcium is administered. In this article we will discuss the importance of calcium, its natural sources in terms of food articles and herbs.
Introduction
The body of an adult normally contains about 1200 grams of calcium and as mentioned earlier at least 99% of that calcium is in the skeleton and teeth. The calcium salts are held in a cellular matrix, and thus provide a hard structure to the bones and teeth. In adults, around 70% of the calcium in food is excreted in faeces, during growth the efficiency of the absorption is greater. Calcium absorption may be impaired either by lack of vitamin D by any condition causing small intestinal hurry, by the combination of calcium with excess fatty acids to form insoluble soaps in steatorrhoea, or by food containing oxalate like in spinach or phytate (whole grain cereals) which can form insoluble salts with calcium.
Why do we need calcium in our bodies?
We need calcium for many reasons in our body. Calcium is the most obvious and persistent of the micro-nutrients, the fifth most abundant element, and the most abundant cation in the body. Any reduction in the plasma calcium does not show in the plasma concentration, which is immediately reset by increased parathyroid secretion and formation of 1, 25 dihydroxy- vitamin D, probably because any change of ionized plasma concentration would disturb neuromuscular irritability and blood coagulation.
The most likely cause of reduced plasma calcium is low albumin, with reduced protein-bound calcium. Likewise, intracellular plasma concentration, which affects the activities of many enzymes, is also tightly controlled. Now coming to various roles played in our body.
These are the following
Calcium is important for the development of bones in children and the maintenance of bone strength in adults. Females after menopause usually land in osteoporosis due to low estrogen levels and brittle bones. Even at that time external supplementation of calcium is given
Calcium is responsible for muscle constriction. Nerves stimulate a muscle, and hence calcium is released. This release of calcium helps the proteins in the body to carry out the work of contraction.
Micro nutrients like calcium are very much important in blood clotting.
The calcium also helps in smooth muscle relaxation that surrounds the blood vessels. Many studies have shown a relationship between high calcium levels and lower blood pressure.
The parathyroid also works properly in adequate amounts of calcium. Low levels of calcium results in parathyroid overactivity.
Premenstrual syndrome that includes a variety of symptoms in females before their cycle starts is also related to low levels of calcium. Regular intake of adequate amounts of calcium reduces the pms symptoms like cravings, bloating, mood swings, and pain too.
You can also add calcium-rich products to your diet to avoid or prevent PMS symptoms.
It also plays a very important role in digestion as it is known to behave as an antacid. Even some research has proved that adequate levels of calcium in the body reduce the chances of colon and rectal cancers. But you should have proper levels of vitamin D in your body.
The high levels of low-density lipoproteins are also reduced when you take an acceptable amount of calcium in your diet along with a low-calorie diet. Alongside it also increases the high-density lipoprotein.
In pregnancy low calcium levels can lead to high blood pressure that’s why external supplementation of calcium is orally administered.
Recommended intake of calcium
The amount of calcium that has to be added to the bones to produce the final adult amount averages 180 mg/day from 0 to 18 years but reaches 400mg/day at the peak of adolescent growth.
Calcium-rich dietary sources
Generally, the dietary sources that are rich in calcium include milk, cheese, paneer, yoghut, fish especially pilchards, shellfish, nuts like almonds and peanuts, fortified pieces of bread, egg especially the white portion of the egg, some pulses like chickpeas and beans, and also some vegetables like spinach, broccoli, mustard greens, and kale. Fruits that are moderately rich in calcium include oranges. Dandelions, cabbage, okra, etc are also good sources of calcium.
To maintain proper calcium levels in the body, a person also needs vitamin D in the body that regulates absorption of vitamin D. Vitamin D can be naturally provided to the body using soya milk, salmon, and tuna. The most natural source of vitamin D is sunlight.
Herbo minerals as the source of calcium carbonate
As we have discussed the importance of calcium in the human body, so now we will discuss the herbo mineral source of calcium carbonate as described in Ayurveda. Ayurveda explains Mukta (Pearl) as the source of calcium carbonate. It is mentioned that (r.r.s 4/15, 17)
Mukta has various properties. These properties are light to digest (laghu), cold in potency (sheeta veerya), madhur in rasa (taste), increases the kanti of the body, improves eyesight, maintains healthy digestion, and improves the quality of life. It is typically termed as shareer pushtikarak which means it maintains the skeleton (bones) of the body which are the root framework of the body, enhances the working of the heart, and reduces the constrictions in muscles. In short, it provides nourishment to the whole body. It also pacifies kapha, pitta, and respiratory conditions, reduces pain in bones by nourishing them and improves body metabolism.
Above all are the qualities of mukta. Mukta is prepared in the form of powder and hence called as mukta pishti in classics. Intake of this pishti gradually increases your bone strength and hence provides you with a strong and durable skeleton framework.
Conclusion
Calcium is one of the most important requirements of our body because it not only supports bones but also supports many other systems. That’s why it is very important to maintain adequate levels of calcium in the body along with noticing the signs of calcium deficiency. In today’s fast life we need really natural ways to maintain and fulfill the deficiencies in our systems and opting for Ayurveda can be a very good choice.
Manuka Honey is one of the most popular types of honey that is natively produced in Australia and New Zealand. The honey is made when the bees pollinate the manuka bush, which is also known as Leptospermum scoparium. Honey is known for its medicinal value since ancient times. It contains natural antibacterial qualities that help to improve digestion issues. However, you also need to note that all types of honey do not have the same quality or offer similar benefits. It all depends on the purity of the ingredients and how it is harvested.
Here in this blog, we will highlight 7 scientific health benefits of consuming Manuka honey. So, let’s get started.
Help in Healing the Wound Faster
Due to its antibacterial qualities, Manuka Honey is being used extensively to heal wounds, cuts, burns, and boils. The Food and Drug Administration Department has approved manuka honey to treat the wound. It offers a protective layer to the skin that restricts the penetration of bacteria and prevents microbial infections. Various studies and research have found that it heals the wound faster, helping to restore ruptured tissues and reducing the pain inflicted from burns. It also creates an acidic wound environment which quickens wound healing.
Helps to Revive the Skin Appearance
Everyone wants to have a glowing skin. And there is nothing better than applying natural ingredients such as manuka honey. It is regarded as one of the best skin care products. It produces collagen, which helps to enhance the elasticity of the skin. Besides that, it also decreases the dark spots due to its anti-inflammatory nature. It reduces skin itching and irritation, offering a calm soothing effect. Manuka honey also contains a humectant, which helps to properly hydrate and moisturize the skin, especially during the winter season.
If you want the best results, then apply one tablespoon of manuka honey over your skin and wash it with warm water after 20 minutes. Doing this on a regular basis will help to refresh your skin.
Prevent Tooth Decay and Improve Oral Health
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that 50% of Americans are suffering from some kind of oral disease. One of the major causes of bad oral health is due to harmful bacteria that cause tooth decay and plaque formation. Manuka honey attacks and destroys harmful bacteria to keep your mouth healthy. Advanced studies have shown that the antibacterial properties of manuka honey combat bad bacteria such as P. gingivalis and A. actinomycetemcomitans. If you want to get a fast and effective outcome, you can chew or suck manuka honey candy for about 10 minutes on a day-to-day basis after a meal.
Treating a Sore Throat
Another common health concern where manuka honey proves to be effective in is soothing a sore throat. It has antiviral and antifungal properties that help to decrease throat inflammation and pain. It creates a thick vicious texture coating on the inner lining of the throat to provide a soothing effect. It is quite encouraging to note that manuka honey also fights against Streptococcus mutans, the bacteria present in patients suffering from head or neck cancer. This reduces the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation by destroying mucositis – harmful oral bacteria. And we all know the benefits of honey in curing the cough and cold.
Helps with Restoring Sleep Disorders
Sleep disorder has become more than a common issue as people are forced to take sleeping pills at night to sleep comfortably. But manuka honey contains a high quantity of tryptophan that makes a person feel sleepy or brings the drowsiness effect. It also accelerates the secretion of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps in relaxing the body and also produces melatonin or sleep hormone.
Improves Digestion and Prevents Gastric Ulcers
People have also started complaining about problems related to the proper digestion of food. They are suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which is a common digestive disorder. It can lead to many complicated issues such as diarrhea, constipation, and abdominal pain. But manuka honey is the right medicine that can improve all these conditions with the help of antioxidants. It can reduce inflammation and prevent gastric ulcers, which is a severe stomach disorder.
Treatment of Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a chronic disease that can damage the lungs and the digestive system, as well as other organs. It leads to abnormal growth of mucous cells which can clog the air passage, making it difficult for the person to breathe. However manuka honey acts as a savior in combating respiratory infections and battling with the bacteria to improve the condition of the person suffering from this disease.
Curing Acne
Acne usually occurs when the body fails to adopt any hormonal changes. You may also suffer from this problem if your digestive tract is weak and you’re living a very stressful life. Manuka honey, however, has an antimicrobial property with a low pH factor to counter an acne disease. It heals the skin and makes it bacteria free to decrease the impact of acne.
Concluding the Discussion
Manuka honey is truly a unique type of honey that is recommended for most of the common health-related issues. However, it must be remembered that people suffering from diabetes should abstain from consuming this honey. It is known for its antibacterial and antiviral properties that allow it to combat most of the health concerns.
It’s been said that history repeats itself, and we’ve seen it happen on many occasions. The finest trends, whether in fashion, lifestyle, or music, always make a return. Fasting is one of these tendencies. People have begun to fast to better their lives outside of religious and political groups. Fasting on a regular basis has been linked to decreased incidence of heart failure and better metabolism. Fasting may therefore be the secret to living a long and healthy life. This page will go through the many kinds, advantages, and warnings.
Introduction
Fasting is described as a time of complete or partial abstinence from all or some foods. Fasting may be used as part of a weight-loss regimen or for religious reasons. Fasting has been the focus of several kinds of research due to its potential as a longevity treatment. According to several studies, persons who fast on a regular basis have a nearly 45 percent reduced mortality risk than those who do not fast throughout the follow-up period.
Ayurveda claims that
Upavasa (fasting) is one of the ten Langhana (body-lightening) treatments in Ayurveda, and it is one of the Daivavyapashraya (spiritual) therapies. Fasting promotes digestive fire and induces Ama-dosha digestion, according to Ayurveda (metabolic toxins). Upavasa is a technique to draw closer to the almighty from a religious standpoint. Fasting stimulates autophagy, according to research. The vitiated dosha in the human body, particularly the digestive viscera, is referred to in Ayurveda as Aamashaya. This weakens and disables the digestive fire, resulting in stomach-related debilitation and the creation of ama (metabolic poisons or factors that originate as a result of the digestive fire’s defective functioning), which is said to be the underlying cause of all diseases. This causes blockages in the body’s pathways, resulting in a variety of illnesses.
Benefits
Fasting may help you live longer and healthier by slowing down the aging process, preventing diabetes, thyroid problems, hypertension, and heart disease, and increasing your chances of living a long and healthy life. It also helps you lose weight. Healthy joints and a positive body image are inextricably linked to healthy body weight.
Fasting, if done correctly, has been claimed to provide the following health benefits:
Resting heart rate is lower.
Blood pressure is lower.
Insulin sensitivity is increased.
Improvements in the heart’s pumping action
LDL, or bad cholesterol, levels are lower.
Enhances Metabolism
Fasting insulin levels are lower.
Insulin sensitivity has improved.
Ketosis, which enhances weight loss, may be achieved by fasting for a brief period of time.
Defends Against Inflammation
Several reactions are triggered by ketosis during fasting, including reduced inflammation, improved blood sugar management, and a better response to physical stress.
The Different Types of Fasting
There are a lot of various methods to accomplish IF, which is fantastic. If this is something you’re interested in, you may choose the kind that best suits your needs, increasing your chances of success. Continue reading to learn about several types of intermittent fasting:
1. Fasting for two days a week
People who follow the 5:2 diet eat normally for five days and then cut down on calories for the remaining two days. Men typically ingest 600 calories and women 500 calories during the two fasting days.
2. Alternate-day fasting
The alternate-day fasting regimen entails fasting every other day and has numerous versions. Some individuals practice alternate-day fasting by avoiding solid meals entirely on fasting days, while others allow up to 500 calories. People often opt to eat as much as they want on feeding days.
3. Fast for 12 hours a day
This method is the most basic of the lot, and it entails fasting for 12 hours every day. You also don’t have to miss meals; all you’re doing is cutting out a night snack. However, this strategy does not fully exploit the benefits of fasting.
4. Time-Restricted Fasting
This style of fasting requires you to choose an eating window each day, which should ideally leave you with a 14 to 16-hour fast. This may assist in fat cell metabolism and insulin function optimization.
5. 24-Hour per Week
You only eat once a day during a weekly 24-hour fast. Some individuals opt to have supper and then not eat again until the following day’s dinner. That implies you’ll be fasting for 24 hours. Fasting times are almost always 24 hours long (dinner to dinner or lunch to lunch)
6. Meal Skipping
For beginners, this flexible approach to intermittent fasting may be beneficial. It entails missing meals on occasion. People may choose which meals to miss based on their hunger levels or time constraints. It is, nonetheless, important to consume nutritious meals at each meal.
What are the potential dangers of fasting?
Though research has shown the advantages of fasting in general, more evidence is needed to support fasting as a weight-loss approach. The first essential thing to remember is that fasting is not appropriate for everyone.
Fasting may not be a smart option for persons who have a history of eating issues.
Patients with diabetes who take medicines and insulin may have dangerously low blood sugar levels, which may be fatal.
Some people practice “dry fasting,” which means they don’t drink water or consume solid foods during their fasting times. This is a risky trend since it may lead to dehydration, tiredness, electrolyte imbalance, heatstroke, and headaches.
Fasting has been linked to migraines.
Severe calorie restriction may cause a person’s body weight to drop dangerously low.
Fasting-induced ketogenesis may have negative consequences since the body has become used to burning lipids rather than glucose. This is referred to as “keto flu.”
Fasting without supervision might lead to nutritional deficits. In the long term, this might have a negative influence on all physiological functioning.
Conclusion
Intermittent fasting may be done in a variety of ways, and no one method will work for everyone. Individuals will get the greatest results if they experiment with several styles to find which one best fits their lifestyle and tastes. Fasting for long periods when the body is unprepared, regardless of the form of intermittent fasting, might be harmful. These diets may not be appropriate for everyone. These tactics may increase a person’s negative connection with food if they are prone to disordered eating.
The liver is one of the largest organs present in the body which performs various functions of the body. In adults, the normal weight for lier is around 1400 to 1600 gm but can also vary in every individual. It is surrounded by fibrous connective tissue and is found on the right side of the upper quadrant of the abdomen. The liver has four lobes which include the left and right lobe along with smaller quadrate and caudate lobes. The upper border of the liver lies at the level of the nipples and the lower border to the oblique line connecting to the constable cartilage of the 8th left rib and 9th right rib. The liver is one of the organs which is damaged most frequently and today in this article we are going to discuss the organ liver in detail. Along with that some preventive tips to maintain the good health of the liver.
Anatomy of Liver
From an anatomical point of view, the liver is located in the right hypochondriac and epigastric region of the abdomen which is extended to the left hypochondrium region. There are basically two surfaces present on the liver which includes the Diaphragmatic surface also known as the anterosuperior surface which is smooth and convex, present beneath the curvature of our diaphragm while the posterior surface is directly in contact with the diaphragm itself.
Another one is the Visceral surface is the posteroinferior surface and is covered with the peritoneum. This surface is irregular in shape as it is molded in the shape of the surrounded organ and is in contact with the right adrenal gland, right kidney, transverse colon, right colic flexure, gallbladder, esophagus, the first part of the duodenum, and the stomach.
Ligaments of the Liver
There are different ligaments that are connected to the liver and are covered with the double layer of the peritoneum.
1. Coronary ligament
This ligament helps in attaching the anterior surface of the liver to the abdominal wall of the inferior part. This ligament separates the bare area of the liver and the posterior and superior folds end together to form triangular ligaments which are the right and left lobes of the liver.
2. Falciform ligament
Attaches the anterior abdominal wall to the anterior surface area of the liver forming a natural division between the right and left lobe of the liver.
3. Triangular ligaments
They are divided into two parts right and left side
4. The right triangular ligament
attaches the right lobe liver with the diaphragm and is in contact with the bare area.
5. The left triangular ligament
Is formed from the connection of the posterior and anterior layer of the coronary ligament present at the apex. It helps in connecting the left lobe to the diaphragm.
6. Lesser omentum
This ligament helps in attaching the liver to the lesser curvature of the stomach and also the first part of the duodenum. It consists of parts like the hepatogastric ligament which extends from the stomach to the liver, Hepatodudenal ligament which runs from the stomach to the liver.
7. Hepatic Recesses
Subhepatic space which is located between the transverse colon and inferior surface of the liver
Subphrenic space is located between the diaphragm and the superior as well as the anterior part of the liver. They are then divided into left and right forming the falciform ligament.
Morison’s pouch is a space present between the right kidney and the visceral surface of the liver.
The anatomical structure of the liver
Macroscopically there are two-lobe first is the Caudate lobe present on the visceral surface and the Quadrate lobe present on the lower part of the visceral surface.
Microscopically the cells present in the liver are known as hepatocytes and have three parts including Arteriole, Bile duct, and Venule.
Metabolism of Bilirubin In Liver
Bilirubin is the insoluble waste product of the body made from the breakdown of hemoglobin and other bile pigments. It is important that bilirubin is formed into water-soluble before excretion and the transformation of unconjugated and conjugated is done in five steps which includes:-
Formation of bilirubin
250 to 350 mg of unconjugated bilirubin is daily formed and 70 to 80 percent of bilirubin is derived from the breakdown of degenerated red blood cells, other 20 to 30 percent is taken from the heme protein present in the liver and bone marrow. Hemoglobin is formed from two elements heme and globin, the Globin is then broken down into amino acids. While the haem is broken down to form iron and biliverdin, during this process it is catalyzed to form haem oxygenase, the biliverdin is reduced to form unconjugated bilirubin.
Conjugation of Bilirubin
When the bilirubin comes into the colon, the bacteria present in it helps the deconjugate bilirubin to convert into urobilinogen. Most of the urobilinogen is oxidized into the intestine which is then converted into stercobilin and then it is excreted through the feces. Stercobilin is the one that gives the stool its color.
Normally 20 percent of the urobilinogen is reabsorbed by the bloodstream and is part of the enterohepatic circulation. This is then carried into the liver and recycled for the production of bile, only some of the bile reaches the kidney. Here it is further oxidized which is then excreted into the urine.
Bilirubin excretion
When the bilirubin comes into the colon, the bacteria present in it helps the deconjugate bilirubin to convert into urobilinogen. Most of the urobilinogen is oxidized into the intestine which is then converted into stercobilin and then it is excreted through the feces. Stercobilin is the one that gives the stool its color.
Normally 20 percent of the urobilinogen is reabsorbed by the bloodstream and is part of the enterohepatic circulation. This is then carried into the liver and recycled for the production of bile, only some of the bile reaches the kidney. Here it is further oxidized which is then excreted into the urine.
Dosage: 2 teaspoon two times daily after meals.
Function of Liver
The liver is one of the essential organs present in our body and helps in performing 500 vital functions of the body. This mainly includes the removal of waste products and foreign material from the blood which in turn helps in regulating the blood sugar levels.
Here some of the important functions of the liver
Production of Albumin
It is a protein formed in the liver which helps in maintaining the fluid present in the bloodstream and stops them from leaking into the tissue. It helps in carrying the various other substances throughout the body like vitamins, enzymes, and hormones. The normal levels of albumin present in the liver are 3.4 to 5.4 g/dL.
Production of Bile
The normal amount of bile produced by the human body is 400 to 800 ml every day. Bile acid is important for digestion and for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins in the small intestine.
Filtering blood
All the blood that is leaving the intestine and stomach is passed through the liver which helps in removing the toxins, by-products, and other harmful substances from the blood.
Regulating amino acids
Amino acid is responsible for producing protein and the liver makes sure that the levels of amino acid remain healthy in the body.
Regulated blood clotting
The blood clotting coagulants are produced by the use of Vitamin K nutrients that can be absorbed with the help of bile, a fluid found in the liver.
Protects from infections
In the process of filtration, the liver helps in removing any kind of bacteria from the blood.
Stores Minerals and Vitamins
The liver plays a very important role in storing nutrients like Vitamin A, D, E, K, and B12 along with that it also stores copper and iron.
Processing Glucose
The liver helps in removing an excessive amount of glucose or sugar from the bloodstream which is then stored in the form of glycogen.
General symptoms noted in Liver problems
The symptoms may vary according to the cause of the disease. However common signs noted in liver disease are
Skin and eyes become yellow
Urine becomes dark
Black stool
Swelling of legs, ankles, and abdomen
Vomiting
Nausea
Diminished Appetite
Skin becomes itchy
Easily gets bruised
Common Liver Problems
Here are some common conditions are seen in patients who suffer from liver disease and this includes
Hepatitis:- It is a viral infection of the liver that results in inflammation of the organ and reduces the functioning of the liver. There are five types of Hepatitis and each of them is contagious. It can easily spread through infected needles or unprotected sex.
Five Types
Hepatitis A:- It is typically caused by the contaminated food or water and symptoms may clear up within a few weeks of treatment.
Hepatitis B:- It can be both acute or chronic and is spread through the body fluid including the semen and blood. There is no specific cure for it.
Hepatitis C:- This can be both acute or chronic and is spread through the blood and in later stages, it causes damage to the liver.
Hepatitis D:- It is one of the serious forms and is contracted on its own.
Hepatitis E:- It is caused by drinking water that is contaminated and lasts for only a few weeks.
Fatty liver:- It is caused when the fat starts to build up in the liver and there are two types of fatty liver including alcoholic fatty liver caused by heavy consumption of fatty liver and non-alcoholic fatty liver caused by other factors. If left untreated it results in liver cirrhosis and liver failure.
Cirrhosis: – This mainly means the scarring of the liver which is caused due to some liver disorders or due to heavy intake of alcohol. Syphilis and Cystic fibrosis are also the causes resulting in liver damage and eventually resulting in cirrhosis. The liver is capable of regeneration in response to damage but this process sometimes results in the formation of scar tissue on the liver. The more the scar the harder the liver gets making the function of the liver difficult.
Liver failure: – Chronic liver failure is caused when the liver is damaged and is not able to work properly resulting in liver failure. Generally, common symptoms seen are Jaundice, confusion, nausea, and weakness.
How We Are Damaging the Liver
1. Consumption of Alcohol
Each body has a different reaction to heavy consumption of alcohol but drinking a large amount of alcohol makes the liver work harder. If the liver cells work hard then it might cause some damage to the liver. This may result in two conditions like fibrosis of the liver and sometimes liver cirrhosis. It is better to drink alcohol in a moderate amount to reduce the risk of developing any kind of illness.
2. Not Drinking water
Water is one of the essential fluids needed by our body which helps in removing toxins from the body. As 75 percent of our body is made from water and not drinking water results in dehydration. The liver needs an adequate amount of water in order to work properly and less amount of water results in liver problems. Consumption of water helps in maintaining good health and dehydration increases the risk of illness.
3. Smoking tobacco
Smoking does not only cause lung cancer but also liver cancer. Smoking tobacco causes a burning effect on the liver. The smoke produced by tobacco results in oxidative stress which pressurizes the liver to remove toxins from the blood. This then releases chemicals that are harmful to the body and in the end cause liver cancer.
4. Obesity
Being overweight results in too much production of adipose tissue or fat cells. These cause the liver to release toxic proteins that are harmful to the tissue present in the liver. The damage caused by Obesity is similar to the liver damage caused by consumption of Alcohol.
5. High Sugar Diet
Adding too much sugar to the diet is harmful to the system of the body. The liver is responsible for the metabolism of glucose and taking too much sugar can result in the accumulation of fat in the liver. All the cells present in the body help in taking care of glucose molecules while liver cells are the only ones controlling the levels of fructose. Fructose is present in fried foods, processed foods, colas, etc. Frequent consumption of foods rich in fructose results in liver damage that is irreversible. It is better to consume natural sugars and avoid junk or processed foods.
6. Heavy trans-fat in the diet
Almost all fast food or processed foods have high levels of trans fat in them. This trans-fat is responsible for increasing the levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) in the body and resulting in heart problems and trans fat is also responsible for reducing the levels of good cholesterol (HDL). Trans-fat is commonly found in baked foods, fried foods, microwave popcorn, and pre-packed foods.
7. Eating heavy Dinners
The liver does not work properly at night and eating heavy foods before bedtime produces extra pressure on the liver resulting in liver damage. So Dinners that are rich in shortening, canola oil and heavy seasoning are very harmful to the liver. It is better to consume beetroots and carrots in the evening.
8. Unsafe sex
People who indulge in unprotected sex are more at risk of developing the disease related to the liver. The person is higher at risk of having hepatitis which is a dangerous liver disease and can be easily contracted through sexual intercourse.
9. Stressful lifestyle
Having a stressful life for a long period of time can cause damage to the liver. It has been researched that the emotions like anger or stress are linked to the organ and can often lead to permanent damage. Studies have found a connection between death and psychological stress.
10. Sedentary lifestyle
Performing daily exercise is one of the ways to maintain the overall health of the person and it specifically helps in making the liver healthy. Burning some calories results in perspiration which is helpful in detoxifying the body. Exercising every day for one or half an hour is enough for keeping you in good shape.
Healthy Tips to Maintain the Good Health of Liver
Here are the ways to fight liver disease and to maintain the good health of the liver
Try to maintain a healthy weight because being overweight puts you in danger of developing fatty liver that can also result in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Maintaining a good weight is one of the important ways which will help in reducing the risk of fatty liver.
Eating a balanced diet is important and avoiding foods that are high in calories, refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, and sugars. Avoid eating shellfish that are raw or undercooked.
Include foods that are rich in high fibers that you can easily obtain from vegetables, fresh fruits, rice, cereals, and whole-grain bread.
Avoid the consumption of red meats and include dairy products that are made from low-fat milk.
Include good fats in the diet that are rich in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats like nuts, seeds, fish and vegetable oils.
Exercise on a regular basis will help you burn triglycerides for fuel and in turn, it will reduce the risk of developing fatty liver.
Avoid getting in contact with harmful toxins like insecticides, chemicals, aerosol products, and additives. Always wear a mask and try avoiding smoking tobacco.
Avoid getting in contact with any kind of contaminated needles and it is not only associated with the use of intravenous drugs. Always use clean needles for piercing or tattoos.
Never share your personal items like toothbrushes, nail cutters, or razors as they may carry blood and other fluids at microscopic levels that can be contaminated.
Always perform safe sex as unprotected sex or intercourse with multiple partners will increase the risk of having Hepatitis B or C.
Drink an adequate amount of water throughout the day as it is important
Some healthy food that is good for the liver
Grapefruits are high in antioxidants like naringin and naringenin that will help in protecting the liver naturally. They are excellent in reducing the development of hepatic fibrosis and also removes others.
Blueberries and cranberries contain antioxidants and anthocyanins which give them distinctive colors and are very beneficial for health.
Beetroot juice is a high source of antioxidants called betalains and nitrates that are not only beneficial for the heart. They reduce the risk of inflammation or oxidative damage and also increase the good enzymes that are helpful in detoxification.
Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and mustard greens are rich in fibers by removing toxins and protecting them from getting damaged.
Fatty fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids are helpful in reducing inflammation and very beneficial for maintaining the good health of the liver.
Instead of using canola oil use olive oil that is very good for metabolism and everyday consumption of olive oil will improve the liver enzyme. It reduces the accumulation of fat in the liver and improves the circulation of blood in the liver.
Include nuts in the diet as they are rich in Vitamin E and helps in improving the levels of enzymes in the liver.
Drink Green tea instead of regular chase because green tea helps in reducing the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver. Green tea is high in antioxidants and helps in reducing oxidative stress.
Include Oatmeal as they are rich in fiber and helps in improving the metabolism because they are rich in a compound known as beta-glucans. The compound is better known for fighting any kind of inflammation and fighting against obesity and diabetes as well. According to researchers oatmeal helps in reducing the storage of fat in the liver.
Conclusion
The liver is one of the most important parts of our body which is doing most of the work of our body from good metabolism to excretion. So, it is our duty to maintain the health of the liver and keep them away from harmful material. All the information given above tells you how you are putting yourself in danger and some tips that you must follow to prevent yourself from liver disorders. “Love the liver and live longer
Society tells us that anger is unhealthy or means we have not properly worked through negative or traumatic experiences.
Feeling anger means you’ve refused to let what happened to you become normalized.
Let your anger inform your action.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about anger. There was a time in my life when I was both fresh from trauma and still experiencing it that “angry” was the primary adjective I would have used to describe myself. At the time, I just wanted to be rid of that emotion as I thought “being fine” was waiting directly on the other side. I thought the anger was the problem, and that feeling it was a barrier between where I was and where I wanted to be.
So often, society tells us that anger is unhealthy or means that we have not properly worked through negative or traumatic experiences. If we are feeling anger that consumes us or prevents us from functioning, we deserve trauma-informed care to help us process that, but I’ve found that changing my relationship with my anger allowed me to harness it for good. I wrote about this in my second book, After Trauma.
To me,resiliencemeans actively letting go of the feelings that made me sink. It means letting go of the anger I’d had toward myself,forgivingthat younger part of me, but keeping the anger directed at the system that harmed me and those in it that perpetuate it. I had to forgive myself but not forget. Jude Ellison S. Doyle wrote a powerful piece in response to the groundbreaking filmPromising Young Womanand spoke some truths about rage:
We cannot all emulate ourselves on the pyre of our trauma; that only does the abuser’s work for him. Nor will violence provide the clean, easy healing it promises. What we can do is listen to the rage; honor it, speak it, tell its story without censorship. Rage is a messenger with valuable news, if you’ll stop to hear it … It’s saying that you deserve to live and look: Here you are.
Stay angry. Your anger isn’t working against you. It’s informing you. I used to think that if I felt anger or even rage at my past experiences, that meant I hadn’t overcome them. I thought it meant I hadn’t dropped the rope. But that’s not the purpose anger serves. Anger and violence are not the same things and in my case, feeling anger means I’ve refused to let what happened to me become normalized. It never should have happened.
If you are someone who has experienced a trauma or any sort of negative experience, feeling angry about it doesn’t mean all the work you put in to heal didn’t work or is invalid. Let your anger in. Let it inform you. Let yourself feel the injustice of what happened. It doesn’t mean your anger is hurting you. It is there
Emotion regulation is the ability to exert control over one’s own emotional state. It may involve behaviors such as rethinking a challenging situation to reduce anger or anxiety, hiding visible signs of sadness or fear, or focusing on reasons to feel happy or calm.
While there are many ways to influence one’s emotional state for the better, emotion regulation often involves what experts call “down-regulation,” or reducing the intensity of emotions. A grieving person might down-regulate his sadness by recalling something amusing. An anxious person may cope by distracting herself from the thought that is causing her anxiety. Emotion regulation can also include “up-regulation,” or amping up one’s emotions, which can be useful when an imminent danger or challenge calls for a healthy dose of anxiety or excitement.
The process model of emotion regulation proposed by psychologist James Gross emphasizes that people can act to control their emotions at different points in time—including before they feel an emotion (“antecedent-focused emotion regulation”) and after they have already begun to react emotionally (“response-focused emotion regulation”).
What are some basic ways of controlling emotions?
Two broad categories of emotion regulation are reappraisal—changing how one thinks about something that prompted an emotion in order to change one’s response—and suppression, which has been linked to more negative outcomes. Other strategies include selecting or changing a situation to influence one’s emotional experience, shifting what one pays attention to, and trying to accept emotions.
How can I learn to control emotional outbursts?
Practicing habits such as mindful acceptance of emotions, shifting attention away from the source of negative emotions, or reframing emotional situations (such as thinking about a setback or mistake as an opportunity to learn) may be helpful, and a trained therapist could be a valuable partner in enhancing emotional control.
Frustration is the emotion we feel when our expectations are thwarted.
The first steps to managing frustration are recognizing the frustration and understanding what preconceived expectations led to the feeling.
By adjusting our expectations to be more flexible, it is possible to feel much less frustrated when things do not go according to plan.
Every once in a while, I think it is helpful to get back to the basics. This can apply to everything from self-care to playing a sport to managing one’s emotions. If you feel like your life is crumbling around you, a good question to ask yourself could be, “Am I hungry?” If you keep hitting a tennis ball into the net, are you keeping your eye on the ball? If you are feeling frustrated, are you properly managing your expectations?
Frustration is one of the common emotions reported to me in my therapy sessions. Whenever things don’t go the way we planned, we feel frustrated. This is normal. We get frustrated at traffic, at our partner, at ourselves, and the list goes on and on.
However, merely naming frustration is not enough. Why exactly are we getting frustrated? Do we have any control over feeling this uncomfortable feeling? Is there any useful function to frustration?
The way I would define frustration is the emotion we feel when our expectations are thwarted. Just like with other emotions, frustration is not just a “feeling” we experience, but rather, often also includes physiological components such as increased blood pressure, bodily tension, and stress levels, a cognitive component revolving around the thought “this shouldn’t be so difficult,” and a behavioral component of acting in agitated ways. Sometimes, the behavioral component can look like trying even harder to get something to go our way. This is a positive function of the feeling of frustration. If I feel frustrated that something is not working, I might experience a short-term uptick of motivation to expend more energy to overcome this frustration and achieve whatever goal I was after. In fact, we often get more frustrated by obstacles the closer we get to our goal (e.g., feeling more frustrated if someone cuts in line ahead of us when we were up next as opposed to if someone cuts in line ahead of us when there are 30 people ahead of us). However, what if we are frustrated about something that is unlikely to get better even if we get more frustrated at it (you know, like all the times you act really frustrated at your partner and they immediately change their behavior and beg for forgiveness? … Anyone? Bueller?)
The first step to managing frustration is to recognize you are starting to feel frustrated.
The second step is to understand what preconceived expectations led you to feel frustrated.
The third step is to adjust your expectations, ideally, before it’s too late.
If you expect things to go one way and they don’t, you are likely to experience frustration. The great thing about this is that we actually have quite a bit of control over how frustrated we might get in the future … by preemptively imagining that things can (and will) go differently than we expected. Once we do this, we have adjusted our expectations to be more flexible, and in turn, you will likely feel much less frustrated if (and when) things don’t go according to plan because you didn’t expect them to in the first place.
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Now, the key is to not do a 180 and assume that things are
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that’s used in dentistry.
Fluoride toothpaste has been the standard-bearer of dental care for decades, but with so many “fluoride free” oral care products now on the market, you might be wondering if fluoride toothpaste is bad for you. The short answer is YES—fluoride toothpaste, mouthwash, and other products has been marketed as an excellent way to keep your teeth healthy and strong.
What is fluoride?
Fluoride is a naturally occurring chemical found in small amounts in soil, rocks, water, air, and even some plants. Fluoride is a common ingredient in oral health products like toothpaste and mouthwash, and it is also used in medical imaging scans, as a cleaning agent, and as an additive to steel and aluminum products.
long-term exposure to excessive amounts of fluoride can lead to health issues, including an increased risk of bone fractures. Swallowing fluoride toothpaste can lead to fluorosis, which interferes with the development of tooth enamel and can result in white streaks on the teeth, and gastrointestinal problems if the amount is large enough.
A Mysterious Disorder
In 1909 Dr. McKay (r) persuaded the Colorado State Dental Association to invite Dr. Green Vardiman Black (l), one of the nation’s most eminent dental researchers, to attend 1909 convention where McKay’s findings were to be presented. The two men began joint research and discovered other areas of the country where brown staining of teeth occurred.
Fluoride research had its beginnings in 1901, when a young dental school graduate named Frederick McKay left the East Coast to open a dental practice in Colorado Springs, Colorado. When he arrived, McKay was astounded to find scores of Colorado Springs natives with grotesque brown stains on their teeth. So severe could these permanent stains be, in fact, sometimes entire teeth were splotched the color of chocolate candy. McKay searched in vain for information on this bizarre disorder. He found no mention of the brown-stained teeth in any of the dental literature of the day. Local residents blamed the problem on any number of strange factors, such as eating too much pork, consuming inferior milk, and drinking calcium-rich water. Thus, McKay took up the gauntlet and initiated research into the disorder himself. His first epidemiological investigations were scuttled by a lack of interest among most area dentists. But McKay persevered and ultimately interested local practitioners in the problem, which was known as Colorado Brown Stain.
Excessive exposure to fluoride has been linked to a number of health issues.
Dental fluorosis
A fluoride content of 0.7 ppm is now considered best for dental health. A concentration that is above 4.0 ppm could be hazardous.
Exposure to high concentrations of fluoride during childhood, when teeth are developing, can result in mild dental fluorosis. There will be tiny white streaks or specks in the enamel of the tooth.
This does not affect the health of the teeth, but the discoloration may be noticeable.
Breastfeeding infants or making up formula milk with fluoride-free water can help protect small children from fluorosis.
Children below the age of 6 years should not use a mouthwash that contains fluoride. Children should be supervised when brushing their teeth to ensure they do not swallow toothpaste.
Skeletal fluorosis
Excess exposure to fluoride can lead to a bone diseaseTrusted Source known as skeletal fluorosis. Over many years, this can result in pain and damage to bones and joints.
The bones may become hardened and less elastic, increasing the risk of fractures. If the bones thicken and bone tissue accumulates, this can contribute to impaired joint mobility.
Thyroid problems
In some cases, excess fluoride can damage the parathyroid gland. This can result in hyperparathyroidism, which involves uncontrolled secretion of parathyroid hormones.
This can result in a depletion of calcium in bone structures and higher-than-normal concentrations of calcium in the blood.
Lower calcium concentrations in bones make them more susceptible to fractures.
Neurological problems
In 2017, a report was published suggesting that exposure to fluoride before birth could lead toTrusted Source poorer cognitive outcomes in the future.
The researchers measured fluoride levels in 299 women during pregnancy and in their children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. They tested cognitive ability at the ages of 4 years and between 6 and 12 years. Higher levels of fluoride were associated with lower scores on IQ tests.
In 2014, fluoride was documented as a neurotoxin that could be hazardousTrusted Source to child development, along with 10 other industrial chemicals, including lead, arsenic, toluene, and methylmercury.
Other health problems
According to the International Association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), an organization that campaigns against the use of added fluoride, it may also contribute to the following health problems:
cardiovascular problems, including arteriosclerosis and arterial calcification, high blood pressure, myocardial damage, cardiac insufficiency, and heart failure
reproductive issues, such as lower fertility and early puberty in girls
thyroid dysfunction
conditions affecting the joints and bones, such as osteoarthritis, bone cancer, and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ)
One review describes fluorideTrusted Source as an “extreme electron scavenger” with an “insatiable appetite for calcium.” The researchers call for the balance of risks and benefits to be reconsidered.
Intimacy is vital for well-being and human functioning, as well individual adjustment and need fulfillment.
Women are more inclined to communication, affection, and emotional closeness, and men are more inclined to sharing activities.
Within an intimate relationship, both parties are mutually responsive even when physically separated.
Source: panajiotis / Pixabay
Spending quality time with a romantic partner involves feelings of closeness. Yet distance might be relative, as it is possible for a couple to be “alone together.” But how is intimacy experienced? And do men and women experience it differently? Research sheds some light on romantic partner perceptions.
Connected and Content
E. Constant et al. (2016) sought to measure the different personal assessments of intimacy experienced by men and women.[i] They began by acknowledging the centrality of intimacy within close relationships, as well as recognized gender differences in its definition and experience. They recognize a research-based definition of intimacy as “the emotional component of love” which relates particularly to “feelings of closeness, bondedness, and connectedness” (citing Sternberg, 1986). They note that intimacy is vital for well-being and human functioning, as well as individual adjustment and need fulfillment. It is additionally interpersonal by nature, including both self-disclosure and responsiveness.
Regarding gender differences, in their research, Constant et al. found women as more inclined to communication, affection, and emotional closeness, and men are more inclined to share activities or engage in joint leisure time, in addition to placing significant value on the sexuality component of a romantic relationship. Another gender difference included the finding that women listen more and are more understanding of the needs of their partners.
Response and Reciprocity
Prior research by Will Mosier examined the extent to which intimacy promoted relational health.[ii] He defined intimacy as the “quality of being close, self-disclosing, and affectionate with another person,” noting that within an intimate relationship, both parties are mutually responsive even when physically separated. Mosier also notes that intimacy can exist both with and without sexuality, and is never adequately defined by sexual expression only. Indeed, he notes that mutual affection is not the same as intimacy, and that true intimacy is not easily attainable, and for many couples, takes an extended period of time.
Mosier notes that intimacy between partners involves experiencing shared internal awareness, respect for personal character, and sincere responsiveness. It includes a mutual openness to sharing personal experiences, emotional closeness, empathy, and trust. It must be reciprocal and requires mutual consent; a relationship in which only one partner desires intimacy is not intimate.
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Mosier notes that intimacy is enhanced through mutual understanding, as well as the ability to perceive one’s own feelings, because people who have a hard time being close to themselves, also struggle with their ability to be close to others.
Conflict, Comfort, and Consistency
Couples who fight are not necessarily doomed to lose intimacy. It all depends on the manner of communication and the strength of the partnership. Toxic dynamics that disrupt intimacy include deceit and manipulation. Mosier notes that intimacy is not only compromised when partners engage in deceptive and manipulative behaviors, but also when they are incapable of honest self-disclosure. He notes that intimacy is also decreased when one party feels compelled to constantly monitor the relationship, which inhibits partner self-direction.
Regarding conflict, Mosier notes that partners who cannot handle disagreement are less likely to develop intimacy, although interpersonal conflict is sustainable within a relationship of consistent affirmation, patience, and unconditional positive regard.
Putting it all together, takeaways from intimacy research include the value of reciprocal affection and unconditional acceptance, knowing oneself as well as one’s partner, and appreciating how men and women contribute differently to building an intimate relationship that includes healthy levels of romance and respect.
Women are sometimes portrayed as dominating and controlling, while men are presented as compliant and afraid to speak up about what they want.
Men may be hesitant to speak up in their relationships because of their aversion to conflict and fear of being abandoned.
Men are often willing to contort themselves to almost any extent to avoid women being angry with them, but this can take a heavy toll.
Heartsickness
Source: Takmeomeo/Pixabay
The preacher asked her And she said I do The preacher asked me And she said yes, he does too And the preacher said I pronounce you 99 to life Son she’s no lady she’s your wife
— Lyle Lovett, “She’s No Lady”
These Lyle Lovett lyrics are one of many jokes in which women are portrayed as dominating and controlling, and men are presented as compliant and afraid to speak up about what they want. Psychologist Dana Jack is well known for her work on the patriarchal pressures on women to silence themselves in intimate relationships and the resultant emotional, physiological, and sociocultural costs. Jack agrees that although the causes and costs differ, men also struggle not to silence themselves in intimate relationships. My clinical experience supports that men tend to be more reticent than their female partners in opening up about their internal lives. In most therapy with heterosexual couples, it is the woman who takes the lead in being more emotionally open. If the therapy goes well, the man follows her lead and matches her vulnerability.
Two significant issues impede men from speaking up in intimate relationships with women.
The first is shame. Men are particularly reluctant to speak up about their own needs and desires in relationships with women because they have been socialized to be emotionally self-reliant and to feel ashamed of needing anything from anyone.
The second problem for men in speaking up is the fear of conflict and, ultimately, the fear of abandonment. Men are hesitant to speak up about their needs in relationships because they worry that speaking up will make things worse, maybe even much worse.
Men’s fear of abandonment in relationships is perhaps most visible in the lengths that men will go to avoid conflict in their relationships. Men monitor their partners’ emotional states constantly and carefully, scanning for any signs of potential conflict, criticism, or disapproval. Any evidence of unhappiness or disapproval is often interpreted by men as criticism or failure. They immediately assume they have done something wrong, that they are “in the doghouse” and will not return to favor until they figure out what they have done wrong and correct it. Reassurance from their wives that they are not “in trouble” is rarely sufficient for men to feel let off the hook.
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Men are often willing to contort themselves to almost any extent to avoid women being angry with them. It is not uncommon for men to become so conflict-avoidant in their intimate relationships that placating their partners becomes their raison d’être, the most important thing in their relationship. The “If Mamma ain’t happy, no one’s happy” mantra of their childhood is replaced by “Happy wife, happy life.” Men can become so unsettled by their partners being angry or disapproving of them that nothing else matters until that is fixed. All they want now is for her to stop being mad at them.
Over time, men can get so gun-shy about conflict in their relationships that they just stop trying. When men talk to me about the aspects of their marriages in which they are unhappy, I ask if they have ever talked to their partners about any of the issues they are telling me. Typically, they look at me as if I were crazy. How could I not understand that talking to their partners about this would just make things worse?
A case example
Bill and Jane came to see me when their marriage was already in serious trouble. Bill was quiet, introverted, and reluctant to say much to his wife or me about what was happening inside him. Jane was just the opposite: outgoing, frequently speaking her mind without considering how her words might affect whomever she was talking to. As you might imagine, Bill and Jane’s relationship was quite volatile. Bill frequently traveled for work, but even when he was home, Jane frequently felt painfully alone. The harder and louder Jane pushed for some connection with Bob, the more withdrawn and silent he got.
I decided to have an individual session with each of them. When Bill and I were alone, he started unwinding years of frustrations and dissatisfactions about the marriage. Stunned, I asked Bill how much of this he had talked about with his wife. Bill looked at me blankly as if that were the craziest idea he had ever heard. Bill had not talked about any single part of what was troubling him to Jane and had no intention of ever doing so. As far as Bill was concerned, Jane was already so angry at him without him telling her any of what was bothering him. He couldn’t imagine risking the explosion he was sure would follow if he actually told her some of what was on his mind.
Within a few months, Bill and Jane had another explosive argument that was deeply disturbing to both of them. Jane decided she couldn’t take any more and asked Bill for a divorce. Bill has still not told her anything about what was going wrong for him in their relationship, and at this point, it is unlikely he ever will.
Depression and borderline personality disorder are largely characterized by the inability to regulate one’s emotions.
For anyone, learning to manage emotions begins with understanding what one’s emotional triggers are.
Changing the focus of one’s attention as well as the thoughts about a situation can change its emotional impact.
Source: Aleshyn_Andrei/Shutterstock
Emotions are a vital part of our everyday lives. Whether you’re having a good laugh over a text message or feeling frustrated in rush hour traffic, you know that the highs and lows you experience can significantly affect your well-being.
Your ability to regulate those emotions, in turn, affects how you’re perceived by the people around you. If you’re laughing at that text during a serious meeting, you’re likely to get resentful looks from others in the room. On the other hand, if you react with rage at a driver who cuts you off in traffic, you can engender unwanted attention, and perhaps even risk your life.
The study of emotions is not an exact science. Psychologists still debate the body-mind connection in emotional reactivity; don’t have a complete taxonomy of emotions; and are even uncertain about whether emotions are the cause or result of the way we construe the world. However, there are advances being made in understanding the concept of emotion regulation, the process of influencing the way emotions are felt and expressed.
Stanford University psychologist James Gross (2001) proposed a 4-stage model to capture the sequence of events that occurs when our emotions are stimulated. In what he calls the “modal model,” a situation grabs our attention, which in turn leads us to appraise or think about the meaning of the situation. Our emotional responses result from the way we appraise our experiences.
Some emotional responses require no particular regulation. If the emotion is appropriate to the situation and helps you feel better, there’s no need to worry about changing the way you handle things. Laughing when others are laughing is one example of an appropriate reaction that helps you feel better. Expressing road rage may also make you feel better, but it’s not appropriate or particularly adaptive. You could express your frustration in other ways that allow you to release those angry feelings, or instead try to find a way to calm yourself down.
Calming yourself down when you’re frustrated, of course, may be more easily said than done. If you tend to fly off the handle when aggravated and express your outrage to everyone within earshot (or on the other end of an email), your emotions could be costing you important relationships, your job, and even your health.
An inability to regulate emotions is, according to Gross and his collaborator Hooria Jazaieri (2014), at the root of psychological disorders such as depression and borderline personality disorder. Although more research is needed to understand the specific role of emotional regulation in psychopathology, this seems like a promising area of investigation. For example, people with social anxiety disorder can benefit from interventions that help them change the way they appraise social situations, as shown by research on cognitive behavioraltherapy. Many others functioning at a less than optimal level of psychological health, Gross and Jazaieri maintain, could similarly benefit from education about how better to manage their emotions in daily life.
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Fortunately, you can handle most of the work involved in regulating your emotions well before the provoking situation even occurs. By preparing yourself ahead of time, you’ll find that the problematic emotion goes away before it interferes with your life:
Select the situation.
Avoid circumstances that trigger unwanted emotions. If you know that you’re most likely to get angry when you’re in a hurry (and you become angry when others force you to wait), then don’t leave things for the last minute. Get out of the house or office 10 minutes before you need to, and you won’t be bothered so much by pedestrians, cars, or slow elevators. Similarly, if there’s an acquaintance you find completely annoying, then figure out a way to keep from bumping into that person.
Modify the situation.
Perhaps the emotion you’re trying to reduce is disappointment. You’re always hoping, for example, to serve the “perfect” meal for friends and family, but invariably something goes wrong because you’ve aimed too high. Modify the situation by finding recipes that are within your range of ability so that you can pull off the meal. You may not be able to construct the ideal soufflé, but you manage a pretty good frittata.
Shift your attentional focus.
Let’s say that you constantly feel inferior to the people around you who always look great. You’re at the gym, and can’t help but notice the regulars on the weight machines who manage to lift three times as much as you can. Drawn to them like a magnet, you can’t help but watch with wonder and envy at what they’re able to accomplish. Shifting your focus away from them and onto your fellow gym rats who pack less punch will help you feel more confident about your own abilities. Even better, focus on what you’re doing, and in the process, you’ll eventually gain some of the strength you desire.
Change your thoughts.
At the core of our deepest emotions are the beliefs that drive them. You feel sad when you believe to have lost something, anger when you decide that an important goal is thwarted, and happy anticipation when you believe something good is coming your way. By changing your thoughts, you may not be able to change the situation but you can at least change the way you believe the situation is affecting you. In cognitive reappraisal, you replace the thoughts that lead to unhappiness with thoughts that lead instead to joy or at least contentment. People with social anxiety disorder may believe that they’ll make fools of themselves in front of others for their social gaffes. They can be helped to relax by interventions that help them recognize that people don’t judge them as harshly as they believe.
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Change your response.
If all else fails, and you can’t avoid, modify, shift your focus, or change your thoughts, and that emotion comes pouring out, the final step in emotion regulation is to get control of your response. Your heart may be beating out a steady drumroll of unpleasant sensations when you’re made to be anxious or angry. Take deep breaths and perhaps close your eyes in order to calm yourself down. Similarly, if you can’t stop laughing when everyone else seems serious or sad, gather your inner resources and force yourself at least to change your facial expression if not your mood.
This five-step approach is one that you can readily adapt to the most characteristic situations that cause you trouble. Knowing your emotional triggers can help you avoid the problems in the first place. Being able to alter your thoughts and reactions will build your confidence in your own ability to cope. With practice, you’ll be able to turn negatives into positives, and, each time, gain emotional fulfillment.
We are all susceptible to cognitive bias—the brain’s tendency to make errors of judgment systematically.
Three common cognitive biases are the fundamental attribution error, the availability heuristic, and the planning fallacy.
Adjusting our expectations and being mindful can help overcome cognitive biases.
Source: Samantha Sophia/Unsplash
If you have a brain, you are susceptible to cognitive bias. That is, you are vulnerable to the brain’s tendency to make errors of judgment systematically.
Imagine a faulty scale that always adds two pounds to your actual weight or a clock that is two minutes slow. If we didn’t know any better, we would forever be under the impression we are two pounds heavier than we actually are or be two minutes late for everything and start believing we have a time management problem.
However, once we recognize that a consistent measurement mistake is being made, we can mentally account for it by actively recalibrating to the correct amount.
My clock says 9:55, but I know it is really 9:57.
This is the basis for cognition-based therapies like cognitive behavioraltherapy, where a therapist can help you recognize these consistent mistakes in measurement our brain makes, which we call cognitive distortions or thinking errors, and practice correcting them.
Even if you are not actively engaged in therapy, you can still combat these cognitive biases on your own.
Here are three of my favorites:
1. Fundamental attribution error. This is the tendency for us to explain our actions by pointing to environmental factors and others’ actions by pointing to their character or personality.
I snapped at my partner because I was stressed from work, but they snapped at me because they are bad at managing their feelings.
We often overestimate the influence of disposition and temperament on a person’s behavior while underestimating the influence of environmental or situational factors.
For instance, let’s say are in a meeting and a co-worker shows up a few minutes late.
Where do they get off thinking they can just waltz in late? How arrogant!
What if we knew that co-worker had just found out a family member was in a serious accident and needed to check if they were okay? What if they had been told the wrong time? Would that change the way that we view their behavior?
To overcome the fundamental attribution error, you might try actively considering three more possibilities for why a person could have acted the way they did before chalking it up to a personality flaw.
It can be challenging for me sometimes to let go of a conclusion about why something happened once my mind lands on it, so just know this can take a lot of mindful practice.
2. Availability heuristic. We tend to make predictions or evaluations based on the most salient examples or examples that most easily come to mind.
You always leave dirty dishes in the sink! Well, it sure seems like always!
We can give undue weight to information we were most recently exposed to rather than taking a step back and seeing how likely something is.
For example, if we recently read a news article about a person dying after being stung by a bee, we may worry about this happening to us the next time we step outside. What would you say the chances would be? 5 percent? 1 percent? According to the National Safety Council, there is a 1 in 57,825 chance. In other words, a .0017 percent chance.1 Put another way if you imagined yourself and 57,824 people in a (very large) room, one person would perish in this way.
To overcome the availability heuristic, you might try determining the actual evidence. What are the actual odds of this happening in the greater perspective? To avoid always/never extreme ways of thinking that make you feel like things are worse than they actually are, you might try actively thinking of counter-examples.
For example, if you are stressed and feel like things are always stressful, ask yourself if that is actually true? Can you think of recent moments, however brief, that was at least less stressful than how you feel now? The chances are that the availability heuristic may be in play if you experience all-or-nothing thinking.
3. Planning fallacy. The tendency to underestimate the time it will take to complete a future task.
It says it’s a seven-minute drive, so I can leave at 2:53 pm and get there exactly at 3 pm. It’s perfect!
We can find ourselves wondering how we are constantly in a rush, scrambling to finish projects, or frustrated that things are taking longer than we expected.
For example, say you need to renew your license at the DMV. You estimate it should take 45 minutes, so you schedule an appointment during your lunch break to avoid going on the weekend. When you get to the DMV, lo and behold, 20 other people had the same idea.
You’re optimistic, though, so you take your number and wait. Still, after 30 minutes, the realization begins to set in that no matter how you try to communicate telepathically, you are in a rush and make the line go faster. You will not be called up in time and end up frustrated, frazzled, and without a renewed license.
We can systematically build in extra time for ourselves to overcome the planning fallacy. More time than we think we need. Just like we would start automatically adding or subtracting minutes to the time we see on a clock we know has been broken for a while, it starts to evolve into a habit once we start building in extra time for our tasks. Even though we may not know what unexpected obstacles will come up each day, we can expect them to come up!
Hopefully, these strategies can help you perceive the world more accurately and effectively so that you, not your brain’s cognitive biases, are in charge.
Burnout is word that I’ve been hearing a lot about lately, not only because I am currently working through my own burnout, but because it seems that our society continues to think working until you are completely exhausted, sick and defeated is an acceptable way of living. Unfortunately, we have bought into the lie that we should be available 24/7, emotionally ready to deal with everyone else’s concerns at any moment, and that our personal boundaries are not as important as our job’s demands or friend’s and family’s needs.
Despite having knowledge that can set us free from experiencing burnout we continue to create unhealthy patterns that contribute to poor overall mental, emotional and physical health.
Over time, your body’s ability to respond and deal with stress is reduced, especially if you are not dealing with the emotions you are feeling or if you continue to function in a state of high stress with little support of your body and mind. This can eventually lead to burnout and possibly even severe health issues including hormonal problems, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety, digestive issues, insomnia and frequent colds.
Although there are various types of burnout (from emotional to physical) these 9 suggestions will help you on your journey to wellness no matter what type of burnout you are experiencing. Some signs of burnout include frequent colds, anxiety, irregular periods, insomnia, emotional instability, feeling that things you once could handle or too much, depression, lack of emotion or loss of happiness especially for things you once felt joy, constant & severe fatigue – to name just a few. If you are wondering if you have burnout you can check out this article here.
9 Tips for Overcoming Burnout
Sleep – Go to bed! The most important thing you can do when dealing with burnout is sleep. If you can’t sleep: REST! Try to sleep regular hours on a consistent basis. Practice good sleep hygiene. Get into bed by 10:00 pm allowing your body time to heal itself naturally; each organ in the body has specific times it heals itself and losing precious sleep time will prevent restoration to different parts of your body.
Eat a wholefood diet. Focus on fresh fruits & vegetables and whole grains. Eat high quality fats daily such as avocados and coconut oils to support healthy hormone production. Try to incorporate legumes with wild-rice for protein. Stay away from red meats and pork; and if you do plan on continuing to eat meat aim for grass-fed, organic lean meats like turkey, bison and chicken or wild fish like salmon or trout.
Support your liver. The liver has been linked in Chinese medicine to emotions such as anger, frustration and resentment. Given that burnout feelings often include these feelings a great way to heal your body is to support this important organ. Eat foods such as kale, brussel sprouts, grapefruit and dandelion greens. Drink lemon water, burdock leaf and/or dandelion root tea. A healthy liver is better able to process all those good foods, supplements and adaptogens that you will be taking to heal your body.
Baby those adrenals. Your adrenal glands are your body’s stress managers. Hence, they are extremely important to support when dealing with the adrenal fatigue that is present in burnout. Start taking adaptogens (they help your body deal with physical and mental stress in healthy ways). These include herbs like ashwaganda, ginseng, licorice root, holy basil, and cordycep mushrooms. They come in handy little bags and you can add the recommended amount to a fresh smoothie beverage.
Stay away from stimulants and alcohol. That means NO coffee, caffeinated or decaffeinated. Alcohol also places stress on your liver, can depress mood, as well as cause blood sugar fluctuations which can also affect energy levels and mood. Coffee stresses your adrenal glands which is definitely the last thing you want to place more stress on. Instead drink herbal teas, distilled water and fresh-pressed juices to get the maximum amount of nutrients.
Support your body with nutrients/minerals. Unfortunately a whole food diet does not completely restore diminished vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Especially when you’ve reached the stage of burnout you are long past the low level stage and are most likely running in the depleted stage. Taking a high quality multi-vitamin is a great way to support your body through this period. Try for a wholefood multi from brands like MegaFood or New Chapter.
Set personal boundaries. This is an extremely important part of healing your body. It’s not just your body that needs to recover: it’s your mind and emotional capacity that need space. If you continue to function in a state of stress your body will not be able to recover no matter how much you feed it the right things. Boundaries may need to be set in personal/family relationships or in your work environment. Try turning off your phone for an hour over lunch and after 8 pm. You may need help from a counselor or psychologist in recognizing where you need better boundaries and giving you effective strategies.
Listen to your body. I saved this one for last because I believe it is the MOST HELPFUL tip for overcoming burnout. You may have pushed your body so far that you no longer recognize the signals your body sends you, including when it’s tired physically or emotionally or if you are overwhelmed or even thirsty for a big glass of water! Learning to listen to what it needs may be challenging – but it is especially necessary because your body knows what it needs to heal itself it you just start paying attention! Stopping and resting are the first step to listening to your body. Until you take that first step you won’t have the space to give an ear to your body.
If you put these into practice give yourself time to heal. It can take several months to return to a state of wellness and even longer to return to a place where your physical energy, emotional capacity and ability to manage stress in a healthy way is back to your level of normal. Patience is key.
Visiting a qualified health professional or nutritionist to support you on your wellness journey can reduce the stress that may come with figuring out how to make health and happiness possible again.
We live in a culture where we eat what we want, however much we want and when we want. We rarely consider whether the foods we choose to eat are good for us. But the fact is that food is more than just fuel to our body, or a temporary fix for our emotions or a treat at the end of a day.
Food speaks to each one of us in different ways – it has the power to express culture, to bring joy, to celebrate, to facilitate community and sometimes more negatively, to hide pain, to ‘fix’ body image, or even to mask inner insecurities.
When we stop to consider how integral food is to our daily lives and how often it comes to our mind, one might consider why we don’t pay more attention to the ways in which food can contribute to and influence our health, emotional…
Melatonin is one of the most important antioxidant molecules and certainly the most ancient, as it has been part of biological life for over 3 billion years. It’s present in prokaryotes, which are bacteria, and even in plants
In the human body melatonin not only has independent direct antioxidant effects on its own, but it also stimulates the synthesis of glutathione and other important antioxidants like superoxide dismutase and catalase
Mitochondrial melatonin production is one of the reasons why regular sun exposure is so crucial. The near-infrared spectrum, when hitting the skin, trigger the generation of melatonin in your mitochondria
Considering melatonin’s function within the mitochondria, and the fact that mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of most chronic disease, it makes sense that melatonin would be helpful against a number of different diseases, including the two most common — heart disease and cancer
Melatonin and methylene blue belong in every emergency medical kit. In cases of an acute heart attack or stroke, melatonin can help limit the damage, while methylene blue augments cytochromes to allow the continued production of ATP even without the use of oxygen, which also helps minimize cell death and tissue damage
In this interview, Russel Reiter, Ph.D. — a world-class expert on melatonin — discusses some of the biological activities and health benefits of this important molecule. With some 1,600 papers to his credit, as well as three honorary doctor of medicine1 degrees, he’s published more studies on melatonin than anyone else alive.
Melatonin is one of the most important antioxidant molecules and certainly the most ancient, as it has been part of biological life for over 3 billion years. It’s present in prokaryotes, which are bacteria, and even in plants. In the human body — aside from having direct antioxidant effects — it also stimulates the synthesis of glutathione and other important antioxidants like superoxide dismutase and catalase. Reiter continues:
“Melatonin has been here forever … and its functions have evolved. It has learned to work successfully with other molecules during this three-billion-year evolution. One of the molecules with which it collaborates is glutathione … But the antioxidant activity of melatonin is extremely diverse.
It in fact is a very good radical scavenger. There are other radical scavengers — vitamin C, vitamin E and so forth — but melatonin is superior to those. But beyond that, it stimulates antioxidative enzymes, especially in mitochondria. Mitochondria are small organelles in the cell that generate the bulk of the free radicals.
So, it’s very important to have a good antioxidant at the level of the mitochondria and melatonin happens to be located and is, in fact, synthesized in the mitochondria. Melatonin scavenges radicals that are generated, but it also stimulates something called sirtuin-3, which activates or deacetylates super oxide dismutase (SOD), which is a very important antioxidative enzyme.
It also removes free radicals and prevents the degeneration of the mitochondria, and why this is so important is because mitochondria are really the center of the action within a cell. In other words, there’s strong evidence that aging, frailty of aging, senescence of cells as we age, relate to molecular damage at the level of the mitochondria, and melatonin seems to be very efficient at protecting mitochondria from that damage.”
Melatonin increases glutathione through a genomic effect on the enzyme that regulates the synthesis of gamma glutamylcysteine synthase, the rate limiting enzyme in glutathione synthesis. Melatonin activates that enzyme.
Glutathione tends to be found in high concentrations in cells, although some is also found, to a lesser degree, in the extracellular space and the mitochondria. Meanwhile, 95% of the melatonin in your body is concentrated within the mitochondria inside the cells.
Its antioxidant effects are quite diverse, but include preventing free radical generation by enhancing the efficiency of the electron transport chain so fewer electrons leach onto oxygen molecules to generate super oxide antiradical.
How Mitochondrial Melatonin Is Generated
Mitochondrial melatonin production is one of the reasons why regular sun exposure is so crucial. Most people understand that sun exposure on bare skin generates vitamin D, courtesy of UVB (ultraviolet B radiation). Few, however, understand that the near-infrared spectrum, when hitting your skin, triggers the generation of melatonin in your mitochondria. Reiter explains:
“Near-infrared radiation penetrates relatively easily the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Every one of those cells contains mitochondria and it appears that near-infrared radiation that is detected in fact induces melatonin production. That is important, because we now think that melatonin within mitochondria is inducible under a lot of stressful conditions.
That is not definitively proven, but it appears that under stress, all cells may upregulate their ability to produce melatonin because it’s so highly productive. And typically, under stress, free radicals are generated. That is emphasized by the [fact] that in plants … that happens.
In other words, if you expose plants to drought, heat, cold, to metal toxicity, the first thing they do is upregulate their melatonin, because all of those situations generate free radicals. And we suspect, although that has not yet been definitely proven, in animal cells as well, including human [cells].”
Identifying the specific wavelengths that trigger melatonin production can be tricky, but generally speaking, it’s likely to be the range between 800 to 1,000 nanometers (nm). This range of near-infrared is invisible, and has the ability to penetrate tissue. Visible wavelengths generally do not penetrate the skin, and therefore cannot stimulate your mitochondria.
Anytime your skin is exposed to natural sunlight, however, you can be sure you’re receiving the necessary wavelengths of near-infrared to generate melatonin in your mitochondria. Conversely, when indoors under artificial lighting, you can be certain you’re not getting any. This is because most window glass is low-e and filters out a good portion of the near-infrared, so even sitting near a window is not going to provide you with this benefit.
To compensate for time spent indoors, I use a 250-watt Photo Beam near-infrared bulb from SaunaSpace in my office. I keep it lit when I’m in my office and have my shirt off. Considering most people spend most of their days indoors, mitochondrial melatonin deficiency is likely rampant. And, since many also do not get enough sleep, they also have a deficiency in the melatonin synthesized in the pineal gland in response to darkness.
The Two Types of Melatonin
As hinted at above, there are two types of melatonin in your body: The melatonin produced in your pineal gland, which traverses into your blood, and subcellular melatonin produced inside your mitochondria.
Importantly, the melatonin that your mitochondria produces does not escape your mitochondria. It doesn’t go into your blood. So, you’re not going to directly increase your blood or serum level of melatonin by sun exposure. But, bright sun exposure around solar noon will indirectly help your pineal gland to produce melatonin during the night.
It is important to understand that your blood level of melatonin is indicative of the melatonin produced in your pineal gland, and/or oral supplementation. Conversely, the melatonin produced by your pineal gland cannot enter into the mitochondria, which is why it is so important to get regular sun exposure. Reiter explains:
“In other words, if you surgically remove the pineal gland from an animal or human, blood levels of melatonin are essentially zero. Not totally zero — I think what happens is that the mitochondria in other cells continue to produce melatonin and some of that leaks out into the blood and gives you a residual — but you have no circadian rhythm.
Melatonin production in the pineal gland is highly rhythmic, depending on the light-dark cycle. This is not true for melatonin in mitochondria. It’s not cyclic. It’s not impacted by the light dark environment. It may be affected by certain wavelengths of energy, but it’s not affected by the light dark environment.
So, blood levels are derived from the pineal gland, and this rhythm is very important for setting circadian rhythms. In other words, the function of that melatonin is quite different from the function of the mitochondrial produced melatonin. It sets the rhythm. Of course, there’s always some scavenging by that melatonin as well, but the real scavenging s involved with mitochondrial-produced melatonin.”
Oral Supplementation Neutralizes Free Radicals
Oral supplementation, however, can enter your cells and mitochondria. This is a detail I was wrong about before, and which Reiter clarifies in this interview:
“If you supplement with melatonin, it can also enter cells and get into the mitochondria as well. And that is also very important … As you age, mitochondrial melatonin diminishes. If you supplement with melatonin, it will get into your mitochondria and, in fact, do what melatonin does — neutralize free radicals and protect the mitochondria’s function.”
Melatonin Is Vital to Heart Attack and Stroke Recovery
Considering melatonin’s function within your mitochondria, and the fact that mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of most chronic disease, it makes sense that melatonin would be helpful against a number of different diseases, including the two most common — heart disease and cancer.
As explained by Reiter, one of the situations that is most devastating for the heart and brain is temporary interruption of the blood supply as a result of a cardiac arrest or stroke. This deprives the tissues of oxygen, and without oxygen, they rapidly deteriorate.
When the blood vessel reopens, which is called reperfusion, and oxygen flows back into those oxygen-deprived cells, this tends to be the time of maximum damage, as loads of free radicals are generated once the blood starts flowing again.
“There’s a large host of studies, including some in humans, where if you give melatonin to induced heart attack in animals or an accidental heart attack in humans, you can preserve or reduce the amount of cardiac infarct, the amount of damage that occurs in the heart,” Reiter says.
“There’s a very famous cardiologist in the Canary Islands, professor Dominguez-Rodriguez, whom I worked with. And we, about three years ago, published a paper where we infused melatonin directly into the heart after the vessel was opened. That reduced cardiac damage by roughly 40%.
The other thing that happens in a heart attack is that cardiac cells do not regenerate. Once you lose a cardiac cell, they’re done … and are replaced by fibrous tissue. Of course, fibrous tissue is not contractile, so you get heart failure.
We just published a paper, again with this same cardiologist, showing that if people who are potentially suffering with heart failure because of a damaged heart, they survive better and longer if they are given melatonin on a regular basis. It’s a small study … but I think that would be a worthwhile field to exploit.”
Dosage Suggestions for Acute Heart Attack
In terms of dosage, it’s difficult to translate doses used in animal studies onto human subjects. In animals, doses between 5 to 10 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight are used. In humans, however, the dose is calculated on the basis of surface area rather than on body size, and that significantly reduces the amount of melatonin that you have to give.
That said, Reiter stresses that melatonin has no known toxic threshold, so even though we don’t know what the ideal dose is, we do know it’s safe even at high doses. Additionally, the timing of the dose will be important. The first dose should be taken immediately, but subsequent melatonin dosing should follow circadian biology, so around 10 a.m., 4 p.m., and before bed.
“If I had a heart attack and I had melatonin on my person, I would take melatonin,” Reiter says. “The question is how much? … This is not a recommendation to any of your patients, but I would not be hesitant about taking 50 milligrams at the time, and some subsequently for the next 24 hours, even during the day. Because you don’t want to lose any more heart cells than is absolutely necessary …
I have suggested this a number of times. In other words, an emergency medical technician goes out, picks up a patient who has clearly a heart attack. I think on site, immediately, melatonin should be given intravenously rather than orally. It’d be difficult to give it orally. That would be my recommendation.”
Emergency Medical Kit for Acute Heart Attack or Stroke
In cases of an acute heart attack or stroke (which have virtually identical tissue damage mechanisms, just one affects the heart and the other your brain), I would also add methylene blue. Methylene blue is well-documented to be highly beneficial for reperfusion injuries,2 especially if you do it right at the beginning of the event, because it augments cytochromes to allow the continued production of ATP even without the use of oxygen.
Melatonin and methylene blue belong in every emergency medical kit. In cases of an acute heart attack or stroke, melatonin can help limit the damage, while methylene blue augments cytochromes to allow the continued production of ATP even without the use of oxygen, which also helps minimize cell death and tissue damage.
So, together, methylene blue and melatonin could act as a one-two punch if you’ve got a stroke or heart attack. They really should be part of every emergency kit.
As an interesting side note, melatonin can also be useful in people with Type 2 diabetes. Reiter notes he has diabetic colleagues who take 1 gram of melatonin daily to counteract the free radical damage caused by hyperglycemia. Keep in mind that melatonin does not treat the cause of the diabetes. It only helps to counteract the damage being caused.
Half Life and Bioavailability of Melatonin
The half life of melatonin in the blood is only about 40 minutes. Within cells, the half life varies according to the level of oxidative stress present. If oxidative stress is high, the melatonin is destroyed much faster, and oxidative stress is low, it remains within the cell much longer.
Reiter also notes that in addition to being a free radical scavenger, all of melatonin’s metabolic kin — its active metabolites, such as N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine — are also excellent scavengers. While quickly used up in the presence of high oxidative stress, melatonin is also rapidly taken up when used orally, hence the suggestion to take multiple doses spread out.
Ideally, you’d want to use sublingual or intravenous melatonin, because it’ll enter your bloodstream much faster. Another option is to make your own rectal suppositories. If you swallow it, it needs to pass through and be metabolized by your liver.
Melatonin Is Also a Potent Antiviral
In addition to its antioxidant potency, melatonin also has antiviral capacity. These two features combined is thought to be why it’s been so useful against COVID-19.
“I’m going to give you a very specific example,” Reiter says. “Here’s a local physician, Dr. Richard Neil, whom I have known for a number of years. When COVID-19 became common, he called me, we discussed it, he started giving 1 mg per kilogram of body weight (once a day) for about five days, at the time of diagnosis. He has now treated more than 2,000 patients, very successfully, with melatonin.
The importance of melatonin in reference to COVID is that it is not specifically for [the original Wuhan strain]. The variants, Delta, Omicron, they’re viruses we think will respond. We currently have a paper in press where we showed that in animals, Zika virus toxicity is also prevented by melatonin, and we’ve checked four different coronaviruses in pigs.
That paper also shows that melatonin prevents the damage — the consequence — of those viruses. I think [melatonin] is generally a quite good antiviral agent and should be considered as useful. When President Trump was hospitalized with COVID, one of the molecules he was given was melatonin. Obviously, the physicians treating him knew this literature.”
So, to summarize, if you have symptoms of COVID, you could consider taking oral or sublingual melatonin 30 to 45 minutes before bedtime, first thing in the morning, at 10 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. You clearly want to avoid it a few hours before and after solar noon, as taking supplementation during that time will likely impair pineal nighttime melatonin secretion.
Reiter points out that slow-release melatonin has not been widely studied, and he generally doesn’t recommend it for that reason.
Melatonin for Cancer
Melatonin can also be useful in the prevention and treatment of cancer. Reiter explains:
“Cancer cells are clever. They do everything they can to permit their continued survival. It seems counterintuitive, but what they do is they prevent pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, and that reduces ATP production. But as a consequence of doing that, they accelerate something called glycolysis and that’s very inefficient in producing ATP, but it does it very rapidly. So, then they have sufficient energy.
The importance of preventing pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, we now think is the fact that pyruvate is a precursor to something called acetyl coenzyme A. Acetyl coenzyme A is a cofactor for the enzyme that regulates melatonin production in the mitochondria.
So, by eliminating or preventing pyruvate from getting into the mitochondria, [the cancer cells] prevent or reduce melatonin production, because they don’t allow the necessary cofactor to be produced. In other words, we predicted about four years ago that, in fact, the mitochondria of cancer cells would produce less melatonin.
We have subsequently shown that in two studies, both uterine cancers. Clearly, melatonin levels and the activity of the enzymes in the mitochondria of these types of cancer cells are at least about half what they would normally be. The prevention of pyruvate into the mitochondria, that’s Warburg type metabolism.
The other thing is the pyruvate is metabolized into lactic acid. It escapes the cell and produces an acidic environment for the cancer cell, and cancer cells like that acidic environment. So, if you can reduce the Warburg type metabolism, you may be able to limit the growth of cancer cells and perhaps also the metastasis …
Some cancer cells may only be part-time cancerous because [during nighttime] when they have high melatonin, then they avoid Warburg type metabolism. The interesting thing about Warburg type metabolism [is that] … many pathological cells, inflammatory cells, cells that are affected by amyloid beta in the brain, exhibit this specific type metabolism …
And we know that inflammatory cells — M2 and M1 inflammatory cells — can be converted back and forth by melatonin. The inflammatory cells can be prevented by giving them melatonin [because of] its effect on Warburg type metabolism. So, Warburg type metabolism is common in many, many pathological cells.”
The Link Between Metabolic Flexibility, Melatonin and Cancer
One of the reasons for why cancer is so prevalent likely has to do with the fact that 93% of Americans are metabolically inflexible and cannot seamlessly transition between burning carbs and fats for fuel.3 Glucose (sugar) is one of the primary fuels that most people have. Glucose has six carbons and is metabolized into pyruvate, which is a three-carbon molecule. Pyruvate, in turn, is metabolized in the mitochondria to acetyl-CoA.
The reason the Warburg Effect works is b pecauseyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) inhibits the inflow of pyruvate into the mitochondria so it cannot be converted into acetyl-CoA, and acetyl-CoA is not only needed in the production of melatonin, but is also used to efficiently produce ATP in the mitochondria and is how glucose is used in the mitochondria.
Another source of acetyl-CoA is beta oxidation of fats, which breaks down the fat to the two carbon molecule acetyl-CoA, which enters the mitochondria an active transport molecule, courtesy of MCT (mono carboxylase transporter). My point here is that when you are metabolically inflexible, the Warburg Effect becomes massive. But if you’re cardiometabolically healthy and can burn fat, you can effectively bypass that defect.
Prior to my interview with Reiter, I certainly knew that limiting carbs and preventing the Warburg effect was important in cancer treatment, but I hadn’t realized that one of the metabolic byproducts of acetyl-CoA was needed to produce melatonin. So, being metabolically flexible not only impairs the Warburg effect, but also supplies melatonin to combat the excessive oxidative stress in cancer.
This is why I would strongly encourage each and every one of you to regularly engage in two activities the rest of your life. First, expose as much of your skin as you can to an hour of sunshine a day around solar noon.
Second, you have to eliminate all seed oils from your diet, as excess seed oils are the primary reason why most people are metabolically inflexible. While the average person’s consumption of these oils is around 25% to 30% of total daily calories, it should only be about 1% to 2% (mine is 1.5%)
You might have just walked away from Thanksgiving dinner and realized just how bad your bloating or heartburn is, which you got you thinking, “Is there anything I can do for this?”
The number of people who deal with some kind of digestive issue, from bloating to gas, heartburn to upset stomach, irritable bowel to food sensitivities, is staggeringly high. Anywhere you look, you can find something having to do with some kind of digestive issue, whether it be a book, a blog article, specialty food items or supplements at the grocery store or the many healing diet programs offered online.
Our society is rife with digestive issues and most people thing it’s normal and they have to just deal with it. Unfortunately, they often turn to tums, anti-acids, medications to lower stomach acid, gas relief pills and many other things that actually just make the digestive issue a whole lot worse.
There is definitely a time and a place for an specialty or elimination diet, food allergy/sensitivity testing or a complex supplementation healing regimen….but sometimes you just may find yourself in a bind looking for some simple solutions to digestive issues that pop up and you don’t have time to go the whole 9 yards.
Don’t get me wrong, you may need to get your allergies tested or have to go on a special diet to heal a leaky gut or choose a special diet based on your needs, but you may also just have some issue that can be easily resolved if you stopped and took care of it. I will offer you a few options that may help resolve some of your digestive issues. If you have tried these things and find that they did not help or possibly aggravated your concerns or were only a short-term solutions, I would highly recommend seeing a health professional who can help you heal your body!
The digestive system is a complex thing and needs special consideration – after all, it’s responsible for absorbing the foods you eat, keeping your immune system healthy and for health brain function…just to name a few!
My top 9 recommendations to a healthy gut include:
Take probiotics. Your gut functions properly when it is inhabited by healthy yeasts and bacteria. These yeasts and bacteria help breakdown your food so its nutrients can be absorbed, they kill off any unhealthy invaders if you are exposed to them (think poor food handling, e.coli, lack of handwashing) and they help promote a healthy immune system. Imbalances in gut bacteria often caused by poor quality diet, food allergies/sensitivities, or taking antibiotics create space for overgrowth of unhealthy bacteria, which can lead to diarrhea, constipation, poor food and nutrient absorption and other issues including anxiety, depression and frequent colds & flus.
Increase your daily fibre. Fibre is essential to healthy digestion. From promoting regular bowel movements (which remove toxins from your body) to assisting in the absorption of water and nutrients, a diet rich in fibre can help ease gas and bloating. A simple way of adding fibre is just increasing your daily fruit & vegetable intake and reducing your intake of refined sugars, poor quality grains and processed foods. If you initially find yourself more bloated after increasing your dietary fibre you may need to start by steaming vegetables rather than eating them raw as this makes them easier to digest. Especially if you are not used to eating fruits & vegetables and high-quality grains (NO white bread!) you may need to go to something as gentle as an apple pectin supplement.
Drink lemon water or apple cider vinegar (ACV) water. A cup of warm water with ACV and/or lemon water before breakfast (or every meal!) helps in many ways. If you find yourself suffering from frequent belching, heartburn, gas and possibly that after meal “brick in the stomach” feeling, this might be an effective short-term solution. If you find that drinking this soothes these issues you probably are dealing with low stomach acid. This may seem backwards to you (especially if you have heartburn and that “acid” feel in your throat) but low stomach acid is usually the cause. Don’t reach for the anti-acids. Try this instead. If it works and your heartburn suddenly clears up you should probably see a nutritionist to deal with this issue as long-term heartburn not only affects your absorption of vitamins, minerals and food, but can contribute to the formation of chronic diseases.
Ingest fermented foods and drinks. Fermentation is an incredibly easy and inexpensive way to add probiotics to your diet. Not only does it promote a healthy digestive system but it contributes to a healthy immune system and good brain function! Think about adding in things like kefir, kombucha, fermented veggies, yogurts (not the high sugar grocery store kinds!) and sourkraut, to your daily diet. You can even start making your own. Your gut will thank you!
Hop on the bitters wagon! Nobody enjoys bitter foods. However, digestive bitters actually stimulate digestion in a powerful way! They stimulate the production of your digestive juices which will positively affect your digestion. Bitters can also help curb cravings and balance your appetite. You can buy a tonic from a health food store which combines a bunch of different herbs or you can simply add arugula, dandelion greens, kale, dill or turmeric to your diet!
Add in some soothing aloe, DGL or much on fennel seeds. All three of these things help your digestive system. Aloe soothes an irritated and inflamed gut and promotes regular bowel movements. DGL (Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice) helps soothe an inflamed gut (think ulcers) and can alleviate heartburn symptoms. Be careful with DGL – do not take for extended periods of time and avoid if you have a history of diabetes, edema, high blood pressure, or heart, kidney or liver disease. Lastly, fennel seeds can be munched on after meals to soothe an irritated gut, relieve gas and bloating, promotes healthy digestion and reduces heartburn. You an also rub 1 drop of fennel seed essential oil (mixed with a carrier oil such as coconut or olive oil) over you stomach after a meal to hep with bloating and gas.
Add in some L-Glutamine. L-Glutamine is an amino acid that has the power to heal the lining of your gut. Think of this when you deal with with chronic irritation of your stomach (think gastritis, constant heartburn, ulcers). L-Glutamine can be purchased as a supplement or you can drink cabbage juice which is rich in this amino acid.
Get your body moving! Your body is made to move. Not only does exercise stimulate the production of digestive juices but it strengthens the muscles of your digestive tract which helps promote digestion. Remember that you should give your body 2-3 hours of digestion time before doing any strenuous exercise and maintain good hydration.
Reduce stress! Your gut is basically your body’s second brain. Your gut is plays an essential role in the production of your brain chemicals. Stress wreaks havoc on your gut by actually changing the microbiome of your gut (the balance of good bacteria to bad bacteria) which actually affects your body’s mental, physical and emotional health. When you damage your gut’s microbiome you increase your risk for depression and anxiety, autoimmune diseases and other chronic health issues.
Caring for your gut is an essential and a powerful way to care for your overall health. It has an impact on your body in ways that are more than just physical. Your mental and emotional health depend on a healthy gut and the daily choices you make have an impact on your chances of developing health issues in the long-term.
Ginger is widely used for digestive disorders, including dyspepsia, colic, nausea, vomiting, gastritis and diarrhea (1).
It’s such a staple in natural remedies that it can do anything from curing a migraine to dissolving kidney stones and improving diabetes.
You can purchase organic ginger root in fresh, powdered, pickled or minced form.
Anticancer Properties of Ginger
Ginger contains gingerol, shogaol, zerumbone and paradols, which are the valuable compounds that can prevent and treat various cancers.
They do so by preventing angiogenesis (the spread of cancer through development of new blood vessels) and metastasis (the spread of cancer to other organs).
They also induce apoptosis (natural cell death), and prevent cell division (2).
A University Of Minnesota study concluded that “ginger compounds may be effective chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agents for carcinomas.” via ScienceDaily
Ginger and Prostate Cancer
According to the British Journal of Nutrition, one in six men will be affected by prostate cancer in his lifetime (1). It is estimated that in the USA, one new case occurs every 2-4 minutes.
Ginger has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antiproliferative activities, indicating its promising role as a chemopreventive agent.
100g of the spice a day has been proven to prevent the growth of cancerous cells and induces death for a large spectrum of prostate cancer varieties.
Ginger and Breast Cancer
According to the International Journal of Preventive Medicine, ginger and its bioactive molecules are effective in controlling the extent of colorectal, gastric, ovarian, liver, skin, breast, and prostate cancers (2).
It is also non-toxic, meaning that it can target cancerous cells without harming healthy cells.
Ginger and Ovarian Cancer
Ginger inhibits growth and spread (proliferation and angiogenesis) of ovarian cancer cells (3). It may also suppress pro-inflammatory cytokine (4).
Hence, studies suggest that the use of dietary agents such as this root may have potential in the treatment and prevention of ovarian cancer (5).
Avocados may enhance digestion, lower the incidence of depression, and guard against cancer, among other health advantages.
Avocados are essentially a type of berry and are also referred to as an alligator pear or butter fruit. They thrive in warm environments.
Avocados are a good source of monounsaturated fatty acids and are a good source of numerous vitamins and minerals. Including them in a balanced diet can have a lot of advantages.
The nutritional profile of avocados, 12 potential health benefits, and several potential concerns are all covered in detail below.
Here is the nutrition breakdown for a 7-ounce (201-gram) avocado (3Trusted Source):
Avocados are loaded with bioactive substances like carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E, and phenolic compounds in addition to vitamins, minerals, good fats, and fibre (23Trusted Source).
Significant antioxidant, neuroprotective, and cardioprotective effects of these compounds have been demonstrated.
For instance, it has been demonstrated that the carotenoids in avocados, such as lutein, -Carotene, and -Carotene, have potent antioxidant properties that guard against oxidative damage, which is linked to the development of many chronic diseases (24Trusted Source).
Consuming avocados frequently may strengthen the body’s antioxidant defences due to their high antioxidant content.
An avocado per day raised blood levels of the pigment lutein compared to a typical Western diet without avocado, according to a small study including 45 participants (20Trusted Source).
Nutrient needs greatly rise during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
For instance, when pregnant (36Reliable Source):
The amount of folate needed rises from 400 to 600 g.
2,600 mg of potassium must be increased to 2,900 mg.
The body needs 85 mg of vitamin C instead of 75.
During pregnancy, your needs for folate considerably increase. Unfortunately, many expectant women worldwide do not consume enough folate, which may raise the risk of pregnancy problems (37Trusted Source, 38Trusted Source, 39Trusted Source).
During pregnancy, one avocado provides 27% of the daily required amount of folate (3Trusted Source).
Consuming avocados can also help you meet the recommended dietary requirements for nutrients like vitamin C, potassium, and B6 that are required in higher amounts during pregnancy and lactation.
Avocados are remarkably nutrient-dense and particularly high in fibre, vitamin B6, vitamin C, potassium, vitamin E, folate, and copper.
Regular consumption of avocados may improve health in a number of ways, including preventing heart disease, enhancing the quality of one’s diet overall, increasing satiety, and enhancing intestinal health.
Emotion regulation is the ability to exert control over one’s own emotional state. It may involve behaviors such as rethinking a challenging situation to reduce anger or anxiety, hiding visible signs of sadness or fear, or focusing on reasons to feel happy or calm.
While there are many ways to influence one’s emotional state for the better, emotion regulation often involves what experts call “down-regulation,” or reducing the intensity of emotions. A grieving person might down-regulate his sadness by recalling something amusing. An anxious person may cope by distracting herself from the thought that is causing her anxiety. Emotion regulation can also include “up-regulation,” or amping up one’s emotions, which can be useful when an imminent danger or challenge calls for a healthy dose of anxiety or excitement.
The process model of emotion regulation proposed by psychologist James Gross emphasizes that people can act to control their emotions at different points in time—including before they feel an emotion (“antecedent-focused emotion regulation”) and after they have already begun to react emotionally (“response-focused emotion regulation”).
What are some basic ways of controlling emotions?
Two broad categories of emotion regulation are reappraisal—changing how one thinks about something that prompted an emotion in order to change one’s response—and suppression, which has been linked to more negative outcomes. Other strategies include selecting or changing a situation to influence one’s emotional experience, shifting what one pays attention to, and trying to accept emotions.
How can I learn to control emotional outbursts?
Practicing habits such as mindful acceptance of emotions, shifting attention away from the source of negative emotions, or reframing emotional situations (such as thinking about a setback or mistake as an opportunity to learn) may be helpful, and a trained therapist could be a valuable partner in enhancing emotional control.
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