The Key To Abundant Life : June 2019

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Natural Home Remedies For Sleeping Problems

Put Garlic Under Your Pillow And See What Happens

Everyone is familiar with the pungent flavor of garlic.

It adds zest to innumerable savory dishes.

It’s also quite healthy, with complex carbohydrates and proteins, plus vital minerals and vitamins like vitamin B, sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

Eating garlic on a regular basis can help to ward off heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases as well as metabolic disorders like diabetes.

The instantly recognizable smell of garlic comes from the allicin, a sulfur compound.

It makes garlic excellent for treating infections because it can kill some types of virus more efficiently than antibiotics, and without the nasty side effects.

Garlic also contains anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds that support optimal function of all of the body’s systems.

But we’re not done yet! Garlic improves blood flow, lowers cholesterol, and even helps prevent premature aging by reducing oxidative damage.

With all the benefits of eating garlic, why on earth would you put it under your pillow? As it turns out, there are several reasons.

Read on to find out what happens when you stash a clove or two under your pillow at night.

1. You Will Breathe Better

One of the ways that garlic helps you overnight is that is can clear blocked nasal passages.

The allicin, when breathed, thins mucus so that it drains.

Your breathing will improve, which in turn makes it a lot easier to fall and stay asleep.

If simply placing a clove or two of garlic under your pillow isn’t enough, you can make a garlic steam to breathe before bed.

Simply place 3-5 crushed cloves into a pot of boiling water, turn off the heat, and then inhale the steam. Be careful not to get so close to the pot that you burn your face.

2. You Will Get Sick Less Often

Garlic is also a potent antibacterial and can knock out common germs before they make you sick.

They can also help shorten the duration of a cold or flu.

Researchers think this is because allicin is able to block two groups of enzymes that allow infectious microbes to survive in a host body.

Sleeping with garlic under your pillow regularly can help ward off passing germs, but you might want to add more to your diet if you actually catch that cold.

3. You’ll Get A Better Night’s Sleep

Sleeping with garlic under your pillow is a holistic remedy for insomnia that has been used for ages.

It’s counterintuitive to think that a smell as powerful as garlic could be calming, but it works.

Smelling the allicin in garlic can help you fall asleep and stay asleep so that your rest is truly restorative.

Beyond sleeping with garlic under your pillow, eating more of it can increase your intake of magnesium and potassium.

These two minerals play a vital role in sleep by working synergistically to relax your muscles and produce a chemical called GABA.

GABA is the body’s signal that it’s time to calm down, and it chills out your brain cells so that they can begin the restorative work that happens overnight.

4. You’ll Naturally Repel Bugs

If you’ve ever worried about a spider crawling into your mouth while you sleep, or woken up with a bunch of mosquito bites, you’ll appreciate having some extra protection under your pillow.

Garlic is toxic to bugs and they know it, so having some under your pillow naturally discourages them from joining you in bed.

In fact, some people use a garlic and water spray to repel bugs in the garden.

But for the purpose of repelling insects, eating garlic doesn’t seem to be as effective.

Mosquitos especially are attracted to the carbon dioxide we exhale, and of course that occurs no matter what we’ve eaten.

A COUPLE WORDS OF CAUTION

One thing to remember if you have dogs or cats is that garlic is toxic to them.

If your pets get on your bed and are prone to swiping food, it’s best not to leave garlic under your pillow when you’re not there.

A small amount of garlic in a meal will probably not sicken a pet, but an entire clove certainly will.

In any case, it’s better for the effectiveness of garlic as a sleep aid to use a fresh clove each night.

We also recommend wrapping your clove in a washcloth, or alternately, keeping the skin on while you sleep.

Garlic contains oil that can stain your sheets if it gets crushed.

Garlic is a fantastic boon to health, whether you sleep with it, eat it, or breathe it.

There’s no reason not to do all three! But hundreds of years of use as a sleep aid certainly speaks to its unique ability to settle both body and brain and improve the quality of your slumber.

You should definitely try garlic under your pillow before resorting to dangerous chemical sleep aids, which have been shown to trap you into dependence on them.

And even though you get “knocked out,” the quality of your sleep is not good under the influence of these drugs.

Garlic is cheap, easy, and it works with zero side effects. Sweet dreams!

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

How To Reduce Cholesterol Fast | How To Unclog Your Arteries Without Medication

Arteries carry blood and oxygen to different parts of the body from your head all the way down to your toes.

You need to have healthy arteries to carry that blood and oxygen throughout the body. However, many people develop clogged arteries.

In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a heart attack, which could be due to clogged arteries.

Clogged arteries happen when plaque builds up on the inner walls of the arteries and block blood flow, reducing the amount of blood and oxygen that moves throughout the body. Due to this, parts of your body can’t function well and your organs are also damaged as a result.

Good cholesterol (HDL) helps control the levels of the bad cholesterol (LDL), and it is important to be able to keep these levels balanced. In fact, high levels of bad cholesterol has been known as the silent killer because it often goes undetected until it’s too late.

A study that examined the data on 36,375 adults with no history of heart disease or diabetes and a low risk for events like heart attacks or strokes was conducted over a 27 period of time. Most of the adults in the study were found to have levels of LDL, however the levels were not high enough to be prescribed cholesterol-lowering medication. After 27 years, 1,086 people in the study died of cardiovascular disease and 598 died from coronary heart disease. This lead researchers to conclude that the levels of LDL, although low, had a lasting impact on the heart health of these individuals.

All studies aside, all is NOT lost, even if you have history of clogged arteries. There are simple, natural and healthy remedies that can help, including these three ingredients: garlic, turmeric and oatmeal.

Why they work and how to use each:

Garlic

Garlic has been found to help lower LDS levels by preventing cholesterol from sticking to the artery walls. This prevents the arteries from clogging, prevents blood clots and in turn reduces blood pressure.

Simply take 2-4 cloves of raw garlic a day. And chile consuming them fresh daily will yield the best results, if raw garlic is too hard to eat, you can include 5-7 cloves in your daily meals. Perhaps add it to sauce, a salad or rub it on whole wheat toast. Garlic can also be found in tablet and capsule form as well as in an extract or powder.

Turmeric:

Tumeric is a spice that can help treat clogged arteries, lower bad cholesterol and make your heart work better. The curcumin contained in turmeric has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that prevent blood platelets from forming clots. It can also relax blood vessels and reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.

One way to take turmeric is by taking 1 teaspoon of the powder and add a little honey inside some warm milk. Drink it 1-2 times daily. Turmeric powder can also be included in your cooking, perhaps in a sauce or soup. You can also take turmeric supplements (400-600 mg 3 x daily). However, it is best to consult a doctor before beginning any supplement regimen.

Oatmeal:

Oatmeal is a great heart-healthy meal due to its high soluble fiber content. It has been recommended by The American Heart Association that the total dietary fiber intake for adults should be 25 to 30 grams a day from food, not supplements. This is why oatmeal is a fantastic option.

In fact, a bowl of oatmeal made from 3/4 cup of dry oats contains 3 g of soluble fiber which is easier to digest than insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber binds to the cholesterol in the body, helping you to digest it rather than having it get absorbed into the bloodstream. This helps lower the LDL levels in your blood.

To get the best benefits from oatmeal, eat 1-2 bowls of cooked oats each day. You can also add fresh fruits, nuts and even honey to enhance the flavor in a more healthful way.

Other tips for reducing the risk for clogged arteries and high cholesterol levels:

Avoid smoking
Avoid drinking alcohol
Maintain a healthy weight
Stay away from bad stress/anxiety
Do yoga and meditation regularly
Laugh a lot or participate in laughter therapy
Get regular blood tests done

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

What Happens if You Eat Fish Every Day

What Happens if You Eat Fish Every Day

Benefits of daily fish consumption

Doctors currently recommend eating fish about 2-3 per week to get the health benefits without risking mercury poisoning. And we suppose it’s wise to avoid that. But aside from that one little risk, fish is really good for you. Eating some every day can give you a major head start on your RDA for lots of vital nutrients plus protein and healthy fats. On the other hand, mercury poisoning causes debilitating neurodegenerative disorders. Can it ever be okay to eat fish every day? Read on to find out.

What is mercury poisoning?

The biggest concern with eating a lot of fish is mercury poisoning. Mercury is a naturally occurring substance and is not problematic in small amounts. However, too much can lead to troubling symptoms that affect children (born and unborn) most significantly. Acute mercury poisoning can lead to permanent neurological deficits, including developmental delays in children.

There is no cure, but further progression can usually be halted by removing the source of the mercury. Really bad levels of exposure might require chelation therapy to remove the mercury from your system. Unfortunately, neurological disorders in children from mercury are typically permanent. Adults are likely to find their symptoms temporary.

Highest and lowest risk fish

In general, larger, predatory fish have higher levels of mercury because they feed many on smaller fish who each have a lower level. They also live longer, during which time the mercury continues to accumulate. This is the same way that humans can end up with too much mercury if they eat a lot of fish.

But, stresses Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, “For most individuals it’s fine to eat fish every day.” With the exception of pregnant women and children, you can safely eat fish every day without worry of mercury poisoning as long as you limit the amount of high mercury fish to two servings per week.

Low mercury fish: salmon, shrimp, catfish, tilapia, scallops, oysters, herring, sardines, and trout

High mercury fish: swordfish, king mackerel, shark, tilefish, orange roughy, marlin, ahi and bigeye tuna

Benefits of daily fish consumption

Eating fish affords many positive health benefits, including improved metabolism, sleep quality, skin quality, and concentration as well as lower inflammation. But that’s not all. Read on for six great reasons to eat more fish.

1. Get good fat

When it comes to red meat, it is always best to choose the leanest cuts possible. But with fish, it is actually the fattiest kinds that are most healthful. That’s because the fat in fish is in the form of omega-3 fatty acids, or “good” fats. Omega-3s contribute to the optimal function of the brain for starters, but also play a critical role in cardiovascular health.

Regular consumption of omega-3 fatty acids can help lower the risk of heart disease or stroke, and slows the growth of plaque in the arteries. It also lowers triglycerides (i.e., “bad” fat) and reduces blood pressure.

2. Maintain a healthy heart

Swapping fish for other forms of protein like red meat, chicken, pork, and lamb can be a smart choice for heart health. The omega-3s largely deserve the thanks, but recent studies indicate that it may be the combination of omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients in fish that cause the lower incidence of heart attack or death from heart disease among people who eat a lot of fish.

Get plenty of vitamins such as D and B2 (riboflavin) plus calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, and potassium in every serving.

3. Get enough vitamin D

Fish is a natural source of vitamin D, which is otherwise only synthesized from sun exposure. But many people are nevertheless deficient in D because we spend so much time inside. Because vitamin D plays a crucial role in allowing the body to absorb a lot of other nutrients, without it we may experience deficiencies despite adequate intake.

Think of your daily serving of fish as a booster for everything else you eat throughout the day.

4. Fight Depression

Scientists are still trying to determine why, but it’s clear that people who eat the most fish have lower than average incidence of depression. It may be that an overall healthy diet is associated with better mood, but we also know that omega-3 fatty acids can affect the level of feel-good chemicals dopamine and serotonin in the brain.

Finally, as fish is naturally able to reduce inflammation, eating a lot of it improves blood flow. That can also help improve brain function and smooth out mood swings.

5. Reduce risk of autoimmune disorders

An autoimmune disorder is when the body’s immune system gets confused and attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. One of the most common examples is type 1 diabetes, in which an immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

There have been multiple studies that indicate lower incidence of type 1 diabetes in people who consume omega-3s or fish oil regularly. Early information seems to point to lower risk for other autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis as well.

6. Stay mentally sharp

As we age, mental function often declines. Response times to stimuli become longer and short term memory is compromised. This is called age-related cognitive decline, and in severe cases, it can progress into Alzheimer’s. For some reason we don’t fully understand yet, people who eat a lot of fish have slower rates of cognitive decline. It may be related to the amount of grey matter found in our brains.

Grey matter is the major functional tissue that contains neurons to process information and store memories. The more the better, and people who eat fish regularly seem to have more grey matter in the areas of the brain that regulate memory and emotion.

If you like fish, there’s really no reason not to eat it every day. Well, there are two reasons – pregnancy or childhood. And one further concern is environmental. If every non-pregnant adult ate fish every day, we would quickly cause the extinction of the world’s edible fish population. However, fish has a distinctive taste that not everyone likes, so as long as fish lovers stick to sustainably harvested products, extinction should not be a concern.

If you are one of those people who don’t care for food with fins, you can still reap some of the benefits of fish by taking a fish oil supplement. The oil in these supplements is typically processed to remove mercury. Food sources of anything are always better absorbed than extracts or supplements, but it is still better than nothing. Eating fish clearly offers many health benefits.