Preventive Health Care - Know Regimen For It!

This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon.com(and affiliate Sites/Stores.)Any One Can Shop from this blog.Using links to these sites means I may earn a small percentage from  purchases made at no extra cost to you.

Hey Everyone!,

Preventive Health Care - Know 

Regimen For It!

We have often heard that prevention is better than cure. After all, who would want to spend time being sick, if it can be avoided. Well, it can be said that as long as a person is willing to put in a little effort, there can be dividends in the form of not having to pay multiple visits to the doctor. Let’s find out how exactly to go about practising preventive health care.

Quit smoking: 

As it says on the packets of cigarettes, it has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that smoking is injurious to health. As a matter of fact, the habit of smoking can not only lead to cancer but also result in other ill conditions and diseases. Quitting smoking is indeed the most important tenet of preventive health.

 Sleep well

 Many people think that the practice of sleeping is enough for adequate health is overrated, but it is just very important. A number of people are putting their health in jeopardy in the long run by not making the right choice of prioritising sleep over other activities. There are various risks a person exposes himself or herself to by not getting enough sleep. Inadequate sleep does not provide the body with the amount of rest that is needed for it to repair, heal and start afresh.

 Cut down on alcohol

Alcohol is something that is enjoyable as long as it is consumed within limits. A general rule is that no man should be having more than two drinks a day and a woman should not go beyond a drink. When these limits are not paid heed to, the risk of some life-threatening diseases such as cancers as well as liver cirrhosis spikes.

 Follow proper diet and exercise

While it is true that degeneration of the joints of a person over the course of time is an inevitability, there is a lot that can be done by a person who wants to avoid the prospect of having his or her quality of life compromised by arthritis. Following a strict diet, avoiding fast food and drinking plenty of water help in keeping yourself healthy. Similarly, regular workout and exercising can prevent a person from being overweight, which makes a substantial difference in fighting arthritis!

Therefore, by avoiding smoking and alcohol, you can prevent many diseases. Moreover, adequate sleep and proper diet can help you lead a healthy life.

Hope you enjoyed reading this;)

“What Do You Think?Do you agree or Disagree or Have any other ideas?Please Share your thoughts in the comments below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me!”

Bye for Know,

Sameer

There’s more to that

If you’re looking for more,Please subscribe to my blog by clicking on Subscribe in a reader the icon or Subscribe via Email by submitting your email id on the side bar ;)

Preventive,Health,Care,Smoking,alcohol,adequate sleep,proper diet,
arthritis,overweight,optimize

Like it? Share it…

Ditching Cigarettes can mend brain matters

This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon.com(and affiliate Sites/Stores.)Any One Can Shop from this blog.Using links to these sites means I may earn a small percentage from  purchases made at no extra cost to you.

Hey Everyone!

From turning down the music to snacking on fish, the latest research on how to improve your ability learn

Ditching Cigarettes can mend brain matters

Add this to the laundry list of reasons smoking is terrible for your health : the habit can affect the part of the brain that's crucial for conscious learning ( See "After You Quit Smoking"). In a major study released in February 2015 by Scotland's University of Edinburgh  and the Montreal Neurological Institute at Mc Gill University, researchers analyzed recent MBI brain scams of more than 500 subjects ,all of whom had  examined as children in 1947. They discovered that smokers had a demonstrably thinner  brain cortex than  those who had refrained from lighting up.

" The cortex is involved in everything that requires higher-order cognition attention,logical reasoning,our capacity to juggle a lot of concepts at once," says lead reasearcher Sherif Karama,assistant professor of psychiatry at McGill. "(In old age,)smokers end up with a lower level of cognitive abilities than non smokers,even when you account for initial IQ."

But not all is lost: if a person ditches the cigarettes,the cortex can begin to repair itself. "For every 7000 cigarettes you smoke- that's roughly one pack a day for a year- you need to have stopped smoking for almost a year for that area to recover," Katana says,"But if people quit for long enough,their cortex does appear to come back to where it should be for their age."

Hope you enjoyed reading this;)

“What Do You Think?Do you agree or Disagree or Have any other ideas?Please Share your thoughts in the comments below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me!”

Bye for Know,

Sameer

There’s more to that

If you’re looking for more,Please subscribe to my blog by clicking on Subscribe in a reader the icon or Subscribe via Email by submitting your email id on the side bar ;)


Cigarretes,Ditching,Quit,Brain,Health,Addiction,Smoking,Life,
Psychology,optimize

Like it? Share it…

How to stop comparing yourself with other people

This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon.com(and affiliate Sites/Stores.)Any One Can Shop from this blog.Using links to these sites means I may earn a small percentage from  purchases made at no extra cost to you.

Hey Everyone!

How to stop comparing yourself 

with other people

It’s totally normal to use happy,successful people as a benchmark, but here’s how to keep it from eating you up.Maybe it starts with a LinkedIn notification that your professional nemesis got a big promotion. Or, perhaps you heard through the grapevine that a former colleague landed your dream job. Suddenly, you’re a wash in negative emotions like envy,anger, or frustration.

“Comparison is adaptive and has helped us survive, think, feel, judge, and cooperate. But, like many adaptive psychological mechanisms, there can be a downside,” says Matthew Baldwin, PhD, of the Social Cognition Center at the University of Cologne in Germany. It opens the door for jealousy and, in extreme cases, could even lead to negative actions like sabotaging someone else’s success.

The always-connected world of social media doesn’t help. A November 2018 University of Pennsylvania study found that frequent use of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat led to greater feelings of depression and loneliness. The researchers found that the carefully curated images can make others feel as though they’re not doing as well or that someone else’s life is so much better than theirs.

How To Stop Comparing Yourself With People

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR FEELINGS

Those feelings may be an indication that there’s a bigger issue, says Natalie Pennington, PhD, assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. And it’s often related to your relationships and satisfaction with life, in general. “It’s not that the tech makes you depressed, it’s that you already are probably struggling with your relationships and so the tech just makes it worse,” she says.

Cognitive biases also creep into our tendency to compare ourselves to others, online and offline, says Preston Ni, professor of communication studies at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, and author of How to Let Go of Negative Thoughts and Emotions–A Practical Guide. Recency bias, the tendency to remember events that happened more recently, and social comparison bias, where we feel competitive with someone who seems to be doing better than we are, can powerfully distort our interpretations. “We don’t know the whole story. We only know what we see, and what we see is completely biased,” he says.

In addition, our attention is often captivated by people who are doing or achieving remarkable things. But, you don’t know the story behind how they reached their achievement,says Toronto-based organizational psychologist and management consultant Michael Vodianoi. And, sometimes, our tendency to take a pessimistic view–possibly because of negativity bias–may extrapolate someone else’s success into something far worse, he says.

“A ‘catastrophizer’ or a pessimist might take that and start to globalize it, or blow it up, and say, ‘You know, nobody’s gonna find me. I’m never gonna get a promotion. I’m not good enough,'” he says.

TURN COMPARISON INTO A COMPETITIVE EDGE

When used in a healthy way, comparison can be a motivational tool, Baldwin says. If you feel like someone is smarter than you and it motivates you to study for a test, that’s a good thing. The challenge is to keep the negative feelings at bay. Here are steps that can help.

Spend some time with your values. 

Getting distracted by others’ accomplishments may be a sign that you need to check in with what’s important to you, Ni says. “Ultimately, if you have a strong set of internal best practices or internal values and you are good at what you do, you’re dedicated with your career, you have a good strong likelihood of feeling good about your professional performance no matter what, and it doesn’t matter whether or not somebody gets promoted or demoted. You know who you are,” he says. So, think about what really matters to you.

Acknowledge what’s working. 

Take inventory of what’s going well in your life, Ni says. Where are you crushing it? What positive accomplishments have you enjoyed lately? Recognize them, even if they’re small.

Compare apples to apples. 

Look closer at the person or situation, Vodianoi says. Are you really comparing apples to apples? Did the person have connections you didn’t have? Did they have special training or advantages? Examine the evidence you have about what led to another person’s achievement–and acknowledge what you don’t know. The unknown can play a big role in what happened.

Go after the goal.

If someone is achieving at a level you want to reach, use them as a model. Study what they’re doing to rack up those accomplishments and integrate those activities into your routine. Discuss the issue with your mentor, manager, or other trusted adviser to explore how you can get there, too.

Build relationships. 

The most important thing you can do, both professionally and personally, is to focus on building a strong sense of purpose in your life, as well as relationships and interests that give you satisfaction. Pennington says that failing to invest in these elements of a balanced life can lead to giving outsize meaning or importance to others’ good news. Instead, you’ll have many areas of strength and satisfaction from which to draw, leaving you better able to keep the situation in perspective.

There is only one you

This might sound cheesy, but there is one you. You’re utterly unique, and so are your experiences, your world review.That makes you valuable, and pretty awesome. Be the best version of yourself you can be, because no matter how hard you try, you can’t be anyone else. There is always going to be someone taller, smarter, thinner, or richer than you. Trying to get to the top of that is a losing game, and physically impossible.

If you let it.

In order to succeed, you have to be the best you. Oscar Wilde was right: “Everyone else is already taken.”

Hope you enjoyed reading this;)

“What Do You Think?Do you agree or Disagree or Have any other ideas?Please Share your thoughts in the comments below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me!”

Bye for Know,

Sameer

There’s more to that

If you’re looking for more,Please subscribe to my blog by clicking on Subscribe in a reader the icon or Subscribe via Email by submitting your email id on the side bar ;)

Comparing,Happiness,Relationships,Charm,Work,Popularity,Mirrors,
Psychology,Self,Impressions,Behavior,Paradoxes,Human,optimize

Like it? Share it…

How to Get the Benefits of Cold Showers

This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon.com(and affiliate Sites/Stores.)Any One Can Shop from this blog.Using links to these sites means I may earn a small percentage from  purchases made at no extra cost to you.

Hey Everyone!

How to Get Unquantifiable Benefits 

of Cold Showers

The surprising side effects that science can’t measure and money can’t buy

Cold showers are not a new concept and have, in fact, been declining in popularity following a lot of hype in the last few years. Frankly, that’s probably because that hype made some pretty big claims that are hard to substantiate.

As a former scientist and medical researcher, I concluded pretty early on that the science on cold showers was rather unconvincing. Yet, as an avid self-experimenter, it is one of the few habits — after dozens of experiments with supplements, gadgets, exercises, and habits — that have stuck with me after all this time.

So, why do it if I don’t believe the science?

Because it gives me results.

I’ve always been someone with a disproportionate level of energy for my petite frame. Some of my nicknames include “pocket rocket” and “energizer bunny.” I tend to put that energy to good use. I was a competitive athlete in my younger years and continue to pack my days with rock climbing, HIIT workouts, yoga, and running, even though I stopped competing. There was nothing I loved more than the soreness and tiredness from working my body hard.

But one morning I woke up feeling like I’d been hit by a bus. I wasn’t just fatigued or sore; I was tired to my very bones. Every part of my body felt heavy, like I was wading through mud. My brain was foggy and slow.

Needless to say, I was also incredibly irritable. I wrote it off as an anomaly. I probably just needed another day of rest. But the fatigue persisted, recovery slowed and I continued to get more restless and irritable. I went to a doctor, only to be told that all my blood work was normal. I don’t think he understood that I didn’t want to be normal: I wanted to be optimal.

So, I did what I do best — research and self-experiment. A lot of advice on improving recovery involves temperature modulation of some form, especially icing, and I eventually stumbled upon the practice of cold showers.

I’ve been taking cold showers every day now for more than a year. The benefits weren’t what I was expecting, but they were definitely far more valuable. Yes, it made the fatigue go away, but more importantly, this habit has provided me with positive experiences that I’ve found almost impossible to replicate consistently any other way.

More on that to come. First, let’s talk about the benefits according to the common collective.

The Purported Benefits of Cold Showers (and the Available Scientific Evidence)

There is limited research available on cold showers, but here is a summary of some of the more prominent studies and the benefits they expound.

1.Promotes fat loss

The theory is that cold exposure activates Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT, or brown fat) which causes BAT to burn calories to generate heat. The details are fleshed out more in this study.

2.Alleviates depression

There are several mechanisms by which cold exposure is supposed to elevate your mood. This study hypothesizes that cold exposure activates the sympathetic nervous system and increases the release of noradrenaline in the brain. The same study also purports that a “cold shower is expected to send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an antidepressant effect.” Another study found that bathing in cold water reduced levels of cortisol.

3.Improves immunity

Cold showers supposedly trigger an increase in your metabolic rate, which results in an increase in white blood cell production. The white blood cells are the workhorse of your immune system. So, a boost in white blood cells is protective against illness. This study reported a statistical significance in the reduction of self-reported sickness absence.

4.Promotes muscle recovery

This supposedly works because cold showers reduce inflammation by constricting blood vessels. This meta-study concluded that muscle soreness was delayed by exposure to cold-water immersion.

Other less-researched benefits I’ve heard about include:

1.Improves skin and hair

Basically, it’s not that cold water is necessarily good but that showering in hot water can be drying and cause your skin to be irritated.

2.Increases circulation

The cold water may cause the blood to circulate faster in order to maintain your body temperature.

3. Improves sleep

There is anecdotal evidence that people sleep better when their body and environment is slightly cooler. Taking a cold shower obviously has a cooling effect on your body.

4.Increases testosterone level

Apparently, cold showers lower the scrotal temperature, allowing optimal production of sperm and testosterone.

How many of those expected benefits did I experience? Well, I lost a little weight (actually quite a feat, considering I’m already pretty lean). I felt happier (though I wasn’t depressed to begin with). My skin and hair looked great (by my biased standards, of course). All in all, the expected benefits yielded fairly marginal outcomes… but the unexpected benefits far exceeded my hopes.

The Unexpected Benefits

So, why the torture? I’ve definitely been asked this question more than once and here’s the honest answer.

It’s because what I feel from having a cold shower is really hard to gain in any other way.

We are constantly bombarded with messages to take a pill, buy a gadget, or see a specialist to feel better. But a pill can’t help you be more mentally present and money can’t teach you to listen to your own body more. There is something to be said about cultivating the skill of tuning in to your own body and giving your mind and body the space it needs to self-balance.

Here’s what I discovered about cold showers:

1.It makes you feel like you can conquer the world (or at least your day)

Yes, that’s a bold claim and yes, I stand by it.

Here’s the thing. It’s really hard to want to step into a cold shower — much less stay in it for 10 minutes. There is definitely an innate resistance to it. But every time I finish a 10-minute cold shower, I feel like I’ve tamed my internal impulses and I’m in charge. I get that little dopamine rush from completing something — “Hey, if I can do this — I can do anything!”

Why is this so special? 

If you think about it, most of our day and our world is structured around avoiding discomfort. This has the unintended consequence of making us easily flustered and reducing our emotional resilience.

In biology, there is a term called “eustress” which literally translates as “good stress” that is beneficial for the experiencer. Every form of growth requires eustress. Muscles need to be stressed to get stronger, your immune system needs to be exposed to pathogens to be more resilient, and everyone needs a little discomfort to be mentally stronger. Finishing a cold shower is like starting your day with a dose of mental training every day.

2.It teaches you to tune in to your body and to be mentally present

With gadgets to measure everything from heart rate to sleep to mood, most people have lost the ability to be in tune with themselves — to truly listen to their body and what it’s telling them without exportable data. The thing about being in a cold shower is that you are acutely aware of every physical sensation. It’s like your body is screaming “listen to me!” and you have no choice but to ignore everything else and pay close attention. It is an instant way of clearing your mind and really feeling your body.

3.It is meditative

A cold shower is a wonderful reminder of the amazing ability of our bodies to quickly adjust to our environment. You get to observe your body go from a state of stress to calming down and eventually enjoying the effects of the cold water. You listen to your inner monologue go from “OMG, I wanna get out — why has it only been a minute?!?” to “OK, halfway through, this ain’t so bad” to “Ahhhhh, I can feel my muscles relaxing.” I have been meditating for years and my non-shower sessions can still be a little hit and miss, but a cold shower will get me in a state of calm every single time.

4.It is an amazing nootropic

Though it’s not something you can ingest, so not technically a nootropic, the feeling after a 10-minute cold shower is like your brain has been electrified in the most wonderful way. It’s like a shot of energy that just wakes your brain up. I’m not a morning person and if I have a cold shower earlier in the day, I’m literally ten times more productive for the rest of the day. And yes, it’s better than coffee.

5.It is an instant mood-enhancer

I mentioned before that` the research on this was not convincing, but nothing counteracts inconclusive research better than feeling it yourself. I can’t explain it, but it just makes me happy.

6.It improves your cold tolerance

I grew up in a tropical climate and have always maintained that I have a genetic predisposition to hating the cold. However, daily cold showers have definitely increased my tolerance for cold temperatures. This is consistent with a study which demonstrated the habituation of people to cold water immersions with cold showers.

7.It reminds you that your emotions are not your reality

Here’s the funny thing about having cold showers — you always feel colder in the first minute than in the last minute.

This feeling obviously cannot be a true reflection of reality. You cannot have less body heat in the beginning than you do at the end.

Having cold showers remind me that strong emotions can create a false reality and that I don’t always have to react to every emotion I feel. Though I instantly want to jump out, I’m reminded that if I can just sit with the feeling just a little longer, it will leave me. If your reality involves everyone constantly telling you what needs to be done, it’s nice to realize that doing nothing and letting things pass is a powerful solution too. Having cold showers is easy. All you have to do is literally — nothing.

I will admit that even after reaping the unexpected side effects of cold showers every day for more than a year, there are days when getting into the shower is still a battle. Here are some handy tips I learned when those days came around.

How to Take Cold Showers: Tips for Getting In and Staying In

1.Start and finish with warm water

It’s a lot easier to convince yourself to get into a warm shower than a cold once. Once you get started, it’s a lot easier to stay in. Finishing with warm water gives you something pleasurable to look forward to and it will positively reinforce the habit. I tend to do 30 seconds of warm water on either end.

2.Ease into it

A cold shower is showering with water colder than 70 degrees Fahrenheit or 21 degrees Celsius (though it really does feel better when you go colder than that). If you start with warm water, you can slowly make the water colder every 10 seconds or so until you hit your limit.

3.Pair it with something you enjoy doing (e.g. podcasts)

I enjoy learning Spanish and found that it was much easier to convince myself to get excited to learn Spanish than to get into a cold shower. So, instead of telling myself I was about to have a cold shower, I would tell myself I was about to learn Spanish. It also made the time pass faster.

4.End with something pleasurable

A study involving colonoscopies once demonstrated that your brain does not remember the sensations of an entire experience evenly, and the last moments of the event have a larger impact than the initial moments.

Ending the cold shower ritual with a pleasurable reward, like a hot cup of coffee, acts to positively reinforce the habit a second time. I like having a small space heater nearby so I can enjoy a bit more heat after I get out.

5.Give yourself an out

Cold showers are like your regular workout sessions. You don’t always feel like starting, but it’s easy to continue once you’ve started. Give yourself a 3-minute out. Tell yourself that if you really want to get out after that time, you can. Chances are, you’ll stay.

6.Five minutes is better than one

Friends who are curious to start having cold showers will often tell me that they will try it for one minute. That’s the worst idea ever. It’s getting all of the suffering without the benefits of the mental calm. I generally feel pretty uncomfortable until the third minute, after which it actually feels quite enjoyable. So, if you can, set your goal to 5 minutes.

7.Start with your face and neck

Most people have an aversion to immersing their head in cold water. Once you get that part of your body over with, everything else feels fine.

8.Don’t eat a heavy meal before

Don’t eat a heavy meal before — your body struggles to do multiple things at once. One of the effects of being cold is that your body will attempt to circulate blood quicker to regulate the temperature of your body. This is a good thing. Eating a heavy meal prior prevents effective circulation, as some blood flow will be directed towards the digestion process.

Here is the most surprising thing about my cold shower habit: my body craves it now. I’m a firm believer that your body has the intrinsic ability to heal and rebalance itself. It will create a natural feedback loop for things that are beneficial to it. So, if you’re still struggling after a few days, remember that not only will it get easier, but your body will actually start looking forward to it.

Still not convinced?

I don’t blame you. I consider myself a pretty persuasive person, but I have never been met with anything but a look of utter befuddlement or a visceral, unintentional shiver when I tell people about my daily habit of taking a 10-minute cold shower.

While I was randomly googling “cold showers,” the articles or videos that caught my eye the most were the ones debunking the myth of cold showers. See here and here for two of the more entertaining ones. Yet, every single person in those articles was a proponent of cold showers, because as it turns out, all those things that the scientific experiments didn’t measure are true.

You will feel more energized. You will feel calmer. You will feel like you can deal with life.

Don’t fall for the myth that optimization of yourself requires cutting edge gadgets, complicated supplements, or expensive specialists. In a world where people confuse self-care for expensive spa treatments, cold showers are free, simple, sustainable, and can be done from anywhere.

Try it. The warm fuzzies are real.

Hope you enjoyed reading this;)

“What Do You Think?Do you agree or Disagree or Have any other ideas?Please Share your thoughts in the comments below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me!”

Bye for Know,

Sameer

There’s more to that

If you’re looking for more,Please subscribe to my blog by clicking on Subscribe in a reader the icon or Subscribe via Email by submitting your email id on the side bar ;)

Benefits,Cold,Showers,Health,Mood,enhancer,mentally,present,

meditative,Unexpected,Optimize

Like it? Share it…