Kapalabhati - A Breathing Exercise
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Kapalabhati is a very important asana and it should be part of your daily practice. This pose is also known as the Fire Breathing Pose, due to intake and outlet of air, with force. The exercise purifies your lungs and nasal passage. It is one of the powerful breathing exercises which help the entire body. It is one of a kind of the breathing exercises in Pranayama. Kapalabhati helps to make the motions of diaphragm very easy and controlled. This helps it to discard the muscle cramps present in bronchial tubes. Lot of force is used to do this asana. While exhaling the process is very strong and while inhaling it is done very calmly. It is a very energizing technique to re-boot all your muscles. It is a cleansing technique which emphasizes on cleaning your air passages and blockages in your chest.
This technique helps to remove the toxic air and takes in the fresh air. The breathing mainly takes place from the abdomen rather than chest which helps to remove the toxic air. Kapala means 'the skull' and bhati means 'brings lightness'. It lightens your skull by extracting problems like sinusitis. It is an invigorating and an energizing asana as it clears your stuffy skull with fresh air. It is one of the great exercises for asthma patients and people suffering from respiratory problems. It is useful in removing impurities from the blood. It is a very stimulating asana which can do wonders to every single tissue of your body. This asana invigorates your spine due to the breathing technique.
It clears your body from constant intake of toxins, thus detoxifying it. It is very useful for maintaining your blood pressure. The abdominal organs get strengthened due to the pressure applied on these organs while breathing and exhaling. It increases the blood circulation due to fresh supply of blood. It also improves the bowel movement which means getting rid of the basic troublesome diseases. The abdominal area is toned with the help of the breathing technique. A sense of calmness is achieved due to lightness of the skull. It helps you to think better and take decisions quickly. It also keeps your mind alert. It helps clear your entire nervous system which proves to be very useful in making your body fit and fine. It is a great breathing technique to help your mind and soul. It helps to awaken your spiritual power which heals many problems you keep facing most of the times.
Warning: The reader of this article should exercise all precautions before following any of the asanas from this article and the site. To avoid any problems while doing the asanas, it is advised that you consult a doctor and a yoga instructor. The responsibility lies solely with the reader and not with the site or the writer.
posted by Healthy Life @ 4:19 AM,
Stay Fit During Winter With Snowshoes
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Snowshoes as the name implies are footwears for walking over snow. Snowshoes distribute the weight of a person over a larger area so that the person's foot does not sink completely into the snow.
Traditional snowshoes are made of heavy hardwood frame with leather lacings. Modern high-tech snowshoes are made of light metal such as aluminum and alloy, or even of plastic. These modern snowshoes are raised at the toe for maneuverability and are generally smaller than the traditional snowshoes. Racing snowshoes and gliding snowshoes are just some examples of modern snowshoes used for movement in deep snow.
Snowshoes were used some 6,000 years ago as an earliest form of transportation. But presently they are generally used for recreational sports. Snowshoes are divided into three types: aerobic, recreational and mountaineering. Backpacking or hiking snowshoes, recreational snowshoes, and running or aerobic fitness snowshoes are the more popular snowshoes available on the market. Snowshoe size is specified by the body weight and the type of activities one plans to do.
The Outdoor Industry Foundation reported that in 2004 nearly 4.7 million Americans went snowshoeing. Snowshoeing at present is acknowledged as one of the fastest growing winter recreational sports next to skiing, so snowboarding snowshoe sale has doubled in recent year. The sales of snowshoes is up because people are putting greater emphasis on fitness, outdoor cross training and family recreation. The popularity of back country sporting in recent years, like skiing, snowboarding and ice climbing, is also helping to promote strong snowshoe sales.
Snowshoes for sale vary from shorter, wider shoes to longer, narrow shoes. Materials of these snowshoes are generally lightweight aluminum, rubber and durable plastic. Women's snowshoes and kids snowshoes are of varied shapes. For example, beaver tail snowshoes are shaped like a tennis racket and bear paw snowshoes are oval shaped. These shapes enable the snowshoer to lift up the shoes’ weight easily. Cleats are the teeth present at the bottom of the shoes that provide traction and allow for more confident stepping. Kids snowshoes are not limited just to kids; they can be used by anyone weighing less than 80 pounds and of shorter height. Kids snowshoes can also be used by children for off trail hiking, on golf courses, in packed trails, etc.
A low impact workout with a pair of snowshoes provides many health benefits. Snowshoes can be used by folks of all ages who enjoy a winter snowfall while walking, running, jumping, or climbing. Snowshoes are great fun to use in any type of snow conditions.
posted by Healthy Life @ 4:19 AM,
Gastric Bypass - The Advantages Of Laparoscopic Surger
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Gastric bypass surgery is the most often carried out operation for weight loss in the USA with more or less 140,000 operations being done in 2005 Dating back more than 50 years, a lot of surgeons have grown up with gastric bypass surgery and possess a very effective understanding of both its risks and benefits.
In many cases gastric bypass is the last option when other forms of weight loss and dieting have proved unsuccessful and where you are very much overweight. This commonly means that you have a body mass index (BMI) over 40, or over 35 with an accompanying condition that raises the risk of premature death or disability. These conditions might include type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea and heart disease among others. More simply, this translates into being about 100 pounds above your ideal weight.
The rationale behind gastric bypass surgery is simply to cut down the effective size of the stomach and bypass the greater portion of the stomach, and part of the intestine, curtailing your ability to eat too much food and also reducing the body's absorption of the food that is consumed.
In spite of the fact that open gastric bypass surgery is still frequently done an increasing number of surgeons are starting to adopt the laparoscopic approach and, although this requires a great deal of training and expertise on the surgeon's part, there are several advantages to this approach. Here are just a few:
1. As just about 5 tiny incisions are made the healing time following surgery is greatly reduced, as is the chance of infection and of suffering a hernia.
2. There is substantially less post-operative pain and the little pain that is present needs only mild painkillers such as tylenol and codeine.
3. Laparoscopic surgery enables greater precision since surgery is performed under magnification and the surgeon can see details that are not visible during open surgery.
4. As laprascopic surgery is quicker than traditional open surgery the patient spends less time in surgery and needs less anesthesia, leading to fewer anesthesia-related complications.
5. As patients are on their feet rapidly there is less risk of blood clots, bed sores, pneumonia and other complications normally associated with immobility.
6. Laparoscopic surgery enables you to return to work in a reasonably short timeframe, often as little as one week although it is suggested that patients do not return to work for some two weeks for safety.
Gastric bypass surgery results is a significant improvement in a patient's quality of life and also has the additional benefit of improving, or in some cases of curing, diabetes, sleep apnea, venous status disease, headache, hypertension and other disorders.
That the surgery can now be carried out so much more easily and can leave patients relatively pain free and have them up and about very quickly means that more people are likely to make use of gastric bypass surgery and enjoy a healthier and happier lifestyle.
posted by Healthy Life @ 4:19 AM,
Getting Enough Sunshine
Thursday, September 3, 2009
I cannot over emphasize how important this is! As explained earlier, the amount of natural sunlight that enters your eyes has a drastic effect on your temperature body rhythm.
• When we're exposed to high intensity light, our body temperature increases, and melatonin levels rapidly decrease.
• Exposure to natural sunlight also delays the temperature drop. This allows you to stay awake and alert for longer periods of time.
• Lack of sunlight results in higher melatonin levels, this leads to lower body temperature levels, feeling very sleepy, and tired through out the day.
Lack of sunlight will create a flat-line effect in your body temperature, because it will not get a chance to rise high enough, your body temperature won't fall low enough during the night either. If your body temperature is flat-lined, this could cause major sleeping problems, and it will be very difficult for you to sleep deeply for long periods of time. A lot of people who complain about “poor sleep” usually don't get enough sunlight.
Consider how for the most part of our evolution we were always outside during the day, it seemed that nature intended us to be this way, then suddenly over the past 100 years we drastically changed our exposure to natural sunlight. Most of us hardly get any sun today at all! We drive to work in a car, we wear sunglasses, we work in offices, what kind of effect do you think this has on our sleep clock?
How much Sunshine is Enough?
This is probably the most important factor discussed in this whole book and the concept of sleep therapy. The amount of sunlight that enters your eyes has a great impact on your sleep rhythm.
* Exposure to high intensity light increases our body temperature. Rise in our body temperature decreases out melatonin levels.
* When exposed to natural sunlight, our body delays the temperature drop, thus allowing us to be awake and aware for longer times.
* Lack of enough natural sunlight results in more melatonin level leading to lower temperature levels, sleepiness and tiredness.
Not going out in the sun creates a flat line effect on our body temperature rhythms. Our body temperature will not rise high enough during the day and as a result will not fall enough during the night. This will result in sleep problems and you will be deprived of deep sleep most of the time. Most of us who complain of lack of sleep simply do not get enough sunlight.
Going back in time, man has always been an outdoor animal, out in the sunlight all through the day and sheltered at night only because of the cold. This continued for so many million years and suddenly we are looking at changing sleeping habits and avoiding sunlight by cars, sunglasses, sheltered offices in the past 100 years. Is it so easy to change a million year legacy in 100 years. Your sleep clock will not change so fast.
posted by Healthy Life @ 4:19 AM,
