SmokersKLUB

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Cholesterol Diet Tips

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Did you know?

You may know what foods to avoid in order to keep your levels of bad cholesterol in check -- no mounds of butter on your bread, or ice cream for dessert every night -- but what are the foods you should be including in your diet to ensure a healthy heart and a managed level of cholesterols?

Research Bite

Many studies have found that in order to manage your cholesterol levels, you need to know which foods are heart healthy and which are not. By eating the correct foods, you can raise your good cholesterol while lowering the bad. Knowing what to eat or what not eat is not enough though. You need to know how to prepare your food in a healthy manner as well.

Diet Tips

You can reduce your cholesterol levels and decrease your chances of developing heart diseases by increasing the intake of the following foods:

Oats

Oatmeal and oat bran are rich in soluble fiber, a type of fiber which lowers the bad or LDL cholesterol without lowering the good HDL cholesterol. Thus, food products containing oat bran and rolled oats, such as oatmeal, and whole oat flour should be included in your diet. One bowl of oatmeal contains about 3 grams of soluble fiber. Include other soluble-fiber-rich foods such as apples, kidney beans, pears and barley.

Yoga to Reduce Wrinkles and Aging

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Did you know?

The most common definition of aging is not what really determines it. In reality, misusing our bodies over a long time causes the body to degenerate and consequently look older. Yoga helps in making you feel younger. If there is any key to longer life, it is none other than Yoga. It not only helps in preventing skin infections but also helps in bringing luster to the skin, reduce wrinkles, and improve the tone.

Research Bite

Research says that facial exercises and body exercises help to tones muscles and stimulate circulation, which can produce, over time, such pleasing visible effects like reduced sagging with smoother and glowing skin. Different yoga asanas, mudras, breathing techniques and meditation tells us the way to accomplish the target of glowing skin.

Yoga exercises to reduce wrinkles

Here we are suggesting some yoga exercises to reduce wrinkles, which may prove helpful in making you look younger.

Agraa Valaya - Take a comfortable stance with your hands on your hips and your legs about hip-width apart. Lengthen your torso as you bend forward from your waist slowly until you've bent as far as your flexibility allows. Move your hands down your legs and to the back of your calves as you bend forward. If possible, bring your hands to the back of your ankles. Allow your head and neck to be free, which is what gives this pose it’s wrinkle-fighting power. Breathe deeply in this pose. When you inhale, focus on lengthening your torso. When you exhale, allow yourself to relax more deeply into the forward bend. Stay in the pose for at least one minute or longer if you would like. Come out of the pose by moving your hands to your hips, then moving to a fully upright position during a long exhale.

Are you Sleep Deprived?

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There are two stages of one's sleep:

REM (Rapid Eye Movement)-contributes to mental consolidation
Non- REM-Aids physical repair and rebuilding
During a typical night, one alternates between the above two stages approximately 4-5 times. Insufficient number of hours of sleep contributes to:

Mental irritability (5-6 hours of sleep) due to lack of REM sleep
Physical tiredness (<5 hours of sleep) due to lack of non-REM sleep
ATHLETES: You need to bear in mind that in case you are a runner, your body needs an extra hour of sleep to repair any running related tissue/cell damage.

EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN AND BODY:

Neurons start malfunctioning
Slurring of speech can begin
Slows imaginative thinking
Causes hallucinations
Learning capabilities are reduced
Causes a 'sleep debt', which when coupled with stress and hypertension can lead to a stroke or heart attack