Go the natural way – Cure through Sunlight

Our cosmetic show rooms are flooded with a range of sun screens. With varied levels of SPF the markets offer, we never come to even think that these potions could actually be poisons for our skin. I eagerly want to tell all of you that we need to get rid of the habit of drenching ourselves in these sun block potions. This may be surprising for you that screen screens protect us from Ultra Violet radiations when it is only one of the nine frequencies which the sun light emits. The others are infrared and the seven spectrums of visible light and each of these comes with its own healing powers!

Another not-so-helpful thing with these sun screens is that it prevents the UV rays from creating Vitamin D in our bodies. Vitamin D is an essential which helps in improving bone health, is anti-cancerous, supports immune system, helps in loosing fat, prevents dementia and bone aging and so on. So with these multitudes of sun blocks which our market is flooded with has manifested itself in the Vitamin D deprived generation that we are creating.

Sun light is good and natural and so, a limited exposure to it is good in multiple ways that include:

• It helps combating with breast cancer by making the disease go into remission even in terminal cases.
•  It kills bad bacteria and disinfects wounds.
•  It helps in recovery from skin disorders like acne, eczema, psoriasis, etc.
•  It converts high cholesterol into steroid and sex hormones and a lack of it will lead to vice versa, conversion of hormones into cholesterol.
•  It boosts immunity by helping increase the production of White Blood Cells called lymphocytes.
•  It boosts stamina and fitness by increasing oxygen content in the blood.
•  It can cure mild depression.
•  It boosts growth and height, especially among babies. The more exposure to sunlight which infants get, the better their heights are.

Cleanse and cure your body through water therapy

There is nothing more refreshing than a glass of cold water after a day of hard work, which melted down in work and sweat. A thing as simple as water is also as miraculous and take me literally when I say that! This ordinary blue water can have amazing therapeutic effects, correcting a range of illnesses, from pain to constipation to cancer.

The treatment through water is called water therapy and is traditionally known as Usha Paana Chikitsa. Drinking water right when you get up in the morning on an empty stomach cleanses the body system and purifies the internal system. It cleanses the colon which helps the body produce haematopaises (new blood). 

This helps the body restore and cure ailments, while helping the body absorb more nutrients from the food.A surprising result of a Japanese medical society has found out that water therapy can help in a 100% cure of the diseases like bronchitis, arthritis, epilepsy, tuberculosis, diarrhea, meningitis and many other. From taking a day to a month, the therapy can cure ailments from constipation to cancer.

Here is the list of basic steps you need to follow for the water therapy:

1.      Drink 1.5 liters (5-6 glasses) of water every morning on an empty stomach.
2.      Do not take anything an hour prior and post the therapy.
3.      Try avoiding any alcoholic beverages the night prior to the morning of therapy.
4.      If drinking 1.5 liters of water suddenly is hard, increase the amount gradually or take it at                     intervals of a few minutes.

To sum down the benefits of water therapy, I would like to make the following points:

•  Helps in production of colon which helps in the absorption of nutrients
•  Boosts new blood production
•  Helps in fighting various diseases from stomach problems to tuberculosis to cancer
•  Helps in weight loss by boosting body metabolism
•  Helps in purging toxins from the body leading to glowing skin
•  Helps balancing body fluids and lymph system

Root out stress from your child’s life with Urvashi Gandhi

We live in an era where everybody is occupied in many things and where we ultimately end up finding ourselves is in the quagmire of stress. But as adults and as parents, we don’t often realize that our stress seeps down to the younger generations. The primary way of learning is through imitation and as children observe their parents’ lifestyle, what they learn is nothing better than being stressfully caught up by the tick-tock of the clock. And another thing with children is that often their tender hearts and minds may take minute things more seriously than what actually as adults might appear to us. So what becomes the need for every parent to fulfill is to make sure a right growth for their kids. 

Here are a few steps which parents should take heed of while raising the tender and impressionable minds for tomorrow:

• Motivate the kid to face his fears: Facing one’s problem is the solution to it. Running away from the problems only further contributes to anxiety as it offers no permanent solution to it. Make your child follow this simple truth from the very start and provide him the comfort level to share his mistakes.

• Arrange relaxing activities: Spend time with your child and arrange for some simple activities like painting, playing games or just being there for him. It would be better to keep it noncompetitive as it avoids the stress which the whole world is brimming up with. Children are already under the pressure and stress to beat others and win the race against their friends and competitors. So keep it simple and relaxed!

• Inculcate healthy sleeping habits: A good sleep is a map to healthy lifestyle. It not only refreshes one’s mind, but also significantly helps with fighting anxiety. You just have to inculcate the thought of going early to bed and early to rise, which will definitely make the kid very healthy and wise.

•  Promote optimism: Being positive solves half of the problems. The positive energy of staying calm and optimistic also boosts the stamina and fight with many other internal diseases. So it’s better to teach the children to be always positive and cherish the present moment.

So keep these points in mind while you raise those receptive minds and keep stress away from their lives, at least a 100 miles. After all, what we cherish the most is our kid’s smile and their laughter keeps us going too.

Color therapy: Balancing the wheels of our life

Color therapy can be very well described as an alternative therapy that aims at balancing the chakras in our body. The evidences of this therapy can be traced thousands of years back to Middle East, China and India. The underlying idea is that every color has a specific wavelength and energy attached to it. The most prominent colors are that of a rainbow i.e. VIBGYOR( Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red). These seven colors belong to seven chakras or energy centers of our body

•     Violet  à Crown Chakra
•     Indigo à Brow Chakra
•     Blue    à Throat Chakra
•     Green  à Heart Chakra
•     Yellow  à Solar Plexus Chakra
•     Orange à Sacral Chakra
•      Red     à Base Chakra

Understand the chakras as the hands of a clock. For a clock to run properly, every hand needs to run smoothly and in coordination with the other hands. So if the chakras are performing well, then that ensures good health (mental as well as physical). Failing this, a person becomes prone to diseases. Color therapy ensures that all the chakras or the energy centers work properly by balancing or re-adjusting the energies. This is done by applying appropriate color to the body in order to stimulate the chakra.

Colors are absorbed by our eyes, skin, skull and the aura. The energy corresponding to a color affects on all the levels- physical, mental, spiritual and emotional. Every cell in our body requires light. So color therapy has a holistic effect on the body. Various ways can be used to employ the color therapy, for example, Hands on healing using color, Solarized Water, Light boxes/lamps with color filters, color silks. Color is around us everywhere. The nature boasts of colors, the red of the setting sun, the green of the trees, the brown of the soil and much more. But we tend to ignore the colors around us and devoid our life of various energies. Color therapy compensates for those missing energy patterns.

The most simplistic route to health: Exercise

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
― Henry David Thoreau

Exercise is defined as an activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness. Physical exercise is a rigorous, repetitive and effective way through which we can maintain our  overall health and wellness. Exercise should form an integral part of our daily routine as it has numerous benefits.  Not only does exercise tone your body, it strengthens your muscles, keeps your bones strong, relaxes you, induces better sleep , helps in attaining a stronger immune function and tames mood swings.

Recent studies have revealed that taking out time for exercise reduces physical and mental stress and boosts the body’s ability to cope with mental pressure and tension. Exercise helps in alleviating the level of physical fitness and improves one’s self-confidence. Due to the significant rise in smoking and drinking habits in teenagers, cardiovascular exercise is recommended to help them deal with addiction.

Working out also helps in sharpening of memory and brain power. It helps combat health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart problems, depression, obesity and releases endorphins, which creates feelings of happiness and euphoria. Exercise boosts up blood circulation, flushes out the toxins and blesses us with a healthy skin and a clear complexion.

Fitting regular exercise into your daily schedule may seem difficult and a lot of extra work at first. But even ten minutes can bring out effective and positive results.

Friedrich Nietzsche said “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking”. Who knows what great ideas you come up with during that run.. So get up and take a step towards leading a healthy lifestyle!!!

Not so milk-and-water way to lose those extra inches: A low-glycemic diet

Here’s a good news for all those out there trying to lose those inches so as to squeeze into their skinny dresses. Having resisted those pastas and muffins, here’s the next big thing which will help you lose weight and thankfully, it’s not a low-fat or low-flavour diet. It is a low-glycemic diet. A low-glycemic diet monitors the blood sugar levels which helps you shed weight. A low-glycemic diet selects those foods based on minimal alteration of circulating glucose levels. It is really important to balance your blood-sugar levels. 

For this, managing your diet is the key.

There are many advantages of a low-glycemic diet. Some of them are:

Better balance in blood sugar levels: Eating low-glycemic foods help in keeping the blood sugar levels under control. This reduces the need for insulin and thus, less hunger pangs.

Reduces the risk of diseases: A diet with low glycemic level reduces the risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease, gallbladder disease, and breast cancer. If the diet is rich in fiber, it’s even more preventive.

Increased level of energy: Low-glycemic foods take longer to digest and thus, provide a continued amount of energy for muscles. Starting your day with a low-glycemic diet is a very good idea.

Better stable moods: Depending on the kind of foods you eat, your mood rises and drops as fast as a rollercoaster. High glycemic diets often give you an immediate but short-lived high and the mood crashes immediately. Whereas, a low-glycemic diet would gradually boost insulin production, keeping blood sugar level in balance. This keeps your mood sunny and even all day long.

Here’s a list of food items which are low on glycemic levels:

üApple
ü  Baked beans
ü  Beans
ü  Whole grain breads
ü  Broccoli
ü  Carrots
ü  Salted cashews
ü  Cauliflower
ü  Celery
ü  Cherries
ü  Chickpeas
ü  Cucumber
ü  Green grapes
ü  Green and brown lentils
ü  Lettuce
ü  Mango
ü  Maple syrup
ü  Oatmeal
ü  Orange
ü  Whole wheat pasta
ü  Peach
ü  Green peas
ü  Brown rice
ü  Lentil soup
ü  Strawberry jam
ü  Sweet potato
ü  Tomato juice and soup
ü  Low-fat yogurt

So folks, go for it and lose those extra inches without having so much to resist! 

Three Whites that blacketh health - Part III: White Salt

After apprising you of the detrimental effects of white sugar and white flour, I’d like to introduce you to the third maniacal ingredient that falls in this league ; White Salt. Yes; The most common ingredient in any cuisine. The salt has a unique quality to it. If used in just the right amount, it accentuates the taste of a dish, but if in excess, spoils the delicacy. This is the exact impact salt has on our body. If consumed in right quantity, or I should say moderate quantity, it benefits the body largely. But when in excess, causes adverse impact to our system. Let’s have a look at the problems caused by consuming a high salt diet.

1. Blood pressure

 It is the amount of pressure that blood exerts on our blood vessels as it is circulated through the body. Diet that is high on salt diet increases your blood pressure, resulting in heart attacks and strokes. For a normal blood pressure, the systolic pressure should be around 120-130 mmHg and diastolic between 80-90 mmHg. Above it, the blood pressure is in high range and needs concern.  B.P can be maintained by reducing the intake of salt and with regular exercising.

2. Stroke

Reduced flow of oxygen to the brain due to blood supply cut off causes a stroke. High intake of salt causes the vessels of rupture and causes stroke.

3. Stomach cancer

A high salt diet increases the risk of stomach cancer by damaging the stomach lining, making it susceptible to further damages by various substances.

4. Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis means thinning of bones, making them brittle and prone to breaking. A high salt diet removes calcium from bones and leads to osteoporosis. 

Other than these major problems, high intake of salt also leads to Obesity, Kidney Stones, Asthma, Dementia and Diabetes.

Three Whites that blacketh health - Part II: White Flour

Come morning and the day starts with a diet that boasts of pancakes, bagels, toasts, biscuits and other items in this league, but the common thread? The ignominious ingredient-White Flour. White flour seems to be a part of the culinary world all over the globe. Used so widely, it has become a staple for the households. But there is so much to this ingredient than what meets the eye. This ingredient finds its way into our body through one way or other and sticks there, unleashing a slow yet adverse effect on the health. Let’s take a look over the common harmful effects of white flour:

1.       Obesity and Blood Sugar Disorders:-
Consuming white flour straightaway causes the blood sugar to shoot up and in turn, puts pressure on the pancreas to produce insulin to counter that. With prolonged consumption of white flour, the pancreas gets worn out and stops producing insulin, thus causing diabetes.
 

2.       The glue that sticks to your gut:-
Mix some white flour with some water and what you obtain is a strong adhesive substance that you can use as a substitute for the synthetic glues, such is the potential of this white flour. Now imagine how it would be sticking to our insides when consumed. It sticks to our intestines, slows down the metabolism and causes blockage.

3.       Leads to wheat allergy:-
The only reason why most of us haven’t heard of wheat allergy is precisely because it does not show immediate signs. It takes its own time to give you problems that take a heavy toll on your body. White flour is obtained from hybrid seeds by expediting the growth process with the heavy use of chemicals and fertilizers. This leaves white flour devoid it of any nutritional value whatsoever, thus this substance becomes difficult to be digested and causes various ailments.
Wheat allergy may not show strong symptoms in a patient, but over a period of time, it can lead many problems like psychosis, asthma, depression, narcoleps, obesity and many more.

4.       Acidic in nature:-
White flour is acidic in nature which makes it all the more hazardous for health. It causes various gastrointestinal problems like Acid reflux, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Acidity