How to speed up metabolism and stay healthy with acupressure therapy?

We know it that metabolism plays an important role staying healthy. We can speed up our metabolism with the help of acupressure therapy.

Metabolism is defined as being controlled by the chi, or life force present in all living beings, and by the chi's flow through various major organ systems. By manipulating the chi and changing how certain organs function, the Western concept of metabolism can be affected.
The Ear
The easiest to reach pressure points that affect appetite and metabolism are located in the cartilage above and in front of your ear canal. Pressing for several minutes on this cartilage will help to redirect the chi to lower appetite.
Spleen SP6
A pressure point that affects the spleen, called SP6, is a good pressure point for ensuring digestive health and optimal metabolism. SP6 is on the inside of your leg, around four finger widths above the ankle joint. The specific point is toward the back of the leg, very near the bone.
Spleen SP9
The pressure point SP9 also affects the spleen and has an effect on your body's water metabolism. SP9 is a little harder to find. To find SP9, look about three finger widths from the bottom of the knee cap and then go one finger width toward the inside of your leg. SP9 is located in an indentation just under the top of your tibia.
Stomach ST36
ST36 affects the stomach and the digestive system. ST36 is in the same general area as SP9. As with SP9, it is three fingers below the kneecap. However, it is on the other side of the leg, around one finger width toward the outside of the leg.
Stomach ST40
ST40 has a number of effects on your body. It clears excess phlegm, affects excess moisture in the chi and is important for digestion and metabolism. ST40 is around two finger widths behind your shin bone, half way down the outside of your shin.
Liver LV3
The LV3 acupressure point affects the liver, and thus has an effect on metabolism. LV3 is on the top of your foot in the skin between your first and second toes, where the bones for those two toes join in a "V" shape. LV3 also helps to prevent chi stagnation.
Liver LV11
LV11 is another pressure point that affects your liver. In addition, it clears additional heat and moisture from your body, and thus affects metabolism. It also helps your intestines. LV11 is located on the outside of the crease on the top of your elbow. To find it, hold your palm up; it is located on the thumb side of your elbow crease.

How to Fight with Fibromyalgia and Get Cure?

Fibromyalgia makes you feel tired and causes muscle pain and "tender points." Tender points are places on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms or legs that hurt when touched. People with fibromyalgia may have other symptoms, such as trouble sleeping, morning stiffness, headaches, and problems with thinking and memory, sometimes called "fibro fog."

No one knows what causes fibromyalgia. Anyone can get it, but it is most common in middle-aged women. People with rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases are particularly likely to develop fibromyalgia.

Read more at:How to Fight with Fibromyalgia and Get Cure?

Study Shows Brain Activity Influences Immune Function

ScienceDaily (2003-09-04) -- Staying healthy may involve more than washing hands or keeping a positive attitude. According to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it also may involve a particular pattern of brain activity.

Theory:Numerous scientific studies show that keeping a positive attitude can keep a person healthy.

"This study establishes that people with a pattern of brain activity that has been associated with a positive affective style are also the ones to show the best response to the flu vaccine," says the Wisconsin researcher. "It begins to suggest a mechanism for why subjects with a more positive emotional disposition may be healthier."

Read more at: Science daily

Is drinking ice cold water bad for your health?

There is no scientific or medical study regarding the harmful or good effects of drinking ice cold water, but in alternative therapies like Chinese or Ayurvedic systems, there are some theories which say that drinking ice cold water on regular basis may harm you.

It is said that 'Long time drinking of ice-cold drinks can cause a lot of health problems, such as over weight, cough, headache, stomach problems, weak immunity, infertility etc.' and the reason is:

The average normal body temperature is 98.6°F (37°C). The ice drinks will bring down the temperature and slow down the energy and blood circulation inside the body. The coldness can be stuck somewhere in the body due to constant ice water intake, this will cause energy blockage. If the blockage occurs in the lower abdomen (which often happens to females), where uterus and ovaries are, many female related diseases and problems could appear including infertility and aging faster.

If the energy circulation slows, the metabolism slows, over weight is the result of that.
Aging and diseases are all the results of either slowing or blockage of energy inside of our body. Low temperature is one of the causes.
A cup of ice water may make you feel heavenly after a sweaty exercise or at the time you feel really hot. But that cup of water could hurt you 10 times more due to the sudden cooling inside your body especially if you quickly finish it.

According to Ayurveda, ice cold water or drinks hinder the process of digestion and slow down the Jatharagni (digestive fire). As a result, food is not digested properly, leading to the formation of sticky toxic material (ama) in the small intestine. Other effects include under nourishment and blockage of body's channels (srotas), which can further lead to hundreds of diseases.

Ice cold water is very bad for patients because their digestive fire is already weak due to low levels of immunity.

According to Ayurveda, you should always drink water at normal room temperature. If you live in very hot climate, you can drink slightly cool water. And the best is to drink lukewarm water. It helps in enhancing the process of digestion, clears the accumulated toxins, opens up the blocked channels, and balances Vata and Kapha (Ayurvedic humours representing Air and Water). If you are suffering from Pitta diseases (such as skin rashes, burning sensation, hyperacidity, etc.),

There is an urban legend that if you drink cold water, especially after eating, you’ll get cancer. The theory, which has been widely circulated via email, suggests that cold water solidifies fats you have just consumed, quickly causing toxins to create cancer in your body. Sites devoted to proving or disproving urban legends, like snopes.com, have defeated this theory quite effectively.

Useful links:

* A discussion at a health forum: Is ice water bad for u?

How to Get Happiness from Within and Get Health Plus Longevity?

Real happiness comes from inside, and we know that happiness brings health plus longevity, but how to get real happiness to stay healthier and longer? The simple answer may be to ‘be satisfied with your life as it is, and be thankful to God’. As happiness and sorrow are parts of our life we cannot choose only to be happy. But we can learn to be happy from within.

Happiness helps you bringing joy within yourself and spreading around you. This post helps you find ways to happiness and enables you to download valuable free ebooks. I have downloaded these priceless and valuable ebooks and realized that you have to pay a high price for the valuable stuff, but hats off to the authors of these books who devoted this information to mankind and shared it with all.

According to the World Health Organization, "Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is a state of optimal well-being." Optimal well-being is a concept of health that goes beyond the curing of illness to one of achieving wellness.

Fyodor Dostoevsky said: "Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."

Read more: How to Get Happiness from Within and Get Health Plus Longevity?

How to Get Help with Herbs in Detoxification Process and Be Healthy?

Detoxification can help us stay healthy. And herbs help us in detoxification processes, as they can improve our body’s capacity to deal with it.

What is detoxification?
The whole purpose of "detox" is basically a process of getting rid of unwanted toxins from your body. This is done by only consuming natural and healthy products including only eating vegetables and herbs and removing any other forms of saturated fats or carbohydrates from your diet.

Combining herbal cleanse products with eating more fresh fruit and vegetables can be beneficial for detoxification.
Neil Levin, of Now Food says: ""the science of multiple chemical sensitivity. This is the science relating to the concept that at some point the total toxic load upon the body, which is mainly processed by the liver, may overwhelm the body's ability to detoxify and safely excrete excess chemicals, whether natural or synthetic. The use of certain nutrients to be utilized in these processes – notably antioxidants, minerals and amino acids - are ‘limiting factors' affecting an individual's detoxification capacity and chemical clearance rates. Detoxification is far more than just drinking tap water".

Simon Mills makes the point that if one of the body's elimination channels is overloaded, or not functioning as well as it could, it can affect the whole interrelated system. This is why skin problems are often dealt with by natural therapists by changing the diet of those affected, and giving them herbal cleanse supplements.

Other factors that can contribute to an overloaded body include:

• poor diet
• diet high in processed foods
• poorly functioning digestive system
• overeating, especially on a regular basis
• diet high in fat
• some medications, like antibiotics and others
• stress, especially over long periods of time
• lack of exercise

If food stays too long in the colon, it putrefies and produces more toxic by products. These can often be reabsorbed by the body, or at least produce irritation.

Erica Angyal cites these symptoms of an overburdened digestive system:

• diarrhea
• constipation
• abdominal pain
• bloating
• gas
• nausea
• vomiting
• burning sensation after eating

feeling very full after meals, especially if you haven't eaten much rumbling noises except the normal ones when you're hungry So, the benefits of an herbal cleanse, with an increase in fresh fruit and vegetables, is a great investment in your health. It's not really necessary to fast on juices or anything else. A long term, more gentle approach that encourages good eating habits and sustainable changes is better. Eating healthily, regular exercise and drinking plenty of water also helps your body become more efficient and you'll also be able to remove some of those excess fatty areas at the same time! Source article: Herbal cleanse

For more online resoruces and links:

• The 28-Day Herbal Program
• Herbal Body Cleanses
• Herbal Information and Research
• Liver cleanse recipes

First published : How to Get Help with Herbs in Detoxification Process and Be Healthy?

How Our Psychological Health Triggers Our Immune System

It is very obvious that unhappy persons suffer mentally and physically. The people with a positive approach towards life stay physically and mentally fit and healthy. But is there any relation between our mind (psychological health)and our immune system?

It now appears that immune function and psychological health may be directly related.

One recent study, for example, found that women with histories of long-term sexual abuse had lower ratios of certain immune cells, resulting in "significant immunological abnormalities." Another study suggests that the ability to express one’s distress can improve immune function.

This relationship between psychological health and immunity can have a profound effect on how the body reacts to illness. In the 1970s Carl and Stephanie Simonton began teaching cancer patients the use of visualization at the Cancer Counseling and Research Center in Dallas. Patients visualized forces coming to fight their cancer. The survival rates of their patients doubled. Some even experienced spontaneous remissions. Researchers do not fully understand this connection between psychological well-being and immune function, but there is considerable evidence that this link exists. Robert Ader and Nicholas Cohen conducted a series of experiments at Rochester University Medical School.

Beginning in the 1970s they administered a drug that lowers immune response in water flavored with saccharin to mice. They then measured the immune response of the mice. After testing, they administered saccharin alone. The mice showed the same immune suppression without being given the immuno-suppressant drug. The response came with exposure to saccharin alone – a conditioned response. This suggested a strong link between immune function and psychological learning.

Relationship between the nervous system and the immune system:

One kind of immune cells, lymphocytes, remain undivided and unchanged throughout your lifetime ö just like brain cells. One set of lymphocytes even develops at the same stages and in the same place as your brain cells. The immune system and the nervous system also share a number of features, including memory and recognition. It now appears that bidirectional pathways, two-way avenues of communication, exist between the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. The phrase psychoneuroimmunology describes the combined study of the psyche, nervous system and immune system. Coined by Robert Adler as early as 1975, the fruits of this complex area of study have only recently begun to become available.

Yale researcher Bernie Siegel is widely known for his work on visualization. He focuses on helping patient to achieve peace of mind, and notes that when they do, diseases and illnesses often disappear. "My message is peace of mind, not curing cancer or paralysis," Siegel says. "In achieving peace of mind, cancer may be healed and paralysis may disappear. These things may occur through peace of mind, which creates a healing environment in the body."

Similarly, Jon Kabat-Zinn, who heads the Stress Reduction Clinic at University of Massachusetts Medical Center, emphasizes that use of meditation must center on healing not on cure. "In order to be effective for healing, we believe that the use of visualization and imagery needs to be embedded in a larger context, one that understands and honors non-doing and non-striving," he writes. "Otherwise, visualization exercises can too easily degenerate from meditation into wishful thinking, and the intrinsic healing power and wisdom of the simple mindfulness practice itself can remain untapped or be trivialized in the quest for something more elaborate and goal oriented." Ironically, it seems the best way to use meditation to increase healing involves letting go of the immediate goal and practicing mindfulness or meditation for its own sake. "To bring calmness to the mind and body requires that at a certain point we be willing to let go of wanting anything at all to happen and just accept things as they are and ourselves as we are with an open, receptive heart," Kabat-Zinn explains. "This inner peace and acceptance lie at the heart of both health and wisdom."

Links between the immune system and psychological well being are not yet fully understood, but they clearly exist. An integrated approach toward heath will involve not only the development of knowledge of the immune system, and learning detoxification and methods of supporting the immune system, but will incorporate some sort of spiritual orientation and practice. Unresolved psychological wounds appear to have a real impact on our health, and the work of psychological growth and healing cannot be ignored in moving toward full health. Perhaps most importantly, full health involves creating and sustaining an image of yourself as a healthy and fulfilled person. That work of visualization and imagery can be started today, at no cost, by first seeing yourself as the person you hope to be.

Source: Psychoneuroimmunology First published at: How Our Psychological Health Triggers Our Immune System ?