| We may need to go beyond our usual repertoire to find techniques to cope with these increased stressors, including muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and yoga. Transcendental meditation—a mental technique requiring deep concentration and focus to promote relaxation, reduce stress, and improve overall quality of life—has been shown to not only promote relaxation but actually lower blood pressure. Other methods like mindfulness-based stress reduction reduce anxiety and stress and probably are effective in reducing high blood pressure. |
Michael T. Murray
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 If you are not familiar with stretching, we recommend that you take a beginner's yoga class. If a class is not available to you, you can pick up a yoga video or well-illustrated book. Stretching is extremely important, as most people with diabetes suffer from premature stiffening of the spine and joints. Stretching on a daily basis helps you maintain flexibility and avoid the chronic pain problems that occur frequently in diabetics as a result of stiff muscles and joints.
In Appendix G we offer some key advice on how to really stick to a regular exercise program. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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 Look after yourself with a healthy diet, exercise regularly, get a good night's sleep, practise breathing techniques, meditate, take up yoga or t'ai-chi and pamper yourself with some of the many relaxing therapies suggested in this book. Laugh a lot.
There is no doubt that asthma has a stress-related factor. The stress doesn't have to come from outside, though. Asthma tends to be more common during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy and change of life: situations you can't avoid. So the body is not only under duress at these times but also has to work hard to counteract the asthma. |
| Do-in is related to shiatsu and some of the exercises and positions are similar to yoga postures.
GESTALT OR HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
This promotes personal growth by self-awareness, resolving inner conflict and taking control of one's ideas, actions and feelings to release anxiety and tension and restore emotional self-confidence.
HELLERWORK
Concentrates on the connective fascia tissue that wraps around the bundles of fibres making up muscles. |
| The Feldenkrais technique (along with the Alexander technique, yoga and t'ai-chi) provides a valuable avenue to rectify poor body structure.
Any exercise regimen or therapy which fully extends the body's range of muscles, tendons and ligaments gently, slowly and methodically releasing stress and producing a relaxed physical and mental attitude, is ideal for asthma sufferers.
Here is a spine-flexing back exercise based on the Feldenkrais technique that is particularly helpful in improving upper back posture and thus alleviating asthma. |
| If only for the breathing technique, hatha yoga will unquestionably provide you with skills to help control and alleviate your asthma. However, as your health improves through mastering your body you will probably want to progress to higher stages of training—which will ultimately bring you to greater self-awareness, inner peace, happiness and joie de vivre.
T'ai-chi
During a recent visit to China to study acupuncture further, Ron watched enviously every morning as hundreds of people practised the art of t'ai-chi before beginning their daily tasks. |
| Since its origin in India some 3000 years ago, various forms of yoga have developed, each having its own particular philosophy and movements. Recently Western society has enthusiastically taken up the physical hatha system as a means of cleansing the body of impurities, reducing weight, toning and stimulating the nervous system, strengthening muscles and generally improving health. |
| You may have come across similar breathing techniques already in your life: diaphragm breathing exercises are used at prenatal classes and controlled diaphragmatic breathing is an integral part of yoga and t'ai chi. Natural therapists are usually familiar with the principles of controlled breathing, so if you are concerned about whether you are 'doing it right' it might help you to seek some assistance from a reputable practitioner. |
Roberta Bivins
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 Both systems therefore postulated a model of the animal economy remarkably similar to those that underpin Chinese and Indian medicine, and practices like qigong and yoga. Their dependence on intangible and invisible forces seems strongly counter to the prevailing materialist trends of medicine and science in the period, and today both are regarded as alternative medicine. |
Bottom Line Health
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| You can reverse fatigue almost instantly using a yoga breathing technique that floods cells with oxygen and boosts energy for 15 minutes or more. What to do...
•Sit up straight and take 20 to 30 quick, panting breaths. Only your belly should move, not your chest.
•Take a deep breath, filling your lungs with air.. .and hold for 30 seconds. This gives the blood in your lungs time to absorb as much oxygen as possible. If you can, gradually work up to holding your breath for 60 seconds.
•Exhale completely. Press your hand against your belly. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 You can get the benefits of reaction time becomes faster, and your strength yoga in a single pose or in a full-fledged increases exponentially. Historically, stress was class. good—as long as you could survive it.
The big difference between stress today and stress yesterday isn't the fact that cavemen didn't have e-mail; it's that their stress was fleeting. They had periods of high-intensity stress followed by low (or no) levels of it. Today we're drowning in a sea of stress, with wave after wave after wave knocking us over. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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 For overall health and fitness, we recommend engaging in both, as well as performing regular stretching exercises to maintain flexibility. yoga, tai chi, and stretching classes are fantastic ways to increase flexibility.
AEROBIC EXERCISE VERSUS STRENGTH TRAINING FOR WEIGHT LOSS Aerobic exercise generally þBurns more calories per hour than weight training. þBuilds little muscle. þHas minimal effects on metabolism in the hours after exercise. þHas greater effects on metabolism when workout is very hard. þCan be done every day. |
| Strength-training (anaerobic) exercises include lifting weights and other resistance exercises as well as certain types of yoga. Circuit training, like the program at Curves, involves lighter resistance and higher repetitions of each exercise done with little rest between sets. Circuit training has some muscle-building benefits, along with greater aerobic or cardiovascular benefits than conventional weight training. |
Joseph Campbell
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| This is a basic principle of the Indian disciplines of yoga. It has been the way, also, of many creative spirits in the West.25 It cannot be described, quite, as an answer to any specific call. Rather, it is
2* Supra, p. 55.
25 See Otto Rank, Art and Artist, translated by Charles Francis Atkinson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1943), pp. 40-41: "If we compare the neurotic with the productive type, it is evident that the former suffers from an excessive check on his impulsive life. . . . |
| Having spoken thus, the great Lord of yoga revealed to Arjuna his supreme form as Vishnu, Lord of the Universe: with many faces and eyes, presenting many wondrous sights, bedecked with many celestial ornaments, armed with many divine uplifted weapons; wearing celestial garlands and vestments, anointed with divine perfumes, all-wonderful, resplendent, boundless, and with faces on all sides. If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One. |
| Gorgon-Sister Pursuing Perseus, Who Is Fleeing with the Head of Medusa psychologically disturbing practices of yoga without competent supervision. The meditations of the postulant have to be adjusted to his progress, so that the imagination may be defended at every step by devatas (envisioned, adequate deities) until the moment comes for the prepared spirit to step alone beyond. As Dr. Jung has very wisely observed: "The incomparably useful function of the dogmatic symbol [is that] it protects a person from a direct experience of God as long as he does not mischievously expose himself. But if . |
| Such an ideal is well known, also, to Hinduism: the one freed in life (jlvan mukta), desireless, compassionate, and wise, "with the heart concentrated by yoga, viewing all things with equal regard, beholds himself in all beings and all beings in himself. In whatever way he leads his life, that one lives in God." 125
The story is told of a Confucian scholar who besought the
124 Nagarjuna, Madhyamika Shastra.
"What is immortal and what is mortal are harmoniously blended, for they are not one, nor are they separate" (Ashvaghosha).
"This view," writes Dr. |
| Evans-Wentz, Tibetan yoga and Secret Doctrine (Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 233, note 2.
116 The same idea is frequently expressed in the Upanishads; viz., "This self gives itself to that self, that self gives itself to this self. Thus they gain each other. In this form he gains yonder world, in that form he experiences this world" (Aitareya Aranyaka, 2. 3. 7). It is known also to the mystics of Islam: "Thirty years the transcendent God was my mirror, now I am my own mirror; i.e., that which I was I am no more, the transcendent God is his own mirror. |
| See Evans-Wentz, Tibetan yoga and Secret Doctrine, pp. 206, 239 f. sense-function capable of perceiving it: hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell respectively.24
An amusing Chinese myth personifies these emanating elements as five venerable sages, who come stepping out of a ball of chaos, suspended in the void:
"Before heaven and earth had become separated from each other, everything was a great ball of mist, called chaos. At that time, the spirits of the five elements took shape, and then developed into five ancients. The first was called the Yellow Ancient, and he was the master of earth. |
Devra Davis
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 Using the considerable reach of her influence as one of the world's top fashion designers and working with nurse educators like Susan Luck and master yoga instructors like Rodney and Colleen Yee, Karan wants the rest of the world to learn what she thinks kept her husband alive so long.
Coming up with ways to study complex approaches to cancer treatment will tax the brains of Chalmers's counterparts today. But we cannot solve the problems of the future with the technologies that have created them, as Einstein once urged. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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| Try a yoga pose, meditation, or a short walk. To get back to sleep, music and meditation seem to work best.
YOU Tip: Know the Nos. Generally, we don't like telling you not to do something unless it's smoking, slurping trans fats, or spending sixteen hours in front of the tube. But for optimum sleep preparation, there are a few things you should avoid to increase your chance of falling—and staying-asleep.
þ No alcohol or nicotine for one and a half hours before bed.
þ No exercise that makes you sweat for one and a half hours before bed (doing things that make you sweat in bed are OK). |
Dr. Steven R. Gundry
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 When you begin practicing yoga, the tension and tightness of your muscles, tendons, and ligaments around your joints actively resist your attempt to achieve a pose. You get to a point where that pose is not only uncomfortable but, if you try to muscle your way past a certain place, the pain or the work required also makes it unbearable. You back off, and so you should, as to not injure yourself. You won't like this experience and may give up on the pose altogether. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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| Our suggestions for three good yoga stretches should be incorporated regularly into your life:
Triangle Pose: Stand with your feet spread apart and legs straight; extend your arms straight out to the sides, parallel to the floor. With your right foot pointed to the right and your left foot pointed straight ahead, bend your waist to the right so that your right hand drops to your ankle and your left arm extends toward the ceiling. Hold for ten seconds, return to center, then switch sides. Repeat on the other side. |
Marshall Editions
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 Vigorous exercise works for some people while gentler exercises like yoga and T'ai chi work for others.
HOMEOPATHY
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Most people are likely to experience problems with indigestion at some stage, since it's inevitable that eating habits can't always be as healthy as they should be for smooth, comfortable digestive functioning to take place. In addition, lifestyle factors can also impinge on this problem with high stress levels often being a major candidate for triggering the most common features of indigestion. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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| Our suggestion for a brain-boosting workout: Once or twice a week, choose an exercise that requires not only your body to work but also your mind, such as Bikram yoga or a game of singles tennis. The sports or exercises that engage you in the moment can really help clear your mind at the same time. You don't need to overdo it. Just thirty minutes of walking a day plus our Y0U2 Workout a couple times a week will help you burn the 2,000 to 3,500 calories a week-the amount shown to increase telomere length.
YOU Tip: Detox Your Life. |
Tom Bohager
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 Recommendations include daily exercise, relaxation programs such as yoga or physical massage, and management and reduction of stressful situations. Enzymes can be used to improve digestion and circulation, support the immune system, and balance the pH levels in the body. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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| But deep nasal breathing isn't just for yoga rooms and massage tables. Dee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-p brea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-thing helps transport nitric oxide (see page 228)—a very potent lung and blood vessel dilator that resides in your nasal passages—to your lungs. And since it's located in the highest concentration in the back of your nose, deep breathing is also the best way to increase NO to help your lungs and blood vessels open up better and function more efficiently. |
Marshall Editions
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| If trying to consciously let go and relax these areas isn't enough, try taking up yoga, T'ai chi, or Pilates.
HERBALISM
Pain-relieving tea or tincture: Sitting for hours at a desk, daily stress, poor diet, and lack of exercise and sleep all result in inflammation and spasm in the muscles of the back, shoulders, neck, and scalp, which can lead to a headache. A combination of several herbs in tea or tincture form can relax the muscles and provide anti-inflammatory relief. |
| Alternatively, you may benefit
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Diet: Avoid foods that have a reputation for raising blood pressure. These include caffeinated drinks (carbonated drinks as well as tea and coffee), saturated fats such as butter, cheese, cream, and red meat, salty snacks, and convenience "ready meals" and take-out dishes (particularly Chinese food).
HERBALISM
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High cholesterol and high blood pressure often go hand in hand, and many foods that affect one also affect the other. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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 Aerobic exercise complemented her yoga and provided the calm necessary to look inside and observe herself, rather than spend all of her emotional energy on the task of not being overwhelmed. She became much more aware of her own psychology and behavior than she had ever been. She came to recognize that there is a natural ebb and flow to her challenges and negative feelings, and to realize that she has to ride the waves — and that she can. |
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