healthtoyou

Going through a panic or anxiety attack can be an extremely uncomfortable experience. You feel these attacks not only in your heart, but also in your head and in every limb of your body. Even more excruciatingly, panic attacks can actually get into your head and affect your thoughts. The body and mind form a complex, interrelated system. The dynamic relationship between how your mind and body affect each other during a panic attack is often referred to as the panic disorder cycle.

Once you fall into a pattern of experiencing regular panic cycles, it is like going down a slippery slope or a downward spiral into physical and emotional chaos. In order to shed some light on what this cycle is, here are 5 factors you need to know about:

1. Your thoughts feed into your physical/emotional state

During a panic attack, your thoughts feed your emotional state. That is right: what you think can actually affect how key parts of your physical body, including your hormones such as adrenaline, operate. For many people, panic attacks are caused by certain situations unique to them - called trigger situations. Examples of trigger situation for many people include being in open spaces, in confined or enclosed spaces, in the midst of large crowds, in stressful situations at work, etc.

For sufferers of panic attacks, being in these situations puts into motion a series of physical symptoms that can include increased heart rate, dizziness, sweating, trembling, nausea, shaking, chest pressure, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, dizziness, lightheadedness, tingling sensations or numbness, chills, and hot flashes.

2. Your physical/emotional state feeds into your thoughts

When caught in the panic cycle, your emotional or physical state can also lead to a series of negative thoughts and feelings. For example, you might be low on blood sugar or be going through a hormonal (e.g., thyroid) imbalance which, in turn, triggers a negative, anxiety-riddled mental state. For example, during the height of the attack you might suddenly be gripped with the fear that you are going to go crazy, going to lose control of your body, die by heart attack, or even be socially embarrassed.

3. You can control your attacks

While you may feel all alone in your regular panic attacks, you are not. In fact, millions of other people around the world have panic disorders. The good news is that you can control your attacks. Controlling them begins with identifying your cycle.

4. Start by identifying your panic disorder cycle

The first step in taking control of your panic attacks is to increase your awareness about what tends to cause your attacks. Remember, both physical/emotional and mental events can set an attack into motion. Start by thinking back to the last two or three attacks you have had. Where were you? What were you doing? Had you had enough to eat and sleep? Were you going through stress at work or in your personal life? Were you in a particular situation, such as being in a public place or in a crowd of strangers?

Once you have identified one or more of your triggers, now think hard about what generally happens after your attack starts. For example, where do your thoughts tend to go? Are you able to control your thoughts during an attack, or do they run wild?

5. De-sensitize yourself to the attacks

The next step in your overcoming the cycle is to de-sensitize yourself to the attacks. Ways to do this include: exposing yourself on purpose to your common triggers, focusing on your fear (so that you can overcome it), building tolerance for the physical sensations that come with an attack, and improving your coping skills during an attack.

By identifying your panic disorder cycle and then de-sensitizing yourself to its triggers and effects, you will be well on the road to managing and/or completely eliminating them from your life for good.

Colon cleansing is a common concept now and is also very popular. Apart from keeping your internal system clean, colon cleansing also helps in losing body weight, which is amazing. But then is colon cleansing meant for everyone? That can be a big question.

Well, colon cleansing can be a part of your routine medical check up; you can do it once in a month to flush out all the bodily toxins. Also colon cleansing is ideally meant for people having sleeping problems and difficulties while trying to sleep. If you feel tired and fatigued very often and have frequent headaches as well and if this happens to you very often you need a colon cleanse immediately. Colon cleanse is also a must for people suffering from chronic constipation.

If you are someone who has been into regular workouts and exercises but have not achieved the desired result you must know that there is something lacking. In such situations, you need a colon cleanse to be done almost immediately to notice significant results. Now if you are thinking why I've been stressing on the colon and not any other organs? That's because the colon can directly affect all the other organs present in the body. If our colon fails to perform its job properly, it is our liver that suffers the most. This in turn affects the kidneys and leads to further persisting complications.

Colon cleansing has recently gained tremendous popularity and there is a huge surge for more and more people willing to learn as well as imply the program for health benefits. As colon cleansing seems to be the ultimate remedy for almost every sickness or small health complication, ranging from acne and pimples to cancer, it is presumed to be one of the best all-purpose health solutions. These claims however have no substantial proof or scientific background and have often been disregarded by health practitioners. But if you want to know my experience, colon cleansing can be beneficial for your health in many ways:

- Colon cleansing can make you feel better and healthier as well.

- Colon cleansing can help you in reducing body weight in very short span of time.

- Colon cleansing makes you feel more and more energetic and less bloated.

It is known to us by now that colon cleansing is highly beneficial for our health, but did you know why? That's because human body was not designed to consume animal proteins and meats like we usually do today and this contributes to a lot of toxin accumulation in our body. Also, all the food that we intake contains loads of added chemicals and preservatives which again contributes to the toxins formed thus causing the wastes to build up slowly in our system and then impair the passage through which the wastes would be flushed out. This leaved the harmful toxins in our system for long and causes damage.

A colon cleanse program can prevent this and can allow the toxins to be removed from your body to give you a healthy and well maintained system. You should know that colon cleansing should not be repeated every year. You can do it once in a few years for a healthy body and mind as well.

A rich man is sleeping in his house. Suddenly he is awakened by the burglar alarm.

"Ach! These stupid systems never work properly!" he exclaims, rubbing his eyes and struggling to stand up. He goes downstairs and, still cursing the system, turns off the alarm. Going back to his bedroom he quickly falls asleep again.

The burglars can't believe their good luck, as they take their time to carefully find and steal every available expensive item in the house.

The health situation of most people in the meat-eating nations of the world is analogous to that rich man's condition. Usually when people experience uncomfortable symptoms and sickness, they turn to doctors and medicines to turn off the symptoms so that they can again be comfortable. Just like the rich man who believes he is safe falls back asleep, so most people, under the illusion of recovered health go back to eating the wrong food, and resume other bad habits. Meanwhile, the cause of the suppressed symptoms remains and gets worse. Over time the person becomes more and more sick.

The physical cause of more than 90% of human sickness is the same: too many toxins in the body. Most of these toxins are located in the stomach, intestinal system, organs and circulation system. As an example let's look at the common cold. Here the symptoms are a running nose, fever, sore throat, sneezing, and so on. The use of medicine turns off these "problems". Unfortunately they are alarms, not problems. They are also the means for the body to rid itself of the real problem -- excess toxins. The increased flow of mucous provides a channel for toxins to flow out. The fever causes sweat, which is also a medium for elimination. At the same time the message of the sore throat and the sneezing is: "Stop eating! Drink more and more!" Because they go on eating even though they are not hungry, most people who catch colds are compelled to continue suffering for many days or even weeks at a stretch. If they were simply to fast on water or lemon water (with a little salt, not sugar), the cold almost always fulfills its purpose and stops within one or two days.

In this case, what is the reason for the effectiveness of fasting? To answer this question we should understand a most fundamental principle of our digestion system. The digestive system has two functions: 1) abstract energy from the food and immediately pass the waste matter out of the body and 2) clean itself of old static waste matter that has clung to the walls of the intestines and other organs for days, years, or even decades. The first function is well known to everyone. The second function is also known, but essentially ignored, by most conventional doctors. They especially neglect the fact that when the digestive system becomes clean, the body next directs its cleaning efforts at any other organs or systems which contain toxins.

The two functions of the digestion system are basically non-simultaneous. That is, whenever the body is busy in digesting newly consumed food, then no energy remains for deep cleaning activity. It is only when the stomach and intestines are more or less empty of fresh food, then those organs will automatically start cleaning themselves. The toxins causing the cold are rapidly eliminated, the symptoms stop, and the person can resume eating. Hopefully s/he is wiser due to having been sick, and is more careful to avoid over-toxifying the body.

From which foods does toxification more likely occur? Here the principle is easy to understand: food which is more difficult to digest is more likely to not be fully digested. When any food enters one's mouth, digestive juices start secreting in the mouth, esophogaus, and stomach. When the food reaches the stomach, the digestive acids try to quickly break it down into small particles. Easy-to-digest food requires less acid secretion, difficult-to-digest food requires more acid. The process continues as the food solids and liquids are worked upon by the liver, the kidneys, the small intestine, the large intestine and other organs. Acids, fats and other toxic substances also pass into the blood stream, polluting the circulation system and adhering to the walls of the arteries and other blood-carrying channels. Thus, the difficult-to-digest foods are called acid-forming, while easy-to-digest foods are classified as alkaline. In the case of some extremely alkaline foods, such as juicy fruits, they contribute their own fruit acids which may help in the digestion of other foods. There are a few foods, like sugar, tea and onion which are not difficult to digest but are classified as acidic because they contain elements which greatly disturb the equilibrium of the body. These elements are mildy poisonous.

Here is a list of foods categorized from most alkaline to most acid-forming. (As one reads down the list, each succeeding item is somewhat more acid-forming.):

1) Lemon water
2) Herb tea
3) Honey (a little)
4) Citric fruit juice
5) Other fruit juices
6) Vegetable juice
7) Citric fruits
8) Juicy fruits
9) Other fruits (except banana)
10) Non-starchy vegetables *
11) Buckwheat
(up to here all items are relevant for "graduated fasting")

12) Yoghurt
13) Starchy vegetables and banana *
14) Fresh tofu
15) Nuts
16) Raw sugar
17) Whole grains
18) Beans
19) Refined grains
20) Refined sugar
21) Tea, coffee
22) Fried foods
23)Milk varies according to personal situation **

Avoid extremely acidic food: 24)mushrooms, 25)onion, 26)garlic, 27)fish, 28)meat, 29)eggs

* Non-starchy vegetables may also be considered as salad-vegetables, i.e. they may be eaten raw. Starchy vegetables, like potato, are difficult to eat raw. Banana is much more starchy then most other fruits (unless it is extremely ripe, in which case its classification become more alkaline).

** Depending on the condition of one's liver, and also on the functioning of milk-digestion enzymes, people differ in their capacity to digest milk and milk products. For some people milk is a medicine, e.g. certain patients of ulcer. For many, milk causes gas formation, and may thus be recognized as being highly acid-forming. Non-homogenised milk is much easier to digest than homogenised milk because when fats are forcibly mixed with the rest of the milk such that separation does not occur, such globules of "whole milk" become strenuous for the liver.

Items numbered from 1 to 11 generally have a cleansing effect on the body. If a person thus restricts his diet for any length of time to those initial items, the body will undergo a gradual or radical cleansing process. The higher up on the list the restriction is made, so the faster the cleansing will occur. In this regard, the most extreme method of cleaning the body is to neither eat nor drink anything, not even water. But such a method, though appropriate for some people for a short time, is dangerous for most people.

In any case we may thus clearly understand that if an individual uses simple natural means to keep the body relatively clean from toxins, and if there is a regular intake of a reasonable amount of nutrition (not too much and not too little), then there is the greatest possibility that such a person will maintain a high degree of health.

Of course many factors enter into "keeping the body relatively clean from toxins". It is not only a matter of food and fasting. These factors include exercise, bathing, sleep, mental activity, purity of air and water, presence or absence of chemicals in the food, hormonal inbalances of the glands, and inborn genetic peculiarities. But of all these, food and fasting remain the foremost important for most people.

Thus we come to the main statement of this article: a vegetarian diet is better than a non-vegetarian diet for our all-round health. For the moment we are looking only at the physical aspect, and later will deal with the psychic and spiritual aspects. Vegetarianism is preferable for the bodily health because it consists of items which are easier to digest and thus much more alkaline than fish, meat and eggs.

The human body system has exactly the same food-eating and digesting characteristics as other vegetarian mammals (like cows, monkeys, deer and elephants), and totally different from the meat-eating mammals (like tigers, lions, wolves, dogs and cats). These characteristics include:

1) Vegetarian mammals including man have flat rear molar teeth for grinding their food. Meat-eaters do not have flat molars, and instead have sharp front teeth for tearing food.

2) Vegetarian mammals have an intestinal tract 10 to 12 times their body length. The intestines of meat-eaters is only 3 times their body length so that rapidly decaying meat can pass out quickly.

3) The stomach acid of vegetarians is 20 times less strong than that of meat-eaters.

4) Vegetarians have no claws, whereas meat-eaters have claws to catch and kill their prey.

5) Vegetarians perspire through their skin. Meat-eaters have no skin pores, and instead perspire through their tongues.

6) Vegetarian mammals require high-fiber diets (available in fruits, vegetables and whole grains) or else they eventually become constipated. Meat-eating mammals remain perfectly healthy even when their diets include very little fiber. Constipation is usually the first cause of digestion-related diseases in humans.

7) Meat-eaters can easily digest foods containing a high quantity of cholestorol and saturated fat. Vegetarians have a very limited capacity to deal with these same elements. For example laboratory experiements show that if dogs are gradually given more and more butter fat, even 250 grams every day, they show no increase in their serum cholesterol level. On the other hand, if vegetarian mammals eat much fat a great strain is first placed on the liver, fatty deposits develop on the inner walls of the arteries, and gradually the heart weakens through over-work, causing heart attacks and blood clots.

It is clear that human beings are bound to face difficulties in the digestion of meat, fish and eggs. Furthermore, humans who regularly eat such heavy foods gradually experience weakening of their digestive systems such that they are unable to rapidly eliminate waste matter, and thus their bodies get less and less time to perform self-cleaning.

Regarding heart disease, the cause of more than half of the deaths in the USA, the American Medical Association states that more than 90% of all heart disease could be prevented by vegetarian diet.

The editor-in-chief of the prestigious "American Journal of Cardiology" and a foremost expert on heart disease, DrWilliam Roberts, wrote: "When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh was never intended for human beings, who are naturally herbivores."

The reader may be interested in my own experience of low-protein diets. Not only have been a strict vegetarian for the last 25 years of my life, but numerous times for months at a stretch I have also eliminated from my diet milk products, grains, beans and starchy vegetables. During those periods, which continued for as long as 9 months at a time, I ate only fruit and salad. Without any major source of protein I felt stronger and better than during any other times of my life. Indeed I would maintain such a diet always, except that I prefer to be able to eat together with other people. Also, this sort of diet is awkward or even impossible in very poor societies where the climate is cold, such as in Mongolia and Russia (where I am presently working). Thus, only due to circumstances, not due to physical need, I eat a diet containing some high protein foods. Still, I prefer that my meals predominantly consist of fruits and salad-type vegetables.