Archives for July 2021

Dealing with OCD – Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

July 28, 2021 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD is a very unpleasant mental suffering, that can have a drastic impact on somebody’s life. What is OCD, and what can somebody do to deal with it?

Dealing with OCD - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

OCD affects 0.7 to 2.5% of the population. So, for example, in a city with 100,000 inhabitants, there should be between 700 to 2500 people with this mental disorder. It is a suffering which bothers a lot, and can become so serious in certain situations, that it disturbs the studies, professional, social and family life of the person.

Famous and rich people also have OCD. For example, a Brazilian singer of popular romantic music, Roberto Carlos has obsessive-compulsive disorder. If you go to his official website, he published information about this suffering. Another example is actress Luciana Vendramini, who also suffers from OCD. Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who played the role of Harry Potter, discovered that he had OCD at the age of five. He said: “I had to repeat every sentence I said quietly again. And I would like to encourage everyone with this problem to go through therapy. That doesn’t mean you’re crazy or weak.”

Also David Beckham, famous English football player has always admitted that he suffers from OCD, and that in his life this mental illness manifests itself in the constant need for cleanliness and perfection of everything around him. Anything out of order produces tension in him, everything for him has to be in pairs. If there are three glasses in the sink, you have to add one more to make two pairs, or you have to remove one to make only one pair. There can’t be three pairs of soccer boots in his closet. He has to have either two pairs or four pairs, always an even number, that’s an example of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

David Beckham playing for Real Madrid - By David Cornejo, CC 2.0 Wikipedia

Another famous person with OCD was the singer Michael Jackson. In addition, it seems that he also suffered from a disorder called BDD body dysmorphic disorder, which is a mental illness that is characterized by disturbing the person’s perception of their own body image, leading to irrational concerns about defects in some part of their body, and this would then explain the countless plastic surgeries he had in his short life. His ex-wife Lisa Presley said he never took off makeup. Many who suffer from this suffering from body dysmorphic disorder are at greater risk of becoming addicted to plastic surgery.

What is OCD?

The name of this disease called OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder already says: obsession and compulsion. A person with this mental suffering has intrusive thoughts, which he doesn’t want to have and are disturbing his conscience. Examples of these thoughts could be like: Did I lock the door at home? Or: Did I germs from touching that object? Those are thoughts that don’t stop, don’t give peace, and the person feels a compulsion to do what the thoughts say.

In the first case I mentioned, in which obsessive thoughts are questioning if he really closed the door, this person has the compulsion to check several times if he really did lock the door. In the second case where thoughts obsessively say that he may have been contaminated, he will compulsively wash his hands over and over again, ten, fifteen or twenty times.

Door lock - Photo by Henry & Co. from Pexels

Compulsive thoughts keep telling the person with OCD to practice the compulsive acts, because if they don’t do it, anxiety arises that disturbs a lot, and if the person doesn’t practice what obsession says, he will be very restless. So, obsession in the case of obsessive-compulsive disease, obsession has to do with repetitive thoughts in the individual’s consciousness, and compulsion has to do with the repetition of attitudes, of acts that have the purpose of alleviating those disturbing thoughts. So obsession is thinking, compulsion is doing.

Former model and actress Luciana Vendramini, in an interview she gave to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, she spoke about the problem, saying that she had what I call synchronized intrusive thoughts, that is, she needed to imagine something good along with an action. For example, while washing hands she needed to think about nice things. When she had a bad thought, she had to wash her hand again, so she commented that she spent 24 hours repeating quirks. She used to spend 8 hours taking a bath. What suffering, right?

There are various types of obsessive thoughts, such as the thought that the person has committed an unforgivable sin, or that they have to tidy their closet perfectly, or that they have to fix a picture on the wall that is a little crooked, or that they have to do three-taps on the wall whenever they think of a word, or have to skip the lines on a sidewalk and other things of this nature. In fact, in the film: “As Good as It Gets”, actor Jack Nicholson plays the role of a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Pictures on the wall - Photo by Medhat Ayad from Pexels

Normal people can have thoughts that repeat themselves in the mind, but it’s temporary and it’s not chronic, it passes, it ends, but in individuals with OCD thoughts become recurrent or obsessive, they persist and it becomes the pattern of thinking. This causes a lot of anxiety, and a lot of anxiety makes things to appear worse.

In OCD, the attempt to alleviate the anxiety produced by obsessive thoughts is to practice compulsive acts. For example, if in the mind of a person with OCD, obsessive thinking is about contamination, he may try to alleviate this through the ritual of washing his hands exaggeratedly dozens of times a day. If the obsessive thinking is about whether he really turned off the light in a room at home or at work, he can check if he did it dozens of times, one after another.

How to treat OCD?

Some scientists believe that OCD has to do with brain changes and that it’s necessary to use medication to treat it, but it’s not just that. There are other emotional complications that create a lot of anxiety, and the mind uses obsessive thoughts and compulsive acts as a defense against deep emotional pain. So in the cause of OCD there are physical factors, emotional factors, and even spiritual factors.

It helps to fight OCD by telling yourself that obsessive thoughts have no moral value but are the result of neurochemical changes, perhaps due to excess anxiety. That’s why the person with OCD needs to devalue obsessive thoughts as much as they can and tell themselves that they don’t have to do what they say.

Thinking - Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

It’s also important to struggle to think of something else to replace obsessive thinking. This is difficult at first, it’s true, but with time a person may be able to avoid concentrating on obsessive thoughts, choosing to think about other things. This will be difficult at first because there is a strong anxiety that drives the person to these thoughts, and they in turn lead to repetitive compulsive acts. This means that when a person struggles to prevent obsessive thoughts from continuing in their mind to disturb them, they may feel more anxiety, they may be restless, distressed, but with time this anxiety may begin to diminish, without the person needing to practice compulsion to get relief from those obsessive thoughts.

So an exercise that can help, is when obsessive thoughts come, instead of just practicing the compulsive act, say to yourself: I will wait about 20 minutes without getting carried away by the need to act compulsively. After a few days or weeks, this waiting time can increase a little more. If somebody has the compulsion to wash hands for several minutes, the person can reduce the time spent washing their hands. He might decide to wash it using less time, instead of spending 15 minutes washing his hands, he might decide maybe it’ll be just ten minutes. Then further shorten this time and get busy with another task.

Don’t be ashamed to talk about this suffering to anyone. If you are unable to gradually stop compulsive acts, even trying hard to do so, then seek professional help with a psychiatrist or psychologist. It is because when obsessive-compulsive disorder becomes severe enough to disrupt the person’s social and work life, temporary medication prescribed by the psychiatrist may be necessary, in addition to psychotherapy with a clinical psychologist.

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Small but Important – The Spleen

July 25, 2021 by Esther Neumann - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

If everything is going well in the bloodstream, it is not even palpable. The doctor can only palpate it when it is enlarged. It has very important tasks in the defense against diseases and in the red blood cell turnover. But if necessary, you can live without it.

Small but Important - The Spleen — Spleen Illustration by scientificanimations.com CC BY 4.0

The spleen is a soft, small, spongy organ just 3 inch wide and 4 inch long (7×11 cm). It is located in the left upper abdomen at about the level of the tenth rib. It is limited by the stomach, the left bend of the colon and the left kidney. A healthy spleen weighs between 5 to 7 ounces (150 – 200 grams) and is only palpable when it swells. Then it can weigh up to 4 pounds (2 kg).

If you cut through the spleen, you can see a framework of connective tissue and whitish and reddish areas. The white pulp is made up of the lymphoid follicles and the periarterial lymphatic sheaths. The color of the red pulp is due to the presence of the many red blood cells in the spleen capillaries. About a quarter of the tissue consists of white pulp and three quarters of red pulp.

Two Important Tasks

The spleen is one of the lymphatic organs, so it plays an important role in defense against disease and thus has a similar task to the lymph nodes. The individual lymph nodes only filter the lymph from a certain region of the body. But the spleen is responsible for the entire bloodstream. With a local infection, individual lymph nodes become inflamed. However, if many pathogens are washed into the bloodstream, the spleen swells, a sign that it has to work harder. The white pulp takes on this task of defense against disease. There are around 20 times as many lymphocytes in the spleen as in all lymph nodes combined. Lymphocytes are small, white blood cells that play a major role in the specific immunity.

Red blood cell and lymphocyte - Electron Microscopy Facility at The National Cancer Institute at Frederick (NCI-Frederick), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — Red blood cell and lymphocyte

The red pulp has completely different tasks. It appears so red because there are so many red blood cells swimming around in it. The aged corpuscles are broken down in the spleen. The red blood cells have to squeeze through a tight network. Young blood cells can deform themselves very well and easily squeeze through the narrow blood vessels. Old blood cells can no longer be deformed as easily. They get stuck in the tight network and are broken down by the phagocytes. During this cell turnover of the blood, the red blood pigment hemoglobin is released.

The body uses its breakdown products very sparingly and recycles a lot, including hemoglobin. It is converted into bile pigments and released into the bile by the liver. This is why jaundice can occur with an increased breakdown of blood cells. Neonatal jaundice is particularly well known.

The spleen also has other functions. In babies, it makes red blood cells. In adults, this task is performed by the bone marrow. It also stores platelets, which are released to help blood clot when bleeding. But it also recognizes small thrombi and breaks them down. It also produces some of the macrophages, the phagocytes that flow around and digest foreign bodies in the blood and play an important role in the immune system.

Anthrax

Anthrax is a zoonosis, a disease that affects animals and can be transmitted to humans, but not from person to person. It occurs mainly in people who deal with animals a lot, such as farmers or butchers. In our latitudes it is rare today, but it is more common in warm regions such as South Africa. It is a reportable infectious disease. It is transmitted by the Bacillus anthracis, hence the name anthrax. The bacilli form spores. In this inactive form, they are very stable against heat, dehydration, radiation and disinfectants. They can remain in a pasture for a long time before they are ingested by animals.

A butcher cuts meat - Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels

The disease can appear as skin, lung, or intestinal anthrax. The spleen is enlarged, darkly colored and looks like it has been burned. The symptoms of the disease are like those of an infection. If it is recognized quickly, it is easy to treat. If treatment is delayed, it is difficult. There may be a high fever, lung failure and shock.

Anthrax was picked up by the media as a biological weapon. A few years ago, a lot of unrest was created when some real and some ineffective white powder was sent by post. There is no need to be afraid of this biological weapon. Though it is possible to use it in a very targeted way, it involves some complicated procedures. You have to pack the spores correctly and spray them in the right size so that they can be picked up.

Spleen Removal

The spleen is not essential for life. You can live without it. In adults, the lymphatic function can be taken over by the lymph nodes. The liver steps in to break down blood. Even so, the spleen should not be removed lightly. For example the risk of blood poisoning is much greater without a spleen. Immediately after removal of the spleen, patients are also much more at risk of developing pneumococcal pneumonia. It takes time for other organs to take over the task of the spleen and protect the body from disease.

An important reason for removal is, for example, a capsule tear. The spleen is surrounded by a capsule that is very well supplied with blood. In the event of bruises, it easily bursts. There is profuse bleeding. In the past, the spleen was simply removed in such cases. Today a surgeon may try to glue the crack because the spleen is such an important organ in defense against disease. During operations, the surgeon has to work very carefully around the spleen. If he injures the capsule, the bleeding is hard to be stopped.

An operation - Photo by Vidal Balielo Jr. from Pexels

In the case of increased blood breakdown, special forms of anemia or leukemia and malignant tumors, it often has to be removed.

After the spleen has been removed, the patient is monitored very closely in the hospital. The blood count is continuously monitored. In this phase no inflammation or any other disease is permitted, because an important part of the immune system was removed. Even after the hospital stay, the immune system must be strengthened through a vitamin-rich diet and plenty of exercise in the fresh air.

The spleen, however small the organ, has an important function. It can be replaced in an emergency, as we have seen. But as long as we have it, we want to protect and preserve it through a sensible, immune-boosting lifestyle. This not only benefits our physical health, but also our spirit and soul. We can think better and communicate better with others and with our Creator.

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9 Rules for Improving Sleep to Reduce Stress

July 17, 2021 by Martin Neumann - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

There’s a strong correlation between how much sleep you get and how stressed you are. It’s a vicious cycle that can cause mental distress and even wreak havoc on your physical well-being.

9 Rules for Improving Sleep to Reduce Stress

It’s a well-known fact that people who don’t get enough sleep are lethargic and constantly experiencing an energy slump. This causes irritability, which also makes it hard to fall asleep. The reverse is also true. When you experience an exorbitant amount of stress during the day, it causes you to lie there awake – and that piles on more stress for the upcoming day. In many cases, this is leading to a vicious cycle that is complicating your stress more and more.

The Huffington Post conducted a poll where they asked people what their #1 stressor was. Lack of sleep was one thing that dominated the results. Stress and a lack of sleep combined can cause you to lose mental clarity and they can put more pressure on your body to perform at less than optimal standards.

For this reason it’s vital that you learn how to implement stress relief measures that also work to lull you to sleep at night. When you wake up fully refreshed, you’ll be able to tackle the world and anything it throws at you!

Rule #1 – Implement a Bedtime Technology Ban

If you want to toss and turn and have trouble to wake up in the morning, just keep your cell phone right by your bed. For some of you, that won’t be a problem – but for many people, it’s become an addiction that disrupts their sleep routine and causes a lack of sleep.

Some people have their computer right beside the bed and the glow of it lights up the room at night. The same is true for notifications that come in on cell phones – sometimes with lights and sometimes with the inclusion of sounds.

Not only is it a physical factor, but it causes a certain amount of mental unrest when you’re constantly checking emails or looking to see who posted what on Facebook.

Man using cellphone in bed - Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

The physical distraction of the computer glow tricks your body into thinking it’s time for you to be awake. Your body won’t produce the melatonin it needs and help you get (and stay) asleep, so you toss and turn all night.

Technology doesn’t just have to be left out of the bedroom – it needs to be shut down quite awhile before you go to bed. Your mind needs time to disconnect and wind down itself, and it can’t do that if you’re constantly feeding it information. If you go to bed at 10 PM, try disconnecting around 8:30 PM. Let your stress melt away and your mind relax. By the time you go to bed, all technology should be switched off or transferred to a different room. This isn’t an easy habit to break, but by having a plan you’ll be able to implement it.

Rule #2 – Create an Environment Conducive for Sleep

Your bedroom can do a lot to improve your sleep quality. First of all, it should be completely dark at night. Our sleep cycles are influenced by the dark light cycle, and a good night’s rest requires a completely dark bedroom. No lights on, and no electronic gadgets that are emitting light. If you have street lights out of your window, invest in a good curtain to block them off. Your sleep quality will appreciate it.

Next, your bedroom should be quiet. Some people got used to sleeping with radio or TV at night, and it seems to give them a certain sense of security. Just the sleep quality suffers from that, and in the long run, it might be better to find ways to overcome this habit. If you are impacted by street noise right outside your bedroom window, you may want to invest in double or triple glass sound blocking windows for your home. Your mind needs to be able to fully relax overnight and refresh your energies for the next day.

Be sure to also avoid any distractions inside your bedroom. This room should be designed for sleep, and not for continuing the frenzy you are suffering already all day long. The TV can stay in the living room where it belongs. And the less clutter you have in the room, the more your mind will feel at rest.

What can help a lot in the quality of your sleep is a good mattress. At the end of the day, you are spending one-third of your time in bed, and you should make sure that this time will be comfortable. A good mattress will be comfortable, but still firm, in order to give proper support to your spine. A pillow that is right for you can complement the comfort of your bed.

If you have trouble falling asleep, you can use a branch of lavender and put it below your pillow. As an alternative, you can purchase a lavender extract and sprinkle a few drops on your bed, just enough that you can smell it, but does not annoy you. For more severe sleep deficiencies you can try out to take some capsules of Valerian or Passion Flower, which are good options to induce you to sleep, giving you better conditions to resolve the underlying stress that may have caused your sleep deficiency.

Rule #3 – Wind Down Your Day With Exercise

It sounds almost backwards – putting forth extra exertion when you really need to be relaxing and calming down. But that’s just what exercise does for you! Exercise is a great stress reliever because it helps you release endorphins.

That’s why you sometimes hear of athlete’s bragging about their “runner’s high” – because although they may start out fatigued, they hit a point in their regimen where the endorphins are released and they feel good.

Feeling good is one of the first steps to you being able to sleep well tonight! Your body has probably been tensed and knotted up all day while you were at work. Allowing it to exercise gives you some relief – somewhere to pour all of that tension into. If you were sitting down all day long, this is exactly what your body needs.

Exercise also helps you sleep better at night. We joke as parents about letting our kids wear themselves out so they’re ready for a good, long nap – but the same goes for us as adults!

When the Huffington Post conducted a poll for people who exercise in terms of how they sleep, they discovered that people who exercise don’t just get more sleep – they get better sleep.

As you might suspect, the better your work out, the better you snooze each night! If you’re not used to exercising, start out slow and work your way up. You can start off with a simple 10-minute-a-day plan and increase it a bit each week.

Another good side effect of exercising is that you might shed some extra pounds! Poor sleep makes people gain weight according to recent studies – and stress definitely leads you to consume extra calories.

Try to exercise after work – but still plenty of time before going to bed. Making a strenuous workout just before bedtime will hype up your hormones. But if you do half an hour walk around 2 hours before going to bed, it will have a relaxing effect. If you exercise too close to bedtime and you discover that you still feel restless, just move your exercise up to an earlier time.

Rule #4 – Get a Soothing Bath

For some people, bath time is their only time of the day when they unwind and kick stress to the curb. There are no clocks ticking, no technology vying for your attention, and nobody talking to you.

It’s just you, your warm, soothing water, and whatever environment you’ve created to help you relax. The environment for your bath is just as important as the sleeping environment you create.

If it’s off, then you can’t relax. A cold, sterile bathroom won’t lend itself to a calming environment. Some people like to invest in a bubble bath or a lavender smell, while others put up candles to create a relaxing ambiance. Soft and relaxing music might be another option to get you into a tranquil mode.

Just as you’ve made the commitment to turn off technology at bedtime, do the same for your bath time, too. You can’t really relax if your smartphone is ringing off the hook. Just enjoy the moment, and forget about everything that was stressing you out during the day.

Rule #5 – Take a Light Supper

Eating a heavy meal late at night is a surefire recipe for troubled sleep. There is an old saying that we all know: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and supper like a pauper. There is much truth in that.

Think for supper on something that is lightweight. This applies not only for quantity, but also the quality of our foods. What you should cut out as much as possible are fats, since they are very difficult to digest. So keep your fries for lunch and your nuts for breakfast. You should also go easy on proteins and focus more on carbohydrates for supper. So fruits together with a toast bread is a really good option, that will digest in a snap.

If you work all day long with your mind, you may even find that skipping supper altogether will improve your sleep. At night your body does not need this energy, and skipping supper helps you to wake up the next morning with appetite to face a substantial breakfast. Besides improving your sleep, this habit will help you a lot in your weight control, and controls your excessive sugar levels if you are diabetic. It may take you a few weeks to get used to it, but after that, you will feel the full benefit in your sleep quality.

For those who do not want to skip supper altogether, it should be lightweight and early enough to be completely digested before going to bed. A light supper should still be placed 2-3 hours before bedtime, to guarantee that digestion is done before you hit the bed. You do not want your stomach to work extra hours while you are at sleep. This will impact not only your health, but also sleep quality and your mood the next day you get up.

Rule #6 – Sleep at Regular Times

An alarm clock - Photo by Aphiwat from Pexels

Have a regular time for going to bed and a regular time to rise that allows you 8-9 hours of good sleep. Cutting corners on sleep does not help your productivity. You will be running around like crazy, thinking you cannot afford to go to bed on time and let your work be undone. The truth is, that the next morning you will be irritated and with a foggy mind, not being able to think straight on what your next step should be to get you to the goal you are looking for. More than often you will realize that you will work more hours and accomplish less.

If you are really on a tight deadline, you may be better off to go to bed an hour earlier than normal, but wake up two hours earlier and get some undistracted work time early morning, while everyone else is still asleep.

Our body is adjusting its daily hormonal cycle according to the light and dark cycle of the sun. For this reason, one hour of sleep before midnight is just as refreshing as two hours of sleep after midnight.

Getting into the habit of going to bed before 9:30 PM will help you a lot to wake up refreshed and full of energy the next day. If you have created the habit of burning the midnight candle, it may take you some time to adjust to the new schedule, but after a few weeks you surely will start to feel the benefits.

Many people created the habit to get by on a minimal sleep time during the week, but at the weekends they sleep in as much as they can. This is detrimental in two ways. First, there is no way that you can make up for sleep that you have lost during the week. You cannot recuperate the lost productivity you had during the week, nor can you make up the toll that sleep deficiency had on your health.

Second, the body gets used to a regular rhythm of activities you do during the day. If you totally change your sleeping routine on the weekend, your body gets out of sync and you cannot enjoy completely the free time you have. So if you have the habit of getting up at 6 o clock during the week, and on the weekends you can’t get out of bed before 10, this is a sure sign that you were sleep deficient on your weekday schedule. If you aim for a regular time to go to bed and a regular time to wake up, ideally even on the weekends, you help your body a lot to optimize the circadian rhythm for peak productivity.

Rule #7 – Become a Master at Time Management

During the Huffington Post surveys about sleep and stress, they noticed that most people started with phrases like, “Not enough time to…” Time is one thing we need more of and have less of in this day and age.

We have no time to relax. We push ourselves from the time our feet hit the floor in the morning right up until we go to bed – and we never get to bed on time. Instead, we give ourselves a minimal amount of sleep hours – and much of that is spent tossing and turning due to the stress of what all we couldn’t accomplish this day.

If you’ll get firm with yourself and look at how much time you waste during the day, or how much time you’re not as productive as you should be, then you’ll free up more time for sleep.

Notice that didn’t say, “free up more time to get tasks done.” Many of you will learn new time management skills and forget to learn your lesson about sleep. Instead, you’ll pack in more on your to-do list.

Make the exercise to journal for a week your daily routine. Notice all the times when you’re surfing the web or standing around chatting with co-workers. That’s time that you could be spending really accomplishing things so that once your day is done, you are rewarded with free time – “me time” – to pamper and nurture your body and mind.

A blank journal - Photo by Jessica Lewis from Pexels

You might also find that when you implement the other rules here to accomplish proper sleep hygiene, you’ll be able to get more done throughout the day. That’s because your mental clarity improves and you tend to have more energy to tackle whatever the day may bring for you.

Rule #8 – Allow Deep Breathing to Replace Naps

There are some people who get in the habit of taking a daily nap – primarily because they’ve heard that power napping can help them achieve their goals for the day.

This might be true for many people. But if sleep eludes you, then naps could be causing the problem. A 10-minute power nap where you’re basically just shutting your eyes and deep breathing is beneficial. Going to bed for 2-4 hours in the middle of the day is a recipe for disaster. You’ll never be able to go to bed at a regular bedtime and you’ll lie there frustrated and annoyed that you can’t go to sleep. It’s a hard habit to break.

Try using deep breathing to energize yourself whenever you’re in an afternoon slump. Breathe from your diaphragm and try to watch how often you’re using shallow breaths throughout the day.

Rule #9 – Resolve Your Worries Before Going to Bed

If you find yourself troubled or upset make an effort to solve the problem as best you can before bedtime. If you had an argument with your spouse, or whether you were getting wrapped up with your coworker, if you are able to resolve it before bedtime, sleep will be so much sweeter. The Apostle Paul was saying already many years ago: “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.”((The Bible, Ephesians 4:26 NKJV))

Sometimes you find that worries are wanting to creep up on you and be your companion at bed in order to rob your sleep. Some worries are good in order to get us into action. But more often we are worried about things that we can do nothing to resolve. At this moment, we need to turn our worries over to your Heavenly Father, trusting that He is well able to take care of your needs. This experience of peace can do much more for a sweet night of rest than anything else. This is exactly what Solomon was speaking about:

When you lie down, you will not be afraid; yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:24

I wish you can make this experience for yourself. Because if you are able to turn over your troubles into the Hand of God, then your sleep with a peace of mind that you maybe did not now for a long time. You want to try this out in your life?

Do you need a guide to help you understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life.

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Twelve Natural Ways to Improve Gut Health

July 8, 2021 by Elizabeth Hall - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Discover the amazing contributions of gut bacteria to health and disease. Plus scientifically validated natural remedies that may improve your gut health in just few days!

Twelve Natural Ways to Improve Gut Health

Your gut provides a home for trillions of bacteria. So far there are 2,000 known species of gut bacteria. The contributions of the gut microflora are astounding for they affect nutrient uptake, metabolism, body clocks, carcinogen detoxification, immune responses, chronic inflammation, and mental health!((Baylor College of Medicine. “Dietary quality influences microbiome composition in human colonic mucosa.” ScienceDaily. 15 July 2019.www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190715164650.htm))

The proper balance, composition, and a healthful diversity of gut bacteria is necessary for favorable immune responses and optimal health. Imbalance that favors unfriendly bacteria over friendly germs triggers strong immune and inflammatory processes.

Good Germs

Beneficial bacteria release useful byproducts that protect your health and lower your risk for colon cancer, atherosclerosis, and inflammatory conditions. They also protect your gut from infections, produce some nutrients, release certain neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, and affect our sleep.((Patterson E. Gut microbiota, obesity and diabetes. Postgrad Med J. 2016 May 92(1087):286-300. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2015-133285.))

Germ Warfare

Unfriendly gut bacteria, however, release toxins and inflammatory agents that disrupt the gut barriers. Once inside the blood, these inflammatory compounds and toxins contribute to the development of conditions such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, allergies, diabetes, obesity, inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s, celiac, ulcerative colitis), lung problems, anxiety, and depression.((Singh RK. Influence of diet on the gut microbiome and implications for human health. Journal of Translational Medicine volume 15, Article number: 73 (2017).))
Could Your Gut Impact Your Blood Pressure?

What Shapes Gut Bacteria?

Every individual microbiome is different and develops because of genetic, environmental, lifestyle, and dietary factors to which we are exposed. So, how do we encourage the population of good germs and reduce the number of unwanted ones?

Whole, Nutrient Dense Plant Foods

Diets that are high in whole plant foods–fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains–and low in added sugar and saturated and trans fats– stimulate the proliferation of beneficial bacteria such as those that have anti-inflammatory properties.((Tomova A. The Effects of Vegetarian and Vegan Diets on Gut Microbiota. Front. Nutr. 17 April 2019.www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2019.00047/full)) In this aspect, liberal amounts of raw fruits and vegetables are particularly useful in building healthy gut microflora.((Karon A. A Western Diet Linked to lower microbiome diversity. Internal Medicine News. March 29, 2019.www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/197770/gastroenterology/western-diet-linked-lower-microbiome-diversity))

Fruits - Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

In contrast, a poor-quality or Western diet (rich in sugar, animal products, salt, processed foods, and refined carbohydrates) is linked to more disease-causing bacteria.((Zinöcker MK. The Western Diet–Microbiome-Host Interaction. Nutrients. 2018 Mar: 10(3): 365.www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872783/
Singh RK. Influence of diet on the gut microbiome and implications for human health. Journal of Translational Medicine. Volume 15, Article number: 73 (2017).)) One such species of bacteria is Fusobacteria, which has been linked to colorectal cancer.((Baylor College of Medicine. “Dietary quality influences microbiome composition in human colonic mucosa.” ScienceDaily. 15 July 2019.www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190715164650.htm))

Great Carbs

Good carbs boost gut health. While it is true that high sugar, fat-rich, and refined products promote the population of unfriendly bacteria in the gut, the keto and low carb diets miss the important contributions that result from eating resistant starches!

Whole grains and legumes contain resistant starches that are not fully digested in the stomach and small intestine. Consequently, they are not absorbed. Resistant starches, like soluble fiber, feed the friendly bacteria in your intestines, having a positive effect on the distribution and composition of bacteria as well as their number. These bacteria produce useful byproducts from resistant starches to curtail inflammation and lower the risk for chronic diseases.((Robertson MD. Insulin-sensitizing effects of dietary resistant starch and effects on skeletal muscle and adipose tissue metabolism. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Sep: 82(3):559-67.
Birt D. Resistant Starch: Promise for Improving Human Health. Adv Nutr. 2013 Nov; 4(6): 587–601.
Kieffer D.A. Resistant starch alters gut microbiome and metabolomic profiles concurrent with amelioration of chronic kidney disease in rats. J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2016 May 1; 310(9): F857–F871.))

Another advantage: Most prebiotics are oligosaccharides (carbohydrates that have a small number of monosaccharides) and help to maintain the balance of gut microflora in favor of friendly bacteria. A prebiotic is non-digestible carbohydrate that not only feeds good bacteria but it feeds probiotics too. Prebiotics selectively work on a limited number of gut germs. Asparagus, artichokes, barley, rye, lentils, onions, chicory, garlic, leeks, and bananas are good sources of oligosaccharides.

Salt-Gut Connection

Go easy on the salt! Excessive salt decimates a certain type of beneficial bacterium in the gut (lactobacilli). It also increases the number of certain immune cells (helper T-17 lymphocytes). These particular immune cells play a role in the development of high blood pressure and autoimmune conditions in which the immune system attacks tissues and organs of the body. (Please note: The problem is ingestion of too much salt and the excessive number of T-lymphocytes. A little salt is essential to health). When probiotic lactobacilli were added to a high-salt diet, the elevated T-17 cells and blood return to normal—at least in rodent studies.((Nicola Wilck, Salt-responsive gut commensal modulates TH17 axis and disease. Nature. 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nature24628))
Seven Facts about Salt Your Doctor Won’t Tell You

Salt shaker - Photo by Lorena Martínez from Pexels

Eat Organic!

Pesticide residues on food have the potential to harm friendly gut bacteria over time.((Defoi Clémence. Food chemicals disrupt human gut microbiota activity and impact intestinal homeostasis as revealed by in vitro systems. Published: 20 July 2018.www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29376-9)) To help remove pesticides from produce, soak the produce briefly in a 10% salt rinse. (Use 1 part sodium to 9 parts water). There is no way you can reduce pesticides from meat, dairy, and fish.

Downside of Artificial Sweeteners

Because they potentially reduce the number of good bacteria in your gut and encourage insulin resistance, avoid artificial sweeteners.((Suez J. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. 2014 Oct 9; 514(7521):181-6.)) Saccharin and sucralose, for sure, and possibly stevia, adversely affect gut bacteria.((Javier F. Effects of Sweeteners on the Gut Microbiota: A Review of Experimental Studies and Clinical Trials. Advances in Nutrition, Volume 10, Issue suppl_1, January 2019, Pages S31–S48.doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmy037)) Insulin resistance and high blood sugar themselves can disrupt the gut barrier and increase its permeability so that inflammatory compounds and toxins enter the blood.

Meal Frequency

Limit the number of meals and skip snacking. If you are sedentary, or have a chronic inflammatory condition, you might want to consider skipping supper and eliminating snacks. In other words, time restricted eating.Why? Time-restricted feeding allows for only 8–10 hours of feeding each day. Time restricted eating changes the gut microflora in positive ways to discourage obesity, disruption of blood glucose regulation, and bowel diseases.((Dandun Hu. Gut flora shift caused by time-restricted feeding might protect the host from metabolic syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. Translational Cancer Research. Vol: 7:5. Oct. 2018.))

Do Not Relapse!

The composition of gut bacteria can change quickly!—within ten days. For better or worse. In other words, even a short-term consumption of diets composed mostly of animal or plant products rapidly alters and deteriorates the community of gut microbes. Just eating an animal-based diet or consuming fast foods for several days, for example, reduces useful byproducts from fermentation of carbohydrates. This diet consequently increases the potential for diarrhea, other intestinal infections and inflammatory bowel diseases.((David LA. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2014 Jan 23; 505(7484):559-63.)) The good news is that a proper diet can favorably shift the gut bacteria to a friendlier status within a few days!

Regular Schedule

Eat meals and sleep on schedule. Gut microbes have circadian rhythms that are controlled by the biological clock of the host in which they reside. Disturbed body rhythms adversely change the composition of the microbial community in such a way as to promote obesity and metabolic problems((Thaiss et al. Trans-kingdom control of microbiota diurnal oscillations promotes metabolic homeostasis. Cell, 2014 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.09.048))
How to Diffuse Your Body’s Time Bomb

Don’t Short Change Your Sleep

Even healthy young men who experienced only two nights of partial sleep deprivation, have a significant decrease in types of beneficial bacteria. They also experienced changes to the composition of microorganisms in the microbiome that are linked specifically to obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes

Researchers from Kent University investigated the influence of the microbiome in a group of adults ages 50-85 and found strong connections between higher sleep quality, better cognitive flexibility (the ability to transition between one concept to another), and higher levels of beneficial gut microbes.((Breus M. The Latest on Sleep and Gut Health. Health. May 29, 2018.thesleepdoctor.com/2018/05/29/the-latest-on-sleep-and-gut-health/)) Even individuals who wake up frequently during the night develop adverse changes in gut bacteria.

Get Regular Exercise

Exercise boosts the diversity of the bacteria found in the gut. Reduced variation in gut microbes (microbiota) has been linked to obesity and other chronic problems. On the other hand, increased diversity favors a metabolic profile and a more helpful immune system response.((S. F. Clarke, Exercise and associated dietary extremes impact on gut microbial diversity. Gut, 2014; DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2013-306541)) Moderate exercise is especially useful in reducing inflammation.

walking on a beach - Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Learn to Manage Stress

Stress can change the gut bacteria in undesirable ways. Exposure to psychological stress disrupts the beneficial gut bacteria. The dominance of certain bacteria can produce substances that interact with the brain, erode mental health, and lower the threshold for depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsory disorder, and possibly other mental illnesses.((Mc Guillian MS. Gut Health Affects Mental Health.www.psycom.net/the-gut-brain-connection)) Unfortunately, even moderate stress during pregnancy is enough to change the intestinal bacteria so that newborn infants are more susceptible to infections.((Bailey, M.T. Prenatal Stress Alters Bacterial Colonization of the Gut in Infant MonkeysJournal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition: April 2004. Volume 38: Issue 4 p. 414-421))

Depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses have many causative and contributory factors. The gut health is only one possible contributing factor in mental disease, but it should not be overlooked.
Overcoming Fear & Anxiety

Check Your Meds

Antibiotics are not the only drugs that disturb the gut microflora. Acid-reducing meds, antibiotics, NSAIDS (nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs), calcium channel blockers for high blood pressure, anti-virals, anti-psychotic drugs, and chemotherapy can also negative impact our gut bacteria. If you take these any of these drugs, you might want to consider probiotics. Always take probiotics four hours after taking the medication!

Try to discover the causes of your condition. Treat the cause and you might do with less medicine and in some cases dispense with it all together. Please do not adjust medication without discussing it with your doctor first.

Downside of Probiotics

Live probiotics can be useful especially during a round of antibiotics, if using a drug mentioned above, if one has been on a poor diet, or has some medical condition in which documented evidence indicates that probiotics may help. If a person has been eating a healthful, plant-based diet and is generally healthy, there is no need to take probiotics every day. Probiotic use can result in a significant accumulation of bacteria in the small intestine that can result in disorienting brain fogginess as well as rapid, significant belly bloating.((Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. “Probiotic use is a link between brain fogginess, severe bloating.” ScienceDaily, 6 August. 2018.www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180806095213.htm))

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This article was originally posted on the Wildwood Institute website and is used by permission.

How Do Emotions Influence Cancer Treatment?

July 2, 2021 by Dr. Cesar Vasconcellos de Souza - [rt_reading_time label="Reading Time:" postfix="minutes" postfix_singular="minute"]

Have you ever noticed that some people with cancer die unexpectedly, but others with less favorable diagnosis survive? Perhaps this can often be explained by the relationship between cancer and the mind, emotions and cancer. Is there any scientific basis for us to believe that positive emotions have specific physiological effects?

How Do Emotions Influence Cancer Treatment?

About negative emotions, we already know that anger is related to the production of norepinephrine, and fear or anxiety has to do with adrenaline. Positive emotions relate to acetylcholine outside the brain, which produces muscle relaxation, and has to do with endorphins and serotonin inside the brain.

Cancer is not just a disease. There are several interrelated diseases, several changes that end up generating cancer. There may be a genetic predisposition, a lot of stress in childhood, a diet of poor nutritional quality, a contaminated environment, polluted air, free radicals, smoking, alcohol abuse and other factors. Cancer is an indication that there is something else dysfunctional in the person’s lifestyle.

Lawrence LeShan was a psychologist who worked for more than 20 years just with dying patients, and in one of his studies of 152 people with cancer, he found that some mental attitudes had a negative influence on those cancer patients.

The study came to some interesting conclusions about the emotional or mental posture found in the people surveyed, who developed some form of cancer. Let’s look at some of these results from this study. Of these 152 people, 109, or 72%, had lost their purpose to live, and were unable to establish new relationships. There may have been attempts to develop new relationships, but they failed and the person remained isolated, even surrounded by family and friends, so that is to say 72% of people suffered from loneliness.

It was found that 71 of these people, or 47%, almost half of these people, were unable to demonstrate hostility in their self-defense. In other words, she had a feeling that her desires didn’t deserve to be defended, they didn’t know how to protect themselves. They are those people that when you step on their toes, they are the ones who apologize, people who do not know how to defend themselves, even from hostile people.

The study also found that 58 people, or 38% of them, had tension, a major stress due to the death of a parent. For some individuals, the type of emotional bond with the father or mother is so ingrained that when one of them dies, the suffering of the son or daughter is much greater than in people without this type of affective bond, who also experienced a period of grief and normal sadness, but without so much suffering, and without despair. So 38% of people who developed cancer had a lot of suffering a while before the cancer appeared, with the death of the father or mother, because of this extremely strong bond they had with that parent.

A woman experiencing grief in front of the tomb

It was also found that many of the studied group showed self-depreciation, a lack of self-confidence, a lack of respect for their own achievements. It’s the people that when you praise, for example for being in a nice outfit, they say: “Oh, I bought it there at the benefit bazaar”, or when these people have passed an exam and you congratulate them, they say: “Oh, it wasn’t so hard to pass”, that is, they always devalue themselves. So this psychologist working with these people with cancer found that many of them had this self-deprecating mindset.

Other people who had cancer in the study group had a sense of despair they had lived with all their lives, a despair in the sense of looking at life with pessimism, without good prospects for the future. And also the good number of patients evaluated revealed that they had more emotions than energy to express them, and they had very few or no channels of emotional expression, there is no one to whom they could open up, that is, they swallowed, repressed more emotions than they should have done, and some cases seem to explode into cancer.

Dr. Samuel Silverman of the School of Medicine at Harvard University, he says:

If there is a latent tendency to develop cancer, the inability to express one’s feelings will strike the body at some vulnerable point.
You can fight for your life : emotional factors in the causation of cancer

Some mental attitudes that help in the prevention or treatment of Cancer from a psychological and emotional point of view are the following:

Have a meaning for life beyond the desire for physical healing.
Reflect on how best to be useful with what you are, the talents you already have or can be learned.
Learn, that you can express emotions, opinions and still be loved and accepted.
Acquire self-knowledge to live with emotional honesty, that is, not fooling yourself.
Appreciating the positive traits in me, what I can do, the blessings I have received, looking positively at those things that God has placed in me, which are talents, they’re blessings.
Realize that you can try to understand and love yourself, forgive yourself, accept your limitations, without fighting with you, without criticizing yourself, without belittling yourself.
Also strive to make changes in your life, in search of what you want, rather then remaining in a bad situation, even if it produces some benefits, such as an economic gain.

Dr Lawrence mentions in his book a doctor who had a specialty that earned a lot of money. Then she had breast cancer and she found out that she actually would like to work in another specialty, which would earn less money, but she decided to change, resulting in better coping with the cancer.

He cites the case of another woman, a lawyer that was professionally and economically very successful, but who also had breast cancer, and during psychotherapy she discovered that she had always liked music. So this woman decided to quit her job as a lawyer and went into music.

After doing a study on these people who made important changes in their lives after cancer, it was found that they had a much better survival rate, a much better quality of life, a much better recovery from this cancer than those people who got stuck and didn’t do these changes. So it’s important to think that it is healthy for the mind that influences the immune system, to make less money, but to be happy in what you do. Think about it when you decide to make important changes in your life.

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