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josiebelladonna · 3 years

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“Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people.

Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can result in trauma, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.

Emotional and psychological trauma can be caused by:

One-time events, such as an accident, injury, or a violent attack, especially if it was unexpected or happened in childhood.

Ongoing, relentless stress, such as living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, battling a life-threatening illness or experiencing traumatic events that occur repeatedly, such as bullying, domestic violence, or childhood neglect.

Commonly overlooked causes, such as surgery (especially in the first 3 years of life), the sudden death of someone close, the breakup of a significant relationship, or a humiliating or deeply disappointing experience, especially if someone was deliberately cruel.

Coping with the trauma of a natural or manmade disaster can present unique challenges—even if you weren’t directly involved in the event. [...]

[...] We all react to trauma in different ways, experiencing a wide range of physical and emotional reactions. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to think, feel, or respond, so don’t judge your own reactions or those of other people. Your responses are NORMAL reactions to ABNORMAL events.

Emotional & psychological symptoms:

Shock, denial, or disbelief

Confusion, difficulty concentrating

Anger, irritability, mood swings

Anxiety and fear

Guilt, shame, self-blame

Withdrawing from others

Feeling sad or hopeless

Feeling disconnected or numb

Physical symptoms:

Insomnia or nightmares

Fatigue

Being startled easily

Difficulty concentrating

Racing heartbeat

Edginess and agitation

Aches and pains

Muscle tension

If your psychological trauma symptoms don’t ease up—or if they become even worse—and you find that you’re unable to move on from the event for a prolonged period of time, you may be experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. While emotional trauma is a normal response to a disturbing event, it becomes PTSD when your nervous system gets “stuck” and you remain in psychological shock, unable to make sense of what happened or process your emotions.”

the things i’ve bolded all check out with me, between the pandemic and what happened to my social life last summer, you can’t say i’m not traumatized. it also doesn’t help matters that i’ve been bullied, harassed, screamed at, abandoned, painted as the bad guy, humiliated, ignored, and laughed at by (let’s see...): people i’ve seen as friends namely users daveighmustaine, templeoftheslavegarden, cherrymascara, and their legions on wattpad; also mustaint; carla harvey (of all people - a few weeks back i wrote on stories that i feel alone in my trauma of just going out and being around people and i asked if anyone else feels the same and she actually laughed at me, i wish i was making that up), and really the entire rock world and their turning a blind eye to the science of things and the fact that maybe, just maybe, some of their fans simply don’t want to see them because they’re not comfortable with all the hype and the caveats that come with being in a crowd packed the brim with people and in a setting that’s known to be potentially dangerous (especially if woodstock ‘99 and altamont are both anything to go by)?

ohhhhhh, yeah, so fucking compassionate and caring about their own fans. do you understand why i’m really angry with the rock world right now?

trauma recovery tips (courtesy of this website; i’m just paraphrasing here): get moving (i always do, but it’s been difficult to do so lately because of this godforsaken heat) don’t isolate (way easier said than done, but i rejoined rockfic and follow new topics on twitter, it’s a start) self-regulate (focus on your breathing, just sit on a chair and look at six things around you and focus on them, pet your dog or your cat, listen to music; just feel it out) take care of yourself (sleep and eat well, stay away from anything nefarious, try to relax, too)

“In order to heal from psychological and emotional trauma, you’ll need to resolve the unpleasant feelings and memories you’ve long avoided, discharge pent-up “fight-or-flight” energy, learn to regulate strong emotions, and rebuild your ability to trust other people. A trauma specialist may use a variety of different therapy approaches in your treatment.

Somatic experiencing focuses on bodily sensations, rather than thoughts and memories about the traumatic event. By concentrating on what’s happening in your body, you can release pent-up trauma-related energy through shaking, crying, and other forms of physical release. (i do this myself, works wonders)

Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps you process and evaluate your thoughts and feelings about a trauma.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) incorporates elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy with eye movements or other forms of rhythmic, left-right stimulation that can “unfreeze” traumatic memories.”

source: helpguide(dot)org/articles/ptsd-trauma/coping-with-emotional-and-psychological-trauma(dot)htm

i hope this helps anyone reading this right now ❤️

#trauma #ptsd #complex ptsd #pandemic trauma #cyberbullying #covid pandemic #text #recovery #recovery is possible

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lovenotereminders · 5 years

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Coping mechanisms for anxiety for when therapy isn’t an option

I’ll slap a big caveat on this and point out that I’m not a therapist or a medical professional, so take all of this with a pinch of salt and make sure to do your own research - I’m just passing along things I’ve read/heard from others, and things that have worked for me.

I of course always recommend seeking medical help if you’re able to. Anxiety is an illness, and should be treated just like any other. But these are things that could help people to cope if you can’t afford therapy, or are on a long waiting list to see a therapist, or any other reason that might prevent you from going.

Even if therapy isn’t an option, it’s worth looking into seeing if going to speak to your GP is. For example, if your doctor has a record that you’ve been having these difficulties, it can be easier to get support in things like getting a sick note or extenuating circumstances or additional accommodations if you need something like that for school/work etc. You could also potentially access medication even if therapy isn’t an option, which may be more affordable/accessible. There are a bunch of really effective anti-anxiety meds out there that are worth looking into - people talk about mental health meds as if they dope you up and make you into a zombie, but that’s usually not the case with a lot of the newer medications out there, and there are loads of different options you can try if you feel one type of medicine doesn’t agree with your body, or your side-effects aren’t worth it.

Attempt to keep track of your triggers. There are a lot of really great mood tracking apps (I use Daylio personally) that you can use to identify how you’ve been feeling on a particular day, and what you did. Being mindful of what you’re doing and how it’s making you feel, and examining if you can identify a cause of your anxiety spikes can be really helpful in the long run, because it helps you identify behaviours that make your anxiety better or worse, and allows you to change the way you act and avoid any triggers you identify. Similarly, you can also identify coping mechanisms you’ve tried, and examine whether they’re healthy or unhealthy, and how effective they are.

I know this is really cliché, but some super accessible things that a lot of people do to cope with anxiety are things like mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises. Stuff like full-body mind scans and progressive muscle relaxation are really easy to do, and there are dozens of apps and youtube videos and stuff out there that can guide you through exercises that you can use if you’re feeling particularly paranoid. They can also help to calm your physical symptoms and interrupt thought spirals. Of course they don’t work for everyone, and they aren’t a cure, but they can be a really helpful coping mechanism.

If you’re not able to access therapy in person, there are still a lot of resources you can use. If cost is a factor, there are a lot of lower-cost online therapy options, as well as free support services like online counselling (i.e. 7cupsoftea) and anxiety helplines/hotlines that allow you to speak to an adviser over the phone or via instant messenger, which might be helpful if you find yourself particularly panicky and need someone to talk you down. As well as that, there are a lot of online resources to help you cope longer term. Mental health charity websites can often be a good place to start looking to research potential treatment options and coping mechanisms.

If you’re a student at a school or university, see if your institution has a counsellor, or any sort of mental health support accessible through that institution. If you’re employed at a large-ish firm, there may be resources you can access through your company, like through HR.

A lot of CBT worksheets are available online for you to work through by yourself - even if you don’t have a therapist to go through them with, you can still do those exercises. If you google something like ‘CBT anxiety workbook’ or ‘CBT anxiety exercises’ you should come up with a ton of resources that you can flick through and see if you can identify any that you think might be helpful. Examples of some of these exercises:

Stuff like making a table to record details of your anxiety spikes can be really helpful (these usually involve details such as: when it happened, what was happening at the time, why you think it happened, how bad was your anxiety on a scale of 1 to 10, what actions did you take to try and calm those feelings, how effective were those actions, how bad was your anxiety on the same scale after taking those actions) in terms of identifying patterns in your behaviour, and what helps and what makes it worse. The physical act of writing everything down makes you more aware of and more likely to examine your own thought processes and behavioural patterns, and also allows you to identify patterns you may not have seen before.

Another CBT exercise I’ve read about that can help with feelings of anxiety in the moment is a likelihood exercise - asking yourself what your anxiety/paranoia thinks will happen, estimating how many times you’ve thought that would happen, thinking about how many times it’s actually happened in reality, and comparing that, can help you rationalise those fears.

Other techniques include:

Doing some sort of vigorous activity to clear the anxious energy from your body - short periods of exercise, house/yard work like vacuuming, turning up some loud music and having a dance, etc.

Making a list of soothing activities (i.e. having a hot drink, taking a shower, washing your face, wrapping yourself up in a blanket, etc.) and picking one when you’re feeling shaky to help self-soothe

Trying to get some mental distance from your worries by finding something else to focus on to interrupt those spirals - try and make it something productive and/or enjoyable. Doing something productive, even if it’s really simple like gathering up dirty laundry, gives you a task to focus on and can help you feel like you’ve accomplished something.

Setting aside daily ‘worry clearing time,’ in which you write down the things you’re worried about. If these worries arise outside of that time, try to tell yourself ‘I’ll worry about that later, but not now.’

In combination with the above, you can make an action plan of what you would do if any of your worries happen, so you feel more secure and prepared.

Some people find it helpful when they’re identifying their worries because they can them see the ones that they have no control over, or that aren’t actually that big a deal, and decide to set them aside and prioritise other things.

Try not to avoid your anxiety, or the things you don’t want to do because of it. Acknowledging it as something that you’re experiencing but that is separate from yourself - a external entity or force inside your head, can be helpful. When you start to feel anxious, some people actually address their anxiety and talk to it like it’s a person - this can help to separate it from your own personality and help you forgive yourself for being symptomatic.

Research unhealthy coping mechanisms so you can identify them. Things like over-reassurance (asking for a bit of reassurance from a friend/family member/partner is fine, but if you’re doing it all the time or need to repeat themselves because you don’t believe them at first), stress eating, avoidance, and substance use are some common ones, for instance.

Again, I stress that I’m not a doctor, and this is not a substitute for medical care, but it may be of some assistance if you’re not able to get that medical care yet.

If anyone has any other tips, drop them in the replies!

#advice #resources #anxiety #anxiety recovery #generalised anxiety disorder #negative /#anxiety /#food /#long post #love queueself #fox.txt #lovenotereminders

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lovenotesuggestions · 5 years

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Hello! So I've got a problem with like, my thought process I guess you could say. I think it's because of my mom, but honestly I don't really know. I get paranoid really easily over the smallest to the most overly drastic and dramatic things. For example, my girlfriend likes to drink alcohol, and while my morals are against alcohol, I'd never stop her from drinking, and she likes to go with her best friend maybe 2-3 times a month (🍥 part 1)

And while I know that's not an amount that could do extreme damage to her body, I'm always terrified of something going wrong. And another example would be like, I could make a minor mistake, and I'll be terrified that I've angered or upset my girlfriend, and I would sometimes refuse to stop talking about a problem until it's resolved in fear that I would lose her before I can and the last thing we do together is argue (like in super dramatic movies) (🍥 part 2)

I know it's EXTREMELY toxic of me, and is very self-destructive. And I know it's a combination of my anxiety, insecurity, and paranoia. Heck, I don't even think it's my mom's fault. She used to tell me smaller things, like I needed to stop eating rice or else I could get diabetes (it runs in the family) but I think the small things like that built up, along with dramatic movies that always tugged at my emotions, that made me paranoid. (🍥 part 3)

Anyway, I kind of got off topic giving you some bg info. What I wanted to ask is, what advice would you recommend to stop or at least lessen such a terrible thought process? Therapy isn't an option for me, so I was hoping you'd have another possibility for me. I probably sound super crazy and unstable, but honestly this stuff doesn't affect me too often. It just fluctuates every now and then. But I'd appreciate the advice. Thank you listening to my craziness! (🍥 part 4/4)

Hello! I sent an ask a couple days ago that consisted of 4 parts, and a 🍥 emoji, and I didn't realize that it was claimed already! So I was wondering if I were able to claim 🍓💕? Thanks so much for what you do!

You don’t sound crazy or unstable, and you don’t sound like a toxic person - you sound like a person with symptoms of anxiety. And whilst it’s good to recognise when your behaviours might be harmful to yourself and to others, it’s not helpful to anyone for you to beat yourself up and be self-deprecating. You’re not crazy - you’re experiencing symptoms. I think that’s the first thing worth trying to do: be more aware of the language you use to describe yourself and try and adjust it to be a little more fair and a little kinder to yourself. If you wouldn’t talk about a close friend that way, try not to talk about yourself that way.

I always recommend seeking medical help if you’re able to - I appreciate that therapy isn’t an option, but if you’re able to see your GP that might at least give you some support. For example, if your doctor has a record that you’ve been having these difficulties, it can be easier to get support in things like getting a sick note or extenuating circumstances or additional accommodations if you need something like that for school/work etc. You could also potentially access medication even if therapy isn’t an option. There are a bunch of effective anti-anxiety meds on the market that you might find helpful if you’re able to access them. For instance, I’m on beta blockers that I take as and when I need them if I’m feeling particularly anxious, and they can reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety (like trembling/fast heart rate/feeling nauseous, etc.) which can make anxiety spikes a little easier to cope with. If this or any other type of anxiety medication is of interest to you, and you have the means to visit your family doctor to talk to them about it, that’s another potential treatment option if you can’t access therapy.

Another thing worth trying is to attempt to keep track of your triggers. There are a lot of really great mood tracking apps (I use Daylio personally) that you can use to identify how you’ve been feeling on a particular day, and what you did. Being mindful of what you’re doing and how it’s making you feel, and examining if you can identify a cause of your anxiety spikes can be really helpful in the long run, because it helps you identify behaviours that make your anxiety better or worse, and allows you to change the way you act and avoid any triggers you identify. Similarly, you can also identify coping mechanisms you’ve tried, and examine whether they’re healthy or unhealthy, and how effective they are.

Also I know this is really cliché, but some super accessible things that a lot of people do to cope with anxiety are things like mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises. Stuff like full-body mind scans and progressive muscle relaxation are really easy to do, and there are dozens of apps and youtube videos and stuff out there that can guide you through exercises that you can use if you’re feeling particularly paranoid, and they can help to calm your physical symptoms and sort of reset your thought practice. Of course they don’t work for everyone, and they aren’t a cure, but they can be a really helpful coping mechanism.

As well as that, there are a lot of online resources to help you cope longer term. Mental health charity websites can often be a good place to start looking to research potential treatment options and coping mechanisms. A lot of CBT worksheets are available online for you to work through by yourself - even if you don’t have a therapist to go through them with, you can still do those exercises. If you google something like ‘CBT anxiety workbook’ or ‘CBT anxiety exercises’ you should come up with a ton of resources that you can flick through and see if you can identify any that you think might be helpful. Stuff like making a table to record details of your anxiety spikes can be really helpful (these usually involve details such as: when it happened, what was happening at the time, why you think it happened, how bad was your anxiety on a scale of 1 to 10, what actions did you take to try and calm those feelings, how effective were those actions, how bad was your anxiety on the same scale after taking those actions) in terms of identifying patterns in your behaviour, and what helps and what makes it worse. The physical act of writing everything down makes you more aware of and more likely to examine your own thought processes and behavioural patterns, and also allows you to identify patterns you may not have seen before. Another CBT exercise I’ve read about that can help with feelings of anxiety in the moment is a likelihood exercise - asking yourself what your anxiety/paranoia thinks will happen, estimating how many times you’ve thought that would happen, thinking about how many times it’s actually happened in reality, and comparing that, can help you rationalise those fears.

Other similar techniques include:

Doing some sort of vigorous activity to clear the anxiety from your body - short periods of exercise, house/yard work like vacuuming, turning up some loud music and having a dance

In combination with the above, you can make an action plan of what you would do if any of your worries happen, so you feel more secure and prepared.

I hope that’s helpful, and I wish you all the best in your road to recovery 💕

Followers: if anyone else has any tips for this anon or experience you’d like to share, feel free to do so!

#advice #anxiety /#family /#food /#negative /#not a suggestion #long post #strawberry hearts anon #Anonymous #answered

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scripttorture · 6 years

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I have a character who is taking care of someone who was tortured. In this story they aren't really aware of exactly what happened, but they're seeing hints of it - the person flinching away from them in fright if they move too quick/get too close, getting incredibly emotional/upset even when reassured that they're all right, loss of appetite, nausea, terrified of being left alone, etc. Besides medication, what are some things the person can do to help without knowing specifics of what happened?

Tobe honest I’m not sure that knowing the specifics is as helpful aswe tend to assume it is. It probably helps a caregiver to processwhat they’re seeing, it might give an illusion of control but thecommon psychological symptoms are generally the same regardless ofwhat torture technique was used and the treatment is also pretty muchthe same.

Unlessthere are physical injuries or conditions that need to bespecifically addressed I don’t think a detailed account of whathappened is necessary to help. In the same way that you don’t needto know what someone was stabbed with in order to hold a towel overthe wound.

Psychologicalsymptoms themselves can’t prove torture or even trauma. You’reright that the helping character might get an idea of what happenedfrom the survivor’s symptoms and how they respond. But- some of thethings you’ve listed are things Idoand I’ve never been tortured or traumatised.

Iguess I feel like it’s important to stress that because we canprove pretty conclusively that someone is mentally ill and hassymptoms consistent with trauma. But that isn’t proof of trauma.

Asfor what someone can do to help- There are a lot of everyday thingspeople can do to support someone. All of what follows comes with thecaveat that I am not a mental health professional, this is intendedfor fiction and this is not intended to help you depict a mentalhealth professional.

Ithink the most important thing is probably listening to what thetraumatised character says and not dismissing it. If they’vedeveloped an irrational fear of the kettle then telling them it’sirrational isn’t going to help but finding an alternate way ofgetting hot water or making their tea for them might.

Talkingand communication is important but it’s often really difficult. Iuh- obviously don’t know if you’ve got any experience talking tosomeone who is severely depressive and/or suicidal but it can feel abit circular. It can be difficult to get them engaged in theconversation. Often everything on their side comes back to how awfulthey’re feeling.

Thiscan create a real feeling of helplessness in care givers/friends.They feel like they ‘should’ be able to get rid of this mood. Tocheer them up or ‘snap them out of it’. And usually it doesn’twork like that.

Thingslike anxiety of hypervigilance can similarly impact on relationships.Friends might find it difficult that the survivor character isflinching from them ordoesn’t want to be touched by them.Because they’re a friend not a threat, and doesn’t the survivorknow that? Unfortunately it’s pretty common for someone tologically know that and have a response due to their mental illnessanyway. No amount of logic or talking will make this response vanishquickly.

It’simportant for the character to be patient and not get frustrated oroverwhelmed by the fact they can’t magically get through to thevictim.

It’salso important that the care givers knows to take some time tothemselves. Otherwise they’re likely to get overwhelmed, burn outor start to resent the victim for their ‘inability’ to just getbetter.

Everydaypractical things like doing the laundry or cooking dinner are alsoincredibly important. It’s pretty common for trauma survivors tofeel unable to cope with a lot of small everyday tasks. That’s partand parcel of a lot of the mental illnesses torture causes.

Makingsure someone has had a hot meal when the prospect of cooking seemsdaunting is a huge help.

It’simportant that the supporting character doesn’t try to force orpressure the survivor into telling them what happened. Doing so canmake them relive the experience, trigger their mental health problemsand damage their relationship with the supporting character.

There’salso a host of small things a character can do to help with specificproblems the survivor is experiencing.

I’mcribbing this example from Scripttraumasurvivor-

Saythe survivor struggles to get out of bed at all (common withdepressive symptoms). The supporting character might come in at areasonable time in the morning and open the curtains, lay out someclothes and cleaning paraphernalia. They might ask the character toplease get up before leaving them to space and time to do so.

If/whenthe character gets up they might then encourage them to move out ofthe bedroom and perhaps even outside. They might also talk to thesurvivor in ways that are...trying to focus on the fact they’re notalone.

Noticeall the small actions in that passage that encourage the character toget up and make things easier or less overwhelming. The clothes arealready laid out. The room is lighter (but not artificially so),encouraging them to wake up. They’re given the time and space toact on their own, which would hopefully reduce the sense of shamethey probably feel for not being able to do these things as easilyany more.

It’sabout carrying on with those sorts of small acts for...everything.Understanding that some days they won’tbe able to get out of bed and responding to that with care andcompassion. ‘OK you can’t get up, how about sitting up? Can youdo that? Can I get you some pillows? Do you want me to bring youbreakfast?’

Forloss of appetite and nausea specifically- well I’ve suffered fromboth for prolonged periods and the two main things I can remember are1) always keep a bucket to hand and 2) finding out what’s easy toeat by trial and error.

Differentpeople (and characters) will find different things easy to eat. Soupmight be good for some people. Certain textures or flavours might bea bad idea. Things that are difficult to chew are probably out.I….basically lived off rice and lentils for a couple of months.Sometimes with onions. I think that worked for me personally becauseit was food I’d grown up on, as well as being easy to chew andswallow and without strong flavours.

Smallerportions may also help. I knew I felt incredibly guilty for beingunable to finish a plate of food, even if I knew finishing it wouldresult in being sick. Giving the survivor (or encouraging them tomake) lots of smaller portions is potentially an answer to that.

Progresshappens but it is slow and for both the survivor and the supportingcharacter it’s going to be partly about remembering overallprogress instead of focusing on bad days. There will be bad days andthere will be set backs. There’ll be times the coping skillsthey’re used to don’t work so well.

It’slittle things and little steps. For the supporting character it canbe incredibly intense and stressful experience, it canmean...essentially becoming a carer for a while. It’s difficultwork, necessary but difficult.

Ithink you’ll also find Scripttraumasurvivor’s recovery taghelpful. There’s a lot more advice there about hands on actionsyour character could take, ways of approaching conversations and whatthe experience of recovery feels like from both sides.

Ihope that helps. :)

Disclaimer

#tw torture #writing victims #effects of torture #recovery #mental health #depression #anxiety #Anonymous

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paleorecipecookbook · 6 years

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Do You Need to Increase Your Daily Carb Intake?

Are you an advocate of the low-carb lifestyle or the ketogenic diet? If you’ve been experiencing problems like fatigue, constipation, or a weight loss plateau, it could be a sign that it’s time to increase your daily carb intake.

In this article, I’ll discuss how to figure out your ideal carb intake—and I’ll talk about when it makes sense to stay low-carb.

Who Should Avoid a Low-Carb Diet?

Carbohydrates and fat are the two primary energy sources for your body. Carbs also fill a variety of important roles in your health and are a great source of antioxidants and micronutrients.

There are also a handful of life stages and health conditions for which low-carbohydrate diets are not recommended. If you fall into one of these categories, I recommend you increase your daily carb intake. Otherwise, you risk harming your health.

Are you following the low-carb diet trend? While kicking refined sugars off your plate is a great step, in some cases, restricting your daily carb intake too much can harm your health. Check out this article to find out if you’re eating enough carbs.

Pregnant and Lactating Women

Pregnancy is not the time to experiment with this type of diet. In fact, traditional cultures have long understood the importance of optimal nutrition and carbohydrate intake during the preconception period, pregnancy, and lactation.

Weston A. Price, who traveled the globe in the early 20th century studying the dietary habits of traditional cultures, noted that women in African tribes were strongly encouraged to eat two carbohydrate-rich grains, linga-linga (a botanical relative of quinoa) and red millet, during pregnancy and the nursing period. (1) These people understood, through the transgenerational passing of accumulated wisdom and experience, that carbohydrates were crucial for women during these time periods.

We now understand on a scientific level that carbohydrates are necessary during pregnancy.

They ensure optimal brain growth and development in the fetus. A lack of carbohydrates and overall energy during the preconception period and pregnancy, as observed in the famous studies of children conceived and born during the Dutch Hunger Winter of WWII, reduces the amount of glucose available to the fetus. This ultimately results in smaller infant size and impaired mental health and metabolism later in life. (2, 3)

Furthermore, research has linked a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet during pregnancy to increased cortisol in offspring. (4) Alarmingly, following a ketogenic diet during pregnancy also reduces the size of the child’s critical brain regions and has other effects on their brain’s structure. (5) The long-term health implications of these changes remain largely unknown, but it is reasonable to say that low-carb diets are best avoided during pregnancy.

The harmful effects of low-carb diets on infants are not limited to preconception and pregnancy; a low-carb diet during lactation may alter milk production and composition and reduce infant growth. (6)

Based on this evidence, pregnant and lactating women should aim for a moderate carbohydrate intake, which I define as approximately 30 percent of your total calories.

For more information about the complex role that carbohydrates play in pregnancy, check out my article “Do Low-Carb Diets During Pregnancy Increase the Risk of Birth Defects?”

Children

Low-carb diets are not recommended for children. Sometimes, children with gut issues such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or neurobehavioral disorders such as autism or ADHD, are put on reduced-carbohydrate diets by their well-intentioned parents to control gut dysbiosis or manage blood sugar. This is problematic. Carbohydrates are required to fuel weight gain and brain development in growing children. They’re part of the healthy diet kids need to thrive.

While adults can thrive on low-carb diets that strictly limit calories from carbs because they are no longer growing, kids can’t.

In fact, children who have to rely on dietary protein and fat for energy often don’t grow or function as well as their counterparts. They may even overproduce toxic by-products of protein catabolism, such as urea and ammonia.

If your child is struggling with gut or attention issues, focus on balancing his or her blood sugar with a diet that includes complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and protein, along with interventions that correct dysbiosis and optimize brain function. Don’t cut out carbohydrates.

Athletes

When we eat foods containing glucose, some of that glucose is used to build a branched polysaccharide called glycogen. The liver and skeletal muscle are the primary sites of glycogen synthesis in the body. Along with fat, glycogen serves as an important energy substrate during exercise.

The cyclical depletion and repletion of muscle glycogen that occurs in athletes often requires a high carb intake to sustain. In many athletes, carbohydrate intake has a direct impact on their ability to perform well in their chosen sport. (7, 8) However, the amount of carbs athletes need each day depends on several factors, including:

Sex

Degree of metabolic flexibility

The type of physical activity being performed

Do All Athletes Need to Eat High-Carb Diets?

For decades, the prevailing dogma in sports nutrition has been that endurance athletes need to eat large amounts of carbohydrates to continually replenish their glycogen stores. However, new research indicates that ketones, organic molecules produced by the liver when it breaks down fat for energy, are ideal fuel sources for the low-intensity, long-range exertion of endurance sports. (9, 10, 11)

This new research—and the experiences of a growing number of athletes who are crushing it on ketogenic diets—suggests that low-carb diets may be safe and effective for endurance athletes.

However, the caveat is that most of the research on ketogenic diets in endurance athletes has been performed on men—women are sorely underrepresented. This means that we can’t necessarily conclude that female endurance athletes will respond favorably to this type of diet. Endurance exercise frequently disrupts the delicate hormonal balance in female athletes; a low-carb diet may further stress the endocrine system and contribute to the “female athlete triad,” a constellation of symptoms like:

Insufficient calorie intake

Amenorrhea

Osteoporosis

And, while endurance athletes may thrive on a low-carb diet, activities that involve explosive movements, such as martial arts and CrossFit, are highly glycolytic and usually require a higher carbohydrate intake.

The takeaway here is that every athlete’s carbohydrate needs are unique.

If you’ve been on a low-carb diet for months and are struggling in your workouts, it may be time to increase your daily carb intake. Even going from a low-carb to a moderate-carb diet can produce significant gains in strength and endurance.

For reference, the low end of carb intake for athletes is approximately 20 percent of total calorie intake, whereas the high end is 30 to 40 percent of total calorie intake. Athletes need to experiment to find their carbohydrate intake “sweet spot” that fuels their chosen sports while also supporting the health of their minds and bodies over the long-term.

People with Hypothyroidism

The amount of carbs you eat each day has a significant effect on thyroid function. Insulin, which is needed for the conversion of inactive T4 to active T3 hormone, is secreted by the pancreas in response to ingested carbohydrates. Insulin levels are generally low on low-carb diets. If you’ve been eating low-carb for a while and are struggling with hypothyroid symptoms like cold hands and feet, thinning hair, constipation, and fatigue, you may want to consider increasing your daily carb intake.

Those with HPA Axis Dysregulation

The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is the body’s central stress response system. HPA axis dysregulation is triggered by chronic stress that erodes the body’s resilience and metabolic reserve. It leads to changes in the output of hormones and neurotransmitters such as:

Cortisol

DHEA

Melatonin

Epinephrine

High cortisol is a common problem for people with HPA axis dysregulation, and low-carb diets may exacerbate the problem because they increase cortisol. (12) Slightly increasing your carbohydrate intake may be a helpful adjunct treatment in a comprehensive plan designed to correct HPA axis dysfunction.

How to Figure Out Your Ideal Daily Carb Intake

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to carbohydrate intake. In The Paleo Cure, I broke down different carb intakes by percent of total calories and grams per day and included indications for each level of intake.

Carb intake as a percentage of total calories Carb intake for men in grams based on a 2,600-kcal diet Carb intake for women in grams based on a 2,000-kcal diet Consider this diet if you: Very low carb <10% <65 g <50 g Have neurological issues (like epilepsy or Alzheimer’s disease or severe blood sugar problems) Low carb 10–15% 65–100 g 50–75 g Are trying to lose weight, regulate blood sugar, correct mood disturbances, or fix digestive problems Moderate carb 15–30% 100–200 g 75–150 g Are generally healthy and want to maintain your current weight, or you are suffering from HPA axis dysregulation, hypothyroidism, or familial hypercholesterolemia High carb >30% >200 g >150 g Are an athlete or highly active person, are trying to gain weight or muscle mass, have a fast metabolism, or are pregnant or breastfeeding

Take a look at this chart and get a feel for which category best fits your needs. Once you have selected a category, use the three-step process below to determine your ideal daily carb intake.

1. Consider Your Current Health Status

It is important to consider your current state of health when figuring out your optimal carbohydrate intake. For example, someone who is pre-diabetic or diabetic is likely to reap more benefit from a low-carb diet than an athlete with well-controlled blood sugar.

Another important aspect of your health to consider is your digestion. Does eating carbs give you gas, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation? If so, limiting your intake, even for a short period of time while you pursue treatment, may be useful. If you struggle with HPA axis dysregulation, are a woman looking to optimize your fertility, or are pregnant or breastfeeding, then you should aim for a moderate carbohydrate intake.

2. Determine Your Daily Calorie Needs and Calculate Your Ideal Carb Intake

The first step here is to determine your daily calorie needs. You can use a tool such as this BMR calculator from Many Tools. Once you have a value for your calorie needs, you can experiment with different ratios of carbs in your diet.

For example, if your daily energy needs are 2,000 calories and you’d like to aim for a moderate carb intake (30 percent of total calories), multiply 2,000 by 0.30. This comes out to 600 calories from carbs per day. Next, with the understanding that there are 4 calories in a gram of carbohydrates, divide 600 by 4 to get 150 grams; this is the number of grams of carbs you should eat per day.

3. Track Your Daily Carb Intake

Use an app, such as MealLogger or Eat This Much, to help you track how many carbs you eat in a day. Document how you feel either in an app or food journal.

One of the benefits of using Eat This Much is that the app can adjust your macronutrient percentages and automatically generate meal plans for you that fit within those parameters. This makes it easy to experiment with different carb intakes, track your results, and change course if needed.

When a Low-Carb Diet Is a Good Idea

While it makes sense for some people to eat more carbs, they can be problematic for others. Low-carb diets can help people with:

Blood sugar issues

SIBO

Gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD)

Neurological disorders

Mental health disorders

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

Some forms of cancer

If you have one of these health issues, eating more carbs may not be the right choice for you.

You Are Overweight or Obese

A growing body of research indicates that low-carbohydrate diets are useful for promoting weight loss. (13, 14) Eating low-carb encourages weight loss by spontaneously reducing calorie intake, stabilizing blood sugar, and boosting insulin sensitivity. These diets also tend to be higher in protein, which has satiating effects and decreases your appetite and food intake.

You Have Blood Sugar Imbalances

Blood sugar imbalances have several harmful effects on the body. Elevated blood sugar promotes chronic inflammation, which is a risk factor for many chronic diseases, including:

Type 2 diabetes

Alzheimer’s disease

Heart disease

Cancer

Diets high in refined carbohydrates promote chronically elevated blood sugar, which may eventually morph into insulin resistance or diabetes. A high refined carbohydrate intake can also provoke reactive hypoglycemia, a condition in which blood sugar drops too low following a meal, resulting in anxiety, dizziness, shakiness, hunger, and brain fog.

If you are prone to high blood sugar or blood sugar fluctuations, you may want to eat fewer carbs in a day. That will help stabilize your levels and prevent the symptoms associated with the blood sugar “roller coaster.”

You Have a Neurological Disorder

Research indicates that blood sugar dysregulation plays an important role in neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and ALS. In fact, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, and dementia all respond favorably to a ketogenic diet. Ketogenic diets are very low in carbohydrates and cause the body to rely on ketone bodies rather than glucose for energy. (15, 16, 17)

You Suffer from a Mood Disorder

Blood sugar regulation is closely tied to mood and mental health. Research has found that a high sugar intake and poor glycemic control (i.e., blood sugar swings) negatively impact mood and psychological health. (18, 19) Interestingly, the ketogenic diet has demonstrated effects similar to antidepressant drugs, suggesting that following this type of lifestyle may benefit people with mood disorders. (20) However, some people experience increased anxiety on a low-carb diet, so ultimately, you’ll need to experiment to determine what best supports your mental health.

You Have PCOS

Between 5 and 10 percent of women of childbearing age in the United States have PCOS, making it one of the most common hormonal disorders in women. Adopting a low-carb diet can be a beneficial approach to PCOS because it alleviates the hallmark symptoms of the disease. It promotes weight loss, reduces free testosterone and the LH/FSH ratio, and decreases fasting insulin. (21, 22)

You Have a Digestive Disorder

People with SIBO and GERD often find that carbohydrates exacerbate their digestive problems. A restricted intake of fermentable carbohydrates, particularly FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols), can work wonders to reduce symptoms of GI distress. However, some people with SIBO and GERD do fine with moderate amounts of starches like white rice and plantains. If you have SIBO or GERD, self-experimentation can help you determine if low-carb works for you.

You Have Cancer

Some (but not all) research suggests that low-carbohydrate diets may be beneficial in the treatment of certain cancers. Cancer cells require glucose for fuel. The theory is that by reducing glucose intake, it may be possible to “starve” cancer cells and inhibit their survival and proliferation. (23) While not all cancers respond, low-carb diets have demonstrated good results in brain, prostate, and colon cancers. (24, 25, 26)

Now, I’d like to hear from you. Do you follow the low-carb lifestyle? What’s your daily carb intake? Are you thinking of switching to a moderate- or high-carb diet? Let me know below in the comment section!

The post Do You Need to Increase Your Daily Carb Intake? appeared first on Chris Kresser.

Source: http://chriskresser.com October 04, 2018 at 08:06PM

#paleo #recipe #food #delicious #healthy #yum #diet

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nuttystrawberrysalad · 3 years

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Are Blankets the New Going-Out Accessory?

From Sarah Jessica Parker’s monogrammed Burberry poncho to Norma Kamali’s Sleeping Bag Coat, fashion has long embraced blanket-inspired styles. During a time when most socializing takes place outdoors, would you wear one outside the house?

A weighted blanket is exactly what it sounds like - it’s a blanket with extra weight in it. Weighted blankets are unique as instead of being filled with cotton or down, it contains materials like glass beads to make them heavier. This weight is evenly distributed across the body for a feeling of being gently hugged. The deep touch pressure offered by the weighted blanket is supposed to make you feel safe, relaxed, and comfortable.

Blankets, a symbol of coziness and warmth usually relegated to the indoors, can also be a great piece to layer for fall and winter outfits. Though temperatures are just starting to drop in New York City, WSJ. staffers have spotted a few in the wild—mostly while outdoor dining, which New York City recently extended permanently. (It was originally set to expire ahead of the winter months, on October 31.) For the first time in recent history, the preferred environment for socializing has become “anywhere outside.” And during a pandemic and period of worldwide unrest, most people are seeking comfort more than ever. As a replacement for the timeworn going-out top—obviously better suited to the indoors—the going-out blanket suddenly makes sense.

Over the years, blankets have inspired fashion, from the upscale double layers blanket poncho that Sarah Jessica Parker wore in 2014, personalized with her initials, to Norma Kamali’s famous blanket-adjacent Sleeping Bag Coat, which she first designed in 1973. In 2012, Lenny Kravitz went viral after being photographed by paparazzi while ensconced in an enormous scarf on his way to buy groceries. Six years later, he defended the accessory on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “But Lenny,” Fallon said, “this is not a scarf. This is a blanket.”

After my sister gave me a weighted blanket for Christmas, it became the gift that I didn't know I needed. It's one of the best things ever to happen to me.

As someone with anxiety, I've struggled with restful sleep: Falling asleep can take up to two hours, or I wake up at least twice during the night.

The first night I started sleeping underneath a 15-pound flannel blanket, I slept straight through the night for the first time in months and felt more rested during the day. After a few days of good sleep, I learned that my sister had done her gift research — she had read that people with anxiety tended to feel more grounded when using the blankets.

Fascinated, I asked experts on mental health and sleep to explain why these heavy blankets — which are filled with plastic, glass or metal particles and layered with extra fabric — have eased the, ahem, weight of some people's anxiety-related sleep struggles.

Weighted blankets, which range from 5 to 30 pounds (2.27 to 13.6 kilograms), have been used by special needs educators and occupational therapists since the late 1990s, but have become mainstream in the last few years. Regular blankets can weigh around 3 to 5 pounds.

The dominant theory is that weighted blankets provide deep pressure stimulation, a feeling that resembles a "firm, but gentle, squeeze or holding sensation and ... triggers these feelings of relaxation and of being calm," said pulmonary and sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Feeling relaxed is what decreases cortisol, a stress hormone that typically runs high in people with chronic anxiety, stress and other disorders, he added.

There is evidence suggesting that deep pressure stimulation reduces sympathetic nervous system arousal — that's our fight-or-flight response — and increases parasympathetic activity, which may cause the calming effect, said Dr. Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, the director of sleep medicine at Millennium Physician Group in Florida.

Pressure to stimulate the sensation of touch to muscles and joints is the same proposed mechanism behind massage and acupressure, added Abbasi-Feinberg, who is also a neurologist on the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's board of directors. "This calming (effect) can promote better quality sleep."

If you're interested in using a weighted blanket to aid sleep problems related to mental or sensory disorders, here's what you should know about their effectiveness, any caveats and how to choose one.

Weighted blankets have been growing in popularity, but there isn't actually much research on their effectiveness. That may be due to the newness of weighted blankets, their relative harmlessness and that other health issues are more urgent for researchers to study, Dasgupta said.

Some people with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder or insomnia have reported improved quality of sleep and feeling more restful during the day, a few recent, small studies have found. Many study participants experienced a decrease of 50% or more in their Insomnia Severity Index scores after using a weighted blanket for four weeks, in comparison to 5.4% of the control group, according to a small study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine last September.

In the follow-up phase of the study, which lasted one year, people who used fleece blanket continued to benefit. People who switched from lightweight control blankets to weighted blankets experienced similar effects. And those who used weighted blankets also reported better sleep maintenance, a higher daytime activity level, remission from insomnia symptoms and alleviated symptoms of anxiety, depression and fatigue.

Researchers who studied the effects of weighted blankets on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or autism have found either some positive associations or no associations with better sleep or reduced symptoms.

"A 'grounded feeling' due to the use of weighted blankets may be attributed to the psychoanalytic 'holding environment' theory, which states that touch is a basic need that provides calming and comfort," Abbasi-Feinberg said via email. "Weighted blankets are designed to work similar to the way tight swaddling helps newborns feel snug and secure."

Many, if not all, of the available studies on weighted blankets used participants who had a psychiatric, developmental or sleep disorder such as anxiety, depression, autism, ADHD or insomnia. That's likely because of "the fact that these segments of the population are the ones who could benefit most from touch- or sensory-related therapies," Abbasi-Feinberg said.

However, given how weighted blankets might work to reduce cortisol levels, they could help to reduce general stress, too, Dasgupta said.

People have shared their fondness for weighted blankets in studies and online, but people with the same psychiatric disorders may not have the same relaxing experiences with weighted blankets. One person in the follow-up phase of the 2020 study discontinued their participation due to feelings of anxiety when using the blanket. People who are claustrophobic may also not fare well. More studies on factors that make individuals more or less helped by weighted blankets are needed, Dasgupta added.

A weighted blanket's calming abilities may help to regulate breathing, but some health professionals are hesitant to recommend weighted blankets to people with obstructive sleep apnea, asthma or other respiratory conditions. "You'd have to be pretty brittle and pretty sick if a blanket's going to stop your breathing," Dasgupta said. But if you're not sure, he added, be careful and talk to your pulmonologist first.

Children should be assessed by occupational therapists or pediatricians before they try sherpa blanket, as many weighted blankets haven't been tested for the effectiveness and safety for children.

"Weighted blankets shouldn't be used for toddlers under 2 years old, as it may increase the risk of suffocation," Abbasi-Feinberg said. "It's important for parents to always consult their pediatrician before trying a weighted blanket."

Dogs sometimes benefit from pressure-applying garments during storms or other anxiety-inducing events, but weighted blankets can be dangerous for pets, said Dr. Douglas Kratt, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

If you're looking for a weighted blanket, there are multiple options in terms of weight, materials and size. A blanket that weighs 7% to 12% of your body weight is typically the range to choose from, but that may depend on personal preference. "Some individuals might want a heavier weight to feel a sense of 'hugging' and calmness, while others might want something lighter," Abbasi-Feinberg said.

And there are weighted blankets for year-round use, she added — some are made with a higher proportion of fabric layers made from cotton, which is lighter than other materials and allows air to pass through its fibers, therefore better managing your body temperature.

Dasgupta thinks of sleep as a puzzle, and sometimes people with insomnia or mental disorders are missing some of the pieces needed for great sleep, but "no one really knows what puzzle pieces are missing."

Weighted blankets could help, but they're not a cure-all — a healthy sleep routine is still necessary for getting enough of both sleep time and the deeper stages that leave you refreshed. If you think that a weighted blanket could be your missing puzzle piece, "it's worth a try," Dasgupta said. The downside is that these blankets can be pricey.

During the pandemic, "sleep really took a hit" when it comes to insomnia, altered circadian rhythm and nightmares, Dasgupta said. "A weighted blanket is something that might have a role during this pandemic. ... That sense of the basic need to be touched and hugged could actually provide some comfort and security. Maybe that's why some people benefit from a weighted blanket."

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lovemychinchilla · 3 years

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Why Do Chinchillas Die Suddenly?

If your chinchilla died suddenly, it's a shock, and it's sad. What makes the shock worse is that chinchillas can die for what seems like no reason.

Why do chinchillas die unexpectedly? Sudden death in chinchillas is caused by heart attacks, strokes, sudden physical trauma, or environmental issues like excess heat, cold or moisture. To figure out how a chinchilla died, ask a vet to perform a 'necropsy' (like an autopsy). Chinchillas cannot die of fright or a broken heart.

Try not to feel helpless. If you can figure out why your chinchilla died unexpectedly, you can improve the way you care for your pets, and avoid the problem recurring in the future.

Why Did My Chinchilla Randomly Die?

Sudden death in chinchillas is sad, but not unusual. Chinchillas are kept as farm and lab animals as well as as pets, and the professional trade recognizes an issue known as 'shock syndrome'; this is when a chinchilla dies suddenly, having displayed no symptoms of ill health.

The reasons behind this issue aren't clear. Owners speculate that their pets try to 'hide' signs of pain and ill health, although how much a chinchilla understands that it's ill and why it would do this isn't known.

What Can Chinchillas Die From?

There are many health conditions, both chronic and acute, which affect chinchillas. The most common are:

Gastrointestinal stasis, the scientific term for constipation.

Gastroenteritis, infection of the gut or sudden shift in gut bacteria composition caused by diet/antibiotics.

Malocclusion, where the teeth don't form a proper 'bite'.

However, these conditions can be spotted by an experienced and attentive owner before they become too serious. As such, they can only kill suddenly if you aren't observing your pet or taking it to the vet. There are other reasons why chinchillas might die; these are less common, but are more likely to occur suddenly or randomly.

Can Physical Trauma Kill Chinchillas?

Chinchillas can break their bones. Ribs are especially prone to breaking.

Physical trauma can cause sudden death in chinchillas. Accidents happen suddenly, and can leave your pet in lots of pain, experiencing an infection, or worse.

The easiest way for physical trauma to kill a chinchilla is through infection. An infection of a wound is where bacteria get into an opening or cut in the skin and reproduce. This is made more likely by dirty surroundings, but can happen when natural bacteria from the skin/fur get into a wound too. If the infection gets into the blood stream, it causes a condition called 'septicemia'. This is where the bacteria infects the internal organs, and this can kill in a matter of hours.

Your chinchilla could also die because of an accident. It could hurt itself when playing, or break its leg when running on a wheel or in the bars of a cage. Depending on the severity of the accident, and how long before it receives medical attention, these things can kill. Handling can cause accidents, too, e.g. if you squeeze your pet too hard and hurt its internal organs.

You could also accidentally hurt your chinchilla by sitting on it or standing on it. But it's likely that you would notice if you did any of these things.

Can Chinchillas Die of Heart Attacks and Strokes?

Heart attacks occur because of heart failure. Heart failure is a chronic condition that affects animals with poor circulatory health. Diet can also make heart failure worse. If heart failure goes unnoticed, it can result in a sudden heart attack.

Strokes are another kind of circulatory issue. A stroke is where a blood vessel in the brain bursts, causing brain damage. Because of the nature of a stroke, it can result in paralysis of one side or of one limb followed by death. If you miss the initial onset of stroke, it may appear that your pet has died suddenly.

Can Chinchillas Die from Cold?

So long as your pet is kept indoors, cold should not be an issue.

Chinchillas are adapted to high-altitude desert and semi-desert habitats. These exposed areas can become very cold, which is why chinchillas have developed such a thick coat. The coat traps warm air and keeps the cold outside air away. This means that chinchillas will survive in normal winter temperatures in the U.S. and Europe.

However, prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures will negatively affect your pet's health. This shouldn't be a problem if your chinchilla is kept indoors (as it should be) in a room that's at room temperature; but if your chinchilla were kept outside, next to a wide open window, or kept in an unheated room like the garage then this could kill your pet.

This could also explain the suddenness of your pet's death. A one-night cold snap could easily kill a pet, even one that's adapted to cold weather.

Can Chinchillas Die from Getting Wet?

Chinchilla fur is dense, so holds onto water for a long time. Because the fur is the chinchilla's main tool of temperature regulation, this cools the chinchilla down far too much, and it can't warm back up.

So, if your chinchilla were to get wet and stay wet in a cold room for a whole day, then it could die of hypothermia. You can prevent this by drying your pet, first with a towel, and then with a blow dryer set on a cool setting. Getting your chinchilla wet isn't a death sentence for your pet unless you neglect it for a long period of time.

Can Chinchillas Choke?

Chinchillas are susceptible to choking, and if you weren't there to see it happen, this may have been why your pet died suddenly. They are doubly likely to choke because they can get things stuck either in the windpipe or the esophagus. Other animals can vomit/regurgitate to clear blockages in the esophagus, but rodents, chinchillas included, can't.

Choking has the same effect on chinchillas as it does on other people. It stops the lungs from receiving oxygen, and without oxygen, the animal will lose consciousness and eventually die. Things stuck in the esophagus can put pressure on the windpipe and cause choking, but as stated above, these things cannot be cleared as chinchillas can't choke.

This isn't normally a problem because chinchillas should only eat food like hay. Because of the shape of hay, and the way the chinchilla eats it, it's difficult to choke on. But if the chinchilla gnaws on and accidentally swallows plastic (for example) then this could cause it to choke.

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Can Chinchillas Die from Stress?

'Stress' is a catch-all term in today's society, but it has a specific meaning. The medical definition of stress is a physical, mental or emotional factor which causes bodily or mental tension. It's more than a feeling; it's the result of the body's adrenal glands producing too much adrenaline. When this adrenaline gets into an animal's system, it causes the fight-or-flight response.

If this continues happening chronically, the animal can experience health issues and even die. However, this doesn't happen overnight, or because of one sudden shock. It takes months or even years to cumulatively damage the health of your chinchilla.

Can Chinchillas Die of Fright/from Loud Noises?

Another common myth is that chinchillas can die of fright; this simply isn't true. Chinchillas have sensitive hearing, but they're not so fragile that a loud noise will kill them. You have to avoid making loud noises around your pet not so that it doesn't die, but so that it's comfortable and not stressed.

What could theoretically happen is that a loud noise surprises your chinchilla enough that it jumps and somehow hurts itself. But chinchillas are sure on their feet and capable of leaping five feet upwards or downwards.

Heat Stress in Chinchillas

Heat stress is a different kind of stress, and one that's far more deadly. Chinchillas' dense fur keeps them warm, and they can't sweat or pant like other pets. This means that if a chinchilla gets too hot, it can't cool itself. Like excess cold, this can kill your pet. Heat stress can occur when:

It's a hot day

Your pet is kept in a room that gets hotter and hotter, e.g. an insulated room with windows

Your pet overexerts itself through continued playing

Heat stress can kill in minutes, so you must take steps to cool your pet down. Giving it a cool slab of stone to sit on is one method.

Can Chinchillas Die of Loneliness?

No pet or animal can die specifically from loneliness, but it can cause or complicate other issues, which can in turn affect health. Here's how the cycle works:

Loneliness causes stress. If an animal isn't allowed to express natural behaviors, it becomes stressed.

Stress causes repetitive behaviors. Examples include cage bar chewing, scratching and digging at the floor, and unnatural movements like repeated backflipping.

Repetitive behaviors affect health. Bar chewing causes the teeth to grow at an incorrect angle. This is known as malocclusion, and can kill a chinchilla.

Stress affects the body in other ways. It makes an animal depressed, and can affect the internal organs e.g. because of abnormal adrenal responses.

So, strictly speaking, the malocclusion is what killed the chinchilla in this example; but it's loneliness that caused the malocclusion. Whether this means that loneliness directly 'caused' the chinchilla's death is a matter of debate, but what's clear is that it does have an effect.

One caveat is that this applies especially to social animals. Animals that live alone in the wild don't need company as pets, either, and so being alone doesn't affect their health. But because chinchillas live in large groups in the wild, being alone is unnatural for them.

It is possible to keep chinchillas on their own, but only if you spend lots of time with your pet. If you don't give it a cage mate, and don't spend any time with it for days and days at a time, it would become lonely and experience the complications described above.

What's not true is that separating a bonded pair will kill one or both of them. This is a myth stemming from the idea that 'chinchillas mate for life', which they don't. The worst that will happen is that one of the chinchillas will be sad for a few days.

Can Chinchillas Die of a Broken Heart?

The idea of 'dying of a broken heart' is one that's popular in films and songs, but isn't seen anywhere near as much in real life. There is a condition known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy which affects people; it's a kind of stress-related heart failure that occurs exclusively in women. But this is extremely rare.

As for whether this affects chinchillas, that's not known. What is known is that chinchillas can become unhappy when their cage mates die (although just as common is for a chinchilla to carry on as if it never had a cage mate at all—this depends on your pet's temperament). Depression can cause ill health, so it's possible that loss of a cage mate could hurt or kill your pet.

And again, it's a myth that separating a bonded pair will kill one or both of them. Doing so certainly won't 'break your chinchilla's heart'.

Baby Chinchilla Died (Reasons Why & What to Do)

Baby chinchillas are susceptible to many health issues. These can occur through no fault of the owner or mother. Potential problems include:

The baby died from one of the issues described above. Baby chinchillas can catch infections or get injured like adults can.

The mother didn't get enough food/nutrients when pregnant. The mother is eating for two (at least), so if she doesn't get enough food, neither will her kits. They will then be born underweight.

The chinchilla had a birth defect. Birth defects affect a chinchilla's health.

The chinchilla was the runt of the litter. If there's more than one chinchilla, the larger ones may bully the smaller ones and stop them from feeding.

The mother wasn't producing enough milk. Mothers can provide enough milk for one kit easily, but if they have more than one or two, they can struggle.

If a baby chinchilla dies, take it from the cage. If you don't, the mother may eat it. You can then dispose of it however you see fit, e.g. by burying it in the yard/garden.

Try to figure out what went wrong. You can consult online guides or talk to a vet to see whether you cared for the mother or kits wrong. Then, apply any necessary changes. Not all health issues can be avoided, though, so there may be nothing you can do.

How to Figure Out Why a Chinchilla Died

If you weren't aware of a pre-existing health condition, and there are no obvious signs of specific injuries or health issues, you cannot make an accurate guess as to why your pet died. But a vet often can.

Vets have extensive medical knowledge. As such, they can tell a lot from a quick examination and pick up on signs that you missed. Also, a vet can perform a check called a 'necropsy'. This is like an autopsy, where the vet performs exploratory surgery to see what killed the animal. You can request to have one of these done.

Even if it's sad, it's good to learn why your chinchilla passed away. That's because you can figure out if you were caring for it wrong. Then, if you have another chinchilla, you can improve the care you provide for it.

Bear in mind that the vet may not figure out the cause of your chinchilla's passing. Sometimes chinchillas pass away for what seems like no reason. If the vet can't tell you what went wrong, take a look through our guides to see if there was anything wrong with the way that you cared for your pet.

Below, you can find our chinchilla quiz, new posts for further reading, and a signup for our Chinchilla Newsletter!

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#chinchillas #chinchillahealth

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dynamic-instability · 4 years

Link

This site has one of the more interesting visualizations of COVID-19 cases I have seen because it looks at trends and trajectory – an approximation of where and whether the spread is being brought under control. I encourage everyone to watch the Minute Physics video explaining the methodology and then play around looking these trends for a while if you’re curious about the ways this coronavirus is spreading around the world, and possibilities for the success of different containment measures.

Screenshots can’t represent this very well, partly since it’s very visually busy with all these lines at once, but especially because it mainly shows time through animation. Still, you can start to see where some countries are trending or have trended downward, while others have not (the red dots represent the data points for the week of March 26 - April 1). I won’t discuss that in detail. In the video, Henry does a much better job than I could.

Particularly of interest to me today is China, which many people are discussing as currently experiencing a second wave, particularly as businesses that had begun to slowly reopen in the last couple of weeks have shut down again in some places. And indeed, if you zoom in on China's latest numbers in the "World" tab, you can see that their weekly cases declined a lot, but have bounced back up. Part of what this illustrates is that (until widespread vaccination is available) social distancing has to be a long-term solution in order to be successful, lifted only very carefully (with widespread testing and surveillance!!) and in small increments, and that restrictions will often need to be tightened again as the numbers of new cases rebound.

Rebounding of new cases in China also especially illustrates that, in order to prevent new waves of infections, travel restrictions will have to remain in place more or less indefinitely, unless and until everyone can bring the outbreak under control at the same time (either via a globally-distributed vaccine, or by some other method). In some ways this reality is quite grim. In the US that also means we likely will need some kind of interstate travel restrictions in place long-term as some places bring new cases under control while others have not yet done so.

Also interesting with regards to China: Newly added to this site today are the regional data within a few countries, one of which is China. As you would expect from the overall numbers for the country, many of the regional lines are showing this "bounce" in the past two weeks. I've only represented that with Shanghai and Guangdong in this screenshot for the sake of visual clarity, but it is true in many of the regions/provinces, though not all. A perhaps notable exception is Hubei, which was the original epicenter of the outbreak, where new weekly confirmed cases have not been greater than 10 since the week of March 8-14.

[NOTE: You have to keep in mind when looking at any of this that the logarithmic scale is representing these numbers in a particular way. An increase from 1 new case a week to 10 will cover as much distance on the y-axis as an increase from 10 to 100.

Like in this case, the sharpness of the bounce back might be slightly misleading if you don’t keep in mind what you’re looking at. It’s a valid visual representation, but it doesn’t necessarily represent out of control spread. Relative numbers matter, but absolute numbers do too. For example, it is (at least theoretically) reasonable to trace and test and contain many of the people who came in contact with the 68 new weekly confirmed cases in Guangdong province. That is completely unfeasible for the more than 50,000 new confirmed cases in New York state over the same time period.

It is also important to note that time is not directly represented anywhere in this (still) graph. The shape of the curves does not necessarily indicate that the second wave, such as it is, is happening synchronously, or at the same rate in different places.]

When you plot all regions/provinces together (this is hard to see because there are so many lines, again I encourage you to play around with this on your own) the place with the highest number of new confirmed cases in the past week by a fair margin (the only place reporting more than 100) is Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has been mentioned a fair amount in the US news coverage regarding the second wave in China, being discussed in similar terms-- they went on lockdown and then tried to relax it and now COVID is springing back, so now they are having to close certain businesses again. But when you look at the trend for Hong Kong plotted this way, you don't exactly see a rebound or a "second wave" rather, you see what looks a little bit more like a new outbreak trajectory (albeit a pretty flat one, exponential growth looks linear on a log scale) (you could also reasonably argue that it’s just that the first “wave” was very small in Hong Kong)

To be clear, I'm not saying the news coverage of Hong Kong is wrong, particularly since the overall conclusion is usually just that Hong Kong essentially can't afford to relax yet, but it does make me wonder if including Hong Kong's numbers in China's overall trends somewhat misrepresents the magnitude of what people are calling a second wave (as of right now--things change rapidly)

But maybe more importantly, I think Hong Kong is another good illustration of a difficulty of outbreak control. While responding early and successfully is undeniably a good thing (way fewer people die!!!!) it doesn't necessarily mean that you then get to relax unscathed, at least not while other places still have uncontrolled community spread. This is maybe especially true with something like COVID, where there is so much asymptomatic spread (e.g., you can’t just screen and isolate people with symptoms, you have to be very aggressive with tracking the contacts of confirmed cases)

Also, a GREAT BIG CAVEAT because I know someone is likely to call this out with regards to China especially: Reported cases does NOT equal true cases. Reported cases of any disease are (almost) always a significant underestimate, and in some ways that's especially true of COVID-19. In many places (like the US) it's because we're just not testing widely. In China's case there are, I think, significant reasons to believe that, in addition to having undetected cases, they are likely intentionally underreporting cases. That may be especially true in somewhere like Hong Kong where the economic incentives to declare the outbreak defeated are particularly strong. To what *extent* they're underreporting, I don't even know enough to guess, although I will say I do not believe that the reported success of containment measures in China is a hoax, certainly not entirely, despite what many people on the internet like to claim (things like "they're burning bodies in giant pyres all over the country and hiding mass graves and turning everyone away from hospitals if they have symptoms so they don't have to report that millions are dying!!!" seem... unlikely). I do, however, think that they are particularly likely to underreport and suppress evidence of a second wave (as indeed they did, to catastrophic global effect, with the start of the first one). All models are wrong. Some models are useful. Dubious though the numbers may be in some ways, for those of us outside East Asia, looking at the Chinese cases can give us a possible glimpse of our own future as we hopefully get over the first peak in the coming weeks.

#COVID-19 #coronavirus #China #minute physics #epidemiology #I wrote this at like 4 AM????#a lot of stuff has happened in my life but apparently I don't use this blog anymore #also a disclaimer I am not good at statistics #if I'm missing something pls lmk

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lovehaswonangelnumbers · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/karmic-tools-weekly-forecast-july-21-27-2019/

Karmic Tools Weekly Forecast: July 21 – 27, 2019

By Kelly M. Beard

The video version of this forecast, as read by Kelly, is available here.

The Karmic Tools Weekly Forecast covers the current planetary transits which affect people in different ways and to various degrees of intensity. Take notice when it is a Personal planet (Sun / Moon / Mercury / Venus / Mars) interacting with a Social (Jupiter/Saturn) or Collective planet (Uranus / Neptune/Pluto). And pay extremely close attention when it is a Social planet interacting with a Collective planet because that means something *big* is brewing that will move large groups of people along their evolutionary paths. Tuning in to the energy and rhythm of the planets can serve as a useful *guide* as you move along your Individual Path. It also helps to understand your place within the context of the larger Social & Collective Story. Below, you will find out how these energies tend to manifest, as well as guidance and direction.

*NOTE* There are some days when there are NO CONTACTS (besides the Moon), please note that there are no missing entries, we just list the actual Activations of each week + the day they happen.

Weekly Forecast: July 21 – 27, 2019

7/21 ~ Venus (relationships & resources) ~oppose~ Pluto (purification & transformation):

Classic opposition: anything with Venus is usually softened, while anything with Pluto is always intensified, and the opposition automatically brings up the push-pull between these two. You are encouraged to tune into your own heart and then you can trust what is rising from your own depths. Also, any opposition gives you a look back at your starting point, which can reveal something that you may not be giving your Self credit for. Either way, this energy intensifies experiences where your relationships & resources are concerned. If you have focused on love, to the exclusion of money, then your finances will probably come up at this time for a rebalancing of sorts. If you’ve been focused on money, to the exclusion of family or supportive relationships, then that may be your focus. The bottom line is your true values are up for a certain kind of renewal & purification. What/Who is really, truly important to you? How do you spend your resources of time, energy & money? What/Who are your real priorities right now? Often, we operate completely unconsciously (Pluto), being driven by deeper forces than we fully understand. And periodically, we must allow them to come up/out so we can distill or release them so they become compost rather than toxic to our system. Since you may feel ‘compulsive’ in some way, you may as well use that energy to make a deeper commitment to getting to the root or source of any imbalance rather than let it take you away to feed some unidentifiable famine in your life. Often, this activation tends to make you uncontrollably drawn to someone you know is probably not good for you, and giving into such temptations often results in even more problems. It can provoke manipulation, jealousy, guilt and other negative emotions that always come when you are trying to maintain something that wasn’t meant to be in the first place. Again, don’t try to force YOUR will, it can only lead to a broken heart in the end. If you are already in an intense relationship, beware of subconscious impulses, hidden resentments, unexpressed anger and/or frustration. Expressing it at this time can be helpful if you present your concerns in a constructive way, however, you will have to be personally strong and vigilant in monitoring your own emotions in order to do that. Ultimately, if change needs to happen in your relationship, this can be the catalyst. This energy is only “bad” if you are unwilling to get to the real root or source of the given conflict. Otherwise, it is like a storm that cleanses & clears the air, making everything grow better.

7/21 ~ Mercury (communication & self-expression) ~conjunct~ Sun (core essential Self):

This energy will compel you to express yourself on many levels. Communication will be a focus, just make sure it is reciprocated. You will have access to some powerful energy that can (and probably will) make quite an impression on others (if you need to). This is a good time to travel if possible too. However, if not physically, then mentally and certainly within your own area because you will take in more information per square inch than usual. Pay attention! You may even gain the much-deserved recognition from others that you have worked so hard for.

7/24 ~ Mercury Rx (ideas, thoughts & concepts) ~conjunct~ Venus (values, priorities & resources):

This energy encourages you to see the Divine Order or the unifying theme running through the events of your life at this time ~ good, bad & indifferent as well as past, present & future. This is an initiation of new values around communication, self-expression and the value of your ideas. You may finally be able to express ideas that have been percolating in your head, which is sometimes saying “I love you” or articulating feelings in deeper, more expressive ways. It’s really *juicy* for your Inner Artist, this is the beginning of expressing your creative ideas in altogether new & different ways than ever before. Allow your Imagination to free-flow. Play with ideas with no attachment to outcome. Take advantage and explore all that this energy stirs within you, but don’t give in to over-thinking/processing things. These connections are richer, giving you access to deeper personal growth & development through a new understanding of how all the events of your life work together for good, ultimately. You can see the necessity of certain challenges and clearly see your own personal mastery thus far. Celebrate and choose to create some new thought patterns that integrate and reflect more beauty throughout your life.

7/25 ~ Mars (energy) ~trine~ Jupiter (enthusiasm):

This energy is generally positive as you are combining your energy & desires with an expansion of consciousness. It’s especially good for anything physical and bodes well for outcomes to any competition. You will be channeling more energy than usual so be sure to check in with your body and stay grounded. Jupiter often brings blessings that others may perceive as ‘luck’ but it is more of an alignment between inner & outer. Even if things are hazy or crazy, do your best to visualize success and put your Self in the picture ; -) You will have a great overall perspective of the “big picture” and can plan accordingly. The only caveat with this energy is to avoid being OVERLY confident where you feel invincible. Be confident but not cocky. This energy is very good for knowing what you need and being capable of making succinct decisions about the course which will get you there. Calculated risks are the name of the game!

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oumaimaoriflame · 5 years

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Where To Hire A Chiropractor http://bit.ly/2HnWz3c

By Lisa Adams

Joint and muscle pain are extremely vexing to have, even for a short period of time. However, if they have been tagging along for a longer period, then you have a good reason to suspect and worry. To mitigate the symptoms and get rid of the pain, you will perhaps have to consult an orthopedic surgeon and a chiropractor chantilly va. Because musculoskeletal problems are so universal, you may rest assured there are many and sundry treatments for them. You may take relevant drugs, undergo invasive procedures, get manual therapy, or else massage therapy, and you also have osteopathy. The options are totally endless. And for a final consideration, you have chiropractic, and the field itself is replete with benefits and advantages. This practice mainly makes use of noninvasive treatments. The usual complaints one gets in this field is leg pain, chronic strains, neck pain, lower back pain, and also chronic headaches. There are also all the issues regarding the bones, muscles, bones, connective tissues, ligaments, cartilage, and tendons. However, this field should only complement or append conventional medical treatments, and it really should not by itself, especially when the problem is already blown out of proportion. Where chiropractic is concerned, it usually deals with issues and concerns in the musculoskeletal system, especially the spine. It means to diagnose and then treat miscellaneous ailments using some or other therapies. The usual therapies subscribed to are conventional therapy and also a process called manipulation, which deals with the joints, tissues, and the spine. Chiropractic, despite how it may appear with all the trappings of complementary medicine, is also a field that is rife with technicalities and practicalities. Even if the scientific principles involved are pretty much basic, you still have the thingamajigs like manipulation techniques, and all the amplitudes and velocities to keep in mind. You must also toggle considerations and other possibilities, such that if a particular technique should be employed or applied. You can imagine the caveats to watch for in this profession. After all, these practitioners are essentially dealing with vital parts, like the spine. Questionability arises when chiropractors claim to cure a whole plethora of complaints, issues, and other ailments that are discrete from the bones, joints, and muscles, such as asthma, cardiovascular ailments, and yet others. When the problem has progressed beyond the empery of chiropractic, then you have to hand it to the fitting specialists. The procedures that chiropractors are good enough to facilitate include rehabilitative exercise, manual therapies, complementary procedures, and other means of health promotion. But when the situation gets out of hand, or out of these turfs, then a conventional health provider will have to be taken onboard. Muscle strains, headaches, sports injuries, and joint pain are good enough for this practice. However, when it gets majorly invasive, then it has to be delegated. The requirements to practice chiropractic vary in each and every jurisdiction. In the United States, it is a standard that meaning practitioners take a diploma in professional chiropractic. Some clinics mandate that they have a good background of evidence based medicine, so that they will be able to diagnose disorders, and perhaps treat them, given the circumstances or conditions. They should also do techniques that are detrimental when done wrong, such as vertebral adjustment and spinal manipulation. They should be clued in their field because they have the responsibility to advise patients regarding alternative therapies, healthier lifestyles, and also an assurance of ergonomics. After that, its time to delve into the particularities. For example, see about your insurance coverage. Or else, you can correspond with the clinic directly and find out about their policies. Be worldly wise about the service fees as well. It should be competitive but not suspiciously high or suspiciously low. The nub of the matter is that you should aim to get your moneys worth.

About the Author:

Get a summary of the factors to consider when picking a chiropractor Chantilly VA area and more information about an experienced chiropractic doctor at http://bit.ly/2DtBLnB now.

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hippieeloquent · 5 years

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Online Vape Store

When you’ve every little thing ready, combine it in a bottle and shake it, and that i mean shake the heck out of it as most e-juices (especially excessive VG e-juices) are very thick, and want some shaking to properly combine the elements. Some e-liquids are composed as to have heavy metals and different dangerous substances even within the exhaled smoke. All critiques are independently provided. FDA standardization may indicate no more flavors except the regular and menthol, exactly the identical form of flavors which can be observed in cigarettes. As of May tenth, 2016 the FDA Rules became official. Now that you perceive the advantages that a sub ohm tank can supply to your prospects, you can look into making a sub ohm tank wholesale buy. Kingdom Vapor is the most effective e cigarette wholesale distributors on the market, known for their cheap prices and great customer service. Vapaura gives the cheapest prices on all vaping merchandise and, if you find something cheaper someplace else, they will match the price to beat the competition. The most recent expertise, availability, and prices of vaping setups are at a sweet spot that is proving irresistible for so many individuals - and with good reason! The overwhelming majority of them work mechanically and so are in standby method as the battery is attached and charged.

That stated, let’s check out the two different vape types and see what’ll work finest for you. These two components, in flip, helped to vastly increase the variety of prospective clients. Nonetheless, you won’t discover any on our site because the THC component of cannabis continues to be labeled as a category B controlled drug in the UK, and therefore illegal to sell and to buy. A vape mod may set you back a pretty penny, but after the preliminary purchase you can buy affordable e-liquids. Whereas experienced vapers can choose between e-cigarettes and vaping pens to consider which is extra convenient for them, rookies can purchase a starter kit for the perfect experience. The lengthy-term effects of e-cigarettes on the human body remain unknown.” Savera Kalideen, executive director of the National Council against Smoking, says it considers vaping less dangerous than smoking cigarettes however not harmless. However, says Dr West, these concerns have not but been borne out by epidemiological research.

There’s a purpose why generations of smokers have depended on Vapegoon e juice to get rid of their addiction. With spring break within the rear-view mirror, a committee designed to put a ecigarettes dent in vaping on Corridor County college campuses is working to get procedures and programs in place earlier than summer. The House of Commons Science and Know-how Committee printed a report on EC which included suggestions about hurt discount, smoking cessation, EC in mental well being settings and regulation. Many people vape weed due to the assumed well being benefits. Dr. Rose argues that vaping can be a good solution to wean off cigarettes, particularly for individuals for whom safer methods like nicotine patches have not worked. What’s more, specialists urge individuals to comprehend that vaping may not be the last word answer for asthmatics who are trying to quit smoking. What really concerns me about mentioned policies is how they're being communicated to the general public,” Drayton stated. Whereas vaping has skyrocketed in popularity, cigarette use amongst adolescents has lowered by as much as 73 per cent. The information discovered on this web site is supposed for private use and for educational purposes solely.

She encourages parents to speak openly and freely about vaping—with the caveat that they provide accurate info. This mod also makes use of the straightforward one-button design. Jim "Marrs" talks about Mars/Moon anomalies, UFOs, aliens, reptiles, and ancient astronauts (Marrs also worked with Oliver "Stone" on the JFK movie). Because the title implies, direct-to-lung inhalation is all about inhaling the vapor straight into the lungs. If the vape is simply too scorching, the heat can produce carcinogens along with the vapor. Nonetheless, this may end up in an uneven energy switch, and can cause burning of the material. Typically a results of overcharging, quick-circuiting, stacking batteries, bodily injury, faulty wiring among other digital malfunctions. Because you perceive which e cig supplies from wholesale to begin with, you might want to learn how to manage your provide and be certain that that you do not overstock or beneath inventory. If you happen to run a vape store, you will definitely need to invest in some Smok Wholesale products.

Buck - The function that permits to immediately hearth below the applied voltage on a regulated vape system. And sometimes they mix and consume tobacco with other substances like marijuana whereas drinking alcohol. Vaping substances have fewer and different chemicals than in tobacco products. The same applies for whip-fashion vaping. For us, vaping is a ardour. Although vaping gadgets don’t contain tobacco, most nonetheless have nicotine, a extremely addictive substance that has many potential results on the physique. Mixing your personal e-juice could be enjoyable or frustrating, relying on how much data you will have. When this happens, typical allergic reaction symptoms like hives, shortness of breath, swelling, etc. can occur. Typically mistakenly diagnosed as Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome (CVS), CHS is described as an unusual type of cannabinoid toxicity that can develop from chronic usage. Be prepared our comfort zones as we know them shall be violated . It's a vaporizer that brings some previous world charm and basic components to a new world hobby that is built on advancing know-how. We believe he sent his son to indicate us the terrible cost our sin has introduced into the world. Smoking Cigarettes - Is It REALLY a Drug Addiction or possibly a Powerful Habit?

There is great news for cigarette smokers who wish to give up smoking. Quitting smoking cigarettes is simpler now than it has lots of people with many new quitting smoking techniques that have come available recently. The days of struggling to quit smoking could possibly be over for you if you are prepared to explore some new alternatives. Sadly though, I am not always in time to enable them to. Only yesterday a client phoned to convey they would not be able to visit the session as they have been diagnosed with carcinoma of the lung together to consider chemo. The following week another client was can not come because they were in hospital with acute asthma as well as the family was called to her bedside. fl_progressive It is quite factual that whoever is in the grip with this disgusting habit of illuminating every so often without any concern for that neighbors around or even the environment are doing them a large harm. By quitting you will not only save yourself and can also do your behalf for the environment which can be already choosing a beating due to world wide utilization of the classic fuels.

The technique functions achieving a state of relaxation whereby your brain of the individual is available to receive suggestions in to the plane from the subconscious. People have however associated this process of quitting like a smoker with turning the individual in to a slave without having control over their particular mind. This is not true because you can not be made to take action against your consciousness much more a hypnotic state. Our unconscious mind runs each of our programmes like the harddrive within your computer. Just like a computer your data isn't thought about its just information. So once a thought has become lodged in to the unconscious it remains intact. i.e. Smoking makes me happy. Now that's hardly a logical statement but if that has been a robust thought during a period of high stress then the thought will likely be locked away in a file.

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jerrytackettca · 5 years

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Rhodiola Reduces Fatigue

Scientists around the world have been keenly studying the attributes of a root plant known as rhodiola, which is a tough perennial that produces beautiful, chrysanthemum-like flowers. Beyond its attractive appearance, though, rhodiola has a number of highly valuable qualities for health.

Rhodiola thrives in cold mountainous regions and barren sea cliffs such as those in Northern Asia, Europe and North America. Closely related species also used in traditional medicine include Rhodiola imbricata, Rhodiola algida and Rhodiola crenulata.

Because its history harkens as far back as the Vikings, rhodiola has several different monikers. Besides the scientific name Rhodiola rosea, it’s also known as golden root, rose root, king’s crown and hóng jǐng tiān, depending on where it’s found.

For millennia, people familiar with the plant used its extracts to improve strength and virility. For instance, Siberian brides were given rhodiola sprigs to increase their physical endurance to face long, sub-zero winters, fend off anxiety and depression, and increase fertility.1

A renowned Greek text known as De Materia Medica, written in 77 A.D., describes numerous medicinal properties from the plant’s stem. According to Swedish Medical Center,2 rhodiola was long ago integrated into the traditional medicines of Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Russia.

Recent history supports many of even the most ancient claims. Introduced to a body that’s flagging due to prolonged or higher-than-normal stress, rhodiola has been proven to relieve both physical and mental fatigue, soothe frazzled nerves and even improve the ability to concentrate.3

Wide-Ranging Benefits of Rhodiola Impact Your Body and Mind

Rhodiola boasts an extensive list of vitality-boosting abilities found in the stem, roots and leaves of the plant, such as boosting your immunity from disease, positively impacting brain, organ, nerve, sexual4 and neurological functions, and helping to prevent damage to all of the above.5,6,7,8,9 Some studies suggest it can even increase your lifespan.10 One study notes:

“Studies on isolated organs, tissues, cells and enzymes have revealed that Rhodiola preparations exhibit adaptogenic effect including, neuroprotective, cardioprotective, antifatigue, antidepressive, anxiolytic, nootropic, life-span increasing effects and CNS (central nervous system) stimulating activity.

A number of clinical trials demonstrate that repeated administration of R. rosea extract SHR-5 exerts an antifatigue effect that increases mental performance (particularly the ability to concentrate in healthy subjects), and reduces burnout in patients with fatigue syndrome.

Encouraging results exist for the use of Rhodiola in mild to moderate depression, and generalized anxiety. Several mechanisms of action possibly contributing to the clinical effect have been identified for Rhodiola extracts.”11

One way the compounds in rhodiola are beneficial is that they support your body’s ability to stave off another type of stress: oxidative. It also helps fight infection and burn energy, while simultaneously helping to decrease inflammation, increase energy, prevent fat buildup, protect your heart and lungs, reduce pain and improve your mood.

The latter benefit explains why rhodiola is known as a nootropic, described as a substance that enhances brain function. Rhodiola has its own benefits in this regard, as it stimulates brain activity and has been found to be directly responsible for activating four important neurotransmitters:

Norepinephrine

Serotonin

Dopamine

Acetylcholine

Each of these is significant as depression is strongly linked to low dopamine. Studies note that working together, these neurotransmitters are important for memory, concentration and learning.12 Rhodiola also improves wakefulness and reduces both physical and mental fatigue, as well as anxiety.

Further, rhodiola may be a possible safe alternative to SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs)13 or antidepressants such as sertraline, also known as Zoloft.14

The Powerful Benefits of the Rhodiola Compound Salidroside

Where do all these incredible benefits come from? The rose-like fragrance is due to the presence of geraniol essential oil, but more than 140 different and powerful organic compounds related to health have been identified in rhodiola. Three of the most important, noted for having adaptogenic properties (meaning they can provide different effects depending on what your body needs) are:

Salidroside, also known as rhodioloside, considered by many experts to be the plant’s most important bioactive molecule, and likely responsible for its protective and stimulant effects on the brain.15

Rosavin, which has many of the same properties and mechanisms as salidroside, but requires a higher dose to produce the same effect.16

Tyrosol, which is one of the antioxidant elements in rhodiola extracts, but while it may contribute to its benefits, it often goes unlabeled on commercial supplements.17

One study shows salidroside helps restore the balance between free radicals and antioxidants, and protects your brain against poor blood flow and subsequent stroke (aka ischemia).18

Due to its antibacterial strength, salidroside has also been used successfully to treat acne. While standard acne treatments can trigger antibiotic resistance and even worse problems, salidroside can get rid of the thin, slimy layer of bacterial cells known as biofilm that is difficult to eradicate.19

Its antioxidant activity may help fight aging, although the mechanisms are not well-studied in humans. It is well-known, though, that high oxidative stress underlies many chronic diseases and age-related health problems.20

Pathways and Mechanisms Connected to Salidroside

How does it manage all these benefits? It turns out that salidroside is responsible for the activation of several crucial pathways to exert many of the rhodiola plant’s most important benefits.

One is the Nrf2 pathway, a genetic pathway that turns on protective genes, increases antioxidant proteins and protects cells, leading the authors of one study to posit that salidroside may be useful in treating ischemic stroke.21 Rhodiola also activates AMPK, which boosts antioxidant protein production, prevents insulin resistance, reduces inflammation, controls your blood sugar and prevents fat buildup in your liver.22,23

Cytokines are signaling molecules secreted by certain immune system cells, which affect other cells, including those in relation to inflammation and immunity. Referred to as the “bad guys” that are high in chronic inflammation, in acute infections, the right balance of cytokines are needed to mount a successful attack. However, Th1 dominance may occur for people with chronic inflammation and/or autoimmune diseases when this pathway is over-activated.

Certain inflammatory cytokines may be selectively decreased when rhodiola extracts are applied, such as when one study showed that mice injected with E. coli, then given a large dose of rhodiola extract, experienced “significantly” lower kidney and brain inflammation.24

Rhodiola’s Effects on Stress

Here’s one way rhodiola can be worth its weight in gold for the way it boosts your energy and allows you to thrive even in the midst of stress:

“Stress may allow the body more energy at the moment, but this is not a sustainable energy solution. After prolonged periods of stress, the very processes and neurochemicals needed for efficient energy are compromised.

For example, dopamine and serotonin keep the mind focused and positive for hours on end and fight off tension and impulsiveness. Stress robs the body of these neurotransmitters essential to extended thought processing.

It also interferes with the thyroid and its stimulating hormones and decreases the body’s metabolism. Try and be productive without the body’s energy assimilation process in proper function — you won’t last long.”25

Salidroside also acts on the HPA axis — the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal gland — comprising a system of glands that control many of the body’s stress responses — such as the release of cortisol, another study notes.26

Salidroside is an example of an adaptogen that facilitates the expression of Hsp70, a “heat-shock protein” that helps cells adapt to repeated exposure to the same stressors.27 It may also increase tolerance to both emotional and physical stress, decrease Hsp70 expression in stomach cancer cells, specifically related to its effect on colon cancer cells, as the extract also:

“Inhibits cell proliferation and induces cell apoptosis in various cells and cell lines, including human urinary bladder cancer cell lines, breast cancer cell lines, colorectal cancer cells, gastric cancer cells, glioma cells, lung cancer cells, and sarcoma.”28

For example, osteoporosis, a disease that causes bone density to decrease, is partially caused by oxidative stress. Salidroside’s antioxidant effects may help prevent osteoporosis and maintain bone health later in life. Salidroside’s antioxidant effects may even augment future bone health.29

Caveats, Disclosures and Supplementation

Use caution in combining rhodiola with certain prescription medications. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors shouldn’t be combined with substances that increase dopamine or norepinephrine.30

Don’t take rhodiola with SSRIs, drugs for high blood pressure, diabetes CYP2C9 substrates, phenytoin and warfarin or antidepressants without the advice of your physician. At least one study has found that rhodiola may reduce chronic fatigue symptoms at doses of 400 milligrams (mg) day, with few or no side effects.31

Rhodiola rosea supplements come in the form of caplets, tea or liquid extracts, but high-quality extracts should contain at least 3 percent rosavins and 1 percent salidroside. Other species of rhodiola, such as R. crenulata, might have much higher concentrations of salidrosides.32

from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/11/rhodiola-reduces-fatigue.aspx

source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/rhodiola-reduces-fatigue

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paullassiterca · 5 years

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Rhodiola Reduces Fatigue

Wide-Ranging Benefits of Rhodiola Impact Your Body and Mind

Norepinephrine

Serotonin

Dopamine

Acetylcholine

Further, rhodiola may be a possible safe alternative to SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs)13 or antidepressants such as sertraline, also known as Zoloft.14

The Powerful Benefits of the Rhodiola Compound Salidroside

Rosavin, which has many of the same properties and mechanisms as salidroside, but requires a higher dose to produce the same effect.16

Tyrosol, which is one of the antioxidant elements in rhodiola extracts, but while it may contribute to its benefits, it often goes unlabeled on commercial supplements.17

One study shows salidroside helps restore the balance between free radicals and antioxidants, and protects your brain against poor blood flow and subsequent stroke (aka ischemia).18

Pathways and Mechanisms Connected to Salidroside

How does it manage all these benefits? It turns out that salidroside is responsible for the activation of several crucial pathways to exert many of the rhodiola plant’s most important benefits.

Rhodiola’s Effects on Stress

Here’s one way rhodiola can be worth its weight in gold for the way it boosts your energy and allows you to thrive even in the midst of stress:

Caveats, Disclosures and Supplementation

Use caution in combining rhodiola with certain prescription medications. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors shouldn’t be combined with substances that increase dopamine or norepinephrine.30

from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/11/rhodiola-reduces-fatigue.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/183374187556

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fitono · 5 years

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How to Train Around Five Common Causes of Pain

“Doc, it hurts when I do this.”

“Then don’t do it. That’ll be $20.”

Sure, it’s an old joke. But it’s also smart advice for a trainer. The older your clients, the more often you’ll need to remember it: If a movement causes pain, the best thing is to avoid it.

But what do you do when a client tells you something like this: “My knees bug me, so I can’t do squats. Or lunges. Or leg presses. Or walk on the treadmill. Or really anything, I guess.”

Where do you go from there? After all, you signed up for this gig to impact people’s lives. And at a time when a fifth of Americans suffer from chronic pain, you’re going to get plenty of opportunities with clients like these.

For every painful exercise, there’s a painless alternative. I always tell my clients that unless they’re in a body cast, we can train around any injury. So far, that’s turned out to be true.

But before I share tips for working with clients who have the most common sources of pain I encounter—carpal tunnel syndrome, low-back pain, arthritis in the knees and/or hips, hernia—I need to start with a big caveat:

You’re a personal trainer, not a physical therapist. It’s not your job to treat these conditions. Seriously, don’t even try. If your client’s pain level happens to improve, great! But that’s not the main goal.

People with chronic pain typically spend a lot of time focused on what they can’t do. When they hire you, it’s your job to help them figure out what they can do.

These are the exercises that work best for my clients.

READ ALSO: “Don’t Let Your Clients Butcher These Three Exercises”

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Look at your hand, palm side up. That narrow “tunnel” where your wrist meets your hand has a lot going on, with bones, ligaments, and tendons all passing through. It also houses the median nerve, which provides feeling to your thumb and some of your fingers. Any thickening or swelling in that area (from trauma, injury, or arthritis) can squeeze the median nerve, causing discomfort in the thumb and first two fingers.

That’s carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects 3 to 6 percent of all adults. Because it weakens the grip, it makes exercises like rows, pulldowns, pull-ups, and curls a challenge. Some research suggests that exercise and fat loss may help ease symptoms.

I’ve had success using these modifications.

1. Loosen up

No need to grab every bar in the gym with a Vulcan death grip. I’ve seen clients safely—and painlessly—perform curls, pushdowns, and pulldowns simply by loosening their grip. Yes, you may have to lower the weight, but it’s better than nothing.

And use common sense: Never suggest a loose grip on, say, a bench press where the bar is over your client’s face. Avoid any moves where the weight might slip free and injure somebody.

2. If you can’t grip it, “hook” it

For lat pulldowns and seated rows, sometimes just hooking the fingers around the bar or handle can be a workable alternative.

By this I mean you’re just using the fingers (not the thumb) to hang on. The curve of the fingers will be the only thing that touches. (It looks kind of like the hand of a rock climber hanging from a ledge.) For some reason, my clients rarely report pain when using a grip like this.

Again, you may have to lower the weight. And again, be smart: Don’t use this grip on a pull-up or chin-up or anything where a slip could hurt somebody.

3. Press the palms

I’ve had luck with exercises that place pressure on the palm—push-ups, upright planks, downward dog, bird dog, preacher stretches, and foam rolling the calves and hamstrings. I don’t know why, but I’ve actually had clients report improvements in their pain after incorporating these moves into their program. Still, everyone’s different, and if any of them hurt, stop doing it.

Chronic low-back pain

At any given time, some 31 million Americans experience low-back pain, and it’s now the leading cause of disability worldwide. It’s also a moving target. One person’s back pain can be completely different from another’s.

My advice: Do your research. Stuart McGill is the king here. Get a copy of Back Mechanic, read it, and refer back to it when needed.

Always listen to your client. If she says she feels a twinge in her back with a particular lift, don’t do that lift! Find another way. Don’t wait for her to speak up. Some clients may keep quiet, feeling pressured to push through. Ask questions: “How did that feel?” “Did anything hurt?” “Where did you feel it working?”

Here are the general guidelines I use with my clients.

1. Keep the spine straight

Build your programs around moves that don’t involve twisting, bending, or extending the lower back. I like the following: machine chest press, lat pulldown, seated biceps curl, dumbbell lateral raise, calf raise, band pull-apart, standing cable row, and seated machine row.

Likewise, avoid any of these:

Standing biceps curl. These put a lot of torque on the lower back. That said, I’ve found it can be doable if the client has his back against a wall to keep the spine straight.

Torso rotation against resistance. I avoid torso rotation machines or torso rotation with cables or bands. They put a lot of force on structures that are already compromised, aside from the fact the movement is unnatural and unnecessary for most clients. When in the real world do you need to rotate the torso against resistance?

Shoulder press. The lower back naturally wants to go into extension when you press weights overhead, which tends to make the problem worse for someone with chronic back pain.

2. Work the core

By now every trainer understands the importance of strengthening the core muscles for just about every goal, from posture to performance. And plenty of research shows the role of core training in alleviating back pain. The trick is doing it safely.

My clients with low-back pain have had success with the following core moves:

Suitcase and farmer’s carries

Pallof press and other cable anti-rotation exercises

Cable single-arm row

Bird dog

Seated Swiss ball crunch

READ ALSO: “Three Steps to Superior Core Training”

3. Ease into big lifts

What about deadlifts, squats, and good mornings? My rules: If a client is an experienced lifter who’s comfortable with these exercises and does them with good form, I may use them in her program. But if she’s never lifted before, or hasn’t lifted in a long time, or if any of these moves hurt, they’re off limits. Period.

When I do use them, I’ll start obnoxiously light and use a limited range of motion. So for deadlifts, I’ll have a client lift a light kettlebell from a box or bench (not the floor).

You can always bump up the weight. But if you go too heavy and the client gets hurt, it’s game over.

Knee pain

Lots of things can cause knee pain—stress, injury, or simple wear and tear over time. One major culprit is osteoarthritis (which often occurs in the hips too; we’ll get there in a moment).

More than 30 million U.S. adults suffer from osteoarthritis. Age is a risk factor, and so is excess body weight, which puts extra stress on those knees. And again, exercise has been shown to help. (Noticing a trend here?)

In fact, strengthening the quadriceps can protect knee cartilage from damage, helping to strengthen and stabilize the joint, research shows.

But how do you work the legs without aggravating the knee? Plenty of ways.

1. Do leg curls (not leg extensions)

Some people say that leg extensions are bad for all knees, even those of healthy individuals. I’m not in that camp, but I do agree that for someone with knee pain, they’re out of the question. The biomechanics of the exercise guarantee that extensions will aggravate any pre-existing arthritis.

Leg curls are another story. A lot of my clients with knee pain just assume that any bending will hurt, and they’re pleasantly surprised when they see they can do knee flexion pain-free. As long as I keep the weight reasonable, most of them do well with it.

2. Bend the hips (not the knees)

The quadriceps have four parts (I hope this isn’t new information), three of which exclusively perform knee extension. The fourth, the rectus femoris, has a dual role that includes hip flexion.

Unless a client also has back pain that’s aggravated by working the hip flexors, you can consider any variation of leg raises, loaded or unloaded.

The rectus femoris isn’t the only muscle that acts on the knees along with another joint. The gastrocnemius acts on the ankles as well as the knee. The gracilis assists in both knee extension and hip adduction. And the hamstrings, as you surely know, perform hip extension along with knee flexion. Then there’s the gluteus medius, a hip abductor; strengthening it can reduce knee pain, even though it isn’t directly involved in knee action.

For those reasons, I’ll include calf raises, hip adduction and abduction (using machines, cables, and/or bands), and back extensions. I’ll also use straight-leg deadlifts and, in some cases, kettlebell swings. (Yes, swings involve a slight knee bend, but I’ve found that my clients can usually tolerate it pretty well.) Again, all are contingent on the client not having lower-back issues.

Lunges and squats are out. Even push presses seem to aggravate the knees too much.

3. Work those glutes

Hip bridges, which I typically do without adding an external load, not only target the glutes and hamstrings, they fire up the quads as well. But I’ve never had a client suffer knee pain while doing them.

READ ALSO: “How to Work Around Injuries in a Group Setting”

Hip pain

Just as strengthening the surrounding muscles can help stabilize the knee, the same holds true for the hips.

In one study, patients with hip osteoarthritis reported significantly less pain and more function after just 12 weeks on a regimen of strength and balance training.

Another small study from Finland saw similar results: When 13 women with hip osteoarthritis exercised three times a week for three months, they reported, on average, 30 percent less pain and demonstrated a 30 percent improvement in range of motion.

1. Bend the knees (not the hips)

If the client’s knees are okay, I’ll start with seated leg curls and leg extensions, which allow the hamstrings and quads to work while the hips remain stable. (If the client has both knee and hip pain, of course I’ll skip the extensions.)

2. Do more hip bridges

Just as I’ve never found a client who complains of knee pain with the move, I’ve also yet to find one whose hips couldn’t handle it either. I’ll use body weight or maybe a light bar.

3. Avoid single-leg work and hip abduction

Hip abduction tends to cause pain in clients with hip problems. Sometimes clamshells are okay, but anything more intense than that isn’t worth it.

Single-leg stands can also be tough for my older clients. To help them with balance, I’ll go with heel-to-toe stands or have them stand with feet together and eyes closed; both allow them to distribute their weight through both feet.

Hernia

No amount of exercise can make a hernia better. Only surgery can do that, and surgery, of course, requires recovery. But people can live with hernias for years, and many can continue to work out (with the usual caveat about checking with a doctor first).

A hernia happens when something inside your body—an organ, an intestine, or fat or muscle tissue—protrudes through the wall of tissue that’s supposed to contain it. It usually happens in the abdominal cavity. And that’s exactly where you’re likely to increase pressure when you lift, causing the protruding thing to protrude even more and possibly making it worse.

Here’s how to keep that abdominal pressure in check.

1. Watch the ab work

I tend to steer clear of crunches, Russian twists, and ab work on a bench for the obvious reason that they can all put pressure on a hernia.

Sometimes I can get away with core exercises that don’t flex the torso, including Pallof presses, suitcase carries, and anti-rotation exercises with a band. But if the hernia is really bad, I’ll skip the ab work altogether.

2. Go light

A client with a hernia may be strong enough to push 400 pounds on the leg press, but that doesn’t mean he should. I like to lighten the load and use burnout sets and shorter rest periods, and finish sets with an extremely slow eccentric on the final rep. Or I just select a weight that’s challenging but not excessively heavy.

3. No breath holding, and no straining

Holding your breath to lift something heavy is perfectly natural. Called the Valsalva maneuver, it increases intra-abdominal pressure to protect the spine during a squat or deadlift.

But when a client has a hernia, it’s the last thing you want him to do, since that pressure will push the organs outward, aggravating the problem. You can either lighten the load until a client can breathe normally while performing it, or skip the lift entirely.

The same applies to straining. I’ll stop a set if a client strains to finish the final reps. Under normal circumstances you want the client to push himself, but with a hernia it’s not worth the risk.

Final Thoughts

No matter your exercise selection, you’ll need to take it slow with clients who have any of these conditions. That’s doubly true of someone who has more than one of them—back pain combined with knee or hip pain, for example.

Your clients will often be frustrated by their slow progress. It’s your job to stay patient and positive, and to do what you can to keep your client motivated.

But if you can pull it off, you just might get every trainer’s ultimate reward: the privilege of watching someone overcome obstacles and improve her quality of life. From experience I can tell you there’s truly nothing like it.

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