Gratitude

A daily dose of gratitude encourages health, happiness and vibrancy - researchers assert

With all the insanity in the world, it is easy to become bogged down with negativity. Destructive weather, economic meltdowns, a toxic environment, GMOs. The list could go on forever. It is natural to become disillusioned, depressed and hostile in light of such bad news. But researchers have discovered that even when the environment around us is cloaked in apparent darkness, we can still be happy, healthy, alert -- and make a positive impact. As we become more appreciative, vibrancy and energy returns, stress is reduced and we are able to connect with others in a beneficial way.

The science behind gratefulness

Doctors Blaire and Justice at the University of Texas Health Science Center believe that "gratitude is truly amazing in its physical and psychosocial benefits." A tall order for something as simple as feeling grateful, but research has found that an orientation of gratitude will:

- Encourage higher levels of alertness, vitality, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy

- Reduce physical symptoms like headaches, coughing, nausea or pain

- Boost immunity in both sick and healthy persons

- Lower stress response and blood pressure

- Curb depression and anxiety

- Cool anger and diminish resentment

- Cultivate compassion and empathy

- Increase positive social connections

Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., from the University of California Davis, confirms these benefits. Emmons, along with his colleague Mike McCullough of the University of Miami, conducted an experiment where participants were given one of three tasks. A weekly journal was kept by each randomly assigned individual either recording grateful thoughts, hassles and frustrations or neutral circumstances that were neither positive nor negative. After 10 weeks, those in the gratitude group were 25 percent happier about their lives than the group that documented frustrations. They also had fewer health complaints and exercised longer by 1.5 hours.

Another study found that individuals with congenital and adult-onset neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) also benefited from gratitude journaling. For those who kept a gratitude journal, quality of sleep was enhanced with longer hours and a more refreshed feeling upon waking. They also felt increased optimism about the upcoming week, more satisfaction with their lives and a greater connection to others compared with the non-journaling participants in the study.

Practices for cultivating gratitude

This all sounds well and good, but how do we begin to instill more gratitude into our hectic days? A common theme among positive psychologists: start small and slow down. Here are a few suggestions to get the ball rolling:

- Keep a daily gratitude journal

- Appreciate nature, a good meal or an object of beauty

- Write a detailed thank you note

- Count blessings each day

- Spend a few moments in silent prayer with a focus on thankfulness

- Show appreciation for a coworker, mate or family member

Reality check

Still daunted by the idea of cultivating a grateful orientation day in and day out? Michigan positive psychologist Christopher Peterson offers a bit of insight:

"I'm not a Pollyanna. And obviously, someone who's unrelentingly cheerful can be a pain in the ass. ... There are no long-term quick fixes for happiness. So if you become a more grateful person and you add those exercises to your repertoire, you'll be different six months or a year from now. But if you say okay, I'm done with the story and I'm going back to the way I was, it'll just have been a six-week high. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not going to permanently change you."

Superfoods to heal your gut

The root of good and bad health resides in the gut. This is a centuries old maxim of both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and India's Ayurvedic medical practices.

Over the last few decades, renegade MD's, holistic practitioners, chiropractors, and alternative health nutritionists have realized this basic truth as well. This ancient health maxim has even been determined to affect mental health, where the gut is tagged as a second brain.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride has embraced this wisdom and developed the GAPS (gut and psychology syndrome) diet, which has a proven track record of returning autism spectrum children to normalcy. For starters, she experimented on her autistic son and cured him.

Dr. Campbell-McBride and others have determined that high fiber foods wind up feeding pathogenic bacteria if they greatly outnumber probiotic bacteria. This is the case with Candida overgrowth and other parasitic or pathogenic bacteria situations.

Once there is a serious intestinal flora imbalance, fibers feed the bad guys. Then, initially abstaining from plant fiber foods is recommended.

When the beneficial probiotic bacteria to pathogenic bacteria balance is restored to around 80/20, then a high fiber diet is a good idea again. If that's not an issue and you're doing okay using a diet with various fibrous plant foods, disregard abstaining from high fiber foods.

All this requires paying attention to your body's reaction to the foods you eat.

Five food suggestions for healing the gut

[1] If you think your gut bacteria ratios are heavily out of whack, eliminating high fiber beans and grains may be necessary for a while. One way to reduce fibers is to rely heavily on soups, good dairy, free range eggs, and meats from grass-fed livestock.

But you can stick with veggies by juicing often with a slow speed masticating juicer that separates the liquid from the pulp.

[2] At first, it may be necessary to use high quality probiotic supplements. But fermented foods and beverages should be added with gusto. Miso, Kimchi, live yogurts, kombucha, water kefir, and milk kefir are excellent sources of beneficial bacteria.

Amazingly, probiotic microbes also chelate heavy metals and eliminate them with the stool. Just make sure you use water that's been de-chlorinated and de-fluorinated for water-based beverages.

Though not required, raw milk is ideal for milk kefir and homemade live yogurts. Fermented foods and/or beverages are vital additions to anyone's diet. Read more here: (http://www.naturalnews.com/027554_kefir_water_grains.html) and/or here: (http://www.naturalnews.com/033675_fermented_foods_probiotics.html)

[3] Intestinal villi are tiny tubular protrusions on your gut's inner lining responsible for absorbing nutrients from food particles. Leaky gut syndrome and Celiac disease nullifies them. Here's an easy, tasty Ayurvedic remedy to recover your intestinal villi.

A couple hours after your last daily meal, take a tablespoon of organic raisins mixed with a tablespoon of organic raw sesame seeds. Chew the mixture well before swallowing on a daily basis. That's it.

[4] Coconut oil, preferably organic cold pressed, contains medium chain fatty acids that are easily converted into energy. It is also anti-microbial and anti-fungal, another remedy for getting rid of your gut's bad guys.

When it comes to fats, another source recommends trying for 1:1 omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid balance. Chia seeds form a soothing soluble fiber gel while providing omega-3, and of course krill and fish oils do also. Cold pressed virgin olive oil is a great source of omega-6.

[5] High quality marine phytoplankton in liquid form is probably the most nutrient packed green micro-algae superfood around, even outdoing chlorella and spirulina.

You'll get plenty of protein and more from any of those even while avoiding or restricting high fiber foods. But the right phytoplankton is the most super superfood according to Health Ranger Mike Adams. (http://www.naturalnews.com/023853_marine_phytoplankton_microalgae.html)

7 foods to cleanse your liver

Our livers work extremely hard everyday to protect us from adverse affects from toxins and often it is easy for our livers to become overworked compromising our health significantly.

Here are 7 common foods you can include daily to help cleanse your liver naturally.
By: Jonathan Benson, NaturalNews.com
The primary way in which your body expels toxins is via the liver, which detoxifies and cleanses your body by continuously filtering the blood of poisons that enter it through the digestive tract, the skin, and the respiratory system. But when your liver becomes overworked as a result of stress or excessive exposure to toxins, your entire system can be thrown off balance, and your health severely compromised.
Since the liver is also responsible for producing bile, another form of detoxification that is metabolically necessary for the breakdown and assimilation of fats and proteins from your food, it is exceedingly important that your liver be properly maintained. Without a well-functioning liver, your body will be unable to cleanse itself and absorb nutrients, which is a recipe for a health disaster.
"The thousands of enzyme systems that are responsible for virtually every body activity are constructed in the liver," writes Dr. Karl Maret, M.D., about the importance of vibrant liver function. "The proper functioning of the eyes, the heart, the brain, the gonads, the joints, and the kidneys, are all dependent on good liver activity."
"If the liver is impaired from constructing even one of the thousands of enzyme systems the body requires, there is an impairment in overall body function and a resultant greater metabolic stress on the individual."
So here are seven important foods you may want to begin incorporating into your diet in order to maintain a healthy liver.

1. Garlic

Garlic contains numerous sulfur-containing compounds that activate the liver enzymes responsible for flushing out toxins from the body. This bulbous relative of the onion also contains allicin and selenium, two powerful nutrients proven to help protect the liver from toxic damage, and aid it in the detoxification process.

2. Grapefruit

Grapefruit is rich in natural vitamin C and antioxidants, two powerful liver cleansers. Like garlic, grapefruit contains compounds that boost the production of liver detoxification enzymes. It also contains a flavonoid compound known as naringenin that causes the liver to burn fat rather than store it.

3. Green Tea

Green tea is loaded with catechins, a type of plant antioxidant that has been shown in studies to eliminate liver fat accumulation and promote proper liver function. This powerful herbal beverage also protects the liver against toxins that would otherwise accumulate and cause serious damage.

4. Green Vegetables

Leafy green vegetables such as bitter gourd, arugula, dandelion greens, spinach, mustard greens, and chicory also contain numerous cleansing compounds that neutralize heavy metals, which can bear heavily on the liver. Leafy greens also eliminate pesticides and herbicides from the body, and spur the creation and flow of cleansing bile.

5. Avocado

Rich in glutathione-producing compounds, avocados actively promote liver health by protecting it against toxic overload, and boosting its cleansing power. Some research has shown that eating one or two avocados a week for as little as 30 days can repair a damaged liver.

6. Walnuts

Walnuts, which contain high levels of l-arginine, an amino acid, glutathione, and omega-3 fatty acids, also help detoxify the liver of disease-causing ammonia. Walnuts also help oxygenate the blood, and extracts from their hulls are often used in liver-cleansing formulas.

7. Turmeric

Turmeric, one of the most powerful foods for maintaining a healthy liver, has been shown to actively protect the liver against toxic damage, and even regenerate damaged liver cells. Turmeric also boosts the natural production of bile, shrinks engorged hepatic ducts, and improves overall function of the gallbladder, another body-purifying organ.

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Metabolism boosting foods

Do you "plan" to make the all too common New Years resolution to lose a few pounds? Well there's no time like the present to get started!
It may seem too good to be true, but the key to weight loss is right in your grocery store. These 15 superfoods can rev your metabolism, whittle your waist and leave you looking and feeling better than ever.

Beans
Ignite your body’s fat-blasting furnace with beans. They’ll keep you full, and are high in resistant starch, meaning that half the calories consumed cannot be absorbed. They also reduce blood sugar, and create the fatty acid butyrate, which may burn fat faster. Studies show that butyrate improves mitochondrial function in your cells, leading to a decrease in fat. If you’re worried about gas, fret not. The more beans you eat, the more your body will build up the good bacteria you need to digest them. You can enjoy beans in a burger patty, in chili or as a dip.

Pine Nuts
Just one shot glass full of pine nuts every day can help suppress hunger. Pine nuts contain pinolenic acid, a naturally occurring fat that stimulates cholecystokinin (CCK) and glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1), both powerful hormones that alert the brain that the stomach is full. In one study, women who consumed pinolenic acid reported a decreased desire to eat and also reduced their food intake by 36%. These small nuts also contain the highest protein content of any nut, so they’re a great two-for-one deal!

Fennel Tea
Squash morning hunger pangs by drinking fennel tea before bed. Fennel is known for its cleansing, clarifying flavor that helps reset taste buds and reduce cravings. It also boosts digestion, facilitating the absorption of nutrients, and reducing fat storage in the body. You can find fennel tea at health food stores or online.

Crimini Mushrooms
These mini-Portobello mushrooms have a delicious meaty flavor. Blending crimini mushrooms with ground turkey is a great way to cut half the fat without losing taste. The high-fiber mushroom mixture works well for any meat-based dish, like tacos, meat sauce, hamburgers and more. 

Apples
Apples are the perfect pre-dinner snack. Soluble fiber in apples, called pectin, reduces the amount of sugar and calories that’s absorbed into the bloodstream after a meal. That’s good news for folks who want to prevent type 2 diabetes, but it also makes apples one of the best snacks for dieters. Apple pectin prevents spikes in blood sugar that lead to increased fat storage. It will help you avoid the blood sugar “crash” that leaves you craving more food and can keep you satiated for up to two hours. 

Avocados
Trim your tummy by packing your grocery cart with monounsaturated fats, easily remembered as MUFAS. Found in nuts, olive oil and seeds, MUFAS are healthy sources of energy to keep you going all day long. Other fat burners include avocados, green tea and whole grains.

Chili Peppers
Capsaicin, the compound that gives these spicy peppers their zing, also curbs your appetite while you eat. Not only that, it raises your body temperature, which may boost your metabolism. Add some chili sauce to your next omelet or burger and see for yourself.

Cinnamon
This delicious spice slows the passage of food through your stomach. It also lowers your blood sugar levels by stimulating glucose metabolism. Click here for a pork tenderloin recipe seasoned with cinnamon. You can also sprinkle this spice in your oatmeal, stews or coffee.

Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are super high in soluble fiber -- which, in addition to filling you up, has cholesterol-lowering properties and prevents the absorption of fat. For a hydrating metabolism-boosting beverage, try a chia seed cocktail. Add chia seeds, a slice of lemon and a dash of agave to distilled water.

Green Tea
Guzzle green tea to feel full between meals. Chockfull of a phytonutrient called EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), green tea increases the hormone responsible for making you feel satiated. Drinking green tea daily has long-term benefits as well. It can help prevent storage of excess fat, improve your appetite-regulating hormones and change how your body handles cravings and metabolizes food. 

Pepitas 
Pepitas is the Spanish word for pumpkin or squash seeds. High in omega-3 fatty acids, these seeds have been shown to decrease the body’s ability to store fat. They’re also high in protein and magnesium which helps curb cravings and strengthen muscles. Try eating 1 cup of seeds a few times a week either by roasting them or sprinkling them on meals

Red Lentils
Protein-rich and loaded with fiber, these legumes will help you stay fuller for longer. One cup provides about three-quarters of your daily recommendation of fiber. They can be eaten plain or as a substitute for meat. 

Watermelon
A recent study showed that women who ate water-rich foods lost 33% more weight in the first 6 months than women on a low-fat diet. Watermelon also contains vitamins A and C, as well as the “mother of all antioxidants,” glutathione, which is known to help strengthen the immune system.

Your job can cause breast cancer

Breast cancer is frequently talked about as if it mysteriously comes out of the blue to attack. But even when women have a known heightened risk for the disease because of a specific gene they carry, only some will actually develop breast cancer. Obviously, breast cancer must be triggered by something other than bad luck or genes alone.

Now a study just published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health provides new clues about what can cause a malignancy to develop in breast tissue. The researchers' conclusion? Exposure to chemicals in the environment appears to play a big role in the development of breast cancer.

In fact, the study confirms that specific jobs pose a higher risk of breast malignancies than other occupations. The explanation is that certain careers are more likely to expose a person to carcinogens (some of which may not have yet been classified as such by government agencies) and chemicals that disrupt the body's hormonal balance via the endocrine system. Industrialized countries - especially in North America - not only are inundated with huge amounts of these chemicals but they also have high rates of breast cancer.

For the new study, scientist James T. Brophy of the University of Stirling in Scotland and his colleagues set out to investigate the possible links between breast cancer and occupation, especially in manufacturing and farming. Their population-based case-control study, carried out in Southern Ontario, Canada, included 1006 breast cancer cases plus 1,147 randomly selected and matched community controls.

The research team also gathered information with interviews and surveys to come up with data on the occupational and reproductive histories of the research subjects. Each job was given a code that reflected the odds of a woman being exposed to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors while at work. The pathology of the breast cancer patients' tumors was assessed to document the endocrine receptor status of the malignancies, too.

The results were dramatic. Across all sectors, women in jobs with potentially high exposures to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors had a significantly higher risk of breast cancer. Jobs with increased risk included those involving agriculture, bar/gambling, automotive plastics manufacturing, food canning and metal-working. Premenopausal breast cancer risk among younger women was especially high for those working in the automotive plastics and food canning industries.

What's more, women with lower socioeconomic status had an elevated risk of breast cancer overall. The researchers suggest this could be the result of higher exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in lower-income areas where there are more manufacturing and agricultural industries.

The results of the new study strengthen the evidence linking breast cancer risk and exposure to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. "Our results highlight the importance of occupational studies in identifying and quantifying environmental risk factors and illustrates the value of taking detailed occupational histories of cancer patients," lead researcher Brophy said in a media statement. "Mounting evidence suggests that we need to re-evaluate occupational exposure limits in regulatory protection."

What this also certainly suggests is that it is prudent for everyone to avoid potentially cancer causing chemicals and hormone disruptors not only in the workplace but in the home. For example, as Natural News has reported in depth over the years, bisphenol A, or BPA, is an especially worrisome chemical (and one that is noted in the new study) found in many consumer products, especially plastics. BPA has long been known to disrupt hormones - although the FDA and EPA have failed to ban its use - and the chemical is linked to a host of health problems, including cancer. A study in Molecular Endocrinology, a journal of the Endocrine Society, shows BPA can cause dangerous changes in breast development which increase the odds of developing cancer.

Dangerous Effects of ADD/ADHD Drugs!

If you have a friend or family member on medication for those conditions, they should watch this video. Find out what some of those drugs do to the body in the short and long term!

Click Here to watch video