Healthy Living Tips

MikeA September 19th, 2009

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Foreword By Mike Alexander

This article by Stephanie Morris discusses anxiety and panic attacks from the standpoint of someone who was once a sufferer herself but who found that, through self-help, she was able to overcome them. If you find her article helpful, may I suggest that you visit her site (you’ll find details in her ‘bio’ at the end of the article). Thank you Stephanie, for your insight.

The Role Of Stress

A lot of money is made by doctors and drug companies off people who unfairly have to suffer with panic and anxiety attacks. Unfortunately, of course, life isn’t fair. However, there is new research being conducted all the time and it is now recognized that one of the main reasons why panic attacks continue to pop up in life is due to unhealthy levels of stress.

Other factors like mental genetics and chemical imbalances are there as well but many times unhealthy stress can activate these too. That said, panic and anxiety attacks are something you probably should be able to control most of the time, if you know how.

What Are The Causes?

Anxiety attacks usually begin in the brain and cause all the affects from there. You might be wondering what, at that point, is going on in the brain. One answer is that oxygen, which is carried to the brain in the blood supply, is responsible for the stability of the levels of different chemicals. That’s why exercise is one of the best ways to fight anxiety. It increases the amount of oxygen delivered to your brain.

But different forms of unhealthy stress can be very hard to manage when they are thrown on you at multiple times in the day. It’s like an evil circle; stress causes anxiety, and anxiety causes yet more anxiety, which leads to panic and then it can just snowball from there.

That’s why medication is not necessarily the best way to go about fighting anxiety. Once you stop taking it you will continue to suffer.

Two Main Treatments

There are two ways that I think are best: self-help or hire a doctor for some therapy. Personally I think the self-help way is better because you can be more honest (not to mention that there are some great tools out there to help you).

Hiring a doctor can actually work against you. You will have to bend to their personal and professional schedules. You may be left with questions unanswered and that can just put you into a greater state of anxiety.

Not going the doctor and therapy route leaves you with self-help. That is the best way for most people because there are so many tools that lead you in the right direction. During that process you will get to know yourself a lot better and that will breed ever more confidence. That confidence will then help you become the master of your anxiety and panic.

About the Author

Stephanie, until recently, was a sufferer of panic and anxiety. Through a lot of trial and error, she learned with success about how to treat anxiety attacks. You can learn about the exact tools she herself used to stop panic attacks.

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Tags: anxiety, exercise, panic attacks, positive thinking, relaxation, self healing, self-confidence

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MikeA March 26th, 2009

Mind And Body

Healthy living, when the aim is to have a long and enjoyable life, has every bit as much to do with the mind as the body. Debate still rages about the effects of positive thinking on the ability of the body to heal itself. Nonetheless it is generally recognized that an optimistic attitude and a reasonable degree of self-esteem have been associated in an overwhelming number of studies with physical wellness and health that leads right into old age.

Prevention Or Cure?

“So what is covered here?”, you might ask. “Are you offering tips on how to stay healthy or is the focus on remedies for the ailments that might bother us?”

Well, the answer is: both of the above… and lots more. In the case of prevention, I offer tips on how to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and look after the needs of your mind and body. As far as remedies go, I suggest natural solutions that might be considered first, particularly for relatively mild conditions or those for which medical science has yet to provide a convincing treatment.

What About Conventional Medicine?

Does this mean I am skeptical about conventional medicine, as provided by your doctor?

Absolutely not! It’s just that I think equal weight should be given to all forms of healing, at least until such time as intelligent assessment deems one to be superior to another. I am aware of some of the pitfalls that can come from an almost religious belief in what some call ‘mumbo-jumbo’ cures. But similarly, I am also skeptical about relying wholly on one answer from one person who has been trained to look in one particular way at all ailments—over-prescribing of antibiotics is a good example of what can go wrong with such a narrow outlook.

Advances in modern medicine are truly amazing. Nevertheless, any doctor, if he’s honest, will admit that there is still far more to learn about how the body and mind work than the sum of all knowledge currently available. So far, they have only scratched the surface.

A Long And Enjoyable Life

So why do I think I’m qualified to offer health tips? Am I a physician? No, but I’m now almost 70 years old and I think I’ve learned a thing or two in my long life. I’ve made many mistakes, including some made during the course of my marriage of 45 years and bringing up a son and a daughter. However, both our offspring are now in their forties and seem settled happily into their own lives so we can’t have done too badly. My wife too is still with me and putting up with my funny ways but we are still able to laugh at (and with) each other. We’ve experienced hardship and setbacks, including in my case, ill-health (I had a devastating stroke 15 years ago) but we’ve also experienced travel and adventure and can still enjoy each other’s company.

I joined the Royal Marines at 15 and from the age of 18 served most of the next decade in the commandos, eventually becoming the youngest sergeant in the corps. Fitness and survival skills were paramount for me then but went into decline over the following years. However, my stroke, which left me crippled, was a wake-up call and I now do a 10 km walk every other day and a one hour relaxation session in the intervening days. The result is that I feel almost as fit and healthy now as I did in my younger days (not taking my disability into account, of course).

Product Reviews

You will find brief reviews of various products I think you might be interested in, and which are related to the subject matter, peppered throughout this site. Where they appear, there is invariably a link to the actual product as well. This does not mean I have personally tried the product in question (frankly, that would be impossible anyway) but that I wish to draw your attention to it. By the same token, the inclusion of such a review does not amount to a recommendation either but rather a referral for your consideration.

In closing I would like to stress that I’ve tried to make navigation of this site as straightforward as possible. Simply browse the menus in the right sidebar or, for current posts, scroll below here to view them. Also, I very much hope you will support the advertisers by reading about their products. After all, they make it possible for me to run this website.

Mike Alexander

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Tags: diet, healthy remedies, long life, mind and body, positive thinking, preventive care, self healing, staying healthy, stroke

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