Wellness

These days, more and more gyms have evolved to become ‘health spas’. On top of the usual weights and treadmills, these all-singing-all-dancing facilities also offer pools, television, cafes, hot tubs, and saunas. For some, these unnecessary additions are little more than distractions. For others, they are the ‘dessert’ after the vegetable-course that is the workout.

But what if sitting in a sauna and relaxing was actually good for you? You may be surprised to learn that there are in fact many very impressive benefits to spending time in the sauna – several of which you may well be surprised to learn. In this post, we will take a look at ten unexpected benefits of spending time in saunas.

1. Endurance Benefits

If you’re a long-distance runner, then you probably go to the gym in order to do at least some running on the treadmill. But this is the perfect example of where you can get amazing benefits from your downtime in the sauna too.

That’s because spending time in the sauna has been shown to significantly improve performance in endurance athletes. And the reason for this has to do with heat management.

You see, while many of us tend to assume that we tire out during a run due to a build up of lactate or a lack of oxygen/energy; the reality actually often has to do with overheating.

But if you spend time in the sauna, then you can actually help to improve your own ability to regulate your temperature in a variety of ways (such as by raising your blood vessels to the surface of the skin in order to cool your blood temperature).

When you do this, you will be able to cope much better with extreme temperatures and that will then mean that you can run far longer without dehydrating or getting to dangerous temperatures.

In fact, this is such an important factor, that DARPA has reportedly experimented with cooling gloves for soldiers in order to help them run farther and faster!

The condition referred to as Bell’s palsy is a form of facial paralysis that is, in most cases temporary. According to studies conducted by Health Harvard, Bell’s affects 1 in 5,000 people in the United States alone each year. The condition affects one side of an individual’s face; where the side affected becomes weakened or completely paralyzed.

It is classified as a neurological disorder that causes temporary and sometimes in rare cases permanent nerve damage, as the condition disrupts the communication channels between the brain and the facial nerves. In some cases, Bell’s develops over-night, while sometimes it takes 24 to 48 hours to fully set in.

Numerous studies conducted on Bell’s palsy including one conducted by Medscape lists some of the symptoms of Bell’s to include one-sided facial drooping, drooling, wet eyes, sensitivity to sounds and bright light, continuous headaches, as well as impaired speech.

Here is a list of nine Bell’s palsy symptoms and their reduction.

1. Acupuncture

One of the treatments that can help alleviate Bell’s symptoms a little quicker is acupuncture. This ancient traditional Chinese healing method is used to treat numerous conditions including sleeping disorders, muscle pains and nerve damage through stimulation. According to Chinese traditions, Bell’s palsy is coined as an “external wind-cold” that is blowing and disrupting the channels in the face. The Chinese believe that Bell’s is caused by the disruption of a person’s energy, which is traditionally called the Qi.

Acupuncture is used to eradicate the external wind-cold by placing pins on the affected individuals face in order to restore blood circulation. It is recommended that acupuncture treatments be conducted up to twice a week. The pins not only help with restoring blood circulation, but they also enhance lost nerve function. According to traditional Chinese medicine standards, it is crucial that a person dealing with Bell’s eliminate stress by taking some time off to recover and eliminate any stress caused by busy routines.

Lace up your shoes and hit the road. Running is the world’s most popular fitness activity with millions of dedicated fanatics. What makes running so popular? Is it the fact that you can do it at any time of the day, or that you don’t need to go to the gym to get a good workout?

Running is for anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, male or female, you have two feet and a pair of legs. With a dash of ambition, you too could be a runner, all it takes is the first step.

Runners are passionate about their sport. Speak to any runner, and you’ll find that they credit running for their health, wellness, and longevity. The science behind running shows that the sport has mind-blowing benefits for anyone that decides to hit the track or the road. Here are 20 reasons why you should give it a try.

1. Give Your Confidence a Boost

A sedentary lifestyle and poor diet choices damage your health and well-being. People that are unfit and out of shape tend to have low self-confidence. If you aren’t happy with your physical and mental state, this will affect your entire persona, crippling your belief in yourself and what you can achieve in life.
People with low self-confidence generally submit to authority figures and have a hard time standing up for themselves when questioned or ridiculed.

Gaining self-confidence isn’t an easy task, but it’s possible if you commit to improving yourself through physical activity such as running.
Running can help you gain confidence in yourself. Training for running requires goal-setting. How far will you run this week? What will you eat to fuel your training sessions? Write out a training and diet plan, complete with your goals for fitness and well-being. As you achieve each milestone, you will feel a sense of achievement that will boost your self-confidence.

Honey has been used for literally thousands of years as not only food but also a medicinal product in many different cultures. Its natural properties make it a great addition to any diet, and actually work wonders in our bodies, from a remedy to a cosmetic product. Honey is the product of the work of bees, which gather the pollen from hundreds of flowers and process it over and over inside their own bodies to produce a highly nutritional, highly energetic product that they use to feed themselves.

Even if most honey we consume in industrialized countries is processed, and for that reason loses many of its properties, raw honey is actually a better product for your health and your beauty. In this article, we review 20 extraordinary benefits of honey for your physical health, your appearance and your syling. You will be surprised to learn just how much honey can do for you!

1. Great nutritional complement

Honey is very nutritious. It is a natural product of vegetal origin that is elaborated by bees from the pollen; many natural food stores and dietary suplement stores offer pollen as a natural nutritional complement, and honey is a concentrated, naturally elaborated product of pollen. Pollen itself is very nutritious because it is the natural precursor of seeds, so it needs many vitamins, minerals and other components that will later support the life of the early days of the new plant that will grow from the seed.

Honey is around 4/5 natural sugars, but it also has many other nutrients such as a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, as well as a considerable proportion of water. Raw honey also contains a dose of pollen, that is left inside of it after the bees are done processing the honey, so you can add all the known benefits of pollen.

Research has shown that lifestyle changes and diets are more effective for helping patients with PCOS than using medication. For this reason, if you have been diagnosed with PCOS, one of the best things that you can do for yourself is to make the proper lifestyle and diet changes in order to help keep the condition under control.

PCOS causes a person to have difficulty processing carbs and insulin. A woman with PCOS tends to produce an abundance of insulin, which causes the ovaries to release more testosterone and this leads to many of the PCOS symptoms. Getting started on a PCOS diet can be kind of tricky. Especially if you are unsure of what you should and should not be eating. However, if you follow some simple rules, the PCOS diet is easier to partake in. Here are ten rules to follow to make starting a PCOS diet easier for you.

1. Start with your Why

When it comes to any type of diet, including the PCOS diet one of the most important things that you can do is to understand why you are doing what you are doing. If you have been told that you need to go on this PCOS diet, but do not understand why, it can become even more difficult to follow for you.

There are many reasons why you should follow the PCOS diet if you have been diagnosed with this condition. As mentioned, research has found that diet and lifestyle changes are the most effective forms of treatment for this condition. Even knowing that may not be enough. In order to be successful on this diet you need to understand and accept the reasons that you should be following this diet for your health. Once you understand your why, following the PCOS diet is going to become much easier.