healthybody Archives

When I was in school I fell on the field, in the corridor, on the paved ground, stoned areas, in the class and even tripped over nothing. The skirt and pinafore didn’t help with the knees either. My knees and elbows always had scratches and wounds. The school nurse even asked me once while applying tincture “Why did you fall again?” in her loud angry voice. They all healed though; every one of them. The scar would stay for a bit but eventually new skin cells replaced the old ones and now no one can tell I was a reckless child.

Just like a wound every other part of our body, made up of living cells, are meant to heal. The body heals on its own and how?

I would love to share a few healing tips that I’ve incorporated in my life. Skip the ones you feel are ‘extra’ for you, but try them all.

Resting: This is most under-rated in the hustle hustle outlook of people today. Sadhguru on resting, “If your relaxation is not of good quality, your work will not be of good quality.” I had a back injury a while back and my physiotherapist recommended complete rest. It was 80 percent better within a day’s time. The best way to get off a cold and flu is ample amount of rest. Without popping a pill and just giving your body the rest it needs is what I see so many people sort to these days.
Fasting: Fasting is the resting of your digestive system. It is really like a system reboot in the body and it helps the in improving stomach health, healing other parts of the body and even keeps you alert. There’s intermittent fasting, Dry fasting, seasonal fasting and other types. Thanks to my mother I’ve been intermittent fasting all my life. I read about this concept only recently, and it works like magic. I recommend you go through what Luke Coutinho has to share about fasting, he explains it the best and he’s a certified nutritionist.
Breathing: Did you take a deep breath after reading that? I’ve caught my breathing taking casual pauses like its waiting for me to notice. I have heard a few people have cured hormonal imbalances by just following Yogic breathing techniques; Pranayama. I haven’t tried this in a disciplined way, but everytime I’ve done Anulom Vilom it has made me feel alert. Fresh air is essential to life and holding a good posture almost makes it natural to take deep breaths. Correcting posture can correct the breathing to be involuntarily smooth. To be a little extra: You could try the balloon technique in the following link: https://www.sonima.com/fitness/email-apnea/ .
Meditating: I am more acquainted with this now, and written vastly about meditating in my previous articles. Meditating can heal your mind, body and emotional state magically. It takes discipline and consistency to reach there but its definitely something each human being was born to do. We have evolved to depend on different sources of energy outside; electricity, internet, wifi; but the real source of energy is life and when we meditate we focus on that. We are inbuilt with this “soul energy”, we just have to focus and tap into it.
Salt: Yes, Epsom salt baths is trendy if you haven’t tried it yet and the new thing is to buy Himalayan pink salt Lamps! I have been using hot salt potli’s to recover sore muscles and muscle cramps. (heat the salt in a pan, put it in a handkerchief and tie a knot so it doesn’t spill, ready!) This heals the fastest! “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”— Isak Dinesen. Learn about Salt healing from this article :http://www.asianage.com/health-fitness/healing-power-salt-101
Copper: Copper bottles have been fashionable for a while now without the science behind it getting famous. Just like our other trends. Copper has anti-microbial properties and it helps in the absorption of iron. As per our Ancient Indian Ayurveda it is an element that helps in balancing our doshas. Again cautious use of this element can restore hormonal health and other imbalances can be corrected.
Tisané: Herbal teas were used as a medicine in so older civilizations. People thought it is witchcraft, but they were just our garden herbs. ‘Tisané over Chai‘ has a few herbal tea infusions you can read on the website. ‘More Tisané’ will be published very soon keep an eye out. Herbs are mother nature’s potpourri which we have at our disposal.

TO BE Contd…

I had no clue why I felt sleepy by 9:30PM and woke up exactly after 7 hours without an alarm clock everyday. The idea of feeling thirsty had become alien to me at one point. I thought its all just to do with habits, but there’s a whole science to this. Meet our built-in programmer- the circadian system. (pronounced as: sir-kedi-un)

For all humans, plants and animals it is synchronized with the Earth’s rotation. The circadian time is ideally in sync with sun-time and its a 24-hour clock. It is the time keeper for our body temperature, sleep, metabolism, release of hormones, hunger, thirst and all physical functioning of the body.

It is vastly influenced by light. It varies for individuals depending on genetics, habits, food, emotions, activity levels, etc. Seasons and weather also affect this biological clock system.

It can be altered by consciously changing one’s exposure to light, meal time, temperature controlled showers, water intake, activity level, etc.

Early morning showers help the body to release more white blood cells, which help with a good immunity. You could make it fancy by taking a eucalyptus shower it helps you feel fresh and wide awake.What I do: Put some water and eucalyptus oil mixed in spray bottle. Spray it on the walls of my shower. Switch on the shower to the hottest and let the bathroom steam up for a few seconds, adjust the temperature to have a bath and it is the best thing on earth.
Less light during the day makes your body produce less serotonin, a hormone for regulating the mood. It also affects the melatonin production in the brain, in turn altering your sleep cycle and stress hormone. Less natural light can thus cause mood fluctuation and make you feel aggressive or irritable. Making sure you get exposed to enough sunlight can help your circadian rhythm to function better. If you are exposed to light at the time your body needs to sleep the brain will get signals that its still not time to go to bed. Cut screen time around bed time to get better sleep. I’m still working on this one.
Losing weight with some fad diets can prove useless if your circadian rhythm is out of whack. Natural hunger patterns help your metabolism to be in check and the digestion is also at its best. Keeping a time schedule for eating everyday at the same time can create a new habit and eventually make you hungry at that time (I’ve tried that). You need to consult with your grand parents for the right meal times if you’re confused.

The suprachiasmatic nucleusis a patch in the brain, a control room of the circadium system but each cell has its own clockwork. The individual cells are affected by genes thus the circadium system depends on how each of these genes express themselves with age. Babies develop their circadian system only after 3-6 months and there is a loss of rhythm in many of these genes in older people.

The environment and your habits have a huge role in getting our circadian rhythm balanced.

So I guess the age old saying “Early to bed early to rise makes a human healthy, wealthy and wise” now makes sense.

RESEARCH

Tag: healthybody

Heal-arious as can be

The Auto-mate (Circadian system)