Alternative Medicine News – December 8, 2014

The Surprising Stuff Hiding in Your Food

Food is a source pleasure. But it can also be a source of pain.

Why? Because there are things in food that are literal poisons. And some of these poisons cause inflammation and other pain-causing conditions.

Of course foods in their natural state, especially organically grown, don’t have this problem. It is only when they are turned into “convenience foods” that problems crop up. And this is a fairly recent phenomenon.

Here is an article that elaborates on this issue. It explores how processing adulterates foods. And it will give you very specific information about how to avoid them.

Learn more here.

Easy Solutions for Insomnia

Sleep is very healing. It follows that lack of sleep can damage your health.

This article offers a Chinese Medicine perspective on sleeping well. One thing I’ve always liked about this perspective is that it is grounded in nature. It also reflects our actual experience of life.

There are 6 specific things you can do to help insure better sleep. She also includes 3 “bonus items” that you can try.

Get the scoop here.

Yoga Boosts Brain Power

Yoga isn’t just good for stress. It also helps your brain.

A study looked at the effect of practicing hatha yoga three times a week for eight weeks. They found it improved older adults’ performance on tests of mental skills and memory.

I like this study since they compared the effect against a group of seniors who only stretched. The yoga group did far better.

Previous studies show that yoga can have also quickly decrease anxiety, depression and stress. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

You can get the details here.

The Link Between Eating Well and Mental Health

“Let food be thy medicine” ~ Hippocrates

In simpler times people knew how food affected their moods.

But in modern times, this knowledge is less common. Now we are used to thinking of drugs to control depression and anxiety.

But this may be changing. Several recent studies show that eating natural foods like our ancestors did can be better than drugs. These foods reduced depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.

Food is medicine. In fact it’s better than medicine. Hippocrates would approve.

You can get the details here.

Walk This Way To Stay Happy and Fit

Do you think you have to do power walking to be fit? Maybe not.

This article talks about a kind of walking meditation. And research shows it may actually be more effective than heavy aerobic walking.

It is especially good for reducing stress. But at the same time it also offers support for heart health. Here are some of the benefits they found:

• Weight loss.
• Blood and heart health.
• Fitness.
• Happiness.

And since it isn’t strenuous, it is suitable even for people who can’t do strenuous exercise.

The details are here.