RPM Campaigns Blog

Archive for May, 2009

At some point, your cat will encounter a parasite of some sort. One such parasite is the cat hookworm. Actually, there are four types of hookworm that may infect your cat.

Ancylostoma tubaeforme, or the feline hookworm, Ancylostoma braziliense, or the canine and feline hookworm, Uncinaria stenocephala, known as the northern canine hookworm, and Ancylostoma caninum, or the canine hookworm (some authoritative sources state that this form of the worm only infects dogs, foxes, and possibly humans, but not cats).

Hookworm risks —

As with other parasites, environment and hygiene are critical risk factors, and indoor cats are far less likely than outdoor cats to contract the worm. Cats that are regularly allowed to hunt or roam are at higher risk for infection. Overcrowding and poor sanitation in shelters may contribute to the spread of the worm as well. Hookworms tend to thrive in warm, moist environments, so incidents may be higher in warmer climates. The exception to this might be U. stenocephala, which is more commonly seen in colder climates.

What they do to your cat —

In contrast to roundworm, which swim freely in the cat’s intestines, the hookworm will anchor itself to the cat’s intestinal wall and suck blood from the tissue. In order to ensure a constant supply of blood flow and nutrients, they inject an anti-coagulant at the feeding site to keep the blood from clotting. Clever, huh? One of the problems that can occur is that if the hookworm moves its feeding location, the old location may continue to bleed into the bowel. All this blood loss results in anemia.

Signs and symptoms of cat hookworms —

In kittens or cats in ill health, the anemia caused by the blood loss is usually more serious than in otherwise healthy adults. In rare, but severe cases, a blood transfusion may be required, and there may be a risk of death. Hookworms in your cat may cause any of the following symptoms: anemia, weakness, pale gums, poor coat, black tarry stools, bloody diarrhea, and weight loss. Infected kittens may also exhibit stunted growth.

Methods of transmission and life cycle —

An animal can become infected by ingestion of larvae. This can be through contaminated water or soil, or by eating an infected transport host (such as when a cat eats a rodent). Larvae can also infect your cat by penetrating the skin (usually the feet). In addition, infected mothers may pass the disease on in their milk.

You will note that in contrast to some parasites, hookworms have a direct life cycle. In other words, they don’t necessarily need a host in order to be transmitted.

Adult hookworms hook themselves to the intestinal wall and begin feeding. They pass microscopic eggs into the bowel of the cat, which ultimately end up in the cat’s stool. The eggs hatch and develop into larvae (immature worms). The Centers for Disease Control state that under the right conditions of moisture and temperature, eggs can develop into the infective larvae stage in as few as five days. Time varies, though, and this process may take up to three weeks or so. According to most sources, the larvae can exist in the soil and remain infective for many months.

When infection starts via skin penetration, the larvae will migrate via the circulatory system to the lungs. They will then make their way up to the throat, where they are swallowed. Once in the intestine, they may mature and begin producing eggs, and the cycle begins again.

In cats, prenatal infection (infection through transplacental blood flow prior to birth) has not been established to occur, as it does in dogs. Kittens, according to some sources, can become infected as well through ingesting the milk of an infected queen (transmammary), but others state otherwise, or that it has not been established.

Cat hookworm diagnosis and treatment —

Yearly testing for cat parasites, especially worms, is important, as it’s possible that healthy cats may show few symptoms until infection becomes severe. Hookworm eggs cannot be detected with the naked eye, but infection is fairly easy for your vet to diagnose through examination of the cat’s stool under a microscope. At least two treatments of deworming medication are needed in order to completely rid your cat of hookworm. Typically, treatments are administered at 2 – 3 week intervals. Kittens should be, and typically are, treated for hookworm during their kitten vaccination series.

Nothing is more fulfilling to me than when I feel a person is responding to my service. A muscle melting under my hands is one example.

Muscles melt when the person’s brain begins relinquishing its guarding. Guarding is the person subconsciously maintaining a higher-than-natural muscle contraction, day and night. Massaging muscles in their shortened positions triggers a neurological response of relaxation. One of your hands palpates or presses a muscle while your other hand controls muscle length by moving a limb or joint. In this way, your hands make a more direct connection with the part of the person’s brain which controls guarding.

Triggering muscles to melt is only the beginning. Once you notice and relish this response, you have the opportunity to respond back, continuing the dialogue, essence to essence. Service leaps to a deeper dimension.

Massage therapists relax muscles. The muscles need relaxing because they are guarded. Guarding is the person subconsciously maintaining a higher-than-natural muscle contraction, day and night. This article introduces you to the connection between your hands and the person’s subconscious awareness. Massaging muscles in their shortened positions triggers a neurological response of relaxation. After reading this article once, any student of massage, beginning, or advanced practitioner will be able to use this simple method. I hope you find that the muscles melt more easily than before. I hope the results from your first attempt will be promising enough to motivate you to practice, so you develop your connection with the people into a truly meaningful service.

THREE EXPERTS AGREE: TREAT MUSCLES IN THEIR SHORTENED POSITIONS

I was first directed to massage a muscle in its shortened position in 1994 by Rich Phaigh LMT. The muscle was the psoas. While the person is face up, one of the therapist’s hands grasps under the person’s knee and moves the knee superiorly, which shortens the psoas, then the other hand’s fingertips friction the psoas. When Rich showed me this position, I found the psoas began to melt almost immediately. I was very curious to learn more.

By 1996 I had attended all four of Rich’s 3-day OnsenTherapy workshops repeated one, memorized his 400 pages of accompanying notes and 8 hours of video, spent a week in Eugene apprenticing during his regular practice there, read several books of Osteopathic Techniques and manual methods, and created my own logic charts and assessment sheets. I am not suggesting you do this. I only tell of my wholehearted immersion into Rich Phaigh’s technique as an example of how intense practice, curiosity, and self-directed inquiry promote the effectiveness of any technique. Treating muscles in their shortened positions was practiced long before the Osteopathic Techniques arose.

Unlike other forms of yoga, Kum Nye does not emphasize stretches. Instead, the tense muscle group is contracted into a shortened position for several minutes until it fatigues. (Kum Nye Relaxation, by Tarthang Tulku, Dharma Publishing, Berkeley, CA) There is a Kum Nye pose coincidentally similar to Rich Phaigh’s psoas release. Don’t lie on a massage table or bed; it is too soft to accomplish the pose. Lying on your back, bring one knee at a time up until both thighs are touching your ribs. Contract the psoas as strongly as you can while relaxing the rest of the body. Do not lift your butt off the ground by contracting your abdominals. Trembling will occur, then fatigue. A warm energy sooths the low back. Set the feet back down on the ground and rest. Do this three times. Kum Nye is taught as a way of healing oneself, but not yet taught as a method to heal others.

Kum Nye is usually considered an esoteric energy technique, but I intend to show how shortening tense muscles encourages the brain to respond with muscle relaxation. When I showed the pose to Rich Phaigh, he said it looked like it caused lumbar relaxation by reciprocal inhibition. You don’t have to believe in anything supernatural to see the benefit of the neurological response to relax. But first, one more expert.

Lawrence Jones D.O., after treating thousands of people, discovered this: when a tight muscle is palpated with one hand as the limb or joint is brought through its range of motion, a dramatic softening is felt in the trigger point at a certain position in the range (Jones, Lawrence H., DO, Strain and Counterstrain, 1981 by American Academy of Osteopathy, Newark Ohio, p 21-27). No force upon the trigger point is necessary, except to monitor for when it begins to soften. Holding this position for 90 seconds, followed by an ultra-slow return to neutral, ends the guarding. The discovery is that precise positioning alone can trigger the brain’s response to relinquish guarding. It sounds simple but the art of precisely moving a joint with one hand (simultaneously assessing its quality of motion) while palpating with the other hand (assessing for softening) requires a good teacher and much practice. This art is not yet taught in massage schools, except as continuing education. What can you do today, to take advantage of this discovery?

When I looked closer at Dr. Jones’ photos of treating a subscapularis trigger point, the position happened to be far into medial rotation, which shortens the subscapularis. Dr. Jones’ treatment of an infraspinatus trigger point happened to be far into lateral rotation, which shortens the infraspinatus. Dr. Jones did not express this point because he treated joints, not muscles. When you think of it in terms of muscles, the process becomes far simpler!

In each of the three examples above, little or no manual pressure was necessary to trigger the muscles to melt. This in itself is wonderful news. Even more exciting is the news that you already know how to treat muscles in their shortened positions. You already have some skill at palpating where the tight muscles are. For each tight muscle you find, you have already memorized its actions, origin, and insertion. Simply bring its origin closer to its insertion, and then massage the tight muscle by rubbing or pressing as you normally would.

TRY THIS EXPERIMENT

The lumbar sidebenders are massive, dense, and difficult to access. Trying to treat all of the trigger points is time consuming and exhausting, for both the giver and the receiver. To shorten the lumbar sidebenders on the left side, stand at the left side, reach under the person’s shins, and slide their legs toward you. Your left hand pushes the hip up into elevation. Now you can leave the legs there, and have both hands free for massaging the shortened left lumbar sidebenders. The muscles are already softer from lack of tensile stress, but feel how much easier the trigger points melt away. If you are not convinced yet, leave them in this position, walk around the right side of the table, and try to make the trigger points on the lengthened side melt. Prove it to yourself: The shortened position is the most favorable for encouraging the brain to change its mind about guarding.

WHY IS THE PERSON GUARDING?

Muscle guarding is a form of self-defense against a threat. The threat can be present, remembered from the past, or anticipated in the future. The anticipation of pain can be anything from physical joint pain to emotional mental pain, or a blend. I do not recommend digging for the emotional component, just as I do not recommend digging for the trigger points. When a natural method is used, little or no force is necessary. If we use force to overcome the person’s self-defense, this demonstrates that they are powerless against our superior force. How can this be called service?

THE FINE PRINT; HOW AND WHY MUSCLES MELT IN THE SHORTENED POSITION

Actin and myosin fibers overlap near 100% with many bonds when the muscle is in the shortened position. As the muscle is lengthened, the percentage of actin/myosin overlap lessens, and the number of bonds lessens (Juhan, Deane, Job’s Body 1987 by Station Hill Press, New York, p.116-122). Therefore, a muscle is weaker and more vulnerable to separating (micro-tearing) in the lengthened position. You learned this in Muscle Physiology class, but you may not have explored the subtler implications. Weakness and vulnerability in the lengthened position is one reason why the brain decides to increase contraction when it feels threatened. Increasing contraction tends to shorten muscles, which protects them from actin/myosin separation. When you hold the person’s muscle in the shortened position, you demonstrate to the person’s brain that you support its chosen strategy to reduce the threat of actin/myosin separation.

Lengthening a muscle past its easy motion barrier requires a greater force, which creates tensile stress in the muscle. If the muscle is in pain, tensile stress will increase the brain’s interpretation of pain. Annulospiral receptors in the muscle fire stronger and faster whenever the muscle is under tensile stress–reports that may be falsely interpreted by the brain as the muscle length accelerating at a dangerous rate (Korr, I.M.: Proprioceptors and somatic dysfunction, Journal of the American Osteopathic Association 74:638-50, Mar 1975, reiterated by Jones). In the shortened position, this stress is not present, and annulospiral firing reduces frequency and amplitude. Holding the muscle in the shortened position for long enough to demonstrate your patience allows the person’s brain to accommodate to the reduced annulospiral signal, and reinterpret that the therapy is safe.

In the shortened position, several of the brain’s justifications for guarding have been suspended. The muscle palpates softer already, but it hasn’t melted yet. When a muscle is melting, this is not directly caused by the therapist, but created by the person. It is not a mechanical softening of muscle tissue. Rather, a muscle melting under your hands indicates that the person’s brain has decided to relinquish muscle guarding. The melting is caused by the person’s own decisions, in response to you.

I believe a trigger point is an imbalanced contraction. Two different parts of the brain contract different parts of the muscle. Alpha motor nerves control willful muscle contraction, enervating the majority of muscle fibers. Gamma motor nerves contract only the muscle spindles, where the annulospiral receptors live, in order to subconsciously supervise and coordinate contraction. Alpha contractions arise consciously from the brain’s motor cortex while gamma contractions arise subconsciously from the brain’s terminal gamma ganglia (Juhan, p.212-214). I believe a trigger point exists when there is a higher percent of contraction in the muscle spindle than in the muscle as a whole. If this is true, the presence of a trigger point would indicate that consciously the person chooses to relax, while subconsciously they feel there is a good reason to remain on guard. The person’s will is divided. Different parts of them create actions that are incongruent with each other. I do not know if one part of them is right or wrong. A therapist serves well to help them become congruent–at least balancing the conscious and subconscious orders from the brain to the muscles. When a trigger point melts, I believe this is their resolution of incongruence. Why does the trigger point melt with direct pressure, under favorable conditions like a shortened position?

Even gentle pressure will trigger their pressure sensors to report a significant signal to their brain. If the muscle is palpated up and down its length to find the densest region, pressure on this trigger point will report a mildly irritating sensation to the brain, reminding it of the imbalanced contraction down here. Since the conditions which triggered the guarding are no longer present or greatly reduced by the shortened position, this reminder is likely to urge the brain to reconsider its decision to contract, and send a new message. Melting begins, as a tentative experiment. The therapist’s responsibility, however, is only beginning.

To support this experiment, you must respond to the person’s response. Maybe you lighten the pressure upon the trigger point; maybe you rock the joint or move it even further into the shortened position. With these silent gestures, you communicate with those parts of the brain monitoring proprioception and sensation, that you acknowledge their response. Maybe you are more direct, saying, “Boy, this muscle is really melting now… Do you feel it sinking?” When you acknowledge in words that it is melting, you reinforce the brain to take a more conscious role in relinquishing guarding. It is your choice which part of the brain you would like to address. In either case, stay with this muscle until it is soft, or until progress tapers off.

If the muscle stops responding before full relaxation, maybe you need to treat this muscle’s antagonist first. Antagonist muscles often fight over a joint’s position like a stubborn married couple: “I’m not gonna budge until you give me some slack first.” For example, the elevators of the scapula like the levator may not fully relax until the depressors like the lower trap and pec minor have relaxed, and vice versa. Placing muscles in their shortened position with one of your hands, while you press or rub the muscle with your other hand, is indeed effective, to begin the relaxation process. However, the nature of therapy is your responding to their response. A two-way communication occurs between the essences of the two people. More occurs during this communication than any person could consciously be aware of. The part of you where knowing and responding arises, knows the part of them where their knowing responding arises. Essence recognizes itself in the other. This is the mirror which Socrates describes (Author unknown. Found in the Socratic Dialogue, Alcibiades, 132c through 133c, included in Plato Complete Works, edited by John M Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson, 1997 by Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis Indiana, the mirror analogy is found on p 591-2) which enables a willing and aware service professional to “know thyself” in seeing the other. It is this therapeutic relationship, which drew us to the service professions.

CONCLUSION

This should be more than enough information for you to begin practicing massaging muscles in their shortened positions. If you practice and study on your own, you won’t need any more information from me. It is that simple!

Prostate cancer is one of the three very common prostate diseases. Many experts estimate that every man will eventually develop cancer of prostate if he lives long enough.
Natural prevention of prostate cancers begins with the habit of maintaining urinary tract as clean as is possible. A daily fluid intake to as much as 8 to 12 glasses will increase the urine amount. When you are drinking enough, you are urinating more often than usual. Eliminated extra fluids help maintaining the urinary tract clean. Since the prostate is involved seminal fluid producing, there is a strong belief that regular ejaculations – two or three times weekly – will also help. There is no much scientific proof of this, but it is risk-free. Diet is also a factor. Avoid red meat. There is a strong correlation between high red meat consumption – more than four servings weekly – and the development of prostate cancer. Eat cereals – wheat, oats and bran – as a good source of protein For the prevention of cancer as well as for healing, eat plenty of cruciferous vegetables as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower. Include in the diet apples, all kinds of berries, fresh cantaloupe, watermelons, zucchini, carrots, pumpkin (seeds tea especially), parsley, squash and yams. Increase the zinc intake using Wheat Germ oil, Wheat Germ and Oatmeal. Tomatoes, eat tomatoes as much as you can. Massage Lying down on the bed, face up, massage the lower abdomen just above the base of the penis. Be gentle, you should feel some pressure, but not pain. Massage each leg about 5 minutes/day to stimulate reflexology points.

Some of you (especially the older baby boomers) might remember “The Magnificent Seven”, a blockbuster western movie from 1960 featuring an incredible cast that included Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, and Charles Bronson.

Well, this article is NOT about those Magnificent Seven. It’s about seven food items that are downright excellent and “magnificent” for your health, particularly if you’re someone dealing with low blood sugar symptoms or hypoglycemic symptoms. The characters in the movie were good guys, the items on this list are good foods. All seven of them.

Here they are, in all their glory, in alphabetical order:

Magnificent #1: Berries
Fruits, in general, have a high sugar (fructose) content, so if you’re just starting out on your hypoglycemic diet, you may want to limit the fruit you eat – avoid bananas, for instance.

The best fruit for someone dealing with low blood sugar, hypoglycemia, even hyperglycemia, is berries. Berries are lower in sugar and calories than many other fruits, and they’re packed with nutrients.

Take blueberries, for example. Many health benefits have been attributed to blueberries, and they’re also a very good source of vitamin C, manganese, dietary fiber, vitamin E and antioxidants. Choose wild blueberries for even more antioxidants than cultivated blueberries provide.

Try blueberries on your cereal, in your yogurt, or blend some into your protein shake.

Magnificent #2: Eggplant
Yes, your mom was right! Eat your veggies for good health! And this one in particular: eggplant. We don’t all eat eggplant, but according to recent research, we probably should.

Purple-skinned eggplant is a good source of phenols, a nutrient that helps your body use sugar more efficiently. Phenols have also been found to help with high blood pressure, and provide antioxidant protection as well.

Try eggplant in Greek Moussaka, a tasty dip, or even Eggplant Lasagna!

Magnificent #3: Fiber
Low blood sugar and hypoglycemia expert Anita Flegg recommends you eat nine handfuls of fruit and veggies and one ounce of nuts every day. Eat only whole grain breads and cereals. These are all allowable hypoglycemia foods. The fruit, vegetables, nuts and whole grains all help you address one of the most important points of an hypoglycemia diet: Eating lots of fiber.

If you’re eating lots of vegetables, you’re getting good carbohydrates AND lots of vitamins and minerals. Best of all, vegetables are a great source of dietary fiber, especially if they’re raw or lightly steamed.

Dietary fiber is crucial to the hypoglycemia diet. Fiber slows down the absorption of sugars that are a part of all foods and reduces the possibility of a low blood sugar episode later on.

As an added benefit, having your fiber throughout the day means you’ll never be hungry, and it’ll be easier to stay away from sweets. And if you also find yourself losing a little weight, hey, even better!

As hypoglycemics, we should eat our meals – not drink them. Juicers were all the rage for a while, and they certainly had their value. People who would otherwise not eat enough fruits and vegetables to get their required vitamins were at least getting a vitamin boost.

While getting your vitamins is a great idea, juice isn’t the best way to get it. Whether you buy it or make it yourself, juice is a poor choice for hypoglycemics because processing has removed all of the fiber and some of the vitamins (some B vitamins are destroyed by processing).

Without the fiber to slow the sugar response, the natural sugars in both fruits and vegetables can cause a very fast sugar spike. For hypoglycemics, this is a major problem because of the symptoms related to both the sugar spike and the sugar crash that is sure to follow.

If you’re dealing with low blood sugar, hypoglycemia, even hyperglycemia, stick with fresh fruits and vegetables for quality vitamins and better sugar control.

Magnificent #4: Fish
Low blood sugar and hypoglycemia expert Anita Flegg also recommends you eat fish three times per week.

There are two kinds of fish: white fish and oily fish. Examples of white fish are cod, halibut and monkfish. White fish are a great low-calorie source of protein and there are dozens of tasty ways to prepare them.

Oily fish like salmon and mackerel are also tasty sources of protein, and although they’re not particularly low-cal, they have the added benefit of omega-3 fatty acids. Studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids are great for improving and maintaining the health of your heart, and they’re great for your skin and hair, too. Keep in mind when you get ready to cook it that pan-frying and deep-frying fish, especially at high temperatures, appears to destroy the omega-3 fats.

So go ahead and choose fish. Bake, poach, grill or steam it. It’s delicious and a great source of protein that’ll help keep your blood sugar level steady and you feeling great.

FYI (while we’re talking about fish…) insulin resistance is part of the hypoglycemia problem in that your body has to produce more and more insulin over time to deal with the sugars in your diet. Reversing this is crucial to improving your sugar-handling, and reducing your hypoglycemia symptoms.

Now, did you know that taking fish oil (1000-4000 mg every day) not only lowers cholesterol and reduces inflammation, but also improves insulin sensitivity?

And if you just can’t eat enough fish, also add omega-3 fatty acids capsules.

Magnificent #5: Nuts
Go Nuts!… Recent research shows that eating nuts and nut butters at least 5 times a week can reduce your risk of developing Type II diabetes by 27%!

Why “go nuts?” Because they have the top three components to keep your blood sugar steady and improve your insulin sensitivity: protein, fiber, good fats.

It’s recommended to consume one ounce of nuts every day. Looking for ways to add nuts to your diet? Try some of these: add a handful of slivered almonds to your next stir-fry, take a small bag of pistachios or cashews to snack on at work, put peanut butter on your breakfast toast.

Magnificent #6: Rye
I talked about fiber earlier in this article, and new information about whole-grain rye should move it to the top of your list.

According to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in December of 2005, when rye bread and pasta were compared to oat and wheat bread and potato, insulin secretion (an indication of the reduction of insulin resistance) increased six times more in the rye bread group than for the other two groups.

This result was supplemented in August of 2007 (Journal of the American Dietetic Association), when it was found that a rye pasta diet actually caused changes in genes linked with Type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome!

The key to understand here is that the biggest risk inherent in being hypoglycemic is that it increases your risk of getting Type II diabetes.

Because hypoglycemia progresses to insulin resistance, and from there to diabetes, it is important for hypoglycemics to maintain and shore up your insulin sensitivity as much as possible, and however you can.

In reactive hypoglycemia, you have too much insulin because of insulin resistance – it takes more and more insulin production to get the cells to respond. That’s when you get an avalanche of insulin that causes a hypoglycemic episode.

As this progresses and gets worse over the years, the risk of developing Type II diabetes goes up.

Whole-grain rye seems to make a difference in insulin sensitivity, so the studies seem to suggest that whole-grain rye products should be good for everyone who is insulin resistant, whether hypoglycemic or Type II diabetic.

Magnificent #7: Tomato
Eat 10 tablespoons of cooked tomato foods every week to get the anti-oxidant lycopene.

Oxidation is a natural process that causes your cells to age. Topping up on antioxidants like lycopene can slow cell aging and keep you feeling healthier.

Anything that helps your overall health will also help your hypoglycemia symptoms. Do your body a favor: add foods containing tomato to your diet.

Eat well, be well, live well!

Go Organic

You should do everything possible to avoid making juices which contain toxins, because the point of drinking them is to detoxify your body of the poisons it has already accumulated. So you should make all your juices from organically grown produce, and prepare them in a juicer free of toxic metals like aluminum. Avoid cleaning your juicing equipment with water which contains aluminum as well.

You can choose whatever fruits and vegetable you like for your detox diet juice, but green leafy vegetables like spinach are especially helpful for rebalancing your body’s pH system to the slightly alkaline state which Mother Nature intended. Carrot juice is very sweet and loaded with beta carotene, a powerful antioxidant. And celery juice is terrific for flushing the toxins from your joints so that you can move painlessly again. If you are going to dilute your diet juice with water, use only filtered water.

Detox Diet Juice Fasting

If you are really anxious to cleanse your system in a hurry, you can turn to detox diet juice fasting, giving up all solid foods including vegetables and fruits. This will let your digestive tract rest from having to break solid foods down, and will also flush any accumulated and mucus from your intestines and colon. If a detox diet juice fast sounds a bit to strenuous for you, start detoxifying by eating only fruits and vegetables for between one and five days and then begin the detox diet juice fast.

You should not attempt it fast if you suffer from chronic health issues like hypertension, cardiovascular problems, diabetes or hypoglycemia, renal disease or cancer, or an iron deficiency. Expectant and nursing mothers and children should also avoid the detox diet juice fast.

A Detox Diet Juice Fast Recipe

It will take your system time to adjust to a liquid diet, and you might benefit by trying it for one or two days to so if you can handle it for the full five days of the detox diet juice fast program. You can start with carrot-Apple Juice, a wonderfully sweet and refreshing, not to mention highly nutritious, juice made by mixing two or three green apples, two carrots, and by juicing two or three green apples, two carrots, and a half teaspoon of freshly grated ginger root together.

One way of being able to cope up with stress and anxiety is by avoiding an anxiety diet. An anxiety diet is one that adds to your body’s already anxious state by stimulating the senses. What is alarming with an anxiety diet is the fact that it includes food that you take into your body often.

Under normal circumstances, anxiety in itself is just a healthy reaction to certain stimuli. But once it comes to a point that you already find it too excessive, it might already be considered as a disorder.

Such a condition can easily prevent you from enjoying a more normal and enriching life. Being able to manage it entails having a stress-free and healthy lifestyle; and one of the major ways to do that is by avoiding an anxiety diet.

Cut back on caffeine.

Caffeine is a stimulant that can make you experience heightened alertness that can border towards nervousness in some people. To some people, caffeine can even have severe reactions as to induce panic attacks.

For people with anxiety problems, caffeine may aggravate their condition by eliciting a false stress response in the body even when no stress is present. It is better to cut intake of caffeine if not avoid it altogether. This would mean not only cutting back on coffee but also tea, chocolate and most carbonated drinks which may also contain caffeine.

Drink alcohol in moderation.

Although some people reach for alcohol as a way to calm their nerves, it may also have an effect on anxiety. Alcohol contains depressants that can make you feel more anxious.

Moreover, alcohol contains a simple sugar that can be easily absorbed by the body and can contribute to increasing hypoglycemic conditions such as frequent mood swings and irritability.

An anxiety diet can best be avoided if you bear in mind that alcohol and stimulants such as caffeine are better off not being a part of the daily diet regimen. Occasional consumption may be acceptable; but for those with rather serious anxiety problems, such substances should be done away with altogether.