Other than a 5-HTP for COPD alternative treatment, those that suffer from breathlessness or oxidative distress and chronic inflammation it is important to take antioxidants as those found in green tea or red wine (resveratrol) and/or anti-inflammatory agents to help alleviate inflammation. Also a study done in 2009 by the Respiratory Research, reported that the more soy people consumed the fewer breathing problems they had, particularly breathlessness with COPD patients. At the Kagoshima University Hospital in Japan they found that omega-3 fatty acids improved patients breathing difficulties by offsetting the airway inflammation seen with this disease You can buy a omega-3 fatty acid as a supplement, but foods rich in omega-3’s are oily fish, flaxseed, walnuts, soybeans and canola oil. Read more »
5 HTP for COPD Alternative Treatment Part 1
There are natural alternative treatments for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or COPD. COPD is a serious lung disease that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. COPD is the fourth cause of death in the United States and is greatest among women. Thought to be the result of cigarette smoking it is now known that it can affect nonsmokers as well as older adults and persons living in urban areas due to pollution irritants. COPD usually starts with a cough and phlegm that comes and goes until it becomes chronic. A chronic condition worsens over the years with increase shortness of breath, wheezing and mucus. If you have a chest infection your phlegm will be yellow or green. If a person with COPD also suffers from depression they are known to have a shorter lifespan. Some doctors recommend taking 5-HTP or St. John’s wort along with an antidepressant to improve their condition. Read more »
Lack of Sleep and COPD
Trying to get enough sleep is difficult especially on Christmas Eve, but lack of sleep and COPD can make falling asleep easy worse. COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease causes people to wake up frequently during the night and takes longer for them to fall asleep due to chest pain, tightness, coughing and wheezing. Other symptoms of COPD are acid reflux, hormonal fluctuations and sleep apnea. Over time COPD can lead to bronchitis and emphysema and sleep deprived health problems such as memory loss, weight gain, diabetes, pulmonary hypertension and heart disease. Read more »
Medications that Affect Sleep
Everyone has an occasional sleepless night due to stress, acid reflux or too much caffeine or alcohol. Did you know that certain medications can disrupt your normal sleep patterns? Changing your medication, lowering your dose or taking your medication in the morning instead of at night can often help you fall asleep easy. If you have a chronic condition and rely on medications, be aware the there are medications that affect sleep such as blood pressure and asthma drugs as well as over-the-counter medications for colds, allergies and headaches. Make sure you discuss your sleep problems with your doctor to discuss changing your dose or medication. Many common medications can prevent you from falling asleep, staying asleep or make you groggy during the day. Drugs work differently on everyone as one medication may affect you but not someone else. The following drugs cause sleep problems for most people. Read more »
Dealing with Stress Dr. Oz 7 Stress Relieving Tips
One of your New Year’s Resolutions might be dealing with stress. Did you know that exercising or sleeping can actually bring on more stress? You may want to start an exercise program, but taking the time to work out means less time for your job or your family. The more you add to your daily life, even if it is something good for you like diet, exercise, sleep or even trying to stop smoking can add stress. The brain is set to ramp up stress by processing your daily experiences and work its way back to joy. How can you balance your life without adding stress? Read more »
Oh Sleepless Night
If you experience sleepless nights due to worry, stress and anxiety due to financial issues, relationships, work and thoughts of your life spinning out of control maybe it is time to step back and assess your life before your occasional sleepless night becomes chronic insomnia. It is important to find the cause of your sleeplessness early as a prolonged experience may become a habit that will be harder to stop. Insomnia symptoms are having difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, falling back to sleep after waking, groggy upon waking and tired during the day. Read more »
Cant Sleep
Are you one of the 29% that cant sleep unless they take prescription sleeping pills or over-the-counter medications? The National Sleep Foundation did a survey in 2007 and discovered that nearly two thirds of women only received the quality and quantity of sleep they needed a few times a week. Why? They have too much to do and even though they are tired they struggle to get through their day. Their minds race, their husbands snore and their kids refuse to go to bed. They don’t know how they are going to buy presents let alone pay the mortgage. Their bedroom is too hot, too noisy or even too bright from all their gadgets. Your cell phone, internet router, DVD, game console, power strip, TV and even your alarm clock emit a light even if they are turned off. Read more »
L-theanine Promotes Relaxation and Deep Sleep
L-theanine is an amino acid found exclusively in tea plants that not only helps relieve stress during the day, but L-theanine promotes relaxation and deep sleep during the night. The calming effect of green tea many seem inconsistent to the stimulating property of tea’s caffeine, but it can be explained by the action of L-theanine. L-theanine acts against the stimulating effects of caffeine on the nervous system. While this amino acid works to create a state of deep relaxation it also helps the brain produce the neurotransmitter GABA. GABA or gamma amino butyric acid naturally reduces stress and anxiety and allows you to fall asleep easy by neutralizing the effects of glutamate, a brain chemical that causes excitement. When there is too little GABA, it causes racing thoughts that keep you up at night. Read more »
Insomnia is a Heart Attack Symptom
There are many symptoms that you can watch for that may lead to a heart attack. They can be different for men and women and still different in older adults. In fact, 95% of women who had heart attacks reported symptoms up to a month before an attack, but these symptoms weren’t chest pains, so they went unrecognized. Many often remember experiencing an unexplained inability to fall asleep easy or stay asleep during the month or weeks that lead up to their heart attack. Patients often report the feeling of being keyed up, tense and lying in bed with racing thoughts and sometimes with a rapid heart rate. Women reported a sense of impending doom as if disaster was about to happen. If you don’t normally have trouble sleeping, remember that insomnia is a heart attack symptom and you should speak to your physician. Read more »
GABA Dominant Personality
50% of the world’s population is known as having a GABA-dominant personality and share common traits; stability, consistency, sociability and concern for others. They are nature’s nurturers and are great working as caretakers. They are dependable and can be counted on to be at work every day. They work well and like to set goals, organize projects, schedule activities and take charge of others. Many people with high GABA levels have careers in administration, accountants, nurses, EMTs, air-traffic controllers and homemakers. Not only are they good workers, they take care of their family and friends as they cherish one-on-one relationships. If you befriend a GABA-dominant personality you will be a friend for life. Their ultimate goal is to make others happy. They believe in family life, are religious and enjoy establishing traditions especially when it comes to holiday activities. Read more »
Bananas have GABA that Reduces Stress and Anxiety to Ease Sleep
With all the stress and anxiety associated with the Christmas season you will be happy to know that bananas have GABA that reduces stress and anxiety to ease sleep. The brain has four primary neurotransmitters: dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA and serotonin that affect the four areas of the brain and the brain’s health in various ways. An overabundance or deficiency of any neurotransmitter can lead to health problems including lack of sleep. Read more »
Prednisone Insomnia
Prednisone is used as an immunosuppressant that acts on almost the entire immune system and is very useful in treating autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases, poison ivy, dermatitis, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis and Crohn’s disease. Side effects of prednisone include adrenal suppression which is the body’s inability to synthesize natural corticosteroids, resulting in a dependency on prednisone. When taking prednisone for over seven days it is recommended to reduce the dose gradually over a few days as stopping abruptly can cause life-threatening Addison’s disease in which the body can no longer produce adrenal steroid hormones. Using this drug over any period of days can cause prednisone insomnia, fatigue, abdominal pain, blurred vision, peptic ulcers, infections, osteoporosis, weight gain, stretch marks, swelling, nervousness, increased appetite and hyperactivity. Read more »
Yoga for Sleeping Seizure
Yoga an ancient Indian practice is increasingly becoming a modern approach for treating epileptic seizure disorder. The World Health Organization estimates 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy and 25% of these are with a sleeping seizure disorder. There are four types of epilepsy and nine disorders that cause seizures. Yoga helps bring a balance between the individual’s health and what is causing their seizures. Sleep-related epilepsy would be those seizures that have a relationship with sleep, while some are mainly during sleep others are exclusively during sleep and some between the transition between sleep and wakefulness. Physicians are still trying to determine why people have seizures during the night. One theory is that the brain continues to fire neurons during sleep in a rhythmic pattern and that this underlying pattern makes it easier to have a seizure. Seizures disrupt the normal activity of the central nervous system and yoga for sleeping seizures restores the balance to the body and its metabolic systems while increasing physical stamina and calming the nervous system. You can sleep easy by practicing yoga exercises, breathing exercises, and relaxing your mind through meditation to help in prevent seizures. Read more »
Christmas Lack of Sleep
Christmas is the time of year that brings a plethora of different emotions. Christmas is full of love, joy, peace and prosperity. In the past, we would gather together with loved ones to stuff our faces with fabulous food, reminisce, sit by the fire and drink eggnog or hot chocolate. In today’s world we are constantly rushing, frustrated, anxious, and stressed that causes Christmas lack of sleep. We are filled with great excitement for the season, but worried over family finances for buying gifts and family pressures to find time for travel. At some point all of us experience some holiday stress from high levels of anxiety by various expectations and extra activities. We over load our calendar with all the extra things we have to do to celebrate the Christmas season. Christmas lack of sleep is caused by all these extra activities and additional responsibilities which affect our bedtime habits and our ability to fall asleep easy and stay asleep. Read more »
Sleep Related Gifts
Only a few shopping days left until Christmas! Likely, you have been tossing and turning every night over what gifts you will buy for those special people in your life. According to some recent research, sleep related gifts are the top of people’s Christmas wish list. The National Retail Federation reported that even though tech gifts like the iPhone and Droid are up this year, people still want something that will help them fall sleep asleep easy. What could be more practical than giving the gift of sleep? Read more »
All I want for Christmas is a Good Nights Sleep
“All I want for Christmas is a good night’s sleep!” Do you or someone you know suffer from lack of sleep? Do you want to find that special gift that will help your loved one get a good night’s sleep? A study done in 2009 stated that out of the 35% sleepless participants, 27% would stop social networking for a year, while 28% would rather have a lifetime of great sleep than a great sex life or even an unlimited supply of chocolate. 31% of men were more likely to choose a lifetime of great sleep verses 25% of women. Read more »
Zeo Personal Sleep Coach Reviews
If you are in the market for an alarm clock as a gift this year you may find that they are getting more competitive than cell phones, MP3 players and GPS devices. If you have tried other alarms like Shocking Alarm Clock or Wake n’ Bacon and found them to be a bit unbearable you may want to try the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach, reviews have shown you can get data on the quantity, quality and depth of your sleep. Made by Newton, Mass-based Zeo, formerly known as Axon Labs in Rhode Island in 2005 and first called SleepSmart it was essentially a device that would wake you up when you were in a light sleep cycle. Read more »
Need Sleep Got Milk
What can you do when you need sleep? Got Milk? Besides being an old piece of advice, there are many claims that a glass of warm milk will help you to fall asleep easy. In the New York Times it stated that milk is a sleeping aid, but it also put some old allegations about milk to rest and with a change in our usual point of view. Warm milk does aid in getting you to sleep, but not because it contains tryptophan the enzyme that is known to cause lethargy. You know, what's in turkey and pumpkin pie that causes all of us to want to take a nap after a larger than life holiday meal???? Read more »