Exercise Grows New Brain Cells By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer

Recent research published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
found that exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells.

Previous research showed physical exercise can have antidepressant effects, but until now scientists didn’t fully understand how it worked. The new finding suggests, the new cells
could be why exercising relieves depression.

According to the study done on rats, by Astrid Bjornebekk of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and her colleagues studied rats that had been genetically tweaked to show depressive behaviors, plus a second group of control rats. For 30 days, some of the rats had free access to running wheels and others did not.


Then, to figure out if running turned the down-and-out rats into happy campers, the scientists used a standard “swim test.” They measured the amount of time the rats spent immobile in the water and the time they spent swimming around in active mode. When depressed, rats spend most of the time not moving.


“In the depressed rats, running had an antidepressant-like effect after running for 30 days,” Bjornebekk told LiveScience. The once-slothful rodents spent much more time in active swimming compared with the non-running depressed rats.


The researchers also examined the hippocampus region of the brain, involved in learning and memory. Neurons there increased dramatically in the depressed rats after wheel-running.


Past studies have found that the human brain’s hippocampus shrinks in depressed individuals, a phenomenon thought to cause some of the mental problems often linked with depression.


“The hippocampus formation is one of the regions they have actually seen structural changes in depressed patients,” Bjornebekk said.


Running had a similar effect as common antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on lifting depression.

wellness works comment:

We can see that exercise has many positive effects on the body as well as the mind.

If you are beginner, always exercise with proper caution. You can hire a personal trainer who is certified and can guide you with proper lifting and stretching techniques.

Sunburn Remedies Hiding in Your Closet

BY Dr. Mercola

If you realize you've stayed out in the sun a bit too long, a quick rummage through your kitchen cabinets can provide you with the relief you need.

Here are some all-natural home remedies you can use for sunburns:

• Aloe Vera -- Take some leaves from an aloe plant and refrigerate them. You can peel off the top layer of leaves and apply the side of the leaf with flesh exposed directly to the sunburn. Aloe is very effective in relieving pain and inflammation.


• Baking Soda Compress -- Dissolve baking soda in water, and make a compress using a clean cloth. Alternately, put 1/2 cup of baking soda into your tepid bathwater, then let the affected area air dry.


• Cucumbers -- Rub the sunburned area with fresh cucumber slices.


• Lemon Water -- Mix the juice of three lemons into two cups of cold water, and then sponge the mixture onto the sunburn.For a complete list of instructions, and 20 more great home remedies to tackle sunburn, click on the link below.
  Nadraszky.com June 8, 2007
  

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

It's the beginning of summer for most of us, which means it's time to catch some Vitamin D!

Sunshine is one of the best, most misunderstood health remedies out there. Sun exposure can help you fight off depression and offers protection against several types of cancer by as much as 60% or more.

Best of all, the only cost is to make sure you get your body outside.

Too much of it, however, can result in varying degrees of sunburn, which should be avoided as this damages the skin and can lead to certain types of skin cancer down the road.

Prevention is, as with so much else, much better than looking for a cure after the damage has been done.

But if you do sunburn, I hope the above natural remedies help you to minimize the problem.

Here are some tips to help you prevent sunburns while still getting your daily dose of sunlight:

Reduce your exposure to the sun particularly during the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. when the sun is the strongest.

At the beginning of the season, limit your exposure to the sun to as little as 10 minutes a day. Progressively increase the time in the sun so that in a few weeks, you will be able to have normal sun exposure with little risk of skin cancer.

Consuming many whole vegetables will increase antioxidant levels in your body, which will provide protection against any sun-induced radiation damage. It is frequently low levels of antioxidant in your skin that is one of the primary reasons why you get a sunburn.

Before you pack your beach bags and haul off to the beach, you might also want to review my article on Five Ways to Protect Your Kids This Summer, for more tips on sun and summer safety.

Finally Science Confirms the Secret Key to Weight Loss

POSTED BY Dr. Mercola

This is one of the most important posts I have written on health so I want you to carefully read this.

My site has been around for over 10 years and from day one I have been extolling the importance of insulin in nearly all chronic degenerative diseases. Well now we have a landmark study confirming that insulin is the central part of the weight-loss equation.

There are over 200 million Americans who are overweight, and collectively they are carrying around an extra 5 BILLION pounds of excess fat.

What the Boston researchers specifically found was that those who secreted high insulin levels had a far more difficult time losing weight than those who secreted low levels of insulin.

I am very grateful that these researchers produced this landmark confirmation of insulin truth. Unfortunately, they completely blew the interpretation of what they found. So let me help you sort through the researchers’ confusion.

Like most scientists they want to attribute the problem to your genes. They want you to believe that 200 million Americans are heavy because they have flawed genetics that make them hypersecrete insulin.

Folks, nothing could be further from the truth.

The reason 200 million Americans are overweight is not because of flawed genetics that cause them to make excessive insulin. Hypersecretion of insulin is an effect -- NOT the cause. The reason 200 million are overweight is because they have impaired insulin receptor sensitivity.

Impaired Insulin Receptor Sensitivity

How do your insulin receptors stop working effectively?

Very simple.

This is a natural consequence that occurs when you don’t exercise and move the way you were designed to. Your body dynamically makes this adjustment because the receptors are not being used. This is very similar to what happens if you lie in bed for a few weeks; your muscles start to atrophy. Some have called this the “use it or lose it” phenomena.

So when your insulin receptors become desensitized the only way your body can adjust is to make MORE insulin. You become an insulin hypersecretor.

Why Is This Important?

Once your body releases insulin it immediately starts to inhibit your fat-burning hormone called hormone-sensitive lipase. This hormone is responsible for releasing fat into your bloodstream to be utilized as fuel. Once this enzyme is inhibited, your body is unable to burn fat and will then begin utilizing amino acids from your muscle and carbohydrates as fuel.

This will cause you to become abnormally hungry, which further feeds this vicious cycle.

The key is to have LOW levels of insulin so your body can produce large amounts of hormone-sensitive lipase and burn fat all day so you can look thin and slim.

You might want to pick up the paper edition of this week’s Time magazine as the online version of How the World Eats only shows one of the pictures from Japan, which for the most part is really healthy food. No wonder they live over 80 years. They show a picture of a family from Chad, which is virtually no food, and then a picture of food for a typical U.S. family.

This is one of the most powerful graphic illustrations as to why the United States has an obesity epidemic. Nearly all of the U.S. food (over 90 percent) was highly processed junk food. Of course, if you shop at a grocery store you probably see this all the time. It is shocking what people are putting into their bodies.

Processed junk foods will absolutely impair your insulin receptor sensitivity.

So What Can You Do?

The bottom line is very simple here, folks. Keep your insulin levels low, very low. You can measure this with an inexpensive blood test that nearly any doctor can draw for you. Your level should be about 2 or 3. The way you lower it to these levels is by exercising, avoiding processed foods and refined carbs, and by eating the appropriate amounts of carbs for your nutritional type.

This is NOT rocket science. If you apply these simple principles you will see dramatic and remarkable improvements not only in your ability to achieve your ideal weight but also in just about every other chronic degenerative disease.

Personally, I think it is criminal malpractice that fasting insulin levels are not aggressively monitored in all cases of cancer and heart disease, because they are central to the causes of both of these diseases.

We hope to offer a weight loss coaching program later this year but in the meantime you can use krill oil and fucoTHIN to help support your weight loss efforts.

Time Magazine June 11, 2007

The Journal of the American Medical Association May 16, 2007; 297:2092-2102

Laugh and Live Longer

Laughter heals us, keeps us healthy and above all connects and bonds us with other human beings.

We enjoy sharing a good joke with others.

We enjoy making others laugh.

Laughter makes us feel good, eases the tension and breaks the ice.

So we know how laughter helps us to connect with others, but what is it about laughter that heals and keeps us healthy?

Well according to numerous studies have found that the power of laughter
reduces stress and improves health in the following ways:

• Raises endorphine levels which contribute to a feeling of well being.
• Stops pain.
• Increases human growth harmone levels, which are necessary for the healthy functioning and rejuvination of every cell and system of the body.
  

In a California study, participants experienced increased benefits just by thinking about seeing a funny movie, they increased their beta-endorphine levels 27% and human growth hormone by 87% than those individuals who were expecting to see a comedy.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, found that laughing determines how well blood vessels are able to expand (the better they expand the less chances of a heart attack and stroke.)

Volunteers that watched a funny movie, blood flow increased by 22% in the 19 out 20 volunteers who participated.

Also it is well documented for example, that people have more heart attacks on monday mornings (when the work week begins) than any other day of the week.

A project called (RX) laughter found that children who watch funny videos during a painful procedures have less cortisol (a stress hormone) than usual.

According to psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Melon University. In a landmark article Cohen and his collegue found that folks who are happy are less likely to become ill when exposed to cold viruses.

In this 1979 best seller, Anatomy of an Illness. Norman Cousin talks about how he cured himself from a crippling disease of the joints (ankylosis spondylitis) by administering high doses of vitamin c and lots of laughter.

In her book Molecules of Emotions, the famous Neuropharmacologist Candece B. Pert, research professor in biophysics and physiology at the Gerogetown University Medical Center in Washington, writes that neuropeptides and receptors are the bio-chemicals of emotion. The emotions are the informational content that is exchange via psychosomatic network with the many systems, organs and cells participating in the process. She says, the emotions are the messengers carrying information to link the major systems of the body into one unit is what we call body-mind.

She goes on to say, that viruses use the same receptors as neuropeptides to enter into a cell. One explanation for how this might work is that the rheovirus, shown to be the cause of the common cold, uses the same receptors for norepinephrine (an informational substance thought to flow in a happy state of mind, to enter the cell.) Presumably what happens is that when you are happy, the rheovirus can’t enter the cell because the norepinephrine blocks all the potential virus receptors.

In conclusion, so what can we do to keep ourselves healthy and happy?

• Don’t take life too serious, have a sense of humor about things.
• Buy or rent a few old or new funny movies and turn them on when you need a lift.
• Don’t watch too much bad news, tune in to something more uplifting and positive.
• Join a comedy or an improvisation class.
• Remind yourself how good laughter is for you.

As comedian Steve Allen once said, ” we are all born with genetic ceiling and floor, but what we do with our lives determines whether we end up on the ceiling or on the floor.” Laughter lifts us up to the ceiling.

Posted by: http://www.acufit.net/