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Archive for December, 2010

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Does Winter Affect Your Heart Health?

December 31st, 2010 by Arlan Murata

How to Stay Heart Healthy in Winter

The cooler weather is almost upon us. Some people are glad that it is not so hot, but the winter brings with it its own set of precautions for your health. Keep reading to learn how to stay heart healthy in the winter months.

You would think that because you are not out in the blazing hot sun that you could rest easier with matters of the heart, but not so. In fact, the incidence of heart attacks seems to go up during the winter. Why is this?

First of all let’s look at cold weather. Just like the bears, we get slower, inside and out. The body temperature under normal conditions is a balmy 98.6 degrees. It has to work harder during the winter to maintain that core temperature.

To that end, the blood vessels constrict to preserve heat. If you are someone with a history of heart problems, constricted blood vessels is the last thing you need. Because the opening in the vessels (lumen) is smaller, it will take more force to push the blood through, leading to a rise in blood pressure.

Combine all of that with outdoor activity in the winter, and you are looking at conditions that could be ripe for a heart attack. Shoveling snow is hard strenuous work that can lead to signs of a heart attack in certain people.

So, what can you do about it?

* Eat a sensible diet – Most of us tend towards not eating well when it gets cold, but there are benefits to it. For one, a good diet can lower your blood pressure, cholesterol and weight. Combine this with exercise and your heart could be in the clear.

* Warm up – The body will have a harder time maintaining body temperature if you just get out of bed and throw on your coat before heading out the door. If you are going to be outside shoveling snow or playing a winter sport, spend time indoors warming up. Jog in place or jump some rope. Once you are limbered up, be sure to perform some dynamic stretching to get the body going. Them, head outdoors for play or chores.

* Dress warmly – You don’t have to be wrapped up like a mummy. Layer your clothing so you don’t feel heavy but you are well protected from the elements.

* Consult a doctor – This is true for everyone but especially if you have lived a life on the couch. Going from sedentary to fully active shoveling snow can be a deadly shock to the system. Ask if it is okay for you to do such heavy lifting.

* Take breaks – Don’t shovel snow for three hours and fall into the house panting. A regular break every thirty minutes gives the body time to rest and you time to get warm.

You might look forward to the winter months but will your heart? The tips above can help you to keep it protected when it gets cold.

Your wellness friend,

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Posted in BODY, Exercise (Movement) | No Comments »

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Do You Have The Winter Blues?

December 29th, 2010 by Arlan Murata

How to Recognize and Beat the Winter Blues

As the weather changes from warm and inviting to cold and distant, some people are affected by bouts of sadness, usually referred to as seasonal affective disorder. If you or someone you know seems to have the blues when the weather changes, here are ways that you can work to overcome it.

Sometimes seasonal affective disorder is equated with depression but they are two very different things. For one, seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, occurs at certain times of the year, usually when there is limited amounts of sunlight. Sunlight assists in increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain. It is a neurotransmitter that affects mood. When levels drop, changes in your behavior and feelings can result.

The blues can jump the gap and enter into the realm of depression. If you have a history of depression in your family, you are more at risk to bridge that gap. Also, not addressing the reason for the blues or if it lasts longer than the season, that could reflect some sort of further chemical imbalance in the brain at work.

So, how do you know if you have the winter blues? Because it is thought to be a mild form of depression, some of the same symptoms apply. There is irritability, loss of appetite or increased appetite, loss of energy, lack of motivation and sadness.

By using techniques to try and treat your symptoms, you can tell if you are experiencing seasonal affective disorder or a more serious form of depression.

* Exercise – Exercise is not just for weight loss but also mental health management. Endorphins are released during exercise that can elevate your mood. For those who suffer from stress, your enhanced mental state can help you to work through those problems more clearly, reducing your stress level.

* Meditate – When the feelings of sadness hit, try and relax. Take time for yourself and go someplace quiet. Practice deep breathing techniques to increase your oxygen consumption. Listen to music in those moments. Music does have the ability to change the way that we feel simply by using different rhythms, notes and chords.

* Get moving – The winter may not seem so long if you get involved. Try to spend time outside with your kids playing in the snow. Try a winter sport as a form of exercise.

* Use light – The level of natural light available may decrease as you go up in elevation. You may need to use light boxes to simulate natural light. Spend at least 30 minutes a day using it to see if it increases your mood. A therapist can perform the light therapy for you to be sure you get the right amount and length of time.

Are you facing a winter of sadness? There are ways that you can learn to deal with it and come out on the other side.

Your wellness friend,

Posted in MIND, SPIRIT | No Comments »

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What Veggies Can I Eat During The Winter?

December 27th, 2010 by Arlan Murata

Eat Well with Winter Vegetables

In winter we look for fare that will stick to the ribs and keep us full throughout the day. Instead of reaching for processed or fast food items, take a look at the winter garden. There are tons of good items there that will not only satisfy your tummy but keep you healthy as well.

Vegetables are a healthy source of carbohydrates and vitamins and minerals. During the winter, you can get crafty with these vegetables in foods like soups and chowders. But before you do that you need to know which vegetables you are going to be working with.

Cruciferous vegetables are indeed winter veggies. You can enjoy an abundance of broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage. All of the crunch helps you to chew more and eat less. They also make good substitutes in certain recipes.

An example would be mashed potatoes. If you are trying to cut down on white potatoes, mash up cooked cauliflower and add some sour cream to get the consistency of mashed potatoes but with a healthier twist.

These hearty veggies especially broccoli is labeled a super food. This means that in itself it contains all the nutrients and minerals that you need. Now you won’t be eating broccoli all day but you will get a healthy dose of everything when you eat it. It is also instrumental in lowering your risk of certain cancers, boosting the immune system and increasing antioxidants.

Root vegetables are also popular in winter. These include carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, rutabagas and the like. They require longer cooking times to break them down and soften them but it is well worth it because of the flavors they impart.

Some of these you may have heard of but haven’t worked with before. The winter is the best time to experiment with new flavors and recipes. Here are a few examples of recipes that you can use to help you get the taste of these winter vegetables.

Cream soups – One thing about cream as opposed to broth soups is that they are thicker and stick to you longer for a full feeling. Try using a food processor to blend some cooked squash and potatoes or chopped up broccoli. Add some chopped chives, green onions and other spices along with fat free sour cream to add flavor.

Stir fry – This is a great way to steam and sauté vegetables with very little oil. Water chestnuts, celery, onions and carrots can be used to create an Asian stir fry. Slice them thin or julienne them so that they cook faster. Add seafood, lean poultry or lean beef to round out the meal.

Salads – There are plenty of winter greens that can be used to make flavorful salads. Top with winter citrus fruits like oranges, tangerines and also use pears. The fruit adds flavor without the need to drench your creation in salad dressing.

Winter doesn’t have to be boring food wise. Try those winter vegetables to create new dishes your family will love.

Your wellness friend,

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Is There A Message In These Degenerative Disease Survivors Stories?

December 22nd, 2010 by Arlan Murata

My Story As a heart attack survivor that underwent surgery and drug therapy, I suffered from heart attack symptoms and made 3 trips to ER with 90 days of coming home from the hospital with 14 prescriptions. My quality of life was terrible. All the trips to ER, multiple tests and 9 specialists were in vane. All the doctors could say was, “We don’t know what is wrong, but you can try this drug”. Even after complaining that my blood pressure was too low and that I felt lousy. The nurse at cardio rehab told me that is what the doctor wanted. My next visit to cardio rehab resulted in being wheeled up to ER because I had gone into ventricular fiberllation as the drugs had drained the potassium from my body. They just changed the drugs without telling me what to do.

Disgusted, I sought alternative treatment and found Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Shao-Bin Zhang, TCM Doctor thouroughly examined me every time, felt my pulses, took my blood pressure, asked me questions about my appetite and what I ate, sleep and movements (exercise). Based upon all this he prescribed herbs, treated me with acupuncture and manipulations and suggested what I should eat. Within 45 days the heart attack symptoms that had been sending me to ER subsided. My treatment continued to the point were the cardiologist was amazed because he did not believe I would make it. Further he did not give me such a hard time as I gradually reduced and stopped the drugs that he had prescribed.

Dave Perkin’s Story

Here is another story of a cancer survivor, Dave Perkins. After carefully following his doctors advice and going through surgery, chemo, removal of his spleen, bone marrow transplant, etc., he was then told, “You are terminal…There is nothing else we can do to cure you.”

At this point he was like me he sought a way to regain his health. He began exploring health alternatives by learning everything he could by reading books, speaking to various health practitioners and especially cancer survivors. Since cancer has devastated him financially as well as physically, he asked these health experts how he could use his limited resources for maximum gain.

This is what he found. He needed to detoxify, hydrate, oxygenate, alkalize his body pH and enhance his immune system. He found a cost effective alternative in drinking “Ionized Alkaline Water”. He drank 80 ounces of Ionized Alkaline Water with at least ¾ teaspoon of Celtic sea salt with his diet daily. From the death sentence pronounced by the medical community, he went from a terminal cancer patient to terminal cancer survivor with no signs of cancer. He stated, “My health and vigor have returned!!!”

I ask you, “Is sounding like my other blog posts?”

Your wellness friend,

Posted in Wellness Alternatives | 2 Comments »

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“MAGIC” Love Is A Key To Your Wellness!

December 20th, 2010 by Arlan Murata

“LOVE THE POWER THAT HEALS “

“The primary health implication of love is that it triggers the secretion of oxytocin, boosting the release of healthy hormones that support the immune system and effectively dissipate cortisol levels. Love tells the brain all is well so the body is flooded with endorphins, neurotransmitters, and neuropeptides, all intended to help the body relax, the muscles relax and the heart to relax.

Physiologically, the benefit of love is that it helps us live longer by reducing hypertension, reducing the risk of heart attack, and minimizing the propensity for depression. Psychologically, love keeps us mentally and emotionally engaged in life and strengthens our ability to cope with the challenges of life.” – Carol Ritberger, Ph. D.

Wellness is our responsibility. As Pogo said, “I have met the enemy, and he is me!”

When are you going to realize that our health issues are caused by us?

How do you trigger your body’s magnificent healing power?

  • Love and forgiveness.
  • Is giving up hate, hurt, fear, anger, jealousy, worry, regret and bitterness a key to your wellness?
  • Is it embracing and accepting love, understanding wellness, hope and forgiveness a key?
  • Three things in life that are most valuable – “Love”, “Friends” & “Self-Confidence”
  • “The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.” – Hubert H. Humphrey
  • “Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.” – Sai Baba
  • “Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.” – Gary Zukav

Your wellness friend,

Posted in SPIRIT | No Comments »

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Is Dehydration Causing Your Degenerative Disease?

December 16th, 2010 by Arlan Murata

“Dehydration Dis-eases and Diseases” Excerpts from F Batmanghelidj, MD’s book, Water Cures: Drugs Kill

“Persistent unintentional dehydration leaves its damaging impact in the fourth dimension of time. Caught in time, these conditions can be reversible, as you will read in the letters that follow. The human body manifests its water shortage by four categories of conditions: perceptive feelings; drought-management programs; crisis calls; and complication of persistent dehydration.

Perceptive feelings of water shortage include: tiredness that is not the result of strenuous effort, such as feeling first thing in the morning that you do not wish to get out of bed. Anxiety, agitation, shortness of temper, depression, sleep disorders, craving for soda, alcohol, and even hard drugs and agoraphobia are some of the way the brain reflects its water-conservation and water-regulation problems.

The drought- and resource-management programs are: constipation, allergies, asthma, hypertension, type2 diabetes and the autoimmune diseases.

Crisis calls: The newly understood regional thirst signals are: heartburn, rheumatoid join pain, back pain, migraine headache, colitis pain, fibromyalgic pains, and anginal pain.

Complications of persistent dehydration are very extensive and include: obesity, hemorrhoids, cholesterol plaques, and arterial diseases, and type 1 diabetes, as well as serious neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, neuritis, phlebitis, lymphomas, cancers, and many more”…

For more information including testimonial  letters go to F Batmanghelidj, MD’s book, “Water Cures: Drugs Kill” available through Amazon.com

“Wellness Is Your Choice”

Your wellness friend,

Posted in BODY, Hydration | 1 Comment »

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Stop! Wake Up, There Are Alternative Choices To You Wellness!

December 13th, 2010 by Arlan Murata

Seek The Answer To The Causes, Don’t Kill The Symptoms.

More and more people are turning to alternatives to surgery and drugs because of the costs and not getting well. The issue to me is that unless health care addresses causes with prevention not eradicating symptoms, health care costs will continue to increase and patients will continue to get sicker. Also, the focus on patient wellness not profit needs to be factored into the choices people make for their wellness. Doctors and scientist like Deepak Chopra, Dean Ornish, Rustom Roy and Andrew Weil are leading the way to alternative, ‘integrative’, medicine. This is a holistic approach to health that uses the best of conventional and alternative therapies such as yoga, meditation, herbal remedies and lifestyle changes.

Keys to wellness: Eat a healthier diet, quit smoking, stop doing drugs (legal or illegal) exercise, meditate, have more love in your life, daily hydration with ‘good’ water (ionized alkaline water, in my opinion), daily elimination, breathing, and rest. These are simple and inexpensive.

The most amazing thing about these keys come from many sources that are surfacing after being suppressed by powerful advocates of things that are not working. The centurions of Okinawa live a lifestyle with most of these keys. Hiromi Shinya, MD and world renown gasterinterologist 7 Keys To Health and Long Life give the same message.

More and more scientific studies are being allowed to come to light that show that our bodies have a remarkable ability to heal itself give the proper environment and fuel, which comes from the lifestyle changes as noted above.

Dr Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize in 1931 for his discovery of the root cause of cancer. So why are we spending enormous amounts of money in things that are killing the cancer cells and the good cells, hence the patients?

Dr. Warburg has made it clear that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency, Which creates an acidic state in the human body. Dr. Warburg also discovered that cancer cells are anaerobic (do not breathe oxygen) and cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen, as found in an alkaline state.

Studies show that integrative approaches such as plant based diets, meditation and psychosocial support may stop or reverse the progression of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, prostate cancer, obesity and other chronic conditions.

I believe it is time to focus on what works, what doesn’t, for whom and under what circumstances and help patients heal, not profit from patients sickness. I am a strong advocate that the choices that patients have should not be stifled and hidden for profit. It is an uphill battle with the power of money from the drug, food, beverage, conventional medical practice and government advocates promoting the symptom not the cause to benefit the wrong people.

Listen to what a young man has to say:

“Wellness Is Your Choice”

Your wellness friend,

Posted in WELLNESS, Wellness Alternatives | 6 Comments »

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Why Practice Good Habits Of Daily Elimination?

December 8th, 2010 by Arlan Murata

This is What Our Colon Looks Like With Degenerative Disease.

We are bombarded daily with toxins from out environment (the air we breath, the homes we live in, the cars we drive, radiation, etc.), stress and the foods & beverages we consume.

Bodily eliminations are how the body heals itself. There are multiple channels that the body uses to remove or store toxins away from our vital organs: our colon, kidneys, liver, lungs, lymphatic system, skin and stomach. The body will encapsulate the toxins and store them around our belly, hips and thighs as an addition method of keeping us alive.
Toxins are eliminated in bowel movements, urination, sweat and breath.

How can we help our bodies remove these toxins?

  • Diet, fresh fruits and vegetables about 85% and 15% or less proteins from animals. Ideally eat raw vegan diet
  • Drink ionize alkaline water, 8 or more daily
  • Breathing inhaling deeply brings oxygen into our bodies and exhaling expel toxins
  • Sweating opens the pores and allows the toxins to be released
  • Movement (exercise) 30 minutes 3-5 times per week helps our bodies remove toxins more efficiently.
  • Decrease stress by meditation and relaxation
  • Natural bowel movements 1-3 times per day, eat sweet potatoes…

According to Kyle Grimshaw-Jones ND, RT…”bodily eliminations must be supported consciously by people wishing to heal patterns of physical distortion…. Failure to understand this can sabotage the clinical aims of bodywork. If a person suppresses bodily eliminations, and continues bodily intoxication, then chronic holding patterns, postural distortions, movement restrictions, and myofascial restrictions, will persist, or be recreated.”

Want more info, email me at Arlan@muratasensei.com and keep visting this wellness blog.

Your wellness friend,

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Why Practice Good Habits Of Breathing?

December 6th, 2010 by Arlan Murata

The benefits of breathing:

  • Rejuvenates our cells and body
  • Relaxes your mind and body
  • Weight loss happens as toxins are expelled through our breath
  • Keeps you body healthy as toxins are filtered in our bodies and expelled though our kidneys, liver, skin and breath.
  • Makes your mind more alert and less sleepy
  • Keeps us alive

We breathe to get oxygen to all the cells in our bodies. Cells need oxygen to move, build, reproduce and turn food into energy. Our cells and body will die without oxygen.

We breath in through our nose and nasal passages where the air is filtered, heated, moistened and enters the back of our throat down to our lungs into millions of tiny sacs called alveoli. Here the new oxygen you breathed in is exchanged for waste products like carbon dioxide with the help of your red blood cells.

The red blood cells start carrying the oxygen to all the cells in your body. The waste products, like the carbon dioxide back through your lungs, windpipe and out with every exhale. Your brain does this automatically for you, amazing.

Your body is an awesome instrument that keeps you well and heals itself, especially when you feed your body and mind what it needs.

So let’s breathe in oxygen and exhale the wastes like carbon dioxide.

Some facts:

  • Your lungs contain over 300 million alveoli and contains almost 1500 miles of airways
  • You breathe in 13 pints of air every minutes
  • Plants are our partners in breathing. We breath in the air, use the oxygen, and breath out the carbon dioxide and the plants take in the carbon dioxide and release oxygen
  • When people sneeze, cough and even breathe — germs go flying!

If you don’t take care of yourself, the undertaker will overtake that responsibility for you. Carrie Latet

Your wellness friend,

Posted in BODY | No Comments »