30 Day Summer Health Challenge for Your Body and Mind

With summer just recently starting on June 21, the change of the seasons is a perfect excuse to start a new challenge. Use this change in season to really focus on your health – both physically and mentally. Read below for a summer health challenge that shares 30 ways to focus on your overall health so you feel confident and healthy this season!

Physical Summer Health Challenge

Drink Only Water Throughout the Day

Cut out coffee, soda, and alcohol for one day to focus on your hydration for the day. Water is essential to your physical health, especially during the heat of the summer, and the habit of staying hydrated is a good one to incorporate into your daily life.

Go to Bed 1 Hour Earlier than Normal

Sleep is another important basic need for your health, but it is easy to let life get in the way and eat into your sleep time. Not only does sleep allow your body to rest and recover, it can help prevent illness as well. Today, budget an extra hour to go to sleep early and allow your body to fully rest.

Use an Infrared Sauna

We know, sitting in a hot sauna may seem like the last thing to do in the summer heat. But that exact heat is what helps you to stay healthy in summer. Working up a sweat in a sauna can help your body detoxify, reduce stress, improve mood, and help with weight loss – all great summer health benefits!

Learn a New, Healthy Recipe

Spice up your daily menu by researching healthy recipes to whip up in the kitchen. Look for recipes that include nutritious ingredients such as vegetables and fruits. Summer is a great time for produce, so your recipes will be nutritious and delicious.

Do a 16-Hour Fast

The 16:8 fast is a great way to do a mini gut reset. During this, you will do a 16-hour window of fasting and an 8-hour window of eating. People typically choose to eat lunch and dinner then fast through the night and breakfast the next day to maintain a somewhat normal routine.

Dance to Your Favorite Songs

Dancing is not only a great way to get active, it is also a fun way to spend summer. Whether you’re alone or with a partner, make a playlist and dance. Showing off your moves is great for both physical and mental summer health.

Stretch for 15 Minutes After First Waking Up

Before even opening your phone to check email, dedicate 15 minute of your morning to naturally waking up your body. Take time to gently stretch and get your body moving. This movement will help you maintain a more positive energy for the rest of the day.

Practice Yoga

Yoga is a great way to challenge your body in new ways. Spend 30 minutes stretching, activating your core, and tapping into new movements you might have thought weren’t possible! Not only is yoga great for the body, it’s also a perfect time to try meditation for your mind.

Revamp Your Skincare Routine

Every season means a new set of external elements our body is faced with, which heavily affects our skin. Higher temperatures, longer days in the sun, and drier weather means a new skincare routine may be needed. Take this time to see if your routine is enough for healthy skin.

Be Active with a New Activity for 30 Minutes

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a workout, but use this time to find new activities that can keep your body moving! A hike on a new trail, kayaking, exploring a nearby town, or even something fun like hula-hooping can all be great ways to get active.

Try a New Workout Routine

If you’re doing the same workout every time, you are sure to get bored of the same moves every time. That, and your body isn’t getting as well-rounded of a workout. Look up new workout routines to help mix it up and keep things interesting. Pro tip: Using a sauna after a workout makes it even better.

Cook all Three Meals at Home

One day, eat only food that you have made at home. You can do this by prepping each meal at a time, or try some meal prepping in advance to make cooking a bit easier. When you homecook your meals, you are more likely to be aware of the calories and ingredients you are taking in.

Explore the Great Outdoors

One of the most fun ways to stay healthy in summer is by exploring the great outdoors. Beaches, trails, hikes, and lakes are all great ways to enjoy the weather while getting active and focusing on your summer health. Be sure to pack snacks, sunscreen, and water to stay healthy and safe.

Walk 10,000+ Steps

Walking 10,000 steps a day has been a highly-recommended activity to help maintain physical health. Immediately jumping to 10k a day can be difficult, so instead dedicate just one day to reaching your goal and pay attention to what lifestyle changes you can make to make it a long-term habit.

Only Eat Clean Foods All Day

A complete diet overhaul takes time to transition into, but a day of conscious eating is easy to accomplish. Clean eating forces you to look closely at the ingredients in your food, which may surprise you. Take notes about which foods are good for you, and which you should start eating in moderation.

Mental Summer Health Challenge

Practice Breathing Exercises

Breathe in… Breathe out… Sure, breathing is an activity we do without even trying, but putting focus into your breathwork can be great for your mental health. Learn some new breathing exercises that help you slow down, destress, and find some mental clarity.

Take a Break from Social Media

Looking at a screen all day can lead to overstimulation, which can lead to mental exhaustion. Whether for an hour or for the whole day, unplug for some time to focus on non-digital activities that benefit your summer health. Spend time with family, pamper yourself with a home spa day, work on a hobby, or just relax.

Pick Up a New Hobby

Hobbies are a great way to pass the time and keep your mind active. Summer is the perfect time to challenge yourself with learning new things. Try picking up painting, writing, baking, completing puzzles, or whatever sparks your interest. And who cares if you aren’t great at it? Practice makes perfect.

Read a Book

Reading allows you to have an escape from your day-to-day reality. From reading to educate yourself to reading for entertainment, this mental health activity can work your mind in a variety of ways. Set aside at least 30 minutes and set up in a cozy spot so you can turn some pages peacefully.

Reconnect with Loved Ones

This year has been a lesson on connecting with people. It can be easy to lose touch with loved ones, but it is just as easy to reach out and say hello. Make a friend or family member smile by sending a quick note – and set aside some time in case that quick note turns into a long conversation!

Watch Your Favorite Movie

There is something so comforting about rewatching your favorite movie. Get some movie snacks ready, round up the household, and cozy up on the couch for some simple, feel-good movie time. If there are multiple people in your home, have a movie marathon with everyone’s favorite films.

Spend Time Outside

A daily dose of fresh air is great for you physically, but it is also a great activity for mental health. Being stuck inside all day can lead to negative feelings, especially if you don’t have much natural light. Brighten up your day and invigorate your mind by getting outside for at least 30 minutes.

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Organize a Group Video Call with Friends

Seeing friends in person hasn’t been the easiest thing this year, but we are lucky to have the technology to connect in different ways. Organize a group video call with friends to bring back a sense of being social. You’d be surprised just how uplifting it is to simply laugh with friends over Zoom.

Set Aside 1 Hour Completely to Yourself

Life can get busy. It’s easy to get caught up in things that don’t allow you to have you-time. Block off one entire hour to yourself (or more!) to really focus on you. Mark it on your calendar, put up a “do not disturb” sign, and enjoy some time dedicated to things that give you a mental break.

Reorganize Your Space

Clutter is more than just an eyesore, it is also a large contributor to stress. If you can’t find anything or don’t like looking at your space, it’s time to reorganize! While the action may seem stressful in itself, the end result is a tidy home that allows you to focus your time and energy on more important things.

Perform a Random Act of Kindness

This activity is one of the best because it not only helps you, it helps those around you as well. Taking the time to do something kind for someone else allows you to reposition your thoughts and think in a more positive way. It doesn’t hurt that making someone smile makes you smile, too!

Try Meditation

We’ve mentioned yoga and breathing exercises, and meditation falls right into those summer wellness tips. Meditation helps you center your mind and find ways to shift your mentality into a calmer, more accepting state. Meditation can be a few minutes or a few hours depending on how deeply you want to go.

Make a Gratitude List

Take some time to sit down and write down the things that you are grateful for. Visualization of your accomplishments, blessings, and experiences helps highlight the positive things in your life. Writing the items down can be a therapeutic exercise for your emotional and mental health.

Have a Personal Spa Night

We’re big fans of treating yourself. With the stresses of everyday life, set aside some time to have a night to yourself filled with pampering. A sauna and a bath, face masks, hair treatments… a spa night doesn’t have to be extravagant to be effective, but it should definitely be relaxing.

Cross an Item off Your To-Do List

Similar to physical clutter in your home causing stress, to-do list clutter can be just as stressful. Use this day to knock out a big-ticket item on your list that you have been putting off. Once the task is complete, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and relief that it is finally done.

30 Days to Summer Health

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Additional Summer Wellness Tips

Have an accountability partner who can check in on you and make sure you are on the right track with your summer health challenge. Doing the challenge with friends also helps add fun and accountability.
Track your progress to monitor how you are feeling and track your successes with summer health.
Set small, attainable goals that will keep you motivated and continually push you forward.
Find healthy lifestyle substitutions such as walking instead of driving short distances, replacing soda with water, and switching out processed foods for clean foods.
Develop a daily routine to help optimize your day and get you into a rhythm that makes life more manageable and peaceful.

This season, you can aim for top mental and physical health with our 30-day summer health challenge. But don’t let it stop after a month! Use these summer wellness tips to stay healthy well after summer has ended. These tips are to get you started and help keep you on track to creating lasting health improvements that will keep you happy and healthy all year long.

How to Boost Your Immune System Naturally

At a time like this, taking every precaution to stay healthy is imperative. Strengthening your immune system can help prepare your body to fight off sickness. But what exactly does the immune system do, and what steps can you take to help it perform properly? Learn more about your body’s process of protecting from sickness and discover how to boost your immune system naturally below.

What Does the Immune System Do?

The immune system is designed to detect and destroy foreign invaders inside the body like bacteria and viruses. When working optimally, the immune system can prevent sickness when we’re exposed to germs. Several factors like sleep, diet, stress and hygiene can affect the immune system’s performance, and any offsets in these behaviors can decrease immune function. Our bodies have two immune subsystems: innate, which fights harmful substances and germs that enter the body, and adaptive, which fights certain germs that the body has previously come into contact with.

The adaptive immune system can be activated by things the body doesn’t recognize as its own, called antigens. These are called antigens. When these antigens attach to special receptors on the immune cells (immune system cells), a series of processes is triggered in the body. Once the body has come into contact with a disease-causing germ for the first time, it usually stores information about the germ and how to fight it through antibodies. Then, if it comes into contact with the germ again, it recognizes the germ straight away and can start fighting it faster. Because the adaptive immune system is constantly learning and adapting, the body can also fight bacteria or viruses that change over time.

What Affects the Immune System

Age

As we age, our immune response capability becomes reduced, which in turn contributes to more infections and more cancer. As life expectancy in developed countries has increased, so too has the incidence of age-related conditions. While some people age healthily, the conclusion of many studies is that, compared with younger people, the elderly are more likely to contract infectious diseases. This is likely due to the thymus atrophying with age and producing fewer T cells to fight off infection

Lifestyle

Your first line of defense is to choose a healthy lifestyle. Following general good-health guidelines is the single best step you can take toward naturally keeping your immune system strong and healthy. Every part of your body, including your immune system, functions better when protected from harmful environmental factors and bolstered by healthy-living strategies such as eating a healthy diet, not smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, exercising, getting an adequate amount of sleep, and taking general steps to avoid infection.

Stress

Increased levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, makes it difficult for the immune system to function properly. The American Psychological Association reports that 75% of Americans experience moderate to high levels of stress. In addition to the direct impact of stress on immune function, unmanaged stress can influence our sleep patterns, our mood, our dietary intake and our physical activity levels. All of these factors are associated with immune system function.

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How to Improve Your Immune System Naturally

Infrared Sauna

Infrared saunas have many health benefits that play in to helping boost your immune system naturally, including:

Increasing White Blood Cell Production: The heat generated by an infrared sauna stimulates energy at a cellular level which, in turn, increases the body’s production of white blood cells. These cells form a component of your blood and act as your immune system’s first line of defense when infection strikes. When a harmful substance enters your body, white blood cells detect it and control the immune system’s response.
Creating an Artificial Fever: Fevers help your body to fight off infection by allowing certain immune cells to work more efficiently and effectively, and increased temperatures trigger the body’s immune system response. Hyperthermia, or the exposure of the body to high temperatures, gives these cells the ability to destroy virus-infected cells and tumor cells.
Releasing Impurities: When your body does not sweat enough, it holds onto potentially harmful toxins, chemicals, and impurities that were meant to be eliminated through sweat. A typical 20-minute session in an infrared sauna allows your body to flush out these impurities from the inside out so your immune system has less to fight off.
Reducing Stress: Since high stress levels often result in a weakened immune system and, as a result, illness, reducing your stress levels is crucial when it comes to maintaining a healthy body. Regular use of an infrared sauna balances cortisol levels and relaxes the body and mind. This allows your immune system to work efficiently, without the hindrance of high cortisol levels.
Improving Blood Circulation: The deeply penetrating heat of an infrared sauna promotes blood circulation throughout your entire body, providing oxygen-rich nutrients to your extremities. The increase in circulation pumps the blood towards the outside surface of your body, taking with it any bacteria or other illness-causing substances.

Healthy Diet

Like any fighting force, the immune system army marches on its stomach. Healthy immune system warriors need good, regular nourishment. Scientists have long recognized that people who are malnourished are more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Whether the increased rate of disease is caused by malnutrition’s effect on the immune system, however, is not certain. There are still relatively few studies of the effects of nutrition on the immune system of humans.

Supplements

There is some evidence that various micronutrient deficiencies — for example, deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E — alter immune responses in animals. While there is no one magical natural immune system booster, supplying your body with the necessary nutrients and vitamins can help set it up for success when it needs to fight something off.

Exercise

Regular exercise is one of the pillars of healthy living. It improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases. Exercise can contribute to general good health and therefore to a healthy immune system. It may contribute even more directly by promoting good circulation, which allows the cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body freely and do their job efficiently.

Stress Reduction

Ongoing stress makes us susceptible to illness and disease because the brain sends defense signals to the endocrine system, which then releases an array of hormones that not only gets us ready for emergency situations but severely decreases our immunity at the same time. Try things such as relaxation exercises, positive thinking, behavior modification, meditation, and finding social support to help reduce stress.

Your immune system is an incredibly powerful and useful system in your body that helps it fight disease and learn how to protect from future illness. Luckily, the most effective way to boost the immune system naturally is through a generally healthy lifestyle. There are no miracle pills to take or special treatments to do, just steps you can take to help support your body in being strong and able to fight off what comes its way.

Perfect Your At-Home Fitness Routine to Stay Healthy at Home

Staying healthy at home is extremely important during this time as our lives are having to adapt to a new normal. Health and fitness don’t have to take place at a gym, they can be accomplished right in the comfort of your home. At-home fitness plays a large role in not only physical health, but mental health as well. Read on to find tips on optimizing your health and fitness from the comfort of your own house.

3 Steps to Optimize At-Home Fitness

Step 1: Setting Up Your Home Gym

First, you need to decide where you want to set up your home gym. The spare bedroom, office, or even a back porch or patio, are all great spaces for exercise. If you don’t have a spare room, a small area in your home (like the living room) that can double as your workout space will do. Try to find or create a space with natural light, and keep it as light and airy as possible. Your at-home gym area should be a place that is bright, comfortable, and away from distractions.

Once you have decided on your space, stock it up with all your necessary exercise equipment. Try to avoid having too many items in one space to make sure it is easy to maneuver during your workout, and keep your area organized to cut down on clutter. If you are watching workout videos, set up your screen to be at eye level. Including a mirror in your setup can also help you watch your form while exercising.

Step 2: Doing Your Home Workout Routine

Of course, this is the most important part of your at-home fitness – the actual workout! Once you have your workout space set up, it should be easy to jump into a workout whenever you want. Start off your home gym session by creating a workout routine. It’s recommended to change it up a few times a week so you don’t get bored and you have the ability to properly work all areas of your body without becoming too fatigued.

After coming up with your workout routine at home, be sure to do a warmup session prior to jumping into the meat of the exercises. This allows you to prepare your body for strenuous activities and reduces your chances of injury during your workout. When exercising, monitor your form and make sure you aren’t pushing yourself too far past your limits. Of course, it is important to have water nearby to keep you hydrated. Just like with the warmup session, complete your workout with a cooldown session to help alleviate muscle soreness and allow your body to wind down to a resting state.

At the end of every workout, sanitize your area. While home gyms may not have the germs of strangers, keeping your space clean after sweating out toxins is important for staying healthy at home. Not only does it keep things clean for your health, it also helps prolong the quality of your home gym equipment for longer.

Step 3: Using a Sauna After Workout

Once you are done with your workout, you can improve your at-home health even further with the use of an infrared sauna. Not only is a sauna a great way to relax after an intense workout, it is also a great tool in helping you stay healthy at home. Some of the post-workout sauna benefits include:

Muscle Recovery: During exercise, your muscles are worked harder than they are accustomed to, which causes them to form microscopic tears. Using a sauna enhances the muscle recovery process by increasing blood circulation and carrying oxygen-rich blood to oxygen-depleted muscle. Heat also allows muscles to relax better, thus relieving muscle tension.
Sweating: Sweating during your workout helps cool you down, but it also helps release toxins in your body. You can prolong the detoxifying benefits of sweating well past your gym session by sweating it out in a sauna. By purging your body of these toxins, you are more likely to feel better post-workout. Just be sure to stay hydrated, as you’ll be losing more fluids in a sauna than you’ll be taking in.
Weight Loss: Saunas boost your cardiovascular, immune, and lymphatic systems to help detox the body. Additionally, infrared heat can slightly increase human growth hormone (HGH) production and lower cortisol levels to promote more weight loss. Overall, sitting in a sauna can help boost muscle recovery, improve well-being, and decrease body fat – all things helpful in a weight loss journey.

Your body is already more worn down after a workout, so it’s best to keep it short and sweet in your post-gym sauna session. Plan to stay in the sauna no longer than 20 minutes to avoid over-exerting your body. Your body will tell you if you’re spending too long in the sauna post-workout. Look out for signs such as lightheadedness, dizziness, and headaches, as they might be signs that you are dehydrated or overheating.

The Importance of At-Home Health

Of course, there is much more to staying healthy at home than just working out. As being in the house becomes a more normal way of life, it is important to know how to maintain both your physical and mental health at home. It is easy to fall into a rut when in the same space for an extended period of time, but setting boundaries, routines, and goals can help you stay on track. Our health is especially important in times like today to keep us grounded, healthy, and active.

Use this time at home as a way to connect more with yourself. Set aside time to meditate, focus on a hobby, do a workout routine, or whatever you need to create a peaceful and healthy environment at home. Schedule about 30 minutes every day to do these activities, and actually stick to it. By following these at-home fitness tips, you’ll be on the right track to staying happy and healthy at home!

Natural Menopause Relief Tips for Mood, Weight, and More

Menopause is an experience nearly 50% of the world needs to face. Mood swings, weight gain, hot flashes, and cramps are only a few examples of symptoms. Going through menopause can become more tolerable with the right tools and techniques to help lessen menopause symptoms. Read below to learn how to find natural menopause relief with these tips you can try at home.

What is Menopause?

Menopause is the time that marks the end of your menstrual cycles. It’s diagnosed after you’ve gone 12 months without a menstrual period. Menopause can happen in your 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 in the United States.

Menopause is a natural biological process. But the physical symptoms, such as hot flashes, and emotional symptoms of menopause may disrupt your sleep, lower your energy or affect emotional health. There are many effective treatments available, from lifestyle adjustments to hormone therapy.

Menopause Symptoms

In the months or years leading up to menopause (perimenopause), you might experience these signs and symptoms:

Irregular periods
Vaginal dryness
Hot flashes
Chills
Night sweats
Sleep problems
Mood changes
Weight gain and slowed metabolism
Thinning hair and dry skin
Loss of breast fullness

Symptoms, including changes in menstruation, are different for every woman. Most likely, you’ll experience some irregularity in your periods before they end. If you feel you are experiencing the symptoms of menopause, make an appointment with your doctor to discuss any questions or concerns about this next phase in your life.

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Natural Remedies for Menopause Symptoms

Infrared Sauna

It may sound counter-intuitive to recommend a sauna for someone who is already too hot, but it’s an amazing tool for women suffering with symptoms of menopause. Regular infrared sauna use provides many health benefits for those seeking natural menopause relief, including symptoms affecting your mood, weight, and immune system.

Sleeping through the night is a struggle many suffer through during menopause, which is difficult as sleep is beneficial for your mental and physical health during this time. Infrared saunas improve sleep before bed by putting the body in a parasympathetic state. Saunas also help decrease stress levels, which in turn decreases the frequency and intensity of hot flashes and night sweats. Additionally, reduced stress helps improve mental clarity and lift your mood throughout the day.

For your physical health, sauna health benefits include weight loss and an improved immune system. Infrared sauna heaters raise your core body temperature, which temporarily induces an artificial fever and helps boost your immune system. This, combined with improved elimination of toxins and wastes via intense sweating, can increase your overall health and resistance to disease. As your body increases sweat production to cool itself, your heart works harder to pump blood at a greater rate to boost circulation. This increase in your metabolism will burn calories and lose weight.

Vitamins

Hormonal changes during menopause can cause bones to weaken, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. Calcium and vitamin D are linked to good bone health, so it’s important to get enough of these nutrients in your diet. A diet rich in calcium and vitamin D is important to prevent the bone loss that can occur during menopause.

Adequate vitamin D intake in postmenopausal women is also associated with a lower risk of hip fractures due to weak bones. Many foods are calcium-rich, including dairy products like yogurt, milk and cheese. Green, leafy vegetables such as kale, collard greens and spinach have lots of calcium too. It’s also plentiful in tofu, beans, sardines and other foods. Additionally, calcium-fortified foods are also good sources, including certain cereals, fruit juice or milk alternatives.

Sunlight is your main source of vitamin D, since your skin produces it when exposed to the sun. However, as you get older, your skin becomes less efficient at making it. Taking a supplement or increasing food sources of vitamin D may be important to help reach adequate vitamin levels. Rich dietary sources include oily fish, eggs, cod liver oil, and foods fortified with vitamin D.

Healthy Weight

Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight may help alleviate menopause symptoms and help prevent disease. It’s common to gain weight during menopause, which can be due to a combination of changing hormones, aging, lifestyle and genetics.

Gaining excess body fat, especially around the waist, increases your risk of developing diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. In addition, your body weight may affect your menopause symptoms. One study of 17,473 postmenopausal women found that those who lost at least 10 lbs (4.5 kg) of weight or 10% of their body weight over a year were more likely to eliminate hot flashes and night sweats.

Exercise

Regular exercise can help alleviate menopause symptoms such as poor sleep, anxiety, mood, and fatigue. It can also protect against weight gain and various health conditions. While there is currently not enough evidence to confirm whether exercise is effective for hot flashes and night sweats, there is evidence to support other benefits of regular exercise. These include improved energy and metabolism, healthier joints and bones, decreased stress and better sleep.

For example, one study found that exercising three hours per week for one year improved physical and mental health and overall quality of life in a group of menopausal women. Regular exercise is also associated with better health and protection against diseases and conditions including cancer, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis.

Phytoestrogens

Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring plant compounds that can mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. Therefore, they may help balance hormones. Foods rich in phytoestrogens include soybeans and soy products, tofu, tempeh, flaxseeds, linseeds, sesame seeds and beans. However, the phytoestrogen content in foods varies depending on processing methods.

One study found that diets high in soy were associated with reduced cholesterol levels, blood pressure and reduced severity of hot flashes and night sweats among women who were starting to enter menopause. However, the debate continues over whether soy products are good or bad for you. Evidence suggests that real food sources of phytoestrogens are better than supplements or processed foods with added soy protein.

Water

During menopause, women often experience dryness. This is likely caused by the decrease in estrogen levels. Drinking 8–12 glasses of water a day can help with these symptoms. Drinking water can also reduce bloating that occurs with hormonal changes. In addition, water can help prevent weight gain and aid in weight loss by helping you feel full and increasing metabolism.

Diet

A diet rich in fruit and vegetables may help keep bones healthy, and can help prevent weight gain and certain diseases, and can help prevent a number of menopause symptoms.

Fruits and veggies are low in calories and can help you feel full, so they’re great for weight loss and weight maintenance. They may also help prevent a number of diseases, including heart disease. This is important, as heart disease risk tends to increase after menopause. This could be due to factors such as age, weight gain or possibly reduced estrogen levels. Finally, fruits and vegetables may also help prevent bone loss. One observational study of 3,236 women aged 50–59 found that diets high in fruit and vegetables may lead to less bone breakdown.

On the other hand, avoid trigger food. Certain foods may trigger hot flashes, night sweats and mood swings. They may be even more likely to trigger you when you eat them at night. Common triggers include caffeine, alcohol and foods that are sugary or spicy. Keep a symptom diary. If you feel that particular foods trigger your menopause symptoms, try to reduce your consumption or avoid them completely.

A diet high in refined carbs and sugar can cause sharp rises and dips in blood sugar, making you feel tired and irritable. In fact, one study found that diets high in refined carbs may increase the risk of depression in postmenopausal women. Additionally, a large observational study found that among women aged 50–59 years, diets high in processed and snack foods were associated with poor bone quality.

Going through menopause can be quite the experience for anyone who goes through it, but the side effects of menopause can be lessened when using the right tools and techniques. Use these natural menopause relief tips to make this chapter in your life a little more enjoyable!

20 Natural Hangover Cures & Home Remedies

Unfortunately, hangovers aren’t an uncommon occurrence. After a day or night out, the effects of alcohol can set in and leave you feeling dehydrated, achy, nauseated, sluggish, and in pain. Having a hangover is never an enjoyable experience and it often leaves you searching for relief. Luckily, there are many natural remedies you can try to cure a hangover, from sweating it out in an infrared sauna to eating pickles.

5 S’s of Natural Hangover Home Remedies

Sauna

One of the biggest infrared sauna health benefits is its ability to increase your blood circulation and stimulate the sweat glands, releasing built-up toxins in the body. Sweating in a sauna for a hangover can help detoxify your body as it rids itself of accumulated toxins from a night of drinking alcohol, thus helping you recover quickly.

Shower

Take a shower to help you feel refreshed. Some swear by cool showers only to help awaken the senses, while others recommend switching between hot and cold water. Switching temperatures increases circulation and toxin elimination. Hot water may make you sweat, so make sure to stay hydrated before and after.

Sleep

The National Sleep Foundation reports that alcohol consumption interrupts the circadian rhythm and prevents REM sleep, which means you probably didn’t get a great night’s sleep after drinking. If you’re feeling hungover, take a nap to try to catch up on good sleep. Also, sleep helps pass the time to hopefully help you feel better faster.

Sun

Going outside and getting some fresh air can help wake up your body and get some more oxygen. Oxygen increases the rate that alcohol toxins are broken down. Vitamin D from the sun is ideal for boosting the immune system in the body and helps with the absorption of minerals such as magnesium, which are crucial to recover from a hangover.

Sweat

While moving probably doesn’t sound great with a hangover, exercise can help you get back to normal. Don’t necessarily go on a run or hit the gym, just take a nice walk to increase circulation and bring more oxygen to your brain and muscles, which helps with the aches and pains. Just like using a sauna for hangovers, sweating this way will help you detoxify.

Food & Supplements to Cure a Hangover Naturally

Vitamins

Vitamin B and C will help your body recover from the ingested toxins as it speeds up metabolism of alcohol by the liver. Even though drinking depletes these vitamins in body tissues, they can be easily replenished by taking supplements such as Emergen-C or a multivitamin, or by eating fruits and vegetables high in the vitamins.

Water

Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning you pass more urine when consumed. This can lead to fluid loss, which is usually the cause for the infamous hangover headache. Drink water to decrease the effects of dehydration and replenish your body of much-needed hydration. Added tip: Water before and during alcohol consumption decreases the risk of hangover.

Tomato Juice

Like a bloody Mary, but without the alcohol! Tomatoes are a good source of vitamin A and C, beta-carotene, and the antioxidant lycopene. They also contain glutathione, which aids the body’s natural production to help counteract hangover-inducing toxins. Studies show that tomato juice can also boost liver function to speed up alcohol digestion.

Spinach

Spinach is a superfood for hangovers, as they are full of folic acid, sulfur, and vitamin C, which are all essential vitamins and minerals for fighting a hangover. Vitamin C accelerates your liver’s ability to detoxify, allowing the alcohol to purge of your system quickly. Easily incorporate this into your meals or blend it into a smoothie to reap all the benefits.

Pickles

As mentioned earlier, too much alcohol leaves the body depleted of vitamins and minerals. Pickled are rich in many nutrients, including vitamin A, iron, potassium, vitamin K, calcium, and manganese. The brine may even help soothe your hangover nausea due to the vinegar content that helps restore stomach acidity to a healthy level.

Ginger

Doctors and nutritionists tend to agree that ginger is one of the best natural hangover cures for soothing nausea, which is often a common symptom of a hangover. Alcohol irritates the lining of the stomach, and chemical compounds in ginger such as gingerol and shogaols are believed to help ease stomach pain and aid digestion by reducing inflammation

Fiber

Studies show that high-fiber foods, like vegetables, help break down alcohol and absorb it, keeping it from reaching the bloodstream as quickly. Additionally, fiber can help with some of the digestive issues that heavy drinking can cause, which also aids in helping remove toxins from the body.

Fermented Foods

Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, and miso soup are known for their hangover relieving or curing qualities due to their ability to help restore your good gut bacteria. These foods also help provide your body with vitamin B, probiotics, and organic acids that get your body feeling back to normal faster.

Eggs

Having breakfast (or, more likely, brunch) with a serving of eggs can help cure your hangover naturally. Eggs contain cysteine, an amino acid, that helps your body produce glutathione. Increased glutathione allows your body to more efficiently break down toxic byproducts of alcohol metabolism such as acetaldehyde.

Electrolytes

Research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that drinking electrolytes after long periods of dehydration can significantly help restore important minerals, like sodium, potassium, and calcium. Look for things like sports drinks and bone broth to help restore lost electrolytes from drinking.

Chamomile

Have you ever experienced “hangxiety”, or the feeling of anxiousness when hungover? Research supports using chamomile to help soothe anxiety. On top of that, chamomile can help you sleep more soundly and relieve an upset stomach, which can be difficult to achieve otherwise when hungover. Brew a mug of tea to help you relax and recover.

Cayenne Pepper

Don’t be fooled by food that could potentially cause your mouth some spicy discomfort – hot cayenne pepper is actually a natural pain reliever, so incorporating some of the spice can help cure your hangover naturally – especially if you’re tending to a headache. Hot foods boost the metabolism, too, which enhances your body’s natural detoxification process.

Bananas

Low levels of potassium caused by drinking can leave you feeling weak, and can cause muscle cramps and soreness. Bananas are packed with potassium, which should help replace the minerals and electrolytes lost from consuming alcohol. Bananas are also part of the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Apples, and Toast) which is recommended for nausea.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Start your morning with 1 or 2 ounces of apple cider vinegar, diluted with 6 to 8 ounces of warm water. The vinegar has a natural diuretic effect that can help combat morning-after fluid retention, which also helps with toxin elimination. It can also help balance stomach acid levels and stabilize blood sugar levels, which can be shaky after a night of drinking.

Antioxidants

Alcohol can cause oxidative stress, leading the body to produce free radicals. Research has linked oxidative stress to many health conditions, including heart disease and cancers. Antioxidants are compounds that help eliminate these free radicals. People may benefit from eating foods high in antioxidants to cure a hangover naturally.

Going out can be great fun, but the morning after may leave you regretting the night before. Try these natural hangover cures and home remedies to help alleviate some of the side effects of alcohol consumption and get back to feeling normal and fully-functioning!

CBD Effects, Uses, and Benefits for Holistic Health

CBD, or cannabidiol, products have been taking the holistic health scene by storm, and it’s easy to see why. From reduced stress to pain relief, there is a wide range of CBD benefits that can help almost anyone in need. See below how incorporating various CBD products into your life can be beneficial and how you can combine it with other therapies for maximized effects.

CBD Effects

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of many active compounds found in the Cannabis plant. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is another active compound and the most well-known, as its psychoactive properties are the ones that induce the “high” feeling. CBD is non-psychoactive but still has a number of the same medical benefits as THC. This allows you to take advantage of the therapeutic benefits without leaving you with the impaired feeling that often goes hand in hand with THC.

Is CBD Legal?

Hemp-derived CBD products (with less than 0.3 percent THC) are legal on the federal level, but are still illegal under some state laws. Marijuana-derived CBD products are illegal on the federal level, but are legal under some state laws. Check your state’s laws and those of anywhere you travel.

Marijuana-derived CBD products, or CBD products that contain THC, may be more effective than fiber hemp. But if you live in a state that hasn’t yet legalized medical marijuana or these strains are unavailable, you can still benefit from products containing industrial hemp-derived CBD. Keep in mind that nonprescription CBD products are not FDA-approved, and may be inaccurately labeled.

Benefits of CBD

Research on CBD is still in its early phases and , but the results of what has been studied are promising. Some studies have found CBD may be effective in providing relief from various mental health conditions, including:

Acne	Depression	Epilepsy
Alzheimer’s Disease	Diabetes	Muscular Disorders
Anxiety	General Pain	Nerve Pain
Arthritis	Inflammation	Psoriasis
Cancer-Related Symptoms	Insomnia	PTSD
Cardiovascular Issues	Eczema	Substance Abuse

CBD Products & Uses

Edibles and Drinks

These products are created by adding an extract or an isolate into a wide variety of food and drink products. The main benefit of a CBD in an edible or drinkable form is the ease of use and masking taste. However, these forms of CBD products span a wide range of effectiveness depending on the contents. Low effectiveness can be caused by liver processing and low-quality full spectrum extract found in common CBD isolate.

Oils and Tinctures

Often referred to simply as CBD oil, a tincture is an oil-carried form of CBD that is consumed orally by placing it under the tongue. This liquid product usually comes in a small bottle with a dropper and is comprised of several components including CBD extract or CBD isolate base, a carrier oil, and other additives such as sweeteners, flavors, and terpenes. Though more expensive when purchasing, the quantity of CBD oil lasts much longer than other products available.

Patches

For users with chronic issues, patches have the benefit of providing long-lasting relief when compared to a traditional balm or salve. These stick-on patches feature CBD infused strips that are placed onto venous areas of the body like the wrist. These patches are designed to provide slow-release, long-lasting effects for the user. These patches are effective because they hold the cannabinoid against the skin for such a long period of time when compared to a rub-on topical.

Pills and Capsules

CBD capsules are simply a pill-form of CBD extract that is swallowed like any other supplement. These capsules come in either softgels or in a two-piece capsule and often either contain a liquid oil or a powder form of CBD. Taking oil-based capsules orally is actually one of the least bioavailable methods of taking CBD – meaning that a small amount of the compound actually makes it into the bloodstream when compared to other methods of ingestion.

Topicals

There are endocannabinoid receptors in the brain, throughout the nervous system, and in the skin. Skin-based receptors mean that applying topicals directly to a sore or irritated area can provide localized relief. CBD topicals come in a wide range of products, including balms and salves. These products are designed to help in a variety of specialized ways, from massage oil to treatments for muscle soreness and skin conditions.

Vapes

Vaping CBD is similar to any other type of vaping – a CBD extract or isolate is vaporized via a traditional vape pen and inhaled. Of all the methods of taking CBD, inhaling has the quickest onset due to the high bioavailability of inhaling the molecule. There are a variety of CBD vape products available on the market including disposable vape pens, vape cartridges, and vape oil.

Wellness Products

Cannabidiol is becoming an increasingly popular ingredient in existing and new beauty products. These products offer additional benefits to traditional products that help users reduce swelling, aches, and provide other relaxing properties. Simple items such as shampoos and conditioners are now starting to incorporate CBD, along with facial cleansers, bath bombs, lip balm, and even beard oil.

How to Boost CBD Benefits

Combining CBD benefits with other therapies can help enhance your results. As mentioned earlier, CBD can help reduce pain, inflammation, arthritis, insomnia, skin conditions, and much more. Boost these healing properties by incorporating infrared sauna therapy in with your CBD use. Sauna infrared therapy has its own collection of health benefits that pair nicely with CBD therapy. Apply a topical cannabidiol product before or after your sauna session to experience even more relief from your ailments.

The popularization of cannabidiol has led to a number of great products and applications to make the product more accessible and easy to use. With so many health benefits, CBD is a great treatment that can help a number of health concerns. If you have questions regarding whether or not CBD is right for you, speak with your doctor to determine which products to use and how often to take them.

Biohacking Guide to Upgrading Your Body and Mind

What is biohacking? And does it work? From simple to extreme measures, learning how to read your body and boost its performance is certainly an appealing practice. Luckily, you don’t have to go to extreme measures to reap the benefits of biohacking at home. Biohacking can be as simple as getting enough sleep and drinking coffee – things you are likely already doing but can enhance to benefit you even further. Discover more about the trend that allows you to tap into your mind and body to boost physical and cognitive performance below.

What is Biohacking?

Biohacking, sometimes also referred to as do-it-yourself biology, is the practice of making small changes to your lifestyle to create incremental improvements to your overall well-being. From enhanced brain function and increased energy to weight loss and allergy control, biohacking can help accomplish a multitude of health goals. The term “biohacking” is a broad one and can range from something as simple as tracking fitness to something as extreme as genetic engineering.

Of course, the more extreme approach is riskier and should only be done with the guidance and supervision of a medical professional. However, there are plenty of biohacking products and techniques you can practice at home safely. The main goal of biohacking is to listen to your body and figure out what works best for it to perform optimally. Once you find what works for you, there are plenty of biohacking benefits that will follow.

Biohacking Products & Techniques to Try at Home

Sleep

Read any health advice, and sleep is usually right there at the top of the list – and for good reason. A great night of sleep can help you maintain a healthy weight, improve your mood, boost your productivity, and much more. Because of this, sleep is one of the easiest biohacking techniques to try. Start off by tracking your sleep with an app to assess the quality of your sleep. Once you find your baseline, figure out how you can improve your sleep. Reducing blue light exposure, having a bedtime ritual, using a weighted blanket, and sleeping in a cool room are easy ways to improve sleep.

Red Light Therapy

The body responds incredibly well to red and near-infrared wavelengths, which are easily absorbed by the skin. It’s a good thing for that, too, as red light therapy provides a host of benefits perfect for biohacking. Red light technology affects mitochondrial function, which improves cellular energy and activates the nervous system and metabolic processes. This activity has been shown to relieve pain, rejuvenate skin, regenerate tissue, recover muscles, boost testosterone, reduce inflammation, and much more. Red light technologies are the ultimate biohacking products.

Meditation

One of the main goals of biohacking is creating awareness for your body and how to better yourself from within. Meditation is one of the best and easiest biohacking techniques, because you can practice it anywhere and at any time. When you meditate, you allow yourself to reconnect with your mind and body, which can help with concentration, mood management, productivity, and even heart rate. Incorporating daily meditation sessions into your routine can train you to be more mindful and aware of your state of mind, which affects your overall health.

Inversion Therapy

How’s it hanging? Inversion tables are wonderful biohacking products to try. Hanging upside down is a wonderful biohack for enhancing brain function by strengthening brain capillaries and delivering more oxygen to your brain. When you practice inversion regularly, your body also improves how it regulates blood pressure. Inversion tables are a quick and easy way to not only jumpstart your brain, they also bring relief to any lower back tension your body builds up during the day by relieving spinal disk compression.

Intermittent Fasting

This is one diet that isn’t just a fad and has real benefits behind it. Intermittent fasting is the practice of setting periods of fasted and non-fasted times. For example, one might have an 8-hour window to eat between 10am to 6pm with a 16-hour fasting period the remaining hours of the day. Or, one might alternate full days between eating and fasting. Intermittent fasting helps you manage daily calorie intake, lower insulin levels, burn fat more efficiently, repair damaged tissue, and more. Use a fasting tracker to make things easier, and consult a doctor if doing more extreme fasting.

Functional Music

Brain activity can be measured in a wave-like pattern and determines if you feel alert, sleepy, relaxed or stressed. One of the most reliable ways to change your brainwaves is through a consistent sound wave. Audio entrainment, a form of musical biohacking, uses binaural beats and tones to synchronize with your brain waves and induce a meditative, relaxed state. You can access programs developed specifically for your own brain and the activities you want to accomplish, or simply queue up your favorite playlist and listening while you work out, cook breakfast, or commute to work.

Elimination Diet

An elimination diet is exactly what it sounds like. With an elimination diet, you’ll get rid of something from your diet and then slowly reintroduce it to see how it affects your body. This is a popular option if you think you’re allergic to a food or are concerned that a food may be causing inflammation, such as dairy, red meat, or processed sugar. After eliminating a food item, wait about two weeks then reintroduce the eliminated foods slowly back into your diet. During the second, or reintroduction, phase, keep a close eye on any symptoms that appear that may indicate an allergy to a food source.

Man-Drinking-Coffee-for-Biohacking-Benefits

Caffeine

Caffeine is well-known as a productivity booster. If you don’t use it already, start with an 8-ounce serving of black coffee, green tea, or caffeinated foods like dark chocolate. Have your caffeine at the same time every day and keep a journal of how it makes you feel in the minutes or hours afterward. Try experimenting with the dose of caffeine until you find the amount that works best for your goal. There’s even a coffee with biohacking in mind known as bulletproof coffee. The coffee contains compounds like medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil, known as an energy booster and weight-loss tool.

Biohacking Supplements

Nootropics, or “smart drugs,” are substances used to increase your brain’s performance to help you remember more, learn better, concentrate more fully, stay productive, and function more efficiently. You can also always boost your mental performance with simple biohacking supplements and nutrients, such as magnesium for improved cognitive function, vitamin D for protection from free radicals, krill oil for improved nervous system performance, turmeric for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and vitamin B to decrease brain shrinkage.

If you are interested in trying biohacking on your own, be sure to consult with your doctor if you have any existing health concerns. Biohacking is a wonderful way to get to know your body and mind so you can optimize your health.

Smart Home Tech to Upgrade Your Wellness at Home

From smart refrigerators to mirrors that assist with workouts, there are plenty of health and wellness gadgets you can add to your home. Everything is becoming more and more connected, so why not connect the comfort of your home with the importance of your health? Find some of our favorite smart home tech below to transform your house into a true wellness sanctuary.

Home Health and Wellness Gadgets

Air Purifier

One thing you may not think about often, but plays a huge role in your health and wellness at home, is the quality of air in your house. Smart air purifiers have been upgraded to not only clean your air more thoroughly and efficiently, but they now connect easily to your WiFi as well. This connectivity allows you to use voice assistants for easy voice commands. It also allows you to monitor air quality stats from your phone, check filter status, and adjust timers, fan speeds, and more.

Bluetooth Scale

Weighing yourself at home has never been so engaging. A bluetooth scale is a great smart home tech addition for anyone looking for a more comprehensive look into their health, especially if you are tracking multiple measurements. Smart scales connect to your phone via Bluetooth to automatically track stats such as weight BMI, bone mass density, body water percentage, and body fat percentage in an app. Some apps also allow you to set and track goals.

Electric Toothbrush

A toothbrush might not be the most exciting of the health and wellness gadgets on this list, but it is definitely a good one to have. Regular toothbrushes aren’t as efficient as electric ones, and electric toothbrushes only get better when you add in smart tech. Along with a 2-minute timer, smart toothbrushes also include apps that guide you on where to brush and for how long based on the cleanliness of your mouth for a more efficient and effective cleaning.

Source: Mirror

Fitness Mirror

With so much fitness tech on the market, it’s always refreshing to see something a little out of the ordinary. A fitness mirror is a full-length mirror with a built-in display to watch your form while watching workouts on the mirror itself. The screen is controlled by an app on your phone to access classes from the class membership that comes at an extra cost. While the tech is on the pricey side, it’s a perfect smart home piece for those looking for enhanced workouts at home.

Float Tank

This item certainly tops the list in terms of price and extravagance, but if you have the budget and space, a personal float tank is the way to go. Float tanks have been one of the biggest health and wellness trends in the last couple of years. Having this technology in your home will allow you to feel the benefits of floating in a sensory deprivation tank – such as stress relief, increased healing, and improved mental state – whenever you please.

Food Analyzer

Whether you have a food allergy or are just looking to track how your body reacts to certain foods, smart food analyzers are becoming more prevalent on the market. These health and wellness gadgets are helpful both in and out of the house. By using gases in your breath after eating, food analyzers can detect if a recently-eaten food contains peanuts or gluten, if it affects your keto diet, and if it will be easily digested or not.

Source: Elephant Journal

Infrared Sauna

One of the best ways to practice wellness at home is with an infrared sauna. When a daily 20-minute session brings health benefits like reduced stress, detoxification, weight loss, and pain relief, infrared sauna use is an easy and effective way to improve your health. On top of the regular health benefits, you can boost your infrared experience with enhancements such as chromotherapy, halotherapy, and LEDlight therapy to make your house a true sanctuary.

Programmable Shower

Taking the perfect shower can be one of the most amazing feelings. Programmable showers allow you to perfect your shower experience. From setting the ideal temperature to getting a warning that you are getting close to a shower time limit, these showers are great for both the user and the environment. Some smart shower systems even allow you to control the shower vian an app to ensure the water is just right before you step in.

Sleep Sensor

Chances are, you aren’t getting enough sleep. Even if you’re getting the hours in, many people suffer from irregular or interrupted sleep patterns that lead to low-quality sleep. If you’re looking for a more restful sleep, a sensor might be what you need. Sleep sensors are placed on or under your bed to track the movement and sound that take place in your sleep. Data is then recorded in an app to track sleep quality and indicate factors that may be contributing to sleep issues.

Modern-Infrared-in-Luxury-Setting-for-Wellness-at-Home

Source: Samsung

Smart Refrigerator

Many people spend a good amount of time in the kitchen, from cooking to spending time together. With so much time spent in this room of your house, it only makes sense to have some of your smart home tech in the kitchen as well. New smart refrigerators hitting the market have been upgraded to become a hub for home life. You can now control voice assistants, check the doorbell, and even see what’s inside your fridge at any time to easily take inventory.

Touchscreen Treadmill

As mentioned above, smart fitness tech has been on the rise. Many people are starting to build up their home gym filled with smart home tech that allows them to have personalized classes in the comfort of their home. From stationary bikes to treadmills, there are plenty of options on the market. Smart treadmills take indoor running to the next level, changing the stationary run into a more exciting one with programmable training routes such as running the Boston Marathon.

Voice Assistant

Voice assistants are the classic smart home tech. So many different devices connect to voice assistants, from your air purifier to your programmable shower. Because of this, voice assistants are one of the most important gadgets for health and wellness. On top of creating a connected household, the automation from these devices gives us time back into our days, and even just a little time back means for less stress and increased happiness.

Start creating the house of your dreams that allows you to improve your wellness at home with smart home tech. Not only does it simplify your life, it also helps you create a happier and healthier lifestyle. Investing in your health means investing in your future, and these health and wellness gadgets are a great way to start.

How Infrared Saunas Help with Healthy New Year’s Resolutions

It’s no secret that infrared saunas have plenty of health benefits. It’s also no secret that New Year’s resolutions are easy to make but difficult to keep. This year, learn how to stick to your resolutions and kick off a healthier year! Read on to see how using an infrared sauna can help you achieve your healthy New Year’s resolutions, whether your goals are to “practice self care” or “lose weight.”

How to Keep New Year’s Resolutions with an Infrared Sauna

Lose Weight

The Benefit: Holiday dinners and sitting inside to avoid the cold are both contributors to feeling a little sluggish at the start of the new year. Having a goal to lose weight should be a long-term goal to ensure success and avoid disappointment from fad dieting. When you keep that mindset, you can begin to have healthy relationships with food and exercise to kick off your year of health and weight loss.

How an Infrared Sauna Helps: According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, regular use of a sauna imparts a similar boost on the cardiovascular system as running. As you relax in the gentle infrared heat, your body is hard at work producing sweat, pumping blood and burning calories. As your body increases sweat production to cool itself, your heart works harder to pump blood at a greater rate to boost circulation. This increase in your metabolism will burn calories.

Get in Shape

The Benefit: Getting in shape is one of the most popular healthy New Year’s resolutions, right after losing weight. This resolution is a great motivator, especially after a season of indulging. To keep up with this resolution, be sure to ease yourself into fitness and avoid burning out. Slowly increasing your activity will ensure you have a long-lasting resolution that you can actually stick to.

How an Infrared Sauna Helps: Using a sauna enhances the muscle recovery process after working out by increasing blood circulation and carrying oxygen-rich blood to oxygen-depleted muscle. Heat also allows muscles to relax better, thus relieving muscle tension. Saunas boost your cardiovascular, immune, and lymphatic systems to help detox the body for a better workout and speed up the process for getting in shape.

Person-Meditation-to-Practice-Health-in-the-New-Year

Meditate

The Benefit: Meditating is like your brain’s virus checker, detecting toxic stress and blocking its effects on your physical and emotional health. A 2013 study found that adults who were taught the basics of mindful meditation had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Meditation also allows you to connect more deeply with yourself emotionally.

How an Infrared Sauna Helps: The extreme heat that saunas promote relax your body. Making your sore muscles feel better. The sauna also gives you a moment in time where you can relax and do nothing. You just sit there and let your mind go off into whatever direction you want it to go. Since this naturally happens when you’re in a sauna, it makes it really easy to meditate.

Practice Self Care

The Benefit: When not making time for yourself, it is easier to become stressed and lose yourself. The importance of self care is focusing on bettering yourself from within by reducing stress, avoiding burnout, refocusing on tasks, boosting energy, decreasing physical ailments, recharging your mind, and balancing your emotions.

How an Infrared Sauna Helps: If you have an infrared sauna at home, have a 20-minute session to decompress. While going to a spa may be more expensive, the act of leaving the house feels like you are making time for yourself more than if you were to stay home. Spas offer services like massages and facials along with amenities such as saunas and steam rooms for the ultimate day of relaxation.

Couple-Keeping-New-Years-Resolutions-in-Sauna

Detoxify

The Benefit: If you feel like you may have indulged a little too much over the holidays, detoxification is a great, healthy New Year’s resolution to set for yourself. Whether you are detoxifying from a large meal, want to cut back on drinking, or are looking to quit smoking, detoxification can help your body be better suited for a lifetime of health.

How an Infrared Sauna Helps: Daily sauna sweating can help detoxify your body as it rids itself of accumulated highly toxic metals (lead, mercury, nickel, and cadmium) as well as alcohol, nicotine, sulfuric acid, and other organic and inorganic compounds.

Reduce Stress

The Benefit: A little pressure now and again won’t kill us; in fact, short bouts of stress give us an energy boost. But if stress is chronic, it can increase your risk of—or worsen— insomnia, depression, obesity, heart disease, and more. Reducing stress not only makes you happier in the short term, it also makes you healthier in the long term.

How an Infrared Sauna Helps: Just a few minutes in the gentle warmth of an infrared sauna will help you feel relaxed, rejuvenated, and renewed. Infrared Saunas have also been shown to affect the autonomic nervous system putting you in the parasympathetic (rest and digest) state allowing your body to heal and relax.

Get More Sleep

The Benefit: Getting an appropriate amount of sleep every night can help you in a variety of ways, such as reducing anxiety and depression, improving cognitive function, increasing motor functions, and preventing mood swings. It also aids in weight management.

How an Infrared Sauna Helps: The ability of your body to maintain and regulate its temperature is crucial to our daily life and the biological processes we depend on. From a sleep perspective, thermoregulation is affected when our melatonin production kicks in and plays a key role in regulating our sleep/wake cycles. By warming up in a sauna then exiting, the resulting cooling-off process tricks your brain into producing more melatonin and puts your body into sleep mode.

Keeping your healthy New Year’s resolutions won’t be difficult with these tips. All it takes for success is setting small and attainable goals that won’t burn you out – and adding in an infrared sauna to make the results just that much better! At the very least, resolutions or not, these tips will help keep you on your path toward a happier and healthier year.

Seasonal Affective Disorder Symptoms & Treatment

As winter settles in, many people unfortunately feel the winter blues settle in as well. If the cold weather and longer nights seem to be giving you the winter blues, you may be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD. Learn more about SAD symptoms and remedies below.

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes with the seasons, typically starting in the late fall and early winter and going away during the spring and summer. Depressive episodes linked to the summer can occur, but are much less common than winter episodes of SAD.

Some researchers point to the fact that we may be hard-wired to experience the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder due to early human’s need to conserve energy during the food-scarce winter months. A lack of food and substantially colder temperatures may have caused our ancient relatives to go into a sort of hibernation mode, where a low mood and lack of desire to complete tasks may have been a life-saving temperament.

Other researchers talk about the depression that comes from the amount of serotonin in our systems. Melatonin production is essentially regulated by our circadian clocks, but it can be affected by exposure to bright light. Seasonal Affective Disorder is, by most accounts, a direct correlation to the amount of light we’re exposed to, and at what specific duration.

Seasonal Affective Disorder Statistics

SAD is diagnosed four times more often in women than men.
SAD is more frequent in people who live far north or south of the equator. For example, one percent of those who live in Florida and 9 percent of those who live in New England or Alaska suffer from SAD.
People with a family history of other types of depression are more likely to develop SAD than people who do not have a family history of depression.
The symptoms of depression may worsen with the seasons if you have one of these depression or bipolar disorder (but SAD is diagnosed only if seasonal depressions are the most common).
Younger adults have a higher risk of SAD than older adults. SAD has been reported even in children and teens.

Seasonal Affective Disorder Symptoms

Do the winter months get you down more than you think they should? If so, you might have seasonal depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is not considered as a separate disorder, instead it is a type of depression displaying a recurring seasonal pattern. People with SAD have many of the normal warning signs of major depression.

Symptoms of Major Depression

Feeling depressed most of the day, nearly every day
Feeling hopeless or worthless
Having low energy
Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
Having problems with sleep
Experiencing changes in your appetite or weight
Feeling sluggish or agitated
Having difficulty concentrating
Having frequent thoughts of death or suicide.

Symptoms of Winter-Pattern SAD

Low energy
Hypersomnia
Overeating
Weight gain
Craving for carbohydrates
Social withdrawal (feel like “hibernating”)

Symptoms of Summer-Pattern SAD

Poor appetite with associated weight loss
Insomnia
Agitation
Restlessness
Anxiety
Episodes of violent behavior

Seasonal Affective Disorder Treatment

Infrared Sauna Use

Many of today’s better saunas come equipped with built-in lights that are designed to deliver a calming and therapeutic effect. This process of light therapy for SAD is called chromotherapy, and refers to the use of lights to create changes in mood in the person using the sauna. If you find that Seasonal Affective Disorder is a reality for you or a loved one, try to find time to get in an infrared sauna with LED color lights that can help in a variety of ways.

Light Therapy

Light therapy has been a mainstay of treatment for SAD since the 1980s. The idea behind light therapy is to replace the diminished sunshine of the fall and winter months using daily exposure to bright, artificial light. Symptoms of SAD may be relieved by sitting in front of a light box first thing in the morning, on a daily basis from the early fall until spring. Most typically, light boxes filter out the ultraviolet rays and require 20-60 minutes of exposure to 10,000 lux of cool-white fluorescent light, an amount that is about 20 times greater than ordinary indoor lighting.

Medication

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are used to treat SAD. The FDA has also approved the use of bupropion, another type of antidepressant, for treating SAD. As with other medications, there are side effects to SSRIs. Talk to your doctor about the possible risks of using this medication for your condition. You may need to try several different antidepressant medications before finding the one that improves your symptoms without causing problematic side effects. Speak to a doctor if you believe you need medication for SAD treatment to find the right prescription for you.

Psychotherapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that is effective for SAD. Traditional cognitive behavioral therapy has been adapted for use with SAD (CBT-SAD). CBT-SAD relies on basic techniques of CBT such as identifying negative thoughts and replacing them with more positive thoughts along with a technique called behavioral activation. Behavioral activation seeks to help the person identify activities that are engaging and pleasurable, whether indoors or outdoors, to improve coping with winter.

Vitamin D

At present, vitamin D supplementation by itself is not regarded as an effective SAD treatment. The reason behind its use is that low blood levels of vitamin D were found in people with SAD. The low levels are usually due to insufficient dietary intake or insufficient exposure to sunshine. However, the evidence for its use has been mixed. While some studies suggest vitamin D supplementation may be as effective as light therapy, others found vitamin D had no effect.

If you feel you are suffering from seasonal affective disorder, speak with a doctor. While you can try infrared sauna use, light therapy, and increasing vitamin D levels on your own, a proper diagnosis and potential further SAD treatment may be necessary. Don’t suffer through the seasons!