Quickthink

Below is a collection of links to articles on health related topics that I find interesting. Most of the topics will somehow connect to living a healthy life style (so, diet, exercise, reducing stress and so on).

Interesting Sources

Open Ended Question - A nice source for interesting holistic approaches to being healthy

List of issues

Asthma - Yoga may help asthma. Here is a link to a video for some poses. Here is a second video. I have been having late night asthma attacks, and am looking for the trigger. Cold? Alchohol? Coffee? Could it be dehydration? At least one person thinks it could. Here is the link. One blogger is convinced.

The first experience - I had an asthma attack last night (12.1.2009), and drank 4 glasses of water. The attack subsided, so at least my first experience does not contradict the claim.

The first day - 12.2.2009 -  I drank 2 large glasses of water when I woke up, 1 around noon, 1 in the mid afternoon, 1 with dinner, and 1 before going to bed. I became very tired early (around 22). I slept well, and woke up around 00.30. I was coughing up phlem but I did not have an asthma attack.  This is the first time in a while. My sinuses are also a bit less blocked.I drank 2 glasses of water while I was up. The treatment approach is looking promising.

A Few Days later - 12.5.2009 - I have been at this now for a few days. I had to cut back a bit on the amount of water intake (I think that my body is not ready for this amount of water), but I still see the benefits. In the meantime, I see that the trigger for my asthma attack may have been flu. So, I was laid low for a while. Now recovering.

A Few Months later -  4.3.2010 - I have stuck with the regime to a certain degree, but sad to say, I still have asthma symptom. On the other hand, the water seems to have had an effect on my other auto-immune problems (like iritis). So I will stick with it.

Another month went by - 5.26.2010 - Over the last month my asthma has started to lessen. I am still drinking more water than I did (and still think that this is good for the body) but I have added several other dimensions to fighting my asthma. First I am taking a few supplements (V E and D3) with some magnesium. Second, I have started a bit of yoga, working on the first chakra. Of all of these, the yoga seems to have had the most immediate effect. For example, on more than one occasion when I felt some tensing up in my lungs exercise led to some coughing and relief. Interesting.

Here is another possible trigger - incorrect breathing. A yoga teacher argues that the body needs a certain level of CO2 in the system. For various reasons, sometimes we start taking in too much oxygen. The symptoms of asthma may be a perverse reaction of the body to try to correct the balance — which has the effect of causing us to try harder to take in more oxygen. Here is a link to her post.

autoimmune issues - As you can tell from the focus of this page, I have a number of these. So I was interested in Mark Hyman’s article on treating this with functional medicine. Here is the link.   

Contaminants - 12-06.2009 - Nicky Kristof writes about endocrine disruptorsin cosmetics and the dangers of certain types of plastics that we use in the kitchen.  

Glutathione - 4.2010 - Mark Hyman argues that this antioxidant is critical for staying healthy and he lists ways we can boost the body’s production of it. Here is the link.

Diet - Low Acid diet and bone health - This NYT article discusses the science underlying the recommendation to reduce protein and increase vegetable and fruit intake to improve bone health.

Resveratrol and Longevity -  Here is a link to a comment by Dr. Mark Hyman on factors that affect aging.

Sleep -  In this article, Dr. Breus gives some thoughts on the value of the different stages of sleep. Does exercise help people sleep better? Maybe only if you have a sleep disorder. But otherwise, it appears to be more important that you believe you are exercising enough (less worry). NYT reports.

Vitamin D3 - Mark Hyman thinks most people are V D deficient.  Here is a link to his article with a video.