Stress Relief, Health and Wellness Blog

Why are food allergies on the rise?

It seems like more and more children in the U.S. are developing food allergies, and there’s data to back that up. The number of kids with food allergies went up 18 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 3 million children younger than 18 had a food or digestive allergy in 2007, the CDC said.

Scientists are still trying to figure out why food allergies seem to be on the rise, especially in industrialized countries such as the United States. Are children not getting exposed to enough bacteria? Should they eat common allergens such as nuts and shellfish at an earlier age?

Food allergies on the rise

Gee we are exposed to so many chemicals any more – in our food, where we work and live, in cleaners, clothes, cars, and on and on. A really helpful skill in identifying what foods you are allergic to is to be able to sense reactions from the food you eat. If you can be sensitive to your body changes, you tell what food is making you sick. If you eat something and your lips burn and tingle or your tongue swells a little, those are warning signs that your body is reacting to some food you just ate. Cutting that food out of your diet can confirm if it is causing an allergic reaction.

Body Shifting

This is an excellent educational program to develop awareness of subtle changes inside your body. You learn to lower your background level of stress. Then you can feel slight and simple changes inside your body.

body shifting – https://www.cliving.org/prod03.htm

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

Why do video games make such bad movies?

(CNN) — Do you think the idea of Jake Gyllenhaal playing a time-traveling Arabian swordsman seems far-fetched?

Then consider Raul Julia as a gravity-defying, Third World despot, or Sir Ben Kingsley taking on the role of a bloodsucking vampire king.

Sadly, as illustrated by “Prince of Persia,” the latest film adapted from a popular video game, the more things change, the more they play the same.

Decades after the debut of “The Wizard,” a thinly disguised, feature-length Nintendo commercial, the marriage between Hollywood and gaming remains rocky at best. In other words: Movies based on video games stink.

“It often comes down to money, as movie studios frequently choose to make films based on the franchises that sell the best, not those with the most cinematic potential,” said Corey May, co-founder of Sekretagent Productions.

Why do video games make such bad movies?

We look to movies, games and books to escape or have a break from our normal lives. A good movie, book or game can transport you mind into an entirely different experience. Such breaks are healthy for the mind and body. It is very disappointing when you really look forward to a good movie and spend serious money and time only to find out it is not well done.

Another way to have a healthy break is a deep rest or meditation or prayer. Y0u can slip away from the worry and concerns of your normal life. We produce a series of music called Holographic Music by Dr Tim Lowenstein.  The foreground music is very soothing and relaxing. The hum in the background guides your brain into deep rest or peaceful calm.

Holographic Music

Brainwave frequencies are encoded in the background of each of these. You will hear a low hum. Each stereo speaker has a different frequency. When you listen, the brain mixes them and follows the frequency – be dreamy or sleepy. You will be impressed on how easily and quickly you can drift down into a deep state of relaxation. They gradually shift your mind and body – great for deep relaxation, meditation, prayer, hypnosis, calming, etc. See quantity discounts at the bottom of page. Each song is about 31 minutes long, stereo music. So each CD plays for about 62 minutes. Holographic Music shifts brainwaves from 12 down to 11 and on down to about 7 Hz – Calm and then down to meditative, dreamy state of mind.

https://www.cliving.org/prod04.htm This music is perfect for hypnosis, meditation, prayer, guided imagery or deep rest. You can listen to free samples on this page.

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

Should ‘male menopause’ be treated?

(Health.com) — Sweaty, sleepless nights. Inexplicable grouchiness. Weight gain, headaches, and no sex drive. Many women approaching menopause can relate — and so can Mike Coleman.

Last year, a string of restless nights sent the 46-year-old insurance agent from Lineville, Alabama, to his doctor. After a blood workup, Coleman was informed that his testosterone levels were below normal, and were likely to blame for the symptoms he’d been experiencing.

“It made sense,” he says. “My energy levels were not what they used to be. But you kind of think, ‘How could this happen to me?’ ”

Coleman’s condition isn’t all that rare. Quite a few men — up to 25 percent — have testosterone levels that fall below normal in middle age, and in some cases this transition causes a collection of symptoms that has come to be known as “male menopause” (or “manopause”).

“Testosterone levels gradually decline with aging, usually around age 40,” says Alvin Matsumoto, M.D., a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. Although the decline is natural, Matsumoto adds, “that doesn’t mean it has no physiological or clinical consequences or shouldn’t be treated.”

Should 'male menopause' be treated?

First, just recognizing that you as a male are going through a transitional biological change is very important. Knowing that the hormonal and biochemical changes inside your body affect your mood and attitude is critical. Once you identify that there is a change then you can come up with a strategy to find solutions for yourself.

First you should start a journal on your symptoms. Keep a diary of how you are feeling for 2 weeks. Also record what you are eating and drinking and when, how much you sleep, etc. You want a life journal. You want to be able to eliminate symptoms brought on by food allergies, caffeine, etc. Also note what makes you feel good.

It is important to tune into to your body. As this article suggests just jumping on the Drug Bus is not a good solution. There are side effects to using drugs.

Deep relaxation is a good way to tune in to your body. You can become more sensitive to subtle changes in your body.

Stress Control Series by Dr Tim Lowenstein 100HS -CD $20

Practice with one audio CD each day. Pay attention to how you feel before and after. Make notes in a relaxation journal. In just a month, you will see major improvement in how quickly you see subtle changes in how you feel. Typically men do not pay attention to how they feel inside. We are trained to be numb and to push forward = No Pain, No Gain. You are in kindergarten so it will take a few sessions as you learn to access you body’s neural net and recognize tiny shifts and changes.

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

Back pain? Alternative therapies may help

The lower back is a complex spot, with many potential sources of pain. Although surgery would seem to be a quick fix, in reality about 85 percent of people don’t need — and won’t benefit from — back surgery, says Dr. Anders Cohen, M.D., chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, in New York City.

That leaves plenty of room for alternative and complementary therapies, such as vitamins, acupuncture, and chiropractic therapy, that may help soothe the pain. “If I don’t see something unstable, something wrong with a disk or a bone, I use alternative therapies on a regular basis. It’s a central crux of my practice,” adds Cohen.

“There are some types of back pain that seem to be in the covering of the muscles or in the tissue connecting the muscle that are really difficult to treat,” adds Dr. James Bray, M.D., a sports medicine physician with Scott & White Healthcare, in Georgetown, Texas. “That’s where a lot of alternative therapies [such as acupuncture and chiropractic therapy] really excel.”

Back Pain - New ways to get relief

Personally, I think yoga, relaxation, targeted exercise, good bed, deep sleep, etc, all of these should be the first stage of treatment of back pain. Professionally, I have seen muscles so knotted in the back that they felt like bones. Direct EMG biofeedback is not helpful initially. The feedback just confirms there is a high level of tension. It is best to train the person to relax the muscles throughout their body.

Here is what I would recommend from the standpoint of relaxation and biofeedback.

DEEP MUSCLE RELAXATION by Dr Tim Lowenstein 101H -CD $6 [Checkout]

First tighten your fists as tightly as you can, then release all at once. Feel the delicious warmth pouring into your hands. Relieve knotted tension from the muscles all over your body. On Side II release tension from the fine muscles of your throat, eyes and face.

Audio Sample Side 1 or Track 1: 101H wav file 101H real player 101H mp3

Audio Sample Side 2 or Track 2: 101H 2 wav file 101H 2 real player 101H 2 mp3

Stress Thermometer Program with Audio-CD – https://www.cliving.org/stressthermometer.htm

You can put the temperature sensor on the sore area of your back and use your mind to increase blood flow and relax the area of tension.

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

What Causes Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating has many causes. The following are some of the main reasons – besides hunger – that stressed people eat:

• Cortisol Cravings: Stress can bring on increased levels of cortisol, known as “the stress hormone.” Cortisol has a beneficial function in the body, but excessive levels of cortisol brought on by chronic stress can cause a slew of problems in the body. Among other things, high levels of cortisol can create cravings for salty and sweet foods. In previous centuries, this enabled people to bulk up on foods that would sustain them during times when food is scarce; however, in modern times and industrialized nations, when food is rarely scarce, this previously adaptive mechanism causes excess weight gain.
• Social Eating: Often people who are under stress will seek out social support, which is a great way to relieve stress. Unfortunately for dieters, when people get together — especially women — we tend to go out for a nice meal. Crying on your friend’s shoulder over a couple of hot fudge sundaes, going out for a night on the town and a plate full of fried appetizers, sharing a bowl of chips with the guys as you watch a game, or discussing the gory details of a nightmare date over cheesecake with your roommates (didn’t this occur in every episode of The Golden Girls?) are all social forms of emotional eating. It can make you feel better in the short term, but you may regret later.
• Nervous Energy: When stressed or anxious, many people become “orally fidgety.” Sometimes this leads to nail biting or teeth grinding, and often it leads to eating when not hungry. Many people, out of nervousness or boredom, just munch on chips or drink soda to give their mouths something to do.
• Childhood Habits: Many of us have comforting childhood memories that revolve around food. Whether your parents used to reward you with sweets, fix your boo-boos with an ice cream cone, or make your favorite meal (or take you out to one) to celebrate your successes, you’d probably be in the vast minority if you didn’t develop some emotionally-based attachments to food while growing up. When in times of stress, few things can be as powerfully comforting or rewarding as your favorite food. Because many people don’t develop more effective coping strategies, this type of emotional eating is very common: people eat to celebrate, eat to feel better, eat to deal with the stress of being overweight.
• Stuffing Emotions: Another emotional reason that many people eat is to quiet uncomfortable emotions. People who are uncomfortable with confrontation may deal with frustrations in their marriage with a piece of cake, for example, rather than with open communication. Food can take the focus off of anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, and a host of other emotions we’d sometimes rather not feel, and is often used for this purpose.

While there are many reasons for emotional eating, and it’s a prevalent fixture in our society, it’s not necessarily good for us, as anyone who’s watching their weight will tell you. If you’re an emotional eater, it’s important for you to be aware of this, keep an eye on your triggers, and develop some effective stress management techniques and coping skills so that your body stays healthy and you choose your diet, rather than feeling out of control.

What Causes Emotional Eating?

Boy this is a tough one.  Eat fun foods to celebrate, eat fun foods when in a funk, eat fun foods when bored, eat, eat, eat…………

One way to help curb emotional eating is to relax.. unwind……….. let stress go from your body, emotions and mind.  The stress thermometer program is fast and easy way to learn to relax.

Stress Thermometer Program with Audio-CD – https://www.cliving.org/stressthermometer.htm

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

Biodot Mood Colors Chart

Body Temperature changes under Stress

Under stress muscles tense and blood flow is restricted to the main body and shut down from the hands and feet. Stress Level Rule – Warm Hands Relaxed, Cold Hands Tense. Hand/foot temperature ranges over 40° degrees from a low of 60° degrees to as high as 99° degrees F. Changes of 5° degrees or more can take place in seconds.

Small, liquid crystal circles CHANGE COLORS as temperature changes. Use adhesive back to stick the Stress Point to tense areas. Inexpensive and unbreakable, 10 degree range from 79.6° F. to 89.6° F.Great handout at fairs, lectures and groups. Some people refer to these as Biodots.

Biodots test for stress

Just peel off the Biodot and put it on your finger tip to measure your stress level.

Biodot Mood Color Chart – test for stress

This is the front and back of the instruction card that we supply with Biodots so that you can read the color changes and understand what your stress level is.

Biodots, Stress Points, Stress Dots – https://www.cliving.org/biodots.htm

There are very simple and easy to use.

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

Do you feel ‘righteous rage’ on the road?

(CNN) — You’re speeding along on the highway and someone cuts you off out of nowhere. Your heart starts racing, and you pound your wrists on the horn, screaming obscenities only you can hear.

It’s one of those moments when you’re so angry that you act out of character, transforming from mild-mannered to vengeful person. It’s as if something in your brain tells you that you need to fight back.

Instances of frustration are common in daily life, but sometimes it can get out of control.

Raod Rage

Road rage is so easy to get ………. from your own pressure and frustration and from the danger of other bad drivers. You reaction can harm yourself as you stew in that hateful emotion. It can cause real harm if you react with your car or truck to the other driver. And you never know how your actions will set off rage in the other driver – are they armed with a gun, will they hit you with their car, will they run you off the road????

The best solution is to drive defensively and  protect yourself. Distance yourself from the other driver on the road. Breath deeply to calm your emotions. Pull off the road if time and travel allows. Walk around and get something to drink or snack on. Play music in the car to distract yourself and calm down.

This is a good life situation to practice your skills to relax and unstress. We have excellent tools to measure stress and help you relax.

For teens and adults, you can learn good basic scientific stress mastery skills as well – http://www.cliving.org/teensadults.htm

Stress Control Series by Dr Tim Lowenstein 100HS -CD $20

www.cliving.org www.stressmarket.com Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

Biking minutes a day may ward off weight gain

http://www.stressmarket.com/blog/wp-admin/post-new.php

(Health.com) — Biking for as little as five minutes a day can help women minimize weight gain as they enter middle age, especially if they’re overweight to begin with, a new study suggests.

The study followed more than 18,000 premenopausal women between the ages of 25 and 42 for 16 years. During that time, the women gained an average of about 20.5 pounds.

Women who started biking for just five minutes a day gained about 1.5 fewer pounds over the course of the study than similar women who didn’t take up biking, the researchers found. Women who increased their daily biking by 30 minutes during the study kept even more weight off, gaining about 3.5 fewer pounds than those whose biking habits stayed the same.

Health.com: 30-minute workout, no gym required

“Bicycling is an answer to weight control,” says the lead author of the study, Dr. Anne Lusk, Ph.D., a research fellow in nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston. “Walking is not necessarily an answer, unless the person is walking briskly.”

Indeed, Lusk and her colleagues found that women who increased the time they spent walking briskly by 30 minutes per day during the study gained about four pounds less than their peers who didn’t increase their walking. (A “brisk” pace is three miles per hour or more.) On the other hand, women who only walked slowly did not manage to prevent any weight gain.

It is amazing how you can improve your health physically and emotionally and mentally with just a bit of exercise each day. I think of a pool of water outside. It gets filth and dirt in it. Over time it is sluggish from the build up of that sludge. If you slosh it around a bit each day you can drive out some of that junk. In time it is nice clean water again.

It is the same with relaxation. If you do just a few minutes of good scientific relaxation a day, you can release knotted muscle tension, clenched jaws and knotted stomach muscles.

It is very helpful to have a feedback tool, how tense am I?, how deeply did I relax?, what level of stress do I have right now?

The Stress Thermometer is an excellent and fast way to read your level of stress.

Stress Thermometer – https://www.cliving.org/stressthermometer.htm

stress thermometer - learn to relax each day

Also on eBay.com  – http://cgi.ebay.com/Lie-Detector-and-Stress-Test-Biofeedback-New-/230498375237?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35aac61645

And on Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/stressmarket-com-SC911-Stress-Thermometer/dp/B000227MP2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1279041355&sr=8-1

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

THIS Asthma Solution Costs No Money…

Asthmatic children with low blood vitamin D levels may have a greater risk of suffering severe asthma attacks.

A study followed more than 1,000 children with asthma for four years, and found those with vitamin-D insufficiency at the outset were more likely to have an asthma attack that required a trip to the hospital.

Reuters reports:

“When the researchers considered other factors — including the severity of the children’s asthma at the study’s start, their weight and their family income — vitamin D insufficiency itself was linked to a 50 percent increase in the risk of severe asthma attacks.”

THIS Asthma Solution Costs No Money…

This would be an excellent solution. Asthma attacks are very frightening. You cannot breath or your child cannot breath. Scary!

Asthma attacks can be triggered by stress and panic or stress can make them even worse. Learning relaxation skills and the ability to breath slowly and deeply can Stop panic, reduce stress and help restore breathing. Good stress control can prevent an asthma attack, it can make the attack less traumatic and severe, it can reduce the amount of medication needed.

For children, teach them good basic scientific stress mastery skills – http://www.cliving.org/children.htm

Stress Control for Kids by Janai Lowenstein 200HS-CD $20

For teens and adults, you can learn good basic scientific stress mastery skills as well – http://www.cliving.org/teensadults.htm

Stress Control Series by Dr Tim Lowenstein 100HS -CD $20

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com

Your Cell Phone is Driving the Honey Bees Crazy!

Study links bee decline to cell phones

London, England (CNN) — A new study has suggested that cell phone radiation may be contributing to declines in bee populations in some areas of the world.

Bee populations dropped 17 percent in the UK last year, according to the British Bee Association, and nearly 30 percent in the United States says the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Parasitic mites called varroa, agricultural pesticides and the effects of climate change have all been implicated in what has been dubbed “colony collapse disorder” (CCD).

But researchers in India believe cell phones could also be to blame for some of the losses.

In a study at Panjab University in Chandigarh, northern India, researchers fitted cell phones to a hive and powered them up for two fifteen-minute periods each day.

After three months, they found the bees stopped producing honey, egg production by the queen bee halved, and the size of the hive dramatically reduced.

Your Cell Phone is Killing the Honey Bees – video

cell phones killing honey bees

Gee if this proves to be true it has dire consequences for bees. Bees are so critical to plant life and to many of plants and trees that provide us with food. Unless there is some kind of technological fix to find a frequency that will not harm bees. Boy, I cannot imagine people giving up their cell phones.

I think this is example of consequences of our actions. We need to feedback to help determine what is the best course of action. To blindly keep doing the same over and over can be very harmful to ourselves and others.

We provide a range of feedback tools that show the results of how you are affected by your own actions and reactions. You can learn to choose new ways of behaving and reacting in order to protect your own health and those around you. Relax and be a positive source of energy and enthusiasm.

An easy Market of positive tools to manage stress, pressure and anxiety – https://www.cliving.org/products.htm

stress products for relaxation, biofeedback, anxiety, stress

www.cliving.org

www.stressmarket.com

Dr Tim Lowenstein (c) 2009 All Rights Reserved

Contact Dr Tim for permission to reprint. info@stressmarket.com