Ancient medicine Fire Cupping Therapy…3000 years old
Posted by DARA in Ancient Medicine, Health, Therapy on May 10, 2011
In my early years of my childhood I was always involved with all sorts of contact sports, which always lead me to injuring myself. My grandma, ofcourse always had an ancient treatment or medicine for all my pains or ailments . Heated cups or fire cupping therapy was one of my favourites since it would always relieve my back pain, sore muscles, joint pain, and most day to day ailments that everyone deals with. It also dates back 2500-300 years, all the way back to ancient egyptian times.
Fire cupping is a type of acupressure therapy; that is pressure applied to acupuncture points on the body. Specially designed glass cups are heated in such a way that when they are applied to the body a vacuum is created and the skin is gently pulled up into the cup.
Although the origins of fire cupping remain a mystery, the earliest recorded use of the procedure was in a book called: A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies by Ge Hong, a Taoist alchemist and herbalist. Mostly it was used to drain the toxins out of snake bites. Back then fire cupping was still fairly primitive and instead of the pretty glass cups you see today, people back then had to make do with animal horns.
As time passed by and fire cupping matured into a popular way to treat various diseases, people started making the cups out of better materials. For awhile bamboo and pottery were popular but the pottery cups broke too easily and bamboo cups fell apart after a few uses. Brass and iron were used for a time but the invention of glass cups quickly made them obsolete. Glass is now the preferred medium for fire cups because it is durable and allows the practitioner to see the skin through the cup.
In its simplest form, fire cupping is a type of deep tissue massage that promotes stress relief and relaxation. As a medicinal therapy, though, cupping has been used to treat a variety of diseases such as chronic bronchitis, asthma, colds, digestive diseases, musculoskeletal pain and some gynecological disorders.
How is Fire Cupping done?
The aim of fire cupping is to get the cups to suction to the body of the patient. This vacuum created by the cups is thought to draw out impurities and balance the body’s chi. In ancient times, creating this vacuum was done by holding the cup over an open flame and then quickly attaching it to the body. One had to be very careful, though, to avoid heating the cup itself lest it burn the patient.
More modern techniques include swabbing the inside of the cup with rubbing alcohol and setting fire to it before placing the cup on the body. The vacuum created by the cup cuts off the fire’s oxygen causing it to burn out quickly. Some practitioners use kerosene instead of alcohol citing that kerosene’s ease of ignition produces a greater vacuum in the cup.
Another technique involves putting a cotton ball soaked in alcohol on a small leather pad which is then placed directly on the skin. The cotton ball is lit and the glass is placed on top of the whole thing. How quickly the flame extinguishes depends on the size and shape of the cup but, as you can imagine, the chance for getting burned is pretty high and not too many people use this method any more.
Luckily, cups are now made with a small crank or pump which is used to create the vacuum effect. Not only does this alleviate the dangers of using fire, it also allows the practitioner to control just how much suction is created in the cup.
Ofcourse these are ancient and traditional methods that may or may not be approved by government health standards but the real question is if its been practicied 3000 years than im sure there is no real threat!
Always consult with your family doctor or a health pracitioner before trying any of these methods described above.
Dara
Factors That influence people’s eating habits..culture, religion, social…
Posted by DARA in Eating Habits, Food, Metabolism on April 19, 2011
The term eating habits (or food habits ) refers to why and how people eat, which foods they eat, and with whom they eat, as well as the ways people obtain, store, use, and discard food. Individual, social, cultural, religious, economic, environmental, and political factors all influence people’s eating habits.
Why and How People Eat:
All humans eat to survive. They also eat to express appreciation, for a sense of belonging, as part of family customs, and for self-realization. For example, someone who is not hungry may eat a piece of cake that has been baked in his or her honour.
People eat according to learned behaviours regarding etiquette, meal and snack patterns, acceptable foods, food combinations, and portion sizes. Etiquette refers to acceptable behaviours. For example, for some groups it is acceptable to lick one’s fingers while eating, while for other groups this is rude behaviour. Etiquette and eating rituals also vary depending on whether the meal is formal, informal, or special (such as a meal on a birthday or religious holiday).
A meal is usually defined as the consumption of two or more foods in a structured setting at a set time. Snacks consist of a small amount of food or beverage eaten between meals. A common eating pattern is three meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) per day, with snacks between meals. The components of a meal vary across cultures, but generally include grains, such as rice or noodles; meat or a meat substitute, such as fish, beans, or tofu ; and accompaniments, such as vegetables. Various food guides provide suggestions on foods to eat, portion sizes, and daily intake. However, personal preferences, habits, family customs, and social setting largely determine what a person consumes.
Humans acquire, store, and discard food using a variety of methods. People may grow, fish, or hunt some of their food, or they may purchase most of it from supermarkets or specialty stores. If there is limited access to energy sources, people may store small amounts of foods and get most of what they eat on a day-to-day basis. In homes with abundant space and energy, however, people purchase food in bulk and store it in freezers, refrigerators, and pantries. In either case there must also be proper disposal facilities to avoid environmental and health problems.
Influences on Food Choices:
There are many factors that determine what foods a person eats. In addition to personal preferences, there are cultural, social, religious, economic, environmental, and even political factors.
Every individual has unique likes and dislikes concerning foods. These preferences develop over time, and are influenced by personal experiences such as encouragement to eat, exposure to a food, family customs and rituals, advertising, and personal values. For example, one person may not like frankfurters, despite the fact that they are a family favourite.
A cultural group provides guidelines regarding acceptable foods, food combinations, eating patterns, and eating behaviours. Compliance with these guidelines creates a sense of identity and belonging for the individual. Within large cultural groups, subgroups exist that may practice variations of the group’s eating behaviours, though they are still considered part of the larger group. For example, a hamburger, French fries, and a soda are considered a typical American meal. Vegetarians in the United
Someone who is repeatedly exposed to certain foods is less hesitant to eat them. For example, lobster traditionally was only available on the coasts, and is much more likely to be accepted as food by coastal dwellers.
States, however, eat “veggie-burgers” made from mashed beans, pureed vegetables, or soy, and people on diets may eat a burger made from lean turkey. In the United States these are appropriate cultural substitutions, but a burger made from horsemeat would be unacceptable.
Members of a social group depend on each other, share a common culture, and influence each other’s behaviors and values. A person’s membership in particular peer, work, or community groups impacts food behaviors. For example, a young person at a basketball game may eat certain foods when accompanied by friends and other foods when accompanied by his or her teacher.
Religious proscriptions range from a few to many, from relaxed to highly restrictive. This will affect a follower’s food choices and behaviours. For example, in some religions specific foods are prohibited, such as pork among Jewish and Muslim adherents. Within Christianity, the Seventh-day Adventists discourage “stimulating” beverages such as alcohol, which is not forbidden among Catholics.
Money, values, and consumer skills all affect what a person purchases. The price of a food, however, is not an indicator of its nutritional value. Cost is a complex combination of a food’s availability, status, and demand.
The influence of the environment on food habits derives from a composite of ecological and social factors. Foods that are commonly and easily grown within a specific region frequently become a part of the local cuisine. However, modern technology, agricultural practices, and transportation methods have increased the year-round availability of many foods, and many foods that were previously available only at certain seasons or in specific areas are now available almost anywhere, at any time.
Political factors also influence food availability and trends. Food laws and trade agreements affect what is available within and across countries, and also affect food prices. Food labelling laws determine what consumers know about the food they purchase.
Eating habits are thus the result of both external factors, such as politics, and internal factors, such as values. These habits are formed, and may change, over a person’s lifetime.
Dara
Balance Exercise Training – Flexibility and Agility Workouts
Posted by DARA in Agility, Balance & Flexibility, Exercise, Fitness on April 15, 2011
Learn to keep your balance with some simple balance training drills
Many athletes today are using balance training as an integral part of their overall training programs, both for injury prevention and performance enhancement.
Balance is needed by runners, tennis players when reaching for a drop shot and by Soccer players. Each of these situations requires the exercise of just the right amount of flexibility and agility at the right time and from the right areas of the body in order for us to execute the desired task, recover and then be able to repeat the same or similar tasks without injury. With balance training, as with most training, the idea is to recreate and manipulate in a controlled environment what we do in an event or game situation.
Balance training for your sport should involve replicating components of function associated with that sport, and the exercises outlined in this article range from the general to the sport-specific (tennis and football), with various suggested tweaks for purposes of progression. For all runners, the general drills will be best suited to your needs.
One-leg punches
Stand on one leg, with the other leg next to, but not touching, the supporting leg. Using 2lb hand weights, alternate punches in the air above the head (10x each arm), keeping the supporting knee soft, perhaps with a little bounce on each rep. Then repeat, punching out to the side above shoulder height. Now (still balancing on the same leg) alternate crossover punches above the head, still 10x each arm (exercise 1, above). Then repeat the whole routine while standing on the other leg. You then repeat the entire drill once more, this time starting with alternate punches in front of you at shoulder height (exercise 2, below), moving onto lateral punches (out to the side) at shoulder height, and finally crossover punches below head height.
Suggested variations on this drill are as follows:
1. Introduce progression by using slightly heavier weights, or repeating the drill with eyes closed, or on grass or an exercise mat;
2. The football tweak. Stand on the left leg while taking 10 headers from a server 1.5 metres in front of you, heading them directly back. Then, still standing on the left leg, rotate your head to the left while the server feeds you 10 headers from the left and you head them down to the server’s feet. The server then feeds you 10 headers from his original position in front of you, and this time you direct the balls to a target at 10 o’clock on the left leg or 2 o’clock on the right leg. Repeat the drills on the other foot, always aiming to keep the free leg off the ground, next to but not touching the supporting leg.
3. The tennis tweak. Standing at the net on the right leg, direct five forehand volleys (above shoulder height) straight down the line and another five cross court. Repeat on the left leg, this time using backhand (if left-handed do the opposite). Then do five overhead smashes on each leg. Then repeat the entire drill with volleys delivered at or below shoulder height.
Jump steps
The second series of drills involves a jump step forwards from a standing start onto one foot, holding for a count of two, then returning to the starting position. (The distance you jump will depend on your balance threshold.) Repeat on the other side. This forwards-backwards movement is what’s called working in the sagittal plane. Next we need to work in the frontal plane (side to side). So, from the starting position, take a jump step out to the left on the left foot, hold for a count of two, then jump step back to the starting position. Repeat on the other side. The third plane of movement (perhaps the most important) is the transverse plane, involving a posterior lateral jump step. Imagine you are standing in the center of a big clock face, facing 12 o’clock. First take a jump step back to the 8 o’clock position on the left side, making sure your left foot is pointing to 8 o’clock; hold for two seconds then jump step back to the start. Now repeat to 4 o’clock on the right side.
Variations are as follows:
1. For progression, repeat the drill with one or more of the following embellishments to accompany the jump steps:
- arms above the head;
- hands reaching out to touch landing foot;
- (in the transverse plane) rotate arms away from the body when jumping out, then into your body when jumping back;
- arms driving in different directions as you jump step – one forwards, the other out to the side.
2. The tennis tweak. Take a jump step forwards onto the right foot while taking a forehand volley (exercise 3, above), then jump step back. Repeat on the left foot with a backhand volley. Now repeat the routine in the frontal plane, jump stepping to the right on the right foot to make the forehand volley and to the left for a backhand. Then repeat using the clock face analogy, jump stepping back to 4 o’clock to make the forehand volley from slightly behind you then repeating on the left to 8 o’clock for the backhand. If left-handed, do the opposite.
3. The football tweak. Apply the same principles as the tennis tweak, jump stepping with one foot while a server feeds you volleys to strike with the other foot (exercise 4, below).
These drills can be easily integrated into your current conditioning programme and can be performed when fresh or fatigued. It is a good strategy to vary the time of day you perform these drills as well as the surface you use.
Keep your balance training task-oriented, and try not to concentrate too hard on balancing per se as this just muddies the waters. We don’t have to ‘switch the core on’ to provide balance and stability; the design of the body is such that if it’s not switched on there is a bio-mechanical explanation. And if your balance on one leg is worse than on the other, it could mean something as simple as a tight calf or a stiff heel.
Dara
Skipping Workout – Skip Hop your way to losing those last few inches
Posted by DARA in Exercise, heart zone, Sports on April 13, 2011
Consider yourself fit?
Try skipping continuously for 10 minutes.
Skipping for 10 minutes burns the same amount of calories as 30 minutes of jogging. A 180lb man can burn 225 calories in just 15 minutes, skipping will get your heart rate pounding….Quick!
Mix up you’re cardio program and add skipping to your routine, doing rounds of skipping between strength exercises will burn far more calories than resting between exercises. Skipping will improve your general fitness and will give your legs, butt, forearms, upper arms and shoulders a killer workout.
Save yourself thousands of dollars on expensive treadmills and other fancy whiz bang machines and invest 10 dollars on a skipping rope for an awesome workout.
Chances are high you jumped rope as a kid and here’s a chance to workout with your inner child! Seriously, jumping rope is a great way to get some serious cardio action.
Here’s a routine to try, it builds on itself and the changes up in time will keep you interested and your body guessing what is coming next
| Jump time in seconds | Rest time in seconds |
| :30 | :60 |
| :40 | :60 |
| :45 | :45 |
| :30 | :30 |
| :50 | :60 |
| :30 | :30 |
| :30 | :30 |
| :60 | :45 |
| :60 | :45 |
| :45 | :60 |
| :30 | :60 |
Goodluck
Dara
Multi-Vitamins can help correct many specific conditions
Benefits
Vitamins are essential for our ongoing good health, and are most effective when consumed in fresh, natural foods or good high quality supplements.
Some people may not completely absorb or properly assimilate vitamins from their diet. Pollution, poor nutrition, illness, prolonged periods of stress and some medical treatments deplete our body’s vitamin stores and can interfere with vitamin absorption. These situations may call for vitamin supplements to ensure that our body stores and reserves are kept full and remain so if we are to enjoy continued good health.
Please consult with your health care provider for your specific needs.
Everybody knows that it’s important to get enough of all the essential nutrients. There is no exact science, however, for determining just how much of any given vitamin or mineral anybody needs at any given time.
Age, genetics, the combination’s of foods you eat and the times you eat them, and disease conditions all have an effect on how much of various nutrients you need. That’s why attention to vitamin benefits is essential to ensure good health.
Severe deficiencies of vitamins or minerals are relatively rare in healthy, young people. Slight deficiencies of certain vitamin benefits, however, are relatively common.
Vitamin B-12 is a common nutritional deficiency in people over 60 years of age. Calcium, chromium, folic acid (folate), magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, and zinc are frequently deficient among people of all ages.
Just a little deficiency can create big problems in your health over the long run. Insufficient intake of vitamin D and calcium raise your risk of developing osteoporosis. Not getting enough folic acid and vitamin B6 increases your risk of heart disease.
- Literally hundreds of prescription drugs interfere with the body’s absorption, use, or storage of vitamins and deprive the body of their benefits
There is evidence that multivitamins can help correct many specific conditions. The B vitamins enhance men’s fertility. Folic acid is important for expectant mothers.
Multivitamins may reduce the pain of arthritis, decrease symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), enhance mental function, reduce antisocial behavior in children, and improve general well being. Whether you’re healthy or sick, chances are you can benefit from a daily multivitamin.
Most of us, however, only need vitamins at the level of nutritional needs. For generally healthy people, vitamins are a safe and effective “added insurance” against developing chronic conditions. Here are some important facts to keep in mind:
Your nutritional supplement shouldn’t contain more of a nutrient than your body can absorb. For instance, your digestive tract can’t absorb a day’s worth of calcium from a single tablet. Two tablets a day with a smaller dosage would be necessary.
And don’t forget that food is a source of vitamin benefits, too. There are variations of common vitamins, particularly vitamin E and the carotene’s, are found in food but are almost never duplicated in a supplement. Eat healthy and take supplements for added insurance.
Should you take a multivitamin or a lot of single vitamins?
The way to get vitamin benefits is to take a multivitamin formula. Formulas balance individual ingredients. You won’t be getting your zinc without copper or your folic acid without vitamin
B-6. There may be advantages to taking certain nutrients at a higher dosage, but there can be drawbacks, too. Taking a balanced formula takes the guesswork out of your nutritional plan.
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