7 Signs You Have Too Many Toxins In Your Life

BY   BRITTA ARAGON


You think you’re healthy, but you don’t feel vibrant. You struggle to find the energy to get through the day. You’re irritable. Your stomach isn't acting right. And all those headaches!

These types of ailments affect many of us in our daily lives. They’re not serious enough to warrant a trip to the doctor — or maybe you tried only to be told there was nothing wrong — but they still tend to drag you down, wearing away your resistance and leaving you feeling like you’re just getting old.

I have good news for you — it probably has nothing to do with aging. Instead, you may simply be surrounded by too many toxins.

Not sure? Here are seven signs to look for — and how you can clean up your system and feel better in 30 days!

Note: Always check with your doctor to eliminate any possible medical conditions as causes of these symptoms.

1. Consistent fatigue

Even if you’re sleeping well, you may fight to get through the day. This could be a sign that your body is working too hard to get rid of the toxins you’re pouring into it. How do you cope with fatigue? If you’re answer is “more coffee” or “sweet foods,” you can bet that you’re only making the problem worse. That fatigue could also be in response to hormone disruptors that are zapping your immune system.

2. Stubborn weight gain

It’s never easy to lose weight, but if you’re exercising daily and cutting back on calories and you’re still putting on the pounds, you could be looking at a hormonal problem. Strangely enough, our natural hormone function can be greatly affected by the toxins in our foods and personal care products. You need a complete detox of your diet and personal care routine to give your body a fighting chance.

3. Bad breath

You brush and brush, chew gum, rinse, and swallow breath mints, and still, you can’t get rid of it. Bad breath is often related to digestive problems, but it can also mean that your liver is struggling to get rid of the toxins in your body. Until you tackle the problem from the source, you’ll continue to scare away anyone who comes close!

4. Constipation

The intestines get rid of a lot of toxins every day of our lives. When we’re constipated, we’re storing up all those toxins, allowing them to negatively affect our bodies. In addition to stomach upset, constipation can cause headaches, aches and pains, and tiredness. It can also be related to the toxins in your life, especially if you’re consuming a lot of processed foods filled with chemicals, pesticides, and preservatives.

5. Sensitivity to scents

Strong reactions to smells — particularly fragrances — might mean that you’re simply sensitive to chemicals, which many of us are. It can also mean that your body is fighting toxic overload. Particularly if you suffer headaches or stomach upset simply from scents, this may be the case.

6. Muscle aches and pains

If you can’t tie these to your workout yesterday, could be that the toxins in your life are working away at your muscles and joints. This is more likely if you experience muscle aches on a regular basis.

7. Skin reactions

Acne, rashes, and other skin problems may signal a toxic overload. Acne, in particular, can be related to the toxins in our diet or skin care products. Puffy eyes and eczema or psoriasis outbreaks can also be signs that you've just reached your toxic limit.

My Solutions

If you find yourself suffering from any of these seven symptoms, here are a few tips that may help:
Support your liver with things like dandelion tea, parsley, cilantro, and milk thistle.
Drink more water — it helps flush toxins out of your body.
Exercise at least 30 minutes a day. Exercise gets the circulation moving, helping to move toxins along.
Get a good daily supply of digestion-supportive probiotics, found in kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, Kombucha tea, miso soup, tempeh, and kim chi.
Always brush your tongue — even better, use a tongue scraper—when brushing your teeth.
Practice deep breathing — we get rid of a lot of the toxins in our bodies through our lungs.
Use only natural skin care products that are free of fragrances, sulfates, phthalates, parabens, and other potentially toxic ingredients, and always read labels. Use my Ingredients to Avoid list to find safer options.
Choose clean, whole, and organic foods whenever possible!
Here's to living a healthy, toxin-free life!

http://newfreebooks.com/amazing-superfoods-to-boost-your-health-naturalhealthsherpacom/d9ebb0a2c399775e531b2184d8c496e7/

How Meditation Affects The Brain

May 16, 2014 | by Lisa Winter

photo credit: Nadir Hashmi

Humans have meditated for thousands of years, for religious purposes or just to quiet the mind. There are many meditation techniques but for the most part they can be lumped into two broad categories: non directive (mind wanders freely) and concentrative (suppresses random thoughts). Any differences in how the body responds to each type have not been well known prior to this study. A new study led by Svend Davanger from the University of Oslo has investigated what happens in the brain during meditation versus casual resting. The results were published in an open access format in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Acem meditation came about in the 1960s in Norway as a non-religious technique that focuses on mentally repeating a word in order to relax the mind and body. Acem does not seek to reach any particular state of consciousness, but instead allows thoughts to come and go from the mind as they become absorbed by the mantra. 

The study used 14 participants who are experienced in Acem and they underwent functional MRI (fMRI) to measure brain activity during three different states: nondirective meditation, such as Acem which allows fleeting thoughts provided the mantra is repeated; open monitoring, which allows the person to experience whatever random thoughts come into their head; and focused attention, in which the person deliberately tries to prevent random thoughts and focuses solely on their breathing. 

The ability to reduce the number of times the mind wanders during focused attention exercise has been heralded as a benefit of long-term experience with meditation. That assertion typically comes from those who self-report the amount of time they are on task, and not from studies that have actually tracked the amount of time the person meditating is able to focus thoughts. This study found that when the participants were asked to push a button and track when they were no longer thinking about their breath, the more experienced meditators didn’t really have much of an advantage over those that were newer to it. During the 20 minutes it took to complete the fMRI, the participants pressed their buttons about once every 80 seconds.

The results found that activity was significantly increased in the areas of the brain associated with emotions and memories during the non directive meditation, compared to the focused meditation. This was an unexpected result, as the it was assumed that actively concentrating would have increased brain activity.

"I was surprised that the activity of the brain was greatest when the person's thoughts wandered freely on their own, rather than when the brain worked to be more strongly focused," said lead author Jian Xu in a press release. "When the subjects stopped doing a specific task and were not really doing anything special, there was an increase in activity in the area of the brain where we process thoughts and feelings. It is described as a kind of resting network. And it was this area that was most active during nondirective meditation.”

"Meditation is an activity that is practiced by millions of people. It is important that we find out how this really works,” Davanger said. “In recent years there has been a sharp increase in international research on meditation. Several universities in the US spend a great deal of money to research in the field. So I think it is important that we are also active.”

The left images show the brain during concentrative meditation, while images to the right show the brain during nondirective meditation. Credit: Norwegian University of

Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/brain/how-meditation-affects-brain#VtOX8gKOpmqFmjeK.99