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Welcome to this edition of HealtheLetters which this month celebrates the health promoting benefits of Meditation
Meditation is one of the 12 Pathways2Wellbeing. If this is the first time you are reading the HealtheLetters, you may wish to read more about the 12 Pathways2Wellbeing by clicking here.
Meditation is a natural state of consciousness. The purpose of meditation is to train the mind to be less reactive to situations and events. It gives access to living a calmer life and from this flows the health benefits. To achieve this is a natural state of consciousness requires some practice. Just a few minutes each day profoundly and positively influences health.
As part of our focus this month on meditation we will be conducting our unique More Than Meditation seminar on
 Saturday afternoon FEB 6 2010, 2:00 – 4:00pm
MEDITATION
Good Sleep... Good Health
In this very practical seminar participants will experience mind/body techniques for improved sleep and quality of life. The presenters, rheumatologist, Dr Daniel Lewis and clinical hypnotherapist, Bill Patterson have a committment that you will leave the seminar deeply relaxed and with new skills.
Some of the seminar topics
- Teaching the mind to sleep well
- Lightening the allostatic* load (harmful stress)
- Relationship of sleep-pain-memory-thought coherence (and how to improve all of these vital functions)
- and more
See below for some information on sleep and health. We will be expand further on this information in the seminar.>>>>>>> for all seminar details.
2010. A healthy year for you?
 As a society we enter this decade faced with a tsunami of chronic illness. According to the World Health Organization, 46% of global disease burden and 59% of global mortality are due to chronic diseases.
• Most chronic diseases are interrelated.
• The diseases are linked by a process in the body called inflammation
• The increase in ‘inflammatory processes’ is mainly the result of lifestyle and nutritional habits, making the increase controllable.
Pathways2wellbeing is a holistic programme designed to give you access to a range of lifestyle medicine approaches that prevents illness.
As this is the first issue for 2010, I invite you to do a self appraisal of your access to health. It takes only a few moments to complete and will provide you with some food for thought as to how to build your own pathway to wellbeing. Click here .
Meditation a key to good health.
Developing your own gentle and effective meditation practice is the primary goal of our 6 week MORE THAN MEDITATION course which begins on 25 Feb. Click here for further details of the course and how to register. The "early bird" registration date is 12 February. I invite you to join us
SLEEP. Another key to good health.
Good Sleep.... Good Health
The bottom line of the medical research over the last 10 years is that poor sleep is a health risk. Heart disease, immune disorders, diabetes..... the list go on!
If you are having sleep problems, whether you are not able to fall asleep, wake up too often, feel tired during the day.... then my advice is don't just lie there do something about it! Poor sleep is not to be ignored.
Here is my essential Guide to a Good Night's Sleep.
- My current favorite strategy for improved sleep is meditation. Most people can learn to meditate and become proficient in a short period of time. Meditation can help balance the body’s nervous system and help shift some emotional stresses which frequently contribute to insomnia. Stress is the most common cause of insomnia.
- Avoid before-bed snacks of grains and sugars. This will raise blood sugar and inhibit sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you might wake up and not be able to fall back asleep. High-protein bedtime snacks contain sleep inducing tryptophan needed to produce melatonin and serotonin. Also eat a small piece of fruit. This can help the tryptophan cross the blood-brain barrier. Foods that provide a dose of tryptophan include bananas, dairy, nuts, eggs, soybeans, tuna, and chicken. Keep the serving size small and have your snack about an hour before bed. Avoid going to bed when the stomach is over full.
- No Computer or TV after 8pm. The light from TV and computers disrupts the natural melatonin release cycle changing the body's circadian rhythm clock.
- To enhance your body clock sleep when it’s dark outside and get up when the sun comes up. This is another largely ignored -- yet vitally important -- health principle. You should at least strive to sleep between the hours 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This means you should be in bed, with the lights out, by 10 p.m. and be up by 6 a.m. If this is difficult for you, keep in mind that people naturally followed this pattern before the advent of electricity. This has been an important part of Ayurvedic medicine for over 5,000 years.
My advice is to get to bed as early as possible. Our systems, particularly the adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or recovering during the hours of 11PM and 1AM. In addition, your gallbladder dumps toxins during this same period. If you are awake this natural cleansing cycle is disrupted.
- Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible to this. When light hits the eyes, it disrupts the circadian rhythm of the pineal gland and production of melatonin and serotonin. Ideally it is best to increase melatonin levels naturally with exposure to bright sunlight in the daytime (along with full spectrum fluorescent bulbs in the winter) and absolute complete darkness at night.
- Wear socks to bed when it is cold. This regulates the body temperature. A study has shown that this reduces night waking. Take a hot bath or shower before bed. When body temperature is raised in the late evening, it will fall at bedtime, facilitating sleep.
- Read or listen to something pleasant and calming, spiritual or religious. This will help to relax the mind. Don't read anything stimulating, such as a mystery or suspense novel, as this may have the opposite effect.
- Avoid using loud alarm clocks to wake. It is very stressful on the body to be awoken suddenly. If you are regularly getting enough sleep, they should be unnecessary.
- Coffee, Sugar alcohol. All aggravate insomnia. Be aware of caffeine in other products such as tea and chocolate. One cup of coffee per day may be enough to cause sleep deprivation. A recent study showed that in some people, caffeine is not metabolized efficiently and therefore they can feel the effects long after consuming it. So an afternoon cup of coffee (or even tea) will keep some people from falling asleep.
Avoid alcohol. Although alcohol will make people drowsy, the effect is short lived and people will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol will also keep you from falling into the deeper stages of sleep, where the body does most of its healing.
- Poor sleep is a habit. A routine for preparing yourself for sleep...called sleep hygiene is as important as your waking hygiene routine.
If behavioral changes do not work, it may be possible to improve sleep by supplementing with natural remedies or medications that stimulate melatonin release or induce the relaxation response. This is something to discuss with your health practitioner.
My invitation to you is to develop your own sleep hygiene programme. For more ideas and practical steps you can take, I invite you to come to our Seminar on Feb 6.
Latest Research News That Caught My Eye
CT scans could be causing cancer
Radiation doses from CT (computed tomography) scans are so much higher than everyone thought that they could be causing cancer, a new study has discovered. In some groups, one in 80 people who have a routine CT scan will go on to develop cancer from the radiation, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco found.
The risk seems to be greater among young people, and in women. They also discovered an enormous variation in the radiation levels being emitted by the scanners, and they noted up to a 13-times difference, depending on the type of CT procedure.
The radiation from a single CT scan is equivalent to 74 mammograms or 442 chest x-rays, the researchers found, and yet the scan is routinely and regularly used, even when it is not necessary.
Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 169: 2078-86.
LI Comment: If you are advised to have a CT scan make sure you understand and discuss the risks and benefits of the scan. Together with your health practitioner you may decide to have an alternative investigation.
Summary of dates for upcoming events.
Our next seminar. Good Sleep... Good Health will be held on Saturday afternoon, 6 February, 2010. A unique opportunity, in a relaxed environment to explore the benefits of meditation for good sleep. For details click here.
Bill Patterson and I will be conducting this event. See Bill's website for more information on meditation. www.mindbodysolutions.com.au.
The next meditation course commences 25 Februaury, 2010.
Early Bird registration closes 12 Feb.
Following the last course some wonderful feedback was received. To read what other people have said and for all course details click here.
Booking for this course is essential. Click here to register.
The Wellbeing Shop is open online.
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Wishing you a healthy, joyful and peaceful 2010.
Yours in good health,
Daniel.
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