Search Results for: blog stress and your immune system

Nutrients for Reducing Stress

Being a single mom is stressful, but did you know that there are certain nutrients that can help reduce stress and anxiety? There are certain vitamins and minerals that can help you manage your stress levels throughout the day. Vitamin B6 helps your body to produce serotonin, a hormone that produces a calming effect on your body. When your stress levels are high, which is often if you are a single mother, Vitamin B6 is completely depleted throughout your body. Instead of feeling calm, you find yourself on edge, easily irritated, and overwhelmed. Green beans, bananas, and avocados are all … Continue reading →

Tips and Tricks for a Healthy Mommy

Taking care of your children when you are sick can be more than challenging as a single parent. There’s no one there to take care of the kids while you are stuck in bed. You have no choice but to do it yourself. While getting sick is inevitable, here are some tips and tricks to keep it from happening quite as often. Start with cutting down on your stress load. The more stressed you are the more susceptible you are to illness. As a single parent this may seem nearly impossible since you are doing the work of two, but … Continue reading →

Turn That Frown Upside Down And Look Younger Instantly

I’m a people watcher. I guess it comes with the territory of being a single mother and an author. Many times I’ll get ideas for characters just by sitting and observing people while at my local coffee shop, doctor’s office, or wherever I happen to be that day. Something I’ve noticed is that people who smile more tend to look younger. We use approximately 17 facial muscles to smile yet 43 to wear a frown. Is it no wonder that people who constantly wear a grim look on their faces tend to age years before happier people? I’ve heard some … Continue reading →

How to Deal with Stress

Stress is something that comes to all of us at varying times and in varying ways in our marriage. It can have detrimental effects, producing headaches, depression, overeating, high blood pressure, stomach upsets and constant minor illnesses because the immune system is low. From all the symptoms a young man experienced, he thought he was having a heart attack. The hospital found he was having a panic attack caused by too much stress. So for our health and for the sake of our marriages let’s find ways to deal with the stress. I’ve been reading Always Looking Up by Michael … Continue reading →

Guys, Watch Your Temper at Work!

Does something at the office just make you want to explode? Maybe it’s not “blowing your top” you should worry about, but blowing your heart. A new study from the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University in Sweden has found a connection between bottling up anger at work and heart attack risk. Nearly three thousand employed men participated in the decade-long study. None had suffered a heart attack before the start of the study. During the study, however, nearly fifty men suffered from a heart attack or died from heart disease. Many of those men had been “covertly coping” with … Continue reading →

Caretakers and the Flu

Who is the caretaker in your family when somebody gets sick? When I was growing up, taking care of sick kids was my mom’s job (although she did share the duties with both of my grandmothers on occasion). With the double flu whammy this winter, you may find your family needing a caretaker. It’s all too easy for the flu (or another illness) to hop from one member of a household to another! Here are some tips to help keep the flu in check if somebody in your family gets sick. First and foremost, try to keep the sick person … Continue reading →

Start Your Holiday Shopping Now

Confession time: I am terrible when it comes to Christmas shopping. It’s not uncommon for me to still be wrapping presents on Christmas morning while everyone waits downstairs for me to “get dressed.” I don’t like pushing through crowds, I don’t like the pressure of finding the perfect gift, I don’t like the stress of spending when I don’t have that much to spend, and I always let time get away from me. Sometimes it will be a week before Christmas before I realize I only have a week to get everything together, and by that time my schedule is … Continue reading →

Stress and Sickness

A recent article in PARADE Magazine asked if stress can make a person sick. The answer? Yes. More importantly, stress can mess with your normal defenses. In the short term, a little stress can actually be beneficial. Stress can trigger that good old “fight or flight” response, releasing adrenaline into your system to increase strength and stamina. But your body wasn’t designed to function at full alert for long periods of time. Chronic or long-term stress can be bad for you in a number of ways. Stress and your head… as in headaches. With all the “fight or flight” chemicals … Continue reading →

Swine Flu Vaccine and Side Effects

As promised, October has arrived with the first batches of the swine flu vaccine. The World Health Organization rolled out the first doses of the vaccine in China, soon to be followed by Australia, the United States, and parts of Europe. Four out of the thirty-nine thousand people vaccinated in China reported mild side effects. That works out to approximately one in every ten thousand people getting the shot — not surprising, according to WHO officials. When large numbers of people are getting a vaccine, side effects are to be expected. Once the swine flu vaccine hits the United States, … Continue reading →

Bodyworks: Physically Calming Yourself

Yesterday, we took a look at how anger works in the body — what it does to your hormones, your body language, your heart rate, and more. Anger isn’t just a mental state; it has an impact on the whole body. Calming down can be a whole body process, too. The instinctive reaction to anger is aggression. Anger is one way the body and mind respond to threats — like yesterday’s example of the reckless driver. If someone cuts you off in traffic, you may get mad because they have endangered your life. Maybe that anger makes you drive a … Continue reading →