How Your Love Life Affects
Your Health

Have you ever wondered if love can affect your personal health and well being? The answer is "Yes!"

Studies have shown that a relationship with a balanced foundation and a strong healthy partnership helps us avoid illness, pursue healthier habits and live a longer happier life. Unhealthy relationships are breeding grounds of stress, causing our immune system to weaken. There are so many contributing factors to consider when it comes to our love life and health. The behavior we conduct with each other, as well as habits we may pass on, are factors to consider.

Whether you happen to be dating casually, hooking up, in an open relationship or married monogamously, keep in mind there are ways that your romantic bonds may influence your mind and body:

Weight Gain: It is a common belief that couples "let themselves go" after settling down with a partner. According to a 2012 review, people do tend to put on weight as they settle into marriage and lose weight when a marriage or partnership ends. Other studies have shown quite the opposite. A couple that is genuinely happy can motivate each other to stay healthy and fit. They can go to the gym together, set goals and take responsibility for each other as a unit. When couples do pack on the pounds, it may be a symptom of conflict in the relationship. Dissatisfaction in our love life can lead to passive-aggressive eating habits and sleep problems, which can contribute to weight gain.

Stress: One of the best stress reducers is, you guessed it, sex! Physical intimacy helps reduce stress as well as boost overall well being. Sex is an important aspect in your relationship. However, your significant other's behavior outside the bedroom can easily send your stress level to the moon and back. Stressful behavior most commonly pertains to parenting disputes, disagreements over finances and chores in the household, all increasing your stress level.

Hormone Levels: University of North Carolina researchers found that men and women had higher amounts of our body's natural feel-good hormone called oxytocin after being physically touched such as by hugging or kissing. Women surprisingly had lower blood pressure and stress hormone cortisol post-hug. These kind gestures are more important than we know. A touch on the arm, holding hands or a soft touch to the shoulder all take a mere few seconds to stimulate our oxytocin levels that help overcome daily stress and anxiety. Love is a powerful thing working in mysterious ways.

Evaluating your love life is definitely something to pay closer attention to for a healthier, longer life.

~NaturalNews.com, 16 September, 2013

Going Against The Grain

We eat grain in the form of cereal, bread, pasta, baked products, as a component in many processed foods, and of course, by itself. There have been claims that diets thick with grains are supposedly unhealthy for you: block arteries, cause ultra-high sugar levels contributing to diabetes and contributes to increased colon cancer risk.

It is true that some people are intolerant to grains or parts of them or even the chemicals they are grown with, but this in itself is not a strike against grain, as people are intolerant to lots of different foods, not just grains. If you were to avoid all foods that people are intolerant to, your diet would be ultra limited. If a food or drink makes you feel lousy, don’t consume it. Meanwhile, if you are not intolerant to a certain food; the food goes along with your values; the food provides nutrients; and you enjoy the food, then why would you spend time trying to avoid it?

Consuming grains is just as healthy as consuming raw fruits, vegetables and nuts. After all they were considered part of Adam and Eve’s original diet in paradise.

There is little justifiable evidence for the anti-grain crusade but the rest is just fiction. Established evidence shows that generally the more whole grain consumed, the better the chances one is at attaining and maintaining good health. When grains are eliminated from the diet the result is often over eating of other foods to compensate, and this can amount to more body fat.

After numerous studies, many scholars claim that a diet rich in whole grains can significantly decrease the effects of coronary heart disease, particularly a diet balanced with soluble fiber and insoluble fiber grains such as oat and wheat. In addition, consumption of grains have actually demonstrated inverse correlations to aggressive prostate cancer, particularly when consumed along with fruits and leafy greens. A cold cereal breakfast containing minimally processed whole grains can contribute to decreased risk of diabetes in women typically in the ages 40-65.

Common sense goes a long way! To give yourself cancer, heart disease, or any other type of illness from eating grains, one must eat an overabundance of it for several years in a row several times a day to offset the wrong genetic chromosome codes which will often lead to illness and disease. (Such consumption can be made worse if the type of grain consumed is refined rather than whole). Avoiding foods made with refined grains such as white flour based bread, rolls and/or rice can significantly decrease your chances for ill health. And remember; too much of any one item is never recommended as it can result in toxicity.

Grains are not the next dietary evil. Excess food/calories, processed fats, sugars, and processed meats are what we still need to be concerned with.

~Angelina Lepre, NaturalNews.com, 18 November 2013; Ryan Andrews, PrecisionNutrition.com