7 ways to stay healthy

7/29/2019 7 ways to stay Healthy

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They experience twice the number

o strokes.

In one study published in theJournal of

Gerontology, the authors sought to reveal an

association between private religious activ-

ities (meditation, prayer or Bible study)

and longer survival in certain groups.

Establishing controls or demographics

and health status, the researchers reported

that among community-dwelling adults

ages 64 to 101, persons with no disability

and little or no private religious activity ...

were 63 percent more likely to die over

the six-year period o the study.

Even ater controlling or social sup-port and health behaviors, investigators

ound that lack o private religious activity

continued to predict a 47 percent greater

risk o dying.

Another hospital study o cardiac patients,

this one conducted in 1999 at St. Lukes

Hospital o Kansas City, Missouri, ound

that a group o patients who received daily

prayer by Christian volunteers had shorter

recovery times with ewer complications

than the patients who received no prayer.

William Harris, Ph.D., who conducted

the study, concluded that prayer makes an

eective adjunct to standard medical care.

Nurture RelationshipsDavid B. Biebel, D.Min. (below),and Harold G. Koenig, M.D.

To be in a relation-

ship with someone is

one o the greatest

gits we are given in

this world, and ourrelationships with

other people are oten

key ingredients in our

ability to live happier, healthier lives. Good

relationships are good or youphysically,

psychologically, socially and spiritually.

Theres a good deal o re

showing that people who have

enduring social support have better

outcomes, said Frank Baker, Ph.D

president or behavioral research

national oce o the American

Society in Atlanta. Friends and r

are important because they help y

with the adversities o lie; youre li

have better health and be happier.

Emotional support rom am

riends buers stressul lie even

reduces the risk o (and speeds re

rom) depression.

When youve ha

day, it always helps to have a riendor a heart-to-heart talk or to take y

to do something un.

People with these kinds o

relationshipsincluding marriage

amily members and ri endslive

In act, they may even be more

to inection due to better immune

unctioning. Social support is als

ciated with less cigarette smokin

alcohol abuse, a healthier diet, mor

cise and better sleep quality.

Social support also helps people

rom illness. Research on people w

diovascular diseases suggests that clo

tionships help protect heart attack su

against uture cardiovascular proble

British researcher Dr. Francis

and his colleagues ocused on 58

and women, all about age 60, all h

ized with heart attacks. Each patie

asked about emotional issues, inc

what social support he had. The p

also took tests to determine wheth

were anxious or depressed.A year later, those who had

personal condant had 50 perce

risk o dying rom heart diseas

those without. In describing hi

ings, Creed explained, Its the de

intimacy o close relationshipsn

Waysto

StayHealthy

Live a Life of FaithJames P. Gills, M.D.

Clinical evidence

and ormal research

studies published in

a variety o medical

journals prove the

positive inluence

o religious aith on

health and healing.

This includes the benecial eects oellowship and worship attendance at a

church, private religious activities such as

daily devotional prayer, and intercessory

prayer (individuals praying or the healing

o other persons). So positive are these

eects that health practitioners are nding

aith dicult to ignore.

On the other hand, statistics reported on

www.WebMD.com give numerous negative

indications or people who do not attend

church or proess a aith in God:

Their average hospital stays are longer

than hospital stays or believers

They are several times more likely to

die ater surgery

They have a 40 percent higher death

rate rom heart disease and cancer

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These Christian health experts offer tips for you to achieve maximumhealth.

As Christians, we tend to be clued ino the need to exercise our aith. We pray, we read our

bles, we meditate on the Word, we go to church. In recent

ears, researchers have showed how important these activi-

es are to developing and maintaining health. In act, as the

atistics quoted below show, a vibrant aith-lie is one o the most

mportant keys to a healthy existence. But its not the only oneand

at truth is slowly beginning to dawn on believers as Christian medical

roessionals stress more and more vigorously the importance o caring

r the body as well as the spirit and soul. The ocus on physical ft-ess that has increased since the turn o the century is a trend that was

spired not by an ingenious marketing strategist but by God Himsel.

e wants us to live long, healthy lives so that we can change the world

r Him. I youve been nurturing your spiritual side but neglecting

e physical, here are seven keys to getting and staying in top shape:


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number o social contactsthat appears

to protect heart health.

Renew Your MindJanet Maccaro, Ph.D., C.N.C.

When it comes to

your health, your

thoughts are key.

Research studies

show that anxious,

earul thoughts

weaken the body and

can lead to illness,

while thoughts o love and other things

that evoke positive emotions lead to health

and healing. James Allen also makes this

point in his bookAs a Man Thinketh:Disease and health are rooted in

thought. Sickly thoughts will express

themselves through a sickly body. ... The

people who live in ear o disease are the

people who get it. Anxiety quickly demor-

alizes the whole body and lays it open

to the entrance o disease; while impure

thoughts, even i not physically indulged,

will soon aect the nervous system.

This is why the Bible tells us to be

anxious or nothing (Phil. 4:6, NKJV)

and to x our thoughts on things thatare true, honorable, right, pure, lovely,

admirable, excellent and worthy o praise

(see Phil. 4:8). Gods Word also says that

we must be transormed by the renewing

o our minds (see Rom. 12:2).

Most people are not very good at

preventing their thoughts rom taking a

negative turn, especially i they are hurt

emotionally or araid. I you want to renew

your mind, you must learn to consciously

monitor your thoughts daily, bringing

every thought into captivity to the obedi-ence o Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). In act, when

you are rst trying to regain a state o health,

you may need to monitor them minute by

minute until you get control.

One way to avoid replaying old tapes

o pain, sel-doubt and anxiety is to go

deep into the Word o God. Read and

study your Bible and invest in inspirational

tapes or praise and worship music. Memo-

rize Scriptures that reute your negative

thoughts and recite them when Satan

brings the negative thoughts to mind.

Another way is to orgive everyone whohas ever hurt you. Forgiveness is a primary

key to restoring health and wholeness to

both your body and your mind.

Laugh!David B. Biebel, D.Min., andHarold G. Koenig, M.D. (below)

In 1979, Norman

Cousins, then editor

o the Saturday Review,published his book

Anatomy of an Illness as

Perceived by the Patient,

which remained on

the New York Times

best-seller list or more than 40 weeks. The

book describes the authors miraculous

recovery rom a normally incurable disease.

How did Cousins recover? He laughed.

Ater taking himsel o all prescriptions

except intravenous vitamin C, he laughed

his way back to health by watching episodes oCandid Camera provided by his riend Allen

Funt, viewing old Marx Brothers lms and

having his nurse read to him rom books o

humor during the late night hours.

Laughter, as Cousins discovered, brings

numerous positive physical eects to the

human body. Here are just a ew:

Muscle relaxation. When you are

laughing, the muscles that are not partici-

pating in the laughter immediately relax.

As soon as you nish laughing, the mus-

cles that were participating in the laughterrelax, too.

Activation of the immune system

and reduction of stress. In a 1996 study

researchers proved that ater laughing a

great deal, participants immune systems

kicked into overdrive or at least 24 hours.

In addition, there was a drastic reduction

o at least our stress-causing hormones in

their bodies.

Pain reduction. In one study pub

lished by the Journal of Holistic Nursing

patients were told one-liners beore painu

medication was administered and ater surgery. The results suggested that those wh

were exposed to humor perceived less pai

when compared with patients who di

not receive a dose o humor as part o

their therapy.

Cardiorespiratory exercise. Som

physicians reer to laughter as interna

jogging because it causes your heart rat

to increase as it does when you exercise

Laughter also gives other parts o you

body a good workout. It is great or you

diaphragm as well as your abdominarespiratory, acial, leg and back muscle

It massages organs, tones intestinal unc

tioning and strengthens the muscles tha

hold the abdominal organs in place.

Lose WeightFrancisco Contreras, M.D.

Recent experi

ments with mice hav

proved that by dras

tically reducing thamount o calorie

we take in, while a

the same time main

taining a high-qualit

level o nutrition, we can add signican

years to our lives. As a matter o act,

we would eat one-third the calories w

normally eat, we could actually lengthe

our lives by about 24 years. This method

o losing weight and increasing longevit

is called caloric restriction.

Eating a nutritious diet o 30 percenewer calories can add 30 percent mor

time to your lie span, in addition to super

charging your overall good health. Tha

means that i you expect to live the averag

o 75 years, you can increase that amount t

97.5 years just by eating lessand you ca

live healthier, too!


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other words, you get sick.

Perhaps the ollowing analogy will help

to clariy what happens when the body

suers imbalance. I the ront end o your

car gets out o alignment, what happens? It

causes the tire treads to wear unevenly.Why? Because the misalignment causes

uneven stress on the tires, producing uneven

wear and tear.

The human body can be aected by

misalignment in the same way. The body

is a marvelous biomechanical structure

that consists o levers (bones), pulleys and

cables (tendons and ligaments), and cush-

ions (joints, disks and cartilage), which, i

maintained properly in balance, make or

a smooth ride. But when body parts

are in constant motion and lose theirmechanical advantage, the increased ric-

tion and pressure that results causes struc-

tures to break down, or degenerate, and

the result is oten severe pain.

Sadly, when people nd themselves in

a state o chronic pain, they generally seek

symptomatic relie through various means

such as pain medication, therapy and surgery

rather than allowing a proessional to deter-

mine the primary cause o their discomort

and correct it. In many cases, the answer is to

restore the balance in the body by realigningthe structures that have become compro-

mised. A chiropractic physician does this by

using his hands to manipulate the structure

and restore the proper mobility.

Follow Your UniquePathway to HealingReginald Cherry, M.D.

Throughout His

lie on earth, Jesus

healed all manner odisease. However, He

didnt heal everyone

in the same way. At

times He used a touch

or a word to heal an

inrm person instantly (see Luke 4:39-

40; 6:10). At other times He used natural

substances through which He caused His

healing power to fow.

The most striking example o the latter

method can be ound in the Gospel o

John, which relates the dramatic healing

o a blind man:As he went along, he saw a man blind

rom birth. He spit on the ground,

made some mud with the saliva, and put

it on the mans eyes. Go, he told him,

wash in the Pool o Siloam. So the

man went and washed, and came home

seeing (John 9:1, 6-7, NIV).

As this passage indicates, healing can

take place instantaneously or as a process

that occurs over time. In this case, Jesus

touched the blind mans eyes as He placed

the mud solution on him, but the manwas not immediately healed. His healing

was complete when he ollowed Jesus

instructions and washed his eyes in the

Pool o Siloam.

First, the man received a touch rom

Jesus. Then he accepted the application

o a natural substance onto the diseased

part o his body. And nally, he obeyed

Jesus unique instructions to him as an

individual.

The blind mans experience explains

or us one o the greatest health secrets othe Bible, one that is oten overlooked by

well-meaning Christians: God has a unique

pathway to healing or each person.

Let me state it another way: God heals

dierent people in dierent ways. Some

may attend a healing crusade and receive

an instant miracle rom the Lord. But more

commonly, God will work through the

natural substances that He has provided or

usnamely, various oods, vitamins, min-

erals and even medicationsto work out

His healing plan.Sometimes He uses a combination

o natural and supernatural methods

to eect a cure. The key lies in discov-

ering Gods plan or your own lie. Gods

pathway to healing is available to each o

us as we ollow His ways and listen to

His voice.3

Here are some o the benets o

caloric restriction:

Protection from the ravages

of toxins and stress. It is not known

exactly why eating less increases lie span.

Some experts believe that the process oconverting calories to energy builds up

toxins in the body, while others believe

that dietary restriction reduces the levels

o stress caused by oxidation.

There is little doubt that stress in any

orm takes a heavy toll. It seems that the

bodys labor o processing calories can

exact a cost in years and vitality.

Less free radical damage. Eating

ewer calories reduces the ree radical

damage in humans and animals. This

overall reduction in cellular injury romree radicals drastically extends the lie

o mammals.

Reduced DNA damage. Calorie

restriction also reduces DNA damage.

Some researchers believe that taking in

ewer calories has an impact on the rate

o normal damage to a persons DNA,

which in turn aects aging.

Dont drastically cut your own calo-

ries unless you are under the care o

a doctor. However, you can probably

aord to eat less ood than you do.I suggest that you get down to your

ideal weight, or even slightly below it

because the rst key or staying younger,

eeling better and living longer at any

age is to lose weight!

Balance the BodyScott Hannen, D.C.

The body is

a well-balanced,

biomechanicallyeicient struc-

ture. I its balance

is altered or any

reason, it becomes

mechanically dis-

advantaged, causing structures to shit

to compensate or the imbalance. In


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