Could a Memory Foam Pillow Help Improve Your Sleep?

Does it seem to take you hours to fall asleep at night because you can just never seem to get comfortable?  Do you toss and turn a lot during the night so that when you the morning comes you feel just as tired and unrested as did before you ever went to bed?  Or do you have trouble with snoring that is driving your partner crazy at night?  When you wake up in the morning do you suffer from a stiff neck and soar shoulders?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then switching to a memory foam pillow may help you to get more rest and improve your quality of sleep.

A memory foam pillow, especially a contoured one,  will help you to be more comfortable when you lay down because it can help to properly align your neck and your back, supporting this sensitive area by relieving the stress that normal pillows usually places on your spine by putting you in an unnatural sleeping position.  This strain on the spine is often what makes it so difficult for you to get comfortable and fall asleep and what keeps you tossing and turning through out the night.  The heat sensitive compound of the memory foam pillow adjusts and shapes itself to the natural shape and alignment of your body regardless of which position that you sleep in.  And you can easy use a lavender linen spray on the sheets and a regular pillow case to cover your memory foam pillow to help you relax even more.

Since the natural alignment promoted by the memory foam pillow also helps to open up the air ways, using the memory foam pillow can help to improve snoring so that you do not keep your partner awake at night and you both can get a peaceful night of restful sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day.

So if you are having trouble sleeping and you wake up in the morning feeling stiff with an aching back and neck, then try switching to the memory foam pillow and get the sleep that you deserve.

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Why Do Nightmares Happen?

We have all had them, those dreams in the middle of the night filled with terrifying images that haunt us and flood us with feelings of fear, anxiety, or sadness. Usually entailing some sort of dangerous situation such as falling or drowning, a frightening object or animal such as snakes or haunted houses, or even people that we know or demonic versions of them. Sometimes the nightmares can be mild and simple such as falling, that wake us up quickly. Other times, nightmares seem to be so vivid and real that they literally scare us even after we wake up. We learned long ago as children that these bad dreams were not really caused by the monsters in our closet, but exactly why do nightmares happen?

There are a variety of physical as well as psychological reason that nightmares occur. For example, having a high fever can cause a variety of nightmares. Sleeping in a place such as very tight quarters or low bunk beds, or in a position where are you facing a wall or laying into your pillow can often lead to dreams with a smothering or drowning theme as your respond to your environment subconsciously. Eating just before you go to sleep stimulates brain activity which can also cause a person to suffer from nightmares.

Stress is another major factor in nightmares. Just as stress can manifest itself in physical ways, your dreams, too, are affected by the levels of stress in your life, often leading to nightmares. Particularly nightmares that have a sense of failure, of being pursued by an enemy, of being captured, or unjustly persecuted can be a result of stress. All of these things, some believe, are manifestations of the anxieties that the stress you encounter is placing upon you psychologically.

Other reasons why nightmares happen can be due to psychological issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or the stress of a recent disturbing experience in which the person keeps relieving the traumatic events in their sleep. Sometimes, nightmares appear in people who have blocked traumatic events from their conscious memory, but because events of your past are always present in your subconscious they at times can manifest themselves in nightmares.

Whatever may be the underlying reason why nightmares happen, there are a few things that you can do to help minimize the occurrence of these negative dreams. Being calm and sleeping in a relaxing atmosphere can help ease anxiety or stress that you may be experience throughout the day to help keep that stress from entering into your sleep. Taking a relaxing bath before bed, spraying your sheets with aromatherapy mist to sooth you as you sleep, and using natural sounds, such as calming waves, to help drown out street noise can all help you to create a peaceful place for you to sleep.

If you have nightmares that are frequent and reoccurring that interfere with your quality of sleep or prevent you from getting an adequate amount of sleep, then speak with a health care provider to discuss other options.

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Raw Food Diet

Eating raw foods is natural. Our bodies thrive on all that is fresh and vital. A raw food diet (or increasing the amount of raw food that you eat) is bound to bring a feeling of increased wellbeing. 

Raw food diets are based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, preferably organic, such as a variety of fresh fruits and vegies, nuts, seeds, grains, dried fruit, fresh juices and purified water.

Why Raw Foods?

Basically a vegetarian diet, the raw food diet promotes eating and drinking ‘living’ foods. Living foods and juices contain the maximum amount of fibre found in raw produce, fibre that can be lost in processing. Such foods are easily metabolised and tend to be lower in calories than the average diet.

Heating food above 116°F destroys enzymes in food that aid in digestion and in absorption of food, diminishing its nutritional value.

Benefits of a Raw Food Diet

A diet of at least 75% raw food offers numerous health benefits, such as increased energy, improved skin appearance, better digestion, weight loss and reduced risk of serious illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

A raw food diet contains little or no saturated fats, is low in sodium, high in potassium, magnesium, folate and fibre. 

Raw food diets are also excellent detox diets. Different combinations of raw, living foods and juices can be used for colon cleansing, liver cleansing, kidney cleansing and skin cleansing.

The Basics of a Raw Food Diet

Any fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, beans, nuts, legumes, young coconut milk – even seaweed – can be menu items of a raw food diet. Your choice of foods may depend on your reasons for dieting, for example: 

- sprouted brown rice slows glucose absorption and improves the metabolism

- cabbage supports healthy cellular function; radish leaves act as an anti-oxidant,          as does Shitake mushroom 

-carrots are a great source of vitamin A as well as encouraging healthy vision and a healthy cardio-vascular system

You can use a sprouter such as the Easy Green automatic sprouter to sprout seeds, grains, beans – even wheatgrass. Sprouts could be called a ‘super food’ – organic sprouts contain enormous levels of proteins, vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, chlorophyll pigments and enzymes, and are the ideal natural supplement.

Sprouts can be used in salads and soups, or can be juiced. Fresh juices are a great ready energy supply and a good quality juicer, such as the Kempo Greenpower juicer, produces living juices that are full of essential nutrients.

A great juicing recipe to complement a raw food diet is carrot juice with potato, fennel and apple. Simply juice 4 medium carrots, 2 apples, 1 small potato and 1 small stalk of fennel.

Fennel has been shown to reduce and control inflammation of arthritis, it evens mood fluctuation and depressive states and has the rare nutrient called manganese, plus zinc and vitamin B complex.

The nutritional value of grains and seeds is impressive. They contain most of the vitamins – particularly A, B, and E. They’re also fantastic natural sources of unsaturated fatty acids and lecithin, and an excellent source of proteins.

You can even use soy milk makers (such as SoyQuick) to make non-dairy drinks from different beans, rice, nuts, seeds and grains to have with breakfast. If you want something a little more substantial than soy milk you can make your tofu (or, of course, visit a good health food shop).

Essentially, the idea of a raw food diet is to eat unprocessed foods for at least 75% of the time. If the idea of raw food isn’t very appetising to you, you can warm the food a little as long as the food isn’t heated above 116°F.

Cautionary Note

As with any major change in diet, it’s wise idea to consult your doctor before beginning a special diet. This is especially true for children, pregnant women, anyone with anemia and anyone with a pre-existing medical condition. 

Even natural foods can conflict with certain medications, so please ask your doctor or pharmacist if you’re taking any medication.

Because a raw food diet is detoxifying some people suffer a mild detox reaction including mild headaches, nausea and cravings. These symptoms may last for several days and you’ll get more enjoyment out of your raw food diet if you cut down on things like meat, sugar and caffeine a week or so before commencing the diet.

Last But Not Least…

A raw food diet is certainly a good way to improve your overall health and wellbeing. Like anything worthwhile it takes time, energy and commitment. Because many of the foods for this particular type of diet are made from scratch there is some preparation time involved. There are many great products on the market that can help you prepare your own living food and save you some time as well. 

Combined with regular exercise, a raw food diet is also an excellent weight loss method. If you’ve been feeling ‘a little off’, or just need a pick-me-up and some extra energy, then a raw food diet is certainly a good way to go.

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Living a Healthy Life

In the fast paced world that we live in it can be easy to neglect our health and wellness. We’re so busy racing through our day to day lives – family, friends, work, social engagements – that we don’t take the time to look after ourselves. It’s really no wonder that so many of us are tired and run down. What are some simple things that we can do to improve our quality of life?

Drink Drink Drink…

You’ve heard it a million times and you’ll probably hear it a million more – drink more water!

Think about it: The human body is 72% water. A 5% drop in fluids creates a 25-30% loss in energy. A 15% drop in fluids causes death! At this point in time 66% of us aren’t drinking enough water, so over half the population isn’t running on all six cylinders to begin with – before things like bad air, bad food and stress take their toll. 

It’s not really a difficult thing to remedy. Just drink one glass of water every half hour or so – or 10-12 glasses of water per day – and you’ll notice a huge jump in your energy levels.

Living Food – Loving Life!

A little known fact is that heating food above 116°F destroys much of the nutrient content. Considering that we already aren’t eating enough veggies, that’s a fairly substantial problem. Nutritionists recommend five serves of fresh vegetables per day. How many of us are actually taking that advice?

A great way to get the nutrients found in fresh veggies without spending all day at stove or eating raw celery sticks is to juice your veggies. Make sure that you own a good juicer (some juicers expose vegetables to heat created by friction during juicing, which breaks down important enzymes), grab some fresh vegetables and drink your way to good health. It takes a fraction of the time (there’s no cooking involved, for one thing) and it’s convenient. You can take your juice to work and even give some to the littlies for school lunches!

Wheatgrass in particular is an excellent source of nutrition. It’s high in chlorophyll (sometimes described as ‘plant blood’ because it closely resembles human red blood cell molecules) and has over 100 elements that the body needs. Fresh grains are another excellent source for vitamins and minerals.

Energy In – Energy Out

Exercise is another dirty word for most of us. The thing is, exercise doesn’t have to be horribly time consuming or mind-numbingly boring. There are plenty of options. 

Years ago gyms usually offered weight rooms, aerobics classes and maybe a tydro-circuit. Now you can add water aerobics, yoga, pilates, dance-ercise, step classes and a whole range of new workout options.

If you don’t really have the time or money for the gym, or prefer to spend your mornings/nights at home, then try an exercise bike or walker. I’d be lost without my exercise bike – I set it up in front of the television and peddle away merrily during my favourite shows.

If, like me, you suffer from illness or injury or your level of fitness is quite low, you might like to consider some invaluable advice that I got from my doctor:

Once you’re physically unfit, and particularly if you’re also unwell, it can be a mammoth battle to just do the most minimal amount of exercise in a day. The danger is that inactivity leads to further loss of energy, which becomes a self-perpetuating cycle until you can barely get off the couch.

An excellent way to get back into a physical routine is to start slowly. Ridiculously slowly, it may seem. For the first couple of weeks, walk/ride for 5 minutes per day – exactly 5 minutes, no more, even if you think you could continue. When the 2 weeks are up, increase to 7 minutes, then 10 minutes, 12 minutes… continue to gradually increase your activity until you’re at a level that you’re comfortable with. 

It may sound a little silly, but it works. In effect, you trick your body into producing more energy. You’re building your exercise time up so slowly that your body doesn’t really realise what’s happening. Follow this method and, before you know it, you’ll be comfortably exercising within your limits every day.

So, folks, that’s the basics. If you can rearrange your life a little to allow for better eating habits and a little exercise, and if you remember to just drink a glass of water every half hour or so, you’ll be well on the way to living a healthy life. On a final note, don’t forget to take some quiet time for yourself. Meditating is an excellent way to minimise stress. You don’t have to sit around for hours, just give yourself 5 minutes of quiet time every day – even in the shower, if that’s the only place where you can get time out – and have a little catch up with yourself.

And, last but by no means least, laugh! In fact, laugh like a loon – the louder the better! You’ll be amazed at how much such a simple thing can lift your spirits!

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A Dreadful Superstition Grips America

A terrible superstition holds people around the world in its grip.  Ministers of religion, lawyers, architects, men renowned as brilliant scientists, physicians (particularly, physicians), University professors, middle class people, working class people, people of all nationalities, are its victims.

I was one for 43 years.  I really and truly thought that what my doctor said was gospel and never questioned him.

What is this superstition?  It is that health may be obtained and maintained and diseases “cured” by drugs, medicines and remedies.  They have not taken the pains to investigate, in an unprejudiced manner, this absurd and dreadful belief.

So what we have is physician, nurses and drug stores (by the way we do not have “drug stores” any more.  They call themselves “Pharmacies” I just checked the phone book.)  Other medical specialists all engaging in these false hopes.

Frightful suffering and bereavement are the common lot of mankind, except for the few who have released themselves from this superstition.

I consider myself lined up with Natural Hygienists and Naturopathic doctors and we feel it is simply amazing that the simple facts of which we have can be ignored so generally. And that people offer themselves as sacrifices to this great superstition.

When a theory of health is presented of the ways and means to “Cure” something or they are going to “find a cure, so give us more money” these stories are heralded as a great triumph of “science”

Yet the first principles of science are violated right in the beginning and in the entirety of such a theory.

If an articles is written which lays down in simple words the rules of health, means by which diseases can be obviated and recovery from diseases can take place, very few orthodox journals of high circulation will print it.

An example is in 1980 when after suffering for 43 years with arthritis and in weeks I was free of the debilitating disease; I took my book to the Regional meeting of the Arthritis Foundation.   I was so thrilled to think that with this book they could fulfill their promise that if we send them more money they will find a cure.

What a disaster.  My husband dropped me off at the hotel entrance and went to park the car.  When he got to the entrance he found two uniformed guards walking me out.  Bodily.

We were stunned.  They told me they did not want that sort of book at their meeting.

Since then I have over 310,000 copies around the world and get calls and emails daily thanking me for changing their lives.

So it is mainly to people, like myself, who believe as natural hygienists believe, to spread the word.  In 1980 there were about 6500 hundred doctors who were telling their patients that what I am saying here is true.  Two of them are named in my book “I Cured My Arthritis You Can Too”. Today in 2006 there are thousands more.

To us it is amazingly simple.

Eat the truly good food, breathe good air, drink pure water, exercise, maintain optimistic and pleasant thoughts, and therefore enjoy fantastic health.  Give our cells the proper nutrition and our immune systems will become as God gave us in the first place.  Our immune system will then rebuild our body and we will enjoy the freedom of no illnesses.

There are now millions who are beginning to rebel against what we might almost call the atrocities suffered as a consequence of this superstition.

Many who are ill and are being subjected to the remedies and poisons that are administered to them.  Drugs in large containers have the skull and crossbones on them but when we get the little bottles as “prescriptions it is not there.

My mother was told in the 30’s to use an aluminum type product as a cheap deodorant.  She did and I believe it was a contributing factor in the way she changed in later years.   Aluminum is causing Alzheimer’s.

While drugs may get immediate temporary relief, you will feel and know that the disease is becoming more and more serious.

I do not have final figures but look around.  In the early years of 1900 it was almost unknown to have heart troubles.  They did not spend time on it in medical schools.  All the major diseases of today, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, the list goes on and none were minor.   In 1960 one in 20 had arthritis.  Now it is 1 in 3

Same with cancer.  Now children are commonly getting it.  Heart troubles are killing us faster than ever.   I will try to find these figures.

The Untied States is way down in the world as a healthy nation.   Have you ever known of so many people with so many health issues?  Baby boomers are filling our hospitals with more sickness.

I take my son to the VA hospital due to his Vietnam days and see people his age in terrible condition.   Amputees from diabetes, overweight everywhere.

I have felt since 1980 that I have a duty to tell people the other side.  I have done lectures and TV and radio.   I now do this newsletter.  I get people asking me to unsubscribe them due to my teachings.

My phone rings daily with people calling, crying, telling me of the 5, 6, 8 different drugs they are taking.   Although they call them prescriptions.  I ask each and every one of them to get the hand out from their “Pharmacy” of every drug they are taking and read them to the last page.

Then have a good talk with their doctors.

What do I preach in just one paragraph?

Give your body what it needs in minerals, vitamins and enzymes and exercise, drink pure water, let no negative thoughts or people into their lives and feed our cells to let our immune system take over the job that God meant it to do.

Which is to be in a state of health.  

If our immune system is not getting the proper nutrition we are in trouble.

Will this happen overnight?  No, You cannot stop taking the drugs you are on without the consent and help of your doctor.  Too many side effects can occur.

You did not get in the condition you are in overnight.  You will not get into a state of health over night.  But start now and by summer or sooner you will not know yourself.

Start promoting healthy cellular replication, get strong muscles, have clear breathing, increased energy levels and have body fitness.

Get supplements that are advanced Nutraceutical supplements.  Make an impact on your health today.  Feel the results and get VIBRANT HEALTH.

Take heed of what the Bible teaches of food.  Mainly moderation in all things.

Stop this insane habit of all cooked foods and foods pre-made.  We have gotten into the habit of fast is better.  Fast is not better.  It costs more in dollars when you buy it and cost thousands in medical bills later on.

Print this in your sub consigns mind. “I am the one responsible for what I eat and drink and do.  I am the one who can make changes so I may live, play and have a happy, illness free life”.

If you help yourself to this attitude you will be doing your doctor a big favor.  He is overworked and struggling to help.

Stop looking for a magic bullet.  There is NONE.

I getup every morning thankful for my health.  And my state of mind and for the love of my family.  I look forward to each day with joy.

I look at problems as they come up as just a problem that needs a solution.

I work on the solution.  If I cannot fix it or change it I have a mental box that I put these things in and I lock it.

I allow nothing negative into my space.  If a negative thought pops in I chase it our.

Can you do this?  Of course.  Let me know how this changes your life.

I am here to help You, help Yourself enjoy a Healthier and Happier Life Style.

Best of Health,

Margie "The Arthritis Lady"

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