Category Archives: Health

The Incredible Health Benefits Of Sleep

03/12/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Everyone seems to be on the lookout for the perfect health supplement. We all want some magic pill that will make us healthier, less stressed, and allow us to enjoy life to the fullest.

What if you found out that this supplement already exists and everyone has free access to it?

You’d be jumping for joy and asking me where you can get it from! Well, all you have to do is lie down, close your eyes, and sleep.

That’s right, the magic supplement is a good night’s sleep every single night! There’s no need for any fancy pill or anything like that, you will see some remarkable health benefits when you start improving your sleep cycle.

Today, I want to discuss some of these benefits, so you see the importance of getting lots of sleep. Not only that, but I’ll end the article with some actionable tips to help you get more sleep

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Sleep helps you maintain a healthy weight

Do you struggle with weight gain all the time? If you’ve been piling on the pounds, then the chances are it could be due to a lack of sleep. The two things seem unconnected, but there’s a strong link that involves the hormone leptin.

Leptin is one of the many hormones that control your hunger levels. It’s meant to suppress your appetite and tell you when you’re full. When you don’t get enough sleep, this hormone isn’t produced as much as it should be. The result is that you feel hungrier. From here, you start stuffing your face to calm your hunger.

If you got more sleep, then you’d produce a normal amount of leptin and suppress these feelings of hunger, maintaining a healthy weight.

Sleep can help you build muscle

That’s right, sleep can play a role in the muscle-building process. Mainly it comes down to what happens to your body after a workout. When you’ve been lifting weights, you break down the fibers in your muscles. This leads to the classic feelings of soreness you get the next day. Muscles need to get broken down in order to be built back up bigger and stronger.

Sleep is vital in all of this. When you’re asleep, your body recovers far quicker than when you’re awake. So, by getting lots of sleep each night, your body can recover from gym sessions and build your muscles back up. A lack of sleep leads to persistent soreness, meaning you can’t train again, or you can, but you risk overtraining and damaging your muscle growth.

Sleep reduces stress

Getting lots of sleep every night is proven to reduce your stress levels. This is because sleep lets your body relax and get ready for the next day. Anyone that’s woken up after a couple of hours of sleep will know what this feels like. You’re grouchy, everything annoys you, and your stress levels go through the roof.

The main problem is that feeling tired makes you feel stressed. When you have other things stressing you out, the last thing you want is to feel like you need some sleep. Then, you stress over your lack of sleep! So, sleeping more each night can help you feel more calm and relaxed.

Sleep prevents heart disease

Yep, sleep can keep your heart healthy and prevent cardiovascular diseases.

How?

It’s mainly to do with your blood pressure. High blood pressure causes heart complications, and your blood pressure will usually be high when you don’t get enough sleep. Therefore, a proper amount of sleep every night will keep your blood pressure at a regular level. Thus, the risk of heart disease decreases!

How do you get more sleep?

As you can see, sleep is so beneficial for your health. It impacts so many different elements of your health system:

Mental health
Cardiovascular health
Physical health
Digestive health

Naturally, many of you are reading this feeling a bit worried. You know you don’t get enough sleep every night, so you fear that all the potential health problems could be coming your way. Well, health issues don’t happen overnight, they happen after you consistently get a bad night’s sleep for months and years on end.

What’s more, if you improve your sleep schedule, then you will start to turn the tide and see all the benefits.

With that in mind, here are some ways to help you sleep better every night:

Take a sleep supplement: sleep supplements are useful for people with problems like insomnia that stop them from getting to sleep. Typically, the best supplement is melatonin. This is a hormone we produce to help us sleep, so you’re giving yourself a boost. It’s generally safe, and you shouldn’t have issues using melatonin during pregnancy – if you’re a woman – or if you have any health conditions. If you’re worried, then a simple check with your doctor will suffice. Many have also tried more alternative supplements and had great success. CBD oil has been shown to reduce anxiety, which will encourage restful sleep. There is a guide to find CBD for sleep online. But with alternative therapies, make sure you do your research and start with a low dose.

Stop drinking caffeine before bed: do you enjoy an evening coffee or tea? Stop doing this as caffeine stays in your system for hours after you drink it. Therefore, it will keep you awake for longer than usual. This results in a late bedtime and a lack of sleep.

Stick to a routine: speaking of bedtime, you need to set one for yourself every night. Get into the routine of going to bed at 10 or 11 pm, then waking up at 7 or 8 am. This gives you the 8 hours minimum you need for a nice sleep. By sticking to a routine, your body will adjust and you’ll find it easier to fall asleep at the same time every night.

Stop staring at screens: avoid watching TV or using your phone/computer before bed. The light from these screens can keep you awake, so spare half an hour or so of no screen time before going to sleep. It’ll help you sleep deeper and easier.

In conclusion, there are so many incredible health benefits of sleep. We’ve barely scratched the surface as well. The benefits listed above are some of the best and most significant, but there are loads more. If you struggle to sleep well every night, then follow the advice above to fix this and reap the rewards of a good night’s sleep.

Going Healthy, Going Strong, Health, Lifestyle

5 Things To Do After A Workout

02/23/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

If you are into fitness, you’ll know that the preparation that you do before a workout is just as important as the recovery that you go through after a workout. Your training is important, and that’s why you stretch and warm up before you start to work out. But what do you do after a workout?

The recovery that you do afterwards is just as essential as your warm up, but it’s something that is too often overlooked. You need to know how to jump start the recovery process for your muscles before you start the workout, as this can prevent injury. You may have already looked up the best heat pads for muscle recovery, or tried to figure out what is ibuprofen and how it can help. However, there are some specific things that you should be doing post-workout to make this an easy recovery for you. So, let’s take a look at five things that you should be doing after a workout.

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You should always cool down after a workout. It’s the first thing that people forget to do when time is precious, but it’s really a bad idea to leave it out at all. You need to bring your heart rate down slowly, not just shut off the treadmill and walk away. Without the cool down, you’re going to end up with blood pressure bottoming out too quickly and you could feel faint. Take the five minutes to bring your workout to a close and you’ll thank yourself later.
Stretch properly after your cool down. The last thing that you want is for those muscles of yours to seize up and stop working for you. Without those adequate stretches, you’re going to end up with DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness.
Use a roller if you want to reduce your muscle tension. Foam rollers are a form of massage and they can help your muscles to feel relaxed and adequately looked after a workout. You want to do this if you are in the gym and your muscles have started to feel sore very soon after the workout has completed.
Hydration is so important when you are working out, but you need to remember to rehydrate after a workout, too. Drink water with added electrolytes to boost your hydration levels after your workout and give your muscles that extra chance at recovery.
Nutrition is essential, and after a workout, it’s always a good idea to go for a snack. Most people love to have protein snacks like boiled eggs and fresh meat after a workout, but it’s also important that you go for something like a banana to up your potassium levels.

A workout is supposed to be something that you enjoy and get something out of when it’s done. The best thing that you can do is to ensure that you follow the steps above and you can recover faster post-workout. Your recovery is as important as anything else, so pay attention to it and allow yourself the time to feel great!

Going Healthy, Health, Life

The Benefits Of CBD Oil You Ought To Know

02/18/2020 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

CBD, cbd oil, hemp, sleep, rest, anxiety, stress, depression

If you are usually excited by using natural products, then you might have heard about CBD oil. Yes, Cannabidiol, otherwise known as CBD, is a mild extract from marijuana that’s gaining popularity around the world. There’s so much you ought to know about CBD oil, and it’s benefits. Let’s delve right to it.

Health benefits of CBD oil

1. Fighting Skin Problems

Cannabidiol oil is proving quite effective in combating skin conditions such as acne, eczema, wrinkles, and skin sensitivity. Acne is a common skin condition that subjects victims to irritation and low self-confidence. If you have been struggling with this condition, CBD oil can help. It regulates how the body produces sebum by ensuring it is not too much that it will clog pores to cause acne. The oil also has anti-inflammatory features that block the activation of cytokines that trigger acne. In consequence, it prevents other skin breakouts, and with time, you will see the skin healing.

In fighting eczema, the anti-inflammatory features of the oil come to play by balancing the immune system. CBD helps in fighting wrinkles by providing an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect. It counters the formation of free radicals that cause aging, together with signs of inflammation such as skin dullness and uneven tones. Also, because of its anti-inflammatory effect, it soothes sensitive skin and reduces, or eliminates, the appearance of redness and swelling.

2. Pain Relief

Cannabidiol oil is also useful for a wide range of painful sensations. It’s thus commonly used to handle chronic pain, arthritis, migraine, and pain from conditions like cancer, etc. The testimonials that customers give confirms it’s effective at pain relief – accordingly, if you visit promisedrops.com you can learn more about some of the potential health-boosting benefits of CBD oil. The human body has an endocannabinoid system (ECS) that regulates sleep, pain, appetite, and the immune system. When cbd oil is used well, it interacts with a receptor in the endocannabinoid system, thus signaling the brain to send a different response, which creates a pain-relieving effect. The oil can either be used solely or in combination with other pharmaceutical products.

3. Helps in treating depression

When you are in a depressive state, you are unable to carry out necessary activities such as eat, sleep, work, or interact with others. Cannabidiol oil can boost the production of serotonin, which impacts your emotional state, thus fighting the depressive mood. It also fights anxiety, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and social anxiety, and substance abuse, among others.

4. Treating heart conditions

Heart conditions are one of the leading causes of death around the world. On many occasions, medical experts treat heart conditions by prescribing drugs and recommending changes in lifestyle and diet. When CBD oil is added to the package, the changes can manifest quickly. The natural product reduces inflammation and oxidative stress, which are common causes of cardiac complications, blood pressure, cholesterol level, and arterial blockage. Moreover, it prevents stress-related responses that can cause heart diseases.

5. Treating Schizophrenia

This is a severe mental condition treated using pharmaceutical products and therapy. Sadly, the side effects of the drugs can delay the recovery process, which is why CBD oil can be a good alternative. CBD oil will reduce hallucinations without the side effects of other medications.