Awareness

Napping Can Dramatically Increase Learning, Memory, Awareness, And More

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Many Europeans believe in the benefits of napping so much that they shut down in the afternoon to allow everyone to take a quick power nap, recharge, and come back to work.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in the U.S. where a mid-day nap is not only a luxury, but often times is perceived as downright laziness.

If you’re among those who enjoy the occasional midday snooze, you should continue the habit as studies have shown that it’s a normal and integral part of the circadian (sleep-wake cycle) rhythm.

Studies have shown that short naps can improve awareness and productivity. You don’t need much; just 15 to 20 minutes can make a world of difference.

According to a study from the University of Colorado Boulder discovered that children who didn’t take their afternoon nap didn’t display much joy and interest, had a higher level of anxiety, and lower problem solving skills compared to other children who napped regularly. The same goes for adults as well. Researchers with Berkeley found that adults who regularly take advantage of an afternoon nap have a better learning ability and improved memory function. Why is napping so essential? Because it gives your brain a reboot, where the short-term memory is cleared out and our brain becomes refreshed with new defragged space.

How long should you nap?

According to experts, 10 to 20 minutes is quite enough to refresh your mind and increase your energy and alertness. The sleep isn’t as deep as longer naps and you’re able to get right back at your day immediately after waking up. If you nap for 30 minutes you may deal with a 30-minute grogginess period because you wake up just as your body started entering a deeper stage of sleep. The same can be said if you sleep for an hour, but on the other hand, these 60-minute naps provide an excellent memory boost. The longest naps— lasting about 90 minutes—are recommended for those people who just don’t get enough sleep at night. Since it’s a complete sleep cycle, it can improve emotional memory and creativity.

There you have it – naps are good for you physical and mental well being so you should practice them as much as you can. However, be advised that you shouldn’t sacrifice nighttime sleeping for an afternoon nap, they should be an addition to a good night sleep.

Awareness is the number one cure for sepsis

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By Dr Ron Daniels, CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust and Global Sepsis Alliance

A decade ago, I met a man who would come not only to define my career, but to change my life. Jem would never know the extent of his influence, because when I met him, he was in an induced coma. Sepsis had taken a strong 37-year-old man and reduced him to a wreck of failing organs in a matter of hours.

I encounter sepsis daily as an Intensive Care doctor, and who knows why Jem was the one to make me resolve to fight this indiscriminate killer, which claims an estimated 37,000 in the UK every year.

But resolve I did, and ten years later we are saving lives. I’m privileged now to have met hundreds of adults and children affected by sepsis and their families. These aren’t just statistics. These are people who are loved. They have stories like mine. Stories like yours. Stories like the one Amanda Prowse has written for her tenth novel, “Three-and-a-Half-Heartbeats”.

It tells the heart-breaking story of a young couple, Grace and Tom Penderford, who had a strong marriage, a comfortable home, and a healthy baby girl. But soon after Chloe turns three, tragedy strikes and sepsis takes her life.

The Penderfords had never heard of sepsis – the condition which globally kills someone, somewhere every three-and-a-half seconds. In the UK, around 1,000 children die from the condition each year – a fifth of all child deaths.

Awareness is the number one cure for sepsis. Raising recognition of the disease and increasing the number of patients treated in the ‘Golden Hour’ is the single biggest attempt we can make to save lives.

With public education, better knowledge and awareness among doctors, nurses and paramedics, and by redesigning the way patients with sepsis are treated, I know we can save 12,500 lives per year in the UK and shave £170 million from the NHS budget.

All the proceeds from the novel are going to the UK Sepsis Trust, which I run along with the help of an army of volunteers from the medical profession and those who’ve been affected. If you would like to help, please buy Amanda Prowse’s e-book, “Three-and-a-Half Heartbeats”. It costs just £1.89 and a copy of the book, which launches on September 10, can be pre-ordered here.

How to Take Authority over Your Thoughts and Feelings.

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Change your thoughts and you change your world. ~Norman Vincent Peale

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Some people suggest that our thoughts and feelings are not actually true – that we made them up based on the conditioning we received and the interpretations we made, or even the belief that all of physical reality is perception and not actually the “truth.” What is real is our “Natural Self” ─ who we are behind the beliefs that lead to the feelings we all experience.

That said, what are we to do when we are “caught in the web” of a negative feeling – typically a result of an underlying belief associated with fear? We can’t run from it for sure, and no matter how hard we try to stop thinking or feeling what we are drowning in, there’s doesn’t seem to be a quick fix or extrication from the grasp of what our mind is telling us.

Personally speaking, extricating myself from those limiting beliefs has been a slow and difficult process, and only occurred over time as I challenged my negative thinking. I finally came to realize, however, that I was in charge of my thoughts and feelings, and could take authority over them. Rather than snap my fingers and have them go away, I still had to process through the experience I first created, enter into the feelings, release them, and create a new belief or interpretation to empower my actions.

I like to think of life in the way Timothy Gallwey explains how to play The Inner Game of Golf. He refers to the critic standing over our shoulder telling us how to hit the next shot, telling us what not to do, and then scolding us for doing it! To dispel the voice of this “intruder,” he suggests a number of action strategies to get us back in touch with our Natural Self ─ the one who hits the ball far better than the “self” who listens to the voice of our critic. This strategy has direct application to anything we do in life. By finding ways of getting back in the flow of being and doing that which is aligned with our authentic or Natural Self, we not only perform much better, but are far happier living life.

So, how do we change our story or shift our beliefs? Typically, these limiting beliefs have been with us a very long time, and they are probably embedded in our unconscious mind.

The first critical step to be mindful of is Awareness. As you become aware of negative thoughts having a field day in your mind (being directed by “the intruder”), try using various strategies to first interrupt the old story. Then start the new game of practicing doing this as often as needed, in order to diminish the power of and change the old belief.

Here are some strategies to interrupt “rut thinking” as soon as you become aware of having fallen into a hole:

Stand up, move about, take a walk, get physical.

Stop and engage the moment with a few breaths, and notice how your body feels.

Look up, look around, and notice where you are in the present  moment rather than being lost in thought or planning

After interrupting your pattern, you can then return to the situation and discover more clearly what is going on, the thoughts you were making up, and the feelings that resulted. Then begin the process of taking back your authority. Choose the thoughts you want to think by using thisSeven-Step Pivotal Technique to release and replace the false story you had been conditioned to make up:

1. Notice how you are feeling, how your body has reacted.

2. Experience the feeling as fully as you can. For five minutes try playing out the worst case scenario in your mind. Sorry, but this step is important. Personally, I breathe in the negativity and imagine it entering every cell of my body, and I have not died from the fear yet!

3. Surrender to the Universe ─ an all powerful loving Source. Feel the gift of this love coming your way. Ask for assistance in releasing the old unwanted pattern; then take a few deep breaths, and let go. (Some call this “Casting the burden.”)

4. Now determine whether your feeling/belief is actually true. What is the information you have to base your decision on?

5.  Notice how the old belief felt absolutely real, although it was probably not actually true. Claim this as a mantra anytime you are confronted by experiencing an old limiting belief: “real, but not true!”

6. Take authority over your thoughts, decisions, and choices, and create a new empowering belief. (If the old belief led to a limiting outcome or disappointment, consider how the new belief will create just the opposite. Imagine a new end result, with an inspired feeling, in the present moment of Now! This practice will let the Universe get busy and start creating the possibilities into which you will step and act to manifest the new result you want!)

7. Experience a moment of deep gratitude, then get active, and move on!

One of the interesting facts of life is that we sometimes pay little attention to the facts of life! So, rather than believing what you are thinking is actually true, check it out! It may just be that by noticing the actual truth, leaving negativity behind becomes a lot easier.

 

Source: Purpose Fairy

13,000 cancer deaths ‘can be prevented’.

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At least 13,000 premature deaths from cancer could be prevented each year in the UK, says the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).

It says the government could do more to raise awareness of how people can reduce their cancer risk.

The announcement comes as a survey showed that a third of Britons still believe that developing cancer is due to fate.

About 157,000 people die of cancer every year in the UK.

Although the mortality rate is predicted to continue declining, due to a growing and ageing population the number of deaths is expected to rise to about 182,000 deaths by 2025.

The WCRF survey of more than 2,000 adults suggested that 28% of people think there is little that can be done to prevent cancer.

Cancer myths

But Dr Kate Allen, executive director of science and public affairs at WCRF, said: “These results are a real concern because they show that a significant proportion of people don’t realise that there’s a lot they can do to reduce their risk of cancer.

“By eating healthily, being physically active and keeping to a healthy weight, we estimate that about a third of the most common cancers could be prevented.

“Everyone has a role to play in preventing cancer but governments and health professionals are key to raising awareness and making it easier for individuals to change their lifestyle habits.”

The Union for International Cancer Control, a non-governmental organisation working across 155 countries, estimates that 1.5 million lives could be saved worldwide if urgent action is taken to raise awareness about cancer.

Otherwise, it says, there could be six million premature cancer deaths by 2025.

The UICC and the WCRF want governments and the public to dispel four important myths and misconceptions about cancer, namely that cancer is just a health issue, that it is a disease of the wealthy, developed countries, that it is a death sentence and that getting cancer is down to fate.

Source: BBC

 

 

 

 

 

BREAST SELF EXAMINATION

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hello all, as the month of October is breast cancer awareness month.

i’m posting a power point show for the early detection n breast self examination.

pltz copy the URL below .

your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

thanks.

 

URL:   https://picasaweb.google.com/102131414595559829589/SCREENINGANDEARLYDETECTIONOFBREASTCANCER?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Coffee and black tea consumption and breast cancer mortality in a cohort of Swedish women.

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Coffee and black tea contain a mixture of compounds that have the potential to influence breast cancer risk and survival. However, epidemiologic data on the relation between coffee and black tea consumption and breast cancer survival are sparse.

Methods:

We investigated the association between coffee and black tea consumption and survival among 3243 women with invasive breast cancer in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Intake was estimated using a food frequency questionnaire. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).

Results:

From 1987 to 2010 there were 394 breast cancer-specific deaths and 973 total deaths. Coffee and black tea were not associated with breast cancer-specific or overall mortality. Women consuming 4+ cups of coffee per day had a covariate and clinical characteristics-adjusted HR (95% CI) of death from breast cancer of 1.14 (0.71–1.83; ptrend=0.81) compared with those consuming <1 cup per day. Women consuming 2+ cups of black tea per day had a covariate and clinical characteristics-adjusted HR (95% CI) of death from breast cancer of 1.02 (0.67–1.55; ptrend=0.94) compared with non-tea drinkers. Caffeine was also not associated with breast cancer-specific (HR for top to bottom quartile=1.06; 95% CI=0.79–1.44; ptrend=0.71) or overall mortality.

Conclusion:

Our findings suggest that coffee, black tea, and caffeine consumption before breast cancer diagnosis do not influence breast cancer-specific and overall survival.

Source: British journal of oncology