High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is often called the silent killer because it can cause a heart attack, stroke or organ damage without any obvious symptoms.
If you have an advanced stage of hypertension -- around a 160 systolic reading or lower and about 105 or below for diastolic -- your doctor may prescribe medications. Even if your blood pressure is slightly above normal (higher than 120/80), you should speak to your physician. Together, you may be able to work out a few strategies to bring your blood pressure back into the normal range.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
1. Exercise --
Some form of mild aerobic exercise -- at least 30 minutes four or five days a week -- is a standard treatment for hypertension. If you're not making a point to do it already, you need to get off your butt and start. You don't have to knock yourself out. Even just brisk walking will be beneficial. A recent study showed that people with moderate hypertension can lower it five to eight points with exercise alone. Exercise also helps relieve stress -- another cardio benefit.
2. Smoking --
Don't do it. Nicotine has an adverse effect on the adrenal glands, causing them to increase blood pressure.
3. Losing Weight --
If you're overweight, even losing just a few pounds can help lower your blood pressure. Start with a modest goal of dropping maybe just 5 or 10 pounds. After that, you can worry about whether you want or need to lose more.
4. Salt --
Many doctors will suggest you greatly reduce or cut out salt intake. But recent studies show that only about 30 to 40 percent of people are salt-sensitive. You can check whether you're one of them by greatly reducing your sodium intake for two or three weeks. After that time, take your blood pressure and see if it's any lower. If it makes a difference, stay on a low-sodium diet but also increase your potassium; there seems to be a relationship between high-sodium/low potassium in diets. You can either take supplements or modify your diet to include more bananas, potatoes, peppers, pears, eggplants or tomatoes.
5. Fiber --
A low-fiber diet will promote hypertension, so make a point of eating several servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Also eat whole-grain cereals and breads.
6. Dark Chocolate --
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that a daily dose of dark chocolate can help reduce blood pressure. The study, headed by Dr. Dirk Taubert of University Hospital of Cologne, found that dark chocolate reduced systolic blood pressure by 2.9 units and diastolic by 1.9 units. "Our study provides sufficient evidence to recommend low amounts of dark chocolate as an addition to a healthy diet," Taubert says. Just keep it to no more than a few ounces a day. And sorry, milk chocolate and white chocolate don't do the trick.
7. Celery --
Celery contains a chemical that relaxes the blood vessels, lowering blood pressure. Four stalks a day should be sufficient. But celery is also high in sodium, so don't eat it if you're salt-sensitive.
8. Garlic --
Garlic has been shown to significantly reduce blood pressure. Eat it as much as possible. But if you don't want to scare friends, family and co-workers away, there are garlic supplements available that don't affect your breath.
9. Calcium and Magnesium Supplements --
The two work together to reduce blood pressure in some people, although medical science still doesn't know exactly how the relationship works. Experts recommend you take calcium and magnesium for about two months, and then see if they seem to reduce your blood pressure. If they do, keep using them.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Fascinating Facts
A diamond is a piece of pure carbon, just as is soot in the chimney but in crystal form. It is 80times as hard as the next hardest substance which is corundum.
The clock tower that supports the famous clock “BIG BEN” at the House of Parliament in London is 320 feet high. The bell from which the clock gets its name, weighs 13.5 tons.
If all the oceans on earth dried up the rock salt remaining would be enough to build a wall a mile thick and 18 miles high all around the equator.
The largest magnet in the world is earth itself, because the hot nickel and iron at its core pull everything towards it.
Do you know that cattle fish has three hearts, two of which are placed at the base of gills and third is at central heart?
The world’s tallest mountain, even higher than Mt. Everest is Mauna Koa an underwater mountain which rises 33,476 feet and has its peak on the island of Hawaii.
The Dead Sea ( Actually a lake 45 miles long and 10 miles wide) is so salty that it is impossible to drown in it unless you are held under water. On the other hand, the Baltic is the least salty sea in the world.
The world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest were dropped into the deepest part of the ocean, water more than a mile deep would still be flowing above its summit.
Twice a year, on March 21st and September 22nd all places on earth have equal day and night – twelve hours long each. These are called EQUINOXES.
If all the stars in the Milky Way had names, anyone trying to say their names one after the other would take 4,000 years, even if they could say one name every second without ever stopping.
No solar eclipse can last longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds because of the speed at which the sun moves.
Women can weep over the slightest grief and frequently, most men can not. And more men have peptic ulcer and heart condition than women in every society. Such stress related diseases are there in man because, in display of daring, he holds emotional tears rather than let them flow easily and freely.
During its entire life time a house fly never travels more than a few hundred feet from the place where it was born.
A humming bird beats, or flaps its wings up to 90 times a second, or over 5,000 times a minute.
There is one place in the world where you can find trees with square trunks. This is in Panama, a few kilometers to the north of Panama Canal. When such a tree is fallen its age is counted not by rings, but by squares.
In Spitzbergen, Norway at one time of the year the sun shines continuously for three and a half months.
George Washington, the first President of United States, was a champion wrestler and long jumper.
From 13th June, 1948 to 1st June, 1958 a citizen of Los Angeles hiccoughed 160,000,000 times. People sent 60,000 suggestions for cures.
A fly moves its wings at the rate of 330 strokes a second.
The muscles required for an Alligator to open its jaws are so weak; a man can keep them closed with his hands.
Half a kilo of cotton has been spun into more than 3,300 kilometers of yarn.
Bungalows are named after the Hindi word “BANGLA” which means belonging to Bengal.
The muscles of human jaw exert a force of over 219 Kg.
The nail on our middle finger grows fastest. The nail on the thumb grows slowest.
An ounce of gold can be beaten into a sheet covering 9.3 square meters, or drawn into 80.5 Km (50 Miles) of wire.
Draftsmen have to make 27,000 drawings for the manufacture of a new car.
The giant bamboos of south-east Asia can grow almost 1 meter in 24 hours.
The clock tower that supports the famous clock “BIG BEN” at the House of Parliament in London is 320 feet high. The bell from which the clock gets its name, weighs 13.5 tons.
If all the oceans on earth dried up the rock salt remaining would be enough to build a wall a mile thick and 18 miles high all around the equator.
The largest magnet in the world is earth itself, because the hot nickel and iron at its core pull everything towards it.
Do you know that cattle fish has three hearts, two of which are placed at the base of gills and third is at central heart?
The world’s tallest mountain, even higher than Mt. Everest is Mauna Koa an underwater mountain which rises 33,476 feet and has its peak on the island of Hawaii.
The Dead Sea ( Actually a lake 45 miles long and 10 miles wide) is so salty that it is impossible to drown in it unless you are held under water. On the other hand, the Baltic is the least salty sea in the world.
The world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest were dropped into the deepest part of the ocean, water more than a mile deep would still be flowing above its summit.
Twice a year, on March 21st and September 22nd all places on earth have equal day and night – twelve hours long each. These are called EQUINOXES.
If all the stars in the Milky Way had names, anyone trying to say their names one after the other would take 4,000 years, even if they could say one name every second without ever stopping.
No solar eclipse can last longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds because of the speed at which the sun moves.
Women can weep over the slightest grief and frequently, most men can not. And more men have peptic ulcer and heart condition than women in every society. Such stress related diseases are there in man because, in display of daring, he holds emotional tears rather than let them flow easily and freely.
During its entire life time a house fly never travels more than a few hundred feet from the place where it was born.
A humming bird beats, or flaps its wings up to 90 times a second, or over 5,000 times a minute.
There is one place in the world where you can find trees with square trunks. This is in Panama, a few kilometers to the north of Panama Canal. When such a tree is fallen its age is counted not by rings, but by squares.
In Spitzbergen, Norway at one time of the year the sun shines continuously for three and a half months.
George Washington, the first President of United States, was a champion wrestler and long jumper.
From 13th June, 1948 to 1st June, 1958 a citizen of Los Angeles hiccoughed 160,000,000 times. People sent 60,000 suggestions for cures.
A fly moves its wings at the rate of 330 strokes a second.
The muscles required for an Alligator to open its jaws are so weak; a man can keep them closed with his hands.
Half a kilo of cotton has been spun into more than 3,300 kilometers of yarn.
Bungalows are named after the Hindi word “BANGLA” which means belonging to Bengal.
The muscles of human jaw exert a force of over 219 Kg.
The nail on our middle finger grows fastest. The nail on the thumb grows slowest.
An ounce of gold can be beaten into a sheet covering 9.3 square meters, or drawn into 80.5 Km (50 Miles) of wire.
Draftsmen have to make 27,000 drawings for the manufacture of a new car.
The giant bamboos of south-east Asia can grow almost 1 meter in 24 hours.
Guilty
A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a Loving couple and the boy was the gem of their eyes. When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for office so he asked his wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard. His wife, preoccupied in the kitchen totally forgot the matter.
The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle fascinated by its color, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned. She was terrified how to face her husband.
When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just five words.
QUESTIONS:
1. What were the five words?
2. What is the implication of this story?
Down..
Down...
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
ANSWER:
The husband just said " I am with you Darling"
The husband's totally unexpected reaction is a proactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he had taken time to keep the bottle away, this would not have happened.
No one is to be blamed. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her.
If everyone can look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be much fewer problems in the world.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Sometimes we spend time in asking who is responsible or whom to blame, in the relationship, but by this way we miss out some warmth that is needed... some things are not merely to blame. Remember always that life is not that easy to understand as it seems...
Never try to apply your logic to understand every situation... Let life enjoy its own complexity...
The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle fascinated by its color, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned. She was terrified how to face her husband.
When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just five words.
QUESTIONS:
1. What were the five words?
2. What is the implication of this story?
Down..
Down...
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
Down..
ANSWER:
The husband just said " I am with you Darling"
The husband's totally unexpected reaction is a proactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he had taken time to keep the bottle away, this would not have happened.
No one is to be blamed. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her.
If everyone can look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be much fewer problems in the world.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Sometimes we spend time in asking who is responsible or whom to blame, in the relationship, but by this way we miss out some warmth that is needed... some things are not merely to blame. Remember always that life is not that easy to understand as it seems...
Never try to apply your logic to understand every situation... Let life enjoy its own complexity...
Friday, October 9, 2009
The Beggar
An emperor was coming out of his palace for his morning walk when he met a beggar.
He asked the beggar, "What do you want?"
The beggar laughed and said, "You are asking me as though you can fulfill my desire!"
The king was offended. He said, "Of course I can fulfill your desire.
What is it? Just tell me."
And the beggar said, "Think twice before you promise anything."
The beggar was no ordinary beggar, he was the emperors past life master.
He had promised in that life, "I will come and try to wake you in your next life.
This life you have missed but I will come again."
But the king had forgotten completely -- who remembers past lives? So he insisted,
"I will fulfill anything you ask. I am a very powerful
emperor, what can you possibly desire that I can not give to you?"
The beggar said, "It is a very simple desire. You see this begging
bowl? Can you fill it with something?"
The emperor said, "Of course!" He called one of his viziers and told
him, "Fill this mans begging bowl with money." The vizier went and got
some money and poured it into the bowl, and it disappeared. And he
poured more and more, and the moment he would pour it, it would
disappear. And the beggging bowl remained always empty.
The whole palace gathered. By and by the rumor went throughout the
whole capital, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige of the emperor
was at stake. He said to his viziers, "If the whole kingdom is lost,
I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar."
Diamons and pearls and emeralds, his treasuries were becoming empty.The
begging bowl seemed to be bottomless. Everything that was put into it
-- everything! -- immediately disappeared, went out of existence.
Finally it was the evening, and the people were standing there in utter
silence. The king dropped at the feet of the beggar and admitted his
defeat. he said, "Just tell me one thing. You are victorious - but before you leave,
just fulfill my curiousity. What is the beging bowl made of?"
The beggar laughed and said, "It is made up of the human mind. There is no secret.
It is simple made up of human desire."
This understanding transforms life. Go into one desire -- what is the
mechanism of it? First there is a great excitement, great thrill,
adventure. You feel a great kick. Some thing is going to happen, you are
on the verge of it. And then you have the car, you have the yacht, you
have the house, you have the woman, and suddenly all is meaningless again.
What happens? Your mind has dematerialised it. The car is standing in
the drive, but there is no excitement anymore. The excitement was only
in getting it. You became so drunk with the desire thah you forgot your
inner nothingness. Now the desire is fulfilled, the car in the drive,
the woman in your bed, the money in your bank account - again
excitement disappears. Again the emptiness is there, ready to eat you up.
Again you have to create another desire to escape this yawning abyss.
That's how one moves from one desire to another desire. That's how one
remains a beggar. Your whole life proves it again and again -- every
desire frustrates. And when the goal is achieved, you will need another desire.
The day you understand that desire as such is going to fail comes the
turning point in your life.
The other journey is inwards. move inwards, come back home.
He asked the beggar, "What do you want?"
The beggar laughed and said, "You are asking me as though you can fulfill my desire!"
The king was offended. He said, "Of course I can fulfill your desire.
What is it? Just tell me."
And the beggar said, "Think twice before you promise anything."
The beggar was no ordinary beggar, he was the emperors past life master.
He had promised in that life, "I will come and try to wake you in your next life.
This life you have missed but I will come again."
But the king had forgotten completely -- who remembers past lives? So he insisted,
"I will fulfill anything you ask. I am a very powerful
emperor, what can you possibly desire that I can not give to you?"
The beggar said, "It is a very simple desire. You see this begging
bowl? Can you fill it with something?"
The emperor said, "Of course!" He called one of his viziers and told
him, "Fill this mans begging bowl with money." The vizier went and got
some money and poured it into the bowl, and it disappeared. And he
poured more and more, and the moment he would pour it, it would
disappear. And the beggging bowl remained always empty.
The whole palace gathered. By and by the rumor went throughout the
whole capital, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige of the emperor
was at stake. He said to his viziers, "If the whole kingdom is lost,
I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar."
Diamons and pearls and emeralds, his treasuries were becoming empty.The
begging bowl seemed to be bottomless. Everything that was put into it
-- everything! -- immediately disappeared, went out of existence.
Finally it was the evening, and the people were standing there in utter
silence. The king dropped at the feet of the beggar and admitted his
defeat. he said, "Just tell me one thing. You are victorious - but before you leave,
just fulfill my curiousity. What is the beging bowl made of?"
The beggar laughed and said, "It is made up of the human mind. There is no secret.
It is simple made up of human desire."
This understanding transforms life. Go into one desire -- what is the
mechanism of it? First there is a great excitement, great thrill,
adventure. You feel a great kick. Some thing is going to happen, you are
on the verge of it. And then you have the car, you have the yacht, you
have the house, you have the woman, and suddenly all is meaningless again.
What happens? Your mind has dematerialised it. The car is standing in
the drive, but there is no excitement anymore. The excitement was only
in getting it. You became so drunk with the desire thah you forgot your
inner nothingness. Now the desire is fulfilled, the car in the drive,
the woman in your bed, the money in your bank account - again
excitement disappears. Again the emptiness is there, ready to eat you up.
Again you have to create another desire to escape this yawning abyss.
That's how one moves from one desire to another desire. That's how one
remains a beggar. Your whole life proves it again and again -- every
desire frustrates. And when the goal is achieved, you will need another desire.
The day you understand that desire as such is going to fail comes the
turning point in your life.
The other journey is inwards. move inwards, come back home.
SPIRITUAL SUPPLY
Our whole life, from birth to death, is oriented on acquiring supply, whether it is in the form of possession, food, clothing, housing, health, companionship, money, peace, etc., we are continuously striving for these things and will sometimes even fight for them, because we live in the acceptance of a life of lack, and the belief that we have to do something about this lack, And so arises fear, envy, greed, jealousy, worry, and other negative emotions, and the suffering and unhappiness that goes with them.
And yet we are told that “God knows of our needs and that it is His good pleasure to give of His Kingdom”.
Why are we still experiencing lack and limitation in so many ways on the different levels (physically, emotionally, mentally)?
Because we don’t give Him a chance to give of His Kingdom, because we are so busy worrying about how we are going to meet the problem, and so involved in our concept of how we are going to change or add to the situation, that we ourselves are the barrier for the perfect spiritual solution to manifest.
In other words, we think we know better than God.
And because of out limited understanding and insight, and because our motives are often based on how we would like the need to be met, the outcome is mostly unsatisfactory.
And yet, it really is so simple, for God is Love, and perfect Harmony will manifest in our lives, if we will consciously tune in with it, by acknowledging it and thanking God for it, with all our heart, mind and soul.
We are also told, “Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit.”
We don’t have to strive and struggle, we just need to “be still and know that Iam God”, that my consciousness is God and let the power of Love take over.
Without interference of our thoughts, our concepts, when we let the “hidden splendor escape”, harmony will manifest, where lack was apparent.
We must get away from trying to change effect, by realizing that out good does not come from effect, from the visible form, but from God, the invisible cause.
When we ask for spiritual supply to be revealed without setting any conditions for the nature of the manifestation, or the time, everything is taken care of in a perfect way.
And yet we are told that “God knows of our needs and that it is His good pleasure to give of His Kingdom”.
Why are we still experiencing lack and limitation in so many ways on the different levels (physically, emotionally, mentally)?
Because we don’t give Him a chance to give of His Kingdom, because we are so busy worrying about how we are going to meet the problem, and so involved in our concept of how we are going to change or add to the situation, that we ourselves are the barrier for the perfect spiritual solution to manifest.
In other words, we think we know better than God.
And because of out limited understanding and insight, and because our motives are often based on how we would like the need to be met, the outcome is mostly unsatisfactory.
And yet, it really is so simple, for God is Love, and perfect Harmony will manifest in our lives, if we will consciously tune in with it, by acknowledging it and thanking God for it, with all our heart, mind and soul.
We are also told, “Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit.”
We don’t have to strive and struggle, we just need to “be still and know that Iam God”, that my consciousness is God and let the power of Love take over.
Without interference of our thoughts, our concepts, when we let the “hidden splendor escape”, harmony will manifest, where lack was apparent.
We must get away from trying to change effect, by realizing that out good does not come from effect, from the visible form, but from God, the invisible cause.
When we ask for spiritual supply to be revealed without setting any conditions for the nature of the manifestation, or the time, everything is taken care of in a perfect way.
JOKES
“Say, why do they call our language the mother-tongue?”
“Because the father so seldom gets a chance to use it.”
------------------------------------------------------------
“What’s the best exercise for reducing?”
“Just move the head slowly from right to left when asked to have a second helping.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Your dog howled all night.”
“That’s a sign of death. Whose, I wonder?”
“Your dog’s, if he howls again tonight.
“Because the father so seldom gets a chance to use it.”
------------------------------------------------------------
“What’s the best exercise for reducing?”
“Just move the head slowly from right to left when asked to have a second helping.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Your dog howled all night.”
“That’s a sign of death. Whose, I wonder?”
“Your dog’s, if he howls again tonight.
PEARLS OF WISDOM
Spend every day of your life as though it were your last.
Live in God! Live with God! Live for God! And you will never go wrong!
The body that runs after sense pleasures becomes the graveyard of the soul.
He who thinks evil, drives himself to evil. In course of time, he becomes evil.
Worry is like a swing. Though you keep moving you reach nowhere.
Begin somewhere. It’s no use building castles in the air!
Be careful of the books you read and the company you keep.
The man who does his duty and a little more is the one who achieves success in life.
Live in God! Live with God! Live for God! And you will never go wrong!
The body that runs after sense pleasures becomes the graveyard of the soul.
He who thinks evil, drives himself to evil. In course of time, he becomes evil.
Worry is like a swing. Though you keep moving you reach nowhere.
Begin somewhere. It’s no use building castles in the air!
Be careful of the books you read and the company you keep.
The man who does his duty and a little more is the one who achieves success in life.
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