Relaxation Techniques to Reduce Stress

If your hectic lifestyle has got you down, experts say relaxation techniques can bring you back into balance -- some in 5 minutes or less.

By Jeannette Moninger
WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD

Chances are, your ever-growing to-do list doesn’t include one very important task: Relax. But managing stress is key to staying healthy. Think you don’t have time to unwind? Each of these stress-relieving tips can get you from OMG to om in less than 15 minutes.

1. Meditate 

A few minutes of practice per day can help ease anxiety. “Research suggests that daily meditation may alter the brain’s neural pathways, making you more resilient to stress,” says psychologist Robbie Maller Hartman, PhD, a Chicago health and wellness coach. 

The process can be simple. Sit up straight with both feet on the floor. Close your eyes. Focus your attention on reciting -- out loud or silently -- a positive mantra such as “I feel at peace” or “I love myself.” Place one hand on your belly to synch the mantra with your breaths. Let any distracting thoughts float by like clouds.

2. Breathe Deeply 

Give yourself a 5-minute break from whatever is bothering you and focus instead on your breathing. Sit up straight, eyes closed, with a hand on your belly. Slowly inhale through your nose, feeling the breath start in your abdomen and work its way to the top of your head. Reverse the process as you exhale through your mouth. 

“Deep breathing counters the effects of stress by slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure,” says psychologist Judith Tutin, PhD, a certified life coach in Rome, Ga.

3. Be Present

You rush through dinner, hurry to your next appointment, race to finish one more thing on your agenda. Now try something different: Slow down. 

“Take 5 minutes and focus on only one behavior with awareness,” says Tutin. Notice how the air feels on your face when you’re walking and how your feet feel hitting the ground. Enjoy the texture and taste of each bite of food as you slowly chew. When you spend time in the moment and focus on your senses, you should feel the tension leave your body.

4. Reach Out

A good social support system is one of the most important resources for dealing with stress. Talking to others -- preferably face-to-face or at least on the phone -- is a great way to better manage whatever is stressing you out.

5. Tune In to Your Body

Mentally scan your body to get a sense of how stress affects it each day. Lie on your back or sit with your feet on the floor. Start at your toes and work your way up to your scalp, noticing how your body feels. 

“Simply be aware of places you feel tight or loose without trying to change anything,” says Tutin. For 1 to 2 minutes, imagine each deep breath flowing to that body part. Repeat this process as you move your focus up your body, paying close attention to sensations you feel in each body part.

source : Relaxation Techniques to Reduce Stress

Read more →

Whooping Cough Outbreaks Tied to Parents Shunning Vaccines

Study finds that areas with high rates of nonmedical vaccine exemptions also had high number of cases

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 30 (HealthDay News) -- New research confirms what experts have suspected: The decision not to vaccinate children for nonmedical reasons can have far-reaching effects, including raising the risk of infections for other children and their families.

Researchers compared areas with significant numbers of parents who chose not to vaccinate their children for nonmedical reasons to areas that were affected by the 2010 whooping cough outbreak in California. They found that people living in areas with high nonmedical vaccine exemption rates were 2.5 times more likely to also be located in an area with high levels of whooping cough.

"Not vaccinating your child is not a benign decision. It has real health consequences to the individual child and to the community," explained study senior author Saad Omer, an associate professor of global health, epidemiology and pediatrics at Emory University in Atlanta.

Results of the study were published online Sept. 30 and will appear in the October print edition of the journal Pediatrics.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial disease that attacks the respiratory system. Last year, the United States had the highest number of whooping cough cases since 1955, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During 2012, the CDC received reports of 48,000 cases and 18 deaths, with most of the deaths occurring in infants.

Part of the reason there's been a resurgence in whooping cough is that the newer vaccine, which causes far fewer side effects than the old vaccine, doesn't work for as long as the older vaccine did, the researchers explained. Because of this, it's crucial that children receive vaccines and booster doses on schedule. If there's a delay in vaccination, the risk of whooping cough goes up.

In 2010, 9,120 cases of whooping cough, with 10 deaths, were reported in California. That was the highest number of whooping cough cases in that state since 1947, according to background information in the study. Factors that may have played a role in this outbreak include the waning immunity associated with the newer vaccine, better diagnosis techniques and the cyclical nature of whooping cough.

But, the researchers also wanted to see if the clustering of people who had nonmedical exemptions for vaccines played a role in the outbreak. Omer said that previous research has shown that there do tend to be clusters of people with nonmedical vaccine exemptions.

In California, the rate of such exemptions has risen from 0.77 percent in 2000 to 2.33 percent in 2010, according to the study. Still, the state has relatively high vaccination rates. Almost 91 percent of children entering kindergarten in 2010 had received all the required immunizations, the study authors pointed out.

source : Whooping Cough Outbreaks Tied to Parents Shunning Vaccines

Read more →

Shape, Size of Wine Glass May Skew How Much You Pour

Width and location of the glass, color of the wine all seem to matter, researchers say

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 30 (HealthDay News) -- You may be serving wine with a heavier hand than you believe: The size, shape and location of a wine glass can affect how much you pour into the glass, according to a new study.

Most people think of a glass as just one serving, but it could be closer to two or three, which means that it can be easy to consume more than you think, the researchers at Iowa State and Cornell universities noted.

The investigators asked study participants to pour what they considered a normal serving of wine into different glasses. The participants poured about 12 percent more wine into a wide glass than a standard one, and the same was true when they held a glass while pouring instead of placing the glass on a table.

The contrast between the glass and color of the wine also made a significant difference. For example, when pouring white wine into a clear glass, participants poured 9 percent more than pouring red, which had a greater contrast to the glass.

The study was published online Sept. 12 in the journal Substance Use and Misuse.

"People have trouble assessing volumes," study co-author Laura Smarandescu, an assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State, said in a Cornell news release. "They tend to focus more on the vertical than the horizontal measures. That's why people tend to drink less when they drink from a narrow glass, because they think they're drinking more."

A standard serving of wine is 5 ounces, according to the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. But it's easy to lose track of how many servings you've actually had if you are pouring more than you realize, said study co-author Douglas Walker, an assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State.

"If you ask someone how much they drink and they report it in a number of servings, for a self-pour that's just not telling the whole story. One person's two is totally different than another person's two," Walker said in the news release. "Participants in the study were asked to pour the same amount at each setting, but they just couldn't tell the difference."

So how do you keep a handle on how much wine you serve and consume?

"If you want to pour and drink less wine, stick to the narrow wine glasses and only pour if your glass is on the table or counter and not in your hand -- in either case you'll pour about 9 to 12 percent less," study co-author Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell, said in the release.

source : Shape, Size of Wine Glass May Skew How Much You Pour

Read more →