In recent weeks we’ve offered our perspective on self-care as an adjunct to modern medicine with its growing concern for speed, efficiency, and the bottom line.
When we intentionally do things that bring us joy and promote health, we reap excellent fringe benefits in the form of reduced anxiety and depression, strengthened relationships, productivity boosts, and even prevention of chronic health issues.
Self-care is a proactive strategy for living well and maintaining our health in the face of our life’s challenges. With the many health resources freely available to us all today, we can reduce our exposure to corporate medicine and enjoy happy, healthy lives.
How do we practice self-care? It all begins with loving ourselves and practicing a few simple, manageable approaches to caring for our well-being.
Then, we only need to start savoring the joys of eating wisely and exercising moderately, as a first step toward training our hearts and minds to enjoy the new healthy lifestyle and gradually incorporating it more fully in our days.
First, make an enjoyable habit of intentionally scheduling time for self-care activities in your daily life. Treat your self-care activities as an enjoyable necessity for a better life.
Avoid, at all costs, thinking of the changes as a punishment or a luxury. This is the way humans were meant to live healthily, happily, and naturally on the planet. Take time to be your own, simple original self in harmony with your birthright of happiness in body, feelings, will, mind, and soul.
Start small. Identify just a few simple, enjoyable activities that bring you joy, and incorporate them regularly in your life.
Be mindful of all the aspects of your existence: Self-care isn’t only about the body; it embraces nurturing your emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual self.
Starting a self-care program can require that you climb over a few obstacles. But take hope – soon they will not seem obstacles at all.
The first few weeks may require a smidgen of focused attention and daily renewed desire to stay the course. Rest assured that in a surprisingly short time the rewards of living in harmony with nature will become deliciously clear.
William Shakespeare hit it on the nose when he said, “Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are the gardeners.”
May your gardens thrive and bear a plentiful bounty born of joyful tending.
Here are some recent health discoveries that we hope will smooth your way.
Conch Shells and Didgeridoos Share a Health Benefit
Research from India found that blowing through a conch shell (“shankh blowing”) can reduce symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. The study participants experienced less snoring and better sleep with fewer breathing interruptions and felt more rested and alert in the daytime.
This practice is reminiscent of a 2006 PubMed article that reported didgeridoo playing may be an effective treatment for moderate obstructive sleep apnea. The didgeridoo study attributed the benefits to training the muscles in the upper airways, while the Indian study emphasized that the breath work involved in blowing the conch shell is similar to a yogic breathing practice.
We learned of the didgeridoo treatment about 10 years ago when we hosted Pitz Quattrone, a master of dijeridoo, at our clinic. Here’s his interesting story.
A simple internet search will take you to many related articles suggesting that breathing and musculoskeletal exercises can strengthen the upper airway muscles. They all require effort and commitment, but the rewards can be surprising – and it could be lots of fun as well.
Pistachios Can Improve Your Microbiome
A Penn State study concluded that nightly consumption of pistachio nuts for 12 weeks (comparable to eating 15-30 grams of carbs to modulate nighttime glucose levels) can improve the metabolic health of prediabetic patients.
The pistachios increase butyrate-producing bacteria in the gut, which support anti-inflammatory processes and maintain the gut barrier. Additionally, several less favorable gut bacteria were reduced in quantity. Learn more HERE.
Top Health Trend in 2025: Wearable Tech
Wearable technology is a category of small electronic and mobile devices with wireless communications capability designed to be worn on the human body and incorporated into gadgets, accessories, or clothes.
Common types of wearable tech include smart watches, fitness trackers, and smart glasses. Health trackers and apps can help detect medical issues, provide a personalized snapshot of your health, and allow physicians to remotely manage your chronic health conditions. More information HERE.
The Five-Second Rule
Is it true, as your Mom told you, that you can safely eat the food you dropped on the floor if you pick it up within five seconds?
Not necessarily. A study by Donald Schaffner at Rutgers University, cited in Advanced Bionutritionals, found that moisture can quickly transfer bacteria from surfaces to food.
When the researchers compared watermelon, bread, buttered bread, and gummy candy, the watermelon was the most susceptible to contamination and the gummy bears were the least.
Hard surfaces such as tile promoted the most contamination, and carpeting the least. Wood surfaces were variable. The longer the food lay on the surface, the greater the contamination.
The message: don’t assume that a chunk of watermelon that falls on a tile floor will be safe, even if it’s retrieved within five seconds.
Green Space and Kids’ Mental Health
Surprise? Children who grow up near green spaces do better in school and have fewer mental health issues, according to an exhaustive study of brain development published in Biological Psychiatry.
The researchers found that green spaces trumped other factors such as household income and parental education in promoting positive neurodevelopmental outcomes.
MRIs revealed strong effects in the prefrontal cortex, which is heavily involved in motivation and goal setting. Also positively affected were areas of the brain involved in both language and the regulation of emotion and attention. Interested in the science?
Even more satisfying than the science is the experience of being in green spaces with your kids, and reaping the same benefits of stress reduction, calmness and balance.
Good News on Stevia Extract and Cancer
Cancer-causing substances are identified almost daily – so it’s particularly refreshing to find something that’s identified as a cancer foe.
Hiroshima University researchers found that fermented stevia extract may fight pancreatic cancer without harming healthy cells, potentially making it more than just a zero-calorie sugar substitute.
The study, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, found that when stevia is fermented with a probiotic, the resulting extract kills pancreatic cancer cells while sparing healthy kidney cells. The fermented extract inhibited cancer growth but didn’t harm normal cells. More information HERE.
Beetroot Juice Reduces Seniors’ Blood Pressure
A recent study published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine found that beetroot juice lowers blood pressure in people ages 60 and older but has no effect on younger people.
Beetroot juice is rich in nitrates, which can be converted into nitric oxide, a compound that helps reduce blood pressure and improve heart function. The researchers found that older people have a specific mix of bacteria in their mouths that can help convert more nitrate into nitric oxide.
The study reaffirmed what many in the dental field have observed, that oral health plays a critical role in systemic wellness, especially in aging populations. More information HERE.