The Many Advantages of Yoga

Do you know that some California drug treatment centers include yoga in their recovery programs for victims of drugs and alcohol abuse? What is yoga anyway and how can it help in bringing back the health of ill-conditioned patients?

The word yoga has its roots in the Sanskrit language and means “to merge”, “join”, or “unite”. Control is a key aspect of yoga; control of the body, breath and mind. The word “Yoga” means balance. Yoga is a form of exercise based on the belief that the body and breath are intimately connected with the mind. By controlling the breath and holding the body in steady poses, or asanas, yoga creates harmony. Yoga is a means of balancing and harmonizing the body, mind and emotions and is a tool that allows us to withdraw from the chaos of the world and find a quiet space within. To achieve this, yoga uses movement, breath, posture, relaxation and meditation in order to establish a healthy, vibrant and balanced approach to living.

The secret of yoga practice lies in a simple but important word: balance. In every area of our life, yoga represents balanced moderation. Yoga is labeled as holistic, which means that the body is related to the breath; both are related to the brain; the brain links with the mind, which is a part of consciousness.
Yoga has both preventive and therapeutic benefits. It has been shown to offer both physical and mental benefits to the body and the mind.

The benefits of yoga include:

• Encourages weight loss
• Improves flexibility and muscle joint mobility and strengthens, tones, and builds muscles
• Corrects posture; strengthens the spine; eases back pain.
• Improves muscular-skeletal conditions such as bad knees, tight shoulders and neck, swayback and scoliosis.
• Increases stamina and creates balance and grace
• Stimulates the glands of the endocrine system
• Improves digestion and elimination
• Increases circulation; improves heart conditions
• Improves breathing disorders
• Boosts immune response
• Decreases cholesterol and blood sugar levels

Yoga is a very unique form of exercise and extremely beneficial for the body, mind, and soul. For more information as to why some California drug treatment centers include yoga to their recovery programs, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

What Do You Know About Smoking?

It’s so funny to think that a person who smokes may be obsessed about cleanliness with their body, clothes, and house, and yet makes his lungs a disposal place for tobacco garbage, such as nicotine and tar when they puff smoke.

Smokers are aware of the hazardous effects of smoking because of warnings on packs of cigarettes, commercials on TV, advertisement in public transportation vehicles, elevators, and other closed areas. Despite all these health reminders, there are still a growing number of individuals who smoke every year. Are you one of them?

The following are some information a smoker needs to know from rehab centers in California.

1. The air sacs inside the lungs lose their elasticity, stay dilated, and expanded; they will not function during breathing. This disease is called emphysema and it is fatal because the body is deprived of oxygen.

2. The person will develop a tolerance to nicotine – a poisonous stimulant drug present in cigarettes. When this happen, the person will be hooked to it that he may start from few sticks; and as months and years go by, he will have one, two or even three packs of cigarettes a day.

3. Chemical substances present in cigarettes react with the body by decreasing the benefits of other drugs taken. If a person who smokes is given a prescribed drug, he will need a greater dose and a bigger frequency to have the same benefit of the drug compared to persons who doesn’t smoke.

4. Persons who inhaled the smoke exhaled by a smoker involuntarily smoke too, making them a passive smoker.

5. Frequent smokers can develop bad breath and also lead to darkening of teeth because of Tar present in cigarettes.

6. Smoking causes premature aging due to poor blood circulation around the body.

7. Pregnant women who smoke, makes their babies develop respiratory diseases dues to nicotine.

8. Bronchitis, an inflammation of the bronchi, causes a smoker to cough persistently and may have breathing difficulties.

You can avoid the dangerous effects of smoking by simply not smoking. When you do this, you will be able to breathe easier, the damaged lung tissues will begin to undergo repair, and the chances of having a lung cancer will decrease – if you quit as early as possible. In addition, you won’t have to stay in rehab centers in Californiato get treated. For more information, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

Substance Abuse: The Truth about Alcohol

One of the substances that is being abused and over-consumed by individuals who have no self-control is alcoholic drinks. A California rehab explains that alcohol is dangerous to human health when taken too much and out of control.

Here are some facts about alcohol that you should know.

• The alcoholic contents of a beer, a glass of wine and a shot of whiskey are all the same.
• High school drinking for seniors in US has dropped 30% from the year 1982, similarly, college freshen drinking has been very low for the past 38 years.
• Surveys have shown that 83% of adolescent Americans actually don’t drink alcohol.
• But the average age at first drink has risen from 16.1 in the year 1984 to 16.2 by the year of 2002.
• Distilled spirits the likes of which are, brandy, tequila, rum, whiskey, gin and others, contain no fats, no cholesterol nor carbohydrates.
• The human body actually produces its own supply of alcohol 24 hours a day.
• The meaning of the word “toast” as a way of wishing good health started in ancient Rome when once a piece of toasted bread dropped into the wine.
• The Vikings actually used the skulls of their enemies as drinking cups.
• In Missouri, anyone under 21 years of age who takes out their house trash containing even one empty alcoholic beverage container is chargeable with illegal possession of alcohol.
• Those of the early Church were actually of the belief that alcohol is inherently good and is a gift from God and in fact to despise it is pure heresy.
• At thanksgiving there may not be any mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pies to eat but surely there would be beer, gin, brandy or wine to drink.
• During the age of prohibition, advocates of temperance employed a scholar to rewrite the Bible by removing all references to alcohol.
• The alcohol Bourbon is named after the Bourbon County in Kentucky, where it was first made by a Baptist minister.
• Alcohol drinks of either low alcohol content (which are those containing below 15%) or high alcohol content (containing over 30%) tend to be absorbed into the body more slowly.

While alcohol does provide some benefits to the body, over-consuming it can harm your health and may even lead to serious problems. To prevent being checked in at a California rehab for substance abuse problem, make sure that you be responsible in drinking alcohol. For more information, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

Nicotine: The Culprit behind the Difficulty in Quitting

Most, if not all, of those who have tried to quit smoking would say that quitting smoking is not easy. True, but difficulty does not mean impossibility. It can be done. According to a California rehabilitation facility, the secret to doing it successfully is knowing exactly what you are up against, knowing your options, and where to go for help.

To begin with, you should first have the resolution to quit. To do this, you must understand the reason why you should quit. There are many reasons why you should quit smoking; among these are the risk of lung cancer and the probability of having a longer life.

Understanding Nicotine

Next, once you have resolved within yourself that you would already quit smoking, you must know what you are up against, which is nicotine. Nicotine is the culprit behind the difficulty in quitting smoking. Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco, which is highly addictive. Thus, where a person smokes, and thereby exposes himself continuously to the substance, his body becomes physically and psychologically dependent on it.  Thus, a successful quitter must overcome both this physical and psychological addiction to nicotine.

This addiction to nicotine can be explained by the fact that nicotine produces pleasurable feelings. These feelings induce a smoker to want to smoke more. At the same time, nicotine also acts as a depressant by interfering with the flow of information between nerve cells. The body, particularly the nervous system, learns to adapt to nicotine, thereby causing smokers to increase the number of cigarettes they smoke, and hence the amount of nicotine in their blood. This would, in time, help a smoker to develop a tolerance to the substance, which in turn leads to an increase in consumption of cigarettes.

How to Say No to Nicotine

Unfortunately for a smoker, nicotine is not easily excreted out of the body. This is because of various factors which also affect a person’s metabolism. Generally, a person who smokes will have nicotine or its by-products present in his body for about three to four days after stopping its intake.  Thus, the longer it stays in the body, the easier it is for the body to get used to the pleasurable feelings it brings, and the harder it would be for a smoker to let go.

There are several ways to quit smoking and say goodbye to nicotine. You can opt for healthier alternatives, seek help from successful quitters, or consult with experts from a reliable California rehabilitation facility. For more information, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

On Drugs, Abuse, and Cory Monteith’s Death

It’s been a few weeks but the world is still reeling from the death of Glee’s star Cory Monteith.

As was expected his death was a result of substance and alcohol abuse and the sad truth was that the result wasn’t a surprise for many, as Cory was very open about his life, about his use of drugs and his addiction to it. He was even open about his stint in rehab, but it seems that even though he was trying to put his life back in order, the pull of the drug was just too hard to resist that he stumbled and fell into the same old routine that finally led to his death.

Demi Lovato, another celebrity who’s had her share of problems with substance abuse said that “Cory didn’t choose to die…. It is the disease”, and perhaps she is right, truthfully, who wants to die, right? Especially when he has his life ahead of him, he had so much promise and there’s so much for him to look forward to, he may not have chosen to die but die he did.

Such a waste of a life, such a tragedy to see one die so young, just because he wasn’t able to control himself, just because maybe his last thoughts were one last hit, one last sip and he will  be okay and he will stop. You may see a lot of celebrities, even Cory check in to rehab, check in to California detox treatments, yet the death toll seems to be rising and they seem to be getting younger too.

Despite all the tragedy, one may also realize that a drug addict can indeed be rehabilitated, they can change and get over their addiction, but only with the help and loving support of the people around him and a real desire to stop.

Change may come when the person hit rock bottom and there’s nowhere else to turn and the realization comes. Getting checked into a California detox program through voluntarily check in, an intervention by a loved one or a court order can be the first step towards healing and the hope, that anyone who is suffering from this disease, this addiction that the help comes at the right time, before it’s too late, before the body becomes nothing but the mortal remains of a tattered soul who lost the battle.