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Natural anti-anxiety remedies are on the increase as anxiety victims turn away from drugs and their bad side effects. Here are 3 anti-anxiety remedies you can carry out at home.

First, did you know that anxiety disorders are believed to be the number one mental health problem among American women. It comes just second to alcohol and drug abuse among American men. It is a very serious disorder that costs the US billions of dollars annually.

And would you believe that anxiety sufferers consult five doctors on average, before they are correctly diagnosed? Which is why, along with their dislike of drugs with their horrible side effects, more and more sufferers are looking for anti-anxiety natural remedies.

So what is anxiety? Generally speaking, a person with general anxiety is someone who, on a daily basis, worries and stresses intensely about a range of issues and things in a way that isn’t normal, and way above their importance.

In our modern lives, we are all subject to varying degrees of stress, e.g. getting married, buying a house, death of a loved one, job worries, etc, etc. but, although we all suffer anxiety and stress, we eventually get over them, and often look back and think, what all the fuss was about.

A general anxiety sufferer, however, experiences those same stressful situations, but doesn’t come out the other side in the same way. they retain stress, fear, anxiousness, etc. they continually worry and obsess about the future and what might or might not happen.

So any anti-anxiety remedy needs to help the sufferer relax, reduce stress and relieve anxiety. Here are 3 natural remedies that have been found to be pretty effective:-

When someone is stressed they often breath poorly. this tends to be shallow, spasmodic breathing and sometimes people can actually stop breathing for a time, and not be aware of it. this leads to an imbalance in your oxygen / carbon dioxide ratio which can leave you light headed, dizzy, and tired leading to more anxiety.

You can redress the balance by practicing controlled, rhythmic breathing. one of the best ways is to practice breathing using your diaphragm. Most of us just breath with our upper chest so that not all our lung capacity is being used.

Sit in a comfortable chair with your back straight and your hands relaxing on your thighs or lap. Inhale slowly through your nose, ensuring that you fill your lower lungs first by extending your abdomen, then the top half of your lungs. do this for 4 seconds, and then hold you breath for a count of 7 seconds.

Then exhale through the mouth slowly for a count of 8 seconds, attempting all the time to relax your mind, shoulders and limbs. let go of all your stress and anxiety. Pause for a short while before you start another cycle. Try to complete around 10 cycles one or two times a day to start with. Then gradually increase to around 30 cycles several times a day.

Listening to music has been shown to relieve stress. Music has been found to reduce heart rate and promote higher body temperature, a sign of the beginnings of relaxation.

Pick music that will relax you, not necessarily your favorite music, e.g. hard rock, heavy metal, etc. some research has shown that Native American and Celtic music can be very relaxing. There are also CDs out there that replicate soothing sounds, such as the ocean, with relaxing music over it.

But, whatever you do, don’t choose music, songs, ballads, etc. that remind you of the sad times or difficult periods in your life. These will have the opposite effect and only help increase your anxiety.

This is particularly useful at the onset and during an anxiety attack. Because the symptoms are so horrible a sufferer tends to analyze each symptom as it happens, trying to figure out what is going on. And they tend to think the very worst outcome, even death.

But, of course, we know that they are just symptoms and cannot harm you. So remember that fact at the onset, and then start to focus your attention on something external. Stay in the ‘present’, don’t think about what might happen in the future, by using all your senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste.

Analyse the building or other object near you. Pick up your pet and cuddle and stroke them. Listen to the sounds around you and try to pick out all the different ones. I think you get the idea, right?

These are just 3 popular natural anti-anxiety tips that can help you, but, the one key issue underpinning your general anxiety is your continual, conscious or unconscious, ‘fear.’

This fear feeds your anxiety, continually building on it, and increasing your anxiety levels to such an extent, that you can actually suffer anxiety attacks. Then, you fear having another anxiety attack, because the symptoms are so terrifying. this builds on your already heightened anxiety; and so on, in a vicious cycle of anxiety.

Unless you can break-out of your cycle of anxiety by eliminating your ‘fear factor,’ it can be very difficult to prevent these anxiety attacks, and, eliminate your general anxiety.

BY SUMATHI REDDY

For more than 100 years, a time capsule sat buried in concrete in the cornerstone of what was then Bellevue Hospital Medical College, unbeknown to the scientists and doctors who toiled above it.

In more recent years, as New York University made plans to demolish and rebuild the building, the capsule’s existence surfaced in an architectural report.

And so a few weeks ago when the empty structure on first Avenue and 26th Street was demolished, the 15-pound box was removed from the concrete and transferred to the care of Dr. Martin Blaser, a bacteriologist who is chairman of the department …

BY SUMATHI REDDY

For more than 100 years, a time capsule sat buried in concrete in the cornerstone of what was then Bellevue Hospital Medical College, unbeknown to the scientists and doctors who toiled above it.

In more recent years, as New York University made plans to demolish and rebuild the building, the capsule’s existence surfaced in an architectural report.

And so a few weeks ago when the empty structure on first Avenue and 26th Street was demolished, the 15-pound box was removed from the concrete and transferred to the care of Dr. Martin Blaser, a bacteriologist who is chairman of the department …

by Amanda Killelea

Last updated at 8:12 AM on 6th September 2011

Today, Julie Neville looks the picture of health — but seven years ago it was a completely different story.

Julie, married to Everton captain Phil Neville for 11 years, was a physical wreck.

Having just given birth to the couple’s premature daughter, Isabella, by emergency Caesarean, Julie was experiencing a crushing fatigue like nothing she’d ever known.

Seven years ago Julie Neville (with husband Phil) was a physical wreck. She had an underactive thyroid gland, otherwise known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

‘this wasn’t the normal tiredness that comes with being a new mum,’ says Julie, 35.

‘I was totally exhausted and drained. Most days, it was an effort just to put one foot in front of the other. I also had a poor appetite, headaches and a constant sore throat.’

Things weren’t made any easier by Isabella being sickly, while Julie was also looking after the couple’s lively two-year-old son, Harvey.

‘I was constantly at hospital appointments for Isabella, and for myself because my Caesarean wound wasn’t healing.

‘One day, the doctors commented how dreadful I looked, which was when they referred me for blood tests.’

Julie then discovered what lay behind her symptoms; the results revealed she had an underactive thyroid gland, otherwise known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Here, the thyroid gland, which is in the neck, fails, causing symptoms including extreme lethargy, sore muscles, dry hair and skin. Underactivity can also cause weight gain, though Julie didn’t experience this.

Dr Mark Vanderpump, consultant and honorary senior lecturer in endocrinology at the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust in London, explains: ‘the thyroid gland produces a hormone called thyroxine, which controls your metabolism.

Julie and Phil with their children Isabella and Harvey

‘If you’ve got too much, you tend to have a high metabolism. if you’ve got too little, the metabolism slows down and you tend to gain weight.’

The condition is caused by the immune system attacking the thyroid gland, he adds.

‘the thyroid is like a reservoir with a certain amount of thyroid cells at the start. if the immune system begins attacking the thyroid cells, the reservoir starts to fall until it can reach a critical point where your body doesn’t make enough hormone — and that’s when your body starts to show symptoms.

‘We don’t quite know what causes it, but we do know it runs in families. You may be born with a genetic susceptibility and may meet something in the environment, such as a virus, stress or pregnancy which triggers it.’

Underactive thyroid affects 10 times more women than men and has been linked to pregnancy as well as the menopause, with 5 per cent of women aged 50-60 showing symptoms.

‘Hashimoto’s peaks in the pre-menopausal years,’ says Dr Vanderpump.

‘There is speculation with regards to falling oestrogen and the menopause’s interaction with the immune system, but it is not really known why it peaks then.’

As standard treatment for the condition, Julie’s endocrinologist prescribed the drug thyroxine, to replace her depleted levels of the hormone. She was also told she would have to take it indefinitely.

‘I was devastated,’ she recalls. ‘I was not happy that I would have to take these drugs for the rest of my life. But they explained it would treat my condition and that side-effects were very rare.’

Julie started on a 50mcg dose of thyroxine a day and was given regular blood tests. the dosage was upped gradually by 25mcg until at one point she was on 150mcg, widely considered to be a standard dose for a case like hers.

But far from making her feel better, Julie experienced debilitating side-effects.

‘I still had terrible headaches, but also blurred vision and dizziness. I was also constantly hungry.’

Thyroxine kick-starts the metabolism and so can cause raised appetite, but Julie’s other symptoms worried her more.

‘I had spoken to others on thyroxine who told me about the massive energy boost they got from taking it, but I never felt that at all.

‘I struggled on for the next 18 months taking the drug. to be honest, my own health was the least of my worries as Isabella had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 18 months. She hadn’t reached her developmental milestones and still wasn’t walking.

‘the doctors told us that she may never walk and all I could think about was getting the best treatment for her.

‘Philip was a tower of strength — he was always so positive. But he felt I was putting all my energies into looking after the children and ignoring my own health.’

The turning point came when Julie was at home alone one day with the children.

‘I felt so ill I thought I was having a heart attack. I couldn’t breathe, my heart was racing and I was trembling.’

Julie went straight to hospital, where tests showed her levels of thyroxine were much too high and her heart was racing four times faster than normal. It’s vital that thyroxine levels are monitored in Hashimoto’s patients, explains Dr Vanderpump.

‘if you take too much it can lead to symptoms of an overactive thyroid, which can include palpitations, diarrhoea, irritability and sweating,

‘this is why patients need regular blood tests to check that they are taking the correct dose. Patients are usually on 100-150mcg a day, but this has to be judged individually and if necessary reduced or withdrawn.’

While doctors adjusted her drug dosage, Julie vowed to do everything she could to make herself as healthy as possible.

‘I started to educate myself on conventional medicines, alternative therapies and nutrition.

‘I read that the body uses two specific nutrients to make thyroid hormones, tyrosine and iodine, so I started to eat foods rich in these, including seaweed, mushrooms, beans, seeds, eggs, leeks, onions, avocados, bananas and garlic.’

With stress also being a known trigger for thyroid problems, Julie took up yoga and tried to remove excess stress from her life. While making all these changes, Julie secretly began reducing her dosage of thyroxine.

‘I didn’t inform my doctors, as I thought they would tell me not to do it. But I was desperate. each month I reduced my thyroxine by 25mcg. I knew I couldn’t stop taking it straight away, as the drug had been propping up my thyroid function for two years.’

‘But within weeks I felt a different person. my blood tests showed that my thyroid problem was improving. my energy levels had soared and the terrible symptoms I had been having eased. Within six months, I was off the drugs altogether, with my thyroid functioning on its own.’

Although Julie is convinced her lifestyle changes contributed to the improvement, Dr Vanderpump says that thyroid conditions can fluctuate naturally.

‘It may be that mrs Neville had an episode of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and needed thyroxine for a while, but then the thyroid healed itself for whatever reason.

‘however, I would not recommend reducing your dosage without consulting your doctor.’

‘There’s no evidence for the lifestyle changes she made, but it has done no harm.’

Julie, however, has kept up her new lifestyle and, four years after she came off hormone treatment, says she has never felt better and has now even set up her own health and lifestyle website.

‘I have so much more energy and feel like a different person.’

Visit winnaturally.com

Do You Have a Citric Acid Allergy?

There is some debate on the internet about whether such a thing as an allergy to citric acid is a known medical condition or not. some people, including many M.D.s and other doctors (such as naturopaths) suggest that there is no such thing as an allergy to citric acid, instead calling it a food sensitivity, a food intolerance or even a non-allergic food hypersensitivity.

Regardless of the terms currently used, the fact is that some of us have adverse reactions when we eat citric acid, and sometimes when we put it on our skin.

Citric acid is frequently made from corn, and I believe that often a reaction to corn is actually a reaction to the citric acid that is in the corn. Citric acid is found in MANY foods naturally, and not just citrus fruits and most people think.

It is also used as a cleaner and descaler in concentrations around 6% to remove hard water stains from surfaces, and it is also used to slow the rate at which concrete sets, so you can see it has many industrial and household uses.

In food, citric acid frequently used as a preservative, and many vegetable and fruits are washed in a mild citric acid solution to prevent them going brown (and looking less appealing to shoppers) by reacting to oxygen in the air (oxidization).

It is also used as a flavoring to make foods taste tart, and is sometimes used in place of lemon juice by food manufacturers. You’ll see it on the ingredients list of many canned drinks, including many colas and root-beers.

How much in the World?

In 2007 there was an estimated 1,700,000 tons (that’s 3,400,000,000 or three point four BILLION pounds) of citric acid produced, most of it made in China. Where did all this go?

Here is the breakdown:

Half of it was added to drinks, 20% as food additives, another 20% added to cleaners and the last 10% is estimated to be added to cosmetics, like shampoos and soaps.

As you can see, it isn’t just something quite rare tat you find in a few things, but rather is extremely common.

The difference Between Allergies and Intolerances

So what exactly IS the difference between an allergy and an intolerance? well, here is what I have managed to gather from my studies.

To be an allergy, technically, your immune system has to be involved. that is, something has made your immune system start to do its job and try to protect you. The problem with allergies is that too often, your immune system seems to start doing its job when it doesn’t need to, because it reacts to things that aren’t really very harmful to you, such as pollen.

A food intolerance (or food sensitivity) on the other hand, is a body’s inability to digest certain compounds in food, but does NOT involve the immune system. The reasons that this happens seems to be caused by several factors, and more research needs to be done to determine what all of these factors are.

It’s vitally important to determine whether or not you do indeed have an allergy or intolerance, and the only way to do this is to see a licensed doctor, preferably an allergist or other specialist in that field.

Allergies can be life threatening (hence me saying it’s VITALLY important) and many people are now prescribed epi-pens which are syringes full of epinephrine, which they must administer to themselves (or have others do it for them) if an attack happens when you aren’t near a physician (which is most of the time of course).

Other Food Intolerances

There are several common food intolerances, including the following:

Lactose Intolerance – which means you can’t drink milk or eat milk derived products

Gluten Intolerance – which means you can’t eat breads or any products made with wheat

Carbohydrate Intolerance – which means you can’t eat many vegetables

I’ve spoken with several doctors and citric acid intolerance (often called citric acid allergy) seems to be new to many of them. While this probably isn’t a life threatening condition, because of its symptoms, it can be very debilitating, and quite often very embarrassing.

Photo: Getty Images

If you’ve just had a positive pregnancy test you may be wondering when your baby is due. Doctors class pregnancy as being 280 days in length, or 40 weeks which is nine calendar months (because there is just a little bit over four weeks in each month).

Since no one knows exactly what day you conceived, your start date for pregnancy will be recorded as the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP). This is because nearly all women remember this date so doctors use it to estimate the number of weeks pregnant.

In actual fact, you won’t be pregnant on the first day of your last menstrual period and it’s fairly unlikely that it would occur until two weeks after that date, at the start of ovulation.

The baby’s age is referred to as its ‘gestational age’ when calculated by this method.

For instance, if your last menstrual period was 30th May 2011 then your due date will be 6th March 2012.

Your doctor can work out your expected date of delivery (EDD) for you or there are many pregnancy calculators online that will estimate your due date at the click of a button. Alternatively if you want to work it out yourself, you can:

Find the date for your LMP, add one week, subtract three months and then add one year.

For instance, for a LMP of 30th May it works like this:

30th May + one week = 6th June6th June – three months = 6th March6th March 2011 + one year = 6th March 2012

The Lunar Pregnancy Calculator

That doesn’t mean the pregnancy symptoms have driven you mad. It is another method of calculating how pregnant you are, based upon the conception date as the start of pregnancy, which is actually more accurate. the method, however, is not used in the United States. the lunar method is mainly used in far Eastern countries.

You calculate this date by starting with the date of conception and adding 266 days to give you the EDD. Your baby’s age is classed as “fetal age” when using this method of calculation and will be born around 38 weeks of age.

Both methods are only a guide as only around 5 percent of babies are actually born on their due date.

“Two percent of the population below 65 is essentially smell-blind; a quarter of that 2 percent was born without smell. Smell declines precipitously in old age; half of all 80-year-olds report diminished smell. an estimated half a million people annually see a doctor about olfactory problems,” writes Bonnie Blodgett in her book “Remembering Smell: A Memoir of Losing and Discovering the Primal Sense.” also, the American Medical Association notes that the loss of a sense of smell is growing due to high stress with more than 12 million Americans believed to have some permanent impairment in their ability to smell things such as food and flowers.

Loss of a sense of smell blamed on record high stress at a time of recession in America today

“Gerontologists invariably blame depression for their patients with poor appetites,” and even their loss of smell and taste, writes Blodgett who also had a sudden loss of smell “from a single use of an over-the-counter nasal spray.”

Doctors who’ve treated Christopher and Lea here in the central Oregon coastal town of Florence think their recent and sudden loss of smell is due to “high stress.”

In fact, an Aug. 28 report from Stone Hearth News states that “an increasing number of workers are using medical services to cope with job stress, according to a study by Concordia University economists. Total health care expenditures in the U.S. amount to $2.5 trillion, or $8,047 per person. That represents 17.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.”

Loss of sense of smell can lead to “Phantosmia,” a constant stench of disgusting stuff

“The odor was sickly sweet, and I admitted to myself why it was more than a mild annoyance. it didn’t smell like hog dung, dead fish, sour milk, sulfur, smoke, or musk as much as it smelled like death. Rotting flesh. Roadkill. Carrion is the polite term. it smelled the way Amorphophallus titanium (a.k.a. the corpse flower) smells when it opens,” writes Blodgett in her book “Remembering Smell.”

Blodgett goes on to write that “the stench” was related to her loss of smell, and doctors told her that millions of other Americans have to deal with it.

“Roughly 1–2 percent of people in North America say that they have a smell disorder and what’s been called as ‘Phantosmia.’ Problems with smell increase as people get older, and they are more common in men than women. in one study, nearly one-quarter of men ages 60–69 had a smell disorder, while about 11 percent of women in that age range reported a problem,” stated a recent report by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).

The NIDCD also notes that “both smell and taste disorders are treated by an otolaryngologist,” a doctor who specializes in diseases of the ear, nose, throat, head, and neck.

How Blodgett lost her sense of smell, and how millions of others also lose it

“In the fall of 2005, my nose stopped working. I’d inhaled a zinc-based gel called Zicam to prevent a cold. The cold was unfazed and I spent a week stuffed up and miserable. A week later I noticed a funny smell. Soon I was overwhelmed by unaccountable odors, unfortunately all of them vile. Was I going mad? an ear, nose, throat specialist knew immediately that the odors were olfactory hallucinations. I wasn’t making them up—my brain was. he prescribed an old-fashioned antidepressant that would ‘trick’ my brain into letting up on the odiferous onslaught of burning flesh, rotting fish, feces, and the like. sure enough it worked. one morning I awoke with a clear head. I couldn’t smell a thing. Now I was faced with an entirely new problem: anosmia. Imagine a world devoid of scent. no lilacs perfuming the air in spring. no telltale smoky smell when the house is on fire. no hint that dinner’s ready. no taste of dinner either. Taste is ninety percent smell. when you’re anosmic, food is fuel. would my nose get well? Only time would tell,” writes Blodgett in her new book “Remembering Smell.”

Moreover, “Remembering Smell” segues from basic genetics to the biology that drives food and appetite, sex and love.

A marketing pitch for the book also notes how “it offers a cultural history of smell, chapters on language and literature, and the latest research on illnesses caused by inhaled substances, not just cold remedies but bacteria, air pollutants, cleaning products, and anything else that enters the brain through the nasal passages. such substances are now believed to play a role in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other neurological disorders, as well as cancers and some infectious diseases.”

Computers can’t smell, and thus there’s no underlying logic about how humans can smell

“To understand smell, you first have to understand its primacy in human evolution,” writes Blodgett. “Smell is millions of years older than Homo sapiens, older even than man’s most ancient ancestor, that nameless creature that first blundered onto land from the sea and in so doing made use of one of those evolutionary add-ons, a nose that could detect odor molecules in air as well as water.”

Also, “smell scientists” note that “evolution has produced in humans an excellent overall sense of smell and, combined with taste and other inputs, humans still have the best sense of flavor in the animal world.”

In addition, there are reports from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) that “radically new treatments for a range of disorders may be on the horizon thanks to recent smell research.”

The NIDCD maintains a directory of organizations that can answer questions and provide printed or electronic information about hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. This directory is available at nidcd.nih.gov/directory.

Image source of the Human olfactory system. 1: Olfactory bulb 2: Mitral cells 3: Bone 4: Nasal epithelium 5: Glomerulus (olfaction) 6: Olfactory receptor cells: Wikipedia