Category Archives: Health

Body Language for Confidence

June 9, 2020HealthSkyler

There are many different things that will both influence your confidence and also be influenced by your confidence.

Confidence is often a somewhat circular subject matter and this can often make it hard to know where to start.

This is the case with body language. Being confident gives you better body language. But having better body language also makes you more confident!

What Does Confident Body language Look Like?
Confident body language basically involves looking relaxed and calm.

Many of us assume that confident body language will necessarily involve looking menacing or intimidating, but the reality is that this makes us look defensive.

Likewise, attempting to look aloof or cool will simply make you look like a try hard. Remember the kids at school who smoked in their leather jackets and were just kind of tragic?

Being truly confident means you have nothing to prove, it means you aren’t overly concerned what other people think and it means you’re able to relax because you feel threatened.

For instance, while some people might think that having their arms crossed makes them seem aloof and indifferent, the reality is that it makes them look guarded and uncertain.

In contrast, if you have your arms apart and your legs apart, you are allowing yourself to be vulnerable.

This instantly makes you seem far more confident because you aren’t concerned about threat from others and because you’re allowing yourself to take up lots of space!

Look comfy and you look calm. Look calm and you appear confident!

More Signs of Confidence
There are other signs that you are confident that go beyond comfort of course.

One example is the subtle indication of ownership.

There are many ways you can subtly imply ownership but the most common is touching.

If you learn against a doorway, or if you put your arm across the back of the sofa, it creates the impression that you feel almost as though you own that thing.

That’s why leaning on a wall or door frame is a surefire way to communicate a lot of self-confidence.

The same actually goes for touching people.

And this is why touching someone on the shoulder can make you seem much more confident – especially if it is done in an encouraging and non-threatening way.

Remember though: body language is best read as a whole.

It’s not so much a matter of each individual aspect of your body language that will convey a sentiment as it is the entire package.

Type 2 Diabetes -What is Healthy?

June 28, 2017HealthSkyler

Despite the diagnosis of over 1.8 million new cases a year in the United States, Type 2 diabetes is not feared as it should be. A survey taken by the ADA and the CDC showed many people were more afraid of snake bites, plane crashes, or cancer.

Someone who is not in good health is putting their well-being in jeopardy, and the side effects could be felt for years. An individual who is overweight or obese for instance may have to deal with much more than just adiposity in the years to come. Type 2 diabetes could strike, and life, as it is known, could be changed forever. Heart disease could develop. A stroke could occur without warning. These are potentially lethal ramifications.

A person who is healthy on the other hand has the odds on his side. While unfortunate circumstances could still unfold, it would take much more to put his well-being at high risk. And the chances are what does develop could be more easily managed. For instance, if high blood pressure becomes an issue, a physically active lifestyle may be all that is necessary to bring the reading under control. This is provided the individual is eating healthily. If not changes would need to be made to their eating plan.

Many factors determine whether or not you may be considered healthy. Unless you consult a doctor, opinions will greatly differ. Some will say as long as you exercise, you are doing well. But it is essential not to forget the importance of healthy eating. Also, what is known as vices need to be controlled, before they get out of hand and damage your health in a permanent way. Smoking, for example, can have lifelong consequences, which is not news to most of us. But alcohol can also cause harm to your body. Despite these facts, there are still smokers in our society and those who drink to excess on a regular basis.

You must do what you can to be healthy. Forget what others are doing. And know you do not have to be perfect, either. A healthy body doesn’t require a perfect lifestyle; rather, all it demands is some discipline. You have to eat well most of the time, exercise regularly, and use some common sense. For instance, if you have high blood sugar levels and need to lose weight, it is unwise to binge on carbohydrates when you know you need to limit them and eat healthy carbs most of the time.

A healthy body ultimately leads to a healthy life. And a healthy life is perhaps what you should aim for as your experiences are made much more fruitful when you can enjoy them thoroughly. It is as if the odds are in your favor if you are a middle-aged adult with a healthy body and a healthy life. What can’t you achieve? Of course, many things in life are difficult to attain, but nothing worth having comes easy.

We hope you make the right decision. Remember you only have one life to live. If you want to make it the best it can be, ensure your health is taken care of.

Pre-Diabetes What the heck is that?

June 21, 2017HealthSkyler

So I go for my annual physical and low and behold I get slapped with a Pre-Diabetes diagnosis.

Pre-Diabetes? WTF!

How could this happen to me?

Now I have to do the research and learn how to live with this and how to keep from getting full blown Diabetes!

Pre-diabetes is a medical condition, in which blood sugar level is higher than normal but not yet high enough to be classified as type-2 diabetes. Without intervention, it is likely to become type-2 diabetes in 10 years or less.

Pre-diabetes can be an opportunity for one to improve one’s health. However, its progression to type-2 diabetes isn’t inevitable if effective intervention is instituted.

According to American Diabetes Association, the following are considered to be its risk factors, if one:

• Is above 45 years.

• Has BMI (body mass index) above 25.

• Is inactive.

• Has a family history of type-2 diabetes.

• Is African-American, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian-American or a Pacific Islander.

• Is an Asian as Asian counties contribute largely to the prevalence of pre-diabetes.

• Has a history of gestational diabetes or have given birth to a baby, who weighed more than 9 pounds (4.1 kilograms).

• Has a history of polycystic ovary syndrome.

• Has high blood pressure.

• Has an abnormal cholesterol level, including high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels below 35 mg/dL or a triglyceride level above 250 mg/dL.

Diagnosis of pre-diabetes –

The following tests are performed to confirm the diagnosis of pre-diabetes:

Fasting blood glucose test –

A blood sample will be taken after fasting for at least eight hours or overnight and blood sugar level is tested.

A blood sugar level from 100 to 125 mg/dL is considered pre-diabetes. This is sometimes referred to as impaired fasting glucose (IFG).

Oral glucose tolerance test –

A blood sample will be taken after fasting for at least eight hours or overnight. Then one will drink a sugary solution, and blood sugar level will be measured again after two hours.

A blood sugar level less than 140 mg/dL is normal. A blood sugar level from 140 to 199 mg/dL is considered pre-diabetes. This is sometimes referred to as impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).

Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) test –

This blood test indicates average blood sugar level for the past two to three months. It measures the percentage of blood sugar attached to hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells.

A normal HbA1C should be below 5.7 percent. The HbA1C level between 5.7 and 6.4 percent is considered pre-diabetes.

Certain conditions such as pregnancy or an uncommon form of hemoglobin (known as a hemoglobin variant) can make the HbA1C test inaccurate.

Causes –

Though the exact cause of pre-diabetes is unknown, its contributors are as follows:

• Family history of type-2 diabetes

• Genetics – some genes related to insulin resistance have been discovered by the researchers.

• Excess fat especially abdominal fat

• Physical inactivity

Ways to keep it from becoming type-2 diabetes –

Lose weight – Losing just 7% of body weight (that’s 10.5 pounds for a 150 pounds person) helps people reduce diabetes risk by 58%.

Do more exercise – Exercise regularly by aiming for at least 30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week and weight training twice a week.

Change diet – By being sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need and sticking to small portion sizes and eating regularly scheduled meals, you can avoid high blood sugar.

Reduce stress – A stressed system pumps out hormones that increase blood sugar. Strive for calm by meditation or ways that work best for you.

Have regular sleeps daily – Deprivation of sleep derails the metabolism. People who clocked less than 6 hours a weeknight for 6 years are more than four times likelier to see their blood sugar climb into pre-diabetes territory. Those who got 4-5 hours of sleep for just four days become more insulin resistant, setting up the stage for high blood sugar.

Have periodic blood tests – One should have one’s blood tested periodically for blood sugar and HbA1C on a regular basis so that one can know when to take stringent measures for its control.

The bottom line is that pre-diabetes is most likely to progress to a full-blown type-2 diabetes, if adequate preventive measure are not taken. Since type-2 diabetes has already reached epidemic proportions all over the world, pre-diabetes, if not checked in time, will further deteriorate the worsening global situation of prevalence of type-2 diabetes.

Have You Seen Some Of These Faces of Stress?

March 19, 2017HealthSkyler

Stress affects each individual differently, according to the cause and its effects. Therefore, there are different kinds of stress as recognized by clinical and research studies. It is important for us as individuals to recognize the causes of stress in order for us to be able to deal with it, and hopefully reduce our stress.

We’re only going to talk about four types of stress: acute stress, episodic acute stress, chronic stress, and psychological stress.

Acute stress arguably the most common form of stress, which can result from the pressures we are subjected to in their everyday life. In small doses of acute stress, it can actually be beneficial to an individual. Think of athletes that are about to compete in an event. They experience acute stress, which triggers the production of adrenaline and gives them a burst of energy needed to perform their best. The symptoms for this type of stress are easily recognizable and mostly affects a person only in a short-term. Common symptoms include back or neck pain, muscular tensions, headache, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, cold hands or feet.

Episodic Acute Stress, as mentioned above, acute stress is quite common to most people. However, there are a few others who experience it more often than others. These people are the ones who are so focused on achieving organization and yet always fail when it comes to performance. Therefore, it is not surprising that they often become irritable, if not with themselves than their initial environment. This also explains why they find the workplace quite a stressful environment. Other forms of episodic acute stress are those people who keep worrying. They have become so pessimistic about the environment that they always expect the worst will happen. Hence, they end up feeling awful, tense, or anxious without having clear reasons for feeling that way.

Chronic stress, is the type of stress that wears one out. Plus, it builds up over time and can produce long-term effects on a person, whether emotionally or physically. Most forms of chronic stress are caused by trauma that they find difficult to let go and so it continues to disrupt their everyday lives. One problem with chronic stress is that people often believe that it is something that is innate to them and that they cannot get rid of. Thus, it makes treating this condition difficult because it is often ignored by the person affected by it. It can, however, be treated through stress management procedures and behavioral treatment.

Psychological Stress has its own set of complexity. With the different types stated above, psychological stress concerns more of a person’s ability to respond to a given situation. To be specific, the loss of that ability. During dangerous situations, your body produces hormones known as adrenaline and cortisol that prompts the body to make a response. Compare this to charging a battery that produces high voltage that must be discharged. In the case of a person suffering from psychological stress, the body fails to discharge that burst of energy that is produced. The continued raise in your heart rate and the production of adrenaline and could result in harmful problems with your heart.

There are numerous schools of thought as to how we acquire psychological stress, but it can include trauma suffered from an emotionally disturbing event in the past or other emotional anxiety. The problem with people suffering from psychological stress is that they tend to induce more stress in their lives by subjecting themselves to stressful situations.

The best way to manage your stress is to learn healthy coping strategies like visiting Pablo’s help desk.com. Moreover, each type of stress has different approaches to treatment. If you feel that stress is effecting your performance or health contact your Primary Health Care Physician for their advice.

Pablos Help Desk

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Category Archives: Health

Body Language for Confidence

Type 2 Diabetes -What is Healthy?

Pre-Diabetes What the heck is that?

Have You Seen Some Of These Faces of Stress?

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