Author: smithbet

I have been so anxious to create a post about the benefits of apple cider vinegar. Recently I began consuming its contents every morning and every night, or every other. My boyfriend thinks it is absolutely disgusting, yet his parents agree it is so beneficial for our bodies! Apple cider vinegar has been scientifically proven to contain benefits for our bodies and is one of the most popular types of vinegar within the natural health community. Last year when the weather turned dreadfully cold and winter came, I noticed my tonsils were swelling up due to the common cold and flu. I went to the doctor numerous times and ended up having strep throat TWICE within just a few months. Returning to a specialist, he let me know that I have overly large tonsils, meaning just the slightest irritation can cause my tonsils to swell, and become abnormally larger than other people. This will cause them to rub together and me to have severe discomfort with not much to do but wait until it heals.

What Does Apple Cider Vinegar Truly Do?

I heard about apple cider from a friend of mine within the realm of fitness. I decided to try it for myself after hearing it fights pathogens and kills the bad bacteria within our bodies. I decided on organic, unfiltered apple cider. Healthline.com backs up the fact that this is possibly the best bottle to drink. It has a murkiness to it as well known mother strands, a makeup of proteins, enzymes, and friendly bacteria sit contained within it. For the entire past winter, I had no strep throat and only came down with a very mild cold once.

Whenever I feel a sore throat coming, I make sure I remember to take apple cider that day if I haven’t already. Thehealthtips.org suggests a remedy of “1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 1/4 cup warm water and gargle every hour or so” to help fight the bacteria inside of your throat. I also recommend brushing your teeth after an hour of drinking vinegar each time. The acidic properties can be harsher on your gums so it is important to brush after use to nmake sure youre not doing it too quickly to breakdown the good gums you have.

The Manhy Benefits

You have probably heard that apple cider aids in weight loss as well. This is also true! Webmd.com claims it is due to the acetic acid within the vinegar that boosts metabolism and shows strides in aiding with obesity. Many of its properties link directly with getting a flat tummy! When I did a weight loss program, one of the things that helped kick start my day and keep me from feeling sick due to lesser amounts of food, was drinking a few teaspoons in the morning and also every night. Even crazier is how well it has worked for one of our dogs. She was losing hair and scratching all over her body, we took her to various vet techs and tried changing her meals and felt like we had done everything to try to help her. Her body was dark form the scratching scars being left behind and we felt so helpless. Randomly, my dad decided to add a few drops of apple cider to her meals and we were amazed! Her fur grew back, the darkness started to heal on her body, her energy returned, and she was no longer itching herself! Whatever bacteria that got ahold of her was completely gone!

I truly believe this stuff works wonders and more people should climb on board to see if its benefits start helping them throughout their days or the winter months as well!

A Happy You Is A Healthy You!

It’s easy to believe things immediately when you see them on the internet, but you never know what the research looks like behind these articles. Are they just made up or is someone truly figuring these so-called tips and tricks out? I want to break down a few things about different health myths I have found online, while also instilling a few weather jokes for a good hearted laugh to keep you all on your toes.

Tell Tale Signs Of A Cold?

For one, spending too much time outside in the cold doesn’t give you a cold! Webmd.com tells us that a study “found that healthy men who spent several hours in temperatures just above freezing had an increase in healthy, virus-fighting activity in their immune systems. In fact, you’re more likely to get sick indoors, where germs are easily passed”. I was always the one bundling up so tightly because I was worried if my nose started to run that was a clear sign for starting to get a cold or the flu, which clearly is not necessarily accurate information. When my nose would start to run, though, I immediately would make sure my mucus wasn’t darker colored, for I was taught that the darker it is, the more likely you have an infection. But again, this is not fully true. Dark-colored mucus can indeed mean a bacterial infection, but not always, and can commonly turn darker just from having a common cold.

Always Do Your Research

It’s important to have knowledge about what is true and what isn’t. I always suggest doing the research yourself no matter what so the information you gather is your own. People like to spread myths around in the hopes it benefits their companies or their products. In many instances, this becomes true and as humans, we end up buying into numerous different products based on societal pulls from groups that get sucked into these false advertisements. For instance, a very popular trend is the amount of water we consume. Now, this health myth is luckily a good one overall, but still, one that exudes false information. It’s said that drinking anything less than 8 glasses of water a day is specifically not good for you, and it’s important to drink over that amount each and every day. This is untrue.

Water… Too much Is Too Bad?

Drinking too much water can actually cause you to land in a state of bloatedness. Our bodies are highly efficient at letting us know when it needs something, such as water or other nutrients. In fact, most of the foods we consume contain water already, too. Healthline.com even says that numerous centers for disease control claim that “a healthy person can meet their daily water needs by doing two simple things: drinking when you’re thirsty and drinking with meals”. Despite this, you still see many men and women who carry around gallon jugs and giant hydro flasks to maintain a certain amount of water within their bodies, even though it is not always needed. Of course, water contains more benefits than negatives and taking in too much water has plenty of opportunities to exit our bodies. The thought process of thinking if you don’t hit that marked spot on your water bottle each day isn’t necessarily something that should worry you as much!

Most of the blogs I create are for ways to better improve our overall wellness so that we can become better versions of ourselves throughout our everyday lives. Growing up with parents who adopted me in their late 30s causes me to think about ways they might live healthy and strong lives as long as they can. I want them to be there to see the wonderful opportunities that present themselves in my life and future. We don’t always have the rest of our lives so lets take care of ourselves to see as much as we can.

A Happy You Is A Healthy You!

Most of us think of vitamin C as an essential dietary need, making sure we incorporate it into various different meals, yet do not think about how it really affects our immune system. Why is it truly good for us? How does it benefit our bodies?

Left Out Of The Loop

Human beings are some of the only creatures on the planet that cannot create vitamin C naturally. This can prove to be a major setback for us if not consumed enough, given it is one of the most vital substances for our system to survive. Vitamin C helps promote the production of collagen. This plays a huge role in the way our body is held together. Luckily because of how badly our bodies need it, there are numerous and inexpensive ways you can get your hands on vitamin C. LivOn Laboratories explains how they sell Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C which is “the most effective, bioavailable oral vitamin C available on the market” right now. This is because it produces a serum with close to double the amount of vitamin C ever thought possible to be contained within an oral form.

The Protector Of Our Bodies

When it comes to protecting our immune systems, Nih.gov lets us know that vitamin C serum aids in keeping the barrier function up to battle pathogens that could potentially harm our bodies. The intake of vitamin C benefits our system with the synthesis of hormones, neurotransmitters, and collagen as previously mentioned above. Nap.edu also mentions how vitamin C promotes vitamin E in the body and both are reported to reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

With the responsibility to help the growth and repair of our body’s tissue, it’s so important we incorporate high amounts of vitamin C into our daily eating habits. Oranges and orange juice are commonly eaten to raise our dosage, but Eatright.org tells us plant foods such as “beans, spinach, and quinoa” are also rich in vitamin C. Creating healthy and beneficial meals is already a great way to care for your body’s overall wellness, but adding in little things such as beans or a few greens is also key into creating a healthy immune system on the inside to match your glowing outside!

Quick Foodie Tip

Personally, for meals during my usual routine, I like to make stir fry with tons of veggies and low sodium sauces. This keeps a delicious flavor in my foods but I also know I am getting the nutrients my body needs to continue treating me well within my everyday life and schedules.

A Happy You is a Healthy You!

Hotels, restaurants, and coffee shops have helped boost the rave of lemon water. Celebrities post aesthetically pleasing pictures of this infused water and it seems as though people everywhere are drinking it! What is the hype? Well, lemon water actually produces amazing benefits for the body! If you haven’t hopped aboard the train yet, I would think about considering it!

Lemons are an antioxidant rich in vitamin C that helps decrease blood pressure and reduce the risk of strokes. Studies show that starting your mornings off with lemon water kick starts your metabolism and Healthline.com states it’s overall use may promote weight loss, too! Vitamin C keeps you hydrated and averts wrinkling and aging from sun damage and dehydration.

The benefits of lemon water on the inside of you is amazing, but the outside is impacted as well! Vitamin C attacks the free radicals in our bodies which rids us of oxidation letting off a natural glow to the skin and hair. Naturalife.org says the vitamin C found inside of lemons increases collagen production aiding in the plumpening and tightening of the skin reducing the appearance of wrinkles in our faces.

Personally, the best way I found to incorporate lemon water into my life was by waking up each morning and beginning my day with one full glass. People should be consuming at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day so starting your morning off with one automatically eases you into the start of a healthy routine. Since lemon water kick starts your metabolism, the consumption creates a bridge to prepare you for the first meals of the day.

Jamaicahospital.org helps support these statements and further explains the ways the hype of lemon water should continue on. Water itself is one of the best benefits we could retain for our bodies and making sure we consume the proper amount is crucial to living healthy and full lives. But if you are looking for ways to spice up your regular drinking water, with further creating benefits for your system, then I encourage you all to try this!

A Healthy You Is A Happy You!

Ok ok, I know the title might have already scared a few of you away but this is cool stuff! If you are like me, you may find that math is anything BUT your best friend. In fact, personally, I almost did not graduate high school because of my SAT’s being so low when it came to the subject of mathematics. But luckily, I am still able to get a good kick out of it!

In my earlier blog about “Winter Weather Tips“, I briefly mentioned the benefits laughing can have on a person. This is an actual proven fact! Healthguide.org makes the statement that

Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and protects you from the damaging effects of stress. 

With this said, I want to share with you all something a little different… Math puns! I know they may make you want to run away, but what do you call a number that can’t keep still? A roamin’ numeral…

See? Tell me you didn’t get a kick out of that. Sometimes at work, my coworker and I will do what we call a “wiggle dance”. It sounds odd, but under the stress from standing 8hrs a day and being the main faces of our business, it causes us tremendous stress. We realized that just taking a few moments out of our day to make each other laugh and smile actually made our systems relax and even our brains completely re-focus more clearly on needed tasks. Portland did a study and Education.cu-portland.edu made the comment that in their studies they found

Laughter releases your brain’s dopamine reward system, stimulating your long-term memory and ability to think more clearly. 

This completely made sense to me as I read this. Stimulating your mind in ways that cause you to chuckle actually creates a healthier AND happier you! Sound familiar? Puns are innovative and a great way to share with your friends and family.

Events such as family nights or weekends with your friends. Maybe Christmas or Thanksgiving, you could share the many different ways to throw out a pun for the entire family to laugh! Get everyone in on making an atmosphere not only hilarious and uplifting but beneficial to your bodies and minds all at the same time.

A Happy You is a Healthy You!

If you’re like me, the word ginger has you thinking of certain delicious holiday treats. Some of the most common are gingersnaps, ginger cuts, spiced apple pie, and tummy drop ginger. Tummy drop is a candy specifically created to contain healing properties to fight against morning sickness or motion sickness.

Ginger is proving to contain numerous health benefits and is able to be supplemented in multiple different ways such as capsules, spices, powder, and most popularly, crystallization. In the same family as turmeric, ginger has a history dating back towards Southeast Asia for the benefits it contains to support various health needs, including upset stomachs.

According to Healthline.com, ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory, therefore it is especially great for soothing upset stomachs. Because of its potency, many of the products including ginger sweeten it up. For the making of crystallized ginger, you can easily buy the ingredients yourself and create a beneficial candy from home! To create this tasty treat, simply add water, sugar, ginger, heat, and dry! Specific directions can be found on Nhc.com.

For myself, I will easily make my way over to Jamba Juice where they keep concentrated juices on tap containing ginger, lemon, and other varieties of healthy flavors. I even enjoy my ginger essential oil that I diffuse into the air at night or in the morning before I head to work. An article from Nih.gov also explains the thousands of years ginger has increased as a beneficial dietary product on the market due to its many healing properties. To me, it makes sense that I should take advantage of such a natural benefit.

Always consult a doctor first, but incorporating healthier options into your life, that are natural with so many proven benefits, is something to consider. After all, a Healthy You, is a Happy You!

I like to talk about health benefits a lot. This is because I am a big believer that when your body and mind are healthy, it can help mental health disorders. Mental health is very dear and near to my heart as it is something I, myself struggle with. Within this society, it is not widely talked about, and therefore more often than not extremely misunderstood.

Two of the most common mental health disorders are anxiety and depression. Focusing on anxiety, it is a normal sensation many people feel but it can turn into something much more. Mayoclinic.org well explains this experience

“Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks).

These feelings of anxiety and panic interfere with daily activities, are difficult to control, are out of proportion to the actual danger and can last a long time. You may avoid places or situations to prevent these feelings. Symptoms may start during childhood or the teen years and continue into adulthood.”

The causes of anxiety disorders are hard to explain in some instances and automatically hard to understand in others. The most common reasons for panic attacks and intense anxiety have been scientifically proven to be from traumatic events which may trigger those anxiety disorders or panics in people who “are already prone to anxiety”.

Effects of Panic Attacks

When experiencing a panic attack, your heart rate will start to escalate causing the body to trigger your fight or flight response mechanism. This then can cause all kinds of unwanted stress on the body. One technique that has consistently proved helpful, is that of diaphragmatic breathing. Commonly overlooked, it aids in the production of lowering your heart rate, decreasing your breathing so you do not hyperventilate, and using less effort and energy to breathe.

Clevelandclinic.org shows ways that you can practice this exercise to help strengthen the diaphragm and give your body a sense of peace over time. Be patient with yourself and give yourself time to heal and breathe. Giving yourself a difficult time will only make you feel as though you are not being successful or doing enough. No matter what you will always be good enough. A Happy You is a Healthy You.

With this winter weather its so important to stay as healthy as possible. Last year, I was lucky enough to have strep throat twice… yes, twice! The doctors had never seen someone get it two different times within a two month period. Eating healthy, driknking lots of water, working out, and keeping up with vitamins has proven to help me survive. My other two secrets is drinking apple cider vinegar and wearing as many layers possible.

Once the cold weather hits and the wind kicks up, it’s important to bundle up to keep your body warm. My younger cousin asked me how polar bears stay warm in the winter considering they cannot use layers to warm themselves up. Surprisingly, although I knew the answer was fur and blubber, I was curious about any extra information, so I did some research on what I could find. Nonfictionminute.org explains

“Their heat insulation is in several layers. Under their skin, there is a 4-inch (21.5 cm) layer of fat.  Next to the skin is a dense layer of woolly fur that also keeps heat in.  The fur you see is a thick layer of long, colorless guard hairs that shed water quickly after a swim. They are stiff and transparent and hollow. In the arctic sunlight, the hairs act like mirrors and reflect white light, which acts as camouflage against the snow so the bears are not seen by their prey.  Polar bear skin is actually black, so that it can absorb the invisible warm infrared rays of the sun and the bear’s own body heat, both of which are reflected back by the guard hairs.”

It was ab out this time I read that interesting fact that my dad chimed in exclaiming

“How do you stop a bear from charging?

Take away its credit cards.”

Total dad joke but strangely enough bear puns are funnier than you think! And laughing is such another great remedy to keep you healthy. What do I mean? Well, wellness can also be a mental state. During the foggy and gray days, some people experience seasonal depression which can seriously affect your overall health. Mayoclinic.org says

“Browse through your local bookstore or library’s selection of joke books and add a few jokes to your list that you can share with friends.”

Staying positive and being as effective as you can to stay warm and take care of your immune system will add so much strength to battling against the winter colds. It’s important to remember that your health also includes your mind and soul because if you’re unhappy, you aren’t giving your body the right amount of energy or motivation to accomplish the goals of your life. A Happy You is a Healthy You.

What’s Happening Right Now

For so many of us, the death of Juice Wrld is scary. Regardless of what anyone can say; a life is a life. It is a tragedy when someone so young, is suddenly gone. A successful artist, he was working his way up into the realm of rap/trap music. Riches and fame on his side, he was a drug addict and didn’t make the safest or best decisions for his overall health, which played a huge factor in his early death.

I don’t know about you, but this was again, another eye-opening moment where I find myself wanting to add more self-care into my life. With only one body and one chance in this world, I want to do whatever I can to be the healthiest version of myself possible. This for me was figuring out ways to stay active, eat right, have proper check-ups and appointments, and do whatever I can to fill my body with natural and clean substances, benefitting a healthier future.

If you are looking for tips and tricks on those exact things, be sure to check out my earlier blogs jam-packed with tons of beneficial information on ways to live healthier and what to consume that could be right for you! One thing I do want to talk about though is the benefits of collagen, a vital ingredient to holding our bodies together.

Keeping our bodies active and souls happy is probably the first thing we should do to live healthier lives. But there is no harm in helping our outward appearances too, because they also play huge roles in the outcome of our overall wellness.

Collagen aids fundamentally in anti-aging. Although used in many different forms of botox or injections, it is a great way to help your skin radiate a natural glow from the inside out. Why does that happen? Well to put it simply, collagen helps your nails, skin, hair, ligaments, flexibility, and more which is such a big part of self-image and self-care; both of which promotes a positive mental health state. Pretty neat, right? Found within your muscles, bones, and the digestive system it has been proven to support anti-aging, esspecially in woman.

Immediate use of supplements is not always needed to aid in gaining collagen, but eventually, it could catch up to you. Our bodies produce collagen naturally but by 25 you could see a drastic loss of it. This why scientists took a look at what we could begin to do to help battle that issue. They realized that adding collagen back into our bodies proved to aid in stronger skin, healthier hair, and stronger joints and ligaments.

Sounds all good, am I right? But, it truly is important to know how collagen affects our every day functioning and creates the overall build of our bodies.

So What Really is Collagen?

Getting technical here, collagen was first discovered in the 1930s and was found to be the strongest protein, 70% of which can be found within our skin. Specifically in animals, it was carefully watched and reported to be made up of amino acids which help the sizing of tissue, cell receptors, and structural support.

One of the most interesting things to me as I dug deeper into this life-changing protein, is that it contains different types and isn’t conformed to just one specific thing. There are up to three types of collagen which I find best described by the company Natural Healthy Concepts.

“Type I collagen is the most abundant type of collagen in the body — it is found in the skin, tendons, ligaments, organs, and bones, and is even found in the gastrointestinal system. It works to support skin elasticity and may support wound healing. It is also present in scar tissue. Type II collagen makes up the fluids in your joints and is responsible for cartilage production, which is essential for supporting joint health. It makes up about 50-60% of the protein in cartilage and 85-90% of collagen in articular cartilage.”

Type III collagen is often found with type I, and it is found in skin and organ cells…”

This combination ends up creating the support we so desperately want for our nails, hair, and skin – not to mention our hearts. Yes, you read that correctly. Healthline.com makes the statement that

“Collagen provides structure to your arteries, the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body. Without enough collagen, arteries may become weak and fragile.”

The decrease of collagen can be alarming and it can be difficult to understand what sorts of factors would be present due to lower levels. The Clevelandclinic.org lets us know that the appearance of

“Wrinkles and crepey skin, stiffer, less flexible tendons and ligaments, shrinking, weakening muscles, joint pain or osteoarthritis due to worn cartilage, and gastrointestinal problems due to thinning of the lining in your digestive tract”.

All of this was reason enough for me to start incorporating collagen into my daily life. There are numerous ways to intake more of this protein, even found in certain foods! Remember that the care of our bodies helps the care of our minds and souls. A Happy You, is a Healthy You!

So many of us enjoy drinking tea. Who wouldn’t? It’s refreshing, sweet, and doesn’t drain everything out of our bodies. It’s hydrating and honestly has been said to be very good for us. If you’re like me, you want to know how, but you’re too lazy to research it… It’s okay, I finally made the trip myself, and I’m here to show what I found!

Delicious tea is all around us, but my main focus is green tea. Mainly because when I was wanting to lose weight and shed a few pounds, I remember briefly coming across comments telling me that green tea aids in weight loss. As much as that’s still interesting to me now, I have become even more intrigued by what else this tea can truly do.

Through Healthline.com, their website stated that,

Green tea is the healthiest beverage on the planet.

Ok, so that caught my attention. But why? The tea leaves contain abundant amounts of important nutrients that aid in protecting our bodies cells, molecules, and reducing free radicals in our system. Found within green tea is the compound Epigallocatechin Gallate, which is shown to battle numerous diseases, such as cancer, and maybe the number one reason why green tea is so potent in its healing and rich properties.

Many people may avoid tea because it doesn’t contain the caffeine that coffee gives, but green tea still is considered a stimulant. But what it does have that coffee does not, is the ability to improve the functions of our brains and memory processes. Green tea contains a powerful amino acid called L-theanine. This amino will

“increase the activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, which has anti-anxiety effects. It also increases dopamine and the production of alpha waves in the brain”.

This helps give humans a more natural “buzz” that in the long run will help them be more effective throughout the day and more energized. But, although it is incredibly healthy for you, people who decide to drink it all day long have to also be aware that exercise, diet, and healthy activities will help increase the benefits of green tea, it cannot act alone to heal and improve your body and health. Webmd.com has a Boston nutritionist explain that

“Green tea’s biggest benefit? “It’s all about the catechin content,” says Beth Reardon, RD, a Boston nutritionist. Catechins are antioxidants that fight and may even prevent cell damage. Green tea is not processed much before it’s poured in your cup, so it’s rich in catechins”.

Lowering cholesterol and improving blood flow, green tea became a huge notice for reasearchers and scientists everywhere. In an article written by scholars Sabu M Chacko, Priya T Thambi, Ramadasan Kuttan, and Ikuo Nishigaki,

“The health benefits of green tea for a wide variety of ailments, including different types of cancer, heart disease, and liver disease, were reported”.

So could I be drinking green tea for a long time and see results? My answer would be yes! In their article, Chacko, Thambi, Kuttan, and Nishigaki wrote that

“Long-term consumption of tea catechins could be beneficial against high-fat diet-induced obesity and type II diabetes and could reduce the risk of coronary disease”.

So, as I finish my green tea while typing inside this adorable starnbucks, I think Im going to be leaving here with a great sense of knowledge that I am indeed making healthier options, and will cointue to do so within my life. I want to live a life that is full. I think I know how to do that. Im not going to let anything stoip be from being a healthier version of myself, so that I can be the happiest version of mysefl, every day.