IN YOUR DAILY DOSE: today is research that demonstrates eating sugar during your pregnancy may have detrimental effects on your child.

MAKING CHANGES: Reducing your sugar intake can be challenging as sugar may be as addictive as cocaine in some people.

FACT OR FICTION: Four Cool Facts About Your Heart

In The News

Research from Queen Mary University in London discovered that women who ate high amounts of sugar during their pregnancy may also increase the risk of allergy and asthma in the child. Nearly 9,000 mother - child pairs participated in the study.

Recent research has also associated a high intake of sugar in children with a higher rate of asthma.

SOURCE: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705211904.htm

Daily Health Tip

Simple but Challenging: Eat Less Sugar

Making Changes

Learning to eat less sugar each day may be challenging but it is very doable. Consider the improvement you’ll experience in your own health and the diseases you’ll prevent in your growing child.

The strategies you use to reduce your stress are the same strategies you may use to reduce your sugar cravings. Consider adding magnesium to your daily supplement intake as a low level of magnesium may add to your cravings.

1. Get 8 hours of sleep a night. When exhausted, your brain does not function as well. You will have more problems with focus and with the ability to think through problems. In fact, when tired, your brain functions as if you have been drinking alcohol with reduced reaction time and processing speed.
2. Get 20 to 30 minutes of sunshine each day. Sun is a great way for your body to manufacture vitamin D, but it also affects your brain and your mood. If you can’t get outside, use a light bulb in the house designed for people with seasonal affective disorder. All of us benefit by being in the sun!
3. Exercise every day. Whether you are walking after lunch and dinner or working out for an hour at the gym, get some exercise. Your digestive system works better, your arteries will be healthier and your mood better too.
4. Drink enough water to stay hydrated. Your urine should be light straw color. If it’s darker then you aren’t drinking enough and if it’s lighter you are drinking too much.
5. Find what works best for your stress reduction. Some people practice yoga, others just exercise and others find that prayer helps to relieve their stress of everyday living. However you choose to manage stress, it’s important that YOU manage stress and not that the stress in your life manages you.

There are several different stress reducing activities you may have tried but the following three are our favorites as they are supported by research and they work, whether you believe they will or not. In other words, there is no placebo effect with these strategies - when you practice them consistently and correctly you WILL enjoy the benefits. And one of the nicest benefits is stress reduction.

Don’t just read these - actually DO THEM.

1. Exercise - you may not want to hit the gym and sweat to the oldies, but you can go for a 30 minute walk after dinner each night. The combination of being outdoors in the sun and exercise has a calming effect on your nervous system. If being outside is out of the question, try an indoor bike, exercise ball, mini-trampoline or any other activity that raises your heart rate. You aren’t training for the Olympics, you’re just moving.

1. Emotional Freedom Techniques - this is a bit like acupressure, using specific areas of your body to interrupt energy pathways. This is NOT some new age nonsense, but is based on 1,000s of years of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It helps reduce stress and anxiety and can even help improve your motivation. It’s easy to learn, can be done at home or even in public and takes just minutes. You can learn more about it here: http://eft.mercola.com/
2. Yoga - that’s right - yoga. It can be a simple form that isn’t very physically taxing or you can try a Hot Yoga class done in a room heated to near 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Research demonstrates that yoga has a significant number of positive benefits to your health, well above reducing stress and anxiety.  Just 12 minutes a day may reduce your potential for osteoporosis, reduce stress, depression, anxiety and improve your cardiovascular health. Simple, easy and 12 minutes a day - do you have an extra 12 minutes each day to reduce your stress?

Daily Affirmation

Study, prayer, and meditation prepare me to live my faith. I build a strong foundation that inspires and empowers me. I develop the courage and wisdom to overcome challenges, and use my spiritual gifts to serve others and create a better life for myself.
My faith encourages me to give more. I share my time and resources with my family, friends, and community. I comfort a friend who is feeling blue and help an elderly neighbor with yard work.

Fact or Fiction?

Your heart is an incredibly powerful and wonderful pump. In today’s fact or fiction you’ll discover four cool facts you can share with your friends.

Your heart is a pump - but you already knew that! What you might not realize is that it’s a super pump that can push blood out to every part of your body, delivering life giving oxygen and nutrients. Your heart will pump between one and seven gallons of blood each minute, depending upon your activity. In fact, there is so much pressure that blood will squirt 30 feet across the room if an artery close to the heart is pierced. That pump is located close to the center of your chest and not over the left side as you might think. However, the heart is tilted to the left, which is why you’ll feel the pulsations through the rib cage on the left side of your chest. Although pictures and cartoons portray a red heart, the muscle is actually more of a colonial red brick instead. And, because of the fat on the surface of the normal heart, the muscle takes on a yellow hue.

Have a wonderful day!

Your Healthy Life America Team