Posted on 14 Jul, 2011 -
When anger, cucumber and supermarkets are good for you
How a trip to your supermarket could save your life this summer
Natural remedies for sunburn and insect bites
Two new causes of depression ‘discovered’ - and why anger can be good for you
Dear Reader,
I have a whole collection of natural summer remedy tips, reader’s hints and interesting facts to regale you with this week.
A few weeks ago, for example, when I told you about the brilliant 100% natural ingredients suncream, reader Michael wrote in to remind people that other key things you can do to protect yourself against the sun are to remember to wear a hat - and to keep out of the sun between 11 and 3.
He also had the interesting tip that when the weather gets very hot, head to a supermarket to avoid overheating. Enjoy the cool air conditioning for free and you could save yourself from heat stroke. And if that’s not cold enough for you, open up one of their huge freezers and stick your head in for a few seconds!
Natural remedies for sunburn and insect bites
If you do catch too much sun and burn, Ray Collins (who we met on Monday) recommends mixing one part lemon juice with three parts water. The juice acts as an astringent and calms the skin down. This can also be used on bee and wasp stings to relieve pain and inflammation.
Other alternatives for sunburn are aloe vera, apple cider vinegar and cucumber slices. Do avoid using products containing petroleum jelly. You can also try taking a cool bath to which baking powder has been added.
If you are bitten by ants - as I was a few years ago in Italy - my friendly chemist recommended treating it with a paste made out of bicarbonate of soda (or baking powder) and water. When an ant bites you, it injects you with formic acid which is what the bicarb helps neutralise. I applied the paste and then bandaged it on. This is also a great way of treating bee stings.
Slices of cucumber are also useful for easing any kind of sting or bite.
Dietary connection for hay fever
If you suffer from hay fever, make sure you’re getting enough omega 3s and vitamin E. A recent study in Germany that analysed the diets of 1,336 people found that those with a higher intake of these two nutrients were less likely to suffer hay fever. Omega 3s can be found in salmon and other fatty fish, walnuts and flaxseeds. Vitamin E from wheat germ, sunflower seeds and almonds.
And lastly on the health front, don’t forget to pick up some of that natural suncream
to avoid all those nasty chemicals that can get baked into you when you use normal suncreams and cause rashes. You can find some on my website (brand new shop coming soon!)
Two new causes of depression: internet over-use and Facebook Depression
There are, of course, as many causes for depression as there are people. For certain people, depression is an underlying issue which will crop up repeatedly through their lives. For others it is more likely to be an isolated incident brought on by a specific traumatic experience or stress.
Causes, of course, will also change over the course of history as social trends and events affect the ways in which we all live our lives.
Two recent modern causes of depression I have been reading about are the overuse of the internet and - even more specifically - what is now being dubbed ‘Facebook Depression’.
A recent study carried out by Leeds University and reported by the journal ’Psychopathology‘ found that there was a strong link between excessive internet usage and depression. While internet usage is not particularly seen as a danger, there seem to be a small number of users who seem to develop a compulsive internet habit where they replace real life and proper social interactions with a life online.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, ‘Facebook Depression’ could one day become a clinical term for a condition that can develop when particularly preteens and teens spend a large amount of time on social media sites where there is often a huge emphasis on needing to appear cool.
I have also just read that sibling rivalry comes high on a list of causes of depression. Feeling that we were not treated as well as a sibling - or that the sibling was somehow better than us - can cause problems later on in life.
Procrastination and depression a new study declares, are also often bedfellows.
When and why anger is good for you
Anger, these days, is generally seen as a negative thing that we should not feel and should try to control. Almost as if it is unseemly, perhaps. Or embarrassing. Or a sign of weakness of some kind.
But it has not always been so. As Aristotle said in the ‘Nicomachean Ethics’: ”The man who is angry at the right things and with the right people, and further, as he ought, when he ought, and as long as he ought, is praised.”
While we are told that it is better for us to vent our negative emotions rather than keeping them bottled up inside, we are also told that getting too angry can be bad for the heart and our blood pressure.
According to new research carried out at the University of Valencia in Spain into the affects of anger on the body and the brain, getting angry does make your heart rate go up and prolonged anger can certainly be bad for your health. On the positive side, it would seem that expressing anger also increases blood flow to a part of the brain believed to be involved in feelings of happiness.
Another study in support of the positive affects of anger carried out by psychologist Jennifer Lerner in 2005 found that people who respond to stressful situations with short-term anger are more likely to have a healthy feeling that they are in control of their own lives and destiny - and a higher degree of optimism.
On the other hand, chronic anger, a hostile outlook on the world and explosive anger that is unjustified by the situation still come out as bad for your health.
Anger, in fact, can play a crucial role in the way we create and organise our life and protect ourself from harm.
Anger - part of a well-balanced and successful life
Life, it may seem, is an everlasting battle between right and wrong, good results and bad results. In order to get on we need to make goals for ourselves and our family and also goals for society as a whole. When things do not happen as we believe they should then a certain degree of anger is a natural response. If we never got angry we would also lack the impulse to try and create a better life and a better world.
It all come downs once more to the careful line we must tread with our goals and expectations. If we expect too much - or we expect life to always be trouble free and to do exactly as WE wish - then we will always be disappointed and angry. On the other hand, a certain amount of aspirations and positive goal-making is important for our progress and satisfaction in life - as long as we remain flexible…
More on that another week!
Best wishes as ever
