Could you have sleep apnoea?

If you wake every morning not feeling rested than you could be a candidate of sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea is when the muscles in the neck behind the tongue relax and constrict the air passages.

The first signs are snoring when there is only partial collapse but when the collapse is complete it is apnoea. This is where you stop breathing, completely starving the brain of oxygen. Luckily the body senses the danger and you wake up slightly, start breathing again and go back to sleep.

Sleep apnoea can be caused by a number of things, one being overweight especially if you have a large neck. For women anything over 16 inches is bad because the extra fat will squeeze the throat from the outside. It can also be caused by a set back jaw or enlarged tonsils.

There are simple things that you can do, for example lose a bit of weight, don’t drink alcohol after 6pm, keep the nose passages clear or sleep on your side or slightly propped up. If the problem is serious then you will need to see a physician or doctor and see if you need to have a nasal continuous positive airway pressure machine. This machine delivers a continuous flow of air through the nose via a mask which keeps the throat open.

Are you apple or pear body shape?

Did you know that it is not how fat you are but where your fat is located that can make you more at risk of health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

If you have a “pear” body shape, which means that you store your fat around your hips and bum than you are not at such a high risk of health problems.

But… if you have an “apple” shape where you store your fat around your waist than unfortunately you are at a higher risk of health problems. Most women tend to have an “apple” shape and the larger the waist the higher the risk. They say that a waist of 35 inches and above is most at risk.

If you are overweight or obese, losing weight will lower the risks, so you need to start exercising and eating healthy food.

How to burn fat and increase your metabolism

As you grow older your metabolism slows down and you find that you put on weight easily, this because we lose muscle every year especially if you do not use it. There are a few things you can do to help speed up your metabolism and burn fat.

Here we will discuss a couple of ideas for you to try…

Resistance training or weight training is a great way to burn fat because muscle burns fat even at rest. The reason this happens is because when you have stopped lifting weights your body is still busy building the muscle you have worked on.

This one you will like - eat something every three hours during the day as this will fool your body into thinking you are eating all the time. This will keep your metabolic rate up and stops your body from feeling threatened and storing fat. Aim to eat five or six small meals a day but do remember to exercise as well.

Hope these will help you a little.

Tips on how to look younger

As we grow older you need to work harder on looking younger. There are many actions that you can take and which are simple.

1. Firstly make sure that you stand up straight and not slouched, in the years to come you might not get the choice.

2. Make sure you get enough sleep, at least 7 to 8 hours a night. Lack of sleep can make anyone look old however young you are.

3. Make sure you smile, smiling can help you look younger and more radiant.

Try these tips out to help you to start to feel and look younger, and see what a difference they can make to your appearance.

Stress reliever

Another tip to relieve stress is to laugh for about 15 minutes a day, this is a great de-stressor.

Smiling and laughter helps reduce cortisol, a stress hormone and help increase endophins, the happy chemical.

Laughter helps the body release any tension and can bring the body stress levels back to normal.

Make sure that you smile and laugh every day, it’s free and will help you feel less stressed.

Exercise and be happy

Did you know that when you exercise your brain produces and releases endorphins?

These are chemicals that help the body to be happy and motivated. They also help to calm anxiety and deal with stress more easily.

So keep on exercising, it's good for you.

Clean your digestive system naturally

One tip that I feel sure keeps me well and has help me fight off colds is…

Squeeze at least a quarter of a fresh lemon into a glass, top up with very warm water and drink this first thing in the morning before you have breakfast.

Lemon is a great scourer and cleans every nook and cranny of your digestive system. It will help you flush out your digestive system every day naturally.

Lemon also helps suppress disease-causing bacteria in the digestive system.

Make it part of your daily routine and help yourself keep well.

A tip for dealing with stress

You know what I do when I am stressed I use deep breathing into the stomach. You have to breathe in slowly through your nose and take that breathe down into the stomach area so that your stomach expands and then hold. Then blow it out slowly through your mouth, pulling the stomach in, and then repeat.

As you do this exercise you will find that you can not hold your stomach tense and so the stress slowly disappears.

I find that this helps me calm down in most situations and that it helps relax me.

Are you fit and healthy?

Do you know that being fit is essential to being healthy?

One thing that I do to keep fit is to park the car further away from where I am going, for example to the shops or to work.

These extra steps that you do each day will help you to keep moving – exercising those muscles and burning up those calories.

The more steps that you can include in your day the healthier and fitter you will become.

Do you know what you are eating?

The only sure way to know what you are eating is to buy fresh food and cook it yourself. I know most of you do not like cooking or don’t have the time but you can produce meals quite quickly if you put your mind to it.

The takeaways and the ready-made meals are convenient, I know but they are so full of chemicals, salt and stuff that are not good for you. Even eating low fat foods can be bad for you as you are missing out on important nutrients.

The best idea is to eat a balanced healthy diet so that you get all the nutrients that you require.