Did you know that you can die from anger? Anger can cause a number of life-threatening incidents such as stroke, high blood pressure, heart attacks and cancer.

It may also flare up illnesses such as diabetes, back pain, skin disorders, stomach problems and asthma.

Well known cardiologist Dr. Willie Ong has these tips on how to reduce anger. They are:

REST WELL --
Don’t overwork yourself. When you try to work too hard you pressure yourself. If you’re well rested, it will be harder to make you angry. Take a walk, or sit down with a friend. These activities can help you to relax.

EXERCISE --
Physical exercise can reduce stress and tension. By getting your body tired from exercise, you won’t have the pent-up energy to get mad anymore. Exercise also releases feel-good and happy hormones.

DON'T DRINK ALCOHOL --
Alcohol and anger are a deadly combination. Please do not be tempted to drown your anger in alcohol because this may lead to bigger problems later on.

WAIT YOUR ANGER OUT --
If you’re angry with someone, don’t confront the person right away. Wait awhile. Try doing slow, deep breathing exercises in the meantime. If possible, delay confronting him or her for a day. When the time comes, your anger might have passed already.

THINK LONG-TERM --
Ask yourself: Is this issue I’m angry about going to affect me in a year’s time? How about in 10 years? If the answer is “No, it won’t affect me,” then you might as well forget about it.

GET BUSY --
People who have nothing much to do tend to become more irritable. Little things that other people are doing become a bigger deal and a source of irritation. It’s better to focus your energies on your own projects.

DISTRACT YOURSELF --
If you feel your anger rising, one trick is to distract yourself. Read a magazine, look at a different scene, or mentally think of a beautiful place. This will shift your mind to other things.

GIVE YOURSELF SOME ALLOWANCE --
You don’t have to be a perfectionist. Prepare yourself in advance for delays, traffic problems, and glitches in meetings.

AVOID UNPLEASANT SITUATION --
Know the things that usually make you angry. Are you going to a meeting or a party you’re not comfortable in? Before getting yourself stuck in those situations, try to either prepare for it or just avoid it.

PRAY --
As the Bible tells us, “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.” This is hard to do, but forgiveness and acceptance may be the only permanent release from anger. Everybody makes a mistake, knowingly or unknowingly. That is why Jesus teaches us to pray, Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Yes, it’s easier said than done.

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One place I'm dying to see is Disneyland. When hubby and I went on vacation to California many years ago, we never had the chance to visit Disneyland. We've been to different tourist spots in CA like the Golden Gate, Universal Studios, Sea World, etc. but not to Disneyland. I told hubby I wanted to see it but he told me we were already low on money that time so he promised me that he will take me to Disneyland next time. Many years had passed but until now hubby's promise still remains a promise. I've been dreaming to see that place one of these days. I've seen some photos of my friends in Facebook who have been there and the more I wanted to go there.

I'm not losing hope. I believe that sooner or later, when hubby will have the money that he will fulfill his promise to me and buy some disneyland tickets and take me to Disney. I understand our situation right now that we have to do what we are called to do and that is to do the works of the Lord. We have our ministry and our service to the Lord comes first before anything else. Who knows, one of these days when we will have our furlough, we will go to Disneyland. The Scriptures says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

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If you are a diabetic, do you know that drinking vinegar mixed with water after meals is effective in controlling your sugar level?

Dr. Carol Johnston did an experiment with 3 groups, one healthy group, one pre-diabetic, one with type 2 diabetes. She made them drink vinegar after their meals.

She found that blood glucose and insulin was better managed after the meal when they drank vinegar.

An interesting finding is that the vinegar helped the people lose weight! The control group who drank vinegar after meals not only controlled their sugar level but also lost weight compared to the people who did not drink vinegar.

Vinegar is also helpful in making your body more alkaline and less acidic. Every morning, add a tsp of vinegar (regular vinegar or apple cider vinegar) to lukewarm water and drink first thing in the morning. If you’re feeling tired, drink water with vinegar, after 2 hours you’ll feel refreshed. (source: naturodoc.com)

Other uses of vinegar: dab it on your acne, it kills the bacteria.

Household uses: add it to water for mopping floors, cleaning windows. Vinegar works on preventing ants from entering your house. Ants don’t like the smell of vinegar. Spray it on areas with ant infestations.

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Feeling depressed? Anxious? Moody? Apart from relaxation exercises, you may wish to consider eating certain mood-boosting food to get you out of your funk and back into sweet serenity! Here are some food that are known to positively turn sad into glad!


WALNUTS

Walnuts (available in most supermarkets like SM) contain omega-3s, vitamin B6, tryptophan, protein and folate. Higher blood le­vels of omega-3s have been linked with better mood and lower rates of depression, while lower blood levels of omega-3s have been associated with higher rates of depression and negative feelings. Omega-3s and uridine (another substance found in walnuts, which plays an important role in helping metabolize carbohydrates) worked in the same way as standard antidepressant medications.


SUNFLOWER SEEDS


Sunflower seeds contain folate and magnesium. These two substances aid in regulating and boosting mood. A handful of sunflower seeds delivers half the daily recommended amount of magnesium.

Let us tackle magnesium first. When magnesium is deficient in the body, a person will have feelings of fatigue, nervousness and anxiety. Proper magnesium levels, help us achieve a calm and relaxed state which is important in order to achieve a good mood. Magnesium supplements have been prescribed by doctors in order to treat major depression, suicidal tendencies, anxiety, irritability and insomnia.

Folate (also known as vitamin B9 and as folic acid) is a B-complex vitamin that’s closely linked with nervous system function. Folate deficiency may result in feelings of irritability, depression and brain fog, as well as insomnia which easily leads to dep­ression and irritability.

Sunflower seeds are also a good source of tryptophan and are often recommended by nutritional experts as a natural method of boos­ting serotonin levels (sero­tonin is the chemical that is present when one is happy).


CHOCOLATE

There is a very good reason why depressed people eat lots of chocolate! Chocolate contains a se­veral substances that elevate mood, including fat, sugar, caffeine, phenylethylamine, flavonols, theobromine and tryptophan.

Caffeine and theobromine are two naturally occurring stimulants found in chocolate. Along with sugar and fat, these substances provide a swift burst of energy and mood-lifting power. Chocolate also contains the mood-boosting compounds phenylethy­lamine, tyramine, tryptophan and magnesium. Chocolate also has the ability to lift our moods by just being itself! It has a rich, mouth-pleasing texture; an intense taste; and an appealing aroma. It does not matter if you are eating the locally-produced Choconut or the relatively expensive Ferrero Roche, chocolate tastes, smells and makes us feel good!

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Ovarian Cancer Treatment
Ginger may be powerful weapon in the treatment of ovarian cancer. A study conducted at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that ginger powder induces cell death in all ovarian cancer cells to which it was applied.


Colon Cancer Prevention
A study at the University of Minnesota found that ginger may slow the growth of colorectal cancer cells.

Morning Sickness
A review of several studies has concluded that ginger is just as effective as vitamin B6 in the treatment of morning sickness.

Motion Sickness Remedy
Ginger has been shown to be an effective remedy for the nausea associated with motion sickness.

Reduces Pain and Inflammation
One study showed that ginger has anti-inflammatory properties and is a powerful natural painkiller.


Heartburn Relief
Ginger has long been used as a natural heartburn remedy. It is most often taken in the form of tea for this purpose.

Cold and Flu Prevention and Treatment
Ginger has long been used as a natural treatment for colds and the flu. Many people also find ginger to be helpful in the case of stomach flus or food poisoning, which is not surprising given the positive effects ginger has upon the digestive tract.

Migraine Relief
Research has shown that ginger may provide migraine relief due to its ability to stop prostaglandins from causing pain and inflammation in blood vessels.

Menstrual Cramp Relief
In Chinese medicine, ginger tea with brown sugar is used in the treatment of menstrual cramps.

Prevention of Diabetic Nephropathy
A study done on diabetic rats found that those rats given ginger had a reduced incidence of diabetic nephropathy (kidney damage).

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Even though the effects of depression might be all too real in your life, depression is not real. If you're suffering from depression, you're only imagining it because depression is the direct result of your subconscious mind's obsession with useless thoughts that were impressed upon it during your formative years. I know that this may seem completely unreasonable to anyone who is trapped in the dark by depression - or, indeed, to anyone whose life is deeply affected because a loved one or family member suffers from depression. But it is a psychological fact. Not only that, it's the way every single person's mind works. In other words, it's normal for your subconscious mind to focus on the past - everyone's does - it's just that the psychological snapshots that your subconscious is focused on are more negative - and the subconscious mind loves negative. This is not your fault - it's the way we're all wired. Nor is it your fault that you're carrying more negative baggage than someone else. Your subconscious mind was impressed with those thoughts by others, people and events that made you feel bad, guilty, useless, upset or traumatised during your childhood years.

Now, whilst it is normal for your subconscious to focus on past deeply-rooted thoughts, it's doing you damage - you can see it and feel the all too obvious results in your everyday life. Again, there's no need to feel bad about this - everyone's subconscious mind is doing them damage - at least you have the advantage over other normal people in realizing that you've got a problem.

But that problem is solely down to what your subconscious mind is focused on - there are no other broken pieces in your make up, no damaged hard-wiring. It follows then that medication is not going to treat your problem, it's only going to ease the symptoms. What you have got to do is tear your mind's attention away from those self-destructive thoughts. This is easier said than done for two reasons. First of all, your mind has been 'comfortable' in focusing on those old childhood snapshots for all of your adult life - you're trying to break the habit of an adult lifetime. Secondly, your mind's 'default settings' are set to pay attention to what you do not want to pay attention to - it's the way you're wired as a normal adult.

So, whilst your depression's cause is rooted in your own brain - the ultimate and permanent solution to your depression is also in your own head. This solution is found by embarking on a 'self-training course' in paying attention to the only place and time that's real, the only place and time that you can really live - the here and now. This training course requires daily commitment - perhaps only five or ten minutes, but five or ten minutes every single day - otherwise your mind will drift back to its default settings. But the good news is that you won't be training yourself to do something that's foreign to you. When you were a child, you paid full attention to the here and now - that's how you took those negative snapshots in the first place. Do you think that five or ten minutes each day might be worth the bother? Could ten minutes each morning make the remaining twenty three hours and fifty minutes that much better? The answer is a resounding Yes! But five or ten minutes doing what?

You make 'sense' of your life by noticing what your five senses are telling you and then interpreting that information using your childhood snapshots. As a result, you make nonsense of the reality of the information being fed to you be your five senses. You've got to take your childhood snapshots out of this process entirely, by deliberately, for ten minutes each morning, only paying attention to what you see, feel, hear, smell and taste. For those ten minutes, you simply notice what's going on, you don't interpret it, you simply observe. When you get frustrated because your mind starts wandering - or your subconscious tries to tell you that the exercise is a complete waste of time - you simply see, feel, hear, smell and taste. I believe that the best way to relearn how to pay attention to the reality of your five senses is meditation - preferably, for starters, guided meditation. It will take you a while to get into it, you will find it difficult or strange or both but a little commitment will yield enormous benefit. And remember, you will be meditating to clear your mind - not to ascend to some other spiritual plane (if there is one) but to prevent your mind paying attention to the unreal conditioning that's playing havoc with your life.

If you do manage to turn your attention to the reality of the here and now you will experience something that you probably have never experienced before - there's no such thing as depression, there's no such thing as fear or worry, there's only a world full of possibilities and potential. Pills or medicine won't enable you experience the difference between reality and the illusion of depression - they might make the pain go away for a while but your subconscious mind will always wander back to those thoughts that are not real but just an imprint of a past long gone. The only way you will experience reality - one without depression - is to learn how to clear your mind.

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