Laughter Yoga

Research has shown that little children LAUGH up to 300 times a day, while the average adult laughs less than 15 times per day. And I’ll bet you know some people who never seem to laugh at all! What have we been missing?

It seems that the innate wisdom we had as little children faded as we grew older. The stresses and responsibilities of adult life gradually creep into our everyday experience, and can take their toll on our bodies, minds and spirits. Before long the natural sense of spontaneity, playfulness and fun that we knew as children gets replaced by seriousness, stress and worry.

Medical science is now beginning to discover that this shift in our attitudes and activities contributes to high stress levels and deteriorating mental, physical and emotional health. Laughter Yoga was developed to reverse these trends.

Studies show that hearty laughter provides three main benefits:

• First, laughing signals our glands to produce increased levels of beneficial hormones and other compounds into our bloodstream and brain. After smiling and laughing for just a few seconds, endorphins, serotonin, dopamine and other compounds begin to flood your brain. They bring a surge of pleasure (similar to the “runner’s high”), relieve aches and pains, stimulate your immune system to fight off disease, and help counteract the effects of aging. Laughing releases these compounds much faster than traditional exercise. While it takes at least 20 minutes of strenuous exercise (like running) to trigger the release of these compounds, hearty laughter releases them in only 17 seconds! Laughing is an easy way to battle the blues and improve your outlook on life. After about 10 minutes of hearty laughter, your body’s stress indicators are reduced by as much as 70%.

• Second, hearty laughter itself is real physical exercise that stimulates your body in multiple ways. The deep and intense breathing that accompanies laughter floods your body with oxygen, which helps energize your cells, clear out toxins, increase your physical energy, reduce blood pressure and prevent disease from ever taking hold. Dr. Otto Warburg, twice Nobel Prize winner in medicine, said, “Remember, where cells get enough oxygen, cancer will not—cannot occur.” The aerobic benefits of laughter are dazzling. Just one minute of hearty laughter produces the same aerobic benefits as 10 minutes of exercise on a rowing machine. Even the staccato rhythms of laughter (ha, ha, ho, ho) help to literally shake up your internal organs, promoting better digestion, improved release of toxins and healthier organ systems.

• Last, but not least, laughter shifts your consciousness into the “here and now.” Once you start laughing, shyness, fears, anxiety and worry drop by the wayside.
It becomes easy and fun to relate to other people, despite differences in age, race, culture, economic status or physical abilities. When you’re laughing, none of this stuff matters. Laughter knows no particular language, either. In fact, you could say that laughter is the Universal Language. Laughter brings out the playful side of our human nature that tends to get lost as we grow older. It’s FUN! And for many people, this is most important benefit of all.

Here’s how the Littleton Laughter Club works. As people gather at the Riverwalk Clubhouse, we chat a bit with everyone and catch up on our laughter-friends’ lives. Then at 10 am we begin with about 10 minutes of gentle stretching, clapping and deep breathing to warm-up our bodies and minds. As we’re doing this, we’ll act out the major benefits of laughter yoga in a playful fashion. Then we launch into the laughter exercises. There is little talking, and lots of laughter. The exercises are mostly physical, and allow us to act out (mime) common everyday experiences that we accompany with laughter. There are no jokes or comedy, as such. Just the playful hilarity of simple situations made funny simply by laughing at them. There are hundreds of variations of the laughter exercises, and the Littleton Laughter Yoga group encourages your creative input to choose or develop your favorites for us to share. One of our simple rules is to FAKE-IT-TILL-YOU-MAKE-IT. If your laughter is not arriving spontaneously, then fake your laughter enthusiastically until the real thing takes over. With the help of all the other people laughing, you’ll soon be yukking it up and laughing yourself silly. The laughter exercises take about 20 minutes. Then we wind down the action and move into a relaxing laughter meditation. Most people emerge from the 45-minute session feeling relaxed and energized. Some folks report that their lingering aches and pains are gone, and the stresses and worries they came in with have dissolved.

The benefits of a single laughter club session can be profound. But as with many things in life, regular practice brings additional benefits. We encourage people to attend our laughter club sessions regularly, so the benefits can accumulate. Just as doing a single push-up won’t make you stronger, a single laughter club session is just the beginning of an internal revolution that will transform you from the inside out. By practicing laughter you gradually shift your mental outlook, stress levels and overall health and well-being. Then you’ll begin to move toward a happier and healthier life. We also offer tips on how to bring increased laughter into your normal daily activities, so the things that used to bug you just become fodder for more laughter. Imagine laughing your way through your troubles…

Thank you for deciding to laugh with us! See you at the Riverwalk Clubhouse soon…

Yours in love and laughter,
Bev & Brian Davis
Our motto: Learn to laugh and be happy, and the world becomes a better place.

www.LaughBeHappy.com
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Check in your own area to see if there is a Laughter Yoga group nearby for you to begin your own laughter therapy. I am enjoying this one in Littleton, CO and have been told that there are over 6000 such groups around.

I have often heard that laughter is great medicine and it is apparently substantiated by medical science. It certainly can’t hurt us and maybe can help us.

Warmly,
Connie Clark
http://www.connielclark.com
http://www.connieclark.max4u.com
http://www.connieclark.mynuriche.com

Tags: energy, health solutions, healthy laughter, hearty laughter, laugh, laughing, Laughter, laughter yoga

Toxin Alert: Are Your Baby’s Bath Products Safe?

My granddaughter, Maya!

In this article:
Coming Clean About Dirty Ingredients
Ban the Bubble Bath?
Tips for Picking Safe Bath Products
Avoid Toxins Outside the Tub
A Less Toxic Tomorrow

Bath time for Baby should be fun, relaxing—and most of all—safe. but news reports about toxic chemicals found in popular children’s bath care products have put many parents on edge. Should you be concerned? Before you touch that tap, here’s what every parent needs to know.

Despite labels carrying such reassuring claims as “extra gentle” and “safe for Baby’s delicate skin,” dozens of top-selling children’s bath care products contain trace amounts of the toxins 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, according to a buzz-worthy report from consumer watchdog group, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Far from safe and gentle, both substances are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as “reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans.”

Coming Clean About Dirty Ingredients
Spurred by a previous investigation that detected toxic chemicals in bath products marked “all natural,” this time the Campaign decided to round up a sampling of mainstream children’s bath products. From baby shampoo to bubble bath, lotion to body wash, 48 well-known products were independently tested for 1,4-dioxane; 28 were also checked for traces of formaldehyde.

Lab result highlights?

61 percent of the products tested (17 out of 28) contained both formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. These included some big names:
Johnson’s Baby Shampoo
Sesame Street Bubble Bath
Grins & Giggles Milk & Honey Baby Wash
Huggies Naturally Refreshing Cucumber & Green Tea Baby Wash

82 percent of products (23 out of 28) contained formaldehyde at levels ranging from 79 parts per million (ppm) to 610 ppm. Exposure to formaldehyde concentrations as low as 250 ppm may cause skin rash in children with chemical sensitivities; the product with the highest level of formaldehyde—Baby Magic Baby Lotion—would require a warning label if sold in Europe (where the formaldehyde cut off is 500 ppm).

67 percent of products (32 out of 48) contained 1,4-dioxane at levels ranging from 0.27 ppm to 35 ppm. American Girl shower products from Bath & Body Works contained the highest levels of 1,4-dioxane. The United States classifies the toxin as a “probable human carcinogen”, but has not set cut-off levels for its use. In contrast, Canada and Europe completely ban products containing any amount of 1,4-dioxane.

If these results have motivated you to scour the ingredients of your favorite baby shampoo, you won’t find 1,4-dioxane or formaldehyde listed, even if you use one of products mentioned above. Both toxins are considered contaminants, meaning they ended up in the product as a result of chemical breakdown during the manufacturing process—and were not intentionally added.

As Stacy Malkan, a lead author of the Campaign’s report, points out, “because they’re technically not ingredients, formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane are exempt from current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling laws.”

Ban the Bubble Bath?
Since the study’s worrisome findings were made public March 12, 2009, many manufacturers have stepped forward to defend their products. In a statement released by Johnson & Johnson, the company noted that “trace levels of certain compounds can result from processes that make our products gentle for babies and safe from bacteria growth. The FDA and other government agencies around the world consider these trace levels safe.”

Dr. Jim Sears, MD, author of The Baby Book and co-host of the new hit syndicated television show The Doctors, urges parents to remain calm. “Since this is the first study to look at these substances in baby products, it’s probably going to be a while before we see any big changes in the ingredient lists. I’m not too worried about these ingredients, since we don’t know for sure if their effects are harmful…. Hopefully, the FDA will take a closer look at these chemicals, and if there is a problem, there will be a change in regulations.”

And according to Dr. Sean Palfrey, MD, a pediatrician in the Boston area, “What parents need to know is that unless a child actually swallows the shampoo or lotion [ingesting the product directly from the bottle], there is no immediate risk of toxic poisoning from any of these products.”

But Malkan believes real risk is present, even when the amounts being debated are so small. “These results might seem insignificant to some—it’s just a little bit of carcinogen absorbed through the skin,” she says. “The problem is that the same toxic chemicals are found in many products and these small exposures can add up. For example, the same baby can be exposed to formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane from baby shampoo, bubble bath, and body wash—in a single bath.”

Dr. Greg Germain, BabyZone’s resident expert on pediatric health, understands why this report prompts parents to feel concerned—and he’s also a little confused himself. “Unfortunately, toxic exposure is complicated and somewhat controversial,” he says. “How much exposure is really toxic? What if animal data exists, but no human data? Does mouse data even apply to your baby?”

Tips for Picking Safe Bath Products
Malkan’s report also reminds parents that small babies do not require a tub full of cleaning products every time they take a bath. Unless they are dirty, infants do not require a daily head-to-toe bathing, and when they do, water and a tiny amount of mild soap are all Baby needs.

But what if you’re in the market for new baby bath care products? How can you be sure you’re choosing wisely? Labels can still hold valuable clues about the kinds of toxins a product may contain. According to Malkan, formaldehyde contaminates personal care products when common preservatives release formaldehyde over time in the container.
The ingredients that signify that formaldehyde may lurk within the bottle or tube include the following:
quaternium-15
DMDM hydantoin
imidazolidinyl urea
diazolidinyl urea
1,4-dioxane is a byproduct of a chemical processing technique called ethoxylation, in which harsh cosmetic ingredients are processed with ethylene oxide to become gentle enough for human use. Manufacturers can easily remove the toxic byproduct, but are not required by law to do so.

Common ingredients likely to be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane include the following:
PEG-100 stearate
sodium laureth sulfate
polyethylene
ceteareth-20

Another toxin-avoiding tip? “Try to choose more ‘natural’ products with the shortest ingredient list possible,” recommends Dr. Sears.

Avoid Toxins Outside the Tub

Dr. Germain advises parents who aim to reduce their child’s overall chemical exposure to look beyond the suds: Cigarette smoke is a potent and direct source of both formaldehyde and 1,4 dioxane. By taking such steps as not smoking around your child and not exposing her to second-hand or so-called “third hand” smoke (cigarette smoke sediment on clothing), you greatly reduce your family’s exposure to these potentially carcinogenic ingredients.

According to Dr. Germain, there are countless ways parents can reduce toxic exposure in everyday life. Some of his favorites? “Avoid heating foods in plastic dishes and breastfeed your baby for as long as possible,’ he says. “Clean up mold around the house as soon as you see it, and don’t forget to install carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. Also, keep your children’s vaccines up to date. Bacteria [from illness] release toxins, too.”

A Less Toxic Tomorrow
Finally, some good news! Even before the Campaign for Cosmetic Safety’s report rocked bathtubs across the nation, positive signs started to emerge that consumers, manufacturers, and state and local governments are newly committed to reducing toxins in our environment and in the lives of children.

Consumer demand for toxin-free baby products is higher than ever, and more than 1,000 companies have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, a pledge to replace hazardous chemicals with safe alternatives. To pick up the slack for lax federal laws, in 2005, California passed the Safe Cosmetics Act, requiring companies to disclose toxic chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects. Other states have introduced similar cosmetics legislation.

“The onus should be on companies to fix this problem, because they already know how to fix it,” says Malkan. “In the meantime, we can reduce chemical hazards in our homes by choosing safer products. But we can’t just shop our way out of this problem; we also need to change the laws so parents can stop worrying about this stuff.”

The Wellness Company has been manufacturing safe products for families for over 23 years. They have a full line of kid friendly products guaranteed to be free from harmful toxins and carcinagins. (http://www.saferforyourhome.com)

Our handy Koala Pals Bath Time Pantry Pack combines your two favorite kid cleaners: Koala Pals Tear-Free Body Wash and Koala Pals Tear-Free Hair Wash. Koala Pals Tear-Free Body Wash gently and quickly removes the dirt young kids pick up so easily. In one easy step, Koala Pals Tear-Free Hair Wash tenderly cleans and conditions hair. The bright, attractive bottles and delicious fruity scents turn bath time into playtime.
Koala Pals Tear-Free Body Wash uses natural ingredients—coconuts and oats—to safely and effectively clean skin while vitamin E, aloe vera, and chamomile moisturize and soften. Using provitamin B, chamomile, and naturally derived conditioners, Koala Pals Tear-Free Hair Wash tames tough tangles stopping tears before they start leaving young hair soft and manageable for easy styling.

Remember…..these products are SAFER for your family, SAFER for your home, SAFER for the environment and SAVE you money on a monthly basis by simply SWITCHING stores.
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For information on how to order and save money, contact me at optforsuccess@msn.com or call me at 303-770-3180 and take MaxGXL, a glutathione accelerator to eliminate toxins from the body.
Warmly,
Connie Clark

Tags: 4-dioxane, alternative health, baby shampoo, body wash, bubble bath, carcinogen, children's bath products, contaminants, detoxify, formaldehyde, good health, health solutions, toxic chemicals, toxins

Parkinson’s and Glutathione – Testimonial

PARKINSON’S

Jean, Improved Cellular Function-Neurologic

I am a 52 year old woman with Parkinson’s. I was diagnosed in 2002, at the age of 47. My neurologist is Ali H. Rajput, OC, SOM, MBBS, FRCPC, of Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Canada. I was last seen by Dr. Rajput in December of 2006, when it was determined I could no longer work (I was a bakery manager at the time). This is a part of his letter to my family doctor. “Jean was examined 3 hours and 30 minutes after the last dose of Sinemet. There was a 2+ resting tremor in the left upper limb and 1+ resting tremor in all other limbs. There is 2+ postural tremor in the right upper limb and 1+ in the left upper limb. Her pronation/supernation is at 2+ on the left side and 1+ on the right side, and heel tapping is 3+ on the left and 1+ on the right. There is 1+ rigidity. Her posture is stable; she is therefore at Stage 2 disability.”

I first started taking the glutathione supplement in late May 2007. I started with three capsules in the morning and three in the afternoon. I felt nauseated, weak, developed a headache, and broke out in hives. So I then started taking only 1 capsule twice daily for three days. Then I went to 1 and 2 for 3 days. I still did not feel really well. Then I went to 2 and 2. By day 10, I started to feel really good. I actually slept for 4 hours straight, something that had not happened in the last 2 years. By day 12, I was feeling great! My medication did not “wear off” in one to one-and-a half hours like it usually did, but lasted 3 hours before wearing off! My pain level went from about an 8 to a 2. For the first time since about January of 2007, I did not have to use a cane to walk! What a wonderful feeling that was! There was no more Parkinson’s shuffle, and the cramping in my left arm and leg was minimal. And instead of sleeping half the afternoon away, I only need about a 15-minute nap. I started taking 3 and 3 capsules on about day 30. The hives have gone away and no more headaches. So, to sum up the first 3 months:

1) My energy level increased (from about a 2 to a 6)
2) I sleep for about three hours straight and for a total of about 6 hours per night, whereas before, I was lucky to get a total of 4 hours per night.
3) My medications last 3 to 3-and-a-half hours instead of 1 to 1-and-a-half hours, resulting in:
a) Less tremors
b) Less muscle cramping
c) Less muscle rigidity
d) Do not lose my voice very often
e) Do not have as much trouble swallowing
f) Pain in joints is minimal (as opposed to all day)
g) Do not need cane to walk
h) Less depression
i) My thinking is a lot clearer, not so foggy in the morning
j) Panic attacks are less
k) I feel more confident in such things as my driving, going out alone, etc.
l) Overall, more “on” time than “off” time

In September, I felt the glutathione supplement was not working as well, so I started taking 3 in the morning, 3 just after lunch, and 3 at around 4 or 5 p.m. This seems to be working well.
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I am amazed the more I read about MaxGXL (glutathione accelerator) and how it is changing people’s lives. This is the most phenomenal health breakthrough I have seen in my 35 plus years of research and study in the alternative health arena.

Since I have been taking MaxGXL, I have gained so much energy that I no longer need 3 or 4 naps a day, like I did before taking MaxGXL. My energy stays constant all day long now without any downtime and I am thrilled. I have chronic depression and take meds for that….have been taking meds for almost 20 years. I’ve noticed, though, that my mood levels have risen in the most positive way since taking MaxGXL. Maybe I will be able to go off my meds one of these days.

Warmly,
Connie Clark
http://www.connieclark.max4u.com

Tags: alternative health, alternative health product, auto-immune disorder, chronic diseases, detoxify, energy, Glutathione, glutathione supplement, health solutions, healthy immune system, Parkinsons, strengthen your immune syst