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It is thought that stress is responsible for the loss of up to 13 million working days every year in the UK. It is also responsible for most visits to the doctor and most serious illnesses, according to the Health and Safety Executive. This means it’s clearly a major issue – so what can be done about it? Well, there are many options for dealing with stress… but have you ever considered what your bathroom might be able to for you?

Okay, so it might sound a bit mad, especially as we usually associate showers and bathrooms with practical functions rather than a place to bust stress. However, they have the potential to help us relax and unwind at the end of a long day and so it’s definitely worth giving some thought to the potential of using your bathroom to relieve stress.

Ideally, a long warm soak in the bath is the best option, but showers can be just as effective – which one you go for will naturally depend on what kind of bathroom furniture you have. If you use your shower to relieve stress, you may well find that the feel of water beating down on your shoulders helps to relieve tension and starts to relax you. Using a shower gel or body wash that also has relaxing properties can also be a good way to start relieving stress – lavender is a good option for this.

With any luck, you’ll step out of the shower feeling refreshed and happier. Sometimes even just taking five minutes for yourself to wash away the grime of the day can make a huge difference to how you’re feeling. However, if you’re able to get a longer period of time in which to indulge in a soak in the bath, it is definitely more than worth it.

One of the benefits of soaking in the bath is that you can create a calming atmosphere in the room before you even begin. For example, some people that aromatherapy candles help them to relax and the dimmed lighting can create a muted, calming atmosphere, which is often in stark contrast to the harsh lighting of the offices that often make us so stressed. Even the act of running a warm bubble bath can be soothing – again, lavender bubble bath is a nice option, but ginseng has also been shown to be very good at restoring balance within the body and helping people deal with stress, so if you can get hold of some ginseng products, it’s definitely worth it.

In the best case scenario, you’ll be able to take your bath in a quiet house without any interruptions – if you’re worried about being interrupted, however, you could consider playing relaxing music in the background. Classical music can be very soothing, and focusing on the sounds of the music can also help you to take your mind off whatever is bothering you.

Overall, a bath or a shower isn’t the only way to reduce your stress, but it’s certainly a very good way. It allows for a little bit of important ‘me time’ and the fact that most people have a lockable bathroom door that allows them to shut themselves away is also another plus.

Source: Could Your Bathroom Reduce Your Stress? on Excited By Life - Discovery, Healthy Living, Happiness and Passion for Life by Danny Sheehan

Source: Eulogy For My Father on Excited By Life - Discovery, Healthy Living, Happiness and Passion for Life by Danny Sheehan

]]> On the 5th of January 2012 my father, Frank Sheehan, passed-away. Just as Michael Clarke was declaring at a monumental unbeaten 329 to make cricket history, Frank declared at an equally amazing 94.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmzc5XJXHMU

“My father was a man of few words. So I will keep this very, very short.

My fondest memory of Frank was a father son fishing trip on the Elliot River. After a wonderful day fishing together on Frank’s famous aluminum boat we returned to the fishing shack to eat the bounty of fish, mud crabs, and the dozens of oysters we had gathered from the mangrove roots.

That night, we roasted the oysters in the wood oven. To this day they are still the best oysters I have ever tasted. There was no television or electricity just the wood stove and kerosene lamps. Few words were spoken or needed to be. But we were never so close as on that night.

Frank’s favorite saying was

     IT WILL EITHER RAIN OR IT WON’T

Although we always laughed at Frank’s Irish like humor, his words also carried a hidden deep insight into Frank’s philosophy on Life: To not regret the past or to worry about the future (Both of which like the rain we can never predict or change). But, instead to be fully present each and every moment in Life with family, friends and those we love, no matter what circumstance life may bring us, because no matter what

     IT WILL EITHER RAIN OR IT WON’T  ~Frank Sheehan

Source: Eulogy For My Father on Excited By Life - Discovery, Healthy Living, Happiness and Passion for Life by Danny Sheehan

Source: Can Intense Exercise Damage Your Heart? on Excited By Life - Discovery, Healthy Living, Happiness and Passion for Life by Danny Sheehan

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New research suggests that intense exercise can damage your heart, at least for some people.  The researchers showed that overexertion in marathons and triathlons can cause damage to the right ventricle of the heart. The research was published in the European Heart Journal [2] and their press release also featured on BBC Health News.

For most individuals damage from intense exercise is reversible within a week of a competitive event, but 5 participants (13%) of the 40 athletes studied showed permanent heart damage. The damage was visible using Magnetic Resonance Scanning (MRI). Interesting, these 5 participants had been competing in endurance events considerably longer than other athletes in the study. The study suggests that certain people may be susceptible to damage as a result of intense exercise over a long period of time.

One of the researchers, Dr André La Gerche (MD, PhD) said

"It is most important that our findings are not over-extrapolated to infer that endurance exercise is unhealthy. Our data do not support this premise…Virtually all of the changes in the athletes’ hearts had resolved one week after having taken part in a competitive event. In most athletes, a combination of sensible training and adequate recovery should cause an improvement in heart muscle function; that is, the heart rebuilds in a manner such that it is more capable of sustaining a similar exercise stimulus in the future…

Our study identifies the right ventricle as being most susceptible to exercise-induced injury and suggest that the right ventricle should be a focus of attention as we try to determine the clinical significance of these results. Large, prospective, multi-center trials are required to elucidate whether extreme exercise may promote arrhythmias in some athletes. To draw an analogy, some tennis players develop tennis elbow. This does not mean that tennis is bad for you; rather it identifies an area of susceptibility on which to focus treatment and preventative measures.

It is important to note that this is one component of an evolving understanding of how the right ventricle is the ‘Achilles heel’ of heart function during exercise. We previously studied heart function during intense exercise and demonstrated that the load on the right ventricle (stress, work and oxygen demand) increases to a greater extent than in any of the other heart chambers. Professor Hein Heidbuchel, who I work with, has shown that the source of ventricular arrhythmias in affected athletes is almost always the right ventricle. Finally, it has been shown that intense exercise in rats causes inflammation, fibrosis and arrhythmias in the right but not the left ventricle. Hence, there are consistent messages, all implicating the right ventricle and yet it has been neglected in the vast majority of studies regarding cardiac changes in athletes. Now there is sufficient evidence to invest in the long-term prospective studies that are required.”

Another study showed that shoveling snow raises the risk of a heart attack. Heavy physical exertion can cause damage to coronary arteries. The study recommends that people should take breaks when doing heavy physical exercise (such as shoveling snow), especially if they exercise rarely or if they smoke.

Both these studies have caused me to reconsider my daily morning exercise regime. Currently I carry two 12 pound dumbbells up 2000 stairs every morning. I must admit, I have felt some pains in the chest on occasion. But there have been benefits. Since I started this exercise program six months ago I have lost 8 kilograms of weight.

Tim Ferris on on his four hour work week blog posted an interesting story about a US Military special operator who could accomplish amazing endurance feats but with less intensive training. I picked up a great tip which I will apply. The tip is to always breath through your nose during intense exercise, never through your mouth. If you find you have to breath through your mouth then you need to stop and rest.  The nose breathing acts as stopper to prevent over training.

So now when I walk up the mountain each morning I ensure that I breathe in through my nose as a regulator against over exertion and possible damage to my heart. I will also enjoy the process of walking up the mountain, not the goal of getting to the top.

[1] Image by Georgio under CC BY

[2] "Exercise induced right ventricular dysfunction and structural remodeling in endurance athletes". European Heart Journal

Source: Can Intense Exercise Damage Your Heart? on Excited By Life - Discovery, Healthy Living, Happiness and Passion for Life by Danny Sheehan

Source: 5 Enduring Old Wives Tales That Affect Personal Habits on Excited By Life - Discovery, Healthy Living, Happiness and Passion for Life by Danny Sheehan

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We all like to think that we’re perfectly in control of our own lives and that myths and old wives’ tales can’t fool us. Sometimes, though, we all fall prey to common misconceptions. This article takes a look at five enduring old wives’ tales that affect our personal habits – any of them sound familiar?

Gum takes 7 years to digest

When you were young, you were probably told repeatedly by parents and friends that you shouldn’t swallow chewing gum because it takes seven years to digest. This isn’t actually true. It’s certainly true that chewing gum is not digestible by the human body, but it still passes through your system in the standard time – it might not be much changed when it comes out the other end, but it’s certainly not going to be stuck in your stomach for years to come.

Having a bath wastes energy

Bathrooms are the source of many of our most enduring personal habits, and so it’s no wonder a couple of myths have sprung up around them. They say that the best lies are based in the truth, and this is arguably the case with the common belief that baths use more energy than showers. This is often the case – but really, it all depends on the shower. Some Bathroom Suites come with fancy power showers, which can use up to twice as much energy and water compared to a bath, as highlighted by a recent Unilever study reported by the BBC. So, if you do want to save energy by using a shower, be careful about how long you spend in there.

The cold gives you a cold

We’re all told to wrap up warm in winter – and for good reason. You can catch quite a few illnesses as a result of the cold but, contrary to what many believe, this doesn’t include the common cold. Cases of colds do go up in winter, but this is largely because of the way we interact with each other; we’re more likely to huddle together for warmth, which makes it easier for germs to spread. So by all means wrap up warm, but if you are cold you don’t need to worry too much about catching one.

Cheese gives you nightmares

This is another one of those myths your parents probably told you: cheese gives you nightmares, so don’t eat it before bed. In actual fact, while cheese can make you more likely to remember your dreams in the morning (as well as encouraging you to have vivid dreams), there’s no evidence to say that these dreams will be nightmares. This is backed up by a study carried out by the British Cheese Board.

Your head loses the most heat

Many people believe that we lose most of our heat through our heads, when really our heads are no different to the rest of our bodies: we lose the most heat through any uncovered area of skin. The ‘losing heat through your head’ myth seems to have started in the 1960s, when the US Army did an experiment on how we lose our body heat. They wrapped up their participants in survival gear – but forgot to give them hats, so their results were naturally skewed.

Source: 5 Enduring Old Wives Tales That Affect Personal Habits on Excited By Life - Discovery, Healthy Living, Happiness and Passion for Life by Danny Sheehan