PujariCenter's blog

Are Sleeping Pills Deadly?

PujariCenter — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:04:17 +0000

Study: A study published in the BMJ Open journal reported that people taking 18 sleeping pills a year had a 3.5 times higher risk of dying compared to people who did not take sleeping pills. Patients who took more sleeping pills faced higher risks: those who took 132 or more sleeping pills a year had a 35 percent increased risk of cancer, and a death rate that was 5 times higher than the people not taking any sleeping pills. Types of prescribed sleeping pills included Ambien, Sonata, Lunesta, and Temazepam.

This study, conducted by Dr. Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, followed people for an average of 2.5 years. During this time, more than 10,000 of the participants were prescribed sleeping pills within the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania; these people were matched with participants who were not taking sleeping bills but were similar in age, lifestyle and underlying health issues.

Guest Blog: Brain Fog, Anxiety and Food- by Shannon Sunde

PujariCenter — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:58:07 +0000

Brain Fog, Anxiety, and Food

When I was 19 years old, I began experiencing very strange feelings. I was dizzy constantly and my heart raced; I couldn’t sleep; I felt fatigue and left-sided numbness. Often it seemed like I was under the influence of a drug without anything like this in my system. I was constantly in a haze or brain fog.

I was busy earning my BA from the UW. I worked more than 40 hours a week and it took me six years to finish my degree. The brain fog created a small world for me. Anxiety began to take over, leading to panic attacks and agoraphobia. I went to several medical doctors, convinced there was something utterly wrong with me; I had a brain tumor, a heart defect, MS, something. I was offered many different anti-anxiety medications, muscle relaxers, anti-depressants, and tranquilizers. Sometimes I took them; others times I cried and refused them and left the office defeated. I underwent allergy testing, ear testing, an MRI, and countless blood panels. Nothing out of the ordinary showed up on any test.

Tai Chi and Sleep

PujariCenter — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:13:59 +0000

Q. Besides taking sleep medication, what else can I do to relieve my insomnia?

A. First of all, taking prescription sleep aid medication is typically only effective for the short term. Over the long haul, as you know from the article above, taking prescription medication for falling asleep can disturb your sleep stages throughout the night, may cause daytime sleepiness, and may have negative effects on your overall health.

The primary step to solving a sleep issue is to make sure to create healthy sleep habits. Your bed is for sleeping and intimacy only, so don’t read or watch TV or surf the Internet in bed. Make sure your bedroom is a quiet, dark, peaceful environment. If you awake during the night, don’t stay in bed. Get up and do something you find relaxing, whether that means reading, meditating, or having a cup of decaffeinated tea.

Saunas For High Blood Pressure

PujariCenter — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:42:22 +0000

Q. My neighbor just built a sauna. I’ve heard that sitting in a sauna is good for my high blood pressure. Should I take my neighbor up on his offer to use his sauna whenever I feel like it?

A. There have been a few studies that look at saunas as therapy for high blood pressure. First, though, ask your neighbor if his sauna uses radiant heat or infrared heat. Radiant heat saunas are usually wood-paneled rooms using radiant heaters that put out dry or heat or wet steam. However, the two best studies I know of regarding saunas for lowering high blood pressure use infrared saunas; these rooms are warmed by infrared heat lamps.

Fruit & Veggies & Omega 3’s: Can they Protect Us from Alzheimer’s Disease?

PujariCenter — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:59:54 +0000

Study: Dr. Gene Bowman and his colleagues studied 104 healthy, well-educated non-smokers without memory or thinking problems, reports a recent Medical News Today article [: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239762.php]. In this study reported in Neurology online on December 28, 2011, the researchers studied nutritional markers in the participants’ blood. Each person underwent memory and cognitive testing and 47 people also had MRI scans to quantify their brain matter.

Guest Blog: Letting Go Clears Space For Something New- By Julie Jameson

PujariCenter — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:10:44 +0000

Letting Go Clears Space for Something New

Recently I had a dream about my son John. In it, I sensed he had been having troubles the night before. When I called him and expressed this, he confirmed this – girlfriend trouble, more specifically. He was feeling crushed and emotionally overwhelmed. When emotionally intense situations have arisen in the past, my son has often turned to drug and alcohol to alleviate his feelings.

Can You Use L-theanine for Anxiety?

PujariCenter — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:42:04 +0000

Q. Can you use theanine (aka L-theanine) for anxiety? A young woman recently told me she was using it, and said it helped, but I wasn’t sure what it was, and if it really worked.

A. L-theanine is a common amino acid found in tea leaves and some types of mushrooms. Green teas usually contain 1 to 3 percent of L-theanine. This amino acid may help ease anxiety by increasing levels of certain relaxation promoting neurotransmitters including dopamine and serotonin, which are so-called “happy chemicals” your brain uses to elevate your mood.

Laughter IS The Best Medicine!

PujariCenter — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:40:02 +0000

Want to lower your cholesterol, have fewer heart attacks, or have better blood sugar control? Try laughing! Amazingly, it may be better for you than even taking a medication.

Let’s take a look at a few studies. During a Loma Linda University study, Lee Burk, DrPH, MPH, divided 20 diabetic patients at high risk for getting heart disease into a laughter and a non-laughter group. The participants of the laughter group watched a funny video for thirty minutes every day for a year. At the end of the year, the people in the laughter group saw their good cholesterol (HDL) rise by 26 percent, and had a 66 percent decrease in the inflammation markers in their blood compared to the control group. This is important because both HDL and inflammation have been shown to be important risk factors for developing heart attacks.

Guest Blog: Changing a Critical and Self-Critical Nature By Julie Jameson

PujariCenter — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:35:54 +0000

I have a friend who thrives on wanting to be helpful. He’s observant, experienced and insightful, applying new things to his life all the time. Sometimes, though, he’s convinced whatever works for him should work for you, and insists on you taking action. If you don’t, there are subtle and not-so-subtle feelings that he’s judging you for your unwillingness to do as he thinks is best for you.

This desire to change others and not accept them as they are may be a mirror of what is going on inside of us. We all are in a state of growth, but if the imperative to change comes from a need to control or a sense that we’re imperfect, we are like the proverbial dog, always chasing our tail. We are never going to love ourselves fully because there’s some other way we could’ve been “better.” On the other hand, if we love ourselves completely and unconditionally, we can listen to our whole being, making changes from a place of love and desire to expand.

How do you change your own self-critical nature? And how do you change the feelings of inadequacy if you’re on the receiving end of a critical person’s attention?

Can Mediation Benifit Me Even If I Have Little Experience?

PujariCenter — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:21:26 +0000

Meditation is in the news again, thanks to a study published this week which compared experienced and beginning meditators.

Study: Researchers at Yale did functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on 24 participants: half of whom were experienced meditators and half who were novices. Functional MRI is a form of imaging which allows you to map blood flow changes in the brain as it works. The 12 experienced meditators had reduced activity in a part of the brain called “the default mode network” but had more activity in the posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - all parts of the brain that manage “self-monitoring or thought control”.