5 shocking sex facts

Sex can help you give a great speech

Before you get carried away, we are not suggesting you hop into bed with your boss or sleep with the entire audience. However, having sex can help ease those all too familiar and very dreaded pre-speech nerves. This theory was developed by the psychologist Stuart Brody, who asked 22 women and 22 men to keep sex diaries about their bedroom antics. The group of men and women then had to undertake stressful tasks, like public speaking and mental arithmetic tests. Brody found that the couples who had had penetrative sex were less stressed and their blood pressure levels returned to normal at more speed that the others. Sadly though, those who “did it” alone did not reap the calming benefits, so buddy up before your next big speech.

A couple kissing

The Victorians were filthy

It turns out that the Victorians weren’t the tight-lipped prudes we once imagined. In fact it would seem that the Brits of the nineteenth century were a rather fruity bunch. Not only was this the age that heralded the vibrator as a cure for hysteria, but it also saw a rise in kinky behaviour and tools, such as nipple piercings, pubic wigs and some rather gruesome looking sex chairs. The sauciness doesn’t end there though. Although it is still disputed, it’s thought that the term blow job also derives from this “prudish” period where people would speak about a ‘below job’ and referred to prostitutes as ‘blowsys’.

We kiss to inoculate

Researchers at the University of Leeds believe that humans kiss to inoculate. Women who catch cytomegalovirus typically cannot carry a baby to term. However, if women are exposed to the virus in small doses then they become inoculated. And how can you inoculate against the virus? Why, through swapping saliva of course. Therefore, the brain boxes at the University of Leeds have concluded that we don’t jump into bed with each other straightaway because if we did we might infect women. Therefore we kiss to protect women from catching cytomegalovirus. So pucker up and stay healthy by smooching.

Giving oral is as good as the gym

Sadly girls, giving oral will only benefit you if you’re the giver not the taker. A study has found that pleasuring a guy and swallowing can lower women’s blood pressure and reduce their risk of getting pre-eclampsia. However, if you don’t have the stomach to tackle your man’s area in this way there are other ways you can lower your blood pressure. Another study found that having regular sex with a partner you lived with could lower your diastolic blood pressure, whilst another study found a link between cuddling and reduced blood pressure. So, although you shouldn’t give up on the gym altogether, ladies, it might be worth swapping your sports kit for something a little slinkier once in a while.

Sperm is a great face cream

Although it’s not a great idea to bottle your man stuff and give it to your girl as a present, it turns out that sperm contains protein, which if applied to the face has the same anti-wrinkle benefits as moisturising creams. Apparently the white stuff can tighten skin and give you a little surgery-free facelift. Interestingly, this isn’t the only benefit sperm has to offer. It also contains zinc, magnesium, calcium, potassium and fructose. Plus, if you’re still not convinced that sperm is super, a recent study in Albany found that women who had sex without condoms had fewer signs of depression than women who used condoms or did not have sex at all.

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The Health Benefits of Drinking Tea

A number of scientific researchers have been investigating the possible health benefits contained within the hot drink. And now it appears there’s a growing body of evidence to suggest that drinking tea could actually ward off some very serious conditions, including cancer, obesity and dehydration.
Studies have suggested that drinking three or more cups of tea a day could actually be better for you than drinking the same amount of water, with the antioxidants contained within tea boosting the body’s health, at the same time as rehydrating it.

The main health benefits of tea drinking ...

Here are some of the key health benefits that scientists reckon tea drinking can have on the body:

• Tea reduces the risk of heart disease — Tea can potentially improve the blood flow around the body, by widening key arteries and reducing the risk of clots. Tea also contains antioxidants called ‘flavonoids’, which may slow down the onset and risk of heart disease.

• Tea hydrates the body — Although water is the prime fluid for rehydrating the body after exercise or a long day in the office, some scientists believe that drinking tea could be equally useful. Although high in caffeine, tea is still great for hydration as it provides a rich and flavorsome source of water.

• Tea prevents tooth decay — Believe it or not, a regular supply of tea can really strengthen your teeth and lower the risk of tooth decay. Tea is a great source of fluoride, which can bolster tooth enamel. The antioxidants contained within a cuppa have also been known to fight against bacteria and gum disease. So get slurping!

• Slimming through tea drinking? — Some scientific studies have suggested that regular tea drinking can help to keep body fat down by speeding up the burning of calories. If nothing else, it’s less fattening than sipping on a soft drink ...

• Boosting memory power with tea — Many scientists believe that certain types of tea, such as green tea, can strengthen memory cells in the brain, and offer protection from the development of dementia and even Alzheimer’s Disease. No wonder old people drink so much tea ...

• Beating cancer through the power of tea — Some high-profile studies have recently suggested that tea drinking could seriously help your chances of avoiding cancer. Although research is still developing in this area, reports indicate that prostate, mouth and breast cancer cases are much lower amongst those who regularly drink five or more cups of tea a day.

Types of healthy tea

With so many potential health benefits, there’s never been a better time to put the kettle on. But which form of tea is the most beneficial to you? Is that large cup of creamy, sugary black tea really going to help your body feel better? Let’s find out ...

• Green tea — In addition to the numerous health benefits mentioned above, green tea has also been found to boost the performance of the liver, and prevent arthritis by strengthening bones. However, to get the most benefit from your green tea drinking, try and brew it from loose leaves rather than the tea bag. It’ll add flavor, and allow more antioxidants to be released into your cup!

• Black tea — Whilst green tea often grabs the headlines, black tea also possesses many of the health bonuses mentioned above. Offering a strong source of antioxidants, it is great for preventing viruses in the mouth and gums and has also been known to widen impaired arteries by as much as 50 per cent, preventing blood clots.

• Wu long (or oolong) tea — This Chinese tea is said to be the best for burning off calories, as well as boosting the body’s immune system. Unlike green tea, wu long tastes sweet instead of grassy. It therefore offers a much more welcoming taste, in addition to its myriad body benefits.

So don’t be ‘tea-total’ ... Brew up a healthy cuppa today and you’ll be feeling tea-rrific in no time!

https://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/health-benefits-drinking-tea-133231527.html

How To Beat Depression - Simple Tips

Because of the increase in depression, there has been a lot of new methods of dealing with depression making it easy for people who suffer from depression to find a method that works for them. I will go over the simple ones.

Reaching out to multiple people in multiple places for support is a big help. Finding someone who has struggled with depression can be beneficial to you and your treatment by learning from each others struggles and sharing coping strategies.

Being realistic about your priorities and expectations is crucial to battling and defeating depression. Don't expect too much. Expecting too much is setting yourself up for failure and the feeling of being a failure will trigger your depression. Simple adjust your goals to something more realistic.

Social networking is a great way to concur depression. Adopt a friendly attitude, meet new people and start making new friends. Take an interest in what and who is around you, doing so will show them that you are open to a conversation and talking always helps. Free therapy! Ask the people around you, if you're comfortable enough, to avoid negative comments and using a negative attitude.

A healthy diet is very important for anyone suffering from depression. Depression can affect your appetite, making eating feel like a chore. In order to be healthy you will need to eat consistently and well, even though there may be a lot of times when you won't feel hungry.

Decorate your house with bright colours. Believe it or not, everything from the paint on your walls to the weather outside your window affects your mood. Instead of bland tan walls, try a sly blue paint. Throw a yellow duvet on your couch. There are all kinds of things you can do to brighten your house and lighten your mood.

Your body, mind and soul will benefit greatly from changes. Again, making new friends can help with your depression. Make an impact on your mood and life by picking up a new hobby or going for a walk. Any change, small or big, will help you get out of your rut.

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An Evening Without A Drink?

For many years I have struggled with the challenge of staying sober at any social event. The very concept of sobriety would scare me so much that I ended up drinking even more than I normally would. How could I stay away from that first drink of the evening? Alcohol is everywhere at a social gathering or party. Usually I simply gave in to my temptation as I felt it was just inevitable that I would be drinking so I would start drinking immediately to offset the battle that raged in my mind. However after many years of doing this I found a simple method that changed how alcohol controlled my behaviour.

• 1. In the early evening I found it useful to eat a proper meal before going to a party. Drinking on an empty stomach changed the way alcohol affected me and I always drank more because of this. I discovered it was very important to eat an adequate meal before departing. After eating I felt that I was more in control of my mental perceptions and I felt better equipped to deal with my internal struggle regarding my impending drinking session.

• 2. If you have a close friend who knows of your difficulty with alcohol then ask them to keep an eye on you. If you know someone is watching how much you drink it can make you drink slower.

• 3. Before leaving the house, look in your bedroom mirror and make sure you are looking as well as you can. Clothes are well laundered and ironed and you are well groomed.

• 4. On arrival at the party remind yourself that you can use a glass of mere water as a social prop. It does not necessarily need to contain alcohol. Try to extend the time it takes to drink this glass.

• 5. You may be used to drinking large quantities of alcohol at a party but try to drink white wine but with the addition of the water already in the glass. Each time you add wine to your glass, dilute it with water. The water will prevent a sudden rush of alcohol to the system and the feeling of being more in control of your situation will give you a great confidence boost.

• 6. Decide between yourself and your friend (who is looking after you) that you will leave the party at a set time. Promise yourself that you will go somewhere the next day, a museum for instance, so that you have a plan that sees further than merely the night in hand. This may help you to diminish the inflated importance that your perception puts on alcohol by giving yourself a reward.

These are simple steps that can be used as a trial. It would also be useful to contact a medical practitioner who can assess your level of alcohol usage with a view to professional counselling. Alcohol can have its merits when used by responsible adults. Addiction can destroy this sense of responsibility as it is merely a drug that temporarily changes our perception. Alcohol never has and never will solve our personal problems. The answers can only come from within ourselves.



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How to Beat Caffeine Addiction

If you're a caffeine addict, chances are your drink of habit is coffee. Just its smell is almost enough to wake you up! But you also crave the rush of energy. Yes, caffeine is addictive. Caffeine withdrawal is now actually in the DSM-5, the official directory of mental illness! Though the withdrawal is really physical, it can have mental effects, including depression, anger, and lethargy. In this article we'll cover ways to get off of caffeine without headaches and withdrawal symptoms.

1. Taper slowly with decaf. Ten days is a good amount of time. Replace 10% of your coffee per day with decaf or herbal coffee such as Teecino.

2. Go to bed earlier. If you're getting enough sleep, you won't need so much caffeine.

3. Try adrenal supplements. Licorice and ginseng support your adrenal glands, which are stressed and weakened by coffee and stress--it's a vicious circle. The condition is known as adrenal fatigue. If you give the adrenals some support (try three months' worth) they'll strengthen. If you feel severely fatigued, visit a holistic/integrative doctor for testing on your thyroid and adrenals.

4. Meditation is a great natural high. Mindfulness meditation can put you in touch with your feelings, and you might find you prefer them without stimulants. As you build up positive emotions through meditation, you'll feel clearer minded and energetic without coffee.

5. Try the Emotional Freedom Technique, a series of tapping points. It's an energy medicine proven to work. Start with tapping on "even though I need coffee to wake up and work... " (if you're not familiar, a Google search will turn up many sources of info, as will YouTube).

6. Exercise. It will give you natural energy and stimulate natural opiate receptors.

7. Journal. Keep a journal of your caffeine intake. Note how you are without coffee.

8. If you can resist temptation, you can still enjoy the smell of coffee by sitting in a coffee shop. If you can't resist, then stay away.

9. As soon as you wake up, do something to distract yourself from thinking about coffee.

10. Use other caffeine drinks while you're tapering, such as green tea. This will get you away from depending on coffee, while reducing caffeine.

11. Yerba mate is a superfood that can provide energy without jitteriness.

12. Reward yourself every day of the time you spend cutting down, with a bigger reward at the end. These can be free, such going to a place you enjoy, watching a show, any little indulgence you normally deny yourself. Addiction feeds the brain's reward center, but so do other treats.

You will feel much freer once you're not dependent on a drug to get through the day.



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Yoga For Healing And What It Provides

Yoga has risen in popularity because of its ability to create long, lean muscles and increase flexibility. But what the current culture is overlooking is the thousands of years yoga has been used to heal various ailments. Yoga for healing is a very real practice that has been proven to provide various physical and mental healing powers.
What Yoga Does for the Body
A large study was performed on breast cancer survivors to gauge the biological effects of asana on the body. Half of the group didn't practice, while the second half took classes twice a week. Of course, participants who regularly practiced reported less stress and fatigue after their chemo treatments. But the study didn't stop with the psychological effects. Ohio State University, who was in charge of the study, used the virology, immunology, and medical genetics department to measure participants' cytokines, a blood protein that serves as a marker for inflammation. At the end of the twelve week study, the group who attended classes regularly saw a 10 to 15% decrease in inflammation.

While there's no concrete evidence as to why yoga has such profound anti-inflammatory effects, the research team has a theory. It's no secret that cancer treatment and the ensuing recovery can be incredibly stressful. Patients undergoing cancer treatments report that the stress and worry often lead to sleepless nights, further increasing their stress. Stress has long been shown to increase the body's inflammatory response, possibly explaining the decrease in inflammation with yoga because of its ability to help people relax, unwind, and sleep better.
Healing from Trauma
Unfortunately, the human brain absorbs traumatic and negative experiences like a thirsty sponge, while deflecting positive events like a Teflon pan. It isn't any wonder that trauma can be so incredibly destructive to the human psyche. Whether it was a violent event, a particularly difficult loss, or even the constant worry that something bad is going to happen, the mind can soak these in and internalize them as trauma. A three year Natural Institute of Health (NIH) study focused on yoga and its healing powers for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Women who were diagnosed with PTSD regularly practiced yoga and at the end of the 10 week study, several women no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Other participants had a 30% decrease in intrusive thoughts.

Oftentimes, trauma victims fear the physical sensations in their body. For people who experienced abuse or neglect as children, they often don't know what it's like to have a healthy relationship or perception of their body. In yoga based therapy sessions, practitioners guide their patients through a combination of talk and asana therapy. The yoga helps them differentiate between the sensations that go on inside the body versus what's stimulating them on the outside. It teaches them that negative sensations are only temporary, meaning any negativity that comes up from trauma can be controlled and eliminated with some careful work. Finding a feeling of safety in the body allows them to realize that their body can be a safe place again for them, and this can be gradually achieved through yoga for healing.
Yoga is so much more than exercise. It's a pathway to allow people with varying ailments to find a way to work with their bodies again and learn to heal themselves both physically and mentally.

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Depression Is A Cry For A Change

Suffering depression is your mind's way of telling you that you need to
Institute changes, and while a major change like moving to a different
State or even a different country would be a huge step in the right direction, for many people this is simply not possible. That does not; however mean that you can't make changes to your environment, which can help you to start getting over your depression problem.

For example, if you are stuck in a stale, boring relationship, it's not doing you any good. Now is as good a time as any to get out. If you have been sitting around the house for ages and have not done any kind of housecleaning since you can't remember when, now is the time to turn over a new leaf by spring-cleaning from top to bottom.

Sure, the lethargy that is often part and parcel of being depressed will make it difficult at first, but you have to start making an effort at some point, and now would seem like as good a time as any. Get rid of the junk that is cluttering up your environment; give yourself some space to move around and be yourself.

Cleaning out your life in this way (both physically and metaphorically) enables you to move on so that you can pursue the important things in life. Get back in touch with old friends, and if there are bridges that need to be rebuilt, set about doing so.

If work is getting you down or you are struggling financially, start searching the job market to see if there is anything else out there that is better, or give some thought to starting your own business. For instance, take a look at some of the online moneymaking opportunities, because increasing numbers of people are giving up the
9-to-5 to become online entrepreneurs, and working for yourself might just be the change that you need.

All of these actions are both fulfilling and liberating, and they might just be the 'shake-up' that you need to make in order to break away from whatever has been pulling you down and holding you back for so long.

Turn the negatives into positives... Yes We All Know It, But How Many Of Us Apply What We Know?

Anger, sadness and guilt are all part of being depressed. However, by following the advice that you have read so far in the anxiety guy blog, you should be able to turn these negative emotions into positives that drive you forward and enable you to break free from the shackles of depression. Take the process of rebuilding your life one step at a time, but do so in a way that gradually becomes increasingly ambitious. With a bit of luck and perseverance, you should find that most of the tactics you have read in this post will help you to start moving away from being depressed in an entirely natural and life asserting manner.

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5 Ways To Rethink Your Workouts

It's easy to get bored at the gym and when you start just going through the motions on autopilot it's time to make a change or just mix it up.

A start of a new year, in this case the academic year, is the perfect time to make that change and start a new regime, so we’re taking you back to the classroom to teach you five ways to rethink your workout.

Rethink your workout

Get a training partner

Working out can be such a lonely existence so why not find a training buddy? Not only will it make working out more enjoyable, but the results will dramatically improve too.

Research at Stanford University found that simply receiving a phone call each fortnight quizzing you on your exercise regime can boost the amount of exercise you do by up to 78%.

So imagine the impact an actual partner can do?

As well as making you accountable, so you can't decide to stay sat on the sofa, having a training buddy will also help motivate you and open the door to more classes because going on your own can be intimidating,

If you don't have a friend or colleague who would make a good training partner, then don't let that stop you. 

Set goals and make them public

If you want to slim down for your holiday or get ready for a half marathon, make sure you tell people about it, and where better to do that than via social media?

There are plenty of 30-day plans out there like the abs and plank challenges, which have become so popular and successful because they encourage people to post updates to their profile. That means everyone knows when you’re giving it a go, and perhaps more importantly, if you give up.

The most important thing though is to keep goals realistic, and where possible break the goals down into even more doable mini-goals.

Try a class

As well as getting mentally bored with working out, you can get physically bored too. When this happens the exercise stops having the desired effect, as your body gets used to the routine.

So change it and change it quick. If you are used to doing circuits in a gym then opt for a class and vice versa. There are a whole range of different classes, whether you are looking for cardio or strength training exercises and some can even be fun.

Zumba has been one of the fastest growing exercise classes around as it combines low-intensity and high-intensity moves for an interval-style, calorie-burning dance fitness party.

At the other end of the scale Pilates and yoga remain as popular as ever as the perfect way to tone and strengthen in a more sedate and relaxing environment.

Get outside

According to a 2009 study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the closer you live to nature, the healthier you're likely to be.

So where better to train than in the great outdoors?

Workouts outdoors are more strenuous due to changes in terrain and wind resistance, meaning you burn more calories while covering the same distance, whether it's on foot or a bike.

Researchers at the University of Essex found that "green exercise" has the added benefit of helping mental health. 

They found that just five minutes resulted in improvements in self-esteem and mood.

Other studies found that after exercising outdoors people have lower blood levels of cortisol, a hormone related to stress, while exposure to direct sunlight is also known to positively affect your mood due to increased production of the ‘happy hormone’ serotonin.

Sign up for a boot camp

At least once a week we see a celebrity being put through their paces in the park by a personal trainer, but boot camps are also available for everyone. Boot camps are great because they combine the benefits of exercising outside with working out with others.

Many personal trainers also promise dramatic results and put together short and long camps depending on what you hope or need to achieve.

One of the main benefits of this is that you are supervised at all times, so you know that the exercises you’re doing are right. You’ll also find that you do something different every session, so you won’t be getting bored anytime soon, and the fact that you’re working out in a group will help keep you motivated.

https://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/5-ways-rethink-workouts-080018514.html