Mobile phone calls may cause a rise in blood pressure; yoga may lower it; and despite the need to cut back on sodium to lower blood pressure, hypertensive individuals may have an increased desire for saltier foods.

These are the findings of new studies to be discussed at the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) in San Francisco, starting May 15 – 18, 2013.

Members of the medical community from across the globe will discuss the about high blood pressure, considered as the “silent killer,” and which affects approximately one billion people worldwide.

During the conference, more than 200 new studies about hypertension will be shared, with the goal of increasing the understanding of hypertension and one day curing it altogether.

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Yogacharya Sandeep, a yoga instructor and a yoga psychologist, is from Bihar Yoga Bharathi, a yoga educational institution, dedicated to the study and practice of yoga, in the gurukul tradition.

He has developed specific corporate training programs to meet the requirements of the modern professionals, customised modules for schools and also personal training programs. A few modules are on stress management, improving productivity, managing work life balance, healing spondylitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain, managing acidity etc.

Yogacharya Sandeep answered Sify readers’ queries related to the above in an exclusive chat. Read the transcript below.

How many times kapalbhati can be done.

First of all why are you opting for Kapalbhati? Are you inspired or do you really need it? Kapalbhati is a heating pranayama which boosts up the blood circulative system and thereby you experience extreme heat in the body, and you are not aware your body can withstand this amount of heat.So my advice would be not to opt for Kapalbhati without expert guidance. All the best!! : )

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Admiring those glowing faces in beauty cream advertisements, we often wonder if we too could have a skin so young and beautiful. Well, it’s not a far-fetched dream anymore! Now even you can flaunt healthy, radiant skin that draws attention. And the good news is: no chemicals and no pricey beauty packages. Just a simple four-letter word – yoga – and a long-lasting glow on the face is yours to keep.

But before we talk about the solution, let’s first understand where skin problems such as wrinkles and dark spots stem from.

Some women start wrinkling premature, primarily due to stress or unhealthy lifestyle practices such as smoking, alcohol, drug addiction and wrong food habits.

Acne is common among women of all age groups. Sometimes, it could occur due to hormonal changes in the body. In this case, there’s nothing to worry about because it heals itself with time.

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Motion sickness can be defined as sickness induced by motion (as in travel by air, car, or ship) and characterized by nausea – also called kinetosis. It can be caused by contradiction between external data from the yes and internal cues from the balance centre in the inner ear. According to medical dictionaries, “ Motion sickness occurs when the inner ear, the eye, and other areas of the body that detect motion send conflicting messages to the brain. One part of your balance – sensing system (your inner ear, vision, and sensory nerves that help you keep your balance) may indicate that your body is moving, while the other parts do not sense motion.”

Yoga – the Ancient Health formula:

Yoga seemed to have answers for every health issue. Yoga is one of the oldest holistic health care systems, not just because of its fundamental healing approach, but also because of its many benefits for physical, mental and spiritual well being.

Yoga asana Postures help to improve stability, body balance, fight vertigo, improve digestion; treat nausea and dizziness help people with chronic motion sickness.

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Losing weight brings a lot of dedication, commitment, disciplined lifestyle with it. Many of us want to lose weight, we try different diets, work outs, we circuit train and yoga too but somewhere down the lane we tend to lose hope, get bored with the training and give it up. The vicious circle goes on, and body also get tuned to these activities, the next time you hit a program – the body takes longer to break the pattern. Which means that next time you train to lose weight, you will have to put more effort to achieve your goal. One need to sweat it out day in and day out, fight the boredom, shred the inertia to get the fruitful results. Someone is going to smile over a period of time looking into the mirror.

Yoga can help to lose weight. The best part about yoga is that it leaves you fresher and more energetic than before after the work outs. Yoga considered being more of aerobic exercise burns less calories during the workout compared to other strenuous workouts which are as effective. Yoga has its own sweet ways to cut the flab. It is a slow process but it cuts the fat as a knife cuts the butter. Let’s look at the best asanas which can help you to lose the fat.

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The hips are taken to task along with the back on those long work hours, this can cause stiffness in the hips. Exercising without proper stretches, body joint problems and back injuries can also cause stiffness in the hips. The stiffness in the hips can reduces the blood circulation and energy flow through the body.

Yogsa asanas can be of great help in preventing the stiffness caused. By practicing a few simple yoga poses daily one can notice the improvement in the circulation of blood in the lower part of the body and how the body responds to it. These asanas are similar to compound exercise which targets more than one muscle group. Along with relaxation of the hips, these asanas can be extremely beneficial to release
tight hamstrings.

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Mr.Raman Mishra has been practising yoga for 8 years. His is an expert in Natural yoga, Ashtanga yoga and Iyengar yoga. He is a Bachelor in Naturopathy and Yogic Science from Madras university.

His areas of interest lies in utilising Yoga for healing various health issues such as diabetes, blood-Pressure, back-Pain, knee-Pain, obesity, stress management, fat loss / weight loss and depression.

Raman answered Sify readers’ queries related to the above in an exclusive chat. Read the transcript below.

Please suggest some yogasanas which could be practiced by females before menses to curb mood swings. Thanks for your advice. Good Day.

Practicing Garuda Pose, Parvatasana, Tadasana etc balancing poses helps.

Does Yoga help more in inch loss or weight loss? Can you name some yogasanas that can be more effective for inch loss?

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Sore eyes, out of the bed look, a stack of rough notes, sample test papers, and fresh stationary these describe the student gearing up for the exams. The litmus test is on with exams around the corner. Students are barred from watching TV, mobile phones confiscated and friends are not entertained. For a reason friends are now looked as enemies. There is so much to do and so little time we see the student of the year – crumbling under pressure.

The stage is set for a bigger one tomorrow. Here we bring you the advantages of yoga and meditation and how they can help your kid to shine on.

During preparation time:

1. Work hard and sleep well. Without physical and mental rest, memory and concentration are not strong. Wake up with the sunrise, and doing some light yoga exercises like surya namaskar followed by simple breathing exercises (eg. Nadi Shodhan Pranayama). 12 quick rounds of Surya Namaskar can be good work out . It’s a complete body workout which leaves one fresh and energetic. Head bending poses: All forward bending yoga poses or yoga asanas flows more blood to the head region and along with long deep breathe which increases the amount of oxygen in the blood can result in more relaxed, sharp and focused mind.

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Do you find your hand often reaching out for your upper back? Unconsciously wanting to soothe it and ease a slight, pulsating pain? You could be in the middle of a kitchen chore or bending over a colleague’s desk at work and are suddenly aware of a slight ache spreading over your lower back?

You might not have a chronic backache. Yet these once-in-a-blue-moon signs could be enough wake-up calls for us to sit up straight and invest 5 minutes every day to strengthen our back muscles by practicing simple yoga postures. Don’t wait until you get a backache. Start now and invest a few minutes daily – the returns are high – a healthy back is yours for keeps.

7 yoga postures to wave goodbye to backache

Our back has three movements: stretching upwards, twisting, and moving forward and backward. Regular practice of the yoga poses listed below ensures that muscles which support these movements are strengthened.
You can practice some of these yoga postures anytime, anywhere! Even if you miss them on the yoga mat in the morning, you can still take out 5 minutes during the day at work or when your back hints that it needs them.

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Dr.Priyam Ahuja is an anti obesity expert, a passionate diet and health consultant. She is practicing dietician and founder of ‘Diet of a Dietician’ TM, having extensive experience in nutrition counseling in fitness center, hospitals, community and sports professionals.

Priyam deals with obesity, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, Heart diseases, stroke, forgetfulness, thyroid, PCOD, post pregnancy weight gain, eating disorders and lifestyle modifications.

Priyam answered Sify readers’ queries related to the above in an exclusive chat. Read the transcript below.

I m over all slim but i have a bulged out belly. kindly advice how to get rid of it?

Healthy Diet along with Yoga and Massage helps in enhancing the circulation and toning up your body. Have good fibres , protein and fluids in your diet.

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