Healthy Life

Posts Tagged ‘pressure’

Article by Valik Rudd

As a type of aerobic exercise, jogging helps improve cardiovascular health by strengthening and enlarging heart muscle to improve its pumping efficiency and reduce the resting heart rate.  It strengthens the muscles involved in respiration that allow the facilitation of the flow or air in and out of the lungs. It tones the muscles throughout the body and improves circulation efficiency thus reducing blood pressure.  It can also result in the increase of the total number of red blood cells in the body thus facilitating the transport of oxygen. Most people start to jog because of weight problems. It is one way of losing weight if one is obese or by maintaining weight if one has the tendency to gain more pounds. Jogging is one of the recommended activities for shedding fat as it burns a lot of calories per minute. Jogging regularly can also help fight the aging process as it prevents muscle and bone loss that is associated with age.  By sitting in the couch most of the day, a person allows his bones to become weaker but by jogging regularly the skeletal system gets the demand it needs to stay healthy. Jogging is also believed to promote the human growth hormone that keeps the body younger. Doing regular aerobic exercises such as jogging can help fight disease.  The risks of stroke and other cardiovascular diseases can be reduced by a regular regimen of jogging.  It is also recommended for people who are on the early stages of diabetes, osteoporosis, and hypertension.  The risk of heart attack can be reduced because jogging strengthens the heart muscles and lowers blood pressure.  Regular jogging maintains the elasticity of the arteries thus contributing to a healthier body. Another benefit of jogging is providing stress relief.  While jogging, especially alone, a person can think about the common problems of life.  Jogging for several minds can clear your mind and you may suddenly realize that your problems are not really problems at all. Jogging over the distance can also be a form of escape for pressing problems that a person wants to ignore for a while.  There are times when problems need to be set aside for a while and be attended to later. Sometimes it cannot be help but feel anger and aggression so focusing all your emotions on the rise and fall of your feet while jogging can make you feel better after a while. Jogging also helps improve attitude. Overcoming fatigue at the end of your jog gives you a feeling of exhilaration and euphoria. It gives the jogger a new perspective on how to view life after realizing that obstacles can be overcome. If physical pain and fatigue can be overcome by diligent jogging, a jogger will realize that life’s pain and problems can also be overcome by diligent work and perseverance.  The will and the strength that you used to overcome time and distance can be the same will and strength that you can use to overcome all the challenges of daily living.

Article by Adam Price

Life insurance sales training & cold call training is essential in the insurance industry, yet so many new insurance agents are “struggling” to make sales in their formative years as new agents.

How do I know this?

I’ve been a sales coach for the last 3 years and most of my clients who come to me for coaching were insurance agents, mortgage brokers, financial advisors and network marketers, among almost every other industry you could think of at some time or another.

Among some of the more abstract industries for cold calling coaching, I’ve even trained army recruiters, who cold called parents to sign their under 21 year old child to the armed forces, a funeral pre-burial service for humans (and pets, believe it or not) and many others.

My point is, I know cold calling and what is required for life insurance sales training to be effective. What many sales trainers teach are often fairly “high-pressure” techniques (I know, I’ve seen the new agents sales scripts). My first advice is to throw out the scripts, and from there we work on the mindset first and foremost, and we stay in alignment with low-pressure, no force, philosophies when selling, which is truly the way to win new business.

Once we get the mindset right, we can then begin on wording and making calls, but first we need to role play the specific scenario’s for who the industry that the agents will be calling on.

This is often where many hiccups occur, the poor new agent is so “Hyped Up” from their initial training, they have “no hope” of making a sale the old way without exerting pressure and losing trust, and while they might make sales, their going to feel uncomortable, pressure their clients and run the risk of losing them at a later date.

Actually, most of the time I get asked the question… “How do I get my foot in the door, so I’m in front of a new prospect? I’m right once I can sit down with them and I normally get the sale.”

But they often blow it before they can get to sit down and have a chat, so that’s where a new low-pressure approach fits in and helps melt away the pressure and “open doors” on that first cold call.

Normal life insurance sales training won’t cover this angle of sales for new agents, becuase the mindset you learn is so very different.

My recommendation is to be yourself, take the hype out, and just have a conversation like you’re talking to a friend.

That alone will be worth thousands to you, because in the long term when it comes down to you and the mirror, you need to get results for “yourself” first and foremost, and by getting to the truth of where the client is at, will certainly help you open sales, if not now, down the track.

Try it and let me know how you go, I’m sure it will help you and that’s speaking from my first hand experience as a qualified life insurance sales training coach, specialising in cold calling. Seeing many people go through a “transformation” and unwinding from a “high-pressure” hypey outlook to a one of relaxed, calm and trusting.

By Michelle Matlock, Life Quotes, Inc.

When you apply for life insurance, you will most likely have to take a medical exam.

Individual life insurance companies have a number of tools at their disposal when it comes to rating policies, and one of those tools is medical underwriting. Since the basis of insurance involves assessing risk, health status plays a critical role in the underwriting process.

Paramedical examiners are licensed health professionals that insurance companies hire to perform medical examinations on potential policyholders. When you apply for life insurance you will be required to answer a series of medical questions, or if you apply for a policy at an insurance website, you can fill out a questionnaire online. The second part of the application is a medical form that is completed by your examiner. Examinations are generally performed in the privacy of your home or place of business.

Most paramedical exams require examiners to collect a urine sample and blood draw. You will also be asked to provide your driver’s license and social security number. Typically an examiner will accept alternative forms of identification such as a military ID, passport or state issue identification cards with a photo ID. This information will be used to fill out the lab ticket. The lab uses your complete blood count (CBC), to rule out a number of conditions such as leukemia, cancer or HIV. You may also be required to take a liver function test, or a Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) test, which is used to rule out alcoholism, cirrhosis and other liver diseases. Lab technicians also check your cholesterol level, which will be used to evaluate your risk for heart attack or stroke.

In addition to urine and blood samples, examiners will check your blood pressure, pulse rate, and measure your height and weight. In some cases, you might be required to take an X-ray or treadmill test. Some exams might require checking your “timed vital capacity” (TVC). This is a breathing test that determines how well your lungs are functioning. They may also require some applicants who smoke or have a history of heart disease to have an electrocardiogram (EKG), a test that records electrical changes in the heart.

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Questions your examiner will ask you include:

1. Name and address of personal physician?

2. Date and reason last consulted?

3. What treatment was given or medication prescribed?

While some folks find paramedical examinations a little daunting, the extent of a paramedical exam varies by insurance company.

Also, some companies require less information than others and have a shortened version of a paramedical exam. But be warned— if you are a smoker, your mortality rate is often higher than nonsmokers, and insurance companies usually require a more thorough medical examination for tobacco users.

“If your agent isn’t prepping you for your exam then they are not doing the right thing,” says Ryan Pinney, a brokerage director and insurance risk specialist for Pinney Insurance Center, Inc. in Roseville, Calif. “There are so many things that can mess up your lab results that people don’t consider.”

Pinney offers some sage advice that will help increase your odds of doing well on an examination.

Don’t consume alcohol for 72 hours prior to your exam.

Don’t take your exam if you are dehydrated.

Don’t take ibuprofen or aspirin because this will create elevated liver function.

If you exercise or work out regularly, take a break for a day or two prior to the exam. “When you work out your muscles breakdown and that can tweak the outcome of your lab,” says Pinney.

Don’t eat fatty foods for at least two days before your examination. “If you have an exam coming up and you must choose between a triple cheeseburger or salad, go with the salad. Even if you don’t have high cholesterol, fatty foods will temporarily heighten your cholesterol levels,” notes Pinney.

Take your exam first thing in the morning don’t wait until later in the evening. “Your blood pressure is lower in the morning because you’ve been sleeping for 6 to 8 hours. It’s never a good idea to get stressed out at work, fight rush hour traffic and then take your exam,” Pinney recommends. In addition, Pinney says when you sleep your back compresses, so you are also a little taller in the morning. “This can help you when it comes to measuring your height and weight.”

Wear your tennis shoes. “When your height and weight is measured you don’t have to take off your clothes or shoes. But I discourage wearing steel-toed boots or a tool belt because depending on the item this could make you 35 pounds heavier. The examiner is not required to tell you to remove those items,” says Pinney. Pinney adds that you are also not allowed to keep your high heels on at a paramedical examination.

Never volunteer information. “Let the examiner ask the questions,” says Pinney. “When an examiner asks you if you’ve been diagnosed with heart disease this is not a good time to tell him you haven’t and then mention you’ve had chest pains lately. If the insurance company wants to know more details, the underwriter will contact you.”

When the examiner asks you a question, don’t lie. “Do not try to outsmart the insurance company,” says Pinney. “Any misrepresentations can be considered insurance fraud on a more serious level. If you omit information or lie, once the insurance company finds out, you will be denied coverage and your application will be rescinded.”

This article was originally published at Life Quotes, Inc.

When I first started teaching voice improvement, I had no idea how many fantastic benefits would result just by discovering your ‘real’ voice. Yes, the voice that is powered by means of your chest cavity versus your throat and vocal folds (cords) is richer, warmer, deeper and mature-sounding. And, with your ‘real’ voice, you can increase your volume without shouting and also eliminate vocal abuse.

The other results, however, are truly amazing and have nothing to do with the voice.

1. You will feel more confident. It is wonderful to see the increase in my clients’ self-esteem when they learn the correct voice techniques.

2. You will be able to eliminate minor pain. While this may come as a surprise, the reason is because in order to find your true voice, you must learn to breathe with the support of your diaphragm. In doing so, you eliminate the toxins in your blood that shallow or lazy breathing (which is typical of 99% of the population) is unable to do.

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3. You will fall asleep faster and be able to sleep longer. Again, it is the breathing that makes the difference. I fell asleep during a double stereotactic breast biopsy which is like a 40-minute mammogram without anesthesia.

4. You will be able to eliminate much more of the stress in your life. Yes, it is because of the breathing.

5. You will have greater physical endurance. What this means is that you will be able to jog for greater lengths of time and even hit a golf ball further. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? It is true because I have heard this and more from my clients.

6. You will be able to lower your blood pressure. Wow! This one took me by surprise; but, one of my clients told me that when he gets on his exercise bike in the morning, if he breathes correctly with support, his blood pressure goes down.

7. You will discover the best means of controlling your nervousness in any form of public speaking.

8. You will look better because your posture will improve.

9. You will have more energy throughout your day again because you are filtering out those nasty toxins that upper chest breathing cannot do.

10. You will add more than 4 years to your life expectancy.

It is truly stunning how the right approach for improving the sound of your speaking voice will improve your life dramatically. Could your life use some of these benefits?

We’re not accusing you of snoring, but let’s get technical for a moment. When you fall asleep, the soft tissues in your body relax, and sometimes block your airways. Snoring is your body’s way of moving soft tissue out of the way. If you have a sleep disorder, the best way to get insurance at an afforable rate is to get treated. “Without proper sleep, the body is under stress and releases hormones to combat that, this increases blood pressure— and the body literally goes into ‘fight or flight’ mode,” says Tom Hinerman, partner for the Hinerman Group in Salida, Colo. For people with chronic-sleep disorders, snoring can sound like a chain-saw symphony. And often, snoring is an indication of a serious sleeping disorder such as sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea causes a person to stop breathing for short periods during sleep. Depending on severity, as the airways close, a person can stop breathing five to 50 times during the night. More often than not, people with sleep apnea are literally gasping for air during the night while their bodies fight to get enough oxygen.

Disrupted sleep is deadly—even that precious hour lost during daylight savings time can have hazardous consequences. An article published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology showed that losing an hour of sleep increases the threat of on-the-job injuries for those in hazardous work environments.

“One hour of lost sleep may not seem like a lot. But our findings suggest it could have an impact on people’s ability to stay alert on the job,” says the article’s lead author, Christopher Barnes, Ph.D. and researcher from Michigan State University.

Although sleep disorders like apnea and interrupted sleep are very treatable, unless you show proof of following doctor-recommended treatments, it will lead to increased life insurance rates.

To qualify for standard life insurance rates, Hinerman says, you need to have a sleep study done, and then follow your doctor-recommended treatment schedule closely.

“Depending on the severity some people can use machines like the CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure] machine to correct breathing overnight can help to eliminate symptoms of sleep apnea,” said Hinerman.

“If an individual applies for life insurance within the first year after starting CPAP, we would generally offer a policy with a small extra premium,” says Robert Pokorski, a medical director for The Hartford. “If he or she has been using CPAP for more than a year, and if all is going well from a medical perspective, in most cases there would be no additional premium required for sleep apnea.”

Pokorski also recommends following the general guidelines for the best insurance rates, like maintaining a healthy weight and blood pressure, avoiding smoking, sedatives, and excessive alcohol consumption.

“You may also want to sleep on two or more pillows to make it easier to breath at night,” adds Pokorski.

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“The final offer to the applicant would represent the combined risk of sleep apnea and other medical conditions that might be present,” says Pokorski. “If there are no other medical conditions that affect the overall risk, we would generally offer life insurance at standard, and sometimes, preferred rates.”

No matter how mild your symptoms, lying about your condition will not help your rates.

  “If a person does not disclose a sleep disorder during the [initial] interview, we will eventually find out, because the interview is followed by a medical evaluation… and information about a sleep disorder would show up in their medical history,” says Hinerman.

 If you lie about a sleeping disorder, you could be rejected for life insurance, or worse, be denied a payout if the condition causes an accident or injury. And that’s just not worth losing sleep over.

Sleep disorders affect more than 70 million people in the U.S., according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. While The International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Second Edition documents 81 official sleep disorders, here are seven of the most common.

1. is characterized by a patients inability to stop their legs from moving while sitting or lying down, according to The Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, an organization concerned with awareness and treatment of the condition. RLS usually disrupts normal sleeping patterns and women are more likely than men to develop the disorder.

2. Mayo Clinic defines narcolepsy as a sudden and uncontrollable need to sleep that occurs at times that are outside of a regular sleeping schedule. Unlike those without the disorder who usually enter REM sleep within 30 minutes, a narcoleptic can fall deep into REM sleep within five to 10 minutes. Although it has been known to develop later in life, the disorder usually manifests in people between the ages of 35 and 45. Similar to other sleeping disorders, the primary complaint of those who are not aware they have the disorder is excessive daytime sleepiness or ESD.

 3. While bedwetting is fairly common in children, if the condition does not resolve itself, it could indicate the parasomniac condition “sleep enuresis.” People suffering this condition have no control over their bowel movements while sleeping. “Abnormal Sleep Architecture and Refractory Nocturnal Enuresis,” an article published in the October 2009 edition of The Journal of Urology, found a possible link between limb movement during the night that could possibly lead to cortical arousablity—meaning, the body might be faking itself into being awake, but the brain is not.

4. The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine defines RBD as a condition where people act out dramatic or violent dreams during what should be the deepest phase of sleep. While most people are in a state of paralysis during this part of sleep, people suffering RBD can move their limbs. Usually, RBD occurs in men aged 50 and older, but the disorder can also occur in women and in younger people. In a February 2009 study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, researchers found RBD can be managed effectively with drug therapy.

5. Like sexsomnia, sleepwalking is a condition where a person can be physically moving about, appear awake and alert, but have no memory of their actions. This disorder is most commonly seen in children, but it can occur in the elderly, and adults. Sleepwalking appears to run in families, and it can be dangerous because the sleepwalker is unaware of his or her surroundings. The National Institutes of Health do not currently recommend any specific treatment for sleepwalking, but recommend making sure to try and keep a sleepwalker safe by removing any hazards, waking them up, or guiding them back to bed, to prevent injury.

6. is a rare sleep disorder that involves falling asleep for long periods of time. Unlike narcolepsy, sufferers from KLS will sleep for days, weeks, months and sometimes years without waking up. Symptoms of KLS generally manifest in adolescents. A study conducted by the KLS Foundation found that out of the 186 people who had the disorder, 68 percent were male. There have also been reports of hypersexuality (unusually high or excessive interest in sexual activity), and hyperphagia (over-eating) when someone with KLS awakes. Currently, no cure exists for KLS, but experimental drugs like Provigil are showing increasingly positive results.

 7. You read it correctly. Sleepsex, or, Sexsomnia is a type of parasomnia first recorded in a 2002 and more recently the topic of study in the December 2009 edition of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. People suffering from sexsomnia can make sexual movements, noises, gestures and advances during sleep, without knowing what they are doing. Those suffering from sleepsex have no recollection of their behavior upon waking. Researchers are looking into treatment options for this condition through medication.

Another hazard of losing sleep is the possibility of developing breast cancer.Research by scientists at Japan’s Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine in 2008, found that women who regularly slept less than six hours a night increased their risk of developing breast cancer by 62 percent when compared to women who slept seven hours or more each night. The eight-year study followed the lifestyle of 24,000 women who were between the ages of 40 and 79. Of the 24,000 women studied, 143 were diagnosed with breast cancer.

This article originally published on www.lifequotes.com.

Article by Steve James

Work is practically the center of our lives in this generation. Simply speaking, if you don’t work, you don’t eat – and that’s the truth.But despite our needs for basic commodities, too much work would often lead to stress that will affect us physically, mentally and emotionally; an imbalance that will render us incapable of making decision and will lessen our productivity whether to our career or social life.

Stress relief

There are plenty of techniques that will help us cope with stress. Some goes to their respective doctors and asks for medicines that gives temporary relief to their anxiety or regulate blood pressure. Some would resort to meditation and relaxation techniques to keep their mind in harmony using aromatherapy or music therapy to help them along.

Sweat it out

The most advisable tip for stress management is through physical exercise. Sweating it out with by doing something strenuous proves to be more beneficial than taking in drugs or vitamins that might have some side effects on your system.

Most therapist and stress management experts would agree that physical exercise is considered as the best stress reliever during this time and age. Aside from changing your focus from your problems to something productive, physical exercise will help your body function at peak efficiency.

Benefits of physical exercise to your body

Since physical exercise involves a lot of body movements, this will improve your cardiovascular functions and greatly strengthens your heart – this will practically free you from possible effects of stress like heart failure, stroke, high-blood pressure, and so on.

When your heart is attuned to the exercise regime, blood circulation will also improve which in turn increases oxygen throughout the body. Your cholesterol level and other harmful bio-chemicals will be reduced and will lessen the chance of your body breaking down due to the negative effect of these substances.

Physical exercise also helps you mentally aside from keeping your body in perfect shape. Indulging in various forms of physical exercise will provide an outlet to stress-related emotions such as anger, fear, frustration, depression and irritability. Since exercise improves the circulation of chemicals to your body and brain, hormones that elevates certain responses to your body will be reduces as well; keeping you relaxed and in control.

Tips in setting up an exercise program

Now that you know the positive benefits of physical exercise to your mind and body, all you need to learn is how to set up an exercise program that will not hinder your career or social life.

It is recommended by experts that a person should have a regular exercise 3 to 5 times a week, for at least an hour every session; try to budget your time to include a healthy dose of exercise. Wake up extra early in the morning to jog around the block, or do some stretching in your own backyard. The fresh air will compliment your physical exercise since the fresh oxygen you breathe in would be healthy to your body.

A visit to your local bookstore, gym and stress management seminar may prove to be a treasure of information on different kinds of exercise you can do to take away your stress.

Give yourself a break and start taking care of your body before it breaks down – if it does, then you’re in big trouble. Avoid it!