Over the past few decades, more and more people are now practicing yoga for the benefits: it improves breathing, it’s a workout on its own, but perhaps the best reason for yoga is that it’s a fitness routine you can do in the comfort of your own home. However, while stepping onto the mat itself for the first time can be the most intimidating part for many people, it doesn’t have to be the case for you.

Here are five tips you need to know before getting started with your first yoga session:

1. Warm up

A gentle warm-up exercise loosens your body the same way you would warm-up for any intense physical activity. Be sure to include the following exercises in your pre-session routine:

• Massage the heat, brows, and cheeks for better circulation
• Rotate your neck clockwise and counterclockwise to get rid of any stiffness

2. Dress comfortably

When practicing yoga, it’s important to wear clothes that allow for a wide range of movement since you’ll be stretching your limbs in poses that will really test the limits of your flexibility. Get yourself started with the basics – stretchy pants and a top – and since you’re bound to get sweaty, a change of clothes and a towel is also a great idea.

3. Stay on an empty stomach

Aside from staying hydrated through the day, it’s recommended to practice yoga at least two to three hours after your last meal. This allows your body to focus all its energy in the session rather than in digesting your food.

4. Invest in a sticky mat

For some poses, having a sticky mat is indispensable since the added traction helps your skin stick to the mat, allowing you to focus your weight and hold that pose for an extended period. Beginners will especially love the sticky mat since it allows them to keep their balance with some poses and avoid different muscle problems like spasms and strains the more they practice.

5. Focus on the spiritual part

Yoga is indeed about practicing spiritual awareness and mindfulness, and what brings them all together is the focus on meditation, which is a key practice for getting out of your autopilot and taking active control of your decisions.

Also crucial in practicing meditation and yoga (you can also practice yoga as a way to meditate) is proper, mindful breathing. Actively focusing on every breath can be a challenge at first, but gets easier with practice.

If there is one thing you should keep in mind, it’s that relaxing can be the hardest part of the entire routine, especially if you’re used to earning that rest and it feels strange to give it to yourself.

However, it’s also the reason why it’s special for those who practice it on a daily basis, and the more you practice every day, the more you’ll understand it for yourself.

Does your skin look shiny within an hour after applying powder or makeup? Do you always need to retouch or use an oil blotting paper whenever you go out? Do you also have frequent breakouts even when you’re meticulous about your skin regimen?

If your answers to these are yes, then you probably have oily skin.

It’s Both Bad and Good

Oily skin types usually have larger pores, but people with combination skin types only exhibit excessive oily skin on the T-zone of the face and some portions of the cheeks. Most people with oily skin also have acne, because the skin produces too much sebum. The cause can be genetic or hormonal changes, so you will have to deal with your oily skin for the rest of your life.

The good news, however, is that it’s better than having dry skin, because oil slows down aging and gives your skin a natural lubricant. The goal of the treatment of oily skin, therefore, is to reduce the breakouts and amount of oil, not to eliminate it entirely.

Use the Right Moisturizer

So, does that mean you don’t need to use moisturizer anymore? You skin still needs a moisturizer, but you have to be careful when choosing products. Avoid any skin cosmetics that are greasy and heavy with moisturizers, like lotions, soaps, cream, ointments, and makeup. Look for products that are non-comedogenic and oil-free. If some parts of your skin are drier than others, you might want to use two different types of moisturizers. Remember that if your skin gets dry, it can also cause your glands to produce more oil, which is counterproductive.

Always Look for Oil-Free Products

 The labels oil-free and non-comedogenic should not just be considered when choosing moisturizers, but also with all the skin and hair products that you’re using. If your face is oily, your scalp is too, so use hair products that doesn’t contain a lot of moisturizers. When choosing your makeup, pick only products that are oil-free, fragrance-free, and non-comedogenic. Then make sure to clean your face before applying makeup and before going to bed. Lastly, use an oil-free sunscreen to protect your skin from UV rays.

Use Blotting Papers, Tissues, and Sheets

Ideally, you should wash your face twice a day, but excess oil can’t be avoided, so use blotting papers, tissues, and sheets for such events. Avoid touching your face as much as possible or using your handkerchief to blot out the oil. Do not wipe your skin, instead, blot with a regular paper towel or a special absorbing sheet and do not use tissues that contain extra ingredients, because these can clog your pores.

Talk to Your Dermatologist

If you have other skin conditions, such as acne, talk to your dermatologist about treatment options. Do not use products that your dermatologist did not recommend if you’re undergoing treatment, because they can react differently with those that were prescribed for acne and oily skin.

Most of the time back pain is not a sign of a serious illness and is sometimes even used a joke about a person’s advancing age. Frequent back pain, however, is no joke and it can affect your productivity for the day.

What can you do about back pain?

Correct Your Posture

Perhaps your back pain is the result of bad posture. While this might be difficult to correct, you must make a conscious effort to observe your sitting, standing, and sleeping positions. If your job requires you to sit in front of a computer for hours, you should support your back properly against the chair and keep your shoulders relaxed. Placing a pillow against your lower back and keeping your feet flat on the floor will also help.

Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep if your back hurts might be very difficult for some people, but if you do not break the cycle, the treatment will be less effective because your body isn’t getting enough rest. Your bad sleeping habits and posture might be the root of the problem, so you should start by making yourself as comfortable as possible by lying on your side and placing a pillow between the knees to relieve the pain.

If you can’t sleep by lying on your side, lie on your back and place a pillow under the knees instead. You should probably replace your mattress and pillows with those that were designed especially for people with sleeping and posture problems.

Exercise Regularly

You don’t need to be told that exercise is good for you, because you’ll find this advice in almost every health and wellness article. Ask yourself if you’re getting enough exercise or if you’re just cooped up at home nursing your body pains. Moving your muscles once in a while won’t break your body and might even help relieve the tension in your muscles.

Start with ten to thirty-minute light exercises if you think you don’t have enough time for a gym membership. Walking and other physical activities are also acceptable, because they help take your mind away from the pain.

Use Cold or Hot Therapy

While pain medication might help relieve the symptoms, you don’t want to rely on them for the rest of your life. Sometimes a cold or hot compress can relieve the pain. Cold compress will lessen the inflammation and spasms on your back, while hot compress will stimulate blood flow in the area and lessen the pain. You could also try one of those pads with ointments to relieve pain.

Maintain a Healthy Weight

If you’re overweight or obese, the strain on your back might be the cause. Talk to a physical therapist to help you come up with a workout and therapy plan to help you reduce weight safely. You should also probably talk to a dietitian to help you come up with a healthy meal plan throughout your treatment.

If none of these treatments work, then you should probably approach a chiropractor to address the problem.

It’s normal to have days when you can’t think clearly, forget things, or have trouble concentrating on a single task. However, if you start to experience these things on a daily basis, then you’re most likely dealing with some level of brain fog.

What is Brain Fog?
Brain fog is a symptom more than a medical condition. It’s a general term for when you have trouble thinking straight, remembering details of your day, or are just having a hard time concentrating in general.

While most people would excuse the brain fog as simply having a bad day, it can interfere with work or school when you’re not careful or don’t know how to properly deal with it.

What Causes Brain Fog
Brain fog can be caused by different things, such as the following:

• Poor diet – A poor diet can have a bigger impact on a person’s health, especially when certain vitamins such as 12 or D are missing
• Stress – When your brain is exhausted, it becomes harder for you to focus
• Allergic reactions – Food allergies, such as peanuts or dairy, can have a bad effect on the brain
• Lack of sleep – Most people need between seven and eight hours of sleep, and the lack of it can make you feel groggy and cranky
• Medication – Certain medications can have their own side effects, one of which is brain fog, but these effects will eventually subside on their own with enough rest

What You Can Do
One of the best ways to get past the brain fog on a day when you can’t focus is to simply take a break. If you’re at work, take a few moments to put the laptop away and take a few deep breaths.

There are also other ways you can deal with brain fog, such as the following:

• Eat enough healthy carbs – A lack of healthy nutrients can make you feel groggy and make it more difficult to focus on your tasks, and especially when you fill yourself with empty sugars and calories
• Learn to manage stress – When you’re dealing with stress poorly, you end up feeling more tired and lead to other problems later on cortisol accumulates in your body, putting you at risk of heart diseases later on
• Exercise – Though there’s no need to go the gym, you still need to get the blood flowing with moderate exercise. Not only will it help you feel more awake and fight fatigue, but it also improves insulin resistance and your sleep quality

If brain fog persists, you should also consider checking in with your doctor and asking for professional medical advice.

Brain fog or brain fatigue typically is considered a symptom rather than a condition itself. It’s basically when you start having more and more memory problems, you’re having difficulty concentrating, and you find it hard to think clearly. This should sound scary to us but knowing the causes of brain fog can help us avoid or reduce its effects.

Stress
One of the more obvious causes of brain fog is stress. We already know that stress affects our health negatively in a lot of ways. It causes hormonal imbalances, increases blood pressure, triggers anxiety and depression, and above all causes mental fatigue. Simply put, when we’re always stressed, our brains will not be able to function as efficiently as it should.

Lack of proper nutrition
Proper nutrition goes beyond our physical appearance, it very much helps with the wellness of our mind as well. When we lack essential vitamins and minerals from healthy food, of course, our brain will be affected. Food high in sugar, for example, can particularly promote brain fog. Glucose or sugar is the main fuel source of the brain and the body. Eating too much sugary food causes our blood sugar levels to drop down or spike uncontrollably. You can just imagine how this affects the brain.

Not having enough sleep
You’ve probably heard it a hundred times but here it is again: Most working Singaporeans do not sleep enough. We tend to disregard it but having enough sleep really has a lot of benefits for our physical, emotional and mental well-being. If you constantly say to yourself that you’ll have to sacrifice sleep to finish your work, that’s going to hurt you in the long-term. Not having enough sleep will reduce your focus, harm your creativity, and limit our productivity as a whole.

Medication
Some prescription drugs have side effects that can build to brain fog as well. Some medications like those for pain relief and high blood pressure are ones that can cause certain reactions in the brain that can eventually encourage brain fog. In this case though, brain fog is a normal side effect of the medicine. Even so, you can ask your doctor about it so he/she can lower the dosage or recommend another drug.

Hormonal changes
Pregnancy, for one, causes drastic changes to a woman’s body. More hormones are produced for the protection and nourishment of the baby. This is why some mothers find it harder to remember certain things while they are pregnant. Another example could be menopause. Naturally, this is because a woman’s reproductive period is nearing its end and typically because of old age. Women may also experience small memory problems in this stage in life.

Not all tumors should cause panic, but the cause of the formation of a mass tissue is not yet understood. Like any tumor, brain tumors can either be cancerous or benign, but they can also pose some threats that you need to know about.

Primary Brain Tumor
The tumor forms because of cells that do not go through the normal cell aging process, because they form even if the body will not need them and they do not die. The tumor that begins in the brain, a primary brain tumor, can be cancerous or benign. However, even if the tumor is benign, they can affect other parts of the brain and cause other problems. Primary brain tumors are just one variety of brain tumors that begin in the nerve cells, brain cells, glands, and membranes called meninges. Brain tumors are considered secondary of the cancer began in other parts of the body that metastasized to the brain.

Cancerous Tumors
Brain tumors that are cancerous grow faster than benign tumors and can spread to other parts of the nervous system, they are also more difficult to remove and can possibly recur even they are removed, unlike the benign tumors. However, both types of tumors can cause damage in the brain tissues because of the pressure and inflammation in the skull.

Brain Tumors in Children
One type of primary brain tumor that commonly affects children is craniopharyngioma. However, it’s usually benign although it can cause other health problems. Another type of brain tumor, astrocytomas are mostly benign as well. Brainstem gliomas mostly affect children and can be asymptomatic until the tumor has grown large enough to be noticed. Ependymomas can either be malignant or benign, while medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor among children. Detecting brain tumors in children isn’t easy because the symptoms usually show in the behavioral changes, but physical symptoms are rare.

Glioma Tumors and Other Brain Tumors
These type of brain tumors begin in the glial cells or those cells found in systems that provide nutrition and support to the central nervous system. Gliomas can be oligodendroglial, astrocytic, and glioblastomas. The last one is considered the most aggressive type of glioma. Tumors can also develop in the pituitaries, pineal gland, and myelin sheath.

Brain Tumors in Adults
There are various types of brain tumors depending on where the mass of abnormal tissues originated, and each will exhibit different symptoms and complications. Some of the symptoms also manifest in other parts of the body that are controlled by the affected area, however, there are tumors that are asymptomatic until they grow large enough to affect the individual’s health. There are common symptoms to look out for, such as; a headache that does not respond to the usual treatment; seizures; changes in the vision, hearing, speech, movements, and balance; and problems remembering and concentrating.

Taking good care of our eyes is a necessity since we are usually surrounded by radiation everywhere which hurts our eyes and therefore tramples our vision. There are so many wonderful things in this world which we describe as “captivating to the eye”. Our eyes are definitely important and without them, a great part of our lives would be removed. Life is both around us and also in our heads, the relation of both what we see and what we feel. Taking good care of your eyes can be very hard to do if you do not necessary have good habits when it comes to taking care of your eyes.

There are a lot of factors that do not just affect the condition of our eyes but also our vision. Having healthy habits is better than having to see the doctor every once in a while. Prevention is always better than cure. One of the most popular reasons for bad eyesight is spending too much time with our gadgets. Sadly, although they are beneficial, the radiation from our gadgets affect our vision dearly and usually dry our eyes to the point that they may be functioning under stress and this could actually be destructive in the long run.

Our eyes are affected by what we expose them to and getting a healthy dose of sunlight everyday is a great way to get vitamin E which directly improves our eyesight. Eating healthy is another great way for you to get enough vitamin E inside your body. Carrots are not only a good snack but are also great for your eyesight. Another great thing about carrots is that it is not too expensive to buy and you can find them in almost every grocery store or supermarket.

Another thing we normally do that is really bad for our eyes is washing them the moment we wake up. Our eyes are very sensitive to moisture and the sudden dampness has a huge effect on the health of our eyes.

The last thing that might be the most destructive factor of them all is not getting enough sleep. Our eyes need rest. Although there are certain parts of our bodies that can last longer than others, our eyes only have the strength to stay awake for so long. The more we do not give our body the necessary hours of rest, the more it can damage our eyes in the long run. The lack of sleep plus the abuse of our eyes can cause serious damage in the long run. It is better to go easy on your eyes now rather than having to suffer the consequences later on.

Male breast cancer is rare but it is possible. In fact, 1% of breast cancer patients are male. Breast cancer happens when their levels of oestrogen are increased. Breast cancer can also happen if a man is exposed to radiation and has a family history of breast cancer.

We might not hear a man suffering from breast cancer here in Singapore but it doesn’t mean that we are free from it. The most common type of breast cancer for males are carcinoma. We all know that there are different symptoms of breast cancer but the most common one is a lump beneath the nipple.

People might wonder why are men prone to breast cancer when they do not have breasts like women. Well, men possess small amount of breast (non-functioning that is) which is found at the back of the nipple, undeveloped ducts, fats and connective tissue.

The initial treatment for males with breast cancer depends on the situation. It is therefore important to consult the physician and discuss treatments. There are many specialists here in Singapore that can help us get through breast cancer. The important thing is we are willing and we do not lose hope.

Specialists will usually recommend treatments like chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and radiation therapy. For some, they consider a removal of the breast to ensure that cancer cells will not spread. This is called mastectomies. We have heard Angelina Jolie undergo mastectomies to decrease the chances of developing breast cancer.

Although male removal of breast is uncommon, it doesn’t mean it is not recommended for men. In fact, there is a study that found out more men suffering from breast cancer are opting to get their breasts removed – even the healthy one. According to the recent study conducted by American Cancer Society, about 5.6% of men suffering from breast cancer consider mastectomies in 2011 alone.

It was mentioned earlier that even healthy breasts can be removed. This operation is called contralateral prophylactic mastectomy and this type of mastectomy is not always needed. Dr. Ahmedin Jemal of American Cancer Society warned males considering this type of mastectomy that it will not help them live longer.

The researchers were not astounded by the increase of males undergoing mastectomy because they observed the pattern of women. Women with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy increased in the past decade from 2.8% in 1998 to 11% in 2011.

The researchers advise that males should evaluate the benefits and harms of mastectomy before actually considering it.