Yoga is an ancient practice that has swept the Western world for years. But what exactly is yoga and what is its purpose?

The word “yoga” is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj” meaning “to unite” and “to yoke”. According to yogic scriptures, constant practice of yoga allows you to create a stronger connection with yourself and the world. It develops individual consciousness and creates a perfect harmony of your body and mind.

Its physical and mental health benefits are just natural consequences. But its main purpose is to align a person’s geometry with the cosmics – to achieve the highest level of harmony and perception in one’s self.

It is interesting how yoga has exploded today from its origins. With an audience of over 20 million participants in the West alone, here are some of the reasons why so many people fell in love with yoga.

Cultural Adoption

Another crucial factor of yoga’s popularity is the cultural adoption. As the western culture opened its door to diversity, many people from India shared their knowledge of this practice. The West has also allowed the birth of many diverse forms of yoga.

The open expression of yoga allowed people to alter certain styles to fit a different framework. As a result, these different alterations of yoga gained access to the people’s interest – whether it be for mental health improvement, weight loss, or strength training.

The newly developed and diverse styles offered a new form of living to those who practiced it.

Escape From Technology

Modern advancements and technological breakthrough have moved so fast over the last decades. Although they have positively contributed a lot to our society and way of life, it has definitely led us overstimulated. Naturally, our mind seeks a calm environment to help it feel relaxed.

Yoga slows us down, helps us understand ourselves and allows us to escape from the hustle and bustle of life. The breathing techniques teach you to feel calm and relaxed, which is literally the only thing we want when we live busy lives.

Hence, yoga has fulfilled our subconscious craving for inner harmony that technology has caused us to disconnect with.

Spiritual Answer To Exercise

Although yoga is popularly practiced as a meditative solution, the idea that it is can push your body while tapping into a spiritual awakening is massively appealing to people.

In tradition, yoga has been used to find an inner connection. But as the western world adopted this practice, many styles and variations were added, resulting to a unique fitness program that anybody can try.

A Victor Of Ailments

One crisis that the world is experiencing today is the growth of chronic diseases. As more people continue to live a poor and reckless lifestyle, it has been an increasing need to find preventative measures and solutions to health problems.

For many years, people have been fascinated on how yoga practitioners and students stayed healthy and diseases-free. As a result, people tried practicing yoga.

It is no longer uncommon to see yoga as a part of a person’s holistic lifestyle. It is an approach people now adopt to stay healthy. It is also used to treat diseases like arthritis, back pain, diabetes, skin disorders and even solve the problem of obesity.

Opportunity of Commercialization

When yoga started to run a smooth and upward course, its popularity has definitely enticed many business moguls, which led to the commercialization of yoga.

Though there are many people who grave the idea that yoga is being commercialized up to this day, it still birthed a 27-billion dollar industry in America alone. It has also benefited the economy of this country.

Type-2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that is considered an epidemic nowadays.

Statistical reports show that the rates of diabetes have greatly increased. It is one of the ten leading causes of death in the United States of America.

It is a disease that can have serious complications.

Diabetes type-2 occurs when the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin hormone. The insulin hormone converts the sugar from food into energy. A deficiency in the insulin production leads to an increase in the blood glucose level.

Also the body cells become less sensitive to insulin and unable to utilize it well. This condition is known as insulin resistance. A test known as A1C is used to diagnose diabetes by measuring the average of blood glucose levels over the last three months.

Reversing diabetes is said when a patient can maintain his A1C test in the normal range without using diabetes medications. This means that there is a long-term improvement in the cells sensitivity to insulin and sufficient insulin production. Many healthcare practitioners argue that diabetes cannot be naturally reverted as it is a chronic disease. This is the big diabetes lie.

However, by understanding diabetes and how it progresses, many patients can start the journey of reversing their diabetes. Type-2 diabetes is highly associated with abdominal obesity.

Unhealthy eating habits lead to elevated blood glucose levels. The pancreas has to work continuously to produce more insulin to maintain blood glucose at the normal level. By time, the pancreas can no longer produce that much insulin and its insulin production decreases. Also cells do not respond to insulin easily and insulin resistance develops.

This progress of diabetes has to be hindered in order to reverse the disease (or to send it into remission). Weight loss can be one of the main contributors to diabetes remission. Losing weight can be a promising step. When you lose only a single gram of the fat accumulated on your pancreas, its insulin production improves and can soon reach the normal levels once again.

Healthy lifestyle is a must for this process. A healthy diet should be combined with sufficient exercise. A patient should avoid high calories diet. He should abstain from foods that cause a rapid increase in blood glucose level such as refined sugar and other processed carbohydrates as well as saturated and trans fats.

A patient should rather rely on a diet that is rich in fruits and veggies and proteins but still reduce the consumption of red meat. Also, it is recommended to consume supplements containing fish oil due to its omega 3 content, that can improve diabetes.

Cinnamon is a spice that can lower blood glucose level and reduce the insulin resistance. Look for other natural supplements that are useful for diabetes.

You should also speak to your doctor about a suitable exercise plan for you. Exercise is a powerful step that can reverse diabetes or prevent it right from the beginning. It helps you lose weight which augments the reversal process. Also some exercises such as aerobic ones tend to reduce blood glucose levels more. Spending sufficient time exercising is necessary for a long-term freedom of diabetes.

Being stressed for long periods of time makes controlling your blood glucose level impossible. Stress causes increase in the production of cortisol which in turn increases the blood level of glucose.

Stress can contribute to diabetes and make it worse. Therefore, stress management is crucial for reversing type-2 diabetes. Make sure you manage stress the right way and have enough daily sleep. Don’t resort to smoking or drinking to avoid being stressed as these will only make matters worse.

There is a genetic component to type-2 diabetes which makes it sometimes more challenging for some people to reverse than to others. There are also some more risk factors that tend to make some people more likely to get diabetes such as old age and family history.

However, following the type-2 diabetes reversal plan with persistence can be rewarding. You may no longer need the medications and be free from the symptoms of the disease such as thirst and frequent urination. You can avoid the serious complications this disease can have over the long term or if not properly managed. There is nothing to lose when you choose to follow a healthy life-style. It’s time to go for that goal.

Defining cancer can be difficult because there are a broad group of diseases that involve unregulated cell growth. With cancer, these cells divide and grow with no control, which can cause tumors that are malignant. These tumors can then invade other parts of the body. When things get really bad, cancer can spread through the body in the bloodstream, or in the lymphatic system.

To define how cancer is caused is not easy. The causes are highly diverse and complex and we only partially understand them. There are several risks to cancer though, including smoking, eating poorly, infections, certain radiation, obesity and a lack of exercise. Environmental pollutants can also lead to cancer.

Due to these factors damaging genes, they can lead to cancer mutations. Only about five to 10 per cent of cancers can actually be traced to genetic defects. In fact, most cancers can be prevented by refraining from smoking, eating vegetables and fruits, less carbs and maintaining a healthy weight through exercise.

Today, cancer causes about 13 per cent of all deaths worldwide each year, amounting to roughly eight million people. Due to the rising lifespans of humans, as well as the obesity epidemic, cancer rates are higher than ever before. When people live longer, there is a greater chance for genetic problems, which can lead to cancer growth. Cancer can be detected in a number of ways, including looking for symptoms and signs, doing screening tests and medical imaging.

History of Cancer

Scientist think that cancer has been there since the dawn of humanity. The earliest writing of cancer actually dates back to 1600 BC, when an Egyptian papyrus described cancer of the breast. Hippocrates himself had mentioned several forms of cancer, describing them as karkinos, the word for crab. This is why cancer, the astrological sign, is a crab as well. Celsus, who lived from 25 BC to 50 AD, recommended surgery to remove cancer tumors but Galen, a doctor of the time, recommended purgatives (purging from the system with bowel movements).

Galen’s recommendation was widely accepted for over 1,000 years. By the end of the Middle Ages, it became custom in medical endeavors to dissect bodies after death and through this more was learned about cancer. As early as 1761, it was believed by scientists like John Hill that tobacco was the reason behind cancer of the nose. In 1775, Percivall Pott found that cancer of the scrotum was common in chimney sweeps. With the creation of more precise means of performing research with microscopes and other equipments, a greater understanding of cancer began to emerge.

Since cancer is a class of diseases, there will probably never be a cure for cancer, but there are various treatments that can be used to prevent cancer or manage it, depending on the cancer. With improved understanding in areas such as molecular biology and cellular biology, a number of treatments are beginning to emerge to deal with cancer.

Cancer research is heavily funded and since 1971, $200 billion has gone into cancer research in the United States. This has shown to have a strong impact as there has been a five per cent decrease in the cancer death rate from 1950 to 2005.

It is estimated that the overall costs of cancer in the United States, including treatments and mortality expenses, amounts to $226.8 billion per year.

Things are changing though, and they are changing for the better.

In 2008, 12.7 million cancers were diagnosed and 7.98 million people died from cancer in 2010. The most common cause of death from cancer is lung cancer, followed by stomach and liver cancer. In 1990, deaths from cancer were 5.8 million but the population has increased heavily since then, while the number of cancer deaths has slowed considerably. Old age is a significant cause of cancer and it is believed that if we live long enough, sooner or later, we all get cancer.

Cancer can also hit children, with leukemia, brain tumors and lymphomas being the three leading cancers among children. In the United States, one out of 285 children will have cancer and while the rates of childhood cancer have increased by .6 per cent per year from 1975 to 2002, the number of deaths from childhood cancer have fallen by 50 per cent during that same period.

Cancer is a horrible disease but through gene therapy and other cutting edge treatments, more and more people are surviving from cancer. A good example is Terry Fox, the Canadian who helped create the biggest one-day cancer fundraiser in the world. When he died in 1981 it was because the cancer that took his leg had eventually spread to his lungs. Today, thanks to research, that cancer would be highly treatable and he never would have lost his leg.

It is a well- known scientific fact that what causes leukemia is still unknown.

There are several theories, but these theories have not been proven yet. Some of the contenders relate to the possibility of family hereditary. It is a theory that leukemia could possibly be caused by the radiations from where a person is employed. The research is still in progress to find more answers about the cause of leukemia.

The symptoms of leukemia are varied and many of these symptoms could relate to many other different ailments as well. This is one reason why leukemia is so difficult to diagnose. A person can start having fever and sweat during the night. The fever and sweat might be caused by a simple virus. A person might start developing infections on a regular basis. All of these particular symptoms could also be signs of diabetes.

If the symptoms persist it is important to follow up with your doctor. A patient might develop headaches and tests would need to be run as to why the headaches started, and the cause of those headaches. The headaches might be caused by a brain tumor, or stress at work or home.

Someone might start bleeding from the gums or anal area and it could be caused by gingivitis or hemorrhoids. There is also joint pain that could be caused by arthritis. Sometimes swelling will occur around the stomach area, and until further tests are conducted and the results are known, it could take some time to come to an accurate diagnosis.

Types of Leukemia

There are four different types of leukemia, and one type of leukemia will attack people over the age of 50 and does not affect children at all. Another type of leukemia will grow slowly within the cells and is very difficult to diagnose until it has advanced too far to do anything about it.

The third and fourth variations of leukemia affects both children and adults and both grow rapidly, and they are both known to be the most common type of the disease known to medical professionals.

Many patients can find out early through a yearly physical exam with their doctor if they have leukemia. Many know they have certain symptoms, but usually ignore them thinking they are caused by other sources. When a doctor checks your neck and finds a swollen area, tests can be conducted right away to determine what is causing the swelling. Many times such a swelling comes on slowly and is not noticed by the person.

This is why it is a good idea to see your doctor every year even if you do not notice any changes in your health. This gives the doctor time to run blood work to find out if the white blood cells count has become abnormal. The earlier the symptoms are determined the longer life a person will be able to enjoy.

Once it is determined what type of leukemia the patient has, the next step is to decide what type of treatment is best to implement. Some patients would be entered into a chemotherapy program for a certain amount of time, and then re-tested to see what the next best step would be to take.

Others would be put on a radiation therapy program for a certain amount of time, and once again be re-tested to see what would be the best alternative for them as a next step.

It can take a long time to diagnose leukemia depending on how cooperative the patient is, and when the patient finally goes to the doctor to report the symptoms, and the physical condition and age of the patient also has a big effect on how quickly the leukemia spreads and can be cured.

As far as surviving leukemia that depends on several factors.

If the leukemia is found early enough and it is the type of leukemia that grows slowly, there is a chance that the use of chemotherapy, radiation or a bone marrow transplant will give the patient a chance at life. When a patient goes into remission and stays in remission for five years, there is a good possibility that the disease is completely gone. It is still important to see their doctor every year though, even after the five year remission.