Bye-Bye Ama: Ridding the Body of Toxins
About the Author
For the last 18 years, Melina Meza has explored the art of nutrition and yoga.
She utilizes her knowledge of Ayurveda, Hatha Yoga, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle promotion to create what she calls ?Seasonal Vinyasa.? Every yoga class, retreat, and workshop emphasizes alignment with nature and the crucial importance of sequencing. In addition to asana practice, Meza?s works include understandings on physical health and nutrition as well as how to inspire self-knowledge that allows for the conscious adjustment of day-to-day choices.
Exuding in her love of yoga, Melina Meza?s colorful and hopeful perspective on life, originates from her devotion to yoga and eating well, to teaching and nutritional counseling, and to traveling and experiencing different cultures.
Until December 2011, Melina Meza was a yoga teacher in Seattle, Washington at 8 Limbs Yoga Centers, when she moved to Oakland. At the 8 Limbs Yoga Centers she was the Co-Director of the 8 Limbs Yoga Centers 200 and 500 ? Hour Teachers? Training Program. She continues to grow as a teacher, and is influenced by studying with numerous teachers, including Dr. Robert Svoboda, Scott Blossom, Sarah Powers, Jin Sung, Gary Kraftsow and Seattle’s Kathleen Hunt. Meza believes that retreats and sabbaticals are vital to her personal practice and bring her deeper reflection and inspiration.
Melina Meza is the author of the Art of Sequencing books and produced the Yoga for the Seasons video series, which premiered in September 2009 with the release of the Fall Vinyasa DVD.
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Why Do We Sleep? For More Reasons Than You May Think
Most of us spend about a third of our lives asleep, despite not really having an answer to the question, ‘why do we sleep?’ Now neuroscientists are realizing that sleep is more important than previously thought. They’re also realizing that the worn-out platitude, “you can sleep when you die,” is terrible advice, as that day will undoubtedly come sooner if you short yourself on a good night’s sleep.
According to most contemporary research, you should be getting around seven to eight hours of sleep every night, and if you think you can get by on fewer than that, there’s a really good chance you’re fooling yourself.
Why is Sleep Important?
While the exact mechanisms of sleep are still being studied, neuroscientists including Matthew Walker have made interesting learnings about what happens when we deprive ourselves of sleep and the impacts sleep (or lack thereof) has on society as a whole.
When we’re awake, Walker says that essentially, we’re causing low-level brain damage. By this, he is referring to the build-up of the sticky, toxic junk in our brain known as beta-amyloid. This accumulation of beta-amyloid has been found to correspond with the onset of Alzheimer’s, among many other adverse health effects correlated with a lack of sleep.
Sleep is beneficial as more than just a healing function; it also replenishes spent resources and regulates hormone levels that dictate our appetite, cognitive function, and motor skills. The two hormones that dictate whether we are hungry or full, ghrelin and leptin, have been observed to flare up and down, respectively, when we’re sleep deprived. This inevitably leads to an increase in hunger, but even worse, it leads our bodies to crave unhealthy and fattening foods — those heavy on carbs and light on greens. In fact, people who run on four to five hours of sleep per night tend to eat 200-300 more calories per day.
For men, sleep is an important regulator of hormones, most notably testosterone. Sleep-deprived males can have the same virility and strength as a man 10 years their senior. For women, a lack of sleep can lead to a significantly increased risk of breast cancer and drops in immune hormones.
According to Walker, just introducing a single night of just four hours of sleep among a normal eight-hour sleep schedule, can bring about a 70 percent drop in natural cancer-killing cells, the immune assassins that target malignant carcinogens. Every day our bodies produce these cells and others to fend off disease and maintain our health, and while a cat nap might make you feel refreshed, it won’t make up for the loss of these cells.
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