Better Nutrition:
There's hardly any health issue that isn't linked some way to nutrition and staying fit. Eating the right foods and not being overweight has many benefits as does exercising. It reduces our appetite. It strengthens our heart and lungs. It makes us feel better and look better. It builds muscle that burns more calories around the clock. Another great benefit - it lifts up our moods. Considering emotions - while anger, anxiety, hysteria and stress are not the cause of asthma, they can contribute to fatigue and hyperventilation or rapid breathing. It may be that the tension placed on the respiratory system as a result of emotional reactions may trigger bronchospasm and inflammation. The http://www.health.gov site relates that major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States are related to poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. It doesn't take a genius to agree with its findings that together with physical activity, a high-quality diet that does not provide excess calories should enhance the health of most individuals.  It's also common sense to see your health provider before you start any physical exercise program.  The whole idea of starting  regular physical activities is to help you feel better, not to cause a heart-attack or other problems if your body is not in good enough condition to handle regular exercising - right? That's a 'no-brainer'.  Look at the long list of helpful physical activities in the Healthier Living checklists - to get more ideas of how you can easily stay fit with your daily routines.

There are also physiological disadvantages to being overweight. The more fat cells you have, the more inflammation you have, because fat cells are important sources of the chemicals that encourage inflammation. There's also some evidence that increasing weight contributes to bronchial hypersensitivity, a hallmark of asthma in which the bronchial openings spasm with very little provocation. There is also the effect of excess weight on existing asthma. The reasons are numerous. More fat around your abdomen prevents your lungs from fully expanding and your diaphragm from moving downward because they have to fight all that fat. In other words, you just can't get a good deep breath.
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Stress and Allergies:
Have you ever caught a cold right after meeting a tight deadline at work or at the end of the week of some tense arguments with your spouse or kids? Every time you're confronted with some major stressors, your body releases a torrent of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. They in turn send a volley of signals to various parts of your body - to prepare for action (the 'fight or flight' response). If this happens every day without physical release - our immune system finishes attacking the foreign invaders with inflammatory chemicals and then our brain sends out cortisol - the stress hormone to shut down this inflammatory response and return our immune system back into a quiet state. If your body is always releasing cortisol when it's under severe stress - your immune system is constantly being suppressed, increasing your chance for illness. This has even greater consequences when you talk about asthma.

Continual stress can lead to chronic high blood pressure, angina, and gastric reflux to constipation. Stress can also make our allergies and asthma become worse. Some of the physical signs of stress are: back pain, headaches, diarrhea, pounding heart, chest pain, shortness of breath, indigestion, grinding your teeth, stomach pain, feeling faint or dizzy, loss of appetite or conversely eating too much, constipation, feeling nauseated, hives or skin rashes and sweaty cold hands. If you are experiencing the following signs of mental stress and have many of the previous physical signs - you should probably see a health provider to see if they are related. Circle your choices:

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                                                          Stress Test

1. I bite my nails or cuticles?                        YES / NO

2. I often become frustrated?                        YES / NO

3. I am forgetful?                                         YES / NO

4. I often become moody or irritable?            YES / NO

5. I often feel depressed or sad?                    YES / NO

6. I am often nervous or anxious?                  YES / NO

7. I become easily frustrated?                        YES / NO

8. I have trouble thinking clearly?                   YES / NO

9. I have insomnia?                                       YES / NO

10. I am fidgety?                                           YES / NO
 
11. I often have negative thoughts?                 YES / NO

12. It is difficult learning new information?      YES / NO

13. I am accident prone?                                YES / NO

Concluding:
The more yes answers you've answered on the previous 'test' generally point to stress having bad effects on your life and particularly causing your immune system to become suppressed. When this happens, your body does not respond correctly to allergy inflammations and your allergies and asthma can become worse. Another helpful checklist is the Stress Buster steps form in the Healthier Living checklist group.  This checklist helps pinpoint what's causing your stress and whether you react in a favorable or unfavorable manner - thus impacting your immune system and your health.

It's also easier to get back in shape if we haven't waited too long and now need a wheel barrow to carry our 'front porch' around. Whether we are 15, 25, 65 or any age, any time is a good time to start. The Healthier Living Checklists available - list a bunch of 'small steps' in a chart - for taking control and making healthy changes that will make a difference for the rest of our lives. They include eating and exercise habits we can use to feel better about ourselves and in the process also strengthen our immune system to reduce the chances of allergy and asthma attacks. There are many suggested better eating and exercise idea steps that can be incorporated in just about anyone's lifestyle.  It's everyone's individual choice how fit they want to be and how many hours they spend at their local buffet restaurant - trying to bankrupt them with the 'tons' of food they 'put away'.  Life is so much more rewarding if we don't try to make it an 'eating contest' - so 'they' have to 'super-size' our coffin - at the 'end'.  Don't you think?

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