John Aaron Wellness

Children of the ‘80s have to thank Olivia Newton-John. She taught the whole world how to get physical and let her hear your body talk. Exercise in any form can be a great stress-buster. Exercise can help do wonders for the body. The World Health Organization says that lack of physical activity is the leading cause of chronic diseases. Now, we can also include stress, anxiety and potentially harmful mental conditions to the mix. Virtually all forms of exercise from simple walking, yoga to crossfit training have a value to relieve the body from stress. A little exercise can go a long way towards having a stress-free and happier life. Why worry about stress? Stress is a natural thing that happens in our body. It is beneficial until it becomes too much. Stress is in our DNA and we don’t have the ability to turn it off and on. It is the body’s natural reaction to a fight-or-flee response. Continued stress or presence of stress hormones in the body causes health problems. Some chronic di...

The Migraine Research Foundation reveals that there are about 6 per cent of men who suffer from migraines while 18% of American women have it. Richard Lipton, a neurology professor from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City says that the causes of migraines can be 50 per cent genetics while the other half includes a lot of different environmental factors. If you are suffering from migraine, read further for some tips that will surely work. Stick to a low-fat diet. A study showed that participants who were on a low-fat diet for three months reported that their headaches reduced for up to 40%. And, by the time they experienced headaches, the pain was 66% less severe while its duration also reduced by 70 per cent. Make time for exercise. A 2011 research conducted from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden provided additional proof to the theory that exercise can be beneficial to migraine sufferers. The said research revealed that exercise is just as effective as t...

In case you didn’t know – I’m a big fan of massage therapy. Since stress can kill, and living in today's modern world means stress is a constant companion, massage has become a major part of my wellness program. But here is a stress control technique that surprised me... Recent research suggests that eating 'friendly' bacteria could help reduce anxiety. In the journal Neurogastroenterology and Motility, a study found that giving a probiotic known as Bifidobacterium longum to mice with infectious colitis helped reduce their anxious behavior. [1] And, in another study, researchers at Ireland's University College Cork, gave mice a probiotic known as lactobacillus. They found that doing so resulted in reduced anxiety and depression-related behavior. [2] So what do these studies mean? Well, to me it confirms my belief that food is a natural medicine, and like all drugs you can use it to better your health or damage it. Perhaps the benefit of “good” intestinal flo...

“Daddy! It’s a spider! It’s a spider, Daddy! Kill it, KILL it!!” These were the words my soon to be four year old shrieked at me from the bathroom where she had been preparing for her bath. She was standing naked and pointing at the tub as I assured her that things were going to be alright. Warily looking into the tub, I saw no spider. I saw no kind of inset anywhere! “It’s right there, Daddy! Kill it!” she pleaded. I sighed and picked it up with my bare hands despite her voiced concern for my welfare. To her embarrassment, she blushed when I revealed that the vicious and deadly “spider” was nothing more than a tiny, tangled bit of her own hair. She bashfully giggled and entered the tub and I chuckled at her expense. She had truly seemed terrified, though. The funny thing is that we are all scared of something; whether it’s spiders, disease or financial loss. We all suffer from this emotion repeatedly. We never out-grow it. Fear is a “survival instinct,” an emotion that is na...

If one is the loneliest number, "No" is the loneliest word. However, if you're going to exist on planet Earth, you've got to learn how to use this tiny word - even when the person asking the question is your friend. Here's how to get a better handle on "No." Nip it in the bud. Good ol' Barney Fife was onto something when he coined this classic phrase. Giving an immediate "No," when you know the answer is "No" is the best way to go about giving a negative response. You're nipping the question in the bud. Promising that you may be able to catch a movie or have time to play softball after work - when you know you can't - only makes the "No" seem that much worse. So as soon as you know your answer will be "No," let it out! Reserve it for rare, special occasions . If you're truly someone's friend, this one should be a no-brainer. You enjoy spending time with your friends and helping them ou...

If you've ever experienced a migraine headache, you have one more life goal than those who haven't. That goal? To never have a migraine again. However, to meet that goal, you have to be well aware of the triggers that set you on the painful path to a migraine. Since some of the most common triggers are those things you put in your mouth, you may want to keep reading to find out what foods and drinks you should avoid to keep migraines from getting inside your head. In your day-to-day routine, you probably come across a lot of potential migraine triggers. From peanut butter and sour cream to raspberries and pizza, nearly every food can be a trigger. Some, however, are more common than others. In most cases, a food-induced migraine begins to rear its ugly head within 20 or 30 minutes of consuming the food or drink. To avoid migraines, consider avoiding the following foods and drinks that are known to cause migraine headaches: coffee, tea, cola, chocolate, and other foods...

Three years ago, the American Psychological Association (APA) conducted a survey about stress, and found that 1/3 of all Americans reported feeling "extreme" levels of stress, with 1/5 of Americans experiencing this stress 15 days or more a month. As of 2010, more than 75% of Americans are suffering with some form of stress-related condition, which may manifest as anything from slowly increasing blood pressure, or irrational emotional agitation to a full blown stress attack that makes life unbearable. Add to this the fact that 121 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and that anxiety frequently co-occurs with both stress and depression, and the epidemic of stress in America becomes clear. Many Houston-area doctors and psychiatrists recommend courses of drug treatments or cognitive therapy to cope with these stress or anxiety attacks, and in some cases, these can be beneficial tools for healthy living. From a whole-health wellness perspective, however, there a numb...