Do you think that you think a lot !

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The mind of a normal human being go through 20,000 – 80,000 thoughts/day, which means 1500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour. Some of you might be thinking that they don't really think that much but this count is estimated after a lot of research. The count of thoughts may vary from person to person but even the least thinking person thinks a lot in reality. We often assume that if a person talks less the he/she thinks less, but in most of the cases it is just opposite. Why do we think so much ? And even if we think that much, do those thoughts change into actions ?
Our mind is a butterfly that keeps wandering on flowers of thoughts in an unpredictable manner. Only difference is that speed of our mind is much higher.
Most of the thoughts that come in our mind are useless and unimportant. A certain part of our thoughts change into reality after a lot of analysis by our brain. Our thoughts make us and create our whole personality. Most of our thoughts are not even worth sharing. Our thoughts accompany us everywhere irrespective if we are in crowd or alone. Our thoughts follow us even when we dress up, eat, exercise, walk, talk, drive, cook, work or have a bath.

Here are some facts about our thinking process
  • Thinking is not a conscious process, as most of the thinking takes place unconsciously.
  • When we are anxious or worried then our thinking process become so fast that we may start feeling tired even without any physical activity.
  • Even while reading this article you are moving your eyeballs after a lot of electrical impulses inside your brain. Even conscious or unconscious action of your body is made after a thought.
  • Every thought in your brain can't be changed into sentence. Every thought can't be verbalized.
  • Sometimes too much thinking slows us down in the real work that we were doing.
  • Our thinking affects the works we do and the works we do affect our thinking as well. So if you want to change the way you think, it is better to indulge yourself in some work that can keep your mind busy in itself and don't let your mind divert towards the topic that you want to avoid.
Education is not the learning of facts, but training the mind to think.
- Albert Einstein
When we talk to someone, our mind keeps commenting inside our brain and our mouth speaks only the selected thought which is most appropriate to talk. Even when we are just hearing to someone, thoughts related to that talk keep our brain occupied. Sometimes our thinking can be so deep that we can even visualize scenes inside our brain, and don't really see whats happening in front of our eyes. Sometimes we get stuck on one sentence or thought so much that we start thinking about that one thing and not even hear any further talk actually happening, and then suddenly realize that we have missed the real talk.

Do you think that you can stay on one thought for more than 10 seconds? Just think about anything and try not to be distracted from that one thought. Every inhale or exhale of yours will try to distract you to jump from one thought to another. You can never stay on one thought unless you are in mood to fool yourself. But if you are doing something that you like then you may stay longer but several thoughts related to that same thing may keep occupying your mind. However practitioners of meditation techniques can decrease the count of thoughts and keep themselves more calm than others.

How to witness your thoughts ?
Just try to watch the thoughts coming in your mind, it is not as hard as we assume. People who practice meditation often practice to witness their thoughts. While doing so, they often try to keep it on one thought. Experienced practitioners of meditation techniques like Yoga say that main objective of their practice is to attain "samadhi", which is a stage where one can attain a stage where no though occupies the brain.

It is our thinking process that make us human. Either we call it mind or brain, thinking process inside it is the basic reason behind our supremacy over other species. Our brain has evolved so much only due to the thinking process.
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How Snooze button is damaging your Brain

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After reading this article, most of the health conscious people will never hit the snooze button in the morning. It is a reflex action of most of the people to hit the snooze button on their smartphone or alarm clock to get few more minutes of sleep. Those who are a bit more lazy hit snooze several times. You might think that you are getting 5 to 10 minutes of more sleep by doing so, but actually that sleep is doing more worst to your brain, instead of making anything better. You will understand it completely by the end of this article as we will explain your sleep and sleep cycle.

Understand the Sleep Cycle

Our sleep can be divided into 4 stages. One sleep cycle lasts for around 90 minutes. In one sleep cycle we go through all four stages, each of which lasts for 5 to 20 minutes. First three stages of this cycle are non-REM stages, while the stage 4 is REM stage.
Stage 1 : This non-REM stage is the first thing that happens during sleep. This stage is somehow drowsy and any external stimuli can easily wake us up. During this phase some people feel a jerk or muscle spasm as our muscles start to relax. This stage can be easily observed by slow eyeball movement.
Stage 2 : This stage is a bit more sleepy then first stage and it become harder to wake up. During this stage heartbeat starts to slow down and body temperature starts to decrease. This stage can be observed by stopping of eyeball movement.
Stage 3 : It is the deepest sleep stage of non-REM sleep. It is hardest to wake-up anyone during this phase. Most of the restorative work in our body occur during this stage. Conditions like sleep-walking or sleep-talking occur during this phase.
Stage 4 : This stage is also known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage as eye ball movement is at its highest frequency in this stage. Dreaming usually happens in this stage and arousal can also occur.
Note: Duration of REM sleep (stage 4) increases as the count of sleep cycle increases. So there is more probability that an alarm will wake you up in between your dreams.
When we shift from one stage to another, a slight moment of wakefulness happens in between, which we usually don't remember. Once all four stages have completed, we enter into the stage 1 again, thus starting the next sleep cycle.

What happens when we wake up due to an alarm ?
If an alarm wakes us up during REM Sleep (i.e. stage 4) then we feel groggy (i.e. feeling drunk, tipsy, weak or dazed), while if you wake up during first 3 stages then you feel alert and attentive throughout the day. But one more factor to be noticed is that once we have slept for 2 sleep cycles, our body / brain gets ready to wake up anytime without much difficulty. The truth is that our brain is designed to wake up after or in between the REM sleep.

What happens when you hit snooze ?

Usually we hit snooze to sleep again, but irrespective of the previous sleep stage, we begin a new sleep cycle. Such disturbance in sleep cycle disturbs your biological clock as well. Now alarm beeps again after a 5 to 15 minutes, and during this time we were in non-REM (i.e Stage 1 to 3) sleep. Waking up during this phase is harmful for your brain. Those who are habitual of hitting snooze, do it everyday and make their brain and body suffer a lot due to their bad habit.

How to get rid of Snooze ?
It is better to go to bed early and give your body / brain sufficient time to rest. It will make it easier for you on the first beep of alarm. It is better to get an alarm clock with no snooze button. Once you give yourself proper time to sleep, you will find that you will wake up automatically even before the very first beep of alarm, which will be done by your biological clock.
Tip: Stop using your smartphone while going to sleep. It puts excess stress on your eyes, disturbs your sleep and also steals the precious time that was meant for sleeping.
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How to Lower your Resting Heart Rate (RHR)

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A lower heart rate while in resting position indicates better health of your heart. Normally people have RHR (Resting Heart Rate) in range of 55 to 100. Those who have a RHR of more than 80 bpm are twice more prone to death from a heart disease, while those with more than 90 bpm are thrice more prone. In our last post we published a calculator to evaluate and compare your heart health by telling us your age, gender and resting heart rate (RHR). Usually athletes have the best heart health and their RHR always remains below 65.

A number of variables affect our heart rate and keep changing it through out the day. Apart from activities like sitting, walking and running, even our mood can change our heart beat count. It can even change while watching TV on a comfortable sofa, just due to emotional and mood related changes in the act being played on screen.

How to Lower your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) ?

Our genes, ageing, stress level, medications and medical conditions play an important role in deciding our RHR. Here we are proving some tips to lower your Resting Heart Rate (RHR).

  • Exercise Regularly: You may choose any exercise that suits you, such as a brisk walk, swim, or bicycle. It is not necessary to workout at a gym. When we exercise our heart beats faster, even for a short time afterwards. But when we do it regularly our resting heart rate starts to decrease.
  • Reduce stress: If you feel that your stress level is high then you may engage yourself in meditation exercises such as yoga or tai chi. These stress-busting techniques have shown a significant impact in lowering the resting heart rate over time.
  • Avoid tobacco: Smoking increases resting heart rates, even the passive smoking. Quitting can easily bring it down. Calculate the damage done by smoking.
  • BMI in check: We can lower our RHR through good lifestyle and maintaining a healthy BMI (body mass index), i.e. height-weight ratio. A BMI value of 19 to 25 is considered best. So Calculate your BMI. Larger body requires more effort from our heart to supply the blood, and losing weight can easily reduce that effort.
  • Take long breaths: This technique can instantly bring your heart beat down. At any point of time, if you feel that your heart is beating badly, then you must take long breaths to lower the heart rate. It is the reason behind practicing breathing exercises to lower the blood pressure.
  • Stay Cool: Except the exercise time, try to keep your body cool. Higher temperature outside make our heart to pump more blood to keep the right body temperature, thus increasing the heart rate. So staying away from heat can lower the RHR.

Note: The best time to measure your RHR (Resting Heart Rate) is just before leaving bed in the morning. You should measure it while still lying on your back.
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Heart Rate and its effect on our overall Health

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Calculate what your heart rate tell about your overall health by telling us your resting heart rate. Normal resting heart rate of people vary from 60 to 100 beats/minute, but if it remains below 60 (known as bradycardia) or above 100 (known as tachycardia) then it is a medical condition.

Tell us your age, gender and resting heart rate, we will tell you if it is OK or not.

How to know your RHR (Resting heart rate) ?
To know your resting heart rate you should lie down comfortably on your back for a few minutes and take long breathes and calm down your mind. If you can't do it right now, then you must know that heart beats slightly faster while sitting, so you may enter some lesser value. Best way to measure your pulse is by putting your index finger on the wrist area of opposite hand, just below the thumb, and then count it for 1 minute. If you have got a wristband / health band then it can also tell your pulse rate.

Gender:
Age :
Resting Heart Rate :

Heart rate (also known as pulse rate) is something which is strongly connected to our overall health. Your heart rate changes several times in a day depending on your body positions such as resting (lying), walking, sitting, running or during workout. Resting heart rate is generally used to estimate your overall health. Heart rate of a health adult can change suddenly while changing body positions, from resting to standing or from standing to running. But unhealthy and older adults with unhealthy cardiovascular health feel uncomfortable in changing positions suddenly, thus advised by doctors to change positions slowly to keep themselves safe from sudden heart rate change.

How to lower your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) ?

But why do heart rate change while changing positions? 
The answer to this question is dependent on various factors, which are
  • Effect of gravitation on blood flow.
  • Effect of physical activity on blood / oxygen demand by body parts.
  • Posture of thigh
When we keep lying for a few minutes the blood flows back to heart without much effort, compared to standing, where blood flows from legs to heart against the gravitational pull. To create this extra push and pull our heart beats at a higher rate.
Physical activity also creates demand for more oxygen and energy from muscles and cells helping in the activity. That demand is fulfilled through blood supply by increasing heart rate. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients/energy to organs in need. This reason also explains the increased breathing during physical activity.
Posture of our thigh also affects our heart beat. In sitting posture, our thigh is usually parallel to the ground, while in standing posture it is vertical to ground. Thighs parallel to ground decrease the heart beat. Due to this reason, our resting heart rate can increase if we bend our knees while lying on back.
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Metabolic Age Calculator Online BMR Calculation Formula

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Metabolic age is connected to calories consumed by metabolic system. It is directly dependent on BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). BMR is amount of calories consumed by our metabolism when our body remains at rest. Its calculation is different for different genders. Here we have given the formula usually used to calculate BMR. Here can calculate you BMR after filling the details in the form given below.

Calculate your Metabolic Age

Gender :
Age : Years
Height :
     or cms
Weight: kg
     or lbs

Metabolic Age

Metabolic age is actually a comparison of BMR of people of similar age group. If you BMR falls in the range of average BMR of other age then your Metabolic Age will be that. So your metabolic age can be different from your actual age. To keep your Metabolic age below your actual age you need to control your weight. Weight is the only factor that you can control. Height and actual age can't be controlled by anybody. Our BMR increases till the age of 20 and then starts decreasing 100 Calorie per decade.

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

The formula given below is known as Harris-Benedict formula, which was created in year 1919.
BMR for women = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
BMR for men = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )

The above formulas are not used in modern calculations of BMR. Now we use a more accurate formula known as Mifflin - St Jeor formula, which was created in 1990. Mifflin - St Jeor formula is given below.
BMR for men = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) + 5
BMR for women = (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) - 161

Heart Attack Risk Calculator

Age: Years
Country:
Gender:
Weight: kg
Height:
Do you have a family history of hypertension / heart attack / stroke ?



Metabolic Age Calculator

Metabolic Age is calculated by comparing your BMR with Average BMR of people with similar height of different age groups. If your BMR matches with a lower age group then your metabolic age is lower than your actual calender age. Lower metabolic age is considered healthy and increases your life expectancy. We tried to find a graph or chart so that you can match it to know your, but there no such thing available on net. The comparison differs according to your ethnicity as well. People living in US will have different BMR chart than those living in Asian continent.

Why Metabolic Age is not always accurate ?

Metabolic Age is calculating the BMR and then comparing it with average BMR of different age groups. But the truth is that BMR varies depending on your geographic location, lifestyle, body type, activity level and various other unknown factors. It is nearly impossible to calculate metabolic age of every person on earth using the same BMR chart. As we read about some researches of BMR on wikipedia, we found that in a research two different person with same lean body mass of 43 kg when obeserved in a test-lab reported BMRs of 1075 kcal/day and 1790 kcal/day. The difference in BMRs of those two test subjects was equivalent to running 10km. So if you want to calculate your real BMR or Metabolic Age then is better to visit a reputed medical facility.
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