Healthbolt » Cortisol http://www.blisstree.com/healthbolt Health News and Commentary - Weird Health News and Information Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:30:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Sleep or Get Fat People, Your Choice http://www.blisstree.com/healthbolt/sleep-or-get-fat-people-your-choice/ http://www.blisstree.com/healthbolt/sleep-or-get-fat-people-your-choice/#comments Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:53:02 +0000 Liberty Kontranowski http://www.healthbolt.net/2008/06/10/sleep-or-get-fat-people-your-choice/ Post from: Healthbolt

]]> Sleeping or getting fat? Hmm, tough choice.

Portrait of a young woman sleeping fully dressed on a white bed
Image details: Portrait of a young woman sleeping fully dressed on a white bed served by picapp.com

Well, you don’t have to tell me twice to follow this advice:

Get more sleep!

So the deal here is that we can go about our business, scraping for anything remotely resembling rest, or we can make sleep a priority and lose weight. Boy, I’m just not sure on that one. Lemme think a sec…

Okay, yeah, I’ll play. I am officially on board with the findings that too-little sleep ends with a 40% increase in cortisol in the blood (cortisol is a stress hormone that’s been proven to slow down metabolism). Not only that, but you might also experience a whopping 33% increase in hunger pangs and cravings, which you know you’re bound to give in to. No thanks.

Sounds like a much better plan to work at getting those elusive seven blissful hours of snooze time, don’tcha think? Me too.

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]]> http://www.blisstree.com/healthbolt/sleep-or-get-fat-people-your-choice/feed/ 3 Random Fact of the Day: Stress Does Cause Gray Hair http://www.blisstree.com/healthbolt/random-fact-of-the-day-stress-does-cause-gray-hair/ http://www.blisstree.com/healthbolt/random-fact-of-the-day-stress-does-cause-gray-hair/#comments Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:00:23 +0000 Liberty Kontranowski http://www.healthbolt.net/2008/04/14/random-fact-of-the-day-stress-does-cause-gray-hair/ Post from: Healthbolt

]]> Just the news you wanted to hear to start your week, right? Sorry, but it’s true. Stress can, in fact, cause your hair to gray.

Why? Stress hormones like cortisol can mess with melanocytes (simply, hair cells). Suddenly, the cells have trouble surviving and/or producing the pigment that keeps your hair its original color. Hence, those pigments disappear and out pops a gray (or white) hair.

Naturally, controlling stress is a good defense in this type of situation, but that might not always be possible. Eating foods rich in the amino acids lysine and arginine can help provide a drop in stress, however, so if you’re feeling a bit on edge, grab some peanuts and a carton of yogurt. These superfoods can get you halfway to the recommended 3 grams of lysine and arginine that Slovakian scientists found to be so effective in reducing the hormones responsible for stress.

Either that, or there’s always hair color.

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