Mine Your Own Business

Two Health Articles

Most small business owners know how hard it is to balance the demands of their business with their personal life, especially with regard to finding time for exercise and other health matters. This posting is about two health related articles that once again show how important it is to really strive to reach that balance.

The first article is on the importance of heart health and provides 7 essential factors for heart health. Some of them are obvious, such as getting more exercise on a regular basis, but it also provides some other factors that are also very important for heart health. The article goes on to give some general tips to reach some of health goals and also includes some links to other resources.

The second article is aimed more at men and presents some surprising results. The article describes how men may be able to reduce their cancer and heart disease risks by donating blood on a regular basis. It seems that men produce too much iron and excessive iron is one risk factor for both cancer and heart disease. It applies to women in one sense as well since women can have excessive iron as well and provides some ways to reduce iron levels. Regular blood donation has a few things going for it, you are providing something life giving to others and you get your blood pressure checked on a regular basis for free. Something to think about anyway.

Is Shopping Better than Chocolate?

So you're too tired to exercise and you know that piece of chocolate will settle right in your midsection.  What can you do to get a similar high without the sweat or the calories?  According to recent research reported by Shopwise.com, shopping just might fill the bill.

It seems that shopping releases two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and dopamine.  Both produce a "high" or feeling of pleasure.  Serotonin is associated with mood.  Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression.  Dopamine gives us an intense level of pleasure. 

It's the release of these two chemicals, according to researchers, that make shopping such a pleasurable experience for some people.  A successful shopping trip leads to positive feelings of success, attractiveness and self-worth.  Of course the down side to all this is that people can become addicted to the good feelings that they get from shopping.  These "shopaholics" can get themselves into serious trouble, running up debts that they can't pay and destroying relationships.  But true shopaholics are rare.

But for the average person the shopping experience can be better than chocolate, exercise, or even love-making.  Besides providing the goods and services that are necessary for our standard of living, retailers provide a kind of "therapy" that can be very helpful to stressed-out consumers.  By providing a pleasant shopping environment for your customers, you can add to the "high" that they experience and help them to relieve stress. 

It's a win/win situation.  And, it's calorie-free!

Here's a link to a CBS news video on this story, but I couldn't get it to work.  Maybe you'll have better luck.