Whether it’s curing a throat tickle, resolving your headache
in minutes or experiencing supersonic hearing, these 21 tricks are proven
methods of fooling your body to achieve a desired result, whether that’s
relieving pain or just having fun.
1. Cure a Tickling Throat
When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now,
as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, especially if it
serves as a health remedy. Take that tickle in your throat: It’s not worth
gagging over. Here’s a better way to scratch your itch: Scratch your ear. “When
the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that
can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear,
nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm
relieves the tickle.”
2. Experience Supersonic Hearing
If you’re stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party,
lean in with your right ear. It’s better than your left at following the rapid
rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of
Medicine. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to identify that song playing
softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is
better at picking up music tones.
3. Calm Yourself With Cold Water
Nerves getting the best of you. Take a deep breath and spash
cold water on your face. This triggers the mammalian diving reflex that is
genetically in all animals including humans. The lower temperature of the water
and you holding your breath also causes your body to think it’s diving into
cold water. This reflex allows you to use oxygen more efficiently.
4. Overcome Your Most Primal Urge To Pee
Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? Fantasize about what ever
turns you on. Thinking about sex and arousing fantasies preoccupies your brain,
so you won’t feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male
reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.
5. Feel No Pain While Giving Blood
Love donating blood but hate the needle prick? German
researchers have discovered that coughing during a needle stick can lessen the
pain. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the
trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal
canal, inhibiting the pain-conducting structures of the spinal cord.
6. Swallow Your Horse-Sized Supplements
Those huge health supplements are sometimes a pain to
swallow. Want to swallow more than one at a time without gagging? Try this
trick to get them down: take a drink of water, and tilt your head forward
instead of backward. The capsule should float, and will be at the back of your
throat, ready to swallow.
7. Clear Your Stuffed Nose
Forget Sudafed. Here’s an easier, quicker, and cheaper
remedy to relieve sinus pressure: Alternate thrusting your tongue against the
roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This
causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to
rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the
Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens
congestion; after 20 seconds, you’ll feel your sinuses start to drain.
8. Fight Acid Reflux By Sleeping Position
Worried that chilli will repeat on you tonight? Try this
preventive remedy: “Sleep on your left side,” says Anthony A. Starpoli, M.D., a
New York City gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at New
York Medical College. Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left
sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach
connect at an angle. When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than
the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When
you’re on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity’s in
your favor.
9. Cure Your Toothache
Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped
webbed area between your thumb and index finger. A Canadian study found that
this technique reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared with
using no ice. The nerve pathways at the base of that V stimulate an area of the
brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.
10. Make Burns Disappear
When you accidentally singe your finger on the stove, clean
the skin and apply light pressure with the finger pads of your unmarred hand.
Ice will relieve your pain more quickly, Dr. DeStefano says, but since the
natural method brings the burned skin back to a normal temperature, the skin is
less likely to blister.
11. Stop the World from Spinning
Feeling dizzy? Put your hand on something stable. The part
of your ear responsible for balance–the cupula– floats in a fluid of the same
density as blood. “As alcohol dilutes blood in the cupula, the cupula becomes
less dense and rises,” says Dr. Schaffer. This confuses your brain. The tactile
input from a stable object gives the brain a second opinion, and you feel more
in balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better
than the conventional foot-on-the-floor wisdom.
12. Unstitch Your Side
If you’re like most people, when you run, you exhale as your
right foot hits the ground. This puts downward pressure on your liver (which
lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side
stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale
as your left foot strikes the ground.
13. Stop A Nose Bleed
Put some cotton on your upper gums–just behind that small
dent below your nose–and press against it, hard. “Most bleeds come from the
front of the septum, the cartilage wall that divides the nose,” says Peter
Desmarais, M.D., an ear, nose, and throat specialist at Entabeni Hospital, in
Durban, South Africa. “Pressing here helps stop them.”
14. Make Your Heart Stand Still
Trying to quell first-date jitters? Blow on your thumb. The
vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing,
says Ben Abo, an emergency medical-services specialist at the University of
Pittsburgh. It’ll get your heart rate back to normal.
15. Thaw Your Brain Freeze
Press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth,
covering as much as you can. “Since the nerves in the roof of your mouth get
extremely cold, your body thinks your brain is freezing, too,” says Abo. “In
compensating, it overheats, causing an ice-cream headache.” The more pressure
you apply to the roof of your mouth, the faster your headache will subside.
16. Prevent Near-Sightedness
Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne
Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It’s usually caused by
near-point stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too
long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close
your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds,
release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing
muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles–like the
eyes–into relaxing as well.
17. Wake Up a Limb That Feel Asleep
If your hand falls asleep while you’re driving or sitting in
an odd position, rock your head from side to side. It’ll painlessly banish your
pins and needles in less than a minute, says Dr. DeStefano. A tingly hand or
arm is often the result of compression in the bundle of nerves in your neck;
loosening your neck muscles releases the pressure. Compressed nerves lower in
the body govern the feet, so stand up and walk around if they fail you.
18. Impress Your Friends
Next time you’re at a party, try this trick: Have a person
hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain
this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He’ll resist.
Now have him put one foot on a surface that’s a half inch higher (a few
magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will cave in. By misaligning his hips,
you’ve offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Results
Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is
vulnerable, so it shuts down the body’s ability to resist.
19. Breathe Underwater
If you’re dying to retrieve that quarter from the bottom of
the pool, take several short breaths first–essentially, hyperventilate. When
you’re underwater, it’s not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a
breath; it’s the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic,
which signals your brain that somethin’ ain’t right. “When you hyperventilate,
the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity,” says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an
associate professor of biology at Auburn University. “This tricks your brain
into thinking it has more oxygen.” It’ll buy you up to 10 seconds.
20. Encode Long-Term Memory
Your own! “If you’re giving a speech the next day, review it
before falling asleep,” says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological
sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens
during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as
long-term memory.
21. Relieve a Migraine Instantly
The next time you are about to reach for some pills to get
rid of your headache, use your thumb and forefinger and pinch down on the
muscle on the web of your hand (thumb on the back of your hand and forefinger
underneath) and press for 2 minutes. Repeat. Most headaches and migraines will
ease after just 4 minutes. This shiatsu point addresses headaches by dispersing
stagnant Ki (i.e. blocked energy) and moving blood in the head, neck, and other
parts of the body.
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Via : Healthy Cures