With an original bloodsucker, the leech, you know exactly what they look like and you can remove them! Banking institutions however, are target driven to prey remorselessly on the natural desires and greed of our ‘want it all now’ society. When they eventually pull up the drawbridge to further predatory lending (probably just when the client most NEEDS their help), the victim is often forced into the jaws of even worse loan sharks.

The ‘money business’ is actively allowed to wander from an ethical path, by successive governments who just don’t care. For them, ‘blind eye politics’ is mostly tax income advantageous. Many debtors, who bravely tried to climb on to the ladder of property ownership, now find their dreams in tatters as bankruptcy and repossession take their terrible toll.

Debt Related Anxiety is a ‘hidden from the world’ anxiety where you just do not know how you are going to physically and mentally survive another day, week or month. Minimal food is on the table; you cannot talk to anyone and fear answering the telephone. Creditors/debt collectors are knocking the door as Courts of Justice daily condone forced entry and repossessions.

We are not talking here about the victims always being financially ignorant clowns. The vast majority are decent and proud people, who made a decision to borrow money for one reason or another and then Life played them into the jaws of debt misery. Few debtors are real cowboys, (apologies to real cowboys y’all!); mostly they are people who do not (or cannot) think things through logically. They believe that their lives/income will always get better and they will not age, become ill or lose their job or a partner’s income. Am I cynical about the ruthlessness of the money machine? Not at all, because that is what it is, totally ruthless.

The totally unprincipled pursuit of lending vast amounts of money to people, who could not expect to pay it back in two lifetimes, beggars belief. The payback is from a captive customer base paying exorbitant interest rates and inevitable penalty fees when the ‘halo period’ is over.

The ‘I Want it Now’ society has been spawned and nurtured by successive governments who are suspiciously oblivious to the outcome for the debtors caught in the proverbial ‘debt trap’. (After all, the debtors deserved their problems did they not?) They had the money and must now pay the piper. These elected individuals’ mentality lives ‘on the hill’ either in actuality or in their selective conscience. The fact that the lesser fortunate are really suffering because of uncaring, deluded or even intentional fiscal policy is totally irrelevant, until election time that is, when their transparently false, caring sideshow is brought to the fore!

Jogging has always been a great way to get in shape. It can be a very satisfying way to get going in an exercise program. You can run alone or with other people and it will help strengthen your cardiovascular system. You can burn more calories by jogging in a shorter period of time and best of all it does not cost a lot to get started. The rest of this article will take a closer look at the benefits of jogging.
One of the reasons I think jogging is a really good exercise is because you can run with other people. This almost always increases your odds of staying with it. When you have to explain to your running partner that you do not want to go jogging today it makes it a little harder to not go. Hanging out and jogging with a friend not only helps your health out it can also be a lot of fun.
Running on a regular schedule will help out your cardiovascular system. Getting your heart rate up to a healthy level will help improve your health in many different ways.
Because running is considered an exercise of high intensity you can burn more calories by jogging. It should not take as long to burn away the calories when you are jogging so you should be able to burn more calories in a shorter period of time. This is great news for you if you have a busy lifestyle or just do not want to spend a bunch of time exercising.
One of the best reasons to take up jogging is because it does not cost a lot of money to get started. You can get started for no more than a decent pair of running shoes. You can often jog in your neighborhood so there are no expensive gyms to join unless you choose to. Money does not need to be an issue when you decide to start jogging.

Lung cancer is the leading type of cancer causing death among men and women of the world. It is only since the 1930s that cases of lung cancer started to increase. This is mainly due to tobacco consumption, and the much disputed pollution and smog around the globe. 90% of lung cancers are caused by smoking. Recently, governments and states around the globe have raised the price of tobacco dramatically, having some significant effect on societies in cutting down on tobacco smoking.
Some people mistakenly believe that pipe and cigar smoking do not have such a harmful effect on the lungs as cigarettes. Cigar and pipe smokers are at 5% higher risk to die of lung cancer than non-smokers. This ratio is 25% for people smoking cigarettes.
Passive smokers, i.e., smokers who do not smoke themselves but stay in an environment where others smoke, and inhale smoke, are at 24% higher risk of developing cancer (only 1% less than a cigarette smoker.)
Other danger factors in developing cancer are asbestos fibres, radon gas, familial predispositions (genetic), and other lung diseases, along with air pollution.
Lung cancers are categorized into two types. Small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. This distinction is based on the appearance of the cells under microscopic examination and the appearance of tumor cells. The two types of cancers spread and grow in different ways, thus the distinction.
Small cell cancer is the most aggressive and rapidly growing type of cancers, and it makes up 20% of related cancers. It tends to grow first in the larger breathing tubes and grows very fast spreading around a large area. In its initial stage, it is more sensitive to chemotherapy, but it often bears worse prognosis. This type of cancer is mainly related with smoking.
On the other hand, for non-small cell lung cancer, the prognosis is poor. Patients treated with chemotherapy live generally only three months longer than those who do not get treatment. This type is divided into further two types, one starting from the larger breathing tubes but spreading around slower. This means that the size of these tumors varies when diagnosed. 50-60% of non-small cell cancer starts growing around the gas-exchanging surface of the lung. This form is most common for smokers, and along these there are female non-smokers who are mainly affected.

Stress can and does impact the body physically, emotionally and even behaviorally. A few danger signs to look out for are:
Emotional Distress.
When you find your emotions running rampant, it may be time to evaluate the stressors in your life. Sudden mood changes, unreasonable anxiety, finding it difficult to get to sleep or staying asleep, trouble concentrating, and even excess worry and feeling tense all of the time, are sure signs of stress.
Behavioral indicators.
Do you notice that you tend to overreact? Do you act on impulse or withdraw from relationships with friends, family, or even your co-workers? Are you using drugs or alcohol more frequently than ever before? It may be these stresses in your life are having a negative effect on the manner in which you deal with the pressures around you.
Physical Symptoms.
Stress is known to have a negative effect on an individuals health. As stress builds up over time, with very little release, anxiety can turn inward, causing both annoying physical complaints like fatigue and headaches, to more grave problems like diabetes and strokes, among others. Too much stress has also been linked to some strains of cancer.
When somebody starts to show these signs, chances are stress has already begun to impact their lives in a negative way. They could be feeling overwhelmed or seriously tired, or have a list of more serious health complaints.
Depression too has been linked to chronic stress, especially for those with a family history of the disease. Special care should be taken when the stress factors in life start to impact you so greatly that intense feelings of melancholy ensue. Depression, like stress, can be treated with medication and therapy and must never be ignored.

In addition to these staggering figures, stress takes its toll through the added costs of quality control, legal challenges, lost opportunities, poor performance, bad attitudes, and training.
We cannot do much about the skyrocketing costs of medical care and prescription drugs, but we can take immediate action to control the top ten causes of stress as identified by The Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health.
The countdown is:
10. "Workload" – Employees report that they are often stressed when they have too little or too much to do. Managers need to divide responsibilities and help employees prioritize work that must be done. Make sure you understand the impact before shifting responsibilities. Take into account the cost of stress before you increase anyone’s workload or hire more people.
9. "Random interruptions" - Telephones, pagers, walk-in visits, and spontaneous demands from supervisors all contribute to increased stress. Time management, delegation of responsibilities, and clarification of expectations can reduce these stressors. 8. "Pervasive uncertainty" – Stress levels increase rapidly when people are confronted by new requirements and procedures. Keeping people informed controls stress and increases productivity. Put details in a memo so they can review the facts following your explanations.
7. "Mistrust and unfairness" - These situations keep everyone on edge, create bad attitudes, and lower productivity. It is important to keep an open line of communication to avoid misunderstanding and know what people are thinking about your decisions. Managers must consistently build trust and give equal treatment - just do the right thing.
6. "Unclear policies and no sense of direction" - Lack of focus causes uncertainty and undermines confidence in management. You need more than a well-written policy manual. Enforcement of policies and clear communications are essential.
To make sure everyone gets the message, you can repeat your explanation in a variety of ways – repetition and feedback are important. Reinforce policies through memos, articles, bulletin board postings, personal meetings, and small group discussions.
5. "Career and job ambiguity" - If people are uncertain about their jobs and careers, there is a feeling of helplessness and of being out of control. In addition to the trusted job descriptions and annual personnel reviews, people need to understand a broad range of issues that affect the company.
News of mergers, consolidations, plant closings, and restructuring contribute to a feeling of helplessness. Management must keep people informed about situations that will affect their jobs, or the rumor mill will add to an already stressful situation.
4. "No feedback - good or bad” – People want to know whether they are meeting expectations. Consistent, written and verbal, personalized feedback is required. Some people need more attention than others, but everyone’s performance is enhanced if leaders frequently affirm individual efforts.
3. "No appreciation” - Failure to show appreciation generates stress that endangers productivity throughout the company. There are many ways to demonstrate appreciation, but the most effective is a sincere comment about how much the person means to you and the company.
2. "Lack of communications" - Poor communication leads to decreased performance and increased stress. Management memos and announcements work well for distributing information, but two-way conversation improves communication and solicits ideas and suggestions while reducing stress and complaints.
1. “Lack of control” – Workplace stress is at its greatest when employees have no say regarding things that affect them. You can decrease sensitivity to all the other stressors and give a sense of being in control by involving employees in operating and administrative decisions and acting on their input. Frontline employees know what they are talking about. Listening to what they have to say reduces stress and increases productivity.

Often we hear people say, “boy he sure handles stress well” or “wow he doesn’t even look like he is under stress”. People often envy these traits in others and hope to emulate them. Those “lucky” individuals can be time bombs internally. Stress builds our blood pressure and over time we know from trends and factual data that prolonged stress harms our internal organs to the point of collapse if it’s chronic and untreated.
So, if we embrace the concepts of stress we can also manage stress and provide a balance to our lives that helps to reduce the impact of stressful situations and perform simple exercises and calming techniques that will help combat the side effects over time. Keeping our bodies physically fit and well balanced nutritionally is very important. Make sure we are getting our RDA across all the food groups and achieve daily success with our body’s daily vitamin intake. The basic food groups via the Food Pyramid are described in groups and quantity broken down on a daily basis. There are companies providing great nutritional juice products like the acai berry juice from Mona Vie International. These juice formations are essential in our daily nutritional requirements. MonaVie is but one example. Always consult your doctor or if possible enlist a nutritionist to assist you in planning a good meal plan depending on your unique health situation.
The last and most important area to review and plan for is fitness via exercise. From children to our grandparents we all need to get up and move. Movement via walking, stretching, and running lifting weights and managed yoga instruction are terrific means to establish a solid overall health and wellness program. Exercise will reduce your weight and help in providing the body with an outlet for stress related daily events. It’s important to note that stress will not go away. Thus by providing essential ways to manage our weight and our daily food intake we can achieve a nice balance to our fight against stress. A healthy heart via exercise will be able to manage fluctuations in blood pressure much better. In fact, if you walk 10,000 steps a day you will find your body fat reducing at fantastic rates and soon be losing weight even when you are not exercising because you have tuned your body and raised its metabolism. By increasing your metabolism you will burn calories more efficiently and thus reduce the body’s daily fat retention which is a key destabalizer when managing your health and wellness.

When feeling overwhelmed and unable to focus, stop for a moment
If your mind is on "overload," that is your body's way of telling you that you need to stop and regroup for a moment. Take a few long, deep breaths. By doing this, you are slowing down your system, and attempting to tell your body to physically calm down. Close your eyes and do this for a few minutes, as you clear your mind temporarily of all thoughts.
Get moving, to help your body produce endorphins, or "feel good" chemicals
Another way to recharge your mind is to get up and do some sort of physical activity. Whether it's a brief walk, jog or ride on an exercise bicycle, do something to get your heart moving. Physical exercise will help your body to naturally produce chemicals called endorphins, that can help to improve your mood.
Be logical, not emotional
Instead of jumping to conclusions about the situation, be rational about it and calmly think of solutions to it. Be realistic in your assessment of the problem, and don't magnify or dramatize it in any way. Just take time to think it over without allowing emotions to take over. It takes practise to do this, but is well worth the work. You are re-training your mind to react more calmly instead of in the old, familiar ways such as panicking or becoming overly emotional. Write it down, and keep a diary of your progress.
Don't beat yourself up
Be kind to your mind. Let yourself make mistakes, because that's what learning is all about. Practise being understanding and supportive to yourself. Don't rely on others to do this for you, let it come from deep inside you, instead. If you grew up hearing negative things about yourself from those you love the most, you may be conditioned to think poorly of yourself. The only way out of it is through it. I know, because I've been there myself. The more I've practised countering self-criticisms with positive thoughts, the easier it got. I can slip into being hard on myself, but then I catch the problem and correct it. Remember, nobody is perfect, and mistakes are only human.
By battling stress and anxiety full-force, on a consistent basis, you can improve the quality of your life. Don't give up. Part of my success has come from being somewhat stubborn and tenacious about solving problems. I use all those fighting skills once needed for survival, now against the high emotion I no longer want or need. Most of my days are peaceful and calm. If a problem crops up, I deal with it. Before, panic would set in and I'd look to others to help me fix it. By believing in myself and my ability to overcome problems, my life has improved. If I can do it, so can you.