“Body Hacks” are tips and tricks to make your life easier. They’re easy fixes for common problems. Here are the top 10 body hacks that give the power back to you.
1. NERVOUS? HEART RACING? SLOW YOUR HEART RATE DOWN BY BLOWING ON YOUR THUMB.
Slowly blow air over the pad of your thumb. It regulates breathing and controls the vagus nerve, slowing down your heart rate and eliminating the nervousness.
2. 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.
3. RIGHT EAR IS ‘BETTER FOR HEARING’
If you have trouble hearing someone at a party or on the phone, use your right ear. It’s better at picking up rapid speech. But, the left is better at picking up music tones.
4. IF YOU ATE A BIG MEAL AND YOU’RE FEELING FULL AS YOU GO TO SLEEP, LAY ON YOUR LEFT SIDE.
Sleeping on the left side reduces the acid reflux in the body. It keeps your stomach lower than your oesophagus which will help prevent stomach acid from sliding up your throat. When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the oesophagus allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat.
5. ITCH IN THROAT?
If you’ve got an itch in your throat, scratch your ear. When the nerves in the ear get stimulated, they create a reflex in the throat that causes a muscle spasm, which cures the itch.
6. BRAIN FREEZE FROM ICE CREAM?
While eating ice cream too quickly, sometimes you can’t help getting that painful sensation. It’s called Brain freeze or Ice-cream headache. It happens because the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, which makes the brain decide that the whole body needs to be cooled down. In response, you become overheated, and consequently get a headache. You can prevent brain freeze by pressing your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much surface area as possible. This can keep those nerves from getting too cold, which will keep your brain from thinking its freezing as well.
7. WHAT TO DO IF YOUR HANDS FALL ASLEEP
If your hand falls asleep, rock your head from side to side. That’ll wake your hand or arm up in less than a minute. Your hand falls asleep because of the nerves in your neck compressing so loosening your neck is the cure. If your foot falls asleep, that’s governed by nerves lower in the body, so you need to stand up and walk around.
8. GOT THE HICCUPS?
Plug your ears with your fingers and drink a glass of water through a straw. No one really knows why this works, but it’s kind of like you are ‘swallowing down’ your hiccup.
9. SUPPRESS THE URGE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM
If you scratch or rub the back of your calf for a few moments, really vigorously, you may interrupt the message from your bladder to your brain just long enough for you to make it to the toilet.
10. RUBBING ICE ON THE BACK OF YOUR HAND
You can stop a toothache by rubbing ice on the back of your hand. The nerve pathways there stimulate a part of the brain that blocks pain signals from your mouth. Source