Top 10 lifestyle factors to boost your libido

"My libido is very low and I just can't be bothered with sex at all." A lot of women report drop in their sex drive with progressing age and a busy lifestyle.

Low libido can be an indication of a health condition that you may not have heard about from your doctor: adrenal fatigue.

Your adrenals, two walnut-sized organs that sit on top of your kidneys, are the workhorses of your body. If you are exhausted, chances are, your adrenals - and their partner the thyroid - need attention. What happens when the adrenals and thyroid have lost their life force or "spirit?" Your digestive system, the organs in your brain (e.g., hypothalamus and pituitary), your thyroid, liver, endocrine system, sexual organ system, heart and central nervous system suffer.

Now the question arises- How to improve Libido? Let's face it, we are all so busy we often don't take time out for ourselves - to rest, relax, breathe or nourish ourselves in the ways we wish we could. Often, it's because we fall into "doing," putting off self-care until "someday when we have the time." The vital constitutional energy that is stored in our adrenals is essential to reaching old age looking and feeling like a teenager. Interestingly, just a few changes - maybe just one step in the right direction of healing your adrenals (and don't forget your thyroid) - can be just what you need.

1. Stay positive: Negative thoughts and emotions can sabotage your best efforts at relaxing. Just like diet, thoughts and emotions become habits. Concentrate more on what is going right. Be happy & contented for all you have and don't crib for what you don't have. If you don't find anyone to talk start maintaining a diary. This exercise will give a boost to your thoughts

2. A balanced diet: It has been observed that a diet comprising of processed foods, too much sugar, over-dependence on drugs and antibiotics can weaken your immunity, pave the road for early aging and cause diseases like cancer because health begins in the digestive system. Your goal should be to have a balance of alkaline and acidic foods so that you can maintain the alkaline state of your blood. If you get out of balance and your blood becomes too acidic, you become more susceptible to illness and disease. The foods that have been marked as taking a special role in boosting libido are: asparagus, cheese, figs, avocado, fish, raw oysters, basil, bananas, turkey, liver, eggs, aromatherapy essential oils, coffee, chocolate, celery, vitamins A, B, C and E, Ginkgo, brown rice, Ginseng, arginine, and Don Quai. To read the role of these foods, read the article, Top 10 foods to boost your sex life.

According to Beverly Whipple, professor emerita at Rutgers University, fats in the form of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated help promote testosterone and estrogen which are needed for sex drive. Some examples of these include avocados, seeds, nuts, olive oil and salmon.

3. Exercise: (not again!) As much you would like to ignore, aerobic workouts (running, biking, swimming) not only improve blood flow to sex organs but also boost your mood, pumping up "feel good" brain chemicals called endorphins. An increase in testosterone levels about one hour after work out can leave you feeling sexier. Do avoid overstraining yourself, though, since extreme exercise actually lowers testosterone levels.

4. Ban Stress: Too much stress increases the stress hormone cortisol, which causes testosterone to plummet. Find a way to tune out for 15 minutes a day, whether through meditation, yoga, chilling to music, or schmoozing with a friend.

5. Detox once a week: Your body cleanses every day through elimination, urine, tears, and sweat, your body rids itself of toxins that would otherwise build up and could lead to sickness and disease. Fevers, colds and skin eruptions are actually a natural part of the cleansing process and shouldn't be suppressed. Cleansing allows your body to restore balance and occurs when imbalance is too great and threatens life.

6. Cut back on the booze and cigarettes: Smoking robs the blood of oxygen, due to narrowing of blood vessels compromising the flow of blood to the body and the sexual organs. It also saps your stamina and most people don't like kissing an ashtray. Alcohol is a depressant and drinking it in high amounts will have a negative effect on libido.

7. Lose extra Weight: Being overweight can affect not only your self-esteem and your feelings of sexuality but you're likely to suffer from blood vessel disease which can reduce essential blood flow to the genitals. According to a recent study conducted by Binks and his colleagues at Duke, up to 30% of obese people seeking help controlling their weight indicate problems with sex drive, desire, performance, or all three. Often, the latest research shows, these problems can be traced to physical conditions that co-exist with obesity. "We are beginning to see that the width of the blood vessels leading to the clitoris [the area of the vagina most closely related to sexual response] in women are affected by the same kind of blockages that impact blood flow to the penis," says Susan Kellogg, PhD, director of sexual medicine at the Pelvic and Sexual Health Institute of Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia. When this happens, says Kellogg, a woman's body is far less responsive, and a drop in desire is not far behind. The more body fat you have, the higher your levels of a natural chemical known as SHBG (short for sex hormone binding globulin).

8. Reflexology: The areas corresponding to sexual desire and libido are the big toe and the ankle. Applying pressure onto the big toe is believed to stimulate the release of sexual hormones while the area around the ankles is responsible for genital arousal. Just massage your partner’s feet and observe his or her response. This exercise helps you understand each other on a whole new level and makes you sensitive to each other’s needs. Reflexology is a completely natural technique which can be safely carried out at home. Even those who are not sure of its benefits wouldn’t mind some loving foot play!

9. Add a spark in your life: Recent research shows that partaking in new and challenging experiences with your partner can boost the brain chemical dopamine, which helps fuel sex drive. These don't even need to be in the bedroom. Enter a race together, on a tandem bike. Get a little lost on a wilderness hike—without a map. Host a game night with friends where each couple kicks in $30 and the winning pair takes all.

10. Consider Supplements: This herbal remedy made from the leaves of the gingko biloba tree, is known to improve blood flow to the brain and sexual organs. It is thought to have an enhancing effect upon desire, excitement and orgasm. Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) could be useful, since it's critical for the manufacture of sex hormones in the adrenal glands. Choline, meanwhile, purportedly helps to enhance levels of acetylcholine, a brain chemical that sends sexual impulses from your brain to your sex organs.