Natural Solutions to Feeling Run-Down

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Natural Solutions to Feeling Run-Down

 

Nearly 100 percent of American women are suffering from chronic inflammation due to factors like stress and exposure to environmental toxins. Symptoms include brain fog, skin rashes, body aches, frequent colds, and severe PMS. The modern medical world has realized that chronic inflammation could be to blame for most degenerative diseases, including two of today’s prolific killers - cancer and heart disease.

 

Chronic inflammation is when the body’s natural defense system, instead of protecting, goes haywire and attacks the tissues slowly and steadily. The inflammation can occur in any organ or part in the body. For example, an inflammation in the knee cartilage becomes a serious case of arthritis or osteoporosis. Although the elderly are especially vulnerable, any one can get inflammation at any age. Anemia, asthma, psoriasis and a host of other symptomatic diseases are believed to have their root in chronic inflammation. You can have it and yet not know it. So if you’re feeling depressed, without energy or simply run-down with fatigue, it is better to fight these conditions with anti-inflammatory strategies.

 

Fortunately, the inflammation fighting strategies here will enhance immunity, increase energy, boost your mood and more! Best of all, they are all natural and there is no need to fight toxins with more toxin.

 

1.Inhibit inflammatory chemicals with some spicy tea

 

Research has shown that the capsaicin in cayenne pepper blocks the same inflammatory COX-2 enzymes that over the counter and prescription anti-inflammatory meds do, but without the negative side effects. A small amount of spice delivers the benefits, so consider cooking with hot pepper or sipping cayenne tea once or twice a week. To make cayenne tea, just add 1 teaspoon of the spice to 1 cup hot water or your regular tea.

 

Extra Benefit: Cayenne is also improves blood flow and boosts your body’s own healing capability.

 

2.Reduce symptoms with pine bark extract

 

Taking 200 mg. of Pycnogenol (French maritime pine bark extract) supplement for five days reduced inflammation markers such as nuclear factor-kappa B by 15 percent, according to a London study on anti-aging. The reason: Pycnogenol’s flavonoids destroy the free radicals that trigger the inflammatory response.

 

Extra Benefit: Pycnogenol improves lung function and lowers blood sugar.

 

3.Rally the body’s own natural defenses with sex

 

Engaging in sexual activity triggers the release of dopamine. This brain chemical simultaneously suppresses production of the inflammatory chemical interleukin-12 and stimulates the activity of the anti-inflammatory interleukin-10.

 

Extra Benefit: Sex boosts energy and enhances your relationship with your partner.

 

4.Prevent the impact of stress with belly breathing

 

Spike in the stress hormone cortisol causes upswings in levels of inflammatory compounds called eicosanoids. Relax with deep breathing, a technique that cuts cortisol output by up to 52 percent to prevent surges in eicosanoids. Here’s what to do: Inhale through the nose, relaxing the belly to take in as much air as possible. Breathe out through the mouth as if blowing through a straw, relaxing the belly after exhaling. Do this for three five-minute sessions daily.

 

Extra Benefit: Belly breathing speeds fat burning and curbs food cravings.

 

 

Author Note:

The article is written by Nick Clipton, web master of BuildingBodyMuscles.com. Nick is a fitness trainer and loves to blog on health and fitness. Visit his site to know more about online exercise program.

Supplements for Mental Performance

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Best Lecture on Mental Performance Supplements
1.03 h

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NOTE: I LOVE this video, below are my highlights and opinions. But for the truly interested: Watch the video, seriously, it will be an hour well spent.

The Mind vs The Body

The mind and body are not sepperate entities. You might have noticed this when you have not eaten enough and get low blood sugar. Your head might feel foggy and not functioning optimally. The link between the mind and the body is however far more extensive than this petty example. Of course knowing how to learn and study is important, but making sure tha brain functions optimally is equally important. It has even been shown that the right supplementation in certain groups causes an IQ improvement of 10 points. Without any other training… Psyched to optimised your mind yet?

Sorry: Diet is Most Influential

Bread kills, and I’m not talking about French people using stale baguettes to club eachother to death over a nice wine. The high incidence of diabetes, obesity and all sorts of other complications are often directly in correlation with high carbohydrate diets (bread, potatoes, rice etc). In addition to that the average western diet misses all sorts of nutrients.

I can hear you say: ‘But I feel fine, stop being paranoid’.

Well, let me throw around some numbers… The vitamin D RDA is about 100 UI (depending on the country), toxic intake is only observed at 35,000 UI. At the required 100 IU you will probably not get ill, but are you fine? At higher intake (say 10,000 to 20,000 IU) the most amazing benefits have been observed. Ranging from anti-cancer effects to athletic performance and immune system boosting properties higher intake has no side effects and many benefits.

So tell me: You are not ill, but are you running optimally?

The primary influence on your mind and your body is your diet. I mean think about it: what does your body physically consist of? Well, it consists out of what you put into your mouth, e.g. what you eat. ‘You are what you eat’ is not a metaphorical sentence, it is a simple truth often misunderstood. So what you eat, is what your body is. So what do you want to eat? Well, in general terms the paleo diet is a good place to start… There is as of yet no magic pill out there, not without side effects anyway. Short term measures have short term effects, a temporary diet has a temporary effect just like termorarilly being high on some substance or the other will not make you more creative on the long term (not to say that constant use is a good idea).  

Fats: Flexible Cells

Many people see fats just as a fattening substance (it is not by the way). But what is the function of fats in your body? Well, your body consists out of (‘no shit sherlock’ alert) seperate units called cells. These cells are basically bags of functional structures and biochemistry. The ‘bag’ that keeps it all together, the membrane, consists primarily out of phospholipids. As the name suggests phospholipids consist primarily out of fats. In this wall are the functional units in the sense that they move things in and out of the cell, plus they communicate signals outside of the cell to the inside and vica versa.

For these functional elements to do their job, they need a proper membrane to function in. So what fats? Guess what, it’s the fishy ones. Fat fish (e.g. salmon) contain omega 3 and the whole charade you have heard a thousand times over. In general fat is good, as long as it is unprocessed and taken without carbohydrates. The general advice is to take mono and polysatured fats, but do note that the ‘general advice’ changes every year or so…

B Vitamins

B vitamins have been used to treat depression (note: only in specific cases), boost mental performance and cell regeneration. The clearest effect of these can be seen in the hair and nails. People who use high levels (note high, not toxic) of vitamin b’s (350% RDA for example) will grow hair and nails faster and with better quality. On a side note this effect is best used in combination with adequate/high protein intake. The mechanisms I am not sure of. But the study referred to in the video above has increased IQ by 10 points purely by using a standard vitamin b supplements in malnourished (note, this is the majority of the general population) youngsters.

Proteins / Aminoacids

Proteins are in effect long chains of amino acids. So why are they important? Well, consider this: your DNA (you might have heard of this little molecular structure) only contains codes for proteins. So in effect the infamous ‘blueprint of the body’ runs solely on aminoacids, which are available to the body by breaking down proteins to it’s separate components. So what happens without fuel for the human blueprint? Good question, all I know it that it isn’t good.

In addition to that neurotransmitters, the regulatory mechanism (on of them anyway) of the brain are also constructed out of aminoacids. In specific dopamine and serotonin are synthesised from L-Tryptophan and L-Tyrosine (see video for references). Some people might benefit from supplementing these, though careless use will only create adverse effects.

Trace Elements and Nutrients

Trace elements and nutrients are the kind of substance your body only needs very little of. However when it doesn’t have all of them, it starts functioning below sub-optimal levels. The problem with these trace elements and nutrients is that we are not aware of all the effective ones, and are not capable to effectively concentrate them. This means that supplementation is not really an option… So what can you do? Again, have a proper diet. Don’t underestimate it…

So in conclusion, most sustainable ways of boosting mental performance are long term practices (sleep for example also has a massive effect). Never underestimate the power of what you eat. Your body and mind are your biggest assets in life, so take care of them.

Paleo Friendly (Healthy) Pizza

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Paleo Pizza – The Process

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Paleo Diet

The Paleo diet is simple: Eat stuff your primal ancestors did, because your body is
not designed/evolved to do otherwise. It all comes down to no grains, potato, rice or
processed foods. It is because of this that it is often mistaken for a ‘no carb diet’, but it is
not. Two of the things I miss after switching to this lifestyle are sushi and pizza. Sushi is
my sin food (I reward myself this if I accomplished something awesome), pizza however
is too far from paleo for my taste. But not anymore!

The Pizza Problem: Flour

Pizza inherently is not a bad concept in the eyes of the paleo diet, its base however is.
Grains are intolerable, your body does not need (and is not equipped to handle) so much
empty and simple carbohydrates. The rest of the ingredients of pizza are fine. I mean,
when was the last time you met a cave man and he refused to eat some tomato, meat and
vegetables? Exactly, never.

The Solution: Flour that is not Flour

There are many alternatives for flour, mostly based on nuts. Flour from almonds, walnuts
and all sorts of seeds are perfectly fine. One big problem, especially for a student: they
are expensive and hard to find. You are probably doomed to make your own flower,
costing you the two things you don’t have: Time and Money. Internet to the rescue!
Where in a supermarket sunflower seeds cost 10 Euros per kilo, the internet has many
magnificent webshops to help out the cave man diet nutheads. I ended up paying 2 Euros
a kilo, which is perfectly manageable (if not cheap) compared to other foods.

WARNING: This is an experimental recipe; it may take a few tries to get the desired
taste.

The Pizza Instructions

Pizza consists of two elements, the bottom and the top (no seriously, I mean it). The top
is easy to figure out, so let’s start with the paleo friendly bottom:

Ingredients


Sunflower flour, but wait! Where do I get that? Just put the damn seeds in a blender…
I usually take an hour to make a big batch for later on so I don’t have to bother with it
while making my food.
Coconut shavings, also very cheap on the internet.
Eggs
Salt

Instructions

Put one part sunflower flour over one part coconut shavings (you will barely taste the
coconut). Add two eggs to the combined flour required for a normal sized pizza bottom
and blend to a paste.
Divide the paste over your oven plate and put it in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for

about 10 minutes. By then it should be a more solid crust as opposed to a (slightly weird
looking) paste.
Your bottom is now done. Move on to the topping, and leave that in till it looks nice and
done.

The Topping:

If you can’t figure this out, you can’t have made it this far into the recipe. So good luck…

Calories are Bullshit and Counting them is Ineffective

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This Article in under 50 Seconds:

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Surprise Surprise: the Majority was wrong Again

Eating less calories, avoiding fatty foods and doing more exercise will make you healthier right? Well, not really… As on most occasions in human history the majority of people is dead wrong. Calories are by no means a useful way to facilitate weight loss. A calorie is not the same as every other calorie. Calories are really just the amount of energy in a food, determined by burning it. In case you haven’t noticed, the human body does not use flames to digest foods (at least I know mine doesn’t).

Calorie A versus Calorie B

500 Calories of low fat potatoes is not the same as 500 calories of fatty steak. Surprisingly the stake is much healthier (both for general health and weight loss) than the fries. I mean really, fat is good and so is protein. The problem with governments screwing around in public health is that they are massively misinformed and send the wrong message. Example: “fat is bad (showing a picture of massively fatty fries)” is plain stupid since fries are mostly carbohydrates and not fats. On a second try “fat is bad (showing a picture of a fatty piece of meat)” while a steak is usually higher in protein than in fats… People, let me state it clearly once again: Fat and protein are good, simple carbohydrates or high quantities of carbohydrates in general are bad.

So what Should You Do

Exercise is good, and so is using your head. When you buy your food just by those things of which you know they are healthy, I mean com on guys you really do know candy bars aren’t exactly healthy. Just go for the vegetables, fruits and meats. The more processed a food is the higher the probability that it is not good for you. For those who prefer to be told what to do:

Processed foods bad, Natural foods good
Carbohydrates bad, fat and Protein good
Natural Colors good, Fake/Chemical colors Bad
Water good, Soda bad
Cooking you own food good, Precooked/Restaurant bad

That’s it for today, happy hunting…

Random Reference: NY Times

5 Health Reasons to get Education

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Less education tied to High Blood Pressure

Low income and low education have been linked to high blood pressure in young adults. Data from a study on 14,000 people (both men and women) showed this. The mechanism behind this is probably that people with lower income and education are generally more overweight and exercise less. High blood pressure is but one of the effects resulting from this. (Source)

Education linked to lower heart disease

People with no qualifications have a higher risk of heart disease that those who don’t. This is naturally not linked to the diploma itself, but the socio economic circumstances that result from higher education. The Study that confirmed this also suggested that adults who later in their life decide to get a qualification usually lower their risk of heart disease. (Source)

Less education means more Cancer

Amongst men the least educated people had almost 2.5 times bigger cancer rates than their educated counterparts. For women the gap between educated and less educated is widening as well but there are not enough data to come to a conclusion. As with the other reasons the education itself is probably not the reason for these rates but rather the socio economic results of education. (Source)

Education Lessens Impact of Alzheimers

In Germany researchers at the University of Munchen have found that formal education lessens the impact of Alzheimer’s disease. Even when brain volume loss has already occurred the effect was diminished by education. The symptoms of brain damage were diminished significantly by education, as opposed to the physical effects of the disease. (Source)

Education Helps against Dementia

Not only does education delay the symptoms of dementia, but it also slows the development of the disease. This translates into educated people being free of dementia for longer and when it finally kicks in the progression is slower that in uneducated people. (Source)

Lesson: Get educated!