Explained

It used to be simple didnt it?

Health was…a doctors visit, brush your teeth regularly, some jogging perhaps, a vitamin C and you were set.

Now there vitamins and minerals and herbs that you HAVE to take, and then there’s phytonutrients and macronutrients and micronutrients and…

There’s BMI and BCoR Scores and Nutrigenomics and Nutrigenetics and Stress counts and Blood counts and Macronutreinst and Micronutrients.

Then there’s enzymnes and co-enzymnes and oxidants and antioxidants, and – where do all this stuff come from?

Well of course it was always there – its just everyone is studying it all more. And some things are important and some are just terms.

let us begin: –

Nutrition and Nutrients

download our supplements reference chart here – LINK

Every diet needs an adequate supply of food and water to sustain life and promote growth.
Food provides calories (or energy) that our bodies need to function
A balanced diet for long-term health should contain no fewer than 1,200 calories and no more than 3000 calories per day, depending on body size and activity level.
The quality of the food we choose determines whether or not we are giving our bodies enough nutrition. And no matter how careful we are in these days of factory farming (that affects even your local farms soil and nutrients) and long distance growing it’s  impossible to intake even the bare minimum of nutrients required for a healthy lifestyle

To optimize your health:- quick tips
•    Learn what your Healthy weight is (not what you would like it to be or what you saw in a magazine – there is a weight that is right just for you).
•    Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables (use a supplement if you have to)
•    Increase your intake of dietary fiber
•    Decrease your intake of fat – especially saturated fats
•    Decrease the amount of salt and sugar in your diet.
•    Use alcohol in moderation

How Nutrients Work.
Nutrients from food are absorbed by the body as it passes through the digestive system:

* Nutrients are essential for cell growth, maintenance and repair.
* Nutrients provide energy to enable your body to function efficiently.
* Nutrients, along with fiber and water, are essential to your good health.

The main nutrients are:-

1))Macro: – carbohydrates, proteins, and fats

2)Micro: -vitamins, minerals and Phytonutrients

3)Omega  Faty acids

MACRO:-

Carbohydrates
•    When your body needs energy, it looks for carbohydrates first.
•    If you are not consuming enough carbohydrates, your body will look for other sources of energy, such as proteins found in muscle tissue. Proteins, however, are not efficient sources of energy for the body.
•    Carbohydrates also protect your muscles and help regulate the amount of sugar circulating in your blood so that all the cells get the energy they need.
Food Sources
Carbohydrates come in two forms: simple and complex. Both are composed of units of sugar. The difference is how many sugar units they contain, and how they link together.
•    Simple carbohydrates are sugars that give you instant energy and typically have no nutritional value. These include sweets, candy, and soda.
•    Complex carbohydrates release energy slowly and often contain fiber. These “healthier” forms of carbohydrates include bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cereals and legumes.

Proteins
•    The body uses protein to build new cells, maintain tissues and regulate cell function.
•    About half of the protein consumed daily is converted into enzymes, the specialized “worker proteins” that regulate the speed of biological reactions in your body and permit it to perform functions such as digesting food and assembling or dividing molecules to make new cells and chemical substances. To perform these functions, enzymes often need specific vitamins and minerals.
To make all the proteins that the body needs, 22 different amino acids are required. Nine are considered to be essential, meaning they are not synthesized by the body and must be obtained from food. Our bodies can produce the other 13 from fats, carbohydrates, and other amino acids. So, these are referred to as non-essential amino acids.
Food Sources
Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, legumes, and soy
Note
It is possible to consume too much protein. The amount of protein needed for good health varies.

Fats
Fats are essential for good health. They aid in energy production, cell building, oxygen transport, blood clotting, and the production of extremely active hormone-like substances called prostaglandins.

Fats can be saturated, polyunsaturated, or monounsaturated. Our bodies can produce both monounsaturated and saturated fats. Polyunsaturated fats, or essential fatty acids, cannot be produced in the body and must come from the diet.
Key Functions

Fat is mostly stored in the body’s adipose (fat) cells but is also found in blood plasma and   other body cells.
Fat insulates your body, cushions vital organs, and can be converted into energy.
Fat is used to build new cells and is critical for normal brain development and nerve function.
Fat is also needed to carry and help absorb fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, and carotenoids.

Fat is twice as calorie-dense (1 gram = 9 calories) as carbohydrates or protein (1 gram = 4 calories). Although there are health benefits associated with olive and canola oils, they are still high in calories (1 tbsp = 120 calories). In addition,  processed foods and fast foods are high in fat, especially saturated fat.

TIPS

Keep total fat intake between 20 and 35 percent of calories, with most fats coming from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.
Consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fats.
Consume less than 300 mg/day of cholesterol.
Keep trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible. Any packaged goods containing “partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils,” “hydrogenated vegetable oils,” or “shortening” most likely contain trans fats.

MICRO

Vitamins are organic substances.

* They activate enzymes, which are proteins that act as catalysts to speed up biological reactions that take place in your body.
* Your body produces a certain amount of vitamins D and K, but all other vitamins come from your diet or supplementation.

Minerals are inorganic substances that originate from rocks and ores and enter the food chain through the soil.
* We get minerals either by eating plants grown on mineral-rich soil or by eating animals that have fed on these plants.
* Calcium, magnesium and phosphorus are the major constituents of bone.
* Sodium and potassium control your body’s water balance.
* Other minerals (chromium, iron, and magnesium) are needed for various chemical processes to take place in the body.

Phytonutrients are those plant compounds that promote better health, although they are not absolutely essential to human health.

* The crucial role of fresh, whole plants in human nutrition is undisputed.
* Worldwide research has confirmed that diets rich in plants can lead to optimal health.
* Scientists know that plants improve health at least partially because of the thousands of plant chemicals or compounds (phytonutrients) supplied in a plant-rich diet.

Different plant varieties produce different kinds of phytonutrients.
•    The level of phytonutrients within any given plant varies, depending on the species of plant, the soil conditions and many other environmental factors.
•    Unlike vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients are not classified as essential; yet they appear to have many benefits for our overall health, both in general and for specific conditions.

Omega Fatty Acids

Omega-3s are termed essential fatty acids (EFAs) because they are critical for good health. Since the body cannot make them on its own, omega-3s must be obtained from food.
Key Functions
•    Reduce hypertension. Studies of large groups of people have found that the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids may aid in lowering overall blood pressure level.
•    Improve heart health. Omega-3 fatty acids may play a part in keeping cholesterol levels low, stabilizing irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), and reducing blood pressure.
•    Protecting the heart. Researchers now believe that alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), one of the omega-3s, may be particularly beneficial in protecting against heart and blood vessel disease, and for lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Heavy Detail
Key omega-3 fatty acids include eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexanoic acid (DHA), and alpha-lineolenic acid (ALA). EPAs and DHAs are found in oily cold-water fish such as tuna, salmon, and mackerel, as well as fresh seaweed. ALAs are found primarily in dark green leafy vegetables, flaxseed oils, and certain vegetable oils.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

A simple and very general way to measure if someone is overweight or obese.

BMI is calculated by :

1) divide your bodyweight in kilos by the square of your height in meters

or

2) multiply your weight in pounds by 703, then divide that number by the square of your height inches

(nothing is easy)

BMI numbers

* under 19 = underweight
* 19-24.9 = normal
* 25-29.9= overweight
* 30 plus = obese

see link for more details

Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics-

The Latest Area of Nutrition Research

Nutrigenomics:
Nutrigenomics is the science of how your genes interact with nutrients. It is the study of how DNA and your genetic code affect your need for certain nutrients and help maintain optimal health throughout your life.How the very basics of our existence (material existnec- the cell DNA )funstion, act and react with diffrent crucial nutreinst

Nutrigenetics

Is the study of how we Individually react to nutreints. And we all react diffrently, because we are all made differently.So its a study that says we are all individuals and we act and react differently depending on how we are made up (DNA). No one thing works for everyone, which is why it seems there’s a new study every week that contradicts the last study.It does.

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Extra Weight Tied to Extensive Health Problems Weight-Related Health Problems

It’s nothing new to know that excess weight is often accompanied by health problems, such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease. But what if I tell you that higher BMI was tied to 37 out of 41 health conditions for women and 29 out of 41 for men.

For women, morbid obesity (defined as a BMI of 35 or greater) was shown to be associated with a more than 12-fold risk of diabetes, an almost 12-fold risk of knee replacement, a sixfold risk of heart failure, a fivefold risk of high blood pressure and gallbladder removal, and a fourfold risk of potentially life-threatening clots to the lungs, chronic fatigue/lack of energy, and insomnia.

Morbidly obese men had a similar list. With the strongest associations seen in diabetes (eightfold risk), knee replacement (sixfold), high blood pressure (sixfold), heart failure (fourfold), and fatigue and lack of energy and insomnia (fourfold).

Deathly facts. Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death.

Causes Of Obesity

Most researchers agree that a combination of excessive calorie consumption and a sedentary lifestyle are the primary causes of obesity. In a minority of cases, increased food consumption can be attributed to genetic, medical, or psychiatric illness. The sad fact, the vicious circle of the obesity is that obese people are less active than those of normal weight and they eat more – so, basically, they are gaining even more weight just because they already have extra weight.

 

Weight Loss or Weight Management Bariatric or Weight Loss Surgery

Basically weight loss surgery goes three possible ways: reducing the volume of the stomach (makes you feel satiation faster, thus you eat less than usual); reducing the length of bowel (reduces food absorption, thus you eat as usual but food is absorbed in lesser amounts than previously); liposuction (as it only removes the symptoms but not the cause of extra weight, it’s a temporary solution – till the next liposuction)

Surgery is always an emergency solution and it is the unsafest way to lose weight – too big is the risk of complications. Hey, it’s actually cutting an alive body – how can this be possibly good?

Dieting and Physical Exercise

As it always was and still is, the main but not the only ways to lose weight are dieting and physical exercise. If combined, they produce even more satisfactory results.

Weight-loss diets restricts the intake of specific foods, or food in general, to reduce body weight. Diets to promote weight loss are generally divided into four categories: low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-calorie, and very low calorie. A meta-analysis found no difference between the main diet types, i.e. they give very similar quantitative and qualitative results. But that’s statistically, in general, and in real life what works to reduce body weight for one person will not necessarily work for another, due to metabolic differences and lifestyle factors.

Physical exercise is an important complement to dieting in securing weight loss, i.e. wanna keep good results after dieting and not gain weight again – work out. The advice is that you go for both aerobic and anaerobic exercise as this would increase the basal metabolic rate (BMR) for some time after the workout. This leads to an additional caloric loss.

Though this two methods have the least negative outcome (well, I’d even put it so that dieting and exercise almost always have positive results with less or no harm to your health), still there is one major problem associated with this type of weight loss therapy. It requires the change of lifestyle – radical change. You see, there’s probably no normal person on the Earth who loves ‘radical’ changes in their life and lifestyle.

 

Lose weight with minor or no changes to lifestyle? Is it anyhow possible? Medications – so-called ‘diet pills’ or ‘anti-obesity’ drugs.

These drugs alter either appetite or metabolism. One thing you should remember about diet pills is that it is recommended that anti-obesity drugs only be prescribed for obesity where it is hoped that the benefits of the treatment outweigh its risks.

There are two commonly prescribed medications for obesity. One is Orlistat, which reduces intestinal fat absorption by inhibiting pancreatic lipase; the other is Sibutramine, which is a specific inhibitor of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine in the brain (very similar to some anti-depressants ), therefore decreasing appetite.

Acomplia (Rimonabant) is the third type of anti-obesity drug, introduced by French pharmaceutical company ‘Sanofi-Aventis’. It also reduces the appetite, but the mechanism is different from that of Sibutramine. Acomplia obesity combating drug blocks cannabinoid (CB1) receptors which can be found in the brain, liver and muscle. Funny to know, it effects the same receptors in brain which cause hunger in those who smoked cannabis 🙂 Rimonabant (Acomplia) is the first selective CB1 receptor blocker to be approved for use anywhere in the world.

If to compare the weight loss effect of these three anti-obesity drugs over the longer term, average weight loss on Orlistat is 2.9 kg, Sibutramine is 4.2 kg and Rimonabant (Acomplia) is 4.7 kg. Orlistat and Rimonabant lead to a reduced incidence of diabetes.

Acomplia diet pills not only cause weight loss, but prevent or reverse the metabolic effects of obesity, such as insulin resistance and hyperlipidemia, and may also decrease the tendency to abuse substances such as alcohol and tobacco.

Looks like acomplia does the best. All of the mentioned medications and their derivatives have some potential side effects which are often associated with their mechanism of action, and thus those diet-pills are available as prescription anti-obesity drugs. Sure, you can buy Acomplia and all kinds of other diet drugs without prescription on the Internet but you’d better consult your doctor to make a weighted decision.

Solution – Lose Weight In A Combined Way

Choose some mild diet, work out with pleasure, assist yourself with Acomplia to maximize the effect. Remember that intentional weight loss of any amount is associated with a 20% reduction in all-cause mortality.

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Herbal Medicine: What herbal medicine can treat and how safe and effective is it?

In part I of this article we looked at what herbal medicine is and what it uses as its philosophical basis. Part II looks at what herbal medicine can be used for and its safety and effectiveness.

What can herbal medicine be used for?

Herbal medicine can be used in one of three ways:



As the primary treatment for diseases and general health problems

To preventing disease, and/or

Complementary to other natural therapies or orthodox medicine

Up until about 200 years ago, herbal extracts, teas, baths, etc., were the primary forms of treatment available to doctors. In fact Pedanius Dioscorides an ancient Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist from Anazarbus, Cilicia, Asia Minor, wrote ‘the bible’ on herbs and early medicinal substances extracted from plants in the first century AD.

To this day, pharmaceutical companies still use herbal medicines in their drugs (they just don’t advertise that fact). He described over 600 medicinal plants, their use and actions with respect to treating diseases.

In the early 19th century, when methods of chemical analysis first became available, scientists began extracting and modifying the active ingredients from plants. Later, chemists began making their own version of plant compounds, beginning the transition from raw herbs to synthetic pharmaceuticals. Over time, the use of herbal medicines declined in favor of pharmaceuticals.ý

A skilled herbalist is able to use medicinal plants to treat any disease known to man. Granted, some diseases such as cancer for example, are not treated easily, but are treatable with herbs. The limit is not the limitations of herbs, but the skill of the physician. And, let’s face it – that’s the same for any system of medicine.

In short, herbal medicine has been used since the dawn of man and is still as effective today as it ever was in treating virtually any disease safely and effectively.

What forms does herbal medicine come in?

Herbal medicines come in several forms of administration. These include:

Extracts and tinctures

Creams and ointments (therapeutic creams & ointments as well as herbal skin and personal care products)

Herbal teas

Hand, foot and sits baths

Tables & pills

Poultices

Once a herbalist has identified the underlying reasons for the manifestation of the disease a patient is afflicted by and has worked out the herbal mixture required to address this disorder, it is then necessary to establish the best way of administering the herbal medicines.

One would logically think that taking the herbs in their liquid or pill form might be the best and easiest way to take the medicine, however, often it may not be.

Without getting into the details and chemistry of how active constituents of medicinal herbs are extracted, let’s have a quick look at the ways in which herbs may be used.

Extracts and tinctures are generally made by using a certain amount of the dried or fresh herb and than mixing this with alcohol. The alcohol dissolves most of the plant’s constituents and suspends them in the alcohol. This is what is basically known as a tincture.

Alcohol will extract almost all the ingredients contained in the plant material. Unlike alcohol, water will extract fewer of the ingredients. Water is a universal solvent and many of the substances contained in herbs will dissolve into the water. However, alkaloids and fats may not. If some of the alkaloids are not wanted, then a tea or sits bath (water extraction) may be preferable.

Poultices are used externally. They are prepared by crushing the plant, usually the fresh plant or parts thereof, mixing it with a base cream, honey, yoghurt or similar substance, which is then applied directly to a specific part of the body. This type of treatment is particularly effective when treating wounds, bruising, joint and bone injuries, local infections, localized skin disorders, gangrene, etc. But can also be used to treat some chronic internal diseases of organs.

In short, there are different horses for courses. In other words, the type of application will depend on the specific needs of the individual patient and their particular type of disease. For example it might not be wise to treat a patient who suffers from alcoholism and liver cirrhosis with an alcohol-based herbal mixture…

Is herbal medicine a safe form of treatment?

Herbal medicine in the hands of a qualified, experienced herbalist is very safe and has minimal risk of side effects. However, just because herbs are natural does not automatically make them safe. Remember, Arsenic is natural and deadly.

Opium from the Poppy flower is highly addictive, lead is poisonous and so are most other heavy metals, yet they are all 100% natural substances. So don’t be fooled – natural is not necessarily harmless.

Having said that, herbal medicine is one of the safest forms of medicine and is very unlikely to cause harm if used as prescribed by a qualified herbalist.

Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, which are mainly synthetic, man-made substances, herbs are easily assimilated in our bodies. They are also easily eliminated and do not usually accumulate. A herbalist will also frequently change the herbs in a patient’s mix as their health picture changes.

In short, herbal medicine, if prescribed by a qualified and experienced herbalist, is one of the safest forms of treatment, causing few, if any, side effects.

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