http://www.toyourhealth.com/mpacms/tyh/article.php?id=1465
A study by the University of South Carolina published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that quercetin taken as a daily supplement improves your endurance even if you don’t exercise!
Individuals in the study who took quercetin experienced a 13.2 percent increase in their performance and a 3.9 percent increase in VO2 max. If you’re a tennis player, cyclist, or competitive athlete, just imagine what a 13 percent increase in performance would do. It can even help you to have plenty of energy to get through the work day, a weekend with the kids, or a home improvement project.
Quercetin can help average adults battle fatigue and stress daily. It also reduces susceptibility to the flu. It protects your brain from oxidative stress which is associated with Alzheimer’s. It may lead to prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity. It also is being looked at for cancer prevention, allergies, and childhood asthma.
Very little of whatever we do today is like Paleo-man/women lived. We think we are crudely modeling Paleo-man’s/women’s existence by eating, exercising and other habits. It is better than nothing at all. It’s about tweaking as much as you can from your own genetic makeup by synthesizing an environment for yourself that might, just maybe, fool your genes into keeping you around far longer than they give a damn about doing so (reproduction). While it’s [educated] guesswork, we have reason to believe we’re on the right track simply because of the body composition and health improvements of so many we’ve witnessed.
Enjoy!
Men over the age of 50 pay attention.
Avodart and Proscar are drugs in a class known as “5-ARIs.”
This class of drugs was developed to treat enlarged prostate (also known as BPH, or benign prostatic hyperplasia).
In a 2010 New England Journal of Medicine study, about 3,300 men at high risk of prostate cancer took Avodart for four years. A second group of men — also at high risk — took a placebo.
Compared to placebo, the relative risk of any level of prostate cancer was reduced by nearly 23 percent in the Avodart group.
Sounds pretty good, right? I mean…based purely on that number, you wouldn’t blink if your doctor encouraged you to take a 5-ARI if you’re at high risk of prostate cancer. And keep in mind that every man between the ages of 50 and 75 is considered high risk.
Patrick Walsh, M.D., is a Professor of Urology at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he served as Urologist-in-Chief for 30 years. In an editorial he wrote that appears in the same NEJM issue as the Avodart study, Dr. Walsh points out that Avodart and Proscar, “do not prevent prostate cancer but merely temporarily shrink tumors that have a low potential for being lethal, and they do not reduce the risk of a positive biopsy in patients who have an elevated PSA level.”
“Men will believe that it prevents cancer, will be pleased that their PSA levels fall, and will not understand the potential danger of undiagnosed high-grade disease.” Speaking specifically about the Avodart study, he said the results showed, “there was a 23% reduction in low-grade tumors that the patients would never have known they had. Does this sound like an indication to take a pill with sexual side effects that costs $4 a day?”
In the NEJM study, sexual dysfunction was higher in the Avodart group, and — even more important — subjects in that group were nearly TWICE as likely to experience heart failure compared to placebo.
If we all agree that exercise is vital to health, then let’s figure out the best routine. The right mix of exercise can: Reduce the risk of premature death, reduce the risk of heart disease, reduce high blood pressure, reduce high cholesterol, reduce the risks of many cancers, including colon and breast cancer, reduce the risk of developing diabetes, reduce fat and optimize body weight, build and maintain healthy muscles, bones, and joints, reduce depression and anxiety, enhance performance in work and sport.
Believe it or not, running every day, won’t cut it. Going to the gym every day and working out with weights every day won’t cut it. The ideal exercise program includes cardio/aerobic exercise, strength training, weight-bearing exercise, stretching, breathing, and balance.
Cardio/aerobic exercise. This has to be some movement that is brisk enough that requires the heart and lungs to work harder to meet the body’s increased oxygen demand. Basically you are forcing the heart and lungs to work harder, and yet of low enough intensity to facilitate adequate oxygen transfer to the muscle cells so that no buildup of lactic acid is observed. Think repetitive movement of the arms, legs, and hips. Take your pick from running, jogging, and fast walking. Biking (either road or mountain), and swimming are also good. If you belong to a gym or have home equipment, there are treadmills, elliptical trainers, spin cycles, and rebounders.
Strength Training involves the use of free weights, kettlebells, weight machines, resistance bands or some other form of resistance to build muscle and increase strength. Its benefits include: Increased muscle strength, increased tendon and ligament strength, reduced body fat and increased muscle mass, better balance, lower blood cholesterol, improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. The key to strength training is to choose one you can do easily and are willing to do regularly.
Every patient of mine that wants to lose weight, I make sure that they are doing circuit weight training. Strength training builds muscle which increases your resting metabolic rate.
Weight bearing exercise is actually a subset of certain aerobic and strength training exercises. It helps slow down the rate of bone loss and osteoporosis. It is exercise in which you force your body to support weight (your own included) while exercising. The best weight bearing exercises are: weight-lifting, jogging, hiking with a back pack, stair-climbing, step aerobics, racquet sports, and other activities that require your muscles to work against gravity. Swimming and simple walking don’t do the trick. One exceptionally useful form of weight bearing exercise is rebounding. The act of rebounding makes use of g-forces, just like astronauts training in a centrifuge.
Stretching is the most over-looked area of fitness I have seen lately. Stretching reduces muscle tension and increases range of movement in the joints. I see tremendous tightness and restrictions in most clients bodies from a lack of variety of movement. Tightness and constriction cause a reduced blood flow to the muscles and soft tissues, this leads to a lack of oxygen to the tissues and this is a very painful situation. Yoga has become one of my pewrsonal favorites for stretching. Pilates works well too. If nothing else, just do 5-10 minutes of simple stretching after your daily exercise routine as part of your cool down time.
Proper breathing is often over-looked as much as stretching. The concept is simple: putting a device in your mouth that restricts (in a controlled manner) your inhalations and exhalations, which forces your lungs to work harder. This, in turn, strengthens the muscles that makes your lungs work and increases their capacity.
The last area is Balance. Balance diminishes with age unless we consciously exercise it. If you fall down and break your hip or wrist, the odds are you will have a long-slow recovery, if you fully recover.
The most simple balance exercise is to practice standing on one leg. If you need to hold on to a chair for support, with one hand, that’s fine. Slightly bend one leg so that the foot of the bent leg is projected out behind you. Get used to balancing on the one leg holding a chair or wall. Then take the hands off the chair and balance with one eye closed. Build up to balancing with your eyes closed for 30 seconds.
Please remember that you can not exercise your your way out of a bad diet. Increase your quality protein to build the muscles you are exercising. Avoid sugar but enjoy high quality fats such as Omega-3s.
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54530 (Posture Evaluations, Part 1)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54719 (Forward Head & Forward Shoulder)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54845 (Shoulder & Scapula)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54964 (Winged Scapula)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=55231 (Thoracic Spine)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=55067 (A Corrective Exercise Strategy for Scapular Winging)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=55184 (Blending Static Posture and Functional Movement Analysis)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=55231 (Thoracic Spine Analysis)
www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=55374 (Corrective Exercises for Excessive Thoracic Kyphosis)
If you stick to low carbs or low fat – you will probably lose weight. But going low-carb is healthier. Gary D. Foster, PhD, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education and professor of Medicine and Public Health at Temple University and his team conducted a trial study on 307 people and followed their progress over two years. One group stuck to a low-carb diet; the other to a low-fat one. Most people in the study were about 45 years old and had a mean body mass index (BMI) of 36.1. The low-carb group had 153 people in it. They limited their carb intake to 20 grams a day and were allowed to eat as much fat and protein as they wanted to during the first 12 weeks of the study. Their carb intake was limited to mainly low-glycemic index vegetables. They were told to eat four to five small meals every few hours and use butter, mayonnaise, and vegetable oils instead of margarine. They were also told not to “do a low-fat version of the program as it will disrupt weight loss.” After 12 weeks, they were allowed to increase their carbs by five grams each day in the form of vegetables, fruit, and even whole grains. They were told to eat foods that were “rich in fat and protein.” The low-fat group was limited to 154 people. Their calories were limited to 1200-1500 each day for women and 1500-1800 for men. They kept their calories low and focused on cutting down on their fat. Both groups were given lifestyle guidance and encouraged to take up gentle exercise.
After two years both groups had lost about the same amount of weight. The papers have been keen to promote the fact that the average weight loss was about 15 pounds for both groups across the two years. Most papers have concluded that there’s no real difference between low-carb and low-fat diets.
Let’s dig deeper into the truth. Professor Foster was mainly interested in weight loss, which he called the “primary outcome” of his study. And those are the results that the press has seized upon. But he also recorded “secondary outcomes.” These measured risk factors for heart disease. And it’s these results which are crucial to your actual health. The bottom line is that low-fat diets are not better for your heart and overall health.
My low-carb patients see major reductions in diastolic blood pressure, reduced triglycerides and Very Low-Density Lipoproteins (VLDL). While LDL cholesterol is bad, VLDL is the really bad form of cholesterol. “Low-carbers” get an increase in HDL (HDL is the good form of cholesterol).
The papers also ignore the fact that high-protein, low-carb diets leave you with more muscle mass which is healthier even at the same weight. The low-carb group would no doubt wind up looking better because despite being the same weight… they’d have more muscle instead of fat.
Go Primal Diet! I’m not talking Atkins here. The Atkins diet allows unhealthy fats and protein. They also received some of their carbs from whole grains. Dozens of studies show that whole grain carbs are little better than simple grains. And while it’s true that fat and protein are a smarter option than grains and pasta… where you get your fat and protein from is vital to better health. If those “low-carbers” had followed the primal way of eating, they probably would have outstripped their low-fat counterparts in weight loss too.
Quality protein comes from many sources. Animal protein is a great source of nutrients. But this is not the Atkins Diet. You should not be chowing down on bacon and sausage. Stay away from processed meats like deli and meatballs. Pick protein that is lean and healthy. That doesn’t mean picking chicken over beef. It means avoiding grain-fed meat. Just like us, the make-up of an animal is changed by what it eats. An animal raised on an artificial, grain-fed diet will produce meat that is harmful to us. The key to healthful cuts of meat is reading labels at the store. Look for the grass-fed label on red meat; and the free-range label on poultry. If you’re buying eggs, pick cage-free ones, and opt for wild salmon when buying fish.
Healthy Fat: The low carb group was told to use mayo and vegetable oil. That’s not the smartest way to select your fats. Fat plays an important role in most bodily functions. But there are good and bad fats. For example, Omega-3 fatty acids are essential. These fatty acids build strong hearts and protect against cardiovascular disease. Rich sources of Omega-3s are wild fish, avocado, walnuts, and olives. Other essential sources include cod liver oil, Sacha Inchi oil, and nuts. Saturated fats are also essential components of a healthy body. They boost immunity systems and help us absorb calcium. The healthiest sources of these fats in are in grass-fed beef, raw milk, and raw butter. So, when selecting fat, choose from these sources: Grass-fed beef, Free-range chicken, Organic butter, Olive oil, Nuts, Eggs, Avocadoes, Cold water wild fish, Raw milk.
Avoid cereals – they represent bad carbs. Starchy white potatoes are also bad, despite coming from a natural source. Processed carbs tend to offer little nutrition: they are stripped of their vitamins and fiber. Worse… they are loaded with simple sugars and refined starches. It’s the sugar and starch that make carbs – processed or natural – really bad. That sugar or starch is what affects your body at the hormonal level. It spikes blood sugar and triggers the release of insulin – and later – leptin. It’s because of this hormonal response that whole grain bread is just as bad for weight gain as white bread.
Here are seven good carbs you can count on: Berries, Pears, Peaches, Tomatoes, Spinach, Collards Green, beans
Enjoy! Join me in my Paleo-practic journey.
http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54845
I always suggest nuts as a snack. They provide many different vitamins, minerals and healthy fats. Yes nuts have fat in them, but most nuts are full of the good fats and lower in the bad fats. If you know me, then you know I’m about low carb and not low fat diets.
Griel et al, showed that supplementing the diet for 4- weeks with nuts has tremendous benefits on lipid profiles, especially LDL cholesterol. They concluded that not only was the mono and polyunsaturated fats important in lowering cholesterol, but that nuts have may have other compounds that help alter the cholesterol levels.
Jiang et al, concluded that a diet rich in nuts can also help reduce the risk of developing Diabetes. One of the bigger concerns in this study was the level of obesity of the participants, because obesity is a higher indicator of risk for developing diabetes, but they found that increasing dietary intake of nuts did not alter body weight at all.
WHAT ABOUT ALLERGIES? If you are allergic to nuts, you are s@#* out of luck, and will obviously need to avoid them.
WHAT ABOUT WEIGHT GAIN? Sure, extra weight gain can occur from eating too many nuts - remember I’m recommending nuts as a snack, not making a meal out of them. To me a snack means around 15.
Typical nuts have higher than normal levels of the good fats, which are mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Nuts are lower in saturated fats, which are the fat’s that lead to altered cholesterol levels and excess weight gain.
Not only do nuts have the potential to help lower cholesterol and prevent metabolic disorders, but nuts can also have a satiety effect on the body. Satiety refers to the satisfaction that happens when we eat a meal and feel full or satisfied.
Nuts should be a staple in everyone’s diets (except of course people who have severe allergic reactions to nuts) for the cardio-protective effects of the healthy fat levels, the satisfaction of ingesting a healthy snack and finally the potential benefits.
I recommend Macadamia nuts and marcona almonds - relax, be primal!
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