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Tag: health

Maintaining Your Personal Energy

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No matter who you are or what you do; your energy levels (and motivation) will hit flat spots. This article below from “Whole Life Challenge” will give you some insight and tips on dealing with these energy flat spots and reenergize yourself when they “rear” their ugly heads.

The energy we refer to is not just physical. It is a combination of physical, mental, emotional and professional phenomena. Physically the signs can be fairly obvious; fatigue, headaches, slowing of reflexes and even blurred vision. Mentally and emotionally, it can produce moodiness, irritability, and lack of focus and concentration.

All in all, these symptoms can dramatically affect your personal and professional lives. It can even make you more susceptible to illness and disease. It is easy to see why guarding against these energy “valleys” is to your advantage. But, how do you do it?

Physically: Eat well, move well, and sleep well. Manage your ultradyne rhythms (our energy cycle repeats every 90-120 minutes). Take regular breaks, a 5-minute walk; stretching, and deep breathing can all help. Avoid distractions; believe it or not, multitasking is a myth. It is not efficient or productive.

Emotional and mental levels can be restored, by feeding your mind. Stop negative self-talk. Be conscious and aware of the things that drain you both emotionally and physically. Make a list of the things that uplift you and do them often. Then, there are the people who drain your energy…avoid them. Aim to connect with the people who make you feel happy. Finally, set some time aside to decompress.

Professionally, manage the physical mental, and emotional challenges you face daily and it will manifest solutions to your professional energy problems. My company has a coaching construct, which allows me to turn to others whom I respect for advice and support. But remember, these flat spots are, for the most part, temporary so do not let them defeat you. Victory is around the corner.

www.wholelifechallenge.com/your-personal-energy-plan-how-to-protect-manage-and-boost-it/

Benefits and Needs for Fiber

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While there is a wide range of foods that provide fiber, in today’s world, it is difficult for most of us to consume enough fiber to satisfy the daily minimums. The article below from “Food is Medicine”, shares twenty foods that provide high levels of fiber.

Today’s Western diet probably satisfies only about half of the recommended amount of fiber that you need. As the article states: this is a big deal because high fiber foods guard against a number of diseases like cancer, heart disease, and obesity. Many processed foods are “fiber enriched”, but these are not the most desirable source of this valuable (and indispensable) dietary need.

The article makes the case for foods high in fiber as the best way to satisfy your needs, it admits that it is unlikely that you will be able to satisfy minimum needs with diet alone; and suggests that you will need a supplement to meet your daily requirements. It also points out that the quality of the supplement can, and will, make a big difference.

An effective supplement will contain a recommended balance of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber provides bulk in the digestive system which helps the elimination process, expelling carcinogens and toxins from the bowels. Soluble fiber is actually retained in the bodily system, creating a gel that prolongs elimination so that key nutrients can be absorbed more efficiently.

Some fiber supplements do not contain soluble fiber at all. Still, others do not contain enough insoluble fiber to do the job properly. It is important to have the correct balance of both. As has been stated, a healthy diet is best and this list of high in fiber foods provides a handy guide for healthy meal planning.

The company with which I am associated, offers a complete array of supplements and high-in-fiber snacks that allows me to effectively control my fiber intake daily. These products and supplements contain both insoluble and soluble fiber. I am convinced that my good health is as a result of these indispensable products. Here’s to your health!   

draxe.com/high-fiber-foods/

High blood pressure: the hidden killer

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High blood pressure is considered the “silent disease” and should not be taken lightly, nor should it be ignored.

In April 2012, a dear friend had a stroke. He was hospitalized, in ICU for a few weeks, had a tracheotomy and afterward his life was never the same. The stroke had caused brain damage leaving him unable to do many of the things he loved on his own.

On May 16, 2013, he died of Hypertensive and Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.

He was 63 years old. According to WebMD, arteriosclerosis is “One of the most serious health problems related to untreated high blood pressure,” which is plaque build-up in the arteries.⠀

Are you aware of the changes in the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology regarding blood pressure?

If your blood pressure is above 130/80, you are now considered to be at risk for HIGH blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is now considered 120/80 or lower, elevated is 120-129/80-89; stage one hypertension is now 130-139/80-89 and stage two hypertension is anything over 140/80.⠀

These changes will affect millions of people across America who will have to find ways to lower their blood pressure. Exercise is exceedingly important.

Now more than ever, it’s important to use the right supplements to help target these areas without the use of blood pressure medications and blood thinners.

My company manufactures a full line of heart healthy vitamins and supplements to help battle this in-going problem. I’m grateful for my company’s Peak Performance Pack, which has helped keep my numbers at optimal levels and is helping to reduce any risk of me developing heart disease.

It’s too late for my friend, but it’s not too late for me, and definitely not too late for you.

Fiber for optimal health

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Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States and the second leading cause of death from cancer.

Colorectal cancer affects all racial and ethnic groups and is most often found in people ages 50 and older. People over age 50 have the highest risk of colorectal cancer. You may also be at higher risk if you are African American, smoke, or have a family history of colorectal cancer.

The good news?

The best way to prevent colorectal cancer is to get screened regularly starting at age 50.
If everyone age 50 and older were screened regularly, 6 out of 10 deaths from colorectal cancer could be prevented.

There are often no signs or symptoms of colorectal cancer – that’s why it’s so important to get screened.

Everyone can take these healthy steps to help prevent colorectal cancer:

  • Get screened starting at age 50.
  • Encourage your family members and friends over age 50 to get screened.
  • Quit smoking and stay away from secondhand smoke.
  • Get plenty of physical activity and eat healthy.

One healthy addition to your diet is fiber. On a daily basis, 95% of Americans are only getting about half as much fiber as they need. Fiber is a component of plant foods that is never broken down and absorbed by the body—allowing it to perform important functions that  no other food can. The two forms of fiber, soluble and insoluble, both play important roles in maintaining optimal health as well as helping  to keep your colon “clean”.

Why fiber?

Well, according to research fiber can help prevent serious issues developing in your digestive tract because it  can sweep away toxins and waste throughout your body. Studies also show that the adequate amount of fiber helps supports immunity, improves regularity, and can help reduce the risk of heart disease.

I’m lucky to have found a great fiber product that’s a scientifically balanced blend of seven fiber sources, plus vitamins, antioxidants, soothing herbs, and probiotics. A single glass of this broad spectrum fiber provides 12 grams of healthy fiber to help me meet my optimal daily fiber and offers several benefits I don’t get from traditional fiber products.

Quick quiz: True or false?

You should get tested regularly for colorectal cancer starting at age 50.

Answer: 

Starting at age 50, get tested regularly for colorectal cancer. When it comes to colorectal cancer screening, you do have options. Learn more about screening here.

Decide which screening test you prefer here.

How can a clean house have a negative effect your health?

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Since I switched stores nearly 15 years ago, I enjoy clean living, clean eating and having a safer and healthier home without toxic chemicals. Switching to healthier products improved my and my family’s health and now, recent studies have shown that many popular everyday products can be toxic to many individuals, especially women.

Why?

Because cleaning your home with common, well-known grocery store products made with ammonia, and chlorine bleach, quaternary disinfectant compounds, and other dangerous chemicals significantly damages lung tissue in women—who are usually the home’s primary housekeeper.

The study also showed that cleaning with such products as little as once per week over time was as damaging to respiratory health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years!

Are you really aware of what you are exposing your family to on a daily basis?

This attached article explains the pitfalls of chemical cleaners much better than I can, but it’s no wonder so many cancers and diseases are on the rise.
https://www.melaleucajournal.com/cleaning-product-study-lungs-smoking/

It may be time to take a long hard look at the cleaning products you use and consider
switching like I did!

Green Tea: A miracle beverage

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Tea is already the world’s most-consumed beverage, second only to water, and its popularity is on the rise around the world. With gourmet tea leading the way, more and more people are discovering the magic of tea.

Green tea could be considered a miracle beverage because it is effective at fighting everything from cancer to acne.

Among the many health benefits of green tea may be boosting to the immune system. Green tea seems to have an impact on reducing the instance of catching a virus as well as reducing the duration of a virus. The antioxidants in green tea have been found to block the various phases of infection of healthy cells, weakening a virus and reducing the duration of cold-like symptoms and fever. This may be because green tea’s antioxidant polyphenols could affect regulatory T-cells that play a key role in immune function, according to research from Oregon State University.

Research on the benefits of green tea and cancer prevention is still in early stages, but the results are promising. Researchers suspect that polyphenols in green tea help kill cancer cells and stop their progression, an important role to prevent various cancers. The attached article from Readers’ Digest outlines many of the benefits researchers discovered.

In a study of 472 women with breast cancer, those who drank the most green tea experienced the least spread of the disease. Researchers also found that women in the early stages of breast cancer who drank at least five cups of green tea every day during their diagnoses were less likely to have the disease recur after they completed treatment.

In looking at more than 35,000 women in the Iowa Women’s Health study, those who drank two or more cups of tea a day were almost 30 percent less likely to develop colon cancer than those who rarely drank tea.

One Chinese study found that men who drank more than three cups of tea a day reduced their risk of prostate cancer by 70 percent.

In another study funded by the National Institutes of Health, 79 men with prostate cancer were told to either drink six cups of green tea a day or six cups of water. After three to eight weeks, the levels of prostate-specific antigen, a protein that may indicate cancer, were lower in the men who drank green tea than those who drank water. An indicator of inflammation, nuclear factor-kappaB, linked to cancer growth, was also lower in the men who drank the green tea.

In skin cancer studies, lab animals that were given green tea developed one-tenth as many tumors as animals that were given water. The EGCC in green tea inhibits the production of urokinase, an enzyme that cancer cells need in order to grow. It also seems to stimulate the process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, in cancer cells.

Studies show that tea can help make your heart healthier; soothe arthritis; boost your brain; clear up acne; fight UTIs; relieve allergies; reduce puffy eyes; reduce asthma symptoms and reduce stress overall because of the high levels of antioxidants Green Tea provides.

We drink Hidden Garden Green Tea, iced or hot, it is a sweet, smooth Chinese green tea with a clean, refreshing finish. It’s light but satisfying, perfect for our evening treat.

Pour a cup, and let the health benefits commence!

Magnesium: the forgotten supplement

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Vitamins and minerals are called “essential” because they are needed to sustain life and health, and almost all must be obtained from your diet. The most common source is fruit and vegetables, but only 14% of U.S. adults and 9.5% of U.S. teens are eating the recommended servings.

Because magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, a deficiency can wreak havoc on your health. The fact that researchers have detected more than 3,750 magnesium-binding sites on human proteins should give you a sense of how important this mineral is for your body’s optimal functioning. Your body needs magnesium for:

  • Activating muscles and nerves
  • Creating energy in your body by activating adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
  • Helping digest proteins, carbohydrates and fats
  • Serving as a building block for RNA and DNA synthesis
  • Acting as a precursor for neurotransmitters like serotonin

The human body is not capable of storing most vitamins and minerals, so optimal health relies on nourishing the body with ideal amounts throughout the day. Dietary sources of magnesium include avocados, Brazil nuts, brown rice, cashews, dark leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard, oily fish, raw cacao, seaweed and seeds.

You may be suffering from magnesium insufficiency if you experience:

  • Constipation
  • Eye twitches, muscle spasms — especially “charley horses” or spasms in your calf muscle that
    occur when you stretch your legs, numbness or tingling in your extremities and seizures
  • Headaches and/or migraines
  • High blood pressure, heart arrhythmias and/or coronary spasms
  • Low energy, fatigue and/or loss of appetite

Since the body’s ability to utilize some minerals diminishes with age, I supplement my diet with additional calcium, magnesium, and chromium with a Multivitamin & the Mineral supplement of that provides 100% or more of the daily recommended dose I need. How about you?

Another powerful reason to avoid drinking diet sodas

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We already knew drinking sugary drinks was bad. Nutrition experts believe high levels of sugar contribute not just to rising levels of obesity, but also other health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, dental cavities and cancer.

Boston University researchers found aspartame, a low-calorie sweetener, wreaks havoc on the arteries – as opposed to sugar-sweetened drinks. This means drinking diet soda is far worse for your health than drinking regular soda sweetened with sugar.

The results showed that adults who had one or more diet drinks a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop dementia and 3 times more at risk of strokes compared to those who virtually had none at all.

The team of scientists from Boston University believe the artificial sweeteners including aspartame and saccharine may be affecting the blood vessels, eventually triggering strokes and dementia.

This new study involved data on 2,888 adults older than 45 and 1,484 adults older than 60 from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The data came from the Framingham Heart Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Boston University.

“Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages,” said Matthew Pase, a senior research fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the new study.

“Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”

Now, you have proof that  Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes. Only one a day!

So what to do? Drink ordinary water? That’s boring. We know getting eight glasses of water every day can be tough, but we’ve found a solution, SplasH2O.

SplasH2O® transforms plain water into a thirst-quenching, body-revitalizing, flavor sensation with tantalizing bursts of fresh fruit that will keep you making smarter choices. It’s a fantastic alternative to high-calorie, high-sugar drinks, and replaces them with sugar-free deliciousness. This fun, lively fusion of 5 classic fruits makes ordinary water taste refreshingly good—with no calories, sugar, or artificial flavors and colors.

We are so glad we found a way to turn water into a refreshing, flavorful drink that satisfies – without the sugar, calories, or cost of soda or fruit juice. We also know that we are reducing the chance of developing dementia or a stroke by switching. Now that’s something to consider.

The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) have great information about the devastating consequences of eating too much sugar. It is very important to Know Your Limit for Added Sugars.

Another powerful reason to avoid drinking diet sodas

hayseedscreative's avatar by Leave a comment

We already knew drinking sugary drinks was bad. Nutrition experts believe high levels of sugar contribute not just to rising levels of obesity, but also other health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, dental cavities and cancer.

Boston University researchers found aspartame, a low-calorie sweetener, wreaks havoc on the arteries – as opposed to sugar-sweetened drinks. This means drinking diet soda is far worse for your health than drinking regular soda sweetened with sugar.

The results showed that adults who had one or more diet drinks a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop dementia and three times more at risk of strokes compared to those who virtually had none at all.

The team of scientists from Boston University believe the artificial sweeteners including aspartame and saccharine may be affecting the blood vessels, eventually triggering strokes and dementia.

This new study involved data on 2,888 adults older than 45 and 1,484 adults older than 60 from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The data came from the Framingham Heart Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Boston University.

“Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages,” said Matthew Pase, a senior research fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the new study.

“Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”

Now, you have proof that  Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes. Only one a day!

So what to do? Drink ordinary water? That’s boring. We know getting eight glasses of water every day can be tough, but we’ve found a solution, SplasH2O.

SplasH2O® transforms plain water into a thirst-quenching, body-revitalizing, flavor sensation with tantalizing bursts of fresh fruit that will keep you making smarter choices. It’s a fantastic alternative to high-calorie, high-sugar drinks, and replaces them with sugar-free deliciousness. This fun, lively fusion of 5 classic fruits makes ordinary water taste refreshingly good—with no calories, sugar, or artificial flavors and colors.

We are so glad we found a way to turn water into a refreshing, flavorful drink that satisfies – without the sugar, calories, or cost of soda or fruit juice. We also know that we are reducing the chance of developing dementia or a stroke by switching products.

Now that’s something to consider.

The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) have great information about the devastating consequences
of eating too much sugar. It is very important to Know Your Limit for Added Sugars.

It’s time to talk about dishwashing

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I want to share something I learned a long time ago— you know it’s prohibited to vent your automatic dishwasher outdoors. Most dishwashers will have a vent on the outside of the door, others (like mine) will have a concealed vent located on the inside of the door, but both went the hot steam/air into your kitchen.

Why?

Because it’s prohibited to have chlorine gases emitted into the environment. Consider this, when you use an automatic dishwashing detergent that contains chlorine bleach, or other name-brand product containing a bleach chemical, it combines with the heat and steam which creates chlorine gas.

Since it’s not released outdoors, but released into our homes through the machines vents it creates an unhealthy or even toxic indoor air quality. That’s why it’s recommended to open your windows regularly to circulate air. If you don’t, those chlorine-based outgases can stay in your home for up to seven days! How unhealthy is that? No wonder so many children today suffer from asthma and other lung-related issues.

I stopped using those bleach-based toxic automatic dish soaps years ago.

I am so glad  I switched to a product that is free of phosphates and chlorine bleach. It’s also made with 100% nontoxic ingredients—because what’s on your dishes can also go into your body. The product also comes highly concentrated so the new resealable pouch uses 90% less plastic than the previous bottle, which was already significantly smaller than the competition!

It uses naturally derived water-softening agent naturally derived enzymes and all natural melaleuca oil. No bleach. No phosphates. No poisons. I love having sparkling dishes without endangering my family, and without polluting my home or the environment!

I like shopping with my online shopping club. Not only are the products non-toxic and the best of natural ingredients and science combined, but because I save so much money!

Recently, I placed my online shopping order and received two packages of this fabulous Automatic Dishwashing product FREE with my loyalty shopping dollars, saving me $14.33. Each time I shop, I get loyalty rewards, up to 18% back! I’ve yet to find another store that offers this type of reward, Even after 15 years of shopping with this club, I still get excited each time I order because of the savings!

Can you say that about your store?