LpVitamins Wellness News

The best defense is a good offense, right!  Especially, when it comes to your immune system. By practicing healthy lifestyle habits and reducing exposure to infection (offense), you can better help protect against illness (defense).

Why you get sick or not - or not?
Louis Pasteur and Antoine Bechamp were both keenly aware of the same things you and I experience every year: during the cold and flu season, some people get sick and some people don’t.

Pasteur devoted his life looking for what makes sick people sick, and Bechamp spent his looking for what keeps healthy people healthy - and how we can be like them! Both men settled their argument with the discovery that illness visits people with poor habits much more frequently than those who care for their health.

As the beast in nuture prefer to pay on the weak, so microbes prefer to wreak their havoc on people with compromised immune systems.  Even simple things can compromise our immune system, including:

• An imbalanced diet
• Alcohol and caffeine consumption
• An argument with someone you love

Pasteur and Bechamp discovered, more than a century ago, that our health depends more on a healthy lifestyle than on the virulence of a microbe.

Help protect against illness
The phrase that describes our vulnerability or resistance to disease is “biological terrain.” Your genetics, your environment and, most importantly, your lifestyle make up the terrain of your health. Vigorous application of the 10 Essentials yields the healthiest, most disease-resistant terrain. Skipping even one of these principles will change your terrain and leave you vulnerable to infection.

• A base of healthy nutrients
  Establishing a base of healthy nutrients can provide a very resilient terrain. The more dense the base is, the more disease-resistant your terrain will be. Taking a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement every day is an excellent start. Many physicians recommend an Omega-3 supplement as well. If your terrain is being remodeled by stress, you may need adaptogens to help you cope while remaining disease-resistant. Indeed, the long-term studies of adaptogens in Russia clearly demonstrated that these plants help you resist infections and speed healing.
• Vitamin C
  Vitamin C is a favorite for protecting against and even treating viral infections. Russell Jaffe, MD, former director of the National Institutes of Health, recommends a loading dose of Vitamin C: one teaspoon of Vitamin C crystals every 15 minutes until you “flush.” By this, he means a complete bowel evacuation. After the flush, he recommends a daily serving of Vitamin C (for one month) that is equivalent to 75% of the amount it took you to flush. This should really improve your terrain!
• Echinacea
  Echinacea is used in a similar way. Significant medical research from Germany suggests that an hourly dose of Echinacea will help reduce symptoms and may help shorten the duration of a virus infection. Taking a gram of Echinacea every hour for three days may even “abort” an infection that has already begun. Continue taking Echinacea three times daily for up to two weeks afterward to protect against a relapse.

Reduce your exposure
Here are some great recommendations for reducing your exposure to infection:

• Wash your hands
  First, the largest contributor to infection is unwashed hands. Washing your hands with soap every few hours will reduce the chance for pathogens to gain access to your system. You should also make sure they are completely dry. Then, use the disposable towel to open the door out of the washroom. Many ugly microbes lurk on door handles - usually from people who have not properly washed and dried their hands.
• Clean surfaces
  Next, disinfect surfaces that are shared by many people. For instance, public telephones bring you within kissing distance of hundreds or even thousands of people. Who knows what their hygiene habits were? In a typical day we may be exposed to germs from as many as 150 countries or more!
• Reduce stress
  Reduce stress. Stress decreases the effectiveness of your immune system. Your immune system may begin to overreact or not react in time to stop an infection when you are under stress. The source of the stress really doesn’t matter. Job stress and an injury may seem like entirely different stresses to your mind but they are treated exactly the same way by your body.

Remember, building up your terrain and reducing your exposure are keys to a great offense… which will help improve your defense!

                                              Take Charge of Your Health

• Aggressively apply the 10 Essentials
• Take a “base” of nutrients:
  • A multiple vitamin and mineral supplement
  • An Omega-3 fatty acid supplement
  • A stress-specific antioxidant supplement
  • Vitamin C
• Reduce your exposure
  • Wash your hands every few hours and dry thoroughly
  • Disinfect common area surfaces

Learn More… The proper way to wash your hands

Aloe vera juice has been used for a least four thousand years to treat successfully a multiplicity of human ailments. It contains over 200 ingredients that seem to affect thousands of biomedical actions in the body. Many researchers believe that Aloe vera is the single most important treatment one could use to fight disease.

We find in the Aloe vera plant at least six antiseptic agents: lupeol, salicylic acid, urea nitrogen, cinnamic acid, phenol, and sulphur.  These substances are all recognized antiseptics. Their presence explains why Aloe has the ability to eliminate many internal and external infections. Lupeol, salicylic aced and another ingredient, magnesium, are highly effective analgesics.  They make Aloe vera an effective pain killer.

Aloe vera contains at least three anti-inflammatory fatty acids (cholesterol, campesterol and B-sitosterol), making Aloe an effective treatment for burns, cuts, scrapes and abrasions, as well as for rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic fever and ulcers of all kinds, both internal and external. The presence of these fatty acids may explain why some experts feel Aloe is highly effective for many inflammatory conditions of the digestive system and other internal organs, including the stomach, small intestine, colon, liver, kidney and pancreas. The presence of these fatty acids, B-sitosterol in particular, could explain why Aloe vera juice is a treatment effective for allergic reactions and acid indigestion, and why it helps, in association with a low fat diet, to lower harmful cholesterol levels.

It’s this synergistic relationship between the elements found in the plant that explains why Aloe works, and why through the ages lay persons and physicians alike have proclaimed that Aloe vera has the ability to heal, alleviate, eliminate, or even cure, a monumental list of human diseases and disorders, and deserving the name “medicine plant.”

By now, you know that type 2 diabetes is an epidemic in North America. Every year the number of people with this disease increases dramatically - and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Is there a way protect ourselves against this trend? Yes, with the vigorous application of the 10 Essentials for Health and Wellness.

Essential #4 encourages us to eat nutritiously. This requires a little education about the difference between a nutritious food and an “empty calorie.”  Considerable information about the way particular foods impact diabetes is found in the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load.

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load
A chart based on the impact of carbohydrates on a person’s blood sugar was developed by a group of researchers several years ago. It was created to help people with diabetes select foods that would have the least impact on their disease. The Glycemic Index (GI) measures the impact of foods on blood sugar when compared against pure sugar: glucose. The higher the GI number, the greater the impact on blood sugar and the worse a food is supposed to be for a person with diabetes. The GI is also used as a tool for weight loss and cardiovascular health.

To find a truer nutritional value for food the Glycemic Load was deveoped to refine information from the Glycemic Index. For instance, the Glycemic Index may rate the carbohydrate value in a food as very high. This would seem to make the food unacceptable for people who want to restrict sugar. However, the Glycemic Load gives us a more global value of your food beyond sugar content.

Glycemic Load takes into account the fiber, fat and water content of a food. Let’s look at the example of parsnips:

Parsnips are creamy-colored root vegetables in the carrot family. They taste greate and have a therapeutic value as well. Parsnips have a GI rating of 97, compared with pure glucose at 100. This would seem to make parsnips “bad” - unacceptable as a healthy carbohydrate source. However, parsnips contain so much fiber and water (and protein and fats) that they have only a tiny impact on the total load of carbohydrates (the Glycemic Load). Because of their protein and fat, they help keep your appetite satisfied longer. So, you may even eat less at your next meal. Therefore, parsnips are really very healthful despite their high GI number.

Potatoes have become taboo in most low-carb diets. Yet, potatoes have attributes similar to parsnips. They are good for you, unless you deep-fry them and load them with bacon, sour cream, gravy, cheese and other high-calorie, high-fat condiments.

Compound carbohydrates - the true “bad” carbs
Though many fruits and vegetables are high on the Glycemic Index they are “good” complex carbs because they are low in Glycemic Load. Refined starches, such as pastries, pastas, pudding and pancakes, as well as gravies and similar sauces are a different story.

These foods:

• Contain low amounts of water and fiber
• Contain high amounts of “bad” carbohydrates and bad fats
• Quickly turn to sugar in your bloodstream
• Trigger insulin and inflammation
• Increase your risk of heart disease, obesity and diabetes

These are truly sources of “bad” carbohydrates. They are examples of “compound” carbohydrates: foods which have been processed beyond recognition from their original whole food sources. They are never good in any amount.

Diabetes epidemic
In conclusion, the way to place yourself in the lowest risk category for type 2 diabetes is to eat whole foods which minimally impact your blood sugar. But that’s not all; did you know that stress alone may cause diabetes? Breathing deeply breaks the cycle of stress. And, since type 2 diabetes and obesity are related, getting enough sleep is essential. Add in the lessons from all 10 Essentials and you have a bulwark of protection against the epidemic of type 2 diabetes.

Take Charge of Your Health

Get 7-1/2 to 9 hours of sleep every night

Eat a nutritious diet

• 7 fruits and vegetables for women
• 9 fruits and vegetables for men
• High quality protein every day
• Take your healthy aging nutrients
• Help balance carb cravings with GlucoBalance
  and Leanology

Get active doing the things you love

• Volunteer
• Mentor younger one
• Never stop learning

Tip
Agave nectar is similar to honey, but with a lower Glycemic Index. For example, honey is between 55 and 85, depending on how many solids remain in the honey. Agave nectar is as low as 27. This means that Agave nectar absorbs slowly into the bloodstream, which allows your body to allocate it to the appropriate areas. Since it’s four times sweeter than sugar you can use a lot less when using it as a sweetener.

Which is better for weight loss: low fat or low carb? I’m asked this question reguarligy. Well, the answer to this queston neither … and both!

As it turns out, calories are the key. Whether they are from fat or carbohydrate is not as important as the total number of them. To lose weight and keep it off, you adhere to the simple rule of “calories in, calories out.”  It’s than simple. It’s really doesn’t make much difference which diet you’re on.  You only lose weight when you consume fewer calories than you burn.

Be cautious about cravings
Your body is designed to communicate nutrient needs through cravings. You need protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber and water to be healthy. These are called macro-nutrients because they are large categories of food that contain smaller categories called micronutrients. A micronutrient is something we need in a very small quantity, like salt (sodium). We crave what we need.

Food manufacturers create products to tempt these cravings the way a fisherman uses a lure to catch a fish. We can be induced to buy one food over the other because of added ingredients. Three common additives that tempt our taste buds are:

• Sugar
• Fat
• Salt

Hidden calories
Are you monitoring your calorie intake? Use these tips when looking at labels:

Watch out for added-sugar foods. Recommendations for carbohydrate intake range from 60 to 250 grams daily for the average adult. Get your carbohydrates from whole foods to avoid the “empty calories” of added sugar. If the label lists “sugar” as an ingredient, select another food without the added sugar.

Watch out for added-fat and high-fat foods. Fat contains very few nutrients. While it is a good source of energy, a little goes a long way. Protein and carbs contain four calories per gram, yet fat contains a whopping nine calories per gram. Fat is often added to improve the “mouth-feel” of foods. If a label lists the daily value (DV) at 20% or higher, it is a high-fat food. The DV should be between 2% and 10% for a single serving, and Never eat trans-fats.

Conclusion
Selecting your diet is both a science and an art. Take a little time to learn the science behind food selections and then you can enjoy the endless, artistic variety of foods. Remember, moderation is the key!

Take Charge of Your Health

• Get your nutrients from plant-based foods
  • 5 servings of fruits and vegetables for children
  • 7 servings of fruits and vegetables for women
  • 9 servings of fruits and vegetables for men
• Take Leanology to help curb cravings
• Take VitaDaily AM/PM, Daily Men or Daily Women to fill in nutritional gaps

So, you feel too tired to do much more than read this article; there’s no need to feel alone. Doctors tell us that up 85% of their patients who visit for any reason also complain of being chronically tired. It seems that we are in the middle of an energy crisis that has nothing to do with motor fuel!

When we talk about energy we are talking about the feeling of being energetic, not about survival. We want to have the energy to dream and then have the energy to live those dreams. We want to feel our best every day. Is that possible?

Energy comes from the way your body burns nutrients such as fats, protein and carbohydrates. These nutrients must be metabolized to produce any energy. Proper metabolism requires a balanced intake of these nutrients.

A balanced diet must include:

• 7 to 9 servings of fruit and vegetables (for adults)
• 30+ grams of high quality protein
• 20 to 35 grams of fiber

Sugars from the foods you eat provide ready energy, but it doesn’t last very long. Proteins are converted to energy at a much slower pace and provide a more stable supply of energy - five times more than sugar.

However, fat is the recognized champion when it comes to providing energy, and it provides us with stamina. Fat burns slowly and steadily up to eight times longer than sugar.  So for stamina that lasts all day and into the evening hours, you want to select foods high in “good” fats.

Many experts suggest getting as much as 30% of your total calories per day from fat. This may mean more than 70 grams of fat for a 2,200 calorie per day diet. That’s a lot of fat! But, I didn’t say French fries! You see, all foods contain fat. So, select “good” fats from foods that are known for high energy, such as:

1. Nuts
2. Seeds
3. Olives
4. Avocados (guacamole)
5. Fatty fish

All foods (including vegetables and legumes) contain some fat.

Fuel your metabolism by eating high-energy foods, and include at least 30 minutes of exercising most days of the week.  Start with a healthy breakfast and, above all, be crystal-clear about your reasons for wanting more energy. Follow these simple steps to feel your best every day!

Take Charge of Your Health

• Include these good fats in your diet:
  • Mono- and poly-unsaturated oils (e.g. olive and sesame)
  • Nuts - be sure they are not rancid (spoiled)
  • Fish - salmon, halibut, tuna and other cold-water fish
  • Olives - a whole-food source of olive oil and Vitamin E
  • Avocado - nutritious and filled with antioxidants
• Avoid the bad fats:
  • Trans fats
  • Hydrogenated fats
  • Saturated fats: a little is OK but never over 20% DV (Daily Value)
• Take your supplements:
  • A multiple vitamin/mineral
  • Sublingual B-12
  •    Vitamin C
  • Essential Fatty Acids

Beautiful skin is really a reflection of inner health. Healthy habits are the begining of good health. This is a natural law.

Friends and enemies
Free radicals are your skin’s enemies. These naturally occurring inflammatory substances  can overwhelm and harm your skin.  The result can be looser, weaker, less elastic and drier skin. Remember this important point. When collagen and fat loss is making your skin look bad, it is also aging your entire body.

Your skin is like a battlefield between free radical damage and nutrients supporting healthy skin. Trauma, toxins, deficiency and stress all create free radicals. Antioxidants from your diet and dietary supplements can neutralize free radicals.  Skin disorders can begin when nutrient reserves fail. The most common skin disorders include eczema, psoriasis and seborrhea dermatitis.

Read more…

Coronary artery disease (CAD) usually progresses slowly over many years. The first sign of CAD is often a fatal heart attack. Because CAD is silent, it becomes imperative to practice preventive medicine such as testing for C-reactive protein (CRP), as well as blood pressure and cholesterol. However, another form of heart disease progresses quite rapidly. It is called “single-artery disease.”

Single artery disease clogs a single artery while all or most other blood vessels remain clean. It can happen when injury or infection creates inflammation in the absence of disease:

• Dental infection: One of the most common bacteria comes from a dental infection. Bacteria from inflamed gums can escape into the bloodstream and attack a single blood vessel in or near the heart.
• Inflammation: Inflammation in the gums attracts white blood cells by means of protein messengers called cytokines. Some of these messengers leak into the bloodstream and attract white blood cells. White blood cells infiltrate the infected area because of the messenger cytokines. Cytokines that leak into the bloodstream and enter the heart may send the wrong message. It may also result in white blood cells attacking an artery in the heart. This is the beginning of single artery disease: white blood cells attracted by cytokines penetrate a single artery in the heart and cause blockage.

Smoking increases the number of bacteria in the mouth and causes LDL cholesterol to become stickier. This bad habit also increases inflammation in the entire body. Bacteria, LDL and inflammation make for a lethal combination for CAD and single artery disease.

Mental illness comes in a variety of different forms: from anxiety and bipolar disorder to depression, schizophrenia and beyond. Among the common manifestations of these disorders is lack of attention to dental care. Irregular brushing and flossing will lead to a buildup of potentially lethal bacteria. As a result, cardiovascular disease is a common companion of mental illness.

Other aspects of personal care suffer from this same inattentiveness, including diet, exercise and rest. As you know, these habits are foundations for physical and mental health. Without these essentials in place, the health spirals downward and heart failure is one of many possibilities.

It seems that illnesses such as CAD and heart failure are much more complex than we ever imagined. Emotional distress, dental neglect, smoking and inflammation may all combine to create vascular disease. Constant attention to the 10 Essentials of Health and Wellness and normal biological needs like dental care can help us avoid many triggers for CAD and heart failure.

Essential #4 concerns nutrients that every body needs. Essential fatty acids like those found in OmegaPrime can help protect against inflammation. Vitamin C can also help reduce inflammation by cooling oxidative stress and Sublingual B-12/HCY Guard helps reduce inflammatory homocysteine. I especially like Adaptogen 10 Plus because it helps reduce the impact of stress while providing antioxidant protection. Nutrients and nurturing – including proper dental care – give us the best foundation for a life of meaning and purpose.

Each year about 700,000 North American’s die from heart attacks. Blood clots caused by coronary artery disease (CAD) are the most common cause of heart attacks. However, as bad as CAD is, heart attacks from narrow arteries and blood clots are not the only conditions that cause heart disease. Many heart diseases exist and are preventable with only a little care.

Some common conditions are:

High blood pressure
The most common cause of heart disease in North America is high blood pressure; it affects 73 million people in just the United States. High blood pressure may be caused by:

• Disease in the blood vessels causing them to narrow
• Imbalances in the kidneys, lungs and liver
• Cardiomyopathy – a disease of the heart muscle

Helpful measures: Keys to reducing high blood pressure are found in the “10 Essentials”. Some people can reduce their high blood pressure simply by practicing deep breathing. Other techniques include increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, and increasing fiber and water while reducing sodium.

Coronary artery disease (CAD)
CAD occurs when plaque builds up inside a blood vessel of the heart. It affects over 16 million people in the U.S.  Coronary artery disease leads to angina pectoris – pain caused by poor blood flow to the heart muscles – and is associated with heart attack.

Helpful measures: Coronary artery disease responds well to a low-fat, high-fiber diet of mainly fruits and vegetables. Stress reduction and daily exercise are also effective therapies in combating CAD. Most heart specialists recommend Omega-3 oils such as those in OmegaPrime as effective tools in combating CAD.

Congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure (CHF) and related forms of heart failure may affect more than five million people in North America. CHF is strongly related to diabetes and obesity. Among the most common triggers is obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep apnea builds up blood pressure in an attempt to get oxygen to critical tissues such as the heart and brain.

Helpful measures: Most people with CHF respond to treatment for sleep apnea, treatment with CoEnzyme Q-10 (CoQ-10), and the other suggestions already mentioned.

Some common remedies:

Body weight and blood sugar control
Achieving and maintaining optimum body weight and blood sugar control are two suggestions that always top the list of remedies for all forms of heart disease. The LeanOlogy program can help you meet those objectives. Leanology is much more than a “diet plan” – it helps you make the necessary lifestyle adjustments through nutrition and activity to help you reach and maintain a healthier weight.

Nutrients

• OmegaPrime can help reduce the “stickiness” of blood to protect against clots and may slow down the process of plaque formation. One or two grams are enough to help protect against heart disease, but much more is needed if the heart is already diseased.
• CoQ-10 offers significant benefits to the heart. It should be taken at bedtime to reduce the impact of sleep apnea on the heart and brain.
• Antioxidants such as Vitamin C and resveratrol (found in Super Antioxidant Complex) are also best taken at night, then again in the morning.
• Special proteins found in garlic and other antioxidants such as bilberry (found in VisionGuard) can help improve lipids such as cholesterol while opening the tiniest blood vessels in the legs, hands, eyes, ears and brain.

When we consider all options, many of the problems with heart disease can be guarded against or even solved with the tools we have readily at hand (always follow the advice of your healthcare provider for your personal condition).  Do one’s emotions have an impact on heart health?  Perhaps, the “10 Essentials” can assist us here as well?

Our bodies make millions of new cells every day: heart cells, brain cells, bone and blood cells. Every time a cell dies it should be replaced. If you do not have the right amount of nutrients to construct a new cell you will either make an incomplete cell or none at all. The outcome is bad in either case, so we really need to keep all nutrients on board at all times. This is why we suggest a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement. This helps ensure we stay on top of our nutrient reserve.

Supplements
The word supplement means to add more – to make up for a deficiency. Vitamin and mineral supplements should be taken in addition to a healthy diet. They make up for the deficiency we face due to the poor nutrient density in our foods. Supplements also help make up the difference when our diet is less than perfect.

The simplest way to help support your nutrition is to take a general multi-vitamin and mineral supplement that provides a broad range of nutrients at standard nutritional levels. However, please remember the following points:

1. Some supplements contain very high doses of certain nutrients. When you take nutrients in extremely high doses, you are no longer in the world of nutritional supplementation and have passed into the riskier world of “megadose” treatment.
2. Calcium and magnesium are very bulky minerals, and few multi-vitamin/mineral supplements provide the daily requirement. These minerals generally must be taken in the form of additional pills. Note: It isn’t possible for your body to absorb a day’s worth of calcium in a single dose. At least two doses are necessary.

Common nutritional deficiencies:

Very few of us are so deficient in these nutrients as to show symptoms of obvious malnutrition. However, subtle deficiencies may increase the risk for a variety of conditions. For example, insufficient intake of calcium and Vitamin D may increase your chances of developing osteoporosis, and inadequate folate and Vitamin B-6 may speed the development of heart disease.

Besides vitamins and minerals, intake of essential omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is often inadequate.

A plan for everyone
Finally, keep in mind that food contains many substances other than vitamins and minerals that may enhance your health.

Supplements won’t overcome bad dietary choices. We simply must commit ourselves to eating more fruits and vegetables. However, the reality of life is that we don’t always attend to our diet perfectly. So, appropriate nutrient supplementation can help make up for the deficiency we face because of poor nutrient density in our foods and an imperfect diet.

Learn More…

• How to start eating more fruits and vegetables

The winter months bring mood changes for some people. These people may seem sad because they have SAD, seasonal affective disorder. It is also referred to as seasonal depression which is often blamed on less exposure to sunlight during shorter colder days.

You may someone affected by SAD. The Psychiatric Association lists these symptoms:

• Excessive sleeping, overeating and weight gain during the fall/winter months
• Extreme fatigue or inability to keep up a normal schedule
• Feelings of sadness, loss of feelings, apathy and irritability.

The last item is especially interesting to medical professionals who pursue the connections between mood troubles and B vitamins. Many studies indicate that people with a B-12 deficiency can experience symptoms including mood swings, mental confusion, forgetfulness and even psychotic behavior, like seeing and/or hearing things.

For some time it was believed that it was primarily older adults who tended to have Vitamin B-12 deficiencies, but we now have more studies that show this is a larger problem for younger people than previously thought. One study showed that people as young as 26 may be just as lacking in B-12 as some people over 65! This study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, went on to say that regardless of age, those who didn’t supplement with Vitamin B-12 were twice as likely to be deficient as those who did.

At this time of year, I urge you to consider whether or not you’re getting enough Vitamin B-12. Since B-12 has such an impact on mental energy and mood, I often recommend B-12 supplementation with TriVita’s Sublingual Vitamin B-12.