8 Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

8 Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

And why it needs to be part of your regular workout routine!

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) describes any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. For example, a good starter workout is running as fast as you can for 1 minute and then walking for 2 minutes. Repeat that 3-minute interval five times for a 15-minute, fat-blasting workout. It sounds too simple to be effective, but science doesn't stretch the truth.

Below are 8 more benefits of HIIT.

1. It's Efficient

Super-efficient HIIT is the ideal workout for a busy schedule—whether you want to squeeze in a workout during your lunch break or to get in shape for a fast-approaching event. Research shows you can achieve more progress in a mere 15 minutes of interval training (done three times a week) than the girl jogging on the treadmill for an hour.

According to a 2011 study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, just 2 weeks of high-intensity intervals improves your aerobic capacity as much as 6 to 8 weeks of endurance training. Now that's EFFICIENT!!!!

2. You Will Burn More Fat
Not only do you burn more calories during HIIT workouts, but the effect of all that intense exertion kicks your body's repair cycle into hyperdrive. That means you burn more fat and calories in the 24 hours after a HIIT workout than you do after, say, a steady-pace run.

3. A Healthier Heart
Most people aren't used to pushing into the anaerobic zone (that lovely place where you can't breathe and you feel like your heart is trying to jump out of your chest). But in this case, extreme training produces extreme results. One 2006 study found that after 8 weeks of doing HIIT workouts, subjects could bicycle twice as long as they could before the study, while maintaining the same pace

4. No Equipment Necessary
Running, biking, jump roping, and rowing all work great for HIIT, but you don't need any equipment to get it done. High knees, fast feet, or anything plyometric like jumping lunges work just as well to get your heart rate up fast. In fact, some equipment like dumbbells can make HIIT less effective because you want the focus to be on pushing your heart to its max, not your biceps.

5. Lose Fat, Not Muscle
Anyone who has been on a diet knows that it's hard to not lose muscle mass along with fat. While steady state cardio seems to encourage muscle loss, studies show that both weight training and HIIT workouts allow dieters to preserve their hard-earned muscles while ensuring most of the weight lost comes from fat stores. This is a Win/win Situation and your metabolism will increase as the body fat drops.

6. Increased Metabolism
In addition to increased fat burning and more muscle preserved, HIIT stimulates production of your human growth hormone (HGH) by up to 450 percent during the 24 hours after you finish your workout. This is great news since HGH is not only responsible for increased caloric burn but also slows down the aging process, making you younger both inside and out!

7. Do It Anywhere
You can do it in a boat, you can do it with a goat. You can do it here or there, you can do it anywhere! Dr. Seuss would have loved HIIT. Since it's such a simple concept—go at maximum effort for a short period of time followed by a recovery period and repeat—you can adapt it to whatever time and space constraints you have.

8. Challenging
This is not a workout you can do while reading a magazine or chatting with your friend. Because it's so short, you will be working hard the whole time. The trade-off is this format offers seasoned exercisers a new challenge and new exercisers a quick way to see results. You may be in pain, you may be sucking wind, but you definitely won't be bored!

Carbohydrate Addiction is Epidemic........

Carbohydrate Addiction is Epidemic........

And the Food Industry Promotes it right along with the FDA & the AMA!

A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and one in four are either diabetic or pre-diabetic.

Obesity rates in children in several states are now above 30%!!!!!!

Carb-rich processed foods are a primary driver of these statistics, and while many blame Americans’ overindulgence of processed junk foods on lack of self-control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly addictive nature of such foods.

Most recently, researchers at the Boston Children's Hospital concluded that highly processed carbohydrates stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, promoting excess hunger.

As reported by Science Daily:

“These findings suggest that limiting these 'high-glycemic index' foods could help obese individuals avoid overeating.”

While I don’t agree with the concept of high glycemic foods, it is important that they are at least thinking in the right direction. Also, the timing is ironic, considering the fact that the American Medical Association (AMA) recently declared obesity a disease, treatable with a variety of conventional methods, from drugs to novel anti-obesity vaccines...

The featured research is on the mark, and shows just how foolhardy the AMA’s financially-driven decision really is. Drugs and vaccines are clearly not going to do anything to address the underlying problem of addictive junk food.


Brain Imaging Shows Food Addiction Is Real

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined the effects of high-glycemic foods on brain activity, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). One dozen overweight or obese men between the ages of 18 and 35 each consumed one high-glycemic and one low-glycemic meal. The fMRI was done four hours after each test meal. According to the researchers:

“Compared with an isocaloric low-GI meal, a high-glycemic index meal decreased plasma glucose, increased hunger, and selectively stimulated brain regions associated with reward and craving in the late postprandial period, which is a time with special significance to eating behavior at the next meal.”

The study demonstrates what many people experience: After eating a high-glycemic meal, i.e. rapidly digesting carbohydrates, their blood sugar initially spiked, followed by a sharp crash a few hours later. The fMRI confirmed that this crash in blood glucose intensely activated a brain region involved in addictive behaviors, known as the nucleus accumbens.

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism, weighed in on the featured research in an article by NPR:

“As Dr. Robert Lustig... points out, this research can’t tell us if there’s a cause and effect relationship between eating certain foods and triggering brain responses, or if those responses lead to overeating and obesity.

'[The study] doesn’t tell you if this is the reason they got obese,' says Lustig, 'or if this is what happens once you’re already obese.' Nonetheless... he thinks this study offers another bit of evidence that 'this phenomenon is real.'”

Previously, Dr. Lustig has explained the addictive nature of sugar as follows:

"The brain's pleasure center, called the nucleus accumbens, is essential for our survival as a species... Turn off pleasure, and you turn off the will to live... But long-term stimulation of the pleasure center drives the process of addiction... When you consume any substance of abuse, including sugar, the nucleus accumbens receives a dopamine signal, from which you experience pleasure. And so you consume more.

The problem is that with prolonged exposure, the signal attenuates, gets weaker. So you have to consume more to get the same effect -- tolerance. And if you pull back on the substance, you go into withdrawal. Tolerance and withdrawal constitute addiction. And make no mistake, sugar is addictive."

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

Previous research has demonstrated that refined sugar is more addictive than cocaine, giving you pleasure by triggering an innate process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals. Your brain essentially becomes addicted to stimulating the release of its own opioids.

Researchers have speculated that the sweet receptors located on your tongue, which evolved in ancestral times when the diet was very low in sugar, have not adapted to the seemingly unlimited access to a cheap and omnipresent sugar supply in the modern diet.

Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal self-control mechanisms, thus leading to addiction.

But it doesn’t end there. Food manufacturers have gotten savvy to the addictive nature of certain foods and tastes, including saltiness and sweetness, and have turned addictive taste into a science in and of itself.

In a recent New York Times article, Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, dished the dirt on the processed food industry, revealing that there’s a conscious effort on behalf of food manufacturers to get you hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive to make.

I recommend reading his article in its entirety, as it offers a series of case studies that shed light on the extraordinary science and marketing tactics that make junk food so hard to resist.

Sugar, salt and fat are the top three substances making processed foods so addictive. In a Time Magazine interview discussing his book, Moss says:

“One of the things that really surprised me was how concerted and targeted the effort is by food companies to hit the magical formulation. Take sugar for example. The optimum amount of sugar in a product became known as the 'bliss point.' Food inventors and scientists spend a huge amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that will send us over the moon, and send products flying off the shelves. It is the process they've engineered that struck me as really stunning.”

It’s important to realize that added sugar (typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup) is not confined to junky snack foods. For example, most of Prego’s spaghetti sauces have one common feature, and that is sugar—it’s the second largest ingredient, right after tomatoes. A half-cup of Prego Traditional contains the equivalent of more than two teaspoons of sugar.


Novel Flavor-Enhancers May Also Contribute to Food Addiction

Another guiding principle for the processed food industry is known as “sensory-specific satiety.” Moss describes this as “the tendency for big, distinct flavors to overwhelm your brain, which responds by depressing your desire to have more.” The greatest successes, whether beverages or foods, owe their “craveability” to complex formulas that pique your taste buds just enough, without overwhelming them, thereby overriding your brain’s inclination to say “enough.”

Novel biotech flavor companies like Senomyx also play an important role.

Senomyx specializes in helping companies find new flavors that allow them to use less salt and sugar in their foods. But does that really make the food healthier? This is a questionable assertion at best, seeing how these “flavor enhancers” are created using secret, patented processes. They also do not need to be listed on the food label, which leaves you completely in the dark. As of now, they simply fall under the generic category of artificial and/or natural flavors, and they don’t even need to be tested for safety, as they’re used in minute amounts.

How to Combat Food Addiction and Regain Your Health

To protect your health, I advise spending 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent on processed foods. It’s important to realize that refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

By taking the advice offered in the featured study and cutting out these high-glycemic foods you can retrain your body to burn fat instead of sugar. However, it’s important to replace these foods with healthy fats, not protein—a fact not addressed in this research. I believe most people may need between 50-70 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthful fats, which include:


1. Olives & Olive oil

2. Coconut and Coconut Oils

3. Natural whole fat butter

4. Organic raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts, which are low in protein and omega-6 fat.

5. Organic pastured eggs and pastured meats

6. Avocados


A growing body of evidence also suggests that intermittent fasting is particularly effective if you’re struggling with excess weight as it provokes the natural secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), a fat-burning hormone. It also increases resting energy expenditure while decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine.

Best of all, once you transition to fat burning mode your cravings for sugar and carbohydrates will virtually disappear, as if by magic... While you’re making the adjustment, you could supplement L-Glutamine (1,000MG) before each meal and 3,000-6,000 MG at bed time. This will help reduce cravings.

Other tricks to help you overcome your sugar cravings include:

Exercise: Anyone who exercises intensely on a regular basis will know that a significant amount of resistance exercise is one of the best "cures" for food cravings. It always amazes me how my appetite, especially for sweets, dramatically decreases after a good workout. I believe the mechanism is related to the dramatic reduction in insulin levels that occurs after exercise.

Organic black coffee: Coffee is a potent opioid receptor antagonist, and contains compounds such as cafestrol -- found plentifully in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee -- which can bind to your opioid receptors, occupy them and essentially block your addiction to other opioid-releasing foods. This may profoundly reduce the addictive power of other substances, such as sugar.

Benefits of eating Chicken Breast.

Benefits of eating Chicken Breast.

Chicken soup, chicken stew, chicken chili, chicken breast on salad…chicken in almost any form is great for your health—unless you’re the chicken of course!

All kidding aside, the health benefits of eating poultry are plenty. When this fowl comes in a lean breast, it’s low in fat and calories and high in protein, which makes it ideal for weight maintenance. Not to mention that this bird is jam-packed full of essential nutrients and vitamins.

Plus, with so many ways to prepare this plucky protein, you’re family won’t tire of chicken as a frequent weekly menu staple. Here are the top ten healthy benefits of eating chicken:

1. High in Protein

If you’re looking for a great source of lean, low fat protein, this bird is the word. The protein in chicken lends itself to muscle growth and development, and help support a healthy body weight and aid weight loss.

2. Natural Anti-depressant

Chicken, like its brother fowl the turkey, is high in an amino acid called tryptophan, which gives you that comforting feeling after consuming a big bowl of mom’s chicken soup. In fact, if you’re feeling depressed, eating some poultry will increase the serotonin levels in your brain, enhance your mood, blasting stress, and lulling you to sleep.

3. Prevents Bone Loss

If you’re entering your senior years and you’re concerned about Osteoporosis or arthritis, eating chicken will aid in your fight against bone loss thanks to the protein punch it packs!

4. Poultry for Heart Health

Homocysteine is an amino acid that can cause cardiovascular disease if levels are high in the body. Fortunately for us, eating chicken breast suppresses and controls homocysteine levels.

5. Phosphorus

Chicken is also rich in phosphorus, an essential mineral that supports your teeth and bones, as well as kidney, liver, and central nervous system function.

6. Selenium

Chicken also abundant in selenium, an essential mineral involved in metabolic performance—in other words thyroid, hormone, metabolism, and immune function.

7. Metabolism Booster

Vitamin B6 (or B-complex vitamins) encourage enzymes and metabolic cellular reactions (or a process known as Methylation), which means eating this bird will keep blood vessels healthy, energy levels high, and metabolism burning calories so you can manage a healthy weight and activity level.

8. Rich in Niacin

Chicken also happens to be rich in niacin, one particular B-vitamin that guards against cancer and other forms of genetic (DNA) damage.

9. Promotes Eye Health

Chicken is high in retinol, alpha and beta-carotene, and lycopene, all derived from vitamin A, and all vital for healthy eyesight.

10. Essential for Healthy Tissue Growth

Many of us are plagued with chapped lips, cracked mouths, tongue sores, or dry skin in winter. However, a boost in riboflavin (or Vitamin B2), found in chicken livers, will drastically reduce your skin problems and repair dry or damaged skin.

So make sure you include chicken breast as a part of your nutrition program. There are so many different ways to cook chicken too.

Body fat loss stuck on hold?....This may be the problem!

Body fat loss stuck on hold? Can't seem to lose that last little bit of fat?

This may be the problem.......

Artificial Sweeteners will over stimulate the hormones that make you hungry and create a resistance too the hormones that suppress hunger...... IT'S A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD!!! 

Contrary to popular belief, studies have found that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame can stimulate your appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain. In one of the most recent of such studies, saccharin and aspartame were found to cause greater weight gain than sugar.

Aspartame is perhaps one of the most problematic. It is primarily made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The phenylalanine has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group, which provides the majority of the sweetness. That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, which allows the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol.

You may have heard the claim that aspartame is harmless because methanol is also found in fruits and vegetables. However, in fruits and vegetables, the methanol is firmly bonded to pectin, allowing it to be safely passed through your digestive tract. Not so with the methanol created by aspartame; there it’s not bonded to anything that can help eliminate it from your body.

Methanol acts as a Trojan horse; it's carried into susceptible tissues in your body, like your brain and bone marrow, where the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme converts it into formaldehyde, which wreaks havoc with sensitive proteins and DNA. All animals EXCEPT HUMANS have a protective mechanism that allows methanol to be broken down into harmless formic acid. This is why toxicology testing on animals is a flawed model. It doesn't fully apply to people.

Now a little education on the two hormones that artificial sweeteners effect.

A lot is known about what causes obesity. The simplest explanation is that the genes that have protected us from famines for millions of years are at the core of the cause of obesity. These powerful biochemical systems are centered on a small area in the middle of the brain called the hypothalamus. A specialized area in the hypothalamus, called the arcuate nucleus, is where the signals that control metabolic rate, hunger and satiety are located.

In the arcuate nucleus are two cells types. One cell is the NPY/AGRP (Neuropeptide Y/Agouti Related Protein) cell. This is the hunger cell. If it is stimulated you feel hungry and your metabolic rate drops. The other cell is the POMC (Proopiomelanocortin) cell. This is the satiety cell. If it is stimulated you feel full and your metabolic rate increases.

The two major hormones that control the hunger and satiety cells are ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is produced by the stomach and travels to the brain where it turns on the hunger cell and turns off the satiety cell. Leptin is produced by the fat cells of the body and travels to the brain where it turns on the satiety cell and turns off the hunger cell. When you are obese you have lots of fat cells and thus your leptin levels are high. The high leptin levels in combination with high insulin levels turn off the stomach cells that make ghrelin so your ghrelin levels are low. Now if that seems backward, your right. The problem is that high leptin levels over time make the satiety cell insensitive to leptin and low ghrelin levels make the hunger cell hypersensitive to ghrelin. The result is that even though the leptin levels are high and the ghrelin levels are low, the hunger cells are turned on and the satiety cells are turned off.

This is exactly the situation that occurs in a famine, hunger cells on and satiety cells off. So if you are obese, even though you have plenty of fat stores, the brain behaves like you were starving. This has many consequences. First and foremost is a loss of the conscious signals that tell you when you are full and when you are hungry. A common sign of this is that most obese people don't feel hungry when they get up in the morning. As a result they often skip breakfast. The brain interprets this as more starvation signals and further shuts down the metabolism. In fact the number one risk factor for obesity was skipping breakfast.

Ghrelin is also important in many other functions of the body. One of the most important is sleep. In order to efficiently progress though the normal cycles of sleep you need adequate ghrelin levels. If you don't have them you will not sleep as efficiently, you will dream less and get less restorative sleep. This will make you more tired the next day and since dreaming promotes leptin production, you will be hungrier and have a lower metabolic rate.

The imbalance of leptin and ghrelin are at the heart of the cause and consequences of obesity.

Now I know your thinking to yourself this only effects obese people not someone like me that only needs to drop a few more pounds, right?

WRONG, I am especially talking you you folks that just need to drop a few pounds and in particular those of you getting ready for a competition.

You see the leaner your body becomes the more sensitive it becomes too. Drop the artificial sweeteners and see the difference for yourself. You will be amazed at how quickly your body will respond and those last few fat pockets will vanish.

7 Side Effects of Drinking Diet Soda

7 Side Effects of Drinking Diet Soda

Question?

What’s the single biggest source of calories for Americans? White bread? Big Macs? Actually, try soda. The average American drinks about two cans of the stuff every day. “But I drink diet soda,” you say. “With no calories or sugar, it’s the perfect alternative for weight watchers...right?”

Not so fast. Before you pop the top off the caramel-colored bubbly, know this: guzzling diet soda comes with its own set of side effects that may harm your health—from kickstarting kidney problems to adding inches to your waistline.

Unfortunately, diet soda is more in vogue than ever. Kids consume the stuff at more than double the rate of last decade, according to research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Among adults, consumption has grown almost 25%.

But knowing these 7 side effects of drinking diet soda may help you kick the can for good.

Kidney Problems

Here’s something you didn’t know about your diet soda: It might be bad for your kidneys. In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline. Kidney function started declining when women drank more than two sodas a day. Even more interesting: Since kidney decline was not associated with sugar-sweetened sodas, researchers suspect that the diet sweeteners are responsible.

Messed-Up Metabolism

According to a 2008 University of Minnesota study of almost 10,000 adults, even just one diet soda a day is linked to a 34% higher risk of metabolic syndrome, the group of symptoms including belly fat and high cholesterol that puts you at risk for heart disease. Whether that link is attributed to an ingredient in diet soda or the drinkers’ eating habits is unclear. But is that one can really worth it?

Obesity

You read that right: Diet soda doesn’t help you lose weight after all. A University of Texas Health Science Center study found that the more diet sodas a person drank, the greater their risk of becoming overweight. Downing just two or more cans a day increased waistlines by 500%. Why? Artificial sweeteners can disrupt the body’s natural ability to regulate calorie intake based on the sweetness of foods, suggested an animal study from Purdue University. That means people who consume diet foods might be more likely to overeat, because your body is being tricked into thinking it’s eating sugar, and you crave more.

A Terrible Hangover

Your first bad decision was ordering that Vodka Diet—and you may make the next one sooner than you thought. Cocktails made with diet soda get you drunker, faster, according to a study out of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. That’s because sugar-free mixers allow liquor to enter your bloodstream much quicker than those with sugar, leaving you with a bigger buzz.

Cell Damage

Diet sodas contain something many regular sodas don’t: mold inhibitors. They go by the names sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, and they’re in nearly all diet sodas. But many regular sodas, such as Coke and Pepsi, don’t contain this preservative.

That’s bad news for diet drinkers. "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it - they knock it out altogether,” Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told a British newspaper in 1999. The preservative has also been linked to hives, asthma, and other allergic conditions, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Since then, some companies have phased out sodium benzoate. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have replaced it with another preservative, potassium benzoate. Both sodium and potassium benzoate were classified by the Food Commission in the UK as mild irritants to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.

Rotting Teeth

With a pH of 3.2, diet soda is very acidic. (As a point of reference, the pH of battery acid is 1. Water is 7.) The acid is what readily dissolves enamel, and just because a soda is diet doesn’t make it acid-light. Adults who drink three or more sodas a day have worse dental health, says a University of Michigan analysis of dental checkup data. Soda drinkers had far greater decay, more missing teeth, and more fillings.

Reproductive Issues

Sometimes, the vessel for your beverage is just as harmful. Diet or not, soft drink cans are coated with the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to everything from heart disease to obesity to reproductive problems. That’s a lot of risktaking for one can of pop.

These 7 side effects a just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ill side effect of drinking diet soda pop.  There is a host of neurological side effects and may also be one of the leading causes of Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease as well. My advice to you is drink water in place of the toxic diet sodas.  It's much better for you and it won't cause disease.

Supplements I Recommend

Supplements I Recommend

This is a list of supplements I use or have used and found to be very effective.

1. L-Glutamine- aids in protein digestion and helps prevent muscle breakdown. Helps reduce carbohydrate cravings and aids in reducing inflammation. Suggested use 1,000MG before each meal, 1,000MG before and after resistance exercise, 3,000 to 6,000MG 1 hour before bedtime.

2. Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) Aids in preventing muscle break down while on low calorie diets. Prevents muscle wasting (catabolism) Increases anaerobic endurance that will enable you to train harder in the gym without chronic fatigue. Suggested use 1,000- 3,000 MG before and after workout.

3. L-Carnitine - aids in converting fat to energy, it will increase energy levels without the ill side effects that stimulants cause. No jitters or body trimmers will occur taking this amino acid. Also known as N-acetyl carnitine a more bio-available from of the amino acid. This amino acid is perfect for dropping body-fat. Suggested use 1 ounce liquid form twice daily.

4. L-Arginine – is a strong vasodilator that will increase blood flow to muscle tissue. It is a great tool in aiding the replacement of ATP in the muscle cells during training. Reduces blood pressure and improves cardiovascular function. Also aids in Human Growth Hormone Production (HGH). The benefits of L-Arginine are many. We highly recommend everyone take this product. Suggested use 1,000MG at wake-up, 1,000 – 2,000MG before workout and 1,000 – 2,000 MG in evening or at bed time.

5. Co-Enzyme Q-10 (COQ10)– Increases red blood cell count and aids in increased oxygen levels in blood. If you are taking a Statin Drug this is a MUST product for you. COQ10 production is halted in the body when taking Statin Drugs. COQ10 is vital for the production of ATP in muscle cells. Used in combination with L-Carnitine and L-Glutamine is will dramatically reduce cravings for sugars and or carbohydrates. It will also help increase the rate at which you metabolize fats and have shown to lower blood pressure too. Suggested dosage is 200MG to 600MG daily.

6. Whey Protein – Whey Protein is the building block for muscle. It has a high biological value meaning the protein is easily digested and broken down into the amino acids that keep the body functioning properly. Many people use Whey protein as a meal replacement. There are several different types of whey protein and many flavors available. Many of our proteins are very low in carbohydrates and contain about 25 grams of protein per scoop. When protein helps in maintaining muscle mass while on low calorie/low carbohydrate diets. Here is a quick list of benefits of whey protein:
• Assists in increasing in muscle mass
• Assist in cancer treatment
• Increase in glutathione levels (your body’s main water-based anti-oxidant)
• Decrease in triglycerides
• Decrease in total cholesterol while increasing HDL (good cholesterol)
• Increase in immune system function
• Increase in power in sports
• Decreased recovery time and symptoms of over-training

Whey protein should be taken one to three times daily and should be used as whole food protein replacement. Suggest dosage 25 grams for people 175Lb or lighter and 40 to 60 grams for people with a lean body mass over 175lbs.

7. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) – Aids in the increase of lean body tissue and the reduction of adipose tissue (FATS) through-out the body. Boosts the immune system and reduces inflammation. Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Reduces inflammation due to arthritis as well. Suggest daily dose is 2,000 to 6,000 MG.

8. Fish Oil (omega fatty acids)improved cardiovascular function, reduction of inflammation, serves as a free radical scavenger and boosts the immune system. Suggested dosage range 600MG - 2,000MG daily

9. ZMA – a combination of Zinc, Magnesium and B-6, ZMA is designed to increase anaerobic endurance, speed up recovery time between workouts and improve sleep to aid the body in recovery. Suggested dosage 30MG of Zinc 10-15 MG of B-6 and 450-600MG of Magnesium.

10. Yohimbine - increase male hormone production, improve erectile dysfunction in men. Suggested dosage 10-20MG caution is advised in taking any dose larger than 20MG. It can have some ill side effects.

11. Calcium – Improve bone density, help maintain normal body weight, reduce the effects of PMS,improves cardiovascular function and may reduce the risk of cancer.
Suggest dosage varies on age:

Children (ages 1-3): 500 milligrams per day
Children (ages 4-8): 800 milligrams per day
Youth (ages 9-18): 1300 milligrams per day
Adults (ages 19-50): 1000 milligrams per day
Adults (ages 51 or older): 1200 milligrams per day

12.IntraMax

– By far our best multi-vitamin/mineral product. Liquid vitamins and minerals are far superior to caplets and tablets. This product is 100% derived from plants and vegetables. Its absorption rate is very high meaning 90% of the products is actually used by your body whereas taking capsules or tablets the absorption rate falls below 25%. Benefits include increased immune system overall better health, better more sound sleep and a reduction of inflammation. Suggested dosage is one ounce for people under the age of 40, two ounces per day over the age of 40. You may also increase dosage up to 4 ounces daily if you are sick with Flu like symptoms.

Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease....Can it be prevented?

Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease....Can it be prevented?

As people age, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia increases. Perhaps you have seen Alzheimer’s in your own family and wonder if you’re at risk. Or maybe you’ve watched dementia affect the life of your friend. You may simply be aware of the high number of people who develop Alzheimer’s and be concerned about how to avoid it. Currently, approximately 5.4 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s. The question for many is: Can Alzheimer’s be prevented?

What Causes Alzheimer’s?

In order to prevent or reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, it's helpful to know what causes it. However, scientists are still working on determining exactly what triggers Alzheimer’s. What we do know is that the brain begins to produce extra beta-amyloid and tau proteins. Those proteins then start to tangle and build up in and between brain cells. Eventually, connections between brain cells are lost and brain tissue actually deteriorates in function and size. It appears that these physical changes in the brain begin many years before any signs of impaired memory or other cognitive concerns appear.

What we don’t know for certain is what causes those changes to begin. Genetics appears to cause a predisposition for some people, giving them a higher chance (but not a certainty) of developing Alzheimer's. Additionally, advanced age plays a role. But other controllable factors, including physical health, have been associated with decreasing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

Since we can't yet determine with certainty exactly what triggers Alzheimer's, the next best thing is to rely on research that demonstrates an association between factors. For example, research has shown that both the risk of developing Alzheimer's and a delay in the onset of symptoms, have been connected with factors that include diet, mental exercise, social interaction, physical exercise and more. In light of that, here's a closer look at physical exercise.

Exercise as Prevention

Several studies have demonstrated correlations between a decreased chance of developing Alzheimer's (or other types of dementia) and physical exercise. These studies include ones where self-reports of physical activity in early to midlife were associated with better brain health later in life, structured exercise classes were correlated with a change in the size of areas in the brain such as the hippocampus, and different types of exercise were compared to see which was most effective for maintaining or improving brain health.

Additionally, if our cholesterol is in a healthy range, we’re less at risk for events like a stroke that could trigger vascular dementia. Exercise gets the blood flowing through our bodies and brains. Being physically healthy doesn’t eliminate the possibility of Alzheimer’s or another dementia developing, but a healthy body does decrease the risk.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, “Some of the strongest current evidence links brain health to heart health. Your brain is nourished by one of your body's richest networks of blood vessels. Every heartbeat pumps about 20 to 25 percent of your blood to your head, where brain cells use at least 20 percent of the food and oxygen your blood carries.”

What Kind of Exercise Is Best?

You may be wondering what type of exercise you should participate in to reap the benefit of a lower risk of Alzheimer’s. The answer depends on whom you ask. One study concluded that resistance training/weight lifting was the most effective at maintaining and even improving cognitive functioning. Other research has studied walking/aerobic exercise with good results. Some studies have shown a benefit from simply a higher level of general physical activity.

While researchers might debate the answer to this question, the general consensus is that exercise, whatever kind you choose, is beneficial to your body and your brain. Consider this your encouragement to invest in your health, and don’t forget to consult with your physician before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have other health concerns.

Nutrition also plays a very important role is prevention and in some cases reversal of symptoms.

Coconut oil and other saturated fats have been shown to improve cognitive skills in patients with Alzheimer's and Dementia.

Avoiding Trans-fats and sugar is also important as well as artificial sweeteners is vital in prevention of disease.

Other things that can damage you and cause you cognitive loss is fluoride and antiperspirants with an aluminum base for prevent sweating. These toxins can cause sever damage to the brain when used over an extended period of time.

So simply put, exercise and eat a healthy diet with saturated fats and reduce your risk of disease.