Health-Tips

Why You Might Want to Drink Green Tea

The leaves of Green Tea are a good source of bioflavanoids, especially catechins which is a good antioxidant and free radical scavenger. It has some caffeine and can combat mental fatique. It may lower the risk of certain cancers like esophageal, stomach, colon and skin cancer. It can also slow the formation of arteriosclerosis and reduces the clotting tendencies of the blood. It aids in weight loss due to its fat burning properties.

Green tea, unlike black and oolong tea is not fermented, so the active ingredients remain stable in the herb. It helps regulate blood sugar and insulin levels. A study with overweight and obese people found that drinking a beverage containing 625 mg. of green tea catechins helped increase exercise-induced weight loss especially in the abdominal area.

It also helped reduce fasting serum triglycerides levels. Green tea helps increase your energy expenditure and fat oxidation. It seems good to say, "Go Green."

Black teas tend to not have these properties because many of the important compounds are destroyed in the processing

of the tea. It should be noted that pregnant and nursing mothers should not drink a large quantity of green tea. If you suffer from anxiety or irregular heartbeat then limit your intake to no more than two cups a day. BACK TO TOP

Chromium Picolinate - A Good Addition to Your Supplement Program

Chromium is an essential trace mineral that helps the body to make glucose available and help maintain normal blood sugar levels. It also facilitates the metabolism of amino acids and fats. Research has shown that people over 55 who exercise regularly tend to be at a risk for deficeincy and so may benefit from taking a chromium supplement.

Chromium can help control diabetes. Chromium is the mineral that helps to increase the efficiency. If the individual insulin molecule maintains its proper shape it can easily transport glucose into the cell where it is needed. However, without chromium the molecule can become misshapen and cannot function as a proper transport system for the glucose. If this happens, glucose builds up in the bloodstream. It can lead to a chain reaction that can become diabetes.

It is the picolinate that facilitates the connection so it is important to take it in this form. If the action of insulin is optimal then it helps the body to use fat as a fuel so chromium picolinate can help with obesity. It can also help people with diabetes to decrease their insulin use, especially in Type II diabetes. BACK TO TOP

A Bounty of Benefits From A Simple Amino Acid

Finally, a natural way to increase energy, slow aging, aid weight loss weight, increase mental alertness, improve your heart health and more.

L-carnitine is a naturally occurring nutrient in the form of an amino acid. With 500 milligrams each day (approximately) you could make a real improvement in your overall health. Sound simple? It is. Read on to find out more.

From: Dr. Sears’ Health Alert

If you could burn fat, improve your heart, and boost your energy by taking one pill would you do it? I’m not talking about a new diet drug – or any other medication for that matter. Today I’ll tell you about the amino acid L-carnitine.

7 Reasons to take L-carnitine

L-carnitine plays an essential role in maintaining a healthy body. Here are a few examples of what this natural nutrient does.

Slows Aging. Carnitine shuttles fatty acids into the energy centers of the cells, where the fat can be burned to produce energy. When the body has sufficient carnitine reserves, the cells can burn more fat and generate more energy. Every

cell in your body works better when it has optimal energy available to it.

Helps you lose weight. Carnitine is important in weight loss because it helps convert body fat into fuel. It also raises levels of certain enzymes needed to metabolize sugars, starches and other carbohydrates.

Increases mental alertness. L-carnitine converts to acetyl- L-carnitine. ALC enhances brain activity. It also prevents brain-cell death and protects nerve cells from degeneration due to aging or disease.

Protects your heart. L-carnitine reduces arterial plaque, lowers LDL cholesterol, and increases HDL levels. These benefits appear in healthy people as well as in patients with heart disease.

Boost potency in men. Sperm count, motility, and maturation are related to carnitine concentrations. Supplementation with carnitine improves sperm quality and/or quantity.

Enhances exercise. Carnitine improves sports performance and endurance, and reduces the damage caused to the body that can occur during exercise.

Improves diabetes. Test data suggest that supplementing with L-carnitine can improve insulin sensitivity in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Where to get it?

Unless you eat a diet high in red meat and dairy, it can be difficult to obtain optimal amounts of carnitine from dietary sources alone. Perhaps the best solution is to take it as a supplement. You can get all you need in one capsule, once a day in the 500 milligrams of the L-carnitine form. It is important that you choose naturally occurring L-carnitine and not synthetic D, L-carnitine. The D-form interferes with the natural action of the L-carnitine. - Al Sears, M.D.

L-Carnitine

Nagoyua, Japan

L-carnitine supplementation helps reduce age-related, oxidative DNA damage in the brain, according to a study published in the January 2005 issue of Experimental Neurology (191, 1:33-40) (www.sciencedirect.com).

Researchers from Nagoyua University Graduate School of Medicine measured the activities of antioxidant enzymes, the levels of nucleic acids and the extent of DNA damage in the cortex, hippocampus, striatum, hypothalamus and cerebellum of your (four months) and old (24 months) rats given L-carnitine for either seven, 14 or 21 days. Brain regions with lower antioxidant activity are highly susceptible to oxidative DNA damage, which is a key factor in the aging proce3sss, according to the scientists. The study results showed L-carnitine showed L-carnitine enhanced nucleic acid, antioxidant level activity in the older rats supplementing for 21 days. No significant change in activity was found in either the shorter supplementation periods or at all in the younger rats. The research concluded L-carnitine supplementation prevents age-related DNA damage, confirming the supplement's neuroprotective action against aging.

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Stop Microwaving and Be Healthier

Most of us use the microwave without ever thinking about it. For some of you, you remember it as a miracle device that suddenly made heating up leftovers quick and easy.

But the sad and unfortunate truth is that we are sacrificing our health and the healthy value and life-force of our foods and liquids for convenience.

Microwaving can decrease the ability of your immune system to do its job, decrease good cholesterol (HDL), contribute to degenerative diseases and/or cancer, and lower the body's ability to absorb certain vitamins.

The process of microwaving forces the atoms, molecules and cells in food to reverse polarity billions of times per second. This tears and deforms the molecular structure of food. New compounds are formed, called radiolytic compounds, which are not found in nature.

Below is an article that cites several studies and details the negative effects of Microwaving.

Microwaving Your Food Isn’t Safe

By Larry Cook

If you have ever wondered whether or not microwaved food is safe, here's an experiment you can do at home. Plant seeds in two pots. Water one pot with water that has been microwaved, the other with regular tap. The seeds that received microwaved water won't sprout. If microwaved water can stop plants from growing, think of what microwaved water can do to your health!

In 1989, Swiss biologist and food scientist Dr. Hans Hertel studied the effects of microwaved food. Eight people participated in the study. For eight weeks, they lived in a controlled environment and intermittently ate raw foods, conventionally cooked foods and microwaved foods. Blood samples were tested after each meal. They discovered that eating microwaved food, over time, causes significant changes in blood chemistry: A decrease in hemoglobin and cholesterol values, in the HDL (good cholesterol) versus LDL (bad cholesterol) ratio and in white blood cells, weakening the immune system, and an increase in leukocyte levels, which tends to indicate poisoning and cell damage.

Overall, the study suggested that eating microwaved food can cause degenerative diseases and/or cancer. "The measurable effects on man through the ingestion of microwaved food, unlike untreated food, are blood alterations,

that can also be found at the beginning of a pathological condition, also indicative of a beginning cancerous process" wrote Dr. Bernard Blanc, who assisted the study. Microwave ovens “cook” food by forcing the atoms, molecules and

cells within the food to reverse polarity billions of times per second, causing friction - the more the friction, the more

the heat. This oscillation tears and deforms the molecular structure of food. New compounds are formed, called

radiolytic compounds, which are not found in nature. Interestingly, microwaves are actually used in gene-altering technology to deliberately break cells and neutralize their “life-force” so they can be manipulated. Microwaves destroy the life-force that gives food its vitality and nourishment. When this life-force dissipates, microorganisms start breaking food down and it begins to rot.

In early 1991, a lawsuit was filed against an Oklahoma hospital because a patient died from receiving a microwaved blood transfusion, but not in a microwave. The effects of Microwaving breast milk have also been researched. John Kerner, M.D. and Richard Quin, M.D. from Stanford University said that “Microwaving human milk even at a low setting, can destroy some of its important disease-fighting capabilities.” After more research, Kerner wrote in the April 1992 issue of Pediatrics “Microwaving itself may in fact cause some injury to the milk above and beyond the heating”. And a radio announcement at the University of Minnesota said that “Microwaves are not recommend for heating a baby’s bottle. Heating the bottle in the microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas there may

be a loss of some vitamins.” In expressed milk, some protective properties may be destroyed. Another study in Vienna warned that Microwaving breast milk “can lead to structural, functional and immunological changes,” and that microwaves transform the amino acid L-proline into D-proline, a proven toxin to the nervous system, liver and kidneys.

In Russia, microwave ovens were banned in 1976 because of their negative health consequences and many studies were conducted on their use. Here are some of their findings on Microwaving foods.

Microwaved foods lose 60 - 90% of vital-energy field and Microwaving accelerates the structural disintegration

of foods.

Microwaving creates cancer-causing agents within milk and cereals.

Microwaving elemental food-substances, causing digestive disorders.

Microwaving alters food chemistry which can lead to malfunctions in the lymphatic system and degeneration of the body’s ability to protect itself against cancerous growths.

Microwaved foods lead to a higher percentage of cancerous cells in the bloodstream.

Microwaving altered the breakdown of elemental substances when raw, cooked, or frozen vegetables were exposed for even a very short time and free radicals were formed.

Microwaved foods caused stomach and intestinal cancerous growths, a general degeneration of peripheral cellular tissues, and a gradual breakdown of the digestive and excretive systems in a statistically high percentage of people.

Microwaved foods lowered the body's ability to utilize B-complex vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics.

The microwave field next to a microwave oven caused a slew of health problems as well.

Aside from these studies, many people find that Microwaving their food doesn’t help them feel good. Stephanie Relfe, Kinesiologist, found herself feeling “grey and rather low” one day and discovered that she had inadvertently eaten microwaved food at a restaurant. In her practice, she found that all of her patients gave body signals of having allergic reactions to microwaved foods. Another Kinesiologist, David Bridgeman, said, “Of all the people I test for allergies,

99.9% so far show severe sensitivity to any microwaved food.”

In conclusion then, the safest way to heat your food is to use your stove top and throw away your microwave!

Written by Larry Cook

Reprint from Natural Life News & Directory

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