Healthy Living Diet

A fat-soluble vitamin, Vitamin D is naturally present in very few foods, added to others and is usually made available as a dietary supplement. Many of us do not know its importance in healthy living. <.p>

Apart from the aforesaid, it is also produced endogenously when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis. Vitamin D produced from sun exposure, food, and supplements is biologically inert and must therefor undergo two hydroxylations in the body for activation and effective. The first occurs in the liver which converts vitamin D to 25-hydroxyvitamin D, also known as calcidiol while the second occurs primarily in the kidney and forms the physiologically active 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, also known as calcitriol.

What exactly does Vitamin D do in our body, you may ask. Essential for promoting calcium absorption in the gut and maintaining adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations, it is to enable normal mineralization of bone and prevent hypocalcemic tetany. It is also needed for bone growth and bone remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Lacking in or without sufficient vitamin D, bones can become the target of many old-age related problems. Bones become thin, brittle, or misshapen while Vitamin D sufficiency prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Together with calcium, vitamin D also helps protect older adults from osteoporosis.

Its other roles in human health include modulation of neuromuscular and immune function and reduction of inflammation. Many genes encoding proteins that regulate cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis are being modulated in part by vitamin D.

Lacking in Vitamin D has become the center of attention of many scientists today in finding the initial causes and development of cancer. Current scientific model seem to assume that a genetic mutation begins the genesis of a malignancy. Could this assumption be wrong and disputed? Could scientists at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California (UC) in San Diego unlock some other possibility?

In its online reporting in the current Annals of Epidemiology, a host of research suggests cancer develops when cells lose the ability to stick together in a healthy and normal way, and the key factor to this initial triggering of a malignancy could well be a lack of vitamin D. Researchers have documented that with enough vitamin D present, cells adhere to one another in tissue and act as normal, mature epithelial cells. However, should there be a deficiency of vitamin D, cells can lose this stick-to-each other quality as well as their identity as differentiated cells; resulting in their reversion to a dangerous stem cell-like state and become cancerous.

How is this possible? Vitamin D may halt the first stage of the cancer process by re-establishing intercellular junctions in malignancies having an intact vitamin D receptor. Vitamin D rich-diet and supplements (2,000 IU/day) tend to restore appropriate levels of vitamin D in the prevention of cancer development. Thus, the “cure” for cancer already exists.

(more…)

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Cells die via apoptosis, a process every cell in your body is programmed in its DNA genetic material to grow a certain number of days and it kills itself. Skin cells have a lifespan of 28 days and red blood cells live for 120 days before they die.

The first solid clue that human beings may possess genes that protect against ageing came in 1930 basing on researches on rats which were fed with low-calorie diet lived much longer than normal. The studies have now been confirmed in mice, fruit flies, dogs and other lab animals that reducing intake of food by 30% and still supplying all the nutrients can prolong by up to a similar percentage increase in lifespan.

It stands to reason that the same thing will occur in humans and there are ongoing studies but results are yet to come by. How wonderful it could be should it confirm this parallel reflection………in that there are many world problems previously thought as unsolved but now can be resolved such as sufficient food to feed the world population, healthier life and prolonged life. Even if it works, being constantly cold, tired, hungry and having the physical appearance of someone starving is not everyone’s vision of a life-extension programme.

Latest researches have found that Resveratrol, a member of the group of phytoalexins compounds, also activates the same logevity gene expressed during caloric restriction. Grapes and other plant produces resveratrol as a protective measure during times of stress, bad weather or poor nutrient availability or as protection against fungal and other diseases. Of all plants, including grapes, the richest source of resveratrol is from the medicinal plant Polygonum Cuspidatum which is found in China and Japan.

Scientists have found a chemical class called sirtuins that can help to prevent cell death. When stressed, cells produce this chemical and by starving a cell through caloric restriction, it activates the Sir2 gene to stimulate the cell to produce sirtuins that help to protect itself against starvation while keeping the cell alive. The effects of resveratrol mimic those of caloric restriction, the only proven way of extending lifespan. So eat less but be more nutritious to live healthily and longer. Resveratrol activates the same longevity genes expressed during caloric restriction and since caolric restriction has been successfully tested on mice and rats, scientists speculate that humans can derive longer lifespan and healthier living out of the caloric restriction benefits through the taking of resveratrol supplement.

Although studies were confined to fish, lower organisms and rodents, studies on humans may take a longer time to complete. However, since humans share many genes in common with even the simplest organisms such as bacteria and worms, it is likely the the studies in animals will have similar results in humans. Genetically, how alike all life on earth really is? Humans share many genes in common even with the simplest organisms such as yeast with 98% of your DNA identical to the mouse genome and 99.8% being identical to another human.

The interesting part about resveratrol is its health benefits properties covering as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, promotes anticancer, reduces blood pressure and menopausal symptoms, reduction in Alzheimer’s disease risks and developing diabetes and blood clot. Representing many of the known risks for developing different age-related degenerative diseases, these properties include:-

• As AntiCancer Agent

Cancer, perhaps the most dynamic resveratrol research area, is on the rise nowadays. Cancer have either been stopped or blocked by resveratrol in vitro laboratory tests at all three stages of initiation, promotion and progression. The National Institute of Health (NIH, USA) is currently sponsoring a clinical trial investigating resveratrol’s ability to fight colon cancer with its proposal as an additional supplement in cancer prevention.

• Heart & Blood Vessel Health

It has been found that resveratrol exerts a number of potentially cardio-protective effects such as:-

• increases high density lipoprotein (HDL)
• prevents low density lipoprotein (LDL) from being oxidized by free radicals as it is the oxidized LDL that forms plaque that can lead to atherosclerosis or hardening and thickening of the arteries,
• inhibits platelet aggregation as resveratrol prevents blood cells from sticking to each other and forming clots causing heart attacks or strokes,
• promotes vasodilatation by enhancing the production of nitric oxide (NO) which allows the blood vessels to relax resulting in enhanced blood flow.
• Alzheimer Prevention

One of the characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease is the deposition of amyloid-beta peptide plaques in the brain. Studies have shown that resveratrol administration into cells decreased their secretion and their amyloid-beta peptides levels. Although resveratrol did not inhibit the production of amyloid-beta peptides, it promotes the latter’s breakdown in the cells; thus assist in fighting Alzheimer’s disease

• May Minimize Risk Of Brain Damage In Stroke Victims

For many years in the past, scientists have been advocating the drinking of a glass of red wine once or twice a day would help with cardiovascular health. Resveratrol, having similar impact on brain health, in some cases may help minimize the brain damage when a stroke occurs.

• Other Benefits

Other benefits recently discovered include doubling exercise endurance and prevention of ill effects of obesity. In laboratory tests, resveratrol enables mice that were fed with high-calorie, high-fat diets to live normal, active lives despite being obese. It may also offer benefits in preventing or managing conditions associated with diabetes

It is important to understand that there are many other risk factors associated with diseases an that taking resveratrol may be one of the many important steps in risk reduction for healthy living. Resveratrol would, as researchers said, increase your lifespan six-fold like it did in worms or even 31% as in rodents. However, it is not unreasonable for someone who started taking resveratrol at age 50 to expect to add at least an extra 10 healthy years to their lifespan.

Products which have this resveratrol ingredient in abundance is Transfer Factor where it is blended for specific targeted purpose in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Ginseng roots has long been used to treat a variety of ailments for more than 2000 years from the medieval times in China to present day. Basing on its medicinal abilities, scientists have returned to discover more qualities with its berries.

An extract from the ginseng berry shows real promise in treating diabetes , according to reports from a research team from the University of Chicago’s Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research. Done on mice but have not been clinically studied on humans, the research shows that the extract completely normalized blood glucose levels, improved sensitivity to insulin, lowered cholesterol levels, and decreased weight by reducing appetite and increasing activity levels in mice bred to develop diabetes.

As ginseng berry has a distinctive chemical profile and has not previously been used for therapy, the study focused instead on substances found in the ginseng berry which has very different concentrations of ginsenosides Re known possibly to be medically useful. Tests using ginsenoside Re alone found that it had all of the anti-diabetic but none of the obesity-fighting activities of the extract and this fantastic compound could serve as the basis for a whole new class of anti-diabetic medications for work is being done further to isolate other substances from the extract that contributed to the weight loss. Now with this discovery, the berry contains agents that have some effectiveness against diabetes, the ginseng fruit has enormous promise as a source of new drugs. How well it holds true to treat diabetes has to be determined.

Diabetes is the seventh leading killer in the U.S. Type 2 diabetes affects almost six percent of the U.S. population and 18.4 percent of those over 65. The cost of the disease is estimated at $105 billion each year. On the other hand, the economic cost of obesity in the U.S. was about $117 billion in 2000. As there is a pressing need for new and more effective drugs for both diabetes and obesity, the next step is to isolate the other substances in the extract, find out whether they also effect glucose regulation or weight gain, learn how they work and determine the safe and effective dose.

The power of ginseng, meanwhile remains. Happy living healthily.

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In the past, the aborigines of the Amazon jungle had discovered a Brazilian palm berry know as acai (pronounced as AH-sigh-EE) berry and today, it is sweeping the globe as a popular health food for its antioxidant value though little research has previously been done on it as opposed to now where it may have its purported benefits better understood. <.p>

With 10 times the antioxidants of grapes and twice that of blueberries, the acai berry is considered to have the best nutritional value of any fruit on earth. Tasting like wild raspberry with the hint of a grape, it has the symmetry of a grape and the size of a giant blueberry. With a dense source of a particular class of flavonoids called anthocyanins, its ORAC value (a measure of its antioxidant properties) is higher than any other edible berry on the planet.

Concentrated in Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, the tall slender palm is grown by the natives there for its fruit as well as for the cluster of new leaves more commonly called the “cabbage” or the “heart of palm”. Grown abundantly in swampy areas, each acai palm tree produces small deep purple, almost black, fruit (berries) in groups of 3-8 per bunch. Its fruit is edible, and its pulp is used in wines and liqueurs, as flavoring and colorant, and on its own as a juice.

Much studies have been done since 2001. Initially, their studies on the berry examined antioxidant and nutritional components in pulp and juice. Later studies showed the berry’s activity against cancer cells. In clinical trials, both acai pulp and acai juice showed significant absorption of antioxidant anthocyanins into the blood and antioxidant effects. In 2006, a team of Texas AgriLife Research scientists found that cancer patients consuming extracts from acai berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86 percent of leukemia cells tested and has proven its ability to be absorbed in the human body when consumed both as juice and pulp. Other researches particularly by 4Life Research LLC into the berry’s absorption in humans is important because of its known numerous antioxidants which is the basis the berry is heavily marketed in the U.S. as a health food. Amongst one such product marketed is Riovida Transfer Factor Juice.

Researchers believe the results point to the need for continued research on the berry which is commonly used in juices, beverages, smoothies, frozen treats and dietary supplements. Acai is naturally low in sugar and the flavor is described as a mixture of red wine and chocolate, so there is nothing much to demand of it for as a supplement. Sales of acai products as a super food have increased dramatically in the U.S. where it has been touted as a metabolism booster, weight reducer and athletic enhancer. Advertisements using buzzwords such as health, wellness, energy, taste and organic is rampantly seen.

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So here I am, my message across to all of you who are my readers. Today, after being away for about 5 days into the serene township of Kota Bahru, the capital of Malaysian state, Kelantan, I was literally disadvantaged by the fact that this township is typically a Muslim-majority area where their food is typically short of supplements. Arrh…..what an experience. This prompted me to write about this topic.

About 10 years ago, the suggestion of food supplements was viewed as some sort of a fad or a weird cult. Those days, many were actually frowned upon for advocating food supplements. However, today, with the great number of diseases that followed the types of food intake, the subject of food supplement takes priority in most people’s choice for a healthy lifestyle, healthy living and to cherish the great lifestyles one aspires to have. So exactly what are the main reasons to have supplements nowadays? Ironically, now many of us are realizing our foods are not as nutritious as they used to be. Processing, shipping, depleted soils and shelf-life all take their nutritional toll. Additionally, the nutritional disaster of our manufactured foods and the damaging fast foods available readily to all add pressure for the need to adopt supplements.

To the average American, given the foods available, the so-called balanced diet seems to be a myth to them. Despite being told to eat healthily, the billions of dollars being poured into advertisements swayed us to opt for the fat, sugar, and poor nutrient density route. America is now a nation of speed eaters and grazers and elsewhere is catching up on this fad where it is rare to see people sitting down for three decent home-cooked meals with the entire family each day. Most typical would be just a meal a day with the family is achievable and even then, it is consumed on the run or the food eated is over-processed, microwaved “wonder meal” for that matter. The point is most do not now eat raw, wholesome, nutrient-loaded foods of yesteryears.

91 percent of Americans do not adopt the following prescribed diet:-

• 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, and other pasta

• 3-5 servings of vegetables
• 2-4 servings of fruits
• 2-3 servings of milk, yogurt and cheese
• 2-3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs or nuts
• fats, oils and sweets should be sparingly consumed.

This means that this group needs to radically change and add a few supplements to make up a proper standard diet. Notwithstanding the above prescribed diet, one still faces the problem of obtaining sufficient vitamin C for optimal health. Vitamin E for the protection of diseases are impossible to get from our normal diets whilst certain nutrients such as cold water fish oils are not prominent in our daily diets in adequate amounts. Let it be said that the main reason for taking supplement is to add zest to a valued lifestyle and to have it must at least have nutrient intakes up to the Daily Value (DV) standards.

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