Just like training any other body part can improve its performance, so too can training one’s eyes, improve their overall performance.
These eye exercises are specially designed to strengthen and improve your eye muscles, improve their focusing and movements, as well as stimulate the vision center of the brain.
Before trying these exercises check with your doctor to see if they will benefit you.
Directional Eye Exercises
1. Up and Down – Look up and focus on what you see then look down and focus on what you see. Do this 5 times and then pause for a minute and then repeat this 3 more times in total.
2. Left and right – Look to the left and focus on what you see then look to the right and focus on what you see. Do this 5 times and then pause for a minute and then repeat this 3 more times in total.
3. Diagonal vision exercise – Look straight ahead and focus. Look down and focus, to the left and focus. Then move your eyes diagonally and look up and to the right and focus. Do this 5 times and then pause for a minute and then repeat this 3 more times in total.
Up and Down Zig Zag – Look straight ahead and move your eyes up and down in a zig zag motion as illustrated above.
The Figure 8 for Relaxed Eye Movement and Clear Vision
This is an excellent exercise to improve controlling the movement of the eyes.
Imagine a giant figure 8 on the floor, about 3 meters in front of you.
Follow the figure 8 lining with your eyes, slowly.
Trace it one way for a few minutes slowly and then trace it the other way for a few minutes.
Use both figures, horizontal and vertical.
Rolling Your Eyes for Improved Vision
1. Roll your eyes in a circle – Look to the left and slowly roll your eyes in a circle clockwise. Do this 5 times and then pause for a minute and then repeat this 3 more times in total.
2. Roll your Eyes in expanding circles –Follow this image slowly with focus with your eyes. Do this 5 times and then pause for a minute and then repeat this 3 more times in total.
To finish your eye workout, close your eyes or lay/sit in a peaceful pitch black room. This works like a cool down.
Massage your Eyes for Improved Vision
1.Massage your pressure points (as above… number 4 and 5 reflect the side temple areas) – Get into the habit of pressure point massages about twice a day, once during the day and once at night.
Again, first check with your eye doctor to see if these exercises will benefit you.
Not all sugars are created equal, and they’re hidden in most of today’s processed foods. Nutritionist, fitness trainer, and author JJ Virgin has written a new book that helps open your eyes to the way sugars are hidden.
The book also provides practical tips on how to wean yourself from this pernicious ingredient that will decimate your health.
In The Sugar Impact Diet: Drop 7 Sugars to Lose Up to 10 Pounds in Just 2 Weeks, she tackles the confusion surrounding sugar. Many health-conscious people are still under the mistaken belief that as long as the sugar is all-natural, it’s fine to eat.
Not so. Agave, natural fruit juice, raw cane sugar, and any number of other natural sugars will still wreak havoc on your health.
“[S]ugar is really public enemy number one,” she says. “That’s why I chose to focus on it. I don’t think added sugar is really the problem; I think it’s what’s in a lot of our food that we don’t recognize [as sugar].
Whether it’s having apple juice (which is worse for you than a soda), or having a yogurt sweetened with fruit juice concentrate, or whether you’re just thinking that fruits are free for all, these are all creating problems.
I wanted to create a structured program that could help someone break free of those sugar cravings, drop the weight forever, and then let them go back and [do a food] challenge… in order to connect the dots between what happens when they drink one of those big fruit smoothies that are supposed to be so healthy.”
To End Sugar Cravings, Your Body Needs to Burn Fat as Its Primary Fuel
As JJ notes, whether the sugar comes in the form of a muffin, a fruit juice-sweetened yogurt, or a smoothie, it’s all the same thing to your body. “Food is information,” she says. And she’s right.
Once you break free from your body’s constant need for yet another sugar fix (remember, sugar is more addictive than cocaine!), you’ll experience great levels of newfound energy and clarity of mind. But in order to get there, you need to retrain your body to burn fat as its primary form of fuel instead of sugar.
This can be a real challenge for many. JJ’s book specifically addresses the gradual process of getting from burning sugar to burning fat as your body’s primary fuel, in order to maximize your chances for success.
“There’s got to be a transition period, where you go from sugar burner to getting your body to be able to start to burn fat again,” she explains.
“You have to taper down from where your starting point is, which is what I call a Sneaky Sugar Inventory, of things you would never think about (like sundried tomatoes and marinara sauce) that we’re just using like crazy not realizing how much sugar this is actually adding into our food.”
The Sugar Impact Scales: A New Way of Looking at Sugar
As an initial step, you’ll want to weigh yourself and measure your waist-to-hip ratio, to determine your starting point. Next, you do an initial inventory of all the hidden sugars in your diet.
This means reading the labels on all the foods you eat, including items you might never expect to contain sugar, such as that jar of pickles, condiments, sauces, and marinades, and so on. JJ lists all the sneaky places sugars hide in your diet in her book, and by creating what she calls Sugar Impact Scales, she’s created a new way of looking at sugar.
“It looks at fructose grams, glycemic load, nutrient density, and fiber. Bad are fructose and glycemic load; good are nutrient density and fiber,” she explains.
“Depending on where the food falls, it can either be low, medium, or high-sugar impact. The reason this was so important to me is I keep looking at programs out there, and they either focus on fructose… glycemic index, or glycemic load.
That can be very confusing because it makes things like agave sweetener look great. It makes milk look great… People go, ‘We should have fructose because fructose is low on the glycemic index.’
The difference between fructose and glucose is fructose doesn’t trigger the whole insulin response. Because of that, it doesn’t trigger insulin, leptin, or ghrelin, so it doesn’t tell your body you ate anything. Instead, it just goes to the liver. If there’s no room for it to become glycogen… it starts becoming fat.
You look at that and you go, ‘Okay, food is information. What does fructose say?’ It says, ‘Hey, make fat but don’t tell us we ate. Stay hungry.’ What a nightmare!”
So what are the basic symptoms of having high-sugar impact? Gas and bloating are common, as sugar feeds yeast, fungi, and detrimental bacteria in your gut. Other symptoms include joint pain, headaches, fatigue, inability to lose weight or weight loss resistance, and sugar cravings.
By grading yourself on those and other symptoms, while tracking your waist, hip, and weight, you’ll get a clearer picture of how sugar impacts your body, and your progress in terms of retraining your body to burn fat instead of sugar as its primary fuel.
The Three Cycles of the Sugar Impact Diet
The first cycle is a one to two-week long taper cycle, in which you switch from high sugar impact foods to medium sugar impact foods. As an example, if you typically eat regular pasta, you’d switch over to quinoa pasta.
She also recommends scheduling your meals to where you’re not eating every two hours; rather you stretch the time between meals to prevent insulin spikes. This is one form of intermittent fasting. At the end of this taper-down period of one or two weeks, you retest yourself on the sugar impact quiz, to see how you’ve done.
If all is going as planned, you should notice a reduction in your symptoms. At that point, you move on to cycle two, in which you’re really resetting your taste buds and reclaiming your sugar sensitivity, meaning your ability to taste how sweet a food really is.
“What I’m doing is I’m getting rid of all of the fructose. We’re getting down to five grams or less [per day], just as low as possible because you don’t want your body to be good at processing fructose. One thing we know is that the more fructose you eat, the better you get at handling fructose, which means the faster it goes to your liver, the faster you start making fat, and the more fat you make.
If someone’s used to eating fruit, they eat more fruit, they eat more fruit, and they can handle it. If you never eat any fruit, and you ate a bunch of fruit, you’d be bloated, you’d be gassy, and it’d be horrible. I take fruit out altogether except for things like lemons, limes, avocado, tomato, and olives. And we go down to all low-sugar impact foods. But you’re still eating great stuff. You’re eating wild salmon, grass-fed beef, kale, avocado, nuts and seeds, a little quinoa, legumes, and lentils.”
Most people can make the shift from burning sugar to burning fat as primary fuel in this second cycle of the program in a couple of weeks, although it may take longer if you’re seriously insulin/leptin resistant. “The reason it can happen so fast is number one, you’ve got to do that initial one-week [taper] period,” she explains. “Whenever you look at a program, you want to jump right into the most intense part, but you can’t because you’ll fail.”
In the third cycle of the program, you start to challenge yourself by reintroducing some of the medium or even high sugar impact foods. Most people will now find that they’re overwhelmed by the sweetness, or they’ll feel bloated or downright ill by the high-sugar food. As a result, the psychological grip of sweet foods lessen, as you simply do not want to go back to feeling horrible once you’re feeling really great. Interestingly, sour taste, such as that from cultured vegetables, helps to reduce sweet cravings, too.
This is a doubly-beneficial thing, as fermented vegetables also promote gut health. “It’s a sweet tooth strategy,” JJ says. “One of the things that I do in these books is I try to keep it simple and give people simple strategies. But I’m always thinking, “How am I healing their gut with this? How am I improving their gut flora? How are we reducing inflammation?”
Healthy Snack Alternatives
Nuts, which are one of my favorite snack foods, are also great for satisfying the occasional hunger pang. Typically, when I’m at home, I only have one meal a day, a very large salad. But I will snack on nuts, specifically macadamia nuts and occasionally pecans, because of two criteria:
1. They’re very high in fat – the good fat, oleic acid, which is similar to olive oil, and
2. They’re low in protein, so you won’t run the risk of eating a whole day’s worth of protein in a few handfuls of nuts (which could be the case if you eat a lot of almonds)
That said, as JJ warns, be aware of your food triggers, and if you cannot keep a jar of nuts in your house without polishing off the whole thing in one sitting, you just turned a good thing into something bad. While nuts do contain healthy fats, they also tend to be high in calories, so moderation is in order.
“If you know something’s your trigger, don’t bring it into the house. It doesn’t matter if it’s healthy or unhealthy. But I think if you put them into little serving baggies, that’s a perfect way to go with it. I also like that because most people aren’t home all day long, so I say, ‘Put one in your car. Put it in your purse. Put it in your office so that you have them scattered around if you ever get in trouble.’
Another healthy snack that is much harder to overdo is dehydrated kale chips. I’m in the process of planting six dozen kale plants on my property to create a surplus for this very reason. That way I can have kale chips year-round. Roasted Brussels sprouts are another alternative that you can’t really “overdose” on.
Last But Not Least—The Maintenance Phase
It’s quite rare to find someone who’s not burning sugar as their primary fuel these days. To check yourself, simply observe how frequently you feel hungry. If you’re hungry every two hours or so, you’re burning sugar. You’re craving food because sugar is fast burning, and your hunger is an indication that your body wants to be refueled. Once you’re burning fat as your primary fuel, you can easily go five to six hours or longer without feeling hungry, as fat is a far slower-burning fuel. Sugar cravings are also virtually eliminated once you’re burning fat rather than sugar.
Most everyone watching this would benefit from applying a program such as the one JJ has put together. The question is, once you’ve successfully made the switch, how long do you have to continue eating this way? What does maintenance look like?
“The maintenance phase is different from the weight loss phase,” JJ explains. “It’s like dating and marriage. Totally different beasts, right? During the maintenance phase—for weight loss—it’s about setting new goals and doing different fitness activities. The biggest thing that I want someone to do is to connect the dots between what they’re eating and how they feel. It’s to lose that sweet tooth that they had and reclaim their sugar sensitivity so they really say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s how sweet a blueberry really is.’
[In the maintenance phase] you’ve got to mix up your exercise; you’ve got to mix up your food… [F]ood is information. You want your food to tell your body to burn fat not sugar, keep steady energy, great focus, and reduce inflammation. It’s the same with exercise. Exercise can be therapeutic or destructive. I do no endurance training at all. I do not believe in endurance training. I did so much endurance training [when I was younger, yet] I was always slightly overweight. I was never lean.”
JJ recommends high intensity interval-type exercises over endurance training, and for good reason. Endurance training is actually among the least effective forms of exercise when it comes to weight loss, and research has shown that the benefits of high intensity exercise are not necessarily related to calories burned. Rather, it creates beneficial metabolic changes that promote health and muscle growth while boosting fat burning.
These metabolic changes, which include boosting human growth hormone (HGH), do not occur when you’re doing endurance training such as long-distance running.
She’s also a big proponent of exercising in a fasted state, as this actually helps repair, restore, and rejuvenate your muscle tissues. A conflicting approach calls for loading up on carbs and protein before and after exercise, to boost performance and muscle building. So which one should you follow? It may be worth taking JJ’s advice, and experiment to determine what works best for you, depending on your fitness and weight loss goals:
“I kind of play with both of them. Because if you eat a little bit before you work out, you can generally work out harder. If you’re doing resistance training, a lot of times you’re better off having a little bit [of food] before. If you’re doing burst training, ideally here’s what you would do: on burst-training days, do it first thing in the morning. It doesn’t take long anyway. It’s 15 minutes at the most. Ideally, do that a couple of mornings a week, two or three mornings a week. You do your resistance training two times a week, have a little bit of food before; have something really good afterwards, and you’re set.”
More Information
If you’ve tried cutting calories while still eating foods like gluten, pasteurized dairy, and processed fructose, yet failed to lose weight, the problem lies not in insufficient calorie restriction. Rather, you were still eating the wrong foods, albeit in smaller amounts. Once you start viewing food as information, you can begin to appreciate how certain foods, fructose in particular, instructs your body to store fat and not let any of it go…
What you eat makes all the difference, and when it comes to successfully losing weight, a major key is switching your body from burning sugar to burning fat as its primary fuel. In order to do this, you need to cut down on the fructose-laden foods that tell your body to:
-Store the sugar as fat
-Eat more (as fructose doesn’t trigger insulin, leptin, or ghrelin to the same degree as glucose, which means it doesn’t tell your body you just consumed a whole bunch of calories)
Conventional medical wisdom only recognizes the most extreme version of adrenal fatigue known as Addison’s disease. Often connected to a severe autoimmune disease, about 4 out of 100,000 people are diagnosed with Addison’s, making it extremely rare. A more subtle version of the disease called non-Addison’s hypoadrenia, or adrenal fatigue, is not an official medical condition as typical testing methods do not measure low hormonal levels caused from depleted adrenal glands. Thus, when patients experience symptoms related to low adrenal levels and seek treatment, they are often sent home with no diagnosis as or a misdiagnosis resulting in unnecessary pharmaceutical intervention.
However, with holistic health practitioners and an increasing body of Medical Doctors leading the way, more and more health care professionals are acknowledging the existence of adrenal fatigue and the subsequent affects it has on our overall health. Adrenal fatigue
It’s important to remember that the adrenal glands, though less than the size of a walnut, produce some of the most vital compounds in our body. One of the most important compounds produced are the hormones our body uses to adapt to stress. However, when the adrenal glands are over worked or over stressed adrenal fatigue can set in which causes several consequences for our overall health.
10 Symptoms of Adrenal fatigue
Unfortunately, there are no tests that diagnose adrenal fatigue. Diagnosis is made by observing these symptoms.
(1) Feeling tired all the time- You wake up tired, even after what should have been a good night’s sleep. You nap, but never feel like you’ve had enough.
(2) Low libido.
(3) Craving for salty and sweet foods
(4) Dizzy or light headed while getting up quickly from sitting or prone positions.
(5) Increased PMS or menopausal symptoms.
(6) Mood swings that were uncharacteristic earlier in life.
(7) Often spacey, or foggy thinking, even memory loss.
(8) Hormonal imbalance and/or depletion.
(9) Constant muscular tension leading to hypertension and high blood pressure. Inability to relax completely.
(10) Autoimmune issues: constantly catching colds or allergic reactions.
Rebuilding your adrenals
You can feel well again, but it does take time.
If you have adrenal fatigue, you can fully live life again by making the necessary lifestyle and dietary changes to treat your disorder. Here is what you need to do.
Have you ever wondered why after a stressful experience – like getting into a fight with your spouse or hearing that your office is announce massive layoffs, you have a physical reaction like a headache or stomach pain? According to the Huffington Post, this is because “the majority of stressors facing humans were physical (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), requiring, in turn, a physical response.”
Being stressed isn’t a fun experience. On top of the physical symptoms, stress can lead to insomnia, depression and a decrease in work production, with serious implications for your personal and professional life.
Being entrepreneurs, we get stressed all the time. I get stressed at everything from traffic on the way to work to my current hosting startup on the brink of disaster! Believe me, this is something we all have to deal with from time to time. To avoid letting stress consume your life, here are 11 tips that I use to kick stress to the curb.
1. Identify triggers.
Melissa Eisler states on the Chopra Center website that “Recognizing the triggers to your stressful reactions is an important first step in managing your stress.” She suggests you can discover these triggers by asking obvious questions like “What stresses you out? And how do you react to it?”
After figuring out what exactly is working you up, you can create a list of your top triggers and then work on eliminating them if possible, or at least changing your reactions.
2. Be healthy.
It’s been proven time and time again that one of the best ways to relieve stress is by being healthy. Whether it’s going for a walk, taking a yoga class, staying away from treats like doughnuts and getting a good night’s rest, taking care of your body is one of the most common and effective ways to reduce stress in your life.
I find that when I’m healthiest in my life, I have the least amount of stress.
3. Get organized.
Whether it’s in the home or at the workplace, disorganization is one of the most common stress triggers. After all, it’s frustrating when you can never find that one thing you’re looking for. That’s why you should not only straighten up your home or office, but develop a system to keep it organized. Woman’s Day has 100 Organizing Tips that you should check out.
4. Stop procrastinating.
The Association for Psychological Science states that “people who procrastinate have higher levels of stress and lower well-being.” To help you get out of this harmful trip, Leo Babauta suggests you create a Do It Now (DIFN) habit. Do your most important task first or only work on a challenging project for 10-minutes.
5. Turn off your phone.
Richard Balding, a psychologist in the department of psychology at the University of Worcester, England discovered that smartphones can lead to stress. Why? Because they have created “a relentless need to immediately review and respond to each and every incoming message, alert, or bing.”
While you can’t keep the phone off 24/7, you should have certain times planned throughout the day to keep the phone off for a little piece of mind.
6. Do something that makes you happy.
Between all of your obligations and responsibilities, you may think you no longer have time for the hobbies that used to make you happy. To reduce the stress in your life, make the time to do something pleasurable. It could be something as simple as enjoying your favorite show, taking a nap, going to the movies, talking to a friend, listening to your favorite music, or planning a vacation to your favorite destination.
7. Stop filling up the calendar.
Commitments never end. Between work, your family, social activities and civic duties, you have a full schedule. This becomes a problem when commitments conflict with each other or begin to overrun your life.
If you edit your list of commitments, you will likely notice you suddenly do have some much needed free time, which will help destress your life. We all have the same 24 hours in each day – what are you filling your hours with?
8. Accept people for who they are.
Is there anything more frustrating than a coworker who chews with their mouth open or the spouse who never washes dishes or the neighbor who blasts their music too loudly? No matter how much the people closest in your life add to your stress level, you have to accept them for who they are.
Daylle Deanna Schwartz, recommends on the Huffington Post that you use Reality Training, which “means recognizing that if you want to be happy, you need to accept people as they are and find ways to deal with how they are, or don’t.”
9. Be grateful.
Research from renowned psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough discovered “Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism, and lower levels of depression and stress.”
Mark Williams and Danny Penman authors of “Mindfulness: An Eight Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World,” suggested on CNN that you perform a 10-finger gratitude exercise everyday. This simply means thinking of 10 things you’re grateful for.
10. Avoid multitasking.
We’re all extremely busy, which is why multitasking seems like a great idea on paper, but actually only adds to our already stressful lives. According to David Meyer, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan (via Chris Woolston, MS on HealthDay) “ juggling tasks can be very stressful. In the short-term, stress makes you feel lousy. In the long-term, it can become a serious threat to health.”
If you need assistance with avoiding multitasking, check out these tips from Zen Habits.
11. Pucker up.
WebMD cites a study led by Laura Berman, Ph.D., assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and ob-gyn at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, which studied 2,000 couples. The study discovered that couples who only kiss during lovemaking are “eight times more likely to report suffering from stress and depression than those who frequently kiss on the spur of the moment.”
Dr. Berman states: “Kissing relieves stress by creating a sense of connectedness, which releases endorphins, the chemicals that counteract stress and depression.”
Besides making you happier, lowering your stress level has proven medical benefits. So, grab your favorite book, pucker up, be grateful for what you have, and stop over scheduling yourself. Taking just a few of these steps will lead to a happier, healthier you.
Ever get off of work or just have a day where you have been very busy? Chances are you’re going to have some pain in your back, hip or knees, here are some ways to help!
Your feet are a big contributor to your different body parts. Every day you get up and walk, or stand. Standing or walking can lead to other body parts aching like your knee, back and neck. In fact, 19% of the U.S. population has an average of 1.4-foot problems each year. The pains though could be the type of floor you are walking on, the shoes on your feet or foot problems. Thankfully there are ways to exercise your feet and help the pains in your body
Here are the 4 exercises that will help you feel better!
1. Toe Press– As you know, it is very important to warm up before any exercise. So it only makes sense to warm up your feet before exercising. Toe presses are a great way to warm up, and they are so simple. Here is what you do: Stand tall and bend slightly in the knees. Next grip the floor with your toes and hold for 3 seconds. Release and perform a set of 10, 3 times a day.
2. Ankle Circles– If your ankles are tight you may be experiencing back, hip and knee pain. It can also cause the rest of the body to result in muscle and joint pain. To do the ankle circles, put your back to the floor and extend one leg over your head. Rotate the extended leg’s ankle clockwise for 10 counts. Then switch legs, perform 10 sets of ankle circles.
3. Toe Walking– This next exercise should be done twice a day for the best results. Toe walking strengthens the muscles in your toes as well as ligaments and muscles. To do this exercise all you have to do is stand on your tiptoes and walk forward for 20 seconds. Always rest 15-20 seconds in between each walk.
4. Toe Pencil Pickups– For this last exercise you pick up a pencil with your toes. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is simple! Stand in front of the pencil you are picking up. Use your toes to grab the pencil and lift it off of the ground. Hold for 10 seconds and then drop it, repeat 5 times for each foot.
The exercises should only take 15 minutes or less. They also should make you feel better afterwards! For best results perform these exercises every 2-3 days!
We have all heard of antioxidants, but have we heard of the mother of all antioxidants? One that is the secret to prevent cancer, heart disease, aging, neurological issues and more? This single antioxidant has been studied in great depth yet most of us know nothing about it and many doctors have no idea how to address the epidemic of its deficiency in humans.
We are of course talking about Glutathione (pronounced “gloota-thigh-own.”) This is a powerful detoxifier and immune booster and is crucial to a healthy life. Although the body does make some of its own Glutathione, poor food quality, pollution, toxic environments, stress, infections and radiation are all depleting out bodies glutathione.
What is Glutathione?
Glutathione is a simple molecule produced naturally in the body at all times. It’s a combination of three building blocks of protein or amino acids — cysteine, glycine and glutamine.
The best part of glutathione is that is contains sulfur chemical groups that work to trap all the bad things like free radicals and toxins such as mercury and heavy metals in our body then flush them out. This is especially important in our current world of heavy metal bombardment.
Where Can You Get Glutathione?
The body makes it, but it’s often not enough in our strenuous environment. Here are some food sources that either contain glutathione or its precursors to help the body produce more.
Notice they are all healthy foods we often don’t get enough of? This is another big issue with our diets. We consume a lot of junk, meat, dairy and processed foods, items that clinically have been proven to be the number one causes of heart disease and illness yet we consume them in huge quantities. The key is to limit these and eat a lot of fresh, lively foods that provide nutrients and don’t ask the body to perform a mega job to digest.
You can also increase your exercise as glutathione production increases when you exercise. Breathing and sweating are also great ways to get rid of toxins in the body.
Glutathione Protects Against Chronic Illness
What makes glutathione so important and powerful is that it recycles antioxidants. When your body is dealing with free radicals, it is essentially passing them from one molecule to another. They might go from vitamin C to vitamin E to lipoic acid and then to glutathione where they are cooled off. Antioxidants are recycled at this point and the body can now regenerate another glutathione molecule to go back at it again.
Glutathione is crucial for helping your immune system fight chronic illness as it acts as the carrier of toxins out of your body. Like a fly trap, toxins stick to glutathione and they are carried to the bile into the stools and out of the body. Glutathione is also powerful enough that it has been shown to help in the treatment of AIDS greatly. The body is going to get in touch with oxidants and toxins, the more we can deal with those the better our body will be at staying strong, this is why glutathione is so important.
9 Final Tips
Dr. Mark Hyman has given 9 tips to increase your Glutathione levels. Check them out!
1. Consume sulfur-rich foods. The main ones in the diet are garlic, onions and the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, collards, cabbage, cauliflower, watercress, etc.).
2. Try bioactive whey protein. This is great source of cysteine and the amino acid building blocks for glutathione synthesis. As you know, I am not a big fan of dairy, but this is an exception — with a few warnings. The whey protein MUST be bioactive and made from non-denatured proteins (“denaturing” refers to the breakdown of the normal protein structure). Choose non-pasteurized and non-industrially produced milk that contains no pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics. Immunocal is a prescription bioactive non-denatured whey protein that is even listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference.
3. Exercise boosts your glutathione levels and thereby helps boost your immune system, improve detoxification and enhance your body’s own antioxidant defenses. Start slow and build up to 30 minutes a day of vigorous aerobic exercise like walking or jogging, or play various sports. Strength training for 20 minutes 3 times a week is also helpful.
One would think it would be easy just to take glutathione as a pill, but the body digests protein — so you wouldn’t get the benefits if you did it this way. However, the production and recycling of glutathione in the body requires many different nutrients and you CAN take these. Here are the main supplements that need to be taken consistently to boost glutathione. Besides taking a multivitamin and fish oil, supporting my glutathione levels with these supplements is the most important thing I do every day for my personal health.
4. N-acetyl-cysteine. This has been used for years to help treat asthma and lung disease and to treat people with life-threatening liver failure from Tylenol overdose. In fact, I first learned about it in medical school while working in the emergency room. It is even given to prevent kidney damage from dyes used during x-ray studies.
5. Alpha lipoic acid. This is a close second to glutathione in importance in our cells and is involved in energy production, blood sugar control, brain health and detoxification. The body usually makes it, but given all the stresses we are under, we often become depleted.
6. Methylation nutrients (folate and vitamins B6 and B12). These are perhaps the most critical to keep the body producing glutathione. Methylation and the production and recycling of glutathione are the two most important biochemical functions in your body. Take folate (especially in the active form of 5 methyltetrahydrofolate), B6 (in active form of P5P) and B12 (in the active form of methylcobalamin).
7. Selenium. This important mineral helps the body recycle and produce more glutathione.
8. A family of antioxidants including vitamins C and E (in the form of mixed tocopherols), work together to recycle glutathione.
9. Milk thistle (silymarin) has long been used in liver disease and helps boost glutathione levels.
If you’re dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome, these exercises will help you maintain finger and joint flexibility. This simple workout will only take a few minutes, so why not try it?
Step 1
Use both hands to make fists, hold them tightly for about ten seconds. After doing so open your palms quickly and spread apart your fingers. Do this ten times in a row.
Step 2
Turn your wrists in a clockwise motion, so this about ten times with both wrists.
Step 3
Make clockwise motions with your thumbs next, ten times as before.
Step 4
Lifting your palm above your head Simply let it free-fall flick your wrists down and then the rest of your hand should come with it. Do this one about 20 times as it works out your whole hand instead of focusing on one particular part.
Step 5
Place your hands together and press them tightly against each other. Be sure to keep your elbows shoulder height, as if doing a meditation pose. Clench your fingers and separate the palms. In doing so gradually increase the distance between the joints in your fingers. Be sure to leave them clenched throughout the whole process though. Once finished return your palms to their original position and repeat this process at least ten times as well.
This simple workout will have your circulation improved dramatically and will even reduce swelling. This should be done quite a few times a day after hard labor or while sitting in front of your computer. Continually using your hands can wear them out it is best to make sure they stay strong as well as the rest of your body.
The arteries handle pumping blood throughout the body, but after a while they can become clogged from lifestyle and diet.You can prevent or even unclog your arteries by changing your unhealthy ways.
Cardiovascular disease is caused by a buildup of plaque that leads to a gradual clogging of arteries. This is the number one killer in the world; an average 2,000 Americans die from cardiovascular disease every day. High rates like these make cardiovascular health one of the most important body system that you need to maintain and repair.
Having progressive clogging of the arteries is caused by diet, genetics and a sedentary lifestyle. It is not impossible to treat this condition; there are natural ways that you can treat this condition. These foods will help unclog the arteries.
1. Garlic: Garlic protects cardiovascular health and helps treat viruses, infections and even cancer. Scientists say that consuming 4,000 mcg of allicin can lower cholesterol, decrease diastolic and systolic blood pressure, and prevent blood clots from forming.
2. Pomegranate: This fruit cleans the arteries from plaque and stimulates the production of nitric oxide in the blood, this will open the arteries and reduce blood pressure.
3. Turmeric: curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, is efficient in the reduction of fatty deposits in the arteries by 26 percent.
4. Chia seeds: the fiber content and alpha-linoleic acid that is contained in chia seeds regulates blood pressure, lower triglycerides and regulates cholesterol by increasing good and decreasing bad cholesterol.
5. Cinnamon: When cinnamon is consumed wisely, it has amazing benefits. Take a tbsp. Of cinnamon per day and it will reduce cholesterol levels, and you will get plenty of antioxidants.
6. Apples: Apples contain pectin that lower cholesterol and slows the progression of artery clogging.
7. Tomatoes: Carotenoid lycopene is an antioxidant that is contained in tomatoes. This antioxidant reduces the oxidation of bad cholesterol which causes atherosclerosis.
8. Broccoli contain vitamin K that helps to prevent calcification or hardening of the arteries. Eating broccoli prevents oxidation of LDL cholesterol which can lead to heart conditions.
9. Coconut oil: Consuming coconut oil regularly can help reduce plaque buildup in the arteries by aiding in the conversion of cholesterol in the blood stream into a form the body can use. This high concentration of medium chain triglyceride, the lauric acid present in coconut oil is thought to improve blood coagulation and perform antioxidant functions in the blood stream.
You know it. I know it. We all know research supports it: Healthy people think, adapt and perform better.
That goes for both in and out of the office.
Here, four key areas — eating smarter, moving more, sleeping soundly and thinking clearly — that, when improved upon, enable you to be able to perform at your best.
Food is the most potent medicine we have. High quality, nutrient-dense foods are the optimal fuel for our brains and bodies and help to prevent and treat just about every chronic disease out there.
1. Hydrate. Sixty percent of your body weight and almost 90 percent of your brain is made up of water. Water helps you concentrate, problem solve and remember. It keeps your muscles and joints functioning. And it gives you energy. Sluggish in the afternoons? Drink more water. Pretty much all of us need more.
2. Optimize your H=N/C ratio. This means health = nutrients per calories consumed. Your goal should be to eat nutrient-dense foods while avoiding calorie-dense foods. Muffins and bagels? Nutrient poor and calorie dense. Fish and vegetables? Nutrient rich and calorie suitable. Memorize this formula.
3. Eat healthy proteins. It’s a great idea to eat protein at every meal. That low-nutrient, high-carb breakfast of toast and orange juice will lead to an energy crash. High protein foods can help you to maintain better attention, concentration and focus. Healthy proteins arrive in their most basic forms – not processed or battered. Try eggs, fish, chicken, pork, quinoa or chickpeas.
Move more
Moving your body fights inflammation, metabolic syndrome, cancer, heart disease and ageing. It builds bone density. It evens out your emotional ups and downs. But most importantly for business people, it sharpens your mental abilities.
1. Get fast. Add some speed training to a regular fitness routine. You’ll develop your endurance and your strength at the same time. Vary the pace of your workouts: mix short intervals of higher effort with longer, slower and easier periods.
3. Move strategically. Exercise has been shown to improve mental performance — specifically what’s known as executive function, which includes memory, reasoning, problem solving and planning. Add 15 minutes of activity before your most important mental task of the day.
Sleeping well helps prevent disease, slows aging and boosts thinking and creativity.
1. Save your coffee for the morning. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that stays in your system for about six hours or longer. Avoid foods or drinks with caffeine for eight hours before your bedtime. That coffee after dinner is just not a good idea.
2. Calm your body, calm your mind. Our hectic lives mean we often come home from work fired up and still revved at bedtime. Create a calm ritual to help lower the cortisol in your body. Make a to-do list and put it aside, stop checking email by 8 p.m. and read a book that helps to give your mind a break.
3. Your bedroom is for sleeping, not for screens. Speaking of not checking your email, get rid of the TV in your bedroom. Keep your room dark and turn off the screens, as the light emitted stimulates your brain rather than calms you down.
Think clearly
For athletes, thinking clearly is all about getting into the Ideal Performance State. You know what it’s like: You’re performing at your absolute best, the effort feels minimal and time is flying by. You’re completely absorbed and producing great things. You’re in a state of flow — also known as The Zone. These moments don’t have to be rare or random. You can learn to get into your performance zone every day with some practice.
1. Use self-talk. Set your intentions for the day by telling yourself what actions you’ll take to improve your performance. Use positive language that reminds you of how capable and committed you are. Your intentions create your reality. So talk to yourself about them.
2. Create more energy and less tension. You can multiply your effort without tightening up mentally or physically. Tension is going to block your way into your zone. Boost your energy output but don’t go harder — go faster. Increase attention and relax at the same time.
3. Learn how to focus. Focus is not possible when our minds are jumping all over the place. We need to clear out internal distractions and then tackle the external ones too, like email and social media. Don’t kid yourself that you can multi-task. Being in the zone requires a single focus. The task you’re working on gets all of your attention.
When you seek to do your very best at something, you’ll begin a wonderful process that will lead to you growing, learning, improving and achieving. By focusing on performance you will, as a nice side benefit, also improve your health. And when you have both high-performance and health, you’ll have the opportunity to craft a world-class life where you can achieve your dreams.
