General Articles

There is plenty of finger-pointing when it comes to what people eat. There is very little said about muscle strength. The fact is muscle strength combats aging. Science is discovering the unique health benefits to being fit. From diabetes management, cancer risk reduction,  cardiovascular health, and cognitive abilities exercise offers a multitude of benefits.

There is a harmonic relationship between muscle power and health. Muscle strength makes life a whole lot easier. As one gets older and slower, the size and strength of the muscles are the deciding factor in the rate of decline in aging. Muscle volume supports your daily activities. To have stronger muscles means that size is important. You need enough to support daily activity, and slow down age related changes.

Physical Performance

Physical performance is dependent on muscle strength. Muscles are a necessary tool for being able to engage in daily activity. The first through people have at times: is it worth the sweat to maintain a high level of strength. This isn’t about flexing or building hard as rocks muscles. This is about unleashing enough strength to make life easier, and not miss out on the senior years.

Age-defying looks and vitality depend on muscle power. There are many concrete ways to build muscles at any age. The sooner you make this a daily goal the better. What build muscles are the same things that keep you fit and active.

The way to stay fit is to feel the clay of the tennis court against your feet, or the grass on a golf course. Taking up running, jogging or walking, or just getting your feet wet jumping into the pool for a swim.

To really outsmart father time means to take steps to ensure you reach the goal of maximizing your performance. This means anything from yoga to strength training. There is nothing like working out to meet your goal using anything from aerobics to Pilates.

 Repetitions

Working our isn’t what you did last week, last month, or last year it is what you are doing currently. Small daily goals become the motivation for more movement.

Hitting the gym is the best way to perfect all sport performances. What may seem like monotony becomes an inspiration as you develop a passion for fitness. What you hear from most people is a mixed message: they know they should workout, but they don’t like the work involved. When you are feeling really good you want to be moving and not sit glued to the couch. Any workout that you enjoy, from the Asian healing arts to the modern day Zumba classes will optimize your health. 

Fuel Sources

Exercise takes endurance, and to most fitness experts’ food is part and parcel of training. Foods need to provide an energy boost, and a means to a fast recovery. In real life the only thing that provides energy is good nutritional practices.

Recommendations run far and wide. Every whole food has its place from organic superfoods to good enzymes. Amino acids are important as are all vitamins and minerals. Good sources of protein work well. There are vegetarian athletes who have learned what works for them. The most important factor is to be aware of what you put into your body. Sugar along with processed foods will not supply your body with sustainable energy.

Everyone deserves a body that is trim and fit. There are limitless possibilities to make your body into a fine tuned instrument. Small steps will pay off big time in helping you unleash the power you already have. Exercise is an investment in the future, which can make prime time anytime, from youth to the senior years.

Calorie counting is destructive. The initial goal should be to get strong and fit. Counting calories can make many dieters weak. Being hungry all the time is counter productive.

Calorie control equals weight management to most people, and even the medical experts think this is true. What calories really do is different from the hype. When the weight loss industry capitalizes on the proven benefits of cutting calories, what they are doing is promoting a way to utilize diet in an unhealthy way.

Caveman Diet

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (USCF) say their research has shown people on a high protein diet combined with plenty of vegetables show dramatic health improvements. These include weight loss, and lower blood pressure. What they are talking about is a diet that is considered similar to the “Hunters Gathers” or caveman diet.

Dr. Tim White a paleobiologist from the University of California Berkley said: “Our Biology is still basically the same biology that we had as hunters and gathers 100,000 years ago in Africa.” Dr. White said the constant physical activity that the cavemen had to undertake to hunt and find food kept them fit, lean, muscular and active. Their diet consisted of large amounts of lean meat, and vegetables.

Robert Lustig, MD. an endocrinologist at UCSF, said that people on the diet have experienced a regression of their diabetes as a result, to the point they are effectively cured.

Dr. Kim Mulvihill, a reporter from CBS tried the diet herself and doctors recommended she should stay on the diet permanently. Her cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels dropped dramatically over a few weeks. After seven weeks she was no longer pre-diabetic, and by combining the so called paleo diet with a weight loss program she lost thirty pounds.

Fish

Another article talked about people who eat fish as their primary source of animal protein. They reported lower glucose concentrations with a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Researchers at the University of Valencia reported in the journal Nutricion Hospitalaria that there are benefits from a Mediterranean diet high in fish consumption. This study showed the benefits of the omega 3’s in fish. Omega 3 from fish and grass fed meat controls inflammation. Micronutrients from both vegetables and fruits also, turn off inflammation.

Inflammation

There are a good number of studies that show weight gain may be linked to chronic inflammation. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition researches looked at nine years of data tracking 1,222 adults and found that weight gain was associated with an increase in chronic inflammation. This may be why weight gain is associated with heart disease and cancer. Both these conditions are associated with chronic inflammation.

Counting calories is counter productive, especially when you buy 100 calorie packs of pure carbohydrates in the form of crackers of cookies. The only weapon against obesity is whole foods diet with all the omega 3 fatty acids and nutrients your body need.

A diet based on vegetables, and fruit with some high quality protein is better than a calorie restricted diet for weight management. A nation that has embraced calorie counting as a way to control weight is deluding itself into thinking that saving calories can repair the damage done by faux foods. By changing your goal from weight, to having more energy by becoming healthier your will achieve a consistent weight.

Cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease, but it does bankroll an industry. The pharmaceutical industry isn’t giving it to you straight. The public knows what they report, they just don’t know the truth.

They make bold statements designed for the sole purpose of introducing their cholesterol lowering formula. They may create products that win market share, but do nothing to lower the incident of heart disease. They have produced conflicting reports to explain why the drugs lowers risks. There drugs aren’t effective for two reasons: one they target cholesterol, two the side effects are dangerous.

The basics of what cholesterol is and what it does. Cholesterol is multifunctional and protects us in many ways. Cholesterol establishes proper cell membrane permeability and fluidity. This is essential for determining which molecules can pass into the cell and which can not. Cholesterol plays a part in the production of sex hormones. These consists of androgen and estrogen. It is involved in the production of hormones released by the adrenal glands such as: cortisol, corticosterone, aldosterone, and some others.

Cholesterol is important dfor the manufacturing of bile acids, and converts sunshine to vitam D. It is important for the metabolism of fat soluble vitamins, such as vitamins A, D, D, and K. Cholesterol insulates nerve fibers.

We have been conditioned by an industry without a conscience to look at cholesterol as a toxic substance. Cholesterol is produced by the liver to help the body function. Cholesterol is carried by lipoproteins, which is molecule complex or compound containing both lipid (fat) and protein. The three main types are LDL |(low density lipoproteins). HDL (high density lipoprotein) and triglycerides.

The LDL carries cholesterol from the liver to the cells. If too much is carried to the cells to use, the LDL could build up. We on average have about 70% LDL floating around. The liver manufactures and secretes LDL. The liver also removes LDL from the blood by active LDL receptors on the cells surface.

HDL carries the cholesterol away from the cells back to the liver, where it is broken down of expelled as waste.

Triglycerides are the chemical forms in which most fat exists in the body as well as food. Triglycerides in plasma originates from fats in our food, or are created by carbohydrates. Calories we consume which aren’t used right away are converted into triglycerides and stored in fat cells. This is there for when your body needs energy and there insn’t any food around for this purpose, triglycerides will be released from the fat cells to be used as energy.

So far you can see how this relates to heart disease. The lethal effect of cholesterol comes from the minds of the bureaucratic health care system “experts.” The prime cause of heart disease is inflammation. Cholesterol is there to put out the fire. Blaming cholesterol for heart is like seeing firemen near every fire, and thinking where you see a fireman there will be a fire.

The investigation of cholesterol as a prime suspect in plaque build up led to the wrong conclusions. The test used to measure cholesterol are appealing because they are easy and cheap to give. There is a cloud hanging over the tests.

There are four types of LDL particles, one is a big fluffy form known as large LDL, and three increasingly dense forms know as medium, small and very small LDL particles.  A diet in saturated fat boosts the number of large LDL particles. Where as a diet of low -fat high carbohydrates boosts the smaller forms. The big, fluffy particles are mostly benign (not causing problems), while the smaller ones can become a problem.

The smaller ones are there to fills in the artery cracks and tears, which come from long term inflammation. One of the causes of inflammation is a high carbohydrate low fat diet. It is the smaller particles that will build up plaque while trying to heal the damaged tissue.

The cholesterol theory doesn’t make sense in this context. Where it makes cents is in a $14 billion dollar cholesterol lowering medication. Recently a panel of “experts” urged that every child between the ages of 8 and 11 be tested for high cholesterol. Cholesterol testing is based on poor science, and great marketing.