The One Nutrient You Must Have To Stay Healthy

by: Brad Bahr

Even if you eat right and take a vitamin and mineral  supplement you most likely are still deficient in omega 3  fatty acids. Most people just don't get enough of this vital  nutrient in their diet.  Here are just some of the many benefits you can get from  taking an omega 3 supplement such as fish oil.  Fish oil prevents second heart attacks better than any drug  it was tested against!  Fish oil is probably the best "medicine " available to  prevent sudden cardiac death!  Fish oil works better then aspirin as a blood thinner.  Fish oil has been used effectively in the treatment of  Alzheimer's Disease.  Fish oil improves memory, I.Q. and helps obliterate age  related memory lapses.  Fish oil helps people with multiple sclerosis.  Fish oil plays a key role in brain development.  Fish oil lowers blood pressure.  Fish oil reduces the incidence of stroke caused by clotting  of brain blood vessels!  Fish oil lowers triglycerides and raises good HDL  cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart disease.  Fish oil is a very potent anti-oxidant and one of the few  that cross the blood-brain barrier.  Fish oil improves personality, mood, and mental disorders!  Fish oil is a potent natural anti-depressant!  Fish oil improves the health of cartilage and joints!  Fish oil improves the ratio of testosterone to its  metabolite, DHT, and in studies was shown to be useful in  treating prostate, breast and colon cancers.  Fish oil improves hormone levels and improves the health  of your joints. It's great for athletes, helping to speed  recovery time from hard workouts!  Fish oil balances hormonal levels in the body.  Fish oil reduces inflammation in the lungs and can be used  to treat allergies, asthma and excema.  If you do decide to try a fish oil supplement, make sure it  is Pharmaceutical Grade. Don't just take the cheap stuff at  the local drug store. Pharmaceutical Grade fish oil has all  the bad things like mercury and PCBs taken out.  To find good quality fish oil, go to your favorite search  engine and search for "pharmaceutical grade fish oil".  About the author: About the author: Brad Bahr is the author of many health  related articles and websites. He has been testing and  reviewing health supplements for many years. Try his new  health article search engine at http://www.findustuff.com where you can browse and search by keyword over 6,000  interesting health related articles.

The Importance of An Active Lifestyle

by: Ron swerdfiger

Over the past 15 years or so, we have been told that a healthy lifestyle is important. Scientists recommend we should be accumulating on average 60 minutes of exercises a day in order to maintain healthy levels. What exactly does that number mean? Over the course of a regular day, we should be doing some sort of physical activity that adds up to approximately 60 minutes. Whether it is in the gym on the treadmill or just in the garden for the afternoon, adding physical activity is vital.  First we need to know what actually constitutes exercise. The term Healthy activity can be broken down in to three categories; Cardiovascular, Resistance, and Flexibility.  Cardiovascular training  It is recommended to do cardio 2 or 3 times a week. Depending on your fitness level., cardio can consist of a nice walk with your dog, or a vigorous run on the treadmill. Ideally you are trying to increase your cardio capacity. which has many health benefits.  Resistance Training  Part of living an active lifestyle is by doing some sort of resistance training at least 2 times a week. That doesn’t mean you have to go to the gym and lift weights, you can easily do it at home by doing movements as simple as pushup and sit-ups, or by using something like resistance bands. Resistance training is just as important as cardiovascular activity and adds to your overall physical health.  Flexibility (stretching)  After you exercise, it is recommended you stretch for roughly 10 minutes, holding each stretch for 15-30 seconds. Stretching is crucial to maintain flexibility and reduce the chance of injury from exercise.  Benefits of Exercise  So now we know that working out is important, but what are the actually benefits of living an active lifestyle? Below are just 5 of the countless benefits of being active.  Reduces the Risk of Dying Prematurely - Those living a healthy active lifestyle live longer compared those who are more sedentary.  Lowers the risk of developing diabetes - Exercise keeps body fat in control and helps regulate sugar levels  Increase muscular strength - Having an increase in strength helps make daily activities less difficult.  Helps reduce the risk of heart disease - Regular exercise strengthens the heart, respiratory system, and lungs which aids to reduce the risk of heart disease.  Decreases Body Fat - Exercise along with a balanced diet will reduce body fat significantly.  As you can see there are many excellent benefits of living an active lifestyle. By adding a small amount of cardio, resistance training and some stretching to your daily routine, the overall benefits are almost endless. Essentially being healthy is about adding balance to your life. You don’t have to be a Lance Armstrong, or a Venus Williams to be considered active, you just have to add some extra activities to you routine.  About the author: For more great info on athletics visit the womens sports forum a Community to discuss women's sports and chat about female athletes. or check out rons article blog

The History And Usefulness Of Coenzyme Q10

by: Greg Post

Throughout my childhood I was aware of the importance of eating well and taking my vitamins. But the science of dietary supplements has come a long way since those days. And one of the stars in this scientific progression is Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). CoQ10 is not a drug. It is a vitamin-like substance that is found in small amounts in a variety of foods and is synthesized within our body tissues.  Enzymes are compounds in the body that are absolutely essential for the many processes necessary to keep us alive and our bodies functioning properly. Mitochondrial enzymes are those particular enzymes that are essential for the production of the high-energy phosphate ATP (adenosine triphosphate) upon which all cellular function depends. Without it our bodies shut down at the cellular level. Coenzyme Q10 is the cofactor upon which at least three mitochondrial enzymes depend. By logical inference then ATP functioning depends upon CoQ10. In short, all human cellular function depends on ATP. And ATP function depends on CoQ10.  As was already said, the production of CoQ10 occurs within our body tissues. Its biosynthesis from the amino acid tyrosine is a complex multistage process requiring several vitamins and trace elements. Under normal conditions we produce all we need while we are young. But there are many factors that can contribute to CoQ10 deficiency. Among these are aging, disease, dietary deficiency, use of statin drugs and increasing tissue demands. Before we get to CoQ10 deficiencies, however, it is well to look at the history of CoQ10 research.  History  CoQ10 was first isolated by Dr. Frederick Crane in 1957 from the mitochondria of beef heart. During that same year Professor Morton, from Britain, also discovered CoQ10 in the livers of vitamin A deficient rats. During the following year researchers at Merck, Inc. determined its chemical structure and became the first to produce it.  It was neither the British nor the Americans that first found a practical use for the CoQ compounds. Professor Yamamura from Japan first used a related compound (CoQ7) in the treatment of congestive heart failure. Other practical uses then followed. CoQ6 was used as an effective antioxidant in the mid 1960s. In 1972 (in Italy) deficiency of CoQ10 was linked to heart disease. The Japanese, however, were the first to perfect the technology necessary to produce CoQ10 in sizeable enough quantities to make large clinical trials a reality.  After Peter Mitchell won the Nobel Prize in 1978 for defining the biological energy transfer that occurs at the cellular level (for which CoQ10 is essential) there was a considerable increase in the number of clinical studies performed in relation to CoQ10 usefulness. This was due in part to the large amounts of pharmaceutical grade CoQ10 that was now available from Japan and the ability to measure CoQ10 in blood and body tissues. CoQ10 since has become known for its importance as a powerful antioxidant and free radical scavenger and as a treatment in many chronic illnesses, especially heart disease.  Coenzyme Q10 Deficiency  The usefulness of CoQ10 as a medical treatment has largely been approached from the perspective that when a chronic disease is present (especially in the case of heart disease) CoQ10 is often grossly deficient. For example, a person suffering from congestive heart failure often demonstrates extreme CoQ10 deficiency. Normal blood and tissue levels of CoQ10 have been well established. Significantly low levels of CoQ10 have been linked to a vast variety of diseases in both animal and human studies.  But if CoQ10 is biosynthesized in our bodies why do we often suffer from deficiency? There are at least three causes. The first is an insufficient diet. Dietary intake of CoQ10 is an important factor in total blood and tissue levels of the compound. If we do not consume enough of the foods that contain CoQ10 then the body must make up the difference. Further, the biosynthesis of Coenzyme Q10 is a complex 17-step process involving a whole string of B vitamins, vitamin C and pantothenic acid. Diets deficient in these compounds make CoQ10 synthesis impossible. This is not the place to discuss the condition of the average diet and the vitamin deficient nature of many of our food sources. Suffice it to say that most of us do not get nearly enough CoQ10 or the other vitamins necessary for optimal synthesis.  The second cause of deficiency is linked to the first, and that is impairment of CoQ10 biosynthesis. In addition to inadequate intakes of the compounds necessary to make CoQ10 there are other biological reasons for inadequate production of it. These might include physiological conditions and chronic diseases that cause failure in production. The treatments of diseases can also be a factor. For instance the use of statins to control cholesterol levels has been implicated in the depletion of CoQ10 levels. The catch-22 is, in treating heart disease we use drugs that deplete natural compounds that in turn are necessary to fight heart disease.  The third cause of CoQ10 deficiency is excessive use of the compound by the body. This again can be related to medications, aging or other causes such as excessive exertion, hypermetabolism, and acute shock states.  The real cause of CoQ10 deficiency is usually a combination of these three influences. It is likely that the average CoQ10 levels which have been observed in humans are suboptimal. In other words, the normal levels of CoQ10 that have become the standard for comparisons are very likely less than optimal. That would mean that the extremely low levels observed in connection with chronic diseases are just the worse case scenarios and that other less serious maladies are connected with lesser levels of deficiency.  If this sounds too much like laboratory theory, it isn’t. Patients who suffer from chronic diseases and also demonstrate extreme low levels of CoQ10 are not laboratory specimens. They are people who, in many cases, have been greatly helped by CoQ10 supplementation. If chronic disease is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to CoQ10 deficiency one is forced to wonder what better diets and CoQ10 supplementing could do for the eradication of diseases and other chronic conditions.  About the author: Greg holds degrees in science, divinity and philosophy and is currently an I.T. developer.  http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/coq10.html

The Fuel Of Stress, Anxiety and Depression

by: Chris Green

In the 21st Century, it is predicted that stress and stress related illnesses such as depression and anxiety will become the biggest killers. Despite significant advances in housing, standards of living, quality of food, and medical science, the pressures all of us have to face in today’s world are as demanding as any pressures experienced by our predecessors.  Why are these illnesses on the rise? And why do some people become so ill through these illnesses, they can find it hard to function?  Well they sure don’t happen overnight! You don’t suddenly wake up one morning and feel stressed or depressed. It’s not like flicking on a light switch! And by the same rule, if you’re suffering, you can’t just wake up one morning, flick off the switch and say “Great, I’m better now.”  Many people who don’t suffer from these illnesses often say to sufferers:  “Come on, snap out of it.”  If only it was so easy! Should anyone say this to you, please forgive them as it’s just a lack of understanding. It’s very hard for people to understand how you’re feeling if they haven’t been there.  The fact that these illnesses don’t suddenly happen means we can draw some parallels with illnesses such as heart diseases, some cancers and strokes.  Because these illnesses don’t just suddenly happen either.  If we look at heart disease, it’s often the result of damaging behaviors practised over many years. Behaviors such as smoking, lack of exercise and a diet high in saturated fat. Strokes are a result of similar behaviors and cancers too, particularly heavy smoking and drinking as you know.  So how do stressful illnesses such as stress, depression and anxiety compare?  Stress is also the product of harmful mental habits and behaviors. These habits and behaviors are developed and practised over years – since childhood in most cases. These are the mental processes that enable us to make sense of our lives and the circumstances we’re faced with. When we reach adulthood, we perform them automatically because we’ve learned these behaviors by repetition.  Think of it like learning to drive a car. Initially, the skills required to control the vehicle needed conscious thought. It seemed really difficult didn’t it? But once we’ve performed them for sufficient periods, we drive on auto-pilot. We’ve mastered the required skills by repetition.  Here’s the key: if we eat healthy food, take regular exercise, cut out harmful behaviors such as smoking and drinking, we improve our health and drastically reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and strokes. We are repeating good habits, habits that will give our physical well being a huge boost.  It’s exactly the same for stress. What’s important to understand is that not everyone becomes stressed or depressed – even when tragic and traumatic circumstances happen to them. Just like people who lead a healthy lifestyle and avoid harmful habits and behaviors, people don’t become stressed or depressed because they have learned effective habits and behaviors that prevent stress from arising.  This is very good news if you suffer from these illnesses. Because just as we can learn habits and behaviors which cause us to become highly-stressed, depressed or anxious, we can learn the habits and behaviors which stop these terrible illnesses in their tracks. And the more often we make use of them, we’ll soon begin to perform them automatically and our mental health will benefit enormously.  No more feeling stressed out. No more feeling unable to cope. No more anxiety and no more depression. EVER.  I’m living proof of this. For 5 years, a series of traumatic events sent me spiralling into an anxiety-induced depression nightmare. I came out of it by learning the natural skills that starve these illnesses. The more I used them, the less anxious I became. They’re now as natural to me as driving a car, and I’ve completely eradicated anxiety and depression from my life.  You can do it too.  About the author: Chris Green is the author of the new book “Conquering Stress”, a special program which will show you how to conquer stressful illnesses such as depression, anxiety, panic and worry permanently and without taking powerful drugs. You can learn more about this new book and purchase it at  www.conqueringstress.com

The French Paradox

by: Peter Carnes

In the mid-1990s the world's oldest inhabitant - a 120-year-old woman living in Arles in Provence - gave a television interview during the course of which she attributed her longevity to three things: using olive oil for all her cooking, drinking red wine every day, and giving up smoking at the age of 117!  It's a heartwarming story, and it illustrates in a very real way the beneficial effects of something that has come to be known as the "French Paradox".  Stated simply, the French Paradox can be expressed as follows:  As a nation, the French eat more than anyone else, drink more than anyone else, smoke more than most people, have more liver, kidney and gastrointestinal complaints and disorders than their US/ UK counterparts - and yet have one-third fewer deaths from heart disease!  And this apparent anomaly is even more pronounced in the south of France than elsewhere!  WHY?  Well, scientists, dieticians and nutritionists have been puzzling over this question for years. They have carried out sudies and surveys, conducted tests and experiments, etc., and have finally decided that the answer to this paradox lies in three things:  * Olive Oil  * Fresh Fruit and Vegetables  * Red Wine  As you drive down through France, through the great wine regions of Champagne, Beaujolais and Burgundy, you are also moving from the land of butter and cream to the land of olives and olive oil. Dieticians and nutritionists the world over are coming to believe that the one overriding factor in the comparative absence of heart disease and other cardiological disorders in the communities living around the Mediterranean is the almost universal use of olive oil for cooking, dressing salads and flavoring foods.  It is now a medically established fact that those countries and regions where olives and olive oil are used extensively - eg Greece, Spain, southern Italy, southern France - have a much lower incidence of heart disease and other cardiovascular complaints than the rest of Europe.  Doctors say that we should try to ensure that at least 15% of our daily calorific intake comes from monounsturated fatty acids. Replacing butter, margarine and other animal and vegetable fats with olive oil is an excellent method of achieving this 15%.  Olive oil also stimulates the metabolism, lubricates mucus membrane and helps in the treatment of peptic ulcers, constipation, heartburn and stomach upsets.  It is also estimated that the average Provencal diet contains as much as 60 % more fresh vegetables than the average US and UK diet, and that a person in Provence will consume twice as much fresh fruit than their US/ UK counterparts.  Furthermore, a Provencal cook will invariably under-cook vegetables, thus ensuring that fewer valuable minerals and vitamins are lost during the cooking process.  So why not follow the Provencal example and try just lightly steaming your vegetables - or perhaps cooking them very briefly in the microwave - and then tossing them in a little extra virgin olive oil with just a sprinkling of fresh herbs?  And don't use too much salt!  There may also be a link between red wine and the absence of heart disease.  It goes without saying, of course, that an excessive intake of alcohol is never beneficial, and can lead to a whole range of medical and social disorders. But it's also true that people who drink wine in moderation tend to have a lower risk of heart disease than people who drink excessively - or who don't drink at all!  Yes, that's right. Scientific studies have demonstrated that it's healthier to drink a glass of wine (preferably red wine) a day than to abstain completely. This is due to the fact that a moderate intake of red wine actually increases tha amount of "good" cholesterol in the bloodstream, as well as helping to reduce stress and lower blood pressure - all factors that can contribute to heart disease.  Another significant difference between French and US/ UK drinking habits is that on the whole the French tend to drink wine while they are eating. In the US and UK the usual practice is to come home from work in the evening, gulp down a meal and then go out drinking - mostly beer and spirits.  In France people still tend to eat more formally, with the whole family sitting around the table for a leisurely meal, accompanied by a glass or two of local wine. This is considered a much healthier practice and much less conducive to stress/ anxiety/ tension/ etc. - quite apart, of course, from being extremely enjoyable in its own right!  The recommendation, therefore, is to spend a little more time with your family or partner, consuming healthy food and wine, rather than simply demolishing a ready-cooked meal (which is probably full of salt and saturated fat) just so you can spend an extra few minutes down the local pub or bar.  Believe me - you will certainly benefit in the long run!  The French Paradox is not just an interesting and intriguing story. There are valuable lessons that we can all learn here: lessons that could give us a "kick-start" to a new, safer and healthier lifestyle.  Lessons that could even, at the end of the day, help to save our lives.  About the author: Peter Carnes is a UK-based author, webmaster and publisher. Two of his most-visited sites are: http://www.heart-of-provence.com and http://www.health-bargains.com

The Elimination of Heart Attack -- Is it Possible?

by: ARA

(ARA) - Heart disease is the largest killer of Americans -- more people in the United States die from diseases of the heart and blood vessels than all other diseases combined. Despite the fact that our country has the best heart hospitals and the finest cardiovascular specialists in the world, the heart attack rate here is not substantially different than the heart attack rate in any other country.  The most common culprit in this deadly scenario is atherosclerosis -- premature plaque build up, which clogs the coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle with vital oxygen and nutrients.  Seventy percent of heart attacks take place in coronary blood vessels that are not severely blocked enough to require balloon, stent, or bypass. These small, unstable plaques that are barely visible at angiography are often the culprit lesions where heart attacks occur.  For one-third of patients with atherosclerosis, death is their first symptom. Another third experience heart attack and almost half of those are dead in one month.  We now have the tests and drugs to abolish coronary heart disease in the first quarter of the 21st century. Lifestyle intervention with exercise, nutrition, weight control, smoking elimination, and stress management would likely reduce by more than 50 percent the expression of premature cardiovascular disease through control of risks such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and the sedentary life.  Fortunately, we are now living in an era blessed by the promulgation of incredible pharmacologic advances that allow us to actually ponder the extinction of atherosclerotic heart attack. Four drug classes now exist that if prescribed appropriately and aggressively could eliminate atherosclerosis. These four classes include: aspirin, statin, ACE and niacin. Here’s how they work:  1) Aspirin: The drug inhibits the platelets that form the clot that adheres to the unstable, fractured plaque, which could potentially block blood flow down the coronary artery and cause a heart attack. Research has consistently shown the benefits of aspirin therapy to generally reduce vascular events by about 20 percent for those suspected of having atherosclerosis (Physicians’ Health Study, 2003).  2) Statin: There are several of these plaque drugs on the market, which are often mistaken for cholesterol drugs. This distinction is important: 30 to 50 percent of patients with atherosclerotic plaque have relatively normal cholesterol levels. Studies have shown that even patients with normal cholesterol profiles have fewer cardiovascular events when taking a statin drug.  3) ACE Inhibitors: These medicines have traditionally been used to treat heart failure and high blood pressure. However, recent trials have shown them to be highly beneficial to those with coronary artery disease even if blood pressure is normal, reducing heart attack death by an additional 26 percent in the heart outcome prevention education. Therefore, the benefits of the ACE inhibitor seem to extend beyond the lowering of blood pressure. This should encourage us to clamor to receive such medication even if our blood pressure is normal.  4) Niacin: The vitamin niacin has long been known to benefit the heart. As early as 1975, the Coronary Drug Project showed that high doses of niacin contributed to a 27 percent reduction in coronary events when compared with placebo.  For prevention to work, each person must take control of their health and proactively take steps towards a healthier heart. A good place to start is by becoming a more informed and educated healthcare consumer. I encourage people to get all the information they can, by talking to their doctor, researching on the Internet, and reading.  Another avenue for education is healthcare seminars. Houston is going to be hosting Cardeo, a consumer education event, Feb. 12 to15, 2004. This Medical Conference & Consumer Expo will bring together an estimated 20,000 healthcare professionals, patients, insurers, vendors and the general public to discuss the complete eradication of heart disease, which is an extremely achievable goal. The event will move the community towards true prevention.  In reality . . . the patient has to be the one to decide to take control and then the healthcare system will move in that direction.  About the author: Courtesy of ARA Content

The Benefits of Stopping Smoking (Part Two)

by: Rob Mellor

In part one we talked about the benefits in the first few days of giving up smoking and how within twenty minutes good stuff is going on in your body. In this part we’re going to talk about the benefits after a couple of weeks up until 15 years where your risk of coronary heart disease becomes the same as a person that never smoked.  Lets start within a couple of months of giving up. Through these weeks your circulation and breathing improve making it easier to walk. Your lungs start functioning up to 30% better.  Starting in this time and sometimes taking up to a year your coughing, fatigue and shortness of breathe decrease and your immune system improves. This makes you a lot healthier in only a year and you will be able to feel the difference, I know I did.  Within one year of giving up smoking your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker and then within two years the risk of you having a heart attack drops to near normal. This means that after two years you are one your way to been almost as healthy as someone who doesn’t smoke.  Within five years of quitting your risk of having a stroke is reduced and the risk of getting lung cancer is halved. This is almost reduced to similar of someone who has never smoked by ten years and chances of getting other cancers such as mouth, larynx, bladder and kidney are dramatically reduced.  After 15 years the risk of you having coronary heart disease becomes the same as someone who has never smoked.  That is good news isn’t it. From day one your becoming more healthier and after a couple of years the risk of disease is been reduced. After around 10 to 15 years your body is almost that of someone who has never smoked adding years to your life which goes to show that it’s never too late to quit smoking.  Now you need to plan on how your going to quit smoking as I’m sure you want to after reading this. You will need to plan and get a good easy way to quit which you can by going to my website.  About the author: Rob Mellor owns the www.quit-smoking-expert.com website helping normal people quit smoking in less than 40 minutes. Please visit the site to get help quit smoking