Food Anti Inflammatory is a term that gets a lot of searches on Google. That may be a recent occurence, I’m not certain. What I do know is that scientists are making a lot of connections between our diets, inflammation, and all kinds of health issues including serious illnesses and diseases.
I received the information below about Inflammation from the Chairman of Health Sciences at Shaklee. Shaklee employs the largest staff of scientists than any other natural nutrition company, with the numbers not even close. 75 compared to 2 or 3 at most other brands, and unbelievably some may not have any on staff.
It’s the science and the research, a brand’s own science and research, that can make the difference between products that work very effectively, and the opposite which is when you hear someone say, “Nutrition doesn’t work for me.” Of course nutrition ‘works’. Nutrients in food and in supplements is what fuels our body and feed our cells. The problem is that not all food and not all supplements are created equal.
Back to the science. We get the inside story from Shaklee on every area of natural health. I will keep you updated on this site so bookmark it and come back often!
Inflammation – A Biological Response to Stress
In the past decade, inflammation has become one of the hottest topics in medical research because it is emerging as a possible cause of many of the chronic diseases that threaten the quality and the length of life. . If that’s true, then addressing inflammation could be a singular approach to targeting multiple health conditions and, perhaps, could simplify scientific and medical research strategies for fighting many of the most deadly chronic diseases.
We now know that there are many possible lifestyle and environmental triggers of inflammatory stress, including smoking; a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet; obesity; radiation; and even exposure to environmental toxins. Persistent, chronic, or uncontrolled low-grade inflammation has been linked to increased risk for the metabolic syndrome and heart disease, diabetes and insulin resistance, rheumatoid arthritis, certain cancers, asthma, allergies, and even Alzheimer’s disease.
Acute inflammation is a natural immune system response to injury or infection during which the body orchestrates a symphony of immune system signals, messages, and physiological actions to combat and neutralize foreign invaders that may be responsible for the injury. This inflammatory response can result in the characteristic redness, heat, swelling, and pain that you may see and feel at the site of a wound and is the beginning of the healing process as the body eventually brings nourishment to the site.
Most of the time, inflammation is an acute, on-demand function, a biological stress response that enables our body to fight off disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites. But when inflammation doesn’t shut down on cue, or somehow persists with no particular purpose, it can attack normally healthy cells and cause damage at the cellular level. In autoimmune diseases, a continuously triggered inflammatory response causes damage to its own tissues—sometimes with disastrous health consequences.
Recent research has uncovered the benefits of smoking cessation and even moderate exercise as sound approaches to battling inflammatory stress. A September 2010 laboratory study found that a three-week moderate exercise regimen reduced several biomarkers of inflammatory stress, including C-reactive protein (CRP) in diabetic rats, (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2249.2010.04240.x/abstract). The investigators concluded that moderate physical exercise had significant anti-inflammatory effects and that this may be a good strategy to protect against insulin resistance and vascular complications in diabetics.
Nutritional approaches to reducing inflammatory stress are also receiving more attention. Several studies have supported the benefits of a “Mediterranean” or an “anti-inflammatory” type diet, and spices such as ginger and turmeric are also showing promise. In the 2010 review Dietary polyphenols can modulate the intestinal inflammatory response, plant sources of dietary polyphenols—including green tea extract, various flavonoids, ellagic acid (found in muscadine grapes and pomegranates), and resveratrol (found in red wine and Japanese knotweed)—were shown to successfully modulate intestinal inflammatory response. The investigators concluded that the use of natural preventive treatments in early life could reduce or delay inflammatory bowel diseases, and that polyphenols could play an important role in modulating intestinal inflammation (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2009.00210.x/abstract).
In February 2011, a new study, A resveratrol and polyphenol preparation suppresses oxidative and inflammatory stress response to a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal, was published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY) showed that a resveratrol and muscadine grape polyphenol blend was able to suppress the oxidative and inflammatory stress response typically experienced after consumption of a high-fat fast food meal (jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jc.2010-1812v1).
This peer-reviewed and published human study is even more compelling because it is one of the earliest placebo-controlled clinical research studies on resveratrol compounds. In fact, a January 2011 review of resveratrol research published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences found only six recently completed clinical trials on resveratrol supplementation, and only one other study employed a placebo-controlled design (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05853.x/abstract).
In the SUNY study, the researchers fed 10 healthy adults either the resveratrol-muscadine polyphenol blend or a placebo before the high-fat fast food meal, and markers of oxidative and inflammatory stress were measured for five hours following the meal. In the group consuming the polyphenol blend, there was a significant reduction in the oxidative stress response typically observed after consumption of a high-fat meal. At three hours, there was also a 150% increase in Nrf-2, an important regulator of the body’s antioxidant defense and detoxification systems.
The investigators also reported a significant blunting of the body’s inflammatory response to eating a high-fat fast food meal in the subjects who consumed the resveratrol-muscadine polyphenol blend. Induction of two well-known inflammatory biomarkers, plasma lipopolysaccharide and IL-1ß, were both significantly reduced after consuming the high-fat meal, but only in the supplement group.
So what are we to do to address the chronic low-grade inflammation that permeates our modern-day lifestyles? Fortunately, many of the same dietary and lifestyle behaviors we’ve recommended for decades to lower the risk for cardiovascular diseases and cancer can also help to reduce the risk for chronic inflammation:
Find an exercise you like and participate on a regular basis
Reduce stress and keep your blood pressure in check
Achieve and maintain a healthy weight, which can reduce inflammation, a biological stress response
Don’t smoke and avoid secondhand smoke
Eat a healthful diet rich in plant foods, whole grains, legumes, leafy vegetables, colorful fruits, lean cuts of meats and poultry, and low-fat dairy products
Choose unprocessed foods low in trans fats, saturated fat, salt, and sugar
Seek out anti-inflammatory foods such as fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, as well as olive oil
Look for anti-inflammatory nutritional ingredients such as resveratrol, muscadine, and pomegranate polyphenols, as well as spices such as ginger and turmeric
For information about inflammation and your health, talk with your doctor or health care professional to discuss the steps you can take maximize your anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle.
To your good health!
Shaklee Health Sciences
To learn more about Shaklee products, including the science and research behind this #1 Natural Nutrition Company in the United States, visit Food Anti Inflammatory support.
To try Shaklee resveratrol and get a package of anti inflammatory Cinch Inch Loss food products valued at $100 retail for FREE, visit Shaklee Resveratrol. (Until March 31, 2012 when you become a new Shaklee member and order $70 worth of products, you automatically get the Cinch package Free. You will be prompted through the order process to become a member and receive your free package. Any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me through this site or through the Shaklee site.)
Asthma rates in children under 5 increased 160% from 1980 until 1994. These are both worrisome.
A child can develop asthma due to genetic reasons. But often, there is not a genetic relation – and so it is an environmental reason.
Symptoms of asthma are very frightening, and even life threatening. The good news is that you can control the amount of chemicals and toxins that your child is exposed to every day.
United States Environmental Protection Agency studies found levels of about a dozen common organic pollutants to be 2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside. Where do these pollutants come from? They are in your carpet and upholstery – these are harder to manage, but they are also in your air fresheners and especially in your home cleaning products if you aren’t using natural (green) cleaners.
Bleach, toilet bowl cleaners, oven cleaners, and drainer cleaners are classified as hazardous household wastes. They are environmental toxins and proven harmful to human health. So why are they in our homes? It’s scary.
It is also scary to read many cleaning product bottles. There are all kinds of warnings and most poisonings involving children are related to products like these. And we know that the fumes and toxins make it hard for kids and adults who have asthma to breathe.
We do have the choice about what cleaning products we bring in to our homes, and put into the air. What we breathe does affect our health. Powered with this knowledge, why shouldn’t we go ahead and try green cleaning?
Just think: If everybody switched to cleaning their homes with natural, non-toxic, chemical-free, green cleaning products.. how huge that would be.
Our families and our homes are healthier. The environment benefits in multiple ways: less chemicals in the air and in our water supply, cleaner air because concentrated green cleaning products require less manufacture and shipping of containers, and finally less bottles end up in our landfills.
We are all worried about performance. We want our families to be healthy, but we need need our cleaners to clean well. We found a brand where you don’t have to sacrifice clean for green. We did the work testing them against popular brands, plus they are 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
Now you can’t go wrong when you clean without chemicals. And your children can breathe a whole lot easier.
Vitamin Ratings are a complex topic. There are very important components that need to be part of the ratings, such as safety, purity, potency, quality, and effectiveness. The problem is that vitamins are not regulated by any governing body. In my research I have found some interesting information, but not a comprehensive source of ratings. There are just too many variables.
Let’s look at some facts. In the case of natural vitamins, ingredients only have to be 5 to 10% natural to list ‘natural’ on their label. With synthetic vitamins, your body may only be able to absorb and use about 50% of the ingredients. And it is up to the brand to set their own safety standards and the quality of ingredients they use.
Can you see why it is tough to rate vitamins, or even compare them?
Let’s also review the types of vitamins before we rate them. There are all natural vitamins that are also called whole food vitamins because they are formulated as close to real food as possible. You have to trust the brand that they really are 100% natural since as stated above, vitamins are not regulated like pharmaceutical drugs.
Next you have vitamins that are synthetic, meaning they are not natural ingredients. They are chemically reproduced ingredients and certain vitamins are not 100% bio-available to your body – meaning your body can’t absorb them completely.
The types of vitamins make a review challenging as well because if you are looking at ingredients on the labels and think that you are going to get the benefit of the total amount listed, that is not always going to happen.
For example, many natural nutrition experts feel that vitamin E is best absorbed when it is all natural and that only about 50% of a synthetic form will be available for use in your body. That would affect the rating of the synthetic form since you would have to take double what you actually need to have absorbed.
Vitamin Ratings
ConsumerLab.com is one of the better regarded sourcec for multivitamin reviews, and they test them to make sure the ingredients break down in your body to be utilized for better health, to make sure the amount of vitamins and minerals they state on the label are really in the product, and that there is not anything extra in the vitamin such as fillers or impurities. What’s disturbing is that this agency finds at least 30% of brands do not have the amounts of ingredients stated on the label inside the tablets. So how do you know which 30% that is?
The FDA tests vitamins, although not on a regular basis. 2008 was the last that I could find. At that time 320 out of 324 brands contained small traces of lead. The FDA stated that the amount of lead did not exceed the ‘provisional tolerable intake levels’ for their intended use. Some contained more lead than others. The problem I have with that is: next month, or at some time in the future, are they going to change the amount that is tolerable or tell us that what they thought was tolerable really was too high and people are sick because of it? Unfortunately things like this have happened, and it’s not a risk I want to take.
Maybe what we should focus on in a multivitamin comparison is is what the specific brand has to offer. If companies aren’t regulated, the industry is going to have a huge variance in quality of products.
Multivitamin Comparison
The Shaklee Corporation conducted a 20 year Landmark Food Supplement Study, in conjunction with the University of California at Berkley School of Public Health (also published in Nutrition Journal), and tested the blood levels of people using their brand of 100% natural supplements, other multivitamin brands, and no supplements at all.
The Shaklee brand fared the best, with excellent health results in the participants, across the board of blood tests. However, for me it was very disturbing to learn that in some areas of testing, people were better off not taking any supplement than to take certain brands that produced the least favorable blood test results.
Research Your Brand
What does your brand have to say about purity and potency? Do they test for contaminants and effectiveness of ingredients?
There are 350 contaminants, including over 320 pesticides, that can find their way into your vitamin tablets and yet only 80 are required by pharmaceutical standards that companies have an option of participating in to show their quality standards. Shaklee tests for all 350 because their own personal standards are the toughest in the nutrition industry.
How many scientists does your brand have on staff? Are there patented, exclusive formulas that are proven effective?
One large, well known brand that only employs about 4 scientists actually bragged that they put out 200 new products in one year and sales would determine ‘what products would stick’! In contrast Shaklee has 75 full time, highly regarded scientists and may only introduce one new product per year.
How effective is your brand? Are the vitamins getting absorbed in your body and producing better health results for you? Are your blood tests and the way you feel showing the kind of results you want?
Certain delivery systems can allow your body to absorb nutrients better than others. For example, your body can absorb a sustained release vitamin delivery system vitamin B+C formula up to 198% better than a conventional delivery system.
What scientific proof does your brand have that their products will work? How do they confirm the efficacy of the ingredients?
I think the most important takeaway is to do your homework. Be in charge of your own good health. Your doctor has had very little education in nutrition. Most doctors do not have the time to research brands of nutrition. It is up to each of us, as individuals, to find a brand that provides the safety, purity, potency, quality, and effectiveness of the vitamins we use.
We take vitamins to be healthier. To get sick less often. To fight the diseases of aging. Maybe to have more energy or improve our mood and quality of life. We put these nutrients into our bodies – the most valuable asset we have. Don’t we want the best quality going in? After all, we only have one body.
Learn more about Shaklee Vitalizer and how it has been proven to make you healthier now and in the future!
The best vitamins for athletes are the same vitamins that all of us can choose to be healthier and able to perform, compete, work, play, focus – LIVE – our best. It can be confusing what kinds and what amounts of vitamins to take each day. Is there any guesswork in the choices you make?
90% of us are lacking key nutrients in our diet. Nutrients critical for us to work and play and feel our best. Some people think that a single multi-vitamin can fill this gap. Even though 40% of us use a single multi-nutrient, though problems persist.
Are you one of the millions of people looking for natural pain relief for joint pain? Many millions of Americans suffer from joint pain. It’s hard for them to remember when doing everyday chores was simple. Do you remember when simple pleasures were.. well.. a pleasure? Does just the thought of getting up and moving keep you from doing the things you love?
Maybe when you were young you played a lot of sports that did physical abuse to your body. The grinding of your joints really hits you as you get older. Sometimes everyday tasks like putting the dishes away or doing other household chores are now associated with feeling pain. You may be limited by the activities that you are able to do pain free.
Did you know that one of the most common complaints at your doctor’s office is not having the energy for workout and other physical activities, or even having the energy to get through your work day. We feel like we’re running all the time, exhausted by 5 or 6 PM, and then when it comes time to take care of our health through exercise, we have nothing left.
Back in the olden days – before computers and electronic everything – people were physically active from dawn until dusk. Their bodies were well-tuned and able to engage in strenuous activities such as farming, lumbering, house cleaning, and keeping a family fed and active.
Today, we’re so busy with commitments, jobs, family, caring for elderly parents, getting children through school, keeping up the maintenance on our homes, and a myriad of other chores and demands on our time. All we want is Continue reading Energy For Workout: Do You Have Enough?
Cancer is a devastating disease and kills far too many men, women and children every year. Here are 10 things you need to do to reduce the risk of developing cancer in your lifetime as well as enjoy better health and better quality of life. A healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet will help you prevent cancer and be healthier.
1. Avoid tobacco products and steer clear of second hand smoke. Lung cancer is one of the most treatable cancers and yet so many people still get it and die from it. Lung cancer is only part of the story because there is a plethora of other cancers that you risk developing if you smoke: mouth, nose, voice box, throat, esophagus and stomach. The good news is that smoking rates have dropped overall, however 45 million people still smoke including many of our young people.
2. Maintain a healthy weight. Did you know that just carrying an extra 10 to 30 lbs. can increase risks of many cancers such as pancreas, colon, hormone and other sensitive cancers? If you carry your weight around your middle you are at an even higher risk of some cancers. In regard to food choices, serving size is the big thing – we have super-sized America and it shows. We are asked to pay just a little more and seduced into consuming many more calories in the larger portions.
When you look at label and nutrition facts on foods, pay attention to what you add on like dressings, dips, spreads, etc. Eat smaller portions and realize that low fat and low calorie doesn’t mean it is healthier for you. A few good tips are to eat food that is full of fiber, and try not to drink your calories. The soda consumption per person in this country is high and there is virtually no nutrition in soda – only calories that will add on fat. Plain ordinary water is best and should be the liquid you consume most each day – for your health and your weight.
3. Get active and exercise regularly. Everyone recommends it including the American Cancer Society because being active helps you reach and maintain a healthy weight and provides other healthy benefits such as lowering your risk of getting cancer, heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. Walking, hiking, cycling, and gardening are all choices even if you are not an athletic person. You must do some kind of exercise on regular basis to get optimal results so you should pick something you like and will get you going and keep you going. Continue reading 10 Ways to Prevent Cancer
I think this fat and inch loss article is my longest post.. ever. But I am very excited to bring it to you. If you are sincerely trying to lose weight and have struggled in the past to be successful at it, I hope that you will learn something that can help you. There is just so much science and so many good things to share about a topic that is very important to many of us. It can be a very hard to maintain both a healthy weight and one that we are happy with as well.
The good news is that we really do have better options now.. that will WORK FOR US.. and keep working for us. I hope that you are ready to receive this information and take the action you will need to reachyour goals. Feel free to leave a comment (we welcome them!) and also contact me anytime to discuss personally anything you read or hear on this site.
What’s the secret to successful weight loss?
How many times have you tried to lose weight, simply by trying to cut down on calories?
And if you did lose the weight, how long did you keep it off?
Have you gone on more intense diets and lost significant weight?
Did you gain most or all of that weight loss back – and with a few extra pounds to boot?
If any of these are familiar, would you like to know why it is so hard to lose weight AND keep it off?
If you prefer to listen to this presentation in audio form, click for the mp3 file that will load in a new window:Healthy Weight Loss
We should all be thankful for many blessings in life. People in our lives are right up there at the top. Also important is our own self, and our physical bodies that are our own responsibility.
Do you ever feel like you have little control over what happens in your daily life? Some weeks things can spiral and there are more challenges than easy, happy times. Relationships may be a struggle to manage although there is help for that (not the focus of this blog). In one area of my life I know I have control and just this week I tested that.
This week I read an article in Ladie’s Home Journal about a woman who is living the reality of a lot of women at the present time. Out of work. Issues to address everywhere she turns. Complete overload.
Even without the added challenge of being out of work, people are just plain too busy. Most of the time we are too busy to even think. I mean the kind of thinking that doesn’t involve our next task, or destination, or meal to prepare. Continue reading Prayer Benefits: Slow Life Down & Take Time to Pray
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