Men's Health

Natural Options Chondroitin and Glucosamine Outperform Modern Meds

Minor joint discomfort is a common concern that affects millions of Americans. A new study suggests that the natural supplements chondroitin and glucosamine outperform even the best modern treatments.

Unfortunately, minor pain is a common problem, affecting around 100 million people in the United States alone. Joint discomfort is one of the most common causes of this pain epidemic. Not only can sub-optimal joint health cause people an immeasurable amount of daily discomfort, but it can also cause destructive changes to joints over time that leave people immobilized and unable to care for themselves. Modern medicine has a few first-line treatments for minor joint discomfort that often work for many. However, some people continue to struggle to find an effective remedy. New research suggests that chondroitin and glucosamine supplements may be the answer.

The Nationwide Pain Dilemma

While opiates and opioids can treat acute/short-lived pain successfully, addressing lingering discomfort is one of the greatest challenges to modern medicine. Taking these medications over a long period of time can cause addiction or overdose as well as a host of other unpleasant side effects. These medications also fail to address the long-term degenerative changes in joints that gradually worsen pain and reduce mobility over years. Because most pain medications are a short-term answer to a long-term problem, finding safer and more effective options for minor joint discomfort is a major priority in pharmaceutical research.

Celecoxib, a non-opiate anti-inflammatory pain medication, is the current preferred treatment for joint conditions such as osteoarthritis. Celecoxib reduces pain from inflammation of joints while slowing the joint destruction that can occur over time. However, even this first-line treatment does not always affect pain or slow joint damage. This medication is only effective in some patients, and even then it merely serves as a “Band-Aid” rather than helping to promote ongoing joint health. In addition, it can have serious side effects such as permanent liver damage. As a result, many people seek a natural option that can help soothe minor joint discomfort.

Chondroitin and Glucosamine: Natural Options for Minor Joint Discomfort?

Because modern medicine has few current answers, a great deal of research has gone into finding newer and safer options for joint discomfort. Studies that have been done suggest almost unanimously that the natural remedies chondroitin and glucosamine appear to be superior in many ways to the current pharmacological options. The combination of these two supplements has been shown in studies to reduce minor joint discomfort in people with osteoarthritis better than celecoxib or placebo. Even better, they wield these benefits without as much risk of liver damage and other life-threatening side effects.

In addition, these supplements also appear to make a measurable difference in protecting against joint damage and degeneration. A recent study looked at people who take chondroitin sulfate versus those who take celecoxib using modern MRI technology. The group taking chondroitin had fewer joint changes at the end of the two-year trial. They had less thinning of the cartilage that lines and protects joints as well as fewer flare-ups in the synovial tissues of the knee, which protect and maintain the joint space. Because these flare-ups and joint degeneration are painful, these people also tend to experience less pain, swelling and other symptoms.

Natural Remedies for Minor Joint Discomfort

Chondroitin and glucosamine are not new miracle drugs, but rather natural components of the cartilage that makes up much of your joints. The glucosamine taken as a supplement is usually isolated from the shells of shellfish, while chondroitin is taken from natural animal cartilage. It appears that taking a supplement containing these fundamental building blocks of human cartilage can help to maintain the cartilage in our joints, thus easing minor joint discomfort and slowing the degenerative changes that define certain joint conditions. It is important to talk to your physician before taking these or any other supplements. In addition, people who are allergic to shellfish may need to take a special form of glucosamine that is not taken from seafood components.

Modern medicine and pharmacology have brought many exciting advances in health care. People now have options for diseases that disabled or killed us just a century ago. In some cases, these medications also improve the quality of life immensely. However, natural remedies remain the best option for many people. If you suffer from minor joint discomfort, taking natural supplements containing chondroitin and glucosamine may be effective, while also protecting against long-term damage—with fewer side effects than their pharmaceutical counterparts.

Unmotivated to Exercise? You May be Low on Dopamine

Jan 06 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Are you trying to exercise more but are coming up short on “get up and go”? Low levels of a common neurotransmitter may be to blame.

Countless Americans make the New Year’s resolution to exercise more and finally get fit. However, when January 1 rolls around, these would-be fitness gurus often find they are stuck to the couch instead. If this is your own story, you should not feel alone. While over 40 percent of Americans make resolutions at the beginning of a new year, less than 10 percent actually achieve them. New research suggests that low dopamine levels may be the reason so many people find they are too unmotivated to exercise.

What is Dopamine?

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, i.e. a chemical that is released to send different signals to the brain. It is made from tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid that we get from our diets. Tryptophan is also used to make serotonin and a variety of other essential amino acids, so it is in high demand in the body. While we know a lot about dopamine’s shape and synthesis, this tiny molecule’s method of action was once one of the least understood—and most misunderstoo—neurotransmitters in the human body. Scientists once believed that it was released in reaction to pleasure and reward. Now we know that dopamine is not so simple. Not only does this chemical cause us to feel pleasure, but motivation as well.

People who have high levels of dopamine are motivated enough to work hard for a reward, which in turn causes the release of more dopamine. This creates a positive feedback loop in which people who are used to achieving goals often have the motivation to aim for more positive changes.

Dopamine and Motivation

Low dopamine levels can have a variety of negative effects. Defects in dopamine production can lead to Parkinson’s disease as well as serious mental illnesses. However, low dopamine can have less obvious but just as pervasive effects as well. People who have a shortage of this neurotransmitter may suffer from depression and low motivation. When researchers removed the part of the brain that produces dopamine from rats, the rats became extremely inactive and unmotivated.

We tend to think of exercise and other health changes as a matter of willpower. However, willpower appears to be less a matter of personal character and more a matter of brain chemicals. If you are one of the tens of thousands of Americans who made a resolution to get more exercise and promptly broke it, low dopamine may be the reason for your woes. Low dopamine may be behind your lack of motivation to exercise, but there are many safe and natural ways to boost your levels. You can make a few simple changes that increase your dopamine levels and allow you to make the positive life changes you desire.

Are You Unmotivated to Exercise? Here’s How to Get Up and Go!

There are a few ways you can increase your motivation to exercise. First, plan your day so that exercise is easier. Keep your workout bag packed and ready; make sure time to work out is penciled into your busy day. In addition, you should make sure your body has the building blocks for dopamine and other important neurotransmitters so you can get the mental rewards you deserve when you finally make it to the gym or track. Each a diet rich in the amino acid tryptophan, which is present in a variety of foods including poultry and eggs. If you struggle to get enough of this amino acid in your diet, consider taking a supplement that contains tryptophan. You can also talk to a dietitian about whether your diet is providing the building blocks for optimal physical and mental health.

Finally, stop blaming yourself. If you are feeling unmotivated to exercise, the culprit is very likely low neurotransmitter levels rather than personality flaws. Many people struggle to get the motivation that they need to make positive life changes. Once you have begun the journey, your dopamine and serotonin levels will likely increase in response to the positive activity and accomplishment.

Many people make New Year’s resolutions that are completely forgotten by February. However, you don’t have to be part of this statistic. By eating the right amino acids and planning for healthy living to be a part of your overall life, you can overcome the barriers that make you unmotivated to exercise. This year can be the beginning of a healthier, happier life.

Magnesium Health Benefits Include Reduced Risk of Diabetes, Heart Disease and Stroke

Dec 21 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

People in the Western world have more food availability and eat more calories than ever, as evident by our expanding waist lines. However, many of us still are not getting the vitamins and minerals that we need. This can have extremely detrimental health effects, especially when it comes to magnesium. This mineral plays an important role in so many different cell processes that if you aren’t getting enough, you may be at higher risk of devastating diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

What Is Magnesium?

Magnesium is a mineral that is present in our foods and also used as a medicine in some cases. You may be familiar with Epsom salts, which are made of magnesium salts and a popular home remedy for constipation, muscle aches and a wide variety of complaints. Magnesium plays a crucial part of more than 300 biochemical processes in the human body, including protein synthesis, nerve function, muscle function, maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm and maintenance of cardiovascular health. Magnesium is essential for building and maintaining strong bones and teeth as well as synthesizing DNA and RNA. It is part of the process of oxidative phosphorylation, which converts the calories we eat to energy our cells can use. Magnesium also functions as an electrolyte, helping to maintain the ionic gradients that allow optimal nerve, muscle and cardiac function.

It is impossible to live without magnesium. However, even a minor deficiency in this mineral can deprive you of the many magnesium health benefits and leave you functioning at less than optimal speed. People who have low magnesium may have chronic pain including migraines, headaches, joint pain and muscle cramps. They may also suffer from insomnia, depression and fatigue. When people have critically low levels of magnesium, they can develop seizures as well as cardiac arrhythmias, both of which can be fatal. Unfortunately, our modern diets tend to have substandard levels of this critical nutrient, leading many health experts to call low magnesium the “silent epidemic of our times.”

Magnesium Health Benefits

According to new research, magnesium may have more long-term health benefits than we previously realized. People who get the required amount of this mineral, which is 300 mg a day for men and 270 mg a day for women, may actually have a lower risk of diseases including diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Researchers followed people from around the world and tracked their dietary intake of nutrients. People who ate magnesium-rich diets over the course of their lifetimes had a lower overall risk of these diseases. This was true even when controlling for variables such as overall dietary quality and socioeconomic factors.

Getting enough magnesium is especially important for women of childbearing age. Magnesium is essential to a developing fetus’s needs and also important for breastfeeding infants. Many women do not get the additional magnesium that they need to support reproduction, which means that they can end up with immense deficiencies even while eating what they believe to be a reasonable diet. Getting enough magnesium is also important for people who are in the process of growth or healing, such as children and those who have recently been ill. Magnesium is essential to manufacturing proteins, muscle and other essential elements of the human body.

Do You Need More Magnesium?

If you suspect you may be low on magnesium, you are not alone. Experts estimate that around one in 50 people in the Western world is seriously deficient in this mineral. Magnesium can be found in a variety of foods such as fish, soybeans, avocados, nuts and seeds, dark leafy greens, yogurt and even chocolate. People who need more magnesium can also take a supplement or even a multivitamin, as these usually contain a healthy range of minerals. Popular antacids contain this mineral because it quickly coats and soothes heartburn and ulcers. Soaking in Epsom salts is also believed to act as a supplement because magnesium can be absorbed through the skin. Regardless of how you choose to take in this mineral, the magnesium health benefits are too powerful to be passed up.

If you are trying to get more magnesium, health benefits may await you both now and over the course of your lifetime. Not only will you have a lower disease risk, but you will enjoy more energy and less aches and pains over the course of your life. Consider adding magnesium-rich foods or a supplement that contains magnesium to your diet if you believe you may be deficient in this very important element.

Crash Diet After the Holidays Linked to Increased Weight Gain

Dec 12 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Many people indulge during the holidays with the intention of losing the pounds by embarking on a crash diet later. Recent studies show this may be devastating for your waistline.

Are you already packing on the winter weight? For most people in the Western world, the holiday season is a time for stretchy waistbands. The parties and celebrations that brighten the season bring a seemingly endless parade of cookies, candy, creamy beverages and hors d’oevres. Many of us give in to temptations with the intention of embarking on a strict diet in the New Year. While this seems like a viable plan, going on a crash diet can actually make you fatter in the long run.

Is Your Crash Diet Bad for Your Brain?

Until recently, weight loss was thought of as a matter of simple math. You eat less calories and exercise more, forcing your body to supplement your diet with the calories it has stored as fat from times of surplus. However, weight loss is not this simple for most people. There are lifestyle factors that lower your metabolic rate, leaving you exhausted and making weight loss an uphill climb. A diet that severely restricts calories, also known as a crash diet, is one of these factors.

When you eat fewer calories, your brain perceives you as being in a famine. It wisely decides to lower your metabolic rate to store as much fat as possible for lean months ahead. This was beneficial to our ancestors, who often had to live through long food shortages. However, for modern people, it can mean that your crash diet simply leads to more weight gain. For this reason, experts recommend that people who want to lose weight make sensible eating decisions every day, even during the holidays, and let the weight come off slowly.

The Psychological Impact of Dieting

Dieting has become a national pastime as so many Americans struggle with being overweight or obese as well as the myriad health problems that those extra pounds can cause. However, this behavior can have a negative effect not just on your weight, but on your emotional health.

People who crash diet tend to gain back any weight they have lost, and often even a few pounds more. This is incredibly discouraging and can lead to low self-esteem. In addition, it gives many dieters a sense that they are failures and can even create a disordered relationship with food. Crash diets are also bad for your heart, causing cardiac stress, heart palpitations and lifelong damage to blood vessels. The simple joy of eating becomes an emotional struggle, creating physiological and psychological stress that can be devastating over a lifetime. People often respond to weight gained after a crash diet with even more food restrictions, creating an endless cycle of yo-yo dieting and disappointment.

What is the answer to this endless cycle? Experts recommend finding a middle road in which you are mindful of what you eat but enjoy occasional treats. Healthy people do this all year long, including during the winter season so full of temptations.

Natural Ways to Lose the Pounds Without a Crash Diet

There are ways to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime, but these are not crash diets so much as permanent lifestyle changes. Here are a few ways that you can begin a lifelong journey toward a trim figure and a healthy relationship with food:

Eat a healthy number of calories every day. This will keep your brain from thinking it is in a famine.
Get plenty of exercise. This burns calories and also builds muscle, which is responsible for much of your body’s thermogenesis and basal metabolism.
Enjoy treats in moderation. Choose one treat to enjoy at that Christmas party rather than sampling all of them.
Take a supplement that supports a healthy metabolism. There are many natural herbs and vitamins that can help your body to turn calories into energy at an optimal, healthy rate.
Get plenty of sleep. Your body needs around eight hours of sleep per night or it will go into energy conservation mode.

If you want 2017 to be your healthiest year yet, put away the cookies and the plans of beginning the new year with a restrictive crash diet. Cutting too far back on calories will only lead to weight gain and unhappiness. A healthy lifestyle is not just a one-time decision, but a journey of self-care that will last your entire lifetime.

Cognitive Health Found to Be Important Determinant of Lifespan

Dec 02 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

There is a common assumption that people lose their cognitive abilities as they age. We expect to see our memory, intelligence and brain function slowly decline in our later years. However, some people do not suffer from this cognitive decline, while others do, but much more slowly than average. Now, surprising new findings indicate that your cognitive health as you age is one of the most important determinants of your lifespan. Luckily, there are things you can do to improve your mental function at any age.

Cognitive Health: A Powerful Determinant of Lifespan

There are many factors that can predict how long a person will live. Of these, genetics, socioeconomic status and overall health are probably the best-known. While these are all important, there is one lesser-known but just as important factor: cognitive health. Elderly adults who have slower decreases in mental processing speed are likely to lead longer and healthier lives. A quicker decline in memory and mental function as you age, on the other hand, appears to predict an earlier death.

It is not surprising that good cognitive health is crucial to living a long life. You have to be able to think quickly in order to care for yourself on a daily basis, to manage your health care and to avoid dangerous situations. In addition, people who are taking care of their cognitive health by taking measures to prevent age-related decline are more likely to take equally-good care of their bodies.

Cognitive Decline in Your Golden Years: Is It Just Aging?

Many people plan to spend their retirement years relaxing with loved ones and exploring the world. However, health matters all too often get in the way—especially health matters related to mental and functional decline. A certain amount of cognitive decline is to be expected as we grow older. It is natural for your brain to become slightly slower in processing and for it to be harder to remember phone numbers and other details. However, this decline should be extremely limited and represent more of a slowing than a loss of actual information or skills.

Unfortunately, many elderly people experience more decline in their cognitive health than this. Even people who do not have dementia may find themselves dealing with a condition known as Mild Cognitive Decline, in which they have a sharp decline in cognitive function but are still able to take care of their own basic needs.

While it may be normal to experience a mild decline in your memory and cognitive health as you age, new research shows that even this is hardly inevitable. Age may not be the cause of this mental decline, but rather lifestyle factors such as retirement or even side effects of medications that many elderly take. Even if some degeneration is natural for aging people, it is not as severe as we believe. There are likely many yet unstudied factors playing a role.

Keeping Your Mind Sharp at Any Age

If living a long and healthy life is important to you, there are a few ways that you can preserve your mental function and memory to give yourself the best possible chances. Consider the following measures:

Take a supplement containing herbs proven to improve mental function, such as gingko biloba.
Eat a healthy diet with plenty of fish, fruits and vegetables.
Take supplements with omega-3 fatty acids and a multivitamin containing B vitamins, vitamin E and other antioxidants.
Drink more tea, especially black and oolong teas.
Care for your mental and emotional health.
Get plenty of exercise at least three times a week.
Play games that challenge your brain, such as logic puzzles.

Any simple lifestyle measure that you take to stay healthy in body, mind and spirit will likely contribute to better cognitive health over your years and a longer, happier lifespan.

We all want to enjoy old age and to retain the faculties and abilities to truly get the most out of our retirement years. Taking care of your mental function is crucial to achieving these and other health goals. It is important to spend as much time exercising your brain as exercising your body so you can enjoy not just good physical health but good cognitive health as well.

Feel Tired All the Time? You Could Be Low on Iron

Nov 30 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency and affects 1.2 billion people worldwide, with around 183,000 dying from a shortage of this nutrient every year. Iron deficiency in women is especially common due to the high iron needs of the female body. If you find that you are often fatigued, have trouble concentrating or have other vague and insidious symptoms, you may simply need more iron.

Why Do We Need Iron?

Iron plays a variety of vital roles in the human body. First and foremost, it is one of the basic building blocks of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood from your lungs to the cells that need it. Iron is also important in the manufacturing of ATP, the molecule that cells use for energy. It is part of many different enzymes involved in growth and metabolism. Iron is also used by cells of the immune system to help fight infections. Last, iron is used in muscle cells to store oxygen for times when it is needed faster than the bloodstream can supply it.

Because our bodies use iron in so many ways, we have very high needs for this mineral. When people do not get all of the iron that they need, they have trouble converting food energy to cell energy, cannot carry oxygen to their cells and cannot perform a variety of crucial functions. In severe forms, iron deficiency can even be fatal.

Iron Deficiency in Women: A Common Health Problem

There are three basic ways that iron deficiency can occur: either not enough iron is being taken in, it is not being absorbed effectively or it is being lost somehow. Many people do not get enough iron-rich foods in their diet, which includes red meat, eggs, shrimp and the dark meat of poultry. In addition, people can get iron from vegetables such as legumes and leafy greens, although this kind of iron needs to be eaten with acidic foods in order to be absorbed by our bodies.

Even if you eat enough iron, you still may not be absorbing enough. Inflammatory conditions of the gut can make it difficult to absorb iron. In addition, you may simply be losing more iron than you naturally take in through diet. People lose iron mainly through bleeding, which is why people with ulcers or intestinal parasites are at high risk of anemia. This is a very important reason that you see high levels of iron deficiency in women, especially women who menstruate or have recently had a child.

Signs You Have Iron Deficiency

The signs of iron deficiency can be subtle and yet have a huge effect on your quality of life. The most common symptom is fatigue, because your cells are not making enough ATP and also are not getting optimal levels of oxygen from your blood. In addition, iron deficiency in women and men can manifest in a variety of other ways, such as:

dizziness
shortness of breath
heart palpitations
headache
pale skin
cold hands and feet
odd food cravings, especially for things that are not food (pica)
brittle nails
hair loss
muscle aches
difficulty concentrating
restless leg syndrome

When your body does not have the nutrients that it needs to performs all of the cell processes that iron supports, you will feel the effects in a variety of ways. Many people blame the effects of iron deficiency on not getting enough sleep, growing older, or having a hectic schedule when in fact they simply need to take in more vitamins and minerals.

Treating Iron Deficiency Safely and Naturally

If you believe that you are suffering from a deficiency of iron, there are several ways to quickly build up healthy levels of this vitamin. Many people simply add more iron-rich foods to their diets and take care to eat vegetarian sources of iron with an acidic food such as lemon. However, it can be difficult to get the iron that you need from diet alone, especially for women of reproductive age and young children who are growing quickly. For these people, taking an iron supplement or a multivitamin with their daily allowance of iron is the answer.

Getting enough iron is crucial for good health. However, iron deficiency in women and children is, unfortunately, only too common. While it can be difficult in the modern world to get all of the iron that you need to sustain optimal health, a well-balanced multivitamin ensures that you are always covered.