Category: Maintenance

Gut Health for Under $20? Sign Me Up!

Healing / Maintenance / Strong Body

Ran across this little gem in my RSS feed this morning. Here is the skinny.

  1. Green leafy veggies (kale, spinach, etc.) for a prebiotic boost.
  2. Cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cabbage and whatnot) feed the good bacteria in your gut.
  3.  Sweet potatoes, more prebiotics.
  4. Coconut milk, increases intestinal permeability.
  5. Berries, improves gut microbiome and adds fiber.
  6. Flax seeds for fiber, Omega-3, and it aids digestion. Chia is a good substitute.
  7. Walnuts, fiber packed they actual alter gut microbial community. In a good way.

Read all about it here.

Intermittent Fasting for Women

Healing / Maintenance / Preservation / Sound Mind / Strong Body

Intermittent fasting has a whole host of good things. While you deny your body of food, it heals and rebuilds (autophagy), it burns fat for weight loss, and it improves glucose tolerance. However, this article reveals that these benefits may not be as robust and in some cases reversed in women during childbearing years.

Studies show that intermittent fasting for women within childbearing years actually have disturbed sleep patterns, loss of lean muscle mass instead of fat during training, stimulation of the Sympatheic Nervous System (fight or flight response), resistance to autophagy, reduces glucose tolerance, weight gain, and infertility. Not cool. Maybe wait on the intermittent fasting until Menopause.

As it stands right now, I’d be inclined to agree that pre-menopausal (and perhaps peri-menopausal) women are more likely to have poor—or at least different—experiences with intermittent fasting (at least as a weight loss tool).

New Buzz Word: Inflammation, What Is It?

Healing / Maintenance / Strong Body

Everyone’s talking about inflammation and how bad it is……. but, do you know what it is, really? Here is a great article about it and how your diet can help reduce it. 

 

In broad terms, inflammation is the body’s immune system’s response to a stimulus.This can be in response to common injuries such as burning your finger, or falling off of a bicycle, after which you feel the affected area become red, warm, and puffy- this is a localized response to injury, characterized by ‘increased blood flow, capillary dilation, leucocyte infiltration, and production of chemical mediators.’In short, an inflammatory response means the innate (non-specific) immune system is ‘fighting against something that may turn out to be harmful.’

Have We Gone Too Far in Promoting Sunscreen Use?

Maintenance / Strong Body

Short Answer: Maybe

American’s  might be blocking the sun so well (Sunscreen: SPF 15+) that we are not getting enough Vitamin D. It may be time to go without the sunscreen occasionally and get some sun. Read more about it here.

 

U.S.News got in touch with Robyn Lucas, an epidemiologist at Australian National University who led a study published in the February issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology. Her finding: Far more lives are lost to diseases caused by a lack of sunlight than to those caused by too much.

Here is some great new research into the benefits of adding a little more Vitamin D into your life. Enjoy!

Cholesterol is Good

Healing / Maintenance / Preservation / Sound Mind / Strong Body

I am not sure science can be relied upon for much these days. They seem to be contradicting themselves constantly. The most recent reversal? Cholesterol. A new study, “Dietary cholesterol promotes repair of demyelinated lesions in the adult brain” by Berghoff, Gerndt et al, finds a link between dietary cholesterol and the remyelination of the adult brain. Specifically, dietary cholesterol plays a significant role in the repair of demyelnation in the brain. Multiple Sclerosis sufferers may have help on the horizon.

Why Slippery Elm?

Healing / Herbs / Maintenance / Strong Body

Many people have asked why I substitute cornstarch in my bath bombs recipes with Slippery elm. After all, it makes the bath bomb a funny color and a bit misshapen. Here’s why.

One of my most favorite herbal remedies is Slippery Elm or Ulmus rubra. This little tree bark packs a healing punch like no other. It’s demulcent properties hydrate, cool, and heal everything it touches. Imagine a warm bath that hydrates, reduces swelling, and heals your skin as you soak.  That is the “why” of all herbal remedies. Maximum improvement through small changes.

So, I’ll take the funny color along with a little misshapen bath bombs to have them work double and triple duty and make you the best you can be.

Other great things about Slippery Elm/ Ulmus Rubra

It is nutritive and a great source of nutrition for convalescence. Slippery Elm is a great survival food. It treats sore throats, bronchitis, or even voice over use. It heals stomach and colon inflammation, it used to treat colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, colic, dysentery. Again, it heals everything it comes in contact with.

Marshmallow root is a good substitute for Slippery Elm in a pinch.

Is Laughter Truly the Best Medicine?

Healing / Maintenance / Preservation / Sound Mind / Strong Body / Therapeutic

It is said that Hippocrates prescribed laughter to his patients in 4 B.C.E. Was he on to something or was he a fraud?

How Laughter Helps

Actually, modern research agrees with Hippocrates. Researchers have been studying this since the 1970’s, but it really gained traction in the early 80s  when writer Norman Cousins cured himself of ankylosing spondylitis with vitamins and laughter. In the mid 80’s a study by Dillon, Minchoff and Baker (1985) found laughter increased antibodies that fight infection. Du Pre’s 1998 study indicated laughter increased the disease-fighting killer cells and lowered blood pressure.

Further research shows that those who scored high on a sense of humor scale also score high on optimism and self-esteem measures that results in quicker recovery, increased stress coping abilities, enhanced immune function, and reduced pain experience (Friedler 2010, Lefcourt 2002). In some cases, all you need to do is think about laughing to accrue these benefits (Berk, Berk, and Tan 2008).

Conclusion

So, is laughter the best medicine? It increases antibodies and enhances the body’s immune functions, lowers blood pressure and stress, speeds recovery,  reduces pain, and according to Cousins, cures incurable diseases. — That’s a resounding YES.

 

How to Stay Hydrated Like a Pro All Summer | Family Living | laramieboomerang.com

Healing / Maintenance / Strong Body

While most people know that water is critical for your health, what you may not know is that water makes up about 55 to 65 percent of your body. Many may be surprised to know that losing only four percent of your body weight — roughly the equivalent of riding …

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