12/21/2007
How to Fire Up Your Health Defense
With the flu season now in full swing, one of the most commonly-heard phrase in the health arena is 'build up your defense.' Your own body requires a strong defense system.
Antioxidants can help. Antioxidants play the serious role of "janitor" in your body. They go around mopping up excess free radicals before these pesky little scavenger molecules get the chance to damage or destroy your body's cells. In a perfect world, you'd be able to get all the antioxidants you need from a healthy diet alone. Unfortunately, there are just too many free radicals invading your body from:
stress
a poor-quality diet and food additives
environmental pollutants
environmental toxins
Your body's supply of in-house antioxidant "janitors" can't keep up with all their chores. Cleaning up the cell-damaging messes made by the free radicals is a full time job. Without a plentiful supply of crucial antioxidants:
Your body becomes vulnerable to free radical damage.
You lack energy and stamina.
Your immune system operates at less than peak efficiency.
Some well-known antioxidants are Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and maybe even beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. Antioxidants are found natural in vegetables and fruits.
The bad news is this: eating your fruits and veggies may not be enough these days, especially with the nutrient-depleted soil most vegetables come from. You may need to bring in some "outside help." More antioxidant janitors can help to mop up messes the free radicals make, like ...
Injuries to your cell membranes and mitochondria
Damage to your DNA
Make this the Healthiest Season Ever!
I finally know for sure my vitamins are working for me. Health Defense Antioxidant
Cold and Flu formula
01:10 Posted in antioxidant | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: vitamins, antioxidants, health defense, cold and flu
04/15/2007
Alpha-lipoic acid| A Powerful Antioxidant
Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) is known for its powerful antioxidant effect. Did you know that ALA also allow more glucose to shuttle into your muscle.
Let's take a look at what happens to food when it enters the body:
During a normal meal, food is consumed.
This food is converted into glucose for energy.
Insulin is released by the pancreas to shuttle the glucose into muscle and fat cells (assuming liver glycogen levels are full). Once the muscle cells are full, all excess glucose is shuttled to fat cells.
Now let's look at a meal taken with ALA:
Food is consumed.
This food is converted into glucose for energy.
Insulin is released by the pancreas to shuttle the glucose into muscle and fat cells. Once the muscle cells are full, all excess glucose is shuttled to fat cells.
This is where ALA comes into play and it gets interesting. In order for glucose to be carried into cells, it must be attached to insulin. ALA is shown to have an insulin mimicking effect.
You would think that more glucose would be shuttled to fat cells because the muscle cells are full, right? Not so! Studies show that ALA increases Glut-4 transporters on the outside of muscle cells. This means more glucose can be shuttled into muscle cells and away from fat cells.
Studies show that the amount of glucose shuttled to your muscles can increase from 50-60%. This means if you ate 100 carbs without ALA, 40 grams of glucose went to your muscles cells and 60 grams went to fat cells.
By supplementing with ALA, you have the power to send 60 grams of glucose and only 40 to fat cells. That is a big difference!
Alpha Lipoic Acid is not only a powerful antioxidant but studies show that ALA allows more glucose to be shuttled to muscle mass 50-60%
ALA is found in spinach, broccoli and potatoes.
More information click on Alpha Lipoic Acid , ALA
Monique
07:40 Posted in antioxidant | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: ALA, antixidant, alpha lipoic acid