Better Workouts Include the Brain and Body

Posted on January 20, 2022 by admin

Movement is Medicine: ‘We can use our bodies as a tool to affect the way we think and feel, like a hotline to the mind.” Caroline Williams, researcher and author of ‘Move: How the New Science of Body Movement Can Set Your Mind Free’

“Movement affects your brain; but your brain also affects movement.”

Regular physical activity is an important part of a healthy mind, body and lifestyle. Not only is exercise good for your muscles and bones, but it is also an important part of keeping your brain healthy too. Exercise doesn’t only mean working out or playing sports, it just means moving your body and being active. A few other examples of exercise are: dancing, walking, biking, swimming, or throwing a Frisbee.

What happens in the body and brain during exercise: As your heart rate increases during exercise, blood flow to the brain increases. As blood flow increases, your brain is exposed to more oxygen and nutrients. Exercise also induces the release of beneficial proteins in the brain. These nourishing proteins keep brain cells (also known as neurons) healthy, and promote the growth of new neurons. Neurons are the working building blocks of the brain. As a result, individual neuron health is important to overall brain health.

Studies have shown that the connection between your brain and your body is a “two-way street” and that means physical movement can effectively change your brain for the better, explains Srini Pillay, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Your brain plays a major role in your physical and emotional well-being, and it directly affects your ability to exercise. Your brain was designed for survival and avoiding danger (fight, flight or freeze). Regular aerobic exercise can reduce anxiety by making your brain’s “fight, flight or freeze” system less reactive.

One way to trick your brain is doing a Gatorade swish, which misleads your brain into thinking your body is getting a jolt of energy from a sugary beverage, even if it isn’t. The act triggers the brain, which naturally wants to preserve energy for survival, into releasing dopamine to help jump start exercise based on the false promise is sugar, Dr. Jennifer Heisz, explains in Move Your Body; Heal Your Mind.

Movement can improve your cognitive functions and mental health. Regular physical activity and movement benefit more than just the body. They actually augment brain function. Movement supplies brain cells with oxygen, promotes the production of new brain cells, and aids in creating new synapses.

Regular exercise such as aerobic, resistance, flexibility, and balance exercises can reduce depressive symptoms. Exercise can be as effective as medication and psychotherapies.

Regular exercise may boost mood by increasing a brain protein called BDNF that helps nerve fibers grow.

Mindfulness during exercises and workout.

“A 12 minute walk alters metabolites in our blood, molecules that affect the beating of our heart, the breath in our lungs, the neurons in our brain.” explains Annabel Streets, “52,ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time.

Physical activity is ignored by experts who are too focused on addressing mental health issues from the neck up. “It’s low hanging fruit,” she says, “brain chemist, thought, behaviors might take years to address on the couch.” Dr. Ellen Vora, a New York psychiatrist.

“The brain is always working against you to not expend energy, but we can override it,” says Dr. Heisz.

Exercise can be turned into a powerful meditation practice states Anita Sweeney, author of “Make Every Move a Meditation: Mindful Movement for Mental Health, Well-Being, and Insight”. Exercise can be turned into a powerful meditative practice by focusing the mind on a single thought, object or sensation during exercise can help bring clarity and peace of mind. For example, focusing on your left foot hitting the pavement can help you focus.

Exercise is essential for those seeking better emotional well-being and better mental health. Both physical exercise and meditative movement are activities that you can do to improve the way you feel.

Studies have found that people who exercise daily are at greatly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Rudolph Tanzi, Kennedy professor of neurology and cofounder of the McCance Center for Brain Health at MGH, states, “It’s hard to imagine anything better for brain health than daily exercise, and our findings shed new light on the mechanism involved: protecting against neuroinflammation, perhaps the biggest killer of brain neurons as we age.”

References:

Brain-Changing Benefits of Exercise

Posted on January 11, 2022 by admin

“The key to a happy life . . . is a healthy brain.” Wendy Suzuki

Exercise is the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain, says neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki, professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University.

Dr. Suzuki discovered through research and self examination that there is a biological connection between exercise, mindfulness, and action. With exercise, she believes that your body feels more alive and your brain actually performs better. And, Dr. Suzuki states that “you can make yourself smarter. Exercising is one of the most transformative things you can do to improve cognitive abilities, such as learning, thinking, memory, focus and reasoning — all of which can help you become smarter and live longer.”

Dr. Wendy Suzuki, explains the best way to exercise in order to improve brain function pic.twitter.com/MG6pPLU7UM

— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) February 6, 2020

The way exercise boosts your brain health includes:

It decreases feelings of anxiety – Studies have shown that every time your move your body, a number of beneficial neurotransmitters, including dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and acetylcholine, gets released into your brain. These substances can decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. And, It only takes between 10 and 30 minutes of daily physical activity to instantly lift your mood.
It improves your focus and concentration – A single workout can help improve your ability to shift and focus attention. This is an immediate benefit that can last for at least two hours after 30 minutes of exercise. Activities that increase your heart rate, such as brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, playing tennis or jumping rope are recommended.
It promotes the growth of new brain cells – One of the most significant benefits of exercise, scientists have found, is that it promotes neurogenesis, or the birth of new brain cells. This is essential to improving cognitive function. Exercise also can improve the health and function of the synapses between neurons in this region, allowing brain cells to better communicate.
It protects your brain from aging and neurodegenerative diseases – Imagine your brain as a muscle: the more workout you put into it, the stronger and bigger it gets. Longitudinal studies in humans suggest that regular exercise can increase the size of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, both of which are susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. So while exercising won’t completely prevent or cure normal cognitive decline in aging, doing it consistently can help reduce or delay the onset of it.

So, get up and start your brain transformation journey.

Dr. Suzuki encourages people to get active and go to the gym since the science clearly demonstrates how working out boosts your mood and memory — and protects your brain against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

To get the brain-changing benefits of exercise, you should do at least three to four 30-minute workout sessions a week, explains Dr. Suzuki. You’ll also get the most benefits out of aerobic exercise, which increases the heart rate and pumps more oxygen into the brain.

Essentially, exercise can improve your brain functions today and protect your brain from neurodegenerative diseases as you age.

References:

Positive and Optimistic Mindset for Healthy Aging

Posted on December 31, 2021 by admin

It’s essential to look ahead with optimism and a positive outlook as you age.

With advance aging, you should adopt an optimistic and positive mind-set and focus on new discoveries and experiences. It’s more important than ever as you age to follow a healthy lifestyle, remain positive and passionate about life, stay connected with family and friends, and look forward to better days ahead.

Here are some things you can do. https://t.co/YPE4l6re2l

— Barron's (@barronsonline) December 24, 2021

You must consistently attempt to find things that continue to be meaningful and engaging. These meaningful activities can include traveling around the world, spiritual pursuits, hobbies such as reading or painting, lifelong learning, or spending more time with loved ones. Experts suggest planning for purposeful activities before transitioning to retirement, and to embrace this change and follow where their passions lie.

Try to keep the mind active by challenging yourself to learn something new every week or month, or try something you’ve always wanted to.

Embrace thoughts such as, “As I age, I’ll keep learning,” says Vonetta Dotson, an associate professor of psychology and gerontology at Georgia State University. Feeding yourself a rich diet of positive messages can in itself brighten your outlook.

“Anytime we do something and try new things, it helps to reinforce this feeling of positivity,” Dotson said. “And keep those social connections. When you socialize, your focus is diverted. When you’re by yourself, you may ruminate” about your current and future physical and mental deterioration.”

Better yet, learning something new enables your brain to form new pathways. This helps you stave off gloomy thoughts about the aging process.

“By engaging in rewarding and meaningful activities and staying mentally active, we can retrain our brains,” said Kevin Manning, a neuropsychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at UConn Health. “These activities can enhance our self-efficacy, lessen fears of decline and sharpen our cognitive functioning.”

Ideally, passion drives you to take action. Why sign up for a course on current events or foreign affairs if you find the state of the world dispiriting and you dread consuming the news?

To channel your activity in a more uplifting direction, set short-term goals. If you’re learning a musical instrument, aim to perform a simple piece in one month.

When you embrace a purpose that gives you something to do that’s meaningful,” it focuses your efforts and displaces fears of aging. It’s one of several keys to healthy aging.

The key to healthy aging is a physically, socially, mentally and spiritually active lifestyle and mindset.

References:

Healthy Aging and Eating

Posted on December 14, 2021 by admin

“Making a plan to eat healthy can keep you healthy and active for longer.” National Institute on Health

“Aging—not cancer or heart disease—is the world’s leading cause of death and suffering. In spite of this, we accept the aging process as inevitable”, writes Dr. Andrew Steel, longevity expert and author of “Ageless: The new science of getting older without getting old“.

Dr. Steel suggest a list of proven life-extenders, such as don’t smoke, exercise, get vaccinated, take care of your teeth.

Strauss Zelnick, author of Becoming Ageless, and who successfully rejuvenated his metabolic health believes that, “You can eat to be younger.” He implores his readers to focus on what He calls “Forever Fuel.” He suggests that you do not have to forego eating your favorite foods; you’re just getting the best versions of them.

Unlimited Foods—Lean Protein, Salads, and Vegetables—eat as much as you want. I love bison, light tuna, chicken, eggs, grass-fed beef.
Limited Foods—Some fruits and dried fruits, nuts, and cheese—in moderation.
Highly restricted foods—no processed foods, fried foods, or added sugars. Processed foods account for 70% of the calories that Americans take in. They don’t just make you fat; they age you.

While humans wither and become frail after a mere seven or so decades, capturing the trait known as ‘negligible senescence ‘ has become the holy grail of aging research. A 2015 study, published by the Mayo Clinic, found that using a combination of existing drugs reversed a number of signs of aging, including improving heart function”, according to the Guardian.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, adds that, “During medical school we were taught that aging is a natural process and that people can simply die of old age. The thinking was that age wasn’t just a turning of the clock but an accumulation of mutations, cancer, arthritis, heart disease and dementia. Have you ever wondered, however, if it was possible to address those diseases not just individually, but collectively, by addressing the underlying process of aging itself.”

The role of carbs and added sugars

When you have sugar molecules in your system, they bombard the body’s cells like a meteor shower—glomming onto fats and proteins in a process known as glycation. This forms advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which cause protein fibers to become stiff and malformed. The connective-tissue damage and chronic inflammation resulting from sustained high blood sugar can lead to debilitating conditions, such as cataracts, Alzheimer’s, vascular tightening, and diseases of the pancreas and liver.

From a dietary standpoint, forswearing white sugar, high-fructose corn syrup—which studies have shown increases the rate of glycation by 10 times, compared with glucose—and simple carbs is a no-brainer. “Even though all carbs get converted into sugar, when you eat the good ones, like brown rice and whole-grain bread, you get less glucose, and you get it more slowly,” Karcher says.

Carbohydrates (Carbs) — like fiber, starches, and sugars — are important for your health. They are your body’s main source of energy and are a basic nutrient your body turns into glucose, or blood sugar, to make energy for your body to work. But eating too many carbs can cause your body to store the excess as fat.

The fruit, vegetables, dairy, and grain food groups all contain carbohydrates. Sweeteners like sugar, honey, and syrup and foods with added sugars like candy, soft drinks, and cookies also contain carbohydrates.

You should try to get most of your carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, dairy, and whole grains rather than added sugars or refined grains.

Nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, and fats can help you stay healthy as you age.

Many foods with carbohydrates also supply fiber. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body cannot digest. It is found in many foods that come from plants, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains. Eating food with fiber can help prevent stomach or intestinal problems, such as constipation. It might also help lower cholesterol and blood sugar.

A very low-carb diet, like keto, triggers your body into nutritional ketosis. This stored energy is released in the form of chemicals called ketones. Your liver starts to make ketones — a fuel that kicks in when your body uses up glucose and glycogen, and doesn’t have enough sugar to run on. It does this by breaking down the energy reserves stored in fat.

These chemicals, ketones, help cells—especially brain cells—keep working at full capacity. Some researchers think that because ketones are a more efficient energy source than glucose, they may protect against aging-related decline in the central nervous system that might cause dementia and other disorders.

Ketones also may inhibit the development of cancer because malignant cells cannot effectively obtain energy from ketones. In addition, studies show that ketones may help protect against inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. Ketones also reduce the level of insulin in the blood, which could protect against type 2 diabetes.

But too many ketones in the blood can have harmful health effects.

While there’s insufficient evidence to recommend any type of calorie-restriction or fasting diet. A lot more needs to be learned about their effectiveness and safety, especially in older adults. In the meanwhile, there’s plenty of evidence for other actions you can take to stay healthy as you age:

Eat a balanced diet with nutritious food in moderate amounts. Avoid or limit consuming refined sugars and carbs, and processed foods.
Engage in regular physical exercise (150 minutes per week).
Drink alcohol in moderation or not at all.
Don’t smoke or take illegal drugs.
Maintain an active social lifestyle and build close relationships.
Get a good night’s sleep.

Finally, older adults may have different vitamin and mineral needs than younger adults. Find recommended amounts and information on calcium, sodium, vitamin D, and more.

“People are living longer, staying healthier longer and accomplishing things late in life that once seemed possible only at younger ages.” –David Brooks, The New York Times

The American Heart Association recommends no more than six teaspoons of added sugar a day. The sugar found in whole foods like fruits and veggies, says Kimber Stanhope, PhD, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis. “These naturally occurring sugars come packaged with good-for-you vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients.” Eliminating or reducing your intake of added sugar and carbs can result in you gaining some significant healthy aging benefits, according to the American Heart Association.

References:

Staying Active Gives You a Longer, Healthier Life

Posted on December 12, 2021 by admin

“Exercise is the most important activity we can do to keep our brains healthy, it’s important to simply move, whether that be casual walking or a workout.” Sanjay Gumpta

It important to understand that you can proactively take steps to avoid, delay, and mitigate dementia and mental decline as you age. Just thirty minutes daily of moderate physical activity, such as walking around the block, can make a significant difference in improving your brain health.

In the process of neurogenesis, creating brain cells does not stop when you age and get older. Neuroscientific research shows that the brain can make new brain cells, and forge new neural connections, at any age.

Additionally, adequate sleep also has a major effect on brain health. Recent research has shown that your brain remains very active while you sleep, because it can make full use of the energy that is diverted elsewhere when you are awake.

When you sleep, the brain turns information into knowledge, consolidates your memories, and cleans itself. This is why everyone needs at least eight hours of sleep, states Gumpta and you shouldn’t convince yourself that you don’t.

“There is a rinse cycle that happens in your brain when you sleep,” says Gumpta. “You are basically clearing out metabolic waste. That happens when you are awake, but the process is close to 60 per cent more efficient when you are asleep.

Key takeaway is that staying physically active, proper diet. adequate sleep and social interaction are all key to longer life.

And you’re never too old to start exercising.

References:

Calculating Net Worth

Posted on December 11, 2021 by admin

Calculating net worth involves adding up all your assets and subtracting all your liabilities. The resulting sum is your net worth.

The value of your primary residence is not included in your net worth calculation. In addition, any mortgage or other loan on the residence does not count as a liability up to the fair market value of the residence. If the loan is for more than the fair market value of the residence (i.e., if your mortgage is underwater), then the loan amount that is over the fair market value counts as a liability under the net worth test.

Further, any increase in the loan amount in the 60 days prior to your purchase of the securities (even if the loan amount does not exceed the value of the residence) will count as a liability as well. The reason for this is to prevent net worth from being artificially inflated through converting home equity into cash or other assets.

The following table sets forth examples of calculations under the net worth test for being an accredited investor:

Accredited Investor table

References:

Life on the Edge

Posted on November 29, 2021 by admin

“As you get older, the days go by quicker and you need to make the time count.” Mary Peachin, Octogenarian

As you age, it becomes more important to “live each day right to the limit”, states octogenarian Mary Peachin, in Costco Connection magazine, September 2021, Members Connection. Peachin has “walk the talk” and lived her life as a self proclaim world-traveling, deep sea diving adrenaline junkie. “If your body aches, you ignore it and keep on trucking”, she preaches.

When it comes to going after what you love in life, do not take no for an answer. You should expect and intend to live a life well lived and always believe the best is yet to come

“Life is too short not to enjoy it.”

Make your life happen and take action today. Be amongst the few who dared to live their dreams. Live your life in such a way that there is no regret.

Time is short; live every day for a higher purpose. Let’s invest the limited time we have on your life’s purpose and mission. Do not focus on your problems and challenges; instead focus on purpose and destination.

Life is brief and it passes quickly. The average American male lives to be 70 years 4 months. The average American female lives 70 years 4 months. To live life to its fullest, it is not the quantity of your life, but the quality.

Time is running out for all of us.

“Your job will not take care of you when your elderly and sick, your friends and family will.”

Select a few friends to be close to in your life and communicate and strengthen your relationship with them
Get over those who disappoint you and refuse to let those people steal your joy
Lift up and encourage those who are recovering from failure. Treat people with Grace.
Ignore your critics. Decide to see the good in the experience and growth, the lessons you learned and the relationships you made.
Stay fully focused on your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Believe the best! Christ teaches us to believe the best…faith, hope and love. Remember to rejoice and be glad. If God is for us, who can be against us!

The most effective way to live life on the edge is to “find an edge and Live there”, states Peachin. And, you can start to “find an edge” by writing down your dreams and priorities in life, and then focusing on fulfilling those written dreams and priorities. It starts with knowing what you want, and it ends with getting what you wanted. It’s often that simple.

Save for and invest in the things that matter most!

In every positive or negative situation, there are always options. Remember you are the one pulling the strings, and when things look hopeless, it’s because you’re choosing not look at the things that truly matter. You’re choosing to see the the bad stuff, and they have little to do with your ability to change your circumstances. The trick is that you have to see the ocean of opportunity, not that little bucket of water (problems) that you tripped over.

We must decide to see the good and not dwell on the failure, but instead focus on the positives from the experience. Limits do not exist. You have weaknesses of course and we all do, but focus on your strengths. Remember if you’re feeling scared and fearful, it means you’re trying something new.

People don’t run marathons because it feels good.

When you feel bad about your situation, you’re thinking about the mistakes of yesterday, and not the opportunity of right now and the hope for tomorrow. You’re thinking about what has and what can go wrong, and not what can go right.

When you’re feeling defeated and discouraged, ascertain what you’re really focusing on. It important to focus on how far you’ve come, the opportunities that lie ahead, and the resources available you have to go forward.

“What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it.” Oprah Winfrey

Always think bigger and focus on your purpose. Build the world as you want it to be.

References:

Costco Connection, September 2021, Vol. 36, No. 9, pg. 119
https://personalexcellence.co/blog/101-ways-to-live-your-life-to-the-fullest/

“Those who are the happiest are not necessarily those for whom life has been easiest. Emotional stability results from an attitude. It is refusing to yield to depression and fear, even when black clouds float overhead. It is improving that which can be improved and accepting that which is inevitable.” ― James C. Dobson, Life on the Edge: The Next Generation’s Guide to a Meaningful Future

Health is Wealth: Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease

Posted on August 29, 2021 by admin

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America. Every 34 seconds, someone has a heart attack and every 60 seconds, someone dies from a heart disease-related event.

Heart disease is a serious health problem for all Americans. Although it’s the leading cause of death for Americans (659,041 died in 2020), most people aren’t aware that they’re at risk for heart disease, according to the National Institute of Health. A heart attack or stroke may seem sudden, but the truth is that heart disease happens over many years and it often starts at a very young age.

The term “heart disease” includes a variety of heart problems. The most common is coronary heart disease, which is when a person has “clogged arteries.” This kind of heart disease develops over many years, as the blood vessels going to the heart become narrow and clogged.

As plaque builds up in the arteries of a person with heart disease, the inside of the arteries begins to narrow, which lessens or blocks the flow of blood.

Risk factors for Heart Disease

Risk factors are traits and habits that make you more likely to develop heart disease. Some risk factors you can do something about; others you can’t change. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chances of developing heart disease.

High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and smoking are key risk factors for heart disease. Several other medical conditions and lifestyle choices can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease, including:

Diabetes
Overweight and obesity
Unhealthy diet
Physical inactivity
Excessive alcohol use

Healthy cholesterol levels

Unhealthy levels of cholesterol makes a heart attack or stroke more likely.

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance in your body. Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs. Cholesterol is carried through your blood in two different “packages.” One of these packages is a low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also called bad cholesterol. The other is a high-density lipoprotein (HDL), called good cholesterol.

HDL helps your body get rid of cholesterol, so it doesn’t build up inside your arteries.
LDL puts cholesterol inside your arteries. Over time, cholesterol and other substances clog your arteries. That can cause chest pain or even a heart attack.

The buildup of plaque in the arteries of your heart can occur over many years. As plaque builds up in the arteries of a person with heart disease, the inside of the arteries begins to narrow, which lessens or blocks the flow of blood. Plaque can also rupture (break open). When it does, a blood clot can form on the plaque, blocking the flow of blood.

These arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscle. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a disease in which a waxy substance called plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries and it is the most common type of heart disease. When plaque builds up in the heart arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis.

F.A.S.T

It’s important to spread the word about F.A.S.T., the acronym to help people remember the signs of stroke:

Face drooping,
Arm weakness or
Speech difficulty mean it’s
Time to call 911

You can reduce many risks by making lifestyle changes. But you need information and support.

To lower their risk for heart disease:

Lose weight – Eat smaller portions and get 21⁄2 hours of physical activity a week
Eat less saturated fat and sodium
Eat more fruits and vegetables
Limit beverages and foods with sugar
Quit smoking
Have regular checkups
Track our weight, waist size, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar (for diabetes).

Note: You can lower your risk by making some small but important changes to your health, you and your family will have longer, healthier lives.

Physical Activity

Being physically active on a regular basis is one of the best ways to keep your heart, lungs, and whole body healthy. It makes your heart stronger and lowers your risk for heart disease.

Any activity is better than none! But the “intensity,” or how hard your body is working, makes a difference. Increase your intensity gradually. If you have a health problem, check with your health care provider before increasing your physical activity.

Light-intensity activity, like cooking or cleaning the house, usually doesn’t require much effort. Start light, if that’s what you’re comfortable doing or your provider recommends.
Moderate-intensity activity, like taking a brisk walk, makes you breathe harder and your heart beat faster. You can still talk but singing would be hard. Work up to at least 21⁄2 hours of moderate-intensity activity a week.
During vigorous-intensity activity, like playing a game of basketball or jogging, you can’t say more than a few words without stopping for a breath. You need only 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week.

Losing even a small amount of weight can lessen weight-related health problems and reduce the risk of heart disease.

References:

Intermittent Fasting

Posted on August 11, 2021 by admin

Research shows that intermittent fasting is a way to manage your weight and prevent several forms of chronic diseases.

Scientific studies are showing that intermittent fasting may help reverse chronic unhealthy trends of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses.

Intermittent fasting is all about when you eat.

With intermittent fasting, you only eat during a specific time. Fasting for a certain number of hours each day or eating just one meal a couple days a week, can help your body burn fat. And scientific evidence points to some health benefits, as well.

Intermittent fasting is based on choosing regular time periods to eat and fast. For instance, you eat only during an eight-hour period each day and fast for the remaining sixteen hours. Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day two days a week.

After hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. This is referred to as metabolic switching.

Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the glycemic calories consumed from your last meal and begins burning fat. Glycemic is basically the presence of glucose (or sugar) in your blood.

Intermittent Fasting Benefits

Research shows that the intermittent fasting periods do more than burn fat, explains Mark Mattson, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins neuroscientist, who has studied intermittent fasting for 25 years. “When changes occur with this metabolic switch, it affects the body and brain.”

One of Mattson’s studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed data about a range of health benefits associated with the practice. These include a longer life, a leaner body and a sharper mind.

“Many things happen during intermittent fasting that can protect organs against chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, age-related neurodegenerative disorders, even inflammatory bowel disease and many cancers,” he says.

Here are some intermittent fasting benefits research has revealed so far:

Thinking and memory. Studies discovered that intermittent fasting boosts working memory in animals and verbal memory in adult humans.
Heart health. Intermittent fasting improved blood pressure and resting heart rates as well as other heart-related measurements.
Physical performance. Young men who fasted for 16 hours showed fat loss while maintaining muscle mass. Mice who were fed on alternate days showed better endurance in running.
Diabetes and obesity. In animal studies, intermittent fasting prevented obesity. And in six brief studies, obese adult humans lost weight through intermittent fasting.
Tissue health. In animals, intermittent fasting reduced tissue damage in surgery and improved results.

Autophagy and Anti-Aging

After 16 to 18 hours of fasting, you should be in full ketosis. Your liver begins converting your fat stores into ketone bodies — bundles of fuel that power your muscles, heart, and brain.

If you can do intermittent fasting for 16-18 hours a day, you’ll burn through body fat and fill up quickly when you break your fast, which makes it easy to stay in a calorie deficit and lose weight.

After a full-day fast, your body goes into repair mode. It begins recycling old or damaged cells and reducing inflammation. If you’re looking for anti-aging or anti-inflammatory benefits, a 24-hour or greater timeframe fast is required. .

When your body is under mild stress (such as exercise or an extended fast), your cells respond by becoming more efficient.

Intermittent fasting is a valuable and an effective tool to improve your mental and physical health.

References:

Intermittent Fasting to Hearth Health

Posted on July 22, 2021 by admin

“Intermittent Fasting may bring heart health and other health benefits.”

Intermittent fasting can offer many health benefits. It can aid in weight loss, control diabetes and prevent many other health conditions, according to several medical experts.

The benefits are thought to result from a process called metabolic switching, which is when the body goes into a fasting state and begins using body fat instead of glucose to meet its energy needs, according to Consumers Reports.

Intermittent fasting helps preserve the body’s normal interplay between the hormone insulin and blood glucose, preventing insulin resistance (when the body doesn’t respond properly to it). Metabolic switching also signals the body to activate maintenance and repair systems, which aid in disease prevention.

Studies suggest that intermittent fasting may have benefits, including improvements in blood sugar and cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and weight. Have you tried it yet? https://t.co/huKJAkTqte

— News4JAX (@wjxt4) July 20, 2021

Intermittent fasting is an eating plan that focuses more on when to eat than what to eat. And, more people are trying intermittent fasting due to its abundance of impressive health results from scientific studies, word of month and social media. Intermittent fasting has become the number one fasting technique and a popular weight loss tactic.

Fasting is voluntary and controlled period without food. Fasting, especially intermittent fasting, is for health, religious and spiritual reasons.

Eating cycles involve fasting for a period of time and eating for the rest. These periods can be aligned to a person’s lifestyle, dietary requirements or health conditions.

When You Eat Matter

It seems that regularly fasting can potentially improve your risk factors related to heart health. Although researchers aren’t sure why, at least one study has indicated that people who follow a fasting diet may have better heart health than people who don’t.

Regular fasting and better heart health may be linked to the way your body metabolizes cholesterol and sugar. Regular fasting can decrease your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad,” cholesterol. It’s also thought that fasting may improve the way your body metabolizes sugar. This can reduce your risk of gaining weight and developing diabetes, which are both risk factors for heart disease.

More studies are needed to determine whether regular fasting can reduce your risk of heart disease. Most scientific evidence on fasting comes from animal, not human, studies. If you’re considering regular fasting, talk to your doctor about the pros and cons. Keep in mind that a heart-healthy diet and exercising regularly also can improve your heart health.

What you eat matters.

Many studies have shown that the types of food you eat affect your health. Additionally, scientists are beginning to understand that when you eat may also make a difference.

Throughout history, people have experienced periods when food was either scarce or completely lacking, says Dr. Valter Longo, an NIH-funded longevity researcher at the University of Southern California. “So, they were forced to fast,” he says.

But current technology “has shifted our eating patterns,” explains Dr. Vicki Catenacci, a nutrition researcher at the University of Colorado. “People now eat, on average, throughout a 14-hour period each day.”

Studies suggest that this constant food intake may lead to health problems and researchers have started looking at whether fasting can have potential health benefits for some people.

Intermittent Fasting

Many fasting diets mainly focus on the timing of when you can eat. These fasting diets are sometimes called “intermittent fasting.”

In intermittent fasting, you eat every day but only during a limited number of hours per day. Instead of eating three meals spread out during the day, you may only eat between a six- to eight-hour window each day and fast for the remaining sixteen to eighteen hour. For example, you might eat breakfast and lunch, but skip dinner.

The most popular intermittent fasting method is 16:8. This is a schedule that involves 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating.

Other timed intermittent fasting similar to this include 12:12 and 14:10. The first number always indicates the hours you fast for. During fasting a person must not consume any food or calories. Calorie free drinks are allowed such as water, black coffee and tea.

Other methods include alternate day fasting. This is where a person fasts for 24 hours every other day or two days. For the other days a healthy nutritious diet should be consumed.

Another intermittent fasting method is 5:2. This involves eating healthy nutritious non-calorie restricting 5 days a week. The other 2 days a person should consume 600 calories or less.

But scientists don’t know much about what happens to your body when you fast. Most research has been done in cells and animals in the lab. That work has provided early clues as to how periods without food might affect the body.

Researchers have found that in some animals, certain fasting diets seem to protect against diabetes, heart disease, and cognitive decline. Fasting has even appeared to slowed the aging process and protected against cancer in some experiments.

“In mice, we’ve seen that one of the effects of fasting is to kill damaged cells, and then turn on stem cells,” explains Longo. Damaged cells can speed up aging and lead to cancer if they’re not destroyed. When stem cells are turned on, new healthy cells can replace the damaged cells.

Studies are starting to look at what happens in people. Early results have found that some types of fasting may have positive effects on aspects of health like blood sugar control, blood pressure, and inflammation. But fasting can also cause weight loss. So researchers are studying whether the beneficial changes seen in the body are side effects of the weight loss or the fasting process itself.

Body Changes

For many people, the main reason to try fasting is to lose weight. Currently, most people try to lose weight by restricting how many calories they eat each day.

“That doesn’t work for everyone,” Catenacci explains. “It takes a lot of focus. It takes a lot of math, and a lot of willpower.” Her research team is running a study to compare how much weight participants lose with fasting versus calorie restriction, but over a one-year period. “There’s a lot of debate about whether the benefits of intermittent fasting are due to the extended fasting period itself,” says Dr. Courtney Peterson, an NIH-funded nutrition researcher at the University of Alabama.

To understand this better, Peterson did a study in pre-diabetic men. It was designed so the volunteers would not lose weight. The men ate an early time-restricted feeding diet for five weeks. They could eat only between 8 am to 2 pm. They then fasted for the next 18 hours. Next, they ate the same amount of food but only during a 12-hour period per day for five weeks. None of the men lost weight.

The longer fasting period alone made a difference. The intermittent fasting diet “improved their blood sugar control,” Peterson says. “And we found a blood pressure lowering effect equivalent to what you see with a blood pressure medication.”

These findings suggest that an extended fast or the timing of when you eat—even when it doesn’t affect your weight—can bring health benefits for some people.

Health benefits of fasting

Fasting may bring health benefits, but Longo and other experts caution against people trying fasting diets that are not based on research. If you’re fasting, talk with your health care provider first. People with certain health conditions or who are taking certain medications should not try fasting.

Even if you fast sometimes, you still need to make healthy food choices overall, Peterson explains. “It looks like when you eat matters a lot, but what you eat probably matters more.”

Autophagy and Anti-Aging

After 16 to 18 hours of fasting, you should be in full ketosis. Your liver begins converting your fat stores into ketone bodies — bundles of fuel that power your muscles, heart, and brain.

When the body fasts and goes without food for an extended period of time, it begins a waste removal process. This is better known as autophagy.

Autophagy is a cellular process where the body removes old cells and replaces them with new healthier cells. Replacing old cells with new ones help the body fight disease and cancers.

Studies show that the autophagy process begins with long term fasting. Autophagy can only begin when glucose and insulin levels are low. It is a healthy process for cells and tissue to repair.

Studies suggests that autophagy begins after 24 hours of calorie restrictions. It can increase with exercise during periods of fasting.

When your body is under mild stress (such as exercise or an extended fast), your cells respond by becoming more efficient.

Intermittent fasting is a valuable and an effective tool to improve your mental and physical health.

References:

Brownlee Global: Gratitude to Greatness

Gratitude is a Powerful Tool That Can Help People Live the Lives They Want

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