Hyvin
A Natural Health and Wellness Blog

An article in the July/Aug. issue of Positive Thinking Magazine relayed that recent published studies demonstrate the health benefits of helping others.

The article concludes that, according to the studies, “…giving help is a better predictor of health among older adults than receiving help.”

Not surprising, is it? Doing good makes us feel better.

So add being altruistic to your check-list of what it takes to be hyvin (well)!

Everyone knows that water is essential for summer hydration. But it turns out that water alone may not be enough.

Some professional athletes may sweat away 5-8 pounds in a single game or event. But even if you don’t sweat that much, it only takes a loss of 2% of your body weight to cause fatigue and slow you down in the summer heat.

When you perspire, you’re not only losing fluids: you’re also losing precious electrolytes that are important for staying hydrated and you’re losing carbohydrates that maintain blood glucose levels and help with energy levels.

You also deplete your body of sodium when you sweat. Sodium is a nutrient vital to the nerves that lead to muscle movement. Consumption of water with the intention of replacing the fluids lost when through perspiration will not replace the sodium and electrolytes. In fact, drinking only water can actually weaken the concentration of these essential elements, further complicating your health status.

While drinking additional amounts of water in the summer months is important, when you’re in the heat and sweating, you’re better off drinking something specifically formulated to replace your lost sodium and electrolytes and help sustain your glucose levels.

Remember those ads that tout products that make you lose weight in your sleep? You just know it’s too good to be true, but it sounds SO appealing.

Well, while you probably can’t lose weight in your sleep, you may be able to ward off weight gain without even having to buy anything.

Really!

Researchers have found an inverse relationship between amount of sleep and weight gain in women. In other words, those who slept less gained more, and longer sleepers gained less weight.

As if I needed a reason to sleep more!

There was no rationale determined for this association, but we all know how important sleep is. These findings were reported recently at the American Thoracic Society’s International Conference.

So, sleep!!

Keeping well hydrated is one of the most important ways to maintain your health during the summer. Increased temperatures means increased sweating, which means increased water loss.

Here are some remarkable water facts from Nedra H. Sahr, M.S., C.N.S.:

• 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
• 37% of us think we’re hungry when we are thirsty.
• The Number One cause of fatigue is lack of water.
• Mild dehydration will slow metabolism as much as 3%.

A 2% drop in water stores leads to:

• Fuzzy short term memory.
• Trouble with basic math.
• Difficulty focusing on the computer screen or a printed page.

Can you drink too much water? Sure. Here are the top 3 ways you know you’ve been drinking too much water:

1. You have to empty water out of your shoes more than twice a day.
2. Mosquitoes start nesting on you.
3. You look at a picture of Niagara Falls and say, “Mama!”

What about juice? Can we use some juice in our quest to drink enough this summer?

Well, if you’re an adult, maybe. But In 2001, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines saying fruit juice should not be given to children younger than 6 months, and that there is no nutritional reason to give it to them before their first birthday. After that, juice is optional, though the group favors whole produce and urges parents to limit juice to 4 to 6 ounces a day for children up to 6 years old, and to no more than 8 to 12 ounces for older children. And even for adults, juice is not encouraged. It is essentially water and sugar (even the all-natural, no-sugar added varieties), and the new dietary guidelines discourage sugar intake, in food or beverages.

By now, most of us know the basics of summer sunscreen use. But here are a few reminders of some less well-known facts that your skin will appreciate:

• According to CBC News online, the biggest mistake people make about sunscreen is that they don’t use enough. Apply liberally. The recommended application for adequate protection is 35 to 40ml per person per session (a handful).
• Apply protection to every exposed area. People often forget the parts in their hair, the tops of their jaws and around their bodies’ corners and curves, but these areas are still vulnerable to sun damage.
• In figuring the length of your protection, you CANNOT add SPF numbers just because sunscreen was re-applied. While reapplication is encouraged after swimming or sweating, it does NOT extend time in the sun. So, for longer protection, you MUST use a larger SPF to start with. For example, if you apply SPF 15, then later in the day, apply SPF 30, you are protected ONLY by the length of time provided by the SPF 15.

If you know you should be using sunscreen, but dread dealing with greasy, sticky sunscreen that dries out the skin and seems to “sit” on the skin’s surface, try this great-for-sensitive-skin alternative.

Have you seen the news reports on recent research concluding that Americans are much sicker than people from England? This is despite the fact that “U.S. health care spending is double what England spends on each of its citizens”, according to the Yahoo News account of the comparison.

Released in the Journal of the American Medical Association, these results appear to be confounding the “experts.” A lot of possible contributing variables have been accounted for (wealth, ethnicity, education, etc.) and the English are still healthier than us, with lower rates of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, lung disease, and cancer!

Now, I’ve always believed that “health care” is a misnomer; it should be called “sickness care.” The medical profession’s role is primarily the treatment of disease, so if we want to know why we, as a nation, are sicker, methinks we better look at what makes us sick, not what we spend when we get sick. And what does make us so much sicker than the English?

Well, I suspect that it not a one-answer question, but I DO believe we should be looking at individuals’ basic health and wellness choices: diets, exercise patterns, use of nutritional supplements, exposure to toxic substances in daily life, and so on. I firmly believe that these things make a huge difference in many cases.

I’m no expert, but I’m not nearly as confounded as they appear to be. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that the U.S. lags behind England (and many other countries) in basic health and wellness practices. We reap what we sow, don’t you think?

Sleep has been in the news more often lately (now, don’t start yawning! ). Two polls showing that youth aren’t getting enough sleep have recently been released.

Here are the results of a KidsHealth® KidsPoll:

• On average, kids were short nearly 90 minutes of sleep each night.
• 70% of kids said they would like to get more sleep than they usually get.
• 39% of kids said they feel very sleepy when it’s time to wake up on schooldays.
• 40% of kids said they’re tired or sleepy at school every day or often.

And CNN just reported on a poll of adolescents conducted by the National Sleep Foundation which found that only 20% of teens get enough sleep!

As I admitted to you before, I was guilty of this same teen behavior, which extended even beyond my teen years. And we know the consequences of a sleep deficit: lack of concentration, poorer learning ability, emotional and physical health impediment, unsafe conditions (as in when driving), moodiness, and don’t forget just feeling crummy!!

On top of that, the CNN report of this study stated that: “[T]he agency [National Institute of Health] said there is growing evidence linking a chronic lack of sleep with an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and infections.”

Okay, okay, can we just go to bed now!

There was a fascinating article in the November 2005 National Geographic on centenarians — specific populations that have very long-lived members. One of the common denominators among these groups is their healthy diets: natural whole foods, no “junk” food. The journalist on assignment stated that how long you live (and how well) is influenced 30% by genetics and 70% by lifestyle. So being hyvin [well] really is up to you!

While a belly laugh sounds fun, belly fat is no laughing matter. Here’s a discussion on belly fat from Nedra Sahr, M.S., C.N.S.:

Pot belly — spare tire — love handles… call it what you will… it’s without question the first concern most of us have when we want to get in shape. Belly fat is stored energy. To get rid of the fat, you have to burn more energy (calories) than you take in. There is a link between abdominal fat and markers of chronic inflammation. The idea is that fat is an “organ” that produces substances such as leptins and cytokines that can affect your health.

Most doctors will tell you that the best way to avoid a heart attack is to lower your cholesterol… that’s only true for less than half of all patients at risk for heart disease. What we now know is that there’s another, possibly more, important marker, the amount of inflammation that you have in your body. We measure it by checking the levels of C-reactive protein in the blood. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) are linked with a higher than average risk of heart disease.

What’s interesting is that higher CRP levels are linked with body fat, especially the belly fat stored around your waist AND that belly fat is linked with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance, Syndrome X, Dysglycemia are all terms for the same condition: an abnormal insulin response in the body brought on by consuming too many fast-burning carbohydrates.

The answer to body fat is to eliminate refined fast burning carbohydrates from the diet, replace them with whole fruit and vegetables, and eventually whole grain products and to couple that with a consistent program of exercise. This process works!

If you’re one of those people who struggle with cravings for those fast-burning carbs, you’ll be happy to know there is natural craving reduction help available!

Personal Spring Cleaning… on the Inside!
Detox the Detox Organ… Keep your Liver Healthy!

The liver plays many crucial roles in normal metabolism, including detoxification. This important internal organ may need some spring cleaning, and here’s why:

There is a wide range of foreign compounds the liver may be called upon to detoxify, including:

• Benzopyrenes (from tobacco smoke or smoke from grilling foods)
• Acetone (from nail polish remover, paints, varnishes, thinners)
• Heterocyclic amines (from lighter fluid, hydrocarbon solvents, barbecued or broiled meats)
• Nitrosamines (from processed foods)
• Polycyclic hydrocarbons (from car exhaust, fumes from burning fossil fuels)
• Insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers
• Ammonia and other household chemicals
• Alcoholic beverages
• Some over-the-counter and prescription drugs: antiulcer, analgesic, antiflammatory, anticonvulsant, antihyperlipidemic, etc.

When the structure of these compounds is changed in the liver, free radicals are released. Free radicals then attack the cell membranes of liver cells. If their attack is successful, the integrity of the cell is impaired leading to cell damage and even cell death. Despite the liver’s amazing ability to regenerate itself, if too many liver cells are destroyed or damaged by free radical-induced oxidation, the liver’s ability to perform important functions may be decreased.

And what, besides detoxification, are those important functions? Well, you could think of the liver as a kind of industrial processing plant for the body, performing a wide range of critical functions for physical maintenance and repair.

Let’s take a look at some of the different departmental functions of the amazing liver.

• Warehouse and Shipping Depot for Nutrients. When you eat, foods are broken down into component nutrients by the process of digestion, absorbed, and transported by the blood to the liver. The liver receives the nutrients and assigns some to the storage while others are “packaged” and shipped to parts of the body to fill their needs.

  As another kind of “shipping and receiving” function, the liver helps to regulate normal blood sugar levels in response to the action of hormones produced by the pancreas.

• Protein Manufacturing Plant. The liver assembles amino acids into essential proteins needed for the immune system’s antibodies, blood clotting, and many other bodily functions.
• Waste Treatment Plant. When blood enters the liver, it carries not only nutrients, but also a wide range of other substances absorbed through our skin, through our lungs, and through our digestive systems. Any compound the body doesn’t need for nutritional supplies is identified as “foreign” and targeted for “disassembly” and disposal. Specialized liver enzymes perform the function of changing the chemical structure of foreign compounds so they can be excreted.
• Hazardous Waste Transport and Disposal. Once the liver has broken down toxic substances, they can be excreted by the kidneys in urine or transported to the intestines in bile, which is manufactured by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. When needed, bile is released into the intestines where it works along with dietary fiber to bind toxins and facilitate their elimination from the body as part of fecal waste.

So, in order to ensure that all these functions are done to the best of the liver’s ability, we need to do our part in optimizing our liver function. Many natural health professionals recommend a periodic cleansing of the liver as a part of this. There are two primary strategies we can use to optimize liver function:

1. Antioxidant Protection. Research continues to identify nutrients that protect various cells and tissues in the body against the oxidation damage caused by free radicals. By supplying the body with herbal compounds that have antioxidant properties, the liver’s natural ability to regenerate itself after exposure to damaging oxidation reactions can be supported.
2. Improving Bile Flow. The longer toxic substances and their oxidative by-products are present in the liver and the gastrointestinal tract, the more damage they can do. By providing the body with compounds that help maintain normal bile flow, the body’s natural ability to eliminate toxins from the body can be supported.

What substances best provide these strategies?

• Milk thistle seed extract – supports the body’s normal ability to make proteins that help regenerate liver cells
• Schizandra and reishi mushrooms – herbs with antioxidant properties; schizandra has also been associated with the stimulation of protein synthesis, increasing the amount of detoxifying enzymes in the liver, and inhibiting the binding of toxins to cell membranes.
• Extracts of dandelion, turmeric, and artichoke – herbs that help maintain normal bile flow.

You can get all of these herbs in one formulation for a spring cleaning of your liver!