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Way To Nature Life

Treating bunions...

Bunions themselves are salt deposits. Also, angina, influenza, gout, bad metabolism, rheumatic infections, poor diet and long wearing uncomfortable shoes contribute to their formation.

People who have bunions find it very difficult to find appropriate footwear.

The operation of removing bunions is only a temporary solution. Traditional medicine has effective means to solve this problem.

To start you need to clean the body from salt deposits.

Pour with 300 ml of water one tablespoon of chopped bay leaves and boil for 5 minutes.

Pour into a thermos bottle and leave it to stand until the next morning.

Strain it in the morning and drink in small sips throughout the day.

Do this treatment for 3 consecutive days, preparing every evening a fresh beverage.

Repeat the treatment after 7 days.

Do not be surprised if you have frequent need to urinate. This is a sign that the salt in the body began to dissolve. The result will be visible after 10 days.

Tips For Healthy Life

Stretch Your Ring Finger With Your Thumb and Maintain For a Few Seconds. Reason You’ll Love!

TipsforhealthylifeJanuary 19, 2017 Stretch Your Ring Finger With Your Thumb and Maintain For a Few Seconds. Reason You’ll Love!2017-01-19T04:27:39+00:00Health No Comment

Mudras are ritual gestures in Hinduism and Buddhism, which are usually performed with the hands. The mudras are also called producers of joy, as they provide harmony and peace. How is it possible to reach a state of peace and harmony just with our hands? It is because our fingers have a huge amount of nerve endings, which serve as channels allowing energy circulation through the body. The mudras can be performed anywhere and anytime.

The hand mudras, that are showed below, can be performed in any position you want, including sitting, standing, walking or traveling. However, the sitting position is considered to be the most effective one. The most important thing when performing these hand mudras is to set your mind and body in relaxation mode.

1. Gyan Mudra for Healing (Mudra of Knowledge):

How To Do:

In order to perform this mudra, you should sit in a lotus posture. Then, place your hand on the knee and touch thumb tip with your index finger tip. You should keep the remaining three fingers free like straight or close.

Benefits:

This gyan hand mudra is extremely beneficial for improving the concentration and relaxing the mind. It keeps the brain sharp and smart. Moreover, it fights insomnia and it will relieve you from depression.

2. Vayu Mudra (Mudra of Air):

How To Do:

Keep the index finger on the base of the thumb and pres with the thumb. The rest of the three fingers should be kept extended as much as possible. When practicing this mudra, do it for 45 minutes.

Benefits:

This yoga mudra eliminates excessive gas from your body. It can gives relief in problems associated with the air element such as: Flatulence, constipation, cervical spondylitis, arthritis etc.

3. Prithvi Mudra for Healing (Mudra of Earth):

How To Do:

First of all you touch the tip of your ring finger with tip of thumb and then pressing the both fingers with each other then kept the remaining fingers extended out.

Benefits:

This mudra gesture balances the element Earth in your body. It improves body weight, blood circulation, digestive power and vitamin deficiency associated problems.

4. Jal Mudra (Varun Mudra/ Mudra of Water):

How To Do:

You can perform this hand mudra by placing your fingers so that the tip of your little finger touches the tip of the thumb. Keep the rest of the fingers straight. The preferable position is sitting with cross-legged. This hand mudra has no specific time duration.

Benefits:

This hand mudra is great for promoting blood circulation, reducing dryness of mouth, and alleviating body pains. Furthermore, it retains clarity in blood by balancing water content in the body.

5. Shunya Mudra (Mudra of Emptiness):

How To Do:

First phalanx of your middle finger should be pressed with thumb base.

Benefits:

It is helpful in ENT (Ear, Nose,Tongue) problems, vertigo and motion sickness.

6. Prana Healing (Mudra of Life):

How To Do :

Bend the ring finger and the little finger and touch the tip of the thumb with their tips. Keep the remaining two fingers stretched.

Benefits :

It makes you feel more energetic and helps boost the body’s immunity. It also  reduce eye related issues, and relieve vitamin deficiency and fatigue.

What’s In a Bone?

Looking at a bone, you might think it has nothing to offer in terms of nutrition. Lick it, and it has an unpleasantly sandpapery texture. Bite into it, and all you get is a sore tooth. It looks so dead; what kind of useful nutrients could possibly be in there?

The answer: just about everything. Bones are a perfect example of why you should never judge a book by its cover. Locked away inside that hard shell is a wealth of essential nutrients – anti-inflammatory and gut-healing proteins, healthy fats, and a wealth of minerals just waiting to be used. Wild animals the world over know this: they’ll go straight for the bones every time they make a kill. Unlike dogs or vultures, though, human beings aren’t built to crack open the bones with our bare teeth. Instead, we have to make our oversized primate brains earn their keep by cooking the bones to get at the goodness inside.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by making bone broth. The recipe is so simple a child could do it. First, get yourself some bones. Any kind of odds and ends of the animal will do: feet, heads, necks and backs, knuckles, or tails are all perfectly good. Sometimes you can even get these parts from a butcher or farmer for free, or deeply discounted as “pet food.” Leftovers from your last meal are also fine. Throw them all in a pot or slow-cooker, cover with water, turn the heat on low, and come back 6-48 hours later for your broth. Seasonings and garnishes are optional if you like them; throw in whatever tastes good to you.

The resulting stock will have a clear, rich color ranging from translucent (fish bones) to golden-yellow (chicken bones) to deep brown (ruminant bones). If you added vegetables, this may affect the color as well; for example, beets will turn it red. After a few hours in the fridge, the broth will congeal into the consistency of Jell-O: that’s a sign you’ve done it right. A layer of fat will rise to the top of the broth; if you’re using bones from healthy animals, there’s no reason not to enjoy this, but if you’re stuck with grocery-store bones, just wait until the stock has congealed and the hardened fat will be easy to scrape off.

Bone broth tastes amazing as a base for soups or stews (you’ll never be tempted by grocery-store broth again), but what’s really remarkable about it is its incredible health benefits.

Benefits of Bone Broth: Joint Health

The advice to “eat what ails you” sounds like a silly piece of folklore in an era of modern medicine, but in this case all our sophisticated modern analysis actually proves the old wives’ tale true. Broth made from bones and joints contains several nutrients that help strengthen your own skeletal system.

First up to bat are the proteins. Yes, bones have protein. In fact, they’re close to 50% protein by volume, and that number goes up once you factor in all the connective tissue that’s usually attached to them. Collagen, the protein matrix in bones, tendons, ligaments, and other flexible tissues, is broken down during the cooking process into another protein called gelatin. Gelatin is the reason properly prepared broth congeals in the fridge (it’s also the active ingredient in Jell-O dessert, gummy candies, and marshmallows). Unlike many other animal proteins, gelatin is not a complete protein (it doesn’t contain all the essential amino acids), but it does contain several very important “non-essential” ones, especially proline and glycine.

These proteins perform a variety of crucial functions. First of all, they give your body the raw materials to rebuild your own connective tissue, especially tendons (which connect muscles to bones) and ligaments (which connect bones to each other). It’s hard to overestimate how important this connective tissue is for overall health and strength. Professional powerlifters know that their bodies are only as strong as their weakest link: bulging muscles are useless if their tendons and ligaments are underdeveloped. And injury to these crucial tissues doesn’t just stall your deadlift progression. Think of tendonitis, or the overall “aching joints” that seem to accumulate with age. Definitely symptoms we all want to reduce or avoid if at all possible.

As well as providing the raw materials for healthy bones and joints, the proteins in bone broth deliver an especially interesting benefit for rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease marked by painful damage to the tendons and ligaments. Specifically, these proteins may actually help stop the autoimmune response in its tracks. One study found that chicken collagen dramatically improved symptoms in 60 patients; four of them showed complete remission.

Another benefit of bone broth for joint health comes from glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), a family of carbohydrates found in bones and connective tissue that show interesting effects in reducing joint pain. One of these GAGs, hyaluronic acid, is an effective treatment for osteoarthritis: it’s been mostly studied as an injection, but there’s also evidence that it’s useful when taken by mouth. Chondroitin sulfate is another GAG that has performed well in reducing the pain and damage of arthritis in several studies.

The best-known GAG is glucosamine, which thousands of people take as a joint healthsupplement. Interestingly enough, the studies evaluating glucosamine + chondroitin supplements have produced conflicting and inconclusive results, and there seems to be a significant bias introduced by industry funding. However, one study compared glucosamine + chondroitin to plain collagen and found that the collagen was actually more effective, indicating that there might be something in the whole food that the supplements miss.

Whether it’s from the GAGs or the proteins, or the combination of all of them, the evidence is in: bone broth is a valuable supplemental food for all of us, and a delicious potential therapy for joint diseases. Especially if you play sports that put stress on your joints (anything where you have to run or jump on concrete, like basketball or jogging), your knees will thank you for adding a big mug of broth to your recovery routine.

Benefits of Bone Broth: Digestion

Nature rarely seems to make foods that are healthy for only one reason, and bone broth is no exception. As well as keeping your knees free from disturbing crunchy noises every time you move, it also helps improve digestion in a variety of ways.

Glycine, for example, is useful because it stimulates the production of stomach acid. To judge from the billions of dollars Americans spend on antacids every year, you might think that this is the last thing we need, but in fact acid reflux may actually be a problem of too little stomach acid, not too much. For the full story, seethis series; the short version is that a stomach acid deficiency leaves your food sitting there in your stomach, half-digested, and the pressure from your stomach being so full can force acid up into the esophagus.

By prompting your body to secrete more stomach acid, glycine can help prevent or treat this painful and potentially dangerous problem. This makes bone broth a delicious supplemental food for anyone suffering from acid reflux, IBS, or FODMAPS intolerance.

Adding to its metabolic virtues, glycine is also an important component of bile acid, which is necessary for fat digestion in the small intestine, and also helps maintain healthy blood cholesterol levels. Especially for people who are new to Paleo and switching from a carb-based to a fat-based diet, this has the potential to keep the digestive process running a lot more smoothly.

Glycine isn’t the only useful protein for gut health, either. Glutamine, another amino acid found in bone broth, is a natural remedy for “leaky gut,” that unpleasant and dangerous condition where the barrier between your gut and the rest of your body isn’t working properly, allowing molecules that should stay inside the gut to cross over into the bloodstream and potentially set of a cascade of autoimmune reactions. Glutamine helps maintain the function of the intestinal wall, preventing this damage from occurring.

Benefits of Bone Broth: Detox

Glycine also helps in detoxification – the actually meaningful kind, not the ridiculous nonsense about unspecified “toxins” and the necessity of removing them by embarking on long fasts or juice cleanses. None of those special cleanses are necessary, because your body has its own detox system: your liver. Glycine gives the liver a hand up in removing anything dangerous from the body – for example, in one rat study, rats fed glycine showed significant improvements in recovery from alcohol-induced fatty liver disease compared to rats that weren’t.

Glycine is also necessary for the synthesis of glutathione and uric acid, the body’s most important endogenous antioxidants. As described in the article on antioxidants, boosting production of the endogenous (internally produced) antioxidants is much more useful for reducing oxidative stress than taking Vitamin C or other antioxidant supplements.

Yet another detox-related benefit is that glycine helps clear out excess methionine, another amino acid found in large quantities in eggs and muscle meat. Methionine is an essential amino acid, but too much of it can raise blood levels of another amino acid called homocysteine, and the process of breaking down homocysteine increases the body’s need for B vitamins (thus increasing the risk of B vitamin deficiency even if your intake is adequate). Glycine from broths and cartilage can help break down homocysteine without the need for B vitamins. This is a perfect example of the wisdom of traditional cultures in eating every part of the animal: the proteins in the muscle meat and the proteins in the connective tissue balance each other out for optimal nutrition.

Benefits of Bone Broth: Marrow

Any kind of broth is nutritious, but broth made with marrow bones is especially beneficial because you get all the good stuff in the marrow as well as the good stuff in the bones themselves. Marrow is what the animals really go after when they’re tearing through the bones of a dead animal: vultures will even fly up holding the bones and drop them to smash on the rocks, and then swoop down to slurp up the delicious interior.

The vultures are onto something good: bone marrow is criminally delicious. It’s commonly touted as extremely nutritious as well – and it probably is, given that it’s an organ meat and organ meats in general tend to have an excellent nutritional profile. Bone marrow is an essential part of the immune system, and contains all kinds of cells necessary for immune function and bone growth. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a conclusive nutritional analysis of it yet because so few people are interested in eating it. We do know that it’s loaded with monounsaturated fat, and Dr. Weston A. Price reported many traditional cultures who viewed it as a sacred food for fertility nutrition; more information than that will unfortunately have to wait until a more complete nutritional analysis is available.

Benefits of Bone Broth: Minerals

Aside from the benefits of all the proteins and sugars, and whatever nutrients might be hiding in the marrow, bone broth is extremely high in minerals. Bones from land animals are rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus, and fish bones also contain iodine. We know that at least some of this mineral content leaches out into the water, because the bones are crumbly and demineralized when the broth is done cooking – often they’re so weak that they’ll fall apart if you put any pressure on them. If you use smaller bones, like chicken or fish, they’ll sometimes even entirely dissolve into the stock.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to get a precise estimate of exactly how much of these minerals is contained in the broth because every batch of bones is so different. The nutritional content of the broth will depend heavily on how the animal was treated, what its diet was like, how many bones were used, whether there was any meat left on them, what part of the animal the bones were from, how long they were cooked, and at what temperature. In short, it’s impossible to give you an easy list of “bone broth nutrition information.”

That said, there are a few ways to maximize the mineral content. The easiest is to just add a few tablespoons of something acidic (apple cider vinegar is a favorite) to the broth before you turn on the heat. If you’ve ever put an egg into a glass of vinegar, you’ve seen this in action: the shell is made of calcium carbonate, so it fizzles away and dissolves, leaving the egg held together by nothing but the membrane.

Another simple way to get the most nutrition from your broth is to just eat the bones. After cooking for so long, small bones aren’t hard at all; they have a texture that’s just a little harder than crunchy nut butter. If you can’t handle them straight, another option is to grind them up in a blender and take them like a supplement (you can buy empty gelatin capsules online to fill with this bone meal if you really hate the taste or texture).

Benefits of Bone Broth: Other Benefits

As well as the major benefits above, there’s also a grab-bag of miscellaneous other reasons to get your broth in. In general, all the proteins in bone broth are strongly anti-inflammatory. This may actually be why some of them are so helpful in treating osteoarthritis (an inflammatory autoimmune disease), leaky gut (an inflammatory precursor to autoimmune diseases), and other chronic inflammatory conditions like joint pain or fatty liver disease.

Another interesting anti-inflammatory benefit of the proteins in bone broth is more rapid recovery from injury. Under the stress of an injury or disease, the body’s needs for these amino acids increases – that’s why many of them are considered “conditionally essential” even though technically they aren’t required in the diet because it’s possible to synthesize them from other sources. During periods of increased physical demands or stress, the body needs more of these amino acids than it can produce, so they do become “essential,” and getting more of them can speed recovery.

The most notable examples of this are arginine and glutamine, both found in bone broth. Supplemental dietary arginine helps speed wound healing by supporting the formation of collagen. This may be through conversion to proline (although supplemental proline does not have the same effect) or through some other pathway. Glutamine also helps reduce healing time in hospital patients, and recovery time in athletes on an intense training regimen.

Another fringe benefit of broth is that glycine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning that it helps you relax. One trial found that glycine supplements also improved sleep quality and reduced daytime sleepiness. So a hot mug of bone broth might be just the ticket to wind down after a long day.

On a more superficial level, the amino acids in gelatin also improve the appearance of your skin and hair. Skin, just like gelatin, is made of collagen. Gelatin-rich broths help build connective tissue, which makes skin smoother (less cellulite, fewer wrinkles) and healthier. There’s also some evidence that it helps reduce the signs of aging, but be wary when you’re digging through the evidence: a lot of the research into this is funded by industry sponsors, so it isn’t terribly trustworthy.

Turmeric Cures

Sep 24, 2016

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Turmeric is a spice widely used though most popularly on the Indian subcontinent. It is a mellow, mildly spicy, and somewhat earthy flavoring (somewhat surprising, as it is related to the ginger plant), yellow in color and inclined to stain any and all surfaces.
Regular use of turmeric has been found to reduce the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease and may play a role in its treatment. It is also being studied as a natural remedy for arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and similar conditions, as it has anti-inflammatory characteristics.
Turmeric's primary active component is a molecule called curcumin, a powerful antioxidant. It is possible to purchase this component as a standalone supplement. Other organic compounds in turmeric have been found to offer anti-fungal and general antibiotic value. A number of studies are also pursuing turmeric as potentially being part of a natural cure for various cancers.
When taking turmeric as a health aid, it should be remembered that curcumin is substantially more bioavailable when taken along with a bit of black pepper.

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By Dr. Mercola Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body. Researchers have detected more than 3,750 magnesium-binding sites on human proteins1 giving an indication of its wide-ranging health effects. More than 300 different enzymes also rely on magnesium for proper function. A common estimate is that 50 to 80 percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium, and the health consequences are significant. Magnesium plays an important role in your body's biochemical processes, many of which are crucial for proper metabolic function. This includes but is not limited to: •Creation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of your body2,3 •Relaxation of blood vessels •Muscle and nerve function, including the action of your heart muscle •Proper formation of bones and teeth •Regulation of blood sugar and insulin sensitivity, which is important for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.4,5,6,7,8 For example, magnesium is essential for insulin release by pancreatic β-cells, and acts as a messenger for insulin action9 Magnesium and Heart Health If you're lacking in cellular magnesium, it can lead to the deterioration of your cellular metabolic function and mitochondrial function, which in turn can lead to more serious health problems. The scientific evidence suggests magnesium is particularly important for your heart health. Moreover, it's very important to have a proper balance between magnesium and calcium, but few people get enough magnesium in their diet these days, while calcium tends to be overused and taken in high quantities. Insufficient magnesium tends to trigger muscle spasms, and this has consequences for your heart in particular. This is especially true if you also have excessive calcium, as calcium causes muscle contractions. Magnesium also functions as an electrolyte, which is crucial for all electrical activity in your body.10 Without electrolytes such as magnesium, potassium and sodium, electrical signals cannot be sent or received, and without these signals, your heart cannot pump blood and your brain cannot function properly. As explained by Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of the seminal paper "Death by Medicine" in 2003 (identifying modern medicine as a leading cause of death in the U.S.) and the book, "The Magnesium Miracle," your heart has the highest magnesium requirement of any organ, specifically your left ventricle. With insufficient amounts of magnesium, your heart simply cannot function properly. Hypertension (high blood pressure), cardiac arrhythmia,11 cardiovascular disease (CVD) and sudden cardiac death are all potential effects of magnesium deficiency and/or a lopsided magnesium to calcium ratio. Magnesium Associated With Lower Cardiovascular Disease Risk According to a systematic review and meta-analysis12 published in 2013, "circulating and dietary magnesium are inversely associated with CVD risk." This means the lower your magnesium intake (and the lower the circulating magnesium in your body), the higher your risk for CVD. • Each 0.2 millimole per liter (mmol/L) of circulating magnesium was associated with a 30 percent lower risk of CVD • A 200 milligram per day (mg/d) increase in dietary magnesium was associated with a 22 percent lower risk of fatal ischemic heart disease (IHD), but had no significant impact on CVD risk. The inverse association between dietary magnesium intake and IHD also leveled out above 250 mg/d The authors noted their finding "supports the need for clinical trials to evaluate the potential role of magnesium in the prevention of CVD and IHD." The Weston A. Price Foundation has also noted that:13 "[M]agnesium shines brightest in cardiovascular health. It alone can fulfill the role of many common cardiac medications: magnesium inhibits blood clots (like aspirin), thins the blood (like Coumadin), blocks calcium uptake (like calcium channel-blocking drugs such as Procardia) and relaxes blood vessels (like ACE inhibitors such as Vasotec)" Magnesium May Be Key for Blood Pressure Control Recent research14,15 also suggests magnesium may be a key component of blood pressure management. Addressing your high blood pressure is important, as it is a risk factor for both heart disease and stroke. As mentioned, magnesium helps relax and dilate your blood vessels, thereby reducing your blood pressure. In this review, data from 34 clinical trials involving more than 2,000 participants was evaluated. The studies used dosages of magnesium supplements ranging from 240 mg/d to 960 mg/d. Although the association was mild, they did find that higher magnesium intake was associated with "healthy reductions" in blood pressure. Key findings include: • A daily dose of 368 mg of magnesium, taken for three months, lowered systolic blood pressure (the upper number in the blood pressure reading) by 2 millimeters of mercury (mm/Hg) and diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) by 1.78 mm/Hg • Those who took 300 mg of magnesium per day were able to elevate their circulating magnesium levels and lower their blood pressure in as little as four weeks • Higher magnesium intake was associated with improved blood flow • Benefits of magnesium appeared to be restricted to those who had insufficiency or deficiency in magnesium to begin with, meaning those whose blood pressure might have been caused by lack of magnesium. According to lead author Dr. Yiqing Song, "Such suggestive evidence indicates that maintenance of optimal magnesium status in the human body may help prevent or treat hypertension."16 To Optimize Your Magnesium, Eat Magnesium-Rich Foods According to the authors, 368 mg of magnesium can be obtained from a healthy diet, so you do not necessarily need to take a supplement. Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a New York City cardiologist, told Medicinenet.com:17 "As clinicians, we need to stress the importance of a well-balanced meal, not only for all the cholesterol lowering and sugar-modulating benefits, but for ensuring an adequate amount of magnesium in the blood," adding that "checking magnesium levels as part of a screening for heart health may become an essential part of prevention and for treatment of blood pressure." Indeed, a useful way to maintain healthy magnesium levels is to make sure you eat plenty of dark-green leafy vegetables. Juicing your greens is an excellent way to increase your magnesium, along with many other important plant-based nutrients. That said, if the mineral is lacking in the soil, it's also going to be low in the food, and mineral depleted soils are commonplace these days unless the farmer is using regenerative methods. If you eat organic whole foods and show no signs of deficiency, you're probably getting sufficient amounts from your food. If you eat well but still exhibit deficiency signs (discussed below), you may want to consider taking a supplement as well. When it comes to leafy greens, those highest in magnesium include: Spinach Swiss chard Turnip greens Beet greens Collard greens Broccoli Brussels sprouts Kale Bok Choy Romaine lettuce Other foods that are particularly rich in magnesium include:18,19,20,21 Raw cacao nibs and/or unsweetened cocoa powder One ounce or 28 grams (g) or raw cacao nibs contain about 64 mg of magnesium, plus many other valuable antioxidants, iron and prebiotic fiber that help feed healthy bacteria in your gut. Avocados One medium avocado contains about 58 mg of magnesium, plus healthy fats and fiber and other vitamins. They're also a good source of potassium, which helps offset the hypertensive effects of sodium. Seeds and nuts Pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds score among the highest, with one-quarter cup providing an estimated 48 percent, 32 percent and 28 percent of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of magnesium respectively. Cashews, almonds and Brazil nuts are also good sources; 1 ounce (28 g) of cashews contains 82 mg of magnesium, which equates to about 20 percent of the RDA. Fatty fish Interestingly, fatty fish such as wild caught Alaskan salmon and mackerel are also high in magnesium. A half fillet or 178 g (about 6.3 ounces) of salmon can provide about 53 mg of magnesium, equal to about 13 percent of the RDA. Squash One cup of winter squash provides close to 27 g of magnesium; about 7 percent of your RDA. Herbs and spices Herbs and spices pack lots of nutrients in small packages, and this includes magnesium. Some of the most magnesium-rich varieties are coriander, chives, cumin seed, parsley, mustard seeds, fennel, basil and cloves. Fruits and berries Ranking high for magnesium are papaya, raspberries, tomato, cantaloupe, strawberries and watermelon. For example, one medium sized papaya can provide nearly 58 g of magnesium. Magnesium Level Inversely Associated With Arterial Calcification In related news, your blood level of magnesium has also been shown to be inversely associated with coronary artery calcification (CAC).22 Previous studies have noted this association among patients with chronic kidney disease, but this study found the same correlation exists among general, otherwise healthy populations. Among people who did not have any signs of symptomatic cardiovascular disease, and compared to those with the lowest serum levels, those who had the highest serum level of magnesium had a: •48 percent lower risk of high blood pressure •69 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes •42 percent lower risk of an elevated CAC score A 0.17 milligram per deciliter (mg/dL) increase in serum magnesium was associated with a 16 percent reduction in CAC score. The authors concluded that: "[L]ow serum magnesium was independently associated to higher prevalence not only of hypertension and DM2 [diabetes mellitus 2], but also to coronary artery calcification, which is a marker of atherosclerosis and a predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality." Magnesium Intake Is Also Inversely Associated With Inflammation Marker Research published in 2014 also found that higher magnesium intake is inversely associated with serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.23 CRP is a marker for inflammation and rises when you have inflammation brewing in your body. Here, data collected from seven cross-sectional studies of more than 32,900 people showed that people who had higher magnesium intake had lower CRP levels. According to the authors: "This meta-analysis and systematic review indicates that dietary Mg [magnesium] intake is significantly and inversely associated with serum CRP levels. The potential beneficial effect of Mg intake on chronic diseases may be, at least in part, explained by inhibiting inflammation." Risk Factors, Signs and Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency A primary risk factor for magnesium deficiency is eating a processed food diet, and the reason for this is because magnesium resides at the center of the chlorophyll molecule. If you rarely eat leafy greens and other magnesium-rich whole foods (listed above), you may not get enough magnesium from your diet alone. Magnesium is also lost through stress, sweating from heavy exertion, lack of sleep, alcohol consumption and use of certain prescription drugs (especially diuretics, statins, fluoride and fluoride-containing drugs such as fluoroquinolone antibiotics), and tend to decline in the presence of elevated insulin levels.24 These are all factors that affect a large majority of people in the Western world. Unfortunately, unlike sodium or potassium, there is no easily available commercial lab test that will give you a truly accurate reading of your magnesium status. The reason for this is because the vast majority of the magnesium in your body is found in bones and soft tissues. Only 1 percent of it shows up in your blood. That said, some specialty labs do provide an RBC magnesium test that can give you a reasonable estimate. Perhaps the best way to ascertain your status is to carefully evaluate and track your symptoms. Early signs of magnesium deficiency include "Charlie horses" (the muscle spasm that occurs when you stretch your legs), headaches/migraines, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, fatigue or weakness. These are all warning signs indicating you probably need to boost your magnesium intake. More chronic magnesium deficiency can lead to far more serious symptoms such as abnormal heart rhythms and coronary spasms, seizures, numbness and tingling, as well as changes in personality and behavior. Dean's book, "The Magnesium Miracle," contains an extensive list of signs and symptoms, which can be helpful for evaluating your magnesium status. You can also follow the instructions in her blog post, "Gauging Magnesium Deficiency Symptoms,"25 which will give you a check list to go through every few weeks. This will also help you gauge how much magnesium you need to resolve

Risk Factors to Watch Out for: What Causes Fibromyalgia? The exact cause of fibromyalgia is still undetermined; however, research suggests that a combination of physical, neurological, and psychological factors can lead to the onset of this illness. Your emotions and moods can affect the pain you feel, and being depressed or anxious can further compound it. Here are some factors1 that may lead to fibromyalgia: Chemical Imbalances One of the potential causes of fibromyalgia is how your body processes pain. People with fibromyalgia process pain differently, as their levels of substance P, a chemical found in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that is responsible for transmitting pain impulses to the brain, are significantly higher — at least three times more compared to people without fibromyalgia. Having higher levels of substance P makes the pain more intense.2 Research also found that having low levels of the hormones noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine in the brain is common among fibromyalgia sufferers. These hormones are essential in regulating mood, appetite, sleep, behavior, and stress response. Changes in the levels of stress hormones like cortisol may contribute to fibromyalgia, too. Genetics A combination of inherited genetic mutations may play a role in developing fibromyalgia, which is why people who have a close relative (a sibling or a parent) who had this illness are at a higher risk of acquiring it, compared to people who have no relatives diagnosed with this disease. Sleep Problems Having disturbed sleep patterns or lacking deep sleep, may be a cause of fibromyalgia, and not just a symptom. It is in stage 4 sleep when the body refreshes itself, allowing the muscles to recover from the day’s activity. According to studies, people with fibromyalgia become more aroused when they enter stage 4 sleep, resulting in a lighter form of sleep. When researchers took volunteers and stopped them from entering stage 4 sleep, symptoms similar to fibromyalgia manifested as well.3 Other Possible Triggers Some physical conditions may exacerbate your risk of fibromyalgia. These include getting an injury (or repetitive injuries), a viral infection, surgery, or giving birth. Emotional or stressful events, such as losing a loved one, being in an accident or being physically abused (leading to posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD), and relationship problems (breaking up with your significant other) may also put you in danger of fibromyalgia. Health Ailments Painful rheumatic conditions that affect the muscles, joints, or bones can put you in danger of fibromyalgia. These include: • Rheumatoid arthritis • Osteoarthritis • Lupus • Ankylosing spondylitis • Temporomandibular disorder (TMD)

Nourishing Your Gut Bacteria Is Critical for Health and Mental Well-Being

March 13, 2016 | 229,799 views

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By Dr. Mercola

Barely a day goes by without some type of media announcement noting the importance of your gut flora.

One of the best and least expensive ways to optimize your gut microbiome is to eliminate sugars and processed sugars and eat traditionally fermented foods, but probiotic supplements can also be beneficial.

Greg Leyer,1 who has a Ph.D. in Food Microbiology, is the Chief Scientific Officer of UAS Laboratories, a probiotic-dedicated manufacturer, and he's been passionate about probiotics and health for more than two decades.

"I got interested in microbiology and spent my graduate research career looking at pathogenic bacteria, those bacteria we want to avoid and that make us sick," he says.

"In the course of doing those studies, I became aware that not all bacteria are bad and became intrigued in this whole concept of probiotics ... My first post-graduate job was in the area of developing probiotics for infant nutrition. That was 21 years ago.

I've been in the probiotic research development field ever since, and have seen the clinical research and the market just explode."

Nourishing Your Microbiome Begins With Real Food

Mounting evidence reveals there's more to nutrition than previously thought — a large component of it actually revolves around nourishing the health-promoting bacteria in your body, thereby keeping harmful microbes in check.

Probiotics are supplements designed to increase your beneficial bacteria, the largest concentration of which is found in your gut. Different types of bacteria live in different locations in your gastrointestinal tract. You also have bacteria residing in other areas of your body, such as your mouth and skin.

While probiotic supplements have their benefits and their place, it's important — before taking a supplement — to optimize the conditions where these beneficial bacteria grow.

One of the reasons a healthy diet is able to influence your health is by the fact that it helps create an optimal environment for beneficial bacteria in your gut, while decreasing pathogenic or disease-causing bacteria, fungi, and yeast.

"Healthy eating" basically amounts to eating real food, which means avoiding processed foods and staying away from sugars, because few things fertilize and accelerate the growth of pathogenic microbes better than sugar. As noted by Leyer:

"In studies done in people all over the world, you'll see different microbial communities residing in people that have different dietary intakes. You want to provide foods that are going to nourish this healthy community of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract.

Sugars aren't selective. Bacteria like sugars, but the bad bacteria lovesugars. Eating real food, complex carbohydrates, fiber, and things like that, are more selective.

Simply put, the pathogenic bacteria don't utilize non-fiber carbs as efficiently. It's more difficult for them to grow with complex carbohydrates as an energy source."

The Importance of Probiotics When Taking an Antibiotic

Unfortunately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricts supplement makers from making certain health claims; for example, you cannot market a probiotic saying, "This is useful to take after an antibiotic," because that would imply that antibiotics might harm you in some way.

As a result of these restrictions, unless you spend a fair amount of time reading about the subject you may not be aware of many of the benefits of probiotics.

"There's a lot of very compelling research that we're not able to talk about on a product label," Leyer notes. "One of the exciting areas is the role of healthy bacteria when co-prescribed with an antibiotic, and the effect it has on maintaining healthy populations in your gut.

Antibiotics are selective for bacteria and not viruses, but they're not terribly selective for a particular type of bacteria.

Antibiotics — and many studies have shown this — will have a tremendously disruptive effect on the overall microbial community. They'll kill the target organism that might be causing your infection which is a good thing ... but they also do a lot of harm to the good bacterial populations that are there.

Studies have shown that when you co-administer probiotics with antibiotics and continue the probiotic administration even after stopping the antibiotic regimine, you're quickly able to restore that microbial community to the healthy state it was prior to the antibiotic treatment."

Guidelines for Taking Probiotics With Antibiotics

If you're taking an antibiotic, don't simultaneously take the probiotic as the antibiotic is liable to simply kill the bacteria off. Instead, take them a few hours before or after taking the antibiotic. From the clinical research Leyer has done, this strategy appears to work quite well.

Saccharomyces yeast, a beneficial type of yeast, may also be helpful when taking a course of antibiotics, as it has also been shown to prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

"Fifteen to 25 percent of people who take an antibiotic end up getting antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

Probiotics — I'll include Saccharomyces in this group — have been shown to have tremendous benefits in reducing the risk of developing that kind of secondary complication of antibiotic treatment," Leyer says.

The Hazards of Antibiotics in the Food Supply

Medical antibiotics are not the sole source of exposure. About 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are actually used in livestock production to fatten up the animals and prevent disease.

So, unless you're buying organic grass-fed meats, you're likely ingesting minute doses of antibiotics with each hamburger and steak you eat.

This continuous low-dose exposure has the added downside of promoting antibiotic resistance. The role of antibiotics in promoting (rather than treating) disease is slowly gaining ground.

There's no question that antibiotics have saved lives. But if you were to carefully analyze and objectively determine their true impact, you just might find they've done more harm than good. Leyer cites the book "Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues," written by Dr. Martin Blaser, which presents the theory that many of our modern disease epidemics may be rooted in the disruptive effect modern foods have on our microbiota.

"Keeping your intestinal microflora healthy, consuming healthy, active, probiotic bacteria is a key component to maintaining, in my opinion, your overall health," Leyer says.

Probiotics for the Prevention of Leaky Gut, and More

Leaky gut results when there's a disruption in the interconnections between the cells in your intestines. Little holes or tears can develop, allowing food particles to enter your blood stream, which can cause an autoimmune response.

It's a serious problem, and I've known a number of people who nearly died from it. There are a number of causes for leaky gut, but whatever the cause, one of the most powerful remedies is to consume homemade organic bone broth and fermented vegetables. Certain probiotic supplements can also be helpful.

According to Leyer:

"I am familiar with the evidence behind certain probiotics and their ability to prevent or lessen leaky gut. The issue with leaky gut is that you're getting things into the circulation system that aren't supposed to be there. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) ... are inflammatory components from gram-negative bacteria ... [LPS] is a diagnostic test to look for leaky gut.

What we're finding is that subchronic levels of LPS circulating in the blood causes this chronic inflammation cascade. Chronic inflammation seems to be at the root of a lot of disease states ... One that is front and center is type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. There's been some really intriguing work with probiotics maintaining tight-junction barrier, reducing leaky gut, reducing circulating LPS, and affecting insulin sensitivity through downplaying this inflammation."

Probiotics have also been extensively tested for their immunological functions. For example, in the elderly, probiotics can help boost activity of immune cells that fight off cancer cells. The mechanism involved here is an orchestration of immune chemical messengers called cytokines. But there's still much to be learned about the exact mechanisms by which probiotics influence health.

"There are some areas in the probiotic science where the mechanisms are becoming better understood. And there are some areas in probiotic science that is more theory than really causal right now.

But the more layers of the onion you peel back, the more you understand this is an incredibly complicated web of information from gut to human, to nervous system to immune system. This complex interplay is at the heart of probiotic mechanisms and one reason it is not so simple to clearly identify." Leyer explains.

Probiotics and the Gut-Brain Axis

It's become quite clear that the benefits of probiotics transcend the gut. More recent studies have delved into the role of gut bacteria in the workings of the gut-brain axis, and how they benefit your mental and psychological health. Anxiety, depression and other mood disorders are increasingly recognized as being, in part, related to an unbalanced microbiome.

Probiotics appear to have the ability to make compounds called neuropeptides that interact directly with your brain. Probiotics certainly influence your immune system by way of modulating inflamation, which has interactions with and can cross the blood-brain barrier.

"There's an interesting study where people gave infants probiotic bacteria for the first two years of their life," Dr. Leyer says. "They were really looking at the ability of this probiotic to ward off the incidence of atopic eczema or skin rashes. When the kids were 13 years old, they went back and said, 'Okay. Let's look at autistic spectrum disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and [other] psychological kind of issues and ask if there is a relationship between those children who were administered the probiotic early in life, and incidence.'

Of the kids that took the probiotic, none had developed any kind of autistic spectrum disorders; 17 percent of those that did not get probiotics developed autistic spectrum disorders. The study wasn't designed to look at ADHD or autism, but it's an interesting way to look back in time and say:

Here's a population of people that were essentially imprinted with probiotic bacteria at a very young age. We now understand better that there's this developmental window in young people that's critically important for longer term health."

Beware of 'Probiotic' Junk Food

As a general rule, I believe most people would be able to obtain most of their nutritional support from real food. This is certainly the case with beneficial bacteria, because there are a lot of good fermented foods that provide them.

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to probiotic foods is yogurt, because most of them are nothing more than creamy junk food. The Cornucopia Institute has published a Yogurt Buyer's Guide and Scorecard2,3 where you can learn more about your favorite brands.

Many who seek to improve their health buy commercial yogurt from the grocery store, thinking they're doing something good for themselves when in reality they're not. They'd be far better off taking a probiotic supplement, as then they'd avoid added sugars and other unhealthy additives. The exception to that rule is traditionally cultured yogurt made from organic raw milk.

Commercial yogurts often contain upwards of 25 to 30 grams of sugar per serving, which meets or exceeds the daily recommended amount of sugar for the whole day!

The amount of probiotics you'll get from commercial yogurt is also far lower than what you'd get from a high-quality probiotic supplement. A commercial yogurt might give you a million probiotic cells, which sounds like a lot, but if you take a quality-made supplement you're getting tens of billions of probiotics — three orders of magnitude greater amounts. So in that respect, a supplement is clearly easier and more cost-effective.

"The other thing you have to consider is that in a yogurt, you've got a very acidic condition that's degrading the quality of the probiotics over the course of the shelf life of that yogurt. In a quality-made dietary supplement, these probiotics are essentially in suspended animation or dormant until you consume them; they come back to life when you swallow the capsule." Leyer notes.

Probiotic Guidelines

Many tend to imagine that taking probiotics is like planting seeds in your garden. They grow, reproduce, and all you basically have to do is "seed and feed" them. But that's actually not the case. Your intestinal tract contains thousands of different bacterial types, not to mention fungi and viruses. It's a challenging environment with lots of competition.

Probiotics have developed the ability to withstand normal concentrations of stomach acid and bile in the small intestine, and live there, but they don't live and thrive there forever.

As noted by Leyer:

"When you stop taking the probiotics, studies show that you start seeing less and less of that probiotic residing there. It will decline to this baseline level similar to where it was before you started taking a probiotic supplement. On the immune side, there are studies that show that immune benefits decline within a few days after stopping taking the probiotics. So it's really important to maintain a continual onslaught of these healthy bacteria."

Factors to look for when trying to identify a high-quality probiotic supplement include the following:

Make sure it's a reputable brand. If you trust the products made by a company, perhaps they're doing a great job making their probiotics as well.

Look for a potency count (colony forming units or CFUs) of 50 billion or higher. That's the number of bacteria being delivered per dose.

Declaration of shelf life, i.e. the shelf life of the CFUs. Avoid capsules that only declare the CFUs at time of manufacture. Food products should be in resealable packaging and stored as directed

Look for a product containing multiple species of bacteria, as high diversity tends to be associated with better health. That said, products containing species of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria are generally recommended.  Examples would be Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus plantarum. These organisms predominantly reside in the small intestine or the upper gastrointestinal tract (GI) where a vast majority of your immune cells reside. Bifidobacteria, on the other hand, reside in the large intestine or the lower bowel, which is another critical location associated with health. Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium longum, and Bifidobacterium bifidum are important ones.

Look for non-GMO brands.

Confirm that they're manufactured according to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP).4

Optimizing Your Microbiome Is a Potent Disease Prevention Strategy

As noted by Leyer, "probiotic consumption for health and wellness is here to stay." A tremendous amount of research shows that the microbial community in your body has a wide ranging influence over your health. "The days of 'all bacteria are bad' are long gone," Leyer says. "Eating clean and natural foods, nourishing your gut, and having a healthy intestinal community are really at the core of wellness."

I also firmly believe that applying this knowledge can make a distinct and positive difference in your health, boosting not only your immune function, but also your neurological function and mood. Best of all, supporting your microbiome isn't very complicated. You do need to take proactive steps to implement certain key strategies while actively avoiding other factors though. So to optimize your microbiome, consider the following recommendations:

Do	Avoid
Eat plenty of fermented foods. Healthy choices include lassi, fermented grass-fed organic milk such as kefir, natto (fermented soy), and fermented vegetables.	Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary, and when you do, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods and/or a high quality probiotic supplement.5,6
Take a probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics is an exception if you don't eat fermented foodson a regular basis	Conventionally-raised meats and other animal products, as CAFO animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plus genetically engineered grains loaded with glyphosate, which is widely known to kill many bacteria.
Boost your soluble and insoluble fiber intake, focusing on vegetables, nuts, and seeds, including sprouted seeds.	Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water. Especially in your bathing such as showers, which are worse than drinking it.
Get your hands dirty in the garden. Exposure to bacteria and viruses can serve as "natural vaccines" that strengthen your immune system and provide long-lasting immunity against disease.  Getting your hands dirty in the garden can help reacquaint your immune system with beneficialmicroorganisms on the plants and in the soil.  According to a recent report,7 lack of exposure to the outdoors can in and of itself cause your microbiome to become "deficient."	Processed foods. Excessive sugars, along with otherwise "dead" nutrients, feed pathogenic bacteria. Food emulsifiers such as polysorbate 80, lecithin, carrageenan, polyglycerols, and xanthan gum also appear to have an adverse effect on your gut flora.8 Unless 100 percent organic, they may also contain GMOsthat tend to be heavily contaminated with pesticides such as glyphosate. Artificial sweeteners have also been found to alter gut bacteria in adverse ways.9
Open your windows. For the vast majority of human history the outside was always part of the inside, and at no moment during our day were we ever really separated from nature. Today, we spend 90 percent of our lives indoors. And, although keeping the outside out does have its advantages it has also changed the microbiome of your home.  Research10 shows that opening a window and increasing natural airflow can improve the diversity and health of the microbes in your home, which in turn benefit you.	Agricultural chemicals, glyphosate (Roundup) in particular is a known antibiotic and will actively kill many of your beneficial gut microbes if you eat and foods contaminated with Roundup
Wash your dishes by hand instead of in the dishwasher. Research has shown that washing your dishes by hand leaves more bacteria on the dishes than dishwashers do, and that eating off these less-than-sterile dishes may actually decrease your risk of allergies by stimulating your immune system.	Antibacterial soap, as they too kill off both good and bad bacteria, and contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance.