Health Advice

IMPORTANT: Always check with your medical and mental health care professional before beginning any new regimen.

1. EXERCISE:
Brisk walking: Three to five miles a day.
Neck roll: Twice a day. (Do this exercise slowly and carefully until your neck and spine become loosened up). Touch your left ear to your left shoulder three times. Then right ear to right shoulder three times. Next, touch your chin to your chest three times. Now bend your head backwards as far as you can looking at the ceiling, three times. Now combine all four movements; begin with touching your chin on your chest, then rolling your head to the left and touching you ear to your shoulder, then roll your head back, then roll your head and touch your right ear to you right shoulder, and end up touching your chin to your chest again. Do this in a rolling motion, three times in each direction -- left three times, then right three times.
Waste roll: Twice a day. Same as above, except bend at the waste instead of at the neck
Mini sit-ups: Twice a day. Lie flat on your back and lift only your shoulder blades off the floor, then lie back down. Work up to doing 100 mini sit-ups.
Toe touching: Twice a day. Stand upright with arms and legs spread. Touch your left toe with your right hand, keeping your knees from bending if possible. Then touch your right toe with left hand. Touch each toe alternately ten times.

2. DIET:
(Adjust quantities to your particular weight @ 12 calories per pound: For example, if you weigh 200 pounds; you will need approximately 2400 calories).
Two lbs. Green beans (350 calories), 1 lb. lean ground turkey, chicken, fish, or tofu (700 calories), 3 tbl. olive oil ( 380 calories), 2 cups cooked whole grain brown rice (500 calories), 3 grapefruits (150 calories), 2 apples (200 calories), 1/2 cup blueberries (50 calories), one whole egg (70 calories), salt 1500 mg. to 2500 mg. (Total calories: 2400)

3. SUPPLEMENTS:
Buffered Vitamin C (begin with 1,000 mg. a day and work up to 5,000 mg. per day. Taking too much vitamin C too quickly can cause temporary diarrhea), Garlic (1000 mg.), Fish oil (1000 mg.), high quality multi-vitamin (one), folic acid (800mcg.), Vitamin E (natural D-alpha only-400 mg.), B complex (one), calcium (600 mg.).

Fixing Health Care in America

WSJ health blogger Jacob Goldstein and Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson discuss moving away from the traditional fee-for-services health-care system.

Creatine: Helpful or Harmful?

I recently began working out and of course want to achieve results of a leaner physique along with muscle development in the arms and chest, giving me more definition. So I started lifting using life fitness excercise machines. I am also focusing on my diet with more protein and started taking Creatine to build muscle faster from my workouts.

I had heard that Creatine will accomplish this so I have been drinking a fruit punch called Cell-Tech after my workouts.

Here is some information I found doing research on the effects of Creatine and workouts:

Creatine supplementation has become tremendously popular in recent years; athletes take it to "bulk up" their muscles. Creatine has been claimed to increase muscle strength, and to delay fatigue, allowing athletes to train harder and achieve greater muscle gains beyond normal capacities. Companies promoting creatine supplements also claim that creatine can help burn fat and increase muscle mass. And creatine is claimed to increase strength in the elderly, in people with muscle disease, and in people suffering from heart disease.
Preliminary medical research shows some of these claims to be accurate. But others lack supporting scientific evidence.
What is Creatine?
Creatine is found in amino acids (glycine, arginine, and methionine). It is synthesized from these amino acids in the liver, pancreas and kidneys. Muscles take up the majority of the creatine found in the body. It is in the muscle that creatine is converted to phospocreatine, which is necessary for ATP production. Research shows that taking creatine supplements can increase muscle creatine by 20 to 30%. Increasing the amount of creatine found in the muscle also increases the amount of phosphocreatine, which aids in producing greater amounts of energy. This is because phosphocreatine is the limiting factor in energy production in high intensity anaerobic exercise. Thus, it is believed that supplementing the body with creatine enhances athletic performance.
What Does the Research Show?
Creatine has been shown to be effective only in certain instances, and not necessarily to the degree often advertised. Several studies suggest that creatine enhances performance in activities involving repeated short periods of intense activity. Supplementing creatine in the correct dosage with the proper duration can aid in improving athletic anaerobic performance (weight lifting, sprinting, rowing). However, creatine supplementation does not benefit endurance athletes -- marathon runners for example.
Sprinters who loaded with creatine (25 grams for 5 days) significantly increased their peak and average sprint power output compared a group taking an inactive placebo. NCAA division 1A football players who took creatine supplements for 28 days during the off season experienced gains in total body mass, and increased their weight lifting ability. They also had faster sprint times than players in a control group who did not take creatine. Male rowers who took 20 grams of creatine for 5 days significantly increased their rowing times. But not all studies find significant improvements in performance attributable to creatine. In another study of competitive rowers, those who were supplemented with .25 grams per kg of body weight had faster times, but the increase was too small to be considered statistically significant.
Marketing claims that creatine increases muscle mass are controversial. Research has shown that people who supplement with creatine do gain weight. However, more research is needed to assess how much of the weight gain is actually due to increased muscle mass.
Currently there is no evidence that creatine increases fat metabolism.
Some studies have shown that people suffering from neuromuscular disease or from congestive heart failure may improve muscle strength by taking creatine. However, more research is needs to be done in this area to confirm these findings. Preliminary research investigating the potential benefits of creatine for the elderly, found no difference in strength or body composition in people who were supplementing with creatine. It is recommended that any elderly person who elects to take creatine have their renal (kidney) function periodically.
How Much Creatine is Safe?
Since creatine is a supplement and produced naturally in the body, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not currently have dosing standards. Taking a dose of 20 grams a day for one week, followed by 2-5 grams as a daily maintenance dose has not been shown to have adverse effects. However, people who exceed this dosage may be at a higher risk of developing renal disease.
People who currently suffer from renal disease should not take creatine. The consumption of creatine right before or during exercise is not recommended. It may be beneficial to increase fluid consumption when taking creatine to prevent dehydration. Caffeine may negate the benefits of creatine by inhibiting phosphocreatine resynthesis, which takes place in the recovery phase of exercise.
Creatine can also be obtained from eating a mixed diet. Animal products such as herring, pork, salmon, beef, cod and milk contain creatine naturally. Normally people ingest about 1 gram a day of creatine from their diet.

Sources:
Rosenbloom, C. 1999 Sports Nutrition: A Guide for the Professional Working with Active People. American Dietetic Association.
Sarubin, A. 1999 The Health Professional's Guide to Popular Dietary Supplements. American Dietetic Association.
Terjung, RL et al. March, 2000 American College of Sports Medicine Roundtable: the Physiological and Health Effects of Oral Creatine Supplements. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 32(3):706-717.

Shaklee Corporation Chooses Solid Cactus for Website Design

To find out more about Shaklee Products visit healthandharmony .

Retail Health Clinics Offer Quick, Routine Care

Are You Eating Enough Alkaline Foods to Maintain Vital Health?

The theory behind an alkaline diet is that because our body's pH level is slightly alkaline, with a normal range of 7.36 to 7.44, our diet should reflect this and also be slightly alkaline. An imbalanced diet high in acidic foods such as animal protein, sugar, caffeine, and processed foods tends to disrupt this balance. It can deplete the body of alkaline minerals such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, making people prone to chronic and degenerative disease.

Alkalanizing the Body