Fit and Youthful Life

Guest Author: Ric Hawkins


So I guess you’ve heard about this wonder nutrient and what it can do. But do you know how to find the best resveratrol source to get the maximum benefits?

We should all be thinking about how to include this in our health regime as the list is growing all the time about what it can do, including preventing heart disease, lowering cholesterol and even increasing our lifespan. So what makes the best resveratrol source?

I’m sure you have heard that it can be had from red wine, which is true, but you would need to drink heavily every day to get the real benefits!  Other sources include blueberries, peanuts and the most potent from the Japanese Knotweed plant.

The Japanese have long used this as a healing tool, and it is only relatively recently here in the West we are discovering more about it.  

To be effective, resveratrol needs to reach the bloodstream, and even after drinking a lot of red wine, only a small percentage gets through.

Experts now agree that the best method is via a health supplement, preferably combined with other synergistic nutrients.

When these ingredients are put together they create synergy, which means you get the direct benefits of each nutrient and the benefits from their interaction with each other. A single resveratrol pill will only have limited health benefits.

For the best resveratrol effects, it should be combined with green tea extract and ginkgo biloba, among others, to enhance its antioxidant powers significantly.

You should also check that it is the 50% trans-type as this is the active form.

Perhaps the most important element is that of delivery. The supplement needs to have an enteric coating to be effective, and to make sure the nutrients aren’t lost because of the stomach acid, but reaches the upper intestine where it will have the greatest benefit.

This is not the cheapest option, which is why the majority of supplements out there are without it, so check the label carefully.

If you follow this advice you will be helping to safeguard you future health, receiving a boost from the multitude of natural nutrients, and this is the best resveratrol source and combination possible.

If you would like to learn more about the synergistic supplements which I personally take, including resveratrol, why not visit my website. 

 



The French Women’s Beauty Secret

Guest Author: Larry L. Taylor


The total benefits of resveratrol are yet to be uncovered.  We have known for years that the antioxidant decreases our risk of cancer and heart disease, if it is taken in a bio-active form called trans-resveratrol, which can be absorbed through the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream.  Of course, if you buy cheap supplements or the wrong red wine, you are not likely to get the benefit.

The resveratrol-content of red wine varies, depending on where the grapes grew and how long the grapes were allowed to ferment with the skins still intact.  It is the skin of certain types of red grapes that contain the largest amount and that amount increases as the grapes are allowed to ferment.  Red grape juice is not a good source of the antioxidant, because it is not fermented.

To a lesser extent, the antioxidant is present in boiled peanuts, but raw ones have only a tiny amount.  It also occurs in large amounts in some medicinal plants, such as Japanese knotweed root.   The purpose of the antioxidant in the plant world is to protect it from disease, toxins and UV radiation from the sun.

Most healthcare experts recommend a good supplement, rather than a dietary source, because the resveratrol-concentration is more uniform and there is no risk of liver damage or alcohol abuse that can occur among red wine drinkers.

Of course, in order to determine the potency, a manufacture must test the raw ingredients.  The best manufacturer guarantees that 50mg of their extract will contain 50% trans-resveratrol.  If you do a little shopping around, you will see that most manufacturers neither list the amount or the potency.  If they do, you usually get a 25% trans-resveratrol concentration, which is not likely to be of any benefit.

But, let’s get to what those benefits are.  It is obviously very exciting, because it has researchers from around the world conducting studies.  Here are some of the things that they’ve been saying. 

• May help prevent colon, breast, stomach, throat and other types of cancer

• Increases insulin sensitivity, decreases unhealthy blood sugar levels, but does not cause     low blood sugar levels

• Extends the lifespan of short-lived fish

• Reduces inflammation, improves bone density, slows bone degeneration and may reduce the risk of head and neck cancer

• May be useful in treating antibiotic resistant infections

• Protects against the damaging affects of UV radiation (may prove beneficial for cancer patients requiring radiation therapy)

• Helps prevent heart disease

With all of this good news, there is a little bad news about the supplement industry.  In November, 2007, an independent laboratory tested 13 resveratrol supplements to determine if the potency listed on the label was accurate.  Only two  passed the test, but this supports the notion that you need to choose your supplements carefully.

Here’s my advice.  Your best choice for supplementation is one that contains resveratrol, carnosine, SAM-e and your basic vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  If you tried to take these supplements individually, you would spend a lot more money and get only limited benefit.   See my website for more specific advice. -Thanks, Larry

Guest Author: Roger Leblanc




Many people who are seriously into weight training shy away from doing cardio exercise because they think that it will eat away at their hard won muscle mass. While there is a valid concern for those thinking of running a long distance marathon, most of these fears are unwarranted. Basically, the concern is that as you are running, the body may run short of fuel in the bloodstream for immediate use. Although the body has a mechanism for replenishing energy by breaking down fat deposits, this doesn’t always happen quickly enough. The body compensates by breaking down proteins to use some of the amino acids for fuel. Therefore muscle is wasted.

While this basic analysis is correct, the body builder’s fears are exaggerated. A short run of say twenty to thirty minutes, especially before lifting, will not break down hardly any muscle mass. Almost al the fuel used will come from what is already present in the blood stream and the energy stored in the liver. This is especially true if you ate at least a moderate high carb meals a few hours before. Actually, a good meal of complex carbs fully digested followed by a 20 minute run is an excellent warm up for a good hour of lifting in the weight room. This is a prime reason to run. It warms the cardiovascular system up for your lifting routine. You will get better workouts and with better workouts, better gains. Following this logic, a light to moderate run will actually help you to gain muscle rather than lose it! But the warm up should not be the only motivation for cardio exercise.

There are several outstanding reasons for adding cardio to your regimen. Cardio is the best way to exercise your heart and lungs, it is the most efficient way to cut fat, and it will boost your metabolic rate more naturally and efficiently than any pill on the market. So how much cardio should you do? That is a hard question to answer. Some suggest that you could start to lose muscle after about a half hour of running. Though they may be literally correct, you should take this with a very large grain of salt. The muscle that you lose even after an hour run is miniscule. Furthermore, since you train with weights on a regular basis, you are continually sending signals to your body to save and to build more muscle. Lifting and running done on a regular basis will condition your body to efficiently handle both the running and the body building. Essentially, when your body is conditioned, what is likely to happen is you still lose a miniscule amount of protein after a run of an hour or so, but your body adds that protein back in a short time. A hardcore professional body builder trying to bulk up for the next Mr. Olympiad may think twice about running that much, but you and I could do it without any net loss over the long run. The only real issue is whether your gains could slow by a margin of 2 – 3% or so. The benefits of cardio to your overall health to your energy level is well worth a theoretical miniscule slowdown, and it is the best and most natural way to get cut.

Cardio exercise has significant health benefits and should not be avoided for those overly concerned with a muscular physic. The truth is cardio actually improves physic because it cuts fat from your body and enhances definition of your muscular build. The substantial benefits gained by cardio are more than worth any small decrease in muscle building. Anything up to one hour of cardio training when combined with a regular lifting program will provide a well balanced program for both physic and health.



Smooth Away Wrinkles Instantly

Guest Author: Ric Hawkins


Many people are now asking for resveratrol dosage information, as more and more is discovered about this wonder nutrient, and what it can do. So is there a right amount to take and how should you take it?

As you may well know, resveratrol has been proven to fight cancer at all stages, lower cholesterol levels, protect against heart disease and even extend our lives, so resveratrol dosage information and more importantly, the way we take it, are crucial.

Many companies out there are claiming you should take over 200mg a day, and this is primarily to sell weight loss pills. There is no evidence to suggest such high doses will work, and the most fundamental factor about this is delivery.

When I say delivery I mean the coating or lack of it on the supplement. If there is no special coating you are simply throwing money down the drain as most of the effects will be lost due to the actions of stomach acid.

You should instead look for one that has a natural enteric coating which will allow safe passage through the stomach and into the upper intestine where it has the maximum benefit. This is not the cheapest option and why most of the supplements out there are without it, to boost the company’s profits. Check the label carefully.

So you can see that even if the resveratrol dosage information says it contains 50mg for example without the correct delivery method you may get as little as 5 mg into the bloodstream.

From my research 20-40mg a day for adults seems to be the norm. It will perform even better if it is combined with other synergistic ingredients, like olive leaf and green tea extract for example.

When these ingredients are put together they create synergy, which means you get the direct benefits of each nutrient and the benefits from their interaction with each other. A win-win situation, and of more benefit to you than the actual resveratrol dosage information.

If you are serious about staying healthy and keeping healthy for the future, then take resveratrol in a combined supplement and you will soon start to feel the immense benefits from this and the other nutrients, like a sharper memory and increased energy for starters.

It is more important to take the right quality supplement than worry about the resveratrol dosage information you receive, for as you now know, it’s all about how much actually gets into your system.

If you would like to learn more about the synergistic supplements which I personally take, including resveratrol, why not visit my website.  

 

 

Guest Author: Ranae Pritchard


What is it that makes the highest rated wrinkle cream on the market worthy of being “the highest rated”? When you buy wrinkle cream, do you do so because the manufacturer tells you that is the absolute best product available for your skin? Or is it because is really is the best product for your skin?

These are questions that you really have to ask yourself, because people talk about the dishonesty in politics, but the dishonesty in sales is a 100 times worse.

If some obscure newspaper in Nebraska runs a survey of about 25 people, and Clinque comes out “highest rated”. Clinique now has a legal footing to add the term “highest rated wrinkle cream” to their advertising campaigns. After all, it is simply good business to tout the products that you make as the best.

The problem is that when you buy wrinkle cream from the most heavily marketed skin care corporations, you are not exactly getting what you have been led to believe that you are. While they frequently tell you about just how good for your skin their products are, one quick look at the ingredients label will tell you an entirely different story. What goes in to most of their products is not good at all.

What these companies refer to as their highest rated wrinkle cream typically contains ingredients that are potentially very damaging to your health. Most of the ingredients that the major corporations use in order to make their products consist of chemical agents. Many of those chemical agents have been found to be toxic to humans (and in some countries, have already been banned).

Have you realized that the products you put on your skin are “ingested” by you? They are soaked up, absorbed, and added right into your bloodstream. Just like the food you eat, your cosmetics and skin care ingredients end up being circulated around your body and deposited into your tissues.

The larger question is this: Are those ingredients going to promote your over-all health? Or compromise it? This is why you have to be very careful about what ingredients your products contain.

That is why I would venture to say that it is impossible for the highest rated wrinkle cream to use chemical ingredients. Not only must the product deliver on it’s de-wrinkling promises, it must also NOT hurt the other areas of your body. What use is a smooth face if you get breast cancer (just one disease that has been linked to various popular chemicals used in facial creams).

No, the truly highest rated wrinkle cream would exclusively contain all natural ingredients that are perfectly formulated to have the same, or better-effects (without the harm) of the top chemical-brands.

When you buy wrinkle cream you should look for products that contain ingredients that are primarily plant based, as these are the most effective for correcting the issues that you have with your skin. This is due to the fact that ingredients of this type contain properties which very closely resemble sebum, which is the oil that your skin produces.

The highest rated wrinkle cream is the one that is both the safest, and the most effective. If you want real results, and you don’t believe that you should have to put your health in jeopardy in order to get them, then all natural skin care products are exactly what you need.

If you’re not sure if your current wrinkle cream is natural or not, I invite you to visit my website and browse through several of my ingredient-articles. These brief articles highlight the WORST and BEST ingredients for you to check your labels for.

Guest Author: Valerie Rosenbaum


If you’re thinking about buying a resveratrol from grape supplement, you might first want to learn about some better choices for supplementation. Trans-resveratrol appears to increase the activity of chemicals in the cell’s DNA that provide protection from free radical damage. But, there are other important nutrients that have similar activity.

I always look for the best value for the money. If you’re going to take supplements, why not look for ones that contain lots of different nutrients, including essential vitamins and minerals? Trans-resveratrol is just one of the ingredients in the formula that I take every day.

All together, the formula provides over 70 different bio-active nutrients. That means that the body can use them. Researchers have proven that a resveratrol from grape supplement does not increase blood levels of trans-resveratrol unless it has an enteric coating. Most of the products on the market do not.

They have also proven that drinking wine doesn’t greatly increase the blood level, either. Like many other nutrients, this one seems to be sensitive to stomach acid. If the nutrients do not end up in the bloodstream, there’s no point in taking them.

Protecting the cells DNA from damage is very important. DNA degeneration is the ultimate cause of aging and eventually death. It is possible to slow down DNA degeneration and even repair damage that has already been done, as long as the supplements we take contain the right ingredients.

A single-ingredient resveratrol from grape supplement can only do so much. Antioxidants are the main enemies of free radical damage. Although it was believed to have antioxidant activity at one time, researchers are now saying that it is unclear exactly what accounts for the benefits of trans-resveratrol. What I mentioned in the first paragraph is just one of the recent theories.

Other nutrients are known to have antioxidant activity. They neutralize free radicals through an electron exchange program. They basically give up one of their electrons, so that the free radicals are converted to harmless water, oxygen or other simple molecules.

The vitamins A, C and E are common antioxidants. Selenium is another. But, the most potent anti-oxidant that we know of is L-glutathione, but it must be provided in the special reduce form or the body cannot absorb it.

If you were only going to take one nutrient supplement, the reduced form of L-glutathione, with an enteric coating would be a better choice than a resveratrol from grape supplement. But, if you want the most effective supplements, you want lots of different ingredients, including other good antioxidants, such as lutein, bilberry, L-carnosine and green tea extract.

The more antioxidants we get, the less likely we are to develop cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases. We also need calcium, magnesium and vitamin D to support bone health.

There is really no way to obtain optimal nutritional levels through diet, alone. Foods just aren’t that nourishing, any more. A resveratrol from grape supplement might help, but a multi-ingredient formula will help more than anything else.