Healthy Holloween treats: Is it possible?

Here we are, on the eve of one of the biggest sugar splurges we endure every year. Is there any way to avoid it? Dr. Weil is a tweeter I follow and he just put out this excellent article of suggestions I hope you find useful. http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART03149/Healthy-Halloween-Treats.html

If, Heaven forbid, you should find yourself eating up all that left over Halloween candy (who would do that?!), you might be happy to have a bottle of Vivix on hand. I'm going to quote the Dr. Stephen Chaney article about the Vivix study and Nrf2 so you can understand why Vivix anti-aging tonic could help if you should find yourself over indulging.

Shaklee’s study with Vivix was a randomized, placebo controlled clinical study, the most rigorous kind of clinical study. It was also an independent study performed not by Shaklee, but by scientists at State University of New York at Buffalo.

In short, this was the real deal! In this study, a group of volunteers consumed a 910 calorie breakfast from Burger King. One half of the group took Vivix immediately after breakfast and the other half took a placebo. For the group consuming Vivix a key genetic regulator of longevity called Nrf2 (pronounced Nerf 2) increased dramatically within the first 3 hours after the meal. For the placebo group Nrf2 levels actually declined.

If you are feeling a bit under whelmed at the moment, it’s probably because this is the kind of study that needs a bit of additional explanation before you can fully appreciate it. Let’s start with the breakfast, which I have somewhat jokingly referred to as the “breakfast of champions”.

You see that Burger King breakfast is loaded with the wrong kinds of fat – saturated fat & trans fat. That’s the kind of fat that clogs your arteries. Not only does it clog your arteries, but it also causes your arteries to contract dramatically right after the meal. If those arteries are already clogged from previous high fat meals…You guessed it…It can trigger a heart attack or stroke.

If you’re lucky it could mean a trip to the emergency room. But, the most frequent symptom of heart disease is sudden death – often triggered by that fat laden ”Happy Meal, If you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor” And it isn’t just Burger King. Almost any fast food meal will do.

Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about the protective effects of antioxidants.

In fact, you may have heard about previous clinical studies showing that supplementation with vitamin E or other antioxidants immediately after the “Happy Meal” can prevent that narrowing of the arteries and perhaps save you from that trip to the emergency room.

You might be asking “What does that have to do with Nrf2 and Vivix?” Be patient, I’m getting there. You see when we are young; a “Happy Meal” will trigger an increase in Nrf2 which in turn increases production of our body’s own antioxidant defense mechanisms. Nrf2 also triggers our detoxification pathways so that we can get rid of all of the artificial food additives and preservatives in that “Happy Meal”.

Nrf2 triggers our immune balance pathways (high fat meals depress the immune system and can also cause inflammatory and autoimmune responses). Finally, Nrf2 triggers our anti-stress pathways (high fat meals trigger cortisol production, which can accelerate the aging process) and much, much more.

But when we get older, Nrf2 is no longer triggered by those high fat meals and we lose our natural protective mechanisms. When that happens the aging process, and our risk of heart attack or stroke, is increased by every high fat meal that we consume.

By now you are probably starting to understand why the ability of Vivix to activate the Nrf2 gene is such a big deal. But, I don’t want you to think of Vivix as simply an antidote to a bad diet. You see Vivix turns on Nrf2 whether you are consuming a high fat meal or not.

Just think how much more beneficial it will be to keep your natural antioxidant defense mechanisms, your detoxification systems, your immune system, and your anti-stress systems in tip top shape without wasting those resources having to compensate for the effects of a bad diet.

So let me summarize what this study shows:

a) Vivix activates the Nrf2 gene, which is a master regulator of longevity.

b) This shows that the dosage of resveratrol and ellagic acid in Vivix is appropriate

c) That those beneficial polyphenols get into your bloodstream (they are bioavailable) and that they have their intended anti- aging benefits.

d) In short the study shows that Vivix works in real people like you & me.

Nrf2, in turn, activates the body’s antioxidant defense mechanisms, detoxification mechanisms, immune
balancing mechanisms and anti-stress mechanisms. These are all mechanisms that slow down cellular aging and reduce the risk of degenerative diseases.

Vivix can reduce the damage caused by a high fat diet, but will be even more effective at slowing the aging process if used along with a good diet and a lifestyle that includes weight control and exercise. The study actually shows much more than this, but Shaklee can’t release the other data until the manuscript has been accepted for publication. So stay tuned for even more exciting results in the future.

To your health!

Dr. Stephen Chaney, PhD

And Happy Halloween from me, Betsy Bell

BetsyBell's Health4U
206 933 1889
1 888 283 2077
www.HiHoHealth.com

Discouraged about preventing Alzheimers?

My friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen Chaney has been reading the recent journal articles and research that suggest we can't prevent or slow down the onset of Alzheimers Disease. I appreciate his observations and wanted to pass them on to you:

I've read some pretty discouraging reviews on Alzheimers Disease lately.

Some experts are claiming that there's not much you can do to prevent it.

They say that exercise, diet, weight loss, Ginkgo Biloba, B vitamins and antioxidants have not been proven to be effective in decreasing the risk or slowing the onset of Alzheimers Disease and other forms of dementia.

That's pretty grim news for those of us who like to be proactive when it comes to protecting our health & well being. It almost makes you say "Why bother?".

But, the problem is that the studies that those experts are referring to were looking at one variable at a time.
Some of those studies show benefits, but others don't.
So it all seems pretty murky.

But what if you tried a more holistic approach? What if you looked at more than one variable at a time?

Well a group headed by Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas did just that (JAMA, 302:
627-637, 2009). They looked at the effect of both diet and exercise on the risk of developing Alzheimers.

They enrolled 1880 elderly subjects from Northern Manhattan with an average age of 77 in their study.
All of the subjects were healthy and free of dementia at the start of the study.

They found that those subjects who most closely followed a Mediterranean diet were 40% less likely to develop Alzheimers over the next five and a half years than the subjects who were consuming a typical American diet.

And those subjects who were physically very active were 33% less likely to develop Alzheimers than the couch potatoes.

But those subjects who closely followed the Mediterranean diet and were physically active were a whopping 60% less likely to develop Alzheimers than the junk food eating couch potatoes.

In a smaller study the effect of diet alone or exercise alone might not have been large enough to approach statistical significance - which explains the ambiguous results obtained from many of those studies that have focused on only one variable at a time.

But, the effect of combining both diet and exercise is of obvious benefit.

So, if you'd like to prevent Alzheimers and other dementias as you age, my best advice would be to double up - follow a good diet and get plenty of exercise.

But why stop there? Why not try adding Ginkgo Biloba, B vitamins and antioxidant supplements for a triple play?

What the heck - Why not just pile on and aim for ideal body weight as well?

There is some evidence that each of those approaches reduces the risk of Alzheimers.

The evidence may not be good enough to recommend any one of them by itself, but they should all be considered as part of a holistic approach to reducing the risk of developing Alzheimers and other age-related dementias.

To Your Health!
Dr. Stephen G Chaney
So, take heart, don't be discouraged. Do what needs to be done and enjoy your good health while it lasts.

Betsy

BetsyBell's Health4U
206 933 1889
1 888 285 2077
www.HiHoHealth.com

Need help with allergies? One person's solution

Severe Allergies Helped Naturally

I'm allergic to pollen, dust, grass, weed, trees, feathers, fun, certain scents, dogs, cats and certain food (citrus, fish, cashews or anything processed in a plant with tree nuts). I also have asthma. I suffered oozy itchy rashes on my hands so bad I could hardly bend my fingers and couldn't work as a nail tech. For years I would break out all over my body every time the wind blew. I was always getting nosebleeds. I was constantly sick with bronchitis, and pretty much had no vice for 4-6 months out of the year. I tried over the counter, and every prescription med, inhalers, nose sprays, you name it. Zyrtec worked the best but made me absolutely crazy and I had to quit taking it. I was getting allergy shots for a while and they helped a lot, but the series were sporadic, due to red tape in the MediCal system, and a couple times I had anaphylactic reactions to the shots which was really scary! The last time MediCal stopped my shots was when the Nutriferon first cam out. I was freaking about the shots because if I didn't get them every week, I'd be back to the same symptoms and end up with bronchitis and losing my voice, etc.

I was a non-committed Shaklee user, but decided to give the Nutriferon a try at the urging of my sponsor. My God, what a difference! I doubled up on it the first few days, then took two a day regularly for a long time. I did go without it for about a week at one point, and that is where I really saw the difference because the symptoms came back!

Other than that, I've been basically symptom free since I started taking the Nutriferon, and I've gotten friends who were distributors for other companies taking it for their allergies and asthma because they saw the difference in me an how much better I was since I started taking the Nutriferon. I've only been taking one a day for a while now, along with the foundation vitamins (Vitalizer & Protein), plus Alfalfa & Calcium.

I have seven children, one with severe allergies who also takes Nutriferon. My oldest daughter, who is in college in Santa Cruz, takes it every day and she was the only on in school that didn't get sick the whole year, except once, and that time she recovered really fast when she double up on the Nutriferon. The other kids take it when others around them are getting sick at school and work. It feels good to be able to go outside on a beautiful day and not be afraid of breaking out in a rash. I even go outside when it is windy and still have my voice! Recently I went on a five-mile hike when everything was blooming and didn't even sneeze or get wheezy! Nutriferon is amazing stuff - I can't help but be excited about it!

God Bless the doctor who developed it!

T. Colvin

So what is NutriFeron? Developed by the doctor who discovered Interferon in the human body, NutriFeron is a blend of plant extracts that stimulate the production of Interferon. Interferon is the messanger that carries information about a pathagen (allergen) to the lymph nodes where antibodies are made to fight it. Our bodies need help doing this. Some bodies need more help than others. Dr. Kojima was sure he could isolate plant materials that would gently encourage the human body to make its own interferon more efficiently. It took him 40 years to find the right effective combination. Shaklee has the exclusive right to sell this product and it works.

Why not try it if you suffer from allergies? You get your money back if you are not satisfied.

Betsy Bell's Health4U
206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077
betsy@HiHoHealth.com
www.HiHohealth.com

Vitamin D and autism, what most pediatricians don't know

As a consumer of medical care, you must take responsibility for your own health.

When this chronical of a mother with an autistic child came across my desk thanks to Dee T., a friend and client, I felt I had to share it. It is long. Read it if you are curious about autism and the role of diet, sunshine, Vitamin D. Read it if you would like to witness the fear and anxiety of a mother who is going way outside her comfort zone as she does not follow her doctor's advice. Read it if you have similar doubts and need courage to seek alternative paths for your health and the health of your children. Here's the link to the email thread.

Now, I'm not an expert, not a doctor, not a certified nutritionist. However I've been following the world of alternative health for 2 decades and learned a great deal that has benefitted my health and the health of many friends and clients. Probably the most significant findings in recent months have been about Vitamin D and what roles it plays in the body. Those who are working in this area are way out in front of the standard medical profession.
My primary driver for having a Shaklee business evolved from my own determination to take responsibility for my own health. I was convinced after being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 34 that the medicines I took for upper respiratory infections as a child and young adult had a contributing factor in weakening my immune system. When I finally found a company whose products gave me good health, I decided I had to share my growing knowledge and the solutions I was discovering with everyone I knew. Not everyone has been grateful for my enthusiasm!

I hope you enjoy this very interesting chronical.

In good health, Betsy

Betsy Bell'sHealth4U
206 933 1889
www.HiHoHealth.com