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Your secret weapon for Health
Health Topics on this page:
Where did our energy go?
Health experts say that 50 is the new 30, but that’s no consolation when you are so tired, stressed and worn out by the demands of your daily life. Sometimes you can feel twice as old as what you are. What to do?
What really matters is not how old you are but how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Cosmetic surgery, anti-wrinkle creams and anti-aging hormone pills may help you win the battle against the march of time for a few years, but the real test is to rejuvenate your body.
This is a new and fascinating science called Health Bioenergetics. This is the secret weapon that helps you cheat the ageing process and give you back the energy stores you took for granted when you were young.
Once you have grasped the basics, you will be glad you have taken the time to learn how to boost your energy. You will feel so much better that your friends will wonder where you keep your secret health potion! You will have the sparkle back in your eyes, your hair will have a glossy sheen and you’ll have a youthful glow to your skin and a spring in your step.
Where did our energy go?One complaint overshadows every other in these modern times – it’s that feeling of being tired and having no energy. A few cups of coffee and a bar of chocolate may rev the engine for a short while, but you know that these are just a quick fix. You will need to replenish your energy on a deeper level or you will always feel the same.
Do you often think back to your healthy youth and wonder where all the energy went that you used to have? Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could wake up every morning feeling re-energised and ready to face another busy day?
There are health supplements and herbs that can re-energise a tired body and help you feel more enthused and refreshed but they won’t work miracles on their own -You need to give them a helping hand.
This means making a commitment to YOU in every sense of the word. You will need to ensure that you are eating the right kinds of food to promote your health and avoid the obvious toxins around you (like cigarettes, too much alcohol and too many high fat high sugar foods). You are also going to have to make a point of taking enough time to give your tired cells a chance to repair and recuperate.
You will also have to learn how to recognize the warning signs of a body slowing down – long before you get exhausted. Listen to your body’s own wisdom about how long and how far to push it. For example, we all thrive and perform well when under short to medium term stress and pressure. But we begin to wipe ourselves out (and in the process accelerate premature aging) when we allow unhealthy stress to control our lives.
The secret of healthy living is to recognise the warning signs and learn when your body has had enough.
Why stress is the Number 1 energy depleting enemyI must admit, when I was younger I had enough energy to waste – and often spent my time burning the candle at both ends. I used to think that stress was all in the mind – and carried on regardless of how I was feeling -but when the time came to learn the error of my ways, I realized it was devastating my health.
I was juggling a number of work and home pressures. Coming altogether it was just too much. I was really miserable. It was a very distressing time and I felt I had nothing to look forward to, all there was ahead of me was more hard work, more grind and more stress. I would drag myself out of bed in the morning to go to work and go to endless meetings, try to juggle my job, and trying to pretend that all was fine at home as well – it wasn’t.
I had dreams of escaping, packing a suitcase and just taking off. I was on the verge of tears all the time and started to think my entire life was pointless. These horrible feelings went on for months. It was difficult to ask for help, since I felt my problems were beyond most people’s understanding. I still shudder when I think back to this time.
In fact what was wrong with me was I was exhausted, worn out by the prolonged stress of trying to do too many jobs at once, with the added stress of endless boring meetings, and an unhappy home life. Tiredness and an energy crisis were causing me to feel this way.
I have since learned that the events most likely to trigger unhealthy stress are job pressures, family arguments, financial worries and working deadlines. Anything that can upset your normal coping mechanism can cause a number of biological – and very real-changes, that typify stress and which are known as General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).
What is GAS?There are three distinct phases to General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS. You will, if you are short of energy, recognize all three. In the first phase, most of your energy is spent worrying that you cannot do everything you think you should be doing.
In phase 2, the mind is still willing but the body is beginning to put the brakes on. The last phase is the one you really should avoid, since this is the phase where you collapse in an exhausted heap and fall sick.
All three of these phases are controlled by the adrenal glands, which regulate hormone levels and which can become exhausted. They pump out a hormone called corsitol which helps the brain to stay alert. In good health, levels are higher in the morning when the brain needs to function at its best, and then drop towards evening when we want to slow down.
When the body is suffering prolonged stress, the adrenals keep the levels of corsitol too high, making you hyper-alert day and night. The two biggest signs of this type of adrenal stress are sweating for no apparent reason, especially at night, and waking in the early hours of the morning too tired to get up but unable to go back to sleep.
If you have reached the point of adrenal exhaustion, you will have that panicky stressed out feeling and it will be taking its toll on your looks and your insides. Your skin may erupt in spots, your hair may be lank and your nails weak and splitting.
Your digestion will become disrupted, you may be on all kinds of medications to treat this (like I was) and your immune system will be under pressure. Your heart rate speeds up and you may experience palpitations or even have a panic attack.
While the first phase of GAS is relatively short lived, the second phase, where you are able to carry on fighting the stress, can go on and on. You will get a temporary increase in energy to help you do this, but the long term price is the exhaustion of your health, which you want to avoid.
When we are young, we are able to cope with stress much better and return to normal quicker, but for adults who are older and lead less active lives, there is nowhere for these hormones to go. Too much stress at any age is a bad thing, but the older you get the greater the toll on your health, especially on your energy reserves.
How can we avoid this and feel younger?To avoid this stress related exhaustion, you need to make sure your body has enough energy and more. This happens on a cellular level so it makes sense to feed your body what it needs for long term health rather than short term energy.
As you age, your cells lose their shape and structure, can become hardened and produce less energy. Also since cells need energy to make energy, you can see how, as we get older low energy levels are a real problem.
Giving cells the right amount of energy is the real and most exciting key to controlling the biological clock and slowing down the aging process. It is within our cells that determine how well and how quickly you are ageing and how strong your energy stores are.
There are two health supplements which are good on their own but unbelievable when taken together, to boost your energy. These are Carnitine and Coenzyme Q10.
Carnitine is an amino acid produced naturally in the brain, heart and kidneys but which the body produces less of with increasing age, and transports fatty acids to every cell to make energy. Coenzyme Q10 is found in every cell where it plays an important role in producing energy. It is also a powerful antioxidant. If you are lacking in either one, your energy levels are not going to be as good as they could be. Together, they will have you revved up and raring to go.
Damage to the DNA of the cells can cause aging and disease. This is because of free radicals (see antioxidants page) Whenever there is a chemical reaction in the body, including the production of energy, unstable waste molecules are formed. If they are not mopped up they can damage cells. Carnitine helps to remove waste products, Coenzyme Q10 mops up those left behind.
Carnitine also controls stress (which affects energy levels) by re-regulating the stress hormone, cortisol. It also boosts levels of another compound needed for the production of energy. Even better, both carnitine and coenzyme Q10 are completely safe, with no side effects and are freely available over the counter in health food shops.
How do I know if I need these Supplements? "If your mind is saying “Do it now” but your body is saying “it can wait until later”, you may be on your way to an energy drain. Waking up feeling more tired than when you went to sleep is another sign, as is wishing you could have an afternoon nap.
If your brain feels foggy all the time, if you are eating too much to try to get an instant energy “hit” and if you’re feeling stressed out and/or depressed, then its time too boost your energy.
If going to sleep is far more exciting than the idea of sex, you may also need to give your cells a helping hand. To start off, it is recommended you take 500mg of carnitine and 30 mg of coenzyme Q10 twice a day – with breakfast and lunch.
Whenever you feel an energy crisis you should also take magnesium. If you supplement magnesium you also need to take calcium, since taking one will affect levels of the other. The ratio is 2 to 1 in favour of calcium, so if you take 400mg of magnesium you should ensure you take 800mg of calcium.
With extra stress in your life, step up the dosage of carnitine to 3,000 mg and increase coenzyme Q10 to 90mg a day. Also take 1000 mg of evening primrose oil to make sure there are enough of the right compounds in your diet for carnitine to work as well as it should.
Other Natural Energy boostersTired adrenal glands are one of the first signs of flagging energy levels. The herb Ginkgo Biloba which boosts circulation, can help to restore health and vitality.
All types of ginseng can help keep tiredness at bay, but for frazzled nerves, Siberian ginseng is best.
To keep in good form, make sure you drink mineral rich herbal teas instead of coffee. Nettle tea is excellent and will help support your liver too.
The B-vitamins are known as nature’s stress busters. They work best when taken together, so make sure you take a good vitamin B complex supplement.
The thyroid gland controls energy production, how the body uses fats and sugars, your growth rate, your heart rate, your blood pressure, your rate of breathing, mental alertness and sex drive. Herbs to support your thyroid include: kelp, horsetail, watercress, garlic and spirulina. Green tea also helps to keep the thyroid healthy.
Further Reading:
Read more here about antioxidants for good health
An intolerance of certain foods can be the cause of many problems
The site dedicated to family health, wealth, spirituality and happiness.
Mind and Body medicine is a new field of therapy that addresses how stress affects the body Read more here about how it works. Click Here for a unique cure for chronic tiredness
Read more here about superfoods for good health and energy Can good nutriton reverse the effects of aging? Longevity Medicine is studying how we can be as healthy in our 50s and 60s as we were in our 30s.
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