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Repair Your Arteries and Veins

Glycocalyx.
There’s a new word you’ll be hearing about.

Glycocalyx is the “non-stick” inner lining of every blood vessel. As we get older, or eat a lot of sugars, this inner lining gets damaged by inflammation. As a result, the arteries become inflexible and easily damaged.

Scientists have found a supplement that can restore the Glycocolyx to it’s healthy state.
It’s called Aterosil and it’s made from seaweed. This seaweed has a biochemistry that is very similar to the Glycocalyx and your body uses it to repair it’s own linings. This is how you can repair your arteries and veins.

People are claiming fantastic results from taking the supplement, one pill twice a day. They are claiming clearer thinking, better circulation, more energy..even greater performance in the bedroom.

You can learn more about this from the arterosil website. They are offering a free DVD and other literature at:

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Curcumin boosts testosterone

Curcumin boosts testosterone levels!!

I’ve written about the viagra effects of curcumin here.

In this post, it was shown in scientific studies that curcumin can boost nitric oxide levels better than viagra.

In 2014, Scientists learned that curcumin boosts testosterone levels too!

In a study written about at Ergo-log.com, it was noted that curcumin can boost testosterone levels by 257 percent.

In the curcumin group the testosterone concentration in the blood was 257 percent higher than in the control group

Apparently, curcumin, which comes from the common Indian spice Turmeric, boosts the levels of antioxidants in the testes and helps them function better.

The human equivalent in the rat study is about 1 to 1.5 grams of curcumin, according to the writers at ergo-log.com.

That’s really easy to get via supplementation.

You can also start adding the raw spice to your smoothies.

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Anti-inflammatories make arthritis worse

Anti-inflammatories are prescribed to address arthritis pain and stiffness. Unfortunately there is not much known about what causes arthritis or how to cure it. There does seem to be a “wear and tear” component and auto-immune component.

Everyone knows that long term anti-inflammatories like aspirin, ibuprofen, advil and prescription drugs have bad side effects. Taking these substances long term inhibit important chemicals called prostaglandins that are involved in maintaining your stomach lining and health of your blood vessels among other things. Sometimes people who take these drugs get stomach ulcers or even heart attacks.

However, it gets even worse. Anti-inflammatories make arthritis worse! Anti-inflammatories inhibit cartilage from regenerating.

If you have wear and tear arthritis and you are taking anti-inflammatories for pain, you will never heal.

Check out this study here on how bad NSAIDs are for your joints.
In human studies, NSAIDs have been shown to accelerate the radiographic progression of OA of the knee and hip. For those using NSAIDs compared to the patients who do not use them, joint replacements occur earlier and more quickly and frequently. The author notes that massive NSAID use in osteoarthritic patients since their introduction over the past forty years is one of the main causes of the rapid rise in the need for hip and knee replacements, both now and in the future.
While it is admirable for the various consensus and rheumatology organizations to educate doctors and the lay public about the necessity to limit NSAID use in OA, the author recommends that the following warning label be on each NSAID bottle:
The use of this nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication has been shown in scientific studies to accelerate the articular cartilage breakdown in osteoarthritis. Use of this product poses a significant risk in accelerating osteoarthritis joint breakdown. Anyone using this product for the pain of osteoarthritis should be under a doctor’s care and the use of this product should be with the very lowest dosage and for the shortest duration of time.
If NSAID use continues, then most likely the exponential rise in degenerative arthritis and subsequent musculoskeletal surgeries, including knee and hip replacements as well as spine surgeries, will continue to rise as well.
– See more at: http://www.journalofprolotherapy.com/index.php/the-acceleration-of-articular-cartilage-degeneration-in-osteoarthritis-by-nonsteroidal-anti-inflammatory-drugs/#sthash.96kPMmzJ.dpuf

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Gut Bacteria and Weight Loss

There’s a lot of great information pouring in regarding gut bacteria and weight loss. It is said we have 100 Trillion bacteria living in and on our bodies. That’s 10x the amount of our body cells!! So, we really are only 10% human.
Here at tonicquest, we’ve learned some interesting things so far about these bugs in our gut. Here’s a list that we will report on as we learn more. Start to research how the bacteria in your gut are creating the youthful tonics you need for everlasting health, youth and beauty:

Gut bacteria are broken into to main types: Fat people have one and skinny people generally have the other.

In lab experiments, if you transplant the fat bacteria into skinny mice, they get fat. If you put the skinny bacteria in fat mice, they get skinny.

The fat bacteria love sugar and carbs.

In order to continue to thrive, the fat bacteria will make you crave carbs and fat. Isn’t that crazy? However, it makes sense. If you have 10x more bacteria on and in your body than human cells, the bacteria are controlling you!!

The bacteria are controlling how you think, how you feel, what you crave and what you do!!

They do this because they want to survive and they want you to do what they want to ensure their health and the health and longevity of their species and offspring.

That’s crazy!!!!!!!!! But true, according to the latest research.

Fat bacteria create more calories out of the fiber and fats in your diet. Read that again, the bacteria in your gut are creating more calories from the food you eat than the skinny bacteria. The reason is that these bacteria are fermenting the fiber in your intestines. The fat bacteria do a more thorough job of these and are releasing more calories in your system!

These fat bacteria also create an inflammation cascade causing all kinds of aches and pains and diseases.

If you are obese or know someone who is obese, it’s not your fault or their fault! The bacteria they have inside them is a huge huge huge reason for the extra fat and fluids in their abdomens and body.

Fortunately, there is a way to influence which bacteria you have inside you.

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Beat Winter Blues with Curcumin

Feeling down? You can beat winter blues with curcumin. There are many studies like this that show curcumin or turmeric are effective anti-depressants.

Curcumin, the principal curcuminoid derived from the spice turmeric, influences several biological mechanisms associated with major depression, namely those associated with monoaminergic activity, immune-inflammatory and oxidative and nitrosative stress pathways, hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and neuroprogression. We hypothesised that curcumin would be effective for the treatment of depressive symptoms in individuals with major depressive disorder.

Seems like every bad thing is caused by inflammation. A great anti-inflammatory like curcumin is a good thing to add to your diet and your personal regimen.

You can get a great supplement for this here:

Or if you want a powerful pure powder try this:

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Curcumin Better Than Viagra

Believe it or not, curcumin (the most famous chemical and anti-inflammatory derived from turmeric root used in asian cooking) could be more effective than sildenafil. Check out this pub med study Efficacy of a novel water-soluble curcumin derivative versus sildenafil citrate in mediating erectile function.

In conclusion, NCD (Novel Curcumin Derivative) could enhance erectile function with more efficacy and more prolonged duration of action.

Here’s another study that says it can be effective for up to a week vs a few hours for Viagra.
You can read it here.

Results. In group 2, there was a significant progressive maintained elevation of HO activity and cGMP tissue levels
starting from the first hour in subgroups 3 and 4, whereas, the rise in HO activity and cGMP started from second
hour regarding the other rat subgroups. Sildenafil effect decreased after 3 hours. In group 3, there was a significant
maintained elevation of HO activity and cGMP tissue levels extended to 1 week as compared to controls for all rat
subgroups that received both forms of curcumin. In group 4, long-acting curcumin derivative exhibited more
significant potentiation of intracavernosal pressure as compared to control and to the pure curcumin.
Conclusion. Water-soluble long-acting curcumin derivative could mediate erectile function via upregulating cavernous
tissue cGMP.

I’ve been looking for a water soluble curcumin supplement. They are hard to find, but this looks like an early one:

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Beat Inflammation with Four Great Supplements

Yesterday I wrote about alpha lipoic acid (ALA) and Propionyl l-carnitine (PLC) for beating nerve pain, especially sciatic nerve pain associated with a herniated lumbar disc.
Today I want to talk about 4 other great supplements to eliminate pain and inflammation with links to buy the ones I use.
#1
Curcumin with Ginger. Formulated with BCM-95, this highly absorbable curcumin supplement is fast and effective for relieving muscle, joint and nerve pain. I find it to be very effective and there are great reviews on amazon. This is the one I buy:

#2 Highly potent boswelia extract:
I stumbled across a frankincense supplement and found it to be an effective pain reliever. I researched the herb and was fascinated by it’s effect and my positive experiences with it. It’s a very effective TNF Alpha inhibitor. TNF alpha inhibition not only quenches inflammation and pain, it enhances men’s erections! I found a great version of the herb from Life Extension that is extremely effective:

#3 Cats Claw
From the Peruvian rainforest, this 10:1 extract is potent and effective. This is the one I use:

#4 Bioperine
Bioperine is an extract of black pepper. You can read about it on this blog, but the short story is that it helps you absorb nutrients more. I take this bioperine with my supplements to increase absorption. This is the one I use:

Try these and let us know how you’re doing!

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How To Deal With Nerve Pain

I will write a few posts on how I addressed sciatic nerve pain after a microdiscectomy procedure on my L5 S1 lumbar disk. I was severely debilitated early this year with a serious disc herniation. After physical therapy and steroid injections in my spine, I had to undergo the surgical procedure. The procedure got me walking again, but I had a long recovery to regain strength,health and to make the sciatic pain completely disappear. Soon after surgery, you are often put on powerful anti-inflammatory medication. However, eventually the prescriptions will run out and you’ll be on your own to deal when the pain returns after a long day or over doing physical activity.
Fortunately, I found some great supplements that removed any lingering pains immediately.
The first combo of supplements I want to talk about is alpha lipoic acid (ALA) and propionyl L- Carnitine (PLC).
After taking 600 mg of ALA and about 2 grams of PLC, the lingering pains were dulled almost immediately. I was able to step up my exercising with renewed confidence and have been doing well since.
There were some other supplements that I cycle on and off with PLC/ALA, however, PLC/ALA was the first combo that I tried that had a measurable and immediate effect.
You can get ALA and it’s stronger (more expensive) version RLA at this link:

PLC is really hard to find. I found a chinese factory on Alibaba that was able to ship me a kilo of the supplement at a very reasonable price. Contact me for details if you are interested in contacting them.

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Why you need Amazon Prime

Amazon signs up 10 Million new Prime Memberships over the 2014 Holiday season.
I’m a big fan of Prime. Free two day shipping for all your supplement needs is great and pays for itself quickly. I love getting all my tonicquest items shipped to my door in two days (including Sunday!!). If you’re in NYC, amazon just announced hourly shipping. I am in awe of the innovations and envelope pushing that is characteristic of Amazon.
Things I’ve learned with Prime are as follows:
In the pros column is fast and convenient shipping, free movies and music, free kindle books and new innovations everyday.
In the cons column is that the shipping is not exactly “free”. If you look carefully, you do pay a little extra for prime items. If you’re willing to wait you can save a few dollars here and there. Amazon does have to run a business, so small items usually are not eligible for Prime due to the overhead of shipping costs. Sometimes these smaller items are available as “add on items” where they become eligible if your order meets a certain threshold like $25 or $30 USD.
You can sign up for a trial here and in turn help support this blog:

or gift it to someone with this link:

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Is Rogaine Aging Your Face?

Many people are applying Rogaine (Minoxidil) in various strengths to their scalps and eyebrows to increase hair growth. Minoxidil has been talked about since at least the early 80s when tests on monkeys showed it could grow hair. No one really understood why it worked. There are many theories ranging from increased blood flow to some “unknown” growth factor. Recently, studies are focusing in on prostaglandins, specfically PGD2 and PGE2. It seems that balding scalps have very high levels of PGD2 and when scientists studied this, they learned that PGD2 causes hair to go into resting stage and PGE2 signals hair to grow. They have been able to confirm that people who aren’t afflicted with baldness have higher concentrations of PGE2 in their scalps.
To cut to the chase, it appears that one of the mechanisms for Rogaine’s effectiveness is that it can increase PGE2 levels in the scalp! So this could be one of the main reasons why it works.
Unfortunately, many people apply rogaine before sleeping and it can get on pillows and bed sheets. This means it’s getting inadvertently rubbed in around the eyes.
What happens when PGE2 levels increase around the eyes? This:
220px-Raccoon_climbing_in_tree_

If you read this article here, it talks about PGE2 contributing significantly to aging of the skin around the eyes and dark circles.
Dark circles, bags and loss of fat tissue are well known side effects of glaucoma medications that mimic prostaglandins used on the eye. One such medicine became a hair growth medication, Latisse.
So if you are not looking as fresh as you once did and you’re a Rogaine user, check out your eyes. Are they baggy with very dark circles? Have they sunk in? It’s not your imagination! Google “rogaine dark circles under eyes” and you’ll see many people suffer from this. Most of the time the sunken dark eyes reverse back to normal after stopping rogaine, but sometimes (after prolonged use) they won’t bounce back and you may have to think about surgery or other corrective measures.

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Microdiscectomy Recovery

Microdiscectomy recovery.
As you may have read in earlier posts, I suffered a pretty serious disc herniation in my lumbar spine. Conservative treatments didn’t provide relief. I tried physical therapy, chiropractic, TENS, ultrasound, therapeutic lasers, heat, icing, waiting, massage and finally epidural steroid injections. Nothing could help the debilitating pain going down the leg. Conventional pain killers don’t seem to help nerve pain. When something is pressing on that sciatic nerve, there is nothing that will relieve the pain. There is no way to convey what the pain is like. I could use words to describe the pain, but nothing can translate the non-stop crippling pain. This type of pain affects your whole system–spiritual, emotional and physical. Think of people you know that are in this kind of pain. They can’t concentrate, they are emotional and vulnerable. Think about attending a really loud concert and then it never ending..in fact going on for months and you can’t get relief from the loud sound. Maybe that describes it.
In either case, I opted for the microdiscectomy. Immediate relief from that crazy pain. I wondered what surgery pain was going to be like. It’s nothing compared to crippling sciatic pain. For those who are about to have the procedure and are worried about the surgery pain like I was, you will be given some pain killer to make it through the first few days. Just take the pain killer. You’ll just feel a little sore. But it’s a totally manageable pain with specific boundaries. You’ll be stiff for a couple weeks but everyday..I mean every day brings measurable relief.
There will be some aches and pains here and there that resemble the sciatic pain–mostly in the evening when you’re tired, but it goes away quickly. Any doctor will tell you it could take weeks if not months for the nerve to heal from the trauma of being pressed on for so long and then getting freed up during surgery. Don’t worry about it. It will take weeks to get back to normal. No bending, lifting or twisting for 6 weeks and restrictions on how much you can lift etc. Every doctor will have a different recommendation or approach, but it’s best to take it really slow and just walk for the first few weeks.
Recovery will take time and you will need help. The worse part is having patience because you won’t be able to do things for awhile and battling feelings of loneliness and helplessness. Just keep thinking about when you’ll be up and running better than ever!

Here’s what I’ve been taking to speed up healing based on research and some common sense:
Collagen powder mixed with frozen fruit 1 to 2 times per day
Zinc
Vitamin A
Vitamin D3
Vitamin K
Emergen C (has vitamins and minerals besides vitamin C)
Vitamin C
Lysine
Proline
Glycine
Hyaluronic acid
Glucosamine/Chondroitin Sulfate/MSM combo
Theanine (to help with mood)
Ginger
Turmeric
Bone Broth
Liver
Grapeseed extract with CoQ10
B complex vitamin
Digestive Enzymes
Probiotics
Colostrum
Grass Fed dairy
Cod Liver and Cod Liver Oil

Now obviously I can’t have all of this everyday, but I’m taking as much as possible.

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I Love Nutribullet The Best Way To Eat Superfoods

I absolutely love my nutribullet. For those living in isolation who have never heard of it, you can learn about it here . Nutribullet is the best way to eat superfoods. Sometimes I’ll throw my vitamin capsules in there. Pure vitamin C is a good one for this.

It’s basically a blender running at 600 Watts. A new version just came out at 900 Watts which I will get when my current one needs replacing. I use it everyday to make smoothies. I’m not really sure why it’s better than a basic $20 blender, maybe it’s the shape of the container. The marketing hype says it’s “cyclonic action” that blends the contents better than a blender, but I’m not entirely sure about that claim. Nevertheless, it works great, easy to clean and a super way to drink your vegetables with skin, seeds and fiber (unlike traditional juicers). I finder juicers ridiculously hard to clean and feel you lose all the beneficial fiber.

The nutribullet is the best way to add superfoods like cacao beans, gelatinized maca, goji berry and others to your diet. You can’t do this with a juicer. Load up the plastic container with some vegetables and your choice of superfood with some water, almond or coconut milk and you’re good to go.

I love to add fresh ginger and turmeric. You can get these at your local asian supermarket. I am thankful everyday that I live near several Patel Brothers Supermarkets where you can get many hard to find items like fresh turmeric root and other herbs. You can learn more about Patel Brothers here .

Let’s talk about cacao (chocolate beans). It’s an awesome superfood that you can add to your nutribullet for an extra anti-oxidant and nutritional punch. A great place to get a pound of the stuff is here:

These little crunchy nibs disappear in your smoothie. You can also snack on them (two travel bags are included in the purchase) or add them to salads, nut mixes and yogurt. Cacao increases nitric oxide levels in your body for blood flow and immune system benefits. The good things cacao does to your body are too numerous to mention here, but I bet if you are reading this blog you already know how good for you it is. All i’m saying is put it in your smoothie as a really easy way to add it to your daily regimen.

Sometimes I’ll make a basic smoothie with frozen strawberry, whey protein powder and the cacao nibs. It’s amazingly good!
Enjoy.

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Disc Herniation Lessons Learned

My heart goes out to those who have had to suffer through the pain of a disc herniation. Many times people will have a disc bulge or a disc herniation and experience no real symptoms. However, sometimes the herniation presses on a nerve and it can cause unrelenting and debilitating pain.
Many of us read stories about acute and chronic pain and don’t really understand what it means. For people who do experience it, it’s almost like a private members only club. The pain from a disc herniation can be unrelenting and it’s not really helped with prescription pain killers. Especially when the pain radiates to other parts of the body like the legs and arms, it’s crippling. Imagine being in searing pain constantly and being unable to move for months.
It happened to me. In a panic, I had to call an ambulance to take me to the emergency room. They injected me and filled me up with pain killers and I was still unable to walk. It’s been a couple months and I’m still dealing with it. Things we take for granted like getting in and out of bed or a car are almost impossible. Getting into the car is so painful, it’s like being asked which finger you want broken before you go out for the day.
Here are some random things I learned that I hope can save someone time and help heal faster.
First, you need an MRI to diagnose a disc herniation. At the emergency room, they took an x-ray and a CAT scan and told me i was pretty much ok, maybe just some soft tissue injury. It would have been nice to know that based on my symptoms, a visit to an orthopedist and an MRI would be helpful. I spent about three weeks afterwards being treated by a well meaning physical therapist for piriformis syndrome. The stretching and exercises made things worse!! Lesson 1..if you throw your back out or feel pain radiating to your sacrum, butt, legs, toes, shoulders, elbows, hands..get an MRI. Be careful with chiropractors, physical therapists and massage therapists. Xrays and Cat only rule out obvious things like fractures.
Second, your diet affects your pain levels. I noticed I had an uptick in pain after every meal. I very soon made the connection between carbohydrates and other inflammatory foods and pain immediately after eating. I was able to drop my pain levels considerably by adopting a low carb diet. I eat grass fed meats and seafood and it helps immediately. I’ve tested it several times. Something interesting I found was that grass fed yogurt made me feel a lot less pain then regular yogurt. That was very interesting. But the best thing I did was cut out dairy and grains (carbs) and I don’t feel any pain after I eat. This was a big discovery for me and is helping a lot.
Third, you can reduce your pain levels by eating a lot of ginger. I put a tablespoon of powdered ginger in my black coffee in the morning. The coffee is inflammatory and hurts, but the ginger overrides it. I was able to reduce my reliance on ibuprofen by getting raw ginger in smoothies and adding powdered ginger to my coffee.
I use the magic bullet to make smoothies. The magic bullet was the best 90 bucks I ever spent in my life. I use it daily and it gets me my vegetables and other supplements very easily.
The pain from something like a disc herniation is unbearable. It also takes a really long time to heal. This long healing time takes a toll on family and friends. Someone suffering from this pain feels isolated, stranded and very lonely. The emotional toll on someone feeling chronic pain is never really talked about but is very serious. It can literally destroy a person’s life.

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Can High Dose Fish Oil Cure Brain Injury?

Can high dose fish oil cure brain injury? Apparently the theory is that since the brain is composed of a lot of Omega 3 fatty acid and…fish oil has a lot of fatty acid…it just might make sense that consuming lots of fish oil can help the brain heal itself.
Check out this recent article here.
One of the doctors cited in the article said this:
If you have a brick wall and it gets damaged, wouldn’t you want to use bricks to repair it? said Dr. Michael Lewis, founder of the Brain Health Education and Research Institute. By supplementing using (omega-3 fatty acids) in substantial doses, you provide the foundation for the brain to repair itself.
One of the patients featured in the article took 20 grams of fish oil a day. He began to show improvement almost immediately.

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Increase effectiveness of medications with Long Pepper

Be careful when dosing medications and eating spices and herbs like Long Pepper. These substances can slow down the breakdown and removal of some substances increasing the amount that gets in your blood. This has the added benefit of lowering your dosage. Many people save money dosing PDE-5 inhibitors like Cialis and Viagra by taking some Long Pepper with it.

Long Pepper (Piper Longum) or “Pippali” is a spice and medicinal that has a long history of use in asia for a variety of ailments. It’s considered a powerful aphrodisiac and a tonic for the whole body, especially the digestive system.
It looks like this and you can buy them in online or in indian supermarket where they sell herbs and spices:

Piper Longum or Pippali
Piper Longum or Pippali

Did you know that if you take turmeric with Long Pepper you will absorb the active ingredient curcumin 2000% better than when taken alone?

You can read about that here..

The article states that One study found that when even 2g of curcumin was ingested, its serum levels were very low. However, when 20mg piperine was added to curcumin the bioavailability increased by 2000%. The bioavailability, serum levels and levels of absorption of curcumin all improved dramatically. Thus, if one takes turmeric, most of it is unutilized unless supplemented by addons such as black pepper.

As stated above, the ability to absorb more curcumin fromm turmeric is due to long pepper slowing down the breakdown and removal of curcumin in the body, so more is absorbed.

It’s very possible to overdose on your medication if you’re not aware of this fact. Grapefruit is another seemingly innocuous substance that can overdose your medication. Grapefruit juice also slows down the removal of some medications in your body and thereby increase the absorption rate.

On the flip side, you can increase the effectiveness of medications with Long Pepper. Especially if some of those substances are hard to absorb. Do your research and always check with your doctor first.

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Pistachio Nuts Testosterone And Erectile Dysfunction

A study showed that a 3 week “pistachio nut” diet improved erectile function in men and at the same time improved cholesterol and hdl/ldl levels. However, interestingly enough, testosterone levels were lowered.
You can read the study here.

We have shown that 3-week pistachio diet applied to patients with ED resulted in a significant improvement in erectile function parameters (PCDU parameters and IIEF scores) with additional improvement in serum lipid parameters without any side effects. Further studies are needed with increased number of patients and longer follow-up evaluating the relationship between pistachio nuts and ED pathogenesis.

In the study, participants ate about 100 grams of pistachio nuts at lunch for three weeks.
pistachio nuts
Here’s another study that showed pistachio nuts improved endothelial function in humans, you can read by clicking here.

In this trial, we demonstrated that a pistachio diet improved blood glucose level, endothelial function, and some indices of inflammation and oxidative status in healthy young men. These findings are in accordance with the idea that nuts, in particular pistachio nuts, have favorable effects beyond lipid lowering that deserve to be evaluated with prospective follow-up studies.

So man up and eat some nuts everyday!!

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Bone Broth For Great Health

Bone Broth for superb health. What is bone broth? It’s what many cultures call “soup stock”. It’s not the broth you buy in a can or carton at the supermarket. Real bone broth is made from….bones and other gelatinous parts of beef, pig, goat, chicken, fish etc. I’ve been reading about bone broth being great for bringing your gut back to health. The gelatin and other amino acids reportedly heal the lining of your intestines. It’s great for people who suffer from IBS, Crohns, SIBO, colitis, gastritis and other gastro-intestinal complaints.
The gelatinous liquid is not only soothing to the internal lining of the digestive system, research is indicating that perhaps the gelatin is feeding the good bacteria in your gut.
It’s naturally salty and can be drunk alone as a tea or tonic several times a day. When you drink it, your body knows it needs it.
I bought several soup bones from a local butcher. I put a few in a slow cooker with a piece of cow foot.

Main ingredients for bone broth

Add a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and cut up a leek. You can add crushed garlic, ginger or other herbs. However, I feel it’s best to keep it simple. Add water to cover and let the slow cooker do its magic for 24-48 hours.
Some recipes say to skim the junk that floats to the top in the first couple of hours, however, I haven’t seen it yet in two batches.
When it’s done, you can strain into glass jars and refrigerate. I use mine pretty quickly, so I don’t need to freeze it but you can freeze it for longer storage.
Here’s the cool part: When it cools in the fridge, the fat will solidify on top of the gelatinous broth. You can separate it easily if you’re not interested in drinking fat. The jury is still out on that. Some people swear by it, some people swear equally that you should discard it or cook with it.
If your broth is not turning into gelatin in the fridge, it’s because you haven’t added any bones that contain cartilage or other connective tissue like tendon or cartilage. Use beef tendon, cow foot or knees, oxtail etc. to get the healthy gelatin.
And remember the vinegar! It is said to be required to help get the calcium, magnesium and other minerals out of the bones.
Add this healing elixir to your daily routine. Your skin, hair and gut will appreciate it!

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Why Red Meat And Eggs Could Accelerate Heart Disease

Seems like this isn’t exactly new news, however, researchers have announced that they have discovered one of the reasons why red meat consumption could cause heart disease. It seems like it doesn’t have much to do with fat and cholesterol, as we’ve been led to believe over the years. Believe it or not, it could be caused by our gut bacteria! Researchers have found that our gut bacteria consume the carnitine in red meat and convert it a substance called TMAO. The TMAO encourages plaque build up in our arteries!
You can read about it here.
Some sites are claiming probiotic supplements can help protect us against this conversion. I’m not so sure about that until scientists can identify exactly which bacteria is doing it. They did say if you take an antibiotic, you will not make this substance.
In either case, I think it’s cool that we are figuring out how important our digestive systems are to our overall health and in particular, how important our individual gut bacteria is. Everyone is different and their gut bacteria is different. Think of the times you had to take an antibiotic and wiped out your gut bacteria! What replaced it?
Now we may know why red meat and eggs could accelerate heart disease.

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Bigger Balls Shinier Hair With….Yogurt!

Here’s an interesting research study.
Scientists researching the effects of yogurt on obesity and weight loss fed two groups of mice a Junk Food Diet and a Regular Diet. Then they gave half the mice in each group extra vanilla yogurt.
The mice eating the yogurt grew bigger testicles, had shinier hair and a “swagger” about them. They mated with more females and got to them faster than their counterparts who did not have yogurt.
What does this mean? The researchers think it was due to the probiotics in the yogurt.
They probably need to do more studies to figure out if yogurt increased testosterone or grew the testicles through some other mechanism.
According to the article:
Reflecting on their unpublished results, Erdman and Alm think that the probiotic microbes in the yogurt help to make the animals leaner and healthier, which indirectly improves sexual machismo.
The findings could have implications for human fertility. In ongoing work, a team led by Harvard nutritional epidemiologist Jorge Chavarro has looked at the association between yogurt intake and semen quality in men. “So far our preliminary findings are consistent with what they see in the mice,” Chavarro says.
Bigger Balls Shinier Hair With….Yogurt!

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Kefir Vivid Dreams

I’m still working out how to make kefir. I put too much milk one time and the kefir was a little watery. One night this week I made it perfectly. The next day it was creamy and fizzy..something like a light beer mixed with creamy milk. Sounds weird, but it was delicious. However, one thing I noticed was extremely vivid dreams..I mean full length feature films all night.
I’m curious about the gut/dreaming connection. I noticed a lot of people on the net are reporting vivid dreams and probiotics. Home-made kefir is a super probiotic. Kefir Vivid Dreams Try it!