Posted on

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:

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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

Posted on

Toothaches and Erections?

What do toothaches and erections have in common?

There’s an herb called the ‘toothache plant’ or Spilanthes camellia that historically was used to numb the mouth, hence the name ‘toothache plant’.

However, this plant extract has been studied extensively for it’s blood pressure lowering, nitric oxide producing, testosterone boosting and erection strengthening powers!

One study showed it increased the hardness of a rat erection by 200%!

It’s amazing we haven’t heard more about this. PDE5 inhibitor drugs increase erections by inhibiting the PDE5 enzyme but do nothing for testosterone or libido. Toothache plant increases erections and testosterone!

You can read some more here.

Spilanthes-closeup-large

Posted on

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.

Posted on

L Reuteri For Great Hair and Skin

Tonicquest has reported on how mice eating yogurt had increased testosterone levels and great shiny hair. You can read about it here.

The early reports that came out simply mentioned probiotics in yogurt as if any yogurt could have this effect. However, it’s become clear that not all yogurts are created equal. If you read the fine print, you’ll see that most yogurts list the probiotics in them. Unfortunately, the specific strain that was used in the studies, L Reuteri, is really hard to find!! I can’t find one single commercially available yogurt that has this strain. Stonyfield yogurt used to have it, buy they stopped using it for some time now.

I did find L Reuteri in Lifeway Kefir. You can get it here:

Frustratingly, the Lifeway Kefir does not mention what strain is included. The strain you want is ATCC 6475 Lactobacillus reuteri. It’s a challenge to find it anywhere. Until then, you can try to get L Reuteri in supplement form.
You can try this one:

Read this study here.:

Radiant skin and hair are universally recognized as indications of good health. However, this ‘glow of health’ display remains poorly understood. We found that feeding of probiotic bacteria to aged mice induced integumentary changes mimicking peak health and reproductive fitness characteristic of much younger animals. Eating probiotic yogurt triggered epithelial follicular anagen-phase shift with sebocytogenesis resulting in thick lustrous fur due to a bacteria-triggered interleukin-10-dependent mechanism. Aged male animals eating probiotics exhibited increased subcuticular folliculogenesis, when compared with matched controls, yielding luxuriant fur only in probiotic-fed subjects. Female animals displayed probiotic-induced hyperacidity coinciding with shinier hair, a feature that also aligns with fertility in human females. Together these data provide insights into mammalian evolution and novel strategies for integumentary health.

Posted on

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:

Posted on

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:

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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:

Posted on

Taurine – It’s not just for old rats

Here’s an interesting study you can read here.

Taurine enhances the sexual response and mating ability in aged male rats.
Abstract

It has been demonstrated that taurine is abundant in male reproductive organs, and can be biosynthesized by testis, but the taurine concentration will reduce with aging. The levels of serum LH, T, NOS, and NO were found to be obviously increased by taurine supplementation in aged rats in our previous study. In addition, aging will result in a significant decline in sexual response and function, which may be attributed to the androgen deficiency. Furthermore, NO has been proposed as a crucial mediator of penile erection. That makes us hypothesize that there is potential relationship between taurine decline and erection dysfunction in aged males. So the primary aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of taurine on male sexuality in rats. Taurine was offered in water to male aged (20 months old) rats for 110 days. The effects of taurine on the sexual response, mating ability, levels of serum reproductive hormones, and penile NOS and NO levels were investigated. The results showed that taurine can significantly reduce the EL and ML; obviously increase the ERF, MF, IF, and EJF; stimulate the secretion of GnRH, LH, and T; and elevate penis NOS and NO level in aged rats. The results indicated that taurine can enhance the sexual response and mating ability in aged male rats by increasing the level of testosterone and NO, but the exact mechanism of which needs to be further investigated.

Increased testosterone and nitric oxide from Taurine supplementation? That’s amazing!

Taurine can be found in the popular “Red Bull” drinks. I think about 1 gram’s worth per serving.

Taurine is also quite inexpensive. Here’s a good bulk source for it:

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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!!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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!

Posted on

Coconut Milk Kefir

I was really enjoying making my milk based kefir. I got the ratios correct to make creamy, sour milk kefir that was not only delicious, but good for you. Then I saw the video, Forks Over Knives. Suddenly, my delicious and healthy probiotic dairy drink didn’t seem so healthy. For those of you who are not aware of this video, it’s a must see. It’s available on Netflix.
The video is all about how we should be eating a plant based diet and eschew any animal based products from our diets. Doing so can virtually start to eliminate risks for so many diseases that affect us. It’s never too late to start!
But this isn’t about a vegetarian diet and it’s health benefits. It’s about Coconut Milk Kefir and how darn good it tastes!
So, take those milk kefir grains and instead of adding fresh milk, add a can of coconut milk. It will be ready in 24-36 hours depending on how much kefir grain and coconut milke you use. I used to think there were alot of calories in coconut milk until a checked yesterday. A can of coconut milk only has about 200 calories. There’s a good video at this site that shows you how easy it is to make.
I think Coconut Milk Kefir is a great compromise. You get the super benefits of probiotics and the great health benefits of coconut fat..and you don’t consume dairy products.
Try it!

Posted on

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!