Why Magnesium: A Look into the Mineral’s Importance

by admin | Jun 27, 2018 | Health Awareness

Magnesium plays an important role in bodily functions. It is required for more than 300 enzyme systems, including nerve function and blood glucose control. While the mineral is abundant in the body, many adults need more of it. Research shows that 68% of U.S. adults consume less than the recommended daily amount of magnesium, with nearly one-fifth of the population taking in less than half than necessary amounts.

Why Is Magnesium So Important?

In recent years, researchers have established a link between magnesium levels and inflammation. Research shows that at the cellular level, magnesium is responsible for reducing inflammation. When magnesium intake is increased in subjects with high chronic inflammation, the inflammatory response decreases.

Because many medical experts and scientific researchers believe that many chronic illnesses share the common root cause of inflammation, controlling the body’s inflammatory response is critical to staying disease-free and ensuring long-term wellness. Cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes are just a few of the illnesses commonly attributed to chronic inflammation. Moreover, individuals who already have chronic diseases could achieve better symptom control by reducing inflammation levels through added magnesium intake.

Additional Magnesium Benefits

Beyond controlling inflammation, magnesium contributes to heart health, bone strength, and energy creation. It also helps to create and repair RNA, supports muscle movement, and aids in mood regulation. In fact, individuals with the lowest magnesium intake levels have been found to be more at risk of developing depression.

How Can I Increase My Magnesium Intake?

First, it’s important to understand that your magnesium levels could be fine. Some common reasons for low magnesium levels include alcoholism, low dietary intake, and poor kidney functionality. Unless you have one of these or another preexisting condition which causes magnesium intake, you may not need to increase your levels.

Magnesium is found naturally in spinach, black beans, avocado, certain types of nuts, and enriched cereals. It is also found in many dairy products and whole grain foods. Thus, if you are already following healthy eating habits, you may be getting enough magnesium through your diet alone.

Nonetheless, deficiencies are possible. People with type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, and older adults are more at risk for deficiencies. Early signs of deficiencies include nausea, diarrhea, confusion, weakness, vomiting, and fatigue. As the condition progresses, seizures, muscle cramps, numbness, tingling, and abnormal heartbeats can occur.

If you’re wondering whether your magnesium levels should be higher, talk to your doctor. They may recommend a serum magnesium test to assess your levels. If you are too low in the mineral, they may recommend taking a daily supplement to increase your levels and potentially improve your overall health.

The Impact of Excess Sugar: Why It’s Not Just a Concern for Diabetics

by admin | Jun 25, 2018 | Health Awareness

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate the body processes and uses for energy. It is found in its natural form as fructose in fruit and as lactose in dairy products. Yet, chemically-produced sugar is also added to certain processed foods to produce a different flavor. The way our bodies metabolizes sugar depends on the type and the amount we consume.

Controlling the intake of all forms of sugar is critically important for individuals with diabetes and pre-diabetes, as having any form of the disease means you have too much glucose in your blood. Failure to control blood sugar could lead to complications like eye damage, foot damage, and skin conditions in diabetes sufferers. Worse yet, some complications, such as cardiovascular disease, could even be life-threatening.

An estimated 9% of the U.S. population has diabetes and must therefore actively control their sugar intake. Yet, here’s a staggering fact to consider: more than a third of U.S. adults aged 18 or older have prediabetes, which suggests our ability to limit sugar intake – especially the type found in processed food – must improve.

Beyond Diabetes

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing dramatically, but there are also other reasons for populations as a whole to begin watching their sugar intake. Excess sugar is linked to fatty liver disease, heart disease, and high cholesterol. It can also have deadly consequences: research shows individuals who consumed 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than two times as likely to die from heart disease than those whose diets had less than 10% added sugar.

Added sugars have no nutritional value; yet, they make up at least 10% of the calories average U.S. individuals consume daily. In fact, the average person consumes more than 126 grams of the sweet stuff each day, which is more than twice the daily recommendation of 50 grams set forth by the World Health Organization. Thus, in order to avoid the scary health risks discussed above, it’s critical for the majority of the population to start slashing sugar levels.

How to Reduce Sugar Intake

One barrier to controlling sugar intake is the fact that the habit is particularly hard to kick. Once we begin consuming sugar regularly, we are hardwired to continue craving it. While it might not have addictive properties per se, research shows that consuming sugar releases dopamine and impacts the same region of the brain as cocaine and heroin.

Luckily, there are effective ways to slowly reduce your sugar intake. For many individuals, sodas are the primary source of added sugars. Switching to seltzer water with fresh fruit can aid in significantly lowering processed sugar intake. For others, processed foods are the worst offenders. Be wary of low-fat processed foods, which often contain added sugars to improve flavor. Regularly choosing fruit when you’re craving something sweet can help provide your body with nutrients instead of empty calories, and may help you avoid the potentially serious effects of sugar over a long-term basis.

Leaky Gut Syndrome: What Is It & How Can You Prevent It?

by admin | Jun 22, 2018 | Health Awareness

The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, once said that all disease begins in the gut. Though his belief was born more than 2,000 years ago, many scientists support his theory to this day. In fact, researchers are still uncovering new links between intestinal health and certain types of diseases. While it’s true that not all afflictions originate in the GI tract, most health experts now agree that a leaky gut could be responsible for many types of chronic conditions. Let’s take a closer look at what that means.

The Importance of Gut Health

The human intestinal tract is home to as many as 500 unique species of bacteria. Many of these are considered “good” bacteria: they aid in digestion, process nutrients, and help your body fight off bacteria. Maintaining harmony among these bacteria is therefore critically important to a person’s overall wellness. When the balance is altered, it causes a condition called dysbiosis.

The condition can be as mild as an upset stomach which corrects itself, but in its more advanced form, it can produce chronic symptoms such as constipation, nausea, diarrhea, and fatigue. Overgrowth of a single bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, can cause conditions such as staph infections. This bacterial imbalance may also lead to leaky gut syndrome.

The Role of Gut Lining

When the ratio of good-to-bad gut bacteria is off-kilter, unwanted bacteria called endotoxins may leak through the intestinal lining and make their way into the bloodstream. The immune system registers the bacteria as foreign bodies and attacks them, causing chronic inflammation. It is suspected that this ongoing inflammatory reaction caused by intestinal permeability could be linked to serious illnesses, including fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes. Leaky gut is also suspected to be related to chronic inflammatory conditions like arthritis, as well as allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, and gastric ulcers.

How to Promote a Healthier Gut

Unfortunately, achieving a balanced intestinal microbiome isn’t always as simple as maintaining a healthy diet. While limiting the intake of processed foods and alcohol could help (and delivers additional health benefits anyhow), there are other factors at play. Everything from the compounds in our tap water to antibiotics alters our gut bacteria, so many people need a more powerful solution for effectively restoring healthy gut flora.

If you suffer from symptoms suggestive of dysbiosis, including diarrhea, bloating, reflux, constipation, or other forms of stomach irritation, it’s a good idea to seek help from a functional medicine doctor. Professionals can assess your symptoms and may order a diagnostic test such as a hydrogen breath test, comprehensive digestive stool analysis, or organic acids test to check for bacterial imbalances.

In the meantime, there are solutions available for stimulating the development of healthy gut bacteria, such as taking probiotics and using bovine colostrum. Rich in gut-healing immunoglobulins, these solutions are simply mixed with water and consumed twice daily on an empty stomach. After continued use, colostrum has been proven to modulate immune function and fight off infectious processes.