Five Steps to Slow the Aging Process
-Achieving and maintaining a healthier, younger-looking you!

Aging…who needs it?

Physically, it benefits no one, yet it affects us all. Turning back the hands of time, or at least slowing them down, has been a collective mission of scientists, doctors, and most everyone over the age of 25 since the advent of birthday celebrations.

We’ve since invented reconstructive and laser surgeries, dermabrasion, tanning beds and spray-on tans, chemical injections and other such invasive methods – all in the name of anti aging.

But there must be a better way - right?

Right.

According to Marcia Zimmerman, MED, CN, there are five daily steps to practice to look and feel younger.

-Control stress
-Nourish your body
-Exercise
-Utilize supplements
-Protect and care for your skin

Control Stress and Reduce the Signs of Aging

In addition to the stresses of work, relationships, and our daily lifestyles, unseen factors also play a major role in our physical wellbeing; factors such as sun exposure, water and air pollution. While we can each do our part to reduce environmental pollution, and wear appropriate clothing and sun block to prevent over sun exposure, some environmental stresses will still permeate our guard.

Stress affects our nervous, digestive, and immune systems. Reducing stress in your daily life will not only create immediate benefits for your health, but long tern benefits as well. Reducing stress on your nervous system, with relaxation techniques such as yoga or deep breathing, allows you to focus better. Reducing stress on your digestive system, by eating healthy foods, allows you to properly fuel your body while avoiding digestive issues from stomachaches to larger problems such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. And reducing stress on your immune system, by eating healthy, exercising regularly, and taking supplements, allows your body to more effectively prevent colds and diseases.

Therefore, properly caring for your three major internal systems will not only keep your insides healthy and functioning appropriately, but your appearance will benefit as well.

Body Nourishment

Reducing your caloric intake is scientifically proven to extend longevity. Focusing your diet on fruits, vegetables, and starches (complex carbohydrates) will allow your body to perform at its maximum capacity. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables provides your body with the necessary vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and nutrients needed to maintain great health and glowing skin.

Marcia Zimmerman recommends eating brightly colored foods and drink – bearing in mind she refers to naturally colored foods, not processed foods dyed with food coloring! For example, yellow foods, such as carrots, corn, squash, bell peppers, and tropical fruits are rich in carotenoids, which act as precursors to Vitamin A, antioxidants, and aid in new cell growth. Green foods, such as bell peppers. broccoli, asparagus, collard and mustard greens, are rich in sulfur antioxidants, natural compounds that help protect the body from harmful free radicals. Purple foods, like berries, beets, eggplant, and even wine are rich in flavonoids and Vitamin C, thus helping to protect the body from parasites, bacteria, and cell injury.

Whole grains, beans, brown rice, mushrooms, and nuts, or tan foods, are rich in sterols, fiber, and minerals. Plant sterols, unlike animal sterols – or cholesterol – actually help to reduce cholesterol levels. Poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, and other pale yellow foods contain amino acids, essential fatty acids and protein. The body requires protein and amino acids to build and maintain muscle, while essential fatty acids help to improve skin and hair.

Taking care of your body from the inside out, with a nutritional, balanced diet will be reflected on the outside in the form of healthy skin, hair, and nails. Eating right is a one-way ticket to looking and feeling good!

The Necessity of Exercise

Not only does regular exercise, such as push-mowing the lawn, walking to work, taking extra stairs, build strength, but it relieves stress, provides motivation, promotes relaxation, and facilitates sleep which allows you to do it all again tomorrow! Exercise also reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Choosing activities that fit into your daily lifestyle are just as beneficial as joining a gym or club. Being physically active, for 30 or more minutes each day, will reduce stress and allow you cope more efficiently with new stresses.

The Role of Supplements

A poor diet and lack of regular exercise increase the production of free radicals, groups of atoms that damage cells, impairing the immune system and leading to infections and various degenerative diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Supplements, particularly antioxidants, help protect the body from these harmful free radicals, therefore playing an important role in the prevention of diseases.

Important, age-defying antioxidants include alpha-lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, melatonin, pycnogenol, vitamins A, C, and E, as well as zinc and certain herbs such as Witch Hazel, Chamomile, and Ginseng. Antioxidants can be obtained from foods such as sprouted grains and fresh fruits and vegetables; however, supplementation insures your body receives plenty of antioxidants to help combat the damaging effects of free radicals.

Wellfx.com carries several skin care supplements, to be taken internally, that help reduce the effects of oxidative stress, help to repair damages cells, and rejuvenate your skin’s appearance. Please visit our Anti Aging department for a complete listing of products.

Effective Skin Care

Supplements can either be taken in the form of a pill, capsule, powder, or even applied topically. In terms of facial care and topical skin cream, Wellfx.com offers a wide variety of topical products for protecting your skin. Prevention is the best method in terms of skin care. First and foremost, protecting your skin from harmful UV rays is imperative. Wearing a daily face lotion that contains an SPF is an easy way to help prevent future wrinkles and sun-damaged skin. When exposing your body to prolonged sunshine, be sure to use an SPF of at least 15, reapplied every few hours to ensure proper protection.

However, if prevention is no longer an option, and you’re looking to reverse the signs of aging that have appeared after years of sun exposure and laughter (laugh lines), there are many products available today for that exact purpose.

Wellfx.com carries many topical skin products to help diminish the signs of aging while preventing further damage. Check out the new Sans Age Botanique Ageless Botanical Gel, which combines five important herbs with Acetyl Hexapeptide which work together to smooth the fine lines and wrinkles associated with aging while moisturizing the skin, creating smoother, firmer skin.

Conclusion

According to HealthierUS.gov, “Healthy lifestyles are more influential than genetic factors in avoiding deterioration traditionally associated with aging.”

Healthy lifestyles include eating right, exercising regularly, minimizing stress – physical and emotional, and protecting your skin from harmful environmental factors such as UV rays as well as water and air pollution.

Sources:

Prescription for Nutritional Healing. Balch, Phyllis A., CNC and James F., M.D. Penguin Putnam, Inc. NY. 2000.
Five Ways to Slow Aging

Spice Up Your Life with Cayenne!
-The anti-inflammatory, anti-irritant, and anti-carcinogenic pepper

Capsicum Solanaceae, commonly know as Cayenne, is a zesty member of the Nightshade plant family. Cayenne is a perennial, frost-sensitive shrub that can grow up to a meter in height. The “fruit” as it is called, has a conical shape and contains plump white seeds. The little seeds are the carrier of the plant’s most notorious heat. Capsaicin, the active healing component from Cayenne, is also available in over 130 species of pepper plant, however, cayenne is most abundant in supply.

Cayenne is native to Central America and was brought to Europe by the Spanish in the 17th century. It has been used in Latin cuisine for more than 2 millennia! Cayenne is truly a unique and hearty species that has served the people who made it a staple of their culture, not only through the flavoring of food but by medicinal means.

Cayenne is a terrific anti-inflammatory and anti-irritant, it has been shown to be effective in treating stomach ulcers, and subdue aspirin-induced gastric upset. Cayenne has been used as a great treatment for heat stress. Capsaicin causes blood vessels to dilate, which allows the blood to slowly cool, and stimulate perspiration. Animal studies suggest that pregnant mothers who eat peppers pass the peppers’ heat-resistance on to their children.

Hot peppers, such as Cayenne, help in the sterilization of food, as well. Cayenne is known to kill such bacteria as: bacillus cereus, bacillus subtilis, clostridium sporogenes, clostridium tetani, and streptococcus pyogenes. On that note, capsicum is a powerful anti-carcinogenic. Capsicum deactivates the liver enzyme p450, which is responsible for converting tetrachloride into a harmful carcinogen. Cayenne is a great remedy for treating ailments that are in relation to environmental pollutants.

Cayenne and its spicy counterparts have been shown to be beneficial for weight loss. A clinical study conducted by scientists at Laval University in Quebec discovered eating cayenne as part of breakfast decreased appetite and lowered the craving for fatty foods. The people involved in the study had a lower calorie intake on the days they had cayenne in the morning than the days they did not. Cayenne has proven to help boost your metabolism and induces the body to burn more stored fat.  Studies suggest that capsicum may help maintain blood sugar levels, as well.

Capsicum is used in a number of topical pain-relief preparations, available in most health food stores. Topical capsicum is used to treat a number of ailments from arthritis, psoriasis, sports injuries, and certain types of nerve damage. Because it is a counter-irritant, capsicum causes temporary pain in the skin that depletes the chemical messengers that cause joint and muscle pain. Capsicum permeates the skin, enters the nerve, and eliminates Substance P, which stops the message from reaching the brain. A little tingling on the skin to stop severe pain under it?  I love it!

I would like to caution anyone that uses cayenne, to wash their hands after application of a cream or after handling this plant in any form. It can cause excruciating pain if it comes into contact with eyes or broken skin. If you decide to use a powder form to take internally, mix it with a starchy food. Capsaicin is hard to remove from contact lenses. If cayenne comes in contact with them, THROW THEM AWAY! If you are taking any form of prescription medication for liver or kidney disease, do not take this supplement. Cayenne causes inactivity CYP1A2 enzyme, which is needed in correlation with the medication.

So, with all of this information in tow, does it make you want to eat more Mexican? I know I do!  You can add it into your food, you can take it as a supplement, or you can rub it into your skin. Does it get any better? So, sprinkle it into your diet, just remember, a little goes a long way.

Sources:

Prescription for Nutritional Healing. Balch, Phyllis A., CNC and James F., M.D. Penguin Putnam, Inc. NY. 2000.

Anti-Aging and Antioxidant Protection
- Protecting yourself on the cellular level

Used with permission from Now Foods “Your Health Professor.”

In the time it takes you to finish reading this article, you, your body and your cells will have aged. Some, more than others. Nevertheless, every second that ticks away should serve as a reminder that our time here is temporary. How much time we actually end up with depends on many things. Diet. Lifestyle. Environment. Superoxide Dismutase? I’ll explain.

What some of the healthiest individuals fail to realize is that our bodies age from the inside out. Aging is not the result of passing time, but rather the result of what we’re exposed to environmentally, physically and chemically. It is the integrity of our cells, not our clocks, that determine how smooth the aging process fares.

Each day, we’re subjected to millions of elements that affect us in ways seldom seen, felt or noticed. From the moment we’re born, we rely on our cells to work around the clock - producing energy, fighting infections and sustaining life. These same cells eventually determine the rate at which we show (or hide) our age.

Taking into consideration that our planet has no shortage of toxins & germs, the need to safeguard our cells becomes very real. Constant exposure to exhaust, secondhand smoke, heavy metals, lead, fluoride and uncountable other noxious compounds should ideally provide us with nothing more than a routine immune system workout. Unfortunately, over long periods they hinder our “resistance” abilities and become stepping stones to accelerated aging.

Antioxidants. We’ve all heard the term before, and may even have a general understanding of their role. But to better grasp just how vital they are, it helps to know what’s happening at the cellular level. Free radicals are unstable molecular thieves that often lack electrons. To compensate, they rob healthy cells - a process better known as oxidation. Antioxidants work with the immune system to prevent oxidation, and clean up the mess it leaves behind. Hence, the name.

There are two types. Exogenous antioxidants are derived from our diet and include vitamins A, E, and C along with others such as alpha lipoic acid, selenium, CoQ10, grape seed, pycnogenol and zinc. To date, we’ve been limited to exogenous antioxidants as a way to increase the rate at which our body wards off oxidation. They are not, however, our first line of defense. At birth, each and every one of us is equipped with three primary endogenous enzymatic antioxidants; SOD (Superoxide Dismutase), Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx) and Catalase.

While both types of antioxidants are beneficial, we’ve become reliant on those from the diet to compensate for our inability to boost the effectiveness of our 3 primary antioxidants. For years, researchers have been examining ways to enhance the activity of our built-in bodyguards. One in particular, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) has been of foremost interest.

SOD targets what many researchers regard as one of our greatest health threats and aging accelerators - Superoxide radicals. These highly reactive, merciless molecules incite enormous amounts of oxidative stress and are capable of wreaking havoc on healthy cells. When cells are left unprotected by SOD, the results can be disastrous - respiratory problems, premature aging, memory loss, cardiovascular challenges, vision failure and joint structure damage, among others.
Until now, we’ve been at the mercy of our natural SOD reserves to fight superoxides.

Researchers have been working feverishly to produce an effective oral SOD supplement, but have continually encountered a frustrating hurdle - exposure to gastric acid denatures SOD, rendering it useless. As a result, the only effective way to supplement SOD was through injections. These, however, only yielded short-term spikes.

And then something remarkable happened that changed everything. Nutrition scientists in France determined that by combining Cucumus melo (a melon high in SOD) with a wheat gliadin stabilizer, it would be possible to prevent SOD from deteriorating in the digestive tract, while preserving it in the blood for extended periods. Not only is this the answer to a puzzle that has plagued researchers, it’s a breakthrough that will impact the life of anyone seeking longevity and vitality.

As the first proven oral SOD supplement ever introduced to the public, GliSODin® has taken antioxidant protection, immune support and anti-aging science to an entirely new level.
The primary function of GliSODin® is to scour the body for superoxide radicals and reduce them to less reactive ions that can be swept away; a process known as dismutation. In addition, GliSODin® reduces the oxidation vulnerability of healthy cells, protects mitochondrial activity and safeguards DNA structure.

What’s most remarkable is that GliSODin® has actually been shown to stimulate the body’s own natural production of all three enzymatic antioxidants, including SOD. For the first time in history, we will have the ability to enhance the effectiveness of our body’s primary defense mechanism.

New GliSODin® from NOW® represents the ultimate in antioxidant protection. By increasing one’s level of SOD while stimulating the natural production of Glutathione Peroxidase and Catalase, GliSODin® delivers antioxidant protection unlike any previously released dietary supplement.

Remember, the aging process begins at a level that we simply can not see, the cellular level. Shielding your cells from superoxide damage is one of the smartest steps you can take against aging before your due time. GliSODin® has made this a reality.

Sources:

NOW Foods Your Health Professor

Atkins Nutritionals Inc. Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on 08/01/05
Or, as told by Atkins.com, "Atkins Enters Final Phase of Restructuring."

Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. (ANI) filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on Monday, August 1, 2005, stating, however, that the day-to-day operations would not be affected. Atkins refers to the bankruptcy proceedings as “reorganization proceedings,” a move that marks the final step in ANI’s previously announced effort to reorganize the business to focus primarily on nutrition bars and shakes.

Mark S. Rodriguez, President and Chief Executive Officer of ANI, is confident in the future of the company and expects to “proceed quickly and…emerge from these proceedings with a significantly improved balance sheet and greater operating flexibility.”

Like Keto Foods, another low-carb industry leader who went out of business in early 2005, Atkins claims that the their demise was due, not only to the decreasing trend of low-carb diets, but the flooding of the marketplace with low-carb products from huge companies such as Kraft Foods.

The fall of Atkins may very well signify the official end of the low-carb craze as we know it.
Although low-carb products are still available, and probably always will be, most consumers now know that it isn’t just carbohydrates that cause weight gain. In fact, the fall of Atkins proves that you need carbohydrates to stay on your feet!

Sources:
MSNBC
MSNBC 2
CNN
Atkins.com