Antioxidants: what it does to your body

Famous antioxidant research scientist Dr. Lester Packer, PhD., believes that degenerative diseases like cancer and heart diseases indicate aging since the body’s immune system becomes weak because of the presence of too many free radicals in the body.  Free radicals are easily killed by antioxidants.

Vitamin E is one of the most

popular antioxidants and is

a skin-friendly nutrient.

Credit here

Antioxidants are group of different chemical substances whose primary function is to boost the immune system and delay the signs of aging by attacking the harmful free radicals in the body. Four powerful antioxidants are naturally found in foods like fruits and vegetables.

Vitamin E, a known antioxidant, neutralizes the free radicals in the body that were produced during the oxidation process. Oxidation is a process when oxygen is used to break down the body’s tissues. Enough supply of vitamin E in the body delays aging since free radicals get the electrons of Vitamin E and leave the healthy cells in the body to prevent the tissues from being damaged.

It also enhances the body’s immune system and prohibits certain diseases. This vitamin prevents the clogging of arteries and allows blood to flow easily through arteries to prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular problems. It lowers the risk of cancer by stopping carcinogenic nitrosamines, which can be found in some foods, from forming in the stomach. Common food sources include nuts, whole grains, wheat products, vegetable oils, and dark leafy green vegetables like broccoli.

Vitamin C rich foods include
citrus foods like lemon,
dalandan, and green veggies.
Credit here

Vitamin C destroys the free radicals in the body, which can also be drawn from external sources such as stress and pollution, repairs damaged tissues, boosts the immune system, helps strengthen teeth and bones, and speeds up the healing of wounds. It also prevents the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or the bad cholesterol which is the root of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular ailments. Foods that are rich in vitamin C are citrus foods such as orange and lemon, dark leafy green vegetables like spinach, tomatoes, peppers, and berries.

Beta-carotene is known as the pro-vitamin A since the body converts this to vitamin A when needed. It helps improve and maintain healthy skin and eyes, strengthens bones, lessens the physical signs of aging, and stimulates the immune cell macrophages that can kill cancer cells. Carrots, green leafy vegetables, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and tomato are good sources of beta-carotene.    

Selenium activates prostaglandins that are responsible in regulating blood pressure and the production of glutathione, another antioxidant. It boosts the immune cell activity in order to delay the growth of tumors in the body, thus preventing cancer. Its anti-inflammatory property also helps relieve the pain of people with arthritis.  Well-known foods that have high selenium content include brown rice, chicken, eggs, garlic, onion, whole grains, seafood, and vegetables.

5 New Ways to Look at Honey

Treat your sorethroat
with honey. Credit here

1.Treats sore throats.Honey’s anti-bacterial property soothes the throat and kills infection-causing bacteria found in it. You may choose either to take a spoonful of honey and mix with lemon juice (optional) or take two tablespoons of honey combined with four tablespoons of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Some people also add a pinch of red or black pepper to the concoction, believing that it will increase blood circulation on their throat.

2. Heals wounds, cut, and burns. Honey speeds up the healing of wounds, cuts, and burns because of its anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antibacterial, and antifungal effects. It prevents infections because it kills the bacteria surrounding the wound, stimulates the repair of wound tissues, and prohibits malodorous wounds. It can also be applied topically to the affected area or on a dressing but make sure that the wound is fully covered with honey. The required amount of honey is 20ml per 10x10 cm dressing.    

Too much alcohol can cause
hangover. Fight it with honey.
Credit here

 3. Prevents hang-over. Surprisingly, honey provides relief to people who had too much alcohol from a previous drinking session. Honey is a good cure for hangover since its fructose content help the body metabolize the alcohol quickly while potassium counteracts the effects of alcohol in the body.  Simply combine two spoons of honey and mix together with 80ml orange juice and 70ml natural yogurt or take two to three teaspoons of honey every 20minutes to ease the signs of hangover.  

4. Sleeplessness.When honey is taken by the body, the amino acid tryptophan gets released in the bloodstream and enters the brain. This tryptophan will soon be converted to serotonin. Meanwhile, serotonin gets converted to melatonin which is a sleep-inducing hormone. Including honey in your bedtime ritual helps solve this problem. Just add two teaspoons of honey and mix it with warm milk or chamomile tea before drinking it.   



Honey's anti-inflammatory
property helps improve one's skin
condition. Credit here 

5. Skin problems. The anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties of honey make it a good and effective cure for people with skin problems like acne. It can also be used as skin moisturizer because of its ability to attract and trap the water to the skin to make it moist, elastic, and supple.  Dry skin can easily be remedied by combining a teaspoon of honey, olive oil, and lemon juice and applying it on the affected areas for 15 minutes before rinsing it off. Honey can also be used as a hair conditioner by mixing it with olive oil before applying it on the hair.

Understanding Depression



Depression can kill you unless you don't
do something about it. Credit here

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one life is taken away every 40 seconds while an estimated one million deaths worldwide is due to suicide. Depression is one of the reasons why people commit suicide, with women twice likely to suffer from this condition than men.

Filipinos are known as one of the happiest people in the world. Surprisingly, WHO reported that the Philippines holds the highest depression incidence in Southeast Asia with 93 out of 100,000 Filipinos committing suicides.

Several factors contribute to depression among women but one of the reasons is due to hormonal imbalance. Women should realize the possible long-term effect of this condition since most of them seem not bothered with an irregular menstrual cycle.

When a woman fails to ovulate every month, the ovaries cannot produce enough progesterone in the body and obviously, progesterone level will drop while the estrogen level increases. Researchers believed there is a relation on female hormones and one’s mood because estrogen and progesterone directly affect the neuroendocrine, neurotransmitter, and circadian systems which are related to mood disorders.

Estrogen boosts serotonin which fights depression and increases the “happy hormone” endorphin while progesterone balances the estrogen level in the body, promotes sleep, and stabilizes the libido (which is a natural antidepressant). Low estrogen level can cause depression while unstable progesterone level causes insomnia and bad mood.  Another hormone that affects one’s mood is cortisol which manages the body’s ability to handle stress.  High cortisol level causes agitation and insomnia while low cortisol level results to extreme fatigue and inability to deal with stress, and mood swings.

The fluctuating levels of these two female hormones cause pre-menstrual syndrome or PMS wherein women suffer from anxiety, irritation, and headaches. However, a simple PMS can lead to pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) wherein patients cannot cope with their condition or worse, experience great depression. The last thing that we want to happen to an extremely depressed person is to commit suicide right?

To prevent this from happening, a change in lifestyle won’t hurt that much. Get involved with physical activities and stay away from products that have high levels of chemicals on it. Load yourself with foods rich in phytoestrogens like corn, apples, broccoli, cucumber, cabbage, wheatgerm, and even soymilk. These practices help restore hormonal balance in the body. More importantly, seek medical assistance since they know how to address your concerns.

Working out the colon

Aside from maintaining a healthy diet, regular exercise also helps in preventing cancer. A 2009 study published in the British Journal of Cancer found that people who exercise more often have slim chances of getting colon cancer than those who live a sedentary life and that physical activity protects the body against the said disease.  This finding should motivate people to have a more active lifestyle than being a couch potato.  People should remember that diet and exercise should always go hand-in-hand to in order to win the battle against cancer prevention.   Below is a list of five exercises that are said to be good for the colon.

Running is a popular exercise
nowadays. Photo credit here

1.   Walking/Running. A study conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 2007 found that walking for an hour every week helps prevent colon cancer. Women who also walked an average of 1 to 1.9 hours are less prone from colon cancer than women who rarely walk.Both walking and running lowers the chance of getting colon cancer since these exercises improve the blood flow to and from the intestines, resulting to an efficient and healthier digestive system.

 2.Abdominal Exercises. People who are doing abs exercises now have another reason why it pays to do sit-ups and crunches everyday. Strong abdominal muscles move the matter through the colon and increase the chance that these body toxins and wastes will be eliminated in the body as soon as possible through defecation.

3. Jumping Rope.  A 10-minute jump rope everyday is almost equivalent to running eight miles already. Aside from a good body workout, this activity makes the colon healthy since jumping several times cleanses and tightens our organs especially our intestines. The increase in heart rate, caused by this activity, improves the blood circulation in the body.

Release your stress with yoga
Credit here

4.  Yoga.  Doing yoga is a very relaxing and calming exercise as well as a good stress buster. Stress is one of the factors in many colon-related diseases such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) so before it eats you up, engage in activities that will calm you. Several yoga positions promote digestive stability as it strengthen and stretch abdominal muscles which is helpful in cleaning the digestive system, prevents diarrhea, relieve stomach acidity and spastic colon.  Some useful yoga positions that promote a healthy colon include crow yoga pose, cobra yoga pose, headstand, hero pose, and the inverted staff pose.  

5.Trampoline Exercise. Trampoline exercise can do so much for the body. Called rebounding exercise, it enhances both the digestion and elimination process by improving the peristaltic movement in the intestines and activates major organs like liver, lungs, and kidneys that are involved in the elimination of body wastes. It also contributes to the toning of the muscles in the colon and improves the over-all supply of oxygen in the body.

Trampoline exercise
seems fun! Credit here

Get Healthy by the Dozen!

I'm glad that a 711 outlet is just a stone's throw away in our house. The accessibility is too comforting  and helpful in satisfying my sudden food cravings like  my all-time fave Chuckie, a bar of Nestle Crunch or Kit-Kat Dark, an asado siopao, or a bag of Doritos. Oooops, did I just say that I luuuurve these foods despite my so-called attempt to eating healthy? ^_^

I'm just human you, know. It wouldn't hurt if I give in to food temptations once in a while.  Living a healthy lifestyle or advocating for healthy eating habits shouldn't be seen as a form of punishing one's self. Eating in moderation, especially unhealthy foods is the secret.

Over the weekend, I was surprised to learn that Easy Pha-max Wheatgrass Ready-To-Drink has an ongoing promo! They're having this Healthy by the Dozen promo.



The healthy drink just got more affordable, yipee ^_^

Being a wheatgrass lover that I am, I didn't have second thoughts of going back to our house and told my parents about the ongoing promo. They also love wheatgrass so I didn't have a hard time convincing them to buy a dozen pack good enough for  a week's supply. I was surprised that they bought  two dozens! Hahaha. At least now I'm assured of having wheatgrass rtd can stocks in the fridge.  ^_^

Fiber 101

Everytime I go to the grocery, I can't help but notice that almost all products have the "fiber rich" label on them. It seems that it's a health fad.

One of the reasons why fiber is popular is because of its ability to reduce weight. There are three reasons why it is effective in losing weight. First, it delays digestion of food in the intestines that’s why a person feels full for a longer time. Second, since fibrous foods require longer chewing time, the brain sends signals to its appetite center that food supply is enough. In addition, the production of additional saliva and stomach juices due to prolonged chewing also help fill the stomach. Lastly, fiber promotes regular waste elimination.

Know which foods are fiber-rich. Photo credit here

Fiber also helps regularize bowel movement and prevent bowel movement disorders like constipation, hemorrhoids, divecticulosis, diverticulitis, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) from occurring. Fiber absorbs water from the bowels and eventually softens and increases the bulk of stools. A bulky and soft stool is easier to eliminate thereby preventing the build-up of fecal wastes in the body. 

Not many people may be aware of this, but fiber improves one’s over-all health condition. Soluble fiber found in oats and beans is found to lower the bad cholesterol level of the body and slows down the absorption of sugar in the body. This way, the body maintains its normal glucose level and the risk of diabetes is reduced. A diet rich in fiber also reduces blood pressure and controls inflammation, preventing heart diseases.

Aside from heart ailments, several studies proved that fiber-rich foods also prevent the occurrence of certain diseases like diabetes and cancer.

Experts believe that fiber plays an important role in preventing certain kinds of cancer like colon, ovarian, and breast cancer. For instance, colon cancer can be avoided if one’s diet is rich in fiber because it nourishes healthy bacteria in the colon to prevent toxic substances and carcinogens from attacking the intestines. In addition, fiber also produces a certain fatty acid called butyrate that helps prevent colon cancer. High-fiber diet is also the simplest way to fight diabetes. Fiber regulates the glucose level in the body since it slowly absorbs the sugar. A regular glucose level is important to reduce the risk of getting diabetes.