What Hurts and What Helps The Brain

Many things hurt the brain and make it harder for you to get and keep the body you’ve always wanted. Many things help the brain and make it easier to get and keep a body you love. You may be surprised to find out that common, everyday activities and behaviors are often the source of brain drain, which makes it more of a challenge to have a body you love. Here are some common things that can hurt your brain and body.

Things that can hurt your brain

Physical trauma – severe injuries, concussions or even mild trauma.

Drugs – Marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamines, inhalants, and heroin seriously decrease brain function. Abusing prescription drugs such as Vicodin, OxyContin, and Xanax, can also hurt the brain.

Alcohol – you don’t have to be a heavy drinker to hurt your brain. Even moderate amounts of alcohol can affect brain functions.

Obesity – Fat stores toxic materials. The more fat you have on your body, the worse for your brain. Obesity doubles the risk for Alzheimer’s disease and has been associated with decreased brain tissue.

Hormonal abnormalities - Abnormalities with your thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, or cortisol have all been implicated in brain and body problems.

Malnutrition – Junk food diet = Junk food brain. Your body renews all the cells in your body every few months. These new cells draw on all the foods you consume, so you literally are what you eat and digest. Low levels of vitamins, especially Vitamin D, minerals and omega – 3 fatty acids are also harmful to brain tissue and your body.

Chronic inflammation in the body – Chronic inflammation constricts blood flow to the brain and heart and is now thought to be at the center of many diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. Correct this with a diet rich in Omega – 3 fatty acids (Omega 3 rich meal ideas to follow in later blogs)

Chronic stress – high stress leads to high cortisol which increases your appetite for sugar, making you fat, bumps up your skins oil production, making you more prone to pimples, increases muscle tension and chronic pain, increases blood pressure, and raises your risk for many serious health conditions.

Sleep deprivation – getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night lowers overall brain function.

Smoking – smoking constricts blood flow to the brain and all the organs in your body, including your skin. Most people can tell if a person is a smoker because their skin looks older than they are. Their brains looks this way on scans as well. Smoking is linked with many serious brain and health problems.

Too much caffeine – drinking too much caffeinated coffee, tea, soda, or energy beverages restricts blood flow to the brain, dehydrates the brain, body and skin and fools the brain into thinking it does not need to sleep, which are all bad things for your brain and body.

Too much TV – Excessive TV can be harmful to your brain and body. Excessive TV watching has been associated with ADD in children and Alzheimer’s in adults. Watching more that 2 hours of TV per day also significantly increases your risk for obesity.

Dehydration – your body consists of 70 percent water, and your brain is 80 percent water. If you aren’t drinking enough water, you reduce brain function. You can also expect to see thinner skin and more fine lines and wrinkles.

Lack of exercise – When you don’t exercise you decrease blood flow to your brain, your body and your genitals.

Negative thinking – Studies show that focusing on the things you don’t like lowers brain activity, causes your heart to beat faster, increases blood pressure, and negatively affects many systems in your body.

Here are some tips to help you protect and optimize your brain.

Protect You Brain – Be conscious of how precious it is to you and your loved ones

Eat a good diet – getting good nutrition is essential to good brain function and to a better body. A healthy diet include lean protein, fruits, vegetables, nuts and healthy fats like olive oil. Studies show that you brain works better if you eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Take daily vitamins, minerals and fish oil – most of us do not get all the nutrients we need from the foods we eat. It is recommended that everybody take a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement. Also, people should take a daily fish oil supplement, which can decrease inflammation and boost blood flow to the brain and can help to combat depression, which has been associated with being obese as well as many other health conditions.

Exercise – exercise is like the brains fountain of youth. It boosts blood flow, increases the brains use of oxygen and improves your brains response to stress. It is the single most important thing you can do to keep your brain healthy and is one of the best ways to change your shape, improve your mood, energy level and overall health.

Get Enough Sleep – Getting at least seven hours of sleep at night has been shown to help keep your brain functioning at optimal levels, keeps your appetite in check and helps your skin look younger.

Meditate – meditation activates the most thoughtful part of the brain so you can make better and more intelligent decisions.

Relax – learning how to counteract stress and calm your body helps your brain work better, puts you in a better mood, reduces high blood pressure, and protects you from disease.

Practice gratitude – When you focus on what you love, your brain works better, you are more coordinated, and you feel better. Write down 5 things that you are grateful for every day.

Remember that your brain is involved in everything that you do, every decision you make, every bite of food you take, every cigarette you smoke, every worrisome thought you have, every workout you skip, every alcoholic beverage you drink and more. A healthy brain makes it so much easier for you to have your best body possible. When your brain is working at optimal levels, you are more likely to stick to a diet, follow an exercise routine and adopt health lifestyle behaviors. On the other hand, a troubled brain often leads to trouble with your body. Which leads to extra pounds, wrinkles, chronic pain, and health conditions can be linked to the way your brain functions. Making poor food choices, blowing off the gym, and engaging in unhealthy behaviors are more common when your brain isnt working at its best.

Good Article For Those Trying To Build Muscle

Post-exercise refuelling: all at once, or spread out?

http://sweatscience.com/post-exercise-refuelling-all-at-once-or-spread-out/

Metabolism Enemy #5 – Candida Albicans Overgrowth

The topic of the candida albicans yeast is something so important to know about because it has been discovered that this yeast lowers the metabolism of the body. Candida albicans is one of the many organisms that live inside the human body. Different organisms exist most especially in the intestinal area, called the "gut flora". Within these organisms there are different classes of bacteria, various types of yeast, viruses and certain types of parasites. We don’t necessarily like to think of these types of things, but the truth is that various types of organisms like these survive inside of our body.

All humans are born with the candida yeast as a part of their intestinal and vaginal flora. It is a natural organism in all human and because it is normal to a certain amount traditional medicine hasn't placed much importance on the subject. However, since the 1980s various prominent allergists and specialists in infectious organisms have given the voice of alert about the growing infections of the candida yeast. Dr. William G. Crook, an allergist with his book, "Yeast Connection Handbook", is possibly the main exponent of what some have called "the silent epidemic of the candida albicans yeast”.

When this yeast has overgrown in the body, it causes what is called a "systemic infection". It is at this point that the candida yeast is transported through the blood and it invades other organs in the body creating serious health and metabolism problems. People with systemic infections from this yeast always have a "slow metabolism" and cannot lose weight under any diet or exercise plan. If they do lose weight, they do at such a slow rate that they generally get discouraged.

A researcher of this subject found that the candida albicans yeast produces 78 different toxins inside the body and this created a toxic and acidic environment inside the body, which basically turns off the metabolism. Having a very developed candida colony or an "overgrowth" of this yeast in the body is one of the main reasons why some people have a "slow metabolism". As long as they have this yeast infection in their body, no effort they make will work for them. The body of a person who has an "overgrowth" of the candida yeast is full of toxins produced by yeast.

It seems as if nothing produces an increase of the metabolism and allows more noticeable weight loss like doing a program of a candida yeast body cleansing. There are laboratory tests to detect if your candida albicans yeast infection is severe, but the test that measures that various toxin levels that produce this yeast in the blood cost more than $300 and really are not available in the majority of laboratories. The best way to find out if the body is infected by this yeast is to us a list of "indicators" that was developed by Dr. William Cook for his patients. Perhaps the clearest signs that you have severe infection of the candida albicans in your body are itching on your skin (mainly at night or after showering); you often have stomach or intestinal gases after eating, having sinusitis or suffering from migraines.

The complete list of the symptoms of candida albicans is the following:

Acne

· Allergies in humid environments

· Allergies to some foods

· Allergies to certain metal jewelry

· Continuously tired

· Urinary tract infections (cystitis)

· Constant or frequent Diarrhea

· Pain or vaginal burning while having sex

· Headaches or migraines

· Severe menstrual pain - PMS

· Muscular pain

· Constipation

· Fatigue or weakness

· Vaginal itching or discharge

· Coldness in extremities

· Excessive stomach or intestinal gas

· Ear infections

· Irregularity or troubles with menstruation

· Irritability or depression

· Itchy skin

· Digestive gas problems

· Excessive dryness of the skin

· A "taste of metal" in the mouth

· Rash or spots on the skin after sunbathing

· Sensitivity to solar light, teary eyes

· Sensitivity to odors from cigarettes, perfumes or chemicals

· Sinusitis

The more of these symptoms you have in your body the more severe the infection of the candida yeast. This list of symptoms is lengthy and a person can begin to justify symptoms based on other sicknesses or hereditary factors that their body has. The reality is that when a person does a candida yeast body cleansing, the majority if not all of these symptoms will disappear completely. After a natural candida yeast cleansing program people are finally able to lose weight much faster and the cleanse also eliminates a majority of the symptoms that this yeast causes.

Reducing a severe infection of this yeast is not an easy task. When we attack the yeast with natural fungicides, like oregano, the reaction can be really unpleasant (headaches, diarrhea, muscular pain, etc.). We have had to learn to increase the dose of natural fungicides "little by little". On the other hand to be successful, you can’t use common oregano oil like what they sell in natural food stores. The regular oregano oil reduces the infection of candida albicans only in the intestines and this is not good enough, given that the candida infection is generally spread throughout the entire body.

Throughout the years and hundreds of test and trials, people succeeded in finding a natural oregano oil supplement that is emulsified. An emulsion is a mixture of two generally unblendable substances like water and oil. The active yeast killing ingredient in oregano is an oily substance called carvacol. Oils don't mix well with water and our blood is primarily composed of water. This oregano oil supplement had the advantage of being emulsified and thus mixes well and travels well in the blood and kills the yeast in all of the parts of the body where it could be invading it.

The candida albicans yeast colony in the body can never be eliminated 100% since the yeast is a natural inhabitant of the body. The strategy that is used is to reduce the yeast colony to the point in which it stops being a problem to your metabolism. If a yeast infection is reduced in size, say from 100% to 20%, we will have had a success and the person will be rewarded for their efforts by losing weight. They will also experience an obvious improvement in their general state of health.

In order to resolve the problems the candida yeast causes for the metabolism and health, it is vital to educate the infected person about the characteristics of candida albicans. Part of the strategy is to educate the person so that they don't unknowingly contribute to creating a suitable environment for the growth of this yeast and so that they don't in a short time go back to having a new overgrowth that lowers their metabolism. The education includes making the person understand which factors are the ones that promote the growth of this yeast inside their body.

The factors that contribute to overgrowth of the candida yeast are:

Excess of fined refined carbohydrates:

Refined carbohydrates (sugar, candy, bread, rice, etc.) produce an excess of glucose in the blood and this excess of glucose feeds the appetite of the candida yeast and makes it grow excessively. It’s like putting fertilizer on a weed. When someone maintains high levels of glucose in their body due to their diet high in refined carbohydrates or sweet carbohydrates, the yeast feeds off of it, which makes it grow and reproduce at an accelerated rate. Someone who is accustomed to eating a lot of sweet foods will see their metabolism owed year after year until it turns into a "slow metabolism".

Taking antibiotics:

Antibiotics get rid of the bacteria that cause infections in the body, but they also get rid of the "good bacteria" that live in the intestines and vaginal area that are natural enemies of the candida albicans yeast. When the intestinal and vaginal flora die due to the dose of antibiotics, the yeast is left without competition and opposition and it invades the rest of the body quickly. When someone finds themselves obligated to take antibiotics, they should make sure to also take a supplement to replace the intestinal bacteria with "friendly bacteria". The "friendly bacteria" have names like acidophilus, bulgaricus, and bifidus. In all natural food stores they offer supplements that contain these types of beneficial bacteria which replace the lost "friendly bacteria" that an antibiotic medicine killed and that way your body isn't missing intestinal and vaginal friendly bacteria that protect you from the candida yeast.

Taking Estrogen:

Contraceptive pills, estrogen patches and medications for menopause speed up the growth of this and cause an overgrowth. Many women lose their figures after using contraceptive pills or contraceptive patches for just a few months. Estrogen, of course, is a hormone that accumulates fat and makes you fat, but also has the effects of being a growth factor for the candida albicans yeast. In other words it allows this yeast to grow quicker.

Taking Cortisone:

This medication, cortisone, which is used to lower inflammation in the body, also lowers the immune system and causes the candida albicans yeast to grow increasingly faster, which then lowers the metabolism. For example, people who suffer from asthma use an inhaler with a medication derived from cortisone. In addition many of these people not only suffer from asthma, but they also start to have weight and obesity problems.

Drinking alcoholic beverages:

When someone had a systemic infection of the candida yeast they should avoid drinking alcoholic beverages since this yeast lives on alcohol much easier than sugar.

Thyroid gland problems:

The thyroid gland and its related systems control the body’s metabolism, temperature and immune system. It is a fact that people with hypothyroidism suffer from frequent colds and infections because their immune system is low. People that have deficient thyroid gland systems tend to have strong infections of this candida yeast. This happens because their immunological systems are not protecting them from the yeast with the normal efficiency of an agile immune system.

It is Vital to know the factors that make the candida albicans yeast grow inside your body. If someone intends on lowering their level of infection of the candida yeast but doesn't take into consideration these factors that contribute to create a favorable environment for the yeast, then not much time will pass before their metabolism is lowered by a new increase of the infection with this yeast. The idea is to reduce the infection in order to recover the metabolism and change your lifestyle to see that this yeast doesn’t come back with equal or greater force.

Diabetics, as a result of their diabetic condition, are extremely infected with the candida albicans yeast. Diabetes, by definition is a condition in which glucose levels are abnormally high. It could be said that the body of a diabetic is like a paradise for yeast like candida albicans because of its constant high abundance of glucose.

-Frank Suarez, author of "The Power of Your Metabolism"