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Showing posts from October, 2020

What White Blood Cell Count Should We Shoot for?

At the start of my video What Does a Low White Blood Cell Count Mean? , you can see what it looks like when you take a drop of blood, smear it between two pieces of glass, and view at it under a microscope: a whole bunch of little, round, red blood cells and a few big, white blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen, while white blood cells are our immune system’s foot soldiers. We may churn out 50 billion new white blood cells a day. In response to inflammation or infection, that number can shoot up to a 100 billion or more. In fact, pus is largely composed of: millions and millions of white blood cells. Testing to find out how many white blood cells we have at any given time is one of the most common laboratory tests doctors order. It’s ordered it hundreds of millions of times a year. If, for example, you end up in the emergency room with abdominal pain, having a white blood cell count above about 10 billion per quart of blood may be a sign you have appendicitis. Most Americans f...

What’s the Difference Between Probiotics and Prebiotics?

Prebiotics and probiotics continue to receive praise for their potential health benefits. So you may wonder how they stack up when you look at prebiotic vs. probiotic foods and supplements. In short, prebiotics support the work that probiotics do. So they’re more like teammates than competitors. Keep reading to learn about the benefits of each, the best food sources, and  whether you need probiotics  or prebiotics. What’s the Difference Between Prebiotics and Probiotics? First up: What are prebiotics? These are fibers that feed probiotics in our gut, explains Angela Lemond, R.D.N., national spokesperson for the  Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics . Since prebiotics are fibers, they provide some of the same benefits as that macronutrient, particularly when it comes to digestion. “We know that fiber is beneficial to our health,” says Natalie Wallace, M.S., R.D.N., Container Program Nutritionist at Beachbody. “It can help support weight loss and maintenance, lower ...

No Purveyor of Unhealthy Products Wants the Public to Know the Truth

In 2011, Denmark introduced the world’s first tax on saturated fat. “After only 15 months, however, the fat tax was abolished,” due to massive pressure from farming and food company interests. “Public health advocates are weak in tackling the issues of corporate power…A well-used approach for alcohol, tobacco, and, more recently, food-related corporate interests is to shift the focus away from health. This involves reframing a fat or soft drinks tax as an issue of consumer rights and a debate over the role of the state in ‘nannying’ or restricting people’s choices.” I discuss this in my video The Food Industry Wants the Public Confused About Nutrition . “The ‘Nanny State’ is a term that is usually used in a pejorative way to discourage governments from introducing legislation or regulation that might undermine the power or actions of industry or individuals…Public health advocacy work is regularly undermined by the ‘Nanny State’ phrase.” But those complaining about the governmental...

Keys to a Healthy Lifestyle

When aiming for health and fitness in our lives, we should avoid a quick fix or an instant gratification mentality. We should approach health and fitness as a lifestyle, incorporating good habits over time and allowing ourselves to make these habits a part of our daily lives. See diet and exercise from a new perspective. View it as lifestyle that will improve you from the surface, right down to a cellular level. Know that the vital nutrients and hydration that provide cells with the properties that they need will give you a quality of life and longevity. Know that you made a difference in the strength and integrity of your own cells so much so that you prolonged your life and the quality of that life. Balance is a big part of a healthy lifestyle. Don’t allow yourself to fall back into the traps of bad habits that will detract from your healthy lifestyle. We are a driven society, especially here in America. Part of making a life for ourselves is to make the correct choices in our live...

Reverse Dieting

Reverse Dieting is a relatively new concept that was made popular by the If It Fits Your Macros nutritional approach. Reverse Dieting was proposed to help individuals avoid substantial weight re-gain once they have reached their desired goal weight by slowing reintroducing calories. Wondering if Reverse Dieting is something you should give a try? Read below to find out the low down… What is Reverse Dieting? The concept of Reverse Dieting is based on research that suggests metabolic damage or a slow down in metabolism can result after a prolonged calorie restrictive diet and that re-introducing a greater amount of calories back into the diet can lead to substantial fat re-gain. This fat re-gain is thought to occur because the body is in ‘starvation’ mode, and instead of burning off those extra calories, it stores them in anticipation of not getting food again. What Does Science Say About Dieting & Metabolic Rate? Currently, there seems to be a bit of mixed research on the n...

Reverse Dieting Tips and Tricks

Who wants to look amazing (in person and in photos) this holiday season ? Fortunately, for you, I have enlisted the help of professional photographer and makeup artist, Kacey! Kacey Luvi Pearson is an expert at helping other people look and feel beautiful; additionally, she has lost 40 pounds since having her son just 18 months ago. When she isn’t busy with her full-time job or family, she also happens to do some part-time modeling for Lululemon and writes her own fitness and lifestyle blog— kaceyluvi.com . In this interview, Kacey shares her fitness and diet tips, beauty tips , and some secret “photographer tricks” for helping us all take better photos and selfies… just in time for the holidays! FitRX: Hi Kacey! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Can you start by giving us a little information about yourself? Kacey: Hi! Yes, I’ve been married seven years to my husband Chance and I have two kids. My daughter Swayze is almost 5, and my son Fox is 18 months...

70% Taking Common Antidepressants Suffer Sexual Side Effects

What’s the latest on treating depression with the spice saffron? Years ago, I covered a head-to-head comparison of saffron versus Prozac for the treatment of depression in my video Saffron vs. Prozac , and saffron seemed to work just as well as the drug. In the years since, five other studies have found that saffron beat out placebo or rivaled antidepressant medications. It may be the spice’s red pigment, crocin, since that alone beat out placebo as an adjunct treatment, significantly decreasing symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety, and general psychological distress. Perhaps, its antioxidants played a role in “preventing free radical-induced damage in the brain.” The amount of crocin the researchers used was equivalent to about a half teaspoon of saffron a day. If the spice works as well as the drugs, one could argue that the spice wins, since it doesn’t cause sexual dysfunction in the majority of men and women like most prescribed antidepressants do. SSRI drugs like Pr...

5 Supplements for Insulin Control

Insulin is secreted from the pancreas whenever we eat any food that contains sugar—so basically that includes all carbohydrates. While most people only associate Insulin with sugar and weight gain, it also has an important role in building muscle. Insulin is considered one of the most anabolic, or muscle building, hormones in the body, so it is rather important when it comes to putting on any lean muscle. However, too much insulin will cause you to gain excess fat. HOW INSULIN WORKS After you eat, blood glucose rises and insulin is released to control blood glucose levels, ensuring a normal level is reached. Once insulin is released, it goes to work by clearing the blood of sugar and delivering it directly to the muscles to help reload glycogen. However, the muscles have a limited capacity for sugar or glucose storage. Once the muscles’ glycogen stores are full, glucose is shuttled directly to adipose or fat tissue for storage. NUTRIENT TIMING The key to managing your insulin is...