Flaxseeds May Support Metabolic Disorder Management

What Is Metabolism?

Metabolism refers to all the chemical reactions taking place in the body to convert or use energy. A few major examples of metabolism include:

• Breaking down the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in food to release energy.
• Transforming excess nitrogen into waste products excreted in urine.
• Breaking down or converting chemicals into other substances and transporting them inside cells.

Metabolism is an organized but chaotic chemical assembly line. Raw materials, half-finished products, and waste materials are constantly being used, produced, transported, and excreted. The “workers” on the assembly line are enzymes and other proteins that make chemical reactions happen.

Flaxseeds (otherwise called Linseeds) can support the management of metabolic disorders according to research from The Tehran University of Medical Sciences that noticed the potential in reducing cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension. In a controlled, open-labelled and randomized study, the researchers looked into how “Co-administration of flaxseed with lifestyle modification and how this is more effective than lifestyle modification alone in terms of management of metabolic syndrome”.

Due to the high level of Alpha-Linolenic Acid, (ALA) which is an omega 3, soluble fiber and lignan precursors, flaxseed has become a favorite supplement. The study that involved 44 participants between the ages of 18-70, both male and female, were divided randomly into 22 participants between two groups. Supplementing with 30g of brown milled flaxseed, one of the groups took this with salad at lunch or dinner. While only one group took the flaxseed, both groups followed a 12 week controlled and guided lifestyle. After the first week, measurements were taken and clinic visits were conducted every 4 weeks.

What The Results Indicated

By blood sample analysis and body measurements, the researchers found that the percentage of participants with metabolic syndrome was significantly lower than at the baseline. When this was broken down by the groups, the individuals with metabolic syndrome had an 82% decrease, while it was 50% for the non-flaxseed group.

The researchers also pointed out that the findings for flaxseed’s insulin reduction could be beneficial through the deceleration of glucose absorption. This is caused by the high content of fiber and lignan, which has been confirmed through previous studies. Body weight, body mass index and insulin resistance were found to have been reduced, while there was an increase in insulin sensitivity in both groups. It was also noted that these changes were significantly greater in the flaxseed group when compared to the control group.

Adding Flaxseeds into the diet is therefore highly important for anyone looking to improve their general health, to maintain a stable weight and healthy metabolism in the long term. Enjoying them in a healthy breakfast bar, porridge, or added to fruit or nut dishes are some examples of how they can be added into the diet. Another is to eat flaxseed bread, flax pancakes or to add them to savory dishes such as soups and salads, etc.

Robert Redfern

Proper Breathing Techniques Improves Overall Health

Efficient breathing reduces health risks, including heart attacks

In Eastern cultures, great significance is placed on proper breathing techniques, and for good reason. Proper deep breathing:

• Lowers your heart rate
• Lowers blood pressure and cardiac output
• Increases blood oxygen levels
• Promotes clearer thinking
• Relieves stress
• Increases metabolism
• Improves circulation
• Supports detoxification

Proper breathing can even help prevent heart attacks.

In Western cultures, however, little emphasis is placed on breathing methods, which can lead to, or exacerbate, many health problems. Fortunately, changing your breathing habits is something you can do quite easily once you understand how.

An Exercise to Improve Breathing Technique

Here is a simple Far Eastern breathing exercise you can do to “train” your body to breathe in a more efficient manner. It will help your body better use oxygen, increase your energy levels, improve clarity, and promote an overall feeling of calmness.

Just follow these steps:

1. Start by counting how many times you breathe each minute. In a relaxed sitting posture, most people breathe anywhere from 15 to 25 times a minute. (After practicing these exercises, your breathing rate may drop to as low as five times a minute, with a greatly increased level of oxygen use.)
2. Lie down on either a bed or the floor. Place a fairly heavy book (a large phone book works well) on your abdomen just below your navel.
3. Breathe through your nose, inhaling in such a manner that you raise the book. When you exhale, the book should lower.
4. Continue practicing this until this breathing pattern becomes natural.

Although this is exactly the way we breathe during sleep—by inflating and deflating our lower abdomen—for some reason our breathing becomes more labored and inefficient during our waking hours. We seem to shift everything up to our chest area and breathe more shallowly.

Additional Tips for Better Breathing

Here are some more general rules for more efficient breathing:

• Breathe through the nose as much as possible. The nose pre-warms, moistens, and filters the air before it reaches the lungs.
• Stand erect with your hands to the side. Begin to inhale slowly and concentrate on allowing the air to fill the lower portion of your lungs first. To do this you must relax your abdominal, or stomach, muscles.
• While still inhaling, let the air fill the middle portion of the lungs as you let the rib cage relax and expand.
• Continue inhaling as the upper part of the lungs fill. As this happens, gently raise your collarbone and pull your shoulders up and back.
• Now exhale reversing the above sequence—that is, let the air release from the upper lungs by relaxing the collarbone and shoulders, then the middle portion of the lungs, and so forth.
• Make sure your breaths are even, and visualize each section of the lungs completely filling with air. As you fill the upper portion of the lungs, picture your chest expanding and your shoulders becoming more erect and higher.

Learn how to breathe properly, and I guarantee you’ll experience significant health benefits for years to come.

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I firmly believe that a high-potency daily multivitamin is a cornerstone of good health. It fills gaps in our diets and prevents deficiencies by shoring up stores of protective nutrients. Moreover, as Bruce Ames, PhD, one of America’s best-known and most-respected scientists, also believes, a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement could be your best protection against age-related disease.

He postulates in his “triage theory” that when micronutrients are in short supply, the body allocates scarce resources to activities necessary for short-term survival, such as energy production, blood circulation, and brain function. This leaves other, less vital processes—DNA and mitochondrial repair, for example—to bear the brunt of the deficiencies. Over time, Dr. Ames maintains, cumulative damage and disruptions in metabolism lead to diseases of aging.

I wholeheartedly agree with this theory. Hundreds of thousands of studies support the role of micronutrient deficiencies in a wide range of health problems. Calcium and osteoporosis, magnesium and heart disease, potassium and hypertension—the list goes on and on. So if you’re not already taking a daily multi, I suggest adding this to your list of New Year’s resolutions.

If you’re still not convinced of the importance of a high-potency daily multivitamin, here are five examples of how taking one can help promote optimal health.

1. Prevent heart attacks. Swedish scientists looked at the diets, lifestyles, and supplement intakes of more than 31,000 women who were initially free of cardiovascular disease and followed them for about 10 years. The women who took a multivitamin were, on average, 27 percent less likely to have a heart attack than those who didn’t. Fewer than five years of supplement use reduced heart attack risk by 18 percent, while 10 or more years slashed risk by 41 percent.
2. Protect against cataracts. In the Physicians’ Health Study, which followed 17,744 doctors for several years, those taking multivitamins had a 27 percent decreased risk of forming cataracts.
3. Boost mood. British researchers enrolled 225 hospitalized patients, average age 75, and gave half of them a supplement providing 100 percent of the British equivalent of the RDAs. The other half received a placebo, and both groups were fed a normal hospital diet. When they were retested after six weeks, significant improvements in mood were noted in the supplement group, regardless of their initial level of depression.
4. Stop telomere erosion. Chromosomes are tightly coiled, rod-like structures made up of proteins and one double-helix–shaped molecule of DNA encoded with your genome: the blueprints for your growth, development, and physiological function. And at the tips of every chromosome are protective “caps” called telomeres.

   Telomeres naturally get shorter as we age, but not at the same rate in all individuals. Some of these differences can be chalked up to genetics, but other factors accelerate telomere shortening. Free radical damage and chronic inflammation—long known to be associated with aging at the cellular level—speed it up, as do smoking, heavy drinking, and obesity.

   Telomeres and telomerase, the enzyme that builds them, are intimately involved in aging, degeneration, and death, so it’s not surprising that many age-related diseases are associated with telomere shortening.

   The good news is that multivitamins appear to help slow and even reverse telomere erosion. A research team at the National Institutes of Health found that women who took daily multivitamin supplements had longer telomeres. They also found a link to higher intakes of vitamins C and E.

5. Enhance weight loss. While there’s no “magic bullet” for weight loss, some research suggests a multi can help enhance your efforts.

   In a randomized, double-blind study, Chinese researchers divided obese women into three groups and gave them either a multivitamin and mineral supplement, a calcium supplement, or a placebo daily for 26 weeks. At the end of the study, the women who took the multivitamin and mineral supplement lost an average of 7.9 pounds, compared to 2 pounds for those taking calcium and half a pound in the placebo group.

Now it’s your turn: Do you take a high-potency daily multivitamin?