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3 January 2008 Acohol and Muscle |
Food Intolerance | Deep Breathing | Omega 3 Deficiency | Dream Analysis
| Soul Mate
This eZine (No. 112)
Alcohol and Your Muscle GainsBy Mike BowmanYes, it's fun to get drunk - but if you're serious about weight lifting, you'll drink in moderation. Alcohol can have serious detrimental effects on your muscle gains. There are five main ways in which alcohol negatively impacts your bodybuilding, so put down that beer and read on. 1) Alcohol dehydrates the body. This means that while you're sipping on that daiquiri to quench your thirst, you're actually depriving your body of the water it needs. Muscles are composed of about 70% water, and your body requires water to synthesize new muscles. Unfortunately, the body also requires large amounts of water to flush our all that alcohol. Unless you drink a glass of water for every alcoholic drink (good luck!), you're going to be dehydrated. This is particularly exacerbated the morning after a night of binge drinking. 2) Alcohol depletes your body of vitamins and minerals. Muscle building, of course, requires numerous minerals and vitamins in order to take place. Drinking can hurt your muscle gains as vitamins A, C, B, calcium, zinc and phosphorus are all depleted when you drink. Taking a multivitamin might help, but won't fully negate the effects of alcohol on these nutrients. 3) Alcohol increases the amount of fat your body stores. If you're trying to stay reasonably thin while gaining muscle (who isn't?), then alcohol is definitely not your friend. Alcohol disrupts the all-important "Krebs Cycle" and also contains 7 calories per gram (that's a lot of calories). These are empty calories, with no value at all. 4) Alcohol depletes your body of testosterone. If you know anything about bodybuilding, you know that testosterone is one of your best friends. Its essential to muscle building, as it plays a major role in protein synthesis and the creation of new muscle fibers. Drinking reduces the amount of testosterone in your body and can actually increase estrogen! 5) Alcohol negatively impacts protein synthesis. Muscles are basically pure protein. If your body can't join amino acids together to make more protein, then it definitely can't make your muscles grow! Alcohol consumption sometimes slows this process by up to 20%. Don't get me wrong, now - I'm not advocating that you never drink again in favour of your bodybuilding goals. It's important to have a balance in life, and being social is a big part of this. Try, though, to either limit the amount you drink in a given night or limit how often you drink. Although it's difficult to judge how much is too much, I would advocate no more than one "light" drinking night per week (2 or 3 drinks). Alternatively, if you like to go all-out, I would certainly advise against binge drinking (6+ drinks) more than once a month. Never drink on a night when you have to train the next day, and never drink the evening after a workout. Try to pick a pair of off-days, or put off your training one more day to recover from a serious binge drinking session. Overall, I recommend simply being sensible - drink less and grow more! About the author: Mike Bowman is the senior editor at MuscleGainGuide.com. He has years of experience in natural bodybuilding and is the author of hundreds of renowned muscle building articles. If you want practical muscle building advice and tips, visit http://www.MuscleGainGuide.com  Food IntoleranceBy David McMillinThe idea of food intolerance is highly controversial yet gaining in popularity amongst physicians, researchers, and laypeople. Part of the problem for the slow acceptance of this concept is that the foods most frequently associated with intolerance are often very common (such as dairy and grain products). This seems to defy logic. How can milk or cereal be harmful? Also, the precise meaning of intolerance varies from one practitioner to another and is sometimes confused with food allergy. Food allergy causes specific immune reactions in the body that can be identified and diagnosed by standard medical tests. Food allergy tends to produce specific symptoms linked to the offending agent (allergen). In contrast, food intolerance does not provoke the immune system and thus cannot be assessed using allergy tests. Also, the symptoms of food intolerance tend to be relatively vague and nonspecific. Here is a partial list of common symptoms that are typically linked to food intolerance: headache, fatigue, depression/ anxiety, muscle pain, joint pain, vomiting, nausea, stomach ulcers, diarrhea, constipation, flatulence, etc. These symptoms can be produced by many causes and are thus not specific to food intolerance. Whereas allergic reactions typically occur almost instantly after provocation, there may be a considerable lapse of time before food intolerance symptoms manifest, making the connection difficult to validate. There can be numerous reasons why the body cannot tolerate certain foods including: enzyme deficiency resulting from a heredity factor, stress, environmental pollution, and poor nutrition. The best resource that I have seen on this topic is Food Allergies and Food Intolerance by Jonathon Brostoff, M.D., and Linda treatment of these two concepts, most of the book focuses on the intolerance issue. Historical Background The controversy about adverse reactions to food can be traced back almost one hundred years to the work of Baron Clemens von Pirquet, a Viennese doctor. Von Pirquet first used the term allergy in 1906 to mean "altered reactivity," apparently in a rather broad sense that includes immune activation and other physiological processes produced by allergens. Keep this original concept of allergy in mind when we discuss Edgar Cayce's use of the term later in this article. During the 1920s, skin prick tests were developed that provided a lab technique for detecting immune reactions. Moreover, several specific medical conditions, including hay fever, asthma, rhinitis (runny or congested nose), and a certain type of eczema (red, itchy, flaky skin) were linked to immune reactivity that could be clearly identified. Thus, the definition of allergic disorders became increasingly narrowed and closely associated with abnormal immune response. Not everyone agreed with this narrow interpretation of allergy. Some practitioners preferred a more general interpretation that includes allergens that are not directly linked to immune reactions. This is where food intolerance comes in, as a way of explaining delayed or nonspecific reactions to food that are not detected by allergy skin prick tests. As a practical matter, the distinction between food allergy and food intolerance often becomes blurred. Brostoff and Gamlin point out that in the physician's office, if a patient has the symptoms of a disease that is regarded as allergic (e.g., asthma or atopic eczema), and if the symptoms are clearly linked to diet, the illness will probably be diagnosed as food allergy, even if skin-prick tests are negative. Some clinicians avoid the whole issue of food allergy vs. intolerance by lumping all such problems under the heading of food sensitivity. Diagnosing Food Intolerance As stated, the standard skin-prick tests used to diagnose allergies do not work for food intolerance. Unfortunately, there is no simple laboratory process for evaluating this syndrome. The only reliable method for assessing food intolerance is to systematically eliminate certain foods from the diet and see if symptoms decrease or go away. The offending foods are thus identified and can be reintroduced to see if the symptoms return. This is not always as easy as it sounds because few people are intolerant to just one food. Therefore eliminating foods one at a time may not have a notable effect. Optimally, all the offending foods have to be eliminated simultaneously for a clear diagnosis and effective treatment. Cayce and Food Reactions The Edgar Cayce readings contain numerous examples of what we now call food allergy and intolerance. As noted in the historical overview, Cayce tended to use the term allergy in a more general sense to include almost any reaction to food that produces illness, regardless of whether there is a specific immune response. The concept of intolerance was not available during his era, so he used the word allergy to cover a variety of conditions. For example, consider this excerpt from reading 3326-1 that addresses the cause of migraine: "As we find, while the body is in the developing stages, the sources of the conditions to which the body becomes allergic in the digestive system should be looked for - that deal with all migraine headaches... Do these [treatments], being mindful of the diet, and we will correct conditions for this body. These are the sources of migraine headaches." Interestingly, this thirteen-year-old girl also suffered from eczema and neuritis, which may have also been linked to her digestive problems. From a medical perspective, migraine is very important in relation to our discussion of allergy and intolerance. Numerous scientific studies have clearly shown that migraine is linked to food reactivity in many individuals that do not exhibit any measurable immune response to skin prick tests. Thus, when migraine is triggered by food, it represents a great example of food intolerance causing illness. From a treatment standpoint, Cayce's therapeutic recommendations in reading 3326-1 included the advice to avoid eating chocolate, a well-known trigger for migraine. Throughout the thousands of physical readings, Cayce often made such specific recommendations for individuals to avoid certain specific foods. Whether his advice was indicative of a classic food allergy or what we would now call food intolerance is difficult to say. It would probably be best to regard all such instances as food sensitivity and leave it at that. Without Edgar Cayce to give a reading identifying foods to which the body may be intolerant, how can a person know what to avoid? The best answer that I have seen is the elimination diet discussed above. Since there are many approaches to doing an elimination diet, I cannot cover this important topic in this issue. Check back next month for specifics on how to use this type of personal assessment if you think you may be suffering from food intolerance. About the author: David McMillin has written numerous articles for the Association for Research and Enlightenment, founded by Edgar Cayce in 1931. McMillin's articles on holistic health and alternative healing have helped members for many years.http://www.edgarcayce.org/ Comic ReliefGlossary of Medical TermsBenign................What you be after you be eight. Artery................The study of paintings. Bacteria..............Back door to cafeteria. Barium................What doctors do when patients die. Cesarean Section......A neighborhood in Rome. Cat scan...............Searching for kitty. Cauterize.............Made eye contact with her. Colic.................A sheep dog. Coma..................A punctuation mark. D & C.................Where Washington is. Dilate................To live long. Enema.................Not a friend. Fester................Quicker than someone else. Fibula................A small lie. Genital...............Non-Jewish person. G.I. Series...........World Series of military baseball. Hangnail..............What you hang your coat on. Impotent..............Distinguished, well known. Labor Pain............Getting hurt at work. Medical Staff.........A Doctor's cane. Morbid................A higher offer than I bid. Nitrates..............Cheaper than day rates. Node..................Was aware of Outpatient.... .......A person who has fainted. Pap smear..... .......A fatherhood test. Pelvis................Second cousin to Elvis. Post Operative........A letter carrier. Recovery Room.........Place to do upholstery. Rectum................Darn near killed him. Secretion.............Hiding something. Seizure...............Roman emperor. Tablet................A small table. Terminal Illness......Getting sick at the Bus Station Tumor.................More than one. Urine.................Opposite of you're out. Varicose..............Near by/close by. Vein..................Conceited.  Deep Breathing - Nourishment Of Nervous SystemBy Diwakar VashistDeep breathing is important from the standpoint of both health and spiritual development. Deep breathing increases our vitality and promotes relaxation. Unfortunately, when we try to take a so-called deep breath, most of us do the exact opposite: we suck in our bellies and raise our shoulders. This is shallow breathing. We will now summarize the benefits of deep breathing. Deep breathing produces the following benefits: 1. Improvement in the quality of the blood due to its increased oxygenation in the lungs. This aids in the elimination of toxins from the system. 2. Increase in the digestion and assimilation of food. The digestive organs such as the stomach receive more oxygen, and hence operates more efficiently. The digestion is further enhanced by the fact that the food is oxygenated more. 3. Improvement in the health of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, nerve centres and nerves. This is due again to the increased oxygenation and hence nourishment of the nervous system. This improves the health of the whole body, since the nervous system communicates to all parts of the body. 5. Rejuvenation of the skin. The skin becomes smoother and a reduction of facial wrinkles occurs. 6. The movements of the diaphragm during the deep breathing exercise massage the abdominal organs the stomach, small intestine, liver and pancreas. The upper movement of the diaphragm also massages the heart. This stimulates the blood circulation in these organs. 7. The lungs become healthy and powerful, a good insurance against respiratory problems. 8. Deep slow, yoga breathing reduces the workload for the heart. The result is a more efficient, stronger heart that operates better and lasts longer. It also means reduced blood pressure and less heart disease. The yoga breathing exercises reduce the workload on the heart in two ways. Firstly, deep breathing leads to more efficient lungs, which means more oxygen, is brought into contact with blood sent to the lungs by the heart. So, the heart doesn't have to work as hard to deliver oxygen to the tissues. Secondly, deep breathing leads to a greater pressure differential in the lungs, which leads to an increase in the circulation, thus resting the heart a little. 9. Deep, slow breathing assists in weight control. If you are overweight, the extra oxygen burns up the excess fat more efficiently. If you are underweight, the extra oxygen feeds the starving tissues and glands. In other words, yoga tends to produce the ideal weight for you. 10. Relaxation of the mind and body. Slow, deep, rhythmic breathing causes a reflex stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which results in a reduction in the heart rate and relaxation of the muscles. These two factors cause a reflex relaxation of the mind, since the mind and body are very interdependent. In addition, oxygenation of the brain tends to normalize brain function, reducing excessive anxiety levels. About the author: Diwakar vashist is a senior consultant of Institute of vedic science, New Delhi, India. he is working on the ancient vedic sciences i.e. vedic astrology, vedic vastu, hatha yoga, meditation etc. for more related informations visit http://www.shreevedic.com. Learn
how to stop wanting to
smoke ever again!
 Learn The Symptoms Omega 3 Deficiency Can CauseBy Micheal ThomasLearning the symptoms Omega 3 deficiency can cause is the first step to providing your body with a healthier way of functioning. To understand what this deficiency is, you will need to know about the Omega 3 processes. Omega 3 contains ingredients known as fatty acids or oils. These oils are more commonly known as EPA and DHA. Most diets are rich in the Omega 6 acids that are found in meat but lack the crucial efas. When lack of these efas occur, you can experience health problems of major proportions. This includes medical conditions like cancer, being overweight, heart problems, arthritis, diabetes, and hardening of the arteries. When the Omega 6 is reduced and the Omega 3 is increased in the average diet, the health problems above are reduced significantly. Beef can be bred to contain Omega 3 if it is sent to pasture and not fed a diet of grain. The good fatty acids are not used as much as they should be. The other processed oils known as transfat products are more common in cooking. Using olive oil in cooking can provide the necessary DHA and EPA. Instead of frying food or adding heavy vegetable oils to your salad or gravy switch it out with olive oil. Not only does it take care of the symptoms that the lack of these fatty acids can cause, it also is easier for your body to break down and use more effectively. It is also better to avoid the Omega 3 foods being fried before eating because it will reduce the levels. More common symptoms can show up as: 1.Increases in ear wax 2.Not being able to pay attention 3.Difficulty learning 4.Obesity 5.Increase in blood pressure 6.Artery hardening 7.Skin and hair that feels dry 8.Problems with dandruff Supplements can be taken to help with the symptoms Omega 3 deficiency can cause These fatty oil capsules undergo a molecular distillation process removing the metal and mercury commonly found in fish and contaminated water. This molecular distillation will not diminish the amounts of fatty acids in the oil just clean the nasty ingredients from it. You end up with a safe supplement that is beneficial to your health. Supplements are safe for children and pregnant mothers to take. About the author: Micheal Thomas is an editor for a series of health related websites. Learn about the best fish oil capsules that we ourselves use daily after extensive product comparisons and research over at http://www.omega-3-fish-benefits.com Alternative Therapy - Cure Through Dream AnalysisBy Christina SponiasDreams are very important images produced by the unconscious side of the human psychic sphere in order to send information and guidance to the human conscience. The reason they are incomprehensible for the human conscience is due to the existence of a wild conscience in the human psychic sphere, which occupies its biggest part and is totally evil and absurd. This is a very violent and primitive conscience that is still active in the psychic sphere. It is not a distant fossil: it is a live enemy. The wild conscience, which I designate the anti-conscience because it works against the human conscience, constantly tries to invade and dominate the human conscience in order to destroy it through craziness. The wise unconscious sends mysterious messages to the human conscience because the anti-conscience could distort their meaning if they were comprehensible by the human conscience. The unconscious has its own language that the human conscience has to learn to decipher. Carl Jung made a vast research concerning dream symbols and he really discovered the translation of the language of the unconscious. I continued his research completing his work and simplified his complicated and obscure method of dream analysis. He was a pioneer in his field: hence, he could not be as clear as I am. I found his work ready and I followed his steps and discovered the wild anti-conscience and the unique cure for schizophrenia and psychosis. Through dream analysis, anyone can be cured of any disease. We can prevent depression, craziness and suicidal tendencies, besides discovering the cure for our physical diseases because the wise unconscious that produces the dreams is a doctor that tries to save us from the domination of the wild anti-conscience and knows exactly what is necessary to stop us from being dominated by the dangerous wild conscience that provokes disease. This happens because all diseases are consequences of mistakes made by the ignorant and selfish human conscience when it accepts the domination by the anti-conscience by paying attention to its evil suggestions, which don't appear this way in the beginning. They are camouflaged as smart solutions for the person's problems. Mind and body are connected and dependent on one another. Everything in our planet is connected because there are several systems that try to protect the human conscience from craziness, since craziness is inherited in the human psychic sphere and tends to worsen as the person grows. All these systems function by giving information to the human being and curing him or her with their messages that can be translated the same way as dreams. Through dream analysis, the wise unconscious helps the human conscience develop all its characteristics and thus the person stops making mistakes that subsequently cause illness. This is why we can cure strange cases that nobody can diagnose using this method. All unexplainable diseases have an origin and an exact cure that we can discover analysing the person's dreams and their biography. About the author: Prevent Depression and Craziness through the scientific method of Dream Interpretation discovered by Carl Jung and simplified by Christina Sponias, a writer who continued Jung's research in the unknown region of the human psychic sphere. Learn more at: http://www.booksirecommend.com What Is A Soul Mate?By Nina AtwoodThere are about as many definitions of soul mate as you can imagine. We've been trying to define this term for literally thousands of years to no avail. I will try to cut through the confusion by offering mine. A soul mate is a person with whom you feel a deep connection that may even defy logic. For example, a soul mate can be a close friend who lives a very different life than yours, yet you pick up the old thread instantly no matter how much time has passed since your last connection. A soul mate can be a friend, lover, family member, or mentor. In love relationships, the term soul mate includes a sexual connection, often infused with intensity. Many people describe their soul mate as the person who got away and can never be replaced. This idea of only one soul mate (lover) who perfectly matches can be problematic. The reality is that you can connect deeply with many people. With an open viewpoint about love and soul mates, your heart is available to move on and find someone new with whom you can have a very meaningful connection. It will not be like the last one because every relationship is unique, like a fingerprint. The paradox is that sometimes these very deep and intense soul mate connections are not emotionally healthy because they are not grounded in real life. Couples often describe themselves as soul mates while in the throes of the enchantment stage of love. Those same couples often blast apart later when they re-enter life and discover that they cannot permanently meet each other's every need. Disappointment and hurt follow, and the relationship becomes unstable. A far better goal is to search for a Soul Partner, someone with whom you share life values, goals, visions, and basic compatibilities. With a Soul Partner, you form a real commitment. That becomes your foundation from which to grow, often by triggering one another. But triggering can lead to healing, and Soul Partners are dedicated to helping each other heal and grow. Learn all about Soul Partnering and how to nurture your connection through powerful, loving communication in my book, Soul Talk. About the author: Nina Atwood is a licensed therapist and nationally known relationship expert with three published self-help books on communication and love. Be Your Own Dating Service: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Keeping Healthy Relationships, Date Lines: Communication From "Hello" to "I Do" and Everything In Between, and Soul Talk: Powerful, Positive Communication for a Loving Partnership. Her expertise is regularly sought by national media, including the Wall Street Journal, Health Magazine, Men's Health, LifeTimeTVOnline, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many more. Nina's web site, http://www.singlescoach.com is accessed daily by thousands of single men and women seeking leading edge relationship advice. Dave's Life Changing Program: |
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