Category Archives: Antioxidants

AIO with AC-11 and Amla Fruit

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The Indian Gooseberry

Amla fruit, better known as the Indian Gooseberry is a bitter, sour, astringent and stringy fruit.  It grows on a tree capable reaching a height of eighteen meters with far reaching branches and a twisted trunk. Given what it tastes like, it’s very difficult to understand why anyone would eat it, but amla is actually quite special.

In initial research, the Phyllanthus emblica – that’s the scientific name for Alma fruit – has demonstrated both antiviral and anti-microbial properties.  There is more evidence from research that extracts of amla fruit can initiate apoptosis (programmed cell death) in some bone cells which are directly connected with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.

As recently as 2011, a research study found that treatment using the Phyllanthus emblica lowered the severity of acute pancreatitis and also created  unassisted restoration and regeneration of the pancreas right after a severe occurance. 
In another study, recently conducts with diabetic rats, an amla fruit extract produced a substantial reduction of the blood glucose and triglyceridemic measurements and at the same time it improved liver function by normalizing the performance of a liver-specific enzyme.

Amla is additionally being examined as an anti-cancer agent and a few test preparations produced using various components of the tree – including the fruit- have demonstrated some potential against laboratory models for inflammation, diabetes, some types of age related renal (kidney) disease and some cancers.  It has been proven to prevent cataracts in diabetic sufferers. In a Japanese study amla fruit extracts prevented the creation of cancerous cells, specifically cells from the womb, skin and stomach.

Amla fruit has been demonstrated to lower blood cholesterol levels in men. In India, where the Amla fruit naturally grows, it’s used by all-natural healers to manage premature hair loss. A potent antioxidant, Amla has a high density of tannins.

Along with its other recognized anti inflammatory properties, The Indian Gooseberry has been found as effective treatment for hay fever and can reduce joint inflammation. And if this list of attributes isn’t impressive enough this little fruit can also help people with stress and contributes to better sleep, and an overall relaxation of the muscles.

Amla with it’s possible anti-cancer properties is just one of several antioxidant rich fruits used to make Aio Premium Cellular Health, a nutritional supplement available fromWhole Earth Health. 

If you are looking for antioxidant foods with a wide range of potential health benefits including possible cancer fighting properties, the Indian Gooseberry deserves your attention.

Try to Slow Down Heart Disease with Antioxidants

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Picture of a heart composed from healthy foods

The human heart is truly a miraculous machine.  Even before you’re born, the muscles that make up the heart are working hard, pumping oxygen rich blood to each organ in you and returning oxygen depleted blood back to the lungs.  On average, the heart will beat 37,869,120 times each year, year after year.  That’s about two and a half billion heartbeats in a lifetime.

Plainly, your heart is your powerhouse and it’s worth protecting. We know, nobody can live without a beating heart and indeed, with an average of 2 deaths every 68 seconds,  forty percent of all the deaths in the United States are from heart disease, led by Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

As the hardest working organ in the body, the heart muscles naturally produce a continuous supply of energy and it’s this massive level of energy creation which makes the heart vulnerable to the attack of free radicals. Hence, your heart is one organ with a large requirement for antioxidants like Glutathione which is the most valuable.

The Heart’s Energy Production

The heart’s amazing ability to produce energy is based within each cell in the cellular power plants- Mitochondria.  Every cell in every organ possesses these tiny energy producing locations.  On average, most cells will have a few hundred mitochondria, but the cells in your heart are estimated to include up to 5,000! The power that’s made in your cells, takes the form of a compound called ATP – adenosine triphosphate.  Unfortunately, making energy has a price.

The by- products of creating energy are free radicals and with the high concentration of energy producing mitochondria in the cells of the heart, there is an equally high production of free radicals. Think about wood burning in a fireplace and the ashes that accumulate. If they don’t get cleared out now and then, eventually they’re smother the fire. That clearing out process is accomplished by antioxidants and without their work, free radicals create a cascading response within the cells that will destroy them and their components – including the cellular DNA.

CAD and Heart Disease

Arteriosclerosis – Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) which is commonly called hardening of the arteries or loss of arterial elasticity is one of the main causes of Heart disease. It’s been linked to a substance known as lipid peroxidase. That’s what happens if the lipids in your heart are converted into free radicals.  Lipids, are a molecular group that includes sterols, waxes, fats and the fat soluble vitamins E, A, D & K.  As well as elevated levels of free radicals, patients with CAD also have low levels of antioxidants including Glutathione.  Lacking the antioxidant reserves to clean out free radicals in your heart, it and the arteries in the system will eventually suffer from oxidative stress.

Human bodies have originally been designed to clean up the free radicals created by normal processes, but most of us are subject to extra stressors that aren’t natural . These stresses include environmental toxins (and especially tobacco smoke!), poor diets, the unhealthy pace and emotional stress of everyday living and a weak condition of our muscles from not getting enough exercise.  We have put our antioxidant capabilities at a terrible disadvantage.

The Benefits of More  Glutathione and Other Antioxidants

As we grow older, our chemistry starts to slow down. The mitochondria in our heart muscles inevitably create less energy and we also naturally begin to produce less glutathione – which is vital for a healthy heart.  Boosting glutathione reserves will not make us live forever, but given how hard your heart is working for you, it must make sense to  improve your diet, choose a healthier lifestyle and take concrete steps to increase your natural production of glutathione.

Oral Glutathione supplements are not effective, but you can increase your glutathione with a glutathione precursor like  Cellgevity- available at wholeearthhealth.com.

RiboCeine and NAC Can Raise Liver Glutathione Levels

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A next generation product has been brought to market to help your body produce glutathione. In case you’re not familiar with Glutathione, it provides many important benefits to your health including fortifying the immune system, cleaning toxins from your body, helping to combat inflammation and neutralizing free radicals.

Oxy- radicals are a critical issue because the damage that free radicals create in your body has been connected to over seventy four major disorders and illnesses and the main weapon we each possess to prevent the destruction caused by oxidative stress is Antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules that can stop the spread of free radicals, which left alone can create an ongoing chain reaction of incomplete molecules that eventually damage the host cells and the organs in your body. With the many antioxidants that exist, one of them does a superior job of defending your cells from the damage caused by free radicals and it’s the Master Antioxidant, Glutathione.

Glutathione is naturally produced by your body. Unfortunately, aging retards the creation of glutathione and – when you need it most, glutathione is less and less available to you. It would be an easy thing to correct if you could simply supplement with glutathione, but that doesn’t work. Oral glutathione supplements are not effective, because as they pass through the digestive tract, the glutathione is ruined by the gastric juices and can’t be absorbed into the bloodstream.

The strategy that actually works is taking glutathione precursors. Precursors are the necessary nutrient materials that the body requires to make glutathione naturally. By supplying your body with an abundance of the building blocks it requires, blood and liver glutathione concentrations are boosted naturally – and considerably. To date the most effective products that I know of to increase glutathione levels are MAXGXL, MAXONE and Cellgevity from Max International.

MaxONE and Cellgevity are based on compound named RiboCeine, which has been featured prominently in connection with MAX ATP (I’ll write about ATP later). RiboCeine takes the name from D-Ribose – a simple, chemically linear sugar that supports the production of ATP and L-Cysteine, perhaps the most critical of the materials from which we make glutathione. While MAXGXL uses a blend of L-Glutamine and NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine), MAXONE and Cellgevity use RiboCeine, which apparently is better able to protect the Cysteine in its journey through the stomach and get more to the cells, resulting in 300% higher liver glutathione levels.

Cellgevity, which is the newest product takes advantage of the strength of RiboCeine and combines it with other substances – like Vitamin C, Broccoli seed extract and ALA to also help your body better use -and reuse- the glutathione it produces.

For people who hate to swallow pills, a month’s supply of MaxONE is only 60 capsules – just two a day to boost your glutathione levels and experience the benefits that the Master Antioxidant will deliver to you.
Click here for more information on Cellgevity and if you would like to take a closer look at the original glutathione precursor MAXGXL- click here

Camu-Camu – Have you ever heard of this?

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Camu camu berries

Are you looking for superior antioxidant foods?

In the Amazonian flood plains between Brazil and Peru lives a shrubby tree – Myrciaria dubia- usually called Camu-Camu. When the pleasant smelling , waxy white flowers fall to the ground, it grows small purple-red colored fruit similar in appearance to a cherry. Among herbalists, camu-camu is valued for its astringent, antioxidant, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and emollient and nutritional characteristics. As if that isn’t enough, it’s also a source of protein, phosphorus, iron, niacin, thiamin riboflavin, beta-carotene, calcium, and 3 amino acids. It is an abundant source of flavinoids.

Those who take Camu-camu because of its vitamin C have found that just one to two grams of this natural source is a better immune system supporter than mega doses of commercial synthetic products. Camu-camu is around two to three percent Vitamin C based on the fresh weight and that’s an unusually high concentration and testifies to its antioxidant food value. And antioxidants are vital when it comes to my 2 other favorite “antis” antiaging and anti-inflammatories .

Camu-camu is currently being researched to assess its emotion balancing properties. As appearing in the Clinician’s Handbook of Natural Healing (1998) – Gary Null, Ph.D. Camu-camu is second in terms of its potential mood balancing properties. While these connections have not been completely researched, it seems that Camu-camu could offer a nutritional boost to the brain’s own manufacturing of mood balancing chemicals. Additionally, research has been published linking vitamin C with a higher level of serotonin.

Dr Mike Adams, (who’s called the Health Ranger) said this about Camu-Camu:
“I’ll tell you a secret about Camu. Camu-camu is the highest natural source of vitamin C in the world. And it’s not just ascorbic acid, it’s the full symphony of protective antioxidants. My research, based in part of the works of Dr. James Duke, leads me to the conclusion that camu-camu crosses the blood-brain barrier and offers extraordinary protection to the nervous system. There is no question in my mind that this product can drastically reduce eye disorders, including macular degeneration, as well as protect the brain and nervous system from degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.”

Camu-camu is just one of the natural antioxidant foods found in AIO- Premium Cellular Health.

Inflammation – Something You Should Know

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illustration of inflammed hip joints

The biggest problems with inflammation are that it’s a painful condition that can also quite destructive.
Inflammation is a process by which the body’s white blood cells and chemicals protect us from infection and alien substances like toxins, bacteria and viruses. But, in auto immune diseases, the immune system inappropriately triggers inflammation when there are no foreign substances to fight off and creates damage to its own cells. Your immune system assaults normal tissues as if they are diseased or contaminated. When inflammation occurs, chemicals from the body’s white blood cells are released into the bloodstream and/or affected tissues in an effort to rid the body of alien toxins. This release of chemicals increases the flow of blood to the immediate area and can cause redness, warmth and swelling . Unfortunately, the inflammatory process may stimulate nerves and cause significant pain.

Arthritis is a well known term that describes inflammation in joints. Some, but not all, types of arthritis are the fallout from misdirected inflammation. Some types of inflammatory arthritis include: rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis and tendinitis and Gouty arthritis.

While not all need to be present, the basic symptoms of inflammation are swelling, redness, pain or stiffness in the joint and a decrease or loss in function Another thing, inflammation might come with general “flu-like” symptoms; fever, feeling chilled, headaches, a lack of energy, lack of appetite and muscle stiffness.

While the immediate pain caused by inflammation is lousy enough, the increased number of cells and fluid can, in the long term, damage the cartilage (cushions at the end of bones) and joint lining. Inflammation can also attack organs. The type of symptoms depends on which organs are affected:

    Inflammation of the heart (myocarditis) may cause shortness of breath or swollen legs
    Inflammation of the small tubes that move air to the lungs can cause an asthma episode
    Inflamed Kidneys (nephritis) can lead to elevated blood pressure or kidney failure
    Inflammation of the large intestine (colitis) can cause diarrhea and cramps.

Pain might not be the first symptom of organ inflammation, since many organs don’t have many pain-sensitive nerves.

There are a variety of treatment options for inflammatory diseases, but as a rule, the medical community seems to prefer prescription anti-inflammatories, pain medication, rest, exercise, and surgery to correct joint damage.

The goals of treating inflammation are to:

    Avoid or modify activities that aggravate pain
    Relieve pain with analgesics (pain-relieving medications) and anti-inflammatory medications
    Help joint movement and muscle strength with physical therapy
    Support the joints by using braces, splints or canes as necessary

What’s missing are any preventative ideas or treatment courses designed to essentially help your body by increasing your antioxidant intake, making dietary improvements, reducing stress in your life and dealing with everyday toxins – because they truly are everywhere. Antioxidants support your immune system and help your body to fight toxins as are natural inflammation fighters.

Immune Boosters You Should Know About

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Just like everything else your immune system gets weaker when you grow old, so you might want to consider immune boosters to strengthen this important function.

Vitamins E and D are immune boosters

One such supplement is Vitamin E. Based on a study from the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, at Tufts University in Boston, Vitamin E can help some of the immune system from declining with age. The research used 78 seniors in good health, sixty-five and older and discovered that 200 mg of Vitamin E every day for a period of sixteen weeks stimulated increased antibody production in response to vaccines for hepatitis B and tetanus.

Vitamin E can boost the immune response by triggering extra production of our killer T-cells to destroy germs and cancer cells. In addition to that, your B-cells, the special cells that create antibodies to kill bacteria are stimulated in the presence of Vitamin E. Another valuable fact – in a different study at the Harvard School of Public Health, using Vitamin E supplements was shown to cut the chance of heart attacks by 50%.

Vitamin D3 the vitamin manufactured in your skin following exposure to the suns ultraviolet light is also an immune system booster.

Alma Fuit can boost your immune system

A new health drink that has immune system boosters also contains Alma fruit – something I had never heard of before. Alma fruit, or the Indian gooseberry is also an exceptional source of Vitamin C with 30X’s more vitamin C than you’ll find in oranges. Alma fruit is found in the plains and mountain regions of the Indian Subcontinent and grows anywhere from Burma to Afghanistan.

Continuing studies are demonstrating that Alma fruit might help to treat and/or avoid problems such as stress, cataracts, arthritis, hayfever and also cancer. It’s no surprise that the traditional Tibetan and Indian healers attribute to it special immune enhancing and anti-aging properties.

Japanese scientists at Nagasaki University have discovered that extracts from alma fruit prevent the growth of cancerous cells, with those in the stomach, uterus and skin showing the most pronounced effect. It’s also a richly concentrated source of antioxidants. The active immune booster in Alma has the name phyllemblin which can stimulate an increased production of immune cells.

Glutathione offers immune system support

Our bodies have many antioxidant defense systems, but within each cell a little protein called glutathione is crucial. Glutathione is essential for the action of immune cells, which protect us from bacterial and viral infections. Among people suffering from immune deficiency, glutathione levels are below what is normall found in the blood and immune cells. When they can increase glutathione levels to match what’s expeccted in healthy humans. it’s likely to help immune deficient people.

Glutathione and the Antioxidant Network

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Antioxidants are our body’s primary protection against the harm triggered by free radicals which contribute to many chronic inflammatory and degenerative problems. Oxy radicals are the root cause of premature aging. Among all the antioxidants, a group of five are acknowledged as Network Antioxidants. This group of both fat and water soluble antioxidants work together to assist your cells and do the job together to support each other.

How Network Antioxidants work

When an antioxidant passes an electron to correct or repair a free radical, it actually becomes one, but a benign one without the capacity to continue the chain reaction.  Unfortunately, when they become oxidized, antioxidants can no longer perform effectively.  But, what is unique about the network antioxidants is that are able to regenerate each other and carry on the cycle of searching out and repairing free radicals.

Even though they do the job together, the network antioxidants fulfill diverse jobs.  The fat soluble ones, namely CoQ-10 and Vitamin E protect the fatty cell wall and the cell mitochondria, while the water soluble antioxidants, Glutathione and Vitamin C protect the center of the cell. ALA – Alpha Lipoic Acid is unique in that it is both fat and water soluble.

Vitamin C is the link which joins the fat soluble and water soluble antioxidants in the network and is primarily responsible for rejuvenating Vitamin E when it becomes oxidized.

Vitamin E is closely aligned with heart disease prevention, because it’s the only antioxidant that can reach fatty parts of the cell that are not reachable to the rest of the network.  It’s actually not a single compound but is instead a group of fat soluble alcohols.

CoQ-10 or CoEnzyme Q-10 is present in all your cells, where it is concentrated in the mitochondria,  the component of your cell that creates energy. Mitochondria are susceptible to free radical injury which has been evidenced as a loss of energy as we age. Additionally, CoQ-10 contributes in the regeneration of Vitamins C, E and Glutathione.

Glutathione, popularly recognized as the Body’s Master antioxidant is continuall circulating through your cells, repairing your immune cells and cleansing cellular waste from your body. It supports the rejuvenation of all of the remaining network antioxidants. Raising your glutathione levels helps protect you from various inflammatory conditions, autoimmune diseases, chronic fatigue syndrome, asthma and others.

Alpha Lipoic Acid is unique amongst the Network Antioxidants in that it is both fat and water soluable and can help both the fatty membrane and water based interior of your cells. It is also uniquely capable of repairing itself and notably can regenerate the other network antioxidants including glutathione. It helps to avert muscle damage during tough workouts.

Like glutathione and CoEnzyme Q-10, ALA is created by your body, but the production capacity declines substantially as we age.

Alpha Linolenic Acid

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ALA Alpha-Linolenic  acid is is something that confused me at first.  I was researching ALA which is found in Cellgevity and learned – much ot my surprise that ALA not only stands for Alpha Lipoic Acid- which is an ingredient in Cellgevity but also Alpha Linolenic acid which is something completely different.

Alpha linolenic acid is a polyunsaturated, omega-3 fatty acid originally identified by A. Rollet in 1909.  It is most effortlessly found in seed oils like walnut, canola, soybean hemp and flax . It’s also observed in the membranes responsible for photosynthesis in broad leafed, green plants (thylakoid membranes).

Other outstanding, although less acknowledged sources of ALA are Perilla, Kiwifruit and Chia . Perilla oil is extracted from the seeds of the Perilla family, a.k.a the mint family. Although in the west it is used principally in the paint industry, (like linseed oil) in the east it is used for its content of ALA giving it antioxidant qualities and a significant content of vitamins and minerals . Chia is not always associated with the pets of the same name. Chia is also known as Salvia hispanica. It is another member of the mint family.

ALA is one of the essential fatty acids and what this means is that it can only be obtained from our diets. We are unable to create any of the essential fatty acids on our own.

Research conducted over the years on Alpha-linolenic acid have connected it to many beneficial outcomes including a decreased chance of cardiovascular disease.  In 2005, a study conducted on young adults revealed that daily amounts of ALA diminished the levels of anxiety and stress among the subjects and a reduction of cortisol levels was objectively measured.  This finding was abundantly supported in a 2011 study conducted by Harvard University on 50,000 women that  over a period of ten years, found that a higher intake of ALAa-linolenic acid combined with a reduced intake of linoleic acid was connected with a substantial decrease in depression.

ALA is also a impressive antioxidant, known to combat numerous forms of oxidative stress and to help recycle other antioxidants.

Regrettably, due to the requirement that commercial food processors have for characteristics like “spread ability” which requires that ALA be partially hydrogenated, the most available source of ALA – soybeans, are being genetically modified to produce reduced amounts of ALA and linoleic acid.

While still being assessed for its advantages relative to heart health, a modest consumption of dietary ALA could prove beneficial for the primary and secondary reduction of coronary heart disease.

That’s the scoop on Alpha Linolenic Acid.

Medical Conditions Associated with Low Glutathione

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Many people have been asking me about a list of the medical conditions that are known to be associated and affected by lowered levels of glutathione.  Most of them are looking to better understand the reasons why they should buy a glutathione precursor

What’s very important to understand is that this is not a list of conditions caused by reduced glutathione and they cannot be cured if all you do is increase your glutathione but reduced glutathione is a factor.

Here’s the list, broken down based on the body part/system:

Heart

Angina,Positive stress tests, Heart Attack, Spastic/Unstable Angina

Brain and Nerves

Depression, Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s,  Bipolar Disease, ADHD, MS, Huntington’s Disease, Migraine, Parkinson’s, Autism, Lou Gehrig’s Disease

Infectious Diseases

Influenza including Bird Flu, Common upper respiratory viral infections, Herpes Simplex, Herpes zoster/shingles,  gastroenteritis, HIV

Auto Immune

Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Systemic Lupis Erythematosus, MS,  Systemic Sclerosis Syndrome

Skin

Psoriasis, Wrinkles and sagging skin, Acne, Eczema, Atopic Dermatitis

Oncology

All studied cancers are associated with lowered glutathione levels

Child Bearing

Infertility, spontaneous abortions, PMS

Overall Health

Obesity, Immune Sygnalling, Heavy Metal Poisoning, Alcholism, Inflammation,

Breathing

Chronic Bronchitis, Smoking, Emphysema (COPD), Asthma,  Pulmonary Fibrosis

Eyes

Cataracts & Macular Degeneration

Strengthen Your Liver with Antioxidants – Glutathione

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The liver is your body’s detoxification center. Think of it if you’d like as your systems washing machine.  It isn’t a particularly glamorous job and the liver is rarely acknowledged along with organs like the brain or the heart for the valuable work it does. The simple fact however, is that without your liver’s cleaning action, countless toxins, including environmental pollutants, chemical food additives, impurities in the water, smoke, bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses will spill into your bloodstream and be free to travel through the body to attack the heart, lungs and brain.

In addition to protecting us from the onslaught of toxins from outside of our body, the liver protects us from toxins that we produce.  Toxins can result from nutritional deficiencies, which are becoming increasing – and truly – inexcusably more common, because of poor eating habits and some of our conventional farming practices that are resulting in nutritionally deficient foods.  Unfortunately, the body has an outstanding storehouse for toxins. We can store toxins in our fat, literally for years and then, in times of stress, or fasting, or dieting or even as a result of what should be healthy exercise, we finally metabolize those fats and release the toxins back into our bloodstream.  The sudden influx puts great pressure on our livers.

It’s also impossible to mention the liver and not also mention Cirrhosis, the name that refers to end stage liver disease where years of chronic inflammation, usually (but not always) caused by one specific toxin – alcohol- have created such an extensive build up of scar tissue that there simply isn’t enough of the functioning liver left to do its job.  The result is death (unless you get a transplant).  Liver Disease is the 4th leading cause of death among 30-50 year olds.

Antioxidants are vital to the health and functioning of the liver in two key ways- to remove toxins from our body and to protect it.

Antioxidants  help the liver cleanse toxins from the blood. In other words they support the detoxification function itself.  During the second phase of detoxification, the liver releases large amounts of enzymes and antioxidants, including glutathione into the body in order to neutralize the toxins that have not already been modified by the liver directly in the first stage.  You see, the liver can only do so much and it (along with the rest of the body) relies on antioxidants to cleanse toxins and free radicals before they can build up.

When the level of glutathione falls, usually as a result of a sustained intake of toxins, the liver is not able to do its job properly. It can become damaged by free radicals, all too soon reaching a state of oxidative stress that, among other things can result in inflammation.  Left too long, in an attempt to protect itself, the liver produces scar tissue and the Cirrhosis cycle begins.

Unfortunately, chronic alcohol abuse is not the only source of toxins that can damage our liver. Let’s face it, our world and our lives are filled with toxins and stressors, so taking steps to protect the health of our liver is vital.

When you boost your level of antioxidants and your production of glutathione you’re helping your liver clean toxins from your blood and you’re ensuring that it can support your other organs by releasing key antioxidants like glutathione throughout your body to prevent systemic damage from oxidative stress. You’re also ensuring the liver has enough glutathione to protect itself from the damage that can be caused by free radicals and the heavy load of toxins we deal with.  A stressed, inflamed liver affects the health of every organ in your body.

Eat a healthy diet, rich in raw fruits and vegetables.  Cut down on stimulants like caffeine and on depressants like alcohol and nicotine.  Drink at least 2 quarts of water a day and in addition to ensuring that your body has a rich supply of antioxidants, you might also with to consider supplementing your diet with digestive enzymes like Protease, Lipase or Amylase to aid in your digestion of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.  When your digestive system works effectively it reduces the toxins that your liver needs to manage.