Antioxidant Supplements

There’s a new way to say You Aren’t Taking Care Of Yourself – it’s called Metabolic Syndrome. If you are over 40, have an expanding waistline, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, poor diet, not enough exercise, high blood sugar (pre-diabetic), then you have this condition!

However, there is also a recent anti aging supplement that has proven helpful with metabolic syndrome.

Here are the symptoms:

• An expanding waistline (35 inches for women, 40 inches for men)

• A BMI (Base Metabolic Rate) of over 25

• Triglyceride level over 150

• A low HDL (good cholesterol) level

• Blood pressure over 130/85

• Higher than normal blood glucose level

There is a collection of several factors in metabolic syndrome, so you may not have it if you only have one symptom. But if you have any 3 of the above conditions, you may be at risk.

Here’s the bad news:

Guggul is a natural herb supplement that may help lower cholesterol, yet few in the Western hemisphere know much about it. Guggul is otherwise known as the Mukul myrrh tree, and is a plant of the Burseracae family with small red or pink flowers.

It is found across central Asia over to North Africa, although is very common in the northern areas of India where the climate is more semi-arid than equatorial.  Guggul does not like a lot of water and can thrive in ground where the soil has few nutrients. Its Latin name is Commiphora wightii, and it grows about 12 feet high.  

It has been predominantly used in the Ayurvedic medicine of ancient India, and like many such ancient remedies and treatments, is now used in modern medicine to treat specific conditions: conditions such as some forms of heart condition, where it has been found to be able to lower your blood cholesterol levels, weight loss and some forms of arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

Anxiety responses were needed in previous years to trigger the nervous system into a series of chemical reactions that would initiate action.  For our ancestors, this fight or flight impulse often meant the difference between death and survival for another day.  Experts warn us that the never-ending stressors that we are constantly encountering can lead to health problems including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.  In contrast to the ancient forms of stress, such as the stress of a hungry bear approaching a cave, modern-day stress sources are more frequently of the chronic variety such as meeting increasing demands at work, studying for an exam, quitting smoking, and worrying about money and relationships. 

With heart disease being the number one cause of death in Americans and high blood pressure being the “silent killer,” high homocysteine levels are considered by most researchers to be as dangerous as high cholesterol levels.  An aging heart is proven to be less efficient and much more likely to develop disease.  Thankfully, certain nutrients and specialty compounds may help to promote healthy blood pressure, homocysteine levels and heart function, which ultimately exert a positive impact on heart disease. 

One of the most significant remedies in traditional medicine is Dansheng, which has historically been associated with the circulatory and cardiovascular systems consequently, leaving it to be recommended for conditions surrounding the blood and heart.  Many studies have shown that dansheng dilated coronary arteries, increased coronary blood flow, and scavenged free radicals in ischemic diseases, which reduce the cellular damage from ischemia and improve heart conditions.  Studies have proven that dansheng can improve the ischemic state of the myocardium by dilating the coronary vessels and, in turn, decreasing serum lipid peroxides and increasing levels of SOD in patients with coronary heart disease. 

Hopefully, I don’t need to remind you about the importance of antioxidants. It’s been proven that antioxidants help neutralize free radicals, which prevents “oxidative stress.” Oxidative stress has been linked to some serious diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases. This is one of the main reasons why I think including an antioxidant supplement into your diet should be considered by everyone.

Now, I realize some people simply don’t like taking dietary supplements.  It’s one reason I made an antioxidant trivia post a couple of years ago – to show you ways to get your antioxidants the natural way.  I thought I would make a post today about another awesome way to get your antioxidants – by drinking POM Wonderful.

Maca is a wholefood supplement that is grown in the mountainous in Peru.  This vegetable grows at an altitude of 15,000 feet above sea level which makes it one of the few plants that can grow at such high altitudes, where there is significantly less oxygen.

Maca has been in use in Peru for at least 5000 years, though it went through many periods in history where it was used exclusively by those in power.. Maca was grown by a number of more aggressive, war-like tribes in the earliest times. When the Incas conquered the region, they were given this herb (maca is actually classed as an herb), as the people they conquered sent it to them as a tribute. And when the Spanish conquered the Incas, the Incas sent it to the Spanish. From there it was sent back to Europe.