1. A Laughing Matter

Pay attention to the old adage – “Laughter is the Best Medicine”! Research has discovered that laughter and joy boost immune functions, especially the production of the natural killer cells that help defend the body from illness and cancer. Laughter also increases the release of endorphins – compounds that give you a sense of well-being. Joyful people live longer and healthier lives. So read your favorite comics, watch your favorite comedies, get with friends, and laugh it up!

2. Reduce Stress

When an imbalance, or nutritional deficiency, is creating a bad mood, studies show that a B vitamin complex can restore a healthy mindset. B vitamin complexes have worked on patients who had unsuccessful results with conventional antidepressants.

3. Hands-On Healing

Human touch increases the production of endorphins, growth hormone, and DHEA, all of which lengthen your life span and lower the negative impact of stress. Studies have found that patients who are regularly touched recover faster than those who are not touched. So give someone a hug and feel both of your moods improve.

4. Boost Your “Youth Hormones”

Research has found that doing squats will greatly increase your natural production of the “youth hormone”. Increased growth hormone translates to an elevated mood. Keep it up with weight training, knee bends, push-ups, and rowing.

5. Take a Breath

Breathing properly is important for dispelling wastes from your body; It is estimated that we expel only about 30 percent of toxins in our bodies through the bowels and bladder. The rest is all respiratory. Breathing is also a great way to clear your mind, boost your energy, and improve your mood. Practice deep, slow, rhythmic, breathing daily.

6. Smell the Joy

Research has shown that smell has a definite impact on our bodies and minds. When you stimulate the olfactory nerves inside your nose, you activate the limbic system of your brain, which is associated with moods and memory. Aromatherapy recommends treating depression with jasmine attars or eucalyptus sprays for exhilaration, increased alertness and joy. Just put a dab of the essential oils from these plants on your temples or back of your neck. Another option? Boil the herb in water and inhale the steam through your nose.

7. Feel Fine with Flowers

There is a reason that flowers are the traditional get-well gesture. Colorful flowers have a powerful influence on moods; they can uplift a patient’s mood and even combat stress. One study found that during a five-minute typing assignment, people sitting next to a flowering bouquet were more relaxed than those who sat near foliage-only plants.

We hope these tips help the good feelings flow!

Cigarettes: Smoking is the number one enemy when it comes to heart disease. New research from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, found that smoking just one cigarette a day stiffens your arteries by a whopping twenty-five percent.

Oral Contraceptives: Contraceptives increase the risk of blood clots. If you are a smoker, do not take oral contraceptives. This combination can be especially dangerous.

Moderate Drinking: Moderate amounts of alcohol (one drink a day) can have a beneficial effect on your heart. Over drinking alcohol can raise triglycerides, increase blood pressure and lead to weight gain.

Up to 40 Years of Age

Manage Stress: Unmanaged stress can have an extremely negative impact on heart health. The increase of adrenaline raises blood pressure and destabilizes plaque in the arteries, making it likely to cause a clot or heart attack.

Manage Weight: Extra weight can lead to high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Manage Your Social Life: Research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that high levels of loneliness increase a person’s risk of heart disease by 76 percent! Set aside time once or twice a week to call and spend time with friends and family.

Up to 50 Years of Age

Get Plenty of Sleep: Not getting at least seven hours of sleep can stress your blood vessels and heart. Dr. Bob Marshall always tells us how important it is to get at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Keys to good sleep: go to bed, and wake up, at the same time every day, even Saturdays and Sundays and do your best to relax before going to bed, whether it is casual reading or watching a funny TV program.

Exercise: You start to lose muscle mass more rapidly in your 40s, which causes your metabolism to slow down since muscle burns more calories than fat. Do at least 20 to 30 minutes of exercise three to four times per week. Walking outside when the weather is nice or using a trampoline/rebounder with arm weights is a great way to accomplish your weekly exercise.

Time For Yourself: Find at least 10 minutes of ‘me’ time every day to do something—even if it’s just chatting on the phone with a friend.

Up to 60 Years of Age and Over

Get Up and Move: At this age, you tend to gain extra weight around your stomach. Start taking the stairs instead of the elevator whenever you can, walk faster around the mall, or jog to the mailbox to send letters instead of sticking your hand out the car window as you drive by. Small changes really do add up!

Watch What You Eat: Increase whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice and seeds, as well as beans, fruits and vegetables. Want help with your diet? Give a call to our Head Nutritionist, Ted Nelson, (210) 326-2705. He has great suggestions for juices, soups and smoothies that taste great.

Be Aware of How You Feel: Now is when the first noticeable symptoms of heart disease may appear, so it’s important to know what’s normal for your body and be on the lookout for worrisome signs like chest discomfort, shortness of breath or changes in exercise tolerance—meaning you suddenly feel winded going up a flight of stairs or feel unusually tired for no apparent reason. If these appear, see your doctor immediately!

Calcium is the most abundant mineral found in your body. Approximately 99 percent of the calcium in your body is found in your bones and teeth while the remaining 1 percent is found in your blood and remaining tissues.

What Does Calcium Do in Your Body?

• Helps to form strong teeth and bones
• Allows muscle tissue to lengthen and contract properly
• Helps regulate blood pH, which is essential to your body’s ability to properly transport oxygen and carbon dioxide
• Allows for proper blood coagulation
• Allows for proper functioning of your heart and nerves

Due to its importance to a number of critical metabolic activities, the amount of calcium that is available to your blood and tissues must be carefully regulated at all times. Your bones and teeth serve as reservoirs of calcium that your blood taps into for its ongoing need for calcium. Ultimately, the amount of calcium that your blood saps from your bones and teeth is determined by the amount of calcium that your blood receives from your diet. So the health of your bones and teeth is closely linked to the quantity and quality of calcium-rich foods that you eat and how well you digest and assimilate these foods. However, eating plenty of healthy, calcium-rich foods does not guarantee healthy bones and teeth. The following factors influence your calcium and overall health status:

Your body needs an adequate amount of Vitamin D to properly absorb calcium through your intestinal wall. Vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in industrialized countries.  Taking synthetic supplements can inhibit calcium absorption. Stress is capable of leeching calcium out of your bones. Eating too many acid-forming foods like flesh meats, dairy products, flour products, salt, sugar, and caffeine can pull calcium out of your bones. When you get more than 60 grams of protein from meat or dairy per day, the body begins to pump calcium into the urine.

There are a few concrete steps that you can take to help ensure adequate calcium intake and optimal bone and dental infrastructure:  Do some weight-bearing exercise every day. Simply walking outdoors is an excellent choice for most people.  Take a non-synthetic calcium and magnesium supplement each day. Ensure that you have a healthy amount of vitamin D in your system by getting some exposure to sunlight, eating foods rich in vitamin D and supplementing witha living source vitamin D.

• The majority of commercial vitamin supplements are made up of synthetic vitamins
• Synthetic vitamins do not perform the same functions in your body as vitamins found naturally in whole food
• Many synthetic vitamins deplete your body of other nutrients and tax your kidneys before being excreted through your urine

Anyone who studies biochemistry learns that vitamins do not exist as single components that act on their own. Vitamins are made up of several different components – enzymes, co-enzymes, and co-factors– that must work together to produce their intended biologic effects. That is why, at QN Center, we do not any synthetic ingredients and we use whole plants, not isolated vitamins. The body does not recognize isolated vitamins. Co-factors must be present for vitamins to assimilate properly in the body. It is this simple: vitamins that are found naturally in whole foods come with all of their necessary components.

The majority of vitamins that are sold in pharmacies, grocery stores, vitamin shops, and on the Internet are synthetic vitamins, which are only isolated portions of the vitamins that occur naturally in food.

A good example is vitamin C.

If you take a look at a variety of vitamin C supplements, you will find that the majority of them contain only ascorbic acid or a compound called ascorbate, which is a less acidic form of acorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is NOT vitamin C. It represents the outer ring that serves as a protective shell for the entire vitamin C complex, much like an orange peel that serves as a protective shell for an orange.

Real vitamin C found in whole foods like fruits and vegetables contain the following components:

• Rutin
• Bioflavonoids (vitamin P)
• Factor K
• Factor J
• Factor P
• Tyrosinase
• Ascorbinogen
• Ascorbic Acid

When you take only ascorbic acid found in your synthetic vitamin C tablet or powder, your body must gather all of the other components of the full vitamin C complex from your body’s tissues in order to make use of it. In the event that your body does not have adequate reserves of the other components, ascorbic acid itself does not provide any of the health benefits that the full vitamin C complex does. After circulating through your system, the unused ascorbic acid is eliminated through your urine.

If the list of ingredients includes a vitamin name like “Vitamin C” rather than an actual food that contains natural vitamin C like “acerola cherry” or “Camu-Camu” you can bet that it is a synthetic vitamin.

If you choose to use nutritional supplements, it is in your best interest to use only those products that list actual foods as their ingredients rather than synthetic and isolated vitamins. While some synthetic and isolated vitamins have been shown to provide minimal health benefits, on the whole, most of them cause more harm than good.

It is important to note that the principles in this article are just as relevant and applicable to minerals and mineral supplements.

Practicing the following three simple prevention tips may help reduce your risk of these annoying and uncomfortable infections.

Always wear cotton underwear. Nylon, polyester, and other synthetic fabrics can trap air and create a breeding ground for yeast. If you have to wear pantyhose, be sure to wear cotton underwear underneath.

After exercise, (especially swimming) be sure to take off your sweaty or wet garments as soon as possible. Wet clothes (especially non-cotton) can aggravate symptoms of yeast infection and may even initiate the condition.

Take a Probiotic. Yeast infections often follow antibiotic treatments, taking a Probiotic can help ward off yeast infections.  Learn more about QNCenter’s Probiotic Complex.

For example, we all clearly agree that pesticides are poisons; their primary purpose is to kill living organisms. We know that most non-organic foods are laced with pesticides, and we understand that pesticides do not magically become non-poisonous inside our bodies. Our bodies see pesticides as poisons too.  How does your body treat a poison? It attempts to detoxify it. This means your body attempts to render the poison harmless, and then removes it from your body, generally through your colon. Your colon is your primary organ used to eliminate toxins from the body, and your liver is the organ most often responsible for rendering poisons harmless.

But what happens when people eat poisonous chemicals in most meals and use poisonous chemicals on their skin?
Our livers become overwhelmed with the need to detoxify all of those chemicals and poisons, and the poisons start to back up in our blood. The fact that this is happening in just about everyone has been confirmed by examinations of the typical individual’s blood.

 In addition to detoxifying all of the chemicals you are consuming each day, the liver loses its functionality by becoming a storage facility for poisons it could not render harmless. Some estimates are that three fourths of the liver is used to store toxins that the liver was unable to render harmless.  No wonder so many people think losing weight is challenging.  Their primary fat burning organ is overwhelmed with another task, and it’s become only half functional.

What is the answer?

There are a couple of them. The first is to stop consuming chemicals in your diet and using them on your skin. Read labels – if the label lists only plant names, great. But if the label lists chemical names and terms like “natural flavors” (the new name for MSG, monosodium-glutamate, a known brain neurotoxin), FD&C dyes, etc., avoid using the product.

You can read more about toxic chemicals our “Health Warning” and “Toxic Ingredients” pages on our qncenter.com website.

Avoiding poisonous chemicals generally means giving up processed foods, except perhaps on the rare occasion, and eating organic foods as much as possible. Plant-based foods, particularly vegetables, are very liver friendly.

 If you want to learn how to prepare plant-based foods so they are delicious, contact our Head Nutritionist, Ted Nelson, QRACN, RMT, on his personal phone line, (210) 326-2705. Ted can help you with menu ideas that are delicious and nutritious. This is a FREE service.

What about those poisons already stored in your liver and circulating in your blood?
Many people think that simply changing their diet to a more natural, chemical-free diet will address past toxicity, but for most, it is not powerful enough.  When you call Ted, he will discuss ways you can clean your liver, and your liver will thank you!  Ted recommends Quantum Nutrition Chem Detox and Premiere Research Labs Liver Nano-Detox.

Did you miss our link to the article by author David Ewing Duncan about toxins in the blood?  You can read it here.

I am often asked “what nutritional supplements do I really need?” There are three things that everyone needs every day: Minerals, Greens and Oils. Here is why:

Coral Calcium Complex is the ultimate pH balancer providing the perfect ratio of highly ionized calcium to magnesium with all the trace minerals to ensure an outstanding delivery system.

Ionized minerals are easy to absorb and utilize, so for those who produce inadequate amounts of stomach acid, they will still benefit using Q-Rx Coral Calcium Complex.

An increase of 1/10 in pH can mean 10 times more tissue oxygen availability.  As the ionized minerals in Coral Calcium Complex are easily absorbed into the body, people are amazed at how chronic symptoms begin to melt away.  As a demonstration of how this is possible, if a cancer tumor is put in a beaker with an alkaline media, the cancer will die in 3 hours.

Maintaining a first morning urine pH (6.4-7.0) is essential for good health.  The body’s constant waste products create a slightly acid state.  Taking Q-Rx Coral Calcium Complex daily is the key mineral to keep the body’s pH closer to an ideal, alkaline pH.

Greens Mix contains every nutrient essential for life – it is the ideal daily multi-nutrient, healing food for all ages.  Most foods are nutrient deficient which makes it essential to supplement. It is a blend of chlorophyll-rich whole greens providing all 22 essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals and enzymes.  Grasses are the most mineral-rich, nutrient dense food on the planet.

EFA Oil Blend is a blend of Flax, Sesame, Borage & Olive Oils providing an ideal ratio of omega 3, 6 & 9 fatty acids.  EFAs are part of every cell membrane and every organ & tissue including the brain .  EFAs keep our cells strong, protect cell membranes & immune system and help prevent damage by chemicals.  Everyone needs to eat the good EFAs and avoid hydrogenated and heated oils. EFAs help the body replace the bad oils with good oils.  As I often say: Everyone needs a good oil change!

People who adopt four healthy behaviors – never smoking, regular exercise, eating well and maintaining a healthy weight — can dramatically reduce their likelihood for chronic disease and an early death, a new study confirms.

On average, healthy living may cut your odds for heart disease, cancer and diabetes by about 80 percent, the researchers said.

“We’re talking about relatively straightforward behaviors that pretty much everyone knows about already,” said study researcher Dr. Earl S. Ford, a medical officer with the U.S. Public Health Service and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This study is part of the new prevention program that has been proposed by President Obama as part of his National Health Care Plan. “We’re showing that for a very wide range of diseases — not just one chronic disease, but many — these few behaviors really do have a major impact on prevention,” Ford said. Prevention, rather than “sick care” is a significant part of the Obama Health Care Plan.

Dr. Ford and his colleagues reported the findings in the August, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Adherence to four key lifestyle indicators were tracked: never having smoked; having a body-mass index below 30 (the threshold for obesity); exercising for a minimum of 3.5 hours per week; and eating healthfully, as evidenced by a diet high in fruit and vegetable intake but low in meat. Regardless of age, gender, educational achievement or job status, those following all four lifestyle behaviors had a 78 percent lower risk on average for heart disease, cancer and diabetes compared with those who had adopted none of the preferable lifestyle factors.

With the findings in, Ford said that the trick now is to motivate the public to practice what researchers are preaching. He said that President Obama is going to continue emphasizing “preventive care” as he discusses his National Health Care Plan.

Dr. David L. Katz, director of internal medicine and preventive medicine/public health at the Prevention Research Center at the Yale University School of Medicine, called the strength of the connection between healthy behavior and long, healthy life “incredible.”

President Obama, speaking to a group at a Health Care Program Town Hall said      ”An amazingly short list of behaviors, which we’ve been hearing about for years, massively influence our risk for premature death and for developing all of the major chronic diseases that Americans are concerned about and that are responsible for most of America’s health care costs. The CDC study is an invitation to every mom and dad — to every family — to shore up their commitment to eating well. It’s an opportunity to endow your child with an 80 percent reduced likelihood of ever getting a heart attack or ever dying of cancer.”

 President Obama is expected to emphasize the findings of this study in his speech to Congress as he continues the dialoge on a National Health Care Program.

A separate study, published in The Journal of Pineal Research, presented what is considered to be the “smoking-gun” proof that melatonin has anti-cancer activity. In the study, cancer cells exposed to melatonin-deficient blood had a high rate of multiplication among the cancer cells. On the other hand, exposure to melatonin-rich blood significantly suppressed the rate at which the cancer cells multiplied. Medical commentaries have cited this research as the needed proof that melatonin reduces breast cancer risk and conversely, that a lack of melatonin increases breast cancer risk.

Men have not been left out. Japanese researchers have released a study, using statistics from 14,500 men, showing that prostate cancer is also very likely suppressed by melatonin.

Melatonin is quite safe. The only adverse effect is drowsiness, which is why melatonin, taken at bedtime, is a great sleep aid.  Children and young adults make enough melatonin on their own, so you do not need to start taking melatonin as a regular supplement until you are at least 30 to 35 years old.
If you are having difficulty sleeping, the best dosage for you is the smallest amount needed to provide improvement in your sleep.

As always, if you have health problems, consult a health professional that is skilled and knowledgeable in nutritional medicine and bio-identical hormone replacement (melatonin is a bio-identical hormone) before deciding on a long-term program.

Read more about Quantum Nutrition Melatonin Nano-Plex.

Fortunately, as President Obama promotes a new National Healthcare Program philosophy of “prevention”, more and more evidence is finally emerging that shows the benefit of using good nutritional habits to prevent health problems from occurring.

For example, good news was recently published in a medical study regarding individuals who regularly consume living source, non-synthetic vitamins. The study appeared in the August 15, 2009 edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology and involved more than 77,000 men and women between the ages of 50 to 76 years old. Interestingly in this group, half of the individuals had never used either vitamin C or vitamin E supplements. Researchers found that those who took living source vitamins C and E regularly for 10 years had a decreased risk of mortality resulting from poor heart health. The risk reductions were in the 28% range; if you consider there are over six billion people on the planet and everyone took living source, non-synthetic vitamin C and E regularly, many millions of lives could benefit each year.

The National Institute of Health, in issuing a statement about the new National Health Care Program, quoted an interesting article, also published in the August 15, 2009 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. This article examined the benefits of vitamin C. For those of you who are not aware of vitamin C’s history, a deficiency in this vitamin leads to “scurvy” – a condition discovered by British sailors in the 1700s that causes the body to greatly weaken. By consuming limes and other citrus fruits, they were able to get rid of this condition. Consequently, British sailors were labeled as being “Limeys”. One would think that in Western populations, vitamin C deficiency would be a thing of the past, although this is apparently not so.

The authors of the article, researchers from the University of Toronto, reviewed blood test results of nearly 1,000 men and women living on a university campus. The blood tests showed that just more than half (53%) had adequate levels of circulating vitamin C. About 1/3 of those sampled had sub-optimal levels and about 14%, representing 1 in 7, actually had deficient levels of vitamin C. There are apparently similar results noted in a 2004 study in adults in the United States. The team that did this research found that those who had deficient blood levels of vitamin C had higher average levels of C-reactive protein which is an important indicator of inflammation in the body. Low vitamin C levels put the body at increased risk of infection, poor immunity, poor cardiovascular health and overall poor health.

One problem with vitamin C levels is that many people mistakenly believe that taking Ascorbic Acid is the same as taking real vitamin C. Ascorbic Acid is a synthetic form of vitamin C, and recent studies have shown that synthetic nutrients can actually degrade human cells and shorten the lifespan of the user. Camu-Camu fruit and Acerola fruit are considered two of the best sources of living source vitamin C.

Read more about Quantum Nutrition C Complex and Quantum E Complete