Category Archives: Health & Nutrition

Guide to Nutritional Supplements and weight management.

Skincare

Health & Nutrition

Skincare should be part of an overall health and beauty program. Apart from nourishing the skin with topical application, you also need a proper diet, exercise and the use of good nutritional supplements.

Improper nutrition causes chaos to the skin. It increases free-radical oxidative stress. Antioxidants in your diet is very important. Poor diet can inhibit sebum production and result in dry skin. It’s impossible to topically introduce elastin and collagen through the skin with today’s technology. They must be produced from within the skin.

Sufficient water intake is also important for proper nutrition and skincare. It hydrates the skin and flushes out toxins. Bioflavonoids, flavones and vitamin C and K strengthen capillary walls. Healthy blood vessels deliver necessary nutrients to the cells and protect against varicose veins, broken capillaries and cherry angiomas.

Proper exercise contributes to the skin’s health and beauty. It increases capillary density and improves the body’s ability to nutrient the skin. The circulatory system not only feeds the skin, but also provides its color and tone.

Smoking age the skin very fast. It reduces the oxygen in your blood and increases free-radical oxidative stress. It magnifies capillary elation and constriction and exacerbates capillary disorders, such as varicose veins. It destroys irreplaceable skin tissue and over time, creates dull skin and yellow patches.

Proper skincare requires a four stage treatment. Cleanse First, cleanse the skin with a gentle cleanser to remove impurities without drying or irritating the skin. Don’t use soap. Sucrose-based emollients and cleansers are preferred to ensure dermal hygiene. The objective is to cleanse the skin with minimum disruption to the skin’s acid mantle or pH balance. An initial introduction of nutrients during the process is desirable (such as vitamins A, C, E and others.)

Tone Toning completes the cleansing process by rinsing away leftover impurities. Skin pores are cleared by removing the excess oils. The skin is now receptive to the nutrients both included in the toner and those supplied later in the regimen.

Renew and refine The cleansed and toned skin is prepared for renewing and refining compounds, specifically designed to diminish the signs of aging, such as sagging skin and uneven tone and to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

Cleansing and toning have opened avenues into the skin which permit deep penetration of nourishing and firming compounds. Exfoliant agents applied at this stage loosen dead keratin cells so that they are more readily and evenly removed at the next cleansing. Skin brighteners are introduced to stimulate the skin to display an enhanced and vibrant tone.

Nourishment The final step is nourishing your skin. Deep moisturizers hydrate and diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Stabilizing oils restore a proper pH-balanced acid mantle. Protective lipid emollients will nurture this balance and minimize dehydration until the next cleansing.

Protecting your skin can take on many forms at this stage. Antioxidants defend against oxidative stress. Ultraviolet A(UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) absorbing ingredients mitigate solar radiation damage. Vitamins, flavonoids and phytonutrients nourish the skin to enhance its native defense mechanism. Emollients help maintain these protections well after the regimen is completed.

An evening nourisher differ from the morning formula as protection against UVA and UVB is unnecessary. Night formulas can retexture and restore the skin in ways unavailable in daytime environment.

In most regimens,a special formula is used for application around the eyes.The skin around the eyes is usually thinner and more prone to wrinkles and puffines. Eye shadow, eye liners, mascarades and the solvents required to remove these cosmetics all irritate the skin near th eye.Quality eye nourishers must include additional emollients and appearance revitalizers as well as firmers ( skin tighteners ) to reduce puffiness.

The key to health and beauty is a solid offense: it requires proper nutrition, exercise, habits and nutritional supplementation.

Health & Nutrition #53 by Nutrobalance

Health & Nutrition
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How to prepare your mind for retirement

When it comes to planning for retirement, there’s no shortage of advice from financial advisers and investment counselors.  But what about the psychological aspects of preparing for this major life change?
Even if older adults have looked forward to the leisure time they expect retirement to bring, leaving work entails closing a significant chapter of our adult lives.  In fact, negative health effects have been discovered which coincide with retirement, leading the authors of a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology to describe early retirement as a risk factor for death by any cause.   continue reading……

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby service expanded to support more Australian parents

Published: 2 December 2015
The Pregnancy, Birth and Baby service has been expanded to provide support to more Australian families, offering advice and guidance for parents with children up to 5 years of age.
The new service now includes support from maternal child health nurses, which will ensure clinically approved and relevant child health advice for parents and other family members. The service offers emotional support for parents and advice on children’s behaviour,  growth and developmental issues. They can also provide referrals to local health service providers.
continue reading.…..

Processed Meats, Red Meat and Cancer

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has issued a report that eating processed meats (bacon, sausage, bologna, hot dogs and so forth) raises risk for colon cancer, and that red meat (beef, pork, lamb and other meats from mammals) may cause cancers of the colon, prostate or pancreas (The Lancet Oncology, October 26, 2015).
continue reading ……

Jamie Oliver’s recipe of the Day – Asian crispy beef

click here!!

More Health & Nutrition from Nutrobalance

Effective Weight loss with a Super Beneficial Fruit

The Acai Berry has gained enormous popularity due to its significant health benefits,mainly weight loss and anti-oxidant properties, which makes your skin looking beautiful and energize your body and looking great! It’s the most beneficial fruit on earth so far.

The Acai berry comes from an Amazon palm, that grows in the rain forests of Brasil and tastes like a blend of berries and chocolate. Here are some amazing results from the studies that have been conducted on this humble berry: 1. It has more protein per pound than an egg. 2. It is almost the perfect food for amino acids and also has critical trace minerals, important for muscle regeneration. 3. It has a remarkable concentration of antioxidants, ten times as many antioxidants as red grapes. 4. It promotes cardiovascular and digestive health as a result of an amazing combination of healthy fats ( monounsaturated), phytosterols and dietary fiber. 5. It contains fatty acids, which are full of the goodness of monounsaturated oleic acid, which when combined with omega 3 fish oils, help all your hormones, insulin receptors and neurotransmitters to function more effective.  read it all…..

How to prevent Cancer

Most cancers grow very slowly, silently eating away at your body, before they manifest themselves. In spite of claims by the National Cancer Institute of successful treatment, after a cancer emerges, medicine is usually powerless.

Every time you are set at ease by statements of the cancer industry, remember the rapid death of Jaquline Kennedy Onassis of lymphoma and Michael Landon of pancreatic cancer. If there was an effective treatment anywhere in the world, don’t you think such enormously rich people would have bought it?  read it all….

Health & Nutrition #52 by Nutrobalance

Health & Nutrition
??NUTROBALANCE????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????   Edition #52

Why you won’t lose weight with exercise alone

Source: Cell Press
Summary:
Exercise by itself isn’t always enough to take off the weight. Now, evidence helps to explain why that is: our bodies adapt to higher activity levels, so that people don’t necessarily burn extra calories even if they exercise more.  read more….

The #1 Dietary Risk Factor is Not Eating Enough FruitInhibiting Platelet Aggregation with Berries

The Global Burden of Disease Study published in 2012, is the most comprehensive and systematic analysis of causes of death undertaken to date, involving nearly 500 researchers from more than 300 institutions in 50 countries, and starting with almost 100,000 data sources. What did the researchers find? Here in the U.S., they determined that our biggest killer was our diet. Number 1 on their list of the most important dietary risks was not eating enough fruit, responsible for an estimated 4.9 million deaths a year around the world.
continue reading……

High Cholesterol? Look to Your Plate, Not to the Prescription Pad

The most dramatic protection from heart disease involves maintaining a normal weight, cholesterol and blood pressure with your diet, so you do not require medications. Medications cannot compare.

Jamie Oliver’s Recipe of the day:
Pukka Yellow Curry
click here!

Health & Nutrition #51 by Nutrobalance

Health & Nutrition
??NUTROBALANCE????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????   Edition #51

Cells talk to their neighbors before making a move

Comparing notes boosts cells sensing accuracy

Date:
January 21, 2016
Source:
Emory Health Sciences
Summary:
To decide whether and where to move in the body, cells must read chemical signals in their environment. Individual cells do not act alone during this process, two new studies on mouse mammary tissue show. Instead, the cells make decisions collectively after exchanging information about the chemical messages they are receiving.   continue reading……

Increase Your Lifespan and Your Health with Nuts and Seeds

Written or medically reviewed by a board-certified physician. See About.com’s Medical Review Policy.
Updated December 14, 2015.
Did you know that eating nuts may help increase your lifespan, lower your risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer, help in weight loss and are a benefit in diabetes management? How is it possible that such a tiny food possesses such amazing properties? continue reading.….

How to Prevent Wear-and-Tear Injuries

You can help to prevent wear-and-tear injuries from any type of exercise by warming up, by stopping exercise when you feel pain and by not exercising intensely when your muscles feel heavy or sore.
continue reading.….

Jamie Oliver’s Recipe of the Day: Ricotta Fritters
click here

Lean for Life

Health & Nutrition

The amount of fat you carry around is not determined by your genes, but by what you do and what you eat. Recent scientific studies has shown that neither the number of fat cells nor their seize is genetically fixed, but body fat is dependent on lifestyle. Your body has no internal reference for a permanent level of fat, only for a habitual level. When you remain at a particular fat level for a year or more, your body develops all the adipore cells, capillaries, enzyme counts, peripheral nerves,hormone levels and connective tissues to support it. It becomes to recognize that level of fat as self and will defend it vigorously. That’s called your fat point.

You body constantly monitors its fat point with hormonal messages, such as glycerol, which warns the brain to take defensive action if even the smallest quantity of fat is suddenly used for fuel. That’s why usual forms of dieting can’t possibly work. By slowing metabolism, increasing fat storage and increasing appetite, your body’s fat point defenses will defeat you every time. Then how can you treat it? Easy! Reliable studies show that it takes years of overeating to grow fat. Body fat accumulate very slowly, an ounce or so per day, a pound every two or three weeks. In a year you are 20 lbs over. In 3 – 4 years you gain 60 lbs of flab. As your body shifts its habitual fat point up very slowly, you have to operate down the same way, very slowly. Otherwise your body will cannibalize your muscle, excite your fat storage enzyme and boost your appetite to ravenous. It’s important to reduce you total daily calories by no more than 20%. That’s 400 calories off a 2000 calorie diet. That’s 2800 calories or 0.8 lbs of fat per week. Because of increases in body efficiency, you will not lose 0.8 lbs of fat but only about half a pound. That’s the most you can lose without triggering body defences. Step 1.: Lose no more than half-a-pound of fat per week.

Get your body composition measured once a month, including fat weight, lean weight and body water. A newly available alternative to underwater weighing are the inexpensive skin-fold calipers for self-use at home. These calipers have a tension device on them to ensure you get the same pressure on the fat each time you measure, provided you take the measurements in exactly the same spot every time. Step 2.: Measure your body fat once a month.

The calories you cut from your diet have to be the right calories,importantly from all kinds of fat. Contrary to the calorie-counting strategies of much of the weight-loss industry,we know that fat calories are fatter. When excess carbohydrate or protein are eaten, the body makes complex metabolic adjustments to promote glycogen storage in muscle and increase the use of protein or sugar for fuel. It also has to use a lot of energy to convert these foods to body fat. Hence you have to eat a bigger excess of carbs and protein than you do of fat before they end up on your hips. But when excess fat is eaten, metabolism remains unchanged. Virtually all the excess is promptly layered onto all the wrong places.

Now you know why calorie counting doesn’t work. Numerous recent studies show that you put on much more body fat by eating fat than by eating the same number of calories from carbs or protein. Fat calories pack on more body fat than calories from any other food. Step 3.: Eat a low, low fat diet.

Look on the nutrition facts label when you buy food. Divide the total calories by the calories from fat. If the answer is less than 5, don’t buy the food. In a diet of 2000 calories, that’s a maximum of 400 fat calories. Step 4: Don’t eat foods that contains more than 20% fat calories.

Many dieters think that they are on healthy, low-fat nutrition, when in fact they are misleaded by false food labeling. Many apparently dry foods like cookies, baked goods, crackers & chips are higher in fat than ice-cream. Even low-fat milk is really high fat. How does low fat milk get away with its name? By jiggery-pokery lobbying power, the dairy industry got an exemption from the new labels. Nevertheless, an 8 oz glass of low-fat milk (2%) serves you a hefty one-third of its calories from fat.

Food industry lawyers have filed exemption claims for all kinds of foods. So if you want to avoid hidden fats, don’t trust anything on food labels except the Nutrition Facts panel. That has to be accurate if it’s legal. Especially beware of “reduced fat” products. Under the label law “reduced fat” means 25% less fat than the original product. So it goes with everything from reduced fat bologna, high can still be 60% fat, to “light” and “lite” variants of foods, that have to be one-third less fat than the original, but can still be 40 – 50% fat. Step 5 : Trust only the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels.

How to Exercise to Prevent Disease

Health & Nutrition

Before starting any exercise program it is necessary to get an approval from your doctor.Start easy,don’t take strenuous weight programs in health clubs,which takes time out of your working day. It takes too much of your time and becomes a burden.Exercise should be part of your daily routine to be successful. It is better to exercise in the morning for twenty minutes than three hours at a gym on the weekend. Use your own body weight and gravity,instead of machines, which provide ample resistance.

It’s best to progress gradual, there is no need to work to your limit. Don’t strain. Your body doesn’t need to be heated in order to improve. The rhythms of nature are your limits.

Your exercise program has three goals. First and most important: to maintain and increase your muscle mass. Secondly: To maintain your cardiovascular system. Thirdly: To maintain your flexibility.

The average person stiffens as he ages, increasing the risks of strains and tendon, ligament and skeletal disorders.

When you have your doctor’s approval, you can do a little aerobics to warm up the system and get your blood pumping. Twenty minutes at even mild intensity will have cardiovascular benefits. I recommends aerobics to begin with for everyone, before you pick up weights.

Then 5-10 minutes stretching after your muscles are warm is all you need to maintain flexibility lifelong.

Now you are prepared to exercise your muscles. Your program should include resistance exercise for shoulders, arms, chest, back, legs and abdominals. If you exercise three days per week, which is the starting level for consistent benefit, then do: Day 1 – Shoulders and arms Day 2 – Chest and back Day 3 – Legs and abdominals For 5 days per week, do one body part per day.

1) Never do more per exercise than one warm-up set of 12 – 15 easy repetitions, followed by one medium heavy set of 6 – 10 repetitions to exhaustion.

2) Work a body part only once per week. It takes about 48 hours for exercised muscles to breakdown worn cells, then 48 – 72 hours to build new, stronger replacements. The muscle remains at maximum strength for 5 – 8 days and then slowly declines. Exercising a muscle every 5 – 8 days is the optimum program for progress.

3) Don’t train with weights for more than one hour per workout. Your ability to gain lean mass,is limited by your hormone levels. After 45 minutes to one hour,hormone levels decline.You can force yourself to continue,but it doesn’t do your body any good.

4) Use a wide variety of exercises. Restricted resistance exercises, especially on machines, stress only certain fibers of a muscle in certain positions. You need to get all the fibers in all positions.

5) In one hour at two sets per exercise you can do 12 exercises easily. Don’t force yourself to do more. For weight exercises, see Bill Pearl’s book: The Encyclopedia on Weight Training.

6) Accentuate the return phase of the repetition, when the muscle in question is lengthening under load. In a barbell bicep curl for example, the eccentric contraction occurs when you are lowering the bar to the start position.

Restrain yourself all the way down, because it is the stress of lengthening under load that causes most of the strength and lean mass gains that you are seeking.

7)Take a protein drink daily within one hour after workout. Research shows that weight training puts subjects into protein deficit, despite the high protein level of the American diet.

8) Take daily antioxidant supplements. All exercise increases oxidation in the body.

9) Eat an alkaline diet. All exercise increases body acidity. See www.nutrobalance2.net/ the alkaline/acid food theory.

10) Sip a cold light carbohydrate drink (7-10%) throughout workouts. Drinks containing a little glucose, a little zylitol plus mostly glucose polymers are best. It will trickle carbohydrate continuously into your blood and spare your muscle glycogen, thereby maintaining your energy level.

It will also prevent dehydration. Even 3% dehydration can reduce strength by 10%. And it will help to keep your body temperature down, at the same time reducing the amount of blood diverted to the skin for cooling, thus leaving more to supply your muscles with oxygen and nutrients.

A final note about weight-bearing exercise: without the stimulus to your body to grow, nutritional supplements can’t work properly. Important new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows, that multi-vitamin and mineral supplementation had little effect in improving the health of old people, unless a resistance exercise was added, the health benefits were astonishing, ranging from over 100% improvement in strength and muscle size to big improvements in mobility and recreational activity.

It takes a bit of puff and stickability to grow a high-performance body. But once you’ve done it, a little bit of exercise necessary to maintain it is one of life’s greatest bargains. For more information about nutrition and weight management,visit: www.nutrobalance2.net

Health & Nutrition #50 by Nutrobalance

Health & Nutrition
??NUTROBALANCE????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????   Edition #50

The Evidence That Salt Raises Blood Pressure

Rather than reformulate their products with less sodium and save lives, food manufacturers have lobbied governments, refused to cooperate, encouraged misinformation campaigns, and tried to discredit the evidence.

Eat Chocolate and These Other Fatty Foods to Lose Lower Belly Fat

In the great quest to lose weight and look our absolute best most of us have taken the extreme route of trying to cut out as much fat from our diets as possible. Then we found out that it isn’t just eating fat that makes you fat, but a variety of factors that include unhealthy fats and over-consumption of processed foods. Not to mention the fact that totally eliminating fat from a diet is virtually impossible. read it all……

Jamie Oliver’s Recipe of the Day – The best fish baps
click here!

More Health & Nutrition from Nutrobalance

Lean for life
How to Exercise to prevent Disease.

What’s Wrong with Our Modern Diet

Health & Nutrition

You may think that regular exercise , a positive mental attitude ,while applying the golden rule: ‘everything in moderation’ the key is to good health. However, if you understand the damage caused by processed foods,it will motivate you to change your diet, if you are aiming for a high level of health and freedom of degenerative diseases.

Acid-alkaline balance. We should consume acid- and alkaline-forming foods in the right ratio’s. This is not hard to realize, when we know that, generally speaking,fruits and vegetables are alkaline-forming and the rest is mostly acid-forming, with a few exceptions.You can read more about acid- and alkaline-forming foods in my article, by visiting my website.

The Australian diet contains nearly one-and-a-half times more acid-forming food as it does alkaline-forming food. This ratio should be the other way around.

The problem with eating too much acid-forming food is that it builds up toxic waste products,and is the cause of most of our health problems. A diet that contains insufficient fruit and vegetables is missing vital antioxidants ,beta-carotene, vitamins and minerals. They are most important to prevent oxidation, caused by free radicals, which are the main cause of heart disease,stroke, cancer and other diseases.

Excess Protein Australians consume two to three times as much protein as they need,mainly in the form of red and white meat, cheese and eggs. The amount that is sufficient for our body is approximately 85-120 gr per day. The ‘pure’ protein from this and other foods meets the international standard of half a gram of protein daily per kilogram of body weight.

Our body cannot store excess protein and has to be broken down and eliminated, putting much strain on our liver and kidneys. Large quantities of animal protein are highly acid-forming, contains a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol and forms uric acid, which may cause gout.

Excess Fat A typical Australian diet contains 40% of total calories of fat, which is far too much and this amount of fat can be dangerous, as it is the major cause of heart disease, stroke, cancer and obesity.

Fat coats the intestines and blocks the assimilation of vital water-soluble minerals. Saturated fat stimulates the liver to produce large amounts of cholesterol. Together with rancid or oxidized fat they are doing the most damage to our health. Oxidation is caused by high temperature, exposure to air and light.

We only need small quantities of unsaturated fat, together with plenty of vitamin E in our diet to protect the fat against oxidation.

Refined Carbohydrates Refined sugar is highly acid forming, as it has lost alkaline minerals,which are needed to neutralize the carbonic acid formed during metabolism.

Because of the absence of vitamin B, which activate the enzymes to break sugar down to release energy it cannot be metabolised properly. The consumption of regular, large amounts of white, brown or raw sugar can cause high cholesterol,gout, hypoglycaemia, diabetes,obesity and depletion of minerals and vitamins.

The same is true for white flour (and its products: white bread,cakes,biscuits,pastries and pasta) and white rice. They have lost 50 – 75% of their vitamins and minerals and much of their fiber.

Lack of Fiber. According to research, the major cause of bowel cancer is lack of fiber in the diet. Fiber is required to create bulk in the digestive tract in order to stimulate peristalsis, the intestinal muscle action that pushes food matter along. If fiber is lacking, this stagnates partly digested food putrefies to produce ammonium and other nitrogenous compounds, which are highly toxic and may eventually lead to cancer.

Other symptoms of lack of fiber in the diet include appendicitis, diverticular disease of the bowel, varicose veins,piles(haemorrhoids)and hiatus hernia. It can also be the major cause of gallstones.

Fiber is found in vegetables, NOT in animal foods like red and white meat, cheese, yogurt, milk and eggs.

Stimulants A stimulant can be defined as an irritant, a mildly toxic substance,which the body cannot use and must be eliminated.

A stimulant works by producing an eliminative response and causes increased circulation in order to pass more blood through the liver to detoxify the stimulant. The increased circulation also sends more blood to the brain and muscles, which makes us feel more alert and more energetic. We get a temporary ‘lift’ – which is only temporary, because after the stimulation is over, the system slows down in order to recoup the energy that was squandered. This is a form of depression – which follows stimulation like night follows day.

The best known stimulants are: nicotine, caffeine, tannin, alcohol,salt, pepper, spices and pickles.

Smoking is one of the most destructive addictions and the harmful effects are widely known.

Coffee constrict the heart and arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease and various cancers and may make skin disease worse. High intake during pregnancy has been linked to deformed births and an increase risk of miscarriage.

The effects on the mind includes anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, headache and racing of the heart. Drinking seven to eight cups per day has been reported to trigger terrifying panic attacks.

Alcohol. Many studies have been conducted on the health effects of alcohol. The fact is that alcohol is a toxic substance and damage will result,unless the person is extremely healthy or the consumption is very low.

The risk of colon cancer is doubled by just 2 drinks per day. Brain damage can result from just three standard drinks per day. During pregnancy, only four drinks per day can cause the baby to be permanently and severely handicapped. Heavy drinking can cause damage to the liver, called cirhsis, which may eventually be fatal.

If the alcohol is in the form of red wine,it contains a high level of antioxidants, and resveratrol, which reduces the risk of heart disease,stroke and possibly cancer as well. However, the same effects can be obtained by drinking dark grape juice without the possible risks on our health!

To conclude this overview on our modern diet, rest me to suggest that we need a diet that is essentially unprocessed,low in fat, high in fiber, free of salt, caffeine, etc, that contains lots of fresh vegetables and fruits.

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Health & Nutrition #49 by Nutrobalance

Health & Nutrition
??NUTROBALANCE????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????   Edition #49

Hot weather risks and staying cool

We live in a sun burnt country where hot days and heatwaves can stress our bodies. Here’s how to stay cool and hydrated.
Sunlight
Staying out of the sun can help you to keep cool.
Heatwaves are a cause of weather-related deaths in Australia and are are also considered the most underrated of natural disasters in our country.
There were almost 1,000 deaths during the severe heatwaves in southeastern Australia in 2009 when Melbourne sweltered through three consecutive days at or above 43 °C in late January.
This was almost 400 more (mostly among people aged 75 or older) than the estimated average for that time of year.
continue reading…..

Eat, move, and live better.

Change your body, and your life, with personal advice from the world’s best nutrition coaches and fitness experts.
click here for more information.

Eating More to Weigh Less

Energy density explains how a study can show participants
lose an average of 17… continue reading….

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Fit with Vitamins
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What Your Doctor doesn’t Know

What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know

Health & Nutrition

“Every chronic degenerative disease , like coronary artery disease, cancer, strokes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s dementia and macular degeneration is the direct result of what we call the “dark site” of oxygen – oxidative stress, in fact, oxidative stress is the leading theory behind the aging process itself. This generation is under greater attack from the pollutants in our air, food and water than any other previous generation.

Our stress-filled lifestyle also takes its toll on our health. It is critical that we understand the best defense against developing any of these degenerative diseases and premature aging is the body’s natural defense system, not the drugs I can prescribe.” Dr. Ray Strand, M.D. When Dr. Strand’s wife, Liz, began to feel tired, it was easy enough to chalk it up to the demands of being a wife and a mother of three children under age four. By the couple’s tenth anniversary, however, Liz was experiencing constant total body pain, overwhelming fatigue, debilitating allergies and recurrent sinus and lung infections. Even with drugs to treat every symptom, Liz was unable to keep up with basic household chores or care for the horses she had once so enjoyed riding. When a friend told Liz and Ray about a course of nutritional supplements that had dramatically improve her husband’s health, a desperate Ray could only surrender: “Honey,you can try anything you want. We doctors certainly are not doing any good” Within months, the sparkle returned to Liz’s eyes.She was out riding horses again and seemed to have completely renewed strength and joy.

How just a few nutritional supplements could cause such a dramatic improvement was a mystery to DR. Strand. He had always dismissed vitamin supplementation as simple the ingredients for “expensive urine.” This experience with his wife proved to be the launching pad for a seven-year quest to research for himself the facts behind nutritional medicine. What Dr. Strand discovered made a revolutionary impact on his practice. And based on his extraordinary findings,whether your desire is to protect your good health or reclaim it, you can now learn what to do to improve your own health.

No other nation on the face of the earth has produced the abundance of food that America has over the past half century. But when you look at the quality of our food from a health perspective, there are definite concerns. The processes used to produce and preserve our foods today have had a serious effect on the quality of this enormous food supply. Rex Beach wrote in his report to the U.S. Senate: “Do you know that most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies, which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our food comes,are brought into proper mineral balance? The alarming fact is that foods- fruits, vegetables and grains- now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain minerals, are starving us no matter how much we eat.”

Beach made this statement in 1936 and in the almost seventy years since Beach’s plea to the Senate, little has been done to improve the nation’s depleted soil;in fact,the situation today is much worse than ever before in history. It is a fact that our food is significantly deficient in vital nutrients, even at the time we purchase them; however, the way we prepare our foods is perhaps even more critical. Overcooking, delay in preparing fresh foods and freezing foods are some of the reasons our food lose nutritional value. We began with depleted nutrients in our soils, which NPK fertilizers made worse. Then came the hybrid grains that produced nutrient-depleted foods.

Modern processing and food storage caused further depletion of the quality of our foods. We then take these foods home and continue to create further depletion because of storage and preparation. These all make good solid arguments as to why we should be supplementing our diets with high quality nutritional supplements. However, RDA levels (recommended daily allowances) have absolutely nothing to do with chronic degenerative diseases. This one simple fact is the cause of more confusion about the health benefits of nutritional supplements than any other fact. As you search the medical literature about oxidative stress and the amount of nutrients needed to prevent it, the level of nutritional supplementation is significantly greater than RDA levels. However, you will not get the optimal results when you take low-quality supplements. It is critical that you purchase high-quality supplements that are complete and balanced. For more information about nutritional supplementation, visit: www.nutrobalance.com.

Ray D. Strand, M.D.,graduated from the university of Colorado Medical School and finished his post-graduate training at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California. He has been involved in an active private family practice for the past thirty years. He has focused his practice on nutritional medicine over the past seven years, while lecturing internationally on the subject across the United States, Canada, Australia, England, the Netherlands and New Zealand.Dr. Strand lives on a horse ranch in South Dakota with his lovely wife, Elizabeth. They have three grown children.