The Body’s Demand for Magnesium

Magnesium is an essential mineral used in over 300 biochemical processes in your body. Magnesium can improve your vitality and wellbeing, help you function well in times of stress and support healthy moods. It also relaxes your muscles and plays a key role in energy production. This important mineral also helps your heart by supporting healthy blood pressure and blood sugar levels, as well as maintaining a steady heartbeat.

Demands of Modern Lifestyles

The reality is that many Australians  are magnesium deficient. Common conditions such as stress, cardiovascular disease and diabetes increase the body’s demand for magnesium. This increased requirement is often not met due to our reduced dietary intake of magnesium rich foods. Hundreds of years ago, our foods were naturally rich in magnesium and deficiency in this mineral was rare. However, with our modern day lifestyles increasing the need for food processing and the refinement of grains, these once magnesium abundant foods are now containing significantly less magnesium. For example, the refined wheat flour often eaten today contains only 16% of the magnesium found in whole wheat grain.

Minimise consumption of refined and processed foods,
sugar, tea, coffee, carbonated drinks and alcohol, as they all
deplete your magnesium stores.

Need a Magnesium Boost?

A surprising number of people have low magnesium levels and early detection may assist in the prevention and improved management of certain health conditions. Magnesium deficiency may be associated with:

• Chronic fatigue.
• High blood pressure.• Stress, anxiety, and nervousness.
• Insomnia.
• Muscle tension, cramping and spasms.
• Tension headaches and migraines.
• Tiredness, lethargy and fatigue
• Premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
• Diabetes.
• Asthma.
• Fibromyalgia.

Stop the Vicious Stress Cycle

In the 21st century we are all too familiar with stress, be it related to work, relationships, finances or traffic jams. Many of us are stressed on a daily basis which means our body’s demand for magnesium is increased. Stress hormones are increasingly released when magnesium levels are low. When you are stressed, your body excretes more magnesium, at a time when you need it the most. This may lead you to feel uptight, anxious and even more stressed, thus perpetuating the cycle of ongoing stress and magnesium depletion. Magnesium combined with specific B vitamins can help rapidly reduce these negative effects of stress and help break the stress cycle.

The Heart Loves Magnesium

Magnesium can be of great benefit in supporting cardiovascular health. Low magnesium levels can place stress on the cardiovascular system, leading to hypertension and arrhythmia’s. Magnesium  supplementation has been shown to decrease both systolic and diastolic blood pressure and support healthy heart function.

Cramps and Restless Legs

Muscular cramps and tension are commonly associated with magnesium deficiency. Magnesium has long being recognised for its important therapeutic applications in enhancing muscle relaxation and relieving spasms.

Munch on Magnesium Foods

Magnesium is found in a wide range of foods. Include the following fresh, nutrient-rich foods in your diet each day:

• Green leafy vegetables; spinach, kale and silver beet.

• Nuts and seeds; raw almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

• Whole grains; rye, quinoa, oats, wheat and buckwheat.

If you’re dusting off your sneakers for the first time in years, it can feel like an eternity before those stubborn layers of fat start to melt away. But if slow progress is doing a number on your patience, take heart:

While those first steps may only deliver small changes on the scale, rest assured that there are big changes going on in your body from the moment you start to break a sweat.

In fact, you may be surprised to learn just how much immediate gratification you glean from even your earliest workouts—in the form of alterations that show up in your DNA after your very first hour at the gym.

Skinny Jeans Start With “Skinny” Genes

As part of a new study published in March 2012, scientists at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute took muscle biopsies from eight healthy men with sedentary lifestyles, both before and after an hour of exercise. The goal was to assess the effect that strenuous activity might have on the genetic makeup of your body’s cells—and, as it turns out, the impact is not only significant, but fast, too.

DNA methylation is a biochemical process that influences gene expression, playing a critical role in cellular development and differentiation. In this case, the researchers discovered that a number of previously methylated genes involved in fat burning lost their methyl group following exercise—a change that triggered metabolic adaptations in the subjects’ muscle tissue.

One of these exercise-related adaptations is the enhanced ability to make proteins—including proteins that can help your body burn off its fat stores.

What Spin Class and Coffee Have In Common

The study authors believe that calcium is the cause of these practically instantaneous genetic modifications, as your muscles produce calcium during exercise. And, according to this study, caffeine exposure—which, like exercise, has a similar calcium-boosting effect on your muscles—also resulted in the DNA methylation that results in the production of fat-burning proteins.

Unfortunately, however, you can’t sip your way to a smaller jean size—caffeine intoxication would set in well before you reached the levels necessary to set your genes into fat-burning mode. Still, results suggest that these silent gene-activating DNA changes are some of the earliest and most critical events in your mission to get fit and burn fat.

Looking at it this way, your gym membership really is the gift that keeps on giving, with your body registering a payoff before you even hit the showers. And with every workout programming slimming signals into your genes on the most basic level, it’s only a matter of time before the numbers on your bathroom scale start to reflect the change.

We know how difficult losing weight can be, and if your best efforts at a healthy diet and regular exercise can’t seem to move those numbers on the scale, there could be more than calories at play in your war against fat.

In fact, research has linked a whole host of environmental toxins (including phthalates, parabens, PCBs and BPA) to disrupted metabolism and fat cell production—with results indicating that these toxins can influence weight gain enough to have earned the moniker “obesogens,” a term that refers to environmental estrogens linked to obesity. To make matters worse, you likely encounter one or all of these fat-promoting chemicals daily, whether you realize it or not.

Take phthalates and parabens, for example. While they only linger in your body for a short time after exposure, they can still wreak havoc on your system—and you’ll find them on the ingredient lists of a number of everyday products, from lotion, soap and makeup to medications and food preservatives.

Chemicals and Weight

This daily deluge of chemicals can sabotage your body’s fat-burning mechanisms by activating receptors involved in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, reducing leptin levels and insulin sensitivity and contributing to low testosterone levels. This reduction in leptin spells trouble for your weight loss efforts, since balanced levels of the hormone leptin help control appetite and weight.

Bisphenol A (BPA), meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most ubiquitous endocrine disruptors, as it leaches into your food and drinks from common, everyday packaging—such as can linings, plastic bottles and other containers. So it’s no surprise that you’ll find detectable levels of BPA in the majority of our bodies—whether it’s in urine, blood, breast milk, or even amniotic and placental tissues.

Unfortunately, BPA also spells trouble for your waistline. Researchers recently linked elevated BPA levels to high body mass index and abdominal fat in humans.  Other research shows that even low doses of BPA can disrupt your body’s blood sugar metabolism and insulin sufficiency.

As if that wasn’t enough there are even more “fattening” chemicals contaminating the food supply. Organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—two pollutants lingering in the water and soil despite no longer being in wide use—are also connected to weight gain, with conventional produce and farm-raised salmon being common sources of exposure. Long-term studies have determined that exposure to these so-called persistent organic pollutants can lead to weight gain, as well as impact cholesterol and blood sugar metabolism—all being linked to heart health

Lose The Toxins, Lose The Weight

Losing weight can go a long way in minimizing these risks. Ironically, shedding pounds often has the unintended consequence of mobilizing stored toxins, which can remain trapped in fatty tissue for years. That’s another reason why any effort to slim down requires a tandem plan to keep toxic overload at bay.

The first and most obvious step is to minimize your contact with chemical toxins. While it’s impossible to avoid these endocrine-disrupting compounds completely, you can put a significant dent in your exposure to these chemicals—and help your body to better manage its toxic burden in the process—by switching to non-toxic hygiene products and eating a healthy diet packed with clean, organic foods.

To deal with those toxins you can’t avoid—and to help your body eliminate any unwanted byproducts released during the fat-burning process—gentle, ongoing detoxification support is your best bet.

 

Cruciferous vegetables — broccoli, cabbage, leafy greens, cauliflower — help prevent breast and prostate cancer, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University’s Ingram Center showed a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables — specifically the indoles they contain — protects and improves breast cellular health.

“Indoles are organic compounds that have a positive impact on cellular health. One in particular, diindolylmethane has been shown to support the immune system and help keep hormones in balance, particularly estrogen,” the researchers said. “In the body, estrogen gets broken down into a variety of metabolites, some of which promote healthy cells. Unfortunately, others can cause problems. Diindolylmethane has been shown to help the body produce beneficial estrogen metabolites with anti-oxidative effects.”

Certain estrogen metabolites, which have been associated with obesity, chemical exposure and other causes, have been shown to derail cellular healthy, but diindolylmethane has proven to increase the good kind of hormone metabolites and decrease the kind that can challenge health, the study said.

Breast, prostate and other areas of hormone-related cellular health depend on this delicate balance, the study said.

Stress is now a common fixture in our hectic, busy lives. Small amounts of stress that are easily resolved can be beneficial in motivating and helping us achieve our goals. Although chronic or long-term stress affects each of us differently, it ultimately affects the whole body in a negative way and may contribute to many health complaints.

Is your health being affected by stress?

Do you often feel anxious, worried, depressed, irritable, exhausted, overloaded or forgetful?

Do you suffer from stiff or sore muscles or joints, tension headaches, high blood pressure, frequent colds or the flu?

Or do you have irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, an increase or loss of appetite, or worsening of an existing illness or condition?

If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, your body may be overburdened by stress.

Fight or Flight: Your Response to Stress

Thousands of years ago, we may have been faced with the threat of a sabre tooth tiger and our immediate response to this was one of two reactions: to attack or run away. This is now known as the fight or flight response. Once this stress response is triggered, chemical messengers called adrenaline, cortisol and noradrenaline are produced by the adrenal glands and brain. These messengers increase blood flow to the essential organs such as the heart, lungs, brain and muscles to help us fight or run away. Digestive function slows down as this is less important in survival mode. Cortisol also increases the amount of sugar released into the blood to provide energy for our muscles to attack or run. In the past, stress was short-lived and once the stress was over, these chemical messengers shortly returned to normal.

Where’s the Off Switch?

Over time our bodies have not changed this biological response to stress. Although the sabre tooth tigers are long gone, the physical threat to our lives and limbs has been replaced with the modern day stress of long work hours, financial worries, traffic jams and family issues.

So what happens if this stress response does not turn off because of our non-stop busy lifestyles?
Ongoing stress that does not resolve may result in chronic stress, which can be the underlying cause of many health conditions.

Chronic stress can impact body systems such as the cardiovascular system by contributing to high blood pressure. It can also take its toll on your nervous system leading to exhaustion, headaches and insomnia. Your digestive and immune systems can also be weakened by stress, making you more susceptible to irritable bowel syndrome, frequent colds and the flu.

Herbs and Nutrients for De-stressing

Go from ‘dis-stressed’ to ‘de-stressed’ with the help of herbs and nutrients:

• Rhodiola and withania are herbs which enhance the body’s response to stress. Rhodiola has been shown to reduce both physical and mental fatigue during times of stress.
• The herbs, passionflower, zizyphus and magnolia have been traditionally used for reducing stress, anxiety and nervous tension.
• St John’s wort is well-known for supporting healthy mood and protecting against the effects of stress.
• Magnesium, glutamine and B vitamins are used in abundance during times of stress, when the body’s requirement for these key nutrients is increased. Magnesium assists in muscle relaxation and calms the nervous system.

5 Top Stress Busting Tips:

Lessen your stress load by practising the following stress busting strategies:

1. Rest and Relaxation: Relaxation techniques such as tai chi, yoga, and meditation can help you to control stress and improve physical and mental well-being.
2. Think Positive: A good attitude and positive outlook is fundamental for de-stressing. Thinking positively will help you get through a stressful period with greater enthusiasm and drive.
3. Exercise: Exercise is a brilliant form of stress relief, as it conditions the body and mind, and encourages the release of endorphins, which help you feel good.
4. Indulge Yourself: Enjoy a well-deserved massage or some other blissful treatment – perhaps soak in a bath with relaxing aromatherapy oils such as lavender, ylang ylang, chamomile
or geranium.
5. Eat Healthy Foods: For a healthy mind and body, eat a diet abundant in fresh, brightly coloured fruits and vegetables. Consume protein with meals and snacks, and enjoy foods
high in essential fatty acids such as oily fish, nuts and seeds. Minimise your intake of caffeine, energy drinks, sugar, alcohol and processed foods as these will contribute to fatigue in the
long-term.

Stress Less for Good Health and Wellness

Although the stress of modern life is inescapable, it is important to remember that we can easily manage our response to stress with the help of dietary and lifestyle changes and some key
natural medicines. Supporting a healthy stress response will allow you to feel more energised, resilient and ready to tackle life, so you can maintain the state of health and wellness that
you deserve