by Warren Matthews of Xtend-Life

Over the last seven years I have often been asked to comment on how USANA’s products compare with ours, particularly our Total Balance. Over that period I have given some brief comparisons and have always intended to follow this up with a comprehensive review.

I have let it ‘slide’ over the last few months as USANA have been having more than their fair share of problems as a result of a report by the Fraud Discovery Institute.

By way of Natural Holistic Health Blog

Along with the advancement of technology, we can’t help but to hear with the pollution of modernization including that of air, water, soil, food and sound. All these factors have inevitably weakened our immunity and caused us to loss the enzymes in our body. There are more than 3,000 enzymes in our body to keep us in good health and our body constantly produces and replenishes these enzymes. Unfortunately, there are many other factors that can deplete our body of these precious enzymes, other than those contributed by environmental pollution:

• The progressive increase of age
• Imbalanced diet and unhealthy living habits
• Excessive intake of processed and over-cooked food
• Prolonged stress
• Long term emotional instability and pressure
• Flu and fever
• Over consumption of coffee, liquor and other stumulative beverages
• Overweight and obesity

By way of Live Life… Organics & Your Health.

I know of a friend who travels with sea salt all the time. Whenever he has a sore throat or throat infection, he’ll gargle a sea salt mixture every hour and that helps to promote relieve and swift recovery. Since he’s a fan of Callaway golf, he golfs around the world with his group of high society friends who would celebrate over a gourmet dinner after a good game. From my research, I gather that sea salt is highly recommended by health experts to restore, maintain and build optimum health.

These days, gourmet chefs choose to enhance the flavour of whole foods and it is used commonly in fine cuisines. Health experts agree that the use of sea salt helps to detoxify the body of radiatoin, rejuvenate and de-stress the body. Ordinary white salt has 99.9% sodium chloride and no trace minerals. Your body needs mineral salts to produce electrolytes which are the sparks of life, for nerves and muscle function and healthy cells. Sea salt in our diet is required to build healthy immune function, regulate body fluids and adrenal health. Sea salt makes an effective nasal wash and gargle for cold, allergies and sinus.

By way of Live Life… Organics & Your Health.

I have now been a practising nutritionist and herbalist for four years. As you’d expect I’ve learnt a lot over that time and have grown and developed as a practitioner.

While I still have the same fundamental philosophy about health, my approach to patients and their health has changed considerably…

Most naturopaths start out with a gung-ho approach to health, only for this to be watered down as they come into contact with the realities of people’s lives. However, I was the opposite and started with an overly timid approach to health. While some practitioners could be accused of demanding too radical a change from their clients, I didn’t ask enough.

I’ve always been aware that patients have busy lives. Changing your diet, lifestyle and health, in the context of today’s world, can be a big ask. In the western world our diets are getting worse and worse, and while our lives just seem to get busier, we’re moving less.

Being overly conscious of people’s schedules, I’d ask clients to make small, incremental changes. Stuff that would be easy for them to manage in the context of their lives. Sounds reasonable? However, what I’d find is clients would get frustrated. While I was worried about over-loading them, clients didn’t feel like they were getting anywhere and sometimes gave up.

I’m still conscious of the limitations to change that are imposed by people’s lives, but I’m now a much more pushy practitioner. I’ve found you can guide people through quite big changes to their health, as long as you give them simple and practical solutions for doing so.

I’ve learnt from clients, which has led me to alter my strategies for change and these are the lessons I’ve learnt:

• Set out blocks of time to focus on your health — it’s hard to constantly be thinking about your diet and exercise regimes, so make a commitment to a block of time. This is your time to work on improving your health. I’ve found six weeks a good timeframe, as it’s not too daunting, but you can still achieve measurable change.
• Set some goals for what you want to achieve in 6 weeks — have a think about how you feel now and how you want to feel in six weeks. Be clear about what you want to achieve and be realistic. If you’re not doing any exercise, then in four weeks you’re not going to be running marathons, however you might be able to walk to the shops without getting out of breath — an excellent achievement.
• Concentrate on one aspect of your health for the first two weeks — it’s hard to do everything at once, so pick one particular aspect of your health you want to improve and work on that. I frequently set clients one small nutritional goal in the first two weeks, but place my focus on getting people moving and starting to build a regular exercise habit. It’s the quickest way to start feeling better.
• Don’t give up — nobodies diet is perfect. We all have good days and bad days. You’re going to get some things right, but at times you’re also going to stuff up. if things don’t go to plan, you haven’t blown it and don’t give up. Just take a few moments to re-focus and get back on track.
• Keep your changes small and practical — instead of setting a goal of "eating healthily", work out two or three things you could do which would improve your diet. It might be eating breakfast every day, aiming for three different vegetables in the evening, having a healthy snack in the afternoon, or limiting yourself to soft drinks on the weekend. Define your changes and make them do-able.
• Plan, plan, plan — I can’t emphasise the importance of this. Many a good intention has been let down by a lack of planning. Schedule your exercise in your diary. Make a shopping list and buy your groceries on the weekend, to ensure you have the good food you need easily available.
• Improving your health is one of the most important things you can do in your life. Don’t put it off until the future when you have more money, more time or work gets easier. Act now and you’ll have more energy, vitality and also the satisfaction of knowing you’ve improved your health.

By way of Passion for Health

For those of us who have elderly parents living on their own, it can worry us at times if they are doing alright. I say this because my parents in law live 3 hours away from us and my DH calls them everyday to ensure that they are well. Dad just turned 90 and mom is in her 60s, an ex-stroke patient. Though they have a helper at home, it is not easy to manage and handle two old folks who have dementia and a host of physical ailments.

If only we have Direct Alert here, an Emergency Response System that can connect our parents to someone in seconds when there is an emergency – anytime, any day. This is a fabulous home device consisting of a control panel and personal help button. It can even be worn as a medical alert bracelet when in the shower as it is water resistant of up to 3 feet. In fact, it should be worn at all times in the house. Besides, it serves as a medication reminder for seniors who may have difficulties remembering, like my parents in law. This personal 911 call has a wireless range of 150 feet from the main unit and this high quality device is currently available in Canada nationwide.

To me, Direct Alert is like having a guardian watching over you 24/7 except that you can still enjoy the freedom of independence. Even if you aren’t able to answer the call after pressing the help button, the emergency response team will send help to you immediately. With a one time equipment fee of $299.95 plus a monthly fee of $17.95, you can have the peace of knowing that your parents or dependents are in good hands. For those who prefer to try it out for a short time, you can rent it at $39.95 with a minimum 3 months usage. You can order it online or call 1-877-4-911-SOS.

By way of Live Life… Organics & Your Health.

We live in a fast paced life and it is inevitable that we may find it hard to prepare some healthy meals. I’m on of them.

Personally, to start the day, I would want nothing but a fresh fruit salad. Fruits contain more vitamins than vegetables and they are packed with nutrients that can givce you energy for the day.

Here is a simple Tropical Fruit Salad with Lime taken from http://www.chefs.com, a wonderful resource site to find your recipe – from healthy salads to a healthy recipe for the heart…etc.

Ingredients

2 oz. guava halves

1/3 cup unsweetened pineapple chunks

1/2 lb. mango slices

2 Tbsps. flaked coconut

2 tsps. lime juice

2 tsps. low calorie mayonnaise

Instructions
Combine first 4 ingredients in a serving bowl. Combine lime juice and mayonnaise in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Pour over fruit and toss.
Chill before serving.

Source: Live Life… Organics & Your Health.

by Warren Matthews of Xtend-Life

Some interesting information has just been released about Tocotrienols in the latest Journal of Nutrition.

Tocotrienols (a form of Vitamin E) are a natural full spectrum carotene complex manufactured from palm oil.

They complement the more common form of Vitamin E (tocopherols) although it is much more potent.

Source: Natural Holistic Health Blog

Adrenalin is one of the most powerful hormones known to us. It is released when we are stressed or in danger, and it constricts blood vessels in the skin while increasing heart activity and dilating blood vessels in the muscles.

Abnormal low blood pressure can result from the underactivity of the adrenal glands and in all cases of low blood pressure, it indicates that an extra amount of protein is indictated. Protein stimulation seems to quicken the body and will raise the blood pressure.

One of the ways to keep your blood pressure in check is by using a blood pressure monitors. Since there are so many kinds in the marketplace, you should make your comparisons among the different brands and types available. At shopping.com, there are more than 2,000 blood pressure related equipment from Omron wrist blood pressure monitor to a Talking blood pressure monitor. This is definitely a great site to compare prices and features between brands and competitors before making any purchase.

Source: Live Life… Organics & Your Health.

by Warren Matthews of Xtend-Life

The UK Food Standards Agency warns that Salmonella has been found in some batches of shark cartilage capsules originating from the US.

The capsules which are popular for joint health have been recalled from the US distribution firm after they said is discovered the ‘issue’ during routine testing of the product.

Wow…salmonella is bad stuff! This is shocking and there is NO excuse for it.

Source: Natural Holistic Health Blog