Saturday, April 4, 2009

Rocket Fuel for your Brain!!

Do you find yourself forgetting where you left your car keys… or just feel like your brain is in a fog sometimes?

Contrary to popular belief, forgetfulness is not just a normal part of growing older. As you age, your brain loses critical nutrients that it needs to fire on all cylinders.
If your mental spark plugs aren’t firing like they used to, don’t worry. I’ll show you how to get your brain’s engine back to running as smooth as a Rolls Royce. You just need to know what’s missing and how to get it.
Your brain uses chemicals called neurotransmitters to transmit messages in the brain. There are millions of these messages happening every second. Neurotransmitters are conductors of these messages, allowing them to fire from one part of your brain to another.
One important neurotransmitter is acetylcholine (ACh). Your body uses ACh to help regulate your heart, breathing, and sleep. Your body even uses it to control your muscles and keep you fired up for the bedroom.
Here’s the thing… your brain needs you to supply certain nutrients to make neurotransmitters.
But there’s a key nutrient it uses to make ACh that is probably missing from your diet. It’s called choline, and if you don’t get enough, you’re headed for trouble.
Choline is a necessary nutrient for overall brain health and functioning and it is important to avoid nutritional deficiencies to keep your brain sharp and healthy.1

When you don’t give the body enough choline, the brain is forced to get it from other parts of your brain. It starts eating itself alive to get what it needs for vital functions like heart and lung regulation.
I’ll show you ways to get the choline your brain needs in a second, but first let me introduce you to choline’s partner – DMAE.
DMAE (Dimethylaminoethanol) works with choline to create ACh. In fact, it does such a good job, the FDA almost approved it as a drug. The only reason it didn’t happen is that the manufacturer didn’t want to pay the expenses to get it classified as one.
But it is the main ingredient in a commonly prescribed drug in Europe. Called Centrophenoxine, it has been shown to boost cognitive functions.2

Unlike Ritalin® and other brain substances, proper doses of DMAE are a safe and side-effect-free solution to support brain health and reduce age-related mental decline and mood/behavioral problems.3
To get the nutrition your brain needs to stay sharp and clear, you may need to combine food and supplementation. Here’s how to get your ACh cranking:
Choline – You need at least 425 mg a day as a woman, 550 mg if you’re a man. The richest food sources of choline are (in mg per 100 g of food):
Whole cooked eggs – 272. Make sure you get free-range eggs without antibiotics or hormones. They’ll help fuel your muscles as well as give you much-needed choline.
Raw egg yolks – 682. Go ahead and crack open a couple eggs into your protein shake. It’s only an urban legend that there’s danger in eating them raw.
Chicken liver – 290. Though some people get turned off by organ meats, they’re a potent source of high-powered nutrition. And it’s an old wives tale that they store toxins – they don’t.
Turkey liver – 220. Another great source of nutrition. Just like any liver, it also provides vitamin A, CoQ10 and iron.
Pork – 130. Just like beef, you want to eat organic, grass-fed animals only for the proper balance of fats and zero hormones and antibiotics.
If you’re older, you may need more – as much as 1500 mg a day. That may require supplementation. If you take a supplement, be sure it’s in the form of choline citrate. To try my brain-boosting formula that combines choline and DMAE, go here now.
DMAE – You need at least 35 mg of DMAE a day. Fish is a good food source, especially sardines and anchovies.
So stop starving your brain of these critical nutrients. They’re easy to replace and will help to promote a healthy mind into your golden years.

Grapefruits and Blood Clots!!

Eating too much grapefruit can increase the risk of blood clots from the contraceptive pill, it has been revealed.

Doctors described the unusual case of a woman who nearly lost a leg after undertaking.

Doctors writing in The Lancet medical journal described the unusual case of a woman who nearly lost a leg after trying a grapefruit diet.

The 42-year-old woman - who arrived at hospital complaining of shortness of breath, difficulty walking and light-headedness - underwent an ultrasound scan which revealed a deep vein thrombosis, or blood clot, extending from hip to calf.

The previous day she felt pain shooting down her left leg, which later turned purple. Three days earlier the woman, who was slightly overweight, had embarked on an aggressive diet which involved a 225 gram helping of grapefruit every morning.

Previously, she had only rarely eaten grapefruit.

Her condition was so bad she was in danger of losing her leg, said four doctors from Providence St Peter Hospital in Washington, US.

In the end she was successfully treated with a clot-dissolving drug and by widening a large vein in her hip.

The woman had a number of unlucky factors that increased her chances of suffering a blood clot, said the doctors. She had a narrowed vein with damaged inner walls, a genetic clotting mutation called Factor V Leiden, and in addition was taking the contraceptive Pill.

Oestrogen in the Pill slightly raises the risk of clotting - and it was this, combined with the effect of grapefruit, which appeared to have tipped the balance. The fruit's juice blocked a key enzyme that normally breaks down ethinylestradiol, the form of oestrogen in the contraceptive.

Regular grapefruit consumption would also have had an accumulative effect, making the hazard worse, said the doctors.

They wrote: "Our patient had a constellation of potential risk factors for venous thrombosis; a heightened hypercoagulable (clotting) state from increased ehtinylestradiol serum concentration due to her three days of grapefruit for breakfast may well have tipped the balance."