DNA Biopharm

Friday, 14 June 2013

ADVICE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE - Balance

Changes in Life-styles for Optimal Health

Eat whole, real, fresh, organic, unprocessed food. If it comes in a box, a package, or a can, avoid it.

Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables full of colorful phytonutrients. That means eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
Eat foods with plenty of fibre. Fibre is essential for balancing blood sugar and maintaining a healthy bowel.
Eat foods containing omega-3 fats. Eat protein at every meal. Try cold-water river fish like salmon, sardines; eat omega-3 eggs; and eat plenty of nuts like almonds, macadamias, and walnuts.
Stop eating flour and sugar products, especially high-fructose corn syrup.
Stop eating all processed, junk, and packaged foods.
Stop eating trans fats and hydrogenated fats.

Slow the rate of sugar uptake by the gut by balancing your meals (low glycemic load) with healthy protein (nuts, seeds, beans, small wild fish, organic chicken), healthy carbs (vegetables, fruit, beans, whole grains), and healthy fats (olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocados, fish oil).
Eat smaller, more frequent meals.
Move your body. Exercise improves your cells’ ability to work better, respond to insulin better, and burn sugar faster.
Make your cells smarter by increasing your intake of specific nutrients, such as those found in Glucofast Capsules.

Take mitochondria-protective and energy- boosting nutrients such as acetyl-L-carnitine, alpha lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, n-acetyl-cysteine, NA DH, D-ribose, resveratrol, and magnesium aspartate

Clear mind-robbing molecules like caffeine, alcohol, and refined sugars from your diet and eat regularly to avoid the short-term stress of starvation on your body.

Take a multivitamin and nutrients—such as vitamin C, the B complex vitamins (including B6 and B5, or pantothenic acid), zinc, and, most important, magnesium, the relaxation mineral—to help balance the stress response.

Use adaptogenic herbs (herbs that help you adapt and stay in balance in response to stress) such as Rhodiola rosea, Siberian ginseng, Cordyceps, and Ashwaganda.

Take a hot bath or a sauna to help your body deeply relax and turn on the relaxation response.

Examine your beliefs, attitudes, and responses to common situations and consider reforming your point of view to reduce stress.

Consciously build your network of friends, family, and community. Other people are your most powerful allies in achieving long-term health.

If you think you have food sensitivities, try an elimination diet—cut out gluten, dairy, yeast, corn, soy, and eggs for a week or two and see how your gut feels and what happens to your other symptoms.

Treat any infections or overgrowth of bugs like parasites, small-bowel bacteria, or yeasts.

Take digestive enzymes with your food.

Take probiotics—healthy bacteria for your internal ecosystem.

Use gut-healing nutrients such as glutamine and zinc.

This information is bought to you as a free service from DNA Biopharm South Africa. The information herein is not intended to treat or diagnose any condition. Should you wish to try any herbal or natural remedy discussed in these pages, please consult with your healthcare practitioner. Should you require any information or advice on any topic related to diabetes, please visit our website at www.dna-biopharm.com

Thursday, 13 June 2013

ADVICE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE - Stress

A life of meaning and purpose, a life in balance with connection, community, love, support, and a sense of empowerment, is essential for health. The overwhelming stresses of the 21st century, including social isolation, overwork, and dis-empowerment create enormous stresses on our nervous systems, leading to burnout and breakdown. Ninety-five percent of all illness is caused or worsened by stress. Stress hormones damage the hippocampus, the memory center in the brain, causing memory loss and dementia. Try learning relaxation skills such as meditation, deep breathing, yoga, biofeedback, or progressive muscle relaxation. Take a hot bath, make love, get a massage, watch a sunset, or walk in the woods or on the beach.

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

ADVICE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE - Free Radical Damage

Life is energy. When no more energy is produced in your cells, you die. The process of extracting energy from the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe is the most essential process of life. Keeping that metabolic engine running smoothly and protecting it from harm are essential for health.

Berries contain antioxidants

How do we do this? By protecting your mitochondria. Mitochondria are the tiny factories in your cells that turn the food you eat and the oxygen you breathe into energy. The outcome of this combustion process is a chemical called ATP (adenosine triphosphate), and it is the gasoline that runs your body. Make too little of this critical chemical and you slow down, begin to feel fatigued, and develop brain fog; your metabolism grinds to a halt and eventually chronic illness results. How does this happen? Your mitochondria are not only extremely powerful, they are also extremely sensitive. Environmental insults of all kinds, from diet to lack of exercise and more, can impact the function of your mitochondria. But probably the biggest insult of all is free radicals. Free radicals are actually produced by your mitochondria as a by-product of the combustion process that creates energy in your cells. These free radicals are particularly dangerous because they damage or oxidize cells throughout your body. This damage is called oxidative stress. Think of it as your body “rusting.” We have built-in help for dealing with these free radicals—antioxidant factories whose job it is to produce molecules that seek out and clean up free radicals before they do too much damage. Unfortunately, our modern life-style does little to support this natural process. We eat a diet that causes an escalation of free

radicals from too many empty calories and not enough dietary antioxidants and that is deficient in the raw chemicals that our bodies need to produce antioxidants in the first place. So the free radicals build up in our bodies, attacking our cells. Our mitochondria are particularly sensitive to this “rusting” process. Free radicals attack them and they cease to function optimally. This leads to more oxidative stress, a downward spiral into illness, and, eventually, death.

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

ADVICE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE - Toxins

There are the 3,500 different chemicals that are added to our food and the more than 3,000 chemicals found in our homes. Our bodies must eliminate all these toxins along with all our metabolic waste. Because the toxic burden in the 21st century is overwhelming, our bodies often can’t keep up. This leads to illness. But there is good news! Our bodies have the extraordinary capacity to eliminate chemicals that we were never exposed to as our species evolved, and we now understand better than ever before how to reduce our toxic exposure.

Monday, 10 June 2013

ADVICE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE - Digestion

It is likely that you suffer from (or have suffered from) some type of digestive disorder—irritable bowel, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, re-flux gas, etc. Digesting, absorbing, and assimilating all the food and nutrients we eat are critical processes for health. Our digestive systems must protect us from internal toxins, bugs, and potential allergens as well as eliminate wastes. A breakdown anywhere in this process can create illness. Unfortunately, most of us do not recognize or know that digestive problems cause havoc on the entire body, leading to allergies, arthritis, autoimmune disease, rashes, acne, chronic fatigue, mood disorders, autism, dementia, cancer, and more. So having a healthy gut means more than freeing yourself from the annoyance of a little bloating or heartburn! It is connected to everything that happens in your body.

Sunday, 9 June 2013

ADVICE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE - Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance affects all types of people and is not exactly the same in everyone, but the ultimate consequences can be similar. Most people who are afflicted have extra fat around the middle. You may be tall or thin, short or fat, or any combination and still have insulin resistance. This is not a genetic defect, an error in our development; it is simply an outcome of the fact that we have strayed from eating in harmony with our genetic makeup. In other words, we do not fit into our genes.

Here is what too much insulin really does to your body and health:

As long as your insulin levels are high you will fight a losing battle against weight loss. Insulin acts on your brain to increase appetite, specifically an appetite for sugar.
It increases LDL cholesterol, lowers HDL cholesterol, raises triglycerides, and increases blood pressure. Insulin resistance causes 50% of cases of high blood pressure.
It makes blood sticky and more likely to clot, leading to heart attacks and strokes.
It stimulates the growth of cancer cells.
It increases inflammation and oxidative stress and ages the brain.
It increases homocysteine, because sugar consumption decreases B6 and folic acid.

Saturday, 8 June 2013

ADVICE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE - Inflammation

Inflammation is part of the body’s natural defense system against infection, irritation, toxins, and foreign molecules. When your body detects such a problem, a cascade of events occurs in which white blood cells and chemicals called cytokines mobilize to protect you from foreign invaders. In this capacity, inflammation is a good thing. It fights foreign invaders of all types. However, when the natural balance of your immune system (which produces just enough inflammation to keep infections, allergens, toxins, and other stressors under control) is disrupted, the system shifts into a chronic state of alarm, spreading a smoldering fire of inflammation throughout the body. This type of systemic inflammation has been linked to almost every chronic disease, including heart disease, cancer, obesity, and dementia—as well as things like arthritis, autoimmune disease, allergies, and digestive disorders. Unfortunately, few people realize that hidden inflammation run amok is at the root of all chronic illness we experience.