Improving Your Immune System Naturally

Whenever you grab your remote and turn on the TV, there are numerous ads promoting various herbal supplements and offers for exotic fruit extracts. These offers are said to boost your immune system, but don't you wonder if there is really any truth behind these claims?

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The 2 Simple Habits That Helped This Woman Lose 175 Pounds

Guess What: Your Irritable Bowel Syndrome May Actually Be Caused By Food Sensitivities

If you often have stomach cramps, bloating, and constipation, you could be one of the 20 percent of people suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The symptoms of IBS are similar to those of a stomach upset, including diarrhea and gas, but they can continue for months or even years. Some people find that natural remedies for IBS bring a measure of relief, but scientists have determined that underlying cause may be food sensitivity, which can be hard to identify and treat.

While you might automatically associate food allergies with gluten, for many people with IBS, the culprit is a type of long chain carbohydrate found in FODMAP foods (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols). The small intestine finds it difficult to process these foods, and when they reach the large intestine, they can trigger the production of bacteria, which causes the cramps, bloating, and other digestive problems associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

FODMAP foods include:

• Oligo-saccharides e.g. fructans, found in wheat, rye and some vegetables

• Galacto-oligosaccharides, found in pulses and legumes

• Di-saccharides: e.g. lactose, found in milk and dairy products such as yogurt

• Mono-saccharides: e.g. fructose, found in honey, some fruit and fruit juices

• Polyols: e.g. sorbitol and mannitol, found in some fruits and vegetables

While it seems simple to remedy the problems of food sensitivity—just follow a low FODMAP diet, it’s actually a very long, involved process to identify exactly which foods may be affecting you, and the exploration normally begins with a diet that is very restrictive at first. These are some FODMAP foods people with IBS will want to avoid. But now a team of scientists from Yale University has found a way to speed this process up.

In their study, published in the BMJ Open Gastroenterology journal, the team used leucocyte activation testing, a form of testing that identifies each person’s problem foods very precisely. Volunteers followed an individualized diet that eliminated those specific foods. Researchers then compared their results with those of volunteers following more traditional diet techniques to manage IBS, and were surprised at the results.

Lead researcher Ather Ali, assistant professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, explained why.

“We didn’t expect results like this,” he told Yale News. “The people who consumed the diet consistent with the test did significantly better than people on the sham diet.” The group following the individualized diets reported a significant improvement in symptoms such as bloating and stomach cramps, both four and six weeks after they started.

Dr. Ali is careful to point out that further study is needed.

“If these intriguing results can be replicated in larger and more diverse samples, they can provide insight into another way to treat a condition that can often be very frustrating.” he said. “It can be debilitating and patients are often looking for dietary approaches to it.”

If it’s successful, this approach could herald a new way to manage IBS, bringing relief to thousands of sufferers.

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You Should Be Eating Bread at the END of Your Meal—Here’s Why

This Is the Scientific Reason Why Belly Fat Is So Hard to Ditch

For your health and for your wallet, losing weight is always a good choice. But even after months at the gym and plenty of progress, there always seems to be something amiss, an anatomical anomaly which fails to reflect all the hard work that you put in. This, of course, is your gut. Why is it that stomach fat is always so hard to lose? (You might want to try incorporating some of these flat belly foods into your diet, ASAP.)

Cosmopolitan spoke to an expert on the topic, Dr. Luke James, a staffed specialist from the U.K. health insurance company Bupa. Ultimately, a lot of it comes down to the specific type of fat which tends to congregate around your navel, a body fat which is tough to melt away.

“To put it simply: it’s more difficult to shift belly fat because it has a higher amount of fat cells that don’t respond as easily to the fat-breakdown process (lipolysis),” says James.

When it comes to fat, the human body has two types: alpha and beta cells. These two breeds (love) handle your latest workout routine differently due to their designed purpose; alpha cells are designed to restrict blood flow to cells and stymy the fat-burning process, while beta cells increase blood flow and stimulate the fat-burning process.

Someone’s concentration of alpha versus beta cells comes down to genetics, so some people may be more predisposed to weight loss than others. This is by evolutionary design, but when it comes to dropping weight, it can make certain areas slim down quicker than others

“When you’re actively trying to lose fat, you may see changes on your legs, face, and arms first because these areas have more alpha cells,” but eventually, he says, your body will catch up. “With regular, intense exercise, an increased intake in protein and less sugar in your diet, you should start to notice a change after three months,” he said. 

It may be slow going at first, but it ultimately is out of the exerciser’s hands. (Looking for a way to drop your weight? Try one of these weight loss tips that are easy to incorporate into your regular routine.)

[Source: Cosmopolitan]

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This Is Where Your Fat Actually Goes When You Lose Weight

Seems like everyone wants to trim the fat, which why it’s nice to know you can bust belly fat in a single day. And when you do slim down, it might seem like fat has evaporated into thin air and well. It kind of has. “Your body’s’ primary source of energy is glucose, which is stored as glycogen in two places: liver and muscles,” explains Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, NYC-based registered dietician, bestselling author, and founder of The F-Factor Diet. “When your body uses up its glycogen stores it turns to fat for fuel. Fat from food is stored in our body as triglycerides, which are made up of atoms.” When we start shedding pounds these atoms form into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O).

Physicist Ruben Meerman and Professor Andrew Brown, from the University of New South Wales, published their research on “Where does fat go?” in the British Medical Journal in 2014. Through their novel calculations they concluded that “our lungs are the primary excretory organ for weight loss,” says Zuckerbrot. “Meaning when you lose weight you breathe out most of the broken down fat as carbon dioxide and lose a small percentage as water in sweat, urine, and tears.”

Maria Bella, MS, RD, CDN, and founder of Top Balance Nutrition, adds that exercise, an activity that increases our breaths per minute, therefore aides in weight loss. “It’s important to remember, however, that diet remains the most important factor for weight loss, something made clear in the British Medical Journal study. Take for example a relatively sedentary 150-pound person who sleeps for eight hours, rests for eight hours, and is active for eight hours, this person will exhale about 1.5 pounds of C0₂per day. If this same person was to replace an hour of rest with an hour of jogging this would only raise this number by one-third pound of C0₂ a day—and to lose two pounds of fat, that person would need to exhale about six pounds of C0₂. In order words, it’s hard to work off a bad diet.

According to Zuckebrot the best route to maximize fat loss is to follow a high-fiber, lower-carb diet. “By following a high-fiber, low-net carb diet, you give your body the carbohydrates needed for energy, without going overboard on carbohydrates, which eating an excess of leads to weight gain.” Worried about the makeup of your diet? Check out the six subtle signs that you’re eating too many carbs.

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This Is How Much Money You Can Save By Losing Weight

Small efforts can make a huge difference when putting away money. Opting out of that expensive morning cup of coffee, packing your own lunch, and not using dollar bills as kindling for campfires rank among the best day-by-day habits (starting to incorporate these habits of good money-savers into your daily life is a good start too) that can save you the big bucks over time. But according to Men’s Health, there might be one you’re missing out on, one that could also help your health in the long run.

New research from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health points to weight loss as one of the best boons to your financial health. The study, recently published in Obesity, used a computational simulation model to analyze the different financial and health costs that someone will pay at age 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80, in three different BMI groups (obese, overweight, and normal weight).

The benefits to dropping some pounds remained steady for the bulk of the study, starting at age 20 with a savings of $17,655 for 20-year-old who went from being obese to overweight and $28,020 for a 20-year-old who went from being obese to normal weight.  The average savings are based off of projected medical costs and productivity losses incurred by excessive weight. (Did you know that 90 percent of American men have this dangerous weight condition?)

“Over half the costs of being overweight can be from productivity losses, mainly due to missed work days, says Bruce Y. Lee, the executive director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center at the Bloomberg School, “This means that just focusing on medical costs misses a big part of the picture, though they’re a consideration, too.”

The savings start to taper off after age 50, when adults only see notable financial savings when they go from being obese to normal weight, but not from overweight to healthy weight. Ready to start you weight loss journey? Here are some proven, fast weight loss tips. 
[Source: Men’s Health]

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