Quercetin: Fitness Without The Work?

Is it really possible to get fit without all the work that comes along with it like eating healthy& exercising and just get fit while reading your favorite blog or watching TV?

Recently there was a study that followed people that took large doses(500milligrams 2x/day) of a nutrient called Quercetin for a week and were able to increase endurance on a stationary bike much longer than people who did not take Quercetin nutrient. In lam ens terms their fitness was enhanced without the the work.

Quercetin was thought to possibly help build your mitochondria which are the mini energy factories in your bodies cells that convert your food energy to the energy your body uses(ATP). So it would potentially create more body energy so you wouldn't run out as fast during a workout.

So what is Quercetin made of exactly? It is a plant-derived flavonoid shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. A diet high in fruits and veges has shown to decrease cancer rates and was thought quercetin might be responsible for this. It is found in vegetables and citrus fruit like apples,red onions, green beans and buckwheat. Usually most food sources of this nutrient don't contain a large amount though. A average apple has around 9 milligrams.

As far a it being able to get fit without the work its not likely to happen since exercise does far more for you than increase your mitochondria. It builds bone density, reduce stress, helps you sleep better, and most importantly increase sex drive! It also has been found to help your memory and cognitive functions.

My advice, quit looking for the easy way out, get your butt off the couch and exercise. I'd come get your butt off your couch for you but i gotta get moving.

A Guide to Vitamin E

The e vitamin is extremely important for a variety of functions in the body. A healthy heart needs plenty of the e vitamin as it has been shown to actually prevent heart disease. The e vitamin can also help contain any existing heart disease and stop it from getting worse.

E vitamin is also vital in protecting the cell membranes from the harmful free radicals that are present in the body. Without e vitamin, amongst others, the cell membranes would be damaged and this could lead to serious health problems, including cancer. The reason that the e vitamin is so effective against free radicals is that it is fat soluble so it can be absorbed into the cell membranes. The e vitamin is therefore essential for the immune system. The recommended daily amount of the e vitamin that a person requires depends on their body weight. This is connected to the fact that the more fat a diet contains then the more of the e vitamin that is needed. However, the only foods that really contain any reasonable amount of the e vitamin are vegetable oils, seeds, wheat germ, and nuts. It is for this reason that most people should take some form of e vitamin supplement.

A deficiency of the e vitamin does not affect a person immediately. In fact, it can take months for the effects of insufficient e vitamin to be detected. After years of e vitamin deficiency there maybe some detectable damage to the nerves of the spinal cord or retina of the eye but this is very rare. Most people obtain enough e vitamin from a normal diet but it is essential that the food that a person eats contains a little fat to help with the absorption of the e vitamin.

There are a few medical conditions that may lead to a deficiency of the e vitamin and may require the person to take e vitamin supplements. Cystic fibrosis causes a person to be unable to digest fats well which leads to less of the e vitamin being absorbed. Crohn disease causes to lower absorption rates of the e vitamin and a supplement may be necessary. Some forms of liver disease can also lead to problems absorbing the e vitamin, especially through the intestine. Of course, as fat is required to help absorb sufficient amounts of the e vitamin, anyone on an extremely low-fat diet will need to discuss their options for increasing the amount of e vitamin that their body needs.

Selenium may worsen prostate cancer

BOSTON - Higher selenium levels in the blood may worsen prostate cancer in some men who have the disease, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the University of California, San Francisco, said a higher risk of more-aggressive prostate cancer was seen in men with a certain genetic variant found in about 75 percent of the prostate cancer patients in the study.

In those subjects, having a high level of selenium in the blood was associated with a two-fold greater risk of poorer outcomes than among men with the lowest amounts of selenium.

In contrast, the 25 percent of men with a different variant of the same gene and who had high selenium levels were at 40 percent lower risk of aggressive disease.

The variants are slightly different forms of a gene that instructs cells to make manganese superoxide dismutase, an enzyme that protects the body against harmful oxygen compounds, the researchers said.

The findings suggest that "if you already have prostate cancer, it may be a bad thing to take selenium," senior author Dr. Philip Kantoff, director of Dana-Farber's Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, said in a statement.

Supplements of selenium have been sold and promoted as a means of preventing prostate cancer -- largely based on observational studies that found higher risk of prostate cancer incidence and mortality in areas of the country that are naturally low in selenium, Kantoff said.

The findings are published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Protect Your Brain from Parkinson's
With THIS Nutrient

You may know that the super nutrient Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) works to support the immune system and cellular antioxidation. But it also appears to help with Parkinson's disease.

The basis for many neurodegenerative diseases is called mitochondria dysfunction. The powerhouse of each cell is the mitochondria. If the powerhouse of the cell is disrupted or loses energy, the body is vulnerable to attack at the cellular level. This can be devastating and can result in many chronic diseases.

Some scientists believe that nerve cell damage can result from diminished energy levels among neurons. That may result in a biologic energy decline and therefore be intimately involved in the development of Parkinson's disease. It appears that CoQ10 may offer protection for neurons against toxicity.

According to a study published in Neurotoxicity, restoring these neuronal energy levels might boost these defenses. Supplementing with CoQ10 will not only boost your cell energy levels, but boost your body's brain and heart health, too!