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Top 8 Blueberry Health Benefits

Blueberries belong to the bilberry and cranberry family. They grow in clusters on a bush and are about the size of a marble or pea. Despite their small size, they are as potent and as healthy as any other fruit and, in fact, may provide benefits that other fruits cannot. Below are some of the Blueberry Health Benefits you should consider.

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The various health benefits of blueberries include:

1. Lowering cholesterol levels

Blueberries reduce cholesterol by preventing the build-up of lipids in the blood vessels and preventing the absorption of fats in the intestines. They also reduce the risk of heart disease.

Blueberry Health Benefits

2. Being high in antioxidants

Blueberries are high in antioxidants. The anthocyanin they contain, which gives them their distinctive blue color, makes them rank particularly highly amongst other fresh fruits, but they contain Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, copper, iron, zinc and selenium as well, which help reduce the toxins in, and oxidative stress on, cells.

3. Reducing fat levels around the waist

According to a recent study by the University of Michigan’s Cardiovascular Centre, blueberries reduce the amount of fat stored around the waist by lowering triglyceride levels in adipose tissue. This leads to a reduction in overall weight and total fat mass, thus reducing the risk of obesity related illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.

4. Preventing urinary tract infections

Blueberries contain chemicals that prevent the growth of bacteria in the urinary tract. Preventing urinary tract infections plays a key role in preventing renal kidney disease.

5. Improving cognitive function

Blueberries are well known for improving memory and concentration. They contain nutrients that prevent the degeneration of nerve cells, or neurons, thereby preventing neurotic disorders such asdementia and Alzheimer’s disease. A study has also revealed that the memory function of older adults who take blueberries is improved, and is, in fact, similar to the normal mental functioning of younger people.

6. Preventing loss of vision

The anthocyanins in blueberries slow down the loss of vision, especially in older people. Blueberries may also delay, if not prevent, eye problems such as myopia, cataracts, retinal problems and macular degeneration. For these benefits, consider eating up to three servings of blueberries a day.

7. Improving digestion

Blueberries contain roughage, which improves digestion and helps keep bowel movements regular. The copper, sodium, fructose, and vitamins they contain also contribute to healthier digestion.

8. Preventing, and possibly curing, cancer

Blueberries contain Pterostilbene, which has cancer fighting properties. In fact, studies have shown that blueberries may even inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells and induce cell death of malignant cells, thereby possibly curing certain types of cancer.

In order to benefit from blueberries, it is important to choose the right kind. Make sure you choose blueberries that are firm and have a uniform blue hue. Avoid soft and dull blueberries because these may not be fresh and may already have lost some of their important chemicals.

Alapati currently writes for eDrugstore.MD, an online facilitator for medications. He has extensive background in health and enjoys offering tips on the Sexual Health Videos section.

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Keys to Muscle Growth

So why do most people lift weights? More than likely it is because they want bigger or stronger muscles; or a combination of the two. But aside from just learning what to do you should always understand why you are doing it. Here are the Keys to Muscle Growth.

Typically speaking the body will adjust based on the stress placed on it. If you simply just do your daily routine in life the body will essentially stay the same in terms of strength, speed, and endurance. However when you start doing things like resistance training then the body adapts by becoming stronger.  But it is not an overnight process.

Types of Growth

Muscles can grow in two different ways called hypertrophy or hyperplasia.

Hypertrophy is the type of growth most commonly associated with resistance training. That is where the muscle grows in size because the actual muscles fibers grow larger. This happens when the fibers get torn during training and then grow back stronger and larger. That muscle soreness you get a day after training is the result of the torn fibers.

Keys to Muscle Growth
Keys to Muscle Growth

There are two types of hypertrophy. Sarcomere hypertrophy has to do with the contraction phase of the muscle while sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is the non-contraction phase. Both are important for overall size, density, and muscle strength gains.

Hyperplasia is growth based on an increase of muscle fibers. This happens when a fiber splits creating two fibers the same size as the original. There have been various theories on whether hyperplasia is something that really exists or not.

Muscle Breakdown

The idea behind resistance training is to speed up the natural process that occurs in the body. Typically every 2 to 4 weeks the body will naturally break down and rebuild all of the muscles. By training you speed that process up. When you break down the muscle fibers from resistance stress the body compensates via growth as a protection method. If your body is properly fueled with nutrients then your body will be rebuilding 24 to 36 hours after the stress was placed on the body.

Does It Matter What You Do?

Not necessarily. While many people feel you need to use core exercises like squats, dead lifts, or clean & jerks to build maximum size, muscle growth can occur whenever the body is stressed. That is not to say that these exercises aren’t great, but there is more than one way to do things.

An example would be people who do heavy labor. Often they don’t hit the gym regularly because they regularly stress their bodies from lifting and carrying large loads. At one point I was doing heavy labor for a week by breaking concrete for a few hours a day with a sledge hammer. With years of regular gym time under my belt I had done all sorts of lifting already. But after that week of exhausting work (and another week of recovery) I noticed that my shoulders were larger and seemed broader to people. It was a matter of stressing my body so much that it compensated and grew. Personally I considered this scenario something like hyperplasia (which was noted in the shoulder muscles of some swimmers).

That is not to say you should ditch your current program for heavy labor. But it should bring awareness to the concept of variety in what you are doing when attempting to make your body grow. After it has adapted to a certain type of stress you might need to adjust exercises, reps, sets, or anything else to throw a curve that you then have to adapt to.

Ben Sanderson is an author for Nutribomb Bodybuilding Supplements. At Nutribomb, we provide you with the latest information on the best supplements you can find on the internet.

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A Quick Look at Acai

The Acai berry is a known dietary supplement that is famous because of numerous healthful benefits. Most people know Acai as a food product that is either in the form of a juice, smoothies, a frozen pulp or even an ingredient found in beverages. A quick look at Acai s nutritional component shows that it has a lot of nutritive elements from the three primary groups: carbohydrates, protein and fats; Acai also contains fiber, Calcium, Iron, Vitamin C and Vitamin A.

Look at Acai
Look at Acai

Although not yet scientifically established, its efficacy concentrates on promoting weight loss, boosting the sexual performance of both men and women and even reversing the ill effects of chronic health conditions such as diabetes. Perhaps the most beneficial amongst the claims of its manufacturers is that Acai has antioxidant properties. Simply, it is able to fight off free radicals that cause illnesses and that therefore, it prevents cancer, an increasingly alarming condition suffered by a lot of people these days.

A recent scientific study showed that Acai also significantly lowers the cholesterol levels in the blood of rats. While a counterpart human study is still in the process of being implemented, the promising results do indicate yet another miracle that this superfood is capable of.

Apart from the mentioned uses, Acai is also used as an all-natural food coloring agent. This means that the Acai berry could conceivably replace a lot of the synthetic food coloring agents that are added to some food, like Red #5, Purple #10, and so on.  Acai berry could also possibly be used as a natural source of sugar or sweetening—in some areas in Brazil, the acai berry is added to some dishes and used for its sweetness.

More than a beverage, the Acai’s leaves are also used for livelihood. People use Acai to make beautiful yet strong hats, baskets, brooms and mats that are even exported and based on accounts. The Acai palm trees have also proven to be a good source of wood for constructing houses because of its resistance to insects and pests.  On the other hand, the seeds of Acai can be used as a food for cattle, while its seeds can be used as an alternative source of fertilizer for plants.

Ultimately, the Acai, a lowly palm that grows mostly in South and Central America especially in Brazil, is one plant worth investing in.  In the past few years, the manufacturers and farmers of the Acai have taken active steps in discovering its more notable beneficial effects. Today and years from now, people will continually look for a plant-based material that would concretely be able to counter the ill effects of a number of diseases. The humble Acai palm, with a myriad of uses, might have even more miracles in store.

The writer is a freelance author who writes on behalf of SendOnlineFax. To send an online fax, click here.

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Top Tips To Get Your Olympic Body Ready For This Summer

London will host the 2012 Olympics this year so it is the ideal time for the nation to get their bodies fit and ready for the games. World class athletes invest a lot of time in developing the ultimate Olympic body, so what is actually involved?

Body type

What are you best at? Different bodies have the ability to perform different tasks more effectively. Sprinting may come natural to some, whereas others will find endurance tasks come more naturally. Therefore, individuals should familiarize themselves with their body composition as different people have a different percentage of muscle fiber type that determines whether or not their body will excel in power, speed or endurance. Training the body should be directed towards the body’s natural ability.

Set goals

Individuals wanting an Olympic body should know what it is they want to achieve at the end result. Therefore, an event that is enjoyed by an athlete is the event that any training or physical plan should revolve around. If the training is enjoyed individuals are far more likely to see success. People that want to lose weight should review their diet and commence an interval training program of cardiovascular endurance exercise alongside short sprinting. Running, cycling or swimming will help achieve weight loss.

Review diet

Olympic athletes have a strict diet that is followed religiously. Diet is the key focus for individuals looking to improve their physical and mental well being. Forget calorie counting and direct attention towards the content of the food. Everybody is aware of the importance of eating fruit, vegetables and slow carbohydrates, but individuals are encouraged to note the sugar content of the foods being consumed as sugar has high calorie count. diet plans will create structure for meals and snacks which will aid weight loss.

Olympic Body
Olympic Body

Eat frequently

Regular food intake will maximize the body’s efficiency, and this will increase the metabolism which means more calories are burnt. Olympic athletes consume five to six meals daily as smaller meals increase muscle mass and maintain maximum efficiency.

Drink water

60% of the body is made up of water; therefore regular water intake is absolutely necessary. The circulatory functions will be affected if the body endures a fluid loss of just 2% which will decrease performance significantly.

Training

Regular and intense training will help athletes reach their ultimate potential. Depending on the individual it will take different methods and time periods to reach the goals in place. To see real improvements, three workouts daily will instigate the progression to an Olympic body.

There are plenty of strategies to help individuals get the Olympic body but it will take time and commitment. Diet is essential and people should enforce a healthy and nutritious diet plan straight away. Exercise should be eased in gradually to prevent injury and exercise intensity and duration will gradually develop as training is introduce.

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Taking Vitamins For Energy

Vitamins and supplements are some of the most common focuses of health and fitness enthusiasts. Especially once people begin to feel like they’ve got their diet down and found a cool exercise program that promises to make them lean and healthy, they direct their focus to supplements, hoping to top off their health and fitness potential.

Taking Vitamins For Energy

There are typically two reasons why people chose to take vitamins. The first, and most common, is simply to improve their health. Vitamins are commonly equated with health, and many people believe that the more vitamins you take, the healthier you’ll be. However, according to The Vitamin Source this is very misguided way of looking at things. The truth is, vitamins only improve health if they’re compensating for an existing deficiency. For instance, if you’re not getting much sunlight, you’re likely deficient in vitamin D, and therefore supplementing vitamin D3 would be beneficial to health. However, supplementing a vitamin or mineral you’re already getting plenty of from your diet isn’t going to do much for your health.

That brings us to our second reason for taking vitamins, which is taking vitamins for energy. Just like taking vitamins for health benefits, taking vitamin for energy is only effective if you have an existing vitamin deficiency that is leading to decreased energy levels. For example, if you eat very few animal foods, there’s a good chance you’re deficient in vitamin B12, which causes fatigue, anxiety and exhaustion. Therefore, supplementing vitamin B12 in that particular case would drastically improve energy levels. However, if you’re already getting plenty of B12, there would likely be no benefit.

That being said, even people who are aware of this sometimes figure they’ll just take a stab in the dark and hope that if they take enough vitamins, they’ll hit a few of the vitamins they’re deficient in and their health and energy levels will improve. Bad idea. This is typically a bad choice because of the potential for vitamin toxicity. While taking a general multivitamin is unlikely to cause any problem, taking many different individual vitamins often leads to vitamin toxicity (excess levels of a particular vitamin), which can be very harmful to health. In some cases vitamin toxicity may only cause nausea and diarrhea, and perhaps some other mild discomforts, but some vitamins and minerals are actually very dangerous if consumed in extremely large quantities. For example, taking large doses of vitamin A for prolonged periods of time is potentially fatal.

How To Improve Health and Energy Levels

While vitamins and supplements are certainly important if used properly, it’s just as essential to avoid vitamin toxicity as it is to avoid being malnourished. Both can lead to health problems and even death in severe cases. The best thing most people can do is simply to improve their diet, eating mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, unprocessed meat, fish and poultry, eggs, nuts, herbs, spices and some dairy. Eating well generally leads to proper intake of the right vitamins, and will leads to increased energy levels and greatly improved health. Vitamins and supplements should still be taken to compensate for any persisting deficiencies, but it’s important to understand their limitations.

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Fight the Festive Flab the Fun Way – Pole Fitness

Image via Wikipedia

If you told your friends that you were going to take up pole dancing ten years ago they may have reacted as though you’d told them you were going to become a lap dancer or take up a new job in the sex trade. To many people, pole dancing was certainly not the kind of thing any respectable girls should be involved with.

Fortunately times have changed and pole dancing has shed a lot of its old associations and is recognised by many as a sport and a really fun way to stay in shape. Pole dancing now has international championships and competitions as well as regulations and its celebrities, just like any other sport, even if you can don your glad rags to take part.

Pole dancing can be traced back to the twelfth century, where it began as a fertility dance performed around a wooden pole, although the dancing was far removed from the styles and technique you will see today. Modern pole dancing moves are more akin to 1950s burlesque performances. Pole dancing owes a lot to Fawnia Mondey who did a lot to legitimise it as a form of dance though her dance lessons and DVDs which allowed people to learn pole dancing in the privacy of their own homes and made it more mainstream.

You’ll often here pole dancing referred to as pole fitness or pole sport as dancers like to emphasise the strength, flexibility and skill that is needed to deliver a breath-taking performance. While pole dancing is easy to get started in some of the moves are highly complex and can take months of practice to get right. A quick search on YouTube and you will come across some jaw-dropping routines, which make you think more of acrobatic circus performances than sleazy clubs. Watching a dancer support her whole body in a horizontal position just using her hands or feet shows the gymnastic skill and strength needed to perform some of these advanced tricks.

Why Choose Pole Fitness?

Pole fitness is really taking off as a way of keeping fit. As well as being fun it can help to improve your core muscles as well as your flexibility. You will develop strength in your hands and legs, and then when you progress to more complex moves you will works areas that most sports won’t reach such as your underarms or hips!

If at first you don’t succeed.

While some moves are easy to get the first time, others can take a lot of patience to master. To begin with you should expect a few bruises from gripping the pole tightly and most likely falling off a few times as some moves will take a lot of practice to get right. You should you use a pole mat to cushion your falls and know your limits so you never push yourself too hard. A lot of people find that once they have gotten over the initial hurdles and put a routine together that they are hooked. They find that their body improves and they develop more strength better posture and that they generally feel a lot sexier than before they started dancing.

It’s easier than you might think to take the plunge with pole dancing schools popping up all over the place and many gyms offering classes. You don’t even need to leave your own home if you don’t want to. YouTube has lots of pole dancing tutorials and there are a wide range of DVD lessons to choose from. There are a lot of choices for dance poles too. You can get permanent poles for your home, but most people choose one the portable pole models on the market. This means that the pole does not need to be a permanent feature in the living room (or wherever you choose to put it). If you are apprehensive about taking a class at a school or gym, then you may find one of the many pole dancing experience days more suitable, they also make great days out for the girls if you are shy to have a go alone.

I hope that this intro to pole fitness has tempted you to give it a try. I’m Caitin and I’ve been pole dancing for 3 years. It took me a few lessons to really get into the swing of things but then I was hooked. When I’m not dancing I write for . As well as keeping up to date with the latest gossip on our blog you can also compare prices of a wide range of pole dancing poles. You can also find me on twitter at @poledancepoles