Tag: exercise

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The cancer fighting benefits of Coenzyme Q10

Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10, is a substance found in every cell of our body. It is in a variety of foods, and healthy people are not likely to develop a deficiency of this nutrient. But, you might want to think about taking in some extra CoQ10 – especially if you’re taking a statin to lower your cholesterol levels.

CoQ10 has many potential health benefits, including possibly lowering the risk of certain cancers. Women, especially, should take note, since recent research points to links between breast cancer risk and lower levels of CoQ10 in the blood.

Clearing up the confusion about CoQ10
Coenzyme Q10 is technically not a vitamin because your body can synthesize it, so you do not need to get it from food. However, its structure is similar to that of vitamins. Also like vitamins, it acts as a coenzyme functions in your body’s metabolic reactions.

CoQ10 also has powerful antioxidant properties. For example, it helps prevent harmful oxidation of LDL cholesterol, and it supplements the work of vitamin E, or tocopherol. When your blood levels of CoQ10 are lower, your body needs more vitamin E from the diet to carry out heart-healthy antioxidant reactions.

What are the health benefits associated with CoQ10?

  • Lower risk of dementia
  • Improved heart health
  • Increased exercise performance

Can a Coenzyme Q10 deficiency increase the risk of cancer?
Since the 1960s, researchers have noted associations between lower blood levels of CoQ10 and cancer. People with lymphoma, myeloma, and lung, head, neck, and prostate cancers tend to have lower levels of CoQ10.

A recent study looking into links between CoQ10 and breast cancer examined data from nearly 1,000 women aged 40 to 70 in the Shanghai Women’s Health Study. Those who had serum levels of CoQ10 in the bottom fifth of participants had a 90 percent greater chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer than those whose levels were in the middle fifth.

“The current Shanghai Women’s Health Study, with relatively larger sample size and longer follow-up time suggests an inverse association for plasma CoQ10 levels with breast cancer risk in Chinese women,” according to study authors Robert V. Cooney of the University of Hawaii and colleagues. Based on these results, future research should investigate potential effects of supplementation on the risk of breast cancer.

The study also confirmed the association between low CoQ10 and higher risk of cervical cancer, myeloma, and melanoma. This makes the results relevant to men as well as women. This study is far from definitive, but it seems likely that there is a link between healthy CoQ10 levels and reduction in cancer risk.
 
CoQ10 is in a variety of foods, including meat, fish, and eggs, and organ meats, such as heart, kidney, and liver, are especially rich sources. You can also find CoQ10 in plant-based foods, such as cauliflower, peanuts, and strawberries.  Remember, you can obtain additional benefits, with ease, by supplementing your diet with a high quality CoQ10 supplement. 

Be sure to check out our selection of CoQ10 rich foods and CoQ10 Supplements at Whitaker’s Natural Market on your next visit!

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Pomegranate’s Performance-Boosting Potential Confirmed

Pomegranate provides a natural way to boost athletic performance, increasing the time to exhaustion by more than 1.5 minutes among a group of amateur cyclists. Could pomegranate give you a similar athletic improvement?

Pomegranate, the “jewel of winter,” is one fruit you should have on your radar if you’re interested in boosting your physical performance. This applies not only to athletes but also to anyone who’s an avid exerciser — or wishes they were. By enjoying pomegranate, it’s possible that you could gain more stamina for your weekend jog or morning aerobics session, leading to body-wide benefits.

While pomegranate is perhaps most well-known for its antioxidant properties, impressive as they are, this leathery-skinned berry is also a rich source of dietary nitrates — and therein lies their performance-enhancing potential.
 
Pomegranate Increases Time to Exhaustion, Heavy Breathing
Writing in the journal Nutrients, researchers conducted a study involving 26 amateur cyclists, who received either pomegranate or a placebo daily for 14 days.

They then engaged in an exercise session similar to a long-distance cycling race, such that they cycled for 90 minutes at moderate intensity, followed by a more intense stint, in which they increased their intensity every three minutes to the point of exhaustion, as you would in the final leg of a race.

After a five-minute recovery period, they then did six sets up barbell step ups (stepping up and down on a bench) to induce muscle damage, markers of which were subsequently measured, as was their eventual recovery.

For the next phase of the study, the cyclists repeated the test 15 days later but swapped the pomegranate for placebo, and vice versa, so that each participant carried out the exercise tests while taking pomegranate and again while taking a placebo. The results?

Pomegranate significantly increased the cyclists’ time to exhaustion — by an average of 94 seconds. It also led to improvements in what’s known as the second ventilatory threshold, or VT2, putting it off by an average of 55 seconds.

Your VT2 is the point during exercise when lactate has accumulated in your blood, you need to breathe heavily, and you can no longer carry out a conversation. By staving off these two markers, pomegranate could easily mean the difference between winning or losing a race — or in the case of your personal exercising, help you work out a little bit longer and faster.

The study also found that pomegranate could help to restore force in damaged muscles, bolstering a number of studies that have hinted at pomegranate’s benefits to muscle recovery.
 
Pomegranate Power
There are 335 abstracts related to pomegranate research — a signal of just how powerful an ally this fruit can be for your health. In terms of exercise alone, consuming pomegranate makes sense and can:

  • Decrease oxidative damage caused by exercise
  • Accelerate healing of exercise-related muscle damage and muscle soreness
  • Improve whole-body strength and feelings of vitality
  • Enhance blood flow, increasing the delivery of oxygen and thereby likely boosting performance

Pomegranate has been prized since ancient times as both a symbol of love and a powerful medicinal tonic, traditionally used for treating everything from parasites and snake bites to bronchitis and diabetes. If you’re willing to put in the effort to remove the arils — the juicy casings that enclose the seeds – you’ll be rewarded with multiple health benefits, not to mention a tasty treat.

Pomegranate may favorably influence hundreds of diseases, particularly oxidative stress, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and prostate cancer. Pomegranate may offset oxidative stress by enhancing your body’s antioxidant responses – another way it’s useful for athletic performance.

If you’re looking for an easy way to enjoy this powerhouse fruit, wash it well and slice it horizontally. While holding it firmly over a bowl (cut side down), simply hit the back with a wooden spoon until the arils fall out.

If you don’t plan to eat them all right away, pomegranate arils can be refrigerated in an airtight container or frozen for several months. They make a great addition to smoothies and salads, or eat them plain as a healthy snack.

Be sure to pick up some delicious juicy Organic Pomegranates from our produce section on your next visit to Whitaker’s Natural Market. 

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A Quick Walk a Day Keeps Arthritis at Bay

Arthritis is a major complaint of many people as they get older. Typically starting after the age of 40, osteoarthritis—the most common form of arthritis—develops in one or more joints and results in pain, stiffness, and swelling, which can worsen to the point that it impacts the quality of life and eventually even becomes disabling. And with more than 30 million adults in the United States alone suffering from osteoarthritis, this is an issue that should be of concern to all of us. But even if you already have a diagnosis of osteoarthritis, there is hope. New research suggests that there may be a simple way to avoid a worsening of your symptoms.

The study, which took place at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, found that taking a brisk walk for less than 10 minutes per day is associated with a decrease in the risk of developing a disability for those with osteoarthritis in a lower-extremity joint. This is based on an investigation that included more than 1,500 men and women between the age of 45 and 79 and residing around Baltimore, Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; Pawtucket, Rhode Island; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

All the subjects had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in the knee, hip, ankle, or foot, and experienced some level of pain or stiffness but were not limited in mobility or disabled in any way as the trial began. They were tracked for four years, with their physical activity recorded on a wearable electronic device. After evaluating the data, the researchers discovered that just one hour a week—or less than 10 minutes a day—of moderate to vigorous exercise was enough to lower their risk of disability substantially.

As the four-year time period ended, the participants were assessed as to their ability to perform a number of standard daily and self-care tasks. Among those who spent less than an hour a week doing moderate activity, 24 percent had to walk so slowly that it was unsafe to cross a street and 23 percent had trouble with basic tasks such as bathing and dressing unassisted. But those who had been doing a minimum of an hour a week of exercise had an 85 percent lower risk of being unable to cross a street alone due to the need to walk slowly, and their risk of being unable to bathe, dress, or walk across a room unaided was close to 45 percent lower.

Considering the fact that approximately 20 percent of osteoarthritis sufferers develop a disability over time, this is huge news. It may be intimidating for someone who rarely or never does any sort of exercise to hear that they should be working out for a half hour to an hour each week. But even if you are currently sedentary and don’t do anything more than walk around your home and to the door of your car, 10 minutes a day of walking is a realistic goal that you can absolutely achieve.

Don’t concern yourself too much with your pace initially. Simply start by putting on a comfortable pair of shoes and walking down the block, around the corner, or wherever you can make it in a few minutes. As this becomes a habit, you can work on extending the amount of time you spend walking and pick up your speed.

And don’t forget to take other steps to lower your risk of disability from osteoarthritis, such as eating foods that help reduce inflammation like nuts and losing weight, which will relieve some stress on your affected joints. Adding in a supplement such as OsteoMove Extra Strength Joint Care from Natural Factors can provide fast relief from acute and chronic pain and has extensive long-term benefits for joint health. A powerful anti-inflammatory, OsteoMove slows down cartilage degeneration, maintains strong and healthy bones, and encourages the repair of connective tissue.  Be sure to pick up your bottle of OsteoMove on your next “walk” to Whitaker’s! 

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Never Stop Learning

Never stop learning.  If you stop learning, then your brain is not getting exercise, you grow stagnant, and you do not continue to optimize your personal abilities!  It also helps to keep you humble and encourages you to share what you learn with others.  Learning can also give you purpose, and as Scripture says, “where there is no vision (purpose), the people perish.”

What are some ways you can continue to learn specifically about natural health?
Attend a Free Class at Whitaker’s
Read a Book – have you checked out our bookshelf?
Read Magazines – we offer free ones each month with the latest news, updates, and studies on many health topics
Ask Dr. Jocelin
Read the Weekly Health Tip

The important point is to keep learning!