Leafy Green Veggies help your Brain!

Sure your depressed from eating so much on Thursday...but take heart and reach for a salad with leafy green veggies.  Now that the Turkey is out of the fridge its time to help your brain with the food it craves. In a recent study published in the journal Neurology, researchers from Rush University in Chicago discovered that eating an average of 2.8 or more servings of vegetables a day over a six-year period slowed cognitive decline by 38 to 40 percent. And while all kinds of vegetables were included in this study, those that provided the most powerful protection were leafy greens.  Leafy greens are overflowing with phytonutrients, fiber, enzymes, and antioxidants such as vitamin E, which are known to lower risk of cognitive decline. And in addition to their effects on the brain, these vegetables also help give you more energy, support your immune system, promote healthy digestion, and improve overall health.  Whole food suppliments also are a huge help to your brain and body such as Juice Plus.  (Let me know you need more info on whole food suppliments)  You are going to need plenty of energy in the coming weeks of the Christmas crisis so why not help your body with some nice crunchy greens.

Hugs,

Mollie McCarl

 

Healthy Joints Need Your Help

Your Joints Need Movement

Many people have the mistaken notion that they’re going to “save” their joints by not moving them.  But the truth is healthy joints need movement.  In fact, they thrive on it! 

To understand why, think of your joints as movable “hinges” where your bones connect.  Inside your joints is cartilage, which you can think of as a sponge.  The cartilage is surrounded by a liquid, called the synovial fluid.  Every time you move, you’re drawing nutrients into your joints—and releasing waste.  Both of which are critical to healthy joints.

Joint health is a clear case of “use it or lose it”—and here are some easy ways to get moving.

No More Weak Knees

Knees are often our "weak links" when it comes to joints because they carry much of the weight and do so much of the work! "Knee strengthening" is really quadriceps strengthening—that's the large muscle group that runs down the front of your thigh. Remember, your joints are no stronger than the muscles and ligaments that support them.

Here’s how to strengthen your knees:

• Sit in a chair with your back straight and butt tucked into the back of the chair. Place a towel under your knees for support, and slowly lift one leg to a horizontal position. Pause, holding the position for a count of three, then slowly lower your leg to the starting position. Then, repeat with your other leg.  Work up to eight to 10 knee extensions per leg.
• Sit on a high table or workbench, with your legs dangling. Suspend weights from your ankles, using a small bucket, purse or any pouch with a strap (start with two to five pounds). Lift the weight up while extending your knee as far as you can and hold steady for a few seconds. Then slowly lower the leg until your knee is again at a 90-degree angle. Repeat 10–15 times, progressively increasing both the weight and number of reps.
•  

Great advice from Dr. Williams

Vegetables slow mental decline!

Eating veggies is brainy move

Study: They can slow senior mental decline

This is a great article by Ronald Kotulak in the Tribune Science Reporter (Oct.24, 2006) that helps show how important nutrients are to the mind.


Eating two or more servings of vegetables a day may slow a person's mental decline by about 40 percent compared with a person who consumes few vegetables, according to a six-year study of nearly 4,000 Chicago residents age 65 or older.

Consuming lots of fruit did not appear to offer the same mental protection, although fruit has been associated with a wide variety of other health benefits, said Martha Clare Morris, chief of Rush University Medical Center's Rush Institute for Healthy Aging.

The slowdown in the rate of cognitive decline experienced by people who ate 2.8 or more servings of vegetables a day is "equivalent to about five years of younger age" compared with people who ate less than one serving, Morris reported in Tuesday's issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study also suggested it may never be too late to reap the benefits of vegetable consumption. Older people who started eating more than two servings a day still showed a significant delay in mental decline, Morris said. One serving of a vegetable is generally equal to a cup.

The findings come on top of two earlier Rush studies indicating that the foods people eat may significantly affect their mental agility. Morris reported four years ago that eating foods high in vitamin E appeared to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, and last year she found that eating fish had a similar effect.

Veggies full of antioxidants

Vegetables, especially those in the green leafy category, are brimming with antioxidant compounds like vitamin E, flavonoids and carotenoids that help snuff out cell-damaging free radicals, Morris said.

Eating vegetables with olive oil, vegetable oil or some other type of poly- or mono-unsaturated fats enhances the body's absorption of antioxidants, she added.

"This study is tremendously important," said Alberto Ascherio, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, who found similar results over a two-year period in the Nurses Health Study of more than 120,000 nurses. "It's not easy to capture the correlation between dietary behavior and cognitive function.

"This goes in line with previous evidence supporting the potential protective effect of vegetable consumption," he said. "Each of these studies is like a small step forward. In this field we don't have the critical experiment to answer the question once and for all. We have to get to the truth by small steps. It's a long process to try to understand what we can do to reduce cognitive decline."

Be Unstoppable

 

 

The path that speeds us toward our dreams can be a challenging and complex one, so it's easy to get bogged down in confusion and insecurities. We often hesitate at the start of that path of exercise doubting our capabilities for success.  Move forward joyously, eager to discover what you can achieve.  You must work diligently to fulfill your potential and to accomplish your individual missions.  Within you is the power to make positive progress on your journeys to health and fitness.   Ignore the barriers that your thoughts may give you.  Yes, you may have failed to follow through in the past, but that is who you were, not who you are.  Enthusiastically try your best to realize your objective and enjoy the accomplishments that following through provides in fitness.

 

Be Unstoppable

The path that speeds us toward our dreams can be a challenging and complex one, so it's easy to get bogged down in confusion and insecurities. We often hesitate at the start of that path of exercise doubting our capabilities for success.  Move forward joyously, eager to discover what you can achieve.  You must work diligently to fulfill your potential and to accomplish your individual missions.  Within you is the power to make positive progress on your journeys to health and fitness.   Ignore the barriers that your thoughts may give you.  Yes, you may have failed to follow through in the past, but that is who you were, not who you are.  Enthusiastically try your best to realize your objective and enjoy the accomplishments that following through provides in fitness.

 

Be Unstoppable

 

The path that speeds us toward our dreams can be a challenging and complex one, so it's easy to get bogged down in confusion and insecurities. We often hesitate at the start of that path of exercise doubting our capabilities for success.  Move forward joyously, eager to discover what you can achieve.  You must work diligently to fulfill your potential and to accomplish your individual missions.  Within you is the power to make positive progress on your journeys to health and fitness.   Ignore the barriers that your thoughts may give you.  Yes, you may have failed to follow through in the past, but that is who you were, not who you are.  Enthusiastically try your best to realize your objective and enjoy the accomplishments that following through provides in fitness.

Just say "no" to over vaccinating

In the United States, state governments are bribed with money bonuses through CDC grants to achieve high vaccination rates in public schools.  Mass vaccination is big business. The dozens of doses of vaccines that doctors are now telling children (and adults) they must have has created a cash cow for pediatricians and drug companies.  The body is created to fight off disease with healthy cells from nutrition.  Over-vaccinating has created a weaken ability in the body to fight on its own.  One-day-old children are being vaccinated for Hepatitis B.  There is no data showing infants are getting Hep B so why are they getting all these unnecessary shots?  The drug companies make their money by shoving vaccinations in young children.  Autism has gone up 300% in 3 years.  Why? The link is being made to 30 shots of vaccinations before the child is age 10.  The mercury in these vaccinations causes incredible damage to the brain.  A child would have to weigh 300 pounds to be able to absorb the amount of mercury being forced into their system.  Keep your child healthy through raw fruits and vegetables.