Exercise is important

Health and wellness is a very important issue today, with the increase in life expectancy worldwide. Thanks to Dokudami aka Proact or the herb *Houttuynia cordata.

Physical fitness is important for everyone, but it is extremely important as we age. Keeping fit becomes more challenging, and therefore one should pay particular attention as to how we go about maintaning physical fitness.

Here are some exercises so valuable that older people can participate, and also some things to consider in the pursuit of health and fitness level high.

Exercises 1. Stretch – One of the things that older people should focus on is the recover of flexibility., because most of us lose some flexibility in our joints over time. If yoy reading this now, try touching your toes without bending your legs. Not so easy if you have not been active in physical exercise for some years. Try doing yoga as an example. There are videos on yoga free on you tube. I'll look it up and post in my next posting. If you live in asia, then there is always "Tai Chee". Slow phase and kind on the joints but very good for the entire body.

2. Walking – While walking is good in helping to off calories and fat, it also helps to reduce stress and improve cardiovascular health. Taking the time to walk every day is one of the best investments you can make for your personal longevity and mental health. The world moves fast and we all have problems and concerns. Walking is a way to download the daily stress and allows us to have more attention on a daily basis.

3. Swimming – Swimming is an activity that is low stress on the body has wonderful benefits for the elderly. The benefits of swimming: it helps improves cardiovascular health, increased flexibility, improved posture, relieve muscle tension, reducing the risk of osteoporosis reduces stress. 

As we age, high-impact exercise such as jogging, aerobics can have a negative impact on bones, joints and muscles especially for those people who have not been able to maintain a regular exercise regime.

That’s why swimming is a great way for people to get fit and improve their general well being.

A typical workout should be about 20-30 minutes of exercise 3-4 times a week.  

Consistency is more important than quantity, thus we should focus on keeping to our fitness schedule.

Also be sure to warm up before each workout session. Focus on the muscles you’re going to use and get some extra blood flowing to them. For strength training, warming up could include a series of exercises with little resistance but try to avoid using weights.

Breathing is important. So remember to take deep slow breath during warm ups and also through out the work out. 

Finally, exercise is always easier and more rewarding when done with good friends.  Join a club or just organize some friends to practice yoga in the morning a few times a week. The possibilities are endless, but the main objective is to stay active and in turn enjoy a healthy and productive life.

A bit on Probiotics

Probiotics are live microorganisms thought to be healthy for the host organism. According to the currently adopted definition by FAO/WHO, probiotics are: "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host". -wikipedia

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and bifidobacteria are the most common types of microbes used as probiotics; but certain yeasts and bacilli may also be helpful. Probiotics are commonly consumed as part of fermented foods with specially added active live cultures; such as in yogurt, soy yogurt, or as dietary supplements (Yakult, Vitagen).

The Latin preposition pro ("for") and the Greek adjective βιωτικός (biotic), the latter deriving from the noun βίος (bios, "life"). - wikipedia

Probiotics Role in Health

For Centuries, folklore suggested that fermented dairy products containing live active cultures are healthful. Today, controlled scientific investigation supports these traditional views, suggesting that probiotics are a valuable part of a healthy diet.

With the emergence of some new public health risk, it was suggested that effective probiotics can play an important role for mitigation of illness. As an example, the ability of probiotics bacteria to support the immune system could be important to the elderly or other people with compromise immune functions.

Infections are another area with potential for probiotics. Where some infections which was once thought to be self-limiting or readily treatable with anti biotics, are now recognize as more serious health threats.

Viginosis used to be considered as just an annoyance is now known to be associated with low birth weight in babies and the increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

New food borne pathogens have emerged as prevalent and life threatening, including Shiga-like Escherichia coli strains. Multiple antibiotics resistances are a continual threat against the battle of once treatable infections.

In Non industrialized countries, infections such as Rotavirus, claim the life of hundreds of thousands of infants yearly. The prevention of infections before they occur is clearly the better alternative. Thus, probiotics is a safer, cost-effective, natural approach that will add a barrier against microbial infection.  

How Probiotics Work

 To understand how probiotics work, it is important to understand a little about the microbiology and physiology of the human gastrointestinal tract.

Human beings like all animals, play host to many types and high numbers of microbes on our skin, in our mouth and all the way through our gastrointestinal tract. It is estimated that there are more microbes associated with the human body (about 10¹³ or about 100,000,000,000,00 bacterial cells) then there are human cells in it (10¹²). In addition to this very large number of bacteria,  there is also a very large diversity of bacteria. It is estimated that more then 400 different species, or types of bacteria that make the home on us.

With this taken into consideration, it is not surprising that microbes have been found to play an important role in human health. Most of these bacteria are not harmful, and in fact contribute positively to normal human growth and development. But of course, some of these bacteria have a negative influence. It is therefore that the balance of microbes be maintains to favor the beneficial bacteria over the potentially harmful ones.

Microbe Role in the Gastrointestinal Track

The microbes in the GI track have to potential to act in a positive, negative or neutral manner. Due to unfavorable conditions, microbes are not very prevalent in the upper small intestines, But, towards the lower small intestine they begin to attain a higher population. The colon has an even higher number.

With such a large number of microbes in the intestine tract, what could the effects be?

It is now known that microbes in the large intestines actually complete the digestion process on any food components that were not digested in the smaller intestines. These would be lactose for those that are lactose intolerant people and fibers that are resistant to the enzymes they encounter in the smaller intestine. We also find evidence of non-digestive microbial activities. Certain intestinal microbes produce vitamins.

In some studies done it was found that without normal microbial populations, the immune system functions poorly, and resistance to pathogenic bacteria is generally reduce. Other evidence also show that intestinal microbes may act on Pre-carcinogenic or mutagenic (capable of inducing genetic mutation = cancer) compounds. Depending on  specific microbe, some may increase or decrease carcinogenic or mutagenic activities.

Both lactobacilli and bifidobacteria are the normal inhabitants of a healthy intestine. Bifidobacteria are also the dominant flora of breast-fed infants.

There are non pathogenic and their presence is correlated with a healthy intestinal flora. The metabolic end products of their growth are organic acids (lactic and acetic acids) which tend to lower the PH  of the  intestines contents making conditions less desirable for harmful bacteria.  

So now you know a bit more about Probiotics and whats in Dokudami...

Dokudami and Cancer

Some time back, early 2009, someone very colse to me was informed by her doctor that she has cancer. It was already a stage 4 cancer. For those of you who do not know what stage 4 means, well, its at the last stage. She never knew she had it in her. She lives a healthy life, on the farm, doesn't smoke, grows her own vagetables. Yup! Its was a ticking time bomb!
She went thru the usual, Chemo therapy, then an operation. This was similar to an open heart operation where they cut the chest open only in this case they had to remove the thymos gland and some smaller possible growths in her chest cavity. Next she had to go for Radio Therapy. In total it took a whole 6 months plus. She has recovered but is still very weak. When I say weak, I mean her immune system.
Chemo is like an atom bomb. Imagine a battle in your body, the Cancer cells( Bad Army) and the Good cells(your army) fighting. Ofcourse given time the good army would loose the battle and that would be the end! So they came out with Chemo.
( Chemotherapy, in most simple sense, is the treatment of an ailment by chemicals^[1] especially by killing micro-organisms or cancerous cells. In popular usage, it refers to antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen. - Wikipedia)
So its like dropping a bomb and killing everything. Cells I mean! After many session the body's immune count is so low the person is told to stay indoors and away from places with crowds. A slight flu bug can be so bad for the body.
What I came by was a simple supplement called Dokudami. But what it did was great! It actually helps strengthens the good cells. It actually, stimulates the productions of new cells and weakens the cancerous cells(bad army). Thats somewhat like saying, putting muscle in the good cells. Its been around for some time but I guess it was not yet time for me to find this supplement.
Some people who consume Dokudami before Chemo actually have no side effects like vormiting and lost of appitite. Yes one still will loose all your hair but can still continue eating to maintain strength. Dokudami has been given to another person who had liver cancer and he never went for Chemo and was also at stage 4. Just 3 months to live. Today he is alive. I will post more details about him and his story in my next blog.