Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Many people face mild cognitive impairment that can impact their memory, ability to learn and more. The good news is that there are nutrients that can help.
Did you know that some foods are better for your energy levels than others? Turn to highly nutritious foods and supplements for longer lasting and higher quality levels of energy.
cocoa
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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Diabetes is a plague on our society. It’s so common. We need more education on how to not have diabetes. It has to do with lifestyle. Sleeping matters because you’re handling your blood pressure better when you get enough sleep. Food absolutely matters. Good food choices prevent diabetes, as well as exercise and physical activity. A lack of exercise, poor food choices and a lack of sleep can really increase your chances of getting diabetes. Let’s talk about how we as humans handle our sugar.
Blood sugar and insulin’s functions in the body
When you eat food, you’re breaking it down to its different components, one of which is sugars. These sugars could become pretty high during a meal, so the body prevents that because, when the sugar is too high, it can start to damage organs, tissues and cells. The body releases insulin from a gland called the pancreas. The pancreas is partially responsible for digestion, but it’s also responsible for controlling your blood sugar. During a meal, you release insulin from the pancreas and you drive the excess sugar into your fat cells, muscles and liver. That’s one reason why having a lot of muscle and exercising helps to even treat diabetes because once sugar enters the muscle, it becomes muscle glycogen and it can’t escape the muscle. It’s stored there until later physical activity. The more you exercise, the more your body will take the sugar out of the blood to make additional glycogen.
If the body’s in good balance, you leave enough sugar behind for the body’s energy because the body makes energy using sugar. A well-balanced body in good sync metabolically leaves enough sugar during and after meals for the body’s energy needs. In between meals, when sugar starts to go low, the pancreas releases a second hormone called glucagon to release some of the stored sugars from your fat cells and liver. This is called gluconeogenesis. When you don’t eat well, when you’re eating a lot of crackers, muffins and sugary foods, the body has to work harder to store the sugar, so your insulin is going up. That’s called your fasting insulin and if it’s rising, that can be an early indicator of pre-diabetes or diabetes.
HOW CINNAMON AND COROSOLIC ACID SUPPORT HEALTHY BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 144. Listen Now >>
They also look at insulin sensitivity. Your cells are supposed to be very sensitive to the effects of insulin. If you’re eating incorrectly and not exercising, your sugar is always up, so you’re always releasing insulin. Eventually, the body cells stop responding to the effects of insulin, so you have reduced insulin sensitivity. Now you’re really going towards pre-diabetes. The next step is insulin resistance. That’s when the cells are not responding well to insulin, so you can’t use sugar for energy and you can’t store the sugar. It’s a problem. Your pancreas is making more and more insulin over time, your blood sugar levels are going up and you’re on your way to developing diabetes.
To learn more about the functions of these hormones in the body and what blood tests you should consider, tune into the full podcast episode.
Cocoa for blood sugar
Cocoa has been shown for over 30 years to have some impact on diabetes and supporting healthy blood sugar levels. Even chocolate may have some of this ability. The problem is that when they convert cocoa into chocolate, you lose some of the things that are protective and beneficial that lower your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Here’s a study by Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It’s looking at the effect of cocoa and its flavan-3-ols on cardiovascular health. This meta analysis found that cocoa helped circulation and high blood pressure, but what we’re looking for in this conversation is its effect on lowering the risk of diabetes and it did. It improved insulin resistance. They saw that the insulin was working better because the cocoa seriously reduced serum insulin over time. It lowered fasting blood glucose and reduced the blood insulin levels. It was making everything go back to normal.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND COCOA FOR OVERALL HEALTH – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 249. Listen Now >>
For more studies on the benefits of cocoa, listen to the full podcast episode.
Supplements for blood sugar issues
The good news is that pre-diabetes and even full-blown diabetes in a lot of people can be reversed if you start eating healthy and you really start exercising. Let me tell you some supplements that you really need if you’re starting to develop blood sugar problems:
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
We want to make sure that as we get older, we have the full functionality of our brain. The good news is that cocoa can really support brain-boosting ability.
Cocoa is a plant-based, food-based antioxidant that has so many benefits when it comes to our health. Here’s what you need to know.
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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Welcome to Part 2 of Cocoa For Brain Health and Memory! If you missed Part 1, click here to listen now. In Part 1, we discussed the benefits of cocoa and some studies that show evidence of them. Let’s continue talking about this powerful superfood today!
How Pollution Impacts Your Brain
Vehicle pollution releases Fine Particulate Matter. Fine, meaning that it is really tiny. When you inhale this matter, it inflames the lungs and is very easily solubilized into your blood. When it mixes into the blood, it shoots right from the blood into the heart. This inflames the heart, and the heart then pumps this blood all throughout the body. Researchers have found that inhaled pollution is involved with fatty liver, a decline in kidney function, damage to the heart, strokes and memory loss. Memory loss occurs because it gets into the brain, inflaming it.
Several studies from the University of Montana Missoula along with other academic research institutions looking at children who lived in an urban area who were around a lot of pollution. Researchers compared them to children that lived in more pristine surroundings around the country with more clean air. They found that the kids living in the city that were exposed to all of this air pollution had inflammation in their brain and heart. They also did not do well academically. Pollution seems to impact their mental function, memory, judgement and processing. Researchers also found plaques in their brain that you would normally see in 70 or 80 year old elderly adults and in Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease. This kids were put on a high-quality cocoa supplement and within nine to 21 days, the level of inflammation in their heart and brain dropped and they were doing better academically and in memory function tests.
Not only had Cocoa been shown to help restore circulation to the aging brain, which we discussed in Part 1, but it also has been shown to help restore memory in aging people and it helps to defend the brain from inflammation, toxins and pollution. Research also shows that a number of ingredients within Cocoa help to calm the brain down, helping with stress and nervousness.†
Cocoa and Memory in Aging People
Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers from NYU and Columbia University Medical Center in New York found that age-associated decline in memory function has to do with a part of the brain that is called the dentate gyrus, which sits next to the hypo campus (a major organ for memory). They found that with age, as circulation to the brain declines, these two organs start to shrink a little bit, pull apart and stop functioning well together, impacting memory. In this study, high-quality cocoa – specifically its component flavon-3ols – helped to restore circulation to the dentate gyrus, helped the dentate gyrus better connect to the hypo campus and helped to improve memory. Researchers reported, “When we imaged our research subjects brain we found noticeable improvements in the function of the dentate gyrus in those that consumed a high-cocoa flavanol drink.”
Flavanols Also Benefit Healthy Hearing. Click Here to Learn More! >>
Questions about the benefits of cocoa? Leave a comment for Chief Scientific Officer and Pharmacist, Jerry Hickey, Ph.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
