Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Do you know which nutrients your body needs before and after you exercise? It can depend on the person. Learn about some important nutrients for energy production and muscle recovery from Amanda Williams, MPH.
Have you ever felt both tired and wired, like you’re lacking energy but can’t seem to unwind? This type of stress is related to your adrenal glands, so it is important to turn to powerful nutrients that can help support your ability to fend off stress and decompress.
mild cognitive impairment
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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As we get older, we tend to get forgetful. Many people are concerned that this might signal the onset of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease. But the truth of the matter is that it’s often not dementia.†
Memory problems can be due to a myriad of causes. It could be a part of aging itself brought on by a slow down of the brain. It could also be due to other medical conditions in the heart, lungs, kidneys or liver. It could be some kind of psychological problem, like anxiety or depression, and could even be a result of certain medications. But being forgetful is a normal part of aging.†
The differences between normal aging of the brain and Alzheimer’s disease are distinct. For instance, an older person may make a bad judgment decision once in a while, but a person with Alzheimer’s has terrible judgment all the time. If this forgetfulness escalates to the point where someone may struggle to carry on a conversation, this is called mild cognitive impairment.†
Approximately 15 to 25% of people over the age of 60 have mild cognitive impairment. This leads to memory problems, as well as problems with understanding complex situations. The people can still live at home and find their way around, but they often drift into dementia. They have more serious memory problems and they are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias than people who do not have mild cognitive impairment.†
Mild cognitive impairment does not always lead to dementia. It depends on its cause. For instance, if the mild cognitive impairment is due to a health condition or a drug, it may not even be permanent. Studies have shown that mild cognitive impairment can also be caused by circulatory problems in the brain and traumatic brain injuries.†
There is evidence linking exercise with improved memory in people with mild cognitive impairment. You really should be exercising five to seven days a week. When you exercise, it’s often social and in varying locations. This is stimulating for the brain. Exercise also helps to improve blood flow to the brain, helping to provide the brain with oxygen and nutrients. This also seems to trigger the release of molecules in the brain that help repair brain cells.†
A diet low in saturated fats but rich in fresh fruits and vegetables is also beneficial for the health of the brain. Beans, nuts and seeds also contain nutrients that are supportive for the brain. Nutrients such as lutein, green tea and fish oils have been shown to protect and promote brain health as well.†
In this episode, Jerry Hickey, Ph. explains what mild cognitive impairment is and how it relates to memory loss. He begins discussing supplements and nutrients that can help promote the health of the brain. He will continue this discussion in Part 2 of this episode, coming later this week. Stay tuned!
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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.
Too much belly fat can lead to issues such as chronic inflammation, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and more. The good news is that there are healthy ways to help your body lose that fat. Learn about how exercise can help in part 1 of this episode.
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Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
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We often get questions about workout routines and what people should be taking pre-workout or post-workout. I want to focus on beetroot because many times, when we are thinking about beetroot extract, we are thinking about it in terms of its benefits when it comes to heart health and brain health. But certainly, there is an enormous amount of research studies now that have shown how effective beetroot extract can be for pre-workout in particular, but also for post-workout.
I want to talk about the science behind why that is and highlight our Beets Hx formulation, which is a combination of not only beetroot extract, which is incredibly powerful, but it also contains tart cherry extract, which has also been studied in the setting of athletic performance. I want to talk about utilizing beetroot extract as part of your pre-workout routine. This is even if you’re not a gym junkie and you workout minimalistically, but it would still be advantageous if you’re going to take a walk.
Benefits of beetroot
In recent years, there’s been a growing interest in the biological activity of beetroot extract in terms of all of its health-promoting and potential disease-preventing abilities. One of the main ways in which beetroot extract has primarily been focused on is its ability to increase nitric oxide production within the body. When we have low levels of nitric oxide, this is going to exacerbate many different conditions including high blood pressure and endothelial dysfunction.
Beetroot, as well as tart cherry, have both been shown to target oxidative stress as well. The environment in the human body in which oxidative stress develops is quite high, so the more antioxidants that we have on board, the better off we are. We have seen many different studies on beetroot extract showing how protective it is against DNA damage, even at a cellular level.
What’s interesting about beetroot extract is the way that it’s been looked at beyond just targeting oxidative stress. Researchers have also been able to realize that inflammation is widely targeted with the ingestion of beetroot extract as well. Those betanins from the beetroot extract have emerged as a very potent anti-inflammatory agent. I think that this is key because they’ve been able to recognize that when people ingest beetroot extract, it starts to interfere with a lot of the proinflammatory signaling pathways including NF-kappa beta and TNF-alpha, which means it’s downregulating inflammation.
Learn about additional benefits of beetroot extract by listening to the full podcast episode.
Beetroot for athletes
Auburn University was known for their pre-game ritual of taking beetroot extract. They would have their football players take beetroot extract before the game. In the Journal of Physiology, what they were looking at was how that nitric oxide production that was occurring helped to increase blood flow to the skeletal muscles during the football game. They thought that this gave them this extra edge because they were getting better blood flow and oxygenation up to the tissues.
Beetroot extract has been shown to be beneficial in the setting of athletes and when it comes to the potential performance enhancement. But even if you’re just going for a walk, having a glass of the beetroot extract before doing that would be quite advantageous.
In the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, they were looking at the effect of beetroot supplementation on intermittent, high-intensity exercise. In this particular study, they analyzed the use of beetroot extract and then gave these athletes this intermittent activity, such as cycling, to do in short bursts. They were then looking at the amount of nitric oxide that was being dispersed. It was really very interesting to see that the nitric oxide production made such a significant difference and that improvement was observed much faster than they were actually expecting. Finding that ability of the beetroot extract to allow for better muscle perfusion of blood and oxygen, the researchers said that this would not only help for the time being, but actually also post-exercise when it came to the muscular fatigue that many people can experience.
Even if you’re not working out and you’re just going to take a walk around the block but you come back and you’re feeling exhausted, having that beetroot extract can really help to support the ability for your muscles to fend off the oxidative stress and lactic acid that potentially build up. Tart cherry extract has also been studied in the setting of athletes and shown to really allow for better performance under high-stress environments. This is why I wanted to highlight the Beets Hx. It’s so easy to add into your routine. You just take one scoop of Beets Hx mixed in with six or eight ounces of water and drink that down. You are now packing your body with all of these powerful polyphenols and antioxidants that are targeting oxidative stress and inflammation while also helping to enhance proper blood flow throughout the entire body.
Thank you for tuning into the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or visiting 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.
