Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
With the rate at which diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders are on the rise in this country, it’s no wonder that people are seeking out different ways to improve upon weight management, especially belly fat.
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.
aged garlic
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH.
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Most of us have used the term “thinking outside the box” at some point in time in our lives. One thing that I like to think about is thinking outside of the kitchen and there’s a reason why. There are so many wonderful things that we have in our food on a regular basis that can be so helpful for our overall health, so we have to think about some of the common nutrients that we’re exposed to. We can think about things like onion and garlic, for example. The garlic is predominantly what I want to focus in on today. We know that garlic not only has many well-studied cardiovascular benefits to it, but it goes well beyond that. I want to talk all about the many benefits of garlic, aged garlic in particular. When we think about supplementation, we want to make sure that the form of garlic we are using is the aged garlic type.†
What is garlic?
Most of us know garlic and it definitely has a very strong and familiar scent to it. Most people know if someone has had a good amount of garlic in a meal or you walk into your house and if someone is preparing a meal with a lot of garlic, it has a very profound smell to it.
Garlic itself is a perennial that actually belongs to the onion family. The flavors that come from the garlic are very, very powerful, which is why when you’re cooking with garlic, usually a little bit goes a long way. There are many different types of garlic. Most of us just think of the traditional garlic that we utilize, which is the hardneck garlic. We have to recognize that all of the powerful constituents that are found within the garlic is what really yields all of these superior health benefits.†
Aged Garlic for Heart and Overall Health – Invite Health Podcast, Episode 54. Listen Now >>
Learn more about the history of garlic by tuning into the full podcast episode.
We also have to look at the chemicals and constituents that are in garlic. We know that allicin is a very powerful chemical constituent that is derived from the garlic itself. What’s really quite interesting is that it is the allicin that produces that very powerful and unique scent. We know that there’s a high count of sulfur compounds in garlic and this is what’s responsible for its scent and taste, as well as those beneficial effects. It’s been studied across the spectrum when it comes to health.†
Garlic outside the kitchen
Initially, people would look at garlic in terms of its cardiovascular benefits and we certainly know that there are many of those. It offers broad cardioprotective effects, to such a degree that there was a really important study that came out in the Journal of Nutrition about four or five years ago. This was done via the UCLA Medical Center, where they were showing the impact of aged garlic extract, so now we’re talking about supplementation as opposed to the food. This means that we’re taking those really active constituents and putting them into a capsulated form. You’re getting a major power punch of those constituents. In this study, they were able to show that aged garlic could reduce dangerous plaque buildup within the arteries. This is a really great thing.†
At UCLA, they completed the four different randomized studies through which they looked at the progression of atherosclerosis and heart disease and looking at the aged garlic and seeing that it had this ability to actually reverse those different stages of heart disease. We have seen studies where they assess the C-reactive protein, which indicates levels of chronic inflammation. We have seen how beneficial aged garlic can be, even with supporting cholesterol levels.†
Importance of Aged Garlic for Heart Health – Invite Health Podcast, Episode 16. Listen Now >>
A study published in 2019 by the Experimental Biology Journal talked about how garlic could reduce aging-related memory problems. In this particular study that was conducted out of the University of Louisville, they were looking at that sulfide compound within the allicin. The interesting finding within the study was the correlation between the gut microbiome. Remember, a healthy gut means a healthy mind. The researchers were able to see how the garlic itself helped to maintain that healthy gut microbiome, those microorganisms that are in the intestines that are there to keep us healthy and to maintain that proper communication between the gut and the brain. The gut contains trillions of these microorganisms. They were able to show just how the garlic itself can work in a way to enhance that communication between the two, and in doing that, they were able to show an improvement in memory.†
Tune into the full podcast episode for additional benefits of aged garlic.
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.
DHEA controls many aspects of our inflammatory and immune responses. Here’s what you need to know when it comes to chronic inflammation.
Let’s discuss changes to your diet and different nutrients that can be incredibly supportive when dealing with irritable bowel syndrome.
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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When we think about things such as turmeric or curcumin, we oftentimes will default and think about joint health. That’s not a bad way to consider the way that curcumin itself is actually working in the body, but it does so much more than just targets inflammation within joint spaces. I want to talk about that in some detail because when many folks look at a formulation like our Biocurcumin 5-Loxin, they automatically think it would be beneficial if they have problems with their knees, hip, or back. Of course, we know that it is very beneficial for inflammation, which can oftentimes help with easing the discomfort. But I want to delve further into this and talk about the power of curcumin, especially when we combine it with Indian frankincense, which is boswellia extract.†
The Biocurcumin 5-Loxin is a cool product because it has two registered trademarked nutrients in it, meaning both of these nutrients have been studied extensively in terms of human clinical trials. It has 5-Loxin, which is a registered trademarked form of boswellia extract, and then we use BCM-95, which is a registered trademarked form of curcumin, which has been shown to be upwards of 7 to 8 times more absorbable than a standard curcumin or turmeric extract. This is important when we talk about all of the things that we know curcumin can do. There has been extensive research over the past half-century showing the power of curcumin.†
Spice Up Your Health with Turmeric, Ginger, Cumin & Rosemary – Invite Health Podcast, Episode 110. Listen Now >>
Tune into the full podcast episode to learn more about the history of curcumin.
Why are curcumin and boswellia extract beneficial to the body?
By using the BCM-95 nutrient in our formula, we get these powerful curcuminoid oils that are deep down into the turmeric root. It is from the curcuminoids that we yield medicinal benefits. There’s been extensive research looking at the BCM-95 across the spectrum: for joint health, for brain health, for overall systemic health targeting things like systemic inflammation. It has been looked at in human clinical trials to support mood, cognition, and memory.†
In the Nutritional Journal back in 2012, researchers at Ohio State University were looking at whether curcumin would impact healthy middle-aged adults. They designed this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial where one group was given a placebo and the other group was given curcumin extract. They did this for four weeks and then they looked at different levels like inflammatory markers. They found specifically that the group given curcumin had a really remarkable response to the curcumin in terms of driving down these markers for inflammation and allowing the body to have better adjustments during times of stress.†
When we think about curcumin in combination with the boswellia extract, oftentimes we think about joint health. This is because we know that curcumin has been shown to actually downregulate NF-kappa beta and STAT3. To the researchers’ knowledge, this was really the only agent coming from nature that they recognized had this ability to target both of those inflammatory markers. This was published in the Clinical Cancer Research Journal and this was a study done out of MD Anderson Cancer Research Center out of the University of Texas. This was done all the way back in 2009, yet you still don’t hear a lot about it.†
How Turmeric & Boswellia Support Joint Health – Invite Health Podcast, Episode 32. Listen Now >>
Boswellia extract has a powerful constituent in it called AKBA. AKBA helps once again with regulating that inflammatory response. In the European Journal of Medicine, they were looking at how boswellia can help patients who had asthma. They did a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial looking at giving asthmatics boswellia extract. They found a significant reduction in inflammation within the respiratory bronchi, which is a really remarkable thing.†
When we talk about what we can do from nature, where we’re not putting these harmful synthetic chemical agents into the body to try to treat something, everything that boswellia extract and curcumin can do is really remarkable.
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.