Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Many people turn to crash cleanses to remove toxins from their bodies, but did you know your body is equipped with natural detoxification processes? Learn about how your body’s detox phases and nutrients that can support them from Amanda Williams, MPH.
Over 45 million Americans suffer from tinnitus, or constant buzzing or ringing in the ears. This can impact sleep, blood pressure and overall health. The good news is that there are nutrients that can help.
pcos
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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You’ve probably heard about the power of hormones and there’s a reason why. We know that hormones are our body’s chemical messengers and they are incredibly powerful, meaning that it only takes a tiny little amount to cause big changes or fluctuations within the way that our body is actually functioning. The way that hormones work is they travel in our bloodstream to different tissues and organs and they work over time. They affect so many different aspects of the way that our body works, including metabolism, reproduction, mood, sexual function, growth, development and more.†
This is all driven by the different endocrine glands, which is going to be the primary source where the hormones are secreted from. We have things such as the pituitary gland, pineal gland, thymus, thyroid, adrenals and pancreas, for example. In men, we utilize the testes and in women, we are looking at the ovaries. Today, I want to focus on PCOS, which is polycystic ovarian syndrome. This is much more common than many women even realize.†
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Hormones are a driving factor for so many bodily functions and systems. In the setting of PCOS, this is a hormonal metabolic disorder that causes a variety of different presenting symptoms, such as irregular menstrual cycles, ovarian cysts, facial hair and insulin resistance. You can see how the hormones are driving all of this. When you look at the irregular menstrual cycle, clearly that’s hormonally-driven. We know that, once again, hormones are the underlying issue for ovarian cysts.†
When we look at the statistical amount of women who are actually suffering from PCOS, it is really quite profound. In the United States, roughly 10% of women of child-bearing age have PCOS. It’s one of the most common causes of female infertility. 10% of women are struggling with this hormonal condition and we see the resulting problems. Oftentimes, women who have PCOS can then develop other serious health issues such as diabetes brought on because of that insulin resistance. Certainly, if they do find that they get pregnant, then gestational diabetes can be an issue.†
Learn more about health risks related to PCOS by tuning into the full podcast episode.
With that many women in the United States suffering from PCOS, we have to look at what they can be doing to help with their condition. The first thing is to screen and do comprehensive blood testing. Looking at fasting insulin is really, really important. Looking at free and total testosterone levels and cardiovascular risk factors is also incredibly important. These are things that need to be done.†
We do realize that the Standard American Diet, which is high in bad carbohydrates and saturated fats, is certainly going to be a driving force to making PCOS worse. The best choice for women who have PCOS is going to be the Mediterranean diet. We also have to look at regular exercise, which can help to improve insulin resistance.†
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We can also look at nutrients such as chromium and N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). NAC is so incredibly important for allowing the body to manufacture glutathione, but we also recognize that NAC helps to improve upon insulin sensitivity. For many women who fall into that category of having infertility, when they take NAC, this can really be beneficial. This relates to better regulation in terms of that hormonal control.†
Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about important nutrients for women with PCOS.
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.
NAC is an incredibly important and very, very powerful precursor to the making of glutathione, which is one of our body’s most powerful antioxidants. Researchers have been studying this nutrient in the setting of COVID-19 as a potential treatment option.
You probably grab headphones to listen to your favorite podcast. But, depending on the volume, you could be negatively impacting your hearing.
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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Today we’re talking about supplements that can help you quit smoking. It’s doable.
Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body. There’s more than 16 million Americans currently living with a disease directly linked to their smoking. For every person who dies because they were a smoker, at least 30 go on to live with a smoking-related illness. This includes a whole bunch of cancers, heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, brain damage, lung diseases, eye diseases, and immune system issues. There’s also erectile dysfunction, wrinkles, and thinning hair.
Worldwide, smoking cigarettes causes about 7 million deaths every year. It causes about half a million deaths in the United States every year. On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than non-smokers. Tune into the full podcast episode for more information about why cigarettes are harmful for your health.
Many adults who smoke want to quit. In 2015, about 68% of adult smokers wanted to stop smoking. In 2018, about 55% of adults who were smoking made an attempt to quit. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), quitting smoking is beneficial to your health at any age and smokers who quit before the age of 35 had mortality rates similar to those who never smoked. But at any age, at any point, you’ll feel improvements when you quit smoking.
Why is it so hard to quit?
Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, which gets into your brain very easily. It’s extremely addictive. Nicotine withdrawal often makes the process of quitting very difficult. When you’re addicted to nicotine, there’s both psychological and physical dependence, so when you try to quit, you get both physical and mental withdrawal symptoms. These include irritability, anxiety, and cravings. Withdrawal symptoms generally peak about 3 days after quitting and can persist for weeks or months, but they do subside.
Out of the smokers who try to quit on their own without assistance, only about 3 to 6% are successful long term. Some options for assistance include behavioral counseling and medications. Both of those increase the rate of quitting successfully. But when you combine them, it’s even a little bit better.
A meta-analysis of 61 studies from 2018 showed that among people who quit smoking with a cessation medication and perhaps some behavioral therapy, 20% were still not smoking a year later. For more information about drugs that can help with quitting smoking, tune into the full podcast episode.
Supplements can help you quit smoking
There are also supplements that can help with quitting smoking in conjunction with behavioral assistance and certain medications.
When you’re trying to quit smoking, if you get nervous and you’re eating too much, try 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). It’s very good for calming you down and helping your mood. It’s also really good for keeping your appetite under control. You want a time-release option, like our Trim Hx® formula, because 5-HTP’s effects only last for about an hour or two. The effects of Trim Hx® can last six or seven hours and it helps you contain your appetite. That’s good because a lot of people who quit smoking start to eat more.
Another supplement that’s helpful, especially for jitteriness, is the amino acid L-theanine. A study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences used filters made out of tea that were high in L-theanine. They found that this decreased smoking in users by 57%. 32% of those tested stopped smoking at least temporarily. The green tea plant holds a lot of L-theanine in the early stages of budding. This amino acid helps the brain and improves GABA and dopamine levels. These are neurotransmitters involved with satisfaction, self-control, calming down and enjoying pleasure. L-theanine helps restore the feeling of pleasure that is often overtaken by smoking or drinking.
The most important supplement when you’re quitting smoking is N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC). It’s very good for breaking many habits. It’s good for compulsive behaviors such as gambling, biting your nails or pulling your hair. It’s good for addictive behaviors if you’re trying to quit smoking, drinking or even a drug. The Department of Psychiatry at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam did a study looking at relapse that was published in the European Addiction Research Journal. They gave very heavy smokers either placebo or 3600 mg of NAC a day. The smokers were asked to stop smoking and report on their cigarette cravings, withdrawal symptoms, and any smoking they did during the trial. The people on NAC faced milder withdrawal symptoms. They were also asked to smoke a cigarette and report on how rewarding it felt. They found that people on the NAC reported the cigarette to be less rewarding.
Another study published in the journal Redox Report looked at people who were going to behavioral therapy but were not seeing improvements. It was a 12 week trial where they gave the subjects either placebo or NAC every day. NAC strongly cut back on the number of cigarettes people smoked every day. Over 47% of the people on the NAC were able to quit smoking. So the behavioral therapy with the therapist wasn’t doing it, but when they went on the NAC, they were able to do it. Tune into the full podcast episode for more studies about the benefits of NAC.
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.
