Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode. IS IT A COLD? INVITEⓇ HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 605 Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph. *Intro Music* InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast where our degreed health care professionals …
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare experts have been discussing the importance of Vitamin D. Hear about new and updated studies on this powerful nutrient in this episode of the InVite Health Podcast.
pumpkins
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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It’s fall, which means it’s pumpkin season and harvest season. We identify pumpkins with really nice things, like this beautiful time of year. We also identify pumpkins with desserts and holidays like Thanksgiving and Halloween. It’s a lot of fun, but the question is: are pumpkins healthy?†
Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks and pumpkin ice cream, you don’t think of those as health foods. But pumpkin itself is pretty healthy. It’s a member of the cucurbit family because they’re a variety of squash. This family includes pumpkins, melons and cucumbers. There are a lot of healthy things in pumpkins. For instance, it’s orange. That’s due to beta carotene. Beta carotene is good for your vision, immune system, thyroid gland, skin and hormone regulation.†
The beauty of beta carotene is that it is, very slowly and in a very controlled fashion, converted into Vitamin A in the liver. Vitamin A has a lot of benefits in the body. We’re in cough and cold season and on top of that we still have COVID hanging around. Vitamin A was originally called the “anti-infective vitamin.” Vitamin A is needed to make your skin, which serves as a barrier for the outside environment, keeping viruses, bacteria, yeasts, molds and parasites out of the body.†
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Vitamin A is also needed by your mucosal cells. These are very important cells that line your respiratory tract, digestive tract and urinary tract. One form of Vitamin A called retinoic acid is produced by the immune cells in these tissues. This allows these cells to capture infectious organisms like viruses and bacteria and present them to our T-cells, which call in the troops to destroy the infectious organism.†
Pumpkins also have a lot of fiber and a lot of potassium. These make it very healthy because it’s also low in calories, low in salt and doesn’t have cholesterol.†
There are other things in pumpkin that are good for your immune system. There’s Vitamin C, which you need for chemotaxis and respiratory burst. If somebody sneezes on you with COVID-19 or the flu, your immune cells have to travel to the site of the infection to kill the virus before you get sick. That’s called chemotaxis. Your immune cells soak up the available Vitamin C so they can travel to the site of the infection. Then there’s respiratory burst, when your immune cells release their chemical arsenal to kill the infection. That requires Vitamin C also.†
You’re also getting Vitamin E. Vitamin E and Vitamin C are both in the lipid layer surrounding your immune cells. If you lack these nutrients, your immune cells don’t work because they get damaged by their own chemical arsenal. Your immune system works better when it has the nutrients you get from eating pumpkins or even sweet potatoes or carrots.†
We don’t sell pumpkins at InViteⓇ Health, but we do have this delicious powder called Oranges HxⓇ. That has a lot of very high quality fruits and vegetables, including tangerines, nectarines, melons and pumpkin seed powder. Pumpkin seeds are loaded with sterols that help you lower your cholesterol. Oranges HxⓇ provides fiber, potassium, natural beta carotene and all the things you find in pumpkins and it’s very easy to mix into liquids.†
In this episode, Jerry Hickey, Ph. discusses the powerful vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in pumpkins. He details the important benefits of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, fiber and more and also provides a recommendation for a supplement that includes pumpkin seeds as one of its potent ingredients.†
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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.
Have you ever suffered from bronchitis? Millions of people deal with this every single fall and winter, but the good news is that there are nutrients that can help protect your respiratory system and bolster up your immune defenses.
COVID-19 can impact even the most active of people. Tune into this episode of the InVite Health Podcast to hear Jerry Hickey, Ph. tell the story of a woman who went from hiking in the Himalayas to battling COVID-induced damage in her body.
sleep apnea
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
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The average American does not get adequate sleep each night. Most people should be getting somewhere between 7 and 9 hours of sleep, but many Americans cannot achieve this, no matter how hard they try. This can affect so many aspects of your health. If you’re not getting adequate sleep, this can create problems with your blood sugar, metabolic rate, blood pressure and more. We also know that certain medications and certain health conditions can make sleep worse. Today, I want to talk about sleep in the setting of sleep apnea.†
Many times, people don’t recognize how common sleep apnea is and it’s often overlooked. Many people go undiagnosed because they never go in and have a sleep study done at a sleep center. You probably know someone who has been prescribed a CPAP machine, which is utilized as the primary treatment for sleep apnea.†
Sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk of other health issues, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, cognitive dysfunction and autoimmune issues. There are also certain characteristics that may make you more prone to developing this condition. This includes being overweight and having seasonal allergies or allergies in general. Sleep apnea is also more common in men than in women. Our risk of developing this issue may also increase with age.†
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One of the biggest signs of sleep apnea is that they’re snoring, gasping or choking while they’re sleeping. There are also other indicators, including feeling tired all the time during the day, having a dry mouth or sore throat when you wake up, trouble focusing during the day, struggling to do basic tasks and being irritable.†
We can look at different nutrients that you can include in your routine that have been clinically studied for their potential to be beneficial for sleep. One of these nutrients is N-acetylcysteine (NAC). NAC does so much, not only as an antioxidant, but it also helps with the thinning of the mucosal membranes throughout the sinuses and respiratory tract. For many people, when they utilize NAC, they have found that that was very helpful.†
We can also take a look at Vitamin C, Vitamin E and coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 helps to enhance mitochondrial energy production and may help to support respiratory function. If you’re doing your basics every day, like a multivitamin, coenzyme Q10, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin C and Vitamin E, you’re going to really be well ahead of the game.†
We also recognize that low Vitamin D levels have been a place of interest when it comes to obstructive sleep apnea. Researchers have found that many people who have obstructive sleep apnea also have insufficient or deficient Vitamin D levels. When they got their Vitamin D levels back to a normal range, they saw significant improvement across the spectrum, not only when it came to the apnetic episodes, but also when it came to blood glucose levels and markers for inflammation.†
We can look at B-vitamins. Maintaining healthy homocysteine levels may also be a place to turn to when it comes to optimizing the way that your respiration is occurring. Then, we can always look at the gut-brain connection by making sure that we are maintaining a healthy microbiome. All of these things have been shown in clinical trials to be places to turn to. It’s always better to be proactive than reactive.†
In this episode, Amanda Williams, MPH discusses how sleep apnea impacts overall health and wellness. She describes the different symptoms associated with this condition and offers recommendations for supplements that can help support healthy respiratory functions.†
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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.
