Happy New Year!

The new year has come, and that's the strong reason why you should celebrate and welcome the coming of the Year 2010! In addition to that, let's celebrate the 101st post of GTF Infozone! Now that the year of 2009 is passed, have you made your annual dream came true? Or your old resolution just did not seem to be achievable in the past one year? And how about this year? Have you make yourself a brand new, new year resolution of 2010?

If you don't already have a new year resolution, open up your mind to consider this very good suggestion from Peter Brubaker, professor of health and exercise at Wake Forest University. He mentioned that simply adding 30 minutes extra into the length of the time of daily exercise would be a very good new year resolution.

He suggested that, an extra 30 minutes of daily exercise does not need to be carried out continuously, which means, you can very well exercise 5 minutes, 10 minutes there, then perhaps another 15 minutes later on. It is not necessary to carry out a straight-30-minute exercise in a day. Instead, the intensity of this 30-minute exercise is the essential point of all.

Apart from that, Professor Brubaker also suggested that actually, walking is one of the easiest, and efficient activity, which could burn a lot of calories. But there are a lot of people too rely on excuses such as "walking around inside the house can be considered a type of exercise". Technically, yes, because it is still considered as walking, but practically, that kind of walking only burn a very insignificant amount of calories, where these amounts of calories can be compensated very easily. The type of walking we should apply in our daily lives, would be, for example, use the stairs instead of the lifts.

Instead of, walking, Brubaker also pointed that wearing a pedometer would be a very good motivator psychologically. Where he said that if you wear a pedometer while exercising, you could increase you activity level by 25 percent. But the most important thing is, find the calorie-burning activity which you enjoy the most, so that you'll have fun while doing those activities.

Lastly, GTF Team Members is hereby again, wishing you a very Happy New Year in 2010, nice prospects ahead, and have a healthy year ahead!

Antidepressants

If you are a loyal consumer of GT&F Products, now you would have known very very well that the essential substance, trivalent chromium in the products, other than providing great boost in curbing diabetes, it also have great potential in curbing depression.

In one of the December issues in Archives of Internal Medicine, a study was conducted by gathering some 136,000 plus participants, whereby the participants were aged between 50 to 79 years old.

In this study, researchers had compared two groups of participants where one group consists of participants who did not take antidepressants, while the other group consist of participants who took antidepressants. The researchers compared the two groups in respect to the incidence of fatal or non fatal stroke, heart attack, as well as death due to all causes.

As the result of the study, it shows that there was no significant difference in coronary heart disease, but the significance in fatal or non-fatal stroke cannot be neglected. Antidepressant users experienced a 45% higher risk of encountering strokes. As for mortality rate, antidepressant users have 32% higher risks in death rate compared to those who are non-antidepressant users.

However, it still remains unclear on whether antidepressants solely responsible for greater mortality rate of users. But overall, the study did suggest a conclusion that postmenopausal women who take antidepressants face a small but statistically significant increased risk for stroke and death compared with those who do not take the drugs

Kenali Hati Diri Anda dan GTF

Pn, Masrisa, a very senior nutritionist and an expecting mother who is going to give birth soon had delivered a talk related to liver and GTF on 28/12/2009 (Monday).

From the talk, the audience were well-informed that the liver is the largest single organ in the human body. The liver has more than 200 functions and plays a central role in nearly all body functions, including detoxifies the blood by filtering out the toxins such as air pollutants, pesticides, cigarette smoke, environmental chemicals, alcohol, prescription and nonprescription drugs that assault the body on a regular basis. There are over 100 types of liver diseases, let’s say jaundice, loss of sexual drive etc and because of it's many functions, many can be life-threatening unless treated. Hence, it is very important for maintainence of liver health.

Chromium is crucial for liver health because it helps control the metabolism of glucose, which is the most bioavailable form of muscle energy in nature. Good liver health depends on trace minerals like chromium. The liver needs chromium to manufacture fatty acids, lecithin, cholesterol and lipoproteins. Without chromium, blood fats tend to rise because the liver cannot filter them out.

Chromium is the central atom in the “glucose tolerance factor” (GTF), a hormone-like compound that works with insulin to transport glucose out of the blood and into the cells. Glucose is the body’s quickest fuel. GTF (containing niacin, vitamin B3, glycine, cysteine, glutamic acid etc.) enhances insulin, which results in the sugars passing quicker into the cells and in that way they are removed from the bloodstream. By stabilizing the blood sugar level it also assists in regulating the cholesterol in the blood. When this function (GTF) is not working properly, the cells resist insulin and do not properly absorb the glucose needed for energy. With chromium present in the diet, the intestines can produce GTF. However, food processing destroys much of the chromium content in foods and natural chromium levels decline with age and so with the action of the GTFinside our body.

Hence, GT&F® milk powder which is a patented biotechnology product serves as the best choice for GTF supplementation. The unique structure – Lactoferrin Chromium mimics the natural chormium inside mother breast milk thus it eases the best absorption of GTF by our body and allows cells to receive the glucose and nutrient needed from our daily diet. When body cells are healthy, indirectly our whole body system will be healthy as well since cell is the smallest unit to build up organ and system.

Before she ended the talk, she had also shared some of the testimonials that reflected the effectiveness of GT&F® for liver diseases.

Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver ~ William James

Ho Ho Ho!

A very familiar phrase in this festive season. You better watch out, it just because Santa Claus is coming to town!

In more than 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ was the main character in Christmas, but things are gradually replaced by the heavily commercialized Santa Claus.

Hence, whenever Christmas is just around the corner, people would tend to think of Santa instead. Santa, gives us a perception which is a round, super-chubby, dress in red and white colored exclusive Santa robe, flying across the moon and stars with his sledge, presents galore in his bag, and so many more symbolic characteristics.

Dr. Nathan Grills from Monash University said that Santa should change his image instead, by getting off his sleigh and walk, so that he could lose weight, so that he could stop promoting unhealthy living as well as obesity. Santa is also said to promote drink-driving as he drinks gallons of brandy as he rounds on Christmas Eve.

But whatever it is, this is the festive season, and we should all come together and celebrate it, but just remember not to follow Santa lifestyle as far as his health is concerned. Instead of gulping brandy, why not consuming GT&F Milk everyday?

Hereby, GTF wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Diabetes & Glaucoma

A contractor, in his forties, learned that he had diabetes. About 10 years ago, this person went to consult the doctor in order to deal with any vision problems that he suffered. The consulted doctor found that there was a very high intraocular pressure in both eyes of this contractor. Such so-called high intraocular pressure is a very obvious sign of a person having glaucoma. Doctor kept prescribing different types of eyedrops, hoping that the contractor's eyes could be cured, but unfortunately, the treatments did not seem to work, until he underwent a laser procedure followed by continuous eye drop medications which successfully reduced his intraocular pressure.

Cited from wikipedia, glaucoma is a disease that affects the optic nerve as well as involving the loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern. As the example quoted above, ocular pressure is a significant factor in why glaucoma could occur. At a relatively low pressure in the eye, we might develop some nerve damages, while there are also some people who may have high pressure in the eye for years but yet, never develop damage. Nicknamed "Sneak Thief of Sight", untreated glaucoma might steal the sight of the infected individual and eventually causes blindness.

In a recent study, it suggests that people with diabetes face special risks from glaucoma. Both diabetes and glaucoma are said to have a few symptoms which are quite similar. Before the infected individuals are aware of the problems, severe damages could have occurred in their eyes. There are many studies out there which could prove that diabetics are more likely to develop glaucoma, and there are also other studies which suggest that glaucoma patients with diabetes disease are more likely to suffer vision damages. These studies indicated how closely diabetes and glaucoma are related to each other.

While everyone else who suffers glaucoma and at the same time, a diabetes sufferer, trying hard in applying eye medications from doctors, many times they do not realize the root of the problem, and consequently, they do not solve the real problem lying beneath them. Diabetes, apart from being regarded as the root of most of the metabolic syndromes, now vision complications such as glaucoma is very well included under that list.

GT&F Products offer consumers many benefits, especially benefits in curbing the hazardous diabetes. The precious trivalent chromium content in those products could very well enhance insulin signalling in your body. As a result, other metabolic syndromes and body systems, not forgetting possibly glaucoma, can also be improved.

To Watch or Not To Watch?

When we get bored, we prefer to sit back and relax. If there is a complete set of television which is fully equipped with amazing sound system, that could probably sufficient to wrap up the rest of the day. No doubt, television brings us fantastic programs which have the ability to attract us, glue our butts onto the seat.

Perhaps, that is most people culture, be it Asians or Westerners. Eyes on the TV set, is a normal thing to do, and it has becoming a routine for each one of us. In addition, many of us are very well aware that addicting to TV programs for a certain number of hours is not beneficial to us, particularly our health.

A latest study suggests that adults weighing above the healthy range (in other words, individuals who are overweight) could burn more calories by watching less television. This study was the work of University of Vermont researchers, and it appears in the December issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The lead author Dr. Jennifer Otten, suggested that other sedentary activities, such as chatting on the phone, and even reading, actually burns more calories compare to spending time in front of the television. This team of researchers had conducted a trial to look at how reducing the amount of time spent on watching television could affect energy expenditure, body weight, calorie consumption, level of activity and other related attributes, in adults who were deemed overweight.

Researchers recruited 36 adults to participate in this study. Among 20 of htem were chosen at random to cut their TV viewing by 50 per cent for 3 weeks, while the remaining of the adults were treated as the control group.

Surprisingly, for those 20 adults who were chosen to halve their amount of time in viewing the TV, they eventually burn 120 calories more than those in the control group. But how much exactly 120 calories is? Dr. Otten said 120 calories a day of energy which they burned off is equivalent to walking more than a mile.

Babyface

In this sophisticated society, females who are in their younger ages, hope to keep their beauty for an eternity, they hope so badly that their youthful looks will not deteriorate in the future. What about males? Younger males who looked young, often are not satisfied with their own looks, they prefer to look older, or in other words, more matured despite their youthful ages.

If we look at this issue in the males' point of view, will this do any good? Looking matured enough at certain age perhaps could make them more marketable, but how about in the perspective of health? Think again!

A recent study which is published in the Christmas issue of bmj.com claims that people who look young for their actual age enjoy a longer life than their years.

Professor Kaare Christensen, from the University of Southern Denmark, had led a team of researchers to examine whether perceived age is linked with survival. This research team had investigates a total of 1,826 Danish twins whom were aged 70 years and over , and had them underwent physical and cognitive tests, back then in the year of 2001.

Photographs of the faces of these twins were taken, and these photographs weer assessed by appointed individuals, including: 20 female geriatric nurses aged 25 to 46, 10 male student teachers aged 22 to 37, 11 older women aged 70 to 87. These individuals rated their perceived ages by assessing the facial photographs.

After 7 years, death records were used to track the twins survival. What really shocking to the result of the study was, the perceived age seemed to be closely related to the survival of those individuals. The bigger the difference in perceived age within a twin pair, the more likely was that the older looking twin died first. This findings can be concluded that facial photographs proved to be a strong biomarker of ageing.

So young men, do you still think being older is a cool stuff to do?