Diet of Mental Energy

Some kids would think to themselves, "can I bend the stainless steel utensils with my mind?", "can I get hold of the cup without needing to enter the kitchen?", and then they claim that they could attain such kind of power, an extraordinary mind power. Consequently, they would sometimes nag their dad to buy some power source for them to acquire these new mental energy.

But come on, we know that those situations above can only be seen in many Hollywood sci-fi movies, and they are known as telekinesis, and they have got nothing to do with the mental energy we are talking about today (better tell that to your kids in case they are thinking the same thing :) ).

When mental energy is put into the picture, there are basically three different categories which we can break up into. The first would be mood (transient feelings about the presence of fatigue or energy), motivation (determination and enthusiasm), as well as cognition (sustained attention and vigilance). These three therefore forms what we everyday experience mentally.

In the past, there are four famous food sources which we could relate to the contribution of mental energy, and they are ginkgo biloba, ginseng, glucose and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). All these four are said to have effects in causing drastic improvement in human's mental health.

Life Sciences Research Organization, Inc. (LSRO), however has published a review article on the foursome, and about their effects on mental energy. From the article, ginkgo biloba appears to have strongest evidence to have effects on certain aspects of mood and attention in healthy subjects, while omega-3 PUFA has strong associations with reduced risk of age-related cognitive decline.

All About Depression & Others

Recently in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had a somewhat discouraging results when they screened U.S. adults for depression. The probability of a person getting depression is 0.1, in other words, one in ten U.S. citizens has depression. When the word depression comes into the mind, people could just thought of the sad emotion one experiences. But depression is much more than just negative feelings that one feels, it contains even more than you could think of.

Other than affecting badly the quality of life of somebody, depression can also impacts an individual's physical health. Everybody knows this one. But what exactly could depression turn into when it is left untreated? CDC reported that untreated depression can adversely impact the outcome of such chronic conditions such as asthma, cancer (yes, even cancer), diabetes, obesity and arthritis. When the condition worsens, it could even transform into short-term disability.

So how do we know when one experiences depression? Beware and pay extra attention when symptoms below appear:

- Persistent sadness and the feelings of emptiness

- Acts pessimistic, hopelessly

- Lost of interest in normal activities

- Sudden decrease in energy and quick fatigue

- Difficulties in concentrating and making decisions

- Excessive sleeping or insomnia

- Loses appetite or over-eating

- Suicidal thoughts

- Weird aches that would not ease with treatment

Dejavu, Chromium!

As a loyal user or distributor of GT&F Products, you might have noticed the importance, the usefulness of the special substance which known as trivalent chromium in those products. That is the core substance in GT&F Products which specifically improve diabetes and other metabolic syndromes.

Trivalent chromium, or some people might known it as Cr3+ (3 because it is tri- in its prefix) is the one exists within GT&F Products. But there are many outsiders who have yet know about these magnificent products, and at times, they would relate the products with another type of chromium, which is known as hexavalent chromium, or Cr6+. Which in contrast, hexavalent chromium is hazardous to human health. It is especially linked strongly to lung cancer as it is a genotoxic carcinogens.

Hexavalent chromium can be found in either surface or groundwater sources, and those sources can either be man-made or natural. Marhaba, a professor and chairman of the department of civil and environmental engineering and director of the New Jersey Applied Water Research Center at NJIT, advised that by installing a five-stage reverse osmosis home unit which could effectively filter these hazardous hexavalent chromium.

Get Some Milk!

Just blink your eyes in a few more times, that's the end of Year 2010, and we are about to embrace and welcome the coming of the brand new Year 2011. Before we really bid farewell to 2010, let us look back at our business in GTF. Speaking of the main stream product in GTF, it will be none other than our very own GT&F Milk Powder!

GT&F Milk Powder contains great great elements that everyone of us would probably already know. Putting all that aside, let us just focus on milk only. Reviewing the whole year in 2010, we can see there were several major researches about milk, and the possible benefits by consuming milk.

There are many studies about milk conducted by different countries from all over the world. Almost all of these studies mentioned that by consuming milk, about three glasses a day, could cut back 18% of risks in developing cardiovascular diseases. Among those studies, there were a few major ones which mentioned the same thing. In America Journal of Nutrition, US researchers stated that taking in dietary saturated fats does not involve in increasing the risk of coronary or cardiovascular diseases.

Apart from that, an Australian study also pointed out that people who ate the most full-fat dairy had a 69% lower risk of cardiovascular death compare to those who consumed the least. Such study was conducted for 16-year long, and it was participated by 1,529 Australian adults. In Denmark, it is said that individuals who consume inadequate amount of calcium daily would impair the compliance to a healthy diet, and hence causing unnecessary hunger at times.

Milk itself already has great benefits in itself, which under this post, refers to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, not forgetting that it is also a vital food to be consumed for the health of our bones. When one drinks GT&F Milk Powder, which contains additional essential element, trivalent chromium, any other metabolic syndromes can be destroyed as well.

Shifts

Years ago, when people were talking about working, it could be a happy topic for today's people. The reason why is because when people were talking about their respective careers and jobs back then, they were talking about the working time frame as in 5-day jobs in a week, as well as a fixed working hours in a day.

But for current circumstance, many companies do hope that their workers could work extra hours, not just extra hours, sometimes exaggerated long hours just to meet the company's expectation. In addition, companies nowadays like to follow the trend of having their workers working shifts. It is important to understand that shifts do not comply with normal sleep/ wake rhythm as it disrupts our internal biological clock drastically.

Dr. Ole Ammerpohl, a Kiel human geneticist, took advantage of the fact that identical twins are practically genetically alike, took chances and conducted a research on the relationship of shift work and metabolic disorders. Dr. Ole involved in this research by investigating pairs of identical Danish twins where in each pair, one of them involved in shift works. Working shifts might have direct impact on our genetic make-up and the genes contained within this material.

Gene activities in our body are controlled by switches which is known as DNA methylation. Besides DNA methylation, there are other factors which could contribute to the development of metabolic disorders, such as nutritional & sleeping patterns, hormone and blood counts, those are just the factors among others. Also from Kiel University, Professor Manuela Dittmar mentioned that the consequences of working shifts could further propel higher incidence of civilized diseases such as burn-out syndromes or disability.

Asthma & Diabetes

Many times, especially under GTF Worldwide Sdn Bhd, one will always link diabetes with many other diseases and complications, which we often known them as metabolic syndromes, such as heart diseases, inflammation, obesity and many many more. But a recent study shows that other complications, like asthma, also somewhat has some linkages with Diabetes Mellitus.

By looking at the above picture, normal asthmatic patients could have recognized this very easily. Yes, indeed, this is the normal inhaler which is used by many asthmatic patients nowadays. Whenever an asthmatic patient experiences an asthmatic attack, this little gadget which comes in handy will be their best savior. Once a puff, it loosens the respiratory tract of the patient. This relieves the critical condition of the person.

But one thing, this recent piece of research shows that inhaled corticosteroid (the substance found in the inhaler), would somehow increase in the rate of diabetes onset for as much as 34%. While if a person took a highest inhaled dosage, the rate could be increased to 64% in diabetes onset and 54% in diabetes progression.

Hence, according to Sammy Suissa, PhD., the lead investigator of the research, patients instituting therapy with high doses of inhaled corticosteroids should be assessed for possible hyperglycemia and treatment with high doses of inhaled corticosteroids limited to situations where the benefit is clear. Which is exactly the rule which should be obeyed by all asthmatic patients, should the research data fits what our biological reaction really applies.

Tame Diabetes with Exercise

Exercises are essential for everybody, and this of course, including diabetic patients. Recently, a new exercise guidelines and recommendations have published in one of the journal this month, which is Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Such guideline was also jointly issued by American Diabetes Association.

The research shows the importance of physical activity to health for all individuals. According to the new guidelines, it appears that 150 minutes is all it takes. The recommendation also mentioned that these 150 minutes have to be spread out at least three days during a week's time where, in a stipulation that there should not be two consecutive days between bouts of aerobic activities.

Apart from aerobic activities, strength training is also important right now for diabetic sufferers. According to the results of the research, resistance exercise (strength training) has the importance which is on par with aerobic exercise, plus in certain studies, was said to be even more important compare to aerobic exercises as it could reinforce additional benefits of combining aerobic as well as strength training for people with diabetes.

Previously, many physicians believed that exercises might not be suitable for diabetic patients due to excessive body weight they have as well as certain health complications they faced. However, with the proper precautions taken, majority of diabetic patients can undergo normal exercises. According to Colberg, Ph.D., who chaired the writing group, physical activity should not be an excuse for diabetic patients, in contrary, it should be a conscious part of every person's health plan.