#also i cannot stress just how small they are. molecules

[stickersgeorg]

so many tiny animals you don't know how much i love them all

AND. many of the cats are so so scrunkly ❤❤❤😭😭😭

(RachelBardArt on etsy)

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 86

do any of yall ever have like. an Evil infodump? where instead of endlessly word vomiting about a thing you love and are very informed about, there is a thing you are equally well-informed about but hate with a passion that you cannot hold back in conversation?

i do :')

(I'll put it under the cut for the curious because I think it's important and i cannot be stopped but also i'm not kidding the facts are infuriating)

SO. "Homeopathic" is often interpreted as sort of a vague synonym for "natural," or "organic," but it's actually related to a system of alternative medicine that means something Very Specific.

There are two main principles behind the practice of Homeopathy.

"Like cures like." This is the idea that, for example, if you have a headache, taking a veeeery small amount of a substance that is known to CAUSE headaches will cure that symptom. I understand where people fall into this flawed idea, as it sounds very similar to the principles behind, say, vaccines, or antivenom. But it isn't universally applicable in this way. An herb isn't a virus. But even if it was, a Homeopathic preparation of that herb would not have any effect on the body because of the second principle.

"Water has memory." This is the idea that water is able to "remember" any substance that it has had contact with. This is also not true. Molecules don't really have any way to store information like that, and even if they did, well... What would that information do inside our bodies? Would our cells have any way to interpret and process that information? What would they do with it? It's all rather nebulous and it seems like more of a spiritual claim than a scientific one. Which is fine, but is not medicine.

So, with these principles in mind, the process of creating a "Homeopathic Preparation of [insert substance here]" goes a little something like this: You take a dropper and put one drop of your active substance in a container with a hundred drops of water. You then take a drop of that mixture, and put it in another container with another hundred drops of water. You continue this dilution process until there is, quite literally, a near-zero percent chance that your mixture contains even a single molecule of your original active substance (depending on the level of dilution believed to be best for the substance in question. Typically, a higher dilution is considered more potent.) So it is, by this point, literally just a vial of water.

This vial of water is what is then sold as a "Homeopathic preparation of [substance]." OR that water is used to compound a batch of sugar pills, or gel capsules, or tablets, whatever format is being offered. Regardless, the composition of the tincture is literally just water and ~*vibes*~.

And they sell these vials of expensive vibe water! At!!!

THE PHARMACY!!! WITH LIKE THE IBUPROFEN AND ALL THE OTHER REAL MEDICINES!!! AND NO BIG WARNING LABELS THAT SAY, "THIS CONTAINS NO ACTIVE INGREDIENTS AND IS BASED ON VIBES ALONE," OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT!!

In fact! In the US they are able to advertise that they have been FDA approved! (FDA approval of dietary supplements is not the same as FDA approval of actual medications. In the context of supplements, approval just means they've proved it won't just kill you straight up, and thus you're allowed to sell it.) And, well. It certainly won't kill you! In fact they often also advertise things like, "It's natural!" and "No harmful side effects!" and "No risk of overdose!" and it's all technically true! BECAUSE IT'S JUST WATER! LIKE I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW IT'S LITERALLY JUST WATER!!!

Anyway. Please keep this in mind the next time you are offered a homeopathic remedy, or see one advertised in the store, or hear your antivaxxer auntie bragging about the fact that her kids all got a "homeopathic" alternative to their MMR shots.

IT'S! JUST! VIBE WATER!!!!

[peeves-a-legend]

Maximum Entropy

Original Fem!Elementalist x Wizarding World 

A.N. ~ Sooo... I made a new account finally!! And I wanted to restart my page with this piece that I had started a while ago. I hadn’t gotten around to finishing it, but I couldn’t let this idea slip through my fingers with the potential that it has (at least in theory lol). As of right now, the main love interest is undecided; I’m just going to let that unfold as a write. 

Summary ~ Beatrice Drayton is a fourth year at Arctosov Academy for Elementalists when a stranger comes searching for an alliance. Despite centuries of turmoil between hands and wands, she finds herself across the world, willing to work with the folk that bare wands. Harry isn’t the only one with a prophecy, and it just so happens that Drayton’s destiny relies on the success of Potter’s. End of HP book 4 and onward.

Warning ~ Language and probable violence (eventually)

Word Count ~ 4k

Chapter One

There are only a few days left of this term. Only a handful of classes left to study and then I’m free of academic duties for the summer. The bitter Canadian frost had finally submitted to the heat that the lengthened days brought, allowing the vast Boreal to bloom lush with green. Up until now, the school grounds remained in a turbulent state of snow, slush, and mud. Spring was honestly my least favourite time of the year. Maybe if the school was farther South I’d appreciate the season for what it’s worth, but sleet storms and the rapid amplification of mosquito swarms were all too common in the Northwest Territories prior to the sun and shine of the summer months.

I ran through the sun-lit halls of Arctosov Academy in a desperate attempt to get to class on time. It’s moments like this where I’m grateful for the sleek material of the uniform that hugs tight to my limbs and torso. When I was given the purple and black spandex in first year I complained about the tight-fit jumpsuit till I was blue in the face. It’s so itchy. I’ll freeze come wintertime in this cloth. It’s too tight. Blah, blah, blah. Little did I know that I would eventually praise the aerodynamic nature of it when gliding through the crowded corridors.

 The halls of the school were simple, straight passageways that stacked 13 floors high, etched into the side of one of the many mountains that framed the expansive waters of Great Bear Lake. The walls that continued with the face of the mountain were made of tall, clear diamond windows. The bottom of the diamond glass meets a white marble floor while the top of the smooth surface contrasts sharply against the jagged ceiling made of mountain rock. The wall opposite to the lake view was different on all 13 floors. For example, the 9th floor hall (the one that I am currently sprinting down) has a wall made of solid gold. It looks quite gaudy if you ask me. I much prefer the wall made of pure orange flames on the 4th floor. Along each of the distinctive corridors are doors that lead to different rooms that lay in the belly of the mountain. Classrooms, dorms, restrooms, the gym, the dining hall, the kitchen, the library, multiple training rooms, and so on. The only routes that connect each parallel floor to each other are the stairwells that resided at either end of the halls.

 As I dodge through bodies, I can’t help but curse my luck. Not even a time-turner could spare me a few moments of peace between classes that I have back to back and over each other. My brothers and my friends tell me I’m just being dramatic, but it’s not like they would actually know the stress of going through the amount of training that I’m subjected to. To think that I’m only in fourth year!

 I reach the last door on the opposite side of the hall that I entered from and swiftly glide through the misty veil that floats where a door would be placed anywhere else in the world. Arctosov is all about the dramatics when it comes to decor. As soon as the frothy air clears I’m met head on with a group of fifteen or so third, fourth, and fifth year students standing in a large circle. My brother Zaidyn notices me first, taking a step over to make room for me in the ring. I mouth a silent thanks and he offers a small smile in return.

 Our attention is quickly turned to the tall and slender man that paces in the center of the group. At least he had stopped publicly addressing my tardiness every time I showed up to his class a little more than five minutes late.

 ‘…We will be spending a great deal of time in today’s lesson harnessing the energy in the room in combination with the particles that occupy this space,’ thin lips stated as narrowed eyes observed the group of students. ‘We will be conjuring vortex winds; a tornado if you will. But the key is to keep it controlled and clean. If I witness any funnels produced above the hip,’ Professor Turcoff said, addressing a poor third year directly now, ‘consider your Friday evening booked with a detention.’

 ‘Well he seems to be in a stellar mood today, don’t you think?’ Zaidyn huffed quietly enough so that only I could hear.

 ‘Absolutely.’

 ‘Want to work together?’ 

I nodded in response as the circle separated off into smaller groups setting to work. We found a less crowded area off towards the edge of the large circular room. All the training rooms are circular in shape with high steel walls, a steel floor, and a steel ceiling. It’s like being trapped in a tin can and we’re the beans. Cool beans, might I add.

 ‘Now I want you all to focus,’ Turcoff said firmly over the mild chattering that circulated in the room. ‘I don’t just want you to start pushing the molecules around in your vicinity. I want you to feel them. Connect with them. Turn the gases into a fifth limb. Then, and only then, will you have total control.’

 With that, I closed my eyes and opened my palms at my side. This was always my favorite part of conjuring magic. To just feel the vibrations of the atoms that are at my mercy for manipulation. The fluid motion of the air as it swirls around each finger, catching ever so slightly on the craters of my fingerprints. The fuzzy, almost ticklish sensation when my skin radiates deep crimson and ripe orange flames. When I suck the moisture from the air that is plentiful, turning the vapours into a blanket of water that obeys at my command. The deep and gyrating rumble that surfaces from all four sides of the room that I’m standing in, mountain rock waiting to collapse if I let it.

 But the others wouldn’t understand, you see. For the individuals that attend this very class with me cannot feel the lick of a flame. They cannot consume the hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere that is necessary for the flickering lattice of its corresponding liquid. They cannot part the earth at its surprisingly brittle seams, only to allow greenery of sorts to erupt from deep within those cervices. They can only control the air that streams gently over the purple fabric of our jumpsuits. Of course, there are other things that all benders are capable of, but the limit of those abilities is always an arm’s reach away.

 All because of one silly chromosome.

 Now’s a great time to mention that I’m the only girl in a school full of boys. Why? Because I’m the first female bender that had been born in over 4000 years. The third one ever, to be exact. For whatever rhyme or reason it is extremely rare for a female bender to be conceived, to the point where it is literally unheard of. At least until my existence, that is. 

All male benders pass down their elemental ability to the children they procreate. If a son is born, he will take after his father’s magic. So will his sons, and his sons’ sons. But if a daughter is born… it’s a slightly different story. 

Female benders harness power differently than their male counterparts. They are able to tap into magical stores that allow access to all areas of elemental manipulation, rather than a single vault. We assume it has to do with the fact that the first bender was a woman herself. Born from the earth and nurtured by the universe, or however that story goes. 

But why are female benders so scarce? Nobody really knows. I personally think it’s a method to mediate power. I could not even begin to imagine a world filled with all-powerful women with a temperament like mine. The globe would combust in a matter of seconds. Nuclear, man.

 I open my eyes and witness a knee-height funnel of air directly in front of me, swirling gently in a clockwise coil. With a slight curl of my fingers, the twister begins to steadily grow till it’s at the height of my belly button.

 ‘That’s tall enough, Ms. Drayton.’ But I wasn’t going to feed it any more than I already had. I am in control. The particles will not control me. I look to my brother who has also mastered the task at hand, posture poised with a satisfied smirk playing at his lips. The rest of the room seemed quite confident as well, mind a few individuals who had let the wind get away on them.

 The rest of class seemed to be swept away and before long I’m reaching into the skin-hugging collar of my jumpsuit to retrieve the time-turner from around my neck. Four down, only eight more classes to go till dinner. Kill me now.

 When I started school in first year, I was beyond excited to learn how to let my powers flourish. But if somebody would have told me that I would be taking four times the amount of school work as every other student at Arctosov, I think it’s fair to say that my enthusiasm wouldn’t have peaked so high. It is partially my fault though. I had been advised to extend my school years to double the standard duration. Unfortunately, fourteen years fell onto deaf ears. 

Finding shortcuts is my specialty. 

At least some classes are mandatory for all students, like elemental and magical history, calculus, magical and muggle variations of physics and chemistry, and other basic level classes that focus on universal bender abilities. I guess that knocks a couple extra classes off my horrendously long list of academic requirements. Unfortunately, that still leaves quite a hefty load of ability-specific classes on my plate.

 ~

 The day couldn’t have gone any slower. I mean, it was all fine and dandy until some imbecile pissed off Professor Yawny in Flora Manipulation. The idiot conjured a garden of nettle and didn’t know how to retract the growth, which ultimately led to the suffering of some unsuspecting bystanders. Got a hive or two myself, but nothing compared to the group of students that took the brunt of it on the front line. This little stunt earned the class a ten-page essay on retracting plant growth and the dangers of uncontrolled herbage. Honestly, just what I needed.

 As soon as the last period bell chimed (for the third time today), I quickly chucked my notebook and ballpoint into my bag and hurried out of Atomic Theory. I always change out of my jumpsuit before dinner. I hate eating in clothes that expose my well-fed stomach. 

I make my way up to the thirteenth floor to access my dorm. The thirteenth floor is by far the coziest of them all. Instead of cleared and pristine halls, upon entering the corridor one is met with a scattered array of sofas, tables littered with magical and muggle games, bookshelves cluttered with various paperback and hardcover copies, and the single Jadeite wall lined with primarily hockey and quidditch posters. A stereo plays some top muggle hits; the audio competes for volume with the crackling sounds that emit from the large pit in the centre of the hall where a seven-foot high flame resides. There are only two doors carved into the green wall: the girl’s and the boy’s dorms. 

The boy’s dorm is essentially a revolving door. People are always filing in and out of the community space. The girl’s dorm on the other hand was simply built out of respect. They never expected anybody to occupy the space, but knew that even though the chances were slim, a female student might enrol one day or another. Thank God for those engineers’ prognostic train of thought, otherwise I’d be either bunking in the fifth-floor supply closet or with a bunch of dudes.

 Weaving my way around a collection of occupied ping-pong and pool tables, I move quickly not to interfere with the final plays of said matches. These boys tend to get cranky with hunger and exhaustion during the final countdown before supper. The steady sound of the hall dies as I pass through the veil that mists over the entrance to the girl’s dorm. It’s a plain space, but what can I say, I’m the only chick to enter this part of the underground school. I’ve managed to liven the place up with some creeping vines and flowers along the tall, straight marble walls that lead to several bedrooms and baths. Even though the hall is meant to appear light and spacious, the lack of fellow roommates makes this place feel more than empty. Like a blank sheet of lined paper, everything here remains untouched and waiting for scuffs and scrapes of wear, something to push its clean order into the hands of disorder. 

Chaos theory loves to make a mess of things.

 I swing through the eighth door on the right into the space that I had claimed as mine. I got rid of the other three unoccupied beds and transformed the room into one that I could proudly call my home away from home. Just like every other room in the school, the dorm is circular, so placing furniture in a way that I didn’t hate turned out to be a real pain in my ass. It took me all of first year to decide where I wanted to place my bed, my desk, and my wardrobe in relation to the door. Once I figured that out, the rest was quite fun. Potted plants invade any and all counter space available in the room, while little knick knacks can also be spotted within the jungle. The skylight ceiling illuminates the white brick walls, casting an intense glare to any prying eyes above the diamond-glass. I think it’s chic.

 I rummaged through my wardrobe for a pair of blue jeans, sneakers, and my royal purple Arctosov crested pullover. One look in the full-length mirror, quickly fixing my hair to get it up and out of my face, and I set off towards the dining hall. I was at the top of the thirteen flights of stairs when a hand closed around my shoulder, slowing my quick pace.

 ‘In a rush are we, ‘B’?’ Jaxon. The only person in this school foolish enough to get between me and my awaiting meal. I sped up, forcing the gangly fourth year to keep stride.

 ‘You try tack on eight extra classes to your schedule. See how you fair come dinner time.’

 ‘I think you’re just complaining for pity,’ he teased, meeting my rib with his elbow. ‘“Look at me, the most powerful being alive. Tired, stressed, and hungry! You have no idea what it’s like to be so damn awesome all the time! It’s exhausting! I –”’ My hand shot out to push Jaxon off balance, nearly sending him down the last couple stairs in the flight we were walking down.

 ‘Your impression of me is beyond inaccurate.’

 ‘And your muscles are beyond underestimated,’ Jaxon shot back with a smirk, rubbing his arm where I contacted him with the blow. ‘Didn’t know you possessed the power of super-strength as well.’

 ‘Like you said, I’m just so damn awesome.’ Our grins mirrored each other as we bounded down the rest of the steps to the first-floor dining hall. This is how our banter went most of the time. It was quick, it was witty, it was smooth. He always knows just how far to push to elicit a shove back, and I always shove back. But he also knows when he’s about to push too far. Rarely ever had we actually fought with one another. In the last four years of school, we’ve only actually fought once, and that’s a story nobody talks about anymore. It was stupid, but it was explosive, and I mean literally explosive. Jaxon is a fire bender, so I’m lucky that I have the ability to take the heat. The library shelves that surrounded us during the dispute… well, they didn’t survive. 

Jaxon was my best friend. A brother. Nothing more, nothing less. In my eyes at least.

 Like cattle, students were milling into and about the dining hall trying to find a place to sit at the single spiral table that coiled into the center of the round room. Purple banners bearing our school crest hung from the high rock ceiling, flashing the menacing stare of the Kodiak that was featured in the heart of the emblem. The student body had encountered a few of the rather large bears during my years at the academy. I never thought I’d ever get the chance to witness such fear amongst a group of insufferably cocky teenage boys, and I loved every second of it. Bunch of pansies.

 ‘B!’ My attention is quickly captured by my two brothers sitting in the middle of the spiral of students. Jaxon and I walk down the winding aisle to sit in front of Zaidyn and Treston, who have also changed out of their uniforms. It is only when we take our seats that I realize that something is definitely not right.

 ‘Hey guys, why the long faces?’ I ask, hesitation evident in my wavering tone. If Treston looks startled, then something big must have happened. This sixth year is not easily phased. 

A couple of our other friends join the group, sitting on either side of Zaidyn and myself. They also become attentive to the tension held within the conversation. Bret and Oscar share a look between themselves then with me, silently looking for an explanation. I simply shrug my shoulders. 

This is weird.

 Treston is the first to speak. ‘Didn’t you hear?’

 ‘Hear what?’ Jaxon and I replied in unison.

 ‘One of them is here,’ Zaidyn continued. ‘Apparently wants to give a speech or something after supper. Not sure what about though.’

 ‘What do you mean here?’ snaps Jaxon. ‘I thought that they weren’t allowed on our turf?’

 ‘Yeah, I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate it if someone of our kind went poking a nose over the fence,’ Oscar added. Zaidyn simply shook his head in shock. ‘I mean, legally they can’t be here, right? Documentation exists for a reason –’

 ‘Documentation is nothing but a piece of paper and a couple of lousy signatures. Words mean nothing to them. They’ve always turned their backs on allies and their own. Don’t you ever pay attention in Magical History?’ It was meant to be a rhetorical question, but I can still see how my sharp words stung Oscar. He’s always had too much pride for his own good, especially when it comes to his grades in school. His glare notified me that I’d hit a weak spot.

 ‘Alright ladies, claws away,’ Bret chimed in. Always there to referee, but it’s usually Jaxon and I that he tries to simmer down. ‘I know it’s news that none of us want to hear, but if it’s true then we have to keep our heads on our shoulders and on a swivel. I can’t see anything good coming out of this, and I know neither can any of you,’ he said addressing the quiet group.

 ‘All I’m saying is that agreements were made for a reason. If they hadn’t been made, then the magical world would be in a completely different state as of right now. They should be considering themselves lucky that they aren’t extinct,’ Oscar sighed. I had to agree with him there. ‘Our ancestors were patient and wise, which is why we lost so much blood to the wands. But too much animosity had festered for far too long, and quite frankly I don’t consider myself patient or wise. You can’t tell me today’s generation would be so kind as to forgive and forget.’

 Oscar was right and we all knew it. Everybody in the hall knew it, too. We may have forgiven them, but we sure as hell have not forgotten. We are reminded every day we walk through these halls – the only halls on the planet that houses students of our kind. The number of benders left was a thought to make my blood run cold. Although, we are making a comeback; slowly but surely. I gave Oscar a small half-understanding, half-apologetic smile.

 Before I could add anything further to Oscar’s words of truth, a lavish dinner appeared on the table below our chins. Elk roast, wild salmon, kale salad, stuffed mushrooms, and more. I prayed that saskatoon pie was being served for dessert later in the evening. The apprehensive atmosphere quickly dissipated as we dug into our grub. Frowns were replaced with filled-cheek smiles, and the uneasy silence was enveloped in hearty laughter. Talk of the latest playoff news and summer plans seemed to entertain the table enough to keep the conversation going. It was interesting being a part of the guy’s gossip sessions during meals. Not that I would actually call it gossip; maybe more along the lines of petty pissing contests. Wouldn’t be the first time I sat through a mine’s bigger than yours argument.

 It was when our Headmaster stood up from the semi-circle teacher’s table at the back of the hall that the reality of the situation set in once again. Professor Fobert never has to gather the attention of the many eyes leering in anticipation, for their focus was already on him. Fobert’s aura demanded one’s gaze, it did not ask. He was tall, sternly featured, and looked tough as nails. His black-scaled tunic wrapped snugly around his torso, making the greying man look ready for battle at a moment’s notice. When the hall’s sound died down, all that could be heard was the vibrations from deep within the mountain’s abdomen, rock waiting to respond to our Headmaster’s request.

 ‘Good evening, students. I shall speak frankly and I shall speak clearly, that way you will not misunderstand what I am about to tell you.’

 Well that’s a new introduction.

 ‘I have never assumed any of you as naive, therefore I refuse to start now.’

 A very new introduction.

 ‘Most of you are aware that we have a guest joining us this evening. A guest that has come from overseas to speak to you all.’ It seemed as though our Headmaster couldn’t speak quickly enough. Every student in the room was now perched on the edge of their seat, listening intently for the next words to leave Fobert’s mouth. We knew where this was going, but nobody wanted to acknowledge the elephant in the room. 

Fobert opened his mouth to speak again, but words never escaped. Instead, a toothy grin tightened the flesh around his chin, and his eyes looked over the heads of the students sitting before him. Naturally, we all turned our heads in the direction of our superior’s gaze towards the entrance to the hall.

 If the hall was quiet a moment ago, it sure as shit wasn’t anymore. We didn’t even need a second take to confirm our suspicion.

 The man was about the same height as Professor Fobert, but the age difference was quite notable. Where Fobert was steeled with sharp middle-aged wear, the other man appeared worn with the drooping and sagging lines of old-age. He did not wear a tunic and pants, but a floor-length grey robe that matched the colour of his long, neatly kept beard. The cuffs on his sleeves tapered off in the shape of a bell at the knuckles of his boney fingers.

 Only people of wizarding blood dressed like that.

 ‘Albus!’ 

[thequirkdetective]

Investigation 13: Elasticity – Danjuro Tobita

It’s almost the Christmas holidays as I write this, as well as being exactly halfway through December. Hopefully during the holidays we can catch back up to schedule, so this should be the last upload that isn’t on time. Let’s not dwell on it. Shall we?

Danjuro Tobita, better known as Gentle Criminal, has the quirk of elasticity. This allows him to make anything he touches elastic (in the sense of property, rather than material). I only learned when researching this quirk that his name is in fact a pun of the quirk in Japanese, where the standard Japanese kanji for ‘elasticity’ also translates as ‘gentleman’. This has nothing to do with the investigation, I just thought it was a cool fact.

The first problem we run into is that elasticity isn’t a set property at the molecular level. Different materials are elastic for different reasons, mostly due to the different ways the atoms and molecules within the substance are bonded together. For example, rubber is elastic because of its complex interlinked polymers that align when stretched. Most other substances deform elastically due to uniform deformation of their atomic structure. Which brings us to our second problem…

Nothing is perfectly elastic. Rubber and other elastomers are ‘elastic’ up to a point (around 10x their original length), but other materials can only deform slightly before they become plastic. Plasticity, in opposition to elasticity, is the property of a substance that retains its new shape when deformed, while elastic materials return to their original shape.

These two factors together make the effects of Gentle’s quirk highly irregular. To explain them, we first have to look at elasticity in more depth. So-called ‘perfect elasticity’ is described by Hooke’s Law, which states the force required to stretch or extend a material is directly proportional to the distance it is to be stretched or extended. This means to compress a spring to a quarter its length, one must apply twice the force required to halve its length, and so forth. This is (practically) true for all materials to a point. After that point, known as the yield point, the material stops being perfectly elastic, and begins deforming plastically. There are other stages between this and the material breaking, but these are unnecessary to discuss since no material that has been affected by the quirk has ever reached its yield point.

Let’s begin, as always, with the largest use of the quirk, here being the material that underwent the largest force and still remained elastic. The answer would of course be the air trampolines that redirected Izuku’s pellet of air[1], but the physics behind this interaction is possibly the most gratuitous and bloody murder of sense in the anime. I usually shy away from criticising the anime on its science, primarily because it’s a work of fiction about superheroes, but also because its purpose is a source of entertainment, and I bring the burden of applying science to it upon myself. In this instance however, I am allowing myself a small fracture in my usual composure to discuss why this scene is absolutely nonsensical.

Firstly, Izuku cannot create a bullet of air. To flick his finger is to create a pressure wave that spreads out from the point of creation at the speed of sound. No faster, no slower. If the finger is to move at a supersonic speed, the resultant pressure wave would create a sonic boom, and still travel at only the speed of light, still in a dissipating wave. Due to the properties of waves, their amplitude decreases with the square of the distance from the source. Thus Deku’s blast wave would not need aiming, and would also be barely a light breeze at such a distance as it is used.

Additionally, and most grievously, Gentle cannot create trampolines of air in the air. This is for the simple (yet often misquoted) fact of Newton’s Third Law. The classic, profound, smart-guy quip version is “every action has an equal opposite reaction”, but this is most likely only because the full answer is far more bloated. The law is in fact “when body A exerts a force on body B, body B exerts a force on body A that is of equal magnitude, opposite direction, identical type, and in the same line, as the force of body A on body B”. Quite a mouthful, but there’s a lot of subtle and important detail missing from the first, I’m sure you’ll agree. The problem here is that the created trampoline must exert a large force of Gentle to cause such acceleration (see Newton’s Second Law of Motion), and thus Gentle exerts a force on the trampoline, that causes an accelerate in the same proportion to the acceleration of Gentle as the ratios of their respective masses. Since air is a lot less dense than Gentle, and his quirk does not appear to add mass to a system, the trampoline would be accelerated backwards considerably fast before Gentle could gain any significant acceleration. It would be like trying to push yourself backwards by punching a balloon. Sure, the balloon is elastic, but it does not have enough mass to exert the required force. The only way this could work is if the trampolines were connected to the earth (thus the mass of the system is increased), but the only way this could occur is via more elasticated air. This does not happen because a) it is not seen – the elasticated air becomes slightly opaque (possibly a stylistic effect to show the action of the quirk) and there are no opaque structures visible, just a single floating disc, and b) these structures would be elasticated, and thus the system would be too flexible to exert such force over such distance.

Right, after that little rant, lets get back to the matter at hand. During the fight with Gentle and Deku there is a scene within a construction site that gives a lot of valuable information. This comes in the form of gratuitous quirk use, as well as an explicit statement of the quirk’s features: it cannot be turned off at will, and instead fades over time. This is odd when compared to almost all other quirks (if you need any examples, every other quirk investigated save one can be both activated and deactivated at will) and so it is likely it ties into the mechanism of the quirk’s action.

The scene contains two key uses of elasticity. Firstly, multiple steel girders are made elastic, and secondly a crane arm is made elastic. The former is useful because it is used by Gentle for movement, so the force on it and thus a lower limit for the yield point can be garnered. The second is useful because it showcases the flexibility of elasticated materials by how much the crane arm bends.

The steel beam bends about 1m each side of its equilibrium, which seems to be relatively unaffected by the quirk. The beam seems around 10m long, but thankfully the beams look like Universal Beams, which have standardised measurements including each type’s flange thickness, root radius, and most importantly, mass by metre and elastic modulus in each axis. Unfortunately there are almost 100 types, each of subtly different dimensions and properties. After downloading a spreadsheet and sifting through all types, I can confidently say the distinction does not matter, as the differences are all within the margin of error that arises upon attempts to measure the on-screen girder.

Let’s start with some maths. There’s no escaping it, and this time it’s back with a vengeance. Assuming the girder bends to approximate an arc (a section of a circle’s circumference) we can use some geometry to figure out the length of the original and stretched girders, and thus how much longer the latter is than the former. The unstretched we already know is around 10m long, and the centre bends ~1.5m from equilibrium. Since the ends are fixed, we know the chord subtending the arc is 10m long, and the distance bent (1.5m) is the distance between the arc and the centre of the chord. I won’t bore you with the details, but it turns out that the steel only increases length by 60cm, or one 60th its original length.

There isn’t much clear data on how elastic metals are (illustrated by the fact that a cursory search of “how far do metals stretch” gets 10 results in before some very different and nsfw questions come up instead, no points for guessing what they are) but there is an incredibly useful dataset courtesy of engineering toolbox, containing the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength or Young’s Modulus of almost every material you can think of. I’m not sure which engineer would need to compare the elasticity of compact and spongy bone, but I’m sure some day I’ll be glad the entry is there. For now we’ll look at the structural steel values, and thankfully all three are available. Let’s take a moment to discuss what they mean.

Young’s Modulus is the ratio of stress against strain, and has a fixed value for each material. Stress is the force per unit of cross-sectional area applied to the material, and the strain is the stretched length sure to such stress over the original strength. Yield strength is the minimum stress required to deform the material plastically, and ultimate tensile strength is the stress required to snap the material. Structural Steel has a Young’s Modulus of 200, so for every 200 MN of force per square metre of cross-sectional area, the beam will double in length. Sadly, these simple calculations are only applicable when the force and extension lie on the same line. In our case, the deformation is complex, non-shear, and therefore cannot be described at an angle relative to the force. In this case, we must apply the terrifyingly named Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory. It contains some fittingly terrifying equations, included variable functions based on beam material, and second derivatives against two separate nested variables. However, in our scenario, the beam is supported at both ends (known as a simply supported beam) and we’ll assume it is uniform in density, elasticity, etc. Therefore we get an equation that looks like this: σmax = ymax F L / (4 I) where σmax is maximum stress at a given point, ymax is the distance from the point to the neutral axis, F is the force applied to the centre of the beam, L is double the length of the beam, and I is the ‘area moment of inertia of the cross section’. I have almost no idea what that last one means, but thankfully I managed to find an equation for it given different dimensions of a symmetrical I-shaped cross-section. There are two pieces of bad news. 1, it looks like this: Iy = (a^3 h / 12) + (b^3 / 12) (H - h), and 2, we now need to play a game of universal-beam ‘Guess Who’ to gain the correct dimensions.

The beam in the anime seems to be less than 500mm in depth, so that removes 47 possible types. Less than 500mm in width sadly doesn’t remove any more. However, we do know the beam is roughly larger than 150mm, since it larger than Deku’s hand span, which removes another 23. Averaging the rest gives us some dimensions we can use as an approximation of the beam. Thankfully, there exists a table of standard UK I beam dimensions and their respective area moment of inertia of the cross section. Comparing our values to the closest standard gives a value of 7440. Plugging this into the max strain equation, we find the maximum strain on the beam to be 0.79N per square metre. A strangely low number that says to me something must be wrong. The problem is we don’t know the value of F, and since I just used Gentle’s weight the formula treats the beam as incredibly flexible, since it bent so much under such little load. This is a problem, only solved by using a formula involving the Young’s Modulus E  of the beam rather than F. Such a formula is even more complex than those already seen, and is at such a level that I cannot understand how to apply it to the above scenario. Indeed, this post is already much over its due posting date at time of writing, and we have not talked at all about the quirk’s mechanism. Beam theory being as complicated as it is, and having spent now a good few days failing to apply it, I believe it is best we approach the problem from a different angle.

It’s safe to say the metal becomes not just more elastic, but more flexible, when the quirk takes effect. It takes a very large force to bend metal to the extent shown, and that metal would snap or at least bend plastically before that point is reached (sadly I cannot say which would occur). Therefore something about the molecular structure of the metal must change.

As previously discussed, metals and polymers bend differently at the molecular level, and this is because their very structures are different. Metal atoms bond by delocalising their outer electrons, creating positively charged ions attracted to a sea of negatively charged delocalised electrons. This is why metals shine – the electron sea is incredibly smooth, sub atomically so. Polymers bond via covalent bonds and inter-molecular bonds, creating discrete polymers that weakly attract each other. Gentle’s quirk must somehow make both these structures, and others, elastic in the same fashion.

The first answer is to weaken the inter-molecular forces within the structures, allowing polymers/molecules/any base elements to more easily move past each other within the material. Sadly, this just makes the material more ductile, which is the ease with which the material can be elongated via tensile force. To make something more elastic, the forces holing the molecules together must be made, for want of a better word, springier. Essentially, they must be able to act over a longer distance in order to pull the material back into shape after deformation. To do this simply would be to make the bonds stronger, but this would also make the material less flexible and denser. Instead, the force must somehow be spread across some distance profile, maintaining its magnitude at the standard distance of molecules from each other, but fall off slower as distance increases. The way to do this while retaining the other featured of the material is essentially fictional, and would even break thermodynamics (again) by being able to increase the Helmholtz Free Energy within a closed system. Since we’re now changing the mechanism by with one of the four fundamental forces of the universe functions, we can suppose the quirk changes the quirk in such a way ass to create perfectly elastic materials, since they already seem to have ridiculously high yield points.

Supposing this is the case, the question immediately arises – so what? The answer is that perfectly elastic materials have immense uses within many scientific circles. If a material returns to exactly the same state after deformation as it was in before, then it has the same energy. This means any object that hits it rebounds with the same kinetic energy as it started with, a phenomenon known fittingly as a perfectly elastic collision. Every other collision loses energy as heat, save for collisions that stretch the term for physics reasons, such as two orbiting objects. In our case purely elastic collisions have as many uses as elastic materials do, and possibly more. To have any material possible suddenly, even though temporarily, gain perfect elasticity will have material scientists drooling, and although I do not have the intelligence to think of any novel applications of such, asking one of them would I’m sure give you myriad answers.

Another fun application is heat-proofing. A material becomes liquid when the inter-molecular forces are partially overcome by kinetic energy, and gasses when the forces are broken completely. Since these forces are unlimited in distance, the objects would never be able to become gaseous, and would have very high cohesion (surface tension) when liquid. I’m again not sure of the applications of this, but it is cool nonetheless.

To conclude, Gentle Criminal’s quirk affects any material he touches, and changes the effect of the electrostatic forces within it, making them act across any distance, with a slight reduction in magnitude with distance. This works by having the force pull the molecules together from any distance, until they become close enough to be repelled by the electrostatic repulsion of the atoms. Any force applied may overcome the electrostatics for a distance, but will never cause yielding.

[1] Season 4 episode 85: School Festival Start!!

I hope you enjoyed this investigation! It’s almost Christmas as I post this, and as I’m sure you’re aware this post should have ben released on the 1st. I’m also sure you’re aware this has become a trend, and I’m sure you know reasons behind it. It is therefore with a heavy heart I announce we will be taking a hiatus for an undefined length of time. We have decided it is better to write a few posts as backup and prepare for posting, rather than desperately writing posts weeks after they’re due and apologising. We don’t have an idea of when we will be back, but we will. In the mean time, go have a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, and a happy new year. We’ll see you some time in 2021.

[iturbide]

(hey you should totally flex ur science muscles on crests/relics because that stuff STILL wilds me out it's so cool even if i only really truly understood part of it)

oh no bany what have you unleashed

okay so for anybody not in the know about this (which is...probably everybody?), I have a deep fascination with science shit.  Biology was absolutely my jam in school, and sometimes I still just go Wiki-diving into weird little science topics for no reason besides “I saw something cool mentioned in a post/article/fic and now I want to know more.”  I have a Science Hat that I mostly only get to wear when Pokemon comes into play, but somehow or another Three Houses managed to hit just the right balance of magic and technology to let me run wild on the science side.  Usual disclaimer applies, this is all just personal speculation and headcanon territory.

Anyway let’s talk about the Crest Virus.

I have this very weird theory.  That dragon blood, when it enters the human system, essentially acts like a virus -- more specifically, like a retrovirus.  The genetic sequence from the dragon ‘donor’ invades the host’s cells and begins to rewire them completely: it splices its sequence into the host’s DNA and begins to produce a shocking variety of new proteins and other molecules both within the cell and attached to the cell’s exterior surface.  It also reproduces its gene package and ships it off within the host organism to continue spreading the genetic material -- which is a key strategy in the early ‘infection’ stage, when the host’s immune system is going on the attack; the repackaged genes originated internally and hijack some of the host’s unique personal antibodies, tricking the immune system into thinking that they’re not invaders at all.  Once all host cells have the ‘donor’ genes (characterized by the altered cellular receptors, which won’t accept the gene package), the virus itself becomes inert and cannot be transferred to another individual. 

Depending on the quantity of dragon blood received (and possibly depending on the method of transfer, as well -- direct injection would be vastly more efficient than ingestion), the ‘infection’ process could be very rapid, overtaking the host within a matter of days for large quantities that rapidly gain a foothold in many locations; or very slow, requiring weeks or even months for small amounts where the virus must spread from one point out while fighting the immune system at every turn (since a human immune system will get wise to infection pretty damn fast and can attack its own infected cells; this autoimmune response may be what’s responsible for the deaths in the Twisted experiments, since their reserves of dragon blood carrying an active virus can’t be replenished and they’re trying to be sparing with their limited stock.  Ultimately, though, anyone who survives the procedure ends up with a Crest due to all the extra genetic material inserted into their genome -- which could additionally explain the extraordinarily long lifespans in first-generation Crestbearers. 

In humans and many other organisms, DNA replication is not a perfect thing; with every copy, a tiny bit of genetic information is snipped off the end.  To defend against genetic deterioration, chromosomes end in a number of repeating non-coding sequences called telomeres; their decay is what causes ageing and associated physical decline in humans.  By adding in so much additional genetic data, it could stave off normal ageing, especially if the new code is added in a place that it defends key human genes from deterioration.  It could also explain the bizarre case of Maurice: somehow or other, the Crest-bearing genes ended up in the wrong place, and vital human genes deteriorated through repeated divisions over time -- and once they decayed too far, the dragon genome inserted in his cells took over, transforming him into a beast who retained his human consciousness.

As an added “bonus,” though, this particular virus doesn’t just affect somatic cells the way most viruses do.  It also affects reproductive ones, as well -- though in that instance, it’s not the sex cells themselves that get the virus, but the germ cells that produce them within the reproductive organs.  Because the Crest genes undergo meiosis along with everything else, the genome is incomplete, and because it’s not a normal part of the human genome there’s no guarantee that the sequence will be completed upon fusion with another gamete the way it would be in dragons.  And this is part and parcel of why Crest inheritance is such a gamble: a thousand years after the death of the Ten Elites, the Crest genomes are scattered all over, and there’s never any guarantee that meiosis is going to preserve the gene or completely strip it away.  People lucky enough to get all the correct genes markers end up with a Major Crest; people with partial gene markers end up with a Minor Crest; and those with incomplete gene markers end up with none at all; they could still be a carrier, technically, but key Crest markers would be required to actually produce a Crest in any offspring (and that’s assuming the meiosis is kind).

Now then from there we can turn into the madness of Relics.

So dragons are, to put it gently, weird.  It might be possible to kill their physical bodies, but their Creststones (effectively their heart) clearly retains some measure of life even after death; Sothis’ Creststone within Byleth imparts a literal part of her within them, after all, but beyond that a Relic is inert until its proper Creststone is embedded in it, at which point it starts twitching.  It’s made of bone, but it twitches and moves simply from having its heart attached.  It’s important to note, though, that while the Relic might move, it’s not technically ‘active’ at that point because it’s not yet a complete system; the heart is present, as is the body, but there is no blood.  Relics can only be activated, and their special powers accessed, by the appropriate Crestholder, because their blood in proximity to the bones and heart fools what remains of the dragon into thinking that the system is complete.

Unfortunately, repeated use of a Relic by someone without the appropriate Crest stresses the unbalanced system, and eventually the remnant of the dragon within the Creststone will try to rectify the matter -- by trying to recreate its body, using both its true bones as part of the Relic and the body of whoever’s unfortunate enough to be holding it both as the basis of the change.  Which is exactly what happened to Miklan.  Miklan wasn’t actually granted a Crest, though: the Creststone just consumed his body, so even if he had survived he wouldn’t have ended up with a Crest.

And I think that mostly sums up my weird thoughts on how Crests and Relics work it’s a lot of mumbo jumbo mostly but it’s a ton of fun to me.

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 37

Your Intestine

Maybe now you will snap at me saying, “What are you trying to do? You are nothing but a set of long pipes, you are the last one to talk about itself!” But take care and do not be so quick to dismiss me; do not make a face at me for the waste material I carry. You need to know first that your organs-the heart, kidneys, liver, and others-cannot work without me. Exaggeration? Not at all! So just listen to me and see for yourself.

In order for you to understand me better, keep in mind a basic principle about the functioning of living organisms-they all depend on energy use. If no energy enters a living system, then no metabolic activity, no life function can be carried out. Think about a car without fuel. No matter how great the car is, it simply won’t work without any fuel in the tank. The human body is no different. Plants and animal products which people consume as food provide the body with fuel. However, you cannot make use of the energy in nutrients in the form in which you take them in. They need to undergo a process so that they become usable fuel for us, like crude oil being refined into gasoline to make a car work. This is roughly what my duty is. Without my functioning, you would be devoid of the energy to move a finger, and eventually die. Do you understand now how important a set of pipes I am? You just think that I look like a soft and hollow canal and misjudge me as simple. Well, I know that I don’t have such complex parts as the heart, lungs, and kidneys, but I’m created as a perfect work of art in plain design.

Although the hoses you use for watering your garden wear out and break in a relatively short time, my walls made of four layers keep functioning through a lifetime without any holes unless I contract a disease like cancer. My outer layer consists of a durable connective tissue, the next one consists of two sets-one horizontally and one vertically laid-of straight muscles, the next layer under that consists of glands spread in a soft connective tissue, and the innermost layer is the epithelial mucosa where the actual absorption takes place.

Now, let’s come to how I achieve digestion, one of your body’s vital activities. Actually, there is no place for me to take any pride in it; I’m just doing as I am ordered. Anyway, the complex processes occurring within my simple-looking walls are just fascinating! Every one of my cells producing the particular enzymes to break up each nutrient is like a separate factory. Some of these enzymes break proteins into different levels of peptides, some break the peptides into amino acids, some break fats into fat acids and glycerin, whereas some break carbohydrates down into glucose. All of these particular enzymes have their sub-branches within themselves. For example the enzymes breaking down fructose (fruit sugar), lactose (milk sugar), and starch are all different. In order for the enzymes to be effective, my inside needs to have the right pH level; the enzymes work in very sensitive conditions. To give you an idea, the enzymes in the stomach-which happens to be the second station the nutrients are destined for before they come to me-work in an acidic environment (pH: 2.5–3). In my case however, basic fluids are secreted and this strong acidity is neutralized for my enzymes to work.

My overall length is around 8.5 meters from the first entrance at the stomach to the last exit. The small intestine is nearly 7 meters long and the remaining 1.5-meter section is the large intestine. Although the small intestine is the longest section of the digestive tract, it is still called small since it is smaller in diameter than the large intestine.

The small intestine is also divided into three sections. The very short (25–30cm) and relatively thicker part right after the stomach is the duodenum. Bile-which works like detergent and facilitates breaking up fats-produced by the liver and digestive enzymes from the pancreas enter the duodenum. Thus, the nutrients are digested one step further and pass on to the second section (jejunum) and then to the third (ileum). You cannot easily tell apart these final two sections. As blood circulation is more intense in the second section, this section is more reddish and the contractions here are faster and stronger. The third section is narrower and has thinner walls. The blood circulation here is relatively lower and the movements are more limited. The thin membrane of connective tissue (mesentery) around me which attaches me to the abdomen wall and prevents me from knotting up is relatively fatty in this third section.

My most vital parts are the villi-tiny nipples covering the curly surface of my inner wall like a carpet. Shaped like the fingers of a glove, villi yield an enormously large inner surface. They contain a net of capillaries and lymph canals. In addition to the glands secreting the enzymes to break down nutrients, the secretion of certain glands protects me against the destructive effect of the stomach acid. Some cells secrete mucus for lubrication and protection of the passing nutrients. As some cells of the villi secrete digestive enzymes, some of my cells absorb the nutrients broken down until the final phase and pass them to the bloodstream.

How can some guys mistake such a splendid mechanism as a work of unconscious nature? What I’m telling you about is a manifestation of such great knowledge and might that it leaves you spellbound. I know the characteristics of foods, I know about the other organs’ needs, I adjust various enzymes and an absorption system, I fit them in a limited space… In addition, I do all these in the most ideal way, without any waste or flaw! C’mon can all these happen by themselves? Now, if I were to start telling everyone about the absorption mechanism in detail, they would probably see those cells as divine beings! The One who assigned special carrier molecules and a system for every nutrient molecule, has placed two transfer systems as blood and lymph pathways in every single one of those millions of villi! The blood pathway passes amino acids, water and salts into the blood directly, whereas the lymphatic pathway absorbs fats to pass them to the blood indirectly. After absorption, the nutrients become a property of the body and they are carried in the bloodstream to all the cells waiting for them in need.

Well, what about the waste then? Since everything you eat is not beneficial and usable, and some things are even toxic, they should be disposed of as soon as possible. The unabsorbed remnants are still too watery to be disposed of; sending them away as they are will be a waste of water and minerals. But don’t worry, everything is perfectly planned! Now the large intestine comes on duty. In this 1.5-meter section, the water of the waste and certain minerals are absorbed, and the waste solidifies. The large intestine is also divided into three sub-sections. The pouch connected to the junction of the small and large intestines is named the cecum and there’s the appendix at its end. This end sometimes festers and you have to have it removed in an appendectomy. Now, there’s this made-up story that the appendix was once longer since your ancestors only ate plants, that it has evolved into a shorter form for I now eat more meat, so on and so forth… Bah! Nothing is created in vain. If it didn’t have a duty, it simply wouldn’t be created. Only after some time did it dawn on them, after researchers proved that it is so necessary, that as a lymphoid organ, rich in blood vessels, it produces antibodies to fight the germs which somehow make their way into me.

The rest of the large intestine is the colon and the rectum. The mucosa covering my inner surface is rather smooth. It secretes mucus to facilitate the removal of waste. In addition, useful bacteria are made to work in abundance in the large intestine for your needs. These bacteria synthesize the group B vitamins like B12, thiamin, and riboflavin, along with vitamin K. You see how all the processes are carried out so splendidly? If it weren’t for vitamin K, your blood would fail to coagulate, and the slightest injury to your blood vessels would kill you. Could you ever have imagined that what looks to you like a sewage canal could produce vitamins of vital significance? Your Creator has infinite wisdom.

Now you may wonder how the acts of this organ which resembles a long hose are regulated, how the nutrients inside are propelled, and then thrown out. To put it briefly, the “willful” part of your brain does not even know about it. Indeed, if it knew, it would be constantly busy with me and unable to do anything else.

Under the control of the autonomous nervous system, the straight muscles of my walls gradually contract in waves-this is squeezing act is called peristalsis. The nerve fibers connected to me fall into two basic categories-sympathetic and parasympathetic. As the sympathetic fibers pressure me to slow down, parasympathetic fibers stimulate me to act. Thus, I try to keep a balanced functioning between these two opposite effects. When the waste material I propel this way assumes a state to be disposed of, it reaches the rectum, and when the walls here strain, I make a natural call to you that I need to get rid of garbage. This is the step where your will has a partial interference.

Colon cancer, which troubles many people today, appears in this final section. The major reason is consuming too much meat and fatty foods, lack of movement, and leading a stressful life. When these are combined, I fail to function properly. If you want to help me at that, you should consume fiber-rich foods such as fruit and vegetables, and also lead a peaceful life. My web of nerves is amazingly rich and complex. Therefore, I am sensitive to nervous changes. If you feel down or sad, and if you suffer too much stress, I begin to go into spasms. Then I fail to dispose of waste, the toxic material inside me begins to damage my inner walls and eventually increases your cancer risk. Therefore, you’d better take up the habit of a glass of warm water when you get up in the morning, and try to have regular meals at the same times of the day. Most importantly, always have fresh green vegetables on your table, reduce meat intake… and it would be great if you could afford to consume olive oil rather than any other.

Hey, wait! I was about to forget the most important point. If you don’t have any peace of mind, all of these will be useless. This doesn’t mean that you will never worry; after all, this world is a testing ground and you are a human being like anyone else. However, if you give in to troubles and get overcome by feelings like panic, fatigue, and hopelessness, then my functioning will be upset. So, troubles faced with active patience and effort without giving up hope do not harm me much.

I do not wish you to wait until you see colon cancer patients disposing of waste through a hole in their belly into a plastic bag before you feel grateful for the blessings you enjoy. Actually, maybe I have told you at most a tenth of what I know about myself. Anyway, I think even this much will give you an idea of what a work of art I am. Thanks for listening to me

[acelessthan3]

given that I work in the supplement industry with ease of access, product information, a lot of reading time, and willingness to experiment on my own body; I guess you could say I’m an amateur biohacker 

so I’ma lay some knowledge on you

guess if I’m gonna be thorough

first off: don’t trust everything you read on the internet, but if you’re going to examine and selfhacked are two reputable, well-researched, well-sourced places for information on any given nutritional supplement. I’m more inclined to trust examine if I have to choose between the two. If they don’t have an article on it, there probably hasn’t been enough science done to warrant putting it together.

that said, just because science doesn’t have something to say about a thing, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work in some way, just means science hasn’t done the work to look at it yet and Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic Traditions and various Indigenous Peoples’ herbal remedies have merit and are worth looking at

I’m also not a doctor, but I’ve got a BS in Kinesiology so I’ve taken enough anatomy and biochemistry to at least be able to read most of the science I come across. I also work as a supplement whore and have years of customer interactions and corporate product trainings to know what’s hot in the industry, what the trends are for consumers, what doctors and naturopaths most frequently recommend.

Here’s my go-to supplements:

Vitamin D

This one’s in the news a lot lately. The science is all over the place, but chances are if you’re in a Western country that isn’t tropically or sub-tropically located and don’t work outdoors in very little clothing, you probably need at least some Vitamin D. It’s important in immune function, calcium absorption, mood and actually quite a few other things that are still being investigated. I come from Pacific Islander genetics (I’ve got melanin y’all) and live near the Canadian border, I find it helps me with Seasonal Affective Disorder symptoms. Unless specifically stated to be vegan, most D will be sourced from lanolin (the fatty substance from sheep’s wool) in softgels with a sunflower/canola carrier oil.

Nitric Oxide Boosters

There’s actually a lot of these that work in different ways, but science is finding that nitric oxide levels in the blood are part of how the body maintains healthy blood pressure. Nitric oxide in the body relaxes smooth muscles which increases the diameter of blood vessels, increasing blood flow. It’s part of how your body lowers blood pressure post-exercise.

There’s several ways (supplementally speaking) to increase nitric oxide in the body. The easiest is to increase available nitrates. As nitrates are digested, they, you guessed it, increase nitric oxide in the blood. Some supplementally available sources of nitrates include: beet root (powder or capsules) and leafy greens.  Synthetic forms like potassium nitrate also exist.

Another way to increase nitric oxide is to use the other metabolic pathways providing appropriate chemical precursors to aid in those biological functions. The most common is L-Arginine. L-Arginine is an amino acid that gets converted into nitric oxide. It’s also used in muscle protein synthesis. It’s in nuts and seeds and meat, and can be supplemented as a standalone molecule. Bioavailability (how well your body can absorb it) is limited as a supplement though because a lot gets broken down in the gut before it can hit the bloodstream, and it’s frequently paired with L-Citrulline (a different amino acid found in high amounts in watermelon) which is converted to arginine in the body but doesn’t get broken down before being absorbed. Aged Garlic Extract (capitalized because it’s a trademarked version that has specifically been studied) works on this by upregulating nitric oxide synthase (which is just fancy for nitric oxide-making enzyme).

Any sports/bodybuilding product that talks about increasing muscle pump is probably using at least one ingredient that affects nitric oxide levels. For dudes, any reputable supplement marketed for “blood flow” will contain at least one ingredient that affects nitric oxide levels (also a lot of the ingredients in those same products are also marketed as “testosterone boosting” ingredients actually do have uses as nitric oxide boosters if you look at the science). And by reputable I mean you won’t find it at a gas station.

There are various other herbs and things that some studies have shown to affect nitric oxide levels, they’re not as common and/or don’t have much research backing them up, but I’ll list a bunch. Pycnogenol, Horny Goat Weed (epimedium grandiflorum), Grape Seed Extract, Ginseng Tribulus Terrestris. Antioxidants like Resveratrol (a polyphenol originally derived from red grape skins), Glutathione, CoQ10. 

Magnesium

It’s like super important in the body. It’s like the fifth most common element in the human body and is an essential electrolyte for muscle and nerve function. Food sourcing is always best, but there’s arguments to be made that because of corporate monoculturing and depletion of topsoil, that contemporary foods are much lower in minerals than they were pre-industrial. So supplemental. There’s a ton of different types. The way I explain it, pure, metallic magnesium isn’t very useful to the body, so as a supplement you have to chelate (chemistry speak for react it) it with... something. Magnesium oxide is the cheapest (with oxygen). It’s the least bioavailable, but also has the highest elemental Mg of all the chelates. Magnesium Citrate is probably the next most common/cheapest. It’s mixed with citric acid. Take too high a dose of either of these at once and it will cause an electrolye imbalance in your gut. Basically your gut goes hey there’s too much salt in here (and magnesium chelates are salts) and draws a bunch of water into your intestines to flush it out. Sometimes prescribed to treat constipation. The next class are your amino acid chelates. Glycinate, Taurate, Threonate, to name a few. Research is still emerging, but different amino acids get the magnesium to different parts of the body and they have slightly different effects. They’re the most bioavailable because the human body is designed to recognize and digest proteins to amino acids. Magnesium chloride (or ionic) is going to be salt water derived with the sodium salt removed. I personally take a ZMA form, which is Zinc Magnesium Aspartate (with B6) specifically because it’s been well-studied in athletes for promoting restful sleep. I’ve also done a mag citrate in powdered drink form and found that it helped prevent cramping and somewhat mitigate my nighttime bruxism.

Nootropics to control your mood

So there’s all the caffeine and brain performance enhancers. I’m not really into that. A lot of products for memory and focus specifically have herbs and other ingredients that at least some studies have shown increase blood flow to the parts of the brain that help with... memory and focus. Those will be your Huperzine A, Bacopa, Ginkgo Biloba, Rosemary and, well, anything I mentioned above under nitric oxide boosters because more blood flow! I guess the Lion’s Mane Mushrooms would be in this class of nootropics. 

Another class of nootropics are your “Brain Foods” these are direct chemical precursors to various neurotransmitters in your brain. The idea being that if you give your brain more of the raw materials it needs to make serotonin, acetylcholine, gaba or dopamine, it will make them. There’s a bunch and I forget exactly which ones go with which, but L-Tyrosine, TMG (trimethylglycine), L-Phenylalanine, L-Tryptophan (and it’s own metabolite 5-HTP), Acetyl-L-Carnitine, Alpha GPC, L-theanine, GABA, L-Citrulline, L-DOPA (and in plant form as mucuna pruriens).

The one that I recommend most often is L-theanine. It’s an amino acid derived from green tea. It’s part of why the caffeine in tea doesn’t make you as jittery as the same amount of caffeine from coffee. L-theanine is a direct chemical precursor to GABA which is the neurotransmitter most active in the parasympathetic nervous system (aka, the rest and digest nervous system). It’s like a literal chill pill when it comes to acute anxiety and works within like half an hour. You can also get GABA by itself.

You also have your adaptogens, which are a classes of herbs that help balance your hormones and “adapt” to stress. Ashwaganda, rhodiola, various ginsengs, tulsi “holy basil” and I’m sure several others I’m forgetting. Most are from ayurvedic or TCM uses.

There’s also CBD which helps some people with anxiety. The kind you can find at supplement stores or health food stores will be hemp-derived, which means by under the 2018 Farm Bill it cannot contain more than 0.3% THC by weight or it is classified as a marijuana/cannabis product and therefore illegal federally.

Sleep

I don’t fuck with melatonin. Most healthy bodies with an uninterrupted circadian rhythm naturally produce less than 0.3mg of melatonin at night so all these sleep supplements with 1, 5, TEN mg of melatonin kind of scare me and I always try to steer people to a lower dose first unless they’re coming in on doctor’s orders. 

GABA and L-theanine because they’re calming can be helpful for sleep if the problem is turning off your brain. They’re non-sedative on their own but can be helpful. 

Magnesium also relaxes the body and can be helpful for sleep.

CBD and Ashwaganda for their stress-relieving properties are frequently marketed for sleep. 

Herbally there’s valerian, st john’s wort, poppy and kava kava. The risk of complications or potential interference with medications are why I don’t recommend these ones first unless someone is specifically looking for them. Lavender, chamomile, hops, and catnip are all usually pretty safe and common in herbal blends.

Homeopathy

I don’t trust homeopathy. The idea that small amounts of a thing that would normally cause the symptom you’re trying to treat makes sense. That’s the same principle behind inducing an immune response with vaccines. The idea that the more you dilute the thing, the more powerful it’s action in the body? Sketchy at best. The idea that the water used to dilute the thing will remember it so even if the dilution is so massive that there are no actual molecules of the original substance in a hundred pills (that are also, for the record, dry)? You lost me.

That said, surgeons do recommend 6C or 10X Arnica after surgery for bruising and it does seem to lessen the heal time.

Yeah, if you have questions on anything specific, feel free to shoot me an ask. If I don’t know off the top of my head, I can find out.

[topbiohacking]

How to age Well. 5 Secrets to Age Well!

Aging Gracefully Is A Choice! Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

There are few people you might know of in your life and when you see them you immediately think ‘wow, they are really aging gracefully! Is there a secret? Or did they inherited some special genes?’ It’s a simple question, but the answer might surprise you.

So, what does it really take to age well?

Diet: Not a specific diet, but a balanced diet of what you already like to eat!

Exercise: No Crazy exercises that you will do once and regret for the rest of your life. Something you already like but a new way of doing it.

Memory Health / Brain Health: To do everything right, you need your memory to remember, and remember correctly.

Skin & Hair: What we put on our skin eventually makes its way inside (partially or in an indirect way) the same goes for our hair.

Cell Health: Everything boils down to our cells! This is where everything started from, so it makes sense that we should fix everything at the roots.

First – Diet

When we usually talk about dieting we always like to label our diet with some sort of a name. However, if you are looking for a specific diet and diet plan, maybe this is not the article you are looking for. Even though we will be talking about food and nutrition from the inside out. 

But for us, we look at diet and food from a holistic approach. You need to eat almost everything, and everything in a moderate amount will benefit you. There are many diet plans out that tell you to stop completely consuming one thing or another. But most people who start on those diets, don’t make through the first month. The main problem with such diets that they are not sustainable. Cutting something out ‘cold turkey’ might work for some, it does not work for the majority. 

Food Variety Is Key To Provide Us With All Nutrition Image by silviarita from Pixabay

For diet, we are going to provide the tips that will give you the best results with the least amount of effort! Tips that will require you doing less not more. It sounds like a good deal. Right?! Let’s dive in. You need to look at those three areas ONLY:

Look at your food consumption for a longer period of time. Not daily. Balance it on a weekly basis, monthly and overall basis.

Stick with organic whenever you can.

The dirty dozen and The Clean 15 lists. A simple list of food that you want to get organic, and another list that you might be able to go with the non-organic. The top 15 foods with the least pesticides are called the Clean 15, while the 12 foods with the most pesticides are called the Dirty Dozen. The list is courtesy of the Elizabeth Rider Blog 

THE DIRTY DOZEN (2019)

Buy these organic whenever possible – Updated 2019

Strawberries

Spinach

Kale

Nectarines

Apples

Grapes

Peaches

Cherries

Pears

Tomatoes

Celery

Potatoes

+EWG’s Dirty Dozen Plus:

Hot Peppers +

THE CLEAN 15 (2019)

These are ok to buy conventional (not organic) – Updated 2019

Avocados

Sweet Corn

Pineapples

Sweet Peas Frozen

Onions

Papayas

Eggplants

Asparagus

Kiwi

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Cantaloupe

Broccoli

Mushrooms

Honeydew Melons

Second – Exercise

Exercise is closely connected with diet. We can’t talk about one without the other. Also, the same goes for exercise that goes for dieting. Most people who start a brand new exercise that is totally different from their daily activities, typically they will give up on the new routine quickly. 

For sure, there are some crazy cases where people stick with it from day one and keep going forever, but most of us, we need to adapt those exercises in our daily life one exercise a week, or one exercise a month. 

This Is The Reality Of How Most People Feel About Exercising. Especially, Trying Something New For The First Time

This Is What We Think Of Ourselves When We Exercise For The First Time! It’s True After A While But Right Away.

Here are a few steps to get your exercise ‘requirements’ done easily:

Things you like to do or you are already doing. If you like walking, then start with it. If you like working out, then do this. If you like hiking or even as simple as shopping. Yep, you read it correctly. You can just add a few steps to your shopping trips. Park the car further, do a few more laps around the mall. Chase your kids, or grand-kids around the yard, the park, or even the living room. Take the stairs down and the elevator up. Or half-half.

Break a sweat. If you can break a sweat in whatever you do then you nailed it! Sweating is a sign that you are putting your body in activity mode. Nothing too crazy, but just a little to move you forward ahead of where you are today. Usually, 3-5 min of high-intensity exercise should be enough to break a sweat.

Add one more. By the end of the day, you just want to add one more pump to your heart to keep it pumping longer. One step, one repetition, one pound of lifting weight, one positive change no matter how small it is.

A Walk With Your Grand-kid In A Fresh Air, Is More Thank Just An Excellent Exercise! Image by emailme3 from Pixabay

NOTE: Never, Ever use your progress in dieting and exercising as a rewarding/excuse to bring bad habits that you are trying to move away from. The reward of walking the extra mile is not another donut. You are better off without them both in this case.

Third – Memory Health / Brain Health

There’s no point of dieting and exercising if we don’t remember doing them. It might sound silly to bring up such a thing, but it’s so real. We don’t remember to exercise until it is too late in the day or the week. Or we forget what kind of activity we planned on doing today. So, in this case, we are missing on our physical health because of our mental health. 

“Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory” Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Our brain is the most important organ in our body. It is the central computer of the whole body. When we start forgetting, slipping off mentally, we lack mental clarity, memory issues, lack of focus, and other issues. Those are problems on their own, but also they are signaling issues that are occurring from our bad food, lack of activity, sleeping behavior, and so on. However, the good news is that we can reverse most of them. We can change our food, and see it in our brain, and we can feed our brains and see the results on our bodies. 

That’s how science started discovering the types of food that will help our brain become healthier and stay healthy. Few of those foods are:

Wild Salmon – Omega 3

Walnut 

Avocado 

Almond

Blueberries 

Broccoli

Coconut oil 

Turmeric – curcumin 

Dark chocolate

Drinking water – Brain content is 80% water.

Two more tricks/ hacks that will help improve brain health, but has nothing to do with food and as easy as eating food, are:

Brush your teeth with the opposite hand. That will help your brain develop new neural connections.

Learn something new! Anything. Learning new skills, activities, games, crafts, new learning helps the brain to engage, wake up, and spark the young activities that once used to have.

Skin Care Is Not Luxurious, It Is Essential Image by chezbeate from Pixabay

Fourth – Skin & Hair: 

We often don’t think much of what we are putting on our skin & hair from deodorant, shampoos, lotions, sprays, etc. We pay attention to the way it smells, the way it makes us feel, but not the ingredients, or how we are getting those results. 

A simple example of this case is that we use lots of deodorants, but we are not sure (aware) of how they are working. Most of them use harsh chemicals to kill the bacteria that are causing the odor, but at the same time is hurting our skin. There is a nice article by publicgoods that explains the way ‘deodorant’ works on our body.

The same goes for shampoos that we use, we like the smell, the price, and maybe the results, but over time we start losing hair. That’s when we start looking for solutions and start educating ourselves on what we the heck we are putting on our hair.

If you think you are starting to go bald, you might want to check this blogpost First Signs Of Balding

And if you are a woman losing a lot of hair then you need to start with considering treatment from the source, the scalp first. Here’s a good blog post I found for this (it has good humor in it as well haha) Inside My Quest to Find the Holy Grail of Hair Care

Fifth – Cell Health

Last but not least, is the health of our cells. Out of everything, this is what all boils down to. It takes no genius to figure it out, but it’s important to say it over and over that the health of our cells is the health of our body.

The problem that we see out there with all of these big corporates and big money, is that they look at each problem in a very disconnected way from other problems so they can sell you an UNLIMITED number of product “solutions”. While the core thing is to look at the main source of all the problems which are our cells. 

Our Health Start From The Health Of Our Cells Image by Colin Behrens from Pixabay

The health of our cells starts by fighting Cellular Stress.

What Is Cellular Stress?

Nrf2Science describes that “Too many damaging free radicals — or too few protective antioxidants — can wreak havoc on cell membranes, mitochondria, and DNA, leading to tissue damage and a wide range of chronic diseases, including cancer, chronic fatigue, diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease. For more than 50 years, scientists have known the aging process to be linked to highly reactive oxygen molecules produced during normal metabolism. These oxygen molecules, often called “free radicals” or “reactive oxygen species” (ROS), can react with and cause damage to cellular structures throughout the body. Particularly vulnerable to oxidative damage are cell membranes, DNA (genetic material), and mitochondria (where cells generate energy)—and damage to these vital areas often means that cells cannot function properly.” Cellular Stress/Oxidative Stress is something that we need to combat in our cells as it has been linked to many chronic diseases like cancer, chronic fatigue, diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease, etc.

Oxidative Stress Diseases

Some of the chronic diseases that are linked in a way or another to oxidative stress

The Cause of Oxidative Stress

Even though Oxidative Stress is harmful to the cell, it is part of its natural behavior. According to Nrf2Science “Sometimes, the body deliberately makes free radicals in order to neutralize viruses and bacteria.” Also, scientists have found that the cell produces free radicals during its normal metabolism. However, the problem arises when there are too many free radicals that they begin to interfere with the cell’s normal functions. The increase of free radicals might also be from external sources as well. External factors like food, pollution, smoking, pesticides, fungicides, chemicals, etc.

A quick search on the topic of Oxidative Stress and the diseases related to it will yield quite some results, probably more than what we would like to see. However, relatively speaking, all research seems to be limited, or new in age. But for the most part, this is where taking antioxidants started taking off. Things like vitamin C supplements, vitamin E supplements, eating more blueberries, etc. The kind of routine that we have been familiar with. The only issue with this approach is that we are supplementing our body with external antioxidants, which is better than nothing but is very limited in the amount of effectiveness in combating oxidative stress and eliminating the increasing number of free radicals.

The Best Solution I Have Found & I Personally Use & Put My Reputation Behind…

The other emerging approach, which is the one I subscribe to, is ‘hacking’ the Nrf2 pathway to signal the production of antioxidants within our body itself instead of supplementing our body with external synthetic antioxidants. In my mind, I imagine our body as this perfect computer and at some point it starts to slow down (due to aging and other factors), instead of me upgrading the machine by adding better processors, which is not possible to our “human-machine”, I will try to optimize my existing system/ body to perform better to go back to its original capabilities.

Releasing the system from the unnecessary burden that we are putting it in, is much easier, and more efficient than upgrading or supplementing with external resources. That’s where Nrf2 Activation comes into the picture.

We can think of Nrf2 as the new sheriff in town! Oxidative stress & Cellular Stress are the bad guys. The antioxidant is the policemen. Everyone is telling you to add more policemen to your body to fight the bad guys, which is a good idea, but what’s even better is that you have your body making its own policemen if you enable the sheriff to do their job! NRF2 is the sheriff you need on your side!

Get The Best NRF2 Activator…..Period!

By The Way, If You Don’t Take Anything Away From The List Above Then Take One Thing & One Thing Only, To Get The Fastest Results! Activating Your NRF2 Naturally Please Don’t Go Another Day Without At Least Giving Your Body The Benefit Of The Doubt, To Heal Itself From The Inside Out!

“No Matter how much it gets abused, the body can restore balance.” 

-Deepak Chopra

Get The Best NRF2 Activator…..Period!

Resources: https://jimkwik.com/ https://blog.publicgoods.com/breaking-a-sweat-antiperspirant-vs-deodorant/ http://www.nrf2science.com/ https://www.elizabethrider.com/dirty-dozen-clean-15/ http://blog.topbiohacking.com/wp/blog/we-keep-hearing-that-western-diet-is-different-than-eastern-diet-eastern-western-mediterranean-etc-why-it-even-matters-how-diet-affects-nrf-activation/ http://topbiohacking.lifevantage.com/blog/inside-my-quest-to-find-the-holy-grail-of-hair-care/

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2JMEhcq via IFTTT

[mensbodybuildingtips]

How to Get Rid of Loose Skin After Weight Loss

If you're taking care of the problem of loosened skin, particularly after major weight loss, right here's just what you could do about it.

Have you broke your butt for months as well as months to drop weight just to be left with handfuls of hideous loose skin?

Do you would like to know at last just what it takes to tighten this skin and also display that brand-new body you have actually worked so tough for?

If so, then this write-up is for you!

First, allow me state that I comprehend exactly how frustrating the loose skin problem is. It's very inhibiting to really feel like you're doing whatever right without obtaining the outcomes you actually desire.

Some people might say to quit stressing over just how you look as well as just be delighted with exactly what you have actually obtained, yet I have a difficult time with guidance like that.

Sure, some people develop undesirable fascinations with looks and picture, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with wishing to have a lean, solid, healthy body that looks as well as feels great. In truth, I would certainly reach stating that everyone must have that experience.

And so in this short article, we're mosting likely to take an extensive take a look at the loosened skin concern and also see what can be done about it.

The Trouble isn't Constantly Loose or Excess Skin

While there are legitimate cases of excess skin after weight-loss, just what many individuals assume hangs or excess skin is really just excess body fat, which is soft as well as jiggly and quickly mistaken as skin.

There's a simple method to inform if you're handling real loose skin or way too much body fat.

Pinch the location you're worried about as well as if you can get hold of greater than a couple of millimeters of skin, there's more fat in there to lose.

Until you shed that fat, your skin has no factor to return to its previous size and also tautness. Bear in mind that skin isn't really a curtain of passive, inert flesh-it's a living body organ that adapts to its interior and external environments. As long as the fat it's affixed to remains, it will certainly sag.

If you're a man, I wouldn't take into consideration surgical treatment to take care of loosened skin up until you've struck 10% body fat. If you're a woman, 20% is the number.

These are the body fat ranges where your subcutaneous fat degrees come to be reduced sufficient to precisely examine the state of your skin. As well as possibilities are simply getting lean sufficient will solve the entire problem.

If, however, a person reaches this reduced level of body fat and his/her skin is practically paper thin as well as looks like crinkly papyrus, after that it truly refers excess skin, and could be taken care of accordingly.

Now, one point you should know is that specific fat shops are more difficult to shed compared to others. The scientific research is rather complicated, and also I study it below, but also for the function of this post all you need to recognize is the fat in certain locations of our body is tougher to lose compared to the fat in others.

Not together, these 'stubborn' fat stores stick to the areas frequently related to loose or excess skin troubles: the reduced abdomen, lower back (love takes care of), hips, thighs, and butt.

What many people think is loosened skin is just excess amounts of stubborn fat.

Now, you cannot directly 'target' persistent fat shops with unique diet regimen or training methods, however you could make use of a number of strategies to assist remove them much faster. I discuss every little thing here.

Building Muscle and Minimizing Excess Skin

A big part of tightening up loose skin is developing muscle. The factor for this is simple.

There are two layers of tissue below your skin: fat and also muscle, both which press against your skin as well as keep it from sagging loosely.

When you acquire a huge quantity of weight, your skin needs to increase a fair bit to suit the increase in body size. When you lose the fat, nonetheless, as well as particularly when you lose it promptly, your skin does not necessarily reduce at the exact same price as your fat cells. This discrepancy can cause loose skin.

Furthermore, numerous individuals utilize numerous types of starvation diet programs along with large amounts of cardio to lose fat, which additionally causes substantial muscular tissue loss, further broadening deep space between the skin and the underlying tissue.

The outcome is a minimized body fat percentage but a little, soft physique with drooping skin. The 'slim fat' appearance, as it's called.

Building muscle is the remedy to all these woes because it actually completes the looseness in the skin, producing a visibly tighter, healthier look.

This suggestions applies to both people that have already lost a lot of weight and those that are just beginning. If you're presently dealing with issues of loosened skin, you ought to start raising weights. If you're starting a weight loss routine, be sure to include weight training in it.

Remember the objective isn't just to lose weight yet to lose fat and not muscle.

Improving Skin Elasticity

If your skin loses elasticity-its capability to broaden as well as diminish as needed-it can not go back to its correct dimension. This occurs normally as we age but it could affect more youthful people. What can you do to enhance it?

Several things, actually.

Stop smoking.

As if there weren't currently adequate reasons to stop cigarette smoking, below's an additional: it ruins your skin.

A research study from scientists at the International Association of Ecologic Dermatology assessed the skin of 64 women Italian cigarette smokers for the presence of lines, vascular as well as pigmentation state, elasticity, brightness, and also texture.

The first evaluation exposed that the ordinary organic age of research individuals was 9 years older compared to their chronological age. After 9 months of not smoking cigarettes, nevertheless, the average decrease in the organic age of the skin was 13 years.

The profits is this: if you desire healthy and balanced, vivid skin, you have to steer clear of from cigarettes.

Eat enough protein.

Research shows a relationship between healthy protein intake and skin youthfulness and also wellness. Low-protein diet programs is related to poorer skin health than high-protein weight loss, which aids decrease wrinkles, dryness, as well as skin atrophy.

Eat your fruits and vegetables.

Your body needs a large range of minerals and vitamins to accomplish the millions of organic procedures that maintain you active and also healthy, and also consuming a number of portions of vegetables and fruits each day is the only reputable way to provide everything your body needs.

In terms of skin specifically, research study has actually revealed that greater consumption of fruits as well as vegetables are related to healthier, good-looking skin.

Consider supplementation.

No tablets or powders are mosting likely to offer you a 'quick repair' for your loosened skin, but there are several supplements that may help. Let's look at each.

Gelatin

A research performed by scientist at Stanford College found that supplementing with 250 mg of jelly daily enhanced skin elasticity.

Getting jelly in your diet can be a little challenging, though, unless you enjoy eating a variety of odd foods like oxtail, chicken feet, or brief ribs. Supplementing is the simplest means to go here, and also here's the product I would directly utilize (CURRENTLY Foods is a credible firm):

Fish Oil

Among fish oil's numerous health advantages is the improvement of skin elasticity, as well as a significant improvement can be seen in as couple of as 3 months.

A premium fish oil is one of the most effective all-around supplements you could take to maintain health and wellness and safeguard against illness, however not all fish oils are equal.

There are 2 vital things to consider when selecting one:

You need to know just how the oil has actually been processed.

There are two types of fish oil on the marketplace today: the triglyceride type and also the ethyl ester form.

The triglyceride type is fish oil in its natural state, and the ethyl ester kind is a processed variation of the triglyceride type that includes a particle of ethanol (alcohol).

While lots of researches have confirmed the benefits of supplementation with fat ethyl esters (FAEEs), research study has shown that the triglyceride form is better soaked up by the body.

One of the reasons for this is the ethyl ester form is far more immune to the enzymatic procedure by which the body breaks the oil down for use.

Another drawback to the ethyl ester form is during the digestive procedure, your body transforms it back to the triglyceride type, which causes the launch of the ethanol molecule.

Although the dosage is small, those with alcohol level of sensitivity or dependency can be negatively impacted. Research has actually supplied evidence of mobile and also natural poisoning and also injury resulting from the ingestion of FAEEs.

You desire to understand the EPA/DHA material of each serving.

Because of the varying quality of fish oils on the market, it's essential that you look at how lots of milligrams of EPA and also DHA (omega-3 fatty acids) are really in each serving.

Lower-quality supplements may have as little as 150 - 200 mg each 1 gram of fat, which makes them virtually pointless as you have to take much too many every day to obtain sufficient omega-3s (you want a minimum of 2 - 3 g of omega-3s each day).

A top quality fish oil can be quite a bit more money than a low-quality one, but when you check out just how much you're obtaining for that money in terms of omega-3 fatty acids, the price makes more sense.

For instance, below's the label from an affordable, low-grade (ethyl ester) fish oil product:

This item costs regarding $11, and comes with 100 pills consisting of 300 mg of omega-3 fats each. This indicates you're obtaining 30 g of omega-3 fats each bottle, and paying concerning 37 cents per gram.

Now, below's the tag from a high-grade triglyceride fish oil item that I make use of, Nordic Naturals' Ultimate Omega ( and FYI, I have no partnership with Nordic Naturals):

This item costs concerning $40, as well as includes 120 tablets having 640 mg of omega-3 fatty acids each.

This implies you're getting about 77 g of omega-3 fats each container, and paying about 52 cents per gram.

So, as you can see, the first cost difference of $11 vs. $40 isn't really as extreme when you check out just what you're getting: 37 cents per gram of low-quality oil that isn't really most likely to deliver all the benefits you're looking for vs. 52 cents each gram for the highest-quality oil on the marketplace that will.

In regards to dose, 1 to 3 g of omega 3 fatty acids (not fish oil but the omega Sixes themselves) suffices for many objectives. Right here's the product I directly utilize and like:

What Regarding 'Weight-loss Tablets'?

The US weight-loss market is absolutely enormous (worth nearly $61 billion since 2011), as well as weight-loss tablets make up about $1.5 billion of that pie.

When people are investing that kind of loan, matter on the hucksters and also shysters to be operating in force.

The outcome is, well, what we see in the marketplace: an absolute excess of weight loss items and also dietary routines, all advertised as far better compared to the next.

This could make fat burning a very complex, discouraging, and also expensive endeavor.

Well, the first thing you must understand is that NO pill will certainly cause you to amazingly shed weight. You have to manage your caloric intake to slim down (you have to feed your body less energy compared to it burns everyday).

That claimed, in this article, I review the components in a selection of prominent "weight reduction pills" and reveal you which could accelerate weight reduction when combined with an appropriate diet regimen, which don't, and which researchers are not sure of.

The Profits on Loose Skin and also Weight Loss

In some situations, there is no other way to completely remove loosened skin without surgical procedure. Before you drop that roadway, however, comply with the suggestions in this article and also see where you're at:

Get to 10% body fat (men)/ 20% body fat (ladies)

Build a substantial quantity of muscle mass to replace a few of the 'area' left from the fat loss

Don't smoke

Adopt a high-protein diet

Eat a number of portions of vegetables and fruits every day

Use supplements confirmed to aid if your budget sustains it

If you do all these points and continue to be individual, there's an excellent chance you could dramatically decrease and even remove your loosened skin issue without going under the knife.

[frazzledontoast-blog]

Fasting for brain health?

Giving up eating? No? Not even for a short while?

If you had clapped eyes on me a year ago you would have seen an emotionally frazzled, chronically exhausted, comfort eating, hormonal wreck masquerading as Wonder Woman. Cape on, I seamlessly juggled my career, home, husband, dogs, chickens, and kids (in no particular order) whilst finding time to prepare great meals and get to the gym.  Just check out my social media, it must be true. Reality was, as soon as I came home and hung up my cape, I felt more like a car crash happening in slow motion. 

To cut a long story short, I ended up committing to a 30 day nutritional re-boot programme, part of which involved starving myself a day a week, sorry, fasting. I’m sure like anyone else who has dabbled with intermittent fasting, I assumed it was a sneaky way to cut calories. And yes, there is some truth in that - over time people who intermittently fast reduce calorie intake by 20-30% and don’t tend to ‘over feed’ on non-fasting days (in addition to feeling unbearably smug the next day).

But as it turns out, after a few weeks on this new regime, I started to feel a certain clarity, the fog in my head lifted, I felt a little sparkly, I might even go as far as to say I was feeling like myself again. My perspective returned, I stopped being a domestic martyr and wrestled back some me time, the dogs weren’t walking on egg shells and my family started to breathe again.

So what do we really know about the effects of intermittent fasting on the mind and body? Can I attribute part of my rehab to IF? Actually, what is intermittent fasting exactly?

IF is defined as the rhythmic disruption to the flow of calories into your metabolism - we need to remember that a calorie is a measure of the energy, not the nutritional, content of our food. And its a really popular lifestyle choice in 2018, there are 35 IF Facebook groups alone!  Some people practice alternate day fasting (eating less than 500 calories every other day), some people advocate periodic fasting (at least five consecutive days of consuming water or a fasting mimicking diet) but time restricted feeding (eating confined to an eight hour window or less every day) is gaining ground as an eminently less scary way to get all the health benefits and still be able to function in modern life.

Without doubt, our ancestors had a sporadic access to food throughout their lives that depended on their foraging skills and hunting prowess.  As a result, over hundreds of thousands of years, our physiology evolved such that our mental and physical performance remained unaffected by fasting. It would seem that hunger is indeed just a feeling, not an emergency!

However, before we go any further, you may be in need of an old school, Biology lesson.  When you eat a meal, the carbs, fats and proteins are broken down into simpler units by your digestive system and fibre is digested by the bacteria in your gut.  These simpler units - the amino acids, glucose, fructose and fatty acids - pass in to your bloodstream and this nutrient rich blood heads off to your liver. Some of the glucose is stored as glycogen and some remains in the blood to be used by muscle and brain cells for energy. Fructose is converted to fat, packaged up and released back into the bloodstream. 

Your pancreas senses a high blood sugar concentration (all that glucose) and releases insulin which activates your cells to use up the glucose. Insulin also activates fat cells (adipose tissue) to store the fat. Between meals, glucose and insulin levels drop and fat cells release fatty acids into your blood to be used as an energy source by your cells, in particular, muscle cells. However, these fatty acids cannot cross the blood-brain barrier and so are of no use to your brain cells or neurons. Your liver comes to the rescue, converting fatty acids to ketone bodies which can be used by neurons in the brain as an energy source. 

Approximately 12 hours after eating glucose and glycogen stores are depleted and the body starts to rely on fatty acids and ketones for energy.  Your body is now in a fasted state.

And this is when the magic starts to happen. There is reliable evidence from both rodent and human studies that IF practised over the medium to long term can prevent, and even reverse, all aspects of metabolic syndrome - that includes abdominal adioposity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke.  That in itself would be good reason to take a serious look at IF, but it is the incredible benefits for brain health that are even more exciting - and this is why I am a convert.

In the fasted state, once the glucose and glycogen has been used up, your cells become stressed which has been proven to cause them to make changes that result in them becoming more resilient, DNA repair is enhanced and they focus on getting their housekeeping done (this is called autophagy). This is the important part because autophagy is the process by which the 30 trillion cells in our body round up toxins, pathogens, junk protein and damaged organelles - essentially they get round to doing their recycling, clearing out the junk and they end up becoming far more efficient.

Specifically though, your brain is benefitting most. Putting your neurons under stress by disrupting their nutrient supply also leads to significantly elevated levels of BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) which is responsible for the growth and survival of adult neurons and the regeneration of damaged ones. And to cap it all, BDNF prevents age related alterations in serotonin and dopamine levels as well. 

Giving up eating will literally improve your ability to focus on tasks, learn faster and remember more.  You will be happier, sleep better and be in a great mood - that would be the unshakeable smugness you radiate when you break your fast.

IF is more effective at slowing down ageing and disease than the use of supplemental vitamins, minerals and antioxidants (such as vitamins C and E). In fact, the supplementation of vitamins C and E during fasting actually overrides all the benefits of IF - it would seem that cells don’t respond by increasing their natural defences if you help them out and they don’t improve their insulin sensitivity.  They need to experience mild stresses to perform at optimal.  

Now the reversing ageing bit makes everyone’s ears prick up! 

One of the most important organelles in your cell are your mitochondria which are essentially your powerhouses. They provide you with energy but one of the byproducts are free radicals. These are highly reactive, destructive little molecules that attack anything and everything, including our DNA and the mitochondria themselves, and the accumulated damage is a primary factor in ageing. And, as you might have already surmised, our neurons have an awful lot of mitochondria because they need to generate a lot of energy which makes them particularly susceptible - we know for a fact that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. 

Our cells naturally produce antioxidants (and they are provided courtesy of a balanced diet) which mop up and neutralise excess free radicals, and the key here is excess. Life is never black and white, and this applies to free radicals. In low to moderate concentrations, free radicals are a useful weapon against invading microbes and play a vital role in cellular communications. However, a natural consequence of ageing is that the free radical damage builds due to producing fewer antioxidants and the decline of our housekeeping systems, amongst other reasons. Evidence suggests that ramping up autophagy through IF targets damaged mitochondria and their new replacements are more efficient, less prone to produce free radicals, and ageing is slowed.

Finally though, this post wouldn’t be complete without briefly visiting the news last year that IF has been shown to completely reverse diabetes in mice and similarly promising results have been seen in small scale human trials. 

Diabetes is an insulin problem, not a glucose one.  Insulin is a hormone that signals to cells to take up glucose from the blood stream by binding to receptors on the surface of the cells, essentially opening the gates. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly targets and destroys insulin producing beta-cells in the pancreas. In type 2 diabetes, cells lose their sensitivity to insulin, their insulin receptors stop working, and the pancreas stops producing insulin. Either way, cells are unable to take up glucose and metabolise it to provide energy.  

During fasting periods in the mice trials, the pancreas shrunk, autophagy kicked in and damaged beta-cells that were not producing insulin were removed. Remarkably though, after several cycles of fasting and feeding, the beta-cells regenerated, insulin sensitivity improved leading to a significant decrease in blood sugar and nearly normal insulin production resumed. IF had initiated healthy regrowth of the pancreas  - it was back in working order. Simply astonishing that there might be a drug free solution for diabetics, given the huge problem it is becoming in the UK.

Clearly the science holds up, the question is, is IF for you? 

Firstly, it is not just about meal skipping. The easiest way to start is probably time restricted feeding - eating from midday to 8pm and then fasting for 16 hours everyday. You need to consider how you are going to break your fast as planning a balanced nutritious meal is imperative. You won’t reap the benefits if you continue to fill yourself up on high calorie, nutritionally bankrupt, processed food. And make sure you drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated. 

I fast for 24-36 hours once a week. Usually that involves having supper on Thursday evening and then fasting through Friday until I break my fast on a Saturday morning with a fully balanced, probiotic shake. During the fasting day I support my body with a botanical based tonic, herbal teas and lots of water. It’s not that scary, honest!

Secondly, be sensible. You shouldn’t be considering fasting if you are pregnant or if you think it might lead you down a path to disordered eating. And don’t set yourself up to fail! It is much harder to make any sort of lifestyle change if you don’t have the support of your family, so get them on board before you start. There is lots of good advice out there, you are sure to find something that works for you.

[fiti-vation]

Hey ☺️ Been a follower for a while and I find what you post so incredibly helpful; I’ve always felt intimidated by both exercise and how to eat the right way for who I am so that I end up not doing anything usually even though I feel almost desperate to. I’m a pescatarian but rarely eat fish (so practically a veggie) and I struggle with how to get enough protein and iron. I take multivits with iron most days but still have very low energy. Any advice on easy protein/iron? Thank you so much!🙏🏼

Aww thank you very much for the kind words and support love!

There’s a lot of advice out there on how to incorporate more protein into your diet, and if I’m being honest, it can sometimes feel like too much to think about. Whether you’re paleo, vegan, or counting macros, everybody needs protein. My motto when it comes to getting enough protein is to focus on the essential. Instead of focusing on protein focus on getting enough of the amino acids your body cannot make by itself!

A bit of nutrition science (I’ll simplify everything down below): Protein is an important nutrient required for the building, maintenance, and repair of tissues in the body. Proteins are made out of smaller molecules called amino acids, which are linked together like beads on a string. The linked amino acids form long protein chains, which are then folded into complex shapes.Some of these amino acids can be produced by the body, while we must get others from the diet. The ones we cannot produce and must get from our foods are called the “essential” amino acids.

English please 💁🏽‍♀️: Here’s the simplified version of what I just said: Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and they can be synthesized by the body or ingested from food. There are 20 different amino acids (some sources list 22) in the food we eat, but our body can only make 11 of them. The nine essential amino acids, which cannot be produced by the body, must be obtained from the diet. If you scroll through my blog, you’ll notice I’ve often elaborated on this topic before.

A variety of grains, legumes, and vegetables can provide all of the essential amino acids our bodies require. However, keep in mind that since grains, legumes, and vegetables are incomplete sources of protein you’ll have to combine these foods (protein combining (or protein complementing) – more on that later. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics posits that protein from a variety of plant foods eaten during the course of a day supplies enough of all essential amino acids when caloric requirements are met.

Protein Requirements

A lot of people consume protein without knowing their daily protein requirement.  Before you start to incorporate more protein into your diet it’s very important to have an idea of how much you should consume daily. Obviously, this will depend on many factors such as your weight, your fitness goals, how active you are, and your age. That said, however, in the athletic world, there is no greater debate than how much protein you require on a daily basis. There are a number of varying recommendations and calculations when it comes to how much protein you should be consuming. On closer inspection, the daily intake of protein depends on age and activity level. For example, weight trainers and teenagers require more protein than a sedentary individual.There are a few calculations that can be used in terms of protein recommendations.

The RDA increases by 30 grams per day during pregnancy and 20 grams per day during lactation. During growth, different amounts are needed. For example, 2.2 grams of protein are needed per kilogram of body weight each day in the first six months of life, and 2.0 grams per kilogram for the next six months.

Many nutritional experts feel the RDA for protein is far too low and is only suitable for sedentary adults. For those who are active, insulin sensitive, overweight or seeking weight loss or are in their teenage years, the amount of protein should be higher. If this is the case, you will likely need to increase your protein intake from the RDA’s recommendation of 0.8 g/kg to 1.2-1.8 g/kg. The calculation would be:

1. Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = weight in kg2. Weight in kg x 0.8-1.8 gm/kg = protein gm

If you are pregnant, recovering from an illness, stuck in a metabolic rut, under stress or work out intensely, I recommend using a number between 1 and 1.8. The calculation would be:

Example: 150 lb female who is a regular exerciser and lifts weights150 lbs/2.2 = 68kg68kg x 1.5 = 102 gm protein/day

Protein Quality

Once you’ve determined from which foods you can get your essential amino acids and also your required daily protein intake – you can begin to incorporate more protein into your diet according to your needs. As I’ve mentioned earlier grains, legumes, and vegetables are incomplete sources of protein, so you’ll have to combine foods to get all of your essential amino acids!  Protein complementation is essential if you decide not to eat any animal-based products. It simply means ‘putting together 2 or more sources of protein together to make sure you get the 9 essential amino acids’. And remember although there are only 9 essential amino acids, the body uses 20 amino acids to make its proteins, so make sure you eat enough! Complementary proteins do not need to be eaten together, so long as the day’s meals supply them all.

Vegetables are quite often low in the Amino Acids Methionine and Isoleucine. These are important for heart health, muscle recovery and blood sugar regulation. So, if you tried to survive on veggies alone you probably wouldn’t be doing all that well.

You could try a diet of grains (which seem to make up the majority of most people’s diet… but don’t necessarily include them in their raw form unfortunately). As I’ve discussed above, grains are low in Lysine, but also in Threonine and Tryptophan. These three-control bone development, hormone production, sleep and regulate moods. So, if you lived off grains alone you’d be a tired, cranky, hormonal mess probably with Osteoporosis!

Onto Nuts and Seeds, which are deficient in Lysine and Isoleucine which have been previously mentioned for their involvement in bone development, muscle recovery and blood sugar regulation. Likewise, with Legumes which are low in Methionine and Tryptophan for heart health, sleep and mood regulation.

So, as you can see you can’t live off any one of these categories alone, however, if you combine the correct foods and have a good variety you won’t be missing out at all! If you want to ensure you have a Complete amount of protein with every meal, consider combining the following…

So simply pick the base of your meal and add one of the two options and you’ll be laughing. Note that, combining at each meal isn’t necessary! Alternatively, if that doesn’t suit the meal you’re trying to make, just make sure you eat a good variety of all four by the end of the day and your diet will be full of Complete protein by the end of the day. 

Also keep in mind that even if you don’t have time to meal prep to combine foods, we have a 30-foot-long digestive tract and foods transit through it in somewhere between 14 – 30 hours. This means that proteins will be combined in the small intestines all day. As long as you eat a variety of plant foods, such as nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), and greens, your protein needs can be easily met.

Here are some common meal items that naturally complement each others’ proteins/ Some ideas for foods which you can put together to combine protein:

Beans and rice or tortillas

Peanut butter sandwich/Peanut butter on bread 

Baked beans toast

Poached egg and toast

Macaroni and cheese

Tofu with rice (or any grain)

Taco/tortilla & beans

Black Bean Burritos

Hummus with pita bread

Grilled cheese sandwich

Peanut Butter Spaghetti

Yogurt with nuts

Noodle stir-fry with peanut or sesame seed sauce

Lentil soup or dairy-based soup with bread

Whole grain cereal with milk

Pizza

Lasagna

Tacos filled with beans or lentils

Quinoa salad with black beans and feta

Corn, beans and squash are the three sacred crops of the indigenous peoples of North America. The Iroquois called them ‘The Three Sisters.” When combined in equal amounts, they provide 100% of the essential amino acids – rivaling animal foods. Additionally, quinoa, and soy are nearly complete vegetable proteins on their own.

Other tips

Before I end this, here are a few more tips that I personally use to make my life easier when it comes to incorporating protein:

1. Invest in a good BCAA supplement, my favourite BCAA supplement is ALLMAX Nutrition, Aminocore – the key lime pie flavour! -  I haven’t tried the other flavour yet but I will. You can make delicious lemonades during hot summer days. You can also make BCAA popsickles. I drink BCCA every day before and after my workouts. P.S. it’s available at Walmart

2. Also invest in some quality vegan protein! Protein shakes are an amazing way to achieve your daily protein intake requirements. As I’ve mentioned before protein shakes aren’t disgusting – but it’s the way one makes his protein shake that makes it disgusting. I hate mixing protein shakes with just water – it’s just yuck, I don’t know how people can just drink protein powder with water 🤢🤮 (my opinion though – don’t @ me please 🙃). You gotta add some life to the protein shake!!! I once made a protein shake with:

Vanilla protein powder (25g protein)

Strawberries

Coconut water

Almond milk

I also did:

Fruit blast Tropical powder blend (21 g of protein)

Coconut water

Almond milk 

Baby spinach + Pineapple & Mango

3. If your feeling fancy, make delicious smoked salmon bagel sandwiches. It’s easy to prepare and a real delight for your tummy.  I bought some smoked salmon for $2.49 the other day at GT Boutique (aka Giant Tiger). I don’t think GT exists in the States so try Walmart. Here are the instructions:

4. You can make a variety of mouthwatering salads packed with proteins. Here are 2 of my favourite salads that are super easy to make.

5. Here are a few non-meat protein sources:

You can also take a look at these posts from my blog for more ideas:

Plant protein energy kit [X]

Protein shakes [X]

48 delicious protein shake recipes [X]

10 vegetarian ways to eat your daily protein [X]

10 ways to add protein to your breakfast [X]

8 Must-Have Veggies for Building Muscles [X]

No meat muscle: 4 Rules for building lean mass on a vegetarian diet [X]

7 unique sources of protein [X]

Top sources of plant based protein [X]

Hope this was helpful and you enjoyed,Stephanie 😊

[themotivationjournals]

25 of the Best Self-Improvement Books To Read Before You Turn 25

Topic: Literature, Books, Lists || by STAFF

When it comes to self-improvement books, readers’ opinions don’t meet in the middle. Others feel empowered and committed by the helpful words they encounter, while the other half believes self-improvements book are phony. Regardless, every human being should read at least one self-improvement book in their life, and we have rounded up the best 25 to check out before turning 25!

Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?: And Other Provocations – Seth Godin

This book is a masterpiece, and unlike most self-improvement books, this one targets an infinite array of areas in which you can, and ultimately must, improve. With its ruthless honesty and genuine inspiration, Godin makes you ponder the difficult questions you wouldn’t ever dare to ask yourself. The result is a completely new perspective of the world- a fresher, more vibrant perspective, packed with new and bold possibilities. If you need a friend that understands, a boss that forces you to venture deep in your non-comfort zone, a wise guru that tells you what needs to be left behind and a sage that proclaims the coming of a new age, then look no further; you will find these shrewd voices all tied together in this magnificent book. Make sure to get this one.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Perhaps it is the fact that randomness played such a significant role in my years as a poker player that I find this book utterly important. We often attribute skill where there is only luck; we confuse correlation with causation and we underestimate the incredible effect small changes can have. This book and my time at the tables gave me a perspective I unfortunately rarely encounter in others: you can do everything right and still lose, or do everything wrong and still win. It is thus not about the outcome; it is about your actions that have lead you there. This important message is central to many of my decisions I make in my life and this book by Taleb helps you develop such a perspective so you will be able to live in a world one cannot fully understand, where the results are not always clear markers of performance and where chance seems to play games with our fates. Stop being fooled by randomness!

The 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene

I read this book in a time where I thought power was something I should attain. Power for power’s sake. And while I disagree with my former self on this point, the fact remains that power is very real, it forms the invisible scepter of all hierarchical relations around us. I still recommend this book; I believe it is important to know how people use power for their own benefit and what to do to protect yourself from certain abuses of power. Besides the fact that all stories in this book gravitate around power, it contains many life lessons, amazing historical anecdotes and, if read in a certain light, the ability to use power for good. From Caesar to Goethe, Sun-Tzu to Machiavelli, this eye opening book spans a wide range of human development. If you, like me, would rather be interested in something less egotistical, perhaps Greene’s latest book Mastery will suffice (I haven’t read that one myself). Another great book in the same style, but this time around, covering a wider scope, and, perhaps, something that will make the world make a better place.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change – Stephen. R. Covey

The title of this book doesn’t capture it all. Covey shares with us seven habits one should adapt to become truly effective in whatever you would like to achieve. Of course, it is not as easy as it sounds. He stresses the fact that we need to go through a paradigm shift – a fundamental change in how we perceive the world and ourselves. This book can be read as a guide, with practices and everything, to go through the stages in order to make such a shift happen. Part shock-therapy, part ageless spiritual wisdom,Covey’s book is packed with wisdom that actually makes a difference. And, as I mentioned, don’t let the title of the book fool you; it is about much more than just becoming more effective. It is about becoming a whole integer person who not only seeks the best in oneself, but also in the people around her. A must read for anyone who feels there is always something left to learn.

The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys – James Fadiman

While finding a book on psychedelics in a list of books on self-improvement might come as a surprise, I believe any metaphysical distinction between tools such as books, meditation or molecules hold no ground and they should all be solely judged on their merits. And the merits of certain chemical keys, used in a constructive way, are perhaps bigger than any book in this list. The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide will teach you how to prepare yourself and your surroundings, what and how much to take, and what do do when something goes wrong, so you can safely enhance your thinking, creativity, introspection and emotional balance. This book contains everything you need to know about using psychedelics as a tool for self-improvement while drawing on extensive scientific literature and personal wisdom. A must have for the beginning and experienced psychonaut alike.

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time – Brian Tracy

We all know how that destructive downward spiral feels. We have to do some big task, of which the thought alone triggers resistance, not sure how and where to begin and feeling overwhelmed before we start; we get easily distracted to get rid of that feeling, only to suddenly realize that hours went by- precious hours- and then find ourselves in the same position as before, still not knowing where and how to begin, but now, feeling guilty on top of it which expresses itself in more craving for distraction.

To break this spell of procrastination before it paralyzes us, Tracy advises us to Eat That Frog, to set our priorities straight, deconstruct larger tasks into smaller ones, learn when to tackle the big frog first or to start out with something else. Tracy is truly a motivational writer, and while I wished he had gone a bit deeper into the psychological reasons why people procrastinate, it is still a must have for anyone who wants to break the spell and get shit done. 

Think and Grow Rich: The Original 1937 Unedited Edition – Napoleon Hill

A from 1937, this book by Hill is a masterpiece. Don’t bother with the edited versions since they all omit important and controversial information: some historical, and some pertaining to the goal of the book, which is to think and grow rich. The word rich might imply that this book is all about material gain, and while it certainly covers that area, it is about much more than that. Perhaps the first explicit mention of positive thinking, on how to care not just about the cash in your pocket, but also the thoughts in your head, this book has been able to withstand the destruction of time. It covers all the basics from planning, decision making and persistence, to the more advanced techniques as auto-suggestion, transmutation and what we can learn from fear. This is not a grow rich book, but a timeless guide to find out what actually matters. As it says clearly in the beginning ‘Riches can’t always be measured in money!’

The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind – Alan Wallace

In a world that is dominated by ever stronger technologies designed to grab hold of your attention, a way to empower yourself is to bring that attention back to where you want it to shine. This book offers just that; in The Attention Revolution, Wallace describes the path to attaining Shamatha, a buddhist meditation state of mind that is free from any flickering of distraction. It is a hard and long path, probably not possible for us to reach in this lifetime. However, even getting to stage two or three will make everything in life easier. A wonderful introduction to meditation, The Attention Revolution will inspire you to take on the challenge and see what training your mind can actually achieve. Once you have achieved such a level of focus you can put it to use to open your heart with the practice of The Four Immeasurables or deepen the practice with this wonderful commentary by Dudjom Lingpa, both by Alan B. Wallace.

The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health – John Durant

In the last 10,000 years or so it seems we have been propelled into an ever faster paced world forged by our own hands and minds. Only recently have we been able to reconstruct our journey and reflect back upon our humble origins. This amazing book is such a reflection. It goes back to the paleolithic searching for answers to health and longevity. Between science and his personal experiments, Durant weaves a mind blowing story that will convey the importance of an evolutionary perspective on how to live well. It covers everything from nutrition to exercise, from sleep to fasting, from ancient practices to modern biohacking and even has an outline for a vision of the future where depression and obesity have become obsolete. If you only have room for a couple of books on this list, make sure this one is included.

Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation – Daniel J. Siegel

As my Burmese meditation teacher often proclaimed, ‘Mindfulness alone is not enough!’ Siegel seems to have taken this to heart and made an unique synthesis between meditation, psychoanalysis and neuroscience which he calls ‘Mindsight‘, as he says himself, a potent combination between emotional and social intelligence. All of us deal with some disorder or another, something that seems to disturb the very core of our being at ease, and while it might not always be the best strategy to want to get rid of it, it certainly helps to understand and have compassion for that little aspect that upsets that perfect image of ourselves. Brimming with techniques, insights and epiphanies, this book contains everything you need to know to reprogram your brain and to optimally use its capacity of neuroplasticity. A great book for spiritual seekers and scientists alike.

How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie

This is the first self-improvement book I have ever read and it is also probably one of the oldest in this category. Written in 1937, mainly for the door to door salesman of that era, this book by Carnegie can truly be called a classic. It shows what we all intuitively know: it doesn’t matter what your line of work is or what you want to achieve- if you are doing business of any kind, you need to make it about the other person. Being nice helps, a lot. And while I might not fully defend the premise of this book, because it doesn’t distinguish between genuine interest and faking it to get what you want, it still contains a treasure chest full of timeless wisdom. Everybody wants to feel appreciated, and rightfully so. Learning to take a small effort to make someone’s day will make the world run smoother, no matter what your goal is. I still spontaneously remember some of his guidance, and perhaps this quality is the reason why this book still draws millions of readers to this day.

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy– David D. Burns

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the most effective therapy used by psychologists today; it consists of identifying thought patterns that have a detrimental effect on your self-image and mood, and deconstructing these in order to break out of these destructive cycles. If you want to know how this works, which moods are central in your life, what thought patterns are causing your depression, how to overcome self-judgment and guilt, how to defeat approval and love addiction and how your self-perfectionism is hindering you, then don’t look further; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has helped millions of people and it can help you, and this is the best book for the job. Packed with scientific research, exercises and examples, this is the best improvement your self is going to get.

Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life – Maxwell Maltz

What can a plastic surgeon tell us about happiness? By dealing with his patients, Dr. Maxwell Maltz experienced firsthand that having your expectations come true doesn’t automatically result into a more positive life experience. Their outward appearances did indeed change but their inner insecurity remained. This caused him to find other means to help his patients, resulting in visualization techniques. He found a person’s outer success can never rise above the one visualized internally. This book carries a very honest and humbling story, loaded with fundamental truths about our psychology and how our own philosophy affects us, all told by a very compassionate writer. Of some books it can be said that it will be valuable for years to come, and I am absolutely positive that this is one of them.

Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

This brilliant book by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman is a lucid account of all the amazing research he has done over the years. He is the founder of behavioral economics – the way our psychology affects our decisions – and explains in simple prose how our thinking is divided in two systems: one fast and one slow. The fast one is almost instant; it consists of the hardwired instincts that govern emotions, a remnant of an evolutionary past, an unconscious irrational machine. The slow one is deliberate, self-reflexive and logical, but can easily be distracted and takes a lot of effort. Both play a large role in our lives and Kahneman explores when the fast system fails and why the slow system is often not utilized. Packed with mind blowing examples and sharp analyses, this book teaches you how to learn to make sound judgments, and use the best of both systems.

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything – Chris Hadfield

A few extraordinary people journey to the edge of our world and come back with a unique story to tell. Colonel Hadfield is such a person, and his story is perhaps the most important one in this list. While the other books in this list teach you to be independent, visualize your future and dream big, this astronaut’s guide turns these all upside down. A truly remarkable book, overflowing with mind-blowing stories that illustrate the life lessons he learned as one of the most accomplished astronauts that ever lived.Full of compassion, warmth and genuine self-reflexive humor, he conveys to us to be prepared for the worst and never let yourself be swayed from enjoying every moment. Part action story, part no-nonsense hard truth and part timeless spiritual wisdom, this book makes you feel like you stepped onto a rocket ship and experienced what he did while learning these most valuable lessons on the way.

Perfect Health Diet: Regain Health and Lose Weight by Eating the Way You Were Meant to Eat – Paul Jaminet & Shou-Ching Jaminet

No self-improvement list is complete without a nutrition book and the Perfect Health Diet is arguably the best diet book on the market now. If you are overweight or not, feel sick, or just looking for an extra boost in health (and keep it this way), then look no further. From reading decades of studies the authors construct the optimal way to eat, destroying popular food fads in the process. They explain in sufficient detail the optimal macro-ratios, which starches are safe, which vitamins and supplements to take and what foods, or what they call toxins, to avoid. This book is a great supplement to the Paleo Manifesto as it shares its basic evolutionary perspective; we were evolved to eat non-toxic, high fat, moderate protein and carbohydrates. And, sometimes, going around with no food at all, can be a very healthy thing. If your body is not in optimal health, then it is almost no use to read the other books. Make this your priority number one.

Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success – John C. Maxwell

At one time or another, we will all fail. What matters most is how you deal with it once you do. Will you give up? Or will you use it as a stepping stone for success? I recently read an article about new start-ups in silicon valley. Its hypothesis was the more you had failed in the past, the more likely you were going to get funding. Why? Because failing teaches you invaluable lessons, and if you decide to continue after you hit the pavement, the more you have it in you to deliver. Now, this is not in anyway our instinctual reaction to failing. Most of us dread it, avoid it or refuse to fail at all costs. All three are by far sub-optimal. It is far better to accept failure where it arises, to accept responsibility and use it as a way to learn about yourself and your weaknesses. Only when you are absolute honest with yourself with respect to failure can you hope to grow. This wonderful book will teach you how to do exactly this. A honest book for everyone searching for a clean mirror.

The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now hardly needs any introduction. It is perhaps the book that has had the most impact on our collective consciousness in recent years. It inspired millions of people all over the world to live a more fulfilling and compassionate life, all through the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness consists of moment to moment non-judgmental awareness. It is a technique that alleviates depression, increases emotional intelligence and develops compassion- and only recently has come to the west, which remained weary and skeptical until science had validated a wide array of its claims. The brain can be trained. The Power of Now teaches you how to release your attachment to certain thoughts and states of mind, thereby clearing the mind to fully embrace the present moment. If you already have read this book and are looking for deeper understanding, read Wherever You Go, There You Are.

The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

At some point or another, almost all of us has come across The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. (If you haven’t, watch this powerful message here.) What would you say when you only have a few months left to live? This was probably Pausch’s question he posed to himself when he had to deliver his lecture a week later. But being confined to an academic setting and short time frame he felt he had more to share, thus marking the birth of this book. Filled with stories about his childhood, it is a very down to earth exploration of what it means to chase your dreams, to be a good person and live a life that gives value to others. A beautiful mixture of humor and optimism, his tender voice will be a source of inspiration for everyone who will take the time to listen, something he tried to impart on his readers. A very lovely read. And don’t forget, ‘It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but how you play the hand.’

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead – Brené Brown

I love Brené Brown’s books. She writes about an insight that I have found to be scary but true at the same time.Vulnerability, unlike we have been taught, is not a weakness, but a power to be tapped. Growing up with the idea that we have to hide certain parts of ourselves, to look strong and persevere at all costs always seemed a facade to me. And now she has the research to back that up. From that place of vulnerability comes a sense of worthiness, which for most of us, needs to be cultivated every day. Only if we get in touch with that tender spot of our hearts can we connect with others and develop genuine compassion, which are prerequisites, Brown tells us, for living a ‘wholehearted life.’ The reality, however, is that we often close down, feel neglected and misunderstood, and rather want the vulnerability and perhaps even ourselves to disappear. This book is an amazing antidote for that common instinct. Want to be truly convinced? Check out her amazing ted talk here.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark – Carl Sagan

We all find UFO’s fascinating. We all really want to believe in magic or visiting aliens (surely the crop circles are conclusive proof!) and some of us believe the government is poisoning us with chemtrails. At the same time we are fascinated by the progress made by science, by all the new technology and medicines and the fascinating discoveries being made on a daily basis. Clearly, for the average person, it is quite hard to make a distinction between one claim or another – most of us are scientifically illiterate.Carl Sagan fought his whole life against such unreason and claimed that missing this ability to distinguish valid claims from hogwash could plunge us back into the dark ages. This book is perhaps his best on this subject, filled with examples and his eloquent mesmerizing voice, The Demon-Haunted World is a How To guide to arm you against manipulation masked as information. A must read for anyone who still feels the temptation to click sensationalist sophistry.

Philosophy for Life – Jules Evans

As philosopher Sloterdijk puts it; ‘philosophy is a beautiful child of an ugly mother.’ Philosophy first arose when the old Greek polis states were at the brink of destruction. Philosophy, according to Sloterdijk, was not just a way to make sense of the world, to come to knowledge or truth, but to serve as a psychological immune system. This book is an amazing expression of this perspective. From the stoics to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Jules Evans writes about some of the amazing philosophical techniques we can use to train and improve our cognitive immune systems. He weaves ancient stories with modern applications, from heroism to cosmic contemplation, Philosophy for Life a beautifully written book that makes it easy to understand the practical nature of philosophy. Perhaps the book would have been better if he would have gone deeper into the subject matter, but nonetheless he captures the essence of what philosophy can mean for the modern person. A must read.

Man’s Search For Meaning – Victor. E. Frankl

If I had to pick one book from this list for mandatory reading I would choose this one. For three years Viktor Frankl labored in four different Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He tells us about his experience and that of his fellow prisoners. Both chilling and uplifting, confronted with the idea that they would be trapped there for the rest of their lives, he gives us an account of those who found meaning and those who succumbed to nihilism. A blend between a memoir, a psychological investigation and a self-help book, Frankl delivers a powerful message: finding meaning lies at the core of being human. From his own experience as a psychiatrist combined with anecdotes from his time in the concentration camps, he tells us how important it is to find meaning in our own lives and what we can become if we don’t. Suffering, he conveys to us, is inevitable. But as to how we cope with it is dependent on ourselves. If we can find meaning, even in the worst acts our species has ever inflicted upon his fellow man, we will be able to move forward with renewed purpose.

Simplify – Joshua Becker

This is a fun little book written by Joshua Becker, a big proponent of minimalist living. We all know that quote from Fightclub: “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” Well, this is ending. Slowly we are outgrowing an era where the unquestioned mantra ‘more is always better’ dictates our behavior. Rather, we now find ourselves, our lives and our homes cluttered with too much information, too much stuff and just too much shit we don’t need. This simple book helps you become aware of the freedom gained from living with less. It is a small book, easily read under an hour, but it carries a persuasive punch to start living live in a very different way.

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It – Kamal Ravikant

The fundamental ground upon which all true self improvement is build is called self-love. Because in the end, no matter which way you turn, if you don’t love yourself, you will sabotage yourself at one point. You will think that, for some reason or another, you are not worthy. And if you think that, why would you truly want to achieve anything? And this is not just about achievement. This is about how you approach yourself every day; this is what you see when you look in the mirror. We make so many snap-judgments about ourselves- often without being conscious of them- that are filled with negativity, haltering us before we can even begin to heal. This powerful book shows you the antidote. Self love. Not to be confused with creating some narcissistic image of ourselves that some previous books in this list implicitly endorse, but self love, that inner gratefulness that no external condition can take away. Self love, that infinite source you can share with others.

Which one is your favorite?

Is a book missing in the 25 Best Books on Self-

Improvement You Need to Read Before You Turn 25? Thank you for reading :)

[THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY LIFEHACK]

[bhuwank]

Story of Cholesterol

Cholesterol is the most well known villain in the Medical world today. It is one of the most important items forming the walls in every cell of the body and is indispensable for existence of life. Lately the increased blood level of this very important organic chemical has been found to be one of the leading cause of the killer Heart Attacks. Thus, more and more people know it for its notorious role rather than useful role.

 Cholesterol is a long chain fatty acid (different from triglycerides or oils or fats which has three fatty acids) – consisting of 27 carbon atoms, 46 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It is supposed to be “the highly decorated small molecule in Biology”. It has been so important in medical science that since 1986 a number of noble prices have been awarded to the scientists making breakthrough in the research of cholesterol. This tiny molecule forms a major role in the heart disease and in the long run it has indirectly proved more fatal than the most powerful atom bombs!

Cholesterol is found only in animals. Plants and vegetables contain related molecules, which are not absorbed by the human body. All animal products can predispose to high intake of cholesterol. 93% of the body’s cholesterol is located in the cells and only 7% which circulates in the blood, has been held responsible for the formation of blockage.

 Cholesterol level in the blood is not safe when about 200mg/100 ml. For reversal of blockages it is recommended to keep this level at 130mg/100ml. On an average the intake of cholesterol by humans who eat meat is above 600 mg/day. Vegetarians who take a lot of milk and milk products have about 200-400 mg/day.

 The maintenance level of blood cholesterol depends on (i) Intake in form of food (ii) Production of cholesterol inside liver and other tissues (iii) Use of cholesterol by the body.

 The intake of cholesterol in food can be lowered by non-consumption of non-vegetarian food items and can be easily curtailed. As it may not be feasible to cut the production inside the body without harming the liver, SAAOL recommends a minimal intake. (10mg/day or less). However, in some people who are genetically conditioned to produce little more cholesterol, have to take some drugs, if they cannot control the blood level by diet alone. Exercise and physical activity leads to more breakdown of cholesterol. Stress or tension can additionally increase blood cholesterol level.

 TRIGLYCERIDES THE EDIBLE OIL

 We already know that Energy or Calories are derived in our body from only three kinds of food – Carbohydrates (Cereals, fruits, vegetables, Sugar and items made from them), Proteins (Pulses or dals, non vegetarian food) and fats. More than 99% of the consumed fats, by almost all of us, are Triglycerides. When the body breaks these triglycerides, each gram of Triglyceride will give us 9 calories of energy.

 WHICH OIL IS GOOD?

 It is a deep rooted belief in Indian house holds that one cannot prepare meals without oil but with taste intact. A variety of oils are available in the market. Many oil manufactures claim that consumption of their brand will help reduce the chances of heart disease. The slogan which is commonly used is “Heart friendly oil” which is not true. All oil manufacturing companies give one reason or the other in favour of their product, e.g. “Oil keeps your family active and fit”, “oil adds healthy goodness to your cooking”, “helps reduce cholesterol levels”, “brings out the true taste of good food while making it easy to digest”, “one feels active throughout the day… if you consume our oil” and “soy oil is healthy for heart as it is rich in polyunsaturates”…..  and so on. All vegetable oils have one thing common in their composition i.e. zero percent cholesterol content.

The fact is that cholesterol is present only in animal products. And since all these oils come from plant products , there is no question of cholesterol being present in them. The oil companies highlight the “zero cholesterol “ slogan in order to promote their product and the consumer gets misleaded. No oil made from vegetable or plant origin contains cholesterol.

 All oils, whether corn oil, soya oil, sun flower oil or Kardi oil, are full of triglycerides. Consumption of 10gm of any oil will provide 90 cal. What one must understand is that this is just a marketing strategy used by the promoters of the oil companies. Triglycerides i.e. Oil in any form whether saturated , monounsatured, polyunsaturated or mixed, promotes the process of blockaging and is hence Bad for the heart.

 SHOULD OIL AND CHOLESTEROL BE RESTRICTED IN YOUR CHILD

 No. Nutrition for children should promote growth and meet energy and nutrient needs without promoting overfatness. Parents can assist their children in making positive food choices.  Habits formed in childhood are likely to carry into adult years. No food should be forbidden in a child’s diet. Children grow till the age of 30 years and in the growing years their body requires these fats. Keeping fat intake at moderate levels without going to extremes is the key. Parents who are too restrictive with fat intake will limit a child’s ability to eat sufficient calories to maintain growth. However screening is advocated for children and adolescents whose parents and grandparents develop heart disease or have high lipids.

 HOW CHOLESTEROL LEVEL RUNS IN THE FAMILY?

Mr. Basu, 55, retired cannot sit on the breakfast table without a newspaper. Being an avid reader he has read in one of those articles that sometimes HIGH Cholesterol levels run in the family.

He called on one of his friend who is a doctor, to confirm it. Aware that his levels are elevated he asked his two sons to go in for a check, who reluctantly agreed, only to be surprised to find alarmingly high levels of Cholesterol, despite a low fat intake in the meals.

Average diet supplies about 500 milligrams of cholesterol per day. Another 1000 milligram is synthesized in the body. Liver and Intestines are the principal sources for blood cholesterol. Also it is produced in Skin, Adrenal glands, Testes & Ovary. It is used in the formation of Vitamin D, few Hormones and Skin.

The increase in Cholesterol can be classified as secondary and primary.

Secondary means precipitation because of another disease e.g. Diabetes, Myxoedema, Nephrotic syndrome, chronic alcoholism and few drugs which include Steroids (life saving anti inflammatory agents), Oral Contraceptives (the birth control pill), etc.

Primary can be because of genetic factors (i.e. genes passed on in a family) and also to add to it is the dietary and physical activity factors.

Known as Familial Hypercholesterolemia there is an increase of LDL and Cholesterol levels in the blood. Either the LDL binding to the cells is poor or transfer inside the cells is poor leaving it suspended in the blood and subsequently harming the inside of wall of blood vessels. Normally the Cholesterol inside the body, but her this mechanism fails, hence excessive synthesis of Cholesterol by the Liver leading to elevated levels of Cholesterol and also LDL. The receptors for LDL in the cells may be markedly reduced or even altogether absent.

 Hope you liked this article.

This article is written by Dr. Bimal Chajjer (India’s best heart specialist)

[gethealthy18-blog]

How to Make Your Own Natural Disinfectant Spray

New Post has been published on https://healingawerness.com/news/how-to-make-your-own-natural-disinfectant-spray/

How to Make Your Own Natural Disinfectant Spray

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]

I’m not big on sanitizing everything all the time, but some situations call for the big guns. This spray is like my homemade disinfecting wipes, but with a longer shelf life. It’s convenient, quick, and combines powerful essential oils with proven recommended disinfectants like hydrogen peroxide or alcohol.

I based this recipe on careful research from the CDC, EPA, Stanford University, and other sources, but of course I cannot make any claims as to its effectiveness on certain viruses or bacteria. This is just a formula that I personally feel comfortable using around my house when I need it. As with everything, I encourage you to do your own research and make sure any product you use meets your own needs and criteria right now.

Why Use Homemade Disinfectant Spray?

If you’ve read my other posts, you know that I don’t use antibacterial cleaners unless I absolutely have to (which isn’t often). I do buy certain pre-made natural soaps and detergent, but I also enjoy keeping things simple and mixing up what I need from a few simple staples in my pantry or cleaning closet.

Homemade DIY cleaning recipes also help avoid harsh chemicals because you know exactly what’s going into the formula. According to the American Lung Association, many chemical-laden disinfectant products are linked with asthma, respiratory problems, headaches, and more. Also some people can’t tolerate cleaners with fragrances and other ingredients, or simply want a more natural alternative.

Since I don’t use disinfectants very often, I came up with this disinfectant spray from ingredients and essential oils I already had on hand. It saves a trip to the store or storing another bottle in my cleaning closet.

Does It Really Work Though?

There are a thousand and one cleaning products recipes floating around on the Internet. So how can we know a homemade cleaner actually works and we’re not just getting peppermint-scented, salmonella-covered countertops?

Cleaners at the store are tested to make sure they do what they say they do and are effective. That’s definitely not the case with a homemade formula. However, we do know a lot about effective natural disinfectants from published research. Some natural ingredients are even on CDC-approved lists, with specific guidance about how much and how to use them.

Please, as always, do your own research (I’ve offered links below to mine) and seek your doctor’s advice for the best approach for your family.

Germ-Fighting Essential Oils

Essential oils are amazing little things that can pack a powerful punch. One reason why it’s so important to use them safely! It isn’t enough to say an essential oil is antibacterial or antiviral though and leave it at that.

Certain essential oils are effective against certain pathogens, but not others. For example, a 2020 article in Biomolecules reports clove essential oil works well against salmonella and E. coli bacteria. However, clove doesn’t have any effect on certain pneumonia-causing bacteria.

How Natural Disinfectants Work

Viruses work differently than bacteria because they hijack healthy cells and replicate. Some viruses also have a coating surrounding them, called a viral envelope. If we don’t use the right antiviral, it can’t break down the outside coating and inactivate the virus.

Here are some germ-fighting essential oils and how they work:

Oregano essential oil – antiviral, antifungal, antimicrobial. Also disrupts the viral envelope according to this study. 

Clove essential oil – antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial and disrupts the viral envelope

Thyme essential oil (thymol chemotype) – kills coronaviruses and at the time of this post, a product containing thymol is on the list of EPA-approved disinfectants for SARs-related viruses.

Tea tree essential oil – antiviral against flu viruses, including H1N1. Antibacterial, including MRSA and other pathogens.

Orange essential oil – broad spectrum antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal

Red mandarin essential oil – antibacterial and antifungal

Lemon essential oil – antibacterial and antifungal

Keeping It Happy

Citrus oils like orange, lime, lemon, bergamot, and grapefruit can uplift the mood. Killing harmful pathogens while we reduce stress and anxiety? Score.

What Are the Best Natural Disinfectants?

Natural disinfectants do exist. Here are some of the options I’ve personally researched and used:

Alcohol

This is one of the most popular disinfectants used for hand sanitizers and hard surfaces. Many homemade products don’t have enough alcohol to work well though. According to the CDC 60-90% alcohol is necessary to make a disinfectant that works. (The reason I updated my hand sanitizer recipe.)

If we start off with 60% alcohol and then dilute it with water… we just killed the efficacy of the cleaner.

What About Vodka?

The average vodka is 80 proof, or 40 percent alcohol. Even if we use it straight up that’s well below the recommended 60 percent. If you opt for vodka it needs to be at least 120 proof.

Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol)

Rubbing alcohol is available at pharmacies and most grocery stores. It’s cheaper than vodka and ranges from about 70-90% alcohol so it fits the bill for a homemade disinfectant spray.

Note: Sensitive noses may have trouble with the fumes from an alcohol-based spray. If this is you, opt for hydrogen peroxide instead.

Hydrogen Peroxide

This unassuming cleaner is hiding out in bathroom cabinets across the nation. Unlike alcohol, we only need a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to disinfect. Commercial preparations use .5 -1% total hydrogen peroxide, compared to 60-90% alcohol.

Peroxide attacks pathogens and is one of the few natural EPA-approved disinfectants. This cleaner also works against rhinoviruses, flu, and viruses that cause the common cold. A 1977 article, “Virus Inactivation by Hydrogen Peroxide,” reports it inactivates the viruses and stops them in their tracks.

There’s a catch though… according this article, hydrogen peroxide may not disinfect properly if the area has dirt and dust on it:

If it (hydrogen peroxide) comes into contact with other molecules like organics and soil that haven’t been cleaned before the disinfectant was sprayed, then effectiveness will degrade. Processes that include thorough cleaning before the disinfectant application will need to be a high priority when using hydrogen peroxide disinfectants.

Yes, it’s annoying to clean a surface twice (once for dirt and second for microbes), but that’s how this cleaner works best. Some disinfectants take up to 30 minutes to work, but peroxide can destroy germs in just one minute.

Thymol

Another EPA-approved natural disinfectant is thymol. Found in high amounts in thyme essential oil, this compound kills both viruses and bacteria. Approved commercial cleaners use a .05% concentration of thymol. That doesn’t mean we can just use .05% thyme oil though, since the thymol content varies.

Some thyme oil brands have as little as 26% thymol, while others can have 50% or more. That’s a huge difference when we’re figuring for only .05 percent! Plant Therapy is one of my favorite essential oil brands and they release the GCMS test reports of all their oils. This makes it easy to know exactly how much thymol is in their essential oil.

According to the EPA, wait 10 minutes before wiping thymol-based cleaners off of surfaces.

Important Note on Essential Oil Choice:

I’ve given several options for how to make this cleaner so you can use what you have on hand. Pick a base (hydrogen peroxide OR alcohol), and choose from the suggested essential oils.

Note: On average, Plant Therapy thyme oil has about 40% thymol. This means we need to use .58 ml or about 12 drops per 16 ounces of cleaning solution to hit that .05% concentration. It’s best to get the thyme thymol chemotype, but thyme linalool can also work. Since the linalool variety has much less thymol you’ll need to triple the amount used in the recipe.

Homemade Disinfectant Spray Recipe

A tough but natural sanitizing spray cleaner for when I don’t have disinfecting wipes on hand

Course Remedy

Prep Time 15 minutes

Author Katie Wells

Ingredients

Choose one of the following essential oil options:

For alcohol based recipe:

16 oz 120 proof vodka or rubbing alcohol

For hydrogen peroxide based recipe:

Instructions

In a 16-ounce glass spray bottle, add the desired essential oils.

Add the alcohol OR the hydrogen peroxide and distilled water. Regular tap water will quickly grow bacteria.

Close the top and lightly shake to mix.

Notes

How to use: Shake well and spray on surfaces to disinfect. Make sure there’s no dirt, dust, or debris on the surface before using. Wait 1-10 minutes before wiping off. Use on door knobs, faucets, light switches, and other often used surfaces.

This article was medically reviewed by Dr. Scott Soerries, MD, Family Physician and Medical Director of SteadyMD. As always, this is not personal medical advice and we recommend that you talk with your doctor.

Do you use a natural disinfectant? What brands or recipes do you like best?

Sources:

A. Garozzo,  R. Timpanaro,  B. Bisignano,  P.M. Furneri,  G. Bisignano,  A. Castro. (2009). In vitro antiviral activity of Melaleuca alternifolia essential oil. Letters in Applied Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-765X.2009.02740.x

American Lung Association. (2020, Feb 12). Cleaning Supplies and Household Chemicals. Lung. https://www.lung.org/clean-air/at-home/indoor-air-pollutants/cleaning-supplies-household-chem

Batiha, G. E., Alkazmi, L. M., Wasef, L. G., Beshbishy, A. M., Nadwa, E. H., & Rashwan, E. K. (2020). Syzygium aromaticum L. (Myrtaceae): Traditional Uses, Bioactive Chemical Constituents, Pharmacological and Toxicological Activities. Biomolecules, 10(2), 202. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020202

Buckle, J. (2015). Clinical Aromatherapy: Essential Oils in Healthcare. Elsevier.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, Feb 27). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/community/environment/index.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016, Sept 18). Chemical Disinfectants

Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities (2008). CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/disinfection-methods/chemical.html

Dosoky, N. S., & Setzer, W. N. (2018). Biological Activities and Safety of Citrus spp. Essential Oils. International journal of molecular sciences, 19(7), 1966. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19071966

Environmental Protection Agency. (2020, March 26). Pesticide Registration,

G., Kampfa, D.,Todtb, S., Pfaenderb, E., Steinmannb (2020). Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents. Journal of Hospital Infection, 104(3), 246-251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.01.022Get

Jordan, R. (2020, March 26). Environmental engineers at Stanford discuss how to identify factors affecting COVID-19 transmission. Standford News. https://news.stanford.edu/2020/03/26/understanding-spread-covid-19/

Leyva-López, N., Gutiérrez-Grijalva, E. P., Vazquez-Olivo, G., & Heredia, J. B. (2017). Essential Oils of Oregano: Biological Activity beyond Their Antimicrobial Properties. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 22(6), 989. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules22060989

Mentel, R., Shirrmakher, R., Kevich, A., Drezin, R., Shmidt, I.(1977). Virus inactivation by hydrogen peroxide. Vopr Virusol. (6):731-3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/203115

A guide to better understanding active ingredients. Cleaning and Maintenance Management. https://www.cmmonline.com/articles/disinfectant-pros-and-cons-hydrogen-peroxide-vs-quats

Oliva, A., Costantini, S., De Angelis, M., Garzoli, S., Božovi, M., Mascellino, M. T., Vullo, V., & Ragno, R. (2018). High Potency of Melaleuca alternifolia Essential Oil against Multi-Drug Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 23(10), 2584. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23102584

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/425184/disinfectant-spray/

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 12

Your Endocrine System: Part 1

We are now approaching the end of the series of organs that told you about themselves. They have been pointing out the seal of God on them, and celebrating themselves as they manifest the beauties and the delicacies of God’s art. Thus, they have not only expanded your knowledge, but also guided people to the truth of God’s Oneness, stressing that natural and biological causes alone can never be an explanation for their splendid creation.

Each of your organs told you about its perfect structure and how it functioned within your body system. Let us think that each organ is a musical instrument. No matter how splendid and artful a musical instrument is, its true value is understood only among other orchestra instruments as they perform a wonderful concert. Your body is like that orchestra, where hundreds of instruments play together. In addition to the perfect structure of each organ, more importantly all the organs have to work together perfectly as a team. The success of an orchestra depends on how the instruments play in harmony with each other. The conductor of an orchestra is the person who ensures that harmony. The orchestra members carefully watch the conductor and play according to his arm movements, sometimes louder or softer, sometimes pausing or breaking into a very loud introduction. That is how a perfect concert can be performed.

In order to achieve such harmony, the organs in your body need a system that works just like a good orchestra conductor. This “regulating system,” which has to maintain the perfect harmony and order of the ongoing activities in your body, has two sub-units: One is the brain and the nervous system, and the other is me; your endocrine system (hormonal system). Since I work as a system that consists of many organs, from now on I will refer to myself as “us.” Each of us adjusts itself to the whole system by carefully watching the movements and works of the other organs. At our head are the brain and nervous system, which act as the general control center. However, it cannot carry out the regulating and controlling task alone; it needs our help.

The most basic principle that your body has to follow in order to maintain its health is keeping the inner medium stable in a dynamic balance while responding to varying environmental conditions properly. This is also known as homeostasis. For the inner medium to be kept stable, it is first of all important to be aware of the changes that are happening in the outer world, which is initially done by your sense organs. The signals related to the changes in the outer world are sent to your brain and nervous system through the sense organs. Afterwards, the signals are evaluated, and then they are sent to the related organ so that the proper reaction is produced and the inner balance can be regained. While all the activities regarding growth and reproduction are carried out, the inner medium should be kept stable at the same time (homeostasis). In order for all these activities to be performed continuously, you need inner secretion glands, which are small, but highly important.

The most important of all your organs that constitute the endocrine system is called the Pituitary (hypophysis) gland, which is recognized as the commander of all these organs and situated in your brain. The other secretion glands included in my system are the thyroid, parathyroid, suprarenal (adrenal) gland, epiphysis, pancreas, testicles, and ovarium. Now, these small but very important organs of mine will respectively talk about themselves and demonstrate the perfect program and the sensitive balance within which they work. You are the one who will draw the necessary lessons from this.

In all tissues, there are specific recipient molecule groups that respond to a particular hormone. Each hormone is programmed to stimulate its target cells, which contain those special recipient molecule groups that start doing their specific work. The principal functions of my endocrine system are: to enable growing; to regulate the necessary reproduction process in an ordered manner; and to carry out the physiological processes in the body in a relatively stable medium. I guess your amazement, admiration, love, and apprehension will increase when you hear about my secretion glands. Now, here comes the hypophysis.

My name is Hypophysis (the Pituary Gland)!

I am appointed as the commander of all your glands. Therefore, I am situated in a very firm place at the lower brain. I am an organ that is as small as a bean and that weighs only a few grams, but I have got so many talents. I have two parts. The first is my frontal lobe (adenohypophysis) which secretes most of the hormones. Our Creator has given key roles to the hormones of my frontal lobe to direct secretion activities of other endocrine glands. For example, thyrotropin hormone is arranged in such a way that it affects the thyroid gland and stimulates it for secretion. The unbalance in my thyrotrophic secretion affects the function of Thyroid gland negatively. If it is secreted too much, hyperthyroid; if it is secreted too little, hypothyroid illnesses emerge. In both cases, some problems occur during metabolism. Adrenocorticotropic hormone is created to arrange the activities at the adrenal cortex. Follicular stimulating hormone has two very important roles. The first one is regulating the secretion of estrogen, which is one of the female hormones. The second one is maintaining the physiological activities in the maturation of sperm cells in males, as well as the egg cells in females, for the continuation of human generation. The Luteinizing hormone together with the Estrogen stimulates the secretion of other sexual hormones (progesterone and testosterone).

When you were born, you were 20 inches tall. Now you are almost 6 ft tall. Both your height and your hands and feet grew. Meanwhile, your head and body got bigger proportionally. Another important secretion of yours that controls your growth appropriate to your age is somatotropin hormone. If, for some reason, my working balance got deteriorated, and this hormone secreted less, you would be like a dwarf, or some of your parts would be unbalanced with your body and abnormally short. If this hormone were secreted too much, then you would get into gigantism due to abnormally large growth. Together with gigantism illness, several problems occur; i.e., heart and blood pressure problems, muscle weaknesses, and problems regarding immunity and general metabolism.

Other hormones that are secreted from my frontal lobe are prolactin hormones, which help milk glands develop in expecting mothers, and melanocyte stimulating hormone, which stimulates the pigment cells that give color to your skin. However, these two hormones have no relation with the other hormonal glands.

The lipoprotein molecule of my melanocyte stimulating hormone helps the morphine substances, known as encephalin and endorphin, to be synthesized. You can call these two substances naturally inherent drugs. These secreted substances help you to bear several physical pains. The secretion of my hormones has direct relation with your nervous system and psychological well-being.

Although formed in the hypothalamus part of the brain, one of the hormones that is secreted after being stored in my back lobe (Neurohipofiza) is oxytocin, and the other one an antidiuretic hormone called vasopressin. Oxytocin makes the smooth muscles work. In particular, it stimulates the contractions at uterus during labor and delivery, and it also stimulates the secretions of milk canals by making them contract. Vasopressin enables blood vessels to shrink, causes the blood pressure to increase, and also reduces the production of urine by increasing the transition of water to blood through the kidneys. Hence, it prevents dehydration in hot and dry weather. In the deficiency of the secretion of this hormone, an illness called diabetes insipidus will occur and water metabolism will be deteriorated. I have more amazing features to tell, but I should not be selfish. I think it is time for Thyroid to speak.

[liliannorman]

New success in treating allergies to peanuts and other foods

Ten years ago at a kindergarten party, Isaac Judy took a bite of a peanut-butter cookie. It tasted weird to him, so he spit it out. Hives soon appeared on his face. His lips also began to swell. When his dad came to pick him up, Isaac was coughing and wheezing. Riding in the car to the other side of St. Louis, Mo., where they lived, Isaac fell asleep — or so it seemed.

When Isaac’s mother saw what was happening, she suspected something more serious. “He hadn’t fallen asleep. He lost consciousness,” Jaelithe Judy explains. After a trip to the emergency room, her five-year-old recovered. But doctors confirmed her hunch: Isaac has a peanut allergy.

Just a few generations ago, hardly anyone talked about food allergies. But over the past two decades, childhood food allergies in the United States have more than doubled. A little more than a year ago, a study in Pediatrics reported that 7.6 percent of U.S. kids under age 18 have food allergies. That’s almost 8 million youth — about two students per classroom. And it’s much more than a childhood issue. Surprisingly, a study last year in JAMA Network Open found that nearly 11 percent of adults have food allergies, too. More than one in every four of them said they had not been allergic to foods as children.

There has been a sharp increase in the share of U.S. children with food allergies in the past two decades.Data from R.S. Gupta et al/2018 and the CDC

These days nearly everyone has “come across a family member or person who has been touched by food allergies, or has one themselves,” says Tamara Hubbard. She works in the suburbs of Chicago, Ill., as a licensed counselor. Hubbard and a growing number of counselors are helping families through the stress of managing food allergies.

For years, doctors have told families there’s nothing they can do but avoid the trigger food — or inject a fast-acting medication called epinephrine (Ep-ih-NEF-rinn) to stop a severe reaction. But researchers are learning more about why some people overreact to certain foods. And new treatments are emerging. Late last month, the first treatment for peanut allergy earned approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Another could do so within a year or so. Scientists also are continuing to develop and test other ways to treat food allergies. 

Immunity run amok

Allergic reactions occur when the immune system overreacts. Normally immune cells help fight bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. Yet some people’s immune systems also react to harmless stuff like pollen or mold — or peanuts, milk or other foods. 

Such run-ins trigger a release of histamine (HIS-tuh-meen) and other chemicals. These molecules “get the ball rolling for an allergic reaction,” explains Tina Sindher. She works as an allergist at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif.

During an allergic reaction, someone may get itchy and develop hives. If the reaction worsens, the person might cough, wheeze and suffer a whole-body reaction known as anaphylaxis (An-uh-fuh-LAX-iss). That’s what happened to Isaac — and to Shea Tritt’s son, Gaines, in Abingdon, Va.

Gaines’ peanut allergy surfaced in the fall of 2012. At the time, he was a baby and his diagnosis put the whole family on edge. For the next few years “he never trick-or-treated. He never went to a birthday party. I was scared to put him in preschool,” says Tritt. “My husband and I had a lot of stress because he could tell I wasn’t letting Gaines do normal things. So we would argue.”

Even Gaines’ older sister got nervous. If she went to a party, she worried about bringing back traces of peanut-containing treats that might sicken her brother, Tritt recalls. Living in such constant vigilance can be emotionally draining for families with food allergies.

Anxious and desperate, Tritt wondered if her son would outgrow his allergies, and how she could ever find out. “I became obsessed with information — anything I could do to get us out of this situation,” she says.

When a kiss can make you sick

Silly greeting cards often depict a kiss on the cheek of a cartoon figure as a big red imprint of lips. For people with a serious food allergy, real kisses sometimes leave the same mark. But it’s not funny. That red wheal signals an allergic hypersensitivity to food residues on the smoocher’s mouth.

One renowned study at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine surveyed 379 people with especially severe allergies to peanuts, tree nuts or seeds. Twenty had experienced hives or other symptoms after a kiss. In all but one case, the kisser had eaten nuts up to 6 hours earlier; at least four had first brushed their teeth.

Most reactions proved mild. But five people developed wheezing or flushing with light-headedness — potentially dangerous signs. And one three-year old was rushed to the hospital to treat respiratory distress after his mother pecked him on the cheek. — Janet Raloff

One day, Tritt saw a TV interview with David Stukus. He’s an allergist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Stukus saw that many patients with food allergy are fearful. They often are confused because they’re not getting the facts they need. So Stukus opened a Twitter account to spread evidence-based information. Tritt took note.

Looking at her son’s blood-test results, year after year, Tritt suspected his immune response to peanuts was lessening. However, blood tests cannot give a clear “yes” or “no.” These tests detect specialized immune proteins. They are called IgE antibodies. These molecules trigger allergic reactions. But IgE levels only indicate that someone is sensitive to a certain food. They cannot predict whether that person will react if they eat it. Proving Gaines had outgrown his peanut allergy would require an oral food challenge. And that would require that the patient eat increasing amounts of the food while a doctor watches for allergic reactions. 

Trouble is, Tritt could not find a local allergist to perform the food challenge. This procedure needs extra time and staff. It also runs a risk of triggering anaphylaxis. So, many clinics won’t offer it unless a patient’s blood results are low — low enough to suggest they would tolerate the food. Gaines’ numbers had steadily dropped over the years but were still a tad too high.

Peanuts: Becoming bite-proof

For about half of people with peanut allergies, “a bite or two of the wrong food typically contains enough peanut protein to trigger a reaction,” notes Brian Vickery. He is a pediatric allergist at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. For these people, he says, 100 milligrams (0.004 ounce) of peanut protein, or about one-third of a peanut kernel, can set off such a reaction.

Vickery used to work at Aimmune Therapeutics. This California company is developing a treatment for peanut allergy. It is called oral immunotherapy, or OIT for short. The procedure involves each day eating a wee bit of peanut protein — pre-measured into capsules. The capsule dose goes up every few weeks over a period of months. If the treatment works, it can raise the immune system’s threshold for the food. That means it would take more of the food to trigger an allergic reaction. In other words, it’s possible for the person to become “bite-proof.”

Aimmune tested its capsules — or a dummy version called a placebo — in 551 children and teens with peanut allergies. The starting dose was half a milligram (0.00002 ounce) of peanut protein. (One peanut contains 600 times that much.) Over a six-month period, the daily dose went up to 300 milligrams (0.01 ounce), or about one peanut’s worth. And each day for six more months, participants had to continue eating that much.

During the study, many participants experienced allergic reactions to the peanut pills. Forty-five quit because of these unpleasant symptoms. But among those who finished the study, two-thirds of the treated group became bite-proof. After about a year, they could safely eat roughly two peanuts. “They’re still careful about avoiding peanuts,” says Vickery. “But it provides that additional margin of safety.”

Those results appeared in the November 2018 New England Journal of Medicine. 

Based on these and other findings, the FDA approved those peanut capsules on January 31.

Similar work underway

Over the past decade and prior to the FDA approval, a small number of allergists had already started offering OIT using store-bought foods. Tritt found one such clinic several hours away. However, that clinic was not willing to give her son a peanut challenge to confirm whether he still was allergic.

Tritt didn’t want to sign her son up for a long, costly treatment if he might in fact be outgrowing his allergy. But they couldn’t know for sure without the gold-standard test, that oral food challenge.

Blood tests can indicate if someone has specialized proteins that sensitize their immune system to a given food. However, these tests cannot predict if someone will actually develop an allergic reaction to that food.jarun011/iStock/Getty Images Plus

She discussed her dilemma with Stukus on Twitter. Reviewing Gaines’ blood-test results, Stukus agreed to conduct the food challenge. Just before Gaines started kindergarten, his family travelled from Virginia to the doctor’s clinic in Ohio. It was a nine-hour drive.

Gaines started the challenge with a “small, laughable amount” of peanut butter, Tritt recalls. Fifteen minutes later, he ate a bit more. Then some more. Over several hours he chomped a dozen Reese’s peanut butter cups. And he never reacted. 

The test proved Gaines had outgrown his allergy. That makes him one of the lucky few. Many children outgrow some food allergies by the time they enter school. But eight out of every 10 kids with allergies to peanuts or tree nuts will remain allergic.

Freedom and failure

Gian Lagemann, a high school senior in Saratoga, Calif., is allergic to 11 kinds of nuts, including peanuts (which actually is not a nut; it’s a legume). When he started kindergarten, his mother brought “no nuts allowed” signs to the classroom. She asked other parents to tell her whenever they brought in food — so she could make sure it was safe for Gian. Every day Gian ate his lunch at a designated peanut-free table.

Several years ago, Gian’s mom told her son about a peanut OIT trial. The study was starting nearby at Stanford University. “For most of my life, I haven’t been able to eat things where the ingredient labels say ‘may contain peanuts’ or ‘processed in a facility with peanuts,’” Gian says. “Once she explained that [after the trial] I’d be able to eat those foods, I was pretty happy. I was sold.”

Thanks to an experimental peanut-allergy treatment called oral immunotherapy, high-school student Gian Lagemann can now dig into M&Ms. It’s something he previously had to avoid because its label notes that it “may contain peanuts.”Luci Lagemann

At the start of the trial, his family bought a bag of peanut flour. For about six months, Gian took his dose each day after dinner. He doesn’t like the taste of peanuts. So he often mixed his dose into a spoonful of chocolate ice cream. The dose started at 1.3 milligrams of peanut protein (about 1/200th the amount in a peanut). Over the six-month trial it went up to 240 milligrams (0.008 ounce, or a little less than one peanut’s worth).

More broadly, some 8,000 U.S. patients have tried such an oral therapy. Typically, about one in five will withdraw because of side effects or anxiety. Completing such a trial takes focus and discipline — like playing sports. But, Gian recalls, “They told us with every dose we took, our body was just going to get stronger.”

Participants also learned to expect some allergic reactions. “If you’re going to build your immune muscle against a food allergy, you know you’re going to have a little ‘ache’ during the process,” says Kari Nadeau. This Stanford allergist was a leader of the trial. 

Gian felt a few such responses during the study. “My throat would feel a little tight for 15 minutes,” he says. “But after that, it was fine.” So he persevered. And it paid off. When the trial ended, he could eat a full peanut without having an allergic reaction. That means Gian now can safely eat candy with labels warning they’re made in facilities that process nuts. “I was able to try Kit Kats for the first time, and Milky Ways,” Gian says. 

Two years ago, Isaac also tried this oral peanut therapy. At the time, he was 13. But his experiences were quite different. During the treatment he suffered sinus and gastrointestinal troubles. He also had an anaphylactic reaction. Six months in, Isaac dropped out. He quit because he had developed an immune condition called eosinophilic esophagitis (Ee-oh-sin-oh-FILL-ick Ee-SOF-uh-JY-tis). The oral therapy triggers it in a small share of people.

And there’s something else to keep in mind: People could lose their desensitization to peanut once they end the oral therapy. That finding was confirmed in a 2019 study by Nadeau’s team. For many people, effective treatment might have to continue long-term.

Other treatments

Some people have taken part in research trials testing a different treatment for peanut allergy — a skin patch. Instead of eating bits of peanut by mouth, patients every day stick a coin-sized disc onto their back or upper arm. Each disc contains a quarter-milligram of peanut protein. That’s about a thousandth as much as what’s in a peanut. (By comparison, Aimmune’s capsules start with twice that much. Over months, patients then take doses that increase to 1, 10, 20, 100 and 300 milligrams.) From the patch, peanut proteins seep through the skin but do not enter the blood. Peanut patches are therefore less likely to cause anaphylaxis than is the oral therapy.

DBV Technologies in France makes the patch. This company conducted a year-long trial of its product in 356 children with peanut allergies. Nine in every 10 participants finished the trial. The most common side effect was a skin rash at the patch site. However, this trial didn’t work as well as the company had hoped. By the end of the study, only a little more than one in every three patients treated could safely eat the “exit dose” of one to three peanuts. The study leaders reported their findings in the March 12, 2019 Journal of the American Medical Association. 

Still, the patch has worked wonders for some. In 2012, Sharon Wong was desperate. Her son’s allergies to peanuts and tree nuts had intensified to an alarming degree. Once during a shopping trip, he went into a coughing fit while walking past a batch of freshly baked walnut cookies. At a restaurant buffet, he started vomiting after merely looking at a steamy tray of pesto pasta. (Pesto is made with pine nuts.)

“It was really awful,” recalls Wong. “We cannot control the air he breathes. But we didn’t want to keep him confined at home. We wanted him to be able to go shopping, to go down the street, to go to friends’ homes and not stress about his allergies.”

That year she enrolled her son, then nine years old, in an earlier-stage peanut patch trial in the San Francisco Bay area of California. At first, it took just 1/240th of a peanut to trigger an allergic reaction. After two years on the patch, he could tolerate about six peanuts.

Egg is one of the most common food allergies in children. Research shows that more than two-thirds of kids will outgrow their egg allergy by age 16.denizya/iStock/Getty Images Plus

“We feel more comfortable about traveling longer distances and dining in restaurants with precautions in place,” Wong wrote in a blog about the patch trial. “Each mini-success gives us confidence and improves our quality of life. My son is happier and healthier.”

In August, the FDA plans to review data on the peanut patch and recommend if it should be approved. DBV Technologies is also researching and developing patches to treat milk and egg allergies. And as for oral therapies, Aimmune recently started a new trial for its egg-allergy treatment. The company is also developing an oral therapy for walnut allergy.

Scientists are studying other related approaches, too. One is an immune therapy that uses liquid droplets containing allergens. These are placed under the tongue rather than swallowed directly. Edwin Kim, an allergist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, in Chapel Hill, led one study of children treated for three to five years with this sublingual therapy. All had peanut allergies. Of the 37 kids who completed the study, two in every three could now consume 750 milligrams (0.03 ounce) or more of the peanut allergen. Kim, whose center has helped conduct studies for DBV and Aimmune (among other companies), reported the findings last November in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Additional experimental treatments block other parts of the immune response to allergens. Some act together with oral therapy, allowing fewer allergic reactions during therapy. Others supply helpful gut microbes that seem to guard against food allergies. And one company is developing a toothpaste to treat peanut allergy.

In the end, each family must decide whether to seek an emerging treatment or stick with just avoiding exposure to the sensitizing foods. Treatments require diligence. They’re not yet widely available. And they don’t always work. But if the allergy is unbearable, trying a new treatment might prove worth the time and risk. Clearly, concludes Stukus, the Ohio doctor, “food-allergy management is not one-size-fits-all.”

New success in treating allergies to peanuts and other foods published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/