TriVita and Your Health

Is this another claim for an Alzheimer’s Cure? No, it’s just the results of a scientific study.  I’ll give you the facts and you can judge the results for yourself.

These results were reported by Dr. Scott Conrad and they are from a 2008 British study conducted over a five year period involving 107 adults between the ages of 61 and 87.

If your life has ever been touched by this terribly debilitating disease, the memory loss, confusion and erosion of the mind and body is heartbreaking to witness. I stood helplessly by and watched my grandmother become a shadow. She was no longer with us, she was afraid and alone and there was nothing I could do. It broke my heart. That was almost 15 years ago and still there is no cure and the incidence of Alzheimer’s is growing at an alarming rate.

But, out of this study comes some encouraging news.  There are some hopeful steps being taken in the fight against Alzheimer’s, and one in particular involves Vitamin B-12. The small but significant study I mentioned in the first paragraph was conducted at the University of Oxford, England.

The study reached this dramatic conclusion, ‘People with lower levels of B-12 were six times more likely to have brain volume loss, also called brain erosion, than those with higher B-12 levels. Since brain erosion is one of the results of Alzheimer’s, the finding led researchers to suggest that B-12 may protect against brain erosion, which is linked to reduced mental function.

The question asked by the researchers was simple; ‘What’s the link between Vitamin B-12 levels and Brain Erosion?’  To find the answer, according to results published in the medical journal Neurology, participants underwent annual blood tests, MRIs, physical exams and memory tests. None of the study subjects had any mental impairment when they began the project.

Five years later and the results were in, all of the participants had B-12 levels in the normal range, however, the differences in brain volume was significant between those in the low end of the normal range and those in the high end of the normal range. Significant brain erosion was six times more likely for those with the low normal B-12 levels.

The medical community has known for some time that people with Vitamin B-12 deficiencies can experience symptoms caused by decreased mental and nerve functioning. These symptoms can include mental confusion, forgetfulness, mood swings and even psychotic behavior. What’s new here is the connection between Brain Volume, Vitamin B-12 and diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Good enough for me to sit up and take notice, how about you?

TriVita’s HCY Guard contains Vitamin B-12 and also helps to lower dangerous homocysteine levels, which also can often lead to dementia, Alzheimer’s and other grave conditions.

To find out more about TriVita’s products, go here or if you’d like to find out how you can earn an additional stream of income, call me on 856-264-7802.

Es Riggins
Independent TriVita Affiliate Member #13160615

Technorati Tags: "brain erosion", alzheimer, b-12, Dr. Scott Conrad, hcy, TriVita, Wellness

Vision is freedom. With good eyesight our world abounds with endless opportunities. With diminished or lost eyesight our world must get smaller as we rely on other senses and other people for mobility. No one can truly understand how much we rely on our vision until they are deprived of this precious gift.

Protection: The first step
Nourishing vision that will last a lifetime requires a combination of nutrients from within our body, and barrier protection from irritants outside our body. The most important of exterior protection is protective eyewear. Glasses, goggles and face shields provide barrier protection from injuries, toxins and poisons, sun and wind (select lenses or coatings that offer both UV-A and UV-B light filters).

Protecting our vision from the inside requires:

* Appropriate hydration (water) – We should calculate our body weight, cut that number in half and convert this final number into ounces of water we will consume every day. I weigh about 190 pounds. Half that number is 95. So, 95 represents the number of ounces of water I should drink every day for good vision.

* Intense nutrition – Nutrients must include vision-specific antioxidants such as lutein and zeaxanthin. Other nutrients may be added depending on specific needs. For example, poor night vision responds well to anthocyanins – nutrients found in berries such as bilberries and schizandra berries. As the ancient physician Maimonides once said, “To heal an eye you must heal the head and even the entire body.” In keeping with this ancient wisdom, we need Healthy Aging nutrients as a foundation for eye health and a healthy body.

* Sleep – Is sleep really that important for healthy vision? Yes! Your eyes heal from all the stress and strain of the day. Also, as with any other body system, your eyes run on the nutrients mentioned above. These nutrients accumulate at a slow rate and are expended at a fast rate. Sleeping allows nutrients to accumulate so you can awaken with bright eyes! This is the reason I suggest taking TriVita’s VisionGuard™ at bedtime.

Maintenance and prevention

Imagine for a moment that you have perfect 20/20 vision (you see objects 20 feet away from you as if they are actually 20 feet away). You have no family history of vision problems at all. You drink enough water, get enough rest, take the appropriate nutrients and employ the best eye protection. Should you still get your vision tested? Yes, you absolutely should!

A healthy person should get their vision and eye health tested every decade of their life until they reach age 40. As you enter your 40s you should have your vision tested about every two years. This is appropriate maintenance.

If yours is not the fairy-tale world described above, then a solid, aggressive program of prevention is essential to help protect against these common eye conditions:

* Presbyopia is the inability to focus and clearly see objects that are within reading distance or closer. See a skilled optometrist for eye exercises which can help prevent or treat it.

* Cataracts form when the outside of the eye is damaged. Protect your eyes from smoke, injury and UV-light rays with appropriate eyewear and by simply staying away from dirty air. Insulate them from within with antioxidants known to slow the progression of cataracts. Hydroxytyrosol is a good example of a protective antioxidant, and it is contained in VisionGuard.

* Glaucoma occurs when pressure builds up inside the eyes and distresses the optic nerve. If the nerve dies, your vision dies. Get regular eye-pressure tests to detect glaucoma and use nutrients that encourage normal pressure in your eyes such as Vitamin C and Alpha Lipoic Acid. Remember, glaucoma is a medical emergency and you must seek out the very best medical care to preserve your vision.

* Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness in North America. The eyes simply wear out. Some of the premature aging of the eyes in AMD is because of poor interaction with genetics. For example, a person with a family history of AMD should take better care of their eyes than a person without that family history. They should apply these recommendations more aggressively instead of accepting vision loss without a fight!

The most common contributors to AMD are overuse and undernourishment of the eyes. Many people with AMD are exposed to environmental factors such as the bright lights of a welding torch. Again, aggressive protection can delay vision loss from external sources while appropriate water intake, sleep and nutrition can increase the health of the eyes.

Conclusion

Healthy vision means freedom. Being aware of the little things – and the big things – you can do every day to guard your vision is a step toward ensuring you have the mobility you need to meet the many purposes in your life!

Take Control of Your Health

* Use protective eyewear
o UV-A and UV-B filters
o Goggles and face shield with toxins or particulates
* Nourish your eyes
o Drink pure water
o Sleep peacefully
o Take “vision-specific” antioxidants, as found in VisionGuard
o Use Healthy Aging supplements every day

To find out more about TriVita’s products, go here or if you’d like to find out how you can earn an additional stream of income, call me on 856-264-7802.

Es Riggins
Independent TriVita Affiliate Member #13160615

Technorati Tags: amd, cataracts, eyesight, glaucoma, nutrition, presbyopia, vision

You’ve probably heard the expression, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This means that taking small actions now is better than doing nothing and then having to deal with a big problem later. This is especially important when it comes to your health because health disasters can be extraordinarily difficult to resolve.

With an infinite number of possible diseases how do you know which “ounce” of prevention is needed for your life? To start, ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the common behaviors that lead to disability and premature death?
2. What are my risks as an individual?
3. What strategies can I use to reduce my risk and improve my vitality?

Common (mis)behaviors
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the most common causes of death in North America are:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Cancer
• Respiratory disease
• Accidents
• Diabetes

The most common reasons why people lose their vitality and eventually their lives, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, include:

• Tobacco
• Poor diet
• Physical inactivity
• Alcohol
• Infections
• Toxins

From this you can see that tobacco, poor diet, physical inactivity as well as alcohol abuse can lead to disability and death from heart attack, cancer and lung diseases. So, we’ve just answered the first question and the first step in prevention would be:

• Don’t abuse tobacco or alcohol
• Do eat a healthy diet
• Engage in physical activity
• Take steps to protect yourself from infections and toxins.

Now, let’s look at question number 2.

What are your risks as an individual?
Your family can teach you much about your risk factors for disability and disease. You should pay special attention to your closest relatives: your parents, siblings, children and grandparents.

• How long did they live?
• What were their health challenges?
• How can I help avoid similar challenges?

Please see my article on Healthy Aging and indulge me as I share my own strategy which is based on my family’s personal history. My grandfather and great-grandfather died of congestive heart failure – so I add CoEnzyme Q-10 (CoQ-10) to my Healthy Aging nutrients. My father and aunt were Type “A” performance-driven people (like me!) and both developed Alzheimer’s disease. Considering this, I take Adaptogen 10 Plus mixed with Optima4 to help reduce the impact of stress while increasing brain-specific antioxidants.

What is your family history telling you? What nutrient strategies can you use to help reduce the likelihood of disease and disability? By assessing your health risks as an individual you can create a program to help you reduce these risks. I encourage you to call one of our Wellness Consultants at 1-800-991-7116 so they can suggest appropriate nutritional supplementation.

A strategy and motivation for everyone
Most of us know we need to care for our basic physical, emotional and spiritual needs and to look at our family histories for disease risk. So, coming up with the right health recommendations from these actions is usually not too big a problem.

However, there could be a big problem between “knowing what to do” versus actually doing it. If we are motivated by fear of suffering and death, we will practice prevention for awhile; but as the sense of disaster fades from our mind, we’re likely to lapse into a more “comfy” lifestyle and not maintain a preventive approach. A powerful alternative to the “fear” approach is to be motivated by our sense of purpose. This approach is much more likely to give us the greatest sustained motivation to act correctly, and thus increase the vitality and longevity of our lives.

A sense of purpose takes us away from a fear-based motivation to a desire-based motivation. With a purpose - based life, we certainly will not abuse our gift of health because that would interfere with our accomplishments. We will want to care for our health in every way we can.

To summarize, you can help improve and maintain your health by using:

• The 10 Essentials for Health and Wellness to create the physical, emotional and spiritual health you need for your many life purposes.
• Quality supplements to create the energy you need to succeed and as a bulwark against sickness.
• Use each moment of every day to fuel the fires of your own life purposes.

As Benjamin Franklin concluded, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.” Start putting your ounce of prevention to work for you today!

To find out more about TriVita’s products including Nopalea, go here or if you’d like to find out how you can earn an additional stream of income, call me on 856-264-7802.

Es Riggins
Independent TriVita Affiliate Member #13160615

Technorati Tags: alzheimer, antioxidants, common ailments, coq-10, Healthy Aging, nutrient strategies, optima4