Monday, December 3, 2012

Cardiovascular Health: The Benefits of L-Arginine

Heart attacks and strokes are the #1 killers in the country. These conditions are accelerated by 2 blood vessel conditions: arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis. The solution: L-Arginine.

Its been reported by ABS CBN News that heart disease is the number 1 killer in the Philippines. In fact, in a related article by GMA, 30% of all deaths are attributed to heart disease and over 25% of Filipinos are hypertensive

Now this is no small matter. And to put things in perspective, just think of your loved ones. Family and friends. Heck even yourself. There's a large chance that you know a number of people who have passed due to heart disease and a number who are hypertensive. And now hypertension is not a disease of the old. Hypertension is now affecting the young and the supposedly healthy. In 2009, Philippine Daily Inquirer ran an article warning of this

So now what? What can we do? Well of course LIFESTYLE is the number one factor. It great that there's been a great resurgence of sports such as running, as well as the rise in bootcamp training, yoga, pilates and suspension training. But on the other side of it all is the diet. Too much access to fast food. Now I love a good burger now and then, as well as some ice cream or a donut, but such things should not be part of a daily diet. While I applaud those who have gone vegetarian or vegan, as well as those who have taken into juicing, I also have to admit that that lifestyle is not very sustainable. So unless you decide on taking extreme measures, and hats off to you if you do, you're going to need to balance the equation with some supplements and functional food. 

Enter nitric oxide.

To better appreciate nitric oxide, check out this video interview with Nobel Prize winner Dr. Louis Ignarro, who was one of the ones who researched the benefits of nitric oxide. 



As you can see from the video above, nitric oxide is extremely important to cardiovascular health. It is a vasodilator, meaning it helps the vessels expand, and inhibits the formation of plaque on the walls, thereby increasing overall circulation and giving the heart and the blood vessels an easier time. As Dr. Ignarro goes on to say, nitric oxide is a gas and so cannot be ingested. What can be ingested is l-arginine, which is the precursor of nitric oxide. Meaning when you digest l-arginine, it releases nitric oxide in to the system. 

Now there are several sources of l-arginine. It is even available in some foods. However, the quantities are so small that if one is already suffering from an ailment, they may not be enough to cause much of an improvement. The best thing to do in that case is to take a supplement or functional food that has a good dose of l-arginine. And what we recommend is Synergy Worldwide's Pro-Argi9+. Its packed with l-arginine, l-citrulline (the precursor to l-arginine for an extra boost), red wine extract (powerful antioxidant) and pomegranate (supports arterial wall strength and aids in the conversion of l-arginine to nitric oxide). 

Synergy's Pro-argi9+ comes in boxes of 30 sachets

A standard regimen of Pro-Argi9+ is a twice a day regimen over a span of 3 months. Some people who have experienced the benefit, however, decide to keep taking it once a day. Its been known to not only help with heart and blood vessels in general, but even with pain relief in joints as well as energy. 

For best results, you can drop us an email at 1lifewellness.ph@gmail.com and schedule a consultation with our resident Naturopath, Paolo Bellosillo ND. Or you can comment below or send us a message on Facebook

Keep Well!



Spinal Adjustment

Do you have back problems? Maybe you need to have your spine adjusted. I tried it last weekend and its worked wonders for me.

As someone who's been overweight most of his life, and EXTREMELY obese for a chunk of it, my back has literally borne a brunt of the damage. I would wake up at times with pain in my upper-middle back (the area in between and just below my scapula/shoulder blades). The pain would take up to 3 days to subside, then come back again after a short while.

Losing quite a bit of weight has certainly helped, and I'm still on track to lose more weight as I go along, but my back was in sore need of a reset.

That's when my girlfriend, Tanya (you can check out her take on the spinal adjustment @ maria-yoga.com), who's a Yoga Alliance Certified Instructor, decided to take me to one of her Yoga training classmates, Lloyd Lee. Now Lloyd is not only a yogi, but also a business owner, and has been doing spinal adjustments for about 5 years now. Lloyd holds yoga classes in a studio called White Space Wellness, which I highly recommend.

Tanya and I went over on Saturday and Lloyd first asked us about our problems, where the pain occurs, how frequent, as well as what type of pain. Then he checked our posture and began to prescribe us yoga poses that would help us. Then he stopped and asked if we wanted adjustment done (which is great as traction is not for everyone). I of course said yes.

Now I wish I had pictures (I promise to take some next time), but this is what happened:

Lloyd has this chair that you sit in backwards or straddle (with the backrest against your chest). He then takes some ointment and rubs his thumbs around your problem area, trying to isolate the main problem. For me he found swelling on the right side just between my spine and scapula. Then he put his knee against that area, had me breathe in and out, asked me to look up, and then pulled my body upwards against his knee. And you should have heard the sound of my back. It cracked like a firecracker. And it felt SO GOOD.

After he fixed up Tanya, we went back to doing yoga poses. I now stretch every so often and work on my cat-cow pose as well. This weekend I plan on bringing members of my family over to him.

My back hasn't felt this good in a LONG time. I highly recommend you go try it for yourselves.

Keep Well!

To check out White Space Wellness and meet Lloyd as well as try all the other classes, hit up their website: http://www.whitespacewellness.com/

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Maximizing Fat Burn

So you've heard it all. About how a increase in exercise intensity yields better weight-loss results. About how you need to push yourself harder. And even how you can push yourself harder, in shorter bursts, and lose more. 

Well here are the different sides of the story:

FOR LOWER INTENSITY

To be able to explain this properly, one must know about heart zones. Typically, they are as follows:

1. 30-40%: Resting heart rate. At this point you aren't really doing anything yet

2. 40-50%: Warm up zone. At this point your body is just beginning to heat up

3. 50-60%: Heart health zone: A very safe zone with a high percentage of calorie burn coming from fat (as much as 85%, depending on who you ask).

4. 60-70%: Fat burning zone: At this point you're actually exercising, usually a light cardio exercise, or lower intensity resistance training like yoga or pilates. At this point, percentage of calories from fat is still high.

5. 70-80%: Aerobic zone: Now you're starting to work out. Longer or faster runs, higher impact training, that comes here. But percentage of calories from fat is lower, even as overall calorie burn is higher.

6. 80-90%: Anaerobic zone: Not a zone we recommend for most people, but as your heart rate goes up, the percentage of calories from fat goes down. 

7. 90-100%: DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS CLEARED BY A DOCTOR. And don't sustain this level for long even if you are. 

Now from the above table, it looks like the fat burning zone is the place where one wants to be when it comes to burning fat. And many people believe so, going for longer duration, low intensity workouts. 

FOR HIGHER INTENSITY

Now despite the percentage factor, many people would rather talk about total calories burned and total fat burn. And there's a lot of opinion to that effect from the internet. Just check out this article from Livestrong: http://www.livestrong.com/article/125773-heart-rate-zone-fat-loss/. And here's another from about.com: http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/a/The-Truth-About-The-Fat-Burning-Zone.htm. And, here's one last from scienceblogs.com: http://scienceblogs.com/obesitypanacea/2010/06/30/the-myth-of-the-fat-burning-zo/

Basically they say that at higher intensities, the overall calorie burn is higher, therefore helping one lose weight faster or more efficiently. And this is what is more important. More calories burned = more weight lost = more fat burned.

AUTHOR OPINION

Now to wash my hands of it all, its easy for me to say that this needs to be checked with proper trials for us to be sure, and this is something I'd love to be able to try. Ok ok so thats a bit of a cop out. So lets analyze the data in front of us. 

Just going back to the articles above, you'll notice that in the about.com article that they only compare 60-65% with 80-85% and while at the 80-85% zone total fat burned is higher, what about in the middle zone from 65%-75%? What's even more suspect is the scienceblogs article where they talk about how at 80% maximum heart rate you're losing more fat than at 60%, but the author totally ignores the heart rate which yields the GREATEST result, which is at, according to his scientific research, 70%

So where does that leave us now? From the articles above, it would seem that 70% of your maximum heart rate is the optimal zone for FAT LOSS. This would now explain all those skinny people doing yoga and pilates (and here I thought it was all the vegetables).

Keep Well,

Ferds

What do you guys think? We'd love to hear from you. Shout us out your comments and opinions in the comment box! 

Wanna be able to track your heart rate during exercise? Check out MIO Heart Rate monitor watches at miowatchph.multiply.com! 

Monday, November 19, 2012

So Manny uses Usana

So today I decided to do some more research into one of our partner brands, and one I use daily, which is USANA. 

Now Usana has a very high reputation as one of the, if not the, best vitamin and mineral supplement brands in the world. If you're not familiar with them, check out this video:


If that's the right video, you'll see Timothy Bradley, Manny's last foe who "beat" him in a VERY controversial decision. So controversial that Marquez, himself a victim of controversial decisions against Pacquiao, even came to Manny's side. 

I'm not really painting Usana in a good light, am I? But then, just today, as I was doing more research, because you always need to do your research, this is what I came across:



Manny not only uses the products, but if you go to his site, http://www.mp8.ph/, and go to trainer Alex Ariza's part, you'll see that Alex not only endorses Usana, but they even sell it as a "Manny Pack"! Don't believe me? Check it out: http://www.mp8.ph/shop/products/The-MANNY-PACK-.html.

So there you have it. The #1 pound for pound boxer in the world, the pride of the nation, and in my head, still the champ, Manny Pacquiao, relies on Usana for his supplements. And if Usana is good enough for Manny and Alex Ariza, its good enough for me.

Keep Well,

Ferds

For a more in-depth take on Manny taking Usana: http://whatsupusana.com/2011/03/manny-pacquiao-the-champ-chooses-usana/




Saturday, November 17, 2012

Partner Brands

Just a shout out to some of our partner brands, brands that we've found to be trusted brands in the field of wellness. One is our resident watch brand, MIO Watch, and the rest is what our Resident Naturopath, Paolo Bellosillo ND, calls our pharmacopeia of nutraceutical products.

We've got SYNERGY where we get our supply of Pro-Argi9+, a powerful L-arginine supplement, as well as Liquid Chlorophyll. Then there's USANA our supplier of Essential Vitamins (Chelated Minerals and Mega Antioxidants) as well as Coenzyme Q10 (Coquinone 30). We also carry Vital-C's Sodium Ascorbate as well as their Collagen soap. From 1st Vita-Plus, we carry their Dalandan drink which is infused with the miracle plant, Malunggay. BIG provides us with their prolibra/l-carnitine drink as well as their anti-ageing drink. 

New to the product mix is the Hurom Slow Juicer, Raycop infrared antibacterial vacuum and Nutriwealth's alkaline drops for drinking water. 

Here's some of our partners:


While the clinic is temporarily on standby, these brands and their products, even those not listed above, are available via 1Life. Feel free to leave a message on our FB page, a comment here, or send us an email at 1lifewellness.ph@gmail.com. 

Keep Well!

Ferds

alive and kicking!

A lot of things happening with 1Life, mostly good stuff, some not so good. 

I like ending on a good note, so the not-so-good news first. We tried our hand at our first Wellness clinic in Manila, but things didn't pan out with our landlord. Its a shame, really. The location wasn't 100% ideal, but we were so pumped up, we had it running for a few weeks, started establishing more business relationships with nutraceuticals, and even planned out our blessing. A bit of a bummer, but we're still optimistic. The spread of naturopathy and wellness will continue via this blog, mobile clinics, and our facebook page. 

And now some good news! 

Yes, after a looooong hiatus, here I am trying to renew my vow to write more. And looks like there's some good stuff to write about now. Well first off, I've put up the 1Life Wellness Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/1life-wellness) so we've got that up and running aside from the twitter feed. 

Here's a screenshot of the page:


check out the great quote



We've also got our new logo, which I hope everyone likes! Here it is:


Made by my architect (and partner in a design, project management and construction venture known as AMC Corp), Arch. Dylan Melgazo, this logo I think gives a better feel of wellness. 

So not to worry, 1Life is alive and kicking. I'm just doing a lot of fine-tuning to the brand and the services. Will keep updating the blog as much as I can with more exciting updates!

Keep Well

Ferds




Thursday, May 17, 2012

Testing Twitterfeed

Finally getting around to fixing this blog, and will also get around to writing more as well. Also in the process of making a Facebook page and tying that, this and @1lifewellness on twitter, all together. To update my twitter from my blog, I'm trying out Twitterfeed.

Here goes.