MitoThera™ – Ingredients and Health Benefits

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MitoThera™ augments the actions of multivitamin formulas and is a specialized nutritional support for energy metabolism and healthy aging.

Coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinone)    

The heart muscle, periodontal tissues, immune system, liver, kidney, brain, and other vital organs require coenzyme Q10 to supply energy through ATP activation and to help protect them from free radicals.  Illness, aging, poor nutrient intake, and use of certain medications can result in inadequate endogenous production of CoQ10 to sustain optimal organ function.

Acetyl-L-Carnitine

Acetylated derivative of L-carnitine has demonstrated that the acetyl group can serve as a metabolic building block for acetylcholine, a brain neurotransmitter, while the L-carnitine component carries fatty acids into mitochondria of nerve, heart, and muscle cells for use in energy production.  In addition, it may benefit membrane stability, production of nerve growth factor, and cerebral blood flow.

N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC)         

Assists detoxification, provides cellular antioxidant protection

Alpha-Lipoic Acid          

Supports healthy liver structure, immune function and circulation, as well as vision and healthy glucose metabolism. It also supports cardiovascular and neurological health

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that helps supply energy to cells throughout the body, particularly muscle cells

Malic Acid

As a natural and safe supplement, malic acid can improve sports performance in terms of endurance, stamina, motivation, and ability to recover.

Quercetin

Quercetin is a powerful bioflavonoid that protects cells and tissues against free radicals.

Red Grape Extract (full-spectrum phytontrients, includes trans-resveratrol)

May help alleviate the oxidative stress, inflammation, and tissue damage that can occur alongside chronic diseases.

Resveratrol has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to protect against diseases like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. The anti-inflammatory effects of resveratrol make it a good remedy for arthritis, and skin inflammation.

Succinic Acid

Succinic acid helps to clear up blemishes by supporting your skin’s natural peeling mechanisms to get rid of dead skin cells and unclog pores

All About the Microbiome

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From The New York Times

Higher levels of gut microbiome diversity are generally thought to be a good thing. The composition of your microbiome can influence your risk of developing obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and a wide range of other conditions.

The microbiome may predict how well you age. As people get older, their microbiomes appear to change. One study found that in healthy people, the kinds of microbes that dominate the gut in early adulthood make up a smaller proportion of the microbiome over time, while the percentage of other, less prevalent species rises. In people who are less healthy, the opposite occurs: The composition of their microbiomes remains relatively static and they tend to die earlier.

Changing your diet can change your microbiome.  A large international study found that a diet rich in nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods supported the growth of beneficial microbes that promoted good health.  Eating a diet full of highly processed foods with added sugars, salt and other additives had the opposite effect, promoting gut microbes that were linked to worse cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Eating fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha may alter the makeup of the microbiome, according to a study out of Stanford.

 

From Medical News Today

The microbiome diet was the idea of Dr. Raphael Kellman to encourage beneficial gut bacteria to grow in the digestive tract. Keeping the gut bacteria healthy is essential for human health.

Diet phases

The microbiome diet has three phases. The first two phases take a total of 7 weeks to complete. The final phase is a long-term maintenance diet.

 

Phase 1

The first phase of the diet lasts for 3 weeks, and focuses on:

 

removing disruptive food, bacteria, pathogens, and toxins

repairing the gut lining

replacing stomach acid and pancreatic enzymes

reinoculating with beneficial bacteria strains

During this phase, Dr. Kellman advises that people avoid the following foods and ingredients:

gluten

dairy products, except butter and ghee

grains

eggs

packaged foods

soy

fruit juice

potatoes and corn

peanuts

legumes except chickpeas and lentils

high mercury fish

deli meat

artificial sweeteners

high-fructose corn syrup

fillers and colors

trans or hydrogenated fats

fried foods

Dr. Kellman advises that people focus on plant-based foods that increase microbiome diversity, such as:

prebiotic foods, such as Jerusalem artichoke, onions, and garlic

probiotic foods, such as sauerkraut and kimchi

fruits, such as apples, berries, cherries, grapefruits, kiwi, nectarine, orange, and rhubarb

healthful fats from fish, avocado, nuts, and seeds

oils, including flaxseed, sunflower, and olive oil

If a person eats animal proteins, Dr. Kellman recommends focusing on wild fish and grass fed meat.

 

Phase 2

After phase 1, a person following this diet can start to introduce a wider range of foods over the next 4 weeks, including:

sheep or goat’s milk dairy and kefir

organic, free-range eggs

mangos, melons, peaches, and pears

gluten-free grains, including amaranth, buckwheat, millet, gluten-free oats, quinoa, brown, basmati, and wild rice

beans, including, green, black, red, white, and kidney beans

sweet potatoes and yams

 

Phase 3

The final phase of the microbiome diet aims to maintain the results of phases 1 and 2. Dr. Kellman advises that people continue avoiding foods that damage gut flora and the gut lining.

 

Supplements

In addition to dietary changes, the microbiome diet recommends the following supplements during phase 1:

Antimicrobials: These include berberine, caprylic acid, garlic, grapefruit seed extract, and oregano oil to kill pathogens.

Acids and enzymes: Supplements containing digestive enzymes, such as protease, lipase, and amylase, to help break down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in food. The diet also recommends taking apple cider vinegar to stimulate stomach acid production.

Gut lining supplements: These can include zinc, vitamin D, glutamine, marshmallow, quercetin, and slippery elm, among others, to benefit the intestinal lining.

Probiotics: These should be products with 50–200 billion bacteria with strains such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, Rhamnosus, Plantarum, bifidobacteria, and Acidophilus reuteri.

Dr. Kellman also recommends that people following the diet:

use a good quality water filter

eat organic foods to limit exposure to pesticides and hormones

switch to natural versions of household and personal products

avoid the overuse of antibiotics

avoid nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen

avoid proton pump inhibitors, which reduce stomach acid production

Summary

The microbiome diet is a plant-based diet that may promote beneficial microorganisms in the gut. A diverse microbiome reduces the risk of some diseases, and probiotics can improve the symptoms of conditions, such as IBS and eczema.

However, studies have not verified the health benefits of the microbiome diet specifically. The diet also includes a variety of supplements and removes some foods from the diet permanently. It is a good idea to talk to a doctor or dietician about this first to prevent unwanted side effects.

Typically, a diet that promotes fruits, vegetables, healthful fats, and good sources of protein is likely to benefit health compared with the standard Western diet. A personalized approach to food choices may help people find the best diet for them.

 

The Health Benefits of Coffee

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From The New York Times

Experts say some of the strongest protective effects may be with Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and liver conditions such as cirrhosis, liver cancer and chronic liver disease. For example, having about five cups of coffee a day, instead of none, is correlated with a 30 percent decreased risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to a meta-analysis of 30 studies.

The potential benefit from coffee might be from the polyphenols, which are plant compounds that have antioxidant properties, according to Dr. Giuseppe Grosso, an assistant professor in human nutrition at University of Catania in Italy and the lead author of an umbrella review in the Annual Review of Nutrition.

However, coffee isn’t for everyone. There are concerns about overconsumption. This is especially true for expecting mothers because the safety of caffeine during pregnancy is unclear. While the research into coffee’s impact on health is ongoing, most of the work in this field is observational.

“We don’t know for sure if coffee is the cause of the health benefits,” said Jonathan Fallowfield, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, and co-author of the British Medical Journal review. “These findings could be due to other factors or behaviors present in coffee drinkers.”

Does the way coffee is prepared matter?

Yes. Do you prefer a dark or light roast? Coarse grinding or fine? Arabica or robusta?

“All of these different aspects affect the taste, but also affect the compounds within the coffees,” said Neal Freedman, a senior investigator with the National Cancer Institute. “But it’s not clear at all how these different levels of compounds may be related to health.”

Roasting, for example, reduces the amount of chlorogenic acids, but other antioxidant compounds are formed. Espresso has the highest concentration of many compounds because it has less water than drip coffee.

A study in JAMA Internal Medicine examined the coffee habits of nearly 500,000 people in the U.K. and found that it didn’t matter if they drank one cup or chain-drank eight — regular or decaf — or whether they were fast metabolizers of coffee or slow. They were linked to a lower risk of death from all causes, except with instant coffee, the evidence was weaker.

The way you prepare your cup of joe may influence your cholesterol levels, too. “The one coffee we know not suitable to be drinking is the boiled coffee,” said Marilyn C. Cornelis, an assistant professor in preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-author of the JAMA Internal Medicine study.

Examples of this include the plunge-happy French press, Scandinavian coffee, or Greek and Turkish coffee — the kind commonly consumed in the Middle East. (When poured, the unfiltered grounds settle on the tiny cup’s bottom like sludge. To peek into the future, elders in the region have a tradition of reading the sediment of an overturned cup, like a crystal ball.)

However, the oil in boiled coffee has cafestol and kahweol, compounds called diterpenes. They are shown to raise LDL, the bad cholesterol, and slightly lower HDL, what’s known as the good kind.

“If you filter the coffee, then it’s no issue at all,” said Rob van Dam, a professor at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at National University of Singapore. “For people with cholesterol issues, it’s better to switch to other types of coffee.” He’s been studying coffee for two decades. (And, yes, he’s had a lot of coffee in that time.)

However, other researchers say not to throw out the boiled coffee just yet. The clinical significance of such small increases in cholesterol may be questionable, given that it’s not associated with an increase in cardiovascular deaths.

Many consumers have also swapped loose grounds for coffee pods. While there are environmental concerns with single use pods, researchers believe them to hold the same benefits as, say, drip coffee. The latter applies to cold brew, too, but more research is needed.

 

 

All About Salt

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From The New York Times

More than 100 million Americans have high blood pressure, a disorder that increases their risk of heart attacks and strokes, and which, for many people, is made worse by consuming too much sodium. Just a four-millimeter rise in blood pressure — say, from 130 to 134 millimeters of mercury — can jeopardize the health of some people, and the blood pressure of those who are especially salt-sensitive can rise by 10 or more millimeters of mercury on a typical high-salt diet. In 2010, a Stanford University team estimated that cutting about 350 milligrams of sodium a day (less than a sixth of a teaspoon) would lower systolic blood pressure by only 1.25 millimeters of mercury yet avert about a million strokes and heart attacks.

A new study conducted in 600 villages in rural China of 20,995 people known to face a high risk of stroke, demonstrated that substituting reduced-sodium salt for regular table salt significantly decreased the rate of cardiovascular events and associated deaths during an average follow-up of less than five years.

The protection occurred in households that used modified table salt in which potassium chloride replaced 30 percent of sodium chloride, even though there was no change in their use of other rich sources of sodium like soy sauce and MSG. Fifteen years earlier, a similar study among elderly veterans in Taiwan who used a potassium-enriched salt reduced cardiovascular mortality by 41 percent in less than three years.

Currently, the amount of sodium in the typical American diet is more than one-third higher than the daily limit of 2,300 milligrams recommended by the American Heart Association for otherwise healthy people, and it is more than double the amount — 1,500 milligrams — the association considers ideal for people with elevated blood pressure. The actual physiological requirement for sodium is a mere 220 milligrams a day, so these recommended amounts provide a huge safety margin.

The human species evolved on a very low-sodium diet of 200 to 600 milligrams a day. In fact, our bodies are designed to conserve sodium and get rid of potassium, which explains why a high-sodium diet can be a problem. The body holds on to excess sodium, increasing the chances of ill effects.

Before refrigeration, salt was prized for its ability to preserve foods, and was so highly valued it was used for currency. Now, however, salt has become the bête noir of physicians who treat heart disease, hypertension and kidney disease, among other deadly disorders. Though doctors have long argued that Americans should consume less salt, the wheels of regulatory action turn at a glacial pace, and modifying people’s taste buds is equally challenging.

 

Tips for cutting down on sodium

Companies have found that gradually lowering the sodium content of their products and making no fanfare about it, like not claiming they’re “low sodium,” actually fosters consumer acceptance. Most people don’t even notice the change. But you may not have to wait for companies to do the work. For example, you can reduce the salt in many canned foods, like beans, by rinsing them in a colander. Or try to dilute the salt in canned soups by first filling the bowl or pot with fresh spinach and other quick-cooking or precooked veggies before adding the soup and heating it in the microwave or saucepan.

If you hope to enhance your health by cutting down on sodium, one trick is to avoid going cold turkey. It’s relatively easy to reduce one’s preference for high salt by gradually using and consuming less of it. As your taste buds adjust, high-salt foods you once enjoyed will probably taste unpleasantly salty and thus easy to resist.

In cooking, rather than adding salt when preparing a recipe, try salting the finished product, which is likely to please your palate with considerably less salt. Seasoning foods with citrus juices, hot-pepper flakes or other pungent herbs and spices can go a long way to make up for reduced salt. You might also eat less bread; as a category, bread and other bakery products contribute more to Americans’ sodium intake than any other foodstuffs.