The stress response involves an interesting mix of nerve and hormone events. Two particular hormones are important: cortisol and adrenalin, both which come from the adrenal glands.
Stress causes these hormones to be released, but cortisol is the main stress hormone. Cortisol is determined to raise blood glucose from anything, even muscle protein. Adrenalin rincerases your heart rate. The goal is to give you all the resources to fight the stress.
While cortisol tries to increase glucose, Insulin tries to reduce it. These 2 hormones act against each other, but in this fight, cortisol wins and makes the body remarkably insulin resistant. This is not good. It is what you want to avoid!
In acute stress, the hormone stress response is beneficial: it provides you with the total body ability to fight or to flee. Acute stress would last a short period of time. For example, a lion chases you; your body is immediately equipped to deal with the problem. Instinctively you decide to run and jump over a wall to safety!. The stress is over and in minutes your cortisol levels would return to normal.
In chronic stress, cortisol is constantly released and leads to insulin resistance, which is bad for you! In a study done at Yale University. Healthy men underwent several assessments to measure insulin sensitivity with or without adrenalin infusion. After just 2 hours of adrenaline infusion, insulin sensitivity drops by 40%.
For further information please read the article linked
We constantly hear about the need to protect ourselves from the sun. Paranoid about its dangers, we have shied away into the shadows, covering ourselves with sunblock laden with toxic chemicals and known carcinogens. We have become a generation deficient in Vitamin D, which is pivotal for bone health, the immune system. Through providing us with Vitamin D, sunlight plays a crucial role in fighting disease. The sun also has many other great healing qualities and has been used for centuries in many cultures to heal all kinds of illness and deliver radiant health.
Improves skin conditions
Sunlight has a beneficial effect on skin disorders, such as psoriasis, acne, eczema and fungal infections of the skin.
Sunlight builds our immune system
One type of white blood cell is known as T-lymphocytes, which are boosted by both blue light and UVA light. T-lymphocytes direct our body’s immune response to infectious microorganisms and other foreign substances. As little as 5-10 minutes of sun exposure is all it takes to boost immune cell activity
Normalises blood Pressure
The sun’s rays significantly lower blood pressure in individuals who suffer from hypertension. Vitamin D from sunlight is an essential factor in cancer prevention
Lowers cancer risks
Vitamin D from sunlight is an essential factor in cancer prevention. It activates the immune system to work against rogue cells and can normalise and correct cancer cells.
Lowers cholesterol
The sun converts high cholesterol in the blood into steroid hormones and the sex hormones we need for reproduction.
Increases blood oxygen levels
Sunlight increases the oxygen content in human blood. By boosting the body’s capacity to deliver oxygen to our tissues, moderate sun exposure has similar effects to exercise.
Increases happiness
Exposure to sunlight boosts serotonin levels in the brain. Sunlight is the most abundant and easiest to absorb anti-depressant you will find!
Sunlight destroys harmful bacteria
1903 Nobel Prize Winner, Niels Finsen used sunlight to heal wounds and disinfect the German soldiers after World War I.
Regulates the circadian rhythm
Sunlight sends the message to our brains that it’s time to get up by inhibiting the production of melatonin in the pineal gland. If we get adequate sunlight during the day, melatonin production will start up again when the sun goes down. This makes us feel sleepy and ready for a good, restful night. Maintaining a regular circadian rhythm through sunlight therapy has shown reduced symptoms and improved mental well-being in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.
The key is to start slowly and build up your exposure to the sun over time, especially if you have fair skin! Getting sunburnt is not the idea. Moderate sun exposure is essential for all of us.
So, ditch the toxic chemicals in most sunscreens and start soaking up that Vitamin D (in moderation) today!
Sleep is essential for good health. When we sleep our responsiveness to the environment is dialed down, which allows our bodies to recover.
There is no doubt that getting adequate sleep makes us feel good and is needed for good health.
The question is, how much is enough? There is no straight answer to this. Different people need different durations of sleep and this is probably determined by genetics. Some people have a mutation in a gene (DEC2) that allows some people to require less sleep than others.
What is very clear, and for which there is scientific consensus, is that if we do not get enough sleep, it is harmful to our health. One of the most harmful effects, is that if deprived from sleep, there is a profound effect on the hormonal system. It has been shown that if you sleep poorly for just one week, that your body becomes 30% more insulin resistant compared with normal sleep. In fact just 2 days of poor sleep was enough to make you insulin resistant!
Napping is also something to be considered. The magic number appears to be 30 minutes! If you nap for 30 minutes or less, insulin is not affected, whereas if you sleep for longer that 30 minutes, they are likely to develop insulin resistance!
It is an undisputed fact that exercise is essential in your quest for health. Whilst it is so that your diet is the most important factor to control health, exercise massively contributes to decreasing insulin resistance.
“You cannot outrun a bad diet” is an accurate statement. If you persist in eating processed foods and refined carbohydrates, you will not be able to control inflammation in your body, and you will battle to shed kg’s.
The big question is more about what kind of exercise you do. What must be clear, is that any form of exercise is better than non at all! Proponents for aerobic exercise and resistance training, respectively, will push their narrative, most likely because of bias. If you scan the literature, it is riddled with studies that show either form of exercise to be superior.
I advocate for balance and preference! Do what you prefer! Just do something!
If you scan the literature and read the science, it would appear that resistance training and high intensive interval training is possibly the best form of exercise to counter insulin resistance.
Having said all of that, the message remains:
Get off the couch and move!
“You are what you eat”
“Let your food by your medicine”
“You cannot outrun a bad diet”
“Chronic disease like diabetes, cancer and auto immune diseases are on the rise and the main contributor is poor dietary habits”
Quotes and statement by wise people. I am not going to beat about the bush on this one. There is absolutely no doubt that you diet must consist of:
Coupled with
I have just described many diets in slightly varying make ups:
Be on any diet that consists of proteins, natural fats and green vegetables and does not include sugar, refined carbs and processed foods especially seed oils:
Eat that which God and nature gave you and not what man gave you.
For further extensive information read:
Supplements are a collective name for substances added to your diet. The big question is whether they are needed and if they work!
This is a huge subject. In my training as a physician, we hardly ever had training or guidance on supplements. Most medical doctors would scoff at people taking vitamins, minerals, and more bespoke products for health. They do this in ignorance, and I can vouch for this as I was one of these doctors before!
What are supplements?
They can be categorized into:
1. Vitamins
The name vitamin was derived from the words VITAL and AMINE = VITAL+AMINE. An amine is a specific chemical formula. Together they spelt the word Vitamine. Since Vitamin D is strictly not a vitamin, but a hormone, they dropped the “e”, for the word to become Vitamin! Any of the vitamin deficiencies would lead to disease (A: night blindness, C: scurvy, D: rickets and immune dysfunction etc)
The vitamins are essential for life and deficiencies of vitamins will lead to disease. We would expect vitamins to be present in our food, but alas, this is not the case, especially for processed foods.
2. Minerals (Calcium, magnesium and Iron)
Minerals should be present in food and water, but often they are not. This coupled with poor absorption and depletion by medications could lead to dysfunction of body processes and symptoms. Most minerals can be measured with blood tests.
3. Phytonutrients
This is an extremely important group of compounds. 100’s if not thousands of plant nutrients are extracted and employed to assist the body in its function, to prevent and treat disease. Of these nutrients, antioxidants are probably the most known and most important. Antioxidants can neutralize waste products we call radical oxygen species or free radicals. Free radicals cause damage and antioxidants neutralize this potential. The most important antioxidants are Vit C and Tocotrienols. Tocotrienols are a special type of antioxidant and acts 50 x faster and more effective than most others.
Other phytonutrients have been used for thousands of years by ancient cultures to treat a myriad of diseases. In fact, many western medicines are derived from plant nutrients.
Many of these substances are available on the market. Some work, some do not and many are just scam. We at Endocare Essential Supplements aim to identify the products that would have ability to assist in health. We aim to provide you with detail on such supplements based on decent research and experience.
In due course, we will address substances in detail, and should you want your special supplement to be reviewed, please contact us with a request and we will do our best to give you thorough and fair feedback.
