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Category: Natural Remedies - Organic Lifestyle Magazine Category: Natural Remedies - Organic Lifestyle Magazine

Naturally Relieve a Dust Mite Allergy Without Medication

Dust mite allergies are one of the most common chronic conditions in the world. The World Health Organization estimates between 10-40% of people suffer from an allergy – and half of those may be allergic to dust mites. But what causes a dust mite allergy? And can the symptoms be relieved without medication?

What is a Dust Mite Allergy?

Dust mites are tiny creatures that can only be seen under a microscope. Despite their size, mites can cause chronic health problems.

These miniature arachnids thrive in warm and humid environments, such as in beds, carpets, and curtains. A single female mite can lay up to 25 “baby” mites each week – so their population can quickly explode.

While they don’t bite, mite body parts and feces contain proteins that can trigger allergic reactions. These become trapped in mattresses, furniture, or carpets before being pushed into the air as people disturb them.

As there can be over 10,000 mites in a single gram of dust, the typical home contains a huge number of allergens. This results in near-continuous allergy symptoms that can greatly affect your quality of life.

Related: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

What are the Symptoms?

Some of the most common symptoms of a dust mite allergy include:

  • Sneezing and coughing
  • Runny and stuffy nose
  • Itchy eyes
  • Increased asthma symptoms such as breathing problems or chest tightness

These symptoms are often referred to as perennial allergic rhinitis. This is because they can be triggered all-year round. While mite numbers peak in the humid summer months, there is enough of them to cause reactions in any season.

Why Traditional Allergy Treatments Often Fail with Dust Mites

The most common advice for treating an allergy is to avoid the triggering allergen. For pet dander or even certain food allergies, this is difficult but not impossible. Dust mites can infest almost everywhere in a home though, so it’s impossible to avoid them.

This leads to a variety of medications being recommended for relieving symptoms. Some of the most common include antihistamines, corticosteroids, and nasal decongestants.

Despite being widely used, even doctors admit these medications rarely provide complete relief. They are often used instead of natural methods that can be more effective. Medication can also discourage people from reducing the quantity of mite allergens in the home.

Natural Treatments for a Dust Allergy

The good news is there are plenty of natural techniques to relieve a dust mite allergy. Some focus on the symptoms and provide instant relief. Others aim to eliminate dust mites and reduce allergenic particles in the home.

Kill Mites with Low Humidity

One of the most effective ways to reduce mite populations is by lowering the humidity in your home. Dust mites can’t survive if the relative humidity falls below 50%, so maintaining a lower humidity is the closest you can get to a “mite free” home.

If you don’t mind spending a bit of money, a dehumidifier is the easiest way to reduce relative humidity. Most dehumidifiers have a humidistat so they only switch on when humidity starts to rise. This saves energy and means you don’t need to manually adjust the settings.

Alternatively, improving ventilation in your home and drying clothes outside can reduce humidity. It’s also a good idea to keep windows open when you’re cooking.

Related: Improve Indoor Air Quality to Promote Health

Take a Teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

A traditional method for relieving an allergy is to take a teaspoon of unfiltered apple cider vinegar with a glass of water.

Drinking this mixture two or three times each day can help clear nasal passages. It won’t eliminate all symptoms, but can relieve a blocked nose without medication.

Related: Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar & How to Make Your Own

Get Allergen-Proof Bedding

Dust mites love mattresses and bed sheets. This is bad news for people with allergies, as it means symptoms can affect your sleep quality.

Allergen-proof bedding is a potential solution. Unlike regular sheets, this has small pores that prevent mites getting into your bed. Most anti-dust mite bedding is made from plastic sheets, but you can buy fabric versions if you prefer.

While anti-allergen bedding is great for reducing mites in your bed, it still needs to be washed regularly.

Product Recommendation: Mattresses

Vacuum At Least Once a Week

Reducing humidity kills dust mites, but it doesn’t get rid of their body parts. This means there are still millions of allergenic particles waiting to be stirred into the air.

The fastest way to get rid of these is vacuuming – but it’s vital to use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. There are plenty of powerful vacuums on the market, but many allow dust mites and other allergens to pass straight through the machine. This means vacuuming can temporarily make your symptoms worse.

Vacuums with HEPA filters don’t have this problem. These can filter smaller particles with much higher efficiency. It’s also a good idea to buy a bagged vacuum, as these seal automatically when emptied.

Remember to vacuum every area of the home that dust mites like to live. This includes upholstery, carpets, curtains, stairs, and mattresses.

Recommended: How Himalayan Salt Lamps Work

Wash Bedding and Furniture Covers on a High Heat

A quick way to kill mites in bedding or furniture covers is washing at a temperature of 55 degrees Celsius or above. This doesn’t just get rid of living mites – it also washes away feces and dead mite parts.

Remember to vacuum your mattress when your sheets are washing. This can help reduce symptoms at night.

Related: What’s Ailing You? Could it be Your Mattress?

Think Minimalist

The more furniture, books, soft toys, and pillows you have in your home, the more difficult it is to get rid of mites.

For this reason, you should try to eliminate clutter if you suffer from a dust mite allergy. This makes it much easier to vacuum and steam clean effectively.

If possible, you should also replace carpets with hard floors. Mites thrive in the warm environment provided by carpet fibers, but struggle on hard floors. Even if you don’t like the feel of hardwood or vinyl, you can add a machine-washable rug for a softer floor that’s easy to wash.

Conclusion

If a dust mite allergy is affecting you, medication may not be the most effective answer. Natural methods to relieve allergies and reduce the quantity of mites in your home can quickly eliminate symptoms.

The key is to take action. Most methods for killing dust mites require time and effort, so the sooner you start the faster you’ll see results.

Your first step should be to reduce the relative humidity in your home to below 50%. This is the fastest way to kill mites, as they can’t survive in these conditions. You can then maintain a low mite population by vacuuming, reducing clutter, and washing bedding at a high temperature. Using anti-allergen bedding and removing carpets in your bedroom can also improve sleep quality.

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Activated Charcoal is Very Popular Right Now – Here’s Why

Activated charcoal is expanding into a whole new market. It’s used in water filtration, as poison control, and in herbal medicine regularly, but it’s increasingly showing up in health and beauty care products. So what is activated charcoal, and why are people suddenly rubbing it all over their teeth?

How is Activated Charcoal Different than Actual Charcoal?

Let’s get the biggest issue out of the way. Activated charcoal (also known as activated carbon) is almost but not quite the same thing as actual charcoal (the stuff used for summer grilling). The bulk material used to produce activated charcoal is some combination of bone char, coconut shells, peat, petroleum coke, coal, olive pits, and/or sawdust, while actual charcoal can include all of that plus agricultural waste and other dry biomass.

To create activated charcoal, carbon is heated to temperatures of 1,700 to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit with steam or air in an oxygen-free environment, although wood-based activated charcoals frequently endure a chemical process that includes heat and phosphoric acid as well. The high heat “activates” the charcoal, removing the carbon’s volatile compounds and enlarging its internal pores. These enlarged internal pores allow the now activated charcoal to chemically attract and bind contaminants like chlorine, PCBs, industrial solvents, and pesticides, among others.

Related: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut

How It Works

When it’s activated, charcoal acquires a positive charge. This is how the activated charcoal captures nasty stuff in our bodies and the water supply. Chlorine, for example, is being replaced in the water disinfection process by chloramine, a chemical that can form trihalomethanes, which in turn can cause cancer. Since that chemical is negatively charged, positively charged activated charcoal is a cost-effective and safe way to improve the quality of the water we use every day. But people also ingest it.

Here’s What to Take Activated Charcoal For

Activated charcoal is recommended for accidental poisonings and certain drug overdoses. It’s also effective in pulling out harmful mercury and aluminum preservatives found in dental amalgams or vaccines and arsenic from rice and other foods. It’s been associated with lower cholesterol, anti-aging properties, better kidney and liver function, and helps relieve gas and bloating by attracting disruptive digestive byproducts.

In personal care products, activated charcoal attracts many of the dirt and oils that can irritate and increase the likelihood of acne, eczema, dry skin, and other topical infections. Bad breath or body odor often occurs when toxins are exiting the body, and activated charcoal can help quickly remove those toxins.

Related: Diatomaceous Earth – Mother Nature’s Secret Weapon: What Is It, How to Use It, Where to Find It

The Forms of Activated Charcoal

Adding activated charcoal to your diet is not a pleasant undertaking. You’re eating ashes and it tastes about as appetizing as you’d imagine. Due to this, most activated charcoal supplements come in pill form. But activated charcoal is also invading other areas. Activated charcoal can now be found in:

  • Shampoo
  • Facial sponges and towelettes
  • Lattes
  • Toothpaste, tooth powders, and toothbrushes
  • Soap
  • Ice cream
  • Skin cleansers

Hoax or Harmless?

Activated charcoal is considered harmless, but there are a few things to consider if you’re interested in trying it. Don’t take activated charcoal with prescription medications and constipation, as the charcoal will exacerbate the issue. It can also cause black stools. The type of raw material used to make your activated charcoal also matters, with charcoal derived from coconut shells generally labeled the highest quality.

The Bottom Line

If we continue to treat the planet as we have been, the amounts of heavy metals, pesticides, and chemicals in our bodies will continue to rise through environmental exposure. Activated charcoal makes the case that we have a solution to at least one aspect of that. If exposure cannot be prevented, then regularly cleansing the body of heavy metals can prevent the kind of buildup that leads to scarier and more serious health concerns.

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Intermittent Fasting: The Best Breakfast May Be Eating Nothing At All

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

If you don’t eat cereal for breakfast, you will be overcome by the greatest evil — masturbation.

Oh, and cereal will make you more efficient and productive, too.

These were the beliefs that started the commercialization of breakfast and breakfast cereals in the early 1900s. These ideas were proposed by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, an early Seventh-day Adventist and the inventor of corn flakes. With the help of his credentials, his brother’s mass-marketing of the corn flakes, and the magazine he edited called Good Health, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was able to popularize his idea that a “whole grain” breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Although most of us already know how bad cereal is for our health, the idea that breakfast is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle is still popular more than 100 years later. This has been confirmed by that fact that — in 2011 — 9 out of 10 people in the United States reported eating a daily morning meal. A plethora of scientific studies, on the other hand, support the 10% of Americans who skip breakfast and provide irrefutable evidence that breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. We can start to uncover the reasons why with a Nobel Prize.

Recommended: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut

How to Harness the Power of a Nobel Prize Winning Discovery

Last year, the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for discovering some of the mechanisms of autophagy or — in layman’s terms — how the cell devours itself. At first, this sounds like a horrendous discovery, until you consider what is really happening.

When our cells undergo the process of autophagy, damaged proteins are recycled and invading microorganisms and toxic compounds are removed. This means that autophagy plays an important role in stopping the aging process, reversing disease, and preventing cancer, but it doesn’t happen all the time. Fasting, protein restriction, and carbohydrate restriction are the three main ways that can initiate different autophagic processes — all of which are not the same. This is part of the reason why skipping meals like breakfast can be better for you than eating three or more meals throughout the day.

Enter Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is a fancy term that we use to describe the process of skipping meals. The most popular intermittent fasting strategy is fasting during a 16-hour window of time and eating two meals during the remaining 8 hours. Let’s say, for example, your last meal was at 6 pm last night, and you ate nothing else after that. To start an intermittent fast, simply restrict eating until 10 am the next morning.

There are many different variations of intermittent fasting. Dr. Dom D’Agostino, the well-known ketogenic diet researcher, suggests doing a longer intermittent fast for 3 days, 3 times a year. This means not eating for 3 days, and eating normally until the next fast.

Dr. D’Agostino also recommends daily intermittent fasts. He says that it is ideal to have one or two meals after fasting for most of the day to reap the benefits of intermittent fasting every day.

Clean Your (Cell’s) Room

Part of the reason why intermittent fasting promotes health is because you can use it to activate the processes of autophagy that are brought about by carbohydrate restriction, protein restriction, and fasting.

If this scientific jargon is throwing you off, think about what you do when your room is dirty. You may clean it in your spare time or have a set time on the weekend to clean it, but what happens when the weekend comes and you are busy with endless obligations? You spend so much of your time fixing the car, helping your mother and doing everything else you have to do that you have no time to clean your room. After a week without cleaning, your room is just a bit dirtier than usual, but after a month of being too busy to clean, your room is filthy. Dirty, smelly clothes are all over the floor, dust is everywhere, and you ran out of underwear (again).

This is what happens to our cells when we eat three or more meals a day that completely fulfill our need for calories. Even if you are eating the healthiest of foods, your cells still can get backed up with inessential proteins and toxic compounds. So what can you do?

To make sure that you clean your bedroom, you stop allowing yourself to be consumed by other obligations – you free up your time. To make sure that your cells can clean themselves, you enter a fasted state.

Fasting will not only activate autophagy in your cells, it will also increase your ketone levels — an alternative fuel source for your body and brain. You can even boost ketone levels and autophagy by adding in low-intensity exercise (like walking and cycling).

Refeeding Syndrome — When Fasting Goes Too Far

Health complications can arise when you fast for longer than 5 days. One of these complications is called refeeding syndrome, which is caused by potentially fatal shifts in fluid and electrolyte balance that can happen when we eat after a period of undernourishment. Refeeding syndrome happens because the concentration of fluids and minerals in our body relies heavily on what we eat. For example, low carbohydrate diets, like the ketogenic diet, increase the excretion of vital minerals like sodium and potassium.

Fasts that are shorter than 5 days, however, aren’t likely to cause issues — especially if you sip water with a pinch of unrefined salt in it throughout each day and break your fast with a low carbohydrate meal that is filled with mineral rich foods. A meal with dark leafy greens, avocado, and salmon with some unrefined salt, for example, would be an ideal way to break a longer fast. But what about muscle? It’s only common sense that consuming no protein and fewer calories will lead to an unhealthy amount of muscle loss. That’s right — it is only common sense.

Intermittent Fasting and Muscle

Two paradigm-shifting studies have recently been published on the effects of intermittent fasting. One group of researchers studied the effects that 16 hours of intermittent fasting had on resistance-trained males. They found that muscle mass stayed the same, fat mass decreased significantly, and the males who fasted for 16 hours a day burned more fat for fuel compared to the control group that only fasted for 12 hours. This suggests that intermittent fasting can help us rely more on our fat stores for fuel rather than carbohydrates from food.

Another study showed that combining 20 hours of fasting with resistance training resulted in an increase in muscle mass, strength, and endurance, and all of this was achieved by eating ~650 fewer calories per day than normal.

The benefits of intermittent fasting translate to untrained overweight and obese individuals as well. One study published in Obesity Reviews found that eating fewer calories is effective for fat loss, but it does come with some muscle loss. However, if the subjects fasted for 24 hours and ate as much as they wanted on the next day for a period of 12 weeks, they lost significantly less muscle mass.

Yes — you read that correctly — 24 hours of intermittent fasting without any resistance training and these subjects were able to preserve more muscle mass than the subjects who ate fewer calories every day without fasting at all. This finding contradicts our common sense, but when we dig deeper into autophagy we can find the mechanism behind this result.

Autophagy and Muscle Loss Prevention

Before a Nobel Prize was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi in 2016, other researchers were discovering wonderful things about autophagy. In 2009, an article entitled “Autophagy Is Required to Maintain Muscle Mass” was published in Cell Metabolism that described how deactivating an important autophagy gene resulted in a profound loss of muscle mass and strength. This happened because autophagy is an essential process that the muscle cell uses to clean up damaged proteins and mitochondria before they reach the point where they can’t function any longer and die.

At first glance, this seems counter-intuitive because we tend to assume that the nutrients we eat will repair the damage, but this is not how things work in reality. Think about it like this — if you want to refurbish a room, it is best to clean the room and remove the old furniture before you put the new furniture in. The same thought process applies to your cells. We must use intermittent fasting to let autophagy clean the cell before we put in new furniture, and if we don’t, our cells can become cancerous.

Intermittent Fasting and Cancer

Although there is little to no literature on the effects of 2 or 3-day fasts on muscle loss in humans, many clinical trials are currently being conducted on the effects that fasting has on cancer patients.

In initial case studies, patients who were going through chemotherapy treatment voluntarily fasted for anywhere between 48 to 140 hours. Each patient reported fewer side effects and an improved quality of life regardless of how long they fasted. This implies that fasting for 2 to 7 days can have a protective effect on the cells in the body while they are undergoing intense bouts of toxicity.

Other studies have shown that fasting was as effective as chemotherapeutic agents in delaying the progression of different tumors, and it increased the effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs against melanoma, glioma, and breast cancer cells. Although this research may not directly apply to your life, it confirms that intermittent fasting can help prevent cancer and help support your body in times of toxic stress.

The Takeaway

It’s okay to skip breakfast. In fact, you may experience more health benefits by doing so. Although you will feel hungry at first, your body will adjust by activating autophagy and using more fat and ketones for fuel.

Dr. Dom D’Agostino, a popular ketogenic diet researcher, suggests doing a longer intermittent fast followed by shorter daily intermittent fasts. His fasting protocol includes fasting for up to 3 days, 3 times a year with a shorter 16 to 20 hour fast on the days before and after the longer 3-day fasts.

However, you can still get the benefits of intermittent fasting by fitting different methods into your lifestyle. For example, Dr. Krista Varaday — a researcher who has conducted many research studies on fasting — suggests using alternate day fasting, which consists of eating less than 500 calories on fasting days and eating normally on non-fasting days. Dr. Mercola, on the other hand, proposes a less strict approach to fasting — consisting of a 13 to 18 hour fast a couple days a week or more.

Whether you are fasting for 16 hours or 3 days, it is important to stay hydrated with distilled water that includes a pinch of mineral-rich unrefined salts. Break your fasts with vitamin and mineral rich foods like organic vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, pastured animal products like eggs, and wild caught seafood like salmon and sardines.

But Remember — All Intermittent Fasts Are Not The Same

Before you start fasting, it is important to know that each method will have different effects on different people. In general, longer fasts — like a 3-day fast — tend to increase autophagy and ketone levels much more than a shorter fast. Shorter fasts — like a 16-hour daily fast — have a smaller impact on ketone levels and autophagy, but they tend to do a great job at decreasing your daily caloric intake and increasing the likelihood that your body will burn fat for fuel.

The shorter fast is simple and easy enough to implement, but the 3-day fast seems daunting and difficult (at first). This is why I provided you with an example of one of my favorite 3-day fasting protocols that make it simple and easy.

Practical Protocol: Tim Ferris’s 3 Day Fast

If you want a simple guide to boost your ketone levels and activate autophagy, try this 3-day “fasting” protocol that Tim Ferris adapted from Dr. D’Agostino and wrote about it his book Tools of Titans:

Thursday Evening

  • Eat a normal dinner and make that the last meal of the day. Go to bed as normal.

Friday Morning

  • Get out the door and walk within 30 minutes of waking.
  • Bring at least 1 liter or more of water with some added unrefined salt in it, and sip as you walk to avoid cramping.
  • Walk for 3 to 4 hours, sipping water as needed.
  • Arrange phone calls for your walk to make the time productive.
  • The idea behind the walk is that you use up your glycogen stores, forcing your body to move more quickly into deep ketosis (when your body is burning ketones for fuel). The quicker you get into ketosis, the less time you spend feeling tired and starved.

Friday Day (post walk)

Saturday Morning

  • Upon waking, Tim suggests testing your blood ketones with a ketone blood testing kit like the Precision Xtra. Your ketones should be at 0.7mmol or greater.
  • If you’re at 0.7mmol, proceed with your fast.
  • If you’re under 0.7mmol, consider going for another extended walk, and then re-test.

Saturday & Sunday Day

  • Add further MCT oil or coconut oil if you need a boost, but do your best to only have water throughout the day.
  • Incorporate some salts in your water throughout the day. This can either be in the form of table salts, or via a specially formulated solution such as SaltStick electrolyte replacement pills.

Sunday Evening

  • Tim suggests breaking the fast with whatever meal you choose.

This process can be used as a way to get you into ketosis more quickly so that fasting is much easier. Each time you do an intermittent fast, your body will get better and better at using fat and ketones for fuel, which will lead to less hunger, more fat loss, and less muscle loss. If you can’t go without fat for the full 3-day fast,  it’s okay, you will still reap many of the benefits of fasting by not having any carbohydrates or protein.

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Homemade Two Ingredient Healthy Fruit and Nut Bars

You can improve your blood lipid level, lose fat, improve gut health, and increase your energy levels with one snack that you can easily make at home. All you need is two ingredients – nuts and dates.

But Aren’t Dates Full of Sugar?

Just one pitted Medjool date contains around 16 grams of sugar, which means that three dates have more sugar than a 12 ounce can of coca cola. Shouldn’t dates be vilified? Hide your kids, this vengeful plant will steal their health!

Let’s See What The Science Says

When healthy subjects consumed 100 grams a day of Hallawi dates or Medjool dates for four weeks, their cholesterol levels and BMI stayed the same, and their triglyceride levels decreased. This is a phenomenon that has never been found to be the case in studies done on the effects of sugar-sweetened beverages like soda on our health.

In fact, people who consume sugar-sweetened beverages regularly tend to have unhealthy cholesterol levels, higher triglyceride levels, more body fat, and high blood sugar. This is why people who are at a high risk for diseases like diabetes are strongly advised to stop consuming sugary beverages.  But what about dates?

A High Sugar Food That May be Good for Diabetics

Even in people with type 2 diabetes, a disease that is characterized by a lack of blood sugar control, the consumption of dates does not cause significant changes in blood glucose levels. This indicates that dates may be a good sugar replacement for diabetics as well as healthy individuals. This finding seems like an anomaly that goes against everything we know about nutrition, at least until we dig deeper into the other components of dates.

“The Best Food for the Future”

In an article published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, the researchers concluded that “dates may be considered as an almost ideal food.” This is because they contain a high percentage of fiber, fifteen minerals, at least six vitamins, 23 amino acids, and a high antioxidant content. Together, these components help your body use the sugar that is in the dates so efficiently and effectively that when we eat them in small amounts, it only leads to positive health effects.

That’s Nuts!

Yes, it is nuts, especially when you add nuts to the dates. In a study done on overweight adults, one group ate two dried fruit and nut bars that consisted of 340 extra calories, while the other group ate their normal diet. After 8 weeks their weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood lipids were remeasured.

What we’d commonly expect after 8 weeks of eating 340 extra calories per day is a weight gain of at least 5 pounds (and that’s with some modest math). However, the actual results will surprise you. After eight weeks of consuming 340 extra calories from two fruit and nut bars, the study participants had no significant change in weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, or blood lipids.

Even nut consumption alone is associated with a lower waist circumference, lower rate of obesity, decreased blood pressure, and healthier blood sugar and blood lipid levels, which makes them a healthy snack as well. This is because they contain vitamins, minerals, health-promoting fats, and antioxidants that make them highly satiating and even more healthy.

Whatever They Can Do You Can Do Better

Before you run to the store to get some fruit and nut bars or trail mix, it is important to know that many of them have added sugars and oils that can leach positive health benefits from the food.

One of the best fruit and nut bars that I could find is made by a company called LÄRABAR. However, these date and nut bars are much more expensive than if you made your own snacks at home with organic, high-quality ingredients.

And yes, making your own date and nut snacks with organic, high-quality dates and nuts will still be cheaper than buying a box of LÄRABARs that are produced with lower quality and non-organic ingredients by General Mills.

How To Make Your Own 2-Ingredient Super Snack

Just by blending your favorite nuts together with pitted dates, you can create a snack that will indulge your sweet tooth like a dessert and satiate you like a fatty meal, while still being healthier than a store bought “healthy” snack. It will only take you less than a half hour, and after you take your first bite you will be wondering why you’ve never made these before.

Step 1

Start with the ratio of 1 and 1/2 cups of your favorite nuts to 1 packed cup of pitted dates to make whatever amount of date and nut snacks that you would like.

Soak the dates that you are going to use in hot water for 5 to 15 minutes or until they are soft. If the dates are already soft, they may not need to be soaked.

Tip: Save the water that you use to soak your dates and use it to sweeten up your tea or smoothie. It may also contain some vitamin c and b-vitamins as well.

Health Bonus: Use Halawi dates rather than Medjool. Studies have found Halawi dates to have even more health benefits than Medjool dates (and they still taste delicious).

Step 2

Drain and save the date water for later use. Put the dates and nuts in the blender and blend them until the nuts are to your desired particle size and consistency. The mixture should be sticky.

Health Bonus: Use raw organic nuts that are soaked for at least 7 hours. The soaking process will help increase nutrient bioavailability and enhance digestion. Just make sure you dehydrate your nuts (at temperatures lower than 150 degrees Fahrenheit) so that they last longer and don’t mess with the consistency of your date and nut mixture.

Step 3

Take the date and nut mixture and form it into whatever shape you’d like.

You can roll them into little energy balls like these:

Or flatten the mixture into a tray or pan and cut them into bars.

Tip: If you store them in the fridge they will be fresh for 6 months or longer. If you freeze them they will last for about a year.

Health and Flavor Bonus: Cover your date and nut snacks with dried shredded coconut and/or cinnamon. The shredded coconut will add so more healthy fat and fiber with a coconutty taste, and the cinnamon will add some health promoting antioxidants.

Take Them to The Next Level with This Chocolate Snack Hack

If you love chocolate, but just can’t find a healthy way to add it to your diet this snack hack is for you.

Step 1

Put half of a cup of coconut oil in a pan and melt it at low heat.

Step 2

Once the coconut oil is completely liquified stir a half cup of cacao powder into the melted oil until it is a homogenous chocolatey liquid.

Health and Flavor Bonus: Add a quarter of a teaspoon of organic ground vanilla powder to the mixture to enhance the flavor and experience the many health benefits of vanilla.

Step 3

Remove the mixture from heat and cover your date and nut snacks with the chocolate. Sprinkle cinnamon and/or dried shredded coconut on top for a health and flavor bonus.

Put them in the refrigerator to let them cool and harden. In about an hours you will have a delicious solid chocolate covering over your homemade date and nut snacks.

Before You Indulge

Moderation is and always will be a key principle in maintaining your health, and it applies just as much to healthy food as it does to unhealthy food. Just as you can overdo it on sugary beverages and refined foods and destroy your body, you can do the same with these delicious date and nut snacks.

However, dates and nuts are very satiating foods so you will feel much fuller than usual after eating them. Only two to four of these small snacks will do the trick. Enjoy!

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The Most Potent, Anti-Inflammatory Everyday Foods

According to Medical News Today, nearly 75% of all deaths in the United States are attributed to just ten causes. Eight of the ten, which include heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, kidney disease, and even suicide, are directly linked to chronic inflammation.

In fact, by simply lowering the levels of inflammation in the body we can prevent, slow the progression of, and, in some cases, reverse each of those eight causes of death. This would leave us with influenza and accidents at the top of the list, but the severity and likelihood of influenza would be reduced with an anti-inflammatory diet.

This means that if we all adopt an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, the only thing that can get in our way of living a fulfilling and healthy life is an accident or the inevitable aging. But even the effects of aging are caused by low-grade inflammation. In many scientific papers, this process is called “inflammaging” and it is the reason why your brain and body just don’t function like they used to as you age. But this process too can be slowed down tremendously by adopting an anti-inflammatory lifestyle.

What is an Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle?

Let’s keep it simple. To maintain lower levels of inflammation we need to move more, sleep better, and eat right by eating anti-inflammatory foods instead of inflammatory foods.

So let’s start with the food we should eat because just eating the right food will make it easier to eat less, move more, sleep better, and stress less.

   Related: What Causes Chronic Inflammation, and How To Stop It For Good

Anti-Inflammatory Foods

When you replace inflammatory foods with fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other anti-inflammatory foods you will decrease the levels of inflammation in your body, which will lead to a reduction in cravings and the amount of food you eat, an increase in your energy levels and sleep quality, and a decrease in stress and anxiety.

A food is anti-inflammatory when it contains vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other beneficial compounds that act together with our body to promote the health of our cells. Think whole foods. Although you are safe in assuming that any organic fruit, vegetable, herb, nut, or seed comes with their own anti-inflammatory effects (as long as you are not allergic and they aren’t fried, overcooked, or otherwise processed), there are some foods and beverages that, without a doubt, have potent anti-inflammatory effects that help boost cellular health, reduce aging, and reverse disease.

The 11 Most Effective Anti-Inflammatory Foods and Beverages

Sesame seeds, Flaxseeds, and Chia Seeds

Consuming seed oils on their own is strongly advised against, but when they are eaten freshly ground, seeds are filled with anti-inflammatory and health promoting compounds. For example, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, and chia seeds all have a high lignan content, which has protective effects against inflammation, carcinogens, and cancer.

Flaxseeds are the richest dietary source of lignan precursors, while sesame seeds offer the highest amount of phytosterols of all nuts and seeds. Phytosterols are important because they decrease blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer. They may also be what makes sesame seeds a potential treatment for the symptoms of osteoarthritis.

Related: Homemade, Vegan Nut Milk Recipes and More

Chia seeds contain more ALA, or Alpha-linoleic acid, than any other seed. ALA is most widely known as a plant source of EPA ad DHA for the body, but only a small percentage of it is actually converted to EPA and DHA. However, ALA still may help reduce inflammation in the colon making it a potential treatment for colitis.

It is best to consume sesame seeds, flaxseeds, and chia seeds ground or crushed right before consumption. Use them in dressings, dipping sauces, salads, or smoothies.

Soaked chia seeds can also be used as an egg replacement in baking recipes. However, it is important to avoid roasted seeds because they will contain rancid oils that make them pro-inflammatory.

Hibiscus Tea

Green tea is widely known as a healthy beverage, especially matcha green tea, which has more antioxidants than normal green tea. However, matcha green tea comes with around 70 mg of caffeine per cup. Although the caffeine content is lower than a cup of coffee, it is still high enough to affect the mind and body. Doses of caffeine as low as 12.5 mg can create a powerful response in the body, so if you would rather not expose yourself to the increased stress response and addictive qualities that caffeine provides, hibiscus is the best option.

Hibiscus tea is actually a better option for reducing inflammation than any other tea because it elicits much more antioxidant and anti-inflammation activity in the body, and it has no caffeine at all.

Hibiscus tea also tastes better than green tea (in my opinion). I prefer to cold brew it overnight with a little bit of lemon juice to make a refreshing drink I can sip throughout the day.

Berries

There are hundreds of types of berries in the world and all of them contain different anthocyanins, which are flavonoids responsible for their distinctive colors of red, blue, and purple. These flavonoids also have powerful anti-inflammatory effects.

Wild blueberries, for example, have been found to improve memory in older adults, which suggests that they protect the brain from inflammation. Other berries like cranberries, elderberries, currants, acai berry, goji berries, and amla fruit have different flavonoids that have potent anti-inflammatory effects on other parts of the body as well.

Amla fruit, in particular, may have the most potent anti-inflammatory benefits of all the berries, with more antioxidant activity than blueberries, 20 times more vitamin C than lemon juice, 30 times more polyphenols than red wine, and more gallic acid (a potent antioxidant) than any other fruit.

Citrus Fruits

Citrus fruits, like lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruit, contain flavonoids that have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects on damaged cells. Studies have found that citrus fruits have little to no effect on healthy cells so, even in high doses, citrus flavonoids are non-toxic.

Virgin Olive Oil

Virgin olive oil contains numerous health promoting compounds. One of the most studied compounds found in virgin olive oil is a phenolic compound called oleocanthal.

Oleocanthal possesses similar anti-inflammatory properties to ibuprofen. This makes virgin olive oil a great addition to the diet to help reduce acute and chronic inflammation.

However, some of the fats in olive oil can become rancid at temperatures higher than 300 degrees Fahrenheit so it is important to consume it in its uncooked form. Put it on your salads and vegetables to add some healthy fats your meal and increase the absorption of vitamins A and K from the vegetables, while you reap the benefits of olive oil’s healing properties.

Turmeric

Most of us have probably heard about the healing properties of turmeric, and the rumors are true. Even Dr. Axe refers to it as the “most powerful herb on the planet at fighting and potentially reversing disease”.

This is because turmeric contains curcumin, a phenolic compound that is responsible for turmeric’s yellow color, and its ability to help heal cells throughout the body. So far we have found curcumin to be a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, and cancer.

Related: How to Optimize Curcumin Absorption – With Golden Milk Tea Recipe

Cloves

This spice is commonly used in pumpkin pie to give it that extra cinnamon-like kick, but you may not know that cloves have the highest antioxidant content of any spice or herb that scientists have measured.
Cloves protect the body by eradicating harmful bacteria, fungi, and yeast, including giardia and candida. Insulin resistance and obesity may be ameliorated by cloves as well.

I prefer to consume cloves in the form of tea to help relieve a sore throat and improve my energy levels. You can also add it to smoothies, hot beverages, sauces, and soups to give them some extra flavor.

Garlic (and other vegetables from the Allium family)

Garlic has been used for centuries as a prophylactic and a treatment for many diseases. It is rich in organosulfur compounds, which give it its potent flavor, taste, and healing abilities. In fact, garlic has been found to reduce the size of tumors and activate important anti-oxidant enzymes in the body that help protect our cells from cancer, infection, and disease.

Garlic, onions, leeks, and other vegetables from the Allium family all contain allicin. This is an active compound that activates anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activities that protect us from disease, and it may even have neuroprotective effects against brain injury.

Related: Things You Should Know About Garlic – DIY, Recipes, Other Tips

Broccoli Sprouts (and other cruciferous vegetables)

Many cruciferous vegetables are filled with vitamins K and A, which are essential for our health, but have you heard of sulforaphane? This is a compound that is created when we crush or chew cruciferous vegetables, and broccoli sprouts add more of this compound to our diet than any other cruciferous vegetable.
Why does it matter? Because sulforaphane has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, which boost brain function and even protect us from the flu and environmental pollutants.

You can easily grow your own broccoli sprouts at home. If you start today, they will be ready to eat in less than a week. You can add your fresh sprouts to salads and smoothies or have them as a snack.

Coconut Oil

There is a lot of controversy surrounding saturated fats, but the truth is that they aren’t the problem that we once thought they were. The perfect example of how saturated fats can be good for you is found when we consume coconut oil.

Related: 35 Things You Could Do With Coconut Oil – From Body Care to Health to household

In a randomized, double-blind, clinical trial, coconut oil supplementation promoted a reduction in abdominal fat and kept blood lipids under control, while soybean oil caused an increase in total cholesterol and a decrease in HDL cholesterol. This is most likely due to a reduction in inflammation caused by consuming coconut oil and an increase in inflammation caused by consuming soybean oil.

Related: Powerfully Healing Raspberry Cream Smoothie Recipe

Avocado

Avocados are primarily made up of monounsaturated fatty acids – a type of fat that reverses inflammation. It may even reverse the inflammation caused by some types of saturated fats. This is because monounsaturated fatty acids activate anti-inflammatory processes in the body while being extremely stable. On the other hand, fats like omega 6s and omega 3s are highly unstable, which is why they can create harmful oxidants and increase inflammation in the body. Monounsaturated fats, however, are so stable that they only improve our health.

In fact, Monounsaturated fat is so stable that it can be heated to around 500 degrees Fahrenheit without becoming rancid, which makes it a great cooking oil.

But it’s not just all about the fat. Avocados also contain other compounds like mannoheptulose, which may help reverse obesity and diabetes.

Putting It All Together

You can literally combine each one of these anti-inflammatory foods into a delicious meal. Get your notepad ready.

Step 1

Get your cruciferous greens and put them in a bowl. They will be the base of your meal.

Step 2

Put some avocado slices, broccoli sprouts, and wild blueberries on top.

Step 3

In a small bowl, combine virgin olive oil with crushed garlic, lemon juice, chopped up turmeric slices, and apple cider vinegar.

Step 4

Grind some chia seeds, flaxseeds, or sesame seeds and put them on top of your salad. Finish it off with your olive oil based dressing.

Step 5

While you enjoy your anti-inflammatory meal, start brewing some ground clove and hibiscus tea. To give it a creamy and frothy feel, put about a tablespoon of coconut oil and blend it up when it’s finished brewing.

Related: Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

But What about Omega 3s!?

After digging through the research, it’s hard to justify putting seafood on the list of anti-inflammatory foods. It is commonly believed that the omega 3s called DHA and EPA that are found in seafood help prevent heart disease and inflammation, but studies on omega 3 supplementation have not consistently shown this effect. The association between eating fish and a reduction in heart disease risk is better explained by the fact that people who eat more fish tend to have healthier lifestyles.

It is important to mention that even though they are not on this list, seafood and other animal products contain many different antioxidants, vitamins, and amino acids that are essential for maintaining health. But even high-quality meat and fish may still cause a small inflammatory response, which is why they didn’t make our list of anti-inflammatory foods.

Conclusion

This is by no means a comprehensive list of foods that fight inflammation. This article just contains the most well-researched anti-inflammatory foods that have been studied so far (that I could find).

The truth is that there are thousands upon thousands of different compounds in plants that influence our bodies, and we have only studied the effects of a small fraction of them.

The most important thing you can do after reading this article is to eat a wide variety of whole vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, and seeds to ensure that you are nourished. If you do this and ignore all the foods listed above you will still decrease your inflammation levels. This is because you are eating less inflammatory foods and eating more fiber, which feeds the probiotics in your gut that help protect your gut lining and produce anti-inflammatory by-products.

But if you continue eating inflammatory foods every day, they will undermine all the positive effects you can get from eating anti-inflammatory foods.

For more on what an inflammatory food is and how they cause inflammation, see Chronic Inflammation: How You Are Causing It and How You To Be Rid Of It and What Causes Chronic Inflammation, and How To Stop It For Good.

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B Vitamins Can Offset Damage From Air Pollutions

Billions of people are exposed to dangerous fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, from diesel fumes, wood burning stoves, and chemical reactions between other polluting gasses. PM2.5 particles are incredibly tiny, with a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers. They can lodge deep in the lungs and cause heart and lung problems, and they are thought to alter genes associated with the immune system. How do you protect yourself against something with that has the ability to change your DNA? You take B vitamins.

Researchers in the U.S. discovered that four weeks of B vitamin supplementation limited the PM2.5 effects by 28-76% at ten gene locations. Though limited by their small sample size and the high doses of B vitamins in the study, scientists nevertheless saw a connection. The B vitamins made a difference both in epigenetic changes and on a mitochondrial level.

Looking for B Vitamins

B vitamins give us our energy. They provide essential support for neurotransmitters and nerve tissue. The specific B vitamins used in this study were B6, folic acid (or B9), and B12. The inclusion of folic acid and B12 is especially interesting as they are some of the building blocks involved in repairing DNA, and they are involved in the metabolism of every cell in the body. Despite common fear that if you have the gene for something you automatically get it, the body can be influenced. Genes change.

Gun Seeks Magic Bullet

So the question becomes how do we get enough B vitamins to offset that pollution, to support all of those essential processes in the body, and to keep our genes intact or improve them? While we can produce B vitamins in the gut, it doesn’t happen without the right foods or the right gut environment. Fresh, organic vegetables and fruits replenish B vitamins, but the amount of nutrition to be found in our food is declining overall. There’s also the issue of assimilation. A digestive system that isn’t working properly won’t be able to use those vitamins to their best effect. The good news there? Maintaining the same produce rich way of eating that provides and creates B vitamins is the best way to have a healthy digestive system.

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Lower Cholesterol and Prevent Heart Disease Without Drugs

According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. On the surface it sounds dreadful, but this fact becomes good news when we realize that heart disease is preventable and, in some cases, reversible.

Heart Disease is Preventable and Can Be Reversible

Although there are many genetic factors that determine your risk of heart disease, it is still preventable and can be reversible. This is because the most common cause of heart disease, atherosclerosis, is caused by factors that are under our control.

Although atherosclerosis is technically the buildup of fatty plaques in your arteries, this does not mean that fat itself is the only factor to consider. In fact, many studies have shown that low-fat diets do not reduce the risk of heart disease at all.

Fat is Not Clogging Your Arteries

Atherosclerosis is not caused by fat clogging your arteries. Fat isn’t the problem. Atherosclerosis isn’t even the problem, it is the solution to the problem that is caused by oxidized LDL cholesterol.

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

LDL – The Misunderstood Lipoprotein

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is commonly referred to as “bad cholesterol”, but it is actually necessary for our survival.

Think of LDL as a superhero with a very short temper. LDL brings nutrients like cholesterol and vitamins to our cells, saving their lives from those evil free radicals. Unfortunately, if the LDL interacts with these free radicals in the blood, it begins to oxidize.

The now oxidized LDL goes on a temper tantrum causing damage to the endothelial cells (cells that line the inside of our blood vessels). The endothelial damage triggers macrophages (immune system cells) to try to keep the oxidized LDL from doing any more damage.

The macrophage convinces the oxidized LDL to hand in its superhero costume and become an inert, non-toxic fatty plaque that resides between the walls of the blood vessel. Our body creates this plaque to keep the oxidized LDL from damaging more cells, which is why atherosclerosis is part of the solution.

Product Recommendation: Lipicept Cholesterol Support • 120c – HCP Formulas

(Don’t) Just Take a Statin

After hearing that there is indeed a link between LDL cholesterol and heart disease, it is tempting take whatever we can to lower our cholesterol. This is why cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins are consistently among the top-selling prescriptions in the world.

One reason why statins are so prolific is because they work. In fact, They have been found to consistently lower plasma LDL levels by 25–35% and reduce the frequency of heart attacks by 25–30%. This is nothing short of miraculous, at-least until you learn what statins actually do.

Recommended: How To Reverse Fatty Liver Disease (Diet Plan Included)

The Dark Side of Statins

Statins work by inhibiting an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase. When this enzyme is inhibited, cholesterol production by the liver is stopped, which leads to lower LDL levels in the blood. At the same time, inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase impairs our ability produce coenzyme Q10 – a molecule that is vital for cellular health and mitochondrial function.

Coenzyme Q1o allows our mitochondria to produce energy efficiently so our cells can survive and thrive. When our levels of coenzyme Q10 are low, the ability of our muscles to function and recover plummets. This causes muscle pain and inflammation, which also happens to be the most commonly reported adverse effect from taking statins. What a coincidence! Other common adverse effects from taking statins related to a lack of coenzyme Q10 are a decrease in cognitive function and liver damage.

It is also important to mention that having low cholesterol comes with its own side effects. Hormonal imbalances like low testosterone, increased fatigue, increased frequency of sickness, and reduced ability to digest fats may result from having low cholesterol. This is because cholesterol provides us with the building blocks for sex hormones, stress hormones, and bile salts that are necessary for survival.

There May Still Be a Place for Statins

Although statins do come with many risks, they may be helpful for people have genetic risk factors for heart disease. But even if you do have a family history of heart disease, you can still address it more effectively by naturally increasing the activity of your LDL receptors.

Recommended: Probiotics, Bacteria, and Our Health

The Best Way to Reverse Heart Disease

Our liver contains many of our LDL receptors. When these receptors are active, they draw excess LDL cholesterol back to the liver, giving it less of a chance to get oxidized and cause problems.

We can increase LDL receptor activity in 4 ways:

1. Reduce The Concentration of Cholesterol in the Liver

The liver is the regulator of cholesterol levels in the body. It produces cholesterol and sends it out to the cells using LDL particles and removes cholesterol by turning it into bile salts and excreting it in the feces.

When we eat high fiber foods like split peas, lentils, artichokes, peas, and broccoli, the fiber prevents the bile from being reabsorbed. This forces the liver to increase its LDL receptor activity to bring LDL cholesterol back to the liver and synthesize more bile.

This approach to controlling LDL cholesterol levels is not just theory. Studies show that heart-attack survivors who adopt a high-fiber diet reduce the risk of a recurrence by about 40 percent, compared to survivors who make no dietary changes. According to the American Heart Association Eating Plan, you can reap the benefits of fiber by increasing your fiber intake to 25 to 30 grams a day.

Studies have also shown polyunsaturated fats like omega 3s and 6s to decrease cholesterol, but this comes with the risk of increasing the oxidization of LDL. This is because polyunsaturated fats are easily oxidized, which can lead to an increase in oxidants and free radicals in the body. These compounds will then interact with LDL causing it to oxidize. For this reason, it may be best to limit the consumption of all polyunsaturated fats if you have heart disease.

2. Decrease Your Levels of Inflammation

Inflammation is the process that our body carries out to heal itself, and LDL cholesterol is an important player in this process. Whenever there is damage or trauma, the liver increases LDL output and decreases LDL receptor activity so that the LDL stays in circulation and aids the healing process. This is why when we are stressed, sick, or hurt our cholesterol levels will tend to be higher.

When our cells are constantly undergoing trauma due to our own immune system (autoimmune disease) or chronic toxic stress (due to emotional stress, environmental toxins, and/or dietary toxins), our system will be in a chronic state of inflammation with high cholesterol.

To reduce your inflammation, focus on removing toxins from your environment and diet, increasing the quality of your sleep, reducing emotional stress, and increasing your level of low intensity activities like walking or yoga. You can also supplement with anti-inflammatory foods like turmeric or vitamins like vitamin E and C to reduce oxidative stress.

You can track your inflammation levels by measuring your C-reactive protein levels with a blood test. C-reactive protein is created by the liver when there is inflammation in the body, so it is a great indicator for the level of inflammation in the body. Keeping your C-reactive protein level Below 1 mg/L is commonly suggested, but Dr. Chris Masterjohn suggests that it is best to keep it lower than .07 mg/L.

Related: What Causes Chronic Inflammation, and How To Stop It For Good

3. Improve Thyroid Function

If you are feeling depressed, losing your hair, and you have high cholesterol, you may need to improve your thyroid function. Low thyroid function leads to increased levels of cholesterol, while increased thyroid function may increase LDL receptor activity and decrease LDL cholesterol levels. This leads us to the conclusion that improving thyroid function, if you have an under-active thyroid, will reduce your risk of heart disease.

To improve thyroid function it is important to first reduce inflammation, which shuts down thyroid hormone production. It is also important to make sure that you are eating nutritious foods that leave you feeling satiated. When we are satiated from a nutrient dense meal, our thyroid gland gets a signal from the brain that we have enough energy. The thyroid gland responds to the signal by releasing thyroid hormones that improve cellular function throughout the body.

Sleep is also an important factor in improving thyroid function. Make sure you are sleeping at around the same time every night and getting enough sleep, so that you can wake up refreshed rather than tired.

Related: Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid

4. Improve Insulin Sensitivity

Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease and for good reason – insulin, LDL receptor activity, and thyroid function are intimately linked. For example, when the cells are resistant to insulin (a hormone that helps to stabilize high blood sugar), like in people with type 2 diabetes, it leads to a decrease in thyroid function and LDL receptor activity because the body is perceiving that food is scarce. The result is high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and an even higher risk of heart disease. On the other hand, thyroid function and LDL receptor activity increases when the cells are sensitive to insulin, which leads to stable blood sugar, lower cholesterol, and almost no risk of heart disease.

To increase your sensitivity to insulin, it is important to increase your activity level and decrease the amount of refined foods in your diet. Increasing your activity level by lifting weights, doing body weight exercises, and doing interval training will substantially improve your insulin sensitivity. Replacing refined foods with vegetables and fruits will increase your vitamin and fiber intake, which will help increase your insulin sensitivity and decrease your cholesterol.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

How to Measure Your Results

To see if your personal heart disease reducing lifestyle program was effective, check your total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio on your next blood panel. Your total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio should between 3 and 4 to ensure healthy cholesterol levels and a substantially reduced risk of heart disease.

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