Traveling This Holiday Season? Here Are Some Survival Tips!

Well, the holiday season is here and you know what that means… travel. If you’re traveling a lot this holiday season to see family, friends or just to relax, you need to take the extra precautions to keep yourself from getting sick.

Here are my suggestions to protect yourself before and after your trip:

Ginger
Ginger calms nerves, relieves nausea due to motion sickness, is an overall digestive soother, and acts as a gentle decongestant to ease sinus irritation.

Drink Water
Carry at least 2 bottles of pure filtered water to through your flight. Drinking supports the next important tip.

Move Around
Drinking will make it so you must get out of your seat to use the bathroom, hopefully at least every half hour. Each bathroom trip, stand and stretch, raise up your arms, wiggle your feet, jump up and down. The jumping helps to compensate for the absence of muscular activity in the calves from sitting for extended periods, which severely slows lower limb circulation.

Mist
Carry a small spray bottle to mist your face while flying. Misting hydrates the skin, and helps keep nasal passages moistened.

Supplement
Double up on your daily doses of vitamin C, zinc, antioxidants, green foods such as chlorella and spirulina, whole food multiple vitamins and vitamin E.

Food
Bring food, such as fresh fruit, raw nuts and seeds, organic food bars or a sandwich made on whole grain bread. Make sure to bring enough food to keep you from eating the salty, fatty, roasted peanuts and cheap preservative-filled pretzels served on flights these days!

Do not drink alcohol
It will dehydrate you, dull your senses, keep you from drinking enough water, as well as leave you prone to infection due to the immune-lowering effects of alcohol.

Most Important: Rest!
Travel well rested. This commonly overlooked aspect of healthy travel sets the stage for a stress cycle that can last your entire trip. Hard as it is to get out the door, be sure to sleep well before you travel.

Happy Holidays!

5 Natural Ways To Boost Immunity For Cold And Flu Season

October 20, 2011

The Huffington Post

By: Jim Nicolai

Health and beauty can have an inner wholeness and balance that offers resilience against the external pressures of your environment. Among other things, this means that you can be exposed to certain infectious agents and not necessarily get sick.

As you go about your daily life, you will come into contact with germs — it can’t be avoided, no matter how hard you try.

Sure you need to wash your hands and cough into your sleeve, but what are some ways to shore up immunity during this time when infections of all kinds seem to rear their ugly head?

Here are five tips for entering the cold and flu season to keep your body resilient during this time:

Optimize Vitamin D Levels
This hormone (it’s not actually a vitamin) has receptor sites in every area of the body including the immune system and respiratory tissue. Studies have linked vitamin D as necessary for the production of antimicrobial proteins from immune cells in response to infection.
Low levels of vitamin D in the blood are linked with increased incidence of upper respiratory infection. Adults should keep optimum levels by taking at least 2000 IU daily. Get your levels checked if you think you are low.

Learn About Immune Boosting Tonics
I like medicinal mushrooms like shiitake, maitake, reishi and cordyceps. You can take extracts of these in liquid or capsule form. My other favorite is a Chinese root called Astragalus, used to prevent illness and strengthen immunity once you do get sick. You can buy the root and make it into a tea or soup; otherwise, buy extracts in liquid or capsule form and take as directed.

Fight Viruses With Elderberry Extract
The fruit of the elderberry shrub (Sambucus nigra) has a long history of being used for colds and flu. It has been supported scientifically with studies from Israel showing that taking a liquid extract of elderberry reduced the duration of flu symptoms as compared to placebo over a period of a week’s time. Its antiviral properties seem to come from the flavonoids that give elderberry its purple color.

Breathe Deeply
Do this correctly by using the muscles of your abdomen and the ones between your ribs (intercostals) to squeeze more air out of your lungs as you exhale. By moving more air out, you bring more air in. Allowing your breath to be fuller, deeper and more even helps you to optimize immunity and access spontaneous healing in your body.

Live Well
This has to do with proper lifestyle measures that we know we should be doing, but sometimes find difficult to manage. Make a concerted effort to get proper rest, eat and drink well, move your body and manage stress.
I recommend trying to get between at least seven to nine hours of sleep per night. You’ll know how much your body needs based on how refreshed you feel when you wake up in the morning. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet filled with fruits and vegetables of a variety of colors. Try to get some exercise every day even if it’s just 30 minutes of walking, and learn how to breathe well.

Click here for the full report from The Huffington Post

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 8-2-11

Today, Kevin explains how you can achieve any dream as long as you do the right things correctly, long enough consistently. Plus, find out what people are saying about Kevin’s training on how to create a perpetual moneymaking machine!

Self Help:
Change Your Life
KT’s Daily Supplements

Everything Kevin:
Become An Insider!
Support Kevin!
Kevin is on YouTube!
Sign Up For Kevin’s FREE Podcast
Follow Kevin on Twitter
Become A Fan of Kevin on Facebook
Kevin’s Film Club
Kevin’s Book Club

Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes!

Click below to watch the Kevin Trudeau Show!

Night Owls At Risk For Weight Gain and Bad Diet

July 21st, 2011

Eurek Alert

By:Maria Paul

Staying up late every night and sleeping in is a habit that could put you at risk for gaining weight. People who go to bed late and sleep late eat more calories in the evening, more fast food, fewer fruits and vegetables and weigh more than people who go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

Late sleepers consumed 248 more calories a day, twice as much fast food and half as many fruits and vegetables as those with earlier sleep times, according to the study. They also drank more full-calorie sodas. The late sleepers consumed the extra calories during dinner and later in the evening when everyone else was asleep. They also had a higher body mass index, a measure of body weight, than normal sleepers.

The study is one of the first in the United States to explore the relationship between the circadian timing of sleeping and waking, dietary behavior and body mass index. The study was published online in the journal Obesity and is expected to appear in a late summer print issue.

“The extra daily calories can mean a significant amount of weight gain – two pounds per month – if they are not balanced by more physical activity,” said co-lead author Kelly Glazer Baron, a health psychologist and a neurology instructor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“We don’t know if late sleepers consume the extra calories because they prefer more high-calorie foods or because there are less healthful options at night,” said co-lead author Kathryn Reid, research assistant professor in neurology at the Feinberg School.

The study shows not only are the number of calories you eat important, but also when you eat them — and that’s linked to when you sleep and when you wake up, noted senior author Phyllis Zee, M.D., professor of neurology and director of the Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Research Program at Feinberg and medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Feinberg and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

“Human circadian rhythms in sleep and metabolism are synchronized to the daily rotation of the earth, so that when the sun goes down you are supposed to be sleeping, not eating,” Zee said. “When sleep and eating are not aligned with the body’s internal clock, it can lead to changes in appetite and metabolism, which could lead to weight gain.”

The research findings could be relevant to people who are not very successful in losing weight, Zee said. “The study suggests regulating the timing of eating and sleep could improve the effectiveness of weight management programs,” she said.

The findings also have relevance for night-shift workers, who eat at the wrong time of day related to their bodies’ circadian rhythms. “It’s midnight, but they’re eating lunch,” Zee said. “Their risk for obesity as well as cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and gastrointestinal disorders is higher.”

The study included 51 people (23 late sleepers and 28 normal sleepers) who were an average age of 30. Late sleepers went to sleep at an average time of 3:45 a.m., awoke by 10:45 a.m., ate breakfast at noon, lunch at 2:30 p.m., dinner at 8:15 p.m. and a final meal at 10 p.m. Normal sleepers on average were up by 8 a.m., ate breakfast by 9 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., a last snack at 8:30 p.m. and were asleep by 12:30 a.m.

Participants in the study recorded their eating and sleep in logs and wore a wrist actigraph, which monitors sleep and activity cycles, for at least seven days.

Late sleepers function in society by finding jobs where they can make their own hours, Baron noted, such as academics or consultants. “They find niches where they can live this lifestyle, or they just get by with less sleep,” she said.

Northwestern researchers are planning a series of studies to test the findings in a larger community and to understand the biological mechanisms that link the relationship between circadian rhythms, sleep timing and metabolism.

Click here for the full report from EurekAlert.com

Your PC, TV or Cell Phone May Be To Blame For Lack of Sleep

March 8th, 2011

Yahoo! News

By: Ben Patterson

The more often you use “interactive” electronics like cell phones or video games right before bed, the more likely it is you’ll miss out on deep, restful sleep, a new survey claims. I know the feeling.

The new study from the Washington, D.C.-based National Sleep Foundation isn’t the first to claim that the use of “light-emitting” devices like TVs and iPads just before turning in can disrupt sleep patterns. Researchers say that such “artificial light exposure” at night may make you more alert before you hit the hay, making it tougher to get enough shut-eye.

But it does add a new wrinkle to the discussion: namely, that “interactive” gear like video games, cell phones, and laptops are more likely to mess with a good night’s sleep than “passive” gadgets like television sets.

The survey found that just about all of us (or 95 percent of Americans between the ages of 13 and 64, give or take) feast our eyes on a TV screen, a laptop, a cell phone, or some other type of gadget at least “a few” nights a week within an hour of bedtime.

But the National Sleep Foundation researchers say they found more and more people—particularly so-called Generation Y’ers (20- to 30-somethings) and Generation Z’ers (20-somethings and younger)—using “interactive” gadgets like cell phones and laptop right before bed.

And while watching Leno or Letterman before drifting off isn’t the best recipe for a good night’s sleep, sending one last test message on your phone or blowing away a final bad guy on your Xbox 360 is an even worse idea sleep-wise, according to the study.

The evidence? Turns out that 16 percent of Gen Y’ers and 22 percent of Z’ers—who, apparently, are far more likely to play a video game or send a text message before bedtime—complain that they’re not getting enough restful sleep, compared to 11 percent of Generation X’ers and 9 percent of baby boomers. Or so the study says.

So, what’s the ticket to eight-plus hours of sleep each night? Besides regular exercise, avoiding late-night caffeine and booze, and sticking to a regular sleeping schedule, we’re strongly advised to seek out “bright light” in the morning (which “energizes us” and “prepares us for a productive day”) and keep it dim (i.e., no gadgets with bright screens) at night.

Makes sense, I guess, but easier said than done. Not only do I regularly watch TV until a few minutes before hitting the sack (at least there’s no television in my bedroom), I’m also usually checking e-mail and surfing the Web on my phone at the same time. And yes, I’ve been known to sneak in a little online multiplayer right before diving under the covers.

How am I sleeping? Well … so-so, come to think of it. I rarely have trouble falling asleep, but more and more often, I’ve been waking up early—as in 6 a.m. or so, meaning I’m only getting about six hours of sleep. And I haven’t exactly been bounding out of bed, either.

So, should I turn over a new leaf and leave the gadgets alone after sundown? Probably. Will I? Not a chance.

What about you: Are you watching TV or fiddling with “light-emitting” gadgets right before bed—and if so, having any trouble sleeping?

Click here for the full report from Yahoo! News

FDA Going After Vitamin C

January 14th, 2011

NY Daily News

By: Rosemary Black

At the first sign of the sniffles, are you tearing open a fizzy packet of Emergen-C? Or drinking steaming cup after cup of echinacea tea?

All that vitamin C and herbal supplementing may not be doing you any good when it comes to fighting a cold.

But it depends who you ask.

Dr. Seth Feltheimer of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia Medical Center told the Daily News there have been no consistently positive studies for Vitamin C or echinacea.

“As much as I would like to say they would work, I can’t.”

Echinacea offers cold comfort when it comes to preventing sneezes and sniffles. In fact, the herbal remedy touted as a way to prevent colds had only “minimal effects,” according to a study from the American College of Physicians.

The echinacea tablets did not reduce the severity of cold symptoms and only shortened the duration of the cough by seven to 20 hours – a “statistically insignificant result,” according to the researchers.

The study concluded that in most instances, popping echinacea was not “worthwhile.”

But Joy Lindquist, the wellness coordinator of Long Island College Hospital’s cancer center, says vitamin C and echinacea work if taken at the very first sign of a cold.

“The reason they don’t work in some people is that they are rundown,” she says. “If you have a poor diet and aren’t taking care of yourself and getting enough rest, don’t expect it to work.”

Lindquist recommends six to eight echinacea tablets per day, along with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C. She does not recommend megadoses of C. “You can only absorb so much,” Lindquist says. “And if you take too much, it gives you the runs.”

Lenox Hill Hospital ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. Jordan S. Josephson believes taking vitamins can help reduce a cold’s severity but says the jury is still out on whether they’re effective. “More in depth studies are needed,” he says.

His remedy for preventing a cold is prevention: eat right, get plenty of sleep, and take a multivitamin.

“In this season especially, it is important to stay well rested,” Josephson says. “It’s also important to stay well hydrated so drink a lot of water.”

As for the alcohol you may feel is practically a God-given right at holiday time? “Alcohol is very dehydrating,” Josephson says.

One other supplement to try? Zinc, advises Feltheimer.

“There may be some evidence that zinc tablets can shorten the duration of a cold,” he says. “But the zinc tablets taste terrible and can cause diarrhea, nausea and flatulence.”

Click here for the full report from NY Daily News

My Holiday Travel Tips

Well, the holiday season is here and you know what that means… travel. If you’re traveling a lot this holiday season to see family, friends or just to relax, you need to take the extra precautions to keep yourself from getting sick.

Here are my suggestions to protect yourself before and after your trip:

Ginger
Ginger calms nerves, relieves nausea due to motion sickness, is an overall digestive soother, and acts as a gentle decongestant to ease sinus irritation.

Drink Water
Carry at least 2 bottles of pure filtered water to through your flight. Drinking supports the next important tip.

Move Around
Drinking will make it so you must get out of your seat to use the bathroom, hopefully at least every half hour. Each bathroom trip, stand and stretch, raise up your arms, wiggle your feet, jump up and down. The jumping helps to compensate for the absence of muscular activity in the calves from sitting for extended periods, which severely slows lower limb circulation.

Mist
Carry a small spray bottle to mist your face while flying. Misting hydrates the skin, and helps keep nasal passages moistened.

Supplement
Double up on your daily doses of vitamin C, zinc, antioxidants, green foods such as chlorella and spirulina, whole food multiple vitamins and vitamin E.

Food
Bring food, such as fresh fruit, raw nuts and seeds, organic food bars or a sandwich made on whole grain bread. Make sure to bring enough food to keep you from eating the salty, fatty, roasted peanuts and cheap preservative-filled pretzels served on flights these days!

Do not drink alcohol
It will dehydrate you, dull your senses, keep you from drinking enough water, as well as leave you prone to infection due to the immune-lowering effects of alcohol.

Most Important: Rest!
Travel well rested. This commonly overlooked aspect of healthy travel sets the stage for a stress cycle that can last your entire trip. Hard as it is to get out the door, be sure to sleep well before you travel.

Happy Holidays!

Less Than Six Hours Of Sleep A Night May Cause Early Death

May 5, 2010

Telegraph.co.uk

by Rebecca Smith

They discovered that people who slept for less than six hours each night were 12 per cent more likely to die prematurely – before the age of 65 – than those who slept the recommended six to eight hours a night.

The team from the University of Warwick and Federico II University Medical School in Naples analysed 16 studies involving a total of 1.3 million people before reaching their conclusions.

They pointed out that previous studies had shown that sleep deprivation was associated with heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol.

However, the researchers also found that sleeping too much was linked to an early death.

Those who slept for more than nine hours a night were 30 per cent more likely to die early, the research published in the journal Sleep found.

That directly contradicts research published in the same journal last week which suggested that people who slept for ten hours or longer a night were more likely to live to 100.

This was thought to be because people who lived into extreme old age were healthier and therefore slept better.

However, the authors of the latest research contradicted this and suggested that long sleep was a sign of underlying illnesses such as depression and low levels of physical activity. Some cancer is also associated with sleeping for longer.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio, leader of the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of Warwick and Consultant Physician at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, said: “Whilst short sleep may represent a cause of ill-health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill-health.

“Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take, and this pattern is more common among full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift-work. On the other hand, the deterioration of our health status is often accompanied by an extension of our sleeping time.

“Consistently sleeping six to eight hours per night may be optimal for health. The duration of sleep should be regarded as an additional behavioural risk factor, or risk marker, influenced by the environment and possibly amenable to change through both education and counselling as well as through measures of public health aimed at favourable modifications of the physical and working environments.”

Click here to read the full article