Living Well — wellness
What are the Benefits of Turmeric and Curcumin? 0
What is it?
Turmeric is a yellow colored spice that has been used in dishes native to India for thousands of years. The root of the plant is harvested, cleaned, and dried. It is then turned into a powder. It has a spicy kick that lends itself to being a common seasoning used in food. Besides its culinary uses, turmeric has been used for textile dying and even health remedies. Turmeric contains what is known as curcumin. You can only find a small percentage of curcumin in turmeric. However, in 1815, it was able to be isolated from turmeric and became an important player.
When you have turmeric and curcumin both working in your body, you will find many health benefits. These spices have properties that help to create a better overall feeling of wellbeing. Here are some of the beneficial properties and health benefits of turmeric and curcumin:
Anti-Inflammatory
Curcumin has been found to have strong anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin blocks Nf-kB. This molecule is related to inflammation and is suspected to be the major factor in several chronic diseases.
Increases Body’s Antioxidant Capacity
Oxidative damage has been believed to be one of the many causes of several diseases. Turmeric contains the ability to boost the body's natural antioxidant enzymes.
Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
Heart disease is the largest killer in the world. One of the causes of heart disease is inflammation. Due to the fact that the spice has strong and natural anti-inflammatory properties, it limits this problem. Another cause of heart disease is oxidative damage. Turmeric's strong antioxidant property goes a long way with fighting and preventing heart disease.
Can help Alzheimer's Disease
This spice has been found to cause improvements in the pathological process of the disease. Inflammation and oxidative damage are both key players in the disease. This spice helps to counteract both of these issues.
There are many other health benefits of turmeric and curcumin. This spice has properties that are tremendously beneficial for your overall wellbeing. You can reap the benefits of it by adding it as a spice to your food or making it a regular part of your supplement routine.
Shop this product now and see if it's what you've been needing!
- Amar Jit
- Tags: health healthy living illness immune system live well natural pain relief remedies supplements wellness
Notice Anything New About Our Website!? 0
You may have noticed a bit of a change to our website! This is because Absolute has expanded to include an entire fitness and weight management based line of products that can go hand in hand with your current CBD regimen.
You can now beef up your fitness supplements to have the very best of all worlds - weight loss, health, and pain management. If you find yourself not able to shed the desired pounds you aim to even while busting your butt at the gym, one of our weight loss supplements might be the best option for you to finally be rid of that pesky extra weight. Take your CBD before or after working out, and you'll soon find that any aches or soreness have disappeared from your life. Supplements also help to boost antioxidants in your system, add nutrients to your diet, and improve your cardiovascular health.
While CBD is still a focus of ours, we like to believe it fits well within the spectrum of health, fitness, pain management, and nutrition. You can create the best lifestyle for you to live absolute with the addition of these helpful supplements in your life. So explore the new website and decide whether now is the time for you to live absolute!
- Shannon Kaszuba
- Tags: CBD exercise fitness health healthy living supplements weight loss wellness
The Truth About Your Healthy Snacks 0
We’ve all tried to swap out a bag of chips for some whole grain pretzels or a granola bar in an attempt to eat better and be more healthy. However, what we’re perceiving as the better option may be just as bad as our original guilty pleasure or indulgence. As people study food more, it has come to light that many things we thought were good for our health and our waistlines might not be as beneficial as we thought. Let’s take a look at some popular “healthy” snacks and see what the truth is.
Granola Bars: These can be great if you avoid the ones loaded with sugars. However, many granola bars are super sugary and sacrifice health for taste. Granola isn’t good for you if it’s been over processed and covered in multiple layers of corn syrup and sugar. The challenging part about finding truly healthy granola bars is most people don’t like the taste of a dry, unsugared granola bar (go figure!) Because of this many granola bars contain chocolate, caramel, and other ingredients that you wouldn’t eat alone and think they’re healthy. So why does having them loaded in your healthy snack make it any better? Look for options that don’t contain added sweet ingredients, and stick to natural flavors.
100 Calorie Packs: People think these are “healthy” alternatives, but they’re actually only marketed this way because there is a limited number of calories in them. Calorie count aside, these are usually snacks high in processed fats and carbs. Instead of the entire bag of chips, you’re just getting a small portion of the same unhealthy products. You’re hard pressed to find an element of these little packs that can be construed as healthy. Furthermore, many people think that since there’s only 100 calories in one pack and it isn’t bad for you, they can eat multiple, leading to the consumption of calories that are equivalent to the full-sized snack.
Pretzels: For some reason, we have the perception that pretzels are a healthy alternative to snacks like chips or cookies. But when it comes down to it, pretzels are basically just flour and salt, and all carbs, which are all a huge no-no. They’re also nutritionally empty. If you’re going to fuel your body, try choosing something a bit more nutritional. Pretzels will do absolutely nothing for your body. They also have a ton of sodium stemming from all that salt on top - with one serving size containing about 25% of your recommended daily consumption.
Veggie Chips: Just because you see the word veggie on these packages doesn’t make them as healthy as a vegetable. These products are often misleading, with the only veggie in sight being vegetable powder that fools you into thinking your veggie chips have the nutritional value of the vegetable they share a color with. The nutrients from vegetables are not in your veggie chips, despite the artificial flavoring that might give you that impression. If there actually are veggies in your chips, their presence is so minuscule due to over processing that any nutritional value that could possibly come from them is gone. Veggie chips are also made of mostly potato starch and corn flour. So unless potato starch is your idea of a nutritional vegetable, steer clear of veggie chips.
Dried Fruit: Many are fooled into thinking since fruit is good for me, dried fruit must be too. The truth is, many dried fruit products contain a ton of additives like sulfur to extend their shelf life. Do you really want to be consuming sulfur when you’re trying to be healthy? Additionally, many dried fruit is thoroughly sweetened with a ton of sugar to balance out the taste, totally canceling out any health benefits. Unsweeted and unsulfured products are available at certain health food stores, but you might as well save yourself the hassle and just stick to fresh fruit instead.
- Shannon Kaszuba
- Tags: food fruit health healthy living vegetables weight loss wellness
Your Phone May Be Interfering with Your Good Night's Sleep 0
Chances are, you sleep with your phone close by your bed in case of boredom, the urgent phone call, or a quick Google to answer a question. You probably also spend your last few minutes before shut-eye browsing your phone and updating yourself on anything you may have missed throughout the day. How well do you usually sleep? Science is now telling us there is a connection between your phone and your sleeping habits. As it turns out, checking your phone before bed and keeping it close by may be damaging to your sleeping patterns, because of the light emitted by your phone’s screen.
All artificial light (that means LEDs, fluorescent bulbs, and incandescent bulbs) interrupt normal sleeping patterns. LED lights are frequently used because they happen to be more energy efficient and provide better lighting than your average incandescent light bulbs. They are also present in your phone.
To understand why this is bad for your sleeping habits, you must first understand how your body works. Your body’s natural biological clock is set in motion by the amount of light and dark you are exposed to, called the circadian rhythm.The circadian rhythm of your body also has the ability to control many other physiological processes, or many other individual clocks, like sleeping and feeding patterns, brain activity, hormone production, and cell regeneration. Light is the most powerful cue for shifting the phase of these rhythms.
Natural light stimulates your retinas, which send a signal to the hypothalamus in your brain, telling it to set sleeping patterns according to perceived “daytime (sunlight)” and “nighttime” (no sunlight). When it starts to get dark, your brain gets another signal from the hypothalamus that tells it to start creating sleep hormones, like melatonin, and prepare for sleep in other ways like dropping your body temperature. When light is sensed in the morning, your body gets the signal to warm up and produce hormones that wake your body up. This is how a normal circadian rhythm should work.
So now that we know how your body naturally works, what’s the deal with phones?
Artificial light, blue LED light specifically, has a substantial effect on shifting these phases and melatonin suppression. Artificial light confuses your body’s natural circadian rhythms. Since your retinas are receiving light all throughout the day, not just during sunlight hours, your body is unsure about when to prepare for sleep.
Guess what produces huge amount of blue light? Phones, tablets, TVs — everything you probably use right before bed. This blue light specifically suppresses melatonin more than any other type of light. This is due to the short wavelengths in blue light, which the human body is far more sensitive to than any other type of wavelength. Studies have found this does two disastrous things: suppress delta brainwaves (which induce sleep), and boost alpha wavelengths (which create alertness).
So what are we saying, that you have to stop using your phone or limit your time around artificial lighting to get a good night’s sleep? Not exactly, especially since in today’s day and age it would be near impossible to do that. There are some small steps you can take to improve your sleep, though.
For one, you can stop using your phone 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime. This will remove most of the blue light that interrupts your sleep. We know it sounds pretty difficult, but before mobile phones became so prominent in our lives, people had many other bedtime rituals that helped them to settle into their slumber. Try reading a book (not an e-book!) or making yourself a cup of tea to wind down. A dimly lit environment with no blue light will signal your body to start getting ready for sleep and produce melatonin that will begin to diminish your wakefulness. If you absolutely must use your phone, turn your brightness all the way down to limit the intensity of the blue light. These small steps may help you to improve your sleep, which can lead to bettering your overall health.
- Shannon Kaszuba
- Tags: healthy living sleep wellness
12 Quotes to Drive You to Fulfill Your New Years Resolutions 0
2017 is here! That means everyone is doing their best to stick to their resolutions, some being far more difficult than others. As we know by now, resolutions aren’t always a one-stop fix. They’re an uphill climb, hard to stick to, and you will most likely face many steps backwards while trying to move forward. When your resolution involves making healthier choices and getting your body in better shape, you’ll need some motivation to push you through those difficult times. We’re here to help motivate you — after all, we’re on this journey of health together. But some motivation from those who are more wise than we are can be immensely powerful. Here are 12 quotes we think represent this journey to a better you. We hope these quotes free you from what was holding you back in 2016, and get you in the healthiest mindset for the trials and triumphs of 2017.
- Shannon Kaszuba
- Tags: daily exercise food goals health healthy living lifestyle live well motivation success weight loss wellness
Delicious and Good For You: The Benefits of Green Tea 0
Green tea has to be one of the healthiest drinks out there. If you’re looking to give your immune system a boost, speed up your metabolism, or improve your brain function without moving a muscle (except to grab your favorite mug), then green tea could be the secret ingredient you’ve been needing in your life.
Green tea helps with the best of both worlds, because it can help improve your outside by starting from the inside. Green tea is also completely natural. What more can you ask for? With how many benefits are jam-packed in this tasty little drink, you’d wonder why absolutely everyone hasn’t taken advantage of it yet.
Let’s start with the basics green tea is loaded with antioxidants and nutrients. You’ve heard it all your life, I’m sure— these things are awesome for you. But let’s break it down a little for those of you interested in the details. How do these things actually affect the health of your body? Antioxidants are nutrients and/or enzymes, meaning they play a huge role in fighting free radicals, substances that attack your DNA and other healthy cells. Antioxidants boost up your ability to fight off these free radicals, and push back against things like visible aging and cellular damage, and reduce the chance of disease. Antioxidants mop up these unstable free radicals to repair and limit cell and molecule damage that comes from our everyday contact with them.
Green tea contains a superpower called Epigallocatechin Gallate, which we’ll call EGCG. This compound has been tied to numerous studies that show it is effective in treating various diseases, making it a big contributing player in green tea’s health-boosting reputation. Green tea has also been known to increase fat burning and boost the metabolic rate.
Green tea also helps to keep you awake. Are you someone that needs your morning coffee in order to make it through the day? Green tea is likely a better alternative for you. Although it doesn’t contain as much caffeine as coffee does, green tea doesn’t contain the added cream and sugar that many of us coffee drinkers love. Instead, you get an all-natural option with all the aforementioned health benefits. Green tea contains this active stimulant, but because it does not have the same amount that you find in coffee, you won’t get the same jittery effects, which is oftentimes our least favorite part about getting our morning java. Instead, you’ll have a more productive, stable buzz. You’ll still reap the benefits of being more energized, but you won’t find yourself tapping your foot against your desk all day.
Hate drinking your tea plain? You can add some natural ingredients that serve up excellent health benefits themselves. Boost up the flavor and nutrition with lemon or honey.
Lemon is packed with nourishing elements like vitamins C, B6, A, E, and iron, magnesium, potassium, and protein, among others. Lemons also help to restore balance to the body’s pH, and is known to fight infections and cold through flavonoids.
Honey will add a sweetness to your tea that rivals sugar in your coffee. Besides its delicious taste, honey also aids in soothing things like allergies and sore throats. Honey will also help you to get yourself off to sleep, as it is a natural sleep aid. Honey is additionally overall anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, regulates blood sugar, probiotic (meaning it contains friendly bacteria!), and helps to strengthen the immune system by way of producing immune cells. How’s that for a super-packed drink?
We've only just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to what green tea can do for your body. It's all-natural, has a comforting taste, and produces a multitude of beneficial changes that will become visible after adding a few cups to your diet. What's not to love? Now go ahead and brew yourself a cup, you can thank us later.
- Amar Jit
- Tags: healthy living immune system lifestyle live well minerals natural nutrition remedies soothing wellness
