Lactic Acid Loses It
For almost a hundred years, athletes and exercise physiologists have blamed lactic acid (LA) as the primary culprit for fatigue during strenuous exercise. They referred to it as a metabolic waste product that, if allowed to accumulate to certain levels in muscle tissue, would cause cessation of exercise. New research has now shown that LA is not the cause of muscle fatigue but actually helps prevent it.
If lactic acid is not the villian for muscle burn then what is? To understand muscle fatigue, you must understand the pH scale which tells you how acidic or alkaline (basic) the body is on a scale of 1-14. It is based on numbers of hydrogen ions, with pH readings of less than 7 being acidic (more hydrogen ions) and readings greater than 7 being basic (less hydrogen ions).
The human body is slightly alkaline with a pH of 7.4. If you perform an all out sprint your muscles and body will become more acidic with a major drop in pH to about 6.5. A burning feeling sets in the working muscles which become fatigued and eventually unable to contract.
Since LA isn't responsible for the drop in pH from sprinting what is? The answer lies in the fuel sources we use during high intensity activities-carbohydrates in the form of glucose and glycogen (glycogen is stored in the muscle and glucose is already floating around in the blood stream). When glycogen and glucose are broken down for use as energy, they release hydrogen ions. This rapid release of hydrogen ions drastically lowers pH, causing the burning and fatigue associated with exercising in an acidic environment. In summary, it's the hydrogen ion production and increased acidity that cause muscle fatigue, not LA.
LA is actually a hero.It has been found to assist in removing the hydrogen ions from the working muscle cells which helps buffer the acidic environment, bringing the muscle cell back to it's normal pH. After close to 90 years, the villian reputation of LA has finally been put to rest.
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Dr. Lanny Schaffer is an Exercise Physiologist and the President of The International Fitness Academy. For more cutting edge training information go to http://www.aerobic-exercise-coach.com
Helping a Parent with High Cholesterol
Are you a chartered member of the so-called “sandwich generation”, struggling to take care of your aging parents while simultaneously raising your children? Such a tug-of-war between generations can be maddening enough, but when you add your mother or father’s high cholesterol in the mix, it can be downright life-destroying.
If you have a parent with high cholesterol symptoms who has been hesitant to check out methods to lower cholesterol (or defiant about their high cholesterol, even after a physician’s diagnosis), you may need some gentle ways to them lower cholesterol without seeming too pushy. Here, we’ll explore some methods of nudging mom or dad toward treat their high cholesterol symptoms(http://www.mitamins.com/disease/High-Cholesterol.html).
Make Healthy Low Cholesterol(http://www.mitamins.com/disease/High-Cholesterol.html) Meals for Your Parents
Many older adults aren’t fond of cooking for themselves anymore, so they tend to either eat at “home cooking” (aka, “lard laden”) restaurants or at home with prepackaged high sodium, high fat microwavable meals. Such fare is simply not helpful to lower cholesterol, and may even be inching your parent toward dangerously high cholesterol levels.
The next time you’re making a healthy meal, why not freeze a portion to deliver to your parents as a surprise? Your food should be high in vitamin C to promote lower cholesterol, high in fiber, and, of course, low in saturated fats and calories. Learn to cook with spices and your parents will never notice that they’re eating something “good” that may reduce their high cholesterol symptoms(http://www.mitamins.com/disease/High-Cholesterol.html).
Take Your Parents for a Cholesterol-Busting Walk
Exercise is an excellent way to tackle high cholesterol symptoms. However, most aging adults don’t get the recommended 30 minutes a day, three days a week, of moderate activity that they need to lower cholesterol and keep their hearts in tiptop shape.
It will go a long way toward helping your dad lower cholesterol if you invite him on a weekly “walking date” with you and/or your kids. Even a parent who is generally sedentary may jump (though not literally!) at the opportunity to spend some time with the grandkids.
Offer to Shop for Your Parents, and Get Lower Cholesterol Foods
Finally, it may behoove you to offer your shopping services for your parents. That way, you can choose the bulk of the groceries going in and out of your mother and father’s home. As the “dietician”, you can ensure that items which clog the arteries and therefore promote high cholesterol are replaced by more heart-healthy choices.
Best of all, you can be very subtle. If your dad adores peanut butter, get the low fat or all natural version. Does your mom crave loads of chocolate? Rather than getting her bags of candy, there are plenty of healthy alternatives to satisfy even the most ravenous chocoholic. Are they fond of pizza? There are lower cholesterol versions of them in your grocer’s freezer or at the natural food store.
Again, you don’t ever have to confront a parent about his or her high cholesterol. Instead, you can simply insert these “sneaky” ways to make sure you have your folks around for many more years to come.
Purification - Internal Body Cleansing
Our organism is very smart and perfectly organized. By nature it has purification ability and can maintain a healthy metabolism, assimilate all nutrients and remove all the waste. But,unfortunately, modern eating habits are a far cry from the ideal. We overeat or we don’t eat enough of what is good for us. As a result, our body cannot process all food received because there is not enough gastric juices and enzymes necessary for normal digestion. Food that is not digested properly starts to decay, releasing large amount of toxins. Those toxins then travel to all the organs and systems of the body through the blood and poison it. The decayed food that was left in the digestive system prevents it from working normally. In that case practically all new food that goes in turns to waste and the body suffers from malnutrition even if it receives enough of good quality foods.
Food that was left undigested and not removed from the body is gradually distributed among all the organs and systems of the body in the form of waste. Food is the main factor in the formation of waste in the body, but certainly is not the only one.
There are many purification techniques that can help with the problem of our body’s internal trash. Of course it is impossible to cleanse the whole body all at once; it should be done gradually. Start with the digestive system and then proceed to cleanse liver and gall bladder, stomach and pancreas, kidneys, blood, veins and vessels, joints and the respiratory system.
Interestingly enough, not every body requires purification. Would you like to know if you are amongst the lucky ones? Then ask yourself a few questions:
How do you feel in general-cheerful or sluggish?
Do you have a good night sleep or do you turn and toss all night and don’t feel rested in the morning?
Do you enjoy physical activity or do you get tired easily?
Do you enjoy life or do you suffer from minor depression?
Chronic fatigue, insomnia, persistent moodiness, and apathy-those are the first signs of the body in urgent need of cleansing. There are also external signs of the cleanliness of a body. Take a close look at your skin, hair and nails. If your skin is smooth, your hair is dense and shiny and your nails are strong and even, then you are in good shape. However, if your hair is dull and prone to split ends, your skin is very dry or too oily and covered with pimples and wrinkles, and your nails are soft and break faster than they grow-then cleansing is a must.
If the food you eat does not bring you satisfaction, if you can’t enjoy simple foods anymore, if you suffer from constipation and bloating-it’s time to get serious about your health.
If your joints remind you about themselves with every move you make-start cleansing.
The process of purification is long and somewhat difficult and it is not for everyone. Pregnant women, people with stomach and/or duodenal ulcers, diabetics, oncology patients, those suffering from hepatitis, meningitis and tuberculosis and also patients, recovering from illness, should refrain from this process.
Alien writes for Free herbal medicines. He also writes for natural remedies and home remedies