Month: September 2009

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Pregnancy Miracle™ – Book Reviews

Why Is Pregnancy Miracle The Best Selling Infertility Cure Book In Internet History, With Thousands Of Satisfied (And Now Proud Mothers) Women In 127 Countries Worldwide?

Pregnancy Miracle is the #1 best selling infertility Cure ebook in the history of the Internet for a reason…

Thousands of women of almost every age have completely reversed any infertility issues they had and got pregnant naturally, without drugs, risky surgery or “magic potions” simply by using the clinically proven, scientifically-accurate step by step method found inside this amazing Pregnancy guidebook.

Lisa Olson, a certified nutritionist, health consultant and author has not just pumped out yet another “pregnancy program” into an already over-saturated market. Lisa’s Pregnancy Miracle can be more accurately described as an “Pregnancy Bible.” It is quite simply one of the most comprehensive, complete, and precise guides to infertility freedom you will ever read. What makes it so much different than other pregnancy publications on the market?

Well first of all, it’s not just a “infertility help” program, it’s an infertility cure program. This may seem like semantics or wordplay at first, but once you’ve read just the first chapters, there will be no doubt in your mind that pursuing “help with your pregnancy” is not only the wrong goal, it may be the reason that you’ve failed to get pregnant until now. Pregnancy Miracle shows you exactly why you should fix the internal problem that’s hindering your chances of getting pregnant and then goes on to show you exactly how to do it.

Secondly, what makes Pregnancy Miracle different is the amount of attention that is paid to each and every element required to get pregnant the natural way. Pregnancy Miracle not only thoroughly discusses the lies, myths and fallacies surrounding a very confusing subject, it is simply the most detailed book about pregnancy and infertility, Chinese Medicine and holistic health ever written.

The Pregnancy Miracle book is quite extensive (250 pages of rock solid content) which focuses on 100% natural method for getting pregnant quickly. That means there aren’t recommendations for harsh prescription drugs or surgeries with nasty side effects. In Pregnancy Miracle core formula section (The 3 step system) – Nothing is held back. In this section, Lisa gives a detailed overview of each step, and then dives into the specifics in a perfect chronological order. There are also outstanding charts and checklists which make it very easy to know where you are at in the program and follow it.

Because the Pregnancy Miracle program is not a quick fix ‘fairy tale’ cure but a complete holistic solution aimed at eliminating the root cause of fertility problems(regardless of your age) and ensure your will get pregnant quickly, it does take work and persistence to complete. “The dictionary is the only place success comes before work” says Lisa, as she emphasizes the “no quick fix” philosophy behind the entire book.

If there is any drawback to the Pregnancy Miracle ebook, it’s that it contains so much information, that some readers may find it a bit overwhelming. Those who are looking for a quick start type of pregnancy program, might be a bit intimated at first. The good part however, is that even these types of readers can feel confident and assured that it will be worth the effort because this will literally be the last book they ever have to buy on the subject.

Who will benefit most from Pregnancy Miracle?

In the broadest sense, anyone and everyone who wants to get pregnant naturally and regain their natural inner balance will benefit from Pregnancy Miracle. This ebook is honestly for everyone. Even women without fertility issues. This is a total health rejuvenation program better than 98% of the nutrition and alternative health books on the market. In fact, the advice in this ebook is guaranteed to help you with any other health condition you might have, especially if you suffer from hormonal disorders, digestive problems, insulin related disorders, allergies and acne.

In terms of graphic design, Pregnancy Miracle is a clean and professionally formatted PDF e-book. It is well organized and ideal for printing and reading in the comfort of your own home.

This impressive and unique publication has changed many lives and the hundreds of inspiring testimonials and success stories are found on the Pregnancy Miracle website archives as proof.

The Bottom line?

Anyone looking for a quick fix solution to getting pregnant, anyone looking to be told fairy-tales, and anyone looking for a “magic bullet”, pills, over the counters, ‘get pregnant in 2 weeks’ hyped up programs should not waste his or her time with Pregnancy Miracle.

On the other hand, anyone searching for the truth about pregnancy, fertility issues and alternative health and who is ready and willing to put in some work and make the lifestyle changes necessary to get pregnant fast and give birth to healthy children, will find Pregnancy Miracle to be one of the best investments they ever made in their lives. Click here to learn more about Lisa Olson’s Pregnancy Miracle
Check out Pregnancy Miracle here

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CREATINE a practical guide

Those of you familiar with my writings are well aware of the fact that I am strongly in support of intelligent training methods. In this article, I give this advocacy a unique twist and discuss whether it is possible to train for intelligence. Research has shown that a person’s cognitive capacity may remain acute far into advanced age, if practiced throughout life. In a sense, this result suggests that a person’s “mental fitness” improves with training. And since, nutritional supplements plays a big role in modern athletics, this issue also begs the question whether nutritional supplementation may also help maintain mental fitness. In this respect, a pivotal study recently appeared in the scientific press that examined the effects of creatine supplementation on human intelligence (1). This study might change the way you think…

Brain Energetics

As for any activity we undertake, thought requires energy-or should, in any case. In fact, thinking takes lots of energy. On a per weight basis, the brain is one of the body’s highest energy consumers. Although representing only 2% of our total body mass, the brain consumes nearly one quarter of our entire energy resources. The disproportionate amount of energy consumed by our brains is reflected by the fact that the head is generally warmer than the body core temperature; this gives an entire new meaning to the phrase “hot head”, doesn’t it.

Any thought we abstract, any sensation we perceive, or any action we initiate, is encoded by electrical impulses that literally flow throughout our nervous systems. However, unlike the electrical currents that flow through the wires in our homes and that are carried by negatively charged electrons (a part of an atom), the electrical impulses that propagate through our nerve cells, or neurons, are largely mediated by positively charged atoms that, interestingly enough, lack electrons. Such charged atoms are known as ions, nothing more than atoms with an incomplete number of electrons in their outer shell. Electrical currents (carried by positive ions) literally flow through our neurons relaying information from brain to target, and back again.

A neuronal impulse is initiated with the flow of positively charged sodium ions into a neuron. This influx of sodium ions causes a localized accumulation of positive charges near their point of entry at the neuronal membrane. To relieve this buildup of positive charges, potassium ions (also positively charged) respond by flowing outward, since like charges repel each other. This instantaneous switch in ionic polarity can be likened to a spark that rapidly spreads along the entire length of the nerve cell. Obviously, this situation cannot continue forever, otherwise all of the sodium ions would end up on the inside the neuron and all the potassium ions on the outside. Indeed, after a flurry of electrical activity the relative distribution of sodium and potassium (near the membrane) nearly reverses. In order for brain activity to continue, therefore, these ions need to be actively placed back onto their appropriate sides of the membrane. This process is energetically very expensive.

The molecular pumps that are responsible for situating sodium and potassium back to their respective sides of the neuronal membrane are called ATPases; obviously, since they rely on ATP to function. In fact, maintaining these pumps active is the greatest sink of energy in the brain. As in muscle, however, ATP is often limiting. Also analogous to the muscular situation is the fact that phosphocreatine (PCr) is what assures a steady supply of ATP to the cell. PCr thus keeps these ATPases pumping sodium and potassium back into their respective compartments, thereby allowing continual neuronal activity. Figuratively speaking, phosphocreatine keeps us thinking.

So, what does this have to do with creatine?

Recall that PCr is the energized form of creatine that is present within the cell. When we supplement with creatine, what we are in actuality doing is increasing the PCr content of the cell. Therefore, at least in theory, creatine supplementation should influence how well we think under pressure. Food for thought, so to speak. One recent study, furthermore, showed that mice deficient in the enzyme that creates PCr from creatine, creatine kinase, are slower at learning a water maze (2). In other words, the mice with lower levels of PCr erred more often and generally spent more time in the water. The stage was thus set for human studies…

Does creatine supplementation influence mental acuity in humans?

This was the question asked by a recent study conducted at the Universities of Sydney and Macquarie, Australia.

Study Design:

The study examined the effect of creatine supplementation (5 grams/day for six weeks) on the ability to perform two cognitive tests, the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPMs) and Weschler Auditory Backward Digit Span (BDS). These tasks are designed to test non-verbal intelligence (IQ) and verbal memory capacity (short-term memory), respectively.

The authors of the study also chose 45 vegetarians and vegans as experimental subjects. This group of individuals was specifically chosen since their dietary intake of creatine, which was negligible, would not interfere with the amount of creatine administered during the course of the study.

This study consisted of a placebo-controlled, cross-over design. This simply means that each subject served as his own control scenario. Subjects either took creatine or placebo (maltodextrin) for six weeks before performing one of the mental tests (week 6). They then washed out for another six weeks in order that their creatine levels should return to baseline (week 12). Supplementation then commenced anew (six more weeks) using the opposite supplementing condition. During the 18th week they then repeated the same test under the influence of the second supplementing condition. The entire cycle repeated after a washout of another six weeks with the other mental task. Therefore, each subject took each test twice, once under the influence of creatine and once under the influence of placebo.

Study Results:

Subjects who were administered creatine exhibited improved short-term memory and were also better able to problem solve under pressure of time. Specifically, the creatine group was better able to repeat back long sequences of numbers from memory (BDS). Creatine subjects were on average able to repeat back 1-2 more integers than placebo counterparts. Their general IQ scores were also higher than the placebo group (RAPMs). Quoting directly from the manuscript: “Supplementation with creatine significantly increased intelligence compared with placebo”.

Take Home:

So, should you take a teaspoon of creatine before your next all-nighter? Although “thought provoking”, it’s still too early to say. Not all thought processes are alike. This study does seem to suggest, however, that creatine may help with complicated computational tasks.

Who knows, in the future taking a swig of creatine before a cram session may be an accepted practice among university students.

Scientific References

1. Rae, C., Digney, A .L., McEwan, S.R. & Bates, T.C. (September 2003) Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves cognitive performance; a placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over trial. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London – Biological Sciences. Volume 270(1529): pages 2147-2150.

2. Jost, C. R., Van Der Zee C. E., In’t Zandt H. J., Oerlemans F., Verheij M., Streijger F., Fransen J., Heerschap A., Cools A. R. & Wieringa B. (May 2002) Creatine kinase B-driven energy transfer in the brain is important for habituation and spatial learning behaviour, mossy fibre field size and determination of seizure susceptibility. European Journal Neuroscience Volume 15 (10): pages 1692-706.

 

This article was written by Dr. Alfredo Franco-Obregón, research scientist, author, and owner of the Creatine Information Center and NSN Publishing.

Dr. Alfredo Franco-Obregón has had over 20 years of in depth research experience in major laboratories world-wide. His principal scientific interest is the understanding of the cellular mechanisms leading to muscle cell death.

Dr. Franco-Obregón is also the author of Creatine: A practical guide.  Creatine: A practical guide clearly teaches you how to best combine exercise, nutrition, and intelligent creatine use for optimal muscle growth, improved athletic performance, and overall good health. Find out more about this must-read book.

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Creatine: The Next Great Antioxidant?

Muscle damage is a natural consequence of exercise. A small amount of muscle damage is not a terrible thing and, in fact, is necessary to stimulate new muscle growth. If, on the other hand, the amount of damage you inflict upon your muscles with exercise exceeds their capacity to repair and rebuild, then you’re in big trouble. You then have a scenario of net muscle breakdown, otherwise known as catabolism. Situating yourself in a catabolic holding pattern by continually overdoing it in the weight room will eventually lead to overall loses in muscle mass and diminished athletic performance. This article focuses one aspect of overtraining and how to minimize its effects.

Two principal forms of muscle damage arise from physical exertion:

The first is mechanical and occurs immediately. In response to the physical stress of exercise, your muscles and associated capillary beds become slightly damaged. These microscopic foci of damage may then prime a robust phase of increased micro-vascularization and new muscle growth (aka, anabolism). That is, conditions permitting, capillary beds will reform to increase blood flow and new muscle tissue will be laid down to replace damaged tissue. The end result, increased blood flow to larger, more efficiently, working muscles. If, on the other hand, the initial amount of damage is too great or insufficient time is given for your muscles to fully recover from the insult, you will lose strength and mass!

The second form of muscle damage is a downstream consequence of the first and is, in actuality, the initiation of the rebuilding process discussed previously. This form of muscle damage results from reactive molecular species produced in response to strenuous exercise, but that exert their degenerative effects a few days later.

Rising from the ashes …

Following the initial insult of exercise, damaged muscle tissue must be cleared away before rebuilding can commence. This process begins with the leakage of chemical agents from damaged cells that attract specialized cells known as phagocytes (neutrophils and macrophages) to sites of damage. Here, phagocytes accumulate, greatly increase in number, and build an appetite. Next, commences a voracious phase of cell eating, otherwise known as phagocytosis (hence, their name), whereby damaged muscle tissue is literally eaten away. The process of phagocytosis is initiated with the release of agents from macrophages that serve to breakdown, or digest, damaged cells in preparation for absorption. Following the removal of all dead tissue, the stage is then set for new muscle growth. New muscle is formed from the fusion of hundreds of progenitor cells that were previously laying dormant waiting for the appropriate signal to act. From start to finish, this entire process takes about 3-4 days.

Free Radicals

To assist in their removal of dead tissue phagocytes release digestive enzymes, toxins, and, most importantly, Reactive Oxygen Species, or ROS, for short. ROS are produced in the burst of metabolic activity known as a “respiratory burst“. One of the most powerful of ROS produced by phagocytes is the Superoxide Radical. Superoxide greatly weakens the integrity of the muscle membrane causing small tears that allow calcium ions to leak into the muscle cell. It is a rise in intramuscular calcium that activates a class of enzyme known as proteases that cause the muscle cell to disintegrate. Obviously, a small amount of superoxide plays an essential role in the absorption of damaged cells. On the other hand, overproduction of superoxide surpasses its usefulness and can actually be counterproductive as its destructive capacity becomes unleashed without warrant..

Oxidative stress

Exercise also directly produces ROS. That is, independently of neutrophils and macrophages. Normally, most of the oxygen consumed during cell metabolism is converted into water. A small amount of the consumed oxygen (2-4%), however, is converted into superoxide. Given the fact that exercise can increase muscle oxygen consumption by as much as 200-fold, superoxide levels also increase tremendously with intense exercise, easily surpassing the body’s capacity to neutralize it. This gives rise to a dangerous scenario known as oxidative stress, which slows muscle recovery and increases the chances of injury. In fact, some experts believe that the overproduction of ROS may also accelerate the normal aging process as well as eventually lead to states of disease.

Antioxidants

Our bodies possess a natural line of defense against oxidative stress; special molecules known as antioxidants that neutralize ROS. Vitamins A, C and E are examples of vitamins that can act as antioxidants. Vitamin E is a particularly potent antioxidant, since it is able to act in both aqueous (within the cell) and lipid (within membranes) environments, and is hence very effective at protecting our cellular membranes from degradation following oxidative stress. Our bodies also come equipped with their own antioxidant molecular complexes. Some of the most important enzymatic antioxidants are Superoxide Dismutase, Glutathione Peroxidase, and Catalase. Glutathione is one of our principle non-enzymatic antioxidants.

Athletes are now paying closer attention to their antioxidant status in an attempt to better assist muscle recovery. Proactive measures one can take to enhance the body’s capacity to cope with oxidative stress include eating foods rich in antioxidants, supplementing with antioxidant vitamins, limiting alcohol intake, especially following exercise and getting plenty of rest. It now turn’s out that some athletes were improving their antioxidant defenses in a way they hadn’t previously imagined…

Is creatine an antioxidant?

A study was recently released suggesting that creatine might act as a superoxide scavenger in its own right. This would be an additional benefit of creatine, independent of its better-understood capacity to increase ATP availability during exercise. It is thus possible that part of the benefit we obtain from creatine derives from its capacity to act as an antioxidant.

The salient points of the study were as follows:

  1. The creatine levels used in this study were within physiological limits. In other words, the concentrations of creatine found by this study to be effective at scavenging free radicals were comparable to those found within muscle (20-60 mM, for those interested). This gave relevancy to the study.
  2. Creatine, although not as effective as glutathione at neutralizing superoxide, was an effective antioxidant, nonetheless.
  3. Creatine’s ability to neutralize superoxide was measured in a test tube, not in an exercising person. And, although it’s reasonable to assume that creatine should behave similarly within athletes, subtle differences may exist. For all we know, creatine may be an even more efficacious antioxidant inside the body! Only further experimentation will tell.

Take Home

This report indicates that creatine possess’ antioxidant properties and is able to effectively neutralize Superoxide, one of the more insidious free radicals produced by exercise. Since these findings where obtained in a test tube, however, it remains to be shown if creatine has the same antioxidant properties within an exercising person. Although preliminary, this result is surely worth pursuing and has important practical implications for muscle recovery following strenuous exercise.

Scientific References

1. Lawler, J. M., Barnes, W. S., Wu G., Song, W., and Demaree, S. (January 2002) Direct antioxidant properties of creatine. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Volume 290 (1): pages 47-52.

 

This article was written by Dr. Alfredo Franco-Obregón, research scientist, author, and owner of the Creatine Information Center and NSN Publishing.

Dr. Alfredo Franco-Obregón has had over 20 years of in depth research experience in major laboratories world-wide. His principal scientific interest is the understanding of the cellular mechanisms leading to muscle cell death.

Dr. Franco-Obregón is also the author of Creatine: A practical guide. Creatine: A practical guide clearly teaches you how to best combine exercise, nutrition, and intelligent creatine use for optimal muscle growth, improved athletic performance, and overall good health. Find out more about this must-read book.