Are You Ready?! Researchers announced they have identified the mechanism of action of lipoic acid, a remarkable compound that in animal experiments appears to slow down the process of aging, improve blood flow, enhance immune function and perform many other functions.

Alpha Lipoic Acid is a vitamin-like antioxidant that is produced naturally in the body. As a free radical scavenger, it is unique because it is both fat and water soluble. It is easily absorbed and transported across cell membranes offering protection (against free radicals) both inside and outside the cell. Other antioxidants only provide extra cellular protection.

“The evidence suggests that lipoic acid is actually a low-level stressor that turns on the basic cellular defenses of the body, including some of those that naturally decline with age,” said Tory Hagen, an LPI researcher and associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at OSU. “In particular, it tends to restore levels of glutathione, a protective antioxidant and detoxification compound, to those of a young animal. It also acts as a strong anti-inflammatory agent, which is relevant to many degenerative diseases.”

“Our studies have shown that mice supplemented with lipoic acid have a cognitive ability, behavior, and genetic expression of almost 100 detoxification and antioxidant genes that are comparable to that of young animals,” Hagen said. “They aren’t just living longer, they are living better — and that’s the goal we’re after.”

What the OSU researchers now believe is that the role of lipoic acid is not so much a direct one to benefit cells, but rather an indirect aid that “kick starts” declining function in cells and helps them recover the functions that came more easily and naturally in young animals.

In various effects, lipoic acid appears to help restore a cellular “signaling” process that tends to break down in older blood vessels. It reduces mitochondrial decay in cells, which is closely linked to the symptoms of aging. With age, Glutathione levels naturally decline, making older animals more susceptible to both free radicals and other environmental toxins – but, lipoic acid can restore Glutathione function to near normal. And the expression and function of other genes seems to come back to life.

“We never really expected such a surprising range of benefits from one compound,” Hagen said. “This is really unprecedented, and we’re pretty excited about it.”

This is exciting news and House of Nutrition has some incredible bargains right now on supplements.  Stop by and check out our low prices on Alpha lipoic Acid supplements:

Jarrow’s Formula – Alpha Lipoic Acid 100mg is very popular.

But these are great too!

Country Life’s – Biochem Lipoic Acid 100mg

Food Science’s – Alpha Lipoic Acid 60Caps

Kal’s – Alpha Lipoic Acid 100mg

Best Health,

-Jeanne Ricks, CHC, AADP

The one thing I truly loathe hearing is people blaming their past, current or future health problems completely on genetics. It bothers me that people are so easy to put their own personal health out of their own hands. When someone blames their health condition completely on genetics, not only have they attempted to take blame off of their lifestyle, but even more important is that they have taken the healing out of their hands. Well, your genetics are not the end-all-be-all, epi-genetics is a more accurate way of looking at health conditions.

Epigenetics, straight from its Latin derivative is outer-genetics meaning outside sources that impact gene expressions. What this means is that there are non-genetic influences on your DNA, which impacts how it is expressed. So if you tell me that you have high cholesterol because it’s ‘genetic’… Sorry but I just don’t buy it.

Some people will read this and be upset that unless they take control of their lifestyle and their health issue may not resolve. Others may read this and be content that they actually have control over their health condition and then they can resolve their health issue. Which one are you?

I think you can take control of your health condition, modify your lifestyle and eliminate this outer source that is causing chaos upon your body. Essentially, the environment impacts your genes and can cause your body to change and modify itself it order to compensate. Take for example the infamous genetic-blaming disorder hyperlipidemia, also known as high cholesterol and high triglycerides. Many people will see their doctor, and they will be told that they have high cholesterol and if dieting and exercise doesn’t help then it ‘must’ be genetic. However, what if they are just not introducing the right foods, or perhaps they are doing other things like excess alcohol, that could be contributing to their cholesterol issues. Or perhaps they are cholesterol-deprived and their body is trying to compensate with excess cholesterol production. Maybe they are under extreme stress. Each of these aspects are epi, or outside environmental sources.

Nutrigenomics, the study of nutrients on gene expression is a new up and coming science. A book I just read by Naturopath Dr. D’Adamo (of the Blood Type diet) goes very deep into nutrigenomics. It is called The Genotype Diet. This book is way ahead of its time, and I highly suggest you read it. It essentially takes everything I said, but puts it in a book with personalized genetic analysis. Go get it!

-Ralph Esposito

Follow me on twitter @ nutritiondocnyu

Has the novelty of having the kids home from school worn-off – for both you AND the kids?! Yep, it’s that time of year again – the younger half of the household is more restless than usual and getting the blues, while the adults try to downplay their relief!  Back-to-School!!

So let’s start with the wake-up.  If you don’t own a trumpet but, would still like to get the kids out of bed quickly – Take at least a week to slowly shift your kids’ sleep schedule back to meet their needs: At least 10 hours of sleep for six to eleven year olds and at least 9 hours of sleep for ages twelve and above.

To avoid having your carefully prepared bag lunch find its way immediately into the trash when out of your eyeshot – Make Lunch a Team Effort- When it comes to creating healthy, yet desirable school lunches, the trick is to involve the kids in planning and preparing new lunch ideas. Offer them 2 or 3 healthy options each day. When your child chooses one, ‘team-up’ to make and pack the lunch. Whether it’s spreading on condiments, rolling up tortillas or filling baggies; the effort will give kids a sense of pride when sitting down for a healthy lunch! Together come-up with a collection of favorite sandwiches and offer-up a fresh variety each day of the week. When children become bored of their school lunch favorites, often most of their lunch ends up in the trash instead of their tummies.

Be creative when using basic sandwich staples. Think chicken and corn, ham and avocado, cheese and carrots or cream cheese and jam. While there is no way to ensure that your child is not trading away their food, you are preventing them from buying school lunches which consist of mostly processed food.

TIP 1 – Crunchy nuts make great snacks for older kids.

TIP 2 – Avocado is the perfect substitution for mayo on a sandwich.

TIP 3 – Pack meals in small portions as children tend to snack on several items at once.

And then there’s always the sneaky method of tricking your kids into eating healthier meals.  Let’s Play Hide n’ Seek with Veggies! Preschool children consumed nearly twice as many vegetables and 11% fewer calories over the course of a day when researchers at Penn State added pureed vegetables to the children’s favorite foods.

In their study, published July 25, 2011 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers served vegetable-enhanced entrées to 39 children between the ages of 3 and 6 on three separate days. “We incorporated several vegetables into the dishes, including broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, tomatoes and squash,” said Maureen Spill, a post-doctoral fellow in nutritional sciences and the study’s lead author. “We were pleased to find that the children found the vegetable-enhanced versions to be equally acceptable to the standard recipes.”

According to Spill, the children ate the same amount of food regardless of the vegetable content of the meal. AND they found similar results when they served vegetable-enhanced meals to adults.

OK, even so – you’re not always sure that they’re getting enough balanced nutrition – we’ve got some amazing supplements – specially formulated just for kids!

Like: All-1’s Childrens Formula Vitamins & Minerals Powder which is a whole food powder and allows for better absorption.  It’s Hypoallergenic with no colorings, flavorings or sweeteners and contains not only a complete vitamin profile but important chelated minerals and amino acids too!

Or: Flora’s Kinder Love Childrens Multivitamin this formula provides Calcium, Herbal Extracts, B Vitamins and Vitamin C, A, and E making it an ideal multi-vitamin supplement to help maintain all-round health and vitality in children whose diet may be deficient in some of the nutrients they need.

And how about:  NutriBalance Children’s Formula which is intended to provide easily assimilated nutrition to support proper mental functioning and gastrointestinal health. It’s loaded with a balance of essential vitamins and minerals – but, it also contains probiotics to assist with digestion and has no yeast, wheat, corn, sugar or dairy products.

Best Health!

-Jeanne Ricks, CHC, AADP

“It’s generally believed that having a nightcap may aid sleep, especially getting to sleep” says Seiji Nishino, Director of the Sleep & Circadian Neurobiology Lab at Stanford University School of Medicine. “This may be true for some people who have small amounts of alcohol intake. However, it should be noted that large amounts of alcohol intake interfere with sleep quality and the restorative role of sleep.”

This was no surprise – For a long time researchers have known that large amounts of alcohol shortens the length of time that it takes you to make that transition from full wakefulness to sleep (or Sleep Latency); increases your slow-wave sleep (SWS) and suppresses rapid eye movement (REM) during the first half of your sleep. During the second half of sleep, REM increases and sleep becomes shallower.

How do they know what happens? A study just released that was done on the acute effects of alcohol and the relationship between sleep and heart rate variability (HRV) during sleep, has shown that alcohol interferes with the restorative functions of sleep. Alcohol directly affects overall sleep architecture,” said Yohei Sagawa, a physician in the Department of Neuropsychiatry at the Akita University School of Medicine.

For this study, they gave 10 healthy, male university students with (average age of 21.6), 3 different alcohol beverages at 3 week intervals: 0g (control), 0.5g (low dose) or 1.0g (high dose). On the day of the experiment, a holter electrocardiogram was attached for a 24-hour period; the student was instructed to drink one of the 3 alcoholic beverages 100 minutes before going to bed; and polysomnography was then performed for 8 hours while they slept. The researchers were focused on the relationship between the students’ heart rate variability and their sleep.

The team found that alcohol increased heart rate and interfered with the restorative functions of sleep — and the more alcohol the participants drank, the greater the effect. “Although the first half of sleep after alcohol intake looks good on the EEG, the result of the assessment regarding the autonomic nervous system shows that drinking leads to insomnia rather than good sleep.”

The effect on habitual drinkers might be even worse, a study co-author said. “This study evaluated the effects on sleep after only a single dose of alcohol and easily found negative health consequences,” Seiji Nishino, said in an August 2011 news release. “Many people habitually drink alcohol and if the reduction of healthy parasympathetic nervous system activity during sleep occurs routinely as the result of drinking, the negative health consequences may be much larger and could bring about various diseases.” It is reported that habitual drinkers with high blood pressure are often associated with reductions of parasympathetic nerve activities.”

Sagawa agreed. “Many alcoholics and habitual drinkers suffer from insomnia” and it’s been shown that “suppressed parasympathetic nerve activity is the result of alcohol drinking. Thus, it is concluded that suppressed parasympathetic nerve activity is associated with insomnia, which includes difficulty getting to sleep, early-morning awakening, lack of a sense of deep sleep and difficulty maintaining sleep.”

But don’t worry – skip the nightcap!  At House of Nutrition we’ve got some incredible sleep aids that won’t break the bank!

Solgar’s – Sweetest Dreams Gaia’s – Sound Sleep Liquid Phyto-Caps

Natrol’s – Sleep n’ Restore Enzymatic’s – Fatigued to Fantastic Revitalizing Sleep Formula

Not a “pill person” – prefer a liquid?  We’ve got you covered too! Check-out:

Herbs etc.’s (Alcohol Free) – Deep Sleep Bach’s – Rescue Remedy Sleep

Michael’s – Sleeping Spray Herb Pharm’s – Relaxing Sleep Tonic Compound

And find many more sleep solutions here:  House of Nutrition – Sleep Aid

Best Health!

Jeanne Ricks, CHC, AADP