Cholesterol

Cholesterol
 by: John Moore
Ways To Keep It Low
These days we hear a lot of warnings about cholesterol, but the funny thing is, cholesterol isn't all bad. Your body produces it naturally and it performs some pretty vital jobs - helping to build new cells, as well as produce hormones and insulate nerves. Only when you've got too much do you have a problem.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of confusion surrounding this substance because it's made up of both good and bad cholesterol, and is known as HDL and LDL. So which is the good guy, and which is the bad guy ?
HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is the good guy (higher the better), and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is the bad guy - the artery-clogging little devil.
Every Day Ways Of Keeping Your Cholesterol Low.
Watch your weight.
The more overweight you are, the more cholesterol your body produces. So if your weight is up, this is one more reason to bring it down, but do so with a healthy diet.
Cut Out The Fat.
You'd be wise to cut back on such sources of saturated fat as meat, butter, cheese and hydrogenated oil. Whenever possible, replace these items with fish, poultry, low-fat dairy products and polyunsaturated oils.
Switch To Olive Oil.
Olive oil contains monounsaturates which is said to help lower cholesterol levels if added to your food on a daily basis. Two or Three table spoons full a day should be sufficient
Go Easy On The Eggs
Don't feel you have cut them out entirely, if you want to play safe then limit your eggs to about three a week, or use egg whites only.
Be Full Of Beans
Nutritious and inexpensive, beans and other pulses contain a water-soluble fibre called pectin that helps clear cholesterol out of the body.
Eat More Fruit
Fruit also gets it's cholesterol lowering punch from pectin, so by eating lots of fresh fruit you will help to lower your cholesterol levels.
Have Your Oats
Oat bran also helps to lower cholesterol in a similar fashion to pectin rich fruit. In fact it was a high oat bran diet that helped me to reduce my cholesterol level. I used it on cereals, and mixed it into meals that I ate. It looks a bit like sawdust, but it's really effective.
Other Foods That Are Recommended.
Carrots can lower cholesterol. Carrots by way of their pectin content the same as fruit. Two carrots a day should be enough to help when combined with other foods which have been recommended. Eat them raw if possible.
Take Garlic
Eat raw garlic. As well as reducing your circle of friends, it will reduce harmful blood fats. If you don't fancy eating raw garlic, then use the liquid garlic extract which can be bought in capsule form. These can be purchased at your local supermarket or health food store.
Don't Smoke
Studies have shown that heavy smokers have a higher cholesterol than non smokers, so here's another reason to give up. You'll also save yourself a bundle of cash as well ! - In smoking trials which were carried out in Sweden, smokers tended to suffer from low levels of the beneficial HDL cholesterol.
Medication - Drugs
There's now plenty of drugs on the market for lowering cholesterol levels. But, as with all drugs there's always side effects to take into account, so try the natural methods first. Only use drugs as a last resort.
When I found out my own cholesterol levels were high, I managed to get my levels back to normal by using the methods mentioned in this article. I hope you've enjoyed reading it.
Author - John Moore..please use my link.
http://www.information-city-online.com

Keys Treadmills In Review

Keys Treadmills In Review
 by: Dean Iggo
Keys treadmills are a good quality range of treadmills offering brilliant motor warranties and some nice features. They are priced between $1,000 to $2,300 so offer a decent machine at a cost effective price.
The best feature of keys treadmills is the motor warranty which is set to 10 years. One of the most important parts of a treadmill is the motor and if it breaks down the repair cost can usually be quite hefty. With a 10 year warranty you will have no such worries. This also provides testament to the durability of these machines.
If you are overweight or expect to be using the treadmill a lot then a keys treadmill might be worth looking at further.
What amazes me is although the machines have a 10 year motor warranty they are only priced in the mid-price range. A lot of commercial treadmills that have 10 years motor warranties are priced $5,000 and up. Some even approach $10,000
Keys Fitness, manufacture all their treadmills in the USA but import parts from overseas to help them stay competitive. As a result their machines may not be as high a quality compared to other machines made solely in the US where an eye can be kept over the production process.
Advantages
The price tag of these machines range from as little as $1,000 and as high as $2,300. For this price, you'll get a 10 year motor warranty and a lifetime warranty on frames. If durability is your number one concern then Keys treadmills offer a serious advantage over other brands.
Disadvantages
As they are not made entirely in the USA their structural quality may not be as good as other better known brands. Also $2,000 might be a bit steep for some people so you might be better off looking at cheaper treadmills that still have a decent motor warranty (about 3 years).
Recommendation
Although this brand is known for being of average structural quality, newer models have been showing some improvements. For most people a 10 year warranty is not essential 3 years will suffice. I recommend for people considering a Key treadmill to look at other brands with a lower motor warranty but better overall quality.

Aren't all Multi Vitamins Basically the Same?

Aren't all Multi Vitamins Basically the Same?
 by: Max Wardlow
Multi vitamins can provide a convenient way to take a variety of supplemental nutrients from a single product to prevent vitamin or mineral deficiencies, as well as to achieve higher intakes of beneficial nutrients.
In the current state of the vitamin and nutritional supplement industry it can be difficult to decide which supplements will provide real health protection and improvement benefits and which are simply "me too" products designed primarily to ride the wave of public interest in preventative health.
To understand the need to be informed about vitamin and nutritional supplements, you must understand the regulatory environment that currently exists in the vitamin supplement industry in the United States.
Do Vitamin Companies Regulate Themselves?
In October of 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).
The DSHEA was written to help empower Americans to make choices about their own preventative health care strategies.
Under the DSHEA it was decided that nutritional supplements would continue to be regulated as a food product rather than the more restrictive regulations that drugs fall under.
While this made vitamin and nutritional supplements widely available it also allowed nutritional supplement manufacturers to practically regulate themselves, since there was no agreed upon standard of good manufacturing practice (GMP) and no government pressure to be true to the label on their products.
It was't until March of 2003, nine years after the DSHEA became law, that the FDA proposed new regulations to require current good manufacturing practices (CGMPs) in the manufacturing, packaging, and holding of nutritional supplements.
According to the FDA, this is what prompted the new regulation proposal:
"In recent years, analyses of dietary supplements by a private sector laboratory suggest that a substantial number of dietary supplement products analyzed may not contain the amounts of dietary ingredients that would be expected to be found based on their product labels". For example...
"Five of 18 soy and/or red clover-containing products were found to contain only 50 percent to 80 percent of the declared amounts of isoflavones".
"Of 25 probiotic products tested, 8 contained less than 1 percent of the claimed number of live bacteria or the number of bacteria that would be expected to be found in such a product".
The proposed rule will, for the first time, establish standards to ensure that vitamin supplement ingredients are not adulterated with contaminants or impurities, and are labeled to accurately to reflect the active ingredients and other ingredients in the product.
The proposed new regulations will be phased in over the next three years so as not to disrupt the production of nutritional supplements.
While the DSHEA has helped ensure that dietary supplements remain easily accessible without excessive regulation, (doctors prescriptions, etc.), it also has created a "wide open" atmosphere for manufacturers who aren't yet in compliance with good manufacturing practices (at this time, GMP compliance is voluntary).
It's very easy for a supplement company to jump on the bandwagonof the latest fad and put together a product with little or no research and poor quality (and cheap!) ingredients, and then market it with over-blown, unsubstantiated claims and pure hype.
Some of the most common products that this formula is used for are weight loss, HGH (human growth hormone) and multi vitamins.
Supplement users are in the position of having to trust vitamin supplement manufacturers to regulate themselves. Although the dietary supplement industry has an excellent track record of safety, it's been verified by the independent product testing of consumerlab.com that some supplements do not contain what is stated on their label and are sometimes contaminated.
While some vitamin supplement manufacturers are working hard to meet the new FDA guidelines, not all are. At this time, you have to do your own research and take extra precautions to find high quality nutritional supplements.
Tips for Choosing Nutritional Supplements
Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients work best when they're combined in a way that mimics nature as closely as possible. Look for nutritional supplements that have nutrients combined to make use of the natural synergy between them.
Companies willing to give a full disclosure and description of their ingredients have usually put more effort and research into their product. For example, instead of just saying "Calcium" the label should be more detailed like this: "Calcium (from 2430 mg Citrate, Malate, Ester-C)". This description indicates that higher quality ingredients and more up-to-date research was used for the supplement.
Verify that the supplement was produced at a pharmaceutical GMP (good manufacturing practices) facility. Since compliance to GMP standards is voluntary it's important to do your own research to verify that macro-biological testing is done at every stage of production.
(This issue shouldn't be taken lightly - as mentioned above, studies by Consumerlab.com have shown that some supplements don't have the true amount of ingredients as stated on the label, or may harbor toxic contaminants.)
Pharmaceutical grade supplements (sometimes called nutriceuticals) are made for "professional" use in the health care field by natural health care providers and consumers who want the best.
In the past decade pharmaceutical grade supplements have become more availableto the general public and this type of nutritional supplement will provide the health benefits that you're looking for, often for a very reasonable price.