An increase in fat around the waistline during our 40's is common even if there has been no change in your diet or lifestyle and can lead you to feeling frustrated that your previously successful weight-loss tactics are no longer effective.
However the good news is that our bodies undergo changes in hormone levels, muscle mass, etc. that require us to rethink our relationship with our diet, lifestyle, exercise and levels of stress.
SAFFROSUN CALM– has been proven to promote restful sleep, balance the stress response and enhance energy levels.
SAFFROSUN ENERGY - includes all the benefits of Saffron if your thyroid is sluggish, or are suffering from brain fog with added iodine, vitamin D3 and will provide you with balanced energy.
METABOLIC GOLD – can help in your weight loss journey by binding to bad fats in the gut and prevent them being used in the body. Studies show that it can substantially reduce belly fat when taken for 3 months.
Books you may wish to read to support your weight loss journey:
MenuPause by Dr Anna Cabeca – gives 5 unique menu plans to break through menopause weight loss resistance
Glucose Revolution by Jessie Inchauspe – a great reference book on blood sugar control (check out @glucosegoddess on Instagram)
Whether you are a novice or competitive athlete, when you undertake any exercise, you want to take preventative measures to reduce muscle damage.
During exercise the two leading causes of muscle damage are inflammation and oxidative stress.
The natural bioactive polyphenols of the spice turmeric called curcuminoids have been shown to counteract both inflammation and oxidative stress caused by exercise.
Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) leads to the onset of an inflammatory response that is associated with a decrease in the ability to generate muscle strength, decreased range of motion, localised swelling, delayed onset muscle soreness and increased muscle proteins in the blood (such as creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase and myoglobin).
Inflammatory responses are always linked to oxidative stress and both are directly involved in EIMD.
A 2020 review showed that supplementing with turmeric extract at a dose between 150mg – 1500mg per day before and during exercise and up to 72 hrs post exercise improved performance by reducing exercise-induced muscle damage and reducing inflammation caused by physical activity. Read PubMed Article
Another review showed that participants who supplemented with a turmeric extract demonstrated reduced inflammation and oxidative stress, decreased pain and muscle damage, superior recovery and muscle performance and improved gastrointestinal function. The review concluded that curcumin supplementation appears to be safe and beneficial for sport and exercise in humans. Read Review
Our supplement Natruflex Turmeric contains 800mg turmeric extract (curcuminoids) per 2 capsules.
It is combined with black pepper for better absorption and naturally sourced marine magnesium, which further supports nerve function.
Taking curcumin is much gentler on the body than taking non steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, which can cause adverse effects such as heartburn and stomach ulcers.
The Aztecs so treasured chia that they used to gift it to their king in homage and Aztec runners used to chew on the seeds as they went into battle.
Chris McDougall’s book “Born to Run” describes how the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyons – known to be ultra-runners, running hundreds of miles without rest and enjoying every mile of it, fuelled themselves with a beverage containing chia seeds called ‘Iskiate’ and you can add a Natruflex Turmeric opened capsule an you have the perfect natural drink for recovery and fuel.
50% of our stools are actually bacteria that have been living in your gut – therefore these bacteria need replacing everyday.
Did you know that the blood vessels in your body are nearly 60,000 miles long which is twice around the world.
Their job is to carry vital blood, oxygen and essential nutrients to every part of the body. Healthy vessels are strong, elastic, flexible and clear of any deposits.
Our Metabolic Gold, is made from Bergamot (Citrus Bergamia) only grown in Calabria in Italy and can be used to support the health of your arteries by reducing cholesterol and supporting weight management.
Studies show that bioactive compounds in Bergamot can reduce the “bad” fats, lowering LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and improving total cholesterol levels.
In fact, Research on Bergamot has been shown to have 2 specific molecules that are very similar in structure, and function to statins.
Metabolic Gold can generally be used in conjunction with prescribed cholesterol-lowering medication – speak to one of our pharmacists for more information about your health and any potential indications with current medication
RESEARCH:
It turns out that we really are ‘the sum total of our experiences.’ Had I known then the impact of many of my decisions, I may have made changes earlier, but it turns out that we must live life to truly understand it.
I was definitely living life. Perceived invincibility provided me with the tunnel vision which enabled me to dash from one task to another, ticking off one more achievement, adventure and accolade.
Of course you can’t sustain this symphonic level of intensity without topping up the tank with quick access fuel, mine came in the form of sugar- packets of delicious sweets and finely baked biscuits.
I also gradually began to neglect my regular exercise regimen in exchange for a membership in the weekend warrior club. Gut irritation and a little extra weight accumulated, but, as far as I was concerned, I felt normal for a 40-something professional.
‘That’ evening, the one that irreversibly shook up my life, Thursday 3 December, I found myself staring eternity squarely in the face. I had returned home from work with my two girls. It had been a stressful day capped by a suitably heated, hard-hitting quarrel that left me trembling.
I did not generally consider my life stressful, and yet I knew that I ran at a pretty high-octane pace. But that was OK, because, despite warnings from others, I was, or believed I was, bulletproof.
I wore my intensity like a shiny badge of honour. On that evening, however, the engine said ‘no more’; you can’t drive even the most brilliantly engineered sports cars at 5000 RPM indefinitely.
It took my mum, who spotted me bent over, clutching my chest, rubbing my arms on FaceTime and my daughter's subsequent fear-filled plea to get help for me to make the medical call. Reluctantly, in a haze of pain, I did make the call. In minutes an ambulance was there.
Pride masking the danger, I couldn’t help, but feel that all this commotion was quite unnecessary. The seasoned paramedics quickly assessed my traumatised frame, blood pressure surging through my veins like a blocked firehose. They looked me straight in the eyes, piercing my vanity, and said, “We are taking you to hospital. Now.”
‘That’ evening marked the beginning of a myriad of changes. Naturally, and most significantly was that of my health, but also, running neatly alongside, compelling me, almost without choice, was my desire to capture the goodness in life around me.
Being in hospital forced me to slow down and rest, my senses sharpened and my eyes opened to the subtleties in the world around me, to things I had not previously noticed before.
I became acutely aware of nuances in conversation, of the sacrifices of those around me and of the delicacy of relationships. I was also painfully cognizant, in increasing measure, of the compounding effects of the bad choices I had made for my body- sugar addiction, stress, exercise withdrawal and sleep deprivation.
Buckminster Fuller once said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” So, that is what I did (and am doing), engineering a new, more tantalising model for life.
My diet, for instance, has been transformed. The once glutinous intake has been replaced with cleaner foods, nutrition straight from the earth and, perhaps more importantly, I expunged sweets.
Implored by the immediacy of the situation, I also instilled radical changes to my work routine and introduced regular, gentler exercises in the great outdoors. The list goes on, but I feel that, if indeed we are ‘the sum total of our experiences,’ I have been gifted a lifeline with which to significantly alter the outcome of my time here on earth. And, I must say, my heart feels good, very good indeed.
NOTE FROM THE NAKED PHARMACY
Jeff Schmidt is the Author/illustrator of the bestselling book:
HEART ATTACK- Finding hope, joy and inspiration through adversity.
Turmeric is a well-known spice that plays a vast role as a natural health remedy for many conditions.
The spice naturally reduces swelling and discomfort in joints and muscles. Any conditions involving inflamed tissues can benefit from turmeric, including hay fever and bowel conditions. There is also more and more evidence to suggest turmeric can improve cognitive/brain function and mental health conditions such as low mood.
The roots of this ancient plant, scientifically known as Curcuma longa, have been used as a spice, health tonic and food dye for centuries. However, only recently have researchers endorsed these traditional uses with good quality clinical research.
The traditional way to take turmeric is, of course, using it as a spice in your food and drink recipes. However, there are two issues with this approach when using turmeric for specific health conditions.
Firstly, you need a significant amount of powder to achieve the effective dose, nearly 70g of raw powder twice a day in fact, which is of course not practical. Secondly, most of this powder and the active components it contains, will pass straight through the bowel without absorption making the purchase a waste of money.
As Pharmacists, we advise you to take your turmeric as a supplement. Food supplements like Natruflex are very efficient because they have a very high concentrated dose of the bioactives. Food grade turmeric has a strength of 2-6% whereas Natruflex contains 95% curcuminoids. This means that out of 100g of Natruflex, 95g are active curcuminoids. In addition, Natruflex contains the optimum strength of black pepper, which ensures that all the active curcuminoids are absorbed. This makes Natruflex one of the most effective turmeric supplements on the market.
On its own, turmeric is not easily absorbed. Turmeric is fat soluble, meaning it won’t be absorbed as well without the presence of fat or oil. At The Naked Pharmacy, we advise that turmeric is always taken with either a healthy fat like coconut butter or mixed with a high strength pepper extract with piperine. This increases the absorption by up to 2000%.
Does Turmeric really work?
There are now many clinical trials which are randomised, placebo controlled and blinded that show turmeric is a very effective product. This is a pharmaceutical standard for clinical research that eliminates the effects from a dummy pill called a placebo. It’s the evidence base and clinical research standard we look to achieve in all our product development.
The regulation of COX and LOX enzymes by curcuminoids is the key mechanism for its beneficial effects in preventing various inflammatory diseases.
How can I recover from exercise-related injuries faster?
For protection and relief of muscle and joint discomfort, you should take one to two capsules of Natruflex as required, taking a maximum of four capsules per day. Natruflex contains premium quality turmeric and black pepper from southern India, which both contain 95% strength of bioactive and are uniquely combined with magnesium to support muscle and nerve function.
Why do people take turmeric for bowel disturbances?
Turmeric may also help relieve the stomach after eating something fatty or spicy. It can also help with excessive gas, support digestion and calm abnormal muscle movements resulting from digestive issues such as IBS. And because this spice naturally contains potassium and magnesium, it is often taken to help rehydrate after diarrhoea.
Turmeric as a digestive aid
Turmeric contains many vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals that have a soothing effect on the gastrointestinal system and provide support for digestion. Turmeric can even combat some queasiness and support internal cleansing. Herbalists have used it for centuries as a liver tonic. Also, because of its digestive benefits, some people use turmeric during weight loss and exercise programs.
Just one capsule of Natruflex is equivalent to 65g of food grade turmeric.
Teenagers and adults: For protection and relief of muscle and joint discomfort,take one to two capsules of Natruflex as required, taking a maximum of four capsules per day. Capsules must be taken with food.
To prevent injury before sport, do a five day regime of one to two capsules per day, before the event. Capsules must be taken with food.
If you don’t like taking capsules, you can simply open them up and use the Natruflex as a powder with hot milk (non-dairy options work too) and whisk into a turmeric latte which is spicy, healthy and delicious, or alternatively add it to your favourite recipe.
It’s very rare to experience side effects from taking too much turmeric but it’s better to take a quality product like Natruflex and stick to the recommended dose advised by our pharmacists.
You can take Turmeric indefinitely, but as with anything, we like to recommend that you take a holiday from it every now and then. We recommend you take a week off every three months just to avoid your body becoming tolerant, which is where your body downgrades its response towards it.
However, if you have a pre-existing condition such as arthritis then continue to take it without a break.
Last year we made the important decision to change the vitamins and minerals in our supplements to food sourced which means we no longer use synthetic ingredients. Six weeks ago our supplier of Vitamin B12 in India had to close due to COVID, at present; this is the only manufacturing plant in the world that makes Vitamin B12 extracted from mushrooms to the standard we require.
As a result of this shutdown, we decided to remove Vitamin B12 from our Saffrosun supplements and replace it with Organic Marine Algae which provides a wide range of essential minerals and is sourced in waters off the Scottish coastline. It's important to us that our community understands why we took this step and why it is essential for us to maintain this principle whatever the challenges that arise. So here are a few of the reasons why we changed to food sourced ingredients:
Synthetic vitamins and minerals are often produced by chemical factories where the quality assurance procedures may not always meet our high standards. We feel that only full on-site quality audits can assure us that the ingredients are made correctly without chemical by-products (formed during the chemical processes) that could be harmful.
This has to be assessed on a case by case basis, as some synthetics are effective whilst others are not. Synthetic Vitamin E is a good example as the synthetic process produces different forms of the same vitamin which are significantly less effective than the natural D-Alpha form. We concluded that food source vitamins help eliminate this potential issue.
Synthetic products use potentially harmful raw materials which create additional by-products, the more complex the synthesis process, the more of these by-products need to be removed from the final product. This leads to more environmental waste and increases the carbon footprint.
When our Vitamin B12 supply was interrupted, rather than revert to adding a readily available synthetic B12, we sourced organic marine minerals from the Scottish Hebrides as a replacement instead. Based on science and our core values, we believe it will bring additional benefits, especially in terms of energy levels. Our new Saffrosun with Marine Minerals can be taken alongside prescription medicines (just like the previous formula) and also with an underactive thyroid, although additional iodine supplements should be stopped. We do not recommend taking Saffrosun with Marine Minerals if you have overactive thyroid function. We aim to have our Saffrosun with B12 back in stock late November 2020 at the earliest.
Recent articles in the press discuss the potential of Vitamin D supplementation to reduce the risks of Covid-19.
This article will provide key research information on the benefits of Vitamin D for the immune system plus pharmacist advice on which indication has sufficient clinical research to support its use.
Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin because it is produced naturally by the action of sunlight on the skin.
NHS England recommends a daily supplementation of 10 mcg (micrograms) from oily fish such as salmon and sardines or vegetarian/vegan friendly sources. The latter are either synthetic (man-made vitamin D3) or from mushrooms (vitamin D2). One natural vitamin D3 version exists which is derived from marine algae. Vitamin D3 is better absorbed by the body compared to vitamin D2.
A study, published in the BMJ in 2017 which reviewed data from 25 trials, showed the vitamin can help prevent acute respiratory infections, particularly in those patients with a pre-existing vitamin D deficiency.
Professor Martineau, who was the lead author of the review, stated ‘When vitamin D is made in the skin, it gets converted in the liver to a form that circulates around the body. This creates a natural antibiotic-like substance in the lining of the airway that can bash viruses and bacteria, killing them’.
‘It is a generic effect: we don’t know yet whether that would work against Covid-19.’
Research from the University of Birmingham carried out in 2018 demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency trebles the length of hospital stay.
Previous studies and data reviews have shown that Vitamin D can help prevent and treat respiratory infections such as community acquired pneumonia.
However, despite the recently quoted Irish study suggesting that high dose vitamin D could be used as part of the Covid-19 treatment program there is still insufficient evidence for its role in reducing the risk of the coronavirus.
It is thought that around 1 in 5 adults and children in the UK are deficient in Vitamin D. The recent coronavirus lockdown, on top of (sensible) use of sunscreens may have contributed to decreased levels of vitamin D in the blood.
Research has shown that levels of deficiency are higher than expected in the general population. Research from The University of Surrey discovered a high number of students had very low levels vitamin D at the end of the summer term when levels were expected to peak.
Daily exercise outdoors will help boost levels.
10 minutes exposure for pale skin on the arms and face, darker skin may need around 25 minutes exposure to stimulate Vitamin D production.
Ethnic groups with dark skin need more daily sunlight exposure and should also take a year-round supplement.
Vitamin D supplements are widely available.
The most easily absorbed version is called D3 but these supplements are commonly made from synthetic or animal sources.
One vegan friendly, marine algae sourced D3 is available and this is used in The Naked Pharmacy Saffrosun supplements. There are also mushroom derived D2 alternatives.
The recommended dose is 10mcg (or 400iu) daily and should be taken for several months to build up healthy vitamin D levels.
