10 Natural remedies for the common cold
If you’ve missed it, it’s now cold & flu season. For most of us, this is just a general nuisance, but for others with weakened immune function, it can be more serious.
The common cold is causes by over 100 different viruses, but most often is caused by a rhinovirus. Common symptoms of the cold include a low-grade fever, cough, sore throat, sneezing, runny nose, and headache.
Basic tips to beat the common cold:
If you’re looking to beat the common cold, you should always remember to wash your hands regularly. It’s also important to limit your stress levels since they can affect your immune system. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Also, get regular sleep.
If it’s too late and you’re already sick, what can you do?
Here’s a list of cold and flu remedies that you should check out.
From this list of natural cold remedies, we can see that both Siberian as well as American Ginseng can be potentially helpful according to recent studies at reducing the duration of the common cold.
What’s more is that Andrographis Paniculata may also be effective–particularly at reducing some of the symptoms such as runny nose and nasal congestion associated with the common cold.
Even simple remedies such as drinking hot beverages or even chicken noodle soup have been shown to provide some temporary relief from cold symptoms.
Vitamin C and D may also play an important role in reducing the duration of colds.
For more information about cold weather and respiratory illness, follow the link.
Benefits of Pycnogenol?
Extracts of marine pine bark are sold as a dietary supplement marketed under the proprietary name, Pycnogenol®. Over the past several years, Pycnogenol has been studied for numerous potential health benefits from every medical condition ranging from arthritis or diabetes to glaucoma or attention-deficit disorder.
For a review of the benefits of pycnogenol, follow the link.
Extracts of Pinus pinaster have a long history in traditional medicine or ethnomedicine. Commonly, these extracts are referred to as marine pine bark extract–they’re sold as a dietary supplement known by the proprietary name, Pycnogenol®.
Marine pine bark extract has established antioxidant effects and potential use in promoting cardiovascular health. In fact, its antioxidant effects were known dating back to Hippocrates and were further established by modern scientists.
Vitamin D Recommendations
Recently, the Institute of Medicine has released new recommended nutrient intake guidelines for vitamin D. To some, the new recommendations represent only a modest increase over previous guidelines.
Already the new guidelines have met with some controversy and criticism as well.
Here’s a summary of the new Vitamin D Recommendations:
- Most people (1 – 70 years old): 600 IU per day
- Elderly (>70 years old): 800 IU per day
Here’s the complete infographic for Vitamin D and Calcium intake recommendations:
*** Click to enlarge
Tips to enhance your cognitive abilities?
With the aging population in the world in which we live, many of us are looking for ways to maintain or enhance our cognitive abilities. Many of us are already aware that Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. For some of us, we’re already at an increased risk or susceptibility through genetics, but let’s take a look at some things we can do to preserve our cognitive function.
Improve cognition:
- Vitamin D Supplementation – Though it’s not well-established yet how important supplementation with vitamin D is yet compared to natural sources such as diet and sunlight, Vitamin D levels and cognition has already been an established connection.
- Beta Carotene – Long-term supplementation with Beta Carotene may play a role in preventing age-ass0ciated memory loss. Studies have looked at doses of 50 mg of beta carotene taken on alternate days.
- Abdominal obesity – A recent study demonstrated that abdominal obesity is associated with smaller brain volumes. If you’re concerned about cognitive decline as you age, it’s important to maintain a healthy body mass index to limit the effects of abdominal obesity on your brain health.
- Marijuana - Though a controversial topic in itself, marijuana use particularly in those under the age of 15 may affect how your brain develops. In this case, the solution is simple by avoiding the use of marijuana, particularly at a young age, you can avert potential problems associated with its use on your brain.
- Physical activity – The importance of physical activity on cognitive function has been highlighted also in studies involving adolescents. Exercise is associated with the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF.
- Cardiopulmonary fitness – Not only is physical activity an important aspect of cognition in adolescents, but its importance is also present in those with cardiovascular disease. Research suggests that cardiopulmonary fitness preserves cognitive function in those with cardiovascular disease.
- Resistance training - Other research suggests that it’s not just cardiovascular fitness that is important to preserve your cognitive function. In a recent study involving elderly women, resistance training was found to result in cognitive improvements in elderly populations.
- Head circumference - Oddly enough, research continues to show that the size of your brain determines your susceptibility to dementia. Having a larger head is considered a protective factor against dementia.
- Fish Oil – The importance of fish oil and omega-3 fatty acids is also present in maintain or preserving cognitive function. Fish oil may help prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Creatine – That’s right. Though mostly thought of for its role in enhancing athletic performance, creatine can also play a role in memory. For those who’re vegetarians, their diet is often lower in creatine since it is mostly found in meat products. Creatine supplementation improves memory for vegetarians according to recent studies.
Dietary Supplements to increase strength and muscle mass?
If you spent hours every week in the gym lifting weights, you’d probably like to be able to cut your body fat and increase your lean muscle mass. Starting with a healthy diet and adequate daily protein intake, you may find that you eventually hit that inevitable ‘plateau.’ For some people, they can get over that plateau for packing on muscle either by favorable genetics or by modifying their workout routine.
For others, they turn to supplementation with products designed to help you pack on muscle and increase your strength. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to decifer fact from fiction when it comes to bodybuilding supplements which are heavily promoted by marketing.
If you’re looking for supplements that have been well-researched, follow this link to find out which supplements help increase muscle mass and strength.
Here’s a peak at the list:
- creatine monohydrate
- whey protein
- branched-chain amino acids
- betaine
- leucine
- HMB
Also, while you’re at it, don’t miss these great protein shake recipes!
The Ryan Reynolds Workout plan?
It’s no secret that Ryan Reynolds has one of the top physiques among the Hollywood “A list” of actors. If you’re trying to find out how you can go from skinny to muscular / ripped like Ryan Reynolds, here’s some great tips:
So, I re-invented the Deadpool workout and spent the summer beta testing it on some willing victims up here in Toronto.
And, if I say so myself, I have come up with a seriously kick-ass training program.
Over 3 months, my 4 scrawny test subjects:
- Gained between 5 and 14 lbs of muscle
- Increased their max strength between 55 & 197% (Front Squat)
- Saw their speed, power & anaerobic endurance go through the roof (Hill Sprints)
- And, oh yeah, they also lost a ton of baby-fat in the process.
- The average body-fat percentage at the beginning of the test was 21%.
- At the end of the 3 months, the average body-fat was down to 9% (a Bod-Pod was used to measure BF%)
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How to start a blog network?
How much traffic do you need to make money online? Look at it this way, rates with Adsense will vary depending on your niche and the source countries of your blog’s traffic. It also depends on the size and location of your ad units.
As a rough example, let’s say that you have 2 larger ad units that make $1 eCPM and a smaller ad unit that averages $.50 cpm. In total, that works out to $2.50 in your pocket for every 1000 page views on your blog. Now, if your blog is getting this type of return with Adsense, you’re probably in a decent niche and getting a reasonably good click thru rate.
Let’s say that you manage a whopping 100,000 page views each month. You’re only going to make $250 dollars with Adsense!
Most bloggers will never reach that level of traffic and will more likely plateau around 5-10,000 monthly page views. Even at 10,000 page views per month, you’re only going to make $25 bux, so it will take you 4 whole months to reach your minimum payout for Adsense.
Did I say that making money online was easy? No! To make things easier, one of the best options to increase your blog’s traffic is to either join or start your own blog network. Here’s an article with some tips on how to accomplish this: How to start a blog network.
Now, you may be wondering why you should bother joining or starting your own blog network. Here’s some reasons to join a blog network.