http://www.thealternativedaily.com/

It’s winter. It’s cold, and when it’s freezing outside there’s nothing quite like a hot cup of tea. However, that innocent tea break around the office might not seem so refreshing once you know how gross your morning cuppa might be. The short answer: it’s so, so much worse than you think. The average box […]

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

Greetings readers, as you know, gut health has become the hottest of topics in ancestral health circles, and is also getting increased attention in mainstream medicine. More and more science is validating how a healthy gut microbiome has wide-reaching impact on general health, and that a damaged gut can set you up for all kinds of downstream health challenges. There are several helpful primers on gut health published here (1, 2, 3).

Today’s message, however, is something a little different and more personal. It comes from a dynamic young health expert from Australia named Kale Brock. We are pleased to bring his wildly popular grassroots gut health book, The Gut Healing Protocol: An 8-Week, Holistic Program to Rebalance Your Microbiome, to the U.S. market. Kale became an expert on gut health not from formal medical training, but rather the hard way. Like many thought leaders in the ancestral health community, Kale’s obsession with gut health was triggered by a serious health setback that was poorly addressed by traditional medicine.

Through diet and lifestyle modification, including special attention to nourishing a healthy gut, Kale was able to correct a condition that his cardiologist insisted would require surgery.

Kale’s story that he is about to share is his own, and of course must not be construed as medical advice. After all, few if any cardiologists would enthusiastically support the idea that a dietary protocol to heal an inflamed gut might positively benefit a heart condition!

While the details of Kale’s story are unusual, his message of pursuing holistic health and healing is one that many people can relate to. I cannot emphasize enough the urgency in looking beyond the flawed “disease care” model of medicine that is entrenched in modern society today, and to explore the boundaries as Kale has with his own healing journey.

I’m feeling a little testy about this subject, for I had a bizarre health scare myself this year that landed me in the hospital for several days. A routine procedure (that it turns out I didn’t really need!) went seriously awry, causing a life-threatening infection. The whole experience was highly disturbing to say the least. It’s one thing to rail about the flaws in conventional sick care approach and preach about taking responsibility for your health, and quite another to become an unwitting victim of the system.

Kale’s immersion into gut health has been all-consuming. On the heels of self-publishing and promoting his book throughout Australia, he traveled to remote area in Namibia to live with the San tribe and study their gut microbiomes in search of the perfect gut. The documentary of his journey, The Gut Movie (preview and link below), has screened to sold-out audiences throughout Australia. This guy is the real deal, and full of enthusiasm and a fresh, simple, sensible approach to gut health.

Without further ado, here’s our newest Primal Blueprint Publishing author, Kale Brock, to share his message:

I was diagnosed with Supra Ventricular Tachycardia when I was 16 years old. I remember the cardiologist announcing this long, strange sounding diagnosis and thinking to myself; well that’s it, 16 years is not a bad slog old chap, time to hang the boots and give up. But my story went in a different direction. I am an author and filmmaker from Sydney, Australia, and I have specialised in research on the gut and microbiome for the last five years. My journey into health started with the aforementioned diagnosis. I was a young, avid surfer at the time – that’s all I cared about – and the challenges I faced, as far as I was concerned at the time, could result in two outcomes. First, I would continue to experience intense arrhythmia attacks to the point of fainting and would probably have to give up surfing, or anything interesting and exciting for that matter. Second, I would have to find a way to overcome the issue permanently so that I could continue to do the things I loved without fear of drowning, fainting, or coming to another form of demise.

The cardiologist gave me one option at the time. He said I would have to undergo an ablation – a procedure where my heart would be operated on, more specifically my sino atrial node would be burned away – in order to fix the problem. I was curious as to why we would need to attack the part of the heart which wasn’t working, and voiced my concern. He said it was the only option which might work, but was not guaranteed. I asked about any potential influence of nutrition, to which he responded with a quick dismissive wave, as in: it’s got nothing to do with it. In all fairness, I don’t think he was lying per se, but rather demonstrating the education he had been given throughout medical school, in which there is no recognition between nutrition and the optimal electrical signaling of the heart.

I decided to investigate whether there indeed was a nutritional aspect to what I was experiencing. After all, everything we put in our mouths builds and nourishes the human body. That was all I knew at that point, but boy did I have a lot of questions to ask! It was roundabout then that one of the more fortuitous events of my career, and my life, took place. I was introduced to an incredibly well trained naturopath in Australia who, in a very short amount of time, was able to point me in the right direction with some diet and lifestyle factors which she, obligingly, suggested might be influencing my condition.

Using the principles recommended by my naturopath, I was able to turn around my condition naturally within about six months. I went from experiencing serious arrhythmias once or twice per week to just once or twice per year. I can’t even remember the last time it happened. My efforts focused on the area of gut health; that is, rebalancing the population of gut bugs using all the relevant knowledge available in, at the time, a minimally understood field of nutrition and health science.

Over the next six years I went into research overdrive. I sat in on consultations with practitioners, I read every book I could get my hands on, and I interviewed dozens of incredible practitioners whose focus had turned to the gut and microbiome. The message was clear: heal the gut to heal the body. Speaking with these incredible experts outweighed any other information gathering – these guys were putting in the hard yards and seeing the results first hand!

Throughout this time I was learning as much as I could about not only about food and nutrition, but also the pain points people experienced when it came to implementing this information into their life. I saw sick people with serious conditions who couldn’t, for the life of them, begin to change the way they ate or lived. It was bizarre. I realised that no matter how much information I gathered, it didn’t make a difference unless people applied it in their life. And that’s when my role as a storyteller came to light.

With a journalistic background, two years experience in TV and extensive online publishing, I knew that I could tell a story about health in a way that not many others could. There was so much information being uncovered about the microbiome and its impact on our health and wellbeing. Crazy things like affecting and even reversing neurological conditions, influencing our immune system, metabolic systems and our overall health in extremely fascinating ways that even still we’re only just beginning to understand. But there was a gap. The information was there, but people didn’t understand it, and because they didn’t understand it they didn’t act on it. That became my role. I became the middleman between the science and the every day human being.

My new book, The Gut Healing Protocol, focuses on the science of the gut microbiome. It expands on and supports the work of various of the world’s best gut-centric practitioners and ties it all up into a gentle, holistic framework on which great gut health can be based. With a heavy emphasis on using a long-term, sustainable dietary approach to cultivating a healthy microbiome unique to your body, this book is written for you and me, the every day guy or gal who wants to understand and apply all this ‘gut health stuff’ coming out on the news. Inside we have recipes, scientific studies, a short term gut healing program and a long term gut nourishing program which focus on individuality, empowering you to take the driver’s seat.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, one thing I’ve learned through all this research, writing the book and making my first feature documentary The Gut Movie, it’s that we don’t have all the answers when it comes to the gut just yet. It’s still being worked out. Practitioners are still refining their approach based on the science and, importantly, based on the symptomatic feedback they get from patients. But I do believe we know enough to get started.

Many people ask me, what’s the number one thing someone can do to improve their gut health? And the answer is very simple, and unanimous across the board. Start with a whole foods diet.

Everybody is unique, each microbiome signature contains different populations of different microbial species however the research seems to be quite clear in that when we eat a varied, whole foods diet, our gut bugs begin to thrive. Within the framework of eating from nature exists your perfect diet, but ultimately that can only be determined by you, the individual. My goal with The Gut Healing Protocol is to give you the tools to feel empowered when making that decision. The decision on what you put on your plate, and what you don’t.

Good luck on your journey, and much love (all the way from Australia!),

Kale Brock

As you know, a Primal Publishing book release just wouldn’t be complete without a deal for MDA. You can probably guess what kind of promo we’ve cooked up to entice you to order Kale’s amazing book (not to mention help implement his practices). What could be more fitting?

The Ultimate Promo Pairing: The Gut Healing Protocol and Primal Probiotics!

That’s right, a piggyback with our acclaimed high potency supplement, Primal Probiotics. Order a book now and we’ll throw a bottle of Primal Probiotics into your shipment for free!

At $29.95, the bottle is worth more than the book, making this one of the craziest giveaways I’ve ever approved. (Just use code GUTHEALTH at checkout.)

The official release date for The Gut Healing Protocol is January 2, 2018, but a limited number of advance copies have arrived at our Oxnard, CA headquarters and are ready to ship. I recommend you take advantage of this offer immediately. We’ll honor the promotion until December 21, but you may have a wait time if we run out of books and need to back order.

Kale’s right, the centerpiece of gut health is a whole foods diet. I made a great effort to promote this message, recommending foods like fermented dairy (yogurt, kefir), sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, kombucha, fermeted soy products (tempeh, miso) and even high cacao percentage dark chocolate to support gut health.

However, today’s food options and stressful lifestyle patterns often leave our guts vulnerable to bad bacteria winning out over healthy bacteria. This is where a high potency probiotic supplement can also play a wonderful supporting role in the process of both healing an inflamed gut and keeping healthy bacteria predominating over harmful bacteria on a day-to-day basis. Primal Probiotics contains a concentrated dose of four different strains of bacilli bacteria, along with bifidus and saccharomyces. This is some high potency, long-lasting stuff, with 10 billion colony-forming units per capsule (check the product page on our website for details about the product). A healthy intake of probiotics improves not only digestive health, but immune function, antioxidant production, fat metabolism, mood and cognitive function, and hormone balance.

Finally, here’s the preview to his incredible film, The Gut Movie. Just like his book, it offers fascinating insight into the conditions that support essential gut health.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you take advantage of our awesome offer, enjoy Kale’s groundbreaking book, and get your gut functioning at peak levels!

The post Introducing The Gut Healing Protocol—With a Don’t Miss Deal! appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

“One More!”

“It’s all you bro!”

“Light weight! Light weight!”

Yea, we’ve all been there. The two dudes in their cut-off high school football shirts, screaming to squeeze out one more bench press or finish one final deadlift. That’s probably been you. I’ve been there, so I can’t judge either.

read more

https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/

If your holidays look anything like mine, you’re visiting family or friends, the house where you’re staying is full of people, and while you might be lucky enough to snag a bed in which to sleep, that’s basically all the space you have to yourself.

You may also have great intentions about exercising regularly during this time, and you might even have some super-quick GGS bodyweight and barbell circuits in your repertoire for situations when you’re short on time. However, many of these workouts require equipment to which you don’t have access right now, or they involve exercises that require jumping — which is not happening right now, since someone’s asleep in the room right below yours.

So what’s a gal to do?

Why Move Your Body When Life Gets Crazy?

Before we get into what to do, when you’re already running around like a chicken with its head cut off, you may be asking yourself: Do I really need to move more? Don’t all those steps I’m accumulating running my errands count for something? (Answer: of course they do! But that’s not exactly the point.)

Here’s the thing: when life gets ultra busy, one of the first things that goes out the window is unfortunately our self-care practices, like purposefully moving our bodies on a regular basis. I know this all too well because it’s my default, too!

But here’s why it matters: regularly moving your body with purpose isn’t just beneficial in terms of physical health (although that’s important!). It also helps us stay consistent with our healthy habits, maintain positive momentum through the holidays, and better manage our stress, which tends to soar during these busy times.

Your Travel Strength Circuit

The beauty of this strength circuit is that it requires no equipment at all, and very minimal space: even if all you have is a couple of feet on the side of the bed, you’ll be able to get it done!

Start by performing a quick warm-up (you can find inspiration here), then set a timer for 15 to 25 minutes and complete as many rounds as you can of the following circuit (you’ll find videos explaining each exercise below):

• Bodyweight Glute Bridge, 10-12 reps
• Plank to Push-Up, 6-8 reps
• Bodyweight Split Squat, 8-10 per side
• Dead Bug, 10-12 total reps

While the goal of this workout is to get through as many rounds as possible of each exercise during the time allotted, you should remain extremely mindful of technique the whole time, and take extra rest if your form starts to break down.

Bodyweight Glute Bridge

• Set yourself up on your back, knees bent and feet close to your body, about hip-width apart.
• Exhale fully through the mouth to set your ribcage down into the proper position.
• Inhale, and then gently engage your abs and squeeze your glutes to lift your hips off the floor as you exhale (make sure that your back remains neutral, and that you’re not overextending through your lumbar spine), pushing through your heels.
• Hold a second at the top, and then inhale as you lower yourself under control.
• Repeat for the allotted reps.

Want more challenge? Make it a single-leg glute bridge instead!

Plank to Push-Up

• Start in a plank position on your elbows.
• Engage your lats and your core as if you were trying to pull your elbows towards your toes.
• Keeping your core engaged, move from your elbows to your hands, to the top position of a push-up.
• Reverse the movement to go back to your elbows.
• Alternated sides on each rep.

Want more challenge? Perform a full push-up at the top before resuming the plank position!

Bodyweight Split Squat

• Start with your feet directly under your hips, and step back keeping the same width, as if your feet were on railroad tracks.
• Make sure your hip bones are facing forward, soften your ribs down, and gently pull your pelvis under as if you were tugging on suspender that are attached to your hip bones.
• Bring the back knee straight down to the floor, keeping your front shin vertical and your back thigh vertical and in line with the rest of your body.
• Push yourself up, keeping your feet in place.
• Perform all reps on one side before switching sides.

Want more challenge? Add a pulse at the bottom of the split squat!

Dead Bug

• Start on your back, with your arms in the air straight above your chest, and your legs elevated with a 90 degree bend in your hips and your knees.
• Make sure your lower back is firmly pressed into the ground, and that your ribcage is down.
• If you’re able to maintain this position while breathing deeply, you can add some arm or leg movement to the exercise, extending one limb at a time on the inhale, and coming back to the starting position on the exhale.
• Keep the movement slow and connected with your breath.

Want more challenge? Move one arm and one leg simultaneously!

Coaches’ Corner

Faced with impending travel plans — or simply with a busier-than-usual period in their life — your clients may get nervous or react one of two ways when it comes to keeping up with their movement habits. Some may wish to stick to a rigid structure of longer workouts, which can backfire and make them feel like they’ve failed if they suddenly can’t make it happen. Other clients can struggle to see how they can get any movement into their busy days, and lament that all of their previous hard work may go to waste.

This is where you can step in as a coach and help them see why this an all-or-nothing approach isn’t beneficial (and often ends up with nothing). During this time, you should work with your clients to figure out what their workout schedule may realistically look like and gently remind them that it’s much more sustainable to strive to do their best during busy times, instead of aiming for perfection.

This is not only a good strategy for your clients, but it’s good for you, too! When clients feel as though they’ve “failed” or “gone off the rails” over the holidays, they often feel ashamed or embarrassed and may start skipping their training sessions, or even quit training altogether for a period of time. Providing them with a quick bodyweight strength circuit which can be done anywhere, is not only a good way to support them, but it can be great for client retention as well.

A message from GGS…

Understanding how to get more results in less time so you actually enjoy exercise and can have a life outside of the gym isn’t hard, you just have to understand the Blueprint and be willing to trust the process.

Tell me how!

The post A Travel Strength Circuit (For When You Have No Space At All) appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

read more

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

Tongkat ali, also known as Eurycoma Longifolia Jack, is an herb native to parts of South East Asia where it has traditionally been used as an aphrodisiac.¹ Today, it is an ingredient readily added to many of the best-selling testosterone boosters on the market.

read more

http://www.thealternativedaily.com/

Six fires that together are larger in size than New York City and Boston combined have devoured an estimated 230,000 acres. Remarkably, only one human life has been taken. But for horses, the death toll has been overwhelming. Now, equestrian communities from LA to San Diego are reeling after fires take the lives of thoroughbred […]

http://www.thealternativedaily.com/

Ten people were left homeless over the weekend when a woman accidentally set her two-story home ablaze late Friday night in order to fight bed bugs. The woman was reportedly trying to combat the bugs with rubbing alcohol, in a multi-family home in Cincinnati. It appears she was near a flame while using the alcohol. A resident […]

http://www.thealternativedaily.com/

Footage continues to emerge of people dining on live seafood, insects and other animals. We recommend caution if you decide to watch these videos (below), where people have filmed themselves eating what look like live mouse babies dipped in soy source, a live and scaled fish, plates of live bugs, still-alive octopus parts, gutting a living frog […]

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m delving more deeply into dopamine. Readers asked some great questions and made some interest comments in the comment board of last week’s post on dopamine, and today I’m addressing three of them. First, how does caffeine related to dopamine? Second, what’s the deal with all my mention of pornography in the last post? And finally, is MDA just providing dopamine hits?

Let’s go:

David wondered:

I’ve often wondered about caffeine and its affect on the dopamine pathway. I’ve heard, but don’t know with total certainty, that it does, Does it increase dopamine production in the short term or just cell sensitivity (or some other mechanism?). And then have a resulting desensitizing result with long term use?

Yes. Caffeine affects the dopaminergic pathway. It stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain. It increases dopamine receptors in the striatum (the movement region) of the human brain. But unlike the false pleasures of getting the “likes” on Facebook or spending three hours a day having every sexual whim satisfied through virtual space, caffeine is context-dependent. Caffeine is what you make of it.

When I wake up well-rested after a good night’s sleep, a strong cup of coffee fills me with what I can only describe as productive optimism. I not only have more energy and am able to focus on the task at hand, I am excited about what the task at hand can lead to. I feel optimistic about life and that optimism increases my productivity. For that reason, I think caffeine when used appropriately as a boost to productive optimism rather than a replacement for sleep can really enhance our life and if anything improve our dopamine function. Consider where the French and American revolutions were planned: in coffee houses.

Of course, you can waste that window of dopaminergic productivity.

There’s probably some bias at play here. I love coffee and I’ve only ever found it to be a boon to my life and my health. But the preponderance of evidence supports my bias. Coffee just seems to be really really good for us, or at least not bad. Whether it’s randomized controlled trials or observational studies of a population, coffee consumption is consistently associated with protection from diseases like diabetes and dementia, reductions in oxidative stress, and improved mental performance.  It even compares favorably to most of the fancy new nootropic supplements out on the market; just recently, the creators of a nootropic supplement had to concede when an efficacy trial showed that caffeine was more effective than the product.

Ronda pointed out:

An awful lot of info about porn

You’re right. I did mention porn a lot, and I was a little trepidatious about doing so. In today’s climate anything sexual is characterized as wholly good and unimpeachable. I agree to a point—sex between people who care about, love, or at least consent to each other is great. There’s nothing wrong with that. And the evidence is quite clear that a healthy sex life leads to a healthy life in general. But something seems off about the idea of an entire generation of men and women satisfying their completely natural sexual urges not through actual sex but through watching other people doing it on the computer or their smart phones.

Some people throw out the fact that we’ve had porn forever, that you could find ancient Greek frescoes showing people in all sorts of sexual contortions. That’s true, but let’s be honest: an abstract fresco isn’t quite the same as 3-D VR porn. The porn today is a super normal stimulus in its intensity, its vividness, its realism, and its ease of access. Nobody’s sneaking their dad’s Playboys into the bathroom, looking over the shoulder, hoping not to get caught. No one’s scanning through the blocked cable channels straining to see a breast amidst the static. They’re getting anything they want, whenever they want, as often as they want. In many cases, it’s easier and arguably better than having to work for it and maybe coming up short or getting rejected. Porn is certainly more reliable than the real thing.

On the extreme end, you’ve got addiction to Internet porn, a real condition mediated by dopamine. Naltrexone, a medication that, among other things, inhibits opioid-induced augmentation of dopamine release, can successfully treat porn addiction.

But you don’t have to be clinically addicted for porn to have a negative effect on your life. You can choose it over real life.

And that’s my main objection to over-reliance on pornography, one that can affect anyone: it’s the easy way out, it lets you avoid the hard work.  Hard things are what make us humans. They shape us, teach us, make us stronger and more resilient. Ultimately, they make us happier. Porn is a poor substitute for all those things, but on a superficial level, in the immediate moment, it can seem good enough. And therein lies the danger.

Somewhat cheekily, HealthyHombre asked:

So my daily MDA fix is causing dopamine desensitization? ?

Actually, you’re not too far off. Coming to MDA every morning and getting some actionable advice, then telling yourself, “Oh, that sounds great. I’m going to do that/start that new workout/start getting more sleep/incorporate more colorful produce. And it feels damn good, and the dopamine flows, because that’s the first win.

The way any kind of lifestyle change works is that you first decide to do it—you hear some information, you read a book, something changes your mind—before you alter your course of being. So every change, every positive life change, every dietary improvement, starts with the mental decision. It’s necessary—but it’s not sufficient. And when we read self-improvement blogs or fitness blogs like Mark’s Daily Apple, we get the opportunity to make those those first changes every day. If we don’t follow up that initial blast of dopamine, it’s all for naught. Nothing happens and we end up chasing the dopamine high.

Keep reading MDA. Just make sure you’re not just reading it. If something I write appeals to you, something speaks to you, then try living it. Try doing it—and let me know how it turns out for you.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care!

The post Dear Mark: Delving Further Into Dopamine appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.