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Chloride Health Benefits

Chloride is better known as part of the double-act “sodium-chloride” otherwise known as table salt. It’s not a mineral you’ll read much about in the health magazines but it is still important to your health nonetheless.

Chloride is a type of electrolyte which works in conjunction with sodium and potassium. This particular electrolyte is found mainly in the body fluids surrounding cells. It works with the other members of the electrolyte family to help control fluids within the body and maintain electrolyte balance.

Because our bodies prefer to be pH neutral, chloride helps maintain this by reducing acid levels. Chlorides act as neutralizing agents and their work helps to bring the acid/alkaline level back into balance.

Within the stomach, you’ll find that chloride appears in the form of hydrochloric acid. In order for your body to effectively digest food, hydrochloric acid helps break the food down so that it can be absorbed by the small intestines.

In the liver, chloride may also help in the process of removing waste.

Sources of Chloride

You’ll find chloride in many processed foods such as ketchup, French fries, canned meats, canned vegetables and olives. Chloride is plentiful in processed foods because of the high levels of preservatives needed to keep these foods fresh.

Here in the UK there’s been a lot of bad press about salt. There’s been lot of TV ad campaigns encouraging us to reduce our salt intake because most people consume too much. However our bodies do require chloride and it’s suggested we take 750 mg/day.

Chloride Deficiencies

Because of the bad press salt has many people don’t realize that salt is required by our bodies, so instead of reducing salt intake they cut it out all together. This is what my boyfriend’s mother did and ended up in hospital due to weakness.

Low blood pressure and a general feeling of weakness are two symptoms of a chloride deficiency. When chloride levels drop the body usually experiences a simultaneous loss of potassium via the urine. A condition known as alkalosis can develop if acid levels in the body drop too low. This is a dangerous condition that causes the blood pH to become elevated.

If your body is not getting enough chloride and potassium you develop hypokalemic metabolic alkalosis and its symptoms cause the affected person to lose the ability to control muscle function. This in turn causes problems with breathing and swallowing, and if not addressed, may lead to death.  Learning about health is important, especially if you are wanting to build muscle quickly.

If you have suffered serious bouts of diarrhoea, vomiting, excessive use of diuretics, or excessive fluid loss due to sweat then this can create a deficiency of the mineral. Many athletes take supplements of salt because drinking more water that is lost in sweat can dilute the salt within the body. Also when you exercise salt is excreted through your sweat so it’s important that it’s replaced.

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Calcium Health Benefits

Where would we be without calcium? A heap on the floor! Our bodies use 99% of calcium in our bones and teeth whilst the remaining 1% is found in soft tissues and blood. The mineral most prominent in the body, practically every food that is consumed contains some amount of calcium.

Why Your Body Needs Calcium

You’ll already know that calcium is needed for strong bones and teeth but it seems calcium is also needed for many other functions in the body. For instance, did you know that calcium helps regulate the rhythm of your heart beat? This is great for heart wellness.  Or that it helps nerves and muscles function correctly? In addition to this, it helps lower cholesterol levels as well as blood pressure and allows the blood clotting process to work. And if you’ve ever been told to drink a glass of milk before bed, there’s a reason for this advice. Calcium helps relieve insomnia.

Calcium Rich Food

There’s no excuse for not getting enough calcium into your diet. The most obvious choices include milk, cheese and yogurt. However you can also find calcium in tofu, dried beans and dark green vegetables. Many food producers also add calcium to cereals and orange juice. Eating drained sardines (and their bones) that have been packed in oil is another option.

How much calcium your body needs depends on your age. Infants and toddlers should get 400 and 600 mg respectively. Children should increase their intake of calcium to 800 and increase to 1200 mg/day as they near puberty. Teenagers need a lot of calcium because a significant amount of bone mass is being added during this stage of life. Adolescents and even young adults should aim to get 1200 mg/day. During pregnancy women should try to get between 1200 and 1500 mg/day of calcium. Men need 1000 mg/day but those age 65 and above need to increase their daily intake of calcium to 1500 mg/day.

Signs of Calcium Deficiency

When your body is low in calcium, you’ll see the effects in your bones first. They’ll become soft and brittle and if not addressed, you can develop osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is most prevalent in women during and after menopause

If children don’t consume enough calcium then they’ll suffer from growth-related problems including bone deformation. Rickets is another condition which used to be a thing of the past but is now starting to become a problem again. Decaying teeth, depression and spasms in the legs and arms are other noticeable symptoms of a calcium deficiency.

Drinking milk is probably the easiest way to obtain calcium and can help keep your teeth and bones strong for many years.

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How to Avoid Sports and Exercising Injuries

Many people working out at the gym will tell you “no pain, no gain”. But what does that actually mean? First of all it’s important to push yourself beyond your “comfort zone” otherwise you won’t increase muscle or stamina. In doing this you may feel out of breath or tired, however if you start to feel sharp pains then take these as a warning that something is wrong.

When you use your muscles more than you would normally on a day-to-day basis you’ll experience lactic acid and micro-tears which happens when your muscles are being built up.

If you’re having pain in you back, neck, knee joints amongst other symptoms you should always consult an expert. There could be a variety of reasons why you’re experiencing pain. Perhaps your technique is wrong or you are overdoing it. Alternatively you might have a medical problem that needs attention.

Warm Up and Stretching is Often Ignored

You need to ease yourself into any workout. First of all you need to warm up your blood and get your heart pumping by either running, rowing or cycling for 10 -15 minutes. After that you should spend about 10 – 15 minutes stretching.

Stretching is one of the areas most people ignore or don’t pay enough attention too. If you have tight muscles you can do yourself some serious injuries. Last year my mum had a personal trainer at the gym who tested all her muscles for flexibility and wouldn’t let her go onto any other exercises until she was suitably flexible.

Her trainer lent us a book called Sport Stretch: 311 Stretches for 41 Sportswhich as the title suggest has lots of stretching routines you can do for the various sports/exercises you do. If you follow the “all star” stretches then you will have stretched all the main muscles in your body.

If you have suffered an injury always take advice from an expert because if you start training too quickly you could do yourself even more damage!

If you’re new to exercising then get advice from a trainer to make sure you are doing all your exercises correctly. Some of the equipment at the gym can also be quite confusing to adjust so it’s always better to ask for help rather than struggle on your own.

Stay within your comfort zone as you gradually expand it. One of the foremost reasons people give up on workouts is injuries produced by working beyond their capacity. That makes working out no longer fun. Building up, while you build out, to increase your ability to do more, faster will keep you going for years to come.

Your health will thank you for exercising common sense, while you exercise your body.

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Soy Protein and Your Skin, Hair and Nails

Many people are resigned to fact that wrinkled skin comes hand-in-hand with old age. One of the major problems with aging skin is that your body’s production of collagen declines. It’s not just aging which causes this but also diet, menopause symptoms, sunlight, smoking and stress.

So What can You do to Keep Your Skin Looking Healthy?

First of all, protect your skin from the sun’s rays. Make sure you use a high sun factor and use fake tan instead of sunbathing. Secondly, if you’re a smoker you must stop now. You don’t need me to tell you why smoking is bad for your health, I’m sure you already know. Thirdly, you need to improve your diet. You should be eating plenty of good quality protein and antioxidant-rich foods. This will give your body the nutrients it needs for building and repairing you cells.

Is Soy a Good Source of Protein and Antioxidants?

According to studies it would seem that soy is an indeed an ideal source of protein and antioxidants. You can take soy internally to benefit your general health as well as applying it directly to your skin to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

Revival Soy who sell a number of soy products did a survey of 40 postmenopausal women of ages 50-65, to find out what the real benefits of soy are when taken over a six-month period. Some of the women took 20g of soy whilst the others didn’t take any.

Skin – 93% of those taking the soy found that skin discoloration and flaking reduced after only 3 months, whilst wrinkles improved after 6 months.

Nails – Improvements in nail quality took longer to be noticeable. After 3 months no improvements were experienced however after 6 months ridging, nail roughness, splitting and flaking were greatly reduced.

Hair – Hair quality was greatly improved after 3 months with continued benefits experienced after 6 months.

It would seem that soy taken as part of your healthy diet will help with not only your skin but also hair and nails. Although benefits are evident within 3 months, you should continue taking soy for 6 months to really see what it can do for your body.

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Does Lemon Juice Detox the Liver?

Liver detox is just as important as detoxing any other organ in the body. Some people will buy colon cleansing formulas not realizing that you liver needs to be looked after too. Consider a natural detox.

One liver detox is by using lemon juice. Simply add the juice to a glass of water and sip it throughout the meal. This will help you stomach digest your food and prevent undigested food entering the blood stream. This syndrome is sometimes called a leaky gut. Your liver sees them as contaminates, food particles, even minute particles should not be in the bloodstream. Your liver filters them out. Improving the digestion process relieves the liver of this filtering load. This is a great liver detox.

Another reason why it’s is good as a liver detox is that it help get rid of gallstones. Gallstones are calcified bile usually surrounding a parasite or bacteria, in an attempt to destroy the bacteria. Your body can have a really difficult time trying to remove these gallstones and because gallstones are porous they can become a breading ground for further infection, compounding the problem.

You can mix lemon juice with olive oil and Epsom salts which you take at specified times during the day and evening of treatment. When on this treatment you will need to go on a non-fat diet for the day before the cleanse and the day off. Since the bile isn’t being used to breakdown the fat it will build up. The built up bile add pressures to push the stones out of the gallbladder. Now can see why this makes such as great liver detox.

It has another beneficial use to the liver. It’s high in vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant. When the liver removes certain contaminants from the blood stream it converts them to free radicals. Antioxidants neutralize the effects of the free radicals. Are you ready to try this liver detox?

Although there are many people going on lemon juice detoxes, make sure you fully understand what you are doing and make sure you are doing the correct thing, as per advice from your doctor or other medical professional.

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