Safe and Effective Supplement for Anxiety and Sleep - with zero side effects!

What if someone told you there was an inexpensive nutrition supplement proven to be completely safe that has solid research proving that it can:

Immediately and dramatically reduce anxiety with zero sedation or side effects.

Improves mental focus and concentration.

Quickly reduce the stress hormone cortisol.

Reduce Beta Brain Waves associated with anxiety and fear.

Increases Alpha Brain Waves associated with relaxation and meditation.

Proven to offset stress induced Immune Suppression.

Improves Sleep:

Decreases time to fall asleep.

Decreases night-time awakenings.

Increases the amount of Deep, Restorative Sleep.

Improves Memory and Mental Capacity.

Sound too good to be true?   It’s NOT!

How Does Pharmagaba Work?

Pharmagaba is a unique, patented form of GABA that crosses the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB for short). GABA is a neurotransmitter that balances out the excitatory neurotransmitters like Norepinephrine aka noradrenalin.

Although GABA supplements have been around for a while, regular GABA supplements are completely ineffective because they do not cross the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB).   The BBB is exactly what it sounds like – a chemical gateway designed to protect the brain from toxins and infections.

Unlike regular GABA supplements, Pharmagaba crosses the BBB!   This allows it to quickly change your mental state from a sympathetic dominant state to a parasympathetic state.  A sympathetic dominant state means you are stressed out and anxious and feeling on edge whereas a parasympathetic dominant state is when you are relaxed and calm.

To learn more about Pharmagaba watch this short but highly informative video going through all the benefits and research:  https://youtu.be/wOzSy3HiXOU

The best supplement on the market is Pharmagaba from Natural Factors. It is offered in chewables or capsules.   For maximum effects buy the Pharma GABA 250mg version which can be purchased through Amazon or Iherb online.  Do NOT confuse GABA with Pharmagaba – you will only experience benefits if you use the patented Pharmagaba form.

Intermittent Fasting More Effective Than Cutting Calories

Done properly, intermittent fasting can be very beneficial for improving health and accelerating fat loss.   There are many different types of fasts, but the most popular and practical is called intermittent fasting.  

Intermittent fasting - aka time-restricted eating – is when you restrict your daily food intake to a specific window of time - typically six to eight-hours per day.  For example, if you skip breakfast and make lunch the first meal of your day, you might restrict your food intake to the hours of Noon and 8:00 p.m. If you are a breakfast lover, your window could be between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Many people point out that fasting only works because people eat less than they burn while doing intermittent fasting.     This is definitely the case, but the entire trick to losing body fat is finding a way to eat less calories than you burn that you can stick with long term.

Intermittent Fasting vs Chronic Calorie Restriction

The more traditional way to lose weight/fat is to restrict your calories throughout the day by making sure you eat fewer total calories but still maintain a more normal eating window of 12 – 14 hours.    There is no question that the calorie restriction works when it is followed. This is very challenging for most people – particularly long-term.

There is also no question that many people find it much easier to eat less than they burn by simply restricting their feeding window to 8 hours per day.   For many who make this simple change they find they spontaneously eat less calories without it feeling hard and find they can maintain this lifestyle long term.   That is the name of the game when it comes to long term weight management and body fat control!

Many studies have shown intermittent fasting to be a highly effective method for losing body fat and keeping it off, and there are other specific benefits to this approach.

Intermittent fasting provides a number of health benefits including:

• Reduced age-related diseases: Fasting reduces the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases; improves insulin sensitivity and overall metabolic health; and lowers cancer incidence.

• Metabolic health: Fasting promotes a shift from glucose metabolism to fat burning, improving so-called metabolic flexibility. It also enhances glucose regulation, improves insulin sensitivity, and promotes ketone body production by the liver.

• Neuroprotection and cognitive function: Fasting increases the production of BDNF, a neuroprotective molecule that aids in neuroplasticity, memory, and learning. The benefits of fasting also extend to protection against neuronal dysfunction and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

• Cancer prevention and treatment: Fasting makes cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy while protecting healthy cells—enhancing cancer treatment efficacy and reducing side effects. It does this by exploiting cancer cells' reduced flexibility that results from mutations in growth signaling pathways.

• Hormesis and cellular adaptation: Fasting activates cellular survival pathways that thrive during intermittent, mild stressors like fasting. This enhances our body's resilience to oxidative damage, metabolic stress, and toxic environmental exposure.

• Renewal and repair: Prolonged fasting triggers autophagy (cellular recycling) and apoptosis, clearing damaged cellular components. There's also an increase in stem cell activity and a regeneration of immune cells after fasting cycles.

Who Can Benefit from Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting can benefit a wide variety of people including certain athletes. A 2016 study that tracked the effects of intermittent fasting on 34 resistance-trained men found that restricting their eating to an eight-hour window positively affected several health-related biomarkers, while decreasing fat mass and maintaining muscle mass.

For eight weeks, the participants divided their daily calorie intake across three meals eaten at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. They fasted the remaining 16 hours of the day and completed three weekly sessions of resistance training on non-consecutive days. Among the biomarkers noted, there was a significant decrease in blood sugar for the intermittent fasting group as compared to the normal diet group.

Potential Pitfalls when Intermittent Fasting

The biggest challenge with intermittent fasting is making sure you get adequate protein.   This is particularly important as you age because once you get on the other side of 45 your body has a harder time digesting and absorbing protein so your need for protein actually goes up.

To make sure you do not fall into this trap check out this previous blogpost that provides suggestions on how to make sure you get enough protein into your diet while intermittent fasting.

Contraindications for Fasting

Although most people can safely benefit from intermittent fasting, it's important to take caution if you have certain health challenges. Do NOT use fasting if any of the following are true:

• You are underweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 or less

• You are malnourished

• Children should NOT fast! They need nutrients for continued growth; if your child is obese, consider cutting him or her back on refined grains and sugar to promote weight loss

• Pregnant and breastfeeding women should NOT fast because a consistent flow of nutrients must be shared with the baby to ensure its well-being.

• Anyone who has or has experienced an eating disorder including anorexia and bulimia needs to stay away from fasting.

• If you take medications that should be taken with food you will need to be very cautious about fasting and consult with your physician first.   This is especially true for diabetics and those with gout.

• You have a medical condition – check with your physician first.

Take Home

Intermittent fasting is not magic and does not work for everyone, but for many it provides a much easier way to keep caloric balance and lose fat!

Post Exercise Sauna for Increased Strength, Muscle Growth, Explosive Power, and Cardio Fitness

You heard that right - post exercise sauna use can improve strength, muscle growth, explosive power, and cardiovascular fitness.

A recent study with female athletes showed that a group doing a 10 minute sauna session after workouts experienced a 25% increase in jump height and 6.8% boost in peak power – outperforming the control group.   Both groups performed the same workouts

Sauna use has also been shown to boost increases in muscular size and strength when performed after strength training workouts.   Sauna use boost levels of Heat Shock Proteins (HSP’s).   HSP’s promote muscle mass by assisting in the repair of cellular damage by attracting amino acids to damaged sites and encouraging them to convert into new muscle fibers.

Post exercise sauna use has also been shown to trigger a large secretion of growth hormone along with improved insulin sensitivity.  Post exercise sauna use activates the mTOR cellular pathway which is responsible for protein synthesis in muscles and reduces muscle protein breakdown by inhibiting the FOXO pathway which increases muscle breakdown.

Research has shown that sauna use reduces muscle soreness and increases muscle strength when done after high intensity training.   In addition, sauna use during periods of inactivity has been proven to help prevent muscle loss.

Sauna Use for Improved Cardiovascular Fitness

Sauna use after a cardio workout can also bring big benefits.   Research has proven that sauna use mimics moderate aerobic activity meaning a sauna session is like a low to moderate intensity cardio workout.

Regular sauna use after workout results in multiple physiological adaptations that benefit cardiovascular fitness including:

Increased plasma volume and blood flow to the heart resulting in increased stroke volume (stroke volume is the amount of blood your heart can pump with each contraction).  When stroke volume goes up heart rate decreases!.

Increased red blood cell count resulting in increased oxygen delivery to muscles. 

Increased blood flow to muscles and other tissues resulting in increased delivery of nutrients and disposal of cellular waste products.

Reduced rate of glycogen depletion which significantly improves endurance exercise performance.  Glycogen is the storage form of blood sugar in your muscles and liver.

 

Lower core body temperature during workouts and heat exposure

A study showed that a 30-minute sauna session two times per week for three weeks done after a run increased run time to exhaustion by 32% in experienced runners.  

How Much Fat Does an Extra Pound of Muscle Burn?

 

Because the muscles function as the engines of our bodies they play a major role in maintaining our metabolic rate. Even at rest, muscles account for almost 30% of the total calories burned because muscles require lots of caloric energy for muscle remodeling which happens 24 hours per day. For those who do not perform resistance training exercise, each pound of their muscle uses approximately 6 calories per day.   However, for those of us who perform resistance exercise regularly each pound of muscle uses approximately 9 calories per day because of higher levels of muscle remodeling and building stimulated by resistance training.

The key take home message is that the resting energy requirements of strength trained muscles is 50% higher than the energy requirements of non-strength trained muscles! In addition stronger muscles allow you to perform physical activity at a higher level which increases the energy demands of exercise as well. Actual overall resting metabolic rate increases approximately 7% for 3 full days following a strength training session! Over the course of a year, this increase can add up to to the energy contained in 10lbs of fat. Put another way, strength trained muscles can help you lose 10lbs of fat over the course of a year!

Strength training is also highly effective for regulating blood sugar. Your muscles are your largest storage depot for sugar, in the form of glycogen, so larger and stronger muscle help pull out more sugar from your blood. Strength training also increases insulin sensitivity and improves glycemic control for enhanced sugar transport from your blood to your muscles.

Resistance training has also been shown to reduce resting blood pressure and decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol. In fact the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association both recommend regular resistance training to combat cardiovascular disease and diabetes.