| While you were sleeping….(Part 1) At night our brains process information, our body floods with hormones to stimulate cell repair and your immune system releases chemicals to help repair damage. Our bodies have incredibly complex processes to repair damage and prevent disease. In all cases this repair and maintenance requires our bodies to make or modify things in order to restore balance. All these essential processes are dependent on nutrients from food and supplements. The presence of a chronic disease is an indication that healing processes have been damaged to some extent. What is surprising is that most disease processes involve unwanted inflammation and damage from free radicals. Free radicals are reactive molecules with unbalanced electrons that damage cells and tissue if not neutralized by antioxidants. There is direct link between healing processes and nutrition. Let’s look at just one example. Our survival depends on a specialised enzyme called glutathione peroxidase (GPx). This is a potent antioxidant that protects cells from free radical damage and helps to maintain the healthy balance of a cell. If GPx levels are low this will eventually allow devastating changes to cells and the tissue they comprise. As an example we know low GPx is involved with cartilage loss in osteoarthritis. Our bodies make GPx from the trace mineral selenium. Unfortunately NZ soils are low in selenium and low selenium means low GPx. This means your body will constantly be pushed towards many disease states. If you ever wanted evidence to support mineral supplements this is it. Of course, selenium is just one of the many minerals needed for good health. While we do everything we can to eat well, I am convinced that a well formulated mineral supplement like Cell eXtra is perhaps the most important health supplement we can take. As always, feel free to contact me for personalised advice. John Arts (Adv.Dip.Nut.Med) Abundant Health john@abundant.co.nz 0800 423559 Int’l +64 7 5722343 John Arts (B.Soc.Sci, Dip Tch, Adv.Dip.Nut.Med) is a nutritional medicine practitioner and founder of Abundant Health Ltd. For questions or advice contact John on 0800 423559 or email john@abundant.co.nz. Join his all new newsletter at www.abundant.co.nz. |
