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What Is Creatine? – A Steroid It Is Not

Identified in 1832 by Michel Eug?�ne Chevreul, Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in all vertebrate life forms, including humans. The basic function of Creatine is to provide energy to all cells in the body, primarily muscle cells during contraction. Creatine is produced by the liver, and up to 95% of it ends up being stored in skeletal muscle. Skeletal muscles are muscles that can be contracted voluntarily, as opposed to the heart, for example. Creatine is produced by the body from the amino acids L-arginine, glycine and L-methionine.

While Creatine is produced by the body, as it occurs naturally in animals it is also absorbed through food, primarily through the consumption of meat and animal products. Both fish and meat – beef, pork, etc – are sources of Creatine, but eating liver and offal is generally the best source of Creatine that can be naturally added to a diet. For those conscious of their Creatine intake, it is very difficult to reach the optimal amounts using only food; for example, one would have to eat over 500 grams of fish (more than a pound) each day to reach recommended Creatine levels, which is why Creatine supplements are so popular.

Creatine supplements are widely available, both in stores and online. Supplements usually take the form of capsules, or powder to be mixed with water or juice.

Creatine and Sports – Besides its everyday use in the body, Creatine is particularly appreciated by athletes and bodybuilders. Creatine has cell volumization properties, meaning that it encourages and promotes water retention inside cells, increasing their size, making it a favorite of bodybuilders. The energy boost Creatine provides to muscle cells also means that bodybuilders can use heavier and heavier weights, increasing the potency of their workouts and speeding up their training.

Creatine is also believed to reduce the build-up of lactic acid in the muscles; lactic acid is an energy waste product that contributes significantly to muscle fatigue.

Because of its energy-boosting properties and its propensity at reducing or delaying muscle fatigue, Creatine is widely used by athletes of all stripes, not just bodybuilders, who consider it a safe alternative to the use of dangerous anabolic steroids. Because Creatine occurs naturally in the body, its use has proven difficult to regulate and it is perfectly legal to use in most disciplines and professional associations.

Creatine and the Medical Community – Creatine is also known to help rebuild damaged muscle, and as such is used by the medical community to treat neuromuscular diseases such as muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s Disease as well as Parkinson’s Disease.

While Creatine is considered safe, it does carry the risk of minor side effects, such as loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea and muscle cramps. People with kidney or liver problems should avoid Creatine supplements, since creatinine (the by-product of Creatine) is filtered by the kidneys.

Creatine is an organic acid with only minor side effects, and which provides many benefits, not only to athletes and bodybuilders, but also to those suffering from certain neuromuscular diseases as well as those recovering from surgery. Just like with any other supplement, it is recommended to consult a health care professional before starting to use Creatine to make sure there are no counter-indications in relation to medication you may already be taking.…

Stop Feeling Tired – How to Live a Healthy and Active Lifestyle

It is normal to get tired, but if you are feeling sluggish every hour of each day, you will become unproductive, stressed, unhappy, and not enjoying a great quality of life. Indeed, persistent tiredness is a great hindrance for us to do what we need to do, and if you want to achieve your goals, you have to stop feeling tired.

To help you check the factors of your constant fatigue, it is wise to check your lifestyle and habits. More often, persistent fatigue comes from the simple things we do everyday that we often take for granted. Living a sedentary lifestyle can make us more tired day after day, thus make sure you are not causing your own tiredness by getting active.

Have a good cardio exercise everyday. Allot a few minutes of your time to exercise regularly. Take a walk early in the morning, jog, ride your bicycle or just get a simple exercise routine after you wake up. Enjoy your favorite sports on the weekend or visit the gym.

A good exercise will not only help you overcome persistent tiredness, it will also help you manage stress. It will also help you get good supply of oxygen to your body and lowers the risks of heart diseases.

If you want to stop feeling tired, check your habits. Are you ignoring your alarm clock and putting it often on snooze? Waking up later than your biological clock’s wake up time can make you feel tired the entire day, so make sure you stick to your sleeping hours always. Make sure also that you have enough sleep everyday. Sleep deprivation is one cause of tiredness and stress, so avoid it as much as possible.

Avoid those instant fixes. Most people get a cup or two of coffee if they are feeling tired, but keep in mind that although caffeine may boost your alertness in no time, it may also make you feel more tired once the effect wears out. The same can be true to energy drinks as well. Also avoid caffeine and alcohol a few hours before going to sleep as this can disrupt your sleep.

Get proper nutrition and maintain a healthy weight. Proper nutrition is also a key towards living an active lifestyle without persistent fatigue. Add more fresh vegetables and fruits in your diet and cut down on carbs and sugar. Too much carbohydrates and sugar in your diet can also contribute to your being sluggish. Of course, it is also important to keep a healthy weight if you want to stop feeling tired always. Being overweight or obese can also be a factor of persistent tiredness, so make sure you also lose those extra weight to maintain an active lifestyle.

Don’t forget to keep yourself hydrated as well. To stop feeling tired always, fuel your body with enough water to make it run smoothly. Bodily functions need water and if you are feeling sluggish everyday, you may have forgotten to feed yourself with enough water. Aside from being a good way to cleanse your body from toxins, keeping yourself hydrated can also boost your energy level at all times.…

Benefits of Drinking Water

This past week I was struggling with fatigue. All these anxious thoughts were circling through my mind. Was it something I ate? My husband said, “It can’t be something you ate. You eat healthy.” He was right. It couldn’t be that.

Did I get enough sleep? Sure, there are nights I burn the midnight oil on the computer. I need to watch that. But even after eight hours of sleep and a nap, I didn’t feel much better.

Is it this awful, humid heat we are experiencing lately? The beginning of summer this year was wet and cool but now it’s in the eighties and nineties with high humidity. I never suffered so much with the heat though. In fact, I always pictured myself retiring in some hot climate.

Am I going through menopause? I called my sister who is twelve years older to ask her what the symptoms of menopause are. Nope. I’m not there yet.

Do I have cancer? Wouldn’t that be awful? Cancer is such a scary word. Whenever something in my health goes wrong I wonder, “Is it cancer?!”

What was it?!

In my quest to find the cause of my fatigue, I suddenly recalled a time in the past when I drank water and felt my crankiness and fatigue dissipate. An “ah ha” occurred. I downed two glasses of water and like a drooping plant given water, I began to perk up.

How could something so easy have slipped my mind? Well, I don’t really love drinking water. But if it’s what I need to do, then so be it. I much rather feel energetic than fatigued!

The conventional recommendation is to drink at least eight glasses of water a day. In the summer heat, we may need more. If your urine is a very light yellow tint, then you are drinking enough water. If it is dark yellow then you are probably not drinking enough water.

In the book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, by Fereydoon Batmanghelidj you can read all about the tremendous benefits of water. Here are some more important ways water benefits us.

Water:

o hydrates internal organs, enabling them to function properly.

o helps prevent hangovers and headaches. Drinking alcohol causes dehydration which then causes hangovers.

o facilitates fat loss.

o curbs your appetite which helps people who are looking to lose fat.

o flushes toxins and other waste from the body.

o helps prevent constipation. When you don’t drink enough water, your body is forced to take it from other organs like the colon which then leads to constipation.

o keeps skin healthy and glowing.

o keeps the immune system healthy. It reduces your risk of disease and infection.

o regulates appetite. People often mistake thirst and hunger, and eat when their bodies are actually craving fluid.

o maintains acid-alkaline balance.

o cushions and lubes your joints and muscles.

So, take water wherever you go. Add a squeeze of lemon or lime for flavor or add ice cubes and a straw to make it more fun to drink. Whatever you do, make sure you drink it. That way you can prevent a whole host of medical issues brought on by dehydration or uncomfortable feelings like the puzzling fatigue I described. It’s definitely worth it.…

How To Create An Effective Event Poster For Your Non Profit Event

At The Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa we have an extensive display of posters announcing upcoming events that may be of interest to our community. We have been on a long journey of learning how to use posters effectively and with some advice from designers and people in-the-know when it comes to advertising. Over time we have made some successful adjustments that have taught us how to create an effective event poster for our nonprofit organization. Now we notice people spend more time viewing our display of posters, whereas before we honed our skills, they tended to move past the display quickly.

Less Is More

Through trial and error we have discovered that the first and most important piece of advice has been ‘less is more,’ a concept that when practiced in poster making seems to increase interest and comprehension. At first we wrestled with our desire to get as much information in front of the reader as possible, until we learned that in general people are overwhelmed by information, they have information fatigue. It seems that if they do not see and ‘get’ what they are interested in by the first glance of the poster, they are likely to move on. We try to let the poster answer the viewer’s question “What will I take away from this event?”

Let The Picture Tell The Story

We learned to ‘let the picture tell the story,’ so that a poster – even from a distance – announces through its photo/graphic “John Doe Is Coming,” or “If You Like Famous Person You’ll Like This Class.” In other words, let the visual be your primary creative concern: what do I want the people to ‘get’ right away when they look at this poster?

Be Selective

Next, we had to be selective and have two or three large print sentences or bullets that clearly state what the interested person will get out of attending the event or class. So dominating each poster is 1) Title of event 2) Graphic elements that tell the story and 3) Short key information that is easy to read. Long descriptions of the content or extensive biographies of the presenter are best presented elsewhere, for example on a website.

More Information Available

On the lower portion of the poster – say the lower quarter – information about date, cost and where more information can be found, is printed in considerably smaller text. This is because these details do not need to compete for attention. If the graphic element, title and key elements have done the job by attracting interested people, these are the people are most likely to step closer to look for the additional details, and you want to be sure they know where to go to get it.…