There’s still time to enter and win a copy of my book through my Amazon Giveaway
Click below to enter directly through Amazon or read this post to learn more
Good Luck!
Advertisements
Did you grab this FREE About Herbs App?
A Guide to Botanicals,Supplements, Complementary Therapies and More
If you are on our Know-Stroke.org Member News List you already received this free About Herbs app link. I wanted to also share this information with my stroke community here so you don’t miss this resource. I’ve learned from our Smart Moves Webinars that many stroke survivors often have questions about supplements and herbs and I found this app to be a helpful free tool to provide some of those answers. Learn more here….
Catechins in green tea reduce stroke risk
Nutrition and Stroke Prevention
Making small but positive lifestyle changes such as adding green tea to your daily diet can lower the risk of stroke by as much as 30 percent. This is not new research but small changes like this often go ignored and they can have a significant impact on your health. Researchers at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in Japan conducted and published the results of this important study in Stroke, the Journal of the American Heart Association several years ago that explains how drinking green tea on a regular basis is associated with a dramatically reduced risk of stroke. The team also investigated the effect of drinking coffee and found the beverage can yield similar results to those found with green tea consumption. Many health-minded people avoid coffee due to the highly processed nature of the bean and increased levels of homocysteine, blood pressure and blood lipids which may offset the possible health benefits when comparing green tea directly with coffee. I also talk about coffee and my take on how it relates to a Body in Balance in my book.
How does green tea reduce stroke risk?
Researchers concluded that green tea provides a healthy dose of catechins that are potent antioxidants and exert anti-inflammatory properties that help lower stroke risk. The most active and abundant catechin in green tea is known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Cateching also play a powerful role in reducing certain cancer risks and keeping joints healthy. In contrast to green tea, coffee contains chlorogenic acid that helps modulate blood sugar levels to improve vascular health. Green coffee bean extract in supplement form can supply chlorogenic acid without the side effects experienced with coffee consumption.
Smart Move:
Lower your stroke risk by drinking up to four cups of fresh brewed, organic green tea every day! I get my organic teas online through Puritan’s Pride and usually stock up when they run 2 for one specials and offer free shipping.
Here’s how to brew the perfect cup of green tea:
The perfect cup of green tea is flavorful, not too bitter, weak or watery – in fact, I have a hot cup beside me now that I make this way:
- Use 2 grams (roughly one teaspoon) of loose green tea leaves for every 6 ounces of water. Ideally you should use organic, non-irradiated tea leaves. Whether you use tap, filtered, or spring water is up to you – however, fresh cold water that has not been previously boiled is the best option (avoid fluoridated tap water, paying special attention not to re-boil fluoridated tap water as the chemical will concentrate).
- To make the tea, place the water in a tea kettle and heat it to 160°-180°F. Alternatively, you could heat the water to just short of boiling. Place the loose leaves in a teapot or cup (you may want to add a small amount of room temperature water − enough to dampen the tea leaves or bag before adding the water). Pour the water over the tea leaves.
- Next, place the lid on the teapot. If using a cup, cover it with a lid or a small saucer. Depending on the particular variety of green tea, it should be allowed to steep for 1-3 minutes. Small leaves generally infuse more quickly than large leaves.
- Enjoy!
References:
American Heart/Stroke Association
Puritans Pride Organic Green Tea
Truth About Cancer Documentary
Learn more about how green tea can reduce cancer risk
Learn more about how green tea can help keep joints healthy
Learn more about green tea in my book
Best Seller in Preventive Medicine!
Supplements: Safe or a Sham?
PBS Frontline Film:
Supplements and Safety
With many stroke survivors now taking or considering taking a supplement to gain an edge in their recovery, I thought I’d repost this on my Stroke blog from my nutrition website with my takeaways after watching the Frontline special earlier this week on supplement safety.
According to a new film by PBS’s Frontline which aired January 19th, “There is no effective system to detect potential harm from supplements”. The film also points the finger at the failed US Medwatch system at the FDA and their weak ability to keep up with all the potentially dangerous nutritional supplements that are hitting the market without adequate regulation.
Read my full article with the link to the PBS Film: Supplements and Safety
Have You Quit Yet??
Did you know?
Each year over 80% of all dieters and exercisers who start a program in January have already thrown in the towel by the first week in February. You can learn why and how to develop “no fail” strategies to avoid this pitfall on my upcoming virtual book tour and body bootcamp kickoff webinar. Free registration opens next week for anyone who has purchased Body in Balance or is enrolled in Weight Management University http://www.WMU-101.com
Get Your Copy of Body in Balance on Amazon!
Contact me for Bulk Orders or Corporate Seminars
Workouts!
New Workouts Module Coming to
Weight Management University
Launches Monday January 26th!
Register Now and Get Workouts Free
Best Home Stroke Recovery Tips
There are many great questions still coming in from my goal setting webinar for home stroke recovery. If you attended the live event or rebroadcast and I wasn’t able to answer your questions live, I think I am now caught up and those answers are now in the members area. Here’s one of the questions that was asked frequently in regards to best home stroke recovery tips to help get your body back in balance:
Dawn M. asked “What is the best way to regain proper arm and leg movements?”
Good question Dawn!
As I mentioned on the webinar, there is no ONE best roadmap to recovery. There are lots of maps that can be followed, and you may need to follow more than one until you find what works best for you. I mentioned my PTCMAP on the webinar because I find it is effective at getting patients to write down their goals and start to think about their recovery using a checkbook of sorts to get a starting point when restoring overall health balance. I’ve also had good outcomes with patients using BWSTT (body weight supported treadmill training) as well as FES (functional electric stim) for both the lower and upper extremities. I provided a resource page for download on Goal Setting that also has links to articles I’ve written over the years on stroke recovery. Refer to the article I wrote for Advance for PT called Simple Steps where I talk about some of these technologies in more detail. Here’s the link
http://physical-therapy.advanceweb.com/Archives/Article-Archives/Simple-Steps.aspx
Finally, I’ll be gathering more questions from the rebroadcast until the end of this month and putting more resources together for you to help answer your questions.
Keep them coming!
ps– if you want to get on the stroke recovery webinar replay before it goes into our members area> Register Here
