Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Astaxanthin: The Little-Known Miracle Nutrient for Inflammation, Anti-Aging, Athletic Endurance and More

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Excerpt from article by Mike Adams on Natural News Website


Every once in a very great while, I discover a natural medicine so astonishing that I feel compelled to share it with you.


The verb "discover" is actually not to my credit, by the way; Mother Nature created this natural medicine eons ago, and it's been present in trace amounts in aquatic ecosystems for over a billion years.


In this article, I'm going to reveal the name of this natural medicine, what health benefits it provides to us, and how to get some right now.


But first, before revealing the name, I want to share some of the numerous health benefits with you so you get the full picture of just how significant this substance can be in enhancing your health.


As always, I have absolutely no financial ties to this product, and I earn nothing if you choose to purchase it. I do, however, buy and consume this product myself on a regular basis, as you'll see below.

Did you ever notice how the drug companies get excited when they find a drug that just slightly alters the risk of a single disease? I remember hearing all the hype about a particular cancer drug made by Big Pharma. It was called a "miracle" drug that needed to be fast-tracked so it could start saving lives. When I looked at the research, however, it only turned out to prevent cancer in one woman out of two hundred (a 0.5% reduction in the risk of breast cancer). Gee, that's not much get excited about. And yet they called it a "miracle" drug!

Well imagine if there were a natural substance that operated at many different biochemical levels at once, providing all the following health benefits (yes, from a single source!):



  1. Reduces proliferation of breast cancer tumor cells by 40%

  2. Protects the brain from dementia and Alzheimer's

  3. Greatly reduces inflammation and joint pain

  4. Reduces oxidative damage to your DNA by 40% (even at low doses)

  5. Greatly increases endurance, muscle recovery and workout performance

  6. Reduces the risk of cancer

  7. Reduces blood sugar level in diabetics and prediabetics

  8. Improves fertility while decreasing the rate of stillborn births

  9. Promotes cardiovascular health, reduces C-Reactive Proteins (CRP)• Reduces or eliminates carpal tunnel syndrome

  10. Boosts immune function and helps the body resist infections

  11. Protects the stomach from ulcers and invasive bacteria

  12. Protects the kidneys from damage due to high blood sugar

  13. Causes cancer cells to commit suicide (apoptosis)

  14. Greatly improves sperm quality, motility, and sperm count

  15. Prevents asthma by normalizing histamine levels

  16. Protects the body from highly oxidative foods like fried foods

In addition, I've found that this natural medicine:



  1. Greatly protects eye health, reduces cataracts and prevents UV damage to the eyes

  2. Makes skin look younger and functions as a natural internal sunscreen that prevents DNA damage and sunburn

  3. Protects the body from the dangerous oxidizing effects of Vioxx and COX-2 inhibitors, meaning that is can actually reduce the harmful side effects and deaths caused by other anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals



Now, if all that is really true -- and I'll show you in a minute that it is true -- that would make this one of the most miraculous medicines ever discovered by modern science, wouldn't it?


For any one substance to prevent and treat so many different diseases -- and to protect the human body in so many different ways -- is nothing short of truly miraculous. So why isn't this nutrient front-page news?


The answer, of course, is because it can't be patented. This natural substance (which I will reveal below) is created by microalgae, so it's not something that was invented by a drug company scientist for patenting purposes. And the sad fact of the matter is that drug companies aren't interested in medicines that can't be patented, no matter how helpful or miraculous they may really be.


And yes, all the health benefits I've described for this supplement are, indeed, quite true. And they're backed by clinical trials and research papers that are fascinating in what they contain, and yet have never been picked up by the mainstream media. In other words, this nutrient may be the most powerful natural medicine you've never heard about!


Maybe you have heard about it already, but here's something else...It's possible, of course, that you have heard about it. Especially if you've been reading NaturalNews for some time (I've mentioned it on this website before). But until recently, I never fully understood the health benefits of taking larger doses of the nutrient.

Previously, I was only taking 2mg - 4mg per day. But for a while now, I've been taking 16mg per day (400% more than before), and I've discovered something truly astounding: The health benefits of this natural medicine keep increasing as the dose increases (to a limit, of course). I've found that 16mg a day is the ideal dosage for me to experience maximum benefits from this supplement... benefits that include outstanding athletic performance, a significant reduction in muscle soreness and joint pain, radical improvements in resistance to UV sun exposure, stabilized blood sugar and many more.

So what is this mystery nutrient? It's astaxanthin, a deep red-colored phytonutrient synthesized by microalgae called Haematococcus. It's grown in fresh water using sophisticated techniques that encourage the algae to grow its own powerful medicines that protect it from oxidation, UV radiation and other environmental stresses. When harvested from the algae and concentrated into a liquid, astaxanthin becomes the most powerful antioxidant known in the natural world, demonstrating 550 times the antioxidant power of Vitamin E, for example.


Now why is antioxidant power important? Think about it: Much of what goes on during the aging of the human body is due to oxidation. Every time you breathe, you're inhaling some oxygen, right? That oxygen reacts with your cells to create energy, but the byproduct of that energy is the creation of free radicals. These free radicals cause DNA damage, nerve cell damage, accelerated aging of internal organs and more.


The way to stop those free radicals is with antioxidants, which bind to them, neutralizing their damaging effects. Astaxanthin, it turns out, is so good at halting free radicals that it seems to confer miracle-class health benefits to the human body... benefits that might be described as "anti-aging" or "reversing disease."

Right to the muscles and tissues that need them.


It gets even better: Unlike most antioxidants, astaxanthin is fat-soluble, meaning it gets carried by fat molecules directly to tissues and organs in your body where it can do the most good, like your retina, your brain, your breast tissue, prostate tissue, and skeletal muscles.


You know what makes the flesh of salmon pink? Astaxanthin. And guess what gives salmon the seemingly superhuman ability to achieve marathon swimming feats, leaping up waterfalls against the current? Astaxanthin, of course. Without astaxanthin, salmon are mere average performers, and their survival rate drops to less than one in five. But with astaxanthin, they become superstars of the aquatic world, performing feats of physical strength and endurance that, in proportion, dwarf the greatest achievements of the world's top human athletes. (And their survival rate on salmon farms leaps from 17% to an astonishing 98%!)


You see, when astaxanthin is present in muscles and other tissues, it prevents oxidation right where it's needed: Right at the site of stress or potential oxidation. Ever notice how you breathe more air when you're exercising? That's more oxygen you're pumping through your tissues, and more oxygen means more oxidation. So the more you exercise, the more you need powerful antioxidants like astaxanthin. This helps explain why some athletes who work out hard but don't supplement with superfoods and antioxidants seem to age faster than everyone else. Exercising without antioxidants is like putting yourself on an aging acceleration program!

The fact that astaxanthin goes right to the muscles gives it the ability to protect muscles from all sorts of degenerative conditions. A horse suffering from a severe muscle conditions called rhabdomyolysis, for example (which can also be caused by statin drugs), was given 30mg of astaxanthin a day. In merely a few weeks, he was 100% symptom free and running again! (The owners were no doubt astonished.)


In fact, astaxanthin has been used in all kinds of ways to enhance the health of animals. In animal tests, it has been shown to:


  • Greatly increase the longevity and survival rate of salmon and chickens

  • Increase egg production by a whopping 300% in salmon

  • Significantly lower salmonella infections in chickens

  • Reduced infections by increasing immune resistance in every animal it's been tested with

  • Accelerated the growth of farmed salmon by 600%! (Seems impossible, but it's true...)
    The animals who have been fed a small amount of astaxanthin in their diet, it seems, experience phenomenal health benefits. Every type of animal given astaxanthin lives longer, grows faster, exhibits greater fertility and shows much stronger immune system function.


Do these sound like benefits you'd like to experience, too?

My top 3 nutrients for human health

Speaking of top nutrients for human health, would you like to know what I think are the top 3 most important nutrients for human health? They are:
#1: Vitamin D

#2: Omega-3 fatty acids

#3: Astaxanthin

Vitamin D is crucial, of course, due to its miracle-class ability to halt cancer (77% of ALL cancers are prevented by vitamin D alone!), to ease depression, boost bone health, enhance heart health and much, much more. It's the single most impressive nutrient I've ever found. Nothing beats vitamin D in terms of the number of important health benefits derived from a single substance.

Next comes omega-3 fatty acids, which have proven to be miraculous, too, in terms of preventing cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, depression and much more. Plus, you can get these from plant sources (like chia seeds or flax seeds) or animal source (fish oil, krill oil, etc.).

And now, astaxathin joins my list as the third most important nutrient for human health. It is the "King of the carotenoids," as they say, and it has the ability to ease systemic inflammation, protect the eyes and brain from oxidative damage, prevent cancer, protect the body from dangerous foods, enhance skin health and even protect the skin from excessive UV sun exposure. It's truly miraculous.

I've heard some ignorant conventional medical doctors (and FDA bureaucrats) say there are no miracles in the world of supplements, herbs and natural medicine. The only miracles in the world, they claim, are found in pharmaceuticals. I think that's nonsense: Nature is full of miracles! Growing a baby in the womb is a miracle. Automatic skin repair following a scratch or scrape is a miracle. The nanotechnology in your immune system is a miracle. The building of a highly complex organism from microscopic DNA is a miracle, too. Nature abounds with miracles! And astaxanthin is simply one miracle among many that have been provided for us by Mother Nature.

(If you would like to experience the miracle of Astaxanthin, contact Angel at verityy@yahoo.com)


Note:


  • Astaxanthin won't counteract unhealthy habits like smoking cigarettes, eating fried foods or drinking a fat-laden Starbucks "coffee" that's really more like a 600-calorie milkshake. Don't take astaxanthin as an excuse to pursue unhealthy foods or lifestyle choices (like smoking).

  • Don't go overboard with your exercise in an unsafe way. Always work with a qualified health practitioner concerning ANY changes in your exercise or diet. Ease into your exercise slowly and carefully. It's better to slowly ramp up to more exercise over time than to injure yourself because you got overly excited and went too far...

  • Always take astaxanthin with healthy fats. Since it's fat-soluble, it needs fat to hitch a ride to your body's cells.

  • Remember that if you eat fried foods (including so-called "healthy" snack chips fried at high temperatures), you will "use up" a lot of the antioxidant power in astaxanthin, leaving less to help the rest of your body. Unhealthy foods are often highly oxidizing, so even though I don't recommend eating fried foods, if you do, you may want to consider taking an extra astaxanthin capsule at the same time to protect your body from the fried foods.

  • Not to make this too scatalogical, but at 16mg per day, astaxanthin will turn your poo slightly red, just like when you drink beet juice. Drink some chlorophyll too (which turns your poo green) next December, and you can poo in vibrant holiday colors! (Only recommended for the easily amused...)

  • There's virtually no way to overdose on astaxanthin. Remember, this isn't a drug. It's something that's been in the natural food supply for millions of years. The studies that have been done show virtually no toxicity even at ridiculously high doses. However, based on what I've read it seems that the benefits of astaxanthin reach a point of diminishing returns after about 20mg per day for a human being, so that's why I take 16mg a day: It's enough to generate wonderful benefits, but I'm not going overboard with it. In one study, they gave 30mg per day to a horse! So probably, it's a fair guess to say you would need less than a horse. The lighter you are, the less you need, of course. I weigh 190 and take 16mg. If you only weigh 110 pounds, you might only want to take 8mg or 12mg per day. Even 4mg per day produces some benefits, by the way.

You can also just buy astaxanthin at your local health food store, of course. Or you might have other online retailers if you're living in the U.K., Australia, Canada or another country. Frankly, it doesn't matter to me where you get your astaxanthin, just make sure of one thing, which is VERY important: Always by "natural" astaxanthin, not "synthetic astaxanthin."

You see, there's a lot of synthetic astaxanthin on the market, too, and it's made from -- if you can believe this -- petroleum! It doesn't provide any health benefits, by the way, just like synthetic vitamin E or synthetic B vitamins. They're all garbage, if you ask me. Only the natural stuff really works to protect and enhance your health. So wherever you buy astaxanthin, make sure you're buying only natural astaxanthin.


About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored more than 1,500 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help prevent global warming. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
For more info about some cost effecient health foods with astaxanthin to regain perfect health and regain your figure, contact Angel at verityy@yahoo.com
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Astaxanthin sources revealed: super antioxidant eases arthritis pain, joint pain, sore muscles and protects against heart disease

Saturday, November 06, 2004
Excerpt from article by Mike Adams on Natural News Website



What is astaxanthin? I call it "Vitamin X," and it's a supercharged antioxidant derived from microalgae. It's 500 times stronger than Vitamin E and crosses the blood/brain barrier, meaning it offers powerful oxidative protection for the nervous system (eyes, brain, nerve tissues, etc.) I used astaxanthin as part of my strategy for achieving a whopping 89,000 score on the Pharmanex nutrition scanner!


I'm working on an entire report on astaxanthin where I'll go into detail about this miraculous substances.



But the short version is as follows:




  1. Virtually eliminates arthritis pain for many people
  2. Eases or eliminates chronic back pain Accelerates muscle healing for strength trainers, weekend warriors, and people who get sore easily (I use it following my strenuous gymnastics workouts, and my soreness recovery time has been cut in half)
  3. Functions as an internal sunscreen to enhance your tolerance of sun exposure
  4. Offers powerful protection for the eyes and prevents macular degeneration
  5. Prevents heart disease due to oxidative damage
  6. Boosts immune system function
  7. Reduces pain from carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive motion injuries
  8. Protects the nervous system from degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's Disease
  9. Multiplies the effects of vitamin E and vitamin C in your body
  10. Enhances athletic performance: both strength and endurance
  11. Lowers LDL cholesterol ...
and much more.



I don't have time to give you all the details here just yet.



NOTE: I have no financial relationship with this product or the companies producing it. I don't earn a dime from your purchase here. In fact, feel free to buy it anywhere you like. Just get some. This is an amazing supplement and I strongly recommend it for people who wish to be healthy and free of pain.


About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored more than 1,500 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He's also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds.



For more information on some health foods that might help you lose weight effortlessly, contact Angel at verityy@yahoo.com

For more info on Astaxanthin:
Astaxanthin eyed as weight loss ingredient

Astaxanthin may boost muscle endurance and fat loss

Astaxanthin: The Little-Known Miracle Nutrient for Inflammation, Anti-Aging, Athletic Endurance and More



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