Here Is A Timeline Of What Happens To Your Body When You Quit Smoking

Originally seen on SimpleOrganicLife| If you’re smoking a cigarette right now, I have good news for you: if you don’t ever pick one up again, your body will go through amazing transformations within minutes of finishing your last one.

We all know the negative health effects of smoking cigarettes, but what really hits home is when you look at how your body begins to heal itself right after you stop smoking:

1. 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse will lower and return to normal. The temperature in your hands and feet increase.

2. After 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood will lower and return to normal. Blood oxygen begins to increase. You’ll feel more alert, sleep better, and be stronger.

3. After 24 hours, your risk of heart attack drops significantly.

4. After 48 hours, nerve endings begin to regrow and your sense of smell and taste will return.

5. After about 3 months, your circulation will improve, walking will be easier, and you’ll cough less. Lung function will be markedly improved.

6. Between 1 and 9 months, you’ll have less sinus congestion, fatigue, and nearly no shortness of breath.

7. After 1 year, your risk of coronary heart disease is half of what it was when you smoked.

8. After 5-15 years, your risk of stroke returns to normal, as if you never smoked at all.

9. At the 10 year mark, your chance of developing smoking-related cancer is about the same as a non-smoker. Diet and smoking contribute to 60% of cancers.

10. After 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is that of a non-smoker. Your risk of death has dropped to that of a non-smoker.

Money saved

You will also save $1000-$2000 each year when you quit smoking depending on how often you smoke, which over 10 years can add up to as much as an extra $20,000 you will have at your disposal.

Plus all of the money you will save on lighters, matches, medical bills, dental bills, medications, and any other expenses that would come from illness and sickness resulting from a compromised immune system and bodily damage from smoking.

Not to mention, you will add years to your life, and the years you do live will be filled with more energy, life, and vitality.  You will also look better, smell better, feel better about yourself and will have a better influence over people in your life who look up to you.

Best of luck on quitting! You owe it to yourself and to your amazing body that is working hard to keep you alive.

Article Source: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/here-is-a-timeline-of-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-quit-smoking/

Aminos Are Essential: Lift Longer And Grow Stronger With BCAAs

In addition to being one of the most effective supplements for muscle growth, BCAAs delay fatigue, support strength and mental focus, and even boost fat-loss. Get the details!

The branched-chain amino acids, or BCAAs, are the three essential amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine. From a chemical structure standpoint, each of these amino acids has a forked outcropping that looks a lot like a branch. That's where they get their name. If they were named for what they do in the body, they would have been called AAAs—for amazing amino acids!

You may have heard that BCAAs help support muscle growth. That's no BS. In fact, a study that I presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that trained lifters taking a BCAA supplement around workouts for 8 weeks gained about twice as much muscle and strength as those taking a whey protein shake without additional BCAAs.

But the benefits of these three simple acids go far beyond mere muscle growth. Let's get deep into the science of an important performance supplement!

Branch Out to Work Out Longer ///

Part of what makes the BCAAs so special is how the body handles them. Typically, when you ingest amino acids—either individually or as a whole protein—they first travel to the liver. Here, the liver either breaks them down to use as fuel or directs them toward building and repairing muscle and other tissues. BCAAs, on the other hand, tend to be spared by the liver and get sent directly to the muscles, so that the muscle can use the BCAAs directly for fuel or to build and repair itself.

This gives BCAAs a two-pronged relevance to athletic training. During workouts, they can act as a fuel source, and when the workout is over, they can help build muscle. These effects explain why instructions on BCAA products usually advocate you take them before, during, and after a workout.

The more intense and the longer your workout, the more BCAAs will be used for fuel. So you can see how taking a dose of BCAAs before workouts can help you sustain your energy during a workout and train with more intensity from start to finish. You may not feel them in the same way as a pre-workout supplement, but first-time users often report that they BCAAs make their workout feel more pleasant and manageable.

Branch Out to Get Bigger and Stronger ///

The BCAAs built their popularity with bodybuilders on the reputation of being able to increase muscle size. But how does this work, exactly?

As you likely know, muscle tissue is made of protein. And protein is made up of amino acids, which are strung together like a pearl necklace. The way that muscle grows is by stringing together amino acids to make more protein. This is known as muscle protein synthesis. Although the three BCAAs are critical components in the "strings" of proteins that make muscle, their role in muscle-building is more than serving as building blocks.

Research has shown that the BCAAs, particularly leucine, increase muscle growth by directly stimulating muscle protein synthesis. Leucine acts like a key that turns on the process that strings the amino acids together to build muscle protein. Additionally, leucine boosts insulin levels. Insulin is an anabolic hormone that further stimulates protein synthesis.

Another way that BCAAs work to enhance muscle growth and strength is by boosting levels of growth hormone (GH). Italian researchers found that athletes taking BCAAs for one month had higher levels of growth hormone after workouts. The higher your GH levels after workouts, the greater the increases in muscle size and strength you can expect.

Yet another hormone that BCAAs influence to promote muscle growth and strength gains is cortisol. Research has shown that athletes taking BCAAs have lower levels of cortisol during exercise. This blunting of cortisol levels is thought to increase muscle growth because cortisol encourages muscle breakdown and interferes with the anabolic hormone testosterone. Numerous studies have confirmed that athletes taking BCAAs have significantly less muscle breakdown after exercise and recover more quickly.

Branch Out to Delay Fatigue ///

Acting as a direct energy source for muscles is not the only way that BCAAs boost your workout intensity. They also work via the brain to delay fatigue.

During exercise, the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) signals to the brain that the body is fatigued. This leads to a reduction in muscle strength and endurance. The amino acid tryptophan is responsible for producing 5-HT in the brain, whereas the BCAAs, namely valine, compete with tryptophan for entry into the brain. Research has shown that taking BCAAs before workouts lowers the amount of tryptophan that gets into the brain and therefore delays fatigue.

This ability of BCAAs to delay fatigue via this brain mechanism also means that BCAA supplements aren't just beneficial for the body, but the brain as well. By reducing levels of exercise-induced 5-HT in the brain, you reduce mental fatigue, which keeps you sharper mentally. This is one reason that endurance athletes and other high-intensity competitors supplement with BCAAs: to keep sharp when they're approaching physical exhaustion. Many people sip on BCAAs throughout the work day for the same reason.

BCAAs have also recently been found to aid in a different type of endurance: life span. Researchers from Milan, Italy discovered that mice supplemented with BCAAs in their drinking water had higher amounts of mitochondria in their muscles, higher activity of the longevity gene, SIRT1, and lived 12 percent longer than those not getting BCAA-enriched water. So supplementing with BCAAs daily can keep you in the race longer in addition to making you stronger.

Branch Out for Fat-Loss ///

The BCAAs are clearly great mass-building supplements, but they also can aid in fat-loss. Researchers have yet to determine precisely how this happens, but they've offered up several theories to explain the startling results they've seen.

One of the first studies to discover this benefit was a 1997 study of competitive wrestlers, which found that those who were supplementing with BCAAs while following a low-calorie diet experienced a greater drop in body fat, particularly in the waist, as compared to those taking a placebo. My study from 2009 also found that the lifters taking BCAAs lost about twice as much body fat as those taking whey protein without added BCAAs.

A study out of Brazil found that leucine supplementation for six weeks caused a large drop in body fat. The researchers proposed that the increase in protein synthesis stimulated by leucine increased energy expenditure so much that it helped to burn off body fat. Leucine has also been found to reduce hunger, causing you to eat less while you burn more, which ultimately leads to fat-loss.

In the most recent study on BCAAs fat-loss effects, Japanese researchers discovered that mice given isoleucine while eating a high-fat diet gained significantly less fat than mice not getting supplemental isoleucine. This was due to isoleucine's ability to activate special receptors, known as PPAR, that increase fat-burning and inhibit fat storage.

BCAA Dosing ///

Each time you take BCAAs you should go with about 5-10 grams. The most critical time to take them is around workouts, so add 5-10 grams to your pre- and post-workout shakes.

If your goal is to build mass, also consider taking a dose of BCAAs first thing upon waking to help stop the muscle breakdown that is turned on during your night of fasting while you sleep. You can also take a 5-10 gram dose of BCAAs at any other time of day to get a mental energy boost, reduce hunger, and aid muscle growth.

Article Source: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/aminos-are-essential-lift-longer-and-grow-

stronger-with-bcaas.html
Photo Source: www.imagarcade.com Are you getting in YOUR aminos?

Sleep cycles affect athletic performance

 

Athletic performance can vary over the course of the day by up to 26%, depending on the athlete’s circadian rhythm, according to research published in the journal Current Biology. The study illustrates how important it is for athletes to be aware of their sleep cycle and leave time to adjust when travelling to another country to compete.

Circadian rhythms are internal cycles of around 24 hours that regulate various behavioural and physiological systems in the body. Different systems peak at different times of day so some people naturally prefer to be active earlier, while others are happier being active later. Sleep scientists call this your circadian phenotype.

“The key finding from this paper is that your circadian phenotype is important in determining the best time of performance for you,” said Shantha Rajaratnam, professor in psychology and sleep researcher at Monash University.

Professor Rajaratnam added that circadian types were partly influenced by the way we’re genetically wired, and partly by lifestyle and behavioural habits. In particular, our light-dark exposure plays an important role.
 

In the study, 20 athletes of similar age and fitness levels were selected to take part in a cardiovascular endurance test at six different times of the day. The participants represented the population levels of early (28%), intermediate (48%) and late (24%) circadian types.
 

Early phenotypes performed best in the earlier tests, followed by intermediates, and the late types peaked in the evening. Early and intermediate types had a 7% to 10% variation in their physical performance over the course of the day, but late types varied by up to 26%.
The study found the biggest factor in predicting performance was the time since when your body would naturally wake up.

Sports coaches seem to be realising the competitive edge that might be gained by working with athletes' circadian rhythm.
 

Professor Leon Lack from Flinders University worked with the Socceroos in the lead up to the 2006 World Cup. Flying in from their last game in South America, the team had only a few days to adjust for their evening qualifying match in Sydney in 2005. Dr Lack consulted with the team’s doctor to create a sleeping and light exposure plan for the players to expedite this process.

The Australian team went on to win in a memorable penalty shootout, with several saves made by Australian goalie, Mark Schwarzer.

“The team doctor discussed this with me afterwards and said that Mark Schwarzer was probably the most conscientious about keeping to the routine,” Professor Lack said.
 

Craig Duncan, senior lecturer at Australian Catholic University, is currently working with the national soccer team as the head of sport science for the Asian Cup.

“In every team I work with, we monitor sleep. It is very important and along with a balanced nutritional regime it is the foundation of recovery,” Dr Duncan said. “If players were having sleep issues, adjustments could be made to enhance the sleep quality and quantity.”

Disruptions to sleep affect the internal body clock. According to Professor Rajaratnam, the general consensus for adjusting to a new timezone is around one day per hour of time difference, although that can be achieved faster with increased light exposure at the appropriate times of day and light avoidance at other times.
 

For would-be athletes who struggle to make it to training in the morning, the key is adjusting activity and light exposure.

“If you are a definite evening type,” explained Professor Rajaratnam, “in theory you may be able to become more of a morning type by increasing the light exposure in the morning and minimising light exposure in the evening. This remains to be studied.”

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
 

Article  Source: http://health.thewest.com.au/news/1890/sleep-cycles-affect-athletic-performance
Photo Source: http://www.thinkstockphotos.in

Are you looking after YOUR sleep cycle?

Time of Day Affects Athletic Performance

Researchers have found that an individual’s personal circadian rhythms can affect the physiological processes that are integral to athletic performance. Based on their natural circadian rhythms, athletes were classified into either “larks”, those who rise and sleep early, “owls”, those who rise and sleep late, or intermediates. Larks and intermediates hit peak performance levels six hours after they woke up while owls peaked 11 hours after waking up (1).

Larks and intermediates have better athletic performances about 6 hours after they wake up while owls best perform 11 hours after waking up​.

20 field hockey players were selected as a representative group with fitness levels and circadian rhythms matching the general population (25% larks, 50% intermediates, and 25% owls). Researchers conducted cardiovascular testing six times a day. Across individuals, there was an average performance difference of 11.2% between the lowest and highest performance. Lark and intermediate performance changes ranged from 7% to 10% whereas owl performances had an average range of 26% (1).

The larger variance in owls may explain why a majority of elite athletes are larks (2). Even a difference of 1% in performance can drastically change results. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics a 1% increase in the performance of the fourth place competitor in the men’s 100 m sprint would have resulted in a silver medal. A 1% increase in the women’s 400 m spring and 400 m freestyle would have given the fourth place a gold.

Larks, intermediates, and owls performed best at difference times of the day. However, when the data was viewed based on each individual’s biological clock rather than standardized time, larks and intermediates had nearly identical performance curves. This suggests that sleep and waking times have a relatively small effect on performance and a physiological condition controls performance (1).

A possible explanation is that larks have higher cortisol levels in the morning and more variation in cortisol levels throughout the day whereas owl have lowered cortisol levels in the morning and static cortisol levels throughout the day (3).

Article Source: http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/news/time-of-day-affects-athletic-performance#.VOmCfrOUd2c

Sources:

1. ScienceDirect (2015). The Impact of Circadian Phenotype and Time since Awakening on Diurnal Performance in Athletes. Retrieved January 31, 2015 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221401639X

2. Br. J. Sports Med. (2012). Sleep quality evaluation, chronotype, sleepiness and anxiety of Paralympic Brazilian athletes: Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. Retrieved January 31, 2015 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221401639X

3. Biol. Psychol. (1991) Morningness-eveningness and early-morning salivary cortisol levels. Retrieved January 31, 2015 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221401639X

Improving Sleep to Help Performance!

No matter how good your nutrition or training is, if you do not adequately rest and recover you are blunting your efforts.

A lot of people can argue the point that they survive on only a few hours sleep and of course they are correct, but who wants to just survive? I have to think what is their potential if sleep was placed higher on the priority list and what are the long term effects to having a sleep deficiency?

I say deficiency because no matter who we are or where we come from we basically all have the same hardware. There are variations, but we all are typically made of the same stuff and work pretty similar, meaning we need to have proper quantity and of course quantity of sleep to optimally perform.

Performance covers daily life, work commitments, and of course sporting and fitness motives.

On average people sleep 5-7 hours per night. This figure is a very general statement as a lot of factors will influence the average persons nightly sleep. Varying factors influence different people so generally 5-7 hours seems a fair statement for the average night.

I'm sure many of you reading this can relate and probably average out somewhere between this figure. When you compare that average or your own normal sleep hours with the recommend 7-9 hours per night, you can see how this deficiency isn't just representing those of us working on less than 5 hours per night, it's nearly all of us.

For me a good night sleep is the best preparation for anything, if I am rested and recovered my training is better, food choices are improved and everything seems to just flow properly.

People put a lot of emphasis on pre-workout drinks to give them that boost before a session, and if they work for those people that's fine, but for people not getting enough sleep and buying expensive supplements to help their performance just sounds insane to me.

Getting good sleep is not as easy as it sounds however. It takes practice and training and habit. It's not just simply a case of going to bed early tonight and you're on track. Your body adapts to anything you put it through and your wake/sleep cycle will have forced your body to adapt to your current routine. It will take time and effort to correct it back to an optimal cycle. Even though your body has adapted and you don't feel exhausted or lethargic on a daily basis you must understand that you are under performing!

Changing this cycle will require attention to all or at least most of the following points on how to get a great nights sleep.

Sleeping At The Proper Times

Going to bed at bedtime! Simple but crazy effective, we are creatures that have adapted to our environment. We are programmed to sleep when it gets dark. There are chrypotchromes below the skin and in the eyes that detect sunlight, so if it is bright or not your body knows and wants to respond accordingly.

If you are altering this reaction of your body by forcing yourself to battle to be awake or sleep, you are causing a hormonal imbalance that will have negative health implications.

Getting Your Nutrition Helping

As kids we were all told not to eat sweets or drink fizzy drinks at night and it hasn't changed since we have grown up. High sugar content in our system is not what resting bodies need to relax and recover from the day's activities.

Equally sugar sources from other high carbohydrate containing foods can have an impact on our rest as well. Foods like fruits, breads, pasta, and pizza will put your body through an ordeal when it should be relaxing.

I am a fan however of eating my carbohydrates late at night to aid recovery and when my body is more insulin sensitive to use the carbs better, but I know what works for me nutritionally will not work for everybody.

So listening to your body and knowing what will aid a good nights rest should be exactly what you eat prior to sleeping, take an active approach to improve this aspect of your own life.

Get An Awesome Bed

If we go by recommended averages then the 8 hour sleep time is the one that most of us will be familiar with. This is 1/3 of each 24 hour day that we should spend asleep.

If we are actually alive for our life expectancy of 78-81 years (for the Irish population), this leads to the assumption we will spend on average about 27 years of our lives asleep.

For some bizarre reason people are sleeping on uncomfortable beds and mattresses leading to poor quality sleep and even injures from lack of support.

For 1/3 of your life I feel your bed should be one of the most valuable and comfortable things you own. Buy a decent bed, mattress and bedding and see how the quality of your sleep impacts everything else in your life. Any other purchase can and should wait.

Electronics    

Not having the blue light from electronics bombarding your brain before bed is always a way to improve sleep. 95% of Americans struggling with poor sleep, have reported using some type of electronics at least a few nights a week within the hour before bed.

It's a pointless habit that a lot of people won't easily be able to stop.

Research has demonstrated that night time light exposure suppresses the production of melatonin, the major hormone secreted by the pineal gland that controls sleep and wake cycles It is also well established that short-wavelength or blue light from phones or laptops is the most melatonin-suppressive light.

Therefore, a reduction in melatonin at night is associated with levels of sleeplessness and insomnia.

But melatonin suppression has far worse implications than simply poor sleep. It has also been shown to increase the risk of cancer, disrupt immune system function, and possibly lead to other illness such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

"With serious consequences like these, preventing melatonin suppression should be a top priority in anyone's healthy lifestyle" Chris Kresser practitioner of integrative medicine. http://chriskresser.com

My Sleep

Personally some of the best ways and little tips I found to help me sleep were to darken the room as much as possible. I sleep so much better with a pitch black room and blackout curtains have always been a good purchase.

Equally if the room is really cold I conk out. From living in Darwin even though it was crazy hot outside, my bedroom was always 19 degrees, I was always asleep after a few minutes due to the icy temperature.

Also from sharing a room with a Darth Vader like breathing machine who will remain nameless, I began sleeping with earplugs, a practice I still do to this day, the peaceful silence aids my falling asleep better than anything else.

One trick that I would do ever before making conscious decisions on how to sleep and recover better was to write before I slept.

Not only was I not on a computer, watching TV or on a phone which helped in itself, but the process of deloading my mind eased the dreaded "over thinking before sleeping" when you can't switch off. By writing out a list of all I had to do the following day I was free to let my mind drift knowing that all I needed to do was laid out ahead of me.

Conclusion

Above all tips and tricks to sleep better, it's very clear you can't beat a routine. By almost forcing a good sleeping pattern on yourself you will soon adapt and early mornings won't be a chore and you will find yourself tired at night and getting adequate rest.

The best way to begin is to get up early, expose yourself to sunlight and be active. Easier said than done but it's all about creating habits in your daily life. Soon this will not be an effort but something you look forward to!

If you get yourself into a good sleeping pattern you will rest better, lose weight quicker, build muscle faster, be more productive and generally feel and perform better.

Everybody has the same amount of time per day and I can guarantee you that the people who seem to get more things done, achieve more and perform better are the ones who sleep and rest better too.

As always comments or questions are welcome either here or on my Facebook https://www.facebook.com/daveburkePT.

Let me know if you put any or all of this advice into to practice and what was the outcome?

Thanks for your time,

David

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8608041

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