It’s all about balance

Loving triathlon and devoting my spare time to it doesn’t mean I’ve given up on other loves, like craft beer. It’s important to make multiple passions and hobbies work well together, and live in harmony. Pur Pak is an essential part of the balancing act, providing all sorts of healthy vitamins and minerals to make up for some occasional indulgences in malts, hops and barley. The fact that it keeps me hydrated and recovered from all the workouts Coach G prescribes is a most-welcome bonus!

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We have a song back home that goes, ‘We’re happy little vegemites as bright as bright could be . . . etc’. Maybe we could rebrand that one for the future? Or at least get our own.

There will be more from me in the coming months as I go about life, training, mentoring all powered by Pur Pak.

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This last definition is what I have going on now, and since I’m a few months into it, I felt it was time to start sharing with people. Today was the 93^rd consecutive day of my running streak. For those that don’t know, the official definition of a running streak, as adopted by the United States Running Streak Association, Inc., is to run at least one continuous mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day under one’s own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices).

I’m sharing this because without Pur Pak to help support my active lifestyle AND support my immune system, this endeavor would surely be impossible. That’s a fact. One mile a day sounds like an easy task – at least that’s what I thought when I hit the road on New Year’s day. But running day in and day out in New Jersey, through winter, is no easy task. Sooner or later, I thought, I’ll get sick. I always do. It’s the nature of the beast running in the Northeast. But that hasn’t happened yet. And the only thing I know I’m doing differently these days is taking an active life style supplement daily. Somebody once told me, “If nothing changes, nothing changes.” Great suggestion. I made a change, and I’m thrilled that it’s working.

And it really hasn’t been one mile a day anyway. But that’s for another post….

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Watching the days in my training schedule roll by without being able to mark them as complete has been tough, as has watching races creep closer. But, it’s important to not get too discouraged. On the upside, I know I’ll get better soon and be able to hit the pool, roads and track, and I always need to remember to be grateful for that. In the interim, the tough job is to be patient and let the body heal. Pur Pak is helping with that, as I’ve been recovering more quickly than expected. I know that because I’ve been giving my body what it needs on a daily basis to be healthy, it will bounce back quickly. Until then, it’s the waiting game. Luckily, Game of Thrones just came back on Sunday, so there has been plenty to keep me entertained!

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This is a good time to reevaluate where the year is headed. January 1 is so open and full of promise, but it is easy to fall back into those same ruts of the previous year. It takes 28 days for a new habit to stick, so since I didn’t start at the beginning of the month diligently with my new eating habits, it hasn’t stuck yet. February is yet another new beginning; another chance to get down to race weight! And, another chance to fill in my training diary completely. Coach G will be so proud if I can manage that one.

One new habit I have been able to stick with is one packet of Pur Pak daily. I at least know that I’m getting my daily supply of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to support those busy days of training and working when I may or may not get enough sleep. The pouches make it easier to remember to take Pur Pak than forget. I simply stash it in each of my bags and purses, hide some in my car, at work and in the trunk of my scooter. No excuses! Now if it was that easy to make it to 6am swim practice, I’d really be in business…

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Pur Pak has been powering me through my first workouts of the 2013 triathlon season with great results so far. My energy levels have stayed higher than in the past and I’ve felt much more hydrated throughout the day and during workouts. I take my daily dose either with breakfast or during a swim workout. The time of day hasn’t effected the way I feel, as long as I get it in.  I haven’t had any cramping in the pool, as i would occasionally experience after a long day in the past.

As extra bonuses, I don’t dehydrate after a beer or two, my hair has actually gotten thicker and my fingernails are stronger, too! Keep it comin’ Pur Pak, I’m on board for the long haul!

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“The risk of pancreatic cancer declined significantly as intake of antioxidants increased among participants in a large case-control study.

The magnitude of risk reduction varied by the quantity and types of antioxidants but reached a maximum of 67% in people who had the greatest intake of vitamins C and E and selenium.

The data suggested a threshold effect for selenium and a trend toward a threshold effect for vitamin E, as well as a significant inverse association between pancreatic cancer risk and serum levels of vitamin C.

‘The results support measuring antioxidants in studies investigating the etiology of pancreatic cancer,” Andrew R. Hart, MD, of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and co-authors wrote in conclusion in an article published online in Gut. “If the association is causal, one in 12 cancers might be prevented by avoiding the lowest intakes (of antioxidants).’

Most patients with pancreatic cancer have a poor prognosis, owing in large part to late diagnosis and poor understanding of the disease’s etiology. Factors associated with an increased pancreatic cancer include a family history of the disease, smoking, type 2 diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, andHelicobacter pylori infection, according to background information in the article.

Pancreatic cancer risk has an inverse association with use of aspirin and statins, however, and dietary factors might also influence the risk. In particular, several plausible biological mechanisms suggest a possible role for antioxidants in the cancer risk. But the few cohort studies that have examined associations have produced mixed results.

Hart and colleagues undertook a study to evaluate links between antioxidant intake and pancreatic cancer risk on the basis of data from 7-day food diaries. They study involved 23,658 participants in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) Norfolk Study, which spanned the years 1993 to 1997.

Study participants were enrolled from 35 general medical practices in Norfolk County, England. The cohort comprised men and women ages 40 to 74 at the time of enrollment.

Each participant had a baseline physical examination, during which blood samples were drawn. Additionally, study nurses explained how to complete the 7-day food diary. Completed diaries were evaluated and coded by trained nutritionists.

EPIC-Norfolk participants were followed to June 2010, and new diagnoses of pancreatic cancer were identified from regional health authority records and a cancer registry. Participants were excluded from the cancer analysis if uncertainty existed about the diagnosis, if the cancer was present at enrollment, or if the diagnosis occurred during the first year of follow-up.

Investigators determined that 49 EPIC-Norfolk participants developed pancreatic cancer during follow-up. The patients were compared with a control group of 3,970 participants who did not have pancreatic cancer.

Patients and the control group were separated into quartiles of intake for vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and zinc. Those who were in the highest three quartiles for each of vitamins C and E and selenium had a 67% reduction in the hazard for pancreatic cancer as compared with participants in the lowest quartile (HR 0.33, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.84, P<0.05).

Among the individual antioxidant nutrients, a significant threshold effect (quartiles 2 through 4 versus quartile 1) was seen for selenium (HR 0.49, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.93, P<0.05), and a trend was evident for vitamin E (HR 0.57, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.09). With the exception of zinc, individual quartiles (2 through 4 versus 1) of antioxidant intake were less than 1.

Serum levels of vitamin C had a significant inverse association with pancreatic cancer risk (HR 0.67, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.91, P=0.01), but not a threshold effect of intake as determined by 7-day food diaries (HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.37 to 1.26).

“The current evidence from etiological epidemiological work is minimal and inconsistent, although our work using an accurate method of dietary assessment and other studies using biomarkers of antioxidants suggest that vitamins C and E and selenium may be protective,” the authors wrote in conclusion.

‘While null results from dietary antioxidant supplementation trials for other cancer endpoints have been discouraging, food sources of these nutrients may have different effects from high-dose single supplements.’”

Source: http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/OtherCancers/33889

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“Researchers argue there is compelling evidence that the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin C should be raised to 200 mg per day for adults, up from its current levels of 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men in a recent report published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.

The recommended dietary allowance of vitamin C is less than half what it should be, according to the researchers, because medical experts insist on evaluating vitamin C in the same way they do pharmaceutical drugs and reach faulty conclusions as a result.

‘It’s time to bring some common sense to this issue, look at the totality of the scientific evidence and go beyond some clinical trials that are inherently flawed,’ stated Balz Frei, professor and director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. ‘Significant numbers of people in the [United States] and around the world are deficient in vitamin C, and there’s growing evidence that more of this vitamin could help prevent chronic disease,’ Frei said. ‘The way clinical researchers study micronutrients right now, with the same type of so-called ‘phase three randomized placebo-controlled trials’ used to test pharmaceutical drugs, almost ensures they will find no beneficial effect. We need to get past that.’

Unlike testing the safety or function of a prescription drug, the researchers said, such trials are ill suited to demonstrate the disease prevention capabilities of substances that already are present in the human body and required for normal metabolism. Some benefits of micronutrients in lowering chronic disease risk also show up only after many years or even decades of optimal consumption of vitamin C — a factor often not captured in shorter-term clinical studies.

A wider body of metabolic, pharmacokinetic, laboratory and demographic studies suggest just the opposite, that higher levels of vitamin C could help reduce chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, cancer and the underlying issues that lead to them, such as high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, poor immune response and atherosclerosis.

‘We believe solid research shows the RDA should be increased,’ Frei said. ‘And the benefit-to-risk ratio is very high. A 200 mg intake of vitamin C on a daily basis poses absolutely no risk, but there is strong evidence it would provide multiple, substantial health benefits.’”

Source: http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/researchers-vitamin-c-rda-should-be-raised-pharmaceutical-trials-vitamins-faulty?utm_source=GoogleNews&utm_medium=Syndication&utm_campaign=ManualSitemap

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