Spirulina: The Complete Plant Based Protein Source | Health Benefits

18 May 2021

Spirulina is one of the oldest life forms on earth known for the longest as an endurance booster.

It is in fact among the most popular health supplements in today’s time considering it is one of the first plant-based foods in the human diet. Surprising right?

But what actually makes this ingredient a star among the ‘complete protein’ plant-based food sources? And does it even stand up to the fame it receives?

Well, here’s our effort to give you evidence around spirulina’s health benefits and the status it holds.

Spirulina: The Nutrient-Dense Food

Spirulina happens to be a superfood high in many nutrients.

Let’s have a look at its origin?

A type of cyanobacteria, originally from the family of single-celled microbes known as the blue-green algae. This is an organism that grows both in fresh and saltwater

What makes it plant-based is its ability to produce energy from sunlight through photosynthesis.

Lesser-Known Fact:

Spirulina gained massive popularity when NASA used it as a dietary supplement for astronauts on space missions. Really cool right?

It has to be its ability to regulate immune functions and its anti-inflammatory properties which take place by the release of histamine by mast cells.

What about the ideal dosage?

One can opt for a standard dose of 1-3g of this green superfood but this can go up to 10g per day. Here’s a look at the nutrient profile of 10g of dried spirulina powder:

Protein: 5.7 g

Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 22% of the RDA

Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 33% of the RDA

Vitamin B3 (niacin): 9% of the RDA

Copper: 68% of the RDA

Iron: 15-16% of the RDA

Calories: 29

Carbs: 2.0g

Moreover, this superfood actually includes almost some amount of every other nutrient that you need along with an optimal amount of magnesium, potassium, and manganese.

Here’s a suggestion! If you are looking to skip eggs, spirulina could be a great replacement for a comparable amount of protein considering it also has all essential amino acids required by the body.

Spirulina: The Powerful Antioxidant With Anti-Inflammatory Properties

As we mentioned earlier, it is because of the anti-inflammatory properties that even NASA considered it as a superfood for astronauts.

Here’s what you need to know!

Chronic inflammation happens as oxidative damage harms our DNA and cells, resulting in diseases sometimes as lethal as cancer.

The presence of antioxidants in spirulina help protect against this oxidative damage.

Interesting fact:

The antioxidant substance ‘phycocyanin’ happens to be the main component and gives spirulina the unique blue-green color.

Health Impact Of Spirulina:

A lot of people are using this superfood that can improve heart health further reducing risks of heart diseases.

For those of you who aren’t aware of its powerful health benefits, studies on spirulina have shown that it lowers “bad” LDL cholesterol and Triglyceride Levels. It also increases “good” HDL cholesterol impacting heart health in a positive way.

Let us provide scientific evidence to build your trust-

Although most studies have shown favorable results mainly with a dosage of 4.5-8g per day yet,

A study was conducted on 25 people who were suffering from type 2 diabetes. It was later discovered that only 2g of spirulina per day, significantly showed a reduction in the blood sugar levels.

There was another study on people with high cholesterol which determined that 1 g of spirulina per day resulted in lowered triglycerides by 16.3%. Furthermore, there was a reduction in the “bad” LDL by 10.1%.

In addition, research has shown that spirulina may have anti-cancer properties and is especially effective against a type of precancerous lesion of the mouth called OSMF.

Spirulina May Improve Muscle Strength & Endurance:

Often experience muscle fatigue when exercising? The reason is exercise-induced oxidative damage.

People into fitness and athletics consume plant-based foods with antioxidants to minimize this damage.

Few studies emerged showing spirulina as food for significantly reducing the fatigue time and improving muscle strength and endurance.

Can Spirulina Reduce Blood Pressure?

Heart attack, strokes, and chronic kidney disease are some of the serious diseases driven by high blood pressure. An optimal amount of spirulina for e.g. 4.5g-8g per day has shown to reduce blood pressure in individuals with normal levels.

What might be the possible reason behind this reduction in blood pressure?

Spirulina leads to an increase in the production of nitric oxide (that is otherwise massively produced by plant-based sources like beetroot which are rich in nitrates that convert to nitric oxide) leading to a lowered blood pressure.

Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule that aids blood vessels to relax and dilate, positively affecting blood levels.

The Final Verdict:

Spirulina’s title as a superfood that is ‘nutrient-dense stands true along with the crazy health benefits it has to offer.

As mentioned above, spirulina suppresses oxidation while reducing blood pressure and lowering blood sugar. It also improves blood lipids and may have anti-cancer properties.

One can simply consume spirulina in tablets and powder form. There are supplements widely available and used for their amazing health benefits.

If you want the goodness of spirulina along with other green vitamins then you can check out bGreen’s super greens and fruits that help you bridge the daily gap in your nutrition.

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Are You Wondering About The Risk Factors For Depression?

Many people tend to think of depression as a temporary phase where someone is sad, and this makes many think that you need to get out of that emotional state. However, the illness is much more than that, as it is the result of changes in the chemistry of the brain. Like all other conditions that can develop in your body, there are risk factors that raise the chances of you getting the illness, although it is possible you can develop it without the risk factors being present. However, it should be kept in mind that your risk of developing the illness is higher when there are more risk factors, so you need to ask your doctor about reducing these factors. The risk can be related to a combination of various circumstances such as environmental, psychological, and genetic ones. The NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) estimates that almost 16 million Americans have experienced a major episode of depression. Different Reasons Of Sleep Dis-orders & Depression Are As Follows:- In this article, you will get the complete information of the depression and sleep disorder reasons that can bother you later on. Risk factors: Biochemical risks: The beginning of depression occurs when certain neurotransmitters in the brain are off balance. Neurotransmitters are certain chemicals that the brain produces, and they assist the brain to communicate with other organs in your body. They also assist the brain to carry out certain physiological functions such as breathing. When these neurotransmitters are at low levels, the person is more vulnerable to depression, particularly certain neurotransmitters – dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Genetic factors: When you have someone in your family who is suffering from the illness, there is a higher chance you will develop it as well. However, it can also develop when there is no family history of the illness, and this is why it is termed as a combination of life events and genetic reasons. Sleep disorders: There is a reason why your body needs sleep, as it is able to reduce the buildup of cortisol in the body, a stress hormone that is good for short periods but causes stress to the body when it stays for long periods. Because of this, it is not surprising to find that people who struggle with sleep disorders will also tend to develop depression, especially those who suffer from insomnia – leading to bouts of low moods. Suffering from chronic illnesses: Because these conditions will cause you stress and pain, they can also take a heavy toll on your mental health. These include chronic pain, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, heart diseases, stroke, thyroid disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis. Social risks: Abuse: When a person goes through any form of abuse, whether as a child, teen or adult, they have a major risk of developing the condition, and also developing other mental illnesses as well. This abuse can range from emotional, physical, verbal or sexual abuse. Gender factors: Men are generally less at risk of developing depression compared to women, but this might be because there are more women who are open to seeking treatment for their symptoms compared to men. Some people also believe that the illness is due to changes in hormone levels throughout the person’s life. In fact, women are vulnerable to developing the illness when they are pregnant and also after childbirth (postpartum depression), in addition to developing it during menopause. The lack of a strong support system: When a person spends a lot of time in isolation, and they have very few support systems or friends, it can be a common source of depression. It is important to note that this is not the same as introversion, and is more described as a feeling of loneliness or extreme changes in a person relating to their moods and emotions. The occurrence of major events: This is among the most common reasons for developing depression, mainly relating to stressful or sad events. These include losing a job, divorce or breaking off a relationship, retirement from a job, moving to a new place, and death of a close loved one. If a major event has occurred in your life and you have experienced sadness for more than two months without getting better, then it is best to see your doctor so that you can go through tests for depression. Substance abuse risk factors: Abuse of drugs and alcohol: For many people who are struggling with substance abuse, it is mainly tied to mental health disorders, including depression. This is also known as dual diagnosis, and there are various rehab facilities that can help a person struggling with it, such as Colorado substance abuse treatment centers. It is also important to note that drug abuse leads to significant changes in the brain, which in turn increase your risk of developing depression. Many people who have developed depression symptoms also tend to self-medicate as well, which increases their symptoms and overall risk. The use of certain medication: There are some medicines that raise the risk of developing depressive symptoms as a side effect, and they include blood pressure medication, steroids, prescription painkillers, sleeping pills, and sedatives. Other factors: Psychological reasons: There are some psychological factors that will increase the risk of developing depressive symptoms. For instance, if you have low self-esteem, this makes you view your world through a pessimistic outlook, and raises your risk of depression. It will also leave you with an overwhelming feeling of stress and sadness. There is also the case of perfectionism increasing your risk, as you do not see things going the way you want them. It also makes you very sensitive to errors, rejection, and losses, which increases your risk of developing the condition. In addition, if you are suffering from another mental illness, such as chronic anxiety disorder, as well as avoidant and borderline personality disorders, your risk of getting depression is significantly higher. Low socioeconomic status: You may not think much about it, but it is a major risk factor for the development of the disease. It may be due to cultural reasons, social status, stressful environments, and so on. Final thoughts: If you know someone struggling with the illness or you are struggling with it, it is very important to seek medical help. The illness is not well understood, as it is a complex medical condition. The good news is that is easy to treat and manage. Read Also: Five Benefits Of Meditation That Will Change Your Life 5 Things You Should Do To Reduce Stress

Key Marketing Tips To Gain More Customers For Your Health Care Practice

When you have a healthcare practice, gaining customers can be quite the conundrum. Unlike other brands that offer services and products for a specific niche, your health care practice may have such a huge target market that zeroing in to appeal to a crowd can be tricky. This might be the reason why it can also be such a challenging thing to create a fully-executable marketing strategy for your practice. This doesn't mean it's impossible, though. Sometimes you just need the right kind of push. In fact, today's insights for the digital marketing scene make it quite the budding yet challenging field to penetrate for generally all kinds of practices. For instance, Google users actually use the search engine to conduct 100-billion searches every month. Considering that a whopping 81-percent of consumers do rely on research before making their purchases, that's a whole lot of ground to cover with just Google alone. In fact, 72-percent of consumers who searched locally tend to visit stores within five miles, and given 28-percent of searches pertain to purchases in nearby locations, banking on proper marketing can really get you to places with the right strategy. Marketing For Your Health Care Practice: Where To Start : When you have a bit of a conundrum in terms of your healthcare practice, it might be important to first understand where exactly you're coming from. In the below tips, you may finally be able to zero in on where you're lacking, and finding the appropriate strategies for you to cope with such a problem. Institutions such as Studio 56 can actually help you solve your marketing woes, but it's best you approach these groups after trying these out first: . Make sure you find your voice: When people think of marketing, they normally think it's just a process of getting people "into" your services or products. The reality of the fact is, marketing really also involves a lot of social relations. Marketing taps into the human aspect of sales, which means if you want to get more sales, your healthcare practice needs to be more "human." Your offering to provide health care to your customers might be a good plus, but you've got to offer them something more than other health services aren't providing. Before you provide offers or deals, this has to start with the personality of your brand. What's your brand like? Is it formal and authoritative? Is it caring and motherly? Is it concerned and friendly? There are various voices for you to choose from. . Make sure your marketing is consistent with your branding: When you think of a brand, one of the best ways to see it visually is to create a logo. When you start your marketing efforts, make sure you apply what you see in your logo in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Apply elements from the logo such as the iconography, typography, colors, and shapes, and apply them to your materials so you can be recognized. Likewise, make sure your logo reflects on the personal values you want your customers to feel. Red, for example, implies passion, yellow implies excitement, green implies nature and health, and others. . Make sure your website is built for both desktop and mobile devices: If you have a healthcare practice, you've got to have your own website. This will be a primary backbone of your presence in the digital space. When you have someone designing your site for you, make sure it's accessible by both desktop and mobile devices, so anyone can look into your website even when you're on the go. . Make sure you understand that speed is key: Regardless of where your customers are in the consumer process, speed is important. For instance, you've only got seven (7) seconds of room in order for visitors to get a gist of what your practice is offering for them - you need to make those seconds count. Every time your customer sees a marketing material, make sure your brand's message is explained clearly and properly. When leads subscribe to your email, don't leave them hanging and make sure you respond to their queries. When a customer inquires about a sale, make sure to keep them as updated as possible. Any seconds lost is a chance for the competition to steal your customers. . Make sure availing your service and product is easy to do: What turns off people is the fact that there are too many options for them to choose from. Remember Hick's Law, where the time it takes for someone to decide is proportional to the number of choices they have. In terms of marketing, this can be a bad sign as long decisions might make people avail of simpler services instead. When you offer a product or a service, make sure you offer them in ways that make them easy to access. Make sure forms are easy to fill out, payments are easy to do, shipping won't be much of a hassle, and even wish lists are easy to create. . Make sure you always have a structure built for assessment, reporting, evaluation: One of the most important yet overlooked elements in building a good marketing strategy is the lack of a means of efficient assessment, reporting, and evaluation. Try to make sure there's always an option for both members of your team and customers to provide feedback about their experience. Mesh this with your actual statistics on your various marketing campaigns in order to get a good look at your performance in the marketing field in general. This pretty much enables you to get a bird's eye view of what's working and what's not, and be able to make the proper adjustments. The Bottomline: Marketing For Your Health Care Practice Takes Strategy : Having a healthcare practice to call your own can be quite something to be proud of - after all, you're doing a lot to be able to help other people with their various needs. However, just waiting for patients to come up your door isn't exactly the best marketing strategy you should follow to get your returns. If the above is any indication, key marketing tips to gain more customers for your healthcare practice involves planning, execution, exposure, and sustainability. If you've ever wanted to make sure your healthcare practice gets the right kind of patients it needs, your marketing needs to be spot on as well. Read Also : 7 Health Benefits Of Black Seed Oil How Can Stress During Studies Affect The Health Of Your Children? 7 Signs Which Indicate That You Need To See A Vein Specialist Right Now

Top 10 Muscle and Strength Building Exercise at Home

All exercises are not treated equally. Some exercises are meant for building muscle and strength and most of us think that the only way we can do that is by picking up a pair of heavyweights at the gym. But the truth is you can build muscle and strength at home too and without picking any weight, just picking up your own body weight can notch up your muscle-building strength way higher! Yes, we know that most of us do not have enough time to exercise at the gym, “I am just too busy.” That’s the excuse we all give, but what if you can exercise your whole body with simple body moves? Just a few minutes of your daily routine and you are pretty much sorted. Try this ultimate muscle and strength building workouts to get a lean and ripped body. These 10 moves are all you need! Ultimate Muscle and Strength Building Exercise – 10 Mean Moves 1. Pushup: The push-up is a great bodyweight exercise and works on a lot of muscles altogether such as the shoulders, the chest, and triceps muscles. Here is how you do it : Drop down to all fours keeping your feet together, keep your hands under your shoulders and keep your body aligned straight from the head to ankles. With your elbows tucked in, lower down your body until your chest is close to the floor but does not touch it. 2. Deep Squat: Deep squats help in overall muscle development in the lower body working on a lot of muscles together such as quads, glutes, and hamstrings for overall muscle growth. Here is how you do it: Keep your feet at least shoulder-width apart and extend your arms straight out. Push your hips back and squat as much as you can. 3. Planks: Planks are a great way to strengthen all your core muscles, some of the muscles worked are the rectus abdominis, the adductor complex the external oblique muscle, and the glutes. Here is how you do it: Drop into a push-up position on the floor. Bend your elbows and balance your weight on your forearms. Keep the alignment of your body right from shoulders to ankles. Brace your abdominal muscles while inhaling and exhaling slowly. Hold this position for another 20-40 seconds and keep at it for as long as you can. Lower yourself to the ground. Repeat this for at least 3 or 4 times. 4. Squat Jack: Squat Jacks are a great lower-body exercise that works on a number of muscles such as quads, glutes, and hamstrings. Here is how you do it: Put your feet together and use your hands to touch the sides of your ankles. Now get into a standing position and raise your head and jump into your sides. 5. Mountain Climber: Mountain Climbers are a great exercise to move your heart rate up and working up most muscle groups in the body such as the chest, obliques, deltoids, biceps, triceps, quads, abdominals, hamstrings, and hip abductors. Here is how you do it: Get down to a pushup position. Bring your right foot and bring it as close to your chest as possible, touching the floor with the help of your right foot. Repeat the entire exercise with your other leg That completes 1 rep. 6. Single-Leg Hip Hinge: The single-leg hip hinge works your glutes and hamstrings and it boosts your foot and ankle strength to a great extent. It also improves your balance and stabilization. Here is how you do it: Stand on your right leg and raise your left foot behind you, keep your arms by your sides. Next, while you push your hips back try and reach for the floor as you lower your upper body and raise your left leg. Try and go for 10 movements per leg. 7. Skater Hop: The skater jump works your quads, your hamstrings, glutes, and calves. This workout tones your entire leg. Stand on your right foot with your left leg crossed behind you. When you land on your left foot try to cross your right leg behind you. Keep hopping from one leg to another. 8. Bridges: The bridge is an exemplary exercise that works all your core muscles that includes your abs, lower back, and also tones your glutes. The Bridge also stretches out your chest, neck, spine, and hips and helps with pain in your back, head, and knee. Here is how you do it: Lie down flat on your back. Bend your knees while keeping your feet on the floor and keep your arms relaxed right beside you. Lift the butt off the floor all the while tightening your glutes and abs. Hold this position for a minute and reprise your original position. 9. Lunge: The lunge is a great functional exercise. It works your glutes in your hips and butt and also works the hamstrings and quadriceps in your thighs beside the calf muscles in your legs. Here is how you do it: Keep your feet shoulder-width apart all the while keeping the upper body upright and look forward. Take a step forward with one foot, then bend the front knee at a 90-degree angle. Ensure that your front knee is right below the ankle when you perform this exercise. 10. Jump Squats: The jump squat specifically works the legs and midsection. The specific muscles it works are the hamstrings, gluteus maximus, abdominals, quadriceps, and calves, by continuously stretching and contracting the muscles. Here is how you do it: Keep your feet hip-width apart and rest your arms at your sides. Squat low all the while keeping your back straight and core all braced up. Use your hips, knees, and ankles to explode up. Use your hands to get the extra momentum. Land with a soft jump keeping your bent knees aligned with your hips and ankles. Land and immediately go for your next jump. There, how difficult can it be to do all the exercises? You can do these exercises in a HIIT format or interval training format. Do at least 5-10 minutes of warm-up exercises before starting. That means 30 seconds of work with 60 seconds of rest. This will give you great results in a short time! Try out all these exercises and let me know if you have felt the difference. Happy working out! 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Spirulina: The Complete Plant Based Protein Source | Health Benefits