Strong adrenals also promote a healthy inflammatory response. Addressing chronic inflammation is crucial in the fight against aging, as it has been associated with age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke, amongst others.

As we age, our bodies descend into an increasingly catabolic state, which essentially means that tissues and muscle are breaking down instead of building up and growing, your body can no longer heal itself. By promoting an anabolic state,  your adrenals helps muscle regeneration and growth.

Adrenals = vital to regulate stress and metabolism.

The adrenals are a pair of endocrine glands that sit on top of your kidneys. They are responsible for regulating stress and controlling the body`s energy output in conjunction with the thyroid. They produce over 50 hormones and neurotransmitters, including adrenaline, cortisol and DHEA. They govern the sodium-potassium balance in the body, necessary to cellular energy production. They also initiate the fight-or-flight response when confronted by imminent danger or stress.

When humans lived in a more primal fashion, the fight-or-flight response was useful because it provided short, intense bursts of energy. Today, however, our modern lifestyle means that we are bombarded with multiple stresses daily. Chronic stress may overburden your adrenals, and over long periods of time it can cause serious mental and physical damage.

Another way in which the adrenals are weakened is through the use of stimulants such as caffeine. While substances such as coffee and energy drinks provide a quick pick-me-up in the moment, repeated use overloads the adrenals and can lead to health issues such as anxiety, fatigue, lower back pain and sleeping disorders.

The adrenals can also be weakened by sugar and other refined carbohydrates found in many processed foods, infection, extreme exercise, lack of sleep, virtually any chronic disease, and the use of prescription medications.

Do you feel constantly tired and run down? Do you need caffeine and sugar to get you through the day? Are you under frequent mental or physical stress? Do you have trouble coping with stress? Do you have a decreased sex drive? Are you frequently depressed or angry? Do you engage in frequent extreme exercise? Do you often have an upset stomach? Do you overeat and/or have experienced significant weight gain? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you may be overburdening your adrenals and producing an excess amount of cortisol.

The short answer: because it may be dangerous. Traditional DHEA supplementation has been the subject of much controversy. First, there is a possibility that it may cause your body`s natural production of DHEA to decline. Second, the body converts it into excess estrogen or testosterone, which can upset your natural hormonal balance and speed the development of certain cancers.

Copyright 2009 LifeHealthSecrets

I am also a fitness competitor. In 2007, I competed in the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation competition. I have since appeared in Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness Magazine twice, once in 2008 and again in 2009.

For the past 3 months, I’ve been using Protein Extreme Energy one to two times a day. I’ve used protein powders before but none have given me the results I needed like Protein Extreme Energy. With Protein Extreme Energy, I build lean muscle mass and I feel great.

Understanding the oxidative system will provide us with the first method for increasing cellular energy. For cellular respiration to occur, oxygen must be drawn into the cells, where it’s used to produce energy (if you want to get specific, the mitochondria in our cells use it as a hydrogen acceptor during ATP production to produce water). How is oxygen drawn into the cell? One means is through the sodium potassium pump, which is what creates a cell’s ‘electrical charge’. The electrons around the outer membrane and inner nucleus of the cell, going in opposite directions, draw in the oxygen by means of diffusion.  So, a cell’s electrical charge controls the amount of oxygen that can be drawn in, and is in part responsible for how much energy your cells can produce.

This provides us with the first method of increasing cellular energy: increase a cell’s electrical charge. Note that electrical charge is also responsible for the removal of metabolic waste from the cell. If a cell’s charge is low, then metabolic waste accumulates and hinders cellular respiration. If things slow down enough, edema or water retention occurs – the cell’s osmotic pressure become so weak that it loses the ability to expel waste and old body fluids. When a cell’s charge is strengthened, metabolic wastes can be properly disposed of and cellular respiration increased.

The second method for increasing cellular energy can be understood through the reductive system. While oxygen is vital to cellular respiration, it also ‘oxidizes’ the cells, producing harmful free radicals that can damage cell function, respiration and DNA.  Reductive enzymes – with glutathione being the main SOD reductive enzyme – are what protect the cell from these free radicals. When a cell doesn’t have enough glutathione, it attempts to decrease ATP production so as to minimize the free radical damage. Therefore, increasing glutathione provides us with the second method to increase cellular energy. By increasing glutathione, you balance oxidation with reduction, and allow ATP to increase creating ATP energy, thereby increasing your body’s cellular energy.

A thorough understanding of these two approaches to increasing cellular energy leads to understanding how two of Life Health Secrets’ supplements work. Protein Extreme Energy functions to increase cellular electron loads and therefore cellular charge – it adopts the first method for increasing cellular energy. GSH-Ignite adopts the second method – by encouraging healthy glutathione levels it allows ATP production to increase. As such, Protein Extreme Energy and GSH-Ignite take complementary routes to achieving the same goal – enhanced cellular respiration, leading to enhanced whole body energy for life.

Copyright 2009 LifeHealthSecrets