Category: Amazon

  • Our Favorite Bodybuilding Supplements

    Our Favorite Bodybuilding Supplements

    Bodybuilding
    Pixaby

    Always check with your health professional before taking any supplements, especially if you are taking other prescription medications. The following are some of the popular supplements used by bodybuilders.

    Creatine Monohydrate

    Creatine Monohydrate – Helps build muscle mass and improves exercise performance.

    Dosage: 30 grams per day but can be spaced for every other day. It is not necessary to take 30 grams per day in smaller doses throughout the day. 1

    • Don’t take with caffeine
    • Do take when ingesting carbs. Some science suggest the interaction may help absorption

    L-Citrulline or Citrulline Malate

    L-Citrulline – L-citrulline is an amino acid normally made by the body. The body converts L-citrulline to L-arginine, another type of amino acid. Improves blood circulation and aids in muscle recovery. This amino acid is used by some men to improve symptoms of erectile dysfunction (ED). 2

    Dosage: 2 through 6 grams per day should be well tolerated building up for seven days before effects are noticed.

    Citrulline Malate – Malate serves as an important component in the tricarboxylic (or TCA) cycle, which is one way your body produces energy. When you increase malate levels, you increase energy production. 3 4

    BCAA

    BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) – BCAAs stimulate the building of protein in muscle and possibly reduce muscle breakdown. The “Branched-chain” refers to the chemical structure of these amino acids. 5

    A good, detailed article regarding BCAA supplements can be found on the National Institute of Health’s website. Although several studies are limited, taking BCAAs approximately 30 minutes prior to a workout may help with your exercise routine. 6

    L-Glutamine

    Glutamine – “The most abundant amino acid (building block of protein) in the body. The body can make enough glutamine for its regular needs. But during times of extreme stress (the kind you experience after heavy exercise or an injury), your body may need more glutamine than it can make. Most glutamine is stored in muscles, followed by the lungs where much of the glutamine is made.” 7

    Perhaps… but NOT Totally Recommended

    Ashwagandha

    Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) – Withania somnifera, known commonly as ashwagandha or winter cherry, is an evergreen shrub in the Solanaceae or nightshade family that grows in India, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. Several other species in the genus Withania are morphologically similar. 8

    “The herb could supercharge your gym sessions, too, since it’s been shown to increase muscle mass, reduce body fat, and increase strength in men. In a study of 57 men, taking ashwagandha led to “significant increases in muscle mass and strength” and more than doubled their reductions in body fat percentage compared to a placebo group.” 9

    “Since ashwagandha is traditionally used as an adaptogen, it is used for many conditions related to stress. Adaptogens are believed to help the body resist physical and mental stress. Some of the conditions it is used for include insomnia, aging, anxiety and many others, but there is no good scientific evidence to support most of these uses. There is also no good evidence to support using ashwagandha for COVID-19.” 10

  • TMJ Vitamin and Supplement Recommendations

    TMJ Vitamin and Supplement Recommendations

    Jaw Issues
    pixabay.com

    TMJ – Temporal Mandibular Joint Problems

    TMJ issues plague many folks on a regular basis. When TMJ is minor, vitamins and supplements may help when the situation is minor and temporary.

    Remember, all forms of vitamins and supplements should be reviewed with your PCP (Primary Care Physician).

    Our recommendations are:

    Vitamin C 1000mg –

    Vitamin E 400 IU –

    Fish Oil – [Some forms need to be refrigerated] –

    Krill Oil – [Some forms need to be refrigerated] –

    Nutricost Turmeric Curcumin
    Amazon.com Available from Amazon.com

    Turmeric Capsules – Turmeric, a plant in the ginger family, is native to Southeast Asia and is grown commercially in that region, primarily in India. Its rhizome (underground stem) is used as a culinary spice and traditional medicine.

    Historically, turmeric was used in Ayurveda and other traditional Indian medical systems, as well as Eastern Asian medical systems such as traditional Chinese medicine. In India, it was traditionally used for disorders of the skin, upper respiratory tract, joints, and digestive system.

    Today, turmeric is promoted as a dietary supplement for a variety of conditions, including arthritis, digestive disorders, respiratory infections, allergies, liver disease, depression, and many others. 11

    Nutricost Bromelain 500mg
    Amazon.com Available from Amazon.com

    Bromelain Capsules – “Bromelain is a group of enzymes found in the fruit and stem of the pineapple plant. Pineapple is native to the Americas but is now grown throughout the world in tropical and subtropical regions.

    Historically, natives of Central and South America used pineapple for a variety of ailments, such as digestive disorders. Bromelain is promoted as a dietary supplement for reducing pain and swelling, especially of the nose and sinuses, gums, and other body parts after surgery or injury. It is also promoted for osteoarthritis, cancer, digestive problems, and muscle soreness.

    Topical bromelain is promoted for burns.” 12

  • The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness

    The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness

    by Rhonda V. Magee

    The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness
    Amazon Available from Amazon.com

    In a society where unconscious bias, microaggressions, institutionalized racism, and systemic injustices are so deeply ingrained, healing is an ongoing process. When conflict and division are everyday realities, our instincts tell us to close ranks, to find the safety of those like us, and to blame others. This book profoundly shows that in order to have the difficult conversations required for working toward racial justice, inner work is essential. Through the practice of embodied mindfulness–paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way–we increase our emotional resilience, recognize our own biases, and become less reactive when triggered.

    As Sharon Salzberg, New York Times-bestselling author of Real Happiness writes, “Rhonda Magee is a significant new voice I’ve wanted to hear for a long time—a voice both unabashedly powerful and deeply loving in looking at race and racism.” Magee shows that embodied mindfulness calms our fears and helps us to exercise self-compassion. These practices help us to slow down and reflect on microaggressions–to hold them with some objectivity and distance–rather than bury unpleasant experiences so they have a cumulative effect over time. Magee helps us develop the capacity to address the fears and anxieties that would otherwise lead us to re-create patterns of separation and division.

    It is only by healing from injustices and dissolving our personal barriers to connection that we develop the ability to view others with compassion and to live in community with people of vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints. Incorporating mindfulness exercises, research, and Magee’s hard-won insights, The Inner Work of Racial Justice offers a road map to a more peaceful world.

  • Christian Nationalists Hate this Book

    Christian Nationalists Hate this Book

    If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk
    Available from Amazon.com

    If God Is Love, Don’t Be a Jerk: Finding a Faith That Makes Us Better Humans

    Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible. – Imagine for a moment what the world might look like if we as people of faith, morality, and conscience actually aspired to this mantra.

    What if we were fully burdened to create a world that was more loving and equitable than when we arrived?

    What if we invited one another to share in wide-open, fearless, spiritual communities truly marked by compassion and interdependence?

    What if we daily challenged ourselves to live a faith that simply made us better humans?

    John Pavlovitz explores how we can embody this kinder kind of spirituality where we humbly examine our belief system to understand how it might compel us to act in less-than-loving ways toward others.

    This simple phrase, “Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible,” could help us practice what we preach by creating a world where:

    • spiritual community provides a sense of belonging where all people are received as we are;
    • the most important question we ask of a religious belief is not Is it true? but rather, is it helpful?
    • it is morally impossible to pledge complete allegiance to both Jesus and America simultaneously;
    • the way we treat others is the most tangible and meaningful expression of our belief system.

    In If God Is Love, Don’t Be a Jerk, John Pavlovitz examines the bedrock ideas of our religion: the existence of hell, the utility of prayer, the way we treat LGBTQ people, the value of anger, and other doctrines to help all of us take a good, honest look at how the beliefs we hold can shape our relationships with God and our fellow humans—and to make sure that love has the last, loudest word.

  • The Queer God by Marcella Althaus-Reid

    The Queer God by Marcella Althaus-Reid

    The Queer God
    Amazon.com Available from Amazon.com

    There are those who go to gay bars and salsa clubs with rosaries in their pockets, and who make camp chapels of their living rooms. Others enter churches with love letters hidden in their bags, because their need for God and their need for love refuse to fit into different compartments. But what goodness and righteousness can prevail if you are in love with someone whom you are ecclesiastically not supposed to love? Where is God in a salsa bar?

    The Queer God introduces a new theology from the margins of sexual deviance and economic exclusion. Its chapters on Bisexual Theology, Sadean holiness, gay worship in Brazil and Queer sainthood mark the search for a different face of God – the Queer God who challenges the oppressive powers of heterosexual orthodoxy, whiteness and global capitalism. Inspired by the transgressive spaces of Latin American spirituality, where the experiences of slum children merge with Queer interpretations of grace and holiness, The Queer God seeks to liberate God from the closet of traditional Christian thought, and to embrace God’s part in the lives of gays, lesbians and the poor.

    Only a theology that dares to be radical can show us the presence of God in our times. The Queer God creates a concept of holiness that overcomes sexual and colonial prejudices and shows how Queer Theology is ultimately the search for God’s own deliverance. Using Liberation Theology and Queer Theory, it exposes the sexual roots that underlie all theology, and takes the search for God to new depths of social and sexual exclusion.