Improving memory function and mental agility

Thinking about Pennywort.
Click on the thinker for more info...

Latest Cycling Photos - Powered by InnOrbit

Gordon Ramsay gets down & dirty with Fennel

Nice recipe and use of Fennel in the video link below.  Might be just as tasty to take an InnOrbit drink.....

VIDEO LINK

An UP&GO (InnOrbit) powered ride

Santes Creus, 120 Km (over 1000 m of climbing), weather - 24ºC sunny.

Probiotics v Prebiotics: The basics

Bacteria live naturally in your gut (Colon) and these microorganisms perform a host of useful functions, such as fermenting unused energy substrates, training the immune system, preventing growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria, regulating the development of the gut, producing vitamins for the host and producing hormones to direct the host to store fats.

Poor diet and other factors, like antibiotics, may cause a bacterial imbalance that results in growth of bad bacteria and yeast which is thought to be linked to irritable bowel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis.

Prebiotics and Probiotics:

Prebiotics and probiotics can renovate the balance of bacteria in your gut.

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that can be found in various foods.  Eating probiotics will add healthy microorganisms to your intestinal tract.

Common strains include Lactobacillis and Bifidobacterium families of bacteria.

"Sources of probiotic bacteria like lactobacilli are found in fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt.  Some foods will have added probiotics as healthy nutritional ingredients, which will be on the ingredient listing on the label"

Prebiotics are non-digestible foods, like fibre, that help good bacteria grow and flourish.

Prebiotics keep beneficial bacteria healthy.

"Sources of prebiotics, like oligosaccharides, include fruits, legumes, and whole grains"

Seth Godin on The privilege of being wrong

The privilege of being wrong

When you are truly living on the edge, walking on the moon, perhaps, or caught in the grip of extreme poverty--there's no room at all for error. It's a luxury you can't afford.

For the rest of us, though, there's a cushion. Being wrong isn't fatal, it's merely something we'd prefer to avoid. We have the privilage of being wrong. Not being wrong on purpose, of course, but wrong as a cost on the way to being right.

As you gain resources, the act of being wrong goes from being fatal to annoying to a precious opportunity, something that you've earned. You won't advance your cause or discover new truths if you're obsessed with being right all the time--and so the best way to compound your advantage and accomplish even more than you already have is to set out (with relish) to be as open to wrong as often as you can afford to be.

Shot Question?

Why would you buy an Energy Shot that is full of caffeine and sugar when it is probably just as good to take a double coffee espresso with some sugar in it (cheaper and more effective) ?

Energy Boost helped by weather!

Andorra_2011_30, a photo by Macanbard on Flickr.

The return ride was accompanied by great weather!

InnOrbit gives Energy Boost to 400 km cycle

Andorra_2011_03, a photo by Macanbard on Flickr.

Andorra, at the start of the return journey

InnOrbit Energy Shot hits the Mark

Check out recent photographs from the 400 km round trip to Andorra.  A big test for the InnOrbit Energy Boosting shot - and it works!

Queasy Spice

As well as having a number of functional benefits (see THIS ARTICLE) Ginger is also, traditionally, a remedy for nausea.  It seems that science again catches up with our grandmothers and the New Scientist tell us below that GINGER can curb the feeling of sickness!

"GINGER can help to quell nausea, say scientists in Britain. Max Pittler and his colleagues at the University of Exeter reviewed six studies of the spice's effect on various types of nausea, from seasickness through morning sickness to the nausea that follows chemotherapy.In the studies, volunteers took a daily dose of up to 1 gram of ginger extract as a tablet—the equivalent of a handful of fresh root ginger. In all but one study, the ginger extract was better than a placebo at curbing nausea (British Journal of Anaesthesia, vol 84, p 367). In two studies, ginger was as effective as metoclopramide, a commonly prescribed anti-emetic. Pittler says ginger is "a promising herbal remedy"."

Seth Godin on Seeing the Truth

From: Seeing the Truth when it might be Invisible by Seth Godin

Eight things you’ve probably never seen with your own eyes: 

• Buzz Aldrin,
• the US debt, 
• multi-generational evolution of mammals, 
• an atom of hydrogen, 
• Google’s search algorithm, 
• the inside of a nuclear power plant,
• a whale and 
• the way your body digests a cookie.

 That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, nor does it mean you can’t find a way to make them useful.

Richard Feynman said, "I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding, they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!"

Merely because it's invisible doesn't mean it's true--or false.

Is it a skill to figure out what's true, even if it's invisible?

What is Apoptosis?

We read a lot in scientific journals about apoptosis and its implications in disease treatment but what exactly does it mean and what is its significance.

We'll try and explain.

Apoptosis

Apoptosis is programmed cell death. It is a normal process in the development and health of multicellular organisms. 

During apoptosis cells die in a controlled and regulated fashion. This is distinct from necrosis in which uncontrolled cell death leads to lysis of cells, inflammatory responses and, potentially, to serious health problems. 

Apoptosis, by contrast, is a process in which cells play an active role in their own death (which is why apoptosis is often referred to as cell suicide).

Cells will receive chemical specific signals instructing the cells to undergo apoptosis and a number of distinctive changes occur in the cell. A family of proteins known as caspases are typically activated in the early stages of apoptosis. These proteins breakdown or cleave key cellular components that are required for normal cellular function including structural proteins in the cytoskeleton and nuclear proteins such as DNA repair enzymes. The caspases can also activate other degradative enzymes such as DNases, which begin to cleave the DNA in the nucleus.

So why is it important?

The combination of apoptosis and cell proliferation is responsible for shaping tissues and organs in developing embryos. For example the apoptosis of cells located in-between the toes allows for their separation.

What is its implication in disease?

Apoptosis is an important process of the immune system. T lymphocytes are cells of the immune system and destroy infected cells in the body. Any ineffective or self-reactive T-cells are tested by the systems in the body and are removed through the induction of apoptosis.

"Cancer is a disease that is often characterized by too little apoptosis"

Cancer cells can have mutations that have permitted them to ignore normal cellular signals regulating their growth. 

"Under normal circumstances damaged cells will undergo apoptosis"

Cancer cells mutations have, however, prevented their cells from undergoing normal processes like apoptosis. There is no check on the cellular proliferation and so the disease can progress to the formation of tumors.  Understanding how apoptosis is regulated in cancer is therefore of major interest in the development of treatments for this disease.

Other diseases have too much apoptosis going on.  In the neurodegenerative diseases Parkinson's and Alzheimer's apoptosis can account for much of the cell death and the progressive loss of neurons.

In the progression of many auto-immune diseases apotosis is said to be key too. Rheumatoid arthritis is characterised by excessive proliferation of synovial cells and is thought to be due, in part, to the resistance of these cells to apoptotic stimuli.

Sources: St George's, University of London , Principals of Cellular and Molecular Immunology (Austyn & Wood)

The Mystery of Time: Something to watch

The Mystery of Time - mechanical art, architecture or clock.  Full article - HERE

It took 10 years to make and there will only be 12 pieces of The Mystery of Time made by Timekeeper Chronometrie – each unique to the customer.  Guess the price!

Public Holiday: Opportunities to drink tea

In The Economist recently I saw this interesting presentation on the quantity of Public Holidays and annual leave given to workers in 1 year.  I was wondering which country then would have the most opportunities to relax with an InnOrbit Infusion!

In terms of public holidays most countries get

• 10 or 11 days.  
• UK gets 9 (this year)
• Japan 16.

Annual Leave figures show a different story:

• Europe get between 25 and 30 days
• China get 5 (10 if they have worked more than a decade)
• USA gets an average of 15.

Based on this data The Economist states that the hardest workers are in China and the most slothful are in France.

The most interesting data comes from paid sick leave with both China and Japan not paying their workers if they have a day off sick.  So, China on this data is the hardest working country.

In Roman times one emperor (Claudius) gave 159 public holidays in a year.  Looks like Rome over 2000 years ago was the best place to live for relaxing with a nice cup of InnOrbit infusion!