Acai Berries – A Family Superfood

You have probably been hearing a great deal about acai berries lately which are the latest answer when it comes to weight loss.

These are small but easily distinguishable purple and black berries that hail originally from the Amazon rainforests. They are one of the new diet superfoods that are on the market and they are sold as everything from a mash to a juice or even mixed in with yogurt. You can also buy it in powdered form and pill form to help expedite the kind of elimination from your colon that can also speed up weight loss.

Asia berries are classified as super foods because aside from weight loss they offer a very wide range of health benefiters including life extension, free radical fighting and keeping your blood pressure under control. The berry is also a potent immune system booster that can help prevent colds and flues.

One of the unique things about this berry from the rainforest is that it can also help boost energy levels and stamina which assist greatly with our exercise efforts. Some individuals believe that it is actually a mood booster of some sort although technically it is classified as a food both in America and South America.
Also the aecia berry contains very high levels of dietary fiber which can help your digestive system to become more efficient. Less crap is allowed to fester and ferment in your digestive tract and stomach.

This is important, because most people do not take on board sufficient dietary fiber in their normal diet which means that over time, a significant amount of undigested food gets left in your stomach (some claim that there can be up to 20 pounds of ‘rubbish' in your gut that never gets shifted under normal circumstances and that you need to take something that prompts the intestinal process in order to get your bowels moving.)

Hence, as you drink lots more water whilst increasing your consumption of high fiber foodstuffs such as fruit, vegetables and acai, it is quite possible that you will see a very significant weight drop in the first few days as these toxins are flushed out of your system. This could manifest as diarrhea at first but the key is to be patient. Some people suffer this side effect for just a few hours and others for quite a few days as the colon cleans itself out.

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More Natural Remedies for Cold Sores

Cold sores are so obnoxious I decided to do more research into how to heal them. Furthermore a predisposition to them can be hereditary!
Reishi mushrooms
Reishi mushrooms have a long history of being used to boost the effectiveness of the immune system in traditional medicine throughout many parts of Asia.
In more recent times however, evidence has pointed to the fact that reishi also seems to have the ability to inhibit the spread of the herpes virus, thereby preventing the development of cold sores.
Furthermore, as reishi can be obtained in either powdered or food supplement form, the benefits of including this in your diet are readily available even if the mushrooms themselves are not.
Herbal remedies for cold sores
There are many herbal solutions that you can use to keep the herpes simplex at bay. These include the following:
Echinacea and goldenseal – Both echinacea and goldenseal are plants from which the extract helps to boost the ability of your immune system to fight against viruses like herpes simplex. The extract is available in capsule form over the counter in most health stores or online.
Self-heal – This is a plant that grows in Europe and in Asia (with a more scientific name of ‘Prunella vulgaris') of which the extract has been seen to be effective against the spread of both the herpes simplex 1 and herpes simplex 2 viruses.
There is also some evidence that it works against strains of the virus that have become resistant to drug-based cold sore solutions as well, and again, you should be able to find the extract in your local health food store or it is available for purchase online.
Blackcurrant – Studies in Japan have indicated that eating blackcurrants or including the extract of them as a supplement in your diet may be effective for combating the herpes virus as laboratory tests have indicated the effectiveness of blackcurrants against herpes simplex.
Wakame – Wakame is the Japanese name for a particular type of seaweed which appears to improve the healing time for anyone who is suffering from cold sores, whilst there is also some evidence that it inhibits the reactivation of the virus as well.
Sage and rhubarb cream – In a German study that compared the use of sage and rhubarb cream with the effectiveness of a cream using sage and Acyclovir, it was seen that there was little difference in the ability of the two test substances to help cold sores heal. However, the study concluded that the all natural mixture of sage and rhubarb was more active in fighting against cold sores, hence there is every reason for thinking that the natural option is to be preferred to the one containing chemicals.

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