Health Issues

I have had a number of problems over the last four years that I have tried to put right by eating foods that might help me.  A few years ago I realised that my circulation was getting bad when I stopped to talk to a friend of mine and within five minutes my legs began to feel like lumps of concrete.  I also had a lot of problems with my eyes as I used to get a lot of small sparking stars appearing in both eyes.  It was a sign of high blood pressure and one morning I saw a large red circle in the white part of my right eye.  Over the last couple of years the blood has faded a bit so that now it is a light pink and not in the shape of a circle but just a kind of faint line.  Anyway I decided to try to help the circulation and blood pressure problem by eating a food every day for ten weeks.   Every website that I have gone on to research foods,  the nutritionists have all said that you  must allow up to ten weeks to give the food a chance to reverse any problems.   So I went to my local tesco metro store and purchased a few everyday value jars of beetroot.  Well, no point in the buying the expensive brands as they all contain the same nutrients.  The jar contains roughly sixty calories but I was only going to eat a third of the beetroot a day (20 calories).  On the odd occasion I have had half a jar but that has only been when it slipped off the spoon I was using to fish the beetroot slices out of the jar onto a plate.  I got into a routine, every morning I would put the kettle on and then eat the beetroot slowly.  I always finished the beetroot before the kettle had boiled.  It became a routine that I intended to keep up for the whole seventy days to complete ten weeks.   After six weeks or so I felt that my circulation had improved and realised that I had not had those awful stars appearing in front of my eyes for quite some while.  I’m still buying the value beetroot and it really has helped me enormously.   Of course it is pointless eating the whole jar of beetroot as too much of anything is definitely a bad thing but it genuinely works.  I appear to be able to stand still for far much longer without feeling my legs turning to concrete and the stars in my eyes that appeared around three to four times a week have not occurred for quite some time.  In fact I can’t remember the last time.  I hadn’t expected much from the beetroot but I looked into the research and tried it.  It’s better than taking a drug that could have side effects.  It’s lucky for me that I’m into recycling otherwise I would have a hell of a lot of jars.  Making a jar last three days still leaves me having to buy five a fortnight.  At 39p a jar it is well worth it and only 60 calories a whole jar full it won’t lead to any weight gain.

Caffeine

It has been suggested that caffeine should be a banned substance when it comes to sport and for good reason. Although the benefit of caffeine in so called sports drinks is probably outweighed by the negative points of carbonated drinks it is based on research that shows that caffeine can increase a persons endurance by a good 25%. Research showed that athletes who took a black coffee approximately 45 minutes before a 30 minute run could increase their endurance by another 7 to 9 minutes. After reading about this research I decided in my own little way to test it out. This research was done around 2006 if I remember rightly. In 1989 I saw a documentary on television regarding toxins in the body and how they might slow a persons recovery after exercise. At the time my daily drink was tea so I decided for the next three months I would drink just boiled water and see if I recovered faster without the toxins from tea. After three months I didn't feel any different but I didn't go back to drinking tea. I only mention this as to gain the most benefit from caffeine your body must not have a tolerance to it and as I had not taken any caffeine for at least 17 years it was likely that I did not have a tolerance to caffeine. I went along to my local Tesco Metro store and purchased a value jar of instant coffee granules for 47p. It stated on the jar that it was of medium strength. I put some coffee into a cup of hot not boiling water and drank it. After approximately 45 minutes I tried a leg exercise that I do on a regular basis. I had been having trouble reaching my personal best times for a few years and I wanted to prove that caffeine didn't work. At the time I was finding it difficult to last more than 40 minutes but the first time I used the coffee I went to 46 minutes and decided to stop. For the next week or so I tried the exercise with caffeine and without and the results were similar. In fact I went to well over an hour on a few occasions after drinking the coffee. I then decided to try it on my regular walks. When I used to rush to the Jobcentre, walking that is it would take me approximately 23 minutes but after drinking coffee I made it in 20 minutes. This happened a few times but also I found that because I was able to push myself after drinking coffee it left me able to achieve better results when I didn't drink coffee. I was only drinking the one coffee when I was going to test it out so probably still don't have a tolerance to it. I hardly drink coffee as I only tried it to test the research. It's more than likely that drinking anything that contains caffeine is not a good idea. The reason caffeine works is because it bypasses the normal workings of the body. When a person exercises they burn off glycogens and that produces lactic acid. Eventually the lactic acid builds up to a level that makes it impossible for you to continue. This might be a safety mechanism for the body as in this way you are unlikely to damage your organs. Caffeine limits the amount of glycogens that you can burn off so in effect putting a cap on the lactic acid build up and allowing you to continue. More research needs to be done on this as it is possible that by being able to push yourself more you could possibly damage the organs of the body. Caffeine is found in tea and coffee plants and is mainly to protect the plants from certain insects. Many people feel more alert after they have had a morning brew of tea or coffee and in some ways it is like taking an early run. Caffeine increases the heart rate and blood is pumped faster through the body making the individual feel more alert. My blood pressure is quite high these days so maybe it's a good thing that I am not a regular drinker of coffee. I hope those youngsters who take those carbonated drinks containing caffeine don't push themselves too hard when they compete in sports as we don't know the long term effects of taking them too often especially when a persons organs are still developing. Let's hope these drinks are totally safe to be enjoyed by all although I don't buy them and my main drink is still just water.