Because Health

09/29/2022

09/28/2022

STIMVIA ™ focus gummies are here – the newest alternative treatment for Dr. Lars Boman’s family of patients. 

Fast-acting and effective, they improve mental sharpness and productivity while maintaining overall calm.

Discover the  focus benefits from our proprietary formula of H**p Extracts and Exclusive Terpenes, combined with a natural blend of mushrooms, roots, and vitamins.

This researched blend of powerful, plant-based ingredients includes:

- Lions Mane, Ginseng & B12
- H**p Extracts
- Exclusive Terpene Blend

Clinically formulated with an integrated approach to your holistic well-being, as you’ve come to expect from us. 

Always safety tested. Vegan, all-natural, plant-based ingredients. In a convenient, flavorful gummy form, for use as needed.

**pproduct

07/25/2022

Functional medicine is at the core of Because Health.

Our longevity specialists are dedicated to a personalized doctor-patient partnership for a better, longer life.

Because Health’s Northeast Longevity Club opens in Wellesley, Massachusetts, September 2022.

07/20/2022

Things You Didn’t Know About Longevity:
What is more important than DNA for a longer life?

For decades, unhealthy aging and chronic diseases were attributed to DNA degradation. Recent studies show that chronic inflammation is the direct cause of most life-threatening illnesses.

Telomeres are clusters of DNA at the ends of our chromosomes, to protect them from harm. As telomeres shorten, they leave chromosomes vulnerable. This was thought to be the prime reason for unhealthy/advanced aging and early mortality.
While telomere length still contributes to the integrity of chromosomes, their shortening is not the root cause.

More recent studies all conclude that chronic inflammation is the cause of more than half of all life-threatening diseases.

While acute inflammation is a healthy response to infection, chronic inflammation is caused when the body sends out protective cells to attack otherwise healthy systems. The most common causes are autoimmune disorders, exposure to toxins, untreated acute inflammation, and importantly, lifestyle factors.

Dietary ingredients such as sugar and gluten are allergens that cause inflammation. Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, obesity, chronic stress and lack of exercise are all habits and conditions that lead to chronic inflammation.

Many of these conditions can be avoided through lifestyle changes, and even autoimmune disorders can be managed by avoiding aggravating factors.

Concerned about chronic inflammation affecting your longevity? Partner with a doctor who understands the holistic interconnectedness of the body’s metabolic systems and can check your levels and recommend natural treatments that can relieve and prevent further inflammation.

07/19/2022

THE “NOT SO SILENT” KILLER
What causes half of all life-threatening diseases?

Heart disease. Cancer. Diabetes Chronic kidney disease. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.

Serious, life-threatening diseases. However, they all have one thing in common: chronic inflammation.

There are two types of inflammation. Acute inflammation is the body’s response to sudden body damage, such as a cut. To heal the cut, your body sends inflammatory cells to the injury, starting the healing process. Chronic inflammation occurs when the body continues sending inflammatory cells even when there is no outside danger.

For example, in rheumatoid arthritis inflammatory cells and substances attack joint tissues leading to an inflammation that comes and goes and can cause severe damage to joints with pain and deformities.

In Chronic Inflammation: The ‘Not So Silent’ Killer, Dr. Mina Botros explains in detail how to tell if your health is being hurt by chronic inflammation and what you can do RIGHT NOW to get closer to your best health. The information and methods in this book are intended by Dr. Botros to help people live their healthiest, best lives. The author goes to great lengths to point out how the gut is “the body’s gatekeeper”, and how paying attention to what goes in it can prevent inflammation and therefore reduce the risk of life-threatening diseases.

The book also illustrates what actions you can take to prevent chronic inflammation, as well as the known and not-so-well-known effects of common food ingredients that contribute to it.

The first action you should take is to consult your physician to have your metabolic levels checked to establish a baseline. From there, you and your doctor can work together to establish what lifestyle changes and natural therapies can be employed to reduce your risk.

07/15/2022

Facts About Longevity:
Don’t Stay Up Past Your Bedtime

When was the last time you remember being told not stay up “past your bedtime”?

Good advice no matter what age, but as we get older, getting to bed on time becomes increasingly important to maintain optimal health.

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus is our 24 hour “biological clock”, a neural oscillator that controls the timing of many different biological processes. The circadian cycles that this biological clock sets up happen everywhere in nature and last about 24 hours.

As people get older, however, this daily rhythm changes. Disruption in hormone rhythms, body core temperature, sleep-wake cycles, and many other changes have been linked to aging.

Age-related changes to the SCN and a decrease in light input to the “clock” through the eyes are both linked to changes in circadian rhythms and an increase in sleep problems.

The circadian pacemaker in the human brain gets more and more out of sync as a person gets older. The best way to keep pace with the rhythm is by maintaining strict sleep habits. Develop a regular sleep routine.

07/14/2022

What is…
…The Pineal Gland?”

Philosopher René Descartes called the pineal gland the “Seat of the Soul”.

Located in the center of the brain, its main function is to receive light-dark cycle information from the environment and produce and secrete melatonin. Melatonin, secreted only during the night, is widely used as a circadian clock marker.

Melatonin is used for circadian rhythm sleep disorders such as jet lag. Melatonin's multiple physiological roles may lead to future therapeutic applications.

It has immediate effects on the body at night or when it's dark and future effects during the day when melatonin levels are too low to be measured. Melatonin helps control the circadian system and sleep patterns, among other things. It also protects cells, protects neurons, and helps the reproductive system.

Pineal tumors, craniopharyngiomas, injuries that affect the sympathetic innervation of the pineal gland, and rare congenital disorders that change melatonin secretion can all affect how well the pineal gland works and how much melatonin it makes.

It may only be a pea-sized structure in the brain, but the pineal gland is a critical part of keeping the entire body functioning.

07/13/2022

Things You Didn’t Know About Longevity:
How Necessary Is Sleep?

The average human sleeps 33% of their entire lifetime. But are we truly “sleeping our lives away” or are we sleeping our lives into better shape?

Evidence supports the latter. High-quality sleep restores and repairs cells, tissues, and organs every night.

Poor sleep affects the function of skin cells, making our largest and most visible organ more vulnerable to environmental damage and aging.

Sleep hormones contribute to youth, energy, and strength. One night of sleep loss can accelerate cellular aging, according to research.

As we age, our ability to learn new things and remember information changes. Sleep helps us stay mentally sharp as we age. Sleep helps learning and memory. Disrupted sleep can impair the brain's ability to make and store memories, as well as problem-solving and detail-orientation.

Sleep safeguards brain structure. During sleep, the brain removes daytime toxins. Proteins can damage brain tissue and impair cognition. Poor sleep and untreated sleep disorders increase Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disease risks.

Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are prevalent in the U.S. You or someone you know is affected. Sleeping well can help prevent these two diseases. Sleep apnea worsens these conditions. Lack of sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems. Chronic sleep problems are linked to high blood sugar, poor insulin function, and prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.

Sleep apnea can cause hundreds of nighttime awakenings and accelerates aging.

Whatever your age, create and maintain a routine of high-quality, restorative sleep. This includes healthy sleep habits. Good sleep hygiene isn't enough to solve sleep problems, so seek diagnosis and treatment.

07/12/2022

Sleep hygiene is recognized as an important contributor to wellness and longevity. The body heals, the mind rests and circadian rhythms allow our biological systems to flow at their natural pace.

Interruptions in healthy sleep habits are known to cause many ailments. Conversely, imbalances in our metabolism can also contribute to sleep disorders.

But what is the role of dreams in sleep hygiene?

Recent studies and popular books on the topic have revealed a wealth of information on the importance of dreams in physical and mental health.

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, MD examines sleep's impact on metabolic health. Dreams make painful memories less painful and create a virtual reality space where the brain can mix past and present knowledge to spark creativity, he says.

Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold's When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep describes recent discoveries about the sleeping brain and how dreams are psychologically and neurologically meaningful. It explains how dreams can help people be creative and gain personal insights.

Studies support the above thoughts, as well as the fact that a lack of dreaming due to poor sleep hygiene can lead to hallucinations and insanity. Even in comics, creators acknowledge that even Superman must dream to maintain his mental health. Metropolis doesn't need a paranoid, heat-visioned superbeing.

Super-powered or not, we all need to pay more attention to our sleep hygiene. Maintain a regular sleep schedule, avoid screens before and during sleep, avoid bedtime snacking.

07/08/2022

Facts About Longevity:
Check Your Thumb
If it’s green, that’s good for your longevity

Observe the gardener. Planting, weeding, tending, harvesting. One with the earth, assisting in the continuation of life. It may look like hard work to the uninitiated, but have you ever seen an unhappy or stressed gardener?

So then if we asked you what a study said was the most common hobby among people who lived to be 100+, would “gardening” surprise you?

Spending time outside tending to a garden provides you with fresh air, vitamin D, and great aerobic exercise. Although these benefits aren't unique to gardening, there are several unique factors to be considered. Gardening can decrease your cortisol levels resulting in stress reduction. It can also provide a quiet meditative space for personal reflection away from the hectic pace of day-to-day life. Harvesting your food can also provide you with more nutrients compared to commercial harvesting practices.

Fine motor skills naturally decrease with age, but gardening can help improve strength and dexterity as an alternative for those who don't enjoy going to the gym.

If these benefits weren't already enticing, gardening also allows you to reconnect with nature. The benefits of a green thumb may be the simplest way to give a thumbs-up to longevity.

07/07/2022

“What is…”
The “circadian rhythm”?

The “circadian rhythm” and “sleep cycle” comes from evolutionary science. Every aspect of our bodies and minds has developed over eons amid the ceaseless march of day into night. It would make no sense if our health did not reflect—and revolve around—that constant environmental tempo.

The circadian rhythm is the body's 24-hour internal clock responsible for changes in physical and psychological behavior. In the hypothalamus area of our forebrain reside the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), two tiny clusters of neurons that regulate our body's temperature and metabolic rate. They're located right above our optic chiasma because they also oversee our sleep patterns; our eyes trigger our SCNs to dose us with melatonin at nighttime, because it benefited our ancestors to sleep then.

Maintaining healthy sleep habits can be difficult. Digital media and 24/7 connectivity affect sleep duration and quality. This disrupts other circadian rhythms. Other rhythms regulate hormone release, appetite, digestion, and body temperature.

This is not a uniquely human phenomenon. Dogs have an independent rhythm, but they can be influenced by household members. Fish and other mammals share this ability, but not the distractions. Their ability to maintain a regular circadian rhythm is being studied by researchers to see if it can be utilized to regulate human rhythms as well.

07/06/2022

Things You Didn’t Know About Longevity:
Are We Really Living Longer Than Our Ancestors?

As long as we have benefited from advances in modern medicine, the conventional wisdom has been that we are living longer than our ancestors. But has the human lifespan actually increased over time?

No. However, more individuals are living to reach old age.

The truth lies in an issue of nomenclature. For years, “life-span” and “life-expectancy” have been used interchangeably – and erroneously. "Life span" is the measured chronological time a person is alive. “Life expectancy" is a construct based on statistical measurements of the average life span. When society experiences a rise in collective life span, life expectancy rises as well.

This increase can be attributed to higher quality healthcare, technological advances, and more access to information. The ready distribution of information makes it possible to make well-informed decisions about your own healthcare.

With increased longevity in more places around the world, there are even studies to see if there is an end to the measured life span. Could we potentially create a world where we've quite literally outlived the concept?

Using resources like Because Health will make you more informed, increasing your own chances of a longer and more fulfilling life.