What is Take Shape for Life?

Take Shape for Life is a comprehensive program designed to promote healthy changes in your life. The program includes clinically proven Medifast meals with time-tested physician-directed program, with personal support of one of a Health Coaches. The delicious low calorie, low fat, fortified meals come in a wide variety of flavors and choices. There are specialty bars and shakes designed for diabetics and seniors. All products are quick and easy to prepare, while offering a healthy fast food alternative to a busy life!

How does the Take Shape for Life program featuring Medifast work? 

The clinically proven results of Medifast are based on the use of a defined formula diet. The program was carefully designed to create a gap between the calories you take in and the amount your body needs. Each nutritionally balanced meal replacement is formulated with a proven combination of carbohydrates and protein to allow you to successfully lose weight without losing muscle. On an average people have reported 5-7lbs weight loss per week!

How to start looking & feeling better:

When you sign up for the Take Shape for Life Program you get your own personal Health Coach who will teach you how to follow the simple weight loss program. Meals are only $2 and coaching is FREE. Plus when you sign up you get free shipping, 1 week of free food and 5% off your entire program, when you order a 1 month supply. You can customize your selection of meals which includes shakes, soups, puddings, bars, oatmeal, and snacks, diabetic meals are also available.

If you would like to get started on the road to a healthier life email or call Bill Klein at BKNY11772@aol.com or
(631)513-7667.

Those who live in industrialized countries have easy access to healthy food and nutritional supplements, but magnesium deficiencies are still common. That’s a problem because new research from Tel Aviv University suggests that magnesium, a key nutrient for the functioning of memory, may be even more critical than previously thought for the neurons of children and healthy brain cells in aging adults.

Begun at MIT, the research started as a part of a post-doctoral project by Dr. Inna Slutsky of TAU’s Sackler School of Medicine and evolved to become a multi-center experiment focused on a new magnesium supplement, magnesium-L-theronate (MgT), that effectively crosses the blood-brain barrier to inhibit calcium flux in brain neurons.

Published recently in the scientific journal Neuron, the new study found that the synthetic magnesium compound works on both young and aging animals to enhance memory or prevent its impairment. The research was carried out over a five-year period and has significant implications for the use of over-the-counter magnesium supplements.

In the study, two groups of rats ate normal diets containing a healthy amount of magnesium from natural sources. The first group was given a supplement of MgT, while the control group had only its regular diet. Behavioral tests showed that cognitive functioning improved in the rats in the first group and also demonstrated an increase of synapses in the brain – connective nerve endings that carry memories in the form of electrical impulses from one part of the brain to the other.

Bad news for today’s magnesium supplements

“We are really pleased with the positive results of our studies,” says Dr. Slutsky. “But on the negative side, we’ve also been able to show that today’s over-the-counter magnesium supplements don’t really work. They do not get into the brain.

“We’ve developed a promising new compound which has now taken the first important step towards clinical trials by Prof. Guosong Liu, Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University and cofounder of Magceutics company,” she says.

While the effects were not immediate, the researchers in the study — from Tel Aviv University, MIT, the University of Toronto, and Tsighua University in Beijing — were able to assess that the new compound shows improved permeability of the blood-brain barrier. After two weeks of oral administration of the compound in mice, magnesium levels in the cerebral-spinal fluid increased.

Toward a more “plastic” brain

“It seems counterintuitive to use magnesium for memory improvement because magnesium is a natural blocker of the NMDA receptor, a molecule critical for memory function. But our compound blocks the receptor only during background neuronal activity. As a result, it enhances the brain’s ‘plasticity’ and increases the number of brain synapses that can be switched on,” says Dr. Slutsky.

“Our results suggest that commercially available magnesium supplements are not effective in boosting magnesium in cerebro-spinal fluid,” she says.

“Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, but today half of all people in industrialized countries are living with magnesium deficiencies that may generally impair human health, including cognitive functioning.”

Before the new compound becomes commercially available, Dr. Slutsky advises people to get their magnesium the old-fashioned way — by eating lots of green leaves, broccoli, almonds, cashews and fruit. The effects on memory won’t appear overnight, she cautions, but with this persistent change in diet, memory should improve, and the effects of dementia and other cognitive impairment diseases related to aging may be considerably delayed.

He writes plenty of prescriptions for standard medications to treat high blood pressure. But in recent years, Zusman has gotten more assertive with patients about lifestyle choices.

“You’re going to have to change your diet, you’re going to have to lose weight, exercise, stop smoking,” Zusman tells patients. “If it’s not an important priority, keep doing what you’re doing, I’ll give you the pills. But if you really want to be there, you’re going to have to change.”

A Prescription For Meditation

Lately, Zusman has added a new recommendation: meditation. It’s based on what he learned from a recent, three-month study he helped direct in conjunction with Boston’s Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.

Patients who took part in the research were being treated for high blood pressure using standard medications and had agreed to try training in what’s known as the relaxation response, a technique first described by cardiologist Herbert Benson 30 years ago.

“I’d been using medications in these patients, they were hopefully following my recommendations,” Zusman explains. But “we still couldn’t get their blood pressure under control. And I was somewhat skeptical that meditation could be the key to blood pressure control.”

One patient in the institute study was a man named Jerome Smith. At 67, Smith is retired from his job as a corporate executive at DuPont, but he still works as a consultant part time. He says he’s always had a type-A personality.

So, sitting alone in a quiet room was certainly not an easy technique.

“It was a foreign concept in terms of my normal practices,” Smith says.

But he got lots of help, and with weekly one-one-one training sessions he learned how to meditate. “You’re just letting all your tension go,” he says.

Sometimes, realizing that you’re not in control can make you more effective in matters where you do have control.

Relaxing Results

At the end of the study, Smith got some good news. His blood pressure was down, so he was able reduce the dosage of one of his medications.

Zusman says that about 40 of the 60 patients trained in the relaxation response had similar results.

“Their blood pressure dropped, and they dropped some of their medication. It was striking. It was statistically significant, but more important it was clinically significant to these people,” he says.

What helps to explain these results, Zusman says, is the relatively new understanding of how the relaxation response assists the body.

It helps increase the formation of a compound called nitric oxide, which causes blood vessels to open up. This, in turn, lowers blood pressure.

“It’s basically a plumbing problem. You’re pushing the same amount of blood through a bigger pipe,” Zusman says. “And that’s what nitric oxide – which all of us make in our body – does in response to relaxation response.”

Commitment Required

Here’s the rub: The relaxation response is not a gift. A daily meditation practice requires discipline and allocating time each day.

Smith, the study participant, says this is the hard part. A year after the study, he says his daily practice has begun to fall off because life’s just gotten too busy

Although Zusman says this can happen, he’s learned that the relaxation response is yet one more tool to control blood pressure.

Whether it’s temporary or more long term depends on how well people can stick with it.

by Allison Aubrey (NPR.org)

If you cook, you know that there have been many discoveries of brilliant dishes and desserts by combining bizarre ingredients and methods to craft something edible and that tastes good. Green tea has been used to make delicious ice cream, nutritious cake, to garnish some seafood like shrimp, and of course to make the healthiest iced tea imaginable (iced green tea is jam packed with antioxidants, either use sugar to enhance flavor, or artificial sweetener for a 0 calorie drink). These foods not only taste great, but they appeal to a wide variety of people.

6. Protect your skin

Who would have thought that applying green tea directly to the skin could assist in blocking skin cancer caused by sunlight? Apparently true, it is a noticeably reoccurring theme with new moisturizers. Including “with green tea” or something along those lines, may be a selling point for most new creams, but this modern revelation can be provided without using a cream, simply soak a green tea bag and dab your skin. You may even be inclined to try using it on sunburns.

It also helps wounds heal. Green tea possesses a natural antiseptic which helps clean and soothe cuts, swelling, and general skin irritations.

5. Prevent memory loss

It seems as though green tea provides some nerve stabilization in the brain, a study done has reported that over the hill adults that drink 2 cups of the tea per day are half as likely to develop Alzheimer’s, even Parkinson’s. If you know someone falling into this age range, you should encourage him or her to have tea with you.

4. Keep your arteries clean

When blood pumps through your veins, they are carrying oxygen through to your brain. Green tea provides more oxygen to be carried, and also clears out the arteries from plaque and junk that is detrimental to your health. Cleaner arteries mean a healthier and younger looking you. When considering the Asian culture, you’ll find that many of them age gracefully. Tea is simply a staple of their culture.

3. Ward off heart disease

Polyphenols play a big part in lowering your blood pressure, and there are plenty of polyphenols in green tea. By drinking half a cup, results show that blood pressure is lowered to 120/80 or below, which is a great blood pressure to be below. Heart disease is running rampant as always, in some cases, green tea is simply an easy method to keep it running strong.

2. Fights Cancer

Antioxidants make up a lot of the reason why green tea is rapidly becoming the tea of choice for many individuals, antioxidants discourage cancer cells and tumors from growing, which is great, but a lot of folks don’t worry about cancer until it happens to them or someone close to them. Green tea is a nice calming drink to enjoy daily, whether drinking to your health or simply enjoying it to stimulate your mind and body.

1. Weight loss

Green tea burns 60 calories per cup. This is a cup without adding sugar or honey, however. It helps when including exercise in your daily routine, because green tea increases your metabolism (or metabolic rate), which can lead to a steady weight loss regimen. Even if you aren’t a person that exercises much, it can still curb your daily calorie intake. Celebrities are all over this green tea thing. Oprah Winfrey has even endorsed green tea and products alike.

You can adapt to a low-sodium diet faster than you think, reports the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Researchers had 354 volunteers follow three diets for 30 days each. One contained 1,200 milligrams of sodium per day, one 2,300 mg (within the recommended amount), and one 3,500 mg (the amount most U.S. adults get). Afterward, subjects were willing to continue the 2,300 milligram diet rather than return to a high sodium diet. Americans may associate good taste with lots of salt – until they make a habit of eating lower sodium foods and realize the taste doesn’t tank. Start by cutting out 50 milligrams per week (that’s your Friday Coke), says lead study author Eva Obarzanek, Ph.D., R.D.

Five nutrients can help older adults live independently longer and folic acid can reduce birth defects, in a new study by The Lewin Group (an independent healthcare cost-analysis firm in Falls Church, Virginia, serving the U.S. government and industry). Researchers reviewed the scientific literature on six nutrients – calcium with vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, lutein with zeaxanthin, and folic acid – and concluded that many high-quality studies show clear relationships between the supplements and better health. Study authors stated, “A growing body of scientific research is beginning to provide important clues about how diet choices affect health.”

Doctors cited evidence that 1,200 mg of calcium with vitamin D per day reduced bone loss and hip fractures in the elderly, cut hospital trips to repair the hip and reduced stays at skilled nursing care facilities.

Focusing on heart studies, researchers found that 1,800 mg of omega-3s per day effectively cut the risk of coronary events including heart attack, restricted heart blood flow, fat and calcium deposits on blood-vessel walls, inflammation and blockages.

Lutein and zeaxanthin – the yellow-colored antioxidants that collect in the eye and protect vision – are essential nutrients that must come from the diet. Researchers determined that taking 6-10mg of lutein with zeaxanthin per day significantly reduced the risk of going blind in the center of the field of vision (age-related macular degeneration or AMD), a major cause of older adults losing the ability to live independently. Doctors believe poor vision causes 18% of all hip fractures.

If one-quarter of the 44 million U.S. women of child-bearing age who do not take folic acid began taking 400 mcg of folic acid per day, 600 babies could be born without neural tube defects, researchers stated.

If those at risk for bone, heart, eye and birth diseases took these supplements during the five years from 2008 to 2012, researchers project $24 billion in health savings to Medicare and other insurers.