Pickle Juice – The New #1 Sports Drink

Currently professional, college and high school football teams and college and  high school cross country track teams will soon be beginning their hot summer practices.  They will also begin their need to drink pickle juice as a way to help stave off  muscle cramps. Runners and bikers, especially those in the very warm southern  climates also know full well the benefits that pickle juice provides. Pickle  juice can definitely help to prevent muscle cramping.

Pickle juice contains salt, calcium chloride and vinegar. The basic ingredients  are similar to what you would find in isotonic drinks. Where pickle juice has  acetic acid, isotonic drinks contain citric acid, like the sports drink  featuring the name gator and power in it.

Sometimes you may sneak a sip of juice from the pickle jar. That’s OK. That  seemingly worthless liquid, which often gets tossed into the trash when the  pickles are gone, could be the key to athletic endurance and avoiding  debilitating leg cramps?

The use of pickle juice as a defense against muscle cramps first attracted  headlines when the Philadelphia Eagles credited pickle juice with their  cramp-free win over the Dallas Cowboys in the over-one-hundred-degrees Texas  heat. Rick Burkholder, the Eagles’ head trainer, called it his “secret weapon.”  Pickle companies (such as Mt. Olive Pickle, Vlasic Foods and Golden Pickle)  claim that pickle juice is similar to an isotonic beverage and can prevent  muscle cramps caused from strenuous exercise.

Golden Pickle has even created a sports drink, appropriately named “Pickle  Juice Sport.” Golden Pickle claims that Pickle Juice Sport has “approximately 30  times more electrolytes than Powerade and 15 times more than Gatorade.” It is  even endorsed by Dallas Cowboy Jason Witten.

So how does this work? Muscle cramps are caused by dehydration from  exercising in hot weather and not drinking enough fluids. How could pickle juice  help? When you sweat during exercise, you lose a lot of salt and minerals. These  minerals and salt are also known as electrolytes. This loss of electrolytes can  cause muscle cramping, especially in hot, humid weather. Cells in the body use  electrolytes in the cell fluid to maintain voltages across their cell membranes  and to carry electrical impulses to other cells. In the case of my bike ride, I  had to be able to use my muscles in both a pulling and contracting motion, or  muscle contractions. Pickle juice has a very high salt, or electrolyte content.  Therefore, drinking pickle juice before and during exercise could possibly  provide your body with enough salt, that your muscles will not cramp.

Confused? Don’t be. Anything liquid containing any or all of the four  commonly considered electrolytes, sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium will  work to help to prevent muscle cramping. Obviously, the more the better. Give it  a try on a daily basis and see for yourself. Don’t worry about how people look  at you when you tip that empty pickleless laden jar of liquid up to your  lips.

Research Study to Support this OMG Moment:

http://healthpsych.psy.vanderbilt.edu/pickleJuice.htm

~Although there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence supporting the use of pickle juice as a method of preventing dehydration and muscle cramps, the is little scientific evidence supporting or refuting these ideas. Dale, et al. examined the effectiveness of pickle juice as a preventative measure for exercise-associated muscle cramps compared to Gatorade. This study compared the pickle juice from Vlasic Pickles to the carbohydrate sports beverage Gatorade. The two beverage samples were analyzed in a food-composition laboratory to determine the amount of salt, potassium, calcium and magnesium in each product. Pickle juice was found to have considerably more salt than the carbohydrate beverage. Dale et. al. concluded that pickle juice can be used as a remedy for muscle cramps. However, the study warns of the danger of ingesting large amounts of salt and suggests that athletes should dilute the pickle juice with a sufficient quantity of a hypotonic or isotonic solution. Two ounces is the suggested serving size of pickle juice.

http://sweatscience.com/pickle-juice-stops-muscle-cramps/

~ Researchers suggest that the pickle juice acts on neural reflexes — a plausible suggestion, given that earlier experiments have found that vinegar can provoke reflexes and affect neurotransmitter levels. This fits with an alternate theory that cramps have nothing to do with dehydration or electrolyte loss, first proposed in the 1990s by Martin Schwellnus of the University of Cape Town:

“Schwellnus et al. proposed that [cramps] were due to neuromuscular fatigue. Neuromuscular fatigue is thought to create an imbalance between muscle spindle and Golgi tendon organ activity, resulting in increased alpha motor neuron excitability. Thus, if [cramps] are caused by an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory stimuli at the alpha motor neuron pool, pickle juice ingestion may cause an increase in inhibition from supraspinal sources, thereby resulting in cramp alleviation.”

Healthy Icecream for Hospital Recovery Patients

Though they are in the business of healing patients, hospitals and long-term care facilities are rife with germs and bacteria that can hinder a patient’s road to recovery. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two million patients per year pick up infections in U.S. hospitals. About 90,000 die as a result of these deaths, with approximately 70% caused by bacteria that are resistant to at least one antibiotic. Those figures were a compelling factor in the creation of HHice Cream Probiotic Defense, a “healthy hospital” frozen yogurt mix developed by NEWtritious, a relatively new startup food and beverage company based in Los Angeles, CA.

HHice Cream, which debuted at Natural Products Expo West, is designed to deliver “viable and potent probiotics along with a beneficial serving of vitamins and minerals,” and provides “much-needed supplementation” in the form of a cooling soft-serve to coax patients—especially pediatric and geriatric patients—who are reluctant to eat in the hospital. The product’s marquis ingredient is GanedenBC30, a patented strain of probiotic bacteria Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086, which according to the company may help enhance immune system response while supporting gut health.

“Each cell of GanedenBC30 contains a hardened structure, or spore, which is similar to a seed,” explained Michael Arlen, founder and president of NEWtritious. “This spore or seed, serves as a natural protective shield against the strong acids in your stomach to arrive alive and then thrive in your intestines—their intended target. GanedenBC30 is designed by nature to survive and thrive so more probiotic cells can help support your immune system.”

To ensure its probiotic would perform as expected NEWtritious sponsored research at the University of Reading in the U.K. on its proprietary strain BC30. In vitro fermenters (continuous culture) were used to assess the persistence of BC30 in the background of a complex mixed microbiota, and modern molecular based technologies were used to assess microbial changes in the fermenters. The researchers found BC30 to be “effective at persisting in the reactors for the duration of the experimental period,” with no negative effects of supplementation determined.

The researchers also reported that their co-culture work showed that BC30 could exert anti-microbial activity against C. difficile, C. perfringens and Listeria monocytogenes (to varying degrees). And in a culture system designed to favor C. difficile growth, the probiotic demonstrated the ability to repress the pathogen. “In the human situation where persons at risk of C. difficile associated diarrhoea are likely to be taking antibiotics, the BC30 sporulation is almost certain,” the researchers reported. “We propose that both the level of growth (i.e. number of vegetative cells) and phase of growth (i.e. log phase, late log phase, or sporulation) are important factors in the expression of anti-microbial compounds from Bacillus probiotics. We also suggest that the (unique among probiotics) bi-modal lifecycle of BC30 may lead to antimicrobial activity in distal regions of the gastrointestinal tract. This is an important facet given the prevalence of gut disorders in the left side of the large intestine.”

NEWtritious is promoting the product for its ability to “deliver active cultures more effectively than yogurt,” citing an independent lab study that simulated a gastric environment with a pH of 2.0 for two hours during which GanedenBC30 delivered more than 10 times the live cells than common probiotic yogurt cultures.

Mr. Arlen said GanedenBC30 does not adversely influence HHice Cream’s taste, mouth feel, texture or color. “HHice Cream is both appealing and delicious, and can be the perfect solution for those having difficulty swallowing or suffering from alimentary tract inflammation due to chemotherapy or surgery,” he said. “It also provides an enjoyable way to deliver nutrition to children during their hospital stay, as well as healthcare professionals on the go.”

 In addition to Vanilla, 3 D Chocolate (Deep Dark Dutch) and Tart, hospitals can purchase flavored syrups or powders that blend with the Tart Mix for an assortment of soft-serves varieties including: Almond, Banana, Blueberry, Coconut, Green Tea, Kiwi, Lemon Ice, Lychee, Mango, Mint, Passion Fruit, Peach, Pistachio, Pomegranate, Raspberry, Strawberry and Strawberry Banana. - Nutraceuticals World Now

Tired + Bored = Stronger Lungs?

If you get side stitches when you work out, your breathing muscles may not be as in shape as the rest of you body. Exercise can help to train the respiratory muscles over time, but you can also increase breath control without working up a sweat, says Thomas Vanhecke, MD, a cardiologist at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.

“Although sighs are often regarded as a sign of boredom or tiredness, they also offer a significant benefit for respiratory mechanics,” says Vanhecke. A sigh is defined as a breath three times larger than a normal breath. You probably already sigh ten to twelve times an hour, but increasing this amount may help strengthen your breath. If you’d rather have an official routine, follow a guided meditation that emphasizes sigh-like deep breathing. Or, simply focus on taking long and controlled inhales and exhales. Start by breathing in for a count of four and out for a count of four, moving up to six then and eight  and so on.

Source: Dr.Vanhecke