From the CrackBerry to the Chia…Product Placement Monday!

Happy Monday!  I’m hoping everyone had a wonderful weekend and looking forward to catching up with everybody; I’ve been lax in reading and commenting lately.

I’m feeling fundamentally dichotomous today…I feel literally drunk with exhaustion because despite being pretty quiet most of the weekend, I didn’t sleep well; but I don’t feel bad.  My mood is very good, despite the very forceful presence of TOM, and I am not feeling particularly emotionally reactive.  Strange, but in a wonderful way.

I attribute some of this strangeness to an interesting cocktail of things:  one part my new Crackberry (thanks for that term, Sherre!), one part excitement at getting to spend the night at home tonight, a generous splash of to getting to meet Cammy on the 26th, and a huge dollop of exercise over the weekend.  The rest, I guess, is just my generally strange personality.    And the EPO…but more about that later.

I walked again yesterday, for about 40 minutes.  Same park, which I love…I don’t know if I pushed it quite as hard this time, because my energy levels weren’t quite as insanely high as Saturday’s.  But I did have a great walk.  I didn’t do my strength training for last night, because I’d managed to forget some of the equipment I needed.  I made last night my rest night and will do yesterday’s circuit at home tonight (tonight was my scheduled rest night).

Eating is improving.  I’m trying to get a handle on it without stressing over it; it’s a delicate balance but one I have complete faith I shall find.  I am feeling particularly confident today that life will fall into place, if I just take one thing at a time and do my best without constantly grasping for control.

I do have a sort of natural-health tip for you today:  evening primrose oil.  I shall explain why I am recommending it, but if you’d like to read about it yourself, you can get started here, here, and here.

Please note that I have provided “mainstream science” links, not the natural-medicine-pusher links.  As a result, you will see a lot of statements that there is not enough evidence to support certain claims.  We are very cautionary in the DietBook house.  Herbs and natural supplements are still medicines, my loves, and let’s not forget it.  Just because it comes from nature, doesn’t make it safe and appropriate for everyone!

With that said:  EPO is a good source of GLA – gamma-linoleic acid, an Omega-6 fatty acid.  Generally speaking, the standard American diet provides too many Omega 6’s and not enough Omega 3’s (the imbalance is a bad thing, by the way).  So, generally speaking, increasing intake of an Omega-6 is not a Good Thing.  GLA is a little different from other Omega 6s, though.  Most O-6s are converted by the body primarily into arachidonic acid (AA), which can promote inflammation and contribute to diseases such as heart disease, cancer, asthma, arthritis, and depression as well as, possibly, increased risk of infection.  This is why it is so important to increase intake of Omega 3s, to counteract this effect.

GLA, however, is not converted primarily into AA, but rather primarily into dihomogamma-liolenic acid (DGLA), which has an anti-inflammatory effect.   This effect is increased by intake of certain other supplements, such as magnesium, zinc, and vitamins C, B3, and B6 – all of which I get in my Stresstabs – and by also taking O-3s, in a form such as fish oil or chia seeds (never heard of chia?  Check out this guest post on Cranky Fitness by the marvelous MizFit).

The upshot of all this is that while you do not, generally speaking, want to increase your Omega-6 intake (quite the opposite!), GLA can be an exception to this rule.  Why, you might ask, would you want to take GLA from evening primrose oil or anything else, when you can just take the wonderful Omega-3s instead?  (And you know, because you don’t really want to take nine pills a day.)

Here’s my reason: I take EPO as a hormone-stabilizer.  The links I’ve provided state pretty clearly that this use (to ease the effects of PMS and menopause) is not supported by research, and I respect that.  I do.  But I also respect my own experience, and I can state definitively that it has made a difference for me.  I’m sure a lot of you remember how much I complain about TOM’s disgusting unpredictability and the PMS roller-coaster I ride all the time.  Since I started taking the EPO, though, most of that has stabilized and improved.

So…while I can’t vouch for its usefulness for everyone, I can definitely say that the combination of EPO, fish oil (get the enteric-coated variety, for your own sake!) and Stresstabs has made a huge difference in my general well-being.  (As badly as I want to try the chia, I’m so afraid to because of my problems with IBS.  But some day, I know I will take the plunge anyway.)

There’s your product(s) plug for the day.  And I hope that everyone has a wonderful Monday!