How well does your body transport oxygen from your lungs to your muscles? Does it digest proteins and utilize carbohydrates as effectively as it should? Has your athletic performance started to decline? Do you frequently feel fatigued or have difficulty recovering from physical or mental stress?
Posing any one of these questions to your doctor might get you a standard, serum chemistry profile as a general screen to rule out disease. And while insights from this type of laboratory testing can be helpful, they don’t provide any direct or relevant information about the basic, physiological processes that drive your potential for health.
At Core 4 Nutrition, determining the connection between your biological well-being and your functional performance capacity is our specialty. Through the use of a series of unique assessments—all performed at home with a simple finger stick, saliva, or urine sample—it’s possible to identify and restore your body’s most essential nutrient needs.
I have been asked a number of times, “What’s so special about the Core 4 assessments? Can’t I just do a few extra tests the next time I go to my doctor?”
Chalk another one up for Mother Nature’s infinite wisdom.
While unprotected sun exposure is still actively discouraged by many health care professionals, scientific researchers continue to document—in rapidly increasing numbers—its many benefits (discussed in a previous post). Lower blood pressure, a decreased risk of both heart attack and stroke, a heightened sense of well-being, and improved athletic performance were among the powerful and healing benefits.
Many active, health-minded people now understand that getting the appropriate dose of sunlight is critical for optimal health and performance because it fuels the skin’s ability to produce an adequate supply of vitamin D3. But the positive consequences don’t stop there.
It turns out that the skin acts as a storage depot for nitric oxide (NO). And that sunlight plays a critical role in activating the physiological processes that convert stored forms of NO (from dietary nitrates found in green vegetables and red beets) into the bio-available form of NO that can actually be used by the body.
One of the most powerful features of the Core 4 Nutrition Program is its measurability. The use of nutritional supplements can contribute to significant, long-term health and fitness improvements. But to be useful, these results must be measurable. Otherwise, it’s difficult—if not impossible—to know if you are taking the correct amount of the right nutrients.
In assessing the nutritional status of hundreds of active men and women, we have learned about the critical importance of nitric oxide or NO—a powerful molecule that promotes, protects, and preserves cellular health. In fact, nitric oxide is the key player responsible for delivering oxygen-rich blood to every cell, tissue, and organ system in the body. Low NO levels have been linked to poor performance and the onset of many chronic diseases.
