One of the crazy things about supplements in this country is that they are not regulated by the FDA like food is. By comparing standard food and supplement labels side by side, we can see that we have a lot more knowledge about foods than we do supplements! If we pick up a box in the grocery
store, all we have to do is look at the label and see the complete list of ingredients and the nutrition facts, which includes many things such as the amount of carbs, protein and fat as well as certain vitamin and mineral contents. If you are to find a supplement product that is proud enough to list their ingredients and facts on the label (mmhmm..ItWorks!) chances are they have ingredients that they are proud of and want to disclose to the country!

Maybe to give you a better idea of how high-quality supplements work, we should compare your everyday joe collagen to our cutting-edge CollagenWorks. If you go to a mass-production website, you can certainly find basic collagen. These products tend to come in the form of bovine collagen (because this country eats a lot of beef!) which is manufactured into a powder which appears very similar to our CollagenWorks when pouring into a glass.

But here?s the thing: basic bovine collagen can only do so much for the body when the body
doesn?t have the tools it needs to make our bodies gleam! Think of it like a sports car that has plenty of
gas; but it has no engine oil, no starter fluid, and no transmission fluid! This beautiful and fierce car
cannot roam the streets and show off its luster until it has the basic elements that it needs to do so!
Now keeping that in mind with our collagen, lets take a deeper look into CollagenWorks.
Oh boy, a nutrition and ingredients label! This is already a good sign. Wait, it?s not just bovine
collagen but 4 other kinds of collagen too? Ok, now why would this matter? Actually it does! While
bovine may be the most common sources of collagen, it does not mean that it has all of the benefits
that collagen can offer. The second ingredient in CollagenWorks is fish collagen, which has much higher
levels of gelatin than other collagen sources and has been shown to particularly improve skin moisture
and appearance. Not only this but CollagenWorks uses one of the top?and yes I said TOP brands of fish
collagen out there ? TruMarine. This fish collagen is wild-caught and sustainably sourced, which means
you aren?t dealing with any of the nasty unmentionable conditions that farm-raised fish live in and
absorb through their scales. Wild-caught fish are much cleaner in America than farm-raised fish and it
shows in the quality of the products they are in!

The ingredient list isn?t the only source for superior quality information on here ? let?s take a
look at the nutrition facts as well! In CollagenWorks, we can see that this product does not contain just
collagen, and that?s a GOOD thing! Our bodies need more than just collagen to look its best, and some
of those main ingredients are vitamins and minerals which are responsible for maintaining skin integrity.
These nutrients include vitamin A, vitamin C, zinc, selenium, copper and selenium. So wait, this means
that not only does CollagenWorks provide superior collagen ingredients for skin, but it also contains
nutrients that are necessary for overall skin health! You can?t get that from just plain collagen products,
and this is why you can buy those items online and may never notice a difference.
Our bodies are a collection of complex systems working together in synchrony to display the
very best it can with what it has. We may not be able to fully understand every interaction that each

nutrient has with one another, but there is something we can do: we can read the label. Then, when we
have this information we are able to discover just how much these nutrients do for us (gotta love
Google!). Then we can finally come to find that not all collagen is created equal!

Sources
1. Park K. Role of Micronutrients in Skin Health and Function. Biomolecules & Therapeutics.
2015;23(3):207-217.
2. Hashim P., Ridzwan M., Bakar J., Hashim M. Collagen in food and beverage industries.
International Food Research Journal. 2015;22(1):1-8.

Hair Skin Nails and Collagen ? Which is Best for Me?

I have been so happy to hear that many of you have a curiosity for the differences between our beauty and health products! And it makes sense, if collagen is shown to help improve skin appearance, why isn?t collagen in the HSN – Hair Skin Nails? And if HSN has almost 700% of your daily vitamin C, why wouldn?t CollagenWorks contain this much as well? Today, I want to talk about the differences between the two products so that you can decide which one is right for you!
Vitamin C ? what a great nutrient! Not only is it responsible for aiding in our immunity, controlling inflammation and acting as an antioxidant to detoxify our system, but this vital nutrient plays a very important role in our skin?s overall health! Vitamin C is actually a precursor for collagen, which means that vitamin C is an ingredient that actually turns in to collagen! Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body, and the majority of it resides in our skin. It is also in our bones, hair and nails.

Whenever we are wounded, we break the barrier of our skin. Vitamin C is the essential nutrient that converts into collagen to repair that wound. But cuts and scrapes aren?t the only way our skin becomes damaged. Excess sun exposure, drinking alcohol and even eating foods that contain toxins (yes, that especially means fried foods!) will suck up all of the vitamin C we have in our systems. When this happens, your skin cannot look as vivid and bright because it cannot use that vitamin C for new skin cells! Instead, it is diverted to maintain your immune system.

So here?s the million dollar question: how healthy are you? Because if you think you do a pretty decent job at eating foods that are high in vitamin C (and let me italicize this: every day) then you may not need to supplement with products that have a significant amount of it. Foods that are high in vitamin C include oranges, grapefruit, lemons, bell peppers and spinach. Generally, to get enough vitamin C, I recommend eating three or more servings of vitamin C-rich foods every day. This can be a lot of work unless you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables! So my recommendation sits on the fact that in order to keep your immunity at its fiercest, you should at least start with a vitamin C supplement, like Hair Skin Nails, to build up your immune system so your skin can shine!

Now, let?s get to collagen, because this stuff really works! When you take collagen, what you are doing essentially is skipping a step with the vitamin C conversion into that collagen. You are therefore giving your body this potent product firsthand! Collagen has been shown to do wonders with skin, gut and even brain health! By simply taking vitamin C, your body has to do a lot more work to convert it into collagen. However, by taking vitamin C you are helping to maintain your immune system better so that your body can thrive naturally!

So long story short, your overall goals matter when deciding which supplements you should add to your daily routine. But let me go out on a whim and say that I think many of you actually want to be healthy and have beautiful skin! Crazy I know! But if this is the case, you will be happy to hear that you can use Hair Skin Nails and CollagenWorks together to get the benefits of both! These two products actually work great together to arm your body with the things that it needs to build well-being and radiance at the same time!

Sources:
Turkiewicz M. Collagen Hydrolysate as a New Diet Supplement. Scientific Bulletin of the Technical University of Lodz. 2009;73(1058):84-92.
Padayatty S., Katz A., Wang Y., et al. Vitamin C as an Antioxidant: Evaluation of Its Role in Disease Prevention. 2002:22(1);18-35.
Yamadera, W et al. Glycine ingestion improves subjective sleep quality in human volunteers, correlating with polysomnographic changes. Sleep & Biological Rhythms. 2007:5(2);126?131.
Lin, M. L-Glutamate Supplementation Improves Small Intestinal Architecture and Enhances the Expressions of Jejunal Mucosa Amino Acid Receptors and Transporters in Weaning Piglets. National Center for Biotechnology Information. 2014:9(11);1-8.

I?m sure you?ve heard of those cleanses that tell you to juice for a week and not consume anything else in the meantime. And while people will tell you that they feel noticeably better after its over, the negative impacts of this kind of extreme carb-intake can most certainly impact the way that your body is storing fat. So instead of spending 4 hours of your day juicing a cart-full of produce just to spike your blood sugar levels, let me tell you about something that has been designed to give you some of the best benefits of what a true body cleanse is supposed to be!

The purpose of a cleanse is to act somewhat like a ?reset? button. You may have just gotten back from a summer vacation and enjoyed your fair share of indulgences? Or maybe you have been extra stressed at work lately and can feel the difference in your energy levels that have dropped. Whatever the reason, you feel less than your 100%. Often and many times, this is due to toxin build-up in the body. Toxins accumulate for a number of reasons, but poor diet and stress are HUGE contributors to this! Our bodies can only work so hard to flush these toxins out, and if we are trying to do this while we are still stressed and eating poorly, the cycle will just continue! So therefore, when using a high-quality cleanse, we can accelerate the detox process and get our bodies back to feeling better sooner. ?

The ItWorks! Cleanse has a lot going for it; firstly, it is bursting with antioxidants! The aloe vera gel has both vitamin C AND vitamin E which are both potent antioxidants and actually work synergistically when combined with one another ? which is why aloe is so stinking awesome for a cleanse! This feel-better product also has blueberries, cranberries, plums and strawberries which are some of the most highly concentrated antioxidant food sources that we know of! Antioxidants are so important because they stop the domino-like toxins in their tracks (think of putting a sturdy brick halfway through a domino assembly to save the rest of your dominos from falling!). This is very similar to how antioxidants and phytonutrients from these superfoods work!

The other main ingredient we are proudly featuring in our cleanse is Blue Agave extract, which comes from the blue agave plant. This saccharide is much different from sweetening agents like cane sugar because it does not get digested until much later in your body. This gives your microflora more time to consume it in the parts of your body where you need it the most! You don?t want to consume large amounts of sugar alone because then bacteria start to grow in places that it normally wouldn?t. This is exactly what happens when you take out the pulp out of your produce and drink juice by itself!

So let?s go back to that juicing thing for just a moment? The main problem is that juicing takes out a vital nutrient that is essential for healthy absorption: fiber. Fiber is the mother prebiotic. It acts as food for your microflora so that those good bacteria can grow and multiply to help minimize inflammation and even make vitamins for your body to absorb and use yourself! You must MUST have fiber in your life if you want to be in optimal health, and juicing has very little fiber, if any at all!

We have already talked about 3 of the wonderful reasons why this cleanse is HOT, but what gets me really excited is that there is so much more to it than this! Milk thistle seed, beetroot nitrates, and spirulina have their own incredible properties as well! Just to keep you on your toes, I?ll save all of these cool facts for another time. I hope you stay hungry for more health knowledge to come!! <3

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Exogenous Ketones ? The Jumpstart End-Product

Transitioning your body into a state of ketosis is not always easy, especially when you?ve been eating a high-carb diet your entire life! But if you know your keto, then you also know that just eating high-fat isn?t enough for the body to actually use fat as its primary fuel ? you need to produce enough ketones to get there! Ketones are a bi-product of fat metabolism. In other words, when your body reaches ketosis, it means that your body is burning fat at a rate where it produces 0.5-3.0 mmol/L of ketones, which is shown in your blood. Some people are resistant to ketosis because of the way they have eaten before going keto. But thankfully, we now have a way to help it listen!

Exogenous ketones are fascinating. We take the end-products that the body makes from burning fatty foods and put them into a powder form! Now you may be thinking, ?Why would you do that?? And I?m really glad you?re thinking that! These ketones are not waste once the body gets the energy it needs, they are actually extremely useful! Once the rest of the body gets its energy from fat, those ketones can be used by the brain as fuel. The brain may be small compared to the rest of your body, but it knows a thing or two about metabolism ? When the brain uses ketones for energy, it is no longer using its preferred source of energy ? carbs. One of the reasons that the brain prefers carbs for energy and not ketones is because carbs are such a quick source of energy. Through food, ketones can take the body hours to naturally produce because they come from fat, which is a very slow form of energy. By feeding your body ketones directly, you skip all of the steps in between!

As fuel, ketones can do amazing things for the brain. One of the most significant effects ketones produce is held in a reaction with glutamate. Glutamate is an amino acid in our bodies that we need for many different things. The problem is, glutamate can build up in our brains and cause brain fog when we don?t process it efficiently. Ketones help convert glutamate into other things so that it can be removed from the brain in an effective way! Many people report once they reach a state of ketosis that their mind is much clearer and that they are more productive during their day!

So now that you know all about ketones, let?s talk about this stellar product ? It Works! Ketones! These exogenous ketones pack more than just the everyday market ketones. They contain magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium; all of which are vital electrolytes which maintain the body?s hydration! In addition to hydration, magnesium is an important mineral for the body because it is involved in over 300 reactions in the body, many of which include energy production! Around 60% of the people in this country do not consume enough magnesium every day; and if you are one of them, this may be impacting your progress into ketosis!

If ketosis is something that does not come naturally to you, don?t fret. There are steps you can take to get through that hurdle and reach a whole new level of health! Give these exogenous ketones a try, and use them in the morning in your water, coffee or tea. Once you reach ketosis, you can even use this as a pre-workout supplement! You can do this. Trust me. Lets go!!!

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Sources
Wallace TM et al. The hospital and home use of a 30-second hand-held blood ketone meter: guidelines for clinical practice. Diabetic Medicine. 2001. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11553201
Volpe S. Magnesium and the Athlete. Nutrition and Ergogenic Aids. 2015. 279-283. www.acsm-csmr.org