Need an Energy Boost? Try These Four Easy Tips To Stay Happy and Alert All Day Long
The key to sailing through each day with energy to spare: Boosting your mitochondria. “Mitochondria serve as microscopic power plants inside cells to keep your body firing on all cylinders,” says Fred Pescatore, MD. “But when they’re not functioning properly, their energy output wanes, leaving you fatigued and foggy.” While mitochondria decrease with age, it’s easy to perk them back up with these four easy tips that will provide you with all day energy!
Power up with pumpkin.
Enjoying two handfuls of pumpkin seeds daily (which taste great over oatmeal or in muffins) delivers a 336 mg. dose of magnesium. That’s enough to shield against deficiencies that impact up to 80 percent of women. Why that’s key: University of Minnesota research reveals an ample amount of magnesium enhances mitochondria’s ability to produce ATP, the body’s basic form of energy, by 100 percent. Other tasty picks: almonds, cashews, sunf lower seeds and leafy greens.
Opt for olive oil.
Whether you drizzle it over roasted veggies, toss it into salads, or mix it into marinades, enjoying this versatile oil daily can increase both numbers and activity of mitochondria by 65 percent. So say Chinese scientists, who note that the oil is packed with hydroxytyrosol, a compound that switches on genes responsible for mitochondrial growth.
Putter about the house.
Simply moving your body for 30 minutes four times a week (by dancing in your living room or cuing up an indoor walking workout) fortifies existing mitochondria and increases the number of new ones by 50 percent in 12 weeks. So say University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine experts, who found exercise boosts the production of proteins that prevent damage to the cellular powerhouses.
Boost this B.
The nutrient that bolsters energy engines fast: nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B-3. “The body uses it to make NAD+, a compound that revs the activity of mitochondria and spurs the growth of new ones,” Dr. Pescatore says. He advises taking 100 mg. of NR daily. In an NIH study, those who did so upped their energy by 33 percent in 24 hours. Try: Life Extension NAD+ (Buy from LifeExtension.com, $18).
