Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training

Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training

By Tom Nikkola | VIGOR TrainingHealth & FitnessNutritionMental HealthFitness
Download on the App Store

Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training episodes

  • Conditioned to Fear in the Home of the Brave
    On Sunday, October 30, 1938, Orson Welles presented War of the Worlds as a prime-time radio show. Though the show was introduced as a fictional story, many listeners missed the introduction and tuned in to hear that Martians had landed, killed 7000 National Guardsman, and were attacking cities like New York, Chicago, and St. Louis.
    About one million Americans believed the story was real. They went searching for gas masks, evacuated some large cities, and thought the end of the world was at hand.
    They acted on emotion before checking the facts. You could say they were emotionally hijacked.
    It's not unlike many people today.
    With the media’s help, many people are afraid of encountering an unmasked human being or getting closer than six feet from someone who is masked. They cleanse themselves with hand sanitizer multiple times per day. Some even wear rubber gloves to open their mail or drive their car.
    The talking heads of Mainstream Media and far-left politicians have terrified people as well as Orson Welles did in 1938.
    Though there is plenty of scientific data to suggest we need not fear the virus, those facts and the people who present them get censored and canceled to avoid their points of view from negating the narrative.
    Some might say it's part of a sinister plan. By causing people to live in fear, they'll be more willing to give up their freedoms. Maybe many in the media and Democrat politicians are just more afraid, and they've projected that fear on the public. Then again, perhaps we've wandered down a path of politics, media, and technology that's led us to become more afraid of something like COVID-19 than we would have been decades prior.
    Why are so many people so scared?
    Unless Jesus comes back, we all have a 100% chance of dying at some point. For those who know that this life is not the end, death isn’t so scary.
    We'd all like to experience life as long as possible and spend more time with our friends and family, but we know that believers get something even better after this life.
    However, as I pointed out in my article A Call to Christians to Stand Up for What's Good and Against What's Evil, we've seen an abrupt decrease in Christians across America and an equal rise in people who do not identify with any religion or faith. If you believe the end of your life is the end, the idea of dying could be terrifying.
    But there is something more to the fact that so many people have jumped on the fear bandwagon without first checking if it was an appropriate response.
    A scared minority makes a scared majority.
    We live in the country and have many deer visit our backyard. A half dozen could be eating from the feeder together, but if just one gets spooked and runs, the others run with it. The fear of one spreads to the group.
    Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discovered that once 10 percent of the population adopts an idea, it spreads like a California wildfire across the entire population. If less than 10 percent hold a belief, nothing happens.
    The population of the United States is about 332 million. If two-thirds of the people are adults, that's about 220 million people. So, you'd need about 22 million people to get scared of a virus for the majority of people to get scared.
    Through social media and television influences, it's easier to fake people into fear than you might realize.
    Read also: Unmasked. Unmuzzled. Unvaccinated. Unafraid.
    Fear porn
    Since the spring of 2020, Mainstream Media has been sensationalizing stories and headlines to draw viewers and readers.
    They used footage from Italy to make it appear that a hospital in New York was overwhelmed in chaos. They had hospital staff line up outside a hospital to make it appear people were waiting in long lines to get tested.
    They set up tents outside hospitals to make it look like the hospitals were overwhelmed. 
    They cherry-picked nurses and doctors who described individual cases...
    14 min
  • Conditioned to Fear in the Home of the Brave
    On Sunday, October 30, 1938, Orson Welles presented War of the Worlds as a prime-time radio show. Though the show was introduced as a fictional story, many listeners missed the introduction and tuned in to hear that Martians had landed, killed 7000 National Guardsman, and were attacking cities like New York, Chicago, and St. Louis.
    About one million Americans believed the story was real. They went searching for gas masks, evacuated some large cities, and thought the end of the world was at hand.
    They acted on emotion before checking the facts. You could say they were emotionally hijacked.
    It's not unlike many people today.
    With the media’s help, many people are afraid of encountering an unmasked human being or getting closer than six feet from someone who is masked. They cleanse themselves with hand sanitizer multiple times per day. Some even wear rubber gloves to open their mail or drive their car.
    The talking heads of Mainstream Media and far-left politicians have terrified people as well as Orson Welles did in 1938.
    Though there is plenty of scientific data to suggest we need not fear the virus, those facts and the people who present them get censored and canceled to avoid their points of view from negating the narrative.
    Some might say it's part of a sinister plan. By causing people to live in fear, they'll be more willing to give up their freedoms. Maybe many in the media and Democrat politicians are just more afraid, and they've projected that fear on the public. Then again, perhaps we've wandered down a path of politics, media, and technology that's led us to become more afraid of something like COVID-19 than we would have been decades prior.
    Why are so many people so scared?
    Unless Jesus comes back, we all have a 100% chance of dying at some point. For those who know that this life is not the end, death isn’t so scary.
    We'd all like to experience life as long as possible and spend more time with our friends and family, but we know that believers get something even better after this life.
    However, as I pointed out in my article A Call to Christians to Stand Up for What's Good and Against What's Evil, we've seen an abrupt decrease in Christians across America and an equal rise in people who do not identify with any religion or faith. If you believe the end of your life is the end, the idea of dying could be terrifying.
    But there is something more to the fact that so many people have jumped on the fear bandwagon without first checking if it was an appropriate response.
    A scared minority makes a scared majority.
    We live in the country and have many deer visit our backyard. A half dozen could be eating from the feeder together, but if just one gets spooked and runs, the others run with it. The fear of one spreads to the group.
    Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discovered that once 10 percent of the population adopts an idea, it spreads like a California wildfire across the entire population. If less than 10 percent hold a belief, nothing happens.
    The population of the United States is about 332 million. If two-thirds of the people are adults, that's about 220 million people. So, you'd need about 22 million people to get scared of a virus for the majority of people to get scared.
    Through social media and television influences, it's easier to fake people into fear than you might realize.
    Read also: Unmasked. Unmuzzled. Unvaccinated. Unafraid.
    Fear porn
    Since the spring of 2020, Mainstream Media has been sensationalizing stories and headlines to draw viewers and readers.
    They used footage from Italy to make it appear that a hospital in New York was overwhelmed in chaos. They had hospital staff line up outside a hospital to make it appear people were waiting in long lines to get tested.
    They set up tents outside hospitals to make it look like the hospitals were overwhelmed. 
    They cherry-picked nurses and doctors who described individual cases...
    14 min
  • A Call to Christians to Stand Up for What’s Good and Against What’s Evil
    How has our culture taken such an abrupt turn toward sin and evil this past year?
    Strip clubs and casinos stay open while churches get closed? Protests, looting, and riots are commendable, while patriotic rallies are condemnable?
    According to Mainstream Media, it's “okay” to:
    kill a baby in its mother’s womb (600,000 per year in the U.S.)
    change a child’s gender before he or she is old enough to drive a car
    steal, lie, slander
    celebrate almost every form of sexual behavior other than that between a married man and woman
    commit fraud across a national election as long as it's in order to get out the President the MSM doesn't like
    “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
    Isaiah 5:20 NIV
    Where did the Christians go?
    Though Christianity has been a significant part of American culture since the nation's founding, the percentage of Christians in America has declined dramatically over the past decade.
    At the same time, the percentage of people who don't believe in a god at all has risen at almost the same rate as the fall in Christians.
    Most of the drop in the percentage of Christians has been made up of people who don't consider themselves part of any faith.
    Check out the following data from the Pew Research group as of October 2019.
    I don't know about you, but I was shocked by the decline in Christians over the past decade. Yet, it explains why so much of what was once considered evil is now regarded as good.
    Though two-thirds of the population consider themselves Christians, only a small percentage stand by the Bible as the Word of God and call out sin and evil when they see it.
    Quiet Christians open the door for evil to have its way in the world. Seeing evil and remaining silent is like saying you support it.
    Evil: profoundly immoral and wicked
    Some who believe they attend Christian churches are taught that the Word of God is modifiable by modern-day mankind.
    “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
    2 Timothy 4:3 NIV
    The worst thing we can do is nothing. The second-worst thing we can do is to complain in an echo-chamber of like-minded people but remain afraid to speak up outside of a group of people who agree with us.
    If we keep our Christian faith to ourselves, how will we empower others to be bold in their faith? The more confidently we profess our faith, the more we instill confidence in others to do the same.
    Is it uncomfortable? Sure. Will some people attack you for your faith? Absolutely.
    But if you believe Jesus was whipped until His flesh was shredded, beaten until He could hardly stand up, made to wear a crown of thorns that sliced through His scalp, forced to carry part of the cross He'd be hung on, nailed through his hands and feet, and hung and suffocated until He died to save you from your sins,couldn't you handle a little name-calling and social ridicule for standing up for Him and His Word? I know I need to be able to.
    Read also: Victimhood Fragility: 4 Ways We're Weakening Our Bodies and Minds.
    What One Generation Tolerates, the Next Generation Will Embrace
    Our culture is like a frog in a pot of water. If you toss the frog in boiling water, it hops right out. If you put it in cold water and gradually increase the temperature, it might never notice the temperature rising and remain in the water until the heat kills it.
    John Wesley wrote these words almost 300 years ago:
    What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.
    John Wesley
    What Baby Boomers and my generation tolerated, millennials embrace, not because the decades have changed us, but because we've tolerated the changes over the decades.
    9 min
  • A Call to Christians to Stand Up for What’s Good and Against What’s Evil
    How has our culture taken such an abrupt turn toward sin and evil this past year?
    Strip clubs and casinos stay open while churches get closed? Protests, looting, and riots are commendable, while patriotic rallies are condemnable?
    According to Mainstream Media, it's “okay” to:
    kill a baby in its mother’s womb (600,000 per year in the U.S.)change a child’s gender before he or she is old enough to drive a carsteal, lie, slandercelebrate almost every form of sexual behavior other than that between a married man and womancommit fraud across a national election as long as it's in order to get out the President the MSM doesn't like
    “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”Isaiah 5:20 NIV
    Where did the Christians go?
    Though Christianity has been a significant part of American culture since the nation's founding, the percentage of Christians in America has declined dramatically over the past decade.
    At the same time, the percentage of people who don't believe in a god at all has risen at almost the same rate as the fall in Christians.
    Most of the drop in the percentage of Christians has been made up of people who don't consider themselves part of any faith.
    Check out the following data from the Pew Research group as of October 2019.
    I don't know about you, but I was shocked by the decline in Christians over the past decade. Yet, it explains why so much of what was once considered evil is now regarded as good.
    Though two-thirds of the population consider themselves Christians, only a small percentage stand by the Bible as the Word of God and call out sin and evil when they see it.
    Quiet Christians open the door for evil to have its way in the world. Seeing evil and remaining silent is like saying you support it.
    Evil: profoundly immoral and wicked
    Some who believe they attend Christian churches are taught that the Word of God is modifiable by modern-day mankind.
    “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”2 Timothy 4:3 NIV
    The worst thing we can do is nothing. The second-worst thing we can do is to complain in an echo-chamber of like-minded people but remain afraid to speak up outside of a group of people who agree with us.
    If we keep our Christian faith to ourselves, how will we empower others to be bold in their faith? The more confidently we profess our faith, the more we instill confidence in others to do the same.
    Is it uncomfortable? Sure. Will some people attack you for your faith? Absolutely.
    But if you believe Jesus was whipped until His flesh was shredded, beaten until He could hardly stand up, made to wear a crown of thorns that sliced through His scalp, forced to carry part of the cross He'd be hung on, nailed through his hands and feet, and hung and suffocated until He died to save you from your sins,couldn't you handle a little name-calling and social ridicule for standing up for Him and His Word? I know I need to be able to.
    Read also: Victimhood Fragility: 4 Ways We're Weakening Our Bodies and Minds.
    What One Generation Tolerates, the Next Generation Will Embrace
    Our culture is like a frog in a pot of water. If you toss the frog in boiling water, it hops right out. If you put it in cold water and gradually increase the temperature, it might never notice the temperature rising and remain in the water until the heat kills it.
    John Wesley wrote these words almost 300 years ago:
    What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.John Wesley
    What Baby Boomers and my generation tolerated, millennials embrace, not because the decades have changed us, but because we've tolerated the changes over the decades.
    The shift away from traditional values will move f...
    9 min
  • Quercetin: Health Benefits, Food Sources, Dosages, and Contraindications
    Quercetin has quickly become one of the hottest-selling nutritional supplements in recent history. And rightfully so. It's a potent immune-supporting compound.
    However, quercetin offers more health benefits than immune-support alone. Find out why this flavonoid is so fabulous.
    What is quercetin?
    Quercetin is one of more than 4000 types of flavonoids found in plants. Flavonoids include many subcategories you've probably heard of but given little thought to:
    flavones
    isoflavones
    flavanones
    chalcones 
    Plants produce polyphenols as a defense against radiation and pathogens. When we eat or consume them, they play protective roles in our bodies too.
    The average person consumes about 14 mg of quercetin per day through their diet. It’s found in a variety of plant foods, as shown in the table below.
    Food and Beverage Sources of QuercetinApplesBlack and green teaBlueberriesBroccoliBuckwheatCapersCherriesChokeberriesCilantroCitrus fruitsCranberriesCurly kaleDillGrapesLeeksLingonberriesLovageOnionsRed wineTeaTomatoes
    Quercetin Health Benefits
    Though quercetin offers numerous health benefits, once consumed, we don't absorb it very well. To derive the benefits I discuss here, you either need to eat loads of quercetin-containing foods or supplement with quercetin liposomes or phytosome, specific types of supplements designed to maximize absorption.
    Liposomes and phytosome surround quercetin in a lipid shell. Lipids pass from the digestive system into your circulation easily, so quercetin liposome and phytosome have much greater bioavailability than plain quercetin.
    Research shows quercetin phytosome increases blood levels by 20 times compared to plain non-phytosome versions of the supplement.
    Antioxidant support
    Free radicals are a natural part of life. Intense exercise, environmental toxins, smoking, stress, and poor nutrition accelerate free radical production.
    Antioxidants squelch free radicals before they can cause widespread damage to your cells. Quercetin seems to be one of the most potent antioxidants.
    Quercetin is a more potent antioxidant than other antioxidant nutrients, such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and β-carotene, and it can chelate transition metal ions, including iron.”
    Dong YS, et al.
    Research shows quercetin protects cells from some of the damage of cigarette smoking, though that doesn’t negate the problems smoking causes. It might be helpful if you spend a lot of time in front of bonfires or campfires, too.
    Oxidative stress is also a known contributor to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Animal research shows the combination of quercetin and fish oil protects the brain from oxidative stress.
    Body composition improvement
    Animal research shows quercetin may prevent body fat gain when eating a higher-calorie, weight-gaining diet. In the study, animals ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet and took the supplement and showed an increase in their metabolic rates. The elevated metabolic rate may have offset the effects of the high-fat diet as they did not gain body fat.
    In overweight and obese humans, supplementation with 100 mg per day of quercetin over 12 weeks reduced body fat percentage and body mass index. In another study using 150 mg per day, people experienced a reduction in waist circumference and triglyceride levels.
    Cardiovascular health
    People with hypertension and with the ApoE3 gene took 150 mg per day of quercetin for six weeks. Their blood pressure decreased by 3.4 mmHg. That might not seem like a lot, but each 1 mmHg decrease is equal to a 2-3% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk on a population level.
    Endothelial cells line your blood vessels. When they become dysfunctional, the vessels don't relax and contract like they're supposed to. The rigid blood vessels become fragile, which leads to injury and inflammation. Quercetin helps relax blood vessels and enhances their function.
    12 min
  • Quercetin: Health Benefits, Food Sources, Dosages, and Contraindications
    Quercetin has quickly become one of the hottest-selling nutritional supplements in recent history. And rightfully so. It's a potent immune-supporting compound.
    However, quercetin offers more health benefits than immune-support alone. Find out why this flavonoid is so fabulous.
    What is quercetin?
    Quercetin is one of more than 4000 types of flavonoids found in plants. Flavonoids include many subcategories you've probably heard of but given little thought to:
    flavonesisoflavonesflavanoneschalcones 
    Plants produce polyphenols as a defense against radiation and pathogens. When we eat or consume them, they play protective roles in our bodies too.
    The average person consumes about 14 mg of quercetin per day through their diet. It’s found in a variety of plant foods, as shown in the table below.
    Food and Beverage Sources of QuercetinApplesBlack and green teaBlueberriesBroccoliBuckwheatCapersCherriesChokeberriesCilantroCitrus fruitsCranberriesCurly kaleDillGrapesLeeksLingonberriesLovageOnionsRed wineTeaTomatoes
    Quercetin Health Benefits
    Though quercetin offers numerous health benefits, once consumed, we don't absorb it very well. To derive the benefits I discuss here, you either need to eat loads of quercetin-containing foods or supplement with quercetin liposomes or phytosome, specific types of supplements designed to maximize absorption.
    Liposomes and phytosome surround quercetin in a lipid shell. Lipids pass from the digestive system into your circulation easily, so quercetin liposome and phytosome have much greater bioavailability than plain quercetin.
    Research shows quercetin phytosome increases blood levels by 20 times compared to plain non-phytosome versions of the supplement.
    Antioxidant support
    Free radicals are a natural part of life. Intense exercise, environmental toxins, smoking, stress, and poor nutrition accelerate free radical production.
    Antioxidants squelch free radicals before they can cause widespread damage to your cells. Quercetin seems to be one of the most potent antioxidants.
    Quercetin is a more potent antioxidant than other antioxidant nutrients, such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and β-carotene, and it can chelate transition metal ions, including iron.”Dong YS, et al.
    Research shows quercetin protects cells from some of the damage of cigarette smoking, though that doesn’t negate the problems smoking causes. It might be helpful if you spend a lot of time in front of bonfires or campfires, too.
    Oxidative stress is also a known contributor to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Animal research shows the combination of quercetin and fish oil protects the brain from oxidative stress.
    Body composition improvement
    Animal research shows quercetin may prevent body fat gain when eating a higher-calorie, weight-gaining diet. In the study, animals ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet and took the supplement and showed an increase in their metabolic rates. The elevated metabolic rate may have offset the effects of the high-fat diet as they did not gain body fat.
    In overweight and obese humans, supplementation with 100 mg per day of quercetin over 12 weeks reduced body fat percentage and body mass index. In another study using 150 mg per day, people experienced a reduction in waist circumference and triglyceride levels.
    Cardiovascular health
    People with hypertension and with the ApoE3 gene took 150 mg per day of quercetin for six weeks. Their blood pressure decreased by 3.4 mmHg. That might not seem like a lot, but each 1 mmHg decrease is equal to a 2-3% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk on a population level.
    Endothelial cells line your blood vessels. When they become dysfunctional, the vessels don't relax and contract like they're supposed to. The rigid blood vessels become fragile, which leads to injury and inflammation. Quercetin helps relax blood vessels and enhances their function.
    0 min
  • mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines: Advantages, risks, and unanswered questions
    Somewhere between a modern-day medical miracle and the advent of genetically modified human beings lies the truth about the COVID-19 vaccine.
    I survived leukemia 40 years ago, so I appreciate the life-saving therapies and procedures of modern-day medicine.
    At the same time, I'm not naive enough to believe doctors know everything, drug companies are open books of honesty, or the talking head on Mainstream Media puts truth ahead of ratings or sponsorships.
    It's more important than ever for individuals to take personal responsibility for their health and invest time into understanding the pros and cons of decisions such as whether or not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
    In light of the massive hysteria surrounding COVID-19, many Americans are all but begging for a vaccine and accepting whatever their favorite talking head had to say about it.
    This blog post won't give you all the answers. I hope it dispels a few myths you might have heard and opens your eyes to some alternative points of view on the vaccine. More than anything, I hope it encourages you to look beyond Google to get answers to the questions you might still have.
    Updated 5/26/21 with details about VIPIT and myocarditis.
    What is an mRNA vaccine?
    Most vaccines you’re familiar with, such as the flu vaccine, contain weakened versions of a virus. When injected, your immune system attacks the virus as it would a full-strength version. Through the immune process of beating the vaccine version of the virus, you’re more prepared to beat the full-strength version if you get infected with it.
    mRNA vaccines do not contain viruses. They include the mRNA of a component of the virus.
    mRNA vaccines do not contain any virus particle. Instead, they contain a lab designed copy of messenger RNA found in the virus.
    In the COVID-19 vaccine, the mRNA contains the instructions for building something called a spike protein.
    Instead of injecting you with a weakened version of the actual virus, a healthcare provider injects you with the blueprint for building a spike protein inside your cells. Your cells contain the building blocks, so once the mRNA makes its way inside your cells, your cells do what the mRNA instructs.
    You end up building the spike protein yourself, which in my opinion, is a little weird, but I'll reserve my beliefs for the end.
    Once you create the spike proteins, they appear on your cells' surfaces. Your immune system recognizes them as antigens, foreign material. It launches an attack on the antigens, which causes you to create antibodies.
    In theory, once you’ve developed the antibodies for those spike proteins, you should have a certain level of immunity from the actual virus. If you were to get infected, your immune system would attack the virus by attacking the spike proteins.
    mRNA degrades quickly, so (in theory) the mRNA disappears from your cells within a couple of days. It does not remain in your cells indefinitely.
    To be clear, this is unlike any other vaccine approved for use in humans. Though mRNA vaccines have been in the works since the early 1990s, animal testing failures have prevented them from being used in humans.
    Read also: How are the COVID-19 Cases Counted?
    Advantages of mRNA vaccines
    mRNA vaccines offer a few advantages over traditional vaccines and DNA vaccines.
    First, they’re supposed to be safer. Because the mRNA can be synthetically manufactured in a lab, there’s little chance of vaccine variance from one sample to the next.
    Second, they're produced faster and cheaper than traditional vaccines. With traditional vaccines, you have to "grow" them. That takes much longer. The virus grows in a specific environment, which can also trigger side effects in the vaccine recipient. Creating a specific mRNA strand can be done quickly and easily in a lab.
    Third, though RNA is a component of “genetics,” the RNA does not alter your body’s DNA. At least that’s the expectation with the COVID-19...
    19 min
  • mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines: Advantages, risks, and unanswered questions
    Somewhere between a modern-day medical miracle and the advent of genetically modified human beings lies the truth about the COVID-19 vaccine.
    I survived leukemia 40 years ago, so I appreciate the life-saving therapies and procedures of modern-day medicine.
    At the same time, I'm not naive enough to believe doctors know everything, drug companies are open books of honesty, or the talking head on Mainstream Media puts truth ahead of ratings or sponsorships.
    It's more important than ever for individuals to take personal responsibility for their health and invest time into understanding the pros and cons of decisions such as whether or not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
    In light of the massive hysteria surrounding COVID-19, many Americans are all but begging for a vaccine and accepting whatever their favorite talking head had to say about it.
    This blog post won't give you all the answers. I hope it dispels a few myths you might have heard and opens your eyes to some alternative points of view on the vaccine. More than anything, I hope it encourages you to look beyond Google to get answers to the questions you might still have.
    Updated 5/26/21 with details about VIPIT and myocarditis.
    What is an mRNA vaccine?
    Most vaccines you’re familiar with, such as the flu vaccine, contain weakened versions of a virus. When injected, your immune system attacks the virus as it would a full-strength version. Through the immune process of beating the vaccine version of the virus, you’re more prepared to beat the full-strength version if you get infected with it.
    mRNA vaccines do not contain viruses. They include the mRNA of a component of the virus.
    mRNA vaccines do not contain any virus particle. Instead, they contain a lab designed copy of messenger RNA found in the virus.
    In the COVID-19 vaccine, the mRNA contains the instructions for building something called a spike protein.
    Instead of injecting you with a weakened version of the actual virus, a healthcare provider injects you with the blueprint for building a spike protein inside your cells. Your cells contain the building blocks, so once the mRNA makes its way inside your cells, your cells do what the mRNA instructs.
    You end up building the spike protein yourself, which in my opinion, is a little weird, but I'll reserve my beliefs for the end.
    Once you create the spike proteins, they appear on your cells' surfaces. Your immune system recognizes them as antigens, foreign material. It launches an attack on the antigens, which causes you to create antibodies.
    In theory, once you’ve developed the antibodies for those spike proteins, you should have a certain level of immunity from the actual virus. If you were to get infected, your immune system would attack the virus by attacking the spike proteins.
    mRNA degrades quickly, so (in theory) the mRNA disappears from your cells within a couple of days. It does not remain in your cells indefinitely.
    To be clear, this is unlike any other vaccine approved for use in humans. Though mRNA vaccines have been in the works since the early 1990s, animal testing failures have prevented them from being used in humans.
    Read also: How are the COVID-19 Cases Counted?
    Advantages of mRNA vaccines
    mRNA vaccines offer a few advantages over traditional vaccines and DNA vaccines.
    First, they’re supposed to be safer. Because the mRNA can be synthetically manufactured in a lab, there’s little chance of vaccine variance from one sample to the next.
    Second, they're produced faster and cheaper than traditional vaccines. With traditional vaccines, you have to "grow" them. That takes much longer. The virus grows in a specific environment, which can also trigger side effects in the vaccine recipient. Creating a specific mRNA strand can be done quickly and easily in a lab.
    Third, though RNA is a component of “genetics,” the RNA does not alter your body’s DNA. At least that’s the expectation with the COVID-19...
    0 min
  • Anti-Androgens: Beware of Supplements That Suppress Testosterone
    Like pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements rarely cause only one effect on your physiology. Sometimes, supplements offer numerous health benefits and few, if any, side effects.
    On the other hand, some supplements provide benefits for certain people while also causing undesirable side effects. Such is the case with many anti-androgen supplements.
    You might have only read of the benefits of the supplements below. For example, you might think of saw palmetto and imagine a healthy prostate. But you don’t consider the fact that saw palmetto supports a healthy prostate, at least in part, by suppressing testosterone.
    In this blog post, I cover some of the most well-known and research-supported anti-androgen supplements.
    For certain people, these supplements provide significant health benefits. For others, they can cause unwanted side effects.
    What is an anti-androgen?
    An anti-androgen suppresses the production of testosterone or blocks its effects on its target cells.
    Androgens are testosterone-related hormones. Though their levels are much higher in men than in women, women also need testosterone.
    Excess testosterone contributes to:
    Prostate cancer
    Excessive sexual desire
    Acne
    Male pattern baldness
    Excessive female hairiness
    Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
    To treat these conditions, doctors often prescribe anti-androgen pharmaceuticals or supplements.
    Your hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and gonads all play roles in testosterone production. An anti-androgen may target any of the production steps, or it may block the effects of the androgen on target cells.
    Though anti-androgenic drugs and supplements are useful in treating high testosterone, their testosterone-lowering effects can lead to problems in those who don't have pre-existing, elevated testosterone.
    If you have optimal, normal, or already-low testosterone, anti-androgen drugs and supplements may cause or exacerbate low testosterone symptoms.
    Effects of anti-androgens
    Long-term use of anti-androgens can lead to:
    SystemSigns & SymptomsCirculationHot flashesSweatsCentral nervous systemInsomniaNervousnessMood & cognitionIrritability & fatigueReduced sense of wellbeingReduced motivationImpaired short-term memoryDepression / low self-esteemMasculinityReduced vigor and physical strengthSexualityReduced libidoErectile dysfunctionImpaired orgasmImpaired ejaculation and reduced ejaculation volumePhysical featuresDecreased muscle massAbdominal obesityLoss of body hairIncreased total body fatBiochemistryDecreased HDL, Increased LDLOsteoporosisReduced red cell volumeTable adapted from An Update on Anti-Androgens, Grant P, et al.
    As you can see, if someone accidentally suppresses testosterone, it can lead to some extremely negative issues.
    Read also: Irritable Male Syndrome, Andropause, and Reclaiming Your Manhood.
    Anti-Androgenic Supplements
    Because supplements can have numerous, unrelated effects on the body, you could take something for one benefit while also dealing with an undesirable side effect.
    The following supplements have anti-androgenic effects.
    Reishi (Ganodema lucidum)
    Reishi has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. As a medicinal mushroom, it is often recommended to support immune function and help combat viral and bacterial infections. It acts as an antioxidant and promotes normal blood sugar levels, as well as a healthy liver.
    Reishi reduces levels of 5-alpha reductase, which then reduces the conversion of testosterone to DHT. Though excessive levels of DHT contribute to an enlarged prostate, acne, and male-pattern baldness, you need this potent form of testosterone.
    Reducing DHT too much leads to the symptoms of low testosterone listed above.
    Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
    Licorice root also has a long history of use in Chinese medicine and has been used since before the Greek and Roman empires.
    It has traditionally been used for digestive issues,
    13 min
  • Anti-Androgens: Beware of Supplements That Suppress Testosterone
    Like pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements rarely cause only one effect on your physiology. Sometimes, supplements offer numerous health benefits and few, if any, side effects.
    On the other hand, some supplements provide benefits for certain people while also causing undesirable side effects. Such is the case with many anti-androgen supplements.
    You might have only read of the benefits of the supplements below. For example, you might think of saw palmetto and imagine a healthy prostate. But you don’t consider the fact that saw palmetto supports a healthy prostate, at least in part, by suppressing testosterone.
    In this blog post, I cover some of the most well-known and research-supported anti-androgen supplements.
    For certain people, these supplements provide significant health benefits. For others, they can cause unwanted side effects.
    What is an anti-androgen?
    An anti-androgen suppresses the production of testosterone or blocks its effects on its target cells.
    Androgens are testosterone-related hormones. Though their levels are much higher in men than in women, women also need testosterone.
    Excess testosterone contributes to:
    Prostate cancerExcessive sexual desireAcneMale pattern baldnessExcessive female hairinessPolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
    To treat these conditions, doctors often prescribe anti-androgen pharmaceuticals or supplements.
    Your hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and gonads all play roles in testosterone production. An anti-androgen may target any of the production steps, or it may block the effects of the androgen on target cells.
    Though anti-androgenic drugs and supplements are useful in treating high testosterone, their testosterone-lowering effects can lead to problems in those who don't have pre-existing, elevated testosterone.
    If you have optimal, normal, or already-low testosterone, anti-androgen drugs and supplements may cause or exacerbate low testosterone symptoms.
    Effects of anti-androgens
    Long-term use of anti-androgens can lead to:
    SystemSigns & SymptomsCirculationHot flashesSweatsCentral nervous systemInsomniaNervousnessMood & cognitionIrritability & fatigueReduced sense of wellbeingReduced motivationImpaired short-term memoryDepression / low self-esteemMasculinityReduced vigor and physical strengthSexualityReduced libidoErectile dysfunctionImpaired orgasmImpaired ejaculation and reduced ejaculation volumePhysical featuresDecreased muscle massAbdominal obesityLoss of body hairIncreased total body fatBiochemistryDecreased HDL, Increased LDLOsteoporosisReduced red cell volumeTable adapted from An Update on Anti-Androgens, Grant P, et al.
    As you can see, if someone accidentally suppresses testosterone, it can lead to some extremely negative issues.
    Read also: Irritable Male Syndrome, Andropause, and Reclaiming Your Manhood.
    Anti-Androgenic Supplements
    Because supplements can have numerous, unrelated effects on the body, you could take something for one benefit while also dealing with an undesirable side effect.
    The following supplements have anti-androgenic effects.
    Reishi (Ganodema lucidum)
    Reishi has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. As a medicinal mushroom, it is often recommended to support immune function and help combat viral and bacterial infections. It acts as an antioxidant and promotes normal blood sugar levels, as well as a healthy liver.
    Reishi reduces levels of 5-alpha reductase, which then reduces the conversion of testosterone to DHT. Though excessive levels of DHT contribute to an enlarged prostate, acne, and male-pattern baldness, you need this potent form of testosterone.
    Reducing DHT too much leads to the symptoms of low testosterone listed above.
    Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
    Licorice root also has a long history of use in Chinese medicine and has been used since before the Greek and Roman empires.
    It has traditionally been used for digestive issues,
    13 min

About Tom Nikkola | VIGOR Training

From the publisher's feed

Tune into the audio version of my written articles found at tomnikkola.com, read by yours truly. I candidly cover health and fitness,…