How did you hear about USANA?

It was through my coach and his wife (Ivar & Marya Hopman) and it was from nicking some of there product when I was a litt le unhealthy, or travelling etc. I immediately saw the benefits, seeing me using USANA prducts daily now.

What’s your favourite USANA product and why (please send a selfie with the product)?

I think the best products are the supplements (Multi-mineral, Bio Mega, Antioxidants) as I constantly feel really good using these products. They have kept me healthy from the day I have used them.

What’s your tip to staying fit and healthy?

Riding your bike 20+ hours a week!

Who’s your sporting idol, and why?

I have many around me, not particularly current cyclists but cyclists/ex cyclists who are mentors to me. I could name a lot!

How did you get involved in Cycling?

My family has always been very cycling orientated, through my dad, uncle and cousins. My cousins (Westley & Fraser) played a pretty influential part getting me involved, passing on their experience and knowledge.

Tell us about your training schedule:

Training for me varies throughout different times of the year. As I am a road and track cyclist, they are almost like a different disciple meaning there are specifics for each. Track phase will include high intensity sessions, with a lot of time in the gym and on the track, and my road phase would consist of more miles on the road meaning my riding time a week would almost double. In saying that, I am consistently training 6/7 days a week, some days being ‘double days’.

What are some of your career highlights to date?

1. 2014 Junior Points Race World Champion
2. 2014 Junior Madison World Champion
3. 2015 Elite Team Pursuit World Champion

What’s coming up for you?

I am targeting on the World Cup being held in Cambridge in December. New Zealand’s first World Cup, and will be very humbling to be wearing the World Champ rainbows in New Zealand. From then continuation of form into the World Champs and beyond to try and gain selection to Rio.

The post Welcome to the team Regan Gough! appeared first on Usana Health Sciences Organization.

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a worldwide global campaign to increase peoples’ awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research.

BAW runs from 11-17 March 2013 and will see organisations worldwide unite to encourage research into this incredible organ and celebrate the brain and its many functions.

There will be exhibitions on the brain, lectures on brain related topics and displays at libraries and community centres and classrooms.

Diet and exercise have a big impact on brain health at every age. So, for example, we know that too much salt and too many calories and fat, can affect circulation for the worse. This reduces the amount of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood nourishing the brain. Although your brain weighs just two per cent of your body weight, it requires around 20 per cent of the calories you consume. So, keeping your circulation healthy by cutting down on saturated fats and avoiding cigarette smoke are two ways to help keep your blood vessels clean and clear.

Mental exercises such as crosswords and Sudoku, learning and practicing a language and learning music can help to keep your brain sharper for longer, too.

Exercise is a must to boost the circulation of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood around the brain. Exercise has also been shown to reduce mild depression and boost self-esteem. Rest is essential too, so try and get into a regular sleeping pattern so that you get enough restful and restorative sleep.

Brain food?

Nerve fibres send messages in the same way as electric wires. So, for messages to flow freely, they need to be insulated. Nerve cells are insulated with a fatty substance called myelin and essential long chain omega-3 fats (as found in oily fish) are vital to help build and maintain myelin. So, fish really is brain food!

Your body can make the long chain omega-3 fats it needs from foods such as walnuts and flaxseeds (although the conversion rate isn’t very efficient and gets less efficient with age). So opt for two to three serves (150 gram each) of oily fish like salmon and fresh tuna.

BiOmega (which is rich in the essential fats DHA and EPA) is an excellent fish oil supplement that’s free from contaminants such as mercury, that may be present in some larger predatory fish such as swordfish.

There are lots of ways to keep your brain sharp and you’ll find more ideas and information from the Dana Foundation which runs Brain Awareness Week.

The post This week is Brain Awareness Week: is your brain as fit as it could be? appeared first on Usana Health Sciences Organization.

You may already know that studies show that heart disease is still the number one killer of men in Australia and New Zealand. You most definitely know that men are experts at avoiding the doctor’s surgery for health checks – and even when they feel unwell! But did you know about the wide-ranging health effects that fish oils can make to your man?

Fish oils are loaded with essential heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). They’re concentrated in oily fish like salmon and fresh tuna but are also found in smaller quantities in white fish. Yet the vast majority of us don’t eat the two to three portions per week recommended by the Heart Foundation.

Boosting EPA and DHA levels via fish oils seems to reduce the body’s levels of a type of harmful fat called triglycerides, whilst boosting heart healthy HDL-cholesterol (which helps to lower blood cholesterol levels).

Healthy blood pressure

It’s thought that fish oil helps to make the blood less sticky or likely to clot whilst also relaxing blood pressure thus easing the workload on the heart.

The European Society of Cardiology recently stated that supplements can be taken by people who don’t eat fish but they should be pharmaceutical grade products as many over-the-counter capsules don’t contain enough of the vital omega 3s.

One recent study published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine showed that taking fish oil provides ‘compelling’ evidence of its heart health benefits.

Prof Martin Cowie writing in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine. confirmed that giving 1g fish oil capsules (equivalent to two BiOmega^TM capsules daily) to patients with a heart condition could save 10,000 lives a year in the UK-based study. The results are now expected to be incorporated in European-wide guidelines for the treatment of heart failure.

BiOmega^TM is a highly purified source of therapeutic doses of fish oils; it contains 500 mg EPA and 480mg DHA and daily. BiOmega is one of the purest high quality fish oils available and virtually free of pesticides, eliminated through a double molecular distillation process to remove heavy metals, PCBs pesticides and organic residues.

The vast majority of us in Australia and New Zealand are not getting enough of vitamin D, which has a wide range of health benefits from bone health to immunity and lung function. Most fish oil purification processes remove the naturally-occurring vitamin D; BiOmega is fortified with vitamin D to supply an additional 200 IU per capsule.

The post Do you ♥ your man? appeared first on Usana Health Sciences Organization.

Omega-3 fats are essential fats needed for a whole host of body functions from brain and heart health to healthy skin. Now, new research suggests that getting enough omega-3s may even help retain muscle strength.

A recent study assessed the effects of fish oil with three-times-a-week gym exercises or gym work alone on muscle building. Results showed that fish oil plus exercise boosted muscle strength by a significant 20 per cent.

The control group (exercise alone) built just over half the muscle power of the fish oil group – 11 per cent. Over the 12-week study, tests showed that the fish oil consumers were able to walk faster and showed improvement in balance tests.

The researchers from Scotland’s Aberdeen University put the difference down to two particular omega-3 fats in fish oil called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). These two fats are predominantly found in oily fish like salmon and fish oils; they are potent anti-inflammatories.

It’s normal for muscle size to reduce with age. And the ability to build muscle through exercise alone starts to decline as early as our mid-thirties.

The scientists believe that the muscle-building effects of fish oils are down to the potent anti-inflammatory effects of DHA and EPA which help to reduce low grade inflammation which interferes with the body’s ability to build muscle mass through exercise.

Lead researcher Dr Stuart Gray said,‘We’re trying to make older muscle adapt like younger muscle, and that’s where we think fish oil can come in.’

Studies suggest that a staggering nine out of ten adults currently don’t get enough omega-3 fatty acids.

The post Want to boost muscle strength? Get hooked on fish oil! appeared first on Usana Health Sciences Organization.

Written by Ravinder Lilly

Pick up any newspaper, magazine or click onto any internet health page and you’re bound to see how poor diet is making us fat! And, there’s no denying it – most of us in Australia and New Zealand eat too much saturated fat (the kind of fat you’ll find in animal products like fatty meat and full-fat dairy products) And, a staggering one in four adults is overweight or obese. But did you know that the vast majority of us are actually short of one particular fat?

Enter the omega-3s! These are a special type of polyunsaturated fat which are vital for many body processes. They make up part of every body cell and are crucial for the health and function of your body cells including heart, eyes, nervous system and brain – around sixty percent of the human brain is made from one particular omega-3 fat called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

Both omega-3 and another type of essential fat called omega-6 fats are crucial for the workings of our body – we are made of them! But the balance of omega-6 to omega-3 has changed drastically in recent generations so that nowadays, we eat far more omega-6s and not nearly enough omega-3s. Yet falling short of omega-3 has been linked with an increased incidence of many conditions from poor heart and circulatory health to poor mental health. And, it’s also clear that increasing your intake of omega-3 fats whilst cutting down on omega-6 fats and decreasing saturated fat intake can bring clear health benefits.

Eating two serves of oily fish (such as salmon, sardines and fresh tuna) is a great way to do this – they are the most concentrated source of long-chain fatty acids including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acids (DHA). Fish also contain bone- and immune-health building vitamin D which most adults in Australia and New Zealand are short of.

If you don’t like fish or don’t eat enough of it, BiOmega is a great alternative. A concentrated and purified source of omega-3s, BiOmega contains therapeutic quantities of EPA and DHA.

Have you had enough omega-3s today?

The post Could you do with a little more fat? appeared first on Usana Health Sciences Organization.