intro 

Social media is everyone's favorite activity right now. It can be used to promote, sell, pass time, inform, and motivate every user on the app. If you're on the wellness side I'm on, you will most likely be seeing wellness trends on every end of that app. The next drink mix that will help you drop 10lbs in a week, greens powder, 10k plus steps daily, no carbs, no sugar, all of it. And I'm here to say, that's all crap. No drink should starve your body of nutrients, you shouldn't have to be taking $40 green pills to hit your veggie intake, you don't need to hit 10k steps a day to be healthy, and sugar and carbs can be such an amazing tool our body uses! The wellness trends we are going to be going over today are creatine, red light therapy, and fiber-maxing, .

PSA

I am not a medical professional, nor a medical student. Take from this what you will, and don't put your full trust in this, or anything online that does not come from a professional in the field! Everything talked about has been thoroughly researched by me, from reliable sources. I am just an aspiring nursing student wanting to dive deep into medical topics, and then speak on them. All sources will be posted at the bottom of this page. :) enjoy !

creatine

Creatine is marketed to the world as a muscle growth supplement. That's true! I've even started taking creatine and have been loving my results. Yet, that's not all creatine does. It enhances your athletic performance, helps with cognitive support, and so much more! I could write a whole page on everything creatine does for the body, yet, we are only going to be going over two benefits. Before that, fun fact! Creatine is not just a supplement you can take. It's found in animal based foods, and our body naturally produces it on its own! So whenever you eat fish, meat, and poultry you're getting a creatine intake.

So, what is creatine? Essentially, creatine is an ergogenic acid. An article from the National Library of Medicine states that, “supplementation consistently demonstrates the ability to enlarge the pool of intracellular creatine, leading to an amplification of the cell’s ability to resynthesize adenosine triphosphate. This intracellular expansion is associated with several performance outcomes, including increases in maximal strength (low-speed strength), maximal work output, power production (high-speed strength), sprint performance, and fat-free mass. Additionally, creatine supplementation may speed up recovery time between bouts of intense exercise by mitigating muscle damage and promoting the faster recovery of lost force-production potential.”( Wax, Kerksick, Jagim, Mayo, Lyons, Kreider ).If you're someone who works out often, you should take this supplement before, or 30 minutes after your workout; there's no correct time to maximize results. To get even more specific, take with carbohydrates and protein. In simpler terms, taking this enhances athletic performance from boosting muscle strength, increasing your power out-put, exhilarates muscle recovery, and enhances your lean muscle mass.

If you're not someone who lifts I still encourage taking this supplement. It supports your brain's cognitive function! It does this by enhancing your brain's energy metabolism when it recycles ATP (energy).  Even more specifically, it enhances memory and processing speed within adults. Results found on National Library of Medicine. “Current evidence suggests that creatine monohydrate supplementation may confer beneficial effects on cognitive function in adults, particularly in the domains of memory, attention time, and information processing speed.” ( Xu, Bi, Zhang, Lou, ). Therefore, if you’re looking for results mentioned here, I would definitely look into taking this supplement!

With this, a common misconception about creatine is that it's more beneficial for men than women. That is completely false. Women naturally produce 70% - 80% less creatine than men. Taking this supplement is very beneficial as it also supports hormone balance and fluctuations. It does this by combining energy gaps in hormone-sensitive tissues, like the brain and muscles. Taking 3 - 5 grams of creatine daily is just enough to provide several key advantages. To not make this first section too long, if interested, I recommend reading more from these two articles linked here. 

Lastly, before taking any supplement I highly encourage looking into side effects that may occur. Side effects vary by person

red light therapy

 For a holistic medicine alternative, we have photobiomodulation , aka, red light therapy. Red light therapy may be seen on social media as a mask people wear that has obviously, red LED lights. When I first saw this I thought it was a complete scam. How can the color red in LED form do anything great for you? Well, it can. Red light therapy is essentially a form of medicine that heals cells by penetrating the skin to reach your mitochondria- the power house of cells. In doing so it helps accelerate tissue repair, relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and heal wounds. So yes, it does a lot. But, how do these UV rays achieve all of this? This laser therapy uses low-energy red light to influence cellular metabolism. DR. Daniel Barolet says, “light interacts with cytochrome c oxidase, an enzyme in our mitochondria that helps cells produce energy. This interaction releases nitric oxide, increases ATP production, and adjusts oxidative signalling—all steps that support repair and reduce inflammation.” Even though this treatment is great for all the results listed earlier, it's considered amazing in wound healing; tissue repairs and calming inflammation. It allows this by improving blood flow and collagen formation.

 Now, here is where the media gets tricky. Most of the masks on the market do not supply enough power to deliver smoother skin and fewer wrinkles, which is how it's advertised on the mainstream media. Not to mention, there are not enough studies to truly use this tool for certain cosmetic use. Yet, if you have dark- spots, hyperpigmentation, or blemishes, certain wavelengths can in fact balance pigmentation levels. They do this by down-regulating melanin production and accelerating cell recovery. So, essentially the same process as you would treat with healing wounds and inflammation. Therefore, I would stick to PBD ( photobiomodulation ) for results in tissue repairs and calming inflammation within the body. That's where you're going to find this treatment most useful.

fiber-maxing

Lastly, I'm sure by now everyone on their wellness journey knows the term “fiber-maxing”. So, what is this? Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that the body cannot digest. And when the body cannot digest something, your body encourages it to pass through faster than any other items you digested. There are two types of fiber. Soluble, and insoluble. Both are great for the body. Thus, what’s the difference?

Soluble dissolves in water, and helps in slowing digestion. Meanwhile insoluble does not dissolve in water, therefore aiding in your stool and promoting it to pass faster. Some examples of soluble foods are oats, beans, apples, blueberries, and avocados. And some insoluble foods look like certain types of wheat, nuts, seeds, quinoa, leafy greens, berries, and more specifically the skin of veggies and fruits. Soluble fiber may sound bad because it slows digestion, however, this is great for the body! When digestion is slowed, it helps your body absorb more nutrients while it stabilizes blood glucose and cholesterol levels. ( it stabilizes these levels by slowing down your body's absorption of sugar, and picking up cholesterol to be moved out the body.)

So, let's break down how it works. As soluble fiber moves through your digestive tract undigested, it absorbs water. Then, once it reaches the colon it acts as a prebiotic ( smaller food component of fiber ), giving nutrients to the good bacteria in your gut! Your gut needs this fuel to be healthy! It’s what keeps your gut microbiome going strong! ( PS. you can find out more about your gut microbiome in my blog post before this one. :) Now, not to forget about insoluble, however it's quite clear why that's a good fiber. Who doesn't want their digestion moving smoothly? So, in more simpler terms; soluble = healthy gut + feeling fuller. Insoluble = smooth sailing digestion. But, why is this such a mainstream idea right now? Fiber not only aids in everything said above, but it “can help you stay at a healthy weight and lower the risk of diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.” Mayo Clinic : (Dietary fiber: Essential for a healthy diet). It can even lengthen your lifespan! (found in previous Mayo Clinic Resource). So, hearing all the benefits, I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to fit fiber into your diet! I see why this is a mainstream media topic right now. 

conclusion

Once again! I am not a medical professional so don't fully take away from this. However, I hope reading this can awake your mind to the truth on wellness trends ! Everything I listed should be more thoroughly researched, especially if you would be ingesting it. Thanks for reading ! 

:) 


Creatine paragraph sources

PBD paragraph sources

Fiber sources