Physical and Mental Health: Why You Need Both for Overall Well Being

Physical and Mental Health: Why You Need Both for Overall Well Being

Your lifestyle choices determine your overall well being, and vice-versa. 

Now, your overall well-being is determined by your mental and physical health. Both of these are equally important, and none of us should be cutting any corners when it comes to our dedication to improving and maintaining either. The two share a deep connection, making them dependent on each other. 

Let’s take a comprehensive look at this connection and gain a deeper understanding of what impacts our overall well being. 

Making the Connection

Mental health covers various factors including our ability to deal with stress, recognize and accept our strengths and weaknesses, and realize our potential. It refers to a state of emotional, psychological, and social wellness.

On the other hand, physical health or wellness refers to the optimal functioning of the physical body. This just means that all things considered, our body is functioning at its best within a particular period of time.

So how are the two connected?

The answer – lifestyle.

Mental Health and Your Physical State

Mental illness or even poor mental health in general presents itself in a wide range of symptoms. They manifest as poor sleeping patterns, unhealthy food choices, loss of energy, mood swings, and decline in overall functioning. Poor mental health is pervasive and impacts all aspects of your life, whether it’s occupational, social, or personal. 

Sometimes, the impact of mental health on your physical state can be more direct, triggering more obvious physical ailments. 

For example, some studies show that depression can weaken your immune system. Constant anxiety can cause fatigue and exhaustion. Similarly, anger and stress are closely linked to poor cardiovascular health. 

Poor mental health negatively affects our ability to make sound lifestyle choices. Poor self-esteem or self-worth could manifest in neglect towards our physical well being. It impacts our motivation and drive to exercise and make other healthy lifestyle choices. 

This in turn results in poor physical health. 

Chronic Illness and Mental Health

Now one thing we must keep in mind that addressing our mental health will not optimize our physical health. It will likely improve it, but both of these factors need individual attention. This is especially true for those of us who are living with chronic illnesses. 

For example, 15-20% of people diagnosed with cancer also live with major depressive disorder. While specific types of therapy can address this kind of depression, it is also true that consistent medical care for physical illness is also necessary to manage symptoms.

How Your Lifestyle Impacts Your Overall Well-Being

When we talk about the connection between mental and physical health, it often goes back to the baffling question – what came first, the chicken or the egg? Did poor mental health negatively impact our physical health, or was it the other way around? 

The answer can vary from person to person, but what remains constant is the fact that a change in lifestyle choices can greatly improve both aspects of our overall well-being. Poor sleep is linked to excessive weight gain, which, in turn, could affect mobility and increase your risk for diseases like diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure. 

Similarly, a poor diet could also put you at risk for developing nutritional deficiencies which could impact your physical as well as mental health. For example, a deficiency in vitamin B-12 could cause fatigue, depression, ulcers, glossitis, and so on. 

Your Road to Optimal Functioning

While we should see the specialized medical professionals to treat specific mental and physical ailments, we must also focus on developing a healthier lifestyle. Let’s look at what habits we need to incorporate into our daily lives to maximize our well-being. 

A Healthy Sleeping Routine

Getting a good night’s sleep every day will go a long way in ensuring that our immune system is functioning at its best. Getting 6-8 hours of sleep will also help boost your memory, maximize the benefits of exercise, and make sure your body is sufficiently rested to perform optimally for the next day.

Coping With Stress

Stress is an inevitable part of life. Learning to manage this stress in a healthy way is what will help us sleep better at night, prevent stress-induced headaches, and reduce our chances of contracting heart disease. 

Simple mindfulness techniques, yoga, exercise, social interactions, and enjoyable hobbies are all great for a bit of stress release.

Diet and Nutrition

A well-balanced diet is key to making sure we get all the nutrients we need to function at our mental and physical best. Planning your meals, eating less processed foods, and making sure you get enough calories to sustain your body and mind are all the hallmarks of every good diet plan. 

However, do keep in mind that every diet or nutrition plan must be designed for long-term sustainability. Trendy new diets that promise overnight fixes are not an option. Instead, look towards making healthy changes every day that grow into habits over a period of time. 

Movement

Whether you like to exercise or not, the truth is it is absolutely essential for good mental and physical health. Not only does it keep your joints and bones strong, but it also triggers the release of the feel-good hormone dopamine. 

Aim to get at least 30-45 minutes worth of movement at least five days a week. Sounds hard?

The good news is, you don’t have to limit yourself to the gym if you don’t want to. You can dance, walk, swim, play a sport you enjoy, run around with your kids, or play fetch with your furry friends at the park. Find something you enjoy that involves movement, and you’ll be more likely to be consistent.

Better Health Begins Today

A good lifestyle will only boost your mental and physical well being. Now that you understand the importance of following a good diet, leading an active lifestyle, and getting deep and consistent sleep, you’re one step close to optimizing your overall well-being. 

Take this information and look at practical ways you can incorporate these habits into your life. Start small but start today, and consistency and dedication, you’ll be sure to see the difference!At Ingredia, we are dedicated to combining technology with nutrition to help everyone lead healthier lifestyles. Learn more about our brand and what we can do for you right here!

The Link Between Anxiety and Stress: How to Manage Stress and Anxiety

The Link Between Anxiety and Stress: How to Manage Stress and Anxiety

Everyone has experienced high levels of stress or anxiety at some point. In fact, about one-third of the people in America are living with intense stress levels and approximately 40 million people are affected by anxiety every year.

Both have many symptoms in common, such as trouble sleeping, exhaustion, irritability, and tense muscles. Even though feeling stressed or anxious can be normal to a certain extent, it could become difficult to cope with if not handled properly. 

Despite being similar and having a connection, there is a difference between stress and anxiety. How can you tell stress apart from anxiety, and is it possible to learn how to manage them? Below, we’ve provided you with the answers. 

How Are Stress and Anxiety Related?

When you face a threat, or a change occurs in your life, whether good or bad, your body has the normal reaction of feeling stressed. It can reflect in a physical or emotional way. A normal amount of stress can sometimes be a positive thing, as it can motivate you to accomplish a goal or finish a job on time. 

Anxiety, on the other hand, is a psychological reaction to stress. It can cause a sensation of fear, rapid heartbeat, or extreme worrying. Feeling some anxiety is also a natural reactor when it comes to things like an important meeting with your boss or a big school exam. 

As natural as stress and anxiety may be at times, if it begins to interfere with your daily routine, then there may be a problem. If that’s your case, getting professional help is a smart choice. Yet, there are other things you can do that’ll help to control or reduce your levels of stress and anxiety. 

How to Manage Stress and Anxiety

If you’ve been dealing with severe stress and anxiety for a while now, then you know that it won’t go away overnight. Learning how to manage your stress as well as your anxiety can be an ongoing process. Here are a few things that you could start implementing in your day-to-day life. 

Exercise

Exercising regularly makes your brain produce endorphins. Endorphins are vital for anxiety and stress relief, as they act as natural painkillers for the body and help increase pleasure. They also help you to sleep better, which, in turn, will reduce stress and anxiety. 

You don’t have to work out every day for hours on end to reap benefits. Start with baby steps, perhaps going for a walk 15-20 minutes, three times a week. By setting realistic goals, you’ll be able to easily achieve them, which will help you stick out your habit. 

Diet

What you eat may worsen your anxiety and stress levels. For example, caffeine or too much sugar and processed foods tend to increase blood pressure, heart rates, and nervousness. 

Stick to regular, healthy meals. Cut back on processed sugars and include the necessary nutrients in your diet. It may be hard at first to have to drastically cut out unhealthy foods you’re used to but, with patience, you’ll notice an improvement in your mental health. 

Meditation

Meditating is one of the most popular practices to help reduce stress or anxiety. It helps train your mind to focus on the present and push aside any jumbled, overwhelming thoughts that might be distressing you. You also learn the ability of breath control, which helps soothe hyperventilation and anxiety.

Avoid Procrastination 

People don’t procrastinate just because they’re lazy. Stress and anxiety can be the underlying root of your procrastination, which, in turn, causes more stress and anxiety, making you fall into a vicious cycle. 

In this case, try to plan things ahead of time and create daily to-do lists. It’ll help you structure your day and get important things done faster. 

Aromas

When you inhale a scent, your nervous system receives messages sent by your brain, which affects your overall well-being. There are essential oils that help calm your nerves and relax your mental state, such as lavender oil. 

You can use essential oils for baths, tea, or even apply them directly on your wrists. Before trying any, apply a small amount on your skin and wait to see if there’s an allergic reaction.

Effective essential oils for stress and anxiety reduction are:

  • Lavender
  • Valerian 
  • Chamomile
  • Lemon Balm
  • Clary Sage

Write

When bombarded by many emotions at once, our stress and anxiety levels can sky-rocket, making you lose the notion of why you were feeling distressed in the first place. 

Get yourself a journal and start writing out your thoughts. Writing is an effective way to channel your thoughts and understand what you’re feeling and why. It also helps to express yourself better and let out all the negative feelings you might be having. 

Speak to Someone

Bottling up your feelings and keeping them to yourself is harmful to your mental health. It could even worsen your anxiety and eventually lead to having panic attacks. 

By opening up and venting with someone about the way you feel, you’ll feel instant relief. Sometimes, an outsider’s perspective or opinion can provide comfort as well. 

Seek Professional Help

These suggestions on how to manage stress and anxiety can help in the long run to improve your mental health. However, even if you do put these tips into practice, speaking to a certified professional is also a good idea. 

They’ll know how to evaluate you and pinpoint any other possible stress and anxiety triggers you might have overseen. Want to learn more ways on how to improve your mental health? Contact us today or read our other articles!

Best Ways to Combat Stress and Weight Gain

Best Ways to Combat Stress and Weight Gain

The American Psychological Association conducted a Stress in America survey in 2017 that had some illuminating results.

For one, it reveals that three out of four Americans reported feeling at least one stress symptom in the last month. That stress comes from several places—the state of politics, the economy, money, healthcare, taxes, unemployment, crime, and much more. 

Stress manifests itself in several ways: physically, mentally, and emotionally. It leaves many sleepless, anxious, depressed, or irritable. Another way stress is evident is through unexpected weight gain.

If this feels like you, you’re not alone. Know there are ways to combat stress, weight gain, and other unwanted symptoms of feeling strain or tension in your life. You deserve relief—so we’ve created this brief but actionable guide to feeling better.

Is There a Link Between Stress and Weight Gain?

It likely comes as no surprise that stress contributes to weight gain

When somebody is stressed out, it’s not long before healthy eating goes on the back burner. Instead, someone might turn towards the quickest, easiest option—which isn’t always the best one.

Stress can cause individuals to:

  • Forget to drink water
  • Skip their meals or overeat
  • Consume unhealthy food, such as whatever’s fast or most accessible
  • Emotionally eat
  • Exercise less
  • Sleep less

What’s the reason behind this behavioral change? 

When cortisol levels rise, weight gain follows. That’s because stressed-out bodies release cortisol and adrenaline, which causes glucose—a source of energy in the body—to get released into the bloodstream. What your body is doing with glucose is equipping you to fight, escape, or survive a risky situation. 

This is known as your fight-or-flight response.

Another cause for weight gain is the natural urge for sugar. Because glucose is an energy source, the body craves that quick energy known as sugar. But with no ‘fight’ to be had, the body stores that sugar in the body—which takes the form of abdominal fat.

Cortisol also slows down metabolism, making it hard to lose weight, too.

Luckily, there are some tried-and-true ways to combat both stress and, therefore, weight gain. While stress may make you feel powerless, you have more control over it than you may realize. With the implementation of specific good habits (such as healthy eating), you may be able to feel more serene—and lose weight in the process.

Ways to Combat Stress

The first order of business is addressing stress. Combatting symptoms at their origin—in this case, stress—provides the opportunity to heal, grow, and maybe even fight effects such as depression, anxiety, anger, and even weight gain.

Battling stress might feel challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. Start small, build habits, and slowly add in a way that supports your mental, physical, and emotional health. Avoid setting lofty goals—rather, focus on attainable tasks first and build from there.

Some fantastic ways to reduce stress include: 

  • Choosing healthier food options when eating for comfort—avoiding an excessive intake of carbs, fats, and processed sugar
  • Limiting or eliminating bad habits such as alcohol use, smoking cigarettes, exorbitant screentime, etc.
  • Making physical activity (of any kind) a priority in your day/week
  • Also, making fun activities a priority, such as taking walks, listening to music (preferably at loud volumes), cuddling your dogs, painting a blank canvas, taking a nap—you name it!
  • Finding and keeping a consistent sleep schedule
  • Limiting your caffeine intake, especially in the late afternoon and early evening
  • Calling your mom, best friend, sibling, or someone else for comforting conversation
  • Focusing on your breathing or trying breathing exercises

These are all actionable tips. Some may apply to your life while others don’t, but the gist is the same either way.

Ask yourself what habits might be hindering your progress or bringing you down, and learn what’s causing your stress. Then, find positive, engaging, inspiring, and sustainable ways to make yourself happy. 

Ways to Combat Weight Gain

There are two main components to taking the weight off and then keeping the weight off:

  1. Patience
  2. Consistency

One of the links between stress and weight gain is that the stressed individual tends to try fad diets. Unfortunately, while these trending diets tend to work in the short-term, they hardly ever have longevity. They often consist of eliminating essential food groups in the diet, ‘detoxing’ through juices or cleanses, and may even cause harm.

The key is patience. Attain a slow and steady loss that’s also sustainable. Consistency is also important. Develop an eating style that supports you and can last a lifetime. If you’re losing quick pounds, the odds aren’t high you’ll keep them off. And if you try eliminating diets, you’ll have a hard time maintaining them for years to come.

Rather, focus on a healthy, well-balanced, and nutritious diet daily. If you find yourself eating out often, consider meal-prepping for a few hours one day, which gives you a week’s worth of ready-to-eat or -heat food. Also, allow yourself “cheat days” or treats every once in a while, because fully abstaining fosters the craving, leading to binging.

Deal With Stress in a Way That Supports Your Well-Being

If you’ve read this far, you’re already taking great strides to combat stress in your life. One of the smallest first steps, researching causation and learning ways to heal, proves to be one of the most significant.

You’ve already put in work. Now you just have to keep doing it. Why?

Because losing weight is only one advantage to beating stress. Other benefits include more focus, a more positive outlook on life, better sleep, and so much more! If you’re ready to get your life back, we guarantee it’s ready for you to take it back.

At Ingredia, we believe in a happy, healthy life. That’s why our mission is to improve the well-being of anyone in our reach. With dairy-based bioactive ingredients, we hope to offer positive effects that are impactful and  life-changing. Click here to read more about our illness-fighting, stress-relieving, natural products.

How Stress Affects Your Cortisol Levels

How Stress Affects Your Cortisol Levels

Do you ever feel like you spend more time stressed than not? Do you find yourself getting tension headaches, clenching your jaw, fighting back anxiety, or dealing with mood swings? Do you have trouble sleeping and concentrating, or do you always feel like you’re about to experience a fight or flight response?

If any of this sounds familiar, you could be dealing with high cortisol levels. Read on to learn more about this hormone and the role it plays in our bodies, for good and for ill.

What Is Cortisol? 

Cortisol is one of the many hormones your brain produces to regulate your moods, circadian rhythms, and more. It’s known as a stress hormone, and it gets a bad rap. But while high levels of stress can be a problem, cortisol is critical for keeping you alive, as we’ll discuss more in a moment.

Cortisol is a sort of natural steroid that increases your heart rate and helps to regulate things like your blood sugar. It’s a product of your adrenal glands, located at the top of your kidneys. In addition to controlling your stress response, it also helps to control your metabolism, immune system function, and more.

Why It’s Important 

If you woke up this morning, you can thank cortisol. It’s one of the hormones your body releases when it’s time for your brain to wake back up from a night’s rest. Cortisol is also one of the hormones that regulates your circadian rhythms and keeps you alert throughout the day. And if any threats appear, cortisol signals your body to kick into fight or flight mode.

Cortisol can have an anti-inflammatory effect that helps keep your body healthier. It has an impact on your cognitive function, memory, and overall brain health. And it helps to regulate your immune system, helping you fight off diseases that try to attack your body. 

How It Connects to Stress 

Although cortisol is present in your body’s normal daily functioning, it does increase in response to stress. Whether you’re being chased by a wolf or you’re just giving a class presentation, your cortisol levels rise in response to the heightened stress. It’s a way of preparing your body to run or fight — the body’s two instinctual responses to threats.

When you get stressed, your adrenal glands kick into high gear, producing cortisol to raise your blood pressure in case you need to run. This will prevent you from fainting due to a lack of blood flowing to the brain. It will also tell your body to kick up your blood sugar levels so you have the energy to run or fight if needed.

Problems of a Modern Stress Response

When we were living in caves and hunting our food, cortisol was a critical part of keeping us alive. It gave our bodies the resources they needed to run, fight, and hunt. But the problem is that even though we live in a modern world where those threats are rarely present, our bodies are stuck in the Stone Age.

Any time you get stressed, your body produces that same age-old fight or flight response. And in our modern world, there is no shortage of stressors: job interviews, first dates, school deadlines, bad traffic, delayed flights, and so on. We spend way more time being stressed out than our ancestors, who only had to worry about living through that fight with a bear. 

Impact of Long-Term Stress

Although our bodies were designed to handle some short-term stress, we weren’t designed to live with constant stress for months or years on end. When you’re under constant stress, your cortisol levels may begin to interfere with your other brain chemicals, including serotonin and dopamine. You’ll be at higher risk of depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems.

Chronic stress can also take a serious toll on your body, increasing your risk of heart disease. You may begin to have digestive problems, and you could experience more headaches. You may have trouble sleeping, might gain weight, and may have trouble concentrating. 

Symptoms of High Cortisol Levels 

It may seem like figuring out if you have high cortisol would be easy — check if you’re stressed or not, and if you are, you have high cortisol. But in our no-breaks world, high stress levels can become a sort of standard background noise for our life. There are a few symptoms, aside from constant feelings of stress, that can clue you in that your cortisol levels are high.

If you menstruate, you may notice changes in your cycle, including longer or shorter bleeding days or more or fewer days between each period. You might notice that your sex drive is lower or that you have more frequent mood swings.

If you develop Cushing Syndrome, a potential side effect of high cortisol levels, you may notice that you’re gaining weight — especially around your midsection or face — or that cuts and scratches are slow to heal.

How to Manage Your Stress

One of the best ways to lower your cortisol levels is to manage your stress. Start by becoming aware when you’re stressed and taking time to acknowledge that feeling. This can help you find a baseline of lower stress and take the actions you need to cope with higher stress levels when they happen.

Try to work out regularly. Exercise releases endorphins, which can combat high cortisol levels. Also, focus on eating a healthy, balanced diet to ensure your body is getting the nutrients it needs. And finally, don’t forget to take time to care for yourself, spending time with people and activities you enjoy.

Keep Your Cortisol Levels in Check

Cortisol plays a critical role in keeping us alive and alert every day. But chronic high cortisol levels can have a serious impact on your health. Our bodies were not built for the kind of constant stress we live with today, and we pay the price. Try to become more aware of your stress levels, and take time to relax when you can, allowing your body to release that stress and return to normal.If you’d like to discover more ways to improve your overall health, check out the rest of our site at Ingredia. We are North America’s number-one source for quality dairy ingredients. Contact us today to discover the difference Ingredia can make.

Understanding the Effects of Sleep Disorders on Your Health

Understanding the Effects of Sleep Disorders on Your Health

A night of lost sleep is pretty common and may be due to stress or too much screen time. However, it’s not normal to have trouble falling and staying asleep most nights. If that’s the case, it may be time to see a doctor.

Sleep disorders can affect people of all ages. The American Family Physician reports that up to 50% of children will experience these issues at some point. Sleepwalking, nightmares, restless leg syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea are just a few to mention.

The same source notes that sleep problems may lead to mood swings and daytime sleepiness. In the long run, they may affect children’s behavior and learning abilities.

Insomnia and other sleep disorders are even more common in adults. These conditions disturb your normal sleep patterns, causing difficulty breathing, fatigue, or unusual behaviors. 

If left unaddressed, sleep disorders can affect your ability to function normally. You may find it difficult to wake up in the morning, stay focused at work, and think clearly. 

Interested to find out more? Let’s take a closer look at the most common sleep disorders and how they affect your health.

Insomnia

Acute insomnia affects about one in four Americans each year. About one-quarter of sufferers develop chronic insomnia and other complications.

This condition makes it difficult to fall and stay asleep. Its symptoms vary from one person to another and may include:

  • Frequent nighttime awakenings
  • Waking up too early
  • Daytime sleepiness and fatigue
  • Irritability
  • Tiredness
  • Difficulty focusing on tasks

Watching TV late before bedtime, eating late at night, and other habits can worsen insomnia. Its symptoms may also present when you’re traveling.

In some cases, this sleep disorder may be due to depression, diabetes, or chronic pain.

Parasomnias

Has someone in your family told you that you’re walking or eating in a sleep-like state? Do you wake up crying or screaming for no obvious reason? These are potential symptoms of parasomnias.

Sleep eating, sleepwalking, night terrors, and other parasomnias cause abnormal behaviors during sleep. Although they are more common in children, they can affect adults as well.

An earlier study reports that extreme tiredness, shift work, and mental disorders are common causes of parasomnias. Substance abuse and certain diseases may contribute to these issues too.

Parasomnias can lead to injuries, risky behaviors, weight gain, fatigue, seizures, and more. They may also increase your risk of household accidents, especially if you live alone.

Restless Legs Syndrome

Restless legs syndrome is one of the most common types of sleep disorders. Its symptoms include tingling, burnings, and aches in the legs and occur mostly at night. Some people may also experience itching, creeping, crawling, and other unusual sensations.

Researchers can’t tell the exact cause of restless legs syndrome. Some say that it may be due to iron deficiency. Others believe that it may result from dopamine imbalances in the brain.

While this condition isn’t life-threatening, it can affect your health in the long run. In severe cases, it may lead to depression, fatigue, and diminished mental function.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

About 22% of men and 17% of women suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. The risk of developing this condition increases with age. Smoking, obesity, alcohol use, and other factors may further worsen its symptoms.

This disorder causes your breathing to stop for brief periods during sleep. Its primary symptoms include:

  • Nighttime sweating
  • Awakening with a sore throat or dry mouth
  • Loud snoring
  • Daytime drowsiness and fatigue
  • Mood swings
  • Diminished mental focus
  • Waking up choking or gasping for air

Obstructive sleep apnea affects the throat muscles. Its symptoms occur repeatedly during sleep, leading to unexplained fatigue and tiredness.

Without proper treatment, this condition may increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and glaucoma.

Sleep Paralysis

Do you ever wake up at night and realize that you’re unable to speak or move? That’s a classic symptom of sleep paralysis. This disorder may also cause hallucinations, imagined sounds, and intense fear.

During sleep paralysis, you may feel like someone is sitting on your chest. You may also hear zapping, hissing, or humming noises, as well as roars and whispers. These symptoms may occur during sleep or as you’re waking up.

Clinical evidence reports that nearly 30% of students and more than one-third of psychiatric patients experience episodes of sleep paralysis. About 7.6% of the general population has this problem.

The exact cause of sleep paralysis is unknown.

Scientists believe that sleep deprivation, substance abuse, and mental disorders may contribute to this problem. Other sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, play a role too.

What Can You Do About It?

Sleep disorders can be frightening at the least. Imagine waking up at night and gasping for air or feeling like someone is trying to hurt you! Not to mention the tiredness that follows a bad night’s sleep.

The best thing you can do is to reach out to a sleep doctor. In the meantime, try changing your diet and lifestyle habits.

Cutting back on sugar and trans fats is a good starting point. Fill up on slow-digesting protein for dinner and refrain from eating before bedtime. Cottage cheese, casein shakes, Greek yogurt, and other high-protein foods are all excellent choices.

Reach for a low-carb, high-protein bar, or other small snacks if you’re feeling hungry before bedtime. Avoid fatty foods and heavy meals at night. Schedule your workouts in the morning or afternoon rather than late in the evening.

Note that certain foods contain tryptophan, an amino acid that converts to melatonin in your body. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle, supports immune function, and protects your brain.

Beef, turkey, salmon, eggs, milk, and dairy products are all an excellent source of tryptophan. Consider drinking a cup of milk before bedtime to boost melatonin production and enjoy a good night’s sleep. 

Better Sleep, Better Health

Sleep deprivation does more than just make you feel tired. It can also affect your metabolism, immune function, and heart health. Over time, it may have devastating effects on mental function and work performance.

Don’t wait until it’s too late! If left unaddressed, sleep disorders can take a toll on your health and affect how you look and feel. Contact us today to learn more about our products.