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Archive for January, 2020

Intermittent fasting is rapidly becoming a very popular method of weight control. However, the benefits of intermittent fasting extend far beyond weight control. Humans evolved for millions of years under a fast and then feast pattern of eating. The current regimen of three squares a day plus two snacks is very unnatural and has unfortunate metabolic effects like insulin resistance. Intermittent fasting can re-set these metabolic effects.

Resets the genome

It has long been known that fasting and calorie restriction while consuming adequate amounts of essential nutrients can significantly prolong lifespan. However, the exact mechanisms of this effect have been unclear. One hypothesis is that fasting and calorie restriction re-set epigenetic changes to the genome.

Normally, epigenetic changes accumulate throughout life, altering gene expression patterns, which seems to cause many of the symptoms of aging. Mice and monkeys subjected to calorie restriction were found to have genomes that appeared to be much younger than they actually were.

Human studies

However, the results of animal studies don't always correlate well with human studies. In a recent study in Japan, a group of volunteers fasted in a laboratory, and their metabolic changes were examined in detail.

Glucose to ketone bodies

The most obvious and immediate effect of fasting is that the body switches from burning glucose for energy to burning ketone bodies, which are chiefly derived from fat. This state can also be initiated by consuming a very low carbohydrate diet.

A major advantage of utilizing ketones instead of glucose is that glucose metabolism produces harmful inflammatory products while ketone metabolism does not. Inflammation has been linked to every major chronic disease associated with aging, including heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Cleaning house

The next major metabolic change during fasting is that your body starts to "clean house," namely, removing misfolded proteins and damaged organelles and recycling them. They are used to repair damage throughout the body and are also used for producing energy. In a well-fed state, the body doesn't generally bother to scavenge waste products. The accumulation of misfolded proteins in the brain is a well-known phenomenon in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Many molecular changes

Surprisingly, the experimenters in Japan found that the mitochondria, which produce energy, had gone into overdrive during fasting. In addition, they identified 44 different molecules that dramatically increased during fasting. Many of these molecules had previously been identified to have anti-aging and anti-inflammatory roles, but they had never been linked to fasting before.

Reversal of insulin resistance

During fasting, your body also dramatically reduces its levels of insulin, which allows cells to reset their responses to insulin. A major problem in today's constantly eating society is that the resulting constant supply of insulin induces cells to turn off their response to it, producing insulin resistance, which can then turn into type II diabetes. Fasting can reverse insulin resistance and some individuals with diabetes who intermittently fast have reported that their diabetes was cured.

Preserves muscle mass and slims your waist

Fasting also alters the hormones in your body. Everyone is familiar with the aging process: muscle mass is gradually lost while fat levels increase, especially around the abdomen. However, fasting alters the hormonal state in your body and partially reverses this effect, preserving muscle mass and burning off that abdominal fat.

The bottom line

Intermittent fasting is one of the easiest ways to improve your overall health. It may even make you physically and mentally younger.

Posted by Emily Dawson on Jan 27, 2020 5:43 PM GMT
If you're in the manufacturing business, you know how important it is to keep costs to an absolute minimum. Skyrocketing manufacturing costs kill your profit margins and lead to losses and employee layoffs.

In today's competitive market, it's never been more important to keep costs as low as possible. In this article, we'll take a look at three ways you can work to reduce your manufacturing costs as soon as possible.

1. Keep Track of Your Numbers

If you aren't already tracking your key expenses, it's time to start. It's impossible to reduce costs that you're not properly recording. You'll see here how important this is, especially when it comes to new product development.

You don't necessarily need an accountant to do this. With cloud accounting software technologies such as Quickbooks, the average Joe can keep a close eye on all relevant numbers.

To start out, begin tracking all of the key numbers that relate to:
 
  • Used capacity
  • Production capacity
  • Labor cost
  • Material cost
  • Overhead
  • Labor efficiency
  • Cost of goods sold
  • Carrying inventory cost
  • Cash in and cash out
  • Stock in and stock out
  • Overtime costs
If you'd rather not use accounting software to do this, record all your numbers in an excel file. Even the simplest number's recording will give you a much better idea about what's going on in the factory.

2. Reduce Your Carrying Cost of Inventory

Your carrying cost of inventory is the expense you incur when you hold, maintain and store product inventory over time. Raw materials and work-in-progress materials are also considered inventory.

Most of your components in the carrying cost of inventory are included in your overhead. These include:
 
  • Shrinkage and pilfirage costs
  • Opportunity cost
  • Staff cost
  • Warehouse maintenance and electricity cost
  • Stock-taking cost
  • Stock insurance cost
For example, let's say you've incurred $100,000 of carrying cost of inventory for a year on 10,000 stored units. This means that your carrying cost for each unit is $10. This would be a significant loss that requires reduction.

3. Keep Overhead Under Control

Overhead is typically a non-value expense that should be avoided whenever possible. To reduce your overhead, look at doing some of the following.

1. Set an overhead budget and regularly review it. Take steps to keep it under control.

2. Depreciation costs are time-based. Decide whether you want to own assets or acquire them on lease.

3. If possible, look to reduce your headcount. If one of your supervisor's roles could easily be re-delegated, is the expense of their position worth it to the business? Of course it's difficult to let people go. But sometimes, you just have to.

4. Avoid outlandish packaging that isn't necessary.

5. Work to reduce product features that don't add value.

6. If you can, avoid using air conditioning or other electric installations that aren't necessary for your production.

7. Check and update your machines to help avoid expensive repair costs.

Although some of these may be difficult, you have to put business before emotion.

You Can Reduce Your Manufacturing Costs

It's time to get serious about reducing costs. With these three methods, you'll start putting the profit back into your business.
Posted by Emily Dawson on Jan 15, 2020 3:40 AM GMT