Seasonal Solutions

With the colder, wet weather, I’ve been seeing more people with flare-ups of chronic problems and complaints of various aches and pains.  While, I suppose on one hand this is good for business, on the other hand, there are some simple solutions to deal with these aggravations that we all should consider as the seasons change.

In following this blog, you should already know that it’s been proven that low pressure fronts in the weather do indeed increase the inflammation associated with arthritis, allergies, sinus problems, and general aches and pains.  Likewise, you should also know that inflammation has been implicated with pain as well as every disease known to man.  If you can win the war on inflammation, you feel better and live a longer, healthier life!  So, if the crappy weather increases inflammatory problems, how do you overcome this, outside of moving to a less threatening environment?  The obvious solutions are the same lifestyle strategies that help any health problem – eat better, mover better (exercise), and think better by reducing stress and getting proper sleep.  These should always be your long-term strategies.  However, there are a few short-term approaches that can give you some quick relief.  At this time of year you should always think about taking or increasing your vitamin D.  The only way to truly know if you’re low in vitamin D is through blood testing, but it is generally accepted that D can be safely taken at 4-5000 I.U.s per day especially through the winter months until we begin getting our D naturally from sunlight again in the spring.  Vitamin D is particularly important for dealing with seasonal affective disorder, more commonly known as the “winter blues.”  Another common solution is fish oil and vitamin C.  The C and the omega 3’s from fish oil are necessary ingredients for all the steroid hormones produced by the adrenal glands.  These are your body’s natural anti-inflammatories.  In fact, 3000 milligrams of vitamin C have been proven to be as effective in reducing inflammation as prescription medications without the nasty side-effects on the kidneys and liver.  There are also some less scientific “folky” methods of reducing inflammatory pain.  Possibly the oldest remedy is organic apple cider vinegar.  While the reason for its results are largely unknown, cider vinegar can be very effective at reducing joint and arthritic pain and some studies have even shown that it reduces blood sugar and insulin levels.  It’s thought that 2 tablespoons of vinegar in the morning diluted in water or juice is the best way to achieve results.  Vinegar is very acidic so make certain you dilute and use the dark, organic variety.  In the end, reducing inflammation has much to do with antioxidants.  These are the little chemicals that fight against free radical damage.  Fruits and vegetables are your primary source of antioxidants, but as I’ve mentioned before, green tea is a super anti-oxidant.  Use a combination of these strategies along with a healthy lifestyle and this should help you get through another long cold winter much more easily.

No-Fat Fantasy

Do you remember the no-fat hot dogs and no-fat cheese that was so popular in the late 80’s and 90’s?  Whatever happened to that stuff?  Have you wondered why so many people went on low-fat diets for nearly a decade and cholesterol levels continued to rise and heart disease is at an all-time high despite more prescriptions?  A report from the British Medical Journal may shed some light on this phenomenon and give valuable insight to some dietary methods to prevent heart disease and numerous other chronic illnesses.

This editorial titled, From the Heart, Saturated Fat is Not the Major Issue may debunk a half century’s worth of thinking and previous research.  This most recent study suggests that the avoidance of saturated fat actually promotes poor health and may increase our cardiovascular risk.  Conventional thinking was that the large type A LDL particles that come from saturated fats were the bad guys, but new findings show that it’s actually the smaller, type B LDL particles that are implicated in cardiovascular disease.  Where do these type B particles come from?  They are responsive to carbohydrate and sugar intake.  Recent studies have shown that appropriate fat intake may actually be protective.  They have found that when you decrease fat and increase refined carbohydrates, you promote obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.  This is not all new information.  A similar study was published in the Lancet back in 1956.  They compared groups of people on 90% fat, 90% protein, and 90% carbohydrate diets and found that the fat consuming group lost the most weight.  A 2010 review of 21 other studies found no difference in the risk of heart attack and stroke between people with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fats.  And in 2010, the Journal of Clinical Nutrition stated that “dietary efforts to improve your cardiovascular risk should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate intake.”

Does this mean we should bring on the fried chicken and pizza?  I’m afraid not.  Corn oils, vegetable oils and trans-fats are still known to be bad.  What this really means is sugar and all the refined carbohydrates are the enemy.  We need to cut breads, pastas, and nearly all the snack foods and sugars.  We should replace these with large amounts of vegetables and moderate amounts of organically raised proteins.  We should get our fats from raw nuts, organic eggs, avocados, raw dairy, coconut and coconut oil, wild fish and grass-fed meats.  This is basically the Mediterranean diet which has been shown to be three times more effective at reducing cardiac deaths than cholesterol drugs!