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!

My Flu Strategy

I’m running this article again because, like last year, several people have asked me if I’ve gotten my flu shot this year.  I confess that I’ve never opted for the flu shot in the past and I’ll admit that I don’t plan on getting one because of fear.  I’m afraid of many of the chemicals that are included with the shot to attenuate the virus – these are preservatives that keep it alive and maintain its shelf life.  These include thimerosal (a mercury derivative), formalin (a formaldehyde derivative), as well as polysorbate 80 and sodium deoxycholate (known to cause cancer in animals).  More than this, I’m afraid of the research submitted by Hugh Fudenberg, M.D.  He is one of the world’s leading immunogeneticists and in 1997 he announced that having five consecutive flu shots (in 5 years) would increase the chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease by 10 times.  This research has been greatly debated – some concur while some deny.  As for me, I’m still afraid.

You’re most certainly going to come in contact with several strains of the flu virus this season.  So whether you opt for the shot or not, what should you do?  Fighting the flu is a little like fighting cancer.  The goal should not be to fight the disease, but to fortify your own immune system so that you recover rapidly or avoid getting the virus to begin with.  The standard recommendations are as follows: 1) eat a healthy diet high in vegetables and low in sugar and trans-fats; 2) get around 7 hours of sleep per day; 3) exercise regularly; 4) drink plenty of pure water and 5) wash your hands regularly.  I also take a high quality multivitamin and use extra Vitamin C when I detect any symptoms.  I also rely on regular spinal adjustments to reduce interference to the nerve system that is intimately linked to the immune system.  You may ask, “Can popping your back really help keep you healthy?”  Dr. Pero of New York’s Prevention Medicine Institute published a study that showed individuals who had been under regular chiropractic care for at least 5 years had a 200% greater immune function than the general public.  More than this, he found that the chiropractic group had a 400% greater immunity than people that already had a disease.  These strategies have allowed me to miss very few days of work due to illness in nearly eighteen years of practice.

DNA & Positive Thinking

For those of you who are regular followers of this article, I hope that you’ve grasped the concept that health exists on a continuum and that everything you do; everything you eat, drink, or breath are all either moving you toward health and away from dis-ease or moving you toward dis-ease and away from health.  I found an outstanding article that suggests that one of the biggest factors on this continuum is our own thoughts. The article identified several research studies that show how we think can actually change the behavior of our DNA.  In one study performed by the military, DNA from white blood cells was taken from people, placed in a vial and moved to be monitored in another room.  The people were subjected to different emotional stimuli while their DNA was monitored.  As the donors were stimulated, they found that their DNA exhibited similar electrical responses at precisely the same time in the other room.

In a similar study done by the Institute of Heartmath, 28 scientists took DNA from other people and were taught to generate strong emotions in the presence of the DNA samples.  When the scientists generated feelings of joy, love, and gratitude, the DNA relaxed, unwound, and lengthened.  While they generated feelings of anger, fear, and frustration, the DNA tightened, shortened and shut off many of its codes.  The researchers applied this discovery to HIV-positive patients and discovered that when the AIDS patients generated feelings of joy, love, and gratitude their immune systems became 300,000 times more resistant to the virus than when they were not feeling this way.  Put simply, our thoughts affect our physiology and can have as great an impact on our health and wellness as any other factor.  Think about what you think about!

The Importance of pH

In his Textbook of Medical Physiology, Arthur Guyton, M.D. states that when the body is alkaline it converts free radicals to harmless water and oxygen, which maintain energy and vitality.  This means that the body will always work best when it maintains an alkaline or basic environment rather than an acidic one.  In fact, I’ve read some authors who state that disease cannot exist or even manifest in an alkaline environment.  Either way, understanding pH and how to keep your body alkaline is good practice.

When blood pH is at 7.365 (alkaline) the cells receive nourishment and release waste with ease.  When pH drops below this number you are considered acidic.  In an acidic environment, the body tissues become susceptible to chronic inflammation and free radicals will become more prevalent.  This by definition is the phenomenon known as “oxidative stress” which is associated with chronic disease, degenerative processes and increased aging.  Early symptoms of oxidative stress often include chronic joint and muscle pain or aching.   In the body, pH is affected by emotional stress (how we think) and chemical stress based on what we eat, drink, and breathe.  For this reason, pH changes all the time based on our habits.  If we have adequate mineral reserves, our bodies can adapt to temporary emotional and chemical stressors that produce acidity.  Unfortunately, chronic stress and poor diet will overwhelm the body’s adaptive ability resulting in acidity.  So this is something we need to continually work on and in my experience it’s easier to control your chemical stress by watching what you put into your body than it is your emotional stress which is often the result of outside factors.  Foods that alkalize the body include most of your green vegetables as well as fruits such as berries, apples and pears.  Pathogens and disease processes thrive in diets high in animal products, processed and refined foods, and synthetic chemicals.

Monitoring your pH is a relatively simple process that only takes a couple of minutes.  We can do saliva testing in our office and teach you how to check yourself simply because this is so important to long-term health.  Even if you don’t check your pH, keeping check of your diet and stress level and committing to a regular intake of vegetables and fruits will pay off in the long run.

Skin & Diet

I read an article about healthy skin and diet.  This article stressed how an unhealthy diet can be the primary contributor to acne.  It turns out acne affects one in five adult Americans and is a problem to 85% or all Americans at some point in their lives.  While poor skin isn’t necessarily a life-threatening condition, I do want you to understand that it is a sign or symptom that your system is not as healthy as it could or should be.  Skin blemishes are a major source of embarrassment and self esteem problems that people spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars upon.  What you need to know is that anytime you fight a symptom like this, most often there is an underlying cause that is not being addressed.  And like anything else in the body, when you are able to address the cause of a problem, the symptom takes care of itself.

To sum up the author of this article as concisely as possible, it is recommended that you cut sugars and grains to reduce any and all skin problems.  The sugars should come as no surprise.  In the past I’ve discussed numerous times that sugar increases inflammation in the body.  Skin problems are often a sign of an inflammatory process going on inside.  The skin also acts as a third kidney to help detoxify the toxins that are often included with the sugary foods.  As people clean up their diet by following a low glycemic eating plan, we always see their skin look more youthful just in the first couple weeks.  You may be surprised by the recommendation to limit grains for healthier skin.  Whole grains are healthy, right?  They are a good source of fiber and numerous vitamins and minerals, but all grains ultimately get broken down to sugar and all grains, even whole grains, feed inflammatory processes.  Likewise, many people have a sort of allergic reaction to grains.  This is often due to the gluten – a binder that is added to grain products to hold them together.

A 2007 study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that subjects struggling with acne and skin conditions who followed a low-glycemic diet for 12 weeks showed significant improvements with all their skin sensitivities.  Try cutting grains and sugars for just a few weeks and see if you don’t notice a major change!

Stress Solutions

Adrenal fatigue, as I’ve indicated in the past, this is a phenomenon that I believe is a much bigger issue than most health professionals give credit.  Our healthcare system is so busy treating the symptoms that result from adrenal fatigue that they never get time to uncover the ultimate cause.  But if you know what to look for, you can often self-diagnose adrenal problems and address them before they require more aggressive symptomatic treatment.

Your adrenals are thought to be your stress organs because they produce and release the stress hormones cortisol and adrenalin.  They also produce sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, some dopamine and about 30 different steroid hormones.  These hormones are why your adrenal glands are intimately tied to the function of your thyroid, pituitary, kidneys, reproductive system and even your brain function.  But just like any muscle or other organ, your adrenals can become fatigued through overuse.  In the case of these vital glands, the stresses that tax the adrenals include: lack of sleep, sugar and processed foods, stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine, excessive activity (work, overtraining), and of course emotional trauma and stress.  All these factors move us into a stress physiology more commonly known as fight/flight mode.  This is a good thing if you need to fight or escape from a tiger, but it’s a terrible thing on a day-to-day basis.  There are many signs and symptoms that you might be dealing with adrenal fatigue.  These include: arthritic tendencies, body aches/pains, extreme fatigue, low blood sugar and low blood pressure, light-headedness and dizziness upon rising from sitting or lying down, salt and sugar cravings, sleep disturbances, infertility and reduced sex drive, hair loss, depression, migraines, menstrual difficulties, blurred vision and severe allergies.  Of course these are merely symptoms and many of these can be tied to other health problems as well.  The preferred adrenal test can be done through blood or saliva testing to check the cortisol and DHEA levels.

Like most any health problem, when treating adrenal imbalances, the cause is the cure.  There are several strategies that help support the adrenal glands such as B-vitamins (especially B5), Omega 3 fatty acids such as fish oil, vitamin C, magnesium, and various other herbs.  We use a product called Alkadrenergy that works particularly well.  However, unless you desire to take these products for the rest of your life, you must ultimately address the lifestyle factors at the root of the problem.  Much of this involves changing your routines.  For instance, you should go to bed at the same time and try to get close to eight hours of sleep each night.  Exercise is critical to reduce stress, but don’t over-train.  If you’re stressed with your work or personal life, make time for stress relieving activities such as yoga or meditation.  Some people just need to learn to say no and not do everything for everybody!  Fruits and vegetables actually have a sedative effect that will help relieve the fight/flight response whereas most processed foods and sugars feed it.  Likewise, consuming quality fats and proteins such as raw nuts and coconut oil can be helpful as well.  In some cases, adrenal imbalance is caused by food allergies and going sugar-free or gluten-free is the best solution.  Regardless of whether you’re suffering from adrenal fatigue or not, stress is indeed the “silent killer” and all of these lifestyle and stress-relieving strategies are helpful for promoting a greater state of health and wellness in addition to relieving adrenal stress.