wellness tips

Archive for March, 2007

PMS

March 25, 2007 at 1:33 pm · Filed under Health Issues, Other

Okay guys, I figure this tip is in your interest too as by simply understanding what your wife, girlfriend, or sisters go through each month, you can be a better support when they are SUFFERING!

Premenstrual syndrome is the name given to a constellation of emotional, psychological, and physical symptoms that occur during the last couple of weeks of the menstrual cycle that interfere with a woman’s quality of life.

Common symptoms include abdominal pain, breast pain and swelling, muscle and/or joint pain, headaches, depression, anger, anxiety, irritability, bloating, weight gain, difficulty sleeping, food cravings, difficulties concentrating, forgetfulness, lack of sexual interest, confusion.

Some women that suffer badly from PMS may be hurting 2 weeks of every month, or almost half of each year. I know of a woman that takes a 2 to 3 days off work each month when the abdominal pain is at its worst, because she actually finds it difficult to stand up.

Yet women rarely tell their bosses that they are not coming into work because of PMS – it still is somewhat of a taboo subject, and so most women that get PMS suffer in silence. Or they take something for pain control, which deals with the symptoms but not the cause.

Most commonly, PMS is caused by a lack of, or an imbalance in the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone, and also cortisol.

POP QUIZ: What is the raw material nutrient that estrogen, progesterone and cortisol are made from? If you have been reading these tips for a while, you should know that the answer is …. drum roll …. saturated fat and cholesterol!

So are you avoiding quality saturated fat, such as butter for example? Estrogen dominance over progesterone is frequently linked to PMS symptoms, and is also interestingly enough, thought to be a causative factor in breast cancer and uterine cancer, and probably cervical and ovarian cancer as well.

So hormonal balancing can go a long way to ridding oneself of PMS and preventing disease. POP QUIZ BONUS QUESTION: What can women easily do today, and tomorrow, and every day after to reduce their estrogen levels? Yes, you can find the answer in one of my other tips … Maybe you can figure it out???

The answer? Go to bed early to get enough dark time. Melatonin controls estrogen levels. Women that are suffering severely may find it helpful to stop taking estrogen only birth-control pills (Katie Singer’s book The Garden of Fertility gives natural methods of birth control that don’t mess with a woman’s hormone cycles), and they could speak to their doctor about getting bio-identical progesterone cream (not Provera or Megestrol).

If you are under a lot of stress, progesterone is often shunted off to help build cortisol, your stress coping hormone, which explains why stress increases PMS symptoms. Therefore anything that can be done to reduce stress, would reduce the need for cortisol, which would help maintain progesterone levels and reduce PMS symptoms.

Another probable contributing factor to estrogen dominance is the quantity of soy isolate foods like soy milk, soy cheese, soy protein powders and bars, soy oil, soy lecithin, MSG, etc. that people are consuming these days, believing them to be healthier alternatives to dairy or other real food.

If you suffer from PMS, do not consume soy isolate products. Dealing with the xenoestrogens, those synthetic chemicals used in plastics is tougher – don’t use those hard plastic containers with the recycling symbol #7, as the BPA (Bisphenol A) in them is a xenoestrogen that can leach into the water, and then bind with your estrogen receptors.

Store your food in glass or ceramic rather than plastic, and if you insist on microwaving your food, do not microwave in plastic or use plastic wrap. Xenoestrogens are frequently also put in the hormones fed to cattle to fatten them up for slaughter (guess what – too much estrogen makes cattle fat, just like it makes women fat!), so choose organic meats and poultry to be certain you are not consuming extra xenoestrogens in your food.

Exercise and careful sauna use can help eliminate xenoestrogens via sweating, although fully removing these toxins may take years.

Glycemic control (blood sugar control) is very important in hormone regulation, because insulin, which controls our blood-sugar, is a master-regulator hormone, and if there is a problem with insulin, it will throw off the balance of all the hormones including estrogen.

Chronically high insulin levels leads to insulin resistance which leads to estrogen dominance. So, reduce your intake of sugar and flour products, and instead choose vegetables and legumes as your carbohydrate, and consume them with quality protein and fat in order to slow the sugar absorption into the bloodstream.

Daniel, Kaayla T. The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food NewTrends Publishing, Inc., March, 2005.
Singer, Katie, The Garden of Fertility Penguin Group, New York, 2004.
Sacks, Frank M. et al. Soy Protein, Isoflavones, and Cardiovascular Health; An American Heart Association Science Advisory for Professionals from the Nutrition Committee Circulation 113: 1034-1044, 2006.
Sharpe RM et al. Infant feeding with soy formula milk: effect on testis and on blood testosterone levels in marmoset monkeys during the period of neonatal testicular activity. Human Reproduction Jul;17(7):1692-703, 2002.
Bell, DS et al.Use of soy protein supplement and resultant need for increased dose of levothyroxine Endocrine Pract. May-June; 7(3):193-4, 2001.
Ju YH et al. Dietary genistein negates the inhibitory effect of tamoxifen on growth of estrogen-dependent human breast cancer Cancer Research May 1;62(9):2474-7, 2002.
Doerge DR and DM Sheehan. Goitrogenic and estrogenic activity of soy isoflavones Environmental Health Perpectives June;110 suppl 3:349-53, 2002.
Hunt,Patricia;“Bisphenol A Exposure Causes Meiotic Aneuploidy in the Female Mouse” Current Biology, Vol 14, 546-553, 1 April 2003.
vom Saal, Frederick and Hughes, Claude; “An Extensive New Literature Concerning Low-Dose Effects of Bisphenol A Shows the Need for a New Risk Assessment” Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 113, No. 8, August 2005.
Davis, Scot et al. Light at Night and Working the Graveyard Shift Linked to Increased Risk of Breast Cancer Journal of the National Cancer Institute October 2001
Blask, David, MD, PhD et al. Melatonin-Depleted Blood from Pre-Menopausal Women Exposed to Light at Night Stimulates Human Breast Cancer Xenografts in Nude Rats Cancer Research
65, 11174-11184, Dec. 1, 2005.
Verkasalo, P. et al. Sleep Duration and Breast Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study Cancer Research 65, 9595-9600, Oct. 15, 2005.
Harder, Ben. Bright Lights, Big Cancer Science News Online Jan. 7, 2006.

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Cardiovascular disease

March 18, 2007 at 1:59 pm · Filed under Health Issues, Other

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an umbrella term for diseases and injuries with respect to the blood system of the body, including the heart and the blood vessels.

In Canada, 32% of males and 34% of females die of CVD a year, and it is the number one killer of both genders annually. Heart disease, coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, and stroke would fall under the term.

Although technically erectile dysfunction is not put under the “cardiovascular disease” group, it probably should be, as it is a good early warning sign for men that there may be a problem in the blood system, as men with erectile problems frequently later get diagnosed with some form of cardiovascular disease. So, if you take Viagra, get your ticker and vascular system checked as a precaution.

It is generally accepted that initially CVD is caused by an injury, tear, or cut to the inside of a blood vessel, and the body responds by sending cholesterol to the site of the injury in order to plaster over the injury and make the vessel wall smooth again.

Preventing the initial cuts in the blood vessels will go a long way to prevent CVD. Free radical damage and glycation in the blood vessels are two probable causes of the initial lesions.

Get your blood pressure monitored regularly as this is an easy way to screen for problems in the arterial system. When the cuff is pumped up around the arm the circulation to the hand is cut off. As the technician slowly lowers the pressure, there comes a point where when as the heart beats, the blood can spurt through the artery, but between beats the overpressure of the outside cuff prevents blood from getting through.

That is the top number in your blood pressure reading. The technician continues to lower the pressure from the cuff until she/he hears nothing more, indicating that the blood can now flow through the artery with no impedance. That point indicates the pressure in the artery between beats, which is the low number of your blood pressure reading.

Normal blood pressure varies but is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 120/80 or 110/70. Physicians get worried when the pressure gets to 140/90 or 150/100, depending which country you live in. The bottom number is more significant – the higher the pressure in the artery when the heart is between beats, the more stuff might be clogging the arteries. You can’t actually feel that your blood pressure is high, so frequent monitoring is necessary.

Symptoms of heart attack are DIFFERENT in men and women, which is why women often get misdiagnosed, and consequently die more frequently than men. For women, the most common early warning symptom (71%) is unusual fatigue and weakness, not chest pain.

Other common early symptoms in women are sleep disturbance, shortness of breath, indigestion and anxiety. Acute symptoms for women include shortness of breath 58%, weakness 55%, dizziness 39%, cold sweats 39%. No wonder doctors miss heart attacks with those symptoms! So ladies, if you get these symptoms, phone 911 – it might save your life.

Only 30% of women get the chest pain or angina, pressure or discomfort that may move to the left arm, occasionally right, and/or jaw and upper back that is so common in men. Other common male symptoms for heart attack include pallor, very fast heart rate, difficulty breathing, sweating, and nausea.

I think that EVERYONE over the age of about 15 should be trained in CPR, and get retraining at least every other year. It is only a four hour course, not very expensive, and that person that you will save will probably be a family member or a friend.

Those minutes between the time you call 911 and the time the ambulance arrives are the most important minutes for determining the outcome of the emergency. You may not be able to save them, but trying might make all the difference. CPR training will also teach you what to do in case of choking (important if you have young kids), or if someone has stopped breathing, or is unconscious.

Most risk factors for CVD can be controlled through lifestyle, so even if you have a family history there is much you can do to avoid getting the disease. Regular exercise (3-4 days a week) can reduce your risk by up to 50%.

Drink adequate water so you keep your capillary beds open and keep your blood pressure down. Lowering one’s body fat to within healthy ranges lowers one’s risk of CVD. With respect to diet, avoid refined carbohydrates, flour products and refined sugar in all its forms, especially high-fructose corn syrup which is converted to triglycerides within an hour of consuming them, packaged food, powdered milk, eggs or whey, manufactured and refined fats like transfats, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and refined vegetable oils.

Increasing your intake of omega 3 fatty acids to between 2 and 4 grams a day can reduce your risk of CVD by up to 40%. Fish oils are more bioavailable than flax oil for many people. (If you are on blood thinners like Aspirin or Coumadin, consult with your doctor for guidance in reducing the dosage of the medication before beginning omega 3 supplements.)

With respect to saturated fats, only eat free-range / pasture fed sources, organic if possible, and get yourself metabolically typed so that you know how much fat is safe for you personally to consume. There is lots of research to support the notion that low-vitamin diets are linked to CVD.

Synthetic supplements just don’t do the job that real food does, so get your nutrition by choosing great quality food. Raw butter is a fantastic source of both vitamin A and D. Eat your vitamin-rich veggies, especially those green leafies!

Eat whole grains and legumes in the amounts dictated by your metabolic type, as they are full of the B vitamins. Smoking greatly increases your risk of CVD, so do your best to quit.

Do what you can to lower your stress levels – meditation can be extremely helpful. Men and post menopausal women should get their iron levels checked regularly, as too much iron increases the risk of heart disease. Donating blood on a regular basis can easily reduce iron levels.

Because just as many people that die of CVD have low cholesterol as high cholesterol, and just as many people without CVD have high cholesterol as low cholesterol, I am not convinced that cholesterol is the problem it is made out to be.

For more information on the lack of association between saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease, read the book The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, and Know Your Fats, by lipid researcher Mary Enig. Do your own research and make up your own mind.

Liu S, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, Hu FB, Franz M, Sampson L, Hennekens CH, Manson JE. A prospective study of dietary glycemic load, carbohydrate intake, and risk of coronary heart disease in US women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 71(6):1455-61, June 2000.
Enig, Mary; Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer For Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol Bethesda Press, Silver Spring, MD, 2003.
Ravnskov, Uffe, MD, PhD The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease, New Trends Publishing Inc., Washington D.C., 2000.
Krumholz HM and others. Lack of association between cholesterol and coronary heart disease mortality and morbidity and all-cause mortality in persons older than 70 years. Journal of the American Medical Association 272, 1334-1340, 1994.
Shestov DB and others. Increased risk of coronary heart disease death in men with low total and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol in the Russian Lipid Research Clinics prevalence follow-up study. Circulation 88, 846-853, 1993.
Warburton D. et al. Health benefits of physical activity: the evidence CMAJ, 174(6) 801-9, March 2006.
Soriquer F. et al. Hypertension is related to the degradation of dietary frying oils Am J Clin Nutr Dec;78(6):1092-7, 2003.
Online by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon What causes heart disease?
Online by Mary Enig, PhD, fats, oils and lipids researcher
The importance of saturated fats for biological functions
Online by Mary Enig, PhD, fats, oils and lipids researcher Fats and Oils and their impact on health
Online by Mary Enig, PhD, fats, oils and lipids researcher An Example of Junk Science
German, B and Dillard, C Saturated Fats: What dietary intake? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80, No. 3, 550-559, Sept. 2004.
de Roos NM et al. Replacement of dietary saturated fatty acids by trans fatty acids lowers serum HDL cholesterol and impairs endothelial function in healthy men and women Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, Jul; 21(7):1233-7, 2001
de Roos NM et al. Consumption of a solid fat rich in lauric acid results in a more favorable serum lipid profile in healthy men and women than consumption of a solid fat rich in trans fatty acids Journal of Nutrition Feb:131(2):242-5, 2001.
Temme EH. et al.
Individual saturated fatty acids and effects on whole blood aggregation in vitro Eur J Clin Nut Oct:52(10):697-702, 1998.

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Bacteria, the soil, the gut, and detoxification

March 10, 2007 at 11:58 pm · Filed under Detox

Bacteria get a really bad rap. Most of us associate bacteria with sickness, and we often go out of our way to kill bacteria by using antibacterial soaps and cleaners. When we are sick, we often look to antibiotics which kill bacteria in order to become healthy again.

But only about 5% of bacteria are actually pathogenic, and the other 95% are beneficial. What do you think would happen if all the bacteria in the world died? It would not be long before all life on earth ceased to exist, as bacteria are fundamental to the birth, life and death of every living thing on this planet.

Bacteria are part of the planet’s garbage disposal system that breaks down dead plant and animal tissue returning it to soil in the form of humus, so life can begin again. Each gram of healthy soil has 600 million microorganisms containing thousands of species of bacteria and fungi, so healthy soil is fully alive. And the humus that the bacteria make is the nutritious food that plants require in order to grow healthy and robust.

So in summary, bacteria ensure the health of the plant by providing it with food and nitrogen, and bacteria break down the plant if it is sick or after it has died, so that only the healthiest plants survive, and cycle of life can continue.

According to the late Sir Albert Howard, one of the most well known experts on organic farming, pests, diseases and parasites are "nature’s professors of good husbandry", meaning that diseased plants indicate a problem in farming, and provide an opportunity to look for mistakes and correct them.

So, what happens when farmers spray their fields with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides? They kill the army of microorganisms that support plant life, rendering the soil dead. Plants cannot grow in dead soil without the aid of chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers do not make for healthy plants. Unhealthy plants do not make for healthy people. So our health rests on the health of the bacteria in the soil.

In times before chemical agriculture, we would consume live bacteria along with the food we ate. In healthy people there are thousands of species of bacteria that live in our digestive tract from the mouth, throughout the intestines and colon, that help us digest our food, synthesize vitamins like folate, vitamin K and biotin, and that are vital to the function of our immune system.

Bacteria break down our food into a useable form that can be absorbed through our intestines and utilized by the body. Bacteria clean the walls of the intestine and colon so that waste can be excreted easily and are therefore key to the body’s ability to detoxify itself.

Exposure to bacteria is critical to building a strong immune system, as the body needs something to fight against in order to build its army. Overuse of antibacterial soaps, pasteurized products and antibiotics has led to a sicker and more allergic population, as the body has not had the opportunity to build its antibodies.

So, the question becomes – do you have enough bugs in your gut, and are they the right kind? Were you ever on antibiotics? If so, they killed all the bacteria in your gut, so if you did not actively replace them, probably not.

In today’s world of processed, denatured, sugar and chemically laden food that came from dead soil, most people have a bacteria population in their gut that is 85% "bad" bacteria and only 15% "good" bacteria, and the ratio should be the other way around.

Good bacteria are killed off by the chlorine and fluoride in the water we drink, caffeine, birth control pills and other drugs, stress, food additives, and too many bad bacteria that compete in the gut for food and a place to live. No wonder so many people have irritable bowel syndrome or other problems that stem from an inability to detoxify themselves.

Many people are carrying around with them several pounds of dead, rotting fecal matter in their intestinal tract, which creates a potential for self-poisoning and disease. Symptoms of poor quality bacteria in the gut is an inability to lose weight, carbohydrate cravings, recurrent candida or yeast problems, frequent constipation or diarrhea, digestion or acid reflux problems, joint pain and stiffness, frequent colds or flu, skin problems like acne or eczema for example.

So, how do we re-establish good-quality bacteria in our gut? We can start by eating living, whole organic food grown in live soil, eating more high quality fermented foods, and by filtering our water so we are not drinking chlorine.

Most importantly, take a quality probiotic supplement daily in order to repopulate the gut quickly with good bacteria. I like Primal Defense by Garden of Life, and I have just been made aware of InLiven by MiVitality which also looks really good, although I have not yet personally tried that one.

A good probiotic is a detox program, so start slowly in case you have detoxification reactions like not feeling well, headaches, or a need to be close to the bathroom. If you are reacting, cut your dosage or skip a day until you feel better. Most people don’t react negatively at all however. Build up your dosage to the recommended levels over time as your body cleans itself out and you feel better and better.

Chek, Paul Under the Veil of Deception 2002
Abbott, Phyllis, PhD Bacteria in Control of Life, Death and Evolution? Authorhouse, Bloomington Indiana, 2006.
Online at Bacteria
CD MiVitality Organic & Natural Enterprise Group, 2004.

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Exercise, the autonomic nervous system and fat loss

March 4, 2007 at 10:33 pm · Filed under Exercise

Many people think that in order to become healthy they must lose some weight. Actually the opposite is true. In order to lose weight, one must become healthy. The truth of the second statement can be seen in gyms everywhere, where people honestly do put in their exercise time and eat a diet of rabbit food, and still despite all their efforts, the fat does not budge, or not to the point expected for the effort put in. The frustration in these people is palpable. Their trainers that are giving them killer workouts are also frustrated. What is going on?

For the answer, we must understand how the autonomic nervous system (ANS) works. This is what runs our body behind the scenes, not under our conscious control. The ANS regulates our heart-rate, our respiration, our immune system, our temperature control, our organ function, our hormones etc., all in the background while we carry on with our life. There are three parts to the ANS – the sympathetic system, the parasympathetic system and the enteric system. For our purposes today, we will discuss the sympathetic, otherwise known as the "fight or flight" system, and parasympathetic or "rest and repair" system and their interaction.

The SNS and the PNS generally have opposite functions – when we are under stress, the sympathetic system raises our heart-rate, increases our respiratory rate, releases cortisol, our stress hormone to help us cope, shunts the blood from the digestive tract into the muscles so that we can either run away from or fight whatever is threatening us. If organ systems in the body are unhealthy and therefore stressed for one reason or another, or we are mentally or emotionally stressed, that increases sympathetic load as well. The sympathetic system by its very nature is catabolic, meaning it breaks down muscle tissue due to the increased levels of cortisol secreted. High-intensity physical exercise is also sympathetic in nature – the heart-rate goes up, respiration goes up, body temperature goes up, and cortisol is released into the blood stream. I have explained in previous tips how cortisol turns blood sugar into fat. (No, I’m not saying exercise is bad!) When the threat is dealt with, the parasympathetic system slows our heart-rate and respiration back down, brings the blood back to the digestive tract so that we can digest our food, and works to repair any tissue damage, increases libido etc. Night time is when the parasympathetic system has lots of time to do its job, provided we go to bed early enough. The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems should balance each other nicely, and in those people that have a balanced nervous system, high- intensity exercise will lead to fat loss, as the parasympathetic rest-time between workouts is when muscle tissue is built.

Those that are unable to lose fat by doing regular high-intensity exercise may have a dominant sympathetic nervous system, and consequently, an inhibited parasympathetic system. There is too much systemic stress coming from somewhere, and for those people adding high-intensity exercise is counterproductive, as it adds to their sympathetic load pushing them even more out of balance. Anxiety is very common today, frequently based in financial stressors, poor or inappropriate diet and its consequences, and/or poor relationship stressors, but one does not need to be anxious to be in sympathetic overload. In my tip on dealing with health issues, I give a roadmap on an
approach to reducing sympathetic load. Anything that can be done to reduce the stressors is important for successful fat loss (and pain reduction). As for exercise, yes, it should be done several times a week, but choose exercise like Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Yoga, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, etc., or any exercise that is done slowly and with the breath, which will increase the parasympathetic system and help balance the ANS. Later, when the body is in balance and healthier, the fat will come off. The information in today’s tip is a summary of Paul Chek’s article Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System, so feel free to read the original, more detailed article. If you want to know if you are in sympathetic overload, which organ and glandular systems are stressed, and figure out what to do about it, find a Holistic Lifestyle Consultant near you, or reply to this email if you would like me to work with you.

Chek, Paul Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System 2006

www.wellnesstips.ca

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