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Blaming our cell phones, electronic gadgets, and transmission towers for the mass decline in the bee population seems unbelievable, but that is indeed what some scientists are proposing. Apparently bees are particularly sensitive to electric fields – they carry an electrical charge naturally. Is it possible we've hit a tipping point with respect to the amount of electric fields in the atmosphere, and now the bees are dying out? The stats are astounding – 60% of commercial bees in western North America, 70% in eastern North America, and colony collapse has also been reported in Germany, Spain, Greece, England, Switzerland and Italy. Beekeepers say that the bees leave the colony and simply don't return. There is no doubt about the decline in the bee populations – the question that needs to be answered very urgently is why? Other theories include GMO foods, pesticide and herbicide use, some kind of mite or parasite, a disease, among others.  The problem is difficult to solve, as there do not appear to be any dead bees to study.

Albert Einstein supposedly suggested (no way to be sure if this is true!) that if the bees disappear, humankind has only about 4 or 5 years left, because bees are responsible for over 80% of the pollination of the plants. Once the plants are no longer viable, we've lost our food supply. Hopefully Einstein is wrong, and we have enough other pollinators to do the job should the bees not survive.

If we find out that electric fields are indeed what is causing the collapse of the world's bees, would you be willing to give up your electronic gadgets in order to be able to eat? How likely is it that transmission towers would be dismantled if it became clear that our lives depended on it, considering how slowly governments / companies / individuals are moving on climate change?

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Did you know that the reason your gut may be roiling may be due in large part to stress? Whether it is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or simply a stomach ache before you are about to give that really important speech, stress may be playing a significant role.

If you’ve been following along on this mini stress-series over the last couple of weeks, you probably can figure out exactly how stress can upset your gut, right?

If you are hiking in the woods, you round a corner and come face-to-face with a grizzly bear, your body is not going to prioritize digestion at this moment. Instead, it’s going to go "Oh sh*#t" – quite literally!  If you were given enough of a fright, you probably will soil yourself to immediately get rid of anything in your digestive tract.

It’s harder to run on a full stomach, so your body thinks it’s doing you a favour! Suddenly all the blood leaves your gut and floods your muscles so you can better use them. Perfect response for a dire situation.

(Running is about the last thing one should do if you chance upon a grizzly bear, as you can’t out run them, and if you run, they are very likely to chase. I think you are supposed to slowly back away, and be very sure you are not getting between a mom and her cub!  Please research this topic on your own, if you are going into bear country.)

Back to stress. If your body is chronically stressed for whatever reason, (the stress bucket runneth over), be it emotional, work or relationship stress, financial stress, chronic pain or disease, chronically poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, inadequate or too much exercise, a fungus or parasite problem, chemical or heavy metal toxicity, or any combination of the above, your parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and repair system that is in charge of digestion is turned down, and your sympathetic system (fight or flight) system is turned up. 

This means that blood is diverted away from the gut, and if this happens chronically, the body has a very hard time digesting food.  This leads to poor absorption of nutrition, and a very unhappy stomach, intestine and colon.

Stress, as shown in the example above, also can affect intestinal motility, in some showing up as the runs, often in anticipation of a big event, and in others as constipation if there is poor coordination between the small and large intestine.

Ulcers have been linked to stress for a long time, and when it was proposed that ulcers were actually caused by the bacteria H. Pylori, the theory was received with skepticism, until it was proven in subsequent studies.

However there is no question that it is the interaction between stress and the bacteria that causes the ulcers, rather than the bacteria or the stress alone. A little bit of stress and a lot of bacteria can result in stomach ulcers, as can a really major stressor and a very little bit of bacteria.

The interaction that creates the ulcer is poorly understood, one theory being that stress causes a reduction hydrochloric acid secretion, and in turn a reduction in the bicarbonate mucus that coats the stomach wall protecting the stomach walls from the acid. H. Pylori also reduces the stomach mucus. 

At the end of the stressful event, the parasympathetic system ramps up again, digestion is prioritized, more hydrochloric acid is secreted, the inadequate mucus coating is overwhelmed, and the acid eats through the stomach wall giving you an ulcer. Ironically, a reduction in HCl production may create acid reflux type symptoms, so antacids which further reduce HCl don’t resolve the cause of the problem.

To test this, squeeze a lemon or pour a cap full of raw apple cidre vinegar into a small amount of water and drink before a meal, and see if this reduces heart burn symptoms. If so, your heartburn may be as a result of too little HCl as opposed to too much, and HCl tablets with meals may be helpful. If the symptoms become worse, then you may actually have too much HCl, although this is rarely the case.

So, poke some holes in the stress bucket, and bring the chronic stress levels down. My sense is that most stress these days is caused by unresolved emotional issues, so dealing with that aspect is critical.

Learn to reframe problems as opportunities, get professional help from psychologists, psychiatrists or councilors, learn EFT (emotional freedom technique) or NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) – whatever method can work for you to help you deal with emotional stuff. 

Baby yourself with great quality food, play a lot, listen to soothing music, breathe, meditate, do some art work, go for a walk along the beach, enjoy your friends and family, and then go to bed and sleep, sleep, sleep.  For any digestive issue, repopulating the gut with good bacteria through quality probiotics is essential.

Related tips:
Acute vs. Chronic Stress
The autonomic nervous system and fat loss
Dealing with health issues
Learn to let go

Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! Chek Institute, San Diego, CA, 2004.
Sapolsky, Robert M. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: An updated guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping WH Freeman and Company, New York, 1998

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

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We’ve all heard how stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease – how does this happen?

When under stress, our body thinks it needs to save your life, so it does what it can to make it easy for us to run or fight. Therefore we need oxygenated blood to get to our muscles quickly.

Our sympathetic nervous system fires up increasing our breathing rate and heart rate, and releases hormones that constrict the blood vessels so that there is more pressure in the system which helps deliver the blood quickly to the muscles that need it.

If the stress is chronic, because of the extra work and forces being put through the system, the heart and vessels wear out faster than they would if the stress were not chronic, just as high-pressure hoses and pumps wear out faster than ones that are not subjected to high pressures.

The areas in our blood vessels that are the most vulnerable to injury from a mechanical perspective are the junctures where the blood vessels bifurcate into smaller vessels due to the blood slamming into those junctions causing turbulence, and eventually causing tearing and pitting in the smooth lining of the vessels.

Another part of the stress response is the secretion of glucocorticoids like glucagon and cortisol, which release sugar into the blood stream to provide instant fuel to the muscles in order to save you.

However, if the stress is chronic, and high blood-sugar levels become the norm, there is more potential for glycation where the glucose molecules bind with protein molecules, the first stage in developing Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs), which also damage the lining of the blood vessels, adding to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

(Chronic high intake of sugar and flour products also leads to AGEs, and therefore blood vessel damage, which is why these foods are linked to cardiovascular disease).

Now the body needs to try and repair the damage to the vessels, as well as shore up the vulnerable areas for the future. So cholesterol is dispatched to the area to repair the tisse, and it works its way underneath the smooth lining, thickening it.

In addition to this, because now the surface of the vessel walls are roughened due to tears or pits in the lining, platelets, our blood clotting cells, are more likely to clump there.

Over time, between the thickened lining and the clumps stuck in the area, the vessel walls harden and the opening becomes narrower, and we are diagnosed with atherosclerosis.

The impact of the thickened vessels depends on where they are located. If they are in our legs, we may get claudication, or a blockage in the arteries in our legs. If the thickening is in the arteries of the heart, we get heart disease, and if the thickening is in the vessels leading to the brain, we may become a candidate for a stroke.

Ways to reduce stress include meditation, breathing exercises, parasympathetic exercise like yoga, Feldenkrais, Alexander technique, tai chi or qi gong.

Other ideas include spending time in nature, connecting and laughing with good friends, living in the present moment, writing a list of at least 20 things we are grateful for and repeating this exercise each day.

Putting our problems in perspective, realizing that there is no point stressing over stuff we have no control over, finding the courage to change stressful situations that we do have control over, simplifying one’s life, and enjoying time doing absolutely nothing can be worthwhile skills to develop.

If you would like help addressing stress issues, feel free to contact me.

Related tips:
Acute vs. Chronic Stress
High cholesterol does not cause heart disease
The autonomic nervous system and fat loss
Mind and body; psyche and soma
Learn to let go

Sapolsky, Robert M. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Third Edition WH Freeman and Company, New York, 1998

Katie, Byron Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life Three Rivers Press, New York NY, 2002.

Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! Chek Institute, San Diego, CA, 2004.

Pert, Candace PhD, Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine Scribner, New York, NY, 1997.

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

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Pain is the number one reason people go to their doctors, and pain is usually the result of inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury or infection, resulting in redness, swelling, warmth, frequently pain, and loss of function.

Inflammation is vital to the healing process of the injured tissue, as the circulatory system and immune system deliver what is necessary to the damaged site to fight infection and repair injured tissues. Controlling swelling at the time of an acute injury can do much to reduce pain, and the easiest ways to do this is to RICE – Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.

Rest the injured tissue, ice it, put some compression on it by using a clean gauze pad and applying some pressure, and elevate the injured tissue above the heart. However, once the threat of infection is over, the inflammation response should stop by itself.

Chronic or systemic inflammation is an inflammatory immune response of prolonged duration that can last weeks, months or years, causing tissue damage, and is therefore a whole other issue entirely. Testing for C-reactive protein (CRP) is useful as a blood marker for inflammation, as it is commonly elevated in those that have various chronic inflammatory conditions.

Chronic inflammatory conditions are therefore systemic rather than local in nature, and it is possible that biochemical individuality may determine what kinds of tissues are affected in a particular individual. It is worth noting that primitive cultures that ate their traditional diet without consuming any "white man’s food", did not seem to suffer from chronic inflammatory diseases.

Tuberculosis became a problem only when they began eating white sugar, white flour products, canned vegetables and vegetable oil products. For more on this, read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price.

Many disease states are as a result of chronic inflammation, such as rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and tuberculosis for example. Chronic inflammation frequently results in chronic pain.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) are the number 1 over-the-counter drugs sold for inflammation and pain, but they are only a band-aid solution – they do reduce inflammation, but they don’t get at the cause of what is creating the inflammation in the first place. Therefore, rather than resolving the condition, the condition is being "managed".

Not only that, but NSAIDs are known to result in many adverse gastrointestinal issues including ulcers, GI bleeding, anemia, renal damage, and impaired wound healing. There are more deaths due to NSAID use than AIDS annually.

Generally our current diets are HIGHLY inflammatory, so it is no wonder inflammatory diseases are so prevalent. What would an anti-inflammatory diet consist of? Eat no refined polyunsaturated vegetable oils (omega 6 fatty acids promote the Cox 2 pathway, which equals inflammation – why take Cox 2 inhibitors when you can encourage the Cox 1 anti-inflammatory pathway through diet?).

Consume low-mercury fish and shellfish frequently, or take up to 4000mg of omega 3 fish oils a day. Make sure you eat some quality saturated fat (pasture-fed butter, whole milk or cream, eggs, meat or poultry) so that you can actually utilize the omega 3 fatty acids that you consume, and so you get adequate amounts of vitamin A.

Green leafy vegetables are frequently high in magnesium, which may help to relax muscles. Get yourself metabolically typed so you know what ratio of fats, proteins and carbohydrates you should be consuming. Sugar, and refined flour products are highly inflammatory because of the glycation they cause, and should be avoided at all costs.

Avoid caffeine. Another cause of inflammation are the toxins found in processed food, such as MSG, textured vegetable protein, soy lecithin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, pesticides, colourings, flavourings etc.

After getting your vitamin D levels checked and if you are low, spend some time in the sun without sunscreen, so that your body can synthesize vitamin D. Sunblock also blocks vitamin D production, and low vitamin D levels are associated with inflammation. Do NOT let yourself burn however, as sunburns raise your risk of skin cancer.

Getting adequate dark time each night increases melatonin levels which reduces inflammation, as melatonin is a free-radical scavenger.

There may be some deeper seated causal issues as to why someone may be suffering from chronic inflammation, including adrenal fatigue, food sensitivities, candida albicans, parasites, mold, and/or heavy metal toxicity which may need to be explored if improving diet, sun exposure and dark time don’t work.

If, while searching for the cause of your chronic inflammation issues, you want some symptom relief without resorting to pharmaceutical drugs, try using tumeric and ginger.  Both these spices are natural Cox 2 inhibitors. The herb bosweilla, although not a Cox 2 inhibitor, also has anti-inflammatory properties.

Kava Kava has muscle relaxation properties, and can be especially beneficial when mixed with magnesium. Proteolytic enzymes containing enteric-coated trypsin and chymotrypsin combined with bioflavinoids and vitamin C seem to work as well as NSAIDs at controlling pain and swelling, as long as there is no underlying irritation in the GI tract.

Related tips:
Dealing with health issues
Essential Fats: Omega 3 to Omega 6 Ratio
Sugar – the disease generator
Processed food is taking over our supermarkets
Adrenal Fatigue

Chek, Paul, Oliver, Clifford, Remsen, Julie, Optimum Health and Fitness Through Practical Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaching Chek Institute, 2002.
Online at Inflammation – Wikipedia
Online at Chronic Inflammation – Wikipedia
Fries, JF NSAID gastropathy: the second most deadly rheumatic disease? Epidemioloy and risk appraisal. J. Rheumatol. 1991, Suppl 28, 18:6-10
Bjarnason I et al. Intestinal permeability and inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis: effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs Lancet 1984:2(8413): 1171-1174.
Anjelkovic, Z
Disease modifying and immunomodulatory effects of high dose 1 alpha (OH) D3 in rheumatoid arthritis patients Clin Exp Rheumatol. 1999 Jul-Aug;17(4):453-6
Timms PM et al. Circulating MMP9, vitamin D and variation in the TIMP-1 response with VDR genotype: mechanisms for inflammatory damage in chronic disorders? QMJ 2002; 95: No. 12, 787-796.
Van den Berghe, G. et al. Bone turnover in prolonged critical illness: effect of vitamin D The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 88, No. 10 4623-4632, 2003. (This study shows how vitamin D can lower CRP markers)
Reiter R, et al. Melatonin and its relation to the immune system and inflammation Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 917:376-386, 2000.
Ammon HPT et al. Mechanism of anti-inflammatory actions of curcumin and bosweillic acids J. of Ethnopharmacol. 1993:38:113-119.
Backon J. Ginger: Inhibition of thromboxane synthetase and stimulation of prostacyclin: Relevance for medicine and psychiatry Med Hyp 1986; 20:271-8.
Fernandez ML et al. Anti-inflammatory activity and inhibition of arachidonic acid metabolism by flavonoids Agents Actions 1991: 32(3-4: 283-8.
Tarayre JP et al. Advantages of combinations of proteolytic enzymes, flavonoids and ascorbic acid in comparison with non-steriodal anti-inflammatory agents Drug Res. 1977; 27(6): 1144-1149.

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

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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.

Related tips:
How hormones, neurotransmitters and steroids work
The soy controversy
Plastic waterbottles
Blood-sugar regulation
Saturated fat – the misunderstood nutrient

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.

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

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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.

Related tips:
High cholesterol does not cause heart disease
Saturated Fat: the misunderstood nutrient
Water, our critical solvent
Deceptive Food Labeling
Sugar, the disease generator
Fats – the good, the bad, and the ugly
Heart-rate training

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.

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

Say you are not quite feeling right – nothing major, but perhaps you are feeling tired a lot, or maybe you get frequent headaches or stomach aches. You just don’t feel as well as you think you should. You have been to the doctor, and all the tests came back clean. What do you do then? Accept that you don’t feel good?

Presuming you have been following the basic guidelines provided in these tips – drinking adequate water, eating quality real food, avoiding processed food, sugar, flour, transfats, refined vegetable oils, exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep and dark time etc., what more can you do? 

Most likely your body is suffering from some kind of stress response, and finding and treating the root cause of that stress will bring you back towards homeostasis and feeling great.  Even if you are dealing with very serious health issues, it would be well worth your time to consider the following:

• If you suffer from digestive issues (and even if not), I would suggest taking a quality probiotic in order to implant good-quality bacteria into the gut which is necessary for digestion.  Antibiotics kill all the bacteria in the gut including the good ones, so taking probiotics after a round of antibiotics is critical to maintaining digestive health.  I find it interesting that physicians rarely suggest this after giving out a prescription for antibiotics.  Eating a poor diet of processed food gradually replaces the good bacteria with bad, also making it challenging to digest one’s food properly.  Generally speaking, I am not one to promote a lot of supplements, but I do think that this is important for almost all of us.  Primal Defense by Garden of Life is the best probiotic I’m aware of.  Remember that a healthy gut is important for a healthy immune system.
• Get yourself tested for food sensitivities and avoid those foods. You may feel better quite quickly after eliminating the offending foods, and after 3 months get yourself retested. Frequently when exposure is eliminated for a period of time, the gut can heal, and you can re-introduce those foods. Not always though. Some food allergies require lifetime avoidance. Food-sensitivity testing is a no-brainer for any digestive issues, although the symptoms caused by food sensitivities can go far beyond the digestive tract.  Very few physicians do this kind of testing, but almost all Naturopathic physicians do it.  I had a gut problem since about age 6 – medical test after test came back clean, and my doctors were telling me everything was fine.  ‘But doctor, my stomach hurts! How can there be nothing wrong?" Finally a friend suggested food-sensitivity testing, and my daily stomach aches ended.
• Get yourself tested for pathogens like mold, parasites, fungus, bacteria like H. Pylori, heavy metals.  These pathogens can cause a variety of low-grade symptoms and are frequently at the root of a wide variety of health issues. They can make you quite sick, too. Ask your doctor what testing they can do, or see your Naturopath. If you have trouble finding someone who can do this kind of testing for you, Biohealth in San Diego can test you and assign a doctor to you.
• Eat right for your metabolic type. Even if you are eating healthy foods, if you are not consuming them in the ratios needed for the optional functioning of your own biochemistry, you won’t feel at your best. Look here to find a metabolic-typing advisor near you.
• If your main complaint is fatigue related, I would get the circadian rhythms of your hormones tested. Saliva testing is usually how this is done – you spit into a test-tube 4 different times in one day, and the various hormones levels are plotted over the course of the day. Much about how your body is functioning can be learned from this kind of testing. For example, normally cortisol levels are low in the evening, but if they are high, that indicates a chronic stress response, which may lead to future disease. If the problem can be corrected at this stage, diseases can be avoided. Biohealth also does this testing.
• Neurotransmitter testing may be helpful as well, as these brain chemicals need to be at the optimal levels and in proper balance with each other to feel healthy and happy. Neurotransmitter imbalance creates a wide variety of symptoms, from depression to sleep issues to ADD ADHD to carbohydrate and sugar cravings. Currently, Neurogistics.com is the only company that I am aware of that does this kind of work. Having personally gone through their program, I must say that it helped my sleep significantly.
• Find a way that works for you to deal with the emotional stressors in your life.  ANYTHING you can do to reduce the stress on you and your body will help.

Related tips:
Food sensitivities, digestive problems and joint pain
It is not what you eat but what you digest that counts
Adrenal Fatigue
Customized Nutrition

Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!  Chek Institute, San Diego, CA, 2004.
Woeller, K. & Timmins, W. Resolving Chronic Stress Disorders Biohealth Diagnostics Seminar Handout 2006

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Well, the UN report on Global Warming was just released in Paris on Friday, and the scientists say that there is a 90% chance that human activity is causing climate change. As David Suzuki said in a radio interview the other day, we all buy insurance to protect us in case of injury, fire or burglary and the chances of those things happening are usually far less than 90%! So the time for debate is over. Global warming is a reality, and we must do something about it now in order to preserve a bright future for the next generations. If you have not yet viewed Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, buy it or rent it and learn what the world will look like when the ocean rises to the extent predicted, and how many coastal cities will be partially or completely under water. Three of the biggest causes of global warming are the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and intensive agricultural practices, which have big impacts on our personal health as well, and as a global community we must learn to live differently.

So, what can we as individuals do? Lots. So let’s get to it!

• We can choose not to support industrial agriculture and factory farming. 
  We can support sustainable farming by buying organic produce, free-range
  eggs and chicken, and pasture-fed meats and dairy.
• We can buy local whenever possible so less fossil fuels are used to
  transport our food and goods.
• We can choose not to eat red meat at least one day a week.
• We can choose products with as little packaging as possible.
• We can bring our own bags when we shop.
• We can walk, bike or use rapid transit rather than drive whenever
  possible.
• We can get rid of the car and join a car coop for those occasions when a
  car is really really necessary.
• We can convert our car to run on bio-diesel, or possibly purchase a
  hybrid.
• We can make sure our tires are properly inflated – under-inflated tires
  waste gas.
• We can turn off the car rather than idle it.
• We can check the air filter on the car monthly and replace it when
  necessary.
• We can buy carbon credits to offset the emissions caused by driving and
  flying from Terrapass or Native
  Energy.  It is extremely affordable so let’s do it!
• We can turn out the lights when leaving the room.
• We can caulk and weather-strip the doors and windows, and ensure the
  walls and ceilings are insulated.
• We can turn down the thermostat.
• We can exchange the light bulbs for energy-efficient ones.
• We can unplug electronics and battery chargers when not in use.
• We can choose energy-efficient home appliances.
• We can run the dishwasher only when it is full.
• We can keep our shower time short.
• We can install a low-flow showerhead and toilet.
• We can use cold or warm rather than hot water to wash our clothing.
• We can use a clothesline to dry our clothes instead of a dryer.
• We can donate old clothing rather than throwing them out.
• We can use 100% recycled paper, and not print a copy of everything.
• We can reduce, re-use and recycle, and compost our food waste.
• We can plant a tree.  Or two.  Or a hundred.
• We can tell our government representative that global warming is the
  most important issue there is, and demand government action.
• We can encourage our friends and family to do the above as well!

Related tips:
Choose local and save the world!
Worm composting to eat your garbage and feed your garden
Clean water for streams by Karen Munro M. Sc. Environmental Scientist
Urban growth and affects on streams by Karen Munro M. Sc. Environmental Scientist

Online at cbc.ca Paris report calls climate change “unequivocal”
Online at David Suzuki.org
Online at Take the Green Challenge

www.wellnesstips.ca

Over the last few years I have done a lot of studying in order to learn as much as I can about how we as human beings function best and can be at our healthiest, in mind, body and spirit.

I have looked in many diverse directions, taken several courses, and read a multitude of books and studies on all kinds of topics related to all aspects of human health and wellbeing. I have tried to resolve the conflicts in the research that I have found, and have come to conclusions that make the most sense to me.

I am not a doctor nor a scientist, and don’t pretend to be, but I think that conventional medicine’s paradigm of “treating disease” is problematic, because a great deal of the medical research and the evidence-based medicine resulting from that research relies on a premise that is I think might be flawed.

Once the premise is corrected, I feel certain that research will become much more conclusive. Currently it seems that all too frequently, for some people a particular medical treatment works well, for others there isn’t much change, and for a third group that same treatment makes them feel worse.

Usually the way research works is a specific hypothesis is tested on a group of subjects and compared to a control group in order to assess the validity of the hypothesis. The assumption is that the subjects in the study are homogenous in nature – that the anatomy, physiology and biochemical processes are identical mouse to mouse or person to person.

Nothing could be further from the truth! We clearly look very different from each other and we have different personalities as well. And if we study our insides, we vary enormously.

Anatomy books like Frank Netter’s have pages that show variations in organ shape and size, variations in renal arteries and veins, variations in the hepatic portal vein, variations in the arteries of the colon, variations in the pancreatic ducts etc. These variations may have an impact on function and on health.

For example, there are many variations as to where the bile and pancreatic ducts enter the duodenum – in some people the ducts converge into a single duct mixing their juices before entering the duodenum. Gallstones stuck in the common duct may be particularly problematic in this variation.

If someone, anatomically speaking, happens to have narrow arteries, they would be more susceptible to heart disease.

More important to the question of drug efficacy and optimal nutrition are the wide differences biochemically between study subjects even if they belong to the same race, and these are the differences that I think are not considered in most research, and the reason why frequently the results are unconvincing with respect to treating disease.

For example, in the average healthy male, the venous platelet count can apparently vary from 150,000 to 690,000 per cu mm. Some types of blood cells are very common in some individuals and are almost absent in others. Acetylcholine levels vary 16 fold in healthy individuals, histamine 4 fold, pyruvic acid 5 fold, urea 4 fold. Pepsin and hydrochloric acid are two extremely important gastric juices, and in a study that looked at 5000 apparently healthy individuals, the amount of pepsin varied from 0 to 4300 units after a test meal! Imagine if they had looked at people with gastrointestinal problems!

Minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium in the gastric juices of healthy individuals vary about 4 fold as well. There are large variations in enzymes, hormones, amino acids, vitamins between healthy people, and saliva and excretion patterns vary widely as well.

These biochemical variations result in different metabolic pathways being dominant in different people, meaning that a particular nutrient or drug may have opposite biochemical influences in two individuals with different dominances.

Taking it a step further, any adverse symptom or disease can then be the result of opposite biochemical imbalances depending on the metabolism of the individual. Does it not become obvious that with such extreme variation person to person, that basing research on the assumption that we are the same is going to lead to inconclusive or faulty results?

To confuse matters further, there are circadian and seasonal rhythms to many of the hormones and enzymes etc., so one-time tests are often of little value.

Understanding the normal rhythm of the hormone being tested, and then testing the individual frequently enough to see whether the rhythm is off may be the only way to surmise if there is a problem.

Does that mean that research to improve human health is futile? Not at all. We need to use and expand the body of research on biochemical differences, and do research on groups of people that are the most similar biochemically.

Thankfully this wheel does not need to be re-invented, as metabolic classifications involving the interaction between the autonomic nervous system, the oxidative system and the endocrine system have been used with great success in the field of nutrition.

I would bet that if heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other disease research were done on each homogenous metabolic type, far more conclusive answers would appear, and suddenly the medical paradigm would shift from treating the disease to treating the individual based upon the biochemistry of the individual.

Please read through the case studies in the middle of the document to see how this can work; how understanding which functional homeostatic controls were dominant in each individual formed the basis for treating the individual metabolic imbalances, and how different treatments were used resulting in the resolution of such diverse symptoms as high cholesterol, digestive problems, allergies, poor memory, low energy, fibromyalgia, and even cancer.  Note that the symptoms / disease were never treated specifically, as such an effort would be futile considering the wide variety of biochemical imbalances that may manifest them.

Related tips:
Customized nutrition
How hormones, neurotransmitters and steroids work

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About a month ago I heard about surprising new research published in Cell out of the University of Toronto which suggested that the cause of Type 1 Diabetes may actually be inflammation to the sensory neurons that innervate the islet cells of the pancreas.  Previous to this research it was believed that Type 1 Diabetes wasan autoimmune problem where the T cells killed the pancreatic β cells causing an inability to manufacture insulin. However, when the inflamed neurons were removed using capsaicin, an anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory peptide found in hot chili peppers, Type 1 Diabetes in mice was reversed, despite the persistent pools of T-cells.  According to this research, it seems that the inflamed neurons (TRPV1  primary afferent neurons) are responsible for the proliferation of T-cells and the islet cell stress, and therefore, Type 1 diabetes, so the disease is neurological in nature as opposed to an endocrine or autoimmune problem as previously believed. Talk about a revolution in how to view this disease!  The question now becomes, "why are those nerves inflamed"?  If science can answer that question, perhaps we will uncover the root cause of the problem.  Although it is far too early to talk about a cure for Type 1 diabetes any time soon, one can be hopeful that progress is being made to that end, as the researchers were able to cure mice of the disease.  The association between capsaicin and reducing blood sugar was first noticed in a study done in dogs in 2001, where the researchers found that capsaicin seemed to increase insulin sensitivity.

Diabetes is a disease that results in elevated blood-sugar levels, although the reason for the poor blood-sugar control is different in Type 1 versus Type 2.  Insulin is the hormone that aids in the transport of sugar into the cells to be used as fuel. In Type 2 Diabetes, the pancreas manufactures insulin, but the insulin receptors on the surfaces of the cells of the body become resistant, effectively closing the door to insulin thereby preventing sugar from leaving the bloodstream and entering the cells. Currently the most effective way to manage Type 2 diabetes is to reduce the consumption of sugar, flour products, fruit juices, and high glycemic fruit and starchy vegetables, as having excessive sugar in the blood creates and environment where glycation (a sugar molecule haphazardly binding to a protein or lipid) is more likely to occur, which damages the arterial walls and increases the risk of heart disease.  In Type 1 Diabetes, the pancreas is unable to manufacture insulin, so the diabetic must inject insulin in order to manage the disease. Type 1 diabetics spend their life doing a careful dance between the timing of insulin injections, the timing of eating, and choosing the right foods in order to try to keep their blood sugar from swinging from high to low and back again.  Diabetic or not, maintaining even blood-sugar levels is one of the most important elements to maintaining good health.

The above research does not suggest that consuming high amounts of hot chili peppers will help control diabetes.  I did a very cursory search for epidemiological data regarding ethnicity and diabetes and found nothing to support the notion that people from countries that are more likely to eat more hot chili peppers have less diabetes. It makes more sense to suggest that at least with regard to Type 2 Diabetes, individual differences in personal biochemistry make some people much more susceptible to the disease, and those that are particularly sensitive to sugar such as fast oxidizers for example, need to be very careful with respect to the kinds of food they consume in order to mitigate their risk.

Related tips:
Blood-sugar regulation
Sugar – The disease generator
How hormones, neurotransmitters and steroids work

Rasavi, R et al. TRPV1+ Sensory Neurons Control β Cell Stress and Islet Inflammation in Autoimmune Diabetes Cell Vol 127, 1123-1135, 15 December 2006.

Phytotherapy Research August 15:391-394; 2001

Basta G et al. Advanced glycation end products and vascular inflammation: implications for accelerated atherosclerosis in diabetes Cardiovasc Res. 2004 Sep 1;63(4):582-92.

Pamplona, R., et al. Mechanisms of Glycation in Atherogenesis Medical Hypotheses, 40(3)174-181, 1993

Vaccaro O., Ruth, K. J. and Stamler J. Relationship of Postload Plasma Glucose to Mortality with 19 yr Follow up Diabetes Care Oct. 15, 10:328-334, 1992.

Tominaga, M., et al, Impaired Glucose Tolerance Is a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease, but Not Fasting Glucose Diabetes Care 2(6):920-924, 1992

Copyright 2007 Vreni Gurd