Reverse Disease with 5 Health Strategies

Life is a journey and for most of us health is an important part of that journey, because if you have health challenges your ability to manifest your passions will be seriously impaired. The more I study natural medicine, the more it becomes clear to me that the solution for most illness involves some fairly basic concepts. If you apply these principles early enough with most illnesses you will activate your body's healing response and recover from your illness. In my experience most people who have just started investigating the power of natural medicine fail to comprehensively integrate all of these principles and reap the powerful synergistic benefits they can provide. 1) Safely Access Sun Exposure as Much as Possible - There are many benefits of sun exposure. The UVB in the sun will help your body produce vitamin D, and optimal levels are crucial to prevent diseases like obesity, heart disease, arthritis, asthma, Alzheimer's, and dozens of other diseases. Also, and this is important, if you have cancer or an autoimmune disease like MS, Crohn's, or rheumatoid arthritis, it is absolutely vital to raise your vitamin D to an optimal biological level. Regular sun exposure not only provides UVB but over 1500 wavelengths and we most likely will not fully appreciate the value of regular exposure to many of these wavelengths for hundreds of years. Many people are confused about sun exposure, and don't understand that to reap the benefits they need a significant amount of skin exposed to the sun for their skin to stimulate vitamin D production. Even if you live in a sunny climate during the summer, it is the rare individual that is getting adequate sun exposure. This is typically due to the simple fact that most people have responsibilities during the work week that keeps them indoors, out of the sun. Remember that 15 to 30 minutes of eating outside with almost all of your skin covered, is not going to give you healthy vitamin D levels. The time necessary varies based on your age, weight (as fat tissue sucks up vitamin D), skin color, season, latitude, altitude, cloud cover, and time of day. The range can be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. The only way to know for sure is to make sure you never get burnt and to measure your vitamin D blood levels. 2) Drink Clean Water, Free of Toxins - Remember that most municipal water supplies are contaminated with chlorine and fluoride. It is relatively easy to remove chlorine and disinfection byproducts with high quality carbon filters. My favorite is the whole house water filter. The large filters are good for 5 to 10 years but the prefilters need to be changed every month or two. However carbon filters don't remove fluoride very well, so reverse osmosis or distillers are the best option. My favorite is reverse osmosis (RO) as they don't damage the water as much. The downside of RO filters is most have a holding tank that invariably becomes contaminated and needs to be regularly disinfected with chlorine, which is a maintenance hassle. 3) Eat Real Food - Getting proper nutrition is an important step in healing just about any disease. For some diseases, like type 2 diabetes, it will cure virtually every case. It will also prevent and treat most heart disease, cancers, and Alzheimer's. The key is removing the insulin resistance with diet and exercise. So what is the common thread that runs through these diseases? If you are a long time reader you probably know that the answer is insulin resistance. Resolve insulin resistance and you no longer have type 2 diabetes, and you dramatically reduce if not eliminate your risk of cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's. The simple key is to EAT REAL FOOD. Ideally growing it yourself is best. Next best is locally grown and organic. But if you can't do this for whatever reason, you still need to eat vegetables. Even non-organic ones are better than no vegetables at all. Avoid most processed foods, and especially sugars and processed grains, or even worse, heated oils. I am not sure which is worse, processed sugar or fats, but the key is to avoid both. That means industrialized polyunsaturated oils in a bottle, like corn or canola oil. Saturated fats like coconut oil are fine, as are olive oil, butter, avocado, and nuts (especially macadamia and pecans). But how do you know if you have insulin resistance? Simple: if you are overweight, have diabetes, high blood pressure, or taking a statin, you likely have it, but to know for sure, have a fasting blood insulin level test. If it's over 5 you're insulin resistant. The most powerful strategy I have ever encountered is to replicate our ancestral eating patterns. Remember, your ancient ancestors never had access to food 24/7 so it makes perfect sense that your genes and metabolism are optimized for regular periods where you don't eat. The key is to restrict your calories to a 6 to 8 hour window, and eat no calories for the remainder of the day. You can drink water, tea, or coffee as long as there is no dairy or sweetener in them. Why is it important to have a long span of time during which you're not eating before bed? Largely this is due to the way your body creates energy, which is through your mitochondria. These tiny bacterial derivatives live inside your cell and are optimized to create energy from the food you eat and the air you breathe. The mitochondria create energy by generating electrons that are normally transferred to ATP (adenosine triphosphate). When you don't have insulin resistance this energy transfer works quite nicely, but when you are insulin resistant or you eat excessively, all hell can break loose. If you eat excessive food and you don't burn the calories with movement fairly shortly after consuming the calories, the electrons back up inside the mitochondria as there is plenty of ATP that isn't being used. The problem is that these electrons are highly reactive and they start to leak out of the electron transport chain in the mitochondria, and if enough electrons leak out they wind up prematurely killing the mitochondria, and then wreak further havoc by damaging your cell membranes and DNA. There are many knowledgeable experts that believe this is one of the keys to accelerated aging. So how can you apply this knowledge? Simple: resolve your insulin resistance as soon as you can, and do not eat for AT LEAST three hours before you go to sleep. Your body will use the least amount of calories when sleeping and the LAST thing you need is excess fuel generating free radicals damaging your tissues. 4) You Must Regularly Move Your Body to Stay Healthy - The average American adult spends about 10 hours each day sitting, and more than 10,000 studies have now confirmed that chronic sitting is a potent independent risk factor for insulin resistance and an early death. Ideally, strive to sit for less than three hours a day, and make it a point to walk more. A stand-up desk is a great option if you have an office job, and a fitness tracker or cell phone can be used to ensure you're getting the recommended 7,000 to 10,000 steps per day. Next, you'll want to incorporate a more regimented fitness routine, and virtually any exercise is better than none. Benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) includes cardiovascular fitness, improved muscle growth and strength, and the generation of "anti-aging" human growth hormone (HGH), also referred to as "the fitness hormone." It also effectively stimulates your muscles to release anti-inflammatory myokines, which increase your insulin sensitivity and glucose use inside your muscles. They also increase liberation of fat from adipose cells, and the burning of the fat within the skeletal muscle. Strength training is also an important component, and is recommended for all ages, including kids and seniors. Gaining more muscle through resistance exercises has many benefits, from losing excess fat to maintaining healthy bone mass and preventing age-related muscle loss as you age. Whatever you choose to do, please do take the time to exercise, and incorporate as much physical activity into your life as you can. 5) We All Need to Sleep Eight Hours to Stay Healthy - Most fail to fully appreciate how important sleep is to their health. I know, as I was one of them. However I have since learned to appreciate the major role that adequate sleep plays in recovery, repair, and optimal healing. I used to think I was immune to needing adequate sleep. I would routinely get less than six hours a night and thought I could function this way. But I've since realized that most adults really need about eight hours of sleep every night. Frequent yawning during the day is a major red flag that you're sleep deprived, as is nodding off when you're reading or in a meeting. If you need an alarm clock to wake up, and you wake up feeling tired and groggy, you probably need to go to sleep earlier (or get more restful sleep) as well. What to Do Next If you apply the 5 principles that I reviewed in this article, you could likely resolve over 80 percent of your health problems. Start today!! Source: The Week, 8/29/15.

7 Myths About Exercise

If you want to be optimally healthy and happy with energy and vitality to spare, exercise is essential. Most people are well aware of this, yet many still don’t make the time for it. Excuses abound; from “not having enough time,” to “if you can’t be consistent, there’s no point in even beginning.” A number of fitness myths may be holding you back. Nutrition Action recently listed 10 exercise myths you’re best off ignoring. Here are the top seven picks, in no particular order. Myth #1: Weight Training Will Make Women Look Bulky - Many women ignore strength training because they don't want to "bulk up." This is a mistake, as gaining more muscle has many benefits, from losing excess fat to maintaining healthy bone mass, and preventing age-related muscle loss as you get older. For a woman to turn into the Hulk, she’d have to be graced with exceptional genes, work out like a professional athlete, and take anabolic steroids, so ending up looking like a man really isn’t a concern for most women. Rounding out your exercise program with strength training will help you optimize all the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program, and that includes “anti-aging” benefits as well. In fact, strength training has a beneficial impact on at least 10 biomarkers of aging. Myth #2: It's Dangerous to Start Exercising When You're Older - You are never too old to start exercising. In fact, research shows that, no matter how old you are when you start, you can gain significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density, and mental clarity. For example, consider the following scientific findings: • Even a small amount of exercise may protect the elderly from long-term memory loss and even help reverse some of the effects of aging. • Women between the ages of 75 and 85, all of whom had reduced bone mass or full-blown osteoporosis, were able to lower their risk of falling with strength training and agility activities. • Moderate exercise among those aged 55 to 75 may cut the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which increases heart disease and diabetes risk. • Among those who started exercising at age 50 and continued for 10 years, the rate of premature death declined dramatically, similar to giving up smoking. • A combined aerobic and resistance exercise program improved physical function, muscle strength, and symptom severity among heart failure patients. Exercise will also help you avoid weight gain, which tends to creep up on you as the years go by. As noted in the featured article: “It’s a matter of reduced physical activity levels and lower metabolic rate caused by a loss of lean body mass [muscle],’ says JoAnn Manson of Harvard Medical School. ‘The lifelong loss of lean body mass reduces our basal metabolic rate as we age,’ says Arkansas’s William Evans. ‘It’s a very subtle change that begins between ages 20 and 30. The percentage of body fat gradually increases, and it produces an ever-decreasing calorie requirement.’” Muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells, so simply carrying more muscle on your frame helps you use up more calories even when you’re not exercising. Myth #3: Walking Is Useless - Chronic sitting is the new smoking, raising your risk of an early death from poor health independent of your fitness and other lifestyle habits. The medical literature now contains over 10,000 studies showing that frequent, prolonged sitting — at work, commuting, and watching TV at night — significantly impacts your cardiovascular and metabolic function. Walking more is an excellent remedy that virtually everyone would benefit from, even if you have a regular fitness program. My personal recommendation is to: a) limit sitting to less than three hours a day, and b) walk 7,000 to 10,000 steps per day, over and above any regimented exercise you may be doing. A fitness tracker can be a helpful tool to ensure you’re hitting your mark. Once you’re in the habit of walking more, consider switching up the pace, interspersing bouts of speed walking followed by more casual strolling. Numerous studies show that it is this intermittent high and low intensity that appears to produce the most significant results. So simply by exerting yourself intermittently when walking, you can dramatically increase the return of your effort without spending any extra time on it. Walking is also an excellent option if you’re so out of shape and/or overweight that the very idea of exercising seems too daunting to even attempt. Walking is among the easiest exercises to perform, no matter what your age or fitness level. Myth #4: You Have to Exercise Long and Hard to Lose Weight and Improve Fitness - Lack of time is usually at the top of the list of excuses for why people don’t exercise. They think they need to carve out at least an hour several times a week to see results, but nothing could be further from the truth. Research tells us conventional cardio is actually one of the least effective modes of exercise. Instead, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) — which requires but a fraction of the time — has been shown to be FAR more efficient and effective, compared to longer, slower cardio workouts. There are many versions of HIIT, but the core premise involves maximum exertion followed by a quick rest period for a set of intervals. The elliptical machine is a useful exercise tool when doing HIIT, although you can use a recumbent bike or no equipment at all. Exercises such as push-ups, burpees, jump squats, and walking/sprinting for example, can be done at high intensity intervals. You can also turn your strength training exercise into a high intensity one by slowing down your movements. Ideally, you'll want to perform HIIT exercises two or three times a week. Each session totals up to just four minutes of intense exertion, and you can be completely done in about 20 minutes. Here, you actually want to avoid exercising too frequently. Doing HIIT more than three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between sessions. Instead of time, the focus is on intensity. Myth #5: You Can Target Fat Deposits with Spot Training - Many have fallen for the misconception that exercising an area will result in fat loss in that area. As the fat starts accumulating around the waist, they’ll start doing sit-ups, and when nothing changes, they give up altogether. If this sounds like you, please reconsider your approach, because spot training doesn’t work. As noted in the featured article: “Abdominal and hip exercises can strengthen and tone the muscles. But those muscles are underneath the layer of fat that gives the appearance of flab. Only losing weight can get rid of excess fat, and where you lose the weight depends on your genes. Losing weight around the waist is easier than losing it at the hips.” If your goal is to shed excess fat, intermittent fasting combined with high intensity interval training is an excellent way to start. Again, if you’re too out of shape to attempt HIIT right away, begin by walking, and then adding in bouts of faster walking. Eventually, you’ll get to the point where you can do one, two, or more intervals of HIIT on an elliptical or recumbent bike. Work your way up to six or eight sets of intervals. Myth #6: If You Don’t Need to Lose Weight, There’s No Point in Exercising - While weight loss tends to be a side effect of exercising, it’s certainly not the only, or even the primary, reason for exercising. Modern fitness research offers many potent reminders that physical activity is one of the best “preventive drugs” for many common ailments, from psychiatric disorders to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. For example, one meta-review of 305 randomized controlled trials comparing the effectiveness of exercise versus drug interventions on mortality outcomes found that medications were no better for treating diabetes and heart disease than exercise. One of the key health benefits of exercise is that it helps normalize your glucose, insulin, and leptin levels by optimizing insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity. This is one of the most important factors for optimizing your overall health and preventing chronic disease, and may explain why exercise is such a potent preventive medicine. Exercise also helps lower triglycerides and raise HDL cholesterol, both of which are important for lowering your risk of heart disease. In short, exercise is preventive medicine, although you may not realize exactly which diseases you’re preventing in the long run. Beyond that, it also adds to your general quality of life. Sleep and mental health, for example, are two areas that can greatly benefit. Those who succeed at maintaining good health into old age typically have one thing in common: a healthy diet and regular exercise is part of their daily lifestyle. It’s not an on-and-off proposition to fit into a particular garment for a special occasion. I recently wrote about how to make exercise a life-long habit, and one of the ways to do this is to reframe your ideas on the rewards of exercise. Instead of aiming for a particular number on your scale, shift your focus to the immediate rewards — i.e. how you feel right after exercising. Most will feel refreshed, more energetic, and clearheaded, allowing you to function at home, at school, or at work with greater ease and less stress. By noticing how exercise simply makes you feel “better,” that very same day, can help you embrace exercise as part of your lifestyle. No matter what weight you end up at, exercise is bound to pay dividends. Myth #7: No Pain No Gain - While high intensity exercise is an important component of a well-rounded and effective program, it’s a mistake to think you have to work out at maximum intensity all the time. As noted earlier, this can backfire, as your body needs time to recuperate between sessions. It’s also a mistake to think that exercise must hurt or somehow be excruciatingly difficult in order to work. As noted in the featured article: “[M]oderate-intensity exercise lowers the risk of dying just as much as high-intensity exercise. The trick is making sure that the exercise is at least moderate-intensity — that is, equivalent to walking at a pace of three to four miles an hour.” This does not mean you ignore low intensity movement. You need both to be optimally healthy. One way is doing ideally around 7,000 to10,000 steps a day of walking. As with other medications, it’s important to get the dosage right. Too little, and you won't get much benefit. Too much, and you could potentially do harm. For example, extreme endurance cardio, such as marathon running, can actually damage your heart. Your heart is designed to work hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, but it's only designed to do so intermittently, and for short periods. Two recently published large-scale, long-term studies have shed much needed light on the subject of optimal exercise dosage. After analyzing exercise data from 661,000 adults and 14 years’ worth of death records, they were able to figure out how various “dosages” of exercise impacted mortality. Not surprisingly, people who didn’t exercise at all had the highest risk of premature death. However, they found that among those who did exercise regularly, there was a “Goldilocks zone” within which people gained the greatest rewards. Any more and any less resulted in declining rewards. The ideal amount of exercise, providing the highest reduction in mortality risk, was 450 minutes per week (just over an hour a day) of moderate exercise, such as walking. Compared to non-exercisers, they lowered their risk of premature death by 39 percent. Those who got up to but no more than 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week lowered their risk of early death by 20 percent. Those who consistently got 150 minutes per week lowered their risk of death by 31 percent. Interestingly, those who exercised at 10 times above the recommended level — about 25 hours a week — gained no more mortality reduction as those who met the guidelines of 150 minutes per week! The second study focused on intensity. Health survey data from more than 200,000 adults was pooled, and the exercise that each person engaged in was qualified according to intensity. They found that people who spent more than 30 percent of their exercise time in strenuous activities gained an extra 13 percent reduction in early mortality, compared to those who always exercised at a consistent pace. As reported by The New York Times: “[A]s in the other study, they found that meeting the exercise guidelines substantially reduced the risk of early death, even if someone’s exercise was moderate, such as walking. But if someone engaged in even occasional vigorous exercise, he or she gained a small additional reduction in mortality.” Make Exercise a Daily Part of Your Life Making time for exercise is an important part of self-care, without which you’ll be less capable of attending to the needs of others. Viewing it as just another part of life, on par with brushing your teeth and washing your hair, can really help improve the quality of your life. Should your weight happen to be an issue, it’s likely to improve providing you incorporate some high intensity exercises. And if you don’t need to lose weight, remember there’s so much more to gain than a few less pounds. Exercise may mean the difference between being unable to move when you reach your senior years, or ripping up the dance floor on your 75th birthday. Depression, which affects about one in 10 Americans, can also be alleviated with the help of exercise. In fact, a number of studies have found the effectiveness of exercise to meet or exceed that of antidepressants. Ideally, you want to incorporate a variety of activities, including core-strengthening exercises, strength training, stretching, and high-intensity activities into your rotation. Also remember that intermittent movement is equally (if not more) critical for maximizing the quality of your life. Chronic, undisrupted sitting — even if you maintain an optimum fitness program — has been found to be an independent risk factor for premature death. Source: Nutrition Action, 8/10/15.

10 Signs You Need a Vacation

Americans are taking fewer vacation days than they did 15 years ago, often not taking all of their earned vacation days, according to a survey by the US Travel Association. But the decision to put work over family and friends can lead to burnt bridges among personal relationships that can make your life richer for decades to come. The survey revealed that seven out of 10 respondents skip kids’ activities, birthdays, and vacations in favor of work, while, paradoxically, 73 percent said spending time with family makes their lives richer and more meaningful. Another survey found Americans use only 10 of their average 14 days of vacation a year, and while about one-third of Americans report feeling stressed out at work, most won’t take a vacation day because of it. In short, many Americans find it hard to find a suitable work-life balance that allows them to pay the bills and earn financial security while still spending time with family and having ample free time for their own sanity. If it’s been awhile since your last vacation, you may be starting to feel it. Lack of adequate time off can manifest in many mysterious (and not so mysterious) ways, as the list below, compiled by TIME, explains. 10 Signs You Need a Vacation 1. Little Problems Seem Huge - When you’re in a good place mentally and emotionally, you can handle those daily curveballs that come your way – with ease and even your fair share of finesse. But if you’re overly stressed, forget about it. Even small nuisances will seem overwhelming and may cause you to snap at co-workers or clients unnecessarily. 2. Coworkers Ask if You’re Alright - You probably spend a lot of time around your colleagues, and they may be among the first to notice that you’re not acting like yourself. Maybe you’re unusually cranky, quiet, or tired instead of your chipper self. This is a sign that a long weekend is calling your name. If you can’t take a longer vacation, at least try to fit microbreaks into your day by walking outside for five or 10 minutes. 3. You’re Making Mistakes - Workplace errors are often the result of chronic stress. This can be problematic for your reputation and job security or, depending on your line of work, potentially deadly to those around you (such as if you work in the medical field). If you notice you’re making an unusual number of mistakes, arrange for some time off to regroup. 4. You’re Overly Cynical - Those who are most successful at work have about six positive experiences for each negative one. A ratio of three to one (in favor of positive) is about the bare minimum you need to stay happy at work. If that ratio gets flipped and you’re finding your work unfulfilling and frustrating without any positive merits, it could be due to impending burnout. 5. You’re Engaging in Counterproductive Work Behaviors - Arguing with co-workers, taking extra time at lunch or breaks, or “borrowing” office supplies are examples of “counterproductive work behaviors”. These behaviors are linked to high levels of workplace stress, and they may manifest weeks or months after the most stressful periods (such as a busy season). Time off may be a welcome cure and might even give you time to seek out other opportunities. 6. You’re in Physical Pain - Workplace stress, particularly heavy workloads, negative work environments, and obstacles that prevent you from completing your work, are linked to pain levels in employees. Stress also promotes inflammation and pain sensitivity, which is why recurring backaches, headaches, eye strain, and other aches and pains are signs that a vacation is long overdue. 7. Your Stomach’s Upset - An upset stomach and other digestive issues can also be manifestations of overwork and stress. The latter can even lead to changes in the bacteria in your gut that can make you prone to stomach issues. 8. You Have Trouble Sleeping - Excessive work stress and burnout can increase the chances of sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. People who are overworked have more trouble unwinding at the end of the day and also are more likely to report daytime sleepiness. 9. You End Your Day with a Glass of Wine - Regularly using alcohol as a coping mechanism may be a result of too much stress at work. Those experiencing chronic stress and burnout may be more vulnerable to using alcohol and food as ways to ease stress in favor of healthier options like exercise. 10. You Lost the Sense of Purpose of Your Work - A more serious sign of burnout is losing perspective of why you’re working in the first place. You may not see any benefits, when in fact your job benefits your community, your country, or your family. If you can’t remember why you wanted your job in the first place, schedule a break from your daily grind soon. What Do You Stand to Gain from Taking a Vacation? You’ve seen what might happen if you don’t take a vacation, but what might happen if you do? According to research from the University of Calgary, taking a vacation (or even participating in leisure activities) can actually reduce depression. A separate study found sharing vacation experiences with your loved ones is a valuable contributor to family cohesion. Immersing yourself in a different culture may also foster creative thinking and improve well-being. Whether your vacation is down the street or across the globe, you’ll enjoy numerous mental and physical health benefits both during your trip and upon your return. Surprisingly enough, even though many Americans forgo their annual vacations, 24 percent believe a vacation is a birthright… so go and take your vacation!! Source: Time Magazine, 7/30/15