Health News
Thinking Outside the Box for High Blood Pressure
By James Templeton I recently did a search for “high blood pressure” and got over 78 million results. It’s one of the most researched health issues on the internet today and according to the American Heart Association, almost 50 percent of all adults in the US currently have it. The good news is that the first line of treatment is not medication – it’s lifestyle changes. But is medication the only option when lifestyle changes don’t do the job? What To Do When Diet and Exercise Don’t Help Since my early twenties my blood pressure has been high at the doctor’s office. I have what’s called “white coat hypertension” which is a fancy term for “I get nervous around doctors.” But I took it seriously because of how I lost my father and grandfather. Sudden Cardiac Death – these 3 words will put the fear in you, and it’s in my genes. Since then, I’ve done my best to live a heart-healthy lifestyle. Back in my twenties, the owners of the health club I joined got me into running and it wasn’t long before I was back at my high school weight, running 5 miles a day. Based on what I read in running magazines, I ate mostly vegetarian – a lot of salads and vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains and very little meat. And even though I felt like I was doing everything right, my blood pressure was still high at the doctor’s office. It turns out that lifestyle changes to lower blood pressure aren’t a one-size-fits-all prescription. I’ve had to think outside the box when it comes to solving this puzzle in my own life, and I’d like to share the biggest piece of the puzzle I’ve found that doesn’t fit into our current conventional way of thinking – the role of chronic stress and subsequent “sympathetic dominance” in causing high blood pressure. Do You Have Sympathetic Dominance? There is a balance in your autonomic nervous system between sympathetic and parasympathetic activation. Put simply, your parasympathetic nervous system is the “rest and digest” response, when your cells are able to repair and restore themselves and healing and rest happens. Nutrients are absorbed optimally during this state; you rest easily, feel calm, and heal well. The sympathetic nervous system is your “fight or flight” response and gets activated by any type of stress. Whether you just got bad news or you’re running from a bear, your body activates the same response system. Everything you would need to be able to fight or run is activated in your body. Think about it – you become more alert and your heart rate and blood pressure go up as adrenaline surges and gets you ready to respond to imminent danger. In the balancing act between these two states, one is usually dominant over the other. For this reason, I like to think of them as two sides of the same switch; either the parasympathetic is “switched on” or the sympathetic is – they can’t both be dominant at once. Are You Stuck in Fight or Flight? In a normal, healthy person, the switch is going back and forth pretty regularly. But in a person with sympathetic dominance, the switch is “stuck” in the sympathetic mode. Their bodies rarely switch out of that sympathetic mode into the parasympathetic so they can rest and heal. People who are prone to sympathetic dominance are the ones who push themselves too hard, are prone to worrying, or live in a constantly stressful situation of some type. Symptoms that come from chronic stress and being stuck in fight or flight mode include high blood pressure (hypertension), high heart rate (tachycardia), insomnia, anxiety, and digestive issues. Because we live in such a fast-paced society where everything is hectic and rushed, many of us are constantly stressed and stuck in sympathetic dominance. While we can’t always change the amount of stress we have in our lives, we can change our relationship to it. Restore the Balance There are simple things you can do to flip the switch from “fight or flight” to “rest and digest.” The first is exercise that gets your heart rate up. This fulfills the “fight or flight” in the same physiological way that running from that bear would do, and your body believes it can rest now so you go into parasympathetic mode to heal and rest. This is why people sleep better after moderate exercise. In my case, I overdid the exercise, and over-exercising is another way to put yourself into sympathetic dominance. Not only did it put me into a state of “high alert,” it also depleted the nutrients I needed to get back into a state of rest. I got so depleted that if I wasn’t exercising I felt down and depressed. Even though I felt like I was eating healthy, I wasn’t getting enough healthy fats to produce the “feel good” neurotransmitters, so I lived off the endorphins that give you a “natural high” from exercising. And with all that exercising, I was burning through nutrients faster than I could replace them through my limited diet. Supplements for a Calmer, Healthier You If you’ve been in sympathetic dominance for any amount of time, I recommend supplementing with magnesium and Omega 3 fats first, and a good salt rich in trace minerals second. For magnesium, I recommend our Mag-Key. It’s the most digestible formulation I’ve found, and when digestion is impaired from being stuck in sympathetic mode for too long, you need something that absorbs quickly and easily to build up your nutrient stores again. If you aren’t sleeping well, feel anxious, have tight muscles, or suffer from constipation, then you are likely deficient in magnesium and need to supplement. Next, I recommend our Super-EPA for the Omega-3 fats you need to nourish your nervous system and promote production of your “feel good” neurotransmitters. If you’re like me and fell for the “low fat” diet craze thinking it was heart healthy, you also need these fats to reduce inflammation in your arteries from the inflammatory grains we tend to eat when we lower our fat and protein intake. Once I learned the pitfalls of the low fat diet and over-exercising, I went on the Fat Flush Plan and started exercising in moderation, and even my most recent heart tests show 0% arterial plaque! My doctor has been amazed to see me beat my genetics and have such good heart health in my sixties. Next I recommend Real Salt, from Redmond, Utah. It’s brown in color because it’s rich in trace minerals that your adrenal glands need to be able to produce the hormones your sympathetic nervous system needs to be able to keep functioning properly. I know current conventional wisdom is that salt causes high blood pressure, but recent large studies have been done that show people who eat more salt are less likely to die from heart attack or stroke. In fact, in doing the research for this article, I found that only 25 percent of people with high blood pressure mightbe salt sensitive, and within that group the primary issue is kidney health. So if your kidneys are healthy, salt should actually be good for you. I’m not talking about going crazy and salting the daylights out of everything – moderation is still the key here. It’s reasonable to aim for anywhere from ½ teaspoon to 2 teaspoons of salt daily, depending on how depleted (and fatigued) you are, your stress level, and how much you sweat. Lastly, if you feel you’ve been stuck in sympathetic dominance for any length of time, I encourage you to get a TMA (Tissue Mineral Analysis) done and test your mineral levels with a hair sample, then do a saliva cortisol test (Adrenal Stress Panel) and check your stress hormone levels. These 2 tests can get a good picture of what chronic stress has done to not just raise your blood pressure but to your overall health. It’s also a good idea to nourish your adrenals with an Adrenal Stress Formula to support healthy stress hormone production. I hope this article on how to handle high blood pressure provided you with some helpful information.
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The Truth About Cholesterol and Heart Health
Heart disease is the #1 killer in America – but it isn’t caused by cholesterol. Despite the campaigns designed to get people to test their cholesterol and “know your numbers” and the subsequent push for cholesterol lowering statin drugs, people are still dying from heart disease in numbers higher than any other cause of death. Why? According to revolutionary cardiologists like Dr. Stephen Sinatra, it’s because cholesterol isn’t the problem, inflammation is. Did you know half of all people who die from heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels? Did you know half of all people with high cholesterol don’t have heart disease? Does this mean we should ignore cholesterol? No, but it does mean we need a better understanding of what it really does in the body and how to identify risk factors before they become a full-blown problem. And your typical blood lipid panel with just total cholesterol, HDL, and LDL levels isn’t going to give you those answers. Find out the truth about cholesterol and heart health below. Cholesterol is Essential for Your Health Cholesterol is a necessary building block for every cell in your body. It’s not only a component of every cell’s protective membrane, but also serves other important functions in the body. It helps you make Vitamin D, stress hormones, and sex hormones, and supports the health of your immune system and your brain. Breast milk is rich in cholesterol because it’s important for developing the myelin sheath around the nerves; cholesterol nurtures a baby’s growing brain. When you find cholesterol in your blood vessels, it’s there for a very important reason – repair. And what causes the damage? A pro-inflammatory diet full of sugars and processed foods. Inflammation in the arteries causes the lining to become injured more easily, and where there’s an injury, there’s a protective substance sent to help heal that injury. In this case that protective substance is cholesterol, but what kind of cholesterol is there determines whether it does more harm than good. HDL – Is It Really the “Good” Cholesterol? HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol has 2 important functions that have given it a good reputation. First, it goes through your bloodstream and removes the more dense and “sticky” LDL cholesterol that can clog your arteries. Second, it travels through the blood vessels constantly repairing the inner lining. This is the cholesterol you want sent to repair injuries to your inflamed arteries. Normal HDL blood levels are 40-90 mg/dL in adults. When this cholesterol is in the normal range, there is plenty available to do these essential jobs. But when your levels are low, which is common with diets that are low in healthy fats and high in sugars, there isn’t enough of this cholesterol to go around and LDL cholesterol is sent in its place. Conversely, when HDL cholesterol is too high, it’s a sign your liver is congested and having trouble processing cholesterol, and depending on the type of HDL that’s present, it can be inflammatory and contribute to plaque in the arteries just like HDL can. If your HDL cholesterol is high, you want to get the fractions tested. HDL-2 is anti-inflammatory, and high levels of this are good for your health. On the other hand, HDL-3 contributes to inflammation, so you want to lower levels of this before it turns into plaque. LDL Cholesterol – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Most doctors stand by the myth that all LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol is “bad” and should be lowered with dangerous statin drugs. In truth, LDL cholesterol is a transport molecule that’s important not just for your overall health, but especially for the health of your immune system and brain. Current guidelines for “normal” cholesterol levels have dropped so low they are in the range for thalassemias, genetic blood disorders known to enhance consumption of cholesterol and reduce it to dangerous, symptom-producing levels. Normal levels of LDL cholesterol should be 80-130 mg/dL, but knowing the fractions is more important than the total. LDL-A is the “good” form of LDL cholesterol. These large, fluffy particles are harmless and contribute the most to overall health. LDL-B is the “bad” form, made up of small, dense particles that contribute to inflammation and plaque formation. The “ugly” form of LDL cholesterol and by far the worst is Lp(a). Most doctors don’t test for this fraction – and they should. If you are in good overall health, this particle will actually help you repair your damaged cells. But in a body that already has high levels of inflammation, these highly inflammatory cholesterol particles will build up and accumulate in the injured arteries, causing not only plaque but also blood clots. Triglycerides – It’s All About the Ratio When you eat more sugars and calories than your body can burn, the liver processes them and stores it all as triglycerides. Triglycerides go up when you regularly eat more sugar than your body needs. Normal triglyceride levels are less than 150mg/dL and if yours are higher than this, it’s time to cut the carbs. More important than your triglyceride level is the ratio between triglycerides and HDL cholesterol. Studies done even in children show when this ratio is elevated there is a 16 times greater risk of heart disease than those with lower ratios. Higher ratios are an indicator of stiff, injured arteries. Ideally, you want a 2:1 ratio of triglycerides to HDL, or less. For example, if triglycerides are 100mg/dL, then HDL should be 50 mg/dL. The Numbers You Really Need to Know According to Dr. Sinatra, these are the test results you need to get a good picture of your heart health: Cholesterol Markers: Total Cholesterol: 180-240 mg/dL Total HDL Cholesterol: 40-90 mg/dL HDL Cholesterol subtypes: >25 mg/dL HDL2; >15 mg/dL HDL3 Total LDL Cholesterol: 80-130 mg/dL Lp(a): <30 mg/dL Triglycerides: 50-150 mg/dL (ideally 100 or below) Inflammation Markers: Cardio-CRP: <0.8mg/dL Ferritin: <90 mg/dL Fibrinogen: 180-350 mg/dL Homocysteine: 7-10 umol/L Interleukin-6: 0-12 pg/mL 6 Steps to Optimal Heart Health Follow the Fat Flush Plan to Lose Weight. If you’re overweight, losing weight is such a powerful tool in the fight against heart disease. It isn’t easy, but it’s so worth the effort. You deserve to feel good and look good. Ann Louise Gittleman’s Fat Flush Plan will not only help you lose weight and feel great, but also eliminates processed foods, high sugar foods, and trans fats – the “triple threat” of inflammatory foods that lead to unhealthy cholesterol levels. It’s tempting to choose a diet low in cholesterol, fat, and protein, but these diets drop cholesterol too low and energy plummets as a result. Exercise Daily. The best way to raise a low HDL cholesterol level (and lower triglycerides) is through regular aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes each day. You don’t have to go to a gym to get the workout you need. Start by dancing in your living room or going for a brisk walk around the neighborhood. The important thing is just to get moving. Quit Smoking. Smoking is one of the most famous risk factors for heart disease, stiffening arterial walls and making them more prone to injury, while also decreasing HDL cholesterol levels. Breaking the addiction is challenging, but there are many innovative techniques available to help, from acupuncture to hypnotherapy. Don’t’ give up – where there’s a will, there’s a way, and you may have to try multiple approaches before you find the one that works for you. Supplement with Omega 3 EFAs. To lower levels of dangerous Lp(a) cholesterol, take 1-2 grams of our Super-EPA fish oil daily and get the anti-inflammatory Omega 3 essential fatty acids that also help raise healthy HDL levels. Support Your Liver. A healthy liver both produces and removes cholesterol from your body. When cholesterol levels go too high, whether it’s HDL, LDL, or triglycerides, it’s a sign your liver needs support and detox. Niacin is a superstar when it comes to cholesterol metabolism. To lower triglycerides and raise healthy HDL levels, start slowly at 250mg at bedtime, then increase gradually to 1-2 grams daily in divided doses. The form best tolerated is inositol hexanicotinate. CoQ10 is liver protective and especially useful for people who take statin drugs. Statins deplete the body of CoQ10 as one of their many harmful effects, so it’s essential to take at least 100-200mg of CoQ10 daily while on these drugs. For liver health when not taking statins 50-100mg daily is optimal. Toxin exposure can congest the liver and cause high cholesterol and weight gain by itself. Our Liver Lovin Formula was created to support your liver’s detox pathways, and keep fat and toxins from building up in your bloodstream. Bile Builder supports your liver’s detox abilities, boosts your fat metabolism and helps support cholesterol metabolism and fat loss. This supplement is a must-have for anyone who has had their gallbladder removed or is looking to lose weight. Don’t be a doctor’s Christmas present or the next heart disease statistic! Get tested for the numbers you really need to know then follow these 6 steps to get your heart health back on track.
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Put Some Spring in Your Step with These Cleansing Herbs
Lighten up after the heavy Winter months and get ready to shed excess pounds with an herbal colon cleanse. Winter is the season of holiday parties and heavy foods, and as the days grow brighter and Spring sets in, it’s time to get back in shape for swimsuit season. Get your body ready to shed those extra pounds with a gentle herbal colon cleanse. A good colon cleanse helps rid your body of potentially harmful toxins while relieving constipation and keeping the colon hydrated. A colon cleanse shouldn’t cause cramping or discomfort, just easy elimination of built-up waste from a Winter of rich foods that slow digestion down. Signs You Need a Colon Cleanse Herbs have been used for centuries to cleanse the colon and promote overall health. Regular colon cleansing can relieve constipation and chronic diarrhea while decreasing your risk of colorectal cancer and other bowel diseases. If you are feeling tired and sluggish especially after eating, have acne, struggle with concentration, have bad breath or strong body odor, gained weight, or have digestive problems like diarrhea or constipation, these are all signs that you might need a colon cleanse. If you aren’t having a bowel movement after every meal, this is a sign your colon is sluggish and even constipated. Sluggish digestion causes food to move too slowly and get stuck in the intestines, causing it to be fermented rather than properly broken down. These rancid stools release toxins into your blood stream, bog down your digestion, and slow your metabolism. Wake up your metabolism, cleanse your colon and get things moving again with these 10 Colon Cleansing Herbs: 1. Alfalfa Herb As a general digestive tonic, alfalfa leaf can’t be beat. This herb is an all-around superstar, rich in vitamins and minerals. It keeps bowels moving regularly while keeping the colon hydrated, is mildly diuretic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fungal. Alfalfa is good for purifying the blood and the liver, alkalinizing the body, detoxing the urinary tract, relieving constipation, balancing hormones, and promoting healthy pituitary gland function. 2. Anise Seed This colon cleanser relaxes intestinal cramping, relieves gas and bloating, helps with nausea and indigestion, and is a mild anti-fungal. The Amish chew these licorice-flavored seeds to relieve upset stomach and give anise seed tea to soothe colicky babies. Anise seed is one of the carminative herbs that increases bile flow and helps with fat digestion, which increases your metabolism. 3. Buckthorn Bark Used as an herbal remedy for bowel disorders, buckthorn bark is an effective stool softener and laxative, soothing hemorrhoids and making elimination easier. Buckthorn has been used for parasites, gallstones, constipation, and even prostate health. Once harvested, the bark needs to age for a year or be heat treated to prevent stomach irritation. 4. Butternut Bark The butternut tree is grown mainly for its medicinal properties. The bark is mainly used as a laxative, but also helps with chronic diarrhea. It’s one of the few herbs that works for opposite conditions. Butternut bark helps expel intestinal worms, increases appetite, soothes intestinal cramping, and stimulates liver cleansing. Butternut oil contains essential fatty acids which relieve eye and skin conditions including eczema. 5. Cranberry Fruit Whole cranberries have been found in recent studies to be cancer-protective and have shrunk colon cancer tumors in mice. Cranberries are full of phytonutrients, which act as antioxidants and support a healthy cellular pH during cleansing, while neutralizing the damage from free radicals. Cranberry also helps balance the amount of e. coli bacteria in both the colon and urinary tract. Cranberry is also a potent lymphatic cleanser and the colon is rich in lymphatic tissue. 6. Fennel Seed Often confused with anise seed, fennel shares many of the same properties of reducing intestinal and stomach gas and bloating, relieving cramping, and decreasing intestinal inflammation. Fennel seeds help relieve indigestion and heartburn, help fight intestinal infections, suppress appetite, and enhance digestion to keep waste materials moving through to be eliminated. 7. Irish Moss This seaweed is packed with vitamins and minerals and is protective against radiation by drawing it out of the body. It gets a bad rap because it’s the seaweed that carrageenan is extracted from, which is known to be inflammatory, but in its whole form it relieves intestinal inflammation and soothes the mucus membranes of the digestive tract. Its fiber content makes it a mild laxative and bulks up the stool to make it easier to pass. Irish moss also relieves nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, and gastritis. 8. Licorice Root This herb helps restore a healthy mucosal lining in the stomach and intestines, and is a well-known natural remedy for ulcers. It helps detoxify the liver, stimulates healthy bile flow and fat digestion, relieves indigestion and heartburn, and increases your energy level while doing it all. It’s anti-inflammatory, soothes and relieves pain of irritated stomach and intestinal tissues, and is a mild laxative. Licorice root improves blood flow to the lining of the intestines while increasing the quality and quantity of the protective mucus layer. 9. Peppermint Leaf An age-old remedy used for nausea, upset stomach, and stomach cramps, its tea is safe enough for use with morning sickness during pregnancy. Peppermint anesthetizes the nerves in the intestinal tract, soothing cramping and bloating discomfort. Given in an enteric-coated capsule, peppermint can dissolve gallstones and relieve IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) symptoms. 10. Fiber Apple pectin, flax seeds, oat bran, psyllium seed husks, and rice bran are all safe, effective sources of fiber, which are an essential component of any colon cleanse. Soluble and insoluble fiber both act like a broom that sweeps away debris from the digestive tract while bulking up the stool to make it easier to eliminate. Exposure to environmental pollution and heavy metals can slow down digestion and fiber is able to absorb these toxins, bind up the metals, and escort it all out of the body. Fiber can even absorb radiation, neutralizing its harmful effects. Super-GI Cleanse – An Herbal Colon Cleanse in a Bottle To simplify the colon cleansing process and make it fit your busy lifestyle we’ve created Super-GI Cleanse. It was formulated in 1999 by our founder, James Templeton, and he had this to say about it: “I was traveling a lot and felt constipated. I took everything I could find and nothing helped. I went to trade shows and tried a lot of the products being offered, but I just felt crampy and awful – it wasn’t pleasant. I started realizing if I was going to find the best product I would have to research and make it myself. After several revisions, I came up with Super-GI Cleanse. It really helps you clean out, keep weight down, feel less toxic and lighter on your feet. We’ve had nothing but glowing reviews from customers ever since.” A good colon cleanse helps keep the liver and colon detoxified and gets rid of toxic overload in the body, including parasites, yeast, heavy metals, radiation, and drug residues. It should be gentle enough to use it long term without your body becoming dependent on it. It shouldn’t deplete any nutrients over time, and its effects should not be so strong they disrupt your daily lifestyle and leave you dehydrated. Super-GI Cleanse is safe for daily use and can be used when taking prescription opioid pain medications to loosen you up and keep things moving. It’s best taken with a meal but can be taken anytime. Aim for 6 pills daily as either 2 pills 3 times daily or 3 pills twice a day. If it doesn’t work by itself to relieve bloating and constipation, then add Mag-Key, a highly absorbable magnesium supplement, and eat foods rich in potassium along with it.
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Homeopathy for Candida Yeast Overgrowth – The Candida Cure?
If you feel like you’ve been fighting a battle with Candida yeast and not getting ahead, then homeopathy may be the tool you need to finally win the battle – and perhaps find your personal Candida “cure” once and for all. Candida overgrowth is one of the most underdiagnosed and common health issues we face today. Candida is opportunistic, so when your population of good bacteria is reduced (by antibiotics, certain medications like birth control pills, chlorinated water, and too much dietary copper with not enough zinc), while you eat a diet high in alcohol or sugars and carbohydrates, this sets up the perfect environment for Candida yeast to overgrow and wreak havoc in your body. Even stress and environmental toxins can cause this imbalance. Many people spend months, if not years, pursuing one form of Candida treatment or another, with limited results. The fact is, Candida is part of a normal, healthy microbiome, so you’re not going to get rid of all of it. The key is to create a healthy, balanced environment with Candida in check, not running the show. A lot of the treatments out there use the medical model of attacking the pathogen, rather than correcting the underlying imbalances that allowed the overgrowth in the first place. Homeopathy is gentle but powerful in its effects on reducing the Candida population while other therapies are used to rebuild healthy bacteria populations. But how do you know Candida is out of balance in the first place? Top Ten Symptoms of Candida There are many symptoms of Candida overgrowth, but the most common are: Fatigue, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Digestive issues including IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), Leaky Gut Syndrome, bloating, constipation and diarrhea “Brain fog,” trouble concentrating, memory issues, problems staying focused Skin and nail fungus, including ringworm and toenail fungus Recurrent ear, urinary tract, or vaginal infections Itching, whether it’s on the skin, in the ears, rectal, or vaginal Mood issues, from irritability and mood swings to anxiety and depression Cravings for sugar, refined carbs, and/or alcohol Skin rashes, including hives, eczema, acne, and even psoriasis Allergies, including seasonal allergies, food allergies and intolerances Many of these symptoms are general, and don’t seem specific to Candida by themselves. But, when you put them all together, they give a clear picture of a microbiome that’s out of balance, and Candida is the most common culprit. Think back on your health history for a minute – have you had a history of long-term antibiotic use, hormone birth control pills, a period of intense stress in your life, or a time where your diet was high in sugar, refined carbs, or alcohol? These are all common triggers for Candida overgrowth, and they often go overlooked because an imbalance in intestinal flora isn’t always seen as a medical condition by your doctor. Instead, it gets diagnosed as IBS, anxiety, depression, chronic hives, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or other disease that doesn’t have a cure other than long-term medication. This is where homeopathy can come in, stimulating your immune system to address the root cause of what’s really going on – Candida overgrowth. What is Homeopathy? Homeopathy was the main medical therapy used for over 200 years, prior to the advent of modern medicine. In fact, many of the medical laws at the state level still specifically mention homeopathy as a practice of medicine. In fact, homeopathy was historically quite successful at treating epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, typhoid, pneumonia, scarlet fever, and influenza (the flu). Homeopathy has been used by everyone from US presidents to Mother Teresa, with good success. There’s been some confusion over what homeopathy actually is because this word has been used as a blanket term to mean any natural therapy you use for symptoms you are having. Homeopathy is a type of medicine that has been described as “a hair of the dog that bit you” or the principle that “like cures like.” Homeopathic remedies are extremely dilute preparations that at full-strength would actually mimic the same symptoms the person is already having. Homeopathic remedies are made using a specific process where distilled water is used in a glass bottle to make a solution that is succussed (shaken vigorously) and diluted repeatedly, until even under the microscope it looks like all that is left is water. The substances chosen to make this solution are known to cause the same symptoms the person is currently having when it’s given at full strength, but when given in such a diluted preparation, it causes the body to rise up and naturally fight whatever is causing the symptoms. This may all sound like a foreign concept, unless you’ve had allergy desensitization shots. These injections are diluted, small amounts of what you’re allergic to, injected under the skin to change your immune response. Even though in the US homeopathy has been largely replaced by modern medicine, there are countries, like France and India, that still use homeopathy as part of their medical treatment. In the US, we now regard it as a natural remedy, but that doesn’t make homeopathy for candida overgrowth any less effective, despite the controversy surrounding it. Fight Yeast Overgrowth and Win Whether you’ve been fighting Candida overgrowth for years or only just now discovered you have it, use this 3-step approach you can use to get your microbiome back in balance and put Candida in check once again. Eat a low sugar diet. Candida will cause you to crave sugars (including fruits), carbs, alcohol, and even fermented foods, all of which encourage its growth. You need to eliminate sugar, honey, maple syrup, processed foods, sugary drinks including fruit juice, fruits, alcohol, and fermented foods. If you need a guide for which foods and drinks to eliminate, check out the Get the Sugar Out Book by Ann Louise Gittleman, for a comprehensive overview of what it takes to reduce the sugar in your diet. Once you’ve reduced the Candida population and your microbiome is back in balance, some of these foods can be added back in moderation, but your tastes will likely change and you may no longer want these sugary foods. Use Y-C Cleanse. This homeopathic formula is safe and effective against yeast overgrowth. To stimulate the body’s own healing powers, Y-C Cleanse contains homeopathic amounts of the most prevalent yeast pathogens, including Candida albicans and Geotrichum candidum, commonly found in comprehensive stool analyses. It also contains Skatolum and Indolum, which are common byproducts of yeast metabolism, and Echinacea for immune support.Y-C Cleanse is best taken for 24 days, with a 5-day break, then repeat as needed if symptoms persist or after a course of antibiotics. You can also use it preventatively if you’ve binged on carbs or alcohol during the holidays and want to make sure yeast doesn’t return. Just a Note: As with any detoxification process, fighting yeast may create a die-off reaction, because as yeast die-off they give off alcohol as their byproduct, which can temporarily increase your symptoms. Take this as a good sign, decrease your dose temporarily, and drink plenty of clean, filtered water to help flush it through your system. You will feel much better once it passes. Repopulate the healthy bacteria with a good probiotic. As the yeast dies off, the microbiome needs to be repopulated and rebalanced with healthy bacteria. One scoop of our Flora-Key twice daily is recommended to get enough good bacteria in for optimal digestive health. Whether you’ve been looking for a cover-all Candida cure, you are fighting fatigue or looking to beat the bloat, homeopathy as part of your comprehensive Candida yeast protocol may be just what you need to tame the terrain and overcome the overgrowth once and for all!
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Energize and Recharge Your Body With These Missing Minerals
by James Templeton So much of life is about chemistry, everything from choosing your spouse to digesting your food. It’s this chemistry that energizes your body, the same way it powers your laptop, your watch, and even your car. The energy running through your body works like a battery, transforming chemical energy into electrical energy, and electrolytes are the catalysts –the spark plugs – for creating the energy in your body. Energizing Electrolytes Your body is electric, and to make it work the way it should you’ve got to have the charge, which comes from minerals known as electrolytes. Once you take in electrolytes through food or drink, they dissolve into positive and negative charges. These charged particles have 2 main jobs – sparking nerve impulses and regulating the flow of water into and out of cells. Electrolytes are involved in most processes of the body, from your heart beating to your brain remembering, because all of these processes use energy. When you are deficient in electrolytes, your body becomes more acidic and negatively charged, and your energy level drops through the floor. You are essentially an electromagnetic ball of energy and you’ve got to have the minerals to attract the magnetic energy that sustains life. The 7 essential electrolytes are Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Sodium, Chloride, and Bicarbonate. Deficiencies in any of these minerals can lead to life threatening consequences if severely lacking. Missing Minerals Make You Feel Miserable Our overworked and underfed soils are depleted of many of the minerals we need to sustain our lives and health. Even when we consume organic produce and start replenishing the minerals in our bodies, environmental influences quickly rob us of them. Electrolytes are found in your body fluids so you lose some whenever you sweat or catch a stomach bug. Radiation supplants minerals in the body, leading to electrolyte imbalances and issues with nerve conduction and fluid balance, making you feel miserable. Mind Your Magnesium Low magnesium causes insomnia and poor sleep, body aches, constipation, high blood pressure, weak bones, and tight muscles. Deficiency is common, especially as we get older. Sugar, alcohol, and stress are the main lifestyle factors that cause magnesium to run low. It takes 54 molecules of magnesium to process 1 molecule of sugar, and alcohol is a type of sugar, so even a little wine will cost you a lot of magnesium. Stress depletes magnesium and low magnesium magnifies the effects of stress, creating a vicious cycle. It’s time to take a “chill pill.” Supplementing with magnesium is key with today’s fast-paced lifestyles. Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of your central nervous system and has a relaxing effect on everything from anxiety to tense muscles. Over the years, I’ve noticed people still have symptoms of deficiency from missing minerals even when they’re supplementing with plenty of magnesium. I found absorbability is a big issue when it comes to magnesium supplements. Many forms of magnesium clear constipation and even cause loose stools before you can get to the dose you need. Our Mag-Key was specially formulated to be readily absorbed without the digestive consequences. It contains Magnesium Glycinate for your mind, Magnesium Malate for your muscles, Magnesium Taurate for your heart, and Magnesium Orotate for your cells, along with Vitamin B6 for optimal absorption. Just Add Salt For decades, we’ve been advised to eat less than 2500mg of salt. However, recent studies show an increase in deaths from heart disease when consuming less than 3000mg of salt. Sodium, Chloride, and a variety of trace minerals are all balanced in unrefined salt. A moderate amount of good salt is important; it positively affects your energy levels, your adrenal health, and your cellular pH levels. Rather than following government regulations based on studies in rats from the 1950s fed such high amounts of salt we can never achieve in our diets, I recommend listening to your body instead. What most people think of as a detox reaction with fatigue, headaches, and body aches is usually your body crying out for the minerals in unrefined salt. A small pinch of salt under the tongue can relieve these symptoms almost instantly, giving you a sign your body needs more salt. Salt is a pH stabilizer and balances fluid levels in the cells, which are very important functions, but you can get too much of a good thing. When you get a headache in the back of your head, tight muscles, sleepy and lethargic after meals, and loose stools, your cellular pH has gone too alkaline and it could be from too much salt or something you’ve eaten. Raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) by the teaspoon balances this out and within a few days should have you feeling a lot better. Choose your salt carefully. A lot of sea salt is high in mercury now because of ocean contamination. Toxic overload of mercury doesn’t just come from your mouth; seaweeds, ocean fish, and sea salts all are contaminated with toxic mercury now. If you find yourself having muscle twitches and facial twitches after consuming these foods, these are signs of mercury toxicity and you need to eliminate them from your diet. Real Salt, which comes from Redmond, Utah, is my salt of choice right now. Power Up with Potassium If you are achy and feel flu-like, with tight muscles and no fever, you may be low in potassium. I’ve seen potassium depletion in people who live in areas where there is a lot of atmospheric radiation; close to a nuclear facility or where the winds and weather patterns carry radiation from meltdown areas like Fukushima, Japan. Too much potassium or too little can cause life-threatening issues, so I don’t recommend taking a potassium supplement, which isn’t well absorbed anyway. Instead, I recommend making Potassium Broth. There are many variations on this recipe, but this one is simple and easy to remember: Save Print Potassium Broth Author: James Templeton Ingredients Use all organic ingredients Peels from 4 well-scrubbed potatoes 4 carrots, peeled and chopped 4 celery stalks, chopped 4 quarts filtered water 1 bunch fresh parsley Instructions Place all the ingredients except parsley in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add parsley and simmer for 5 more minutes. Cool and strain into glass jars. Serve warm by the cupful with a pinch of unrefined salt. Drink up to 1 quart per day. This broth stores well in the refrigerator. Freeze what you won't use within a week. 3.5.3208
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From Fatty Liver to Skinny Liver in 6 Easy Steps
The health of your entire body is connected to the health of your liver. There’s a silent epidemic affecting 25 percent of the US adult population – Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Our high carb diets and sedentary lifestyles are causing inflammatory fats to accumulate in the liver, affecting our overall health. Even though there are typically no symptoms with this disease, the health of almost every organ in your body is tied to the health of your liver. This stealthy disease is increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease, liver cancer, and so much more. Healthy lifestyle changes are essential for going from a fatty liver to skinny liver. What is Fatty Liver? Fatty liver is defined as a liver with more than 10 percent of its weight coming from fat. You are at risk for NAFLD if you are overweight or obese, have diabetes, high cholesterol or triglycerides; had a rapid weight loss, make poor dietary choices, or have a family member with the disease. This disease isn’t entirely understood, but we know if you eat too many carbohydrates and exercise too little, fat will build up in your liver. Insulin resistance plays a part, by causing fatty acids to be released from fat cells and increasing blood sugar. These fatty acids and excess sugar are shuttled to the liver where they are turned into fat and stored to save the body from their harmful effects. High fructose corn syrup is especially harmful because it bypasses the body’s normal sugar metabolism and is stored as fat. Consuming high fructose corn syrup by itself will lead to weight gain, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and fatty liver. 6 Steps to a Skinny Liver The good news is you can turn all this around with simple, effective changes that burn fat in the liver. Obesity in the liver responds to many of the same lifestyle interventions that an obese body does. Here are 6 easy steps to reverse fatty liver to skinny liver: 1. Exercise Regularly According to the 2017 European Congress on Obesity, daily exercise by itself reduces fat in the liver. A sedentary lifestyle makes you less sensitive to insulin; sitting for just 2 hours after a meal can raise blood sugar and impair insulin sensitivity. Every little bit helps – even very small amounts of daily physical activity were shown to diminish fat in the liver, so just get started moving and know that your efforts are improving your liver health, no matter how small. 2. Eliminate Fructose From Your Diet Whether it’s from fruit juices, whole fruits, or foods and drinks with high fructose corn syrup, fructose has been clearly shown to cause fatty liver, using the same mechanism as alcohol to induce the damage. Everyone has heard how alcohol damages the liver, now it’s time to spread the word that fructose damages the liver the same way. Limit your fructose consumption to 25 grams or less a day to protect your liver. To do this, you need to become a label reader because even lunch meat, sausages, and packaged seasoning mixes contain high fructose corn syrup; it’s not just sodas anymore. Replace high fructose choices with pure water, leafy green vegetables, and roasted dandelion root tea. It’s important to stay away from artificial sweeteners, because using them as a substitute for fructose is trading one health problem for another. Artificial sweeteners have been shown to have toxic effects on the brain and pancreas, and harm the health-protective microbiome in the gut. 3. Choose Your Fats Wisely Once fat starts building up in the liver, these fat cells begin to secrete chemicals that trigger inflammation and cause oxidative stress. If poor lifestyle choices continue, hormone imbalances and liver damage are the result. If we consume inflammatory fats in the diet, like processed vegetable oils (soy, canola, corn) and saturated fats from animals raised in confined feedlots (CAFOs), these fats will contribute to this vicious cycle and our liver health will decline. The anti-inflammatory fats found in fatty fish – EPA and DHA – are essential for turning this process around. Unfortunately, many of our waters have become so contaminated it’s hard to know which fish are safe to eat anymore. A good quality fish oil supplement is your safest choice. Our Super-EPA comes from pristine South Pacific waters and undergoes molecular distillation to remove any trace of contaminants, with purity confirmed by our lab testing. 4. Eat Liver-Healing Foods High fiber, low carb vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and leafy greens are some of the healthiest choices you can make for your liver. These foods promote good digestive health and escort the harmful fatty acids out of the body, while nourishing your cells with much-needed minerals and vitamins. A daily handful of nuts, especially walnuts, have been shown to improve liver function tests (LFTs), while avocado and olive oil not only improve LFTs but also help with weight loss. The best news comes for coffee drinkers. Regular, filtered, unsweetened coffee has been shown in studies to reduce the risk of fibrosis and advanced liver disease, as well as reverse NAFLD itself. Limit your intake to 24 ounces or less per day, and make sure to use a shade grown, high altitude, light to medium roast for the maximum health benefits. Taking our Weight Loss Formula with your morning coffee gives you a synergistic blend of nutrients to fast-track weight loss while promoting liver health. 5. Build Better Bile The primary job of this “liquid gold” is to break down fats to be digested and eliminated. Bile is also a potent detoxifier and so valuable to your body you will recycle it over and over until it becomes thick and congested. To get bile free-flowing and able to process toxins and fats from the liver, you need 6 main nutrients: choline, which is the must-have nutrient for fatty liver; taurine, to increase bile production and reduce cholesterol in the liver and the blood; beet root, which contains betaine to thin the bile and help with detoxification; pancreatic lipase, the main digestive enzyme used to break down fats; ox bile, to give your bile production an extra boost while your liver is healing; and collinsonia root, an herbal remedy used through the ages to prevent constipation and cleanse the gallbladder, the storehouse for bile. Our Bile Builder was specially formulated to contain all of these nutrients to promote healthy bile flow and optimal fat digestion. 6. Love Your Liver Fatty liver can be linked to toxicity. As fat starts to accumulate in the liver, so do toxins, which can lead to weight gain, chronic fatigue, digestive problems, headaches, and cardiovascular disease. Supporting the liver’s detoxification pathways and taking the load off are important steps toward a healthy, skinny liver. An effective, old-time remedy is to use castor oil packs. A 4-fold thickness of white wool flannel is soaked in warm castor oil then placed on the right side of the abdomen over the liver, with a hot water bottle on top to keep it warm. Our Liver-Lovin Formula supports Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detox pathways to help process and eliminate toxins from the liver. This unique green blend is loaded with antioxidants to energize you, and boosts bile production to help with better fat digestion and absorption. By increasing your daily exercise, changing your diet to reduce fructose and increase fiber-rich vegetables, and adding in a few nutritional supplements, your liver can go from fatty to skinny and regain its optimal health.
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The Collagen Conundrum
Is collagen-boosting bone broth powder safe? What do beautiful skin, thick hair, strong bones, and flexible joints all have in common? The answer is collagen, the most abundant protein in the human body. Pound for pound collagen is stronger than steel, yet it remains flexible and stretchable. Starting at 21 years of age, collagen production declines at a rate of up to 1 percent per year, and signs of aging can appear on our skin as fine wrinkles starting as young as our late twenties. It is at this point we start looking for supplements to firm up our skin again, and while collagen-boosting protein powders are all the rage right now, there is growing concern over what’s actually in these bone broth powders and whether they’re doing more harm than good. Collagen 101 Collagen is found in the connective tissues of our skin, teeth, hair, nails, organs, joints, bones, muscles, blood vessels, and digestive system. Collagen is made up of the amino acids Glycine, Arginine, Proline, and Hydroxyproline. Our bodies can make collagen from these building blocks plus other supporting nutrients, but collagen is rich in the animal proteins we eat, and our bodies can use this bioavailable collagen as well. Choose Your Animal Proteins Carefully The least desirable cuts of meat and bones for soup are some of the most collagen-rich foods available. The gristle that runs through grassfed beef is full of collagen, and the gelatin that comes from cooking bones for an extended period of time is essentially cooked collagen, which our bodies thrive on. Homemade bone broths cooked low and slow for several hours are a superfood for collagen production. However, when it comes to storebought bone broth or bone broth supplement powders, not all have been created equally. The quality of the meat we eat is important; animals raised in confined feeding operations (CAFOs) contribute to antibiotic resistance and contain antibiotic residues in their meat, and these animals are exposed to poor living conditions while contributing to environmental pollution. In addition, the bones of these animals have been found to contain heavy metals including lead, pesticides, fluoride, and even radiation. Basically, whatever these animals have been fed and exposed to in their environment gets stored in their tissues, especially bone. Buyer Beware: The Bitter Truth About Bone Broth Powders When you buy bone broth, unless it’s organic then it’s likely been sourced from animals raised on factory farms. Remember, bone broths are cooked for extended periods of time, so the bones break down and release their nutrients in to the broth – and their contaminants. Bone broth powders are bone broths that are cooked even longer then dehydrated, which concentrates their toxins even more. The FDA allows shockingly high levels of chemicals and toxins in non-organic products, and recent lab testing done by the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center confirms this. Several bone broth products were tested in their independent laboratory, and the results were alarming. So alarming, in fact, that they were removed from their website and the following statements had to be issued in place of their findings: “After reviewing consumer feedback about the lab tests, Consumer Wellness Center has learned that many people are misinterpreting these results, and some are taking them out of context… To clarify, these tests were conducted on non-organic products derived from animals, and in that category almost every product on the shelf will likely show trace amounts of antibiotics, insecticides and certain pharmacological drugs… Although this was stated in the CWC video, at no point did the CWC assert that the products tested were acutely dangerous or running afoul of FDA regulations. The FDA allows astonishing levels of many chemicals in non-organic products, and this is frequently reflected and affirmed in scientific lab testing results.” If you must buy your bone broth, choose one with at least 95 percent organic ingredients, and when it comes to beef bone broth, make sure it’s grassfed. Preventing Collagen Loss If all the concerns around commercial bone broth products leave a bad taste in your mouth, then consider removing the anti-nutrients that damage your collagen, and supplementing with nutrients that strengthen collagen and promote its production. Lower Your Sugar Intake. Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) are formed from blood sugars attaching to proteins, which target collagen, making it, dry, brittle, and weak. The hallmark of this process is dry, crepe-like, sagging skin, which is especially noticeable when hanging down from the upper arms. A high sugar diet speeds up this process, causing the look of premature aging. The best defense is a low carb diet, with only minimal amounts of fruit to limit sugar intake. Quit smoking. Nicotine constricts the blood vessels in the skin, causing reduced blood flow and delivery of nutrients and oxygen, which damages delicate tissue. Even the chemicals present in secondhand smoke damage both the collagen and elastin proteins in the skin, causing skin to thin, wrinkle, and age. The Top 5 Collagen-Boosting Nutrients Beauty is an inside job, and lacking key nutrients for collagen production will make us look older than we really are. Choose restorative nutrients in your diet and nutritional supplements and turn back the clock on aging, both inside and out. See 5 ways to boost collagen below! Grassfed Whey Protein Powder: this sulfur-rich anti-aging protein is one of nature’s most effective foods for boosting collagen production. Not only is this perfect protein necessary for healthy skin, but our non-GMO Fat Flush Whey Protein doesn’t contain the chemicals, antibiotics, pesticides, or heavy metals found in conventional bone broth supplements. Vitamin C: in combination with Lysine, Proline, and EGCG (green tea extract) makes your cells like an impenetrable fortress and strengthens the collagen matrix so no intruders – like free radicals – can get through and cause damage. Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath, MD, have researched this powerful combination of nutrients and found it to be effective even in stopping the spread of cancer. L-Arginine: as one of the building blocks of collagen, this amino acid is essential for protein synthesis, skin damage repair, and wound healing. In addition to collagen and elastin production, L-Arginine is commonly included in nutritional supplements for increasing nitric oxide production to promote healthy cardiovascular function. TMG (trimethylglycine): this heart-healthy, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, potent detoxifier is also a rich source of glycine, one of the main building blocks of collagen. TMG is best known for its energy-boosting effects, but also promotes healthy brain balance and good digestion, and is commonly recommended for those with an MTHFR genetic defect. Niacin (Vitamin B3): not only does niacin promote healthy collagen production, it also decreases protein glycation, which is the process that forms AGEs from a high sugar diet. In addition, niacin protects the skin form harmful sunlight radiation and promotes cardiovascular health. There’s no need to expose ourselves to products like bone broth powders to build healthy collagen, which can increase our toxic load over time. Using homemade bone broths and supplementing with collagen-building nutrients, while avoiding collagen anti-nutrients, we can provide the optimal conditions for the collagen our bodies need to keep connective tissues healthy and strong.
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At-Home Health Tests That Can Save Your Life
We all have times when our energy level is down, motivation is lacking, and we’re feeling tired all the time. Maybe it’s from too much stress, too little sleep, or that junk food habit that’s taken over your diet, but it could be an indicator of something more serious. Sometimes these nagging health concerns are hard to diagnose through conventional medical testing until they’re a full-blown medical emergency. This is where Functional Medicine shines. You can do your own detective work and get early answers through easy, at-home health tests, then follow up with natural therapies to feel better faster and reach optimal health – before you reach a health crisis. Cellular Level Health Good health starts at the cellular level. Your body has a continuous cycle going on of building up and breaking down called cell turnover, which helps you stay healthy and vibrant. Your metabolism is in the driver’s seat on this process. When you are breaking down more than you are building up, your metabolism drives your body to become more acidic and disease naturally follows. Any type of stress, whether it’s from lack of sleep, poor diet, a fight you had with your spouse, a traffic jam, unpaid bills, family problems, over-exercising or just the struggles of daily life, can drive you into acidity. When studies show stress causes up to 90 percent of our doctor visits, for everything from headaches and high blood pressure, to heart problems, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, skin conditions, depression, and anxiety, it makes sense to find a test you can do at home and ways to support your health while you learn to manage your stress. Dr. Russell Jaffe, a Functional Medicine pioneer, recommends the Urine Acidity Test first thing in the morning, after at least 6 hours of rest. When your urine has a pH of less than 6.5 first thing in the morning, it’s a sign that toxins in your body are accumulating and you’ve become more acidic at the cellular level. It’s a simple test to do: collect a sample of your first-morning urine in a clean cup, and dip a small strip of pH test paper in it. These strips are simple, easy-to-use components of home health testing you can obtain at any pharmacy. If you are acidic at the cell level, it’s time to increase the amount of vegetables in your diet and decrease animal proteins. Shifting the balance of your diet to become more alkaline and rich in minerals like magnesium and potassium will buffer the acidity and bring your body back into balance. Gut Health Problems with your digestive health can come on gradually and be hard to recognize until they’ve turned into a medical diagnosis. Intestinal Transit Time is a good way to measure your digestive health before it becomes a problem. Transit time is the amount of time it takes for the food you eat to pass through and be eliminated. When transit time is slow, toxins are reabsorbed and recirculated through the liver and stored in fat cells, which leads to you feeling fat, sick and tired. When transit time is too fast, nutrients aren’t absorbed causing deficiencies in vitamins and minerals like potassium, which can lead to life-threatening cardiac issues if left unchecked. Ideal transit time is 12 to 18 hours from the time you eat something until it is eliminated. We can test this by taking 1.5 to 3 grams of activated charcoal tablets, then watching for when the black, crumbly tablets pass through in the stool. If your transit time is far from ideal, it’s time for a high fiber diet along with a 30-Day Colon Cleanse Kit to get your digestive health back on track. You can read more about the importance of colon cleansing here. Thyroid Health If you suffer from chronic constipation, fatigue, easy weight gain, muscle weakness or pain, depression, dry skin, cold intolerance, and/or heavy menstrual periods, you may be among the 20 million Americans with thyroid disease, and in the 60 percent of those who are unaware of even having this condition. At the risk of sounding cliche, there’s a home health test for that (well, at least in part). Dr. Broda Barnes was one of those old-time physicians who believed blood tests weren’t the only way to diagnose a health problem. He found many people who had a normal thyroid (TSH) blood test would have an abnormal body temperature, and treating them with natural, dessicated thyroid resolved most, if not all, of their symptoms. Measuring Basal Body Temperature is one of the easiest at-home health tests to do. Take you first morning temperature – before you get out of bed – in your armpit for 10 minutes, using an old-fashioned non-digital thermometer. Because there are normal variations with air temperature and hormone changes, do this for at least 10 days. It’s OK if you miss a day here or there, just get 10 days’ worth of measurements and write them on a piece of paper. Normal basal body temperature ranges between 97.8 and 98.2 degrees F. Look at your readings. If they are consistently below 97.8, then you may have low thyroid function, especially if your symptoms match. If your temperature seems like it’s all over the place, you may have adrenal fatigue. If your temperature is all over the place but always lower than 97.8, you may have low thyroid function and adrenal fatigue. Low thyroid function is a great reason to visit your Functional Medicine doctor. They can prescribe a natural dessicated thyroid like Armour, Westhroid or NatureThroid, and you can go back to monitoring your basal body temperature after a few weeks to see how you’re responding to the medication. While you wait to see your doctor, consider taking 200mcg Selenium, a good Magnesium supplement, 3mg of boron, EPA and DHA, and an iodine supplement daily to support your thyroid health. Adrenal Health If your Basal Body Temperature testing shows signs of adrenal fatigue, then you may want to do the Flashlight Test for adrenal exhaustion. Fatigue not relieved by rest, hypoglycemia, food allergies, weakened immunity that leaves you prone to sickness, foggy thinking, forgetfulness, inability to handle stress, and anxiety are all signs of tired adrenal glands. These glands produce your stress hormones and are activated during your “fight or flight” response to stress. One of your body’s “fight or flight” responses is dilated pupils. When you are under chronic stress, your adrenals become fatigued or exhausted and your pupils don’t respond to light the same way they would if your adrenals had not been overstimulated. While you are looking in the mirror, shine a bright light into one of your eyes, from the side of your eye, not directly into it. Healthy adrenal function will cause your pupil to constrict and get smaller, and stay that way until the light is removed. If your adrenals are fatigued or exhausted, your pupil will contract for less than 30 seconds, or will alternately constrict and dilate, not able to hold either for more than a few seconds. When all signs point to weakened adrenals, it’s time to test and supplement. UNI KEY’s Adrenal Stress Panel is a comprehensive at-home test you can do to measure your adrenal function through saliva testing. You can start supporting your adrenals with Adrenal Formula, which contains the nutrients that nourish your adrenals and glandulars to support their functioning. Avoid stimulants like caffeine and sugar, which stress adrenals and add to your problem, even when they seem to provide temporary relief. Simple, inexpensive home health testing tools like urine pH test strips, activated charcoal tablets, and an old-fashioned thermometer can help you take charge of your health and identify issues before they become a full-blown medical diagnosis. Natural solutions found in the form of diet and supplements can turn the tide and help you reach optimal health instead of disease.
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James Talks: Dealing with Grief
All of us, at some time in our lives, will experience grief. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, divorce, job loss, a devastating illness, or a loss of whatever is really important to you, we all mourn. We all end up dealing with grief. I’ve been through the grieving process multiple times in my life; I lost both my parents and my brother in my childhood, and in adulthood was diagnosed with terminal cancer and went through a divorce while fighting this death sentence. I missed much of my daughter’s childhood fighting for my life. That’s a lot of grief for a young man to shoulder, but I came out on top by finding ways to deal with loss and grief and you can, too. Sometimes it seems like grief runs so deep it affects every cell in your body. It’s such a shock to the system it feels like all you can do is just try to survive. Dealing with grief can make you so distraught and emotionally unstable that it’s tempting to drink your sorrows away, or “reward yourself” with sweets, carbs, and alcohol. Or maybe for you the challenge is getting your appetite back and eating anything at all. I’m here to tell you all of us have weaknesses that want to come out during times of stress and trials, but you have to dig down deep and find your strength, find your reasons to live and thrive again. Fight back! Every single one of us has a time that gets us down or sets us back, where someone gives up on us or kicks us to the curb. But it’s not about what gets you down; it’s about getting back up. I learned to cope with grief by getting up and doing something about it. I went out and exercised, got out in nature, and set small goals and stayed focused on achieving them. You have to decide that rather than getting arthritis in the wrist from opening the fridge all day to self-medicate with food, you instead choose to take charge and decide it’s not going to defeat you – decide to come out on top. There is so much more in life for you to look forward to, live it well in memory of whom you’ve lost. Grief Can Literally Make You Sick The loss of someone you love is one of life’s most stressful events. Grief is a risk factor for cancer, heart problems, high blood pressure, and severe depression. You can die of a broken heart; Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy is known as “broken heart syndrome,” where extreme emotion temporarily causes a chamber in the heart to balloon and mimics the symptoms of a heart attack. Also, your risk of a heart attack increases 21 fold in the 24 hours following the loss of a loved one, so any chest pain during mourning needs to be addressed immediately because of this risk. Grief can also impact your immune system, your body’s first line of defense. The stress causes an increase in the stress hormone cortisol, which suppresses the immune system by reducing neutrophil immune cell function. Normally the hormone DHEA balances out this effect, but if you are over 30 years old or have been under prolonged stress, your levels have decreased, making your immune system more vulnerable. The longer you mourn, the more your immune system is affected, increasing the risk of cancer. This is compounded by the loss in appetite that comes with bereavement and depression, which leads to nutrient deficiencies. Nourish Yourself to Protect Your Health It’s more important than ever during times of emotional stress to nourish your body with nutrient dense foods and supplements. If you’re neglecting eating, you’ll find yourself with low energy and low moods, feeling dead on your feet. If you are comforting yourself with sugars, carbs, and alcohol, you’ll find yourself gaining weight. Feed yourself well; put some life back in. If getting enough calories in is a challenge for you, I recommend a good multivitamin. While nothing can replace a healthy diet, this can get you going in the right direction and replenish some of those missing nutrients that help you have more energy and better moods. If you don’t have the energy to make yourself nutritious meals right now, consider adding a high quality Greens Formula to a glass of water in the morning. These are some of the most nutrient dense foods available and can boost your energy so you can take good care of yourself throughout the day. Because the stress of mourning increases your cortisol levels, it also decreases your pH, and a more acidic body is more prone to disease. In addition to feeding your immune system vital nutrients, our Daily Greens Formula can help increase your pH, which is health protective in the long run. With the stress on the adrenals, which make your stress hormones, a good Adrenal Formula supplement is your first line of defense to maintain your health while grieving. Choose one with B vitamins including pantothenic acid, immune support like vitamins A and C and zinc, and adrenal glandular extracts to support healthy glands. Avoid caffeine and other stimulants in your diet that only “rob Peter to pay Paul” and create a nutrient deficit you’ll have to make up later. If your moods are low and you just can’t see your way out of it, our Ultra H-3 has a long history of more than 60 years of helping to raise moods and increase energy and mental clarity. Noted cardiologist Ana Aslan, MD conducted clinical trials on GH3, the original formula that Ultra H-3 is based on, and found mood, energy, heart, bone and joint health improved for many patients. Over the years, we have heard the same from our customers who are faithful to this product. You can read those stories here. Another supplement to consider with depression is 50 to 200mg of 5-HTP. This natural amino acid supplement is the precursor to serotonin, the body’s best-known “feel good” hormone. Serotonin also helps you feel full faster when you eat, helping with those sugar and carb cravings. Anxiety is another common symptom that comes along with grief, and GABA is the calming neurotransmitter supplement of choice. The dose range really varies with this one, from 200mg per dose in up to 4 doses per day, to 400mg doses 3 times daily. It’s best to start low and work your way up as needed. GABA can make you sleepy, so make sure you try the first doses at home to see how it affects you. Be sure you save a dose for bedtime to beat the insomnia that can come when dealing with grief. The Omega 3 essential fatty acids found in fish oil are not only heart protective but also have been shown to help with moods in the long term. Our Super-EPA is the cleanest fish oil I’ve found, and provides the ideal daily dose and ratio you need to get back on your feet with your health. The balance of Omega fats found in this blend of fish oils has been shown to remove harmful fats from the blood and reduce inflammation that leads to heart disease. Be An Overcomer Last week, as I stood at the top of a beautiful mountain ski run, overlooking some of the most beautiful scenery on this earth, I stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, and enjoyed it for my dad, too. I could choose to live a life of regret and sorrow, always looking back to what could have been, but I’m too much of a fighter for that. If you find yourself struggling with grief, I understand the pain you’re going through. I want you to know you can choose to move past that, overcome the grief, and live your best life. Get out in nature, nourish yourself with healthy food and nutritional supplements, and set small goals you can focus on and achieve to help you move past the pain you’re in right now. If I can overcome grief after all I’ve been through, I belief anyone can.
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