Health News
Beat Sugar Cravings for Good!
The truth is out – sugar, not healthy fats, is the real culprit behind diet-related health issues like diabetes and obesity. Because sugar is more addictive than cocaine, sugar cravings can feel impossible to overcome on willpower alone. Cutting sugar out is one of the hardest dietary changes to make because our stressed out, sleep deprived, always on-the-go lifestyles make us crave that quick pick-me-up all the more. It’s time for real life tips on how to beat sugar cravings so you can get on track to a healthy diet and weight once and for all. Get Off the Blood Sugar and Insulin Roller Coaster When you eat a meal or snack high in sugar and refined carbs, your blood sugar spikes quickly. This stimulates the release of insulin, which is good, because it escorts that sugar out of the blood and into the cells where it can be burned for fuel. But high insulin causes the sugar to be taken into the cells more quickly, which causes hypoglycemia, or a sugar low. Low blood sugar causes you to crave sugar; it’s a protective mechanism so your sugar doesn’t go life-threateningly low. This is the #1 reason you crave sugar. Back in mankind’s hunter-gatherer time this was good, because available carbs were healthy. They didn’t have the concession stand at the ball game or the racks of candy bars and coolers of soda at the gas station to tempt them into something quick and high in sugar until they could get a real meal. And when you eat that candy bar or drink that soda your blood sugar spikes again, insulin rises, then blood sugar drops again, and this is the roller coaster ruling your cravings. The key to getting off this dangerous ride is in protein, healthy fats and fiber. Each of these slows gastric emptying, which slows the speed of sugar in the diet turning into sugar (glucose) in the blood. If you start your day with something high in sugar and refined carbs like donuts, you set yourself up for a quick rise in blood sugar, followed by a sharp drop, which brings on a craving for more sugar to fix the problem. Ever had a high carb breakfast only to be starving again mid-morning? That’s the blood sugar and insulin roller coaster. Instead, start your day with a healthy meal involving protein, healthy fats and fiber, and you get a slow, steady release of sugar over time instead of a spike, so the highs and lows never come. Include this power trio in several small meals and snacks throughout your day, and watch your cravings disappear. Beat Sugar Cravings with Supplements Have you ever tried to go cold turkey on sugar only to have the cravings draw you back in? It takes menu planning and meal preparation time to change your diet to whole, natural foods and eliminate the processed foods and sweets. Let’s face it – our fast-paced lifestyles don’t make it easy to make these changes. According to Ann Louise Gittleman’s book Get the Sugar Out, these supplements can help bridge the gap until you’re ready to make the lifestyle leap for better health: A little L-Glutamine goes a long way. Times of stress lead to several amino acid deficiencies, and often diet alone isn’t enough to overcome them. A diet high in sugar and refined carbs also pushes out nutrient dense foods and causes these same amino acid deficiencies. When these amino acids are low, “feel good” neurotransmitters like serotonin are low and cause sugar cravings for the boost in mood we get. L-Glutamine in 500 mg doses 3 times per day can cut the sugar cravings almost instantly, according to Ann Louise. It’s a simple short-term solution while you work out the long-term diet changes. Chromium, Manganese and Zinc are often deficient when diet is high in sugar and refined carbs. Supplementing with these minerals helps beat the cravings by doing their part to control blood sugar levels and keep you off the roller coaster. Chromium is usually dosed at 200-600 mg daily, Manganese is 10-30 mg daily, and 30-50 mg of Zinc. In a time crunch, a high quality vegan pea and rice protein powder used in your favorite morning smoothie recipe can balance out those carbs, calm the sugar highs and lows, and stop the cravings before they start. Whey protein and low glycemic grain and vegetable proteins are good choices, make sure they are non-GMO with no sugar added. Hungry for more? If you’re ready to curb your sweet tooth and improve your health, Ann Louise’s book Get the Sugar Out has over 500 tips to help you get the sugar out of your diet.
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James Talks: Lessons Learned
As a 30-year survivor of Stage IV Melanoma, I understand what it takes to beat cancer and live a long and healthy life. (Read my story here) Because UNI KEY Health is all about universal keys to health and healing, I’d like to give you 10 key lessons I’ve learned on my healing journey: 1. Take control. When this illness hit me, all I knew was to go to a doctor, have them tell me what’s wrong and fix it. But what they had to offer only made me feel worse, and I felt like I was losing the battle. Most of us are taught to be patients, to sit quietly and do what we’re told. I learned through research and the healing testimonies of others that I could take control and do things that felt right to me. So I charged like a bull into my own healing, and it worked. 2. Fully commit. Go all in and do whatever it takes to heal. You have to do the research, create a plan, do the work and have faith you will heal. You need to believe 100% that the path you’ve chosen is the one that will heal you. It’s not an easy battle – you need to fight like you’re in the ring with the prize-fighter, going for the heavyweight title. 3. Stay positive. Even when I couldn’t do much more than rest in bed and prepare a few meals, I stayed positive. I visualized my healing, and how I wanted to live my life. I researched and read healing stories from people using the same techniques I was to get inspired. I didn’t let worry, doubt or depression get a hold of me. One thing I’ve done from the day I took control of my health is set goals for myself, and each time I reach one, I set another. 4. Eat a clean, healthy diet. I researched the macrobiotic diet and had confidence it would work for me. But, the diet that got me healthy isn’t the diet that keeps me healthy. After working with Dr. Hazel Parcells, I expanded my diet and transitioned away from macrobiotics. (Diet is so important for maintaining health, I’ll go into greater detail about it in my next post.) There are many diets for cancer prevention and healing out there, and most have several things in common. The most important points are: eliminate processed foods and sugar choose organic foods reduce or eliminate meat and dairy eat a lot of vegetables, especially dark leafy greens small amounts of low glycemic fruits for an occasional treat replace coffee, soda, milk and juice with a lot of filtered water 5. Find a healing community. Because I was so committed to healing, I wasn’t tempted to go back to living the way I had been before I got sick. But I was lonely, and I wanted others to share my journey and help me stay focused. Once I surrounded myself with people who were on the same path I was, it was easier and more enjoyable to live my new lifestyle. 6. Tune in emotionally and spiritually. Unloading emotional baggage and developing a deep spiritual practice opened me up to levels of healing I wasn’t even aware I needed. Deep breathing exercises, visualization, meditation, and connecting with nature have been an integral part of my healing journey. 7. Supplement with herbs and vitamins. I started using Vitamin C in fairly high doses early in my healing, and I noticed I seemed to feel better than others around me healing from cancer. I later added Iscador (mistletoe injections) at the advice of my holistic-minded doctor and found even more healing. These 2 experiences gave me the confidence I needed to use other healing herbs and supplements when I learned from Ann Louise Gittleman and Dr. Hermann Bueno that I had parasites. 8. Stay open-minded and keep learning. I was shocked to learn about parasites. It never occurred to me this could be an issue in our hygiene-focused society. But researching them, finding out which ones I had, then treating for those specific parasites led to another level of healing for me. Cancer survival is usually measured at 5 years and sometimes 10 years, because the rate of recurrence is so high. I pay attention to new therapies and research new products to beat the odds. 9. Find the root causes, detox and rebuild. Tooth issues, heavy metals, nutrient poor diets, contaminated water, toxic mold exposure, candida, parasites, EMFs, radiation, stress, and toxic emotions – these are some of the root causes to diseases that manifest in our bodies. Once I learned this, it started a fire in me to teach others and provide resources for healing. This is what UNI KEY Health is all about. 10. Live with a purpose. Healing is hard work, and it needs to last a lifetime. Find what makes your life worth living and worth fighting for. Realize your own value, you alone are worth the battle. I’ve been strong and steady in my healing for 30 years now. My life changed when I woke up with the vision to start UNI KEY Health. Now, I’m not only researching and trying new products for me, it’s for you, too.
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James Talks: Surviving Cancer, Part 5
Read the Introduction, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4 of Surviving Cancer Getting Inspired When I left the Kushi Institute, I knew it was time for growth beyond the macrobiotic lifestyle and the supportive community there, but I didn’t have a clear direction. Ann Louise Gittleman inspired me, and what she taught me changed the course of my life. I felt better than I had in my entire life, and wanted to teach others what I had learned. I realized if I had issues like parasites probably a lot of other people did, too. I wanted to share everything I learned from Ann Louise and all the holistic doctors I’d seen with others who needed it. I was so consumed with this idea, I woke up in the middle of the night with the inspiration to start a company to share these universal keys to health. And that’s the night Uni Key Health Systems was created. Helping Others Santa Fe, New Mexico was a very health conscious area and that’s the main reason we chose to move there. Ann Louise had such a good reputation that she had a busy schedule seeing clients right away. I started seeing clients in the back room of the house. I taught about parasites and offered testing and cleansing protocols. It was helping people. They would do a parasite detox and feel great. Word of mouth spread, and it wasn’t long before we were both working 7 days a week, each seeing up to 10 people per day. I sent people to the local health food stores to get products, but they couldn’t always find them. Even something as simple as magnesium for constipation wasn’t always in stock. So I started carrying a few products in the back room, and transitioned to starting Uni Key. Leaving My Comfort Zone I added a few supplements to my personal healing regimen, but I was still following macrobiotic principles. I didn’t eat out and cooked my own food everywhere, even when traveling. My digestion was better since the parasite cleanses, but I was still a little underweight. Ann Louise decided it was time for me to meet her mentor, Dr. Hazel Parcells. Dr. Parcells was over 100 years old when I met her, and you wouldn’t know it because she was the picture of health. I took a good look at her, so full of energy and with such vitality, an inspiration at her advanced age. I knew when I met her I wanted to learn everything I could from her. I started going to her seminars and classes, and took every opportunity I could to be with her. Eventually I got to spend some time alongside her in her lab. She taught me how to formulate products, how to detox, and the importance of getting to the root of health problems. One day, she invited me to join her for lunch. She cooked her meals in a crock pot in her lab. She was serving beans and ham hocks, which was as far from my macrobiotic diet as you could get, so I refused. She said I needed to eat animal protein so I wouldn’t get sick again. I looked at her for a minute and realized I should probably take note considering who she was! Until that point, I had never heard of anything but vegetarian diets for people healing from cancer. I researched thoroughly, and found other doctors getting good results with diets including meat and potatoes for melanoma patients. Dr. Parcells convinced me that I could eat anything if you clean it up the right way. That’s when I started my transition away from the macrobiotic diet and began eating animal protein again. I felt better and had more energy, and was finally at a healthy weight. She taught me how to guide myself through this toxic world and stay healthy. Moving Forward We stayed in New Mexico for 2 years, but I didn’t feel as good there, because of radiation exposure from Los Alamos. Our next move brought us to Montana, where I thrived. For 10 years, I did live blood testing in my office. I was busy all the time, with a very large practice just doing this. The blood doesn’t lie, it tells the underlying story, if you know how to look for it. I could see everything from bacteria and candida yeast to heavy metals and so much more. Today, the business has grown to the point where I no longer am able to see clients. Now, I serve people by researching new products, and almost always take them myself. For the last 15 years we’ve been located in beautiful Hayden Lake, Idaho, where we moved in 2003 in order to better support the business’ growth on all levels. After 25 years in business, the original tenets I founded UNI KEY on are still what it’s all about. Getting education and products to people to address underlying causes, then detoxify and rebuild. And that includes me, too. Now that I’ve beat cancer for over 30 years, I will never take my health for granted as a Melanoma cancer survivor. I’m going to do whatever it takes. Stay tuned for my next blog where I’ll share what I’ve learned during my journey–both past and present.
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Can’t Lose Weight? The Stress Factor
The warm weather is here, and with it comes the latest styles of swimsuits, crop tops, and shorts. Are you ready to bare your midriff? Or, are you frustrated because no matter how much you exercise and try to eat right, that muffin top is still there? The answer to this stubborn belly fat may be in your stress level, and the cortisol connection. Stress and Cortisol Connection to Weight Loss Before grocery stores and farmers markets, people had to hunt for their food. And the stress response was life saving when we had to run from a bear or fight for survival. This same fight-or-flight response, also known as the sympathetic nervous system, is active in your body when you are late for an appointment, having an argument, or watching your favorite team in a close game. As your heart races and your blood pressure rises, cortisol is behind the scenes triggering a cascade of hormones and enzymes signaling your body to store the needed energy to handle these stressors. And that energy storage is your body fat. According to Ann Louise Gittleman’s the New Fat Flush Plan, cortisol is drawn to your belly to store fat. The fat cells deep in your abdomen are a fast source of energy during stress, and have 4 times more cortisol receptors than the fat cells just under the skin. Stress hormones like cortisol aren’t all bad; in healthy amounts they power us through the day. These anti-inflammatory hormones are involved in almost every process in the body, keeping your energy levels up, your immune system strong and your cells healthy. They are key regulators of insulin and blood sugar balance, bone and muscle building, sleep cycles, sex drive, moods, mental clarity and focus. Overachievers and Sympathetic Dominance What happens when stress is psychological and there’s no bear to run from? Chronic worrying, pushing yourself to do too much, and the classic Type A workaholic personality all cause chronic high levels of cortisol, and the fat storage continues. If you were running from a bear or fighting for survival, you would burn through these energy stores, but with psychological stress you just put on extra pounds. And it has a snowball effect, because the stress and high cortisol increase appetite especially for sugary foods, which raises insulin and causes cortisol to spike even higher. This pattern is known as sympathetic dominance, and can be seen in saliva stress hormone testing and in hair tissue mineral analysis. Test, Don’t Guess Some use of the sympathetic nervous system is healthy, but how do you know when you’ve had too much of a good thing? If fatigue, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure or blood sugar issues accompany the weight gain, then it may be time to do some testing and get a clearer picture of what’s going on behind the scenes. Saliva testing is a simple, non-invasive way to measure cortisol and associated hormones like insulin, DHEA, and progesterone. Because there is a natural variation in cortisol levels throughout the day, known as the circadian rhythm, cortisol is measured 4 separate times throughout the day, corresponding with its natural highs and lows. This testing puts together a good picture of your adrenal health and cortisol levels. If you’ve been fighting the battle of the bulge for a long time, and diet, exercise and supplements don’t seem to be helping, a more complete analysis of what’s going on in your body may solve the mystery. Tissue Mineral Analysis (TMA) is a detailed test that use a hair sample to look at mineral levels and ratios to determine nutritional deficiencies and toxicities, as well as patterns associated with disease tendencies. During stress, sodium and potassium are eliminated from the body through hair, sweat and urine. According to Dr. Lawrence Wilson, a hair analysis result with a low potassium level, elevated sodium/potassium ratio and slow oxidation rate is indicative of sympathetic dominance and exhaustion. Keys to Balanced Cortisol for Maximum Weight Loss If chronic stress has derailed your best weight loss efforts, it’s time to bring cortisol back in balance and shed those unwanted pounds. Here are Ann Louise Gittleman’s top tips from her best-selling Fat Flush Plan: Avoid the known cortisol boosters: caffeine, sugar, alcohol and cigarettes. Just 15 ounces of coffee raises stress hormone levels and reduces your threshold for stress, so you aren’t able to handle it as well. High cortisol causes sugar cravings; sugar and alcohol act similarly to each other to raise insulin levels and skyrocket cortisol. Cigarettes cause a jump in cortisol 30 minutes after each one smoked. Get a good night’s sleep. Lack of sleep raises cortisol and high cortisol causes insomnia. Sleep deprivation affects not only energy levels and immunity, but impairs glucose tolerance and changes the way the body handles food. This leads to insulin resistance and obesity. Exercise in moderation. Regular, moderate exercise burns fat and trains your body to use cortisol efficiently. It also fulfills the fight-or-flight response, because the body thinks you’ve run from the bear, so it switches into resting, digesting and healing. Exercising too much is also a stress on the body and increases cortisol levels. Change your relationship with stress. No matter how hard you try, you can’t avoid stress. There is always something that needs to be done or worries that come up. It’s your relationship with stress that can be changed. Breathing exercises that calm the sympathetic response, exercises with tapping on meridians, meditation, journaling emotions, and your spiritual practice all help you change your stress response and lower cortisol. Choose medications and supplements carefully. The class of medications known as corticosteroids are synthetic hormones that contain potent cortisols and keep you in sympathetic dominance. Some hormone replacement therapies and diet pills also stimulate cortisol production. Supplements like ephedra, guarana, ma huang, caffeine and other stimulants used for energy can boost cortisol, even to dangerous levels. Supplements created for adrenal support and balancing cortisol can be helpful. Choose supplements that nourish with nutrients like Vitamin C, Pantothenic acid, Vitamin B6, and amino acids like tyrosine. If glandular support is needed, choose supplements with the adrenal cortex, so a balance of hormones is provided, not just the stimulants.
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James Talks: Surviving Cancer, Part 4
Since the day I crawled out of that hospital, I have led my own healing. I started out wanting everyone to do it for me, I was scared and just wanted to stay alive. But what those doctors did felt toxic, and didn’t promise a good survival rate.
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James Talks: Surviving Cancer, Part 3
I felt alive again, better than I had in my whole life. Macrobiotics really turned things around for me and set me on the path of natural healing. But I was lonely, and I wanted to be around others living...
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More Than A Gut Feeling: The Gut-Brain Connection
Ever had butterflies in your stomach, or been so nervous you’re nauseous? You can thank the connection between your gut and your brain for what you’re feeling. We’ve known for decades the brain can send signals to cause these sensations, but researchers are finding out the nervous system in the gut is...
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James Talks: Surviving Cancer, Part 2
I felt like a guinea pig. All I could do each day during 8 to 10 hours of experimental chemo was lay in my hospital bed. I was feverish, weak, tired and nauseous all the time. It was like the worst case of of flu I could imagine...
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James Talks: Introduction
My Story – Surviving Cancer My name is James Templeton, and I am the founder of UNI KEY Health. I’d like to introduce myself to you, because I have a story to share. You see, I am a 30 year survivor of Stage IV Melanoma cancer. I hear it’s pretty remarkable to beat cancer using natural therapies, and still be going strong over 30 years after the expiration date I was given. I want to share my personal cancer survivor story, to give you first-hand information on what I call the “universal keys to health” that I discovered during my personal battle with cancer and inspire you to find your own healing path. Getting Diagnosed I was 32 years old and life was great. Married with a 2 year old daughter, living on a small farm in Texas, I owned a few businesses and was well on my way to becoming a millionaire. I was living what was considered a healthy lifestyle, because I have a strong family history of heart disease. My father died of a heart attack when I was only 17 years old, and his father also died young from heart disease. Based on books like “Eat to Win” and what I read in running magazines and learned at the health club, I ate a lot of salads and vegetables, very little meat, low fat dairy and whole grains. I ran at least 5 miles every day, many times up to 60 miles per week. But it wasn’t long before I felt tired, pretty much all the time. Environmental allergies worsened. I was feeling generally unwell, and started to feel signs that something wasn’t right. All I knew about health at that time was when you get sick, you go to the doctor. So, I scheduled a checkup and a cardiac stress test with an Internal Medicine doctor. All my results looked great, the doctor said I ‘broke the record” on the treadmill stress test, but mentioned I had a mole on my back I needed to have looked at by a Dermatologist. I had previously been treated for a basal cell skin cancer on the top of my head when I was 24 years old, so I took his advice seriously and saw a Dermatologist a couple of weeks later. The Dermatologist reacted dramatically to the mole on my back, insisting it was a melanoma, and I would need a large area on my back surgically removed. I was turned off by his bedside manner, and followed up instead with the doctor who helped me with the basal cell cancer. He felt it looked suspicious and sent me to his friend who was a world renowned Oncologist, specializing in Melanoma. In case you’re counting, this is the fourth doctor I saw for this mole, and I was concerned and anxious for what I might be dealing with. He took a large, deep biopsy from my back, and said he’d call with the pathology results. As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep much and waited on pins and needles until the results came back about a week later. Stage IV Melanoma, pretty deep, but the initial surgery got it all, so there was no need for further treatment, just monitoring. My whole life changed with this diagnosis. My personality went from relaxed and happy-go-lucky to serious and somewhat depressed. Friends and family were worried I wouldn’t live another year. My wife left with my daughter because the stress of it all was too much for her. I tried to put the cancer behind me and build a new life. I took a new job in a new city, and tried to focus on my career and on taking care of myself. My 6 month checkup changed everything. The Melanoma was back. Leaving Mainstream Medicine My journey in natural healing from cancer started with major surgery. They found lumps in my right groin from swollen lymph nodes, and removed them in a painful and extensive surgery. I felt like I’d been gutted, in more ways than one. The plan was 80 treatments of chemotherapy, plus the possibility of more surgeries and radiation therapy. It was all experimental. Chemotherapy treatments were 8-10 hours long, with 5 days in the hospital afterward. They did hyperthermia, getting my body temperature dangerously high, then they injected typhoid serum, and followed that up with the chemo immediately afterward. I was scheduled for a series of 5 treatments like this every 2 months. It took me almost 2 months to get over each series because of how sick and weak it made me feel. All this misery and a whole lot of expense for only a 20% survival rate. I knew in my heart there had to be a better way, a healthier way. And after enduring 2 series of these chemo treatments, at 2 in the morning, I literally crawled out of that hospital and found it. To Be Continued… One of the things I’ve often heard said of people who get cancer is “he/she is so nice.” I believe it’s true. I was often described as laid back and very nice. And when this all started, I wanted someone else to fight this cancer for me. But I learned you have to get mean, down and dirty to fight cancer. You have to really push yourself. Imagine you are in the boxing ring with the world champion and fight hard, give it everything you’ve got. No one can fight this battle for you, you have to take control of your own health. That’s what UNI KEY is all about, giving you the tools to take your health back. I started this company to provide for myself, and others, what we need to be healthy and live a long, enjoyable, fulfilling life. Thank you for allowing me to share the beginning of my story. Next time, let’s talk about diet and the role it played in my healing. Often times, the diet that gets you healthy is different from the one that keeps you healthy.
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