Stress Arrest: Holiday Edition

By admin | October 25, 2011

The holidays are coming! Am I the only person who genuinely enjoys this time of year? I could do without the hustle, I guess, but I love the holiday cooking and sharing food and family time. If the holiday season stresses you out, take a deep breath and read why stress ruins your health and what to do about it.

I believe that chronic, unabated stress is the initial cause of imbalance in the body, and prolonged imbalance prevents your body from achieving homeostasis, eventually leading to disease. When your body’s daily jobs (like detox & immune integrity) are compromised due to hormonal and metabolic imbalances created by stress, over time, symptoms result –and may turn into chronic illness. Our bodies are not designed for chronic stress. We are built for fight or flight: when a stressful situation arises, our adrenal glands flood our system with cortisol, our main stress hormone, in preparation for a fight (or for running away– a flight). After the event ends, we can begin to relax and hormone levels drop again – dangerous situation over now!

This isn’t the case in modern life. We run in fight or flight mode on a daily basis, burning the candle at both ends, skimping on sleep and diet, without proper down time. Sitting in traffic, fighting with your spouse, not getting enough sleep, eating too much sugar– all these factors are interpreted as stress by your body. Cortisol levels rise and stay chronically high, and the body cannot keep up with the demand for the production of high levels of cortisol. You eventually burn out. You might feel over-stimulated and “wired” in the beginning phases of chronic stress due to high cortisol, or you may drink too much coffee to get an artificial high to power through stressful times. Eventually, as your adrenals burn out, you may gain weight, feel fatigue, depression, sleep difficulties, menstrual irregularities, or anxiety. Cortisol is a fat storage hormone, so when it’s artificially high, your fat burning metabolism is off, and you may start to gain fat around the midsection. Your body diverts all its energy and hormonal reserves into making cortisol to keep you going during chronic stress, so other hormone levels begin to suffer. This is one reason women experience menstrual irregularities during stressful periods.

Your adrenal glands, which produce cortisol and other hormones, are a critical factor in maintaining a healthy stress response, and they also govern your sex hormones and your immune system. You may feel run down or become more susceptible to illness or digestive issues during stressful periods. If you’re not getting enough sleep, even worse: the immune system is most active at night, between 10pm and 2am. It scavenges for abnormal cells, and liver detox is most active (removing toxins from the system). Melatonin, a powerful antioxidant, is produced at night in the dark. It’s no wonder those who work the night shift have higher rates of cancer. That’s why you feel run down when you’re low on sleep. Additionally, the body produces more cortisol to give you a boost when you’re short on sleep. High cortisol disrupts blood sugar, making you crave carbs/sugar and increases inflammation. Read: weight gain. So, get to sleep for goodness sake.

The majority of your immune system is in your gut, and high levels of cortisol can disrupt the mucosal lining of the digestive tract that keeps invaders away. This is another reason you’re more susceptible to illness (and digestive disturbance) when you’re under stress: your immune barrier is down. It’s like no firewall protection.

What to do about it? We all have stress. We all have bills to pay, families to tend to. This time of the year is the most stressful for many folks. The best advice I can give, besides getting good sleep– 8-9 hours ideally– is to make time for yourself. If you’re one of those people who works 60 hours a week and has a full social calendar or has to be doing something every minute of the day, stop it. Something has to give. If your work schedule can’t give, compromise in other areas: take 10 minutes in the AM for deep breathing to relax the central nervous system. Take a relaxing epsom salt bath at night. Get massage therapy to relieve stress. Adhere to a schedule as much as possible (rise and go to bed at the same time every day) and don’t over-exercise. Eat impeccably: too much sugar/booze/processed foods cause inflammation that raises cortisol. Take breaks during the day and go for short walks to rest the mind. We’re not designed to sit at a desk for 10 hours. Focus on organic meats, lots of veggies and leafy greens, good fats like coconut oil (anti-viral), probiotic foods for healthy digestion (raw kraut, kefir, or take a probiotic), stop the coffee and switch to green tea, and cut out sweets and booze (or save for special occasions. No, Tuesday night is not a special occasion).

This time of year particularly, pause and think about what the holidays mean. Be thankful for what you have. Ask for help before you break your neck running around trying to entertain and shop. Make lists. Prioritize. Don’t make it hard on yourself. Simple is always best.

If you’re going through a particularly stressful time, whether good or bad stress (getting a new job is great, but it’s a stress!), consider adding in some adrenal supportive herbs. I like the Gaia adrenal herbal blend that contains rhodiola, ashwaganda, holy basil, and Schisandra berry. All excellent adrenal tonics. Take extra vitamin C, used in high concentration by the adrenals, and take B vitamins, needed to maintain healthy nervous system function.

In my practice, I use saliva testing to gauge adrenal function. It reveals information about your cortisol levels/adrenal function, and I’m then able to design a customized program for my clients based on the results. It takes several months to restore adrenal function. Most critical to adrenal health is diet and lifestyle. Take it easy on yourself out there. Think positive and set a good intention this holiday season. If you start to freak out, center yourself with some deep breathing. Works better than vodka, and your body will thank you.

Read More: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, by Robert Sapolsky
Adrenal Fatigue: the 21st Century Stress Syndrome, by James Wilson

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Boost Immunity For Winter

By admin | October 18, 2011

Many of us equate fall and winter with cold and flu season, but what if you made it through the entire season without getting sick? What if no one in your family–not your kids, your spouse–fell victim to whatever is going around? Sound too good to be true? It’s not.

Why do we tend to get sick during the colder months? Let me dispel one myth for you right away: It’s not because being cold makes you more susceptible to catching a cold. So you can nip that wives’ tale about being outside with wet hair in the cold (or whatever it is) in the bud right away. Here are a few reasons immunity is compromised during the winter:
–People are indoors in close contact, breathing heated indoor air that dehydrates mucus membranes, preventing the body from effectively defending against infection. Your mucous membranes are your first line of defense, as I’ll discuss.
–According to wikipedia, in nations where children do not go to school in the summer, there is a more pronounced beginning to flu season that coincides with the start of public school. It is thought that the school/daycare environment is perfect for the spread of illness.
–Vitamin D production is lower in winter, and D is necessary for immune health.

What to do about it?
1) Avoid the sugar. It’s well documented that sugar suppresses the immune system. It can also promote inflammation and feed cancer cells. What do we tend to indulge on during the holiday season? Booze and sweets. Both tax your immune system (alcohol breaks down as a sugar), so stay away from refined sugar (the white stuff). Also know that turbinado “sugar in the raw” and unrefined sugar and palm sugar and coconut sugar and all the trendy health food sugars are STILL SUGAR.

2) Take care of your mucous membranes & your gut. Did you know the majority of your immune system is in your digestive tract? Your intestinal tract is coated by a thin mucosal barrier called Secretory IgA or SIgA. Trillions of good bacteria keep SIgA healthy and intact to fight off invaders. It’s basically all one mucosal barrier system from the inside of your nose down to your intestines, so using your neti pot to clear bacteria in the nasal passages may help. Avoid sugar and gluten (bread, pasta, cereals, crackers, cookies, etc) which irritate the gut lining, cause inflammation, and reduce SIgA. Eat probiotic foods like raw kraut (cultured veggies) or kefir if you tolerate dairy. Take a probiotic with 15 million CFU to help both digestion and immune health.

3) Avoid foods you’re sensitive to. The most common are dairy, eggs, gluten, and soy. Each time you consume a food you’re allergic to or have a sensitivity to, your immune system fires into action, and you don’t want your immune system constantly firing. You may not even know what these foods are. Read more here.

4) Sleep. Get 8-9 hours each night. This is especially important for children, who may need even more sleep. Lack of sleep raises cortisol, your main stress hormone, which increases inflammation, fight or flight response, and lowers immunity. Ever wonder why you feel run down or tend to get sick more often when you’re under stress? Seriously, sleep is one of the cornerstones of good health.

5) Colostrum/raw milk. There is kind of a caveat to this because so many people have reactions to dairy, but if you are not dairy sensitive, colostrum can be an amazing immune booster. You can sometimes find raw colostrum from nearby farms, or check out Organic Pastures. If you can get raw milk in your area, even better: try it. It has immunoglobulins that are very nourishing and immune boosting. If you react to pasteurized milk, try raw. You may be fine with it. The pasteurization kills off all the beneficial enzymes and bacteria your body needs to digest it. If you really want to get ambitious, make your own kefir or yogurt with raw milk.

6) Get the immune boosting foods. Nature knows what we need during the winter months: vitamin C. And the citrus that provides it will start coming in soon. Broccoli and strawberries are high in vitamin C as well. Eat foods rich in antioxidants to keep your immune system healthy. The antioxidants are vitamins A, C, E, and minerals zinc and selenium. Eat plenty of leafy greens, root veggies like sweet potatoes and winter squash, seasonal fruit, and grass fed beef/lamb, and that’s a good start. There is some evidence that garlic works to boost immunity too. Also, good old fashioned broth helps boost immunity. I just wrote a post all about how to prepare it. Studies have shown that chicken broth really does fight infection. Finally, get extra vitamin D, which is essential for good immune health. There’s limited sunlight during the winter, so our bodies won’t produce as much D. Try fermented cod liver oil, and eat salmon, sardines, eggs, and shrimp.
7) Easy–wash hands. Drill this habit into your kids, too.

What to do if you feel you’re coming down with something? My ritual includes the following:
–immediately make a batch of chicken broth and drink 8-10 oz 3 times daily. If you are too tired to make it, buy a chicken stock or chicken veggie soup from Whole Foods, which has a pretty good quality stock. DO NOT drink the chicken broth from the box or can. Not even close to the real thing.
–start taking colloidal silver, up to 500ppm if you can find it. Take a teaspoon every hour on the hour all day for 2-3 days. Kids can take this too. It’s a very potent anti-bacterial & anti-viral and it works.
–Get an immune boosting tonic with astragalus, echinacea, elderberry, and/or medicinal mushrooms like shiitake, reishi, cordyceps. All safe for kids, too.
–Get lots of sleep, as much as possible.
–Take 1500 mg of vitamin C in divided doses (500 mg at a time). Don’t chug orange juice–it’s mostly sugar!
–Drink lots of teas–herbal like chamomile or licorice root to soothe a sore throat, or there are certain herbal tea blends (Traditional Medicinals makes several therapeutic teas) to soothe congestion or help you sleep. Raw honey can be very soothing on a sore throat and has anti-bacterial properties too.
-Make my favorite immune boosting soup:
Immune Booster Soup

3-4 cups organic chicken broth or stock
5-10 cloves minced garlic
1-2 shredded carrots
1 small yellow onion, chopped
4-8 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
3 tbsp minced fresh ginger root
3 tbsp chopped parsley
juice of one lemon
Handful spinach (optional)

Add carrot, onion, garlic and ginger to large pot. Cover with broth. Cook about 15 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Remove from heat; add parsley and lemon juice and opt spinach. Steep and enjoy.

Enjoy the winter season and stay healthy!

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Filling in the GAPS (with healing recipe!)

By admin | October 5, 2011

The GAPS diet: Gut & psychology syndrome. This particular diet is based on the work of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride using specific foods to heal the gut and therefore improve autism, ADD, ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, and other mood disorders. The link here fascinates me. Did you know that brain and gut health are intimately linked? Your brain is connected to your gut via a long tube called the vagus nerve. There is a reason why the gut is called ‘the second brain!’ If you have inflammation in your gut due to bad bacteria overgrowth (dysbiosis), eating too much sugar, too many grains/gluten, or foods that you’re allergic to (gluten, dairy, soy being the most common), you’ll likely have inflammation in the brain as well. That may manifest as the conditions listed above and eventually result in neuron bundle damage, dementia or even Alzheimer’s. The inflammation in the digestive tract can begin early in life and worsen over the years, eventually resulting in brain inflammation and the listed mood disorders.

I’ve been studying the connection between gut & brain health for a long time. Technically called the enteric nervous system, this second brain controls the gut function independently of the brain. There is a significant amount of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin produced in the gut. Intestinal inflammation can lower serotonin production, exacerbating depression and even contributing to constipation. That’s why anti-depressants (SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) can cause digestive upset or side effects.

Because of this connection between gut and brain health, it only makes sense that healing the gut can improve certain mood disorders or neural conditions. The GAPS diet is similar to Elaine Gottschall’s Specific Carbohydrate Diet which eliminates certain complex carbs (like grains, starches) because they are not easy to digest and actually feed the harmful bacteria in the gut. The addition of so many processed grain based foods into our food supply has brought us to a place where digestive related illness is on the rise. And depression and mood related disorders too! We want to get back to a place of absorbing easily digestable nutrients in food and reversing the malabsorption that occurs as a result of our highly processed Standard American Diet with too many grains and complex carbs that aren’t easily digestable.

This stuff can get pretty (needlessly) complicated with lists of foods on a do and don’t list. The GAPS diet–which is appropriate not only for the mood disorders but also to heal the digestive tract in the case of Crohn’s, IBS, colitis, celiac, etc, and even chronic constipation, bloating, gas, and other digestive concerns–has you go through an introductory phase and then introduce other foods over time. It’s basically a more complicated version of the diet I preach: eggs, meats and fish, shellfish, fresh vegetables and fruit, nuts and seeds, garlic and olive oil. Plenty of broth and even raw egg yolks from free range chickens.

Avoid these foods: sugar, sweeteners, aspartame and artificial crap, desserts and sweets, booze, processed foods, grains (rice, corn, rye, oats, wheat and anything made of wheat flour (breads, pasta, biscuits, cakes and anything from the bakery, anything with bread crumbs or batter), buckwheat, quinoa, millet, couscous, spelt, semolina, tapioca, etc), breakfast cereals, starchy vegetables and anything made out of them (potato, parsnips, yams, Jerusalem artichoke and sweet potato), milk, fruit juice, soy, coffee, beans.

This type of diet will reduce intestinal inflammation (and brain inflammation) and help heal leaky gut while also boosting good gut flora. Win-win! One also must take probiotics and use broths and fermented cod liver oil for healing. I recommend this type of plan HIGHLY to all my clients with digestive concerns.

Here’s an example of a healing broth recipe to use in conjunction with the diet, at least twice daily digestive repair (edited from GAPS diet book):

broth is very healing for the digestive tract


“Chicken stock is particularly gentle on the stomach. To make good meat stock you need joints, bones, a piece of meat on the bone, a whole chicken, and giblets from chicken if possible. It is essential to use bones and joints, as they provide the healing substances like gelatin, but not so much the muscle meats. You can use the bones from a chicken you’ve roasted yourself, or ask the butcher to cut in half the large tubular bones, so you can get the bone marrow out of them after cooking. (ED NOTE: you can also make bone broth using other types of animal bones from the butcher. I’ll share that recipe another time. Same benefits) Put the bones, joints and meats into a large pan and fill it up with filtered water, add unrefined sea salt and sea vegetables (kelp, kombu, wakame, dulse: find at Whole Foods or natural food grocery) to your taste at the beginning of cooking and about a teaspoon of black peppercorns, roughly crushed. Bring to boil, cover and simmer on a low heat for 2.5 – 3 hours. You could do this in the crockpot too on low for several hours. The gelatinous soft tissues around the bones and the bone marrow provide some of the best healing remedies for the gut lining and the immune system. Consume a cup with every meal. The stock will keep well in the fridge for at least 7 days or it can be frozen. Do not use microwaves for warming up the stock; use conventional stove (microwaves destroy nutrients). It is very important to consume all the fat in the stock, as these fats are essential for the healing process. When cold, the fat/gelatin will solidify on the top. Just spoon out a portion and heat and sip. Take this with a probiotic, or add a little juice from sauerkraut or cultured veggies to the stock before you drink.”

Read more:
GAPS Diet: Gut & Psychology Syndrome, by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/

Breaking the Vicious Cycle, by Elaine Gottschall

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/index.htm

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Stay Healthy With the Seasons

By admin | September 29, 2011

Autumn is officially here. The days will become shorter, the nights longer, colder weather approaches, cold and flu season is coming, and the holidays are around the corner. Stay healthy during the transition into fall.

colors!


According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, autumn corresponds to the element of metal (acknowledgment) and represents the organs of the lungs, large intestine and the skin, meaning this is the ideal time to take special care of these organs. This phase (metal) means acknowledging and letting go of emotional baggage and unhealthy attachments. This is a great time to plan a digestive cleanse and to cleanse and nourish the skin. Fall is a great time to detox, actually, so that you don’t head into the holidays feeling bloated and sluggish. If you are in the Bay Area and are interested in a detox program, I have two options for you. I am co-teaching a yoga cleanse with my friend and colleague Miya Peard at Union Yoga in San Francisco beginning October 8. Click here for details.
If yoga isn’t your thing, my business partner and I are leading a 21 day cleanse (same curriculum without the yoga) beginning October 15, also in San Francisco. Click here for details.

Eat seasonally to assist your body in the transition from summer into fall. This means more root vegetables, more warming foods, more cooked foods. Summer brought us a bounty of stone fruits and berries and raw summer salad greens–cooling foods for warmer weather. Soon at the market you’ll find warming and fiber-rich winter squash (yams, pumpkin, acorn, butternut, kabocha, buttercup, delicata, spaghetti squash, the list goes on) and other mineral-rich root veggies such as parsnips, carrot, turnips, fennel, onions. Also include more Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cooked greens like kale & collards, as always. Apples and pears and figs are around now too –both terrifically high in fiber to cleanse the digestive tract and keep you feeling satisfied.

Changes in seasons and weather can wear down your immunity. Did you know the majority of your immune system is in your gut? Keep healthy by taking probiotic supplements. You’ll enhance colon and gut health AND improve your skin. Probiotics improve colon and gut health by keeping you regular, thereby assisting the body in removing toxins. This keeps your skin clear, keeps your weight in check, and prevents toxins from recirculating in your system. Look for full spectrum probiotic supplements with at least 15 billion CFU; eat cultured vegetables and fermented dairy for full benefits. Now is the time to take your cod liver oil (fermented is best here too). I like Blue Ice brand. Less sunlight means lower vitamin D levels, and this hormone-like vitamin is critical for immune support.

Longer nights encourage us to rest and slow down. Drink herbal teas with yarrow for lung health and nettles for minerals to aid the adrenals, prevent fatigue, and keep immunity strong. Here is a delicious autumnal recipe I’ve shared before that is so good. Easy and delicious. I’ve often sipped it for breakfast topped with extra cinnamon and a dollop of plain goat or sheep yogurt for a warming breakfast. Add chicken apple sausage for a protein kick and you’ve got a pretty perfect breakfast!

Autumn Butternut Squash Soup

1 sweet onion, chopped
2 ribs celery
2 carrots
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and sliced
1 large green apple
2 tsp or so ghee or coconut oil
3 cups (less for thicker soup) vegetable or chicken broth

In a large saucepan, melt ghee or coconut oil and add onion, carrot and celery. Cook 5-10 minutes, until onions are slightly caramelized (add broth to prevent sticking if necessary). Add squash and apples and broth, cook till tender, about 15-20 minutes. Add spices to taste: salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. Pour into blender and puree till smooth. Top with yogurt or toasted nuts if desired.

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Get Acquainted with your Thyroid

By admin | September 12, 2011

Do you notice patterns in your life, how recurring themes continuously present themselves to you, for example? Perhaps until you take note and learn? I notice. And lately, it’s been all about the thyroid. Let me explain.

In my practice, one of my focal points is helping women overcome adrenal & female hormonal imbalance; so naturally, I spend a lot of time talking about cortisol, the main stress hormone secreted by your adrenal glands, and also estrogen and progesterone, the 2 main female hormones. The human endocrine system really is akin to an orchestra: every piece must work properly for the whole production to function soundly. Your adrenal glands largely govern your female and thyroid hormones, so addressing adrenal exhaustion is a key factor in regulating thyroid function and balancing estrogen and progesterone. The adrenal-thyroid hormones function in a nice feedback loop, so balancing adrenal hormones can actually boost a sluggish thyroid.

Lately I’ve been seeing a LOT of thyroid issues. Lots of sluggish thyroid, known as hypothyroidism. (SIDE NOTE: I don’t think this is particularly a coincidence, because radiation damages thyroid tissue, and the nuclear meltdowns in Japan can certainly be a cause here). Issues involving thyroid can get pretty complex, so for the purposes of this post, I am focusing on low thyroid function known as hypothyroidism as opposed to hyperthyroidism. Because I began to see so many hypothyroid symptoms in conjunction with adrenal exhaustion, I began incorporating thyroid boosting foods and supplements (and eliminating thyroid-blocking foods) into my clients’ protocols. Often I’ll see adrenal exhaustion issues that haven’t quite affected thyroid function yet, or addressing the adrenals can actually fix sluggish thyroid. If I know that a person has primary thyroid concerns, I design programs a little differently, and if I suspect it’s an issue, I send them to a doctor for thyroid testing.

First, a little background:
Your thyroid is the power house of the body, essentially. Thyroid hormones regulate other hormones including insulin, cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. That’s why healthy thyroid function is so important. If something is off, many other body systems suffer. Examples:
High cholesterol
Irregular & often heavy menstrual cycles
Low libido
Infertility
Fluid retention/puffy eyelids
Skin conditions such as acne and eczema
Memory/cognition problems

And the obvious symptoms most associated with low thyroid:
Weight gain/inability to lose weight
Fatigue
Thinning hair/brittle nails & also hair loss
Dry skin
Fatigue
Cold hands and feet
Constipation
Heart palpitations
Outer 1/3 of eyebrow missing (grows back once thyroid function normalizes)

These conditions are associated with low thyroid function:
Hormonal imbalance & infertility
Depression
Heart disease
Chronic fatigue & fibromyalgia
PMS & menopausal symptoms
Irritable bowel syndrome

As you can see, healthy thyroid function is critical for optimal health. Let me drop some science on you for a sec. (skip this part of you don’t care about the physiology portion).
Your thyroid produces two major hormones: T4 and T3. Most is in the form of T4, the inactive form. Your liver converts T4 into T3, which is why having a healthy, clean functioning liver is important for this process as well. Thyroid hormones work in the feedback loop that I mentioned earlier. It’s all part of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. Here is a visual that explains the feedback loop and how your adrenals actually function within this axis.

HPA axis


Your pituitary makes TRH (thyroid releasing hormone), and your hypothalamus makes TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone. If everything is working properly, you will make what you need and you’ll have the proper amounts of T3 and T4, and T3 & T4 need to be in good working order for a healthy thyroid. If your T3 is inadequate, either by insufficient production or not converting properly from T4 (need proper nutrients for this, like iodine, which is significant), your whole system suffers. Your pituitary can sense whether there is enough thyroid hormone in the bloodstream, and it releases TSH when it detects insufficient thyroid hormone.

The TSH tells your thyroid to release more hormone when T3 & T4 aren’t at proper levels to compensate. Your TSH rises when your thyroid is underactive, and this is the main marker doctors use for determining hypothyroid on lab testing (but really should be looking at T3 & T4 levels too). A high TSH means that the pituitary gland is releasing its hormone to overcompensate for abnormal T3/T4 levels, even though T3 & T4 can appear normal on lab test, a condition called subclinical hypothyroidism.

I get that this stuff isn’t simple. It gets more complicated too, because sometimes it’s difficult to detect, and the range of “normal” TSH in conventional medicine can be over 5 mIU/L, meaning you won’t be flagged for hypothyroidism on a lab test even if you are hypothyroid. So, if you have symptoms but your doctor tells you your lab testing is normal, ask for a copy of your lab work. Advocate for yourself! See resources section for a great book that will give you all the info you need on this.

Normal TSH is between 1 and 1.5 mIU/L. This is why it’s always critical to ask to see your lab results and take action if your numbers are high or low normal. It can get even more complicated if you have hypothyroidism, because up to 80-90 percent of hypothyroid cases can be due to an auto-immune disease called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (any -itis condition indicates inflammation). I’ll write a separate post on Hashimoto’s, because it is treated a bit differently than subclinical hypothyroidism. Subclinical hypothyroidism means you have few, if any, obvious symptoms and only slightly abnormal lab tests. These cases often aren’t even addressed in conventional medicine.

Most importantly, What causes hypothyroidism?
-genetics
-poor diet (high in processed foods, low in nutrients/minerals, sugar, nicotine, drugs)
-stress, poor adrenal function
-environmental toxins/liver congestion/heavy metal toxicity: radiation damages the thyroid, and this is of particular concern right now with the Japan earthquake/nuclear facility meltdowns
-poor lifestyle habits: not sleeping enough, lack of exercise

Can you tell if you have it without lab testing?
-elevated cholesterol levels
-low basal body temperature: less than 97.6 degrees, taken first thing in the AM before even getting out of bed & averaged over a minimum of 3 days. Use a BBT thermometer to assess this. (google “basal body temperature, hypothyroid” for more info on this)
-other symptoms mentioned above

How to treat it?
I recommend getting lab testing done through your doctor, or order it yourself via www.directlabs.com. The “thyroid panel special” is a good place to start just to assess TSH, T3 & T4. Once you determine your levels, you’ll want to address diet & take appropriate supplemental action. You’ll likely need thyroid hormone replacement, and there are several different options for this, from Armour thyroid to thyroid glandular. Your practitioner can determine what is best for you.
Diet:
*unless you have Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroiditis, which can be detected via thyroid antibody testing, iodine supplementation is recommended. Iodine is essential for the formation of thyroid hormones, and deficiency can be the cause of hypothyroidism. However, if you have Hashimoto’s, iodine can make your condition worse, which is why it’s critical to consult with a professional. Also include iodine rich foods like sea veggies, especially kelp. I do not recommend iodized salt, which is chemically processed. Use natural sea salt.
*AVOID GLUTEN. AVOID AVOID AVOID. There is really no reason to consume gluten, as research is continually proving. Chris Kresser, The Healthy Skeptic, states the following: “The molecular structure of gliadin, the protein portion of gluten, closely resembles that of the thyroid gland. When gliadin breaches the protective barrier of the gut, and enters the bloodstream, the immune system tags it for destruction. These antibodies to gliadin also cause the body to attack thyroid tissue.” So there you go. If you have Hashimoto’s, you must avoid gluten strictly.
*Stay away from raw cruciferous veggies, which block thyroid hormone production. Cooking or lightly steaming will deactivate this effect. Say goodbye to raw kale salad! It’s difficult for the body to digest anyway.
*AVOID SOY, which can damage the thyroid
*Focus on organic proteins & plenty of veggies of all kinds
*Get enough selenium, also critical for thyroid function. Just five Brazil nuts contain all you need for a day.
*Use coconut oil, which boosts thyroid function
*Avoid processed foods & too much booze

Lifestyle:
*Work with a holistic practitioner and fix your adrenal function, which is intimately tied to thyroid function, as I explained above
*Get enough sleep, 8 -9 hours
*Exercise! It doesn’t have to be much in the beginning, whatever works for you. Start out with a 20 minute walk, and add some yoga or pilates into your routine.

So, you see why thyroid function is critical for good health. The first steps you can take above all are addressing your diet & lifestyle. Avoid gluten, add more veggies, get moving, and address your sleep.

Resources/Read more here:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/02/Many-Symptoms-Suggest-Sluggish-Thyroid.aspx

http://chriskresser.com/the-gluten-thyroid-connection

http://chriskresser.com/thyroid

http://drknews.com/

http://www.thyroidbook.com/

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Detox-Hormone Connection: Listen Now!

By admin | September 2, 2011

Is this you?
*Weight gain
*Breast swelling and tenderness
*Water retention
*Craving for sweets
*Uterine fibroids
*PCOS
*Anxiety, nervousness
*Heavy, irregular menses, cramps
*Low libido
*Fatigue
*Mood swings (PMS)
*Low thyroid symptoms
*Headaches
*Elevated triglycerides
*menopausal symptoms
*Endometriosis

The Nutrition Divas (myself and my business partner, Karen) conducted a tele-seminar the other day, and we talked all about hormone imbalance, estrogen dominance and how detox can help. Listen to our call NOW!



Learn the following:
–what is estrogen dominance and what causes it?
-why too much estrogen causes weight gain and other issues (listed above)
-how to get rid of excess estrogens & why holistic detox helps
Download here:


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The Detox-Hormone Connection

By admin | August 30, 2011

Free Tele-seminar Wednesday, August 31 at 6pm PST
How Holistic Detox can help you balance your hormones, lose weight, and even reduce PMS

Dial in number (641) 715 3300; enter access code: 950150#

We talk a lot about hormones……
but we usually focus on cortisol, your main “stress” hormone, and how balancing cortisol can help burn fat. This time, we’re going to focus on estrogen! What is estrogen dominance? How does it contribute to difficulty losing weight, PMS, fibroids, endometriosis, and difficulties with your menstrual cycle? How can you balance your hormones? Learn how to balance hormones through safe, holistic
detoxification for better health.

This call is for you if you suffer with PMS or other issues with your cycle, if you want to lose weight, or if you’re thinking of starting a family soon and want to boost fertility for a safe and healthy pregnancy.

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Green Soup

By admin | August 17, 2011

I frequently mention how we’re not getting enough minerals in our diets and the negative effects this can have on overall health. Here is a delicious cold soup, perfect for summer if you’re suffering through a heat wave, that is cooling, cleansing, rich in minerals and very alkalizing. An acidic body leads to degeneration and illness, so alkalizing foods like greens and mineral-rich veggies are excellent for bringing the body into balance.

I got the idea from Lydia’s raw foods, and I bought the one I enjoyed from Whole Foods, but you could easily recreate this at home. Click here for a photo.

Green Soup
Serves 6

3 Small avocados (or one extra large or 2 medium)
½ Bunch cilantro
1/2 bunch parsley
½ Bunch Organic Spinach (she uses kale in her soup, but I don’t encourage eating cruciferous veggies raw, as it may disrupt thyroid function)
2 Small lemons (without seeds)
3 Cups filtered water
½ Teaspoon celtic sea salt (optional)
1/2 cucumber, peeled
2 stalks celery (juiced, if possible, and if you’re not using vita-mix)

Wash everything thoroughly and put all the ingredients in a Vita-Mix blender and blend well using the tamper. Once the ingredients are well blended, pour the soup into a large bowl and garnish with dulse flakes or nori strips.
*If you’re not using a Vita-Mix, best to do the blending in 2 batches.

Posted in Nutrition | 1 Comment

Vegetarian vs Meat: The Debate

By admin | August 5, 2011

One of the most hotly debated topics in the nutrition world is the age old question: to eat meat, or not to eat meat? Isn’t a vegetarian diet healthier? Less saturated fat? Less heart disease? Less cancer?

I have been on both sides of the fence, and this is a topic about which I feel strongly. Read my story here. I was a vegetarian for almost 13 years and felt great for much of it, honestly, until I developed hormonal issues that were directly linked to my overconsumption of soy products. But what really began to shake my vegetarian confidence was my foray into veganism. It’s no secret that factory farming practices in this country are abhorrent at best, and while I worked as a journalist for an environmental magazine, I researched and wrote about the adverse effects our contaminated food supply has on our health. I lasted as a vegan for about 3 weeks and have never felt worse in my life. I could barely drag myself through the day and felt foggy and grumpy. Mine was a well curated vegan diet, mind you, as I had been studying health and nutrition for years and carefully combined whole grains, legumes, and soy products so I could be sure I had enough “complete” proteins.

About the time I enrolled in school and began my studies in holistic nutrition, I read Julia Ross’s book, The Diet Cure. This book completely changed the way I viewed nutrition and vegetarianism. Because, come on, I would be lying if I said I didn’t expect to lose weight going vegetarian or vegan because I wasn’t consuming those fattening animal products! I learned how wheat and gluten products created inflammation and how soy products cause estrogen dominance and thyroid issues. I learned fat was necessary for brain and hormonal health and that eating fat makes you thin. I began to eat meat again and have never looked back. But enough about me. Let’s talk vegetarianism.

Most of my vegetarian clients avoid meat or animals products foremost because they want to be healthy and lose weight. A small percentage avoid meat due to ethical reasons. There is a common thread among my female vegetarian clients: weight gain, no sex drive, hormonal issues, high blood sugar/hypoglycemia/high insulin, depression, anxiety. A few struggle with intestinal yeast or uterine fibroids. I explain the following to each one of them:
We are genetically identical to our ancestors, who thrived on a diet of vegetables, occasional fruits, nuts/seeds, and animals. They practiced a “rotation diet” by default, meaning that they weren’t eating the same things every day (or the same animals), and they certainly didn’t consume soy or fake foods like Morningstar Farms chik’n nuggets. Furthermore, they weren’t consuming a whole lot of grains, if any at all, because most grains are difficult to digest unless they’ve been processed/soaked/sprouted or fermented to some extent. Yes, your breads contain leavening agents and your flour has to be processed and ground before use. Grains are intrinsically difficult to digest: they are coated in a sticky protein called lectin, which is not easily broken down by our digestive enzymes. The reason is because the grain needs to propagate, and they do so by being consumed by grazing animals and pooped out (not broken down) so they can be spread and then take root and grow elsewhere.

Anyhow, my point is that our ancestors were indeed consuming a plant based diet. But they did have meat, and sometimes it was the focus of the meal (after a kill); sometimes it was more of a condiment. The fact is, we thrived on a diet that included animal protein. Our ancestors didn’t suffer from the modern ills we experience today: high blood pressure, obesity, high blood sugar, cardiovascular disease, cancer. They also exercised, slept 10-12 hours, and ate an organic diet by default with no processed foods.

I have studied the research and witnessed the effects of a vegetarian diet both personally and among my vegetarian clients, and I have a few thoughts here. First off, sure, a vegetarian diet works for some folks. We are all physiologically different and no one diet is right for everyone. I’ve had vegetarian clients come to me because they went veg to lose weight, only to gain weight, perhaps because their bodies have a higher need for protein and they may not fare well on a grain-based diet. All those grains break down into sugar, the excess of which is stored as fat. I’ve had veg clients come see me because they began to suffer debilitating stomach issues (soy is very difficult to digest, as are grains), hormonal issues (soy is very estrogenic and also attacks thyroid tissue, causing weight gain, infertility, and a host of other estrogen-dominant type issues), depression (your body synthesizes feel-good neurotransmitters from amino acids in protein), or lack of sex drive. In these cases, a vegetarian diet is doing more harm than good. If you are a happy vegetarian and you feel good, fine. If you have one of more of the following issues troubling you, time to reconsider your diet:
-anxiety, depression
-hormonal issues, thyroid issues, PMS
-weight gain
-digestive issues, gas, bloating
-no sex drive
-no energy
-brain fog
-insomnia

Let’s clear up a few myths. First off, I love the one where people say they lose tons of weight and feel great when they go vegan. Great! Sure, this could work for a while. And anytime you transition from a weight gainer diet to a plant-based diet, of course your health will improve. Talk to me in a few months. Still feel great? Fine. Starting to feel lethargic, or is your weight plateauing? You’ve probably transitioned off the initial detox high.

Then there’s the “meat is unhealthy” claim. Sure, meat is unhealthy when you buy it from McDonald’s or if you buy mass produced factory farmed toxin-filled meat. But don’t go waving your fake soy products around saying you’re eating healthy. That stuff is all chemicals that the body can’t properly process. Humanely raised hormone/antibiotic-free meat from reputable sources contains B vitamins, zinc, iron, good fats, and protein necessary for immune & cardiovascular function, tissue building & repair. We all require different amounts. But in times of stress, the body’s need for protein & good fats is greater.

I do believe that a meatless, grain-based diet is not optimal. Grains are difficult to digest, create inflammation in the digestive tract and inhibit absorption of other nutrients. Add soy to the mix and you’ve got real problems. Look, I’m not anti-vegetarian. The point of this article is to stress that no one diet works for everyone. It’s of course possible to be an unhealthy meat eater, sure. We need a plant-based diet. Plants provide antioxidants, minerals, and nutrients that oxygenate the body. It’s possible to be an unhealthy vegetarian, especially if you’re eating soy and fake meat products. It’s about what is the right diet for YOU? The body’s needs change over time, and our diet must change to accommodate these needs. And my other point is this: if you have health issues, your diet should be the first thing you focus on. If you’re in the “meat causes cancer and saturated fat is bad” camp, I can direct you to the litany of studies you should read to educate yourself.


More on grains/digestion:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/soaked-sprouted-fermented-grains/#more-22441

More on fat/cholesterol:

http://www.maryvancenc.com/2011/07/eat-fat-lose-weight/

Recommended reading:
A look at the China Study vs Meat debate:

http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/07/31/one-year-later-the-china-study-revisited-and-re-bashed/

The Vegetarian Myth. by Lierre Keith
Bashing on soy:

http://www.utne.com/2007-07-01/Science-Technology/The-Dark-Side-of-Soy.aspx

Posted in Nutrition | 7 Comments

Sweet Potato Chips

By admin | July 26, 2011

I don’t know where you are, but right now in San Francisco it’s barely 60 degrees and foggy cold. I’m fairly certain most of the U.S. is sweating through a heat wave, but I just walked the dog wearing a down jacket with a (faux) fur hood.

Weather like this makes me crave comfort foods. I’m not talking mac n cheese or mashed potatoes (although I have an awesome cauliflower mash recipe that is to DIE for. and a great root vegetable mash. Both are excellent mashed potato subs). I want healthy comfort foods, like sweet potato fries or my newest creations, sweet potato chips. These are much better than those Terra chips that are fried in unhealthy vegetable oils. These make a great snack or great accompaniment to a meal when you want a healthier version of chips.

Right out of the oven


1 – 2 large sweet potatoes (there are many varieties, but choose sweet potato over yam. I generally prefer the white fleshed Japanese sweet potatoes, but this one is one of the softer orange varieties)
Extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

Slice the sweet potato very thin. You could even use a microplane grater. This one was so huge that I ended up cutting the slices in half, but whatever works for you. Place in a large bowl, drizzle olive oil over, then toss with sea salt. Cover a cookie sheet in parchment and spread discs over the sheet. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, then flip and bake 15 more minutes. They’re done when they start to curl and crisp on the edges. Delicious!
Dinner! with an organic turkey burger topped with freshly made pesto, side of raw kraut:
Dinner! with an organic turkey burger and freshly made pesto.

Posted in Nutrition | 2 Comments