Beach Glass: Life’s Lessons

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Beach glass is an interesting thing.  It’s a simple thing.  It’s a thing that acts as a metaphor for so many people’s lives.  Beach glass is trash. It’s trash that has been discarded by someone after it no longer served them.  Those glass items tumble around in the water for years.  They get cracks, they break into pieces, they become weathered.  Until one day, they wash up on shore as treasures to be found by so many people searching daily for even just one piece.  These pieces of discarded trash become broken and end up as unique, beautiful, sought-after pieces of treasure.  Did you hear me?

Maybe at some point in your life you felt discarded, no longer needed, maybe even worthless.  You spent years weathering the storm of life just trying to survive and feel like you are worthy of something more.  You were broken, you were tattered, your hard edges were worn down.  For years.  Then one day you give in to the cycle and simply let nature run its course.  No more trying to will something different for life, no longer wishing for something else, just giving in to the events that will eventually create a new version of you.  A version that everyone will dedicate time to understanding, finding, and admiring.  This appreciation for what you have become is so much greater than your former “perfectly useful self” that was created to serve someone else.  Now you are you, a little broken, but much more beautiful.

I speak often about adversity in life.  I think this is an element to life that everyone encounters, no one wants to admit, and everyone feels unworthy because of it.  I see this every single day when working with patients because these feeling negatively effect their health. I don’t care if anyone screams their story from the rooftops or lets the world know their journey.  Many people appreciate this because it gives them something to empathize with.  However, I do care that everyone realize adversity is normal.  It’s not only normal, but it is, in some regard, your greatest gift.  It has shaped you, changed you, created your uniqueness, and it is what makes you interesting.  As a society, we are obsessed with an image that erases adversity from what we see.  We want no scars, no stretch marks, no wrinkles, and certainly no evidence of the past.  When it comes down to it, no one ever sits with that person and feels anything.  That person doesn’t change the world.  That person has no purpose.  It’s necessary to be a little broken, weather a few storms, and take a few blows from life to create the most purposeful version of you.  Know that it happens to everyone and that there’s something great on the other side if you allow it.

Headaches and Migraines: Exploring the Cause and Solution

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I was recently asked to write an article covering headaches and migraines. When I posted this suggestion, there was a number of people that also wanted this article! I didn’t think this was that big of a topic, but apparently, we have people who need help with this! So, first things first: I am a chiropractor that practices functional medicine. That means that while my doctorate is in manual medicine, I have spent a lot of years focusing on things outside of adjustments such as herbal therapy, nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and supplementation for restoring health. Why not pharmaceuticals? Because I found all too often that prescription and OTC medications were really good at symptomatic relief, but lacked in their ability to really get rid of the underlying issues. Add side effects on top of that, and I just feel more confident in my ability to RESOLVE a patient’s issue without the use of medications. Now that you have a little background on my philosophies, let’s talk about headaches and migraines.

What’s the difference between a headache and a migraine?
A LOT! A headache is annoying, painful, and while it is pain in the head, it is not a intense or debilitating as migraine. For the purpose of this post, we will classify migraines as severely disabling headaches. Migraines are often accompanied by something called an aura or a feeling of fog that denotes it’s onset. These patients also have light sensitivity, they may feel very nauseous, and it is very difficult for them to complete simple daily tasks while one is occurring. While this is awful, the really awful part is that this can last for hours or days! This makes life pretty difficult while you are experiencing a migraine, and that is why many people will turn to prescriptions when this happens. At that point, you will do whatever it takes to get relief and be able to accomplish daily responsibilities.

What’s wrong with my prescriptions for migraines?
The prescription medications used to treat migraines are often chemicals who’s original purpose had nothing to do with migraines. They may be blood pressure medication, antidepressants, anti-seizure medications, and even your favorite wrinkle treatment known as BOTOX. These medications do “alright” at best for making a patient able to tolerate and function during an episode, and may impact frequency for some, but they certainly don’t treat migraines. These medications all come with their own set of side effects that under longterm use may require another medication to address the side effect of the migraine medication. This is nothing new in the pharmaceutical world, and before you know it, you are a customer buying 5 medications when you thought you started with a simple problem.

What causes headaches and migraines?
There are so many sources of etiology for this type of issue that it’s hard to treat for that reason. If you haven’t done your due diligence digging around for the culprit, you will never find the root cause. Root causes that I see being most common for MIGRAINES are:

  • food sensitivities (especially things like gluten, lactose, and eggs)
  • diet sweeteners (check labels for sucralose, aspartame, truvia, equal, etc)
  • caffeine (coffee, soda, chocolate all have caffeine and this can be a trigger for those that don’t metabolize it well)
  • hormones (especially when progesterone is low or women find migraines cyclical to their menstrual cycle)
  • stress (this is a seriously overlooked trigger for tons of health issues)
  • magnesium deficiency
  • underactive mitochondria due to chronic diseases such as autoimmunity, cancer, or chronic infection

Root causes I see being most common for HEADACHES are:

  • postural issues
  • cervical subluxations
  • blood sugar issues
  • blood pressure issues
  • stress
  • eye sight issues

So, the first step in diagnosis and treatment is deciding if you suffer from a HEADACHE or a MIGRAINE.  If you suffer from headaches, then often times, they can easily resolve with:

  • visiting your chiropractor for an adjustment (this fixes misalignments that cause nerve discomfort causing headaches)
  • visit your massage therapist (muscle tension can occur from poor posture or subluxations and soft tissue work especially on the suboccipitals can work wonders.  Just tell your massage therapist to work on your cranium, jaw, suboccipitals, and muscles that elevate the shoulders)
  • ergonomics (position your desk, move frequently, and don’t look down at your phone constantly)
  • eat balanced meals low in refined carbs (this will help keep blood sugar stable)
  • check your blood pressure (identify if this throbbing is coming from how hard your heart is pumping)
  • adopt stress relief techniques like going for a walk, doing yoga, reading, enjoying hobbies
  • talk to an essential oil rep that can point you in the direction of a diffuser and use lavender specifically
  • get your eyes checked (if you find yourself squinting a lot or if you notice most headaches are in the afternoon it could be because of screen time)

If you suffer from migraines, then it may take some digging to find the cause.  You may want to consider the following testing or supplementation:

  • supplement with magnesium (300mg/day) (you could incorporate Epsom salt soaks too for transdermal absorption)
  • eliminate common allergens from your diet (I would start with gluten, dairy, and eggs)
  • remove all diet foods and MSG from your diet
  • get your hormones checked (especially if you are a woman or notice they have a pattern around your period)
  • supplement with nutrients targeted at helping your mitochondria function (this could be especially helpful for those with a concurrent chronic infection.

Hopefully this answered some of your questions!  There are tons of things you can do to self-treat headaches, but if they persist beyond those efforts, then I suggest finding good doctors to work with!  This is an area where alternative medicine shines and you will never regret going that route.  If you find you need further direction on your case, I would be happy to set up a consult or point in the direction of someone near to you that I trust!

*feel free to call or text 574-635-5808 to set up a 30-min phone consult: $75

*feel free to email angela@angelalucterhand.com to set up a consult or request links to the products I would recommend to my patients.

 

 

 

 

Carb Challenge Part 3: White Rice

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Catch up with what this is all about. How may your body respond differently to the same amount of net carbs, but from different sources? Would it effect your blood sugar the same? The answer is “probably not.” I set out to experiment on myself, so you guys can see a personal experience of the differences! Having said that, unless you test yourself, you won’t know if you fit the same profile as myself.

First test: 50g net carbs from Oats
Second test: 50g net carbs from banana

Third test: 50g net carbs from white rice

Why white rice?
Rice is a gluten free grain that I consume on occasion, especially with sushi. Consuming white rice vs. brown rice means there is no bran present, which means it’s not high in nutrients or fiber, but it also doesn’t need to be soaked for safe consumption. That makes it a quick, easy, and safe starch for those that handle it well. Since it wasn’t a high fiber carb source, I only had to consume 1.14cups to get 50g net carbs. This made me happy because if you read my experience with oats, eating over 2 cups was hard and unpleasant. I did prepare the rice with bone broth as opposed to water because I would normally prepare it as such.

How did I feel with white rice?
It was super easy to eat this amount of rice! I may even say easier than banana. I didn’t feel full and wanted to eat more. I didn’t feel shaky or nauseous or any other reason to call it a negative reaction. I was ready to eat again fairy shortly though, and found myself staring at the clock waiting for the 2 hours until I could take my blood sugar.

What were the results?
My 2 hour post-prandial reading was 99. If you recall, oats was 122, and banana was 84. The one major difference in my opinion was I decided to do it on a Sunday as opposed to a work day. That means that I didn’t do it quite as early in the morning, and therefore my blood sugar prior to eating it was higher than the other challenges. For oats, my blood sugar prior to eating was 74. Banana fasted blood sugar was 69. This time, I started at 90. So, to have 99 means even though it wasn’t as low as the banana, it came much closer to the fasting level prior to consuming the carbs within that 2 hour window.
Oats: pre# 74- post# 122= 48
banana: pre#69- post# 84= 15
Rice: pre# 90- post# 99= 9

So, oats have still had by far the worst response in my body, but I can’t really determine which was ‘better” between rice and banana because while the blood sugar value was better with banana, the ability to come close to my fasting number was better with rice.

What does this mean for me?
I will honestly probably start incorporating more white rice in my days that I have intense workouts. I like rice. I can use it as an amazing way to get bone broth into my diet, and I know that my body responds nicely to it.

What’s next?
I will likely do a vegetable next. Maybe a potato or sweet potato. Potatoes are probably one of my go-to carb sources, so I’ll be interested to see how they stack up to rice. The one downfall to choosing sweet potato is the volume I have to consume on that one. ;( This is also a testament to which carbs are easiest to ingest in certain quantities. If you are a sedentary person that wants to feel full but not consume too many carbs, then go with those that are less refined. However, if you are trying to build mass or recover and have the need or double or triple the amount of carbs as an average person, then choosing those easy to consume without as much volume may be much better options to comfortably fit your macros.

Circadian Rhythms: Are you Taking Your Meds at the Right Time?

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Circadian rhythm in layman’s terms means all the hormones and body functions that happen in a 24 hour period. From hormones that cause you to be sleepy at night to nervous system activity that causes bowel movements, your body is on a schedule. That schedule is something that all living things have based on their species and needs, but this internal clock has a close relationship with the day/night cycle of light, too. Having said that, we know that our bodies do certain things at certain times and when it comes to hormone release and immune function, that could mean that taking certain medications or vaccinations at certain times increases effectiveness.

Did you know that there have been studies showing those who received flu vaccines in the morning had higher levels of anti-flu antibodies than those that received them later in the day? This suggests that the WHEN someone gets a vaccine may determine it’s effectiveness. We won’t go into whether or not someone should even get a vaccine in the first place, but it”s worth gaining this data about timing.

The most common indication of circadian rhythm is cortisol release. Cortisol is inversely related to melatonin, which means as melatonin rises, your cortisol goes down. Melatonin makes you sleepy, but cortisol wakes you up. So, it makes sense that cortisol should be the highest in the morning. Cortisol also suppresses inflammation and regulates certain immune responses. What if we could time those immune responses to manipulate an outcome? It may make certain treatments safer and more effective.

Cholesterol medications:
Research has suggested that the enzyme that regulates cholesterol production in rats is most active at night. This may mean that taking a drug like a statin may be most effective if taken at night. While this is interesting and really helpful if you have a reason to take a statin, I would love to point out that statins are one of the most easily-avoidable drugs out there with appropriate lifestyle changes!

Chemotherapy:
Genes that determine cell division are rhythmic which means that chemo that targets cells actively replicating (think reproductive tissue and intestinal lining) can be timed to limit healthy cell death. ‘Over the past 30 years, experimental models and clinical trials have found that timing chemo regimens can significantly affect their toxicty and effectiveness.” ( The scientist Magazine)

Anti-histamines:
These allergy drugs are found to be most effective when taken at night or early in the morning. We also now know that they cause cognitive issues and brain shrinkage, so lets entertain finding the ROOT causes of allergies vs treating the symptoms!

Blood Pressure Medication:
It’s no secret that heart attacks happen more frequently during certain times of the day. Don’t believe me? Ask a cardiologist. If you take an angiotensin-2 receptor blocker for blood pressure, it is most effective at controlling blood pressure if taken at night.

I’m all about fixing the problem versus treating the symptom, but pay attention because I promise this will be a tweak in medication recommendations as time goes on. Don’t want to wait until they figure all that out? Then I encourage you to fix the reason you would need to take meds in the first place. ;)

Is Exercise Causing Your Leaky Gut?

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When considering a healthy lifestyle, exercise is often a component of that.  The details of “what is healthy exercise” tends to be the real debate.  When prescribing exercise to a patient, the goal is always to have exercise induce healthy signaling to cells in order to enhance normal metabolism, detoxification, and hormone production.  We want this healthy signaling to happen while performing movement that is low risk because movement that may promote damaging signals or cause injury is counter-intuitive to the health agenda at hand.  This is an easier article to write if the focus is simply hormone production and low risk movement patterns.  It becomes more tricky when you start considering how exercise may be contributing to intestinal permeability, aka leaky gut.  If you are unfamiliar with this term, check out a prior article I wrote on what it is and how it happens here.

When you perform high intensity workouts or exercise for long durations, you actually induce intestinal permeability.  The fact that this happens can also be an argument to justify shorter durations and longer recovery times.  If we are thinking in general, it is probably not the best idea to be doing vigorous workouts on a daily basis because over-exercising is a real thing!  Not only can it begin to have a catabolic effect, induce cortisol issues, and create real fatigue issues, it can cause leaky gut.  Leaky gut is the precursor to autoimmune diseases and should not be taken lightly. This is also a part of exercise-induced immune suppression.  That’s right.  You actually have a period of time after exercise where your immune system is suppressed.  So, if you are a person that wants to train at an elite level and stay healthy while maintaining a normal intestinal lining, what do you do?

  1. Eat a diet free from foods that can contribute to intestinal damage such as wheat, processed foods, sugars, and commercial dairy products.
  2. Stay away from alcohol when in high training seasons.  Alcohol contributes to leaky gut.
  3. Get adequate rest and sleep for recovery.
  4. Don’t overtrain.
  5. Take supplements that will keep your immune system up:
    1. Beta-glucans are a yeast-derived products that prime neutrophils (immune cells) to act quickly and efficiently if you get an infection. Look for those containing “Wellmune”
    2. Colostrum is a product that contains antibodies to give the body a donated immune system in addition to growth factors that stimulate healing of the gut lining.

When athletes take colostrum during peak training season, they have virtually no sign of leaky gut in comparison to their counterparts that don’t take colostrum.  A recent study was just published on the topic, and it really is remarkable.  When we think about why colostrum can provide such a service to the intestine, we need to think about nature’s original intention.  Colostrum is the first milk produced for baby.  Every baby is born with leaky gut (this is normal for an infant!) but it’s colostrum and mother’s milk that provides the immune factors such as antibodies in addition to the growth factors that will ultimately create a normally developed intestinal lining.  In a bubble, this lining would never encounter processed food, antibiotics, excessive workouts, etc.  But we live in 2017 and people have so many damaging things happening in everyday life.

If you are an athlete that doesn’t want your exercise regime to cause damage to the intestines that will ultimately hurt the immune system, consider taking colostrum.  It’s a classic story that any athlete will tell you: inevitably, game day rolls around and that’s when you get sick!  Either that or it’s often during peak training season.  I wouldn’t want to train all year for something and then get sick right before competition!  We can use these types of discoveries to leverage food to our advantage in addition to knowing how to adjust lifestyle habits like exercise frequency. On a side note: there have been Olympic teams known to take colostrum because of the factors that enhance performance without it being a growth hormone type product.  So, there could be some performance benefits in addition to health benefits!

If you are interested in all the recent study details, click here!

If you are interested in protecting your intestines and immune system without changing your training schedule, check out my fullscript dispensary for Wholemune (beta-glucans) and IgG Protect (colostrum).  Many functional medicine doctors and chiropractors will have these products, too!

Carb Challenge Part 2: Banana

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As a part of my inspiration to show you guys the differences that food has on your body, I decided to take the carb challenge presented in Wired to Eat.  If you want to know more about the logistics and see all the details of what happened when I did Oats, click here. For the second round, I decided to do banana.  In order to hit the 50g net carbs for banana, I didn’t have to eat nearly the amount of shear volume.  For oats, I had to eat just over 2 cups due to the fiber content.  For banana, I only had to eat 1.14 cups of banana which ended up being around 2 1/2 bananas.

As I sat down to eat the banana, I took my blood sugar: 69.  I ate the banana easily, didn’t feel overly full, and really enjoyed the flavor.  This is a huge contrast from eating the oats.  With the oats, I could barely stomach the full dose and I felt terrible all morning in terms of fullness and wanting to vomit because I was so full.  Then when I finally felt hungry again it was instant and I wanted to eat a horse!  With the banana, I didn’t feel full, I enjoyed the taste, and I didn’t feel ravenous at all.

2 hours after eating the 50g net carbs of banana, I had a blood sugar reading of 84.  When I did the oats, it was 122.  When I decreased the oats to half the carbs (about the same quantity of banana ~1 heaping cup), I still had a 2-hour post sugar reading of 94!  That means that when I ate twice the amount of carbs from bananas compared to oats, I had a MUCH BETTER blood sugar response despite it being more carbs!  From a clinician perspective, that is really interesting!  How many times do we hear that people should eat oats for health due to it’s fiber content?!  All the time!  But in reality, it may be creating havoc on your blood sugar, especially if you have diabetes!  On the other hand, if you’re a person that responds differently than myself to these same foods, then maybe the oats are a better option than bananas.  We just don’t know unless you’ve directly compared your insulin response.

On a deeper level, this really stirs the pot in the conversation about macros.  Many people these days are eating according to macros (protein, fat, and carb ratios) but not worrying about the sources of those foods.  For example, HaloTop ice cream fits many people’s macros and allows them to eat ice cream while still fitting within their diet.  I think this experiment is pointing to the idea that just because they are both carb sources of the same amount, they can have very different outcomes physiologically.

Stay tuned for the next adventure!  I will likely do rice next.  I am choosing foods that are gluten free and may be things I would consider eating in the right context.  White rice fits that category for me and can be a great quick carb source for someone doing high intensity training.  It’s nice to know if that’s the best quick carb source to turn to!

First Attempt at the Carb Challenge: Oats

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If you have been noticing all my social media tidbits about a book called “Wired to Eat” and all the blood sugar readings I’ve been posting, you may be ready for this post. The author of this book, Robb Wolf, is really interested in how food affects people differently.  We all tend to agree that there are foundational principles in nutrition that make up the bulk of what most people should be eating.  However, there are always going to be caveats and exceptions to every rule.  In the functional medicine community, the health industry, and the Ancestral physicians, we have some different opinions on carbs:

How many carbs should someone eat?

What kinds of carbs?

What ratios of carbs to other macronutrients?

The answer to all these questions tends to be simple: “It depends.”  And really, more specifically, it depends on YOU.  Everyone’s body needs adequate nutrition for survival and thriving, but how we get those nutrients can look very different.  (If you are a healthcare practitioner who is familiar with Weston A. Price’s work, you know all about how different diets can be!)

I took a couple weeks to read the book, get a glucose monitor and test random times throughout the day to get a good idea of what my blood sugar is on a regular basis.

Fasting am: 73-83

Fasted am or pm after high intensity workout: 110 or 104 respectively

Fasting pm (lunch at 12, test at 5:30pm): 73

AM after a 50% carb breakfast and workout: 63

2 hour after normal meal: 83

I figured that was enough data for me to know that I am not diabetic, I run in the 70s and 80s on a normal day, and I would expect my sugars 2 hours after a meal to be close to that.  At minimum, I would expect them to read under 100 2 hours post eating.

For the carb challenge, Robb suggests eating 50g of net carbs by ingesting ONE kind.  This way, you can see what that ONE food is doing vs combinations.  The truth is, this is highly unlikely in a real scenario, but it will give more detailed and specific information.  The average non-diabetic, non-insulin resistant person should have fairly normal blood glucose levels 2 hours after eating those 50g of net carbs.  If not, then it may be worth evaluating the amount someone eats in one sitting or which types of carbs your body responds more efficiently to.

Test #1:

What? Oats with a Tbsp of grassfed butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  I think it’s wise to have some fat for mineral absorption and I wanted it to be fairly close to what I would normally eat it with without sacrificing macronutrient profiles.  I also needed A LITTLE flavor or I would not have been able to do it.

Why?  Oats are gluten free, and on occasion, I would eat oats.  I do prefer they are prepared correctly, and made that part of the plan.  I only want to test foods that I would actually eat. I soaked steel-cut oats overnight in water and apple cider vinegar and cooked them in the morning.

How much? It takes about 2 cups of cooked oats to give you 50g net carbs.

How was it? Terrible. It took me 25 minutes to get those 2 cups down the hatch and I was sure the last bite was going to push me over the edge.  Due to the sheer volume, I felt overly full and uncomfortable until around 10:30am (2 1/2 hours after eating them).  By 11am, I was so hungry I could’ve eaten a cow.

Blood sugar before eating it? 73

Blood sugar 2 hours after eating it? 122

Take away for me? Since it was so hard to consume that amount, my guess is that oats are a food that would be difficult for me to overeat in the carb department.  Since the fiber content is so high, you have to eat a lot more volume to reach those 50g.  Also, I would never eat 2 cups again (not just because it was too much) because I wouldn’t be happy with that blood sugar response to a meal. I also just didn’t enjoy how I felt.  I went from overly full to overly ravenous way too quickly once the switch began.

Things I will consider:  This was my first test, so I plan to do more and have data to compare.  Will my readings be similar to 50g net carbs regardless of the source? If I find that my readings on 50g are similar regardless of fruit, veggie, or grain, I will not likely vilify oats; I would be more apt to vilify the quantity of carbs in one sitting for me.  Will they be better than oats?  If I find that a fruit gives me better 2 hour readings despite being the same 50g of carbs, then I will likely make the decision that my body doesn’t handle oats as nicely as other things.  If I want to be really anal, I will go back and halve the carb load to 25g (1 cup) and see what my reading is to verify if it was in fact the oats or just the dose.

Follow along as I test more sources of carbs and I encourage you to play with your own results to find what works for YOU!

 

Easy Tips to Avoid Chemicals

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After posting the link to the video “Stink,” I really wanted to put together a quick guide to things you can do today or simple things to consider in the future when it comes to chemical exposure.  Inherently, everyone knows that exposure to chemicals is not a positive thing.  However, the dots that are more difficult to connect are those like how chemicals could contribute to your PCOS, diabetes, or child’s development.  Many times, we fail to consider that safe products means products that do not have endocrine disruptors in them.  We avoid chemicals because we understand the link behind chemicals and cancer or chemicals and neurological issues, but what about chemicals and diabetes?!  If a chemical is classified as an endocrine disruptor, then that means it acts like a hormone.  Not only will it not be a natural hormone, but it will bind and compete for receptor space just as your real hormones would.  That means that even diabetes can be negatively impacted by chemicals in beauty products, dry cleaning, or cleaning agents.  Your pancreas is an endocrine gland and it secretes a hormone called insulin.  What if you are using chemicals that act like insulin?  I still believe diet plays the largest role here, but this is why environmental toxins are always addressed with my patients.  They play a role in physiology.  So, what do you do about it?

Tips to toxin avoidance:

  1. Download the EWG Skin Deep app to scan any product in your cabinet and decide if you want to keep it.  Scan products at the store before you buy them.  I would throw away or avoid anything above a “3.”
  2. Use simple ingredients like baking soda, lemon, and vinegar to clean.  Google DIY cleaning products and you’ll be overwhelmed with the amount of recipes available.
  3. Wash any clothes you buy before wearing them.  They are treated with chemicals.
  4. Take the plastic bags off any dry cleaning as soon as possible because chemical concentrations increase over time if they are left on.
  5. Make your own laundry detergent
  6. Purchase homes that have been lived in.  New homes are full of chemical gases from all the materials like carpet, paint, etc.
  7. Shop at second-hand stores.  New things have more chemicals.
  8. Use essential oils as fragrance including perfume.
  9. Wash hands with real soap.
  10. Open your windows and let fresh air in.
  11. Add plants to your space to purify the air.  They are nature’s air filter.
  12. Replace your plastics with glass.  Use glass tupperware and drink out of glasses.
  13. Make and take a travel kit of products so you can grab and go easily.
  14. Use diffusers as opposed to air fresheners.
  15. Buy organic whenever possible.
  16. Don’t microwave anything in plastic
  17. Don’t leave water bottles in the car due to temperature spikes.  The plastic chemicals land right in the water.
  18. Use cast-iron skillets to avoid the chemicals in non-stick cookware (I still use that for eggs though…I mean who wants stuck eggs?)
  19. Use a reuseable K-cup.  Running hot water through the plastic k-cups lands plastic chemicals in your daily cup o’ joe.
  20. Sweat regularly and eat plenty of veggies.  Your body naturally detoxifies with nutrients found in veggies and uses sweat to get rid of chemicals through the skin.

Free Ways to Assess Your Health Status

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I write articles all the time (and read articles all the time) that talk about how to diagnose your problems, or recognize the root cause of your health issues, etc.  But how do you know if you are healthy?  This can be a fleeting concept for people because we are taught that if you don’t have a model body, perfectly thick hair, flawless skin, a sharp mind, perfect poop, and are happier than a clam everyday that you must have something that is unhealthy about you.  I am not denying that there are clues that one can find in these concepts, but the reality is, NO ONE is “perfect” 100% of the time!  So, how do you assess whether you are healthy or whether you should probably address your issues?

You don’t necessarily need to spend money on bloodwork to asses how healthy you are.  Those numbers can give you interesting insight into a snapshot of what’s happening on the inside, but you get signs every day, multiple times a day that could tell you some really important things! Here are some free ways to asses your health:

  1. Stool- Your poop can tell you a lot about your digestion!  Your gut and digestion is such a huge part of your health, that how things come out the other end can be really indicative as to whether you are functioning optimally.
  2. Urine– Along those same lines, you urine is a good indicator for how your detoxification systems are working and especially your kidneys.  Your urine should be a clear, light yellow with no odor.  If your urine is dark, you may be dehydrated or even have small amounts of blood in the urine.  If you have a terrible odor that isn’t due to eating asparagus, then you may have underlying issues.  If your pee is cloudy, you may have an infection.
  3. Strength– One of the standard tests I would perform on patients to assess where their core strength landed was a plank.  If you can’t hold a plank for 1 minute or side planks for 45 seconds, then you are lacking in core strength.  This is huge because maintaining core strength indicates huge health predictors in terms of quality of life.  Muscle maintenance and strength often dictates if someone ends up in a nursing home.  You are doing great if you can do this.  If not, you are probably not ideal for basic health status from a musculoskeletal standpoint.
  4. Menstrual Cycle– Another great indicator of health coming from down below!  Normal menstruation is indicative of normal hormone levels.  Hormones rule the world and hormonal imbalance is a major part of many issues that women face in the health arena such as PCOS, fertility, thyroid function, cancer, and autoimmune disease.  You should have a predictable cycle, virtually no PMS or cramping, and while it is there, you shouldn’t feel like it being there alters your daily life too much.
  5.  Energy levels– I’m not suggesting you should feel like you’re hyped up on caffeine all day everyday, but you should wake up feeling rested, you should have energy throughout the day and your levels of fatigue should be easily addressed with more sleep, a nap, or food intake.  If they are more relenting to the point where you feel like a zombie daily, never feel rested, or you feel like you could sleep for a week straight and still not be caught up, then we have a problem.  Listen to this.
  6. Sleep– Do you fall asleep easily?  Do you sleep through the night?  Do you wake up rested?  Then you’re good to go!  If not, then you may have some underlying health issues or lifestyle issues that are keeping you from optimal health.
  7. Emergency contacts– Yup.  Having people in your close circle is an indicator of health status.  If you have close relationships with a couple people that you can turn to, then your mental and emotional health AND physiological health will be better than your counterparts.  If you don’t have people close to you, then building some real friendships will instantly enhance your health.

This information isn’t rocket science, but it is extremely insightful!  Hope it helps you healthy folks out there feel better about your status.  If you aren’t in that group, then hopefully it gave you insight as to whether or not there are things you can use to assess how you are improving as you implement changes!

Is All the Sacrifice Worth It? A Lesson from a Patient Who Died

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“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” I saw this quote somewhere a couple weeks ago and thought “that’s pretty profound.” My mind kept coming back to it, because I obviously can’t control my thoughts. I started to ask myself some questions:
How does someone live like they will die tomorrow? They would probably get rid of all responsibility and eat whatever, do whatever, take major risks, spend all their money, etc. But what happens if they don’t die tomorrow? Then they are screwed! So, is it possible to live like you were to die tomorrow and still have life be great tomorrow if you do wake up?

That led me to my story about a patient. I will call him Bob. Bob was a diabetic and came to me because he wanted off of his medication. Bob did amazing in my program, got off his meds, reversed his diabetes (type II), and couldn’t have been happier. In order to do this, Bob had to change some things that had become habitual in his life and maybe partake in certain indulgences a little less often.

The following year I get an update on Bob. He died. Not due to his health, but in a car accident. When considering the quote above, I asked myself “I wonder if he still would have done my program if he had known he would die the next year?” After all, he did give up some convenience, some indulgence, and some comfortable habits to improve his health, but he likely would have still survived past that year without changing a thing. I’ll never know the answer to that question.

This is often an argument I hear in regards to healthy habits. What if I die tomorrow? We will all die of something. I ask “What if you don’t?” Are you willing to sacrifice your ability to live a good quality of life later for the excessive amount of pleasure today?
I could ask this same question about money. If you spend it all this year because you never know about the next, what happens when next year comes and there’s no money?! But what if next year doesn’t come and you saved every dime and didn’t enjoy things as much as you could?!

It’s balance. You want some indulgence, some excitement, some pleasure, but not at the loss of your ability to experience that over a lifetime. You also don’t want to limit pleasure in hopes you will live forever. Because the truth is, you really just don’t know when your last day will be.

When I work with patients, it’s always been about creating an unwritten balance. Not in the way of “if I eat a salad, then I can have this donut” because that’s not the point. It’s about creating balance within a LIFESTYLE that allows you to enjoy today AND tomorrow. When people end up on my doorstep, many times it’s because they have recently realized that tomorrow will and did come, and they didn’t live yesterday in a way that will make a pleasant quality of life in the future. I want people to indulge, to experience pleasure, to create excitement in their senses, but I also want them here doing the same thing tomorrow, next week, next year, and for their lifetime. Unfortunately, there is no known way that one can live like they will die tomorrow and not have a rude awakening in the morning. So, seize your moments and enjoy life as if it is short but remember how much sweeter life will be if you can do these things for a lifetime and not just one day.

*geeky side note: When teaching physiology, we would always go over a concept of sensory adaptation, and we have all experienced it. You walk into a smelly room and in 5 minutes, you don’t notice is nearly as much, if at all. Or you order a piece of cheesecake for dessert and you take a bite and go to heaven. By the time you reach bite 4 or 5, you are actually not that excited about it and are just eating it because it’s there. The culinary world knows the magic happens on the first couple bites. That’s why they create small plates and dessert shooters. They want you to leave with the pleasure and desire for MORE, but it actually decreases your pleasure when you do have more! Sensory adaptation is the ultimate temptress, the tease, the thing that everybody loves to experience. Biology ultimately tells us that this heightened pleasure is NOT prolonged. However, it can be experienced over and over if there is enough gap in between. In the long run, this creates a lifetime of pleasure instead of continued behavior that never quite reaches the dopamine surge of the first bite. Food for thought.