Testosterone is an androgenic sex hormone produced by a man’s testicles, and to a lesser degree, in smaller amounts, by the ovaries in women. While testosterone is stereotypically associated with virility, it also plays a role in maintaining muscle mass, bone density, red blood cells, and a general sense of well-being. Beginning around age 30, a man’s testosterone levels begin to decline, and continue to do so as time goes on—unless you proactively address your lifestyle.

Chemical exposures, including prescription drugs like statins, can also have an adverse effect on your testosterone production. Symptoms of decliningtestosterone levels include:

• Decreased sex drive
• Erectile dysfunction and/or problems urinating
• Depression
• Difficulties with concentration and memory
• Weight gain and/or breast enlargement

According to a recent analysis,1 low testosterone may also increase a man’s risk for cardiovascular disease. As reported in the featured article:2

“To arrive at their findings, the research team examined previous studies that analyzed cardiovascular disease and testosterone levels between 1970 and 2013. The review of the studies revealed modest evidence that low testosterone levels are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

However, the researchers note there was little evidence of a link between low testosterone and artherosclerosis – the hardening and narrowing of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes, and there was no evidence of a specific link between heart attacks and testosterone levels.”

The Importance of Testosterone for General Health

While the exact mechanism linking low testosterone to heart disease could not be ascertained, the researchers suggest the effect might be related to thrombosis or arrhythmia. Thrombosis is when a blood clot develops, and arrhythmia is basically a condition in which your heart beats erratically. Previous research has linked low testosterone with both of these conditions, plus a number of others, including:

• Increased blood pressure
• Dyslipidemia
• Endothelial dysfunction
• Impaired left ventricular function

Interestingly enough however, they also found that testosterone replacement therapy did NOT have any positive effect on cardiovascular health. This could potentially indicate that low testosterone does not in and of itself promote heart disease, but rather that low T and heart disease are both caused by something else. As stated by lead researcher, Dr. Johannes Ruige:3

“Based on current findings, we cannot rule out that low testosterone and heart disease both result from poor overall health.”

Indeed, I know first-hand that low testosterone is not an automatic outcome of aging, provided you incorporate certain lifestyle strategies that can naturally boost your testosterone levels, which I’ll review below. These strategies are part and parcel of an overall healthy lifestyle, so they also automatically reduce your risk of most chronic disease, including heart disease.

It actually makes logical sense that failure to incorporate these foundational health-promoting strategies could be the root cause of low testosterone, heart disease, and all the heart-related adverse effects listed above.

The Role of Estrogen in the Aging Male

Both men and women make estrogen out of testosterone. As a result, some men can actually end up with close to twice the amount of estrogen found in postmenopausal women. Still, the levels of both testosterone and estrogen both tend to decline with age, and as they do, your body changes. So far, researchers have almost exclusively focused on estrogen’s effect on women, and testosterone’s impact on men. But that may soon change.

A recent article in the New York Times4 highlighted research demonstrating the intricate play of women’s sex hormones in aging men’s health—a factor that has so far been largely ignored:

“Estrogen, the female sex hormone, turns out to play a much bigger role in men’s bodies than previously thought, and falling levels contribute to their expanding waistlines just as they do in women’s. The discovery of the role of estrogen in men is ‘a major advance,’ said Dr. Peter J. Snyder, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who is leading a big new research project on hormone therapy for men 65 and over. Until recently, testosterone deficiency was considered nearly the sole reason that men undergo the familiar physical complaints of midlife. “

The study in question, published in the New England Journal of Medicine5 (NEJM), found that there were significant individual variations in the amount of testosterone required for any particular man to maintain lean body mass, strength, and sexual function.

However, they were able to determine that testosterone deficiency accounted for decreases in lean mass, muscle size and strength, while estrogen deficiency was the primary culprit when it came to increases in body fat. Both hormones were found to be important for sexual function, and a deficiency in either had a negative impact on the men’s libido. According to the lead author, Dr. Joel Finkelstein, an endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School:

“Some of the symptoms routinely attributed to testosterone deficiency are actually partially or almost exclusively caused by the decline in estrogens.”

Despite individual variations, Dr. Finkelstein’s research offers valuable insight into the function and behavior of estrogen and testosterone at different levels in a man’s body. For example, they found that less testosterone is actually needed for muscle maintenance than previously thought. They also found that:

• In young men, the average testosterone level is about 550 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dl)
• Muscle size and strength does not become adversely affected until testosterone levels drop below 200 ng/dl, which has previously been considered extremely low
• Fat accumulation, however, increases at testosterone levels of 300-350 ng/dl, due to its impact on estrogen
• Libido increases steadily with simultaneous increases in testosterone and estrogen

Please note that men are NOT advised to take estrogen replacement therapy, as this could cause feminization, such as enlarged breasts. As your testosterone levels rise, your body will automatically produce more estrogen, so the key is to maintain your testosterone level—ideally by incorporating the strategies I will discuss below.

How to Raise Your Testosterone Levels Naturally Through Exercise

Personally, I do not recommend using testosterone hormone replacement. If you indeed have low testosterone, you can considertrans rectal DHEA cream, which I’ll discuss below. DHEA is the most abundant androgen precursor prohormone in the human body, meaning it’s the largest raw material your body uses to produce other vital hormones, including testosterone in men and estrogen in women. However, I believe many of you may not even need that, were you to take full advantage of your body’s natural ability to optimize hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH).

Just like testosterone, your HGH levels also sharply decline after the age of 30, as illustrated in the graph above. Both of these hormones are also boosted in response to short, intense exercise. As I do not take any hormone or prohormone supplements, I’ve been doing Peak exercises for just over three years now, and at the age of 59, my testosterone level (done last month) are still well within the normal range for a young adult male without the aid of ANY prescriptions, hormones and hormone precursor supplements:

• Total testosterone: 982 ng/dl (normal test range: 250-1,100 ng/dl)
• Free testosterone: 117 pg/ml (normal test range: 35-155 pg/ml)

Below is a summary and video demonstration of what a typical high-intensity Peak Fitness routine might look like. As you can see, the entire workout is only 20 minutes, and 75 percent of that time is warming up, recovering or cooling down. You’re really only working out intensely for four minutes. It’s hard to believe if you have never done this, that you can actually get that much benefit from only four minutes of intense exercise, but that’s all you need!

• Warm up for three minutes
• Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn’t possibly go on another few seconds
• Recover at a slow to moderate pace for 90 seconds
• Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

Four Additional Ways to Boost Testosterone and HGH

Besides high intensity exercise, there are several other strategies that will also boost your testosterone levels naturally. These are appropriate for virtually anyone, male or female, as they carry only beneficial “side effects.” For even more tips, please see my previous article, “9 Body Hacks to Naturally Increase Testosterone.”

• Weight training. When you use strength training to raise your testosterone, you’ll want to increase the weight and lower your number of reps. Focus on doing exercises that work a wider number of muscles, such as squats or dead lifts. You can take your workout to the next level by learning the principles of Super-Slow Weight Training. For more information on how exercise can be used as a natural testosterone booster, read my article “Testosterone Surge After Exercise May Help Remodel the Mind.”

• Whole body vibration training (WBVT) using a Power Plate. In addition to the Peak Fitness exercises, I do 10 minutes of Power Plate training twice a day and this likely also improved my hormones. WBVT in some ways simulate high intensity exercise by stimulating your white (fast-twitch) muscle fiber. This kick-starts your pituitary gland into making more growth hormone, which helps you build lean body mass and burn fat.

• Address your diet. This is critical for a number of reasons. First of all, if you’re overweight, shedding the excess pounds may increase your testosterone levels, according to recent research.6 Testosterone levels also decrease after you eat sugar. This is likely because sugar and fructose raise your insulin level, which is another factor leading to low testosterone. Ideally, keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. If you have insulin resistance and are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol, you’d be well advised to keep it under 15 grams per day.

The most efficient way to shed excess weight and normalize your insulin levels at the same time is to strictly limit the amount of sugar/fructose and grains in your diet, and replace them with vegetables and healthy fats, such as organic pastured egg yolks, avocado, coconut oil, butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk, and raw nuts.

Saturated fats are in fact essential for building testosterone. Research shows that a diet with less than 40 percent of energy as fat (and that mainly from animal sources, i.e. saturated) lead to a decrease in testosterone levels.7 My personal diet is about 70 percent healthy fat, and other experts agree that the ideal diet includes somewhere between 50-70 percent fat. I’ve detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my optimized nutrition plan.

• Intermittent fasting. Another effective strategy for enhancing both testosterone and HGH release is intermittent fasting. It helps boost testosterone by improving the expression of satiety hormones, like insulin, leptin, adiponectin, glucacgon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), cholecystokinin (CKK), and melanocortins, which are linked to healthy testosterone function, increased libido, and the prevention of age-induced testosterone decline.

Why I Recommend DHEA Over Testosterone Replacement

If you choose to use hormones it is really crucial to use bioidentical versions. There are synthetic and bioidentical hormone products out on the market, but I advise using bioidentical hormones like DHEA if you opt for this route. DHEA is a hormone secreted by your adrenal glands. Again, this substance is one of the most abundant precursor hormones in your body, and it’s crucial for the creation of hormones, including testosterone and other sex hormones.

Production of this prohormone peaks during your late 20s or early 30s. With age, DHEA production begins to decline, right along with your testosterone and HGH levels. Your adrenal glands also manufacture the stress hormone cortisol, which is in direct competition with DHEA for production because they use the same hormonal substrate known as pregnenolone. Chronic stress basically causes excessive cortisol levels, thereby impairing DHEA production, which is why stress is another factor for low testosterone levels.

It’s important to use DHEA of any kind strictly under the supervision of a professional. Find a qualified health care provider who will monitor your hormone levels and determine if you actually require supplementation.

Also, rather than using an oral hormone supplementation, I recommend trans-mucosal (vaginal or rectal) application. Skin application may not be wise, as it makes it difficult to measure the dosage you receive. This may cause you to end up receiving more than what your body requires. Applying a trans-mucosal DHEA cream to your rectum (or if you are a woman, your vagina) will allow the mucous epithelial membranes that line your mucosa to perform effective absorption. These membranes regulate absorption and inhibit the production of unwanted metabolites of DHEA. That said, I do NOT recommend prolonged supplementation of hormones, even bioidentical ones. Doing so can trick your body into halting its own DHEA production and may cause your adrenals to become impaired.

Other Helpful Supplements

Besides DHEA, there are also nutritional supplements that can not only address some of the symptoms commonly associated with low testosterone, but may help boost your testosterone levels as well. These include:

• Saw palmetto. Besides addressing symptoms of low testosterone, this herb may also help to actually increase testosterone levels by inhibiting up-conversion to dihydrotestosterone.8 Research has also shown it can help reduce your risk of prostate cancer. When choosing a saw palmetto supplement, you should be wary of the brand, as there are those that use an inactive form of the plant. According to industry expert Dr. Rudi Moerck, what you want to look for is an organic supercritical CO2 extract of saw palmetto oil, which is dark green in color. Since saw palmetto is a fat-soluble supplement, taking it with eggs will enhance the absorption of its nutrients.

• Astaxanthin in combination with saw palmetto. There is also solid research indicating that if you take astaxanthin in combination with saw palmetto, you may experience significant synergistic benefits. A 2009 study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that an optimal dose of saw palmetto and astaxanthin decreased both DHT and estrogen while simultaneously increasing testosterone.9

• Ashwagandha. This ancient Indian herb is known as an adaptogen, which can help boost stamina, endurance, and sexual energy. Research published in 201010 found that men taking the herb Ashwagandha experienced a significant increase in testosterone levels.

Ashwagandha also helps promote overall immune function, and can help increase your resistance to occasional stress.11 It also supports healthful levels of total lipids, cholesterol, and triglycerides already in the normal range. While some adaptogens are stimulants in disguise, this is not the case with Ashwagandha. It can give your morning exercise routine a boost, and when taken prior to bed, it can help you get a good night’s sleep as well. I recommend using only 100% organic Ashwagandha root, free of fillers, additives and excipients, to ensure quality.

Ashwagandha also helps promote overall immune function, and can help increase your resistance to occasional stress.11 It also supports healthful levels of total lipids, cholesterol, and triglycerides already in the normal range. While some adaptogens are stimulants in disguise, this is not the case with Ashwagandha. It can give your morning exercise routine a boost, and when taken prior to bed, it can help you get a good night’s sleep as well. I recommend using only 100% organic Ashwagandha root, free of fillers, additives and excipients, to ensure quality.

Low Testosterone Is Not an Inevitable Fate for Aging Men

I strongly recommend implementing lifestyle strategies that are known to optimize testosterone levels naturally before you do anything else to address the symptoms associated with low testosterone. If you’re still deficient in testosterone after implementing high intensity exercise and strength training, along with the dietary strategies detailed above and, ideally, intermittent fasting, then you could try trans-mucosal DHEA. Again, remember to confer with a qualified health care practitioner and get your levels tested before supplementing with DHEA or any other hormone, including testosterone.

Personally, I’ve been able to maintain both testosterone and HGH levels comparable to that of a young healthy male, simply by implementing high intensity exercise, Power Plate exercises, and intermittent fasting, along with my standard dietary recommendations. I would strongly encourage you to review my nutrition plan if you haven’t already done so.

Add to that some regular sun exposure, and you’ll be well ahead of most people. Vitamin D, a steroid hormone, also helps to naturally increase testosterone levels. In one study,12 overweight men who were given vitamin D supplements had a significant increase in testosterone levels after one year. As in most instances, given half a chance, your body will actively and automatically strive to maintain optimal health. So as long as you incorporate the foundational basics of a healthy lifestyle, you can stay healthy and strong well into your old age.

Sources and References

• 1 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 24 September 2013 [Epub ahead of print]
• 2 Medical News Today September 29, 2013
• 3 Medical News Today September 29, 2013
• 4 New York Times September 11, 2013
• 5 New England Journal of Medicine September 12, 2013; 369:1011-1022
• 6 Study presented at The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting, June 13, 2009, Washington, D.C.
• 7 J Steroid Biochem. 1984 Jan;20(1):459-64.
• 8 Livestrong.com August 20, 2011
• 9 J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2008 Aug 12;5:12. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-5-12
• 10 Fertility and Sterility 2010 Aug;94(3):989-96
• 11 Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2003 Jun;75(3):547-55
• 12 Horm Metab Res. 2011 Mar;43(3):223-5

With all the dire health effects associated with refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), many wonder what, if anything, is actually safe to use to sweeten your foods and beverages.

It’s certainly a good question. You do have to be cautious when choosing an alternative, as many sweeteners that are widely regarded as “healthy” are, in reality, anything but. A previous National Geographic article1 set out to compare eight different sugar substitutes, which fall into four general categories:

• Artificial sweeteners
• Sugar alcohols
• Natural sweeteners
• Dietary supplements

Sadly lacking from their review are any notations about adverse health effects of many of the sugar substitutes tested.

Despite copious scientific evidence of harm, artificial sweeteners, for example, are promoted in the featured article, and by “experts” in general, as safe because they “pass through your body undigested.” Needless to say, safety concerns will be front and center in this article.

The Case Against Artificial Sweeteners

Sweetener lesson 101: Avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague. While the mechanisms of harm may differ, they’re all harmful in one way or another. This includes aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), sucralose (Splenda), saccharin(Sweet’N Low), acesulfame potassium, neotame, and others.

Twenty years ago I wasn’t sure, but now there’s little doubt in my mind  that artificial sweeteners can be far worse for you than sugar and fructose, and there is plenty of scientific evidence to back up that conclusion. In fact, there’s enough evidence showing the dangers of consuming artificial sweeteners to fill an entire book — which is exactly why I wrote Sweet Deception.

Aspartame is perhaps the most dangerous of the bunch. At least it’s one of the most widely used and has the most reports of adverse effects. There are also hundreds of scientific studies demonstrating its harmful effects.

This is why it’s so frustrating to see big companies like Coca-Cola Company purposely deceive you on this issue, which is exactly what they’re currently doing with their “public service” announcement-type ads, in which they “affirm” aspartame’s safety and benefits.

Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson issued the following statement in response to Coca-Cola’s new ad:2

“Aspartame has been found to cause cancer3—leukemia, lymphoma, and other tumors—in laboratory animals, and it shouldn’t be in the food supply. We certainly want Coca-Cola to shift its product mix toward lower- and no-calorie drinks, but aspartame’s reputation isn’t worth rehabilitating with this propaganda campaign.

The company would be better off phasing out its use of aspartame and accelerating its research into safer, natural sweeteners such as those extracted from the stevia plant.”

Don’t Fall for Coca-Cola’s Deceptive “Public Announcement” Ads

Besides pulling the wool over your eyes with regards to the lack of overall safety of aspartame, I think the FTC would be warranted to sue Coke and the other diet soda manufacturers for fraudulent advertising, seeing how:

1. There’s no scientific evidence showing that the use of diet sodas actually lead to weight loss.

On the contrary, studies have repeatedly shown that artificial sweeteners cause greater weight gain than regular sugar.4 Studies have also repeatedly linked artificial sweeteners with increased hunger. For example, one study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior in 19885 found that intense (no- or low-calorie) sweeteners can produce significant changes in appetite. Of the three sweeteners tested, aspartame produced the most pronounced effects.

2. Scientific evidence shows that aspartame actually worsens insulin sensitivityto a greater degree than sugar.

This is quite the blow for diabetics who obediently follow the recommendation to switch to diet sodas to manage their condition. Unfortunately, in large part due to misleading and deceptive advertising, many doctors and registered nutritionists are still under the illusion that artificial sweeteners are a safe and effective alternative for their diabetic patients.

Artificial sweeteners also appear to cause many of the same health effects associated with high sugar consumption.  Most recently, a report published in the journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism6 highlighted the fact that diet soda drinkers suffer the same exact health problems as those who opt for regular soda, including excessive weight gain, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease andstroke.7, 8 According to the authors:

“This paper… considers the hypothesis that consuming sweet-tasting but noncaloric or reduced-calorie food and beverages interferes with learned responses that normally contribute to glucose and energy homeostasis. Because of this interference, frequent consumption of high-intensity sweeteners may have the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements.”

So the very reason anyone would consider using diet instead of sugared sweeteners has no basis in fact. Anyone using them would get the same problems as using regular sugar and expose themselves to the well documented risks of artificial sweeteners.

Be Critical of “All Natural” Sweetener Claims

With artificial sweeteners are out of the picture, let’s look at some all-natural sweeteners. Natural sweeteners such as honey and agave may seem like a healthier choice, but not only are they loaded with fructose, many are also highly processed. In that regard, you’re not gaining a thing. The health effects will be the same, since it’s the fructose that causes the harm.

Agave syrup can even be considered worse than HFCS because it has a higher fructose content than any commercial sweetener, ranging from 70 to 97 percent depending on the brand. HFCS, in comparison, averages 55 percent fructose. What’s worse, most agave “nectar” or agave “syrup” is nothing more than a laboratory-generated super-condensed fructose syrup, devoid of virtually all nutrient value.

Honey is also high in fructose, averaging around 53 percent, but contrary to agave it is completely natural in itsraw form, and has many health benefits when used in moderation. Keep in mind you’re not likely to find high quality raw honey in your local grocery store. Most of the commercial Grade A honey is highly processed and of poor quality. All in all, it’s important to realize thatregardless of the source (be it HFCS, honey or agave), refined fructose:

• Tricks your body into gaining weight by fooling your metabolism, as it turns off your body’s appetite-control system. Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.
• Activates a key enzyme that causes cells to store fat; this is the so-called “fat switch” revealed in Dr. Richard Johnson’s book by the same name.
• Rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity (“beer belly”), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure—i.e., classic metabolic syndrome.
• Is broken down in your liver just like alcohol, and produces many of the side effects of chronic alcohol use, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Interestingly enough, research has shown that soft drinks increase your risk of NAFLD independently of metabolic syndrome9.
• Over time leads to insulin r

• esistance, which is not only an underlying factor of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but also many cancers.

What About Sugar Alcohols?

Sugar alcohols can be identified by the commonality of “ol” at the end of their name, such as xylitol glucitol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, glycerol, and lactitol. They’re not as sweet as sugar, and they do contain fewer calories, but they’re not calorie-free. So don’t get confused by the “sugar-free” label on foods containing these sweeteners. As with all foods, you need to carefully read the food labels for calorie and carbohydrate content, regardless of any claims that the food is sugar-free or low-sugar.

One reason that sugar alcohols provide fewer calories than sugar is because they’re not completely absorbed into your body. Because of this, eating too many foods containing sugar alcohols can lead to abdominal gas and diarrhea. It’s also worth noting that maltitol, a commonly used sugar alcohol, spikes blood sugar almost as much as a starchy new potato. Xylitol, in comparison, does not have a great effect on your blood sugar, so from that perspective may be a better choice.

So, in moderation, some sugar alcohols can be a better choice than highly refined sugar, fructose or artificial sweeteners. Of the various sugar alcohols, xylitol is one of the best. When it is pure, the potential side effects are minimal, and it actually comes with some benefits such as fighting tooth decay. All in all, I would say that xylitol is reasonably safe, and potentially even a mildly beneficial sweetener. (As a side note, xylitol is toxic to dogs and some other animals, so be sure to keep it out of reach of your family pets.)

Three of the Safest Sugar-Alternatives

Two of the best sugar substitutes are from the plant kingdom: Stevia and Lo Han Guo (also spelled Luo Han Kuo). Stevia, a highly sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, is sold as a supplement. It’s completely safe in its natural form and can be used to sweeten most dishes and drinks.

Keep in mind that the same cannot be said for the sugar substitute Truvia, which makes use of only certain active ingredients and not the entire plant. Rebaudioside A is the agent that provides most of the sweet taste of the plant. Usually it’s thesynergistic effect of all the agents in the plant that provide the overall health effect, which oftentimes includes “built-in protection” against potentially damaging effects, but what the FDA has approved as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) are just a couple of the active ingredients, including rebaudioside A used in Truvia.

In one toxicology review,10 the researchers point out that stevioside compounds and rebaudioside A are metabolized at different rates, making it impossible to assess the risk of rebaudioside A from toxicity assessments of stevioside (which has been used as food and medicine in Japan and South America for decades or longer). Additionally, in a human metabolism study, stevioside and rebaudioside A had different pharmacokinetic results. In layman’s terms, that means that your body reacts differently to the two compounds; each compound is metabolized differently and remains in your body for different lengths of time.

Truvia may turn out to be a very good substitute to sugar, but I’d have to see more details before giving it an enthusiastic thumbs-up – for the same reason the FDA uses as the basis for their refusal to consider Stevia GRAS: there’s just not enough evidence to prove its safety. Lo Han Kuo is another natural sweetener similar to Stevia, but it’s a bit more expensive and harder to find. In China, the Lo Han fruit has been used as a sweetener for centuries, and it’s about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It received FDA GRAS status in 2009.

A third alternative is to use pure glucose. You can buy pure glucose (dextrose) for about $5-7 per pound. It is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose, so you’ll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than regular sugar—but still well worth it for your health as it does not contain any fructose whatsoever. Contrary to fructose, glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is a far safer sugar alternative.

Consider Dampening Your Sweet-Tooth…

Keep in mind though that if you have insulin issues, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or if you’re overweight, you’d be best to avoid all sweeteners, including Stevia, Lo Han and dextrose, since any sweetener can decrease your insulin sensitivity. (Most important of all, remember that this goes for artificial sweeteners too!) If you’re having trouble weaning yourself off sweet foods and beverages, try Turbo Tapping. It’s a clever use of the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), specifically designed to resolve many aspects of an addiction in a concentrated period of time.

Tell Coke They’re a Joke!

Obesity and related metabolic diseases are serious public health problems in the United States, and you are being sorely misled by companies pretending to have a solution that, in reality, only worsen the problem. I strongly urge you to let the Coca-Cola Company know how you feel by telling them to stop their deceptive marketing of soda products. Especially their fake “public announcement” ads for aspartame.

Join me in taking a stand against false advertising and let your voice be heard. If you’re on twitter, send a tweet to #CokeCEO to let the Coca-Cola Company know you are not happy with their deceptive advertising. If you’re on Facebook, please share your thoughts with them on their Facebook Page. Please also email the Coca-Cola Company to let them know how you feel!

Sources and References

• 1 National Geographic July 17, 2013
• 2 CSPInet.org August 14, 2013
• 3 American Journal of Industrial Medicine December 2010; 53(12): 1197-1206
• 4 Appetite January 1, 2012, Volume 60, Pages 203-207
• 5 Physiology & Behavior 1988; 43(5): 547-552
• 6 Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism 2013
• 7 CNN.com July 10, 2013
• 8 Drugs.com July 10, 2013
• 9 World of Gastroentorology 2010 Jun 7;16(21):2579-88
• 10 Toxicology of Rebaudioside A: A Review

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and according to the American Heart Association,1 five percent of American children can now be considered “severely obese,” which puts their health at grave risk.

One in four Americans are either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and an estimated 110,000 Americans die as a result of obesity-related ailments each year. This includes cancer, about one-third of which are directly related to obesity.

Carb-rich processed foods, along with rarely ever fasting, are primary drivers of these statistics, and while many blame Americans’ overindulgence of processed junk foods on lack of self control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly addictive nature of such foods.

The video above features Huffington Post’s Editorial Director Meredith Melnick and a panel of experts in nutrition, public health, and obesity. In it, they discuss the effects that our toxic food environment have on weight. The video also includes clips from the four-part HBO documentary series,2 Weight of the Nation.

As reported in the featured article:3

“Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. People who are obese may also face social and professional discrimination, limited mobility and elevated rates of depression.

In June of this year, the American Medical Association (AMA) classified obesity as a disease for the first time — and what a complicated disease it is. At the time of the resolution, the organization wrote:

“The suggestion that obesity is not a disease but rather a consequence of a chosen lifestyle exemplified by overeating and/or inactivity is equivalent to suggesting that lung cancer is not a disease because it was brought about by individual choice to smoke cigarettes.”

 It is this gray area — “the suggestion of the chosen lifestyle” — that we joined together to discuss.

Obesity—A Disease, or the Outcome of Poor Lifestyle Choices?

As the article mentions, the conventional view has been that obesity is either the result of “bad genetics” or poor lifestyle choices combined with a certain amount of laziness or lack of willpower.

But as panelist Walter Willett (who chairs the department of nutrition at the Harvard school of public health) points out, the fact that obesity rates 50-60 years ago were only one-third of what they are today is a potent clue that genetics are not to blame.

Also, a number of other affluent nations do not have the same obesity problems as the US. For example, the obesity rate among Swedish and Japanese women is between five and six percent, compared to almost 40 percent for American women. Furthermore, when people from such countries move to the US, they end up gaining significant amounts of weight…

This tells us there’s something in the American diet that is different from other nations, in which people do not have the same level of difficulty with their weight.

Unfortunately, branding obesity as a disease is not going to do anything to change matters for the better. If anything, it will only deepen the problem, as drugs, surgery and even “anti-obesity vaccines”4 will quickly become the advertised answer for this new “disease.”

For example, just one month before the AMA’s reveal of obesity as a disease, a new diet drug sold under the name Belviq became available by prescription to patients with a body mass index (BMI) above 30, or a BMI of 27 with at least one weight-related condition, such as hypertension or Type 2 diabetes.

The drug works by activating serotonin receptors in your brain, which is thought to reduce feelings of hunger—although it sounds awfully similar to the action of certain antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which boost serotonin levels and are fraught with dangerous side effects, including suicide. CNN Health5 also reported that some patients taking the drug have reported heart valve problems. The drug’s website6 admits that it’s still not known whether Belviq might increase your risk of heart problems or stroke. A sound health care system simply would not encourage the use of a weight loss drug that might lead to increased heart attack or stroke risk when the appropriate dietary- and lifestyle changes would REDUCE those risks right along with the lost weight…

The fact is, well-educated nutritional experts already KNOW what’s causing obesity and how to fix the problem. But this involves massive changes to the processed food industry, updating agricultural subsidies to promote healthier non-processed foods, and telling the public the truth about nutrition—without any regard for industry profitability. We also need to stop the dangerous marketing of junk food to children.

Food Addiction and Obesity Is a Profit-Driven Enterprise

At the heart of the problem is the issue of toxic food—foods that are heavily processed and purposely designed for maximum “craveability.”  None of this happened by chance. Companies spend untold amounts concocting just the right flavor formulas to keep you coming back for more. To illustrate my point, consider this: Researchers at the Boston Children’s Hospital recently demonstrated that highly processed carbohydrates stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, promoting excess hunger.7 As reported by Science Daily:8

“These findings suggest that limiting these “high-glycemic index” foods could help obese individuals avoid overeating.”

While I don’t agree with the concept of high glycemic foods, the featured research shows just how foolhardy the AMA’s decision to reclassify obesity as a disease really is, because drugs and vaccines are clearly not going to do anything to address the underlying problem of addictive junk food!

“Sensory-specific satiety” is a fundamental guiding principle in the processed food industry, and this applies to everything from junky snacks to staples like pasta sauce—that’s part of the problem! Processed fructose, salt and fat are the top three substances making processed foods so addictive. Novel biotech flavor companies like Senomyx also play an important role in the development of foods that trick you into thinking it’s healthier than it really is.

Senomyx, for example, specializes in helping companies find new flavors that allow them to use less salt and sugar in their foods. But does that really make the food healthier? This is a questionable assertion at best, as these “flavor enhancers” are being created using carefully guarded patented processes. They also do not need to be listed on the food label, which leaves you completely in the dark—all you see is that the food contains far less of the dietary culprits you’re told to avoid.

Following USDA Diet Recommendations is a Recipe for Obesity

Some of you may be old enough to recall the 1992 Food Pyramid, which had grains as the largest bottom block of the pyramid, encouraging you to eat 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta each day. This excess of carbohydrates, most of them refined, is precisely the opposite of what most people need to stay healthy. At the very top of the pyramid was fats and sugar, and while sugar clearly belongs there, healthy fats do not. In fact, most people would benefit from getting anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of their total calories from healthy fats!

The food pyramid was replaced with “MyPlate”9 in 2011, which slightly downplayed grains as the most important dietary ingredient, making vegetables the largest “slice,” but it still has a long way to go before it will offer a meal plan that will truly support your optimal health.

One of its most glaring faults is that MyPlate virtually removed all fats from the equation! In fact, except for a small portion of dairy, which is advised to be fat-free or low-fat, fats are missing entirely… There is no mention of the importance of dietary fats, even the “politically correct” ones like the monounsaturated fats in olive oil and nuts, such as pecans (canola oil is also in this category, but I advise avoiding it and using coconut oil instead).

The US government refuses to accept the ever mounting data showing that saturated fat is actually an incredibly healthy, nourishing, and all-natural fat that humans have been thriving on for generations. It provides the necessary building blocks for your cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone like substances that are critical to your health. Saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources (such as coconut oil, avocado, non-CAFO meat and dairy,  also provide a concentrated source of energy in your diet.

When you eat fats as part of your meal, they also slow down absorption so that you can feel satiated longer, which helps curb overeating. Additionally, they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, and are needed for mineral absorption and a host of other biological processes. To get these healthy saturated fats in your diet, you need to eat animal foods like butter and other full-fat raw dairy products and eggs, yet these foods are still demonized by the establishment.

Take Control of Your Health and Embrace REAL Food

With a food system and dietary guidelines that promote obesity and actively prevents optimal health by restricting critical nutrients, is it any wonder Americans are struggling? If you’re at all concerned about your health, nutrition is paramount, and you’re simply not going to get what you need from a boxed concoction of processed ingredients.

So, first and foremost, you have to realize that a healthy diet equates to fresh whole, preferably organic foods, and foods that have been minimally processed. I advise spending 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent (or less) on processed foods. If the food meets the following criteria, it would fall under the designation of “real food,” which is the very foundation of good health:

1. It’s grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)
2. It’s not genetically engineered
3. It contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
4. It does not contain any artificial ingredients, including chemical preservatives
5. It is fresh (keep in mind that if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh conventional produce, the latter may be the better option)
6. It did not come from a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO)
7. It is grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors)
8. It is grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

How to Combat Food Addiction and Regain Your Health

The sad fact is, if you eat a standard American diet (SAD), which primarily consists of processed foods, you’re virtually guaranteed to inadvertently pack on extra pounds, even if you think you’re eating healthy.  For the majority of people, limiting carbs to non-starchy vegetables and severely restricting or eliminating carbohydrates such as sugars, fructose, and grains in your diet will be the key to sustained weight loss.

It’s important to realize that refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

As you cut these dietary villains from your meals, you need to replace them with healthy fats, such as the following. (Avoid the common Paleo mistake of replacing carbs with protein as that could actually convert to sugar in your diet and could be more problematic than excess carbs.)

I’ve detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my free comprehensive nutrition plan.

Additionally, a growing body of evidence shows that intermittent fasting is particularly effective for losing weight. One of the mechanisms that makes intermittent fasting so effective for weight loss is the fact that it provokes the natural secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), which is a fat-burning hormone. Fasting also increases catecholamines, which increases resting energy expenditure, while decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine. Hence, if like many tens of millions of people, your goal is to shed excess fat, fasting can be both effective and beneficial for improving many disease markers.

Best of all, once you transition to fat burning mode your cravings for sugar and carbs will virtually disappear—it’s really as close to a “magic pill”-effect as you’ll ever get. While you’re making the adjustment, you could try an energy psychology technique called Turbo Tapping, which has helped many sugar addicts kick their sweet habit.

Last but certainly not least, to boost weight loss, make sure to incorporate high-intensity, short-burst-type exercises, such as my Peak Fitness Program, two to three times per week. Several studies have confirmed that exercising in shorter bursts with rest periods in between burns more fat than exercising continuously for an entire session. High intensity exercise can also combat food cravings. It always amazes me how my appetite, especially for sweets, dramatically decreases after a good workout. I believe the mechanism is related to the dramatic reduction in insulin levels that occurs after exercise.

Sources and References

• 1 CBS News September 9, 2013
• 2 Weightofthenation.hbo.com
• 3 Huffington Post September 13, 2013
• 4 The Atlantic September 18, 2012
• 5 CNN Health June 11, 2013
• 6 Belviq.com
• 7 Psych Central June 29, 2013
• 8 Science Daily June 26, 2013
• 9 USDA MyPlate

In light of a long list of mass shootings over the past several years, the causative role of psychiatric drugs in violent events will undoubtedly have to be evaluated and addressed at some point. Personally, I’d vote for sooner, rather than later.

Antidepressants in particular have a well-established history of causing violent side effects, including suicide and homicide.  In a recent Scientific American1article, the author states:

“Once again, antidepressants have been linked to an episode of horrific violence. The New York Times2 reports that Aaron Alexis, who allegedly shot 12 people to death at a Navy facility in Washington, DC, earlier this week, received a prescription for the antidepressant trazodone3 in August.”

The drug in question, trazodone, has been associated with:4

“New or worsening depression; thinking about harming or killing yourself, or planning or trying to do so; extreme worry; agitation; panic attacks; difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep; aggressive behavior; irritability; acting without thinking; severe restlessness; and frenzied abnormal excitement.”

The naval yard shooting is just the latest event to bring questions about prescription medications to the fore, but it bears noting that in this particular case no evidence has yet been released confirming that the shooter had the drug in his system at the time of the massacre.

Still, questions about the safety, or lack thereof, of antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs really need to be addressed regardless of whether they were instrumental in this particular case. Just last year, a Canadian judge ruled that a teenage boy murdered his friend because of the effects of Prozac.

When will such side effects be taken seriously? Just how many people have to kill themselves or others before a drug is considered too dangerous to be prescribed?

In a paper titled Antidepressants and Violence: Problems at the Interface of Medicine and Law,5 David Healy, a British professor of psychiatry at Cardiff University and an authority on side effects of psychiatric drugs, writes:

 “Legal systems are likely to continue to be faced with cases of violence associated with the use of psychotropic drugs, and it may fall to the courts to demand access to currently unavailable data. The problem is international and calls for an international response.”

Potential Side Effects of Antidepressants = Violence and Worsened Depression

In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised6 the labeling requirements for antidepressant medications (SSRI’s and others), warning that:

“Antidepressants increased the risk compared to placebo of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders.

Anyone considering the use of [Insert established name] or any other antidepressant in a child, adolescent, or young adult must balance this risk with the clinical need.”

These labeling revisions were in large part driven by lawsuits, in which pharmaceutical companies were forced to reveal previously undisclosed drug data. For example, a civil lawsuit filed in 20047 charged GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) with fraud, claiming the drug manufacturer hid results from studies on Paxil showing the drug did not work in adolescents and in some cases led to suicidal ideation. Rather than warning doctors of such potential side effects, GSK actually encouraged them to prescribe the drug to teens and children.

According to DrugWatch.com,8 GSK has agreed to pay out more than $1 billion to settle more than 800 different lawsuits related to Paxil—and that’s over and above the $3 billion it agreed to pay to settle the Department of Justice’s investigation into illegal marketing of Paxil and other drugs!

In an effort to gather the necessary data on adverse side effects, Healy and other healthcare experts have formed an organization called RxISK.9 It’s a free, independent website where patients, doctors, and pharmacists can report side effects and research prescription drugs of all kinds. I’d encourage you to bookmark it and refer to it when needed.

Antidepressants and ADHD Drugs Top List of Most Violence-Inducing Drugs

Please note that antidepressants are not the only type of drugs associated with violent, homicidal behavior, but they are among the most common suspects. A study10 by the Institute of Safe Medication Practices published in 2010 identified no less than 31 commonly-prescribed drugs that are disproportionately associated with cases of violent acts. Topping the list is the quit-smoking drug Chantix, followed by Prozac and Paxil, and drugs used to treat ADHD.

The data was collected from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), and it’s well worth noting here that only an estimated one to 10 percent of all side effects are ever reported to VAERS, so the fact that more than 1,500 violent acts were actually reported as being linked to any given drug is pretty amazing. The vast majority of side effects, regardless of what they are, are typically blamed on something else and connections are brushed aside as “coincidental.”

In all, five of the top 10 most violence-inducing drugs were found to be antidepressants:

• Fluoxetine (Prozac)
• Paroxetine (Paxil)
• Fluvoxamine (Luvox)
• Venlafaxine (Effexor)
• Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq)

According to Professor Healy, a study by the Drug Safety Research Unit in Southampton showed that one in every 250 subjects taking Paxil or Prozac were involved in a violent episode. In a study group of 25,000 people, this included 31 assaults and one homicide. In 2011, a whopping 14 million prescriptions for Paxil and more than 25.5 million prescriptions for Prozac were written.11 This could potentially equate to some 158,000 drug-induced incidents of violence annually from these two drugs alone. As reported in the featured article:12

“Another study involving more than 9,000 subjects taking the antidepressant paroxetine (Paxil) for depression and other disorders showed that subjects experienced more than twice as many ‘hostility events’ as subjects taking a placebo.” … Healy suspects that the main causal factor behind suicide and violence toward others is increased mental and/or physical agitation, which leads about five percent of subjects taking antidepressants to drop out of clinical trials, compared to only 0.5 percent of people on placebos.”

Another two in that top 10 list of violence-promoting drugs are commonly-prescribed ADHD medications (including Strattera). When you consider that antidepressants and ADHD drugs are among the most prescribed types of drugs13 in the US, the fact that so many of them are linked to increased rates of violence should be cause for pause. Besides an increased risk of violent episodes, ADHD drugs such as Ritalin, Vyvanse, Strattera, and Adderall (and their generic equivalents) are also responsible for nearly 23,000 emergency room visits annually, as of 2011 statistics. Over a mere six-year span, there’s been a 400 percent increase in ER visits due to side effects of these drugs.

Use Antipsychotic Medications with More Care, Psychiatrists Say

In related news,14 the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently issued a statement urging doctors and patients to reconsider the practice of using anti-psychotic medications as the first line of treatment for:

• Dementia in the elderly
• Behavior problems in children, or
• Insomnia in adults

The drugs in question include Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, and Abilify. APA’s recommendation with regards to anti-psychotic drug prescriptions is part of a larger campaign called Choosing Wisely,15 which covers a wide array of common medical practices that patients and doctors would do well to question, as they may cause more harm than good. Joel Yager, a psychiatry professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, told USA Today:

“Doctors who overprescribe the medications are doing what they think might help, often without first trying safer or more effective alternatives.”

Key Factors to Overcoming Depression Without Drugs

It’s important to realize that your diet and general lifestyle are foundational factors that must be opitimized if you want to resolve your mental health issues, because your body and mind are so closely interrelated. Depression is indeed a very serious condition; however, it is not a “disease.” Rather, it’s a sign that your body and your life are out of balance.

Mounting and compelling research demonstrates just how interconnected your mental health is with your gastrointestinal health, for example. While many think of their brain as the organ in charge of their mental health, your gut may actually play a far more significant role. The drug treatments available today for depression are no better than they were 50 years ago. Clearly, we need a new approach, and diet is an obvious place to start.

Research tells us that the composition of your gut flora not only affects your physical health, but also has a significant impact on your brain function and mental state. Previous research has also shown that certain probiotics can even help alleviate anxiety16,17. The place to start is to return balance—to your body and your life. Fortunately, research confirms that there are safe and effective ways to address depression that do not involve unsafe drugs. These include:

• Dramatically decrease your consumption of refined sugar (particularly fructose), grains, and processed foods. (In addition to being high in sugar and grains, processed foods also contain a variety of additives that can affect your brain function and mental state, especially MSG, and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.)  There’s a great book on this subject, The Sugar Blues, written by William Dufty more than 30 years ago, that delves into the topic of sugar and mental health in great detail.
• Increase consumption of probiotic foods, such as fermented vegetables and kefir, to promote healthy gut flora. Mounting evidence tells us that having a healthy gut is profoundly important for both physical and mental health, and the latter can be severely impacted by an imbalance of intestinal bacteria.
• Get adequate vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 deficiency can contribute to depression and affects one in four people.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally through regular sun exposure. Vitamin D is very important for your mood. In one study, people with the lowest levels of vitamin D were found to be 11 times more prone to be depressed than those who had normal levels.18 The best way to get vitamin D is through exposure to SUNSHINE, not swallowing a tablet. Remember, SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a type of depression that we know is related to sunshine deficiency, so it would make sense that the perfect way to optimize your vitamin D is through sun exposure, or a safe tanning bed if you don’t have regular access to the sun.
• Get plenty of animal-based omega-3 fats. Many people don’t realize that their brain is 60 percent fat, but not just any fat. It is DHA, an animal based omega-3 fat which, along with EPA, is crucial for good brain function and mental health.19Unfortunately, most people don’t get enough from diet alone. Make sure you take a high-quality omega-3 fat, such as krill oil. Dr. Stoll, a Harvard psychiatrist, was one of the early leaders in compiling the evidence supporting the use of animal based omega-3 fats for the treatment of depression. He wrote an excellent book that details his experience in this area called The Omega-3 Connection.
• Evaluate your salt intake. Sodium deficiency actually creates symptoms that are very much like those of depression. Make sure you do NOT use processed salt (regular table salt), however. You’ll want to use an all-natural, unprocessed salt like Himalayan salt, which contains more than 80 different micronutrients.
• Get adequate daily exercise, which is one of the most effective strategies for preventing and overcoming depression. Studies on exercise as a treatment for depression have shown there is a strong correlation between improved mood and aerobic capacity. So there’s a growing acceptance that the mind-body connection is very real, and that maintaining good physical health can significantly lower your risk of developing depression in the first place.

• Get adequate amounts of sleep. You can have the best diet and exercise program possible, but if you aren’t sleeping well you can easily become depressed. Sleep and depression are so intimately linked that a sleep disorder is actually part of the definition of the symptom complex that gives the label depression.

What the Future May Hold

A recent article in The Guardian20 suggests psychiatric drugs may soon be rendered obsolete, in favor of neurotechnology. “No longer focused on developing pills, a huge research effort is now devoted to altering the function of specific neural circuits by physical intervention in the brain,” Vaughan Bell writes, noting that virtually all pharmaceutical companies have closed down or curtailed their research and development of new psychiatric drugs.

The latest “craze” in this field has instead been redirected toward the understanding—and manipulation—of neural networks, with the aim to modify behavior by stimulating specific brain circuits deep within your brain. Some of these procedures include the implanting of electrodes into the brain, for example. According to the article:

“Big money has already been committed. The Obama White House has promised $3 billion to develop technology to help identify brain circuits, while the National Institute of Mental Health has promised to move its seven-figure funding away from research into conditions such as schizophrenia and depression towards a system that looks at how brain networks contribute to difficulties that are shared across diagnoses. This project, given the unspectacular name Research Domain Criteria or the RdoC Project, is being cited as an eventual replacement for the diagnostic system used by current-day psychiatrists.”

One of the latest technologies in this area, called optogenetics, involves “injecting neurons with a benign virus that contains the genetic information for light-sensitive proteins.” As a result of this injection, your brain cells become light-sensitive, allowing them to be remotely controlled via flashes of light sent through fiber optic cables implanted into your brain.

“Let’s make this clear. The scientific revolution in identifying and manipulating brain circuits is already under way,”Vaughan writes. “… Advances in neuroscience are not just discoveries, they also shape, as they always have done, how we view ourselves. As the Prozac nation fades, the empire of the circuit-based human will rise…”

Whether or not this will actually make for happier, healthier, more balanced people is questionable, if you ask me. Yet this is what we may have to contend with in the future.

The Benefits of Energy Psychology

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a form of psychological acupressure based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over 5,000 years, but without the invasiveness of needles. Instead, simple tapping with the fingertips is used to transfer kinetic energy onto specific meridians on your head and chest while you think about your specific problem — whether it is a traumatic event, an addiction, pain, anxiety, etc. — and voice positive affirmations.

This combination of tapping the energy meridians and voicing positive affirmation works to clear the “short-circuit”—the emotional block—from your body’s bioenergy system, thus restoring your mind and body’s balance, which is essential for optimal health and the healing of physical disease.

Some people are initially wary of these principles that EFT is based on — the electromagnetic energy that flows through the body and regulates our health is only recently becoming recognized in the West. Others are initially taken aback by (and sometimes amused by) the EFT tapping and affirmation methodology. But believe me when I say that, more than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT has the most potential to literally work magic.

Clinical trials have shown that EFT is able to rapidly reduce the emotional impact of memories and incidents that trigger emotional distress. Once the distress is reduced or removed, the body can often rebalance itself, and accelerate healing. For example, one study involving 30 moderately to severely depressed college students showed significantly less depression than the control group when evaluated three weeks after receiving a total of four 90-minute EFT sessions.21

A study of 100 veterans with severe PTSD22 who participated in the Iraq Vets Stress Project showed an astounding reduction of symptoms after just six one-hour EFT sessions. After completing six sessions, 90 percent of the veterans had such a reduction in symptoms that they no longer met the clinical criteria for PTSD. Sixty percent no longer met PTSD criteria after only three EFT sessions. At the three-month follow-up, the gains remained stable, suggesting lasting and potentially permanent resolution of the problem.

In the following videos, EFT practitioner Julie Schiffman shows how you can use EFT to relieve your depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. But remember, most of the time one is placed on medication, there are serious emotional health challenges going on. It is imperative to recognize that doing EFT by yourself will likely not work for this problem. You need to be seen by an EFT professional who is experienced and can help guide you through the process Those who suffer from depression really should see a qualified EFT therapist.23

Important Concluding Thoughts

I know firsthand that depression is devastating. It takes a toll on the healthiest of families and can destroy lifelong friendships. Few things are harder in life than watching someone you love lose their sense of joy, hope, and purpose in life, and wonder if they will ever find it again. And to not have anything within your power that can change things for them. You wonder if you will ever have your loved one “back” again.

It’s impossible to impart the will to live to somebody who no longer possesses it. No amount of logic, reasoning, or reminders about all they have to live for will put a smile back on the face of a loved one masked by the black cloud of depression. I urge everyone to familiarize yourself with the most common warning signs of severe depression and suicide risk, and don’t hesitate to intervene if you recognize them in someone you know, and/or seek help if you experience them yourself.

There are times when a prescription drug may be helpful. But it’s unclear whether it is the drug providing benefits, or the unbelievable power of your mind that is convinced it is going to work. Studies have found that up to 75 percent of the benefits ofantidepressants can be duplicated by a placebo.

Oftentimes you cannot change your circumstances. You can, however, change your response to them. I encourage you to be balanced in your life. Don’t ignore your body’s warning signs that something needs to change. Sometimes people are so busy taking care of everybody else that they lose sight of themselves. If you have been personally affected by depression, my heart goes out to you. A broken body can be easier to fix than a broken mind. Depression is real. It is my hope that you don’t feel judged here, but that you are encouraged and inspired by those who have been there.

Sources and References

• 1 Scientific American September 20, 2013
• 2 New York Times September 17, 2013
• 3 MedlinePlus, Trazodone
• 4 MedlinePlus, Trazodone
• 5 PLoS Med 3(9): e372
• 6 FDA.gov, Revisions to Product Labeling (PDF)
• 7 New York Times June 3, 2004
• 8 Drugwatch.com Paxil Lawsuits
• 9 RxISK.org
• 10 PLoS ONE 5(12): e15337
• 11 Psychcentral.com, Prescriptions for 2011
• 12 Scientific American September 20, 2013
• 13 CDC.gov, Therapeutic Drug Use
• 14 USAToday.com September 21, 2013
• 15 Choosingwisely.org
• 16 Neurogastroenterology and Motility 2011 Dec;23(12):1132-9
• 17 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2011 Sep 20;108(38):16050-5.
• 18 American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry December 2006; 14(12): 1032-1040
• 19 Effects of Omega-3 Fatty Acids on Mental Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Evidence Report/Technology Assessment: Number 116
• 20 The Guardian September 21, 2013
• 21 Brief Group Intervention Using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) for Depression in College Students
• 22 Veterans Stress Project
• 23 EFTregister.com

Forty percent of the US food supply is thrown away uneaten every year because of expired food dates, but a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Harvard suggests that most of that food is still safe to eat.1

Labels like ‘use by’ and ‘sell by’ on foods aren’t actually an indicator of food safety, as many believe them to be, and, the report found, more than 90 percent of Americans are throwing out food prematurely because of misunderstandings of what food dates actually mean. In short, many foods are still safe to eat even after they’re expired.

There is Only ONE National Regulation on Food Dating

While both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have the authority to regulate food dating, neither does, with the exception of infant formula (the only food product with a federally regulated date label, as the nutrients in the formula decline over time).

The rest of the food market has no such federal dating regulations, and the end result is a veritable free for all, with some states requiring food dates and establishing selling restrictions based on them and others not.

For instance, 20 states restrict stores from selling products after the use by dates while 30 do not. As the report highlights, are the people in the 20 more restrictive states better off? Most likely not …

Adding to the confusion, even when products are regulated, the rules vary by state and even then definitions are vague and provide little usefulness, if any. According to the report:

• In Florida, all milk and milk products “shall be legibly labeled with their shelf-life date,” but shelf life date is never defined.
• In California, milk is required to have a date that the processor decides is the date “to ensure quality, such product is normally removed from the shelf” but sale after that date is not restricted.
• In Montana, milk must have a “sell by” date within 12 days of pasteurization, while Pennsylvania requires it within 17 days.
• In New Hampshire, a “sell by date” is required for cream but not milk.

• New York, Texas, and Wisconsin, among many other states, have no requirements for date labels on milk or dairy.

There is No Way for You to Know How a ‘Use By’ Date is Calculated

It’s not only what happens to products after a ‘use by’ or ‘best by’ date has been applied that’s confusing. Even the creation of the date itself is subject to incredible variance and, ultimately, is up to individual product manufacturers to determine.

Again, while most assume such dates are used as a means for food safety, most manufacturers view them as a tool to protect their product’s reputation. They want you to consume their product at its peak freshness and flavor, which means many set food dates conservatively.

Yet, the food is many times still safe to eat after the date expires, often with minimal, if any, changes in taste or texture. Even the methods used by manufacturers to set food dates vary. The report explained:

“Some use lab tests, others use literature values, and yet others use product turnover rates or consumer taste testing … In consumer testing, some manufacturers will allow for a level of change in quality over time before setting a date limit, whereas others set them more conservatively

… Thus, while open dating appears on the surface to be an objective exercise, consumer preferences and brand protection impact the way most of these dates are determined. In most cases, consumers have no way of knowing how a “sell by” or “use by” date has been defined or calculated, and the method of calculation may vary widely by product type, manufacturer and geography.”

So a package of cheese or a box of crackers may have different ‘use by’ dates simply depending on which brand you choose, or where they’re purchased.

Food Dates Do Little to Protect You

The researchers concluded that food dates generally lead to good food getting thrown away, and may at the same time prompt you to eat a food that’s actually spoiled because of ‘undue faith in date labels.’

Ultimately, the greatest factor impacting whether your food is ‘safe’ isn’t total storage time, anyway, but rather is related to how much time it spends in the temperature ‘danger zone’ (between 40-120 degrees F)2 – a factor you have little way of monitoring. If you leave your groceries in a hot car for too long, for instance, it may be spoiled long before the ‘sell by’ date. In this way, the report noted, it may actually promote food-borne illness:

“When temperature abuse occurs or food is otherwise compromised, an open date becomes essentially meaningless, but consumers are likely to trust the label date and use the product anyway.”

In the case of ‘sell by’ dates, these aren’t even meant for consumer use at all. They are actually there as tools to help retailers ensure proper product turnover when socking shelves, yet many consumers believe it is a measure of food safety. The dates lead to so much confusion and food waste that the report authors suggested making the ‘sell by’ dates invisible to consumers. In addition, in order to revamp the food dating system so it reduces waste yet provides useful and potentially illness-reducing information, they advised:

• Establishing standard and clear language for both quality-based and safety-based date labels
• Including ‘freeze by’ dates and freezing information where applicable
• Removing or replacing quality-based dates on non-perishable shelf-stable products
• Employ more transparent methods of selecting dates

• Increase the use of safe handling instructions and ‘how to use’ information

Coming to Boston in 2014: An Expired-Food Grocery Store

The former president of Trader Joe’s supermarket, Doug Rauch, has come up with a way to cut back on the 40 percent of US food that’s getting tossed in the trash unnecessarily. Next year he plans to open the Daily Table, which is described as a “hybrid between a grocery store and a restaurant,”3 because it will prepare and repackage food so that it’s ready for you to eat or make quick, from-scratch meals. What’s especially unique about the Daily Table? All of the food in the store will be expired and sold at deep discounts that compete with fast-food prices.

Time reported:4

“… the idea here is to make this nutritional food an affordable, quick and easy option to people who might otherwise spend their lunch money at McDonald’s. And of course, it’s about implementing a longer-term solution to the growing problem of wasted food across the U.S.”

The store, which is targeted for underserved areas, will sell mostly fruits, vegetables and other freshly prepared products that are a few days past their ‘best buy’ dates but still entirely edible. Food banks have been doing this for some time, and this new idea may offer a phenomenal way for even more people to gain access to healthy, affordable food.

Buying Locally Grown Foods Eliminates the Need for Food Dates

If you’re like the average American, you waste more than 20 pounds of food every month. Part of this is due to throwing away good food simply based on the date. Another factor is food spoiling before you have a chance to eat it. I recommend buying your food locally, preferably from a small organic farming operation you can visit and inspect for yourself. This guarantees that you get the freshest foods right from the start, giving you a few extra days of leeway before they spoil.

In fact, it was only in the last few decades that food dates were even deemed necessary, and it coincided directly with an increase in processed foods – and a detachment of the consumer from where their food was grown. According to the report:

“Expiration dates on food arose out of a concern for the food’s freshness, not its safety. As Americans moved off farms over the 20th century and grew more distant from their source of food, they began losing the ability to tell how fresh their food was. This was partly because they were purchasing it in a store and didn’t know its history, and partly because the knowledge of how to store and handle fresh food was progressively lost as processed foods became prevalent.  Forced to trust manufacturers and grocery stores to supply them with fresh food, consumers began demanding verification of its freshness.”

The best solution, for your health and also for clarity on how old your food actually is, is to return to the traditional practice of buying most of your food fresh from the farm.

Tips for Keeping Your Food Fresher, Longer

Remember, the ‘use by’ and ‘best by’ dates on your food is only a measure of peak freshness, not an indicator of spoilage or safety. If the food has been kept properly refrigerated (or if it’s a non-perishable item), there’s a good chance it’s still fine to eat after the expiration date. Use common sense, of course, and if it looks or smells spoiled, err on the side of caution.Ideally, however, you’ll purchase plenty of fresh produce, which contains no food dates at all. In this case, there are many tricks you can use to extend the “shelf-life” of your fresh foods to reduce waste and spoilage. I’ve listed 27 tips to make your groceries last longer here, which include:

1. Store onions in old pantyhose to keep them fresh for up to eight months (tie a knot in between each one to keep them separate).
2. Chop dry green onions and store them in an empty plastic water bottle. Put the bottle in the freezer and sprinkle out what you need when you’re cooking.
3. When storing potatoes, keep them away from onions (this will make them spoil faster). Storing them with apples will help keep the potatoes from sprouting.
4. Store salad greens in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, and add a paper towel to help absorb moisture. A salad spinner will also help remove excess moisture — a key culprit in wilting leaves — from your greens.

1. Mushrooms should be stored in a paper bag in a cool dry place, or in the fridge. Avoid storing mushrooms in plastic, as any trapped moisture will cause them to spoil.

4 Foods That Are Often Thrown Away Too Soon …

At least one Congresswoman has already announced that she will be introducing legislation to Congress to help establish a consistent food dating system in the US. Until that occurs, following are some of the top foods that get thrown away far before their time:5

• Eggs: They’re typically fresh three to five weeks after you buy them
• Apples: They keep for three weeks in the fridge and can be frozen for eight months if you cook them first
• Cereal: Typically stays fresh for up to a year without going stale

• Meat: If you put meat in the freezer, food poisoning bacteria will not grow, so while it may taste dry or freezer burned if you leave it in too long, even meat that’s been frozen for nine months is still safe to eat

Sources and References

• NRDC Report September 2013
• Time September 18, 2013
• Reuters September 18, 2013

• 1 NRDC Report September 2013
• 2 NRDC Report September 2013
• 3 Time.com September 23, 2013
• 4 Time.com September 23, 2013
• 5 Time September 18, 2013

By Dr. Mercola

If you’re like the average American, you waste more than 20 pounds of food every month. This is because 40 percent of the food in the US goes uneaten1 – that’s almost half.

While some of this food is lost during production and processing (such as produce that goes bad before it’s harvested), a significant amount is wasted in people’s homes simply because it goes bad before it’s eaten.

Wasted Food Costs US Families Thousands of Dollars a Year…

Not only does this amount to more than $2,000 in annual losses for the average US household of four, but all of that wasted food uses up precious stores of freshwater – about 25 percent of freshwater use is wasted on food that’s not even eaten!

Plus, this “throw-away” food takes up land space to grow it (which is then doused with chemicals) and generates increased methane gas emissions in landfills when it sits and starts rotting… it’s a massive unnecessary waste on all fronts.

Of course, you probably don’t set out to waste food. But if you purchase fresh produce in larger quantities — a must if you like to eat healthily but don’t have time to run to the market every day — it can be difficult to use it up before it goes bad. Not surprisingly, these types of healthy fresh foods are the foods most likely to be wasted. For instance, more fruits and vegetables are wasted in the U.S. food system than are actually consumed (52% are wasted versus 48% consumed).2

The good news is that there are many tricks you can use to extend the “shelf-life” of your fresh foods; you don’t need to resign yourself to frozen or canned alternatives!

How to Make Your Groceries Last Longer: 27 Tips

When you invest the time and money into a trip to the grocery store, you want to be sure the foods you purchase last as long as possible. The featured article has compiled more than two-dozen tricks to keep up your sleeve to do just that:

Vegetables

1. Store onions in old pantyhose to keep them fresh for up to eight months (tie a knot in between each one to keep them separate).
2. Chop dry green onions and store them in an empty plastic water bottle. Put the bottle in the freezer and sprinkle out what you need when you’re cooking.
3. When storing potatoes, keep them away from onions (this will make them spoil faster). Storing them with apples will help keep the potatoes from sprouting.
4. Asparagus should be stored in your fridge upright in a glass of water (like cut flowers, cut the asparagus bottoms off first), and covered with a plastic bag.
5. Store salad greens in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, and add a paper towel to help absorb moisture. A salad spinner will also help remove excess moisture — a key culprit in wilting leaves — from your greens.
6. Mushrooms should be stored in a paper bag in a cool dry place, or in the fridge. Avoid storing mushrooms in plastic, as any trapped moisture will cause them to spoil.

Fruits

7. Swirl berries in a mixture of one part vinegar (white or apple cider) to 10 parts water. You won’t taste the vinegar but the solution will help keep your berries from getting moldy and soft.
8. When storing chopped avocado or guacamole, leave the pit in, spritz it with some lemon juice or olive oil, cover with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge. This will help keep it from turning brown.
9. If you spot a rotten apple, remove it right away, as one rotten apple really can spoil the whole bunch.
10. Put plastic wrap around the crown of a bunch of bananas to keep them fresh for days longer (and be sure to store them away from other fruits, as they emit a lot of ethylene gas which accelerates ripening).
11. Store tomatoes at room temperature away from sunlight, in a single layer with the stem side up (don’t put them in plastic bags, which will cause them to spoil faster).

Herbs

12. Store delicate herbs like parsley, basil, cilantro and chives upright in a glass of water (like you would arrange cut flowers) in your fridge. Put a plastic bag over the top and secure it around the glass with a rubber band for optimal freshness.
13. Bunch oily herbs like thyme loosely together, secure them with a string around the base and hang them in your kitchen for storage.
14. Fill an ice cube tray with olive oil, then add chopped herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme or oregano) to each cube. Pop one out when you’re cooking for instant herb-infused oil.
15. Store fresh ginger root in the freezer. You can grate it frozen (peel and all) when cooking.

Dairy and Nuts

16. Rub the cut side of a block of cheese with butter to keep it from drying out.
17. Cheese should be wrapped in cheese paper or wax paper, not plastic wrap, then put in a plastic baggie.
18. Store cheese in the warmest part of your fridge, such as the vegetable or cheese drawer.
19. Nuts can be stored in the freezer to keep them fresh longer. Ideally put them in Mason jars that have the air vacuumed out with a Food Saver and attachment.

Organization, Gadgets and Other Tips

20. Keep milk and other highly perishable items on the middle shelf in your fridge, NOT in the door where temperatures fluctuate.
21. Avoid mixing produce and meats in the same drawer, as cross contamination can lead to food waste.
22. Avoid over-stocking your fridge, as a crowded fridge will keep air from circulating properly leading to warm spots that can cause spoilage.
23. Avoid chopping up your fruits, veggies and meats before storage, as this will make them spoil faster.
24. Glass mason jars make a great food-storage option, and you can seal them with an automatic vacuum sealer like Food Saver for even more freshness.
25. Remove spoiled food from your fridge promptly to keep mold from transferring to fresh food.
26. Get an ethylene gas absorber for your fridge; they’re available online and can keep your produce fresh up to three times longer than normal. There are many types of bags that can do this. They are typically called “green bags.” One example would be Debbie Meyer Green Bags.

20. A gadget called the Herb Savor, which has a well for water and a plastic cover to keep herbs fresh, claims to make herbs last for up to three weeks.

Vacuum Packing: One of My Favorite Food-Storage Tips

One of my all-time favorite tricks, which works for most produce, is to create a “vacuum pack” to help protect it from oxygen and airborne microbes that will accelerate its decay. Leave the produce in the bag it came in from the grocery store, place it against your chest and use your arm to squeeze the excess air out of the bag.

Once the air is removed you can seal it with a twist tie and thus minimize exposure to oxygen. This simple technique can easily double or triple the normal shelf life of your vegetables by keeping air away from them. Alternatively, you can use an automatic vacuum sealer, like the FoodSaver available on Amazon, to do this automatically and create an even tighter, airtight seal.

However, I nearly always store my food in quart or pint glass Ball jars. The FoodSaver brand also has a wide-mouth jar sealer attachment, which is ideal for sealing your leftovers, fermented veggies, sauces and other liquids stored in a wide-mouth jar, and can keep your food fresh up to five times longer. I regularly use it for extending the life of my vegetable juice and making my juicing more efficient so I don’t have to juice every day.

Food Loss and Waste is a Global Problem

Curbing food loss and waste is something that should be a priority on both global food system and individual (consumption and behavioral) levels. As the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reported:3

“In developing countries the problem is chiefly one of inadequate harvest techniques, poor post-harvest management and logistics, lack of suitable infrastructure, processing and packaging, and lack of marketing information which would allow production to better match demand.The advice is therefore to strengthen the food supply chain by assisting small farmers to link directly to buyers. The private and public sectors should also invest more in infrastructure, transportation and in processing and packaging.

In middle- and high-income countries food losses and waste stem largely from consumer behavior but also from lack of communication between different actors in the supply chain.

At retail level, large quantities of food are also wasted due to quality standards that over-emphasize appearance. Surveys show that consumers are willing to buy produce not meeting appearance standards as long as it is safe and tastes good. Customers thus have the power to influence quality standards and should do so, the report said.

Selling farm produce closer to consumers, without having to conform to supermarkets’ quality standards, is another suggestion. This could be achieved through farmers’ markets and farm shops. Good use for food that would otherwise be thrown away should be found. Commercial and charity organizations could work with retailers to collect, and then sell or use products that have been disposed of but are still good in terms of safety, taste and nutritional value.”

Planning Your Meals Can Cut Down on Food Waste in Your Home

The FAO report found that people in rich countries generally buy more food than they need, then end up throwing away the excess. They noted that “generally speaking, consumers fail to plan their food purchases properly … that means they often throw food away when ‘best-before’ dates expired.” I’ve long stated that planning your meals is important for a number of reasons, one of which is reducing the amount of food that will go to waste, since you’ll only buy what you need each time you visit the store, and you’ll have a plan in place to use it all up once you get home.

I also recommend buying your food locally, preferably from a small organic farming operation you can visit and inspect for yourself. This guarantees that you get the freshest foods right from the start, giving you a few extra days of leeway before they spoil.

Finally, for the packaged foods you do buy, they are often good beyond their expiration date. Unbeknownst to many, “best by” dates on many food packages are typically a measure of peak quality, not an indication of food safety. Typically, it is still safe to eat a food after the “best by” or “best before” date (the exception is infant formula, which has safety-based “use by” dates).

Sources and References

• BuzzFeed October 22, 2012

• 1 National Resources Defense Council, “Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40 Percent of its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill,” August 2012
• 2 See Ref 1
• 3 Food and Agriculture Organization Report, Save Food 2011

Download Interview Transcript

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

Alzheimer’s disease is at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans—including one in eight people aged 65 and over—living with the disease.1 In the next 20 years, it is projected that Alzheimer’s will affect one in four Americans, rivaling the current prevalence of obesity and diabetes.

There is still no known accepted cure for this devastating disease, and no effective treatments. Alzheimer’s drugs are often of little to no benefit at all, which underscores the importance of prevention throughout your lifetime.

Fortunately, Alzheimer’s prevention is actually easier than you might think. There’s exceptionally compelling research showing that your brain has great plasticity, which you control through your diet and lifestyle choices.

Here, Dr. David Perlmutter—probably the leading natural medicine neurologist in the US, from my perspective—shares his insights into this pervasive problem. I don’t know anyone who exceeds his level of expertise in traditional neurology and still shares the same philosophical orientation that I have.

He has a clinic in Naples, Florida, and he’s been very active in publishing his findings in peer-reviewed medical journals. He’s also a fellow of the American College of Nutrition, as am I.

“I have a very strong background in traditional neurology,” Dr. Perlmutter says. “As a neurologist for many years, I became more and more frustrated with our lack of ability to actually treat diseases. We were really only treating symptoms.

When I finally began to understand what the proximate cause of the various illnesses we were dealing with was, I realized that mainstream neurology, though I don’t want to sound too critical, really pays no attention to the causation part of the story.”

The Role of Grains in Disease Propagation

He realized an answer would never become apparent by simply writing prescriptions and hoping for the best. Instead, he began investigating the role of nutrition on brain health. Alzheimer’s, according to the RAND Corporation, is currently costing us some $200  billion a year, yet it is largely preventable. And virtually no one talks about that!

“This is a disease that is highly revenue-producing for mega factories of various so-called Alzheimer’s drugs,” Dr. Perlmutter says. “The point is there is no meaningful treatment in 2013. It is a disease predicated on lifestyle choices primarily, because of the high amount of carbohydrates/sugar that we now, as Western-culture individuals, are consuming.

It’s a preventable disease. It surprises me at my core that no one’s talking about the fact that so many of these devastating neurological problems are, in fact, modifiable based upon lifestyle choices.”

Dr. Perlmutter specifically looked at the impact of gluten and casein, or wheat and dairy primarily, on autoimmune diseases. His New York Times Bestseller, Grain Brain, reveals his findings, the cornerstones of which are the powerfully toxic role of glucose (sugar) and carbohydrates in one’s diet.

He also stresses that gluten sensitivity is involved in most chronic disease, including those affecting the brain, because of how gluten affects your immune system. Unfortunately, many people, physicians included, still believe that if you don’t have celiac disease, gluten is fair game and you can eat as much of it as you like.

Full-blown Celiac disease, which is gluten sensitivity affecting your small intestine, affects an estimated 1.8 percent of people in Western cultures. But  gluten sensitivity may actually affect as much as 30 to 40 percent of all people, and according to Dr. Alessio Fasano at Massachusetts General Hospital, virtually all of us are affected to some degree.

This is because we all create something called zonulin in the intestine in response to gluten. This protein, found in wheat, barley and rye, makes your gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream that would otherwise have been excluded. That then sensitizes your immune system and promotes inflammation and autoimmunity. This kind of gut permeability is also promoted by things like antibiotics and chlorinated water.

The Gut-Brain Connection is Critical to Understand

Once gluten sensitizes your gut, it then becomes more permeable and all manner of previously excluded proteins—including casein and other dairy proteins—have direct access to your bloodstream, thereby challenging your immune system.

“They’ve been talking about it for years and years (which is now just gaining traction in mainstream medicine) that our health really depends on maintaining a barrier of the intestine from the bloodstream,” Dr. Perlmutter says.

“We now understand that the so-called blood-brain barrier, or that barrier that keeps things out of the brain where they don’t belong, is also affected by gluten, according to new research. It’s a very exciting time when we recognize that our biggest exposure to the environment is actually the lining of our intestines – not our lungs, not our skin. We are in fact very much dependent on the microbiota, the bacteria living in the gut, to maintain our health.”

According to Dr. Perlmutter, much of our current disease burden stems from the fact that we are contaminating our immune systems with proteins to which the human immune system has never, in the history of humankind, been previously exposed to. While not discussed in this interview, a MAJOR factor is the development of genetically engineered (GE) grains, which are now pervasive in most processed foods sold in the US. These GE crops create proteins never before encountered in any natural grain or food, so GE grains deliver a double-whammy against your immune system. Food allergies clearly appear to be one of the most noticeable side effects of a GE-grain diet.

“We recognize that food is far more than protein, carbohydrates, fat, and micronutrients, and that food really does represent information. The foods that we consume are instructing our genes. Therefore, that’s a very empowering notion: you can change your genetic destiny based upon the food choices that you make,” Dr. Perlmutter says.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, another neurologist who has also done remarkable work in this area as a result of seeking a solution for her autistic son, came to the same conclusion discussed by Dr. Perlmutter. Essentially, preventing and treating neurological disorders requires severe restriction of gluten and casein. You also need to address your gut flora.

“With specific response to your comments about autism, we do know that some of the milk-related proteins tend to lead to antibody production in the brains of autistic children, blocking what’s called the folate receptor,” Dr. Perlmutter says. “One of the propositions is that there’s this blockage of the ability of folate to get into the brains of certain children, and this leads to all kinds of cognitive and neurocognitive issues.

The State University of New York has actually developed a screen for looking at folate receptor antibodies. We have found that to be actually very helpful… It’s a very exciting time for those of us not just in neurology but in all branches of medicine, who are suddenly realizing that we’ve come full circle. We’re now back to understanding that nutrition plays a pivotal role in the health of humans.”

Avoiding Dairy Does NOT Include Avoiding Dairy Fats

I believe it would be wise for most people to avoid pasteurized dairy (primarily casein but also other proteins) and gluten. That said, there are subgroups of people who are particularly prone to harm from these proteins, and as a rule must avoid them in order to maintain their health. Bear in mind that dairy fat like butter, which has virtually no protein, is not problematic and can be consumed even by those who are sensitive to milk proteins. As stated by Dr. Perlmutter:

“We need to eat fat. We’re suggesting a revolutionary dietary change, telling people they should go on this new diet—which is only the diet humans have eaten for the past 2.6 million years! We’ve always eaten fat. Fat is the most wonderful health-providing food that we can obtain in the human diet. Of course, we have to qualify that with what type of fat you are eating.”

Beneficial health-promoting fats that your body—and your brain in particular—needs for optimal function include organic butter from raw milk, clarified butter called organic grass fed raw butter, olives, organic virgin olive oil and coconut oil, nuts like pecans and macadamia, free-range eggs, wild Alaskan salmon, and avocado, for example.

According to Dr. Perlmutter, our current dietary fat phobia “has absolutely been the cornerstone of our most common degenerative diseases of the day, including Alzheimer’s.” Why? Because when you cut dietary fat and keep protein about the same, you’re going to fill in the gaps with health-harming carbohydrate foods, predominantly grains.

“This whole grain goodness, as the US Department of Agriculture is trying to convince us we should focus on in terms of our dietary choices, is the cornerstone of our most devastating diseases. I mean, brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and obviously, what leads to them, diabetes, which is so prevalent in Western societies. Again, it’s the getting away from fat and the substitution with wheat- and corn-based carbohydrate (high-fructose corn syrup) that really, in my opinion, explains this huge explosion of degenerative conditions that are crippling us medically and crippling us economically as well,” he says.

“But the quality of the fat that we consume is absolutely fundamental. When we’re saying high-fat diet, we’re not talking about prepared foods on the Twinkie aisle at the grocery store that contain modified trans fats; hydrogenated fats that are clearly coffin nails. They’re a great risk for brain disorders, heart disorders, diabetes, etc. We’re talking about these beautiful, natural fats that we have been consuming for more than two million years.”

Recommended Tests to Evaluate Disease Risks

There are specific tests that can help you determine your level of sensitivity to dairy proteins like casein, as well as gluten. The most effective test for gluten sensitivity, according to Dr. Perlmutter, is a test called the Cyrex Array 3 test. Most laboratories, when you order a test for either gluten sensitivity or celiac disease specifically, will look for antibodies against just one type of gliadin. However, there are dozens of different types of gliadin that can incite immune reaction or immune reactivity. The Cyrex test looks at 24 different parameters of gluten sensitivity, which gives you a much clearer picture.

“Most commonly when I’m seeing patients, they’ve already had some form of preliminary gluten sensitivity test which was negative, and we find [out the truth] by doing the Cyrex test,” he says.

The same lab offers another test, Cyrex Array 4, which looks at cross-sensitivity in people who are gluten-sensitive. This test includes a dairy product panel as well as amaranth, spelt, quinoa, rice, coffee, chocolate, and other foods that may be cross-reactive with respect to gliadin. Two other tests recommended by Dr. Perlmutter that are potent predictors of Alzheimer’s disease specifically are:

• Fasting blood sugar, as this is a powerful predictor of your risk for Alzheimer’s disease. In this interview, he discusses research showing a very direct correlation between your fasting blood sugar and the rate at which your brain shrinks.  The higher your fasting blood sugar, the greater your risk. Interestingly, brain shrinkage occurs at blood sugar levels that are currently considered within the normal range (90-100), and even small elevations of blood sugar directly correlate to increased risk for having shrinkage of your hippocampus, your memory center, which is the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Hemoglobin A1c. This is a marker of your average blood sugar over about a three-to four-month period of time. Again, there’s a striking correlation between hemoglobin A1c and the rate at which your brain is shrinking.

Both of these factors, your blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c, are entirely within your power to control, as they respond to dietary changes. Quite simply, you lower them by reducing your carbohydrate consumption. As stated by Dr. Perlmutter:

“You can absolutely control your blood sugar. It’s a lifestyle choice. Do you eat grain? Do you drink orange juice in the morning? Are you having cereal in the morning? Have you decided to go low-carb and high-fat? In the latter case, your hemoglobin A1c will come down, your fasting blood sugar will come down, and lo and behold, you have taken positive steps to reduce your risk of brain shrinkage.”

How the Science of Neuroplasticity Changes the Game

It’s important to realize that, despite what the media tells you, your brain is not “programmed” to shrink and fail as a matter of course as you age. We now know that every activity in which you engage—be it exercise, the foods you eat, the supplements you take, your personal relationships, your emotional state, your sleep patterns—all of these factors dramatically influence your genetic expression from moment to moment. Any given gene is not in a static “on” or “off” position. Neither are theydeterministic. You may be a carrier of a gene that never gets expressed, simply because you never supply the required environment for it to turn on.

“We interact with our genome every moment of our lives, and we can do so very, very positively,” Dr. Perlmutter says. “Keeping your blood sugar low is very positive in terms of allowing the genes to express reduced inflammation, which increase the production of life-giving antioxidants. So that’s rule number one: You can change your genetic destiny.

Rule number two: you can change your genetic destiny to grow new brain cells, specifically in the hippocampus… Your brain’s memory center regenerates. You are constantly growing new brain cells into your 50s, 60s, 80s, and 90s – throughout your lifetime – through a process called neurogenesis.

That said, these two ideas come together because you can turn on your genes through lifestyle choices that enhance neurogenesis and that enhance regrowth of cells and expansion of your brain’s memory center. This was proven by researchers recently. They demonstrated that there are factors under our control that can make that happen.”

Lifestyle strategies that promote neurogenesis and regrowth of brain cells include the following. All of these strategies target a specific gene pathway called BDNF or brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which promotes brain cell growth and connectivity as demonstrated on MRI scans.

• Exercise. In one year-long study, individuals who engaged in exercise were actually growing and expanding the brain’s memory center one to two percent per year, where typically that center would have continued to decline in size.
• Reducing overall calorie consumption
• Reducing carbohydrate consumption
• Increasing healthy fat consumption

• Increasing your omega-3 fat intake and reducing consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (think processed vegetable oils) in order to balance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. I prefer krill oil to fish oil here, as krill oil also contains astaxanthin, which appears to be particularly beneficial for brain health. As explained by Dr. Perlmutter, it belongs to the class of carotenoids, and is very “focused” on reducing free radical-mediated damage to fat, and your brain is 60 or 70 percent fat

The Importance of Vitamin D and Cholesterol for Brain Health

Vitamin D also plays a fundamental role in brain health, immune function, and inflammation. According to Dr. Perlmutter, vitamin D influences the expression of more than 913 genes. Sadly, a vast majority of people are dramatically deficient in this critical steroid hormone, in large part because they’ve been fooled into fearing sun exposure. You’ve also been deceived into fearing cholesterol, which is another critical component of health.

“Obviously, sunshine makes vitamin D in your body from some precursor. When I ask my patients what is that precursor, nobody seems to know. I tell them it’s this horrible thing called cholesterol, and their eyebrows go up,” he says.“Cholesterol is so drastically important for health, because (1) it’s the precursor for which you make vitamin D and (2) it’s a fundamental compound of every cell in your body and made by every cell in your body. It’s a brain antioxidant. It’s a precursor for all the steroid sex hormones – it’s fundamentally important.”

According to Dr. Perlmutter, research shows that elderly individuals with the lowest cholesterol levels have the highest risk for Alzheimer’s. They also have the highest risk for dying. As he says, the war on cholesterol is fundamentally inappropriate and harmful.

“I say to my audiences very frequently, “If cholesterol is so bad, what you’re saying is that if you believe in evolution or if you believe in creation – either way – either nature got it wrong or God got it wrong by putting the ability to make cholesterol in every one of our cells. Why would that be a mistake?”

It’s not a mistake. We are desperate for cholesterol. It’s a fundamental player in every cell membrane. We’ve been on a high-cholesterol diet for millions of years, and it has served us well. In fact, our genome has been selected based upon that diet, being on a high-cholesterol diet – eating eggs, animal fat, and animal protein.”

The Benefits of Fasting

Dr. Perlmutter places most of his patients on a ketogenic, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that is gluten-free, along with prescribed aerobic exercise. Certain supplements may also be used, especially if the patient is vitamin D deficient or has any other critical deficiency.

I’ve previously interviewed Dr. Seyfried, who is a researcher at Boston University and connected with Harvard. He was one of the leading investigators to adopt the ketogenic diet for a neurological condition, the treatment of seizures, and then from there started investigating its use for treatment of cancer. Another PhD, Dr. D’Agostino in Florida, is also doing similar work in this area.

It’s interesting to note that it all stemmed from the treatment of intractable seizure disorders; before they realized that it was also a potent treatment adjunct for cancer patients. Most interestingly, cancer cells do not have the ability to any significant degree to metabolize fat and are almost completely dependent on metabolizing sugar. When you go on a ketogenic diet, you effectively deprive the cancer cells of sugar, which starves them, while allowing normal cells to thrive. Beyond that, you also need to recognize that the balance of organisms in your intestine play a critical role in maintaining your immunity. Clearly, if you’re fighting disease of any kind, you want your immune system to function optimally.

“When you damage your microbiom, the balance of bacteria, in your gut by taking chemotherapy, at the very least add in an aggressive probiotic approach to keep bad bacteria count healthy,” Dr. Perlmutter says.

I’m particularly fond of using fermented vegetables, because they can deliver extraordinarily high levels of beneficial bacteria. Most people aren’t aware that in a healthy serving of sauerkraut – two to three ounces or so – you’re getting the equivalent of nearly 100 capsules of the highest-potency probiotic you can buy. It’s clearly one of the most cost-effective alternatives. Furthermore, if it’s fermented with a starter culture, which we’re going to be offering soon, you can also get very high levels ofvitamin K2, which is crucial to balance vitamin D.

Dr. Perlmutter also highly recommends fasting. Contrary to popular belief, the ideal fuel for your brain is not glucose but ketones, which is the fat that your body mobilizes when you stop feeding it carbs and introduce coconut oil and other sources of healthy fats into your diet. A one-day fast can help your body to “reset” itself, and start to burn fat instead of sugar. As part of a healthy lifestyle, I prefer an intermittent fasting schedule that simply calls for limiting your eating to a narrower window of time each day. By restricting your eating to a 6-8 hour window, you effectively fast 16-18 hours each day. To learn more, please see this previousarticle.

“The easiest way to become ketotic is just to stop eating. Because if you go through your sugar stores and then your glycogen stores relatively soon, you begin to burn fat, the most incredibly powerful source of fuel for human physiology and especially for the brain,” he says.

More Information

To learn more, I highly recommend Dr. Perlmutter’s New York Times Best Selling book, Grain Brain. You can also find more information on his web site, DrPerlmutter.com,2 or on his Facebook page, which he posts to every day, highlighting recent research and upcoming conferences and lectures. You can also find more tips and guidelines in this previous article onAlzheimer’s prevention.

“These changes that people can make in their diets are not draconian,” he says. “The only thing that makes it difficult is because of what we are told by society we should be eating. Those statements are not given to us with good, sound scientific backing. Again, these are simple but profound choices that people can make.”

I couldn’t agree more. Applying the strategies discussed in this interview and article can dramatically reduce your risk of succumbing to Alzheimer’s and other chronic diseases. Overall, it will also raise your general quality of life. Clearly, prevention is much easier than treating it after the fact. And even though there is this element of neuroplasticity, it’s far better to prevent brain degeneration to begin with. As Dr. Perlutter says:

“The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. That’s the segment of the population I really want to target – people who have not yet had cognitive issues but are at risk, which is basically all of us. In fact, this is the time to make the changes – while you’re still healthy. Time to cut back on the carbohydrates, increase your consumption of good fats, get out and exercise… these are the fundamentals that could keep these problems from happening in the first place.”

Sources and References

• 1 Alzheimer’s Association 2011 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures
• 2 DrPerlmutter.com

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By Dr. Mercola

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a warning that fluoroquinolone antibiotics, taken by mouth or injection, carry a risk for permanent peripheral neuropathy. The safety announcement states:1

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required the drug labels and Medication Guides for all fluoroquinolone antibacterial drugs be updated to better describe the serious side effect of peripheral neuropathy.

This serious nerve damage potentially caused by fluoroquinolones may occur soon after these drugs are taken and may be permanent… The topical formulations of fluoroquinolones, applied to the ears or eyes, are not known to be associated with this risk.

Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage in the arms and/or legs, characterized by “pain, burning, tingling, numbness, weakness, or a change in sensation to light touch, pain or temperature, or sense of body position.”

This is not the first warning FDA has posted about this family of antibacterial drugs. In 2008, they posted a black box warning about severe tendon damage. Now having the additional warning for severe and sometimes-permanent nerve damage, there should be NO question in your mind about the danger of these drugs, and I strongly recommend avoiding them if at all possible.

Just Say “Know”

Fluoroquinolones, a class of synthetic antibacterial drugs, are the only types that directly inhibit bacterial DNA synthesis. Several drugs in this class have been taken off the market due to their deadly adverse effects, but six of them remain FDA-approved for use in the United States:

Due to their tremendous health risks, fluoroquinolones should be reserved for treating serious bacterial infections that won’t respond to any other treatment, when the patient is made fully aware of the potential for serious adverse events. Instead, they’re often inappropriately prescribed for mild conditions like sinus, urinary tract and ear infections.

In fact, fluoroquinolones are among the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in the United States. I highly recommend you take pause before filling a prescription for these drugs, especially if you have a “routine infection” that has not been treated by other agents that have a safer side effect profile.

You should not expose yourself to this degree of risk unnecessarily! The dangerousness of fluoroquinolones definitely warrants some serious discourse with your health care provider about whether they are really necessary, versus safer treatment options.

Fluoridated Pharmaceuticals Can Be Extremely Damaging to Your Nervous System

Fluoroquinolones may be the deadliest antibiotics on the market. Besides nerve damage, they have been associated with damage to other body systems, including your musculoskeletal system, eyes and kidneys. What makes these particular drugs so hazardous?

It has to do with the fact that fluoroquinolones are antibiotics whose potency has been “kicked up” by the addition of a fluoride molecule. Fluoride increases permeability into hard-to-penetrate tissues, such as your brain.

Fluoroquinolones are quinolones with fluoride molecules attached—so they penetrate your blood-brain barrier. This ability to penetrate sensitive tissues is what makes fluoride such a potent neurotoxin, able to get into your brain and damage your central nervous system.

In terms of peripheral neuropathy, the FDA was not exactly quick to take action. Twelve years ago Dr. Jay Cohen documented the following fluoroquinolone-related reactions, and as you can see, nervous system problems topped the list.2 Yet it took more than a decade—and many destroyed lives—for the FDA to take action.

Levaquin, the best-selling antibiotic in 2010, actually faces thousands of lawsuits per year from people who have been seriously harmed by taking it. The serious reactions reported from Levaquin include:3

Fluoroquinolones Destroy Collagen

Animal studies have shown that fluoroquinolones are directly toxic to collagen synthesis and promote collagen degradation.4Fluoride disrupts collagen synthesis, which may be part of the reason that fluoridated pharmaceuticals can damage your muscles, tendons, cartilage, ligaments and other structures.

The fluoroquinolones seem to have an especially detrimental effect on your musculoskeletal system, presumably related to this adverse effect on collagen, which can lead to tendon damage and actual tendon ruptures. This resulted in the FDA’s issuing of a black box warning about tendon damage in 2008.5 Fluoroquinolones are not the only drugs “suped up” by the addition of a fluoride molecule. Prozac (fluoxetine), Prevacid, Baycol, and Dalmane (flurazepam) are also fluorinated.6

If you or someone you love are placed on these dangerous antibiotics, for whatever reason, one of the ways you can compensate for this toxicity is by taking magnesium.  It likely binds to the drugs and prevents it from causing the collagen damage.  In fact animal studies have shown that magnesium deficient animals can develop similar damage to those exposed to fluroquinolone drugs.  Lack of extracellular magnesium impairs the function of integrins which are transmembrane proteins that connect the cells to the extracellular matrix proteins which provide the functional strength for collagen.

Are We Heading for Even MORE FDA Warnings?

Two other recent studies may foreshadow even more warnings about fluoroquinolones, in terms of liver toxicity and greater risks for people with diabetes. Are we nearing the time when these drugs should be yanked off pharmacy shelves altogether, rather than just receiving more warnings on their labels?

• Moxifloxacin and levofloxacin were found to increase the risk for acute liver toxicity in people age 66 and up. The findings were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in August 2012. The authors recommended FDA consider regulatory warnings regarding acute liver toxicity.7, 8

• Oral fluoroquinolones cause an increased risk of dysglycemia (high blood sugar or low blood sugar reactions) for those with diabetes, according to a study in the August 14, 2013 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.9

Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Resistance is Much Greater than Predicted

Fluoroquinolones contribute to the creation of  antibiotic-resistant bacteria to a much greater degree  than experts predicted, according to a report in Frontiers of Microbiology:10

“Since quinolones are synthetic antibiotics, it was predicted that mutations in target genes would be the only mechanism through which resistance could be acquired, because there will not be quinolone-resistance genes in nature. Contrary to this prediction, a variety of elements ranging from efflux pumps, target-protecting proteins, and even quinolone-modifying enzymes have been shown to contribute to quinolone resistance. The finding of some of these elements in plasmids indicates that quinolone resistance can be transferable…

Failure to predict the development of quinolone resistance reinforces the need of taking into consideration the wide plasticity of biological systems for future predictions. This plasticity allows pathogens to deal with toxic compounds, including those with a synthetic origin as quinolones.”

Not only are these antibiotics overused in people, but also in livestock (cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys) and in our canine and feline companions. Every year in the US, 29 million pounds of antibiotics—more than 70 percent of the total antibiotic production—arefed to livestock for nontherapeutic purposes, such as growth promotion. These antibiotics are passed on to you in the meat and dairy you consume.

Overuse of various antibiotics has been linked to antibiotic resistant infections like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and the potentially life-threatening diarrhea caused by Clostridium difficile (C. diff). According to some research, being given fluoroquinolones is the most important risk factor in developing Clostridium difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD).11

The documentary “Rise of the Superbugs” details why antibiotic overuse is leading to the emergence of nightmare bacteria that have developed near-total resistance to today’s antibiotics. Even gonorrhea and tuberculosis bacteria now have resistant strains. Again, a large part of the problem is that these drugs, which should be reserved for life-threatening infections that cannot otherwise be treated, are being vastly overprescribed. Physicians who prescribe in this manner are essentially trying to kill mosquitos with sticks of dynamite—with collateral damage as described throughout this article.

Fluoroquinolones are thought to be particularly dangerous for children under age 18, adults over 60, and pregnant and nursing women, as well as for people with liver disease, diabetes, or those taking corticosteroids or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). But, they are often prescribed for these groups anyway, without even a passing thought.

What You Can Do

If you believe you have experienced a reaction to one of these antibiotics—or any other drug, for that matter—please report it to MedWatch, the FDA’s safety information and adverse event reporting program. It is vital that they hear from each and every one of you who has experienced an adverse drug reaction. This is a major impetus in getting dangerous drugs removed from the market, and physicians almost never report the reactions themselves so it’s really up to you. MedWatch offers several reporting options:

• Telephone 1-800-FDA-1088
• Fax to 1-800-FDA-0178
• File a report online: MedWatch Online Voluntary Reporting Form
• Mail a report (FDA form 3500) in a postage-paid envelope to MedWatch, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9787

There have been so many people damaged by fluoroquinolones that victims have banded together in a worldwide network, calling themselves “Floxies.” Quite a few Floxies are in the medical field themselves (or were, before they were poisoned), and are on a mission to help fellow fluoroquinolone poisoning victims, which is how the documentary Certain Adverse Events came about. If you haven’t already seen this film, I highly recommend it.12 For more information, you can also visit the following websites (there are many more in addition to these if you search by the term “fluoroquinolone”):

• Levaquinadversesideeffect.com
• CertainAdverseEvents.com
• Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Toxicity Advocacy Page (Facebook)
• SurvivingCipro.com
• MyQuinStory.com

 Sources and References

• 1 US FDA August 15, 2013
• 2 Annals of Pharmacotherapy December 1, 2001
• 3 New York Times September 11, 2012
• 4 Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology April 2010
• 5 US FDA July 8, 2008
• 6 FTRC
• 7 CMAJ 2012
• 8 Medscape August 13, 2012
• 9 Clinical Infectious Diseases August 14, 2103
• 10 Frontiers of Microbiology February 11, 2011
• 11 Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005
• 12 Certain Adverse Events

If you want a simple way to increase the disease-fighting power of your meals, be generous with your use of high-quality herbs and spices. This applies year-round, but as cold and flu season nears, you may want to consider spicing things up more than you might normally.

There is no shortage of research showing that herbs and spices are among the healthiest you can consume. And they’re a “secret weapon” that just about everyone can take advantage of, regardless of your budget.

Garlic in particular has long been hailed for its healing powers, especially against infectious diseases like cold and flu.

This is likely due to its immune boosting effects. Fresh garlic is also a potent antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal agent. But its therapeutic effects may go much further than that.

Garlic—An All-Around Health Boosting Herb

The featured article in Medical News Today1 contains an impressive list of garlic’s historical use as a natural medicine, and modern research to back up the wisdom of such antiquated claims. Green Med Info has also assembled a list of studies demonstrating more than 150 beneficial health effects of garlic! For example, studies show that regular consumption of (primarily raw) garlic:

• May be effective against drug-resistant bacteria
• Reduces risk for heart disease,2 including heart attack3 and stroke
• Helps normalize your cholesterol4 and blood pressure
• Protects against cancer,5, 6 including brain,7 lung,8 and prostate9 cancer
• Reduces risk of osteoarthritis10

It’s thought that much of garlic’s therapeutic effect comes from its sulfur-containing compounds, such as allicin, which are also what give it its characteristic smell. Other health-promoting compounds include oligosaccharides, arginine-rich proteins, selenium and flavonoids.11

Research12 has revealed that as allicin digests in your body, it produces sulfenic acid, a compound that reacts with dangerous free radicals faster than any other known compound.

This is one of the reasons why I named garlic as one of the top seven anti-aging foods you can consume. Garlic is also a triple threat against infections, offering antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties.

Not only is it effective at killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including MRSA, but it also fights yeast infections, viruses and parasites. Garlic must be fresh to give you optimal health benefits though.

The fresh clove must be crushed or chopped in order to stimulate the release of an enzyme called alliinase, which in turn catalyzes the formation of allicin.13 Allicin in turn rapidly breaks down to form a number of different organosulfur compounds. So to “activate” garlic’s medicinal properties, compress a fresh clove with a spoon prior to swallowing it, or put it through your juicer to add to your vegetable juice.

A single medium size clove or two is usually sufficient, and is well-tolerated by most people. The active ingredient, allicin, is destroyed within one hour of smashing the garlic, so garlic pills are virtually worthless.

You also won’t reap all the health benefits garlic has to offer if you use jarred, powdered or dried versions. Worse yet, at least two supermarket-brands containing garlic powder imported from China have been found to be contaminated with high levels of lead, arsenic and added sulfites, according to a recent article by PreventDisease.com.14

If you develop a socially offensive odor, just decrease the amount of garlic you’re consuming until there is no odor present. If garlic makes you feel ill, this is probably your body’s way of letting you know you should avoid it.

Garlic versus Tamiflu

Garlic may be particularly useful in preparation for cold and flu season, as it contains compounds capable of killing a wide variety of organisms, including viruses and bacteria that can cause earaches, colds and influenza. The respected research organization Cochrane Database—which has repeatedly reported that the science does not support the use of flu vaccine as a first-line defense—has also reviewed studies on the alternatives, such as the use of garlic.15

They found that those who took garlic daily for three months had fewer colds than those who took a placebo, and, when they did come down with a cold, the duration of illness was shorter—an average of 4.5 days compared to 5.5 days for the placebo group.

While this may not seem overly impressive, it’s still better than the results achieved by the much-advertised flu drug Tamiflu. If taken within 48 hours of onset of illness, Tamiflu might reduce the duration of flu symptoms by about a day to a day and a half. That’s the extent of what this $100-plus treatment will get you. It’s virtuallyidentical to just taking garlic on a regular basis!

However, some patients with influenza are at increased risk for secondary bacterial infections when on Tamiflu—a risk you won’t take by eating garlic… Otheradverse events of Tamiflu include pediatric deaths, serious skin reactions, and neuropsychiatric events, including suicide committed while delirious.

Cold and Flu—Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency

While colds and flus are caused by viral infections, compelling research suggests that your ability to “catch” these infections may actually be a symptom of an underlying vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is a potent antimicrobial agent, producing 200 to 300 different antimicrobial peptides in your body that kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. Suboptimal vitamin D levels will significantly impair your immune response, thereby making you far more susceptible to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.

In the largest and most nationally representative study16 of its kind to date, involving about 19,000 Americans, people with the lowest vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu — and the risk was even greater for those with chronic respiratory disorders like asthma. At least five additional studies also show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and vitamin D levels.

The best source for vitamin D is direct sun exposure. While it may not be possible to get enough sun exposure during the winter, every effort should be made to attain vitamin D from UVB exposure as there are many additional benefits from this route other than vitamin D. The next best option to sunlight is the use of a safe indoor tanning device. As a last resort, if neither natural nor artificial sunlight is an option, you may taken an oral vitamin D3 supplement. However, if you do, you need to be aware of the following:

• Make sure you’re taking the correct vitamin D supplement. You want D3, not D2, as the latter may end up doing more harm than good.
• Based on the latest research from GrassrootsHealth, the average adult dose required to reach vitamin D levels of about 40 ng/ml is around 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D3 per day. For children, many experts agree they need about 35 IU’s of vitamin D per pound of body weight.
• Get your vitamin D serum level checked at regular intervals to make sure you’re taking the appropriate dose to get within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml.

• If you’re taking high dose vitamin D supplements you also need to take vitamin K2—not K1 that is typically in vegetables as it will not work synergize with vitamin D. Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. The reason for this is when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins that shuttle the calcium into the appropriate areas. Without vitamin K2, those proteins remain inactivated, so the benefits of those proteins remain unrealized.

Four Factors That Undermine Your Immune System

Again, it’s important to remember that both colds and various influenzas are caused by a wide variety of viruses, not bacteria. Hence, taking an antibiotic for your cold or flu will NOT do you any good whatsoever. Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, such as sinus, ear and lung infections, including bronchitis and pneumonia. The latter two are potential secondary infections that can develop from a serious bout of cold or flu, so you do want to keep an eye out for signs and symptoms of such bacterial infections.

At the end of this article, you’ll find some guidelines to help you decide when it would be prudent to see a doctor.

Now, the most common way cold and flu viruses are spread is via hand-to-hand contact, so the easiest way to cut down your risk is to frequently wash your hands (see next section below). However, the key to remember is that being exposed to a cold virus does not mean that you’re destined to get sick. Again, whether or not you’ll actually get sick is primarily dependent on the functioning of your immune system. If your immune system is operating at its peak, it should actually be quite easy for you to fend off the virus without ever getting sick.

As discussed above, vitamin D deficiency is a major factor that will depress your immune function, leaving the door open to invading viruses. Other lifestyle factors that can depress your immune system, alone or in combination, include:

Eating too much sugar/fructose and grains. Sugar in all its forms takes a heavy toll on your immune system. One of the ways it does this is by unbalancing your gut flora. Sugar is “fertilizer” for pathogenic bacteria, yeast, and fungi that can set your immune system up for an assault by a respiratory virus. Remember, 80 percent of your immune system lies in your gastrointestinal tract, which is why limiting your sugar intake is CRUCIAL for optimizing your immune system.

It would be wise to limit your total fructose consumption to below 25 grams a day if you’re in good health, or below 15 grams a day if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or are insulin resistant or are trying to recover from an acute illness like the flu.

Lack of sleep. If you aren’t getting enough restorative sleep, you’ll be at increased risk for a hostile viral takeover. Your immune system is also the most effective when you’re not sleep-deprived, so the more rested you are the quicker you’ll recover. You can find 33 guidelines for a better night’s sleep here.

Insufficient exercise. Regular exercise is a crucial strategy for increasing your resistance to illness. There is evidence that regular, moderate exercise can reduce your risk for respiratory illness by boosting your immune system. In fact, one study17found that people who exercised regularly (five or more days a week) cut their risk of having a cold by close to 50 percent. And, in the event they did catch a cold, their symptoms were much less severe than among those who did not exercise.

Exercise likely cuts your risk of colds so significantly because it triggers a rise in immune system cells that can attack any potential invaders. Each time you exercise you can benefit from this boost to your immune system. It can also help boost your immune system acutely, by increasing your body temperature. This helps kill off invading pathogens, similarly to the fever your body produces when sick.

Using ineffective strategies to address stress. Emotional stressors can also predispose you to an infection while making cold symptoms worse. Finding ways to manage daily stress as well as your reactions to circumstances beyond your control will contribute to a strong and resilient immune system. Effective strategies include a variety of energy psychology tools, such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

Other All-Natural Strategies That Send Pathogens Packin’

Frequently washing your hands with soap and water is one of the easiest ways to wipe out germs and viruses and reduce your chances of becoming sick. Don’t make the mistake of using antibacterial cleansers, as their widespread use contributes to strains of resistant bacteria, or “superbugs” that render antibiotics useless. Besides, research18 has shown that people who use antibacterial soaps and cleansers often develop a cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms just as often as people who use plain soap and water. There’s no real justification for using an antibacterial soap when plain soap is safer, and just as effective.

Another strategy that many report success with is to administer a few drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into your ear canal. Quite frequently, people claim to have been able to cure a cold or flu within 12 to 14 hours this way. Simply put a few drops into your ear; wait until the bubbling and stinging subside (usually 5 to 10 minutes), then drain onto a tissue and repeat with the other ear.

There are also a number of supplements and simple treatments that can be beneficial for colds and influenza, but I believe they should only be used as adjuncts to an otherwise healthy diet and lifestyle. For detailed instructions that will help set you the right path can be found in my optimized nutrition and lifestyle plan. Some of the more helpful options for cold and flu—besides vitamin D and garlic discussed above–include:

When Should You Call Your Physician?

Generally speaking, if you have a cold, medical care is not necessary. Rest and attention to the lifestyle factors noted above—particularly the admonition to avoid sugar—will help you to recover quickly and, if you stick to them, will significantly reduce your chances of catching another cold anytime soon.

Getting back to garlic for a moment, a previous article by PreventDisease.com19 gives instructions for a garlic soup that can help destroy most viruses and help you recover a little quicker. Ideally though, you’d want to incorporate immune-boosting diet- and lifestyle strategies as soon as possible to prevent illness in the first place.

So, when should you call your doctor?

Sinus, ear, and lung infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia CAN be bacterial however, and if so, may respond to antibiotics. If you develop any of the following symptoms, these are signs you may be suffering from a bacterial infection rather than a cold, and you should call your physician’s office:

• Fever over 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius)
• Ear pain
• Pain around your eyes, especially with a green nasal discharge
• Shortness of breath or a persistent uncontrollable cough
• Persistently coughing up green and yellow sputum

Sources and References

• 1 Medical News Today September 9, 2013
• 2 Medical News Today October 1, 2010
• 3 Medical News Today November 18, 2011
• 4 Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry doi:10.1016/j.jnutbio.2004.01.005
• 5 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition November 2006: 84(5); 1027-1032
• 6 Preventdisease.com August 14, 2013
• 7 Medical News Today August 28, 2007
• 8 Cancer Prevention Research July 2013: 6; 711
• 9 Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013: 14(7); 4131-4134
• 10 Medical News Today December 20, 2010
• 11 Preventdisease.com August 14, 2013
• 12 Angewandte Chemie International Edition December 22, 2008: 48(1); 157-160
• 13 Linus Pauling Institute, Garlic and Organosulfur Compounds
• 14 PreventDisease.com January 20, 2013
• 15 Cochrane Summaries March 14, 2012
• 16 JAMA Internal Medicine February 3, 2009; 169(4): 384-390
• 17 British Journal of Sports Medicine 2011 Sep;45(12):987-92
• 18 Ann Intern Med. March 2004
• 19 PreventDisease.com January 20, 2013

Click HERE to view the entire interview!

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By Dr. Mercola

High-performance agriculture is one of my new passions, and my goal is to provide you with information on how to maximize the time, effort, and energy you’re investing in growing your garden.

This new passion is turning into something of a second career—to learn and understand how to optimize plant growth and the environment.

Most of you are aware that I’ve been a strong supporter of labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods, with the intention of eliminating GE crops altogether, if at all possible.

The flip-side of this is the effort to replace GE crops with organic farming practices where crop yields are maximized to their utmost potential, to the point that genetic engineering becomes entirely superfluous. There are certainly ways to accomplish this, although the learning curve can feel a bit steep at times.

This interview focuses primarily on how you can optimize your garden, but the principles are virtually identical for larger-scale agriculture. I’ve been applying what I’ve learned in my own garden for a few months now, and I’ve been able to personally witness the maximization of genetic potential that is possible.

High-Performance Farming Can Increase Yield 6-8 Times

For example, the leaves on some of my plants, like my lime trees and oleanders, are literally 300 to 400 percent bigger than the typical leaf of these plants. It’s truly extraordinary! You wouldn’t even imagine that a leaf could grow this big.

Part of the problem is that we’ve gotten used to less than mediocrity, when it comes to plant performance. As my guest in this interview states, farmers and food producers routinely harvest only about 10 to 15 percent of the inherent genetic capacity of any given crop.

By optimizing soil composition and nutrient application, you can—for essentially the same amount of time, effort, and energy—increase your yield six to eight times.

John Kempf, an Amish farmer, is one of the leaders in the field of high-performance agriculture. He has taken a leadership role—somewhat similar to the way I have in natural medicine—in teaching people how to achieve these results. He’s the founder and CEO of Advancing Eco Agriculture,1 and runs an organic, high-performance farm in Ohio.

The results you can achieve when you apply the principles he teaches are truly astounding. As Kempf says:

“You have to have different expectations and you have to begin managing your crops differently. For example, when you are expecting to produce 60 to 70 pounds of tomatoes per plant, you no longer plant the plants 12 inches apart.

That doesn’t work logistically. You have to begin spacing tomato plants two and a half to three feet apart. But all of a sudden, you only need three tomato plants instead of 36!”

How Food Becomes Medicine…

Kempf grew up on a family farm in northeast Ohio. The farm was originally conventionally agriculture-oriented, and used large amounts of pesticides. The turnabout occurred during a particularly difficult three-year period in the early 2000s, when a significant portion of each year’s crop was lost to various pests and plant diseases.

In 2004, they began working some land on a neighboring farm where pesticides were not used. The difference was dramatic. Cantaloupes grown on their side were infested with Downy and powdery mildew, while the cantaloupes grown on the neighbor’s land had no infestation at all—despite the fact that the crops were immediately next to each other and received the same care.

“At that point, I became convinced that fungicides and pesticides were not the solution to the problems that we were experiencing,” Kempf says. “I wanted to know what the differences between healthy plants and unhealthy plants are, and what allows some plants to have a functional immune system that they can be resistant to disease and insect pests while the next one right beside it is susceptible.”

In a nutshell, what he subsequently learned, is that the foundation of health – whether we’re talking about plants, soils, animals, or people – really boils down to two things:

1. Having adequate mineral nutrition, and
2. Having that nutrition, in the case of plants, be supplied by an active soil microbial community, or having a strong soil biology

By focusing on those two areas – plant nutrition and soil biology – the farm experienced an amazing turnaround, and it’s been completely chemical-free since 2006. Amazingly, as nutrition is improved in the plants, not only do they become naturally resistant to disease and insect pests, they also become hardier and better able to survive a wider range of climactic changes.

Even more importantly, healthier plants also form much higher levels of medicinal compounds and essential oils, such as phenolics, aromatics, and bioflavonoids. This is really what turns food into medicine… As explained by Kempf, these medicinal compounds are compounds that plants produce as plant protectants, meaning they protect the plant from things like ultraviolet radiation, insects, and pests. When you eat such plants, that functional immunity can then be transferred to you.

What Is High-Performance Agriculture?

High-performance agriculture, as defined by Kempf, is providing plants with the environment and the nutrition they need to allow them to express their inherent genetic potential. This is a key concept, because you’re not really altering a plant’s yield by supplying it with better nutrition, per se. All you’re doing is allowing the plant’s inherent yield potential to be fully expressed. Most plants in fact have FAR greater yield potential than what conventional agricultural practices are capable of producing. As explained by Kempf:

“Take tomatoes, for example. The day a tomato seed is planted, it has the genetic capacity to produce 400 to 500 pounds of fruit per plant. Every time that plant is exposed to any level of stress throughout the growing season that potential harvest is reduced. At the point at which you’re actually harvesting the crop, you are only harvesting a very small fraction of what you originally started with the day you planted that seed. When we give the plant nutritional supplements, the reality is that we are not increasing yields; we are simply preventing those yields from being lost.”

The question then becomes: How can plants be healthier and grow so much more vigorously than what has become accepted as normal? The answer to that question lies in a plant’s capacity to fully synthesize. The action of absorbing water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air, and through the catalytic action of sunlight energy, sugars are formed inside the plant. Those sugars are the energy source utilized to drive all of the plants’ growing processes and to build fruits. Anything you do to increase that plant’s photosynthetic capacity will therefore increase the plant’s energy.

The photosynthetic capacity of any given plant is directly correlated to the mineral content and the nutritional profile of the plant. If it has adequate mineral and trace mineral nutrition, it will be able to photosynthesize at very high levels of efficiency and produce as much as three to four times or more sugars during a single 24-hour period, compared to most of today’s conventional crops.

How to Evaluate Plant Quality

In the full version of the interview, Kempf discusses a number of examples of dramatically increased crop yields produced on high-performance farms. While many blueberry crops, for example, have an 8-12 percent sugar content, the blueberries he’s been working with have a sugar content of 14-18 percent.

“We have increased the sugar production capacity of that plant by 50 to 80 percent, which results in a sweeter fruit and indirectly a fruit that is more nutritious,” he says.

To measure sugar content in your plant, you can use a refractometer, also called a Brix meter. Sugar content is often used as an indicator of quality—not because the sugars are in and of themselves necessarily an indicator of quality, but they’re typically associated with the plant’s mineral content. Hence, it can be used as a marker of quality. Brix meters are available on Amazon.com and other places, and can be had for under $100.

It’s a simple way to measure the quality of the fruits, berries or vegetables you’re growing, and evaluate the effectiveness of your remedial actions.The most common Brix meters measure on a scale of 0 to 32 degrees Brix, which is what you want. They also have units available that go from 0 to 64. According to Kempf, those are less accurate as they measure too broad a range.

Using Tea Compost for Your Garden

I recently visited the Rodale Institute, which claims to be one of the oldest organic farms in the US. It was founded 75 years ago by J.I. Rodale. One of the most potent strategies they employ to improve plant health is compost tea. While there are a variety of ways to make compost tea, you typically use a volume of water, certain sugars for nutrients, minerals, along with certain bacteria or microbes. The mix is then aerated using a pump, as the beneficial organisms require oxygen to survive. The tea is typically grown over 24 to 48 hours, and then you apply it directly to the soil on a regular basis.

An ideal compost tea is composed of tens of thousands of different species of bacteria, along with fungi and protozoa that actually digest the bacteria. This type of tea compost can address both of the main components necessary for maximum plant performance, i.e. mineral nutrition and optimized soil biology. Kempf explains:

“To provide a more complete picture of why those two factors are the engines that drive the overall system: Inside the plant, all types of metabolic processes go on that depend on mineral nutrition in order for the plant to be able to grow and be healthy. According to a number of plant researchers, geneticists, biochemists that have done a lot of work on plant nutrition, in order for a plant to have a completely functioning enzyme system, which it needs to be really healthy; it needs at least 64 different trace elements.

We’re talking not only about having adequate quantities and the right balance of minerals, but we’re also talking about a very broad spectrum, a very broad suite, of mineral nutrition, specifically a lot of the various trace minerals, to function as enzyme cofactors. However, we need that mineral nutrition to be in a form in which it can be readily absorbed and readily utilized by the plants. And the key to getting mineral nutrition absorption into plants is microbiology in the soil system.”

This  is very similar  to your own biology. You have microflora in your digestive tract that is responsible for helping you digest your food. As the proteins and carbohydrates in the food are broken down through enzymatic digestion into individual amino acids, essential fatty acids, and simple sugars, your body can then assimilate these simpler compounds and use them for energy.

As explained by Kempf, the exact same process holds true in soil, where the soil microflora digests root exudates, sugars, and amino acids that the plant’s root system sends out into the soil. These sugars and amino acids, for the most part, contain a very limited mineral profile.

The minerals are actually created through the microflora in the soil, as follows. The soil bacteria, fungi, Actinomycetes, and a variety of other soil microbes feed on these soluble sugars and amino acids. They also extract minerals from the soil mineral matrix and use them to build their own bodies. As that microbial population cycles and regenerates, the minerals that are contained in their bodies are then released and become available for absorption by the plant. Again, this is very similar to the way that fermented vegetables or probiotics improve your own digestive and overall health.

How Charcoal May Improve Soil Health

Compost tea can produce great results in terms of plant growth, but you also need to pay attention to other environmental factors, such as watering and increasing the organic matter in your garden soil by adding compost and other soil amendments. Another area I’m really excited about is the use of BioChar, which is charcoal used as a soil amendment. Producing BioChar involves slowly burning biomass, such as wood and other plant materials. The slow burning releases methane gas, producing charcoal that has an incredibly high surface area when spread out thinly.

The charcoal stores carbon (as trees and plant materials extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) and starts to reverse some of the challenges we’re seeing with increasing CO2 levels in the environment. When put back into the soil, it can keep the carbon stable, in the form of charcoal, for extended periods of time, which is an environmental benefit.

From a gardening perspective, it provides a suitable environment in which beneficial soil bacteria can grow and flourish. According to Kempf, BioChar may also help “filter” toxic chemicals in the soil:

“I do not know this for sure, but I suspect, based on the charcoal component, that there’s a very strong possibility it might also have a great beneficial aspect in sequestering toxins and environmental pollutants that are in our soils and ubiquitous in our environment today.

For example, with all of the herbicides and pesticides that are being sprayed, all the aerosols that are in the air, every time we get a rainfall, there are some minimum levels of pesticides that are within that rain. I think having that BioChar component in your soil can help bind a lot of those toxins and prevent them from being absorbed by your plants.”

Why Using Miracle-Gro Is Not a Good Idea

Many are under the false assumption that increasing plant nutrition is best done by picking up some Miracle-Gro from your local garden store. However, it’s important to realize that while conventional fertilizers can provide some level of improvement, they’re far from ideal. Nor are they superior, when compared to natural high-performance plant-enhancing methods. As explained by Kempf, there are two main issues at stake:

1. Plants require far greater diversity of minerals than that provided in any commercial fertilizer formula. For example, NPK fertilizers contain varied amounts of just three components: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash. As mentioned earlier, plants need at least 64 different minerals and trace-minerals for optimal growth.

1. While many soluble NPK-type fertilizers produce rapid, noticeable plant response, they significantly suppress the soil microbial community because they’re essentially electrolytes, and when applied to the soil, they increase the electrical conductivity of that soil, which results in a burnout and a suppression of the soil microbial community. So, long-term, this simply promotes soil destruction and decreases your ability to grow healthy plants.

Resources for Further Learning

Soil and plant health is a complex topic that cannot be thoroughly dissected in any one article, so I advise you to take it upon yourself to learn more about high-performance gardening and agriculture on your own. One excellent resource is Secrets of the Soil: New Solutions for Restoring Our Planet by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird.

Kempf also has a web site called AdvancingEcoAg.com,2 where you can learn more about his work. For example, you can find quite a bit of information about their cultural management systems and the nutritional systems they use on high-performance farms. His company also produces plant nutritional supplements that help increase plant health. These products will probably become available sometime next year, as they’re currently in the testing phase.

Sources and References

• 1 AdvancingEcoAg.com
• 2 See ref 1

At this point, there’s simply no denying the powerful influence of the gut on both your physical and mental health. This is great news, since this places you in a distinct position of power over your and your children’s psychological health.

A recent article by the Weston A. Price Foundation,¹ titled: “Violent Behavior: A Solution in Plain Sight”, highlighted the impact of nutrition on brain health and behavior, reviewing the importance of a number of dietary factors, such as:

• Fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamins A, D3 and K2
• Water-soluble vitamins like B1, B6 and B12
• Minerals such as iodine, potassium, iron, magnesium, zinc, chromium, manganese
• Specific brain nutrients like choline, ARA and DHA

The article is quite extensive and well worth reading in its entirety as it covers the nutrition-behavior connection from several different angles. In short, however, the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that our current problems with violence and other behavioral problems are rooted in our diet…

As stated by Sylvia Onusic, PhD, CNS, LDN in her article:

“[T]he fact is that a large number of Americans, living mostly on devitalized processed food, are suffering from malnutrition. In many cases, this means their brains are starving…

Making things worse are excitotoxins so prevalent in the food supply, such as MSG and aspartame. People who live on processed food and who drink diet sodas are exposed to these mind-altering chemicals at very high levels.

… Modern commentators are blind to the solution, a solution that is in plain sight: clearly defining good nutrition and putting it back into the mouths of our children, starting before they are even conceived… because food is information and that information directly affects your emotions, nervous system, brain and behavior.”

How Chronic Niacin Deficiency Can Cause Violent Behavior

Few people realize just how potent a factor nutritional deficiencies can be when it comes to behavioral difficulties and violence. Last year, I interviewed Dr. Andrew W. Saul on the topic of niacin and psychiatric health.

He has over 35 years of experience in natural health education and is currently serving as editor-in-chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service. He’s authored over 175 publications and 11 books, and has been named as one of the seven health pioneers by Psychology Today. He’s also featured in the movie Food Matters, which I’m sure many of you have seen.

Dr. Saul is co-author of the excellent book, Niacin: The Real Story, along with one of the leading niacin researchers in the world, Dr. Abram Hoffer. Niacin, Dr. Hoffer found, may in fact be a “secret” treatment for psychological disorders, including schizophrenia, which can be notoriously difficult to address.

He performed the first double-blind, placebo-controlled nutrition studies in the history of psychiatry in the mid-1950s. Giving patients extremely high doses of niacin—as much as 3,000 mg per day—his cure rate for schizophrenia was 80 percent! At that point, the American Psychiatric Association blacklisted him, which may in part be why you’ve probably never heard of him, or his invaluable research…

A key point Dr. Saul brings up in the full interview is that certain people have what Dr. Hoffer referred to as niacin dependency, meaning they need more niacin on a regular basis. Essentially, they’re beyond deficient—they’re dependent on high-doses of niacin in order to remain well. This particularly appears to be the case with mental disorders. Other researchers have since confirmed Dr. Hoffer’s findings, and found that niacin can also be successfully used in the treatment of other mental disorders, such as:

• Attention deficit disorder
• Anxiety
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• General psychosis
• Depression
• Bipolar disorder

Might Fermented Foods Help Prevent Memory Loss in the Elderly?

Fermented foods have been a staple in virtually all native diets, and the more I learn about fermented foods and the importance of gut health, the more convinced I get that many of our “age-related” health problems stem from lack of protective intestinal microbiota. We have, en masse in the Western world, abandoned traditionally fermented foods and replaced them with processed foods high in sugar and grains—which feed harmful bacteria instead and promote chronic inflammation.

The effects of this dietary trade-off can be seen in our worsening rates of behavior problems in children, depression, and mental decline in the elderly. It’s worth reiterating that memory loss is NOT a “normal” part of aging at all. It used to be quite normal for seniors to be “sharp as tacks.”

In a recent study, polyamines, found in foods such as wheat germ, fermented soy, and matured cheeses,² were shown to stave off memory decline in fruit flies.³ The researchers are now embarking on studies to see whether a polyamine-rich diet might have the same effect on humans. I believe chances are, they’ll find that this is indeed the case… Polyamines are aliphatic amines⁴ believed to be essential components of all living cells. Your body gets polyamines from three sources:

1. Endogenous biosynthesis
2. Intestinal microorganisms, and
3. Through your diet

As described in a 2011 report⁵ on polyamines in food:

“[P]olyamines are involved in the differentiation of immune cells as well as in regulation of inflammatory reactions, and they exert a suppressor effect on pulmonary immunologic and intestinal immunoallergic responses. In children, high polyamine intake during the first year has been significantly correlated to food allergy prevention…

Diet can to a certain extent regulate biosynthesis of polyamines. Thus, dietary polyamines have several important roles to play in this regard; supporting a normal metabolism and maintaining optimal health as well as regulating the intracellular polyamine synthesis. These seem to be of importance for maintaining the normal growth, maturation of the intestinal tract. Since the level of polyamines decreases with age in animal organs (brain, kidney, spleen, and pancreas), it has been suggested that maintenance of polyamine level from the diet is important to keep the functioning of various organs in the elderly.”

At Least One-Quarter of Population Have Too Little Gut Bacteria

According to recent research^{6, 7} from Denmark, in which they analyzed the human gut microbial composition on 292 people (169 of them obese and 123 of healthy weight), a quarter of the participants were found to have 40 percent fewer gut bacteria than the average needed for optimal health. Obese participants were particularly at risk of having too little beneficial bacteria to maintain health. Oluf Pedersen, professor and scientific director at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen told Medical News Today:⁸

“Not only has this quarter fewer intestinal bacteria, but they also have reduced bacterial diversity and they harbor more bacteria causing a low-grade inflammation of the body…

Our study shows that people having few and less diverse intestinal bacteria are more obese than the rest. They have a preponderance of bacteria which exhibit the potential to cause mild inflammation in the digestive tract and in the entire body, which is reflected in blood samples that reveal a state of chronic inflammation, which we know from other studies to affect metabolism and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

…Our intestinal bacteria are actually to be considered an organ just like our heart and brain, and the presence of health-promoting bacteria must therefore be cared for in the best way possible.”

Recent studies have repeatedly demonstrated that the makeup of your intestinal flora can have a powerful impact on your weight, and your propensity to gain or lose weight. For example, lean people tend to have higher amounts of various healthy bacteria compared to obese people. One 2011 animal study⁹ even suggested that daily intake of a specific form of lactic acid bacteria could help prevent obesity and reduce low-level inflammation. Probiotics have also been found to benefit metabolic syndrome, which often goes hand-in-hand with obesity. This makes sense since both are caused by a diet high in sugars, which leads to insulin resistance, fuels the growth of unhealthy bacteria and promotes chronic inflammation, and packs on excess weight.

Diet and Environmental Factors Affect Your Gut Flora

I have long been convinced of the value of regular probiotic supplementation. For nearly 20 years, I took a daily probiotic supplement but now I eat about four ounces of fermented vegetables a day that are started with our new high vitamin K2 starter culture, which will soon be available for sale. I sincerely believe that it is a profoundly wise health habit to either regularly supplement with a high quality probiotic or eat non-pasteurized, traditionally fermented foods such as:

• Fermented vegetables
• Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
• Fermented milk, such as kefir
• Natto (fermented soy)

Ideally, you want to eat a variety of fermented foods to maximize the variety of bacteria. Keep in mind that eating fermented foods may not be enough if the rest of your diet is really poor. Your gut bacteria are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your overall lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast. Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

• Antibiotics
• Chlorinated water
• Antibacterial soap
• Agricultural chemicals
• Pollution

Are You Getting Enough “Brain Food”?

One nutrient in particular that is essential for optimal brain functioning is omega-3 fat. Along with probiotics for those who refuse to eat fermented foods, an omega-3 supplement is one of the few supplements I had recommended to all the patients at my clinic.

In terms of brain health, omega-3 deficiency is known to change the levels and functioning of both serotonin and dopamine (which plays a role in feelings of pleasure), as well as compromise the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects your brain from unwanted matter gaining access. Omega-3 deficiency can also decrease normal blood flow to your brain, an interesting finding given that studies show people with depression have compromised blood flow to a number of brain regions.

Could rampant omega-3 deficiency be a contributing factor to deteriorating mental health? I believe so—along with vitamin D deficiency, which also plays an important role.

Making matters worse, a number of foods that contain critical nutrients for optimal brain function and mood control have been “demonized” in our culture. B3- and protein-rich foods such as raw dairy products, eggs and meat have been more or less blacklisted, accused of being too high in cholesterol and fat…

I couldn’t agree more with the Weston A. Price Foundation’s sentiment that the answer to so many of our health problems, both physical and psychological, are right in front of our noses—in our fridge and pantry. In addition to consuming fermented foods, eliminating most sugars and grains from your diet is also of critical importance as these will increase your risk of insulin resistance, which is also linked to psychological problems such as depression and violent behavior.

Sources and References

• 1 Weston A. Price Foundation April 22, 2013
• 2 Food and Nutrition Research 2011; 55: 10.3402/fnr.v55i0.5572
• 3 Scientific American September 1, 2013
• 4 Science.uvu.edu, Aliphatic Amine
• 5 Food and Nutrition Research 2011; 55: 10.3402/fnr.v55i0.5572
• 6 Nature, August 28, 2013
• 7 Newhope360.com September 3, 2013
• 8 Medical News Today September 1, 2013
• 9 British Journal of Nutrition 2011 Sep;106(6):887-95

Many people experience a slump in energy levels by the time the afternoon rolls around. A number of factors may contribute to this phenomenon. The most common cause is post-lunch hypoglycemia, which is related to your inability to burn fat.

Hence, addressing your diet is key if afternoon fatigue is something you contend with on a regular basis. Besides alterations in your diet, intermittent fasting is one of the most effective ways to switch your body from burning carbs to burning fat, thereby boosting your mental and physical stamina.

Other factors are related to when and how much you exercise. Poor sleep also plays a role, of course, and recent research highlights the interconnectedness between sleep and exercise.

Diet Is Key for Maintaining Your Energy Levels

There are two fuels your body can use, sugar and fat. The sad reality is that our ancestors were adapted to using fat as their primary fuel and over 99 percent of us are now adapted to using sugar or glucose as our number one fuel source.

Because most are primarily burning carbs as fuel, afternoon fatigue is typically related to post-lunch hypoglycemia. By switching your body from using carbs as its primary fuel to burning fats instead, or becoming “fat adapted,” you virtually eliminate such drops in energy levels. Overall, being adapted to burning fat instead of carbs has a number of benefits, including:

• Having plenty of accessible energy on hand, as you effectively burn stored fat for energy throughout the day. One way to tell if you’re fat adapted or not is to take note of how you feel when you skip a meal. If you can skip meals without getting ravenous and cranky (or craving carbs), you’re likely fat-adapted.
• Improved insulin and leptin sensitivity and decreased risk of virtually every known chronic degenerative disease.
• Effectively burn dietary fat for your energy, which leads to less dietary fat being stored in your adipose tissue—hence the weight loss benefits associated with fat adaptation.

• Being able to rely more on fat for energy during exertion, sparing glycogen for when you really need it. This can improve athletic performance, and helps burn more body fat. As explained by Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint, if you can handle exercising without having to carb-load, you’re probably fat-adapted. If you can work out effectively in a fasted state, you’re definitely fat-adapted.

First, Replace Carbs with Healthful Fats

Keep in mind that when we’re talking about harmful carbs, we’re only referring to grains and sugars, NOT vegetable carbs. You need very little if any of the former, and plenty of the latter. In fact, when you cut out sugar and grains, you need to radically increase the amount of vegetables you eat since, by volume, the grains you need to trade out are denser than vegetables. You also need to dramatically increase healthful fats, which include:

Avoid highly processed and genetically engineered omega-6 oils like corn, canola and soy as they will upset your omega 6/3 ratio. Trans fats should also be avoided, but contrary to popular advice, saturated fats are a key component of a healthy diet. A reasonable goal will be to have as much as 50-70 percent of daily calories from healthy fat, which will radically reduce your carbohydrate intake.

Fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on carbs and still feel ravenous, it’s a sign that you have not replaced them with sufficient amounts of healthy fat. Most people will likely notice massive improvement in their health and overall energy levels by following this approach. To help you get started on the right track, review my Nutritional Plan, which guides you through these dietary changes one step at a time.

How Intermittent Fasting Can Help

Once you’ve addressed your diet, you can try intermittent fasting. This will effectively help shift your body from carb- to fat-burning mode. Please do not embark on a fasting regimen if you’re still subsisting primarily on processed foods and fast food meals, however. Since it involves skipping meals, making sure you’re getting high quality nutrients with each meal you do eat becomes all the more critical.

Intermittent fasting involves timing your meals to allow for regular periods of fasting. It takes about six to eight hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores and after that you start to shift to burning fat. If you keep replenishing your glycogen by eating every eight hours (or sooner), you make it far more difficult for your body to use your fat stores as fuel. Remember, your ancient ancestors never had access to a 24/7 supply of food like virtually all of us do with modern supermarkets. By necessity they regularly engaged in periods of fasting as they had no choice.

While there are several different intermittent fasting regimens, one of the easiest to implement simply involves restricting your daily eating to a narrower window of time, say 6-8 hours, instead of grazing all day long. This equates to 16-18 hours’ worth of fasting each and every day—enough to get your body to shift into fat-burning mode. Once you have made the shift to burning fat as your primary fuel, you will be shocked at how your cravings for sugar and junk food virtually disappear.

As a precautionary note, if you’re hypoglycemic, diabetic, have adrenal fatigue or pregnant (and/or breastfeeding), you are better off avoiding any type of fasting or timed meal schedule until you’ve normalized your blood glucose and insulin levels, or weaned your baby. Other categories of people that would be best served to avoid fasting include those living with chronic stress and those with cortisol dysregulation.

Intermittent fasting also works synergistically with high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which is a foundational part of mycomprehensive exercise recommendations. The combination of fasting and exercising maximizes the impact of cellular factors and catalysts (cyclic AMP and AMP Kinases), which force the breakdown of both fat and glycogen for energy.

Fighting Fatigue with Exercise

The issue of afternoon fatigue was recently covered in a Wall Street Journal1 article, which placed the focus on exercise. Personally, I believe that altering your diet and implementing intermittent fasting will have a far greater impact than making alterations to your exercise schedule alone. But, that said, some of the advice given may be helpful in conjunction with your dietary changes. As reported in the featured article:

“Researchers and fitness trainers say whether you exercise in the morning, afternoon or evening, small changes in your routine can keep you from suffering midday blahs.

Midday is the ideal time to exercise, some fitness experts say. A workout then can give you an energy boost lasting three to four hours… If you prefer working out in the evenings, it’s best to avoid exercising two to three hours before bedtime to avoid sleep disruption… On the other hand, if you are a morning exerciser and not getting seven to nine hours of sleep, Lona Sandon, a Dallas fitness instructor and assistant clinical nutrition professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, suggests getting to bed earlier or exercising in the evening.

To avoid midday fatigue and preserve energy throughout the day, most trainers recommend doing more moderate workouts, meaning those in which you hit 70% to 80% of your target heart rate. “Listen to what your body is telling you,” says Ms. Sandon. “If you have a high-stress work environment then vigorous workouts may not make you feel better. You might be better off with restorative yoga so your brain can slow down.” An ideal schedule would be two to three high-intensity workouts during the week, mixed in with lighter workouts like yoga, walking or weight training, say fitness experts.”

The Importance of Non-Exercise Movement During Your Workday

Sitting for prolonged periods of time can also be a source of fatigue. Besides that, compelling research shows that prolonged sitting in and of itself is a major contributing factor to chronic disease and reduced lifespan—even if you exercise regularly.

To counteract the adverse health effects of sitting, which go far beyond mere fatigue, make it a point to stand up every 10 minutes or so. As explained by Dr. Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division and author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, the reason for these ill effects are due to the fact that when you sit, you’re not interacting with gravity.

Based on her groundbreaking research, we now know that the key is in how many times you interact with gravity, such as standing up from your seated position, in any given day. The act of standing up makes your body interact with the forces of gravity, which is what produces beneficial health effects. Interestingly, the lipoprotein lipase is dramatically reduced during inactivity, and increases with activity, the most effective activity being standing up from a seated position. Lipoprotein lipase is an enzyme that attaches to fat in your bloodstream and transports it into your muscles to be used as fuel. So essentially, simply by standing up, you are also actively helping your body to burn fat for fuel.

After reading Dr. Vernikos’s book, Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, and interviewing her, I was inspired to give some serious attention to this because even though I perform a lot of structured exercise, including high intensity interval training, I too was guilty of sitting down a vast majority of the rest of the day.

I simply set a timer on my computer to go off every 10 minutes, at which point I rise from my chair and do four jump squats. As explained by Dr. Vernikos, squatting is an extension of standing. If you squat and stand, you can get the maximum benefit of working against the force of gravity. Moving every 10 minutes or so will also get your blood pumping to oxygenate your cells, which will also combat fatigue. I mix it up though and try to do six to eight different moves every 10 minutes. The ones I currently use are one legged squats, two legged squats, lunges, jump squats, hamstring stretches and pectoral doorway stretches.

An Obvious Culprit: Poor Sleep…

Not to be ignored of course is sleep. If you’re not sleeping well, it will be next to impossible to avoid lagging energy levels. According to recent research, maintaining a regular exercise program can help improve your sleep over time2. It can also boost your cognitive performance, as evidenced by a number of studies3. In one recent study evaluating the effect of exercise on sleep,4volunteers with sleep complaints took two-hour forest-walks to assess how it affected their sleep patterns. According to the authors:

“Two hours of forest walking improved sleep characteristics; impacting actual sleep time, immobile minutes, self-rated depth of sleep, and sleep quality… Furthermore, extension of sleep duration was greater after an afternoon walk compared to a forenoon walk.”

In another study5, the results suggested that improved sleep had a beneficial influence on exercise performance the next day, rather than the exercise influencing sleep. Over time, however, exercise will tend to improve your sleep patterns, even if you’re struggling with more serious sleep problems. As reported by Yahoo News6:

“While prior research has shown that for most people, exercising can improve sleep, for insomniacs the relationship may be a bit more convoluted, the new evidence suggests. The rationale? Head researcher Baron told the New York Times that people with insomnia tend to be ‘neurologically different’ and have a ‘hyper-arousal of the stress system.’ Breaking a sweat in the gym one day isn’t likely to override the system, she said, and could even exacerbate it.

Still, if you struggle with insomnia and currently don’t exercise, Baron said that it’s advisable to start — but don’t expect miracles. The process could take months, which can be frustrating for someone suffering from sleep deprivation. ‘If you have insomnia you won’t exercise yourself into sleep right away,’ she said in a press release. ‘It’s a long-term relationship. You have to keep at it and not get discouraged.’”

Some Sleep Basics

That said, it seems clear that you can help set up a positive feedback loop where both your sleep and exercise benefits. Two key points to remember if you’re having difficulty sleeping include the following. For more tips, please see my article 33 Steps to a Good Night’s Sleep.

• Create a sleep sanctuary. This means removing items associated with entertainment, recreation, work and hobbies, and turning your bedroom into a single-purpose space—one for sleeping. Of utmost importance: Make sure your bedroom iscool, dark and quiet. These three factors can have a major impact on your sleep. In regards to temperature, studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, so keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 degrees.

As for light, even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin, hormones involved in your body’s circadian rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. So close your bedroom door, get rid of night-lights, and most importantly, cover your windows. I recommend using blackout shades or heavy, opaque drapes. Also cover up your clock if it has a lit display. Alternatively, you could wear an eye mask to block out any stray light.

• Turn off your gadgets well before bedtime. Again, the artificial glow from your TV, iPad, computer or smartphone can serve as a stimulus for keeping you awake well past your bedtime by disrupting melatonin production. I recommend turning off all electronic gadgets at least one hour before bed. As Rothstein suggests, that time is far better spent reading a good old fashioned book, practicing relaxation techniques or meditating.

Banish Afternoon Fatigue with Appropriate Diet and Lifestyle Changes

So remember, if you’re frequently battling with afternoon fatigue, check your lunch selections, first of all. More often than not, you’ll find that the more carb-heavy your lunch, the more apt you are to feel tired an hour or two later. To remedy the situation, focus on shifting your diet from carbs to healthful fats. Once your diet has been addressed, implementing intermittent fasting is an effective strategy for really shifting your body into fat-burning mode.

Just remember that proper nutrition becomes even MORE important when fasting, so I believe that addressing your diet is your first step. Always listen to your body, and go slowly ; work your way up to 16-18 hour fasts if your normal schedule has included multiple meals a day. Also be sure to address any hypoglycemic tendencies, such as headaches, weakness, tremors or irritability, as it can get increasingly dangerous the longer you go without eating to level out your blood sugar.

Once you’re fat adapted, your energy levels will remain fairly stable throughout the entire day, and you hunger cravings will virtually disappear. Exercise and sleep are also important factors, so experiment with your workout schedule to see what works best for you. Again, proper sleep can boost your exercise performance, and exercise in turn can help improve your sleep, forming a positive feedback loop.

Sources and References

• 1 Wall Street Journal August 26, 2013
• 2 Huffington Post August 28, 2013
• 3 Deseret News August 27, 2013
• 4 Biopsychosoc Med. 2011; 5: 13
• 5 Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine 2013 Aug 15;9(8):819-24
• 6 Yahoonews.com August 22, 2013

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Science has proven time and again that Mother Nature is the best physician, and food is the best medicine. Broccoli, for example—and to an even greater degree, broccoli sprouts—have been repeatedly shown to be one of nature’s most valuable health-promoting foods, capable of preventing a number of health issues, including but not limited to:

• Hypertension1
• Allergies2
• Diabetes3
• Osteoarthritis4,
  
• Cancer5

How Broccoli Can Help Slow Progression of Arthritis

What is Broccoli Good For?  For starters, it can help with arthritis.  Most recently, the benefits of broccoli for the prevention and treatment of the most common form of arthritis has made headlines. As reported by BBC News6:

“Eating lots of broccoli may slow down and even prevent osteoarthritis, according to a team of researchers at the University of East Anglia who are starting human trials following on from successful lab studies.7

Tests on cells and mice showed that a broccoli compound, sulforaphane – which humans can also get from Brussels sprouts and cabbage – blocked a key destructive enzyme that damages cartilage.”

According to lead researcher Ian Clark, the results are “very promising,” as they’ve now shown that sulforaphane works in each of the three laboratory models they’ve tried so far—in human and cow cartilage cells, tissue, and live mice.

Sulforaphane, which is known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, can also be found in other cruciferous vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and cabbage.

Broccoli, however, is one of the richest sources of this potent compound, and broccoli sprouts appear to be one of the richest sources of all. The compound also has anti-diabetic and antimicrobial activity. According to Clark:8

“As well as treating those who already have [osteoarthritis], you need to be able to tell healthy people how to protect their joints into the future. There is currently no way in to the disease pharmaceutically and you cannot give healthy people drugs unnecessarily, so this is where diet could be a safe alternative. Prevention would be preferable and changes to lifestyle, like diet, may be the only way to do that.”

The Anti-Cancer Properties of Broccoli

Sulforaphane, a sulfur compound, has also been shown to kill cancer stem cells, thereby slowing tumor growth. Some researchers believe eliminating cancer stem cells may be key to controlling cancer.

This is something current chemotherapies cannot do, but food can! I have long touted the cancer busting power of broccoli; ever since studies in the mid-1990s showed that the broccoli compound glucoraphanin – a precursor to sulforaphane – boosts cell enzymes that protect against molecular damage from cancer-causing chemicals.9, 10

Studies have also found that sulforaphane normalizes DNA methylation11—a process by which a methyl group (one carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms) is added to part of a DNA molecule. DNA methylation is a crucial part of normal cell function, allowing cells to “remember who they are and where they have been” and is important in regulating gene expression.

DNA methylation also suppresses the genes for things you don’t want, such as viral and other disease-related genes, and abnormal DNA methylation plays a critical role in the development of nearly all types of cancer.

The sulforaphane from broccoli plays a role in activating more than 200 different genes. Specifically, it appears that broccoli contains the necessary ingredients to switch ON genes that prevent cancer development, and switch OFF other ones that help it spread. And you don’t have to consume a truckload of broccoli to reap its benefits.

In fact, a 2008 study published in PLoS One12 found that just four servings of broccoli per week could protect men from prostate cancer. One serving of broccoli is about two spears, so that’s only 10 broccoli spears per week. In this study, the researchers collected tissue samples over the course of the study and found that the men who ate broccoli showed hundreds of beneficial changes in genes known to play a role in fighting cancer.

Sulforaphane Works on a Wide Variety of Cancers

Other researchers have looked at sulforaphane’s effect on breast cancer, and discovered that it hinders the growth of human breast cancer cells as well—at least in the laboratory. Here, they found that it does so by disrupting the action of protein microtubules within the cancer cells, which promote cell division and growth. Interestingly enough, certain cancer drugs also work in this manner. The upside of broccoli, of course, is that it doesn’t come with ANY of the side effects associated with synthetic drugs. Furthermore, as reported by PreventDisease.com13:

“Previous research has also proven that the compound blocks the formation of breast tumors in rats, and it can even force colon cancer cells to commit cell suicide. It seems that sulforaphane works its magic on the detoxification enzymes that try to defend the cancer-promoting substances.”

The interesting aspect of chemoprotection strategies is that they’re almost never organ-specific. Rather, chemoprotection produces a general cancer protective effect which blocks multiple steps — a cascade of steps — that are common to cancer formation. This is probably a reason why broccoli appears to work against a variety of different types of cancers.

Sprouts—An Even More Potent Alternative

As stated earlier, about 10 broccoli spears per week has been shown to offer protection against prostate cancer, which isn’t a whole lot, but research14 has shown that fresh broccoli sprouts are FAR more potent, allowing you to eat far less in terms of quantity. This is also an excellent alternative if you don’t like the taste (or smell) of broccoli. In terms of research, even small quantities of broccoli sprout extracts have been shown to markedly reduce the size of rat mammary tumors that were induced by chemical carcinogens. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University15:

“Three-day-old broccoli sprouts consistently contain 20 to 50 times the amount of chemoprotective compounds found in mature broccoli heads, and may offer a simple, dietary means of chemically reducing cancer risk.”

When compared to either broccoli or cauliflower, which also contains sulforaphane,16 three-day-old broccoli sprouts contain anywhere from 10 to 100 times higher levels of glucoraphanin, compared to the mature varieties. Best of all, you can grow broccoli sprouts at home quite easily and inexpensively. Another major benefit is that you don’t have to cook them. They are eaten raw, usually as an addition to salad.

Furthermore, if you opt for mature broccoli heads, it becomes more important to make sure you’re purchasing a variety of high potency.17 In tests, the chemoprotective abilities of samples from 22 varieties of fresh and seven brands of frozen mature broccoli varied greatly. Fresh broccoli sprouts, on the other hand, are far more uniform in their potency.

Interestingly, researchers have found that an extract of broccoli sprouts helps protect your skin from sun damage, which could potentially lead to skin cancer. According to Dr. Paul Talalay, a professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore:18

“Cells contain an elaborate network of protective genes that code for proteins that protect against four principal injurious processes to which all of our cells are exposed and which are the causes of cancer, degenerative disease and aging. Those four processes are: oxidation; DNA damage; inflammation and radiation, namely ultraviolet radiation. The cells’ protective system normally operates at about one-third capacity, so the real question is what would ramp up that system.

The highest doses of sulforaphane extract reduced UV-induced redness and inflammation (erythema) by an average of 37 percent, although protection varied from 8 percent to 78 percent. If you apply an extract of broccoli sprouts that contains high levels of sulforaphane to regions of human skin, you can protect them very substantially.” [Emphasis mine]

How to Grow Your Own Broccoli Sprouts

Broccoli sprouts look and taste similar to alfalfa sprouts, and are easily grown at home, even if you’re limited on space. I strongly recommend using organic seeds, and a pound of seeds will probably make over 10 pounds of sprouts. From the researcher’s calculations mentioned earlier, this can translate up to as much cancer protecting phytochemicals as 1,000 pounds (half a ton) of broccoli!

I used to grow sprouts in Ball jars over 10 years ago but stopped doing that. I am strongly convinced that actually growing them in soil is far easier and produces far more nutritious and abundant food. It is also less time consuming. With Ball jars, you need to rinse them several times a day to prevent mold growth. Trays also take up less space. I am now consuming one whole tray of sprouts every 2-3 days and to produce that much food with Ball jars I would need dozens of jars. I simply don’t have the time or patience for that. You can find instructions on how to grow sprouts by viewing a step-by-step guide at rawfoods-livingfoods.com.

Your Diet Can Be a Powerful Cancer Prevention Tool

There’s little doubt that one of the best ways to improve your health is to make sure you’re eating plenty of fresh, organic vegetables, ideally locally-grown, with a majority of them consumed raw. Two of the easiest and most efficient ways to optimize your vegetable intake is to juice your vegetables and add sprouted seeds. Sprouting is undoubtedly one of the best ways to increase the nutritional content of your diet, as the sprouting process tends to increase nutrient content and bioavailability of those nutrients.

Sprouts—which again are eaten raw—also contain valuable enzymes that allow your body to absorb and use the nutrients of all other foods you eat as well. Some sprouts, like sunflower seeds, have up to 30 times the nutrient density of even home grown organic vegetables. I personally consume about 4-6 ounces of sunflower seed sprouts every day that I either grow at home or our team does in our office.

Juicing is another great way to get a wider variety of veggies into your diet, and will help your body absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables by making them easily digestible. You’re also avoiding the risk of damaging any of their sensitive micronutrients through cooking, which destroys many micronutrients by altering their shape and chemical composition. For more in-depth guidelines and information about juicing, I recommend you review the juicing section of my nutrition plan.

My Recommended Vegetables List provides a guide to the most nutritious vegetables and those to limit due to their high carbohydrate content. Broccoli is certainly on the most nutritious list, but so are many others like celery, Bok Choy and beet greens. Remember, variety is key. So while broccoli and broccoli sprouts are the focus of this article, they should be part of a wide variety of vegetables and legumes in your diet. There are many other foods that contain other cancer-protective nutrientsand compounds, as well as so-called anti-angiogenetic foods, which effectively help “starve” cancer by preventing blood vessels from forming to feed microscopic tumors in the first place:

Fermented veggies are another outstanding superfood. But whatever method you choose; juiced, whole, sprouted, cooked or fermented, do make it a point to eat your veggies. This is one food group that is incredibly diverse, so there’s a wide variety to choose from and plenty to suit virtually everyone’s tastes. And, as you can see, mounting evidence shows that eating vegetables every day is a cornerstone of good health, and a habit that can go a very long way toward preventing disease of all kinds, including cancer.

Sources and References

• 1 American Journal of Hypertension February 2012 2012 Feb;25(2):229-35
• 2 Preventdisease.com August 29, 2013
• 3 See ref 2
• 4 BBC News August 28, 2013
• 5 CNN Health August 29, 2013
• 6 See ref 4
• 7 Arthritis & Rheumatism 2013 Aug 27 [Epub ahead of print]
• 8 See ref 2
• 9 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 14, 1997 vol. 94 no. 21 11149-11151
• 10 Johns Hopkins University September 15, 1997
• 11 Nature 2008
• 12 PLoS One 2008 Jul 2;3(7):e2568
• 13 See ref 2
• 14 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 September 16; 94(19): 10367–10372
• 15 See ref 10
• 16 See ref 14
• 17 Horticultural Science 40(l):50-53. 2005 (PDF)
• 18 See ref 2

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By Dr. Mercola

The chemical industry is only 100 years old, but in this short time they’ve created substances that may now be threatening human survival.

A handful of these chemicals are detailed in the film The Disappearing Male, which gives an educational glimpse into exactly why environmental chemicals, and particularly the gender-bending kind, are so detrimental.

It’s becoming quite clear that chemicals in the environment are prompting significant changes to animals, especially males, and that extends to human‘animals’ as well.

Infertility Rates are Rising as Sperm Counts Drop

One couple in the film described the waiting room at their infertility clinic as similar to an emergency room – packed with lines extending down the hall. Infertility is more common than many think these days. An estimated 1 in 6 American couples struggle with getting pregnant each year1 and there’s compelling evidence that hormone-disrupting environmental chemicals are partly to blame.

The problem with low sperm counts has become so severe that the World Health Organization has had to continually drop what’s considered a ‘normal’ sperm count to lower and lower levels over the last several decades, lest too many men be classified as infertile.

Chemicals that may disrupt sperm count and quality are pervasive in today’s modern world. They lurk in personal care products, food containers, medical tubing, toys and more. Bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates are two of the most well known culprits.

Bisphenol A (BPA)

BPA is a common ingredient in many plastics, including those in water bottles and children’s toys, as well as the lining of most canned goods. It was recently discovered that even many cash register receipts contain this chemical. BPA is so pervasive it has been detected in the umbilical cord blood of 90 percent of newborn infants tested!

Recent studies have confirmed suspicions that BPA is affecting male fertility, primarily by reducing semen quality. One such study, which provides the first epidemiological evidence of an adverse effect on semen quality, was published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.2 The researchers found that higher urine levels of BPA were significantly associated with:

1. Decreased sperm concentration
2. Decreased total sperm count
3. Decreased sperm vitality
4. Decreased sperm motility

Compared with those who did not have detectable levels, the men withdetectable levels of BPA had more than:

• Three times the risk of lowered sperm concentration and lower sperm vitality
• Four times the risk of lower sperm count
• Twice the risk of lower sperm motility

In women, BPA can also reduce chances of successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) by interfering with oocyte (immature egg cell) quality. Two recent studies attest to this. One found an inverse association between BPA concentration and normal fertilization,3 and the other found that “BPA was detected in the urine of the majority of women undergoing IVF, and was inversely associated with number of oocytes retrieved and peak estradiol levels.”4

Phthalates

Phthalates are another group of chemicals that wreak havoc with reproductive health. Exposure to phthalates can lead to incomplete testicular descent in fetuses, reduced sperm counts, testicular atrophy or structural abnormality and inflammation in newborns.

Phthalates are commonly found in vinyl flooring, detergents, automotive plastics, soap, shampoo, deodorants, fragrances, hair spray, nail polish, plastic bags, food packaging, garden hoses, inflatable toys, blood-storage bags, intravenous medical tubing, and more.

A 200% Increase in Male Genital Birth Defects

Gender-bending chemicals are the likely culprit behind a 200% increase in male genital birth defects in recent years, the film cited, highlighting one woman who believes her son’s undescended testes falls into this category.

Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996, which required the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to initiate the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) to screen pesticides and other environmental chemicals for their potential to affect the endocrine systems of both animals and humans. According to the EPA:5

“In the 1990s, some scientists proposed that certain chemicals might be disrupting the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife. A variety of chemicals have been found to disrupt the endocrine systems of animals in laboratory studies, and compelling evidence shows that endocrine systems of certain fish and wildlife have been affected by chemical contaminants, resulting in developmental and reproductive problems.”

However, despite the fact that nearly two decades have passed since the beginning of the program, the market is literally flooded with chemicals that have the potential to wreak havoc on reproductive health, especially when exposure occurs in utero or during childhood (as is often the case).

The strongest evidence showing that exposure to environmental chemicals can lead to disruption of endocrine function comes from the bizarre changes seen in a number of wildlife species, such as male fish transforming into females; frogs developing a variety of defects like multiple testes or ovaries; and hermaphrodite bears, just to name a few.

The effects are being seen in humans as well. The endocrine-disrupting chemicals phthalates, for instance are linked to testicular atrophy or structural abnormality. In experiments on rats, phthalates have demonstrably blocked the action of fetal androgens, which affects gender development in male offspring, leading to undescended testes at birth and testicular tumors later in life.

Studies have also found that boys whose mothers had high phthalate exposures while pregnant were much more likely to have certain demasculinized traits and produce less testosterone.

The more a pregnant woman is exposed to high levels of phthalates, the greater the risk her son will have smaller genitals and incomplete testicular descent, leading to impaired reproductive development. The chemical also appears to make the overall genital tracts of boys slightly more feminine. It is believed that phthalates have these adverse effects because they reduce testosterone synthesis by interfering with an enzyme needed to produce the male hormone.

Even the Most Vulnerable Are Being Inundated with Gender-Bending Chemicals

Studies have shown that premature babies are exposed to extremely high concentrations of phthalates, which are widely used to make plastics like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used in medical tubing and other medical equipment. With each plastic tube that a newborn is hooked up to, the rate of phthalate exposure increases. And for those premature infants who spend weeks and months in the neonatal intensive care unit, the exposure levels can be extraordinary.

A report released by the nonprofit organization Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) found that male infants exposed to phthalates through medical procedures are most at risk of suffering health effects.6 The phthalate di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, or DEHP, in particular, is raising concern because of research linking it to:

A typical American comes in regular contact with some 6,000 chemicals and an untold number of potentially toxic substances on a less frequent basis. There are approximately 75,000 chemicals regularly manufactured and imported by US industries, so you could be exposed to any number of them. Disturbingly, most of them have never been adequately tested for safety for adults, let alone their impacts on the most vulnerable among us, our children.

The chemical industry has, in fact, resisted testing chemicals on developing bodies, as might occur when a fetus is exposed in utero, likely because they’d have trouble explaining away all the ill effects that are likely to be revealed. Furthermore, there is absolutely no toxicology research that takes into account the effects of multiple, simultaneous chemical exposures and their resultant synergistic toxicity, which is what actually happens to exposed populations in the real world.

The Chemical Industry Is One of the Most Powerful Lobbyists

Like the biotech, pharmaceutical and processed food industries, the chemical industry wields incredible power over Congress, and uses it to have bills passed in their favor – and regulatory violations overlooked. Perhaps that is why, despite the proven risks, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has denied a petition to ban BPA from food packaging. The FDA and most other US regulatory agencies are backed by pro-industry, pro-corporation advocates who often have massive conflicts of interest when it comes to protecting the health of the public.

In fact, the revolving door between private industry and government oversight agencies like the FDA is so well established these days, it has become business as usual to read about scandal, conflicts of interest and blatant pro-industry bias, even when it flies in the face of science or the law. The fact is, if you want to stay safe, you can’t depend on the FDA, the EPA or any other government agency; you’ve got to look out for yourself.

Protecting Yourself in a Chemically Driven World

No one knows what health consequences to this toxic chemical cocktail will cause to an adult, let alone a developing baby. Unfortunately, it is our future generations, and possibly the species as a whole, who will likely pay the heftiest price for this lack of safety concern, as an embryo and fetus develop at a much faster rate than adults.

While this development occurs, cell division and growth is rapid — and these rapid changes provide many opportunities for mistakes to occur. It’s clear that boys appear to be at particular risk but, really, no one is safe. I encourage everyone with children or grandchildren to review Theo Colburn’s Our Stolen Future, which is one of the BEST resources on this topic. Further, while you make the switch to remove and reduce chemicals around your home, remember that one of the ways to significantly reduce your toxic load is to pay careful attention to what you eat.

Organically-grown, biodynamic whole foods are really the key to success here, and, as an added bonus, when you eat right, you’re also optimizing your body’s natural detoxification system, which can help eliminate toxins your body encounters from other sources. Rather than compile an endless list of what you should avoid, it’s far easier to focus on what you should do to lead a healthy lifestyle with as minimal a chemical exposure as possible:

1. As much as possible, buy and eat organic produce and organic free-range foods to reduce your exposure to pesticides and fertilizers.
2. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with PCBs and mercury, supplement with a high-quality purified krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab tested for purity.
3. Eat mostly raw, fresh foods, steering clear of processed, prepackaged foods of all kinds. This way you automatically avoid artificial food additives, including dangerous artificial sweeteners, food coloring and MSG.
4. Store your food and beverages in glass rather than plastic, and avoid using plastic wrap and canned foods (which are often lined with BPA-containing liners).
5. Have your tap water tested and, if contaminants are found, install an appropriate water filter on all your faucets (even those in your shower or bath).
6. Only use natural cleaning products in your home.
7. Switch over to natural brands of toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirants and cosmetics. The Environmental Working Group has a great database7 to help you find personal care products that are free of phthalates and other potentially dangerous chemicals. I also offer one of the highest quality organic skin care lines, shampoo and conditioner, and body butter that are completely natural and safe.
8. Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric softeners or other synthetic fragrances.
9. Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.
10. When redoing your home, look for “green,” toxin-free alternatives in lieu of regular paint and vinyl floor coverings.
11. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with one made of fabric, or install a glass shower door. Most all flexible plastics, like shower curtains, contain dangerous plasticizers like phthalates.
12. Limit your use of drugs (prescription and over-the-counter) as much as possible. Drugs are chemicals too, and they will leave residues and accumulate in your body over time.
13. Avoid spraying pesticides around your home or insect repellants that contain DEET on your body. There are safe, effective and natural alternatives out there.

Sources and References

• Vimeo

• 1 ABC Health and Wellbeing
• 2 Fertil Steril. 2011 Feb;95(2):625-30.e1-4.
• 3 Fertil Steril. 2011 Apr;95(5):1816-9.
• 4 Int J Androl. 2010 Apr;33(2):385-93.
• 5 US EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP)
• 6 Environment and Human Health, Inc., Human Exposures to DEHP
• 7 EWG Skin Deep Database

Most people, including many physicians, do not realize that 80 percent of your immune system is located in your digestive tract, making a healthy gut a major focal point if you want to achieve optimal health.

The root of many health problems is related to an imbalance of intestinal bacteria, and this foundation of good health is laid even while in utero.

Without a well-functioning gastrointestinal (GI) tract, a newborn baby will be more vulnerable to pathogens, allergens, and a number of immune-related diseases, so getting an infant’s gut up and running efficiently is crucial. Women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant would be wise to address their own gut health as early as possible to give their child the best start possible in this regard.

That said, it’s never too late to address your or your child’s gut, and most people would likely benefit from doing so.

The bacteria located in your GI tract play a crucial role in the development and operation of the mucosal immune system in your digestive tract. They also aid in the production of antibodies to pathogens.

Friendly bacteria even train your immune system to distinguish between pathogens and non-harmful antigens, and to respond appropriately. This important function prevents your immune system from overreacting to non-harmful antigens, which is the genesis of allergies.

But probiotics perform such a wide variety of functions, they’re really critical regardless of what ails you. And because adding probiotics to your diet is so easy, by way of cultured foods and/or supplements, it’s a step I highly encourage you to take.

How To Reduce Your Child’s Risk of Allergies

Babies gets their first “inoculation” of gut flora from mother’s birth canal during childbirth. If the flora is abnormal, the baby’s flora will also be abnormal; whatever organisms live in the mother’s vagina end up coating the baby’s body and lining his or her intestinal tract.

According to a recent analysis of previous clinical trials1, women who take probiotics—i.e. healthy bacteria—during pregnancy reduce their child’s risk of developing allergies. Unfriendly flora can also predispose babies to Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), of which allergies are just one potential outcome.

Other health problems associated with GAPS include autism, learning disabilities, and a number of other psychological, neurological, digestive, and immunological, problems. As reported in the featured Reuters article2:

“Since allergies and asthma both spring from hypersensitive immune responses, several trials have set out to assess the effect of probiotic supplements on those conditions…

[The] team analyzed the results of 25 trials of supplements given during pregnancy or within the first year of a child’s life. All of the studies compared mothers and babies randomly assigned to take probiotics with those given placebo supplements.

Participants were given probiotic doses daily, and in some cases more than daily, for a few months to a year. The trials tracked whether kids went on to test positive for common allergies – such as peanut or pollen allergies…

Babies who were exposed to probiotics in the womb and received supplements after birth had a 12 percent lower risk of allergies in the following months and years than kids in the comparison groups. But allergy risk was not reduced when babies were started on probiotics after birth only.”

How Allergies Are Related to Poor Gut Health

A condition known as “leaky gut” occurs when gaps develop between the cells (enterocytes) that make up the membrane lining your intestinal wall. These tiny gaps allow substances, such as undigested food, bacteria and metabolic wastes, that should be confined to your digestive tract to escape into your bloodstream — hence the term leaky gut syndrome.Leaky gut syndrome can be a contributing factor to allergies, which can help explain why children with healthier gut flora have a reduced risk of developing allergies. Even more significantly, pathogenic microbes in the baby’s digestive tract can damage the integrity of his or her gut wall. This can allow all sorts of toxins and microbes to flood his or her bloodstream, which can then enter his or her brain and disrupt its development.

Breastfeeding helps protect your baby from this abnormal gut flora, which is why breastfeeding is so crucial to your child’s health. No infant formulas can do this.

Leaky gut is also associated with inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, as well as celiac disease. The condition Once the integrity of your intestinal lining is compromised, and there is a flow of toxic substances “leaking out” into your bloodstream, your body experiences significant increases in inflammation.

“Healing and sealing” your gut has been shown to help alleviate allergy symptoms. The key lies in altering your diet to eliminate offending foods, such as grains and processed foods, and introduce healthier ones that will support a proper balance of bacteria in your gut. To restore gut health, and prevent leaky gut from occurring, eating traditionally fermented foods is essential.

Fermented Foods Can Help a Baby Avoid MAJOR Health Problems

Providing abundant probiotics in the form of fermented foods is one of the most powerful ways to restore a baby’s beneficial gut flora. Oftentimes, a commercial probiotic supplement won’t even be needed.

Raw organic grass-fed yogurt is well tolerated by most infants and children. It’s best to make your own yogurt at home from raw organic milk, and start with a very tiny amount. Once yogurt is well tolerated, then start introducing kefir. If you have any problems with dairy, you can substitute vegetables fermented with yogurt culture or kefir culture. Avoid commercial yogurt from the grocery store, as these are laden with sugars that feed pathogenic bacteria—the exact opposite of what you’re looking for.

To learn more about introducing fermented foods to your newborn, I recommend picking up a copy of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome3, which has a large recipe section for fermenting your own foods at home and using them to benefit all members of your family. If you have a baby with a severe condition, then the addition of a high-quality probiotic supplement might be needed.

There have been more probiotic studies involving adults than those with children, and even fewer with infants. Unfortunately, precious little research has been devoted to the study of probiotics for neonates, especially extremely low birth weight neonates (ELBW), but scientific studies thus far are very promising. One study in particular, published in BMCMedicine4 in 2011 by the Department of Neonatal Pediatrics in Nepean Hospital along with several other Australian hospitals, brings us closer to important evidence-based guidelines for the use of probiotics with preterm neonates. For more details on this, please see my previous article on the use of probiotics for neonates.

That said, probiotics have been shown to provide a number of benefits to infants and children. For example, daily supplements of probiotic foods may reduce a child’s risk of eczema by 58 percent, according to one study. Another study found that a daily dose of Lactobacillus reuteri can help improve colic.

Probiotic Proves Beneficial for Non-Gut Inflammatory Disorders as Well

Other recent studies confirm the importance of your gut health for health problems such as psoriasis and chronic fatigue syndrome. One such study, published in the journal Gut Microbes, is interesting in that it’s the first study showing how a singleprobiotic strain can influence your systemic immune system. As reported by Medical News Today5:

“The mucosal immune system protects the internal mucosal surfaces of the body such as the gastrointestinal, urogenital and respiratory tracts. These internal surfaces act as a barrier to the outside world for the internal tissues of the body, which are then further protected by the systemic immune system. There is some convincing evidence that probiotics, or gut-friendly bacteria, influence the development and maintenance not only of the microbial balance inside the gut and the mucosal immune system but also the systemic immune response.”

The probiotic used in the study is called Bifidobacterium infantis 35624. Three separate randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trials were included in the study, which assessed the effects of the probiotic on one gastrointestinal and two non-gastrointestinal inflammatory disorders. Twenty-two of the patients enrolled in the study were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, 26 were diagnosed with psoriasis, an inflammatory skin condition, and 48 patients had chronic fatigue syndrome.

The levels of inflammation markers in 35 healthy volunteers were used as baseline references. The three biomarkers assessed were C-reactive protein (CRP) and pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), and interleukin-6 (IL-6). At the outset of the trials, all patients, whether their disorder was related to gastrointestinal inflammation or not, had significantly elevated levels of all three of these biomarkers. During the trial period, which lasted between six and eight weeks, each patient received either the probiotic or a placebo. At the end of each of the three separate trials, the researchers found that:

• All three patient groups who received Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 had significantly lower levels of CRP compared to those who received a placebo
• Patients with ulcerative colitis psoriasis patients had lower TNF-a
• Those with ulcerative colitis and chronic fatigue syndrome had reductions in IL-6

According to the researchers, these reductions in inflammatory biomarkers typically count as remission, and are indicative of a reduced risk of relapse. A similar study published in 20096 found that Bifidobacterium infantis was the only probiotic strain out of 13 tested capable of improving symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Probiotics Helps Improve Periodontal Disease, and More

In related news, another double-blind, placebo-controlled study7 found that the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri Prodentis improved the efficacy of standard treatment for chronic periodontitis (scaling and root planing) by 53 percent. According to the featured article8:

“By the end of the 12 week long study 53 per cent fewer sites (surfaces on a teeth) in patients with deep dental pockets and supplemented by Lactobacillus reuteri Prodentis was in need for surgery, compared to the placebo group… After the intervention period it was also concluded that 67 percent of the patients in the placebo group fell into the high-risk category for disease progression, while the corresponding figure for patients supplemented by Lactobacillus reuteri Prodentis was only 27 percent.”

Probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner. Researchers have documented beneficial probiotic effects in a wide variety of disorders, including9, 10:

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)	Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)	Constipation and diarrhea
Colon cancer	Eradication of H. pyloriinfection, which is associated with ulcers	Vaginal infections
Strengthened immune response	Eczema	Rheumatoid arthritis
Cirrhosis of the liver	Hepatic encephalopathy	Depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems

Fermented Vegetables—An Ideal Source of Probiotics

The advent of processed foods dramatically altered the human diet, and we’re now reaping the results in the form of rapidly rising chronic health problems. I believe the shunning of traditionally fermented foods has a lot to do with this. The culturing process actually produces the beneficial microbes that we now realize are so crucial for health, and when eaten daily, they help maintain a healthy balance of intestinal microbes. Fermented foods are also some of the best chelators and detox agents available, meaning they can help rid your body of a wide variety of toxins, including heavy metals. The best way to ensure optimal gut flora is to regularly consume traditionally fermented foods. Healthy options include:

Lassi (an Indian yogurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)	Various pickled fermentations of cabbage sauerkraut,, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash, and carrots	Tempeh
Traditionally fermented raw milk such as kefir or yogurt, but NOT commercial versions, which typically do not have live cultures and are loaded with sugars that feed pathogenic bacteria	Natto (fermented soy)	Kimchee

When choosing fermented foods, steer clear of pasteurized versions, as pasteurization will destroy many of the naturally occurring probiotics. This includes most of the “probiotic” yogurts you find in every grocery store these days; since they’re pasteurized, they will be associated with all of the problems of pasteurized milk products. They also typically contain added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, artificial coloring, or artificial sweeteners, all of which will only worsen your health.

When you first start out, you’ll want to start small, adding as little as half a tablespoon of fermented vegetables to each meal, and gradually working your way up to about a quarter to half a cup (2 to 4 oz) of fermented vegetables or other cultured food with one to three meals per day. Since cultured foods are efficient detoxifiers, you may experience detox symptoms, or a “healing crisis,” if you introduce too many at once. If you do not regularly consume the traditionally fermented foods above, a high-quality probiotic supplement may provide similar benefits.

Learn to Make Your Own Fermented Vegetables

Fermented vegetables are easy to make on your own. It’s also the most cost-effective way to get high amounts of healthful probiotics in your diet. To learn how, review the following interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional Program.

Although you can use the native bacteria on cabbage and other vegetables, it is typically easier to get consistent results by using a starter culture. Caroline prepares hundreds of quarts of fermented vegetables a week and has found that she gets great results by using three to four high quality probiotic capsules to jump start the fermentation process.

Download Interview Transcript

Remember: Your Gut, Brain and Primary Immune Defense Are All Connected…

You’d be wise to remember that the vast majority of your immune system is located in your digestive system, making a healthy gut a major focal point if you want to maintain optimal health. Furthermore, as discussed in a number of other recent articles, your gut is quite literally your second brain, as it originates from the same type of tissue. Your gut and your brain actually work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa.

This also helps explain the link between neurological disorders (including ADHD and autism) and gastrointestinal dysfunction. For example, gluten intolerance is frequently a feature of autism, and many autistic children will improve when following a strict gluten-free diet. However, even more importantly, establishing normal gut flora within the first 20 days or so of life plays a crucial role in appropriate maturation of your baby’s immune system.

Babies who develop abnormal gut flora are left with compromised immune systems, and besides raising your child’s risk of allergies and other disorders discussed above, it may even be a crucial factor when it comes to vaccine-induced damage. As explained by Dr. Campbell-McBride, vaccinations were originally developed for children with healthy immune systems, and children with abnormal gut flora and therefore compromised immunity are not suitable candidates for our current vaccine schedule as they’re more prone to being harmed. To learn more about this, please see this previous article.

To sum it all up, regardless of your age, three very positive changes occur when your good-to-bad intestinal bacteria ratio is brought into balance:

1. Digestive problems diminish or disappear
2. Your body begins to use all the good food and nutritional supplements you feed it

1. Your immune system de-stresses and is better equipped to fight off disease of all kinds, contributing to a longer and healthier life

Sources and References

• 1 Pediatrics August 19, 2013 [Epub ahead of print]
• 2 Reuters August 22, 2013
• 3 Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A.D.D., Dyslexia, A.D.H.D., Depression, Schizophrenia
• 4 BMC Medicine 2011, 9:92
• 5 Medical News Today August 13, 2013
• 6 Medical News Today March 24, 2013
• 7 Journal of Clinical Periodontology DOI: 10.1111/jcpe.12155
• 8 Medical News Today August 19, 2013
• 9 World Gastroenterology Organisation Practice Guideline, Probiotics and Prebiotics, May 2008 (PDF)
• 10 Green Med Info: Probiotics

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

You’ve lived in an invisible sea of microbes from the moment you were born, breathing them, swallowing them, and harboring them on your skin. More than 90 percent of the DNA in your body is not yours, but actually belongs to these microbes.

In order for you to stay healthy, your body must remain in a perpetual state of battle-readiness so it can control the pathogenic organisms that make you sick, while supporting and protecting the beneficial ones that keep you healthy.

In order for this delicate dance to occur, your body must learn the difference between helpful and harmful microorganisms. But how does it accomplish this? A brand new study from San Diego State University sheds new light on this amazing process. The secret lies in one of your most underappreciated body fluids: mucus.

This slimy substance coating the inside of your mouth, nose, eyelids, digestive tract, lungs and other organs may turn out to play one of the most important roles in your immune system. You produce about a quart of mucus each day from your nose, throat and sinus, most of which you swallow.1

Mucus used to be regarded as merely a physical barrier to prevent invading organisms from entering your body, as well as functioning as a lubricant. But recent scientific findings suggest it plays a far more active and critical role.

For some time, researchers have known that mucus is loaded with viruses. Not a pleasant thought, if you assume these viruses are pathogenic invaders that your body had trapped and marked for kill.

But this new study found many of these viruses to actually serve as immune helpers—not enemies—and an important part of your body’s defense system.2The study’s findings appear in the May 20, 2013 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.3

Partners in Slime

Scientists have found a type of virus called a bacteriophage,4 or simply “phage,” present in great numbers in virtually all mucus samples.

Wherever bacteria reside, you will also find phages, because phages depend on bacteria for their survival. In the above referenced study, lead author and microbiologist Jeremy Barr and colleagues noticed there were MANY more phages in mucus than in mucus-free zones, just millimeters away.

For example, in the saliva surrounding human gums, they found about five phages to every one bacterium. But on the mucosal surface of the gum itself, the ratio was closer to 40 to one. This spurred the question, “What are these phages doing? Could they be protecting the host?”

Phages specialize in breaking open and killing certain kinds of bacteria, hijacking them in order to replicate. Most phages have hollow heads, which store their DNA and RNA, and tunnel tails designed for binding to the surface of their bacterial targets. According to phages.org, once a phage has attached itself to a bacterium:

“The viral DNA is then injected through the tail into the host cell, where it directs the production of progeny phages, often over a hundred in half an hour. These “young” phages burst from the host cell (killing it) and infect more bacteria.”

The researchers found evidence that these phages partner with animals and humans to stave off bacterial infections and control the composition of friendly microbes in your body. Like it or not, you and these snot-dwelling viruses have a symbiotic relationship with one another!

One of the scientists, Forest Rohwer, is actually an expert on sea coral, making him an important asset to this study. Why? What does sea coral have to do with mucus?

Sea Coral Makes Snot Too!

As it turns out, mucus can be found throughout the animal kingdom, from fish to worms to sea coral. Coral actually spends a great deal of energy producing and maintaining a prodigious layer of surface slime—yes, essentially mucus—which until recently has been poorly understood. And wherever you find slime, you also find dense populations of phages. Phages are studded with molecules that grab onto the complex sugar molecules in the slime, like a sticky bottlebrush, anchoring them where they have access to a rich, diverse bacterial population. Recent studies suggest certain bacteria turn surface slime into a germ-fighting medicine for corals. The coral’s layer of mucus serves as a probiotics system. According to Science News:5

“Corals appear to craft their slimy coatings at least in part to encourage visits by particular families of microbial guests. Ecologists have even begun referring to the welcomed hordes of bacteria, viruses, and more that shelter in the mucus films as integral elements of the coral system… Like the bacteria that occupy the human gut, the flora that colonizes surface slime can offer health benefits to reef builders. Conversely, an absence of these microbes, caused by stress or environmental change, could leave corals vulnerable to disease.”

Smart Phones, Smart Cars, and Now, Smart Mucus

It’s possible that humans and other animals have evolved ways of selecting specific phages to control specific types of bacteria, which opens the door to a variety of studies about the symbiosis between phages and their animal hosts. Barr notes that phages sometimes insert their genetic material into a bacterium’s genome rather than killing it outright—a process that can actually protect the bacterium against other phages.

Barr speculates that in this way, mucus-borne phages might protect bacteria that benefit their animal hosts, while destroying those that cause harm. Your mucus has developed an intelligence of its own. Gut bacteria (E. faecalis) have also been observed creating phages to use as weapons against closely related bacteria that might consume shared resources. Researchers have called this a form of “bacterial warfare.”6

These newly recognized symbiotic relationships have exciting implications for treating disease—for example, conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. IBD sufferers have severely disrupted gut biota with different dominant species than healthy people, and those with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis suffer from a breakdown in the mucosal lining of their gut, suggesting this phage-based defense system may have failed.7

Therapeutic Applications for Bacteriophages

Bacteriophages have been used to treat a variety of bacterial infections and are considered safe, although many more clinical trials will be needed for them to be utilized therapeutically in the West. The main barrier to phage therapy in the US is the lack of published research, and the lack of interest by pharmaceutical companies who cannot profit from phages in the way they can profit from antibiotics. But in other parts of the world, phages have been successfully used in a variety of applications, especially in Russia.

The first reported use of phages for combating infectious disease came from France in 1921. In the 1930s, Stalin brought phage therapy to the Soviet Union to help Communist troops ward off dysentery.

Phages have been used to cure plant diseases. And in the war between humans and bacteria (mostly in the Soviet Union), they’ve been used successfully against diphtheria, tetanus, gangrene, scarlet fever, meningococcus, Salmonella and Shigella. Hospitals in the Republic of Georgia are spraying operating rooms with phages before surgeries to reduce the risk of infection, dousing both the air and surgical instruments.8

Phages are an excellent way to combat antibacterial resistance because they adapt to morphing bacteria, whereas antibiotics don’t. Phage therapy has been used successfully to treat acne,9 and even MRSA.10, 11 If phages can be controlled, they may become the ultimate antibacterial weapons against the latest deadly superbugs, such as CRE.12, 13 The Journal of Infectionreported impressive success rates with phage therapy in humans, in the range of 80 to 95 percent.14 The good news is, you already have this wonderful army living in your body, right where nature put it—it’s built-in!

What’s Snot to Love?

Hopefully this intriguing information has renewed your appreciation for your mucus… as funny as that sounds. Our modern culture tends to be overly concerned with cleanliness, especially for children, and snot has gotten a bad rap. It’s likely that germophobia has done us more harm than good. Children love snot, and in light of what science is now saying, we should follow their lead.

A child raised in a “sterile” environment, devoid of dirt and germs and given antibiotics that kill off all of the bacteria in his gut, is not able to build up natural resistance to disease, making him vulnerable to illnesses later in life. This theory, known as the hygiene hypothesis, is likely one major reason why many allergies and immune-system diseases have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in the last few decades.

The hygiene hypothesis becomes even more significant in light of his new information about the symbiotic relationship between you and your mucosal inhabitants. By depriving children of germ exposure, this symbiosis really cannot happen as nature intended. Without regular microbial exposure, your child’s body isn’t given the opportunity to properly build its defenses. Perhaps this is why we have so much chronic inflammation, autoimmune disease, rampant allergies, depression and heart disease today, as these have all been associated with the hygiene hypothesis.

Phages aside, one of the most important aspects of overall health is balancing your gut microflora. For more information about how important your gut flora is to your overall health, please listen to the following interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, who developed the GAPS Protocol.

Total Video Length: 1:13:21

Download Interview Transcript

How to Avoid Being Overly Hygienic

If the hygiene hypothesis holds up (and there’s mounting evidence that it will), trying to keep your environment overly sterile could backfire big time and actually increase your risk of developing acute and chronic illnesses. Appropriate exposure to a variety of microorganisms from day one is key to developing a strong immune system. Your mucus provides the substrate for a complex symbiotic relationship between viruses, bacteria, and probably other players that have yet to be discovered. Once again, Mother Nature has proven much wiser than we humans! You can avoid being “too clean” and bolster your body’s natural defenses by:

1. Educating yourself on the differences between natural and artificial immunity, and making informed decisions about the use of vaccinations
2. Avoiding unnecessary antibiotics. Remember that viral infections are impervious to antibiotics, which only work on bacterial infections.
3. Letting your child get dirty. Allow your kids to play outside in the dirt (and realize that if your kid eats boogers, the world won’t end).
4. Avoiding the use of antibacterial soaps and other antibacterial household products, which wipe out the microorganisms your body needs exposure to in order for proper immune function. Simple soap and water are all you need for effective hand washing. Antibacterial chemicals (typically triclosan) are quite toxic and have even been found to promote the growth of resistant bacteria and superbugs.

1. Consuming organic, optimally locally grown meats that do not contain antibiotics.

Sources and References

• 1 DoctorOz November 24, 2009
• 2 Science News May 20, 2013
• 3 PNAS May 20, 2013
• 4 Phages.org
• 5 Science News June 2, 2007
• 6 Phys Org October 9, 2012
• 7 ScienceNOW May 20, 2013
• 8 Environmental Graffiti
• 9 Science Illustrated September 26, 2012
• 10 IDSA Boston Annual Meeting October 2011
• 11 Science Daily August 22, 2007
• 12 TED Talk: Applied Aspects of Bacteriophages March 8, 2012
• 13 News Medical June 11, 2013
• 14 J Infect. January 1998

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By Dr. Mercola

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has once again released a report that should grab your attention. After analyzing water samples from 201 municipal water systems from 43 states, EWG found chemicals considered “probable human carcinogens” in every single water system they tested.

The watchdog organization wants the government to clean up the sources of public drinking water, thereby reducing the need for chemical treatment.1

The report “Water Treatment Contaminants: Toxic Trash in Drinking Water” was sparked by concerns about water contamination in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which spilled tens of millions of gallons of sewage into waterways along the East Coast.

But the results of their analysis clearly indicate a far more widespread and concerning problem that superstorms merely inflame.

The problem is that chlorine and other water treatment chemicals, in addition to being somewhat toxic in and of themselves, react with ordinary organic particles in the water ( manure from livestock, dead animals, fallen leaves, etc.) to create hundreds of extremely toxic byproducts, which aren’t monitored or regulated at all.

These toxic byproducts have been labeled “disinfection byproducts,” or “DBPs,” and there are 600 we know about and probably hundreds more that we don’t, says EWG’s senior scientist Renee Sharp.2

Most people are not aware that DBPs are actually 1,000 times more toxic than chlorine. Just like with ionizing radiation and mercury, any exposure at all in concerning and potentially toxic; there is no safe level.

The Byproducts of Chlorination May Be Deadly

Chlorine is the only disinfectant that has been extensively studied, but now many water treatment plants are using another disinfectant called chloramine, the health effects of which are largely unknown. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia.3 More than one in five Americans are drinking tap water treated with chloramine.

Chloramine stays in the water system longer than chlorine and is difficult to remove—it can’t be removed by boiling, distilling, or by standing uncovered. Its vapors can accumulate in indoor air and concentrate in an enclosed area, such as your shower stall, bathroom, kitchen, or apartment.

Chloramines combine with organic matter in water supplies to create iodoacids and nitrosamines, which are extremely toxic. According to David Sedlak of UC Berkeley:4

“Nitrosamines are the compounds that people warned you about when they told you shouldn’t be eating those nitrite-cured hot dogs… They’re about a thousand times more carcinogenic than the disinfection byproducts that we’d been worried about with regular old chlorine.”

There are three principal types of chlorination byproducts, known to produce dangerous health effects:

• Trihalomethanes (THMs): Found to cause cancer in laboratory animals, and trigger the production of free radicals in your body; chloroform is an example of a trihalomethane; THMs are associated with bladder cancer, gestational and developmental problems
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): Lead to central nervous system depression and drowsiness, and can irritate your skin and mucous membranes

• Haloacetic Acids (HAAs): May cause liver disease in test animals at very high levels, and is a class B2 probable human carcinogen associated with neurological problems, growth retardation, low birth weight, and sperm toxicity

Why I Recommend Filtering Your Tub and Shower Water…

Scientists now suspect trihalomethanes in your tap water may be responsible for thousands of cases of bladder cancer each year, based on mounting evidence from multiple studies. But the risk to pregnant women and their unborn babies is also very concerning. Trihalomethanes are associated with numerous developmental and reproductive abnormalities, including stillbirth, miscarriage, low birth weight, and neural tube defects. The neural tube refers to the anatomical structure that develops into your baby’s brain and spinal cord.

Just the simple act of showering in treated water, in which you have absorption through both your skin and lungs, may pose a significant health risk to you—and to your unborn child, if you are pregnant. Numerous studies have shown that showering and bathing are important routes of exposure for trihalomethanes and may actually represent MORE of your total exposure than the water you drink.

According to EWG:

“The EPA standard for trihalomethanes is based on preventing bladder cancer, but the agency has noted that these chemicals may present reproductive and developmental risks as well. A spike that lasts three months exposes a pregnant woman and her fetus to excessive trihalomethane for an entire trimester, a critical window of development. Scientific research has shown that such intensive exposure can have serious consequences for the child.”

Analysts have found that trihalomethane levels in public water systems vary throughout the year, depending on factors such as farming cycles. But the EPA regulates the chemicals based on an annual average, which means that spikes in the byproducts may go undetected.

EPA-Regulated Chemicals are Just a Drop in the Bucket

As concerning as trihalomethanes are, they are just the tip of the iceberg—there are hundreds of other chemicals finding their way into your water supply. The EPA regulates only nine pollutants generated by chlorine or chloramine treatment—four trihalomethanes and five haloacetic acids. These nine regulated chemicals represent less than two percent of the more than 600 unwanted chemicals created by the interaction of water treatment disinfectants and pollutants in source water.

The legal limits for the nine regulated chemicals are not what either the agency or many independent scientists believe is truly safe. Rather, the regulations represent political compromises that take into account the costs and feasibility of treatment.

When you add up the total chemicals contaminating public drinking water, the number is beyond staggering. According to William Marks, author of Water Voices from Around the World, there are more than 116,000 human-made chemicals now detected in public water systems!

In much of the country, farming is a major source of organic pollution in drinking water and a contributor to water treatment contamination. However, with the exception of large confined animal feeding operations, farm businesses are exempt from the pollution control requirements of the federal Clean Water Act. Few states have the authority to compel farms to adopt practices that would reduce agricultural pollution reaching rivers, lakes and bays.

Shockingly, raising concerns about the quality of your local drinking water without verifiable evidence of your claims may now be considered “an act of terrorism” according to Sherwin Smith, deputy director of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). As recently reported by StoryLeak.com:5

“According to Smith, you better make sure your claims can be verified by the water department employees before submitting them. In the video recording, which was posted following the outrage from citizens over the entire event, Smith is heard saying: ‘But you need to make sure that when you make water quality complaints you have a basis, because federally, if there’s no water quality issues, that can be considered under Homeland Security an act of terrorism.’”

Other Chemicals You Can’t See or Taste

Besides DBPs, American drinking water has also been found to contain a host of toxic chemicals, many of which are hormonally active in humans. Some of the most common chemical contaminants include:

• MTBE (Methyl-tert-butyl Ether): A chemical added to fuel to raise octane number; a potential human carcinogen at high doses
• Atrazine: According to the documentary FLOW, this US herbicide, banned in the European Union, is the most common water contaminant in the US. Atrazine is an endocrine disruptor known to feminize animals, and is linked with numerous reproductive problems, breast and prostate cancer, and impaired immune function in humans
• Pharmaceutical Drugs: A 2008 report found a multitude of drugs in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans, including pain relievers, cancer drugs, antidepressants, oral contraceptives, blood pressure and cholesterol drugs
• Glyphosate(Roundup): This toxic herbicide is carcinogenic in minute amounts and is linked to more than 20 adverse health effects, including cancer, birth defects and infertility; unfortunately, glyphosate is turning up in the bloodstreams of people all over the world

• Hexavalent Chromium (Chromium-6): Otherwise known as the “Erin Brockovich chemical,” hexavalent chromium is classified as another “probable carcinogen;” EWG found it in the drinking water of 89 percent of the cities sampled

Don’t Be Duped by Bottled Water!

TaPPeD – The Movie from David Garcia on Vimeo

Consumers are frequently mislead into thinking bottled water is safer than tap water, but sometimes it’s even MORE contaminated, as bottled water is less regulated than tap water. Studies reveal that about 40 percent of bottled water is actually tap water, possibly with no additional filtering. When testing bottled water, EWG discovered 38 contaminants in 10 brands, including DBPs, nitrates, caffeine, arsenic, Tylenol, bacteria and industrial chemicals.

Disposable plastic water bottles are massively polluting our planet. According to the Container Recycling Institute, in the US alone more than 67 million plastic water bottles are discarded each day, adding to an enormous plastic garbage patch swirling around in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Bottled water is a serious environmental hazard.

What is the BEST Water You Can Drink?

The finest sources of water in the world are gravity-fed mountain springs, accessed directly from where they emerge from the earth. This water is naturally filtered and structured by the earth itself, and even contains beneficial living organisms, like certain types of algae.

If you’re up to the task, you can collect your own spring water to meet your drinking water needs. There is a Find a Spring website that helps you locate the spring nearest you. The website also allows you to add a spring that is not currently in the database. If you don’t live near a mountain, don’t despair, as just about any spring is better than all other available options.

Typically, natural springs are monitored for contaminants by local municipalities and, best of all, most of these springs are FREE! You can easily store 10 five-gallon jugs in most cars, which can be purchased online. Glass is best, but it is heavy, so you want to use three-gallon glass jars instead. Just remember to wrap glass bottles with some blankets or towels so they don’t bang against each other in your car, and break.

Recommendations for In-Home Water Filtration

If collecting natural spring water is not an option, you can filter your water at home. The best solution is to install a whole housewater filtration system. This not only protects your body (inside and out), but also your appliances. I recommend systems that use at least 60 pounds of filter media and are capable of generating eight or more gallons per minute, which makes it possible to handle multiple water applications simultaneously (showers, laundry, and kitchen). This size serves up to a 3,200 square foot home. Of course, if your home is larger, you may need more than one house filtration system. I also recommend looking for a whole house water filter that has three separate stages of contaminant removal:

• Stage one removes sediment
• Stage two removes chlorine and heavy metals
• Stage three removes hormones, drug residues, chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides with a heavy-duty carbon filter

In terms of the carbon filter, choose granular carbon, not a solid block of carbon. Granular carbon allows for better water flow, better water pressure and improved filtration overall. Also look for NSF certification, which ensures your water filter is meeting national standards. NSF certification is not granted before a product can prove it removes everything it claims to remove. It’s also good to make sure all particles under 0.8 microns are being filtered out of the water. A lower number is actually better, but I recommend 0.8 microns because that covers most bacteria, viruses and VOCs.

If you can’t afford a whole-house filtering system, then at least filter your shower water, since that’s going to be your most significant source of contamination, for the reasons already discussed.

Final Thoughts

Given the information in the EWG’s latest water report, chances are close to 100 percent that your tap water contains carcinogenic pollutants. In addition to the chemical disinfectants themselves, tap water contains disinfection byproducts that, in some cases, are 1,000 times as toxic as the contaminants they are designed to remove. These contaminants have been associated with bladder cancer, birth defects, miscarriage, and a number of other very serious health problems.

Showering or bathing in contaminated tap water poses even more of a risk to your health than drinking it, so it isn’t enough to simply filter the water you drink. Optimally, you may opt to install in a whole home water filtration system. If you test your water, you’ll want to do it more than once, as DBPs can fluctuate throughout the year, depending on factors such as farming cycles.

Sources and References

• 1 EWG Report February 2013
• 2 Fair Warning February 27, 2013
• 3 CCAC September 11, 2006
• 4 EWG February 27, 2013
• 5 Storyleak.com June 21, 2013

Good sleep is one of the cornerstones of health, without which optimal health will remain elusive. Impaired sleep can increase your risk of a wide variety of diseases and disorders, including:

• Heart disease
• Stomach ulcers
• Mood disorders like depression
• Cancer

Numerous factors can contribute to poor sleep, including vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The featured article by LiveScience1 highlights three nutrients tied to three common sleep problems. To this, I would add melatonin, which is both a hormone and an antioxidant:

• Magnesium deficiency can cause insomnia
• Lack of potassium can lead to difficulty staying asleep throughout the night
• Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to excessive daytime sleepiness

The Importance of Melatonin

I personally believe that melatonin is one of the most important nutrients to help you optimize your sleep, as it plays a crucial role in your circadian rhythm or internal clock.

Melatonin is produced by a pea-sized gland in the middle of your brain called the pineal gland. When your circadian rhythms are disrupted, your body produces less melatonin, which reduces your ability to fight cancer.

Melatonin actually helps suppress free radicals that can lead to cancer. (This is why tumors grow faster when you sleep poorly.) It also produces a number of health benefits related to your immune system.

For most people, the pineal gland is totally inactive during the day. But, at night, when you are exposed to darkness, your pineal gland begins producing melatonin to be released into your blood.

Melatonin makes you feel sleepy, and in a normal night’s sleep, your melatonin levels stay elevated for about 12 hours (usually between 9 pm and 9 am). Then, as the sun rises and your day begins, your pineal gland reduces your production of melatonin.

The levels in your blood decrease until they’re hardly measurable at all. This rise and fall of your melatonin levels are part and parcel of your internal clock that dictates when you’re sleepy and when you feel fully awake.

How to Optimize Your Melatonin and Reset Your Circadian Rhythm

In related news, research2 suggests camping could help you reset an internal clock gone haywire from modern living. As reported by the Christian Science Monitor:3

“Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder found that if you live by the sun’s schedule, you are more likely to go to bed at least an hour earlier, wake up an hour earlier, and be less groggy, because your internal clock and external reality are more in sync. The sun adjusts your clock to what may be its natural state, undoing the influence of lightbulbs. “

Since humans evolved in the glow of firelight, the yellow, orange and red wavelengths don’t suppress melatonin production the way white and blue wavelengths do. If you want to protect your melatonin cycle, when the sun goes down, you would shift to a low wattage bulb with yellow, orange, or red light.

One good option is using a salt lamp illuminated by a 5-watt bulb. It’s important to realize that turning on a light in the middle of the night, even for a short moment, such as when you get up to go to the bathroom, will disrupt your melatoninproduction and interfere with your sleep.

Ideally, it is best to increase melatonin levels naturally with exposure to bright sunlight in the daytime (along with full spectrum fluorescent bulbs in the winter) and absolute complete darkness at night. If that isn’t possible, you may want to consider a melatonin supplement.

In scientific studies, melatonin has been shown to help people fall asleep faster and stay asleep, experience less restlessness, and prevent daytime fatigue. Keep in mind that only a very small dose is required — typically 0.25 mg or 0.5 mg to start with, and you can adjust it up from there. Taking higher doses, such as 3 mg, can sometimes make you more wakeful instead of sleepier, so adjust your dose carefully. While melatonin is most commonly used in tablet or spray form, certain foods also contain it. Cherries, for instance, are a natural source of melatonin, and drinking tart cherry juice has been found to be beneficial in improving sleep duration and quality.4

Up to 80 Percent of Americans Are Magnesium-Deficient

Lack of magnesium may play a role in insomnia, and dietary surveys suggest that the majority of Americans are simply not getting enough magnesium from their diet alone.5 Other factors that can make you more prone to magnesium deficiency include:

To avoid magnesium deficiency, make sure you’re eating a varied, whole-food diet like the one described in my nutrition plan. Green leafy vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard are excellent sources of magnesium, as are some beans, nuts and seeds, like almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower and sesame seeds. Avocados are also a good source. Juicing your greens is an excellent way to optimize your nutrition. This is my personal strategy. I typically drink one pint to one quart of fresh green vegetable juice every day, and it is one of my primary sources of magnesium.

If you decide to use a supplement, magnesium threonate is likely one of the best sources of magnesium as it seems to penetrate cell membranes, including the mitochondria, which results in higher energy levels. Additionally, it also penetrates the blood-brain barrier and seems to do wonders to treat and prevent dementia and improve memory.

Balance Your Magnesium with Calcium, Vitamin K2 and D

One of the major benefits of getting your nutrients from a varied whole food diet is that you’re far less likely to end up with too much of one nutrient at the expense of others. Foods in general contain all the cofactors and needed co-nutrients in the proper amounts for optimal health, which takes out the guess work. When you’re using supplements, you need to become a bit more savvy about how nutrients influence and synergistically affect each other.

For example, it’s important to maintain the proper balance between magnesium, calcium, vitamin K2, and vitamin D. These all work together synergistically, and lack of balance between these nutrients is why calcium supplements have become associated with increased risk of heart attacks and stroke, and why some people experience vitamin D toxicity. To learn more about this, please see this previous article that delves into this at some depth.

Do You Need More Potassium in Your Diet?

Potassium is an essential mineral “salt” that is sometimes referred to as the “good salt.” It’s most commonly known for its role in blood pressure regulation, and it works synergistically with magnesium to improve sleep, among other things. This combination may be of particular benefit if muscle cramps are keeping you awake.

As an electrolyte, potassium is a positive charged ion that must maintain a certain concentration7 in order to carry out its functions, which includes interacting with sodium to help control nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction and heart function. In fact, maintaining the proper ratio of potassium to sodium is an important factor for optimal health. It’s generally recommended that you take in five times more potassium than sodium,8 but because most Americans’ diets are so rich in high-sodium processed foods, most people get double the amount of sodium compared to potassium from their diet.

If you have high blood pressure, it could be a sign that you’re lacking in this vital mineral or that your ratio of potassium to sodium is upside-down from an improper diet. Signs of severe potassium deficiency include fatigue, muscle weakness, abdominal pain and cramps, and in severe cases abnormal heart rhythms and muscular paralysis. The ideal way to increase your potassium is to obtain it from vegetables, such as:

Vitamin D Deficiency May Be the Cause of Excessive Sleepiness

A growing body of research clearly shows the absolute necessity of vitamin D for good health and disease prevention, and it may even play an important role in sleep. According to research presented at last year’s Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting, people with daytime sleepiness and musculoskeletal pain, which can easily sabotage sleep, are likely to have vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency. According to a writeup by Mother Nature Network:9

“[T]he team decided to test the vitamin D levels of patients who had complained of chronic pain as part of the workup that was done for other sleep disturbances. McCarty and colleagues performed research and reviews of 153 patients at a sleep clinic. Eighty-four percent of patients had either vitamin D insufficiency (30 percent) or deficiency (54 percent).

They discovered that some patients who exhibited low levels of vitamin D experienced complete resolution of daytime sleepiness symptoms after treatment for vitamin D deficiency. McCarty and colleagues concluded that it is biologically plausible that low vitamin D could contribute to sleepiness because of its role in systemic inflammation.”

Vitamin D3 is an oil-soluble steroid hormone (the term “vitamin” is a misnomer) that forms when your skin is exposed to UVB radiation from the sun or a safe tanning bed. When UVB strikes the surface of your skin, your skin converts a cholesterol derivative into vitamin D3, and this is, by far, the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels.

If you opt for a vitamin D supplement, you also need to boost your intake of vitamin K2 through food and/or a supplement. How do you know if your vitamin D level is in the right range? The most important factor is having your vitamin D serum level tested every six months, as people vary widely in their response to ultraviolet exposure or oral D3 supplementation. Your goal is to reach a clinically relevant serum level of 50-70 ng/ml. As a general guideline, research by GrassrootsHealth suggests that adults need about 8,000 IU’s per day to achieve a serum level of 40 ng/ml.

Tips to Help You Sleep Better

Besides nutritional deficiencies, there are many other variables that can impact how well you sleep. I suggest you read through my full set of 33 healthy sleep guidelines for all of the details, but to start, making some adjustments to your sleeping area can go a long way to ensure uninterrupted, restful sleep.

1. Cover your windows with blackout shades or drapes to ensure complete darkness. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and the melatonin precursor serotonin, thereby disrupting your sleep cycle.So close your bedroom door, get rid of night-lights, and refrain from turning on any light during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. If you have to use a light, install so-called “low blue” light bulbs in your bedroom and bathroom. These emit amber light that will not suppress melatonin production.
2. Keep the temperature in your bedroom at or below 70 degrees F (21 degrees Celsius). Many people keep their homes and particularly their upstairs bedrooms too warm. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees F (15.5 to 20 C). Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep.
3. Check your bedroom for electromagnetic fields (EMFs). These can also disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well. To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to kill all power in your house.
4. Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your head. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least three feet.
5. Reduce use of light-emitting technology, such as your TV, iPad, and computer, before going to bed. These emit the type of light that will suppress melatonin production, which in turn will hamper your ability to fall asleep, as well as increase your cancer risk (melatonin helps to suppress harmful free radicals in your body and slows the production of estrogen, which can contribute to cancer). Ideally, you’ll want to turn all such light-emitting gadgets off at least one hour prior to bedtime.

As previously discussed by Dr. Rubin Naiman, a leader in integrative medicine approaches to sleep and dreams, sleep is the outcome of an interaction between two variables, namely sleepiness and what he refers to as “noise.” This is any kind of stimulation that inhibits or disrupts sleep. In order to get a good night’s sleep, you want your sleepiness level to be high, and the “noise” level to be low. Under normal conditions, your sleepiness should gradually increase throughout the day and evening, peaking just before you go to bed at night. However, if noise is conceptually greater than your level of sleepiness, you will not be able to fall asleep.

Improving Your Nutrition May Help You Sleep Better

If you aren’t sleeping well, it is just a matter of time before it will adversely affect your health, even if you’re doing everything else right. Fortunately, there are many simple solutions to address poor sleep, starting with your diet and lifestyle. Certain nutrients, such as melatonin, magnesium, potassium and vitamin D can play an important role. It’s also crucial to pay attention to your use of artificial lighting. To promote good sleep, make sure you’re exposed to full natural light during the day, and avoid artificial lighting once the sun goes down, especially as bedtime draws near.

To make your bedroom into a suitable sleep sanctuary, begin by making sure it’s pitch-black, cool, and quiet. Remember, even the tiniest bit of light can disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin. For this reason, I highly recommend adding room-darkening blinds or drapes to your bedroom, or if this is not possible wearing an eye mask to block out any stray light.

For even more helpful guidance on how to improve your sleep, please review my 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep. If you’re even slightly sleep deprived, I encourage you to implement some of these tips tonight, as high-quality sleep is one of the most important factors in your health and quality of life.

Sources and References

• 1 Livescience.com July 24, 2013
• 2 Current Biology August 1, 2013
• 3 The Christian Science Monitor August 1, 2013
• 4 Eur J Nutr. 2012 Dec;51(8):909-16.
• 5 National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, Magnesium
• 6 National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, Magnesium
• 7 Linus Pauling Institute, Potassium
• 8 The World’s Healthiest Foods, Potassium
• 9 Mother Nature Network December 19, 2012

By Dr. Mercola

I occasionally comment on various “worst food lists” that appear in magazines and on websites. There is no shortage of bad foods to talk about these days, and we never seem to run out of lists.

But what about the foods Americans don’t often THINK about when inventorying their personal food choices—even though they’re eating them every day, one little dollop after another? I’m referring to condiments.

Condiments are usually given a free ride because, well, it’s only a spoonful. They’re typically overlooked, or brushed off as “harmless,” or eaten in such small quantities that their effects seem negligible.

Condiments can make bland foods taste better and good foods taste great. But they can also turn an otherwise nutritious meal into a metabolic nightmare, one tablespoon at a time.

Small, frequent doses of potentially harmful ingredients can be far from benign, having a cumulative biological effect. In fact, there is scientific evidence that more significant health effects may occur at low doses than high, especially for hormone-disrupting chemicals.1 It’s time to stop giving condiments a free pass!

Here, I’ll review five common American condiments that made their debut in a “worst of” list on the website OneResult:2

1. Mayonnaise
2. Sour cream
3. Ranch and blue cheese dressing
4. Ketchup
5. Steak sauce and barbeque sauce

#1: Mayonnaise

Commercially prepared mayonnaise is indeed loaded with fats—and NOT the kind of fats that benefit you. Most prepared mayos are primarily GMO soybean oil, one of the most harmful oils you can eat but found extensively in processed foods.3

This type of oil, whether partially hydrogenated, organic, or made from newer soybean varieties modified in such a way as to not require hydrogenation, are highly processed and wreak chaos in your body at the cellular level, paving the way for problems ranging from obesity and diabetes to reproductive disorders and heart disease.

In addition to the trans fats created from hydrogenation, the majority of soybeans grown in the US are genetically engineered and, as a result, are saturated with dangerous levels of the herbicide glyphosate, which has been linked to a growing list of serious health problems.

Even though you may not consider mayonnaise a sweet product, most commercial varieties contain high fructose corn syrup or other forms of fructose, which adds to the toxic load on your liver. If you think you can’t live without your mayo, consider using an organic variety made with olive oil. Or better yet, make your own mayo!

Mayonnaise is easy to make in a blender and, when made with healthful oils and fresh, organic eggs, without the artificial ingredients of the commercial variety, is actually good for you! If you make your own, it won’t last as long but it will taste MUCH better, and you just make smaller batches. Good mayo requires only a few basic ingredients: olive oil, egg yolks, vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, and a little sea salt. You’ll find a nice recipe at the Hungry Mouse website.4  Here are examples of the typical mayonnaise on the market. You will want to steer clear of these types of products by either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

#2: Sour Cream

Just as with mayonnaise, sour cream can be a delicious and nutritious adjunct to your meal or a toxic white glop—depending on what goes into it. If you make your own cultured soured cream from quality ingredients, it’s not going to do your body any harm and will even provide some excellent nutrition when consumed in moderation. Saturated fats and animal fats are NOT the bane of your existence, contrary to what you’ve heard.

That said, the little tubs you find at most grocery stores are not healthful, but unfortunately, those are what most Americans consume. Here’s an ingredient list from a typical commercial sour cream label:5

Cultured Pasteurized Cream and Milk, Whey, Modified Corn Starch, Sodium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Calcium Sulfate, Cultured Dextrose, Locust Bean Gum, Potassium Sorbate (As Preservative)

As you can see, there are lots of fillers and preservatives and not much in the way of REAL food. Not only that, but non-organic dairy products often contain dangerous genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, or rBGH.

RBGH is the largest selling dairy animal drug in America. But it is banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and in the 27 countries of the European Union because of its risks to human health. IGF-1 in rBGH increases your risk for breast cancer by promoting conversion of normal breast tissue cells into cancerous ones.

Despite decades of evidence about the dangers of rBGH, the FDA still maintains it’s safe for human consumption and ignores scientific evidence to the contrary. The only way to avoid rBGH is to look for products labeled “rBGH-free” or “No rBGH.”

Culturing your own sour cream using lacto-fermentation culture, starting with fresh, raw organic cream, is not difficult and has the added benefit of giving you natural probiotics, which are so critical for your immune system. These probiotics are all but killed off in commercial processing, if they were ever present to begin with. High quality Greek-style yogurt is another good alternative, which you can also make at home using a starter culture. For more info on making your own cultured sour cream, visit Cultures for Health6. Here are examples of the typical sour cream on the market. You will want to steer clear of these types of products by either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

#3: Ranch and Blue Cheese Dressing

If you read the ingredient list, typical processed ranch and blue cheese dressings are unnatural concoctions bearing little resemblance to food. Your digestive tract may not even recognize this as food, but instead react to it like a foreign invader, to be attacked like any other bodily threat. Consider this list of ingredients in Dean’s Ranch Dip:

Soybean Pasteurized “blend” of skim milk, reduced minerals whey, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, dehydrated onion, sour cream flavor (cream, nonfat milk, whey, whey protein concentrate, cultured nonfat buttermilk (skim milk, cultures), maltodextrin, salt, autolyzed yeast extract, natural flavors, monosodium glutamate, sodium citrate, sour cream cultures, lactic acid, food starch-modified, gelatin, dextrose, dehydrated garlic, vinegar powder (maltodextrin, corn starch-modified, white distilled vinegar), monosodium glutamate, citric acid, sodium hexametaphosphate, locust bean gum, lecithin, spices, potassium sorbate, guar gum, whey, whey protein concentrate, carrageenan, acetic acid, propylene glycol alginate, artificial colors (FD &C Yellow No. 5 (Tartrazine) and FD & C Yellow No. 6)

As you can see, soybeans are at the forefront, which we’ve already discussed. And yes, monosodium glutamate is listed TWICE… and once is bad enough!

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer hidden in thousands of foods you and your family regularly eat, and it’s one of the worst food additives ever created. MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, potentially causing brain damage and triggering learning disabilities. Common adverse effects linked to regular MSG consumption include: obesity, eye damage, headaches, fatigue and disorientation, depression, rapid heartbeat, tingling and numbness.

MSG can be found in nearly all processed foods because it hides under other names, such as flavorings, seasonings, soy protein, stocks and broths, malt extract, carrageenan, and corn starch, to name just a few.

Food dyes are another type of additive to watch out for. Every year, food manufacturers pour 15 million pounds of artificial food dyes into US foods. According to a Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) report, some of the most commonly used food dyes may be linked to multiple forms of cancer, along with hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children.

As of July 2010, most foods in the EU that contain artificial food dyes come with warning labels, and the British government has also asked that food manufacturers remove most artificial colors from foods. In the US, however, a similar measure has not been taken.

So what’s the solution? Make your own salad dressing. That way, you have complete control over what goes into it. You can use homemade yogurt as a delicious base for any dressing and add in your own fresh herbs from the garden. Once you’ve mastered mayo and sour cream, the sky’s the limit when it comes to healthful dressings, sauces and dips. Here are examples of the typical ranch and blue cheese dressing on the market. You will want to steer clear of these types of products by either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

#4: Ketchup

If you use commercially prepared ketchup on your food, you might as well be starting an IV of high fructose corn syrup, because that’s primarily what glugs out of the bottle. Most bottled ketchups consist basically of overcooked tomatoes, water, and a large bolus of sugar, usually as some form of genetically engineered corn syrup. Many brands also add “natural flavorings,” which are really flavor-boosting chemicals, one being MSG. Here is a fairly typical ingredient list, this one from Hunt’s Regular Ketchup:

Tomato concentrate, high fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, corn syrup, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, natural flavors

Due to growing consumer concerns over the health problems of high fructose corn syrup, ConAgra, manufacturer of Hunt’s Ketchup, removed it from their ketchup in 2010. However, their reformulated product was not a big hit, so they added it back in two years later. It’s all about the bottom line!7

Just one tablespoon of commercially prepared ketchup typically contains four grams of sugar. And many people consume much more than one tablespoon at a time, which quickly builds up your daily sugar load. Like ketchup, sugar (especially HFCS) is added to nearly all processed foods, along with a lot of sodium and other flavor enhancers, and it doesn’t take too long to exceed your maximum daily fructose limit (25 grams or less).

Ketchup is another condiment you can make in your own kitchen, which gives you the advantage of controlling the amount and type of sweetener, as well as the other ingredients. Homemade ketchup is much better in every respect than anything that’s been bottled commercially.8 Or, try fresh salsa instead of ketchup. Remember, you can cut down drastically on the amount of sugar a recipe calls for, as well as substituting more healthful sweeteners. Honey and/or stevia, or even a mixture of the two, are good choices.

If you are simply unable to make your own ketchup and feel you cannot live without it, I did find one organic brand that has half the usual amount of sugar and no HFCS. Here is the ingredient list for Annie’s Naturals:9 Don’t assume that just because a commercial ketchup is organic, it’s low in sugar. For example, Meijer Organics Ketchup10 has four grams of sugar per tablespoon, just like most of the non-organic brands. Here are examples of the typical ketchup on the market. You will want to steer clear of these types of products by either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

#5: Barbeque Sauce and Steak Sauce

Like the rest of the condiments already discussed, steak and barbeque sauces may contain a mélange of unsavory ingredients. For example, take a look at the “granddaddy” of them all, A1 Steak Sauce:11

Tomato puree (water, tomato paste), distilled vinegar, corn syrup, salt, raisin paste, crushed orange puree, spices and herbs, dried garlic and onion, caramel color, potassium sorbate, xanthan gum

Again, you see our nemesis—the little darling of the food industry—corn syrup (which in all likelihood is genetically engineered corn). A1 contains two grams of sugar per tablespoon.  It also contains xanthan gum, made by fermenting corn sugar with the bacteria Xanthomonas campestris. This gummy substance has a strange viscosity—it thickens and stabilizes a mixture, but when shaken or poured, it behaves more like a liquid.12 Xanthan gum is made using carbohydrates from corn, wheat, dairy, or soy, all of which are considered allergens, so I recommend avoiding this ingredient.

As an aside, also steer clear of pet foods that contain xanthan gum, as your pets can suffer negative health effects from it as well.

There are some low to moderate health concerns about potassium sorbate, a preservative, which you can review in detail on the EWG website.13 It’s best to avoid this additive, especially if you have any tendency toward allergies. There is some evidence for reproductive system toxicity, although much more research is needed. And caramel color, as harmless as the name sounds, can actually conceal MSG and two other potentially dangerous chemicals, 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), both of which have been found to promote lung, liver, and thyroid tumors in laboratory rats and mice.

Other bottled meat sauces contain a variety of agents and dyes that really shouldn’t be in food. For example, look at the ingredient list for Open Pit Original BBQ Sauce—there is just about NOTHING in here you should eat!

High fructose corn syrup, water, distilled vinegar, tomato puree (water, tomato paste), salt, modified food starch, 2% or less of: soybean oil, hydrolyzed corn and soy protein, spice, onion powder, dehydrated garlic, artificial tomato flavor, natural and artificial flavor, Yellow No. 6 dye, Red No. 40, Blue No. 1, titanium dioxide, caramel color

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, make your own sauces at home! Food Network14 has a great looking recipe for a steak sauce flavored with applesauce, raisins and garlic (leave out the corn syrup), but I’m sure you can find other yummy recipes as well. Two Dogs in the Kitchen has even posted a recipe for an A1 “taste-alike” you can make in your own kitchen. Here are examples of the typical barbeque sauce and steak sauce on the market. You will want to steer clear of these types of products by either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

Make Your Condiments From REAL Food

I have discussed five common condiments with health impairing ingredient lists, but there are many more examples that can be found. Those five should be enough to demonstrate that the majority of commercially prepared condiments are not real food but rather a blend of chemicals engineered to taste good, induce cravings, and make money—but offer you nothing in terms of nutrition. They are loaded with excess sugar (especially fructose) and salt, preservatives, dyes, texture and flavor enhancers, and a good deal of genetically engineered ingredients, ALL of which should be avoided whenever possible.

But the good news is, you don’t have to give up condiments altogether!

With a little kitchen wisdom and creativity, you can come up with your own recipes that taste far better than their chemical-laden grocery store counterparts. Provided you make your condiments from high-quality ingredients and eat reasonable portions, they can be an acceptable part of your overall nutrition plan, enhancing your health as well as your mealtime enjoyment.

Sources and References

• 1 E360 March 19, 2012
• 2 OneResult
• 3 Shopwell: Kraft Miracle Whip
• 4 Hungry Mouse May 27, 2013
• 5 Shopwell: Darigold Sour Cream
• 6 Cultures for Health
• 7 Food Navigator USA May 31, 2012
• 8 Food Network February 23, 2010
• 9 LabelWatch
• 10 Shopwell: Meijer Organics Tomato Ketchup
• 11 FoodFacts
• 12 Wired Magazine June 28, 2011
• 13 EWG
• 14 Food Network

Click HERE to view the entire interview

Download Interview Transcript

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By Dr. Mercola

This is my second interview with Dr. Daniel Kalish, who is an expert on hormone balance as a foundation for optimal health. In this interview, he shares some fascinating information about how you can balance the chemicals in your brain using functional medicine laboratory testing.

Dr. Kalish is successfully using this method, which he calls the “Kalish Method,” to treat five common health problems:

1. Overweight
2. Fatigue
3. Depression
4. Female hormone imbalance
5. Gastrointestinal problems

I first met Dr. Kalish in California in the mid-1990s while attending a Functional Medicine seminar. It was immediately clear to me that he was one of the brightest individuals at the meeting.

The area of hormone testing can be a bit confusing. The information presented here helps to clarify how hormone testing can be used to detect and correct imbalances in your brain’s chemistry that underlie many of the symptoms commonly experienced today. For a more comprehensive review of his work, you may want to check out his new book, entitled The Kalish Method: Healing the Body, Mapping the Mind.

Functional Medicine: The Kalish Method

Functional medicine is a relatively new approach to health that looks at the underlying causes of disease and attempts to correct them before disease sets in. It focuses on determining the root causes by looking at your entire body and environment. Dr. Kalish’s particular approach zeroes in on three systems of your body:

1. Brain/endocrine system, which govern your body’s processes through hormones, neurotransmitters, and other biochemical messengers (control center)
2. Digestive system and nutrition (intake)
3. Detoxification system (elimination)

He addresses each of these systems with specific laboratory tests, including saliva and urine. It’s a kind of “mind mapping” — essentially, taking a snapshot of the mind by measuring things such as the quantity of serotonin and dopamine going in and out of your neurons. This is just one of the many the tests that can be performed, and this particular urine test is cutting edge technology offered by only one lab in the United States.

The Kalish approach to health offers enormous advantages, one of which is a very rapid cessation of symptoms. Patients report improvement in how they feel usually within the first month — like a “switch has been flipped.” Even for those who have struggled with lifelong depression, dramatic results are usually seen within the first couple of months. This is largely because the precise cause of the problem has been nailed down through laboratory testing.

Another major advantage is that children can be helped very easily and quickly with functional medicine, which eliminates the need for medications about 95 percent of the time.

Picking Up Ball That Conventional Medicine Has Dropped

There are profound differences between functional medicine and conventional medicine. Conventional medicine aims at identifying life-threatening diseases, but ignores the realm of more subtle issues. For example, endocrinologists look for rare and unusual disorders like Addison’s disease — things that could kill you in a week or two if left untreated. If you don’t have one of the major diseases, their interest and expertise generally wanes.

By contrast, functional medicine looks at identifying and correcting imbalances and lifestyle issues that are eroding your health over time, reducing your quality of life, and predisposing you to the development of serious health problems down the road. In other words, functional medicine aims at preventing you from ever developing those major diseases in the first place.

According to Dr. Kalish:

“There is a predictable way that the body breaks down. It doesn’t happen in different ways in different people. We have hormone and brain problems, digestive problems, and toxicity problems. There’s a methodical way you can test and correct all these issues, if you get hooked up with the right group of doctors that know how to do all this. This technology is available. It’s not a question of whether it works or not. It’s just a matter of accessing it.”

Through various carefully selected laboratory tests, your body’s chemical and hormonal imbalances are identified. Problems with your gastrointestinal function may be detected, or with how your body cleanses and rids itself of toxins. With this information, then, specific strategies can be prescribed, such as diet and lifestyle modifications, supplements, or perhaps a different approach to managing your stress. Supplements are designed to be used short-term, therapeutically, in order to accomplish a specific goal.

Interventions Used in the Kalish Method

Based on what imbalances are identified by the laboratory analyses, Dr. Kalish may prescribe a variety of natural supplements, short-term. For example, low doses of the hormones cortisol, DHEA, and pregnenolone may be prescribed to replace what’s missing in your body — just enough to balance out your system. Sometimes, amino acids, vitamins and minerals, and herbs may be used — everything from B vitamins to magnesium, to tryptophan or 5-HTP.

These agents are used to temporarily assist your body’s natural hormone producing capacity and can be discontinued when your normal endocrine function has returned. It’s typical for adrenal function to be restored within six months to a year — and sometimes in just a few months. Dr. Kalish cautions against self-prescribing these supplement because you can easily make imbalances worse, if you don’t have all of the necessary information.

A key part of Dr. Kalish’s approach is helping his patients return to a more biologically appropriate diet rich in organic, biodynamically grown foods, similar to how your ancestors ate. He also recommends occasionally exposing yourself to cold, because it produces an environmental “shock” to stress the body (in a good way), similar to exercise, which stresses your body to make it stronger.

Poor Adrenal Function May Be the Cause of Chronic Fatigue

Your adrenal glands are each no bigger than a walnut and weigh less than a grape, yet are responsible for one of the most important functions in your body: managing your stress. When your adrenal glands are overtaxed, a condition known as adrenal fatigue or adrenal exhaustion sets in, which in turn can set a cascade of disease processes into motion. One tell-tale sign of adrenal burnout is feeling chronically fatigued.

Conventionally, you’d see an endocrinologist who would evaluate your adrenal glands, or perhaps a doctor of internal medicine. Unfortunately, they tend to primarily test for specific diseases like Addison’s disease or Cushing’s disease, both of which are relatively rare.

The Kalish Method calls for testing your adrenal function by taking four saliva (or urine) samples over the course of a day. This maps out your circadian rhythm, showing how your cortisol levels rise and fall throughout your day. Saliva is collected at approximately four-hour intervals: first thing in the morning upon waking, then at noon, late afternoon, and again at night before going to bed. The Kalish Method is aimed at normalizing dysfunctional adrenals and restoring normal adrenal function. It’s a clinically validated method that’s been used for a long time, yet most physicians are still not aware of it.

“What we find is that if we just restore what’s missing in the person for a period of six months or maybe at the most 12 months, the adrenal glands and the internal production of these hormones comes back,” Dr. Kalish explains. “So, we’re actually restoring the normal production of these hormones in the body. The treatments, therefore, are relatively short-term; six months to a year. The only way we’ve found to do this real repair process is to use these really low dosages of DHEA and pregnenolone over a period of time.”

Another common hormonal cause of adrenal fatigue is hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid. Thyroid function is diagnosed by a blood test, but there’s some controversy over what is normal and what’s not. Many alternative doctors feel the conventional reference ranges are far too broad, and opt to treat people exhibiting sub-clinical thyroid symptoms.

“What’s interesting about the thyroid and the adrenals is that as the cortisol levels go up, one of the normal body mechanisms is to downregulate thyroid,” Dr. Kalish says. “So, most everybody with high cortisol is going to have lower than ideal thyroid hormone levels. At that point, it becomes a decision as to if you want to work on the adrenals, work on thyroid, or work on both together…

More than 90 percent of the time, the adrenal program is enough to restore thyroid function. The biggest reason [for doing] the adrenals first is that when you start taking thyroid hormones your internal production of thyroid hormones drop. With the adrenal glands, it’s the opposite. When you start to take these adrenal-support products, your internal production of adrenal hormones comes back. If you can restore adrenal function, you can save the person from having to be on thyroid medications potentially for the rest of their life.”

For more specifics on Dr. Kalish’s treatment protocol for adrenal fatigue, please see my previous interview with Dr. Kalish on this topic.

How Functional Medicine Can Help You Lose Weight

Besides fatigue, weight gain  and depression are the most common issues Dr. Kalish sees, and all three respond very well to his approach. For example, one of the interesting things in terms of diet and weight loss is that, as soon as he gets people’s adrenal hormones and brain chemicals back in check, he notices them gravitating toward more healthful diets.

Why is this?

Many food cravings stem from inappropriate blood sugar responses and imbalanced serotonin and dopamine levels — which control how your neurons fire. Once these are corrected, cravings go away — usually within the first month or two. Your cravings come from brain chemicals. When those chemicals are shifted, the cravings just disappear — like hitting the Reset button. Then people begin making better food choices, start to lose weight, and have more energy because insulin sensitivity and normalleptin signaling are being restored.

The key lies in reversing the distortion in your appetite center and reestablishing your normal fat burning metabolism. Of course, the mechanism for reestablishing normal fat burning is diet and exercise, but if your brain chemistry perpetually prompts you toward making bad decisions, it will be a frustrating uphill battle. Functional medicine doesn’t take the place of diet and exercise — it augments it, making it easier for you to implement the changes needed without as much emotional stress.

Are Toxins Making You Depressed?

There is very little scientific evidence for the widespread notion that depression is caused by an imbalance of your neurotransmitters. In fact, there is no correlation between serotonin level and depression. Many people with low serotonin are not depressed, and many depressed people have normal levels of serotonin. The same is true of dopamine.

However, there is good scientific evidence for a relationship between depression and environmental toxins. Toxins make their way to your brain, where they damage cells and change how your neurons fire. Being that toxins are commonplace in today’s world, part of functional medicine involves identifying environmental toxins that could be damaging your brain and contributing to mood problems, Parkinson’s, dementia, and a multitude of other diseases. We’re all exposed to these chemicals to some degree because they’re pervasive in our environment — in your air, food and water.

According to Dr. Kalish, some of the most significant environmental toxins are heavy metals, such as mercury, arsenic andaluminum. Also problematic are chemicals like benzene and toluene.

It is estimated that the average American now has between 300 and 400 different neurotoxins circulating in his or her body at any one time. Even newborn babies are now born with some level of neurotoxic chemicals on board. Your body isn’t equipped to break these down, so they tend to accumulate over time and dysregulate your biochemistry. Making matters worse, many if not most people have dysbiosis, or imbalanced gut flora, and some of these microorganisms are responsible for breaking down the toxins in your GI tract, so you can eliminate them. All of these problems contribute to today’s toxic overload.

Functional Medicine — A Valuable Tool to Help Restore Your Health

The Kalish Method is a proven method of treating problems such as overweight, fatigue, depression, hormonal imbalance and gastrointestinal dysfunction using the principles of functional medicine. A treatment is most effective when the root cause of your problem is directly addressed.

Dr. Kalish starts with specific laboratory tests that pin down the underlying cause. These tests help to determine whether your problem stems from your brain, adrenal glands or your gut, or if it’s a malfunction in your body’s detoxification process. Whatever the cause, the problem can be effectively addressed using targeted dietary changes, supplements, sleep hygiene, stress management tools and other natural interventions.

Functional medicine can be a valuable tool to help you restore your natural physiological balance. Dr. Kalish has worked with more than 8,000 patients, and every day, he sees “magical” health improvements by applying the same fundamental principles. For more information, you can visit his website, KalishInstitute.com, which details his innovative approach to functional medicine.

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

Imagine a commercial plane crashed and there were some fatalities involved. You can be sure that would make the headline of every major newspaper. Well, we have the equivalent of 8-10 planes crashing EVERY DAY with everyone on board dying from cancer.

Nearly two million Americans are diagnosed with cancer every year—one person out of three will be hit with a cancer diagnosis at some time in their lives, in spite of the massive technological advances over the past half-century.

Western medicine is no closer to finding a “cancer cure,” while cancer has grown into a worldwide epidemic of staggering proportions. The statistics speak for themselves: 

• In the early 1900s, one in 20 people developed cancer
• In the 1940s, one in 16 people developed cancer
• In the 1970s, it was one in 10
• Today, it’s one in three!

According to the CDC, about 1,660,290 (1.66 million) new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2013¹. If overall death rates are falling, why are incidence rates still on the rise? The answer is simple: the 40-year “war on cancer” has been a farce.

The cancer epidemic is a dream for Big Pharma, and their campaigns to silence cancer cures have been fierce, which is a tale well told in the documentary film featured above, Cancer: Forbidden Cures.

The Cancer Machine

Please understand that cancer is big business. The cancer industry is spending virtually nothing of its multi-billion dollar resources on effective prevention strategies, such as dietary guidelines, exercise and obesity education. Instead, it pours its money into treating cancer, not preventing or curing it.

Why would they shoot their cash cow? If they can keep the well-oiled Cancer Machine running, they will continue to make massive profits on chemotherapy drugs, radiotherapy, diagnostic procedures and surgeries.

The typical cancer patient spends $50,000 fighting the disease. Chemotherapy drugs are among the most expensive of all treatments, many ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 for a one-month supply.

If the cancer industry allows a cure, then their patient base goes away. It makes more sense to keep a steady stream of cancer patients alive, but sick and coming back for more. How did this societal monster come about? 

The featured documentary is enormously informative. It details how the pharmaceutical industry partnered with the American Medical Association (AMA) in an ingenious plan to overtake the medical system in four swift, easy steps, back in the early 1900s. In a nutshell, it went something like this:

1. International bankers that own the drug and chemical companies gained control over the medical education system over 100 years ago.
2. They gave grants to the AMA and leading medical schools in exchange for seats on their board and the ability to control policy.

1. Finally, they cleverly engineered their control of virtually every federal regulatory agency relating to the practice of medicine.

‘Don’t You DARE Cure Anyone!’ 

In spite of the enormous amounts of money funneled into cancer research today, two out of three cancer patients will be dead within five years after receiving all or part of the standard cancer treatment trinity—surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. This is not too surprising when you consider that two of the three are carcinogenic themselves! One study estimated that chemotherapy benefits about one of every 20 people receiving it.

Over the last hundred years, a number of natural cancer treatments have been developed and used successfully to treat patients in the US and other countries. All have been vehemently discounted, silenced, and pushed under the rug by the medical monopoly, with physicians and researchers attacked, smeared, sent to prison, and professionally ruined for daring to defy the medical establishment.

To this day, with respect to credibility in medicine, “quack” is synonymous with “competition.” 

In order to protect the medical monopoly, any viable natural treatment is met with massive opposition by the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Drug companies have no interest in natural agents that they cannot patent, because they interfere with their revenue stream. They will go—and have gone—to extreme measures to prevent the truth about effective natural treatments (competitive threats) from reaching the public.

The FDA is now, thanks to PDUFA, primarily funded by the drug companies and is complicit in this process. They restrict competition in the guise of protecting the public, when the reality is they are protecting the profits of the drug companies.

My Top 12 Cancer Prevention Strategies 

There is so much you can do to lower your risk for cancer. But please don’t wait until you get the diagnosis—you have to take preventative steps NOW. It’s much easier to prevent cancer than to treat it, once it takes hold. I believe you can virtually eliminate your risk of cancer and chronic disease, and radically improve your chances of recovering from cancer if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple strategies.

1.  Preparation: Eat at least one-third of your food raw. Avoid frying or charbroiling; boil, poach or steam your foods instead. Consider Foodadding cancer-fighting whole foods, herbs, spices and supplements to your diet, such as broccoli,curcumin and resveratrol. To learn more about how these anti-angiogenetic foods fight cancer, please see our previous article: “Dramatically Effective New Natural Way to Starve Cancer and Obesity.” 
2. Carbohydrates and Sugar: Reduce or eliminate processed foods, sugar/fructose and grain-based foods from your diet. This applies to whole unprocessed organic grains as well, as they tend to rapidly break down and drive up your insulin level. The evidence is quite clear that if you want to avoid cancer, or you currently have cancer, you absolutely MUST avoid all forms of sugar, especially fructose, which feeds cancer cells and promotes their growth. Make sure your total fructose intake is around 25 grams daily, including fruit.
3. Protein and Fat: Consider reducing your protein levels to one gram per kilogram of lean body weight. It would be unusual for most adults to need more than 100 grams of protein and most likely close to half of that amount. Replace excess protein with high-quality fats, such as organic eggs from pastured hens, high-quality meats, avocados, and coconut oil.
4. GMOs: Avoid genetically engineered foods as they are typically treated with herbicides such as Roundup (glyphosate), and likely to be carcinogenic. A French research team that has extensively studied Roundup concluded it’s toxic to human cells, and likely carcinogenic to humans. Choose fresh, organic, preferably locally grown foods.
5. Animal-Based Omega-3 fats: Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil and reducing your intake of processed vegetable oils.
6. Natural Probiotics: Optimizing your gut flora will reduce inflammation and strengthen your immune response. Researchers have found a microbe-dependent mechanism through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth. They suggest that inhibiting inflammatory cytokines might slow cancer progression and improve the response to chemotherapy.

Adding naturally fermented food to your daily diet is an easy way to prevent cancer or speed recovery. You can always add a high-quality probiotic supplement as well, but naturally fermented foods are the best.

1. Exercise: Exercise lowers insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. In a three-month study, exercise was found to alter immune cells into a more potent disease-fighting form in cancer survivors who had just completed chemotherapy. 

Researchers and cancer organizations increasingly recommend making regular exercise a priority in order to reduce your risk of cancer, and help improve cancer outcomes. Research has also found evidence suggesting exercise can help trigger apoptosis (programmed cell death) in cancer cells. Ideally, your exercise program should include balance, strength, flexibility, high intensity interval training (HIIT). For help getting started, refer to my Peak Fitness Program.

1. Vitamin D: There is scientific evidence you can decrease your risk of cancer by more than half simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with appropriate sun exposure. Your serum level should hold steady at 50-70 ng/ml, but if you are being treated for cancer, it should be closer to 80-90 ng/ml for optimal benefit.

If you take oral vitamin D and have cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly, as well as supplementing your vitamin K2, as K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity. To learn more, please see my previous article: “What You Need to Know About Vitamin K2, D and Calcium“.

1. Sleep: Make sure you are getting enough restorative sleep. Poor sleep can interfere with your melatonin production, which is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance and weight gain, both of which contribute to cancer’s virility.
2. Exposure to Toxins: Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, herbicides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and toxic cosmetics.
3. Exposure to Radiation: Limit your exposure and protect yourself from radiation produced by cell phones, towers, base stations, and Wi-Fi stations, as well as minimizing your exposure from radiation-based medical scans, including dental x-rays, CT scans, and mammograms. 

1. Stress Management: Stress from all causes is a major contributor to disease. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is driven by emotional factors. It is likely that stress and unresolved emotional issues may be more important than the physical ones, so make sure this is addressed. My favorite tool for resolving emotional challenges is Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

What to Do If You Already Have Cancer 

Without a doubt the most powerful essential strategy I know of to treat cancer is to starve the cells by depriving them of their food source. Unlike your body cells, which can burn carbs or fat for fuel, cancer cells have lost that metabolic flexibility. Dr. Otto Warburg was actually given a Nobel Prize over 75 years ago for figuring this out but virtually no oncologist actually uses this information.

You can review my recent interview with Dr. D’Agostino below for more details but integrating a ketogenic diet with hyperbaric oxygen therapy which is deadly to cancer cells debilitated by starving them of their fuel source would be the strategy I would recommend to my family if they were diagnosed with cancer.

Sources and References

• 1 Cancer Facts & Figures 2013

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

Despite what the media preaches to you, your body has no intrinsic need fordrugs. Over the course of a lifetime, the average person may be prescribed 14,000 pills (this doesn’t even include over-the-counter meds), and by the time you reach your 70s you could be taking five or more pills every day, according to Pill Poppers, a documentary.

The featured film asks a poignant question that anyone taking medications should also, which is, are these pills really beneficial, or are they doing more harm than good?

Drug Discovery ‘Owes as Much to Serendipity as to Science’

Pill Poppers takes you on a journey through some of the most popular drugs in the world, from the ADHD drug Ritalin to drugs for erectile dysfunction, depression, pain and contraception.

It starts out by taking you into a lab at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where 2 million chemical compounds are kept in a vault. Scientists know little about their effects; each could be lethal or lifesaving.

Through a process that could be described as finding a needle in a haystack, scientists methodically introduce a known disease molecule to each of the 2 million substances, one at a time, and assess whether anything happens.

If ‘something’ happens, further tests are then conducted to find out what and why. Literally hundreds of millions of such tests are conducted, and it takes about $1 billion and an estimated 15 years of work to reach the ultimate goal: a licensed drug.

Despite what most are led to believe, just because the drug makes it through the regulatory process it’s no guarantee of safety. Typically, more information is learned about a drug after it’s been released to the market than before, because only then does it get the widespread exposure that clinical trials cannot simulate.

It’s usually after millions of people have already started taking a drug that severe, sometimes deadly, side effects are observed, but unfortunately for some, it will be realized too late. As stated in the documentary:

“Drugs are not designed but discovered, and we only find out what they really do to us when we take them.”

Patrick Vallance, the head of drug discovery at GSK, even said:1 “In many ways you learn as much about your medicine after it’s launched as you knew before.”(Of course, GSK has also pleaded guilty to felony charges for knowingly manufacturing and selling adulterated drugs, a practice that adds even more of a ‘learning curve’ when drugs are released… )

The Effects of Many Medications Are Discovered by Mistake

Many people assume that the medications they’re taking are exerting carefully designed effects on specific biological pathways in their bodies. In reality, these effects were not designed but rather observed – often simply as a matter of sheer dumb luck – and the medication was then “discovered.” The erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, for instance, was originally developed to treat angina. That it led to increased erections was simply a surprise.

The ADHD drug Ritalin was also discovered by accident, as it was originally designed to treat adults with depression. We’re only now beginning to understand how this drug works, and what its long-term side effects entail, yet now it’s already morphing into a drug with another purpose: as a ‘study drug’ for people without ADHD. And this is only a short list.

“It turns out that Ventolin inhalers, a treatment for asthma, can also prevent premature labor; and arsenic, a notorious poison, is making a come back as a treatment for leukemia.”2

While these may sound like beneficial ‘mistakes,’ the surprises can work both ways. Often, drugmakers and scientists are ‘surprised’ to learn that their new blockbuster drug leads to unknown (or undisclosed) side effects, altering and disrupting far more functions in your body than was first realized. Viagra, for instance, can cause blue-green color blindness. And a commonly used class of diabetes drugs is now being investigated for causing pre-cancerous changes, while the antibiotic Zithromax (Z-Pak), may trigger lethal heart arrhythmias.

The truth is, no drug is side effect-free – a fact that many loyal pill takers are not aware of. These side effects are then often treated with… even more drugs, perpetuating a vicious cycle. Even GSK’s Vallance stated in the film:

“When you make a medicine you’re trying to disrupt a fundamental biological process. That’s a pretty profound change, you can’t do that without producing some unwanted effects — so then the question is, what risks are you prepared to take for what benefit?”

Creating Diseases to Fit the Treatments

Drug companies are masters at disease mongering – inventing non-existent diseases and exaggerating minor ones, with the end result making you rush to your doctor to request their drug solutions. It also misleads people into thinking drugs are the onlyoption for every ill. Viagra is a perfect example, as it was originally intended only for men with actual erectile dysfunction. Many men have an occasional problem in this area, and that is normal, but Viagra is marketed in a way that makes it appear as though it’s not.

Another blatant example of creating a market for a disease where none existed before is low female sex drive, or female sexual dysfunction, for which drug makers are actively seeking a ‘cure.’ One more example? In order to market its antidepressant Paxil, GSK hired a PR firm to create a public awareness campaign about an “under-diagnosed” disease.

The disease? Social anxiety disorder… previously known as shyness. You may have seen this campaign firsthand a couple of years back; ads stating “Imagine being allergic to people” were distributed widely, celebrities gave interviews to the press and psychiatrists gave lectures on this new disease in the top 25 media markets. As a result, mentions of social anxiety in the pressrose from about 50 to over 1 billion in just two years… social anxiety disorder became the “third most common mental illness” in the US… and Paxil skyrocketed to the top of the charts as one of the most profitable and most prescribed drugs in the US.

The Drug Industry Is Now Trying to Treat Not Just Diseases but Risk Factors

The drug market is saturated with drugs to treat existing diseases and many drug firms are now trying to create markets for new drugs via disease-mongering. But another way to drum up business, which the industry is fully embracing, is using drugs to treat diseases you don’t even have…

If you have a ‘risk’ of heart disease, for instance, which could apply to anyone aged 50 or over, you should be taking a statin, according to some ‘experts.’ Typically, statins are reserved for people considered to be at high risk of heart attack or stroke, usually (incorrectly) defined as someone with “high” cholesterol. The current value of the cholesterol-lowering drug industry is estimated at around $30 billion a year – but the pharmaceutical industry is still salivating at the thought of how big that number could get if statins could be prescribed to even more people. Alas, researchers came out with a study stating that even people atlow risk of heart problems should take statins!3

So even if you’re healthy, you still need to be popping pills to preserve your health, according to the drug industry. Millions of others take drugs for reasons outside of health, such as contraception, or rely on them for functions for which there are far better solutions, such as weight loss, sleep or, in the case of using ADHD drugs for studying, increased focus or energy. Yet, disease is not the result of a drug deficiency, nor will good health ever be the sole result of taking prescription drugs.

How to Avoid Becoming a ‘Pill Popper’

You don’t have to fall victim to the drug industry’s hype and find yourself taking a handful of pills every morning. Most chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, are largely preventable with simple lifestyle changes. Even infectious diseases like the flu can often be warded off by a healthy way of life. As stated in Pill Poppers:

“The difference between a drug and a poison is basically the dose.”

On the other hand, staying well naturally, without the use of drugs or even frequent conventional medical care, is not only possible, it may be the most successful strategy you can employ to increase your longevity.

Consider Healthier Food Choices as a Better Option

For a comprehensive guide on which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (vegetables, meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a small organic farm not far from your home. This is one of the most powerful physical interventions you can take to either prevent and/or treat disease.

For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Personally, I aim to eat about 80-85 percent of my food raw, including raw eggs that have not been raised on a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation). Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar, and fructose in particular, acts as a toxin in and of itself, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging.

Comprehensive Exercise Program, Including High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness

Even if you’re eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity interval-type training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor. I’ve discussed the importance of Peak Fitness for your health on numerous occasions, so for more information, please review this previous article.

Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking

You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease — from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.

Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D

We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and if at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you’re getting out in the sun on a daily basis. Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing numerous illnesses ranging from cancer to the flu.

The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method for optimizing vitamin D levels, but a quality vitamin D3 supplement can be used (if you opt for this route, be sure you’re also optimizing your vitamin K). Most adults need about 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D a day to achieve serum levels above 40 ng/ml, which is still just below the minimum recommended serum level of 50 ng/ml.

High-Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil is a crucial factor in helping people live longer, and omega-3 deficiency has even been called the sixth biggest killer of Americans.

Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible

This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.

Sources and References

• 1 BBC News January 20, 2010
• 2 BBC News January 20, 2010
• 3 The Lancet, Early Online Publication, May 17, 2012

While many think of their brain as the organ in charge of their mental health, yourgut may actually play a far more significant role.The big picture many of us understand is one of a microbial world that we just happen to be living in. Our actions interfere with these microbes, and they in turn respond having more effects to our individual health as well as the entire environment.There is some truth to the old expression, having ‘dirt for brains’.  The microbes in our soil, on our plants, in our stomachs are all a result of our actions.  Antibiotics, herbicides, vaccines, and pesticides, and the tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals we’ve created all have impacts and result in reactions from these microbes.

Mounting research indicates that problems in your gut can directly impact your mental health, leading to issues like anxiety and depression.

The gut-brain connection is well-recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, so this isn’t all that surprising, even though it’s often overlooked. There’s also a wealth of evidence showing intestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment. A recent article1 titled “Are Probiotics the New Prozac?” reviews some of the most recent supporting evidence.

Probiotics Alter Brain Function, Study Finds

The featured proof-of-concept study, conducted by researchers at UCLA, found that probiotics (beneficial bacteria) actually altered participants’ brain function. The study2 enlisted 36 women between the ages of 18 and 55 who were divided into three groups:

• The treatment group ate yogurt containing several probiotics thought to have a beneficial impact on intestinal health, twice a day for one month
• Another group ate a “sham” product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics
• Control group ate no product at all

Before and after the four-week study, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, both while in a state of rest, and in response to an “emotion-recognition task.”

For the latter, the women were shown a series of pictures of people with angry or frightened faces, which they had to match to other faces showing the same emotions.

“This task, designed to measure the engagement of affective and cognitive brain regions in response to a visual stimulus, was chosen because previous research in animals had linked changes in gut flora to changes in affective behaviors,” the researchers explained.

Compared to the controls, the women who consumed probiotic yogurt had decreased activity in two brain regions that control central processing of emotion and sensation:

• The insular cortex (insula), which plays a role in functions typically linked to emotion (including perception, motor control, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience) and the regulation of your body’s homeostasis, and
• The somatosensory cortex, which plays a role in your body’s ability to interpret a wide variety of sensations

During the resting brain scan, the treatment group also showed greater connectivity between a region known as the ‘periaqueductal grey’ and areas of the prefrontal cortex associated with cognition. In contrast, the control group showed greater connectivity of the periaqueductal grey to emotion- and sensation-related regions.

The fact that this study showed any improvement at all is remarkable, considering they used commercial yogurt preparations that are notoriously unhealthy; loaded with artificial sweeteners, colors, flavorings, and sugar. Most importantly, the vast majority of commercial yogurts have clinically insignificant levels of beneficial bacteria. Clearly, you would be far better off making your own yogurt from raw milk—especially if you’re seeking to address depression through dietary interventions.

Yes, Your Diet Affects Your Mood and Mental Health

According to lead author Dr. Kirsten Tillisch:3, 4

“Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut. Our study shows that the gut–brain connection is a two-way street… ‘When we consider the implications of this work, the old sayings ‘you are what you eat’ and ‘gut feelings’ take on new meaning.’”

The implications are particularly significant in our current era of rampant depression and emotional “malaise.” And as stated in the featured article, the drug treatments available today are no better than they were 50 years ago. Clearly, we need a new approach, and diet is an obvious place to start.

Previous studies have confirmed that what you eat can alter the composition of your gut flora. Specifically, eating a high-vegetable, fiber-based diet produces a profoundly different composition of microbiota than a more typical Western diet high in carbs and processed fats. The featured research tells us that the composition of your gut flora not only affects your physical health, but also has a significant impact on your brain function and mental state. Previous research has also shown that certain probiotics can help alleviate anxiety:

• The Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility5 reported the probiotic known as Bifidobacterium longum NCC3001 normalized anxiety-like behavior in mice with infectious colitis by modulating the vagal pathways within the gut-brain.
• Other research6 found that the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus had a marked effect on GABA levels—an inhibitory neurotransmitter that is significantly involved in regulating many physiological and psychological processes—in certain brain regions and lowered the stress-induced hormone corticosterone, resulting in reduced anxiety- and depression-related behavior. It is likely other lactobacillus species also provide this benefit, but this was the only one that was tested.

It’s important to realize that you have neurons both in your brain and your gut — including neurons that produce neurotransmitters like serotonin. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain! Perhaps this is one reason why antidepressants, which raise serotonin levels in yourbrain, are often ineffective in treating depression, whereas proper dietary changes often help…

Your Gut Bacteria Are Vulnerable to Your Diet and Lifestyle

Processed, refined foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast, so limiting or eliminating these from your diet should be at the top of your list. Following my recently revised nutrition plan is a simple way to automatically reduce your intake of sugar from all sources. Processed foods wreak havoc on your gut in a number of different ways:

• First, they are typically loaded with sugar, and avoiding sugar (particularly fructose) is in my view, based on the evidence, a critical aspect of preventing and/or treating depression. Not only will sugar compromise your beneficial gut bacteria by providing the preferred fuel for pathogenic bacteria, it also contributes to chronic inflammation throughout your body, including your brain.
• Many contain artificial sweeteners and other synthetic additives that can wreak havoc with brain health. In fact, depression and panic attacks are two of the reported side effects of aspartame. Preliminary findings presented at the 65th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology also report that drinking sweetened beverages―whether they’re sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners—is associated with an increased risk of depression.7
• Processed foods are also typically loaded with refined grains, which turn into sugar in your body. Wheat in particular has also been implicated in psychiatric problems, from depression to schizophrenia, due to Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA), which has neurotoxic activity.
• The majority of processed foods also contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients (primarily corn and soy), which have been shown to be particularly detrimental to beneficial bacteria. There are several mechanisms of harm at work here. For example:
  • Eating genetically engineered Bt corn may turn your intestinal flora into a sort of “living pesticide factory,” essentially manufacturing Bt-toxin from within your digestive system on a continuing basis
  • Beneficial gut bacteria are very sensitive to residual glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup). Due to mounting resistance, GE Roundup Ready crops are being drenched with increasing amounts of this toxic herbicide. Studies have already confirmed that glyphosate alters and destroys beneficial gut flora in animals, as evidenced by the increasing instances of lethal botulism in cattle
  • Recent research also reveals that your gut bacteria are a key component of glyphosate’s mechanism of harm, as your gut microbes have the identical pathway used by glyphosate to kill weeds!

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to and can be harmed by:

Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary (and when you do, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods and/or a probiotics supplement)	Conventionally-raised meats and other animal products, as CAFO animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plusgenetically engineered grains, which have also been implicated in the destruction of gut flora
Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water	Antibacterial soap

How to Reseed Your Gut Flora

Considering the fact that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, reseeding your gut with healthy bacteria is important for the prevention of virtually ALL disease, both physical and mental. The first step is to clean up your diet and lifestyle by avoiding the items listed above. Then, to actively reseed your gut with beneficial bacteria, you’ll want to:

• Radically reduce your sugar intake. I’m being repetitive here, to drive home the point that you can take the best fermented foods and/or probiotic supplements, but if you fail to reduce your sugar intake you will sabotage your efforts to rebuild your gut flora. This would be similar to driving your car with one foot on the accelerator and one on the brake simultaneously. Simply not a good strategy at all. When you consume sugar at the level of the typical American you are virtually guaranteed to have a preponderance of pathogenic bacteria, yeast and fungi, no matter what supplements you are taking.
• Eat traditionally fermented, unpasteurized foods: Fermented foods are the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Some of the beneficial bacteria found in fermented foods are also excellent chelators of heavy metals and pesticides, which will also have a beneficial health effect by reducing your toxic load. Healthy choices include:
  • Fermented vegetables
  • Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
  • Fermented milk, such as kefir
  • Natto (fermented soy)

Ideally, you want to eat a variety of fermented foods to maximize the variety of bacteria you’re consuming. Fermented vegetables, which are one of my new passions, are an excellent way to supply beneficial bacteria back into our gut. And, unlike some other fermented foods, they tend to be palatable, if not downright delicious, to most people.

As an added bonus, they can also be a great source of vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. We tested samples of high-quality fermented organic vegetables made with our specific starter culture, and a typical serving (about two to three ounces) contained not only 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, it also had 500 mcg of vitamin K2, which we now know is a vital co-nutrient to both vitamin D and calcium. Most high-quality probiotics supplements will only supply you with a fraction of the beneficial bacteria found in such homemade fermented veggies, so it’s your most economical route to optimal gut health as well.

• Take a high-quality probiotic supplement. Although I’m not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are an exception if you don’t eat fermented foods on a regular basis.

Nurture Your Gut for Optimal Health and Mental Well-Being

Foods have an immense impact on your body and your brain, and eating whole foods as described in my nutrition plan is the best way to support your mental and physical health.

Mounting research indicates the bacterial colonies residing in your gut may in fact play key roles in the development of brain, behavioral and emotional problems—from depression to ADHD, autism and more serious mental illness like schizophrenia. Certainly, when you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there’s no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it’s easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.

Cultured foods like raw milk yogurt and kefir, some cheeses, and fermented vegetables are good sources of natural, healthy bacteria. So my strong recommendation would be to make cultured or fermented foods a regular part of your diet; this can be your primary strategy to optimize your body’s good bacteria.

If you do not eat fermented foods on a regular basis, taking a high-quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended. A probiotic supplement can be incredibly useful to help maintain a well-functioning digestive system when you stray from your healthy diet and consume excess grains or sugar, or if you have to take antibiotics.

Sources and References

• 1 Yahoo.com July 12, 2013
• 2 Gastroentorology 2013 Jun;144(7):1394-1401
• 3 UCLA May 28, 2013
• 4 Yahoo.com July 12, 2013
• 5 Neurogastroenterology and Motility 2011 Dec;23(12):1132-9
• 6 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2011 Sep 20;108(38):16050-5.
• 7 WebMD January 8, 2013

Historically, many medical products have not been tested for use in children, leading to an increase in adverse events and the use of ineffective products.

Murphy notes that young children and neonates require the development of a new directional endpoint that can better help us to not treat children with our best guess, but with knowledge.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

It’s now been fifteen years since Merck’s chickenpox (varicella) vaccine was approved for market.

What had always been regarded as a relatively benign childhood illness was suddenly reinvented in the 1990s as a life-threatening disease for which children must get vaccinated or face dire health consequences.

But wait—Merck to the rescue!

As is true with many new and potentially unnecessary medical interventions used on a widespread basis, there are often unintended consequences. The chickenpox (varicella) vaccine is a perfect example.

By trying to prevent all children from experiencing chickenpox naturally, this policy may have actually created a NEW epidemic—not in children but in adults, especially elderly adults.

Vaccinating children for chickenpox may very well be causing a shingles epidemic.

Chickenpox—Another False Epidemic

Before the live virus chickenpox vaccine was licensed in the United States in 1995, most children acquired a natural, long-lasting immunity to chickenpox by age six. For 99.9 percent of healthy children, chickenpox is a mild disease without complications.

It is estimated there were about 3.7 million cases of chickenpox annually in the U.S. before 1995, resulting in an average of 100 deaths (50 children and 50 adults, most of whom were immunocompromised). This hardly represents a dire, life-threatening epidemic that requires mass vaccination of all children!

Chickenpox is caused by the varicella zoster virus, which is a member of the herpesvirus family and is associated with herpes zoster (shingles). Chickenpox is highly contagious but typically produces a mild disease characterized by small round lesions on your skin that cause intense itching. Chickenpox lasts for two to three weeks, and recovery leaves a child with long lasting immunity.

Half of all cases of chickenpox occur in children ages five to nine. Before the vaccine was licensed in 1995 and states started passing laws mandating that children get it to attend school, it was estimated that only 10 percent of Americans over the age of 15 had not had chickenpox.

Up to 20 percent of adults who get chickenpox develop severe complications such as pneumonia, secondary bacterial infections, and brain inflammation (which is reported in less than one percent of children who get chickenpox). Most children and adults who develop these serious complications have compromised immune systems or other health problems.

Although chickenpox is typically not dangerous, there is a related disease that is more of a cause for concern: shingles.

Chickenpox’s Evil Cousin: Shingles

Chickenpox and shingles are related. They are caused by similar viruses, both in the herpesvirus family. After you recover from chickenpox, the virus can remain dormant (“asleep”) in your nerve roots for many years, unless it is awakened by some triggering factor such as physical or emotional stress. When awakened, it presents itself as shingles rather than chickenpox.

Shingles is marked by pain and often a blister-like rash on one side of your body, left or right. Other symptoms can include headache and flu-like symptoms. Shingles typically runs its course in three to five weeks.

Although very painful, most people who get shingles will recover without serious complications and will not get it a second time. However, in people with weakened immune systems, shingles complications can be severe or life threatening. The most common complication is postherpetic neuralgia, or PHN, where the pain may last for months or even years after the rash has healed. The pain is caused by damaged nerve fibers, which then persist in sending pain messages to your brain.

Other less frequent complications include bacterial skin infections, Hutchinson’s sign, Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, motor neuropathy, meningitis, hearing loss, blindness, and bladder impairment.

A person with shingles can infect someone who hasn’t had chickenpox, who may then develop chickenpox rather than shingles.

If you do develop shingles, as I mentioned earlier this summer, you can use topical honey to treat shingles symptoms and it appears to work better than the drugs.

Chickenpox is Nature’s Way of Protecting You from Shingles

Nature has devised an elegant plan for protecting you from the shingles virus.

After contracting and recovering from chickenpox (usually as a child), as you age, your natural immunity gets asymptomatically “boosted” by coming into contact with infected children, who are recovering from chickenpox. This natural “boosting” of natural immunity to the varicella (chickenpox) virus helps protect you from getting shingles later in life.

This is true whether you are a child, adolescent, young adult, or elderly—every time you come into contact with someone infected with chickenpox, you get a natural “booster shot” that protects you from a painful—and expensive—bout with shingles.

In other words, shingles can be prevented by ordinary contact, such as receiving a hug from a grandchild who is getting or recovering from the chickenpox. But with the advent of the chickenpox vaccine, there is less chickenpox around to provide that natural immune boost for children AND adults.

So as chickenpox rates have declined, shingles rates have begun to rise, and there is mounting evidence that an epidemic of shingles is developing in America from the mass, mandatory use of the chickenpox vaccine by all children.

As hard as scientists try to come up with ways to “improve” human biology, they just can’t outsmart Mother Nature.. In trying to tinker with the natural order of things, we tend to destroy processes that nature has masterfully orchestrated to keep us healthy.

This dance between chickenpox and shingles is a perfect example.

Vaccine Protection is Only Temporary

The chickenpox (varicella) vaccine is made from live, attenuated (weakened) varicella virus. But chickenpox vaccine provides only TEMPORARY immunity, and even that immunity is not the same kind of superior, longer lasting immunity that you get when you recover naturally from chickenpox.

It’s important to realize that naturally acquiring a case of chickenpox is the ONLY way you can establish longer lasting immunity that will protect you until you come in contact with younger children with chickenpox and are asymptomatically boosted, which will not only reinforce your chickenpox immunity but will also help protect you against getting a painful case of shingles later in life.

When the chickenpox vaccine was licensed for public use in 1995, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimated it was 70 to 90 percent effective in preventing disease. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) later reported, “The effectiveness of the vaccine is 44 percent against disease of any severity and 86 percent against moderate or severe disease.”

But the vaccine may be LESS effective than that—around 40 percent—according to an investigation of a chickenpox outbreak among 23 children at a New Hampshire daycare center. The outbreak began with a child who had already been vaccinated.

And a Washington Post article reported that, in another outbreak, 75 percent of the children who came down with chickenpox had previously been vaccinated for it!

It is also interesting to note that most 10 year-old children with no known history of chickenpox are actually immune.

A study in Quebec, Canada, involving 2,000 fourth graders was done to determine the proportion of children who would need to be vaccinated in a “catch-up” program.

Of the youngsters with negative or unknown chickenpox histories, 63 percent had antibodies against the virus, presumably from having had such a mild case that they didn’t even realize they had it. This isn’t terribly surprising given that healthy children occasionally have minimal symptoms (such as a low fever and headache), without manifestation of blisters, indistinguishable from a mild case of the flu.

Bottom line is, the vast majority of children who do NOT get the chickenpox vaccine wind up immune to chickenpox anyway.

The Chickenpox Vaccine Itself Can Cause Injury or Death

As is true with most vaccines, mass use of the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine has been followed by many reports of serious reactions, injuries and deaths.

Before consenting to your child’s receiving this vaccine, consider the following:

• Between March 1995 and July 1998, the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) received 6,574 reports of health problems after chickenpox vaccination. This translates to: one in 1,481 chickenpox vaccinations is followed by an adverse health event.
• Four percent of reported adverse events (about 1 in 33,000 doses) involves  serious health problems such as shock, encephalitis (brain inflammation), and thrombocytopenia (a blood disorder)
• 14 of the 6,574 chickenpox vaccine adverse event reports ended in death
• As a result of the reported vaccine reactions, 17 warnings for adverse events were added to the manufacturer’s product label AFTER the vaccine was licensed and being used on a mass basis (including cellulitis, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and shingles)
• There have been documented cases of accidental transmission of varicella vaccine strain virus from a vaccinated child to household contacts, including transmission to a pregnant woman
• Adverse vaccine events are notoriously underreported—by as much as 90 percent, according to some experts—making the safety profile potentially even worse than the above statistics would suggest

The chickenpox vaccine may be even more risky when combined with other vaccines, like MMR.

According to Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC):

“We have been getting reports from parents that their children are suffering high fevers, chickenpox lesions, shingles, brain damage and dying after chicken pox vaccination, especially when the vaccine is given at the same time with MMR and other vaccines.”

Many questions remain unanswered.

For example, will a young pregnant woman, who got varicella vaccine as a child instead of recovering from natural chickenpox, pass on vaccine induced antibodies to her newborn baby like mothers used to pass on natural maternal antibodies to chickenpox to their newborns?

This is one of many questions about mass use of chickenpox vaccine that is being debated today.

The Birth of an Epidemic

Now, 15 years into the mass use of chickenpox (varicella) vaccine , there are signs a shingles epidemic is underway.

This is not surprising when you consider that the mechanism keeping shingles largely at bay has been drastically reduced, if not eliminated because older children and adults are no longer coming into contact with younger children experiencing chickenpox and there is less and less natural “boosting” of immunity occurring in our population.

The natural “herd” immunity to chickenpox among Americans is being lost and we are becoming vaccine dependent. PLUS a shingles epidemic is taking shape.

Research done by Gary S. Goldman, Ph.D. who served for eight years as a Research Analyst with the Varicella Active Surveillance Project in Los Angeles County with funding from the CDC, revealed higher rates of shingles in Americans since the government’s 1995 recommendation that all children receive chickenpox vaccine.

According to an article describing his work:

“Dr. Goldman’s findings have corroborated other independent researchers who estimate that if chickenpox were to be nearly eradicated by vaccination, the higher number of shingles cases could continue in the U.S. for up to 50 years; and that while death rates from chickenpox are already very low, any deaths prevented by vaccination will be offset by deaths from increasing shingles disease. (Emphasis mine)

Goldman was so concerned about an epidemic of shingles that he has co-written a book on the matter, entitled The Chickenpox Vaccine: A New Epidemic of Disease and Corruption.

Dr. Goldman isn’t the only one who is concerned about a potential shingles epidemic.

A team at Britain’s Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) found that adults living with children enjoy higher levels of protection from shingles. They stated that, although chickenpox can be life threatening for the immune compromised, thousands of elderly people could also die from the complications of shingles. PHLS called for a re-evaluation of the policy of mass chickenpox vaccination in the U.S., as well as other countries implementing this practice.

For decades, shingles was thought to increase with age as older individuals’ immune systems weakened. However, research suggests this phenomenon is more a result of the fact that older people receive fewer natural boosts to immunity as their contacts with young children decline.

In fact, the effectiveness of the chickenpox vaccine itself depends on natural boosting, so as chickenpox disease rates decline, so will the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Are These Predictions Coming True?

Absolutely.

The incidence of adult shingles has increased by 90 percent from 1998 to 2003, following the release of the chickenpox vaccine for mass use. Shingles results in three times as many deaths and five times as many hospitalizations as chickenpox, andaccounts for 75 percent of all medical costs associated with the varicella zoster virus.

Even children are beginning to come down with shingles, as evidenced by school nurse reports since 2000, which was one of the concerns prompting Dr. Goldman to warn the CDC that it may be bringing about a shingles epidemic.

Prior to chickenpox vaccination, shingles was seen only in adults.

All evidence points to the fact that we have traded a relatively mild illness (chickenpox), which does NOT involve complications for 99.9 percent of healthy children, for a more serious illness in our elderly (shingles) that has the potential for compromising the health of an entire population.

Another peer-reviewed article by Dr. Goldman presents a cost-benefit analysis of the chickenpox vaccination program, with disturbing findings. chickenpox (varicella) vaccine would have to be universally used for at least 50 years to demonstrate a cost benefit, due to the substantial additional medical cost of a shingles epidemic. This is CLEARLY not worth it, when chickenpox disease presented such minimal risk to society in the first place!

What do you think was the CDC’s answer to a potential shingles epidemic, when presented with Goldman’s findings?

Another vaccine—of course.

Merck – the pharmaceutical giant that makes the chickenpox vaccine – rides in on their white horse with the very answer the CDC was hoping for: A shingles vaccine! Yes, shingles vaccine was developed by the same manufacturer who markets and is the sole source of chickenpox vaccine in America.

What an incredible profit-making scheme – the same drug company that profits from mass, mandatory use of the chicken pox vaccine also profits from sales of a shingles vaccine in a market created by the chickenpox vaccine!

Sound the Horns! Merck “to the Rescue”—Again!

The FDA approved Merck’s shingles vaccine (Zostavax) for use in people age 60 and older in May of 2006. So they have come out with a vaccine (shingles) to reverse the damages to your health caused by their earlier vaccine (chickenpox).

Sound familiar?

It is very much like the polypharmacy used to “treat” chronic disease. You get a drug to supposedly make you better, but it causes adverse side effects, so you are given another drug to treat those side effects. Then, THAT drug creates more problems, and pretty soon, no one can tell what’s causing what, and down the drain of poor health you go.

Meanwhile, you are taking a long list of drugs, and the only people truly benefiting are the pharmaceutical companies who make money each step of the way.

In the case of varicella vaccines, they are profiting from the cause of an epidemic, as well as the supposed cure…

But is it REALLY a cure? Will a shingles vaccine prevent a shingles epidemic?

Vaccines: Public Health or Profit Center

Adult vaccination programs have rarely proved successful.

The cost of the shingles vaccine itself ($200) is prohibitive, especially for many older Americans struggling to meet monthly expenses on fixed incomes. Research shows that few adults are making use of it.

And what unanticipated health effects might the shingles vaccine have on the elderly—particularly those who are immunosuppressed or already challenged with chronic illness or cancer?

The conflicts of interest between vaccine manufacturers and vaccine researchers, and government bodies entangled with both, represent another layer of trouble.

How reliable and unbiased is the vaccine information you get if it’s provided by researchers with financial ties to both vaccine manufacturers and government health agencies promoting mass, mandatory use of vaccines?

In the words of Dr. Goldman:

“When research is sponsored by agencies that promote vaccination, and reimbursed by the pharmaceutical company itself, and receive enrichment by immunizing children, my experience is that they demonstrate certain biases which allow them to continue operating as profit centers and unfortunately, at least sometimes promoting vaccination to the detriment of public health.”

Hundreds of Vaccines on the Way

U.S. public health doctors say your child should receive 69 doses of 16 different vaccines before age 18. And 145 more are on the way! Yes, believe it or not, Big Pharma has 145 more vaccines in the pipeline and most are in their final stages of approval, in clinical trials or under FDA review.

Vaccine Awareness Week: November 1 — November 6, 2010

Mercola.com & the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) have dedicated the first week of November as Vaccine Awareness Week!

In a collaborative effort to raise public awareness about important vaccination issues, Dr. Joseph Mercola and NVIC have been publishing a series of articles and interviews on vaccine topics of interest to Mercola.com newsletter subscribers and NVIC Vaccine E-newsletter readers. The article you’ve just finished reading is one of those.

Vaccine Awareness Week arose from the following shared goals:

1. Raising public awareness about the need to take an active role in preventing vaccine injuries and deaths
2. Protecting and expanding legal exemptions to vaccination by securing broad medical, religious and conscientious belief exemptions in all state vaccine laws
3. Promoting the human right to voluntary, informed consent to medical risk-taking, including vaccination
4. Raising funds for NVIC, a non-profit charity that has been working since 1982 to educate the public about vaccination and defend the ethical principle of informed consent.

My Appeal to You

Don’t sit this one out! We’ve got them “on the run.”

Tell everyone. Tell your friends, your family. With a little bit of effort, you can make significant strides toward preserving your freedom to make VOLUNTARY health care choices – including vaccination choices – that affect you and your children’s health and future.

This week, NVIC has launched the NVIC Advocacy Portal , an online interactive database and communications network, that gives you the tools you need to take action to protect legal, medical, religious and conscientious belief exemptions to vaccination in YOUR state.

Go there now and register! And while you’re at it, please make a donation to NVIC so they can continue fighting to preserve our freedom of make voluntary health choices.

Your Donations to the NVIC help fund efforts that raise vaccine awareness, including the following excellent vaccine resources:

• State Vaccine Requirements
• Influenza Mini Guide Ebook
• Special Report: Influenza Vaccine Mandates Ineffective & Unwise
• Are You Over Vaccinating Your Child?
• Vaccine Ingredients Calculator
• How to Legally Avoid Immunizations

For information about legally avoiding immunizations in Canada, please see the Canadian Vaccination Liberation website www.vaclib.org. For more vaccine related news and information, visit the Mercola vaccine information site.

Stay tuned to this newsletter for more updates, or follow the National Vaccine Information Center on Facebook. Together we CAN make a difference!

Sources and References

• National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)
• Chickenpox: The Disease & The Vaccine Fact Sheet
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Fortunately, there are plenty of tricks to keeping biting bugs at bay, and they don’t involve applying toxic chemicals to your skin. There are also many natural remedies that can help take the sting out of your bites, should preventive methods fail.

The Most Common Offenders…

The featured article in Medical News Today1 offers an excellent and extensive overview of a wide variety of bug bites, their signs and symptoms and potential side effects, which can range from mild to severe (allergic reactions):

“When insects bite they release a form of saliva that can cause inflammation, blisters and irritation. Insect bite signs and symptoms vary, depending on the type of insect and the individual’s sensitivity.

While one person may just have a small, itchy lump that clears away in a few days, somebody else can have a more serious reaction, such as papular urticaria — crops of small papules and wheals, which may become infected or lichenified (thickened and leathery) because of rubbing and excoriation.”

WebMD also has a helpful “Bad Bugs Slideshow” to help you identify some 28 different types of bugs and their bites.2 Some of the most common biting insects include:

Fortunately, it’s fairly rare to catch diseases from most insect bites if you live in countries far away from the equator, such as northern parts of Europe, United States, and Canada. The closer you are to the equator, the risk of being bit by mosquitoes and other insects carrying diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness, yellow fever, encephalitis, West Nile virus and dengue fever increases.

Ticks, however, can spread human babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Lyme disease—one of the most serious and controversial epidemics of our time—regardless of your geographical location. To avoid ticks, make sure to tuck your pants into socks and wear closed shoes and a hat—especially if venturing out into wooded areas.

Simple Preventative Measures to Avoid Mosquito Bites

Mosquitoes are probably the most pervasive when it comes to biting bugs that can ruin an otherwise pleasant outing. There are over 3,000 different species of mosquitoes throughout the world, about 200 of which occur in the US. Naturally, the best way to avoid mosquito bites is to prevent coming into contact with them in the first place.

You can avoid most assaults by staying inside around dawn and dusk, which is when they are most active. If you must be out during those times, wear light-colored, long sleeved shirts and long pants, hats and socks. Mosquitoes are also thicker in shrubby areas and near standing water.

Body temperature and skin chemicals like lactic acid also attract mosquitoes, which explains why you’re more likely to be “eaten alive” when you’re sweaty, such as during or after exercise, so trying to stay as cool and dry as you can may help to some degree. You may also want to forgo bananas during mosquito season. According to Dr. Janet Starr Hull, “there’s something about how your body processes the banana oil that attracts these female sugar-loving insects.”

She also recommends supplementing with one vitamin B1 tablet a day from April through October, and then adding 100 mg of B1 to a B100 Complex daily during the mosquito season to make you less attractive to mosquitoes. Research also suggests that regularly consuming garlic or garlic capsules may help protect against both mosquito and tick bites. The American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) has a helpful factsheet3 of things you can do to prevent mosquito breeding on your property. The Three D’s of protection from mosquitoes are:

• Drain—Mosquitoes require water in which to breed, so carefully drain any and all sources of standing water around your house and yard, including pet bowls, gutters, garbage and recycling bins, spare tires, bird baths and so on
• Dress—Light colored, loose fitting clothing offer the greatest protection
• Defend—While the AMCA recommends using commercial repellents, I highly recommend avoiding most chemical repellents, especially those containing DEET. Instead, try some of the natural alternatives suggested in this article

Bat houses are becoming increasingly popular since bats are voracious consumers of insects, especially mosquitoes. For more on buying a bat house or constructing one yourself, visit the Organization for Bat Conservation.4 Planting marigolds around your yard also works as a bug repellent because the flowers give off a fragrance that bugs do not like. This is a great way to ward off mosquitoes without using chemical insecticides. A simple house fan could also help keep mosquitoes at bay if you’re having a get-together in your backyard.

Steer Clear of Chemical Repellents, Especially DEET

Currently, DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) is used in more than 230 different products — in concentrations of up to an astounding 100 percent. If a chemical melts plastic or fishing line, it’s not wise to apply it to your skin — and that is exactly what DEET does.

Duke University Medical Center pharmacologist Mohamed Abou-Donia spent 30 years researching the effects of pesticides. He discovered that prolonged exposure to DEET can impair cell function in parts of your brain — demonstrated in the lab by death and behavioral changes in rats with frequent or prolonged DEET use. Children are particularly at risk for subtle brain changes because their skin more readily absorbs chemicals in the environment and chemicals more potently affect their developing nervous systems. Other potential side effects DEET exposure include:

Another potentially harmful chemical found in many bug sprays5 is permethrin. This chemical is a member of the synthetic pyrethroid family, all of which are neurotoxins. The EPA has even deemed this chemical carcinogenic, capable of causing lung tumors, liver tumors, immune system problems, and chromosomal abnormalities. Permethrin is also damaging to the environment, and it is particularly toxic to bees and aquatic life. It should also be noted that permethrin is highly toxic to cats.6 Even a few drops can be lethal to your feline pet. It is used as an ingredient in some topical flea products, so when you see “for dogs only” on the label, it likely contains permethrin. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently released an extensive review of the safety (or lack thereof) of virtually all bug repellant ingredients7.

Keeping Insects at Bay the Natural Way

Fortunately, there are highly effective repellents on the market comprised of natural botanical oils and extracts that are every bit as effective as DEET, but with none of the potentially harmful effects. You can also make your own repellent using:

• Cinnamon leaf oil (one study found it was more effective at killing mosquitoes than DEET)
• Clear liquid vanilla extract mixed with olive oil
• Wash with citronella soap, and then put some 100% pure citronella essential oil on your skin. Java Citronella is considered the highest quality citronella on the market
• Catnip oil (according to one study, this oil is 10 times more effective than DEET)8

Another option is to use the safe solution I have formulated to repel mosquitoes, fleas, chiggers, ticks, and other biting insects. It’s a natural insect spray with a combination of citronella, lemongrass oil, peppermint oil, and vanillin, which is a dynamite blend of natural plant extracts. In fact, an independent study showed my bug spray to be more effective than a product containing 100 percent DEET. And it’s safe for you, your children, and your pets.

Treating Bites and Stings with Herbs and Other Natural Agents

Once you’ve been bitten, the objective changes from repelling to treating the itch and inflammation caused by the bite. Fortunately, many herbs and other natural agents are soothing to the skin, and many have anti-inflammatory properties. So for your occasional mosquito bites, try one of the following:

Swiping a cooled tea bag over your bites can also help, as the tannins in the tea acts as an astringent, reducing swelling. For bites all over your body, try soaking in a bathtub of warm water with two to three cups of apple cider vinegar added to it. The acidity of the vinegar can help stop the maddening itch. Alternatively, dissolve some baking soda in your bath and soak for about 30 minutes. You can also mix some baking soda with a small amount of water or witch hazel to create a paste, and apply directly to the bite. The witch hazel works synergistically with the baking soda, making for a more potent mix to reduce swelling.

Hot or Cold Therapies Can Take the Sting Out of a Bug Bite

Using either ice or heat are other options that can help ease the discomfort associated with bug bites. For example, an article inScientific American9 recommends using a simple ice pack to treat painful insect bites in lieu of analgesics. The article also explains why common topical steroids like hydrocortisone aren’t always the answer—one reason being that you’re not supposed to put them on broken skin.

According to an article published in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin10 just last year, there is also little direct evidence supporting the efficacy of commercial preparations for insect bites, including antihistamines and topical corticosteroids. The authors concluded that the best course of action for mild local reactions is to simply clean the area and apply a cold compress.

Alternatively, applying heat directly to the bite also appears to relieve itchiness. One simple way is to apply a heated spoon directly to the area, as demonstrated by Lifehacker.com.11 Just hold the spoon under hot tap water for about a minute to heat the metal, then press it against the bite for a couple of minutes. Naturally, make sure the spoon is not too hot. It shouldn’t be scalding enough to actually hurt, so please use some common sense, and make sure to test it on your own skin before applying the heated utensil to a child. The receptors that respond to heat are the same ones that respond to cold, so you will likely achieve the same benefits with a metal spoon taken from your freezer, or simply rubbing ice cubes on it. I have also found that covering the bite with tape works really well to suppress the itch.

A more high-tech version of a heated spoon is the Therapik—a handheld wand that provides targeted heat for the treatment of itchy bites from a range of insects, including mosquitoes, bees, wasps, hornets, black flies, ants, fleas, ticks, chiggers, as well as jellyfish and stinging nettles. Gizmodo12 tested it, and determined that it works as advertised, giving it four out of five stars:

“You put the tip of the Therapik onto your bug bite, then you press and hold down the button. The tip uses light to heat the bite up. You hold it there for as long as you can take it, up to a minute. The burning sensation gets pretty intense after 30 seconds or so… It actually works! Mosquito bites (the only thing we tested it with) stopped itching within a few seconds of taking it off, and in most cases they never itched again. We are officially stunned. … It works on the principle that most insect venom is thermolabile (sensitive to heat). Therapik claims to deliver “heat in the precise temperature range necessary to deactivate the venom from over 20,000 different species of insects and sea creatures.”

A German study13 published in 2011 confirms the hypothesis of such claims. Testing another medical device called Bite Away, they concluded that:

“Locally administrated concentrated heat leads to fast amelioration of symptoms [swelling, pruritus and pain]. Usually an absence of symptoms is noticeable 10 minutes after administration. Pain reduction is the dominant effect.”

To Enjoy the Outdoors, a Little Preparation and Planning Can Go a Long Way

With a little planning and preparation, you should be able to enjoy the outdoors without getting eaten alive. Remember the Three D’s of protection from mosquitoes: drain, dress, and defend. Eliminating the breeding grounds for mosquitoes is the first step to limiting their numbers. Planting marigolds around your yard and maybe installing a bat box or two can also go a long way toward preventing them in the first place.

When it comes to defense, I recommend avoiding harsh chemical concoctions and experimenting with some natural alternatives instead. Some may work better than others for each individual, as mosquitoes in particular are attracted to certain biochemical components in your skin.

Should your preventive measures fail, there are well over a dozen different home remedies that can help, from herbs to baking soda to ice packs or heat, whether in the form of a heated or cold spoon, compress, or electronic gadget, or maybe even just a piece of tape.

Sources and References

• 1 Medical News Today December 16, 2009
• 2 Webmd.com Bad Bugs Slideshow
• 3 Mosquito.org Factsheet (PDF)
• 4 Batconservation.org
• 5 Time July 17, 2013
• 6 Richardson J A. (March 1, 2000); Permethrin hazards for cats” ASPCA Veterinary Poison Control Center
• 7 Environmental Working Group, Bug Repellents Report (PDF)
• 8 Science Daily August 28, 2001
• 9 Scientific American April 16, 2012
• 10 Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin 2012;50:45-48
• 11 Lifehacker.com June 30, 2013
• 12 Gizmodo August 16, 2012
• 13 Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2011; 4: 191–196

A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and one in four are either diabetic or pre-diabetic.

Carb-rich processed foods are a primary driver of these statistics, and while many blame Americans’ overindulgence of processed junk foods on lack of self-control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly addictive nature of such foods.

Most recently, researchers at the Boston Children’s Hospital concluded that highly processed carbohydrates stimulate brain regions involved in reward and cravings, promoting excess hunger.1 As reported by Science Daily:2

“These findings suggest that limiting these ‘high-glycemic index’ foods could help obese individuals avoid overeating.”

While I don’t agree with the concept of high glycemic foods, it is important that they are at least thinking in the right direction. Also, the timing is ironic, considering the fact that the American Medical Association (AMA) recently declared obesity adisease, treatable with a variety of conventional methods, from drugs to novel anti-obesity vaccines…

The featured research is on the mark, and shows just how foolhardy the AMA’s financially-driven decision really is. Drugs and vaccines are clearly not going to doanything to address the underlying problem of addictive junk food.

Brain Imaging Shows Food Addiction Is Real

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition3 examined the effects of high-glycemic foods on brain activity, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). One dozen overweight or obese men between the ages of 18 and 35 each consumed one high-glycemic and one low-glycemic meal. The fMRI was done four hours after each test meal. According to the researchers:

“Compared with an isocaloric low-GI meal, a high-glycemic index meal decreased plasma glucose, increased hunger, and selectively stimulated brain regions associated with reward and craving in the late postprandial period, which is a time with special significance to eating behavior at the next meal.”

The study demonstrates what many people experience: After eating a high-glycemic meal, i.e. rapidly digesting carbohydrates, their blood sugar initially spiked, followed by a sharp crash a few hours later. The fMRI confirmed that this crash in blood glucose intensely activated a brain region involved in addictive behaviors, known as the nucleus accumbens.

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism, weighed in on the featured research in an article by NPR:4

“As Dr. Robert Lustig… points out, this research can’t tell us if there’s a cause and effect relationship between eating certain foods and triggering brain responses, or if those responses lead to overeating and obesity.

‘[The study] doesn’t tell you if this is the reason they got obese,’ says Lustig, ‘or if this is what happens once you’re already obese.’ Nonetheless… he thinks this study offers another bit of evidence that ‘this phenomenon is real.’”

Previously, Dr. Lustig has explained the addictive nature of sugar as follows:

“The brain’s pleasure center, called the nucleus accumbens, is essential for our survival as a species… Turn off pleasure, and you turn off the will to live… But long-term stimulation of the pleasure center drives the process of addiction… When you consume any substance of abuse, including sugar, the nucleus accumbens receives a dopamine signal, from which you experience pleasure. And so you consume more.

The problem is that with prolonged exposure, the signal attenuates, gets weaker. So you have to consume more to get the same effect — tolerance. And if you pull back on the substance, you go into withdrawal. Tolerance and withdrawal constitute addiction. And make no mistake, sugar is addictive.”

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

Previous research has demonstrated that refined sugar is more addictive than cocaine, giving you pleasure by triggering an innate process in your brain via dopamine and opioid signals. Your brain essentially becomes addicted to stimulating the release of its own opioids.

Researchers have speculated that the sweet receptors located on your tongue, which evolved in ancestral times when the diet was very low in sugar, have not adapted to the seemingly unlimited access to a cheap and omnipresent sugar supply in the modern diet. Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal self-control mechanisms, thus leading to addiction.

But it doesn’t end there. Food manufacturers have gotten savvy to the addictive nature of certain foods and tastes, including saltiness and sweetness, and have turned addictive taste into a science in and of itself.

In a recent New York Times article,5 Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, dished the dirt on the processed food industry, revealing that there’s a conscious effort on behalf of food manufacturers to get you hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive to make. I recommend reading his article in its entirety, as it offers a series of case studies that shed light on the extraordinary science and marketing tactics that make junk food so hard to resist.

Sugar, salt and fat are the top three substances making processed foods so addictive. In a Time Magazine interview6discussing his book, Moss says:

“One of the things that really surprised me was how concerted and targeted the effort is by food companies to hit the magical formulation. Take sugar for example. The optimum amount of sugar in a product became known as the ‘bliss point.’ Food inventors and scientists spend a huge amount of time formulating the perfect amount of sugar that will send us over the moon, and send products flying off the shelves. It is the process they’ve engineered that struck me as really stunning.”

It’s important to realize that added sugar (typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup) is not confined to junky snack foods. For example, most of Prego’s spaghetti sauces have one common feature, and that is sugar—it’s the second largest ingredient, right after tomatoes. A half-cup of Prego Traditional contains the equivalent of more than two teaspoons of sugar.

Novel Flavor-Enhancers May Also Contribute to Food Addiction

Another guiding principle for the processed food industry is known as “sensory-specific satiety.” Moss describes this as “the tendency for big, distinct flavors to overwhelm your brain, which responds by depressing your desire to have more.” The greatest successes, whether beverages or foods, owe their “craveability” to complex formulas that pique your taste buds just enough, without overwhelming them, thereby overriding your brain’s inclination to say “enough.”

Novel biotech flavor companies like Senomyx also play an important role.

Senomyx specializes in helping companies find new flavors that allow them to use less salt and sugar in their foods. But does that really make the food healthier? This is a questionable assertion at best, seeing how these “flavor enhancers” are created using secret, patented processes. They also do not need to be listed on the food label, which leaves you completely in the dark. As of now, they simply fall under the generic category of artificial and/or natural flavors, and they don’t even need to be tested for safety, as they’re used in minute amounts.

This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices.

How to Combat Food Addiction and Regain Your Health

To protect your health, I advise spending 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent on processed foods. It’s important to realize that refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

By taking the advice offered in the featured study and cutting out these high-glycemic foods you can retrain your body to burn fat instead of sugar. However, it’s important to replace these foods with healthy fats, not protein—a fact not addressed in this research. I believe most people may need between 50-70 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthful fats, which include:

Olives and olive oil	Coconuts and coconut oil	Butter made from raw, organic grass-fed milk
Organic raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts, which are low in protein and omega-6 fat	Organic pastured eggs and pastured meats	Avocados

 

I’ve detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my comprehensive nutrition plan, and I urge you to consult this guide if you are trying to lose weight. A growing body of evidence also suggests that intermittent fasting is particularly effective if you’re struggling with excess weight as it provokes the natural secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), a fat-burning hormone. It also increases resting energy expenditure while decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine.

Best of all, once you transition to fat burning mode your cravings for sugar and carbs will virtually disappear, as if by magic… While you’re making the adjustment, you could try an energy psychology technique called Turbo Tapping, which has helped many sugar addicts kick their sweet habit. Other tricks to help you overcome your sugar cravings include:

• Exercise: Anyone who exercises intensely on a regular basis will know that significant amounts of cardiovascular exercise is one of the best “cures” for food cravings. It always amazes me how my appetite, especially for sweets, dramatically decreases after a good workout. I believe the mechanism is related to the dramatic reduction in insulin levels that occurs after exercise.
• Organic black coffee: Coffee is a potent opioid receptor antagonist, and contains compounds such as cafestrol — found plentifully in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee — which can bind to your opioid receptors, occupy them and essentially block your addiction to other opioid-releasing foods.7 This may profoundly reduce the addictive power of other substances, such as sugar.

[-] Sources and References

• 1 Psych Central June 29, 2013
• 2 Science Daily June 26, 2013
• 3 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition September 2013 [Epub ahead of print]
• 4 NPR.com June 26, 2013
• 5 New York Times February 20, 2013
• 6 Time magazine March 1, 2013
• 7 Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2012 Feb 14.

Visit the Fitness Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

Nearly 70 percent of costs associated with health care are due to preventable conditions, and new research confirms that spending long hours sitting down during commuting and working can play a significant role in the development of chronic disease.

In fact, a growing body of evidence suggests that sitting in and of itself is anindependent risk factor for poor health and premature death—even if you exercise regularly. Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the “active couch potato effect.”

Even the World Health Organization (WHO) now lists inactivity as the fourth biggest killer of adults, responsible for nine percent of premature deaths1.

In the video above, Dr. Jeff Spencer shares his tips on how to stay active at the workplace.Research by Dr. Joan Vernikos2, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division (one of the primary doctors assigned to keep the astronauts from deteriorating in space) and author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, shows that your body actually needs to perpetually interact with gravity through motion in order to function optimally.

Interestingly, with regard to counteracting the ill effects of sitting, simply standing up every 10 minutes or so is actually more effective than taking a walk. And, it’s not how long you stand up, but how many times you stand up that makes the difference.

How to Get More Active During Work Hours

A recent article in The Guardian3 offers several common sense tips for getting more movement into your day-to-day life, especially during work hours.

Using a pedometer will help you assess how many steps you take throughout your work day; then simply make a concerted effort to continuously increase the number of steps you take daily. Simple changes to the way you move about the office can add up, such as:

• Walking across the hall to talk to a coworker instead of sending an email
• Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
• Parking your car further away from the entrance
• Taking a longer, roundabout way to your desk

Another strategy that can help eliminate some of the sitting is to hold standing-only office meetings. This tends to discourage unnecessary discourse and make meetings more productive in less time. Making slight alterations to your individual work space can also make a difference. For example, you can:

• Organize the layout of your office space in such a way that you have to stand up to reach oft-used files, the telephone, or your printer, rather than having everything within easy reach. Ideally, you’ll want to stand up at least once every 10 minutes, or more, so simply moving one or more things you frequently reach for could allow you to build this kind of movement into your regular work day.
• Use an exercise ball for a chair. Unlike sitting in a chair, sitting on an exercise ball engages your core muscles and helps improve balance and flexibility. Occasional bouncing can also help your body interact with gravity to a greater degree than sitting on a stationary chair.
• Alternatively, use an upright wooden chair with no armrest, which will force you to sit up straight, and encourage shifting your body more frequently than a cushy office chair.
• Use a standing workstation. Standing rather than sitting while doing your work can also be a helpful option. For a demonstration on proper posture, whether you’re sitting or using a standing workstation, check out Kelly Starrett’s video in this previous article.

Mounting Evidence Indicts Sitting as Independent Risk Factor for Poor Health

In recent years, researchers have taken a serious look at the effects of inactivity, and have repeatedly found that not moving or engaging in very limited-range movements for extended periods of time has a profoundly negative impact on health and longevity. For example, a recent analysis4 of 18 studies (which in total included nearly 800,000 people) found that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, compared to those who sat the least. And, while prolonged sitting was linked to an overall greater mortality risk from any cause, the strongest link was to death due to diabetes.

According to lead researcher Thomas Yates, MD5:

“Even for people who are otherwise active, sitting for long stretches seems to be an independent risk factor for conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease.”

An earlier study6 highlighted much of the recent evidence linking sitting with biomarkers of poor metabolic health, showing how total sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems—even if you exercise regularly. In other words, even if you’re fairly physically active, riding your bike to work or hitting the gym four or five days a week — you may still succumb to the effects of too much sitting if the majority of your day is spent behind a desk. According to the authors:

“Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting — the activity that dominates most people’s remaining ‘non-exercise’ waking hours.”

What I Now Do to Interrupt My Sitting

Dr. Vernikos’ groundbreaking research into the health effects of anti-gravity situations may actually be among the most practical, as she has been able to determine what it is about uninterrupted sitting that robs you of your health, and what kind of movements will counteract this damage—and how much of it is required to make a difference. In essence, sitting prevents your body from interacting with and exerting itself against gravity. While not nearly as severe as the antigravity experienced by astronauts, uninterrupted sitting mimics a microgravity situation, which has the effect of accelerating the aging process.

Thankfully, Dr. Vernikos’ research shows that simply standing up, about 35 times a day or so, will counteract the cardiovascular health risks associated with uninterrupted sitting. This is based on double-blind research where volunteers would spend four days in bed to induce detrimental changes. She then tested two groups to see which was more effective, walking or standing, and how long you would have to walk, or how many times you’d have to stand up to get better again. Her findings revealed that:

• Standing up once every hour was more effective than walking on a treadmill for 15 minutes for cardiovascular and metabolic changes.
• Sitting down and standing up repeatedly for 32 minutes does NOT have the same effect as standing up once, 32 times over the course of a day. To get the benefit, the stimulus must be spread throughout the day.

After reading Dr. Vernikos’ book, Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, I was inspired to give some serious attention to this because even though I perform a lot of structured exercise, including high intensity interval training, I was guilty of sitting down a vast majority of the rest of the day. So what I’ve done is this: I found an online timer and set it to go off every 10 minutes. When it goes off, I stand up and do one of the following:

• Four jump squats. (I thought of this after looking at a table of different activities that increase your exposure to gravity in her book. One of them was jumping up and down, which gets you up to six times gravity. Squatting is an extension of standing, so if you squat and stand, you can get the maximum benefit of working against the force of gravity. By adding jumping to it—going from a squat to a jump, landing into a squat again—you end up with about 6.5 Gs)
• Stand up really slow and sit really slow five times doing a Foundation posture (which you can learn more about in thisprevious article), or
• Four or five one legged squats, alternating legs each period and for the third round, squatting with both legs. This will also go a long way towards building your leg strength and costs you nothing but a few minutes of your time

Sedentary Lifestyle Linked to More Harmful Body Fat

Your level of day-to-day activity also influences the type of fat your body accumulates, with more sedentary lifestyles being linked to higher levels of “white fat”—a type of fat that is less metabolically active than so-called “brown fat.” Brown fat is a heat-generating type of fat that burns energy instead of storing it, and this may have important implications when it comes to weight management. Previous research has shown that certain groups of people tend to have more brown fat than others, and there are direct correlations between the activation of brown fat and metabolic measures of good health.

For example:

• Slender people have more brown fat than obese people do
• Younger people have more brown fat than elderly people, and
• People with normal blood sugar levels have more brown fat than those with high blood sugar

Exercise, it turns out, helps transform white fat into healthier brown fat. Both mice and men participating in a recent study were found to respond to intense exercise in this way. As reported by Medical News Today7:

“The exercise regime had the men training on an exercise bicycle for 12 weeks and the mice running on an exercise wheel for 11 days. Compared to the original white fat caused by sedentary behavior, the new, browner fat, was much more metabolically active… Kristin Stanford, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said: ‘… It’s clear that when fat gets trained, it becomes browner and more metabolically active. We think there are factors being released into the bloodstream from the healthier fat that are working on other tissues.’

… Stanford says the findings provide even more motivation to go out and start exercising. Even if you don’t lost weight, the study suggests that exercising will still train your fat to be more metabolically active and improve overall metabolism and health.”

Keeping Active for Life

Avoiding sitting for long periods of time may at first seem “impossible” if you commute to a fulltime desk job, but really, all you need to do is alter the way you work and travel in small ways. For example, standing up every 10 minutes or so could easily compensate for the majority of the damage associated with sitting. Simply reorganizing your office space to be less convenient, forcing yourself to repeatedly get out of your chair, can help you build more physical movement into your workday.

It’s important to realize that while modern technology has ushered in an era of previously unfathomed speed, connectivity and productivity, it comes at a big price if you’re not careful about counteracting factors such as increased physical inactivity. The answer is quite simply to revert back to a lifestyle that incorporates natural movement, even if you have to devise “ploys” like moving your printer to the other side of the room, instead of having it on your desk within easy reach.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that your body needs perpetual movement in order to function optimally, and this includes bothnon-exercise movements, and a more regimented exercise plan. In the case of the latter, exercises in which you use your body the way it was designed to be used is quite clearly the most powerful way to optimize your health and fitness. High intensity interval training (HIIT) is an example of this.

This type of Peak Fitness exercise mimics the way ancient hunter-gatherers used their bodies, and research has again and again confirmed that HIIT outperforms traditional aerobic cardio exercise. That said, I believe it’s important to include a variety of exercises, as doing the same ones all the time will lead to a relative tolerance and will not provide your body with the variety of stresses it needs to continuously adapt, improve, and grow stronger. Four additional types that will turn your Peak Fitness regimen into a truly comprehensive exercise plan are:

1. Aerobic
2. Strength Training
3. Core Exercises (including Pilates, yoga, and/or Foundation Training)
4. Stretching

[-] Sources and References

• 1 Guardian July 1, 2013
• 2 Dr. Joan Vernikos
• 3 Guardian July 1, 2013
• 4 Diabetologia 2012: 55(11); 2895-2905
• 5 WebMD October 15, 2012
• 6 British Journal of Sports Medicine 2009;43:81-83
• 7 Medical News Today June 23, 2013

Sleep deprivation is such a pervasive condition in these days of artificial lights and non-stop entertainment, that you might not even realize you’re not getting enough sleep. It’s important to recognize that sleep is an absolutely crucial component of optimal health and disease prevention.

For example, the link between impaired sleep and cancer has been repeatedly confirmed. Tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions, primarily due to disrupted melatonin production.

Melatonin inhibits the proliferation of a wide range of cancer cell types, as well as triggering cancer cell apoptosis (self-destruction). The hormone also interferes with the new blood supply tumors required for their rapid growth (angiogenesis).

Poor sleep is also associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance and weight gain—two additional factors that also play an important role in cancer development.

Less Sleep = Higher Risk of Cancer

Most recently, a study published in the journal Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention1 found that men who had trouble sleeping were twice as likely to develop prostate cancer compared to those who slept well. According to the featured article:2

“This association was even stronger in cases of advanced prostate cancer, and the risk increased relative to the severity of the sleep problems… The lead researcher, Lara Sigurdardottir, Ph.D., expects that, ‘If our results are confirmed in future studies, sleep may become a potential target for intervention to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.”

Another recent study3 found that insufficient sleep may be a contributing factor in both the recurrence of breast cancer, and more aggressive forms of breast cancer among post-menopausal women. According to the study’s co-author Dr. Li Li:4

“Short sleep duration is a public health hazard leading not only to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, but also cancer… Effective intervention to increase duration of sleep and improve quality of sleep could be an under-appreciated avenue for reducing the risk of developing more aggressive breast cancers and recurrence.”

Sleeping less than six hours per night has also been implicated as a risk factor for colorectal adenomas, which may develop into cancer if left untreated. In fact, those who slept less than six hours a night were found to have a 50 percent increased risk compared to those who got seven hours or more of sleep per night.5

Insulin resistance and disrupted melatonin production are two potent mechanisms through which chronic sleep problems affect your cancer risk. The fact that poor sleep can have such a dramatic impact on insulin resistance is why I keep repeating that you simply cannot be optimally healthy unless you also sleep well—even if you eat right and exercise…

Insulin Resistance Drives Both Weight Gain and Cancer

In one 2005 study6 aptly titled: “Sleep loss: a novel risk factor for insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes,” the authors note that “sleep exerts marked modulatory effects on glucose metabolism.” Lack of sleep also decreases levels of the fat regulating hormone leptin while increasing the hunger hormone ghrelin. The resulting increase in hunger and appetite can easily lead to overeating and weight gain.

According to a recent study in the journal Sleep,7 later bedtimes correlate to greater weight gain even in healthy, non-obese people. Late-night snacking further increases that risk, which shouldn’t come as a great surprise. In fact, avoiding food at least three hours prior to bedtime is one of my standard recommendations as it helps to make sure that your body is burning fat as its primary fuel which will keep you lean. As reported in Medical News Today:8

“Andrea Spaeth and team had one group of participants sleeping just from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. each night for five nights running, and compared them to a control group who were in bed from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The investigators found that those who slept much less consumed more food, and therefore calories, compared to the normal-hours sleepers… Lead author, Andrea Spaeth… said:

‘Although previous epidemiological studies have suggested an association between short sleep duration and weight gain/obesity, we were surprised to observe significant weight gain during an in-laboratory study.’”

The link between insulin resistance/weight gain and cancer may be of particular concern for women… Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and obese women are thought to be up to 60 percent more likely to develop cancer than those of normal-weight. The reason for this increased risk is because many breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, a hormone produced in your fat tissue. So the more body fat you have, the more estrogen you’re likely to produce.

How Working the Night Shift May Affect Your Health

Confirming the need for regular sleep during night-time hours, researchers have also noted a link between night shift workers and higher rates of breast, prostate, colorectal cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Working the night shift also raises your risk of diabetes and obesity.

A Danish study published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine,9 found that women who worked night shifts were significantly more likely to develop breast cancer compared to those who did not work nights. After taking confounding effects into account, such as use of birth control pills, childbirth, hormone replacement therapy, age, and sunbathing, women who worked nights had an overall 40 percent higher risk of breast cancer. As reported by Time Magazine last year:10

“The effect was cumulative: women who worked at least three night shifts a week for six years had twice the risk of breast cancer as those who worked one to two night shifts a week. Most surprising, though, was the fact that women who worked night shifts and described themselves as being ‘morning’ people — that is, they preferred to wake up early, rather than stay up late at night — had a four times higher risk of breast cancer than women who worked during the day.”

Interestingly, this study was also able to discount vitamin D deficiency as a culprit, as night shift workers were found to have greater levels of sun exposure compared to those working indoors during the day. This suggests that hormone disruptions (such as the insulin, leptin, ghrelin and melatonin disruptions discussed above) play a key role in cancer development that vitamin D alone cannot counteract. So again, a healthy lifestyle simply isn’t complete without enough proper sleep.

What You Need to Know About Sleeping Pills

According to a recent report by The Sleep Council,11 nearly half of those polled responded that stress and worry keep them tossing and turning at night, and nearly seven million Americans resort to sleeping pills in order to get some rest. While it may be tempting to look for a pill to quickly help you sleep, they will not address any of the underlying causes of insomnia.

In fact, researchers have repeatedly shown that sleeping pills don’t work, but your brain is being tricked into thinking they do… In one meta-analytic study, they found that, on average, sleeping pills help people fall asleep approximately 10 minutes sooner. From a biomedical perspective, this is an insignificant improvement.

On average, sleeping pills increase total sleep time by about 15-20 minutes. But here is the catch: This study also discovered that while most sleeping pills created poor, fragmented sleep, they also created amnesia, so upon waking, the participants could not recall how poorly they’d actually slept! Worse yet, sleeping pills have also been linked to a wide variety of health hazards, including a nearly four-fold increase in the risk of death, along with a 35 percent increased risk of cancer.

Additionally, most people do not realize that over-the-counter (OTC) sleeping pills — can have a half life of about 18 hours. So, if you take them every night, you’re basically sedated much of the time. Not surprisingly, they’re associated with cognitive deficits in the morning. Trust me, there are far better, safer and more effective ways to get a good night’s sleep…

Tips to Help You Sleep Better

There are many variables that impact how well you sleep. I suggest you read through my full set of 33 healthy sleep guidelines for all of the details, but to start, making some adjustments to your sleeping area can go a long way to ensure uninterrupted, restful sleep.

1. Cover your windows with blackout shades or drapes to ensure complete darkness. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and the melatonin precursor serotonin, thereby disrupting your sleep cycle.

So close your bedroom door, get rid of night-lights, and refrain from turning on any light during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. If you have to use a light, install so-called “low blue” light bulbs in your bedroom and bathroom. These emit light that will not suppress melatonin production.

1. Keep the temperature in your bedroom at or below 70 degrees F (21 degrees Celsius). Many people keep their homes and particularly their upstairs bedrooms too warm. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees F (15.5 to 20°C). Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep.
2. Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can also disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well. To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to kill all power in your house.
3. Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your head. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least three feet.
4. Reduce use of light-emitting technology, such as your TV, iPad, and computer, before going to bed. These emit the type of light that will suppress melatonin production, which in turn will hamper your ability to fall asleep, as well as increase your cancer risk (melatonin helps to suppress harmful free radicals in your body and slows the production of estrogen, which can contribute to cancer). Ideally, you’ll want to turn all such light-emitting gadgets off at least one hour prior to bedtime.

As previously discussed by Dr. Rubin Naiman, a leader in integrative medicine approaches to sleep and dreams, sleep is the outcome of an interaction between two variables, namely sleepiness and what he refers to as “noise.” This is any kind of stimulation that inhibits or disrupts sleep. In order to get a good night’s sleep, you want your sleepiness level to be high, and the “noise” level to be low. Under normal conditions, your sleepiness should gradually increase throughout the day and evening, peaking just before you go to bed at night. However, if noise is conceptually greater than your level of sleepiness, you will not be able to fall asleep.

Total video Length: 1:02:37

Download Interview Transcript

Improving Your Sleep Hygiene Pays Off in Health Dividends

As you can see, you can have the healthiest diet on the planet, doing vegetable juicing and using fermented veggies, be as fit as an Olympic decathlete, be emotionally balanced, but if you aren’t sleeping well it is just a matter of time before it will adversely, and potentially seriously, affect your health. Sure, we all lose sleep here and there, and your body can adjust for temporary shortcomings, but if you develop a chronic pattern of sleeping less than five or six hours a night, then you’re increasing your risk of a number of health conditions, including insulin resistance and diabetes, weight gain, heart disease, and cancer.

To make your bedroom into a suitable sleep sanctuary, begin by making sure it’s pitch-black, cool, and quiet. Remember, even the tiniest bit of light can disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin. For this reason, I highly recommend adding room-darkening blinds or drapes to your bedroom, or if this is not possible wear an eye mask to block out any stray light.

If you’re even slightly sleep deprived I encourage you to implement some of these tips tonight, as high-quality sleep is one of the most important factors in your health and quality of life.

[-] Sources and References

• 1 Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev May 2013 22; 872
• 2 Yahoohealth.com June 21, 2013
• 3 Science Daily August 27, 2012
• 4 Science Daily August 27, 2012
• 5 Cancer February 15, 2011; 117(4): 841–847
• 6 Journal of Applied Physiology November 1, 2005; 99(5): 2008-2019
• 7 Sleep 2013;36(7):981-990
• 8 Medical News Today June 30, 2013
• 9 Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2012 Aug;69(8):551-6
• 10 Time Magazine May 29, 2012
• 11 The Sleep Council, Sleepless in Stressland, June 20, 2013

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola

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Is it a good idea to “starve” yourself just a little bit each day, or a couple of days a week? Mounting evidence indicates that yes, intermittent fasting (IF) could have a very beneficial impact on your health and longevity.

I believe it’s one of the most powerful interventions out there if you’re struggling with your weight and related health issues. One of the primary reasons for this is because it helps shift your body from burning sugar/carbs to burning fat as its primary fuel.

As discussed in the featured article,¹ intermittent fasting is not about binge eating followed by starvation, or any other extreme form of dieting. Rather what we’re talking about here involves timing your meals to allow for regular periods of fasting.

I prefer daily intermittent fasting, but you could also fast a couple of days a week if you prefer, or every other day. There are many different variations.

To be effective, in the case of daily intermittent fasting, the length of your fast must be at least eight hours long. This means eating only between the hours of 11am until 7pm, as an example. Essentially, this equates to simply skipping breakfast, and making lunch your first meal of the day instead.

You can restrict it even further – down to six, four, or even two hours if you want, but you can still reap many of these rewards by limiting your eating to an eight-hour window each day. This is because it takes about six to eight hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores; after that you start to shift to burning fat. However, if you are replenishing your glycogen by eating every eight hours (or sooner), you make it far more difficult for your body to use your fat stores as fuel.

Intermittent Fasting – More a Lifestyle Than a Diet

I have been experimenting with different types of scheduled eating for the past two years and currently restrict my eating to a 6- to 7-hour window each day. While you’re not required to restrict the amount of food you eat when on this type of daily scheduled eating plan, I would caution against versions of intermittent fasting that gives you free reign to eat all the junk food you want when not fasting, as this seems awfully counterproductive.

Also, according to research published in 2010,² intermittent fasting with compensatory overeating did not improve survival rates nor delay prostate tumor growth in mice. Essentially, by gorging on non-fasting days, the health benefits of fasting can easily be lost. If so, then what’s the point?

I view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle, not a diet, and that includes making healthy food choices whenever you do eat. Also, proper nutrition becomes even more important when fasting, so you really want to address your food choices before you try fasting.

This includes minimizing carbs and replacing them with healthful fats, like coconut oil, olive oil, olives, butter, eggs, avocados, and nuts. It typically takes several weeks to shift to fat burning mode, but once you do, your cravings for unhealthy foods and carbs will automatically disappear. This is because you’re now actually able to burn your stored fat and don’t have to rely on new fast-burning carbs for fuel. Unfortunately, despite mounting evidence, many health practitioners are still reluctant to prescribe fasting to their patients. According to Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat:³

“Health care practitioners across the board are so afraid to recommend eating less because of the stigma involved in that recommendation, but we are more than happy to recommend that someone start going to the gym. If all I said was you need to get to the gym and start eating healthier, no one would have a problem with it. When the message is not only should you eat less, you could probably go without eating for 24 hours once or twice a week, suddenly it’s heresy.”

The Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Aside from removing your cravings for sugar and snack foods and turning you into an efficient fat-burning machine, thereby making it far easier to maintain a healthy body weight, modern science has confirmed there are many other good reasons to fast intermittently. For example, research presented at the 2011 annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans⁴ showed that fasting triggered a 1,300 percent rise of human growth hormone (HGH) in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men.

HGH, human growth hormone, commonly referred to as “the fitness hormone,” plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don’t overtrain and are careful about their nutrition). The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training. Other health benefits of intermittent fasting include:

Intermittent Fasting Is as Good or Better Than Continuous Calorie Restriction

According to Dr. Stephen Freedland, associate professor of urology and pathology at the Duke University Medical Center, “undernutrition without malnutrition” is the only experimental approach that consistently improves survival in animals with cancer, as well as extends lifespan overall by as much as 30 percent.⁵ Interestingly enough, intermittent fasting appears to provide nearly identical health benefits without being as difficult to implement and maintain. It’s easier for most people to simply restrict their eating to a narrow window of time each day, opposed to dramatically decreasing their overall daily calorie intake.

Mark Mattson, senior investigator for the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has researched the health benefits of intermittent fasting, as well as the benefits of calorie restriction. According to Mattson,⁶ there are several theories to explain why fasting works:

“The one that we’ve studied a lot, and designed experiments to test, is the hypothesis that during the fasting period, cells are under a mild stress, and they respond to the stress adaptively by enhancing their ability to cope with stress and, maybe, to resist disease… There is considerable similarity between how cells respond to the stress of exercise and how cells respond to intermittent fasting.”

In one of his studies,⁷ overweight adults with moderate asthma lost eight percent of their body weight by cutting their calorie intake by 80 percent on alternate days for eight weeks. Markers of oxidative stress and inflammation also decreased, and asthma-related symptoms improved, along with several quality-of-life indicators.

More recently, Mattson and colleagues compared the effectiveness of intermittent fasting against continuous calorie restriction for weight loss, insulin sensitivity and other metabolic disease risk markers. The study, published in theInternational Journal of Obesity in 2011,⁸ found that intermittent fasting was as effective as continuous calorie restriction for improving all of these issues, and slightly better for reducing insulin resistance. According to the authors:

“Both groups experienced comparable reductions in leptin, free androgen index, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, total and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and increases in sex hormone binding globulin, IGF binding proteins 1 and 2. Reductions in fasting insulin and insulin resistance were modest in both groups, but greater with IER [intermittent fasting] than with CER [continuous energy restriction].”

How Intermittent Fasting Benefits Your Brain

Your brain can also benefit from intermittent fasting. As reported in the featured article:

“Mattson has also researched the protective benefits of fasting to neurons. If you don’t eat for 10–16 hours, your body will go to its fat stores for energy, and fatty acids called ketones will be released into the bloodstream. This has been shown to protect memory and learning functionality, says Mattson, as well as slow disease processes in the brain.”

Besides releasing ketones as a byproduct of burning fat, intermittent fasting also affects brain function by boosting production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Mattson’s research suggests that fasting every other day (restricting your meal on fasting days to about 600 calories), tends to boost BDNF by anywhere from 50 to 400 percent,⁹ depending on the brain region. BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation. (The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.) So BDNF is actively involved in both your muscles and your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue – and why the combination of intermittent fasting with high intensity exercise appears to be a particularly potent combination.

Give Intermittent Fasting a Try

If you’re ready to give intermittent fasting a try, consider skipping breakfast, make sure you stop eating and drinking anything but water three hours before you go to sleep, and restrict your eating to an 8-hour (or less) time frame every day. In the 6-8 hours that you do eat, have healthy protein, minimize your carbs like pasta, bread, and potatoes and exchange them for healthful fats like butter, eggs, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil and nuts – essentially the very fats the media and “experts” tell you to avoid.

This will help shift you from carb burning to fat burning mode. Once your body has made this shift, it is nothing short of magical as your cravings for sweets, and food in general, rapidly normalizes and your desire for sweets and junk food radically decreases if not disappears entirely.

Remember it takes a few weeks, and you have to do it gradually, but once you succeed and switch to fat burning mode, you’ll be easily able to fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry. The “hunger” most people feel is actually cravings for sugar, and these will disappear, as if by magic, once you successfully shift over to burning fat instead.

Another phenomenal side effect/benefit that occurs is that you will radically improve the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Supporting healthy gut bacteria, which actually outnumber your cells 10 to one, is one of the most important things you can do to improve your immune system so you won’t get sick, or get coughs, colds and flus. You will sleep better, have more energy, have increased mental clarity and concentrate better. Essentially every aspect of your health will improve as your gut flora becomes balanced.

Based on my own phenomenal experience with intermittent fasting, I believe it’s one of the most powerful ways to shift your body into fat burning mode and improve a wide variety of biomarkers for disease. The effects can be further magnified by exercising while in a fasted state. For more information on that, please see my previous article High-Intensity Interval Training and Intermittent Fasting – A Winning Combo.

Clearly, it’s another powerful tool in your box to help you and your family take control of your health, and an excellent way to take your fitness to the next level.

Sources and References

• ¹ CMAJ April 8, 2013
• ² Prostate Cancer Prostatic Diseases 2010;13:350-5
• ³ CMAJ March 20, 2013
• ⁴ Eurekalert, Study finds routine periodic fasting is good for your health, and your heart, April 3, 2011
• ⁵ See ref 3
• ⁶ See ref 1
• ⁷ Free Radical Bio Med 2007;42:665-74
• ⁸ International Journal of Obesity 2011;35:714-27
• ⁹ Washington Post December 31, 2012

One of the important strategies for healthy bones is to eat the right kind of foods. A diet full of processed foods will produce biochemical and metabolic conditions in your body that will decrease your bone density, so avoiding processed foods is definitely the first step in the right direction.

Eating high-quality, organic, biodynamic, locally-grown food will naturally increase your bone density and decrease your risk of developing osteoporosis. Along with your foods, your omega-3 fat content also has a major role in building healthy bone. I recommend krill oil, as I believe it’s a superior source of omega-3s.

Other nutrients, including calcium, vitamin D and K2, and magnesium, are also critical for strong bones – as is exercise, especially weight-bearing exercises.

Recent research presented at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco suggests that the timing of calcium and vitamin D supplementation may actually influence how your bones adapt to exercise, and help decrease exercise-induced calcium loss.

As reported by Medical News Today:¹

“The timing of calcium supplementation, and not just the amount of supplementation, may be an important factor in how your skeleton adapts to exercise training… Previous research has shown that a year of intense training is associated with substantial decreases in bone mineral density…

Experts believe that this kind of exercise-induced bone loss could be related to the loss of calcium during exercise. As blood calcium levels drop, the parathyroid gland produces excess parathyroid hormone, which can mobilize calcium from your skeleton.”

How Bone Adapts to Exercise May Be Affected by Timing of Supplementation

The featured research study indicated that taking calcium prior to hitting the gym may help keep your blood levels of calcium more stable, compared to taking calcium after your workout. However, the study did not assess the long-term effects this might have on your bone density, and this, of course, is of utmost importance for anyone interested in building healthy bones.

According to the featured article:

“[E]xercise-induced decrease in blood calcium occurred whether calcium supplements were taken before or after exercising. Pre-exercise supplementation, however, resulted in less of a decrease.

Although not statistically significant, parathyroid hormone levels increased slightly less among cyclists who took calcium before exercising… The timing of calcium supplementation did not cause a difference in blood levels of a compound that is a biological indicator of bone loss. Both the before- and after-exercise groups exhibited 50 percent increases in the level of this compound, called CTX…”

The Critical Role of Vitamin K2 for Bone Health

There’s plenty of controversy on the issue of using calcium supplementation to ensure strong healthy bones. It’s important to realize that calcium works synergistically with vitamins D and K2, so taking calcium supplements alone may actually end up doing more harm than good. Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue has authored a comprehensive book on this topic titled: Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life.

Dr. Robert Thompson M.D. also addressed this important issue in his book, The Calcium Lie. One of the tenets of his book is that bone is composed of at least a dozen minerals, and if you focus exclusively on calcium supplementation you are likely going to worsen your bone density.Additionally you will actually increase your risk of osteoporosis. Interestingly, he proposes that one of the best practical alternatives is the use of natural, unprocessed salts, such as Himalayan salt, as they are one of the best sources of a wide variety of trace minerals.

So, while the featured research is interesting, I believe it falls far short in terms of making a health recommendation that will result in improved bone health. And while the researchers argue that timing, and not just dosage may play a significant role in bone adaptation to exercise, I would add that nutrient ratios and combinations may be even more important…

The researchers did combine calcium with vitamin D, which is important, but they did not address vitamin K2, which is critical. I say critical because the biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areasin your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues.

Furthermore, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you also need to increase your intake of vitamin K2, because when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins – the proteins that help move the calcium around in your body. But you need vitamin K2 to activate those proteins. If they’re not activated, the calcium in your body will not be properly distributed and can lead to weaker bones and hardened arteries. In fact, vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries.

In a nutshell, it’s important to maintain the proper balance between all three of these nutrients: calcium, vitamin D and K2, as well as magnesium. Lack of balance between these four nutrients is why calcium supplements have become associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke…

The optimal amounts of vitamin K2 are still under investigation, but it seems likely that 180 to 200 micrograms of vitamin K2 daily should be enough to activate your body’s K2-dependent proteins to shuttle the calcium to and from the appropriate areas. Most Americans get nowhere near this amount though. In fact, an estimated 80 percent of Americans do not get enough vitamin K2 in their diet to activate their K2 proteins, which is similar to the deficiency rate of vitamin D.

How Can You Tell if You’re Lacking in Vitamin K2?

There is no test for vitamin K2 deficiency, but you can get an idea of whether or not you may be lacking in this critical nutrient simply by assessing your diet and lifestyle. If you have osteoporosis, heart disease or diabetes, then you’re likely deficient in vitamin K2 as these conditions are all associated with K2 deficiency. If you do not have any of those health conditions, but do NOT regularly eat high amounts of the following foods, then your likelihood of being vitamin K2 deficient is still very high:

• Grass-fed organic animal products (i.e. eggs, butter, dairy)
• Certain fermented foods such as natto, or vegetables fermented using a starter culture of vitamin K2-producing bacteria. Please note that most fermented vegetables are not really high in vitamin K2 and come in at about 50 mcg per serving. However, if specific starter cultures are used they can have ten times as much, or 500 mcg per serving.
• Goose liver pâté
• Certain cheeses such as Brie and Gouda (these two are particularly high in K2, containing about 75 mcg per ounce). While cheese from grass-fed milk would be an added boon, it’s not necessary for the cheese to be grass-fed because the K2 is not derived from the milk itself; it’s derived from the bacteria in the cheese. So what’s important is how the cheese was made.

Fermented vegetables, which supply beneficial bacteria to your gut, can also be a great source of vitamin K if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. We recently had samples of high-quality fermented organic vegetables made with our specific starter culture tested, and were shocked to discover that not only does a typical serving of about two to three ounces contain about 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, but it also contained 500 mcg of vitamin K2.

Note that not every strain of bacteria makes K2. For example, most yoghurt has almost no vitamin K2. Certain types of cheeses are very high in K2, and others are not. It really depends on the specific bacteria. You can’t assume that any fermented food will be high in K2, but some fermented foods are very high in K2, such as natto. Others, such as miso and tempeh, are not.

Mind Your Sodium-Potassium Levels as Well

Two additional nutrients that play an important role are sodium and potassium – you want the optimal ratio between these two in order to maintain your bone mass. If you eat a diet loaded with processed foods, there’s a good chance your potassium to sodium ratio is far from optimal, which is typically done by consuming a diet of processed foods, which are notoriously low in potassium while high in sodium.

An imbalanced sodium to potassium ratio can contribute to a number of diseases, including osteoporosis. To ensure you get these two important nutrients in more appropriate ratios, simply ditch processed foods, which are very high in processed salt and low in potassium and other essential nutrients. Instead, eat a diet of whole, unprocessed foods, ideally organically grown to ensure optimal nutrient content. This type of diet will naturally provide much larger amounts of potassium in relation to sodium, which is optimal for your bone health, and your overall health. If you find it difficult to eat the recommended amount of vegetables, give vegetable juicing a try.

Exercise Also Builds Strong Bones

The other component you can’t ignore if you want strong, healthy bones is weight bearing exercises like strength training. Bone-building is a dynamic process, so you want to make sure you exert enough force on your bones to stimulate the osteoblasts to build new bone. Further, bone is living tissue that requires regular physical activity in order to renew and rebuild itself, so you should make exercise a lifelong commitment.

Peak bone mass is achieved in adulthood and then begins a slow decline, but exercise can help you to maintain healthy bone mass as you get older, without having to resort to dangerous bisphosphonate drugs.

Weight-bearing exercise is actually one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis, because as you put more tension on your muscles it puts more pressure on your bones, which then respond by continuously creating fresh, new bone. In addition, as you build more muscle, and make the muscle that you already have stronger, you also put more constant pressure on your bones. A good weight-bearing exercise to incorporate into your routine (depending on your current level of fitness, of course) is a walking lunge, as it helps build bone density in your hips, even without any additional weights.

Ideally, though, your fitness program should be comprehensive, providing the necessary weight-bearing activities for bone health while also improving your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities with high-intensity exercises. For a more complete, in-depth explanation of my Peak Fitness regimen, please review my previous article, The Major Exercise Mistake I Made for Over 30 Years. Implementing Peak Fitness – with its array of weight-bearing exercises for bone health and Peak Exercises for disease prevention, fat loss and more – may be one of the best lifestyle changes you could ever make.

The Power Plate – A Valuable Exercise Tool for Prevention and Treatment of Brittle Bones

Acceleration Training, a.k.a. Whole Body Vibrational Training (WBVT) using a Power Plate has also been shown to be a safe, natural way to ward off osteoporosis, and it’s gentle enough even for the disabled and elderly. For example, in one six-month long study, WBVT was found to produce a significant increase in hip area bone density in postmenopausal women, while conventional training was only able to slow the rate of deterioration.² A total of 90 women, aged 58 to 70 years old, were divided into three groups:

1. The first group did up to 30 minutes of WBVT three times a week. Static and dynamic exercises for the upper leg and hip area included squats and lunges.

2. The second group did 60 minutes of conventional weight training three times per week.
3. The control group did not exercise at all.

The researchers concluded that Acceleration Training might be a solution for reversing bone loss and eliminating osteoporosis, stating that:

“The whole body vibration group got positive results: strength increased as much as 16 percent in upper leg muscles, while bone density at the hip increased by 1.5 percent. In addition, the whole body vibration group showed an improvement in postural control and balance, increased muscle strength and lean mass while losing body fat and fat mass. The conventionally trained subjects were able to slow the rate of bone loss, which is consistent with previous published studies on weight training and bone loss. The control group subjects continued to lose bone mineral density at the average rate.”

NASA has also tested vibration platforms to help prevent the bone loss that occurs during space travel. According to a 2001 article in NASA Science:³

“…NASA-funded scientists suggest that astronauts might prevent bone loss by standing on a lightly vibrating plate for 10 to 20 minutes each day… The same therapy, they say, might eventually be used to treat some of the millions of people who suffer from bone loss, called osteoporosis here on Earth.

…Although the vibrations are subtle they have had a profound effect on bone loss in laboratory animals such as turkeys, sheep, and rats. In one study (published in the October 2001 issue of The FASEB Journal), only 10 minutes per day of vibration therapy promoted near-normal rates of bone formation in rats that were prevented from bearing weight on their hind limbs during the rest of the day.”

Build Strong, Healthy Bones the Natural Way

To recap, your bones are actually composed of several different minerals, and if you focus on calcium alone, you will likely weaken your bones and increase your risk of osteoporosis as Dr. Robert Thompson explains in his book,The Calcium Lie. Remember, calcium, vitamins D and K2, and magnesium work synergistically together to promote strong, healthy bones, and your sodium to potassium ratio also play an important role in maintaining your bone mass. Ideally, you’d get all or most of these nutrients from your diet (with the exception of vitamin D). This includes:

• Plant-derived calcium: raw milk from pasture-raised cows (who eat the plants), leafy green vegetables, the pith of citrus fruits, carob, and sesame seeds
• Magnesium: raw organic cacao and supplemental magnesium threonate if need be
• Vitamin K2: Grass-fed organic animal products (i.e. eggs, butter, dairy), certain fermented foods such as natto, or vegetables fermented using a starter culture of vitamin K2-producing bacteria. Goose liver pâté, and certain cheeses such as Brie and Gouda
• Trace minerals: Himalayan Crystal Salt, which contains all 84 elements found in your body, or other natural, unprocessed salt (NOT regular table salt!)
• Vitamin D: Ideally from appropriate sun exposure (or a safe tanning bed), as it’s virtually impossible to get sufficient amounts from food. As a last resort, you could use a supplement, but if you do, you may also need to supplement with vitamin K2 to maintain ideal ratios

The bottom line?

One of the best ways to achieve healthy bones is a diet rich in fresh, raw whole foods that maximizes natural minerals so that your body has the raw materials it needs to do what it was designed to do. In addition, you need healthy sun exposure along with regular, weight-bearing exercise.

Sources and References

• ¹ Medical News Today June 20, 2013
• ² Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. Vol. 19(3), pp: 352-359. 2004
• ³ Science.nasa.gov, Good Vibrations November 2, 2001

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