12 DETOXIFICATION TIPS & CHECKLIST TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH!

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When it comes to describing the growing suspicion around toxicity and chronic health conditions we often use the term cumulative body burden (of toxins).  This describes the fact that toxins, most of them unseen, many of them odorless yet all of them pervasive enter our bodies in consistent small quantities over time!  This accumulation of toxins in our bodies turns small quantities into larger amounts that at some point derail the body’s hormones, impair the digestive system and even change our genetic expression.  No wonder there is a rising prevalence of hard to explain health conditions in both children and adults today!

Having just finished a recent detoxification program with my clients, I’m reminded to share this practical and valuable information from a handout that I give out during the third and final week of the program, right before the participants are transitioning back to their customary food and lifestyle routines.  Some of these tips might seem trivial to you but it is the small changes that we make in our daily lives that changes the cumulative exposure to toxic products that can make the difference between a chronic health issue or not in ourselves and our children!

Which of these health changing detoxification tips can you already check off and which ones can you immediately make a change with this week or this month?

1.  Eat organic!  Yes, spend the money on cleaner, safer food.  I swear it’s less money than you’ve probably spent on some luxury items that don’t positively impact your health at all!  All oil or fat containing foods such as meats, dairy products, nuts/seeds and eggs MUST be organic to be safe for you and your family’s health.

2.  Install a high quality water filter on your tap water source at home.

3.  Use a HEPA filter on your furnace at home and vacuum frequently, dust is known to trap a lot of toxins.

4.  Always use no VOC paint on home or office painting projects.

5.  Throw out your Teflon nonstick cookware and replace it with proven safer nonstick pans.  You probably only need 1, maybe 2 of these pans at most.

6.  Throw out aluminum cookware, especially baking pans and other containers.  Your  deodorant and baking powder should also be aluminum free!

7.  Get rid of all of your plastic containers and replace them with glass!  There’s nothing like a good ‘ol glass jar to store some of your favorite foods (especially if they contain oils of any kind).

8.  Forget chlorine containing products, the BIG one being bleach!  Chlorine is implicated in several health conditions such as endometriosis and asthma.  There are good chlorine-free bleaches such as 7th Generation or Ecover.

9.  Change to safe skin/hair care products and makeup without parabens, sodium laurel sulfate, pthalates, triclosan, oxybenzone or BHA.  Check out the safety of your current product at  www.cosmeticsdatabase.com

10.  Change out all of your house cleaning and yard products to nontoxic green brands.  There are many of them out there now.  Look online before you shop and find out where those brands are sold.

11.  Find out whether the furniture, linens and household items you are purchasing have flame retardants in them, especially with your children’s clothing, sleepwear, mattresses and pillows.  PBDE’s have been shown to disrupt brain development and hormone systems and their presence in fetal umbilical blood is documented.

12.  I’d like to say OMIT but realistically it might be wise to say significantly decrease your use of canned foods.  The lining of the can contains BPA, a known endocrine disrupting chemical.  So, can you choose a bottle or a jar of the same food item instead of a can?  Buy your kids’ favorite beverage in a bottle instead of a can.  Even your beer should be from a bottle, not a can.  Many good quality soups are sold in a carton now instead of a can.

Oh sorry, but those to-go or home delivered pizza boxes and microwave popcorn bags are also lined with BPA!  Google it if you need a reminder about how to make popcorn the old fashioned way and as for the pizza……well, I say throw out the pizza along with the box, it’s got too many allergenic food groups in it!!

I hope I’ve given you some practical, easy to do right away tips to lessen the toxicity that is impacting you and your family every day!  Why wait until you have an unchanging,  hard to explain health symptom or condition, make these changes now so you never have to face that.

Remember when there was a time when we didn’t think just a few cigarettes each week would be a problem either?!

Can Detoxification Really Be the Key to Weight Loss?

I could just say “yes” and call it a day but I would really like you to have a deeper understanding as to why this is so!

We need to start off by having an understanding of  what detoxification really means.  Generally speaking, detoxification is the process of   removing chemical substances from the body.  Among the thousands of chemical reactions that occur in your body and that are responsible for making your body function normally, there is a handful of reactions that are specifically designed to help your body rid itself of chemical toxins.

Just as most of the chemical pathways in the human body have been studied extensively and have become well understood, the particular reactions that take care of removing toxins from the body have also been solidly documented and in fact, have been clarified in such detail that only a true biochemistry geek would stay awake reading about them.  This level of detailed understanding about detoxification reactions exists largely due to the work that has been done on drug metabolism– which means how medications clear the body.

Detoxification chemistry is no different than other chemical reactions in the body, it has particular requirements for optimal function.  It needs specific nutrients available in order to turn fat loving chemicals  into easily eliminated, water soluble substances.  Some of these nutrient requirements are vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, B12, Folic Acid, specific amino acids, certain minerals like zinc, selenium and sulphur and a slough of antioxidants.  Final excretion of toxins through the kidneys requires a specific pH that is on the alkaline side of the pH scale.

Losing Weight by Detoxification
So now let’s get to the point at hand.  We are all exposed to chemical toxins whether that’s from our skin and hair care products, the lining inside pizza boxes, canned food or microwave popcorn bags, or maybe from plastic water bottles, clothes that have been dry cleaned or even the dust in your house which holds a plethora of toxins.  These toxins, omnipresent yet invisible, can have tremendous effects on our system of hormones as they slowly accumulate in our tissues over time.  It is this accumulated burden of toxicity that can start to erode our health by instructing our hormones to act in very different ways than originally intended.  I often speak of the ability that toxic chemicals have to derail your metabolic train to another track whose destination is stubborn weight gain.

The balance of your hormonal health, particularly insulin, is critical to maintaining normal weight. It is well documented that conditions involving resistance to insulin and therefore weight loss have correlated with higher blood levels of chemicals such as Bis Phenol A (BPA) and pthalates.  If you have tried to lose weight over and over again and can’t, doesn’t it make you wonder what is blocking your body’s ability to do that?

Cleansing vs Detoxification
These 2 terms are often used interchangeably (even I exchange one for the other at whim) but in reality, detoxification refers to the particular chemical pathways I’ve discussed while cleansing has more of a sense of lightening the incoming food burden while improving the elimination function of various organs such as the bowel, kidneys and skin.  If we speak of detoxification in a more biochemically exact way then the following comments are of interest:
~taking a bowel cleansing product and still eating a nutrient depleted diet, doesn’t mean you are truly detoxifying your body.
~fasting on liquids or using The Master Cleanse of water, lemon juice, cayenne and maple syrup does not mean that the detoxification reactions are enhanced.
~eating a totally raw diet does not insure optimal detoxification function.
~following a vegan or vegetarian diet certainly does not secure optimal detoxification.

This isn’t about one being better than the other but really that one beautifully complements the other. Providing the required nutrients to enhance detoxification reactions while cleansing the organs by improving their elimination is your best combination to rid the body of accumulated toxins, particularly the ones that just might be blocking your weight loss!

7 Tips to Dampen the Blood Sugar Flame Over the Holidaze!

The holidays make us too busy, too stressed and therefore too tired.  And because we’re tired but need to keep going, we reach for the easiest and fastest thing that seems  to help us do that and that’s not a salad–it’s sugar!  If you understand the metabolic mechanics of the holidays then you’ll know how to beat the fatigue, depression and out of control cravings that come from this wonderful but chaotic time of year!

1. FRUIT: Forget about fruit juices and keep your fruit servings down to 2 low glycemic fruits per day.  No dried fruit.  Fruit cake, banana bread or persimmon pudding does not count as a fruit serving and just because a fruit is in the name doesn’t make it
   healthy!
2. SWEETENERS: Turbinado, demirara, brown sugar, maple syrup, agave, honey, fructose, palm sugar, evaporated cane juice, dried palm sugar, rice syrup, barley malt……….need I go on? These are all high glycemic and need to be limited.  Don’t sweeten your hot beverages and absolutely DO NOT substitute with artificial sweeteners……unless you’d like to gain weight and add toxins to your brain.
3. FAT FREE: Yeah right, less fat but guess what there is usually more of?  Yep, sugar.
   Remember to read the label for the GRAMS OF SUGARS in the food item particularly if it says it is reduced fat or fat free!
4. BREAKFAST: Have it! No, not a coffee and a bran muffin.  That might sound healthy
   but it’s just a cupcake for grown ups and hence, a high glycemic load!  Be especially aware about having a protein dominant breakfast during the holiday season, not a carb laden bakery item.
5. ALCOHOL: Ok, here is where you can really pack it in!  The triple whammy for glycemic load, calories and food intolerance is the traditional egg nog–let alone spiked egg nog!  Run to the other side of the room if this is being served. Those seemingly cozy hot toddies are carbohydrate bombs.  Remember that alcohol is expert at moving through mucus membranes and will start effecting your blood sugar even before you swallow it!  If you are going to enjoy ONE glass of wine, do so with your meal!
6. BALANCE: This doesn’t mean to figure out how to hold your wine glass and hors d’oeuvres plate in the same hand so you can grab more from the buffet table with the other.  It means to make sure you are having lean protein servings, healthy fat choices and many low glycemic vegetable servings with a modest 1/2 cup healthy carb on your plate.  Balance means that you know you are going to a Holiday party where you will likely have a dessert (1 small serving), so you don’t eat ANY sweets the rest of the week.
7. EXERCISE: No matter what–move!!!  You MUST use your muscles during the holiday season in order for them to burn stored carb and fat!  I know it’s cold and rainy out–go to the gym, just get there.  No gym membership but you have a 2 story house or an uphill driveway?  Then burst up those stairs or driveway with an easy walk down and repeat and repeat and repeat!  Get that book on tape and go for a walk, in fact, as one of my clients does, she allows herself another chapter–but onlyif exercising!

If you are super vigilante about your carb and sugar intake through out the holiday season, a small indulgence at your favorite holiday get together won’t turn into days and days of continual carb loading,  elevated insulin levels and a source of next year’s resistance to weight loss!

Could Your Blood Sugar Be Causing Your Joint Pain?

I know you’re aware that repetitive stress, sitting too long, being overweight, an old injury, poor posture and even ill fitting shoes can all contribute to joint pain whether that’s in your back, your knee or your neck. But are you aware that your blood sugar and how you manage it can be THE source of your joint aches and pains?

You heard that right and here we go again… your diet and your body parts are most definitely connected. I know you’re aware of that and if you follow my articles, you know that certain foods like gluten and dairy can really be culprits for a whole host of health ailments. But now I’m not just talking about what you eat, I’m also talking about how you eat, when you eat, how much you eat, how fast you eat, the stress that is present when you eat and believe it or not, even if you eat!

All of these aspects about eating are incredibly important when it comes to managing your blood sugar level. In other words, everything about your pattern of eating including what you eat results in either a stable blood sugar level that gently rolls up and down like the soft swells in the ocean on a very calm day, or it results in jagged spikes that soar upwards like the Eiffel Tower and plunge downward like a roller coaster or maybe your blood sugar rises but then keeps slipping to the bottom where you’ll simply want to eat again to revive your brain and yourself back to productivity. And I can’t leave out the blood sugar that promptly rises with eating but then stays up there like the world’s most efficient hot air balloon, never to come down but also never to really deliver the glucose in your meal all the way into your muscle cells for fuel. You’ll want to eat again even though you just ate, and you’ll particularly want something sweet since your muscle cells are actually starving! This is an example of overeating and starving all at the same time! A common nutritional picture in America: overfed and undernourished! This last scenario where your blood sugar level stays elevated means that your insulin level also stays elevated as it works like a dog trying to get glucose into the muscle cells but can’t. That’s because insulin has worn out its welcome and the muscle cells have stopped responding to insulin. Elevated insulin is a key to turning on the body’s inflammation waterfall and thus begins the joint destruction process! Arthritis starts out as systemic inflammation that ultimately focuses at the joints and surrounding tissues.

So let’s review! You haven’t had great eating patterns for awhile now, even though you might eat healthy foods. Then you notice that you really crave sweets, especially after dinner. Or, you get really tired after you eat or you have to eat again even though you just ate. Now you’re getting cranky and maybe a muffin top too and just like your mood, your sleep’s not so great either! And before too long, the morning stiffness and aching joints with exercise start showing up! Maybe it just shows up in your fingers, hands or feet but joint inflammation is definitely setting in! Do you see how the joints become a problem but it started way back with inflammation coming from poor eating patterns? Arthritis is a condition and it’s also a clue. A clue that something deeper in the body needs help.

Please let me know the next time your orthopedist tells you to take a look at what you’re eating or how you’re eating when you go in for a visit because your joints are hurting or your arthritis is acting up!

I won’t hold my breath waiting!

Constipation: Surprising Facts That You May Not Know About Constipation

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Judging from the more than 700 million dollars a year spent on laxatives in the U.S. you can guess that constipation is a common condition that millions of Americans are seeking help for. As common as constipation seems to be, do you think that the education about understanding its causes and how to improve it are as prevalent? I don’t think so. That’s why I would like to outline for you some of the basic facts about constipation as well as some lesser known and even surprising information that just might help you or someone you know that suffers from the dilemma of constipation. Oh, that’s right, you might not know someone else who suffers from it because people don’t really talk about it!

One basic aspect of constipation is that it is an issue of dehydration or dryness in the bowel. So, among the basic instructions that most health practitioners will give you is to drink plenty of fluids. Remember those should be caffeine free beverages since caffeine is a diuretic and ultimately contributes to dehydration and further constipation. However, caffeine is also a bowel stimulant and many people rely on their coffee to trigger bowel elimination in the morning. Whenever my patients answer “no” to having constipation, I always evaluate if bowel stimulants, laxatives, or supplements are being used to assist in elimination. If so, then the real answer to “do you have constipation?”is actually, “yes!”

Other basic instructions to combat constipation usually include getting enough fiber and exercise. The correct fiber choice for constipation should be INsoluble fiber which enhances the motion of the colon walls encouraging the colon to empty itself vs. soluble fiber which has a quality of bulking the stool and is better for loose bowel conditions. Good insoluble fiber choices include ground flax, chia seeds, vegetables and nuts and seeds. High fiber vegetables that you have to chew and chew are key! Lesser known about fiber is that it is a key source of fuel for the good bacteria of the large intestine. The bacteria ferment the fiber which results in production of fatty acids that are critical nutrients for the cells of the colon! Some of these fatty acids have been shown to stop colon cancer cell growth in the laboratory setting! That’s powerful and it all started with fiber!

So those are some of the basics, now let me list for you additional information about constipation causes and cures, some of which may surprise you.

CONSTIPATION:

• is not only defined by skipping 1 or more days of bowel elimination but also includes passing stools that are hard, small, incomplete or require straining.
• can be a source of lower back pain and lower back problems can also create constipation. Chicken or the egg? An integrated nutritional and spinal exam will tell.
• symptoms can appear or worsen during the Autumn months which aggravate dehydration in the body.
• is often overlooked as a reaction to intolerant foods because it doesn’t have the same acute or immediate presentation that diarrhea can have.
• is one of the classifications of irritable bowel syndrome. There is IBS-D, diarrhea dominant, IBS-C, constipation dominant, and then mixed and alternating types of IBS. So, you may actually have IBS which requires deeper assessment and treatment protocol.
• medications that act to suppress the central nervous system can also suppress the activity of the large intestine such as: narcotic pain killers, antidepressants and blood pressure drugs.
• can occur from taking certain supplements such as iron or calcium.
• can be easily relieved by taking Magnesium.
• can be a symptom of low thyroid function and may be the only tip off that thyroid function is slipping.
• can be helped by taking probiotic supplements, or good bacteria. Bifidobacteria are the predominant beneficial microbe of the large intestine over lactobacillus acidophilus which is more well known but dominates in the small intestine.
• in Ayurveda, can be the result of the lack of a specific downward moving energy in the body along with too much fast moving energy in the mind. I teach my patients to sit still, quieting the mind and breathe smoothly, slowly and rhythmically into the lower abdomen for 5 – 15 minutes to help reverse these dysfunctional energies.
• can be the result of nervous system imbalancesand not just digestive system issues. This requires its own list of key points:~ proper bowel elimination requires a good balance of brain chemistry and constipation can point toward inadequate serotonin or dopamine. Amino acid therapy could be helpful in this case.~ the intestines have their own nervous system called the enteric nervous systemwhich can be damaged from chronic laxative use, whether the laxative is ‘natural’ such as Senna or not such as Ex Lax. Prolonged use of laxatives can produce tremendous intestinal dysfunction later in life.~ Conditions that impair the brain’s nerve cells such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease can also impair the intestine’s nerve cells. Abnormal motion of the lower bowel resulting in constipation would therefore not be a surprising symptom for those with these conditions and taking extra care for good bowel health would be warranted.

  ~ anything that stresses us and causes us to feel uptight with difficulty to relax can contribute to constipation. Normal and easy elimination of stool from the lower colon needs the calm part of our nervous system to dominate.

  If you suffer from constipation, I hope that you have found a few good ‘take aways’ here. Diligently attending to any one of these tips could be the missing piece in solving your constipation dilemma!

Can Your Digestion Still Suck Even Though You’re Gluten Free?

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People who come to work with me have a variety of health complaints and it’s not their type of complaint that is a common thread but rather that they all have symptoms that they’ve tried to get rid of over and over again, either on their own or with professional help but to no avail! Their symptoms persist, solutions seem improbable and their feelings of frustration and hopelessness are increasing.

Discovering someone’s food intolerances, particularly gluten intolerance whether Celiac or Non Celiac is particularly gratifying because it can be the source to so many seemingly unrelated health issues. The simple remedy of establishing a gluten free life is incredibly rewarding because it’s in your control, it costs nothing to implement, it doesn’t involve taking medications and can finally result in the disappearance of previously unresolved health issues. Read more

7 Shocking Facts About Gluten That Just Might Relate To You!

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7 SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT GLUTEN THAT JUST MIGHT RELATE TO YOU!

Until very recently, Celiac Disease was thought to be the only severe form of reaction against gluten and that it presented itself in young underweight children who have celiac genes and chronic diarrhea. We now know that Celiac Disease can occur at any age, in any body type with a variety of bowel patterns and it’s even possible that the celiac genes may be absent. Additionally, we finally know that a strong reaction to gluten also exists among those with Gluten Sensitivity, a condition distinct from Celiac Disease. Those of us who are intolerant to gluten and have never been diagnosed with Celiac Disease have always known this to be true but admittedly, we could finally breathe an ʻit’s about time’ sigh of relief when the medical director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Celiac Research, Dr. Alessio Fasano, stated in the August, 2010 American Journal of Medicine: “For the first time, we have scientific evidence that indeed, Gluten Sensitivity not only exists, but is very different from Celiac Disease.” While the prevalence for Celiac is thought to be about 1:100, research proposes that gluten sensitivity could be as common as 1 in every 20 individuals.

That said, let’s move on to some of the more shocking facts about gluten and its potential ravaging effects on your health.

Shocking gluten fact #1: Your response to gluten can be silent!
That’s right, out of the 4 categories for gluten reactivity: (typical = within the digestive tract, atypical = outside of the digestive tract, latent = manifestation later in life and silent), the possibility that your reactions could be silent, otherwise known as subclinical symptoms, is very real. This basically means that your reactions are beneath your experiential radar and you really don’t know that they are happening, however, the physiological damage is still taking place. I have an eagle eye out for this person because their persistent health issues will go on unexplained and the potential is very high for a slow but steady decline in their health.

Shocking gluten fact #2: Your gluten response may have nothing to do with your digestive tract!
I alluded to this in #1. The atypical category of response is one that lies outside of your digestive system. Most commonly, these areas include your brain, skin, joints, liver and thyroid gland. So when’s the last time you had joint aches and pains, a skin rash or maybe you already have a thyroid problem? Did you ever think that a food could be connected to the reason why you have these conditions?

Shocking gluten fact #3: Traditional lab testing may not reveal your gluten problem!
Traditional labs are testing for 3-4 antibodies that act against gluten proteins and related intestinal enzymes. This is good, but they omit testing for additional antibodies
against a handful of other gluten related proteins that are equally damaging and can cause tremendous compromise to your health. A specialty lab like CyrexLabs is doing comprehensive testing for the larger group of gluten proteins and their related antibodies. It’s important to know that testing options other than the lab your doctor is most familiar with are available.

Shocking gluten fact #4: Neurological issues from gluten far outweigh digestive problems from gluten!
This should truly stun you into an introspective silence. Neurological issues mean that the nervous system is involved. That could be anything from mood and attention issues to full blown nerve cell problems like multiple sclerosis. Back in 2007 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, an article revealed this finding:
“patients with a gastrointestinal dysfunction represent only 1/3 of patients with neurological manifestations and gluten sensitivity.” So within the plethora of sources that could be causing your or your children’s moodiness, irritability, poor attention span, lack of focus, headaches or numbness–do you include gluten as one of those possible sources?

Shocking gluten fact #5: Gluten can form addictive, opiate-like substances that can be measured in your bloodstream.
It has long been known that gluten can form opioid substances called gluteomorphins and that these compounds can be measured in your bloodstream. Although most well known by the families and patients in the Autism spectrum population, gluteomorphins can be formed in anyone and can have the same opiate-like results of addiction, reduced pain perception thus increased pain tolerance, sedation, euphoria and constipation. That’s right, that feeling of being addicted to your favorite bread, pasta or crackers is real!

Shocking gluten fact #6: Intolerance to gluten can be connected to the formation of autoimmune Type 1 diabetes.
A study published in 2009 showed that almost 10% of Type 1 diabetics have Celiac Disease. It has been shown that the presence of particular antibodies (GAD 65) have been correlated to the onset of Type 1 diabetes and that these antibodies actually decrease along with the antibodies against gluten once someone follows a gluten free diet. This particular type of autoimmune induced diabetes has been called Type 1.5 (vs Type 1 or Type 2). Watch for Type 1.5 diabetes to hit the health news media before too long.

Shocking gluten fact #7: Your immune system can perceive other foods as ‘gluten look alikes’ and therefore can produce a negative reaction against those foods as well!
Just when you think omitting gluten was the final answer to your unexplained health problem prayers, there’s more. Unfortunately, for some people, eliminating gluten from their diet is just the first food of several more to go due to this confused immune system situation called cross reactivity. Among the more common foods that are cross reactive with gluten are: coffee, dairy, corn, chocolate and sesame. This is a very important
area to address for those who already follow a strict gluten free diet and still don’t feel well. Cross reactive food testing is available also with CyrexLabs.

I hope these shocking truths about gluten have helped you realize that health issues related to gluten are indeed serious ones and that all of the recent hype about gluten is not fad or fallacy but fact!

7 Keys to Staying Fit and Healthy During Injury Rehabilitation

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Summer time is so awesome with warm weather and long days. It’s stays light out until almost 9pm and that means many more hours to cycle, hike, paddle, swim, wind surf–you name it, as long as it’s light out we can just keep on playing! But engaging in more activity can sometimes mean more injuries too. If you happen to be spending some of this summer rehabbing an injury that doesn’t mean you have to let your health go downhill or lose all of your strength, stamina or flexibility.

As a Physical Therapist, people ask me this all the time, “How do the pros do it? They seem to be in surgery one week and back in the game the next!” Well, it may not be that fast but it often looks like that because their PT’s, Nutritionists and trainers are making sure that they are attending to many of the same critical keys that I’m listing here. Take a look at these 7 key areas so that you can not only expedite your recovery but also maintain your health and vigor for when you are ready to jump back into your physical activity.

1. Pay particular attention to eating a healthy and balanced diet.
   This is a particularly important time to eat super well. Your food should be fresh and organic as much as possible. If you have had surgery, your body is already burdened with and working to detoxify and eliminate the chemicals from anesthesia and subsequent pain medications. Choose fresh vegetables and increase their quantity to 3 – 5 cups per day so that your bowel is moving easily and regularly, especially if you are still on pain controlling medicines. Include all of the macronutrients in your meal: protein, healthy fat, slow release complex carbs, and non-starchy veggies. And eat as many colors of the rainbow when it comes to your fruits and veggies, that way you know you are taking in plenty of antioxidants–the compounds that keep healthy cells healthy.
2. Your diet should be anti-inflammatory.
   Your injury or surgery may already be creating swelling, your diet should not contribute further to increasing your inflammation. Make sure that you are avoiding all trans fats and keep acid producing foods like sugar, alcohol and coffee to a minimum. If you consume any red meat it should definitely be grass fed and free range. Avoid highly charred meats from the grill. Do eat well from the world of cold water fish like salmon and sardines and include walnuts and ground flax–all of these are high in antiinflammatory omega 3 fatty acids. Learn to balance your blood sugar since blood sugar spikes alone can be a cause of inflammation in the body.
3. Exercise everything else that is not injured and that does not aggravate your injury.
   This is a BIG key to why you see those professional athletes return to their competitive sport so quickly. Granted, these are highly paid professionals and there is a lot at stake when they aren’t at practice or on the playing field. But the concept is critical. If you’ve injured your knee, still do your upper body, well leg and torso workout. The idea is similar with an upper extremity injury. If you’ve injured your spine or ribcage, workout with your limbs in positions that do not aggravate your spine–that is most commonly supine which is lying on your back.
4. Continue your cardio fitness if at all possible.
   Using the same concept in #3 above, use an arm ergometer (arm bicycle), if you have injured a leg and use a stationary or recumbent bike if you’re rehabbing an arm. Water work outs with flotation belts and kick boards can be relieving to spinal problems yet maintain cardiovascular fitness. If walking isn’t aggravating to your injury, that is a simple activity that can maintain your fitness as you recover especially if you can safely add hills or stairs.
5. Work with a nutritionist for optimal supplementation during injury rehab.
   Here is another area where many of the pros know how to choose the right supplements to keep their muscle protein and metabolic energy sufficient despite being less active during injury rehab. Seek out a certified nutritionist to teach you which supplements are most important for you during your recovery and how to maintain an optimal nutrient balance. Amino acids, antioxidants, minerals and essential fatty acids are all important when healing from an injury.
6. Get plenty of rest.
   I like to call this “active rest”. I just finished talking about exercising all of your UNinjured body parts and keeping up your cardio. This is in a very wise balance with really resting not only the injured area but also the rest of you so that your energy stores can be used to heal the injured tissues. Getting enough rest also means getting sound restorative sleep. This can be particularly challenging in the early phases of rehab and your nutrition and supplementation can play a very helpful role here.
7. Engage in fun and stimulating mental activity.
   There is nothing like an injury to take you down physically and it can take you down mentally and emotionally as well if you aren’t mindful about it. It’s so important to really see this one as a homework assignment and find things to do that are truly fun, stimulating and interesting while you are on the mend. This is a good time to catch up on those good books that you’ve been wanting to get to. Comedy movies are a great tool for healing as is laughter in general with your friends and family. Staying or becoming engaged with what really interests you, subjects that you really love or have wanted to learn more about is a great way to keep your spirits up during what can be a tough time.

I hope you are injury free this summer, but in case you find yourself with some unexpected down time, remember to attend to these 7 areas so that your injury recovery is a breeze and you’ll surprise yourself when you return to your sports that you aren’t in as bad of shape as you thought you’d be. Remember to always check with your physical therapist as to your readiness to engage in some of the key areas that I outlined above as well as when it’s safe for you to return to sports.

Your Liver Health: 10 Clues that your liver could be letting you down!

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Is your liver helping you or hurting you?

Other than your skin (yes, that is an organ), your liver is the largest organ in your body weighing in at 3 – 3.5 pounds, it has an incredibly broad range of critical functions in the body which is why you really canʼt live without it. It lies under your right lower ribcage and is only separated from your right lung by your main breathing muscle, the diaphragm.

Among the liverʼs many functions are to optimize your metabolism by processing, storing or making protein, fat and carbohydrates, to make cholesterol and triglycerides, to synthesize proteins and hormones for proper blood clotting and blood pressure, to breakdown circulating hormones for excretion, to produce bile for fat digestion and to detoxify the entire bodyʼs system from chemical, medication or other ingested toxins.

Basically, the liver is a giant transformation machine and can be your healthʼs best friend when functioning optimally  OR it can be your biggest ball and chain if over burdened and under functioning, dragging you and your health down into common persistent symptoms that you canʼt seem to resolve.

Clues that your liver health needs some attention:

Obviously, seeing your doctor to rule in or out a serious liver problem is always your first step. But then there is that gray zone of dysfunction that I often refer to, where thankfully, you donʼt have a specific diagnosis but you do have certain nagging complaints that you might even seek out over the counter remedies for.

The health complaints that are heard of most commonly and that you see TV ads for are the ones that can a have a variety of sources and an overburdened or under functioning liver that can no longer detoxify the existing system yet alone what continues to come into it can be an important source of persistent symptoms that should not be overlooked.

The top 10 signs of sluggish liver function are:

1.   poor tolerance or strong reaction to coffee, alcohol or other fumes and smells.

2.   headaches and foggy brain anytime, but especially in the morning.

3.   burping or indigestion after eating.

4.   constipation, diarrhea or light colored stools.

5.   difficulty losing weight even though youʼre dieting.

6.   high cholesterol or tiglycerides that donʼt change with diet.

7.   pressure or pain under the right ribcage, right shoulder or should blade, possibly including limited range of motion and absent of initial injury.

8.   neck pain and stiffness that is hard to resolve and might present with a pronounced bump at the base of the neck. This may be from an unhealthy fat pad and/or from misaligned vertebrae, both issues can come from suboptimal liver function.

9.   Difficult to lose belly fat that is above your waistband.  Ladies might even feel this as their bra getting uncomfortable at their ribcage by the end of the day!

10. a pattern of waking at night between 2 and 4am. You might feel irritable, agitated or even notice your heart rate is a little higher at this time as well.

A bonus clue for the ladies:  your perimenopause or menopause might be very symptomatic and difficult to control.

What you can do about it:

When your digestion works as it should, everything you eat and drink breaks down in

the digestive tract and the byproducts, whether good or bad for you, all pass through the liver! That is a HUGE job for the liver to do.  Not at all unlike sorting all of the garbage that is dumped at the recycling center into what should be kept that is actually useful vs what should be thrown out vs what should be handled in a special way because itʼs actually dangerous!

Optimizing liver function boils down to ……..

1.  Donʼt put SO MUCH into it–remember that the digestive tract, ie. what we eat and drink, is a main entry point to the liver.  Not putting so much in allows the liver to rest a bit and to catch up with what it has to work on already.

2.  Give your liver a break from what taxes it the most:  alcohol, coffee, processed foods with chemical additives and flour, sugar and fructose products.

3.  Give your liver the support it needs to strengthen and encourage its detoxification function with specific nutrients like B vitamins,  amino acids such as glycine, taurine and methionine and herbs like milk thistle, dandelion and artichoke.

4.  Eat vegetables that naturally cleanse the liver and amp up its detoxification function such as all the green leafy veggies like kale, collards and spinach and broccoli, artichokes, garlic, onions and beets.  Drinking green juices made from these vegetables is also great for boosting liver function.

5.  Exercise to improve blood flow to and through the liver which promotes detoxification of the liver itself. Stretching and yoga help to break up the physical tension patterns that develop between the liver and the shoulder, ribcage or neck.

A total detoxification program that addresses all of these areas to optimize liver function is the best recommendation to improve your health. Taking time at least 1x/year to engage in a cleansing program is your insurance to keep your liver and you healthy!

Out of sight, out of mind……….

You clean out the lint trap on the dryer, you even get the windows, carpets, pool or chimney cleaned, you would never think of letting the garbage pile up or not running the disposal. What if you didnʼt see your dental hygienist or get your car tuned up for several years? You get what I mean.

Just because you canʼt see your liver and maybe not even feel it, it doesnʼt mean that your liver is functioning as well as it could be for you.  Reread the list of clues and see if any of these ring a bell for you.  If so, consider adding your liver to the list of what might need an annual tune up!

My summer detox is about to start:  June 8 – 29, 2011

Cleanse Your Body, Change Your Life!™

Please join me for a professionally guided detoxification program!

3 HIDDEN FACTS ABOUT HEALING YOUR FATIGUE!

You can listen to the article here.

 

I don’t know anyone nowadays who doesn’t answer affirmatively to dealing with some kind of stress.  The question really is for how long?  For some people it’s been low to moderate stress for quite a long time and for others it’s been high stress in repetitive episodes.  No matter what kind of stress you have experienced, at some point your adrenal glands will suffer.

The underlying stress induced biochemical changes that are occurring in your body that  not only lead to fatigue that you may or may not recognize are the same chemical changes that can be at the core of your resistance to losing fat (especially your belly fat)  even though you eat well, your erratic energy patterns that might make you get a second productivity wind at night or food cravings that just seem like they’ve got you by the tail!

All of these issues can be coming from some stage of adrenal dysfunction which has to be found and fixed before you can really attend to resolving the other related health conditions!

What’s in between Addison’s Disease and Cushing’s Syndrome?

Both Addison’s and Cushing’s are medical diagnoses of adrenal pathology, Addison’s being not enough adrenal output and Cushing’s being too much output.  Your doctor can diagnose these for you but what about the large grey zone of suboptimal adrenal function that lies between these diagnoses that can be present for long periods of time without ever being found?  I call it the grey zone of suboptimal function because traditional medical practitioners don’t know to look for it, there isn’t a formal diagnostic name or medical code for it and yet these less than optimal adrenal levels can contribute to serious shifts in your chemistry that can account for growing abdominal fat, out of control inflammation, insomnia, depression……..the list goes on!

How do I know if I am in the grey zone of dysfunction?

The primary adrenal hormone that is assessed is cortisol and that can be done with a fasting morning blood draw, a 24 hour urine collection or multiple salivary samples. Although the 24 hour urine test tells you about your total cortisol output for the day which is much more information than just an early morning blood cortisol will give you, it still doesn’t give the circadian rhythm of cortisol output which is so important to see when it comes to assessing the brain’s communication with the adrenals or the adrenal’s normal high to low shift of daily cortisol output.  The salivary sampling test gives you all of this information which allows you to know the stage of adrenal fatigue that you are in within the grey zone of dysfunction.  Normalizing the different stages of dysfunction requires different regimens.

A Breakfast of organic fruit and yogurt is always better than salty sausage and eggs, right?

Not if you are in Stage 3 of  adrenal decompensation!  A few of the hallmarks of stage 3 adrenal dysfunction are low morning cortisol felt as fatigue no matter how many hours of sleep you’ve had,  difficult to control blood sugar, cravings for salt, sugar and/or spices, irritability, low mood, low blood pressure and a host of other symptoms. Low adrenal hormone output defines this stage and that often results in low sodium levels in the blood.  You might actually crave salt and will feel much better with a bit of salt in the morning.  A protein breakfast is critical in this stage to get blood sugars to rise slowly and to begin stabilizing you for the day, you won’t snack so much through out the day because of constantly dipping brain energy.

These are just a few facts among many about identifying and healing adrenal gland dysfunction.  Among the primary pillars that make up optimal health, balanced hormones are among them and the adrenal hormones are as crucial to creating vibrant health as are the androgens and estrogens that we usually think of first  when it comes to hormone balance.

I am passionate about helping people sleuth out the reason for their persistent health issues and finally fix them which is why I am including a section on this topic of adrenal health within my upcoming class:  Manage Your Energy, Master Your Health!™ on May 7th, Corte Madera, CA. 

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