Meet the naturopathic doctor

We talk a lot about using amino acid therapy to help correct underlying neurotransmitter imbalances to help people overcome disorders such as depression, anxiety, OCD, ADD/ADHD, trichotillomania, migraines, obesity, fibromyalgia and insomnia. However, recent research has shown that you may be able to fine-tune your mental and emotional states by using the right combination of probiotics.

Continue Reading »

We are surrounded by chemicals. In fact, toxic chemicals have been detected in EVERY American tested in recent years. And it’s no wonder, in the US alone, we produce over 500 billion pounds of synthetic chemicals each year – that’ s more than four pounds of man-made chemicals for every person in the country EACH DAY. This post will give you some natural alternatives to use to cut down on you and your family’s exposure to toxic chemicals.

Continue Reading »

Proteins are necessary to sustain life, repair body tissues and promote cell renewal, to manufacture hormones, enzymes and blood cells as well as put on muscle and increase and maintain one’s metabolism. It is one of the most plentiful substances in the body second only to water, totaling approximately one fifth of a person’s body weight. Lack of protein in the diet will result in fatigue, weakness, poor performance, inability to lose weight and increased susceptibility to colds, flu’s and infections. Continue Reading »

If you are used to burning the candle at both ends, the thought of slowing down, even to go to sleep, can be daunting. If you are one of those people, it’s time for a reality check. If you ever question whether or not it is important to get enough sleep, just ask yourself this question: Is your health FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE worth getting a few extra minutes or hours of sleep? If the answer is yes, or if you are just struggling to get some more ZZZZs use these techniques to give you the best sleep of your life!

Continue Reading »

We have all heard it time-and-time again – the number one reason to lose weight is not to fit into your ‘skinny’ jeans, but to protect your health. Every pound you shed can lower your risk for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, amongst other diseases. Let’s outline exactly what you stand to gain by losing (weight).

Continue Reading »

Many of us added ‘losing weight’, ‘getting healthy’, or ‘getting in shape’ as a New Year’s Resolution.  Let’s face it, many of us add that resolution each and every year.  So now that you’ve bought that gym membership, how do you get the most out of it?

Continue Reading »

Moving into 2012, you are probably thinking about goals, New Years Resolutions, or ways to improve your life.  Although we often focus on the nutritional and physical side of optimal health, we wanted to look at psychological, emotional and spiritual aspects of optimal health as well. One of the most common areas our clients need assistance with is removing excess clutter from their lives and surroundings. Here are 10 tips to help you reduce the clutter in your life, which will allow you more time and energy to devote to living.

The Tips

1. Declutter for 15 minutes every day. It’s amazing how much you can get through if you just do it in small increments like this.
2. Don’t allow things into the house in the first place. Stop bringing in new stuff NOW. If you can only establish one habit at a time, establish the no-more-stuff habit first. Think of bailing out a boat with a hole in it – you can bail and bail, but it won’t do anything for the leak.
3. Donate or gift stuff you’re decluttering, so you don’t feel bad about wasting it or throwing it away.
4. Start at the corner by the door and move your way around the room. This helps break through the ‘I don’t know where to start’ excuse. Start with the superficial stuff first – surfaces, empty the trash bin, etc. Repeat, but do more the 2^nd time around (i.e., open the cupboards, etc.).
5. Use the ‘one in, two out’ rule: whenever you bring in an item, you have to throw or give away two other items. At first, you may cheat by throwing out two pieces of paper, but soon you will have to move to bigger stuff.
6. Make your storage space smaller. If you have lots of storage, you’ll fill it with stuff.
7. Clothing rule: If you haven’t worn an item in 12 months, sell or donate it.
8. Declutter one room (including any closets, desks, cabinets, etc.) before starting on the next one. Spending time in that room will feel so good, and it will be so easy to keep clean, that it will motivate you to do more!
9. Internalized that your value is not in your ‘stuff’. It is just ‘stuff’ – hoarding is an act based in scarcity. Many clients find that if they write down their values and what is important to them, the ‘stuff’ in our lives is usually pretty far down the list.
10. Have someone else (who you trust!) help you go through things. They don’t have the (sometimes irrational) emotional attachment that you might have, and still recognize if something can be kept.

If you want to be healthy – body, mind and spirit – you have to make room for it! Begin today to declutter you life and enjoy the natural path to optimal health in 2012.

P.S. If the clutter in your life is getting the better of you, supporting your body’s ability to handle stress is a GREAT idea (if not downright necessary!). If you are feeling tired and worn out, use Adreset - 1-2 capsules twice daily; on the other hand, if you are more anxious or nervous, use Serenagen - 2 capsules 2-3 times daily.

For many women, perimenopause is accompanied by varying degrees of unpleasant symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, irritability, sleep disturbances, dry skin, dry eyes, vaginal dryness, irregular menses, migraines and a whole host of others. These symptoms are due to the extreme variability in hormone levels as the ovaries begin to shut down, signaling the end of the child-bearing years (learn more). This should be a time for celebration, as the mind and body prepare for a new phase of life. However, women experiencing one or more of the symptoms above often feel like they have little to be grateful for. Luckily, many of the ups and downs that are typical during this phase of life can be moderated through proper nutrition.

In fact, what you eat can play a huge role in helping you rebalance your hormones naturally while minimizing the symptoms associated with perimenopause. These dietary guidelines are a natural and easy way to improve perimenopause symptoms.

• Eat soy foods, buckwheat, citrus fruit rind and pulp (not the juice) and ground flax meal in shakes and cereals. They are high in phytoestrogens and will help improve estrogen metabolism and modulate estrogen receptors.
• Avoid potato chips, caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, sugar, soft drinks, fruit juices, fried or fatty foods, and salt, all of which slow down estrogen metabolism and elimination from your body.
• Eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet to help your intestines eliminate estrogens so they are not reabsorbed into your body. Include plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes (beans, peas).
• Reduce or eliminate red meats because they can elevate estrogen levels. This can also cause menstrual cramps and worsen the inflammation of endometriosis.
• Eat fish such as salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout, and tuna, which are high in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids that reduce the pain of menstrual cramps, improve hot flashes and night sweats, improve sleep and eliminate dry skin, eyes and vaginal dryness. You can also use flax and flaxseed oil regularly.
• Avoid dairy products, as they have a negative effect on reproductive health similar to that of red meat. Use soy or rice substitutes, including soy and rice milk, cream cheese, sour cream, and soy yogurt.

Many women find that having a more detailed menu plan works better for them. If you are one of these women, check out the Hormone Balancing Diet. It will provide you detailed recipes and menus to help rebalance your hormone levels naturally allowing you to reduce and even eliminate many of the symptoms associated with perimenopause.

We see a lot of very complex and often times extreme cases at The Natural Path Health Center; many of our in-house clients need a complete overhaul of their health and lifestyle to achieve their health goals. However, a good number of our clients simply need to make some targeted changes in their lifestyle or dietary habits in order for them to achieve the health and vitality they desire. No matter your current state of health, there are a few things we all need to do everyday to establish a firm foundation for optimal health. Let’s look at the most important things everyone can do to dramatically improve their health.

Keep the Body (Chemistry) in Balance
We talk a lot about body chemistry (refer back to one of your first newsletters on Body Chemistry). What we are really talking about is balancing the acid forming foods and lifestyle habits we have with alkaline forming foods and habits.  The three most acid forming foods are coffee, soda/pop and sugar; the most acid forming lifestyle habits are smoking and drinking alcohol regularly. Almost no amount of alkaline forming foods can make up for these habits (especially since the average American consumes 175 lbs. of sugar every year!), so you should limit or eliminate these as much as possible.

Even when you minimize or eliminate these extremely acid forming foods and behaviors, you still need to incorporate plenty of alkaline forming foods, drinks and practices to counteract the hustle-and-bustle of everyday life. Eating plenty of vegetables and fruits and consuming fresh vegetable juices regularly is a great start. Go for as many colors as possible and change what you eat on a daily or at least weekly basis. Variety is the spice of life! Deep breathing is also very important, as is regular (aerobic) exercise.

Deep Breathing
Deep breathing is one of the most important lifestyle habits everyone can benefit from. There are several Deep Breathing and Stress Management Exercises you can do. You can also do something as simple as taking 10 deep breaths first thing in the morning and last thing at night before bed. I really like to use Post-It® notes or other reminders to help me remember to breathe deeply. For example, if you’re at your computer a lot, put a Post-It® note on your screen that says “Breathe” or use the word “Breathe” as your screensaver; if you’re on the phone a lot, every time you take a call, take a deep breath; every time you hang up the phone take a deep breath; every time you get into your car (as long as you don’t work in a polluted area) take a deep breath – get the picture. Find something that is repetitive in your day and use it to remind you to breathe deeply.

Get Moving
Another way to dramatically improve your health is through regular aerobic exercise – we all know this, but only 10-15% of Americans exercise regularly. We can change that, but motivation is the key. Don’t do something you don’t like – you’re pretty much guaranteed to quit at some point. The flip side of this is that you have to keep looking for things you do like (and hopefully find some things that you love) to do. You don’t have to run a marathon to enjoy the health benefits of regular exercise – 20-30 minutes a day is all you need.

Perform a variety of exercises that excite and invigorate you – have fun!!! Do one exercise for the entire time, or do a variety. If you don’t have 30 minutes, do something for 10 minutes three times a day. Many things count towards exercise, including:

Find a friend and catch up while you take a walk, or take a yoga class together. Make exercise fun and a regular part of your daily routine.

Chew Your Food
What? Did he say chew your food?? Doesn’t everybody chew their food??? The answer is yes, but most people do not chew their food nearly enough. For optimal digestion to take place, we need to chew our food 30-50 times per mouthful; that means the food should be a liquid before we swallow! How many people do you know that take a bite of food, chew it once or twice and then swallow? These are the same people that need antacids, get bloated, tired and/or irritable after eating and usually have gas. We need to slow down, relax while eating and chew our food so the body can digest it and absorb the nutrients correctly.

Here’s why: the simple act of chewing your food helps with digestion in three ways. First, chewing breaks up the food into smaller and smaller particles. This provides more surface area for your digestive enzymes to work on, so digestion is more efficient and takes less energy. Second, the act of chewing stimulates the stomach to produce more stomach acid, which will help digest foods more easily (note: most people that need to take antacids actually produce too little stomach acid or eat too quickly which causes the upset). Third, the act of chewing also stimulates the pancreas to produce more digestive enzymes, so we can get more nutrients out of the foods we eat. Think of digestion like buttoning a button-down shirt. Digestion starts in the mouth, so chewing is just like the first button. If the first button is not done correctly, you cannot button the rest of the shirt properly. In the same way, if we do not chew our food thoroughly, the rest of the digestive process cannot proceed correctly, and we will have problems.

Drink Water
Everybody knows that we are supposed to drink eight 8 oz. glasses of water (= 64 oz.) everyday. What most people don’t know is that the body can only utilize about 2-4 oz. of water every 20-30 minutes. That means that if you slam down four 16 oz. glasses of water throughout the day, you think you consumed the requisite 64 oz. (4 x 16 oz. = 64 oz.) but you really only got 16 oz. (4 x 4 oz. absorbed = 16 oz.) of water and at least four trips to the bathroom. Therefore, ideally you would drink about 4 oz. (or ½ cup) of water every half-hour. I like to have a water bottle on hand throughout the day and take sips from it every chance I get. Make it easy on yourself and have a water bottle at work, at home and in your car. Carry one with you when you travel so you can stay hydrated. Proper hydration is absolutely essential for optimal health.

I should note that most non-caffeinated herbal teas also count as water. In addition, you need to drink (and can absorb) more water during and after exercise. Need another reason to drop coffee and soda? Both are diuretics, which mean they cause you to lose more water. The more coffee and soda you drink, the more water you need to drink and the more time you will spend in the bathroom. Do yourself a favor and substitute water or tea for coffee and soda – your bladder will thank you!

Remember the 80/20 Rule
Rules, rules, rules! Relax. When it comes down to it, it is what you do a majority of the time that counts. That’s where the 80/20 Rule comes in – it states that it’s what you do 80% of the time that counts. That means you can (and should) indulge yourself in your favorite foods and drinks from time-to-time, even if they aren’t the most healthy thing for you. Literally speaking, this would translate into 3 meals a week or one entire day every week where you could stray from your normally healthy eating and living habits without much change in your overall health. Said differently, you can have your cake and eat it too, just make sure you have humble-pie most of the time and live as though you will be alive and vital for a good, long time.

Key Points

• Minimize/eliminate soda/pop, coffee and sugar
• Eat many vegetables, fruits, and vegetable juices
  • Eat as many colors as possible
  • Eat a variety of foods
• Breathe deeply throughout the day and/or perform deep breathing exercises
• Get 20-30 minutes of exercise daily – do something you love!
• Chew, chew, chew your food (until it is a liquid)
• Drink water throughout the day (shoot for ½ cup every ½ hour)
• Keep it in perspective and follow the 80/20 Rule

Illness and disease can be very complex with multiple symptoms and underlying root causes. Restoring health is a process that often requires professional guidance. Maintaining health is easy, as long as we follow some simple ground-rules. Heading into 2012, use these basics to set the foundation for lasting, life-long vitality and optimal health!

Childhood obesity is killing our kids and it will bankrupt our healthcare system unless drastic measures are taken to reverse it. Part 4 of this four part series will outline some strategies to get the process started.

Knowing what to do

One of the problems with the current childhood obesity epidemic is that people simply don’t know what to do. In addition, food marketers spend millions and millions of dollars trying to entice us and our children to consume foods that only add to the problem and with today’s fast-paced lifestyles, we are eating out more often than we are eating in the home. Add to this the fact that many parents feel guilty, angry and blamed for their child’s obesity, while also being frustrated that they don’t know how to help their children.1

Reversing the childhood obesity epidemic will take a lot more than a few simple changes, but a few simple changes will start the process. You can’t change how marketers sell products, where fast-food restaurants are located, or what other people think; but you can change what happens in your own house, and that’s exactly where change has to start. Here are some proven ways to start addressing some of the factors causing childhood obesity:

Change the food environment

• Out of sight, out of mind. Remove sugary snack foods and drinks from your house. If the product contains ‘high fructose corn syrup’ or ‘corn syrup’ throw it away.
• Avoid fake foods. Eliminate products that contain artificial sweeteners, including acesulfame-K, aspartame, saccharine, sucralose; research shows that they will only make you fatter in the long run because you will eat more calories and store more fat.
• Send them packing. Pack a lunch for school/work and pack a cooler if you’re going to be out for the day. Try a sandwich with meat (or meat alternative), lots of veggies (think lettuce, tomato, onions, etc.) and hummus for a spread between 100% whole wheat bread. Toss in some carrots or other finger veggies and a piece of fruit and you’re done. Salad bars are also great, but take it easy on the dressings – they pack a ton of sugar and fat per tablespoon. Check out this blog for some other great ideas.
• Eat out less. The more you eat out, the fatter you will be – it’s plain and simple. Try to avoid fast food most of the time. If you do eat out, put half of the meal in a ‘to-go’ box before you even start eating.
• Chew your food – a lot. Chew each mouthful of food at least 30 times before swallowing. It will help you digest your food and allow your body time to register that it’s had enough.
• Eliminate soda. Doing only this will help you and your kids immensely more healthy. Drink water instead – shoot for 2-4 ounces of water every 30 minutes or so.
• Don’t diet. Diets don’t work – they don’t work for adults and they certainly don’t work for kids. Adopt healthier eating habits instead. Learn to love healthy food by eating it regularly.
• Model the eating habits you want your kids (or children around you) to learn. “Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t work. If this is a priority for your kids, it’s a priority for you too. Get healthier as a family and everybody wins.

Change your lifestyle

• Get moving. Regular exercise is essential for long term weight loss. This doesn’t mean chaining your kids to the treadmill. Let them run around and play; encourage them to do so and help them find physical activities or sports that they enjoy.
• Get more sleep. Research shows that kids needs at least 8 hours of sleep; more is better. Help them wind down at night by turning down the lights, encouraging reading before bed and/or taking a hot bath. Get as much sleep before midnight as possible.
• Turn off the TV. Next to sleep and work, most of our time is spent in front of the TV. Don’t eat in front of the TV –you’ll eat more. Watch TV less and get more active.
• Spend time with your kids. They need it; you need it. Get out and be active together.

Change your mind

• Tell your kids you love them. Many people assume that kids ‘know’ that their parents love them, but they need to hear it, and hear it a lot. Let them know you love and accept them, and their bodies, just as they are and that you want to support them in being healthy – and that you’ll do it together.
• Praise effort, not results. Talk about your day over dinner and praise any effort made towards healthier living/eating. Walking to school, participating in gym class, turning down a cup cake, anything at all. Acknowledge them for it and their more likely to do it again.
• Don’t be a zealot. Becoming militant about food isn’t going to help anybody. Follow an ‘80/20 Rule’ – do it right 80% of the time and the other 20% won’t matter. If you eat 3 meals/day, that means you have 3 meals/week to do whatever you want.
• Learn together. Whether eating healthy food is new or not, learn something new together with your kids. Take a class or a workshop and/or prepare food together. Make it part of your time together. They will only be young for a little while.

Getting the help you need

Incorporating these steps will take time and it can be a lot of change. Start slow – any positive change is a change in the right direction. For those of you that would like more support or that do better when things are laid out for you, learn more about the Family Program offered through Optimal Body Balance. The Family Program offers step-by-step assistance over the course of six weeks to help you and your family adjust to healthier lifestyle changes while providing proven advice and tricks to help ease you, and your children, through the transition. This program works especially well for busy families with little time as well as for those that feel stuck or are in a rut. Let the experts guide you through the Family Program; together, we can change the shape of things to come and help our kids live healthier, happier lives.

References

1. Pierce JW, Wardle J. Cause and effect beliefs and self-esteem of overweight children. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1997;38:645-650.