Corn Sugar = High Fructose Corn Syrup

Be on the lookout. If you are avoiding High Fructose Corn Syrup, you'll have to add Corn Sugar to your list. It's the same thing! Just cleverly rebranded.

And the FDA is taking action. 

One Word: Plastics - Oh, okay, and Cans....

Cans are lined with plastic...
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/967207

Ah, The Graduate. One of the best films of all times. Ask anyone who has seen the movie and I bet you they only remember two things about it:

- Mrs. Robinson
- And that unforgettable scene by the pool where Benjamin is lectured to by Mr. McGuire regarding the future. "One word.... plastics."

Turns out Mr. McGuire was right. Plastics was the future - and is the present. Boy, that sounds confusing.

Take 10 seconds and look around you. I bet you have just noticed at least 3 things that never even occurred to you was plastic 10 seconds ago. But yes, plastic is all around.

You see those fingers on the keyboard or the mouse? Yep, there is some plastic in there too. Sounds funny but I'm serious. You are what you eat - and trust me... You eat plastic. And probably every day.

By definition, plastic is a bunch of chemicals. Sadly, some of those chemicals plastics are made out of are not very stable - the most buzzworthy of those is BPA. BPA is moderately soluable. In other words, keeping your flour in a plastic container in your pantry might be okay. Microwaving your lunch in the takeout container? Not so much.

BPA is an "endocrine disruptor" - in other words it messes with your hormonal systems. It is a "xenoestrogen" - a chemical that acts as a strong estrogen. As such, it has been linked to lovely things like estrogen dependent breast cancer, prostate cancer, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and infertility.

93% of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their bodies. I don't know about you, but I kind of would like to be in that 7%...

A recent (albeit very small) study shows that we can reduce the BPA concentrations in our bodies dramatically by modifying some eating habits. Here is a bit on the study: 

So if you are interested in making changes in your life to reduce your BPA exposure, here are some tips:

• Never buy acidic foods in cans. I'm talking tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, etc. You can often buy then in jars or why not use fresh tomatoes? And really, just try to get away from using cans all around. 
• Do not drink soda. (Like you needed another reason)
• Never eat or drink anything that has touched hot plastic - I'm thinking microwaving your lunch in a plastic container, storing dinner leftovers in plastic while still hot. 
• Use a ceramic or stainless steel cup for coffee and other hot liquids. Did you know that disposable cups have BPA in them? Yep, that's the lining that keeps the liquid from soaking thru the paper cup. Not to mention the plastic lid where the hot steam deposits, and then falls back into the liquid you are about to drink.
• Store your leftovers in glass containers whenever possible. 
• You know the inside of takeout containers? Same as the papercup idea. Lined with BPA.
• Microwave popcorn - yep, the bag is lined with plastic. That's why the trans fats in the packet don't soak thru the paper bag. 
• And for heaven's sakes, get rid of those old, beat up, scratched up Nalgene bottles. Glass is the most inert substitute out there but stainless steel will work in a pinch too. Personally, I adore quart mason jars but I realize that screams "Hippie!" from a mile away...

Now, I know that you can't get away from being exposed to BPA alltogether. I mean, really. This is the 21st century. The tops of mason jars are lined too and glass containers have plastic lids. But if you just start paying a little attention to this one known issue, you might have the chance to significantly improve your odds of living a healthier and longer life.

Waking up at 3 in the morning?

If you are one of the many people waking up at 3 in the morning and can't get back to sleep, you might want to read this...

While you could pop a prescription or over the counter sleep aid, I recommend against it. First off, you are facing a laundry list of side effects, but also people with sleep aids often do sleep but the sleep they get is not productive. In other words, they get no rejuvenating deep sleep so they find themselves just as tired the next day. Of course, in some cases they might work okay on the short term. In the long term they might lead to dependencies.

So maybe you could just pop a natural supplement, right? What's the harm? The most often recommended sleep aid is melatonin. But melatonin is a hormone and it's nothing to play with. First off, this approach still will not get to the root cause of your issues. Secondly, taking hormones brings a whole other level of complications. Did you know that if you take a hormone, your body will be flooded with it and therefore the receptors that respond to it will down-regulate over time. So this means you will need more and more of it to produce the same effect. You ever heard of women taking progesterone in some form and then saying it worked for a while but became ineffective overtime? Or a man taking testosterone, feeling like a million bucks for a time, then getting worse? In the case of testosterone supplementation there are other pretty well known body processes going on as well (excess testosterone may convert to estrogen for example) but this is just to underscore that supplementing with hormones should come as a last resort and with supervision.

So what's one to do? Staring at the ceiling wide awake at 3 am is really not that much fun. Especially if the next day you feel like a wet rag. 

The solution to the root cause of the problem is blood sugar control. More than half of Americans - and I'd argue over two-thirds - have improperly balanced blood sugars. Messy sugars overtime will lead to insulin resistance, then pre-diabetes, then ultimately Type 2 diabetes. That's the bad news. The good news is, that in most cases this is not that hard to support nutritionally. 

So maybe you are not convinced. Maybe you are normal weight- or even underweight and you just don't see how you might be headed for diabetes. Fair enough. Keep in mind though, the progression of this imbalance might take decades. But just answer these questions:

- Do you get shaky, irritable, or lightheaded if you miss meals?

- Do you get tired after meals? 

If your answer is yes to either one of those, you do belong to those with blood sugar imbalances. The first answer generally indicates reactive hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), the second tends more toward higher blood sugar. You might even have both symptoms which just means you are probably transitioning from low to high blood sugars.

What does this all have to do with you waking up at 3am? A lot. Let's look at a typical day in a person who wakes up at 3 am. 

"Alice's alarm goes off at 7am. She pushes the snooze button 3 times by the time she finally gets up to get ready for her job. No time to eat breakfast, so she grabs a quick muffin and a cup of coffee in the morning. She has some deadlines to work on and immerses herself in her work. At about 10, she finds herself unable to concentrate. She grabs another cup of coffee and a candy bar. She feels better, full of energy. She gets that pressing project finally done and on the boss's desk by noon. Then she grabs a chicken sandwich and some salad with fat free dressing plus a bag of baked chips at the corner fast food place and hurries back to work. Within a half hour, she is yawning. Contemplating a cup of coffee, she decides she is going to pull through and just eat a banana she threw in her purse that morning. But that really didn't help much and by 3pm, she is eagerly waiting for the coffee maker to be done. She gets a second wind after that, then it's time to leave work, pick up the dry cleaning, and go to the gym. Dinner is a slice of veggie pizza at 7pm. She watches a movie and decides to fight her urge for a snack. She goes to bad at 10. She falls asleep right away but finds herself wide awake in the middle of the night. She looks at the clock: 3:30. Why do I always wake up at the same time? - she ponders. Then she starts counting sheep, she tosses and turns for what seems like forever, then she drinks a glass of warm milk. Finally she falls asleep - but the alarm goes off almost immediately. It's 7 am. She presses snooze 3 times like every morning."

Let's look at what happens to Alice physiologically. She has carbohydrates, sugar and caffeine for breakfast. Great recipe for spiking your blood sugar right off the bat. No fat, no protein and probably very little fiber - all the things you need for balanced blood sugar are missing. So after her blood sugar spikes, her pancreas panics. Very high blood sugar sets off alarms in the body. So in comes a bunch of insulin, gets the sugar out of the blood and into the cells and her blood sugar tanks. Another alarm reaction. Without adequate glucose (=sugar) in the blood, her brain starves. She gets sleepy, maybe cranky, might even get blurred vision, inability to think. So she grabs that candy bar and coffee. Blood sugar spikes, probably crashes again. Good thing it's lunch break. For lunch she does it a bit of fiber, but no fat and little protein along with a bunch of refined carbs (bread, chips). Her sugar goes up and maybe that bread was just a bit much adding to the insults of her meals in the morning. This time when insulin comes to the rescue, the cells are unable to accept insulin and the sugar it carries. This is the beginning stage of insulin resistance. Her sugar is still high. To save the day, the liver quickly converts the sugar into fat. This process takes a lot of energy, making her sleepy. In comes the banana, then the coffee, etc. 

So I'm hoping you can see what a roller coaster this diet is causing her. When she finally goes to bed, you can only guess what her high carb dinner (pizza) is doing to her blood sugar. But when the food goes thru her, then her body tries to adjust for the fluctuations and ultimately fails. After 3 am her blood sugars dip so low, that her body experiences an alarm reaction. The brain can't function without glucose. The body can't function without the brain. So a massive stress hormone release happens: adrenaline and cortisol come to the rescue, suppressing her sleepy hormone: melatonin. She wakes up wide awake and can't get back to sleep for hours. Will it help her to eat something? Probably. Would that warm milk help her? It might - even if it's cold since it will provide her with some glucose. But ultimately this scenario could have been completely avoided, if she had just had a blood sugar balanced diet throughout the day. 

If you are "Alice" but you still don't believe me, try this simple trick. Don't even go as far as a blood sugar control diet. Just do this: Before going to bed (yes, I'm talking 10 pm or right before your head hits the pillow), eat a healthy snack rich in complex carbs, fat and protein. Try one of these: A green apple with a handful of almonds. A pear with some cheese. A piece of turkey and some baby carrots. In addition, you could keep a handful of raw nuts by your bedside, and pop them in your mouth when you wake up very early in the morning.

Now this might not work for you right off the bat, but if it does I hope you know what that means. It means you have whacky blood sugar. If it doesn't work, your blood sugar might just be too messed up for a simple trick like this to work. 

If you would like to go further, and want to fix the root cause of your issues, you can go on a blood sugar control diet. Here are the basic rules:

• Eat 3 square meals a day plus 2-3 snacks.
• Combine good fats, protein, and complex carbs with each meal. 
• Never skip meals
• Never eat a carbohydrate on its own
• Avoid sugar
• Eat breakfast within an hour of waking

This is not that hard - and I could go on for hours about people whose lives this simple strategy has changed forever. For the better, of course! 

How I fixed my Sinus Infection

I have been hearing so much about people having sinus infections, I thought I'd quickly type up my experience  with it a few months back.

This was my first experience with sinusitis - and let me tell you, it was no fun. It came on fast and it HURT badly. I had a headache and very intense pressure under my right eye. I was cranky and tired - mostly from all the pain. After a couple of days of this - and right after I talked to someone who had just went to the ER for sinusitis, I decided to make an appointment with my family doctor. I called  but he wouldn't be available for 2 days. I made the appointment though I sincerely thought I'd end up at urgent care before those 2 days would come to pass.

So I kicked into high gear- I knew I was on a deadline. I came home, looked up sinusitis in a bunch of books, did some research, drafted up a plan and set out to do nothing all day except take care of myself and do my best to get rid of the sinusitis. A crucial first step, by the way. In this modern age we all seem to expect to handle illnesses without slowing down - hence we so often wait too long, then end up popping pills for things that could have otherwise been handled naturally.

I took some supplements - these are all things I carry in my practice so luckily I had everything on had. 250 mg of food based Vitamin C (works a lot better than ascorbic acid) every couple of hours is the first thing I start with when I feel under the weather. Since sinusitis can be caused by bacteria, virus, or fungi, I decided to have a broad approach. Obviously, the Vitamin C would support my immune system. Vital Nutrients Herbal Biotic and Vital Nutrients ViraCon are herbal supplements - the first one has anti bacterial, the second has antiviral effects. I decided its not fungi - mostly from gut feeling but also because it seems like if my sinusitis had been fungal, it would have been more chronic, not such sudden onset acute. I took 2 of each pill 4 times that day. I crushed a clove of garlic and swallowed it with some water - then chased it with a bit of honey. I only did this once because I couldn't stomach it that day but there is no reason not to do it multiple times.

About 4 times that day, I boiled some water, added a bunch of salt, hovered over the pot with a towel over myself. I steamed my sinuses but decided to kick it up a notch and added some tea tree oil to sanitize my airways- and quickly found out why that one book specifically said "Add 1-2 drops". Whoa! That stuff stings... but also luckily evaporates quickly. So I ended up adding just a single drop every couple of minutes.

I did compresses with wet, warm washcloths throughout the day which I found very soothing.

I did Neti pot rinses  2-3 times as well.

I drank herbal tea all day long - not that that's really any different than any other day for me but the hot liquid was certainly smoothing. I opted for rosehips, peppermint and chamomile that day.

I ate nothing all day. Mostly because I just wasn't hungry but it is also important to note that your immune system is most active when you are fasting. So in a way it makes sense. However, I wouldn't recommend fasting if a sick person is hungry - but if you are under the weather and can't imagine eating, don't shove food down your throat because you think you have to.

The next morning I woke up and felt okay. The pressure was mostly gone and my hunger was back. I continued my Neti pot rinses and the supplements but didn't do anything else. I did go in to my appointment with my family doctor the next day who said I was obviously recovering on my own but handed me a prescription just in case since the weekend was coming up. I never did use it...

Vitamin D- what you don't know may hurt you

Vitamin D is not only a vitamin, it is actually a hormone. You probably have heard a lot of media buzz around its importance lately but you likely haven't been hearing is your doctor talking about it. I'm not entirely sure why that is - though I would have a few guesses...

The Vitamin D Council is an organization that compiles the latest research regarding this substance. If you are interested, it's a great idea to take a look at their information. For those who don't want to take the time, I'll give you an executive summary here:

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with things like autoimmune disease, cancer, heart disease, and depression. So you don't want to be low!

Vitamin D is made out of cholesterol in response to sunlight exposure in a healthy person. Sadly, many of us aren't able to make this complicated conversion from sunlight to hormone for a variety of reasons. When someone's total cholesterol is under 150, for example, (this most commonly can happen in people taking statin drugs) hormone synthesis is compromised. Also, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes appear to create issues around this conversion as well.

You can get some Vitamin D from animal sources - but generally not nearly as much as one can get from sunlight. Since it is a fat soluble vitamin, it is found mainly in fatty animal foods - assuming the animal had plenty of exposure to sunlight...

So it would make sense for people to take Vitamin D. However, there is a potential toxicity problem. I always recommend all my clients get their Vitamin D levels tested. This is a quick and inexpensive blood test that I offer my clients or alternatively, your doctor will probably be happy to order it up for you if you ask. In fact, you can order it up for yourself at directlabs.com . In fact, it happens to be their March special for $39.

Your test comes back in a couple of days. If your numbers are low, you'll need to supplement with a source of D3 with a dosage determined by your health care professional.

In my opinion, keeping your Vitamin D levels in check might be one of the easiest and cheapest ways to cut down on your risk of cancer.