Category Archives: Hormones

Intermittent Fasting FAQ

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Adapted from Kris Gunnars

Intermittent fasting (IF) is currently one of the world’s most popular health and fitness trends. People are using it to lose weight, improve health and simplify their healthy lifestyle.

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a term for an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating.

It does not say anything about which foods you should eat, but rather when you should eat them. In this respect, it is not a “diet” in the conventional sense. It is more accurately described as an “eating pattern.”

Common IF methods involve daily 16 hour fasts, or fasting for 24 hours, twice per week.

Humans have actually been fasting throughout evolution. Sometimes it was done because food was not available, and it has also been a part of major religions, including Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. When you think about it, our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t have supermarkets, refrigerators or food available year-round. Sometimes we couldn’t find anything to eat, and our bodies evolved to be able to function without food for extended periods of time.

If anything, fasting from time to time is more “natural” than constantly eating 3-4 (or more) meals per day.

These are the most popular methods:

  • The 16/8 Method: Also called the Leangains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, for example from 1 pm to 9 pm. Then you “fast” for 16 hours in between.
  • Eat-Stop-Eat: This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.
  • The 5:2 Diet: On two non-consecutive days of the week, only eat 500-600 calories. Eat normally the other 5 days.

By making you eat fewer calories, all of these methods should make you lose weight as long as you don’t compensate by eating much more during the eating periods.

I’ve personally found the 16/8 method to be the simplest, most sustainable and easiest to stick to. It is also the most popular.

How Intermittent Fasting Affects Your Cells and Hormones

Orange ClockWhen you fast, your body changes hormone levels to make stored body fat more accessible. Your cells also initiate important repair processes, and change the expression of genes.

Here are some changes that occur in your body when you fast:

  • Human Growth Hormone (HGH): The levels of growth hormone skyrocket, increasing as much as 5-fold. This has benefits for fat loss and muscle gain, to name a few .
  • Insulin: Insulin sensitivity improves and levels of insulin drop dramatically. Lower insulin levels make stored body fat more accessible.
  • Cellular repair: When fasted, your cells initiate cellular repair processes. This includes autophagy, where cells digest and remove old and dysfunctional proteins that build up inside cells.
  • Gene expression: There are changes in the function of genes related to longevity and protection against disease.
  • By making you eat fewer meals, intermittent fasting can lead to an automatic reduction in calorie intake. In addition to lower insulin and increased growth hormone levels, it increases release of the fat burning hormone norepinephrine (noradrenaline). Because of these changes in hormones, short-term fasting may  increase your metabolic rate. By helping you eat less (fewer calories in) and helping you burn more (more calories out), intermittent fasting causes weight loss by changing both sides of the calorie equation.

Studies show that intermittent fasting can be a very powerful weight loss tool. In a review study from 2014, it was shown to cause weight loss of 3-8% over periods of 3-24 weeks.

That is actually a very large amount compared to most weight loss studies.

According to this study, people also lost 4-7% of their waist circumference. This indicates that they lost significant amounts of the harmful belly fat that builds up around the organs and causes disease. This is an extremely important reason to adopt this practice.

There is also one study showing that intermittent fasting causes less muscle loss than the more standard method of continuous calorie restriction.

Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
  • Weight Loss: As mentioned above, intermittent fasting can help you lose weight and belly fat, without having to consciously restrict calories.
  • Insulin resistance: Intermittent fasting can reduce insulin resistance, lowering blood sugar by 3-6% and fasting insulin levels by 20-31%. This should protect against type 2 diabetes.
  • Inflammation: Some studies show reductions in markers of inflammation, a key driver of many chronic diseases.
  • Heart Health: Intermittent fasting may reduce LDL cholesterol, blood triglycerides, inflammatory markers, blood sugar and insulin resistance. These are all risk factors for heart disease.
  • Cancer: Animal studies suggest that intermittent fasting may help prevent cancer.
  • Brain Health: Intermittent fasting increases a brain hormone called BDNF, and may aid the growth of new nerve cells. It may also protect against Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Anti-aging: Intermittent fasting can extend lifespan in rats. Studies showed that fasted rats live as much as 36-83% longer.
Intermittent Fasting Makes Your Healthy Lifestyle Simpler

Fish Meal on a PlateEating healthy is simple, but it can be incredibly hard to stick to. One of the main obstacles is all the work required to plan for and cook healthy meals.

If you do intermittent fasting, this gets easier because you don’t need to plan, cook or clean up after as many meals as before.

Now, when I am out and don’t want to eat an unhealthy meal, I simply skip it and wait to reach home.

Intermittent fasting is actually very popular among the “life hacking” crowd because it improves your health while simplifying your life at the same time!

Safety and Side Effects

Hunger is the main side effect of intermittent fasting. You may also feel week and that your brain isn’t performing as well as you’re used to. This may only be temporary, as it can take some time for your body to adapt to the new meal schedule. Also we are used to eating frequently and weakness may be a psychological effect. It certainly was for me. I felt I couldn’t go a few hours without eating, I would develop hypoglycemic headaches. But now that I understand how IF works, I am able to go 24 hours without eating, without any side effects!

If you have a medical condition, then you should consult with your (Integrative Medicine) doctor before trying intermittent fasting.

This is particularly important if you:

  • Have diabetes.
  • Have problems with blood sugar regulation.
  • Have low blood pressure.
  • Take medications.
  • Are underweight.
  • Have a history of eating disorders.
  • Are a female who is trying to conceive.
  • Are a female with a history of amenorrhea.
  • Are pregnant or breastfeeding.

All that being said, intermittent fasting does have an outstanding safety profile. There is nothing “dangerous” about not eating for a while if you are healthy and well nourished overall.

Frequently Asked Questions About Intermittent Fasting

Here are answers to the most common questions about intermittent fasting.

1. Can I drink liquids during the fast?

Yes. Water, coffee, tea and other non-caloric beverages are fine and can be particularly beneficial during a fast, because they can blunt hunger. Do not add sugar, though.

2. Isn’t it unhealthy to skip breakfast?

No. It is a myth that we can’t do without breakfast.

3. Can I take supplements while fasting?

Yes. However, keep in mind that some supplements (like fat-soluble vitamins) may work better when taken with meals.

4. Can I work out while fasting?

Yes, fasted workouts are fine.

5. Will fasting cause muscle loss?

All weight loss methods can cause muscle loss, that is why it is important to lift weights and keep protein intake high. One study shows that intermittent fasting causes less muscle loss than regular calorie restriction.

6. Will fasting slow down my metabolism?

No. Studies show that short-term fasts actually boost metabolism.

7. Should kids fast?

Sure they can, for short periods.

How to Start

Chances are that you’ve already done many “intermittent fasts” in your life.

If you’ve ever eaten dinner, then slept late and not eaten until lunch the next day, then you’ve probably already done a 16+ hour fast. Many people actually instinctively eat this way. They simply don’t feel hungry in the morning.

I personally find that the 16/8 method is the simplest and most sustainable way to do intermittent fasting. Another approach is to simply fast whenever it is convenient. As in, skip meals from time to time when you’re not hungry or don’t have time to cook.

Type 2 diabetes has become an absolute epidemic in all age groups. It seems pretty obvious that this is a balance problem. If you feast, you must fast. If you keep all the feasting and lose all the fasting, you get fat. That’s really not so hard to understand, is it?

But what happens when you lose all the feasting? Well, then life becomes a little less special. If you are the guy at the wedding who won’t drink, who won’t eat the cake, who won’t eat the full meal, who won’t eat the appetizers  – there’s a name for that – the party pooper.

Maybe you can keep it up for 6 months, or 12 months. But forever? Heck, not even the most extreme religions did that. That’s pretty hard to do. Life is full of ups and downs. Celebrate the ups because the downs are right around the corner. But you must balance the periods of eating a lot with periods of eating very little. It’s all a matter of balance.
If you feel good when fasting and find it to be a sustainable way of eating, then it can be a very powerful tool to lose weight and improve health.

Be Healthy.

5 Supplements For People Struggling With Autoimmune Diseases

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Autoimmune diseases are one of the leading causes of suffering in the world.The good news is that there is a lot you can do today to take action for your health.Research suggests that genetics account for only about one-third of autoimmune disease factors. Environmental triggers, diet and lifestyle might be what’s largely responsible — which means you can help balance your immune system, dampen the inflammatory attacks and attempt to put the autoimmune response into remission.As the father of medicine, Hippocrates, said “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine thy food.” The foods we eat instruct and build our biochemistry. And when there is a lack of the nutrients, the genetic switch for autoimmunity is triggered.

With that in mind, I’m sharing the top nutrients and corresponding food medicines that I recommend for people struggling with autoimmune conditions:

1. Vitamin A

Vitamin A is essential for equipping you with a strong immune system. And vitamin A deficiency has also been linked to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes.

Why? Researchers seem to think it has to do with our dendritic cells. These alarms of the immune system can send out a “red alert” to stimulate immunity, or a “calm down” message that tones down excessive immunity that can damage the body. The “calm down” message makes use of vitamin A.

Food Medicine: True vitamin A, what’s called retinol, is only found in animal products like fish, shellfish, fermented cod liver oil, liver and butterfat from grass-fed cows.

Plant carotenes, a precursor to vitamin A, are found in sweet potatoes and carrots but the conversion rate to the usable retinol is very weak. In fact, research suggests that just 3% of beta-carotene gets converted in a healthy adult.

2. Vitamin D

Known as the “sunshine vitamin,” this nutrient is essential for many metabolic and immunological pathways in the body.

For example, Th17 cells are helper T cells that produce a number of inflammatory chemicals, such as interleukin-17. With autoimmune conditions — such as inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis — Th17 cells are out of control.

But Vitamin D, in conjunction with Vitamin A, has been shown to synergistically dampen the Th17 inflammatory response.

Food Medicine: As with vitamin A, vitamin D is most abundant in animal and dairy fats. But soaking up some time in the sun can also help — about 20 to 60 minutes a day, depending on your complexion. And consider getting tests done every few months to ensure your vitamin D levels are healthy.

3. Vitamin K2

One study in the Journal of Neuroimmunology found that vitamin K2 was effective at inhibiting the pro-inflammatory iNOS in the spinal cord and the brain immune system in rats that had multiple sclerosis symptoms.

Unfortunately, K2 is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies in the western diet.

Food Medicine: Vitamin K2 is best paired with the other fat-soluble vitamins, A and D, in whole food form like grass-fed butter oil (ghee), or organ meat. Natto, a Japanese superfood made from non-GMO fermented soybeans, also has high levels of K2.

4. Iron

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is linked to many autoimmune diseases. One reason is because a large amount of stored iron, ferritin, is absorbed in the intestines. And in functional medicine, damage of the gut lining and leaky gut syndrome are considered preconditions for autoimmunity.

Food Medicine: It’s critical to first deal with the underlying problem that’s causing the iron deficiency. Healing of the microbiome is essential for healthy nutrient absorption, especially iron.

Once the gut is healed, iron-rich foods like grass-fed beef, liver and spinach can be effective, as well as cooking with cast iron cookware.

5. Micronutrients

Micronutrient deficiencies — such as selenium, magnesium and zinc — are associated with several autoimmune diseases. That’s mainly due to chronic inflammation, which decreases the absorption of these vital nutrients.

These micronutrients are needed for the healthy production and conversion of the thyroid hormone — and thyroid problems such as Hashimoto’s disease are some of the most common autoimmune conditions.

Food Medicine: A variety of nuts and seeds like Brazil nuts, as well as oysters, are good sources of these nutrients.

What Should You Do Now?

If you’re struggling with symptoms of an autoimmune disease, here are some specific steps to consider taking:

1. Get Your Nutrient Levels Checked

A good place to start is having blood labs done to see where your nutrient levels are.

2. Find Out If You Have Nutrient Absorption Issues

You might be eating all the right foods, but just not properly absorbing them. Potential inflammatory microbiome issues, such as leaky gut syndrome, may be preventing optimal nutrient absorption.

3. Avoid Your Trigger Foods

With autoimmune problems, you can have an immune response from virtually any food. For example, nuts may be a great source of micronutrients in theory, but may not agree with your body in particular.

4. Implement Natural Methods

There are many natural tools for you to use to help dampen inflammatory-immune responses, including avoiding gluten and managing stress.

5. Consider an Integrative Medicine Evaluation

Integrative medicine can help suggest sustainable options for those suffering from autoimmune conditions. Take advantage of a free phone  evaluation to have your questions answered and to see if Integrative medicine might be right for you.

Weight Loss – Four Simple Steps

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You Can Lose the Weight – Four Simple Steps

Go to the mall. See a movie. Look around next time you’re in an airport. What you’ll see is the confirmation of all the statistics that we’re hearing so much about these days related to the ever-increasing prevalence of obesity. It’s everywhere and it’s affecting most of us.

Books, online information, infomercials, daytime T.V., and even nightly news programs are constantly hammering us with the scary news that relates increasing abdominal girth to just about every bad medical condition you don’t want to get. At the same time, these same resources offer up some new trendy solution to the obesity epidemic daily, often in the form of some new and exotic dietary supplement.

Truth is, losing weight doesn’t happen when you give in and buy the latest pill. Weight loss happens when the body shifts from storing fat to burning fat. It is that simple, and far and away how we signal our metabolism to make this fundamental shift depends on what we choose to eat.

But it’s understanding how our food choices influence the ratio of fat storage to fat burning that will help give commitment to making the right dietary changes to trim down.

When we humans consume glucose or carbohydrate-rich foods that are then broken down into glucose, it stimulates the pancreas to secrete the hormone insulin. We all learned in high school biology that insulin works in the body by facilitating the reduction of blood sugar by driving it into cells. But while that is true, insulin performs two other functions in your body that you need to be aware of: it stimulates fat production and inhibits fat breakdown. This explains why sugars and carbs make people fat.

In our hunter-gatherer days, the ability of insulin to stimulate fat production might well have paved the way for our ability to survive. Long before wheat fields, apple orchards or convenience stores, late summer and early fall were pretty much the only times of the year when humans would stumble upon sugars, because that’s when fruit ripens. Eating these sugar-rich foods would stimulate insulin production, leading to fat storage that provided us a calorie buffer for the winter, when food was scarce. This is actually an incredible adaptive mechanism. Unfortunately, sugar-rich foods are no longer just something we have for a few weeks a year. Sugar and carbs are available in abundance 365 days a year, all the while telling us to store fat for the winter of food scarcity that never comes.

Dietary fat has pretty much the opposite effect in terms of insulin signaling. It actually sends signals to our physiology that food is abundant, shutting down the need to store fat for the future.

The other player influencing whether we are fat or lean is the microbiome, the collection of more than 100 trillion organisms living within our body. So influential are these organisms in terms of our metabolism that scientists now regard the 3-pound microbiome as actually representing an organ within the body like the liver or the heart. Specifically, the bacteria within the gut play a huge role in regulating how many calories we extract from a given meal, the level of our desire to eat, and even the production of the brain chemicals that influence our eating habits.

So here’s the skinny:

  1. Eat a diet that’s really low in sugar and carbohydrates. I recommend a target of 60-80 grams/carbs/day. Opt for whole fruit, not fruit juice. Avoid dried fruit as it is highly sugar-concentrated.
  1. Eat more fat. Welcome fat back to the table in the form of extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, free-range eggs, wild fish and grass-fed beef.
  1. Add probiotic-rich fermented foods to your plate. Foods like fermented fish, kimchi, fermented vegetables, kombucha, and cultured yogurt are teeming with healthy probiotic bacteria that can help pave the way for weight loss.
  1. Eat more fiber. Fiber rich foods increase the sense of fullness and that helps reduce overall food consumption. More importantly, foods containing a special type of fiber, prebiotic fiber, cater to the healthy gut bacteria, expanding their numbers and enhancing their positive influence on your health. These include choices like jicama, dandelion greens, Jerusalem artichoke, onion and garlic.

Be Healthy.

What Pesticides do to us

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Pesticides like Glyphosate can create havoc with our health.

Here’s how: They can-

  • Damage healthy gut bacteria
  • Change normal foods to cause allergies
  • Cause depletion of tryptophan and lead to serotonin deficiency (linked to obesity, depression, and sleep problems)
  • Cause depletion of the amino acid tyrosine contributing to thyroid hormone dysfunction.
  • Disrupt motility of the gut creating symptoms of IBS.
  • Disrupt enzymes in the liver necessary to help the body detoxify.
  • Lead to problems with the liver activating vitamin D
  • Contribute to vitamin A toxicity
  • Disrupt the production of bile acids and contributes to fat malabsorption.
  • Depletes the essential minerals iron, cobalt, zinc, and molybdenum
  • Cause increased inflammatory response

Avoid pesticides. Stay Healthy.

Butter is Better

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Margie King

Butter has gotten a bad rap for many years, starting in the last century with the rise of margarine, which we now recognize as a deadly trans fat. More recently, butter has been shunned in favor of olive oil and canola oil. But here’s why we should reserve a place at the table for good old-fashioned butter.

butter
The truth is that butter is good for you. Here are 10 benefits of eating real, fresh creamery butter:
1. Butter is the most easily absorbable source of vitamin A which supports the thyroid and adrenal glands, and in turn, the cardiovascular system.
2. Butter doesn’t lead to excess body fat since its short and medium chain fatty acids are burned for quick energy and not stored, and it also gives a feeling of satiety that may decrease cravings and over-eating.
3. It’s rich in anti-oxidants including vitamins A and E, as well as selenium protecting against heart disease as well as cancer.
4. Butter is a good source of dietary cholesterol which acts as an anti-oxidant, repairing damage from free radicals caused by rancid fats, vegetable oils and trans fats. Cholesterol is also important for the development of the brain and nervous system in children.
4. The saturated fat in butter consists of short and medium chain fatty acids which have anti-tumor properties and also strengthen the immune system.
5. Butter contains conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) which are cancer protective.
7. When in its raw state and not pasteurized, butter has an anti-stiffness property called the Wulzen factor, that protects against arthritis, cataracts and hardening of the arteries.
8. Butter is a good source of iodine in a highly absorbable form and necessary for proper thyroid function.
9. It promotes gastro-intestinal health and decreases rates of diarrhea in children.
10. Butter is a good source of vitamin K2 which prevents tooth decay and builds strong teeth and bones.
Remember that the richest benefits are found in raw butter made from grassfed cows.