Score one more for yoga!

Researchers say light stretching can do what a pharmacy full of drugs often cannot: Bring real relief to women suffering from fibromyalgia, the mystifying and often debilitating pain condition.

Researchers from York University in Toronto asked 22 women to take 75-minute hatha yoga classes twice a week. After just eight weeks, the women reported less pain than they did at the start of the study.

They also felt better about their condition, reporting less helplessness and more acceptance, and they were less likely to focus on the worst possible outcomes of the disease.

Although those responses were based on a questionnaire given before and after the study, there were also noticeable changes on a much more objective level. The researchers say the women had higher levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol after eight weeks of yoga lessons.

Now, that might sound bad. “Stress hormone” sounds like trouble, and you definitely don’t want too much of it hanging around.

But too little can be even worse, because the stress hormone is needed to help control inflammation and regulate blood pressure. More importantly, it also keeps the immune system in check — the same immune system that often goes haywire in fibromyalgia patients.

And not so coincidentally, fibro patients usually have very low levels of cortisol.

Since the study was small, it’ll take more research before anyone can say for sure whether yoga can boost cortisol levels in the long run — but other studies have been encouraging, at least when it comes to pain relief.

In one I told you about last year, yoga actually brought as much relief as drugs, with none of the risks. (Read about it here.)

Now, if you’re suffering from fibro, I know you might think the pretzel-like contortions of yoga are the last things your body could handle.

In reality, the hatha form of yoga used in the new study is one of the most basic — and the most gentle.

And in addition to helping to beat pain and regulate your cortisol levels, yoga has been shown to boost physical strength and energy levels, lower blood pressure, and even improve mental health.

You can often find inexpensive or even free lessons through your local library, park, or senior center — or even try it on your own with a book or video.

Happy stretching.

September 2009 PDF

Who says you can’t cure multiple sclerosis?
Learn about the breakthrough therapy that can reverse symptoms of deadly neurodegenerative diseases.

Many people I meet who suffer from multiple sclerosis use the same word to describe how they feel about their condition—despair. They’ve been told that they suffer from an incurable disease—a disease that one day may rob them of their vision, mobility, and their independence.

It’s no wonder so many of these folks remember the exact day when they were diagnosed. There’s something life-changing about being told you can’t be healed.

Well, if you or a loved one is suffering from this cruel disease, I hope you’ll remember this day, too. Because I’m about to share with you…

The medical breakthrough that is reversing the symptoms of M.S.

This isn’t something that’s 20 years off, and it’s not something that has only been tried on rats. I’m talking about a safe, proven process that I have used repeatedly to help patients start to re­verse years of nerve damage from M.S.

Before I can share this breakthrough therapy, you’re going to have to do something for me first—you’re going to need to forget much of what you’ve been told about the cause of M.S. Because I guarantee you that the real cause of this cruel disease is something you’ve never heard before—and it may even shock you.

But once you understand what’s really causing your condition, there are some simple steps you and your doctor can take to finally turn the tide on this debilitating neurodegenerative disease.

When it comes to healing, a picture is worth a thousand words

Six years ago I was sitting in a lecture by Mayo Clinic-trained neurologist Catherine Willner, when she presented some MRIs that had a profound effect on my medical career.

Dr. Willner showed MRIs of the lesions on her M.S. patients’ brains be­fore they started avoiding wheat; after they had avoided it for three months; and after they were re-exposed to wheat. The evidence was crystal clear…

The lesions on their brains were being caused by a food allergy

I would say that a light bulb went off in my head, but it was really much more than that—it was like a flashing neon sign that was directing me to new, simple truths I could use to help patients.

You see, as doctors we are trained that M.S. is an autoimmune disease, where our bodies release large amounts of antibodies in response to a threat—and those antibodies can actually harm body tissue. In fact, when we’re looking for evidence of M.S., we check for elevated levels of IgG antibodies in your cerebral spinal fluid.

But most doctors don’t understand that these IgG antibodies can be released in response to a food allergy—instead, their allergy testing tends to focus on IgE antibodies. The end result is that your allergy goes undiagnosed, and your body keeps on attacking itself.

And here’s the worst part—doctors know these IgG antibodies are doing you harm. That’s why, when treating neurodegenerative diseases like M.S., they prescribe medicines that suppress the manufacture of IgG antibodies. They know enough to try to stop these antibodies—they just don’t know what’s causing them.

Interesting enough, I have found that the part of your brain that gets attacked by the IgG antibodies determines which disease you develop.

For example, if the IgG antibodies attack your myelin sheath, a type of insulation on your neurons, they cause M.S. If these antibodies react with your motor end plates, which are located at the ends of your motor neurons, you may develop myasthenia gravis, which causes severe muscle weakness. If your hearing and balance centers are affected, it’s Ménière’s disease.

The symptoms of these neurodegenerative diseases may be different, but their cause is not—a food allergy that is producing a destructive autoimmune response. And because the cause of these diseases is the same, I can employ the same two-step process to help my patients finally start to heal from these debilitating diseases.

Step 1: Finding your destructive food allergy

If you suffer from M.S. or another neurodegenerative disease your first step is to stop harming yourself. If you continue to eat the food you are allergic to, you will only cause additional damage to your neurons.

When treating my patients for one of these diseases, my first step is to conduct thorough allergy testing, looking for increases in IgG antibodies. Here’s where that can get tricky—as I told you, some patients with neurodegenerative diseases are already on medications to suppress their IgG antibodies. If you’re taking an immune suppressant, tell your doctor before he begins any testing.

At any rate, once I can discover the allergen that is causing your autoimmune response, I can work with you to completely eliminate it from your life. In fact, I have found that…

The most common allergens for my M.S. patients are gluten protein, dairy and eggs

Of course, it doesn’t matter what you’re allergic to—as long as we find it. Then, once you stop ingesting the allergen, the rate of injury to your neurons can finally decrease—or even stop completely.

It may take months of avoiding a food before you notice the difference—so stick with it. Some of my patients have found that even the tiniest slip-up can bring back symptoms.

You have to be committed to swearing off the foods you are allergic to for life. Some of my patients can’t do it—but most of them find it’s a small price to pay for finally restoring their good health.

Step 2: Healing the damage caused by your disease

Healing from M.S. and other neurodegenerative diseases is not as simple as diagnosing your allergy. That will stop the damage, but we still need to repair years of harm to your neurons.

And that starts with normalizing your levels of key hormones that are in charge of repairing your cells.

Years ago, while researching my first book, I came across entries in old medical textbooks that talked about how progesterone helped keep your myelin sheath healthy. And remember—your myelin sheath sustains damage when you suffer from M.S.

I was confused at first, because, as I studied the 24-hour urine test results for my M.S. patients, I saw that some of them had normal or high progesterone levels. But this was only a temporary setback—because I quickly realized that M.S. patients with high progesterone levels were faring best with the disease. Their progesterone was fixing much of the neuron damage caused by their food allergens.

I looked into this more and came across some groundbreaking research by Dr. Donald Stein that found that certain female rats—but never a male rat—could recover from a neurological injury he was inflicting. The female rats who were pregnant had very high levels of progesterone.

This was when I started to realize that progesterone probably offers a healing benefit for people with M.S., and I understand that there are some large, clinical trials currently underway that are researching this further.

Because hormones such as progesterone are so important to repairing damage to your body, I came to appreciate that other repair hormones such as thyroid hormones and DHEA also may play a role in reversing neuron damage. And here’s why most physicians haven’t discovered this yet—thyroid results for M.S. patients often come back deceptively normal. In other words…

Your thyroid is playing tricks on you—and your doctor

The fact is, thyroid levels that may be barely low or even in the “low normal” range contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. European doctors, who are trained to think beyond lab results, are catching on to this much faster than doctors in the U.S.

There’s a huge difference in quality of life between patients in the “low normal” range and patients who have completely normal levels of thyroid hormones. Our goal should be to get you into a higher normal range, without bringing your thyroid levels excessively high or suppressing your thyroid gland’s function. Once you enjoy higher levels of thyroid hormones, your nerve cells function more efficiently and you almost always enjoy increased production of growth hormones.

Of course, progesterone and thyroid hormones aren’t the only two hormones that can facilitate the repair of damage caused by years of disease. You also need to boost your levels of anabolic steroids.

Anabolic steroids build up protein levels in your body, allowing you to repair and build stronger, healthier nerve cells. (With the help of growth hormone they promote positive nitrogen balance.) The two most well-known anabolic steroids are testosterone and dihydro-testosterone (DHT)—and I understand why these hormones make female patients nervous. No woman wants excess levels of these hormones because they cause masculine side effects, such as facial and chest hair.

But here’s the good news. Women have a special process for making anabolic steroids that usually don’t produce these side effects. You ladies secrete weaker androgens—such as DHEA and androstenedione—that only convert to anabolic steroids once they reach your target bone, muscle, organ, and nerve cells. Once there, these hormones do their repair work and then become inactive before secreting back into your bloodstream and exiting in your urine. It’s an amazing—and safe—process.

Now let me ask you this—doesn’t it make more sense to provide women with adequate doses of DHEA, which they can convert to anabolic steroids, instead of bombarding them with sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen? I predict in the coming years this will become the new standard—but most doctors haven’t accepted it yet.

The payoff: Start healing from M.S. in a matter of months

I understand that the science behind healing M.S. is a little complex. Don’t feel bad—it took me years to figure it out myself. Just keep this simple analogy in mind—if your house was on fire, your first step would be to put out the fire, and your second step would be to repair the damage.

When helping my patients heal from M.S., I first diagnose their food allergy so we can stop causing additional damage. We put out the fire.

Then we start to repair the damage. I’ll conduct a 24-hour urine test—the most thorough test of hormone activity available—to look at levels of progesterone, thyroid hormones, anabolic steroids, their metabolites and their precursors, to see where you’re low.

These hormones are designed to “talk” to your cells and tell them to repair themselves. They do this effectively when we’re younger, but we produce less of these key hormones as we age.

I can use bioidentical hormone therapy, which exactly mimics the hormones produced by your body, to restore your levels of these key repair hormones and start repairing your nerve cells.

You see, our nerve cells are no different from our other body cells. They can’t repair themselves until a hormone directs them to do it.

In the case of M.S., you have suffered damage to the myelin sheath of your neurons, and that damage can’t be fixed without adequate hormones to direct the job.

By working with my patients to address their food allergies and build up their hormone levels, we have achieved results that these patients had been told were impossible. I have one patient who could barely climb the couple steps to my office at his first visit who is now playing tennis again. In general, brain M.S. heals in about four months while spinal cord M.S. takes longer.

For example, I have been treating another one of my patients for two years for her spinal cord M.S. At her one-year MRI, we could already see the lesions on her spinal cord beginning to heal. At her recent, two-year MRI, that healing had continued—and there were no signs of new lesions.

I have M.S. patients who are now traveling from across the country to be treated by me. (If there were more Dr. Willners out there, that would be ideal.) And they’ve all been told the same thing you’ve probably been told—their disease is incurable.

Don’t believe it, and don’t give up. We’re making progress against this disease, and I have witnessed it repeatedly with my own eyes.

It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. I’m convinced M.S. does not have to be a life sentence—work with your doctor to implement the process I’ve outlined here, and you could feel a difference in months. If you suffer from M.S., you’ve probably given too many good years of your life to this disease—it’s time to start turning the tide.

The 4 lies that are making you fat…And the simple truths that can conquer obesity

Obesity is the single-greatest health crisis facing America today, and there’s been plenty of speculation on what exactly is causing it. I’m sure you’ve heard all the so-called experts blame our addiction to fast food, our super-sized portions, and our apathy toward exercise—and each of these factors have, indeed, played a role.

But there’s a hidden truth about the obesity epidemic that is seldom discussed, and you’re not likely to hear about it at your local doctor’s office or from some Big Pharma television commercial.

The medical community has played a huge role in making Americans fat

Most doctors would rather remove their tongues than admit such a thing—after all, we’re supposed to be the people who solve health problems. But the truth is, mainstream medicine is just as guilty of spreading the obesity epidemic as Ronald McDonald and Pizza Hut.

To this day, the mainstream medical community continues to spread four lies that are making us sicker and fatter than ever. In fact, we’re facing risks of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes like never before in our nation’s history.

Well, as Ernest Hemingway once said, the best ammunition against lies is the truth. This month, I’m going to expose four more of mainstream medicine’s deadliest lies, and show you how to overcome them so you can finally lose weight and enjoy the healthy life you deserve.

Lie #1: Eating fat makes you fat

At one point in my career, I fell for this lie hook, line, and sinker. As pioneering doctors like Diana Schwarzbein, Robert Atkins, and Richard Bernstein started uncovering the health benefits of a higher-fat diet—and were called crackpots by the mainstream medical community—I didn’t exactly rush to their defense.

In fact, I was certain I could prove them wrong. Overweight patients would come to me begging to try a high-fat, low-carb diet, and the thought that they’d somehow lose weight by eating less bread and more steak, cheese, and bacon horrified me. Reluctantly, I told them they could try it at their own risk—but they had to have their cholesterol checked before beginning the diet and then 30 days later.

I was shocked when patient after patient returned a month later with drastic reductions in their levels of harmful cholesterol and triglycerides. In fact, these folks were faring far better than the patients who I had placed on restrictive, low-fat diets.

I became convinced that I had been misinformed about the body’s fat-making mechanisms, and I spent years re-educating myself, poring over the latest science and studies that had been ignored for years. That’s when I came across a simple truth that has forever changed how I treat obesity…

It’s not dietary fat that makes you obese—it’s fat produced by your liver

When your blood sugar spikes from ingesting too many carbs, your liver stores most of that excess sugar as fat (I’ll explain why in a moment). Fifty years ago, doctors were taught that the fat manufactured by your liver was hard (like the consistency of butter), in contrast to the softer dietary fats that move easily through your bloodstream. This hard fat accumulates around our waistlines and in our blood vessels as fatty streaks, which eventually oxidize into plaque. That’s why, half a century ago, medical textbooks warned doctors of the danger of eating too many carbs. And remember—50 years ago, Americans weren’t nearly as overweight as we are today.

Through bad science and political correctness, the truth about dietary fat and carbs has been banned from today’s medical textbooks—and we’re all less healthy as a result.

Well, once I uncovered the real truth about what makes us obese, I wondered how else I had been misinformed by my medical education. And it wasn’t long before I uncovered the second mainstream medical lie that is making us obese.

Lie #2: High insulin levels are sometimes necessary to prevent diabetes

Many obese patients have excessively high insulin levels, and their doctors don’t take this seriously enough. After all, doctors have been taught that insulin is the preferred “nozzle” for delivering nutrition to your cells. They even use it to treat diabetes.

But if there’s one thing I hope I teach you about insulin, it’s this…

Insulin makes you fat

You see, most of the insulin you produce gets trapped in your liver, which has 200,000 pure insulin receptors on every one of its cells. Once there, insulin mostly directs your liver to store excess blood sugar as fat, instead of delivering that sugar to your body’s cells where it can be used later for fuel. When you produce too much insulin, your liver becomes a fat-making machine.

But, wait—it gets worse. At the same time insulin is directing your liver to create fat, it’s also unleashing at least four other health disasters.

Disaster #1: Much of the fat your liver produces is being stored as LDL cholesterol, the deadly kind, which spill into your blood vessels. The reason is a little complicated, but it has to do with balancing the pH of your body.

Disaster #2: If you require excessive insulin to maintain your blood sugar all your other cells are starving and may start wasting, because insulin is routing blood sugar through your liver, instead of delivering it to the rest of your body’s cells.

Disaster #3: Because insulin is insufficient at removing blood sugar, you’re constantly suffering from blood-sugar spikes that damage your blood vessels.

Disaster #4: High insulin levels even make it harder for you to burn off body fat. No wonder so many diets we try don’t work!

As I came to understand that high insulin was a major contributor to obesity, I began to have serious doubts about whether it really was the preferred nozzle for delivering nutrition to your body’s cells. That would be like admitting we are supposed to be obese and suffering from blood vessel damage. So I dug around a bit more, and that’s when I uncovered…

Lie #3: IGF-1 is not important to preventing obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome

Most doctors are so in the dark about the important role that the hormone IGF-1 plays in good health that they don’t even test for it. What an enormous disservice.

The truth is, IGF-1 is the preferred hormone for removing carbs from your bloodstream (outside of your liver and fat cells). In fact, if you are healthy, it is the nozzle for delivering sugar to 93 percent of your cellular fuel tanks (muscles, organs, and bones)—instead of to your liver, where it will be stored as fat. In fact…

The more IGF-1 you have, the less insulin you need

You see, when your body isn’t producing enough IGF-1, it needs to make more insulin to pick up the slack of fuel nozzle deficits for processing a sugar load. As I discussed, much of that excess insulin gets stuck in your liver, and the fat-making cycle begins. In contrast, when you have enough IGF-1 (and I’ll tell you how to make more in a moment), your cells are better nourished and you make less fat.

In fact, if you have enough IGF-1, you need almost no insulin when you’re fasting, exercising, or between meals. Once you understand the important role of IGF-1, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble understanding the fallacy of…

Lie #4: There is no hormonal solution to obesity

Most doctors downplay—or outright dismiss—the critical role that adequate hormone levels play in helping you conquer obesity. But now that you understand the tug of war that occurs between insulin and IGF-1, you can appreciate that hormones play a critical role in expanding your waistline.

And insulin and IGF-1 aren’t the only two hormones playing this game. As we discussed last month (see the archives at www.healthrevelations.com and log in using the password on page 8), your imbalance between anabolic and catabolic steroids can encourage obesity.

For example, anabolic steroids like testosterone preserve your body’s protein, stimulate your liver to produce IGF-1, and encourage the development of lean muscle mass. In contrast, catabolic steroids like cortisol break down your body’s proteins into sugar that can be used as fuel. This was useful in prehistoric times for giving our ancestors the energy they needed to fight off a predator—but we don’t wrestle tigers too much these days.

Instead, excessive cortisol is just causing our blood sugar to spike, and we end up producing excess levels of insulin to get rid of the sugar. Next thing you know, that sugar ends up as body fat.

That’s why its critical to have your anabolic and catabolic steroid metabolite levels checked by a doctor who is skilled in hormone therapy. Insist on a 24-hour urine test, which gives a much more complete picture of your hormonal metabolite levels. Your doctor may put you on a hormone regimen (insist on bioidentical hormones), or even start you on an exercise routine that will stimulate growth hormone.

Growth hormone levels are critical because it determines the stimulus to release IGF-1 from your liver. However, if you suffer from metabolic syndrome because your blood sugars are always spiking, you can sabotage your ability to release growth hormone. Growth hormone release requires a falling blood sugar. It does little good to make IGF-1 if you lack the stimulus to release it.

The thing to remember here is that, in the tug of war between growth hormone and cortisol, you need to make sure growth hormone prevails. That’s the key to being leaner, stronger and less dependent on insulin—and I bet you’ll find some inches melting off your waist, too.

I’ve met too many overweight patients who had just about given up trying to lose weight. Many of these folks feel like they’ve tried everything, and they’ve been disheartened as diet after diet failed.

The bad news is that you’ve probably been getting bad—or just plain wrong—advice on weight loss from the health “experts” you trust the most. The good news is that you now know the truth, and you can use the information in this article to lose weight, restore your health and feel better than you have in years.

Do me—and yourself—a favor. Give it one more try.

Slash your insulin need in 5 steps

By now you understand the sinister role insulin plays in contributing to obesity. If your insulin levels are high, there are five simple things you can do to bring them under control.

Step 1: Build up your levels of IGF-1. Fasting between meals (which lowers your blood sugar) and getting enough sleep will both stimulate IGF-1 production.

Step 2: Get enough potassium. You should be ingesting more potassium than sodium, but most processed foods are loaded with sodium, which acts as a preservative. Stay away from this junk and load up on potassium-rich foods such as unprocessed low-carb foods.

Step 3: Stop loading up on carbs. Base your diet on healthy fats (such as chicken, beef and fish) and fresh fruits and vegetables. If carbs are the cornerstone of your diet, you’re on the expressway to elevated insulin and obesity.

Step 4: Decrease your mental stress. I’ve had patients who have found success with drug-free methods such as yoga and breathing exercises. Find something that works for you and stick with it.

Step 5: Get more exercise. You don’t need to complete a triathlon, but a regular program of walking, light jogging, or other moderate exercise is key. Exercise stimulates the production of growth hormone and consequently the release of IGF-1. You’re far more likely to stick with exercise if it’s something you enjoy or if you can find friends to exercise with you.

For more tips on lowering your insulin levels and producing more IGF-1, you also can consult my book The Body Heals, 2nd Edition, which is available at www.thebodyheals.com.

The “diabetes test” that could unlock the cure to your chronic fatigue

When I mention blood sugar testing to my patients, they all think of the same thing— diabetes. If you’re not subjecting yourself to regular blood sugar testing—sometimes in the form of several finger pricks a day—I bet you at least know someone who is.

But you may be surprised to learn that blood sugar testing can be useful for far more than treating diabetes. In fact…

This simple test could help you cure your chronic fatigue

I spend a great deal of time talking about and treating chronic fatigue, because it’s one of the most misunderstood illnesses we face as we age. As I’ve told you in previous issues, chronic fatigue can be caused by potassium deficiencies or low levels of key hormones your body needs to keep your hungry cells well nourished. But there’s another type of chronic fatigue that most doctors know very little about—and it all starts with your adrenal glands.

If you suffer from this type of fatigue, you may experience some or all of the following symptoms:

* anxiety

* hypoglycemia, requiring frequent feeding

* low blood pressure

* frequent infections

* a thin waistline if you have normal thyroid function

* constant feelings of discontent

And, believe it or not, many of the people afflicted with this type of fatigue have blue or green eyes and red or blonde hair. Talk about a unique genetic twist!

If you’re suffering from this adrenal-caused fatigue, I have some great news. I’m about to share with you why a simple blood sugar test may help you finally understand what’s causing your debilitating condition. You may be just weeks from curing your chronic fatigue for good—but first you need to know about…

The medical breakthrough that was ignored for 50 years

It was literally half a century ago when medical pioneer Dr. John Tintera discovered that a key indicator of adrenal-caused fatigue is whether you can maintain your blood sugar between meals—and that’s something that can be determined through simple blood sugar testing. Patients who can not maintain their blood sugar may suffer from what Dr. Tintera called “diminished adrenal reserve.”

I’ll explain all of this in a moment—but first let me get on my soapbox. This science has been around for so long that today’s doctors ought to know it by heart. It should be taught at every medical school in America.

But it’s not. In fact, doctors today are taught not to bother considering your adrenals as a cause of your fatigue until the condition becomes so severe that you develop Addison’s disease—a severe adrenal malfunction that can be fatal if left untreated.

It’s outrageous, because Tintera’s science on the role of adrenals in fatigue isn’t what I’d call controversial—in fact, it’s common sense. Let me explain what I mean.

Your adrenal glands make a hormone called cortisol that helps regulate your blood sugar between meals. The process can be a bit scientific, but I’ll explain it as simply as I can.

When you eat a meal, you’re probably ingesting far more sugar fuel than your body needs at the moment. Your liver basically stores some of this sugar as glycogen, and slowly releases the sugar between meals to keep your blood sugar from crashing to dangerously low levels. This constant supply of sugar keeps your cells nourished and is especially critical to your brain function.

Your brain’s cells can only burn sugar as fuel, and they need a constant supply. If your liver can’t keep your brain supplied with sugar between meals, you’re in big trouble. Aside from that, as your blood sugar drops, you’re likely to experience the weak, tired feeling that comes with chronic fatigue.

So, in other words, you need your blood sugar to hold steady. And this is where cortisol comes into the picture. Your cortisol levels determine how much of an enzyme called glycogen synthase is made by your body. That enzyme allows your liver to store sugar—without it, you can’t maintain your blood sugar between meals.

If you’re suffering from this condition, there’s a good chance that you crave carbohydrates, particularly between meals. Your body is trying to tell you to correct your low blood sugar levels.

As you can see, when you don’t make enough cortisol, it starts a chain reaction that leads to low blood sugar, fatigue, and hungry, malnourished cells throughout your body. And it doesn’t stop there.

If your blood sugar continues to crash, you will die. So your adrenals respond by releasing excessive amounts of adrenaline. All of this adrenaline can cause you to experience the following five symptoms:

* anxiety

* rapid heart rate

* profuse sweating

* tremors

* paranoia

So why are your glands going haywire?

So you’ve had your blood sugar tested and found you can’t maintain your levels between meals. You might not be making enough cortisol, but you’ll never know for sure until you to have a 24-hour urine test.

The 24-hour urine test gives your doctor a much more accurate picture of your hormone and their metabolite levels, and allows him to prescribe the correct levels of bioidentical hormones to correct your deficiencies (yes, insist on bioidentical hormones—they are the safest and most effective hormones available).

But why is all of this showing up now? What exactly has caused your adrenals to go haywire and stop producing enough cortisol? In many cases, your adrenal glands may be malfunctioning because you suffer from an undiagnosed autoimmune disease, where your body is essentially attacking itself. When you were younger, your body produced enough “repair hormones” to fix the damage to your glands before you noticed the ill effects. But as we age, we produce less of these key repair hormones, and chronic conditions develop.

There is a growing body of medical literature that shows a food allergy—particularly an allergy to wheat—may be causing an autoimmune response that can damage your adrenals, thyroid, pancreas and ovaries. In fact, several of my patients have seen their fatigue diminish simply by avoiding wheat.

Now, I can’t guarantee wheat is the allergen that is causing your fatigue—it could be anything. That’s why you need to have your doctor conduct allergy testing that screens for IgG antibodies.

Your body often produces these antibodies in response to a food allergy, but many doctors only screen for IgE antibodies. That’s why so many allergies go undiagnosed.

Once you’ve had your 24-hour urine test and IgG antibody screening, you are on your way to healing. You can work with your doctor to correct hormonal deficiencies and to eliminate the food allergen that may be damaging your glands.

You’ll finally have two things that many people with fatigue lack—a proper diagnosis and a plan for true, permanent healing. In a matter of weeks you can experience a dramatic boost in energy, and a new zest for life.

These were supposed to be our golden years—let’s start enjoying them again.

Cortisol: The good, the bad and the ugly

People tend to have a negative association with cortisol—and for good reason. As I’ve told you in previous newsletters, excess cortisol can cause obesity and the wasting of your body’s cells. That’s because your body releases large amounts of cortisol (metabolic syndrome) in response to stress, and the cortisol breaks down your body’s proteins (including the protein in your muscles) into sugar that gives you energy to fight off the threat.

Because most of our stress is mental and doesn’t require this energy boost, that extra sugar created when you endure a robust adrenal secretion eventually gets stored as fat. As a result, your protein-rich muscles are broken down and you develop a spare tire instead. This is exactly what occurs with people who suffer from metabolic syndrome.

But, as I’ve explained in this article, on the other extreme when you are deficient in cortisol, your body has great difficulty maintaining your blood sugar, and you can develop crippling fatigue as a result. You might keep your thin waistline, but you’ll be suffering from a host of other health problems.

The lesson here is that cortisol is like any other hormone—you need the right amount of it, but not too much. Your goal should be to work with your doctor to develop normal levels of cortisol and other key hormones.

A small gift for your doctor could become a big gift for you

No matter how many M.S. patients I and my alternative health colleagues treat, it’s still a challenge to get mainstream doctors to take this safe, proven healing regimen seriously. While they keep adopting a wait-and-see approach, their patients suffer.

If your doctor is resistant to my method, do him a favor—buy him a copy of my book, The Body Heals, 2nd Edition, at www.thebodyheals.com. See if he can argue with my science—I’m betting he can’t. I’ve seen many mainstream doctors have their eyes opened by the truths in this book—here’s hoping your doctor is next.

July 2009 PDF

Erase four deadly diseases—with one secret cure
One little-known hormone may hold the key to wiping out obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and lowering your risk for heart disease

You can’t pick up a newspaper or turn on the news these days without hearing some discussion of the “obesity epidemic” that’s sweeping across America. Our bulging waistlines have become a favorite topic for every so-called health expert and cable TV talking head out there. And for all their jabbering, there’s one crucial point they all seem to miss…

Obesity is just the tip of a larger, deadlier iceberg

We’re being afflicted by obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and runaway cholesterol levels like never before—and, if you’re suffering from all four of these conditions, you may be dealing with a particularly nasty ailment called metabolic syndrome, which I told you about last month.

In my early years practicing medicine, I was always shocked that mainstream medicine had no real treatment for metabolic syndrome, and nothing but symptom-control pills (often of questionable effectiveness) to treat the four diseases that comprise this disorder. And that’s after spending BILLIONS on research.

If you think all that research must have missed something, well, I wondered the same thing. So I spent years poring through all the latest research, as well as old, discontinued medical textbooks, looking for lost knowledge.

And after years of study, I discovered three truths that changed forever how I look at—and treat—metabolic syndrome:

Truth #1: An out-of-control hormone cycle may be causing all the diseases that underlie metabolic syndrome—obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol and blood pressure.

Truth #2: If you have enough of a secret “antidote” hormone, this cycle can be brought under control and you can stop the obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol components of metabolic syndrome in their tracks.

Truth #3: As I discussed last month, by strictly limiting you sodium intake while enhancing your potassium and magnesium intake, you can often lower your blood pressure back to normal.

That’s right…

I’m not talking about treating metabolic syndrome—I’m talking about curing it

I’m not going to keep you in suspense. The antidote hormone… this amazing cure… is called IGF-1. If you’re like most people, you’ve probably never heard of it—but in a minute, I’m going to show you how it can save your life.

But before we talk about the cure, you need to understand how two hormones—insulin and cortisol—may be working together to undermine your good health and unleash the symptoms of metabolic syndrome on your body.

Fighting poison…with poison?

In the earlier days of medicine, doctors and pharmacists used those old, antique weight scales—you know, the ones where you need to balance both sides—to measure medications. Those days are long gone, but that antique weight scale still serves as a powerful illustration of how our bodies are designed to operate.

In a number of instances, our bodies will release a hormone to perform a task, and then release another hormone (or group of hormones) to neutralize the first hormone and keep it from doing more than the body needs.

That same antique weight scale relationship exists between the hormones insulin and cortisol. And if you’re suffering from metabolic syndrome, your body probably is making far too much of both. The end result can be obesity, high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease… and even muscle wasting.

Through my research, I’ve learned that as a result of today’s poor dietary choices and high-stress lifestyles, our bodies are being literally flooded with—and poisoned by—insulin. And in some of us with metabolic syndrome, our adrenal glands are responding to this toxic insulin by producing unhealthy levels of cortisol. In other words…

Your body is poisoning itself… TWICE

“Poison” might seem like a dramatic word for two hormones that are actually produced by your body. But for many people, especially those with metabolic syndrome, poison is the perfect word. After all, excessive insulin need is making you diabetic, obese, and is leading to cholesterol and arterial plaque buildup (among other problems it causes), while cortisol is wasting away your muscles by making sugar you really do not want. Making matters worse, the extra sugar requires extra insulin to normalize your blood sugar. Visualize with me the vicious cycle of response and counter response.

Let’s start with insulin. You’ll remember that last month I discussed how insulin draws sugar out of your blood—in ancient times, this was incredibly useful for those times when humans went long periods without food. But, today, we rarely go more than a few hours without eating, and many of us are producing levels of insulin that are not only harmful, but are also promoting the release of damaging levels of cortisol.

Let me explain how, using the simple example of what happens when you eat a sandwich. You see, the average-sized person (155 pounds) can only carry 6 grams of carbs in their entire blood under normal conditions. The problem is, even a slice of bread has 22 grams of carbs, so a sandwich has 44 grams. Simply eating that sandwich creates an overflow of sugar you need to remove from your bloodstream and store for future use—and removing sugar from your blood is insulin’s job.

But it’s how insulin removes this sugar that’s causing ill health for millions of Americans. You see, insulin has a deadly little secret that most of my patients—and many doctors, for that matter—have never before heard. And they’re always shocked when I reveal it.

Insulin’s deadly fan club

Think of insulin—and IGF, which I’ll be discussing more in a moment—as fuel nozzles. For some of the cells in your body, insulin is the preferred nozzle for delivering sugar that can be stored or consumed for energy. In other cases, IGF is the preferred nozzle for delivery.

And here’s the problem—the cells in your liver love insulin. Each liver cell has 200,000 pure insulin receptors, and it is always first in line for any insulin secreted by your pancreas because of body anatomy. For this reason, so much of the insulin your body produces never makes it past your liver. That insulin, when stuck in your liver, commands your liver to take the extra blood sugar and convert it to mostly fat. Even worse, fat ends up as cholesterol and triglycerides that spill into your blood vessels and accumulate along the walls.

You’re on your way to blocked arteries and heart disease

And now the second poison, cortisol, enters the picture. You see, if insulin had its way, it would pull all the blood sugar out of your system—and that would kill you in a hurry. So your body makes growth hormone, glucagon, epinephrine, and cortisol to counter the effects of insulin—and also to add sugar to your bloodstream when you need it. Remember, we talked last month about how our bodies also release cortisol during times of stress—a reaction that once helped our ancestors fight or outrun dangerous predators. Now, we often release this cortisol in response to emotional stress that requires no physical activity, like being stuck in traffic or fretting about bills.

So, to return to the antique scale analogy, if one side is weighed down with insulin, your body will make more cortisol to offset the effect—and vice-versa. The problem is, cortisol adds sugar to your bloodstream by breaking down your body’s proteins—to put it another way, it creates sugar by wearing down your protein-rich muscles.

Believe it or not, you see evidence of this every day. Think of someone you know who is significantly overweight. These people often have very poor muscle tone around the arms, legs, and everywhere else, for that matter. Much of that effect comes from cortisol breaking down muscles—and some of the effect comes from the fact that insulin released by your pancreas always gives the nutritional advantage to your liver instead of to other body cells, like muscle cells, which leaves those cells hungry. Because of this fact, even though you may be eating plenty, your cells are literally wasting from starvation. I see this condition every day, and have come to call it “hungry cell syndrome.” Your muscle cells will remain hungry until their preferred fuel nozzle, IGF-1, levels increase.

OK, Doc, so what do I do?

I get that question a lot, and you can probably guess the answer by now. You need to normalize your insulin and cortisol levels, but increase your IGF-1 levels. The good news is that, in many cases, your body doesn’t need—or want—to generate all the insulin it uses to regulate your blood sugar. In fact…

It’s like dousing a candle with a fire hose!

When your body generates excessive levels of insulin, much of it gets stuck in your liver. Making matters worse it’s not a preferred fuel nozzle for much of the rest of your body. For 93 percent of your bloodstream, IGF-1 is the preferred fuel nozzle for drawing sugar into your muscles, bones, and organs. Although woefully under appreciated, IGF-1 helps regulate your blood sugar, but, unlike insulin, it doesn’t make you fat. Instead, IGF-1 draws the sugar into your other cells, where it can be used to give you energy and promote lean muscle mass.

The fact is, when you’re making enough IGF-1, your body doesn’t need as much insulin. And when you’re making less insulin, you need less cortisol, too.

The bad news about IGF-1 is that you may have to educate your doctor a bit about it. It’s barely covered in medical school, and its name has changed several times (it used to be known as sulfation factor and the non-suppressible insulin-like activity of the blood stream to name a few).

The good news is that there are some things you can do to boost your IGF-1 levels and decrease your need for insulin.

Step 1: Free yourself from the torture chamber. The high-carb American diet, with its emphasis on processed, sugar-laden food, is so unhealthy that I’ve taken to calling it the “torture chamber diet.” It creates an endless cycle of insulin and cortisol that makes us fat, destroys our hearts and withers our muscles. You need to build your diet around quality proteins, such as beef, poultry and fish, and plenty of vegetables. And make sure you’re getting enough potassium—it should be seven times your sodium.

Step 2: Get moving! Exercise, whether it’s aerobic or weight training, has been proven to boost your body’s production of growth hormone. Growth hormone directs your liver to release IGF-1 into your blood stream. I’m not asking you to run a marathon—I’ve seen plenty of people who were middle-aged and older hurt themselves on some exercise program that would have been more appropriate in their 20s. I am asking you to start taking brisk, regular walks… maybe even dust off that old bicycle and some weights. Work with your doctor, physical therapist, or a personal trainer who specializes in folks like us who have a little gray around our temples.

Step 3: Ask your doc to give you a boost. Work with a hormonally-competent doctor who can measure your growth hormone levels using a 24-hour urine test and put you on a bio-identical hormone regimen, if needed. You’ll see some products advertised online that supposedly can boost your growth hormone levels—or maybe even claim to have growth hormone in them. Be careful—half of this stuff is junk, and some of it is dangerous. I’ve seen firsthand the wonders that hormone supplementation can perform—but this work is best performed by a trained physician. I will discuss more about the interrelated hormones that help versus hinder IGF-1 levels in your blood stream over the next two months.

I’m not just going to tell you this three-step plan works—I’m going to prove it to you. As soon as you’re finished reading this month’s Health Revelations, go step on the scale. It won’t hurt, I promise.

Now follow my three steps and when next month’s issue arrives, step on the scale again. I’ll bet my last dollar you’ll have lost weight, and there’s a good chance you’ll see improvements in all the other symptoms of metabolic syndrome, such as high cholesterol, diabetes, and elevated blood pressure (if you eat less salt and more potassium).

I’m telling you what I tell all my patients who are overweight and dealing with the symptoms of metabolic syndrome—your body is being poisoned, and I’m giving you the antidote. Do yourself the favor of a lifetime and use it.

Quit your hunching, crunching, and sagging
My breakthrough therapy starts reversing the physical signs of aging in a matter of months

Well, it’s been a month since I introduced you to a 90-day cure for chronic fatigue—and I hope you’re starting to feel better. Just correcting your mineral imbalances and getting more potassium in your diet can help you feel more energetic than you have in years.

But sometimes the problem goes deeper than just feeling “tired all the time.” I often treat patients who don’t just feel worn out—they look it. Their skin is sagging and wrinkled…they’re hunched over—it’s what we Montanans call the “rode hard and put away wet” look.

If you’re feeling—and looking—older than you are, I have some good news. You don’t have “bad genes” and your condition is substantially reversible. In fact…

If some doctor gave you the “bad genes” speech, all he really gave you was bad advice

Turns out, there are three very simple explanations for the wrinkling, sagging skin, and other physical signs of aging—and none of them have to do with some genetic craps game:

1) You can’t hold onto water (that’s why your skin is wrinkling)

2) Your cells are weakening (that’s why you lack energy)

3) Your body’s proteins are being destroyed (this keeps your body from repairing itself, and body parts start sagging)

And this month I’m going to introduce you to a breakthrough therapy you can use to reverse all three of these conditions. It’s the same approach I have taken with patients from across the country to help them look and feel years younger—and to start enjoying the vibrant, active lives they deserve. But first you need to understand that…

Your skin is wrinkling because it’s dying of thirst

I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of blowing up balloons for our children or grandchildren. And, as I’m sure you’ve seen a thousand times, the balloon starts to lose air over time and begins to look wrinkled and shriveled.

Believe it or not, that same phenomenon is leading you to develop sagging, wrinkled skin. The only difference is you’re not running out of air—you’re running out of water. It’s water that keeps your skin cells—and the rest of your cells, for that matter—inflated, and as we age we can’t hold onto it any more. Our cells become like half-filled balloons—and our skin starts to wrinkle and shrivel.

You can’t solve this problem by drinking more water—the issue is that your cells are losing the electrical charge they need to draw water into them. But there are two simple ways you can restore that charge.

Step 1: Add this key supplement for pennies a day. By supplementing with gelatin-containing MSM, you can boost your body’s sulfate content. And here’s why that’s important—sulfate attaches to the gelatin, and its sufficiency substantially determines the electrical charge in your joint cartilage and skin cells, and it lets you hold onto water. MSM is inexpensive and widely available through online and retail vitamin stores. It’s also a key player in reversing arthritis damage. (For more on this, see my article “Reverse arthritis damage and start living pain-free today,” in the May issue of Health Revelations.)

Step 2: Boost your potassium—and erase your wrinkles. I talked last month about how important potassium is to helping you overcome the “tired all the time” feeling that comes with chronic fatigue. But potassium also is critical to helping you look younger. You see, potassium resides in your cells, and one of its jobs is to pull water out of your bloodstream (where it doesn’t belong, and its deficiency can lead to high blood pressure), and into your cells, where it can help reverse the physical signs of aging. Start adding more potassium-rich foods to your diet (like avocados, fresh vegetables, meat, chicken, and fish) and cut out processed foods, which tend to be packed with unhealthy sodium. Also consider potassium-based salt substitutes.

I’d like to tell you that MSM and potassium alone are enough to help you eliminate the wrinkles, sagging skin, and hunched-over appearance many of us develop as we age. The good news is that, in some cases, they are enough. In other cases, they can’t work until you…

Stop your cells from falling apart

No matter what you ingest, whether it’s MSM, potassium, or a chicken sandwich, it needs a way to get into your cells. You have pumps lining the outside of your 70 trillion cells that are used to bring nutrients in and out of the cells.

But here’s the problem—these pumps, which are made out of protein, fall apart over time and need to be replaced. When you’re younger, that’s no problem. Your body has several key hormones that communicate with your genes, telling them when to make new proteins to replace the ones that are falling apart. The main repair hormones are estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, cortisol, thyroid hormones, and vitamin A.

But as we age, we make less and less of these hormones. When that happens, these critical messages don’t get through to your genes. Imagine trillions of genes sitting in your cells, eagerly waiting for the message that it’s time to kick into action and heal the parts of your body that are deteriorating—except, without adequate hormone levels, those messages never get through.

This sounds rather scientific, but you see evidence of it all the time. As we get older, many of us start eating better and trying to take care of ourselves—but often our health doesn’t really improve. If that hasn’t happened to you, I bet it’s happened to someone you know. Part of the reason may be that your body has not repaired your cell pumps, structural proteins, and metabolism-enhancing proteins. In addition, maybe you’re not absorbing all this great nutrition you’re working hard to put into your body.

For example, in order to get MSM, water, and other nutrients into your joints, you may need a hormone boost to start directing repair here. It’s not difficult to look around you and see who has sufficient repair hormones, and who could use a little boost. The “lucky ones” appear vibrant, are full of energy, have less wrinkles, and they even stand taller as they walk!

You have the ability to turn back the hands of time, to restore your energy, and to look and feel younger… simply by restoring your body’s diminishing hormones by using bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. First you need to start with…

The simple test that gives you a “report card” on your aging

Have your doctor conduct a 24-hour urine test, and you’ll know in short order whether you have enough repair hormones to keep you a step ahead of the aging process. Like most doctors, I used to rely on blood and saliva hormone tests, which only capture a moment in time and can be influenced by a variety of factors, such as stress, romance, and when you last ate.

The 24-hour urine test allows me to see how you’re producing hormones throughout the course of a day, and it will show rather clearly where you are deficient or excessive. In order to reverse the wrinkles, sagging, and hunching we experience as we age, you need your doctor to check your levels of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, cortisol, thyroid hormones, vitamin A, and even more importantly, their metabolites. Your levels of these hormones will produce what I call your aging “report card.” If your levels have been low for the last several years, chances are you’ve been struggling with many of the physical signs of aging, from sagging skin to aching joints.

The best resources nationally on 24-hour urine analysis are probably my clinic in Whitefish, Montana (visit www.thebodyheals.com and click on consultations) and Dr. Jonathan Wright’s clinic in Washington (www.tahoma-clinic.com).

Here’s the good news—your doctor can start you on a program of bio-identical hormone therapy to restore your levels of these key repair hormones. Now your body will be able to repair the pumps, structural proteins, and metabolism-enhancing proteins. In addition, as mentioned previously, if you enjoy the right hormones they allow MSM, potassium, and other nutrients into your cells.

And this is where the magic happens. Just by combining gelatin, MSM, potassium, and adequate hormone levels, your body will have—perhaps for the first time in years—the means to repair itself and reverse the aging process.

You’ll notice your skin feeling firmer and more radiant—some people may even ask if you’ve had cosmetic surgery! You’ll stand taller, have more energy, and feel better than you have in years—and you may even start to notice a difference in as little as a few months.

I always tell my patients to take a photo of themselves now and four months after they start my therapy. You’ll be amazed at how young your body can look and feel when you give it the right tools.

What puffy eyes tell me about your health
Those bags under your eyes may be hiding a deadly threat to your heart

It’s practically a right of aging—those puffy bags that start to appear under our eyes once we get a few years under our belts. And, if you’re like most of my patients, you probably just ignore them. “Bags and sags” are just a normal part of aging, right?

Well, I used to think so, too. But years of research have taught me that fluid accumulation under your eyes may be threatening more than your movie star good looks. In fact, your body may be trying to warn you of…

A serious—and growing—threat to your health

When fluid starts to collect in places where it doesn’t belong, it often indicates a serious dietary imbalance that can unleash a tidal wave of health problems. That “routine swelling” under the eyes may be the first step down a road that can lead to high blood pressure, obesity… even heart disease.

But once you understand what is causing your fluid accumulation, you may be able to correct it through a simple three-step plan. And, once you do, you won’t just start looking better—you’ll be adding years to your life, too.

Your eyes—a window to your health

You’ve probably heard the old expression that your eyes are the windows to your soul. Well, as I’ll explain in a moment, your eyes are also a window through which I can learn some things about your diet and overall health.

You’ll remember that last month we talked about metabolic syndrome—a condition caused by overactive adrenals that often leaves people obese, diabetic, and with elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels. One of the consequences of overactive adrenals is that they force your body to retain toxic levels of sodium.

Of course, your diet also can leave your body saturated with sodium. Either way, when your body has dangerously high levels of sodium, it causes fluid to build up in empty spaces throughout your body—such as underneath your eyes. In other words…

Those baggy eyes aren’t a cosmetic problem—they’re a warning sign

You see, if you have a robust adrenal secretion, you should be consuming much more potassium than sodium (about a 7-to-1 ratio) in your diet. That’s a tough trick, since Americans tend to live on processed food that’s packed with sodium to preserve shelf life.

But your potassium-to-sodium ratio is absolutely critical to your health. You see, both potassium and sodium act like magnets, attracting the water in your body. Potassium is primarily located inside your cells, and sodium is located outside them.

Without question, you’d rather have water drawn inside your cells than collecting outside them. Your cells need water to conduct basic life processes, to give you energy, and to help you fight off the signs of aging, from sagging skin to arthritis.

But when you have more sodium than potassium in your body, your cells don’t get the water they need. It just collects outside them. The problem can be even worse if you have metabolic syndrome, because your overactive adrenals don’t just tell your body to hold onto sodium—they tell it to get rid of potassium.

The end result of this mineral imbalance is too much water in your bloodstream. And here’s the really bad news…

More water in your bloodstream means higher blood pressure

It’s like trying to direct all the water from the Missouri River through a garden hose. Your blood vessels were never meant to carry that much water.

So what in the world does this have to do with those bags under your eyes? That area under your eyes represents one of the key areas outside your cells where water will accumulate if you have a mineral imbalance. If you’re developing bags under your eyes, it could be a sign that your potassium-to-sodium ratio is out of whack and that your cells aren’t getting the water they need.

Even worse, those puffy eyes may mean that you’re well on your way to high blood pressure, if you haven’t developed it already.

Lose your baggy eyes—and high blood pressure—in 3 easy steps

Getting rid of baggy eyes—and, in many cases, high blood pressure—requires you to correct the imbalance between potassium and sodium in your body. This imbalance is a threat to your cardiovascular health and also can contribute to your fatigue, wrinkles, and sagging skin.

Your first step, if you haven’t taken it already, is to get a 24-hour urine test. This test will let you know if you’re producing too much cortisol and its metabolites, which would indicate that overactive adrenals may be forcing you to retain excess sodium (metabolic syndrome).

Step 2 is to limit your sodium intake to 1,000 mg per day. I know that no one likes to check the labels on food—we like to swallow first and ask questions later. But knowing what you are putting into your body is critical to protecting your health. Once you start reading labels regularly, you’ll be amazed at how much better you’re eating and feeling. In fact, I had a patient last month with metabolic syndrome who lost over 35 pounds of water in just four weeks by reducing his sodium intake to less than 500mg/day.

The last step is to get 4,000 mg of potassium in your diet daily. Nabisco and Kraft aren’t going to make it easy on you, but you can do it. For starters, skip the salt and reach for a salt substitute with potassium chloride. Some deliver more than 500 mg of potassium per serving. (And, at the same time, you’re reducing your sodium intake.)

Also concentrate on loading up on potassium-rich foods, found in fresh foods that are not found in a box, bag, or can. (For a list of potassium-rich foods, see the June issue of Health Revelations.)

You might wonder how you’ll know when you’ve achieved a good balance between potassium and sodium in your body. Trust me—you’ll know. First, you should stop accumulating excess fluid around your eyes, around your waistline and even in your ankles. If you are in doubt, step on your scale because sodium loss means fluids loss. And, if your high blood pressure is being caused by excess sodium retention, you should see your blood pressure drop.

But, beyond that, there’s a good chance you’re going to look and feel better than you have in years. Expect more energy, improved stamina, and even less pain. Give my program a shot and see how you’re feeling a month from now. My guess is that you’ll be amazed at the results.

Caution: If you’re taking blood pressure medicine, it can cause you to abnormally retain potassium. So be sure to talk to your doctor before making any of these changes.

August 2008 PDF

Feeling sluggish? Time for an adrenal recharge

You drag through your days, feeling depleted of every ounce of your normal energy level, and now you’re scraping the bottom of your reserves. Even your sleep fails to bring you relief from this persistent tiredness.

At some point, this will lead you to your doctor’s office with a complaint sure to strike terror into his heart: “I’m tired all the time.” He’s not so much afraid that you’re suffering from some lethal disease —he’s afraid you’re not.

Symptoms that spill outside of a neat and tidy diagnosis

It’s a tough dilemma for most doctors, because unless they can find something to treat with a drug, your non-specific complaint demands an investment in time—a luxury most mainstream docs can’t (or won’t) afford. Not every illness can be packaged into a neat little pill, so you may find yourself getting the gentle—or not so gentle— brush-off.

Or worse, your doctor may suggest that your tiredness is all in your head and hand you a script for some pills to calm you or an antidepressant that will further immobilize you.

So here you are, exhausted and now fighting an uphill battle to get the respect—and treatment—you deserve. I’m going to help you understand what’s going on in your body so you can get your energy back without further delay.

When TLC isn’t enough

Most of us are not designed to break down permanently in middle age. Your body is a phenomenal design that cycles through an ongoing process of breakdown and rebuilding. That’s how the regeneration of your cells occurs.

But running your engine at 100 mph around the clock is a one-way ticket to a permanent breakdown. It can lead you to a state that goes beyond the regular “tired” feeling and into the realm of complete and utter exhaustion. For most of us, being tired can be remedied through a simple treatment program that includes the basics of good old-fashioned TLC: adequate sleep, nutritious food, and a generous serving of downtime.

It’s when your tiredness does not respond to these simple remedies that your quality of life begins to degrade, leaving you with an inability to handle your normal functions. That’s when the time is right to look closely at the HPAT axis, which includes your hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal and thyroid glands.

These glands are interconnected, designed to protect you from the ravages of too much stress. The first two are located in your brain, the thyroid is located a little lower at the base of your neck, and the adrenal glands are perched atop your kidneys.

Your HPAT axis is like a factory that never closes. The glands in your brain direct traffic while the thyroid and adrenals let them know what’s needed. And if you’re running on overdrive, they’re screaming for help around the clock. That scream translates into the extreme fatigue you’re feeling in your body.

What else does a gland have to do to get some attention?

What’s criminal is that your hardworking adrenal glands will get less attention from your doctor than would a stubbed big toe. The only time your adrenal glands get any attention at all is if you develop Addison’s disease, the dire, end-of-the-road autoimmune disease that basically shuts them down.

It shouldn’t have to come to that. Your doctor needs to take notice of your adrenal glands as soon as you say “tired,” especially in light of the fact that they serve as your body’s first line of defense for handling stress. For some reason that I can’t begin to fathom, most doctors don’t believe that an adrenal gland, pushed to the limit 24/7 in our modern pedal-to-the-metal lifestyle, might be losing its efficiency in handling all of the stressors sent its way.

But you’d better believe it, because running your motor like this will cause your adrenals to spew out large amounts of stress hormones on a nonstop basis—exactly what you don’t need.

Lions, tigers and… your own stressful thoughts?

When you’re pushing your body to the limit, your adrenals sense a threat. They don’t know whether an angry tiger is snarling at your heels or if you’re worrying about your gas and food bills—it’s all the same to them. So they’ll release the stress-hormone twins, cortisol and adrenalin (a.k.a. epinephrine). These two will send your blood sugar surging for quick-burning energy and push blood into your arms and legs so you can flee from the danger. (It’s that old tried-and-true survival response known as “fight or flight.”)

If you’re on 24/7 alert-mode and your body can’t shut off the alarm, it only stands to reason that your repair systems can’t keep up the pace forever. Short term, this stress response can be lifesaving. Long term? It can kill you.

Next comes a classic example of how everything in your body is interwoven. A prolonged stress response forces your body into a state of chronic breakdown, leaving the door wide open for a whole host of degenerative diseases. The list includes heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, dementia, cancer––and hypothyroidism.

Because where there’s an overworked pair of adrenals, a sluggish thyroid is sure to be lurking somewhere in the background. The thyroid works hand in hand with your adrenal glands. Think of your thyroid as the speed moderator. When it senses you’re on overdrive, it slows itself down and makes less thyroid hormone.

When you show up in your doctor’s office complaining of fatigue, your doctor may start by checking your thyroid-stimulating-hormone (TSH) level. Your success in receiving treatment depends on a bit of a numbers game. If your TSH level is over 5.0, it means the thyroid has slowed down (resulting in hypothyroidism) and you’ll be handed a prescription for thyroid hormone.

I wrote extensively about the thyroid and its relation to fatigue in the March 2007 issue of Health Revelations. You can access it in the arch-ives at www.healthrevelations.com using this month’s password (located on page 8).

Meanwhile, you can see how easily your adrenal glands just got overlooked in this insta-diagnosis. They continue to sputter along—giving a subpar performance even though they’re working their glandular tails off.

Don’t give up yet, because there are some additional numbers that should be checked. More than likely, you’ll now need to take matters into your own hands and ask your doctor to give those adrenals a closer look. He should give you an adrenocortex stress profile. That test evaluates four salivary-cortisol levels over a 24-hour period, as well as your DHEA level. A high level of cortisol is often accompanied by low levels of DHEA, a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland that already begins to make its grand drop-off in your mid-30s as it is.

The test can help your doctor analyze how your adrenals are functioning—but only if he’s familiar with it. It’s available to him through Metametrix (www.metametrix.com) and Genova Diagnostics (www.genovadiagnostics.com). Or if you prefer, you can go to a practitioner in your area who is already familiar with it. Find one at www.functionalmedicine.org.

Results in hand, it’s now time for you to give your adrenals the TLC they so desperately need.

Herbal adaptogens to the rescue

When it comes to adaptogens, experiencing their power for yourself is believing. Russian researchers were studying Siberian ginseng, which is one plant in the adaptogen class, and found that it helped the body deal with stress. But Native Americans have known this for centuries, using our local version, American ginseng, as a preventative.

Adaptogens are root plants that can balance hormones as well as protect against chemical, physical, psychological and biological stress. That’s quite a tall order, if you think about it. (I wonder how many pills that would equate to if Big Pharma were trying to accomplish the same thing?)

These remarkable plants have the unique ability to switch from being stimulants to being calmatives, depending on your body’s need—as if they could read you! And the Creator didn’t stint on making sure that every culture around the globe has access to one variety or another of these plants. Again, here in our country we have American Ginseng. There are also Ashwagandha from India, Rhodiola from Russia, and Maca from the Peruvian Andes. Each of these adaptogens works on the HPAT axis to support its crucial protective role in health, restoring balance and vitality to your system.

Rhodiola rosea is probably the best-studied adaptogen of all. While it does have a balancing effect, it may also be more activating and energizing than the others. I prescribe it for my patients who have adrenal fatigue and mild to moderate hypothyroidism. I work primarily with Rhodiolaforce 100™ from New Chapter. There are clear instructions on the bottle for increasing the dose to allow for your individual response.

Nourishment and handling stress

Just like everything else in your body, the adrenal glands need nutrients to run themselves. The vitamins most important to your adrenal health include plenty of vitamin C and B-complex vitamins, preferably from natural food sources. Round up the usual citrus suspects for vitamin C: Pineapples, oranges and grapefruit. However, consider these foods that pack a vitamin C wallop (even higher than the citrus fruits): papaya, red bell peppers, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

For your B-complex vitamins, good sources include oats, barley (see more about this wonder-grain on page 6), wheat bran, bananas, avocados, walnuts, tuna and salmon.

There are some excellent general-stress formulas on the market. You can check out Adrenotone Plus by Designs for Health (plug the name in at www.google.com to locate sources) or Megafood Un-Stress (www.megafood.com). The combination adrenal support products I most prefer are from New Chapter—Stress Take Care™ and Stress Support Multi™. Their Diet & Energy™ is also a good stress formula, especially for people who need to lose a little weight.

Last but not least, developing good stress-handling skills—whether by avoiding stress in the first place or by learning how to defuse your reaction to it—plays a major role in HPAT health.

One of the best ways for controlling your reaction to stress is through biofeedback. Many of my patients have found success with the emWave Personal Stress Reliever, which teaches you how to recognize the way you’re reacting to perceived stressful situations. As I’m sure you know—you may not be able to eliminate stressful situations in your life, but you can certainly learn how to react to them so they won’t affect your health negatively. Go to www.emwave.com to learn more or if you’d like to purchase this biofeedback system. They run about $200—a bargain, when you consider how much cortisol will cost your health in terms of stress damage.

By incorporating each of these recommendations into a plan to replenish your adrenals, you should begin to feel better in a matter of weeks. But remember, it may have taken you years to wear out your adrenal glands to the point you’re at now. Some folks need to give themselves a good 6 to 12 months to return to a normal state of healthy functioning, so patience can pay off.

10 habits of people beating the aging game

The vast majority of us don’t have some sort of built-in design flaw where we just fall apart at a certain age. The truth is that we’re not meant to get sick and break down just because we’re growing older.

I know plenty of folks (and I’ll bet you do too) in their 70s and 80s who are enjoying life to the fullest. They spend their time doing the things they love to do, such as enjoying more time with family members and friends, volunteering in their communities, committing to a deeper level of involvement with their church groups, traveling, and exploring new hobbies.

How do they do all those things? Here are 10 traits that many of these people have in common:

They don’t break bones

The biggest risk for suffering a broken hip or other bone is not having thin bones, as the mainstream-medicine crowd would lead you to believe—it’s the risk of falling. Needless to say, it’s hard to stay independent and enjoy life after you take a disastrous tumble.

Maintaining strong muscles may be the #1 factor in guaranteeing a high level of functioning as you age. Systematic strength training is the way to go—and you can individualize it according to your taste. Your options run the gamut, from pumping iron at your local fitness center, using elastic bands at home, practicing yoga, chopping wood every day, or engaging in a combination of all of them!

You should also pay attention to what you’re feeding your muscles. No, I don’t mean that you should ingest protein bars and shakes. Rather, your muscles work best when you get enough vitamin D. That means taking 1,000 to 2,000 IUs of D3 daily and making sure your 25-hydroxy vitamin D level is above 50 nanograms per milliliter—you can get this information from a simple blood test your doctor can give you.

They keep their minds active

Research repeatedly proves that folks who keep their minds busy hold onto their cognitive abilities as they age. There’s no need to limit yourself to the daily crossword and Sudoku puzzles. Your reading material alone can provide a wide variety of brain food. Are you used to reading romance novels? Try a biography. Are you a history buff? Mix it up with a mystery.

And don’t think that education is solely for the younger crowd. Did you know that there are many universities and community colleges that offer discounts to seniors? Go to www.seniordiscounts.com for a sampling and then check into the schools in your area. Now you can learn what you want to learn —not what you have to.

There are some folks who keep their minds active by going back to work. A lot of people find they miss the social camaraderie that comes with working (not to mention the extra income), so they don’t mind a return to the work force.

They eat enough

As many folks age, they tend to eat less. The notorious “tea-and-toast” diet hardly gives your body the nutrients it needs to run itself. Some people find it’s just easier to skip meals—especially if they’re only cooking for one.

Don’t do it. Otherwise, a vicious cycle sets in: The less you eat, the less you feel like eating. But if you find that you’re starting to lose weight and spending more of your time sitting around the house, please talk with your doctor—you may be suffering from depression.

Here’s an easy way to get more nutrition: Buy a blender and mix up a smoothie for yourself every day. My personal favorite is pouring in about 8 to 12 ounces of rice milk and a handful of berries —either fresh or frozen works just fine––a heaping tablespoon of almond or peanut butter, and a scoop of vanilla whey protein.

To kick it up another nutritional notch, throw in a tablespoon of your favorite green drink mix. I prefer New Chapter’s Berry Green (www.newchapter.com). This makes a great breakfast, lunch or late afternoon (“teatime”) snack.

They know when to ask for help

No offense, guys, but this one is especially for us. It’s great to be independent, but there’s a possibility you won’t be at some point. Then what?

Whether it’s asking for a neighbor’s help with some heavy lifting around the house or calling a community agency for assistance when you’re struggling to take care of your spouse, you need to know when to wave the white flag.

Another thing: If you find yourself having more trouble getting around for any reason, let your doctor know. He can refer you to a physical therapist or physical trainer who can put you on an individualized exercise program—it will help keep you more active. The sooner you get back in shape once you’ve taken notice of that slowdown, the easier it will be to maintain a healthy level of activity.

They don’t give troubling symptoms the brush-off

Pay attention to any new symptoms that pop up. The key word here is “new.” It’s worth a call to your doctor if a symptom is something you haven’t experienced before. And do it today—not next week or next month or when you have “time.” Here are some symptoms to take notice of:

• Visual disturbance
• Hearing change (usually just a buildup of earwax)
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• New-onset headaches—especially when they wake you from sleep
• Bleeding gums
• Heart palpitations
• Difficulty in swallowing
• Chest pain or pressure
• A dry or moist cough
• New abdominal symptoms
• New moles/freckles or old ones that change size or color
• Shoulder, arm or neck pain
• Recent loss of appetite or body weight
• New muscle or joint aches and pains

They keep their bodies moving

Mrs. Campion, a widow I know, lives up the hill from me. Every evening after dinner in good weather, she takes a brisk stroll for at least an hour around the neighborhood. With all of that walking, she also occasionally gets in plenty of talking—depending on who’s working out in the yard or sitting on their front porch. Now, I can tell you from personal experience that a 45- to 60-minute vigorous walk is real exercise—enough to help keep the pounds off and everything in good working order. The visiting and socializing are a bonus that makes her evening stroll much more than an exercise session.

Start a walking group and enlist neighbors to join you. Or join a hiking club, go ballroom, swing, or square dancing, or take a yoga class. Experiment—and mix it up. There’s no need to stick with only one type of exercise when you can have more fun enjoying several forms.

They stay connected

Experts once studied a small steel-mill town in Pennsylvania. The residents all smoked, drank, and ate too much. Lots of heart disease and cancer were to be found, right? Quite surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. It turned out to be one of the healthiest communities in the country.

The reason is the strong social networks that had been developed. These folks were apparently too busy enjoying each other’s company (and maybe minding each other’s business, too, while they were at it) to get sick. It’s not only common sense but also scientific fact that maintaining your social contacts pays big dividends when it comes to your health. And the last time I checked, sharing your life with your friends and neighbors is more fun than doing a couch-bound zombie impersonation in front of the TV set.

You don’t need to have family nearby. There are many people out there who would love some company, whether it’s traveling on a bus tour or exploring a new hobby. (Side note: I don’t recommend you follow those folks to the letter and start up a smoking and drinking habit. Stick to the socializing.)

They enjoy a good laugh

Can’t remember the last time you had a good laugh? Believe it or not, you can make laughing your new, healthy habit. Here’s the plan: Starting today, you’re going to take a mini-laugh break every two hours. That should give you about six such breaks per day—though more would be even better.

So how should you do it? Because everyone’s sense of humor can be different, that’s up to you. You have it in your power to conjure up a joke, an amusing story or memory, a recent bit of pet buffoonery, or an old Cary Grant movie or I Love Lucy rerun. Stick with this for a few weeks and see if it doesn’t help you lighten up. You may be surprised to feel some of your aches and pains evaporate—as you literally loosen up. The healing power of laughter is well understood by modern medicine––and you don’t have to worry about insurance covering it.

They have a contingency plan

While this one may seem like common sense, it’s probably not something you think about unless reminded. Put a plan in place in case you need to spend time in the hospital, because, needless to say, the world will keep revolving and the bills will continue to arrive in the mailbox. This is easier to take care of if you have family or friends nearby. By discussing the details of your plan with them in advance, you won’t have to spend recuperation time worrying about your mail and newspapers piling up, bills accumulating, an overgrown lawn, or under-watered houseplants.

Another possibility to consider is finding out if your community has an elder-service agency that offers aid to you when you’re in need. Most communities have one—check with your local Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Administration on Aging (www.aoa.gov), and explore its services. Such agencies are able to step in with a minimum of fuss and look after your home in your absence.

They know their medications

Today’s homework: Take your list of medications—I hope it’s a short one—and read up on them. What I especially want you to do is to learn their side effects and interactions, if any. You can go to Google and type in “drug interaction checker,” where you’ll find several easy-to-use tools that will quickly uncover any potential problems.

Despite all of your doctor’s good intentions and best wishes, he’s actually practicing medicine-of-the-moment. This means that when he places you on two or more drugs, there’s no way he can know how they will interact over the course of several years. Everyone can react differently to just one medication, so you can imagine what happens when you add one or two more to that mix.

Another thing you should be aware of is that most docs have neither the time nor the intricate drug knowledge to check (or manage) all possible drug interactions for all their patients. Sounds dangerous to me—which is why it’s always a good idea to play your own advocate in matters of health.

Forgotten cures
Fight heart disease, diabetes and cancer ––at breakfast

I keep a pretty hectic schedule, between my work with patients, traveling to medical and natural-health conferences, writing my newsletter, and making sure I get my rowing in for exercise. Needless to say, I need something in my belly in the morning to give me a good day’s start.

One of my favorite breakfasts has always been a mixture of whole oat groats and hulled barley. I let it soak overnight and then cook it very slowly over low heat for an hour or more. I like to add some nuts and raspberries, sometimes a pat of butter, and then I’ll sprinkle cinnamon on top. A big bowl of this keeps me clearheaded and energized until lunch without the least chance of hunger pangs. A breakfast like this may take a little time to prepare, but it’s worth it when you consider how great you’ll feel the rest of the day and the amount of work you’ll be able to get done.

Ancient source of strength and stamina—plus fiber

Of all the whole grains, barley is the true cornucopia of health-promoting benefits. It has been cultivated around the world for over 10,000 years and was recognized by the Greeks and Romans as an important food for giving their athletes strength. Ancient China revered it as a symbol of male virility.

A careful analysis shows that barley is an exceptional source of fiber and the all-important mineral selenium, plus meaningful amounts of niacin, copper and magnesium. A cup of barley has 13.8 grams of fiber—by comparison, rye and raspberries contain about 8 grams and a cup of oatmeal contains 4 grams. As you can see, a breakfast of barley, raspberries, and almonds gets you close to the 25-gram daily fiber goal—right out of the gate. I recommend this breakfast as a great remedy for constipation, especially if you include a few extra prunes! It far outweighs some foul-tasting laxative off the drugstore shelf—and gives you nutrients to boot.

The insoluble fiber found in barley also feeds the friendly bacteria in your gut. This in turn creates a fatty acid called butyrate, which nourishes the cells of the large intestine and helps support colon health. By increasing the population of good bacteria in your gut, you crowd out the bad. This provides support for your immune system and reduces inflammation throughout your body.

Normalizing cholesterol levels

Barley sports four times the amount of soluble fiber found in oats and is rich in the antioxidants known as tocotrienols. This helps barley normalize your blood-cholesterol levels and may promote the formation of healthier large, buoyant LDL particles, which are less likely to insinuate themselves into your artery walls. Barley also prevents oxidation by free radicals into their more artery-damaging, heart-disease-causing form.

Preventing diabetes

Whole barley is an extremely low glycemic-index food, which means it has a very gentle effect on blood-sugar and insulin levels. This makes it ideal if you’re concerned about diabetes. (And who isn’t?) It also has meaningful amounts of magnesium, a trace mineral in short supply in the diets of nearly half of all Americans. Magnesium is a cofactor in over 300 enzyme reactions in the body, playing a major role in insulin and glucose metabolism.

Protecting against cancer

Postmenopausal women consuming over 30 grams of fiber per day reduced their risk of breast cancer by up to 50 percent, according to one study. Barley is especially high in plant lignans, a phytonutrient that’s converted by the friendly bacteria in your intestines into a form your body can use to help protect against cancer.

Barley also provides an impressive 66 micrograms of selenium per 3.5-ounce portion. (That’s a little less than a ½ cup of barley.) Selenium can help reduce the risk of cancer because it supports DNA repair.

I recommend sprouting your whole grains, which supplies even more nutrients than the unsprouted form. To learn more about sprouting, go to www.chetday.com/sprouts.html. In the meantime, you can use hulled barley, which retains the majority of the nutritional goodness of the intact whole grain. With pearled barley, you lose up to half of the nutritional value due to the processing.

Make barley a regular part of your diet. For breakfast, few foods can get your day off to a better start. Add it to stews, soups and salads. You can also enjoy it as a regular side dish to accompany your meals—a healthier choice than white rice.

Your Questions Answered

A natural, proven cure for post-shingles pain

Q. I just turned 70 and am generally quite healthy. But over the winter, I suffered a terrible head cold and next thing you know, I came down with a case of the shingles. The blisters all healed, but I still have a sharp pain that just won’t go away. My doctor wants to put me on medication, but when I got a load of the side effects, I was scared off. Am I stuck with this, or is there anything else I can do? ––Gladys P., Paris, TX

A.Shingles can be the scourge of the golden years. It’s brought on by the same virus (varicella zoster) that causes chickenpox. Sudden, painful blisters form on one side of the body, usually on the trunk or face, along a nerve. Most sufferers feel tired and generally ill. It can be provoked by stress or illness, both of which challenge the immune system. Nerve pain that continues after the blisters and other symptoms have cleared up is given the fancy name postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).

PHN clears up within three to four months for most folks. But in about 20 percent of cases, it can persist for years, and, as you can attest to, make life quite miserable.

PHN can be such a persistent condition that I’ve seen doctors try everything under the sun to try to deal with it. Some docs will try lidocaine skin patches, but they only supply temporary relief for milder cases that last only a few months.

Sometimes, doctors will prescribe powerful prescription painkillers like Tramadol and Oxycontin, anti-seizure drugs like Neurontin and Lyrica, or antidepressants like Elavil and Cymbalta. Imagine just wanting your pain to go away, and then having to deal with the side effects from an anti-seizure drug or antidepressant. And here’s the kicker—they don’t always work too well for PHN.

Pain specialists have other tricks, such as steroid injections and something called transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), which forces you to wear a small box the size of a cell phone—and the flip side is, it doesn’t always work.

The message here—as I’m sure you’re getting—is that mainstream docs might not have the answer for your pain.

I recommend you try homeopathy, because I’ve seen dramatic results from it that I’ll never forget. Gloria was an 89-year-old woman, still fixing her own meals, living in her own home, and enjoying her favorite activities. That is, until she was struck by shingles and the inevitable PHN. A year later, she still couldn’t comb her own hair on the right side because the pain was so great.

I had the opportunity to ask the famous Scottish homeopath Dr. Robert Leckridge for advice. Here’s what he recommended: Hypericum Perforatum (an herb) in 30C, 200C and 1M potencies (these are homeopathic potencies). Day one, take 30C beneath the tongue three times per day at least two hours before meals. On day two, follow the same procedure with 200C. On the third day, again follow the same procedure but using the 1M level of potency.

Simple enough, and that’s what we did. Two days after the last dose, Gloria complained bitterly of fatigue. According to Dr. Leckridge, this was a sign of the remedy’s taking hold. A week later, the pain improved 90 percent and stayed that way. It was a near cure, in fact. Gloria was back to combing her hair, and apart from a slight, sensitive patch of skin in the same area—she was pain free. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t witnessed the whole process for myself.

I’ve since learned that, according to experienced homeopaths, results like this are not unusual. I recommend you try this safer and cheaper homeopathic cure first, before any other remedy or drug. See www.homeopathiclaboratories.com. Be sure to give it a few weeks to work.