Everyone should make sure they get moving during the day — but no one needs to turn into a treadmill-racing workout fiend to get the benefits of exercise.

In fact, too much exercise can be as bad for you as too little — bad for you knees, bad for your heart and maybe even bad for your mood.

One new study finds that women who exercise moderately — in other words, get the steady regular movements they need without overdoing it — are actually much happier than women who exhaust themselves during intensive gym sessions.

Turkish researchers randomly assigned 255 women between the ages of 40 and 60 years old to one of two two-week workout regimens: Either 30 minutes a day on a treadmill at a moderate pace, or a run-till-you-drop session where they were told to go as fast as they could on that treadmill for as long as they could take it.

Sound like fun? Of course it doesn’t — and the results speak for themselves: The moderate exercisers had a better mood, lower levels of anxiety, higher levels of psychological wellbeing and more energy than those assigned to the torture-like workout sessions.

Women who got the intense workouts, on the other hand, were less likely to report the confidence to keep going with their exercise program. Overweight women in particular were stressed out by the more vigorous workouts and reported lower levels of calmness afterwards.

Who wouldn’t?

Whether you’re a man or a woman — and whether you’re badly overweight or slim and trim — you don’t have to drive yourself to the brink of physical exhaustion to get the benefits of a light workout.

Just pick something you like — and like the women in this study, you can enjoy some mood-boosting benefits along with your great fitness: At least one study has shown that a little sweat-inducing activity can be as powerful as antidepressant drugs… with none of the side effects.

Good examples of moderate workouts include traditional ones like tennis or a brisk walk/jog through the park, to a few things you might not think of as “exercise” — like gardening or even some home improvement projects.

In fact, keeping fit can actually be — dare I say it? — fun.

I’ve become more than a little embarrassed by my profession as patient after patient has shown up at my office with terrible and persistent pain that was ignored by other physicians.

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.

May 2008 PDF

SPECIAL EDITION

Drug-free in 90 days

You may feel like you’re sentenced to a lifetime of dependency on a pile of prescription meds, but think again. Just 90 days from today, you could be off your drugs for good.

If I’ve proven one thing in my years of practice, it’s that I can help my patients finally be well again—without resorting to a prescription pad.

And if your mainstream doc hasn’t devised a plan to get you off drugs, blame it on the company he’s keeping. A barrage of drug reps and a dogmatic medical association have convinced him (wore him down) into believing that drugs are the answer—the only answer.

Let’s start with cholesterol, hypertension and GERD. For each of these conditions, I am offering you here the general guidance that will help you to free yourself from medications that you don’t truly need. Keep in mind that some recommendations will overlap, because, as I frequently tell you, your body is a wondrous, interconnected creation. And that’s why mainstream medicine fails. It looks at you as a heart, a blood vessel, or—God forbid—just a number on one of those slippery, sliding scales that were created by drug company medicine.

The first thing you need to do is to have a conversation with your doctor. Tell him that you have a goal of being medication-free. He may look as if he has been struck, protest loudly, and may even say “Absolutely not!” Stick to your guns. Let him know that you’re not deserting him, but have come to enlist his help on your journey back to wellness.

If he tells you that it can’t work or that he won’t work with you, find a new doctor.

It can work. I’ve seen it work with my own patients. It might not work the way some doctors practice medicine, but I treat people—not their symptoms.

Once I have a handle on a patient’s lifestyle, family history and interests, I recommend a course of action to get them back in balance—and to wean them off drugs. And just as often, I’m greeted with an incredulous look as if I’d suggested something scandalous.

If getting people off drugs is considered scandalous, well then, I’m happy to be guilty as charged. I get to know my patients face-to-face, not chart-to-chart—and you deserve a doctor who does the same.

Get off cholesterol drugs before the kids get back to school

The biggest gun on the market is statins. If your doc put you on one, you probably thought, “That’s it. I’m now a statin-lifer!” At least, that’s what all the TV commercials and magazine ads would have you believing.

Cholesterol is the main building block for all of your sex and stress hormones. It also helps maintain the integrity and function of every cell in your body. For starters, it’s a repair molecule. If you get a rip in the inner lining of one of your coronary arteries, maybe due to damage caused by high blood pressure, cholesterol leaps into action to plug up the wound. Think of it as your body’s self-produced glue, manufactured by your liver. You need adequate amounts of cholesterol to run your body. So it flies in the face of common sense and good science to aggressively scrape your body clean of every drop of it. But mainstream medicine doesn’t let these pesky facts get in its way.

Statins are criminally overused—up to twice as much as they are needed, and to the tune of $22 billion per year. We’ve become a nation cuckoo over cholesterol.

If you don’t already have heart disease or multiple risk factors, including a parent or sibling with heart disease at a young age (under 60), the studies clearly show statin drugs are of minimal benefit.

Big Pharma and its M.D.s-for-hire have taken a complex issue and slapped an oversimplified (but profitable) drug “solution” on it based on very faulty science.

Cholesterol has become the most maligned and poorly understood element of the human body. High cholesterol has been targeted as the cause of heart disease—a misconception that shows a grotesque ignorance and distortion of the medical science. As I discuss in a moment, cholesterol particle size and type are much more important than cholesterol levels.

Skip a cure that’s worse than the disease

About half of all first heart attacks occur in folks with so-called “normal” cholesterol levels. That blows any idea of “normal” right out of the water! It’s just an arbitrary guideline. And yet, this guideline is what most docs still rely on to “treat” your cholesterol condition.

Statins lower levels of coenzyme Q10. This would make me laugh at the irony if the problem weren’t so deadly serious. CoQ10 is a key player in energy production, and your heart requires a ton of it. This is why so many patients on statins suffer from muscle weakness and breakdown and why —irony of ironies—there’s increasing concern over heart failure from these drugs.

Also, dropping your cholesterol levels too low and too fast can cause a host of problems, such as memory loss, erectile dysfunction (ED), and nerve damage, and may even increase the risk of cancer.

So the idea that you need a statin drug in order to be healthier just because your numbers are high is absurd. It’s a classic example of brilliant marketing combined with incomplete—and rigged—science.

Foundations first

You probably think that if you eat a plate of cholesterol-rich scrambled eggs, your cholesterol levels will go through the roof. Not so. If you’re like most people, the amount of dietary cholesterol you ingest has little impact on your body’s natural cholesterol levels. Your liver makes production adjustments up or down based on what you eat. However, that’s not a license to eat whatever is put in front of you. Practice moderation and smart selections to improve all aspects of your health—not just your heart health. To reach and maintain ideal cholesterol levels, reject America’s standard anti-food diet that includes fast-food hamburgers, ice cream, highly processed baked goods and sugar-laden sodas. Vegetables should cover half your plate, with protein and starches getting a quarter each.

Here’s a little more guidance to help you decide what to put on your plate:

• Keep your selections simple.
  
• Choose vegetables of all colors. Steam them lightly for optimal taste and nutrient retention.
  
• Satisfy your cravings for a sweet treat by eating moderate amounts of fruit. It’s plenty sweet enough to have as a dessert—your taste buds just need to be recalibrated.
  
• Stick to a moderate intake of protein, avoiding anything that has been shot full of hormones and antibiotics. Fish, free-range chicken (leave the skin on—you need some fat), and beef—preferably from organically raised cattle and from a local source. That’s the best way to ensure that you’re eating the healthiest steak and burgers possible.
  
• Eat eggs every day if you want to, cooked with butter or olive oil. The anti-egg propaganda is nothing more than an offshoot of the marketing of cholesterol as heart enemy #1.
  
• If you like soy, use only the fermented kinds (miso and tempeh). Skip those big globs of tofu, soy powders, bars and soy milk, which for the most part are nutrient-robbing anti-foods.
  
• For your starches, choose minimally processed whole grains and starchy vegetables like potatoes (I didn’t say french fries), sweet potatoes, and winter squash (in moderation).
  
• Don’t even think about eating anything promoted as “low-fat.” That’s just shorthand for “high-sugar.” And a low-fat diet may actually contribute to heart problems. Nothing promotes undesirable, risk-heightening, small and dense LDL particles more than highly refined and processed carbs (such as cookies, cakes, crackers, and chips) and anything else with wheat and high fructose corn syrup.
  
• You need fat, plain and simple. Natural fats are perfect, derived from such sources as fish, healthy meats, nuts and nut butters, avocados, real butter (no margarine), and olive oil. You can even include small amounts of full-fat cheese and yogurt if you like. Trans fats (aka hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats) found in solid margarines and packaged baked and frozen goods should not be eaten, period.
  

Get off your La-Z-Boy

Studies show that just as eating well can help to reduce blood-cholesterol levels, exercise can do so as well. Even the drugmakers say you need to increase your level of exercise and fix your diet. (Of course, that message gets trampled in the mad rush to sell pills.)

The best exercise is the one you’ll do. Get a pedometer, because people who use one tend to walk more. Build up to 10,000 steps per day. And if you’re really serious, add some strength training. Use weights, weight machines, elastic bands, or even your own body weight as resistance. (You might try yoga, for example.)

Keep in mind that I’m giving you 90 days to build up your activity level, so you don’t have to head out tomorrow and try to run a marathon. That’s not necessary—but getting more active is. Don’t wait for tomorrow—start today. Keep up the momentum, just as soon as you’re done reading this issue!

Other forms of exercise you can try include gardening, dancing, chopping wood, bicycling and swimming. Hike on a local trail. Turn on the radio and dance in your living room. Give your tennis arm some practice. Have fun—exercise isn’t supposed to be so deadly serious. In the process, you’ll live longer and happier while making a meaningful dent in your risk of heart disease.

A positive outlet will bring you a positive cholesterol level

Do you want to know what’ll kill you faster than bad food, a sedentary lifestyle and cigarettes combined? Stress. It will increase your cholesterol level: When your body perceives a threat, it uses up more cholesterol in order to support its stress response. More important, stress provokes inflammation and magnifies your risk of heart disease and an early death.

I’m not telling you to perform a miracle and have zero stress. As a rule, stress is one of those givens —like death and taxes (and the bumbling of the FDA). However, you need to deal with it by becoming its manager instead of its victim. Your foundation has already been laid with real food and regular physical activity, which will build physical hardiness. The emotional stuff’s a horse of a different color. If you focus on the negatives, guess what happens: It becomes your world. And so starts that vicious, disease-inducing cycle that will literally wring the life right out of you.

I can’t emphasize enough the health-promoting, stress-evaporating power of time spent in a worship group, in a social club, and with friends and family members. Proven practices like deep breathing, prayer, meditation, and biofeedback can also help you manage your stress reaction. I recommend a form of biofeedback called Heartmath, which is being used successfully all over the world. You can purchase what’s called an Em Wave (for about $200) at www.emwave.com. You’ll quickly learn relaxation techniques with this excellent tool.

Nutraceuticals for lower cholesterol

There are natural supplements you can take that, along with your positive eating plan, will promote all-around good health while getting your cholesterol levels back in balance:

• Multivitamin: It’s a must as a blanket insurance policy. I recommend a food-form multivitamin from New Chapter, Megafood, or Garden of Life, because your body can handle them better. Men, choose one without iron. Ladies, be sure to get some extra calcium and magnesium, and men—just extra magnesium. You can take just plain old calcium and magnesium citrate, 600 to 1,200 mg of calcium and 400 to 800 mg of magnesium daily.
  
• Fish oil: This potent anti-inflammatory can protect against sudden death from abnormal heart rhythms, bring down high triglyceride levels and promote the desirable large, buoyant LDL particles. It may also boost good HDL cholesterol. Take 2,000 mg total EPA and DHA (the active form of omega-3s, as spelled out on the label). If your triglyceride level is above 150 (the ideal is below 100), take up to 3,000 mg daily.
  
• Vitamin D: Another anti-inflammatory, vitamin D protects against heart disease. Take 1,000 to 2,000 IUs daily. Ask your doctor to check your vitamin D level. (The optimum blood level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D is between 50 and 60 ng/ml.)
  
• Probiotics: They will promote healthy bacteria in your gut, balance your immune system, and, most importantly, normalize your cholesterol level. Take 10 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) daily to keep your gut “colonized” with good bacteria.
  
• Red yeast rice: I’m talking about a natural statin, which is why I caution you to treat it pretty much like a drug. It’ll improve your cholesterol and reduce inflammation. Red yeast rice behaves in a more balanced way in the body and causes fewer side effects than prescription forms. More and more cardiologists are using it—especially for people who can’t tolerate or simply refuse to take prescription statin drugs. It contains monacolins, which are the active ingredient, and it’s chemically identical to one of the first classes of statins, lovastatin. I recommend 400 to 600 mg per day, with the approval of your doctor.
  
• Antioxidants: I recommend Zyflamend from New Chapter or Vitanox from Medi-Herb. If you take extra vitamin E, choose a mixed tocopherol form (preferably one that also includes the four tocotrienols). Gamma tocopherol, not alpha tocopherol, protects LDL cholesterol from harmful oxidation. Don’t take over 400 units per day, and let your doctor know what you’re taking, because vitamin E has mild blood-thinning effects.

Here are additional options to round out your tool kit, based on your individual need:

• Plant sterols: They reduce absorption of cholesterol, lower levels 5 to 15 percent, and may confer some anti-inflammatory benefits.
  
• Tocotrienols: Part of the vitamin E family, this powerful anti-oxidant lowers LDL cholesterol and may protect against stroke and cancer.
  
• Sytrinol: Derived from citrus fruits, it lowers LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels while promoting favorable large and fluffy LDL-particle size. Take 150 mg twice daily.
  
• Pantethine: It lowers LDL cholesterol, boosts HDL and brings down triglycerides. Take 300 mg three times per day with meals.
  
• Niacin: The RDA for this B-complex vitamin (B3) is 20 mg daily. But prescription doses of up to 2,000 mg per day are used to boost HDL and bring down triglycerides (a pattern typically found in people with, or at risk for, diabetes). It’s effective, but it causes unpleasant flushing. Regular old off-the-shelf niacin will do if it’s taken with meals. Start at 250 mg per day with dinner. That dose can then be increased by 250 mg per week. This needs professional supervision, as liver and blood sugar tests need to be followed.

A primo blood test

I’m assuming your doctor is looking at a basic blood-cholesterol test: total, LDL, HDL and triglycerides, and hopefully a C-reactive protein that measures inflammation and is a strong predictor, when high, of heart-disease risk. (Ideally you want it below 1.0). I recommend you ask for the VAP test from Atherotec or a similar test from Berkeley Heart Labs or Spectra Cell. They all supply similarly fine details that allow a more accurate assessment of risk.

Focus on these two numbers

If you’re numbers-oriented and want to reduce your heart-disease risk, work on boosting your HDL to over 50 and reducing your triglycerides (TG’s) to below 100. These lower heart-disease risk more than worrying about lowering your LDL. Low TG’s favor a desirable, large and fluffy LDL particle type. Statins don’t budge either of these very much.

Boost HDL by up to 50 percent and lower TG’s:

• Niacin (Up to 2,000 mg a day)
• High dose fish oil (3,000 mg EPA+DHA daily)
• Exercise
• Cut back on carbohydrates, and cut out entirely the highly-processed stuff

Lower your blood pressure without beta blockers

If you were diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor probably made a notation on your chart that you have essential hypertension. That’s what over 90 percent of cases are called, and it means “cause unknown.”

Nonsense. If you can normalize high blood pressure with real food, exercise, appropriate weight loss and good stress management, the causes are fake food, inactivity, overweight, and poor stress-handling skills. Plain and simple.

But the term essential hypertension is a cop-out that results in the overuse of drugs. And as it turns out, two common drugs used to treat high blood pressure, hydrochlorothiazide and beta blockers, hasten the onset of diabetes. Many doctors are unaware of this not-so-little secret. And many who do know about it hem and haw on the subject. After all, those drugs lower blood pressure! But why choose the lesser of two evils, when there are solutions that don’t involve putting you at risk for the devastation of diabetes.

Smart changes will bring you smart results

Salt gets a lot of blame for hypertension. And in some cases, it’s true. Excess salt intake in salt-sensitive individuals equals increased blood pressure. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Excess salt causes the retention of fluid and actually triggers a mild surge of your stress hormones. If your blood pressure is creeping up, cut back on the salt. Also knock it off with buying those nasty processed foods—they’re overloaded with sodium.

If you must have salt, use the right kind. Plain old table salt is a processed chemical that’s foreign to your body. A bit of sea salt is okay, however, as it has a full complement of health-supporting trace minerals—like the sea water you’re made of. You can also fill your saltshaker with Mrs. Dash, a salt-free spice mix—or create your own. You may initially struggle with salt cravings, but they’ll disappear in about two weeks.

If you drink alcohol, cut back. More than a drink or two per day can increase your blood pressure and also lead to weight gain due to empty calories, which can be another factor in your escalating blood pressure.

Even if you’re 50 to 100 pounds overweight, losing just 10 to 20 pounds can make a difference. But don’t try to lose all that in just a week or two. More than two pounds per week will be mostly water, not fat, and won’t improve your health. Cutting 200 carbohydrate calories per day adds up to a 25-pound weight loss in a year. That’s about two light beers right there. That weight difference will help send your blood-pressure number south, where it belongs.

Clean up your stuff

The cornerstone of your blood-pressure-lowering campaign consists of real food, exercise and stress management. It’s what I call “cleaning up your stuff,” and this trio is many times more powerful —and ultimately a lot cheaper—than any pills you can take. And taking supplements can help move things along while you fix the underlying problem. Again, you have 90 days to make changes. I recommend the slow-and-steady approach, because that’s the one that will stick for the long haul.

• Fruits and vegetables: Bump up your intake. They’re rich in potassium and magnesium—minerals that relax your blood vessels and lower your blood pressure.
  
• Skip these: Heavily processed, salt-laden, alien-to-God’s-creation foods.
  
• Breathe: No, I’m not being a smart-aleck. While you may do it every day, there are a variety of ways to breathe. Check out RESPERATE (www.resperate.com), a clever device that will guide you toward a healthy breathing pattern and lower your blood pressure. It’s supported by solid research and is recommended by major institutions like the Mayo Clinic.

Get this key blood test

Ask your doctor to test your vitamin D status. Here’s why: Vitamin D performs a lot of key functions in your body. One task is regulating the action of your renin-angiotensin system, which is your hormone system responsible for regulating your blood pressure. If this system is inappropriately activated, your body will retain salt and fluid, increasing your blood pressure. This could be an important factor in your high blood pressure —as it is for many people. Vitamin D works at the fundamental level of the cell nucleus to regulate genes that influence plasma renin. Over half the population is deficient in vitamin D. Correcting this deficiency helps normalize blood pressure by normalizing renin activity, in addition to conferring a whole host of other important health benefits.

The renin-angiotensin system is the target of two types of drugs, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). These drugs will no doubt drop your blood pressure, but they also carry side effects. Vitamin D3 works similarly, but safely at a more fundamental level.

In my own practice, I’ve found that correcting vitamin D deficiencies with 1,000 to 2,000 IUs daily is all that’s needed to normalize some patients’ blood pressure. It makes more sense to give the body what it’s missing before you start chasing after high blood pressure with a drug hammer. That’s good medicine. If your 25-hydroxy vitamin D level is too low (<30 nanograms/milliliter), get it up to the 50 to 60 range and see where your pressure goes—it just may solve the problem.

To a regimen of vitamin D, I recommend adding:

• 4 Fish oil: Omega-3 fats from fish oil loosen up your blood vessels and lower blood pressure, but over 90 percent of the population doesn’t get enough. Fish oil protects against heart disease, diabetes, dementia and cancer while supporting joint health and a healthy mood. The best natural sources are cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines and herring. If you opt for a supplement form, shoot for 2,000 milligrams total EPA plus DHA—the active forms.
  
• 4 Magnesium: Deficiencies of this key mineral are rampant thanks to the Standard American Diet, with over 50 percent of the population not getting enough. It has mild “calcium-channel-blocker” effects, which means it’ll help to relax tight, narrow blood vessels and reduce blood pressure. Magnesium is found in fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains. Add 400 to 600 mg from food-form vitamins or up to 1,200 mg of the widely available magnesium citrate capsules.

There are several well-designed blood-pressure remedies to consider that drop blood pressure and support general good health. I’ve seen great results with “Blood Pressure Take Care” from New Chapter, an innovative company in Bennington, Vermont. Its premium products are available at retail stores and on the Internet (www.newchapter.com). I have no financial ties with the company—I’ve just witnessed the positive effects its products have had on my own patients.

This particular formulation includes specific probiotics, grape-seed extract and hawthorn. These work safely in combination on multiple pathways to help reduce blood pressure. They also supply antioxidant support and help maintain healthy levels of HDL “good” cholesterol. Also, check out Vasotensin, a unique formulation that’s derived from bonito fish and is made by Metagenics (www.metagenics.com). It helps prevent blood vessels from narrowing.

Freedom from GERD medications in 90 days

Got heartburn? The drug companies salivate at the thought, and mainstream medicine has turned this very treatable problem into a chronic medical condition. It’s not. Most people get heartburn now and then. A regular occurrence could be a problem, but let’s separate fact from fiction before we jump on the purple-pill bandwagon.

A regular occurrence of heartburn is called gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which occurs when stomach-acid backflow (reflux) erodes the lining of your esophagus. This can worsen to Barrett’s esophagus, which increases your risk of esophageal cancer. The reason why doctors worry over heartburn and tend to jump the gun is due to statistics: Nearly 16,000 people will be diagnosed with esophageal cancer this year, and 13,000 will die from it.

You can often get rid of heartburn by taking an acid-blocking drug—either an OTC H2 blocker like Pepsid, Zantac or Tagamet or a much more powerful proton-pump inhibitor like Medium, Proton, Propose or Prefaced. Indeed, you can use any of these drugs now and then to kill heartburn without risking a lot of damage to your health. They can also be used short-term to help you heal ulcers or esophageal erosions.

But it’s a very bad idea for you to take them long term and certainly not every single day. As you age, you make less stomach acid—but your need for it doesn’t decrease. Also, as you age, the protective mucosal lining of your stomach and your intestine may thin out. The regular use of NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin, or even inadequate nutrition, can cause this. Another big cause of a thinned-out lining is prolonged stress, which can occur if you’ve handled a lot of emotional or physical stress poorly over many years. Cortisol will actually gnaw away at this lining over time.

Reduced stomach acid with or without a thinned-out GI mucosal layer can cause the symptoms of GERD. In short, your digestive system just isn’t working as well as it should. It’s estimated that up to 90 percent of all cases of GERD may be due to either of these problems—not too much stomach acid, as the Nexium pushers want you to believe. So the regular use of any acid-blocking medication is less than ideal (read “bad medicine”).

Don’t settle for feeling better temporarily—we can fix the problem permanently. The following non-drug measures will control symptoms of GERD, because for the most part, with this condition, when you get rid of the symptoms, you get rid of the problem.

Here are the basics to start with:

• Drop five to 10 pounds: Losing just this small amount may make the difference—even if it doesn’t bring you back to your normal body weight. Excess weight around the middle only serves to push stomach acid back up into your esophagus.
  
• Avoid tight clothes and belts: Literally loosen up, or you’ll be helping to push acid back up into your esophagus.
  
• Eat smaller meals: Overeating causes stress on your system. Finish up three to four hours before bedtime. And what you do eat, chew thoroughly.
  
• Kick butts: Smoking aggravates heartburn problems. (Though if you keep smoking, heartburn may be the least of your worries.)
  
• Raise your bed: Lift the head of your bed four to six inches or sleep in a recliner to help get rid of symptoms. Obviously it won’t fix the underlying problem, but it’s another tool that will help provide relief.
  
• Watch for food triggers: Pay attention to and minimize likely food-type instigators. Caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, hot spices and peppers, tomatoes, mint, and peppermint are common culprits.
  
• Protect your GI mucosal lining: Clamp down on cortisol, or it’ll continue to wear down your lining. A stress-reduction program will maximize your chances of long-term healing. Talk therapy, prayer, meditation and long hikes are just some of the ways to release the steam from the cortisol pressure cooker.
  
• Cut out NSAID’s: It’s bad enough that they kill 15,000 people per year. There’s no point in taking a chance on thinning out the mucosal lining of your stomach and intestines. A highly effective and safe botanical anti-inflammatory is Zyflamend made by New Chapter (www.newchapter.com).

The next level

To improve your gut function, the following will help you pull out all the stops:

• Probiotics: They provide general gut support and anti-inflammatory protection. Take at least 10 billion colony-forming units daily. This usually amounts to two capsules twice daily, and preferably with food. If you don’t like to take a lot of supplements at once, feel free to take one in the morning and the other one before bedtime.
  
• Fish oil supplement: 2,000 milligrams total EPA and DHA daily to help tune up your gut function.
  
• Digestive enzymes: Take these before a meal as part of an overall treatment plan for improving your digestion and relieving symptoms. Jarrow-Zymes Plus by Jarrow Formulas is a quality, widely available product.
  
• The Heidelberg test: Ask your doctor to determine whether or not you have too little stomach acid by ordering this test. It involves your swallowing a small capsule and waiting for 40 minutes.
  
• Betaine hydrochloride: You can also diagnose and treat low stomach acid with betaine hydrochloride, which will promote higher stomach acid levels. Do this only under supervision of an experienced practitioner.
  
• Bitters: These stimulate the digestive juices (aka stomach acid), a fact well known for centuries. Folks used to drink bitter aperitif beverages before meals. Swedish bitters (without alcohol) are widely available in stores and on the Internet. (Just type “Swedish bitters” into www.google.com to locate sources.) Try it before your meals.

Pump up your GI mucosa

There are several things you can use to build a thinned-out GI mucosal layer, whatever the cause. Mallow root (marshmallow), deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL), aloe vera gel, zinc carnosine, the amino acid glutamate and mastic gum are all known for their gut-healing properties. There are a number of top-line supplement companies that combine all of these healing agents into one convenient formulation so you don’t have to swallow a hundred pills per day. One such product is GI Revive from Designs for Health. Another useful product is Seavive, a fish protein derivative that helps heal the GI tract. It’s made by Proper Nutrition (www.propernutrition.com). You may need to take these products for three to 12 months to build up your GI mucosa.

Mark your calendar…

By the end of this summer, you could be off your drugs for good. I want you to look back on 2008 as the year you made your personal turnaround in terms of wellness. And when this natural regimen works for you, think of how many people you can influence to get off of their own crippling drug prescriptions and onto a new way of actually feeling healthy for the first time in years.

Drugs can intensify GERD symptoms

According to the National Institutes of Health, the following drugs and drug categories are associated with GERD:

• Calcium-channel blockers for high blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms (ex. Norvasc, Diltiazem and Procardia)
• Tricyclic antidepressants (ex. Elavil)
• Sedatives for insomnia and anxiety (ex. Ativan, Valium and Klonopin)
• Beta blockers
• Bronchodilators for asthma (ex. Albuterol)

A hidden cause of GERD

If you have developed a hiatal hernia (HH), that may explain your GERD. It’s caused by a weakness in the tight band of tissue, called the lower esophageal sphincter, between your esophagus and your stomach. A barium swallow test can diagnose it, as can an esphophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD)—a mouthful that basically means a slender tube with a camera is inserted down into the stomach. It’s a safe, well-tolerated procedure, and it’s done under sedation.

Some chiropractors can pop a HH back into place with brief finger pressure. This may hold for weeks or months. There are also several newer, minimally invasive procedures performed at larger medical centers that can correct the problem and get you off drugs (see www.mayoclinic.org/minimally-invasive-surgery).

Also, make the changes I’m recommending here for GERD relief without drugs.