Stress & The Holiday Season

The following information is for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe any kind of disease or illness. It is a good idea to seek the professional advice of a qualified health care practitioner (remember Naturopaths are doctors too) before making any major changes in your self health care.



Winter is upon us. It can be a beautiful time of year but stressful for many as well. Unfortunately stress can be extremely damaging to your body and soul, much more than any of us realize. It is imperative to find ways to stay calm and focused no matter how crazy your life gets, or how crazy your relatives might seem.

Stress is talked about much but understood little, at least by most of us. Our doctors are always telling us to keep our stress levels down, but they rarely say why. Constant stress in your life is not only unnatural (however common it may be), but is a precursor to far more serious ailments, chronic illness, and disease: we’re talking heartburn, upset stomach, chronic fatigue, weight gain, bad skin, adrenal burnout, depression, anxiety, chronic inflammation, heart disease, and even cancer.


There are many factors involved in what makes stress just so damaging to the body. When we get “stressed out” what’s really happening is our fight or flight mechanism is being activated. In short, your adrenals begin pumping out adrenaline in order to give you the short term energy you need to deal with the “emergency” at hand. This is fine for the short term, especially if you are being chased by a saber-tooth tiger, real or imagined.


But a prolonged, on-going stress response to life’s situations is a recipe for disaster. If you get stressed out on the commute to work every day, get anxious every single time you have to talk to your boss, spouse, or neighbor, your adrenals are working overtime. What should be an occasional situation – facing down the saber-tooth-holiday-in-law — is now a chronic, daily, maybe even hourly occurrence. Chronic elevated adrenaline levels can lead to raised cortisol levels in your body, which then leads to fatigue when your cortisol levels “crash” again. This is when most of us reach for coffee, chocolate, sugar, carbs, or all four. And this is where your body begins to break down.


Stimulants unfortunately only make the problem worse. They actually create an energy “debt” in the body because they stimulate the adrenals to produce even more adrenaline. This is artificial energy, since you are asking the adrenals to do something they would not normally do, i.e. produce extra energy you don’t have. So many of us are in “debt” not only monetarily, but energy-wise as well. Just remember, if you take out a loan on your energy, you are going to have to repay it through sleep and good nutrition.


Another source of stress is unresolved emotions, especially anger and regret. Emotions “float” around in our bodies (we have neurotransmitters everywhere in us, not just in our “heads.” Our bodies and minds - read emotions - are intertwined. So if we are harboring rage, hate, anger, or sadness, we are doing unwitting damage to ourselves. These emotions tend to come more around this time of year when many of us spend time with people from our past.

Unfortunately they tend to remind us, consciously or not, of unresolved issues. Counseling can help to clear up these emotions, especially EMDR therapy. Bodywork, physical activity such as yoga, walking, dance or martial arts, even art or music therapy can help to release toxic emotions as well. Our bodies were designed to keep energy (and emotions) flowing. Find what works for you and try to do it regularly.

One of the most promising therapies for clearing out toxic emotion and keeping emotions flowing freely is Mickel Therapy. It teaches you how to express your emotions in a healthy, non-confrontational way. Mickel Therapy believes that our primary emotions (anger, grief, fear, joy, love, and compassion) are actually generated by our bodies. Know those “gut” feelings you have of anger, fear, and of being in love? That is your physical body talking to you. The trick is to be true to your primary emotions and keep expressing them, as tactfully but honestly as possible. Our bodies were designed to keep energy and emotions flowing. Find what works for you and try to do it regularly


Of course the best solution is to not get stressed out in the first place. When you are stuck in traffic, breathe. Breathe in slowly and breathe out slowly. Deep breaths taken from your lower abdomen immediately calm down your sympathetic nervous system. Try it, it works every time. Also, move your focus to what you can focus on without worry, like enjoying the passing scenery or listening to the radio.


Whatever’s causing you stress in your life, nine times out ten it isn’t worth getting all worked up about. Most things have a way of working themselves out, whether or not you are worrying about them. In fact, they tend to work out better if you aren’t worrying. This includes spending the holidays with your partner’s family who, I guarantee, you have absolutely no control over.


be well,


The Holistic Coach

http://www.connektwell.com/

http://www.theholisticoach.com/

Vitamin C and Your Health

The following information is for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe any kind of disease or illness. It is a good idea to seek the professional advice of a qualified health care practitioner (remember Naturopaths are doctors too) before making any major changes in your self health care.

Remember scurvy? What seems to be an obscure condition that only affected sailors lost at sea actually has a close - and more serious connection - to heart disease, even cancer prevention or maintenance, and the state of your skin (including wrinkles) than you might know.

Hypoascorbemia, or scurvy, is a genetic disease wherein the body fails to produce the enzyme l-gulonolactone oxidase in the liver which prevents us from synthesizing our own ascorbic acid. Whereas 99.9% of all animals produce ascorbic acid - commonly referred to as Vitamin C - for general health and more in response to stress and viral infections, humans have been suffering from lack of this life-lengthening trait for over 40 million years. Only some types of monkeys, guinea pigs, and an Indian fruit eating bat share our missing enzyme. Maybe we're not so superior afterall.

What does all this have to do with conditions like heart disease? Contrary to popular medical opinion (remember, medicine is 50% science and 50% art), which blames cholesterol as the primary villain of atherosclerosis, one of the main - and highly preventable - causes of cardiovascular disease is the lack of certain sufficient vitamins and minerals. In fact, it is the lack of Vitamin C in mineral ascorbate form that has the most damaging effect on the hardening of arteries.

Vitamin C is a necessary building block for the tissues in our body. And much like the essential fatty acids omega 3 and omega 6, we do not produce them ourselves. Vitamin C is especially important for the tissue strength of our arteries, since they are under constant pressure. Without proper levels of Vitamin C, our arteries cannot maintain this pressure and they begin to bleed. After bleeding, the arteries begin to crust over, with the end result being, among other side effects, a decrease in blood flow. What most people don't realize is that many of us are in a very mild state of scurvy most of the time.

Vitamin C is the primary building block of collagen. In fact, collagen is ascorbic acid dependent. Collagen makes up about one third of our bodies' protein. Collagen breakdown has been linked to rheumatoid arthritis, vascular problems (such as broken capillaries), and wrinkles. Sub-clinical levels of Vitamin C have been linked to leukemia as well.

Vitamin C in mega-doses has been used therapeutically for many types of disease states, most notably for cancer detox (intravenous). It is a well-known anti-oxidant, helps with wound healing and maintaining the immune system, provides energy, and helps to neutralize environmental toxins among other functions. Imagine what the other vitamins and minerals do, and the role they play in your body.

Supplementing with Vitamin C is recommended by many dieticians, nutritionists, and alternative health care practitioners. The reason? Because we cannot absorb the amount we need through food alone. While food - ideally organic, sprouted, fermented/cultured and raw - should be your primary source of "medicine," in the case of ascorbic acid your body cannot get all that it needs for optimum health through diet alone.

Fortunately there are many supplements that come from real vitamin C sources found in nature: kiwis, citrus fruits, guavas, rosehips, alma, acerola cherries, and camu-camu which - at 20% - has the highest natural amount of ascorbic acid found in nature so far. Many people now believe that taking natural vitamin C powder -- from real food sources -- works the best in terms of assimilation and absorption.

It is fairly common practice for people who raise livestock to supplement their cattle's feed with a multi-vitamin/multi-mineral formula. Every cattle rancher knows that costly disease is easily and highly preventable with the addition of cheap vitamin and mineral supplementation. They know it would be irrational not to take preventative measures to keep their livestock as healthy, and as profitable, as possible. Why is it then that many of us do not take the same, inexpensive measures to insure our own length and quality of life? Indeed why not, especially considering that we have the odds - which 99.9% of the animal kingdom does not -- stacked against us.

The RDA daily recommended allowance for Vitamin C is 60 mg for adults. Many health care professionals recommend 200 mg to 2000 mg per day as a preventative dose. Some practitioners recommend much higher doses - 10,000 mg to 25,000 mg or even higher - for serious disease conditions. Vitamin C at mega-doses is administered intravenously of course at an established medical office.

In 1988, The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health reported that 15 out of every 21 deaths (more than two-thirds) involve malnutrition. Conditions linked to malnutrition at least in part included: heart disease, atherosclerosis, stroke (43.8%), and cancer (22.4%). Overall, according to that report, 81.9% of deaths each year are due in part to malnutrition. With more than two-thirds of deaths in the U.S. potentially involving malnutrition, eating well and even investing in a multi-vitamin makes sense. At the very least, one should probably be taking Vitamin C in supplement form. Other recommended supplements include calcium, B vitamins, Vitamin E, and for some, extra iron and riboflavin (for expectant mothers).

Generally speaking, the more expensive, mid-range muti-vitamins you can find at a natural foods store are higher in quality and more therapuetic than your average grocery store variety. Many of the supplements sold in natural food stores have "food-based" vitamins, "cultured" vitamins, and even "raw food" vitamins and minerals that come exclusively from raw food sources. Many people love and report having more energy in addition to noticing overall health improvements.

Taking a good, absorbable source of ascorbic acid is worth the effort considering all the data. One type of ascorbic acid is Ester-C with added bioflavonoids. Ascorbic acid is theoretically more synergistically absorbed with bioflavonoids and even quercetin (like what's found in an apple). Many people in the alternative health community believe that vitamins and minerals work better together with their respective synergistic co-factors found in nature, than as isolated, individual supplements. Vitamin C in ascorbate form is supposed to be the best type of ascorbic acid, outside of all natural vitamin C sold as supplements in powders, tablets, and capsules.

be well,

The Holistic Coach

http://www.theholisticoach.com/

http://www.connektwell.com/

http://www.mynutritionstore.com/holisticoach

Top 5 Fitness Trends for 2010

Fitness is still hot. Though Americans are more overweight than ever, and obesity is on the rise (72 million of us are now considered obese), new ways to stay fit are more diverse than ever as well. Here are the top five trends for 2010:


1.Mind-Body Fitness
Pilates and yoga are here to stay. People are becoming more aware of the mind-body connection and how controlling stress influences health and fitness levels. Some other recent aerobic hybrids include Cy-Yo, a combination of cycling and yoga, YogaFit, a combination of yoga, strength training and core building, and Piloxing, a combination of Pilates and boxing. You can often find yoga at the gym as well as some of these other programs. You may have to pay a nominal additional fee to take something like Pilates, but it’s cheaper than taking it privately. In addition to stress reduction and core training, mind-body programs are great for adding flexibility, adding cardio, and building lean muscle mass depending on the program.


2.Core-Based Training
Strengthening the “core” is a central theme to many mind-body programs like yoga and Pilates, as well as some equipment like kettlebells and the balance ball. Balance balls and kettlebells are relatively cheap at around $30 for basic sets. The core consists of the abdominal, hip, and leg muscles. Having a strong core can help relieve and/or prevent back injuries. Another core-based specialty workout is dance. Dance classes naturally focus on the core, in addition to being a great source of cardio. All the rage right now are Zumba and Bollywood dance. Ballroom dance, Afro-Cuban, and hip-hop are popular as well. Dance classes are relatively cheap at $7 - $10 a class, and are a great overall workout as has been publicized by shows like “Dancing with the Stars.”


3.Activity-Based Video Games
With gaming as popular as it is, it’s no wonder that it has wandered into the realm of fitness as well.
Especially great for motivating kids to take an interest in fitness, technology-based exergames like Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fit are all the rage. Exergaming is moderately priced from $40 - $200. Wii Fit offers balance and BMI testing, as well as 40 different activities such as strength training, aerobics, and even yoga. Blurring the lines between entertainment and exercise seems like a natural progression in the overall pattern of combining workouts and trends in the fitness industry.

4.Back To Basics
Many people are getting back to the basics and just walking outdoors and lifting free weights at home. People are realizing that fitness can be attained under any circumstances. These “budget-friendly” workouts can be to tied to another trend: functional fitness. The goal behind functional fitness is to prepare your body for real life situations. An example of this “bang for your buck” functional fitness trend again would be kettlebells. Here we have core training, and a whole body workout that covers many of the major muscle groups, and it conditions your body as well. It can be done from the comfort and affordability of your home. Populations like baby boomers are interested in working out more than ever. Although other trends like bootcamp at the gym are still very popular, baby boomers are looking for ways to incorporate fitness that will benefit them the most without breaking the bank. Functional fitness and going back to basics are two just ways that don’t necessarily require a gym membership.


5.Wellness Coaches/Online Personal Trainers
Along the lines of mind/body fitness, hiring a wellness coach is gaining ground. Wellness coaches support people’s efforts in fitness on all fronts including diet information and exercise motivation. Due to tough financial times, some people are opting to just browse online for information from personal trainers or wellness coaches as well. Although nothing beats having someone to talk you through those 6am treadmill runs. Another trend is to hire a group personal trainer to work with several individuals at once and share the cost. Hiring a coach or trainer varies, but the average rate is $50-$75 an hour. With an interest in mind-body workouts on the rise, hiring a wellness professional is a natural progression of connecting the dots between fitness and an overall healthy lifestyle.

be well,

The Holistic Coach

Healing Autism: A Parent’s Complete Guide to New Natural Treatments

The following information is for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe any kind of disease or illness. It is a good idea to seek the professional advice of a qualified health care practitioner (remember Naturopaths are doctors too) before making any major changes in your self health care.


April is Autism Awareness month and the National Institutes of Health just released funding of $60 million dollars for research. Although autism is now considered an epidemic by many, modern medicine claims it lacks hard scientific evidence as to how autism initially onsets. In the 1970’s, autism occurred in 1out of every 10,000 children. Today, that number is 1 in 150 in the United States, even less in the U.K. Cambridge University just came out with a study where 1 in 60 children were diagnosed with autism. For boys, it was 1 in 38. Our children are getting sicker more often at younger ages. Jenny McCarthy’s latest book on her son’s battle with autism, Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide, addresses this issue in depth. McCarthy calls autistic children the new canaries in the coalmine, due to extreme reactions to cheap preservatives (like mercury and aluminum) in vaccines and environmental toxins. According to Jerry Kartzinel M.D., who co-wrote the book with McCarthy, her son, Evan, is now healed from autism. Not cured, but healed. To distinguish the difference is a comprehensive guide to natural, biomedical treatments that claim to greatly manage, reduce, or even eliminate many of the conditions that accompany an initial diagnosis of autism.

These conditions include frequent ear infections, immune system dysfunction, allergies, candida, digestive disturbances, seizures, rashes, obsessions, anxiety, and aggression, among other symptoms. Kartzinel hypothesizes that these conditions may in fact “coexist” as part of the same disease state as autism, and may in fact not be distinguished from autism. He theorizes that massive “toxic insult” brought on by exposure to vaccines and environmental toxins is the main catalyst that triggers the onset of autism. Kartzinel tells the story of how his adopted son’s health rapidly and quickly deteriorated after a series of routine childhood vaccines administered by Kartzinel himself.

Kartzinel’s theory of toxic insult,” is similar to the theory of Body Burden as coined by The Environmental Working Group. Body Burden is essentially toxin overload, and is considered a potential cause of many disease states. Whether or not toxins are the sole cause for the onset of autism, there is a window in arresting the symptoms before a child reaches the tipping point in terms of toxin overload. According to Kartzinel, once the immune system reaches the tipping point of exposure, there is a potentially rapid descent into autism. It is crucial to be aware of the possible environmental toxin exposures at the moment of conception (and even before) from sources such as carpeting, paint, and furniture, as well as through childhood vaccines and food additives.

Early intervention and awareness of potential toxic burdens may be nothing short of critical in halting and even reversing the disease. In addition, many parents are on a waiting list of 6 months to a year to see an autism specialist. Since timing is crucial, McCarthy and Kartzinel lay out a step by step protocol of how to reduce significantly or even eliminate many of the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, ADD, ADHD, OCD, personality disorders, even allergies and asthma. Some of these protocols include a gluten and casein free diet, and using a variety of supplements such as B6, zinc, Vitamin C, magnesium, caprylic acid, and probiotics to name a few. The protocol also includes detoxing heavy metals, fighting candida, addressing food allergies, and keeping open the methylation pathway which is a key component in moving all types of toxins out of the body.

Genetics can play a roll in whether a child develops autism or not, according to Kartzinel, but only if exposed to environmental toxins as well (otherwise it’s less than 1%). This is described as a “genetic vulnerability,” and there are two family trees of genetics linked to autism. The first tree is the Common Auto Immune Tree, which includes inflammatory bowel disease (a common condition in autistic children), chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, lupus, and celiac disease among other autoimmune disorders. The other tree is the Methylation Tree. On this tree there is depression, alcoholism, ADD, ADHD, and autism, among other diseases. All autistic children belong to at least one tree, if not both. Depending on which genetic tree the autistic child comes from determines which natural treatments to pursue.

The methylation pathway in particular may be key in understanding why certain individuals become sick after exposure to toxins and others don’t. Genetic vulnerability determines if methylation pathways are working properly in the body or not. If working properly, the methylation process in the body produces glutathione. Glutathione is the most powerful antioxidant and detoxifier in the body and is responsible for detoxing vaccines, environmental toxins, prescription drugs, additives in food, etc. If glutathione is not produced, toxins are not only not eliminated, they are actually recirculated in the body and become even more toxic.

Individuals who are genetically predispositioned to not produce enough glutathione are then more prone to methlyation diseases, including autism, alcoholism, and depression (even fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are some other diseases linked to methylation deficit). This is one reason why diet and supplementation are so crucial in supplying and/or creating glutathione in the body, and enabling it to move out toxins effectively. Effective ways to raise glutathione levels include: supplementing with methyl B12 or methyl B12 injections, taking TMG or DMG (short for dimethylglycine; found in grains and meats), folic acid, SAME (in bubble packs only), or by eating glutathione rich/sulfur rich foods such as peanut butter (if your child is not allergic). Milk thistle and raw foods contain high levels of glutathione as well, but may not be safe or appropriate for children. Glutathione IV’s, nebulizers, or transdermal crèmes are also options. Kartzinel says that about two-thirds of children are poor methylators, and will respond to raising glutathione levels.

The good news, according to McCarthy and Karztinel, is that children can indeed heal from autism. McCarthy emphasizes that positive thinking may be the most important step of all to take. There are many biomedical treatments to try, and if one doesn’t work, move on, she says. Try another, and another, and another until you finally find what works for your child. Not every child may heal completely, and the treatments vary depending on to which genetic tree the child is related. And healing does not mean being “cured,” McCarthy and Kartzinel emphasize. Much like being in major car accident, the child may heal from the wounds, but the original scars of toxic exposure may remain. Nonetheless, Kartzinel is cautiously optimistic that full recovery is possible if toxin exposure is greatly reduced or eliminated, toxins are removed from the body, and homeostasis in the body is restored. He says that about 20 percent of children recover, but are “managed” with diet and supplements. Another 30 percent will end up with a much milder version of autism, and another 20 percent will have moderate persisting symptoms. Kartzinel says 20-25 percent may still have ADD, but their neurological tests will show up as negative for autism, and about 5 percent will recover entirely.




A note on mercury:
“Symptoms of autism in children are identical to symptoms of mercury poisoning in children: loss of speech, social withdrawal, reduced eye contact, repetitive behaviors, hand flapping, toe walking, temper tantrums, sleep disturbances, and seizures,” (Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide).

Contrary to what has been reported, mercury has in fact not been removed in vaccines. Since 1999, it has been only reduced. In its place, more aluminum has been added. The underlying issue of using known toxins as cheap preservatives in vaccines remains.





Jenny McCarthy’s Autism Organization:
http://www.generationrescue.org/

My First Book (Poetry)

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/frozen-light-a-collection-of-poems/6757530





http://www.connektwell.com/