Total Health Breakthroughs: Alternative Solutions for Mind, Body, and Spirit

If I were asked to pick just one supplement for optimal joint health, I would have to go with fish oil.

Why fish oil? Well, fish oil contains EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), commonly referred to as omega-3 fatty acids or just omega-3’s. These omega-3 PUFAs have a number of beneficial effects on the body, including the joints.

In any type of arthritis, pain comes from two main sources:

1. Exposed and irritated nerves in the bone which are vulnerable to friction and chemical irritants when the protective cartilage layer is destroyed.
2. Inflammation which causes the synovial membrane of the joint to swell, grow, and produce excessive amounts of joint fluid (”water on the knee”).

Looking back at 2008, I vote for vitamin D as the biggest nutrition news of the year. We all knew vitamin D was needed for optimal bone formation and maintenance, but I don’t think anyone really appreciated its full importance for our health. From cancer to heart disease prevention to protection against autoimmunity, vitamin D may very well be the most important nutrient to get enough of.

With all the new information on its disease-preventing benefits, many researchers suggest that the Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) for vitamin D should be raised from 400 IUs to a minimum of 1000 IUs. And further studies have found that toxicity is really a non-issue.7 So, no longer are we disputing that the DRI is far too low. Instead, the focus has turned to making sure you are getting enough.

Most of us know that vitamin D is made from cholesterol in the body. Sun exposure is the catalyst that makes this happen. When sun hits the body, cholesterol in the skin is converted to vitamin D. To get enough vitamin D, we are told that we need from 5 to 30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back — without sunscreen. But that’s only if you live below the 42° latitude marker. (In the US, that line runs from Northern California to Boston.)

Did it ever occur to you that the reason you can’t lose weight may be due to the fact that you are eating foods that you’re allergic to? This is a revelation to many people who have struggled unsuccessfully for years to get rid of unwanted pounds.

The prevalence of food allergies is on the rise in both children and adults.^1-2 Allergies can be responsible for a number of health issues including irritable bowel type symptoms³ and migraines.⁴ Very few people are aware however, that immune responses to foods can go on to create a number of metabolic disruptions that can contribute to weight gain.

At LMI where we counsel people to lose weight using our Metabolic Code Diet (MCD) eating program, we see this all the time. We had one patient in our diet group who had tried a very low carb diet in the past, and lost no weight. The reason? She was sensitive to dairy and didn’t know it. On her previous diet, she was eating a lot of cheese. On the MCD, which is a lower carb, low allergen eating plan, she cut out the cow’s milk cheeses and dairy products, ate according to our meal recommendations, and the weight started coming off.

Did you know that if you have hypertension and eat garlic or perhaps take garlic pills, your blood pressure could be slightly reduced? Doctors at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT reviewed several studies with garlic done in the last few years and concluded that the use of this herb, on average, can help systolic blood pressure drop by 16 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 9 mmHg.¹ The use of garlic apparently did not reduce blood pressure in those with normal blood pressure.

A review by another team of researchers at the University of Adelaide in South Australia found garlic reduced systolic blood pressure by 8 mmHg on average, and diastolic blood pressure by 7 mmHg.² Although the actual mg of pressure reduction is still not clear, it does appear that garlic consumption is of benefit to those with blood pressure problems.

Can men go through menopause? Absolutely! You might not know it, but estrogen dominance, or andropause, is a major health hazard for men over 40. This hormone imbalance occurs when your body builds up too much estrogen and xenoestrogens — which are synthetic forms of the hormone.

You’ve probably never heard of estrogen dominance — and your doctor would probably misdiagnose your symptoms. But this could be the reason you suffer from…

• Memory loss and “senior moments”
• Depression and mood swings
• Sleepless nights
• Unwanted weight gain– especially belly fat
• Muscles turning into flab
• Low sex drive and erectile dysfunction (ED)
• Enlarged prostate and other prostate problems– and a frequent need to urinate
• Hair loss
• Male breasts or “man boobs”

There are three main reasons why these unpleasant symptoms of male menopause may be tormenting you: 1) aging, 2) environmental pollutants, and 3) your diet.

It’s always encouraging to hear that something you enjoy, such as a food or beverage, has exceptional nutritional value or prevents a disease.

Recently, red wine and even alcohol, in general, have been headlines because moderate amounts of alcohol seem to be protective against heart disease. Alcohol decreases the stickiness of blood cells so they’re less likely to form a clot, and it prevents constriction of coronary arteries; both are scenarios that may lead to a heart attack.¹

Researchers are trying sort out whether the benefits come from the alcohol itself or from other substances — like resveratrol in red wine. To me it’s pretty clear that flavonoids like resveratrol have tremendous benefits.

Have you noticed over the past several years that people are starting to get comfortable with the idea of carrying around “a few extra pounds?” I see this a lot in my new patients: the thinking that if you can work out “hard” you can be “fat but fit.”

Don’t believe it.

Take a recent conversation I had with one of my patients, who I’ll call Alice. She’s middle-aged. When she came to me she was “a little on the heavy side,” as she put it. I told her she really would have to drop the extra pounds to avoid heart disease and other serious health problems.

Considering arthroscopic surgery for that persistent arthritic knee pain that just won’t leave you alone? Maybe you should think again. And I’m a former knee surgeon, telling you this. The truth is, you may do just as well with conventional, alternative, or complementary conservative treatments and save yourself pain, risk, and money.

In a study published in the September 11th, 2008 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, a group of Canadian researchers from the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Center of the University of Western Ontario compared two groups of patients with known moderate to severe osteoarthritis.¹

One hundred seventy-eight (178) patients were randomly assigned to receive either surgery (arthroscopic lavage — a washout of the joint by saline and debridement — essentially a “clean out” of the joint), followed by optimized physical and medical therapy, or non-surgical treatment, i.e., physical and medical therapy alone.

In my years in gyms, I’ve met thousands of men and women who care enough about their bodies to want to exercise. The only problem is that sometimes I cringe when I see what they’re doing to themselves. I try to offer advice when I can, but as the saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

Many of these exercise enthusiasts spend all of their time on what I call the “mirror muscles.” These are the ones that you can see when you stand in front of a mirror and admire yourself. Of major importance to most guys is their pectoral or chest muscles. But, they are making a crucial mistake by not spending enough time on working their shoulders.

What happens is, they end up with a body out of balance. Without building the shoulders along with the pectoral muscles, they’ve put their shoulders at great risk. And this isn’t important for just the guys! Having strong shoulders is important for women too. That’s because there are so many daily activities that put stress on the shoulders.

As we enter the heart of cold and flu season, many of our patients want to know the best way to prevent coming down with these viruses. In my last article, I talked about whether flu shots really work. If you missed it, I said there is very little evidence that they do.

The best way to prevent flu or colds is to keep your overall health and immunity strong. That’s why you’ll see recommendations for making sure you dress warmly, get plenty of rest, and drink plenty of fluids. Good hand washing is another great preventive measure, but there is a ton of evidence that shows another sure-fire way to lower your chances of catching a nasty cold or debilitating flu — and it’s not one that you see discussed often.

Lower your stress.