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Hey, Couch Potato, Gotta a Minute?
“Park your car further away and walk a longer distance to the door of the market,” or “Take the steps instead of the elevator.” Most of you have probably heard these very familiar tips on how to work more physical activity into your day. But until recently, I don’t think people really understood the impact such changes could have on our health. Well now we do!
After Reading this Article, You May Know More Than Your Doctor Does!
Most of you who read Total Health Breakthroughs know that Jim LaValle is a regular contributor to the newsletter and a very important member of our Editorial Advisory Board. Jim is also the Executive Editor of The Healing Prescription, our monthly paid newsletter.
MaryEllen Tribby, my boss and the publisher of both newsletters, credits Jim with restoring her health and saving her from the brink of type 2 diabetes. In fact, that’s the reason that we decided to launch The Healing Prescription. MaryEllen’s recovery was so dramatic, that she knew Jim could help thousands of people just like her if they only listened to his message and regained control of their metabolic health.
Having worked with Jim for over a year now, I knew he was a dynamic public speaker —he lectures frequently throughout the country, has his own radio show, and makes regular guest appearances on TV and radio health programs. So I was really looking forward to seeing him speak at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s (A4M) continuing medical education conference in Boca Raton last week.
I can tell you that I wasn’t disappointed — and neither were the 200 doctors who came from all parts of the US to hear him speak on integrative medicine and clinical nutrition. At one point there were so many questions coming from the audience that Jim had cut them off, saying he would not get through the day’s presentation if he took anymore.
Pesticides, Weight Gain, and Insulin Resistance
If you are having difficulty losing weight even after dieting and exercising more, you are not alone. Over the years, I have helped probably thousands of people with the same problem, but I am finding this scenario to be much more common now than in the past. What I want you to know is that when you’ve tried everything and weight loss or lowering of blood sugar or lipids seems impossible, it could be that environmental toxins are disrupting your body.
Some pesticides, for instance, have been linked with suboptimal thyroid function and others to insulin resistance (IR). Certain pesticides that haven’t even been used for years, like DDT, are still a problem because they are so persistent in the environment, and from there can get into our bodies.
Researchers call these substances persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The insecticide, dieldrin, is an example. This organochlorine pesticide was used on cotton and corn from the 1950s until 1970. And although its use was banned on crops in 1974, it was still used for termite control until it was finally banned by the EPA completely in 1987. Because it is tightly bound to soil and it evaporates very slowly, dieldrin persists in the environment even though it’s no longer used.1
So how does dieldrin affect us today? Plants absorb it from the soil, and water runoff carries the soil with the chemical into water supplies. When we eat plants grown in soil still contaminated with dieldrin, it enters our bodies. We can also get it from the flesh of animals eating contaminated plants or fish living in contaminated waters.1
After being consumed, dieldrin is then stored in our body fat. And here’s the problem: dieldrin may be linked to disruption in the thyroid hormones, T4 and TSH. One study found that women with significantly high dieldrin in their blood had decreased T4 levels and increased TSH.
Do Vegetarian Diets Live Up to the Hype?
Are vegetarian diets the best way to lower all disease risks and maintain a low body weight?
A New Look at FAT- Because it Doesn’t “Just Sit There”
The discovery of “leptin” in 1994 created an explosion of interest in the “biology of white adipose tissue” — otherwise known as FAT. You probably remember those photos of seriously obese mice sitting next to their slender littermates — and the only difference between them was that the thin ones had been given this magic [...]
