How Do I Know If I Have A Low Thyroid Problem?

Do you have signs of a low thyroid problem you’re thinking of having checked out? It’s important to seek care for any health-related symptoms, and this includes those typically associated with low thyroid. 

Some of the symptoms low thyroid patients notice include: 

• Lethargy; chronic fatigue
• Depression and/or anxiety
• PMS or menopausal symptoms
• Muscular and/or joint pains
• Fibromyalgia
• Heart disease
• Digestive disorders
• Hair loss
• Dry or itchy skin; eczema or rashes
• Low libido
• Cold hands and feet
• Weight gain
• Inability to lose weight despite diet and exercise
• Memory problems or brain fog

In reviewing this list, you may notice that many of these low thyroid signs are commonly associated with other conditions–or the simple fact of aging. Women often assume many symptoms of low thyroid are inevitable due to menopause. Yet it’s never a good idea to suffer with health problems, even if they seem ‘minor.’ 

If you find yourself taking the attitude that you must ‘learn to live with’ feeling extra tired, irritable or depressed, or with aches and pains you didn’t used to have, seek out health care. Nothing will be gained by taking a ‘wait and see’ approach and delays may make care for low thyroid or other conditions more challenging. 

Most people understand that the thyroid plays a big role in metabolism regulation. A significant weight gain for no apparent reason, lack of energy or low sex drive are some of the symptoms that commonly prompt low thyroid patients to seek care for their condition. 

Yet the lesser-known symptoms that seem unrelated to the thyroid are also important indicators of problems your body may be having related to thyroid function. Be sure to tell your doctor about all of your symptoms, even if you think they seem irrelevant or unrelated to your thyroid.  If you seek out support from your regular medical care provider, it’s likely you will be tested for thyroid problems through blood work. Tests will be used to determine whether or not the problem is thyroid related, or possibly something else. However, some thyroid conditions require a much more in-depth approach to evaluation and care.

If you are told your thyroid is ‘fine’ based on blood work results but you still have symptoms, you may benefit from a more comprehensive approach to care. The same may be true if you are taking medication for low thyroid with little to no improvement in how you feel. 

Patients seeking a more in-depth approach to their health and wellness may want to consider working with a functional medicine specialist to address thyroid symptoms. Very detailed testing will identify exactly what is going on in your body’s organs and systems, including the thyroid. Once you’ve been thoroughly evaluated through comprehensive testing and information received from you on how you feel, you can look forward to the type of care that will help you feel better. Customized therapy and support can improve your condition as quickly as possible and in the long term. 

Your Cholesterol Matters Less Than You Think

The Cholesterol Hypothesis

The cholesterol hypothesis is the prevailing theory on why human beings develop heart disease. It goes something like this; elevated total cholesterol and, especially, elevated LDL cholesterol, is the primary cause of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Further, replacing saturated fat in the diet with vegetable oils lowers serum cholesterol and, therefore, lowers cardiovascular disease risk. This information is decades old and has become medical dogma. Unfortunately, it’s not true.

Much of this information comes from the Seven Countries Study originating in the 1950s, although data is still analyzed today to glean more knowledge from it. It tied fat consumption to heart disease. The lead author, Ancel Keys, found the more fat a society consumed the higher the rate of heart attacks. It seemed to be very convincing evidence. This observation helped shape health policies for governments and the medical field. In fact, to some degree, it still does today.

Missing or Unpublished Data

There was a problem with it, though. Data showed that there were populations of people who consumed lots of fat but had low heart attack rates. Conversely, there was data showing there were populations of people who consumed very little fat but had high rates of heart attacks. This information was omitted from the study. The study also failed to account for the fact that the people who consumed the most fat were also most likely to consume the most sugar. While nutrition science is notoriously difficult, these seem like variables that shouldn’t have been ignored.

Superimpose the above inconsistencies with interventional studies conducted in the same time period and you’ll quickly see you’ve been misled. Ancel Keys’ study was an observational study. This means he observed a connection between two sets of data. Observational studies cannot prove cause and effect. For example, imagine this headline; “New science has observed a connection between high heel wearing and breast cancer.” Does wearing high heels cause breast cancer? Of course not. It just happens that people who wear high heels (mostly women) also develop the majority of breast cancer. This silly example shows just how easily an observational study can get it wrong.

The gold standard for proving cause and effect is an interventional study where populations are randomized and given either an experimental intervention or are controls, generally receiving a placebo. In dietary trials, placebos are difficult, if not impossible, to give so participants diets are often left unchanged for the control population.

The Sydney Diet Heart Study and the Minnesota Coronary Experiment

Around the same time that Ancel Keys was doing his work, two interventional studies were conducted. One was called the Sydney Diet Heart Study and the other the Minnesota Coronary Experiment. Both of these studies were incompletely published (data was missing) or went completely unpublished for reasons no one really knows. It is likely because they contradicted accepted dogma and scientific journals were hesitant to put their reputations on the line for something they viewed with skepticism. We know about them now because a group of researchers recently uncovered the unpublished data, reanalyzed it with modern methods and found some shocking results. The reanalysis of both studies was published in the British Medical Journal.

In both of these experiments, totaling about 10,000 participants, saturated fat was removed from the diets of the experimental group and replaced with vegetable oils. This is precisely what the American Heart Association says you should do. What did they find? They found that by removing saturated fat, the participants’ cholesterol went down. This is not unexpected. What they didn’t expect to find was that in both studies the low saturated fat group experienced more cardiovascular disease, more coronary heart disease, and an increase in all-cause mortality.

So let’s summarize; Removing saturated fat and replacing it with vegetable oils lowers cholesterol. But lowering cholesterol raised the risk of heart disease? Yes. This puts an enormous, truck-sized hole in the cholesterol hypothesis. In fact, in the Minnesota Coronary Experiment for every 30 points a person’s cholesterol dropped their risk of death increased by 22%.

This information is counter to everything nutrition science says. Three other randomized controlled trials have confirmed the results. Couple this with another very recent study evaluating over 68,000 elderly people which found an inverse relationship in those over 60 between LDL level and mortality, and I think we seriously need to evaluate the cholesterol hypothesis.

The Real Cause of Heart Disease

If cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease, what does? It’s quite simple actually – endothelial damage. The endothelia are the cells that line your blood vessels. There are things that are known to damage this lining – high blood pressure, inflammation, high blood sugar, smoking, oxidative stress, and aging. These triggers, and pursuant damage, set into motion a cascading set of events that allows your immune system (in the form of white blood cells) to infiltrate the lining of the vessels. Only after they do this do they begin the process of engulfing cholesterol, which eventually leads to arterial plaque formation. Control those triggers and you will never develop heart disease. If you do not control those processes, it doesn’t matter how low your cholesterol is. You will still develop heart disease. I hear you saying, “But how do I control aging?” That is more difficult as we will all age, but living a healthy lifestyle helps with all of those factors, including aging. Plus, aging alone is unlikely to be a significant cause of heart disease.

It’s important to recognize that cholesterol is not your enemy. Sedentary lifestyle, smoking, a diet high in refined food, the excess consumptions of sugar, and poor stress management are much more serious concerns. Lowering cholesterol for the sake of lowering it has no beneficial effect on your heart. As a matter of fact, the research shows it could be downright dangerous for it. So if you’ve been told you have high cholesterol and that lowering it will lower your risk, you might want to consider the information above and seek an alternative.

5 Tips For The Tired Office Worker

We’ve all experienced it, haven’t we? You get to the office, start the day strong but go to lunch and come back feeling like you need to sleep for a week. This afternoon fatigue is a common complaint, and it can affect your productivity at work. To avoid it, many turn to coffee, energy drinks, or sugar. These provide a temporary boost but set you up for failure again the next day.

This slump in energy in the afternoon is a sign that your metabolism isn’t working like it should. Let’s review the ways our bodies use fuel. There are two major ways our cells can get energy; we can burn sugar or we can burn fat. Most people have spent too many years training the sugar burning system making the fat burning system inefficient. This leads to insulin resistance, weight gain, pre-diabetes, and if not changed, it eventually causes diabetes.

How does this affect your energy in the afternoon? When you’ve trained your body to burn sugar but not fat, you’ve signaled your pancreas that you need lots of insulin when you eat. Insulin is the hormone that allows us to use the sugar we eat as fuel for our cells. The more insulin you secrete the faster your cells gobble up sugar. Sounds good, right? Wrong. When your cells use up your blood sugar quickly, your blood sugar drops precipitously. This is when you start to feel a sloth stuck in quicksand. The drop in blood sugar leads to fatigue, sleepiness, mental fog, and the desire for a short (or long) nap.

To prevent this from happening follow the tips below, and in no time you’ll be feeling energetic and productive in the afternoon.

Retrain your metabolism

Begin this process by changing your diet. Remove processed carbohydrates and add in healthy fats. Instead of that bagel for a mid-morning snack, have some nuts. They are loaded with good fats and other nutrients. Have a salad at lunch instead of that burger and fries. Use olive oil and vinegar for dressing and add an avocado to the salad. Make sure you get enough protein. Protein provides the building blocks for the neurotransmitters in your brain. Without these, you’ll feel foggy and disconnected. Instead of having cereal for breakfast, have a couple of eggs. They’re nutrient dense and provide a good source of choline, which is essential for memory function.

Move

Regular exercise will help regulate insulin levels. A hallmark of the sugar burner is high levels of insulin in the blood, even when you’re fasting. By exercising these levels will fall and your pancreas will begin to secrete normal levels of insulin. Your cells will also become more sensitive to insulin. Through multiple feedback mechanisms, this will also help keep you from producing too much of it. The end result is better blood sugar control with no more of the precipitous drops and associated symptoms.

Also, consider getting up from your desk and moving during the day or afternoon. This is often a good way to reset and refresh

Sleep Better

This one is rather obvious, but a lack of sleep sets you up for failure. Along with being tired, not getting enough sleep will make you crave sugary, processed food. As has been discussed, this is ultimately the cause of the afternoon slump. Try to get to bed at a reasonable hour, and at the same hour, each night. This trains your body’s internal clock to be ready for bed at the same time every night so you don’t spend hours laying awake waiting to fall asleep. Turn off all the lights in your room and even consider covering any LED alarm clocks, too. Do not watch TV or use a handheld device in bed either. They’re likely to keep you awake. Shoot for at least 7 hours of sleep each night.

Drink More Water

Even mild dehydration can cause fatigue. How will you know if you are dehydrated? Just listen to your body. If you have other symptoms like headaches, dizziness, constipation, or dry mouth there’s a good chance you’re dehydrated. To rehydrate do not drink sports drinks. They are loaded with sugar and are only appropriate for vigorous exercise. Aim for half of your body weight in ounces of water per day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, try to drink 75 ounces of water throughout the day. This will prevent you from becoming dehydrated.

Have A Mid-Afternoon Snack

Having a snack in the afternoon can be a great way to prevent your blood sugar from falling. The key here is to make it a healthy snack. A quick, sugar-filled one will only be a temporary fix, leaving you vulnerable the next day.

Making these simple changes will profoundly affect how you feel in the afternoon. What’s better is they will also be good for your health in the long run. Whether you’re going after that promotion or just trying to feel more alert and productive at work, taking these steps will work for you.

Our Trip To Ghana

For those of you who don’t know, Kate (my clinical assistant) and I recently took a trip to Ghana in West Africa. A Ghana-based group called Autism Action Ghana (AAG) invited us to come evaluate and treat children with autism. Our trip was a resounding success. From the people we met, to our experience in the country, to the children we helped, we were received with open arms. I hope you’ll enjoy this account of our experience.

More About AAG (Information from AAG)

Autism Action Ghana is a registered, Non-Governmental Organization, founded in 2014 by Peter and Dr. Araba Fordjor after their 2 ½ year-old son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Having been told there was no hope, they were even more awestruck by the lack of support, information and resources that accompanied the diagnosis and the hopelessness and despair that they faced on their lonesome journey.

Autism Action Ghana (AAG) seeks to create awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorders in a bid to generate understanding of the disorder amongst the general public, shatter the stigma and facilitate early diagnosis. But perhaps most importantly, AAG seeks to provide families with current clinical and behavioral evidence-based interventions and approaches that will directly impact children with autism and equip them to attain their maximum potential.

In Ghana, awareness of autism as a medical or neuropsychiatric disorder that can be treated is lacking. Many children’s symptoms are attributed to poor parenting and spiritual beliefs leading to stigmatization, inappropriate care and denial of their basic rights and opportunities.

How Did This Come To Be?

Many have asked me how we came to be invited to treat these children half a world away. It’s a bit of a long, convoluted story so I’ll try to make it short. The Vreeland Clinic had a previously existing patient with ties to Ghana. She put us in contact with a woman whose child had autism. Through this connection, Dr. Fordjor heard of us. Several patients actually traveled from Ghana to see us in Vermont. Eventually, Dr. Fordjor invited us to come to Ghana to see those who were unable to make the journey. After much careful thought, we decided this was an opportunity we could not miss.

AAG offered to cover my costs to get to Ghana and all costs while I was there (lodging, food, etc.) I decided that in order to be effective, I would need some help. I was going to need someone else there to help me with patient flow, note taking, dietary questions, etc. I knew there would be A LOT of questions from the parents, and I simply wouldn’t have time to answer all their questions and see all of the patients without help. That’s why Kate was on the trip. She helped coordinate patient flow, wrote down instructions, took notes, discussed dietary changes, and counseled patients on all the changes they were going to have to make to be successful. Now that we’re back and I have some perspective, there is absolutely no way I could have done this alone. I would have not been nearly as successful without Kate there.

Our Journey

Our journey really began months before we left. We needed to be vaccinated for yellow fever. Both Kate and I elected to get the hepatitis A vaccine as well given the ease with which it is transmitted and the effectiveness of the vaccine (98%). We also wanted to do what we could to offset the costs for AAG. I came up with the idea of starting a GoFundMe page. Using the great power of crowd funding, we were able to raise $9,575. This allowed us to see every single child at no cost and help greatly offset the costs AAG would have to absorb to set up the weeklong clinic. Our goal was to raise this money so AAG could use its funds in other helpful ways, and I’m certain we achieved that goal.

Leading up to our departure on April 22^nd there was a lot of planning, but I’ll spare you the boring details. AAG took care of everything on their end. They booked our hotel accommodations, secured a room (with an air conditioner!) for us to see the children in, and even secured someone to cook all of our meals while we were there. It was a blessing not to have to worry about that! We booked the flights on our end. We took a short flight from Burlington, VT to JFK airport in New York. Then we had a direct flight from JFK to Accra, Ghana. AAG contacted Delta (our air carrier from NYC to Accra) and they kindly upgraded our seats to Delta Comfort Plus free of charge. The extra legroom and food was nice on the 10-hour flight. 

Our flight from JFK was uneventful and we landed in Ghana at about 7AM on the 23^rd. We were both a little tired, but very happy to be in Africa. We exited the plane and I immediately noticed how hot it was! The humidity is always high in Ghana so it makes it feel even hotter. As we made our way into the airport, we were screened for Ebola by means of a thermal camera. Basically, they’re looking to see if you have a fever. We passed the test. Then we went through customs and grabbed our bags.

Dr. Fordjor and her husband, Peter, met us at the airport. As we discussed our travel and how hot we felt it was, they remarked that it had been quite hot recently even for them! We departed the airport and they took us to breakfast. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but we had a very nice buffet breakfast at a local hotel. There were eggs, omelets to be made, French toast, potatoes, etc. It was quite good and it felt nice to have some food in our bellies. They dropped us off at our hotel and provided us with a Wi-Fi hotspot so we’d have Internet service wherever we went. This is so nice to have!

Our hotel was great. We each had a room with air conditioning and a refrigerator. Strangely, they did not provide towels, washcloths, or, of all things, a trash can. Fortunately, Kate and I each brought a towel thinking we might make it to the beach one day. We never made it to the beach, but the towels sure did come in handy. We also did not have any hot water, but we did okay without it. It was somewhat nice in the evening to take a cool (cold?) shower.

The next day was Sunday and our only completely free day to explore Accra. AAG provided us with a driver. His name was Robert, and he took us all over Accra. We saw many sites from the very busy, modern downtown district, to a fishing village in which no one had running water, sewage, or electricity. The people living in the fishing village hand carved their wooden boats and used them to catch small fish in the ocean. The fish were then spread out over the ground to dry out, then they were smoked and brought to the market to sell. The fishing village was directly in the shadows of the Jamestown fort, a very large castle-like structure that was once used to imprison the locals before they were shipped off the Europe and the United States as slaves. The pier they led the slaves to where large boats waited to take them to other parts of the world still stands today.

We also visited a local market where we bought several souvenirs for our families. Haggling is the name of the game there. Our guide to us to reduce the price they were offering by a factor of 4 and that would likely be a good deal. It was kind of intense, but perhaps because culturally we did not understand the bargaining nature. It’s just how they do business in the markets. To us it sounded very much like arguing, but we were assured it was just business.

We had a nice lunch on the coast where we were right on the ocean. It was hot, so some food and water felt quite nice. After lunch we continued our exploration, driving around some more. Eventually, we went by the US Embassy. It was fun to see. We headed back to our hotel and got prepared for the start of our long week of seeing patients.

The Patients

We spent Monday-Friday seeing patients from 8AM to 6PM. They were long days, but they were worth it. In all, we were able to see 44 patients, most who had been diagnosed with autism. We saw just a handful that were not.

I think the overall theme from the week was about the stigma that is attached to autism in Ghana. We were told about it, but until we started seeing patients and were exposed to it, we could not fully understand the depth of it. Many, particularly the men, believe a child with developmental challenges reflects poorly on the family. Or in the case of men, it reflects poorly on them. This is such a powerful stigma, men may completely abandon their family if they have a child on the spectrum. It is hard for us in the US to imagine, but I bet if you dig deep enough you can see it here too.

People have asked me, “What exactly can you do for autism? Is it really treatable?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” With autism spectrum disorders comes a host of documented changes in the way their central nervous systems and their metabolisms work. There are changes in the circuitry of their brains that, when assessed properly, can be improved through eye exercises, light and sound therapy, balance exercises, tactile exercises, PT, OT, speech therapy, primitive reflex remediation, and the list goes on and on. The list of exercises that can rewire the brain is endless. You are only limited by your imagination!

So, our job was to determine what exercises would be most beneficial for each patient.  I did this by putting each child through a comprehensive neurologic exam looking at eye movements, primitive reflex testing, balance tests, etc. This allowed me to pinpoint which areas of the brain are struggling and recommend the correct therapy. Each parent was given a list of 3-5 exercises to begin to work on with their child. It is very common for children on the spectrum to skip developmental milestones as they grow. Commonly, they do not crawl or they crawl for only a very short period of time. We saw this in about 80% of the children we attended. Therefore, one of the main exercises we recommended was to properly establish a cross crawl pattern of gait in each child. This is done by having the child alternate touching their opposite knee to their elbow. They do this for 2 minutes, twice per day, and it abolishes the homolateral crawl pattern their brain is stuck in. Remediating primitive reflexes like this helps the brain organize itself in a way that is more efficient and allows for better brain function.

Metabolically, children with ASD are known to have changes in gastrointestinal function characterized by bacterial and/or yeast and fungal overgrowth, changes in the efficiency with which they produce energy, or changes in the efficiency with which they detoxify environmental and endogenous toxins. As some of the children had stool and metabolic testing prior to our arrival, we were able to see this firsthand. One thing that struck me was the large use of antibiotics. Most of the children had 2-3 courses per year from the time they were born through the age of 3 or 4. Knowing the effects of the gut on the brain, this was especially concerning to me. The testing confirmed my concerns and revealed massive bacterial and yeast overgrowth. Metabolic testing confirmed many of the children had a reduced capacity to produce energy and detoxification pathway weakness. For the children who were unable to get the testing done, my clinical experience combined with the knowledge of the research guided my therapeutic recommendations. The recommendations for this are generally in the form of supplements. Most, if not all of the parents had contacts in the US or the UK to send them the supplements we were recommending. While we were there I met a pharmacist who wanted to set up a local pharmacy to sell the supplements we were recommending. This is an exciting prospect and I hope we can set that up.

Dietary changes were also recommended. The diet was shifted to a very low fermentable diet in order to reduce microbial overgrowth in the GI tract. This was a difficult shift for them to undertake. Much of the Ghanaian diet is high in starch, which means it is also generally quite fermentable. Shifting away from this caused a bit of anxiety for the parents, but they were willing to make the shift if it meant an improvement for their child.

All of the parents have access to me via email and we’ve seen a pretty steady stream of questions coming in since we returned. Additionally, we can connect via phone or Skype in the future if need be.

The experience was a good one. I think we learned as much from them as they did from us. I hope to continue our relationship with AAG in whatever form that takes. Until we have the chance to return, we’ll continue to monitor these wonderful children from afar and make the necessary adjustments to help them reach their maximum potential.

Fat, sugar cause bacterial changes that may relate to loss of cognitive function

A study at Oregon State University indicates that both a high-fat and a high-sugar diet, compared to a normal diet, cause changes in gut bacteria that appear related to a significant loss of “cognitive flexibility,” or the power to adapt and adjust to changing situations. This effect was most serious on the high-sugar diet, which also showed an impairment of early learning for both long-term and short-term memory. The findings are consistent with some other studies about the impact of fat and sugar on cognitive function and behavior, and suggest that some of these problems may be linked to alteration of the microbiome — a complex mixture in the digestive system of about 100 trillion microorganisms. The research was done with laboratory mice that consumed different diets and then faced a variety of tests, such as water maze testing, to monitor changes in their mental and physical function, and associated impacts on various types of bacteria. The findings were published in the journal Neuroscience, in work supported by the Microbiology Foundation and the National Science Foundation. “It’s increasingly clear that our gut bacteria, or microbiota, can communicate with the human brain,” said Kathy Magnusson, a professor in the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine and principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute. “Bacteria can release compounds that act as neurotransmitters, stimulate sensory nerves or the immune system, and affect a wide range of biological functions,” she said. “We’re not sure just what messages are being sent, but we are tracking down the pathways and the effects.” Mice have proven to be a particularly good model for studies relevant to humans, Magnusson said, on such topics as aging, spatial memory, obesity and other issues. In this research, after just four weeks on a high-fat or a high-sugar diet, the performance of mice on various tests of mental and physical function began to drop, compared to animals on a normal diet. One of the most pronounced changes was in what researchers call cognitive flexibility. “The impairment of cognitive flexibility in this study was pretty strong,” Magnusson said. “Think about driving home on a route that’s very familiar to you, something you’re used to doing. Then one day that road is closed and you suddenly have to find a new way home.” A person with high levels of cognitive flexibility would immediately adapt to the change, determine the next best route home, and remember to use the same route the following morning, all with little problem. With impaired flexibility, it might be a long, slow, and stressful way home. This study was done with young animals, Magnusson said, which ordinarily would have a healthier biological system that’s better able to resist pathological influences from their microbiota. The findings might be even more pronounced with older animals or humans with compromised intestinal systems, she said. What’s often referred to as the “Western diet,” or foods that are high in fat, sugars and simple carbohydrates, has been linked to a range of chronic illnesses in the United States, including the obesity epidemic and an increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. “We’ve known for a while that too much fat and sugar are not good for you,” Magnusson said. “This work suggests that fat and sugar are altering your healthy bacterial systems, and that’s one of the reasons those foods aren’t good for you. It’s not just the food that could be influencing your brain, but an interaction between the food and microbial changes.”

Source: Fat, sugar cause bacterial changes that may relate to loss of cognitive function — ScienceDaily

 

 

A new take on artificial sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners are supposed to be good for you. Go ahead, ask your doctor or a dietitian. They’ll tell you they are a great way to get your sweet fix without any consequences. When compared to full sugar soda they’re supposed lower your caloric intake, they reduce your risk of being overweight, they reduce your risk of diabetes, they reduce your risk of heart disease and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, that’s not what the recent research is showing.

Non-caloric artificial sweeteners are among the most widely used food additives worldwide, regularly consumed by lean and obese individuals alike. They were introduced over a century ago as means for providing sweet taste to foods without the associated high energy content of caloric sugars, yet supporting scientific data on safety and efficacy remain sparse and controversial. While some data has shown they boost blood sugar very little, other evidence has linked them to type 2 diabetes and weight gain. These are the conditions they were created to prevent. The question then is how do artificial sweeteners create physiologic change capable of making us unhealthy? A new study is providing some input.

Most artificial sweeteners pass through the human gastrointestinal tract without being digested by the person consuming them, thus directly encountering the intestinal microbiota (bacteria), which plays central roles in regulating multiple physiological processes. These artificial sweeteners alter the balance of the bacteria present in our gastrointestinal tract, thus adversely affecting many of these important processes.

This new study titled Artificial Sweeteners Induce Glucose Intolerance by Altering the Gut Microbiota, has demonstrated that consumption of commonly used artificial sweeteners drives the development of glucose intolerance (high blood sugar) through changes in the composition of the intestinal microbiota. Further, the use of antibiotics eliminates these effects. This confirms the bacteria play a central role in the metabolic changes. Now, I’m not saying we should all be on antibiotics. This study used antibiotics to confirm the theory that artificial sweeteners adversely affects physiology through changes in the intestinal microbiome. This is not a viable option in real life as this can have severe consequences long term.

The exact mechanism through which these adverse physiologic changes occur is not completely understood, but it appears to be related to a change in the composition certain types of bacteria. It creates a problem known as dysbiosis (unbalanced growth of bacteria). This dysbiosis results in the same bacterial profile known to be associated with diabetes, obesity, and over-extraction of calories from food.

So, artificial sweeteners create the same problem they are intended to prevent? Yes. So what do you drink, you say? Water. Water is the perfect hydrating liquid. If you are very physically active, a rehydrating drink with electrolytes and some carbohydrate replacement is fine during an intense workout. If you want to have something sweet, have a real soda. But do it only VERY infrequently!

Want to know more? Sign up for our FREE WEBINAR called “Chronic Disease Hates Your Guts!” November 11th at 7PM. We’ll discuss the importance of a healthy gastrointestinal systems as it relates to the most common complaints in medical practice. You don’t want to miss this!

Register here: 

http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EB50D98687463D

5 Foods You Should Never Eat!

Have you heard the news? There are five foods you should never eat. And here they are for your viewing pleasure.

1. There

2. Is

3. No

4. Such 

5. Thing

Confused? You shouldn’t be. There is no such thing as a food you should never eat. There are a lot of foods that you should eat sparingly. Ice cream, bread, pasta, white potato, potato chips, french fries, and any fast food come to mind. But even those can be eaten every great once in a while without fear. However, you shouldn’t have ice cream on Monday, pasta on Tuesday, french fries on Wednesday, etc. and expect to feel healthy, lose weight, avoid chronic disease or whatever your goal is. That kind of thing can add up. 

Eating food that is bad for us once in a while will never cause you to be unhealthy. It has no more potential to cause you to be unhealthy than eating healthily every great once in a while does to make you healthy. It’s the consistency that matters.

The exception to the rule:

There’s always one, right? If you have a food sensitivity or food allergy it is best to avoid those foods all the time. Do not cheat with those. Cheat with something else. For some this can be a life or death thing (i.e. an anaphylactic allergy or celiac disease). 

I think this is an important concept as we all can be consumed by the information we see in the media and from health gurus telling us to “eat this” and “don’t eat that.” We have to remember, they have an agenda – it’s to sell books, get ratings, and generally be as polarizing as possible. That’s what gets attention and sometimes the information is lost. 

Twice Baked Cauliflower

As the air cools, I can’t help but think of yummy comfort food. You’ve heard me say it before, “I’m a casserole addict.” I love them. I think they’re easy and leave leftovers so this momma doesn’t have to think of something new for dinner every night. However, as you probably know I want them to be healthy and for us that means not being loaded with starches like potatoes and pasta. This recipe is from my mom who saw it on pinterest.com and it fulfills my health request. Good ole cauliflower…we love the stuff and you may remember a couple posts here and here(link pizza crust and bread)with some of the more creative ways to use it. It is often used to replace other starches. For example, some people make mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes or riced cauliflower in place of rice. So, why not twice baked cauliflower! It’s delicious, hearty and just hits the spot on a cool evening! We serve it with whatever protein is on the menu. Enjoy!

Twice Baked Cauliflower
(Makes 6-8 servings; recipe adapted slightly from The Low Carb Gourmet.)

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower
4 oz. cream cheese (do not use fat free)
½ cup sour cream (I used Greek yogurt) (do not use fat free)
¼ cup minced green onions
Fresh chives to taste, diced
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (if you only have finely grated Parmesan, use a bit less)
6 slices bacon, cooked until very crisp, fat blotted with a paper towel and then crumbled
1cup sharp cheddar cheese (do not use fat free)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Cut out stem and core from cauliflower, and cut into small pieces. Cook in large pot of boiling salted water until cauliflower is tender, but not overly soft. Drain well and mash with potato masher, leaving some chunks. Mix in cream cheese, sour cream (or Greek yogurt if using it instead), green onion, chives, Parmesan, and 3/4 of the crumbled bacon.

Spread evenly in a medium-sized glass casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and reserved bacon. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

The Road To Chronic Disease

It’s been a while since we posted something. Dr. Carrie and Dr. Court had their first baby eight weeks ago and we’ve been playing catch-up ever since! Here’s an infographic to get things started again!

 

2012 in review – Thanks for reading!!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 97,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.