Why You Shouldn’t Exercise

Imagine a health practitioner telling you not to exercise!  I cannot count the number of patients who tell me that they know they should be exercising more, but they just don’t make the time, don’t like it or have a health concern about the exertion. So, exercise becomes another stressor in their lives. They know they should exercise, and they may feel guilty because they don’t.

About half of adult Americans over age 18 exercise three or more times per week. http://www.statisticbrain.com/percent-of-americans-who-exercise-regularly/  In cold weather locations that statistic may drop lower as the temperature drops.  60% of Americans have jobs that require them to sit most of the day.

Some good news is that many people in sedentary jobs are getting more exercise. http://www.askmen.com/news/sports/people-with-sedentary-jobs-get-more-exercise-says-study.html  But if you are hitting the gym after work, you may not be helping your self as much as you think.

Working out, by weight lifting, cardio, biking or other specific types of exercise is only part of the picture. Men, in particular, may be able to lose weight by increasing exercise. But women and older men will find their weight climbing if they rely on exercise alone. Considering the amount of obesity these days, more exercise is not the answer.

Instead of trying to carve out time to fit in a trip to the gym, consider just getting more movement throughout the day. There are a number of movements you can incorporate at your desk. Check these out http://greatist.com/fitness/deskercise-33-ways-exercise-work The point is to get your body moving.

Good health is about blood and nutrients moving through the systems and reaching every cell. Then waste products need to be transferred through the detoxification channels for elimination. Think of your body like a city. Food has to reach distribution locations and garbage must be picked up and disposed of. Stop or inhibit either inflow or outflow channel and protest, riots, revolutions, and deaths will occur.

Symptoms in the body that you may be ignoring daily are protests from your internal “citizens”. Ignore them and they become riots, which is the first line of illness or disability. Revolution occurs when serious disease sets in and will lead to cellular deaths, and eventually may bring down an entire organ, system or the body itself.

So, next time you grab a coffee and head to the gym, stop for fast food, or have a few drinks with friends, think about the needs of your citizen cells. Exercise does provide much-needed training of muscles and improves circulation of blood and lymph (the white blood cell/immune protection system). But if you are not eating enough healthy nutrients, you are placing a greater demand on the body, which may deepen deficiencies. Every single thing your body inhales, digests, or absorbs through the skin is either beneficial, neutral or toxic.

Life is a marathon event, and training for it does involve keeping muscles strong and keeping joints flexible. But concentrate on your daily food first, get up and get moving throughout the day second. Add specific exercises third. Achieve an ideal weight for your body, but don’t make the mistake of thinking you can do that by working out alone. The number of calories burned with exercise is usually not enough to cause significant burning of excess body fat.

What is your ideal weight? The goal to reach for is not numbers on a scale, but a waistline smaller than your hips. If you are holding excess weight at your waist, consider a blood sugar stabilizing program, and adrenal/hormone supplements. The Japanese government has imposed new laws that penalize people who do not meet the guidelines for waist to hip ratio determined to minimize risk for Diabetes Type 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?_r=0  Sugar dis-metabolism in diabetics is also a risk factor for cancer and heart disease and is the real cause of obesity

My dad was often asked what kind of exercise he did to maintain his trim figure throughout his elderly years. His answer, “I push myself away from the table.” Great training advice for all of us. 

Fighting That Afternoon Slump?

You know, right around three or four p.m. when you can barely keep your eyes open. You just run out of juice. And you want coffee, sweets or a shot of Red Bull just to keep going.

Since coffee at that hour may interfere with nighttime rest, sweets are not a good solution, and you know that Red Bull is not healthy, what can you do to get through your day? And how can you avoid eating the wrong snacks, when you are tired and your willpower is low?

First of all, how much sleep are you getting? If you are running on empty in the sleep department, your body will give out when it needs more rest.  So, listen to the signals.  If you routinely burn the midnight oil and stay up until one-two a.m. you are doing yourself a serious disservice, unless you can sleep ‘til noon. For the vast majority of us the body needs at least seven hours of sleep per night, and some need more. The consequences of insufficient sleep go beyond the afternoon yawns. Weight gain, lowered metabolic rate and risk of more serious disease states are all possible. http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/consequences

This varies from person to person, but sleep deprivation is not a good way to catch up on your work. You will most often find that you don’t perform as well, drive as smartly, or act pleasantly, when you are sleep deprived. So, hit the sack earlier on a gradient. Get your adrenals checked if you routinely stay up and get a second wind. If you cannot go to sleep earlier, seek help. Call the office and make an appointment so that we can get your body resting well.

Secondly, consider what you eat at lunchtime. A carb-ful lunch may spike and then crash your blood sugar. Instead of a sandwich, pasta or pizza, choose salad and protein. Food intolerances may be revealed by how you feel after you eat. If you feel speeded up, drowsy, or lethargic, or have indigestion, you may have an intolerance to a food. If you are eating the same foods every day, it may be a food you eat commonly. I will be writing more about this in upcoming blogs. I have seen some dramatic improvements in health and well-being when a food intolerance is identified and the offending food omitted.

Third, even if you are eating well, if you are even a bit over your ideal weight chances are your metabolism and blood sugar are out of synch. A blood sugar balance program can put you on the right path and help you find out how energetic you can feel when you are eating correctly for your metabolism. You always hear people talking about eating for health, such as veggies and whole foods. These days there is more to it than that. You have to eat so that you don’t release too much insulin, causing the cells of the body to become resistant to the constant high levels of insulin. Insulin is the door opener to the cells to allow fuel (sugar in the blood) to enter. How do you know if your blood sugar is out of balance? Afternoon slump is one sign. And if your waist is bigger than your hips, that is another sign. Get help. Estimates that up to 30% of the population has Diabetes.https://www.diabeteseducator.org/news/aade-blog/aade-blog-details/karen-kemmis-pt-dpt-ms-cde-faade/2017/07/26/the-2017-national-diabetes-statistics-report-is-here

And many more are pre-Diabetic. Many people can be helped so that their Diabetes is arrested and their pancreas repairs. Pre-Diabetics don’t have to progress to a disease state. Diabetes Type II is one of the most easily controlled diseases, but it does take a firm plan and changes in your eating.

Fourth is being significantly overweight. An overweight body is a body that is burdened by the excess pounds that require miles of extra blood vessels and a strain on the muscles and tendons to manage the extra pounds. A pick-up truck is not built to carry the load that an 18-wheeler can handle. And our bodies are supposed to be like small trucks, not the big rigs. It is the crapo-hydrates that pile on the pounds. No one gains weight on greens, broccoli and fish. And when your body needs the extra nutrients to make the miles of new blood vessels and support the tendons and joints you can get hungry. And the more crapo-hydrates eaten, instead of healthy foods, the more hungry a person can become. It is a Merry-go-round ride of hunger, junk food and fatigue. The only answer is to get off. But don’t jump. Stop the Merry-go-round first, by doing a Detox/cleanse. Not only do people lose weight but they report feeling better than they have in years during and after the cleanse. And there is plenty of food allowed, so no hunger.

Find out what your particular needs are and get a game plan to help your body feel energetic all day long. If you are fighting that afternoon slump, we can help. Ask yourself if you really think it will get better if you don’t change something you are doing. Call the office to book. And meanwhile try some of our herbal supplements to give you a natural boost that still allows you to sleep at night.

Keeping Men Strong- June Special

I can’t tell you how many times I hear a female patient tell me that she is worried about her man’s health, but she can’t get him to take care of himself.

Of course, there are exceptions.  Some men are working out and eating a healthy diet. But many are over-weight, stressed from work, and counting on the thing that has always worked before- their strength and ability to just push through.

When that doesn’t work, the first urge may be to push through harder. If that fails there may be some mood issues, like irritability or depression. Hormones rule the body, and the adrenals are where testosterone, adrenaline and cortisol are made.

Just pushing through is a bit like driving your car with a punctured tire. You don't know how long before it shreds or blows, and it won't fix itself.

Testosterone determines the sexual characteristics and gives muscle mass and strength. Adrenaline kicks in with excitement or fear. Cortisol is the hormone that gets us up and out the door in the morning, when levels should be highest. High cortisol at night keeps the body awake. When cortisol is released during a period of stress (freeway driving, for example) but is not used up by physical activity (sitting in your car, then sitting at a desk all day) then cortisol may cause more fat deposits around the belly.

All of these hormones can be disrupted by: 1) andropause/aging 2) weight gain because fat cells produce more estrogen 3) high stress, which depletes cortisol 4) environmental toxins such as plastics and soy products, which are estrogenic 5) high carb and sugar diet, which causes yo-yo blood sugar. When there is too much sugar in the blood, the body signals the release of insulin from the pancreas. The job of insulin is to carry the sugar into the cells or send it to the liver. Continuous release of insulin makes the cells begin to resist the influence of insulin. This is the beginning of Type II Diabetes. The low fat, high carb and sugar diet of the past few decades have given us an epidemic of Diabetes.

The new epidemic caused by low fat, high carb and sugar diet is Alzheimer’s, which is now being called Diabetes Type III. High carbs and sugar also produce inflammation, which is turning out to be the highest risk factor for heart attacks.

The good news is that men have a great advantage over women in addressing these issues. Due to their greater muscle mass, which gives men a faster metabolism, just cutting down on the carbs, snacks and sugar often gives a dramatic result in a short amount of time.

The trick then becomes adopting a healthy long-term lift style so that bad habits don’t creep back in. Eating more healthy fats can reduce the urge to snack in the evening. A protein shake with fruit and coconut oil after dinner works for many guys. With long summer days, going for a walk in the evening can get you out of the house and away from the refrigerator and bags of chips.

Prostate problems, belly fat, heart disease, low libido, high blood pressure, Diabetes, GERD and other “diseases of modern civilization” are not normal or inevitable. They are all preventable or reversible with the right natural approach. This is a case when wisdom becomes power and knowing how to manage a body takes wisdom, when powering through no longer works.

To celebrate Father’s Day, we are offering hormone testing, plus body and nutritional analysis, for men. Find out your testosterone, estrogen and cortisol levels. If your hormones are out of balance, natural medicine and herbal medicine can restore them to normal levels, boost metabolism, and give guys back their stronger selves.  

The June Special is Male Saliva Hormone testing plus consultation for $200, 30% off the regular price. Saliva testing tells us what hormones are left, after they have interacted at a cellular level. Blood tests tell us about the presence of hormones in the blood. But hormones must lock onto the cells, in order to carry their message.

Also in June, a new male patient consultation, without Saliva Testing, is $100, $35 off the regular price. If you have been thinking about getting on top of your health, June is a great time to do that!

Adrenals can be repaired, testosterone can be boosted, excess estrogen can be cleared out, and blood sugar can be stabilized, all without drugs. GERD is easily remedied and stress levels can be dramatically improved with herbs like Kava. Adrenals respond beautifully to nutritional medicine, weight drops off with dietary changes and detoxification and blood sugar can stabilize. We can use herbal preparations like Tribulus, which boosts testosterone in men, or we can use topical creams for Testosterone or DHEA. DHEA is another adrenal hormone that peaks at 18 and declines with age.

Men of any age can be strong, and healthy, with the right game plan.