How Do Hearts Get Broken?

Or, in other words, why is there so much heart disease? After all, we have lots of Cardiologists, and plenty of drugs, and people are taking blood thinners and cutting their cholesterol.

If you know my practice, you know I don’t treat disease, but I treat the function of the body, which is real prevention. So, I want to help my patients to avoid heart disease. The emotional heartbreaks are bad enough, but usually they don’t kill us!

Natural doctors consider much of heart disease to be deficiency disease. Beriberi is a disease that is said to hardly exist in the U.S. But what if there is hidden Beriberi deficiency? Bread products are enriched with synthetic Thiamine (Vitamin B1), so isn’t that enough? Take a look at the symptoms of Beriberi. The heart stops beating regularly, burning sensations and tingling develops in the extremities, as well as loss of sensation and numbness. Heart failure follows, and autopsies reveal degeneration of nerve fibers and muscle. That is what a nutritional deficiency can dol

The other thing that can go wrong with a heart is if there is insufficient nerve conductivity. The heartbeat is basically caused by an electrical impulse. What helps the heart nerve (called the Bundle of Hiss) to work well? B vitamins.  

When I have treated heart arrhythmias, I don’t treat the disease, I improve the function of the nerve flow to the heart, using natural B vitamins. Hawthorn, on the herbal side, is also excellent for healthy heart function.

If enough muscle cells in the heart are strong enough to contract, and the nerve messages are flowing to the heart, the heart is going to be healthy.

The other key factor is the blood flow to the heart. Arteries flow away from the heart and veins flow back to the heart. Keeping the arteries clear is not a matter of lowering cholesterol. Cholesterol is the bandage. Inflammation is the wound. The body puts cholesterol over inflammation to protect the arterial wall. Treat the wound (inflammation) and a thick bandage is not needed.

Sugar, white flour, chemicals and toxins cause inflammation. So, a whole food diet is heart-protective. And other B vitamins, like Folic Acid and B12, may be protective against heart disease, based on their ability to reduce C-reactive protein levels. CRP is a marker for inflammation in the body. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19736473

This tells us that heart disease is far more preventable than current medical practice leads us to believe. If heart disease runs in your family, you don’t have to be victim, but you have life-style choices to make.

Don’t turn to grains for B vitamins, unless you are grinding fresh grains yourself. B vitamins are quickly lost when flour is milled, and the synthetic B’s used to enrich flour products will not protect you.  You need the food source B’s found in wheat germ, Brewers yeast, brown rice, molasses, liver and other muscle meat. Supplementation is possible, but you must find food source B’s to get any real benefit for your heart, adrenals, nervous system and liver.

Yes, B’s are vital for so many functions in the body, and that is one reason why so many hearts are getting broken since we started eating processed foods. Our standard food supply will not sustain a level of health that ensures long and disease-free lives.

If you have any concern about your heart, or you have fatigue, insomnia, high-stress levels, anxiety, or other symptoms of B vitamin deficiency, email or call us and get some help. Living the life you want may mean finding out what your body needs, just to keep up with you. Staying strong is not just about exercise. It is also about getting the vital nutrients to their destination in the cells, pushed along with every mighty beat of your heart.

Homemade Strawberry Jam With Stevia

Paleo Strawberry Jam Recipe

Yield: 1 cup (16 Tbsp.)
Ingredients

• 1 lb. whole organic strawberries (about 3 cups)
• 1 Tbsp. organic lemon juice
• 8-10 drops liquid stevia extract (to taste)
• 2 tsp. Great Lakes gelatin

Preparation

• Remove strawberry leaves and stem. Roughly chop.
• Add strawberries, lemon juice and stevia to a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Bring the mixture to boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring.
• Once the strawberries are soft, mash to achieve your desired consistency.Remove the pan from the heat, sprinkle the gelatin over the strawberry mixture and stir until well combined.
• Transfer to a canning jar and allow the cool. Once cool, place the lid on the jar and refrigerate. Makes about 1 cup of jam (16 Tbsp).

Nutrition Information Per Serving

10 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 g monounsaturated fat, 0 g polyunsaturated fat, 2 g carbohydrate, 1 g sugar, 1 g fiber, 0 g protein

From Healthy Gourmet.com

The Sleep/Weight Loss Connection

Well, if it seems that everything these days makes you fat, you can add one more lifestyle factor. Too little sleep is associated with weight gain. That can mean that you don’t spend enough time in the sack, or it can mean that the time you spend is not giving you enough restful sleep.

I think of sleep as a way for the body to recharge its batteries and do some housecleaning. We know that the organs like liver detoxify in the middle of the night, and cortisol levels may rise as blood sugar drops. These behind-the-scenes functions can cause wakefulness if your adrenals are weak or your liver over-burdened, or your blood sugar is too high or low.

So, if you are waking up and not able to go back to sleep, consider that a sign that you need a sort out regarding your body.

If you are just burning the midnight oil, or unable to tear yourself away from some interesting activity, try setting an alarm clock to make yourself go to bed! Then follow the routine and get yourself to bed earlier for a couple of weeks and see how you feel. Don’t be surprised if you are less moody, less forgetful, look better and hear comments from family and friends that you seem in a better mood.

So many of us are sleep deprived, that we forget what it is like to really be rested. And the body needs plenty of sleep for adrenal function. So, sleep too little and your cortisol levels rise, which makes your body think there is danger around. It will then hold on to fat as a protective mechanism. In the past, danger often meant that food got scarce, so fat was a cushion against starvation. In these days of over-abundance of food for many, there is no danger, but our bodies have not caught up with our modern lifestyles.

So, to placate your ancestral heritage, go to bed before 11 pm or even earlier, if you must rise at dawn, and catch up on sleep whenever you miss a full night. Taking a beauty nap is also a weight loss nap. You might be able to sleep yourself thin, as long as you get plenty of moderate exercise when you are awake. Studies show that humans actually sleep nine hours, away from electric light stimulation. Keep your bedroom dark and that may help your hormones that influence sleep. http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep-loss?page=2

Don’t eat carbs or sweets after dinner, to keep your blood sugar from plummeting during the night. Try a little good fat like butter or nut butter, with some protein or veggies. There are many sleep aids, such as herbal preparations, which can calm the body to sleep. California Poppy, Valerian, Passion Flower, and Kava are a few of them. Adrenal supplements taken during the day may help, as well as a combination of calcium and magnesium for the nervous system. Get your thyroid checked if you have trouble sleeping and experience palpitations when you lie down to rest.

Children play hard and sleep hard. We can take a lesson. Good sleep is not a luxury. It is a necessity for health and longevity. And now you know the added bonus that it helps you to lose weight.

If sleep is a problem for you, don't walk around bleary-eyed. Let's fix it by finding out what is keeping you awake and using natural medicine to correct it. Email me or come in for a consultation. You can be better rested-and slimmer.

Heartburn-That Acid Stomach Feeling and What To Do About It

If your Medical Doctor has told you that you suffer from Gastric Reflux (GERD) realize that digestion is not something that was well taught at medical school.

Most MD’s think the problem is too much (hyperacidity) stomach acid. But most often the problem is actually not enough acid (hypoacidity.)

Americans spend more than $13 billion on acid stopping drugs each year. This expense might be justified if antacid drugs were actually curing heartburn and GERD. But just the opposite is true. Not only do these drugs fail to treat GERD, they will make the underlying condition worse.

Tums and other over-the-counter or prescription medications do work, and they do treat the symptoms. But they do no treat the cause. Stopping digestion, by lowering acid even more, is not the answer. When you lower acid even more, and undigested food hits your intestine, that creates a burden to your guts that sets you up for candida formation and leaky gut. That means you have the wrong kind of gut bacteria growing out of control and undigested proteins and other food components are transferring across the gut wall into the blood. This is a common cause of allergies, inflammation, acne, rosacea, skin rashes, and a compromised immune system.

Improving the stomach acid response, and improving digestion, makes your stomach happy, relieves symptoms, and is very important for your over-all health.

So, if you suffer from acid reflux or heartburn, reach for hydrochloric acid tablets and digestive enzymes. Take a couple of each with each meal and see what happens. If you still suffer with digestive discomfort, let me know. Rarely there is more of a sort-out needed. But most often you will find your digestion greatly improved.

As people age, they lose more stomach acid, although that may be because the standard American diet is a great burden on digestion. Avoid combining fruit with protein, eliminate sugar, coffee, alcohol and breads and pastas for a few days, and see what happens with your digestion.

Lightly steamed vegetables are good for your digestive tract. Chew animal proteins well and don’t drink too much water with your meals. And don’t drink anything BUT water with your meals, and see how that affects your digestion.

Your life-line, the route for getting nutrients to your blood and cells. is through your digestive tract. Most people would not pour Kool-Aid into the gas tank of their car, but they may think nothing of pouring garbage into their mouths.

Naturopaths are very well trained to treat the entire digestive process because it is one of the vital keys to long-term health and strong immunity, feeling great and looking the best you can. It also will help you to lose weight.

If your stomach bothers you at all, come see us. Don’t suffer, but get the root problem fixed.