obesity Archives - Hudson Valley Chiropractic & Wellness

Low carb: the solution for lasting weight loss & better health

February 17, 2016 by drchrista Leave a Comment

Low carb diets seem to carry some sort of undeserved apprehension lately, so it was really great to see this article making the rounds on social media this week. Of course, this probably has to do with the fact that “low-carb” and Atkins have unfortunately become synonymous- like using a “Kleenex” instead of a tissue and “Chapstick” as opposed to lip balm. Let’s clear that up right here and now- Atkin’s is a type of low carb diet, but not all low carb diets are Atkin’s. My theory is that the apprehension comes about because most of us know someone who lost a ton of weight on Atkin’s- then gained it all back when they resumed eating “normally” again. The implied assumption then, is that Atkin’s (and by extension all low-carb diets) doesn’t work. This is a logical fallacy and is just plain wrong.

Let’s turn it around for a moment and make the opposite assumption. If eating “normally” is what caused a person to gain excess weight in the first place, doesn’t it make more sense that their return to “normal” eating after a low carb diet is a much better reason for why they gained that weight again?

Obesity rates decline with adoption of high fat, low carb diets

Emerging research is corroborating this assumption. The meteoric rise in obesity rates seems to originate in the late 70s- right around the time that policy recommendations were being implemented that vilified cholesterol, saturated foods and animal products. The 80s were the heyday of the low-fat craze, with new “fat-free” Frankenfoods being developed at an unprecedented rate. Obesity has continued to skyrocket despite our adoption of these policies and low-fat foods. Yet, in Sweden, up to 23% of the population embraces a high fat, low carb diet. And while obesity rates continue to climb steadily elsewhere in the world, Sweden is actual seeing a decline in their obesity rate.

High fat, low carb diets produce less insulin; body fat storage

What we know about the biochemical mechanism underlying this phenomenon also reinforces low carb diets as the answer to lasting weight loss and better overall health. Insulin is a hormone that is released in the presence of carbohydrate and to a lesser extent, protein. (Notice that fat does not provoke an insulin release.) Insulin’s job is to lower blood sugar. It does this in two ways. First, by triggering uptake of digested carbohydrates (glucose) into the cells to be made into energy to fuel them. But it also acts as a storage hormone, causing any excess sugars to be cleared from the blood and stored in the fat tissue as triglycerides for later use. This where many folks run into problems losing weight. They overeat carbohydrates, keeping insulin high and promoting storage of any excess carbohydrates and even calories, as fat. A high fat, low carb diet by contrast reduces the need for insulin. In the short term, this means less excess insulin to promote fat storage. Long-term, less insulin means less stimulus for the development of insulin resistance & type 2 diabetes.

Fat does not cause clogged arteries

The reputation of low carb diets also suffers from mistakenly assuming that saturated fats and cholesterol clog arteries. While it’s true that cholesterol is the main constituent of the arterial plaques, that doesn’t meant cholesterol causes the plaque. The analogy I use is of spackle. You don’t blame the hole in the wall on the spackle just because it is there plugging the hole. The same goes for cholesterol, which did not cause the “hole” in the artery. This damage is more likely to come from elevated blood sugar, elevated insulin or even turbulent blood flow in an area due to poor mobility and a sedentary lifestyle.

Low carb diets can be sustainable & healthy

We are left with the real culprit- the return to so-called “normal eating.” If people return to anything that approximates the Standard American Diet- they are likely returning to a diet full of bread, pasta, and other processed foods. I’ve worked with many patients who think they ‘eat healthy.’ When I investigate this further, they eat oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and often pasta for dinner. They’ve assumed that because their meals were “low-fat” they were healthy. Meanwhile, what they actually ate were carbs, carbs and more carbs. No vegetables, certainly nothing with much color, and they’ve insured that insulin level spiked several times throughout that day (with resultant plunges as well). The S.A.D. averages over 300g of carbohydrate per day. The health benefits of “low-carb” can start with carbohydrate levels as high as 100-150g/day. Atkin’s and ketogenic diets, also known as ‘very low carb’ are often under 75g of carbohydrate/day. If one’s primary carbohydrate sources are from vegetables instead of processed grain products, it can be very easy to sustain a healthy diet of 100-150g/day of carbohydrate. Some can even get by on less by including increased levels of high quality fats in their diet. By finding a healthy level of carbohydrates that works for you, you can achieve lasting weight loss while improving your health!

Hudson Valley: Help for your hypothyroid

January 11, 2016 by drchrista 1 Comment

Do these symptoms of a hypothyroid sound all too familiar? You’re tired all of the time. You’re hair is thinning or falling out and you don’t know how to make it stop. Despite dieting carefully and watching what you eat, you seem to continue to gain weight- and can’t ever get it off. You absolutely cannot go without a pair of big thick wool socks in the winter because your feet are cold all of the time. You experience brain fog that takes two or three cups of coffee to ‘fix’ and you wonder if that prescription anti-depressant is helping with that at all.

If you’re struggling with hypothyroidism, you’re not alone. And I want you to know that you’ve come to the right place. I work with patients like you everyday. I help them find relief from their hypothyroid symptoms beyond medication.

You see, there’s a couple of important things you need to know about hypothyroidism in order to get real relief from your symptoms.

You need more than just TSH measured to assess symptoms of a hypothyroid.

TSH simply measures the brain’s ability to stimulate the thyroid gland. However, to truly know what is causing an under-functioning thyroid, a full thyroid panel must be done and considered, including TSH, Total T4, Total T3, Free T4, Free T3, T3 Uptake, Reverse T3 and TPO antibodies. It is totally possible to have ‘normal’ TSH and still have hypothyroid symptoms! If T4 is normal for example, the brain will think there is plenty of thyroid hormone and not make as much TSH. But if there is inflammation in the body, which can inhibit the conversion of T4 to the active form T3, then not enough T3 can get into the cells where it has it’s effect. Thus, leading to signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, even though TSH and T4 are within normal ranges!

80% of hypothyroid cases in the U.S. are attributable to Hashimoto’s hypothyroid

Many cases of hypothyroidism in the U.S. are actually the result of an autoimmune disease that attacks and destroys the cells of thyroid gland. This results in a decreased ability to produce adequate thyroid hormone over time. These folks often have to keep increasing their dose of thyroid medication in order to feel normal. In others, the right dose for them seems to be all over the map, fluctuating frequently. The only way to confirm Hashimoto’s is to do a blood test for antibodies to the thyroid gland. Thyroid peroxidase antibodies are the most common, but Thyroglobulin antibodies may be present too.

Cases of Hashimoto’s hypothyroid are autoimmune diseases- the immune system needs to be addressed too!

The sad fact is that many hypothyroid patients are giving prescriptions for replacement hormone and told that’s it; that’s all they can do and they will be on the medications for life. However, there is so much more that can be done! Implementing an anti-inflammatory diet and beginning to balance the immune system can retard it’s attacks on the thyroid gland. Focusing on a nutritious diet that decreases the inflammation can also help with stubborn weight loss and even help to regrow thinning hair. More importantly, correcting the immune system imbalance early can help prevent other autoimmune disease from developing in the future.

If you’d like to read some indepth articles I’ve written about hypothyroid and Hashimoto’s, go here, here and here. You can also check out this short video.

If you live in the Hudson Valley, have hypothyroidism and want to learn about holistic solutions for your symptoms, I invite you to call my office and learn more about how I can help you. I offer a risk-free, complimentary 15 minute consultation so you learn about how I can help you. Call me today at 845-687-6387.

Fat Loss Simplified!

December 28, 2015 by drchrista Leave a Comment

This time of year, many people aspire to lose weight and get in shape in the coming year. When they say “lose weight,” almost all of us mean fat loss. Unfortunately, there is so much conflicting and just plain wrong information out there, that most people will start a program, see little if any results, and give up before February rolls around. So how do you break the cycle and find a leaner, fitter you?

Fat loss is 80% diet. If you’re killing yourself with an hour a day on the treadmill or elliptical, then coming home and diving into pile of junk food because ‘you earned it,’ then the point is being missed. You’ve probably seen the popular meme “you can’t out run a bad diet.” It’s true. You can drop 10 or 15 pounds and still have terrible blood lipid or sugar numbers because of what you are eating. Isn’t the whole point of doing all that exercise in the first place to be healthier?
Instead of calories in, think about calories stored. This is a concept Mark Sisson talks about on his blog, Mark’s Daily Apple. Part of the problem with trying to increase your caloric expenditure (exercising) while simultaneously decreasing your caloric intake (dieting) is that this sends signals to the body that it is in danger. In the interest of your survival, several hormonal mechanisms are activated. First, cortisol is raised to increase your blood sugar levels. If you don’t immediately use this sugar for energy, it’s then stored as fat, under the influence of insulin. The hypothalamus, a control center in your brain, will send out signals to down-regulate (decrease) your metabolism, while simultaneously increasing your appetite in order to save energy and ensure your continued survival. So instead of trying to decrease your calories, to optimize for fat loss, focus on feeding your body high quality, nutrient dense foods like meat, fish, fowl, eggs, plenty of vegetables, a few fruits, nuts and seeds. (They contain fewer calories then processed foods anyway.) Also, make sure you get plenty of high quality fat in your diet. Fat DOES NOT make you fat! Repeat after me: FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT! Fat is the only macronutrient that does not provoke an insulin release when digested. Carbohydrates do (and proteins to a lesser extent) and the more processed the carbohydrates, the more insulin is secreted. Under the influence of insulin, any excess carbohydrates in the body are stored for later use as fat. This was a very handy adaptation when our species was evolving and living as hunter-gatherers. It helped us survive in times of famine and food scarcity. Unfortunately, these days, with food always being plentiful, we just keep eating- particularly carbs and processed foods- and never signal to our bodies to dip into those stored fats. So, if you are currently overweight and trying to lose fat, you will have better success by limiting carbohydrate intake to just vegetables and increasing your intake of high-quality dietary fats in order to encourage your body to use fat as its primary fuel source. (High quality fats include coconut oil, grass-fed butter and ghee, animal fats from pastured & grassfed animals, occasional use of pure extra virgin olive oil, avocado or walnut oils. Do NOT increase consumption of processed trans and polyunsaturated fats like corn, soybean, canola or vegetable oils. These introduce dangerous free radicals into the body that actually make atherosclerosis worse! Eliminate them at all costs!)
Focus on aerobic exercise. During aerobic exercise, we are able to take in enough oxygen to preferentially burn fat for fuel, the holy grail for fat loss. This discovery is what lead to the ‘aerobics’ craze in the 80s. (Remember Jane Fonda and all that Lyrca?) The thing is, we’ve gotten so focused now on “burning off” all those offending calories that we’ve missed what constitutes ‘aerobic exercise.’ We think “no pain, no gain” (another terrible T-shirt from the 80s) and work harder. Except once you’re working at pace where you can no longer breath through your nose easily, you’ve exceeded this aerobic threshold. Said another way, you are no longer burning fat. Regular old walking is great aerobic exercise for fat loss. If you’re an endurance athlete, get a heart rate monitor and use the Maffetone method to calculate your aerobic threshold and then train only below that heart rate until you see fat loss.
Strength train. The rate of your metabolism is primarily determined by the amount of lean muscle mass you have. More lean muscle tissue = a speeder metabolism. Also, we have some good data that shows that strength training and building muscle helps ‘partition’ your weight loss to make sure that it comes preferentially from fat tissue instead of muscle tissue. If you’ve experienced the pain of yo-yo dieting- where you lost the weight only to gain it back and again (and then some) this is your best strategy to prevent this from ever happening again! By strength training, you will keep your lean muscle tissue and therefore keep your metabolism revved up while getting rid of excess fat tissue. The best strength training to do is to lift heavy a couple of times a week in the big compound lifts like the squat, deadlift, press and pull-up. If you don’t know how to do these lifts safely, please seek qualified instruction from a certified and credential trainer or strength coach. For women, please do not worry about getting bulky from lifting heavy. If you lift heavy, for a short set of 4-6 reps and then give yourself a rest of 3-5 minutes between sets, you will signal increased strength without increased bulk (hypertrophy). Conversely, the best way to increase the size of the muscle is to do light weight and high reps. Also for the ladies, it is so empowering to lift heavy and see how strong and capable your body is! Strength training is a veritable fountain of youth for both men and women as its keeps joints strong and healthy while keeping metabolism high so as to prevent those extra pounds from creeping on each year.
Exercise really hard on occasion. Once you’ve got all that down- eating an appropriate diet, walking or slow running (or whatever exercise method floats your boat) and strength training, then its time to add in a few bouts of sprinting. This only needs to be and should only be done 1-2 times a week and doesn’t have to be very long. One study found that women who sprinted hard on a bicycle for 8 seconds, followed by 12 seconds of rest for a total of 20 minutes, over 15 weeks, had lost 3 times as much body fat as their counterparts who cycled at a steady pace for 40 minutes. (Most of this fat was from their thighs and buttocks too!) Research shows that high intensity interval training has the ability to decrease insulin signaling (decrease fat storage), decrease blood glucose and increase fat oxidation- all in way less time than steady-state cardio. And it doesn’t take much. One or two, short high-intensity session as week is all you need.

So there you have it- 5 simple steps toward obtainable and sustainable fat loss that will also help you become healthier in the process. Sure, there are other ways to lose fat- like crash dieting or becoming a cardio junkie, but those methods ruin your hormone balance and/or increase your level of inflammation and chronic disease risk. And if you’re just going to ruin your health in the end, what’s the point of doing all that hard work in the first place?

If you’d like to start a journey towards losing fat and getting healthier in the coming year, but are unsure about how to start or need help staying on track, you may want to check out the New Year, New You! whole-food based cleanse that I am offering starting in January. You can learn more about the program here.

Celiac disease: What your doctor hasn’t told you

November 24, 2015 by drchrista 3 Comments

It can be difficult to adjust to a gluten-free life after being diagnosed with Celiac disease, especially if the only thing your doctor has told you about your new diagnosis and lifestyle is “don’t eat gluten.” Thankfully, now there are many groups and organizations to help the newly diagnosed find the information they need. There are also many more food choices available in the marketplace and they are more accessible now than ever. Even most large chain grocery stores have a gluten-free section now.

It wasn’t always this way. I remember when my mom was first diagnosed with Celiac disease. There were only one or two organizations providing reliable information. The ‘can have’ and ‘can’t have’ lists changed rapidly, especially regarding certain food additives like ‘modified food starch’ and its ilk. But the worst was the few gluten-free foods available. Pastas and breads made with brown rice flour that tasted like eating sand. I still remember attending a meeting of a local Celiac support group and a woman holding a gluten-free product in her hands, exorting the group “this is not a health food.” That stuck with me.

As I started to study more functional medicine, and learn more about leaky gut- what causes it and how to heal it, and why its such a key part of addressing all autoimmune disease, including Celiac disease- I finally started to understand what this woman meant.

If you have Celiac disease, going gluten-free may be enough to make your GI symptoms go away. You might not feel the bloating or have the constant diarrhea that you experienced before, but that doesn’t mean its enough to heal the damage caused by the Celiac disease in the first place. That’s the part your doctor probably left out. So if you really want to heal- to get to the root cause of the issue- these are a couple things you need to keep in mind.

Other grains can cause cross-reactions of the immune system that still lead to antibody formation.

In fact, its not uncommon to see patients on gluten-free diets develop sensitivities and intolerances to other grains. I’ve seen patients become sensitive to corn, amaranth, tapioca, even rice. In general, when I have a patient with Celiac disease report to me that they are stilling having symptoms of inflammation, even on a gluten-free diet, I have them do a trial elimination of ALL grains right away.

Gluten-free processed foods are no healthier for you than their wheat-laden counterparts.

I’m sure you’ve looked at the ingredients on the package of a gluten-free bread or pasta. (You do still read the ingredients even though its labeled gluten-free, right?) Potato starch and tapioca starch are often used because they have a finer texture than rice flour- which often gives the product that aforementioned ‘sand’ texture. The problem with these starches though, is that they are highly processed- most of the nutrients are processed out and what is left is the pure carbohydrate. This changes the speed at which the carbohydrate is digested and usually leads to a high blood sugar spike afterward. The higher the blood sugar goes, the higher insulin needs to go. Over time, this mechanism leads to insulin-resistance or what many refer to as “pre-diabetes.” Along the way, this increase in insulin may make it harder to maintain your weight, lead to increased cortisol production and belly fat, and cause imbalances in several hormonal pathways. It doesn’t matter that these products are gluten-free. Gluten is a protein; the refined and processed starches in these products are the often the real problem.

Your Celiac diagnosis is the end stage of a long process that has been going on in your body for years.

It is now accepted that gluten-intolerance and its symptoms are better represented by a spectrum. There are folks in the middle who have various negative symptoms when they eat gluten and feel much better when not eating it, but have not yet reached the threshold for a diagnosis of Celiac disease. Current research from Dr. Alessio Fassano’s lab (he’s the guy publishing a bulk of the research on Celiac disease today) suggests that if these people continue to eat gluten despite their reactions to it AND have the gene the express Celiac disease, they will eventually express full-blown Celiac disease. (Note here that even if they don’t have a gene for CD, but for perhaps another autoimmune disease, this gene may be triggered the same way). If you look back at your own health history, its pretty likely that you’ve known something wasn’t right for years before your diagnosis. Chronic depression, severe PMS, chronic diarrhea or stomach upsets, anxiety about eating out or whether there would be a bathroom nearby when you needed it, acne or chronic skin issues, headache or brain fog, unexplained neurological symptoms- you’ve known these things weren’t ‘normal’ but nobody could tell you what they were. Once you were diagnosed with Celiac disease, a lot of those chronic symptoms began to make sense. They were subtle ways your body was telling you something was wrong.

Because this has been a drawn-process, happening over years, true healing is going to take time to work through. And very likely it will take more than just going gluten-free. The damage in your gut has lead to poor nutrient absorption and there may have even been negative compensations that have developed over time in response to the lack of key nutrients. Vitamins and minerals will need to be replaced. They will need to be replaced in a smart and efficient way, not by just taking a multi-vitamin pill and calling it a day.

The best way to go about this is to work with a functional medicine practitioner who understands Celiac disease and will help you find an integrative, whole-body solution to healing. If you’re ready to start the journey to a deeper level of healing and want some experienced guidance, give me a call at 845-687-6387. I work with patients locally in the Hudson Valley region, but I am also available to consult with non-local patients via telephone or Skype.

Not sure if you’re ready to commit yet? That’s OK too- I still want to do what I can to help you.

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How to avoid death by sitting

October 8, 2015 by drchrista Leave a Comment

It’s almost old news now, but sitting is no good for you. Well, let me be more specific- chronic sitting in the same position (usually in a chair) is no good. Just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last couple of years, here’s just of few of the negative impacts of prolonged sitting:

decreased metabolism in the core muscles
increased risk of chronic disease & death even if you exercise
weight gain and obesity
‘chair butt’ (a flat, but wide posterior)
shortened calf muscles
shortened psoas muscle
tucked pelvis
alignment adaptations that can lead to low back pain, knee pain, hip pain or even pelvic floor disorders
chronic neck tightness and headaches

You can also get caught up by reading more here, here and here.

In a nut shell, I’ve joked with many people that as a chiropractor, I have a job because people sit too much. I mean it light-heartedly, but sadly there is a kernel of truth to the joke.

So what to do to be healthier, extend your life and lessen your bill at your local chiro’s office? It may surprise you, but the answer is not to simply stand all day long at work either. Walking work stations utilizing treaddesks have become en vogue recently as well. This is certainly better from a ‘calories burned’ perspective, but it still misses the bigger picture. Kale is a superfood, but if kale is all you ever ate, you’d still end up with a nutrient deficiencies. Same with walking. It has a ton of benefits for your body- you should do a lot of it. But if its the only way you move your body on a daily basis, you’re still going to be deficient. For instance, walking won’t do much for the balance of muscles in the shoulder girdle that need to hang, grip and pull.

I could go on and write a whole big blog post about what you should do instead, but why reinvent the wheel? Katy Bowman has already written the book on the subject- literally. Her newest book, Don’t Just Sit There! is now available in paperback. Use the box below to sign up for my newsletter. You’ll get my free PDF 7 ‘Health’ Foods to Ditch to Lose Weight & Feel Great AND one lucky winner will be chosen to receive a copy of Katy’s book, on me. Giveaway closes on October 31, 2015 at midnight, so sign up today!

Your brain on Movement

August 3, 2015 by drchrista Leave a Comment

Our big, wonderful brains. Arguably what makes us distinct as humans. We like to think that our brains developed in order to give us the ability to think and to create- and therefore give us the advantage that allowed us to develop language, art and civilization.

But this is wrong.

Scientist Daniel Wolpert puts it best: “We have a brain for one reason only: to produce adaptable and complex movements.”

The largest amount of data coming into your brain at any given moment is coming from the musculoskeletal system and the smooth muscle of other organ systems like the digestive system. Mechanoreceptors in every joint, every muscle, every tendon of your body are constantly telling your brain about where your body, and each part of it, is in space, something we call ‘proprioception.”

This information comes in to the primary somatosensory cortex- a strip of the neocortex that runs roughly from the top of your ear to the apex of your skull on both sides. It is organized in a way that it reflects perfectly how the body itself is organized (the part that receives information from the hand is next to the part that receives information from the lower arm) and its weighted according to where we have the most nerve endings/receive the most sensory input (the areas receiving information from the hands, feet, lips and genitalia for example are much bigger than the areas receiving information from the low back or the buttocks.)

Directly in front of the primary somatosensory cortex is the primary motor cortex- it gets the information about where your body is in space from the primary somatosensory cortex and then uses that information to decide which motor pattern to use. In order to reach for a glass of water, your brain needs to first know where your hand, arm, elbow and shoulder are so that it can tell those muscles and joints exactly how much to move and in what directs in order to reach out and grasp that glass of water.

This all happens so quickly, so eloquently, so seamlessly that though we can create robots that can master the game of chess, they can’t move the pieces around the board as deftly as even a child can.

So what does this mean for our brains and brain health?

Well, to begin with, your brain works much like your muscles- if you use them, they get stronger. And if you don’t they get weaker and less useful. As we move, we get stronger (and smarter) because the movement of our bodies and the subsequent firing of neurons that that requires causes the release of a chemical called BDNF- brain derived neurotrophic factor, or as one author put it “Miracle-Gro for the brain.” Its whole purpose is to stimulate growth of brain cells- not just in the parts of the brain most concerned with movement- but throughout the entire organ.

In a formal literature review, researcher Frank W. Booth showed that lack of movement was a factor in over 20 different chronic diseases. But even more poignantly, he wrote in his review “[s]edentary lifestyle is associated with lower cognitive skills.” Further studies showed that cognitive skills do not decline simply because we get older, they decline because we move less.

Not only is movement a key piece of preventing and addressing dementia and Alzheimer’s, but it has also been shown to be as effective as SSRIs in treatment of depression, with longer lasting benefits and less side effects too.

In short, you need to move to have and keep a healthy, keen brain throughout your life.

Exercise is definitely part of this, but it is only a part. We generally think of exercise as any movement we do in order to stay healthy and fit. Movement is broader than this. Movement is anything that changes the loads on your cells and tissues. A simple changing of the load on your muscles will cause a change in the feedback an embedded mechanoreceptor will give the brain about where that muscle is in space. Therefore movement can be as simple as changing the focus of your eyes from near distance to far, getting goosebumps from a chill in the air, getting up from being seated on the floor, or even evacuating your bowels- there is a reason we call it a ‘bowel movement‘ and not a bowel exercise.

Movement should happen throughout that day, all day long, providing plenty of input to the brain and stimulus for new neuronal growth. In contrast, when we spend 8, 10 or 12 hours a day being sedentary, sitting in a chair, and then go to the gym for an hour, we may get enough exercise to keep our waistline from expanding, but we are not getting enough of the movement we really need keep our brains happy and healthy.

The best part about having a movement practice as opposed to ‘exercising’ is that it can be much easier to fit into what is probably already a busy life. Find errands you can do by walking instead of in the car. Growing a vegetable garden can provide more nourishment than than just from the food alone. Moving your positions through the day from standing to sitting on the floor and back again can provide plenty of novel movement and loads for your body. Working in the kitchen to cook can provide a nourishing meal and nourishing movement at the same time. Play with your kids on the playground instead of sitting on the bench and starring at your phone while they play. Walk the dog in the evenings instead of watching another hour of TV. Its not hard: walk, play, crawl, hike, lifting, bend, run, swing, hang- pretty much do anything but sit and watch TV or zone out in front of screen.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. But now, for the sake of your brain health, please get out there and move!

Ancestral Health

August 20, 2014 by drchrista Leave a Comment

We have more access to more information about health and disease than at any other period of human history and yet, we are arguably the most unhealthy we have ever been.

Here in the U.S., the sky-rocketing rates of obesity are a daily news story. Rates of chronic illness like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and autoimmune disease are increasing at alarming rates. Diseases we thought only happened in aging adults are occurring in younger children.

Ironic isn’t?

If you’re old enough, you may remember a time when obesity was rare; when cancer was rare and only your rapidly aging grandpa has developed ‘diabeetus.’ So what happened? What has caused such a profound change in our health?

There are many answers to that question and as of yet, no proven smoking gun. Searching through the myriad of possibilities would take time we don’t have. What we need is a framework for understanding what effects health and gives us a blueprint to search for the place where we seem to have gone off the map.

The concept of ancestral health is that framework.

We think that cavemen lived ‘short, brutish’ lives, but archeology says that is not really the whole story. Sure, life expectancy was low, but that was a population average, mostly skewed because childbirth was such a dicey proposition. There were plenty of early humans who survived well into old age if they managed to survive disease epidemics, broken bones or becoming a meal for another creature. The point is, even if they made it to past all those hurdles, obesity heart disease and poor health weren’t destined for them simply by virtue of having reached that age.

From what archeology studies tell us, hunter-gatherers were lean, well-built with little tooth decay and no need for orthodontics. By studying modern hunter-gatherer tribes, we have inferred that they spent an average of 20 hours a week engaged in activities necessary for survival, spending the rest of their free time visiting relatives, creating art, or engaged in other leisure activities.

Can you imagine? All your needs met in the space of a part-time job? Very little stress and plenty of time to kick back, relax and enjoy life. No running yourself ragged, running in literal circles, going to gym to keep fit. No having to watch every last piece of food you ate in order to stay trim. No smartphone constantly ringing with requests from people who need something from you…right now! Growing old gracefully, with a strong, supple body. Getting plenty of restful sleep each and every night. Unburdened joy. Not sounding so bad, eh?

So how do this relate to health?

Well I’m glad you asked because you see, we have those same bodies. Bodies that want to be lean and fit and healthy and strong. It is our genetic potential and can be our genetic reality under the right circumstances. The problem is that we have changed the rules of the game much faster than our ancient bodies can keep up with and adapt sufficiently to. Since World War II, we have introduced 50,000 novel chemicals into our environment. We haven’t studied the long-term safety of most of these, let alone the combinations of them that we are exposed to daily. GMOs in our food supply, animals raised on grain instead of grass, pharmaceutical drugs, indoor lighting, smartphones, tablets and laptops, constant stress, automobiles- all are things that are completely new to humans beings in the last 100 or so years. All are interacting in ways that eroding our health.

The sad fact is that many of us don’t eat real food anymore. Many of us spend hours a day only exercising the tiny muscles in our hands while sitting on the biggest muscles of our hips and thighs. This is not how our bodies were designed to function and it is slowly killing us.

Using this framework, I make recommendations to my patients to get their current reality to be more congruent with their ancient genetics. Why? Because when these two are aligned, improved health is often the outcome. I may encourage patients to eat a more whole food diet, or to sleep in pattern that aligned with their brain’s ingrained circadian rhythms or to move and exercise in way that builds so-called ‘functional movement’ patterns. In doing so, we honor the innate wisdom of our bodies and their desire to be healthy.

Why you should ditch your diet

January 8, 2014 by drchrista 1 Comment

It’s January 8, 2014 already. Are you still on the straight and narrow, following your resolutions to get leaner and meaner this year? Or have you given up and gone back to your old habits already?

If you resolved to eat better this year, what happened? Wait, wait don’t tell me. You got too hungry. At some point your stomach was growling, your blood sugar was dropping and you said, ‘to heck with it, I need to eat, now!’

And that is exactly why diets don’t work.

I’m here to tell you, you’ve been sold a wrong bill of goods. If you’ve been told you just need to “eat less and exercise more,” and have done just that, to no avail, it’s not you, it’s them. You are not lazy, you are not gluttonous, you are not weak, but you are metabolically broken.

See, calories in = calories out is a math equation. It even has some basis in physics. It works on paper. It doesn’t work in real-live human beings. Here’s why:

HORMONES.

Think about it. Long ago, the amount of fat tissue we carried was crucial. Fat is very energy dense and is our stored reserves of energy. We needed a certain amount of it in order to survive, especially if food became scarce. If you’re female, you definitely needed a certain amount of fat in order to support a pregnancy, which is why females have a higher body fat percentage then males and why they will stop menstruating if their body fat percentage gets too low. Too much fat tissue isn’t ideal either. Back when we lived on the savannas, too much fat tissue would have made it more difficult to escape predators. It’s just like Goldilocks, we need the amount to be “just right.”

Ever notice how some people seem to have no problem maintaining a certain weight, despite their eating habits, while others just look at food and seem to gain weight? Well, there is a reason for it. Several actually, but its a complex topic so I’m only going to address a small part of it here. Researchers who study this sort of thing have proposed a ‘set-point’ hypothesis of weight regulation. What that comes down to is this… the brain has a set point, or weight, that it would like to maintain. It then does everything it can to maintain this weight.

This means that when we eat LESS, our brains DECREASE our metabolism and INCREASE our appetite, to make sure we take in and hold on to enough calories to maintain that set-point weight. Conversely, if we are eating too much our brains should be telling our bodies to INCREASE our metabolism and DECREASE our appetite in over to burn off the excess energy.

Ever notice that animals in the wild don’t get fat? They can get big… there’s enough food out there to make an animal as big as an elephant or as small as a mouse, but they don’t get obese out there. Part of the reason for this is the set-point theory.

Now, how does that come back to hormones? Well, hormones are how your body talks to your brain- and vise versa- about regulation of energy. The thyroid gland, for instance. Normally, if your thyroid gland is humming along and putting enough thyroid hormone out there, the brain is happy and doesn’t need to ramp it up by secreting TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone. But if thyroid hormone production gets too low and metabolism drops, normally the brain will increase the amount of TSH in order to stimulate the thyroid gland to make more thyroid hormone. Normally. In the case of hypothyroidism, the brain may be telling the thyroid gland to make more thyroid hormone, but the gland can’t for some reason or other. Or maybe it can, but it can’t get delivered to the cells where it will increase metabolism for one reason or another. The result is that metabolism is slowed, while appetite stays the same or increases and the net result being weight gain. Is this person lazy? Are they a pig? Are they lacking self-control with food? NO! Their endocrine system is out of whack and foiling their efforts! (Having hypothyroidism is a not a get out of jail free card here. You still need to watch your diet and exercise, but just know that there is a right way and a wrong way to do this to get results, and if you are going with the old ‘calories in= calories out’ model, this is definitely the WRONG way to get the results you want.)

Another hormone that plays a key role in weight regulation is leptin. Leptin is actually secreted from the fat cells. It then talks to the brain about how much energy we have stored in the fat. The more fat tissue we have, the more leptin we make and vise versa. In normal, metabolically healthy individuals, more leptin signals from the body, especially if we are already at or slightly above our set point, means that our brain tells our body to increase metabolism and reduce appetite to burn off some of extra stored fat tissue that we don’t need. Less leptin signals do the opposite- decrease metabolism and increase appetite. Here’s the problem though, most obese individuals have what’s known as leptin resistance. The fat tissue is making plenty of leptin, but it has been doing so for so long that the brain doesn’t respond to it anymore. Imagine if someone is yelling at you all the time, so you start wearing ear plugs all the time. The ear plugs protect your ears from the yelling, but if that person decides to start whispering, you can’t hear a thing. It’s the same idea with leptin resistance and the only way to get more leptin to get through to the brain is to make more fat tissue.

(Breathe. Most of the science stuff is over. :-))

So if we have an obese individual with leptin resistance, what do you think happens when they try to eat less and exercise more??? That’s right, their body is now afraid that it is in danger of starving to death. It then sends out the message to DECREASE metabolism and INCREASE appetite, the LAST two things you want to have your body do if you are trying to lose weight.

Now, how do we start getting back on track and healing our metabolism? Well, first of all EAT. Think of your metabolism like a fire- if you don’t put a piece of wood on the fire every so often, it goes out. So don’t starve yourself and make sure you eat meals at regular intervals. Some people find that eating SMALL meals every 2-3 hours is really successful for them for this reason. It keeps their metabolic fire stoked. Second, pay attention to what you do eat. Calories in=calories out became popular for a reason- because there is a certain amount of evidence that at some point, the amount of calories you do or do not take in matters. Your best bet is to eat lots of nutrient dense, WHOLE foods. Animal proteins with their accompanying fat will help keep you satisfied by preventing wild swings in your blood sugar levels. Eat most of your carbs as veggies- they have more vitamins and minerals and fewer calories then processed wheat and grain products. By getting the nutrients you need, your body doesn’t need to increase your hunger to get them. And since they are lower in calories, you can eat more while feeling fuller, sooner and longer with fewer calories. Bonus: this method of weight loss doesn’t trigger the brain to defend the set-point weight in the same way as simply forcing a drastic calorie reduction on the body.

In time, when your body learns and begins to trust that it will be fed enough food on a regular basis and it will be fed nutrient dense foods with all the vitamins and minerals it needs to be healthy, it can heal the metabolism and begin to let go of the excess energy it was holding on to, thinking a famine was imminent. Losing weight this way is more natural, requires less discipline and lasts much longer then ‘crash diets’ with drastic calorie restrictions.

So ditch your diet. Eat real, whole foods exclusively. If it has a label with a calorie count on it, it’s probably a good idea to put it back on the shelf. Steer your cart over to the produce aisle and the meat case, where the food requires no labels, because its just food.

Making your resolutions stick! Part 1- The Mind

December 12, 2013 by drchrista Leave a Comment

We are coming up to that time of year when most people like to make New Year’s resolutions, but 95% of people will have given up on those resolutions before the end of January. Its to the point where gyms count on you buying that full-year membership on January 1 and then not using it for the majority of the year!

What is perhaps most sad about this state of affairs is that the most common things people resolve to do in the coming year revolve around their health- giving up smoking, losing weight and exercising more are the most common. So as a HEALTHcare provider, I feel that this an important part of my job to help people keep their positive, health-related resolutions.

To this end, for the month of December, I am going to do a series of posts about how to go about successfully implementing long-term changes that will help you achieve your health goals.

Let’s start here: Your mind.

Did you know that when you have an emotion, receptors on the cell surface get ‘locked’ into a specific shape that fits that neurotransmitter? It’s true and if you want to know more, I encourage to explore neurobiologist Candice Pert’s seminole work on the subject, “Molecules of Emotion.” The point is, there is a biochemical mechanism for how our thoughts create our reality and can either create or destroy our health.

So how can we use this knowledge in the achievement of our health goals?

Know where you want to go. When your goal is simply “to lose weight” or “eat better” its too vague. How much weight? What kind of time frame? What does ‘eating better’ mean to you? We’ve all had the experience of having a project to do. When there is a deadline for when that project needs to be done, its much more motivating then when there is no deadline. Set a deadline for your goal. Define specifics- i.e., ‘I’m going to eat at least 5 servings a veggies a day.’ If your goal is a big one, break it down into smaller, more realistic ones. ‘I’m going to lose 10 pounds in two months’ or ‘I’m going to start by eating 3 servings of veggies and day and drinking 2 glasses of water for the next three weeks. Then I will add two more servings of veggies a day, drink 3 glasses of water a day and cut sweets down to 3 treats a week.’ The other advantage of this is that it gives you clear measures of success along the way. When you succeed at the smaller goals, it creates a ‘motivation snowball’ that helps you keep the momentum and motivation up to continue moving forward.
Know your why. What is your core motivation? Why do you want to achieve this goal? Do you want to be a better example to your kids? To your family? Are there activities you enjoy that you are not able to do because of your current health? Identifying your ‘why’ is what often separates people who succeed at their goals from those who don’t. The catch is this: your ‘why’ needs to be powerful and intrinsic. Saying ‘I want to lose weight so I look better in a bathing suit’ generally isn’t’ powerful enough for most people. Why? Because it is a temporary and external goal. Very few of us, when tempted with pizza or ice cream, can say,’ but that bathing suit….’ Most of us will think, ‘screw it, give me the pizza, I don’t really care that much about what other people think.’ So your why needs to be something that is more powerful then what you may want at the time. Suppose your goal is to exercise more. Your motivation needs to be stronger then the comfort you get from sitting on the couch. It also helps if this goal is for you. Losing weight because you want to feel better about yourself is generally more powerful then doing it to please someone else.
“Fail to plan and you plan to fail.” This relates to knowing where you want to go. Once you know where you want to go and your why, break it down and make a plan for how you will arrive at that end destination. If your goal is to eat better, are you going to go Paleo, vegan, or follow some other diet? Do you know how to eat that way? Do you have cookbooks to give you recipe ideas when you’re not sure what to make for dinner? Have you cleaned out your cupboards so there are no unhealthy foods to tempt you in a moment of weakness? This is a really powerful and important step. For most people, making a resolution stick in not about having enough willpower, but having a detailed plan. We all have moments of weakness, moments where it is very tempting to give up and go back to the comfort of our old habits. Having a plan in place to deal with such moments is the key.
Visualize your success. I mean really visualize. Before bed and first thing in the morning, close your eyes and visualize what achieving your goal will be like. Be as detailed as possible. How does it feel? How is your life improved? Feel the happiness of having achieved this goal. Be grateful for it in that moment, treat it like its already true in your life. This is a powerful exercise that begins to align all the cells of your body with your new reality and sets the stage for lasting change.

So spend some time really thinking what your health goals are this year and why. Write them down. Write down why you want to achieve and then write down a detailed plan for how you will go about achieving them. In the post of this series, I will talk more about the specific ACTIONS to take to be successful at your goals.

Carbs are the Real Culprit

September 27, 2012 by drchrista Leave a Comment

We have been told over the last 50 years that fat- especially saturated fat- is the culprit behind heart disease. We have dutifully ridded our diets of butter in favor of margarine, eat more chicken and less red meat, get our cholesterol checked regularly and take medications if our cholesterol is too high. And the other reason we do this of course, is because we have been told that fat makes us fat. Yet, in the time that we have been following the low-fat recommendations, the rate of obesity has more then doubled; diabetes has tripled.

Back in March, a meta-analysis study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at the daily food intake of over 350,000 people. These people were followed for a period of 5 to 23 years and their cardiovascular risk assessed. The study’s finding? That there is no association between the amount of saturated fat consumed and heart disease risk.

And what about cholesterol? We know that high cholesterol leads to heart disease, and if saturated fats raise cholesterol, saturated fats must lead to heart disease, right?

Wrong.

The belief that saturated fat increases cholesterol is really just that, a belief. It has been based largely on extrapolations, not on any real data.

So if saturated fats and cholesterol aren’t bad, what is causing the alarming increases we are seeing in obesity and diabetes? The research is finally showing what many of us have known all along: refined carbohydrates are what is really responsible.

Consider just these two examples. A 1997 study published in JAMA looked at 65,000 women and found that the 20% who ate the most digestible and readily absorbed carbohydrates (high glycemic index carbohydrates) had a 47% increased risk of developing Type II diabetes over the 20% with the lowest glycemic index scores. And in 2007, a Dutch study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology followed 15,000 women and found that those who were overweight and in the quartile that consumed meals with the highest glycemic load were 79% more likely to develop coronary artery disease when compared to overweight women in the lowest quartile for consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates.

That refined carbohydrates are the real culprit behind heart disease actually fits better with our understanding of how arteries respond to damage and how they get damaged in the first place. Cholesterol, in addition to being a precursor for Vitamin D, estrogen, testosterone and cortisol, among other things, is a repair molecule. It doesn’t build up in the arteries for no reason; on the contrary, it is the foundation of ‘plaques’ the body makes to repair holes in the lining of the arteries, known as the endothelium. We also know that insulin can have a protective effect on the endothelium, but when our diet is too dependent on high glycemic carbohydrates for too long, the insulin mechanism is disrupted leading to the development of diabetes.

So tomorrow morning when you are deciding what to have for breakfast, consider that eggs, fried in a little butter is a better choice then a bagel, muffin or even cereal.