Nutritional Deficiencies

Nutritional deficiencies also play a big role in thyroid dysfunction. These include deficiencies of

iodine, vitamin D, omega-3 fats, selenium, zinc, vitamin A, and the B vitamins. Most people simply aren't getting enough iodine in their diet to begin with. The amount you get from iodized salt is just barely enough to prevent you from getting a goiter.

How Much Iodine Do You Need for Thyroid Health?

In Japan, the daily dose of iodine obtained from the diet averages around 2,000 to 3,000 micrograms (mcg) or 2-3 milligrams (mg), and there's reason to believe this may be a far more adequate amount than the US recommended daily allowance (RDA) of 150 mcg. Some argue for even higher amounts than that, such as Dr. Brownstein, who recommends 12.5 milligrams (mg) on a regular basis. Another proponent of higher iodine amounts is Guy Abraham, an ob-gyn and endocrinologist at the University of Southern California.  There's a fairly careful study showing that the thyroid gland does not start to downregulate until we get to 14 or 14.5 milligrams of total iodine and iodide. This is probably why Dr. Abraham first, and then others, have designed both liquids and tablets that come out with 12 or 12.5 mg. For most women, six to six and a quarter milligrams, and for the guys, who don't have as much massive breast tissue, recommendations are to stay with three milligrams. 

Iodine Helps Protect Breast Health Too...

There's compelling research suggesting that iodine is equally important for breast health, and that iodine – not iodide – combines with a lipid to form molecules that actually kill breast cancer cells. "Breasts are big sponges for iodine," according to Dr. Wright, a leading researcher. "Not iodide so much; that's the thyroid gland. But if you have enough iodine, why, those molecules are just sitting there ready waiting to kill new breast cancer cells!" According to Dr. Wright, iodine is also crucial for other breast-related problems, such as fibrocystic breast disease, for which iodine works nearly every time. Interestingly, for severe cases, it's recommended to swab the entire cervix with iodine. For breast cancer prevention, most physicians recommend more than three milligrams of iodine for women.

To learn more, visit us at Advanced Health Clinic

7 Steps to Healthy Hormones - Step 3: Supplement With Adaptogen Herbs

Healthy Hormonal Balance requires Healthy LifeStyle choices. We have been talking about the 7 Simple Steps to Healthy HormonalBalance. This blog we are on Step 3: Supplementing with Adaptogenic Herbs.

Adaptogens are a unique class of healing plants that promote hormone balance and protect

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the body from a wide variety of diseases.

In addition to boosting immune function and combating stress, research has shown that adaptogen herbs enhance hormone balance by:

·        Improving thyroid function

·        Lowering cholesterol

·        Reducing anxiety and depression

·        Reducing brain cell degeneration

·        Stabilizing blood sugar

·        Supporting adrenal glands

Scientists in the former USSR laid the groundwork for adaptogenic research, publishing more than 1,000 studies on the herbs during the 1960s and ’70s.

3 Properties of an Adaptogenic Herb: 

1. It’s nontoxic, meaning it’s safe for everyone. 
2. Its benefits are nonspecific, meaning it improves the entire body’s resistance to stress, not just one particular system or organ.
3. It balances bodily functions, regardless of where the disruption may originate.

 In other words, an adaptogen works like a tuning fork on your body: It helps bring your system back into harmony after a day of discord. This is why Adaptogenic herbs are so powerful in bringing the body back into a healthy hormonal balance.

7 Steps to Healthy Hormones - Step 2: Fix Your Gut

Creating Healthy Hormonal Balance is a series of steps. After we have looked at LifeStyle Habits (see last week's post), we then want to look at our guts.

The digestive system is really the corner stone of our wellbeing, as it is involved in so many processes. New research is showing that your gut health plays a significant role in hormone regulation so if you have leaky gut or a lack of probiotics lining your intestinal wall it can also cause hormone imbalance.

If your gut health is poor, you can end up with impaired immune and nervous systems, and it can also wreak havoc with hormonal function throughout the body. This is because our gastrointestinal tract is loaded with neurons that release the same neurotransmitters found in the brain. This is why you have "gut feelings" and any upset to this equilibrium can throw your body and mood into chaos.

To adopt a new approach to the eating for hormonal balance, this can be done by starting with the "Four Rs" - Remove, Repair, Restore, and Replace.

          Step 1: Remove

 In this first step, remove the offending foods and toxins from your diet that could be acting as stressors on your system. This means caffeine, alcohol, processed foods, bad fats, and any other foods you think may be causing issues, like gluten and dairy. All of these all irritate the gut in some form and create an inflammatory response.

Step 2: Repair

 The next step is to begin to repair the gut and heal the damaged intestinal lining. You do this by consuming an unprocessed diet and giving your body time to rest by providing it with substances that are known to heal the gut, like L-glutamine, omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, antioxidants (in the form of vitamins A, C, and E), quercitin, aloe vera, and turmeric.

Step 3: Restore

 This involves the restoration of your gut's optimal bacterial flora population. This is done with the introduction of probiotics like Lactobacillus acidophilus andBifidobacterium lactis. A probiotic is a good bacteria and is ingested to help reinforce and maintain a healthy gastrointestinal tract and to help fight illness. In general a healthy lower intestinal tract should contain around 85% good bacteria. This helps to combat any overgrowth of bad bacteria. Unfortunately in most people these percentages are skewed and this allows for the gut health to drastically decline. The human gut is home to bad bacteria like salmonella and clostridium, which is fine as long as they are kept in order and don't get out of control.

Step 4: Replace

 This involves getting your bile salts, digestive enzymes, and hydrochloric acid levels to optimal levels to maintain and promote healthy digestion. This can be done by supplementing with digestive enzymes and organic salt to help make sure you have enough hydrochloric acid.

NAET Overview

What is NAET?

OVERVIEW

NAET® was discovered by Dr. Devi S. Nambudripad in November of 1983. Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques, also known as NAET, are a non-invasive, drug free, natural solution to alleviate allergies of all types and intensities using a blend of selective energy balancing, testing and treatment procedures from acupuncture/acupressure, allopathy, nutritional, and kinesiological disciplines of medicine.

One allergen is treated at a time. If you are not severely immune deficient, you may need just one treatment to desensitize one allergen. A person with mild to moderate amount of allergies may take about 15-20 office visits to desensitize 15-20 food and environmental allergens.
Basic essential nutrients are treated during the first few visits. Chemicals, environmental allergens, vaccinations, immunizations, etc. are treated after completing about ten basic essential nutrients. NAET can successfully alleviate adverse reactions to egg, milk, peanuts, penicillin, aspirin, mushrooms, shellfish, latex, grass, ragweed, flowers, perfume, animal dander, animal epithelial, make-up, chemicals, cigarette smoke, pathogens, heat, cold, other environmental agents. It may take several office visits to desensitize a severe allergen.

Holistic Family Nurse Practitioner, Martha Bray, received her training directly by Dr. Nambudripad and has taken many andvanced training courses offered by Dr. Nambudripad. Please continue reading the following explanation of NAET by Dr. Nambudripad herself:

Allopathy & Western Sciences

Knowledge of the brain, cranial nerves, spinal nerves and autonomic nervous system from Western medicine enlightens us about the body’s efficient multilevel communication network. Through this network of nerves, vital energy circulates through the body carrying negative and positive messages from the brain to each and every cell in the body and back to the brain. Knowledge of the nervous system, its origin, travel pathway, the organs and tissues that will benefit from its nerve energy supplies (target organs and tissues) and its destination, helps us to understand the energy distribution of particular spinal nerves that emerge from the 31 pairs of spinal nerve roots.

Kinesiology

Kinesiology is the art and science of movement of the human body. Kinesiology is used in NAET to compare the strength and weakness of any muscle (also known as neuromuscular sensitivity testing (NST)) of the body in the presence and absence of any substance. A measured weakness in the presence of a substance is due to the effect of an allergy to the item the person is touching. This simple method can be used to detect your allergens.

Acupuncture /Oriental Medicine
Yin-Yang theory from Oriental medical principles teaches the importance of maintaining homeostasis in the body. According to Oriental medical principles, “when the body is in perfect balance, no disease is possible.” Any disturbance in the homeostasis can cause disease. Any allergen capable of producing a weakening muscular effect in the body can cause disturbance in homeostasis. Hence, diseases can be prevented and cured by maintaining homeostasis. According to acupuncture theory, acupuncture and/or Acupressure at certain acupuncture points is capable of bringing the body to a state of homeostasis by removing the energy blockages from the energy pathways known as meridians. When the blockages are removed, energy can flow freely through the energy meridians, thus bringing the body in perfect balance.

Nutrition

You are what you eat! The secret to good health is achieved through right nutrition. What is right nutrition? And how do you get it? When you can eat nutritious foods without discomfort and assimilate their nutrients, that food is said to be the right food. When you get indigestion, bloating, or other digestive troubles upon eating the food, that food is not helping you function normally. This is due to an allergy to the food. Different foods react differently in different people. What is food for some may be poison for others. You've probably heard the expression, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison.” So it is very important to clear the allergy to the nutrients. Allergic people can tolerate food that is low in nutrition better than nutritious food. But upon clearing the allergy, you should try to eat more wholesome, nutritious foods. You should avoid refined, bleached food that is devoid of nutrients. Many people who are feeling poorly due to undiagnosed food allergies, may take vitamins or other supplements to increase their vitality after they get treated for the specific allergy. If they happen to be allergic to the nutritional supplements they are taking, this can actually make them feel worse. Only after clearing those allergies, can their bodies properly assimilate them. So nutritional assessment should be done periodically and if needed, appropriate supplements should be taken to receive faster results.

Disclaimer
NAET does NOT claim to cure allergies or food, chemical and environmental sensitivities. NAET does not support the use of lasers in lieu of acupressure and acupuncture modalities. Do-it-yourself, at-home type kits can be extremely dangerous or harmful. Laser devices to treat allergies are currently being investigated by the FDA for inappropriate activities and claims. NAET is not responsible for any damage that is done by the use of such devices attempting to mimic NAET techniques. Any and all allergy treatment must be supervised by an approved and licensed health professional. Practitioners and programs that use words such as “distance treatments”, “JMT”, “BioSet”, “ByeBye Allergies”, “Berg technique”, “Advanced Allergy Elimination Technique”, “Allergy Pathways”, “Allergy Elimination Technique”, “the allergy kit”, and “A/SERT” do not perform Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET) and are not sanctioned by NAET. NAET cannot be held responsible for any harm that may come from receiving such treatments or techniques that mimic or try to copy NAET.

SUPPLEMENT PRICES ABOUT TO EXPLODE

From our friend, Frank Shallenberger, MD, Finding your Real Cures

As you may know, the FDA isn't here to protect you, the American taxpayer. It's here to protect the pharmaceutical industry and other large corporate interests. It protects anyone with enough money to pad the pockets of the FDA. Recently, the powers at the FDA (Faster Drug Approval) decided that the supplement industry is starting to cut into the bottom line of the pharmaceutical industry. Less money for Big Pharma means less money for the FDA.

As a result, the FDA has come up with a set of guidelines that will make it extremely expensive and difficult for the nutritional industry to keep manufacturing supplements. So expensive and difficult, in fact, that it will put most of them out of business.

Why is the FDA doing this? It must be because nutritional supplements are dangerous, right? Not exactly. Back in 2008, one panel of scientists reviewed the dangers of nutritional supplements. They examined the data in the 174-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers. They published their report in the journal Clinical Toxicology. It specifically looks at the death rates from drugs, foods, and nutritional supplements.

Guess how many deaths there were from vitamins - zero. Guess how many from herbs - zero. Guess how many from those nasty, dangerous amino acids - zero. OK, how about minerals and all other nutritional supplements - zero. That's right, in 2008 nobody died in the entire country from any nutritional supplement of any kind! But let's put this into perspective.

The panel duly noted that, "Over half of the U.S. population takes daily nutritional supplements. Even if each of those people took only one single tablet daily, that makes 154,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of over 56 billion doses annually. Since many persons take more than just one vitamin or mineral tablet, actual consumption is considerably higher, and the safety of nutritional supplements is all the more remarkable."

So if nutritional substances are safer than water (yes, water kills people every year), why in the world would the FDA decide to initiate oppressive Big Brother regulations that would essentially make them unavailable to you?

Here's why: Nutritional therapies are eliminating the need for most medications. And as more and more doctors learn how to use them, nutraceuticals are going to cut more and more into Big Pharma profits. Just last week, I was able to discontinue a total of 13 different prescriptions in my patients. That's just one doctor in one week. Imagine what happens when thousands of doctors are doing this routinely. "Something has to be done," says the FDA.

Marcia Angell a reporter for the Boston Globe put it this way. "For too long the FDA has behaved as though its job is to speed brand-name drugs to market, not to ensure that they are safe." According to Ms. Angell's scathing report, the FDA is simply a lap dog for the pharmaceutical industry. "It's time to take the Food and Drug Administration back from the drug companies," she says.

Well, I agree, and I think this might be just the time to start. If we don't do something quickly and effectively, I won't be able to take my patients off their drugs anymore. I won't have the supplements I need. If I can find them, they will cost 100 times more than they do now.

Can you stop this intrusion by Big Brother? Yes, you can. Public pressure works. It worked back in 1994 when the FDA and Congress tried to outlaw supplements. Instead, Congress passed a law that not only protected supplements, but opened the door for incredible innovation in the supplement industry. We can do it again. But only with your help.

Here's what you have to do:

First, go to www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml This web address is case sensitive. So type it exactly as it appears or follow the link. On the website, look up the phone numbers of your U.S. Senators and your Representative in the House. Then call them and tell them how you feel.

Please, do it right now. Don't wait.

The deadline for comments is December 1st. That's not far away.

Second, send this to all of your friends who take supplements and ask them to do the same thing. This is so important it could mean life or death for millions of people. Please, do this right now!

PS. If you would like to read more about this, please follow this link: 

CLICK HERE

REF:

Bronstein AC, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR Jr, Green JL, Rumack BH, Giffin SL. 2008 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS): 26th Annual Report. Clinical Toxicology (2009). 47, 911-1084. The full text article is available for free download at http://www.aapcc.org/dnn/Portals/0/2008annualreport.pdf

Martha's Minute: Foods for Life

NUTRITION 101

Targeted Nutrients—Extra Help for Improving Health

The growing field of research in nutritional genomics—or nutrigenomics—has demonstrated the effects that nutrients and plant substances can have on modifying the expression of genes in favor of good health. This has led to the development of research-based nutraceuticals and medical foods that complement dietary approaches to address today's top health concerns.

"Boosting" Your Healthy Message with Nutritional Supplements

Even if you eat a nutritious diet, you might benefit from nutritional supplementation. Nutritional supplementation not only helps you maintain adequate nutrient levels. It can also help improve your health or manage chronic health conditions.

The following are key areas for targeted support along with some recommended nutrients:

• Detoxification & liver/kidney function—silymarin, epigallocatechin gallate, watercress, cordyceps, folate, chlorophyllin, andrographis, hops, methionine, artichoke
• Health maintenance—multivitamin/mineral, essential fatty acids (EPA/DHA), calcium, vitamins B, C, D & E, other antioxidants, phytonutrient complex, fiber, probiotics
• Body composition—protein, conjugated linoleic acid, chromium, L-carnitine
• Bone health—MCHC, calcium, vitamin D, boron, magnesium, ipriflavone, berberine, hops, phosphorus
• Brain function (cognition, memory)—ginkgo biloba, prolie-rich polypeptides, huperzine A, folate, N-acetylcysteine, EPA/DHA
• Digestion—lipase, proteases, amla fruit, betaine, pepsin, zinc carnosine, chamomile, peppermint, certain raw organ concentrates, probiotics
• Immune, sinus & lung health—vitamins A, C, D & E, andrographis, hops, zinc, amla fruit, selenium, Chinese botanicals, Ayurvedic botanicals, homeopathic remedies, perilla, garlic, select mushrooms, probiotics, whey protein, echinacea, ginger, licorice,
• Intestinal health—probiotics, glutamine, plantain fruit, coptis root, oregano, red thyme, sage, ginger, fiber
• Joints, tendons & muscles—hops, magnesium, glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin, antioxidants, EPA/DHA, calcium
• Men's health—arginine, tribulus, zinc, saw palmetto, soy, plant sterols, epigallocatechin gallate, ashwaghanda, DHEA
• Minor pain relief—ginger, turmeric, reduced iso-alpha acids from hops, boswellia
• Mood—St. John's wort, DHEA, folate, inositol, EPA/DHA
• Relaxation & sleep—lemon balm, passionflower, valerian, L-theanine, casein tryptic hydrolysate, epigallocatechin gallate, N-acetylcysteine, Chinese botanicals, L-5-hydroxytryptophan, L-theanine
• Sports nutrition—whey protein, electrolytes, magnesium, long-chain glucose-polymers
• Stress management—licorice, ashwagandha, rehmannia, ginseng, cordyceps, Chinese botanicals, homeopathic remedies
• Women's health—indole-3-carbinole, isoflavones (soy, kudzu, red clover), Chinese botanical blends, chasteberry, choline, calcium, ashwaghanda, black cohosh, folate