Dr. Mowry's Blog Spot

Overcoming your sugar addiction!

2010-11-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

If you don't already get GOOP, you should. GOOP is a weekly letter from Gwyneth Paltrow that is filled with a lot of information. Her doc, Dr. Lipman (who I would love to meet one day) also writes in GOOP. This past week, GOOP featured a lot of valuable information on sugar and I wanted to share :)

Overcoming Sugar Addiction

In the past generation we’ve seen the amount of sugar we consume grow exponentially. Until recently, we had been eating sugar mainly found naturally in foods. It was used as a treat or in small quantities and was never a problem. But today, over a third of the calories we consume come from sugar or white flour, which is highly refined and acts just like sugar in our system. Our bodies cannot cope with such an enormous load. Sugar gives you an initial high, then you crash, then you crave more, so you consume more sugar. It’s this series of highs and lows that provoke unnecessary stress on your adrenals. You get anxious, moody (sugar is a mood-altering drug) and eventually you feel exhausted.

Sugar is also associated with many chronic problems that include decreased immunity, some chronic infections, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, diabetes, pain syndromes, irritable bowel syndrome, ADD, chronic fatigue, and candida. Research suggests that one of the main causes for decreased immunity is that sugars inhibit the entrance of Vitamin C into white blood cells, which then inhibits immunity. The more sugar, the less productive your white blood cells are and thus, the less immune you are. Furthermore, sugars stimulate insulin secretion in the pancreas, which in turn stimulates the liver’s triglyceride production. Triglycerides are linked to stroke, heart disease and obesity. The list goes on and on. This week, Dr. Frank Lipman provides us with all the info on how to curb a sugar addiction.

Love,
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What we should know about sugar from Dr. Frank Lipman:

As a serious sugar addict still struggling with my “addiction” I know first hand how difficult it is to get off sugar, and to stay off it. Part of the reason it’s so hard to kick the habit is that over time our brains actually become addicted to the natural opioids that are triggered by sugar consumption. Much like the classic drugs of abuse such as cocaine, alcohol and nicotine, a diet loaded with sugar can generate excessive reward signals in the brain which can override one’s self-control and lead to addiction.

One study out of France, presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, showed that when rats (who metabolize sugar much like we do) were given the choice between water sweetened with saccharin and intravenous cocaine, 94% chose the saccharin water. When the water was sweetened with sucrose (sugar), the same preference was observed—the rats overwhelmingly chose the sugar water. When the rats were offered larger doses of cocaine, it did not alter their preference for the saccharin or sugar water. Even rats addicted to cocaine, switched to sweetened water when given the choice. In other words, intense sweetness was more rewarding to the brain than cocaine.

The American Psychiatric Association defines addiction to include three stages: bingeing, withdrawal and craving. Until recently, the rats had only met two of the elements of addiction, bingeing and withdrawal. But recent experiments by Princeton University scientist, Professor Bart Hoebel, and his team showed craving and relapse as well. By showing that excess sugar led not only to bingeing and withdrawal, but to cravings for sweets as well, the final critical component of addiction fell into place and completed the picture of sugar as a highly addictive substance.

In stark contrast to this clinical assessment is the fact that, for most of us, “something sweet” is a symbol of love and nurturance. As infants, our first food is lactose, or milk sugar. Later on, well-intended parents (me included) reward children with sugary snacks, giving them a “treat,” turning a biochemically harmful substance into a comfort food. We become conditioned to need something sweet to feel complete or satisfied, and continue to self-medicate with sugar as adults, using it to temporarily boost our mood or energy. But as any addict knows, one quick fix soon leaves you looking for another—each hit of momentary satisfaction comes with a long-term price.

The bottom line is that sugar works the addiction and reward pathways in the brain in much the same way as many illegal drugs. And, like other drugs, it can destroy your health and lead to all sorts of ailments including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, and premature aging. Sugar is basically a socially acceptable, legal, recreational drug, with deadly consequences—and like with any drug addiction, you have to have a flexible but structured plan to beat it.

Here are some tips to help you cope with sugar cravings!

• Eat regularly. Eat three meals and two snacks or five small meals a day. For many people, if they don’t eat regularly, their blood sugar levels drop, they feel hungry and are more likely to crave sweet sugary snacks.

• Choose whole foods. The closer a food is to its original form, the less processed sugar it will contain. Food in its natural form, including fruits and vegetables, usually presents no metabolic problems for a normal body, especially when consumed in variety.

• Have a breakfast of protein, fat and phytonutrients to start your day off right. Breakfast smoothies are ideal for this. The typical breakfast full of carbs and sugary or starchy foods is the worst option since you’ll have cravings all day. Eating a good breakfast is essential to prevent sugar cravings.

• Try to incorporate protein and/or fat with each meal. This helps control blood sugar levels. Make sure they are healthy sources of each.

• Add spices. Coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom will naturally sweeten your foods and reduce cravings.

• Take a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement, Vitamin D3 and omega 3 fatty acids. Nutrient deficiencies can make cravings worse and the fewer nutrient deficiencies, the fewer cravings. Certain nutrients seem to improve blood sugar control including chromium, Vitamin B3 and magnesium.

• Move your body. Exercise, dance or do some yoga. Whatever movement you enjoy will help reduce tension, boost your energy and decrease your need for a sugar lift.

• Get enough sleep. When we are tired we often use sugar for energy to counteract the exhaustion.

• Do a detox. My experience has been that when people do a detox, not only does it reset their appetites but it often decreases their sugar cravings. After the initial sugar cravings, which can be overwhelming, our bodies adjust and we won't even want the sugar anymore and the desire will disappear.

• Be open to explore the emotional issues around your sugar addiction. Many times our craving for sugar is more for an emotional need that isn’t being met.

• Keep sugary snacks out of your house and office. It’s difficult to snack on things that aren’t there!

• Don't substitute artificial sweeteners for sugar.

• Learn to read labels. Although I would encourage you to eat as few foods as possible that have labels, educate yourself about what you’re putting into your body. The longer the list of ingredients, the more likely sugar is going to be included on that list. So check the grams of sugar, and choose products with the least sugar per serving.

• Become familiar with sugar terminology. Recognize that all of these are sweeteners: corn syrup, corn sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, honey, molasses, turbinado sugar and brown sugar.

• Sugar in disguise. Remember that most of the “complex” carbohydrates we consume like bread, bagels and pasta aren’t really complex at all. They are usually highly refined and act just like sugars in the body and are to be avoided.

And here’s how to handle an acute sugar craving:

• Take L-Glutamine, 1000-2000mg, every couple of hours as necessary. It often relieves sugar cravings as the brain uses it for fuel.

• Take a “breathing break”. Find a quiet spot, get comfortable and sit for a few minutes and focus on your breath. After a few minutes of this, the craving will pass.

• Distract yourself. Go for a walk, if possible, in nature. Cravings usually last for 10-20 minutes maximum. If you can distract yourself with something else, it often passes. The more you do this, the easier it gets and the cravings get easier to deal with.

• Drink lots of water. Sometimes drinking water or seltzer water can help with the sugar cravings. Also sometimes what we perceive as a food craving is really thirst.

• Have a piece of fruit. If you give in to your cravings, have a piece of fruit, it should satisfy a sweet craving and is much healthier.

If you follow these guidelines, perhaps you’ll be able to have an occasional "treat." Be realistic with yourself and remember that a slip is not a failure. Don't get down on yourself if you slip, just dust yourself off and get back in the saddle. However, if even just a little causes you to lose control, then it’s best to stay away from it completely. And my ultimate tip for sugar-free bliss is to remind ourselves to find and pursue “sweet satisfaction” in nourishing experiences other than food.

Frank Lipman MD, is the founder and director of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in NYC and the author of REVIVE; Stop Feeling Spent and Start Living Again (2009) (previously called SPENT) and TOTAL RENEWAL; 7 key steps to Resilience, Vitality and Long-Term Health (2003). He is the creator of Eleven Eleven Wellness, Guided Health Solutions, leading edge integrative health programs to help you feel better than ever.

How to kill the "bad bugs" in your gut!

2010-09-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

Doctors are trained to identify diseases by where they are located. If you have asthma, it's considered a lung problem; if you have rheumatoid arthritis, it must be a joint problem; if you have acne, doctors see it as a skin problem; if you are overweight, you must have a metabolism problem; if you have allergies, immune imbalance is blamed. Doctors who understand health this way are both right and wrong. Sometimes the causes of your symptoms do have some relationship to their location, but that's far from the whole story.

As we come to understand disease in the 21st century, our old ways of defining illness based on symptoms is not very useful. Instead by understanding the origins of disease and the way in which the body operates as one whole, integrated ecosystem we now know that symptoms appearing in one area of the body may be caused by imbalances in an entirely different system.

If your skin is bad or you have allergies, can't seem to lose weight, suffer from an autoimmune disease or allergies, struggle with fibromyalgia, or have recurring headaches, the real reason may be that your gut is unhealthy. This may be true even if you have NEVER had any digestive complaints.

There are many other possible imbalances in your body's operating system that may drive illness as well. These include problems with hormones, immune function, detoxification, energy production and more. But for now let's take a deeper look at the gut and why it may be at the root of your chronic symptoms.

Symptoms Throughout the Body are Resolved by Treating the Gut

Many today do have digestive problems including reflux or heartburn, irritable bowel, bloating, constipation, diarrhea and colitis. In fact, belly problems account for over 200 million doctor's visits and billions in health care costs annually. But gut problems cause disease far beyond the gut. In medical school I learned that patients with colitis could also have inflamed joints and eyes, and that patients with liver failure could be cured of delirium by taking antibiotics that killed the toxin-producing bacteria in their gut. Could it be that when things are not quite right down below it affects the health of our entire body and many diseases we haven't linked before to imbalances in the digestive system?

The answer is a resounding yes. Normalizing gut function is one of the most important things I do for patients, and it's so simple. The "side effects" of treating the gut are quite extraordinary. My patients find relief from allergies, acne, arthritis, headaches, autoimmune disease, depression, attention deficit, and more--often after years or decades of suffering. Here are a few examples of the results I have achieved by addressing imbalances in the function and flora of the gut:

• A 58-year-old woman with many years of worsening allergies, asthma, and sinusitis who was on frequent antibiotics and didn't respond to any of the usual therapies was cured by eliminating a worm she harbored in her gut called Strongyloides.

• A 52-year-old woman who suffered with daily headaches and frequent migraines for years, found relief by clearing out the overgrowth of bad bugs in her small intestine with a new non-absorbed antibiotic called Xifaxin.

• A six-year-old-girl with severe behavioral problems including violence, disruptive behavior in school, and depression was treated for bacterial yeast overgrowth, and in less than 10 days her behavioral issues and depression were resolved.

• A three-year-old boy with autism started talking after treating a parasite called Giardia in his gut.

These are not miracle cures, but common results that occur when you normalize gut function and flora through improved diet, increased fiber intake, daily probiotic supplementation, enzyme therapy, the use of nutrients that repair the gut lining, and the direct treatment of bad bugs in the gut with herbs or medication.

A number of recent studies have made all these seemingly strange reversals in symptoms understandable. Let's review them.

Research Linking Gut Flora and Inflammation to Chronic Illness

Scientists compared gut flora or bacteria from children in Florence, Italy who ate a diet high in meat, fat, and sugar to children from a West African village in Burkina Faso who ate beans, whole grains, vegetables, and nuts.(i) The bugs in the guts of the African children were healthier, more diverse, better at regulating inflammation and infection, and better at extracting energy from fiber. The bugs in the guts of the Italian children produced by-products that create inflammation; promote allergy, asthma, and autoimmunity; and lead to obesity.

Why is this important?

In the West our increased use of vaccinations and antibiotics and enhancements in hygiene have lead to health improvements for many. Yet these same factors have dramatically changed the ecosystem of bugs in our gut, and this has a broad impact on health that is still largely unrecognized.

There are trillions of bacteria in your gut and they collectively contain at least 100 times as many genes as you do. The bacterial DNA in your gut outnumbers your own DNA by a very large margin. This bacterial DNA controls immune function, regulates digestion and intestinal function, protects against infections, and even produces vitamins and nutrients.

When the balance of bacteria in your gut is optimal this DNA works for you to great effect. For example, some good bacteria produce short chain fatty acids. These healthy fats reduce inflammation and modulate your immune system. Bad bugs, on the other hand, produce fats that promote allergy and asthma, eczema and inflammation throughout your body.(ii)

Another recent study found that the bacterial fingerprint of gut flora of autistic children differs dramatically from healthy children.(iii) Simply by looking at the byproducts of their intestinal bacteria (which are excreted in the urine--a test I do regularly in my practice called organic acids testing), researchers could distinguish between autistic and normal children.

Think about this: Problems with gut flora are linked to autism. Can bacteria in the gut actually affect the brain? They can. Toxins, metabolic by-products, and inflammatory molecules produced by these unfriendly bacteria can all adversely impact the brain. I explore the links between gut function and brain function in much greater detail in my book, The UltraMind Solution.

Autoimmune diseases are also linked to changes in gut flora. A recent study showed that children who use antibiotics for acne may alter normal flora, and this, in turn, can trigger changes that lead to autoimmune disease such as inflammatory bowel disease or colitis.(iv)

The connections between gut flora and system-wide health don't stop there. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that you could cure or prevent delirium and brain fog in patients with liver failure by giving them an antibiotic called Xifaxan to clear out bugs that produce toxins their poor livers couldn't detoxify.(v) Toxins from bacteria were making them insane and foggy. Remove the bacteria that produce the toxins, and their symptoms clear up practically overnight.

Other similar studies have found that clearing out overgrowth of bad bugs with a non-absorbed antibiotic can be an effective treatment for restless leg syndrome (vi) and fibromyalgia. (vii)

Even obesity has been linked to changes in our gut ecosystem that are the result of a high-fat, processed, inflammatory diet. Bad bugs produce toxins called lipopolysaccardies (LPS) that trigger inflammation andinsulin resistance or pre-diabetes and thus promote weight gain.(viii)

It seems remarkable, but the little critters living inside of you have been linked to everything from autism to obesity, from allergy to autoimmunity, from fibromyalgia to restless leg syndrome, from delirium to eczema to asthma. In fact the links between chronic illness and gut bacteria keep growing every day.

So what can you do to keep your gut flora balanced, your gut healthy, and thus overcome or avoid these health problems?

Five Steps to a Healthy Gut (and a Healthy Body!)

Follow these five simple steps to begin rebalancing your gut flora.

1. Eat a fiber-rich, whole foods diet--it should be rich in beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables--all of which feed good bugs.

2. Limit sugar, processed foods, animal fats, and animal protein--these provide food for unhealthy bugs.

3. Avoid the use of antibiotics, acid blockers, and anti-inflammatories--they change gut flora for the worse.

4. Take probiotics daily--these healthy, friendly flora can improve your digestive health and reduce inflammation and allergy.

5. Consider specialized testing--such as organic acid testing, stool testing (new tests can look at the DNA of the bacteria in your gut), and others to help assess your gut function. You will likely have to work with afunctional medicine practitioner to effective test and treat imbalances in your gut.

And if you have a chronic illness, even if you don't have digestive symptoms, you might want to consider what is living inside your gut. Tending to the garden within can be the answer to many seemingly unrelated health problems.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

Mark Hyman, M.D. practicing physician and founder of The UltraWellness Center is a pioneer in functional medicine. Dr. Hyman is now sharing the 7 ways to tap into your body's natural ability to heal itself. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on Youtube and become a fan on Facebook.

For a list of medical references, please go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/5-steps-to-kill-hidden-ba_b_739213.html

Frankenfish... on your plate!

2010-09-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend, over 10,000 FRESH petition signatures against genetically engineered salmon were delivered to the FDA. And guess what: after three days of hearings, the FDA agreed with us that there's significant concerns about genetically engineered salmon, and it must go through a rigorous public review before further consideration for approval.

This is huge. We are putting a stop to the corporate fast-tracking of genetically engineered salmon in our food system!

We still have a lot of work ahead of us. The corporations pushing genetically engineered salmon aren't backing down. We need to take advantage of this victory and re-organize to stop genetically modified salmon once and for all.

Let's blow them away. Will you help us reach 20,000 signatures standing against genetically modified salmon on our plates?

http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4050

The FDA agreed that the small sample sizes, incomplete data and poor scientific assessments in the research done on genetically modified salmon warrant concern.

Dr. Gary Thorgaard, the only member of the Committee with expertise on fisheries, called on FDA to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement, a sentiment echoed by other members of the Committee during the discussion period. The FDA will publish the final environmental assessment that they have thus-far kept from the public and open it up for the required 30-day public comment period. This only happened because of our tremendous protest and could end up meaning slowing down this process by years.

In light of the numerous unknowns raised throughout the two day meeting, FDA officials announced that any approval will require post-market review and data requirements, but we must make sure that they also require proper regulation and safety assessments.

That means we still have quite a battle to fight! Please join us in our outcry! We will deliver signatures to the FDA as part of the public comment period when it opens.

Please join us in our outcry! Sign the FRESH petition against GE Salmon today!

http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4050

Eat safe,

Lisa Madison
Distribution & Outreach Coordinator
FRESH

Organic vs. Non-Organic

2010-07-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

This is the difference. No need for a taste test. The non-organic one grew in 1/2 the time the organic one did... and it's 2x the size.

Pictures taken from my kitchen table this morning!

LAY OFF THE SUGAR!!!

2010-07-06T05:21:00.001-07:00

Do you know why I tell my patients to stay away from sugar? Do you know why I limit my children's intake of sugar?

#1 It makes your brain fuzzy

#2 It makes you feel hungry all the time, never full

#3 It changes your chemistry of every cell

#4 It's like gas on a fire, for CANCER

#5 It triggers other food allergies/sensitivities

It's not easy to avoid sugar, because it's in EVERYTHING. So, eat foods that do not list sugar in the ingredients list. If you are craving sugar, eat fruit. Stay focused.

I gave up sugar for Lent this year and it has forever changed me.

Need more of a reason? Go here.

All about Vitamin D!

2010-06-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

Vitamin D Deficiency
by Dr. Frank Lipman:

For the last 30 years or so, doctors (dermatologists in particular), health officials, beauty experts and many product companies have been demonizing the sun. They’ve told us to avoid it because without sunscreen, exposure to the sun’s rays will damage skin and cause cancer. But this oversimplification distorts the facts. In the past few years, numerous studies have shown that optimizing your Vitamin D levels may actually help prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers. And the best way to optimize Vitamin D levels is through safe, smart and limited sunscreen-free exposure to the sun.

For hundreds of thousands of years, man has lived with the sun: Our ancestors were outdoors far more often than indoors. We developed a dependence on sunshine for health and life, so the idea that sunlight is dangerous does not make sense. How could we have evolved and survived as a species, if we were that vulnerable to something humans have been constantly exposed to for their entire existence? Is it possible that our bodies are made in such a way that the sun is really a lethal enemy? Not in my opinion. Like all living things, we need sunshine, and it feels good for a reason. Much as plants harness the sun’s rays through photosynthesis, our bodies use sunlight to help the skin produce the Vitamin D it needs to build bones, quell inflammation, bolster the immune system and protect against cancer (including skin cancer).

“Let the sun shine in”

Western medicine has made a practice of telling us to abstain from things that are bad for us in extreme quantities, when in fact those same things⎯fat, salt, and sunshine for example⎯are very good for us when consumed wisely and in moderation. In the case of sunshine, our UV paranoia is contributing to a silent epidemic: Vitamin D deficiency. It’s silent because most people don’t know they are deficient. And it’s deadly, because this deficiency can lead to cancer and a multitude of other diseases. But we’ve demonized the sun and been brainwashed into believing that even small amounts will harm us. We are told to slather on sunscreen whenever we are in the sun, which blocks Vitamin D production and exacerbates the Vitamin D deficiency induced by our modern, indoor lives.

Studies show that as many as three out of four Americans suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. A study published in 2009 in the Archives of Internal Medicine (a leading scientific journal), found that 70% of Caucasians, 90% of Hispanics and 97% of African Americans in the US have insufficient blood levels of Vitamin D. Indeed, it’s thought to be the most common medical condition in the world, affecting over one billion people and we now have research showing just how essential Vitamin D is to health.

U.S. and Norwegian researchers have found that people who live in higher latitudes are more prone to Vitamin D deficiency and more prone to developing common cancers and dying of them. It’s now thought that this is due in part to the body’s inability to make enough activated Vitamin D to help regulate cell growth and to keep cell growth in check. Independent scientific research has shown that whether you live in a sunny or not-so-sunny climate, exposure to the sun and its UVB radiation will increase your production of Vitamin D and help lower the risk of a host of debilitating and fatal diseases – including many cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure, Type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and depression.

And now the experts are concerned that we’re passing an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency down to a new generation. Studies have shown that Vitamin D deficiency may imprint on an infant for the rest of his/her life. Infants that are deficient at birth can remain Vitamin D deficient for the first several months after birth, which may put them at risk of developing many chronic diseases much later in life.

What is Vitamin D and how much do you need?

Although called a vitamin, it is not. Vitamin D is in a class by itself, behaving more like a hormone. It is made in the skin, gets into your bloodstream and then goes into the liver and the kidney where it becomes activated as a key steroid hormone called Calcitriol. It then goes to the intestines, bones and other tissues, effecting metabolic pathways and the expression of myriad genes. Vitamin D's active form can interact with almost every cell in the body directly or indirectly, targeting up to two thousand genes, or about six percent of the human genome. It is necessary for numerous cellular functions, and when the body does not have what it needs to function optimally, it follows that we experience a decline in health and put ourselves at risk of disease. We now know that almost every cell and tissue in our body has Vitamin D receptors, which raises the question: Why would those receptors be there if they didn’t have a function?

Our Vitamin D needs vary with age, body weight, percent of body fat, latitude, skin coloration, season of the year, use of sun block, individual reactions to sun exposure, and our overall health. As a general rule, older people need more Vitamin D than younger people, large people need more that small people, fat people need more than skinny people, northern people need more than southern people, dark-skinned people need more than fair skinned people, winter people need more than summer people, sun-phobes need more than sun worshipers, and ill people may need more than well people.

The best way to determine whether or not you are deficient is to have your Vitamin D blood levels measured and replenish accordingly.

My Top Ten Tips for Healthy Sun Exposure and Optimizing your Vitamin D Levels

Have a healthy respect for the sun. It is powerful medicine with potentially dangerous side effects on your skin. Treat it like medication, using the lowest dose necessary, but don’t avoid it completely. Never fall asleep in the sun without protection.

Always avoid sunburn. It is sunburn, not healthy sun exposure that causes problems. Repeated sunburns, especially in children and very fair-skinned people, have been linked to melanoma. Whereas there is no credible scientific evidence that regular, moderate sun exposure causes melanoma or other skin cancers. Prepare your skin and build up tolerance gradually. Start early in the year (spring), or early in the morning before the sun is strongest and slowly build up the amount of time you spend in the sun.

Get 15-30 minutes of unprotected sun exposure 2-4 times a week. Each of us has different needs for unprotected sun exposure to maintain adequate levels of Vitamin D. Depending on your age, what type of skin you have, where you live and what time of the day and year it is, your need will vary. The farther you live from the equator, the more exposure to the sun you need in order to generate Vitamin D. For instance, a fair skinned person, sitting on a New York beach in June, in the middle of the day, for about 10-15 minutes (enough to cause a light pinkness 24 hours after), is producing the equivalent of 15,000-20,000 IU’s of Vitamin D. But the same person living further north in the U.K, or Canada would need 20-30 minutes to get that light pinkness, which is all one needs. Also, people with dark skin pigmentation may need 20-30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair-skinned people, to generate the same amount of Vitamin D. For more specifics, I recommend the tables in The Vitamin D Solution by Dr Michael Holick.

Get frequent, short exposures. Regular short exposures have been found to be much more effective and safer than intermittent long ones. Note that you cannot generate Vitamin D when sitting behind a glass window, because the UVB rays necessary for Vitamin D production are absorbed by glass.

After your 15-30 minutes of sun-block free time in the sun, you must protect yourself. If you’re going to be out in the sun for longer periods, wear a hat to protect your face and light colored clothing that blocks the sun and keeps you cool. When you do apply sunscreen, use one with fewer chemicals. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s list of safer sunscreens. Remember that even weak sunscreens block the ability of your skin to manufacture Vitamin D, so once you have applied it, you will not be making Vitamin D.

Boost your “internal sunscreen” by consuming anti-oxidants and beneficial fats. These strengthen skin cells, helping to protect them from sun damage. Eating lots of vegetables and fruits such as blueberries, raspberries, goji berries and pomegranates and supplementing with green powdered mixes and fish oils are great options when going into the sun.

Have your Vitamin D blood levels checked regularly. The correct blood test is 25OH vit D or 25 Hydroxy Vitamin D test. Be aware, however, that current “normal” range for Vitamin D is 20 to 55 ng/ml. This is much too low!!! Those levels may be fine if you want to prevent rickets or osteomalacia, but they are not adequate for optimal health. The ideal range for optimal health is 50-80 ng/ml.

Don’t rely on food alone for your Vitamin D needs. It is almost impossible to get your Vitamin D needs met by food alone. Fatty wild fish (not farmed), like salmon and mackerel are the best food sources, but you would have to eat huge quantities of them daily to get anywhere near what your body needs. Although fortified milk and orange juice do contain Vitamin D, you would have to drink at least 10 glasses of each daily and I don’t recommend doing that.

Take Vitamin D3 supplements if necessary. In the winter or if you don’t get enough healthy sun exposure or if your blood levels are low, make sure you supplement with at least 2,000 IU’s a day of Vitamin D3. Although I recommend moderate sunbathing, Vitamin D supplements provide the same benefits as sunshine (in terms of Vitamin D needs). But, if taken in too large a dose, they can cause Vitamin D toxicity, whereas sun exposure does not. It is impossible to generate too much Vitamin D in your body from the sun: Your body will self-regulate and only generate what it needs, which just reaffirms to me that we should get our Vitamin D from sensible sun exposure. Here are specific guidelines for replenishing Vitamin D.

Although irresponsible sunbathing is unquestionably harmful and precautions need to be taken, regular, moderate, unprotected sun exposure is essential for good health. It is free, easy to get and good for you when used intelligently. It is the only reliable way to generate Vitamin D in your own body, which we now know to be an essential ingredient for optimizing health and preventing disease.

A thought to consider...

2010-06-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderful time to be alive. There have never been more possibilities and opportunities for you to achieve more of your goals than exist today. As perhaps never before in human history, you are actually drowning in options. In fact, there are so many good things that you can do, that your ability to decide among them may be the critical determinant of what you accomplish in life.
~ Brian Tracy

All Natural Bug Repellant Recipe!

2010-06-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

Of course, your particular usage and body chemistry can potentially affect your results. Also, this product may be gentler than most commercial products, but you still should do a skin patch test before fully using it.

Ingredients:

4 oz. clean spray bottle with a fine mist setting (do not use a bottle that previously contained cleaning products or hair products such as hair spray).
1.5 ounces of distilled water and 1.5 ounces of high-proof alcohol (vodka is suitable, isopropyl or rubbing alcohol is not). Alternatively, you may omit the alcohol and increase the amount of distilled water to 3 ounces.
15 drops Citronella Essential Oil
10 drops Lavender Essential Oil
10 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil
5 drops Lemongrass Essential Oil

Directions: Fill the spray bottle with the choice of either 1.5 ounces of distilled water and 1.5 ounces of alcohol or 3 ounces of distilled water. (Even though a 4 oz. bottle is suggested, leave about 1 oz. unfilled so you can shake the bottle well between uses.) Then, add the essential oils.

To Use: Shake the bottle before each use. Essential oils do not fully dissolve in water and alcohol and will settle. If you do not shake the bottle, you risk having concentrated droplets of essential oil irritate your skin.

Mist onto your skin and clothing and reapply as necessary. Discontinue use if you feel sensitivity from the repellent. Be careful not to mist delicate fabrics or surrounding furniture that may be harmed by the ingredients in the repellent. Be especially careful not to allow the mist fall onto into open beverages.

Everyone and every situation is different. Although this recipe has worked well for me over many summers, there is no guarantee that this recipe will prevent you or other users from being bitten by insects and it hasn't been scientifically tested for effectiveness. You assume all responsibility for trying or modifying this recipe and seeing if it works for your particular needs. This recipe has not been tested for the prevention of ticks or their bites.

Source: Aroma Web

Enjoy the outdoors!

Dr. M

How you frame your problem, may be your problem!

2010-06-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Is there something in your life that you would like to see improve in some way? That could be anywhere from fixing something that is negative over to simply going from good to even better; from digging out of debt, getting a job, finding a more loving and caring relationship, becoming a more loving and caring person yourself, getting rid of the job you do have in favor of something better, to simply learning how to enjoy what you already have.

Clearly, there is any number of conditions in which you may find yourself ranging from fantastic to horrific. The question simply comes down to how satisfied you are with your current experience of life and what can you do about it.

Notice the question isn't about how much you have of anything in particular, but one of your level of satisfaction with what you have. And what can you do about it?

From time to time, people ask me what I do for a living. Depending on the circumstance and context of the question, I can answer in a variety of ways. Sometimes the answer is that I am an author, an educational psychologist, a management consultant, or a coach.

My favorite answer: I help people get what they think they want as fast as possible so I can ask, "Was that it?"

I'll bet you've been there; in fact, some of you may be there right this very minute. Did you ever want something, really long for it, work your butt off to get it and then wind up wondering why you ever wanted it in the first place? Again, most of us know what this is like first hand.

What makes this so interesting in my work is that people seem to want and need a combination of both. Surely physical circumstances make a difference and yet people can have "everything" and still find themselves wanting at several levels.

You Can Never Get Enough of What You Don't Truly Want

Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman philosopher is often quoted as having said: "You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy. Sometimes, he is quoted as saying, "You can never get enough of what you don't really want." Same thing, really.

If I am after the experience of being secure, free and at peace, is there any amount of money (or house, or car, or perfect relationship) that will produce the experiences I seek?

The obvious implication here is "NO!" People have been happy with next to nothing, miserable with all there is, and everywhere in between.

So, what is it that you want out of life and what's in the way? If your answer is on the material side of things (money, house, car, etc) and what's in the way is someone else (Bush, bankers, greedy capitalists), then we have a real dilemma. Especially if you have lost your job, house, car and most everything on the material levels of life.

Surely, there are many of us in trouble, having lost everything due to circumstances ranging from hurricanes and oil spills to manipulated financial systems. I know a bit of what it means to have lost everything having come through a period earlier in my life when I wound up living in my second hand car after my father died and our family went through our third bankruptcy in 10 years.

However, I was quite fortunate that in the midst of my turmoil while literally living on a dollar a day, I got some great coaching from some equally great people who encouraged me to take responsibility for my circumstances, figure out what I wanted to do about them, get off my poor-me mindset and get busy.

Of the many profound lessons I learned at the time, one stands out right now: how you frame the issue is the issue. This can also be stated as, how you frame the problem is the problem.

If you're out of work right now, and your mindset is that some dirty, greedy SOB is to blame, you may be right. The only problem with this framing is that as long as you stay focused on those dirty SOB's , you will continue to be at the mercy of SOB's who may not care all that much about your circumstances.

If your life circumstances and how you experience them are going to change for the better, how will they get better? Who is going to be at the helm, guiding the change? There's no question that improved external factors can help; however, what are you going to do regardless of what happens out there?

Sooner or later, it's going to come down to you and what you choose to do.

If you read these HuffPost pages enough, you may slide into that group that has become so very good at blaming everyone else. Surely, we have no shortage of culprits to blame, ranging from oil companies to bankers to misguided politicians.

However, we have always had culprits to blame. The real question comes down to what are you going to do about it? And, in particular, what are you going to do about it as it pertains to your circumstances.

If you frame the problem as something that somebody else created, then as surely as you are a victim of what somebody else did to screw things up, you will remain a victim to the next set of screw-up's.

What would happen if you reframed the problem as something that not only impacts you, but as something about which you can exercise some choice? I hope you have noticed that even as the job situation continues to be "bleak," some folks have managed to find their way through all of this, finding jobs, opportunities, and ways to make things better, even if only marginally.

How would you have to frame the situation in order to make things even marginally better? What could you do that might take even the smallest of steps forward? Is there anything at all that you could do that might help, even in the slightest?

Of course, the cynics out there will decry these questions with all their usual pablumesque rejoinders about drivel, etc. However, if you are going to experience any improvement whatsoever, sooner or later it is going to come down to you to get off your assets and do something about your current condition.

It's going to be pretty difficult to find that job if you don't go looking; it's going to be pretty difficult to improve that strife-filled relationship if you don't look at your own role in it; it's going to be pretty difficult to improve damn near anything if you don't start with the assumption that it can improve and that you do something about it.

Sure, small improvements are only small improvements. However, how does anyone ever get better without taking those first micro steps? And if things only improve marginally for the time better, are you better off doing nothing or doing what you can?

If you don't like this advice, then don't take it and see just how much things change for you as you sit there blaming everybody else out there for your situation.

Once again, there's no question in my mind that you will be right. There are many to blame; the only problem seems to be that blaming somehow isn't sufficient to change anything.

What can you do to help your own situation? What will you do?

***

Article by Russell Bishop is an Educational Psychologist, author, professional life coach and management consultant, based in Santa Barbara California. You can find out more about Russell athttp://www.lessonsinthekeyoflife.com. Contact Russell by email at: Russell (at) lessonsinthekeyoflife.com

***

Here's to you changing your life, for the positive!

Dr. M

How to Transform Your Lifestyle and Life!

2010-05-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

This is a fabulous article by Dr. Dean Ornish that I just found and needed to share with all of you. Enjoy, Dr. M

***

"Listen, here's what I think. I think we can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves. What we resist, and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include." -- from the movie, Chocolat

* * *

Two days ago, after 16 years of review, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a proposed decision to provide Medicare coverage for thecomprehensive lifestyle program for reversing heart disease that my colleagues and I at the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute have developed and tested (www.pmri.org).

This is the first time that Medicare will be providing coverage for an integrative medicine program, so we are grateful to everyone involved in this decision. Since reimbursement is a major determinant of both medical practice and education, this is an important breakthrough. This is the first time that Medicare will be providing coverage for an integrative medicine program, so we are grateful to everyone involved in this decision. Since reimbursement is a major determinant of both medical practice and education, this is an important breakthrough. (The Pritikin Program also will be covered.)

So, in celebration of this, I'd like to share with you a brief summary of what my colleagues and I have learned so far about what really works to motivate people to make and maintain lasting changes in diet and lifestyle (part one):

1. You have a full spectrum of nutrition and lifestyle choices.

It's not all or nothing. Diets aren't sustainable because they're all about what you can't have and what you must do. If you go on a diet, sooner or later you're likely to go off it.

What matters most is your overall way of eating and living. If you indulge yourself one day, you can eat more healthfully the next. If you're a couch potato one day, exercise a little more the next. If you don't have time to meditate for 20 minutes, do it for one minute -- the consistency is more important than the duration. Studies have shown that those who eat the healthiest overall are the ones who allow themselves some indulgences.

2. Even more than feeling healthy, most people want to feel free and in control.

If I tell people, "Eat this and don't eat that," or "Don't smoke," they immediately want to do the opposite. It's just human nature, and it goes back to the very first dietary intervention that failed -- "Don't eat the apple" -- and that was God talking, so we're not likely to do better than that... And if their spouse says, "Honey, you know you're not supposed to be eating that," people sometimes start to feel a little crazy.

Nobody wants to feel controlled or treated like a child. Even my son, Lucas, doesn't like to be treated like a child. When he was four, I said to him, "No one can tell you what to eat, not even me. You don't ever have to eat anything you don't want." He feels regarded and respected, so he feels free to make healthful choices that are sustainable. He understands the reasons for eating this way rather than telling him, "Because I said so!" Paradoxically, he eats much more healthfully than most of his friends because he feels free to choose.

In our home, we serve mostly healthful foods. If he wants a treat, or some dessert, and he's eaten his meal, then he gets it. But since there isn't a charge around it, it's not a "forbidden fruit," so he doesn't feel compelled to pig out.

Whether you're six or sixty, if you go on a diet and lifestyle program and feel constrained, you're likely to go off it sooner or later. Offering a spectrum of choices is much more effective; then, you feel free and empowered.

3. Eating bad food does not make you a bad person.

The language of behavioral modification often has a moralistic quality to it that turns off a lot of people (like "cheating" on a diet). It's a small step from thinking of some foods as "bad" to seeing yourself as a "bad person;" at that point, might as well finish the pint of ice cream.

Also, the term "patient compliance" has a fascist, creepy quality to it, sounding like one person manipulating or bending his or her will to another. In the short run, I may be able to pressure you into changing your diet, but sooner or later (usually sooner), some part of you will rebel.

What's sustainable are joy, pleasure, and freedom.

4. How you eat is as important as what you eat.

When I eat mindfully, I have more pleasure with fewer calories.

If I eat mindlessly while watching television, reading, or talking with someone else, I can go through an entire meal without tasting the food, without even noticing that I've been eating. The plate is empty but I didn't enjoy the food -- I had all of the calories and little of the pleasure. Instead, if I eat mindfully, paying attention to what I'm eating, smaller portions of food can be exquisitely satisfying.

"Eating with ecstasy" is much more sustainable than "portion control." Here's a downloadable guided meditation: http://www.pmri.org/spectrum/guided_meditations.html

Also, when you pay attention to what you're eating, you notice how different foods affect you, for better and for worse. More healthful foods make you feel good -- light, clear, energetic. Less healthful foods make you feel bad -- heavy, dull, sluggish. Then, it comes out of your own experience, not because some doctor or book or friend told you.

5. Joy of living is a much better motivator than fear of dying.

When you make healthy diet and lifestyle changes, most people find that they feel so much better, so quickly, it reframes the reason for changing from fear of dying to joy of living. Joy and love are powerful, sustainable motivators, but fear and deprivation are not.

Trying to scare people into changing doesn't work very well. Telling someone that they're likely to have a heart attack if they eat too many unhealthful foods or that they may get lung cancer if they don't quit smoking doesn't work very well, at least not for long. Efforts to motivate people to change based on fear of getting sick or dying prematurely are generally unsuccessful.

Why? It's too scary. We all know we're going to die one day -- the mortality rate is still 100 percent, one per person -- but who wants to think about it? Even someone who has had a heart attack usually changes for only a few weeks before they go back to their old patterns of living and eating.

Once we accept fully that we're going to die one day, then we can start to ask, "How can I live more fully?" As Quincy Jones likes to say, "Live every day like it's your last, and one day you'll be right."

For the same reasons, talking about "prevention" or "risk-factor reduction" is boring to most people. Telling someone they're going to live to be 86 instead of 85 is not very motivating -- even when they're 85 -- for who wants to live longer if you're not enjoying life?

Sometimes, people say, "I don't care if I die early -- I want to enjoy my life." Well, so do I. That's the false choice -- is it fun for me or is it good for me? Why not both? It's fun for you and good for you to look good, feel good, have more energy, think more clearly, need less sleep, taste better, smell better, and perform better athletically--and sexually.

Ironically, some of the behaviors that many people think are fun and sexy -- like smoking cigarettes, overeating, abusing alcohol, and chronic stress -- are the same ones that leave them aging faster and feeling tired, lethargic, depressed, and impotent. How fun is that? (Check out Christy Turlington's site,www.smokingisugly.com.)

When you eat a healthier diet, quit smoking, exercise, meditate, and have more love in your life, then your brain receives more blood and oxygen, so you think more clearly, have more energy, need less sleep. Your brain can grow so many new brain neurons in only three months that your brain can get measurably bigger! Your face gets more blood flow, so your skin glows more and wrinkles less. Your heart gets more blood flow, so you have more stamina and can even begin to reverse heart disease. Your sexual organs receive more blood flow, so you may become more potent -- the same way that drugs like Viagra work.

For many people, these are choices worth making -- not just to live longer, but also to live better. Life is to be fully enjoyed.

5 Cleansing Tips for a Wellness Boost

2010-04-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

By Jenny Nelson

Spring is a very traditional time for a cleanse. It’s an instinctive behavior that is deeply rooted in our bodies, as we tend to consume heavier, more acidic, and mucus forming foods in the winter months, so as the days lengthen and we transition to warmer weather, our bodies naturally want to lighten and expand. It’s a time to move toward the light, to stretch, grow, and shed our winter layers—both emotionally and physically.

It’s amazing how all of nature works to assist us in this expansion and lightening process. Everywhere we look there are new growths of bitter greens such as dandelion, nettles and purslane pushing up through the ground. Their detoxifying and liver-supporting properties make them absolutely perfect for a spring cleanse and a very simple and inexpensive addition to our salads and juices. One person’s weeds are another’s spring tonic!

We don’t have to necessarily jump into a full blown fast or detoxification program to experience the healing and re-energizing benefits of beginning to simplify. As we naturally begin to eat lighter foods, and probably even naturally lessen the amount of foods taken in, we can begin incorporating some simple steps into our daily routines for these same benefits.

1. Let go of salty, heavy foods, especially red meat.

Foods to avoid as they are acid (and mucus) forming: nuts and seeds (unless soaked and sprouted and always organic!), dairy products, alcohol, refined sugars and flours, red meat, and caffeine. This will be the most beneficial thing you can do as the weather begins to warm. And it should actually be the easiest since when we begin to really listen to our bodies, we might realize that the foods we crave in the spring are lighter and fresher—tending towards the new salad ingredients that have been absent all winter and feeling drawn to bright, vibrant, fresh foods to create changes in our internal environment that correspond to the changes in the outside world.

2. Incorporate all the green plants you can—especially local, organic, young, and fresh ones.

You can grow your own sprouts (for eating) and wheatgrass (for juicing). Add cleansing foods to your daily diet as much as possible, such as herbal tea, fresh lemon juice in water (warm or room temperature), fresh vegetable juices, raw fruits and vegetables (with the exception of bananas as they can be a bit more mucus forming and high in sugar), steamed vegetables (leafy and root), sprouts, sea vegetables (nori, wakame, dulse, hijiki, arame, kelp, irish moss) and wild blue green and micro algaes (spirulina, chlorella, crystal manna), filtered or spring water, vegetable broth, and cooked non-gluten grains (quinoa, amaranth, millet, brown rice).

All of these foods are nourishing and satiating while cleansing and alkalizing in our bodies. Raw onions and garlic have wonderful anti-microbial and anti-parasitic properties and can easily be added to any of your daily meals. Support the liver and gallbladder, which are the organs that are activated in the spring when winter fat and mucus begin to clear out of the system, with pungent herbs like mint, basil, fennel, marjoram, rosemary, caraway, dill and bay.

3. Incorporate a daily probiotic

Taking probiotics daily creates healthy intestinal flora and boosts our overall immune system and serotonin production since 80% of our immune system resides in our gut and most of the serotonin production occurs there as well. To stay healthier and feel happier, a probiotic of at least 16 billion live organisms per serving will be incredibly beneficial.

4. Add in at least 30 minutes of some form of movement every day.

Walking, yoga or some form of stretching, jumping on a rebounder, doing somersaults or cartwheels in the new grass, climbing a tree, hiking a hill or a mountain, running, gathering dandelion greens, digging up new garden beds. . . the list goes on and on and doesn’t have to include an expensive gym membership or special equipment. Our bodies are the most effective cleansing tools we have. How we move them and get them to sweat creates space for toxins to move out of our system, we lose that extra winter weight, we feel lighter and looser, and our overall health improves immediately.

5. Lighten up your thoughts.

This is a simple one, but extremely important and often overlooked. As the winter darkness fades and everything begins to sprout, blossom and become new again, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to push our thoughts through the dark as well where they’ve been gathering strength and roots. This provides an inner detox with amazing benefits!

Five minutes of meditation in the morning when you wake up and again at night before going to sleep easily fits into our daily lives and can become one of the most life-changing habits. Take a moment to close your eyes and really be grateful for your meals—breakfast, lunch and dinner, no matter where you are. I was recently at a restaurant with friends and we joined hands and thanked the farmers, the chef, the servers, and each other for the food and energy that culminated in that meal. These things are simple but have enormous ripple effects. Laugh, be curious, learn something new whenever you can, teach someone else something new, put yourself in someone else’s shoes and give five different people a compliment every day. Remember that each of us is a unique, strong, compassionate and beautiful being, and we can make the biggest difference in the world by being authentic, hopeful, and kind (especially to ourselves). Creating vibrant health and peaceful thoughts become the greatest gift we can give to the world.

Happy Spring!

Jenny Nelson is a Wellness Specialist & Coach for Dr. Alejandro Junger’s Clean Program.

Synthetic Ingredients to ALWAYS Avoid…

2010-04-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

Read your labels, and not just on your food. It’s important to be aware of the ingredients in your body care (soaps, lotions, sunscreens, etc.) because these ingredients have been shown to irritate the respiratory, immune, and digestive systems… and some even have been linked to cancers!

Here is my list of ingredients to always avoid:

CLEANSERS

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

Sodium Laureth Sulfate

Sodium Myreth Sulfate

PETROCHEMICALS

Petrolatum

Mineral Oil

Paraffin

PRESERVATIVES

Parabens (all of them) (methylparaben, propylparaben, etc)

DMDM Hydantoin

CHEMICAL SUNSCREENS

Oxybenzone

Avobenzone

Octinoxate

MOISTURIZERS

Propylene Glycol

Butylene Glycol

Polyisobutene

Stay happy, be healthy!

Dr. M

Go Green this Spring!

2010-03-27T05:57:00.000-07:00

Spring is a wonderful time for new beginnings. One thing I encourage you to do this spring is to start a garden. It's a way to get fresh food everyday, reduce your grocery bill, and it's eco-friendly!

Here are some of my "easy" ways for you to Go Green this spring...

Become a Green Consumer

Shop wisely: Buy green products whenever possible, avoid excess packaging, and look for biodegradable products.

Take your own cotton or canvas bags to the grocery store and market.

Replace your usual paper products with recycle ones, or use reusable products like cotton cloths instead of paper towels.

Buy locally. It’s good for your economy and saves energy in transportation.

Replace your personal care products with green alternatives.

Maintain a Healthy Home

Choose furniture made of natural fibers, whole wood, metal and glass.

Avoid using aerosols, such as hair spray and spray paint.

Use low-VOC paints and low-VOC adhesives.

Don’t use chemical pesticides on your lawn or garden. Plan your landscape so it needs less chemical help- ask the staff at your local nursery for advice. If you have garden pests, call in an army of parasites and predators.

Open up the windows and circulate fresh air through your house as often as possible.

Have your air-conditioning and heating systems professionally inspected annually. Make sure your furnace, stove, and other combustion devices are vented directly to the outdoors.

Select nontoxic bedding- most mattresses and bedding are made with a stew of chemicals, including chemical flame retardants and formaldehyde.

Conserve water. Fix leaky faucets and install low-flow toilets.

Become Energy Efficient

Turn down the heat at night to conserve fuel, or install a programmable thermostat.

Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Select a fuel-efficient, low-emissions car.

Walk or rid a bicycle instead of driving.

Community Action

Many household chemicals fall into the category of “suspected carcinogen.” If you know a product contains toxic chemicals, vote with your pocketbook and don’t buy it. Action is needed to keep these toxic chemicals out of consumer goods. Contact your representatives in Congress and tell them your concerns.

Help organize a neighborhood Dumpster Day or large-item disposal day.

Promote recycling. Start a paint exchange with your neighbors, or organize a Zero Waste even. Check out the Zero Waste Campaign here.

Contact a local environmental group and offer to work on local air and water pollution issues.

Start a community curbside composting program that sells compost to gardeners and nurseries.

Help make your community bicycle-friendly.

In the Workplace.

Bring your green habits to the office. First steps include using less paper, recycling, and conserving energy and water. Talk to your facilities manager about nontoxic, environmentally friendly cleaning solutions. Two website offering good ideas are here and here.

Tips are from the book Green Clean by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin which I highly recommend. My favorite GO GREEN book is Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano. Enjoy

Live GREEN!

Dr. M

Let it be known...

2010-02-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

Monsanto is evil. They are the root of all genetically modified food and subsequent disease in this country. WHY are people developing cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc? One word. Bad food. The company behind it all? Monsanto.

Almost everything in your grocery store center isles are a product of Monsanto. They own almost all of the big corporations.

Did you know that they are against anything organic? They are very powerful because of their money, but you can stop them from doing what they want to do--- take over the food industry.

When it comes to the Big Bad Wolf of our food system, look no further than Monsanto.

Monsanto squeezes out farmers, seed growers, and practically everyone else in the business of growing food. Monsanto has its patented genes inserted into 95% of soybeans and 80% of all the corn grown in the United States. Their monopoly is so insidious that the Department of Justice is looking into whether Monsanto's business practices are illegal.

And now, Forbes Magazine named Monsanto the #1 company of the year for 2009.

Whatever the selection criteria at Forbes, I don't support them or the values they embody.

What Monsanto fears is the public knowing there's a new way forward for our food, free from genetic engineering and harmful pesticides. That's why, when Michelle Obama created an organic garden at the White House, Monsanto had the nerve to protest the garden, urging Michelle Obama to use pesticides on her food!

Monsanto is the prime example of everything that's wrong with our food. They're a huge corporation that plows down everything in its path in pursuit of cheaper food for bigger profits. And now that Forbes named Monsanto company of the year, it's clear that fresh, organic food advocates are the David to Monstanto's Goliath.

Monsanto would like nothing more than to see the sustainable food movement fail. But with your help,we're building a grassroots movement to fight back and free our food from Monsanto's grasp.

For more information watch:

Food, Inc.

FRESH the movie

King Corn

The Future of Food

Eat well and sleep in... for your brain!

2010-02-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

Excellent article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Feb. 9--Depending on what technology reigned supreme at the time, the human brain has been compared to a telegraph, a TV and a computer.

But it's also a three-pound, flesh-and-blood human organ, and with 100 billion neurons, a very demanding one at that. Even though it comprises only 2 percent of the body's weight, it consumes 20 percent of its oxygen and a majority of its blood sugar.

It makes sense that a biochemical factory that complicated will work best with proper care and feeding, even in young and healthy college students.

The brain starts out with some built-in advantages. Not only is it encased in a sturdy skull, but a set of cells known as the blood-brain barrier keeps many bacteria and other harmful substances out of the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord.

The brain also gets first dibs on a lot of vitamins and nutrients, says Simon Evans, a University of Michigan neuroscientist who wrote the book "BrainFit for Life: A User's Guide to Life-Long Brain Health and Fitness."

Even so, college students still need to pay attention to their diets, exercise and sleep patterns, all of which play key roles in basic brain health, Dr. Evans says.

In fact, taking care of your brain when you are in your late teens and early 20s will pay lifelong benefits, he and other experts say.

The human brain continues to form new internal connections throughout youth, adolescence and early adulthood, they say. While the peak demand for brain-boosting nutrition is from 4 to 8 years of age, the process continues into the college years, says Robert Clark, a brain researcher and chief of pediatric critical care medicine at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.

"There is an idea out there that if you produce a lot of new neurons when you're young, that once they are there, they are there for good," adds Henriette Van Praag, a brain researcher with the National Institute on Aging.

Sleep is one commodity that college students often shortchange, and that not only can affect their thinking ability, but their memories, their growth and even their weight, Dr. Evans says.

Research has shown that sleep is when the day's memories are consolidated in the brain. It is also when the body secretes most of its growth hormone, which is why children who don't get enough sleep tend to be shorter than average, he says. Sleep is also a time when the body uses energy from fat cells, which is one reason why too little sleep is linked with obesity, Dr. Evans says.

Exercise doesn't just build muscles, burn fat and expand heart and lung capacity. It also makes the brain smarter.

That's one result of studies done by Dr. Van Praag and others on mice that use treadmills and perform learning tasks.

After training mice to press their noses against icons on a computer screen to get a sugar pellet, her team split them into two groups -- one that was sedentary and the other that had plenty of treadmill workouts.

The mice that exercised were not only better at pressing the right icons and learning to negotiate a maze, but were quicker to adapt when researchers changed the icon that yielded the reward, she says.

When the scientists examined the mice brains later, they found that the ones that exercised had grown new neurons in a key part of the hippocampus, a brain area involved in memory and learning, and that the number of fresh neurons correlated nicely with how well the mice performed on the tests.

While she is cautious about extrapolating her results to humans, Dr. Van Praag says that the exercise-induced brain growth in mice seems to be connected to substances that flow into the brain in the bloodstream, particularly one called insulin-like growth factor.

On the nutritional front, college students' bodies are pretty good at supplying energy to the brain. "Anybody who can take an Extra Value Meal at McDonald's and convert it into something useful has a pretty sophisticated digestive system," says Dr. Clark.

That doesn't mean a balanced diet is unimportant, though, the experts say.

Like the rest of the body, the brain benefits when a person's diet has a proper ratio of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Americans tend to consume too much Omega-6, which is prevalent in vegetable oils and can constrict blood vessels and cause inflammation, Dr. Evans says, while Omega-3, found most famously in fish oil, is anti-inflammatory.

Dr. Clark has found in his own research that when the brain is starved of nutrients, it begins to eat itself to survive, a process known as autophagy.

The same thing happens during starvation in the rest of the body, he says, but the effects are not as dire. " If you're sick and don't eat, you will lose muscle mass," he says, "but after a couple of weeks you'll be back to your old self. But if that happens to the brain it can be kind of catastrophic," and can kill off neurons.

That kind of brain stress doesn't happen easily with college students, he notes, but it is possible, especially with students who drink too much.

"It used to be thought that alcohol kills brain cells because of its chemical makeup," Dr. Clark says, "but it's possible it has more to do with swapping alcohol for other nutrition."

"To maximize your academic potential," he adds, "you want to have a balanced diet. In general, it's pretty hard to be malnourished in America, but if you add another stress -- you're anorexic or most of your calories are coming through alcohol or you get sick -- that's when the brain is most vulnerable to nutritional shortcomings."

Exercise, diet and sleep are not just about preserving neurons -- they also boost the health of the rest of the brain, the cells known as white matter.

They get that name from the fatty myelin sheaths that protect neurons connecting one brain region to another. Just like the insulation on an electrical cable, myelin can speed up brain transmissions a hundredfold, says R. Douglas Fields, a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health and author of a new book, "The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries About the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science."

White matter in the brain doesn't just help link together brain regions, he says. Emerging research shows it also helps the brain fight off infections, regulates the chemicals that the neurons use to function and can even stimulate the growth of new neurons and blood vessels in the brain.

One study showing the importance of white matter was the analysis of autopsy slices from Albert Einstein's brain, he says. Much to the scientists' surprise, the famous physicist did not have any more gray matter neurons than other people, but his brain did have a much denser network of white matter.

There is one other thing to remember, says Michigan's Dr. Evans. Whether it's gray matter or white matter, all those cells are active all the time.

"The brain is an electrochemical organ," he says, "and it's always on. Even when you're sleeping it's recharging hormones that were depleted during the day. The brain is at constant, almost full tilt."

Eating with a rhythm... It's all about the season!

2010-02-02T08:51:00.000-08:00

As reported by the National Resources Defense Council, most produce grown in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles before being sold. Such practice requires that fruits and vegetables be picked before they’re naturally ripened in order to survive the journey, and frequently commercial suppliers are more concerned with the appearance and consistency of size of produce than nutritional content. As a result, out of season produce offers less nutritional value, lacks in taste and quality, and often comes at a steep ecological price. Alternatively, choosing freshly harvested produce supports a healthy diet and lessens some of the adverse global effects caused by packaging and shipping produce long distances.

The Benefits of Local, Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables

There are many benefits to eating foods that are naturally available in a given season and location:

In-season produce provides optimal nutritional value.
Eating seasonally encourages a diverse diet.
Buying in-season, local produce supports your local economy.
Buying fruits and vegetables during their natural season is cheaper.
Buying local produce reduces the pollution caused by shipping, packaging, and storing fruits and vegetables.

Varying your diet to align with the season’s bounty will encourage you to try foods that may be otherwise outside your comfort zone. Though fruits may not be as enticing during the colder autumn and winter months as they are during the sweltering summer, seasonal winter fruits contain an abundance of vitamin C, iron, fiber, folate and other nutrients and still rival their summer siblings in flavor. Similarly, vegetables harvested in winter abound with vitamins A and C, fiber, potassium and more.

Winter Fruits and Vegetables

Winter Fruits include:

Bananas
Pears
Blood oranges
Persimmons
Clementines
Pomegranates
Cranberries
Pummelos
Grapefruit
Rhubarb
Kiwi
Satsuma oranges
Kumquats
Passion fruit
Tangerines

Winter Vegetables include:

Artichokes
Lettuce
Bok choy
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Radishes
Rhubarb
Snow peas
Winter squash
Sweet potatoes
Celery root
Watercress
Kale
Rutabaga
Parsnips

Sources for Finding Local, Seasonal Produce

Health.discovery.com provides a fall and winter produce guide including nutritional information, how to pick, store and prepare each fruit/vegetable, and links to recipes.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) offers an online directory of local produce classified by state and season.

LocalHarvest.org encourages buying local produce and reinstating the relationship between food and the land. A CSA (community supported agriculture) box is a great option for ensuring that produce is both local and seasonal, plus CSA boxes can be delivered to your doorstep. LocalHarvest.org includes a directory of CSA farms.

Sustainabletable.org addresses issues of sustainability and offers a plethora of resources and information.

Making the Choice

Next time you’re tempted to reach for that out-of-season nectarine from Chile or papaya from Brazil, consider the seasonal produce available from your local region and savor the nutritional and ecological benefits of eating with the seasons.

It's all about the season!

Eat Well, and Go Green!

Dr. M

The Spunky Coconut!

2010-01-16T19:06:00.000-08:00

I am very much in love with The Spunky Coconut. It's a wonderful website full of delicious recipes that are Gluten Free, Casein Free, Sugar Free and often Raw. Kelly, (the genius mom who created SC) also has a cookbook that is awesome.

You must check out The Spunky Coconut!

Eat Well,

Dr. M

FRESH the movie...

2009-12-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen Food, Inc. please do. You can get it on Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Best Buy, etc. It will astound you, and you will learn SO much about food and where to begin to make changes for your health and for the betterment of the world.

FRESH the movie is the answer to Food, Inc. It's a movie that is only available if you buy a license for it, and that's what I am going to do.

My co-chapter leader for Weston A. Price and I had a conversation, and from those exchange of words, we have an idea that has created quite a stir...

So, we are proud to announce...

on March 21st 2010

Come meet Joel Salatin and hear him speak. Watch FRESH the movie and meet the producer ana Sopia joanes. YES, they will both be there and after they speak and we watch the movie, we will have a trifecta symposium on how to GO LOCAL. Eat locally, grow locally, etc. Chipotle will be there, as will many local farmers. You will be inspired and filled with new ideas.

See you there. RSVP to replytofresh@gmail.com

Pong just may make iPhones safer. And a little cooler looking too.

2009-12-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

With cell phones attached to our ears (and our kids' ears) more than we'd all like to admit, there's a whole lot of talk about what radiation might be doing to us. So it's sure nice to know about the new Pong iPhone case, a protective cover that's designed to cut down your exposure to radiation.

Actually, it's the very first case of its kind that was proven to reduce cell phone radiation by FCC-certified labs, and even a study by the skeptics at Wired Magazine agreed.

The Pong just looks like a sleek, simple silicone case that most of us iPhone users already use to keep our children's fingerprints off it. The only difference is--and it's a big one--this case contains a module that redirects the radiation away from your head. And if you've got young iPhone users in your home, their heads too.

All this and you still keep your signal strength? Now that's technology for you.

Special Offer : Get $10 off a Pong iPhone case with code COOLMOM

Happy Holidays,

Dr. M

Your glass is half full, I promise you...

2009-11-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

"Things would go well for us if we would think positively about everything."

--Mary Hayes, CLAOQUOT

Each of our thoughts are like individual seeds. These thoughts will plant our life garden. Whatever our thoughts, they grow in our gardens. Each day we will process about 50,000 thoughts or thought seeds. Positive thoughts will produce positive results. Have you ever been aware of what you are thinking about during the day? Of the possible 50,000 thoughts in one day - if the positive thoughts were flowers and the negative thoughts were weeds - how would your garden look at the end of the day?

Be well, and just remember, "It's OK"!
Dr. M

Gratitude... the key to life!

2009-11-18T05:01:00.000-08:00

Excerpted from Giving Thanks

Do you know that happiness, the sheer joy in being alive, is within your reach? All you need is an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude creates happiness because it makes us feel full, complete; it’s the recognition that we have all we need, at least in this moment.

Recent scientific research has begun to indicate that positive emotions, such as gratitude and love, strengthen and enhance the immune system, enabling the body to resist disease and recover more quickly from illness, through the release of endorphins into the bloodstream. Endorphins are the body’s natural painkillers. Among other effects, they stimulate dilation of the blood vessels, which leads to a relaxed heart.

What this means is that the more we experience a sense of gratitude, we literally bathe ourselves in good hormones and feel happier and more content with our lives. Like most great spiritual truths, gratitude is stunningly simple. This is not to say it’s necessarily easy to practice. All kinds of distractions, obfuscation, and negative attitudes from our upbringings may get in the way. But all you really have to do to receive gratitude’s gifts is make a commitment to be thankful on a daily basis, and the world will be suddenly transformed into a beautiful wonderland in which you are invited to play.

Be well, live well, and GIVE THANKS!

Dr. M

Ten Secrets of the Effortlessly Healthy Folks...

2009-11-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

They don't solve problems with food

Almost everyone is guilty of occasionally drowning their sorrows in a pint of Ben & Jerry's or taking out frustration on a batch of brownies, but healthy people definitely don't make it a habit. They tend not to eat purely for emotional reasons. When you are upset (or bored, lonely, frustrated or angry), ask yourself: Is food really going to solve the problem, or will it just end up making you feel worse after you finish eating? Chances are, the food won't fix what's bothering you, so it's important to come up with a list of other small pleasures you can turn to instead of food. Some ideas include going to the gym, for a walk, watching a movie, calling a friend, playing with your kids, or taking a bubble bath.

They exercise regularly

Nine out of ten people who've lost weight and maintained it exercise regularly and make it a critical part of their lives. Even if you've never been a fitness fanatic, it's not too late to get moving. Even taking a few 15-minute walks throughout the day will be a move in the right direction. Once you start to enjoy the mood-boosting and calorie-burning advantages of exercise, start looking for ways to keep your workouts interesting. Join a local gym and try a variety of classes and cardio machines, find friends to walk with, or experiment with at-home exercise DVDs.

They keep track of their weight

Healthy people know how much they weigh, and they monitor that number by stepping on the scale weekly or bimonthly. It's not about a having an unhealthy fixation on that number on the scale, but it's a way to catch a 5-pound gain before it suddenly turns into a 20-pound gain. Realize that your weight will naturally fluctuate within 5 pounds or so. Aim to keep your weight within a five-pound range, and if you see it go above that buffer zone, make sure you have an immediate plan of action for how to address it.

They don't diet

Everyone needs to get rid of that diet mentality and realize that what you are doing is making a permanent lifestyle change. You do have to eat plenty of nutrient-dense foods and ditch the processed foods if you want to stay healthy, but it's about reassessing what you eat and being more sensible in your choices, not about a quick-fix, crazy diet. Research has also shown that healthy people tend to have a better quality diet than those who are overweight. They eat more organic fruits and vegetables and more fiber, and drink more water—all healthy things that provide more food volume for the number of calories.

They eat breakfast

According to the National Weight Control Registry, which tracks the habits and strategies of more than 5,000 people who have maintained a significant weight loss, nearly 80 percent of these successful losers eat breakfast every single day. And most of their naturally lean counterparts do the same, and make sure that they eat within about an hour of waking up. Breakfast is literally breaking the fast of the night. Until you send food into your system, your metabolism doesn't really start to kick in.

They move, stand and walk more

Healthy people are rarely sitting. Beyond their regular fitness routines, they simply move around more—and consequently burn more calories—throughout the day. And a study at the Mayo Clinic confirmed this: Researchers found that on average, a group of lean subjects sat for two hours a day less than the obese subjects, potentially burning up to 350 additional calories.

They don't skip meals

There are two problems with skipping meals—and thin people are careful not to fall prey to them. Going more than six hours without food will slow down your metabolism, plus you'll likely get so desperately hungry that you'll grab anything (as opposed to something healthy) and eat too much of it. Healthy people keep their gas tanks [i.e., their stomachs] between one-quarter and three-quarters full all the time. The best way to do that is to eat frequent mini-meals every three to four hours.

They don’t eat before bed

In order for your fat burning hormones to do what they need to do, you must not eat before bed. A good rule of thumb is do not eat within three hours of going to sleep. If your body has to digest, there is no way that it cannot rest. So if you aren’t a good sleeper to begin with, skip the midnight snack and you may find yourself sleeping much better and getting skinnier!

They don't surround themselves with temptation

Rather than stocking the cupboards with junk food, thin people's kitchens tend to be filled with healthy foods. That doesn't mean you can never have any indulgences in the house, just that you shouldn't have so many that you're likely to overeat them. For example, if you love to bake, give most of your sweets away to friends, or have your kids bring them to school or soccer practice, leaving just a few behind to enjoy yourself.

They stop eating when they're full

Most healthy people are not members of the clean-plate club. Portion control is everything. Instead of mindlessly eating however much they are served, they pay attention to internal hunger cues and satiety. They are tuned into noticing when they are satisfied, and they stop eating even if there is food left. They often report that they don't like that feeling of being uncomfortably full, so they've learned how to stop before they reach it.

Be well,

Dr. M

All about coconut oil!

2009-11-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIVand cancer, dental care, and bone strength. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing, etc.

The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia. As a result of these various health benefits of coconut oil, though its exact mechanism of action was unknown, it has been extensively used in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicinal system.

Coconut oil is often preferred by athletes and body builders and by those who are dieting. The reason behind this being that coconut oil contains lesser calories than other oils, its fat content is easily converted into energy and it does not lead to accumulation of fat in the heart and arteries. Coconut oil helps in boosting energy and endurance, and enhances the performance of athletes.

Health benefits of coconut oil include the following:

Hair Care: Coconut oil is one of the best natural nutrition for hair. It helps in healthy growth of hair providing them a shinny complexion. Regular massage of the head with coconut oil ensures that your scalp is free of dandruff, lice, and lice eggs, even if your scalp is dry. Coconut oil is extensively used in the Indian sub-continent for hair care. It is an excellent conditioner and helps in the re-growth of damaged hair. It also provides the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair. It is therefore used as hair care oil and used in manufacturing various conditioners, and dandruff relief creams. Coconut oil is normally applied topically for hair care.
Stress Relief: Coconut oil is very soothing and hence it helps in removing stress. Applying coconut oil to the head followed with a gentle massage helps in removing mental fatigue.
Skin Care: Coconut oil is excellent massage oil for the skin as well. It acts as an effective moisturizer on all types of skins including dry skin. The benefit of coconut oil on the skin is comparable to that of mineral oil. Further, unlike mineral oil, there is no chance of having any adverse side effects on the skin with the application of coconut oil. Coconut oil therefore is a safe solution for preventing dryness and flaking of skin. It also delays wrinkles, and sagging of skin which normally become prominent with age. Coconut oil also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and otherskin infections. Therefore coconut oil forms the basic ingredient of various body care products such as soaps, lotions, creams, etc., used for skin care.
Premature Aging: Coconut oil helps in preventing premature aging and degenerative diseases due to its antioxidant properties.
Heart Diseases: There is a misconception spread among many people that coconut oil is not good for the heart. This is because it contains a large quantity of saturated fats. However, coconut oil is beneficial for the heart. It contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in preventing various heart problems including high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. The saturated fats present in coconut oil are not harmful as it happens in case of other vegetables oils. It does not lead to increase in LDL levels. It also reduces the incidence of injury in arteries and therefore helps in preventing atherosclerosis.
Weight Loss: Coconut oil is very useful in reducing weight. It contains short and medium-chain fatty acids that help in taking off excessive weight. It is also easy to digest and it helps in healthy functioning of the thyroid and enzymes systems. Further, it increases the body metabolism by removing stress on pancreases, thereby burning out more energy and helping obese and overweight people reduce their weight. Hence, people living in tropical coastal areas, who eat coconut oil daily as their primary cooking oil, are normally not fat, obese or overweight.
Pancreatitis: Coconut oil is also believed to be useful in treating pancreatitis.
Digestion: Internal use of coconut oil occurs primarily as cooking oil. Coconut oil helps in improving the digestive system and thus prevents various stomach and digestion related problems including irritable bowel syndrome. The saturated fats present in coconut oil have anti microbial properties and help in dealing with various bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc., that cause indigestion. Coconut oil also helps in absorption of other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids.
Immunity: Coconut oil is also good for the immune system. It strengthens the immune system as it contains antimicrobial lipids, lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid which have antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia.
Healing: When applied on infections, it forms a chemical layer which protects the infected body part from external dust, air, fungi, bacteria and virus. Coconut oil is most effective on bruises as it speeds up the healing process by repairing damaged tissues.
Infections: Coconut oil is very effective against a variety of infections due to its antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. According to the Coconut Research Center, coconut oil kills viruses that cause influenza, measles, hepatitis, herpes, SARS, etc. It also kills bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and gonorrhea, etc. Coconut oil is also effective on fungi and yeast that cause candidiasis, ringworm, athlete's foot, thrush,diaper rash, etc.
Liver: The presence of medium chain triglycerides and fatty acids helps in preventing liver diseases as they substances are easily converted into energy when they reach the liver, thus reducing work load on the liver and also preventing accumulation of fat.
Kidney: Coconut oil helps in preventing kidney and gall bladder diseases. It also helps in dissolving kidney stones.
Diabetes: Coconut oil helps in controlling blood sugar, and improves the secretion of insulin. It also helps in effective utilization of blood glucose, thereby preventing and treating diabetes.
Bones: As mentioned earlier, coconut oil improves the ability of our body to absorb important minerals. These includecalcium and magnesium which are necessary for development of bones. Thus coconut oil is very useful to women who are prone to osteoporosis after middle age.
Dental Care: Calcium is an important element present in teeth. Since coconut oil facilitates absorption of calcium by the body, it helps in getting strong teeth. Coconut oil also stops tooth decay.
HIV and Cancer: It is believed that coconut oil plays an instrumental role in reducing viral susceptibility of HIV and cancer patients.

Whew!

Lots of good information here. Start somewhere, use coconut oil when you cook and bake!

Take care,

Dr. M

Pick Your Own

2009-09-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

My fall tradition, for the past seven years has been going to Larriland Farms in Howard County, MD. This year, I am thrilled to bring my two sons! It's a beautiful farm full of fresh fruits, vegetables, and wildflowers. You can pick your own from May-November every year.

Coming in October will be their famous pumpkin patches, amazing apple orchards, broccoli fields, straw maze, hay rides, and homemade apple cider. You and your family will have the best time there, guaranteed!

Here are some pictures from my son, Aiden's first time at Larriland.

For more information, be sure to visit www.pickyourown.com

Have fun!

Dr. M

The Green Festival is coming!

2009-09-13T07:30:00.001-07:00

Washington DC Green Festival 
Making positive change in our communities! 
Saturday and Sunday, October 10-11 
Washington Convention Center  
www.greenfestivals.org  

We always hear that it’s easy being green. How come we never hear how fun it is? Join us at Green Festival for a great variety of fun and educational activities for the entire family:

• Delicious organic meals and snacks available all day—yum!

• Kids of all ages can explore the Organic Valley Green Kids’ Zone. Youths 18 and younger get in FREE!

• Your older kids will want to check out the Green Teen Pavilion, featuring safe cosmetics, make-your-own T-shirt shopping bags, and the latest in all-electric scooters and motorcycles.

• Sample organic, Fair Trade coffee, tea and chocolate—they really do taste better.

• Find out what’s working in our communities and communities a world away at the Fair Trade Pavilion.

• Dig in to the 13 insightful workshops at the Green Home Pavilion, where you’ll learn the best tips and tricks to go green and save green—for apartments, condos or houses.

• Enjoy live, local music all weekend.

• Meet your neighbors at the Community Action Center to get the scoop on the issues affecting your community, and learn more about green jobs.

• In our unique Green Marketplace with more than 350 green businesses, it’s easy go green, support the local economy and find that perfect something for that someone special.

• Take in happy hour at the organic beer and wine garden.

• Enjoy the yoga and dance classes for the whole family!

Visionary Speakers include . . . Dr. Cornel West, Ed Begley, Jr., Amy Goodman, John Perkins, Lester Brown, Joel Salatin, Dolores Huerta, Eleanor Smeal, Medea Benjamin, Stuart Pimm, Otto Scharmer, Naomi Davis, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., David Orr, Kevin Danaher, Alisa Gravitz, Alan Greene, MD, and many more  PLUS... It’s time to think holidays, and you’ll find exceptional deals on great gifts! Check out thousands of eco-friendly products and services screened for their commitment to people and the planet—everything from natural body products and organic cotton clothing to Fair Trade gifts and sustainable home remodeling materials.  Also available for you to get the most of your Green Festival experience: Green Festival Bookstore and Author Signings – ASL Interpretation – Electronics Recycling

To see the entire program of events, workshops, speakers and exhibitors - download the program guide at www.greenfestivals.org/downloads.  

All at a nearly zero-waste event!

Live Green and Have Fun!

Dr. M

pH: The Numbers Don't Lie!

2009-09-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

The pH of our bodily fluids is the key to understanding how healthy or unhealthy we are. pH balancing is a measure of acidity and alkalinity. Everything can be measured on the pH scale with 1 being the most acidic, 14 being the most alkaline and 7, in the middle, is neutral.

Disease and inflammation can only exist in an acidic body. This is absolutely vital for us to understand. It doesn’t matter how many generations that have gone before you have had cancer or some other life threatening disease. If your body is in balance, that disease cannot exist in your body. The reason that so many people are suffering in this country with debilitating and life threatening diseases is that our bodies are so acidic.

Surely in America we should be eradicating disease. We should be boasting the best health in the world, but despite the billions of dollars that go into medical research, technology and hospitals each year, the health of this nation is in massive decline.

The reason is this. The acid-alkaline balance of our body is dependent on two primary factors; stress and nutrition, and here in America we are terrible at both! Stress has an incredibly acidic effect on our bodies, creating an environment that invites sickness and disease. Also, the food we eat has either an acidic, neutral or alkaline effect on our bodies. When the bulk of our food has an acidic effect, the repercussions can be devastating.

The most acid forming foods and substances include; meat, dairy, sugar, most grains, most nuts, junk food, processed food, soda, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, chemical additives, preservatives, drugs and medications, synthetic vitamins.

Cooking our foods also makes them more acidic. Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is ridiculously high in extremely acid forming foods. The ideal diet would be 80% raw or lightly steamed vegetables and fruits, and 20% acid forming foods. Just take a look at your plate over the next week and see how close you get to these percentages. We do need some acid forming foods but just not in the quantities that most people consume them.

Once your body is in balance, symptoms of pain, sickness and depression can start to be naturally alleviated. Chasing symptoms doesn’t address the underlying cause. pH balancing gets to the root of the problem. It really is as simple as that!

Be well, Eat well, Live well,

Dr. M

Oh Boy!

2009-08-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

I am so excited to announce the birth of my second son, Peyton Grant Mowry. Born July 23, 2009 at 12:39pm, 7 pounds and 14 ounces, 20 inches long. I now am a proud mamma of two beautiful boys. My first son, Aiden is now 18 months old and he is the best big brother! There is nothing better than enjoying family time like we have in the last several weeks. As a new mom for the second time, I feel wonderful and energetic. This is an amazing time in my life and I couldn't be happier!

Some of you may have noticed I have slowed down a bit on my postings toward the end of my pregnancy and in the last couple of weeks... now you know why!

So, here are the latest photos of my two sons. Enjoy!

Dr. M

Go Raw, feel the difference!

2009-07-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Many people may come to the raw way of eating because it is an effective way to lose weight. But that's not the only benefit of adopting this healthy lifestyle; the raw foods diet has been linked to more energy, healthier skin, a reduced risk of heart disease and better digestion. In addition, raw foods provide the following benefits:

Raw foods are easy to digest
Raw foods provide the maximum amount of energy with minimal bodily effort
Raw foods have healing powers that can alleviate many illnesses from low energy, allergies, digestive disorders, weak immune system, high cholesterol, candida, to obesity & weight problems (weight normalization), etc.

Research and real life experiences have also shown that a person can prevent a body's healthy cells from turning into malignant cancerous cells by consuming mostly a raw food diet & whole organic foods. Phytonutrients (plant nutrients) are found in fresh, uncooked plant foods. These nutrients include antioxidants and are important for prevention of disease, especially cancers. When food is cooked (above 130 degrees Fahrenheit) many of the nutrients are destroyed and no longer available for use by your body (enzymes start dieing at 106 degrees Fahrenheit).

It is easy to get complete protein while eating a plant based diet, which includes 8 amino acids. Plant proteins are easier to digest and don’t clog our arteries like animal proteins do. That said, even if you still choose to consume some animal products, you will benefit from adding raw foods into your daily diet.

What is Wrong with Cooked Foods?

Heat changes the makeup of food. Foods that have been heated have lost all of their life force, and their beneficial enzymes are destroyed. The digestive system has to work harder and longer to process cooked foods to get nutrition & energy from it. Once cooked, a food can lose up to 85 percent of its nutritional value. Raw foodists call that "dead food." Since we are essentially what we eat, consuming the dead energy of dead foods make our bodies feel heavy and stagnant.

So start today, incorporate some foods that are still living in your diet. Go to the produce stand and get yourself some good plants that you can munch on all well. Take small steps to incorporate Raw Food into your diet.

Some of my favorite products come from www.goraw.com

My favorite book is Ani's Raw Kitchen and Raw Food Real World.

Gazpacho is my favorite raw soup for the summer.

I will leave you with my top ten on why raw foods are good for you...

1.) Raw foods are better quality; therefore, you eat less to satisfy your nutritional needs. The heat of cooking depletes vitamins, damages proteins and fats, and destroys enzymes that benefit digestion. As your percentage of raw foods increases, you feel satisfied and have more energy on smaller meals because raw food has the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body's needs.

2.) Raw foods have more flavor than cooked foods, so there is no need to add salt, sugar, spices, or other condiments that can irritate your digestive system or over stimulate other organs.

3.) Raw foods take very little preparation, so you spend less time in the kitchen. Even a child of 5 or 6 can prepare most items for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This gives children a sense of self-esteem and independence, not to mention the break it gives Mom or Dad.

4.) When you are eating raw, there's little chance of burns, unless you're in the middle of a forest fire or out in the sun too long. Just think! No burns to tongues, the roof of your mouth, or fingers, and many fewer house fires.

5.) Cleaning up after a raw meal is a snap. No baked-on oils or crusty messes. And any inedible parts go directly to the compost pile.

6.) Eating a diet of raw foods can reverse or stop the advance of many chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Remember, cooking creates free radicals, which are the major cause of cancer. When you lower the number of free radicals your cells are bombarded with, you lower your risk of cancer.

7.) A raw food diet can protect you from acute diseases such as colds, flu, measles, etc. Raw foods maintain a healthy body, and a healthy body will not become diseased.

8.) As long as you combine raw food properly according to the rules of Natural Hygiene, you will soon reach a level where you no longer suffer from heartburn, gas, indigestion or constipation.

9.) It is environmentally sound. With humanity on a diet of raw foods, the food industry would close up shop and take up organic gardening. This would save us enormous amounts of natural resources used to produce power for these industries. Nuclear power would be clearly unnecessary. And think of how many trees and oil reserves could be saved without the need for the paper and plastics used in packaging our processed foods.There would also be less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when all the cooking stopped. More oxygen would be produced from all the new orchards and gardens, thus helping to reverse the Greenhouse Effect.

10.) Eating raw saves you money on food, vitamins, pots and pans, appliances, doctor bills, drugs, and health insurance. So don't waste your food, yourself, and our planet by cooking what you eat. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables which are whole, fresh and raw are brimming with life and have the ability to transmit their life force directly to you.

Be well,

Dr. M

Why Grass-Fed?

2009-05-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Your grill is probably getting fired up for this summer... and I want to help you out. This is a topic I could go on about forever, but to keep it short and sweet -- make sure you eat organic meat.

Remember that if you eat beef, chicken, or fish that was given antibiotics and steroids (an industry standard!) while being raised... you too are eating steroids and antibiotics! You are what you eat, and whatever your meat consumed while alive is exactly what's going in your body.

Why are girls getting their menstrual cycles at such young ages? Why do men have breasts? Why is menopause so hard? In short, the hormones in your meat!

Organic Grass fed beef is the best...and Organic Free Range Chickens are primo as well. Make sure that animal you are eating roamed the pasture and was happy prior to your consumption. Here's why:

Five Reasons Why You Should Switch to Organic Grass Fed Beef

1. Grass Fed Beef is healthier for you and your family.
If you are already worried about the effects of meat on you or your family's health, you can stop worrying! Pasture raised beef is lower in total fat than regular beef and is rich in Omega 3 Fatty Acids!

2. There is a difference in taste between grain and pasture raised beef.
You'll probably be able to taste a difference with the first bite of a Texas grass fed beef hamburger. What you can taste is clean meat. You aren't consuming antibiotics and hormones.

3. Switching to grass fed beef can help to keep our environment clean.
All cattle eat a lot, and all cattle make a lot of waste. Did you know there are over 90 million head of cattle in the United States? The vast majority of these live in huge feed lots, and the waste has no where to go but down. It seeps into the groundwater, finds its way into the river, and pollutes the water. In fact, animal waste has already polluted many of our waterways. In addition, the corn and grains that is used to feed grain fed beef, has been sprayed with pesticides that not only get into the animal, but harm our environment.

4. American grass fed beef is more humane to the cattle.
Time is money to the average cattle rancher. Their goals are to get the cattle big and fat as fast as possible, and to make as much money as possible. How do typical ranchers speed up the process? They use grain, hormones, AND antibiotics liberally to push Mother Nature along.

5. Raising beef cattle on the pasture is safer meat.
Why? Because they are eating a diet that was suited for their bodies.

The best book on this topic, that also comes on a narrated CD is "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

If you live in the MD area, get your grass fed beef from Lew at Cedar Run Farms. His website can be accessed by clicking here.

Be well,

Dr. M

Probiotics and you...

2009-05-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

It's the season for sinus infections and allergies and one recommendation that I give to my patients is to take more probiotics than they usually do. This is to help keep the body balanced and the immune system strong. My patients report significant relief from sinus pain and headaches and overall energy levels when taking a probiotic supplement daily. So, I decided to post on this topic to help you understand probiotics better.

What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics are the natural cultures or flora necessary to keep the digestive tract and immune system functioning properly. Since a healthy digestive tract contains hundreds of different cultures, multi-strain probiotic supplements more closely match the natural ecology of the digestive system than probiotics with only one strain.

Every day, the good, natural flora in the body is killed off by stress, poor diet, caffeine, alcohol, antibiotics, antacids, over-the-counter and prescription medications, chlorinated water, and a toxic environment. Taking a multi-strain probiotic daily supports a healthy digestive tract and immune system by supporting the natural flora that is often destroyed by daily living.

Health Benefits of Probiotics

Support normal digestion and absorption of nutrients
Support healthy immune function
May help relieve occasional diarrhea, constipation, gas and bloating
Maintain a normal level of yeast/candida
Help maintain a healthy intestinal lining
Promote regularity of bowel function
Support healthy urinary tract function, especially in women
Maintain strong mucosal immune barrier
Support healthy, clear skin

Common Questions about Probiotics

What are probiotics?
Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria or natural cultures found in the digestive tract that promote balance, health and proper functioning of the digestive system.

Why take probiotic supplements?
Stress, poor diet, medication, and chlorinated water, are all factors in daily life that disturb the balance of the digestive tract. Probiotic supplements repopulate the digestive tract with the healthy cultures needed to maintain proper digestive and immune health.

What are the benefits of taking a multi-strain probiotic?
A healthy digestive tract contains many strains of probiotic cultures. That’s why it’s beneficial to take a multi-strain probiotic supplement instead of a probiotic supplement with just one strain.

Are probiotic supplements safe for infants and children? Yes. Probiotics are naturally found in the human body and are safe and effective for even the youngest children.

Be Well,

Dr. M

Celebrate Earth Day!

2009-04-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day Everyone!!

Here are some simple resolutions for you as you celebrate earth day today.

Evaluate Your Imprint

You'll be pleased to know that an annual eco-friendliness checkup is much easier and more comfortable than your annual physical. In fact, it won't take more than about half an hour and is likely to result in you not only learning some interesting facts about the environment and your habits, but also ways to change them that will be more economical. Since it's easy to forget what you've committed to doing about environmental issues or to assume your impact is smaller than it is, a yearly (or, better yet, several times a year) checkup on the different effects you're having on the environment is a great way to stay aware of your actions and keep yourself on track to green goals.

To get a good estimate of your various impacts, try some of the environmentally-focused online calculators---even though they're not a perfect science and usually based on national or regional averages and statistics that may not always be true in your exact case. To start with, you can measure your carbon footprint on the Inconvenient Truth carbon calculator (and then offset it at a sister site). Check your wattage at WattzOn.com, a site that estimates the amount of watts you use, compares it to other people in your area and suggests easy ways to reduce the number. Don't forget your water footprint, either---although it's an easy one to overlook, our changing environmental state and excessive consumption could mean we one day join the more than one billion people who currently lack a reliable drinking water supply. You can utilize the Water Calculator at H20 Conserve to estimate your water usage, but don't be surprised if the number is higher than you'd expect; seeing the figures, while scary, may give you more perspective on the issue.

Once you've assessed your impact, you can think about how to act. The biggest critique of Earth Day is that it's just one day, when the only solution for environmental problems like global warming is to change our ways for every day to come. So take advantage of the information you gather on Earth Day (and the fun offers), but don't let it be an ineffectual holiday, make it last.

Put Down The Water Bottle

We've said it before and we'll keep saying it until we see even more people carrying Siggs and other reusable water bottles. At this point, it's widely recognized that bottled water is bad for the environment (making all the disposable water bottles for the U.S. requires enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars), but convenience can keep you from fully switching to a reusable water bottle. Maybe you like the cold, pre-filled bottles ready to be grabbed out of the fridge or don't think you'll dig carrying a stainless steel or aluminum water bottle around all day. The reasons are legitimate, but when you consider that the equivalent oil that is used to create and transport your bottled water could fill it to a quarter of the bottle, it does start to seem like a wasteful and unnecessary habit-especially when it may not even be as safe as filtered tap water.

Buy For Keeps

The average American creates up to 56 tons of trash per year and often it's from items that don't need to be disposable. If we can get past the sometimes cheaper prices and temporary conveniences of disposable items, we'll also prevent products from sitting for several lifetimes in landfills. This Earth Day, commit to getting conscious about what you throw away and whether you can find a way to avoid the waste. Whether it's reusable containers for packaging leftovers and lunches or reusable shopping bags for trips to the grocery store, start to assess your trash and then give it an overhaul. When you're buying products, look for little to no packaging and packaging that is biodegradable or recyclable.

Unscrew Your Incandescents

Yep, it's time to get rid of those classic bulbs you've always bought and move to compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs or LED light bulbs. Light bulbs, like water bottles, may seem like such small things that you wonder what good it'll really do to change, but traditional incandescent bulbs are big energy drainers in comparison to new alternatives and even have higher lifetime costs than CFLs and LEDs. Switching out light bulbs is pretty much a perfect Earth Day-motivated change: You can switch out the bulbs on Earth Day and you'll be reducing carbon emissions---while saving money on your electrical bill---for the rest of the year. It's minimal effort with maximum results.

Other Simple Efforts include: Recycle, Buy Organic Cotton, Use Non-Toxic Household Products and Personal Care Products, Plant a Garden (see my previous post), plant a tree, and get yourself a composter!

Live Green,

Dr. M

Synthetic Ingredients to ALWAYS Avoid…

2009-04-19T05:13:00.000-07:00

Here is my list of ingredients to always avoid:

CLEANSERS

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

Sodium Laureth Sulfate

Sodium Myreth Sulfate

PETROCHEMICALS

Petrolatum

Mineral Oil

Paraffin

PRESERVATIVES

Parabens (all of them) (methylparaben, propylparaben, etc)

DMDM Hydantoin

CHEMICAL SUNSCREENS

Oxybenzone

Avobenzone

Octinoxate

MOISTURIZERS

Propylene Glycol

Butylene Glycol

Polyisobutene

My solution to trying to avoid synthetic ingredients and afford the brands that are free of toxins? Frontier Co-op. Go to www.frontiercoop.com and get a catalog or look online. They sell everything that Whole Foods sells for body care (lotions, sunscreens, soap, shampoo, essential oils, everything!) for SO much less... almost 50% less. If you order with one of your friends, and your total is $250+ you get free shipping. And right now they are offering 20% off your whole order!

Brands like California Baby and Burts Bees are my favorites. Stay tuned for a post on what products I am loving right now.

Be well,

Dr. M

Plant a garden...

2009-04-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well, if I can do it you can. I have wanted to have my own garden since I have owned a home, but I never made time to do so. This spring, I went to a lovely place called an Eastridge Garden and I was inspired.

My husband Chris and my son Aiden each did their part to help my garden come true. Chris was a human tiller, and Aiden helped me shake packs of seeds. Here's what's in my garden...

Broccoli
Romaine Lettuce
Bell Peppers: red, orange, and yellow
Asparagus
Cherry Tomatoes
Green Beans
Sweet Peas
Lima Beans
Cilantro
Parsley
Rosemary
Strawberries
A fig tree
A blueberry bush
A raspberry bush
And coming in a few weeks when the weather is warmer... summer squash, basil, and tomatoes!

This may seem like it's a lot, but really, it was unbelievably easy and therapeutic. I cannot wait to eat food that I have grown. My romaine lettuce has already tripled in size.

If you need help getting started, just let me know, or go to an Eastridge Garden. Don't put it off, get out and enjoy this beautiful weather and grow your own!

Namaste,

Dr. M

Dr. Mowry's Blog Spot

Overcoming your sugar addiction!

Overcoming Sugar Addiction

How to kill the "bad bugs" in your gut!

Frankenfish... on your plate!

Organic vs. Non-Organic

LAY OFF THE SUGAR!!!

All about Vitamin D!

Vitamin D Deficiencyby Dr. Frank Lipman:

“Let the sun shine in”

What is Vitamin D and how much do you need?

My Top Ten Tips for Healthy Sun Exposure and Optimizing your Vitamin D Levels

A thought to consider...

All Natural Bug Repellant Recipe!

How you frame your problem, may be your problem!

How to Transform Your Lifestyle and Life!

5 Cleansing Tips for a Wellness Boost

Synthetic Ingredients to ALWAYS Avoid…

Go Green this Spring!

Let it be known...

Eat well and sleep in... for your brain!

Eating with a rhythm... It's all about the season!

The Benefits of Local, Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables

Winter Fruits and Vegetables

Sources for Finding Local, Seasonal Produce

Making the Choice

The Spunky Coconut!

FRESH the movie...

Pong just may make iPhones safer. And a little cooler looking too.

Your glass is half full, I promise you...

Gratitude... the key to life!

Ten Secrets of the Effortlessly Healthy Folks...

They keep track of their weight

All about coconut oil!

Pick Your Own

The Green Festival is coming!

pH: The Numbers Don't Lie!

Oh Boy!

Go Raw, feel the difference!

Why Grass-Fed?

Five Reasons Why You Should Switch to Organic Grass Fed Beef

Probiotics and you...

What Are Probiotics?

Health Benefits of Probiotics

Common Questions about Probiotics

Celebrate Earth Day!

Synthetic Ingredients to ALWAYS Avoid…

Plant a garden...

Vitamin D Deficiency
by Dr. Frank Lipman: