Years ago, I learned the role that stress plays in digestion. The bottom line is that when you eat when you’re stressed, your body processes food quite differently. And it does so in a much more harmful way.
A new study, conducted at the University of California, San Francisco is the first to demonstrate that highly stressed people who eat a lot of high-fat, high-sugar food are more prone to health risks than low-stress people who eat the same amount of unhealthy food.
According to lead author, and assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry“Chronic stress can play an important role in influencing biology, and it’s critical to understand the exact pathways through which it works.”
“Many people think a calorie is a calorie, but this study suggests that two women who eat the same thing could have different metabolic responses based on their level of stress,” Aschbacher said. “There appears to be a stress pathway that works through diet – for example, it could be similar to what we see in animals, where fat cells grow faster in response to junk food when the body is chronically stressed.”
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of abnormalities – increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels – that occur together, increasing a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
While this stress-junk food pathway has been well mapped out with rodents and primates, this study is the first to suggest the same pathways may be at work in chronically stressed humans, according to the researchers.
“We can see this relationship exists by simply measuring stress and dietary intake, and looking inside at metabolic health,” said senior author Elissa Epel, PhD. “Diet appears to be a critical variable that can either amplify or protect against the metabolic effects of stress, but we still don’t know the details of how much it takes. It will be helpful to see what happens in our next study, when we have high stress people eat a high sugar diet for a couple weeks.”
Examining a Stress-Related Biomarker in Women
The study, published online in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, looked at a group of 61 disease-free women; 33 were chronically stressed women caring for a spouse or parent with dementia, and 28 were women with low stress.
Over the course of a year, the women reported their consumption of high sugar, high fat foods.
The researchers evaluated key biological markers associated with elevated metabolic risk. They measured participants’ waistlines and their fat distribution, using ultrasound scans to assess deep abdominal fat deposits. They tested participants’ insulin resistance, one of the core drivers of obesity and diabetes.
They also used a blood test to measure stress hormones and oxidative damage to lipids and cell RNA, a marker that has predicted higher rates of death from diabetes. Oxidative damage of the genome is also an important outcome because it is one factor that can contribute to faster cellular aging.
Many people think a calorie is a calorie, but this study suggests that two women who eat the same thing could have different metabolic responses based on their level of stress.
“We found that more frequent high-fat, high-sugar consumption significantly predicted a larger waistline, more truncal fat, higher oxidative damage, and more insulin resistance, but only among the group of women exposed to chronic stress,” said Aschbacher.
“The chronically stressed women didn’t report eating more high sugar, high fat foods than the low stressed women; however, they did have higher levels of a stress-related biomarker, peripheral Neuropeptide Y (NPY).”
The Role of Chronic Stress in Disease Processes
Based on what is known from animal studies, stress triggers greater peripheral NPY which, in combination with junk food, creates larger abdominal fat cells, and these cells may be more prone to metabolic dysregulation.
“The medical community is starting to appreciate how important chronic stress is in promoting and worsening early disease processes,” said Aschbacher. “But there are no guidelines for ‘treating’ chronic stress. We need treatment studies to understand whether increasing stress resilience could reduce the metabolic syndrome, obesity or diabetes.”
Tips:
1. Before you eat a meal, relax, take a few deep breaths, especially if you’re feeling stressed.
2. Eliminate processed foods to the best of your ability from your diet.
Source:
Chronic Stress Heightens Vulnerability to Diet-Related Metabolic Risk
While I believe that health care should be available to all of our citizens, we are still missing the boat—as the focus of the bill is treatment, medical care, rather than health, And therein lies the contradiction that will continue to cause health care costs to spiral out of control, as they have for over 30 years.
We need to add health to the “health care” equation. Study after study has demonstrated, not only the value of prevention, beyond early screening (which is the focus of most of our preventive measures.
If people are given the tools to improve their health, we will save billions of dollars in the US and trillions worldwide. We know what to do, but there is no national agenda as such. Health takes a back seat to disease treatment, and that is one of the great tragedies of our time.
The Limitations and Dangers of Modern Medicine
When I was in medical school, I learned that access to medical treatment was secondary to lifestyle in determining health status. During one of the most memorable lectures I ever heard in medical school, “A Tale of Two Cities,” a guest lecturer on epidemiology (the study of disease trends) described a study by medical economist Victor Fuchs comparing health statistics from Nevada and Utah. Although the study’s participants from the two states were nearly identical in income level, education, and age, the states had strikingly different rates of disease and mortality. The healthier residents were from Utah. Fuchs determined that this could be directly linked to positive lifestyle patterns. The participants from Utah had good diets, exercised regularly, and avoided tobacco, excessive caffeine and alcohol, and drugs. Our lecturer concluded by saying that in the United States, the vast majority of chronic disorders—like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke—can be considered lifestyle diseases. The government has estimated that 85–90 percent of these diseases are preventable.
I was awed as well as confused by this lecture: awed because it showed we do possess the power to control disease, and confused because so little control was being exercised. I eventually developed the opinion that people don’t modify their lifestyles to boost their health to optimum levels because they have excessive faith in the power of medications and surgery to save them from their own poor choices. They give up responsibility for their wellness to their doctors. As Donald B. Ardell asserted in High-Level Wellness, “The single greatest cause of unhealth in this nation is that most Americans neglect, and surrender to others, responsibility for their own health.”
John Knowles, the former president of Rockefeller Foundation, suggested that people have been duped, either accidentally or on purpose. He wrote, “People have been led to believe that national health insurance, more doctors, and greater use of high-cost hospital-based technologies will impart health. Unfortunately, none of them will.” It never made sense to me why we would depend on medications, which have the risk of significant side effects, when other choices are available and more important. My confusion about our choices was reinforced by experiences I had in hospitals.
Almost thirty years ago, the Government Accountability Office (then still called the General Accounting Office) estimated that 70 percent of the procedures used by doctors were ineffective. Coronary artery bypass surgery, for instance, has been used to treat heart disease (the leading cause of death in the United States) since the 1970s. A 1982 study conservatively estimated that at least one-seventh of all such surgeries could have actually been postponed or avoided altogether, which means that 25,000 operations per year back then were unnecessary. Life was clearly prolonged by the procedure in only 11 percent of all cases. More recent research has determined that the vast majority of these surgeries, compared to other medical treatments, provided no benefit.
Medical Treatments Do Not Address the Root Cause
It’s my opinion that the situation hasn’t changed since then. In fact, it’s probably worse. We are spending more money in the US per capita for health care services, but our health status ranks 27th in the world! Primarily because we are not preventing the preventable illnesses, by providing Americans with the information and incentives to improve their daily behaviors that dramatically impact their health and well-being.
Today, in the United States, coronary artery bypass surgery is performed twice as often as it is in Canada and Australia and four times as often as it is in western Europe, despite similar population profiles. This means that American doctors are more apt to recommend this particular treatment, whereas their counterparts in other nations are less inclined to do so—and with good reason: recent studies continue to find no significant difference in the outcomes from surgery and other medical treatments in the vast majority of patients with heart disease.
Lifestyle modification is a better way. There’s overwhelming evidence, that tragically remains ignored regarding the value of lifestyle interventions, involving a wide range of conditions. For example, Dean Ornish, M.D., a holistically oriented research cardiologist and author, demonstrated a highly effective approach to reversing coronary heart disease based on more than two decades of peer-reviewed research funded by the National Institutes of Health and several foundations. It consists of a major nutritional component to lower cholesterol, along with exercise, group support, and stress reduction. Many studies of chronic diseases show similar long-term benefits for patients than surgery.
His most recent research, just reported a few weeks ago, conducted with Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., discovered that life style changes actually improves the condition of our DNA, through reversing damage caused by stress.
Is Medical Treatment The Leading, Hidden Cause of Death?
Several studies have highlighted the various dangers of modern medicine. These include the approval of unsafe drugs, the hazards of diagnostic technologies, the high incidence of unnecessary procedures, and the inhumane and frequently stressful way patients are treated. These dangers were compiled and reported in an article called “Death by Medicine.” Certain extreme treatments, such as chemotherapy or a stay in a hospital’s intensive care unit, can actually cause post-traumatic stress disorder in those who undergo them.
What makes the situation so outrageous is that the healthcare industry has traditionally encouraged the American public to be passive consumers—to wait for developing technologies and new drugs rather than to accept the role they play in the expression of their own health and the origin of disease. The research clearly indicates that when consumers take responsibility for their health and actively participate in lifestyle modifications and decision making, they usually don’t get as sick in the first place, and when they do get sick, they heal faster.
The truth is that modern medicine has made minimal progress with its purely physiological approach to healing, except in the treatment of infectious diseases and of acute and traumatic illnesses. In fact, many see that technology has played a significant role in disrupting the cornerstone of the practice of medicine: the doctor-patient relationship. There is an increasing awareness that our medical system—contrary to its mandate—is actually the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. Each year, 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization every year is 8.9 million. The total number of iatrogenic deaths (those inadvertently caused by a physician, by surgery or other treatment, or by a diagnostic procedure) is calculated at close to 784,000 a year. The number of people having adverse drug reactions to prescribed medicine while in the hospital is 2.2 million a year. And this doesn’t even consider the adverse reactions that take place outside hospitals, which aren’t officially recorded.
I truly believe that helping people maintain and improve their health, i.e., self-care is the future of health care. It is cost effective, safe, and reaps profound benefits. Until we do that we are whistling Dixie, and doing a great disservice. Your health, I believe is your greatest wealth. What are you doing right now to promote your health and well-being?
Source: Superhealing Introduction
]]>Answer: You may want to consider a brief use of the anti-anxiety medications, and/or get a second opinion. You can gain hold of your thoughts, but it is a process, and could take a few weeks, with concerted, intentional effort to do so. I would suggest that you ask for a referral to a therapist that uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help you with this issue.
While it may seem like your thoughts are in control, they are not. I would imagine that you’ve focused on negative thoughts—fearful situations for quite some time, and that has led you to this situation, that understandably feels out of control. You can take charge of your thoughts.
The other aspect I recommend you considering is that there may be nutritional deficiencies that are exacerbating your symptoms. Key b vitamin deficiencies, vitamin d, and other mineral deficiencies (such as magnesium) can contribute to anxiety.
Also certain supplements such as Theanine (one of my favorites), an amino acid extracted from green tea can help to disrupt the stress response your thoughts are causing.
Exercise, and engaging in activities you find enjoyable will also interrupt you continuously negative thoughts. Even exposure to Mother Nature is helpful.
Bottom line is for you to know that it’s never to late to stop this type of thinking no matter how long it’s gone one. There is help and hope for you.
]]>One (1) hour of sunshine a week will elevate your vitamin D levels. Many fear the sun, due to the over reporting of the dangers of skin cancer.
According to the American Journal of Nutrition-maintaining blood concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D above 30 ng/mL) not only is important for maximizing intestinal calcium absorption but also may be important to produce adequate amounts of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in all of the body’s cells. .
Although chronic excessive exposure to sunlight increases the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer, the avoidance of all direct sun exposure increases the risk of vitamin D deficiency, which can have serious consequences. Monitoring serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations yearly should help reveal vitamin D deficiencies. Sensible sun exposure (usually 5–10 min of exposure of the arms and legs or the hands, arms, and face, 2 or 3 times per week) and increased dietary and supplemental vitamin D intakes are reasonable approaches to guarantee vitamin D sufficiency
Watch ABC news report on Vitamin D deficiency
Source:
Sunlight and vitamin D for bone health and prevention of autoimmune diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular disease
Although we know intuitively that being in touch with nature is healthy because it feels good and refreshing to be outdoors, now there’s a convincing and growing body of research confirming that it contributes to mental health and psychological development. Nature benefits us by improving self-confidence and self-discipline, deepening our sense of community and belonging, and strengthening our sense of internal coherence.
We Are a Part of Nature
We may have forgotten it, but our most distant ancestors knew they were connected to and part of the landscape. Since the human race evolved in the midst of nature, it is only logical that being in its presence is one of the fastest ways to align mind, body, and spirit and open our channels of healing. It helps us to remember. Like nothing else, experiencing nature consciously connects us to the magnificence of our true essence, our spirit. By engaging our sense of wonder, it leads us to feel appreciation for something greater than ourselves. It teaches us that although we are individuals, we are connected to a larger whole—to all of life. Its grandeur reminds us that there is something beyond what we, as human beings, could create, something timeless and unbound by the constraints of human intervention and involvement.
Nature affects us in a variety of positive ways, some of which are easily measured and some of which are not measurable but are meaningful and important nonetheless. Our exposure to a variety of colors, plants, mountains, forests, and seas, with their soothing sounds and fragrant odors, as well as the energy of different places, restores our sense of health and well-being. A 2010 study discovered that spending just twenty minutes out doors in nature gave people a greater sense of well-being and vitality, beyond what is caused merely by having engaged in physical activity or enjoyable social interactions. Wilderness excursion participants reported that just remembering their outdoor experiences enhanced their health and happiness.
Exposure to natural landscapes stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, triggering the relaxation response and the release of endorphins. This reduces the stress hormones circulating in our bodies, lowers blood pressure, and helps to relieve anxiety, anger, aggression, and depression. The opportunity to see nature, even through a window, accelerates recovery after surgery, shortening postoperative hospital stays. Other studies have determined that prison rooms with a view of a natural landscape were beneficial to the health of prisoners.
When we’re in natural settings, we are known to recover more quickly from stress. Researchers at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Uppsala University (Sweden) have found that mental fatigue is relieved by nature experiences. Nature creates a sense of wonder and fascination that counterbalances the effects of too much focused attention, such as that required to use electronic devices like computers and smartphones. After an hour of taxing mental work, a walk through a park is more mentally and emotionally restorative than a walk through a city, reading a magazine or a book, or listening to music.
Nature Promotes Kindness & Compassion
University of Rochester researchers found that after viewing scenes of nature, people were kinder and more compassionate and giving, as demonstrated by their willingness to donate money to a charity. The exposure also caused them to feel heightened concern about social outcomes and closer to members of their community. The researchers concluded that exposure to nature helps us get in touch with our basic values.
Dwelling in nature can lead to more opportunities for physical activity, which keeps us fit and offers us relief from the demands of our daily lives. More than 100 studies show that stress is decreased by participation in outdoor recreation.
Nature plays a critical role in our health and well-being, and it is imperative for you to design your lifestyle in such a way that you may take full advantage of the benefits of nature. Exposure to the natural environment is one of the most underutilized but powerful pathways to optimal health. Even if you live in an urban setting, it is important to be in contact with nature as much as possible. Add natural elements to your home, such as indoor plants, and allow fresh air and natural sunlight to come in through the windows. Make a point of visiting parks and recreational areas.
If you are fortunate to live in close proximity to nature, take advantage of the landscape around your home. Go outside and walk, bike, swim, climb, garden, and even sit where you can allow yourself the gift of nature’s presence.
Before I entering medical school at Duke University, I didn’t fully appreciate nature. That changed during my first winter in North Carolina, when I saw some of the most magnificent sunsets I’ve ever laid eyes on. These spectacles were so breathtaking that drivers would often pull off the road to watch them. I later learned that sand from the Sahara Desert is sometimes carried by the wind across the Atlantic Ocean to the North Carolina coastline, where it provides a canvas for the sun. Dramatic hues of red, pink, orange, and lavender looked like interlacing ribbons wrapping around the sun as it sank below the horizon.
Medical school and the exposure my training in medicine gave me to ill, injured, and dying patients was stressful. One day, after seeing a terminally ill patient, I didn’t know what to do with my turbulent thoughts and feelings. I rushed out of the hospital and sat in the Sarah P. Duke Garden, conveniently located behind the hospital, until I was able to recover my internal balance. My distress seemed to melt away. Created by the Duke family, this garden contains flowers and trees gathered from around the world. From that day forward, I had a favorite spot near a pond across from a terraced section filled with flowers. There I’d sit, inhaling the beauty—sometimes for hours, especially during the many weekends I was on call in the hospital.
My parents gardened. As a child, I spent a lot of time looking at my mother’s flowers. But it wasn’t until I planted my own garden outside the house where I now live that I came to appreciate how truly wondrous it is to watch a seed grow. It is amazing. Every summer, I grow herbs, peppers, and tomatoes on my deck and flowers in the garden. I find putting my hands in the soil and tending my plants to be therapeutic.
What the Ancients Knew About Nature
According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association, the healing benefits of gardens has been recognized and incorporated into medical treatment since the time of the Egyptians. In Europe, 600 years ago, gardening was used by monks as part of treatment of patients sent to monasteries to heal. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, astutely recognized the clinical improvement that people with mental illness experienced after participating in gardening. Gardening was widely used to help World War II veterans overcome the trauma of their experiences in battle. Some prisons have developed gardening programs for rehabilitative purposes, and placing healing gardens and spaces in hospitals and public settings is gaining momentum.
Tip:
Get outside—take a walk, ride your bike, garden, engage in sports. Commit to spend more time this summer outdoors.
Source:
Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being
Usually when a person is diagnosed with diabetes (type 2 adult onset), they’re told that they will be on medications for the rest of their life and that the disease will get worse. They are usually told to monitor their diet, loose, weight and exercise, without a lot of help. And most people have great difficulty doing so. There isn’t a lot of motivation if you’re told, you’re only going to get worse.
However, my experience is that it doesn’t have to be this way, and if you give your body what it needs, it will heal/reverse the dis-ease.
Most of us don’t realize, that dis-ease occurs as a response to the environment that our cells and organs are living in—an unhealthy one, where there is no ease. Dis-ease is really a sign of weakness. When the cells are returned to ease—they will restore our bodies to health. It’s just that simple, yet powerful.
Do Diet and Lifestyle Interventions Really Work?
Two studies regarding diabetes published in major medical journals (and there are many more), reveal exactly that.
One looked at the Mediterranean diet, in people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, a low–carbohydrate Mediterranean diet CMD) resulted in a greater reduction of HbA1c levels, higher rate of diabetes remission, and delayed need for diabetes medication compared with a low–fat diet.
The study involved, overweight, middle-aged men and women with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes were randomized to a low-carbohydrate Mediterranean diet or a low-fat diet.
After 4 years, participants who were still free of diabetes medications were further followed up until the primary end point (need of a diabetic drug); remission of diabetes (partial or complete); and changes in weight, glycemic control, and cardiovascular risk factors were also evaluated.
Mediterranean Diet vs. Low Fat Diet Findings
The primary end point was reached in all participants after a total follow-up of 6.1 years in the low-fat group and 8.1 years in the LCMD group; median survival time was 2.8 years and 4.8 years, respectively.
Those on the Mediterranean diet were more likely to experience any remission (partial or complete), with a prevalence of 14.7% during the first year and 5.0% during year 6 compared with 4.1% at year 1 and 0% at year 6 in the low-fat diet group.
Another study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association sought to examine the association of a long-term intensive weight-loss intervention with the frequency of remission from type 2 diabetes to normal blood sugar (glucose) levels.
The 4 year study compared an intensive lifestyle intervention with a diabetes support and education control program among 4500 obese adults with type 2 diabetes.
Lifestyle and Education Options
The lifestyle intervention included weekly group and individual counseling in the first 6 months followed by 3 sessions per month for the second 6 months and twice-monthly contact and regular refresher group series and campaigns in years 2 to 4. While the education and support group offered 3 group sessions per year on diet, physical activity, and social support.
Findings:
Partial or complete remission of diabetes, defined as transition from meeting diabetes criteria to a normal or non-diabetic level of glycemia (fasting plasma glucose <126 mg/dL and hemoglobin A1c <6.5% with no antihyperglycemic medication). At the end of the first year, the Intensive lifestyle intervention participants lost significantly more weight than the education and support group participants and had greater fitness increases.
The ILI group was significantly more likely to experience any remission (partial or complete), during the first year and 7.3% at year 4, compared with 2.0% for the DSE group at both times points. Among the lifestyle participants, 9.2% had continuous, sustained remission for at least 2, at least 3, and 4 years, respectively, compared with less than 2% of education and support participants for at least 2 years; 1.3% for at least 3 years; and 0.5% for 4 years.
The researchers concluded that an intensive lifestyle intervention was associated with a greater likelihood of partial remission of type 2 diabetes compared with diabetes support and education. However, the absolute remission rates were modest.
Sources:
The effects of a mediterranean diet on need for diabetes drugs and remission of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: Follow-up of a randomized trial
Diabetes Care, 04/22/2014 Clinical Article
A look ahead at the future of diabetes prevention and treatmACP Journal Club. An intensive lifestyle intervention increased remission from type 2 diabetes in overweight adults. [Ann Intern Med. 2013]
[Lifestyle intervention in type 2 diabetes: is remission possible? Overcoming thinking barriers–lifestyle interventions have great benefits!]. [Dtsch Med Wochenschr. 2013]
]]>“Of course not, I replied.”
“That’s what you’re doing to your entire body internally, every time you drink one. You’re bathing your cells with soda instead of water.”
I may have had a few since then, usually less than a full one a year. Then the changes-adding high fructose corn syrup, occurred, which made drinking them even worse.
For years we know that daily consumption is linked with obesity, type 2 (adult onset) diabetes, increased risk of heart disease, and more.
A recent study conducted in Sweden for 10 years followed 32,575 women aged 49-83 and 35,884 men aged 45-79 y without cardiovascular disease, cancer, or diabetes at the beginning of the study.
The consumption of sweetened beverages, including sugar–sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks and juice drinks, was assessed by using a food–frequency questionnaire.
They found, through reviewing public records ascertained 3510 incident cases of stroke, including 2588 cerebral infarctions, 349 intracerebral hemorrhages (bleeding in the brain), 156 subarachnoid hemorrhages (bleeding between the brain and the skull), and 417 unspecified strokes.
Stroke cases were ascertained by linkage to the Swedish Inpatient Register and the Swedish Cause of Death Register.
The study determined that sweetened beverage consumption was significantly positively associated with risk of total stroke and cerebral infarction but not with hemorrhagic stroke.
Source: Sweetened Beverage Consumption Is Associated with Increased Risk of Stroke in Women and Men
]]>Absolutely!! We know now that you don’t have to inherit your family’s illnesses. That the way you live is far more important that the genes you inherited from your parents, as they are changed by their internal environment. Meaning, your thoughts, feelings and emotions, and the biochemical changes caused by them, can actually turn on and off healthy and unhealthy genes, accordingly.
We also know that all chronic diseases heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), Alzheimer’s etc., are by in large lifestyle diseases. Physical inactivity in the US is one of the leading causes of these diseases, and exercise can help to reverse them. Also, a good healthy diet, authentically positive mental attitude and expressing one’s spirituality are all key ingredients to good health.
A lot of people today are worried about developing Alzheimer’s, a disease that was unheard of 40 years ago. Exercise, engagement supplements like turmeric, B complex, vitamin D, other antioxidants, can help slow down and reverse the progression of this disease.
Bottom line is if you take care of your body, it will take care of you, and you don’t have to get O-L-D (a word I don’t use). I prefer longer—living longer, sounds better and feels better than O-L-D. If you repeatedly say and believe “I’m getting older” your cells will oblige you. The fact of the matter is that at every age that is true, in terms of the length of time we’re living, but after 35, even 30, some people feel that their lives are on the decline. How tragic!! Life is a gift at each and every age. I was blessed to have parents that never allowed their age to limit them. They were in better physical shape in their seventies when I was in my thirties and that discovery led me to start exercising consistently, which I still do today.
Living each day joyfully, to the fullest and taking good care of your mind, body, and spirit is the greatest anti-aging elixir available!
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