TrueNorth Health blogs

Please Help Us Learn About Fasting and Vegan Diet

Bradley Saul — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:03:49 +0000

Bastyr University & TrueNorth Health

“Fasting and Alternatives to Standard Therapeutics (FAST): Determining the Molecular and
Physiological Mechanisms Responsible for Adult Hypertension and Obesity”

Please Help Us Learn About

Fasting and Vegan Diet

Is medically supervised water-only fasting an effective treatment for High Blood Pressure?

Vegan, Low Salt and Low Fat Diets, are shown to be an effective lifestyle therapy to reduce blood pressure and promote weight loss. Another potentially effective therapy to reduce blood pressure and promote weight loss is Short-Term, Medically Supervised, Water Only Fasting. Safe and effective alternatives for the treatment of high blood pressure and obesity are increasingly needed. This study aims to find out whether short-term fasting, combined with dietary modification, is more effective at reducing blood pressure and increasing weight loss than dietary modification alone.

If you have High Blood Pressure and are Obese and between the ages of 21 and 65, you may be eligible to participate in a research study about fasting and diet.

Study participants will be asked to get a baseline screening and get periodic blood work in addition to your normal health care. Participants with a normal physical exam and blood work who also have greater than 140/90 mmHg and are Obese at the initial screening will be eligible to participate in the study.

If a screening visit and blood work results show you are eligible, you will be able to undergo the vegan diet and the fasting treatment as a part of this research study. At the end of the 6-week study, you will also be asked to attend one more study visit after 6 months to obtain additional blood work and physical measures.

Before participating, we will need to have your Personal Information and Medical History forms completed. Click here to apply for the study.

Call us at (707) 586-5555.

for more information

Call TrueNorth Health
Center (TNHC) at 707-586-5555

President Bill Clinton's Dietary Transformation

Bradley Saul — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:18:51 +0000

This past Sunday, Sanjay Gupta of CNN interviewed former President Bill Clinton about his switch to a vegan diet.
Read more about Mr. Clinton's transformation here.

Success on a Plant-Based SOS-free Diet

Bradley Saul — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:17:59 +0000

Dr. Alan Goldhamer talks about the basics of health in this interview with the cool vegetarian.

Treating Patients by Doing Nothing

Bradley Saul — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:59:25 +0000

Water-only Fasting: Treating Patients by Doing Nothing - Interview with Dr. Alan Goldhamer from Aron Choi on Vimeo.

Click here for the original article.

TrueNorth Health Center’s 1st annual Holiday Healthy Food Extravaganza

Bradley Saul — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:13:19 +0000

Escape the stress and health compromising influences of the holiday season

Come to the TrueNorth Health Center for 10 days
of spectacular health education and epicurean delights.

December 23rd to January 2nd

This holiday season, we are offering a special program focused on health food preparation, relaxation, fitness, and fun. There will be two brain-titillating and taste-bud-delighting classes each day during our first ever HEALTH FOOD INTENSIVE! Each of our dozen cooking and food preparation classes will expound techniques and tricks for preparing health promoting food that tastes GREAT!

Food Classes will include:

Breakfasts for Champions: How to prepare oatmeal French toast, vegan waffles, oil free granola
All About Fruit: How to select, store, prepare, and eat fruit
Desserts and Treats: Mango-banana pie, vegan pumpkin pie, banana ice-dream
Beans: How to purchase, store, cook, and make soups and stews out of
Grains: Try over 20 varieties of rice and find your favorites
Lunches To-Go: Fast and easy tricks for healthy mid-day meals
Vegetables: Select, store, prepare and eat vegetables. Learn about the variety of plants you have never eaten
Eating Out and Eating Over at Friends: How to go along and get along without compromising your health
The Secrets to Sauces
Salads and Dressings
Juices and Green Smoothies
Vitamins, Minerals, Protein, Essential Fatty Acids, Water, Digestion, Allergies and more

Fitness activities will include:

Walking and hiking
Access to our local fitness center
Optional services include massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, laboratory testing, medical evaluation and more

Presenters include Chef Ramses Bravo, Chef AJ, Laurie Wood, and Cathy Fisher. There will be nutrition lectures by Michael Klaper, M.D., Alan Goldhamer, D.C and others.

Start the new year off by losing weight while enjoying great-tasting, health-promoting foods!

Costs

Rates start at $139 per night and include a private room, all meals, classes, taxes and fees, a private phone with free domestic calling, hi-speed internet access via WI-FI, and personal laundry service. Special rates for couples, families, or groups sharing our new 2 and 3 bedroom suites are available.

10 days of education and delicious foods as well as fun and fitness.
Obtain advanced training in vegan, salt-oil-sugar-free food preparation.

Call now to reserve your spot! 707-586-5555

Those interesting in combining fasting with their trip may wish to use the health intensive as preparation and schedule to stay longer to incorporate a fasting experience. Our regular program will begin again on January 2nd.

Dr. Goldhamer to Speak at Raw Health Expo

Bradley Saul — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:55:03 +0000

Dr. Goldhamer will be presenting at the Sonoma County Raw Health Expo on "Escaping the Pleasure Trap." The presentation will address
the hidden force that undermines health and happiness. A major problem in conventional AND vegan diets are the inclusion of chemicals,
including oil, sugar and salt that can compromise health. He explains how to avoid the dangers of a vegan diet and how to escape the dietary pleasure trap.

When: Sunday, July 24th at 1pm.
Where: Sebastopol Community Center in Sebastopol, CA

More information available here.

Meat Linked to Diabetes Risk

Bradley Saul — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:37:45 +0000

Type 2 Diabetes Associated with Increased Intake of Animal Foods.

The effects of diet and lifestyle on health are notoriously difficult to ascertain. In order to begin to tease out patterns, researchers measure many variables in order to account for confounding variables (ie, factors that also correlate to the thing being studied).

To further make research more difficult, huge numbers of people must be tracked in order to get enough data to make meaningful analyses. The Health Professionals Follow-Up Study has followed 51,529 middle-aged (age 40–75 y at baseline) male health professionals. That’s more people than live in my hometown! Using data from the Health Professionals study, the researchers from Harvard University found a strong, positive association between a low carbohydrate diet high in animal protein and fat and incidence of type 2 diabetes.¹

The study used data from 40,475 participants who were free of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at the time they entered the study. Every four years, the biannual questionnaire mailed to the participants included a section that assessed dietary habits. Based on the responses in the questionnaires over 20 years, the participant’s diets were scored on their carbohydrate, fat and protein content. The study also measured differences in protein and fat sources - whether they were of vegetable or animal origin.

After accounting for variables such as smoking status, family history, and body mass index that might also be associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes, the scientists found an increased risk of type 2 diabetes with a low carbohydrate diet high in animal protein and fat. However, a low carbohydrate diet high in vegetable protein and fat was not associated with onset of type 2 diabetes.

¹Am J Clin Nutr 2011 93: 4 844-850

Psychiatrist Slows Down For Fasting

Bradley Saul — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 01:10:30 +0000

Fasting is like a reboot for your system, not just physically, but mentally and spiritually as well. Dr. Walter Jacobson echoed this sentiment in what he recently wrote about his experience fasting:

"Although it was a physically and emotionally draining experience, it
made me consider a number of things that I hadn’t thought much about
prior to my fasting. It made me appreciate my willpower, that there is
much I can accomplish if I apply similar tenacity and determination in
other areas."

Dr. Jacobson, board-certified psychiatrist, author, and speaker, was motivated to try fasting after reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Fasting and Eating for Health.

What's your experience fasting? We're collecting stories from people who have fasted at TrueNorth Health Center. Share yours by clicking here.

Vegan Diets Linked to Reduced Cataract Risk

Bradley Saul — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:29:39 +0000

This week, I was planning to write about recent research that found a strong, positive correlation between a diet including animal proteins and type 2 diabetes. The study "Low-carbohydrate diet scores and risk of type 2 diabetes in men" was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. As I was reading through the articles, though, I found a number of articles in the current volume of the journal that support (albeit indirectly) a whole-food, plant-based diet. Here''s a few of the articles I found:

A high-fat diet impairs cardiac high-energy phosphate metabolism and cognitive function in healthy human subjects. The American journal of clinical nutrition Vol: 93 Issue: 4 ISSN: 0002-9165 Date: 04/2011 Pages: 844 - 850.

This was a small study (n=16) of young males that compared a high fat diet (75 +/- 1% of calories) to a standard diet (23 +/- 1%). The researchers measured cardiac functions and cognitive functions. They found that the high fat diet decreased a major biomarker for cardiac function. They also found reduced cognitive abilities from the high fat diet. The real question to me is how did anyone manage to consume a diet with 75% of calories from fat...I can see why they had to use young males in the study.

High-protein, reduced-carbohydrate weight-loss diets promote metabolite profiles likely to be detrimental to colonic health: The American journal of clinical nutrition Vol: 93 Issue: 5 ISSN: 0002-9165 Date: 05/2011 Pages: 1062 - 1072

This study followed 17 obese men and put them on both a high protein, moderate carbohydrate diet and a high protein, low carbohydrate for 4 weeks at a time. The researchers concluded: "After 4 wk, weight-loss diets that were high in protein but reduced in total carbohydrates and fiber resulted in a significant decrease in fecal cancer-protective metabolites and increased concentrations of hazardous metabolites."

Diet, vegetarianism, and cataract risk: The American journal of clinical nutrition Vol: 93 Issue: 5 ISSN: 0002-9165 Date: 05/2011 Pages: 1128 - 1135

I found this study one of the more interesting because they had a large sample size (n=27,670). The results they published: "There was a strong relation between cataract risk and diet group, with a progressive decrease in risk of cataract in high meat eaters to low meat eaters, fish eaters (participants who ate fish but not meat), vegetarians, and vegans."

The last study in the list is just part of the growing body of large-scale evidence supporting the hypothesis that a whole-food, plant-based diet will lead to better health outcomes that a diet rich with animal foods and processed products. Hopefully I''ll get around to a more in-depth analysis of the type 2 diabetes study next week.

Understanding Diabetes

Bradley Saul — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:41:57 +0000

At TrueNorth Health Center we see many cases of type I and type II diabetes. Both types respond well to our diet and lifestyle recommendations, and type II diabetics often see reduction in symptoms by undergoing a medically-supervised water fast. While we recommend that everyone is medically supervised during a water fast, this is especially important for diabetics, as their blood sugar levels must be closely monitored.

If you have diabetes, as with any disease, it is important to understand what is happening in your body. The following videos give a brief introduction to the physiology of diabetes:

If you have diabetes and would like to find out if our services can help
you, give us at call 707-586-5555 for a free consultation.