Luscious locks. Flowing tresses. Who doesn’t want to have a full head of shiny hair? Our culture certainly gives us the message that beautiful hair symbolizes youth and beauty.

However, particularly as we age, many of us find that the soft, full hair we may have taken for granted in our younger days starts to fade and becomes thinner and more brittle. These changes can happen to both men and women. They happened to me, and thankfully, I have been able to turn the situation around.

As You Age, So Does Your Hair

Of course, it makes sense that hair can be damaged as we age. Because hair grows so slowly (less than half an inch every month for many people), the hair on your head may have experienced years of sun exposure and damage from the elements. It also is affected by hormonal changes in our bodies which play a role in both hair growth, texture, and those pesky grey hairs of course!

Searching For The Fountain Of Hair Youth

What’s the solution? The beauty industry tells us the secret to beautiful hair is finding the right “products.” And it’s certainly possible to spend hundreds of dollars trying to find the perfect match.

However, no matter how many shampoo reviews you read, you can only find so much hair magic in a bottle. In fact, many shampoos and other hair products can damage your hair because they contain harmful substances.

The truth is that beautiful hair starts from within. As a result, what we put into our bodies is far more important than what we put on our hair. I learn this the hard way also. Yes, shampoo matters, but the health of the hair is mostly an ‘inside job’ – inside the body, that is.

Laying A Foundation for Stronger, Fuller, Faster-Growing Hair

To fully understand the impact of lifestyle choices on your hair, it helps to know more about its composition – the main building blocks that give hair its strength and structure.

Keratin
Hair strands are composed of a protein called keratin (in fact, so are your nails). One of the primary components in keratin is choline, an essential nutrient with many roles in the body that is found in a variety of foods such as eggs, salmon, and cauliflower. Heads up! Some women have genetics that interferes with healthy choline levels, and this often worsens after menopause. When you understand your genes, you can then supplement choline using professional-grade products and focus on extra choline-rich foods.

Biotin
Vitamin B7 (also known as biotin) contributes to the formation of keratin. Because of this relationship, it’s not surprising that scientists have found that being deficient in biotin can lead to hair loss. In fact, one study found that supplementing with biotin helped slow hair loss in women with thinning hair, leading to fuller, shinier hair as well as smoother skin after 6 months.

The Gut Health Connection to Good Hair Health

Interestingly, scientists have also found that the number of bad bacteria in our gut affects the formation of biotin. That means that beautiful hair isn’t necessarily as simple as making sure you have consumed enough biotin. Your digestion and absorption need to be working right too. A functional medicine stool test is ideal for getting to the root cause of this.

Factors that can positively influence the delicate balance of gut bacteria, and in turn improve biotin production, including managing your stress levels, keeping sugary snacks in check, and ensuring your nutrition is balanced.

Top Tips for Healthy Hair:

Now that you have a clearer understanding of the factors behind healthy hair, how can you overcome the effects of aging and environmental damage? Check out these tips for a healthy head of hair.

1. Check your hormone levels.
Cortisol isn’t the only hormone that can impact your hair health. If you’re experiencing hair loss or changes to hair texture, you should check the levels of your other hormones as well.

For example, low levels of thyroid hormone can indicate a stressed-out thyroid. One of the thyroid’s “lesser” jobs is to regulate hair growth, however, in times of stress, the body will focus all the thyroid’s energies on more important functions such as regulating the body’s temperature and metabolism. Hence thinning hair is one of many possible symptoms of lowered thyroid function.

The laboratory levels for ‘normal’ differs between the conventional system and functional medicine for the thyroid. The functional system is much more accurate – it is functional. The conventional focus on disease. Also, the conventional system does not check the parameters of the various aspects of thyroid evaluation holistically, focusing only on TSH and T4 levels – very incomplete. This is one reason in my experience that hypothyroidism is one of THE most ‘missed diagnoses in all of healthcare.

Low estrogen, which may be a sign of perimenopause or other hormonal imbalances, can also lead to hair troubles. While slower growth of pubic and underarm hair might easily go unnoticed, an estrogen imbalance can mean that androgens have a stronger effect on hair follicles, leading to thinning hair on the head, and even rogue chin hairs.

These are just a few reasons why the best start to improving your hair’s texture and fullness begins with testing to see where your hormonal levels are and ensuring you are balanced. This can become a ‘make or break’ situation after menopause, which is another reason for considering bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.

2. Make sure you consume enough Biotin.

Good sources of biotin include:

(Bonus: Biotin will also strengthen your nails!)

Be very careful with whole grains. They can be very inflammatory for many people – full of gluten, pesticides, GMOs, and processing chemicals. Quality and type matter, they are NOT created equally.

In addition to biotin, the amino acid cystine assists in the formation of keratin. Good sources of cysteine include garlic, onions, broccoli, brussels sprouts, oats, wheat germ, sprouted lentils, and eggs.

3. Eat plenty of protein.
This may seem like a no-brainer since hair is composed of protein. Keep in mind that your protein sources don’t have to be meat-based, since the protein found in plant sources are just as effective. If they are meat, only choose organic, grass-fed/raised humanely treated animals. What you eat…literally becomes a part of your body.

4. Watch your mineral intake.
One of the many roles of minerals in the body is growing, and iron and zinc contribute to keratin formation which helps your hair to grow strong.

Zinc can also protect your hair from sun damage just as zinc oxide in sunscreens can protect your skin from sunburn, and zinc helps your body flush out excess insulin too. Good sources of zinc include shellfish, beans, and seeds.

5. Reduce your sugar consumption.
When you eat a lot of sugar, your blood sugar rises. In response, your body produces more of the hormones insulin and androgens such as testosterone, which have a shrinking effect on hair follicles. That means your hair could start growing finer and more brittle. Insulin resistance (high levels and low sensitivity to insulin on the body’s insulin receptors) is a common cause of hair loss.

6. Don’t smoke.
Smoking increases the speed at which your body breaks down and excretes biotin, reducing the amount of biotin in your blood and leading to weaker hair and nail growth.

7. Avoid high-mercury foods.
Consumption of food with high levels of mercury has been linked to hair loss. Some kinds of tuna, swordfish and mackerel can all contain high levels of mercury. As a functional medicine physician, I routinely check for mercury toxicity – it is a widespread problem and easily treatable. Since it is a neurotoxin, the earlier it is detoxed, the better off you will be.

8. Boost your intake of fruits and veggies.
To protect your hair, you want to reduce the damage that can be caused by free radicals. Those are compounds that can damage your cells, and they’re often created by environmental factors and the internal processes that can be triggered by stress.

Free radicals can lead to lifeless, gray hair. Antioxidants can fight free radicals and restore your hair’s shine. Fruits and vegetables can provide the key antioxidants for healthy hair: Vitamins A, C, and E (mixed tocopherols).

9. Consider collagen supplements.
Choline, one of the building blocks of keratin, is found in collagen. Collagen can also strengthen the layer of your skin that contains hair follicles. (This layer of skin is called the dermis). With a stronger anchor point, hair is less likely to fall out.

10. Choose hair products carefully.
Many shampoos, conditioners, and styling products contain ingredients that can be hard on your hair and unhealthy for you. The reality is that many of them don’t address hair problems where they originate – in the protein structure of the hair itself. Instead, they “gloss” over any problems with superficial coverings. Plus, many substances used in hair products can be absorbed by your skin and have been linked to cancer. In addition, many are harmful to the environment. So, avoid products with sulfates, parabens, and silicones. Your hair will thank you!

If you’re experiencing issues with your hair, it may be time to test your hormones and make sure your gut health is supporting your hair goals not impeding them!

Give our office us a call we are happy to help!

Sources:

https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/109/9/djx202/4102324
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428712/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509882/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27538002
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4201279/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174066/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=28813664
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509882/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428712/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=27554239

The post Thinning, brittle hair? Check your hormones! appeared first on Valencia Ray, MD.

Our dietary choices and lifestyle practices play a huge role in either maintaining balance or spiking blood sugar levels. The number of people with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes is also rising rapidly in North America and it’s something we see in our practice more often than we’d like! Blood sugar imbalances can create havoc in our health.

How Does Blood Sugar Fluctuate?

Carbohydrates we eat are broken down by the body into sugar, or glucose. This sugar is then absorbed into the bloodstream (blood sugar) to be used for energy. This process is regulated by the hormone insulin, which is released by the pancreas. Any excess blood sugar unused by the body for energy gets converted to glycogen, or insulin can convert to fat that is then stored in your liver and deep abdominal areas and can also be stored outside of these areas.

It’s all smoothly orchestrated so that you have energy when you need it – as long as your insulin levels are properly balanced! But what if they’re not? That’s when we encounter blood sugar dysregulation and diabetes.

Signs Your Body is Crying for Help

Blood sugar imbalance can result in a list of symptoms that are often easy to blame on stress or aging. In fact, it can cause premature aging! These include:

Excess belly fat: When your body senses high glucose levels, it secretes more insulin in an attempt to trigger your cells to absorb the excess glucose. Insulin also encourages fat storage, especially around the belly. Unfortunately, this can create a vicious cycle, since belly fat increases insulin resistance, so your pancreas then responds by releasing even more insulin.

Mood changes: Do you regularly “crash” after a carb-heavy meal? Or do you feel shaky, irritable or “hangry” when you haven’t eaten in a while? Mood swings, including bursts of manic energy followed by rapidly depleted energy, are often in response to fluctuations in blood sugar and a diet that is rapidly spiking blood sugar.

Cravings: Another frustrating irony is that excess blood sugar leads to cravings for more carb-heavy and sugary foods, further adding to the cycle of insulin production. This tells us that not only are blood sugar levels imbalanced but there may be an underlying gut issue as well.

Difficulty concentrating: Without the energy supplied by glucose, your brain cells don’t function optimally if your body isn’t used to being able to breakdown and burn fat in the form of ketones. As a result, concentration and focus suffer – but eating something that causes glucose levels to spike isn’t the solution, since you’ll be headed for a crash. Then the crash will push up cortisol, which will push your blood sugar up again – and the vicious circle continues.

Thyroid trouble: The link between insulin and thyroid health is complex. Excess insulin can harm the thyroid.  At the same time, a healthy thyroid helps control insulin.

Female hormone imbalance: Healthy female hormones depend upon balanced blood sugar. In short, excess insulin produces increased amounts of testosterone and belly fat tissue converts excess testosterone into estrogen. This produces increased estrogen in the body which results in too little progesterone. Since progesterone is a calming hormone, too little of it means women often experience symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia, fertility issues, and more.

Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

People with diabetes experience problems with the production of insulin and the subsequent rise in their blood sugar.

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune condition which prevents the pancreas from producing adequate amounts of insulin, resulting in low blood sugar levels which need to be monitored closely.

Type 2 diabetes is considered to be a “lifestyle disease”. After several years of imbalanced blood sugar and insulin levels, the body develops insulin resistance where cells don’t respond well to the insulin being released.

How to Manage Your Blood Sugar Levels for Optimal Health

As mentioned, blood sugar dysregulation and type 2 diabetes are very much a lifestyle disease and certain lifestyle factors can greatly impact how well your body manages blood sugar levels. Here are some tips for managing blood sugar for optimal health.

Avoid Spiking Blood Sugar with a Balanced Diet

The most important step for stabilizing blood sugar is to avoid processed and sugary food and eating patterns that can lead to a sudden spike in blood sugar. Different types of carbohydrates are digested and absorbed at different rates, based on a number of factors, including fat and fiber content, and the type of sugar the food contains.

Fiber slows the absorption of glucose, so including foods with high fiber content with meals helps stabilize blood sugar. Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in fiber and can feed certain ‘good’ gut bacteria (may need to improve your gut health to digest it without bloating) and helps to avoid constipation. It is found in foods like cauliflower, spinach, prunes, green peas, sprouted beans, almonds, and blackberries. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel-like substance in the colon and includes foods like, lentils, chickpeas, chia seeds, flax seeds, broccoli, and avocado. Similarly, including protein with each meal helps slow down blood sugar spikes.

What is the Glycemic Index?

The glycemic index (GI) was developed to measure food’s impact on blood sugar. The higher the food is found on the index the faster it spikes blood sugar, while the foods found on the lower end of the glycemic index are more slowly digested and absorbed. Note that the glycemic index only applies to foods that contain carbohydrates.

A number of studies have found that following a low glycemic diet can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Following a low glycemic diet doesn’t have to be difficult. Along with including fiber and protein in each meal, it’s simply a matter of swapping a high glycemic food for a lower glycemic choice. Keep in mind that too much fructose, even if it is organic, can contribute to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), so be mindful when it comes to eating high fructose fruits like mangos, bananas, and pineapples.

Be Mindful of Your Beverages

The drinks we consume have a big impact on blood sugar. That’s because drinks are easily digested, resulting in a quick shot of glucose. One study found that people who drink at least one sweet drink a day have a 26 percent higher chance of developing diabetes!

Choosing an alternative isn’t always straightforward, however. Be careful with artificially sweetened drinks, as studies have linked some artificial sweeteners with an increased risk of diabetes.

Fruit juices should also be limited because of its high natural fructose sugar content — the glycemic index for fruit juice is very high, because it lacks the fiber found in fruit.

Instead, blend up whole fruit so that you get the fiber content, and be sure to add a source of protein and fat like nut butter or avocado. The VitaMix blender is fantastic for this purpose.

Water is always a good beverage choice for managing blood sugar, since it’s important to stay hydrated so you can eliminate excess glucose through urination. When your body is aware of extra glucose, it pulls water from the rest of your body, increasing your risk of dehydration. Just make sure that you are drinking clean, filtrated water. Much of our water systems currently are contaminated with heavy metals and a variety of chemical toxins.

A Variety of Exercise and Good Sleep

Exercise helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels by increasing insulin sensitivity and making your muscles more efficient in their absorption of that glucose it needs for energy. Studies suggest high-intensity interval training is the most effective, but many people find it difficult to keep up that level of intensity on a regular basis. A combination of a form of cardio that you can maintain over the long haul, plus resistance training, is an excellent and sustainable approach.

Getting enough sleep is important to stabilize blood sugar, since regular sleep helps maintain hormonal balance and a healthy weight. It also reduces inflammation. Frustratingly, high blood sugar can interfere with getting restful sleep. Practice good sleep hygiene, including sleeping in a cool, dark room and limiting drinks of any kind two hours before bedtime. Also, late night snacking is a sure way to help destabilize your blood sugar level and disrupt your sleep – as well as increasing your likelihood of gaining excess weight.

Helpful Supplements

Herbal supplements can also complement other treatments for blood sugar management. Cinnamon is particularly promising – plus, it has the added benefit of adding a bit of sweetness without sugar. Ginger is another supplement that is easy to incorporate into your diet, is anti-inflammatory and supports digestion.There are several other natural supplements and herbs that are fabulous at supporting your cardiovascular and blood sugar regulation systems.

Always work with a functional medicine healthcare practitioner, since many factors must be considered to determine the best form of supplementation.

Prevention is the Best Practice!

The complications of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes are serious, and can include heart and nerve damage, kidney disease, and eye damage. Take steps now to understand and control your blood sugar levels – your body will thank you! If you are already having symptoms, we can help you to get to the root cause so that you can stop progression in its tracks, and even oftentimes reverse the process. Your body has amazing capacity to heal itself when given the right support.  Contact us here to learn more. Our team, including health coaches, can help you to reset your metabolism to become more fat-burning, stop addiction to sugar, and balance your blood sugar so that you can have greater energy and vitality.

Sources

Stanhope KL. Sugar consumption, metabolic disease and obesity: The state of the controversy. Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci. 2016;53(1):52-67. doi: 10.3109/10408363.2015.1084990. Epub 2015 Sep 17. PMID: 26376619; PMCID: PMC4822166.

Adams OP. The impact of brief high-intensity exercise on blood glucose levels. Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2013;6:113-122. doi:10.2147/DMSO.S29222

Colberg SR, Sigal RJ, Fernhall B, et al. Exercise and type 2 diabetes: the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Diabetes Association: joint position statement. Diabetes Care. 2010;33(12):e147-e167. doi:10.2337/dc10-9990.

Chen C, Zeng Y, Xu J, et al. Therapeutic effects of soluble dietary fiber consumption on type 2 diabetes mellitus. Exp Ther Med. 2016;12(2):1232-1242. doi:10.3892/etm.2016.3377

Vega-López S, Venn BJ, Slavin JL. Relevance of the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load for Body Weight, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease. Nutrients. 2018;10(10):1361. Published 2018 Sep 22. doi:10.3390/nu10101361

Bhupathiraju SN, Tobias DK, Malik VS, et al. Glycemic index, glycemic load, and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from 3 large US cohorts and an updated meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014;100(1):218-232. doi:10.3945/ajcn.113.079533

Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes, A meta-analysis Vasanti S. Malik, SCD,  Barry M. Popkin, PHD, George A. Bray, MD,, Jean-Pierre Després, PHD, Walter C. Willett, MD, DRPH, and Frank B. Hu, MD, PHD, Diabetes Care 2010 Nov; 33(11): 2477-2483. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc10-1079

The InterAct consortium. Consumption of sweet beverages and type 2 diabetes incidence in European adults: results from EPIC-InterAct. Diabetologia 56, 1520–1530 (2013).

Cinnamon Use in Type 2 Diabetes: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-AnalysisRobert W. Allen, Emmanuelle Schwartzman, William L. Baker, Craig I. Coleman and Olivia J. Phung, The Annals of Family Medicine September 2013, 11 (5) 452-459; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.1517

James W. Daily, Mini Yang, Da Sol Kim, Sunmin Park, Efficacy of ginger for treating Type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials,

Journal of Ethnic Foods, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 36-43, ISSN 2352-6181,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jef.2015.02.007.

The post How Blood Sugar Imbalances Create Havoc in Your Health appeared first on Valencia Ray, MD.

What Is PCOS?

Simply put, polycystic ovarian syndrome is a hormonal problem that can affect women during their reproductive years. It’s marked by irregular ovulation and higher than normal levels of the “male” hormones or androgens such as testosterone, in simplistic terms. The name refers to changes to the ovaries, which become filled with small cysts that lead to hormone imbalances.

Because PCOS can be difficult to diagnose it’s a bit uncertain how common it is, but about five to 10 percent of women may experience it during the reproductive years.

The Symptoms of PCOS

The symptoms of PCOS often start to appear slowly over time, and the changes they bring about are often easy to dismiss as normal.

If you experience the following symptoms, it may be time to talk with a healthcare practitioner:

●     Weight Gain

Gaining weight without any particular change in lifestyle, especially around the belly. Women with PCOS often develop an “apple” shape in which their body fat collects in the torso area.

●     Acne

Facial and back acne and other skin conditions such as dark patches and skin tags often go hand in hand with PCOS.

●     Hirsutism

Extra hair on the face and body, particularly on the upper lip, chest, and back as a result of hormonal imbalances.

●     Mood Changes

PCOS can particularly bring on an increased risk of depression or anxiety

●     Irregular Periods

Some women cease to menstruate at all. Others develop very heavy periods.

●     Difficulty conceiving

Cystic ovaries, as well as the accompanying hormonal imbalances, can make conception difficult, potentially leading to the need for extra help to get pregnant.

What Are the Underlying Causes Of PCOS?

Genetics

It is very often difficult to determine one precise cause for PCOS, since many factors can contribute to its development. Genetics do play a role however, so if your mother or sister has had PCOS, you are more likely to develop it.

Weight

Carrying extra weight can also contribute to PCOS. Of course, this creates a frustrating dynamic since PCOS makes you more likely to keep gaining weight. Hormonal imbalances also make it harder to lose that extra weight.

Stress

As well as the more measurable factors, some research suggests that high stress levels may play a role in the development of PCOS. That’s because stress can wreak havoc on your hormones, resulting in an overproduction of testosterone and insulin.

Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance may be a major factor in PCOS. About 70 percent of women with PCOS also have insulin resistance. Obesity, high blood sugar, inactivity, and stress can all lead to insulin resistance, however in PCOS insulin resistance seems to be both a symptom and a driver of the condition and affects all body types. One does not have to be overweight to have PCOS.

Why PCOS Can Be Frustrating: The Shortfalls of Conventional Medicine

Not only is it difficult to diagnose PCOS, but it can also be tricky to treat. Many conventional medical care providers seek to simply mask the symptoms by putting women with PCOS on birth control pills.

One clear flaw in this approach is that birth control pills won’t help women who are trying to reverse their PCOS in order to conceive. More importantly, this approach isn’t getting to the root of the problem, in fact it may exacerbate it. Birth control pills containing estrogen can affect blood sugar homeostasis in addition to carrying other health risks. The goal should be to restore overall health, not add the potential for more problems.

The Natural Approach To PCOS

A naturopathic approach considers the whole person in treating PCOS. That means addressing the underlying causes of hormonal imbalances. The goal is to improve all aspects of a patient’s health – and consequently, reduce PCOS symptoms.

Treatment starts with a thorough evaluation of your health history as well as thorough functional testing. Although the exact protocols will vary by patient, here are some proven tips for treating PCOS.

1.   Weight Loss Plan

If you’re overweight, work with your healthcare provider to create a healthy weight-loss plan. Losing just small amounts of weight can make a big difference to PCOS symptoms. However, you want to approach weight loss in a way that doesn’t create more stress in your body as stress can have a negative effect on insulin levels. That’s why it’s important to work with your functional medicine healthcare practitioner.

2.   Natural Whole Food Diet

Eating foods without preservatives or other endocrine disruptors is the best approach to fully nourishing your body’s intricate systems.

3.   Balance Protein and Carbs

You don’t have to eliminate carbs altogether. Choose unprocessed, complex carbs and balance them with sources of lean protein. As well, keep your blood sugar stable by eating at regular intervals.

4.   Improve Gut Health

By improving your gut health to reduce inflammation and improve elimination, probiotics can help regulate hormone levels.

5.   Choose Foods High in Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Essential Fatty Acids are the building blocks of many hormones, and a deficiency in EFAs is very common. Good sources include fatty fish such as salmon or sardines, as well as eggs, nuts and seeds.

6.   Talk to your healthcare provider about supplementation

Depending on your personal profile, helpful supplements could include magnesium, vitamin D, and a natural B-complex vitamin. In particular, inositol (a B vitamin) has been proven effective for PCOS treatment. And chromium can help metabolize sugar and stabilize glucose levels. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The right testing by your doctor can uncover any deficiencies you may have and help you come up with a targeted supplement protocol.

7.   Get Enough Sleep

A good night’s sleep is an essential part of hormone regulation. Interestingly, studies have found that sleep problems are twice as common for women with PCOS. So be sure to pay attention to your sleep habits.

8.   Get some healthy movement

Moderate exercise will help with weight loss. It will also relieve stress and balance your cortisol levels. One study found that a mix of high-intensity interval training and strength training helps women with PCOS. However, talk to your healthcare provider about the best approach for you as many women with PCOS do better with gentle exercise.

Take Control of Your Hormones

Yes, PCOS can be frustrating. However, much research has been done recently on functional testing and effective natural, holistic treatments for PCOS. By treating your body as an integrated set of systems, you can get to the bottom of your PCOS symptoms and get on the path towards true balance and wellbeing.

Ready to take control of your health and hormones? Start by taking our free Stress Assessment and learn more about the 4-Key Stressors HERE.

References

https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/pcos

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6250088/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5655679/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5461594/

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/591654/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464617307727

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277302/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4135453/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28595797

The post Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: What You Need to Know appeared first on Valencia Ray, MD.

• Glycemic (Glucose) regulation
• Inflammation
• Circadian Rhythm
• Mental/Emotional realm

What is making us women overweight and sick is not simply an issue of ‘overeating’, ‘sloth’ or ‘the luck of the draw’ contrary to popular myth. It is stress and the four key stressors that is creating this for most people. And, peri-menopausal and menopausal women are particularly susceptible.

I want to begin by stating that if you are happy with your weight and you are obese, that is fine. This isn’t about external standards of beauty or about what you ‘should’ weigh or how you ‘should’ look. Loving yourself without condition is important to good mental health.

Reversing obesity is about creating health and increasing our immune system resilience. It is about reducing chronic diseases of all types. And we can now see in living color how obesity and chronic disease makes people more susceptible to dying even from routine seasonal flu. Just check out the CDC stats for flu season 2017-2018. It is astonishing – 61,000 deaths. Deaths related to obesity and chronic disease. You see, stress is a silent killer, and is at the root cause of 95% of all chronic disease.

There are stressors from foods, toxins, lifestyle, poor sleep patterns, everyday things that we are doing to ourselves unwittingly. And, weight gain is a big side effect of stress. Inflammation causes weight gain. If you don’t know what is causing unnecessary weight gain, how can you even begin to help yourself?

And, by the way, you need not be overweight to have chronic disease impact you.

These five causes still apply to ‘normal weight’ people also, because they are a source of creating chronic disease whether you are overweight or not. It is just that being obese accelerates the diseases and contributes to multi-systems disease.

This is NOT about dieting or watching calories. Or about drinking food substitute shakes. That does not work. This is about understanding how a food system and medical system that is fundamentally flawed is affecting your health and well-being so that you can change your health trajectory to get where YOU want to go with your health. This is about learning to use Food as Medicine.

Maybe as a busy woman who feels stressed, you have noticed some of the following ‘annoying symptoms’ that are so very common. I have come to realize we need to pay attention to these symptoms and do something about it early on. They are not ‘normal’ aging or otherwise, and are not meant to be ignored. Your body and mind are asking for help and attention. Symptoms such as:

1. Brain fog, memory challenges
2. Anxiety/Depression/Mood issues
3. Sugar cravings
4. Chronic fatigue, low libido
5. Weight gain
6. Muscle tension and cramping
7. Sleep disturbances
8. Joint pain
9. Hair loss and dry skin
10. Gas, bloating and other digestive disturbances

….for example.

This post is about:

• What are some of the things creating this weight increase, obesity and chronic disease epidemic in the United States (and a growing number of other countries worldwide that have also adopted the western processed foods)
• What you can begin to do to expand your awareness
• Helping you to realize that the extra fat is drastically contributing to making you susceptible to serious health issues, and even more importantly…
• What are 5 common root causes that contribute to weight gain, obesity, and chronic disease that most people do not realize
• Information to begin to help you to become aware of what’s going on so you can start to empower yourself

Weight gain and chronic disease is currently a rapidly growing epidemic affecting children and adults alike. In fact since 2013, ‘obesity’ is also officially considered a ‘disease’ by the American Medical Association (AMA). Our traditional medical system can help decrease your acute symptoms and deal with acute crisis and emergencies, but it has a poor track record with chronic disease.

A person whose weight is higher than what is considered as a normal weight adjusted for height is considered being overweight and if their weight is 35 pounds or more above this level is considered obese BMI, or Body Mass Index, is the tool most commonly used to estimate and screen for weight problems and obesity in adults and children. Your healthcare provider can use a simple measuring tape to calculate this BMI or you can find an online BMI calculator tool to estimate for yourself.

Here are some obesity facts and data from the CDC:

• The prevalence of obesity was 39.8% and affected about 93.3 million of US adults in 2015~2016
• Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer that are some of the leading causes of preventable, premature death
• The prevalence of obesity was 35.7% among young adults aged 20 to 39 years, 42.8% among middle-aged adults aged 40 to 59 years, and 41.0% among older adults aged 60 and older

CDC has released a study with the following conclusion: “Mean weight, waist circumference, and BMI in adults have increased over the past 18 years”.

Our traditional medical system has obviously done a poor job addressing or solving this problem. In fact, the U.S. has pretty much the worst healthcare outcomes record for morbidity and mortality as it relates to chronic disease in the world when being compared to other developed countries. Yes, you read that correctly – we are right there near or dead last at the bottom of the list depending on the source you read. And we are by far the most expensive.

This post, of course, can’t cover everything, it is meant to start the conversation and to share eye-opening information. Stress is related to obesity and other conditions. Obesity is a serious disease and it is not about having more ‘self-control’ in your eating habits or going to the gym more often.

I know from my own experience, I was eating much less over time and still had creeping weight gain over the years until I learned more about the science of the gut-brain axis and how food is medicine. And, I started dealing with my stress and awareness of toxins head on. Also, even if you are eating excessively, there is still an underlying biological root cause to be dealt with that can help you to tone down your hunger.

We now know from the field of epigenetics that food, our thoughts and emotions, and environmental elements can literally turn on and off our gene expression for a disease. Yes, you read this right also…your genes are NOT your destiny. You have more power of choice than you realize.

It’s a matter of knowledge and application and having a physician coach to help you to navigate this maze. Lifestyle awareness and learning simple ways to retrain your brain so that the change is easily sustainable and new habits are formed with conscious awareness. It is not about dieting and watching calories all the time. This is a new day.

Here are five causes of weight gain and obesity that are preventable or treatable at the root cause using functional/integrative medicine approaches that are natural and nourishing for body and soul. When you treat at the root, you can actually heal and reverse disease.

1. Underlying hormone and insulin imbalances that hide beneath the surface and cause disruption in your physiology and metabolism

Millions of people are walking around with some of the following illnesses and they either don’t know it yet or if they do, are only covering their symptoms but not dealing with root cause healing of the problem:

• early or even mid-staged thyroid imbalances
• pre-diabetes/insulin resistance
• sex hormone imbalances
• autoimmune diseases
• a dys-functioning liver
• chronic digestive dysfunction
• toxic belly fat that contributes to ‘metabolic syndrome’
• inflammatory bone diseases
• anxiety and depression
• reversible issues in their blood/system that leads to everything from cancer to diabetes and other chronic diseases…

…without even having a clue that an issue called, ‘oxidative stress’ exists that is affecting their DNA and organ systems until disease manifests noticeably. And stress can start and exacerbate all of these condition and aggravate oxidative stress.

It creates chronic inflammation in your body. This metabolic imbalance is often associated with weight gain, though, you do not have to be overweight to have these storms brewing under the surface. Hormonal and insulin imbalances gradually contribute to this havoc in your body and mind. Insulin and cortisol are often dance partners in the management of blood sugar and inflammation control.

You can still be a thin person and if you have annoying physical and mental symptoms, pay attention because these diseases are equal opportunity illnesses. Weight gain is just a big red flag that something is off in your body’s balance.

Chronic disease typically takes years to fully manifest, which is why it is so important to educate yourself to address some of the more obvious causes of disease. Our current medical system isn’t preventative and is built upon a paradigm based upon waiting until the disease strikes and has already done sometimes great damage to your tissues. Even still, our bodies are resilient and healing can still occur in many, if not most cases.

We’ve been told that once you have a disease you are stuck with it for the rest of your life and will always need to take medication. This just is not true in general, though there are always exceptions.

But the exception, in reality, is that you are stuck and can’t heal – most people can heal given the right support, guidance, and have the willingness to take charge of their own health.

Symptoms need to be addressed, not suppressed.

Since 2016, studies are beginning to show that life expectancy in the United States is decreasing. This includes causes such as chronic diseases and drug overdose. We are in the era of chronic disease – and these diseases are actually often preventable and reversible if we start to do things differently, particularly starting with food education and unlearning the misinformation you’ve been taught.

It’s not a matter of how old we are either…even children are now struggling with obesity and Type 2 diabetes, something I never even saw in medical school in the 1980s. In fact, it used to be called, ‘Adult Onset Diabetes’ back then. These disturbances brewing in your body are often the source of weight gain – not your age. If age is the reason for obesity – then why isn’t everyone over age 30, 40 or 50 overweight or obese? What is the difference in general?

One thing for sure, we know from neuroscience that ‘Food is Medicine’ and what you eat matters even more than how much you eat.

The more I learn about this gut-brain axis science, the more I have come to realize, what you don’t know not only can hurt you – it can kill you.

And let’s be clear here: I’m not talking about ‘dieting’. Many of the foods you are eating are inflammatory to your body because of their sourcing or manufacturing even if they are positioned as ‘healthy’ or good for you…or ‘low calorie’. Or, ‘vegan’. They are causing your insulin imbalances and weight gain and you don’t even realize it.

In fact, when you eat truly healthy fats and foods, you generally will not even have to count calories and your weight stabilizes. Why? Because for one thing, you will no longer have an addiction to sugary carbohydrates that makes you hungry all the time and throws off your insulin regulation.

For another, your gut health will change and improve and you will stop having the biological triggers in your gut that make you want to eat or that slows down your digestive metabolism. These factors create the hormone and insulin problems that begin the chronic disease formation chain of events.

When you work with a physician-coach who is trained in functional and integrative medicine, you can not only learn and understand new ways of approaching true healthcare, you can be in more control of health choices.

I say ‘physician-coach’ because the days of, ‘Dr. Dictator’ will hopefully be over for you, if you choose to have a voice in your own well-being.

You are a part of the solution – it is a collaborative effort. You just need to have a guide to help you – not simply a dictator telling you what medications to use that are not working well.

Your physician and her or his health team can also provide support services from other healthcare providers such as acupuncture, massage therapy, herbal medicine, group health visits and coaching for peer support and other holistic therapies and natural options.

2. Low Fat/High Carbohydrate ‘Healthy’ Meals – what you think is healthy may be harmful for your adrenal system.

Glycemic control is affected by sugar, simple carbs and chemicals in processed foods and oils. Like sugar substitutes for example. The classic Food Pyramid you learned in school based upon the Standard American Diet (SAD) is not healthy for you in general and can be linked to the rise in obesity taking root in the 1950s and 1960s when these pyramid recommendations were implemented. It is heavy on starchy carbohydrates and inflammatory grains. It focuses on refined vegetable oils and gives the green light to sugary fruits without distinction. High sugar is toxic to the liver and increases inflammation. Inflammation is a key stressor.

Let’s be clear here what I mean by low fat as well. We were told that eggs, butter, and cholesterol were ‘bad fats’ and that vegetable oils, like corn, safflower, canola, sunflower, soy, margarine and other refined, GMO-filled oils in plastic bottles were ‘good fats’. The plastic bottles themselves can contain toxins. This was the beginning of the end – of good health.

When I discovered the history of these oils and went into studying the science, I immediately cleared my kitchen cabinets of these oils and started becoming even more serious about reading labels.

It is not just a blanket statement of ‘low fats’ we should be paying attention to, it is quality of fats as well. The fact is also that we need saturated, monosaturated and even some polyunsaturated fats from nuts and seeds to run a healthy metabolism. Avoiding healthy fat is not advisable.

Your body’s hormonal system and brain need cholesterol. Training your body to be more efficient at burning fat instead of carbohydrates as its primary fuel source will also help you to avoid diabetes and inflammation.

We need healthy fat to make our hormones and to have healthy brain cells as well as many other physiologic reasons. Healthy fats, such as avocado oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, ghee, and olive oil are very important for your health. Note that cooking with olive oil is a ‘no-no’. High heat damages the chemical bonds in ways that are not healthy. It’s okay to saute on low heat, though I tend to pour it onto food at the end of cooking.

Also, avoid cooking with butter due to the potential for causing oxidation (when it turns brown) which creates inflammation in your body. Use ghee instead, which is the butter with lactose removed and it can then withstand higher cooking temperatures. In general, don’t let your pan ‘smoke’ – you are in essence ‘burning’ the oil.

It is not these healthy fats that should be avoided, it is processed foods high in sugar and carbohydrates that you need to avoid. This can also for many people, if not most, even include many grains. Eating too many high carb grains and beans can add fuel to the fire of inflammation. They are not always as healthy as we are lead to believe.

Foods ‘low in fat’ and ‘high in carbohydrates’ are a gigantic source of what makes you fat and inflamed! Sugar and carbs are addicting and can overload your blood with glucose which then gets stored in the liver and abdomen as fat. Combining refined, inflammation producing vegetable oils with sugar and processed chemicals in food is a formula for disaster when it comes to your health of mind and body. This food combination literally changes the gene expression and the bacteria within your gut, leading to weight gain. It can also affect cognitive functioning and mood.

Read those labels if you want to avoid blowing up your waistline and health. At the very least, look for organic items when you can and avoid added sugars in your food. You can find products that are free of these substances and when you do, you will also begin to eliminate the addicting qualities of these foods that help to feed and grow the ‘bad’ bacteria in your gut that make you hungry all the time and that turn on your appetite.

3. Thinking thoughts without Self-awareness

It is estimated that 95% of chronic disease is related to unhealthy stress in general. Mental stress is subjective and influenced by perception. What stresses one person may not bother another. By stress, I mean feelings of overwhelm, of worry and feeling out of control. There is such a thing as physical stress as well, meaning overexertion and not taking good care of yourself. Your body can start to break down this way as well. Exhaustion does not support well-being.

Mental and emotional stress is mostly perceptual, meaning how you interpret a situation or event. It can be affected by your general health, sleeping patterns, and self-talk, for example. Negative self-talk is a health hazard if it creates feelings of distress or chronic anxiety. Self-talk is that repetitive pattern of thinking that for many people is a negative source of thoughts in their head.

When we are not aware of our feelings, our thoughts we are subject to having our attention hijacked all day long by the media and voices in our environments that consciously draw our focus toward lack, excessive competitive thinking, and negative world news. This is a common source of feeling overwhelmed and powerless – stressed – so heads up. Whereas, emotional resilience is a superpower – and a skill to be developed.

Feelings of insecurity, low confidence or low self-esteem, are also sources of stress that can affect our health.

We can learn to reprogram our negative thinking patterns in ways that improve our health. Improve our focus. Improve how we feel – all day along as well. This is a part of resiliency training. We can learn how to self-regulate our stress. This translates to a calmer mind, a healthier body – and weight loss.

This is why I also use CBT coaching (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) and IFS Therapy/Coaching (IFS is ‘Internal Family Systems’) alongside my medical advice as relevant and needed. These are two psychotherapy models that I learned through personal trial and error discovery over many years and used on myself – only later to find that they are actually empirically scientifically studied models.

These are techniques that people can learn to help and empower themselves.

Allowing your mind to run wild with worry and not learning to ‘take back the steering wheel of your mind’ from the distractions around you can lead to chronic, ‘fight, flight or freeze’.

It is this chronic state of distress that is releasing hormones, such as cortisol and throwing off neurotransmitters in your body’s system. This all leads to imbalances in your glucose metabolism, for example, that can then lead to abdominal visceral fat storage over time as well…leading to metabolic syndrome. Leading to weight gain…..

Combine this issue with poor food quality and you have a formula for helping to create more inflammation in the body. Source of food matters. It is not ‘your age’ as much as it is your habits. Inflammation, fueled by a bad ‘low fat, high carb’ diet, and stress is what is making people – children included – fat and sick with time. It is a vicious trap.

Having a spiritual or mindfulness practice is also essential in reducing mental stress. ‘Free your mind’ in order to renew it. And vice versa. Making time to relax and de-stress can help to let go of the distress. Having a sense of higher purpose strengthens our heart.

4. Inflammation triggers that are little known increases stress and weight gain

This is yet another key stressor. Years ago, when I was still in my 20’s I was asked to do a health presentation on margarine and butter. I learned from that experience the dangers of trans fats in margarine and that was when I threw away margarine and went back to butter. Grass-fed organic butter is a source of omega-3 oils and ingredients that can support a healthy gut. Trans fats triggers inflammation – which increases the stress response in our bodies.

I also decided to go back to eating eggs in my twenties. I’m so glad I did. Eggs are not the cause of high cholesterol levels either. Eggs are one of nature’s best and most important foods – with one caveat: Make sure they come from pasture-raised healthy chickens, otherwise, they may contribute to inflammation. Source matters.

Environmental toxins matter. Our water is full of chemicals, so getting a good filter is worth the investment. Toxins hang out in body fat, increases inflammation….and increases weight gain,

Dental work, that puts mercury in your mouth – can lead to heavy metal toxicity if your liver and gut is out of balance and can’t keep up with its toxic burden. And the more fat you have in your body, that more heavy metal toxicity you hide in your tissues. Just make sure if you have them removed….you see a trained functional dentist – or you could get very sick in the process.

Heavy metal toxins can affect your brain and lead to neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Many environmental toxins are stored in fat. When you lose fat, you reduce your risk for accumulating environmental toxins that are dangerous to your mind and body. You can have yourself tested as part of a routine functional medicine examination and begin a detox process and have yourself retested to insure successful removal.

Remember, bad food and emotional stress can harm your body’s ability to detox itself. Let’s face it, we cannot control everything in our environment. We can, however, educate our self and decide what matters and learn how to navigate the landmines all around us with more wisdom so we can avoid these types of medical conditions.

Air pollution, toxin-filled cosmetics, excess alcohol, dehydration, lack of sleep and movement of our bodies – all contribute to the inflammatory process that makes us gain weight and overwhelms our body’s defenses to detox and moves harmful molecules out of our body. These are the sources of chronic disease, particularly when we don’t know how to change things.

FEAR inflames your mind…and ultimately your body.

Speaking of little-known inflammation triggers…how about fear. It is toxic also. Think about it – fear causes stress for most people. Under this point, I’d like to emphasize that one of the most empowering things we can all learn to do is to learn about how to ‘retrain our brain’. Fear is something that is setting us up for failure and it is mostly perceptual. It is mostly, ‘FEAR’, or ‘Fictitious, Evidence, Appearing, Real’. Fictitious or not – fear damages our adrenal system when chronic.

I made this acronym up many years ago when I gained the insight that our brain is a storytelling master. What we think and feel, we come to believe. What we believe will determine the outcomes of our lives. When we focus on what we don’t want, who we don’t like, what we can’t control and do not understand the awe-inspiring power of empowering emotions such as joy, love, gratitude, and appreciation – we are setting ourselves up for stress.

The point is, start somewhere. The thousand-mile journey begins with the first step. There can be a domino effect, once you learn what key food triggers are upsetting your system, and have some baseline insights into your health status beyond the limited testing or information given in the traditional healthcare system, you can begin your journey to wholeness. Be encouraged. Your body is remarkably resilient!

5. Lack of good sleep habits and vicious cycles that disturb sleep patterns

Sleep plays an important role in your physical and mental health. For example, sleep is involved in the healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. It is the time that your brain and body undergoes repair of damage and is extremely important for tissue repair. When we sleep poorly, we disrupt our adrenal system and increase susceptibility to stress and weight gain.

Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and affect your brain and cognitive function.

Lack of quality sleep weakens your immune system which will make you more susceptible to having colds and fighting off infection. It also makes you even more susceptible to the effects of stress and even being more susceptible to feeling stressed. Your coping ability in everyday life can be reduced when stressed. Brain fog, fatigue, and reduced cognitive functioning are all commonly associated side effects of lack of sleep.

This all translates to inefficiency in your body’s metabolic functioning and increases inflammation that can add to increasing risk factors for autoimmune and other inflammatory disease development. Studies show that our protective T-cell functioning that fights off viruses goes down and inflammatory cytokine biomarkers increase with sleep deprivation.

Getting flu shots is not going to protect you from this. The long-term solution is a lifestyle change and re-education to learn how to develop good sleep patterns.

It should also be noted that having underlying hormonal imbalances disturb sleep also, as well as alcohol consumption in the evenings. Both pharmaceutical and illegal drug use can also disturb sleep patterns and throw your body out of balance.

Women may seek help for pain, but when it comes to ‘annoying’ symptoms that can be pushed through or ignored – these symptoms are often overlooked. In fact, the overwhelming majority of people with sleep disorders are undiagnosed and untreated.

Should you have your sleep evaluated?

Ask yourself the following questions to assess if you should have your sleep evaluated:

• Do you regularly have difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep?
• Do you have a problem with snoring? This could be due to sleep apnea. Has anyone ever told you that you have pauses in breathing or that you gasp for breath when you sleep?
• Are your legs “active” at night? Do you experience tingling, creeping, itching, cramping or other strange feelings in your legs while sitting or lying down that causes a strong urge to move, stretch or put your feet on the floor to stop the sensations? Magnesium deficiency is rampant and can cause calf cramping.
• Are you so tired when you wake up in the morning that you cannot function normally during the day, needing to use stimulants such as coffee to get started in the morning?
• Does your sleepiness and fatigue persist for more than two to three weeks – becoming chronic?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then a complete sleep evaluation should be considered. You can use diet, natural remedies until your body is in better balance to help you to get to sleep easier. Also, behavior and habits in the evening hours before bedtime affect your ability to fall asleep.

Being able to relax your mind and avoiding the blue-light screens of technology in the 1-2 hours or so leading to bedtime is an important habit to develop. If you awakening at specific times during the night, it could be your body’s way of communicating underlying ‘dis-ease’ symptoms trying to get your attention. Make note if there is a pattern to your awakening in the night. Note how often you are awakened with urgency to go to use the bathroom, for example. Doing good detective work is helpful.

Here’s an example of just our interconnected our body systems are and how your behaviors can impact your body, sleep and heath. When you are stressed from being too busy, running around and not resting, and not taking good care of yourself, your cortisol hormones in your blood can increase. The increased cortisol hormone can decrease your progesterone hormone, particular when in menopause. Progesterone reduces anxiety and affects sleep, it helps with sleep. A chronic increase in cortisol can decrease your progesterone and this can lead to anxiety and sleeplessness.

Can you see how your hormones contribute to other areas of your life…even anxiety and sleep? We also know that chronic cortisol elevation can cause weight gain as I’ve mentioned. So you’re running around busy, but instead of losing weight with all of your activity – you actually gain weight. And when you throw in several cups of coffee per day to get you going – well, the caffeine also can disturb your sleep at night. What a vicious cycle this becomes…

The solution is, not ‘dieting’ or excessive boot camp work outs. The solution is getting to the root causes of what stress is, and what you can do about creating good health versus only covering up symptoms. When you are educated in 21-century science that supports our body’s innate resiliency and immunity – you can lose weight easier and keep it off easier – naturally.

If you are ready to take control of stress and live a healthier mind-body lifestyle, you can learn more and schedule your free Discovery Consultation https://valenciaray.com/schedule/

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