I know this is a long read but it is so worth the time.

Date: 07/25/2011 Written by: Jon Barron Subscribe to Newsletter
How Health & Environment Change Your Brain

In our last newsletter, we explored those programs that run automatically in your brain and influence the way you see the world. In this issue, we flip our perspective 180 degrees and view those outside events that physically change your brain's internal structure.

When you think about it, it's actually pretty amazing that seemingly unrelated external events or circumstances can literally alter your brain for good or ill -- sometimes permanently, unless somehow it's deliberately changed back. What external events am I talking about? Well, there are actually a large number, but for the purposes of our discussion, we will limit ourselves to four: obesity, where you live, music, and meditation and/or deep prayer. That's right! As we are about to explore, your weight determines your ability to perceive pleasure, which leads to more weight. Where you live affects the function of your amygdala, which affects your ability to deal with stress. Or to put it another way, the more stressful your living environment, the less capable your amygdala is of dealing with stress, and once it's changed, simply moving to a less stressful environment will not change it back. Listening to and playing music literally improves your language skills and ramps up your intelligence. And meditation and deep prayer can repair much of the damage caused by other outward circumstances. As I mentioned earlier, these are not the only things that can change our brains, but they are significant and they provide an effective representation of the entire category. With that in mind, let's take a look at them in some detail.
Obesity

Ultimately, obesity is a matter of calories in VS calories out. The more you eat, the more you have to burn to prevent weight from piling on. Nowadays, we not only eat more than ever before, but we also burn less. It sounds simple, but several factors complicate the equation.

First, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn even at rest. A pound of muscle burns up to nine times the calories of a pound of fat. The reason for this is that muscle is active tissue. In other words, it requires a lot of energy just to maintain itself. In fact, every pound of new muscle you add to your body will burn about 60 calories per day. Adding just 10 pounds of muscle to your body, will burn off 62 pounds of fat over the next year -- even while you are sleeping! And it will continue to do so the next year…and the next.
Stress and/or lack of sleep increases cortisol levels, which stimulates the production of insulin and raises blood sugar levels. As a reaction to this flood of insulin and sugar produced by the body, we begin to crave even more of it. Elevated levels of cortisol enhance our desire for sugar and carbohydrate-rich food, otherwise known as comfort food. And not only can cortisol cause you to eat more, but it also affects the way your body distributes its fat stores. Research indicates that stress and high cortisol levels promote weight gain around the midsection rather than in the lower half of the body. This type of core fat is the most dangerous type of weight gain as it is a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes.
For similar reasons, certain foods, such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) create cravings for more of the same. The more HFCS you eat, the more you feel compelled to eat -- thus piling on the weight.

And now recent studies suggest a much more insidious complication. It seems that the more you weigh, the more your brain is fundamentally altered so as to compel you to eat ever more and become ever more obese.1 If true, it means, yet again, that although everyone is faced with the same "calories in VS calories out" equation, it is nevertheless fundamentally harder for overweight people to regulate their weight than for fit people.

The key to it all is insulin, which circulates in blood in proportion to your fat mass.

For many years, it has been known that insulin acts as a metabolic signal transmitter in the hypothalamus, providing information to the brain about the body's state of satiety.2 Insulin, which can pass through the blood-brain barrier, binds to nerve cells in the hypothalamus and gives the signal for satiety. The higher the levels of insulin in the blood, the greater the sense of satiety. According to this feedback system, the more you weigh, the higher the levels of circulating insulin will be in your body. Theoretically, then, the more you weigh, the less your appetite should be. But as we know, the exact opposite seems to be true.

The new study, however, found that insulin also acts as a signaling agent in the midbrain, where it acts on dopamine-producing cells. In this feedback system, insulin rewards you for eating more by creating a sense of pleasure in the brain and body. What makes this study so important is that the researchers determined that this dopaminergic mechanism is superior to the satiety mechanism in the hypothalamus. In other words, it overrides it. The reason it is so powerful is that dopamine is known as the "happy hormone" and plays a major role in stimulating addictive behavior. In effect, this system turns overeating into an addiction -- and being overweight is your pusher.

The bottom line is that researchers seem to have proven that insulin plays a direct role as a transmitter in the brain's reward system. As the scientists admit, there are questions still to be answered. For example, why does the brain have two regulatory systems for satiety, and how do they work together? But what does seem pretty clear is that the signals from the midbrain override the hypothalamic satiety system and reward you for eating more and for being overweight despite any signals you may receive that say you've eaten enough. Quite simply, the more you eat and the more overweight you are, the more insulin you produce, and thus the stronger the dopamine reward system in your midbrain. The more you weigh, the harder it is to avoid eating to excess, and so more and more weight piles on, which makes it ever harder to avoid ever more overeating.

Ouch!
Urban living VS country living

Okay, I realize that there are some who might argue that the changes to the obesity mechanisms described above don't qualify as fundamental. If you simply lose the weight, the mechanism shuts off. I would tend to disagree, but since this newsletter is not about obesity, but about the ability of outward circumstances to effect fundamental changes in the brain, let's take a look at another study that concerns the impact of where you live on your brain.

As with the obesity study, the latest study does not exist in a vacuum. Researchers have known for some time that country life and city life affect our mental states. For example, a 2009 study published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica showed a 21% increased risk of anxiety disorders and a 39% increased risk of mood disorders for people living in urban environments.3 In addition, a 2005 study published in the Oxford Journal's Schizophrenia Bulletin found that the incidence of schizophrenia is twice as high for those born and raised in a city environment.4 In addition, it has been shown that the larger the city, the greater the risk of psychiatric illness. And in fact, this is hardly a mystery. We know that the pressures of city life are more stressful then the idylls of country life -- a motif exploited in films such as Doc Hollywood and its more recent cartoon clone, Cars. (You do know they are the same movie, right?)

But the most recent study has taken our understanding of how city brains and country brains differ to a whole new level. In this study, the researchers used brain scans to determine that two regions in the brain, both involved in the regulation of emotion and anxiety, become overactive in city-dwellers -- permanently.5 Or to put it another way, city life causes fundamental changes in the stress center of the brain. Specifically, the study showed that the amygdalas (the area of the brain involved in regulating anxiety, fear, worry, and other stress related emotions) of participants who currently live in cities were over-active during stressful situations. The other region of the brain that became overactive in city dwellers was the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (PACC), which is important in controlling emotion and dealing with environmental adversity.

This was determined through the use of functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) brain scans on students who were asked to solve mathematical problems while being stressed through forced time constraints and derogatory harassment by the researchers. Based on where the participants were raised and where they currently lived, the researchers found that the students who currently lived in a major city showed significantly higher activity in their amygdalas and cingulated cortexes than the country dwellers. Considering that by 2050, it is predicted that almost 70% of people will be living in urban areas, this is significant.

The researchers speculated that stress is not only the most likely cause of these structural abnormalities in the first place, but that these abnormalities then express themselves as increased stress in the individual -- and that the net result is an increased risk of mental illness. To quote from the researchers, city dwellers tend to be "wealthier and receive improved sanitation, nutrition, contraception and healthcare," but in exchange, city dwellers are more likely to see an "increased risk for chronic disorders, a more demanding and stressful social environment, and greater social disparities." One other observation that the researchers made is, "There's prior evidence that if someone invades your personal space, comes too close to you, it's exactly that amygdala-cingulate circuit that gets [switched on] so it could be something as simple as density [of a population living in a given environment that triggers the changes in the brain]."

The key point, though, in terms of our discussion, is that this observed increased vulnerability to stress found in city dwellers is permanent. Moving to the country after being raised in the city doesn't "repair" the brain. The increased sensitivity to stress created in the city continues unabated across the entire lifespan even if you retire to the country. On the other hand, that observation of permanence is based on the relatively passive action of merely moving to another environment. Can the brain's stress response be repaired if you take more proactive actions? In fact, the answer is yes, and we will discuss that a bit later.
Sherlock Holmes didn't play the violin for nothing

Not all changes to the brain affected by outward circumstances are negative. The right stimuli can actually improve brain function. Let's take a look at a couple of positive stimuli.

The benefits of music on the brain are some of the most studied in the field of psychological research. For example, in a blog earlier this year, we examined a study out of McGill University in Montreal, Canada that demonstrated that music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system.6 In effect, music affects the brain chemistry the same way that other activities associated with satisfaction, such as having sex, eating, and being overweight do; and it elicits the exact same response. When we listen to a favorite piece of music -- whether it is a symphony, jazz, or even a gangsta rap song -- the brain releases dopamine, which provides the sensation of pleasure. And yes, this is virtually the same midbrain dopaminergic response produced by excess insulin as cited earlier in our discussion of obesity.

Using PET scans, the researchers discovered that neurons were pumping out more dopamine when they were hearing the pieces they favor than other more neutral songs. The scans also showed that the dopamine was traveling through circuits to the striatum (an area of the brain associated with executive decisions and rewards) when the subjects were anticipating highlights of the music and to the mesolimbic pathway (an area of the brain associated with memory and rewards) when the climax of the song was playing. MRI scans were used as well to pinpoint exactly when during the music and where in the brain these surges in dopamine delivery occurred.

The same research team had conducted an earlier study that demonstrated the ability of music to bring about intense emotional feelings, such as changes in temperature, heart rate, pulse, and breathing. They used PET scans to obtain evidence that blood flow increases to the regions of the brain connected with dopamine release.

Again, as with the dopamine kick provided by obesity, this might be considered a non-fundamental change, since it's easily reversed or prevented by simply not listening to your favorite music. But this is only one study. There are others.

In 2008, we posted a blog about a study published in PLoS ONE that revealed that after studying a musical instrument for at least three years, elementary school kids not only trounced their peers in tests of auditory discrimination and finger dexterity, as might be expected, but they also outperformed them in both verbal ability and non-verbal reasoning, as measured by IQ tests.7 Even more striking was the fact that the longer and more consistently the kids had been playing their instruments, the higher their scores.

And this is supported by earlier studies. For example, a 2003 study found that cardiac rehabilitation patients who listened to music while exercising increased their verbal fluency scores.8 A 2002 study found that a professional musician's auditory cortex contains 130 percent more gray matter than that of non-musicians, suggesting that the regular music practice required by a professional musician, increases the growth of brain matter. And musicians who began study early in life appear to have an especially enhanced neural bridge between the brain's hemispheres.9 Then there's the 2006 research out of Canada that found that the brain develops differently in children who receive even a year of musical training, and that those children have superior memory capacity and cognitive ability.10 And a 2007 study found that adults who had completed at least three years of musical training before the age of 12 had far more linguistic capacity when compared to non-musicians. The researchers in that case found that the musically trained subjects had changes in their brain stems -- the part of the brain that controls breathing and heartbeat.11 These studies and others add hard evidence to the argument that musical study actually changes the brain.

The bottom line is that listening to and playing music permanently enhance the brain in multiple ways.
Meditation, deep prayer, and focused chanting

We all understand that if we want to be good tennis players, we need to practice for hours on end for many years. If we want to be a good doctor, we have to go to school for many years. If we want to be good at anything, we have to pay our dues in terms of long hours of practice. And yet for some reason, most people assume that somehow we should just be born with the ability to maximize our minds. If only! As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, "The mind is restless, impetuous, self-willed, hard to train: to master the mind seems as difficult as to master the mighty winds."

And it is in this particular discipline that religion has taken the lead. Yes, much of religion is rife with dogma, bigotry, and narrow mindedness, not to mention its role as a catalyzing agent in many wars. But that said, probably no activity in the history of humankind has done more to develop the disciplines required to consciously change the structure of the brain and harness the power of the mind than religion. Rituals, austerities, the use of music (as noted above), and spiritual drills, etc. have all been used by the world's religions to learn to control the mind and maximize its potential. But of all the disciplines developed by the world's great religions, meditation, deep prayer, and focused chanting are probably preeminent in this regard. I am not talking about casual prayer such as asking for a parking space when pulling into the mall parking lot. I am talking about formalized meditation, disciplined deep prayer, and prolonged focused chanting as taught by most of the world's religions. These are brain changers. These are health changers.

And finally, earlier this year, scientific research verified exactly how these disciplines actually work. According to the study, which appeared in the January 30th issue of Psychiatry Research: Neurology, focused meditation appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.12 This is, in fact, the first study ever that proved that meditation produces changes over time in the brain's grey matter. (Note: meditation, deep prayer, and focused chanting essentially accomplish the same thing.)

Although previous studies had been able to associate changes in brain structure as the result of meditation, such as thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration, those studies had not been able to prove that the observed differences were actually caused by meditation. This year's study, though, finally proved the long suspected cause and effect relationship. For the current study, MR Images taken before and after an eight-week program of approximately 30-minutes a day of mindfulness meditation were compared. Before and after sets of MRI scans were also taken of a control group of non-meditators at the same time.

Analysis of the scans, which focused on areas where meditation-associated differences were seen in earlier studies, found increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection. Participant-reported reductions in stress also were correlated with decreased grey-matter density in the amygdala. Remember earlier when I said that there might be more to the story concerning researchers' declaration that changes to the amygdala as a result of city living were permanent? Well, it would appear that, contrary to what the researchers said, it's absolutely within your power to change your brain back to a lower stress mode…if you work at it. And as you probably suspected, none of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that the beneficial brain changes had not resulted merely from the passage of time.

Britta Hölzel, the study's lead author, put it beautifully when she said, "It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life."
Conclusion

So where does that leave us? In our last newsletter, we learned about those programs which are hard-wired into our brains and that put us into stimulus/response mode. Given a particular stimulus, such as a challenge to one of our core beliefs, our brains, without any conscious thought on our part, start running preprogrammed responses -- such as an irrational defense of those beliefs, no matter how compelling the arguments against them. The only way to stop those automatic programs is to be completely aware of them and to stop them from running the moment they begin to run…if appropriate.

On the other hand, in this newsletter, we learned that stimuli from outside our brains can actually make physical changes in our brains that also automate our responses to and feelings about certain things and situations such as food and stress.

But more importantly, we learned that we have the ability to override each and every one of these things. With conscious effort, we can stop automated programs from running…when those programs are counterproductive. By taking certain actions, such as listening to music or practicing meditation and/or deep prayer, we can actually "repair" areas of our brains that have been previously altered to our detriment.

This is hugely liberating and life-altering if you choose to act on it.

I have always said that the most important and least understood chapter in Lessons from the Miracle Doctors is the one entitled: The Thought that Kills. Do yourself a favor and read it now. If you don't already have the book, you can download it for free at jonbarron.org.

A must read on "Statins"

The Dark Side of This Popular Drug Taken by 1 in 4 Americans Over-45...

Posted By Dr. Mercola | July 22 2011 | 169,133 views


statin causes diabetesA recent meta-analysis has demonstrated that taking statin drugs is associated with excess risk of developing diabetes.

Researchers looked at five different clinical trials that together examined more than 32,000 people. They found that the higher the dosage of statin drugs being taken, the greater the diabetes risk.

According to the study, as reported by Green Med Info:

"In a pooled analysis of data from 5 statin trials, intensive-dose statin therapy was associated with an increased risk of new-onset diabetes compared with moderate-dose statin therapy."

Sources:
Journal of the American Medical Association June 22, 2011; 305(24): 2556-2564
Green Med Info


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This recent meta-analysis of five different drug trials adds further credence to suspicions that statins may be contributing to the current epidemic of adult-onset diabetes. Statins, as most of you probably know, are the most popular cholesterol-lowering drugs available today.

They're primarily thought of as "preventive medicine" to reduce your risk of heart disease. Many doctors also prescribe them if you have elevated C reactive protein (an indication that you have chronic inflammation in your body), and they're even promoted for kids as young as eight years old!

The fact that statin drugs cause side effects is well established—there are some 900 studies proving their adverse effects, which run the gamut from muscle problems to increased cancer risk. But as we're now starting to discover, statins may also cause diabetes...

Statins Increase Risk of Diabetes Onset, Researchers Find

The meta-analysis, published in JAMA in June, concluded that those taking higher doses of statins were at increased risk of diabetes compared to those taking moderate doses. What this means is that the higher your dose, the higher your risk of developing diabetes.

The "number needed to harm" for intensive-dose statin therapy was 498 for new-onset diabetes—that's the number of people who need to take the drug in order for one person to develop diabetes. In even simpler terms, one out of every 498 people who are on a high-dose statin regimen will develop diabetes. (The lower the "number needed to harm," the greater the risk factor is.)

(As a side note, the "number needed to treat" per year for intensive-dose statins was 155 for cardiovascular events. This means that 155 people have to take the drug in order to prevent one person from having a cardiovascular event.)

The following scientific reviews also reached the conclusion that statin use is associated with increased incidence of new-onset diabetes:

* A 2010 meta-analysis of 13 statin trials, consisting of 91,140 participants, found that statin therapy was associated with a 9 percent increased risk for incident diabetes. Here, the number needed to harm was 255 over four years, meaning for every 255 people on the drug, one developed diabetes as a result of the drug in that period of time.
* In this 2009 study, statin use was associated with a rise of fasting plasma glucose in patients with and without diabetes, independently of other factors such as age, and use of aspirin, β-blockers, or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. The study included data from more than 345,400 patients over a period of two years.

On average, statins increased fasting plasma glucose in non-diabetic statin users by 7 mg/dL, and in diabetics, statins increased glucose levels by 39 mg/dL.

How Do Statins Cause Diabetes?

Statins appear to provoke diabetes through a few different mechanisms. The most important reason is that they increase your insulin levels, which can be extremely harmful to your health.

While you need some insulin to maintain your blood glucose levels, elevated insulin levels causes chronic inflammation in your body, and inflammation is the hallmark of most chronic diseases. In fact, elevated insulin levels lead to heart disease, which, ironically, is the primary reason for taking a cholesterol-reducing drug in the first place! It can also promote belly fat, high blood pressure, heart attacks, chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, and diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and cancer.

Secondly, statins increase your diabetes risk by raising your blood sugar. When you eat a meal that contains starches and sugar, some of the excess sugar goes to your liver, which then stores it away as cholesterol and triglycerides. Statins work by preventing your liver from making cholesterol. As a result, your liver returns the sugar to your bloodstream, which raises your blood sugar levels.

Statins also rob your body of certain valuable nutrients, which can also impact your blood sugar levels. Two nutrients in particular, vitamin D and CoQ10, are both needed to maintain ideal blood glucose levels.

Now, it's important to realize that drug-induced diabetes and genuine type 2 diabetes are not necessarily identical.

If you're on a statin drug and find that your blood glucose is elevated, it's possible that what you have is just hyperglycemia—a side effect, and the result of your medication. Unfortunately, many doctors will at that point mistakenly diagnose you with "type 2 diabetes," and possibly prescribe another drug, when all you may need to do is simply discontinue the statin in order for your blood glucose levels to revert back to normal. So if friends or loved ones you know are on a statin (and one in four Americans over 45 are) and they are told they have diabetes, please do them a favor and tell them about the information in this article.

Beware: Statins Decimate Health-Promoting Nutrients

It's still uncertain whether statins actually deplete your body of vitamin D, but they do reduce your body's natural ability to create active vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol). This is the natural outcome of the drug's cholesterol-reducing ability, because you need cholesterol to make vitamin D! It's the raw material your body uses for vitamin D conversion after you've exposed your skin to sunlight.

It's also well-documented that vitamin D improves insulin resistance, so needless to say, when you take a statin drug, you forfeit this 'built-in' health-promoting mechanism.

Additionally, statins suppress your natural coenzyme Q10; also called "ubiquinol" in its active form. Produced mainly in your liver, it makes energy for every cell in your body, and it too plays a role in maintaining blood glucose. Depleting CoQ10 also increases your risk for heart failure, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Moreover, CoQ10 protects your body from oxidative stress, a strong contributing factor in the development of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart attacks.

That said, if you absolutely have to take a statin drug, you must make sure to also take ubiquinol in order to prevent CoQ10 deficiency and help protect against cellular damage.

Other Potential Side Effects of Statins

Aside from what I've already covered above, statin drugs are associated with a rather extensive list of harmful side effects, including:

Weakness Polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet) Acidosis Dysfunction of the pancreas
Muscle aches and pains Anemia Sexual dysfunction Cataracts
Rhabdomyolysis, a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition Potential increase in liver enzymes so patients must be monitored for normal liver function Suppressed immune function Increased cancer risk
Do You Really Need a Statin Drug?

That these drugs have dominated the market the way they have is a testimony to the power of marketing, corruption and massive conflict of interest, because the odds are very high— greater than 100 to 1—that if you're taking a statin, you do NOT actually need it. It's clearly one of the most over-prescribed drugs there are. There's only one subgroup of people that might benefit from this drug and that's those born with a genetic defect called familial hypercholesterolemia, which makes them resistant to traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol.

In order to see past the propaganda, you must first understand that cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease. And if your physician is urging you to check your total cholesterol, then you should know that this test will tell you virtually nothing about your risk of heart disease, unless it is 330 or higher or you have a seriously distorted HDL/Cholesterol ratio.

Your body needs cholesterol. It's important in the production of your cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps your brain form memories, and is vital to your neurological function. There is strong evidence that having too little cholesterol increases your risk for cancer, memory loss, Parkinson's disease, hormonal imbalances, stroke, depression, suicide, and violent behavior.

The following ratios are FAR more potent indicators for heart disease, and are the ones you want to keep an eye on:

1. HDL/Total Cholesterol Ratio: Should ideally be above 24 percent. If below 10 percent, you have a significantly elevated risk for heart disease.
2. Triglyceride/HDL Ratio: Should be below 2.

I have seen people with total cholesterol levels over 250 who were actually at low risk for heart disease due to their elevated HDL (so-called "good" cholesterol) levels. Conversely, I have seen many people with cholesterol levels under 200 who had a very high risk of heart disease, based on their low HDL.

How to Optimize Your Cholesterol Levels Without a Drug

It's truly unfortunate that the drug industry's media- and medical industry manipulation has been so successful in brainwashing both doctors and unsuspecting patients into taking these harmful drugs when so few people actually need them. Not to mention the fact that the most effective way to optimize your cholesterol profile and prevent heart disease is via diet and exercise.

It's actually quite simple too. Seventy-five percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels.

Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol and reduce your risk of both diabetes and heart disease. As you've just learned, taking a statin drug can actually increase your risk of both of these diseases. And remember the "number needed to treat" that I mentioned earlier; in order to prevent a cardiovascular event in just one person, 155 people must be treated with the drug—all of them taking the risk of experiencing a potentially serious side effect... So, before you agree to take a statin drug, please evaluate the risks and benefits.

What are the chances you will be in the minority who will benefit? And what are your chances of suffering a potentially devastating side effect? Make a conscious, informed decision, and keep track of any side effects once you start taking the drug!

Also know that there are other ways to improve your cholesterol that do not put your health at risk. My primary recommendations for safely regulating your cholesterol include:

* Reduce, with the plan of eliminating grains and fructose from your diet. This is the number one way to optimize your insulin levels, which will have a positive effect on not just your cholesterol, but also reduces your risk of diabetes and heart disease, and most other chronic diseases. Use my Nutrition Plan to help you determine the ideal diet for you, and consume a good portion of your food raw.
* Get plenty of high quality, animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil, and reduce your consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (trans fats, vegetable oils) to balance out your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio.
* Include heart-healthy foods in your diet, such as olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats.
* Exercise daily. Make sure you incorporate peak fitness exercises, which also optimizes your human growth hormone (HGH) production.
* Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
* Be sure to get plenty of good, restorative sleep.

Unlike statin drugs, which lower your cholesterol at the expense of your health, these lifestyle strategies represent a holistic approach that will benefit your overall health—which includes optimal insulin levels and a healthy cardiovascular system.


Related Links:
Cholesterol Pill Taken by Thousands Causes Cancer
Do YOU Take Any of These 11 Dangerous Cholesterol Drugs?
How Statin Drugs Wreck Your Muscles

Its NO trick, its a health promoting life style.

The Cancer Fighting Trick Which Can Help Burn Away Excess Pounds

Posted by: Dr. Mercola

In a recent study, researchers took a group of sedentary, overweight men and women and over 18 months and trained them to run a marathon. The men lost just a few pounds, and the women in the study averaged no change to their weight. One reason may be that people tend to increase their caloric intake as they increase their exercise; diet and exercise go hand in hand when it comes to weight loss.
But exercise by itself has many benefits, of which Lifehack lists a few:
Increases your energy levels: The more energy you use, the more you have.
Improves the quality of your sleep: Exercise helps you get to sleep more quickly, and improves the sleep quality as well.
Helps combat chronic disease: Exercise helps improve your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and has been linked with delayed onset of dementia.
Improves your mood: Exercise promotes positive brain chemistry.
To see the other three benefits they list, and what they had to say about them, you can click on the link below.
Sources:

Lifehack July 5, 2011

The featured article lists several solid benefits of exercise. As many of you already know, I've been passionate about exercise for 43 years, so this is a topic close to my heart.
Now, I've written numerous articles praising exercise as a means to shed excess weight, however, there are certain factors that will determine your success in using exercise for weight loss, and aerobic exercise (such as running marathons) is typically not going to be very helpful. I'll explain why, below, and why using aerobics as your primary or only form of exercise may not bring forth the results you desire...
To build on the list of benefits created by Lifehack, here I will present seven more; including the kind of exercise you need to employ in order to shed those excess pounds.
Exercise is a Powerful Anti-Cancer Strategy
According to a 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal, which explored the relationship between exercise and cancer, exercise affects several biological functions that may influence your cancer risk. These effects include changes in:
Cardiovascular capacity Energy balance
Pulmonary capacity Immune function
Bowel motility Antioxidant defense
Hormone levels DNA repair

At that time, more than 200 population-based studies had linked exercise to your risk for cancer, particularly cancer of your:
Bowel Breast Endometrium
Prostate Testes Lung

More recently, a 2009 study showed that men with stronger muscles from regular weight training are up to 40 percent less likely to die from cancer. These findings suggest that muscle strength is just as important as staying slim and eating healthy when it comes to offering protection against deadly tumors.
One of the primary reasons exercise works to lower your cancer risk is because it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risk. It's also been suggested that apoptosis (programmed cell death) istriggered by exercise, causing cancer cells to die.
Unfortunately, many public health guidelines still focus only on the aerobic component, and this limited activity can lead to imbalances that may actually prevent optimal health. This is why it's so important to maintain a well-balanced fitness regimen, that includes not just aerobics, but also strength training, stretching, and most importantly, high-intensity interval training (which I'll discuss next).
Exercise Increases Growth Hormone Production, IF Done Properly
Human growth hormone (HGH) is often referred to as "the fitness hormone." The higher your levels of growth hormone, the healthier and stronger you will be. Once you hit the age of 30, you enter what's called "somatopause," at which point your levels of human HGH begin to drop off quite dramatically. This decline of HGH is part of what drives your aging process, so maintaining your HGH levels gets increasingly important with age. The longer you can keep your body producing higher levels of HGH, the longer you will experience robust health and strength.
Many choose to inject it for this very reason, though it is a banned substance in many professional sports. I do not recommend injecting HGH however. I don't believe the potential side effects and the cost are justifiable.
Fortunately, your body produces it naturally when you exercise your super-fast muscle fibers, and this is one of the primary reasons why I'm so excited about Peak 8.
"Peak 8" is a term I coined for the kind of high-intensity exercises that promote HGH production, after I met Phil Campell and discovered his exercise philosophies. Phil is an expert on this topic and has helped many athletes. If you haven't seen the video below, I encourage you to make time to watch it so you can benefit from Phil's expertise.

I've previously discussed how to properly perform Peak 8 in great detail, but to summarize the key concept: there are three different types of muscle fibers: slow, fast, and fast 2A (super-fast), and different types of exercises engage one or more of these groups of muscles. In order to naturally increase your body's production of HGH, you must engage your fast 2A muscle fibers.


Total Video Length: 0:22:17
Power training, or plyometric burst types of exercises will engage your fast muscle fibers. However, only high-intensity burst cardio, such as Peak 8 exercises, will engage your fast 2A fibers and promote HGH. Traditionally performed aerobic cardio only works your slow muscle fibers, and can actually impede natural HGH production by causing your fast 2A fibers to atrophy from lack of use. Peak 8 can be done with or without exercise equipment, although I prefer using a recumbent bicycle or elliptical machine. Here are the key principles:
1. Warm up for three minutes
2. Then, go all out, as hard as you can for 30 seconds
3. Recover for 90 seconds
4. Repeat 7 more times, for a total of 8 repetitions
5. Cool down for a few minutes afterward by cutting down your intensity by 50-80 percent
For more details, see my previous article Flood Your Body With This "Youth Hormone" in Just 20 Minutes, which includes an interview with fitness expert Phil Campbell who taught me these principles.
Want to Lose Weight? Choose the Right Exercise!
I want to address the claims that exercise is ineffective for weight loss. One of the reasons why people continue to struggle with their weight despite engaging in regular exercise is because they're not doing the right kind of exercise! Several studies have confirmed that exercising in shorter bursts with rest periods in between burns more fat than exercising continuously for an entire session. This has been shown to hold true even when the session is not done at an extremely high intensity. Ergo, if you want to lose weight, cancel your hour-long treadmill sessions and replace it with high-intensity interval training instead!
An added bonus: you can cut the duration of your exercise session in half. Yes, one 2007 study showed you can burn more fat exercising for 20 minutes than for 40 minutes!
In their trial, women either exercised for 20 minutes, alternating 8 seconds of sprinting on a bike with 12 seconds of exercising lightly, or exercised at a regular pace for 40 minutes. After exercising three times a week for 15 weeks, those who did the 20-minute, alternating routine lost three times as much fat as the other women.
The researchers believe this type of exercise works because it produces a unique metabolic response. Intermittent sprinting produces high levels of chemical compounds called catecholamines, which allow more fat to be burned from under your skin and within your muscles. The resulting increase in fat oxidation is thought to drive the increased weight loss.
Exercise Slows Down Your Aging
As mentioned above, human growth hormone (HGH) is a major factor that drives your aging response, and I just explained how to maintain your HGH production well into your senior years. However, exercise also has other 'anti-aging' effects. Numerous studies have shown that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay the onset of heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and osteoporosis, which are all common ailments associated with advancing age.
But even more exciting is the recent research into telomeres, and how they affect the aging process.
One anti-aging theory is that if you can control the aging process inside your cells, you should be able to control your rate of aging. Telomeres are located at the tip of each "arm" of your chromosomes, which are inside the nucleus of each of your body's cells. Researchers have discovered that each time your cells divide, these telomeres shorten. Once your telomeres have been reduced to about 5,000 bases, you will probably die of old age.
Now, this telomere shortening process cannot be affected or stopped by exercise. However, the process can be accelerated by an unhealthy lifestyle. Obesity, lack of exercise, psychological stress, and smoking, all cause production of free radicals that speed up cellular turnover and telomere shortening. Therefore, it stands to reason that exercise plays an important part in the prevention of aging, particularly in the prevention of premature aging!
Exercise—A Potent Ally against Virtually ALL Chronic Disease
You've probably heard me say this before: exercise can help fight virtually all chronic disease.

But how?
The answer lies in its ability to normalize your insulin levels. Insulin resistance is a condition in which your body loses its sensitivity to insulin, which results in excess blood sugar. This in turn has long been linked with a host of diseases, including diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer. Insulin resistance is also a potent factor in the vast majority of all chronic diseases.
The increase in insulin-related diseases is largely due to the excessive consumption of fructose and carbohydrates in the average American diet, combined with a lack of exercise. For more information on insulin's effects on your health, I recommend reading through Dr. Rosedale's classic and highly informative insulin lecture.
Exercise Increases Grace and Flexibility, and Can Offer Potent Pain Relief
Some claim that frequent exercise can have a harmful effect on your joints, but according to a 2009 review of studies on the relationship between regular exercise and osteoarthritis (a degenerative joint disease), that fear is completely unfounded. On the contrary, the evidence points to exercise having a positive impact on joint tissues. If you exercise sufficiently to lose weight, or maintain an ideal weight, you can in fact reduce your risk of developing osteoarthritis.
Now, if you've already developed osteoarthritis in your knee, you'll want to incorporate exercises that strengthen the quadriceps muscle at the front of your thigh, and stick with non-weight-bearing exercises like swimming and bicycling.
Certain forms of exercise are also known to ease back- and other musculoskeletal pain. Exercises that can be particularly helpful include stretching, resistance training, and swimming.
My new approach now is Pilates, which I started a few weeks ago. I do one-on-one training with a certified instructor who is a fanatic about doing the exercises properly, and I really enjoy it and look forward to the changes it will produce in my core strength and flexibility. Yoga is another excellent exercise that many people use and enjoy. If you don't know where to begin, I have plenty of free tools on my web site to help you get started. My beginners' exercise page includes plenty of tips and guidelines, as well as links to other helpful information.
The Benefits of Increased Muscle Mass
It's unfortunate that so many, especially women, tend to avoid exercises that will increase muscle mass, because carrying more muscle has many health benefits, including:
Improved blood circulation Increased metabolism Increased bone density
Increased energy Decreased body fat Improved posture, range of motion and functionality of your body

Strength training is in fact recommended for both men and women of all ages, including seniors, and children as young as six years old. Muscle retention is one of the most critical elements of human fitness, as skeletal muscle plays key biological roles in keeping you strong, functional and healthy. Besides allowing you to move, your muscles also participate in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity, protecting you against obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Muscle wasting due to lack of adequate exercise, disease or aging, leads to the loss of physical capacity, loss of physical shape, and increased risk for chronic disease.
Aside from conventional strength training, high-intensity interval training (such as Peak 8 exercises) will also promote muscle building. As fitness expert Ori Hofmekler explains in this previous article, researchers have found that intense speed- and push/pull drills trigger a mechanism in your muscles that actually promotes muscle growth. So these kinds of exercises eventually lead to increased muscle size, even though you're not lifting weights.
Even More Health Benefits of Exercise
In truth, there are so many health benefits from exercise; you could fill several books' worth. Here are several more:
Boost your IQ and think clearer
Lower your blood pressure
Fight off a cold
Manage arthritis
Lower your risk of heart disease

Cure insomnia
Fight depression
Cut cholesterol levels in men with type 1 diabetes
Boost your sex drive, and prevent impotence
Promote health during pregnancyfor both mother and baby

If none of this motivates you to take the first step toward implementing a regular fitness regimen, I don't know what will!


Related Links:

Latest Fitness News

Exercise to Improve Your Body and Your Brain

Move Like a Hunter-Gatherer, Live Longer

A great article about cruciferous veggies

If you re-read the last blogg entry you will also find refernce to Cruciferous veggies, YAH!

Dear dean,

We just came across an article that had some pretty
interesting information so we figured we would send
it out. We will let our friend Mike Geary who is a
very well known fitness trainer and nutrition guru
take it away . .
------
I bet you didn't know that there is a specific class
of vegetables that contain very specific phytonutrients
that actually help to fight against stubborn belly fat.

Let me explain what these unique vegetables are and why
they help to burn stomach fat but first ...

Did you know that there are Chemicals that force your
body to hold onto belly fat?!!

Something you may have never heard about is that certain
chemicals in our food supply and our environment, such
as pesticides, herbicides, and certain petrochemicals
from air and water pollution, household cleaners, cosmetics,
etc can react with your body and make y our body store
excess abdominal fat.

These chemicals are known as xenoestrogens.

Find out more and which vegetables battle xenoestogens at the
full article at the following link

http://bit.ly/nCAHHS

Warm Regards,

The Miracle Noodle Team
http://www.miraclenoodle.com

MiracleNoodle.com

8605 Santa Monica Blvd
Suite 6920
Los Angeles, CA
90069
US

This is a terrific article, nuts & bolts of hunger, saeity, body composition

The Best Foods that Fill You Up and Boost Your Metabolism and Shed Pounds

Posted By Dr. Mercola By Ori Hofmekler

What you're about to read here may change the way you think about food. Yes, once you see the facts, you'll realize that most of the products on the grocery shelves don't fit your biology. Most of today's dietary products are not designed to keep your body young.
The genes that regulate your biological age are highly sensitive to your diet, as they're triggered or inhibited by what you eat, how much you eat, and how often. The point is: You need to know how your diet affects your biological age. You need to know what food keeps you young and what food is making you old.
How Your Diet Affects Your Biological Age
It has been largely agreed that one of the most detrimental causes of aging is excessive calorie intake. Scientists speculate that humans have an overly strong drive to eat when food is readily available. And since people are surrounded today with calorie dense food, they tend to consume excess calories, which then cause them to gain weight, lose health, and age prematurely.
Given this, many believe that calorie restriction is the most effective strategy to get in shape and counteract aging. But the calorie restriction theory is only partly true. It can't always predict whether you'll gain weight or lose weight, neither can it predict whether you'll get in shape or get out of shape. You can be on a low calorie diet and fail to lose weight, and you can be on a high calorie diet and yet manage to slim down.
Emerging evidence indicates that there is another powerful factor behind the scene – one that overrules and dictates your energy expenditure, metabolic rate, body fat percentage, physical shape and eventually your biological age. That factor is the system that controls your hunger and satiety signals. And as you'll soon see, it has nothing to do with your calorie intake, but rather with what you eat and how often.
How Your Hunger-Satiety System Affects Your Physical Shape
Your hunger-satiety system consists of multiple neuro-peptides that act to initiate or terminate your feeding. These are your hunger-satiety hormones. Their signals are integrated by centers in your brain to modulate how you consume, spend or store energy. The balance between these signals dictates whether your body is in a fat-burning or a fat-storing mode.
In order to maintain a healthy body weight, your hunger and satiety signals must continually adjust your food intake to your energy expenditure. Any imbalance between these two will affect your fat stores and physical shape. Obesity, for instance, is a result of a disrupted energy balance in which a surplus of accumulated food energy is stored as body fat.
Again, your physical shape seems to depend on the ratio between your hunger and satiety hormones and so is your biological age. Both hormones regulate your eating behavior and metabolic rate, albeit with opposite effects on your body.
Hunger Hormones vs. Satiety Hormones
Your hunger and satiety hormones are constantly clashing with each other like two armies at war. And the consequences of that hormonal clash are manifested in your body. Hunger hormones tend to slow your metabolism and increase your body fat whereas satiety hormones tend to boost your metabolism and decrease your body fat.
Simply put, if your hunger hormones get out of control, you'll be prone to suffer from a sluggish metabolism and excess body fat. And if your satiety hormones take over, they will counteract the effects of your hunger hormones to allow you greater energy and a leaner healthier body.
But note that your hunger hormones are not inherently bad; when balanced, they play important roles in your metabolic system. Under healthy conditions they may even help you burn fat. The hunger peptide ghrelin, for instance, is a most potent trigger of your growth hormone – it binds to growth hormone secreagogue receptors (GHS-Rs) and increases its release by six fold. Indeed, fasting and hunger boost your growth hormones and potentiate its actions to burn fat and repair tissues more efficiently than drugs – naturally and safely without side effects.
Your hunger hormones are part of your survival apparatus. They relate to your satiety hormones like yin to yang. They keep you alert and give you the drive to search for food along with the desire to achieve. And they balance the actions of your satiety hormones which tend to calm you down.
But if you let your hunger hormones get out of control, you'll experience chronic hunger, diminished energy, metabolic decline, decreased libido and increased tendency to gain weight.
You need to know how to manipulate both types of hormones to work for you. And you certainly need to keep your hunger hormones under control. But how can you do that if you don't even know what causes your hunger hormones to get out of control?
What Causes Your Hunger Hormones Get Out of Control?
Normally your hunger hormones are highly responsive to feeding – their levels increase during fasting and reduce upon food ingestion. Your most notable hunger hormones are ghrelin, neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related protein (AgRP).
During fasting, your hunger hormone ghrelin peaks, boosting your growth hormone to initiate fat burning. Meanwhile, your remaining hunger hormones are continually balanced by your satiety hormones (adiponectin and glucagon-like peptide). This keeps your hunger under control and potentiates your sensitivity to satiety signals.
Then, when you resume eating, your hunger hormones decline – allowing your satiety hormones to kick in and act to boost your metabolism.
That's how your hunger-satiety system works under healthy conditions. It allows you to burn fat when you don't eat and it acts to boost your metabolism when you eat. Hence, a win-win situation.
But your hunger-satiety system can only function well as long as your diet is adequate. If your diet is high glycemic and your feeding episodes are too frequent, your hunger-satiety system will be utterly disrupted.
Frequent consumption of high glycemic meals impairs your key satiety hormones insulin and leptin, leaving your hunger hormones unopposed and dominant. When insulin is impaired (such as in cases of insulin resistance), ghrelin levels remain elevated even after meal consumption – a condition that leads to chronic hunger (mostly for carbs), excess food intake and undesirable weight gain.
This issue has been widely overlooked, perhaps because people normally like to consume baked goods and candies on a daily basis and even more so during celebrations. But the evidence leaves no doubt: frequent consumption of high glycemic foods jeopardize your satiety apparatus and put your body under the tyranny of your hunger hormones.
To prevent that you need to avoid high glycemic foods and resist cravings for sweets. You need to know how to boost your satiety hormones and let them take control over your metabolism.
How to Boost Your Satiety Hormones
Your satiety hormones include insulin, leptin, adiponectin, cholesystokinin (CCK), glucagon-like peptide (GLP), PPY and melanocortin. When potentiated to counteract your hunger hormones, they help increase your energy expenditure, stimulate your thyroid, enhance your sex hormones, lower your stress hormones and increase your capacity to burn fat.
The three main factors that boost your satiety hormones are:
– Food restriction
– Exercise
– Weight loss
Food restriction, exercise and weight loss increase the sensitivity and effectiveness of your insulin and leptin while potentiating the actions of your other satiety hormones. This means that with proper diet, exercise and restoration of a healthy body weight, you can increase the efficiency of your satiety hormones to allow you be at your peak physical potential. But how do you put this in practice? How do you put your satiety hormones in charge?
There are three ways to achieve that:
1. Eat satiety foods
2. Avoid hunger foods
3. Train your body to endure hunger
Eat Satiating Foods
The food that promotes satiety most is protein. It yields satiety more effectively than carbohydrates or fat. Out of all proteins, the one with the fastest satiety impact is whey protein – that's if the whey is whole and non-denatured.
Studies reveal that consumption of whey protein before meals can swiftly boost the satiety peptides CCK and GLP-1, which have been shown to decrease food intake and increase weight loss. Whey protein is also beneficial when consumed before exercise. Having a small serving of whey protein (with no sugar added) about 30 minutes before exercise seems to help sustain intense muscle performance and increase the efficiency of muscle protein synthesis after exercise. A pre-exercise whey meal has also shown to boost the body's metabolic rate for 24 hours thereafter.
Other satiety-promoting foods are low glycemic plant foods including raw nuts, seeds, legumes, roots, cruciferous vegetables, tomatoes, eggplants, grasses and green leafy vegetables.
Being low glycemic and fibrous, these plant foods are a great fit for your insulin and leptin as well as your whole satiety system. Nuts and seeds trigger PPY – a satiety peptide which is highly sensitive to dietary fat. PPY shifts your cravings from carbohydrates to fats and increases your metabolic capacity to convert fat to energy.
That action counteracts your hunger hormones, which typically shift your cravings towards carbohydrates. Note that it's the shift towards refined carbohydrates that has been linked to chronic cravings and excessive food intake. This is the reason why once you open a bag of potato chips and start crunching, you may find it difficult to stop.
And note that your muscle isn't programmed to do well on hunger foods; it rejects fructose and has a limited capacity to utilize high glycemic foods. But your muscle literally thrives on satiety foods. Combinations of whey protein and berries, eggs and beans or meat and nuts have unmatched muscle nourishing properties. Furthermore, being satiety oriented, these food combinations promote the right hormonal environment for muscle rejuvenation and buildup.
All that said, you can't fully benefit from your satiety food if you don't know what food to avoid.
Avoid Hunger Foods
Stay away from high glycemic foods including all refined carbohydrates, sugars, fructose products, baked goods, candies and sugary beverages. Fructose in particular has shown to cause leptin resistance, lipid disorders, hypertension, obesity and diabetes. Studies reveal that the muscle rejects fructose as an energy substrate and the liver has a limited capacity to utilize it; excess fructose is converted into triglycerides and body fat.
But nothing is more damaging to your satiety than the combination of high sugar and high fat. This dietary combo packs on empty calories, causes insulin and leptin resistance and shatters your satiety along with your whole metabolic system. In fact, it has been found that the high sugar-high fat combo causes insulin and leptin resistance even prior to any change in body composition.
This means that all food products made with a high content of sugar and fat are poisonous to your satiety system. These include cookies, cakes, ice creams and chocolates, all of which set you up for serious metabolic setbacks associated with insulin and leptin resistance which may include excess estrogen, excess cortisol, low testosterone, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia and increased belly fat.
The good news is that both insulin and leptin resistance can be reversed by food restriction and weight loss. Hence, your insulin and leptin are restored by austerity and shattered by indulgence.
It has been suggested that insulin and leptin play important roles in times of scarcity but have a lesser role in times of plenty. To keep your insulin and leptin intact you must not indulge yourself with high glycemic treats, not even in moderation. Otherwise, your body will get the wrong signal and you'll pay the consequences with your weight, energy and state of health.
Now that you know how to choose your satiety foods, let's take a look at the other methods that boost your satiety hormones.
Train Your Body to Endure Hunger
Hunger should be treated like physical exercise. Both are perceived by your body as survival signals to adapt and improve. When your body is repeatedly challenged with acute (temporary) hunger, such as due to periodic fasting, it adjusts itself by decreasing the number of hunger receptors in your brain and thus making you increasingly resilient to hunger. This in turn increases the efficiency of your satiety hormones, and potentiates them to take control of your metabolism.
But only real hunger can benefit you that way. Real hunger is what you experience while fasting or undereating, not the kind of craving you feel on a fully belly after finishing a meal.
There are different ways to train your body to endure hunger. You can try to gradually increase the gap between your meals or alternatively put your body in an undereating state for most of the day. And you can also try exercising while fasting. Let's see how all this translates into practice.
Undereating
You can put your body in an undereating state by minimizing your food intake during the day to small, low glycemic, fast assimilating protein meals such as quality whey (every 3-5 hours), which could be served with (or substituted with) small servings of fruits and vegetables. Have your main meal at night.
Undereating has some notable advantages over complete fasting. It challenges your body similar to fasting – yielding a negative energy balance which increases your adaptability to hunger while promoting fat burning and tissue recycling. However unlike fasting, it allows you to nourish your body with protein and antioxidants, and you won't feel the desire to eat as intensely as when you completely avoid food.
But whether you fast or undereat, do not chronically restrict your calories. Your hunger must be acute, not chronic. Treat yourself with sufficient food in your main evening meal to compensate for the energy and nutrients you spend during the day.
Exercising While Fasting
Probably the most intense way to improve your hunger durability is by exercising while fasting. This presents a double challenge to your body and it yields a stronger signal to adapt than fasting or exercise alone. Though exercise while fasting may initially affect your maximum performance, it will nevertheless come with an additional bonus.
A study published in the Journal of Physchology/November 2010 indicated that exercising while fasting increases the body's metabolic adaptation efficiency to utilize energy, burn fat and deposit protein in the muscle – substantially more than when exercising after a meal. The researchers reported that the increased capacity to deposit protein in the muscle as observed in people who were exercising while fasting and then eating a post-exercise meal, is a result of increased insulin sensitivity and activation of the muscle mTOR (the mechanism that increases muscle protein synthesis).
Your body is inherently programmed to benefit from acute hunger (via periodic fasting or undereating) and even more so when exercising while fasting. This probably has to do with an early adaptation mechanism to hunger and hardship which evolved to support human survival during primordial times of food scarcity and intense hardship. Apparently, this primal evolutionary trait is still pertinent today and it potentially affects your physical shape.
Projections
Understanding the biological system that regulates hunger and satiety along with energy balance is essential for preventing excessive weight gain, metabolic decline and premature aging. More studies are needed to elucidate the relationship between human nutrition and aging. As the mechanisms of feeding and energy homeostasis are studied and clarified, treatments based on natural manipulations of hunger and satiety could be just as effective as hormonal therapy in adjusting hormonal disorders and deficiencies.
Manipulations of hunger and satiety through special nutritional strategies may be useful in restoring thyroid hormone activity, balancing estrogen, and attenuating or preventing growth hormone and testosterone decline. These strategies may help affect the enormous morbidity associated with obesity, diabetes and related diseases.
In today's world, you need to know what are your best options for keeping your body biologically young. In this case, nature doesn't leave you with many choices – controlling your hunger is not an option, it's a necessity.
About the Author
Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet, The Anti-Estrogenic Diet, Maximum Muscle Minimum Fat, and the upcoming book Unlock Your Muscle Gene is an expert on how to improve your health with foods.
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Just try it for 2 weeks, great article on diet

I saw a patient this past Saturday at the farmers market and she ran up to me just totally elated and could not say enough about how great she was feeling. We had been working on nutrition and exercise and she finally did it, she had now been gluten free for 2 weeks.

Its just not worth it, there are so many problems with flour products (gluten, blood glucose response....) Give it a 2 week test drive and think about including these few additional items.

These Five Foods May Cause Problems VERY Similar to Wheat...


Posted By Dr. Mercola | While eliminating wheat from your diet is an excellent and necessary step for improving health, it may not be alone sufficient, especially in those with serious health challenges.
According to a series of articles on the website Green Med Info, there are other foods in the Western diet that have properties similar to wheat, because they contain "chitin binding lectins", which are similar to wheat lectin (WGA).
Chitins are long polymers of n-acetyl-glucosamine, the primary binding target of wheat lectin. Wheat lectin and chitin-binding lectin are therefore functionally identical. Chitin-binding lectin containing foods include:
• Potato
• Tomato
• Barley
• Rye
• Rice
Additionally, sprouted grains, which are typically considered to be healthful fare can also be problematic for a couple of different reasons. Not only do sprouted whole wheat contain the highest amounts of wheat lectin, sprouted grains also contain benzoxazinoids (BAs)—a surprisingly toxic component!
Even a modest reduction in consumption of these types of carbohydrate-rich foods may promote loss of deep belly fat. This could help reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, stroke and coronary artery disease, as excess visceral fat (intra-abdominal fat) raises the risk of these diseases.
According to Eurekalert:
"... [S]ubjects who consumed [a] moderately carb-restricted diet had 11 percent less deep abdominal fat than those who ate the standard diet ... [S]ubjects on both diets lost weight. However, the moderately carb-restricted diet promoted a 4 percent greater loss of total body fat".
Sources:
Green Med Info
Green Med Info
Green Med Info
The Plant Journal January 2004; 37(1):34-45
The Biochemical Journal December 15 2003; 376(Pt 3):717-24
Science June 17 2003; 220(4603):1290-2
Cancer Letters February 8 2007; 246(1-2):290-9
Eurekalert June 5, 2011



Yesterday, I discussed how wheat can deteriorate your mental health, and I mentioned that even sprouted wheat can contribute to poor health. I'll delve into this a bit more in just a moment, but first, let's review the health effects of some other non-wheat grains. As it turns out, wheat is not the only grain that can wreak havoc on your health.
Non-Wheat Grains May Be Just as Bad as Wheat...
If you have celiac disease (gluten intolerance), it's absolutely imperative to avoid all kinds of gluten—primarily wheat. But did you know that other non-wheat grains, and even some vegetables, such as tomato, may be problematic as well? Yes, there are a number of other foods with very similar properties to wheat! The following foods contain "chitin binding lectins", which are similar to wheat lectin (WGA):
• Potato
• Tomato
• Barley
• Rye
• Rice
"Chitins" are long polymers of n-acetyl-glucosamine, the primary binding target of wheat lectin. Wheat lectin and "chitin-binding lectin" are therefore functionally identical. This is probably news to most people, and could be an important tidbit for anyone struggling with celiac disease, or any other gastrointestinal issues.
Be Careful if You Have Insulin Resistance
About 85 percent of the people in the population have insulin resistance, and eating any grains, even healthy organic unprocessed ones can be a problem. How do you know if you have insulin resistance?
There are two ways.
You can measure your fasting insulin level. It should be under 3. It is relatively inexpensive and I believe most people should have it done The higher it is, the worse your insulin resistance. If you want to forgo the hassle of a blood test then you can use clinical conditions as a gauge. If you have any of the following four conditions you most likely have insulin resistance
• Overweight
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
I have explained this information for many years, but now we have new scientific research documenting that grains have other problems that are appear to be unrelated to insulin resistance, and I will review them below.
Sprouted Grains—Perhaps Not as Healthful as You've Been Told
The sprouts of grains such as wheat, maize, and rye are increasingly being consumed as health foods, and are also used for the production of dietary supplements. However, sprouted wheat actually contains the highest amounts of wheat lectin (WGA)—which is responsible for many of wheat's ill health effects! And that's not all. These sprouts (wheat, maize and rye) also contain benzoxazinoids (BAs). Benzoxazinoids are part of the plants' defense system against pests, and are actually toxic components...
A study from 2007, published in the journal Cancer Letters, investigated the mutagenic activities of the two most abundant BA's in these sprouted grains. Both types of BA were found be mutagens, meaning capable of altering genetic material, and both were also found to be aneugenic, meaning they affect cell division and lead to aneuploidy, an incorrect number of chromosomes.
"This is an interesting observation as it is assumed that aneuploidy is a key event in cancer induction and at present no other aneugenic plant-derived substances of dietary relevance are known," the authors wrote.
Now, I think it may be risky to claim that sprouted grains are outright toxic when ingested. That's probably not exactly the case. There may be mitigating factors involved, as there often are when you're dealing with a whole food.
Bread Consumption and Cancer
That said, bread (grain) consumption in general has been shown to increase your risk of cancer… For example, an Italian study published in 2007 found "a significant direct trend in risk" between bread consumption and renal cell carcinoma. Compared to those with the lowest consumption, those with the highest bread consumption nearly doubled their risk of this type of kidney cancer.
Pasta and rice consumption increased the risk by almost 30 percent.
Although that study didn't specify the disease mechanism at play, it's a well-known fact that excessive grain consumption leads to insulin resistance—sooner or later—and that insulin resistance is the primary underlying factor of most chronic disease, including cancer. My feeling is that you start to dramatically increase your risk for cancer once your fasting blood sugar rises above 100. The higher your blood sugar level, the higher your risk of cancer. As for your insulin; your fasting insulin level should, ideally, be below 3, as mentioned earlier.
Aside from cancer, all those daily bowls of cereal and sandwiches also amount to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. A study published just last year found that women who eat a lot of foods high in blood sugar-spiking carbohydrates, such as white bread and rice, double their risk of heart disease.
This is because, when you eat more carbohydrates than your body can use, the excess energy is converted to unhealthy fats by your liver which push your cholesterol ratios in the wrong direction. This process occurs to help your body maintain blood sugar control in the short-term, however it will likely increase triglyceride concentrations, which in turn increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. It's unfortunate that so many physicians are still clueless about insulin's influence on cancer and heart disease, but that doesn't mean you have to be!
Got High Cholesterol or Excess Weight? Read This...
If you have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or are overweight, you are best served by avoiding as many sugars and grains as possible, including:
Whole organic grains Sprouted grains Wheat Spelt Millet
Amaranth Quinoa Barley Rye Rice/potatoes

This also includes all forms of fructose, from high fructose corn syrup, to honey and agave syrup. You may even need to be careful with fresh fruits if you have any of the health conditions just mentioned. As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. However, for most people it would also be wise to limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams or less, as you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose if you drink beverages other than water, or eat processed food. For a quick reference list of some of the most common fruits and the amount of fructose they contain, please see this previous article.
Remember, the ONLY carbohydrates you really need are vegetable carbs. All sugar/fructose and all grains, including the "healthful" ones, will tend to raise your insulin levels, which is a detriment to your health…
Even Modest Reduction in Carbs Promotes Weight Loss
Last, but certainly not least, avoiding grains is also one of the most effective ways to help you reach and maintain a healthy weight. According to a new study, the results of which were presented at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston on June 12, even a modest reduction in carbohydrate-rich foods can promote loss of the deep belly fat (intra-abdominal fat) that's been linked to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease. The study participants followed one of two diets for four months:
1. "Standard" reduced-fat diet: 55 percent carbs / 27 percent fat / 18 percent protein
2. Low glycemic reduced-carb diet: 43 percent carbs / 39 percent fat / 18 percent protein
According to the press release:
"... [S]ubjects who consumed [a] moderately carb-restricted diet had 11 percent less deep abdominal fat than those who ate the standard diet ... [S]ubjects on both diets lost weight. However, the moderately carb-restricted diet promoted a 4 percent greater loss of total body fat."
Research has repeatedly shown that a low-carb diet beats low-fat. Eating fat does NOT make you fat. Carbohydrates from fructose and grains do!
One of the solutions to the out-of-control obesity problem is simply to eat LESS carbs in the form of grains and fructose, and MORE healthy fats. The ideal ratio between carbs, fats and protein depends on your nutritional type. We all need some fat, but some of us need upwards of 50 percent of our diet in the form of fat, while others need as little as 10 percent. The ideal ratio depends on your nutritional type, and if you're interested in losing weight or staying healthy, I highly recommend you find out yours, which, by the way, is now easier and less expensive than ever.
In fact, I now offer the entire nutritional typing program free of charge—so there's really no excuse for holding off any longer!
When you begin to include more fat in your diet, be sure to focus on healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, animal-based fats (grass-fed meats, omega-3, and raw dairy products), nuts and seeds, and avocados. Fats from highly refined sources, like vegetable oils and trans fats, should be avoided at all costs.
One of the best benefits of learning your nutritional type is that you don't have to worry about counting calories or fat grams. Instead you focus on eating the right proportion of carbs, fats and protein for your body. It's a much more natural, intuitive way of eating, and you'll know when you've found the right ratio for you because you'll feel simply wonderful, which is what HEALTH is really all about.

Related Links:
Are Green Potatoes Really Poisonous?
New Proof that Bread and Rice Increase Heart Disease
Breast Cancer Risks Grow With High-Carb Diets