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So far James Whittlesey Novato Chiropractor has created 117 blog entries.
3 10, 2017

Plenty of sunlight needed for a good night’s sleep

2017-12-01T22:46:45-08:00By |Categories: Insomnia / Sleep Disorders, Natural Health|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Plenty of sunlight needed for a good night’s sleep

Plenty of sunlight needed for a good night’s sleepIt’s now common knowledge that nighttime exposure to computer, tablet, and TV screens sabotages sleep —the light they emit simulates sunlight, thus suppressing sleep hormones. However, plenty of daytime sunlight is vital for good sleep. Most of us don’t get near enough.

Research shows the average person spends less than an hour a day outside.

For shift workers it’s even worse. Lack of exposure to sunlight inhibits production of melatonin, a hormone that puts us to sleep.

A Finnish rat study observed one group living under fluorescent lighting and another group exposed only to sunlight through windows every day. While both groups received the same duration of both light and darkness during the study, the rats exposed to sunlight produced significantly more melatonin.

It’s not that the artificial light was detrimental. It simply wasn’t strong enough — the sunlight was more than seven times brighter than the fluorescent light. This is what boosted melatonin production. Researchers assert variation of light throughout the day, from dawn to dusk, also supports healthy melatonin production.

During a sunny day, lux levels (which measure the intensity of light) reach 50,000. […]

24 02, 2017

Suffer from chronic health issues? Eat real food!

2017-12-01T22:50:10-08:00By |Categories: Digestive Health, Functional Medicine, Nutrition|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on Suffer from chronic health issues? Eat real food!

When you’re starting on a new health journey, knowing what to eat can seem confusing. For starters, there is a ton of conflicting advice out there, with proponents of each diet insisting their diet is the healthiest.

Suffer from chronic health issues? Eat real food!The truth is, the best diet depends on which one works best for you. Factors that depends on include your individual food sensitivities, digestive health , blood sugar handling, and stress handling.

In functional medicine we follow general guidelines that focus on whole foods, remove foods to which you are intolerant, and to stabilize blood sugar. Beyond that, your history, lab tests, and current condition guides you in a customized diet.

A custom diet plan starts with real food

With customization tips in mind, one basic rule still applies across the board: Eat whole foods.

When you eliminate foods that have been through processing (like breakfast cereal or chips), foods with artificial colorings, additives, and preservatives, and foods laden with industrialized fats and too much sugar, you are already on solid ground nutritionally.

This means stick largely to the produce, meat, and nut sections in the grocery store. Use healthy, natural […]

9 02, 2017

What is Leaky Gut and Why Should You Care

2017-12-01T22:54:24-08:00By |Categories: Digestive Health, Leaky Gut Syndrome|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on What is Leaky Gut and Why Should You Care

Is leaky gut as bad as it sounds? Does stuff really leak out of your intestines? The truth is, contents of the small intestine do escape through the wall into the bloodstream. It also can be pretty bad by way of triggering many different inflammatory disorders and autoimmune disease, a disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys body tissue.

What is Leaky GutLeaky gut is associated with symptoms including:

  • Skin problems (eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, acne, etc.)
  • Chronic pain
  • Autoimmune disease
  • Puffiness, fatigue
  • Brain fog
  • Depression
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Poor memory
  • Asthma
  • Food allergies and sensitivities
  • Seasonal allergies
  • Fungal infections
  • Migraines
  • Arthritis
  • PMS and other hormonal issues

Leaky gut, also referred to as intestinal permeability in the research, means the lining of the small intestine has become inflamed, damaged, and overly porous. This allows undigested foods, bacteria, molds, and other pathogens to enter into the sterile environment of the bloodstream. The immune system attacks these compounds, triggering inflammation that, when constant, turns into chronic health disorders.

Leaky gut now on the research radar

Conventional medicine once believed leaky gut wasn’t a valid concept, but researchers now validate it as linked with many chronic disorders, […]

4 11, 2016

Having Difficulty Losing Weight? Consider Underlying Health Issues

2017-12-01T22:42:53-08:00By |Categories: Functional Medicine, Nutrition, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on Having Difficulty Losing Weight? Consider Underlying Health Issues

Having Difficulty Losing Weight? Consider Underlying Health IssuesDo you keep trying weight loss diets but can’t seem to drop the pounds? Are you instead exhausted and frustrated by an ever growing layer of fat?

Calorie-restricted diets have been popular for decades as a way to lose weight, but clearly more is at play as many people under eat and still can’t lose weight or keep it off.

If you’re doing everything right and the fat isn’t budging, the culprit may lie in underlying health issues slowing metabolism and blocking fat burning.

Feast or famine? Dieting slows metabolism for years

For most of human history, life vacillated between feast or famine, with plenty of bouts of famine. The human body body has smart coping mechanisms to get us through hungry times — lowered metabolism and increased fat-storage hormones.

As far as the body is concerned, a low-calorie diet is a famine and it employs the same measures to save you from starving. As a result, each low-calorie diet can add weight in the end when you resume normal caloric intake.

This dieting-caused metabolic slow-down can last for years. This phenomenon was recently documented in participants from the The Biggest […]

27 07, 2016

Nature is Powerful Medicine for Your Body and Brain

2017-12-18T22:25:58-08:00By |Categories: Natural Health|Tags: , , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Nature is Powerful Medicine for Your Body and Brain

Nature is Powerful Medicine for Your Body and BrainHave you ever wondered why a walk in the woods makes you feel so good? While that Zen feeling is partly about “getting away from it all,” studies show time in nature is also powerfully therapeutic for the body and brain.

More than half of the world’s population lives in an urban setting, and by 2050 that number will increase to a whopping 70 percent.

Urbanization disconnects us from nature with measurable effects on our health.

For example, city dwellers are at a 40 percent higher risk for mood disorders than rural folk. From its anti-inflammatory effects to its positive impacts on mood, time in nature benefits us all.

Here are eight great reasons to spend more time in nature:

1. Vitamin D: Exposure to sunlight enables us to produce this critical hormone. In our increasingly indoor world, many people find they are deficient in Vitamin D. This can lead to a variety of health problems, including depression.

2. Improved sleep: Sleep patterns are tied to the sun’s schedule. Spending too much time indoors away from natural light can alter this rhythm, which plays a role in many […]

21 07, 2016

The Underlying Causes of Allergies

2017-12-18T22:25:35-08:00By |Categories: Allergies, Digestive Health, Leaky Gut Syndrome|Tags: , , , , , , , , |Comments Off on The Underlying Causes of Allergies

The Underlying Causes of AllergiesThe beginning of Spring and Summer seems like a good thing until your allergies go haywire. If you’re tired of allergy medications and always feeling stuffed up and zonked out, consider lasting relief by healing your gut to balance your immune system.

For many people it is hard to believe that your digestive tract can affect your allergies. The digestive tract serves as a hub for the immune system. When you’ve got allergies, it’s worth investigating gut health.

One of the most common links to allergies is leaky gut, also known as intestinal permeability. Leaky gut is like it sounds — the lining of the small intestine becomes inflamed, damaged, and leaky, allowing undigested foods, bacteria, yeasts, and other toxins into the bloodstream.

Whenever this happens, which can be with every meal, the immune system attacks these invaders. This causes inflammation and an over zealous immune state that plays a role in triggering or exacerbating seasonal allergies.

Some people get seasonal allergies, but others get other inflammatory disorders, such as joint pain, skin problems, digestive complaints, autoimmune disease, issues with brain function, fatigue, […]

7 07, 2016

Why Do You Need to Take Supplements, Even if You Eat a Good Diet?

2017-12-01T22:27:22-08:00By |Categories: Functional Medicine, Nutrition, Supplements|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Why Do You Need to Take Supplements, Even if You Eat a Good Diet?

Many people say  “You don’t need to take supplements if you eat a good diet.” Although a good diet is essential to good health, supplements play an instrumental role in various health conditions.

People who don’t understand the value of supplements think they are a waste of money. Others think that they are dangerous and unregulated compounds that should be taken off the market. Some of those products do exist.

The United States is unique compared to the rest of the west in terms of of the freedom of our supplement market. Supplement availability in Europe and Canada is severely limited compared to the United States. With this comes pros and cons.

How to be a smart supplement shopper

The key to understanding supplements is to understand the underlying causes of your condition.

For instance, ten different people can each have a different cause for leaky gut, insomnia, pain, depression, and so on. Buying a “depression supplement,” or an “insomnia supplement,” can often result in failure and frustration, because it might not be what your body needs..

Also, quality matters. Supplements from your local chain supermarket are not going to meet the same standards of quality, care, specificity, and educational support of supplements sold through a practitioner.

The […]

17 06, 2016

Embrace Aging to Stay Youthful

2017-12-01T22:23:59-08:00By |Categories: Aging|Tags: , , , , , |Comments Off on Embrace Aging to Stay Youthful

Aging can cause us to feel invisible and unwanted in a society that worships youth. However, the key to staying youthful into your latter years doesn’t lay in the hands of your hair stylist or medical spa, but instead in your attitude.

Embrace Aging to Stay YouthfulResearch shows internalizing negative stereotypes about aging harms your health, which speeds up aging. However, having a positive attitude toward aging can boost immune function, promote healthy behaviors, and help you feel in control of your life.

Embrace aging for the following benefits

Here are some benefits researchers have found to a positive perception of aging, such as feeling useful and happy with yourself:

  • Positive perception of aging has been shown to be more important than cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, and even exercise when it comes to improving longevity.
  • One study found positive self-perception around aging lowered the risk of aging-associated disability and preserved daily function and ability.
  • Positive aging improves preventive behaviors such as sticking to a good diet, exercising, and following through with check-ups.
  • Expecting to lose your memory has been shown to increase cognitive decline by up to 30 percent […]
25 05, 2016

Omega 6 and 3 fats: The Good and the Bad

2017-12-18T22:24:33-08:00By |Categories: Functional Medicine, Nutrition|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Omega 6 and 3 fats: The Good and the Bad

Omega 6 and 3 fats: The Good and the BadFor decades, media experts have promoted a diet high in omega 6 fats — found in corn, soybean, canola, and safflower — to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. We now know excess omega 6 fatty acids is connected to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, psychiatric issues, and cancer.

Omega 3 fats, however, are linked with lowered inflammation, better brain function, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

Our grandparents ate a much different ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids than we do; omega 3-rich wild and grass-fed meats were the norm, and traditional omega 3 fats such as butter and lard were always on hand.

Omega 6 fats promote chronic illness

Introducing processed seed, nut, and bean oils into our diet while reducing grass-fed and wild fats has resulted in Americans becoming deficient in essential omega 3 fats, while having way too many omega 6 fats on board.

In addition, these processed oils are commonly chemical-laden and rancid, carrying toxic free radicals that promote inflammation throughout the body.

Many studies show a connection between inflammation and chronic health issues.

It’s […]

6 05, 2016

Dieting Can Make You Fat

2017-12-18T22:22:48-08:00By |Categories: Nutrition, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , , , |Comments Off on Dieting Can Make You Fat

Dieting Can Make You FatIn one of the most overfed populations in human history, the weight loss diet is almost an obsession.

Despite plenty of scientific evidence that many diets don’t produce lasting results for most people and despite countless numbers of dieters, most of them women, thrown into a lifetime of damaging despair, low self-esteem, and self-hatred thanks to failing diets, our culture still blindly adheres to the low-calorie diet as the panacea for all life’s problems, including those extra pounds.

The reality TV show The Biggest Loser provided the perfect high-profile platform for scientists to showcase what millions of Americans have learned the hard way: diets make you fatter in the long run.

Why dieting makes you fat

For most of our species’ history, meager food supply and bouts of famine have been the norm. As a result, the body prioritizes conserving fat and energy through altering its metabolism and fat-storing hormones.

Metabolism slows dramatically for years

Eating fewer calories to lose weight significantly slows your metabolism and causes you to regain the weight quickly and easily. The body will fight for years to get back to its previous set point. Contestants on […]

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