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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. […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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, […]

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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 […]

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4 03, 2016

Concussion Triples Suicide Risk Later in Life

2017-12-01T21:45:42-08:00By |Categories: Depression, Functional Medicine|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on Concussion Triples Suicide Risk Later in Life

Concussion Triples Suicide Risk Later in LifeConcussions have gained attention for their link to dementia, but did you know they also increase the risk for suicide? Just one concussion can triple the long-term risk of suicide in otherwise healthy people.

Concussions increase suicide risk in ordinary people

Although brain-injured football players have been receiving all the attention lately, the typical concussion patient is a middle-aged adult. Most concussions happen not on the playing field but during traffic accidents, falls at home, and in other everyday situations.

A study looked at a quarter-million subjects who had been diagnosed with a mild concussion during the last 20 years. Researchers found suicide occurred at three times more often in people who had a concussion than the rest of the population. They also found that on average suicide occurred nearly six years after the concussion.

What’s interesting is the risk of suicide increases four-fold if the concussion happens on the weekend. Researchers think this is because people don’t seek or put off medical care on the weekend.

This risk was independent of demographics or previous psychiatric conditions, and the risk increased with additional concussions.

Why does […]

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