Natural Health for Life: February 2008

An atmosphere for healing is especially helpful for people who are fighting illness or for those in addiction recovery. We are pleased to see facilities that concern themselves with the whole individual, rather than just an addiction. Natural surroundings that promote inner serenity help provide balance to the individual's emotions as they recover health. Nutrition is of prime importance in helping to regain health as well. Facilities that offer nutritious and fresh organic foods help build up the system and strengthen the body. Especially while going through drug detox, it is important to avoid the addition of further toxins from added pesticides and antibiotics.

An environment for healing is especially helpful in the case of dual diagnosis . More than 50% of admission cases have a concurrent psychosocial or emotional illness. For these people, the benefits of emotional serenity and natural surroundings are of even greater benefit. Nature helps relieve emotional stress and anxiety, and emotional healing can progress more quickly than it often does within a more artificial and clinical environment.

A variety of therapy options and personalized services allow a program to be tailored to suit an individual, giving every chance for success. Individual, group, and family therapy are part of the treatment process. Challenge and adventure therapy and equine therapy assist development and healing as well.

We are pleased to see programs that address the needs of the whole individual and are not relegated strictly to a clinical setting, allowing a fuller opportunity for healing of the whole person.

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Skin care products

There's a lot of hype and information today about a variety of skin care products and natural anti-aging formulas. It seems that many companies are interested in this high-dollar industry, one of the ones receiving a lot of press being Christian Dior's Dior Capture skin care line.

Manufacturers of course make claims for their products, but in deciding which are most likely to be beneficial and produce real results, it is important to understand the causes of skin aging. Some of these may be correctable while others are best prevented, and the jury is still out on still others.

One of the main reasons for an increase in wrinkles in aging skin is decreased levels of collagen. Many products include collagen in their preparations, promising that applying it to your skin will decrease wrinkles. The problem is that collagen molecules are larger than skin pores and cannot be absorbed into the skin, and simply spreading collagen on the surface of the skin is unlikely to produce any results at all. The only two natural ways of increasing the collagen in skin are to take it as a nutritional supplement, where your body can use it, but will decide WHERE to use it. Because collagen is also an essential component of joints, etc., your body may send it to the joints rather than to your face, where you had hoped to see results. The other method is to increase the body's own collagen production. There are some indications that Dermapril-SP's ingredient, Matrixyl 3000, helps to boost collagen production in the skin, along with Hyaluronic Acid.

Along with collagen and elastin, Hyaluronic Acid is one of the components of the matrix that supports skin tissue. Hyaluronic Acid helps maintain moisture in the skin in the same way that a sponge would do, by absorbing and holding moisture. Lower production of Hyaluronic Acid is also associated with aging.

One of the primary causes of aging is exposure to sunlight over time. This is the factor that is best prevented, and reversal is impossible. The number of burns over a person's lifetime greatly increases risk of skin cancers, as well as adding to the overall sun exposure to negatively impact the quality of the skin as a person ages.

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Basic diet - part 3 - Fats and Oils

While some people who are dieting strive to cut out ALL fats and oils, this truly is not a healthy choice. Some vitamins are fat-soluble, and can only be absorbed and used when the body has access to fats. Fats are essential to building and maintaining healthy cells, and they are also a source of ready energy to the body.

There are two basic types of fat. The first is saturated fat -- any fat that remains solid at room temperature. Saturated fats include animal fat, lard, butterfat, coconut oil, etc. Most people get the highest levels of saturated fat in their diets from consuming animal proteins and from processed foods that use saturated fats in their ingredient list. Consumption of saturated fats leads to higher cholesterol, increased blood pressure, and laying down of fatty deposits in the arteries, all of which can lead to heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. It is of the greatest importance to know what kinds of fats you are consuming and cut down on the sources of saturated fats as much as possible.

An important factor to remember is that the food given to livestock will affect the levels of saturated fats found in animal products. Grass-fed beef is lower in saturated fats than commercially fed beef. Chickens allowed to graze on pasture lay eggs that are lower in cholesterol and higher in omega-3 essential fatty acids than those kept caged and fed a commercial mixture.

Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, and include most plant oils. Popularly available products are olive oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, etc. Because they are liquid at room temperature, unsaturated fats also flow freely inside the body as well. These are the healthiest choice for dietary sources of fat. Among the most healthful choices of the ones we have listed above are olive oil.

Look for cold-pressed organic cooking oil. It is important to avoid heat-processing of oils, as that causes the chemical structure of fats to change. It is always best to use oils at the lowest temperatures possible as well.

Nuts and seeds are also good sources of fats. Whole fresh almonds are especially beneficial. There are also a wide selection of nut butters available (not just peanut, which isn't a nut at all!), although these typically have a shorter shelf life and must be mixed before each use, they are worth the effort.

Do check ALL labels for "trans-fat." In the US, all foods must disclose their level of trans-fat. However, be aware that if a serving provides less than .5 gram, it can legally be listed as "no trans-fat" which isn't quite true, and can still add up to health problems if you consume too much of a product. We will address this further in upcoming posts, since this series is intended to be a simple guide to nutrition, but watch especially for the most common causes, such as "partially hydrogenated" fats and oils.

Butter is also beneficial, in moderation. This is the key to all fat consumption (indeed, to almost all food consumption) ... moderation. The more variety you can introduce to your diet, eating all foods in moderation, the healthier you will be.

Our next post will include some information on minerals and vitamins.

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Basic diet - part 2 - Proteins

Usually when someone says "proteins," most people think of meat. There are other sources of protein, however. Proteins are basically complexes that are made up of a variety of amino acids. Some amino acids can be manufactured by the body, while others cannot. The ones your body cannot produce on its own are referred to as "essential amino acids" because you must obtain them through food or your body simply won't have access to them.

Animal proteins contain all of the essential amino acids, which is why meat has come to be considered a primary protein source. There are several down-sides to consuming animal protein, however. Especially if you eat too much animal protein, the processing of it by your body will produce excess acid, leading to an acidic body condition. Acidic body conditions can lead to a whole host of problems, while simply keeping your body alkaline can help prevent many conditions. This is a rather complex issue which we will cover in more detail in future posts. Other problems linked with consuming animal protein are the high levels of saturated fats, and the high incidence of treating animals with hormones and antibiotics by the meat-producing industry, and the levels of pesticide that are often ingested through animal protein because of the treatment of feed crops.

Those who eat animal protein can help balance the pH of their body in several ways, but the most direct is to eat only as much meat as needed and balance that with alkaline-producing foods. Avoiding hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides is made easier by the availability of organic, grass-fed livestock. While the cost of organic meats is higher, if you consume only as much meat as needed, that will produce some dollar savings, and at the same time, you can avoid paying medical costs down the road and enjoy a healthier body. There are ways to save on organic foods as well.

Some plants provide protein as well. Different plants are made of different amino acids so that, when combining different types of plant protein (such as grains with beans), the amino acid complexes will complement one another and the body will have access to "complete" proteins. The body can store amino acids and use them later as needed to manufacture its proteins, so these foods do not need to be consumed at the same meal.

However, excess plant proteins can make the body over-acidic just as animal proteins can. For this reason, the same care should be taken to eat alkaline-producing foods to balance out plant proteins as well.

Good sources of animal protein include meats, fish, eggs, and dairy. Plant protein sources include beans and bean products, seeds, nuts, and whole grains.

Proteins are closely connected to the subject of our next post, which will cover fats and oils.

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Basic diet - part 1 - Carbohydrates

When planning nutrition, there are seven components that the human body needs in order to maintain health. These include carbohydrates, proteins, fats/oils, minerals, vitamins, enzymes, and water.

We're going to talk about the first of these today - carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates (or carbs for short) are getting a lot of bad press these days, especially since the popularization of the Atkins Diet and other similar diets. Simply put though, your body NEEDS carbs in order to function.

Something to keep in mind is that there are two kinds of carbohydrates. The first is simple sugars. These are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream because they are in a chemical form that the body can readily use. Typically you will feel a burst of energy when consuming simple sugars, but many people will also feel a "crash" soon afterwards because just as the simple sugars are easy to assimilate, they are quickly used up and then nothing remains to continue to nourish the body. There is too much difference between the available energy when the sugars are entering the bloodstream and the period soon after when they are gone. This can cause headaches, tiredness and fatigue, irritability, and other results that you may recognize, while other problems are building inside your body that you don't feel.

In order to process sugar, the body needs insulin. When taking in simple sugars, the body demands insulin (which is made by the pancreas) quickly, because the sugar is ready to use NOW. If you continually eat simple sugars, the pancreas can become stressed with all the stop-start demands for quick insulin production. This is one of the dietary factors that can lead to diabetes, in which the pancreas is no longer able to produce sufficient insulin to process sugars.

Another problem is that insulin, which has come to be known as the "fat storage hormone," basically helps to instruct your body that the sugar being processed needs to be stored for future energy, and over time, will be much more likely to lead to obesity than if the same calories had been consumed in another form.

The second type of carbs are complex carbohydrates. These are the ones found in whole grains, vegetables, etc. The advantage with complex carbohydrates is that their complex structure means that it takes the body longer to process them to make them available for energy, so the need for insulin to process these sugars is a slow, steady process that doesn't place the demands on the pancreas for immediate insulin that simple sugars do. Thus the pancreas is not stressed, the insulin doesn't tell the body that the sugars are best converted to fat, and the body receives a slow, consistent dose of energy over time, avoiding those "crash" headaches, fatigue, etc.

The intake of simple sugars should be limited. Instead, you should seek out complex carbs for as much of your energy calories as possible.

Stay tuned for our next post ... covering proteins.

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Is Melatonin a Safe Supplement?

The answer to whether or not melatonin is a safe supplement is … yes, and no. Before deciding to take a supplement, you should understand how it will work in your body and if you NEED to take it.

While many supplements are good for almost everyone and will at least not hurt you even if you don’t need it, some should be considered more carefully. Melatonin is one of these.

Simply put, a person’s body SHOULD produce melatonin anyway. It is necessary to regulate sleep cycles. Some people don’t produce enough melatonin naturally, and these people usually suffer sleep interruptions, either in the form of not being able to fall asleep or, more often, falling asleep only to wake up within a couple of hours and then finding themselves unable to get back to sleep after their middle-of-the-night waking.

These are the people that can benefit from taking melatonin. Their body is already impaired with melatonin production, and they are already suffering from lack of sleep. Replacing the melatonin their bodies should produce naturally will help correct this.

However, there are many reasons that people have trouble sleeping. More often than not, the cause is actually stress. Other factors can interfere with sleep as well. These people may already be producing enough melatonin, but are not sleeping because of some other reason.

The problem comes when someone goes out and buys melatonin and starts taking it without knowing whether they need it or not. (And every customer who has come to my store to buy melatonin hasn’t known whether or not they needed it.) It can be safe enough to try it if you can be unbiased enough to determine whether or not it actually helps. You should keep a sleep log for at least a few days before beginning melatonin, and continue it after beginning to take it. If you don’t see an improvement within a very short time, you shouldn’t continue to take melatonin.

The reason is that, as I said, the body naturally produces melatonin. If you begin to supplement that with extra melatonin, your body gets the signal that melatonin isn’t needed. Continuing to take the melatonin supplement over time, if it is not needed, can “shut off” your body’s natural mechanisms and you will then become melatonin deficient where you weren’t before. In this way, the supplement can be “unsafe.”

And if you were losing sleep for some reason other than low levels of melatonin, you still won’t be able to sleep until that issue is addressed, but at the same time you may now need to take melatonin supplements when you didn't need them before.

It is a much better approach to try to evaluate what is the most likely cause of your lack of sleep. As stated before, stress is the most likely culprit. In the case of persons under stress whose thoughts tend to race when they lie down to sleep, the herb skullcap is often helpful. If the cause is physical pain or tension, such as from an injury, valerian root would be the first choice to try. There are a number of other herbs as well that are more specific to other kinds of insomnia. Melatonin is usually indicated first in cases where there is not a more obvious cause and/or when the person has experienced a major disruption in sleep cycles, such as a person on shift work or one who has moved across multiple time zones.

Even when melatonin is indicated, it should be used “as needed” and the person should attempt to wean off of it if the need is temporary and can resolve itself. For those persons who truly do not produce enough melatonin, there may be a need to continue to supplement throughout life.

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Natural Health for Life

Information for increasing and maintaining health through the use of natural supplements, natural products, holistic services, sound nutrition and physical excercise. The usual FDA required disclaimer: "The information on this site has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease."