#3 of 5 Tips That Will Improve Your Healthspan

Dear Friend,

April was a busy month for me, and I spent a lot of time researching tip #3 for dramatically increasing your healthspan. I have to warn you that it’s very long and detailed. I covered a lot of material here, so you may want to print it and read it in more than one sitting. So here it is:

The Low Glycemic Index (GI) Diet

I hope all of you are still drinking water, and you have added a pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement to your diet. Before I talk about the Low GI Diet, let’s first talk about one important concept.

Diet is the word for what you eat, not a way to lose weight.

Don’t confuse a diet with a weight loss program. Dietary change is a good foundation of a weight loss program, but there are other components including exercise, which I will address in the future

There are multiple causes of being overweight, but most of them start with what you put in your mouth. The good news is you have complete control over what goes in your mouth. I know there is an overwhelming amount of information out there, and it’s hard to figure out what to eat. I will try to clarify the confusing information for you. I'll give you my best recommendations for healthy living. These are things that I follow and believe in.

In order to take advantage of this good advice, you have to take a look in the mirror and decide to take full responsibility for your health and your life. You have to love yourself enough to become an active participant in your health. You will have to start questioning what is in the food you eat and reading the labels of the things you buy before you blindly put them in your mouth.

I believe in being practical. Do I eat pasta? Sure. I like pasta, and I like pizza, but I have them once a month or less. I believe that every meal is a new opportunity to eat well. Just because you eat pasta once, doesn't mean you've blown it. Next meal you have another opportunity to eat well. If you view each meal as an opportunity to eat well, and you eat well for 90% of your meals you will do just fine.

You must also realize that eating high glycemic index foods (pasta, bread, sugar, potatoes) with every meal is NOT an option if you want to have a long healthspan.

There are other causes of weight gain, or inability to lose weight. If you are eating a low GI diet, and exercising regularly and you still cannot achieve your ideal weight, you may have an imbalance in your hormones.

These include sex hormones (Estrogens, Progesterone, and Testosterone) as well as thyroid hormone, cortisol, and insulin. These are more medical issues and must be addressed by specific testing and recommendations for nutrition, supplements and medications. As an Anti-aging specialist, I can help you with that as well. Hormone balance of all kinds is one of the main components of Anti-aging medicine.

Now that I have given you the intro on weight loss and diet, let's get into tip#3. Here you can learn about why the Low GI diet may be best for you.

Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Green

Tip #3 - Low Glycemic Index Diet
The Low GI diet is not about weight loss. It’s about inflammation.

It may help you lose weight, but it is a diet you should eat for life. I spoke a little about inflammation in the -Fish Oils Newsletter-.

The fact is, inflammation is at the root of numerous disease processes. Everything from diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and even cancer have silent, cellular inflammation as a significant contributor.

I know, you may be saying "how can one thing be responsible for so many diseases?" Well it is, and I will try to explain it.

You learned about the eicosanoid hormones in my fish oil newsletter. There is a balance between “good” eicosanoids and “bad” eicosanoids. To refresh your memory, here is the table that shows the different effects.



Carbohydrates: What's the problem?

Just like the fats I spoke about in "Share The Health Volume 1:2 Fish Oils," the problem is not all carbohydrates. There are good carbs and bad carbs. In the simplest form, it boils down to the focus of this article: glycemic index.

The glycemic index is a measure of how high your blood sugar goes when food gets broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream. It was first proposed in 1981. Can you believe it’s a 25 year-old concept and most people have never heard of it?

High glycemic index foods get absorbed very quickly leading to a blood sugar spike. Low glycemic index means slower absorption and a steadier blood sugar. The glycemic index gives sugar an arbitrary value of 100. All foods are compared to that. Low GI is considered to be 55 or less. Over 70 is considered to be high GI.

When ANY carbohydrate is digested it is absorbed as sugar. In other words,to me:

bread=sugar, pasta=sugar, fruit=sugar, oats=sugar, vegetables=sugar.

That is ok, because the primary fuel for your brain, which is a pretty important organ, is sugar. The problem is when it is absorbed very quickly there is a big spike in your blood sugar. Your body says “hey, what do I do with all of this sugar.” So it releases a big spike of insulin.

Insulin is the hormone in your body that deals with sugar. The primary thing insulin does with all the sugar is store it to fat. This is important!
High Insulin=fat storage

So, you see that eating high glycemic carbs spikes your insulin and leads to fat storage. Not only does insulin cause your body to store fat, it also tells your body not to use the fat that is already stored. Now you can see why the food pyramid of the last 25 years (high in grains, breads and carbs) has resulted in a fatter, sicker American population.

Unfortunately, insulin causes other problems when it spikes. (Incidentally, one of the things we measure as a sign of health is the “fasting insulin” level. The lower it is the better.) Insulin promotes the production of bad eicosanoids. When too much sugar is around, too much insulin is made and too many bad eicosanoids are made leading to inflammation. And you know that inflammation leads to high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.

Glycation

Another important bad thing that happens when your sugar spikes is a process called glycation. Glycation is the attachment of the sugar molecule to proteins in your tissues. Once attached, the bond between them causes the release of free radicals. These free radicals cause damage to the surrounding cells. Since collagen is one of the most abundant proteins in the human body, it gets glycated the most when sugar is abundant.

Damage to collagen in the skin leads to wrinkles and something called Advanced Glycation End products (AGE’s.) These are seen in the form of AGE spots, which are cellular breakdown debris collecting to stain the skin.

Damage to collagen in the arteries leads to hardening of the arteries, or decreased elasticity. So, it makes sense that harder, less elastic arteries would lead to high blood pressure and eventually heart disease.
Free Radicals and Anti-oxidants

I know you have heard the terms, but I want to make sure you know exactly what they mean to you. A free radical is a biochemistry word for a molecule that is missing an electron. They are generated by the normal functions of your body, and are sometimes created by your immune system to neutralize viruses and bacteria. However, environmental factors such as pollution, radiation, cigarette smoke and herbicides can also spawn an overabundance of free radicals. Because they need an electron, free radicals run around looking for electrons to steal.

Where does a free radical get an electron? It steals them from your cells! This will damage those cells. It is this kind of damage to cellular DNA which can lead to mutations. Mutations in DNA can lead to cancer. Free radical damage has been implicated in a multitude of diseases, including cancer, emphysema, Parkinson’s disease, atherosclerosis, and, yes, aging.

Organisms age because cells accumulate free radical damage with the passage of time. So, control of free radicals is an important aspect of Anti-Aging Medicine.

To prevent free radical damage, you need to have a good supply of anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are those generous molecules that say “here, take my electron.” That’s so nice of them, but then the anti-oxidant becomes a free radical itself because it is missing an electron. This is why it is SO important to be on multiple anti-oxidants.

By doing so, you can create a chain where each anti-oxidant donates an electron to the next one until the resulting free radical is either too weak to steal electrons from your cells, or stable enough to run around without stealing electrons.

Some of the most common anti-oxidants are Vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, and alpha lipoic acid. There are also abundant anti-oxidants in fruits and vegetables. I will devote future “Share the Health” topics to different anti-oxidants and the foods that contain them.
Genetic factors, Net Carbs, Glycemic Load, and Portion Size

Genetic factors
Now you may know someone who eats all the carbs they want and is thin as a rail. In a way they are lucky. About 25% of the population has a blunted effect of insulin such that fat is not stored nearly as much, even with a high glycemic spike in their blood sugar. They are lucky because they don’t store fat, but don’t forget that the low GI diet is also about inflammation, and they can still get the cellular inflammation and free radicals that lead to disease.

Another 25% of the population has an increased response to sugar and secretes more insulin. They get a spike in insulin even with lower glycemic index foods. T hose are people who seem to gain weight even when they look at carbs. It is especially important to watch the glycemic index of the foods you eat, if you fall into this group.

About 50% of us have an average response, which means your insulin spikes with high glycemic carbs, and can be moderated with lower glycemic index carbs.

Net Carbs

Net carbs take into account the amount of fiber in the food to offset the total carbohydrates. So if you consume a food with 30g of carbs and 5g of fiber, the net carbs is 25g. The idea is that carbs from fiber are not really absorbed as sugar. I think there is some validity to this concept. You also need to consume good amounts of fiber in your diet. So using this concept as an incentive to get more fiber with your carbs is smart.

Glycemic Load

A concept that is gaining popularity among researchers is Glycemic Load. The glycemic load is a formula that takes into account not only the glycemic index of food but also the quantity of net carbs in the food. Some people believe that insulin actually responds to glycemic load and not just GI. So you can’t just look at the glycemic index, you have to take into account the portion size of the foods you eat. If you eat a teaspoon of something with a high GI, your insulin will not spike, but if you eat a double portion of something with a medium GI, you will get an insulin spike and store more fat and cause more inflammation.

Portion Size

Portion size has gone through the roof. We eat the wrong diet and in huge portions. Everything is supersized. I consider a portion to be the size of your fist. You should have one portion of low fat protein (poultry, fish, or organic pork or beef) and two portions of low GI carbs with each meal. If you care about yourself, you will eat about half of what the restaurant serves you and take home the rest for later or for your dog. We are all brainwashed by our Moms to “clean your plate.” Well, it has taken me a long time to break that, but I am here to tell you that you DO NOT need to clean your plate with today’s large portions.

Take less. Eat slower.

Chewing your food is the beginning of digestion. Take the time to really enjoy the flavor of your food. Cook at home and if you eat out, take some home.
The Science

There have been hundreds of medical studies that have looked at glycemic index and glycemic load. Without going into all of them individually, I can tell you that some show no statistically significant correlation, but many are very unfavorable for high glycemic index foods. One thing is pretty much a certainty: a high glycemic index diet has been linked to increases in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, cataracts, breast cancer, and colon cancer.

-Annals of Oncology recently cited an Italian study that questioned over 5,000 women and found a DIRECT LINK between breast cancer risk and consumption of high glycemic index foods.

-A study of almost 50,000 women in the International Journal of Cancer found increased risk only for POST-menopausal women, especially if they had been on conventional Hormone Replacement Therapy, but no correlation in premenopausal women.

-Multiple studies have found no correlation between GI and cancer or with GI and heart disease EXCEPT in the study participants who were overweight.

-Multiple studies have established a risk for type II diabetes and something called “metabolic syndrome” which is the precursor to diabetes. Diabetics also have an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as infection.

The problem is twofold. When we eat a high glycemic diet, we promote inflammation and free radicals. We take in processed chemicals which wreak havoc on our cells. This leaves little room in your diet for good vegetables and foods that protect us against toxic chemicals which, unfortunately, are way too common in this industrial society. I will devote more time to toxins and the detoxification process in future newsletters.

Carbohydrates and Infection

It is difficult to find conclusive evidence, but intuitively, you can see that carbohydrates are the simplest form of energy for all living things. So, when you have an infection, especially a yeast infection, those organisms thrive on the carbohydrates. Bacteria, viruses, and yeast all take from our blood stream the simplest fuel. If you have a lot of sugar in your bloodstream, you supply those organisms with a ready source of energy. So, you must really use low GI foods when you have a cold, flu, bacterial or yeast infection. I can only assume that cancer would also feed on these simple sugars as well, although there is no direct study to show that.
Foods to avoid and foods to enjoy.
Soda

I am going to spend a little extra time on soda, because I believe soda is public enemy #1 when it comes to your healthspan. Soda has a high glycemic index. You get 8-10 teaspoons of sugar with each can. We are consuming incredible amounts of soda and it is a big part to the 60+ pounds of sugar the average American consumes in a year. Americans drink 56 gallons a year for every man, woman and child.

A study of 11 and 12 year olds in 2001 Lancet (a respected medical journal) showed that for every soft drink or sugar-sweetened beverage a child drinks per day, their obesity risk appears to jump 60%. Stop feeding it to your kids, and stop making it into a treat for them. Soda rots their teeth. It leads to all the diseases I have discussed, and it is addictive like a drug.

As I said in "Share The Health" Volume 1:1, Switch to water!

Diet soda is also bad. Aspartame is neurotoxic. If you have seizures, or migraines you may find significant relief if you stop using of diet drinks. The diet drinks have also been found to be an appetite stimulant. So, you drink diet soda and it makes you want to eat more.

Caffeine addiction runs rampant in soda drinkers. You need to have the caffeine otherwise you get tired, or shaky, or get headaches. I urge you to switch to green tea if you cannot stop drinking soda due to a need for caffeine. You will benefit from less sugar and the anti-oxidants in green tea.

The last problem is the carbonation. Carbonation is made by using phosphorous. Phosphorous is exchanged for calcium by your body. So, drinking lots of fizzy drinks, even soda water in large quantities, can contribute to osteoporosis through the loss of calcium.

Public enemy #2 is French Fries. They have all the starch and sugar of potatoes without the vitamins from the skin. They are deep fried using unhealthy fats. The oils are used over and over, which oxidizes the oils leading to unhealthy free radicals and potential carcinogens.

The nurses study showed a 14% increase for heart disease in the nurses who consumed the most potatoes, and a 23% increase for the nurses who consumed the most French fries! I recommend celery sticks instead of fries.

Corn is a controversial vegetable. It is a higher GI food. More worrisome is the fact that most corn is genetically modified. They do not need to label it as such, but the genetically modified corns have cross-pollinated many of the other varieties and it is contaminating corn, which is one of the most overproduced vegetables we grow. Corn may be the subject of a future “Share The Health.” I have begun to avoid corn and eat it very rarely but am looking forward to fueling my car with it!

Ingredients listed on any food are listed in order of percentage. i.e. the first one on the list has the highest amount in that food. Watch out for sugar in the first 5 ingredients of any food. Sugar, fructose, sucrose, or high fructose corn syrup in the first 5 ingredients are foods to avoid.

In order to provide a solution and not just point out the problem, I have listed several more foods to avoid. In some cases I have a good alternative. In some case you just need to eat the food very rarely.

Foods to avoid or substitute



Foods to increase in your diet and teach your children to enjoy:

Fresh Vegetables (except corn)
Salad greens
Cooked greens
Spinach
Mushrooms
Garlic
Spices of all kinds
Broccoli
Celery
Bran
Whole grains
Select fish
Olive oil
Shrimp
Sardines
Squash
Nuts
Vegetables, vegetables, vegetables

Here are some resources you can view to see more about glycemic index and other great foods:

Switch to Whole grain foods-
http://www.oznet.k-state.edu/humannutrition/mf2560.pdf

A good resource for diabetics, with a long list of foods and their glycemic index -
http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Resource for information about glycemic index of foods-
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
Click on GI database and you can search the glycemic index of your favorite foods.

Summary

By eating a diet with overall low glycemic index and increasing the amount of vegetables and fruits that you eat and give your children, you will feel better, look better and be healthier.

To recap what we’ve learned and give you the main points:

- Your diet is what you eat, not a weight loss program.
- Glycemic Index (GI) is a measure of how a food affects your blood sugar.
- High GI foods are like sugar, pasta, potatoes, cooked carrots, and white bread.
- GI over 70 is high. GI under 55 is low.
- High GI leads to increased insulin.
- Increased insulin leads to inflammation.
- Inflammation leads to several debilitating diseases.
- The Low GI Diet keeps down insulin and inflammation.
- Every Meal is a new opportunity to eat well.
- You MUST read the labels of what you eat.
- Soda and French fries are public enemy #1 and 2.
- There are healthy alternatives that are readily available.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

Hopefully you will take this to heart and continue down the road to a long and healthy life. This tip will be a bit more difficult than the last two, but I know you can do it! The next tip will be a little easier. You will see it in your inbox soon. Tip #4: Anti-oxidants, what you need to know.

Talking About Mind, Body, Spirit... and Money

James Harvitt L.Ac., EMT, LMT, MBA,
Holistic Medicine

Behavioral Finance is an emerging specialty within Mind/Body Medicine that clients and friends of LightCare Medical Spa should be aware of. As further discussed below, we at LightCare strive to treat the whole person from an integrative perspective with cutting edge anti-aging medicine, complementary and alternative therapies, and consultations that address issues and provide therapy to reduce tension and stress derived from monetary or business concerns.

When we think of Finance, we generally think of the management of money affairs. When we think of Behavioral, we generally think of behaving or acting in a certain way. Therefore, Behavioral Finance addresses how we act (or react) when it comes to our money. Being holistic, Mind/Body Medicine assumes that each person is a unique combination of individual essences. While we can separate mind, body, and spirit into parts for purposes of discussion, in truth all of these diverse elements form one indivisible human being.

Consequently, to correctly apply the principles of Mind/Body Medicine to personal finance, we at LightCare will always view the medical spa guest from a perspective of wholeness. Finance affects each person differently depending on individual mind/body/spirit constitution. We already know that some people are spenders by nature while others must save. Within this broad division, we can find impulsive spenders, compulsive savers, and in-betweens that both spend and save (or invest), but only after performing thoughtful and meticulous calculations.

During a Behavioral Finance consultation, we explore various preferences the individual exhibits in order to identify biobehavioral constitution. The objective of the consult is to clearly state financial goals in the context of a personalized business model for success. The consult does not concern itself with investment specifics (i.e. what to buy or sell), but most importantly how to relate individual mind/body constitutional type to financial challenges of every sort imaginable. Planning is critical to a successful financial future.

When planning for potential financial challenges is done poorly, or not at all, the end result is most often the development of acute or chronic dis-stress. The stress of financial hardships is easily transformed by the Mind/Body/Spirit into physical ailments such as tension headaches, insomnia, neck/back/ shoulder pain, and gastrointestinal disturbances, to name but a few.

Awfulizing and catastrophizing further unbalance life energies Complementary therapies including acupuncture, massage, and relaxation techniques are effectively used during a Behavioral Finance consultation to manage pain and discomfort as well as to balance life energies. One or more 60-90 minute sessions can be conveniently scheduled with me at LightCare Medical Spa.

To Your Good Health,
Jim

Help STOP Wyeth from taking your access!

Wyeth Petition Letter
Dear Friend,

As I embark on becoming board certified in Anti-Aging medicine, an exciting, cutting edge and sometimes controversial specialty, I am empowered and humbled by the knowledge I have gained through this study. I must say, it all started several years ago when my good friend, Tom Bayne, a doctor of chiropractic had me read a book about bio-identical hormones. Unfortunately, the availability of those bio-identical, and safe hormones is now in jeopardy.

When Tom first introduced me to them, I was practicing only Emergency Medicine and I knew very little about the subject. I didn't even have an interest in hormones, but Tom was asking for my help. Since chiropractors can't write prescriptions, Tom needed me to write prescriptions for some of his patients with hormone imbalance.

Tom has always been more than just a bone cracking chiropractor. He is truly a holistic physician and, I am proud to say, has opened my eyes to many "alternative" therapies that, I am sure, will be main stream in the next 10 years. Fortunately, it is the interest in those therapies that led me down the path to a more preventative, and balanced approach to healing. Thus started a journey which led me to read volumes about hormone balance and ultimately choose Anti-aging medicine, as it is a field of experts in hormone balance.

The bookTom gave me was "Natural Woman, Natural Menopause." That book introduced me to the benefits of bio-identical hormones. It also showed me the problem with big pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma.) The problem is that Big Pharma is only interested in one thing, profit. They are not interested in curing anything. They want to control all of your diseases and ailments. That way they can keep you on their drugs the rest of your life. It happens with lots of diseases and lots of drugs.

Now Wyeth, one of the biggest companies in Big Pharma, has stooped to a new low. They have petitioned the FDA to stop the availability of compounded bio-identical hormones. Click Here to read more. Wyeth condemns bioidentical hormones by casting doubt on their safety and effectiveness and demands that the FDA penalize compounding pharmacies through enforcement of actions such as seizures, injunctions and warning letters. Did Wyeth call for sanctions against itself when the 2002 NIH study - Women's Health Initiative linked Premarin and Prempro, synthetic hormone drugs manufactured by Wyeth to increased risk of stroke, breast cancer, heart attacks and circulatory disease?

I am concerned for my ability to practice safe medicine and healing, and I am now asking for your help to stop this ban on hormones that I prescribe safely to hundreds of women. Please click the link below and go to the FDA site that has been set up to take comments of this proposal. Time is running out, but you have until April 4th. I have included a sample statement. Feel free to copy and paste into the comment section.

Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Green

Please Help by sending your comment to the FDA
When you click here, a window on the FDA web site will open. You must first type in your zip code, country and name. Then click the "continue" button on that page.

There you can post a comment. I have included a sample here which you can copy and paste. Once you have entered a comment or pasted the one from my web site, you must click "continue" again. Then you must review your comments and click "save comments"

I know this sound tedious, but it only takes a minute. Here is the sample comment.

Thanks again. ---Click Here---

EXAMPLE COMMENT (Cut and paste or write your own)

I am writing to oppose Wyeth's Citizens Petition that asks FDA to place restrictions on bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). I take exception to the fact Wyeth is accusing the Compounding Pharmacy industry of unsafe practices. As a citizen of the United States I expect the FDA to stand up for my rights and the rights of all men and women who have found consistent, safe and effective treatment with bioidentical hormones.

Eliminating options by bowing to a large pharmaceutical company like Wyeth is not in the public interest and would deprive hundreds of thousands of Americans from access to bioidentical hormones. Synthetic hormone replacement has been proven unequivocally unsafe in a government sponsored study and should not be forced as the sole treatment option for women.

I hereby request the FDA reject Wyeth's request.

Letter from Dr. Green

Dear Friend,

So here it is the long awaited tip #2 of the 5 things you can do to dramatically improve your healthspan. I hope you have all increased your intake of water. If you didnt get tip #1, or you have fallen off with your water intake, click here to read all about the benefits of water. I know some of you have been asking what source of water to drink. I will leave that for another article. My point is for you to drink more water instead of the sodas, and coffees, and processed juices you are drinking and giving your children. Even tap water is a more healthful choice.

On that note, lets talk about fish oils and omega-3 fatty acids. In tip #2 I start with a brief intro to the fats in our diet and then about the omega-3 ESSENTIAL fatty acids. The medical literature is full of studies which show the benefits of fish oils for multiple medical problems like heart disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, depression, and even PMS. It only takes 30 seconds a day to reduce your risk for multiple diseases. I will also talk about studies that show how fish oils help with everyday brain function and brain development of unborn baby's and infants. I take fish oil every day, and I truly believe in them.

#2 of 5 Tips That Will Improve Your Healthspan

Fish Oil Supplements

The Fats In Our Diet:

We need to eat fat to live. There are many different kinds of fats. In the words of one author there truly are fats that heal and fats that kill. We just need to choose the right fat. Here is a basic rundown of the different types.

Saturated fats are called saturated because the fat chain is full of as many hydrogen molecules as it can possibly hold, thus saturated with hydrogen molecules. These fats come mostly from animal fat, beef, lamb, pork, etc and you can tell because they are solid at room temperature. Butter is also a saturated fat. Coconut oil is a special saturated fat. It is made up of medium chain fatty acids and therefore readily usable as energy. Because of this, it stimulates metabolism and is not stored as body fat like other saturated fats. It is heat stable and I highly recommend using organic coconut oil for frying and sauting food.

Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and cloudy in the refrigerator. These fats are not essential. These are Omega-7 Omega-9 fatty acids and they are neutral when it comes to inflammation. These are the fats in olive oil, avocados, many nuts and a smaller portion of butter and animal fat. These are good dietary fats, simply because they will not lead to inflammation. Be careful cooking with these. They oxidize readily, especially at higher temperatures, and oxidized fats are chock full of free radicals. Free radicals travel around your body stealing electrons from your cells and contributing to aging and disease.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) come in two main types: Omega-6(O6) and Omega-3(O3.) These are both essential fatty acids, because the human body cannot make them on its own. They must come from the diet. These are the two main dietary fats that are pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory respectively.

O6 are the shorter chain varieties from plant sources. Youve all seen them: Soy bean oil, safflower, canola, corn oil and sunflower oil are the more common ones. They are in salad dressings and other mass produced foods.

O3 fats come in short chain and long chain varieties. Short chain O3s come from flax, hemp, and black currant oils. The longer chain O3s come from marine sources such as fish and shrimp. Because the short chains are not easily made into long chain fatty acids in the body, YOU NEED FISH OILS. Flax oil alone will not get you the long chains that you need for brain development and function.

Trans fatty acids are completely unnatural fats that do not exist in nature. They are chemically produced by the food industry. The most common is margarine. If you read the ingredients for chips and crackers you will see the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. These are the culprits to avoid as much as possible.

The production process starts with rancid vegetable oils that have been heated and oxidized and only gets worse with bleaching and dyes that make them look, smell, and feel good. These have been shown to increase heart disease and also to slow down your own production of good fatty acids.

Now that we know what types of fats there are, lets take a minute to examine how our diets have changed over the centuries.

Omega-3 and Omega-6 in our bodies

Without going into too much biochemistry, I can tell you that these essential fatty acids are responsible for the eicosanoid hormones in our bodies.

These eicosanoids are important chemical messengers in our body. So important that the people who discovered them got the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1982. These messengers are basically divided into 2 groups: PRO-inflammatory and ANTI-inflammatory. Omega-6 is mostly PRO-inflammatory and Omega-3 is mostly ANTI-inflammatory.

Omega-6 fatty acids in corn, safflower, canola and other vegetables were initially introduced to America as heart healthy because they are not saturated fats. We grow so much corn in this country, it seemed logical at the time to use the surplus in foods since they were so healthy. Now that the eicosanoids have been discovered and we know that this balance is so important, we know that these Omega-6 fats are anything but heart healthy. And they are so prevalent that you should avoid them whenever you can, because you will probably get enough anyway.

Here is a chart of some of the functions of the good and bad eicosanoids.



What do Omega-3 Fatty Acids do?

Omega-3 from fish has two main components: EPA & DHA. EPA is the primary anti-inflammatory fatty acid, while DHA is a primary fatty acid in our brain. So Omega-3 will help with the inflammatory component of diseases like, asthma, arthritis, heart disease, hypertension, MS, chronic fatigue, and Cancer. But they will also help with any problem that has a brain or nerve component. These include Alzheimer's, depression (including post-partum depression,) autism, brain development in children, brain maintenance in adults, stroke recovery, bipolar disorder, ADD, and migraines to name a few.

Cardiovascular disease:

One study in The New England Journal of Medicine followed 22,000 male physicians for 17 years and showed that the docs with the highest blood level of long chain omega-3 had an 81% decrease in sudden death which is usually from heart attack.

Another study in 2002 from The Journal of the American Medical Association followed over 86,000 female nurses for 16 years. The ones who reported the highest intake of fish and omega-3's had 45% fewer deaths from heart attack.

There is an interesting study of Inuit (Eskimo) women. These women have a diet that is over 50% fat, sedentary lifestyle, and 75% are smokers. Their diet is about 1:1 Omega-6:Omega-3. This study found a ratio of inflammatory eicosanoids (called arachidonic acid (AA)) to good eicosanoids (EPA) of about 1.1. This was a Canadian study that found that Quebec women had a AA/EPA ratio of 11.1. The Inuit women had a much lower incidence of heart disease despite all the other factors which might lead to heart disease (smoking, etc.)

Asthma:
A study just released in Jan 2006 in 'Chest' (a prominent pulmonary medical journal) showed that people with documented exercise induced asthma virtually had no exercise induced asthma after being on 5g/day of fish oil for 3 weeks.

A study in the Journal of Asthma questioned mothers with asthma (a risk for children to have asthma) and found that eating oily fish (omega-3) at least once a month while pregnant decreased the odds that the child would have asthma. Interestingly, consumption of fish sticks (a source of trans fats with no appreciable omega-3) was correlated with an increased risk of children with asthma.

Other Studied Benefits:

-Omega-3 will lower triglycerides.

-Omega-3 was shown in one study to be as effective as lithium in bipolar disorder

-Children of Mom's supplemented with DHA during pregnancy and lactation had better scores in mental processing tests carried out to 4 yrs of age.

-Retina studies done in 1 week old infants show higher function when mom was on DHA supplement.

At this point I would like to emphasize how important it is for pregnant women and young children to take fish oils. One of the best things a pregnant mother can do for her child is take enough long chain omega-3 to help brain development. The brain starts to develop in-utero, and continues through 6 or 7 years of age.

DHA is a major component of the brain. These years of brain formation have been studied extensively and there are no risks to proper dosage of fish oils as early as 1 week of age. The dose of long chain omega-3 for small children is:

30mg /pound of body weight.

Where do you get your omega-3?

You can get omega-3 fatty acids from eating fish. Unfortunately our lakes, rivers and oceans are contaminated. Fresh water fish are contaminated from land run-off. The land run-off contains multiple chemicals from industry and pesticides. These chemicals include PCB's which are carcinogenic as well as other harmful chemicals. Freshwater and saltwater fish are contaminated with mercury. The basic problem with mercury is it never goes away. So, it travels up the food chain. This means that larger fish and predatory fish have higher levels of mercury.

In researching this newsletter, I am saddened by the widespread contamination of both fresh and saltwater fish. While omega-3 fatty acids are one of the most beneficial foods, many of the fish sources of these have been contaminated to the point that the risk of ingesting harmful and carcinogenic toxins is not worth the benefit of omega-3.

While some fish are ok for adults to eat some of the time, most are not. After reviewing the literature, I would recommend wild caught salmon, sardines, mahi-mahi and saltwater shellfish (shrimp, oysters, and crab). Pregnant women and children under 7 should not eat any fish, unless it has been shown to come from a source that is mercury and PCB free.

You can look at the links below and draw your own conclusion about which fish have the most omega-3, little or no PCB or Mercury and are eco-friendly to harvest.

American Heart Association site:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3013797

You can click this link to see the Illinois Department of Public Health recommendations of which Illinois fish you can eat.
http://www.idph.state.il.us//envhealth/fishadv/fishadvisory05.htm

Smart fish calculator:
http://www.iatp.org/foodandhealth/fishcalculator/data_sources.pdf

This is a great site to learn more about fish and the oceans they live in, as well as what you can eat and do to help improve the oceans:
http://oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=healthalerts

Fish Oil Supplements

On a brighter note, most of the omega-3 supplements are very healthy and almost completely free of mercury and PCB's. Not all are created equal, though. Some omega-3 brands are not as concentrated, taste bad, or have higher than acceptable levels of mercury. When looking for a supplement, you should look for one of two things:

Pharmaceutical Grade or Molecularly Distilled

You should also look for the triglyceride form as opposed to the ester form. The triglyceride form costs more to make, but it is 3-4 times more absorbable. There are many brands and they come in liquid or capsules. Some brands that I know are good:

Nature-All
Vital Nutrients
Nordic Naturals
Carlson's
Metagenics
Orthomolecular Orthomega

At LightCare Medical Spa I sell 'Nature-All' brand which is a highly concentrated liquid with a hint of lemon taste. It is a molecularly distilled, triglyceride form, but I like it because it actually tastes good. I drink it right from the bottle twice a day. There is no sense getting a fish oil that tastes bad, when you can get Nature-All.

You can contact Art (art@lightcare.net) to order some for yourself. If you take another brand or use capsules and have the problem of burping a fishy taste afterwards, try storing them in the freezer. That will help eliminate the fish burps.
How much do you take?

Depending on your age and the medical conditions you have there are different target doses. These are guidelines. To be exactly correct, we can test your blood and measure the omega-6:3 ratio or the AA/EPA ratio. Target doses are as follows:

Maintaining Good Health 2.4 g/day
Improved Cardiovascular Health 2.4-4.8 g/day
Improved Brain Function 4.8-9.6 g/day
Inflammation Reduction 4.8-9.6 g/day
Optimal Health 4.8-9.6 g/day
Treating Neurologic Disease (Alzheimer's, ADHD) 9.6+ g/day

Now you know a lot more about the fats we eat and why fish oil supplements are so darn good for you. To recap the most important things here is a short list of recommendations.

1. Women, Men, Children, and babies should take a pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement every day.
2. Choose the seafood you eat wisely.
3. Avoid trans fats.
4. Avoid omega-6 fats (corn , safflower, and canola oils.)
5. Use extra virgin olive oil for salads and dressings.
6. Eat nuts, avocados, and seeds as a source of dietary fat.
7. Use coconut oils for frying and saut'ing.
8. Remember to keep drinking water.

Tip #3 will be coming shortly. I'll tell you all about the benefits of a low glycemic diet. If you like this information, I would appreciate it if you pass it on and have your friends sign up for "Share the Health."

Letter from Dr. Green

Dear Friend,

OK... You've had a month to really embrace your New Year's resolutions. You may be going gangbusters or you may have already broken some of them. I'll tell you that one of my resolutions is to write this newsletter more often and I am committed to providing quality content that will help YOU live a healthier life. The new incarnation of the newsletter is called "Share The Health." That's exactly what I aim to do. While there will still be special offers from LightCare Medical Spa, the core of the newsletter will be healthy information that you can use to improve the your mind, body, and spirit.

I look forward to sharing the health with you and I would like to introduce you to the concept of HEALTHSPAN. As much as the information I have will promote life span, I think that healthspan is much more important. After all, who wants to live to 100 if you go into a nursing home at 80. So look for the new newsletter to give you tips to increase your healthspan.

"Share The Health" is a work in progress and I hope it will develop into a valuable resource for all of you. To that end tip back a glass of water, toast the new year and your new health, and check out the article below. Here I will detail the 5 easiest things you can do to dramatically change your healthspan.

Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Green

#1 of 5 Tips That Will Improve Your Healthspan

To kick off the new year and the new newsletter, I have put together 5 health tips that will dramatically improve your health starting NOW. Over the next several weeks I will detail a new tip in each newsletter. They are things that are safe for most people. They are simple, but bear in mind that these are only a START. A good direction to go for 2006 and beyond. I hope you will consider them and start down the road that will help you prevent disease, feel better, and have a nice long healthspan.

The Benefits of Water:

-Detoxification. It flushes toxins out of your body. Removing the build up of toxins will have a profound impact on your skin. Your cells will be juicy and hydrated rather than dry and gray. This improves fine lines. The toxins removed through your skin and bowel will help to give you a healthier glow. Healthy bowels mean healthy skin. In Chinese medicine, the skin is a reflection of the harmony in your intestines. There are many ways to address this, but proper water intake is a very good start. Did you know that age spots are actually a build up of toxins in the skin? Removal of toxins will improve age spots and prevent new ones from forming.

-Increased metabolism. When you have enough water, the chemical reactions that drive your metabolism work more efficiently which speeds up the process and helps you burn more calories. This will directly help you lose weight. You will have more energy. You will also benefit more from exercise, as your muscles need enough water to work efficiently. Efficient muscles will help your physical endurance, which leads to being in better shape and even more weight loss. The flow of water through your body gives the body energy. This happens in much the same way a moving river is used to make electricity. This is another way water can actually help you lose weight.

-Respiratory health. It will flush your secretions of your respiratory tract to help you fight off viruses and allergies. A constant flow of secretions in your sinuses, throat and lungs helps to ward off infection and fight infections that may arise. Face it; most people will have a cold or flu at some time in their lives. When this happens, flood your system with more water. It will have a beneficial effect on sinus problems, allergies, and asthma.

-Kidney health. Flushing your kidneys with water will help ward off kidney and bladder infections. Urine that remains stagnant in the bladder is one risk for developing a kidney or bladder infection. Why not minimize this risk by drinking enough water?

-Lubricate joints. Your joints are lubricated with something called synovial fluid. Synovial fluid is 90% water. This will decrease joint pain from injury or arthritis. So why not drink more water and take less pain medicines?

-Take less medicine. This may be why you dont see drug companies advertising to drink more water. You wont need pain medicine, acid reflux medicine or antibiotics nearly as much, if you DRINK ENOUGH WATER.

-Temperature regulation. Sweat, is the best method of cooling due to the evaporation effect. This is also why we treat someone with hyperthermia by putting water on them and blowing a fan.

-Maintain fluid volumes of all fluids in the body, including lymph, blood, digestive juices, spinal fluid and more.

-Efficiency. Since ALL of the transport and chemical reactions in your body depend, at least in part, on water, providing the proper amount will help your body to run as efficiently as possible. Every single process that happens from the most minute chemical process to more complicated functions like digestion, detoxification, thinking, and movement is affected by water.

How much to drink:

The first thing we need to do is to drink enough water. We all lose about 2 liters per day. This leaves the body as moisture in the air we breathe out, sweat, respiratory secretions, and urine. We need to replace this every day. Well, how much is enough? This can be a complicated issue, which is affected by climate, exercise, salt intake, amount and types of food consumed and many other things. A good rule of thumb is:

1 liter for every 50 pounds

So a 150lb person should drink 3 liters a day. In this, the age of the 64 oz. Big Gulp, you should easily be able to drink 3-4L of water in a day. At this point, I cant help but mention soda. Soda is public enemy number one! If you switch from soda to water you are doing yourself a double service. You are cutting out a toxin (soda) and adding a healing agent (water.) [I will speak to the benefits of cutting out soda in one of the other 5 tips.] One liter per 50 pounds is a rough guideline. You do get some water from the foods you eat. Another good guideline is to look at the color of your urine. Unless you take a B complex vitamin, which will make your urine very yellow, the color of your urine should be a pale yellow, meaning barely yellow. If your urine is more yellow, you need to drink more water. If you take B complex, then you cant use the color of your urine as a guide. When you are under stress (the subject of one of the 5 tips), or any kind of change including healing, your body will produce chemicals and other waste that need to be removed from your system. This will increase your need for water.

You should drink smaller amounts of water throughout the day rather than big gulps all at once. This allows your body to use it more efficiently. When you drink over 12 ounces in one long gulp, more of that will be filtered out of your body. You will filter less and use more if you drink the same amount over an hour or so.

-By drinking more water you will be drinking less of the other less beneficial or even toxic fluids that you used to drink. Less soda, less coffee, less alcohol and even less fruit juice. You can still drink fresh-juiced fruit or vegetable juice, green tea, or other healthy beverages that will count towards your water intake. Be careful to avoid carbonation, sugar, artificial sweeteners and alcohol. When it comes to caffeine and alcohol, if you do drink these things, you must drink even more water to balance the diuretic effect, which makes you urinate more.

When starting to drink more water one of the first things you will notice is that your will feel more "clear." (I dont just mean your urine color.) Your head will feel clearer and you will be able to concentrate better. Your brain is one of the first things to be affected by low-level dehydration. Your skin will improve. You may be running to the bathroom more often, but this will eventually regulate. You see, your body has been starved of water due to low-level dehydration. For that reason, it has stored more water than necessary. When you start drinking more water, it will release the stored water. (a little more weight loss maybe?) Over the next week or two, you will reach a balance. At that point you can reconsider the amount you are drinking based on what your body tells you. Listen to how you feel. Notice your complexion. Notice how much you urinate. All of these things will guide you after the first 2 weeks when your body re-stabilizes.

Helpful Strategies:

Now that I have explained all of the good things water does and how much you need to drink, you are probably saying, yeah right, or there is no way I can drink that much. Well YOU CAN! Here are some helpful strategies for getting enough water:

1. First and foremost for changing your habits, you must believe that water is essential for your health. Without water you are unhealthy. You must accept this and know that water has healing power all by itself and that your body was made to work on water.

2. Recognize that thirst can be interpreted by you as hunger. When you feel hungry, it may actually be an early sign of thirst, which comes long before your mouth feels dry. So, when you have a junk food craving, drink a glass of water immediately. You feel full quickly and avoid the calories, and it lets time pass till the craving fades.

3. Keep track of how much you drink, set a daily goal, and reach it. If the thought of consuming that much water makes you queasy, be strategic. Drink when you are most thirsty: when you wake up, when you have your meals, during your workouts.

4. Keep water by your workstation. Instead of munching on a biscuit or crisps, take a sip from your water bottle. Reach for it all day to sip your way to your daily goal.

5. Carry a bottle of water with you so you can drink during downtime; while waiting in a bank line, sitting on the train, or in your car, watching TV, doing laundry, making dinner, etc.. Drink water every time you think about it. Dont just stop at the thought.

6. Have a big glass of water at every transitional point of the day: when you first get up, just before leaving the house, when you sit down to work, etc.

7. Sign up for a bottled water service who will deliver 5 gallon jugs of water to your home.

8. After each trip to the restroom, drink an eight-ounce glass to replenish your system.

9. Make your water taste better by buying a water jug with a filter. You can also make your own flavored water by cutting up a lemon, apple or cucumber and adding it to the water. Or, mix with a tiny splash of juice. Try making herbal iced tea by pouring boiling water over four tea bags, letting it steep for 10 minutes and diluting to taste with cold water.

One important concept to understand when it comes to water or any other health issue, is LEARN TO LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. No matter what you put into it-food, water, medicine, skin cream, exercise- become aware of how your body reacts and stop ignoring what your body tells you. This practice will help you be healthier. Be aware that your water requirements will change on a daily basis, and you will have to listen to your body to know how to adjust accordingly.

Well, thats all for the first tip. Be sure to keep an eye on your inbox in the next week or so for tip #2: The Benefits Of Fish Oils and Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Feel free to pass this along to whomever you like, so you too can Share The Health.