Month: May 2011

Achieving optimal health is about creating and maintaining balance. We are whole beings and need to consider our mental/ emotional state, activities/ exercise and the food/ nutrients we are using to fuel are life processes as equally important. We can’t separate our heads from our bodies, so why would we think that we could separate our emotional wellbeing from our physical wellbeing? To put it simply, optimal health is about what you think, what you eat and how you move!
People are becoming more and more aware of the connection between diet and health. Research has linked conditions such as obesity and cardiovascular disease to diets high in fat and carbs, kidney stones and osteoporosis to diets high in protein or mineral imbalances, Type I diabetes mellitus to diets high in dairy at a young age, Type II to high carbohydrate diets and colon cancer to diets low in fiber and Vitamin D. What may not be so obvious, however, is that a poor diet can also be a contributing factor to such day to day problems as fatigue, headaches, mood swings, brain fog, indigestion, constipation, skin problems, menstrual discomfort, allergies and degenerative diseases etc. Changing life-long, deeply ingrained eating habits can be difficult. As you strive to follow these principles be patient with yourself, keep a sense of humor and enjoy your successes. Do not hesitate to seek support, I’m always there to help you.
Personal sense of wellbeing and emotions play a huge role in affecting not only your mental health but your physical health as well. Negative emotions and stress bring you down in all ways. Accentuate the positive and work on this until you’re coming from a “good place”. It may seem difficult to have a different perspective at first but you’ll reap the benefits forever! Manifest Gratitude! Think of all the things you’re grateful for each day.
People were meant to move! Activity is essential to maintaining physical strength, muscle tone and range of motion. Exercise also has a positive effect on your mental clarity, emotional state and sense of wellbeing. It may be tough to get started but you will feel so much better that you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it before! Move It, Use It or Loose It !!

Some Guiding Principles

• Include plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes. These foods promote health by providing an abundance of fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes (if eaten raw), and many other life-giving substances that science is just beginning to discover.
• Include a moderate amount of protein from meat, poultry, eggs and fish (Alaskan or Pacific, no farm raised), beans and bean products, lentils, seeds and nuts.
• Try to minimize the saturated fat in your diet, but keep in mind that some fats like Omega 3 and 6 are essential to health. Do not eat hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated oils or trans-fats and avoid eating deep fried foods. These things are like poison to the human body.
• Wherever possible, eat foods in their natural rather than processed form. Fresh vegetables, for example, have more food value than frozen vegetables, which in turn have more food value than canned vegetables. Over cooking and processing destroys vitamins and enzymes and depletes the nutrient value of foods.
• Wherever possible, choose organic over non-organic foods. Foods grown non-organically often contain pesticides, herbicides and other chemical residues, which have been linked to certain cancers, environmental and degenerative disorders. Organic farming also helps preserve farmland and decreases contamination of our ground water.
• Drink plenty of clean, fresh spring water or purified water. Do not drink water straight from the tap. Use showerheads etc. that filter chlorine and other contaminants from water you wash with.
• Maintaining healthy pH levels is increasingly difficult today. Drinking RO or purified water, carbonated beverages, coffee etc. and the decrease in vegetable intake all increase acidity. I checked the water from an RO machine and it had a pH of 5.5 when a neutral pH is considered around 7.4.
• Go to a Biological Dentist. Don’t put amalgam (silver metal) fillings and other metal crowns in your mouth as they increase the burden of toxic heavy metals in your body. Avoid root canals, a large percentage of root canal teeth become toxic.

Daily Supplements

It has become fashionable to talk about taking supplements for the purposes of increasing energy levels, improving performance, building better bodies and better health. All of the biochemical reactions that occur in our bodies to support life, require enzymes. These enzymes are made up of vitamins, minerals and other co-factors. Equally as important as the building processes but rarely talked about, is the elimination of the waste products created. If not eliminated, these waste products join with other environmental toxins to impair cellular function. This dysfunction pulls us away from health and moves us toward degeneration and disease. Eliminatory processes also require enzymes, vitamins and minerals, so it’s easy to see why our requirements are actually much higher than what was previously thought. When looking at the government’s RDA (recommended daily allowance), keep in mind that this is the least amount of a nutrient required to keep you from getting a disease. It has no relationship to “optimal health”. The increased toxic burden of modern life along with the depletion of our soils and the decreasing nutritional value in our food supply make supplementation a necessity for anyone interested in optimal health and longevity.

• Multiple Vitamin/ Mineral supplement
• EFAs (essential fatty acids), fish oil, flax oil or ground flax seeds, Borage, Evening Primrose oil
• Certain nutrients may be used specifically to address an individuals requirements or challenges.

Do Not Eat

• All Hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated oils or trans-fats. Avoid eating deep fried foods. All of these things are like poison to the human body.
• All artificial sweeteners (aspartame, nutritame, sucralose, saccharine/ Splenda/ Equal)
• All Diet Soft Drinks
• Tap Water
• Limit simple sugars including fruit juices and refined and or high-glycemic carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, white potatoes and white rice.
• All high fructose corn syrup
• All Artificial Colors, Flavors and Preservatives
• Limit (or Avoid) Dairy product consumption, especially in young children.
• MSG
• Hydrolyzed Soy protein.
• Atlantic, Great Lakes and All Farm Raised Fish
• GMO – Genetically Modified Foods

Notice on the above that all listed were invented, modified, processed or “toxified” by man!!

Do Eat

• Organic foods whenever possible.
• Foods as minimally processed and as lightly cooked as possible.
• More vegetables, moderate protein and less carbs.
• Drink natural spring water, purified or filtered water.
• Hormone & antiobiotic free whenever possible

Interesting Web Sites
www.ewg.org www.feingold.org www.drrobnmd.com

Nutritional health is an important part of joint health just as it is paramount to the health and wellness of all body systems in general. We can’t expect any part of the body to function properly if we don’t feed it what it needs. One in three American adults struggle with chronic joint pain. More than 450,000 knee and hip replacements are performed each year and that number will continue to increase as the baby boomers age. Joint dysfunction can be due to injury, wear and tear and genetic predisposition. Repair and healing processes are highly dependent on adequate protein in the daily diet. Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet (SAD), has become poor in quality protein and high in carbohydrates. Proper intake of dietary protein is necessary for proper wound healing and joint repair. It should be a source for the amino acids necessary for fibroblast activity and the production of collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans at the site of injury or needed repair.

There are ways that you can support your joints so that they will stay healthy and give them an extra advantage if they are in need of repair. Joint supplements can help provide additional nutrients that are targeted for improving joint repair. Recent studies have investigated the use of specific nutrients to help in the repair, support and structural integrity of joints. Some of the most powerful ingredients shown to support cartilage and connective tissue health, joint mobility and address the discomfort associated with a lifetime of activity are Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM.

• Glucosamine is an important building block needed by the body to manufacture specialized components of cartilage called glycosaminoglycans. These amino sugars are found in a variety of connective tissues all over the body like ligaments, tendons, cartilage, joint capsules, blood vessels and the skin. Supplements containing glucosamine have been clinically shown to promote the structural repair and improve the comfort of affected joints. Wrinkles are due to the breakdown of the supportive connective tissue in the skin.
• Chondroitin is a major constituent of cartilage, providing structure, holding water and nutrients and allowing other nutrients to move through cartilage. It promotes joint comfort by maintaining hydration of the cartilage matrix. Chondroitin has a protective role in maintaining the integrity of cartilage from enzyme activity that would otherwise destroy it.
• MSM ( methylsulfonylmethane) contributes sulfur for protein synthesis and enzyme function to support tendons and cartilage. Di-sulfide bonds are needed to create and hold the three dimensional shape of proteins in the body. MSM acts as a universal sulfur donor contributing to the repair and regeneration of all connective tissue and especially that of ligaments, tendons and joint capsules.
• Vitamin C is essential in converting procollagen to collagen. Vitamin C is required for the cross linking of collagen fibers in the rebuilding and maintenance of all connective tissue. The well known breakdown of connective tissue due to deficiency of Vitamin C is the disease Scurvy that afflicted the sailors in days of old. Joint supplements containing Vit.C are often seen as minerals that are complexes of ascorbate.
• Minerals are also an integral part of building body tissues. Connective tissue repair is enhanced by having adequate amounts of such minerals as Magnesium, Zinc, Copper and Manganese.
• Botanicals can have the unique effect of stimulating the regeneration of connective tissue. Repair of ligaments, tendons and joints is stimulated by herbs such as Devils Claw (Harpagophytum) and Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica).

Protecting your joints from further natural degeneration or taking a proactive stance in supporting the repair and regeneration of your joints can be enhanced by the use of the proper nutritional supplements. Everyone has a choice on what role they want to play in their personal wellness. Restricting or limiting your physical activity does not have to be a fore gone conclusion. Walking down the road of life should not be a painful experience!

Good Health,
Robert Ellsworth, NMD

Unlike high-power medical lasers, which are widely used to safely cut and remove tissue, the Low Level Laser (LLL) penetrates the surface of the skin with no heating effect or damage. The energy is directed deep into the affected area stimulating the body’s cells which convert the energy into chemical energy to promote natural healing.

Cold lasers are often compared to acupuncture with “laser beams”. In most LLL treatments the laser beam is used to stimulate the body’s acupoints or damaged areas in an attempt to increase the blood supply to parts of the body. I often use Lasers in conjunction with acupuncture treatments in my office. Light or photon energy has the unique property of being able to penetrate up to two inches below the skin surface, based on the power of the laser, causing an increase in cellular metabolism with no tissue damage whatsoever.Cold Laser Therapy is considered an alternative therapy like acupuncture. Currently there are over 25 different cold lasers that have been cleared by the FDA for various types of treatments. Cold laser has been in use around the world for over 30 years and has been in use in the US for over 10 years, mostly in the veterinary field. Low Level Laser therapy has been proven completely safe in over 3000 worldwide studies. The low level laser light used in cold laser therapy is actually the compressed light of a wavelength from the red part of the light spectrum, or the cold part.

The wavelength of the laser light ranges from 635 to 970 nanometers. The power level of medical grade cold lasers ranges from 10 milliwatts to 7500 milliwatts. This energy can be created using one or an array of laser diodes. An array of lasers allows a wider treatment area. Since finding the troubled spot deep inside the tissue may be difficult to pinpoint, it can be very useful to cover a larger area with an array of diodes. This increases the probability of energizing the problem area and also helps increase the energy in the area surrounding the problem area. The therapy is noninvasive and non-thermal. The cold laser was derived from phototherapy, a light healing method developed more than 30 years ago. Light penetrates the surface of the skin as well as underlying tissues to stimulate natural healing in the body. During the cold laser process, the body’s cells are exposed to photon energy, which in turn increases the cells’ metabolism, helps to develop muscle tissue and collagen, improves blood circulation, stimulates tissue repair and the healing of wounds, and stimulates the nervous and immune systems.

The average cold laser therapy session cost from $30 to $60 dollars. The average medical grade laser costs about $4000 – $15000. I think this is why LLL isn’t used more, even though it is an excellent therapy.

In my office, I use cold laser therapy, or low level laser therapy, to treat acute and chronic pain. If you suffer from back pain, joint pain, tendonitis, fibromyalgia, migraine headaches, neuropathy, neck pain, or other related health conditions, cold laser therapy might be a viable solution for you. We use the Erchonia laser for a wide variety of applications like those just mentioned as well as many others supporting lymph and regulatory systems. Laser treatments speed up your body’s healing processes and can be an important part of many other therapies.

 

Robert Ellsworth, NMD

 

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