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Avoid Iron Deficiency: Best Practices and Tips

Iron is an essential mineral that helps maintain many vital functions in the body. This includes the production of hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that helps transport oxygen throughout the body. Consuming enough iron is important. Without it, your body will struggle to produce enough healthy red blood cells. Iron levels impact many aspects of your health, including:

  • Energy
  • Ability to focus
  • Gastrointestinal health
  • Your immune system
  • Regulation of body temperature
  • Skin, hair, and nails

Heme vs. Non-Heme Iron

Dietary iron comes in two forms – heme and non-heme. Heme iron is only found in animal proteins such as meat, poultry, and seafood. Heme iron is more easily absorbed into the body and is thus a significant source of dietary iron for many.

By contrast, non-heme iron is present in plant-based foods such as grains, beans, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. It is also present in dairy and eggs. The body processes non-heme iron differently and has to alter non-heme iron to absorb it fully. This means that a lower percentage of non-heme iron is absorbed.

Iron Deficiency is Common: Know The Symptoms

Ideally, there is a healthy balance between the supply of iron through the diet and the body’s demand for iron. However, if demand outweighs supply, the body starts to use up iron stored in the liver, which can lead to iron deficiency. When the body has used the iron up, it cannot produce more hemoglobin. This condition is called iron deficiency anemia.

Iron deficiency is very common. Symptoms of iron deficiency include:

  • Fatigue
  • Shortness of breath
  • Cold hands or feet
  • Lightheadedness or dizziness, particularly when standing up quickly
  • Pale or sallow skin, nails, or gums
  • Headache
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Unexplained irrational cravings – the desire to consume things like ice or paper is a sign of anemia
  • A sore or swollen tongue
  • Hair loss
  • Restless legs
  • Unexplained itchiness

Who is more likely to suffer from iron deficiency?

Certain demographics are more likely to deal with iron deficiency than others.

  • Women of childbearing age are especially at risk, because their bodies use and require a great deal of iron during menstruation, pregnancy and breastfeeding. Women with fibroids or other conditions that cause heavy periods are at increased risk.
  • Young people undergoing puberty are also disposed to iron deficiency since rapid growth necessitates a higher intake.
  • Vegetarians or vegans also tend to be at a greater risk for iron deficiency, since their diets often exclusively contain non-heme iron which is absorbed less easily than the heme iron found in meats.
  • Iron deficiency is also commonly present in people who have recently undergone major surgery or physical trauma, and in those with gastrointestinal disorders such as Crohn’s.
  • Some studies have found that people dealing with a lot of stress are at higher risk of anemia.
  • High-level athletes or people who exercise a lot also have a higher risk. Because iron deficiency impacts athletic performance, athletes must pay close attention to their iron levels.
  • Regular blood donors should monitor their iron levels and work with their healthcare practitioner to work out a donation schedule that works for them.
  • People who abuse alcohol can deplete their iron levels, in part because alcohol can inhibit the body’s ability to absorb iron.

Preventing Iron Deficiency

If you fit into one of these categories, or if you are generally concerned about your iron levels, do not fret. There are simple steps you can take to increase your iron absorption and ensure you are feeling your best.

Ultimately, it is important to consume foods that contain iron, as your body does not produce the nutrient on its own.  Add these iron-rich foods into your diet to prevent/treat iron deficiency:

  • Red meat is known to be the most easily accessible source of heme iron. It also contains B vitamins and quality protein.
  • Fish also contains numerous health benefits, including being high in iron. The omega 3 fatty acids found in fish like salmon, tuna, and haddock are great for brain health. And just one serving of canned tuna can provide 8% of your daily value of iron.
  • Turkey is another healthy source of iron. It also is a great source of protein. Dark turkey meat tends to contain more iron than white, with a 3.5 ounce portion containing 8% of the daily value.
  •  Shellfish, particularly clams, mussels, and oysters, are good sources of heme-iron.

For vegetarians:

  • Spinach is a great source of non-heme iron for vegetarians; 100 grams of raw spinach provides 15% of your daily value.
  • Legumes are another nutrient-packed option for vegetarians trying to increase their iron intake. Black beans, kidney beans, and lentils can all help raise iron levels.
  • Pumpkin seeds are an easy snack and a great source of non-heme iron. A one-ounce serving contains 14% of your daily value of iron.
  • Tofu is a popular staple in vegetarian diets and happens to provide 3.4 mg of iron in a half-cup serving. This amounts to 19% of your daily value.

Vitamin C helps your body to absorb iron. Including a source of Vitamin C, like broccoli,  with your iron-rich meal will help maintain iron levels. Beta carotene, which is found in brightly colored produce like peppers, carrots, and apricots, can also boost absorption.

You should also examine your diet for foods and drinks that can lower iron levels, including coffee, tea, many sodas, alcohol and some dairy products.

Treating Iron Deficiency

Identifying the causes of iron deficiency is the first line of defense. From there, increasing the iron consumption in your daily diet is an important next step.

Depending on your iron levels and diet, supplements may also be necessary, but it’s important to work with a healthcare practitioner. Too much iron can be harmful to your health, so you need to find the right levels for you. keeping in mind that your body is unable to rid itself of excess iron. As well, many people find iron supplements can lead to an upset stomach and constipation, so you may have to make dietary changes at the same time.

Iron deficiency can cause serious complications for your health if left untreated, so it is important to get a proper assessment of your iron levels and create a treatment plan to help raise them. Let us know if you need help addressing iron deficiency – we’re here to help!

Sources:

Wei C, Zhou J, Huang X, Li M. Effects of psychological stress on serum iron and erythropoiesis. Int J Hematol. 2008 Jul;88(1):52-56. doi: 10.1007/s12185-008-0105-4. Epub 2008 Jun 11. PMID: 18543064.

Damian MT, Vulturar R, Login CC, Damian L, Chis A, Bojan A. Anemia in Sports: A Narrative Review. Life (Basel). 2021;11(9):987. Published 2021 Sep 20. doi:10.3390/life11090987

Shuchman M. Frequent blood donors risk iron deficiency. CMAJ. 2014;186(11):817. doi:10.1503/cmaj.109-4807

Abbaspour N, Hurrell R, Kelishadi R. Review on iron and its importance for human health. J Res Med Sci. 2014;19(2):164-174.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food data central

Carmen Lúcia de Almeida SantosI, II; Marco AkermanIII; Odival FaccendaIV; Lourdes Conceição MartinsV; Lígia de Fátima Nóbrega Reato,, Iron defici,  2012/01/01

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Health and Wellness Headlines for July 13

Benefits of a Half Teaspoon of Brewer’s Yeast Daily

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on July 12, 2022, 7:00 am.

A half-teaspoon a day of brewer’s yeast is put to the test in a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial. In 1854, a case repor… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Treating the Root Cause of Toenail Fungus

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Does Tea Tree Oil Work for Nail Fungus? Tea tree essential oil is pitted against the antifungal cream lotrimin for the treatment of fungal n… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Tea Tree Oil vs. Tinactin for Athlete’s Foot

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Are the effects of tea tree oil anti-fungal or merely anti-inflammatory? Our entire understanding of the cause of dandruff shifted with a la… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Stevia and Monk Fruit vs. Aspartame and Splenda

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The natural plant-based sweeteners stevia and monk fruit (Luo Han Guo) are pitted head-to-head against aspartame and Splenda. A number of ar… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Certified Organic Meat Put to the Test

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Researchers tested 76 samples of different kinds of organic and conventional meats for 33 different carcinogens. A study on carcinogenic ris… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Is There Arsenic in Rice? How Much Rice Is Too Much?

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Concerns over the arsenic content of rice have led to recommendations to reduce rice consumption in favor of other whole grains. What are so… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.

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Health and Wellness Headlines for July 6

Tea Tree Oil vs. Tinactin for Athlete’s Foot

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on July 5, 2022, 7:00 am.

Are the effects of tea tree oil anti-fungal or merely anti-inflammatory? Our entire understanding of the cause of dandruff shifted with a la… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Stevia and Monk Fruit vs. Aspartame and Splenda

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 30, 2022, 7:00 am.

The natural plant-based sweeteners stevia and monk fruit (Luo Han Guo) are pitted head-to-head against aspartame and Splenda. A number of ar… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Certified Organic Meat Put to the Test

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 28, 2022, 7:00 am.

Researchers tested 76 samples of different kinds of organic and conventional meats for 33 different carcinogens. A study on carcinogenic ris… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Is There Arsenic in Rice? How Much Rice Is Too Much?

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 27, 2022, 7:00 am.

Concerns over the arsenic content of rice have led to recommendations to reduce rice consumption in favor of other whole grains. What are so… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Double Your Donations and Key Takeaways on Skin Cancer

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 23, 2022, 7:00 am.

Summer is in swing here in the northern hemisphere, and, for many, that means more time outside. Exposure to the sun is important for produc… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Do Avocados Help Lower Cholesterol?

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Cholesterol is a vital component of our cells, which is why our body makes all that we need. Elevated cholesterol in our blood is implicated… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.

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Health and Wellness Headlines for June 29

Certified Organic Meat Put to the Test

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 28, 2022, 7:00 am.

Researchers tested 76 samples of different kinds of organic and conventional meats for 33 different carcinogens. A study on carcinogenic ris… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Is There Arsenic in Rice? How Much Rice Is Too Much?

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Concerns over the arsenic content of rice have led to recommendations to reduce rice consumption in favor of other whole grains. What are so… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Double Your Donations and Key Takeaways on Skin Cancer

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 23, 2022, 7:00 am.

Summer is in swing here in the northern hemisphere, and, for many, that means more time outside. Exposure to the sun is important for produc… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Do Avocados Help Lower Cholesterol?

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 21, 2022, 7:00 am.

Cholesterol is a vital component of our cells, which is why our body makes all that we need. Elevated cholesterol in our blood is implicated… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


How to Reduce the Cancer-Causing Properties of Meat

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What are the preparation methods to reduce exposure to carcinogens in cooked meat? What are some ways we can decrease our exposure to the ca… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


How Foods Are Tested for Depression

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What is the science behind the marketing of foods for antidepressant effects? If you go online, you can see claims about “coconut water be… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.

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Ageless Mind and Increased Energy

Microphone and computer; ageless mind and increased energy
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Our special guest, Casey, is back this week to discuss the exciting new product Ageless Cell Revive. In this week’s episode, Ageless Mind and Increased Energy, Janet, Dr. Lewis and Casey will discuss how the phospholipids in this formulation help support the brain, healthy aging, and energy levels. They will also discuss a few other products and some lifestyle changes you can implement to support healthy aging.

Show Transcript

00:00:01 – 00:05:05

Welcome to the green wisdom health podcast, with doctor Steven and Janet Lewis, where you will learn about natural solutions to common ailments. And now, here are your hosts doctor Stephen and Janet Lewis. Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the green wisdom health show. I am Janet Lewis. And I’m doctor Lewis. And we have our very special speaker back with us today. Casey, who works with one of our manufacturers to bring you the wonderful products that we currently have. Including the new one that we just started carrying called ageless cell revive. So the name of this show, and he’s going to tell us why it works. It’s called ageless mind. And increased energy. And those of you that are having the bad side effects of the long-term COVID symptoms, you probably want to listen up to this because this is going to have a lot of information pertaining to that in ways that you can get your energy back, your mind back, get rid of a lot of your fatigue. So doctor Lewis, what would you like to tell us before we add Casey to it? Well, since it’s so good for the brain, I would like to ask you, if you can remember to take it, do you really need it? Thanks. Go ahead, guys. Take and run with it. Yeah, thank you for having me again. It’s always, it’s always a pleasure to be back out in east Texas. Being that you’re from. Yeah, exactly. We want to talk about where I’m from. But over Dallas way. But yeah, this is a we gave him his green card to get him into Texas. I’m doctor Lewis approved, hopefully. Yep. But yeah, this is a really exciting new product. There’s been a lot of ageless cell revive that is. There’s a lot of chatter right now. I would say over the last couple of years around this idea of membrane lipid replacement therapy. And what I mean by that. So what ageless cell revive is is it’s a sunflower, lecithin derived phospholipid complex. And why that is so important is that phospholipids are an extremely critical component to all biological membranes. In the body, from the membrane that lines your digestive tract, the membrane that lines your bronchial passages, the membranes that make up the membranes that protect and house your both your cells and then also membrane intermembrane that houses your mitochondria. So and that goes along with the podcast we did earlier about diabetes and metabolic syndrome or syndrome X. The main cause of stroke, for example, is syndrome X, which is the same thing as metabolic syndrome leading to diabetes or type two diabetes. And as chiropractor I was always interested in the demyelination, things that DeMille are like infections, trauma, which is what I took care of as a chiropractor. Inflammation, which specifically diabetes, but any kind of inflammation, lack of thyroid function that you people with low thyroid, it goes further than just checking your thyroid. Nutritional deficiencies and that’s where Casey just shines like a brand new penny. Lack of vitamin B and allergies such as gluten. So we’re happy to have him here because he kind of has the intelligence and the knowledge to get technical. So I’m just like throw it in like God sorted out. Yeah, so all those things you just mentioned is that like the simpler version of what Casey’s saying about the mitochondrial function. Yeah, because Janet told me I get two technical and one case it gets technical. She didn’t say anything to him. She just smiled and said, hey, Casey. Well, I invite him to the show because he tells me all of this when we talk and I’m like, I don’t even know what you said and doctor Liz will probably decide for that. He needs to come tell everybody. Well, the whole point of it is that we do have people like Casey and other scientists that keep us surprised of what’s going on and why the products that were efficacy matters. Yes. We do have a great support team behind the scenes that you don’t know about. Efficacy matters is the deal. Are you noticing now that a lot of the brands you were previously buying you trusted are suddenly out of all kind of things? And have you noticed? I hear people say brand doesn’t matter. Why aren’t you in your third wife, all women are like, all supplements are like, okay, I give. That’s brand is really important. Efficacy is ultimately all that matters. I mean, we talk about this all the time, but we manufacture exclusively through for licensed healthcare providers.

00:05:06 – 00:10:02

The only way that we sell a product is when a license provider recommends our product. And in the clinical setting, products have to work. No fake stuff on Amazon. And you know what that really means is that you’re not about just making money, you’re actually about getting people well because the ones that aren’t doing that and claim to be selling to professionals, but also go on Amazon and all these different places. They’re bottom line, well, let’s just make some money because the practitioners aren’t doing it fast enough. Even though one of the big companies says we know 40% of everything we sell on Amazon is counterfeited. And that’s one of the big companies we used to carry. And it’s not as good as it used to be. It used to be good when we were selling it. But when we saw that change, we started drifting away from that particular company, which used to be the big dog. So we try to make sure we bring you what it says in that bottle. Which is why Casey’s here with his ageless cell revived. I mean, it kind of going back to what doctor Lewis mentioned when he was kind of listing off those health issues at the crux of a lot of these things is mitochondria dysfunction. Yes. And kind of getting back, your mitochondria, they are the powerhouses of every cell. They are what literally drives life. They also act as kind of this canary in the coal mine. So they’re the first ones to kind of sound alarm in the presence of danger. And this is a lot of what is being talked about now in the functional immunology space. Is this idea of just a better understanding of what’s really going on in some of these different chronic inflammatory response syndromes. And what I’m talking about when I say when I say chronic inflammatory response syndrome or serfs for short are these historically been considered fibromyalgia, chronic lime, environmental illness, like mold toxins, chronic fatigue, syndrome, but a predominant symptom of a lot of these issues. And now you can throw long haulers. People with persistent COVID infections. And if the numbers are right on that, we are going to see a massive wave of people dealing with these types of issues if that 20 to 30% of people who are infected with COVID do wind up having persistent issues. This is going to become a really big deal because this is the newest one of those conditions that you can kind of throw into that sirs bucket. And we have a little bit better understanding from a cellular cellular level of what’s actually going on in these issues. And it’s a researcher out of Southern California, doctor Robert navio, who coined the term cell danger response. And this is really important and membranes are a critical component of this and why supplementing with phospholipids is kind of from a in building out these protocols to treat these conditions or just fatigue and in general why lipids are so important to maintaining the health of the cell membranes because the first thing that kind of goes when a patient is or a person is exposed to and I’m not talking about a viral illness like COVID, but there’s environmental toxins. There’s trauma, there’s stress, different pathogens, there’s injury. There’s a lot of issues that are a lot of environmental stressors, and there’s some kind of getting long winded here, but basically there’s a physiological response that’s designed to help mitochondria and cells survive the stressors. And that can be self induced by the way you think, and that’s why I always try to influence you to get quiet, look at your spirit, what are you speaking versus what are you getting because the insult to the brain is stressed because the adrenals are stressed in that releases cortisol and that has an effect on the hypothalamus and hypothalamus gets into the brain, which is why Casey’s talking about the age is ageless cell revived, and I’m going to talk about a couple of other things, but you have to support the brain. And keep in mind, one of the worst things you can do is lower your fat intake because 60% of your brain is white matter, which is fat. You need the fat, you need the phospholipids, you need the fish oil, you need the good, even animal fats are good for you. I think the only fats that are bad are the vegetable fats, like corn, soy, canola, cottonseed. So this is a fat. It’s a fat. I know you mentioned you could put it in your coffee, which it’s primarily polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, so these healthy fats that are rich in these phospholipids. They’re sexy. Can you say that again? Do that again, do it a little later.

00:10:03 – 00:15:01

And these monounsaturated fats that play an integral part in the health of your membranes. So kind of getting back to the cell danger response when cells are exposed to these stressors. And COVID or coronavirus being one of them, what happens is imagine imagine you’re out here in east Texas and there’s a big storm coming. Right. What do people do? They get inside. You’ve been reading our mail. No, not Texas. They don’t get inside. Some of them get a drink in their hand and go stand and wait for the tornado. Yes, I do. Like a double. You pull the vehicles into the garage, you shut the garage door, you close all the windows. You basically you isolate yourself. And really like the little economy that is these towns stops. The same thing kind of happens with your cells. There’s a really important dynamic cellular communication that happens. If you can imagine like busy highways, hustling and bustling. But in a presence of danger, these cells isolate themselves, right? So they kind of, they use danger signals to alarm surrounding cells. They harden all their membranes, and they basically cut off communication with each other. The priority shifts away from energy production and just daily function to make life happen. Shifts away from that to surviving that immediate stressor. In normal folks, I’m not saying you’re abnormal, but in most people, the danger passes our immune system does what it’s supposed to do and cells return to normal. In some people, though, who generally who have these persistent types of issues and again to fatigue is generally at the top of their complaints, this doesn’t resolve. And so we have to use tactics to kind of kickstart kickstart re-engage mitochondria. It’s okay to come back out. Restore normal fluidity of membranes to allow these types of functions to happen. Membranes are really, really important. And they kind of get overlooked for a long time. They were just thought to kind of be this structure that houses your cells. Remember, I talked about the membrane says they get hard, then you get insulin resistant. So let’s dumb it down for just a second. Hey folks out there, there’s like putting start and fluid in an old tractor that hadn’t been cranked in 30 years, starting fluid. This is what the ageless sale river have tennis just laughing and giving me the look. On an animal this time yet. Well, it’s going to be. Right, so these phospholipids phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidyl ethyl alamin, phosphatidylserine, are all used to restore the health of your membranes and membranes are really important to be as doctor Lewis was just alluding to. Not only do they act as environmental sensors, they kind of keep tabs on what’s going on around them inside of the body. They’re really, really important for. Nutrient absorption. They have to get these things into cells. They’re really important for receptor activity, being able to affect tissue sensitivity to hormones and other chemical messengers that the body produces. They have to be open like all of us men are open to whatever our website because we always hear it. We may not respond, but we are open to that Janet really rolled her eyes on that. I learned it. I learned it from you, it is a Lewis trite. Especially. She said be here, I’m sure that stands for bacon sandwich. I have a question because I know people are listening out there, they’re going to ask me this. Yeah. You said it’s a fact. They’re going to say, well, then do I have to do fish oil also since it’s also a fat or does this replace this? Are they different? It doesn’t really, it doesn’t replace it, they’re different. EPA and DHA, which is incorporated into cell membranes are just another form of fat that is found in found in cellular membranes. Remember need more that to replace the bad fats that they put in safe potato chips in the process footage you need a lot of different types of good fat to replace that. So, so to speak, give your cell membranes and will change. More fat you have of different varieties, the better off you are that are good. The good fats. Okay, very good. And the more you get into fat, the easier it is to lose weight, but that’s an entirely different subject. So if we take more of this because it is a powder with a scoop. And it doesn’t taste bad. I don’t know. I take it in water, it tastes great. It actually tastes sort of like a protein to me for some reason. Right. Is it a protein? No. No, it’s a fat.

00:15:01 – 00:20:03

But I mean general, general fat, fatty things taste good too. Like you think about a fatty cut of fatty cutter beef or ribbon ribs. Yeah, generally fat adds a really nice flavor. So that’s why we gave him his green card when he came to Texas because he talks about ribs and barbecue and rib eyes. That’s what we relate to here. But that’s what’s great about this is implementation and to just your daily regimen is so easy. A lot of folks use it as a coffee creamer and replaces their current dairy based creamer. You can throw it right into whatever shakes and smoothies you might already be making. So if you’re doing a keto diet or it would be good for keto. People? Absolutely. Like you just said, you can just mix it in water and it tastes fine. Well, I don’t really eat much for breakfast and for some reason it makes me feel like I’ve it’s extremely filling. The benefits and fats is they’re very the very calorie dense. So you can consume a small amount of them and you’re going to feel full. And I can I can tell you if the company that Casey manufacturers, these four, if they’re making this product, they have done some extensive research to come out with a new product about what’s going on with the fatigue and everything because they don’t put out tons of new products all the time. So there must have been a lot of thought into this before you actually came out with it. It is so this whole idea around lipid replacement therapy, which this technically is, like I said, it’s kind of all the, it’s all the rage right now in the functional immunology world as we better understand the roles of these membranes, especially in as it relates to immune health, which is a huge obviously a huge topic. Did y’all hear that? Immune health. Pay attention rate between the lens. Well, because you know there’s more coming down the line. This particular issue in the United States is not over. So as fall comes in again. So yes, yes. We need to really, really ramp up our immune health. Now’s the time to buy an extra bottle or two of these things and put it in your body where it can manifest as blessings with better immune health and I’d like you to address that a little bit as well because as this keeps unfolding more and more companies are like, we just don’t have this product anymore. We don’t have that product anymore. So far, you all have really kept it together. Other than the one product of college in which I’m going to have you speak about and why you don’t have that, but how is it looking for what you all have going on? Do you see that we’re beginning to run out? Is it getting harder to get a hold of these things? There’s a few things depending where they come from in the world that are a little bit more challenging. Than others, I think a lot of raw material vendors had kind of we’re really now starting to feel the effects of diminished manufacturing capacity. And this is obviously been manifesting for a couple of years now as it relates to different countries policies around COVID. But for a really long time, these raw material vendors couldn’t, they’re manufacturing hours and manpower were cut back significantly. Collagens are collagens really unique in that it’s not just, it’s not just collagen, right? It’s a combination of three trademarked raw materials. And when we’re considering putting formulas together, we’re seeking out the absolute best individual raw materials that we have available from around the world. And we were very transparent about the raw materials that we source. So in that particular product, we actually we created all of the labeling, all of the marketing, all of the things that went along with our product around these three trademarked raw materials. And that’s obviously a really good thing because you know that what you’re getting has demonstrated safety and efficacy in human clinical trials. But at the same time from a manufacturer’s perspective, you can really put yourself in a bind if one of these vendors is having an issue with their raw material. Because they might not be the only supplier of that, particular you know, there’s more than one vendor of vitamin B 12. But there’s one or two that are probably the best. And we’re sourcing the absolute best, and like I said, we branded everything with that particular trademark.

00:20:03 – 00:25:13

So as it relates to the collagen, the oral hyaluronic acid has it comes from Barcelona, Spain, a lab called bio iberica for whatever reasons they’re just significantly challenged on the manufacturing front and they have zero raw material available and have for some time now. We could. If we were more disingenuous company, we could just go source another oral hyaluronic acid. And nobody would probably ever know. But that’s just not the way that we function. So while it’s it pains me and I know it’s frustrating for all of you who have been getting the benefits of that product to not be able to get access to it. We would rather back order a product than go source an inferior raw material. So let me repeat that in case you said, if we were not disingenuous, is that a correct term? Well, there are some companies that have more ways to take your money that are really full of lawyers, Casey and his company are not like that. It’s the real deal and that’s why B 12 methyl supreme. They have Quattro folic. Because that’s the better, more absorbable, more utilized folic acid for those of you that have the 5 MTHFR genetic SNP. And that’s why you guys fill this stuff work. And I’m addressing this again. We talked about it on our last show, but I can’t tell you the people that’s called up and says, well, just tell me something else that we can buy. I can’t tell you something else you can buy because I’d be telling you a story. I don’t know of anything that works that well. And me with my great intelligence and clarity of mind, I saved like going back to your ex-wife. We don’t want to go backwards. And so we’re going to wait on the good stuff with the college. And if y’all don’t mind. And we’re going to wait on our company to tell us for Casey to tell us which way to go with it because I trust his judgment. I trust how they lead us. They have not ever let us wrong. And we don’t have it, then we just don’t have it. We’ll wait for what comes in. Hopefully it’s back much sooner than later. I’ve got a lot of people upset with me right now. Including my wife who takes it daily and we don’t even have any. So I’m on my last jar and I’m like, just putting a little bitty bit in there. We had a patient called the other day and she goes, okay, this is it. She goes, I have waited. I am now in pain. Again, give it to me. I said, I don’t have it. And she goes, then tell me which brand I can get in the meantime. And we’re like, I don’t know, you know, there’s some popular names of some out there that have their name on the bottle, but who knows if they work? I don’t know. Just pick one. I don’t really know. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I had some more. I wish I had better news on that on that front. I think we’re working behind the scenes to potentially mitigate some of the issues that we’re having with that particular raw material and maybe get something out there sooner than later. But we just have to go through all the proper proper channels and make sure that again it’s just there’s a lot that goes into using trademarked raw materials and we’re just we put ourselves in binds from time to time because of it, but it doesn’t give us that flexibility just to go grab another raw material. And again, that’s why you have a great reputation and that’s why the things work because you don’t just give in to something different. Right. And the best I can tell you guys out there and a lot of you already have, you can go to our website that product is still online and we have it as where you can put your email in to sign up for when there’s something that’s there. We will let you know. And that’s the best we can do. I don’t know how many people I’ve got waiting for it right now. I’m gonna need your entire truck once it gets here. So maybe they won’t remember if they’re not taking this ageless cell and things. Doctor Lewis, you had a couple of other products you wanted to talk about as well. Yeah, the B 12 methyl supreme. And I figured out about the 5 MTHF R genetic SNP that some experts say, 20% of us to 80% of us have, I think the consensus is about 50% of us have that genetic snip. And I started taking this B 12 methyl. And I felt kind of bad because that helps your liver detoxify through all kinds of different pathways, but on the 6 day Jesus part of the clouds and angels sort of singing Janet can tell you about 3 o’clock. I don’t take this one pill a day. Oh my God. She says, well, you’re not happy. You’re not energetic. I said, I’m always happy. She says, you didn’t take it. I said, well, you know that or you wouldn’t ask the question. So the other thing that I love, love, love, love, love, is GPC, glycerophospholipid, and folks you can’t take it once and think it’s going to do anything for your memory, but it makes a huge, huge difference.

00:25:14 – 00:30:11

It improves memory mental focus, reaction time, and elderly individuals, which I’m not, but it also says in the janitor. You’re not. Janet’s giving me the look. The mind you’re at a childlike abilities of a 13 year old. Yeah, I’m chill. I know that. And some people say it might compensate for acetyl acetylcholine declined to aging, estrogen deficiency. So if you menopause, think about you need it. It increases production of dopamine serotonin and gaba. So these are neurotransmitters that generally come out of the GI tract, but if you get more than neurotransmitters up into your brain, you’re happier person. That’s one thing that the B 12 methyl supreme helps with because of its activated B 6 and that helps the neurotransmitters cross the blood brain barrier. It does this GPC does things like brain repair in Alzheimer’s and dementia support. And I won’t go into it. You just need to take it before you start acting like you get dementia. And I’m much, much mentally sharper than I was before I started taking these products. Yes, I’d like to throw in something about that. Oh God. It’s a good thing. I can tell you if he doesn’t do that GPC liquid. He is searching for words and answers, and you saw how fast he heard, just how fast all that just came out. Yeah, usually when I hesitate is because I’m trying to find a more gentlemanly, a better Christian way of saying it because I’m real good about saying half ass and BS. Well, we shouldn’t. We were around his siblings this weekend, which have that MTHF. Problem. So that’s the B 12 he talked to. And I’ll have foot drop, which is a neurological issue. I thought that say he knows these things because they’re still in his head now, because of his brain. Yeah, but I’ve done my brain out to play with it. It’s not in my head anymore. It’s my back pocket. But every one of them, when you ask them a question, they’d go like they had to search for the answer. But doctor Lewis is quoting the books from 1956 of the research article that was in it regarding those 1895 and 1825, actually. There you go. I know he told me about diabetes back in the day. I was like, wow, okay. And over 200, almost 200 years ago and we’re still not practicing what the book said in 1825. There. I don’t know which things doing it. I know that he does the methyl B 12. I know he does the GPC liquid. My dad is 85. He’s doing both of those also. And it’s helped him with a long COVID symptoms. Yes. And he knows, you know, streets and other states when we’re on it. I can tell him a store I’m at and he’ll tell me the intersection and the number. And how many miles it takes to get to blue Al Missouri. And he lost all that before we started adding all this in. So I’m going to say choline in general for that memory cognition. Looking at cognitive tests and seeing improvements and people with cognitive decline is pretty significant as a direct precursor to acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that’s heavily involved in all of those factors of cognitive health. So I’m thinking, adding in the ageless cell revive, you know, I’ve not been on it long enough to differentiate whether it’s what it’s doing. You can take straight colon and you take GPC, you can take phosphatidylcholine, all are going to help in that regards. And some of them are faster than others too. You want to go for the fast one. And then you want to go for the slow one. So that you get that effect very steadily from now on. The one thing I want to say about GPC liquid, it is very expensive and people go, oh, it says two dropper folds. I’ll just do one. It’s for some reason does not work, which is one. You’re not able to tell it as fast. I mean, maybe it’s working. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I do four and very expensive is a relative term. If you’ve ever had a loved one in Alzheimer dementia care, TPC is not expensive at all compared to what you’re going to do when you put your loved one in a nursing home that specializes in memory care. Or what if you need it for your job and you can’t work anymore because you don’t have a mind. So that’s true. We gave my mother about 25 extra years of not having to mention a site way as me and my brother, the chiropractor, doctor Lewis, and then Janet came on the scene and you could see it and when she was in her mid 60s. And Alzheimer’s or dementia didn’t really kick her butt till about 88 to 92. So we gave over 25 more good years mentally. Well, Casey, would you like to add anything else into our show we’re coming to the end of it? Was there anything that because you drive a really long way to come be with us today? And we really do appreciate it.

00:30:12 – 00:33:48

Our listeners appreciate it. They tell us they really like you showing up and adding something to our chaos. Maybe they understand you better. I don’t know what would you like to add in? I mean, as it relates to ageless cell revive. Consider, again, we’re trying to kind of whether it’s from just a general aging process or some type of stressor that’s induced dysfunction, membrane dysfunction, a critical and one of the primary complaints in patients who come in is just debilitating fatigue and when you consider what allopathic medicine has to offer if you come into that complaint, or you go see your PCP with that complaint. It’s antidepressants. It’s stimulants. It’s well, maybe try taking a walk. Maybe try going to bed an hour earlier. There’s really nothing, there’s nothing really helpful there. And they didn’t have the energy to do that. Right. This is really kind of that foundational kind of like one a long-term strategy to reviving cellular health membrane health, allowing them, allowing your cells or providing your cells with that critical nutrition that they need to perform at their optimal levels. Doctor Lewis, you got would you like to add something to our you hear now? Last two years more than anything, don’t question the science. And again, I think that’s BS, which stands for belief systems. Science was never questioned. We’d still be drinking cocaine in our coat given kids. Cough syrup with heroin in it. We’d still be spraying people with DDT for lies and we’d still be smoking the brand of cigarettes that your doctor recommended. It is normal and it’s wise wisdom being the principal thing to question the science. So it’s time for you to think for yourself, put good nutrients into the temple of the Holy Spirit so that it can function closer to a 100% of what God intended us to do. And then when you start feeling good, mentally, spiritually and physically, then your greatest triumph is when you’re able to bless someone while you’re going through your own storm. So let’s do it, folks. It’s well worth it. And let’s do it. Go to green wisdom health. Dot com and fill out the health survey. If you have not, you will see all of our wonderful new lab panels. We have just renovated on our site. You now can see everything that’s in them. It’s pretty exciting. Our new portal of healthy that everything blows into. So all of your documents are in one place. I’m still working on some of it. There are more features to come. But we have some very exciting changes as everyone thinks they’re stuck and nothing new is happening is a lot happening here. So get started today, go do your lab again and make sure you’re healthy going into this small. We hope you have a good week. Thank you, Casey, for being here. Thank you for having me. Welcome, and we’ll be here next time on the green wisdom health show. Once again, our show has come to an end, but you’re hoping your health is only beginning. If you or a loved one are in need of a different outcome and are waiting for a brighter future, take the first step and go to our website and fill out the health survey. Please don’t keep us a secret. If you know someone that could benefit from this podcast, please share the show with your friends and family. You are only one step away from a life worth living.

Products Mentioned in Today’s Show

Ageless Cell Revive – High-dose phospholipid complex for powerful immune and mitochondrial support. Phospholipids or phosphatides are an integral part of biological membranes, and they tend to decrease as we age. They are critical for cell and mitochondrial membrane shape, repair, and growth. Proper cell membrane function facilitates healthy cell signaling, which is important for energy production, immune function and regulating inflammatory cascades.

B-12 Methyl Supreme – Comprehensive formula that includes targeted amounts of five key nutrients designed to support methylation and homocysteine balance in the body.

GPC Liquid – GPC (glycerophosphocholine) is a supportive nutrient for the brain, kidneys, muscles, testes and other organs, and is a building block for cell membrane phospholipids.** Without the presence of this nutrient in the brain, individuals could not think, sleep or remember. GPC has a naturally delicious, sweet taste on its own so no additional sweeteners were added to this product.

You can also listen to Ageless Mind and Increased Energy on our Spotify here.

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Health and Wellness Headlines for June 22

Do Avocados Help Lower Cholesterol?

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 21, 2022, 7:00 am.

Cholesterol is a vital component of our cells, which is why our body makes all that we need. Elevated cholesterol in our blood is implicated… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


How to Reduce the Cancer-Causing Properties of Meat

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 21, 2022, 7:00 am.

What are the preparation methods to reduce exposure to carcinogens in cooked meat? What are some ways we can decrease our exposure to the ca… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


How Foods Are Tested for Depression

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 16, 2022, 7:00 am.

What is the science behind the marketing of foods for antidepressant effects? If you go online, you can see claims about “coconut water be… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Grind Your Chia Seeds

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 14, 2022, 7:00 am.

The secret to unlocking the benefits of chia seeds may be grinding them up.  When recently reviewing the literature on the health-promoting… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


The Effects of Cell Phones and Bluetooth on Hearing

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 9, 2022, 7:00 am.

What impact might cell phone and Bluetooth radiation have on the inner ear? “Given the huge number of mobile [cell] phone users at present… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Heavy Metal Detox Diet

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 7, 2022, 7:00 am.

What dietary change can simultaneously help detoxify mercury, lead, and cadmium from the body? I’ve previously explored the issue of lead … Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.

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The Secret Enemy of Weight Loss

Microphone and computer; ageless mind and increased energy
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One of the most common issues we see in people today is difficulty maintaining a healthy weight. Weight loss is a hot topic and a booming industry, but so many products just don’t work. Unfortunately, there is no magic fix for this, but there is one often overlooked aspect of weight management, and that is insulin. Insulin is an extremely important hormone responsible for regulating several metabolic processes and ensuring cells get the energy they need. Due to this, insulin has a strong influence on weight management. When the body begins to respond less to insulin, it could indicate that you are developing insulin resistance, which can contribute to a variety of health issues. In this week’s episode, The Secret Enemy of Weight Loss, we’ll discuss insulin’s role in metabolism and weight management, as well as some positive lifestyle changes you could make.

Transcription

The Secret Enemy of Weight Loss

00:00:01 – 00:05:01

Welcome to the green wisdom health podcast, with doctor Steven and Janet Lewis, where you will learn about natural solutions to common ailments. And now, here are your hosts doctor Stephen and Janet Lewis. Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the green wisdom health show. I’m Janet Lewis. And I’m doctor Lewis. And we are here to give you some inspiring helpful healthful hope. So in a world full of a lot of chaos, hopefully we’re bringing you a lot of joy and information and news you can use. So we today are going to talk a little bit about the secret enemy of weight loss because it’s summertime and who’s not trying to get into that bikini for the beach. But having a little bit of white problems or a lot of weight problems and we’re going to talk about what that secret and me is, doctor Lewis has got him captured over here behind the door and he’s going to let him loose a little bit and tell us what the enemy has been. He’s good at corralling things. So also, we want to mention our collagen people have been asking a lot about when is collagen coming back in. We do not know. The ingredient in there that’s a registered trademark called mobily, which is one of the several ingredients in that product that make it work wonderfully and that is the reason why it is so missed, we can not get from the manufacturer because it’s trapped in Spain. It is rooster comb. I guess they have special roosters there. I don’t know, but they’re organic. They’re organic rooster combs. Hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid can heal in big ways. So I won’t go into too many stories there, but it’s not here. So that’s the bottom line. We don’t know what it’s coming. People ask if we have a replacement. Not yet. We’re waiting for the person that makes that product for us to tell us what they’re going to do. They have very high standards. And they don’t want to take something out that they may get in. I don’t know. If we do it, you’re going to know it and we’re going to tell you, hey, it didn’t come in with this. I don’t know what we’re going to do. So for the time being that’s out and people say, well, what brand should I take? We don’t know. I know that they have designs for help, has a pretty good one. I just haven’t gotten any kind of feedback from anybody that’s just had miraculous results with collagen other than the powdered one we carry. So sorry about that. You know how it is nowadays, so hopefully that’s the only product that’s doesn’t come in for a while, but you know, there could be others. So anyway, doctor Lewis picked this subject today because he is passionate about helping people regain their health and would you like to let the enemy out of the closet you’re keeping him in and tell us who the secret enemy of weight loss is. Well, I’ve had so many people talk bad about me because I’m so blunt and it’s like, well you made a sugar coat it and the answer to that is most people would rather have it sugar coated. The active, the real enemy is insulin and I will get into that. I promise you in big ways. The problem in our country is we’re overfed and undernourished. That’s a fact. And national health and nutrition examination study. And this is a pretty new and I think that was 2017, 18 said 42% of Americans adults had obesity. The other 30.7% were overweight. So it puts us at over 72% of us are not at our ideal weight. And it’s not just that simple. That reflects our overall health, which is pretty much stinky. And I want you to live life to have life that you can live, you need to be consistent. I want you to have a life worth living and then there was, you know, I read a lot of research and thank God I have a good memory and I take a lot of stuff for that. Journal of American medical association said our healthcare system, healthcare and parentheses. Only address is 10% of the issues that lead to preventable death. That’s scary. The other 90% is our lifestyle, our diet, our environmental exposures like hidden poisons in our foods, chemicals, cleaning products, mold, and workplace exposures. So what Janet and I do, we bridge the gap for the other 90%. And for the people that stick with it, you get great results.

00:05:02 – 00:10:03

I get a lot of good feedback and thank you. I love it. Thanks for taking the time, like Debbie said, oh, I entertained myself all the way from Comanche Texas to Midland. I said, how in the world can you have fun and Comanche Texas? And she says, one of her best friends lives there. That’s where a lot of Janice relatives are from. But it’s the people like Kelly and Alabama, her friend Lee and Jesse, Allen and Maine, Brian and Florida night in Iowa that just keep on doing the right thing. Thank you and God bless you. I love to be your leader. So let’s talk about insulin. That’s why we run it on our lab and that’s pretty pretty unusual. I’m sorry for those that need to know what that is. What is insulin? Well, insulin comes from the pancreas and it’s designed to carry and burn the glucose. And again, I read a lot and the two most dangerous things in our bodies are fat and insulin and one of the research I reached says fats a hormone is like well, I’ve never really studied it being that way, but insulin goes around and says, oh, well, they have too much high fructose corn syrup too many carbs. I’m alternate in to triglycerides. And I’m going to screw up the HDL to total cholesterol ratio. Whale, let’s just store those bad track glycerides in the liver, which you start getting the non alcoholic fatty liver syndrome. And then the body says, well, you know, he’s not burning enough of the glucose into muscles, so I can’t keep it in the liver too much because I don’t want to kill the person, even though the liver enzymes start to go. Then insulin does a funny thing. It stores glucose slash triglyceride slash cholesterol as fat. Yeah. And they’re good fats, right? The only good fats in bacon, I think, really no avocados and coconut. The fat shows up on the outside of the body. Is that what you’re trying to say? Yeah, something like that. Something like that. I’ve got a lot to say. Sometimes I do these things just off the top of my head today I have about 5 hours worth of notes, so pardon me. But we’re doing this in 30 minutes. Yeah, the slow talking Texan. If I’m at hurry and I start talking fast, it’s because I have a lot to say. You know, the problem is that most doctors. And I love all our doctors and our medical professions really, really good, but the bitter truth is they address the symptoms but not the cause of disease. That in and of itself is scary and that’s why I read about that article where we’re bridging the gap that other 90%. They say it and it’s still it’s stupid. Jack Jack sprat could eat no fat. His wife could eat no lean. Well, that implies that fat is fattening in that is not the truth. It is sugar and carbs that turn to sugar that makes us fat. And we’ve already seen for several decades that the high fat diet is the most effective at losing weight. But for fallacies, they hang on for a long time. What about processed vegetable oils that parse staple ingredients in processed food? That’s funny you should mention that. And again, Janet and I have different notes. So she tries to stomp me, which is. I think it’s fun. Pretty easy. She likes to say the deer in the headlines. No, I know it’s all up there. So I know it’s going to come out so I can’t wait. That’s one of the worst things. And some of our government entities and we’ll get too deep into that. But say that certain companies can put all kinds of trans fats in things and call it zero and there’s a minimum okay amount of trans or hydrogenated fatty acids where the limit should be zero and I love potato chips, but that’s one of the worst things you do because all this transhydrogenase fat causes your cell walls to be rigid so you can not get nutrients in and out and we’ll talk about mitochondria and ATP and all that kind of stuff. But insulin starts getting where oh it can’t go into the cell. So you get what’s called insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome. Which can lead to diabetes. Well, you know you read the ingredients on things and it says soybean oil and you think soy’s better for you, so you would assume soy being oil would be. No? You know, I say many times successfully leaves closed, but so does failure. I’m trying to be sweet. But I’m asking about soybean oil.

00:10:03 – 00:15:04

Our son just made from Germany to Alaska and he says, mom, they’re so large, large. Large smell what he said. She said, welcome to America. We’ve been to China. We’ve been to different places in Europe. We spent a couple of days in St. Petersburg, Russia. That was pretty cool. And it’s not that America doesn’t have some great grand and glorious things to be thankful for, but eating soybean and wheat and grains is not where health resides. That’s good. That’s as clean as I can do it. Here’s the thing, some people say, count your calories, other people’s like calories don’t count. And I remember back when I was a tiny, tiny kid, there’s a guy that says calories don’t count, he wrote a book and boy, he gave him holy heck over that. What do you think the calories out of a pancake is going to work the same as calories out of a piece of fresh coconut or berries? No, the calories are different in the way that they are treated and utilized by the body metabolically. Usually say sugar rich diets generate excessive reward signals in your brain that can override normal self control mechanisms, and I found that the fact is that a single week of binging on fast foods impaired appetite control, making the volunteers more likely to desire more junk food even if they just eaten. So I’m blown away. So the minute that you think that you’re hungry again, is it because you just ate something that wasn’t good, you’ve got no you got no nutritional value out of it. So the body’s actually still starving. Yeah, and hopefully I’ll have time to get in some of the bad heavy metals or minerals. Like arsenic. But I’ve said this on a different podcast, too much sugar equals fewer vegetables equals last name equals four taste equals more sugar, so it gets to be a vicious cycle to try to hit those reward centers in the brain. Yeah, the more added sugar, your diet contains the lower your intake of important micronutrients such as calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, potassium, selenium, vitamin C, vitamin D, that you all guys, you guys have heard a lot. And zinc. So could that be a reason why minerals and things like that are so low on lab work whenever we run that? Well, young they’re not in the soil. So the plants not really take them up. One of the lies is milk is good for you. No milk is bad for you. And somebody told me he says, well, Stevie, do you need to get more fact? Well, I’ve been quote and researched for 20 years. Male can increase risk of insulin resistance. Yep, milk does not do a body good. That’s from British of journal nutrition. So that’s a fact. It creates, it does create a lot of mucus in the body. I know that. And insulin resistance, which means as much as I talk about blue bell and Snickers, I’m about 90% teasing, we were at the grocery store the other day. And she said, you know, some more aspirin, I said, no, and she looked at me like I was going to drop dead. And what Janet was talking about, the acidic diet, sugar, meat, soda pop. It must have been a must been a Yankee, said soda pop, because we call them cokes down here in the south. Causes calcium to go from the bones to the pancreas and triggers osteoporosis, but also jams up the pancreas, which leads to less insulin as a result. And that’s journal of the American medical association. So that’s a fact. People said, you need to put more facts. I have been folks. I just didn’t say fat. I’m gonna give you another fact, according to the 2019 state of obesity report. 18.5% of American children ages two to 19 and 39.6% of adults are now obese, not just overweight. And we did talk about that causing depression in children and depression can manifest in many different ways and hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder is just to the many. And the adult obesity rate rose over 70% and the childhood obesity rate rose over 85%. Here’s the deal. You want to get healthy, go on our reviews and read Cowell. Kyle wrote. Cow’s awesome. Oh, but you know what he did something different. Yeah. He did it. Action. He totally changed his diet. I mean, the first day we went over his lab work, he was like, doctor Lewis, what can I do? What can I do? And he said, you know, doctor Lewis said, we might try doing a keto diet. And he said, okay, okay, he called me as soon as he left here and he goes, I’m getting keto strips.

00:15:04 – 00:20:03

Ketone strips. And he goes, how long does it take before I’m in ketosis? And I said, jeez, I don’t know it. I have to ask doctor Lewis. How long it takes? He goes, can I speed it up? Is there any way to double something to speed it up? And I think he’s lost like 30 something pounds now. 30, 32 when he wrote the review. And that was three weeks now. It was three weeks into this program. And here’s the other thing. And it’s like, I love these people. You know, they told us this doctors don’t hug your patients. Well, I’m going to hug you. But anyway, I hug this got to people say, I’m taking all these settlements and I didn’t lose weight. Well, you didn’t change the way you eat. You know, you got to quit eating the same old junk as I successfully closed it if you don’t see success. It’s failure. So you’ve got to eat differently, Janet, and I just ate at a very good restaurant, good food, but you know what? We didn’t eat it all. Janet I ate about half of hers and I ate about two thirds. Here’s another interesting fact. You were talking about potato chips earlier, right? Yeah, no, I like them. Yeah, it’s like one of the most bliss has the most, it’s the most bliss inducing thing there is because it has sugar. But you can’t eat just one. Right. Sugar from the potato salt and fat. The fact is, in the research published in 2007, showed 94% of rats allowed to choose between sugar, water, and cocaine chose sugar. Even the cocaine addicted rats quickly switched their preference to sugar once it was offered as an alternative. The rats were also more willing to work for sugar than for cocaine. Huh. So the moral of the story is, don’t be a rap. Insulin sensitivity, regulates the autonomic autonomic, which means automatic, or the subconscious control of the heart rate, even normal non obese non diabetic people. And it’s even worse if you are obese and you are toward metabolic syndrome and diabetes. If you eat a fast food burger, you can easily take in close to half of your daily caloric requirements. And in fries and a soda and you may be nearing an entire day’s worth of required calories. No, I got the look on that one. You’ve heard people distort and delete. Did you know the right of thyroid deficiency and diabetes has doubled? Journal from clinical diabetes, fact we like the word fact. We’re just playing with each other, but the thyroid that has a lot to do with it. And here’s millions of dollars are spent treating the ravages of diabetes, but very little is done to prevent it. That’s from journal of the American medical association. Fact, we’ll get off this back kick. Trans hydrogenated processed fats increase insulin resistance. That’s from journal of diabetes. So we’re talking about that. And then here’s another one of lipoic acid cofactor of the crib cycle. I think energy. Is inside a cell has been shown to improve diabetes and it does so by improving function of cell membranes where insulin resistance becomes a problem that’s from diabetic logic. So lipoic acid, that’s why I love, love, love, love, love, berberine, alpha a, which is full of, it’s got a little bit of vitamin C enough to do some good. Now what does this do? It’s berberine and alpha lipoic acid. And what was the reason someone would take that? Excuse me, it’s a cofactor in the krebs cycle. It helps make energy inside a cell. This has been shown to improve diabetes. It also does so by improving the function of cell membranes where insulin resistance becomes a problem, say I can go back and rebound notes. Remembering in berberine is a really, really good kick, but good product too. So are you saying if they are, you know, most people don’t know what their insulin levels are, but they go to our health certain go to our website, Janice says you’ve got to learn this technological stuff. Go to green with some help. They’ll tell survey and get your lab. Don’t guess test. Good job. Good job. I’m getting brownie points. We’re having too much fun. We’re trying to portray our speaking parts here. Yes, insulin is on our test. But for most people, it is not if they have lab work at the doctor, how would they how would they assume their insulin may be high or another test that might be run? It won’t be triglycerides or real high compared to your cholesterol and the ratios are bad. That’s it. But A1C. 90 to a 120 day test of what your glucose is.

00:20:04 – 00:25:00

And we talked about alpha lipoic acid. The berberine is a phytochemical, has antifungal action, that’s why I give that to a lot of people with intestinal dysbiosis. Oh, and the breaking it down where his so smart telling you this, for those that don’t grasp what he’s saying, what he’s saying is because you’re eating all these things like fries and chips and things like that. It’s feeding me in the body. And so many people go, I think I have candida. You probably do. Everybody does. It’s just a matter of to what degree. And those books were written 30, 40 years ago. And if you start killing the yeast, which is what he’s talking about with the berberine, then you click craving the bad stuff so much. That’s when I can go to the grocery store and not care whether she buys blue bell or not because I rarely eat it anymore. Sorry, it’s a Texas company, but I don’t hardly ever eat it. Because he’s taking the supplements that help kill those things off read as it crave it. And so if you get all this under control and there’s a lot of reasons, a lot of ways to do it. You start feeling better, you start gaining energy in one of the biggest complaints we hear as people say I have fatigue. Well, let me tell you another story. There’s a guy that comes in, he looks really, really good. He’s about 70 and he has actually probably 5 pounds less gut than me. So he does look good. He said he had X amount percentage of carotid artery, plaquing, and I don’t know how many years ago, two or three years ago, whatever it was. And then he started taking our stuff and that kind of nice was one. Natto and the K in the day and he’s on he’s on our fish. He’s a compliant man. Yeah, and most men aren’t, but I’ve just mentioned several that were. But he went and had the ultrasound all the testing and he went from almost ready to do stance from his cardiologist to zero zero zero plaquing and he said the technician couldn’t believe it. He was shocked. He came in at this bump, doctor Lewis. He was like, I just knew they were going to call and say, it’s this much worse. See how it’s time for surgery. And they said they couldn’t see any in there. And he takes too much stuff. He’s 70, but he acts like he’s 35 or 40. He takes a lot of the supplements. He says, well, doctor Lewis, it’s so much easier and so much less expensive to take this stuff than it is to pay several 100,000 to several million for a disease and you’ve lost your quality of life. And I said, well, Rick, that makes you wash her than most people. The Bible says in all these things get wisdom, which means gathering of knowledge. And what kind of money did he just say by not having that surgery? And if the plaquing broke off and it cost a stroke, I know a chiropractor that at 62 had that done, he died. And in no fault of the medical profession, there’s just some risk to all things. It’s easier to be healthy than it is to get back your disease. And I’m glad our medical profession does what they do. I mean, they’ll save you bacon. They’re really, really good. Watch episodes of grace anatomy and be like, oh God, I think it’s easier to stay healthy. So I wanted to mention something about processed food and ultra processed food. Oh good. Americans not only eat a preponderance of processed food, I love that we’re thank you. But 60% is ultra processed. Products that are at the far end of this significantly altered spectrum, or what you typically purchase at a gas station. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen some of those hot dogs rolling around in there and I’m like, oh my, I have not seen the person that purchased it to eat it. But really don’t. Any food that isn’t directly from the vine ground bush or tree is considered processed. For instance, frozen fruit is usually minimally processed while pizza. Soda, chips, microwave meals are ultra processed. And they found the difference in the amount of sugar between foods that are ultra processed and minimally processed was dramatic. 20, the fact is. 21% of calories and ultra processed foods come from added sugar compared to just 2.4% of the calories and processed food. And none in unprocessed food. Looked at me this morning in amazement when I said something I’ll lead up, which is going to reinforce what she just said. You’ve heard me if you’ve listened to my podcast.

00:25:01 – 00:30:01

I read from a book late 1800s, early 1900s about how flour can cause. Yeah, that was interesting. That was interesting. Why don’t you get better? Okay. What I quoted this morning was 1825, and no, I’m not that old. Her brother said I am. There’s a book called physiology of taste, 18, 25, and it was written the second of the chief causes of obesity is the flowery and starchy substances. 1825, okay, so almost 200 years ago and we have not changed the way we eat. We’ve actually increased the stupid I mean, did I say that? The way we, the bad ways that we eat. I mean, get away from it. Well, that’s what I was talking to my brother about because, you know, one of the things that motivated me to do this was watching my grandfather lose his legs. I mean, he basically was a torso that they carried around. And they did it a little bit at a time. It’s like they chop off a foot. Will it get worse? He’d get more of it cut off until they made it all the way up his legs. Well I was talking to him about that and he goes, well, you know, his mother died of that also. And I was like, no, because you’re a lot older than me. A few years. I said, I knew she was blind, but I did not know why, and he said, because she was diabetic and they also chopped parts off of her. I was really little and she was blind and she reached for me. It scared me to death. And I was done. But I was talking about she said that to me once. And Stephen, I’m like, why would people back that were farmers? I mean, they were outside work, and they weren’t overweight. So just so to speak, how would they get diabetes back then and have that happen? And he’s quoted me that book about how flour has been the culprit. My grandfather also liked to drink like beer. A lot of it. So that could have been a culprit. If you don’t drink beer or drink real stuff, the good stuff. He was still drinking the beer even missing his legs. But I thought it was very interesting that that’s been going on for so long and I guess our genes just can’t handle anymore. So I don’t know. So if you have the insulin resistance and insulin, the ranges go up around 19 to 22, there should be two to 7. So if you get around 7, 8, 9 on your insulin, you have an issue. If you will take our glucose support and it’s got the biotin chromium vanadium, some other stuff in it. It helps and it helps with the insulin sensitivity. And let me just talk just a little bit about bites and people don’t know anything about bite and it helps grow nails and hair. But it helps the metabolism of the carbohydrates the fats and the proteins. A deficiency can cause anemia of depression, hair loss, high blood sugar high blood sugar, inflammation, of the skin and mucous membranes and who doesn’t have insomnia. There’s a lot of possibility reasons loss of appetite. We don’t see much of that. Muscular pain, fibromyalgia, soreness of the tongue. Other things that’s in this glucose support is the chromium and it has to be the right kinds of chromium, not the stuff that’s on your bumper or your trailer hitch. And it’s caused its worse because it’s not in our soul. It’s not an a water supply, but it’s worsened by a diet high in refined, white sugar, flour, and junk food, which is most people. Deficiency and chromium can lead to anxiety. We hear people have that all time. Fatigue, glucose intolerance, people with diabetes in inadequate metabolism of amino acids, so your muscles are going to be breaking down. Vanadium, you don’t hear much about, but it’s in the glucose support. It’s very incredibly important. It’s for cellular metabolism formation of bones and teeth, but it has a rolling growth in reproduction. Inhibits cholesterol synthesis, improves insulin, utilization, deficiency can be linked to cardiovascular and kidney disease. And one of the reasons you’ve got to put these good minerals in there is to offset the heavy metals that I said I was going to get to, but I don’t think I’m going to. Well, one thing about glucose support, the thing that does that I really know that I can tell is if you don’t like eating a heavy breakfast in the morning or you don’t eat protein, people that have diabetic type tendencies or blood sugar problems start getting really mean around lunchtime. And we’re hungry. All right, are they getting nauseous? Because they’ve not eaten in that because their blood sugar is taken huge swings. Glucose support helps keep it stable so that that doesn’t happen to you. So that’s on them.

00:30:02 – 00:34:18

Note of something you might understand. I also wanted to mention because we’re coming toward the end of this show. So fast. We have a new blood work system in place. And doctor Lewis has graciously giving you the website to green wisdom health dot com. I got brownie points on that one. I know. For those of you that have already been our patients, those are the new patients, we’ve changed the process a little bit where we are now able to order LabCorp across the United States. It was quest outside the state of Texas and we did LabCorp inside of Texas, but we’ve made a special new deal with LabCorp where we can actually order outside the state of Texas and because of this new deal, some of our panels actually have another couple of panels of lab added in at no extra charge. And I like quest quest did a good job, but just for consistency sake. It makes it easier on us and it saves us time, which means we’re going to serve you better. We’ve actually have so many people have come in and ask if we have any way to see if they have any kind of damage because they’re concerned about because I’ve had a COVID. They’ve had COVID. That they want to say if they’ve got any kind of issues going on, we have a D dimer test in some of our lab tests now that we added that to some of the men’s, but we added the TPO to some of the women’s because I’m seeing high TPO, which would indicate probability of having Hashimoto’s more so in women. So we’ve added that with no extra charge. Right. And we’ve also added, and it’s a brilliant negotiator. And I’m also working, I’m still in the process of working on it, but we’re now putting your documents into an app called healthy. It’s with an IE and if you’ve already been a patient, you’re already made in that system, you’ll just have to change your password, but we’ll start dumping your labs and any kind of correspondence, doctor Alice will be able to talk to you inside that app. If that freaks you out, which it has some of our people, they’re like, please. She says the old elderly and then looks at me. We can correspond with you other ways as well. So don’t think it has to be that way, but we’re trying to make it worse, convenient for everyone, and they can have all the records in one place. Those that are techno savvy. Yeah, and there’s some really cool features coming with that down the road too. So those are the new things we’ve done. Doctor Lewis, ah, jeez, we were at the end of our show. Would you like to lead us into a prayer is what I wanted to say. We might need that too. I told Jan and I said, I think I’m gonna quit this and be a preacher. She looked at me really, really funny. He says, you cost too much. I don’t cost much, but it’s appropriate. It’s a sentence in hanser when I do it. You know, one of the best things we can do as human beings is to find the spirit and the definition of spirit is the nature of and we have to uplift our spirit. We have to speak about what’s good because you create more of it. If you speak about what’s bad, you create more of that. So different things don’t dwell on what went wrong instead focus on what to do next, what to do, action. Spend your energy on moving forward and finding the answer in as always Janet doing that. Your greatest Trump in life is when you’re able to bless somebody else while you’re going through your own storm. And there’s a lot of that going on. And I’m noticing more and more random acts of kindness because I think people are more stressed. And it just makes them feel good to uplift and bless somebody else. It’s good. We thank you for listening to our show. We hope you have a blessed week. We are here to help you when you need the help. We’ll talk soon. Once again, our show has come to an end, but your hope in your health is only beginning. If you or a loved one are in need of a different outcome and are waiting for a brighter future, take the first step and go to our website and fill out the health survey. Please don’t keep us a secret. If you know someone that could benefit from this podcast, please share the show with your friends and family. You are only one step away from a life worth living.

Products Mentioned in Today’s Show

Gluco Support – Supplies a powerful mix of nutrients and botanicals that efficiently help support normal glucose metabolism, structure and function of basement membranes such as nerve tissue, and insulin sensitivity. †

Berberine Alpha-A – Provides multidimensional support for cardiovascular health by maintaining healthy cholesterol levels and supporting blood sugar balance already within normal levels.

L-Carnitine – L-carnitine has been shown to stimulate the use of fat for fuel and boost metabolism, making it essential to energy generation in the body.

You can also listen to The Secret Enemy of Weight Loss on Spotify here.

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Health and Wellness Headlines for June 15

Grind Your Chia Seeds

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 14, 2022, 7:00 am.

The secret to unlocking the benefits of chia seeds may be grinding them up.  When recently reviewing the literature on the health-promoting… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


The Effects of Cell Phones and Bluetooth on Hearing

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 9, 2022, 7:00 am.

What impact might cell phone and Bluetooth radiation have on the inner ear? “Given the huge number of mobile [cell] phone users at present… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Heavy Metal Detox Diet

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 7, 2022, 7:00 am.

What dietary change can simultaneously help detoxify mercury, lead, and cadmium from the body? I’ve previously explored the issue of lead … Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Key Takeaways for Allergy Season and a Recipe for Taquitos

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on June 2, 2022, 7:00 am.

It’s spring here in the United States, which, for millions of people, means allergy season. While you may be feeling lousy because your im… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


After Marijuana Legalization Did Opioid Overdoses Go Up, Stay the Same, or Go Down?

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on May 31, 2022, 7:00 am.

What happened in states after medical marijuana laws were passed? Did opioid overdoses go up, stay the same, or go down? Millions of people … Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.


Black Salve Is a Dangerous Scam

Story from NutritionFacts.org. Originally posted on May 26, 2022, 7:00 am.

Is black salve, a paste made from bloodroot, safe and effective for the treatment of skin cancer? “Despite warnings from the American Acad… Read the full story on NutritionFacts.org.

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Don’t Neglect Your Mental Fitness

Mental fitness is a concept used to help us enhance our thought patterns and overall mental and cognitive well-being. Just as the body can be strengthened through physical exercise, our minds too can be made more resilient through conscious training and healthy lifestyle practices. By developing an awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, we can become more confident and capable in the world.

Everyone has experienced feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and helpless amidst the pressures of daily life, and many people have found this especially true over the last two years. It is when we let these types of thoughts dominate that we run into problems. Feeding into negative beliefs will only make them occur more frequently, as the brain forms neural pathways that become reinforced. The practice of mental fitness is about rewiring the neural pathways that don’t serve us, so that we experience positive thoughts more often than negative ones, and supporting our mental and cognitive health daily.

Instead of responding to challenges emotionally, which often leads to frustration and defeat, mental fitness allows you to step back and respond in a way that is calm, rational, and positive. It also helps to improve our cognition, brain health and memory for years to come.

Ways You Can Optimize Your Mental Fitness

Achieving peace of mind and optimal brain health may sound easier said than done, but there are many small changes and practices that you can add to your routine to keep your brain in top shape.

1 – Sleep

Getting enough sleep not only prevents illness, it also significantly improves your mental health and cognitive functioning. Make sure that you are getting at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night so that your brain functions optimally.

2 – Exercise

Physical fitness is closely connected to mental fitness; you cannot achieve a healthy mind if your body is not performing properly. This is also true the other way around, as poor physical health may also impact mental health. The benefits of leading an active life are well documented. Physical activity increases the flow of oxygen to the brain and releases endorphins – our happy hormones. These so-called “happy chemicals” will help relieve stress and improve your mental state.

3 – Mindfulness

The ability to recognize when a thought is negative or unhelpful is crucial to developing mental fitness. Take the time to step back from your negative thoughts and question their validity. You can then reframe them to more positive ones that serve you and your goals. These can take some retraining, and it’s often useful to talk with a healthcare professional.

4 – Doing new things

Being adaptable and open to change is a major component of mental fitness. Find new ways to challenge yourself and your mental fitness will grow with the world around you. This could be as simple as taking up a new hobby or trying a new food. Studies on Alzheimer’s have found that engaging your brain in different ways helps support brain cells and strengthen neural connections. Variety will increase your brain’s vitality.

5 – Playing!

Many fun recreation activities help keep your brain active. Doing puzzles and playing games have a positive effect on mental fitness. It increases problem solving skills and can help keep the brain sharp. Many physical activities, including dancing and tai chi, have cognitive benefits since the brain must work to remember steps or movements involved.

6 – Active listening

Sometimes, we listen merely to respond, but the type of listening that mental fitness requires is slow and thoughtful. Deep listening will increase your knowledge and your capacity to reason and relate to others.

7 – Spend time in nature

If your stress levels have been high lately, you may benefit from adding at least 20 minutes of outdoor time into your daily routine. Think of it as a “nature pill” for your well-being. Studies have shown that connecting with nature and “forest bathing” can significantly lower stress hormones.

8 – Reading

Even if you only spend 15 minutes a day doing it, reading can be a highly beneficial activity to aid your mental fitness. Visualizing the action on the pages will help you relax and ignite your imagination. Reading also strengthens connections in the brain and improves memory and concentration.

9 – Meditation

Learning to calm your mind and hone your thoughts will significantly increase your mental fitness and help you manage stress. Spend a moment taking in your surroundings and focusing on your breath with no distractions. It will likely be challenging at first, but your mind and body will thank you for it. Many apps and websites can guide you through the basics of meditation.

10 – Foods and Supplements

Many essential nutrients play a role in supporting mental fitness. Vitamin D, for example, helps protect against depression and anxiety disorders. Studies show that a lack of omega-3s in the diet has detrimental effects on cognitive function and has been associated with chronic inflammation, potentially contributing to depression symptoms. Magnesium is also a key player in mental health, as this mineral helps to regulate many key neurotransmitters involved in mood regulation. Magnesium deficiency has been associated with anxiety, ADHD, fatigue, and low libido.

Focus on a natural, whole foods diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables, quality protein and healthy fats. Avoid or limit alcohol as it can alter communication pathways in the brain, as well sugar and processed foods which are oftentimes contributors to impaired cognitive skills and self control.

Like any physical exercise, mental fitness requires a bit of discipline to create a routine. The good news is that science has shown that our brains are elastic and can be trained just as any muscle can to become stronger. With just a few small but meaningful changes, you can adjust your mindset to get more clarity while supporting your brain health for years to come. And, don’t be afraid to reach out – we can help!

Sources:

Albert PR. Adult neuroplasticity: A new “cure” for major depression?. J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2019;44(3):147-150. doi:10.1503/jpn.190072

 Briguglio M, Vitale JA, Galentino R, et al. Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Sleep Hygiene (HEPAS) as the Winning Triad for Sustaining Physical and Mental Health in Patients at Risk for or with Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Considerations for Clinical Practice. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2020;16:55-70. Published 2020 Jan 8. doi:10.2147/NDT.S229206

Robert S. Wilson, Tianhao Wang, Lei Yu, Francine Grodstein, David A. Bennett, Patricia A. Boyle, Cognitive Activity and Onset Age of Incident Alzheimer Disease Demential Neurology Aug 2021, 97 (9) e922-e929; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000012388

Centeno RPR. Effect of Mindfulness on Empathy and Self-Compassion: An Adapted MBCT Program on Filipino College Students. Behav Sci (Basel). 2020;10(3):61. Published 2020 Feb 27. doi:10.3390/bs10030061

Hunter MR, Gillespie BW, Chen SY. Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers. Front Psychol. 2019;10:722. Published 2019 Apr 4. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00722

Maraz A, Király O, Urbán R, Griffiths MD, Demetrovics Z. Why do you dance? Development of the Dance Motivation Inventory (DMI). PLoS One. 2015;10(3):e0122866. Published 2015 Mar 24. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0122866

Lang F, Ma K, Leibrock CB. 1,25(OH)2D3 in Brain Function and Neuropsychiatric Disease. Neurosignals. 2019;27(1):40-49. doi: 10.33594/000000182. PMID: 31769259.

Effatpanah M, Rezaei M, Effatpanah H, Effatpanah Z, Varkaneh HK, Mousavi SM, Fatahi S, Rinaldi G, Hashemi R. Magnesium status and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Res. 2019 Apr;274:228-234. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.02.043. Epub 2019 Feb 19. PMID: 30807974.

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Functional Lab Testing: Dive Deeper Into Your Health Concerns

Every successful journey needs a good map, so your road to good health needs the data to ensure you will reach your destination.Think of it this way: If you don’t know the root cause of a problem, you don’t know the best starting point and route to follow. A thorough evaluation of your overall health is essential to plot your road to success.

Conventional medicine typically focuses on just one aspect of that journey. Testing is narrow in scope and focuses on a specific symptom, so any treatment plan lacks the complete data necessary for a holistic approach to healing.

In contrast, functional lab testing has the ability to look at the entire body. That’s because our health isn’t a collection of siloed processes, but rather a complex network. Examining your overall health allows your healthcare provider – and yourself – to take a step back and look at the big picture. A treatment plan is therefore comprehensive instead of merely focusing on getting rid of one symptom.

What Is Functional Lab Testing?

Just as the name implies, functional lab testing aims to determine how your body is functioning as a unit. Most common tests could involve:

  • Blood tests
  • Saliva tests
  • Stool samples
  • Urine samples

The data gathered through these tests helps determine the impact of nutrition, stress, environment, hormones, genetics and more on your body. It can also assess the state of your microbiome – the bacteria in your gut. As a result, you have more information to determine the underlying causes of any health issue.

Key Functional Tests

An integrative healthcare practitioner will determine the best tests for you, since there’s no set formula for testing. Some of the most common and informative tests include:

Hormone panel

The impact of your hormone levels on your overall health – both physical and mental – is far-reaching and often underestimated. Unbalanced levels of cortisol, DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, estrogen, androgens, insulin and thyroid hormones can all impact your wellbeing in ways that can be difficult to diagnose through standard tests. Debilitating symptoms like weight problems, mood issues, and fatigue can continue unnecessarily without targeted hormone testing.

It’s often important to have a complete panel, instead of focusing on one, since you want to see the balance of different hormones, like estrogen and progesterone. Hormone testing can be done by blood tests or saliva tests.

Gut health assessments

This is another frequently overlooked function with broad implications on your health. In fact, science is only now starting to recognize that your gut health greatly impacts a broad range of common health issues, including depression, obesity, and diabetes. Even your cardiovascular health is impacted by the microbiome. Modern lifestyles and diets harm your gut by disturbing the delicate balance of bacteria, leading to inflammation and malabsorption of essential nutrients. Tests to gage your gut health include:

  • Stool analysis: These tests can uncover issues with malabsorption, which could be caused by damage to the intestine, or conditions like celiac, Crohn’s disease, or autoimmune disorders.
  • SIBO breath test: SIBO stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. By measuring the amount of hydrogen in your breath after consuming sugar, it can gage the amount of bacteria in your small intestine, and your ability to digest certain sugars, such as lactose.
  • Zonulin antibody testing: Zonulin is a protein that helps maintain the correct degree of permeability in  your gut. Testing for zonulin antibodies can help diagnose leaky gut syndrome. Testing for antibodies generally gives more accurate results than testing zonulin levels.

Food sensitivity assessments

Sensitivities to certain foods can have a profound impact on your overall health, but they’re notoriously difficult to diagnose on your own, in part because there is a wide range of possible reactions. It’s best to work with a healthcare practitioner. Tests that can hone in on possible sensitivities include elimination diets with careful records and blood tests evaluating factors such as immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies.

Tests for inflammation markers

Inflammation is often a sign that something is amiss in your body, but most standard checkups don’t evaluate for signs of inflammation. Markets to test include:

  • C-reactive protein
  • Homocysteine
  • Ferritin

Elevated inflammation markers don’t necessarily tell you what’s causing problems, but they are definitely a sign to do more testing – and that information can be invaluable. One study found that people with elevated levels of c-reactive protein have an increased risk of heart attack, by as much as three times.

Detox testing

Exposure to toxic substances such as heavy metals, molds or pesticides is another impact to our health, particularly with regards to autoimmune disorders and digestive issues. But, despite the risks, testing for exposure is often overlooked. Methylation is the complex process that removes toxins from your body, and some people have a genetic variation that impacts this process, putting them at greater risk for high levels of toxins. MTHFR genetic testing is one test that can indicate if your body’s detox processes are working as they should.

In addition, heavy metal testing examines the levels of possibly toxic substances like mercury, lead, and cadmium.

Mold has also been a hidden cause of many “mystery illnesses” but is rarely checked in conventional medicine. Symptoms of mold exposure are not always the obvious ones like sneezing or itchy and watery eyes, they can include cognitive impairment, depression, sleep disturbance, brain fog, digestive complaints and more!

Nutrient levels

Deficiencies in essential nutrients can lead to many health issues. Common symptoms include unexplained fatigue, brain fog, mood disorders, and more. It’s important to check your levels regularly, since they can change easily depending on what else is going on in your life – even if your diet remains the same, stress can affect levels of many nutrients, including magnesium and iron. It’s important to review your results with a qualified practitioner, as many holistic practitioners use different standards than conventional medicine does.

Metabolic testing

No matter how good your diet is, a problem with how you metabolize nutrients can lead to health issues.

  • HgA1c
  • Fasting glucose
  • Insulin
  • Lipid panel

One important factor in these tests is that they can spot potential issues before they become problems. For example, monitoring HgA1c and glucose levels can help diagnose insulin sensitivity before you develop prediabetes or diabetes. A holistic practice will watch for trends in order to suggest changes before a problem develops.

Interpreting Results

Numbers can tell a story, but they need to be interpreted properly. Just looking at the numbers from testing and only reacting if they fall out of “normal” range can lead to missing the point of the story. After all, the goal for testing should be to determine all of the factors influencing your health, and to determine if you can improve any aspect for optimum health. Aiming for so-called normal ranges will detect the presence of disease, but may not prevent disease from developing. Looking at optimal levels, and using functional tests, can help ensure optimal wellbeing and help prevent disease..

Functional testing helps determine the underlying cause of health problems and will help you develop a roadmap to a healthier you. Contact us to get started!

Sources:

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Aron-Wisnewsky J, Clément K. The gut microbiome, diet, and links to cardiometabolic and chronic disorders. Nat Rev Nephrol. 2016 Mar;12(3):169-81. doi: 10.1038/nrneph.2015.191. Epub 2015 Nov 30. PMID: 26616538.

Vojdani A, Vojdani E, Kharrazian D. Fluctuation of zonulin levels in blood vs stability of antibodies. World J Gastroenterol. 2017;23(31):5669-5679. doi:10.3748/wjg.v23.i31.5669

Ridker PM. Cardiology Patient Page. C-reactive protein: a simple test to help predict risk of heart attack and stroke. Circulation. 2003 Sep 23;108(12):e81-5. doi: 10.1161/01.CIR.0000093381.57779.67. PMID: 14504253.

Lopresti AL. The Effects of Psychological and Environmental Stress on Micronutrient Concentrations in the Body: A Review of the Evidence. Adv Nutr. 2020;11(1):103-112. doi:10.1093/advances/nmz082