Tag: diabetes

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Balancing Blood Sugar Levels

Cinnamon and sugar; balancing blood sugar levels.

Diabetes is a serious condition that affects an estimated 10% of the population in the United States, and that number is expected to increase over the next few years. Blood sugar problems that have not yet developed into diabetes are even more common, but can often be reversed if caught early enough. The most likely causes of blood sugar imbalances are a poor diet, lack of exercise, and excess weight. Fortunately, these are all things that are in your control, meaning you may be able to greatly lower your risk of developing diabetes and other conditions related to blood sugar imbalances. Let’s take a deeper look at some lifestyle factors that can affect blood sugar, as well as some ways to help balance blood sugar levels.

Poor Diet

The Standard American Diet (SAD) typically consists of foods high in sugar, calories, carbohydrates, and bad fats, and low in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein. This diet has been linked to the development of many different health issues like diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and certain cancers. A diet high in sugar is especially harmful to someone with a family history of diabetes as they are usually at a higher risk of developing diabetes.

When sugar or simple carbohydrates (like bread, pasta, and grains) are consumed, insulin levels in the body quickly increase to deal with the excess amount of sugar in the blood, but when insulin levels are continually high, the body starts to respond to it less and less. This causes the pancreas to produce more insulin to try to compensate, causing the body to respond less, leading to a vicious cycle. Eventually, the pancreas can no longer keep up and blood sugar levels remain high, which can contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, and potentially more serious complications like organ damage, decreased vision, and nerve damage.

Excess Weight

Being overweight is another risk factor for diabetes, though it not fully understood how. Some research has shown that fat cells may be more resistant to the effects of insulin than muscle cells are, meaning the less muscle mass and more fat you have, the harder it is for your body to respond to insulin properly. It may also contribute to the development of diabetes through poor lifestyle choices. A person that is overweight likely does not eat a balanced diet or exercise regularly, and they may also have hormonal issues that can increase their risk of developing diabetes and other conditions.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Most Americans spend the majority of their day sitting. Many people have office jobs that are sedentary, and also have habits outside of work like watching tv or playing video games that are sedentary. This lack of exercise is believed to contribute to weaker bones, higher levels of body fat, decreased muscle mass, decreased energy, depression, an increased chance of hormonal imbalances, and an increased risk of blood sugar disorders like diabetes. Exercise has many potential benefits, and just walking for thirty minutes a day is usually enough to see some of these benefits. Exercise can help reduce triglyceride levels and raise HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels, improve quality of sleep, improve mood, improve memory and cognitive function, increase energy levels, and many other potential benefits.

Effects on the Immune System

High blood sugar can also negatively impact the immune system in a few different ways. When blood sugar levels are too high, it can cause the body to release molecules that hinder the body’s natural immune defenses. People who have diabetes may also have nerve damage and poor circulation which can contribute to a weaker immune system. Sugar consumption can affect the performance of white blood cells and increase inflammatory markers in the body, even if you do not yet have high blood sugar levels. Elevated cortisol levels have also been associated with high sugar consumption, which can tax the adrenal glands and further decrease immune system function.

What Can You Do?

One of the best things you can do to decrease your risk of developing diabetes (and for increased health overall) is to cut out processed and sugary foods, and replace them with whole foods like nuts and seeds, grass-fed meats, fruits and vegetables, and good fats like coconut and olive oil. You should also be as active as you can which can mean going to the gym, doing a workout or yoga routine at home, or going for a walk a few times a week. Eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly may also help you maintain a healthy weight which may further decrease your risk of developing diabetes and other health conditions.

There are also some supplements that may help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. These include:

  • 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.†
  • Probio-Ease – This shelf-stable, 50 billion CFU formulation contains a blend of 7 select probiotic species with Sunfiber®, a low-FODMAP certified prebiotic. This formulation provides comprehensive microbiome, immune, and healthy inflammation support in one convenient capsule.†
  • Berberine –  Belongs to a class of naturally occurring alkaloids found in the roots, rhizomes, and stem bark of a number of plant species. Studies with berberine in people with diabetes show that it exerts multiple beneficial effects on glucose and lipid metabolism.†
  • Perfect Plant Protein (Vanilla Bean) – This formulation combines USA-grown, sustainable pea protein with microbiome-nourishing prebiotics and antioxidants. This great-tasting, bioavailable, and easy-to-digest protein formulation is 100% dairy-free and non-GMO.†

You are not doomed to have diabetes just because you have a family history of it, there are things you can do to help decrease your risk. So make good choices about food and exercise, it’s more important than you think!

You can listen to our How Blood Sugar Affects Immunity podcast here. You can also listen to it on our YouTube channel here.

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Comfort Food Uncomfortable?

Microphone and computer; early warning signs of a thyroid problem.

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For the past month, many people have been spending nearly all of their time inside the house. People have turned to many different hobbies to pass the time. One of the most common hobbies has been baking and cooking. This can be a great way to pass the time and learn some new skills in the kitchen, but most of the food being prepared hasn’t been healthy. Social media has been flooded with pictures of all the breads, cookies, and pies people have been preparing. These foods contain lots of carbohydrates, sugar, and gluten, and people often feel worse after eating them. In this week’s episode we’ll how these comfort foods can make you uncomfortable, and how they connect to diabetes and heart disease.

Products Mentioned in Today’s Show

Zinc Plus – Zinc is an essential mineral that activates more than 70 enzymes, including those that assist with protein synthesis and tissue repair.† For optimal assimilation and pH balance, this formulation uses zinc citrate, the natural form of zinc that is found in human milk. Vitamin B6 and ascorbic acid have also been added to facilitate zinc metabolism.

Multi-Element Buffered C – Vitamin C is important for immune function and antioxidant protection, as well as collagen and connective tissue production.† Multi-Element Buffered C adds calcium, magnesium, and potassium to ascorbic acid to create a buffered product that is gentle on the stomach. This formulation includes zinc, manganese, and copper in well-utilized forms. Quercetin, a powerful bioflavonoid, and reduced L-glutathione, an antioxidant, are included to potentiate the function of vitamin C.†

Active Mega Multi – Contains activated forms of folate and vitamin B12, along with efficiently utilized mineral forms and fat-soluble vitamins. Compared to common, over-the-counter multivitamin products delivered in 1 tablet daily, this formulation offers enhanced antioxidant protection, broader trace element nutrition, and augmented B vitamin support. This core foundation of essential nutrients can help provide an extra measure of nutritional protection.

You can also listen to on our YouTube channel here.

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Artificial Sweeteners

Gummy bears as an example of artificial sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners can be found in many different foods, drinks, candies, and even some medications. You may think they are a good alternative to sugar, but they may actually be doing more harm. Artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame have been linked to the development of birth defects, neurological diseases, obesity, diabetes, and some cancers. Let’s take a look at how our bodies react to different sweeteners.

Sucralose

The artificial sugar that gives Splenda its sweetness is called sucralose, and it can be found in a variety of foods and beverages like diet sodas, canned fruit, and sugar-free syrups and condiments. Sucralose is created through a chemical process that involves replacing three atoms on a sugar molecule with three chlorine atoms. This results in a sweet-tasting, calorie-free substance, but our bodies do not recognize it. The makers of sucralose claim that because it is indigestible it passes through your body without absorbing or doing any harm, meaning it is essentially calorie-free.

However, some animal studies done on the effects of sucralose in the body showed absorption rates as high as fifteen percent. Animal studies also showed a decrease in sperm count in male animals, decreased red blood cells, and increases in kidney issues, miscarriages, and deaths when sucralose was ingested daily. There have been very few studies done on humans about the effects of sucralose, with the longest study only lasting four days. So, we do not know what the long-term effects of daily consumption of sucralose could be.

Aspartame

Aspartame has a long, controversial history that is far too long to discuss in this article. It can be found in Equal and other brand-name artificial sweeteners. It is also in a wide variety of sugar-free food items like diet sodas and gum. Aspartame is a synthetic substance made up of two amino acids and something called a methyl ester bond. The two amino acids are phenylalanine and aspartic acid. While these amino acids are found in natural foods like meat, eggs, and fish, they are in much higher quantities in aspartame and are in unnatural proportions.

When aspartame is ingested, the body metabolizes it into the two amino acids. It breaks down into phenylalanine and aspartic acid, and is also broken down into methanol. Methanol is considered extremely toxic to humans because it breaks down into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, and it can have negative affects on the nervous system, vision, and gastrointestinal system.

Aspartame is also classified as an excitotoxin. Excitotoxins are compounds that essentially “excite” cells to death. They can stimulate nerve cells and brain cells until they become damaged or die. MSG (monosodium glutamate) is another example of an excitotoxin. Excitotoxins may contribute to the development of neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s

What Should I Eat Instead of Artificial Sweeteners?

We recommend eating a balanced diet containing plenty of organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meat, and good fats like organic coconut oil and olive oil. If you decide to eat something sweet, make sure that it is free of artificial sweeteners. Be especially wary of food and drink items labeled sugar-free as they usually contain some type of artificial sweetener. Reading ingredient labels on packaged foods and drinks is a great habit to get into. A few natural alternative sweeteners are stevia, monkfruit extract, erythritol, and xylitol. Erythritol and xylitol are sugar alcohols and can cause digestive upset in some people. So, limit consumption of these, and avoid them if you notice any diarrhea or other gastrointestinal issues after consuming them.

The Takeaway

If you had been choosing artificial sweeteners in an effort to control your blood sugar, remember that the consumption of artificial sweeteners has been linked to the development of diabetes, and may not be a good alternative. Eliminating sugar and artificial sweeteners from your diet is even more important if you are diabetic or have prediabetes. Certain supplements like CM Core and Diaxinol may also help you maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

If you are going to drink a soda, it is far safer to drink a soda made with sugar than a diet soda that contains artificial sweeteners. However, you should still limit your sugar consumption as much as you can. Some of the research is lacking on the potential harmful effects of different artificial sweeteners. So, it may be good to play it safe and consume only natural foods and sweeteners. We encourage you to read ingredient labels and research ingredients you don’t recognize, the answers may surprise you!

You can listen to our Bad Magic – Artificial Sweeteners podcast here. You can also listen to this podcast on our YouTube channel here.

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Bad Magic – Artificial Sweeteners

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Artificial sweeteners are worse for you than any form of sugar. They can be found in many different foods, drinks, candies, and even some medications. Artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame have been linked to the development of birth defects, neurological diseases, obesity, diabetes, and some cancers. This is why we like to call artificial sweeteners bad magic. In this episode, we’ll discuss the potential dangers of artificial sweeteners, and some good alternatives.

Aspartame is one of the most infamous artificial sweeteners, and accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported by the FDA. A few of the 90 documented symptoms listed in the report as part of aspartame dangers are:

  • Headaches/Migraines
  • Dizziness
  • Seizures
  • Muscle Spasms
  • Nausea
  • Numbness
  • Fatigue
  • Depression
  • Vision Problems
  • Insomnia
  • Anxiety Attacks
  • Tachycardia
  • Irritability
  • Vertigo
  • Memory Loss
  • Joint Pain

When aspartame is ingested, the body metabolizes it into two amino acids. It breaks down into phenylalanine and aspartic acid, and is also broken down into methanol. Methanol is considered extremely toxic to humans because it breaks down into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, and it can have negative affects on the nervous system, vision, and gastrointestinal system. Aspartame is also classified as an excitotoxin. Excitotoxins are compounds that essentially “excite” cells to death. They can stimulate nerve cells and brain cells until they become damaged or die. MSG (monosodium glutamate) is another example of an excitotoxin. Excitotoxins may contribute to the development of neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Product 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.†

You can listen to it on our YouTube channel here.

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Are You a Pre-Diabetic?

Microphone and computer; exercising consistent health habits.

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The Standard American Diet (SAD) typically consists of foods high in sugar, calories, carbohydrates, and bad fats, and low in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein. This diet has been linked to the development of many different health issues like diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and certain cancers. A diet high in sugar is especially harmful to someone with a family history of diabetes as they are usually at a higher risk of developing diabetes. With how common blood sugar issues are, you may be wondering if you are a pre-diabetic. In this episode we’ll discuss some common symptoms of blood sugar issues, and what you may be able to do help balance them.

Symptoms of Hypoglycemia:

  • Intense Hunger
  • Anxiety
  • Sweating, Including Night Sweats
  • Feeling Dizzy or Lightheaded
  • Becoming Fatigued
  • Trouble Sleeping
  • Feeling Irritable
  • Paleness in the Face
  • Headaches
  • Muscle Weakness
  • Brain Fog

One of the best things you can do to decrease your risk of developing diabetes (and for increased health overall) is to cut out processed and sugary foods, and replace them with whole foods like nuts and seeds, grass-fed meats, fruits and vegetables, and good fats like coconut and olive oil. You should also be as active as you can which can mean going to the gym, doing a workout or yoga routine at home, or going for a walk a few times a week. Eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly may also help you maintain a healthy weight which may further decrease your risk of developing diabetes and other health conditions.

Product Mentioned on 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.†

Lab Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Comprehensive Panel – Comprehensive Panel w Consult panel contains 13 tests with 102 biomarkers.

You can also listen to our Are You A Pre-Diabetic? episode on our YouTube channel here.

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Is it SIBO or IBS?

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Symptoms of SIBO and IBS include:

  • Nausea
  • Bloating
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Malnutrition
  • Weight Loss
  • Joint Pain
  • Fatigue
  • Rashes
  • Acne
  • Eczema
  • Asthma
  • Depression
  • Rosacea

Lab Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Comprehensive Panel – The GWH – 3. Comprehensive Panel w Consult panel contains 13 tests with 102 biomarkers.

Product Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Lauricidin – Monolaurin is a natural, plant-based medium chain saturated fatty acid extracted from coconut oil that offers unique health-promoting properties.* When taken on an ongoing basis, Lauricidin® may help support a strong immune defense*, support a natural balance of healthy bacteria*, and promote a healthy balance of yeast*.

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Effects of Stress

Stress is something most people face on a daily basis, but it may have more of an impact than you think. Chronic stress can contribute to the development of adrenal fatigue, migraines, increased risk for heart attack and stroke, high blood pressure, and even diabetes. Managing stress, particularly every day stress, is vitally important for good health.

Causes of Stress

There are many possible causes for stress, and the causes often vary from person to person. It may have been a stressful traumatic event like the death of a loved one, an injury, or a financial crisis that caused acute stress. Acute stress (short-term stress usually due to a particular event) is less harmful than chronic stress. The effects of acute stress usually go away once the stressful event is over, but chronic stress doesn’t. If you get angry and/or stressed-out every day, or several times a day, then you will likely experience many more negative affects which we’ll discuss further in the next paragraph. This chronic stress tends to cause the most problems because your body and mind never get a break from it. Getting mad and stressed out about traffic, your job, or anything else you deal with daily can have a major impact on your health, so work on letting the little things go.

Effects of Stress

Stress has negative effects on nearly every part and function of the body. Chronic stress can lead to elevated cortisol levels (cortisol is also known as the stress hormone, responsible for the “fight-or-flight” response) which can cause hormonal imbalances, food cravings, low libido, depression and anxiety, and may lead to insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease, weight gain, digestive issues, adrenal fatigue, and decreased immune system function. Stress may also exacerbate pre-existing high blood pressure, heart issues, diabetes, depresion, and anxiety. Chronic stress should not be taken lightly, and working on reducing stress in your daily life is very important.

The Link to Diabetes

So, how is stress linked to diabetes? Our latest podcast talked about the relationship between the two, and you can listen to that podcast here. As mentioned above, stress can lead to elevated cortisol levels, which often leads to food cravings and weight gain. Some studies have shown that stress may directly raise blood glucose levels, causing your body to release more insulin to deal with the elevated glucose. If your body is consistently releasing more insulin to deal with high blood sugar from stress or a poor diet, you may start to develop insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a condition in which your body essentially stops responding to insulin, leading to an inability to control blood sugar levels. Unchecked insulin resistance can contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, so eating a balanced diet and keeping stress under control should be a priority.

Supplements

There are some supplements we recommend for helping you deal with stress, and maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. These include:

Cerenity – Contains vitamin B12, 5-HTP, L-Theanine, magnesium, and several other ingredients that may help promote mood stability and relaxation.

CereVive – Contains vitamin C, vitamin B12, zinc, l-theanine, 5-htp, and several other ingredients that may help you deal with the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

GlycemaCORE – Powder that contains amino acids, protein and fiber to help keep you feeling full. Also contains chromium which may help keep blood sugar levels balanced.

Reacted Chromium – Contains chromium which may help keep blood sugar levels balanced.

Stress is something we should always work on reducing, especially in our daily lives. So, practice some stress-reducing techniques like yoga, meditation or exercise, try out some supplements, eat a healthy, balanced diet, and learn to not sweat the small stuff.

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Fish Oil Fat or Fiction

Janet Lewis:                        Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Green Wisdom Health Show. I’m Janet Lewis.

Dr. Lewis:                            And I’m Dr. Lewis.

Janet Lewis:                        And we are bringing you an exciting show about fish oil, which I’m sure all of you know something about or at least have heard of so this is not a random vitamin that you’ve never heard of. This is actually something that’s very commonplace; however, the differences in them are vast. So, this show is titled, “Fish Oil – Fat or Fiction,” and that’s not misenunciated, that is Dr. Lewis’ title. So, with that, Dr. Lewis can you tell us what we’re talking about? What has fat got to do with fish oil?

Dr. Lewis:                            God, I don’t even want to go there yet. It’s kine of like fast food. It’s funny how they slipped the “s” in there instead of calling it what it is, fat food, but we’ll get to that and how that’s related to fish oil in a minute. Where do you want me to start, Janet?

Janet Lewis:                        I want you to educate people about what they’re buying over-the-counter and what fish oil does and is it all the same?

Dr. Lewis:                            Yeah, I’m going to talk about what fish oil does. Some people don’t believe me and they’ll go get the cheap stuff and we’ve literally seen labs go to heck in a bucket because a person would change and go to a different cheap fish oil that may be contaminated. It’s like I go back to the thing you’ve heard so many times. You know, all women are not the same, I guarantee you. I’ve had the best in the world in Janet and I’ve had … okay, let’s go to fish oil. There’s a lot of things that you need to know and it’s very, very, very important. Sometimes on the internet, you can read anything on the internet. Now they’re saying all fish oil is not helpful, it’s this, it’s that, it’s that they always come back and poo-poo something that’s good. I wouldn’t say be careful what you read, but I’d definitely say be really, really careful what you believe because there’s a lot of people that say things that aren’t true.

Dr. Lewis:                            They used to say smoking actually helped your digestion. They used to have cocaine in Coca-Cola and I’m not sure they shouldn’t bring that back, but you know, that’s another topic. They used to say sugar is good for you. They used to say butter is bad and now they’re saying, no, margarine is bad. They used to say eggs are bad and I don’t know how anybody could believe that, but okay.

Janet Lewis:                        Well, that’s the problem. You hear such positive and negative things from everything now. How do you know what to believe?

Dr. Lewis:                            Believe me.

Janet Lewis:                        I guess research.

Dr. Lewis:                            I do a lot of research and then on that subject, you can get on the internet and read anything you want, good, bad, ugly and in-between. You know, God gave us discerning spirit and I think … I may be wrong, but I think some people have forgotten they have a discerning spirit and they’ve gotten to where they don’t trust their intuition. Intuition, to a big degree comes out of the GI tract, your gut feeling and our guts are so messed up, which we’re going to get into because Eddie, from up there close to Chicago asked a question and we’ll get into that in a minute. But just a few facts on fish oil. You know me. I’m going to go down rabbit trails and I hope you can make sense because I write about two or three hours worth of stuff that we try to cram into a 30-minute show and that’s why I talk fast and that’s the only time I talk fast.

Dr. Lewis:                            This has nothing to do with fish oil, but I’ll lead up to it and this is from some really good sources that says Ritalin is essentially the same as cocaine. Then I’m going to go into why should you take fish oil. The anti-inflammatory properties of fish oil with antioxidants, that’s important. I take the big dog vitamin E, but the antioxidant vitamin E added to it, prevents or helps to prevent immune and autoimmune diseases. There is research out of Harvard that says omega-three fatty acids are vital for the treatment of depression and we’ll get into a lot of different disease processes or symptoms that fish oil could potentially help your body help itself. Of course, the FDA disclaimer, none of this affects your symptoms or disease. Not intended to cure diseases and all that kind of stuff. It’s like, well, of course not, but we have forgotten that our body can.

Dr. Lewis:                            Omega-three fatty acids, and they need to be a good one. The one we use is 393% more absorption than the regular fish oil because of the form and the purity. One thing, it does have antioxidants in it. One thing people don’t really know is some of these places say well it comes from Sweden and Norway and a lot of the good fish oil does, but they catch them little rascals down around, some of them, Central America and South America and by the time they ship it up to Sweden and Norway, all that’s rancid and then they have to use all kinds … you want to say a plethora, that’s a word … I don’t know if that’s correct, of chemicals to decrease the rancid part and then what are you really, really getting?

Dr. Lewis:                            So, there’s also a study that said omega-three fatty acids are a better option than the NSAIDS, that’s non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs which is aspirin, Advil, Tylenol, Naproxen Sodium. It’s a better option than NSAIDS because they have no side effects and they help prevent autoimmune diseases and they also have curative effects. This is also out of Harvard and I keep mentioning autoimmune because that’s going to go back to Eddie’s question on leaky gut.

Janet Lewis:                        Can I talk a little bit about what they’re looking for in a fish oil because I think people would be completely flabbergasted at what the ingredients are in the fish oil and then the next question is well, yours is expensive, but it’s not.

Dr. Lewis:                            No, it’s really not.

Janet Lewis:                        Not when you compare what you’re getting. One of our soft gels, what you want to look for is the ratio of the EPA and DHA ratio on fish oil and if it don’t break it down and it just says it’s combined and makes this amount, you don’t want that. You want it broke down. On our bottle it actually says, which I’m talking about the Orthomega, one soft gel is 950 milligrams. It is broke down by EPA of being 430 milligrams and DHA 390 milligrams and then the additional omega is 130 milligrams so it makes 950.

Dr. Lewis:                            But, keep in mind, that it’s also the ones that through research are 393% more absorbable. And we can get them stronger than that, but we always have a good blend of what you spend versus what you get. If you want it more powerful, we can get it, but this for the price is the best bet by far and that’s what Janet and I take, except I take the liquid.

Janet Lewis:                        The reason we recommend this is because you can see the breakdown on it. You can see that it’s extremely strong. I would ask that you go to your health food store and look and find one that’s equally as strong and I could almost bet you a $100 bill you will not.

Dr. Lewis:                            And then, is it the fake stuff coming from South and Central America.

Janet Lewis:                        And then what we’re wanting to use this for is actually to help move lab values because believe it or not when you’re running your cholesterol panel, which we run on our lab panel, if you’re HDLs on the cholesterol are lower, you’re lacking a good fish oil. A good fish oil will actually help bring that up higher and it’ll actually help put your triglycerides lower. So, you need diet changes as well, but a good fish oil on its own will help bring that down into a normal range, so it’s not about masking it with cholesterol medication. It’s actually about getting the different levels of the cholesterol correct and LDLs on there are more about hormonal imbalances and we’re educating them now a little bit about labs, so when somebody’s running cholesterol, you know, their whole deal is let’s just give you a pill and let’s just make it all right.

Dr. Lewis:                            We use lab because how do you know where you’re going if you don’t have a map or if you don’t have a destination and this will tell you where you are so you know where you want to go and where you need to go. And people say, “But I feel good.” I don’t care how you feel. You can drop dead tomorrow and not ever feel it.

Janet Lewis:                        But I can tell you on our lab and we give them this fish oil, the numbers start getting back right like they’re supposed to be, so that’s what you’re looking for when he’s talking to you about that.

Dr. Lewis:                            And we’ll talk about all kinds of different things, but there’s the differences in DHA. DHA is like, I think it’s a 22 carbon long essential fatty acid and it says essential because your body cannot produce it. And then I treat a lot of vegans and you know, if you want to eat that way that’s fine, but you can’t get this from flaxseed and flaxseed is probably your best plant source of omega threes.

Janet Lewis:                        And explain that a little bit, too, because people do come in here and say, “Well, how about I just take flaxseed?”

Dr. Lewis:                            Well, you better eat a bale of it every day and then you couldn’t digest it and assimilate it and flaxseed is not a bad thing. Well, it’s better if you get it organic and better if you grind it right before you consume it because it can go rancid and I don’t think taking flaxseed’s a bad thing, I take it, but it’s just not complete.

Janet Lewis:                        Well, we just use fish oil because the fish has already broken it down.

Dr. Lewis:                            Oh, good point and I was going to talk about that sometime, about cows. Why not let them use the energy to make the omega threes and that’s the difference between and I might get into it more later, but that’s the difference between grass fed versus grass finished or grain fed. The grass fed beef has extremely higher percentages of the omega threes and the problem in today’s society is we have about a 1:20 ratio of omega threes to the inflammatory omega sixes and nines. It needs to be about a 1:2 ratio to 2:1. We need more omega threes by a long-shot to offset the inflammatory oils and they come hidden in all kinds of things. So, DHA is the one that helps build the brain. If you want a healthier baby, you need to eat the holy heck out of it. Take digestive enzymes. Use probiotics, because you will develop a healthier baby that has a healthier, more well-developed brain and central nervous system, plus higher immune system.

Dr. Lewis:                            There’s a really good book called, “Smart Fats.” There’s another book called, “The Miracle Brain.” And then there’s one, “Eating Well For Optimal Health.” They’re all really, really good books and there’s just tons and tons of studies. I won’t take too much time. I won’t say too much about that, just because I have two or three hours of stuff to talk about and I’ll never get around to it. The linoleic acid which is something that most people say, “Oh, well that’ll turn into-” and the answer is, “No, it doesn’t.” That’s the stuff you get from corn oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower, safflower, peanut, soy and canola. I think you should avoid the holy heck out of all of them except, I’m not so sure about sunflower oil. I kind of like it, when you can get organic sources of it and since socialism works so well, that’s why we can’t get organic sunflower oil much because Venezuela and socialism’s working so good, so beware of what you ask for. You might become Venezuela. But, there’s a lot of chemical processes as it goes through this … some of it’s beyond me.

Dr. Lewis:                            Some of these inflammatory acids, arachidonic acid, is actually inhibited by the EPA in the fish oil, so it stops a lot of the inflammation. Then, if it goes into too much arachidonic acid, then you get into the COX-1, COX-2, COX-3, which causes pain that’s activated by insulin. It just goes on and on and on and the end result is inflammation, immune system dysfunction, vascular disease, pain, degenerative joint disease, fibrosis, fibromyalgia and an increase in free radicals. Okay, enough chemistry, because frankly that’s all I know. You can go to alpha linoleic acid and that’s back into chemistry … that’s the one you get from flaxseed oil and it is converted to EPAs slightly, but it’s better if you get it from the cold water fatty fish because they’ve already used energy to create it through their livers, but it’s incredibly anti-inflammatory and then it’s converted into DHA which is incredible to build the brain, the synapsis, increases the production of serotonin and dopamine. If you’ve got enough serotonin and dopamine, hey you’re a happy camper. Give it to your spouse if they’re grumpy as heck.

Dr. Lewis:                            Okay, this is a Stevenism, so pay attention. Classic inflammation hurts. Silent inflammation kills slowly. Stevenism 101. And that’s the toxic fat. Waiting for Janet to jump in here. I think once she sees me on my soapbox, she doesn’t want me to step down from the pulpit.

Janet Lewis:                        I’m just looking for my opportunity.

Dr. Lewis:                            Go ahead.

Janet Lewis:                        I just wondered if you guys know about all the different things that fish oil does, actually, that’s very good. In fact, actually there’s 13 different things that we have listed here that it helps with and a couple of them I really didn’t know so it was kind of intriguing.

Dr. Lewis:                            It may be a little bit beyond what I just said. I think Janet has a very, very good list.

Janet Lewis:                        Yeah, there’s ADHD which I think you mentioned.

Dr. Lewis:                            And sometimes I have it.

Janet Lewis:                        Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Lewis:                            And Alzheimer’s, not just Alzheimer’s, but any neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson’s, dementia, brain fog, brain fart … oh, I didn’t say it … chronic headaches.

Janet Lewis:                        Anxiety.

Dr. Lewis:                            I’m anxious about it, baby.

Janet Lewis:                        Arthritis. I know it helps joints a lot.

Dr. Lewis:                            Big time.

Janet Lewis:                        Cancer, actually.

Dr. Lewis:                            And since it helps joints, it also helps rheumatoid arthritis because of the autoimmune connection.

Janet Lewis:                        The cancer, it’s been proven that it makes conventional cancer drugs more effective.

Dr. Lewis:                            Yeah, absolutely.

Janet Lewis:                        But it’s also an effective standalone therapy and natural cancer treatment, believe it or not.

Dr. Lewis:                            And there’s more and more doctors that are being very cooperative with me. I just got a referral from Shreveport from a gastroenterologist and it’s getting better. The MDs and DOs are good people. They do a lot of good things and they’re getting better and better about sending their patients to people like me, not as an alternative to medicine, but as an adjunct and complementary. I’m impressed with the medical profession for doing that.

Janet Lewis:                        It helps with cardiovascular disease which we kind of already knew that a little bit.

Dr. Lewis:                            Janet does like to keep my blood pressure down.

Janet Lewis:                        Diabetes.

Dr. Lewis:                            Say it like Wilfred Brimley. Diabetes.

Janet Lewis:                        Diabetes, or diabet-ees, that’s what they usually say. Eye disorders and I can tell you for a fact when I miss my Orthomega, I know my eyes are more dry. It really does help dry eyes.

Dr. Lewis:                            And after her LASIK surgery, which nobody knows she got, I started looking prettier, but she had dry eyes, so I told her to add borage oil with it and that did a really good job to enhance the EPAs and the DHAs from the fish oil.

Janet Lewis:                        It helps with immune system function because when the antioxidant astaxanthin is combined with fish oil, the immune boosting power is multiplied.

Dr. Lewis:                            Yeah, and we don’t sell a lot of it because some people they get to their limit before that, but Janet and I take it and she’s way prettier than me, so I think she takes more of it, but astaxanthin’s probably one of the best antioxidants you can take.

Janet Lewis:                        In women, fish oil helps skin and hair, which is the only thing we really care about.

Dr. Lewis:                            I don’t know about testosterone, that’s all men care about.

Janet Lewis:                        All they care about. Women don’t want to lose their hair and they want their skin to look good.

Dr. Lewis:                            But they don’t care if their man has testosterone. Go figure. They just want to look pretty and … never mind.

Janet Lewis:                        It helps with fertility and pregnancy, actually. DHA and EPA play key roles in sperm health and mobility, so somehow it makes them move faster.

Dr. Lewis:                            You make stronger swimmers.

Janet Lewis:                        I guess, along with increasing female fertility and also you need it when you’re pregnant because your baby is taking all of yours and that’s a lot of times what makes women go kind of nutty in the head afterwards.

Dr. Lewis:                            Yeah, but men, you’ll live longer if you don’t say anything about it.

Janet Lewis:                        Yeah, but give them fish oil because that’s what the baby just took from you and plus you need it when you feed the baby, when you’re breastfeeding because it’ll actually be smarter if it takes it. And the big one, which I think is pretty darned exciting, number 13, is weight loss which Dr. Lewis keeps alluding to in his-

Dr. Lewis:                            You ever seen a fat fish?

Janet Lewis:                        Well, that’s because they’re swimming. Is it not?

Dr. Lewis:                            I don’t know. Next time I catch a catfish I’ll ask him.

Janet Lewis:                        Well, I figured a fish was thin because it’s swimming all the time.

Dr. Lewis:                            Sorry, people. You know, this is the South and we have people that listen from all different kind of countries, so in the south, my friend from Michigan said, “I don’t understand how you catch and eat a catfish.” I said, “Well, you go bow hunting for carp and you eat that nasty thing,” so there are a lot of regional differences, so pardon me if I don’t eat a carp, but I will eat a catfish, the bottom feeder.

Janet Lewis:                        Well, it actually showed the effects of weight loss in fish oil and the combination with diet and exercise in the May 2000 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the results showed that a combination of fish oil supplements and a regular exercise program can reduce body fat while also improving heart and metabolic health.

Dr. Lewis:                            Well, also, it’s because the higher fat content, the more your body feels full and happy and that’s why I’m a big fan of keto. Paleo is okay, but I like keto, because it’s higher fat. It has to be the good fats, though, and it keeps your brain happier and is very anti-inflammatory.

Janet Lewis:                        Yup, it actually helps stimulate the use of fatty acids for the production of energy in healthy adults.

Dr. Lewis:                            And I’ve heard this a couple of times once today and once I think yesterday. Well, I’m on keto and I’m tired. Listen, that’s normal. Your body has to do a lot of conversion to go from burning glucose to burning fat, so just hang with the lack of energy and that’s why we have sold out of Mitocore, which is energy producer, but we’ll get some more and if we don’t get to the questions, we won’t get to the questions, but-

Janet Lewis:                        Oh, no, we’re getting to questions.

Dr. Lewis:                            Oh, okay.

Janet Lewis:                        Because we had several of them and we always asked you guys which, if you’re not a fan on our Shoot’n Straight with Dr. Lewis on Facebook, just either send me an email to janet@greenwisdomhealth.com and we can include you that way or just go on Facebook and ask to be a friend of Shoot’n Straight and that has no “i” in it and no “g.” It’s S-H-O-O-T apostrophe “n.”

Dr. Lewis:                            There we go talking southern for you people that aren’t southerners.

Janet Lewis:                        Right, but we always ask the people in that group give us questions for the show so we can educate you on the things that you’re most interested in. And we have one from Carl, who happens to be a local client of ours and he wants to know how toxins affect vision?

Dr. Lewis:                            You know, there are a lot of toxins that affect vision and I still tell people go to a good optometrist or if that’s not appropriate, go to an ophthalmologist, but I’ve seen people that seem to have a lot of mold intoxication, you know, a dirty building or dirty house, something like that, that can work. Then I had a 94-year-old missionary in here this week. He got toxins from his drugs and woke up blind. Of course, that was just temporary, so worry about drug reactions. But I think seeing an eye specialist and my suggestion is take a lot of vitamin C. We like the liposomal kind because it’s greatly enhanced absorption and take NAC, acetylcysteine, because that helps the liver detoxify, helps create glutathione, helps create energy and with the glutathione it begins to take a lot of the toxins out. I’ve had several people say well, since you put me on this NAC, I see better. It’s like, “Go to your optometrist and measure it, but that’s very possible.”

Janet Lewis:                        And one way you can tell if you’re full of toxins which we always suggest people do lab work, when your liver enzymes are high, your eyes obviously won’t work as well because you’re toxic, but there’s no way for you to know that without seeing it on lab. That’s why we were talking about the cholesterol panel and liver enzymes now. One of the most easy ways is to do the low cost lab panel that we have. It’s 12 different panels, which you don’t ever see that happening at your doctor’s office because they are, by law, not allowed to do that because of insurance. We don’t do insurance and that’s why we run what we want to run because we want to see the body as a whole and not just one to three panels. So we run 12 and one of those 12 panels is a CMP which is a complete metabolic panel and it does have liver enzymes in it, so we’re able to tell if you’re toxic or not. And if the liver enzymes get right, then your eyes will feel much better as well.

Janet Lewis:                        If you’re thinking, hey y’all are in Texas and that’s a heck of a deal, we’re actually able to do that across the United States, so go to our website, greenwisdomhealth.com. You’ll see it on there. It says GWH3 because that includes Dr. Lewis’ consultation to go over the results so he can tell you if you’re toxic.

Dr. Lewis:                            Thirty minutes of lab explanations and Stevenisms.

Janet Lewis:                        That’s right. Also comes with a functional medicine report. It comes with a supplement recommendation sheet so we don’t just leave you in the closet and say, “Hey, good luck to you.” We actually tell you what to take and how to take it and for how long and actually show you on followup lab that it’s better. So, you can’t beat it. There’s usually a lab local to you because like I said, we can run it anywhere. You just have it drawn somewhere close to you and the results come back to us and Dr. Lewis takes it from there.

Dr. Lewis:                            Yeah, unless you live in someplace like Wyoming. I talked to a lady in Iowa. Sometimes the labs are little bit further, but they’re used to driving a hundred miles. She’s about to ask another question, but I’m going to throw this in. It’s off the subject. It’s the flu season. Everybody wants you to get a flu shot and you can or not, that’s up to you, but there are major studies that said over a 3 year period, so that’s a good study, three years, taking 800 IUs of vitamin D and that’s not much vitamin D, not enough, but 800 IUs of vitamin D reduce colds and flu by 70%, so why are they not screaming to high heaven about take vitamin D? And then people went from 800 to 2,000 IUs and that’s still not enough for 99% of the people, 2,000 IUs reduced the instance of colds and flu to nearly zero. There was only one case in 104 users. Vitamin D, folks. And that’s from Epidemiology and Infection. That’s not my opinion. This is from high class medical research.

Janet Lewis:                        Oh, not just the thing you find randomly on the internet?

Dr. Lewis:                            Nope.

Janet Lewis:                        Okay.

Dr. Lewis:                            I don’t listen to that.

Janet Lewis:                        We have just a few minutes left and this next question is from Eddie and he would like to know how to heal leaky gut and how long does it take to heal and how do you know you’re healed?

Dr. Lewis:                            Do you want to answer that?

Janet Lewis:                        Actually, leaky gut is a big problem for a lot of people.

Dr. Lewis:                            A lot of people. Anybody eating genetically-modified grains.

Janet Lewis:                        Yeah, it’s a modern day plague that’s killing us from the inside out. It’s actually caused by food, stress, environmental exposures and a combination of other factors. Basically the large molecules pass through the small intestine into the bloodstream and then the large molecules aren’t sufficiently broken down and are not meant to enter the bloodstream quite yet. They’re supposed to be broken down by the celia in the small intestine, so in essence, the large molecules have escaped the small intestine through leaks between the cells. That causes things like autoimmune problems, debilitating autoimmune problems which, over the last 30 years, have become increased exponentially.

Dr. Lewis:                            Obvious to us. We see more people have it. And Floyd kind of answered this. I answered Eddie with an article from his herbal studies and this is actually from a different study, but you know, Floyd gave a really, really good answer, so thank you for that.

Janet Lewis:                        But we actually have a product now that we are really excited about that goes in and helps to repair leaky gut. I know that it works because I take it myself. The problem is, it’s relatively new. I think we’ve only had it about six or eight months now, so to answer Eddie’s question, I don’t know how long you have to take it before you’re well. I just know when I don’t take it, I feel horrible, so.

Dr. Lewis:                            I’m not sure you’re ever really healed, but you can certainly be greatly, greatly … most of it can be healed and then you can maintain because we get people that have celiac and Crohn’s and they say, “Oh, my God, this better. Oh, my God, they noticed at Thanksgiving how much better I was.”

Janet Lewis:                        Well, it used to be that we only had colostrum, which is an IgG. It protects the intestines by blocking and binding toxins in the gut. The problem with colostrum is that it’s from cows and some people are sensitive and they can’t tolerate even trace amounts of dairy, so we have the new product called SBI. It’s from bovine.

Dr. Lewis:                            Well, even though that is a cow, it seems to be a cleaner source. It seems to be better tolerated and we do have another one if you need to, that comes from eggs. So we use the cow first.

Janet Lewis:                        Yes, but basically it helps things like the leaky gut, colitis, ulcerative colitis, IBS, Crohn’s disease and diarrhea associated with celiac disease, so you have people that tell you they have irritable bowel, the SBI Protect really helps control that.

Dr. Lewis:                            With massive amounts of good probiotics and we have some pretty major probiotics. It works faster.

Janet Lewis:                        And it’s even being used with C-diff and HIV enteropathy infections.

Dr. Lewis:                            And you know one of the other things? We use a lot of Glutashield with great success. There’s another product called Inflammacore for those that want to make a drink in the morning. It’s one of the things I have and I don’t have enough time to read all of the ingredients here, but it has some great immune-boosting products here and we get super, super results. We kind of sell out from time to time. I guess we’re going to have to up the stock we keep.

Janet Lewis:                        The SBI Protect, though, is from a completely non-dairy source of immunoglobulin-G.

Dr. Lewis:                            So, I don’t really know, Eddie, when you know you’re healed, but Eddie also told me his mother-in-law is a whole new person. Because I was talking to Eddie as Janet and I were driving the new RV back from Colorado. This was what? Two or three months ago and I said, put your mother-in-law on this, this and this and he says she’s a whole different person. She can eat. She’s smiling and happy, where she wasn’t before and her personality shines for the better and it’s like, “Well, she’s your mother-in-law, she’s supposed to be lovely,” and he says, “Yes, and now she is.”

Janet Lewis:                        Well, one rule of thumb with healing? It takes a minimum of three months before you begin to heal and then it’s a month for every year you’ve had the problem, so that’s why I tell you, I don’t know how long because I’ve had this all my life and I’m only 29 now, I know, but for the last 20 years of it, I’ve had-

Dr. Lewis:                            There’s a time when I should always keep my mouth shut and I usually don’t.

Janet Lewis:                        So, I haven’t been on it long enough yet to get to that complete healing stage, so we’ll keep you posted on it. And with that being said, we have come to the conclusion of our show again. This goes by so fast. We really appreciate that you’re listening to us and we really appreciate you guys’ questions. Maggie, I know you had a question. I promise we’ll get to it next week. I’ll have Dr. Lewis all sharpened up and honed in.

Dr. Lewis:                            And Brian sent in a good question and that’s a good reason you need to join Shoot’n Straight with Dr. Lewis because you get a lot of information, a lot of experience for other people, so just sign up for Shoot’n Straight and you’ll learn a lot. It’ll be worth it.

Janet Lewis:                        You guys have a blessed week.

 

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Sweet Death and Nutritional Deficiencies

 

Janet Lewis: Hello and welcome to this weeks show. I am Janet Lewis.

 
Dr. Lewis: And I’m Dr. Lewis.

 
Janet Lewis: We are here to bring you a very exciting show about sugar. Well sugary things called The Sweet Death and Nutritional Deficiencies. I think we’ve gathered this show based on some things we’ve been hearing and seeing lately on TV. We are Green Wisdom Health, home of the Low Cost Lab Work here to educate you about things you may not know or things you want to know more of. I’m not sure which one. This all started because of an ad or something that we saw about Coca-Cola or Diet Coca-Cola, and people thinking that they were losing weight because they were drinking a Diet Coke. Oh I remember it was a Facebook deal where someone was eating all this bad food but they had a-

 
Dr. Lewis: Aspartame messes with your memory too Janet.

 
Janet Lewis: Yes and they had a Diet Coke so that everything was going to be great. Dr. Lewis if you could kind of just tell us what we’re here to learn today would be great.

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes you ever notice I always have somebody that’s young, rich, and good looking and all that, and I’ve said that about beer commercials too. If they showed you on the ditch, down in the gutter throwing up beer might not be as attractive. I even taught my kids when they were tiny, tiny don’t succumb to advertisement because they’re not necessarily telling the truth, they’re just projecting it in a light that’s more positive than what it really is.

 
  When I talk bad about aspartame, same goes with sucralose. Have you ever noticed that people say, “Well I want a double bacon cheeseburger, super-size the fries, and give me a Diet Coke please.” Actually there’s plenty of research and it goes on and on and on about how this stuff actually tricks your brain into putting down more fat than if you ate the real thing. One of the things it does is it is sweet, then what happens is it doesn’t deliver the calorie load so your body gets confused, and that is one of the cascade of things that makes you start to gain weight.

 
  There’s a lot of studies, one of them they followed I think it’s close to 500 diet soda drinkers for about 10 years and found that the diet soda drinkers-

 
Janet Lewis: Yes, their waist grew by 70%.

 
Dr. Lewis: More than the ones that drank regular sodas, 70% more. Two drinks or more per day had like a 500% greater increase in waist size. When I read that article it’s like well you’re putting it very nicely, I’m not always this nice and I’ve been told that a lot lately so I’ll try to be very polite today. I apologize to people that I’ve hurt their feelings, but at least it comes out of passion. There’s a big correlation between the consumption of sucralose and aspartame to waist circumference and how much you weight, it’s terrible. If it says low calorie, zero sugar, or diet I run like crazy. I would not consume it, and I’ve been in people houses and they’ll say, “Hey doc, got this sugar free thing here,” and it’s like oh God I don’t want to hurt this sweet lady’s feelings but I don’t want to eat this poison either. It kind of puts you in a bind there.

 
  The artificial sweeteners they kind of mess with your metabolism. Like I said it’s usually sweeter than sugar the way it hits your tongue, but it doesn’t deliver the calories that your food would provide. That helps increase your appetite is what it does, it tricks your brain. It increases your risk of diabetes and metabolic diseases, but when I say the word diabetes I always think of Wilford Brimley, “I got diabetes,” with that big old beautiful mustache of his. When you eat something sweet we usually eat because it releases one of the neurotransmitters or the happy hormones, which is dopamine and that kind of causes your brain to feel like it’s rewarded. I told people when I get stressed I’d rather have Blue Bell ice cream than Shiner Bock beer, Texas companies for those of you that are listening outside of Texas.

 
  Since it messes with your leptin, it doesn’t tell your brain that you’re full because you haven’t had enough of the calories ingested. I’d say stay away from it because it’s horrible to you. I don’t know, I just look at it like you’ve been eating that stuff and you just get bigger and bigger and bigger and you get more arthritic, you get more joint pain, you get more irritable. I’d say stop it.

 
Janet Lewis: Well I think it’s interesting that aspartame is actually a synthetic chemical composed of the amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid with a methyl ester.

 
Dr. Lewis: Say it three times fast, that’s sexy.

 
Janet Lewis: I got it out once. When that’s consumed methyl ester breaks down into methanol, which may be converted into formaldehyde.

 
Dr. Lewis: Well methanol’s not a good thing either.

 
Janet Lewis: Isn’t that what they embalm people with?

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes, well-

 
Janet Lewis: I don’t know, that’s just spooky.

 
Dr. Lewis: Okay, some will say something real gross, please forgive me. I was trying to be nice here but you know I’ve treated a lot of people that served in Vietnam, and as gross as this is, I’m sorry to say it, the people that came back and I’ve treated they said, “Well our soldiers didn’t decompose nearly as fast as the Vietnamese or Viet Cong soldiers because we were so full of some sort of toxins.” You wonder if that’s not part of it and I don’t know that that’s a fact and I’m sorry if that freaks you all out, but this is what many of the Vietnam veterans have told me. We need to detoxify our body, which we’re going to talk a little bit about that. You know I talk about that all the time too and the importance of taking the nutrients that will help do that and other ways to do it.

 
  There’s plenty of researchers that says that it increases your cancer risk. One of the articles said it had a high incidence of brain tumors that were identified in aspartame fed rats and it’s like, well the moral of the story is don’t be a rat, and it’s like no it’s not really true because there was somebody that testified in front of Congress, I think it was back in the late 90s that said that aspartame definitely contributed to brain tumors in humans. Well if they testified before Congress, why does Congress still let that stuff be put in our food? It’s in over 6,000 products. A lot of times it’s in stuff that you don’t know that you’re consuming. From Harvard they reported in 2012 that there was a positive association between aspartame intake and increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma in men and leukemia in men and women. Shouldn’t that scare you away? And heart disease, here’s a good one. This study checked about 60,000 post-menopausal women, they followed them for about 10 years and drinking just two diet drinks a day increased their risk of early death from heart disease.

 
  Next time you go somewhere, you’re probably eating in the wrong place if they serve diet drinks anyway and don’t supersize the french fries, fried in all kinds of nasty grease.

 
Janet Lewis: The new thing now because people are going to go, “Oh I don’t drink Diet Cokes anymore. I changed to Coke Zero.”

 
Dr. Lewis: You’ve just been fooled by the advertisements that my children, when they were three, four, five years old, were smart enough to know better.

 
Janet Lewis: Well can you tell us the difference between the zero calorie Coca-Cola plus or the Coca-Cola Zero? What makes it different?

 
Dr. Lewis: They’re just rebranding it so people won’t think about it. A Diet Coke got a bad name so now they’re naming it Coke Zero and hoping people don’t make that association. There’s also been other correlations made between dementia, other brain diseases, and aspartame. I’ve noticed that, that the people, not all of them but a higher incidence of people that have early onset dementia were the ones that consumed the most diet drinks, so dementia and stroke, brain diseases.

 
Janet Lewis: Well how about Splenda? Isn’t that a great choice? I just love setting him up over here for the answers. If you all could see his face it’s just priceless.

 
Dr. Lewis: If you could see what’s going through my head it’d be priceless but you’d have to beep me. I think of the term BS, and that stands for belief systems or bacon sandwich to one of my favorite preachers. He said, “I say bacon sandwich in the pulpit, they know what it means.” Which I admire him for being that way. No, don’t do it.

 
Janet Lewis: Because Splenda, if this is correct, has also been linked to health effects like increased calorie consumption also right? It makes you gain weight.

 
Dr. Lewis: It messes with your brain, it messes with your leptin, it messes with … We used to have this lady who worked for us named Jena Lee, it’s adiponectin, adiponectin. There’s a lot of chemical and hormonal reactions that just trust me, don’t do it.

 
Janet Lewis: Well it increases the risk of cancer in mice and it disrupted insulin response.

 
Dr. Lewis: Don’t be a mouse.

 
Janet Lewis: Then a ladder case when study participants drank that Splenda sweetened beverage, their insulin levels rose about 20% higher than when they consumed only water prior to taking a glucose challenge test.

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes their pancreas puts out insulin, says, “I’m all dressed up, with no where to go,” which means insulin has nothing to work on, which is a bad thing.

 
Janet Lewis: Then it also showed that a 12 weeks of consuming Splenda, these rats led to significant alterations in their gut micro flora, including reductions in beneficial micro flora.

 
Dr. Lewis: Okay, Janet got into something I’d forgotten about. Yes, you know that not having the right bacteria in your GI tract can alter genetic expression, so you want to do as much as you can to go with these non-Splenda, non-aspartame, non-sucralose things. Put in prebiotics, put in a massive amount of probiotics, it’s very, very important. I’m going to try to change the subject. I hear all the time, and people say it almost everyday, but my doctor or my aunt, or my cousin, or my momma, or my daddy says you can get everything you need out of the food. If they say that you need to run because they don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m going to present a case for why you cannot get it out of your food, so Janet I think is okay that I switch gears here.

 
  Why should you take vitamins, but they’ve got to be good vitamins because the vitamins they put in and fortify your food are not good vitamins, they’re synthetic. For example, there is a Senate document in 1936 and you can look it up, I forget the number on it, but they said back then, 1936 that’s way before me, that our soils were depleted of minerals. Think about it. American’s are, for the most part, the most well fed but undernourished people in the history of the world, and that’s because it’s depleted, our soils are depleted of the nutrients. Our soils are depleted of the micro organisms and is saturated with pesticides. The way we fertilize our plants are not good. For example, but vegetables in the 1990s had lower nutrient contents than those grown in the 1950s, which depending on what they were testing and where they were testing it, it had 6% less nutrients up to 76% less nutrients and folks that includes organic. Organic you’re not getting all the pesticides and that’s a good thing, but don’t think that you’re getting everything you need to do.

 
  Then think about this. You’re eating animals that are fed genetically modified plants, grains and it’s full of glyphosate, which does the same thing and then it stresses them out, then you’re getting your stress hormones are ramped up just from eating that pig or cow or chicken. They get fewer nutrients in their feed and then you think that it’s making you healthier. The mineral content is very, very important and that’s why you really, really need to supplement. It’s got to be good, and many people have heard me say this that you don’t know if it was one part per million of this or 16,000 parts per million. Sometimes one of the things it said, there’s one that says 68 parts per million, but the lowest had one part per million, but the 68 parts per million was very, very deficient in the first place and that was testing copper and manganese.

 
  The ammonium nitrate, for example, that’s what makes the leaves grow, replaces other nutrients like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and making plant tissue. How many times have you heard me say, “You might as well just take magnesium, there’s no way in the world you can get it out of your food.” Pretty much the same thing with potassium. Calcium a little bit, that’s a little bit true. We think about I’m gluten sensitive or I’m allergic to gluten, well because the way we feed our plants, the fast food that we feed them, it increases their protein content and this aberrant protein is caused by the synthetic fertilizers, but that protein is gluten. In our plants we have four to 40 times more gluten than we had even back in the 1970s and yes I was around for that. It’s getting to be a bad situation, so you just have to, have to, have to supplement.

 
  One of the biggest things that we’re toxic about, and we’re going to get into that, we have some questions there, there’s generally an average of around 200 different pesticide residues detected on all foods. That’s pretty good because that’s over 100,000 tests and they averaged it out. These pesticides have been linked to cancer, asthma, respiratory diseases, damage to nervous system including Parkinson’s, damage to the reproductive system, hormonal imbalances, how many people are getting bioidentical hormones because they have a hormone imbalance? Bunches, more and more, and it’s because we’re doing something wrong in our society the way we’re growing our food. You think about that for a little bit and I guarantee we’re not going to get around to everything I have written here.

 
Janet Lewis: We have lots of things.

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes, where do you want to go next Janet?

 
Janet Lewis: Oh, well basically I wanted to talk a little bit about the product that helps with this insulin resistance issue because … Well let me rephrase that. As you’re having all these sweeteners and things you’re creating insulin resistance, correct?

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes.

 
Janet Lewis: Okay, then aren’t you essentially depleting the calcium from your bones when the sugar gets high because-

 
Dr. Lewis: It buffers the acidity yes.

 
Janet Lewis: Okay, so we have a new product that we are so excited about called K-FORCE, and for you guys that are patients of ours you’re used to it being called something like K2-D3, 80K2. This K-FORCE-

 
Dr. Lewis: Which were good products but this is better.

 
Janet Lewis: They were great. This is like those on steroids, and the reason why that is is because I didn’t know much about vitamin K, but when we started learning about it, why is it important to go with vitamin D? A lot of people are just used to getting vitamin D. The vitamin K is actually, when calcium … Just say calcium is coming to a hotel and he needs a place to stay. He enters the door of the hotel, well there’s a doorman there that’s waiting for him, which is vitamin D, it’s waiting to help him out. Vitamin D says, “Hey calcium, just hang out here in the lobby and look around.” Well calcium goes on into the lobby and he doesn’t know which room is his so he just stays in the lobby. Along comes the bellhop who is vitamin K that comes to take calcium, the luggage, up to the room so that it goes into the correct room. I know that’s a very simple way of looking at it but for me I get that, and Dr. Lewis can explain why, with the science behind it, that it works so much better than just taking the straight vitamin D.

 
Dr. Lewis: Well I think what you said was really good. There’s a lot of research that says the higher concentrations at 100 micrograms per day of vitamin K, now it’s got to be the right kind, this is Menaquinone-7 or MK-7. It actually helps with optimal support for bone and for cardiovascular health, and there is a lot of vitamin K depletion because we don’t get it in our diet and about 70% of the Western population is deficient. That’s one of the reasons why we have clogged, i.e. calcium riddled arteries and osteoporosis has gone ballistic. We’re getting very, very good results. The MK-7 is much more active, has a longer half-life, and it actually accumulates at higher concentrations in the serum than vitamin K1. It’s a really good thing.

 
  Not only is it good for cardiovascular health, it’s good for blood sugar balance, which Janet kind of alluded to there. Vitamin K, since it helps the blood sugar metabolism, it slows down the metabolic syndrome that I talk about a lot and it helps with health elasticity of the arteries and the cardiovascular function. Anyway it’s a good thing, I take it.

 
Janet Lewis: Basically it gets directed where it needs to go, and for you guys that aren’t even taking the prior products we had for that, this actually has twice the amount of K in it, so that’s why we were really excited about it because it’s like, “Hey we got a big bell hop to take us to the room now.”

 
Dr. Lewis: It’s the perfect amount, it’s the studied amount where it gets the most effectiveness.

 
Janet Lewis: If you’re new to our show and just now listening and we’re going to get to our questions here in a minute, but some of you have no clue what we do. Some days we have no clue what we do, but-

 
Dr. Lewis: That’s everyday.

 
Janet Lewis: Basically we run very low cost lab work so that we’re not guessing at what’s wrong with your health. If you hear something on our show today and wonder, “Hey, I wonder if my sugar is high? Hey, I wonder if my vitamin D is low? Hey, I wonder if I’m hurting myself with these diet things I’m having?” The lab panel that we’re recommending for today’s show is our comprehensive panel, it’s the GWH3 and I tell you that because when you get on our website at GreenWisdomHealth.com they are featured lab panels that are on our webpage because with that panel you not only get that lab that is 12 different panels a lab, which is about $3,500 normally at your doctors office. Right now it’s $298 and it comes with Dr. Lewis’ consultation that comes with that for up to a 30 minute going over those lab results so you’re not guessing at what’s wrong.

 
Dr. Lewis: Might be a good thing but it might not.

 
Janet Lewis: You get a functional medicine report to show you where numbers are optimal, not just in range and Dr. Lewis tells you that also but it’s a pretty green, yellow, and red chart that you can see for yourself. We also give you a list of recommended supplements of what he’s recommending to get you back on track so you can start having a life worth living. That is the comprehensive GWH3, and now we are going to try to make it through these questions because we didn’t have a show last week so we’ve got a lot this week. We’re going to try to move through them. Dr. Lewis might not go into too many rabbit holes so we’ll get him to answer them.

 
  First there were a couple of things he wanted to mention that he saw on some different TV shows that kind of struck a nerve with him.

 
Dr. Lewis: A lot of things strike my nerve.

 
Janet Lewis: One of them was the CDC says that diseases from mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas have tripled since 2004.

 
Dr. Lewis: What does that tell you? That tells you our immune system has gone to heck in a bucket. Why is that? Well we can go into the genetically modified food, the altered micro biome. I’m freaking Janet out because I’m telling people we’re getting some new, better, oh my God incredible lab test. You’ll know about them soon as soon as we can get our IT guy to get them up.

 
Janet Lewis: That’s why he’s freaking me out because he’s making me work harder.

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes, everybody knows she does a lot more work than me, but we can better test your immune function and know what to do about it. It’s not that there’s more mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas, or fleas and ticks, or I call them flicks and teas, but it’s because our immune system has gone to heck in a bucket. Okay next.

 
Janet Lewis: Cool.

 
Dr. Lewis: Sorry, I never talk fast until this show.

 
Janet Lewis: That was really good.

 
Dr. Lewis: Thanks, a rabbit hole.

 
Janet Lewis: A study finds loneliness is at epidemic proportions in America.

 
Dr. Lewis: Well I’ve talked about that too. We’ve become a nation of consumers. I mean you know I’m a big gun nut, sorry for you that aren’t, but I used to get great grin and glorious pleasure out of buying stuff and I said back in the 80s I said, “Having a BMW the thrill goes away a lot sooner than the payment does.” We’ve become a nation of we get our thrill from consuming things rather than creating friends. We’re getting, I see it everyday, people are stuck on information. Get on Facebook, what’s next, what’s next, what’s next? Let’s get on Google, let’s get on email. We’ve gotten hooked on information. We are a nation of too much information and too little action, I think that’s going to be the name of a show coming up too. Build relationships folks.

 
Janet Lewis: Regular sauna visits lower your risk of strokes.

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes this was on Good Morning America and that’s one of the things that I’ve said for years. Far infrared saunas one of the easiest ways to detox. Maybe Janet will get me a far infrared sauna sometime for my birthday or Christmas so I can be less toxic to live with.

 
Janet Lewis: Sure, okay. Now we have a, well actually it’s a-

 
Dr. Lewis: Statement?

 
Janet Lewis: A statement from a lady named Alice B. She says, “So I’ve been on a regimen that Dr. Lewis suggested to help detox me as I go through getting my amalgam fillings out, and about two weeks in my skin is amazing. The firmness and wrinkles are noticeably improved. What gives Dr. Lewis? I will now need to stay on this miracle concoction.

 
Dr. Lewis: I always put them on something for their skin because women don’t care about anything but pretty skin, hair, and nails, and men don’t care about anything but testosterone. She told me she was taking HM complex, which stands for heavy metal. Lipotropic detox to help your liver detox in different ways and liposomal C to help grab onto the amalgams if there was that mercury coming out of the mouth. She got more firm skin and yes we sell a lot of the collagen, the patented studied human trial study collagen type 1 and type 2 that were getting some pretty serious good results from. Yes, if you throw it in there your body can definitely detox it.

 
Janet Lewis: Very good, so the HM complex what does that do exactly? Somebody else asked me about that today.

 
Dr. Lewis: Well it’s kind of a daily detox cocktail with all the different things in it too.

 
Janet Lewis: That helps pull out heavy metals and-

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes it binds with it. Some of the higher levels of zinc, selenium, alpha lipoic acid, etc., etc.

 
Janet Lewis: Now we have Joe L. that wants to know is Colon Max, which is a product we have here for constipation, okay to use for kids who have constipation in replacement of the often prescribed MiraLax?

 
Dr. Lewis: I think Colon Max is probably too strong. I would suggest Super Aloe 250, and getting their gut function better and that would be probiotics and fish oil helps with that. Probiotics and a lot of fiber, make them eat more vegetables and fruits and drink a lot of water.

 
Janet Lewis: Yes, the Super Aloe is just aloe vera so it’s not anything.

 
Dr. Lewis: It’s not one of those bad ones the GI doctors warn you about, it’s not cascara.

 
Janet Lewis: Well isn’t MiraLax got some pretty bad stuff in there.

 
Dr. Lewis: It’s controversial, let’s just leave it at that.

 
Janet Lewis: Then the last question we have here is still from Joe. Do you have any ideas for bedtime snacks for kids? They often want cereal but I’m guessing this is probably not the best option.

 
Dr. Lewis: When I was a kid I had two choices, take it, leave it, or get daddy’s belt. Other than that.

 
Janet Lewis: That doesn’t sound like a very good bedtime snack to me.

 
Dr. Lewis: Okay, I was going to be polite the whole time. I can’t make it. I think apples are good. I think avocados are incredible. Our little four year old granddaughter will come in, “Papa, avocado.” She also asks for chips and hot sauce but I try to steer toward the avocado. Boiled eggs, I peel a lot of those for her. If you get them a good protein and a good fat usually that will make their hunger go away and they’ll feel more full and more satisfied and helps their behavior too.

 
Janet Lewis: Yes because I think actually the cereals and things actually make them hungrier because it’s making them want to eat more.

 
Dr. Lewis: It does.

 
Janet Lewis: We’ve noticed that. If our grandkids will eat cereal then an hour later they’re hungry again, and I think a bunch of it is the yeast, it’s craving something else really bad because that kind of feeds it a bunch of times and it’s pretty empty. It’s not protein so it’s not really filling them up.

 
Dr. Lewis: You know how polite I always am? I had a friend 10 years younger than me and he says, I need to lose weight and I said, “You need to quit eating grain.” He said, “No, the United States Department of Agriculture says eat seven to 11 servings of grain per day.” I said, “Donald, when you were in FFA and you wanted to fatten up your calf what did you feed him?” He says, “Grain.” He says, “Oh my God you caught me.” He needed to lose a whole lot of weight. Finally years later another doctor told him the same thing and he’s following this other doctor’s advice and he’s lost 50, 75 pounds. Looks great and probably going to live longer because his heart was getting kind of questionable. Grain is not a good thing. If you can make cows fat with it. The only thing I think grain is good for is maybe making beer and then that’s kind of questionable too.

 
Janet Lewis: Basically having a protein at night would help them sleep better?

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes but I like high fat, good fat, which avocados, coconut oil, butter. That helps too, fat and protein.

 
Janet Lewis: Well very good. We hope you guys have been educated once again and Dr. Lewis you have anything else that we left out?

 
Dr. Lewis: Real quickly, you know we were talking about nutrient deficiency and people they say no you can get it all out of your food. I’m going to read something real quick. It says lack of B vitamin is common and this is from New England Journal of Medicine. Lack of thiamin makes blood brain barrier more leaky. Journal of Experimental of Neurology and the lack of thiamine, that’s the Benfotiamine I put you all on. Lack of B vitamin cause psychosis, British Journal of Psychiatrists. B vitamin is needed to convert amino acid tryptophan to serotonin, the neurotransmitter, Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine. Post-partum depression is due to low levels of B vitamins, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Then PMS becomes worse with a lack of vitamin D, Journal of Lancet.

 
  Folks, if we can get all this out of the food why are these medical journals publishing this? This is some B vitamins, I could go on for hours.

 
Janet Lewis: Unfortunately we don’t have hours to go over all of it. You guys go out and get you something that’s not aspartame for a drink today like-

 
Dr. Lewis: Cold beer.

 
Janet Lewis: Water with lemon or a lime.

 
Dr. Lewis: Yes, water with lemon or lime.

 
Janet Lewis: Because that actually helps stop your cravings for sweets. If you have questions please email us. We also have a Facebook group that you can be a part of called Shooting Straight with Dr. Lewis. Just shoot us an email or give us a call and we’ll be happy to add you to that group and Dr. Lewis will enlighten you with his Dr. Lewisisms on there as well. We hope you guys have a very blessed week and we’ll see you right here next time.