For many chronic health problems, regular exercise is more effective than any drug.
Exercise as Medicine is a major movement at John’s Hopkins School of Medicine.
You can visit this website for links to many topics on the benefits of exercise.
You can find the top 10 things you need to know about exercise here. They include the following evidence based recommendations from the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.
any amount of physical activity has some health benefits. Americans can benefit from small amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity throughout the day.
The benefits of exercise are cumulative, walk 10 minutes 3 times per day and you get the same benefit as a 30 minute walk. Walk 5 minutes 6 times and the benefit equals that of 30 minutes continuous walking. So you can break up your exercise in little pieces throughout the day. No requirement for a specific long period devoted to exercise.
New evidence shows that physical activity has immediate health benefits. For example, physical activity can reduce anxiety and blood pressure and improve quality of sleep and insulin sensitivity.
Exercise improves cognition, decreases cancer risk, decreases risk of depression, hypertension, diabetes, stroke and heart disease. It lowers risk of falls and injuries from falls. It decreases pain and helps a variety of conditions. Exercise reduces all cause mortality (death rates from all causes)
For youth, physical activity can help improve cognition,* bone health, fitness, and heart health. It can also reduce the risk of depression.
For adults, physical activity helps prevent 8 types of cancer (bladder,* breast, colon, endometrium,* esophagus,* kidney,* stomach,* and lung*); reduces the risk of dementia* (includingAlzheimer’s disease*), all-cause mortality, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and depression; and improves bone health, physical function, and quality of life.
For older adults, physical activity also lowers the risk of falls and injuries from falls.*
For pregnant women, physical activity reduces the risk of postpartum depression.*
New evidence shows that physical activity can help manage more health conditions that Americans already have. For example, physical activity can decrease pain for those with osteoarthritis, reduce disease progression for hypertension and type 2 diabetes, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and improve cognition for those with dementia, multiple sclerosis, ADHD, and Parkinson’s disease.
You can choose from a variety of TEDtalks on exercise here.
I particularly enjoyed my friend Darryl Edwards talk here.
So sleep well, exercise often, eat clean, filter your water, avoid environmental toxins, get plenty of sunshine, and most important of all, stay connected with friends and family.
Exposure to full spectrum light in the evening > reduces quantity and quality of restorative sleep which in turn > increases chronic inflammation and contributes to depression both of which make pain worse.
Exposure to full spectrum light in the evening also > reduces nitric oxide production > which increases blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders.
In animal studies interruption of circadian rhythm with artificial light exposure when the animal would typically be sleeping decreases memory capacity.
And fat tissue has specific receptors for light which alters fat storage. Increased visceral fat produces more inflammatory cytokines and chemokines which sensitize pain fibers and increase inflammation throughout the body.
Exposure to artificial light in the evening even worsens the grades of children in school.
Adequate restorative sleep is so important that I prescribe all patients with chronic pain 2 pages of sleep hygiene recommendations.
To optimize your circadian rhythm get some early morning light exposure (without sunglasses) before 12 noon and at sundown reduce your ambient light exposure to mimic the natural light outdoors. Sleep in absolute darkness and wear blue light blocking glasses in the evening.
You can learn more about this topic by listening to a 12 minute TEDtalk by Dan Pardi who does research in the Circadian LAB at Stanford.
Hat tip to Tommy Wood for bringing this TEDtalk to my attention.
Circadian rhythm refers to the cycling of hormones according to the time of day. Every hormone cycles with daylight and darkness, each in it’s own way. Our brain has a master clock, called the circadian clock, controlled by specialized cells deep in the brain. There is a direct connection from our retina (in the back of the eyes) to the circadian clock in the brain. Blue light (part of the normal outdoor spectrum of light) stimulates very specific receptor cells in the retina which in turn communicates directly with the circadian clock telling the brain whether it is day or night. To synchronize our hormones and achieve restorative sleep, we must get outdoor light exposure to our eyes (without sunglasses, early in the day) and limit light exposure in the evening.
Artificial light, especially from cell phones and other devices that emit intense blue light, shift work, late night social activity, poor eating habits, sedentary lifestyle and at the opposite extreme, late evening workouts, can all disrupt our circadian rhythm preventing adequate restorative sleep. A rare genetic illness called fatal insomnia that strikes adults at middle age prevents sleep and results in death within a few months, highlighting the importance of sleep. Sleep deprivation can kill a human quicker than starvation! Adequate amounts of deep non-REM sleep are required for tissue regeneration, healing, DNA repair and immune function. REM sleep with dreaming provides great benefit by organizing our memory, discharging the emotional content of traumatic events, and facilitating creative brain activity. One night of short-sleep produces a state of inattention and slow reflexes as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol intoxication. Chronic short sleep and disrupted circadian rhythm results in increased risk of depression, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, dementia, obesity, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, heart attack and stroke, to name a few. Sleep interruption immediately halts weight loss during a calorie restricted diet (likely the result of hormonal disruption). So getting an adequate amount of restorative sleep every night is essential to good health. Here a few tips to help achieve a good night’s sleep each and every night.
GET OUTDOOR LIGHT EXPOSURE ON YOUR EYES WITHOUT SUNGLASSES EVERY DAY, EARLY IN THE DAY. This helps set your biologic/circadian clock. Even on a cloudy day, outdoor light is much stronger and natural than indoor light. It is essential for setting your biologic/circadian clock. If you cannot get outside, stand or sit in front of a large window for 20-30 minutes in the morning, looking outside. Take a lunch break outside without sunglasses. Wear a shade hat instead of sunglasses. Your brain needs to experience natural outdoor light during the day.
Avoid bright light in the evening, especially the light from TV, computer screens, cell phones, which all emit intense blue light and trick your brain into thinking it is daytime. Wear blue light blocking glasses/goggles for 2-3 hours before bed. (Amber tinted glasses which block blue light can be purchased on-line and can be worn over reading glasses) There is also software available that will decrease the blue light intensity of computer screens and cell phones in the evening.
Practice time restricted eating. Limit all eating to an eight hour period, thus providing for an over-night fast of 16 hours. If that does not seem possible try to limit eating to a 10-hour period which provides a 14-hour overnight fast. This improves sleep, circadian rhythm, blood pressure, blood sugar and reduces stress hormones. NO SNACKS BETWEEN MEALS. NO FOOD FOR 2 HOURS BEFORE BED. For every hour decrease in eating time period from 12 hours to 8 hours you get health benefit.
If you snore, are overweight/obese, fall asleep during the day, or do not feel refreshed in the morning ask your doctor to order a sleep study. Obstructive Sleep Apnea makes restorative sleep impossible and increases risk of heart attack, stroke and most chronic diseases.
Avoid alcohol altogether and avoid caffeine after late morning. Alcohol in the evening may help you fall asleep but it results in a withdrawal from alcohol during the night. This disrupts normal sleep patterns.
Sleep in a cold, dark, quiet room. Use black-out curtains, no night lights, no phone charger lights, no lights of any kind should be on in the room. Any amount of light in the room impairs the production of melatonin which facilitates sleep onset.
Have a wind–down time every evening. Develop habits of non-stressful activities, soft music, dim light, casual conversation, enjoyable reading. Do not spend evening time dealing with finances, conflict, or emotional activity.
Try a magnesium supplement before bedtime. Magnesium glycinate, magnesium citrate, magnesium gluconate, are absorbed much better than cheaper supplements such as magnesium oxide. Magnesium L-Threonate is expensive, but it crosses the blood brain barrier into the brain with the greatest brain penetration of all magnesium supplements.
Manage stress with yoga, meditation, regular exercise (but no intense exercise in the evening.) Perform most of your exercise outdoors in a green space. This provides much more health benefit than the equivalent exercise indoors.
Regular contact with supportive family and friends is essential to health and reduces stress. The greatest predictor of health vs disease is the amount of social connectedness an individual experiences.
Establish regular wake-up times and go-to-bed times. Regular sleep habits are essential. If you must rely on alarm clocks you do not have good sleep habits.
A few words about alcohol, caffeine and sleeping pills.
A drink or two in the evening may help you relax but it disrupts your sleep by causing a mild episode of alcohol withdrawal as your liver metabolizes the alcohol and your blood levels drop. Even this slight degree of alcohol withdrawal will impair a good night’s sleep.
Caffeine impairs sleep by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine is the neurotransmitter that increases gradually during the day creating a sate referred to as sleep pressure. Some people metabolize caffeine quickly, others slowly. The slower you metabolize caffeine the longer it takes to clear it from your adenosine receptors. Without adequate sleep pressure (adenosine receptors filled with adenosine in the brain) you cannot fall asleep. Many sleep experts recommend complete abstinence from caffeine and suggest that if you need caffeine to get started in the morning you are regularly sleep deprived.
Sleeping pills of all kinds interfere with normal sleep architecture. While they facilitate falling asleep, they impair your ability to achieve deep restorative stages of sleep and can produce many undesirable side effects including addiction, withdrawal symptoms, sleep walking, sleep driving, worsening of asthma and COPD, constipation, diarrhea, daytime drowsiness, burning and tingling sensations, unusual dreams, weakness, heartburn, etc…. Most importantly they all interfere with cycling through the various stages of sleep in a normal, restorative pattern!
If you want to explore these concepts in depth here are two excellent books that discuss sleep and circadian rhythm.
“Hundreds of cancer victims and their families have filed lawsuits alleging that Monsanto’s signature pesticide Roundup causes cancer.
Now a U.S. judge has denied Monsanto’s attempts to throw out these claims and will allow the case to move forward including expert testimony that links glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, to cancer. These suits allege that Monsanto knew about glyphosate’s cancer risk and failed to warn consumers.
Now hundreds of Americans are seeking to hold Monsanto responsible.
Monsanto has been waging a war on science for years. Just last year, Monsanto colluded with the Environmental Protection Agency to cover up glyphosate’s cancer risk and attacked EWG’s pesticide work, calling it “propaganda.””
I have discussed the risks of glyphosate before. You can read about it here
Glyphosate is a dangerous toxic substance. Most Americans will test positive for glyphosate in the urine. No levels in your body are safe.
It can cause cancer, disrupt your endocrine system, and interfere with brain development in children. There are many other problems with glyphosate. I encourage your to read about the hazards of glyphosate and protect your family. Support the efforts of the environmental working group. (EWG.org.)
Be safe, live clean, shower love on those you love.
New study (in mice) shows fast food makes the immune system more aggressive in a detrimental way.
Major points:
The immune system reacts similarly to a high sugar, high (unhealthy) fat and high calorie diet as to a bacterial infection.
Unhealthy food seems to make the body’s defenses (innate immune system) more aggressive in the long term. Even long after switching to a healthy diet, inflammation towards innate immune stimulation is more pronounced.
These changes may be involved in the development of arteriosclerosis and diabetes.
These changes are due to alterations in gene transcription (up-regulation of genes associated with inflammation)
This up regulation of pro-inflammatory genes persists even after converting to a healthier diet.
This study is an example of epigenetics, where an environmental factor (diet) alters the expression of genes. We know that regular consumption of a variety of colorful vegetables mediates many beneficial effects and part of that process involves altering the transcription of many genes related to health and our ability to defend against Oxidative Stress .
The epigenetic effect of nutrition can be transmitted to the next generation.
The epigenetic effects of diet include many aspects of health including cancer risk.
So avoid fast food and other forms of processed-refined foods. Eat a whole foods-ancestral diet that includes a variety of organic colorful vegetables and fruits, grass fed/finished meats and wild seafood. This will not only provide important micro and macro nutrients but will also turn up and turn on genes that prevent disease.
I often recommend a specific diet to decrease inflammation, decrease pain, and improve healing of tissue. I have been asked by patients to post this nutritional plan on my website so here it is (see below). In addition to this post, I will place the diet on a separate page along with recipes for vegetable soup and bone broth.
The recipes (vegetable soup and bone broth) meet the anti-inflammatory diet guidelines and also follow the more restrictive “Autoimmune Protocol”. This nutritional approach provides an array of micro nutrients that fight inflammation, support tissue repair, decrease the risk of chronic disease, and help maintain a healthy gut flora (good bacteria in the intestines).
When I recommend 9 servings per day of vegetables patients often tell me it is impossible to achieve. But it is not impossible, nor is it impractical. Every Sunday afternoon I make a large pot of vegetable soup that will keep all week in the refrigerator. I bring generous servings to work every day for breakfast, brunch, and/or lunch and add some meat or seafood prepared the evening before (left-overs) on the side. The key to eating 9 servings per day is to have a variety of vegetables at every meal. The vegetable soup makes that goal not just achievable but convenient.
The anti-inflammatory diet described below provides ample fiber to feed your healthy gut bacteria and avoids the sugar and refined starches that can produce gut dysbiosis (unhealthy balance of bacteria in the intestines). Vegetables provide five times the amount of fiber per calorie compared to grains. You do not need to eat bread or cereal to get fiber.
So here is the anti-inflammatory diet. it is consistent with the Mediterranean diet as well as an Ancestral-Paleo diet.
Caution: if you have diabetes and are taking medications, this diet reduces carbohydrates and eliminates added sugar so adjustments in diabetes medications are necessary to avoid potentially dangerous low blood sugars. So consult your physician or primary care practitioner.
Berries (any kind) ½ cup per day. This can be substituted for one serving of vegetables.
OMEGA-3 rich fish-seafood (at least 16 ounces per week)
Anchovies, clams, herring, mackerel, mussels, oysters, salmon, sardines, trout, calamari (squid), saltwater fish should be wild, shellfish farmed OK, farmed trout OK.
Meat ideally grass fed and grass finished, hormone and antibiotic free.
Poultry and eggs free range, any wild game meat or poultry.
Drink only filtered water, coffee, tea, bone broth (homemade is best) and kombucha.
No grains, cereal, bread, pasta, no food made from flour, no oats, wheat, barley, corn etc.
No legumes (beans), no peanuts
No dairy except Ghee for cooking (optional)
No processed food made with added sugar or hydrogenated oils (which contain trans-fats)
No “vegetable oils” (soy oil, corn oil, etc.)
Use only extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil and ghee. Limit EVOO to low heat cooking or add after food is cooked. The other oils on this list have higher smoke points.
Do not use store-bought salad dressing which usually has added sugar and inflammatory vegetable oils. Make your own salad dressing with EVOO and vinegar or lemon juice.
For more information about the AIP (Autoimmune protocol) I suggest you visit these websites:
Turns out, ADA is in nearly five hundred foods including breads, tortillas, bagels, pizza, hamburger buns, various pastries, hot dog rolls, sandwich buns, Italian bread, bread sticks, dinner rolls, croutons, english muffins, focaccia, wheat bread. Not all food producers include ADA in their products but many do, including fast food chains.
“Over the years, health activists concerned about synthetic chemicals in food have attacked the widespread use of ADA, but it did not attract nationwide headlines until Hari of Food Babe circulated a petition demanding that Subway, among the nation’s biggest fast-food outlets, stop using the chemical in its loaves. Subway responded [http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/about_us/PR_Docs/QualityBread.pdf] that ADA was safe, but even so, it had quietly been seeking a substitute over the past year. The company pointed out that ADA is “found in the breads of most chains such as Starbuck’s, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Arby’s, Burger King, and Dunkin Donuts.” Those other fast food giants joined Subway on the defensive.”
So head on over to the environmental working group website by clicking the link above and educate yourself. The reasons to avoid flour foods continue to mount, glyphosate (roundup), ADA, obesity, auto-immune disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, endotoxemia…..
The Following comes directly from an e-mail newsletter discussing the increasingly alarming Glyphosate data.
Glyphosate poisoning is the emerging issue from decades of GMO Roundup Ready crops. Earlier this year, the UC San Diego released results from a long-term study that showed a 13x increase in the amount of glyphosate in urine tests of participants over a 20-year period. The State of California listed glyphosate as a known carcinogen effective July, 2017.
Glyphosate is in food, in the air, and in the water.
Glyphosate use in the agricultural sector rose 300-fold from 1974 to 2014. See Table. Glyphosate is also used liberally in landscaping, along roadways, railroad, and power company rights-of-way.
Review of facts.
The existing approval of glyphosate and Roundup is out of date. New research and the conclusions of an international team of reviewers have established ample reason to immediately discontinue use of Roundup and other herbicide formulations that contain glyphosate. Learn more about the documented health risks of glyphosate at RoundupRisks.com.
Be safe, eat only organic, non-GMO foods. Eat meat from animals that have not been exposed to GMOs, herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics or fed foods that are contaminated with these toxins.
I have discussed the dangers of GMO foods and Roundup before.
The evidence continues to mount.
“A peer-reviewed article, published November 7, 2017, in the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, demonstrates that GMOs are likely taking a heavy toll on our health. And a survey of 3,256 people who avoided them reported astonishing improvements in 28 health conditions.”
You can find a summary of the salient points from this scientific article here.
But I suggest you read the first few pages of the full article here.
The first few pages of this article describe the history of GMOs and how the warnings of FDA scientists were silenced by regulatory executives who were shills for the likes of Monsanto and other dangerous players in this sad history.
11 genetically modified food crops are currently grown for commercial consumption. The six major crops are soy, corn, cotton, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa which are used to feed humans and animals. Cottonseed and canola are also processed into “food-grade” oils and sugar beets are refined to make sugar.
All six major GMOs are engineered to be herbicide tolerant, to survive spray of weed killer (such as Roundup)
89% of GMOs grown in the US are herbicide tolerant
The most common herbicide involved is Roundup
94% of soybeans grown in the US are Roundup Resistant (RR)
Some varieties of corn and cotton have genes inserted that produce a toxic insecticide called Bt toxin.
76% of corn grown in the US is both Bt-producing and herbicide tolerant, 80% of cotton are both Bt and herbicide tolerant.
Roundup is not only used to kill weeds, but it is now sprayed heavily on crops immediately before harvest as a desiccant (drying agent) and large measurable amounts are found in the foods that you purchase in the supermarket.
In 1998 the FDA was sued by the Alliance for Bio-integrity and forced to turn over tens of thousands of pages of internal memos related to GMOs. FDA scientists repeatedly warned their superiors that GMO foods could create serious health risks such as allergies, toxins, antibiotic resistant diseases and nutritional problems. Michael Taylor, the former outside attorney for Monsanto and subsequent vice president of government and regulatory affairs for Monsanto was the political appointee in the FDA charged with overseeing GMOs!
On May 8, 2009,, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine published their policy paper on GMOs citing animal studies that revealed:
infertility,
immune dysregulation,
accelerated aging,
dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis,
faulty insulin regulation, cell signaling and protein formation,
changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system
The AAEM recommended that the US government implement a moratorium on all GM foods and urged physicians to prescribe non-GMO diets.
But Monsanto prevailed and FDA officials ignored the warnings of their own scientists.
The three general categories of GMO danger include:
consequences of the GMO transformation process
the Bt toxin found in GMO corn and cotton
the herbicides-particularly Roundup, that are sprayed on most GMO foods and consumed by those who eat GMO food.
A study of Monsanto’s RR corn revealed 117 proteins and 91 small molecule biochemicals significantly different from natural corn. Some of those differences “enhance the effects of histamine, thus heightening allergic reactions” and two of the polyamines in the GMO corn have been implicated in the formation of carcinogens (nitrosamines).
The GMO process can produce a host of unintended changes in RNA, DNA, proteins and genes. And these changes can migrate and hybridize with non-GMO foods when the wind blows seeds from GMO plants into fields planted with non-GMO plants.
Altered Genes (transgenes) from GMO foods may “horizontally transfer” to humans or other organisms including the gut bacteria in humans that control much of our physiology.
Studies of rats fed GMO potatoes demonstrated adverse effects on every organ in young rats. Most changes occurred within 10 days. Disruption of organ growth, immune suppression and damage to organs of the immune system, thickening of the stomach and intestinal lining were noted.
Monsanto’s own data show that GM soybeans contain up to seven times the level of a natural allergen (trypsin inhibitor which also impairs protein digestion) and a doubling of soy lectin which impairs nutrient absorption. These were unintended consequences of the GMO process.
Monsanto’s MON810 Bt corn has 43 genes significantly altered in levels of expression. One of these genes which is normally switched off in non-GMO corn is switched on in the GMO version and it produces an allergenic protein.
Glyphosate is the major antibiotic in Roundup (yes Roundup is classified as an antibiotic). I have discussed the great hazards of glyphosate before. On October 24, 2017 JAMA published a study of the increase in measurable levels of glyphosate in humans.
The researchers compared urine excretion levels of glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in 100 people living in a Southern California community who provided samples during five clinic visits that took place between 1993 to 1996 and 2014 to 2016.
“What we saw was that prior to the introduction of genetically modified foods, very few people had detectable levels of glyphosate,” . “As of 2016, 70 percent of the study cohort had detectable levels.”
In July 2017, glyphosate was listed as a carcinogen by California.
A 2014 review concluded that:
Evidence is mounting that glyphosate interferes with many metabolic processes in plants and animals and glyphosate residues have been detected in both. Glyphosate disrupts the endocrine system and the balance of gut bacteria, it damages DNA and is a driver of mutations that lead to cancer.
There are many reasons to follow an organic, GMO-free, whole foods ancestral diet. Contamination with Roundup presents yet another compelling reason to choose your food wisely.
Some folks prefer videos to research articles, so below you will find both.
Here are a few links that will take you to articles related to this topic and quoted above.
Due to popular demand the producers of this terrific series are making it available again on line this weekend. If you have not taken advantage of this information you can do it here:
Practical Evolutionary Health 