Garma On Health » Cleansing/Detox

9 Ways to Fight Diabesity with The Blood Sugar Solution

Joe Garma — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:17:31 +0000

Dr. Mark Hyman has reduced the price of this Blood Sugar Solution. It’s a comprehensive, multi-tiered approach to fighting diabesity, the pernicious combination of diabetes and obesity that Dr. Hyman believes afflicts nearly 50% of Americans. You know people who can be helped. Check it out!

I FOLLOW Dr. Mark Hyman because, like Dr. Andrew Weil and a precious few other luminary doctors, his focus is on how things connect.

Say you have adult-onset diabetes. Well, why… where did it come from, what actions created it? Same queries with respect to heart disease or any other debilitating, chronic diseases.

This approach in medicine is referred to as “integrative” or “functional” medicine. It seeks and treats the causes of disease, not the symptoms. A pain killer may help reduce pain, but by itself does little, if anything, to remove the cause of the pain.

Dr. Hyman’s latest crusade is to help wake up people to the diabesity epidemic overtaking America.

I don’t know if Dr. Hyman originally coined the term, “diabesity”, but he’s the one blowing the clarion call to do something about it. What he’s doing is promoting the heck out of The Blood Sugar Solution Home Coaching Program.

Just like it sounds, diabesity is the unhappy combination of diabetes and obesity. It makes sense that there’s a term that refers to them both because it’s quite common that if you have adult-onset (or these days, juvenile-onset) diabetes, it was preceded by obesity.

[More on this in my post, The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming to You.]

Dr. Hyman estimates that nearly half of all Americans have diabesity. Given that about two-thirds of us are overweight (one-third obese, including children), he might be right.

Look like the picture below. If that’s how your midsection looks, you either may or soon may have diabesity. Surely, several people you know do.

All this brings me to an email I recieved today from Dr. Hyman. (I’m on his email list.) The email altered us to a deep discount he’s made to his The Blood Sugar Solution Home Coaching Program:

The Blood Sugar Solution Home Coaching Program

The email basically said this:

- The program is comprehensive and works to reduce fat and revamp your eating habits and hormones

- It’s not for everyone; rather for people who recognize they have a problem and are willing to be guided to solve it

- It’s a 9-part kit combining the best of his diabesity tools, tests, and information; namely:

#1: The Blood Sugar Solution Workshop

#2: The Blood Sugar Solution Workbook

#3: The UltraWellness® Nutrition Coaching

#4: Online Cookbook

#5: Two-Week Access to the New Online Blood Sugar Solution Course

#6: The Quick Start Guide

#7: The “How To Work With Your Doctor” Online Guidebook

#8: The Blood Sugar Solution Quizzes

#9: The Money-Saving Supplements Offer

The “Call to Action” boils down to this, in Dr. Hyman’s words:

“It retails for over $600 but, for a limited time, I’ve reduced the price to just $175. This is my attempt to get this valuable material into as many hands as possible, but please understand this: I can only offer a select number of kits at this price. And when that number is gone, they’re gone.”

Click on the image to enlarge it.

You may be fit as a fiddle, but like I mentioned, you know people who aren’t, people who could benefit by this program. If so, let them know about it.

My father died from diabetes complications and I’ve watched my sister and mother deal with overweight issues all their adult lives. This thing hits close to home, so when I see something that may work, I feel compelled to promote it. I get nothing back from doing this other than the good feeling that this information may be helpful to those who need it.

Dr. Hyman and his program are the real deal — check it out!

P.S. Check out the ratings for the Blood Sugar Solution and comments that readers have made by clicking the icon below.

P.P.S. Just occurred to me that I need to amend slightly the statement written above that I have nothing to gain by this promotion but the satisfaction that this may be helpful to people. Know that although I get no compensation should someone buy the Blood Sugar Solution kit, if the book is purchased from Amazon via the above link, I do earn an affiliate commission for the book.

Related posts:
Sugar is a Toxin, say Three Celebrity Doctors. Watch the Interviews.

The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming to You

How Sugary Is Your Blood?

Happy Birthday to the “Godmother of the Wellness Movement” — You Are Marvelous at 90! (Watch)

Joe Garma — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:34:58 +0000

All her life, Deborah Szekely, the “Godmother of the Wellness Movement” has been a thriving example of wellness. Now 90, she still works tirelessly to illuminate the harmful actions of agri-business and Big Pharma, and the government’s support of programs that have fueled the country’s obesity epidemic.

Today’s post is a “shout out” to Deborah Szekely (pronounced SAY-Kay) on her 90^th birthday.

If you haven’t heard of Deborah Szekely, know that she has operated for 72 years the world-renowned Rancho La Puerta Spa in Mexico, and for 42 years the Golden Door Spa in Escondido California.

At those spas, she has been a tireless advocate of treating your body as a temple by conforming to these three dictates:

Do not pollute yourself with processed food,

Develop a lifestyle of physical activity, and

Allow yourself to heal.

Ms. Szekely’s life itself has been a testimony to living the natural, holistic life, and the benefits thereby derived. Despite entering her 10^th decade, her only “medication” are vitamins, some thyroid therapy and a B12 shot every month.

She does Pilates four times a week, has weighed within the same 118 to 122 pounds for decades, has 104/62 blood pressure, and a cholesterol count of 193 (not fasting).

Couldn’t be better.

Surely, the woman has admirably lived her truth, and has become a superlative example of how a long and strong life can be lived by making smart choices about diet, exercise and attitude.

Surely, at this point in life she would be satisfied with her accomplishments and the multiple thousands of people she has helped to slow down.

But no.

“My schedule is the same as it was when I was 60!”, she says.

Which is about to be busier, because this “Godmother of the Wellness Movement” is giving birth to yet another cause aimed at improving the lives of others: Wellness Spring.

The Wellness Spring Initiative

Ann Brenoff writes in this Huffington Post article:

About the only thing that raises [Deborah Szekely’s] blood pressure are the actions of agri-business and Big Pharma and the government’s support of programs that have fueled the country’s obesity epidemic. Her Wellness Spring initiative aims to raise $10 million by collecting $10 each from one million people. The money will be used to fund lobbying efforts to counter those of businesses that she argues are poisoning and killing Americans with fast food and a culture that “considers watching TV an activity.”

“How is pizza possibly a vegetable?” she asked incredulously of the congressional decision that deemed it so. “Americans are getting fatter and sicker by the day and the soft drink and fast-food companies are going merrily on their way while Big Pharma is happy to provide pills for all the diseases and health problems the bad food causes.”

Here is this fine and stately lady telling her story and the need for Wellness Spring:

We humans tend to accept what’s possible for us by examining what’s been done by others. May Deborah Szekely’s life and her work inspire us all.

Related posts:
Eat Fiber, Live Longer, Healthier too! Watch

Sugar is a Toxin, say Three Celebrity Doctors. Watch the Interviews.

Bill Maher’s New Rule on the American Rat Diet

Dr. Hyman: “4 Steps to Get Rid of Toxic Weight”

Joe Garma — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:39:49 +0000

Best-selling author of The Blood Sugar Solution, Dr. Mark Hyman, introduces the “Quadruple P” model of how he thinks about cleansing. It’s basic, memorable and may help demystify what cleansing/detoxification is all about. Given the hundreds of heavy metal chemicals in our bodies, detoxing is something to consider.

THERE ARE always more than one way to look at something. When it comes to cleansing (detoxification), I think about what’s in the body and what’s outside it.

In the body you have the circulatory system, organs and fat where toxins accumulate and circulate. To get them out of the body, we’re reliant on the organs of cleansing and elimination, which are:

Kidneys

Liver

Gastrointestinal Tract

Lungs

Skin

Many cleansing protocols focus on aiding one or more of our natural cleansing systems that in an ideal world – pristine food, pristine environment – could do the job without assistance.

Problem is that for most of us, neither pristine food nor a pristine environment exists.

That MacDonald’s and Coke are multi-billion dollar business attests to my assertion about our diet.

That the average infant is born with 287 chemicals in her umbilical cord blood, 217 of which are neurotoxic (poisonous to nerves or nerve cells) attests to my assertion about our environment.

I’m often engaged in conversations about cleansing and I typically say that:

First, you need to stop ingesting and breathing in toxins;

Second, you need to mop up the toxins already present in your body; and

Third, I get into a spiel about how to specially address supporting the body’s natural organs of cleansing and elimination.

But there’s another way to look at, or visualize, the same problem, brought to us by Dr. Mark Hyman, who with the publication of his best seller, The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now!, is soon to be among the most famous doctors in America, me thinks.

Dr. Hyman recently penned a post he calls, How Toxins Make You Fat: 4 Steps to Get Rid of Toxic Weight. In it, he presents some research that shows that various environmental pollutants can cause diabetes and obesity, a combination that Dr. Hyman and others call “Diabesity”, which he claims afflict 50% of the American population.

Dr. Hyman is on a mission to help people heal themselves, and detoxification is one big part of the process.

Rather than get into the organs and specify how each may be supported in a particular cleansing ritual, Dr. Hyman writes about the four main exit routes for toxins: Pee, Poop, Perspiration and Pranayama (Sanskrit for “breath”), which he called the “Quadruple P.”

Every moment of every day your body is relying on the Quadruple P to mobilize, transform, and excrete toxins, he says.

I’ll summarize his points on each “P” and add my commentary here and there.

Pee

This is a kidney thing. Dr. Hyman says you need to ensure you’re doing enough of it, and you can help your kidneys out by drinking plenty of pure water, 8 x 8 (8 ounces, 8 times per day) that allow the kidney’s to flush out the waste from the blood that accumulate in them.

If your urine is dark or smelly, need to hydrate more.

Filter the water or use a good bottle water source, he says. I say, forget about buying bottled water! It’s wasteful, both in money spent and environmental damage. Think not? Read Plastic Water Has Gotta Go, for Your Sake! and Take the Plastic Out of Water Bottles.

Poo

Have one or two sessions on the throne, Dr. Hyman advises, and says that less then this is an indication of constipation that you can reverse by drinking more water and fiber.

I concur; however, my experience and reading suggests that the number of poos per day should be related to the number of substantial meals. Native people, who consume much more fiber than us and no processed foods, have as many bowl movements each day as they have meals. You do the math.

Perspiration

Few people recognize that your skin is the largest organ of elimination. You maximize its potential to get toxins out via the skin by sweating. Here, Dr. Hyman focuses on saunas, stating that some research indicates that sauna therapy increases excretion of heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and fat-soluble chemicals—PCBs, PBBs, and HCBs).

I might add two things: Exercise and Detox Baths.

Exercise is obvious, so I won’t belabor its value that extends beyond detoxification. It feels great to breath hard and sweat… well, maybe not when first starting an exercise regime, but eventually it will. Honest.

Detox baths are less obvious. When done properly, these pull toxins from the skin, partly by sweating in hot water loaded with some items supplemental to H2O; namely, baking soda, sea salt, ginger powder, and – ingesting before the bath, niacin.

Learn about the detox bath at the bottom of the post, Detoxifying Your Way To Nirvana.

Pranayama

As your scrubbing away your toxins – detoxifying your way to nirvana, sorta speak – you can contemplate Dr. Hyman’s last “P”, Pranayama.

As mentioned, “pranayama” is the Sanskrit word for “breath”. The idea here is that you can help detoxify your body by adopting an intentional, prescribed method of breathing. By breathing right, breathing deeply, you better “oxygenate your brain, body, and spirit, transforming your health in the process”, says Hyman.

Naturally, it’s essential that the air you breathe is clean. Don’t do this while idling in traffic.

The method is to breathe deeply into your abdomen. Begin by first exhaling and contracting your abs at the same time. Then inhale through your nose and envision your belly filling up like a balloon. Stay with this for five minutes a day.

Read the source of this summary of Dr. Hyman’s Quadruple P here at How Toxins Make You Fat: 4 Steps to Get Rid of Toxic Weight.

Remember: cleansing is a great way to help your body’s natural detoxification methods do their jobs better given the polluted world we live in.

There are several posts at Garma On Health dealing with detoxification. Just use the search tool at the top of the screen, type in the search box terms like “detox” or “cleansing” and find the one you’d like to read.

Here are a couple to get you started:

It’s Detox Time

A Simple, Effective Cleanse

Related posts:
Sunday Summary: Weight Loss Truths, Weight Loss Steps and A Guide to Healthy Shopping

Sugar is a Toxin, say Three Celebrity Doctors. Watch the Interviews.

Dr. Oz: How to Prepare for Your Cleanse

“Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”: One Year Later, Countless Lives Changed

Joe Garma — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:02:04 +0000

Joe Cross and the “Reboot Plan”, made famous by his documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, has changed countless lives for the better. Those that began juicing have lost weight, detoxed, reduced medication and became more mobile. Hundreds have sent Joe video messages of appreciation. Here are some. Watch, learn, be inspired.

MY POSTS about the Reboot Plan that was featured in the popular documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead are among the most visited on this humble site.

There’s good reasons for this: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead demonstrated how some very ill and overweight people could dramatically change their lives for the better by drinking homemade vegetable and fruit juice.

During the year since the documentary was released, many thousands of people have been inspired to juice, me included. While it’s true that I first began juicing decades ago, I wasn’t consistent. Watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead got me going again.

I bought the same juicer that Joe Cross, the documentary’s producer and featured fat-sick-nearly-dead subject, uses, and between grabbing veggies from my garden and buying them at Whole Foods, I began juicing nearly every day.

(Joe Cross and his documentary side-kick Phil collectively lost over 300 pounds on their Reboot Diet.)

Now, frankly, I don’t have some wondrous tale to tell about how juicing saved my life or made me buff, because I wasn’t sick or out of shape to begin with. But there is that clarity of mind and energy that comes even to us that are healthy. To those that aren’t healthy to begin with, the benefits of juicing are extraordinary.

You need not take my word for it. April 1 was the one year anniversary of the theatrical premiere of Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. He’s no fool, but Joe Cross sent out an email that day to those on his list, and included in it a video of people whose lives were so improved by juicing that they sent Joe videos of expression.

If you need an extra nudge to begin a health program, or just like to watch people joyful expressing their successful journeys to health, watch:

“Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead” – One Year Later, Countless Lives Changed

Have you experienced juicing? If you have a tale to tell, tells us in the Comments section below.

For more about eating right, check out my post, Diet 101.

Want to add juicing to a detox cleanse protocol? Check out It’s Detox Time.

Here’s the Breville Juicer that Joe Cross and I use. Click the image and learn more about it at Amazon.com, and there you can decide if it’s the juicer for you.

Overfed and Under Nourished? Watch “Hungry for Change”

Joe Garma — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:05:14 +0000

Overfed and under nourished? Overweight? Tired? Eat a lot of bread, pasta and soda? Time to Watch Hungry for Change. Peak Performance guru Tony Robbins says, “This inspiring film has the power to transform your health!” Expect it does, should you follow its insights, for these 12 health experts know about what they speak and live their talk.

Hungry for Change, the documentary

NOW THRU Sunday, March 31, 2012 you can watch Hungry for Change free. Fine, but why would you want to?

Well, it could be that your physical self could use an overhaul, or perhaps just a tweak. If neither is true, you might just be interested in the topic of how diet relates to… no, in fact, determines health.

I certainly learned a few things from watching Hungry for Change, and as I watched about twelve health professionals be interviewed about food, diet, chemicals, cleansing and disease, I took notes.

Here are my notes followed by the Hungry for Change trailer:

Most Americans are overfed and under nourished, which leads to being overweight with an incessant desire to eat.

Many chemicals we ingest from polluted and/or manufactured food are fat loving, in that they get stored in fat cells. When we lose fat, we also need to detoxify, not just by burning fat but also by getting rid of chemicals released by the fat. The chemicals need to exit the system.

[Read It’s Detox Time, A Simple, Effective Cleanse and Dr Oz: How to Prepare for Your Cleanse.]

The body yearns to detoxify. Foods that are chlorophyll-rich, such as green vegetables, bind to heavy metals and chemicals and pass out of the body. Gelatinous plant foods, like chia seeds, psyllium husk powder and seaweed become gelatinous when wet. As they move through the gastrointestinal track they absorb bile salts, bind to them and pass them out of the body before they get reabsorbed.

Certain “greens” like parsley and cilantro are effective chemical detoxifiers (as is niacin). Parsley cleanses the blood and cilantro binds with heavy metals, like mercury, which gets into our body through polluted air, some types of fish and silver/mercury amalgam teeth fillings.

[Read The Right Tuna for You and the Ocean and The Ultimate Heavy Metal Detox]

Eating abundantly from the veggie kingdom is vital for proper nutrition. If perplexed about how to go about this because either you’re disinterested in becoming a veggie chef or are unwilling to train your palette to appreciate the taste, get a juicer.

The idea behind juicing vegetables and fruit (more veggies than fruit, as too much fruit yields too much sugar) is that you can consume much more of the healthy phytochemicals if the juice is separated from the pulp. This nutrition is absorbed and building up your body within 15 minutes.

[Read Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.]

Evita Remparte was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. First she did a juice cleanse detox for three days and lost seven pounds. She continued and revamped her diet, making it vegetable and juice focused. After four months, she was cancer free and lost a considerable amount of excess weight. Hers is probably not a prescription for combating cancer, but what she did worked for her.

Lustrous skin and hair indicate health. It’s the outer evidence of inner health. The plentiful consumption of natural foods can result in lustrous skin and hair. This can happen in 30 days. The skin is a symbol of our nutrition, as it conveys what’s going on inside our bodies. Improve the quality of your skin and hair by eating less wheat-based and packaged foods, replacing them with foods that look like they just came from the farm.

Cosmetics are a chemical dumping ground: horse urine and fragrance chemicals get absorbed into your body and potentially excite disease.

Traumas and Dramas. The “A Study” is a study about obesity. It posits that obesity is the result of stress and emotional adversity. People turn to food to nurture themselves. Stress causes cortisol, the so-called “death hormone”, which makes you gain weight.

Visualization is the language to use to communicate with your subconscious. Make a visual image of the way you want to look. Focus on it and absorb it regularly. Imagine being and living in that body. This can turn the program off that undermines you.

Love of self and others is cited as the crucial component for health and weight loss. When you feel unloved, you feel unsafe. If you feel worthless and unloved, you need to unwind the internal chatter that limits and undermines you. Tell yourself this:

“I accept myself unconditionally right now”.

Then pause and observe the nasty, contradictory messages that challenge this assertion, such as:

“You’re overweight, you’re unloved, and you don’t have a job”.

Repeat the affirmative self-talk. After 30 days of consistently repeating this mantra, those nasty voices will go quiet as you get stronger

Three questions to improve your life:

Where does my food come from?
What attitudes care or love went into the food?
What is my intention with this food – nutrition or entertainment?

Paying attention to these three questions throughout that day will shift your response to, and selection of, the food you eat.

OK, so that’s what I got from my notes; and, mind you, I only started taking them about half way through the documentary. Watch the trailer below and than go see the whole kit and kaboodle free until March 31, 2012, at either at Dr. Mercola’s website here, or sign-up and watch it at the HungeryForChange.tv website.

Here’s the trailer to Hungry for Change:

Contributors to Hungry for Change include:

Dr. Alejandro Junger

Dr Christiane Northrup

David Wolfe

Daniel Vitalis

Dr Joseph Mercola

Jason Vale

Jon Gabriel

Kris Carr

Evita Ramparte

Frank Ferrante

Joe Cross

Dr. Oz: How to Prepare for Your Cleanse

Joe Garma — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:29:22 +0000

How you prepare for a cleanse is as important as the cleanse itself, particularly if you may be vulnerable to the “detox effect”. Do you smoke, eat meat, sugar, wheat, caffeine? If so, do yourself a favor and avoid an unpleasant experience. Here’s what to do to ease into a cleanse…

Dr Oz: "Don't Rush Into Your Cleanse"

ALTHOUGH I’VE blogged about a wide variety of health topics (from health policy to exercise), the most viewed posts on this site are about diet and cleansing. So – ever the dutiful scribe – I’ll add this brief cautionary tale about cleansing, inspired by a Dr. Oz video I watched on Yahoo.

I’ve offered my own admonitions about cleansing. (Read The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect.) Not admonitions against cleansing, mind you, for I am a strong proponent of it. I’ve done many cleanses and always feel better afterwards (and thinner).

Rather, both the good Dr. Oz and I simply caution that there are some things you need to be aware of before launching into a cleanse in order to have the best possible experience.

What You Want to Avoid

What derails a cleanse or makes it insufferable are acute hunger, headaches, rashes, fatigue and irritability.

These effects occur because of toxins being released primarily from various fat storages in the body where they mostly reside. When the fat breaks down, the toxins enter the blood stream and the organs of elimination (liver, kidneys, skin, gastrointestinal tract) work to make them benign and/or exit from the body.

If toxins are released too rapidly and are not efficiently evacuated, you’ll experience the so-called detox effect described above.

Who is Most Susceptible to the Detox Effect?

Assuming you’re relatively healthy, your regular diet and the amount of fat you hold are decent predictors of how vulnerable you are to the detox effect.

If your diet is high in sugar, meat, wheat, caffeine and you smoke, you need to take extra precautions before you cleanse and in deciding which type of cleanse you do.

If you’re 20+ pounds overweight (and many of us are), you need to take extra precautions before you cleanse and in deciding which type of cleanse you do.

How To Approach Cleansing

In this video, Dr. Oz gives a quick presentation about how to avoid the detox effect. I’ve long extolled the same view. Here’s what we suggest:

Particularly if you’re susceptible to the detox effect as described above, don’t jump into a cleanse cold turkey; rather, prepare for your cleanse.
During the weeks prior to your cleanse start date, begin reducing sugar, caffeine, meat, wheat and inhaling smoke into your lungs.
Choose a cleanse that allows some food, such as veggies and fruit.
Drink a lot of pure water. A lot of pure water!
Ingest fiber, such as psyllium husk powder. (Check out WellBetX fiber complex in my post about blood glucose levels and fiber here.)

There are so many worthwhile cleanses to consider. Beginners and the vulnerable (ie: those with poor diet habits) do have options to choose that will result in a good experience.

I’ve done two simple cleanses that I advise you to consider.

One to check out is the simple and effective Colonaide by DrNatura. I did this cleanse last December so I could write about it from my own experience. Check out A Simple, Effective Cleanse — Colonaide by DrNatura.

The second is the so-called “Chinese Cleanse”. (I don’t know where the “Chinese” comes from.) It consists of fruits, vegetables and a home-made brew of cleansing herbs. I wrote about it in the post called, It’s Detox Time.

The “Colonaide Cleanse” is the simplest of the two, as it doesn’t require — although it recommends — that you eat cleansing foods such as vegetables and fruit during your cleanse, and it packages together all the cleansing supplements and herbal tea for your convenience.

The “Chinese Cleanse” is more hands on. You’ll need to find and buy the various herbs and brew them into a tea yourself.

My Recommendation

If you prefer to have the cleansing supplements pre-packaged as offered in the Colonaide Cleanse rather than buying the cleansing herbs individually and brewing the tea yourself, but you also like the instructions and suggestions about eating the fruits and veggies in the Chinese Cleanse… combine them!

Simply substitute the cleansing materials offered in the Colonaide Cleanse for the Chinese Cleanse herbs, and follow the instructions for what and when to eat the fruit and veggies in the Chinese Cleanse.

Got it?

Well, you will after you read about these two cleanses: Colonaide here and Chinese here.

Have fun.

Can You Improve Your Health By Drinking Marijuna Juice?

Joe Garma — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:17:59 +0000

I juice nearly every day, but never considered adding marijuana to the recipe. There is, however, much evidence to show that juicing raw cannabis can dramatically help relieve many chronic health issues, and add a strong layer of prevention.

Juice Your Raw Marijuna

YOU’VE UNDOUBTEDLY heard about smoking marijuana and baking marijuana into brownies and cookies – even making harsh oil from marijuana — but have you ever heard of, or considered juicing marijuana leaves?

Seriously. Just like juicing cucumber, kale, celery, carrots, apples and the like… add to the mix, marijuana!

This was news to me. And as I read about it and watched videos about it, I marveled at what might be the health benefits of juicing cannabis (marijuana).

Dr. William Courtney has extensively researched ingesting raw cannabis via juicing, says it’s a vegetable, and cites several benefits, such as helping with:

- Inflammation
- Diabetes
- Free radicals
- Cancer
- Arthritis
- Lupus
- Hypothyroidism
- Infection
- Asthma

Obviously there are challenges to juicing cannabis. There are the obvious legal hurdles to grow or buy it. And there’s the issue of quantity.

If you juice cannabis, you need a lot more of it than if you use it heated, either smoking it or baking it, or making an oil of it. Depending on the size, you may need half a plant per day.

In case you’re wondering how anybody could function ingesting that much marijuana, know that when you ingest it raw, cannabis has no psychotropic effect; meaning, you don’t get high.

Only by heating marijuana does it become able to get you “high”.

There are serious people investigating the juicing of marijuana, and so I believe we’ll be hearing more about it in the near future.

Curious? If so, view the three videos below.

These first two are mainly centered on the work of Dr. Courtney and the benefits of juicing cannabis that accrued to one particular patient who had a long litany of chronic ailments.

In the third video below, the history of marijuana in this country, including efforts to both suppress and extol its medicinal value, is reviewed in the PBS documentary called Clearing the Smoke, The Science of Cannabis.

I found it enlightening to learn about all the traditionally trained medical doctors advocating the use of medical marijuana, as well as the intimate portraits of those patients who have been helped.

Watch Clearing the Smoke: The Science of Cannabis on PBS. See more from KUSM.

For more information about juicing marijuana, check out the Cannabis International Foundation website. As it says on the home page:

“Here you’ll find peer-reviewed scientific articles about the latest research, updates on Cannabis’ ever-changing legal status in the US and elsewhere, interviews with important figures, practical advice for using Dietary Cannabis, Global Intellectual Property pertaining to cannabis, self directed internet study courses ranging from 30 minutes to 300 hours.”

A personal note: I don’t use marijuana in any of its various forms, nor do I consider myself an advocate of it. But I must say that I smell a skunk when it comes to this topic; meaning, I believe there are purely political and economic factors that over ride common sense when it comes to medical marijuana.”

My 2 cents. What’s yours? Let us know in the Comments section

One Herb and Six Actions for a Long, Strong Life

Joe Garma — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:20:35 +0000

Gynostemma pentaphyllum, also called jiaogulan, is a powerful adaptagen-type herb. Studies indicate it may help reverse some chronic illness and give your longevity a boost. Listen to health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins explore the benefits of Gynostemma.

Gynostemma, a Poweful Herbal Adaptagen

EVER ON the lookout for the means to help us live a long and strong life, I regularly dive into information that may lead me on my Ponce de León quest for the Fountain of Youth.

What’s become clear is that – so far – no one thing will do it; rather, living a long and strong life requires a mix of simultaneous, consistent actions, which include these six:

1. Attitude: The “right” mindset, achieving equanimity, reducing stress.

[Resource: Inspirational Alice – Dancing Under the Gallows at 107]

2. Nutrition: Clean, non-manufactured, unadulterated, organic (preferably), superfood-based food, drink and supplements.

[Resources: Diet 101 and Superfoods Anyone?]

3. Nurtaceuticals: The common term for these are “vitamin supplements” and I break them out from “Nutrition” because, although food/drink can be the best from of bioavailable nutrition, certain nutracueticals, such as antioxidants and herbs, are often more targeted and potent.

[Resources: Dr. Hyman: 4 Supplements Reduce Healthcare Costs and Groovy Supplements.]

4. Detoxification: Cleansing the ubiquitous toxins of the modern world from our lungs, skin, kidney, liver and gastrointestinal track.

[Resources: It’s Detox Time and The Ultimate Heavy Metal Detox.]

5. Exercise: Beyond helping you be more functionally fit so you can climb stairs and lift yourself over a wall (hey, it may happen someday), exercise includes being flexible and properly aligned.

[Resources: How Exercise Slows the Aging Process and How to Boost Your Human Growth Hormone in 20 Minutes.]

6. Socially/Emotionally Connected: The data clearly shows that people who are connected with their family and community live longer and happier lives.

[Resource: A Mega-Pastor and Three Famous Doctors Hatch “The Daniel Plan”]

So, as you can see, this longevity gig is not some casual, short term endeavor. It takes a lifetime to live a long time. And over time, we’re going to learn a lot, requiring constant tweaking of habits. Almost daily, it seems, science is declaring yet another insight and/or another protocol that may help us reach a very ripe young age – young in terms of how we feel and what we can do.

Today, I want to introduce you to Gynostemma pentaphyllum, also called Jiaogulan, a herbaceous vine indigenous to southern China, northern Vietnam, southern Korea, and Japan.

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan is best known as a herbal medicine reputed to have powerful antioxidant and adaptogenic effects that are thought to increase longevity. Clinical research has indicated a number of therapeutic qualities of Gynostemma, such as lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure, strengthening immunity, and inhibiting cancer growth.

Here’s a quick look through some of the reported benefits of Gynostemma, as presented by wikipedia (check wikipedia for sources of the studies cited below), followed by an audio file interview between health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins. Their conversation may convince you to try this remarkable herb.

Antioxidant

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan has been found to increase superoxide dismutase (SOD), which is a powerful endogenous cellular antioxidant. Studies have found it increases the activities of macrophages, T lymphocytes and natural killer cells and that it acts as a tumor inhibitor.

Adaptogen

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan is known as an adaptogen, which is an herb reputed to help the body to maintain optimal homeostasis, which many scientists think is a key for longevity. Most research has been done since the 1960s when the Chinese realized that it might be an inexpensive source of adaptogenic compounds, taking pressure off of the ginseng stock.

Blood pressure

Laboratory tests demonstrate that Gynostemma/Jiaogulan stimulates the release of nitric oxide, causing blood vessels to relax, which is one mechanism by which it reduces high blood pressure. In a double-blind study, Gynostemma/Jiaogulan administered to those with Grade II hypertension showed 82% effectiveness in reducing hypertension, compared to 46% for ginseng and 93% for Indapamide (a hypertension medication).

Cholesterol reduction

Numerous clinical studies in Chinese medical literature have shown that Gynostemma/Jiaogulan lowers serum cholesterol,^[18] triglycerides, and LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) while raising HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels, with reported effectiveness rates ranging from 67% to 93%.

Diabetes

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan tea has been studied in a randomized controlled trial in type 2 diabetic patients. It may have potential as a hypoglycemic treatment to reduce blood glucose.

Now, Listen to health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins explore the benefits of Gynostemma by clicking the picture below:

Listen to health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins explore the benefits of Gynostemma

Update: Bought it, an absolutely delicious brand named Immortalitea.

~~I have yet to try Gynostemma, but it’s on my short list~~, and I’ll be writing about it again as soon as I’ve had some experience with it. If you wish to try it, know that it’s sold in many health food stores and all over the Internet, such as on Amazon.com.

If you’ve used Gynostemma, let us know what you think in the Comments below.

The Ultimate Heavy Metal Detox

Joe Garma — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:39:02 +0000

Doctors Mercola and Yu bring us the Niacin Detox Protocol. It’s a proven, effective way to detox the chemicals from your body, which on average holds more than 400 toxic chemicals. But I advice caution. Beware the “detox effect”. Watch Yu and Mercola below.

Dr Yu's Niacin Detox Protocol

REGULAR READERS of this blog know well that I’m a big proponent of detox cleansing. It’s simply unavoidable that a person in modern society can reach adulthood without accumulating unnatural and unhealthy toxins in his/her body.

But you don’t even have to wait till adulthood to be so encumbered. Nor need you wait to be born to start counting the toxins in your body. According to an Environmental Working Group report, toxic chemicals first get introduced into a person’s body while still in the womb.

The report said this:

“Tests revealed a total of 287 chemicals in the group. The umbilical cord blood… harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage.”

“Of the 287 chemicals we detected in umbilical cord blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. The dangers of pre- or post-natal exposure to this complex mixture of carcinogens, developmental toxins and neurotoxins have never been studied.”

I don’t believe we all start out life as sinners, but it’s clear that we start out toxic.

So, from the start of life, our organs of detoxification, such as the kidneys and liver, are quickly tasked with working hard to keep us functioning. However, as we grow up and drive our cars, drink our booze, smoke our cigs, and eat our manufactured food, we double down on our “inheritance”.

Of course, our industrialized world contributes more than its fair share, making the most abstemious among us a toxic dump. In North America alone there are over 77,000 chemicals being produced; 3,000 of them have been added to our food supply and our bodies cannot metabolize 20,000 of them properly.

What happens to them? Between 400 and 800 of these sweet chemical residues get stored in our fat cells where they set up camp and thrive. We’re talking PCBs, dioxins, xylene and dichlorobenzene, among the hundreds of others.

Being overweight is becoming dangerous.

In addition to the diabestity and heart disease epidemic sweeping the country, we can now include toxic overload. That’s because toxins inhabit fat at 100 times the rate as is found in blood. Given that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, most of us are walking, talking chemical repositories.

Now, for those of you who haven’t clicked away in disgust or depression, know that there’s a little known protocol for extracting the toxins quickly, effectively and –maybe — safely.

Before I learned today about this protocol by Dr. George Yu, clinical professor of urological surgery at the George Washington Medical Center and Dr. Mercola, of health web site Mercola.com fame, my best advice for detoxing was to choose one of several cleansing rituals that’s aimed at detoxifying the liver, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract. And I’d say, “be sure you include frequent detox baths”.

[Read It’s Detox Time and Cleanse the Bloat Away – 5 Recommendations.]

Certainly, I still advocate these, as they’re effective and also complementary to the Dr. Yu Protocol I learned today. But now, we have an additional detox weapon in our arsenal, and one that has clear scientific evidence to support its effectiveness.

Niacin Detox Cleanse Protocol

Yes, this what I’m referring to as the Dr Yu Niacin Detox Cleanse, and it’s based on niacin, which is vitamin B3.

This protocol is very similar to what’s used to treat drug addicts, and other sufferers of chemical/heavy metal toxins, such as the 911 responders, those exposed to Agent Orange, and the like. This niacin cleanse has been extensively tested and works to quickly and effectively purging the body of toxic chemicals.

The niacin simply drives the toxins out of the cells. Yes, the niacin does its job, but yours is to do the specific routine that helps ensure your safety and the effectiveness of the protocol.

Here’s what to do each day for 30 days:

Niacin. Start with 250 milligrams of the type of niacin that creates the body “flush”, not the popular non-flush brand. When high doses of niacin are in the bloodstream, you will experience splotchy redness on the skin, itchiness, irritation, and if there’s too much niacin, light-headedness. So you need to start at 250 milligrams or less if less than 140 pounds. Ingest the niacin and then…
Exercise. You have to elevate your heart rate and start sweating. Do not wait more than 15 minutes after taking the niacin or you may be dealing with some of the unpleasant flush effects. Any aerobic exercise that elevates your pulse and causes sweating will do. Using a rebounder will increase the detox effectiveness because it helps cleans the lymph nodes. Other exercise choices could be jumping rope, jogging, walking up a hill, stationary or regular bike, elliptical machine, etc. Do it for at least 20 minutes.
Sauna. After exercising, cool down a bit, take a cool shower and then a 40-minute sauna. Forty minutes is too long for anyone not practiced at it, so you must do it in intervals. If you can only stand 15 minutes at a time, do it three times, with cool showers intermixed. An infrared sauna is best, but any will do.
Evacuate. After the sauna, ingest activated charcoal or bentonite (a type of liquid clay). Either of these quickly binds and absorbs anything in your gastrointestinal track and evacuates it from the body. (These are great to have on hand for those rare times you may overindulge on sugar or alcohol.)
Drink Water. Drink as much purified water as you can over the next several hours.

Niacin Cleanse Precautions

As with anything new that affects your health, you need to be smart about this! Friends of mine have done the detox bath and overloaded on the niacin and had a couple hours of a very unhappy time. The same could happen here.

Don’t overdose on the niacin! (See # 1 above.)
If you don’t have a sauna, substitute it with a detox bath. (Instructions are at the end of this post, Detoxifying Your Way to Nirvana… skip the niacin part since you’ll have already consumed it.)
30 Days is a long time. Frankly, although this is the time-tested protocol used for detoxing some high at-risk people, I think it’s too long for the average person. Take baby steps… maybe try every other day for a week and see how you’re feeling.
Overweight? Dr. Yu cautions that doing this niacin cleanse if overweight, particularly if obese, may release more toxins from fat into the bloodstream than can be handled without causing a detox effect. (Read my post, The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect.) If this describes you, lose some pounds first. (Yeah, I know…easier said than done. Get some points on this by reading, Diet 101.)
Liver Problems. High does of niacin can affect the liver of some people. Hepatotoxicity may occur after months of daily doses of 500 to 750 mg/day, along with side effects such as elevated liver enzymes, jaundice and hepatitis. So, I say again that medical supervision is recommended before you do this niacin protocol.

My last comment on this topic is that I intend to try this Niacin Detox Protocol myself, but to be clear about how it would work for me I first need to get a blood test to identify my body’s chemical load. Then retest. Another item on my “to do” list. You may want to wait for me to be the guinea pig before you try it, or do it under the consultation of your doctor.

And now to the videos about the Niacin Detox Protocol from doctors Yu and Mercola:

Note that Dr. Mercola spoke about telomeres, the DNA in our chromosomes that determine lifespan. Here are some posts on the topic that you’ll want to know about:

Three Months to Longer Life
How Exercise Slows the Aging Process
How to Live to 100. Watch.

The Reboot Cleanse Diet – Two Common Struggles

Joe Garma — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:21:57 +0000

The Reboot Juice Cleanse, or Reboot Diet, is a popular and effective diet and/or cleanse; however, if you don’t approach it right, you will abandon it quickly as you struggle with hunger and detox headaches. Here, I answer two common questions from Reboot beginners who struggle to get the Reboot right.

YOU MIGHT have heard by now of the “Reboot Diet”, or the “Reboot Juice Cleanse” made very popular by Australian Joe Cross’ documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.

A fast recap of the film: Joe Cross is fat, sick and although not “nearly dead”, he’s on that path. (Yes, I know we all are, but his was shorter than many.) The good entrepreneur that he is, Joe decided to make a documentary of his approach to losing weight and getting fit. For 60 days, he ambled across the USA while consuming nothing but vegetable-fruit juices made by his trusty Breville juicer (the same one I use). We witness Joe getting thinner and more vital, as does a couple of inspiring people who join him on his juicing quest.

So, now web sites have sprouted on the Interwebs to promote and support the Reboot Juice Cleanse. I myself have written about it, seeking to add my two cents about how to best go about successfully implementing this Reboot Diet.

In Fat Sick and Nearly Dead – The Reboot Plan, I introduce the documentary and suggest some improvements about how to do the Reboot Juice Cleanse.

In The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect, I caution that diving from a meat and potatoes dietary existence into an all-juice, all-the-time diet/cleanse is a recipe for headaches, discomfort, hunger and an overall f_ _k you attitude manifested by throwing the Breville juicer out the window.

With all that as background, the reason I write this particular post is to share two comments I made to questions asked at the Join the Reboot site. I’ll present the questions asked by two earnest, beginner juicers, and my response to each.

Two Questions, Two Answers

Jon asks:

“I am new here and took the assessment which recommended that I should use the 15 Day Reboot program. I was actually interested in shooting for the 60 day juice fast as was demonstrated in the movie ”Fat Sick and Nearly Dead”. Is there anyone currently working towards a 60 day plan here? Should I give it a shot or should I stay with what was recommended?”

My Reply:

“Jon, I’ve been cleansing and juicing off and on for 30 years, and have helped friends do the same. Given that experience, let me suggest that you first learn to add the juicing to whatever diet you now have. Over time, begin substituting fresh foods for the stuff that inhabits cabinets. Then, drop a meal, add juice. Spend a week with that. Then drop two meals, add juice. Once you’ve gotten to this point, you may be ready to sustain a long juice-only cleanse.

This process will help ensure success and also minimize the detox effect, which could upend the whole juice cleanse. Don’t know if this site will allow it, but I’ll try to copy a link to “The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect” for more about this: http://wp.me/pA04z-MQ

If it doesn’t show up just google, “The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect”.”

Doris asks:

“Hi I want to workout where will I get my protein”?

My Reply:

“Doris, getting protein during a cleanse is not easy… I mean enough to keep or build muscle while cleansing.

Most protein sources (meat, fish, eggs) is acidic and should be avoided during a cleanse. Unfortunately, even if you don’t do exercise that breaks down muscle tissue during a cleanse, most people lose lean muscle tissue. Of course, this is compounded if you do the sort of exercise that does tax the muscles.

As a long-time cleanser and exerciser, I’ve faced this issue many times. Sometimes I just say, “the heck with it”, and keep ingesting my whey protein in water. I still get good cleansing results. But perhaps a better solution would be to eat a vegetable-based protein, like pea protein, or hemp protein.

Whichever you do, I suggest that if you’re going to exercise during your cleanse –assuming you’re just ingesting juice — do it with less intensity. After all, an important part of cleansing is to let your body excise toxins, rest and recover.”

Now, I share these two questions because they are common questions for beginners seeking to do a juice cleanse, or substantially reduce the foods common to the American diet in favor of vegetable/fruit juices.

The Bottom Line

As with any journey, where you start on the Reboot Cleanse depends on where you are. The further away is your regular, every day diet from an all vegetable and fruit diet — the slower must be your transition into a veggie/fruit juice diet/cleanse. Given that a cleanse demands rest, you should choose to do it when you can be less active than normal, and that includes ratcheting down the exercise intensity.

During a cleanse, you’re likely to lose both fat and muscle, so you could supplement with vegetable-based protein like pea or hemp protein. I’ve used whey protein powder (see ), which frankly is not ideal because whey is a diary product and diary is acidic, whereas a cleanse is about getting your body more alkaline; however, I still benefited from my cleanses even while using whey. (This is the whey product I use.)

If you’ve had any experience with juicing, how ‘bout you tell us about it in the Comments section below.

Thanks for reading!

Yep.

P.S. Here’s the Breville Juicer that Joe Cross and I use. Click the image and learn more about it at Amazon.com, and there you can decide if it’s the juicer for you.