After the holiday’s…  cleanse!  Certainly, you’ll be ready for it. Here’s a review of a pretty effective 14-day colon cleanse, given its simplicity.  Called, Clolonaide, by DrNatura, all you need to do is drink some psyllium powder in water in the morning, and herbal tea at night.  Keep a toilet close by.

WHEN I was in Santa Barbara a few weeks ago, I stayed with Rich Carson, a friend of mine from college days and the Founder of Pro Health, a health information and supplement company.  As you may have read at various places on this site, I’ve had a long relationship with Pro Health, not only given my relationship with Rich, but from a business and user perspective: I’ve consulted for Pro Health and am a power user of their supplements, as just a glance at the Products Section of this site will reveal.

When Rich brought me by the company offices, I bumped into Pro Health’s Product Manager.  Her office is full of supplements sent to her by manufactures eager for Pro Health to sell their stuff.  Knowing that I’m into detox cleansing, she gave me two cleansing products to try.  I just finished one of them, and want to tell you about my experience.

Colonaide, the package claims, is “From the #1 Brand in Colon Cleansing”, DrNatura.  I chuckled when reading that – after all, marketing departments are typically liberal with such claims.  Imagine my surprise when I googled “colon cleansing products” and found DrNatura among the top results presented.

The Colonaide Program

The product comes in a box.  Inside the box are 14 bags of a tea called Kleritea, and 14 single-serving intestinal cleansers called Colonix. The tea consists of various common, proven cleansing herbs, such as senna leaf, buckthorn bark, fennel seed, peppermint leaf and the like.

The intestinal cleanser is mainly psyllium powder, which is rich in soluble fiber (eight times that of oat bran) and is part of most every cleansing program because of its ability to swell into a spongy mass inside the colon, absorbing fluids and toxins along its circuitous route to the final exit point.

In addition to psyllium powder, Colonix, the intestinal cleanser, contains a proprietary blend of 14 herbs that help it do its cleansing job.

Instructions: Over a period of 14 days, pour the Colonix into eight or more ounces of water, or juice (preferably with water added) in the morning, and have the tea at night.  The longer you steep the tea, the stronger it gets and the more powerful is the cleansing action, so for the first seven days, seep it no longer than two minutes; thereafter, up to six minutes. If you’re a beginner and make the tea too strong, you could wind up spending more time than you’d like on the throne, get some cramps, headaches or develop a rash.

That’s it – it’s as simple as a cleanse can be.  No diet, change of food or drink consumed, no enemas or colonics, and no fasting.  Frankly, I wondered if I should bother doing this cleanse, as it seemed too modest to be very beneficial, particularly for me, a frequent cleanser who assumes that I’m pretty “clean” inside relative to the average bear.

[If you're not a beginner and want a more extensive cleanse, check out my post, It's Detox Time.]

Now, before I get into my Colonaide experience, let me diverge a bit for a cleansing commentary.

A Cleansing Commentary

Among medical types, there’s a debate about the effectiveness of cleaning.  I’ve read statements made by doctors who perform colonoscopies that exclaim that they’re looking up there every day with scopes and don’t see all that muck that cleansing types say must be cleaned out for good health.

Dr. Michael Picco at the Mayo Clinic puts it this way:

“… most [Doctor’s] don’t recommend colon cleansing for detoxification. Their reasoning is simple: Your digestive system and bowel naturally eliminate waste material and bacteria — your body doesn’t need colon cleansing to do this.”

When Dr. Oz was asked: I get these e-mails about colon cleansing. Is it a good idea?, he responded:

“You’ll get rid of more crap by deleting the e-mails. The intestines empty themselves completely if you eat a high-fiber diet.”

(Of course, most people do not eat “a high fiber diet.)

One famous cleanse, the Master Cleanse, is often cited as a scam.  It consists of water, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lemon juice.  Nothing else.  Basically, you’re fasting for as long as you decide you can.

OK, so I’ve read these anti-cleanse views, but when I turn to the non-MD health types, a very different perspective is presented.  For instance, Naturopathic Doctors are gung ho for cleanses, and frankly, it’s their view that has informed my own.  A site run by Naturopath Sushma Shah, N.D. says this:

“Body detoxification and or cleansing are important part of maintaining health, slowing the aging process and preventing diseases, by allowing the body to rid itself of a build up of toxins. Our bodies are exposed to various toxins regularly – in our foods, in the air we breathe, in our environments among other areas, while the body has a tremendous capacity to put up with junk, it does eventually break down and that is when the body starts to suffer from various symptoms of feeling sluggish, lack of energy, digestive issues such as bloating and constipation among other symptoms.”

Interesting how two types of doctors, whose degrees are only separated by one letter, “M” vs “N” can be so divergent on their respective views about cleansing.

My Colonaide Experience

From my experience, I found the psyllium powder mix to be of high quality, although too sweet for my palate.  Yes, there’s stevia in there, a good choice for a sweetener, but unnecessary in my view.  I also wonder how the herbs embedded in the psyllium powder can have a chance to get into the body since the powder quickly gels when in liquid, and thereby becomes an absorber, not an emitter of material.  So, how does the herbs get out of the gel, I wonder?

The tea tasted fine.  I didn’t pay attention to how long it seeped, although it certainly was longer than ten minutes right from the start. This might have contributed to a slight underarm rash (which I have gotten in spades when doing heavy duty cleanses and fail to do enough detoxing bathing), and a slight headache one evening.

My weight stayed the same, which is no surprise since this cleanse didn’t require that one’s diet change at all.

My elimination didn’t stay the same.

Any good cleanse will quickly change your elimination in several ways – there will be more of it, with a different consistency, color, odor and contents of the stuff eliminated.  Everyone’s different, but over the course of this 14 day cleanse, you can expect your stool to loosen, go from very dark to light, go from oder-full to oder-less, reduce your use of toilet tissue (clean as a whistle!) and potentially contain things that will remind you of parasites, cause they probably are.  Yes, most of us have them, and that will be one big surprise.  The other will be the amount of material evacuated.  “Where did all that come from?!”, you’ll be muttering.

About four days into the cleanse, as mentioned, I did experience a slight headache and soon after that some red blotches under my arms.  Neither of these conditions are unique to me, given all the cleanses I’ve done, and both make sense as part of the so-called “detox effect”, but I can’t necessarily connect them to this cleanse.  If they had became a nuisance, I would have taken a detox bath (click and scroll down to the bottom) to help purge the toxins that might have been behind these physical changes.

Although it wasn’t a recommended part of the cleanse per se, I did take probiotics before going to bed. I strongly suggest taking proboitics when cleansing. Those herbs and psyllium powder may disrupt the natural balance of bacteria in your gut et al (if you’re one of the few who is in balance), so do yourself a favor and ingest probiotics. I take these: Pro-Dophilus With FOS.

Recommendation

Go for it.  I mean, I have no way of knowing if this is the best simple cleanse you can do, but I do believe that it will be worthwhile for most people.  Frankly, I think I’d feel that way about any cleanse made of good quality products, because given that most of us fill our gut with heavy antibiotic-laced meats, crappy simple manufactured carbs and artery-clogging fats, a colon cleanse may be just what the doctor ordered; that is, if there’s a “ND” not a “MD” after the name.

Related posts:

1. Cleanse the Bloat Away – 5 Recommendations
2. The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect
3. It’s Detox Time

The cholesterol drug Lipitor lost its patent today.  The generic Lipitor will be much cheaper. But does that make it a good deal to you?  Some side-effects are life-threatening.  Why not make a life-style change instead?

LIPITOR USERS are in a celebratory mood, because today Lipitor lost its patent.  Yes, the Lipitor patent – the legal imprimatur enabling Pfizer, Lipitor’s manufacture, a monopoly on the drug – has expired, which means that generic Lipitor can now be made by any drug company that can duplicate it and get FDA approval.

Pfizer may claim, but cannot back up, that the Lipitor it manufactures is superior to generic Lipitor.  But au contrare – molecule for molecule – the generic stuff will be identical, and thus will work the same, including offering all those nasty side-effects.

To the Lipitor-uninitiated, know that Lipitor is a “statin” mostly associated with cholesterol, but is also used to treat people with a high risk of stroke, heart attack, or other heart complications, as well as people with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

So, the good news about Lipitor losing its patent is that the market opens up to Lipitor generic competitors.  Yes, the price will be going down. Now, it’s about $5.00 per pill.  Soon, the price of a Lipitor generic drug, as estimated by a Harvard doctor I just heard on the PBS Newshour, will be $2.50 per pill. As others join the fray and manufacturing capacity increases, the price will decline further.

(Don’t fret for Pfizer, as they’ve been actively putting together a cabal of various entities, such as pharmacies, doctors, benefit manager and patents to maintain its market share by offering various incentives, such as Lipitor Coupons.  More on that here.)

For those using Lipitor for all those ailments written above, paying less is a good thing.  Happy people.  However, I contend that many Lipitor users would be better off if, rather than now having a price incentive to use more, or beginning to use it, they made healthier life-style changes instead.

Consider the Side-Effects

Like most pharmaceutical drugs, Lipitor comes with a long list of side-effects, a partial list which includes:

Myalgias, arthritis/ arthralgias, diarrhea, headache, rashes, elevation of liver transaminases, elevation of creatine kinase a muscle enzyme, various gastrointestinal symptoms including flatulence, dyspepsia, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, and various infection symptoms.

If the above list of Lipitor side-effects are insufficient to give you pause, here are some that are life-threatening:

Rhabdomyolysi,  Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, photosensitivity, vasculitis, polymyalgia rheumatica, angioedema, anaphylaxis.  (Source for Lipitor side-effects.)

Read again the list of health conditions that Lipitor is made to ameliorate.  Notice a common denominator among them?

Well, they’re all chronic, debilitating conditions that in many, many cases can be vastly improved through life-style changes.  And yet, so many people are unwilling to change behavior that they cumulatively will spend this year in the U.S.A. over $289 billion (the 2006 number) for drugs that attempt to fix their health problems, many of which can be improved by adopting healthy life-style changes.

This might be understandable if the drugs that improved chronic, debilitating health conditions were safe, but as noted above, they’re not… people die or get ill from the side-effects, and also become dependent on the drugs.

Rather Not Do Drugs?

UPDATE:  Check out Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs.

If you’re on Lipitor or some other pharmaceutical drug for a health condition that can be improved via a life-style change, check out some the information below and ask your doctor if your situation could be made better by doing something other than popping drugs.

Food is medicine, as you might have heard, and so start out by learning about superfoods and healthy diets.  On this blog, read My Approach to Health, and from there read Diet 101 and/or Dr. Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Plan.

For more information about cholesterol, check out: 12 Myths About Cholesterol. Interested in lowering your cholesterol the natural way? For information and inspiration, check out one man’s pursuit of healthy cholesterol numbers. Red Yeast is sometimes prescribed by doctors to help lower mildly increased cholesterol – check it out here.

If your issue involves the heart, read Dr. Oz’s Life Saving Heart Tips, and be aware of supplements to aide cardiovascular health.

Finally, medical types are connecting the dots between pernicious, chronic diseases and are finding that obesity is one main culprit – or “common denominator”, to use a phrase elsewhere in this missive.  So, here’s a fairly new term they devised – Diabestity.  It equals obesity + diabetes.

Yes, combine obesity and diabetes and you get “Diabesity”, which the ever-insightful Dr. Mark Hyman discusses in this post, The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming To You.  It’s about how to know if you’re at risk, or have diabesity, and what to do about it if you do.

Good reading to all!

Related posts:

1. High Cholesterol? Do Something!
2. 12 Myths About Cholesterol
3. Sally Fields and the Wonders of Boniva

Since in America 2/3rds of us are overweight, knowing about the ultimate risk of belly fat is both urgent and important. The facts recently uncovered are shocking!  Learn about the damage that excess fat can do, and how to minimize the risks.

WITH THANKSGIVING one day away, this subject may be viewed as heresy because it deals with diet, but I just learned a few things from yesterday’s Dr. Oz show and if I don’t write about it now, it may elude me later.  Let me add that it’s important for you to know this.

As Dr. Oz reports, the science is clear, and what it says is disturbing given that about 2/3rds of all Americans are overweight.  What we know now is that…

Fat can cause cancer!

This eye-popping assertion was the subject of yesterday’s Dr. Oz show, where he and Dr. Kathleen Wolin, an expert on the matter, delved into how fat causes cancer, what types of cancer fat can cause and what can be done to mitigate the risk.

And the risk is substantial.  To underscore this, I’ll ask you a question.  What do you think has the greatest potential to cause cancer, smoking cigarettes or being overweight?

The answer: Both smoking cigarettes and being overweight carry the same risk of creating cancer – a 30% chance each.

What the studies now demonstrate is that belly fat not only increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease, the so called “diabesity”, but of four types of cancer as well.  The four cancers are: Pancreatic Cancer, Colon Cancer, Kidney Cancer and Endometrial Cancer.

If you’re overweight by more than ten pounds, and certainly if you’re obese, you now have a very big reason to take the bull by the horns and lose weight.  If you’ve tried before and weren’t successful, this is the time to seek help, particularly if anyone in your family had any of the four fat-influenced cancers, diabetes or heart disease.

A Special Kind of Fat

What is under scrutiny here is not all fat irrespective of where it is on your body, but belly fat.  Not all fat has the same damage potential.  The fat on your thighs is not as harmful as that hanging around your belly.

Belly fat is called the “omentum”. Omentum is defined by About.com to be:

“… a large fatty structure which essentially hangs off the middle of your colon and drapes over the intestines inside the abdomen to be It is a hormone producer that disrupts normative chemicals in your body. These hormonal chemicals can feed cancer cells and resist the immune system’s response to them.”  (Source here.)

Here’s what it looks like:  

The 4 Cancers that Fat Can Cause

The one common characteristic of the four cancers that fat can cause is that they are all in organs located in proximity to the belly fat, especially when the fat covers a lot of ground – left, right, up, down, out and round.

1. Pancreatic Cancer.  As you may know, the pancreas is deep in the abdomen below the stomach and liver, which makes it close to the belly.  The pancreas helps regulate how the body processes sugar by producing insulin.  If impaired, the pancreas may have difficulty producing insulin, which is the major cause of diabetes.  What’s now known is that a pancreas that can’t regulate sugar due to excess belly fat leaves it vulnerable to cancer.

Reduce this risk by eating foods rich in folates, such as eggs, asparagus, oranges and green leafy vegetables.

2. Colon Cancer.  The omentum lies over the colon and gets entwined within it.  The pernicious effect it has on the colon is through increasing inflammation and reducing immune function.

Reduce this risk by taking two “baby” aspirin daily in warm water so that it’s quickly dissolved. Another tip is to take a curcumin supplement, as this herb is very useful in reducing inflammation.  To increase immune function, consider the supplements listed in Power Up Your Immune System and Antioxidants Kill Free Radicals.

3. Kidney Cancer. Belly fat is a major producer of the hormone “leptin” which can fuel cancer growth as it helps the blood vessels that feed the cancer cells in the kidney.

Reduce this risk by lowering your salt consumption, increasing potassium, and eating foods such as bananas, apricots and broccoli (all high in potassium).

4. Endometrial (Uterine) Cancer.  The omenum fat excretes estrogen and bathes the uterine in it constantly, hyper-stimulating it.  This can result in cancer.

Reduce this risk by drinking a cup of coffee without sugar and cream.  The thought is that coffee helps stimulate metabolism which has the effect of reducing estrogen, although the science is not clear on this.  Personally, I rather drink green tea for the metabolic stimulating effect.  I do this and take the Green Tea Mega supplement.

A 35+ Inch Waist is Dangerous

How do you know if you’re carrying too much belly fat?  Well, I guess it’s a good sign if you’re unsure, for if it’s not completely obvious, you may not be in the danger zone.  But just to make sure, here’s how to measure your waist:

Take your tape measure and bring it across your belly button and hips.  You can suck your belly in. Look down at the tape and gasp!  If the measurement is more than 35 inches for a woman, or 40 inches for a man, you need to take some weight loss measures.

One important thing to point out here, particularly to those of you who don’t consider yourself overweight, and that is maybe tomorrow you will be. In fact, odds are that as the years unfold, so will your belly.

The reason is that the average American adds a couple of pounds each year as we get older. The weight sneaks up on us, and as it does, so do the cancer risks described here. Obviously, it’s really important that you pay attention and not be lax about what might initially seem to be the gaining of a few pounds.

[Here are Dr. Oz’s five life saving numbers you should know.]

Tips and Tricks for Weight Loss

It’s beyond the scope of this post to deeply dig into a weight loss system, and surely there’s enough information on the Web about that.  I can suggest a few things, however, to get you on your way.

1. Get educated on the subject.  On this blog, you can read Dr Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Diet Plan, Diet 101 and The Basics – My Approach to Health.

2. Choose a few things that you’re willing to do to lose weight and add one each week or so.  For instance, one week you can reduce your red meat consumption to two servings and increase your green leafy vegetables to five servings.  One week, walk x blocks, week two 2x blocks.

3. Recruit a buddy.  This person will keep you on your plan and vice versa.

4. Establish new, healthy habits that you do at specific time each day.  For instance:

- Upon waking, first thing, drink as much purified water as you can.

- Then consume 20 to 30 grams of protein, either a whey, hemp, pea or rice protein supplement, and/or eggs and beans… in any event, ALWAYS eat something balanced and good for breakfast (see #1).

- Throughout the day, drink water with apple cider vinegar in it, about one teaspoon per eight ounces, or if you can’t stand the taste that way, first put the vinegar in your mouth and then chase it with water.  Vinegar is a good fat emulsifier.

- When eating high glycemic foods (white food – wheat, rice and such, sugary foods, packaged foods) add some vinegar or cinnamon to slow down the blood glucose reaction.

- Eat fiber-rich foods and have a back-up plan in case your day is taking you away from such foods.  A back-up plan would be to have some flax seed powder (grind fax seeds in your coffee grinder, or buy them already grounded) or psyllium husk powder and scoop  a tablespoon into a shaker jar filled with water, lemon water, or water with a touch of apple juice.

Drink it down fast before it congeals.

Mobility – Use It or Lose It!

My final statement here goes without saying but I’ll say it:

Each of the risk reducing behaviors cited above for the four different cancers influenced by fat can be made dramatically more effective with exercise.

There’s no getting around the fact that our bodies are made to move.  For most of us in the modern world, they only move from a building to a car to the dinner table.  Insufficient!  If you don’t know how to exercise, find out.  As I mentioned above, recruit a buddy and make it your business to find out how to exercise.

And make sure part of your exercise program includes stuff that makes you breathe heavily (aerobic/anaerobic) , stuff that works your muscles thoroughly (resistance training) and stuff that stretches you (like yoga).  Here’s a five-minute session to get you started.

OK… it’s Thanksgiving, go be thankful, eat heartily but consciously, and resolve to do some things differently.  Please share this with everyone you think could benefit by it.  And good luck.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Oz on Preventing Breast Cancer (Watch Video)
2. The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, Cancer and Obesity
3. Guidelines Push Back Age for Cervical Cancer Tests

Dr. Oz jumps into the hCG diet controversy.  Is it a sham or an effective, healthy way to lose weight?  Read what Oz says, watch what sis says, and (perhaps) remain confounded.

DID YOU see the Dr. Oz show about hCG yesterday?  I thought it was high time that the good doctor weighed in on hCG because this diet has taken the nation by storm, and it’s very controversial.

(Read the Oz details here.)

Controversial because on this diet, you take a hormone, hCG (often injected) and subsist on 500 calories a day.  The idea is that the calories “burned up” by the hCG combine with the 500 dietary calories to provide the body enough total calories to sustain life.

I know a fair amount about hCG.  I’ve read a lot about it and also observed my mother losing 50 lbs and sister, 24 lbs on the diet.  Mom loved it, though it seems like her hair got thinner, a potential side effect.  My sister did one round and stopped cause it made her lethargic and feel basically unwell.

(Sis is on video talking about it here: My Sister Loses One Pound/Day on hCG — Watch.)

Here’s a few observations on this hCG diet topic:

Either by being more vocal or more prevalent, more hCG dieters seem to lose weight then those who try this diet and don’t.  This confused Dr. Oz because there’s no scientific, tested reason for the hCG diet to actually work.  All the studies indicate that hCG dieters lose the same amount of weight as those that get a placebo, but think it’s hCG.  The conclusion The Oz voiced was: if you do it, use the inject-able form and do it under a doctor’s supervision.

(Good to point out here that I’ve read that only the inject-able form can work because the hCG molecule is larger than those under the tongue so it can’t pass them when taken orally; rather, it must be injected.  Don’t know if this is true.)

Why needles and doctors? Because the hCG that’s purchased via a doctor and delivered via needles is pharmaceutical grade and has the prescribed does of hCG, so says Oz.  (He didn’t mention the big molecule thesis mentioned above.)

The sub-lingual and homeopathic remedies that are prevalent online may not have unadulterated hCH; in fact, by definition, the homeopathic type will only have trace amounts of the stuff – perhaps just a few molecules.

And yet many homeopathic hCG users lose weight at the same rate as the needle people, about one pound per day for males and a bit less for women.  This result underscores the research that says placebos work just as well.

For a pretty thorough run down about the hCG diet, watch my sister explain it, and then do your homework, ask your doctor, and be careful.

Related posts:

1. Five Diet and Exercise Myths that Need to Die
2. Dr Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Diet Plan
3. My Sister Loses One Pound/Day on hCG — Watch

Do these three things to help prevent breast cancer (and other cancers as well)!

[Update: Research has also shown that Curcumin, the active ingredient in the common spice, Turmeric, has properties that also reduce the expression of these deadly molecules within cancer cells and can potentially slow the spread of breast cancer.  Story here.]

HE’S BEEN called “America’s Doctor” ever since Oprah routinely placed him in front of TV viewers of her show, and then went on to produce the Dr. Oz Show.

The man is a font of medical knowledge, and is committed to demystifying health so that we all can maintain it if we have it, or obtain it if we don’t.

I just saw a video of him being interviewed about breast cancer.  It was on Yahoo’s home page, so I thought that this must be a poignant topic, one people are interested in.  So for the benefit of my female readers, and the men that love them, here are Dr. Oz’s three things to do to prevent breast cancer, followed by a video clip of him saying the same thing.

Do These Three Things to Prevent Breast Cancer:

1. If Overweight, Lose It. Obesity increases the risk of breast cancer because fat cells disrupt the normal hormone balance, particularly by increasing estrogen which can “turn on” cancer cells.
2. Reduce Saturated Fat. Similar to the obesity issue cited above, too much saturated fat can irritate the hormonal system and can activate cancer cells.
3. Eat Green Leafy Vegetables. These help your liver cleanse itself of toxins, many of which are thought to either cause or exacerbate cancer.

In the video (below), in addition to speaking to breast cancer prevention, Dr. Oz also encourages people to get colonoscopies.  He recently had a scare when a routine test done at the hallmark age (for colonoscopies) of 50 showed pre-cancerous polyps in his colon.  This is a man who is the epitome of health, so if it can happen to him, it could happen to you.  Fortunately for Dr. Oz, the test enabled the polyps to be removed before any harm was done.

Now to the video:

Related posts:

1. Is the Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Campaign Effective? Listen.
2. Can Dairy Cause Breast Cancer? Prostate Cancer?
3. Will Your Belly Fat Cause Cancer?

The “3 Weight Loss Secrets”, the “5 Foods That Make You Fat”, and the “7 First Days” of the “14 Day Reboot Diet Plan”. (Yep — read on.)

ON THE last day of last year, I posted about Dr. Oz’s Revolution Resolutions and said that I’d be following up with specifics from his Dr. Oz Show, the forum he uses to “edutain” us about health matters. Sure enough, in his first show of the new year the good doctor jumped right into the second of his Resolutions: Don’t Get Hungry. (See the other two resolutions here.)

[If you're looking for the Reboot Your Life program inspired by the documentary, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, go here.]

The focus of the show was to present information about the types of food and behavior that make us fat, and what to do about it from a doctors point of view.

To say that this topic is vitally important is an understatement — fully 60% of Americans are overweight! By Valentine’s Day, 80% of those vowing to loosed weight have broken their vow. And of those who don’t, and achieve their weight loss goal, only 2% keep off the excess weight that they lost.

I enjoy watching the Oz passionately crack the whip in his amiable way. He truly brings penetrating insights to his health topics. But I had to grin as this show revved up because there were a lot of numbers presented, enough to make this summary worthwhile to anyone who happened to watch it, not to mention those who have not.

Huh?

Well, here’s what I mean: There were the “3 Weight Loss Secret”, the “5 Foods That Make You Fat”, and the “7 First Days” of the “14 Day Reboot Diet Plan”.

Got it?

Let’s go through them one by one. You’ll want to continue with this, because you’ll learn at least one helpful thing that you didn’t know before.

3 Weight Loss Secrets

#1. Waist size is more important than weight.

We get obsessed with how much we weigh, but a better determinate of health is our waist size. A general guideline is that your waist should not be greater than 1/2 your height. For a woman, the max is typically 37 inches (measured around the belly button); for men, the high mark is 40 inches (don’t measure under the belly where perhaps your belt has been cinched).

#2. Blubber has a biology that must be understood.

Here Dr. Oz delves into one of his favorite topics — the omentum (rhymes with “momentum” as he often says). The omentum is a sheet of fat attached to the bottom edge of the stomach, extends to the undersurface of the liver, and hangs down in front of the intestines. Its other edge is attached to the transverse colon.

This so-called “sheet” of fat can enlarge into a balloon of fat. When it grows, so does the belly fat. And the liver fat. Overlarge, it changes the biology of your body, negatively impacting hormones, creating chronic disease and stress.

#3. Five foods that make you fat.

1. Simple Sugars. Sugar and other “simple” carbohydrate-based “food” and drink, like white flour and soda spike your blood sugar (glucose) levels without providing satiation. The blood sugar spike happens because there’s no fiber to slow down the sugar “uptake”.

What to do? Replace sugar with stevia or blue agave, or scrap it all together.

2. Syrups. Syrups are another example of “simple” carbohydrates that spike your blood sugar (glucose) levels without providing satiation. You don’t feel full because there’s no fiber or nutrition.

What to do? Replace syrups (and jellies) with chopped up whole fruit. Fruit may have the same calorie count and sugar content as what it’s replacing, but the fiber helps promote a slower blood glucose absorption. You’re left feeling fuller and with more sustained energy.

3. White Flour. You have to stuff yourself to be satiated from eating white flour (does pizza come to mind) because the nutrition parts of the whole wheat have been stripped away AND there’s no fiber to help make you feel full.

What to do? Replace white flour with 100% whole wheat grain. Love pizza? Buy 100% whole wheat pizza crust, take it home, layer it with lightly sautéed veggies, sprinkle it with virgin, cold press olive oil and lightly with mozzarella and/or feta cheese, and bake.

4. Saturated Fat. If you’re a big red meat eater, you may be getting more saturated fat than your body can deal with. Saturated fat clogs arteries and increases the “bad” cholesterol.

What to do? Eat chicken and fish. Pretty simple. Well, we can add an extra layer of complexity by suggesting you eat free range, organically fed chicken so you don’t potentially get pummeled with the hormones and bacteria that can infect factory-grown fowl. And with fish, it’s a good idea to avoid those species that are heavily laden with mercury these days. Here’s a list.

5. Trans Fat. This is also called “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil”. It’s on the label of “foods” that need to hang out on store shelves, or in your pantry, for a long time. That’s because trans fats are designed to extend the “shelf life” of “food”. Many packaged foods have trans fats in them, as do fried foods.

What to do? Jettison all foods that contain trans fat. Check the labels on everything that lasts a long time on the shelf, whether in the fridge or cabinet. Get rid of it. When you want a quick snack, grab a rice cake, lather it with peanut, almond or sunflower seed butter, and then top it off with a few raisins for sweetness.

With these insights under your belt, the Oz turned to his “14 Day Reboot”, starting with the first 7 days. The 14 days is an important length of time, as this is how long it takes to begin forming new habits. The first 7 days, go like this…

7 Day Plan of the 14 Day Reboot

(the first 7 days)

Day 1: Dump the Fridge. You can get a good idea what to do here… just let the Five Foods that Make You Fat (above) be your guide. Add what’s in the kitchen cabinets. If the food is on the “Five Foods” list, dump them.

Day 2: Drop 100 Calories. Buy yourself a good pair of walking shoes and a pedometer. Lace up the shoes and go walking, 10,000 steps per day worth of walking. Doesn’t need be all at once, but by the end of the day, 10,000 steps should be recorded on your pedometer. If you can’t (or won’t) do that many, choose a number — a large number — and increase it every few days till the number “10,000″ gleams back at you from the pedometer.

Day 3: Automate Meals. The idea here is to choose a meal that’s healthy and you’re willing to prepare and stick with day after day for the 14 days; after that, add some variety. The purpose of this is to take the indecision and lack of preparation out of the equation.

For instance, if in the morning you’re in a rush to get to work, you could choose this one simple breakfast: A smoothie consisting of low-fat milk or almond milk, water, blueberries, banana, flax seed powder and/or psyllium powder (for fiber), and whey protein powder.

For lunch and/or dinner, select a protein source, like fish or chicken, and a vegetable or two, or three, some salad fixings and perhaps a grain (couscous or millet), brown rice (brown basmati rice has a particularly low glycemic index, meaning a slow blood sugar uptake), or beans (red, pinto, black, garbanzo).

Downsize your plate size along with your expectations for quantity of food. Use a plate that measures nine inches diagonally.

Day 4: Role of Soul. By “soul” Ozdoc is referring to your life’s ecosystem, such as whose in your life and what’s in your life. If something in your environment is causing stress (a big factor in producing belly fat), get rid of it, or change it.

If you have toxic friends, put them aside while you work on building yourself up. Bring close to you those people who will support this dream and the activities that make it materialize. In fact, grab a buddy that wants to take this journey with you. You can reinforce the good things and behaviors in one another.

Day 5. Learn to Cheat. By “cheat” what’s meant is to cheat your taste buds. For instance, eating spicy, “hot” foods can naturally reduce the amount of food you want to eat at the next meal. So, add peppers to your lunch to slow you down at dinner, and add cinnamon to your smoothie or oatmeal (not instant) at breakfast to slow you down at lunch.

Day 6. Call Your Doctor. I guess it could be argued that this program should be vetted by your doctor. But it sounds to me like this is just one of those CYB statements. Although, if you’re already under close supervision of a doctor for things like diabetes, heart disease, super high cholesterol, etc., couldn’t hurt to get a sign-off.

Day 7: Go Public. This is all about making yourself accountable, particularly to those who care about you, for those who love you will react to your vulnerability (should that occur) by providing moral support and kindness. Can’t beat that!

So, should you follow this Plan, by day 7 you’ll be half way through the “14 Day Reboot”. Of course, unless you were only a few pounds overweight to begin with, 14 days is not sufficient time to get you to your goals.

It’s not supposed to. The purpose of this Plan is to get you started by reprogramming some unhealthy, fat-producing behavior into healthy, lean-producing behavior.

There’s a lot more good information about healthy eating on this blog. I suggest you cruise through the selection at the “Diet/Nutrition” section under “Topics” in the sidebar, or consider these gems:

Eat Right by the Numbers

Diet 101

Six Best of 2010 — Food, Diet and Nutrition

Good luck with your first 14 days, and thereafter!

Related posts:

1. Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead — The Reboot Plan
2. The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect
3. The Reboot Cleanse Diet – Two Common Struggles

Dr. Oz New Year's Resolutions

I ADMIT it — I’m a Dr. Oz fan.  I think the good doctor is genuine, knowledgeable, and is fighting the good fight to get Americans to learn about their bodies. 

Because let’s face it, most of us don’t know our triceps from our deltoids, or our liver from our kidneys.  Ask someone to touch his stomach, and he’ll place his hand over his belly.

If we don’t know much about our physical system, then how likely are we to feed and tend it properly?  This, it seems, is Dr. Oz’s passion – to get us to learn what we are (the physical self), by this process to learn who we are (the psychological self), and then to get going on fixing the bad and enhancing the good.

Given my predilection for Ozstuff, I noted his article in the Huffington Post today where he challenged readers to do three important things in the new year.  He chose these particular three things because he deems them to be essential for good health, both physical and emotional.

The Dr. Oz prescription for 2010:

1. More Sleep.

This is often under-appreciated.  Getting a full eight hours of sleep, and even napping, reduces stress, lets the brain reset and the body’s tissues repair.  Not to mention that getting sufficient sleep is a leading indicator for longevity.  To paraphrase Ozman: If you can’t manage to get more sleep, you need to ask yourself why your life is so out of control.

2. More Snacks.

Actually, Dr. Oz refers to this as “never let yourself feel hungry”, which is a better way of describing what he means than “More Snacks” (but the latter is more alliterative for this list).  The idea here is to not let yourself go so long between bites that you get hungry enough to grab whatever is handy, good or not.  Since about 60% of us should lose weight, this is a particularly  important resolution for the new year.

Are you too heavy?  Well, instead of checking with the scale, consider an alternate, more important indicator of health — your waist size. “Your waist must be half your height or roughly between 32.5 and 37 inches for a woman and between 35 and 40 inches for a man”, says The Oz

So, rather than aiming at three squares per day, and then if you miss one — like breakfast — you set yourself to gorge at the next meal, do this:

Graze.

Yes, eat smaller meals and graze on healthy snacks in between them.  Things like nuts, apples, an avocado, and healthy food bars like Macro Greens Bars.

3. More Sex

The best for last?  Could be, but for some of us this one seems outside our control.  Could be that you need someone besides yourself to comply.  Numbers one and two can be done all by yourself.

Sure, I know… number three can be a solo act, too, but sex is included here not only because of the physical benefits of the act, but the mental/emotional ones as well.

Beyond the momentary pleasure, the health benefits are numerous, but perhaps the most simple way of looking at it is this: When you’re having regular, emotionally-bonding sex, everything in life seems to be at least a little bit better.  And in fact, regular sex is predictive of health, because the unhealthy are unlikely to so imbibe, sorta speak.

Next Week on the Dr. Oz Show

The Ozdoc feels these three “revolution resolutions” are so important that he is devoting the week of January 4 to the topic on his TV show.  You might want to tune in, or stay tuned to this site, as I’ll endeavor to write about what he talks about.

(Update: Here’s my follow-up post: Dr. Oz and the Reboot Diet.

In conclusion, here are a few things you may now wish to do:

• Go read the details of Dr. Oz’s new year prescription here.
• Put a piece of paper in front of you and stare at it until you can write up how you’re going to resolve to have more sleep, food and sex.
• Get some more information about these three resolutions.  The one I can help you with is “more snacks” (remember that means “don’t go hungry”) by suggesting you read these:

- My Approach to Health

- A Blueprint for Eating Right

Good luck… and Happy New Year!!

Related posts:

1. Resolutions — Make Em, Keep Em
2. Six Tools To Make Your New Year Resolutions Come True
3. Want 10 Extra Years? It’s Easier than You Think!

Start By Knowing Your Resting Pulse

I WANT to relate something important that I just saw on the new Dr. Oz Show.

For those of you unfamiliar with the good doctor, Mehmet Oz is a heart surgeon, author and peripatetic dispenser of health information made pretty famous by appearing 55 times on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  Now he has his own, co-produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions and Sony Pictures Television.

I’ve seen him numerous times in several venues and find that he has a knack for simplifying complex health issues, and for suggesting simple things to do to avert, or cope with potentially major health problems.

Which brings me to the topic at hand, the heart.

Dr. Oz says that for most of us, we first find out we have a heart problem when that magnificent organ goes rogue and has an attack.  Not a good time to be alerted about your cardiovascular problem.

How to get a clue before it’s too late?  Get focused on your pulse.

Your pulse is a window into the health of your heart.  Dr. Oz recommends that if you are in the high risk category for cardiovascular disease — you’re overweight, have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, are sedentary, experience shortness of breath doing simple physical activities — you should check your pulse in bed each morning before you launch into your day .

Dr. Oz instructs that you measure your pulse, which mirrors your heat beat, by taking two finger of one hand and applying them to the wrist of the other hand below the and wrist under the thumb, as the picture shows.

I have an easier time measuring my pulse by placing two fingers to either side of my throat, like Oprah is doing in the picture above. For me, it’s easier to find the pulse and it feels stronger, as in more prominent, or obvious.

In either case, as you watch a clock or watch tick off six seconds, count the beats of your pulse and then multiple the number you count by ten. This gives you the beats per minute, which is how the pulse rate is calibrated.

If your pulse exceeds 75 beats per minute when you’ve just awakened and are still in bed, your chances for a heart attack increase if you’re in the high risk category, says Oz.

If that’s the case — your pulse is over 75 and stays there — I’d pick up the phone and call a doctor for instructions before I’d begin jumping rope.

Dr. Oz ends this segment on his show by suggesting that there are some helpful, if not sufficient, things you can do to help your heart, along with the typical bromides of a better diet and exercise, and these are:

- Take 1,000 milligrams of Vitamin D. It has a knack for distributing calcium to your bones instead of your heart and arteries, a signal to heart attack risk.

- Take aspirin daily. It thins the blood and reduces inflammation in the arteries.

For more about heart care centered around vitamin supplementation, check out this post, The Heart of the Matter.

Related posts:

1. Man vs Wild: A Life-Saving Enema (Video)
2. Eating for a Long Life: WebMD’s 13 Tips
3. The Heart of the Matter

33 Foods That Help… How Many Do You Eat? (See chart below.)

FORBES ESTIMATES David H. Murdock’s net worth to be $3.3 billion, but his true value to you might be his list of 33 of the healthiest foods on earth. (See below.)

After the death of his first wife, Mr. Murdock has been deeply committed to finding a cure for cancer, advancing nutrition and life extension. He established the Dole Nutrition Institute and the North Carolina Research Campus to study and teach the benefits of a plant-based diet to promote health and prevent disease.

The man puts his money, his intention and his activity where is mouth is… which is on organic, plant-based foods.

At 86, Murdock lives an active life.  His secret: large quantities of fruit and vegetables, plus an hour of daily exercise. His fish-vegetarian diet incorporates 30-40 different kinds of fruit and vegetables every week, much of it through juicing.

Research at the North Carolina Research Campus is aided by an unusual apparatus — a two-story, 950 megahertz, 8-ton superconducting magnet. It is reputedly the largest and most powerful magnet in the world and facilitates the examination of both plant and human cells at the most minute level.

The research of Murdock’s institutes points to these following 33 foods as some of the best you can eat for health, vitality and longevity.

Here’s a suggestion that I hope you’ll find both worthwhile and “doable”: Scan the list below, pat yourself on the back for those foods you regularly eat, and choose three that you commit to adding to your diet within seven days.

Once those three new selections are seamlessly incorporated into your diet, choose another three, and so on.

If you find that you just can’t get enough veggies into your diet, use a “green” supplement, such as Ultimate Greens.  For the more ambitious, check out my posts, Diet 101 and A Blueprint for Eating Right. And if that’s not enough, flip through the Diet/Nutrition section under “Topics” in the   sidebar on the right-hand side of your computer screen.

“[Change] is hard by the yard, but by the inch, it’s a cinch.”

-Sheree Neese

The Healthiest Foods on Earth

Related posts:

1. Want Longevity? 5 Alternatives to a Calorie Restricted Diet
2. Longevity Tips from the World’s Oldest Man
3. Ten Foods for Longevity

Nothing Good Happens Without It

Supplements Reviewed here: ZMA, Melatonin, FibroSleep, VesPro GHS and Calm Magnesium.

IT’S A common complaint.  We don’t get enough sleep.  Stress, or too much food, TV or activity late at night are common causes.  (Not to mention a lack of exercise for many of us.)

From fatigue, to the inability to concentrate, to lowered resistance to colds and flu, non-restorative sleep takes its toll.

The too-common solution is yet another drug, a sleeping pill.  There are so many natural alternatives to a potentially habit forming sleeping pill, that it’s irresponsible not to investigate a better, healthy substitute.

I often use and Melatonin to help me get solid and restorative sleep, although both have substantial additional benefits that figure largely in my decision to use them, as noted in the product descriptions below.  I have no personal experience with Fibrosleep or VesproGHS, although the they are both highly recommended by users, as the links below will show.

ZMA Is a synergistic combination of zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6 that promotes restful and restorative sleep, and enhances muscle strength and endurance.  Frankly, I’m not personally aware of experiencing the sleep inducement aspects of ZMA as I am of the muscle promoting ones.

Melatonin This is natural hormone produced by your pineal gland and plays a critical role in your sleep-wake cycle.  Moreover, and the primary reason I take it, Melatonin is among the best free radical scavengers. While many antioxidants work in only certain areas of the body, Melatonin has the ability to permeate any of our cells.

FibroSleep This is one of the most highly consumer-rated sleep supplement you’re likely to find. (Go here and click the “Reviews” tab) FibroSleep promotes deep sleep and digestive healing by addressing mineral, antioxidant, and natural anti-inflammatory* needs. A summary of the  science behind it can be read here.

VesPro GHS – Growth Hormone Secretagogue This is a multi-purpose, powerful supplement that helps you sleep and the proper production of essential growth hormones. VesPro GHS™ is a growth hormone secretagogue, (a substance that stimulates healthy secretion) made from protein, amino acids, and herbs. When taken at night before be this supplement promotes restorative sleep and the proper production of essential growth hormones.

Growth hormones are essential substances produced in the body that help maintain muscle tissue, and support proper body function. Most growth hormones are secreted during the deep sleep cycle.  Check out the customer reviews for Vespro GHS by clicking the link above and then the “Reviews” tab.

Important: Check with your health practitioner before taking anything that could affect hormones.

Natural Calm The anti-stress, sleepy time drink.  According to the National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body and is essential to good health. Approximately 50 percent of total body magnesium is found in bone. The other half is found predominantly inside the cells of tissues and organs. Magnesium is one of the most important basic nutrients that power our bodies, and it is required for more than 300 biochemical reactions. But since our bodies don’t produce this mineral, we need to replenish its supply every day. Due to nutrient-deficient soil and fast-paced lifestyles, few of us (estimated at less than 20 percent) get sufficient magnesium in our diets. This would seem to suggest that supplementation is needed.  Many people, like my own mother, think Natural Calm is great, and have made it a best-selling, award-winning magnesium supplement.  It’s easy to take — just mix (easily) in water to restore healthy magnesium levels quickly and effectively.

Dr. Oz on Sleep

Go take a read of what the good doctor has to say about the need for and benefits of sleep right here.

Go here for a list of Product Categories on this site.

Supplement Disclaimer

Just as with the descriptive statements made at the various company sites that manufacture and/or sell the supplement products presented in this blog, none, or nearly none, of the potential benefits stated here have been evaluated by the FDA. Likewise none, or nearly none, of the products here can be represented to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Before engaging a supplement program, it always makes sense to get the advice of your health practitioner.

Related posts:

1. Can’t Sleep? Go Take A Hike!
2. Not Even A Trace of Minerals?
3. Muscles Forever