Dr. Paul and His Dog Cooper Across America – Part I
Well, I just spent six days crossing this wonderful country called America as I logged 3200 miles driving from Carlsbad, CA to Hampton, NH. The trip was at times picturesque and majestic as well as arduous and depressing. I drove alone, accompanied by my dog Cooper.
Crossing the deserts of California and Arizona on the first day were the least inspiring in addition to being an incredibly hot 115° F, which made for tough work outs at rest areas where I attempted to work out in an effort to fight off the effects of prolonged sitting, and to give Cooper some time to stretch his legs as well (and chase lizards and squirrels). The good news is that I discovered you can jerry rig a functional training workout just about anywhere – I was able to easily get a brief short interval high intensity workout in at the rest stops – see video below for a sample.
One thing that really helped, which isn’t shown on the video, was the 7’ piece of PVC pipe I brought along for the trip and used for full range of motion to loosen up my shoulders and neck (and overhead squats) at each rest stop – driving for long distances wreaks havoc on my neck and shoulder area.
In addition to making a concerted effort to stop and move, pant and sweat, was of course the food planning and preparation I had done, along with my wife Chanya, prior to leaving. In the van I carried a large ice chest that contained my quasi-Paleo food supply of grilled chicken, grilled beef (grass-finished Brady beef from Idaho – that’s another story), tuna salad casserole made with brown rice pasta (I eat a gluten-free diet), two large Tupperware containers with salad, Kalamata olives, olive oil and lemon, Cashew Crunch, Ziploc baggies with cut up veggies (carrots, broccoli, cucumber and zucchini), fresh blueberries, apples, and bananas, rice crackers, tortilla chips, Kracky Cookies (made with raw nuts, dates, coconut and cacao nibs), fresh homemade granola, almond milk, and as I am not much of coffee drinker, dark chocolate covered espresso beans for caffeine delivery, and last, but not least … cold dark beer for the day’s end.
Between the fact that I was embarking on a major life change (relocating from Carlsbad to Hampton), and also leaving my family behind for an indeterminate period was stressful enough, but I was determined to not let the physical stresses of sitting/driving undermine the health I had created to this point.
The first leg proved to be successful. Stay tuned for Part II – Truckers and Cell Phones.
Feeding a family of five is no easy thing. Feeding a family of five healthy homemade meals is even harder (kids ages 16, 12, & 10). It takes extraordinary menu planning, list making, shopping, food prep, clean up … etc., etc.
By now I’m sure you’re aware that my wife Chanya and I are committed to a wellness lifestyle. So, in our efforts to live a healthy life and feed our children organic foods, we are selective as to where we buy our food for both quality and cost savings. We’re very fortunate that we have Jimbo’s, a fantastic whole foods store, only minutes from our house where we buy the majority of our food. We also shop at Trader Joe’s to round out our pantry supplies. Then, every two weeks we make a Costco run for large quantity purchases of walnuts, almonds, frozen fish, frozen berries, Australian rack of lamb (our favorite “home date” meal), and of course laundry soap and TP – the things Costco is known for supplying large families with.
We make a point to keep a stash of oatmeal in those individual packets around for quick breakfasts as well as snacks for the kids. (By the way, a pack of oatmeal, a small baggie of chopped nuts and a banana is the fall back breakfast when travelling – you can make the oatmeal with hot water from a hotel room coffee maker.) Anyway, there I was in Costco with my list in hand, buying the large box multi-flavor variety pack of Kirkland Organic Oatmeal. Organic oatmeal is, from what I understand, the only oatmeal that is not cross-contaminated with gluten from wheat. So there I am at home putting away the Costco load and I notice on the outside of the oatmeal box that one of the packet flavors listed is Chocolate Chip! Yes, THEY NOW MAKE OATMEAL WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!!!!!!!
I probably don’t need to tell you that the favorite “flavor” of oatmeal for my kids and – our house is like a youth hostel with non-stop sleepovers – all their friends is of course, Chocolate Chip.
Since when does oatmeal have to be laced with sugar and flavor, out of the box? What happened to Mom making oatmeal, adding sliced banana and controlling the amount of brown sugar that’s added? I guess that went out about the time Archie Bunker left TV (I know, I’m old).
I was so livid – I wanted to walk into Costco headquarters – never mind that they’re in Washington State – with a gun that shoots WTF paintball bullets. The problem is, the Costco execs would probably point the WTF gun right back at me for buying chocolate chip oatmeal for my kids.
“These are tough times for our species: evolution is trailing sociology by about 30,000 years. We’re still tribal creatures with a deep-seated need for security, stability and community. Instead we get fired and divorced, priests go to jail, our Presidents get impeached, families scatter and we’re digesting more Prozac than vegetables.” - Record producer Don Was, from the book ‘According to The Rolling Stones’*
That mention of “… we’re digesting more Prozac than vegetables.” makes me weep, not only because it’s such a true statement, but that it represents such a dreadful snapshot of how far off course we’ve veered as a society or culture. We now have statins and antidepressants being prescribed to children (the statins as a prophylactic strategy, if you can believe that). Worse, people today are so confused about what they should eat or not eat, studies are showing that they’re saying ‘The heck with it’ and simply giving up all together in their effort to adopt healthier lifestyle habits. Then, in addition to being burdened with too much of the wrong information, people have a misplaced trust or faith that technology will swoop in and save the day for any health crisis they may develop.
As modern life marches relentlessly forward we’re faced with a harsh reality: technological advancement will not solve many of society’s most pressing challenges – selfishness, greed, immorality and disillusionment; that’s not to mention specific societal ills such as starvation, malaria, abject poverty, human trafficking, child pornography and genocide.
Another thing technology isn’t going to solve – the lifestyle habits that erode our health, creating the chronic disease epidemic we are faced with today. Although modern science continually speaks loudly and often about advances in drug research, nothing from the technology front will overcome toxicity and deficiency in our lifestyle choices within the domains of eating, moving and thinking that are creating ever increasing rates of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and of course, the ubiquitous obesity.
The good news is how simple and easy it is to adopt and live a healthy lifestyle – once you have the right information and the right methods to employ proper habits to bring purity and sufficiency.
“One thing you can’t hide is when you’re crippled on the inside.” - John Lennon
In a nutshell, here are the highlights of living well:
Eat only foods that have been foods for 10,000 years or more (so that excludes grains, dairy, sugars (especially artificial sweeteners), refined vegetable oils and all processed foods).
Move vigorously for at least 30 minutes every day.
Drink copious amounts of purified water every day.
Sleep a minimum of 7 hours every night.
Be grateful, thankful, forgiving, joyful, and optimistic.
Any questions? You can do it!
*“Man … this world is desperate for heroes like the Rolling Stones!” – This was the first line of the paragraph quote above. I love how pearls of wisdom (or at least great quotes) can be found in every corner of the earth and across all professional, socio-economic and cultural boundaries. If it’s not already obvious, I’m a huge Rolling Stones fan – I’m enamored with the Stones’ 40+ year commitment to excellence that has produced the most prodigious body of work in the music industry and, that they’re still going strong in their 60′s. And of course, who can argue with Mick Jagger being the preeminent entertainer of the last century? Did I mention I was a Stones fan?
I often feel like I’m swimming upstream in my attempt to navigate my family through the rapids of a culture that is terribly misinformed about what to eat and the consequences of choosing wrong. This never-ending revelation reared its ugly head on Friday when I attended our daughter Hope’s school barbeque, where the food provided was the typical disease-food banquet common to all family-centered activities these days. As you can see by the photo, it was hamburgers with processed American cheese served on white bread buns, chips and soda pop or juice boxes. What prompted me to take the photo was I sat staring at the table in front of me realizing that not only was everything being served at this family event things I never eat (I had eaten before coming), but that each food item was known to promote the development of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity – and everyone of all ages were eating them at this school event.
I am so sick of the prevailing attitude amongst parents: (1) “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with giving the kids (or myself having) a soda now and then,” or “A little won’t hurt anybody – after all, what’s more All-American than grilled hamburgers, chips and soda?,” and/or(2)that healthy, nutritious food means unappetizing food. Regarding (1), what’s becoming “All-American” is rampant lifestyle diseases in the form of epidemic heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer at all ages, brought on by those exact attitudes and the food choices that follow. There’s nothing wrong with organic, pasture-fed hamburger meat – it’s when it comes from feedlot grain-fed, hormone-, chemical- and antibiotic-laced cattle; AND then it’s combined with white flour, one of the most harmful food choices one can make. The value of the beef protein and fat becomes a non-issue in the face of the insulin spiking and inflammation-promoting characteristics of white bread (actually, even whole grain breads have the same effect; eating a gluten-free diet is one of the most powerful health decisions a person can make, without question). As for (2), I’ve personally experienced picnics where the food served was nutritious and delicious – so the idea that “health food” is yucky food is simply wrong and/or lazy thinking.
Next up – same weekend – was when I dropped Hope off at a birthday party that was already in full swing (she was coming from another birthday party), where I was ushered into the kitchen and asked if I wanted anything, only to be confronted AGAIN with pathetic food choices – pizza, ice cream and soda pop! Nothing new there, right? After all, next to hamburgers and chips, what’s more American than to serve kids pizza and soda pop for their birthday meal, followed by ice cream? And we wonder why Adult Onset Diabetes had to renamed Type 2 Diabetes – because it’s now a disease of childhood – A LIFESTYLE DISEASE BEING FORCED UPON UNKNOWING CHILDREN BY IRRESPONSIBLE PARENTS! (Those ALL CAPS – that’s me screaming.)
The final straw came early the next day, when I was out walking our dog Cooper, only to stumble across my neighbor’s Sunday paper laying in his driveway that today included three “free” diabetes bombs masqueraded as “strength and bone building” cereals – Trix Swirls, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Golden Grahams with “Whole Grain & Calcium – Guaranteed” and “Grow Up Strong” call-outs on the packaging. The only guarantee you’ll actually get from feeding your kids these cereals is you’ll be setting them on the course for insulin dysregulation, leading to diabetes and abnormal blood lipids, leading to heart disease…not to mention the neurotoxic effects of the food colors in the Trix Swirls (we have personal experience to this common effect – our son Timmy is very sensitive to any blue foods – his brain function and behavior becomes predictably irrational within 20 minutes of eating any foods containing blue food dyes, such as blue Gatorade, Fruit Loops, or blue Popsicles).
Yes, I want to scream. Yes, I’m known as the food Nazi. But isn’t our job as parents to look after the best interest of our kids’ health and future? As a doctor, scientist and parent, I’m acutely aware of the old adage, we are what we eat.
If you’re a homeowner, it’s very unsettling to be hanging Christmas lights or cleaning windows and stumble across holes in the fascia boards or a pile of what looks like sand on the window sill. You realize the holes in the wood aren’t rust (yes, wood doesn’t rust – I know, I’m pretty smart), and it isn’t sand you’re seeing on the sill – it’s … termite poop. By the time you see that pile, you know it’s too late – the termites have done their damage. They’ve been insidiously and silently chewing up the inside of the wood for a long time until it eventually is showing as holes in the wood and piles of … termite poop. At this point you have two problems to solve – not only do you have to attack the termite problem, you also have to assess the structural damage to determine if reconstructive repair work needs to be done.
It got me thinking about the termites in our bodies. No, I’m not talking about E. coli, parasites, H. pylori, tapeworms or some other creepy critter that can take up residence in your body. But what are the figurative termites that are eating away at our innards – the things we know that “eat” our bodies from the inside out? Because nearly all disease processes take years, if not decades, of slowing, silently and dangerously destroying the cells of our bodies to the point where the disease becomes detectable or manifests with outward symptoms, the termite analogy is spot on.
However, the similarities stop there.
First, our food supply has changed so drastically in the past 50 years that we now find ourselves consuming ‘termites’ – we actually choose to ingest termites in the form of lifestyle choices by eating things that are known to cause disease. Whether it’s in the form of soda pop (and dozens of other processed foods) that contain high fructose corn syrup*, a direct pipeline to diabetes and obesity, or snack foods made with heart disease and cancer-causing hydrogenated oils and which are laced with neuroexcitotoxins such as MSG that are known to kill off brain cells leading to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, we’re dumping termites into our bodies. These foods that we are choosing to eat are eroding our health just like termites erode the integrity of the wood they live in.
Second, when we make the decision to stop ingesting ‘termite foods’, we solve the two problems at the same time. One, by not eating any more termites, we no longer have a termite problem – we don’t have to engage in a ‘pest control’ project (you don’t have to “tent” your body, other than choosing to avoid bad food choices); by virtue of eating whole, fresh, natural, health-promoting foods, we by default, eliminate the processed, toxic, disease-promoting termite foods. Two, because of our body’s inborn or innate intelligence that’s built into our genetic code, when provided with purity and sufficiency combined with the avoidance of toxicity and deficiency, the body will heal and rebuild itself – so there’s no need for reconstruction. That’s right – when we provide the body with optimal nutrition and avoid destructive food choices, our bodies are programmed to return to health. We just need to not interfere with this perfect innate intelligence.
So the next time you’re about to eat some deep fried food or drink a diet soda, just visualize that you’re eating termites (or better yet, termite poop).
*If you haven’ watched this video about high fructose corn syrup and its direct causation to obesity and diabetes, do so now – it’s powerful:
This blog was inspired by a sermon I heard on KWAVE radio this morning by Pastor Barry Stagner of Calvary Chapel Tustin called Termites and Toadstools. It never fails that when I listen to a spiritual message I immediately process it into a natural healthy living perspective message – thanks Pastor Barry!
What does health insurance buy anyway? Does health insurance move you toward being healthier? Of course someone will always bring up the argument around needing care for a traumatic injury such as a broken leg or the emergency care needed for some life-threatening condition such as a heart attack (although in 40% of all heart attacks, the first symptom is sudden death, so that’s money down the drain).
Someone might also say, ‘What if I get diabetes?’ What if you do? Does medical care reverse or cure diabetes? Or does it simply managethe manifestations of the condition? By the way, diabetes itself is a manifestation of inappropriate lifestyle choices (primarily a sedentary life combined with poor food choices). I guess what I’m hung up on is that the vast majority of health conditions or diseases that people perceive health insurance will prove valuable or manage for them are in reality, lifestyle diseases – heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and the “all the above” conditions and more that obesity causes.
Or here’s another way of looking at it: If everyone had unlimited access to health care – doctors, drugs, and surgery – would we be any healthier? Yes, people would have access to the doctors, drugs and treatments to mitigate the effects (symptoms) oftheir improper and unhealthy lifestyles, but would those people actually be healthier? Would we have less diabetes, cancer, heart disease, or obesity? No way. Let’s be honest – we’re just treating bad lifestyles! Even worse, we’re insuring them.
For example, if a person takes medication to lower their high blood pressure, does it make them healthier? Yes, the drug will lower their blood pressure, but does that make them truly healthier? The medical or allopathic paradigm will tell you yes because your blood pressure readings are within ‘normal’ limits; but does that make you healthy? What is health? How do we define this thing called health? (In that example, studies show that people who take high blood pressure medication die at the same age as those who don’t – they just die with lower blood pressure. Go figure.)
What is health?
Health is when all your cells of your body are functioning at an optimal level. When those cells become dysfunctional, our health suffers and some ‘condition’ manifests itself (by the way, it usually takes decades of improper living to reach a point where a disease will reach a stage where it’s symptomatic or diagnostically detectable – and all that time, you’re paying your insurance premiums. Imagine if you’d been paying instead for a gym membership, personal training, nutritional coaching, a personal chef – something that actually made you healthy). For example, taking insulin for Type 2 diabetes, provides an exogenous supply (an outside source) of the insulin your cells should normally produce, but it doesn’t cause the cells of the pancreas, which were functioning abnormal, to become healthy and start functioning normally and produce insulin. Does it help manage your blood glucose levels? Yes. Does it make you become healthier? No.
What would make the cells of the pancreas healthy and produce insulin? I’m so glad you asked. Science has determined what makes ALL the cells of the body, including the insulin producing cells of the pancreas (called the Islets of Langerhans for you trivia buffs), and that of course is a lifestyle incorporating proper nutrition, regular exercise, and proper rest. Did you know that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed within 30-60 days with lifestyle changes alone? It’s true.
Do these Blue Shield plans offered provide you with a healthy diet, consistent exercise and adequate rest and stress reduction/avoidance? I wouldn’t bet on it – your life’s at stake. Eat right, start moving and get to bed earlier.
The other day I was reading Devotions for Men on the Go (Arterburn and Farrel) and this particular devotion was about ‘writing our own commandments’. The point being that by twisting the truth, we can feel in control and avoid accountability for our actions. The devotion had the first five of the Ten Commandments rewritten:
Create your own religion. Worship whatever god you think will get you ahead.
Have as many idols as you want. Follow sports teams and movie stars, and do whatever you want.
Swear whenever you want. In fact, say anything you want, whenever you want.
Don’t get hung up on going to church. After all, it’s just a building. Besides, the people who go to church are just a bunch of hypocrites anyway. Be “spiritual” any way you feel like it.
Don’t listen to your parents. Those old people will just hold you down. Family is like a noose around your neck.
It got me thinking about how our culture does this in pretty much all areas of life. We’ve become a society of ‘self governing’ people. We believe we have the ‘right’ to think, say or do whatever we want without consequence. There always exists the law of cause and effect. Any action we take has an effect. Some effects are immediate, some are delayed, some are cumulative; but the effect cannot be avoided, denied, rationalized or swept under the rug. And as always, I took this train of thought into how we as a society approach the lifestyle decisions affecting our health.
We now live in an era of complete denial regarding the law of cause and effect. People seem to think they can ‘rewrite’ the physiology of their bodies. Here’s what I see as “The Dietary Commandments” of our modern society:
Create any type of food out of any type of substance you find convenient or profitable and if it tastes good, go for it and eat all you want; because it doesn’t really matter to the cells of your body as long as you like the taste and it fills you up.
Satisfy any cravings you may have because the fulfillment of your personal desires is what ultimately provides nutrition to the organs and systems within your body.
Say whatever you want about lifestyle behaviors and how they affect health, because your personal truth is true.
Don’t get hung up about whether food is organic, fresh, processed, sweetened with chemicals, stripped of its nutrients, colored with dyes, saturated with unnatural oils, or made to sit on shelves for months at a time. After all, food is food – it all goes in one end and out the other. Be “healthy” any way you like.
Don’t listen to the science of healthy living outcomes. Those people just want to spoil your pursuit of pleasure. Evidence-based research of health-producing behaviors is a ‘millstone’ around your neck – it only gets in the way of doing what you like and want.
That pretty much sums it up today, right? “A little won’t kill me.” “I think it doesn’t really matter as long as I feel good.” “Well, I’m going to die of something.” “I believe in ‘everything in moderation’.” (I want to scream when I hear that).
Just like the laws of gravity and thermodynamics, there are natural laws for our health that always follow the law of cause and effect. These laws can be proven by feeding your family dog ‘Glo Worms’, donuts, Diet Coke and Doritos.
At the bottom of the devotion was the prayer ‘God, may there be no room in my heart for counterfeits’.
You can do it – you can live within the natural laws that govern our health. It’s fun, easy and it tastes good!
Did you know that eating things like Cheerios, pasta, bread (yes, your beloved bread), crackers, cakes and candy are more likely to raise your cholesterol and disrupt your HDL/LDL ratios than eating steak? (PS. Did you notice I called those things ‘things’ and not food? Just seeing if you’re paying attention.)
Why do so many meat eaters along with so many vegetarians struggle with their weight? One eats saturated animal fat while the other doesn’t and yet they both are often overweight. Is it possible that eating fat isn’t what’s making people fat today?
The answer lies in what is now being referred to as the ‘master hormone’ – its name is insulin and, it’s way more important as a biomarker for health than cholesterol, HDL/LDL, or bone density.
As a matter of fact, insulin is now being called the ‘longevity biomarker’ – meaning a good predictor of how long you’ll live is your insulin levels are on an ongoing, daily basis.
Did you get that? That means you can live longer (and live well) by managing your insulin production in a healthy manner.
Too much of a good thing
Insulin is an anabolic hormone, meaning it’s responsible for growth and repair – that’s a good thing … up to a point. When there’s too much insulin produced and circulating throughout the body, the cells of the body become insulin resistant to protect themselves from being overdosed. When that happens, a lot happens, and it’s all bad. All chronic lifestyle diseases that dominate our culture today (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases) are either directly caused or indirectly influenced by insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance leads to the following:
Diabetes: Increased blood sugar from insulin resistance is the best predictor to becoming diabetic.
Suppressed immune system: Vitamin C and glucose are very similar in their biochemical structure so when there’s excess glucose (which goes hand in hand with insulin resistance), the immune system suffers. Also, because vitamin C and insulin share the same pathway into our cells, insulin resistance by definition causes vitamin C resistance.
Increased fat: Excess insulin and glucose result in saturated fat storage – in the blood AND the body – you get fat and your cholesterol and HDL/LDL levels go bad.
High blood pressure from decreased magnesium levels: (1) magnesium allows for smooth muscle relaxation; when magnesium levels are depressed, it results in chronic increase in blood pressure; (2) magnesium is also important for proper insulin production and absorption; so decreased levels of magnesium worsen insulin resistance.
High blood pressure from increased sodium levels: High insulin levels lead to increased sodium levels which also causes high blood pressure and fluid retention.
Cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke): Insulin stimulates the sympathetic stress response which results in raised LDL levels.
Increased risk of cancer: Insulin is also mytogenic – meaning it stimulates cell division; when insulin levels are abnormally high it results in abnormal cell division = cancerous cell growth.
Osteoporosis: Osteoporosis is not caused by a deficiency in calcium – it’s a hormone and pH problem that is negatively impacted by insulin resistance.
Thyroid problems: Hyperinsulinemia results in abnormal thyroid hormone regulation
Dysfunctional sex hormone production: Insulin participates in the production of cholesterol which all sex hormones are derived from.
Are you starting to get the big idea? This is no joke. – it’s as serious as a heart attack.
It’s your fault Any lifestyle behavior that you do that elevates insulin levels too quickly or keeps it high for extended periods is bad for nearly every aspect of your health. What causes insulin levels to spike to abnormal levels? It’s not just when you indulge in a Crispy Cream orgy or eat an entire bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. When we eat a refined processed food diet, experience chronic stress, are sleep deprived and don’t exercise, our insulin levels rise.
The Top Insulin Spikers:
Refined sugar (i.e. sweets: soda pop – even diet soda, candy, energy drinks, coffee drinks – Frappuccinos, sport drinks, corn syrup – it’s in everything, usually as high fructose corn syrup)
The Good News: Avoiding or Reversing/Curing Insulin Resistance is Easy Insulin resistance and all of its deadly consequences are all associated with lifestyle behaviors that can easily be avoided and/or reversed.
The Insulin Helpers
High fiber plant-driven diet – eat lots of salads and vegetables (avoiding all grains and dairy)
Regular consumption of quality fats and quality proteins
In summary, virtually every hormone in the body is affected by insulin. You can immediately improve your health and ultimately prolong your life by stepping off the insulin train right now!
Ask Your Doctor If Getting Off Your Butt Is Right For You
TV Drug Ads – Are You Kidding Me? First, what’s the percentage of TV commercials that are drug ads? Casual observation leads me to guess at least 1 in 4 ads are for drugs. Second, the disclaimers that the advertisers are required to verbally state in the commercial are nothing short of mind boggling. The list of potential adverse effects reads like a list of torture ‘research’ at a Nazi concentration camp: “serious, even life threatening, allergic reactions, swelling of the face, mouth, lips, gums, tongue or neck, suicidal thoughts or actions, hair loss, diarrhea, vomiting, fainting, ringing in the ears, loss of appetite, bleeding from the ears” (ok, I made that last one up – sorry). Third, I love the names given to drugs: Levitra, Lipitor, Lyrica, Celebrex, Celexa, Cymbalta. This is one area where my hat goes off to the drug companies – they almost always come up with cool sounding names for their drugs. Fourth, at the end of the commercial there’s always the ‘Ask your doctor if Pooease is right for you.’ [That's the name I came up for a laxative product - as you can see, I won't be hired as a drug naming marketer - my other choice was Pooflow.]
As the medical community in general and drug companies in particular continue to exploit every symptom by labeling it a ‘condition’ for which a drug can be sold, our culture is moving relentlessly toward a the belief that our bodies won’t function correctly without chemical intervention. In what has been a very short 250 years (or eight generations), we’ve moved from living successfully (i.e. healthy) within our environment to now thinking that we need a drug to alleviate suffering caused by anything from misplaced freckles to leg cramps. What happened?
Well, what’s happened is we’re actually wild animals stuck in captivity and like nearly all animals removed from their natural environment, we’re not doing so well in captivity. Yes, most people don’t have tigers or cholera to worry about but we’re not paying attention to how our modern lifestyles are depriving us of what we need to be healthy. Then, when our health suffers as a result of this disconnect, we don’t look to what’s causing the deficiency or toxicity within our environment or lifestyles, we look to the great drug lord in the sky for relief. It’s pathetic.
The Trifecta of Health The solution is simple but difficult, of course – but then again, don’t the most vexing problems in life fit that bill. To win the war for your health, you have to fight three battles:
1. Start doing what’s right
2. Stop doing what’s wrong
3. Continuously get better at #1 and #2
Start Doing What’s Right:
Eat pure whole organic foods.
Drinking optimal amounts of pure water each day.
Move moderately to intensely every day (that’s move, pant and sweat)
Get optimal sleep.
Manage your mind, stress and attitude.
Stop Doing What’s Wrong:
Stop eating nutrient-poor processed foods.
Stop allowing toxic industrial chemicals into your body.
Stop wishing you had more; want what you have.
Stop doing things that take time away from doing what’s right.
Continuously Get Better Each month, each quarter, each year, improve; don’t strive for perfection, aim for progression.
Ask your doctor if getting off your butt is right for you.
You can do it.
Yours in health, Dr. Paul
PS. I must admit, I didn’t come up with the brillant title to this post. Dr. Stephen Franson came up with the idea of having a TV ad on Super Bowl Sunday with the slogan Ask your doctor if getting off your butt is right for you – Bonfire Health, You Can Be Healthy. Don’t you just love it!
The Home Depot Syndrome
Have you noticed how nearly all home repair projects turn out to be more complicated than you expected? They almost always take more time and more skills than you expected and, invariably require at least two trips to Home Depot and quite often, a new tool (no, I’m not a ‘tool head’)?
In recent years the mapping of the human genome (the DNA code manual for human physiology) was completed to well-deserved enthusiasm and celebration. That lead to confident assertions by the biotech industry that ‘gene therapy’ drugs that would give medical science the ability to prevent and/or reverse many diseases were right around the corner.
Genetic Drug Therapy Strike Out Well, as it turns out, just like us home improvement wizards, genome drug therapy researchers also suffer from Home Depot Syndrome. Although scientists have mapped out the 3 billion sequences that comprise human DNA and despite the bio-tech industry’s over-hyped promises and the billions of dollars invested in gene therapy research over the past 10 years, they’re still standing in aisle 14 scratching their heads looking for someone in an orange apron to come to their rescue. Here’s how writer John Freedman summed up the progress on gene therapy to date in a recent article in Fast Company magazine:
“… so far, [genetic research] has given the medical world no more ability to treat or predict most illness than knowing that Al Qaeda is camped out in Waziristan has allowed the U.S. government to clean up terrorism or predict where it will strike next.” [read article]
The brash promise from the bio-tech industry was that once the human genome had been mapped, it would be, if not necessarily simple, just a matter of time before identifying particular DNA segments with specific diseases would lead to drugs that could manipulate those segments creating the ability to prevent or cure virtually all diseases. The genetic drug researchers, like us goofy homeowners underestimating the complexity of our home improvement projects, thought that having the human genome map completed, they’d been provided with a ‘paint by numbers’ instruction manual to manipulate the gene ‘switches’ themselves that trigger the disease process.
‘At first, a lot of people had the hubris to think, Oh good, this will be even easier than we thought. We’ll just stick all the gene code in an Excel spreadsheet and work with them there’, John Sninsky, vice president of discovery research for Celera, the first company to sequence the genome, is quoted as saying in the article.
‘We don’t know what most genes do, and we certainly don’t know what the variations are in most people. The idea that we can design custom drugs around genes, or change genes, is just silliness and science fiction.’ says Craig Venter, who founded Celera.
The genetic research industry has resigned themselves to the harsh reality that the interaction of genes is extraordinarily complex which has in essence, invalidated virtually all gene therapy strategies to date.
“Even the very presence of a given gene is a rabbit hole of confusion. Genes can be “turned off” so that they might as well not be there, or partly turned on so that they contribute only weakly to the disease risk. I can find the switches, but I don’t know what they do. There are switches for the switches, and switches for those switches. It’s endless.’ Nadav Ahituv, Ph.D, a geneticist at UC San Francisco Medical Center is quoted as saying in the article.
The Verdict’s In – Part II:
“And the situation is unlikely to improve much anytime soon” the article states.
So, where does that live us mere genetic mortals? Right back to where we started: eating and moving the way our healthy ancestors ate; engaging in the lifestyle behaviors that science has conclusively proven will flip all those genetic switches to produce health and stave off disease. Eating, moving and thinking in the manner our genes were molded to thrive on 100,000 years ago: daily moderate to intense exercise, whole foods in the form of organic vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit and nature-fed animals (in case that went over your head – grains, dairy and grain fed animals weren’t on the menu when our current genome was formed 100,000 years ago – more on that subject later), and finally, an emotionally nourished, supported and rested mental state absent of chronic stress – that’s what our genes want and need.
Our genes don’t need drugs, they need life.
“In the vast majority of cases, individual genes apparently don’t influence your destiny as much as, or at least any more than, your behavior does. So lose weight. Get some exercise. Trade in the cheeseburgers. Breathe clean air. And for God’s sake, don’t smoke. It’s pretty much the same advice your great-grandfather got from his doctor. I bet it’s the same advice your great-grandchildren will get from theirs.” Freedman concludes in his insightful article.
Science has proven this beyond a shadow of doubt – health is found in the self checkout line, not at the customer service counter. You can be healthy.
The Home Depot Syndrome