The following articles appeared on Heal WIth Hope in June 2009:

Weight Loss Tips
Summer Survival Guide
Lyme Disease
The Importance of Ph Balance
Healing With the Work of Byron Katie

Weight Loss Tips

More than 66% of Americans are considered to be overweight or obese. Summer is a great time to put together a strategy for losing weight, although any time of year is a good time to lose weight as when body fat increases so does the risk for disease.

There are many reasons so many folks struggle with their weight:

1. Highly processed foods destroy enzymes needed for digestion of nutrients and fiber
2. Larger portions that restaurants serve encourage us to eat more
3. Many people eat only one good meal a day, which leads to snacking and overeating
4. Added chemicals can cause health issues and metabolic stagnation

Experts suggest we should eat 4-6 times per day (every 3-4 hours) and include fiber foods like fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains to help keep blood sugar stable and food cravings to a minumum. And eating wholesome, nutritious foods also helps to provide enzymes and nutrients to help energy cycles work better, including the ability to burn fat.

It takes time to put on the pounds, and time to lose them. About 1/2 to 2 pounds per week is considered a safe rate of weight loss.

For healthy weight loss digestion and metabolism need to be working like clockwork. Things that will help to keep your system healthy and balanced include: Fiber helps to balance blood sugar, control hunger and keep the intestines clean and comes from plant foods like vegetables, beans, whole grains, fruits and seeds. Essential fats like Omega-3 and monunsaturated essential fats support healthy metabolism, blood sugar levels and feelings of fullness - try flaxseed oil or fish oil, fish and walnuts. Probiotics are beneficial live bacteria essential to intestinal health, thus digestion are a few of the crucial substances that will keep them ticking.

Additional tips for losing weight:

• Don't skip meals - if you do or don't eat enough or often enough, your metabolism will slow down and burn less fat and calories.
• Depriving yourself of certain foods makes it more likely you will binge on those things later because your body requires a balance of nutrients, including good fats and good carbohydrates.
• If you don't exercise your body may replace lost muscle with fat as you regain weight.
• Drink lots of water to battle hunger, keep cells and systems working properly and wash away toxins. Add lemon to aid digestion.
• Learn to destress as studies show that stress contributes to unhealthy weight patterns.(See Stress, Relaxation Techniques , Meditation , Breathing  Exercises)
• Choose low GI (glycemic index is a measure of how quickly a food causes blood sugar levels to rise) foods and cooking methods.
• Eat less and chew more - overeating and not chewing enough inhibits digestion by limiting the effectiveness of stomach enzymes in breaking down food.

Thanks to Whole Foods for many of these great tips! www.WholeFoodsMarket.com. 

Summer Survival Guide

Summer is here and with it comes the need to take special care of your body - inside and out!  Here are a few tips to help you have a healthy, happy summer:
 

SKIN PROTECTION TIPS

Skin is the largest organ of your body containing over 300 million cells and covering 21 sq.ft!! It is responsible for regulating temperature, excreting waste and providing a barrier against dehydration, infection and the environment. Over-exposure to the sun increases your risk of skin cancer and causes 90% of wrinkles, so make sure to take proper care of your skin this summer!!

The National Cancer Institute estimates that up to 50% of Americans who live to age 65 will have skin cancer at least once. Overexposure to UV (ultraviolet) radiation is the primary cause. The good news is that most skin cancer can be prevented if detected and treated early.

Use Sunscreen

Suncreen is of great benefit for protecting the skin if you will be outdoors for more than a few minutes or at midday. Look for a product that protects against both UVA (these are the rays that can cause wrinkles/aging) and UVB (the rays resposible for burning).

Because the sun is so hard on skin, choose suncare that not only protects, but nourishes and soothes with high levels of nutrient-rich natural ingredients. Some of these—green tea, soy, milkthistle, caffeine, carotenoids (carrot oil)—offer additional protection, too!    

Foods That Protect The Skin:

• Studies show that carotenoids, found in red, yellow, and orange fruits and vegetables, have reduced sunburn in humans. Good choices include pumpkin, red bell peppers, butternut squash, carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and cantaloupe.
• Perillyl alcohol found in tart cherries and peppermint leaves halted cancer formation in a study where human cells were placed under intense UV light.
• Lutein and xeoxanthin found in spinach, kale, chicory, collard greens, lettuce, and green peas stopped UV-induced cell growth in animals.
• The antioxidants found in green tea prevented DNA damage to skin cells exposed to light at a University of Wisconsin-Madison study.
• Limonene, found in oranges, limes, and lemons, was found to reduce skin cancer risk by 34% in a University of Arizona study.
• Fish oils protect against sunburn and DNA changes. Good sources include wild salmon, tilapia, sardines, and bay scallops.

Supplements That Can Be Beneficial to the Skin:

•     Beta carotene which may help prevent DNA mutations triggered by the sun
•     Coenzyme Q10 fights free radicals and increases oxygen to the cells
•     Green Tea has antioxidants, anticarcinogens, and anti-inflammatory properties
•     Lutein (in dark, leafy greens) protects agains some damaging effects of sun exposure
•     Lycopene (in red foods like tomatoes) helps prevent UVB damage
•     Omega 3 fatty acids (cold-water fish) reduces UV-related skin inflammation and help protect cells
•     Pycnogenol is an antioxidant that appears to reduce skin damage
•     Vitamin A (take as mixed carotenoids and use topically in skin care) fights free radicals released by sun exposure and topically promotes healing
•     Vitamin C (take with bioflavinoids and use topically in skin care) fights free radicals released by sun exposure
•     Vitamin E (use in supplements and topically in skin care) fights free radicals released by sun exposure and topically promotes healing

STAY WELL HYDRATED:

With temperatures rising you need to pay special attention to adequately meeting your fluid/water needs. Water is needed for a vast number of functions in the body like transporting nutrients, burning fat, body temperature control, circulation, removing waste products, aiding digestion, and healthy skin. Dehydration can put undue stress on the body. In fact we can not live more than a few days without water and yet many people are dehydrated daily. and don't even know it! It’s no wonder we are tired, have difficulty losing weight, have wrinkled skin, and health issues.

Your fluid needs can be calculated by dividing your weight in half and then putting that number into ounces. So if you weigh 200 pounds then you would need about 100 ounces of fluid. Fluid is anything liquid which would include water. Aim for 75% of  fluid needs to come from pure water. So in the case of the 200 pound person, they would need 75 ounces of pure water.

The best kind of water to drink is water filtered from impurities or chemicals like chlorine. If you like beverages with caffeine then keep in mind that caffeine can have a diuretic effect. Try replacing 1 cup of water for every cup of caffeinated beverage you drink. Sugary beverages can also add calories, so if you are watching your waistline, cut back on those or opt for pure water. Also try decaf sugar free herbal teas/ coffee/sodas or calorie free flavored waters. The good news is that those can count for water as well. Pure water though is the best fluid replacer.

During the hot summer months you may sweat more. For every 30 minutes of exercise or being outside in the heat try drinking 8 ounces of water for fluid replacement. This will be in addition to your fluid needs.

Don’t forget to take your drinks to the beach, park, etc. Waiting for thirst means that you are already dehydrated. A good rule of thumb is to drink 4 - 8 ounces of water every 30 minutes. In addition,eating plenty of raw fruits and vegetables in the diet can increase fluid so adding fresh salad to your daily diet.

~ Thanks to Rebecca Gerard, Registered Dietician, for these tips. You can reach Rebecca at eathealthy@bellsouth.com.

Lyme Disease

LYME DISEASE IS CAUSED BY TICK BITES!!

Every summer I post this warning as I have known several people who had an "undiagonsed illenss" only to find out it was Lyme Disease. So use caution this summer when camping or hiking, or if you have an outdoor animal, because if bitten by a tick you can develop this bacterial infection. Often misdiagnosed, its debilitating symptoms can lead to more serious health problems, so it is important to protect yourself.

Some facts about Lyme Disease:

Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Deer ticks, which feed on the blood of animals and humans, can harbor the disease and spread it when feeding.

You're more likely to get Lyme disease if you live or spend time in the grassy and heavily wooded areas where ticks carrying the disease breed. If treated with  antibiotics in the early stages of the disease, most people recover completely. However, some people do have recurring or lingering symptoms long after the infection has cleared. 

• Symptoms include extreme tiredness, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, numbness or weakness in the limbs, depression, and Bell’s palsy (temporary paralysis of one side of the face). Memory loss, difficulty concentrating, and changes in mood or sleep habits also can be symptoms of late-stage Lyme disease.
• Some people may experience heart problems, such as an irregular heartbeat, several weeks after infection, but this rarely lasts more than a few days or weeks. Eye inflammation, hepatitis and severe fatigue are possible as well.
• It is possible for symptoms to occur weeks, months or even years after an untreated infection.
• The classic sign of a Lyme infection is a bull’s-eye rash, but this appears on less than 50% of patients.
• The ELISA and Western Blot are tests given to detect the disease.
• The average person sees more than 12 doctors before receiving the correct diagnosis.
• Antibiotics are highly effective in treating Lyme disease in its early stages (make sure you take a probiotic whenever taking antibiotics!).
• Immune-boosting supplements like CoQ10 and Glutathione can be very helpful.

Some natural tips to protect yourself from ticks:

Consume Garlic – According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, people who took 1200 mg of garlic capsules for eight weeks were less likely to be bitten by ticks than those who didn’t. Researchers believe the odor released through body sweat is repulsive to bugs.

Natural Repellent – you don’t have to use toxic DEET to repel ticks and other bugs, your health food store probably has several natural products to choose from…the Centers for Disease Control recommends picaridin (Bayrepel) as an alternative without DEET’s side effects.

For more information about Lyme Disease visit: www.lymehelp.org., www.healthtouch.com, www.betterhealthguy.com, www.mayoclinic.com

The Importance of pH Balance

By: Rebecca Gerard, R.D., L.D.

Several health authorities have stated that when the pH of urine and saliva is between 6.4 and 6.5, the human bodily functions are working at optimum.

So what is pH and why is it important to properly balance it? pH literally stands for the potential of hydrogen or from an energy standpoint, it is the measurement of electrical resistance between negative or alkaline forming and positive or acid forming ions. It is important to maintain a proper pH balance in the body’s tissues and blood otherwise discomfort and/or disease may occur. There exists a pH scale: 0.5 is extreme acid, 4.0 is neutral, and 7.5 is extremely alkaline.

It is optimal to eat 80% of your diet from alkaline forming foods and 20% of your diet from acid forming foods. By doing this, it could aid in attaining superior health. Also, since fat lives in an acidic environment, by incorporating more alkaline forming foods in the diet you may lose body fat. Generally a diet high in most fruits and vegetables, grains like amaranth, millet, quinoa, granola, sprouted seeds and grains, Ezekiel bread, almonds, olive oil, sucanat (natural sugar), honey, herbal root teas like ginger, and most herbs are alkaline forming. Most animal products and processed foods are acid forming. Try avoiding a diet high in animal foods, alcohol, soda, coffee and sugar.
                           
You can buy pH strips at your local health food store and test your urine and saliva before eating and drinking in the am and before bed if you have not eaten and drunk anything for several hours. Again optimal is between 6.4 and 6.5.

Food is not the only thing that affects pH of the body. Our emotions, environment, chemicals like smoking, taking medications, etc all impact the pH. Opt for healthy environments and foods. 
 

Rebecca Gerard is a registered dietician
and can be reached at 407.230.0830
or visit her  website at www.yourperfectfit.org.

Healing With the Work of Byron Katie

by Kris Berkov
If you look up the word “heal” in the dictionary, you will see that it means to “make whole.”  So if you want to heal, the question becomes how do you make yourself “whole?” Now this is the tricky part.   How do you make yourself what you already are?  Perhaps the real healing is to see that you are already as whole as you will ever be, no matter what your body is doing.

This doesn’t mean that you have to settle for disease.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel good and enjoy your life here.  But my sense is your body will be more inclined to heal if you can tap into your “inner health”….that part of you that knows you are okay no matter what your symptoms may be saying.

So the question then is:  How do you tap into that “inner health” that is already there waiting for you to discover it?  Well, in my experience, you have to find out how you are keeping yourself from it.  If it’s already there, then why aren’t you in touch with it?  Makes sense, right? This is where your mind comes in.  This is where you have to begin to listen to all the ways you “disturb” your own wholeness (ie the inherent peacefulness of your own Being)….and you will know your wholeness is being disturbed because you will feel stress.  It may be a physical tightness or tension or pain in your body.  It may be an emotion such as fear or anger or grief.  Feelings follow thoughts.  So if you are feeling “off” emotionally, then it’s time to sit down and ask yourself what you are thinking. 

Let's say you notice you are feeling unhappy.  If you look further, you may notice that you are having thoughts about hating your body for being sick.  Now I don’t know about your body, but I know for sure that mine doesn’t respond well to my blaming it for my feeling bad.

“But it is my body’s fault,” you might say.  Is it true, you can then ask yourself.  Is it really your body’s fault that it is ill?  If the answer is “yes,” then you can investigate further and notice how you react when you think that way. I notice when I blame my body, I feel worse.  It isn’t bad enough that I don’t feel well, but when I  judge my body on top of that, it makes for a really good depression.  And then I might find myself turning to things that aren’t good for my body (you know, all those addictive things people turn to) to distract me from those bad feelings. 

So the next question you might ask yourself is, what would be different if you weren’t blaming your body.  If you couldn’t think that blaming thought.  When I have done that, I often notice a feeling of compassion for what my body is experiencing.  It has even come to me to send some kind and loving thoughts its way…and  appreciation for all the ways it does work for me.

Now under which conditions do you think a body would be more likely to heal?  When it is loved and appreciated?  Or when you are blaming and criticizing it? The next thing you can do is take that thought “It’s my body’s fault that I am sick” and turn it into its opposite.  “It isn’t my body’s fault.”   Then you can begin to look for examples of how that belief is just as true, or more true, than the reverse.

In my case, I might say it isn’t my body’s fault because my body always does the best it can to maintain its well-being.  Another example would be that I couldn’t possibly figure out all the factors that have gone into creating my health problem. As I look for these examples, my tendency to blame my body lessens more and more as I mentally “get out of my body’s business.”  I actually see how all my efforts to try and figure out the causes of my health problems only contribute to my stress.

I am borrowing here from a process called The Work by a woman named Byron Katie.  Through her own suffering, she discovered that it is our thoughts that create the stress in our lives, no matter what our outer circumstances may be.  (See www.TheWork.com.)

The Work is one way to tap into your inner health by continuing to notice all the ways that you disturb your inner peace with your mind.  The more that you work with your thoughts in this way, the more that you see that it is actually your thinking that is “dis-eased”…and as you bring your thinking to wellness, your body usually responds in amazing ways.

So I encourage you to “give peace and wholeness a chance” by investigating the ways that you keep yourself from the wealth of wellness that is within you.

Kris Bercov is a licensed mental health counselor in Maitland, Florida.  She has been in practice for over twenty years and is a practitioner of The Work.  Visit her website www.pathtoinnerfreedom.com.

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