Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sugar Addiction -riding the rollercoaster

Unfortunately the association of adrenal fatigue and type 2 sugar addiction is more common than we know. One of the key components of adrenal fatigue is a plummeting sugar level in your blood stream. This takes your sugar cravings and drives it to another level of severity. It makes you irritable, and your need to eat is urgent…and it is usually something really sweet that finds its way into your mouth. Now when you do satisfy you’re craving for sweets, your blood sugar level skyrockets again, making more insulin which then causes your sugar to plummet again. It is a nasty cycle of cravings, euphoria, and a crash to the ground. This emotional rollercoaster will take control of your life….if you let it. Just think about STOP-IT, the new sugar craving blocker, as a means of assisting you in fighting this battle for control of your body.

http://www.andlos.com/information/stop%20it%20booklet.pdf

The diet that supports this tragic rollercoaster ride is called the Low-Fat Heart Healthy Diet! What? I thought that was good for your heart? It isn’t…..it has caused an epidemic of diabetes and obesity as well as the army of sugar addicts we are now faced with. Try a low carbohydrate diet, and it will reduce inflammation, triglycerides, cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. Dr. Atkins was correct. Try today to keep your carbohydrate intake below 20 grams/day for the next week, and then increase to 3o grams/day. Stay away from the pastas, breads, potatoes, and candy! It sounds really difficult, but it will be the best thing you ever did. Fat and cholesterol does not cause heart disease, but inflammation does. And high sugar diet causes incredible inflammatory changes within our body.

Sugar Addiction and Sress-It's making you fat

So we talked a little about the type 1 sugar addicts who are hooked on energy drinks and caffeine. How about the Type 2 sugar addicts? This person‘s life is always in crisis. It seems like you are always reacting to your challenges. But how can you prepare for anything because you are always putting out fires? These patients seem to be women, moms with all the household duties, as well as a full time job. Now you have three full time jobs, home, children and your profession, and you have to also be a wife in there somewhere or deal with an emotional relationship. But your testosterone levels are plummeting with stress and you no longer think about romance. And that’s even more stress!
You are stressed out and always running either to swim practice, running your house or your office. Your adrenals help you for a while; unfortunately this exhausting lifestyle takes its toll. Ahhh sugar, or those comfort foods. They give you the boost you need, but inside of your body your adrenals are in maximum overload, and they will give out. The type 2 sugar addict finds that it is getting more difficult to fit into her clothes and that is because the adrenals and the sugar boosts cause your adrenals to work overtime with even higher cortisol levels. Your insulin levels then spike and sugar in the blood stream becomes fat in your belly. It’s your body’s way of surviving the anticipated stress. Studies have shown, women in adrenal fatigue will gain an average of over 30 lbs. Does this sound like any one you know? More to come…..

THE AMAZING VITAMIN D...JUST THE FACTS

Please check out all the amazing benefits of Vitamin D in this linked video. Even in Florida we don't get enough because we wear sunscreen all the time, that blocks all of the Vitamin D production. In the winter we did a study on women 30-65 years of age and 92 % of the women were below the lowest normal range of vitamin D, essentially Vitamin D deficient. When Vitamin D protects from Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes,Autoimmune diseases like Rheumatoid arthritis,the common cold as well as upper respiratory infections so prevalent in the winter months, we would be better off if we kept our Vitamin D levels. Doesn't that make sense? And it is so inexpensive...not cheap!

check this you tube video out....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQbVTEesb3I

Thursday, August 26, 2010

ARE YOU A SUGAR ADDICT?

ARE YOU A SUGAR ADDICT?

ARE YOU A SUGAR ADDICT?
Robert Carlson, MD, FACS

Essentially there are four different types of sugar addictions as described by Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum. I would like to use his categories but make some changes on management and descriptions.

The first group is the Type 1 sugar addicts. Do you fit into this group? This group is addicted to energy drinks and coffee, or even soft drinks laced with caffeine. Sugar and caffeine are the mainstays for this Type 1 addict. Here is the problem however. You start feeling exhausted and need a little “buzz”, turning for your favorite energy drink with it’s empty calories and skyrocketing blood sugar levels. Think about this. We normally have only about one cup of sugar circulating through our entire body via our blood stream. These drinks often provide up to 10 cups of sugar immediately dumped into your system.

This immediate rush is obviously satisfying but the plunge one to three hours later caused by spiking insulin levels pushing the sugar into our cells and driving the blood glucose level to bottom of the barrel. And that’s how you feel, until you get another slug of sugar or caffeine. It is a vicious cycle. Let me tell you how to break this sugar addiction…..just say STOP-IT and press the button below to learn more about how you can STOP the sugar addiction!



More to come…..

DHA - The Importance of Omega 3

DHA - The Importance of Omega 3
A video on Omega 3 fatty acids.
Robert G Carlson, MD, FACS

DHA is a major structural and functional component of our central nervous system, accounting for over 30 % of the total fatty acid content of the human brain. It is essential for the growth and development of brain tissues in infants and children. In adults, it helps assist in supporting normal brain function, including memory and, learning. Horrocks in 1999 described the associated increase risk of Alzheimer’s disease in patients with low DHA levels. In concert with phosphatidylserine, researchers at the NIH revealed that DHA supports energy production in brain cells, and is critical in healthy brain function.

A large number of studies have shown that omega-3 oils can improve brain function, decrease inflammation, reduce the incidence of lethal heart attacks and ischemic strokes,, improve the outcome of autoimmune diseases, and improve vision, reducing the development of macular degeneration.

Please sign in in the upper right corner to follow my blogs. Dr. C
Hey don't forget to check out the video about the Omega-3's on you tube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIFoc8roxdk.
Other videos about your thyroid and vitamin d as well.
P

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Reasons not to take Lipitor,Crestor,Vytorin, besides making healthy people patients and unnecessarily increasing your insurance premiums

Reasons not to take Lipitor,Crestor,Vytorin, besides making healthy people patients and unnecessarily increasing your insurance premiums

The controversy involves this question: which people without evident
occlusive vascular disease (true primary prevention) should be offered
statins? The authors note that in formulating recommendations for primary
prevention, the authors of the guidelines did not rely on the data that
already exist from the primary prevention trials. Indeed, the authors note
that the guidelines cite seven and nine different randomized trials, in support of
statin therapy for the primary prevention of this disease in women and
people aged over 65 years. Yet NOT ONE of the studies provides such evidence!!!
Why do you think they recommended using statins? Just follow the money….
32 billion dollars made selling/pushing statin drugs on unsuspecting healthy people.
Furthermore, they note: "the absolute risk reduction of 1.5% is small and
means that 67 people have to be treated for 5 years continuously to prevent one such event. That’s certainly a lot different than being told by your doctor that if you don’t take the Statin drug (Lipitor, Crestor, Vytorin, etc) you will have a heart attack or stroke. It’s just not true.
Statins did not reduce total coronary heart disease events in 10,990 women
in these primary prevention trials!!
Similarly, in 3,239 men and women older than 69 years, statins did not
reduce total cardiovascular events!
A Harvard physician cited that: "Our analysis suggests that lipid-lowering statins should not be prescribed for true primary prevention in women of any age or for men older than 69 years. High-risk men aged 30-69 years should be advised that about 50 patients need to be treated for 5 years to prevent one event."
This is the real data and make sure your doctor who is demanding you take a statin (lipitor,pravachol,crestor etc) knows about this.

The Best Sleep You'll Ever Have....is in your grasp and so simple

The Best Sleep You’ll Ever Have…….is in your grasp and so simple.

Robert G Carlson, MD, Sarasota, FL

Do you have trouble falling asleep? Or perhaps you’re able to fall asleep, but then plagued by constantly waking up throughout the night, resulting in a broken, restless sleep that leaves you feeling like a zombie the next morning?

Have you been given sleeping pills to help with your sleep, pills that leave you spaced out, like you’re moving in slow motion and not fully rested? Not being able to sleep is critical, resulting in loss of memory, ineffective work habits, and increasing irritability. Starting in their early 40’s, women are in commonly plagued with sleeping problems. The answer is really quite simple. About ten years before menopause, ladies progesterone levels start to plummet. This sets them up for sleepless nights. Progesterone, natural progesterone that is soy-based, not the peanut oil pharmaceutical progesterone Prometrium, provides improvement in sleep, dramatic reduction in irritability (who wouldn’t be irritable if you can’t sleep and remain exhausted), reduction in headaches and the reduction in the signs of estrogen dominance. Besides natural progesterone, NOT synthetic progestins like Prempro or Provera, has now been shown to reduce breast and uterine cancer, reduce cholesterol and reduce heart disease. And it also makes you feel better!

Sleep medicines don’t deal with the real underlying causes of why women are having trouble sleeping as they get older. The major reason is because progesterone levels are so low. Progesterone is like nature’s valium, it is the Feng-Shui of hormones providing calmness and relaxation, factors critical in falling asleep.

With women who are either perimenopausal(which can be up to 10 years before menopause), menopausal, or suffering from surgically induced menopause (hysterectomy), the progesterone levels can drop to such low , immeasurable level that ladies simply can’t sleep. It often takes women an hour or more to get to sleep or they find themselves waking up throughout the night.

So how does bio-identical hormone replacement therapy help? When natural progesterone is taken as a pill, versus in the cream, it travels to the brain and interacts with the GABA receptors. These receptors when activated naturally promote sleep and help patients reach the restorative sleep (REM sleep) more quickly.

How does hormone replacement with progesterone differ from taking sleeping pills when it comes to the quality of sleep a woman might expect? Sleeping pills are synthetic, not natural. There is nothing natural about them, and because of that the natural restorative REM sleep is never achieved. Oh yes, sleeping pills will help you get to sleep, but they don’t get the quality of sleep achieved naturally. When I treat women struggling with sleep issues in their 40’s and 50’s, sleep undoubtedly affected by progesterone levels, one of the most common response I hear after starting progesteroneis ‘This is the best sleep I’ve ever had’.

How quickly can patients expect results? I have seen patients experience results very quickly. Sometimes within the first one or two doses. They often can’t believe how rested they are when they wake up and want to get rid of their sleeping pills as soon as possible.

One patient of mine, Erika is a perfect example of the difference a good night’s sleep can make. In her early fifties, I met Erika with major concerns of “I just can’t sleep”. She had been experiencing “on and off sleep” – waking up frequently throughout the night for years. Essentially sleep deprived. The lack of sleep was making her feel older than her years, and mentally and physically exhausted. She told me, “It was horrible and very hard to function.”

After only a few weeks of hormone replacement however Erika reported to me with excitement in her voice, “I can sleep now. I can think clearly now. It’s unbelievable.” Though still dealing with the stresses and pressures of before, she finds it easier to deal with now she has the benefit of a full and restful night’s sleep. “I really do feel like this very huge dark cloud has been lifted, thanks to you, Dr. Carlson.” She said fighting off tears of joy. “I see everything in a different view.” Her words of encouragement to ladies struggling with menopause and sleeping problems are: “I’m sleeping through the night and feeling like I’m back in my twenties or thirties. It’s amazing.”

Youthful Skin with Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Bio-Identical Hormones make you look younger

Youthful Skin with Bioidentical Hormone Therapy
Bio-Identical Hormones make you look younger

So how much control do you have over how quickly your face ages? You know, sagging cheeks, wrinkles and frown lines? The surprising answer is that you have more control over facial aging than you think. Factors such as divorce, smoking, and the use of anti-depressants dramatically accelerate facial aging. So what is beneficial in making women’s faces look more youthful? Hormone replacement therapy. Yes , a Case Western Plastic surgery study found that hormone replacement therapy made a big difference by reducing the aging process.

Aging, especially in the skin seems to accelerate after menopause in women. Aging faster with wrinkles spreading rapidly, skin quickly loses elasticity and smoothness are common features in postmenopausal women not receiving hormone replacement therapy. The basis for the use of topical estrogen therapy stems from the documented evidence of reducing diseases of aging, including heart disease, osteoporosis and cancer but also in the estrogen depleted chronological aging of our skin. To a large degree the features of aging skin seem to result from the decline in estrogen levels after the menopause. Of all hormones that decline with age, estrogens have the most dramatic effect on the skin. Estrogens are known to protect women from heart disease, and now it seems that they also slow down skin aging. Several studies indicate that postmenopausal women on estrogen replacement therapy develop less wrinkles and have better skin texture and elasticity than those not taking estrogens.
Studies in postmenopausal women have demonstrated significant decrease skin thickness with marked thinning of the epidermis (outer skin layer), loss of critical collagen resulting in deterioration of skin structures, deepening of wrinkles and widening of skin pores. The more rapid the collagen loss, which occurs in the first two years after menopause, the more dramatic the appearance of aging in these women. Studies have shown up to a 30 % loss of skin collagen immediately after menopause and the loss continues if there is no estrogen replacement received. This British Medical Journal study amazingly showed that women who then received topical estrogen therapy experienced an increase in skin collagen content 48 % higher than those who did not received hormone replacement therapy. Proper bioidentical hormone replacement with estrogen, progesterone and testosterone replacement is a complex decision requiring the analysis of one's medical history and a physician who has the knowledge to expertly balance a women’s hormones.
Women after menopause have been shown to have improved skin benefits using estrogen topical preparations. A University of Vienna study in postmenopausal women demonstrated a marked improvement in skin elasticity and firmness after only six months of therapy; wrinkle depth and pore size decreased by over sixty percent in both estradiol and estriol groups. Skin moisture and collagen synthesis increased significantly.
I believe that estrogen creams could also improve the signs of aging in premenopausal women as well although further studies are needed to confirm that. The Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery article showed that hormone replacement therapy dramatically reduced the appearance of facial aging in women. So not only does hormone replacement reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer , and osteoporosis, but it also makes you look younger. So now you have European and American studies that support the benefits of Hormone Replacement therapy on the skin. The benefits of Hormone replacement therapy on the heart, bones, memory and cancer are being clearly documented in the medical literature. So, it’s about time we took the fear out of HRT and provide women with a safe and healthy approach to wellness. Now that sounds like a great idea to me.
Robert Carlson, MD, FACS