Alice was 52 years old when she first visited my office. She complained of fatigue, bloating, and a chronically bad mood. So I ran some blood work on her. This included a metabolic panel, thyroid panel, complete blood count, and a urinalysis. There were a couple of irregular biomarkers. Her thyroid function was low normal, her HgbA1c (blood sugar biomarker) was slightly elevated, her triglycerides were high normal, and one liver enzyme was slightly elevated.
Like Alice, most of us don’t spend much time thinking about our livers. This hard-working organ filters our blood, helps us remove toxins from our bodies, and even makes proteins. We often take it for granted, assuming that as long as we don’t consume excessive amounts of alcohol, our livers will keep trucking along just fine. But all it takes is knowing the name of the most common liver ailment to recognize that unfortunately, this isn’t the case.
In the Western world, the most common liver disorder is nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is just what it sounds like: a buildup of fat in the liver. As you might expect, it’s particularly common in people who are obese, insulin resistant, type-2 diabetic, have high cholesterol or triglycerides, or suffer from metabolic syndrome. However, it also can be caused by medications, viral hepatitis, an inherited autoimmune or liver disease, rapid weight loss, and malnutrition.
NAFLD goes through three stages, and many people don’t even realize they have it until they’ve reached a later, more dangerous stage. But because the typical diet in America contributes so strongly to this condition, anywhere from 17-33% of Americans may be walking around with NAFLD. So it’s important that we understand what it is, how it affects our health, and how we can reverse or avoid it altogether.
Alice was fortunate. When I noticed her elevated liver enzyme and her symptoms, NAFLD crossed my mind. So I referred her to a liver specialist colleague. Sure enough, he diagnosed her with NAFLD and told me that I should get the various numbers in better order and send her back in six months.
For the next six months we bolstered her thyroid function, lowered her sugar, and improved her liver function. After three months, her biomarkers had improved. And after six months, the liver specialist was delighted with her improvement.
Today, four years later, Alice is no longer tired, bloated, or in a bad mood. The hepatologist continues to be pleased with her progress and has assured her if she continues with her lifestyle and supplement changes, she will be able to avoid this initially silent disease. Because of her lifestyle and supplement changes, Alice didn’t experience the potentially dangerous side of NAFLD.
NAFLD becomes particularly problematic when it develops into nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, which occurs when the fat triggers inflammation that blocks liver function. This in turn can create NAFLD-associated cirrhosis. When this occurs, inflammation creates scar tissue that can ultimately lead to liver failure.
Given that up to one-third of Americans may have NAFLD, it’s surprising we don’t talk about it more often. But that’s because you can have a fatty liver for decades and not realize it. It may take quite a while for symptoms to pop up, and once they do, it can still be challenging to link them to the liver. Among the more general symptoms of NAFLD are fatigue, weight loss, weakness, confusion, and trouble concentrating. There are also more digestion-specific symptoms that can help you pinpoint the cause, including a loss of appetite, nausea, bloating, gas, and constipation. Finally, the more unusual symptoms that are especially helpful signposts are pain in the center or right upper part of the abdomen, dark urine, bruising easily, excessive sweat, dry and dark patches on the neck and under arms, and, of course, an enlarged liver. If you’re experiencing any of these, you should talk to your doctor to determine if your liver is carrying excess fat.
While cirrhosis is an obvious danger of NAFLD, even the early stages of the disease can take a toll on your health. Research recently published in Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders indicated that patients with NAFLD have poorer heart rate recovery than patients without it and more fat around their hearts as well, particularly when they also suffer from metabolic syndrome. Poor heart rate recovery can indicate dysfunction in the heart’s autonomic nervous system, and increased fat around the heart can be a precursor of a number of cardiometabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
This study is an important reminder that it’s important to get your liver healthy well before you reach the cirrhosis stage. But if you’re not sure how far gone your liver is, these signs could indicate your liver is diseased enough to seek medical assistance: fluid buildup throughout the body, weakness, yellowing of the skin and eyes, and of course liver failure. Since cirrhosis is life-threatening, you need to see your doctor immediately if you’re suffering from any of these symptoms.
In general, though, you’ll know something is wrong with your body before you get to cirrhosis. If you suspect that your liver might be suffering, you should talk to your doctor and take a long, hard look at your diet and lifestyle. NAFLD is so prevalent in the Western world in large part because of our unhealthy diets. To avoid worsening NAFLD, here’s what you need to stay away from: alcohol (yes, alcohol is taxing to your liver even if you have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease); high-glycemic, highly processed carbohydrates; sugary drinks, including soda and sweetened juices; Trans fats; and preserved meats. So, as you might have expected, most combo meals are out. Instead, eat plenty of vegetables, either green leafy varieties in salads or whatever else you prefer lightly steamed or raw. Try not to cook them in lots of fat – you need to give your liver a break. Many teas also can be beneficial, particularly dandelion, milk thistle, ginger root, and turmeric-lemon-ginger tea and you can sweeten to taste with a natural sweetener if you like. Try sipping tea instead of a sugary drink — you’ll quickly grow used to having some flavor without sugar.
A study published a few years ago in The British Journal of Nutrition emphasized the need for a healthy diet to help prevent NAFLD. In fact, this study reported that among people who are obese, up to 90% may have NAFLD. A healthy diet can, of course, help you drop weight in both
visible areas and invisible areas, such as around your liver. The authors recommend a diet high in natural vitamins and minerals to decrease risk of metabolic syndrome, NAFLD, and eventual steatohepatitis and cirrhosis. That means eating lots of vegetables and fruits. Avoid eating too much food at any meal (don't let your blood sugar get too high). After you finish eating dinner, consider a short walk to help improve your digestion and keep your blood sugar more stable. And try to not eat too late. You also can drink green tea (one to three cups daily).
If your digestion is weak or if you feel a bit nauseated after eating, drinking a cup of ginger tea improves your digestion and alleviates the nausea.
Make sure you’re not eating foods that make the problem worse. Then you should take supplements that help restore your liver to health. With Alice, I encouraged her to eat garlic – cooked or raw. If you don’t like the taste of garlic – consider using a supplement a few months out of the year. You don’t need to take it every day. Just make sure you include it in your regimen at times. There’s especially good research around fermented garlic.
Milk thistle is another supplement you can take several months a year. Consider alternating with the garlic supplement. If you can handle the taste, you also can drink milk thistle tea. You can find milk thistle in Advanced Liver Support. It also contains other antioxidants and vitamins that help your liver do its job. These include Royal Agaricus mushrooms and n-acetyl-l-cysteine to support the detoxification process, and quercetin to support a heathy inflammatory response. You can order Advanced Liver Support by calling 800-791-3395. Make sure you give them special code WH8317. Combined with good lifestyle choices, it will help your liver stay lean, powerful, and able to keep performing all its many functions that we so easily take for granted.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28346857/?i=4&from=cardiovascular%20risk
This Surprising Source of Toxins Could Be Harming Your Health
If you’ve shopped for a plastic product recently, particularly one that will be used for food preparation or storage, you’ve probably seen a label or two boasting that the product is BPA-free. That’s good news, as bisphenol A, or BPA for short, is now linked to a number of health concerns in recent years. And it’s been used in a number of plastic products, including food storage containers and water bottles. However, manufacturers are starting to phase it out, but it’s not completely gone, so you still need to take steps to avoid it. I’ll tell you why below. And unfortunately, BPA isn’t the only toxin our food can be wrapped in. Here’s what else you need to look out for – and what you can do to get these toxins out of your body.
Let’s start with BPA. To explain why you need to be careful around BPA, I’m going to talk to you about turtles. You may be wondering what turtles have to do with you and your food. Well, turtles are what’s known as an “indicator species.” If the turtles aren’t doing well, something’s probably wrong with the ecosystem. And when it comes to BPA exposure, turtles are doing very poorly indeed.
According to a joint research project conducted by the University of Missouri, Westminster College, and the Saint Louis Zoo, BPA exposure affects everything from sexual function to behavior to gene expression in painted turtles. In fact, a gene expression analysis found that exposure to BPA altered a grand total of 235 genes in the turtles. Many of these genes affected are involved in the pathways regulating the mitochondria and ribosomes, which affect energy production and protein synthesis, respectively.
The turtles demonstrated behavioral changes for nearly a year after being exposed to the BPA, which indicates that BPA can have long-lasting effects on the brain and the endocrine system. This is bad news for turtles and by extension, bad news for us – especially when you remember that we have more than just BPA to watch out for.
You know fast food isn’t good for you. But you probably never considered that beyond the food itself, the wrapping could be harming you. You may have recognized the environmental impact of a Styrofoam container, but most of us don’t realize that over 30% of fast-food wrappers contain per- and polyflourinated alkyl substances (PFASs), which have been linked to everything from kidney and testicular cancer to high cholesterol to fertility issues to thyroid problems. They’re even worse for kids, potentially causing problems with growth, learning, behavior, and a healthy response to vaccinations.
But does wrapping our food in PFASs mean we actually ingest it? Unfortunately, new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Notre Dame indicates that the answer is yes. For this study, the researchers were able to replace one of the fluorine atoms in the PFAS molecule with a form that’s radioactive, meaning they can trace it. They exposed mice to the modified PFAS molecules to see where they would end up.
The answer, in short, was everywhere. PFASs turned up in mice’s brains, stomachs, livers, lungs, skin, muscles, and bones. And because it can be hard to flush PFASs out of the body if you aren’t intentional about doing so, they accumulate and cause increasing damage over time. More studies are needed to see if PFASs infiltrate our human bodies the same way they do mice’s. But these results are sobering, particularly as other studies have confirmed that PFASs can leach from wrappers into our foods and that they can even trickle from landfills into our water supply.
There is a way to help remove these toxins from your body. But before I tell you about it, I have one more warning. This time, it isn’t your food storage you need to worry about — it’s the food itself. That’s because a common additive has been linked to problems with intestinal function.
This additive is called titanium oxide, and it’s often used to improve white pigmentation in paper, paint, plastic — and skim milk. You’ll also find it in chocolate, doughnuts, mayonnaise, gum, many toothpastes, and a number of other processed foods. While the FDA considers it to be safe in small amounts, research being conducted at Binghamton University in New York is calling that assessment into question. Researchers exposed intestinal cell culture models to the equivalent of a meal’s worth of titanium oxide over four hours or three meal’s worth over five days to simulate acute and chronic exposure, respectively.
While the acute exposure didn’t seem to affect the cells, chronic exposure weakened the intestinal barrier by decreasing the microvilli, which are projections on the intestines’ surface that help to absorb nutrients. If your microvilli count goes down, you’ll have a harder time getting nutrients like iron, zinc, and fatty acids into your bloodstream, and your metabolism will likely slow. Enzyme function also decreased in the exposed cells, while inflammation increased.
So what do we do about all of these harmful ingredients in and around our foods? I think you need to focus on three areas: avoidance, removal, and repair.
First, stay away from these additives and chemicals when you can. When it comes to food storage, I like glass and stainless steel better than plastic. Even BPA-free plastic may contain harmful chemicals that we just haven’t researched enough yet. If you do use plastic, don’t heat it in the microwave or run it through the dishwasher, as the heat can increase the chances of chemicals leaching into the food. Of course, you know that I want you to stay away from fast food and processed food too. If you do occasionally indulge in a quick burger, don’t keep the wrapper around it as you eat it. And you may want to consider getting a toothpaste made without titanium oxide as well.
Second, while it’s good to limit exposure whenever possible, most of us will end up with these chemicals in our bodies at some point. And as we saw with titanium oxide, chronic exposure can be particularly harmful, so it’s important to flush them out as quickly as possible. I think the best way to do this is by using PectaSol Detox Formula. It’s made of modified citrus pectin, which binds to toxins to help your body recognize and excrete them. It also contains alginate, which comes from seaweed and helps your body avoid absorbing these toxins in the first place. I recommend people take PectaSol along with buffered vitamin C, which will help protect your blood vessels throughout the detox process. You can take this combination at any time during the day, but I think before bed is best so that your body can flush out toxins while you sleep. I have prescribed PectaSol to young 12-year-old children and 82-year-old seniors and have seen remarkable results. You have to be patient as these toxins take time to build up in our systems and take time to leave. You can order PectaSol by calling 800-791-3395. Make sure you give them special code WH8417.
Finally, you need to help your body heal from the damage these toxins can do, even if they’re only in your body for a short time. I’m sure you know that antioxidants are one of your best weapons in the fight against inflammation and oxidative stress. On the front lines should be apigenin, a plant flavone that’s particularly skilled at detoxification and defense. Numerous studies have shown that it also binds to heavy metals to get them out of the body, mops up free radicals, and promotes the production of detoxification enzymes. Many of my chronic fatigue patients find 3 ounces of celery juice (HIGH in apigenin) daily makes a big difference in how they feel all day. Apigenin helps reduce inflammation throughout the body. Many chronic illnesses, especially bacterial and viral, cause significant inflammation. Dietary tools such as celery juice and turmeric, ginger, lemon drink help to get rid of the toxic burden. The ultimate detox triad is: PectaSol, celery juice, and a turmeric, ginger, and lemon drink.
You’ll find apigenin in many fruits and vegetables but especially celery. While we can’t avoid the toxins in our polluted world completely, we can do our best to make good choices and help them move along quickly whenever we do encounter them.
Jennifer L. Burkemper, Tolulope A Aweda, Adam J Rosenberg, David Lunderberg, Graham F. Peaslee, Suzanne E. Lapi. Radiosynthesis and biological distribution of [18F]-labeled perfluorinated alkyl substances. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2017; DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.7b00042
https://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/index.html?id=2485.
Nutrition Detective
This Dried Fruit Could Save Your Bones
If you’re concerned about keeping up an appearance of youth as you age, you may not like what I’m about to tell you. But stick with me. The benefits of this “aging” food can actually help you avoid a much more aging accessory – like a cast, cane, walker, or wheelchair.
Why would I tell you about an “aging” food? Well, the food itself won’t age you. In fact, it can help you avoid one of the major pitfalls of growing older. And while you could call the food itself aged, the reason I described it as “aging” is that it does have a certain stigma attached to it.
Yes, it’s prunes. Or — if you prefer — dried plums. I know prunes tend to be associated with “old people.” You can hide them in the back of your pantry if you want. That is, as long as you still remember to eat them. That’s because eating prunes can help decrease your risk of suffering an osteoporosis-related bone fracture, according to a study published in Osteoporosis International.
For this study, researchers wanted to determine if eating various amounts of dried plums could help improve bone biomarkers in women with osteopenia. Because prunes are known to have a laxative effect, they wanted to determine if eating a small amount could still benefit the bones so you can reduce your chances of experiencing a potentially unwanted side effect.
The researchers divided 48 postmenopausal women with osteopenia into three groups, one of which consumed 50 grams of dried plum a day, one of which consumed 100 grams, and one of which did not consume any dried plums. None of the women had osteoporosis, had taken prescription medications that could affect bone or calcium metabolism in the previous three months, had any systemic or chronic disease, regularly consumed dried plums or prune juice already, or were heavy smokers. All of the women (regardless of whether they consumed the dried plums or not) also received 500 mg of calcium carbonate and 400 IU of vitamin D3 a day.
Throughout the six-month study, the researchers regularly checked the participants’ food records and biomarkers. By the end of the study, the participants in the control group had lost some bone mineral density (BMD), but the BMD of the participants in both dried plum groups had held steady. The dried plum groups also saw significant decreases in their levels of an enzyme that promotes bone resorption, while the control group didn’t experience any changes in this area. Plus, the control group saw decreases in levels of the growth hormone IGF-1, but the dried plum groups didn’t.
This study indicates that as little as 50 grams a day of prunes can have significant benefits when it comes to protecting your bone health. You might endure some teasing, but you’ll have the last laugh when your bones stay strong and healthy. Of course, if you can’t stand the idea of (or the taste) of prunes – or you just want to give your bones even more help – you can try Ultimate Bone Support (800-791-3395) to encourage healthy bone and collagen growth as well.
Hooshmand S, Kern M, Metti D, et al. The effect of two doses of dried plum on bone density and bone biomarkers in osteopenic postmenopausal women: a randomized, controlled trial. Osteoporos Int. 2016;27(7):2271-2279.
LETTERS
Q: Is there any treatment for psoriasis that does not compromise my immune system like those drugs they tout on TV? I would like to do something about mine. I don’t want to take something that’s going to make me worse than itching. Thank you for your good advice. — Rita M., via e-mail
Dear Rita,
Unfortunately, natural treatment for psoriasis is not a simple solution. But here are some things that will often improve it:
(1) Fix your digestion – Chronic psoriasis is often a problem caused by leaky gut. So it’s important to get on a diet that’s not creating any digestive issues. You might consider using digestive enzymes, such as those in Integrative Digestive Formula (800-791-3395). It can often be helpful.
(2) Try fish oil (EPA and DHA) as well as primrose and borage oil. Research has shown that all of these can improve the overall health of your skin. And they can reduce redness and psoriasis plaque.
(3) Finally, check your vitamin D levels. Getting your blood levels of vitamin D3 up to the mid-range (50ng/ml) will often be a good start.
Q. What are the major differences between CircO2 and your new SuperBeets products? Don’t they both serve the same purpose? – Beth H., via email
Dear Beth,
Yes and no. They both help with circulation and blood pressure. But CircO2 is a supplement that contains B12 and Hawthorne Berry. It’s especially effective at delivering nitric oxide to your bloodstream. SuperBeets, on the other hand, is a functional food. Beets are high in vitamin C, potassium, manganese, and folate. Anecdotally, they have been associated with improving liver function and enabling improved digestion of fats. Unless you have low blood pressure, it’s safe to take both. You may want to take one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27927068
Q. I’ve been on Lexapro for 13 years for anxiety. My late husband had cancer. Three months after his diagnosis, I started shaking inside and could not stop. I was put on a lot of anti-anxiety drugs, and finally ended up on 10 mgs of Lexapro. I’ve been taking that regularly for anxiety. I have also tried unsuccessfully to get off the drug, but when the dosage was too low, I started in with a rapid heartbeat. Now, I seem to be getting the rapid heartbeat, while on the 10 mgs. If I go to the doctor, she will probably increase the dosage, which I do not want. Would you recommend some natural solutions along with the Lexapro? — Laurie C., via email
Dear Laurie,
The safest natural remedy, given you are taking the 10 mg of Lexapro, would be Rhodiola Rosea. It's important to choose a reliable brand, such as Gaia, NOW, Life Extension, PURE Formulas, etc. Most people begin with 100 mg and increase up to 400 mg over a period of two to three months. Please consult with your doctor who is prescribing the Lexapro and make sure that it’s ok that you’re taking this. I have not seen any issue with it, but they will know what's best for you.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18307390