Soy & Your Health…

Posted on September 20, 2010 by eresko

Anti-nutrient, check… Genetically modified, check… questionable marketing, CHECK!

For years Soy has been hailed as a healthy food that everyone simply must add into their diet; but has it lived up to its expectations?  Soy proponents offer a list of health benefits including (and not limited to), protection against breast, colon &  prostate cancer, as well as osteoporosis & asthma, just to name a few.  I’m sure you’ve even heard that a little soy milk might even be good for premenstrual cramps.  The industry has boomed in the past 10 or so years and marketing continues to promote the product as a healthy food when in fact they are missing out on a very important element…. it’s the fermented soy that has the health benefits… and not all soy is fermented!  Soy milk, yogurt, ice-cream, cheese… yep, you guessed it, non-fermented soy.  Have we been mildly deceived this whole time?  I guess one could argue they (the soy marketing guru’s) have been telling the truth this whole time, just not the whole truth… and after all, we never asked.

“The vast majority of soy at your local market is not a health food. The exception is fermented soy, which I’ll explain more about later and even worse GMO soy that is contaminated with large pesticide residues as the reason it is GMO is so they can spray the potent toxic herbicide Roundup on them to improve crop production by killing the weeds.

Unlike the Asian culture, where people eat small amounts of whole non-GMO soybean products, western food processors separate the soybean into two golden commodities—protein and oil. And there is nothing natural or safe about these products” (Mercola, 2010).

In addition to this; non-fermented soy has been linked to a laundry list of health disorders such as breast cancer, kidney stones, infant abnormalities and brain damage. Not to mention it is notoriously genetically modified as well as an anti-nutrient (meaning it interferes with the bodies normal ability to absorb other nutrients and can disrupt digestion as well as your vitamin/mineral/amino acid absorption).

If you are drinking & eating soy products because you are dairy free (lactose intolerant), nowadays there are many other options out there..  For example  rice, nut and coconut alternatives are generally easy to find at your local grocer and if not, there is always the option to ask for it.  For more information about soy and your health, please refer to the article cited below, it goes into much more detail on what types of soy products are healthy (fermented), why it’s good for you and more specifics on why unfermented soy is so unhealthy.  In addition, he (Dr. Mercola) shares a long list of other links for more information on such topics as, soy and kidney health, soy and cancer or soy and childhood development.

Until next time…

~be well~

Erin

Sources:

The truth about soy: what the latest research says.  (2010, September).  Dr. Mercola Newsletter.  Retrieved from http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/index.htm

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Placebo Or No?

Posted on September 17, 2010 by eresko

There is much debate about Acupuncture and its effects are often compared to that of a placebo.  So what’s the word?  Well, first let’s remind ourselves, what is a placebo and how it works.  According to Wikipedia, “a placebo is a “sham” that creates a placebo effect”… which is “the tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work”.

So really, this begs the question, is Acupuncture simply playing a supersensory magic trick on our nervous systems & making us believe that we are getting better when in fact the treatment is “inert”?  As a student of the medicine, I obviously “believe” that it works, however this really isn’t the point at all.  Turns out a placebo is only as effective as long as it is being administered… and research would have it, that Acupuncture does indeed work long after it’s been administered; from weeks to even years down the road in follow-up studies.   This lasting effect is one of the things I find very interesting in all this research. 

Why am I writing about this?  Well, it’s a very pertinent question that I feel is important to answer and understand.  It is a common topic of conversation that patients & friends bring up when the topic of Acupuncture is mentioned.   Also, I am of the mind that the word “belief” should not be used in the same sentence as Acupuncture; it belongs next to words like Santa Claus & The Easter Bunny.  The mounting research and the personal accounts should be enough for us to know that Acupuncture works; but being of an analytical mind myself I can see the benefit in finding the data to back up an argument.  However, like I’ve said before, Acupuncture may be beyond our capable minds to understand at the moment but that certainly doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work & can’t be used as a health modality. 

The following article was printed up in the New York Times about a month ago.  The bottom line in this article is that Acupuncture works but maybe the research is focusing on the wrong questions.  I highly recommend reading it yourself, it brings up some really great points about how the research design we use with western pharmaceutical drugs just doesn’t work quite the same for studying acupuncture.

“Rather than proving that acupuncture does not work, in other words, the study may suggest that it works even when administered poorly. But the real lesson, acupuncture supporters say, is how difficult it can be to apply Western research standards to an ancient healing art”

Articles like this also lead me to question why Acupuncture is given so much trouble & its efficacy is constantly questioned simply because we don’t have an understanding of its exact mechanism of action.  In fact,  many of the pharmaceutical drugs on the market work by… you guessed it,  “mechanisms of unknown action”; and a few of the antidepressants currently on the market work just as well as Placebo, (meaning; a sugar pill will get you the same results as that antidepressant except you get the added bonus of all the nasty side effects).  

So, you tell me…  placebo or no? 

Sources:

Parker Pope, T. (2010, August 23). Studying acupuncture one needle prick at a time. New York Times, Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/studying-acupuncture-one-needle-prick-at-a-time/?scp=3&sq=Acupuncture&st=cse

Placebo Effect. (2010). Wikipedia foundation, inc.. Retrieved (2010, September 16) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_effect_(disambiguation)

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Exercise Tolerance, Acupuncture & the Heart

Posted on July 31, 2010 by eresko

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

Part of the purpose of this blog is to share with you all the bits of information I come across during my studies in Acupuncture & Oriental Medical School.  Personally, I love the medicine and have seen and learned its value in treating diseases of all kinds.  One of the most popular (in the news) uses of Acupuncture right now is in the treatment of pain; there are many positive studies coming out currently promoting its success in pain management & bringing to light (to you, the public) the benefits we may receive from Acupuncture treatments.  From my point of view, pain management is just touching the surface… YES, Acupuncture is wonderful for this; but it can do SO many other things especially when used as an adjunctive therapy with other modalities like chiropractic, body work, herbs, changes in lifestyle etc…. Acupuncture is used to treat a plethora of common ailments as well as rare diseases; a short list includes; allergies, asthma,  adrenal fatigue, fibromyalgia, auto-immune diseases including various forms of arthritis, the common cold, eczema, pain, it’s even been incredibly useful for post-trauma and drug rehab.  In addition, it can shorten post-surgery healing time, improve your immune function, lessen the amount of time you spend with a cold or flu & assist in balancing hormones…  I think I could go on and on all day, but I will get back to my point.

I was just perusing this website while I’m finishing up work here at the gym (I work at a Kettlebell gym called Spinach, in downtown Portland as a trainer/coach), and looking up news regarding exercise etc… My initial intention was to find something about Exercise and improving our ability to adapt through movement with the help of Acupuncture as an adjunct and possible performance enhancer, which is a topic I will write about sometime soon I promise…

So, I found this article Exercise Improves Exercise Tolerance in Heart Patients.   They point out an important idea that we can translate into our lives no matter what our condition.  In this particular study, however, the patients had Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), a disease where the heart as a muscle essentially starts to lose its ability to pump blood properly throughout the body.  This leads to a decrease in cardiac output and a general decline in oxygenation to the rest of the body as well as fluid imbalance in the peripheral body (edema), & a back-up of blood in the heart and pulmonary system (pulmonary edema, or hypertension).  Another aspect that plays a large part in the progression of the disease is the nervous system; ultimately, neurotransmitters released by the nervous system regulate the blood pumping effectiveness of the heart and patients with CHF may have an imbalance or miscommunication going on here.

Participants in the study were broken up into two groups, one group received 10 sessions of Acupuncture and were treated on a individual basis according to a particular TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) diagnosis.  The other group was given ‘placebo acupuncture’.

They found that participants who received Acupuncture

“could cover a greater walk distance in the time allowed than the placebo patients. They recovered more quickly and tended to feel subjectively less exhausted” (ScienceDaily, 2010).

Well, we know that Acupuncture has the ability to release endorphins, regulate inflammatory markers, neurotransmitters & balance hormones; we aren’t sure how, but really… does it matter?  When we achieve the desired effect (or a positive effect that we didn’t know we needed)  do we need to understand the exact biochemical pathway from needle insertion to neurotransmitter/hormone release?  The desired effect here seems to be working for these patients!

Furthermore, the scientists in this study theorize that Acupuncture had an effect on the skeletal muscle, and not necessarily on the cardiac output of the patient; either way, it seems the body became more effective at utilizes the blood that was pumped from the heart.  So, what does this tell us?  Well, good news,  Acupuncture could definitely be helpful with CHF patients, it could help shorten the length of time spent recovering post-surgery (particularly heart surgery), enabling patients to get more out of their rehab and be able to do the things they want to do more easily and in less time…

In addition, if you wanted to think of this in terms of an otherwise healthy individual who is getting regular Acupuncture, they may be improving neurotransmitter function, regulating imbalances within the nervous system and possibly improving their ability to oxygenate the tissues (ever heard of blood doping?)… Which brings me to another good point I should make regarding Acupuncture.  As far as blood goes, it has been shown to increase white blood cell counts and therefore improve immune function, so why couldn’t it improve the function of our red blood cells, those cells that deliver oxygen to the tissues?!  Sounds good to me… I wouldn’t mind capitalizing on a few more red blood cells to help me chase my boyfriend around on a mountain bike at altitude!  It’s almost like cheating, but not!  You’re just optimizing your body in its most natural state.

So, take what you will from this, but, Acupuncture is a wonderful tool for the sick and the healthy, and when used in addition to other modalities could increase the quality of your life exponentially!

Sources:

University Hospital Heidelberg (2010, July 1). Acupuncture improves exercise tolerance in heart patients, German study finds. ScienceDaily.

Grossman, S., M.D, M.S., & Brown, D., M.D. (2010). Congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema.  Retrieved from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/757999-overview

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Just Be

Posted on July 23, 2010 by eresko

Photo by Holly Mandarich on Unsplash

I recently just had the most wonderful 3 week vacation ever!  It was filled with Idaho outdoors, sunshine, relaxation, weddings, bbq’s, mtn. biking, road riding, friends & family… just to name a few!  I’m clearly still in denial that we started our summer term this Monday and have been daydreaming about riding my bike and running the trails back home in Ketchum, Idaho ever since I got back to Portland.

It’s funny how you don’t think you are stressed at times until you realize what it’s like to feel completely at ease and in full relax mode.  That being said, I’m working on prolonging my Zen attitude from the break and bringing it with me through this term and next year as well as in work and all aspects of my life.  I just feel so much better!  Everything seems to align; my health, my diet, my energy, mood and emotional well-being all seem to be on the ups when I’m relaxed and stress-free.  So, I just wanted to share this blog post that I just read since it says exactly what I would have said had I put the time into making a list of ways to be Zen in your whole life as well as productive with your personal, work and social life.  After all, stress accounts for something like 90% of ALL disease!  That statistic is crazy and yet so easy to change…

“How to be insanely productive and still keep smiling” – Zen Habits Blog

Also, on this same note of living well and ultimately finding a passion that makes you happy and healthy in your life; one of my summer fun reads at the moment is Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman.  I’m not quite done with it, but I’m loving it & don’t want it to end.  I’m a total sucker for these inspirational books and this one has a little bit of the Star Wars/Karate Kid feel to it… I’ll have to post a good quote from there sometime soon… it’s just full of them!  And while I’m on the subject new favorite book that you’ll have to read whether you are a runner or not, is Born To Run, by Christopher McDougall.  I just about read the whole thing in one sitting!

Till next time,

~be well~

Erin

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The Cholesterol Dilemma

Posted on June 17, 2010 by eresko

Photo by Autumn Mott on Unsplash

So, I am supposed to be studying for a big Final tomorrow in TCM Pathology (Traditional Chinese Medicine Pathology), but am getting seriously sidetracked.  It seems that when you have something you NEED to do, it’s so much easier to spend time researching things that have no time constraint at all and nothing to do with your tests… well at least it’s health related.  I just got an email from a good friend asking for a reference to an article on saturated fat intake, eggs and cholesterol and their importance and relation to the primal diet, sometimes referred to as the paleo-diet  (these two are very slightly different: the primal diet puts an emphasis on fats in the diet, whereas the Paleo just on Paleolithic foods).  Basically, without getting into too much detail and to give you an idea of what it’s all about; it’s a diet that is low in carbohydrates, has a moderate amount of proteins and is high in fats.  Sounds exactly the opposite of the typical  American diet we’ve all been taught to follow our whole lives right?  Well, for more information on this, I’m going to have to send you elsewhere, as I do still have to study for a huge Final this evening and this is a big topic of conversation that I love researching, but could easily get lost for hours in it.

So, back to my original point; my friend has a client who just recently inquired about the idea of eating saturated fats and whether or not eggs (the concept of the whole egg) were something that could be considered healthy or would just raise cholesterol.  Well, I started researching and found all these studies and quotes; but I wanted to find the best research, the most up to date and most relevant on the topic so I could hand it off to her as well as keep all these informational gems bookmarked for myself to use as a quick reference.  Instead of spending hours on the topic, like I was starting to do, I figured why not just ask one of the most informed persons in the business of all things primal…

The following information was passed on to me from Nora Gedgaudas, which I have the pleasure of knowing through my gym; Spinach, (and yes that is the name of the gym it’s not a Vegan restaurant in Downtown Portland).  She is a Certified Nutritional Therapist, as well as a Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist through the NANP & a Clinical Neuro-Feedback Specialist… and this is just the beginning of a long list of achievements and endeavors which you can read more about on her Bio.  While you are in the neighborhood, I highly recommend to check out the rest of her website Primal Body — Primal Mind; especially if you have an interest in the primal diet.

So, I figured what better way to answer my friends questions by gathering all the best information on the subject together in one place; selfishly for my own referral and to share with others as a one stop shop for questions on the subject of “saturated fats & cholesterol in the diet:  good or bad”.

Nora was generous enough to pass on to me her quick reference guide to the best available research as of now:

  • Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease
    • This link will bring you to the Abstract online, which will tell you the gist of it.  Basically, the study took 21 others studies (a meta-analysis) and looked at their outcomes as a whole.  This study was based on the previous idea that a reduction in dietary saturated fat will improve cardiovascular health.
    • They wanted to see if there was indeed an associated increased risk of CHD & CVD with dietary Saturated Fats & what they found was…
    • …”there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD”…
    • Here, CHD stands for Coronary Heart Disease & CVD for Cardiovascular Disease; both of which according to the study are inclusive of Stroke.

If this whole idea is boggling to you and this is the first you’ve heard of it, I urge you to check out this article FIRST before jumping head first into the debate.  It is a wonderful representation of how the body utilizes fats, what Saturated vs. Unsaturated fats are and how cholesterol plays a role in all of this:

Or you can reference one  of my previous articles on cholesterol:

If you prefer instead to listen to a talk about this concept; here is a link to one of Nora’s Voice America: Health & Wellness episodes:

  • My Big Fat Diet
    • On this particular show, Nora hosts a guest speaker Dr. Jay Wortman, who recently did a documentary on fats in the diet in a specific population of people in British Columbia over the course of a year.  The results were astounding and together a total of 12,000 pounds were lost through a low carbohydrate, moderate protein and high fat diet… The show is about an hour long; but it’s a good one!

If you already have a pretty good grasp on the idea and want to get a little more into the odds and ends of it all, here is another website, that I admit I haven’t gotten into yet; but looks like it would be very informative; if not only because of the name:

And… just for a little more light reading, but more for my benefit to finally get all these little informational gems in one place; here is another article Nora shared with me, which covers the whole concept of Saturated fats in the diet, & the misconception our country has about cholesterol:

Now, onto the subject of the egg…

Good or bad?  Whole egg or egg whites?  Well, I’m on team “Whole Egg” without question.  Eggs are by far one of the most awesome source of nutrition all wrapped up nicely in a cheap, easy and delicious little package.  They are a perfect balance of fats and protein and all its integral parts work synergistically with your body to pack a mean  nutritional punch!

  • Smart Fuel: Eggs
    • Eggs are an excellent source of protein and have all 9 essential amino acids.  They are also an excellent source of Choline; a vitamin that has a function in cell membranes and a particular affinity to brain cells; improving overall brain health and development.
  • Superfood of the week:  Eggs
    • Eggs have been shown to improve vision, heart health, baby health and even help with weight loss… just to name a few!
  • Go Ahead Eat The Yolk
    • The egg yolk contains all the good stuff!  When you eat the yolk, you get all the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E & K) along with Zinc, Folate and Calcium.  Not to mention that the balance between the egg yolk and the egg white essentially balances the amino acid profile of the whole egg.  So, by cutting out the yolk, you miss out on the good stuff… now why would you want to do that?

I realize that this concept may be new to some of you, but I urge you to inform yourself before you just accept one idea over another.  There is plenty of research out there, you just have to take the time and find trusted sources that give you good up to date information.

Whew… now, where did the time go, see I knew I’d end up spending hours on this… good thing I love learning, and sharing information with the masses!  Hope you enjoy and learned something 🙂

Until next time, I’m off to get studying & be well~

Erin

Sources:

Enig, M. PhD & Fallon, S.  The oiling of america.  Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/525-the-oiling-of-america.html

 

Gedgaudas, N., & Wortman, J. (2009). Primal Body — Primal Mind Radio. Retrieved June 16, 2010 from Voice America: Health & Wellness: http://www.voiceamerica.com/​voiceamerica/​vepisode.aspx?aid=44932.

Rao, N. ND.  Go ahead eat the yolk.  Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://www.wellwire.com/health/nutrition-health/go-ahead-and-eat-the-yolk

Rao, N. ND.  Superfood of the week:  eggs.  Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://www.wellwire.com/food/superfoods-food/eggs

Resko, E.  So easy a caveman can do it.  Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://essentialhealing.wordpress.com/?s=cholesterol

Siri-tarino, P. W., Sun, Q., Hu, F. B., & Krauss, R. M. (2010). Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular . The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91(3), 535-546.

Sisson, M.  Smart fuel: eggs.  Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://www.marksdailyapple.com/eggs/

Sisson, M.  The definitive guide to cholesterol. Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cholesterol/

 

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