The Herb Woman

Dr. Phil Maffetone

With generations of people over-consuming sugar and other refined carbohydrates, many now have carbohydrate intolerance—or CI—the most well-hidden epidemic.

The full spectrum of CI begins as a hidden problem; it can progress to a functional disorder producing symptoms like fatigue that negatively affects quality of life, and can gradually result in serious illness such as diabetes or heart disease. An individual may find himself or herself at any point along this spectrum. To check how your body handles carbohydrates, the following survey will be useful. Perhaps you are carbohydrate intolerant and don’t even realize it.These are some of the signs and symptoms of carbohdyrate intolerance–how many do you have?

Carbohydrate Intolerance Health Survey—Some Common Signs and Symptoms
1. Poor concentration or sleepiness after meals
2. Increased intestinal gas or bloating after meals
3. Frequently hungry
4. Increasing abdominal fat or facial fat (especially cheeks)
5. Frequently fatigued or low energy
6. Insomnia or sleep apnea
7. Waist size increasing with age
8. Fingers swollen/feeling “tight” after exercise
9. Personal or family history: diabetes, kidney or gall stones, gout, high blood pressure, high cholesterol/low HDL, high triglycerides, heart disease, stroke breast cancer
10. Low meat, fish or egg intake
11. Frequent cravings for sweets or caffeine
12. Polycystic ovary (ovarian cysts) for women.

While best viewed as a series of a single, escalating progression of the same problem, carbohydrate intolerance (CI) has distinct stages:

- In the early stages, the symptoms can be elusive, often associated with difficult to diagnose blood-sugar problems, fatigue, intestinal bloating and loss of concentration.

- In the middle stages, the worsening condition may be referred to as carbohydrate-lipid metabolism disturbance or hyperinsulinism, and cause more serious conditions such as hypertension, elevations of LDL and lowering of HDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, and increases in body fat.

- In the long term, carbohydrate intolerance manifests itself as more serious problems, including obesity, and various diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. These end-stage conditions are part of a set of diseases now well recognized and referred to as Syndrome X, or the Metabolic Syndrome.

Taking the Carbohydrate Intolerance survey above is only the first step in reclaiming your optimal health. The next step is taking the Two-Week Test, which will help you determine just how sensitive your body is to carbohydrates.

The Two-Week Test
This evaluation will tell you if you are carbohydrate intolerant, and if so, how to remedy it. Yet I must emphasize that this is only a test and not a permanent diet, and it will only last two weeks—you will not be eating like this forever. And most importantly, this is not a diet, or should be pursued beyond this 14-day period. Nor should you experience hunger during the Two Week Test—you can eat as much of the non-carbohydrate foods as you want, and as often as you need.

Many thousands of people have used my Two-Week Test to get healthy, fit, and significantly improve their energy levels. Others have found it to be the best way to start burning body fat. Still others have reduced or eliminated medications they once required. Of all the clinical tools I developed and used for assessment and therapy through my career, the consistent results from the Two-Week Test surprised me the most—at how a person can go from one extreme of poor health to vibrant health in such a short time. It’s simply a matter of removing a major stress factor—refined carbohydrates and excess insulin—in a person’s life and allowing the body to function the way it was originally meant.

How I Developed the Two-Week Test
I developed the Two-Week Test in the mid-1980s. After spending almost seven years trying to wean carbohydrate-intolerant patients off white flour and sugar, it was exhausting work—almost like dealing with drug addicts. My goal was to lower carbohydrate intake to find the level that would eliminate signs and symptoms of excess insulin. The process went too slowly. One evening I was reading the Merck Manual, the most popular medical reference book used by health-care professionals to look up basic facts about assessment and treatment procedures. There was a single sentence, almost an aside, about elevations of insulin and how reducing carbohydrates might be necessary in some patients with hyperinsulinemia. Then I recalled a 1971 study from the New England Journal of Medicine. It was tucked away with copies of other studies in a folder called “Blood Sugar and Insulin” in my filing cabinet. As I paged through the study called “Effect of Diet Composition on the Hyperinsulinemia of Obesity” the proverbial pieces to the puzzle starting falling into place. Then I recalled another study. I searched the file hoping to find it. There it was, from Columbia University’s Department of Medicine and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 1976 (“Composition of Weight Lost during Short-term Weight Reduction”)—it showed that 10 days of restricted carbohydrate foods resulted in not only the loss of weight, but significant reduction of body fat.

This information was not really new to me, it was the reason I was weaning patients’ off insulin-provoking foods. But for some reason, the short excerpt, and the other two studies brought everything into clearer focus. I asked myself, “If weaning patients off their unhealthy carbohydrate addiction was so difficult, why not go ‘cold turkey’ so they could experience the immediate benefits? They would actually feel better quickly because insulin levels would drop right away, and within the first few days they would begin to experience life without harmful levels of this hormone rather than by slowly reducing those foods, which could take weeks or months to attain the same effect.

At first, this new test period I devised lasted 10 days—the same period of time used in one of the studies I had reviewed. But the first few patients I used this new approach on needed more time off carbohydrates to fully appreciate the positive effects, especially with regards to burning body fats. I added four more days to the trial or testing period. Two weeks worked much better.

To be sure patients understood this was not a diet, I referred to it as a test. It became known in my office as the Two-Week Test.

The new Two Week Test was unique. Not because it helped me better understand the patient’s sensitivity to carbohydrate foods. But more importantly, rather than conducting a blood or urine test that provided numbers that most patients could not easily understand or translate to real-life changes, this new approach required individuals to take an active role the process of self-evaluation. During the testing period, he or she would actually feel what it was like to have normal insulin levels, optimal blood sugar and, in many cases, be finally free of signs and symptoms associated with CI—all within a short time frame. This was a far superior method of educating the patient.

For those individuals who were not carbohydrate intolerant and didn’t feel any different during the test, it ruled out CI as a common health problem. But patients who were overweight, had blood-sugar problems, and simply could not escape the damage of eating refined carbohydrates, they now knew what it would take to quickly change their health.

It is not the purpose of the Two-Week Test to restrict calories or fat. It merely restricts many carbohydrate foods. And, there’s no need to weigh food. Just eat what you’re allowed, and avoid what’s restricted for a period of two weeks. Nor is its purpose to avoid all dietary carbohydrates, or go into ketosis (an extreme metabolic state of fat burning when little or no glucose is available for energy) like with some diet programs whose long-term success is questionable; in fact, once someone goes off one of these diets, weight gain is typical.

Before the Test
Before you start the Two-Week Test, jot down any health problems that you might have, such as insomnia or fatigue. This may take a few days since you might not recall them all at once. This aspect is important because after the test, you will review these complaints to see which ones have improved and which have not.

Next, weigh yourself before starting the test. This is about the only instance I recommend using the scale for body weight—it’s not a measure of body fat, but in this case it’s a good pre and post evaluation. During the test you may lose some excess water your body is holding, which will show on the scale, but you’ll also go into a high fat-burning state and start losing body fat (which won’t show on the scale). I’ve seen some people lose only a few pounds during the test, and some 20 or more pounds. This is not a weight-loss regime, and the main purpose of weighing yourself is to have another sign of how your body is working, especially after the test.

Before you start the test, make sure you have enough of the foods you’ll be eating during the test — these are listed below. Go shopping and stock up on these items. This requires a little planning, so make a list of the foods you want to eat and the meals and snacks you want to make available. In addition, go through your cabinets and refrigerator and get rid of any sweets, foods containing them, and all breads and products made from refined flour. Otherwise, you’ll be tempted. Many people are addicted to sugar and other carbohydrates, and for the first few days without them you may crave these foods.

Planning what to eat and how often is important. Schedule the test during a two-week period that you are relatively unlikely to have distractions — the holidays or times when social engagements are planned can make it too easy to stray from the plan. Don’t worry about cholesterol, fat or calories, or the amount of food you’re eating. This is only a test, not the way you’ll be eating all the time.

Most importantly, eat breakfast within an hour of waking.

Following the test for less than two weeks probably will not give you a valid result. So, if after five days, for example, you eat a bowl of pasta or a box of cookies, you will need to start the test over.

Foods to Eat During the Test
You may eat as much of these foods as you like during the Two-Week Test:
- Eggs (whites and yolk), unprocessed (real) cheeses, heavy (whipping) cream, sour cream.
- Unprocessed meats including beef, turkey, chicken, lamb, fish, and shellfish
- Tomato, V-8 or other vegetable juices
- Water—drink it throughout the day in between meals
- Cooked or raw vegetables such as squash, leaf lettuce and spinach, carrots, broccoli and kale, but no potatoes or corn.
- Nuts, seeds, nut butters
- Oils, vinegar, mayonnaise, salsa, mustard and spices
- Sea salt, unless you are sodium sensitive
- All coffee and tea (if you normally drink it)

Be sure to read the ingredients for all foods, as some form of sugar or carbohydrate may be added. These include peanut butter, mayonnaise, sour cream and even sliced meats.

Foods to Avoid During the Test
You may not eat any of the following foods during the Two-Week Test:
- Bread, rolls, pasta, pancakes, cereal, muffins, chips, crackers, rice cakes and similar carbohydrate foods
- Sweets such as cake, cookies, ice-cream, candy, gum, breath mints
- Products that contain hidden sugars, common in ketchup and other prepared foods (read the labels)
- Fruits and fruit juice
- Processed meats and fish such cold cuts and smoked products which often contain sugar
- All types of potatoes, corn, rice and beans
- Milk, half-and-half, and yogurt
- So-called healthy snacks, including all energy bars and sports drinks
- All soda; this includes “enhanced” mineral water, and diet drinks

A Note on Alcohol
If you normally drink small to moderate amounts of alcohol, some forms are allowed during the test.

Alcohol allowed: dry wines, and pure distilled spirits (gin, vodka, whiskey, etc.), and those mixed with plain carbonated water, including seltzer, tomato juice or V-8.

Alcohol not allowed: Sweet wines, all beer, Champaign, alcohol containing sugar (rum, liqueurs, etc.), and those mixed with sweet ingredients such as tonic, soda or other sugary liquids. If in doubt, avoid it.

For some meal ideas during the Two Week Test, click here.

After Taking the Test
Re-evaluate your original list of complaints after the Two-Week Test. Is your energy better? Are you sleeping better? Feeling less depressed? If you feel better now than you did two weeks ago, or if you lost weight, you probably have some degree of CI, and you’re unable to eat as much carbohydrate as you did before the test. Some people who have a high degree of CI will feel dramatically better than they did before the test, especially if there was a large weight loss. Some people say they feel like a new person after taking this test. Others say after a few days of the test, they feel young again.

Any weight loss during the test is not due to reduced calories, as many people eat more calories than usual during this two-week period. It’s due to the increased fat-burning resulting from reduced insulin. While there may be some water loss, especially if you are sodium sensitive, there is real fat loss.

If your blood pressure has been high, and especially if you are on medication, ask your health-care professional to check it several times during the test, and especially right after the test. Sometimes blood pressure drops significantly and your medication may need to be adjusted, or eliminated, which should only be done by your health-care professional. For many people, as insulin levels are reduced to normal, high blood pressure lowers too.

If nothing improved during the test—and it was done exactly as described above—then you may not be carbohydrate intolerant. But if the Two-Week Test improved your signs and symptoms, the next step is to determine how many carbohydrates your body can tolerate, without a return of these problems. This is done by adding a single-serving size of natural unprocessed carbohydrates to every other meal or snack. The purpose is to determine if any of these carbohydrates cause the return of any of the original signs or symptoms, including weight gain. At this stage, having just completed the test, your body and brain will be more aware of even slight reactions to carbohydrate foods — basically, you’ll be more intuitive to how your body responds to food. This is done in the following manner over the next one to two weeks:

- Begin adding single-serving amounts of natural, unprocessed carbohydrates at every other meal or snack. This may be plain yogurt sweetened with a little honey for breakfast, or an apple after lunch or dinner
- For a snack, try tea with honey
- Avoid all refined carbohydrates such as sugar and refined-flour products (like white bread, cereals, rolls or pasta)
- Other suggestions include brown rice, sweet potatoes, yams, lentils and beans

Most bread, crackers, cereals and other grains are processed and should be avoided — even those stating “whole grain” or “100 percent whole wheat.” Read the ingredients carefully. If you can find real-food whole grain products, they can be used. These include sprouted breads, whole oats (they take 30 to 45 minutes to cook) and other dense products made with just ground wheat, rye or other grains. If in doubt, avoid them during this one- to two-week period.

I want to emphasize again not to add carbohydrates in back-to-back meals or snacks because insulin production is partly influenced by your previous meal.
With the addition of carbohydrates, be aware of any symptoms you had previously that were eliminated by the test, especially for symptoms that develop immediately after eating, such as intestinal bloating, sleepiness or feelings of depression.

Most importantly, if any signs or symptoms that disappeared during or following the Two-Week Test have now returned, you’ve probably exceeded your carbohydrate limit. For example, if your hunger or cravings were greatly improved at the end of the test, and now they’ve returned, you probably added too many carbohydrates. If you lost eight pounds during the test, and gained back five pounds after adding some carbohydrates for a week or two, you’ve probably eaten too many of them. Likewise, if blood pressure rises significantly after it was reduced, it may be due to excess carbohydrate intake. If any of these situations occur, reduce the carbohydrates by half, or otherwise, experiment to see which particular foods cause symptoms and which don’t. Some people return to the Two Week Test and begin the process again.

In some cases, people can tolerate simple carbohydrates, such as fresh fruits, plain yogurt and honey, but not complex carbohydrates such as sweet potato, whole grains, beans or other starches. This may be due to the difficulty in digesting starches in some people with CI. In other situations, some individuals can’t tolerate any wheat products due to a sensitivity or even allergy to gluten (discussed in the next chapter. During this post-test period, these dietary factors are often easy to determine.

After a one- to two-week period following the Two-Week Test, by experimenting with natural carbohydrates you’ll have an excellent idea about your body’s level of tolerance. You’ll better know which foods to avoid, which ones you can eat and those that must be limited. You’ll become acutely aware of how your body feels when you eat too many carbohydrates.

From time to time, you may feel the need to go through a Two-Week Test period again to check yourself, or to quickly get back on track after careless eating such as during the holidays, vacations or periods of stress.

Many people find the loss of grains in the diet leaves the digestive tract sluggish and a little constipated. After years of eating lots of carbohydrates, your intestine gets used to that type of bulk. If you become constipated during the Two-Week Test, or afterwards when a lower amount of carbohydrate in the diet is maintained, it could be due to a number of reasons:

- First, you may not be eating enough fiber. Psyllium is a high-fiber herb that is an effective promoter of intestinal function. Adding plain unsweetened psyllium to a glass of water, tomato juice or healthy smoothie can keep your system running smoothly — start with one teaspoon a day for a few days to make sure it’s tolerated, than use up to about one tablespoon a day. If you require a fiber supplement, be sure to use the ones that do not contain sugar, so read the labels.
- Dehydration may be another reason for constipation at this time. If you don’t drink enough water, you could be predisposed to constipation. During the Two-Week Test, you’ll need more water—up to two to three quarts or more per day—which is really a normal amount for a person of average weight.
- After the test, vegetables, legumes, such as lentils, and fruits are also great sources of fiber. So if you become constipated, it may simply be that you need to eat more vegetables and fruits as tolerated.
- In addition, adequate intake of natural fats, discussed later in this book, can also be helpful in preventing constipation.

Occasionally, some people get tired during or after the Two-Week Test. Most commonly it’s from not eating enough food, and/or not eating often enough. The most common problem is not eating breakfast. And many people should not go more than three to four hours without eating something healthy.

Maintaining Your Food Balance
Once you successfully finish the Two-Week Test, and add back the right amount of tolerable carbohydrate foods, you should have an excellent idea of your carbohydrate limits—the amount of carbohydrate you can eat without producing abnormal signs or symptoms. This is best accomplished by asking yourself about mental and physical energy, sleepiness and bloating after meals, or any of the problems you had previous to taking the Two-Week Test. You may want to keep a diary so you can be more objective in your self-assessment. In time, you won’t need to focus as much on this issue as your intuition will take over and you’ll automatically know your limits.

Once you find your level of carbohydrate tolerance, you’re on your way to balancing your whole diet. Yet another important aspect of carbohydrate foods to be more aware of is which of the many choices available in supermarkets, farmer’s markets, and elsewhere are truly healthy, and which to avoid. While there’s nothing radical about the notion that refined carbohydrates are unhealthy, there are many radical diet plans that make it seem like all carbohydrates are deadly. They’re not. Finding your level of tolerance is what’s most important, then eat only healthy carbohydrates—lentils, fresh fruit, unrefined grains if tolerated, honey as a sweetener.

How is the Two-Week Test Different?
I’m often asked how the Two-Week Test is different than being on a low-glycemic index diet. Today, there are a number of cookbooks and diet plans all based on a low glycemic index approach.

The Two-Week Test is neither a diet that one blindly follows, nor is it a fad diet. Instead, it’s an evaluation that helps you individualize your own optimal eating plan for better health, not just for weight loss and reduced body fat. On the other hand, many low-glycemic diets offer gimmicks that teach you how to manipulate meals so you can eat refined carbohydrates and sugar by adding fat or fiber to unhealthy foods—this is not healthy eating, it’s an elaborate scheme of cheating your body. But the Two-Week Test teaches you which foods are best for optimal health—everyone is different and responds differently to carbohydrates.

Low-glycemic diets just provide lists of foods with associated numbers to eat or avoid. However, many nutritional scientists question the validity of these numbers, previously determined by often testing just two or three subjects in a lab; this may not sufficiently consider individuality. The test subject’s previous meals, variations in quality of the test food (where it was grown, how it was processed and prepared), and the effects of taste on blood sugar, could also result in erroneous numbers for a given food. These are among the reasons many people don’t respond well to low glycemic diets—many of the foods don’t match their particular needs.

While consuming a low-glycemic diet can result in weight loss for many people, understanding how to eat for overall optimal health rather following food lists is an ultimate goal for long-term success. This includes getting off the diet merry-go-round and finally being freed of sugar addiction.

To summarize, here are the basics of the Two-Week Test:
- Write a list of all your signs and symptoms
- Weigh yourself
- Plan your meals and snacks — buy sufficient foods allowed on the test, and get rid of those not allowed so you’re not tempted
- Eat as much as you need, and as often to never get hungry
- Always eat breakfast
- After the test, re-evaluate your signs and symptoms, including weight
- Begin adding natural, unprocessed carbohydrates to every other meal or snack, and evaluate whether this causes any of your previous signs or symptoms (or weight) to return.

Milk thistle ( Silybum marianum ) has been used since Greco-Roman times as an herbal remedy for a variety of ailments, particularly liver problems. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries physicians in the United States used milk thistle seeds to relieve congestion of the liver, spleen, and kidneys. Today, several scientific studies suggest that active substances in milk thistle (silymarin) protect the liver from damage caused by viruses, toxins, alcohol, and certain drugs such as acetaminophen (a common over the counter medication used for headaches and pain; acetaminophen, also called paracetamol, can cause liver damage if taken in large quantities or by people who drink alcohol regularly.)

Many professional herbalists recommend milk thistle extract for the prevention and/or treatment of various liver disorders including viral hepatitis, fatty liver associated with long term alcohol use, and liver damage from drugs and industrial toxins such as carbon tetrachloride.

If you are taking drugs for high blood pressure, you may want to put on a steaming cup of tea. In a study conducted at Boston’s Tufts University, 65 people were observed to see how hibiscus tea affected their blood pressure levels. On average, the tea lowered the systolic blood pressure, the top number of your blood pressure reading, by seven points, comparable to the effects of standardized blood pressure medication. Popular throughout Africa, especially the eastern region, hibiscus tea is made from the leaves of the hibiscus plant. Also known as bissap (in West Africa), sorrel (in the Caribbean) and karkady (in the Middle East), hibiscus contains high levels of vitamin C and organic acids and has historically been used as a medicine. Luckily, even if you are not familiar with this particular tea, it is quite easy to find, because most tea blends contain it. So drink up and don’t forget to make some for your loved ones.

Detoxification: The removal of poisons or toxins from the body.

Detox Cranberry Drink: This mixture should be taken three times per day (three 8 oz glasses)

You will be drinking a mixture containing unsweetened cranberry
juice, lemon and apple cider vinegar.

This mixture should be taken three times per day (three 8 oz glasses):

1. first thing in the morning upon rising
2. before lunch
3. before dinner

Ingredients

• Spring water (6 oz).
• Unsweetened cranberry juice (2 oz or 1?4 of a glass); make sure you read
  the label, as many people purchase the sweetened cranberry juice by
  mistake. Even though pure cranberry juice is very bitter, it does contain
  around 8 grams of sugar per 6 ounces. This is usually okay. The
  type of cranberry juice you do not want to use is the cranberry mixed
  with apple juice and other juices, bringing the sugar levels up to 28
  grams per 6 ounces. Do not be concerned if your cranberry juice is
  not organic, as it is very difficult to find organic cranberry juice. For
  those people who have major struggles with losing even a little weight,
  I recommend omitting cranberry juice from this mixture, since just a
  minute amount of sugar can potentially block fat burning.
• Lemon juice—1?3 of a fresh lemon or 1 tsp of lemon powder. If you
  have a history of kidney stones, use a whole lemon or 3 tsp of lemon
  powder. Both the cranberry juice and eating a grapefruit each day
  will also help prevent kidney stones.
• Apple cider vinegar (1?2 to 1 tsp); adjust amount to your taste, as this
  might be too strong for some people.
• Apple juice—only use if the drink is unpalatable (maximum
  amount is 1?4 cup). But, if possible, omit apple juice, as it is concentrated
  sugar.

OPTION: A certain percentage of people like to add some
fiber to this drink. I have observed that people are less hungry when
they add fiber. This could be any type of psyllium seed or husk or
other powdered fiber. Two tablespoons would be enough.

It is recommended that you mix the entire combination together in a
container the night before and place it in the refrigerator or a cooler. If
you absolutely cannot stand this drink mixture, don’t force yourself to
drink it. I have found most people love it and a few hate it. Some bodies
just can’t tolerate the vinegar; so, there is some flexibility in drinking the
mixture without the vinegar.

Why do you so often hear about people who lose weight on a diet only to go off the diet and gain back even more weight from where they started? The simple answer lies in understanding a few misconceptions.

First, Americans typically get a wrong label attached saying we are all overeaters. When you look at the typical American diet, this is simply not true. Let me paint you a picture of the typical American diet:

Most Americans wake up, skip breakfast, go to work for a while, then are starved going into lunchtime. Then they overeat lunch, crash about 2-3 p.m. as they can’t properly digest that amount of food, work late, come home, then overeat dinner which is the first meal they can really spend some time preparing. After dinner, they sit in front of the t.v., work on the computer a little, then go to bed to start the cycle all over again the next day.

Yes, it is true that when it comes to the actual meals we eat, we are overeaters. But if you look at the total amount of calories between the two large meals per day the average American eats, it is not enough total calories to sustain a healthy metabolic rate. On top of that, there is so much time between meals, especially from dinner time until lunch the next day, that your body is in a fasting state. So how does your body respond to this?

Because of efficiency, your body learns to get rid of muscle (where most your metabolism lies) and put on fat for storage. Your metabolic rate drops to accommodate the lack of total daily calories and continual fasting periods.

Then when you decide to go on that diet, you exchange those Whoppers for chicken and salads and cut your caloric intake even more. On top of that, most people begin to exercise which burns additional calories. Because of this shift into a caloric deficit, you WILL lose weight for the first few weeks and maybe even a few months if you are lucky. But soon, your metabolism will continue to drop even further to account for this additional caloric deficit. And if you thought your metabolism was slow before, now it is completely in the basement. The moment you can’t keep up your diet and exercise, or when you go back to eating even a normal sized meal (or Thanksgiving dinner), your body soaks up those extra calories like a sponge. That is why you end up worse off than where you began.

Now add this dilemma with nutrient deficiencies, toxicity, poor carbohydrate and protein metabolism, dehydration, adrenal stress, insulin issues, and all the diet and exercise fads, you have a real tough time getting a good solution.

If this sounds like you and you want to hear a concrete, straight forward, easy to understand solution to all this, shoot me an e-mail and I will be more than happy to set up a free consultation with you.

There is a big difference between all the fads out there that are more geared to taking your money away compared to common sense, scientifically established processes geared to actually honor you as a person and look to your success and well being. Hopefully, your daily lifestyle decisions are also working together to honor yourself as well.

To a great day and a better tomorrow.

Why Is This Not Just A Woman’s Problem Anymore
Despite what you might be thinking, hormone imbalance and “dis-eases” are not just a woman’s problem. Why? The organ that plays a gigantic role in your Estrogen levels does not even produce Estrogen…but it is responsible for eliminating or not eliminating it from your body.
Almost all hormone issues are not caused by excessive estrogen production, but inefficient elimination or deactivation of hormones in the liver.
Your liver is responsible for clearing your body of excess or non used items. To make is simple, think of your liver as having two oil filters inside. We will call them filter 1 and filter 2. Filter 1 is first to act. It will either make things less toxic or more toxic than the original substance that entered into it.
Filter 2 takes the less or more toxic substance and makes it safe for your body to eliminate through the urine or feces. The major difference between filter 1 and filter 2 is the speed at which they work and the different nutrients your liver needs for them to do their jobs.
We are going to focus on liver filter 2 and how it eliminates estrogen from the body. Estrogen comes in various forms. We will call them Estrogen 2, Estrogen 4 and Estrogen 16. To make it very simple Estrogen 2 is good or nice to your body. Estrogen 4 and 16 are bad. They are very active forms of estrogen and are more likely to cause dis-ease if in this form.
Here’s the important part for today. In order to make Estrogen 2 (good kind) we need a substance called Indol 3 Carbinol. You can get this compound in your body by taking a high quality supplement containing Indol 3 Carbinol.
The really great news is Indol 3 Carbinol is not some rare compound only found in a magic berry from the Amazon. You can find an abundance of Indol 3 Carbinol naturally in cruciferous vegetables (Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Turnips)
What I really love about vegetables is their ability not only to remove deficiencies and toxicities from your body, but at the same time they supply you with sufficiency and purity.
Who would have thought that vegetables would be so important to your hormone balance and healthy Estrogen metabolism? May be that’s why the American Cancer Society raised the recommended servings of vegetables per day to 6 to 11 per day instead of 4 to 5 per day.
And best of all, I have never seen a disclaimer of ill side effects due to eating too many vegetables.
The tip to take home is make sure you’re eating at least 6-11 serving of vegetables per day to provide enough Indol 3 Carbinol for Estrogen 2 (good) metabolism and elimination from your body.

Are Pollution, Chemicals (xenoestrogens) and Life Style Responsible For The Rise In Hormone Related “Dis-eases?”

I have been studying health and wellness since 1995. Since that time I have been reading a lot about and personally observing a scary trend in our Country. The rate of hormone related dis-eases has been steadily rising. How can this be? Don’t we have the best health care in the world… the most abundant food supply on earth… more medication available than any other country in the world? We do, but this does not seem to be working. Take a look at what the research has proven.

“The incidence of breast cancer varies greatly around the world, being lower in less developed countries and greatest in the more developed countries.”

Stewart B. W. and Kleihues P. (Eds): World Cancer Report. IARCPress. Lyon 2003

“Women in the United States have the highest incidence rates of breast cancer in the world.”

Ries LAG, Eisner MP, Kosary CL, et al. SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975–2000.
Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute, 2003.

What did that just say? The more developed the country you live in the more likely you are to get breast cancer? Women in the US have the highest rates of breast cancer in the world?
Have you ever thought about the fact that we have gotten so far away from what’s naturally good for our bodies in this country…that we are creating dis-ease through the very things we are using to treat them? Medications, synthetic hormones, pesticides and other toxic chemicals may actually be making us worse. If not what else could it be? If you know please tell me?
It’s not genetic! Only a minute percentage of these problems are related to your genes. Research has shown that only 5%-10% of breast cancer is caused by the “cancer gene”. Read it for yourself…

“About 5% to 10% of breast cancers are thought to be linked to changes (mutations) in certain genes. The most common gene changes are those of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.”
American Cancer Society

The Altered BRCA-1 gene appears in only 5% of the 182,000 breast cancer cases that develop. BRCA-2 is responsible for the same amount. Than mean over
Our way of life is not only affecting women, but men as well. Due to estrogen dominance look what’s happening to men.

“Since 1938, sperm counts of men in the U.S. and 20 other countries have plunged by an average of 50%. At the same time, testicular cancer has tripled.”
Newsweek 1994

I hope you see that what we have been doing is not working. You must understand the causes of disease to protect yourself. To help you, I will be sharing with you how to remove the deficiencies/toxicities from your life and body and replace them with sufficiency/purity. That is the only way to get well.

P.S. If you think what we are currently doing in the US is working…meaning people are getting healthier and happier please take a moment to look around. We are heading for disaster. This can be stopped. I will share with you how over the next four weeks, so check back weekly.
P.P.S. In order not to overwhelm you I will show you how to restore sufficiency and purity in bite sized pieces. Please share this information with people you care about. We must stop this downfall.

I have been studying health and wellness since 1995. My studies have led me to research not only the latest health information available, but I also studied the diet our ancestors ate during the Paleolithic period thousands of years ago. Believe it or not, there are actually studies on the Paleolithic and hunter/gather societies and what they ate. Great advancements in science and technology have been achieved over that last 10,000 years, but some of these advancements seem to be causing more harm than good. Technology has made our nation the most advanced in the world. We have an abundance of hospitals, medications, doctors and no shortage of food…if you really want to call what many of us eat “food”.
When I look at the research from studies documenting the health and lifestyles of humans 10,000 years ago versus today, I discovered something scary. The only thing that has happened is we have gotten sicker, and managed to create some “dis-eases” that did not exist years ago. How could we be getting sicker and creating dis-ease? What has changed? I was able to quickly eliminate a cause that we have been brainwashed with, the reasoning that says, “ it’s genetic or it runs in my family.” Bad genes are not to blame, and this is why…
In all the research related papers and books that I have read, I found…
1. That our genes have changed less than 0.02% (two hundredth of a percent) in 40,000 YEARS!
2. The Paleolithic hunter/gathers did not have many of our modern illnesses… they had no hospitals or medications available…and their genes were virtually identical to ours today.
Since we have the same genes now that we had 40,000 years ago, what is different? I will tell you…their diets, movement, level of activity, exposure to toxins and emotional stressors…so…basically their lifestyles were the complete opposite of ours.
I will explain the differences in all of these factors and how it affects our health in the near future, but for this post we are going to focus on diet and how it affects the health of our guts (intestinal digestive tract) and ultimately the health of our bodies.
In a nut shell this is how our fiber deficient, nutrient deficient diets are destroying the health of our guts and our bodies.
One thing you must know is that our bodies work just like the world around us. Our environment is damaged and destroyed by excess pollution. Just as our body/internal environment is damaged and destroyed by excess pollution. The pollution in our bodies comes mainly from processed foods which are deficient in nutrients and fiber.
Our guts are the first line of defense and up to 70% of the bodies lymph tissue surrounds the gut. Why would you need 70% of your immune system surrounding your gut? The gut is one of the first areas where things have the opportunity to enter your body. If something toxic gets through your gut and into the body you need to be able to eliminate it or fight it.
Here is how the gut works… you need “good” bacteria to ferment and break down your food so it can be absorbed. “Bad” bacteria also lives in your gut and acts like a parasite living off the food you eat. So if you don’t have the “good” bacteria in your gut then toxins easily pass through the gut into the body. Now your lymph system and immune system must take care of it.
Toxins pass through the gut = Immune Response = Pain or Sickness.
So there’s the problem. If your gut is unprotected and you don’t have healthy bacteria you are going to be sick.

What should you do? Increase your fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, unless you’re eating 70%-80% raw fruits and vegetable every day you will have a gut imbalance. I know that sounds like a lot, but there are several, time effective ways to bring these foods into your diet (I cover this in the report.) The “good” bacteria come from fruits and veggies. The “bad” bacteria come from breads, cereals, processed foods, soda and the other man made foods we consume. The foods you eat either make you more pure or more toxic. It’s just that simple.
The traditional western diet will cause the “bad” bacteria to flourish. The “bad” bacteria will actually eat the food you eat, so they can keep multiplying and take over your gut. This is gross but, what your body is left with is the waste or “bad bacteria poop” they excrete back into your gut. Left unchecked this cycle will “snowball” and continue to make your body more and more toxic and sick. This condition is correctable, but if undiagnosed and untreated it can reach a point of no return!
How healthy do you think you will be…
If you are living on a diet of “bad bacteria poop?”
There are four steps to restoring the healthy bacteria in your gut:
1. Remove the bad (such as harmful chemicals from our environment, allergens and Pathogens)
2. Replace the “bad” with the “good”
3. Repair (a special diet may be need to restore intestinal health which includes villi and microvilli health)
4. Replenish (add nutrients like probiotics, fermentable fruits and vegetables to support the growth and repair of healthy bacteria flora)

There is a way to test for leaky gut. If you would like to find out if you have “leaky gut” I can help. I am also making available to you the steps you will need follow to Remove, Replace, Repair and Replenish your gut. I have made these steps available to you in a free report.
If you would like the report or more information on how to restore health to several of the most common GI issues such as: Leaky Gut, Inflammatory bowel, Candidacies, Parasites or Dysbiosis please feel free to email me at theherbdoctor@yahoo.com. I have many protocols available to help you restore purity and sufficiency to your body.

Eat Well, Think Well, Move Well

I have been studying health and wellness since 1995 and this is a complaint I hear from over 90% of my patients when they first come into our office. They all suffer from a lack of energy, and the question is how do they get their energy back? I don’t blame them for wanting to feel more vigorous, I think all of us could use a little more pep in our step.

I have a habit of constantly observing people everywhere I go, airports, grocery stores, gyms, malls, restaurants, etc. and I am seeing the same thing not just in my clients but in everyone….

They look like they are dragging a 100 lb weight behind them.

This blows my mind! How can everyone look so tired and run down all the time? It took me several years of studying to uncover the main culprits of chronic fatigue, and I did not find it in my postgraduate medical textbooks.

If you look back in the medical text books from ten or fifteen years ago (I did) you will not see anything on chronic fatigue. How could that be? This “dis-ease” known as Chronic Fatigue did not exist as little as fifteen years ago! I had to discover what was so different now compared to ten or fifteen years ago.

I quickly eliminated several factors. Our nationwide chronic fatigue problems could not be due to a lack of doctors, hospitals, or prescription drugs. Why? Because we have more doctors, more hospitals and more drugs available to us now than at any other time in history, and we have more of these resources than any other nation in the world! Yet our disease and sickness rates are still climbing higher and higher each year. Did you know that the US is ranked 37^th out of 39 countries in the world in the overall health of our population?

Then it hit me…I know the reason why so many people are suffering from chronic fatigue, and the reason is…

No one has told you how to be healthy and reclaim your energy. Health really is a very simple concept we have just been lead to believe it’s not. You must restore purity and rebuild your body’s resources and remove the buildup of toxins in your body. There are three concepts you must follow if you want to restore health and re-energize your body. You must…

1. Eat well
2. Think well
3. Move well

If you did all three things at the same time for a period of time…you could not beat health and energy off with a stick.

I am going to focus on what I have researched and found to be the most important aspect of overcoming chronic fatigue. These recommendations are based on careful study of multiple clinical research articles, and my own functional medicine testing and results. Reversing your health starts first with your nutrition. After reading case study after case study, I have found that the three main factors contributing to chronic fatigue are dysfunction in three vital systems:

1. Liver (toxicity/stress)
2. GI (colon/digestive tract)
3. Adrenal stress or dysfunction (over or under functioning adrenal glands.)

There are three critical steps to get your liver, GI and adrenals back to health and I have condensed the necessary steps to overcome chronic fatigue in my FREE four page report Winning the Battle Against Chronic Fatigue.

My purpose is to provide you with the information necessary to restore health and wellness to your life. I am tired of seeing sick and suffering people who have lost their hope, that is why I will send you my report FREE of charge just e mail me at theherbdoctor@yahoo.com to receive your free digital copy of this breakthrough report. I have to warn you the side effect of following these recommendations will not only be increased energy but significant weight loss has also been reported.

1. Drink 1 cup of hot water with 1/4 lemon and 2 pinches of cayenne pepper first thing upon waking (on an empty stomach). is very simple but you would be amazed how many people say they can’t live without it once they start!
2. Use a ‘dry brush’ to massage your entire body before getting into the shower. Use a circular motion and work towards the heart. Then shower or bathe. Facilitates circulation and toxic elimination through the skin.
Take a warm bath with Epsom salt added to soothe, relax and detox. Additionally you may rub on the salt with a warm, wet washcloth in bath or shower. Very invigorating.
3. Jump on a rebounder (mini trampoline) for 3-5 minutes at a time. This shakes up your whole body and is particularly useful stimulating your lymph drainage system, thereby moving those toxins OUT!
4. Try your own ‘hydrotherapy’ in the shower by alternating hot/cold. This stimulates circulation and your immune system. You can also do a sauna/cold shower/sauna etc., if you belong to a gym. Not for the squeamish! But it is very invigorating! You’ll feel like a million bucks when you’re done. Of course, just a sauna and a shower are beneficial as well.