I wanted to share this with people so they could see what free range grass fed pigs look like. In case you didn't know grass fed meats are animals which are eat a diet rich in grass and are able to roam freely. They also are free of antibiotics and growth hormones. Most conventional meats cage their animals. When they do this the animals have no access to sunlight and become unhealthy. You can't get what you don't have and if people eat unhealthy animals. Then were going to have unhealthy people.
Friday, 23 December 2011
Thursday, 22 December 2011
The Benefits Of Grass Fed Meats
The benefits of grass fed meats are quite profound. Grass fed meats are the healthiest meats you can eat. The reason why grass fed meats are so good for you is because they contain up to four times more vitamin A than conventional meats. The reason why vitamin A is so important to your health is because the higher your metabolic rate is the more vitamin A you use. The other great thing about grass fed meats is that they contain large amounts of vitamin E. Vitamin E is in important vitamin as it helps block the damage from polyunsaturated fatty acids. Grass fed meats also contain large amounts of saturated fats. When you hear about any food that contains large amounts of saturated fats you think automatically that it's bad for you. The truth is saturated fats are extremely good for you. Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap because of influences from the food industry. A lot of studies that are done to show that saturated fats are bad for human consumption are done by people eating animals that are fad large amounts of grains. It's alarming to some people that the polyunsaturated fatty acids are actually the cause of a lot of health problems. There have been scientists who have looked at pork and found that the pigs that eat a diet rich in grains were actually as saturated as sesame seed oil.
When you eat grass fed meats you get large amounts of healthy saturated fats. These saturated fats contain cholesterol and cholesterol itself is a precursor to every hormone in your body. Without cholesterol you would be sexless. Cholesterol also plays many important parts in your body. The phobia of cholesterol was caused by the lipid hypothesis. The lipid hypothesis to me has very little validity. The lipid hypothesis is basically the belief that eating cholesterol rich foods increases your cholesterol. This theory does not at all take into account how the body works. The body doesn't produce cholesterol in order to harm us in fact cholesterol has many anti-inflammatory properties.
Coconut oil is an example of a food which doesn't contain cholesterol as it's a plant yet the conventional medical community is convinced that it will increase cholesterol. Last time I looked coconut oil didn't contain cholesterol because it's a plant not an animal.
Now that I've cleared out all the misconceptions when it comes to cholesterol. I'd like to talk more about the benefits of grass fed meats. The great thing about animals that are grass fed is that the animals are also free to roam around. This gives them plenty of time to live a stress free lifestyle and get plenty of sunlight. The light from the sun is very important for the animals health and makes their metabolism run optimally. When their metabolism is running well they have good health and are able to assimilate and utilize the nutrients from their food. You can't get health from sick animals but you can get health from healthy animals. It takes life to give life and thankfully grass fed meats come from animals that are healthy. The other great thing about buying grass fed meats is that you are supporting your local farmers. We need to support our local farmers because they're the ones that are going to stop corporations from controlling our food. When corporations control our food they do not have the best interests to supply healthy produce rather they want to sell food as cheaply as possible. We own it to ourselves in terms of our health to get the best quality food possible.
Luckily there are usually many local farmers in your area who carry grass fed beef manitoba and many other Canadian provinces have websites that list local farmers in your area. If you are in a bigger city such as Toronto there will be plenty of stores which carry grass fed meats. I still think it's best to get your meat from a local farmer because you have a trusted source for your food and it's less expensive.
I think I outlined quite well the many benefits of grass fed meats. Obviously there are many other benefits but you will have to do your own research in order to find those out.
In conclusion, grass fed meats are a great source of protein and should be supplemented in everyone's diet.
When you eat grass fed meats you get large amounts of healthy saturated fats. These saturated fats contain cholesterol and cholesterol itself is a precursor to every hormone in your body. Without cholesterol you would be sexless. Cholesterol also plays many important parts in your body. The phobia of cholesterol was caused by the lipid hypothesis. The lipid hypothesis to me has very little validity. The lipid hypothesis is basically the belief that eating cholesterol rich foods increases your cholesterol. This theory does not at all take into account how the body works. The body doesn't produce cholesterol in order to harm us in fact cholesterol has many anti-inflammatory properties.
Coconut oil is an example of a food which doesn't contain cholesterol as it's a plant yet the conventional medical community is convinced that it will increase cholesterol. Last time I looked coconut oil didn't contain cholesterol because it's a plant not an animal.
Now that I've cleared out all the misconceptions when it comes to cholesterol. I'd like to talk more about the benefits of grass fed meats. The great thing about animals that are grass fed is that the animals are also free to roam around. This gives them plenty of time to live a stress free lifestyle and get plenty of sunlight. The light from the sun is very important for the animals health and makes their metabolism run optimally. When their metabolism is running well they have good health and are able to assimilate and utilize the nutrients from their food. You can't get health from sick animals but you can get health from healthy animals. It takes life to give life and thankfully grass fed meats come from animals that are healthy. The other great thing about buying grass fed meats is that you are supporting your local farmers. We need to support our local farmers because they're the ones that are going to stop corporations from controlling our food. When corporations control our food they do not have the best interests to supply healthy produce rather they want to sell food as cheaply as possible. We own it to ourselves in terms of our health to get the best quality food possible.
Luckily there are usually many local farmers in your area who carry grass fed beef manitoba and many other Canadian provinces have websites that list local farmers in your area. If you are in a bigger city such as Toronto there will be plenty of stores which carry grass fed meats. I still think it's best to get your meat from a local farmer because you have a trusted source for your food and it's less expensive.
I think I outlined quite well the many benefits of grass fed meats. Obviously there are many other benefits but you will have to do your own research in order to find those out.
In conclusion, grass fed meats are a great source of protein and should be supplemented in everyone's diet.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Understanding Light Therapy
There's lots information now on the benefits of light therapy and many companies selling products that claim to produce light that will help you. What you need to understand is that light itself has benefits apart from vitamin D. It actually takes up 2 to 3 days to properly absorb vitamin D from your skin when you get it from the sun. This means that the effects of sunlight are more from the actual light than the vitamin D. The thing a lot of people don't realize is that you don't need these fancy light boxes in order to do light therapy. You can actually use 150-250 watt light bulbs. You can either get chicken lamps or floor lamps. These will produce light which will help stimulate your metabolism. When your metabolism is stimulated it actually makes your body produce more energy. During the winter months we get a lot less sunlight and utilizing light therapy through chicken lamps or flood lamps can get you some of the light you're missing.
I strongly overall feel that sunlight is your best source of light because it has a lot more red light in it. The red light is beneficial as it actually quenches the free radicals that the sun produces. It is also a lot more intense beam of light compared to chicken lamps. The UV index is obviously a lot higher for sunlight then chicken lamps. I find personally that I get a lot more health benefits from sunlight over chickens lamps. I still think light therapy with chicken lamps is beneficial. Sunlight is always best but you have to work with what you have. I've noticed that using light therapy before going to bed has help me greatly to fall asleep. This is because light helps regulate blood sugar. When you regulate blood sugar you lower adrenaline levels and this in turn will help with sleep. The other great thing about light therapy is that the lamps are actually pretty cheap. A lot of people complain that trying to improve their health is expensive but here I'm suggesting something that's relatively inexpensive. There are many people that have these lamps lying around the house. They could easily incorporate these lamps into their everyday life. It's also not very hard to do as you just put the lamp on a table or lie underneath it on the floor.
There are many other different types of lights that people use for therapeutic benefits. I've heard many people use blue light. I'm not aware of the benefits of blue light because I haven't done any research but I'm assuming that it's very beneficial for your health. I would for now stick with regular chicken lamps because they're easy to find and inexpensive. I would suggest that you include light therapy before bedtime as this will help you not only fall asleep but have a better more restoring sleep. I don't think that the light spectrum from chicken lamps actually has the ability to give vitamin D but light therapy itself does many other benefits to health. The light from chicken lamps itself can help you absorb vitamin D from your food. You have to understand that with health everything you do is accumulative. You may do one thing to improve your health but it that one thing helps you in many other ways. An example of this would be that you using light therapy to improve your mood but you also find you sleep better. Many people struggle with thyroid problems and just them knowing that they can use chicken lamps or flood lamps to improve their thyroid is something that's greatly underestimated. Doctors need more education about light therapy because they could greatly benefit their patients health. How many doctors prescribe medication for an inactive thyroid when many times this medication is more expensive then most chicken or flood lamps you get at a store.
I just want to make clear that I'm not saying that you just use light therapy and your mood shoots through the roof. There are many other pieces to the healing puzzle and you need to live a healthy lifestyle in order to get true optimal health. You need to eat healthy foods the thing I consider to be healthy are natural meats winnipeg has many farmers which carry what I consider to be natural meats. Natural meats are defined by me as grass fed meats. I consider natural meats to be a fair word to define grass fed meats because grass fed meats are meats that come from animals that live a healthy life. The animals that come from grass fed meats get plenty of sunlight and are free to roam around. They also eat a diet of grass like they were suppose to. Grass fed meats should be defined as natural meats. A lot of people get confused with the word natural meats because a lot of meats that are organic are labeled by stores as natural meats. Organic meats are not natural meats because animals that come from organic meats are fed large amounts of grains. This really damages the animals health. When the animals health is damaged you get what the animal gives you. It takes life to give life so you need to eat animals that have vitality to give you.
In conclusion, I do feel that light therapy is a good healthy practice someone can apply in their everyday life to improve their health. You mustn't forget that you still need to have proper nutrition in your life. You are what you eat and you can't just do light therapy and expect miracles. You need to be proactive with your diet and take responsibility for what you eat.
I personally find so many people have such little control over themselves when it comes to eating healthy. I I strongly recommend that you don't be these people because they're not happy. You can't be happy if you don't have your health because your health is how you feel all the time. A lot of people look for happiness externally but happiness is an inside job not an outside job. Take care of yourself by using light therapy and proper nutrition and you'll be amazed at how many problems in your life that resolve themselves.
I strongly overall feel that sunlight is your best source of light because it has a lot more red light in it. The red light is beneficial as it actually quenches the free radicals that the sun produces. It is also a lot more intense beam of light compared to chicken lamps. The UV index is obviously a lot higher for sunlight then chicken lamps. I find personally that I get a lot more health benefits from sunlight over chickens lamps. I still think light therapy with chicken lamps is beneficial. Sunlight is always best but you have to work with what you have. I've noticed that using light therapy before going to bed has help me greatly to fall asleep. This is because light helps regulate blood sugar. When you regulate blood sugar you lower adrenaline levels and this in turn will help with sleep. The other great thing about light therapy is that the lamps are actually pretty cheap. A lot of people complain that trying to improve their health is expensive but here I'm suggesting something that's relatively inexpensive. There are many people that have these lamps lying around the house. They could easily incorporate these lamps into their everyday life. It's also not very hard to do as you just put the lamp on a table or lie underneath it on the floor.
There are many other different types of lights that people use for therapeutic benefits. I've heard many people use blue light. I'm not aware of the benefits of blue light because I haven't done any research but I'm assuming that it's very beneficial for your health. I would for now stick with regular chicken lamps because they're easy to find and inexpensive. I would suggest that you include light therapy before bedtime as this will help you not only fall asleep but have a better more restoring sleep. I don't think that the light spectrum from chicken lamps actually has the ability to give vitamin D but light therapy itself does many other benefits to health. The light from chicken lamps itself can help you absorb vitamin D from your food. You have to understand that with health everything you do is accumulative. You may do one thing to improve your health but it that one thing helps you in many other ways. An example of this would be that you using light therapy to improve your mood but you also find you sleep better. Many people struggle with thyroid problems and just them knowing that they can use chicken lamps or flood lamps to improve their thyroid is something that's greatly underestimated. Doctors need more education about light therapy because they could greatly benefit their patients health. How many doctors prescribe medication for an inactive thyroid when many times this medication is more expensive then most chicken or flood lamps you get at a store.
I just want to make clear that I'm not saying that you just use light therapy and your mood shoots through the roof. There are many other pieces to the healing puzzle and you need to live a healthy lifestyle in order to get true optimal health. You need to eat healthy foods the thing I consider to be healthy are natural meats winnipeg has many farmers which carry what I consider to be natural meats. Natural meats are defined by me as grass fed meats. I consider natural meats to be a fair word to define grass fed meats because grass fed meats are meats that come from animals that live a healthy life. The animals that come from grass fed meats get plenty of sunlight and are free to roam around. They also eat a diet of grass like they were suppose to. Grass fed meats should be defined as natural meats. A lot of people get confused with the word natural meats because a lot of meats that are organic are labeled by stores as natural meats. Organic meats are not natural meats because animals that come from organic meats are fed large amounts of grains. This really damages the animals health. When the animals health is damaged you get what the animal gives you. It takes life to give life so you need to eat animals that have vitality to give you.
In conclusion, I do feel that light therapy is a good healthy practice someone can apply in their everyday life to improve their health. You mustn't forget that you still need to have proper nutrition in your life. You are what you eat and you can't just do light therapy and expect miracles. You need to be proactive with your diet and take responsibility for what you eat.
I personally find so many people have such little control over themselves when it comes to eating healthy. I I strongly recommend that you don't be these people because they're not happy. You can't be happy if you don't have your health because your health is how you feel all the time. A lot of people look for happiness externally but happiness is an inside job not an outside job. Take care of yourself by using light therapy and proper nutrition and you'll be amazed at how many problems in your life that resolve themselves.
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Should You take Vitamin D As A Supplement
Vitamin d these day is getting a lot of attention from the conventional medical community. It seems to me that the conventional medical community thinks that if you have any type of health problem you should take vitamin D. Vitamin D does play an important role in the body but the push for supplementation of it has been greatly influenced by corporations. We need to ask ourselves why are we vitamin D deficient in the first place? Why are all these people taking tests and being told to supplement with it. When were suppose to get it from sunlight and food. A lot give the excuse that they they work a job where they don't have any access to windows so they don't get any sunlight. They feel then that it's necessary to supplement with vitamin D. The thing is though you may have a poor digestive system and you can't absorb the vitamin D that is in your food. You could eatting foods that aren't organic and because of this have low amounts of vitamin D. Animals that come from conventional meats are fed non organic grains which are inferior in nutrients and do not contain reasonable amounts of vitamin D. These animals also do not get sunlight. When you eat animals that are from grass fed meats they contain high amounts of vitamin D. This is because these animals are free to roam and get sunlight. These animals also eat a diet rich in grass which gives them plentiful amounts of vitamin D. You get large amounts of sunlight from vitamin D but depending on the season you may not be able to go outside. What's also important to take into consideration is that the sun light rays have to be strong enough for you to absorb vitamin d. A lot of people don't realize this but vitamin D has a very long half life and most of it you get in the summer months. What I find amazing is how little of a duration of sunlight you actually need to produce large amounts of vitamin D. It's said that only 30 minutes of reasonable intensity sunlight can produce up to 20000 ui of vitamin D. This is a huge amount in comparison to what most people take orally for supplementation. Another great benefit of getting sunlight from the Sun is that you can't overdose on it.
Getting back to the original question of this blog post. I personally don't think you should take vitamin D as a supplement because there are many other healthier options. If you get grass fed meats these are natural meats that have plentiful amounts of vitamin D and other nutrients.. You can also get just get your vitamin D from the sun. There's no need to take a supplement as you can find natural foods which contain plentiful amounts of vitamin D.
What's interesting is that vitamin D isn't even really a vitamin but a hormone. Vitamin D's precursor is cholesterol so if you don't eat cholesterol rich foods you will still have a deficiency in vitamin D. You could have a low metabolic rate and because of this be in a inflammatory state. This inflammatory state will cause digestive problems which will disable you from probably simulating the foods rich in vitamin D. There are so many reasons why someone is vitamin D deficient and just saying that they need to take a supplement is not really looking at that individual. Everyone is different everyone has different needs. Generally speaking though I do not recommend people to take vitamin D as a supplement. If they insist I would suggest that they take it through some type of epidemic route. You can get certain types of vitamin D supplements which you rub on your skin. The reason why I suggest this is that a lot of vitamins actually absorb better through the skin. I would still be cautious when it comes to vitamin D as taking it in supplement form you can overdose. Be very careful about the amount of vitamin D you take and be aware of the amount of sunlight you get throughout the day. Ideally though you shouldn't have to take a supplement for vitamin D as there are many healthy foods you can get it from.
I also want make sure that people realize that testing yourself for vitamin D isn't extremely accurate because there are so many other reason why you could be deficient. Focus more on getting healthy and your levels of vitamin D will naturally rise.
Here are some things you can do in your everyday life to improve your health and raise vitamin D levels. You want to first include healthy foods. To do this you want to eat natural meats winnipeg has many farmers which carry these types of meats. Natural meats are defined by me as grass fed meats. These meats are rich in cholesterol which will help you absorb vitamin D. The animals that come from grass fed meats also contain plentiful amounts of vitamin D. This makes the meats rich in vitamin D. You also want to include organic fruits and vegetables in your diet as they contain many minerals which are important for the utilization of vitamin D.
Ultimately you want to get healthy because if you get healthy your vitamin D levels will naturally rise. Your body is always doing the best it can with what you give it and having low levels of vitamin D is a sign that you need to need work harder at taking care of yourself. Your health is nobody else's responsibility. It's up to you to improve it.
Getting back to the original question of this blog post. I personally don't think you should take vitamin D as a supplement because there are many other healthier options. If you get grass fed meats these are natural meats that have plentiful amounts of vitamin D and other nutrients.. You can also get just get your vitamin D from the sun. There's no need to take a supplement as you can find natural foods which contain plentiful amounts of vitamin D.
What's interesting is that vitamin D isn't even really a vitamin but a hormone. Vitamin D's precursor is cholesterol so if you don't eat cholesterol rich foods you will still have a deficiency in vitamin D. You could have a low metabolic rate and because of this be in a inflammatory state. This inflammatory state will cause digestive problems which will disable you from probably simulating the foods rich in vitamin D. There are so many reasons why someone is vitamin D deficient and just saying that they need to take a supplement is not really looking at that individual. Everyone is different everyone has different needs. Generally speaking though I do not recommend people to take vitamin D as a supplement. If they insist I would suggest that they take it through some type of epidemic route. You can get certain types of vitamin D supplements which you rub on your skin. The reason why I suggest this is that a lot of vitamins actually absorb better through the skin. I would still be cautious when it comes to vitamin D as taking it in supplement form you can overdose. Be very careful about the amount of vitamin D you take and be aware of the amount of sunlight you get throughout the day. Ideally though you shouldn't have to take a supplement for vitamin D as there are many healthy foods you can get it from.
I also want make sure that people realize that testing yourself for vitamin D isn't extremely accurate because there are so many other reason why you could be deficient. Focus more on getting healthy and your levels of vitamin D will naturally rise.
Here are some things you can do in your everyday life to improve your health and raise vitamin D levels. You want to first include healthy foods. To do this you want to eat natural meats winnipeg has many farmers which carry these types of meats. Natural meats are defined by me as grass fed meats. These meats are rich in cholesterol which will help you absorb vitamin D. The animals that come from grass fed meats also contain plentiful amounts of vitamin D. This makes the meats rich in vitamin D. You also want to include organic fruits and vegetables in your diet as they contain many minerals which are important for the utilization of vitamin D.
Ultimately you want to get healthy because if you get healthy your vitamin D levels will naturally rise. Your body is always doing the best it can with what you give it and having low levels of vitamin D is a sign that you need to need work harder at taking care of yourself. Your health is nobody else's responsibility. It's up to you to improve it.
Monday, 14 November 2011
What Is Superior Conventional Or Naturopathic Medicine?
Just because someone didn't believe you didn't mean it's not true. When it comes to health you really have to be certain in your own beliefs or else you will be confused by everyone else's. With health there are many extremes in people's views. For example, you may talk to a doctor who says that eating foods rich in cholesterol is bad because it increases cholesterol. You may then talk to a naturopath who says that cholesterol is a precursor to every steroidal hormone you have and you need cholesterol in order to keep your hormones in balance. This shows you the extremes in differences of views that each medical practitioner has. A naturopath would say not eating foods rich in cholesterol is dangerous because you don't feed your body the resources it needs in order to build these important hormones. You could then talk to a conventional medical doctor who would say that is dangerous to eat foods rich in cholesterol because the foods rich in cholesterol will increase your cholesterol and put you at risk for heart disease. There's no right or wrong there's what works for you but we must keep an open mind because when it comes to health new information is always coming out.
The problem I see with conventional medicine is its lack of consideration for new information. A lot of of the information that conventional medicine has is extremely outdated. A lot of doctors knowledge is based on consents that are greatly outdated. Thankfully with a naturopathic doctor that tend to keep up to date and are always changing their protocol in order to better help people. The thing that is nice about medical doctors is that they all have similar views for the most part. This is good because there's less conflict between other doctors. When it comes to naturopathic medicine however there can be many different views depending on that naturopathic doctor. I do agree that overall any naturopathic doctor or any person that specializes in alternative health would be more proactive with prevention then conventional medical doctors. Although naturopaths use a more holistic approach. There are still some naturopaths that tend to over prescribed supplements.
I am not a fan of this practice and feel that using mostly supplements to solve someone's health problem is a band aid solution. Whatever happened to really utilizing the science of nutrition to help people get better. In the past there wasn't so many supplements because we didn't have so many companies to produce them. It seems that our culture likes to take the shortcut approach and take supplements but rarely do they find long term success. This is because real health comes from living a healthy lifestyle. Health is taking responsibility for yourself. No doctor can heal you. It's up to you to do the work. A medical doctor can help you to heal yourself but most doctors have little to no education in nutrition so it's hard for them to help you in that avenue. I don't disagree that there may be certain tests that your doctor can give you and with an alternative view of reference ranges it may help you. I still feel that a lot of tests that are done in the conventional medical field don't look for optimal health but rather focus their ranges on statistics.
I think that if you're going to a naturopath and he doesn't teach you how to live a healthy lifestyle and just says that supplements are going to solve your health problems then run because there is no short term band aid fix when it comes to your health. You can take a supplement and get a bit better but if you have unhealthy lifestyle then it's never going to balance out. You may know someone that goes to the gym and exercises yet smokes. The person smoking would get better benefit from quitting smoking than the actual exercise. You wan to find a naturopathic doctor that specializes in using food to heal people. A naturopathic doctor should be recommending that you include in your diet organic fruits and vegetables as well as all natural meats winnipeg and most cities in Canada have these meats. There should be no reason why a naturopathic doctor wouldn't recommend these healthy meats. If you go to a naturopathic doctor and they do not talk at all about organic foods or natural meats then they're probably not somebody you want to work with.
Exercise is also something that's overly emphasized by our society and we think that can cure all but the truth is exercise can make some health problems worse. A lot of people would have an issue with that statement I just made because they believe exercise helps them feel better. What they don't realize is that exercise itself produces lactic acid and this greatly slows down your metabolism. If you have proper meals before and after your workout you can increase your metabolism. This would be that exercise will benefit you but if you're very unhealthy and your trying to get your health back you may need to take some time off from exercise. You may actually have a decline in metabolism even with a meal before and after. Exercise can harm or benefit you it's all person specific. The exercise which I would never advise anyone to would be cardio. Cardiovascular training greatly reduces growth hormone, testosterone and many other beneficial hormones. It causes the body to break down muscle tissue and does many other negative things. That is a type of exercise which I feel could never benefit anybody and could only be in harms way when someone's trying get their health back. If you want a good example of how detrimental cardiovascular activity is to your health. Just look at marathon runners and sprinters. A sprinter is full of muscle and little fat. A marathon runner may be skinny but he's too skinny and doesn't look healthy. At least to me. We are conditioned by society to look at muscle as a health indicator. If I was to tell somebody that I'm really into health. The first thing they would probably assume is that I've gained a lot of muscle mass by working out. We shouldn't judge people's health just based on the fact they exercise but look at their diet and the way they live their life. The way you eat and the way you live your life are crucial aspects when it comes to achieving optimal health.
In conclusion, when it comes to answering the question what is a superior form of medicine. The answer is it's all person specific. Depending on the persons situation they may need a medical doctor or a naturopath. There is a no one size fits all approach to health and sometimes people need to utilize both medical professionals. I think that anybody that's involved in medicine needs to let their ego aside and realize that your patient may need to see different practitioners in different areas of health. You can't think that just because your a doctor you can heal everybody because everybody has different needs. I don't disagree that naturopathic medicine is more driven in prevention and getting people to optimal health but there's always a time and place when it comes to seeing your medical doctor.
The problem I see with conventional medicine is its lack of consideration for new information. A lot of of the information that conventional medicine has is extremely outdated. A lot of doctors knowledge is based on consents that are greatly outdated. Thankfully with a naturopathic doctor that tend to keep up to date and are always changing their protocol in order to better help people. The thing that is nice about medical doctors is that they all have similar views for the most part. This is good because there's less conflict between other doctors. When it comes to naturopathic medicine however there can be many different views depending on that naturopathic doctor. I do agree that overall any naturopathic doctor or any person that specializes in alternative health would be more proactive with prevention then conventional medical doctors. Although naturopaths use a more holistic approach. There are still some naturopaths that tend to over prescribed supplements.
I am not a fan of this practice and feel that using mostly supplements to solve someone's health problem is a band aid solution. Whatever happened to really utilizing the science of nutrition to help people get better. In the past there wasn't so many supplements because we didn't have so many companies to produce them. It seems that our culture likes to take the shortcut approach and take supplements but rarely do they find long term success. This is because real health comes from living a healthy lifestyle. Health is taking responsibility for yourself. No doctor can heal you. It's up to you to do the work. A medical doctor can help you to heal yourself but most doctors have little to no education in nutrition so it's hard for them to help you in that avenue. I don't disagree that there may be certain tests that your doctor can give you and with an alternative view of reference ranges it may help you. I still feel that a lot of tests that are done in the conventional medical field don't look for optimal health but rather focus their ranges on statistics.
I think that if you're going to a naturopath and he doesn't teach you how to live a healthy lifestyle and just says that supplements are going to solve your health problems then run because there is no short term band aid fix when it comes to your health. You can take a supplement and get a bit better but if you have unhealthy lifestyle then it's never going to balance out. You may know someone that goes to the gym and exercises yet smokes. The person smoking would get better benefit from quitting smoking than the actual exercise. You wan to find a naturopathic doctor that specializes in using food to heal people. A naturopathic doctor should be recommending that you include in your diet organic fruits and vegetables as well as all natural meats winnipeg and most cities in Canada have these meats. There should be no reason why a naturopathic doctor wouldn't recommend these healthy meats. If you go to a naturopathic doctor and they do not talk at all about organic foods or natural meats then they're probably not somebody you want to work with.
Exercise is also something that's overly emphasized by our society and we think that can cure all but the truth is exercise can make some health problems worse. A lot of people would have an issue with that statement I just made because they believe exercise helps them feel better. What they don't realize is that exercise itself produces lactic acid and this greatly slows down your metabolism. If you have proper meals before and after your workout you can increase your metabolism. This would be that exercise will benefit you but if you're very unhealthy and your trying to get your health back you may need to take some time off from exercise. You may actually have a decline in metabolism even with a meal before and after. Exercise can harm or benefit you it's all person specific. The exercise which I would never advise anyone to would be cardio. Cardiovascular training greatly reduces growth hormone, testosterone and many other beneficial hormones. It causes the body to break down muscle tissue and does many other negative things. That is a type of exercise which I feel could never benefit anybody and could only be in harms way when someone's trying get their health back. If you want a good example of how detrimental cardiovascular activity is to your health. Just look at marathon runners and sprinters. A sprinter is full of muscle and little fat. A marathon runner may be skinny but he's too skinny and doesn't look healthy. At least to me. We are conditioned by society to look at muscle as a health indicator. If I was to tell somebody that I'm really into health. The first thing they would probably assume is that I've gained a lot of muscle mass by working out. We shouldn't judge people's health just based on the fact they exercise but look at their diet and the way they live their life. The way you eat and the way you live your life are crucial aspects when it comes to achieving optimal health.
In conclusion, when it comes to answering the question what is a superior form of medicine. The answer is it's all person specific. Depending on the persons situation they may need a medical doctor or a naturopath. There is a no one size fits all approach to health and sometimes people need to utilize both medical professionals. I think that anybody that's involved in medicine needs to let their ego aside and realize that your patient may need to see different practitioners in different areas of health. You can't think that just because your a doctor you can heal everybody because everybody has different needs. I don't disagree that naturopathic medicine is more driven in prevention and getting people to optimal health but there's always a time and place when it comes to seeing your medical doctor.
Five steps to increase thyroid function
Here are five steps you can do in everyday life in order to help increase your metabolism.
1.Do not over exercise. Over exercising is something that our society poorly defines. The correct word to define exercising too much is over training. There are not a lot of physical ways to tell if you're over training. Another thing a lot of people don't realize is that everyone has certain thresholds of what how much training for them is to much. The best way to see if you are over training is to take your temperature with a thermometer. If you notice a decrease in your body temperature over a couple hours then you know that the exercise you did has caused more harm than good. I'm not saying that exercise is bad. All I'm saying is when it comes to exercise it's all individualized. What works for one person may not work for another.
2. Eat sugar. This is by far one of the most controversial bits of advise you are going to get when it comes to increasing thyroid function. Everyone believes that sugar causes diabetes and insulin resistance. People believe that sugar is the culprit of so many health problems but the truth is fructose is awesome for regulating blood sugar both up and down. The right types of sugar with good ratios of proteins and fats can greatly stimulate metabolism. I don't disagree that if you take a person and feed them large amounts of sugar without any proteins or fats in their meal. That this itself will cause health related problems but if you give the person the right type of sugar with the right ratios of proteins and fats in their meals. The benefits of it are truly therapeutic. I Just wanted to add for the record that I don't recommend anyone to consume high fructose corn syrup. That is one sugar that I would not recommend anybody eatting.
3. Get more sunlight. Light itself actually stimulates thyroid production in the body. Darkness decreases your metabolism. If you can not get sunlight because it's wintertime. You can get chicken lamps with bulbs that have a wattage range of 150-250. You want to put the chicken lamps on some type of table and lie down underneath them. This will stimulate like an increase your metabolism. The sun is still a lot superior to this but you have to work with what you have.
4.You want to take your temperature 20 minutes after your meal. The reason why you want to take your temperature 20 minutes after your meal is because this will tell you if what you're eating is actually helping you to increase your metabolism. You want your body temperature to be 98°F and above. If your temperature is below that this means you've eaten the wrong ratios of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. A lot of people talk about eating more often in order to increase thyroid function and I don't disagree that this helps but if you eat the wrong ratios of foods. You can actually slow down your metabolism. It's not about eating more often but eating the right ratios for your metabolic needs.
5. Avoid polyunsaturated fatty acids. These fats actually slow down your thyroid and when you have a slow metabolism you have many health ramifications. These fats are in things such as nuts and seeds. They are also in margarine and canola oil. Fats that actually help stimulate your metabolism are saturated fats. The saturated fats need to however come from healthy sources. The reason why I say that they need to come from healthy sources is because food such as conventional pork are considered to be saturated but scientists have shown that conventional pork is actually very unsaturated. This is because the animals that come from conventional meats are fed lots of grains which contain lots of polyunsaturated fatty acids. These grains greatly slow down the animals thyroid which causes them to have a lot less saturated fat in their tissues. This shows you that eating conventional meats which are considered to contain mostly saturated fat actually give you large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids. If you're looking for healthy meats that are high in saturated fats my advice would be to look for a local farmer who carries grass fed meats. I know that a lot of people find it easier to go store and pick up natural meats winnipeg and all of Canada have many stores which like to call organic meats, natural meats. These stores that call their meats natural usually just have meats that are organic.
I just want to give people the heads up that just because a store says their meat is natural or organic doesn't mean that the animals that came from the meat are fed grass. One of the reasons why grass fed meats are better than organic meats is because they do not only eat organic produce but they also have a diet rich in grass. You would still get large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids from organic meats because of the grain rich diet the animals eat. The organic meats are probably still safer than conventional meats because the animals get grains that are organic. The organic grains are more nutritious. The animals also get sunlight which helps stimulate their thyroid and this reduces the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in their tissues. Ideally though grass fed meats are the way to go when it comes to healthy saturated fats. Don't forget also that organic coconut oil is a very healthy saturated fat and very safe to. This is because it contains only 1% polyunsaturated fatty acids in it. The bulk of it's fat is saturated.
I hope these steps help people out there that are looking for ways to increase their thyroid function. I know some of the advise I give may be considered by some to be controversial but I wouldn't suggest them if I didn't think they have a lot of validity. Just because a lot of people don't believe something doesn't mean it doesn't have value and I feel personally that if people applied these practice they would get great results.
1.Do not over exercise. Over exercising is something that our society poorly defines. The correct word to define exercising too much is over training. There are not a lot of physical ways to tell if you're over training. Another thing a lot of people don't realize is that everyone has certain thresholds of what how much training for them is to much. The best way to see if you are over training is to take your temperature with a thermometer. If you notice a decrease in your body temperature over a couple hours then you know that the exercise you did has caused more harm than good. I'm not saying that exercise is bad. All I'm saying is when it comes to exercise it's all individualized. What works for one person may not work for another.
2. Eat sugar. This is by far one of the most controversial bits of advise you are going to get when it comes to increasing thyroid function. Everyone believes that sugar causes diabetes and insulin resistance. People believe that sugar is the culprit of so many health problems but the truth is fructose is awesome for regulating blood sugar both up and down. The right types of sugar with good ratios of proteins and fats can greatly stimulate metabolism. I don't disagree that if you take a person and feed them large amounts of sugar without any proteins or fats in their meal. That this itself will cause health related problems but if you give the person the right type of sugar with the right ratios of proteins and fats in their meals. The benefits of it are truly therapeutic. I Just wanted to add for the record that I don't recommend anyone to consume high fructose corn syrup. That is one sugar that I would not recommend anybody eatting.
3. Get more sunlight. Light itself actually stimulates thyroid production in the body. Darkness decreases your metabolism. If you can not get sunlight because it's wintertime. You can get chicken lamps with bulbs that have a wattage range of 150-250. You want to put the chicken lamps on some type of table and lie down underneath them. This will stimulate like an increase your metabolism. The sun is still a lot superior to this but you have to work with what you have.
4.You want to take your temperature 20 minutes after your meal. The reason why you want to take your temperature 20 minutes after your meal is because this will tell you if what you're eating is actually helping you to increase your metabolism. You want your body temperature to be 98°F and above. If your temperature is below that this means you've eaten the wrong ratios of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. A lot of people talk about eating more often in order to increase thyroid function and I don't disagree that this helps but if you eat the wrong ratios of foods. You can actually slow down your metabolism. It's not about eating more often but eating the right ratios for your metabolic needs.
5. Avoid polyunsaturated fatty acids. These fats actually slow down your thyroid and when you have a slow metabolism you have many health ramifications. These fats are in things such as nuts and seeds. They are also in margarine and canola oil. Fats that actually help stimulate your metabolism are saturated fats. The saturated fats need to however come from healthy sources. The reason why I say that they need to come from healthy sources is because food such as conventional pork are considered to be saturated but scientists have shown that conventional pork is actually very unsaturated. This is because the animals that come from conventional meats are fed lots of grains which contain lots of polyunsaturated fatty acids. These grains greatly slow down the animals thyroid which causes them to have a lot less saturated fat in their tissues. This shows you that eating conventional meats which are considered to contain mostly saturated fat actually give you large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids. If you're looking for healthy meats that are high in saturated fats my advice would be to look for a local farmer who carries grass fed meats. I know that a lot of people find it easier to go store and pick up natural meats winnipeg and all of Canada have many stores which like to call organic meats, natural meats. These stores that call their meats natural usually just have meats that are organic.
I just want to give people the heads up that just because a store says their meat is natural or organic doesn't mean that the animals that came from the meat are fed grass. One of the reasons why grass fed meats are better than organic meats is because they do not only eat organic produce but they also have a diet rich in grass. You would still get large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids from organic meats because of the grain rich diet the animals eat. The organic meats are probably still safer than conventional meats because the animals get grains that are organic. The organic grains are more nutritious. The animals also get sunlight which helps stimulate their thyroid and this reduces the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in their tissues. Ideally though grass fed meats are the way to go when it comes to healthy saturated fats. Don't forget also that organic coconut oil is a very healthy saturated fat and very safe to. This is because it contains only 1% polyunsaturated fatty acids in it. The bulk of it's fat is saturated.
I hope these steps help people out there that are looking for ways to increase their thyroid function. I know some of the advise I give may be considered by some to be controversial but I wouldn't suggest them if I didn't think they have a lot of validity. Just because a lot of people don't believe something doesn't mean it doesn't have value and I feel personally that if people applied these practice they would get great results.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Eight Ways To Reduce Stress In Your Life
Here are eight things you can do in your everyday life to reduce your stress.
1.Learn to not have any expectations in people. If you don't have any expectations in people then you're never disappointed. We have so many expectations when it comes to people and what we expect from them but the reality is all these expectations make us stressed out. Enjoy life and enjoy the journey even when it has its ups and downs.
2. Use light therapy. What's great about light is that it reduces adrenaline and this actually calms you down. If you are not able to go outside you can use chicken lamps. You want to find chicken lamps that are between 150-250 watts. You want to lie under them in order to properly stimulate how you would get light from the sun. Doing light therapy will not only help you deal with the stresses of everyday life but also give you a lot more energy.
3. Don't hang out with negative people. Some people would define negative people as energy vampires because their negativity makes you tired. You control who you hang out with and who you surround yourself with in your life. There's an old saying “you are the CEO of your own life”. If you are your own CEO of your own life then you need to act like it. You can't blame other people for their actions having consequences in your life when it was your decision to be around them in the first place.
4. Don't over exercise. I know a lot of people in our society think that exercise is one of the pinnacle's to health but over exercising causes a lot of health problems. A lot of people over exercise when their stressed out in order to cope with it but over exercising will slow down your metabolism. This will cause excess levels of cortisol and adrenaline in the body making it difficult for you to mentally manage future stresses.
5. Eat organic produce. A lot of people will say that eating organic all the time is not realistic but these are the people that most likely don't eat healthy themselves. Organic produce has up to 50% percent more nutrition value than conventional produce and these nutrients will greatly help you manage stress. A lot of people think that managing stress is mostly done through mental power but the truth is your ability to cope with it is greatly impacted by your diet. I'm not saying that eating organic is going to solve a lot of your anxiety but it will make it easier to deal with.
6. Don't allow people to dictate how you feel. For example, you may deal with a customer who is very agitated and makes you feel agitated. You need to separate yourself from how you feel and realize that you allowing this person to make you mad and that is only harming yourself. When you get mad you increase levels of cortisol and this is a stress hormone which in excess causes a lot of health problems. You need to avoid angry people if you can't then just try to not get wrapped up in their own anger.
7. I know I already mentioned eating organic produce as a practice to reduce stress but I failed to mention all natural meats. All natural meats are meats that are defined by me as grass fed meats. These meats are even better than organic meats. The reason for this is that the animals that are grass fed eat grass. The grass gives the animals a lot more nutrition value. When the animals get a lot more nutrients the meat that come from the animals are a lot more nutritious. By getting more nutrients through consuming grass fed meats you feed your brain the resources it needs in order to function optimally and handle everyday stresses.
8. Get enough sleep. This may seem like a no brainer but you be amazed at the amount of people who just don't get enough sleep. Also remember that when you go to bed matters to. You want to go to bed by 10 PM or 11 PM latest. Getting enough sleep while going to bed on time will greatly help you deal with everyday stresses.
I hope that these eight tips help you to deal with stress in your everyday life. Remember that stress is unavoidable but we need to do the best we can to reduce it. By working on ways to reduce our stress in our everyday life we allow our bodies to heal and this gives us the ability to gain back our health.
Also just a reminder if you are looking for grass fed meats Mcdonald Farm carry's a great selection of natural meats winnipeg is very lucky to have a farmer who takes such pride in the way he raises his animals. If you are not in the Winnipeg area you can get grass fed meats from a store or local farmer. A local farmer is always better because it costs less money and you have a better idea of how the animal was raised.
1.Learn to not have any expectations in people. If you don't have any expectations in people then you're never disappointed. We have so many expectations when it comes to people and what we expect from them but the reality is all these expectations make us stressed out. Enjoy life and enjoy the journey even when it has its ups and downs.
2. Use light therapy. What's great about light is that it reduces adrenaline and this actually calms you down. If you are not able to go outside you can use chicken lamps. You want to find chicken lamps that are between 150-250 watts. You want to lie under them in order to properly stimulate how you would get light from the sun. Doing light therapy will not only help you deal with the stresses of everyday life but also give you a lot more energy.
3. Don't hang out with negative people. Some people would define negative people as energy vampires because their negativity makes you tired. You control who you hang out with and who you surround yourself with in your life. There's an old saying “you are the CEO of your own life”. If you are your own CEO of your own life then you need to act like it. You can't blame other people for their actions having consequences in your life when it was your decision to be around them in the first place.
4. Don't over exercise. I know a lot of people in our society think that exercise is one of the pinnacle's to health but over exercising causes a lot of health problems. A lot of people over exercise when their stressed out in order to cope with it but over exercising will slow down your metabolism. This will cause excess levels of cortisol and adrenaline in the body making it difficult for you to mentally manage future stresses.
5. Eat organic produce. A lot of people will say that eating organic all the time is not realistic but these are the people that most likely don't eat healthy themselves. Organic produce has up to 50% percent more nutrition value than conventional produce and these nutrients will greatly help you manage stress. A lot of people think that managing stress is mostly done through mental power but the truth is your ability to cope with it is greatly impacted by your diet. I'm not saying that eating organic is going to solve a lot of your anxiety but it will make it easier to deal with.
6. Don't allow people to dictate how you feel. For example, you may deal with a customer who is very agitated and makes you feel agitated. You need to separate yourself from how you feel and realize that you allowing this person to make you mad and that is only harming yourself. When you get mad you increase levels of cortisol and this is a stress hormone which in excess causes a lot of health problems. You need to avoid angry people if you can't then just try to not get wrapped up in their own anger.
7. I know I already mentioned eating organic produce as a practice to reduce stress but I failed to mention all natural meats. All natural meats are meats that are defined by me as grass fed meats. These meats are even better than organic meats. The reason for this is that the animals that are grass fed eat grass. The grass gives the animals a lot more nutrition value. When the animals get a lot more nutrients the meat that come from the animals are a lot more nutritious. By getting more nutrients through consuming grass fed meats you feed your brain the resources it needs in order to function optimally and handle everyday stresses.
8. Get enough sleep. This may seem like a no brainer but you be amazed at the amount of people who just don't get enough sleep. Also remember that when you go to bed matters to. You want to go to bed by 10 PM or 11 PM latest. Getting enough sleep while going to bed on time will greatly help you deal with everyday stresses.
I hope that these eight tips help you to deal with stress in your everyday life. Remember that stress is unavoidable but we need to do the best we can to reduce it. By working on ways to reduce our stress in our everyday life we allow our bodies to heal and this gives us the ability to gain back our health.
Also just a reminder if you are looking for grass fed meats Mcdonald Farm carry's a great selection of natural meats winnipeg is very lucky to have a farmer who takes such pride in the way he raises his animals. If you are not in the Winnipeg area you can get grass fed meats from a store or local farmer. A local farmer is always better because it costs less money and you have a better idea of how the animal was raised.
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