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Tips for How to Handle The In-Laws for the Holidays . . .

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Not all of us have access to effective sedatives . . . So, for the rest of us in the real world Here are 7 ways to deal with annoying in-laws and family during the Holidays:

  1. Manage your expectations. Setting realistic expectations is the key to not getting frustrated or angry with your partner’s family. It’s inevitable that there will be differences and disagreements, but don’t try to change them or assume that things will be different this year. Instead, strive to find some common ground. It is ok to disagree, but don’t focus on differences, focus on the common ground.
  2. Make it a team effort. Include your in-laws in the planning. Ultimately, everyone wants to feel important and included.  A team effort makes every family member feel like an essential part of the meal or party. If someone doesn’t like to cook or bake, have him or her bring something to drink, flowers, a game or the plates and napkins. People get along when they feel listened to and included. 
  3. Recognize it for what it is: a control issue. Seriously, it’s about control.  Often we take comments from our in-laws personally, especially if it’s about something important to us, like our marriage, parenting style or work situation. Keep this in perspective: Your in-laws’ comments aren’t about you; they’re a reflection of them. Usually the most prickly issues are about who will have the most influence and control. Parents are fearful of losing total control over their child. They also don’t like to acknowledge that they are getting older themselves — and losing some of their power. When you recognize this, you can ask for input or advice, making them feel less out of control in the relationship. 
  4. Respect differences. You can’t change anyone’s behavior or opinion, so be a role model and show respect for everyone’s point of view. If there’s a topic that creates too much conflict — like politics or religion or food — steer clear of it. You don’t have to accept your in-laws’ opinions, just respect them and listen politely.  
  5. Set emotional boundaries. Don’t spill your guts about everything in your life, and establish limits around what you ask others — and how much you’re willing to shape-shift to accommodate them. Most of us want to be accepted and liked, especially by our in-laws, and sometimes we do and do and do for them at our own expense. Shape-shifting and attempting to conform is physically and mentally exhausting.   Boundaries are what you will and will not do. You and your spouse should decide together what the boundaries are in your own family. For example, if you value your kids’ early bedtimes, you may not attend evening events, even if it’s your sister-in-law’s birthday.
  6. Enlist your partner’s help. If you’ve tried to communicate directly with your in-laws but there’s too much tension and conflict, it might be time to ask your spouse to step in. He might have to talk to them alone or come to your rescue when you’re in their company. This may not be easy for him, because parents tend to push our buttons. He might have to say, for instance, “Mom, this is how my wife feels about this issue. Please respect her. It’s important to me that you two get along.”  Always focus on maintaining a healthy relationship with your spouse as the number one priority. You two are a team and should act as a united front when addressing issues with each other’s parents.
  7. Always Be Kind.  Your kids are always watching and listening, so it’s important to value kindness in all your interactions with family members and extended family. Extend kind greetings to your in-laws and speak in a respectful tone at all times, even if you don’t feel like they do the same to you. No one wins if you try to treat others like they treat you.

Why Haven’t You Called Me About My Labs Yet?

The pipes in Rome were slowly killing the people.  No one knew lead in the pipes was actually poisonous.

Today, it’s quite easy to scoff at their ignorance.  Yet, each of us have our own lead pipes, those modern “marvels” that future generations will shake their heads at.  We have at our fingertips inventions and practices later proven to be catastrophic to our health and well-being.

It’s one thing to learn about these blind spots after the fact.  What if you knew in REAL-TIME what was happening?

What if you had secret knowledge about your OWN lead pipes . . . ?

What if you were among a small group who knew which of our modern inventions and practices were slowly killing our health and vitality . . . would you still turn a blind eye?

Or, would you make the simple change that set you free?

After reading the following two articles, I now understand why I must spend 17-18 hours a day working to keep up.

I thought that maybe it was just me.  However, this study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that during a typical office day, just a quarter (27 percent) of a physician’s day is spent having direct face time with patients – while nearly half (49.2 percent) of a physician’s day is spent on EHRs and other administrative work. This roughly translates into two hours of additional time spent on EHRs and desk work for every hour physicians spend face-to-face with patients.

Over the years, we’ve hired more staff and I now have six and a half staff members to every provider. It’s taken part of the burden of time off of our shoulders, yet, in an era of rising inflation, hiring more staff isn’t affordable.  It’s not a sustainable model financially.

This second study found that with an average primary care practice responsible for roughly 2,300 patients, doctors would need to spend 21.7 hours of patient interaction per day to provide “all the recommended acute, chronic and preventive care” for a panel of this size.  The average internist has 3000-4000 patients in their panels.  There literally are not enough hours in the day to take care of all the office tasks required for a panel size of 2000 patients or more.

It has become physically impossible to do what is now required on treating acute, chronic and preventative care for the patients that we see day to day in the primary care setting. The inability to fully meet patient needs due to factors outside of their control results in frustrated patients and very frustrated physicians who lose sight of why they decided to practice medicine in the first place. This can leave physicians feeling depressed, cynical and suicidal, pushing them to contemplate early retirement, search for other practice options, quit medicine altogether – or worse, take their own life.

This has created the general feeling and perception in the mind of patients across the country that physicians just don’t care, they don’t have time for me and “they just want my copay.”

It isn’t that we don’t care.  If I didn’t care, I would have quit practicing medicine 15 years ago.  I love the practice of medicine.  It is the immense burden of documentation, the paper work, the seven page FMLA forms, and the thousands of ancillary treatment plan reviews & signatures, the providing proof of performance to Medicare and payors required every day that makes it so very hard to complete lab reviews, refills and callbacks in a timely manner.

I haven’t taken a real vacation in 15 years.  Who has time?!

Today, mounting evidence shows that the day-in-day-out pressures experienced by primary care physicians – caused by long hours, excessive fatigue and the sheer emotional toll of the work – can lead to burnout, depression and suicide. Sadly, the medical profession has among the highest risk of death by suicide compared to other occupations in countries around the globe. Recent studies reveal the concerning rate at which primary care doctors feel as though their personal lives are negatively affected by work, feel stressed at work and wish that they had more time to do more for their own health. When it comes to patient care, physician burnout is associated with higher rates of self-reported medical error, substandard patient care, longer recovery time and lower patient satisfaction. Layer on top of the burnout syndrome what some are describing as “moral injury,” the distress weighing on physicians because the business of medicine has overtaken the doctor-patient relationship. And for some, it seems that practicing medicine is literally killing physicians.

To regain control over their practice and personal lives, some primary care physicians are leaving the profession and others are taking steps to deal with work-related emotional exhaustion and chronic over-stress. Over the years, I’ve inherited a number of patients who’s doctors have left practice or moved to concierge models.

I’ve offered concierge services to my patients for years, but few patients have shown much interest up to this point.

Does one just leave medicine altogether?

Maybe.

References:

  1. Sinsky C., Colligan L., Li L., Prgomet M., Reynolds S., Goeders L., et al., “Allocation of Physician Time in Ambulatory Practice: A Time and Motion Study in 4 Specialties,” December 2016, (Accessed online June 21, 2022)
  2. Altschuler, Justin et al., “Estimating a Reasonable Patient Panel Size for Primary Care Physicians with Team-Based Task Delegation,” 2012, (Accessed online June 21, 2022)

Joy & Love this Christmas

My wife and I were driving home from a Christmas Day visit to Grandma’s house this afternoon.  On the street corner was a young man, probably in his early twenties, who was “tweaking” from what looked like a serious crystal-meth high.  I was surprised to see this on Christmas Day in the sleepy suburban city of Surprise, Arizona.  But, I realized that life has been hard on all of us, and it looked like It had been very hard on this young man.

Why would I be surprised?  For most of us, this has been an awful year when so many around us have lost their jobs, lost their hope, lost their health, and  lost their lives.  Those of us that have survived are so angry and divided that we can barely tolerate our neighbor, let alone love him.

A few weeks ago, I created myself a Christmas playlist of music in an attempt to put myself in a festive Christmas mood. I’ve found myself torn this year between feelings of anger, discouragement, anxiety and stress, and feelings of hope, love and joy.

Listening to this playlist on repeat, I was reminded of the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and the lyrics.  At the time this song was written, the world was at war in 1944, loved ones were apart. They were thousands of miles away, many of which were never coming home.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light,

From now on, our troubles will be out of sight . . .

From now on, our troubles will be miles away . . .

These lyrics were appropriate then and they are appropriate now.  In light of all that has gone on this year, the lyrics to the song have retained their wistfulness and joy.  The lyrics remind us that Christmas brings a feeling of expectant joy that may seem out of reach at the moment.

“Joy,” C.S. Lewis once wrote, “ is distinct not only from pleasure in general, but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.”   Every consolation we seek in life – love, beauty, money, pleasure, power, and even sex – is only a poor representative of something beyond Itself.  Those who dedicate their lives to pursuing the symbol rather that’s the thing the symbol represents invariably end up disappointed – or worse.

The misery so many celebrities that people have known in their youth who wanted fame, worked and pushed and fought for it. Then, the moment they became famous, the wanted to take an overdose.  The giant thing they were striving for, the fame that was to make everything OK, that was to make their lives bearable providing personal fulfillment and happiness occurred, and they found they were still the same person.

That thing we want, that thing that the riches of the world attempt to represent, that thing that seems so near and yet so maddeningly out of reach, is the love of God who made us in his image.  It is the only real North Star of our life’s journey, the only true guidepost to become the person we were divinely made to be.

On the very first Christmas, that longed-for thing broke through the earthly barrier and arrived upon our earthly plain.  When you and I celebrate this day, we are boldly declaring our faith in the reality of that event and the truth of It’s infinite meaning: God Is there for you and God Is there for me.  We know within our souls that our yearning is not in vain.

Maybe in this year of anger, pain, death and sickness, when we all have to muddle through day by day, it would be good to remember the people that we disagree with most, the people we hate most, the people we want to throttle most are also desperately yearning and suffering this year. They, too, are striving for the thing they can’t quite reach.  And, many of them do not have our hope and our Christmas faith.

The Savior, Jesus Christ, did not tell us to love our enemies, or our neighbors because he thought it would make them better people or make the world a better place.  He told us to love our enemies so that we ourselves might “be children of our Father in heaven.  He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous.”

To love in that way, the way that Jesus Christ exemplified, is to experience within this vale of tears the vale beyond.  The reality is that God loves you.  Left or Right, black or white, straight or gay, He loves you, and you and I were made in His image.

So, this year, remember, that far-away joy is more real that all of our troubles. Remember, you are not alone. Have a Merry Christmas.

Obesity, Anxiety and The Divided Mind

In past posts, we’ve discussed how to effectively and efficiently lose weight and open the gates of the fat cells.  We’ve talked about the keys to the back doors of the fat cells that must be opened to create effective lipolysis (releasing of fat from the fat cells) and weight reduction.

I want to focus, today, on another key found in the brain.  The brain neuropeptides play a huge role in metabolic balance of the body and have direct relationships to anxiety, stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  In the last few years, research into the hormones of the brain (neuropeptides) and body demonstrates that the “autonomic nervous system” plays a very significant roll in losing weight.

The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system responsible for “fight or flight responses.”  If a bear rises up in front of you while you are strolling in the woods, and begins to chase you, the autonomic nervous system kicks in to speed up the heart rate, shunt blood to the muscles and turn down the processing of food in the gut while you run from or fight the bear.  This autonomic nervous system is also the system that links emotions (like happiness, sadness, stress, anger, depression) between the conscious and subconscious mind and creates the attachments of these emotions to specific memories.

The Divided Mind and Disease

A disconnect or poor communication between our conscious mind and subconscious mind wreaks havoc in the balance between memory, emotion, cognitive function, endocrine glands and immune system.  One example of this is the onset of panic attacks for no reason.  Another example is chronic fatigue and many symptoms found in autoimmune diseases.  This same autonomic nervous system, when malfunctioning, plays a significant roll in our ability to lose weight.   The subconscious mind triggers the autonomic nervous system without the conscious mind’s involvement.

Thanks to the work of John E Sarno, MD, and Candace B. Pert, PhD, the link between our subconscious mind and the autonomic nervous system is much more clear.  This opens the door to our understanding how the subconscious mind can have a profound effect on obesity.

This field of research requires one to understand a concept about the psyche initially outlined by Dr. Sigmund Freud and his colleague Dr. Josef Breuer (the Father of Psychoanalysis) in the 1880’s.  Misconceptions regarding the basic drives of the human psyche aside, they identified through their clinical evaluations that the human psyche is made up of three parts, the subconscious (the id), conscious (the ego), and the super-conscious (the superego).  They identified an essential concept that the subconscious is a more primitive and childish component of the mind functioning much more instinctually,  and that the ego and super-ego house the intelligent, ethical, and moral consciousness.  They also identified that a split or division can arise between these two partitions causing physiological conflict to arise (i.e. – onset of a panic attack for no reason).

Autonomic Nervous System is made up of two parts: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic divisions. These divisions act like a gas pedal or brake for various organs and functions.

It is important to understand, as Freud pointed out, that you cannot divide the mind into neat compartments suggested by these three divisions.  The mind acts as a single unit.  However, understanding the “id” and it’s instinctual functions being tied to the autonomic nervous system is central to understanding how subconscious can derail weight loss.

Freud and Breuer identified in their Studies on Hysteria that a simple subconscious idea or instinct could be strong enough to exert powerful physical responses without  sufficient intensity to become conscious thought recognized by the individual. This means that a physiologic motor response in the body could be stimulated without being conscious of the reason for the stimulus.  They, along with Jean-Martin Caharcot, Alfred Alder, Franz Alexander and Allan Walters, witnessed this multiple times clinically.  They came to the conclusions that pain and other nervous functions could originate and could actually be created by the mind.

The Mind has the Power to Create Disease

Dr. Pert’s research over the last 40 years has been able to clearly identify a communication system between the brain, the endocrine system and the immune system.  Dr. Pert’s research identified that memory and/or subconscious idea is directly tied to emotion through the brain hormones called neuropeptides that, when triggered, reproduce stored memory, emotion physical autonomic responses (like changes in heart rate, dry mouth, dilation or constriction of the pupils, sweating of the palms or trunk, chest pressure, etc) and even auto-immunity.

Memory, Emotion & Storage Controlled by Neuropeptides

Neuropeptides also participate in memory sorting, storage and recall .   In his recent book, Beyond Order, the clinical psychologist and professor Dr. Jordon Peterson explains that the miracle of memory is not that we remember, the miracle of memory is that we forget and that we only remember what is necessary.  The miracle of memory is that we only remember those things that are important and teach us meaning.  Because we can forget, we don’t drag the horrible details of the past along with us.  Our memories allow us to get free of the past.  All you need is three sleepless nights in which you cannot dispense with the past and you would understand that life would be a literal hell if we cannot dispense with the day, the memory and the emotions of each day. We must renew ourselves in this cyclical unconsciousness we call sleep and resetting of the memory.   It is during this time that memory, emotion and neurohormones are tied together.

Our memories are tied to emotions through neurochemical synapses created in the brain by the neuropeptides.  Forgetting and remembering are very complex and sophisticated cognitive processes.  Our subconscious reduces the memory, emotion and experience to it’s significance.  The significance is then recorded as memory with it’s associated emotion, then our brain lets go of the details.
If you think about it, we boil our lives down to the “jest” of the story and then we remember only the significance of that story with attached emotion.  This process saves us from being crushed by days, years and decades of the gory details of day to day experience.

Anxiety Provoking Memories are Experiences that Still Need Unpacking

If memories from 18 months or older are still bothering you, if they produce negative emotions, that is a sign that that memory has not been correctly or completely unpacked by the complex processes of the brain. It is essential that the brain unpack wisdom from the past that learning can occur and it can be applied to the future.  This process occurs so that you don’t do the same stupid thing over and over again.  Or, it is there so that you can repeat things that worked well.  That is the purpose of memory.  Not recollection, our memory is the extraction of wisdom for the lesson of life from vast experience.
If you have a memory that is still hurting you, making you anxious, causing, fear, guilt or shame, you have not undertaken the complex process of analyzing that memory, pulling out from it the moral, and dispensing with the details.   This is why writing down these specific memories is so very important.
You must write the bad memory out.  You must write out all of the details you remember and the emotions of that experience.  It allows the mind to do the complex processing of identifying wisdom and social moral barriers of uncertainty, anxiety, threat, fear and panic that are bothering you.  This is what therapy does when talking about and discussing the past.
If journaling and writing out the memory is not effective in resolving the anxiety or if you are unable to identify the memory causing the anxiety, you may want to consider hypnotherapy and directed meditation.  This has been very effective with many of my patients having anxiety relating to childhood experiences improperly tied to strong emotions.
W. Dennis Parker does a wonderful job in his book, Spiritual Mind Management, elucidating how our subconscious mind inappropriately ties emotion to simple experiences and memory, and how these can cause anxiety. For those with resistant anxiety to journaling and therapy, hypnotherapy has been very effective.

Other Hormones associated with Anxiety and Obesity

Over the last two decades, I’ve found that two other hormones play a huge role in handling stress, anxiety, brain repair and play a very large role in sleep.  Both of these hormones are derived directly from cholesterol.  Low fat, vegan and vegetarian diets lead to low cholesterol availability and I commonly see low levels of the following hormones in both men and women.
The first of these is Pregnenolone.  Pregnenolone is the precursor sex hormone derived from cholesterol in the blood stream.  When serum pregnenolone level is lower than 50 mg/dL anxiety, insomnia, hair loss, poor recovery from exercise and difficulty with concentration become chronic.  The cognitive cloudiness that occurs with low pregnenolone levels make the unpacking of traumatic experiences and the sorting of wisdom from day to day experience difficult due to poor sleep.  I have been amazed that just the simple supplementation of pregnenolone nightly reverses anxiety, improves sleep, stops chronic migraine headaches, increases cognition and frequently allows people to “feel normal again.”
The second hormone is Progesterone.  Interestingly progesterone is derived directly from pregnenolone.  If large amounts of mental or physical stress are occurring, pregnenolone is used to make DHEA, Cortisol and Cortisone.  Little is left to make progesterone which is necessary for further hair growth, sleep, focus, memory, the healing effects from stress and trauma in the brain.  Progesterone often acts like a “brain steroid” healing both brain and spinal cord from stress and trauma.
Any evaluation for anxiety, insomnia, PTSD or stress must include screening both of these hormones, because without them, I’ve seen patients suffer for years with failure of the standard approaches.
One other molecule that has hormonal activities in the arena of anxiety and weight loss is that of methylated folic acid.  Folic acid is converted into L-Methyl Folate within every cell of the body.  This is accomplished by and enzyme called methytetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR).  About 60-65% of the patients I see in my office with insulin resistance, impaired fasting glucose or diabetes have a deficiency in one or both of the MTHFR genes leading to poor conversion of folic acid to the methylated form.   This is detrimental as methylated folic acid is essential in using Vitamin B12 within every cell of the body.
Lack of effective MTHFR enzymes leads to neuropathy, anxiety, depression, obesity and in severe cases elevated homocysteine levels and schizophrenias.  You can learn more about that by reading my blog article on Folic Acid here and a youtube video on it here.

The Search for Individual Meaning is The Deepest of Human Instincts

The human psyche is stabilized by the search for and the experience of individual meaning within life. The subconscious instinct for understanding our individual meaning is the deepest thing about us as humans.  It is innate and is part of our survival instinct.  What if the instinct understanding or experiencing meaning meaning goes wrong?  Pathologizing or lying about that individual meaning causes one to become “lost.”  Understanding that the instinct for meaning can be distorted or lied about is the most frightening thing upon this planet.  If you pathologize that individual meaning with deceit, you will be in the hands of things you do not want to contemplate.  If you have no theory of good and evil, if you’ve never been exposed to malevolence and someone malevolent touches you, you’re done for.
Being true to one’s self or truthful with your understanding of individual meaning helps to properly orient a person in the world, and find middle ground between complete chaos on one side of life and rigid totalitarianism on the other.   Finding and living in that middle ground requires one to rely upon individual instincts founded in truth.   If you want to live in harmony with yourself and your instincts, and live in a middle ground between a life of chaos and one of totalitarianism, don’t feed yourself or surround yourself with indigestible lies, half-truths and deceit.  You certainly shouldn’t try to warp the world around you by intentionally sharing deceitful meaning.

Anxiety Arises from Naivete

The sheltered soul or naive person is raised with the mindset that “all people are innately good.”  The thought or concept that people are “fundamentally good” is a complete misconception.  Being “good” is very difficult.  It is by no means the default position of the natural man and the subconscious mind. Entropy, catastrophe, tragedy, malevolence and death is the default position of human nature and the subconscious mind.  Good struggles up against this continually.
The people who are most prone to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are usually naïve people who have been sheltered from malevolence – sheltered from those who are truly spiteful, hostile, vicious, malicious, malignant, vindictive, pernicious, vengeful, hateful, rancorous, and evil-minded.  This is a well known clinical fact and can be found throughout the psychology literature.  There is nothing about this fact that is questionable.  The naïve world view is that you believe the world is fundamentally good – you believe that good behavior is rewarded with good in return – and you don’t really believe that there is any such thing as evil, and you encounter someone who is malevolent (and often you encounter this in yourself).  That sheltering is general throughout our society.  Death no longer occurs at home, it usually occurs in a hospital.  People live in cities and are rarely exposed to the death of animals and the cycle of life seen 100 years ago in farm and ranch life.
Often in those with PTSD, people who have been sheltered from these things, do something, or are required to do something, so morally reprehensible that it damages them psycho-physiologically. Until their psychological framework of good and evil changes, it is very difficult to recover.   These people have no framework in which to conceptualize violent death, evil or the reprehensible act.  They are unable to balance the conscious and subconscious memories and emotions attached to reprehensible emotional guilt, and it destroys them.  This is very common among soldiers.  It’s not always what they saw, it’s what they did or what they were a part of.
Telling and teaching people that humans are innately good (which has been part of our school system teaching for decades) and that evil doesn’t really exist makes them ripe picking for the malevolent and there is nothing about that which is positive.  It leaves tremendous anxiety and psycho-physiological scars in the wake.  This sheltered outlook is cowardice masquerading as virtue.  We see it more and more in our society.
This is why a teenage boy or girl in a traditional Christian or Jewish school is wiser and happier than the 50 year old professor of philosophy in a secular college.  The person who innately understand that good and evil exist within the world have a much easier time coping with and handling stress and trauma that will cross all of our paths.

What does anxiety, chronic stress and PTSD have to do with obesity and weight gain?

Signals in our environment from very stressful life experiences on a daily basis, chronic underlying stress, chronic anxiety, radiation exposure, infectious organisms (such as bacteria and viruses), xenobiotic chemicals, allergens, intestinal bacterial metabolites and food-derived bioactive substances (including phytochemicals), all have influence on messages received by our genes that then influences their expression. Gene expression can turn on and off neuropeptides.  This can effect the autonomic nervous system turning the metabolism up or down.  The expression of our genes in turn controls our health and disease outcomes.  This is one of the reasons COVID-19 seems to effect some people more dramatically than others.

The hormonal counterbalance of blood sugar is regulated, in part, by the autonomic nervous system.  Changes to this system increase or decrease cortisol & glucose production, thereby affecting production of insulin and other weight mediating hormones.  Changes in neuropeptides from stress or anxiety can act just like eating a meal.

As blood sugar falls, the autonomic nervous system responds to balance the blood sugar.  If this system is dysfunctional or under chronic stress, cortisol and adrenalin will cause higher blood sugars due to the stress response and can trigger increased hunger inappropriately.

This is why chronic stress, poor sleep, or even getting cut off while driving in traffic is the equivalent of eating a donut to your hormone responses.  If you’re not exercising, theses hormones will cause weight gain without any change in your diet, and even with caloric restriction.

How Do You Combat Chronic Stress or Anxiety?

  1. Exercise – Because these hormones are released subconsciously, the only way to help control them is regular and consistent physical activity or exercise.  Exercise, 20-40 minutes 3-6 days per week, is often the only way my patients have been able to combat the weight gain from chronic stress, anxiety and PTSD.
  2. Adequate Protein – Recent studies have demonstrated that hitting protein thresholds in men ( > 150 grams per day) and women ( > 90 grams per day) increased growth hormone and decrease insulin, helping to offset the negative effect of stress and anxiety.  This is a key component of a ketogenic or carnivorous lifestyle.
  3. Sleep -Lack of sleep has been implicated in difficulty with weight loss and weight gain.  Lack of sleep places the body into a state of chronic stress. This elevates cortisol, lowers testosterone, increases insulin (there’s that insulin problem, again) and increases the other inflammatory hormones. This perfect storm of stress, driven by lack of restful sleep, plays a big role in fat loss. My average patient needs at a minimum of 6-7 hours of restful sleep to maintain and lose weight. This is where untreated sleep disorders like sleep apnea play a big role. If you have sleep apnea, get it treated. What else can you do to help improve sleep?
    • Remove the computer, iPad and cell phones from the room.
    • Lower the room temperature. Men sleep better around 68-70 degrees F and women sleep better when the temperature is <70 degrees F.
    • Close the blinds or shades to add or darken the room.
    • Don’t study or watch TV in the same room you sleep in. Your body gets used to doing certain activities in certain rooms of the house. The bedroom should be reserved for sleep.
    • Go to bed at the same time
    • Get up at the same time. 
  4. Journaling – Daily journaling of experiences is one of the most powerful keys to helping the brain sort powerful emotions related to anxiety and memory.
  5. Meditation – I’ve created a 23 minute relaxation/meditation audio file that you can listen to for 30 days to help change your subconscious script on weight loss.  You can find it here.
  6. Some people need additional help through hypnosis.  Talk to your doctor about a certified hypnotherapist near you.  If you are a patient of Dr. Nally’s, he offers these services. Set an appointment today.
  7. Additional Resources – If this information is helpful, you may find additional interest in the following books:
  • “Loving What Is ” by Byron Katie
  • “Overcoming Worry and Fear” by Paul A Hauck
  • “The Joys of Living” by Orison Swett Marden

What to Expect

It may take your body and body’s biorhythm 3-4 weeks to adjust to changes you make around exercise, journaling, protein & sleep habits. Be patient with yourself.

Knowing that these challenges plague people on and off throughout the year, and, seeing people get hung up on these issues, I’ve created the Ketogenic Lifestyle 101 Course.  This program gets you jump-started into ketosis and gives you the tools to overcome the individual hurtles you will experience on your health journey.

 

What is Your Release Valve?

Twice a week I join up with my HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) group and sword fight. My wife and I participated with group sparing yesterday. It is a wonderful group of peeps.

We all live very stressful lives. Stresses come in the form of phone calls, getting cut off in traffic, and angry outbursts from people around us. These short bursts of stress act like a bear chasing you through the woods. Every time that “fight or flight” signal kicks in, it is the physiological equivalent of eating a donut. Literally.

If you don’t already, you need a physical release valve. You must have a physical outlet 3-6 days per week to burn off the accumulating adrenalin and cortisol or your anxiety, depression and fatigue will overwhelm you. Research shows that progressive repetitive daily bouts of stress that aren’t physically dissipated leads to weight gain, anxiety and depression.


(After 50 years, I’ve finally figured out how to relax . . .)

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What’s the One Difference that Increases Likelyhood of COVID-19 Survival?

I’ve taken a tremendous interest in the recent deaths caused by the corona-virus infection.  The reason for my interest is high C-reactive protein (CRP), high interleukin-1 (IL-1), high interlukin-33 (IL-33) and high interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in patients with this illness.  Recent data, literally hot off the press, demonstrates that those with the greatest risk of death had the highest CRP, IL-6 and IL-33 levels.

I have a large population of metabolic syndrome, hyperinsulinemia and diabetic patients in my practice. About 85% of my practice has hyperinsulinemia.  They over produce insulin between 2-30 times normal in response to any form of ingested carbohydrate (simple and complex sugars, fruit, pasta, cereal, oatmeal, etc.) High insulin causes elevated CRP, IL-6 and IL-33.

Why is this a problem?

A very interesting fact was published four days ago in The Lancet. They published a study looking at 191 patients in two hospital centers in China. The authors found that the highest rates of death occurred in those with current hypertension, diabetes, elevated cholesterol (high triglycerides and LDL) and/or coronary artery disease (heart disease or atherosclerosis of the arteries).  This virus traditionally causes a simple common cold.  Seeing this data in this particular viral strain dramatically changed my perspective on this virus.

These maladies (hypertension, diabetes, elevated cholesterol & coronary artery disease) are the four most common medical problems that I seen in my clinic, and they affect 85% of my practice population. All four are caused and driven by hyperinsulinemia.  The higher your insulin response to starches or sugars, the more likely you are to have hypertension, diabetes, elevated cholesterol and heart disease.

Insulin Raises Cytokine Levels

This elevated insulin in response to eating any starch or sugar, hyperinsulinemia, causes a rise in molecules called cytokines.  C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Interleukin-1 (IL-1), Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Interleukin-33 (IL-33) are the cytokines that are abnormally and chronically elevated in hyperinsulinemia.  These cytokines are responsible for mediating the inflammatory response to illness, injury and stress in the body.  They control how your body responds with release of white blood cells, macophages, and other immune cells.   These molecular hormones are ALWAYS chronically elevated in patients with hypertension (elevated blood pressure), pre-diabetes, diabetes, elevated cholesterol, coronary heart disease and obesity.

C-Reactive Protein

CRP is a reactive protein produced by the liver in response to inflammation.  It is an “acute phase reactant” signaling the body’s immune system to respond to stress, inflammation or infection.  The presence of insulin directly raises CRP.  In my clinical experience, CRP normalizes within about three days of insulin returning to a normal level.

Interleukins (1,6, & 33)

IL-1,IL-6 & IL-33 are all cytokines.  They stimulate increased body temperature, regulate fevers, modulate macrophages and stimulate other immune cells to function in various parts of the body when infection or inflammation occurs.   These dual acting hormones are produced by a number of cells, but predominantly by the adipocytes (fat cells) and pneumocytes (lung cells).

IL-6 has a negative feedback on the liver’s ability to sense the presence of insulin.  Elevated insulin levels over time cause increased size of fat cells.  This causes abnormally high levels of IL-6 production from the adipocytes and decreases the signal of insulin on the liver – leading to insulin resistance, pre-diabetes and diabetes.  Elevation of IL-6 often persists until the fat cells shrink back down to a non-obese size.  IL-6 can also stimulate elevated CRP as well.

Elevated insulin on top of the presence of a viral infection in the lungs stimulates additional increase in IL-33.  A normal rise in IL-33 increases fluid and cells like macrophages around the lungs causing a normal immune response. This is part of the healing process, but if IL-33 is already chronically elevated in hyperinsulinemia, then a burst of IL-33 leads to the pneumonia, hypoxia and blood clotting that commonly occurs in those with severe coronavirus infections.  IL-33 has been implicated as one of the drivers in the “cytokine storm”  found in severe coronavirus infection patients.  The presence of IL-33 increases production of IL-6 leading to a “storm of hormones” (cytokine storm) being overproduced from the lungs and fat cells.

Risk of Death

Patients with elevated IL-1,IL-6, IL-33 and CRP were at much greater risk of mortality when exposed to COVID-19.  Those that died, all of them, from this viral infection had IL-6, IL-33 and CRP levels twice as high as those who recovered from the illness. That is profound.

Temporal changes in laboratory markers from illness onset in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

Temporal changes in lab markers from illness onset in Chinese patients hospitalized with COVID-19

What does this mean?

What does this mean to you and me?  It means that those with elevated interleukin levels are more likely to experience a severe complication if exposed to this virus.  That means that 85% of my practice, if not controlling hyperinsulinemia, is at higher risk of mortality.  That’s what got my attention.  Hopefully, it gets your attention.

But, don’t stress out. As of the writing of this post, 9-10% of the population may get sick (that is the current statistical data we have over the last three months).  Relax , because 92% of people who get the virus won’t be severe enough to warrant hospitalization.  And, only 0.4% of people will die from COVID-19.  That’s actually lower than the current influenza numbers of 0.43% mortality. (Statistics taken from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/) .

A recent paper written by Qasim Bukhari and Yusuf Jameel, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, analyzed global cases of the disease caused by the virus, COVID-19.  They found that 90% of the infections occurred in areas that are between 37.4 and 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 17 degrees Celsius), and in areas with an absolute humidity of 4 to 9 grams per cubic meter (g/m3).  Absolute humidity is defined by how much moisture is in the air, regardless of temperature. (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3556998)

Arizona just hit temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit this week, the last week in April. This means, if the research is correct, there should be a notable decline in the transmission and number of infections in hot and/or humid areas of the country like the south and south west regions.

What can you and I do?

What can be done about it?  Follow a ketogenic lifestyle.  Studies published in November, 2019, reveal that a ketogenic lifestyle has an enhancing effect on immunity by suppressing viral replication and barrier effect through γδ T cells in the lung.

This dietary approach is, also, the only one that I have seen clinically lowering CRP and IL-6 when using it long term.  Ketosis may be the perfect prevention.  Over the last 16 years of using ketogenic lifestyles, I have seen this pattern improve thousands of times.  The presence of ketones immediately suppresses the production of IL-6 and improves the stimulus for CPR production at the liver.  Cutting out carbohydrates lowers insulin back to a normal baseline within 3-7 days for most people.  CRP returns to normal within three days of fixing your diet.  And, IL-6 begins to decline immediately.  In my obese patients, it can take 18-24 months for IL-6 to return back to normal.

Additional Measures

Don’t stress.  The overly hyped fear mongering produced in the media in the last two weeks raises your stress level.  Turn off the T.V. and stop listening to the 24 hour news cycles.  Over the next couple of weeks, while the risk of viral exposure is the highest, the following precautions are essential:

  1. Follow good hand washing practices
  2. Limit exposure to those who may be carrying this illness through social distancing.  If you have a fever, stay home. If you are ill, wear a mask out in public.
  3. Get good sleep (six or more hours of restful sleep)
  4. Use a complete pharmaceutical grade vitamin
  5. Spend 20-30 minutes outside
  6. Do something physical for 20-30 minutes 5-6 days per week

Taiwan and Hong Kong have instituted strict quarantines and you can see their effect in the graph below.

Above all, enjoy some bacon.  Seriously.

You can’t eat bacon?  Have a nice rib eye.  Either way, based on the data above, your ketogenic lifestyle is the very best thing you can do to avoid serious infections, including COVID-19.

I talk about this an much more here on my YouTube video:

Eight Steps to Help You, Your Children & Your Family Thrive In Quarantine

Some of you are doing well.  Some of you aren’t.   There is a twisted part of some of you that actually like this “shut-down.”  Because, you’ve been in a mental/emotional shut down for years.  The pain of past failures punched holes in your heart.  You feel it and re-experience it when you try.  Your family sees it (they just don’t say anything).  Your friends see it. But, they are tactful and just smile.

With each failure, you lowered the fence.  With each betrayal, you widened the moat around your soul.

And now, life has caught up to you.

Part of you wants to double down and float corpse-like in the misery of the past.  Quarantine is an easy excuse to kill the last spark of your ambition, binge on Netflix and pop bon-bons on the couch.

But, COVID-19 just kicked over the game-board.  Life’s dice have just been changed.

Pull back the curtain of chaos around your life and the life of your family.  Realize that you actually set the rules.

The Eight Rules

There are eight rules that, if applied, will stabilize you and your family.  And, if you teach them to your children, you will solidify a generation.

Give your life and your children some structure.

We as humans have always needed guard rails, or banisters, especially the little humans.  A simple list of the top three things you and your children need to do today will make the day go so much smoother. Start at the top and go to work.  You don’t have to accomplish all three, but, just knowing the three most important things to accomplish today, gives you and your ” miniature carbon copies” satisfying direction.  If you don’t finish number 2 or 3, then put them on the top of the list tomorrow.

Delayed gratification is your true best friend.

This is a perfect time to place strategic rewards on pleasurable activities. I realize that spending the day in your pajamas watching TV, Netflix binge’ng, or playing video games can be very easy.  These activities are fine after the structure has been addressed.  Clean your room, then reward yourself with a video game. Fold the laundry, then surf the internet.  Mow the lawn, then watch Netflix.  Pay the bills, then reward yourself.

People, grown and those still growing, always respond better and gain self-confidence when experiencing delayed gratification.

Teach your family the how and why of working together.

Yes, the shutdown causes problems.  But, make lemon-aid out of lemons.  Teach your family to cook, plan and make meals together (I know a great book with 60 wonderful ketogenic recipes). Young children can clean up, feed the dog, take out the garbage and even do their own laundry.

My wife had our children doing their own laundry at seven years old.  Umm, yes, they actually can, and are capable of some complex chores at that age.  Anyone that can “Call of Duty,” “Super-Mario” or dress a Barbie can sort clothes and turn on a washing machine.  This is a perfect time to teach them and supervise.

Exercise as a family.

Daily family walks, runs, or weight lifting (body-weight exercises if you don’t have weights) will shake out the cobwebs.  Teach your kids great health habits and you fatigue them for bedtime sooner in the process.

Tell your children stories.

Share stories around the dinner table of your adventures, successes and failures.  They want to hear the how and why, it is educational for them and it is therapeutic for you.  Read to your kids before bed.  We worked through the entire Narnia series over a couple years and my kids still talk about it.

Or, better yet, tell them a bedtime story.  The crazier the better. You will never regret it, and it will be some of the most memorable things your family may experience.

Find a project that you and they can tackle.

My daughter loves to collect Medieval swords and loves to sword-fight (Probably because of the bedtime stories we read.)  We had this collection of swords that was hard to keep in a closet.  So, we made a wooden sword rack together.  My daughter found that she “loves to build stuff,” and this  brought out a creative side of her that my wife and I had never seen.

Carve out some adult time. 

You need time for yourself.  You also need time with your spouse.  Kids need to see that adults need some time for themselves.

I can still remember the time when my daughter called me at work in tears.  When I asked what was wrong, she told me, “Mom put herself in time-out, she locked herself in the bedroom and she won’t come out.”

My wife was homeschooling the kids, it had been a difficult year and didn’t give herself time to regroup.  She was frazzled.   To this day, my grown children and I have learned that each of us needs some personal time.  Or, we end up putting ourselves in “time-out.”

Learn and teach your family independence. 

If your family, your spouse, or those you are responsible for come to you with every little unmet need and want, this quarantine is going to  feel like it “lasts for years!” Train your family, and yourself, up front what they can do for themselves. And, teach them how to decide when they can do it on their own.  Help them be independent.  Tears and whining will probably occur, initially (probably, from your husband the most.) But, it is our job to take completely dependent infants and turn them into independent self-starting adults within 18 years.

So, dream big, take your white knuckles off the steering wheel, pull over and re-imagine your life.  These eight rules are the alchemy of the soul.

8 Reasons You Can't Lose Fat #DocMuscles #KetonianKing DocMuscles.com

Eight Reasons You Can’t Lose Fat

Inability to lose weight is the most common reason people see me. It’s often a combination of small things of which they are unaware.  What simple things are keeping the spare tire inflated around the your waist?  I’ve listed the eight most common reasons you can’t lose the fat.

You Eat Too Many Carbohydrates

About 85% of the people that walk through my office doors have some degree of insulin resistance. This means that they produce 2-20 times the normal amount of insulin in response to ANY form of starch or carbohydrate. Insulin is the hormone responsible for letting glucose into the cell to be used as fuel. More importantly, it is the hormone responsible for dampering glucose production in the liver and, it is the primary hormone responsible for pushing triglycerides into the fat cells (essentially, the master hormone for making you FAT). The more insulin you make the more fat you store. Insulin resistance, the inability for insulin to signal glucose dampering at the liver receptors, is the first stage that starts 15-20 years before you become a diabetic.

#DocMuscles #KetonianKing #WeaponOfMassDestructionIn order to lose fat, you have to decrease the insulin to a basal level. If you don’t the fat enters the fat cell faster than it exits and the fat cells get bigger. This is RULE number one to weight loss. You gotta turn down the high insulin surge that 85% of us are really good at producing. If you don’t do this, it is almost impossible for many of us to lose weight.

For at least 1/3rd of the people I see, this cannot be accomplished unless TOTAL CARBOHYDRATES are decreased to less than 20 grams per day. Yes, you read that correctly . . . Less that 20 grams per day.

  • Your banana contains 30 grams of carbohydrate
  • Your yogurt has up to 60 grams of carbohydrate
  • That oatmeal you thought was good for you has up to 200 grams of carbohydrate
  • The half and half you put in your coffee is half lactose (sugar from milk), 10 grams per cup.

You Eat Too Much Protein

Yes, protein can cause weight gain.  And, no, it’s not because gluconeogenesis is on overdrive.  There is always a body builder that sends me a nasty message after I say this.  But the fact is that it’s true. (I’ll keep an eye on my e-mail).

#EatMoreChicken #DocMuscles #KetonianKing #TooMuchProtein

Five of the ten essential amino acids stimulate an insulin response. Remember why carbohydrates cause weight gain . . . ? (I will give you a hint . . . INSULIN).

Certain amino acids that make up proteins can do the same thing.  Arginine, Lycine, Phenylalanine, Leucine & Tyrosine, in that order, stimulate insulin enough to halt weight loss or increase weight gain in a significant way (1).  We need protein to stay healthy, but too much of these amino acids in someone who is insulin resistant will inhibit weight loss and stimulate fat gain.  I’ve also seen it raise small dense LDL particles in the cholesterol (the heart disease causing particle driven by insulin over production)  I’ve seen this time and time again with many people.  Simply modulating down the protein to the calculated needs lets the weight start coming off again.

So, what foods contain these in the highest amounts? Sea lion liver (I know, this won’t go over very well with the polar bears), soy protein isolate, crab, shrimp, sesame flour, turkey breast, pork loin (it’s the leanest cut of pork – No. BACON is fine), chicken, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, peanuts, spirulina (blue green alge that is found in the sea).

Yes, I get it. We’ve been told these were the healthy foods for the last 50 years. But, think about it. When did we start gaining weight as a country? 50 years ago.

Too much chicken, shrimp, crab and soy foods will inhibit weight loss in those with insulin resistance. So, consider whether it should be chicken you add to your salad. Consider, instead, bacon or beef as a wonderfully tasty substitute.

How much protein do you need?  My formula for calculating your individual amount is here in my blog Calculating Protein Needs.

You Don’t Eat Enough Fat

#Snaccident #DocMuscles #KetonianKing #BaconBoy

To successfully lose fat on a ketogenic diet, 30-70% of your caloric intake should come from fat. Yes. You read that correctly. (The definition of a high fat diet is any diet containing more than 30% of fat from calories).

If we limit carbohydrates (which is currently 80% of the body’s fuel on the standard America plate), and moderate excessive protein which also halts weight loss, you have to replace the fuel. That fuel replacement should come from fat.  Increasing fat will improve the sensation of fullness, provide all the fat soluble vitamins, and actually makes food taste good again.

As long as you are lowering the insulin to basal levels, you can actually eat all the fat for which you are hungry. Add bacon, butter, coconut oil, avocado, hard cheese, and oh, did I say bacon?

But Dr. Nally, what about all that saturated fat?

The saturated fat is only a problem with vascular disease, cholesterol and heart disease when the insulin level is also high at the same time. It’s the high insulin in the presence of large amounts of fat that drives the risk for atherosclerosis (vascular and heart disease).  Instead of cutting out the fat, we’re cutting out the insulin.

How much fat should you be eating? Shoot for 60-70% of your calories from fat for the first 3 months.  If your fat grams are slightly higher than or equal to your protein grams, you’re there. Listen to your body and eat fat until you’re full. That’s how most of my patients gauge their need and suppress hunger.

You’re Now Eating Too Much Fat

After the third month, most of us are fat adapted.  You may notice your weight loss slows or halts. This means that our ability to absorb fat into the blood stream is dramatically more efficient.  It also means that your taking in more fat into the fat cell then you are pulling out of the fat cell.  I’ve found this to be the case with people who are loading butter, MCT or heavy whipping cream into their coffee.  In this case, back off the “extra fat” your are loading or drinking.  It’s not the calories  in this case.  There are 3-4 hormonal reasons this occurs once you are fat adapted.  (We’ll talk about this in another blog post.)

You’re Drinking Tea

Black Tea #KetonianKing #DocMuslces #WeightLoss #KetosisI know, I know.  Tea is a national pass time in Europe. And, it is deeply embedded in the culture of many other countries.  I’m probably not winning any friends across the pond by saying this, and it may bring back memories of the Boston Tea Party.  However, the problem is that leaf based teas stimulate a rise in insulin (not taxes).  I have had many patients hit a weight loss plateau because of the use of tea, specifically black tea, oolong tea, and green tea (2,3,4).

Yes, I am well aware of the tremendous benefits of the epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC) found in green tea. ECGC, which can be isolated as an extract, improves insulin resistance and improves GLP-1 signaling.  ECGC has, also, been show to improve triglycerides (5).  For this reason, it is one of the components in the KetoEssentials Multi-Vitamin I developed a few years ago and recommend to all my patients.

It appears, however, that the theaflavin within the leaf of the tea may be playing the offending role in the insulin spike seen with their use (6).

You Don’t Get Enough Sleep

Lack of sleep has been implicated in difficulty with weight loss and weight gain (7). Lack of sleep places the body into a state of chronic stress. This elevates cortisol, lowers testosterone, increases insulin (there’s that insulin problem, again) and increases the other inflammatory hormones. This perfect storm of stress, driven by lack of restful sleep, plays a big role in fat loss.

My average patient needs at a minimum of 6-7 hours of restful sleep to maintain and lose weight.

This is where untreated sleep disorders like sleep apnea play a big role. If you have sleep apnea, get it treated. What else can you do to help improve sleep?

  • Remove the computer, iPad and cell phones from the room.
  • Lower the room temperature. Men sleep better around 68-70 degrees F and women sleep better when the temperature is <70 degrees F.
  • Close the blinds or shades to add or darken the room.
  • Don’t study or watch TV in the same room you sleep in. Your body gets used to doing certain activities in certain rooms of the house. The bedroom should be reserved for sleep.
  • Go to bed at the same time
  • Get up at the same time.

It may take your body and body’s biorhythm 3-4 weeks to adjust to changes you make around sleep habits. Be patient with yourself.

You’re Married to Stress

Just as lack of sleep is stressful, other forms of chronic stress also raise cortisol, insulin and the inflammatory hormones. Chronic stress also lowers testosterone. It, also, has the potential to lower neurosignaling hormones in the brain like serotonin and dopamine, putting you at greater risk for depression and anxiety.

Other forms of chronic stress can occur from poor relationships, chronic pain, stressful employment, unfulfilled expectations, chronic illness and all forms of abuse. If any of these are playing a role in your life, you need to address them, and address them now.

As a physician, my job is stressful. Dealing with life and death issues with multiple people through the day, six or seven days a week, takes it’s toll. I’ve found that weight lifting, horseback riding, and taking care of my animals are my outlets. Find something physical, that takes you outside in the elements and forces you to break a sweat for 15-20 minutes is the key.

#FightOrFlight #DocMuscles #KetonianKing Bear Chasing ManOur bodies have a “fight or flight system.” 100 years ago, the stress was fighting or running from the bear that squared off with you when you happened upon him in the woods. Cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, insulin, glucose, and inflammatory hormones pour into the blood stream.  The heart beats faster, blood flows rapidly to the muscles, sensory awareness is heightened in the brain and increased oxygen flows to the lungs. This lets you fight the bear or run from the bear.

But, you can’t fight or run from your cynical boss. You can’t fight or run from oppressive finances, the person that cuts you off on your one hour commute in traffic, or your coworker who keeps pestering you. However, your body still releases adrenaline, cortisol, epinephrine, insulin and a number of inflammatory hormones prepping you to fight or run. If you don’t burn these hormones off, they halt weight loss, and actually can cause weight gain, increase anxiety and over time disrupt sleep.

So find your favorite way of physically relieving stress, and do it 2-3 times per week. (No, gentlemen, sex doesn’t count).

You Have An MTHFR Deficiency

In the last few years, we’ve been able to identify a number of genetic deficiencies that play a role in weight gain. One of those is an methyl-tetrahydrofolate enzyme deficiency (MTHFR deficiency for short). This is a genetic deficiency in the enzyme that converts adds a methyl ion to the folic acid in the cells of your body.

This is important, because if you can’t methylate folic acid inside the cell, you’ll have difficulty using vitamin B12 and B6 very efficiently to form methionine (a key amino acid in blood vessel and nerve function). There are two genes that encode for the enzyme that does the methylation of folic acid. Deficiency in one or both of these can lead to problems.

In severe cases, it causes homocysteine to build up to unsafe levels in the blood and slow the formation of methionine.  It is associated with B12 deficiency, weight gain, fatigue, migraines, depression, anxiety, neuro-developmental disorders like autism, pregnancy loss, blood clots and neuropathy in pre-diabetic and diabetic patients (8, 9, 10).

Giving extra vitamin B12, B6 and folic acid (vitamin B9) doesn’t appear to help.  Clinical evidence is pointing to the pre-methylated form of the folic acid.  Finding this pre-methylated form has been difficult and notably expensive for patients. I found this deficiency to be so prevalent in my office, I added methylated folic acid to the KetoEssentials Multivitamin.

You Give “Couch Potato” A New Name

We have become a very sedentary people. We have engineered physical activity out of our lives. Remote controls, elevators, escalators, people movers, and automation have made our lives physically easier.

The average office worker burns 300 kcal per day sitting at a desk on a computer. The average farm worker burns 2600 kcal per day. That’s the equivalent of running a marathon every day.

Physical activity doesn’t necessarily cause weight loss.  However, physical activity changes the hormones of the body including increasing a hormones like catacholamines, testosterone and a hormone called atrial naturitic peptide (ANP).  ANP opens the fat cell, and lets more fat out (11).

When physical activity is paired with the correct diet, the weight come off.  This is where exogenous ketones may play a role.  The increased presence of ketones in the blood increases the release of ANP helping to activate triglyceride release from the fat cell.

Don’t get me wrong, many of my patients can lose weight with just dietary carbohydrate restriction alone, however, if you’ve hit a stall, you may need to look at your physical activity levels and many people like me, who are notably insulin resistant, benefit greatly with the addition of exogenous ketones.

Kickstart Ketosis over the Plateau

Is your fat loss on a plateau?  Knowing that these challenges plague people on and off throughout the year, and, seeing people get hung up on these issues, I’ve created the Ketogenic Lifestyle 101 Course.  This program gets you jump-started into ketosis and gives you the tools to overcome the individual hurtles you will experience on your health journey.

If your the really motivated type, and want a true 30 day challenge, then join my Kickstart program.

References:

  1. Floyd J et al., Stimulation of Insulin Secretion by Amino Acids, Journal of Clinical Investigation. 1966. 45(9).
  2. Bryans JA et al., Effect of black tea on post-prandial glucose and insulin. Journal Am Coll Nutrition 2007, 25(5): 471-7.
  3. Store KS & Baer DJ. Tea consumption may improve biomarkers of insulin sensitivity and risk factors for diabetes. The Journal of Nutrition. Aug 2008, 138(8): 1584S-1588S.
  4. Hosoda K et al., Anti-hyperglycemic effect of oolong tea on type II diabetes. Diabetes Care. Jun 2003. 26(6): 1714-1718.
  5. Chia-Yu Liu,Chien-Jung Huang, Lin-Huang Huang, I-Ju Chen, Jung-Peng Chiu, Chung-Hua Hsu.  Effects of Green Tea Extract on Insulin Resistance and Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Lipid Abnormalities: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, and Placebo-Controlled Trial. PLOS one(online). March 10, 2014.
  6. Cameron, Amy R.; Anton, Siobhan; Melville, Laura; Houston, Nicola P.; Dayal, Saurabh; McDougall, Gordon J.; Stewart, Derek; Rena, Graham (2008). “Black tea polyphenols mimic insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signalling to the longevity factor FOXO1a”. Aging Cell. 7(1): 69–77.
  7. Beccuti, Guglielmo, and Silvana Pannain. “Sleep and Obesity.” Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care 14.4 (2011): 402–412. PMC. Web. 18 Sept. 2017.
  8. Divyakolu S, Tejaswini Y, Thomas W, Thumoju S, et al. (2013) Evaluation of C677T Polymorphism of the Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) Gene in various Neurological Disorders. J Neurol Disord 2:142. doi: 10.4172/2329-6895.1000142
  9. Gilbody, S., Lewis, S. & Lightfoot, T. (2007). Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) genetic polymorphisms and psychiatric disorders: A HuGE review. American Journal of Epidemiology, 165(1), 1-13.
  10. Menon, S., Lea, R., Roy, B., Hanna, M., Wee, S., Haupt, L., & … Griffiths, L. (2012). Genotypes of the MTHFR C677T and MTRR A66G genes act independently to reduce migraine disability in response to vitamin supplementation. Pharmacogenetics And Genomics, 22(10), 741-749.
  11. Lafontan M et al., Control of lipolysis by natriuretic peptides and cyclic GMP. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism. 19(4): 130-137.

KetoTalk: Episode 27 -Mailbox Blitz, Low Energy, Headache, Stomach-Ache, Breast-Feeding While On Keto

Mailbox desert

Listen in today as Jimmy and Adam blaze through a bunch of listener questions in Episode 27 of KetoTalk with Jimmy and the Doc!

GetAdaptBars

KEY QUOTE: “Children are born in ketosis, so ketones are perfect for babies. The level of fat in breast-milk is essential for them to maintain their health and their growth.” — Dr. Adam Nally

Here’s are the 12 questions Jimmy and Adam answered in this special Keto Talk Mailbox Blitz extended podcast today:

– Testimonial from someone who learned his lesson why it’s important to stay ketogenic all the time
– Three-decade study confirms saturated fats are bad for health
– Is increased testosterone from a ketogenic diet a bad thing for women?
– Why am I still struggling with low energy and low ketones after months of being in ketosis?
– Can being in nutritional ketosis above 1.0 mmol cause painful headaches?
– Do artificial sweeteners and stevia raise insulin?
– Is my ketogenic diet causing me to cramp up before and during my half marathon racing?
– Is MCT oil a better fat to use on a ketogenic diet than other fats like coconut oil, cream, or butter?
– Why do I have a constant stomachache while I’m on a ketogenic diet?
– Do you have to be in ketosis to burn fat?
– Does being in ketosis lead to daily spotting and extended periods?
– Are ketones in my baby’s breastmilk safe for her to consume? And why did my milk supply drop when I went keto?
– What is the impact of the supplement creatine on ketones, blood sugar, and insulin levels?
– Can I ease into ketosis as a way to avoid the dreaded “keto flu?”

KEY QUOTE: “If you’re not feeling energy after that adaptation period of 2-4 weeks at the very most, then you’re doing something wrong. Let that be your wakeup call to change something.” — Jimmy Moore

KetonesKETOOS

Listen in here at KetoTalk.com or you can download the episode for free on iTunes.

KetoTalk From the Caribbean Sea

AllureOfTheSeas

Dr. Nally recently spoke about Low-Carbohydrate/Ketogenic Diets on the 2016 Low Carb Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean.  While there, he and Jimmy Moore recorded another episode of KetoTalk with Jimmy and the Doc.

Listen in to KetoTalk Episode 20: A LIVE Q&A Session From The 2016 Low-Carb Cruise

Here’s what Jimmy and Dr. Nally talked about in Episode 20:
– We are in front of a LIVE audience of Ketonians
– How long will you experience hair loss when you go ketogenic?
– What role does resistant starch have on the keto diet?
– Is eating high-fat with high-carb harming my boyfriend?
– How does intermittent fasting help with keto?
– Whether to count total vs. net carbohydrates
– Whether you need to cycle carbs when building muscle
– What the best way to test your ketones is
– How to test blood ketones on a budget
– What the difference is between an NMR and basic lipid panel
– The dramatic changes in your cholesterol when going keto
– How long should you be on keto before running blood tests?
– Whether you should cut fat lower on keto to speed up weight loss
– Is having a lower body temperature a bad thing when eating keto?

You can listen at the iTunes page here, or download it for free to your favorite iTunes player.

Today’s Weight Loss Rx . . .

A few of my patients have recently asked me, “Dr. Nally, why to you post pictures of your horse, koi and farm animals on instagram?”

Let me answer that question with the following questions:

  • Do you find yourself longing for the apocalypse?
  • Do you find yourself looking for a reason to live?
  • Are you feeling tired, irritable, stressed out?
  • Do you or you family find yourself to be overly cynical, jaded or emotionally numb?

If you can answer “yes” to any of the questions above, then I highly recommend prescription strength nature . . .

All parody and humor aside, full strength prescription nature is one of the very best treatments for stress.

I find that sitting outside with my animals, watching the birds, dogs, horses and ducks dramatically helps with lowering my stress levels and helps me re-focus.  You can see my favorite place to sit on my farm and watch nature . . . here on Katch.me

You may find the following posts very insightful in explaining how stress wreaks havoc on your weight loss, mood & emotions and how to go about fixing it:

For someone like me, who spends 14-18 hours a day taking care of illness and sickness, I have found that spending time in nature is often more therapeutic than any pill available in the pharmacy.  So, this afternoon, if your looking for me, I’ll be taking my own medicine, a prescription of Nature Rx on my horse.

The 3 Weight Loss Necessities to Weathering the Holidays

What are the three things you need to successfully weather the holidays with your ketosis lifestyle? What does a raindeer on a motorcycle look like? How does insulin resistance effect kidney stones and gout? How do you get back on track if you fall off the ketosis wagon? These and many more questions are answered by Dr. Adam Nally on tonight’s PeriScope.

You can see the video stream including the comment roll here at katch.me/docmuscles.  Or you can watch the video below:

Common Ketosis Killers

“I’ve tried your low-carb diet, Dr. Nally, and it didn’t work.”

“Hmm . . . really?”  If you’re mumbling this to yourself, or you’ve said it to me in my office, then lets have a little talk.  You’ve probably been subjected to the common ketosis killers.

Scale HelpI’ve heard this statement before.  It’s not a new statement, but it’s a statement that tells me we need to address a number of items.  If you’ve failed a low carbohydrate diet, I’d suspect you are pretty severely insulin resistant or hyperinsulinemic.  You probably never really reached true ketosis.   I’d want to have you checked out by your doctor to rule out underlying disease like hypothyroidism, diabetes, other hormone imbalance, etc.

Nutritional Ketosis is Most Effective as a Lifestyle Change

Next, switching to a low-carbohydrate lifestyle is literally a “lifestyle change.”  It requires that you understand a few basic ketosis principles.  And, it takes the average person 3-6 months to really wrap their head around what this lifestyle means . . .  and, some people, up to a year before they are really comfortable with how to eat and function in any situation.

I assume, if you are reading this article, that you’ve already read about ketosis and understand the science behind it.  If not, please start your reading with my article The Principle Based Ketogenic Lifestyle – Part I and Ketogenic Principles – Part II.  If this is the case, then please proceed forward, “full steam ahead!”

There are usually a few areas that are inadvertently inhibiting your body transformation, so let’s get a little personal.

Nutritional Ketosis is a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet

First, this is a low carbohydrate diet.  For weight loss, I usually ask people to lower their carbohydrate intake to less than 2o grams per day. How do you do that?  (A copy of my diet is accessible through my membership site HERE.)  You’ve got to begin by restricting all carbohydrates to less than 20 grams per day.  Any more than 20 to 30 grams per day will cause an insulin release from the pancreas and stimulate fat storage of both carbohydrate and fat for the next 10-12 hours, commonly killing ketosis.  Keep a dietary journal to record your progress, your cravings, your successes and failures.  I’m going to want to see it and review it with you if you see me.

No, I don’t believe in “Net Carbs.”  Net Carbs are a sales gimmick to get you to buy “artificial food” that keeps you coming back for “artificial food” and halts your weight loss (you’ll see why shortly).   You’re going to lose the most weight and feel your best when you eat real food. I do allow for the subtraction of real fiber, specifically non-cooked, non-blended, non-juiced leafy greens (If you cook, blend or juice a leafy green, it activates more carbohydrate availability).  Leafy greens are real fiber.  You can subtract them.  In fact, I recommend eating 1-3 cups of leafy greens per day to help bowel function & provide necessary folic acid, but, everything else is “carbage.”  Avoid it.

Yes, cottage cheese and yogurt contain carbohydrates.  Be very cautious with them.

No, oatmeal and Cream of Wheat™ are not helpful. See my article on Why Your Oatmeal is Killing Your Libedo.Alcohol

Alcohol also halts your weight loss.  It’s not the sugar in the alcohol I’m worried about, the distilling process changes the sugar to alcohol, however, alcohol stimulates an insulin response after the alcohol is metabolized in the liver with a SIMILAR RESPONSE to regular sugar.

 

To Effectively Maintain Nutritional Ketosis, You MUST get adequate Protein

Second, this is a low carbohydrate, moderate protein, high fat lifestyle.  N0 . . . it is NOT a high protein diet! However, so many of my patients don’t eat enough protein that they feel like it is a “high protein diet.”

Protein is essential for the building and maintaining of muscle, connective tissue and a number of other enzymatic reactions in your body.  However, in patients who are morbidly obese [people with a body mass index (BMI) over 50], excess protein intake can cause fat to be stored by producing an excessive insulin response.  In these patients we initially moderate protein.  Excess sugars and a number of proteins, in the presence of a high insulin response, are converted to triglyceride (the soft squishy stuff inside the fat cells that make them plump) and stocked away inside your adipose tissue.  Excessive protein, especially the amino acids argenine, leucine and tryptophan are common ketosis killers, not because they are converted to sugar, but because they stimulate and insulin response all by themselves.

If you don’t fall into the morbidly obese category (BMI over 50). Then, I encourage you to use the protein levels below.

Initially, I ask my patients to focus on lowering their carbohydrate intake and I don’t really worry about protein.  (It is often hard enough to figure out what the difference between a carbohydrate and a protein in the first month or two if you’ve never had any nutrition background.)  Most people begin losing weight just by lowering carbohydrates over the first few months.  Once you figure out how to lower your carbohydrates, if your weight loss is not moving and your pants are not getting looser, then you’re probably eating too much protein.

How much protein do you need?  It’s pretty easy to calculate and is based on your height and gender.  Your basic protein needs to maintain muscle, skin and hair growth are as follows:

  • 70 grams or higher for women per day
  • 120 grams or higher for men per day.

However, these levels are WAY TOO LOW for weight loss and maintaining good health.  Because we now know that protein acts as a hormone in a number of ways, in my office I recommend women get 80-90 grams of protein per day, and men should get > 150 grams of protein per day.

ProteinIf you’re still a little confused about protein, read my article on Why Your Chicken Salad Stops Your Weight Loss.

This also goes for protein powders and protein shakes.  Many of these have 25-40 grams of protein in them per serving, so be careful with their use.

Nutritional Ketosis is a High Fat Diet

Third, this is a high fat lifestyle.  Yes, I want you to INCREASE your fat intake.  I’m going to repeat that, again, just for clarity, . . . . INCREASE your fat intake.  Increase it to around 50% of your total calories, . . . 70% of your total calories if you can do it.  Not enough fat is a common ketosis killer.

“What?! Won’t that cause heart disease and stroke and make my cholesterol worse?!!!”

I know, take a big deep breath . . . (you may even need to breath into a paper bag for a minute if you begin hyperventilating).

No, it will not raise your cholesterol, cause heart disease, or cause a stroke.  If you have lowered your carbohydrate intake to less than 20 grams per day, then there is NO hormonal signal for you to make more bad cholesterol, worsen heart disease, or cause a stroke.  In fact, there is great data showing that increasing your fat and lowering your carbohydrates reverses the blockage in the arteries.  I see this reversal every single day in my clinic through the application of ketogenic diets.

If we remove carbohydrate as your primary fuel, you must replace it with something else.Food Pyramid WrongThat something else should be fat.  Protein must be moderated, as it will also be stored as fat if you eat too much.  So, if the carbohydrates are kept low, fat intake can be increased and the body will pick the fat it wants and essentially throw the rest out without raising cholesterol, causing weight gain or causing heart disease.  This is why we want you to use good natural animal fats like butter, hard cheese, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, etc.  Look for fats highest in omega-3 fatty acids as these decrease inflammation and improved weight loss.  Look for meats highest in fat like red meat (55% fat) and pork (45% fat).  Take the food pyramid and flip it over.

Check Your Sweeteners At the Door

The fourth common ketosis killer and culprit in halting your weight loss is  artificial sweeteners.  There are quite a few of them.  Most of them WILL cause an insulin response (exactly what we don’t want for weight loss) with minimal to no rise in blood sugar.  Raising blood sugar doesn’t matter, if the insulin is being stimulated  . . . “you’re gonna gain weight for the next 10-12 hours.”  I wrote an article for you to print off and hang on your fridge, upload it to your iPhone or carry it with you in your purse to the grocery store. (If you’re a man and you’re carrying a purse, please don’t tell me about it.)  You can find the article here: The Skinny About Sweeteners.  The short list of those sweeteners that are OK to use and cook with, and do not increase insulin response, can be found here in my Amazon Store.

Don’t Even Start with Coffee Creamers

CoffeeCreamersFifth on my list is coffee creamer.  Coffee creamer contains corn syrup solids (another very special name for  . . . SUGAR!!) and/or maltodextrin (SUGAR’s married name!).  If you must put something in your coffee, then use real heavy cream (pure tasty fat) or real butter.   It will taste much better (I’m told – I don’t drink coffee personally) and you won’t get an insulin spike 2-3 hours later and begin craving more coffee and donuts.

Yes, “Half & Half” is half fat and half sugar. . .  avoid it too!!

Ketosis Killing Medications

The sixth culprit in halting weight loss is medications.  Please talk to your doctor before making ANY changes in your medications as suddently stopping them can be hazardous to your health.  Those highest on my list for stopping your weight loss are Glyburide (glipizide), insulin, & steroids like prednisone.  A more complete list of medications that will halt your weight loss can be found on my on my ketogenic diet plan.  If you are on any prescription medications, please talk to your doctor or to a physician board certified in obesity medicine treatment about how to adjust or wean these medications in a way that is safe and appropriate for your individual needs.

Estrogen

The seventh common culprit in halting weight loss is a lack of estrogen in menopausal or post-menopausal women.  About menopause-cartoon-02420% of women that I see in my practice who are over 55 years old, need some degree of estrogen replacement before they are able to lose weight.  Estrogen plays a very large role in regulation of the metabolism and when deficient, causes weight retention or weight gain.  Talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of estrogen for you individually in this situation.

Stress

The eighth reason for shifting out of ketosis is stress.  Acute and chronic stress can be caused by a number of issues. The most common is lack of sleep.  You can read about stress and ways to address it in two of my articles: How Does Stress Cause Weight Gain? and Adrenal Insufficiency, Adrenal Fatigue and PseudoCushing’s Syndrome – Oh My!

For many years, we’ve thought that caffeine was great for weight loss.  However, we are finding, clinically, that too much caffeine can also cause a stress response by raising cortisol, releasing glycogen, thereby stimulating an insulin response and bringing your weight loss to a screeching halt.  How much caffeine? . . . The jury is still out . . . and remains to be determined.  But, I am currently under going an n=1 experiment on myself (as many of you know, I loved Diet Dr. Pepper.  But I had to give it up).  I’ll keep you posted . . .

Look closely at these eight issues.  Correcting them usually solves most plateaus with weight loss and improves blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol control dramatically.

Ketogenic Principles . . . Part II

There are three constants in life: change, choice & principles.   Change, ironically acting as a constant, is the variable that we have limited control over.  Accepting that change is going to happen, that change is constant, and making choices to prepare for those changes is the key to success.  My last post introduced the 10 Principles of the Ketogenic Lifestyle.  This post will discuss choice as a foundation for those principles outlined in the ketogenic lifestyle.  Choices are directly influenced by the balance between the mind, the body and the spirit of man.

LIFESTYLE PRINCIPLE 1 – WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE

People seem to get sidetracked off a ketogenic lifestyle for a number of reasons, but the most common I hear is that they were traveling, had company visit or they were on vacation.  Successfully living a lifestyle requires that you first know who you are and where you are before you can consistently make good, solid, principle based choices. So I ask, who are you?  Are you defined by your job, by your finances, by your travels, by your friends or by your vacations?  Each of these experiences is unique.  Our experiences place both good and bad before us.  I have come to learn over time and countless interactions with people that nothing is coincidental.  Everything, good and bad, happen for a reason.

Today’s society teaches the Pleasure Principle.  This is the human instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain, including avoiding painful recollections.  We often define ourselves by those things that bring us pleasure.  We each go through personal tests, failures and triumphs. Some of us harness all of those experiences for good, others find worsening mental paralysis due to fear of them. We often hide from the painful experiences and attempt to bury or forget them.  Food is often involved with many of the experiences of life, and for a significant number of people, the endorphin release from eating a meal, sometimes just the act of chewing, may be the only pleasure one experience in a day, in a week or a in a year. Many people hide from painful recollections behind the simple pleasure produced by the eating of “comfort foods.”  Food, and our opportunities to experience pleasure from it’s various flavors, textures and physical stimulus, begin to define us.  However, hiding from life’s painful memories with momentary pleasures usually prolongs or makes the problem worse. The ingestion of simple foods containing glucose and fructose, their effect on the liver, and the hedonistic hormonal response is the basis of addiction, and simple carbohydrates provide the perfect fix.

weight watchers diet pillsFascinatingly, when fructose is metabolized in the liver, in the presence of glucose (the basic structure of sugar – one fructose molecule bound to a glucose molecule), the byproduct has a hedonic (pleasure experiencing) effect on the exact same pleasure receptors in the brain that bind to morphine.   Yes, that’s why the M&M’s make you forget your troubles and why the Jolly Rancher is so jolly.  And, its the same reason you crave another do-nut two hours after you ate the entire baker’s dozen.

Although obesity has been recognized as a disease, our use of foods to celebrate with people or events in life is still a form of pleasure seeking. Excuses to deviate from healthy behavior under the guise of family, vacation, or social requirements, acknowledges our willingness to hide from pain with hedonic drugs like chocolate chip cookies and cotton candy.  In fact, it’s usually a welcomed and and expected acceptable excuse.

“Dr. Nally, I can cheat eat and bad, (meals loaded with starch) because I’m on vacation” . . . from my problems.  It’s so acceptable, we’ve based movie themes around it. Vacation from your problems

Healing can only occur when one is willing to confront and talk about the reasons, the real reasons you’d rather experience the endorphins from the do-nuts with your family instead of acknowledge your weakness, stresses, and fears.  Many of us are so afraid of where we might be, we avoid acknowledging where and who we are.  It takes courage not to take the easy path.  And I will be the first to admit, pizza is the easy path and it’s scenic views are decorated with french fry palms and sunset clouds of apple fritters.

“There appears to be a conscience in mankind which severely punishes the man who does not somehow and at some time, at whatever cost to his pride, cease to defend and assert himself, and instead confess himself fallible and human. Until he can do this, an impenetrable wall shuts him out from the living experience of feeling himself a man among men.  Here we find a key to the great significance of true, un-stereotyped confession – a significance known in all the initiation and mystery cults of the ancient world, as is shown by a saying from the Greek mysteries: “Give up what thou hast, and thou will receive.” (Carl Jung)

We have a choice about what to eat and when to eat, however, each choice has a reward and/or a consequence.

Points of Focus: Where are you and what are you hiding from?  Sharing your weaknesses actually empowers you you overcome them. This can often be accomplished through the simple act of journaling, planing your meals the day before and journaling your successes and failures in that plan the following day.  Allowing yourself and others insight into your times of weakness actually brings strength.  It allows one to look at the reasons for food choices base on how you feel, and how you felt after the choice.  If forces one to think about a choice before it ever has to be made.  In my 15 years of medical practice, I have yet to hear a child find fault with a parent who worked tirelessly to make ends meet, admittedly struggled with alcoholism, battled against disease or fought against belittling for a belief. The child has always expressed their admiration of their parent’s courage and understanding of why decisions were made, even when erroneous. It takes courage to admit that wherever you go – there you are.

LIFESTYLE PRINCIPLE 2 – KEEP IT REAL

Keep it realI no longer believe in coincidence.  Whether you have thought about it or not, every interaction you have with others (even our interaction . . . your reading this blog), are not by coincidence. There is a reason.  Whether you believe it or not, everything around us testifies that God exists; the Hand of Providence can be seen from the rotation of the earth, planets and stars, the precision of the seasons, the balance of the atmosphere allowing for the perfect pressures and concentration of elements to sustain a life giving breath, to the perfect replication of DNA within billions of cells throughout the body.  I’m not trying to get religious, and, no, I can’t prove this through the scientific method . . . But, if the Big Bang started the universe, what started the Big Bang?  Where did the first atom or molecule or particle of dust come from?  I have a very difficult time accepting that you and I are here by accident, by a chaotic explosion that created order.  That implies that there must be a plan, and that plan had to have been set in motion by a Creator.  That also implies that that Creator placed solutions to our challenges, including the diseases of civilization, within our grasp and available to those seeking the solutions upon the earth today.

I have seen enough in my medical career to know that simple coincidence has frequently become significantly important, life changing and often life saving. This does not happen by accident and screams loud and clear that there is a plan for you and me.  No good father would lock his child in a room without doors or windows or any escape without everything in the room, both good and bad, pointing to the reason the child was in the room, and pointing the way for the child to become his or her best self, physically and emotionally.  Life has meaning. It is supposed to. If we get off track, coincidence and interactions lead us back.

“Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.” (John 16:32)

The Bible, among other records, records the voices of men and women from years past transcribing their experiences with the Hand of Providence, how that spiritual void was filled, how it helped the with choice and how our lives have deeper meaning and consequence, even amidst significant adversity.

Take a week and look at the synchronicity of your life.  Journal about it.  Don’t dismiss a second invitation from someone to discuss an opportunity or meet someone your friend thinks could be important to you, open that book that someone left behind on the subway seat beside you. Don’t assume it is meaningless, that some kind person returned your sunglasses or your wallet.   Look at the simple interactions and recent relationships.  These are the breadcrumbs and the street signs from a loving Creator, a loving Father.

Keeping it real means nothing less than complete authenticity.  The last place you want to be is in the first-class seat on the plane to no-where.  Have the faith to get off the plane and take the bus, ride your bike, or even swim upstream in the direction you’re supposed to be going. Look for the coincidences, bread crumbs and spiritual street signs in your life.

How does this relate to a ketogenic lifestyle?  Every religion or spiritual tradition speaks of a polestar.  The polestar is that anchor to which the entire solar system is tied by invisible aerial chords and the engine that powers the universe.  Those cords are connected with our own individual polestars.  A ketogenic lifestyle is one that encompasses mind, body and spirit.  It is a lifestyle that demands that you link and align your personal polestar with the truth inside and around you.  It takes both courage and faith, but it brings immeasurable strength and help in achieving your goals.  A person out of balance with life is under stress.  Chronic stress produces excessive cortisol and other powerful adrenal hormones that displace the body’s and the mind’s endocrinologic balance, leading to weight gain, weight retention, and chronic disease.  This often has significant effect externally on the body in processes seen like depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, and allowing for amplification of inflammation and auto-immune dysfunction.  We refer to this inter-relationship in the medical community as psychosomatic and/or viscerosomatic dysfunction, the psyche (the mind) and/or the viscera (internal endocrine organs) directly and adversely influence the function of the soma (the structural body separate from the mind).

“He who does not know himself, does not know anything, but he who knows himself, knows the depth of all things. 

” . . . If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”  (Book of Thomas the Contender)

Point of Focus: Your life is never without meaning. Keep it real by recognizing that diet alone may not compete your answer for physical health.  Having courage and faith allow you to see and embrace the truth that is right in front of you. The  Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12 step program only becomes successful when one realistically and courageously applies their faith to align with the truth they have felt all along.  For any long-term lifestyle change to take place, one must connect and live the principles before one truly knows they are true.  In this way the Ketogenic Lifestyle becomes real.

KetoOS
KetoOS – Drinkable Exogenous Ketones

LIFESTYLE PRINCIPLE 3 – TO cheat, or NOT to cheat, that is the question

cheat mealI have been asked this question by every patient I have placed on a ketogenic diet at least once and often three or four times throughout the course of our treatment plan. I usually answer this question with a question. “Why do you want to cheat?”

The desire to cheat usually arises form one of three reasons:

  1. You’re not eating enough fat to satiate your appetite and you are truly hungry.  The body recognizes that it can use and absorb glucose much faster than fat, as fuel, so it naturally will crave “sweets.”  In this case, the case of true hunger, solution is to increase your fat intake.  You should be eating at least 50% of your total calories in the form of fat.
  2. Insulin loads are still high, stimulating rebound hunger and hedonistic cravings. You’re either eating too many carbohydrates with your diet or you’re using a sweetener that stimulates insulin without raising blood sugar  (See my article The Skinny about Sweeteners).
  3. Cheating with a specific food fulfills a psychological need, feeds an addiction or represents an obligation to fulfill a societal ritual. Journaling helps to identify and break this cycle.

If you are truly in ketosis the cravings to cheat don’t exist, they actually disappear.  Other societal rituals, like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, spiritual ceremonies or rites of passage are often tied to or use food as symbolism.  In these cases, the decision to cheat is really yours.

When a person cheats, it can take as many as 3-5 days to get back into ketosis, and for some 2-3 weeks.  Carbohydrate cravings will rebound and often be present for up to 72 hours after cheating. You have to decide if cheating is worth 3 days of carbohydrate cravings and 3-7 days of stifled weight loss.

Point of Focus: There are no Ketosis Police! Really. They don’t exist!  Dr. Nally will not show up in uniform on your doorstep with a set of handcuffs and a bag of pork rinds. You won’t be arrested for eating bread and those of us who have been following a strict ketogenic lifestyle for years really don don’t mind at all if you decide to cheat.  We will smile and we may even ask you how it tastes or if you liked the flavor, but don’t be self-conscious, because when one is in ketosis for a few months, we really don’t crave cheating any longer, and we won’t judge you. And, don’t feel obligated to justify why your cheating, this is a lifestyle.  You probably won’t ask me why I chose to wear long sleeves on a hot day in Arizona, for the same reason I won’t ask you why you decided to wear a Speedo.

LIFESTYLE PRINCIPLE 4 – Hunger Management

Man-vs-Shark_11Life comes at you pretty fast and if you’re not prepared, hunger can bite you.  Most people fall off the wagon when they are unprepared for missing a meal on a stressful day. I’ve recently heard the argument that “there is no wagon, so don’t worry about falling off.”  This is false security that leaves one unprepared for life events.  Pioneers traveled in wagons for two reasons.   First, the wagon held supplies essential for survival.  Second, wagons usually traveled in wagon trains.  This means that there was more than one person on the wagon and there was more than one wagon on the trail with you. Traveling with a wagon train meant you had others on the same trail with the same tools for safety and support.

In the world of fast foot, fast photos and speedy delivery, we often don’t adequately prepare for hunger or cravings.  There are some essential hunger management tools for the Ketogenic Lifestyle:

  1. Eat meals containing >50% fat.  This, in and of itself, delays hunger and ensures the satiety center of the brain is happy for longer periods of time.
  2. Carry rescue foods with you or keep them at your office or in your fridge at home. These include low-carb nuts like almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts; Keep hard and string cheese handy for a snack.  Use sliced deli-meats with the cheese as a snack when the cravings kick in.  Pork Rinds, beef jerky, olives, are great natural food options.
  3. If you have time and can cook, develop your favorite “Fat Bombs“ and have a bag full in the fridge for those cravings.
  4. Having the moral support of a buddy, spouse, friend or work companion who checks on your progress daily, assists with meals and meal choices is priceless. Periscope, a free Twitter based App, has become a means of checking in with your Ketogenic Support group around the world that connects to those you follow on Twitter.  You can follow me, @docmuscles, and a number of fascinating health Periscopes that focus on ketogenic, low-carb, whole food paleo approaches:  @livinlowcarbman, @_danielleeaton, @kasandrinos, @fatissmartfuel, @domskitchen, @mikemutzel, @keribrewster, @tombilyeu, @glutenfreenj, @paleocomfort.
  5. Being accountable to yourself in a diet journal daily and to your doctor regularly every 1-2 months also helps keep motivation going forward. Jimmy Moore, author and podcaster at the Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show has also posted one of the most extensive lists of physicians specializing in ketogenic diets from around the world.  You can find that list here.

LIFESTYLE PRINCIPLE 5 – Stress Reduction

Pages and pages can be written about stress reduction.  In fact, I’ve written about the chemical responses that stress has on weight gain in my post, Stress. . . The Weight Loss Killer.  But there are a few daily essentials that should be added into the Ketogenic Lifestyle to manage stress.

First, are you getting adequate sleep? Remove the television, computer, cell phone, iPad or other electronic distraction from the bedroom.  Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time each day. Give yourself time each day away from being plugged in, logged in or on-line.

Second, over exercising or being malnourished can cause chronic stress. I have a number of patient that have been convinced that they have to work out 60 minutes a day 6-7 days per week.  It is essential that you realize muscles need a minimum of 48-72 hours to recover from specific types of exercise.  If you run for 60 minutes.  It will take your muscles 48 hours to recover from the running. If you do upper body weight lifting, it will take 48-72 hours for those muscles to recover from that weight lifting.  Exercising the same muscle group with the same exercise over stresses the muscles and leads to significant chronic stress, spiking the cortisol levels and halting weight loss and raising cholesterol & triglycerides.  Under eating or fasting to starvation has the same effect.

Third,  mild intensity (40% of your maximal exertion level) exercise 2-3 days a week was found in a recent study to lower cortisol and decrease over-all stress, raising serotonin and dopamine in the brain; however, moderate intensity (60% of your maximal exertion level) to high intensity (80% of your maximal exertion level) exercise was found to raise it.  A simple 20 minute walk, 2-3 times per week is very effective at stress reduction, reduction in cortisol and improvement in ketosis.

Point of Focus: The goal is cortisol reduction. This can be done through regular and restful sleep and mild exercise. Chronic elevation in cortisol directly stimulates an increase in insulin by increasing the production of glucose in the body, and cortisol blockaids the thyroid axis. Both of these actions halt the ability to loose weight, amplifies the production of inflammatory hormones and drives weight gain. Cortisol also increases appetite.  That’s why many people get significant food cravings when they are under stress (“stress eaters”). Cortisol also indirectly affects the other neuro-hormones of the brain including CRH (corticotrophin releasing hormone), leptin, and neuropeptide Y (NPY). High levels of NPY and CRH and reduced levels of leptin have also been shown to stimulate appetite.

Hopefully, this gives you some starting points and direction to your Ketogenic Lifestyle.  If I’ve missed something that you’ve found to be essential, let me know. Its always great to hear what has helped you in your Ketogenic journey.  Until next time, pass the butter!!!

Burnout

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Does your job limit interaction with people and/or do you spend most of your time with a computer screen?
  • Have you become cynical or critical at work?
  • Do you drag yourself to work and have trouble getting started once you arrive?
  • Have you become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients?
  • Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive?
  • Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?
  • Do you feel disillusioned about your job?
  • Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel?
  • Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?
  • Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, backaches or other physical complaints?

burn outThese are the ten most common signs of “burnout.”  46% of respondents in surveys indicate at least one of the above symptoms of burnout. Two or more of these imply that you are suffering from some degree of “burnout.” The classic triad of burnout is:

  1. Exhaustion
  2. Cynicism
  3. Questioning the quality of your work, or questioning whether you are making a difference in the world any longer

What is burnout? It is defined by “Mr. Webster” as “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress.” But, that definition doesn’t seem to do it justice, and many people experiencing burnout don’t actually “collapse.”  They do, however, become significantly less productive, depressed, and loose the enjoyment of life.  Work begins to feel like slavery, exercise becomes a chore, food begins to have associations with guilt, friendships are seen as obligations and love looses its luster and looks more like a social construct.

Burnout is often likened to discontent, however, these are two very different emotional feelings.  Discontent can be defined as dissatisfaction with ones circumstances. There are two kinds of discontent in this world: the discontent that works and the discontent that wrings its hands.  The first kind often gets what it wants and the second looses what it has.

Burnout differs from discontent, in that continued work toward a goal brings on the triad of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and the feeling of reduced personal accomplishment. Burnout is, in reality, the sum total of hundreds of thousands of tiny betrayals of purpose.

Burnout can occur in any field of work, however, a study published in the 2012 issue of JAMA reveals that over 40% of the ~800,000 U.S. physicians are experiencing burnout and are more prone to burnout than any other worker in the United States.  The journal Academic Medicine recently reported that medical students, when compared to age-matched fellow college graduates, reported significantly higher rates of burnout.

So, how do you overcome burnout?

I’m an Osteopath.  I see disease in the context and inter-relationship of the mind, body & spirit.  Overcoming burnout requires one to restore balance in these three areas.  I am impressed by the work of Charlie Hoehn in his book, Play it away: A workaholic’s cure for anxiety.  Charlie does a wonderful job of describing the broken inter-relationship of the mind, body and spirit in a person experiencing burnout.

The first step to repairing the broken inter-relationship is to recognize and remove those anchors keeping you tethered to the feelings of burnout.  The anchors are the stressors that cause you to worry on a daily and weekly basis.  Journaling these stressors, writing them down in 3-5 word sentences is the start.  Identify which of these stressors is the biggest or causes the most angst, then write out the following question.  “How can I eliminate [stressor] from my life?  Do this with the largest two or three stressors. Then write out a solution that is small and uncomplicated to each stressor.  Put the solution to work immediately. If your solution has not improved your feelings of stress and anxiety within a week, then drop the first and try to find a second stressor, or otherwise switch to a second solution. Journaling these thoughts, questions, feelings and answers allows your mind to change from a self-centered focus to an action based focus.  It clears the mind to move into action. Nothing is more important in reducing burnout, than nourishing the imagination. Using a journal helps stimulate thought and the imagination.

The second technique is scheduling some real play. Write down the five most fun activity involved with play that you did as a child. Then, set aside dedicated time for your favorite activity of play.  It is essential that you actually schedule this play time into your daily activities.  There are a couple of rules associated with play time.

  1. Disconnect from all social media
  2. Harmony of the playtime is more important than winning
  3. Have some serious fun
  4. Shoot for 30 minutes of play time per day
  5. This should ideally be done outside in the fresh air and sunlight

“A lack of play should be treated like malnutrition: it’s a health risk to your body and your mind.”  (Stuart Brown)

“Play is the highest form of research.” (Albert Einstein)

Technique number three is related to sleep.  It is essential that you have a consistent bedtime and give yourself the opportunity to take an afternoon nap.  You can optimize your sleep by turning off electronics before getting into bed, going to bed at the same time each night, decreasing the room temperature to 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit, draw the curtains to make the room dark, and use a relaxing loop of quite background sound like ocean waves, or the sound of a trickling stream to ease your mind (can be found on a number of apps).

It may take up to a week for your body to unwind and get used to this schedule.  Also, schedule a 20 minute afternoon nap.

Meditation and/or prayer is the fourth technique.  Sit or kneel, close your eyes and observe the thoughts that enter your mind for 10-15 minutes. Listen to and keep your breathing calm and deep. Pay attention to the rhythm of your breathing.  Reading can also be a form of meditation and has become an important refreshing part of alleviating burnout.  We can only be as good as the books that we read.  Read, ponder over and talk about good books.

Fifth, eat healthy meals with healthy friends.  Decrease the carbohydrates and increase the good omega 3 fats in your diet.  The insulin response to carbohydrates stimulates the inflammatory and parasympathetic nervous system making you more fatigued and tired. Reduce the bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, carrots and corn intake in your diet.

Increasing the good fat in your diet (like Kerrygold Irish Butter, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, and real animal fats) actually increases your bodies access to essential B vitamins and improves the use of Vitamin D.  Making dietary changes become a habit is often easier when it is done with a friend.  Schedule opportunities to eat healthy meals with family or friends attempting to do the same thing.  You will help support each other and be more likely to succeed.

The last recommendation is spend time in nature.  One weekend a month spend at least two hours out in nature. Take a hike, go on a nature walk, go camping, swim in the river, etc. Give yourself permission to unplug during these times.  Then, pay close attention to how you feel when your in different environments.

In the words of Shakespeare, “Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin/As self-neglecting” (King Henry V, Act 2, scene 4).

I conclude with the rhetorical question, “If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?” (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly)

 

Stress . . . . The Weight Loss Killer

Has your weight loss plateaued? Are you struggling to meet your weight loss goals? Have you struggled to lose weight in spite of doing everything “correctly?” Are you still struggling with those last few pounds?

You’re not alone. Many of my patients, myself included, have found themselves “stuck” in their weight loss progression.  There are a number of reasons you may not be loosing weight, but one that I am seeing more and more frequently is “Pseudo-Cushings’s Syndrome.” Pseudo-Cushing’s Syndrome is a physiologic
hypercortisolism (high level of cortisol) that can be caused by a number of problems:

  1. Physical stress
  2. Severe bacterial or fungal infection
  3. Malnutrition or Intense chronic exercise
  4. Psychological stress – including untreated or under-treated depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, or dysthymia (chronic melancholy)
  5. Alcoholism

The psychiatric literature suggest that up to 80% of people with depressive disorders have increased cortisol secretion (1,2,3).  HPA Stress responsePeople with significant stressors in their life have been show to have a raised cortisol secretion. Chronic stress induces hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis causing an over production of cortisol and normalization of their cortisol levels occurs after resolution of the stressor.  This cortisol response is not high enough to lead to a true Cushing’s Syndrome, but effects ones ability to loose weight.

I suspect this is becoming more prevalent due to the high paced, high-stress, always on, plugged in, 24 hour information overload lives we live.

What is cortisol? It is a steroid hormone made naturally in the body by the adrenal cortex (outer portion of the adrenal gland). Cortisol is normally stimulated by a number of daily activities including fasting, awakening from sleep, exercise, and normal stresses upon the body. Cortisol release is highest in the morning, helping to wake us up, and tapers into the afternoon. Cortisol plays a very important role in helping our bodies to regulate the correct type (carbohydrate, fat, or protein) and amount of fuel to meet the bodies physiologic demands that are placed upon it at a given time (4,5,6).

HPAThyroidUnder a stress response, cortisol turns on gluconeogensis in the liver (the conversion of amino acids into glucose) for fuel. Cortisol, also, shifts the storage of fats into the deeper abdominal tissues and turns on the maturation process of adipocytes (fat cells). In the process, it suppresses the immune system to decrease inflammation during times of stress (7,8,9).  In the short run, this is an important process, however, when cortisol production is chronically turned up, it leads to abnormal deposition of fat, increased risk of infection, impotence, abnormal blood sugars, head
aches, hypertension and ankle edema, to name a few.

The chronic elevation in cortisol directly stimulates an increase in insulin by increasing the production of glucose in the body, and cortisol blockaids the thyroid axis. Both of these actions halt the ability to loose weight, and drive weight gain.
Cortisol also increases appetite (10).  That’s why many people get significant food cravings when they are under stress (“stress eaters”). Cortisol also indirectly affects the other neuro-hormones of the brain including CRH (corticotrophin releasing hormone), leptin, and neuropeptide Y (NPY). High levels of NPY and CRH and reduced levels of leptin have also been shown to stimulate appetite (10-11).

How do you test for Pseudo-Cushing’s Disease?  

Testing can be done by your doctor with a simple morning blood test for cortisol. If your cortisol is found to be elevated, it needs to be repeated with an additional 24 hour urine cortisol measurement to confirm the diagnosis. If Cushing’s Syndrome is suspected, some additional blood testing and diagnostic imaging will be necessary.

How do you treat it?

First, the stressor must be identified and removed.  Are you getting enough sleep?  Is there an underlying infection? Is there untreated anxiety or depression present?  Are you over-exercising? These things must be addressed.

Second, underlying depression or anxiety can be treated with counseling, a variety of weight neutral anti-depressant medications or a combination of both.  Many of my patients find that meditation, prayer, and journaling are tremendous helps to overcoming much of the anxiety and depression they experience.

Third, adequate sleep is essential.  Remove the television, computer, cell phone, iPad or other electronic distraction from the bedroom.  Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time each day. Give yourself time each day away from being plugged in, logged in or on-line.

Fourth, mild intensity (40% of your maximal exertion level) exercise 2-3 days a week was found to lower cortisol; however, moderate intensity (60% of your maximal exertion level) to high intensity (80% of your maximal exertion level) exercise was found to raise it (12).  A simple 20 minute walk, 2-3 times per week is very effective.

So, the take home message . . . It’s not the stress that’s killing us, it’s our reaction to it.

References:

  1. Pfohl B, Sherman B, Schlechte J, Winokur G. Differences in plasma ACTH and cortisol between depressed patients and normal controls. Biol Psychiatry 1985; 20:1055.
  2. Pfohl B, Sherman B, Schlechte J, Stone R. Pituitary-adrenal axis rhythm disturbances in psychiatric depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1985; 42:897.
  3. Gold PW, Loriaux DL, Roy A, et al. Responses to corticotropin-releasing hormone in the hypercortisolism of depression and Cushing’s disease. Pathophysiologic and diagnostic implications. N Engl J Med 1986; 314:1329.
  4. Ely, D.L. Organization of cardiovascular and neurohumoral responses to stress: implications for health and disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (Reprinted from Stress) 771:594-608, 1995.
  5. McEwen, B.S. The brain as a target of endocrine hormones. In Neuroendocrinology. Krieger and Hughs, Eds.: 33-42. Sinauer Association, Inc., Massachusetts, 1980.
  6. Vicennati, V., L. Ceroni, L. Gagliardi, et al. Response of the hypothalamic- pituitary-adrenocortical axis to high-protein/fat and high carbohydrate meals in women with different obesity phenotypes. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 87(8) 3984-3988, 2002.
  7. Wallerius, S., R. Rosmond, T. Ljung, et al. Rise in morning saliva cortisol is associated with abdominal obesity in men: a preliminary report. Journal of Endocrinology Investigation 26: 616-619, 2003.
  8. Epel, E.S., B. McEwen, T. Seeman, et al. Stress and body shape: stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently greater among women with central fat.
    Psychosomatic Medicine 62:623-632, 2000.
  9. Tomlinson, J.W. & P.M. Stewart. The functional consequences of 11_- hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase expression in adipose tissue. Hormone and Metabolism Research 34: 746-751, 2002.
  10. Epel, E., R. Lapidus, B. McEwen, et al. Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior.Psychoneuroendocrinology 26: 37-49, 2001.
  11. Cavagnini, F., M. Croci, P. Putignano, et al. Glucocorticoids and neuroendocrine function. International Journal of Obesity 24: S77-S79, 2000.
  12. Hill EE, Zack E, Battaglini C, Viru M, Vuru A, Hackney AC. Exercise and circulating cortisol levels: the intensity threshold effect. J Endocrinol Invest. 2008. Jul;31(7):587-91.