Why Your Chair Is Killing You, and What You Can Do About It

By Dr. Mercola

Is it possible to be incredibly fit yet still be at high risk of premature death and disability due to inactivity?

Startling as that may sound, mounting research says, yes, as does Dr. James Levine, author of the book Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It.

Dr. Levine is co-director of the Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State University Obesity Initiative, and he’s also the inventor of the treadmill desk. His book is quite an interesting read. It reminds me of the similar paths I went through in my journey to help people understand new paradigms of health.

Like any novel concept, there’s resistance from the existing paradigm to change, accept, and embrace that which is new. And Dr. Levine has certainly suffered the slings and arrows of being on the cutting edge of a new paradigm.

But it’s a phenomenal story, and I for one am now absolutely convinced that sitting is in and of itself a root problem of many of our chronic health problems. As Dr. Levine says: “Because we’ve become so used to being seated... we’ve failed to realize that this is a major health concern.”

Now that I know the serious damage that sitting can do, I am really perplexed at how I missed such an important health principle for the first 60 years of my life. It seems a really foolish mistake and one that I hope you will not repeat.

Slings and Arrows...

In one of his early speeches, he presented compelling data showing that people prone to weight gain and obesity are those who stay seated for two and a quarter hours longer each day than those who go to the gym and happen to be lean.

The insinuation that sitting was independently harmful, and harmful enough to kill, was so unpopular that his peers sent letters to senior faculty at the Mayo Clinic suggesting he was psychiatrically ill, and he was required to be evaluated by a psychiatrist.

Since then, some 10,000 publications have shown that, indeed, sitting is harmful to your health, irrespective of other lifestyle habits, including an excellent exercise program.

“I will tell you... when your world is that of the intellect, of the mind, and of science, when your senior colleagues have you sent to a psychiatrist because they think you’re insane, that really does make you pause,” he says.

“That makes you wonder first of all, is this all worth it? Is this mandate of wanting to bring health to hundreds of thousands or millions of people, is it worth the personal toll?

Is it worth going to the point where you’re so questioned that you wonder whether you can actually exist in the circle of normal world at all? It pushed me back. It pushed me back a lot.

But then at the end of the day... you got to say, ‘What is right for the patient? What is right for the next generation? What is right for the kids of my kids?’ Once I actually woke up to that, the rest is history.”

The simple truth is that sitting is affecting the health of millions of Americans and millions of people in high- and middle-income countries around the world. This unlike other things, is something we can do something about.

And I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Levine when he says that this is something we must act upon. Fortunately, the solution is simple: simply stand up! And avoid sitting down!

“My core cause is the patient who has been battling with obesity, who has been battling with type 2 diabetes, and who doesn’t go to the gym for various reasons: a) they may not be able to afford it; b) they may not actually have access; c) they may have three jobs and do not have the time.

And fourth... many people who have excess weight feel looked upon badly and have bad feelings about themselves when they enter the hallowed territory of the gymnasium. The 75 percent of Americans – more in fact – who do not exercise regularly are my core cause,” Dr. Levine says.

An Exercise Regimen May Not Be Enough to Counteract Ill Effects of Prolonged Sitting

While it appears counterintuitive, it also turns out that regular exercise does not protect you from the hazards of prolonged sitting. For Dr. Levine, this was a rather upsetting discovery, as it was for me when I first learned this a few years ago.

It can be quite disconcerting to realize that even if you dutifully go to the gym several times a week and are really fit, it is still not enough to counteract the many hours you sit during the rest of your day...

“There are a couple of important points,” he says. “First of all, if you go to the gym, that does do you good. In fact, that is a phenomenal dose-response relationship. The more you do, the more benefit you get.

That does not, however, relinquish you from the responsibility of being active throughout the day or of realizing the opportunities to be active throughout the day.

What is interesting is that the molecular mechanisms that come into play when somebody sits for hours on end, if you think about it, are actually not reversed by allowing all of that sedentariness to occur and then having a bout of activity in the evening or even in the morning.

It’s the hours of inactivity that are associated with the molecular mechanisms at the cellular level that are associated with causality for diabetes, hypertension, and even potentially cancer and other deleterious effects.”

Why Sitting Causes So Much Harm, and Why Standing Promotes Physical Health

According to Dr. Levine, there are at least 24 different chronic diseases and conditions associated with excess sitting. How do we reconcile and explain how something so simple can have such a massive expanse of ill health consequence?

According to Dr. Levine, when you have been sitting for a long period of time and then get up, at a molecular level, within 90 seconds of getting off your bottom, the muscular and cellular systems that process blood sugar, triglycerides, and cholesterol—which are mediated by insulin—are activated. 

As soon as you stand up, a series of molecular mechanisms at the cell level set off a cascade of activities that impact the cellular functioning of your muscles. The way your body handles blood sugar is beneficially impacted, for example. Therefore, the disease prevention for diabetes comes into play. All of these molecular effects are activated simply by weight-bearing; by carrying your bodyweight upon your legs. Those cellular mechanisms are also responsible for pushing fuels into your cells.

“It makes perfect sense,” Dr. Levine says. “If you’ve been resting after a hard morning’s work and then you get back on your legs in order to go back into the fields, of course, your whole body system is to be pushing what you’ve just had for lunch into your muscle, into your body so that you can function well in agricultural practice, which, up until 200 years ago, was what the human body ultimately functioned to do.

The nature of the human body was to be active and moving all day. The body was never designed to be crammed into a chair where all of these cellular mechanisms get switched off. Obviously we’re supposed to rest from time to time. But that rest is supposed to break up the activity. It’s not supposed to be the way of life. [T]his very unnatural [sitting] posture is not only bad for your back, your wrists, your arms, and your metabolism, but it actually switches off the fundamental fueling systems that integrate what’s going on in the bloodstream with what goes on in the muscles and in the tissues.

As a consequence of that, blood sugar levels are inappropriately high in people who sit. The blood pressure is inappropriately high, the cholesterol handling is inappropriately high, and those toxins, those growth factors that will potentially lead to cancer, particularly breast cancer, are elevated in those people who sit too much. The solution? Get up!”

Studies looking at life in natural agriculture environments show that people in agrarian villages sit for about three hours a day. The average American office worker can sit for 13 to 15 hours a day. The difference between a “natural” amount of sitting and modern, inappropriate amounts of sitting is huge. So, when trying to determine what the “minimum dose of standing” might be, it’s important to realize that most people are not dealing with a minor tweak... Most people need to figure out how to get out of their chair for several hours each day. But as a general guideline, to give you a starting point, Dr. Levine notes:

“The bottom-line is that if you’ve been sitting for an hour, you’ve been sitting for too long. We should all be up at least 10 minutes out of every hour.”

I’ve previously recommended standing up and doing some exercises at your desk every 10-15 minutes to counteract the ill effects of sitting, but after discussing the issue with Dr. Levine and reading his book, I’m convinced this isn’t even enough. I really think the answer is to stand up as much as possible. Standing for 10 minutes for every hour of sitting is really the bare bones minimum; it’s still far from ideal. It would seem far wiser to strive to sit as little as possible, certainly less than three hours a day.

My New Appreciation of the Damage Sitting Does

I’ve been passionate about exercising for nearly 50 years now and have been very fit for most of my life. But I’m still constantly modifying my exercise program based on new information. Several years ago, Phil Campbell helped me understand the importance of high intensity exercise and its value in increasing growth hormone. Then Dr. McGuff helped me understand that using Super Slow weight training may even be a superior form of high intensity training than high intensity cardio.

Now I have an important new modification: to sit as little as possible. I personally strive to sit less than an hour a day. Earlier this month, I went on a coast to coast 6,000-mile tour, from Virginia, to Maryland, Washington DC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. During that time, I decided to try an experiment—to avoid sitting as much as I could... In my hotel room, I put the mini fridge on the desk to get a modified standing desk. In one room, I merely used the waste paper basket on top of the desk to create a makeshift standing desk.  

I was able to reduce my normal 12 to 14 hours of daily sitting to under one hour. And I noticed one amazing thing: the back pain I’ve struggled with for many years, simply disappeared. It would normally start after I’d walk or stand for more than 30 minutes, but since I reduced my sitting the pain disappeared.  

I had previously tried four different chiropractors, posture exercises, Foundation Training, ab work, inversion tables, standing up every 15 minutes to stretch, and strength training. But nothing would touch it, other than to radically reduce my sitting. During my coast to coast trip, I would have to sit on a plane for five hours and I noticed when I did that, the pain returned for a day. Clearly, my body was speaking to my very strongly that I needed to radically reduce my sitting. I am still surprised I missed this important health principle for so long.

Another recent epiphany I had is that most of us need to walk much more than we do. Thankfully, there are now fitness trackers that allow us to objectively record how much we walk and there will be a literal explosion of the use of these devices in the next few years. The Apple Watch being launched next year is a good example. Most of us need about 10,000 steps a day, which is a bit more than five miles (8-9 km). The key realization I had though is that this walking is in addition to, not in place of, your normal exercise program. It’s even better if you can walk barefoot so you can get grounded, and better yet if you can walk on the beach by the ocean.

So, my new strategy is to walk at least 10,000 steps a day and for the last month I have been able to average about 13,000 steps a day, including travelling. In my case, this meant I had to walk up and down airport terminals, but you do what you have to do. I believe the combination of high intensity training, non-exercise activities like walking 10,000 steps a day, along with avoiding sitting whenever possible is the key to being really fit and enjoying a pain-free and joyful life.

If you don't have a fitness tracker that records your steps, I would encourage you to get one. Another advantage of some of the fitness trackers is that they can record how much you are really sleeping, and can help motivate you to get to bed earlier so you can get eight hours of sleep. I use the Jawbone UP24, which is one of the best ones out now, but far better ones will be available in the near future. For example, the MisFit¹ is a new fitness tracker that tracks your steps and your sleep and starts at only $50.It looks like a watch but does not tell time.

Making It Work in the Work Place...

Not only do studies show that body weight improves when people stand up more during their work hours, productivity also goes up in companies that make such arrangements. As noted by Dr. Levine:

“Hardcore productivity – whether that’s the number of loads processed in one company, the financial services doubling in profit from another company – those numbers improved. The actual profits improved... The solution is simple, because actually the solution is to get people up. But the complexity – hence the book Get Up! – is: How do you actually build a working solution for a US corporation?

In order to do that... we developed 12 layers of deployment. A simple example: if you have a company, for example, much like my job that involves numerous meetings every single day, one of the recommendations for that company would be to have a system in place whereby walk-and-talk meetings become commonplace... If I can convert three of my meetings – and I may have eight in a day – into walk-and-talk meetings, that’s three hours of walking. Fantastic!

Again, unless you have the leadership agree, unless there’s a confidentiality code in that company, unless there is a protocol in place for doing this, unless there is clearance from the rest of the company, even as simple as it sounds in concept, it will not work.

...Whether it is in schools or whether it is in offices, what is critical to appreciate is that setting goals of getting up and getting down, getting up and getting down are simply impractical for 90 percent of American workers. What one has to do is understand the infrastructure and build solutions that enable people to be standing two to three hours extra per day than they are already.”

Automatic Benefits of Standing Desk Offices

As mentioned, Dr. Levine developed a treadmill desk, and there are already a number of standing desks on the market. These are excellent options. I, and many others, initially had doubts about whether a standing desk would do any good. I previously believed that standing still can be just as detrimental as sitting, but now I’m convinced otherwise and believe that standing desks are the way to go. According to Dr. Levine, such fears turn out to be mostly unfounded.

“When somebody gets a standing desk, they generally stand for several hours a day. But they don’t stand still,” Dr. Levine says. “A couple of things happen. The first thing that happens is, they generally move from leg to leg and generally change their body posture quite a lot. That weight-bearing and adjustment of weight-bearing has a whole series of physiological benefits to the musculature, the balance in musculature, the visual cortex, the testicular system, and so on.”

People with standing desks also tend to walk over to talk to their coworkers rather than sending an email or text. Two people working standing up who need to talk to each other also tend to naturally keep walking while talking.

“That is actually the trick of the standing-desk office,” Dr. Levine says. “Standing still isn’t actually terribly good for you, but the good news is you don’t naturally do it anyway. If people are often standing in an office space with many other workers, you inevitably create an atmosphere where people are up and moving. That is in fact the data. There’s a paper that’s just coming out actually exactly to this effect...

The ultimate dream of mine is that the default position in modern offices becomes the up and moving default as opposed to the current default, which is the sit and sedentary default... What I’m looking to do is switch the default. The way you switch the default is by a mass support based on giving people the best options, the best choice, and the best programs.”

Are You Ready to Give Up Your Chair?

The evidence is overwhelming at this point—10,000 studies and growing—that prolonged sitting is devastating to your health. It actively promotes dozens of chronic diseases, including overweight and type 2 diabetes. As a general guideline, if you’ve been sitting for an hour, you’ve sat too long. Dr. Levine recommends sitting no more than 50 minutes out of every hour. But that’s really a bare bones minimum recommendation. Ideally, you’d want to limit sitting altogether.

Again, people living in agricultural communities sit an average of just three hours a day, which would be an admirable goal. While it may sound “impossible,” it is doable—with a bit of ingenuity and mindfulness, I managed to limit my sitting to one hour per day while on my coast to coast tour. In addition to limiting your sitting as much as you possibly can, I also recommend challenging yourself to walk 10,000 steps per day. This is over and above your regular fitness program and standing up during work. Consider one of the new fitness trackers that can monitor your steps and your sleep.

Quite simply, most of us are still too sedentary on an hour-by-hour basis. The answer is simple, but it will require a change in thinking and being; a change in how we live, really. And we all have the power to do something—that’s the great part. So I encourage you to start thinking about how you can get more physical movement into your life, each and every hour of your waking day. To learn more, and for plenty of more tips and strategies, I highly recommend reading Dr. Levine’s book, Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It.

Is Goat Cheese Good for You?

By Dr. Mercola

High-quality cheese made from the raw milk of pastured animals is an excellent source of several important nutrients. Each cheese is unique in its nutritional attributes, however, with some being superior to others.

One to consider, especially if you’re sensitive to lactose from cow’s milk, is goat cheese. Because goat cheese contains less lactose than cheese made from cow’s milk, it is typically well tolerated by those with lactose intolerance.

Even if you have an allergy to milk protein, you may be able to tolerate cheese made from goat’s milk because it’s formed with shorter amino acid protein chains than cow’s milk.¹

Goat’s milk also has a chemical structure that’s similar to that of breast milk,² and it has smaller fat globules than cow’s milk, which tend to make goat cheese easier to digest than cow’s milk cheese (even for people with a sensitive stomach). Nutritionally speaking, goat cheese also has some notable benefits.

Goat Cheese Contains More of Certain Nutrients, and Fewer Calories, Than Cheddar

Compared to an ounce of cheddar cheese (made from cow’s milk), goat cheese has about 40 fewer calories, less than half the sodium, and about three grams less protein (which is a good thing, since most Americans consume more protein than they need).

Meanwhile, goat cheese has more vitamin D, vitamin K, thiamine, and niacin, and an equal amount of vitamin A, as cheddar.³ It’s also a good source of riboflavin (a B vitamin) and phosphorus.

To get the most benefit from goat cheese, you’ll want to stick with the same standards as you would looking for cow’s milk (or any other) cheese. This means the cheese you select should be made from high-quality milk, ideally raw organic milk from grass-pastured animals.

Unlike cows, however, goats are “browsers,” which means they also need access to natural “browse” (or woody plants, such as shrubs) from which to eat leaves.

Raw cheese made from pastured milk has flavors that derive from the pastureland that nourished the animals producing the milk, much like wine is said to draw its unique flavors from individual vineyards.

Grass-fed raw dairy products (technically, sometimes goat cheese is referred to as a non-dairy cheese) not only taste better, they are also nutritionally superior.

Because goat cheese is still a niche market in the US, and far less popular than cow’s milk cheese, it is often made by artisanal cheese makers using traditional methods and quality milk.

However, some goats are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) (on a far smaller scale than cows), and milk and cheese from these animals should be avoided.

In the US, goat cheese is often called chèvre, which means “goat” in French. It’s tangy and, in its semi-soft form, has unlimited uses, such as in place of mayonnaise or butter or added to salads, vegetables, dips, or stuffed meats (such as chicken breast).

Other varieties include the French bûcheron, which becomes firmer and sharper as it ages (although the inside may remain creamy) and brunost, which is a rich, brown type of goat cheese popular in Scandinavia.⁴

High-Quality Cheese vs. Processed Cheese: A Primer

Whether you choose goat cheese or not, it’s important to know the difference between “real” cheese and “fake” cheese. While the former is an excellent source of nutrition, the latter is not worth eating.

Natural cheese is a simple fermented dairy product, made with nothing more than a few basic ingredients — milk, starter culture, salt, and an enzyme called rennet. Salt is a crucial ingredient for flavor, ripening, and preservation.

You can tell a natural cheese by its label, which will state the name of the cheese variety. Real cheese also requires refrigeration. The starter culture and cheese-making methods are what give each variety of cheese its particular taste, texture, shape, and nutritional profile. The following factors differentiate between one variety of cheese and another:

• Specific starter culture, which is the bacteria or mold strains that ripen the cheese
• Type of milk used (cow, sheep, goat, etc.), and the conditions under which those animals were raised
• Methods of curdling, cutting, cooking, and forming the curd
• Ripening conditions such as temperature, humidity, and aging time (curing)

Processed cheese or “cheese food” is a different story. These products are typically pasteurized and otherwise adulterated with a variety of additives that detract from their nutritional value. The label will always include the words “pasteurized process,” which should be your clue to walk on by. Velveeta is one example, with additives like sodium phosphate, sodium citronate, and various coloring agents.

Another clue is that most don’t require refrigeration. So, be it Velveeta, Cheese Whiz, squeeze cheese, spray cheese, or some other imposter — these are NOT real cheeses and should be banished from your shopping cart.

Mini Bell Peppers Stuffed with Goat Cheese

If you want to give goat cheese a try, it’s delicious on its own, but for a treat try these mini bell peppers stuffed with goat cheese, a recipe from the New York Times.⁵ The nutritional value of this recipe is boosted by the bell peppers, which are rich in vitamin C (one cup of red bell pepper will give you more than 150 percent of the daily recommended value⁶).

For even more nutritional punch, try the variation at the end that calls for adding fresh garlic and herbs like chives, parsley, and tarragon. You could use this recipe as an appetizer, side dish, or snack… but it could even be a meal in itself. And the preparation is so simple, it’ll likely be one you’ll come back to again and again.

Mini Bell Peppers Stuffed with Goat Cheese Ingredients 3/4 pound mini sweet peppers (1 package, usually 12) or small lipstick peppers 6 ounces [preferably raw, organic] goat cheese (1/2 of a 12-ounce log) 1/3 cup cottage cheese [preferably raw, organic] 3 Tbsp. plain Greek yogurt [preferably raw, organic] Method Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a sheet pan with foil. Place peppers on the baking sheet and roast 8 to 10 minutes (small peppers – less than 2 inches long – will cook faster), turning them over halfway through. The peppers should be soft but not charred, except perhaps in a few spots. Remove from heat and allow to cool. If there are some larger peppers in the bag and they haven’t softened in 10 minutes, return to oven for another 5. While peppers are cooling, make filling. Combine goat cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until mix is very smooth, at least one minute. Scrape down sides of bowl and process for another minute. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a 3/8-inch star tip. When peppers have cooled, slice off ends just below the shoulders. Carefully remove any seeds and membranes. The peppers should be intact, but sometimes, they split down one side. Place any that have not split upright in a small glass or cup to facilitate filling, and pipe in goat cheese mix. Lay those that have split on a plate, pipe on the filling and close the pepper around the filling. Arrange stuffed peppers on a plate or platter. Serve at once, or chill until 30 minutes before serving. Bring to room temperature so cheese is soft and creamy. Yield: Serves 6 Variation: You can also fill the peppers with herbed goat cheese. To the goat cheese, add 1 puréed garlic clove and 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh herbs, such as chives, parsley, and tarragon. Stir in rather than blend in the food processor (so you don’t purée the herbs).

3 Reasons You Should Eat More Spicy Food

By Dr. Mercola

I love spicy foods and typically enjoy 1-2 habanero peppers a day. If you like spicy food, there’s good reason to indulge your cravings, as the spicy chemical in peppers – capsaicin – and other compounds in spicy food can improve your health.

Chili peppers, one of the main sources of capsaicin, are regarded as a staple in Central America, Asia, and India, but even in the US there are many devotees to spicy food whose mantra is “the spicier the better.”

One recent food industry report found that more than half of Americans (54 percent) find hot or spicy foods appealing, up from 46 percent in 2009. Those between the ages of 18 and 34 are most likely to order spicy foods from a restaurant menu.¹

Interestingly, the heat and pain you experience when you eat chili pepper seeds is designed to make you not want to eat them (hence protecting the plants’ ability to spread seeds and survive).

And it’s believed that humans are, in fact, the only animal that chooses to willingly eat them. Perhaps, on some level, our bodies have learned to tolerate and even crave chili peppers’ heat because of their many proven benefits to our health.

3 Health Benefits of Spicy Foods

TIME magazine recently featured three of the many reasons why you might want to add some spice to your diet.²

1. Reduce Your Risk of Tumors

Capsaicin has been shown to activate cell receptors in your intestinal lining, creating a reaction that lowers the risk of tumors. Mice genetically prone to develop tumors had reduced tumors and extended lifespans when fed capsaicin, and the researchers believe the compound may turn off an over-reactive receptor that could trigger tumor growth.

Capsaicin has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and has even shown some promise for cancer treatment. Research has shown, for instance, that capsaicin suppresses the growth of human prostate cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.³

In one study, about 80 percent of the prostate cancer cells in mice were killed by capsaicin, while treated tumors shrank to about one-fifth the size of untreated tumors.⁴

Capsaicin has also been shown to be effective against breast, pancreatic, and bladder cancer cells, although you might need to eat unrealistically large amounts of capsaicin to get such benefits (such as eight habanero peppers a week).⁵

2. Improve Your Sex Life

In this case, it’s not the spice from chili peppers but that from ginseng and saffron that showed benefit. In a review of purported aphrodisiacs, both ginseng and saffron were found to boost sexual performance.⁶

3. Help with Weight Loss

Spicy foods increase satiety, helping you to feel full while eating less, and hot peppers may even help your body to burn more calories. Capsaicin has actually been used to selectively destroy nerve fibers that transmit information from your gut to your brain.

This procedure was said to have a "remarkable" impact on weight,⁷ but destroying these nerve fibers could have serious long-term implications on your health. Fortunately, capsaicin may be effective for weight loss when added to your diet, as opposed to via surgery.

Studies have shown the substance may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering blood fat levels, as well as fight fat buildup by triggering beneficial protein changes in your body.⁸

Part of the benefit may be due to capsaicin's heat potential, as it is a thermogenic substance that may temporarily increase thermogenesis in your body, where your body burns fuel such as fat to create heat, with beneficial impacts on your metabolism and fat-burning potential.

Research suggests that consuming thermogenic ingredients may boost your metabolism by up to 5 percent, and increase fat burning by up to 16 percent.⁹ It may even help counteract the decrease in metabolic rate that often occurs during weight loss.

Capsaicin’s Remarkable Role in Pain Relief

While eating spicy foods may cause you some temporary pain, applying capsaicin topically is known to alleviate it. Capsaicin helps alleviate pain in part by depleting your body's supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain. It also works by de-sensitizing sensory receptors in your skin.¹⁰

This is why it’s used in topical pain-relieving creams and patches (some of which contain the equivalent of 10 million SHU). It’s actually the very intense burning sensation that, ironically, ultimately relieves pain. Gizmodo explained:¹¹

“Applied externally, chilies cause a sensation of burning, as capsaicin activates TRPV1 in nerves in the skin. But, if exposed to capsaicin for long enough, these pain nerve cells will become 'exhausted,' having depleted their internal chemical stores.

The nerve cells are no longer able to respond to capsaicin (or indeed, anything that might cause pain) and so you are no longer able to perceive pain. This is why chronic exposure to capsaicin acts as an analgesic.”

Most often, capsaicin has been studied for relieving postherpetic neuralgia, or pain associated with shingles, and HIV-associated neuropathy, although it’s shown promise for treating other types of pain as well.

In one study, a man with persistent pain due to wounds from a bomb explosion experienced an 80 percent reduction in pain symptoms after using a capsaicin (8 percent, known as high concentration) patch.¹²

Topical treatment with 0.025 percent (low concentration) capsaicin cream has also been found to relieve pain associated with osteoarthritis, with 80 percent of patients experiencing a reduction in pain after two weeks of four-times-daily treatment.¹³

It’s also been shown to help reduce or eliminate burning, stinging, itching, and redness of skin associated with moderate to severe psoriasis.¹⁴ There’s even a nasal spray containing capsaicin that significantly reduced nasal allergy symptoms in a 2009 study.¹⁵

Virtually Every Spice Can Be Good for You

While capsaicin in chili peppers has received a lot of attention, it’s not the only type of spicy food that’s beneficial. Here are some additional examples of spices you can add to your meals to give them a bit of a “kick” while also significantly increasing their health potential.

Ginseng

Ginseng is valued for its ability to boost energy levels and speed metabolism. Panax ginseng, in particular, has been linked to weight loss benefits, with one study showing obese, diabetic mice given panax ginseng extracts not only had improvements in insulin sensitivity, but also lost a significant amount of weight after 12 days.¹⁶

Cinnamon

This spice may help to boost your metabolism, and it also has impressive benefits for blood sugar regulation, making it an ideal seasoning for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Cinnamon has been found to significantly reduce blood sugar levels, triglycerides, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and total cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes, as well as increase glucose metabolism by about 20 times, which would significantly improve your ability to regulate blood sugar.¹⁷

Black Pepper

Black pepper contains a substance called piperine, which not only gives it its pungent flavor, but also blocks the formation of new fat cells.¹⁸ When combined with capsaicin and other substances, black pepper was also found to burn as many calories as taking a 20-minute walk.¹⁹ As an aside, black pepper also increases the bioavailability of just about all other foods – herbs and other compounds – making it a healthy choice for virtually any meal.

Mustard

The mustard plant is actually in the cruciferous family of vegetables (along with broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, for instance). Mustard seeds have been shown to boost metabolic rate by 25 percent, which means you'll burn calories more efficiently. In fact, just 3/5 teaspoon of mustard seeds daily may help you burn an extra 45 calories an hour.²⁰

Ginger

Ginger is another warming spice that has anti-inflammatory properties and is known to help soothe and relax your intestinal tract. Research also suggests that ginger may have thermogenic properties that help boost your metabolism, as well as have an appetite-suppressant effect when consumed, suggesting a "potential role of ginger in weight management."²¹

Cardamom

Cardamom, an aromatic spice with a spicy-sweet flavor, is another thermogenic herb that helps boost your metabolism and may boost your body's ability to burn fat. Cardamom is a popular herb used in Ayurveda, an ancient holistic system of medicine and natural healing from India.

When NOT to Eat Spicy Foods

If spicy foods agree with you and you enjoy them, they’re excellent to include in your diet, but you might want to limit them in the evening. Spicy foods before bedtime can give you indigestion that makes it nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep. Even if you can eat spicy foods without discomfort, they are still linked with more time spent awake during the night and taking longer to fall asleep.²² It’s speculated that this may be due to capsaicin affecting sleep via changes in your body temperature.

Spicy Food Actually Tricks You Into Feeling Heat

When you eat a spicy food, it’s not actually hot… it’s just a heat sensation that you’re feeling (not that this makes it any less real to you!). Your nervous system contains heat-receptor proteins known as TRPV1 receptors. Located in cells in your skin and digestive system, these receptors remain inactive unless you’re exposed to temperatures above 107.6°F (42°C), at which point you’ll experience heat and pain. When you eat a chili pepper, capsaicin binds to and activates TRPV1, so even though you’re not actually in danger, your body thinks it’s being exposed to extreme heat.²³ As explained by the New York Times:²⁴

“…in mammals it [capsaicin] stimulates the very same pain receptors that respond to actual heat. Chili pungency is not technically a taste; it is the sensation of burning, mediated by the same mechanism that would let you know that someone had set your tongue on fire.”

The intensity of heat in peppers is measured by the Scoville scale, which was developed by pharmacist Wilbur Lincoln Scoville in 1912. While a bell (sweet) pepper has a score of zero, pure capsaicin can surpass 15 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU)! For comparison, jalapeno peppers range from 2,500 to 8,000 SHU while Scotch Bonnet peppers can be upwards of 350,000. Ghost chilis, which are even hotter, have a potency of about 900,000 SHU. Personally, I’m a fan of spicy foods… but having grown three ghost pepper plants this past summer, I can confirm that they are indeed very hot.

Fantastical World of Hormones

By Dr. Mercola

The Fantastical World of Hormones is a compelling new film exploring the history and discovery of hormones, including enormous advances in this area of medical science that have occurred over the past 10 years.

Recent discoveries about how the endocrine system works have transformed our understanding of the critical roles hormones play in health and disease.

Hormones are essential to just about every life process, from your growth and development to your metabolism and passions. Every multi-celled organism, plant or animal, uses hormones—from earthworms to killer whales.

The word "hormone" derives from the Greek word "hormon," which means "to excite" or "set in motion." They have shaped your life ever since you were an embryo—but as important as they are, hormones have remained somewhat of a medical mystery.

Hormones are not obvious compared to the beating of your heart or the peristalsis of your digestive tract, and other such biological processes that are more easily observed and quantified.

Understanding hormones requires that scientists also be medical detectives, and these "hormone detectives" have been responsible for the abundant twists and turns we've seen in the field of endocrinology, as recounted in the film.

This article will serve as a primer for understanding what hormones are, where they come from, and what they do in your body. Then we'll discuss what you can do to optimize your hormone function.

Packing Lots of Punch Into Small Packages

There are more than 80 identified human hormones, all with distinctly different roles. Each hormone is aimed at a specific target cell and has no effect on any other cells as it washes past them.

When a hormone acts on its specific target cell, it can change the way it behaves to make it perform a specific task. For example, the hormone adrenalin causes your heart to beat faster, and the hormone gastrin makes your stomach secrete gastric acid when eating certain foods.

Hormones exert their influence in very small concentrations—every molecule packs quite a punch! This is why endocrine-disrupting chemicals like BPA and phthalates are so dangerous even in tiny amounts.

They exert many different actions on many different time scales. For example, adrenalin acts on your heart for a few minutes, but estrogen secreted daily can have effects that last for years.

Some hormones are designed to stimulate the release of other hormones. Some exert effects throughout your body, whereas others act only on small, localized areas of tissue. Some hormones have very dramatic effects, whereas the effects of others are more subtle.

Hormone Types—Just the Basics

Hormones can be classified into four categories, based on how they work: Steroids, peptides, amino acid derivatives (amines), and eicosanoids.¹ Steroid hormones include your sex hormones and adrenal hormones.

Peptides represent a wide variety of chemical messengers, including human growth hormone (HGH), insulin, and melatonin. Adrenalin is an amine, and prostaglandins (involved in inflammation) are eicosanoids. Hormones are kept in balance (homeostasis) through a complex feedback system, and their release is triggered by three principal mechanisms:²

1. Specific molecules in your blood (e.g., certain minerals or nutrients that serve as feedback mechanisms)
2. Stimulation by other hormones (this typically leads to a rhythmic release of hormones, rising and falling in a predictable pattern)
3. Stimulation by signals from your nervous system (this typically leads to a short burst of a hormone, such as adrenalin)

Hormones can be endocrine and exocrine, depending on how they're released:

• Endocrine: Hormones released directly into your bloodstream from a ductless gland (pituitary, adrenal, thyroid, ovary, testicle, pancreas, etc.)³
• Exocrine: Hormones released into a duct or lumen, such as from your salivary glands or the gastric glands in your stomach⁴

Some organs have both endocrine and exocrine functions, such as your kidneys, pancreas, and gonads. When you see the phrase "endocrine system," this generally refers to your system of eight hormone-secreting glands, but not to the other hormone-secreting tissues and organs, such as the placenta, which secretes estrogens and progesterone during pregnancy.⁵

More and more of your tissues are being discovered to secrete hormones—in fact, it's likely that most of your body tissues produce hormones. For example, we now know that your stomach produces the "hunger hormone" ghrelin to help regulate appetite. Even your fat cells secrete hormones—including leptin, which plays an important role in fat storage.

The Discovery of 'Fat Hormones' Turned Endocrinology on Its Head

The field of endocrinology was really turned on its head in 1994 when molecular geneticist Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University discovered that the "satiety hormone" leptin is produced by fat cells. Prior to this, your body fat was never considered to be an endocrine organ, and obesity was not generally considered an endocrine problem. All of that changed with the discovery that your fat cells are more or less "controlling" your brain—insofar as telling you when to stop eating, via the hormone leptin. According to Rockefeller University:⁶

"Leptin is secreted by fat cells into the bloodstream and acts on the brain to regulate food intake and energy expenditure. When fat mass falls, plasma leptin levels fall, stimulating appetite and suppressing energy expenditure until fat mass is restored. When fat mass increases, leptin levels increase, suppressing appetite until weight is lost. This system maintains homeostatic control of adipose tissue mass."

The problem is that this feedback loop between your fat cells and brain can malfunction, causing leptin receptors to lose their sensitivity. The more fat cells you have, the higher your leptin levels may be and the more "leptin resistant" you may become—this is akin to developing insulin resistance from chronically elevated insulin levels. Both insulin and leptin resistance are associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes and are a foundational problem underlying almost all chronic degenerative disease.  

Drug treatments are unlikely to solve leptin resistance, just as they are ineffective and even counterproductive for insulin resistance. The ideal way to correct leptin resistance is through diet. A whole food diet that emphasizes good fats and avoids blood sugar spikes will improve both insulin and leptin sensitivity. A major category of hormones—your steroid hormones—are derived from cholesterol, showing you just how critical healthy fats are to your endocrine function, and therefore to your overall health and well-being.

When Hormones Run Amuck

A number of factors can affect your hormone function, such as aging, lifestyle, and environmental factors. These changes can alter your hormone production, hormone metabolism, and how well your target cells respond to hormone messengers. Age-related changes have been observed in nearly every gland. Other factors known to adversely affect endocrine function include the following:

• Genetics: congenital birth defects and mutations (missing or damaged chromosomes)
• Diseases, infections, autoimmune disorders, allergic reactions, and other health conditions
• Stress of all kinds, including emotional trauma and severe illness or injury
• Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, drugs, and other medical procedures
• Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)

Hormone disruptions can affect you in a multitude of ways, such as decreased fertility, impaired immune response, and neurological changes that reduce your capacity for handling stress. Diet and lifestyle choices are important to keep hormones in check, but avoiding endocrine disrupting chemicals is also extremely important, for the following reason:⁷

"Some EDCs mimic natural hormone binding at the target cell receptor. (Binding occurs when a hormone attaches to a cell receptor, a part of the cell designed to respond to that particular hormone.) EDCs can start the same processes that the natural hormone would start. Other EDCs block normal hormone binding and thereby prevent the effects of the natural hormones. Still other EDCs can directly interfere with the production, storage, release, transport, or elimination of natural hormones in the body. This can greatly affect the function of certain body systems."

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (similar in structure to estrogen and found largely in plastic products), combined with toxic foods, lack of exercise, and low vitamin D levels, are contributing to precocious puberty and cancer. You can read about the 12 Worst Endocrine Disruptors here. Before moving on to tips for balancing your hormones naturally, let's take a look at the functions of some of your major hormones and what tissues produce them.

Handy Hormone Reference Guide

Obviously, a detailed discussion of every hormone is beyond the scope of this article. But here is a table that outlines many of the most recognizable hormones, with links to where you can go for more information.

Hormone	Where It's Produced	Primary Functions
I. STEROID HORMONES: Derived from cholesterol, includes sex hormones and adrenal hormones (mineralocorticoids and glucocorticoids)
Estrogens	Ovaries, placenta, breasts, liver, adrenal glands, fat cells, hypothalamus,8 and others	Female sexual development, breast development, menstruation, pregnancy, memory, and anti-aging
Progesterone	Ovaries, placenta, and CNS	Female sexual development, breast development, menstruation, and pregnancy
Testosterone	Testes and ovaries	Male sexual development, sex drive, sperm production, and muscle and bone mass
DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone)	Adrenals and brain9	Lean body mass, bone strength, immunity, heart health, and resistance to stress
Pregnenolone	Adrenals	Memory and resistance to stress
Cortisol	Adrenals	Resistance to stress, energy production, anti-inflammatory, and mood stability
Vitamin D (1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D or calcitrol)	Skin, liver, and kidneys	Varied, including bone and muscle health, heart health, immunity, metabolism, brain development, cell communication, and more
II. PEPTIDE HORMONES: Often in "pre-hormone" form, requiring further processing to be active
HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)	Placenta	Helps support the endometrial lining for a developing fetus (and stimulates progesterone)
HGH (Human growth hormone, or somatotropin/somatropin)	Pituitary	Promotes growth in children and adolescents, and helps regulate body composition, tissue growth, and metabolism in adults
Melatonin	Pineal gland	Sleep; supports brain health, heart health, immune system, and cancer prevention
Insulin	Pancreas	Signals glucose to be transferred from your blood into your cells for energy usage; fat body regulation
Glucagon	Pancreas	Signals liver to release glucose into your blood
Prolactin	Pituitary, breasts, uterus, prostate, skin, fat, and immune cells	Promotes lactation, bonding, and more than 300 reproductive, metabolic, immune, and other functions10
Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)	Pituitary	Stimulates cortisol release
Leptin	Fat cells	Fat regulation
Ghrelin	Stomach and pancreas	Stimulates hunger
Parathyroid hormone (PTH)	Parathyroid gland	Controls amount of calcium in your bones and blood
Thyrotrophin-releasing hormone (TRH)	Hypothalamus	Stimulates the thyroid gland to release TH
Humoral factors (e.g., thymosin)	Thymus	Development of a healthy immune system
III. AMINO ACID DERIVATIVE HORMONES (AMINES): Derived from tyrosine and tryptophan, includes thyroid hormones and catecholamines
Adrenalin	Adrenals	"Fight or flight" response: increases heart rate, dilates blood vessels, and releases glucose
Thyroid hormone (TH)	Thyroid gland	Organ development and metabolism
IV. Eicosanoid hormones: Produced from fatty acids (arachidonic acid); very short-lived in your body and exert effects primarily on local tissues
Prostaglandins	Nearly every cell in the human body	Varied, including uterine contractions, bronchodilation, inflammation, etc.

Hormone Imbalance Causes Much More Than Hot Flashes

As you have seen, hormones have far-reaching effects in your body, and hormone deficiencies can wreak total havoc on your health. When you think about unbalanced hormones, "hot flashes" are but one of many possible effects. For example, research published in 2013¹¹ suggests that what is typically thought of as "age-related cognitive decline" may actually be caused by estrogen deficiency. The health of your brain's synapses is closely linked to cognitive decline, and estrogen actually restores synaptic health, thereby improving memory. Maintaining hormone balance as you age does not mean you must use hormone replacement—there are a number of effective lifestyle strategies you can implement first.

Addressing your food choices should be your first step. If tweaking your diet is not enough, then the next best option is bioidentical hormone therapy. You can read more about how to proceed with this in a safe and effective manner by watching my interviews with Dr. Jonathan Wright and Dr. Theirry Hertoghe. Dr. Hertoghe specializes in the link between diet and hormones. Natural bioidentical hormones can offer relief from menopausal symptoms and are much safer than the synthetic versions, but I still don't recommend them as your first line option due to potential side effects.

The Link Between Diet and Hormone Health

Download Interview Transcript

Avoiding processed foods is one of the best strategies for preserving your natural hormone function. Refined carbohydrates and damaged fats can elevate your estrogen levels—as much as twice of what is normal. This is a major cause of menopausal symptoms in the first place. Processed foods may also reduce other critical hormone levels and are loaded with health-degrading ingredients such as sugar (especially fructose), GE ingredients, trans fats, processed salt, and other chemical additives.

On the other hand, consuming a diet rich in whole organic foods, with high-quality proteins and fats, can go a long way toward keeping your hormones balanced as you age—especially when combined with an effective fitness program. As a general rule, fat-soluble vitamins have a beneficial effect on sex hormones. Consuming foods rich in vitamin A will benefit progesterone production. Here's a quick list of Dr. Hertoghe's dietary recommendations for maintaining healthy hormone levels:

Eat a Paleolithic diet, rich in fresh organic vegetables and fermented foods	Avoid sugar and fructose, including fresh fruit juice, as the rapid sugar spike effectively blocks hormone secretion; choose low-fructose fruits
Dark green leafy vegetables are rich in magnesium, which facilitates sex hormone production	Avoid regular alcohol consumption, as this decreases your growth hormone production
Avoid unsprouted grains. If consuming grains (which are best avoided altogether), make sure they're sprouted	Eat high-quality protein such as fish, grass-fed red meat, and pastured chicken, but cook them at a lower temperature

Additional Considerations Before Taking Hormones for Menopause

If you continue to have unpleasant menopausal symptoms after implementing the dietary changes outlined above, you might try a few of these other strategies before resorting to bioidentical hormone treatment:

• Phytoestrogens: Consuming plenty of phytoestrogens (plant-estrogens) such as licorice and alfalfa prior to menopause can help moderate your day-to-day estrogen levels so that when menopause arrives, the drop won't be so dramatic. However, avoid using unfermented soy, as it can wreak havoc on your health in a number of different ways.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels: This is a must for gene regulation and optimal health.
• Polyphenols: Certain polyphenols have been shown to have HRT-like benefits without the drawbacks, and are associated with a lowered risk of heart disease. Royal Maca is an excellent adaptogenic herbal solution for menopause that may women have found helpful. Avoid the inexpensive varieties as they typically don't work—instead, opt for the authentic version from Peru.
• Animal-based omega-3 fat: You'll also want to get plenty high-quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil.
• Black cohosh: While dismissed by ACOG as having no scientific foundation, Black cohosh may indeed help regulate body temperature and hot flashes in some women.

As you can see, hormones are a complicated subject—but worth the effort due to the powerful roles they play in your health. I strongly recommend taking the time to watch this documentary, as it will broaden your understanding and help you take control of your health!

Long-Term Use of Pills for Anxiety and Sleep Linked to Dementia

By Dr. Mercola

Up to 43 percent of older adults use benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Ativan, etc.) for anxiety and insomnia, often chronically, even though their long-term effectiveness and safety remain unproven.¹

International guidelines recommend short-term use of benzodiazepines, because they cause withdrawal symptoms that make discontinuation problematic. Despite this, many seniors take them for years instead of a few weeks, as is recommended.

But research has found another reason to avoid their long-term use, as new data suggests they're associated with the leading cause of dependency in older people… dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

Use of Benzodiazepines for Three Months or More Linked to Alzheimer's

Older adults who used benzodiazepines for three months or more had a 51 percent greater risk of Alzheimer's disease than those who did not.² The risks increased the longer the drugs were used, as well as with long-acting formulations.

It's been suggested that the drugs might be linked to dementia because anxiety or sleeping issues may be early indicators of Alzheimer's. However, this study accounted for earlier diagnosis of those conditions, and an independent link between long-term benzodiazepine use and Alzheimer's still emerged. The researchers concluded:

"Benzodiazepine use is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. The stronger association observed for long term exposures reinforces the suspicion of a possible direct association, even if benzodiazepine use might also be an early marker of a condition associated with an increased risk of dementia. Unwarranted long term use of these drugs should be considered as a public health concern."

The findings echo at least four previous studies:

• A 2012 study found that among adults over 65, those who used benzodiazepines were 50 percent more likely to develop dementia over a 15-year period.³ This was true even when taking into account other factors that might increase dementia risk, such as age, gender, and diabetes.
• A 2009 study that found long-term use of benzodiazepines was significantly associated with an increased risk of dementia, leading researchers to recommend "long-term use of BZDs should be avoided among the elderly, who may be at a higher risk for developing dementia, in addition to other health problems."⁴
• A 2005 literature review, which found three of six papers reviewed found an increased risk of cognitive decline in benzodiazepine users.⁵
• A 2002 study that also found former use of benzodiazepines was associated with a significantly increased risk of dementia.⁶

Sleeping Pills Also Raise Your Risk of Premature Death and Cancer

Benzodiazepines have long been linked to an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents, which isn't surprising since common side effects include dizziness, unsteady gait and falling. They're also known to cause hip fractures, impairment of thinking and memory loss. However, one of the most disturbing "side effects" is an early death…

Research involving data from more than 10,500 people who received drugs for poor sleep (including benzodiazepines) showed that "as predicted, patients prescribed any hypnotic had substantially elevated hazards of dying compared to those prescribed no hypnotics,"⁷ and the association held true even when patients with poor health were taken into account -- and even if the patients took fewer than 18 pills in a year.

The study suggested that those who take such medications are not only at higher risk for certain cancers, but are nearly four times more likely to die than people who don't take them. In The Dark Side of Sleeping Pills, an e-book by one of the study's researchers, Daniel Kripke, MD, it's explained:⁸

"We have now published a new study of over 10,000 patients who took sleeping pills and over 20,000 matched patients who did not take sleeping pills. The patients who took sleeping pills died 4.6 times as often during follow-ups averaging 2.5 years.

Patients who took higher doses (averaging over 132 pills per year) died 5.3 times as often. Even those patients who took fewer than 18 pills per year had very significantly elevated mortality, 3.6 times that of patients who took no hypnotics.

It seems quite likely that the sleeping pills were causing early death for many of the patients. In addition, those who averaged over 132 sleeping pills per year were 35% more likely to develop a new cancer…

Theoretically, there could be confounding factors or biases in the selection of patients which caused these deaths without involving sleeping pills. We can only say that we found almost no evidence of such biases. …If sleeping pills cause even a small portion of the excess deaths and cancers associated with their use, they are too dangerous to use."

Addiction Is a Very Real Problem with Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines exert a calming effect by boosting the action of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the same way that opioids (heroin) and cannabinoids (cannabis) do. This in turn activates the gratification hormone, dopamine, in your brain.

Since the identical brain "reward pathways" are used by both types of drugs, they can be equally addictive and also may cause side effects like memory loss, hip fractures, impaired thinking, and dizziness. 

Ironically, the symptoms of withdrawal from many of these anxiety medications include extreme states of anxiety – some of which are far worse than the original symptoms that justified treatment in the first place. Symptoms that may occur with benzodiazepine withdrawal include:⁹

Perceptual distortions and sense of movement	Depersonalization and derealization	Hallucinations (visual and auditory)
Distortion of body image	Tingling, numbness, and altered sensation	Formication (skin crawling)
Sensory hypersensitivity (light, sound, taste, and smell)	Muscle twitches and jerks	Tinnitus
Psychotic symptoms	Confusion and delirium	Convulsions

Further, older adults, who make up a large proportion of the dependent population, have a much more difficult time eliminating benzodiazepines and similar drugs from their bloodstreams, especially while on multiple medications, which overburden their detoxification systems. Over time, these drugs can accumulate in your body, which will increase your risk of an accidental overdose. As reported in Current Opinions in Psychiatry:¹⁰

"Despite repeated recommendations to limit benzodiazepines to short-term use (2–4 weeks), doctors worldwide are still prescribing them for months or years. This over prescribing has resulted in large populations of long-term users who have become dependent on benzodiazepines and has also led to leakage of benzodiazepines into the illicit drug market…

Recent literature shows that benzodiazepines have all the characteristics of drugs of dependence and that they are inappropriately prescribed for many patients…"

There are Many Natural Effective Treatments for Anxiety

Anxiety disorders can be debilitating and in some cases require professional guidance, counseling, and treatment (including psychotherapy and behavioral therapy). But please don't underestimate your own ability to make positive, oftentimes life-changing, decisions to help you take back control of your health. If you often feel anxious or have panic attacks, I strongly recommend:

Exercise

In addition to the creation of new neurons, including those that release the calming neurotransmitter GABA, exercise boosts levels of potent brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, which may help buffer some of the effects of stress. Many avid exercisers also feel a sense of euphoria after a workout, sometimes known as the "runner's high." It can be quite addictive, in a good way, once you experience just how good it feels to get your heart rate up and your body moving.

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

EFT can be very effective by helping you to actually reprogram your body's reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life. This includes both real and imagined stressors, which can be significant sources of anxiety. In the following video, EFT therapist Julie Schiffman discusses EFT for stress and anxiety relief. Please keep in mind that while anyone can learn to do EFT at home, self-treatment for serious issues like persistent anxiety is dangerous and NOT recommended, and you should consult with an EFT professional to get the relief you need.

Optimizing Your Gut Flora

Your gut and brain actually work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa; as well as the reason why your diet is so closely linked to your mental health. Prior research has shown that the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus had a marked effect on GABA levels in certain brain regions and lowered the stress-induced hormone corticosterone, resulting in reduced anxiety- and depression-related behavior.¹¹

So optimizing your gut flora with beneficial bacteria is a highly useful strategy. This is done by eliminating sugars and processed foods and eating plenty of non-starchy vegetables, avoiding processed vegetable oils, and using healthy fats. Additionally, eating plenty of fermented vegetables or taking a high-potency probiotic supplement would be useful to reestablish a healthy gut flora.

Omega-3 Fats

Your diet should include a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fats, like krill oil. The omega-3 fats EPA and DHA play an important role in your emotional well-being, and research has shown a dramatic 20 percent reduction in anxiety among med students taking omega-3s.¹²

If Sleep Troubles Have Got You Down…

I suggest reading my Guide to a Good Night's Sleep for 33 simple tips on improving your sleep before even considering sleeping pills. Small adjustments to your daily routine and sleeping area can go a long way to ensure uninterrupted, restful sleep (which may further help with anxiety symptoms, as well). To start, consider implementing the following changes. Number one on my list? Turn off your electronic gadgets and keep them out of your bedroom:

• Avoid watching TV or using your computer/smartphone or tablet in the evening, at least an hour or so before going to bed.
• Make sure you get BRIGHT sun exposure regularly. Your pineal gland produces melatonin roughly in approximation to the contrast of bright sun exposure in the day and complete darkness at night. If you are in darkness all day long, it can't appreciate the difference and will not optimize your melatonin production.
• Get some sun in the morning. Your circadian system needs bright light to reset itself. Ten to 15 minutes of morning sunlight will send a strong message to your internal clock that day has arrived, making it less likely to be confused by weaker light signals during the night.
• Sleep in complete darkness, or as close to it as possible. Even the tiniest glow from your clock radio could be interfering with your sleep, so cover your clock radio up at night or get rid of it altogether. Move all electrical devices at least three feet away from your bed. You may want to cover your windows with drapes or blackout shades, or wear an eye mask when you sleep.
• Install a low-wattage yellow, orange, or red light bulb if you need a source of light for navigation at night. Light in these bandwidths does not shut down melatonin production in the way that white and blue bandwidth light does. Salt lamps are handy for this purpose.
• Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70°F. Many people keep their homes too warm (particularly their upstairs bedrooms). Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is between 60 to 68°F.
• Take a hot bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime. This increases your core body temperature, and when you get out of the bath it abruptly drops, signaling your body that you are ready to sleep.
• Avoid using loud alarm clocks. Being jolted awake each morning can be very stressful. If you are regularly getting enough sleep, you might not even need an alarm, as you'll wake up naturally.
• Be mindful of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in your bedroom. EMFs can disrupt your pineal gland and its melatonin production, and may have other negative biological effects as well. A gauss meter is required if you want to measure EMF levels in various areas of your home. If possible, install a kill switch to turn off all electricity to your bedroom. If you need a clock, use a battery-operated one.

Both anxiety and sleep troubles are serious issues that need attention. Unfortunately, most people who suffer from these conditions either do nothing or resort to pharmaceutical drugs – many of which are ineffective and capable of destroying your health and sanity further. On the contrary, you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by applying the previously mentioned lifestyle modifications, and you may be surprised by how much they boost your mood and ability to sleep soundly, naturally.

Prediabetes Increases Your Cancer Risk by 15%

By Dr. Mercola

More than one out of three Americans aged 20 and older has prediabetes,¹ a condition in which your glucose, or blood sugar, levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as full-blown diabetes.

For those with prediabetes (86 million Americans in all), 15 percent to 30 percent will go on to develop type 2 diabetes within five years. This is virtually always preventable if you change your diet and exercise, however, which is why a diagnosis of prediabetes can be viewed as a serious warning that your lifestyle needs some attention.

Unfortunately, 90 percent of those with prediabetes don’t know they have it…² nor are they aware that prediabetes raises your risk of more than just type 2 diabetes.

Prediabetes Increases Your Risk of Cancer by 15 Percent

A meta-analysis that included data from nearly 900,000 people found that those with prediabetes have a 15 percent higher risk of cancer, especially cancers of the liver, stomach, pancreas, breast, and endometrium.

Excess body fat, which is known to increase both cancer and type 2 diabetes risks, is often pinpointed as the reason why people with diabetes have an increased risk of cancer, but this is only part of the equation. In fact, the association between prediabetes and cancer remained even after the researchers controlled for body mass index (BMI).

If you have prediabetes, which is conventionally diagnosed by having a fasting blood sugar between 100 and 125 mg/dl, you have developed insulin resistance and can no longer properly burn fat as your primary fuel.  

Insulin, a hormone produced by your pancreas, is necessary to help sugar enter your cells (and get out of your bloodstream), but if you have higher than normal blood sugar levels, it means your pancreas isn’t making enough insulin or your cells are becoming resistant to it.

High blood sugar levels may lead to chronic oxidative stress and high blood sugar, both of which can act as carcinogens,³ but there’s even more to the story than this.

Your body may begin releasing more insulin in an unsuccessful attempt to control your blood sugar, resulting in high levels of insulin, which is common in people with prediabetes. Insulin, in turn, is likely a key factor why both diabetes and prediabetes raise your risk of cancer.

What Is The Insulin-Cancer Connection?

High levels of insulin also increase your body’s production of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which plays a key role in cell growth and proliferation.⁴ Insulin resistance may allow cancer cells to grow unchecked in your body. According to Michael Pollak, M.D., a professor at the Department of Oncology and Director of the Cancer Prevention Research Unit at McGill University:⁵ 

“We know that lots of tumors have insulin receptors and research suggests insulin plays an important role in cancer…”

In one study conducted by researchers from the University of Minnesota, women with diabetes had a 50 percent greater risk of developing colorectal cancer than women without diabetes.⁶

Other research has shown that people with the highest insulin levels at the time of a cancer diagnosis have significantly increased risks of cancer recurrence, as well as a greater risk of being diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer.⁷ 

Another study published in Diabetologia in May of this year found that diabetic cancer patients also have a significantly elevated risk of death.⁸ Diabetic patients using insulin at the time of their cancer diagnosis had a four times higher mortality rate one year after cancer diagnosis, compared to non-diabetic patients, or those who did not use insulin to control their diabetes.

While this was an observational study, which means it cannot establish causality, it is worth noting nonetheless. Inflammation also likely plays a role, as a good deal of evidence exists that some cancers are caused by chronic inflammation.

Both insulin and IGF-1 may affect chronic inflammation, as can elevated levels of uric acid (often caused by poor diet). If you have high uric acid levels, your risk of insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes also increases, bringing us back full circle.

Your Health Is at Risk if You Have Elevated Insulin (and Leptin) Levels

Conventional medicine describes diabetes as a disease characterized by elevated blood sugar. This "dysregulation of blood sugar control" is typically explained as "an inability of your body to produce enough insulin."

The reality, however, is that type 2 diabetes is NOT the result of insufficient insulin production. It's actually the result of too much insulin being produced on a chronic basis primarily from eating the high carbohydrate, low-fat diet recommended by the federal government.

This overwhelms and "deafens" your insulin receptors, hence the term "insulin resistance." It's the chronically elevated insulin levels that make your body "resistant" to understanding the signals sent by the insulin. This also occurs with leptin, a hormone that helps you regulate your appetite. When your leptin levels rise, it signals your body that you’re full, so you’ll stop eating.

However, as you become increasingly resistant to the effects of leptin, you end up eating more and gaining weight. Most overweight Americans have some degree of insulin and leptin resistance, as do people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Now remember, when your blood sugar becomes elevated, insulin is released to direct the extra energy into storage—the majority of which is stored as fat, and leptin is produced in these fat cells. The more fat you have, the more leptin is produced. Furthermore, as the sugar gets metabolized in your fat cells, the fat releases further surges in leptin.

This is why I typically talk about insulin and leptin resistance, as they work in tandem. Moreover, leptin is largely responsible for the accuracy of insulin signaling and whether or not you become insulin-resistant. If you're insulin resistant, you're more than likely leptin resistant as well, especially if you're overweight or obese.

This is because when you develop leptin resistance, your brain can no longer hear leptin's signals, resulting in chronic hunger, overeating, inability to properly burn fat and, typically, obesity. Pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, and ultimately type 2 diabetes, follow suit.

As explained by Dr. Ron Rosedale, the high insulin component of type 2 diabetes is responsible for much of its damage, including accelerated aging, chronic disease, and complications (which is why treating type 2 diabetes with insulin typically causes far more harm than good):

"…increased rates of chronic diseases caused by taking insulin may be because it is doing exactly the opposite of what has been shown in many studies to reduce cancer, total mortality, and extend lifespan; reducing insulin.

In fact, T2 diabetes is often considered to be a model of accelerated aging because of the high insulin. In other words, treating diabetics by overly raising insulin, either with drugs or insulin itself, is only further accelerating their aging, associated chronic diseases, and death, and should be considered malpractice."

Good News -- Prediabetes Is Easy to Reverse Without Drugs

If you’ve been diagnosed with prediabetes, consider yourself lucky. You have just received a warning that many people don’t get (and instead progress straight to type 2 diabetes). Now you can take steps to reverse the condition and reclaim your health. The following nutrition and lifestyle modifications should be the foundation of your diabetes prevention and treatment plan, regardless of whether you have prediabetes or diabetes. It will be important to monitor your fasting insulin level, which should be between 2 and 4.

The higher your level, the greater your insulin resistance and the more aggressive you need to be in your treatment plan, especially when it comes to altering your diet. If you want the short version… simply swapping processed foods for whole organic foods lower in sugar and sugar-forming carbohydrates -- combined with a few minutes of daily exercise -- will quickly put you on the road to reversing prediabetes. See my nutrition plan for a healthy eating guide. For more specifics, read my diabetes prevention (and treatment) plan that follows.

• Incorporate intermittent fasting.

I strongly recommend incorporating intermittent fasting. This effectively mimics the eating habits of our ancient ancestors, who did not have access to grocery stores or food around the clock. They would cycle through periods of feast and famine, and modern research shows this cycling produces a number of biochemical benefits, including improved insulin/leptin sensitivity, lowered triglycerides and other biomarkers for health, and weight loss. Intermittent fasting is by far the most effective way I know of to shed unwanted fat and eliminate your sugar cravings. Keep up your intermittent fasting schedule until your insulin/leptin resistance improves (or your weight, blood pressure, cholesterol ratios, or diabetes normalizes). After that, you only need to do it "as needed" to maintain your healthy state.

• Swap out processed foods, all forms of sugar—particularly fructose—as well as all grains, for whole, fresh food.

Fructose, grains, and other sugar-forming starchy carbohydrates are largely responsible for your body's adverse insulin reactions, and all sugars and grains—even "healthy" grains such as whole, organic ones—need to be drastically reduced. If you're insulin/leptin resistant, have prediabetes, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or are overweight, you'd be wise to limit your total fructose intake to 15 grams per day until your insulin/leptin resistance has resolved. For all others, I recommend limiting your daily fructose consumption to 25 grams or less to maintain optimal health. The easiest way to accomplish this is by swapping processed foods for whole, ideally organic, foods.

This means cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients. Processed foods are the main source of all the primary culprits, including high fructose corn syrup and other sugars, processed grains, trans fats, artificial sweeteners, and other synthetic additives that may aggravate metabolic dysfunction. Besides fructose, trans fat (NOT saturated fat) increases your risk for diabetes by interfering with your insulin receptors. Healthy saturated fats do not do this. Since you're cutting out a lot of energy (carbs) from your diet when you reduce sugars and grains, you need to replace them with something. The ideal replacement is a combination of:

• Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein. Substantial amounts of protein can be found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, and nuts. When selecting animal-based protein, be sure to opt for organically raised, grass-fed or pastured meats, eggs, and dairy, to avoid potential health complications caused by genetically engineered animal feed and pesticides. Most Americans eat far too much protein, so be mindful of the amount! I believe it is the rare person who really needs more than one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. Those that are aggressively exercising or competing and pregnant women should have about 25 percent more, but most people rarely need more than 40-70 grams of protein a day.

To determine your lean body mass, find out your percent body fat and subtract from 100. This means that if you have 20 percent body fat, you have 80 percent lean body mass. Just multiply that by your current weight to get your lean body mass in pounds or kilos. To determine whether you're getting too much protein, simply calculate your lean body mass as described above, then write down everything you're eating for a few days, and calculate the amount of daily protein from all sources. You can use the chart below to help determine the grams of protein in your food.

Red meat, pork, poultry, and seafood average 6-9 grams of protein per ounce. An ideal amount for most people would be a 3-ounce serving of meat or seafood, which will provide about 18-27 grams of protein	Eggs contain about 6-8 grams of protein per egg.
Seeds and nuts contain on average 4-8 grams of protein per quarter cup	Cooked beans average about 7-8 grams per half cup
Cooked grains average 5-7 grams per cup	Most vegetables contain about 1-2 grams of protein per ounce

• As much high-quality healthy fat as you want (saturated and monounsaturated). For optimal health, most people need upwards of 50-85 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthy fats. Good sources include coconut and coconut oil, avocados, butter, nuts, and animal fats. (Remember, fat is high in calories while being small in terms of volume. So when you look at your plate, the largest portion would be vegetables.)
• As many non-starchy vegetables as you want
• Exercise regularly and intensely.

Studies have shown that exercise, even without weight loss, increases insulin sensitivity. High intensity interval training (HIIT), which is a central component of my Peak Fitness program, has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity by as much as 24 percent in just four weeks.

• Improve your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio.

Most Americans are eating far too many processed and damaged omega-6 fats and far too little omega-3 fats. The main sources of omega-6 fats are corn, soy, canola, safflower, peanut, and sunflower oil (the first two of which are typically genetically modified as well, which further complicates matters). Our bodies evolved for an optimal 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. However, our ratio has deteriorated to between 20:1 and 50:1 in favor of omega-6. To remedy this, reduce your consumption of vegetable oils (this means not cooking with them and avoiding processed foods), and increase your intake of animal-based omega-3, such as krill oil. Vegetable-based omega-3 is also found in flaxseed oil and walnut oil, and it's good to include these in your diet as well. Just know they cannot take the place of animal-based omega-3s.

• Maintain optimal vitamin D levels year-round.

Vitamin D is highly beneficial for diabetes. The ideal way to optimize your vitamin D level is by getting regular sun exposure or by using a tanning bed. As a last resort, consider oral supplementation with regular vitamin D monitoring to confirm that you are taking enough vitamin D to get your blood levels into the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml. Also please note that if you take supplemental vitamin D, you create an increased demand for vitamin K2.

• Get adequate high-quality sleep every night.

Insufficient sleep appears to raise stress and blood sugar, encouraging insulin and leptin resistance and weight gain. In one 10-year long study of 70,000 diabetes-free women, researchers found that women who slept less than five hours or more than nine hours each night were 34 percent more likely to develop diabetes symptoms than women who slept seven to eight hours each night.⁹ If you are having problems with your sleep, try the suggestions in my article "33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep." Strive for eight hours of sleep a night.

• Maintain a healthy body weight.

If you incorporate the diet and lifestyle changes suggested here you will greatly improve your insulin and leptin sensitivity, and a healthy body weight will follow in time. As a general guideline, you might find a hip-to-waist size index chart helpful. This is far better than BMI for evaluating whether or not you may have a weight problem, as BMI fails to factor in both how muscular you are and your intra-abdominal fat mass (the dangerous visceral fat that accumulates around your inner organs), which is a potent indicator of leptin sensitivity and associated health problems.

• Optimize your gut health.

Your gut is a living ecosystem, full of both good bacteria and bad. Multiple studies have shown that obese people have different intestinal bacteria than lean people. The more beneficial bacteria you have, the stronger your immune system will be and the better your body will function overall. Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy. You can reseed your body with good bacteria by regularly eating fermented foods (like natto, raw organic cheese, miso, and cultured vegetables).