Thoughts of Empowerment for 2012: This is such a powerful and simple concept I felt it needed to be the focus for the beginning of 2012 newsletters. The analogy of a PnL with your health.

We all know the importance of a profit and loss statement. The majority of people need a budget, case being financially that we need to make more money than we spend otherwise we fail financially. Well, consider this same reality for your health. How is your diet? Do you eat foods that make your body healthier compared to the foods that kill you? Do you take supplements that help you function better compared to drugs that fool your brain into thinking you are healthy? (I’m not saying all drugs are bad in that statement of course). How about your body?

Do you do healthy exercise like walking and getting outdoors more than your sitting on the couch or in front of a computer? Does your laptop and Smartphone posture happen more often than healthy posture activities? Are you stressed? What are you doing to enhance your soul and spirit? Or have you been ignoring that while focused on basic needs. Another powerful concept I re-learned recently: Money is a temporary motivator. If you want to be healthy and happy you need positive focus and goals. Passion and missions do more for your life than a money guided goal ever will.

I hope this simple concept is as empowering to you as it was to me. We are the only ones who can really call BS on ourselves. Here are some easy first steps if you recognize you may have faltered for a while:

Diet: Eat healthy 9/10 meals per week. Guaranteed you will feel and function better.

Exercise: Get out and walk! So many people focus on weights and heavy activity. Heart, Brain health comes from simple walking or light activity. Get outside and walk for 30 minutes each day and you will make huge changes.

Spirituality: What are you doing for your spirit? Meditate, Pray, go to church, do yoga, do something that helps you focus on the amazing reality that you exist in this moment in this reality.

Overall: Get help! People can be their own worst blockages. Talk to others, come get a visit, get other people involved in helping you get on track.

Walk into any store nowadays and you will see all sorts of water types and products. There is tons of information around the internet if you want more information but here are some important tidbits.

1. Bottled Water: – Can be just bottled tap water! – If it has sat in heat will leach very bad estrogen type compounds into the water. – Most are just filtered spring water from local sources. – Many expensive name brands do not release specifics of the bottle source. -When purchased in this form can cost 1800% more than its cost (WAY more than your gasoline)! Nestle was recently ranked one of the top, most consistent and full disclosure mass brands.
2. Best water for home: Your best quality and long term bang-for-the-buck is reverse osmosis systems. You can find them for ~$150 undercounter versions in many discount stores. They typically last well beyond the recommended exchange times if you are on a municipal water system. Minimally use a faucet or pitcher filter.
3. Bath time: The Chlorine in water that is very bad for us, evaporates in relatively low temperatures. So what are you breathing when you shower? Chlorine Gas! (Much worse in reality than drinking it). If you have never tried a shower filter you will be amazed at the difference you notice afterwards. While less convenient, I recommend END stage filtration like a shower filter rather than a whole house system, since there is an argument for wanting the chlorine in the pipes themselves to avoid bacteria.

We live in a world where everyone wants to be the same.  Everyone wants to be equal and fair for every race, gender, religion and so on.  There is one problem when it comes to the human body however:  We are not equal!  Commonly when dealing with clinical nutrition and diet issues in my practice, I ask people what their nationality is, not because I judge them, because that sheds light on what they might be deficient in.

Hopefully someone will  read this and learn that just because you bring up differences does not make one a racist.  Some bodies do things better, period.  The great thing of life is that persons body probably does something not as good also.  You might be predisposed towards diabetes and blood sugar problems, however you might also be less likely to get cancer.  It isn’t that any one is better, just different.

Lets start our example with white people vs. black people.  White people all come from northern climates if you go back many generations.  It makes perfect sense that their bodies adapted to their environments.  If there is one ultra common need of the past several decades it is unquestionably Omega 3′s (commonly found in fish oil or flax oil supplements).  Northern soil used to be very high in Omega 3′s.  Not just fish, but plants as well.  It is said that the ratio between Omega 3′s and Omega 6 oils used to be 2:1.  Now that estimate can be 20-25:1.  Hence why most white people need and do so much better when supplementing a high quality EPA/DHA (Omega 3) supplement.

OK, so what does this have to do with race again?  Simple, black people come from more equatorial climates that are higher in Omega 6′s.  Therefore they are not as deficient in today’s world where we can now travel everywhere and eat whatever we want.  Many of my black patients get help with Omega 3 supplements when they have injuries or major hormonal imbalance, but on a day to day basis they commonly do not need to supplement or even need specific Omega 6 products (such as Evening Primrose, Black Currant or Borage Oils).

Next up, Asians!  Asians respond well to soy, in fact much of the good outcome research is on Asians.  They traditionally eat fermented versions and have eaten them for generations.  In America, caucasian women read this, then get suckered into the bandwagon marketing to eat lots of soy.  One problem, soy mimics estrogen in the body.  What does estrogen do?  It makes fat cuddly moms!  Not what most middle age women are looking for right?  So wanting to be healthy but not knowing enough they then sabotage their own goals.

We can go on and on but I hope this gets the point across. Just because something worked for your neighbor doesn’t mean it will work for you.  The best advice on general diet is this:

Eat whole natural foods.  Eat a variety of foods.  Learn to Cook (basic healthy cooking is so easy anyone really can do it).  In future blogs I will delve deeper into some specific diet points mentioned throughout.