I just read some pretty startling news regarding breast cancer, and it’s not good. As a health professional and a woman, I am very concerned about the health issues facing us regarding breast health and breast cancer. I have been touched by this illness personally, as many of you have, too.
When I first opened my practice almost 20 years ago, breast cancer diagnosis was relatively rare. Now the American Cancer Society estimates that almost 233,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women and of those women, 40,000 will die. That is, 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. Here are some more statistics
1 out of 8 of these invasive breast cancers will be found in women younger than 45 and about
2 out of 3 invasive breast cancers are found in women age 55 or older.
The incidence of breast cancer in the U.S. rose 24% between 1973 and 1991.
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer.
A woman in 1940 had a 1 in 20 chance of contracting breast cancer. Now our risk is 1 in 8.
I don’t know about you but that is pretty scary information to me. Watch the video below to see how you can reduce your risk of ever getting breast cancer in the first place.
Are You Smart Enough? NO? You May Need More Omega 3’s.
Article at a glance:
Definition of fatty acids: The building blocks of the fat in our bodies and in the food we eat. During digestion, the body breaks down fats into fatty acids, which can then be absorbed into the blood.
The brain, eyes and heart need the poly-unsaturated Omega 3 fatty acids. It’s essential that we eat them.
Two of the Omega 3’s, EPA and DHA, are so vital to the functioning of the brain, that if it has a shortage it will rob these fats from wherever it can to the detriment of the rest of the body.
There are only two things known to leach EPA and DHA fatty acids from the brain: alcohol and a fetus. For a fetus’s brain to grow it needs EPA and DHA, especially in the last trimester. If the mom isn’t eating enough Omega 3, the fetus will take it from the mom’s brain. Many pregnant women suffer from memory loss (of foggy brain) and depression–two symptoms of not having enough Omega 3.
It’s important to have the right balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6. Most Americans eat 20 times more Omega 6 than Omega 3 (20:1). You should be eating NO MORE than two times the amount of Omega 6 as you do Omega 3 (2:1).
The source of one of the most fundamental ways the body manages itself DOES NOT come from a particular gland or the brain, but from the food we eat. Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids produce substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins help micro-manage the body, especially in an emergency such as getting injured.
Omega 6 prostaglandins create inflammation which is important to protect the body when injured. Omega 3 prostaglandins reduce the inflammation as the body heals itself.
A good fat can become bad for you if the ratios are unbalanced.
Fat Superheroes
The brain, eyes and heart need Omega 3 fats. It’s essential that we eat them.
Two Omega 3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, are very alive, vibrating and electric – and very concentrated in the areas of the body where things need to happen fast: like the brain with all the neurons firing off, the eyes where images need to be made in a split second and the heart where we need to keep it beating in a regular rhythm.
Fat is key to making things happen fast. Exactly the opposite of what we have been taught! Based on what you’ve been told about fat, you’d think that if we had fat in our brains it would be slowing things down, not be key to speeding things up.
EPA and DHA are so vital to the functioning of the brain, that if it has a shortage it will rob these fats from wherever it can to the detriment of the rest of the body. There are only two things known to leach these fatty acids from the brain: alcohol and a fetus.
In the third trimester of pregnancy, a fetus’ brain doubles in size. It needs EPA and DHA to help make that happen. So if mom isn’t getting enough EPA and DHA, the baby will take it from the mom’s brain.
So once you start leaching EPA and DHA from the brain, brain functions start to be affected like mood, memory, learning abilities. Two traits associated with alcoholism and pregnancies are memory and depression/postpartum depression.
Our Superheroes: Prostaglandins
The source of one of the most fundamental ways the body manages itself DOES NOT come from a particular gland or the brain, but from the food we eat.
The body takes fatty acids from the Omega 6 and Omega 3 and transforms them into powerful substances called prostaglandins. They have an enormous impact on our body.
To understand how these powerful prostaglandins impact our bodies, we need to first take a step back and learn how our body manages itself. We have all this stuff inside: cells, blood, organs, tissue, etc. All of this needs to be managed and regulated; communication needs to happen between the systems. The body does that in two ways:
The nervous system through short fast electrical impulses sent through the nerves.
The hormone system through chemical hormones in the blood stream and body fluids.
We have hormones to manage just about everything. The basic mechanism behind this is that a hormone gets secreted by a gland and circulates around in the blood to communicate to various cells and orchestrate a particular task.
Prostaglandins, on the other hand, are micro-managers, and tasks that need to occur quickly are handled by them. Prostaglandins are used in every tissue cell and organ in the body to regulate and control, even down to the cellular level, like moving calcium in and out of the cells. They have so much responsibility that scientists are still uncovering their functions, to the point where they are now referring to fat as an endocrine (hormone) gland.
Prostaglandins are particularly useful in emergencies where the body needs something to happen fast and it doesn’t have time to wait for a hormone to be circulated around in the blood. For example, if you get injured. The body will take the fatty acids in the tissue that was affected and create prostaglandins and quickly provide inflammation to isolate the injury. Prostaglandins are very much like hormones in the way that they regulate and control cells.
So think about how incredible that is. All the body requires is that we get a good balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 coming in so that it can use the prostaglandins to fine-tune the work that needs to be done.
If you have too much Omega 6 coming in the “helpful” inflammation can get out of control. Because it is the Omega 6 fatty acids that are responsible for providing the inflammation, and the Omega 3 that brings the inflammation down.
Most Americans are getting a 20:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3. So inflammation is rising in the body and all the inflammatory conditions are happening: joint pain, asthma, arthritis, etc. We should be getting no more than a 2:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3.
It is important to make sure that all the fatty acids you eat are in good balance. This is one of the reasons a good fat goes bad—too much of one and not enough of another.
In my next article I’ll talk more about why we get more Omega 6 than Omega 3 and other reasons good fats go bad…Stay tuned! In the meantime, check out this article on getting more Omega 3 into your diet:
If you are curious about what the Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids are made up of…
Omega 3 Parent is …
Omega 6 Parent is …
Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA for short)
ALA can be transformed into…
EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) and
EPA can be transformed into…
DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid)
Linoleic Acid (LA for short)
LA can be transformed into…
GLA (Gamma-linolenic acid) and
GLA can be transformed into…
AA (Arachidonic acid)
Essential Fatty Acids (the stuff you need to eat be because your body can’t make it)
From the chart above, you can see that if you have the parent fat, then the rest of the family of fats can be made. Our bodies can’t make the parents (ALA and LA) so they are called essential fatty acids (EFA). Whenever the body can’t make something it is referred to as essential and so we must get it in the food we eat. If you aren’t eating Omega 3 and Omega 6, you don’t have it available in your body and your body isn’t making the other fatty acids in the family. Good sources for these EFA’s are:
Omega 6
Omega 3
Vegetables and seeds (LA)
Flax (ALA)
Evening Primrose Oil (GLA)
Cold water fish, like salmon, herring and mackerel (EPA and DHA)
This video explains in greater detail how the fetus uses the EPA and DHA from the brain.
What is Causing my Health Problems and Why has my Medical Doctor been Unable to Help Me?
Here’s a disturbing fact: 99% of health problems are chronic (continuing or recurring) and medical doctors admit to not being able to cure almost all of them. To me, this seems like the huge debate we should be having as a nation about health care, not just “who is going to pay for it.”
The information below is from the CDC website:
Chronic diseases cause 7 in 10 deaths each year in the United States.
About 133 million Americans—nearly 1 in 2 adults—live with at least one chronic illness.
More than 75% of health care costs are due to chronic conditions.
Approximately one-fourth of persons living with a chronic illness experience significant limitations in daily activities.
The percentage of U.S. children and adolescents with a chronic health condition has increased from 1.8% in the 1960s to more than 7% in 2004.
Although chronic diseases are more common among older adults, they affect people of all ages and are now recognized as a leading health concern of the nation.
So what’s the answer to this dilemma? I go with the solution that we have used to solve thousands and thousands of chronic cases here at the clinic. Read below to get a better understanding of how we go about doing this!
Dr. Melodie Billiot
A chronic health problem is one that happens continuously or recurs frequently, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, menstrual problems, joint or muscle pain, digestive problems, fatigue, depression, etc. Medical doctors manage these types of problems, usually with drugs. There is little effort spent on discovering the cause of the problem or permanently resolving it.
You could define a “chronic” health problem as “a problem that medical doctors don’t know how to fix.” This is why the problem continues on even with medical treatment.
Medical doctors are “allopathic physicians.” Allopathic means, “Treating the system that causes the symptom.” For example if a bone is broken, the system causing the symptoms of swelling and pain is the bone itself. An allopathic doctor will treat the bone, with good result. As long as the problem is a medical emergency the allopathic model works well.
Chronic health problems are caused by the body’s normal healing ability being interrupted. This isn’t general, where the body overall “can’t heal” but in one or more specific areas (such as the heart or kidneys or ovaries or small intestine). There are specific causes for the problem in each area, such as, the kidneys can’t heal because of viral stress, or the ovaries can’t recover because of fungal stress. When this healing interruption occurs, the body compensates: it adapts to the stress of the unresolvable problem to keep itself functioning. If the body is successful with this, the person will not experience a symptom at all. Over time with the body still not able to heal, the stress mounts up. The body compensates repeatedly and the person still experiences no symptoms or minor symptoms. When the stress finally becomes overwhelming and the body fails to compensate, it is forced to have a major symptom. This can occur soon after the problem starts or many years later. This major symptom occurs at the end of a series of compensations by the body, and the specific symptom generally has little to do with the original problem.
An allopathic doctor will treat the symptom created by the body at the end of this series of compensations. Because this symptom has little to do with the original cause of the problem and because only the body can restore its own ability to heal, the treatment will only suppress the symptom temporarily. This requires continuous treatment to control the symptom, usually with drugs. Meanwhile, nothing has been done about the actual cause of the stress, which becomes worse over time.
Here’s an example:
Your car’s fuel injection system fails and it won’t start. You can’t fix the problem, so you COMPENSATE by calling a friend for a ride to work. Next day, the car still won’t start so you ride the bus (a second compensation). This continues on for a long time, each day you figure out another way you can get to work, compensating for the problem (fuel injectors) that you can’t solve. One day all your efforts fail, you can’t get to work and you lose your job. This is the major symptom, and in our analogy would be the first time the person found out that they had a health problem. If the person goes to an allopathic doctor for help, the doctor would give them a drug that gets them another job… “Treating the system that causes the symptom”. Of course, without a car the person loses that job right away and so needs to continue to take the drug each day to get another job. This would continue indefinitely, because nothing is being done about the fuel injection system to get the car back running.
The Solution
The solution to chronic health conditions is to identify the specific areas in the body that are unable to heal, and assist the body to heal them itself. Attempts at invasive treatment (i.e. medical drugs or surgery) are ineffective here, as proven by the simple fact that chronic health problems don’t get well when treated this way.
Alternative Health Atlanta uses a new approach to health care called EVECTICSSM that assists the body in healing itself, while allowing the body to “be its own doctor” and decide for itself what needs to be done and in what sequence.
What experiences have you had with chronic health conditions? Let me know…
Fat has gotten such a bad rap that I think it’s time you really understood what are the good fats, the bad fats and the trans fats and how each impact your body. So get ready! This is definitely going to be a shift in your thinking!
Fat’s Role in the Body
What is fat, really? We think of fat as blobs that hang on our hips and thighs, arms and belly, clog our arteries and cause all sorts of problems. Actually, it is not eating fat that makes a body look like this.
Fatness is a symptom that your body is not healthy. If you are struggling with weight, you may have allergies, hormone imbalances or some other stress that your body can’t handle. (We can help you with these!) If you want to find out what could be causing these problems, call the clinic for a complete health evaluation. 770-937-9200.
Fat on our bodies really is tissue (called adipose tissue) that holds fatty acids. Fatty acids are the building blocks of fat. When there isn’t enough sugar available for the body to use for energy, it will burn fatty acids instead.
We can’t live without fatty acids. Every single cell in your body has a membrane (the outside “skin” of the cell) that is made from fatty acids. So if there were no fatty acids, there would be no cells, and ultimately no life. It’s that basic. Here are some of the bodily functions and how they use fatty acids:
Heart: 60% of the heart’s energy is from burning fatty acids, and fatty acids help keep the heart beating in regular rhythm.
Brain: 60% of the brain is made out of fat. Fat in the brain helps to move nervous signals quickly.
Eyes: Eyes have a high percentage of fatty acid in them, specifically the rods and cones, where images need to be transmitted into the nervous system rapidly.
Nerves: The nerves are surrounded by something called a myelin sheath which surrounds, insulates and protects the nerves, keeping the electrical impulses in and speeding up their transmission. The myelin sheath is made up of fatty acids.
Hormones: Fatty acids are the basic building blocks of hormones.
Soft skin & hair: When you feed oil to a dog, its coat gets all shiny. The same is true for humans. Fatty acids are like an internal moisturizer, so much better than any product you could put ON your skin.
Lungs: There is fluid in the lungs called lung surfactant that enables the lungs to work and keeps them from collapsing. This fluid has a high concentration of saturated fatty acids.
Digestion: Fat in a meal slows down the digestive process so that the body has enough time to absorb the nutrients from the meal. Specifically the Vitamins A, D, E & K require fat in order to be absorbed. The slowdown also provides a nice constant level of energy instead of the shooting up and down that happens with a high carbohydrate (sugar), low fat meal. Moods are better and the slowdown keeps you from getting hungry longer. Did you know that there is actually a shutoff mechanism in your body that stops you from eating too much fat? That is why you can’t eat a cup of olive oil without getting sick.
Energy: The body burns fatty acid for fuel and stores extra fuel in the adipose tissue. Adipose is the perfect storage medium for energy. It’s light weight. If the body was to store the same amount of energy in the form of carbohydrates it would weigh twice as much and take up more space. The adipose also cushions and protects organs (like the kidneys) and acts as insulation, keeping us warm.
So, fat is one of the very things keeping us alive. This is significant, especially when you consider that our nation has such a great fear over eating fat.
The Fatty Acid Families
Fats and oils are made up of fatty acids. Each type of fat or oil is a mixture of different fatty acids. They are categorized into Fatty Acid Families:
Saturated Fats
Mono Unsaturated Fats
Poly Unsaturated Fats, if it is a Poly Unsaturated fat it is either an:
Omega 3 or
Omega 6
Each family has its unique traits and characteristics. But each member of the family has its own unique traits and characteristics as well. In the simplest of terms what separates the characteristics of the different families is the number of bends the fatty acid molecule has. Let’s take a look:
Saturated fat molecules have no bends:
Mono Unsaturated fat molecules have one bend:
Poly Unsaturated fat molecules have more than one bend:
Omega 3: first bend happens in a particular spot (position 3):
Omega 6: first bend happens in a particular spot (position 6):
Note: Omega 3 and Omega 6 is just a numbering system that scientists use to determine what family the fatty acid is in. It has nothing to do whether a fat is good or bad.
The bends in the fatty acid molecules give them very different characteristics. The more bends the fatty acid has the more alive, electric and vibrating it is. Alive, electric and vibrating is important because in your body there are high activity areas and low activity areas. Your body uses the appropriate fatty acid to do the correct job. For example, the Poly Unsaturated fatty acids (multiple bends) are used in the areas with the highest activity, like the brain and the eyes. Saturated fatty acids (no bends) are used more for stability and structure, like maintaining cell and lung function. This tells you that one fatty acid is not more important than another. The body uses the fatty acids from all of the families.
What about that Bad Saturated Fat?
Saying that saturated fat is bad so avoid eating it is like saying that the air is polluted so avoid breathing it. It’s only bad if you get too much of it. Too much of any of the fatty acids is going to cause problems.
Saturated fatty acids are a family of fats. There is not a single, evil saturated fat. Some members of this family of fats protect us from disease. So avoiding the entire family is not a good idea.
Saturated fat is so important to proper function and good health that nature has incorporated saturated fat into almost all of the foods we eat both of animal and plant origin. A lot of people believe that the less saturated fat we eat the better. But this is simply not true. Nature doesn’t put saturated fat in vegetables, mother’s milk, and other foods for kicks; it’s there for a reason. We need ALL the fatty acids and ALL fats are good if they are natural. The closest to their natural form the better they are for you. You can find fatty acids straight from nature in:
seeds
nuts
avocados
olives
seaweed
dark leafy greens
corn
grains
legumes
animal products
dairy products
coconuts
The Importance of Fat Ratios in Foods
In nature foods will never contain only one type of fat; they will contain some combination of all three of the families. Some examples:
Some foods contain more of one kind of fatty acid than another, so you may get the impression that a particular food only contains one type of fat. For example, flax seeds are very high in Omega 3 and sunflower seeds are high in Omega 6.
All Saturated Fats are NOT Created Equal
Coconuts are 92% Saturated fats, and 65% of the Saturated fat is what is called “medium chain” (there are short, medium and long “lengths” of fatty acid molecules, each working differently in the body). Medium chain has unique characteristics that put them in a different category from the other fatty acids.
Medium chain fatty acids don’t require bile from the liver to digest so they are quickly absorbed into the body. Since they are absorbed rapidly, the body uses these fatty acids for ENERGY instead of storing them away for later use as adipose tissue. They also protect us from disease by disabling and killing viruses, bacteria and parasites.
Until recently coconuts have been given a bad rap. Scientists and nutritionist have begun to realize their extraordinary benefits from the medium chain fatty acids they contain. Manufacturers have started extracting specific compounds from the medium chain saturated fats. The three medium chains in coconut are Lauric, caprylic and capric acids. Check the image below for the breakdown:
Note: Manufacturers pull out caprylic and capric acid and label it as MCT oil (Medium Chain Triglyceride) on their products. So that is a triglyceride with 3 medium chain fatty acids.
Definition of Triglyceride
Triglycerides are the chemical form in which fat moves through the bloodstream to your body’s tissues. They are derived directly from fats in your diet and are also made in the body from other energy sources such as carbohydrates. A Triglyceride is basically three fatty acids attached to a Glycerol molecule (an alcohol substance). When calories you consume are not used immediately, they are converted to triglycerides, sent through the blood stream and then stored in fat cells. Hormones are used to regulate the release of these stored fats to meet energy needs. Although they contribute to the calculation of total cholesterol, triglycerides themselves are neither bad nor good. They’re either too high or they’re not.
High triglyceride levels can be genetic, and may be related to obesity or untreated diabetes; however your diet plays a huge role in their levels. Carbohydrates in the diet are the main factor affecting triglyceride levels in the blood, especially quick-digesting ones such as processed foods. In many people, these foods elevate insulin levels, (Insulin is the substance that regulates the sugar in the blood. The higher the sugar in the blood the more insulin is needed to regulate it) and insulin affects triglyceride production and the storage of fat. High triglyceride levels usually accompany low HDL cholesterol and often accompany tendencies toward high blood pressure and belly fat. These are the conditions that increase the risk of developing insulin resistance, a very common disorder underlying obesity and increased risks of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
In my opinion, the conventional medical recommendation for a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet to lower triglycerides and bring down cholesterol is dead wrong. Instead you want to be eating a healthy combination of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
I want to get people to eat more fat! Well, just the healthy fats–not the bad ones. Let’s face it, some of us have been trying to follow a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet and are disappointed because it is not working. we are actually gaining more weight and making ourselves unhealthy. The best diet recommendation is to eat the right ratio of fat, protein and carbohydrates. I’m going to start this series of posts talking about fat. I’ll cover carbohydrates and proteins in later posts.
Before You Can Lose Weight Your Body Needs to Be Balanced
There are many factors that contribute to weight gain. So before I talk about fats, I want to tell you something that you may not know. If you have hormone levels that are not in balance or have some major stress on your organs and systems (could be from food or environmental allergies, for example) then no amount of “dieting” is going to make you lose weight. You need to get those issues under control first. There are some simple, painless, noninvasive tests that will determine if you have hormone imbalances or other stresses on your organs and systems. See Fixing Your Hormones.
Now let’s talk about fat…
Here are some guidelines on fat. In future posts I’ll get deeper into the different types of fats and why some are good and why others are bad for you:
You must eat fat to be healthy. Healthy fats are found in nature, in their closest to natural, whole form:
Nuts and seeds
Avocados
Olives
Seaweed
Dark leafy greens
Corn
Grains, wheat, rice, barley
Legumes
Animal products
Dairy products
Coconuts
Low-fat, high carbohydrate diets will actually make you unhealthy and fatter.
Avoid all types of fat substitutes. Eat BUTTER, not some non-food formula yellow goo. Natural IS healthy, others are not. Non-organic dairy of any kind can be scary, so spring for that extra dollar per pound to get organic butter, or find bulk Amish butter (often less expensive than grocery store butter).
Avoid bad oils. This takes in pretty much anything you’ll find on the grocery store shelf. You can use the “bad oil” test: does it have an odor? Does it have a distinctive flavor? If NO, it’s bad. Grocery store oils start out rancid and are then cooked at 400+ degrees until they are clear and have no odor or flavor. Yummy.
In general, avoid oils that are packaged in clear containers. Light breaks down oils, however if the oil has been high-temperature treated (as above) then it doesn’t matter about the light.
Avoid foods cooked in high-temperature “mystery oil” at restaurants. If it’s pan-fried in olive oil, that might be great, but shun the deep fryer.
Eat a good balance of all fats: Saturated Fat, Mono Unsaturated Fat and Poly Unsaturated Fat. Most people eat way too much Omega 6 fats and not enough Omega 3 fats, at a 20:1 ratio instead of a healthy 2:1 ratio. So change your ratios, especially if you have problems with inflammation. You can up your Omega 3 intake by eating:
Cold water, wild caught fish (such as salmon, mackerel, herring)
Flax seeds (Read more about how to use flax seed and get great recipe ideas)
Also you can ask your health care professional about what supplements can help balance your Omega 6 and Omega 3 oils, such as Standard Process Tuna Omega Oil and Calamari Oil. Sold by your natural health practitioner.
Saturated fat is NOT bad for you. The best saturated fat you can eat is cold pressed, unprocessed, unfiltered coconut oil.
Limit damaged fats such as those made with vegetable oils: corn, soy, safflower and canola.
Olive oil is a great oil, but don’t use it in high heat cooking.
Watch out for trans fats in processed foods. Don’t just go by the nutrition label, also check the ingredients list. If you see the words “partially hydrogenated” put that food back on the shelf! No matter what the packaging says it will contain trans fats. Some common sources of partially hydrogenated foods are:
Fast foods
Doughnuts
Processed foods with partially hydrogenated oils
Don’t ever cook with Flax seed oil. This oil is so unstable that any heat will damage it and you will lose all its health benefits.
Coming Up…
Next time, I’m going to talk more about the different types of fats and when you should eat them and when you should avoid them. So stay tuned!
Definitions
Saturated Fat: A fat that contains only saturated fatty acids, is solid at room temperature, found in animal products, cocoa butter, coconuts, palm kernel and avocados.
Mono Unsaturated: A fat found in high concentrations in safflower, canola, olive and peanuts.
Poly Unsaturated: a fat found in high concentrations in Flax seed, sunflower seed and sesame seed.
Omega 6: a polyunsaturated fat that our bodies need to function. We get plenty of Omega 6 in our diet, most people eat too much of this fat which tends to increase inflammation in the body. Oils such as soy, corn grape seed, canola, cottonseed and any mayonnaise and salad dressing made with these oils are high in Omega 6 fats. Also walnuts, sunflower seeds and pine nut are high in Omega 6
Omega 3: a polyunsaturated fat that our bodies need to function. Most people do not get enough Omega 3 in our diet. Good sources of Omega 3 includes, grass fed animal meets and products, cold-water fish such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel, seafood such as oysters and scallops, flax seed and flax seed oil.
Partially hydrogenated: A liquid oil that has been put through a process to make it semi-solid. This process introduces trans fats into the oil.
Trans fat: a very bad fat. Ingesting this fat will lower your good cholesterol and increase your bad cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease.
Learn about the causes of anxiety and depression, what you can do to reduce your suffering RIGHT NOW and how you can eliminate these problems from your life.
