Your Body’s Guardian Angels

Your Body’s Guardian Angels

Your Body’s Guardian Angels

Here you are in the chaos created by a pandemic added to the chaos of the year 2020. But in the middle of this confusion and stress, your body has real heroes: your adrenal glands!

They are your body’s guardian angels, and I want you to understand them because they are the difference between health and vitality, and disease and exhaustion.

In our more primitive incarnations as humans, the “fight or flight” syndrome was over very quickly.  We would either run from the threat or stand and fight, and the body’s stress response would be completed.  Today the stress we are under is often persistent and never-ending.  It overpowers our thoughts and our day-to-day lives, creating scenarios our ancestors could never have imagined.  Your body was not designed to handle a 24/7 stress load. When you don’t have a chance to recover, you can go down the spiral of ill health very quickly.

The Anatomy of Stress

I remember how fascinated I was when I first read about the stages of stress and how the body fatigues. Now, I want to help you to see how your adrenal glands are working for you every minute of every day to keep you healthy.  They compensate for our stress, for our terrible diets, for our busy lives.

Hans Selye, MD PhD (1907-1982) was a Hungarian endocrinologist who is often called the “Father of Stress.” He called his theory of what we now call “stress” the General Adaptation Syndrome, or GAS.

According to Selye, a stress is an “occurrence that could threaten the wellbeing or survival of an organism.”   Here’s what Dr. Selye said:

“Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.” 

We can only imagine how old we become after so many stresses that start so young for some of us!

Selye describes the stress response by using three stages of fatigue: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

What Stress Stage Are You?

Stress Chart

Alarm: When your body is in a healthy state, with fully-functioning adrenal glands, it marshalls all of its resources effectively to handle stress. This is amazingly effective when the stress is temporary but becomes a problem if the stress goes on too long.

Resistance: With long-term stress, the body calls on other resources from the nervous system, trying to return itself to normal. Meanwhile, it must handle the continuing stress, so it never gets any rest at all. Soon, hormone levels are lessening, and fatigue and exhaustion begin to set in. Your amazing body is working to stay functional despite the ongoing stress, but it’s growing weary.

Exhaustion: Your body can’t keep up a “code red” condition for months and years. The constant output of hormones exhausts your body’s resources and organs, and you become susceptible to illness, or even death. Exhaustion is the stage when I start to see most of my patients.

Symptoms of Adrenal Exhaustion

Here are some clues for you to see how close to exhaustion your body may be:

  • Sweet and carbohydrate cravings
  • Increased fatigue especially in the afternoon
  • Weight gain
  • Increased difficulty handling stress
  • Anxiousness
  • Mood swings
  • Memory problems
  • Sleep issues
  • High blood pressure
  • Heartburn
  • Yeast infections
  • PMS
  • Infertility
  • Decreased Libido
  • Hypoglycemia
  • Impaired immune function
  • Inflammation

As you age, and your stress continues, and your body strives to keep up. Suddenly, your blood pressure is higher when it’s always been low; your lipid levels and sugar levels are high when they were always normal in the past.  As women age and stress continues, heart disease becomes a genuine risk.  When you are young, you can push through almost anything you encounter.  As your stress increases with work and family and children, however, those days and years add up. Your resistance is reduced, and illness and disease can set in.

You can start to feel very old, very quickly.

Adrenals and Menopause

In addition to managing stress, the adrenals manufacture and secrete steroid hormones such as estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol. All your female hormones are necessary for health and wellness, and after menopause, the adrenals single-handedly create the bulk of these hormones all by themselves! If the adrenals have reached a severe level of fatigue by the time you are in your 40s, as they have for many women, you are in for a long, hard road ahead. 

Adrenal Recovery is Possible

Over the past 27 years, I’ve helped many thousands of patients who have recovered their adrenal function. Here’s a summary of how this can happen:

  1. A patient comes in with many symptoms listed above, often in addition to other problems.
  2. Labs show the condition of the adrenals, so we’re starting with a known measure of exhaustion.
  3. Lifestyle and diet are crucial components of any effective program for recovery.
  4. Exact, tested supplementation can reduce stress on the adrenals and supply nutrients to help the body rebuild the damage.
  5. Targeted acupressure treatments reduce specific stresses from allergies, toxins, and hormone imbalances.
  6. Follow-up labs and reduced or eliminated symptoms show real, stable improvement.

Marriage vs. Health

Having a health problem sucks a lot already, but the stress your health may put on your marriage can make your life even more difficult.

Your symptoms can be tough on your spouse: You’re tired. You don’t sleep well. Your lab shows your adrenals are completely fatigued, so you can barely stay awake in the afternoons– and “definitely don’t talk to me early in the mornings.” Your hormones make you irritable, moody and you have no patience at all. You may cry at nothing, then just get angry and take someone’s head off. You may have absolutely no sex drive, and you may feel completely unattractive. Pain is tough on you, and your spouse may suffer as well, just knowing you’re hurting.

What to Do?

Here are a few ideas how to help with this situation as told to us repeatedly by thousands of patients over two decades:

  • Don’t make decisions for your spouse. YOU might not want to live with you, given all your problems, but he may consider it an honor to be your husband and just want to help you as much as he can. Advice from thousands of patients who have been there: LET HIM (and DON’T feel guilty, after all he’s doing what he wants to do).
  • Your health problem is a stress on your marriage, as are many other things that can happen in life. One solution: Stop worrying about the sources of stress and instead build your marriage to be strong enough to withstand them all.
    Here is an (apparently) little-known fact about marriages: They only continue to exist, because they are constantly-created things. You can buy a new dining room table, and expect it to be around for many years without having to do anything to keep it from going away. But once you get married, only constant creation of the marriage will keep it there. Heard the term “taken for granted”? Yep, that’s the one thing a marriage can’t withstand. It might not end in divorce, but the marriage will disappear.
    Just the recognition of this one fact can be the magic that will prevent the deterioration of your marriage and begin to make it stronger.
  • OK, so you agree that it makes sense to constantly create your marriage… so what should you do? One of the single most important things is recognizing your spouse’s life. For most people, nothing is truly complete until it’s recognized by someone else. If you fix a great meal but no one comments that they liked it… you may feel sad, and aren’t likely to give yourself the credit for making a great dinner. If you tell your spouse about your day and they just grunt, it’s almost like you aren’t really there!
    Try following these guidelines for a day and see if your marriage doesn’t change almost overnight: 

    • Acknowledge your spouse’s statements and comments by replying in a way that makes sure they know you heard and understood them while recognizing anything positive they are saying, and giving them credit for it. “Johnny got an A on his math today.”  “That’s great! You’ve really been helping him with his homework.” or “I had a bad fatigue day today, just exhausted all day.”  “Wow, I’m sorry. I know you did your job well anyway.”
    • Just hear and understand what they say, don’t try to solve their problems. Truly, most people just want to have someone listen to them and understand what they’ve said. Swear off any urge to jump in and try to solve the problem that your spouse only wants you to listen to. This can be difficult, but if you’ll just give it an experimental try and observe how much happier everyone is, you’ll stop the problem-solving.
    • Finally, just let your spouse be themselves. Find ways to compliment and acknowledge them just for being them, recognize those unique attributes that make your spouse who they are. After all, isn’t that why you got married?

Make Health Improvement a Family Project

“You can only be a victim of those things you can’t control.” –Dr. Billiot

I hate to quote myself, but this summarizes my philosophy of effective health care. My point here is to un-victimize your family by allowing them to get involved in your health improvement program. If they help, they are to some degree in control of this problem that affects them all so much. You can’t really protect them by trying to hide your problems, so why not let them help?

  • Bring them up to speed. Spouses can read your consultation report, which lists all your symptoms, stressed organs and allergies. Kids can be told a short kid-friendly version of “how we are all going to help mommy get healthier so she feels better.” Believe me, they KNOW you don’t feel good.
  • Explain how you are going to get better. Spouses can read the short EvecticsSM booklet. Kids don’t need theory, just tell them what you’re doing: supplements, diet, visits to the clinic.
  • Field Trip! If you haven’t already, bring everyone to one of your visits. Let us know beforehand so we can be prepared to explain what you’re doing and why.
  • Put your family on your diet. It’s easier to eat healthy if you’re not the only one. Your kids may gripe, but they can feel that their “dessert sacrifice” is to help mommy feel better. It’s all about making them involved and so giving them control.
  • Put them in the loop. When you write Success Stories, bring home a copy. If they are helping you, this is THEIR success as well as yours. Get us to give you a copy of your reevaluation interview and share your progress with your family. They’ll know where your progress is and what you still need to work on.

Please let me know your own experiences involving your family in your health improvement. I am always learning more to pass on to future patients.

Blog Subscription

Download Your Free Guide

ANXIETY, WORRY & DEPRESSION

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.

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts

Seduced By Salt, Sugar and Fat

Have You Been Seduced by Salt, Sugar and Fat?Assorted Junk Food

Learn how the food giants have hooked us.

Back in 1999, a group of men who controlled America’s largest food companies attended a meeting in the Minneapolis headquarters of Pillsbury. In attendance were C.E.O.’s and presidents from Nestle, Kraft and Nabisco, General Mills and Procter & Gamble, Coco-Cola and Mars.  The agenda: the emerging obesity epidemic and how to deal with it. These men were in constant battle with each other over what they called “stomach share” – the amount of consumers that any one company’s brand could take away from their competition.

Pillsbury’s chief technical officer ran the meeting. His intent was to get these men to agree that they had gone too far in creating and marketing products that posed the greatest health concerns–foods laden with sugar, salt and fat. He and others wanted these food giants to agree to be part of the solution, not the problem, by reformulating their foods to make them healthier. By looking at today’s obesity epidemic it is quite clear that the food giants didn’t agree.

In this article, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, Michael Moss an investigative reporter for The NY Times, tells the story of  that meeting back in 1999 and gives you insight into how companies use salt, sugar and fat to addict us. You’ll learn why companies spend millions of dollars to find the sensory-specific satiety point, the perfect “mouth feel”, vanishing caloric density, and how to get consumers to consume more.

Once you’ve read this article, ask yourself … Just how far will corporations go to manipulate nutrition at the expense of our health to fatten their bottom line?

Blog Subscription

Download Your Free Guide

ANXIETY, WORRY & DEPRESSION

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.

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts

Mammograms Do Not Prevent Cancer

Do You Believe Mammograms Prevent Cancer? It IS NOT True!

We have attended health fairs and business “lunch-n-learns”, hosted workshops and spoke to church groups about breast health and thermography.  We’ve met many women and encouraged them to get a thermography. Much to my dismay, many of them turned down the offer saying, “I just had my mammogram. I’m good for another year.” Or, “My mammogram will detect the cancer early enough so it will be easily treatable.”

It’s hard for me to believe that women think just waiting around to find the lump is going to prevent them from getting breast cancer.  It’s crazy. Yet, a recent survey found that over half the women believe that mammography prevents breast cancer (!).

If the mammogram detects a cancer tumor, how is it going to prevent you from getting breast cancer?  You already have it at that point.

What happens next is unimaginable for some of us, and unfortunately past and present experience for others. You may get surgery, exposed to radiation and pumped full of toxins to kill the cancer. This is devastating to your body as you struggle just to survive the treatments.

Unfortunately many women have this huge misunderstanding about what the cancer institutions are saying about early detection and prevention.  According to the American Cancer Society:

“The goal of screening exams for early breast cancer detection is to find cancers before they start to cause symptoms, because breast cancer found due to symptoms being present tends to be larger and more likely to have spread outside the breast. Early detection means getting breast cancer diagnosed earlier than otherwise might have occurred so that breast cancer can be treated successfully.”

This EARLY detection of the cancer may in turn help PREVENT you from dying from it. That’s what it’s all about.  The medical professionals are LOOKING for the CANCER so they can KILL IT before it KILLS YOU. They aren’t looking to PREVENT it from occurring. Mammograms will not prevent cancer. It is a tool to help find the cancer.

I don’t think there is anyone who wants to be in that situation where they have found the cancer. So how do we prevent that from occurring? Well, it all starts with knowing your risk. Take a look at the diagram below.

The red dots on the right are the sizes of tumors detected by various detection methods–breast exams, mammograms and MRIs. The green dot on the left represents metabolic changes that are occurring in your breast tissue that if left alone can develop into a cancerous tumor up to 8 years later when it can then be spotted on a mammogram.  These metabolic changes can be seen using an infrared camera– it’s called thermography.

Booble-Circles

Comparing Breast Cancer Detection Methods to Risk Assessment – Thermography.

So if you could find out what your risk is for getting a breast cancer tumor at least 8 years before it is spotted on a mammogram, wouldn’t you want to? Finding out that early gives you time to put together a Cancer Prevention Program that includes finding out why the breast tissue is stressed. That can include lifestyle choices, imbalanced hormones, insufficient vitamin and mineral levels and specific toxic stress on your body.

Breast cancer IS preventable, but you have to do something about it, not just wait and see if you have it.  Our Breast Cancer Prevention Program starts with knowing your risk. One very effective way of doing that is to get a thermography.

Want to learn more? Visit our website or call 770-937-9200 and ask to talk to Ronna, or thermographer. She’ll be happy to answer any questions and get you scheduled.

Blog Subscription

Download Your Free Guide

ANXIETY, WORRY & DEPRESSION

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.

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts

What’s Making You So Crazed? Could it Be Your Blood Sugar?

How Your Spouse’s Blood Sugar can be Dangerous to YOUR Health

Do you avoid certain people if you know they haven’t eaten in a while? Or is someone avoiding you?

blood sugar problems

If your brain and nervous system are like a light bulb, the electric cord supplying power to the bulb is your blood sugar. Any reduction creates a nervous system and brain “brown-out” with severe consequences.

Your body’s ability to maintain the correct level of sugar in your bloodstream is a vital part of keeping your body healthy and functional.  I’m not talking about diabetes, which is a whole different blood sugar problem. This problem is mainly from adrenal issues, not the pancreas!

Symptoms of Blood Sugar Imbalance

Even though the cartoon makes light of this issue, this can become a serious situation if not handled. Perhaps you or someone you know is dealing with someone who…

  • “Flies off the handle” at almost anything—when they’re hungry?
  • Can’t wake up in the mornings… wanders around in a fog for half an hour?
  • Can’t get to sleep at night, or wakes and can’t get back to sleep?
  • Loses all their energy at 3:00 PM and struggles to stay alert or even awake until after dinner?
  • Gets anxious, lightheaded and shaky if they get hungry, or even randomly whether hungry or not?
  • Eats “like a horse” and is hungry right afterwards. These people will eat three snacks in a row from 9:00PM to bedtime?
  • Getting between this person and sugar could be hazardous to your health?
  • Can’t stop eating breads, pastas, cakes, cookies, chips and junk foods?
  • Has belly fat or a large abdomen?
  • Is just tired all the time?
  • Just generally “feels like crap” so much of the time that it has become the new normal?
  • Gets randomly dizzy?
  • Has periods of behavior that are just… well, psychotic?
  • Complains about their memory and is suffering with an inability to remember important and even simple things?

Each of the above problems can originate from a blood sugar problem.  Maintaining a controlled blood sugar level is imperative for your optimal health. Even if you have not been diagnosed with having diabetes, blood sugar levels that are consistently unbalanced can have detrimental effects on your body. For more details on the effects watch this video: Sugar In Your Diet–What it really does to your body

Imbalances in sugar can lead to loss in energy, changes in metabolism, weight gain and even diabetes. This is why it is important to be aware of signs that your blood sugar levels are not staying level.

Fixing the Blood Sugar Imbalance

What can you do to keep your blood sugar balanced? The answer depends entirely on what is causing the problem, how long it’s been happening and what other contributing issues may be happening at the same time.  SO: The first step to handle blood sugar would be to get tested to find the answer to these problems. Once we have the causes and areas of stress underlying the problem, a program (or just some simple diet and lifestyle actions) can be designed to support your body and help it heal.

To get tested and find out what’s causing your problem, call us at 770.937.9200 and make an appointment for an initial evaluation.

OR…

You can do our Blood Sugar Program for less than $250 complete, which includes the testing as a part of the program!

What Does the 10-Day Blood Sugar Program Entail?

  • Autonomic Response Evaluation of your body’s most stressed areas to determine the causes of your problems.
  • Professional consultation and interpretation of your test results and recommendations.
  • 10-Day supply of supplements and dietary guidelines.
    • SP Complete: Whole Food supplement shake that includes amino acids, essential fatty acids, vegetable concentrates, and powerful antioxidant protection to support the entire range of body systems.
    • SP Cleanse: Combines 20 unique whole food and botanical ingredients designed to support the body’s normal toxin removal process.
    • Diaplex: Encourages healthy blood sugar levels and supports healthy function of the pancreas when combined with a balanced diet.
    • Gymnema: An herbal product that helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels when combined with a balanced diet.
  • Professional guidance from caring practitioners.

So What Could Happen By Doing the Program?

  • Weight loss
  • Better sleep
  • Less cravings
  • More energy, less fatigue
  • More balanced cholesterol
  • Healthier blood sugar levels (if the person has diagnosed blood sugar problems)
  • And more!

What You Can Do Next

If you want to find out if this program is right for you or for a friend of yours, call the office and talk to Tamiko. 770-937-9200.

Blog Subscription

Download Your Free Guide

ANXIETY, WORRY & DEPRESSION

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.

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts

Early Detection is the Key to Reducing Your Risk of Breast Cancer

I’m Declaring 2013 the Year of the Breasts

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.

Blog Subscription

Download Your Free Guide

ANXIETY, WORRY & DEPRESSION

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.

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts

Refer Your Friend!

To whom would you like to forward this referral card?
Your Name(Required)