The hormone that makes us brave?

When I first read about the description for this hormone I thought first of testosterone, adrenaline, or even cortisol. But I was mistaken.

This hormone is the hormone that I have been speaking about as the under-appreciated giant hormone personality in our lives and health.

This hormone has the ability to destroy the negative effects and high levels of chronic stress hormones like cortisol.

The way this hormone works and why it is considered the courage hormone is that when this hormone is stimulated it down regulates our fear response and can stop the fight or flight response of freeze or flee. When activated it amps up our social awareness and lights up areas of the brain associated with meaning and value and has been shown to make people more trusting, be more trust worthy and help others.

The hormone I am talking about is oxytocin. Oxytocin drives our mental awareness to what is important to us, opens our thinking to include others and promote empathy as it stimulates trust and therefor gives us courage to act in our social world and makes us brave with less fear and more compassion.

Oxytocin has been called the "bonding" hormone or the "love" hormone and is strongly stimulated during breast feeding, intimacy, and in close familiar relationships. It is also stimulated when you get or receive a compliment, play with your kids, when you hug or shake someones hand, when you pet your dog or cat, when you talk and when you journal.

The biggest social evidence of the power of oxytocin is how it changes our physiology through laughter. We have all heard that laughter is the best medicine and we can thank oxytocin for that.

Men in particular I hope you are reading and hearing this message. Many men experience mild to moderate depression and write it off under the guise of stress, corporate living, being the provider, having an "A" personality or being a "driver." These are issues I speak about in my presentation on the "Irritable Male Syndrome," and they are very real, and at these levels very responsive to oxytocin "therapy." Keep it in mind my brothers.

My friends I extend a virtual hug and mental handshake as I tell you all that I love and appreciate you and hope you join me today in seeking out a little extra humor and together we can all build up a little bit more courage and live the life of the brave!

Dr. Don

Just about every standard diet around or that has ever been proposed have all used the same model and construct of calorie reduction and reducing fat.

There have been many clever ways to package this idea from grazing on small meals and snacks all day long, to having a point system that maxes both fat and calories in a day, to constructing blocks designed of food combinations, to straight up calorie and fat gram counting.

This massive effort was promoted by all of our government agencies, stamped with approval by all our many medical associations and institutions, and embraced by the eager food industry to all help us loose weight and get healthy.

What came next was the introduction off modern "health food," labeled as low fat and reduced calories being now called "Diet," "Light," "Lean," and used terms such as "Healthy Portion," "Heart Healthy," and were quickly promoted and partnered by the new industry of weight loss and all their new programs like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Lean Cuisine, all they way up to Slim Fast, Nutrisystem and Medifast and all the other countless shake based meal replacement groups out there.

This new cultural model for eating essentially promoted REDUCTION. The only thing limited was fat and calories. By reducing what you ate by 25% or 500 calories a day you would lose 1 lb of body fat a week. This new fad diet concept, and yes, it is the ultimate fad diet, did not care what you ate with your daily points, blocks, and the 75% of the food you were allowed to eat.....just keep the calories lower and the fat low overall.

The 2 main concepts, the very backbone and rational off this model, low fat and daily calorie restriction are both anecdotal hypotheses, not facts, and not evidence based, AND as it turns out very limiting and actually DANGEROUS.

Calories do not determine metabolism. Fat is essential and when it gets too low it causes part of the chronic stress and malfunction that leads to disease.

Low Fat, Low Calorie dieting may induce short term moderate weight loss but it does so by injuring our metabolism. What we now know from long term EVIDENCE is that it increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and overall causes of death. AND 98% of the weight loss (usually in the form of water, some fat, and some muscle) is regained plus interest (and usually as fat giving us a net gain in fat for our efforts).

Hormones drive metabolism and paint the landscape that our health is resultantly depicted. Hormones determine hunger, satiety, fat loss and gain, muscle mass and atrophy, and even mood, mental clarity, emotions, and quality of life.

Our current Standard American Diet creates imbalances in our hormones that in time can cause our health issues. By simply reducing the frequency and severity in which we imbalance our hormones but continue to imbalance them will not stop the disease process, and doesn't seem to slow them much once started either. To recommend them knowing this is unethical and to utilize these models knowing this is denial.

Elimination is the key to today's weight and chronic disease issues. There simply are behaviors and actions that we much stop if we want to loose weight and get healthy. There are other actions and behaviors we simply have to start for the same reason.

First steps:
1. Eliminate snacking
2. Eliminate sugar

Add in first steps:
1. Eat more healthy fat
2. Mix intensity exercise/training into your physical activity

Bonus musts:
1. Improve your sleep
2. Celebrate silence: meditation and paced breathing
3. Neurological tune up: chiropractic

For more advanced concepts, scroll back on my wall and keep an eye out.

Let me know how it goes!

Dr. Don

I love to study the development of this species we now call human. I read book after book on how we migrated across the globe, what we ate, what helped us survive, what patterns and traits formed our genetic code, how we grew these big brains, built communities and everything in between. With all that our species has gone through, and how we have evolved and slowly strengthened this amazing body and gene sequence we now have and enjoy I am constantly surprised at how much variation we now have in our health, well-being, how we respond to stress, diets, and respond to our world around us. As we evolved we didn’t all eat different ways, at different times or have all that much variety in our lifestyle at all. So why would a customized, person to person approach to weight loss, health, healing, and diet be so important today? Why is it so hard to get consistent health improvement, weight loss and results across our population? It really doesn’t make sense to me that a one size fits all approach DOSEN’T work for everyone, honestly and evolutionarily, it should……but it doesn’t! I think I know why.

Most of the people on this planet today would have died off in our natural, non-modern, non-cultivation, environment of the time past. Many of the people here and now, their families, and their entire lineages would not even be swimming in the gene pool today if the same world that formed our genetics was still in effect and ruling it today. What we call diversity in our populations is really an accumulating and growing set of genetic mutations, defects and weaknesses that are being supported by the efforts and support of others.

Hey, I am not trying to be cynical, overly critical, or negative, I get it, my own line would probably not be here. My dad would not have made it through childhood with his eyesight and my sister would not have made it more than a few days after birth. I had Lasix eye surgery myself and would have been at a disadvantage assuming I was born at all. This unnatural inclusion we support and extend to our society, the opposite of natural selection that has built our very survivability historically, is accelerating every single day with every dose of anti-biotics, with each life saving operation, every set of eye glasses, each assisted pregnancy, C-section, and each assisted living intervention and resuscitation that takes place.

And look, I am all for it. I am glad to be alive, have my father and sister, and know that a life saving antibiotic or operation is there if my children’s life were on the line. I think of how many contributions to society, art, science, medicine, culture and spiritual growth have been made by people and cultures who might not have been able to do so if they lived even 100 years ago, never mind 1,000 or 100,000 years ago. But this is just one side of the equation.

The other side that is seemingly magnifying this artificial process of human population growth is that of our modern technology and agriculture. Ever since we stopped the roaming nature of our small human communities and exchanged them for a stationary existence dependent on geography and crops which needs larger communities to tend it we have seen an exponential growth of our population and the need to keep pushing technology for us to do more, and more, so we can support all that we were creating.

This “civilization” process has essentially built a form of elective captivity that we all rely on and opt into each and every day. Our modern captivity along with the expansion of the variation in our gene pool devolves us into a weaker and weaker state with each generation as we become more reliant on the infrastructure we have built to support us and inflame the need of others to provide all that we now need.

So, what does this have to do with health and healing? It means that we have a vastly diverse genetic expression across our population that did not exist, or at least has not existed for long during the evolution of our species and now they breed and interbreed and live in the most artificial environment in history. Our lives are filled with essentially experimental conditions, exposures, stress, and proximity with others to produce the incalculable physical genetic expressions and reactions to all that this incredible combination of circumstances produce today.

What this means is that there are no, and there will not be again, any predictable or typical outcomes for people living in our society. There is no longer a natural human habitat or environment. Consequently, we will not know in most cases exactly why certain body changes, illnesses, diseases, mental and mood challenges come about if they do and even worse we will not have a standard of approach in dealing with them since the reactions to any given treatments or protocols and interventions will be as varied as the set of circumstances that led to their development in the first place.

There are no more rules in health and healing, just endless expectations. Where does this leave us? Are we doomed? No. The only option we have is to be proactive and basically live as if any and all diseases are in us or on their way now. We are not destined to be sick as many people believe but rather must live with the awareness that the environment is stacked against us. If we wait until signs, symptoms, or issues show up, it will be a lot harder get a handle on it and bring things back to a neutral if not optimal health and healing state. When and if things do show up that challenge our health and well-being we have to resist over simplifying our approach and think that some pill or single intervention will be the magic bullet that fixes our issues. That expectation will only guarantee a life long bout of misery as we chase our own ill-health tail in circles.

By looking at our lives, health and life style from a full and holistic perspective and try and support as we correct issues and overcome and eliminate what might have contributed to it in the first place, we have a hope of correcting the myriad of negative effects and promoting the incalculable and powerful healing mechanisms that lay in waiting for us to do what we need to turn them on. There is hope and the potential for greater health expression than most people believe possible but we will have to earn it, we will have to take daily regular action and accountability for our own health and well-being.

This is all great news for those who share our passion for learning and are committed to following a health promoting path that is as close as we can get to modern day natural living. This means holding a higher standard, not letting our guard down, protecting and teaching our children and supporting and strengthening our tribe together.

I for one am honored to be on this path with all of you! If we can be of any service, please do not hesitate to ask. After all it does not take a village, it takes a tribe!

Dr. Don

It doesn’t matter how fit you once were or if you never exercised a minute in your life, getting into the groove and routine of regularly working out simply sucks. There is no magic to it not sucking, there is no way around it, no secret skip ahead to the good parts, nothing but going through the process and pushing through.

That said, the process and evolution of your fitness when we do finally get back at this thing called exercise will change along the way, and can and does get better if we keep our sights set on where we want to go with this.

Honestly, amazing things are just 6 WEEKS away.

6 weeks, that is all it really takes to get some momentum, see some results, hear a few compliments, change your blood tests, shed some pounds and get in functional shape and change your health parameters and potentially your future.

This is how it usually goes….if you stick to it:

Week 1...it drags, hurts, hits below the belt, makes us want to stop.... workouts feel impossible, legs feel like they are made of stone, flexibility is shot, old injuries complain with each move, new eating plans seem impossible, hunger hormones play tricks on us (don't listen to them!), food seems bland, drinking water is a chore, this is hard! You know where you want to go with this and you start to feel the satisfaction of DOING SOMETHING and energy starts to rise, even I slowly from day one so you keep at it. Can’t quit before you even start.

Week 2: Some stamina starts to build, sweat begins to flow, still getting sore, hunger is much less but we still eat when we should, food routine seems better, seems doable, sleep improves, energy improves even more, time to get to see the chiropractor, water starts to be easier to drink, and we think to ourselves, “this IS possible.” All in all, we see progress, so on we go.

Week 3: You get up on time, more ready to go, it is easier to do your workouts and even start to push a bit, your weight is dropping, clothes fit differently, face is thinner, people notice a change, less pain, better sleep, sex life is picking up, time to get that massage (you deserve it), eating is becoming routine, starting some good supplements, you feel the, "I can do this!" Momentum is a powerful thing so we use it to our advantage.

Week 4: Workouts are starting to be fun, motivation is picking up, you can set some times on the benchmark training days, extend your time or up your intensity, ad in a weights day or stress relief cardio set, change up the eating, do some intermittent fasting, some blenderizing, maybe a healthy meal replacement, you’re not as sore, maybe even more flexible, still dropping pounds and inches, strength is going up...You feel you are moving from good to great!

Week 5: You start upping the weights, getting strong and pushing harder, sweating like a beast, you get upset if you have to miss a workout, you start experimenting with those "I hate that move" routines, your eating schedule and menu is on autopilot, you need to go clothes shopping, everyone is asking you what you are doing, you start posting workouts on facebook, you can't imagine not feeling so good ever again. You need less recovery time, less chiro care, less massage, but that doesn't mean none as it is part of the deal, things are good!

Week 6: You are cranking, up early, look forward to workouts, invite others to join in, the light at the end of the tunnel that was once a pin hole is now a flood light, it is fun to PUSH hard in the workouts, you like the feeling of being sore because you know you pushed it, eating clean is second nature and you fell like CRAP when you stray, so you don't, your body is working well, feeling well, looking well, you are an inspiration to your family, friends and co-workers, your blood tests are better, your blood pressure normal, those "normal" aches and pains are almost forgotten, people are asking you what vitamins to take...and you can tell them, you are ready to map out the next 3 months of training, eating and health improvements and set new goals that you would never had even thought of 6 weeks ago....you are a new person and love it! You are getting healthy!

Can you picture it? Feel it? See it? Want it? Good, now DO IT!!! Let me know if you need help!

Dr. Don Clum

Part 1 of 5

I am currently pursing my PhD in Health Psychology focusing on this process specifically, but I am not a psychologist. I am just your friendly neighborhood chiropractor and a mild mannered nutritionist who has spent the last 17 years working with people one on one, and now in large groups and programs, in three out of four of these categories I am going to go into with great success. I leave the psychology to the experts who deal with this type of issues every day, but I know that if you improve the body by working on these three categories, detoxifying and healing the cells, reducing hormonal resistance, and improving the mental economy the physiology will improve and much of the mental stress, strain, and mood issues that come along with this friction improves greatly. Again, I am all for stress management and avoiding stress when appropriate, but my ultimate goal, one that I research daily and am personally committed to, one that I live by and teach my children, is how to be healthy, heal when needed, and build rock solid resilience to stress.

Internal friction. That is the best way I can sum up how I see our body and system working as it slowly builds up tension or a physical dissonance to our physical and mental tipping point that eventually spills with ill health.

Mentally when we feel anxiety, or we find ourselves drawn to negative thoughts, self doubt and we start to get irritable, critical, and start feeling like someone else is running this show, like the thoughts and emotions we feel building are someone else's completely. I can only describe how it feels to me and attempt to translate how it has been described by patients and clients over the years in practice as a literal internal FRICTION that swells, grinds, confuses, tempts, distracts and can consumes us.

It is this mental friction that makes the insanity of addictive behavior seem logical or acceptable right before we do what ever it is we do, again, and again, and again. Whether it is eating sugar and processed carbs again, or taking that drink or that hit again, turning to abusive behavior or language and saying nasty things again, or suppressing our own thoughts and feelings to "feel" loved again, all the while knowing this is in no way good for us, clearly knowing that this is doing harm, and perfectly cognizant that we are literally and figuratively feeding this problem......again.

We can feel that friction when it begins. It can start slow and mild, almost unnoticeable, and slowly builds and as it gains our attention and we hope it will pass or we try and do something, hopefully something positive, that might calm that feeling and ease that friction. It can build or just crash your good day and squeeze your life joy by coming on so strong that the next thing you know you are in a mini internal panic trying to escape and avoiding it at any cost.

Sometimes this friction can change our personality right before our eyes, or slowly push as it alters who we are to the point that when we do finally see the issue, or when it is pointed out to us, we are blind to even the thought that this could be true, that this could be us. Sometimes we are reacting through this friction before we even know it is upon us, almost like a black-out drunk, it happens and all bets are off to what we do or what comes out of our mouth. Suddenly there are tears or harsh words, sometimes there is pain, other times you just find yourself off point, eating junk foods or finishing that whole pizza and skipping that workout or pushing that work off, ignoring your kids and wasting your day. Then we are left to make excuses and feel even worse than before as we reinforce that internal friction with more power to come back and terrorize us again.

This often seems like a completely mental process making us feel crazy, defective, and alone. Because in those moments we see the lunacy of our actions and feel that no one else can relate, that no one else really thinks these things or does this and definitely not over and over like I do. But they do. We all do at some point and to some degree, whether in thought, feeling or action, in some way that is unique to us we feel that friction.

As mental as it seems I think something physical sets this up and then sets us off. I know that thoughts can drive actions and physiology but I also believe that our physiology can drive our thoughts and emotions as well.

To be continued……

Yes, you read that right.

And yes, I have repeatedly written to you about how dangerous and disease promoting visceral fat is to our health and quality of life. And now, today, I have to modify that stance.

Let me first start by making an apology. In this learning process, trying to make sense of some very complicated physiology and pathologies that are plaguing the American public, there are new discoveries and perspectives that change along the way. That can be frustrating, I get it. It is frustrating for me too. I do not like having to change my position or edit my protocols and programs due to new information but I feel I must. I want the best for myself and my family. I want the best most accurate and effective understanding of what is really going on in this body of mine so that I can make the best, educated, informed decision on how to best engage in this crazy world of ours so I can live as healthy, happy, and stress resilient a life that I possibly can and pass that knowledge on to my children. Hence, I course correct often, and this is one of those moments, I hope you understand.

Often I have described visceral fat as the fat that accumulates in our gut, in the abdomen, under and behind the fat that lines our waist. In doing so I usually grouped together the fat that accumulates around the organs in our trunk with the fat that accumulates within the organs in the same area. Yes, there is fat in both locations, yes, both are indicators of problems and can raise health risks, but they are distinctly different and so are the health implications.

As it turns out, visceral fat, as in the fat around the organs in our gut is just marginally more dangerous than the fat on the outside of our body that upsets us when we see it in the mirror. Organ fat on the other hand, specifically liver fat or the fat that accumulated inside the liver itself due to diet, is the real threat. There is a real eye opening study that I will write about and include later that shows that in reality when isolated and tested it is not the visceral fat that cause our metabolic dysfunction and raises all of our health risks, it is the liver fat.

I have been working on diagrams and pictographics on how this process exactly works and I should have more info and specifics with a visual very soon…..but this is rather complicated stuff, but I think I can get it to make not only sense but give us some immediate direction to avoid or improve it naturally and through lifestyle. At least that is my intention.

What this new information does is to reinforce the liver-centric and hormonal emphasis of how we have been looking at this whole health equation and basing our lifestyle modifications and nutritional and stress resilience protocols on. The bottom line is we have been on the right track and this new info and distinction only supports what we have been doing in our research, work and programs both in my one on one custom programs and in the larger population based programs we are running through Aduro.

All that said, and not jumping into the specifics too prematurely, I can tell you that the number one CAUSE, not correlation, but CAUSE of liver fat is sugar. There simply is no way around it, no way to sugar-coat it, and definitely no way to deny it. Sugar IS what is driving major metabolic dysfunction that leads to metabolic syndrome which sets the stage for weight gain and obesity, diabetes, heart disease, accelerated aging, premature death, and is implicated in cancer and Alzheimer’s as well.

So, what can I do today?

Step One: No added sugar of any kind. Especially in liquid forms.

Step Two: Live the insulin friendly lifestyle (see my blog)

Step Three: Exercise, it promotes fat clearance from the liver.

Step Four: Prioritize Sleep

Step Five: Sit as little as possible….sitting squishes the liver and pisses it off!

More to come my friends.

Here’s to a lovely liver!

Dr. Don

Fasting is getting more and more attention as word gets out on all of the health benefits that can come from fasting. As people do start to look into fasting, they realize that the straight forward concept of fasting is much more than simply not eating. It doesn't take long to realize that there are many different kinds of fasts that can be used. While technically fasting is simply the abstinence of eating food, there are many ways to approach how and when to do this.

Fasting ranges from the traditional model of fasting in that people refrain from eating and at times from drinking to intermittent fasting, pseudo fasting, fat fasting, juice fasting, broth fasting, every other day fasting, or any combination of these, and probably some others that don’t come to mind.

In the truest definition, the term intermittent fasting technically means any fasting attempts that last less than 20 days. That’s right, 20 days! Long term fasting starts on the 21st day.

Intermittent fasting is popular in today’s pop fasting and health circles, but they usually are referring to eating in a specific eating window. For example, one’s eating window might be 8 hours where they eat from 12-8 pm then the refrain form eating the other 16 hours, from 8 pm to 12 the next day. In this sense they are extending the overnight “fast” and get a short 16 hour mini fast so to speak. If you like this model and get good at it then you can extend the fast by shortening the eating window to 6 hours or even 4. Most people choose to skip breakfast and have their eating window include lunch and dinner with some potential snacking in between. Metabolically speaking research suggests that shifting the eating window earlier, like form 8 am to 4 pm makes for a healthier metabolic change overall.

Pseudo fasting or a fasting mimicking diet as it has been called in the literature, is when a person sticks to a very low calorie diet eating only between 500 and 800 calories per day. IN medical obesity circles they now call this concept a Very Low Calorie Diet or VLCD, and are using it with meal replacements all over the country, but the long term results are terrible and frankly there is a better way. This eating style and form of fasting has been used over a prolonged period of time (8 weeks) with those with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes and was shown to reverse not only their diagnostic symptomatology criteria of high blood sugar and insulin resistance but also to actually reverse the fat deposits in their pancreas and potentially reverse some of the plaguing that can arise with prolonged insulin resistance.

Other studies looking at the over 90% success rate of bariatric surgery to “cure” or completely reverse type 2 diabetes realized through comparing surgery candidates who went through the surgery and those who did not but went on the same post surgery diet actually lost more weight and reversed or “cured” type 2 diabetes at the same rate as people who actually had the surgery showing that it was the 500-800 calorie restrictive post surgery pseudo fast that did all the work.

Many groups consider the significant drop in insulin exposure in the blood and to the body to be the heavy lifter in the overall benefit of fasting, especially in metabolically challenged people with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, weight and cardio metabolic issues. Fat is the only food that does not cause insulin secretion, therefore by only eating fat and refraining from the carbohydrates and protein that do cause insulin secretion one can manage to eat and still gain the benefits of the low insulin exposure and health changes seen in all out fasting. These 2 models, as far I have seen, have not been tested head to head to see just how much of a metabolic or health change occur in a full fast vs. a fat fast, but don’t be surprised if you see one very soon!

I would consider broth fasting a form of fat fasting since most home made broths do not have sugar or other insulin stimulating ingredients and really only contain fat and minerals. Broth fasting is done just how it sounds, you make a big batch of home made broth, be it bone broth, vegetable (potassium), chicken, or seafood broth, and you drink it throughout the day. People use the broth as a way to ease through a fast drinking it as they feel the need, as well as try and target healing, particularly in the gut, by drinking a certain amount of broth per day. I personally like to add fresh herbs to my broth a few minutes before drinking it, or maybe some dried seaweed to add flavor and have enjoyed a dab of hot sauce as well, just for flavor.

Juice fasting is a bit different since when you juice fruits and vegetables you are basically removing all the fiber and extracting the juice which is basically water, minerals, some vitamins, and sugar form the plant. This method offers a wider variety of flavor depending on what plant foods are added but can raise insulin and therefore may have benefits but they will be different than from the other forms of fasting. In my personal and clinical experience there is a possibility of getting too much sugar in juice and it often seems to promote a higher degree of crankiness than any of the other methods of fasting that I go into here.

Another benefit of all of the fasting techniques here besides possibly juice fasting is that if done long enough and with intermittent fasting combined with a higher fat and protein, low carb diet approach, can help people shift from being a sugar primary metabolic burner to a primarily fat burner. Over time, with enough exposure to this model and some metabolic flexibility one can even move into a state of nutritional ketosis where the process of burning fat for energy yields a higher level of ketones that then in turn are preferably used by the high energy organs in our body like the brain, heart, kidneys and just about all of the other cells of the body. This is not to be confused with ketoacidosis which is a state that is produced by uncontrolled type one diabetes. Diets have never been shown to produce ketoacidosis, they are two completely different things.

So whether you want to get into or try fasting for the health benefits, to lose weight, or to promote nutritional ketosis, there are a few points that are very important to keep in mind.

1. Fasting is the intentional utilization of, or shift into a specific metabolic pathway of primary fat burning vs. primarily burning sugar. Basically you are trying to shift from sugar burning to fat burning.

2. Shifting metabolic dominance from sugar burning to fat burning can take time and effort. The switch is not a simple on off switch like flipping on your lights but rather a slow dial that needs be turned from one side to the other on a dimmer.

3. Fasting symptoms and discomfort are often not a result of the fasting or the switching of the metabolic switch, but rather due to detoxification and breaking free of the carb addiction cycle in your brain and body.

4. Becoming an efficient faster and getting to a point where fasting is easier and can be prolonged is like building a muscle as you flex and move over time as you get into shape. It takes practice, and a plan.

5. Hunger for the most part in modern living is an aberrant sensation. There is no such thing as acute hunger that might come up by skipping a meal or snack. If you feel any “hunger” sensations in the short term process of fasting then it is really the ”urge” to eat that you feel.

When making your plan to start into any fasting protocol, and yes, it is a protocol, as in a planned progression that fits into a larger goal or health improvement picture. We often support the process with specific exercises, supplements and stress resilience concepts as well. So, as you try some of these fasting concepts out remember that they are not gimmicks or fad diets and should be thought through, prepared for, and monitored for optimal benefit and outcomes.

All that said, give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Dr. Don

The human body has no trouble making all the sugar it needs on a daily basis. Within our liver we have a very efficient mechanism for making sugar, or glucose on demand and in the absolute perfect proportion that the body requires at any given moment in time. The liver can make sugar from lactate, the byproduct of muscle contraction from exercise, it can make it from the glycerol it gets from breaking down triglycerides when we burn fat, it can make it from surplus ketones from fat burning, and it can make it from some of the amino acids found in protein from our diet, from the damaged proteins due to exercising, or from muscle in extreme cases. This process is called gluconeogenesis.

So basically protein from our diet, body, or through recycling is essentially time released sugar. When sugar is made through this process of gluconeogenesis in a healthy person there are never blood sugar issues, not high or low, but just right, all the time, every time. Pretty amazing huh?

What then happens when we eat sugar? Basically we halt this process and start a whole new and potentially dangerous disease producing cascade.

The amount of sugar in our blood is very tightly controlled by the liver. At any given point the average healthy person has about 5 grams of sugar in their blood stream. That is less than a packet of sugar and if that amount raises by just one single gram then that healthy person now has type 2 diabetes. Two grams extra and retinopathy can occur and three grams too much and you can get neuropathy and four extra grams can cause organ damage and if you get up to 20 extra grams then you can produce a coma.

So, with that said, what happens when a kid eats a bowl of cereal, or a glass of juice, or when an adult drinks a soda, or eats an ice cream? Each of these food choices can have over 40 grams of sugar each. That is WAY too much sugar to go right into your blood stream. If all that sugar did go right into your system you would be rendered unconscious each time you had a cafe mocha. So what happens to it all?

Here is how it works: We eat junk food-like product, it gets broken down by the acid in our stomach to very small bits. These bits then go into the small intestine to be absorbed into the hepatic (liver) capillaries and flow right into the liver where the liver has to sort this mess out. The liver first stops producing and releasing glucose into the blood stream from gluconeogenisis. Then as the blood sugar filters through the liver it is appropriately released into the blood to the heart to be pumped throughout the body. As the sugar keeps coming into the liver it fills its storage containers called glycogen within the liver itself and if then still more sugar keeps coming in it then turns that glucose into glycerol and binds three fatty acids to make a triglyceride and stuffs that into deposits within the liver. This is what causes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and if sugar keeps coming in then that fat gets stored in and around our internal organs and is called visceral fat. Visceral fat is what brings with it all the health risks for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and more. This is also how body fat is made then sent to our hips, love handles or butt.

Grains turn to sugar within 4 seconds of eating them in your mouth so we call them super sugars. If you eat a diet with the regular consumption of sugars and grains, then over time you will develop some level of fatty liver. If the sugar you consume is mostly fructose, then it will happen sooner and be worse. Eventually this process leads to insulin resistance, weight gain and obesity, pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular (heart) disease, accelerated aging, inflammation, Alzheimer's, premature death and much more.

As this process continues the liver gets a beating and in time our blood sugar regulation will falter and we will see increasing high blood sugar spikes and high residual blood sugar levels. Oh, and if you think insulin will save you, think again. I do not believe insulin was ever designed for blood sugar regulation. Insulin does little to nothing for the utilization of sugar in our body, just the storage of it as glycogen and fat. Relying on insulin to regulate your blood sugar will guarantee chronic disease and your body breaking down one way or another in time and in misery.

Since most Americans eat sugar and grains at every meal, what can we do to help ourselves and stop this process?

First, you got to love your liver. She is the soccer mom of our body, always doing things for everyone else, usually at the expense of her own needs. I firmly believe that humans simply were never exposed to high levels of sugars and grains like we are now and we are not equipped to deal with it so when we do eat it as we do today our bodies simply breaks down.

Step One: Stop eating grains......and yes, even whole grains.....yes, even oats......yes, yes, yes.

Step Two: Stop eating processed sugar....yes, even natural sugar, yes, yes, yes.

Step Three: Stop eating........NO, you don't have to eat 5-7 times a day....give your liver a vacation and just eat 2-3 meals a day, you might even look to skip a day here and there entirely......NO, you will not die, starve, pass out, or waste away.

Step Four: Support your liver. Cruciferous veggies, lots of water, apple cider vinegar, sea salts and healthy fats are great for your liver.....just keep the low eating frequency. Yes, there are some great supplements that can help, I take some every day, but there is no one nutrient, hence why we use protocols.

Step five: Build resilience. Sleep. Walk. Exercise. Breath. Laugh. Love. Touch. Talk. Celebrate silence. Practice gratitude. Keep your nervous system tuned up by a chiropractor. Take a standing core class, yoga, or slow martial arts class. Get a massage once and a while. Take a hot bath. Read. Learn. Help others........REPEAT.

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is predicted to be the number one disease world-wide in 10 years. This is exactly how it happens and what has been shown to not only reverse the process but how to improve your quality of life and overall health in the process. There are no gimmicks for this or any other chronic health conditions. You have to make it a lifestyle if you want to not suffer or watch your family and kids suffer.

We are here to help. We can do better. There are great options out there, but no one can do it for you, but if you decide this is what you want, then there is way more out there for you than most people think. Go for it!

Dr. Don