Image via Wikipedia

What you eat and what you do can influence your hormones dramatically. When this happens you can either gain weight or lose weight. Avoid these key areas to make sure you lose weight with your healthy weight loss diet. Don’t take for granted just how powerful hormones like these are in determining your weight loss success.

This one hormone that can cause so many problems is called Cortisol. Excess cortisol will stimulate your appetite and prompt more calories to be stored as fat, so it is very influential in your weight loss plan. These are 2 things you don’t want when trying to follow a healthy weight loss diet.

Cortisol also increases protein breakdown within the muscle, which means a slower metabolism and less calories burned. A key to successful weight loss is keeping your metabolism running at a fast rate so that you are always burning calories.

It decreases glucose utilization and increased insulin resistance, which means the glucose or sugars in your body are not used for energy as much as they should be. Instead they float around and eventually get stored as fat. This is strike two against your healthy weight loss diet and healthy eating plans.

One thing that directly increases cortisol is stress. Stress is the culprit in increasing cortisol levels and resistance to insulin and leptin. Stress can come from work issues, family issues, medical problems and even unhealthy foods. Read the rest of this entry »

Want to know the best new health idea lately? Making healthcare available to everyone.

Oh, wait! That is not a new idea. In fact, it is 100 years old. President Teddy Roosevelt, leader of the Rough Riders, outdoorsman, adventurer, Republican, was the first U.S. President to advocate healthcare for all.

While Canada and most countries of Europe have achieved that goal. the U.S. has been repeatedly prevented from protecting all its citizens from dying for lack of medical care. Nowadays 18,000 people a year die because they cannot afford health care. Some of them have jobs.

In other countries, like Canada and England, everyone gets free healthcare. A young American man I worked with had a sudden heart attack in his 30s while visiting his cousins in Canada. He said his care doctors and hospital care were top notch, and they cost him nothing.

As one British doctor told an American patient, “Call us selfish, but we don’t want you getting us sick.”

Yet Canadian and British doctors are well paid, have nice houses and cars and are happy with the system. When interviewed last year, one young doctor near London mentioned his $million dollar home and could not understand why anyone would think that English doctors are not well paid.

So here is a video of President Obama on Labor Day, explaining once again why we must have healthcare reform, and we cannot afford to wait while insurance costs, which have risen three times as fast as wages, continue to soar.

Notice as he says that while Americans are dying for lack of healthcare and being denied coverage or losing their insurance just when they need it most, some profitable insurance companies are being subsidized by the U.S. government.

Subsidizing the insurance companies? That alone is enough to make me sick. It has got to stop.

A recent study has shown that men control hunger better than women do, which goes a long way toward explaining why women are more likely to eat for emotional reasons, and why men always seem to drop weight more easily when they diet.

“Women have a much stronger reaction to food, such that whether they try to inhibit their desire or not, they have stronger signal [in the part of the brain that controls hunger perception and desire to eat],” study leader Gene-Jack Wang, MD explains.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, there is a free online women’s health test from a leading women’s health clinic. Why? As early as in their 30′s and 40′s, many women begin experiencing symptoms that make them wonder – can these be early signs of menopause?

What are common early signs of menopause? The most common symptoms include PMS, insomnia, fatigue, weight gain, loss of sex drive, hair loss or unwanted hair growth and fibroids. Some women have one or two of these symptoms while others may experience several symptoms at the same time. The result can be mildly irritating or it can be exhausting and overwhelming.

Read the rest of this entry »

For years we have been told that soy is the new wonder food. Better for us than meat, milk, and a host of other foods.

The Dark Side of Soy

Authors Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD, have investigated the available medical research findings and discovered that we have been dangerously, horrifyingly wrong. Soy is bad for us! And very, very bad for our babies!

You can read their complete article “Soy, the Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food at http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html. Meanwhile, here is a quick summary.

Even a Little Bit Hurts

New research shows that eating soy even a couple of times a week can suppress the thyroid, causing Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in younger people. In very sensitive people, even the small amount of soy flour that is in bread can cause problems.

Medical research shows that if you are taking thyroid medication, even a tiny bit of soy can cancel it out. Soy has long been known to cause thyroid enlargement in women and children. If medical researchers knew that, why were we not told?

How Much Is Too Much Soy?

If you think you never eat soy products, think again. Soy is in much of our food. Start reading labels in the grocery store, and try to find a loaf of bread that does not contain soy flour. Good luck!

Here are some of the common foods that contain soy, typical quantities, and how many milligrams of soy each contains:

Bread with added soy flour, 2 slices 4 mg
Meatless chicken nuggets, 1/2 cup 15 mg
Soy hot dog 15 mg
Soymilk, 8-ounce glass 20 mg
Miso, 1/4 cup 21 mg
Tofu, 1/2 cup 28 mg
Soy cheese, 1/2 cup 31 mg
Soymilk skin or film , cooked, 1/2 cup 51 mg
Tempeh, cooked, 1/2 cup 53 mg
Soybean chips , 1/2 cup 54 mg
Revival soy-based meal replacement, 1 serving 160 mg

Is it Alzheimer’s, or Is it Soy?

Symptoms of severely low thyroid include mental symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s disease, such as memory loss, confusion, slowness, paranoid depression and even hallucinations. Other symptoms of low thyroid (hypothyroidism) include fatigue, loss of hair, difficulties at menopause, digestive problems, constipation, infertility, brittle bones, and heart disease.

Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies Caused by Soy

Part of the problem with soy is caused by phytoestrogens, plant substances that mimic estrogen. But there are other problems. One is phytic acid which blocks the absorption of zinc. You need zinc for your brain to work properly.

And there is more: Modern processed soy foods have high levels of MSG, fluoride and aluminum, which are toxic to the nervous system. And food processing creates at least two kinds of carcinogens: lysinealanines and nitrosamines.

Soy products also contain certain enzymes that make it difficult to absorb protein and that irritate the digestive tract.

Even rats that were fed soy protein isolates (which are in many foods) became deficient in vitamins E, K, D and B12 and in the minerals calcium, magnesium, zinc and many others.

Asians Actually Do Not Eat Much Soy

Soy enthusiasts say that soy is a staple food in Asia, but that is not true. Asians use soy only as a condiment.

People in China average only two teaspoons of soy a day. People in Japan average about 1/4 cup of soy a day, but they also eat large quantities of seaweed, which is very high in iodine. That somewhat protects them from the negative effects of soy.

But that is not the worst. Americans often eat much more soy than Asians, because it is hidden in so many foods. It is even in baby formula. At the rate at which many Americans eat soy, it can cause hormone disruption in women and developmental problems in children.

Bad for Babies

Even worse, infants who are given only soy-based baby formula are taking in 4 to 11 more soy than most adults in proportion to their body weigth. Babies who are fed soy-based formula have been found to have 13,000 to 22,000 times more isoflavones in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula.

In fact, a New Zealand toxicologist, Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, estimates that a baby that is fed only soy formula is getting the equivalent in phytoestrogen of five birth control pills per day—or more.

Are you wondering if Asians give their babies soy-based baby formula? Well, they don’t. They use cow milk or buffalo milk instead.

What We Thought We Knew Was Wrong

For awhile, researchers thought that premature development of menstuation and sex characteristics in children was caused by meat. Well, the evidence is in. The actual culprit seems to be soy-based baby formula.

New research links soy baby formula learning disabilities, extreme emotional behavior, depression, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency, thyroid disorders and irritable bowel syndrome.

News of Soy Effects Repressed by Researchers?

But here is what is really scary: Some researchers have suppressed the negative findings about soy because they were assured by the soy industry that soy was perfectly safe!

What to Do if You Are Hurt by Soy Products

Consumer groups in Canada and New Zealand are working to ban soy infant formula. The law firm of Johnston Lawrence in New Zealand is collecting the names of victims for a class action lawsuit in New Zealand. They will then follow up in the US.

If you believe your child has been hurt by soy infant formula, or if you have suffered thyroid problems from ingesting soy, write to PO Box 1213, DX SP 20004, Wellington, New Zealand or roger@johnlaw.co.nz and tell them your story.

In America the Weston A. Price Foundation is working to have soy baby formula taken off the market. If you think your child may have been harmed by soy baby formula, write to the following congressmen, and send a copy of the letter to the Weston A. Price Foundation:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
United States Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
328A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT)
Senate Subcommittee on Health Care of the Finance Committee
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Dan Burton (R-IN)
Chairman, House Committee on Government Reform
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
U.S. House of Representatives
1730 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Weston A. Price Foundation
PMB 106-380 4200 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016

Reference Sources

www.csa.com/hottopics/thyroid/oview.html
soyonlineservice.co.nz
www.westonaprice.org

Who Are Sally Fallon and Mary Enig?

Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, with Mary G. Enig, PhD (NewTrends Publishing 877-707-1776). She is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org) and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk (www.realmilk.com).

Mary Enig, PhD is the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol (Bethesda Press 301-680-8600). She is President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association and Vice President of the Weston A Price Foundation, Washington, DC.

I just ran across a great health info blog by Dr. Erika, who specializes in hormones and hormone replacement therapy. Every woman, every doctor, and many men should read Dr. Erika’s blog.

It is easy to read. It is full of great info and links to more info. It is also a real eye-opener.

Please go to Dr. Erika’s blog and subscribe to it or bookmark it. If you are a woman who cares about her health, this blog should be one of your favorite sites:

http://drerika.typepad.com/

In case you didn’t realize it, what we think we know about hormones and hormone replacement (and other health issues) is often carefully shaped by big drug companies and fed to us by the corporate media (TV networks, radio, magazines…).

That is done not only through advertising but also through canned video news releases or prewritten PR scripts that appear to be part of the news. Ever wonder why Dan Rather took the time to warn you about the “dangers” of using herbs when there are wars, famines, and other important events going on around the world?

Much of what passes for programming on morning talk shows is also simply PR for drug companies. The networks are in cahoots with their biggest advertisers. And the drug companies supply a lot of free programming that looks good, because it is expensively produced.

There is a lot more money to be made in disease and designer drugs than there is in natural health and wellness. So we are often criminally propagandized and misinformed to keep us buying drugs that do more to harm us than the diseases they are supposed to cure.

Worse, the FDA, which is charged with ensuring our health and safety, is actually working for the other side. FDA has recently banned bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, even though it has been medically proven to be safe and effective. Now they have banned therapeutic use of the natural hormone estriol, which has also been proven effective and safe.

So take a look at Dr. Erika’s blog, especially if you are a woman over 30. It might just save your life or that of someone you love.

The thyroid is a tiny gland with a big effect on your metabolism. Age, pregnancy, or other conditions can cause it to malfunction, and you may not know it unless you have a simple blood test.

If the thyroid doesn’t make enough of the thyroid hormone that governs metabolism, you may feel weak, tired and cold, and it seems that you gain weight no matter what you do. If your thyroid is overactive, you feel hyper, jumpy, and hot, and you tend to lose weight easily. That may sound great to some people, but is unpleasant for those who suffer from it.