Need More Healthy Energy?

One of the number one reasons people visit their medical doctors is because they are tired or fatigued. When is being tired a risk to your health? When your fatigue makes it too difficult to carry on safely with the daily tasks of living or it causes too much of a strain on your organs or glands so that they are unable to function adequately. So, being tired can have consequences that go beyond falling asleep at your desk.

Fatigue can cause driving and operating machinery to be dangerous. An Australian study showed that going just eighteen hours without sleep caused a similar impairment to alcohol. Shift workers, parents of young children and young males are most at risk. http://drowsydriving.org/about/facts-and-stats/

Relationships can suffer because a tired person is not a patient, understanding person. When a person is sleep deprived, there are mood changes and memory impairment. Anxiety is more likely. These all put a burden on relationships with family and friends, and can even put jobs at risk. http://hr.uiowa.edu/uieap/10-reasons-well-rested

The physical stress puts more of a burden on the organs, especially adrenal glands, which compromises your immune system and may be a factor in the healthy function of your heart. Weight gain and difficulty losing weight is a common issue, and there is a higher cancer risk, as well.

There are many reasons why someone may be tired and unable to get sufficient restful sleep. If you are a high achiever, or in a demanding job situation, you may simply not be spending enough time in bed to get enough sleep. Emotional stress and worry may impact ability to fall sleep and/or stay asleep. Congested organs from toxins and processed foods, or a weakness in the hormonal system, can make it difficult for the body to relax enough to sleep. Eating a high sugar, high carbohydrate diet can play havoc with blood sugar, causing the body to wake up hungry when blood sugar drops too low after a sugar spike. Iron deficiency can cause tiredness and listlessness, because the red blood cells need the mineral iron.

Vitamin deficiencies may be a factor when fatigue becomes debilitating, as in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As a syndrome, and not an actual disease that can be measured or viewed under a microscope, Chronic Fatigue may have different causes or be a combination of factors.

The best course of action is to identify the factors that are involved in any type of fatigue. Often people crave a diagnosis, particularly when they are suffering and having a difficult time with their symptoms. But so many diseases today are lifestyle issues, and they need to be sorted out by someone who can evaluate diet and other factors, rather than simply diagnose a disease, and give it a label. The important factor is to find a way to help the body get well, and that takes more than medication.  Lab work may only offer part of the answer, or none at all.

Don’t ignore fatigue, especially if it lasts for more than a few weeks. You can push yourself, but push when your body is rested, if you do not want to make the problem worse.

B vitamins deficiencies, Adrenal-hypothalamus-pituitary function, liver congestion and blood sugar imbalances can all wreak havoc on sleep, mood and general health. If you know someone who is tired, urge them to get an evaluation and find help. There is no reason to go through life too tired to enjoy the special moments.

With Spring around the corner, it is a perfect time to do a Cleanse/Purification program, or a Blood Sugar Balance program, or a Liver Detox Program. Any of these will help sleep, as well as energy and weight loss. The programs can be tailored for your specific needs. Call us and find out how to Stop Being Tired, no matter the underlying cause. Coffee won’t fix it. Natural and Nutritional Medicine will.

Matters of the Heart

The human heart is magnificent in many ways. It is no wonder that the heart has always been associated with human emotion.

Panic and fear often manifests as a wildly beating heart. Grief and sadness feels like a burden on the chest. Joy feels like the heart is soaring. Excitement causes the heart to beat faster. Seeing a loved one can feel like the heart is fluttering or experiencing a leap. We sometimes feel that we store special knowledge in our hearts.

Physically, your heart works very hard. It pumps approximately 2000 gallons (7571 liters) of blood every day.  That’s about 1 Million barrels of blood during the average lifetime. To achieve this, the heart beats more than 100,000 times a day.

The heart is really an electrical pump and can continue to beat when separated from the body, if there is a supply of oxygen. The thump-thump sound of the heartbeat is caused by the four valves of the four chambers closing.

The heart has the job of pumping blood to all 75 trillion cells of the body. Only the corneas of the eyes do not receive blood. A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s, typically. (Is that any surprise?)

Blood travels in a matter of seconds; six seconds to the lungs and back, eight seconds to the brain and back, and sixteen seconds to the toes and back. http://www.mercola.com/infographics/human-heart-facts.htm

Studies show there is a correlation between education and lowered risk of heart disease. Happiness and emotional vitality also correlate to lowered risk.

The Blue Whale has the largest heart, weighing in at 1,500 pounds. The invention of the stethoscope was invented in 1816 by Rene Laennec, a young French doctor who was embarrassed to put his ear to the chest of a female patient to listen to her heart.  http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2015/07/21-amazing-facts-about-your-heart-infographic/

Because the heart is a muscle, as well as an electrical instrument, it needs to be nurtured with certain nutrients. There are specific B vitamins that are not commonly available in standard B complex that nourish the muscle of the heart. The electrical conductivity is also supported by whole food B vitamins, as well as nerve- supporting nutrients.

So, when I treat heart issues, I look for very different things than your cardiologist, because I am looking for healthy function, rather than disease. Hearts respond beautifully to the correct nutrients, even after the heart has been damaged or functions poorly.

Sometimes sleep difficulties are a sign that the heart needs nutrition, particularly if you feel your heart beating when you lie down at night.

Of course, you should seek immediate medical attention if you suspect a heart attack, because quick intervention saves lives. What it does mean is that you can have the health of your heart evaluated early to prevent heart disease from developing. The heart function is also dependent on the strength of the adrenals, so healthy adrenals are vital. This explains why stress is a risk factor for heart disease.

In addition to wholefood B vitamins, the heart loves magnesium and the herb Hawthorn. Important factors also include balanced blood sugar and normal weight, with waist smaller than hips, to keep the heart strong and healthy.

My heart leaps for joy when I can help someone have a healthy heart. You probably know in your heart if your lifestyle is the best for the health of your heart. Yes, broken-down hearts can be mended, but why let it get to that point? If you have any symptoms that concern you, or hinder your life, come in for a heart check and let natural medicine help your heart last a lifetime. Cross my heart.

Frustrated with Feeling Stressed, Nervous, or Restless?

If this applies to you, there may be something you can do, without taking medication that will only mask the symptoms.

The body was designed for quick responses to stress. Something threatening appears, and the body goes into hyper-drive to avoid the danger. When the danger passes, the body should return to a set point of relaxation.

But when you have constant stressors, from deadlines, traffic, interrupted sleep, toxins, sugar and junk food and the emotional ups and downs of relationships, some people are living in a tornado of constant stress. The body never has a chance to relax and reset.

The body cannot differentiate between physical stress (tigers and traffic) or emotional stress (break-ups and arguments). Stress is stress is stress and the response, particularly from the adrenal glands, is the same. Cortisol is produced and excess cortisol will cause that hyped-up feeling of nervousness and anxiety. It will also interfere with sleep, make you crave sugar and carbs.

Too much cortisol in your system over time ruins your figure and causes weight gain around the middle. It may also cause muscle-wasting when it continues on over-drive.

The liver also does not function well. A congested liver, over-burdened with toxins, will not work correctly, and that can make you feel worried and anxious.

When humans ate organ meats like liver, brains and hearts of animals, they got plenty of B vitamins that are vital for adrenal function. Barley and brown rice grains have B’s, but they are high carb and will cause weight gain if you are not active enough to burn off the starch that turns into sugar when grains are digested.

One solution is to add Nutritional Yeast to your diet. It has a pleasant nutty taste, and can be added to shakes, soups or mixed in sauces. Nutritional yeast is gluten-free, full of B vitamins including B12, contains iron and is a complete protein. Brewer's yeast is another type of nutritional yeast with B vitamins. It is a by-product of beer production, and not gluten-free.

You can buy Nutritional Yeast at a Health Food Store or online.

Using Nutritional Yeast will take some time to work.  If you feel that the stress and anxiety is really making life difficult, there is more you can do. For a faster recovery to ease your stress add in Standard Process Cataplex B and Cataplex G. Together these provide a whole spectrum of natural B’s that you will not find in any other supplement on the planet. Commercial B complex only has 5-6 B’s, but Nature makes a couple of dozen B vitamins. All of them work together to give your body what it needs to perform vital functions and a lack of even one of the B’s can inhibit body function. Over time this can develop into a broken system.

We often make the mistake of expecting our body to “run on empty”. We neglect the nutrients that are needed and then wonder why we feel terrible, or get sick. If you want your body to stop being a source of distraction, pain and frustration, first give it the food source nutrients that make it work properly. If you aren’t providing all the vital minerals, vitamins and proteins, you cannot be surprised when things begin to break down. There is a Cause and Effect factor here, just as there is with maintaining your car or your house.

So, many of your uncomfortable sensations may be helped by getting your body better and providing what the body needs to heal and repair.

Helping you sort this out is what we do. From exercises to relieve muscle tension to detoxification programs to assessments to determine what you need to get your body parts working correctly, Natural medicine is the answer to your frustrations about how your body is treating you. Call us and find out how to get your body to chill so you can get on with your life.

Warmly;

Anne

Anne Dunev, PhD, C.N. has over twenty years experience helping people feel better by finding the root cause of what is not working well in the body. Addressing that with the correct natural and nutritional medicine is her strength. By restoring the function of specific parts of the body, thousands of people are living happier, healthier lives. Her office is located in Burbank, CA. Reach us at 818-562-1400.