Back Clinic Natural Health Functional Medicine Team. This is a natural approach to health care. It is a natural healing practice or a branch of alternative medicine that looks at nature for answers and explanations. There are a few Western forms of alternative medicine that NCCAM has classified as Biologically Based Therapies, as well as, Mind and Body Interventions used in stress management.
There is nothing magical about it. It is about natural healing therapies for prevention and healthy lifestyles. This means eating natural whole foods, nutritional supplements, physical exercise. This is nothing new, but it has evolved over the years within certain prevention parameters, and healthy lifestyles have proven to work repeatedly. There is nothing anti-intellectual or anti-scientific about it. All health, wellness, illness, and healing can be positively affected by simple and inexpensive natural therapies.
Proponents of intermittent fasting contend that this popular way to lose weight is better than conventional dieting. But this type of diet isn’t necessarily best for everyone, a top expert says.
“Fasting is currently one of the newest diet fads and, while there are studies showing benefits, there are also potential downsides,” Dr. Kent Holtorf tells Newsmax Health.
A recent University of Illinois at Chicago study finds intermittent, or alternate-day fasting, was equal in results to calorie counting when it came to weight loss, along with keeping off the excess pounds.
The study, which followed 100 obese people for a year, found that those who engaged in intermittent fasting lost 6 percent of their body weight, while those who ate a calorie-restricted diet lost 5.3 percent, not a statistically significant difference, the researchers say in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Holtorf is the Los Angeles-based medical director of the Holtorf Medical Group and a founder and director of the nonprofit National Academy of Hypothyroidism. He also has appeared as a medical expert on several TV shows, including “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” and “ABC News.”
Here are excerpts from his recent interview with Newsmax Health.
Q: What exactly is intermittent fasting?
A: The idea is to intermittently significantly reduce calories in a strategic way to reduce overall caloric intake instead of eating less per day. One common method is called the 5:2 diet, which involves significant caloric restriction two non-consecutive days per week while eating normally the other five days.
Q: How did this type of diet catch on?
A: Several studies were published showing that severe periodic calorie reduction had been shown to have many benefits including changing gene expression and stimulating cell repair, reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes, improving cholesterol, lowering the risk of cholesterol levels, reducing heart disease and cancer risk and even extending lifespan.
Q: What do you think of intermittent fasting for weight loss?
A: There is a large amount of research supporting the safety and efficacy of intermittent fasting. If an individual fasts for a designated period of time, weight loss is to be expected as caloric intake has been reduced; however, research finds fasting offers long-term benefits including reduction of inflammation and improvement in mood. For example, a randomized, clinical trial of 71 people who followed intermittent fasting for three months lost an average of 5.7 pounds while the weight of the control group, which didn’t alter their eating habits, lost no weight. Those in the fasting group saw a reduction in blood pressure, body fat, and waist size.
Q: What effect does intermittent fasting have on mood?
A: Going without food for 10-16 hours causes the body to release fatty acids known as ketones. According to Mark Mattson, a senior investigator for the National Institute of Aging, who has done extensive investigation on the health benefits of intermittent fasting, ketones have been shown to protect memory and learning function as well as slow disease processes in the brain. Ketones are also shown to boost the body’s formation of particular stress reducing neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and GABA, which helps you stay calm under stress and have fewer cravings.
Q: What are the drawbacks of using this type of diet for weight loss?
A: While it can be a way to jumpstart weight loss and have health benefits, studies also show that it can permanently reduce metabolism (calories burned per day). The metabolism may not go back to normal when normal eating is resumed unless steps are taken to prevent or reverse the drop in metabolism. Thus, fasting or so-called “yo-yo dieting” can contribute to long-term weight gain, wiping out the short-term health benefits of fasting.
Q: Are there any groups for which this may be a particular problem?
A: This is shown to be more of an issue for women because women’s bodies appear to perceive fasting as more of a threat of starvation and respond by lowering metabolism to survive the perceived famine. This is especially true if a woman has any signs of low thyroid, including low body temperature, depression, cold intolerance, PMS, cold extremities or suffers with fatigue.
Q: So is there any one best diet out there for everyone?
A: Studies show that most diets are successful short-term but most suffer from equal long-term failure. But thyroid evaluation and optimization, if low, can increase the likelihood of successful weight loss whether via fasting or other diet plan.
Male shift workers listen up: Two new studies link sleep disorders common in these men to urinary problems and erectile dysfunction.
And a third report links the repercussions of shift work to lower-quality semen, which could make it harder for men to father children.
The research doesn’t prove that shift work and its accompanying sleep issues cause these problems. However, “men who work shifts, particularly night shifts, should be aware they may be at risk for many health issues, and should be sure to seek care from a physician to help prevent and treat these conditions,” said Dr. Alex Pastuszak, co-author of the three studies.
Pastuszak is an assistant professor with the Center for Reproductive Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
For the studies, researchers sought to better understand the role of “shift work,” which requires workers to be on the job outside of traditional daytime hours.
“We know that shift work can disrupt circadian rhythms and disrupt normal hormonal function,” Pastuszak said. “Shift work can also put people at risk for shift-work sleep disorder, which causes insomnia or excessive sleepiness and a reduction of total sleep time due to a work schedule.”
In one of the three studies, researchers examined 75 infertile men who were shift workers, 96 other infertile men and 27 fertile men who’d recently fathered children.
“We found that in men who are seen for infertility, those who work night shifts have significantly lower sperm counts than those who do not,” Pastuszak said. “We think that too much or too little sleep alters circadian rhythms and thus changes hormone levels and the expression of genes that are important for producing sperm.”
The other studies examined responses from almost 2,500 men who went to a men’s clinic and answered questionnaires about urinary issues.
“We found that men with shift-work sleep disorder had worse urinary issues, worse erectile function, and worse symptoms of low testosterone as well as lower testosterone levels,” Pastuszak said.
The urinary issues included problems such as frequent urination, urgent urination, urinary hesitation and nighttime urination. “They’re most often caused by either bladder dysfunction or prostate enlargement,” Pastuszak said.
As for other potential explanations for the urinary problems, “we also asked the men about their use of tobacco and alcohol, symptoms of depression, exercise and other medical conditions they had,” he said. “We found that shift work most significantly impacted urinary symptoms, sperm counts and low testosterone symptoms.”
Sleep specialist Dr. Dennis Auckley, an associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, cautioned that the new research should be considered preliminary.
It’s difficult to study the effects of shift work since it can vary widely with different schedules of hours and days off, Auckley said, and another study found no connection between shift work and measurements of semen quality.
If shift workers do have urological problems, Auckley added, “there’s a long list of causes for these problems that should be evaluated before one could attribute their symptoms to shift work.”
What can shift workers do to protect themselves?
According to Pastuszak, “these men can take the following steps to improve sleep quality: Go to bed at regular times; sleep in a dark room; avoid alcohol and caffeine prior to going to bed; and limit use of computers, tablets, phones, televisions and other bright artificial lighting for at least 30 minutes before going to bed.”
The studies were presented May 13 at the American Urological Association’s annual meeting, in Boston. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Having a pet dog can offer valuable social support to children when they’re stressed according to new US research.
Carried out by the University of Florida, the common belief that pet dogs provide social support for children was tested by the team using a randomized controlled study.
“Many people think pet dogs are great for kids but scientists aren’t sure if that’s true or how it happens,” explained one of the study’s authors Darlene Kertes.
For their study the team looked at 101 children aged 7-12 years who all had a pet dog.
To look at the children’s stress, the researchers asked participants to complete a public speaking task and mental arithmetic task, both of which simulate real-life stress in children’s lives and are known to evoke feelings of anxiety and raise the stress hormone cortisol.
To measure the levels of cortisol samples of saliva were collected before and after the stressing experience.
The children were also randomly assigned to one of three groups, and either had to complete the stressful tasks with their dog present for social support, with their parent present, or with no social support at all.
The results showed that children who completed the stressful tasks with their pet dog had lower levels of cortisol and reported a lower level of stress compared to those who completed the task with a parent for social support or who had no social support at all.
However, the level of cortisol also depended on how the child and the dog interacted.
“Children who actively solicited their dogs to come and be pet or stroked had lower cortisol levels compared to children who engaged their dogs less,” said Kertes, “When dogs hovered around or approached children on their own, however, children’s cortisol tended to be higher.”
Commenting on the significance of the results Kertes explained that, “Middle childhood is a time when children’s social support figures are expanding beyond their parents, but their emotional and biological capacities to deal with stress are still maturing.”
“Because we know that learning to deal with stress in childhood has lifelong consequences for emotional health and well-being, we need to better understand what works to buffer those stress responses early in life.”
The results can be found online published in the journal Social Development.
Chronic pain is a way of life for millions of Americans, and many risk addiction by resorting to dangerous opioids to ease their suffering. Even those who are willing to risk addiction are finding painkillers harder to get as doctors cut down on the amounts of opioids they prescribe. Other desperate victims of chronic pain opt for over-the-counter relief, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil). But in addition to often being less effective, taking just slightly more than the recommended amount can have devastating consequences.
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) raised the risk of a heart attack as soon as one week after beginning their use, especially in higher doses. The medications include ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), diclofenac (Voltaren, Cambia), celecoxib (Celebrex), and naproxen (Midol, Aleve).
A Scottish study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that taking large doses of Tylenol over a period of time, even at recommended levels, can build up in the system and cause life-threatening liver damage. In addition to liver damage, ibuprofen can also cause gastrointestinal bleeding.
The answer to chronic pain, especially lower back pain and pulled muscles and ligaments, may be comfrey, an herb that’s been used for thousands of years in topical ointments to ease pain.
“Comfrey is an effective pain killer that can be used to treat any kind of pain,” says nationally recognized pain expert Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, author of Pain Free 1-2-3! “Comfrey cream can be rubbed on wherever you hurt, and it works immediately � within seconds.”
Comfrey contains two compounds, allantoin and rosmarinic acid (also found in rosemary) that reduce pain and inflammation.
Comfrey’s power isn’t anecdotal. Many studies confirm its effectiveness in helping several painful conditions. They include:
�� Upper and lower back pain. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine studied volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60 who had acute lower or upper back pain. Those who used an ointment containing comfrey root extract three times daily for five days had significant reduction in pain. Patients using the comfrey ointment reported a 95 percent reduction in pain compared to only 38 percent in those who used a placebo ointment. “Comfrey root extract shows a remarkably potent and clinically relevant effect in reducing acute back pain,” wrote the researchers.
� Sprains. A randomized study published in the Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society found that comfrey relieved the pain of sprains better than a prescription medication. Participants with acute ankle sprains received either topical comfrey root extract cream or the prescription diclofenac (Voltaren) gel. After seven days, swelling was down 70.5 percent in the comfrey groups compared to 69.4 percent in the diclofenac groups. Pressure pain was reduced by 80.6 percent with comfrey compared to 74.7 percent for diclofenac.
� Arthritis. In a study published in Phytomedicine, volunteers with painful osteoarthritis of the knee who used a comfrey cream three times a day for three weeks reported a 55 percent reduction in pain both when moving and when at rest. The randomized, double-blind study found that patients who used a placebo cream reported an 11 percent improvement.
� Wounds. A randomized, double-blind study used comfrey creams to heal wounds. Volunteers used two different strengths of comfrey creams. One contained 10 percent active ingredients and a second cream contained 1 percent. After two to three days, wounds treated with the 10 percent preparation were 49 percent smaller than those wounds not treated with comfrey, and wounds were 29 percent smaller in volunteers treated with the 1 percent cream. Comfrey’s healing power is attributed to a component called allantoin that’s believed to spur the growth of new cells.
Although comfrey can heal, it can also harm due to pyrroloxidine alkaloids (PA), which can be toxic to the liver. Experts warn to limit comfrey’s use to no more than 10 days at a time, and to never put it on an open wound.
Some PA-free comfrey products are available which have no detectible PAs. PA-free ointments can also be used on cuts and abrasions, since there are no toxins to get into the bloodstream.
Comfrey salves are inexpensive, and can be found in health food stores or ordered over the internet.
Conventional knowledge wants us to believe that athletes must eat a high carb diet in order to function at optimum levels. While many people believe this, nothing could be further from the truth. Ben Greenfield conducted extensive tests on himself to prove that it is possible to be a fat burning athlete, and that being a high carb athlete should be a thing of the past.
Ben�s analysis was very detailed and impressive: he had blood work, biopsies, urine and stool samples taken before the study began. He then walked on the treadmill for three hours and retook the blood work, biopsies the urine, and the stool samples, then analyzed the data. The study was called The Faster Study, and the data is available via PDF for those interested in looking at his findings and Ben�s write-up on the experience can be found here.
The Faster Study
When I asked Ben why he did the study, he said it was for his own selfish reasons. He said he was training for an Ironman triathlon at the time and wanted to go faster or at least maintain his speed for longer periods without experiencing the deleterious effects that chronically elevated blood sugar�can cause. He also wanted to avoid the potentially unsettling effects that carbohydrates fermenting in your gut can cause.
Ben also had another incentive: he was diagnosed as having a 17% higher than normal risk for Type 2 diabetes. As a result, he needed to figure out a way to complete an Ironman triathlon without going the traditional route of fueling with gels, bars, and energy drinks.
I can attest that his theory works because I tried it myself: while on an 18 hour intermittent fast, I went on a 3 hour bike ride. By the time I got home, it was 22 or 23 hours before I�d eaten one bite of food, and to everyone�s surprise, I didn�t bonk. Everyone on the ride that day was a seasoned athlete and eating constantly. I was the only one not eating, yet had plenty of energy, even after 20 hours without food. Ben proved that in a laboratory and I successfully tested his hypothesis in a real life situation.
The Faster Diet
In preparation for his experiment, Ben followed a diet of 80 to 90% fat and 5 to 10% carbohydrates. His protein intake would vary depending on the day�s activities. For example, protein intake would be approximately 20% on days he�d run or do weight training. On average, the majority of his diet was fat based. He jokingly said he was banned from Italian restaurants during this time.
While on his high fat/low carb diet, Ben did two ironman triathlons that year (Ironman Canada and Ironman Hawaii.) He stresses that that a low carbohydrate diet does not mean a zero carbohydrate diet. Using Ironman triathlon as an example, participants may be out competing for ten or more hours. When passing someone the on the bike, a person may go from their normal race pace of 250 watts up to 400 watts for a few moments. This surge of energy being exerted can cause a pretty significant glycolytic shift, resulting in the body needing to burn through a high amount of carbohydrates.
Ben took in about a quarter of the amount of carbohydrates that he�d normally consume during the actual event, along with ample amounts of easy to digest proteins, amino acids, easy to digest fats, and medium chain triglycerides. After his triathlon season was completed, Ben added exogenous ketones�to his diet in powder form to increase ketone levels. Ben admitted that he finds the ketones extremely beneficial and says he wish he�d known about them while training for previous triathlons. Personally, I have experimented with exogenous ketones in my own fat burning regime, after learning more about how they work during my interview with Dominic D�Agostino (watch the interview here.)
Study Findings
During that triathlon season, Ben conducted quite a few studies, with a few standing out in particular. In this test, a microbiome analysis was conducted to see how the gut differs between someone who follows a high-carbohydrate diet and someone who follows a high-fat diet.
Fat biopsies were taken both before and after exercise to see to see if his actual fat tissue make-up was any different. Tests were also conducted to see if there was any difference in the ability of his muscles to store carbohydrate and how quickly the muscle would burn through carbohydrates. A resting metabolic test was conducted, which is an analysis of how much fat and carbohydrate is burned at rest. And another measurement was taken to determine how many carbohydrates, fats, and calories are burned during exercise.
What makes these tests interesting is even though most physiology textbooks claim that the average person will burn about 1.0 grams of fat per minute during exercise, the athletes who followed a ketogenic or low-carbohydrate diet for close to 12 month were experiencing fat oxidation values of closer to 1.5 to 1.8 grams of fat per minute. This is significantly higher than what experts expected.
Initially, there was some confusion pertaining to this study because it was called � The Faster Study.� Critics would say Ben wasn�t going any faster on the high fat/low carb diet than those on the high carb diet. What they neglected to understand was the purpose of the study wasn�t to go faster than those on high carb diets. Instead, the goal was to maintain similar speeds while limiting (and possibly eliminating) the chronic fluctuations and elevations of blood sugar.
Ben�s thought process behind the study was simple: If he could go just as fast by eliminating sugars, why not do it? If he slowed down or felt his energy levels being depleted, he�d be forced to ask himself the following questions as an endurance athlete:
What kind of balance did he want between health and performance?
How many years of his life was he willing to sacrifice in exchange for going just a little bit faster?
How much pressure was he willing to put on his joints?
As it turns out, Ben could go just as fast on a carbohydrate-limited diet.
Go Just as Fast, Live Longer
While people are focused on getting faster, the ultimate goal should be to go just as fast and live longer doing it. Unfortunately, many high-carb athletes have a wide assortment of health problems, which can range from joint problems to life threatening emergencies such as heart attacks. Many of them are dying prematurely and don�t realize a contributing factor to their ailments is the high carb diet they had been following for years. Ironically, many athletes are thin but show evidence of degenerative disease indicating years of inflammation and oxidative stress�caused by repeated glucose and insulin spikes. We know this damage is oxidative, is harmful to the cells, and causes premature aging.
There are many studies with research illustrating how endurance sports increase oxidation and aging, but I believe as more research is done this belief will change. Studies by Ben and others show that a fat-adapted endurance athlete does not have the same levels of oxidative stress as high carb endurance athletes. At age 50, I have 8% body fat and can exercise for hours without ingesting carbohydrates because, like Ben, I�m very efficient at fat burning.
I firmly believe Ben�s study proves that people who are efficient at fat burning can burn well over one gram of fat per minute of exercise, whereas before it was believed one gram (or less) was a more realistic number. It should be noted that in order to burn that much fat, a person has to be fat adapted. It�s impossible to accomplish this level of fat burning on a high-carbohydrate diet (read more on how to get fat-adapted here: Part 1 and Part 2.)
Fat Adaption: A trick to Accelerate the Process
Becoming an efficient fat burner takes time. Many of the athletes that Ben coaches have been on a high fat diet for twelve months or more. While the greatest benefits aren�t felt for several months, a person can experience lower blood sugar levels and less oxidation within a few short weeks of starting a high fat diet. However, in order to achieve the mitochondrial density necessary for producing a lot of ATP on a high-fat diet while exercising, a person will need to follow a high-fat diet for at least a year.
It can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years for a person to become fully efficient at burning fat. While some may balk at how long it can take, it�s not long when compared to the time it may take to become proficient in a sport, learning to play a musical instrument, or getting a college degree.
Adjusting to a high fat diet takes time and patience. To accelerate the process, one can choose to eat within a compressed time window, a strategy known as intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasts can range from 14-24 hours with just liquids being consumed. Intermittent fasting can be a challenge for beginners as the body begins to adapt, but becomes easier with each subsequent fast. I intermittent fast daily and must say it�s been the great contributor to my overall cellular health.
Some side effects beginners may experience while intermittent fasting the first few times may include the following
Fatigue
Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Headaches
Lack of focus
Bad breath
Lethargy
Joint pain
Minor depression
These side effects are normal as the body eliminates various toxins. Drinking pure water�helps to alleviate some side effects and quickly remove them from the body via urination. Staying focused on the long term is key when embarking on these changes.
Occasionally, I will receive emails from my clients or the doctors of my clients, telling me they are keto-adapted, but they�re not burning fat, they don�t notice any significant changes in their bodies, and they haven�t lost any weight. I explain how this is normal, and the body has to adjust. It takes time for the body to realize it is not starving and that it can begin to burn its own fat for energy. Using my wife as an example, it was almost a year before she was able to use her fat storage for energy. Now, she�s an efficient fat burner and finds it much easier to stay lean.
Not All Fat is the Same
An important aspect of being efficient at fat burning is the type of high fat diet you follow. A plant-rich, ketogenic diet not only limits oxidation and free radical production, but it also causes an increase in stable energy sources due to high fiber content. Having high levels of plant-based chlorophylls in the bloodstream also has the potential to increase ATP production beyond what we fully understand in nutrition science.
Ben encounters many people who follow the Bulletproof Coffee type of approach:
Three cups of coffee with grass-fed butter and MCT oil during the day
Coconut milk with some coconut flakes and some chocolate stevia
Fatty grass-fed steak for dinner
Macadamia nuts for a snack
The problem with this type of diet is there�s very little plant matter eaten, and plants are an integral part of a healthy high fat diet.
Ben Greenfield�s Diet
Ben eats an astonishing 20 to 25 servings of plants per day. He has an enormous backyard garden and eats kale, butter lettuce, bok choy, mustard greens, cilantro, parsley, and tomatoes daily. He says these foods do not count towards his total daily carbohydrate intake, and that eating a high-fat diet does not mean that you�re not eating plants. It�s the opposite. �I eat a lot of plants, a lot of fiber, and it makes a night-and-day difference.�
In order to get 20-25 servings Ben eats huge salads and drinks nutrient dense smoothies. He�ll drink one or two large smoothies a day, using a powerful blender that blends everything from the pit of an avocado to an entire bunch of kale. A sample smoothie includes the following ingredients:
Six to eight different plants (both wild plants and herbs)
Lunch. Lunch is a salad in an enormous bowl filled exclusively with vegetables. Ben will spend 30 to 60 minutes chewing each bite 20 to 25 times and �eating lunch like a cow while I go through emails and things like that during lunch.�
Dinner. Another big salad.
Snack. Snacks are normally smaller versions of the smoothie�he had for breakfast.
He stresses that his salads are extremely large and he prefers thicker smoothies: �If you were to see the size of my salads and the size of my smoothies, you would be shocked. You�d think I would be morbidly obese, but if you dig in and you look at it, it�s really just mostly plant volume. That�s generally what I do, salads and smoothies. I make them so thick I need to eat them with a spoon because I really like to chew my food. Yeah, I�m a smoothie and a salad guy.�
He goes on to say �When I look over the blood and bile markers of people following a high-fat diet, a lot of times I see really high triglycerides and really low HDL, which is often what you�ll see in someone who is eating a ton of animal fats without many plants or without much fiber. I�ll see a lot of CO2 and really low chloride levels, an indicator of a net acidic state, and a lot of biomarkers that aren�t necessarily favorable and that can be a result of a high-fat diet done improperly. I think that�s one important thing to bear in mind, too, is that you don�t want to necessarily eschew plant intake and vegetable intake; you just want to ensure that those are accompanied primarily by healthy fats and oils rather than accompanied by high amounts of protein and starches.�
When it comes to good fats, Ben prefers the following:
Animal fats are eaten sparingly. He�ll eat a grass-fed steak and wild fish a couple of times a week. He also likes pemmican, which comes in a tube that he can snack on while flying or if he needs a quick snack on the go.
When Ben was a bodybuilder, he would aim for 200 grams of protein per day but now only consumes between 100 to 120 grams. Currently, he weighs about 180 pounds and consumes between 0.5 and .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. He feels this is the amount is sufficient to avoid any loss of muscle.
Ben says he has excellent colonic health. Since he started the high fat diet four years ago, he doesn�t have the fermentation, gas, bloating, or constant gas that many endurance athletes have. He also believes the high fat diet offers a lower risk for things like small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and fermentation in the gut.
Diet Variation
In addition to eating a variety of plant based foods, an important eating concept that I have written about is something I like to call �diet variation,� which is basically emulating what our ancestors have done: They were forced into different diet variations seasonally, and in some instances, weekly.
When we look at the Hunza people as an example, they were relying mostly on plant food in the summers to survive. During the cold winter months, vegetables and fruits were scarce or nonexistent, and as a result, they were forced to eat higher-fat foods (meats and animal fats). Over time we can see a pattern: there would be long stretches where their diet consisted mostly of vegetables (summer,) then extended periods of time where their diet was mainly meat products (winter.) This type of seasonal eating created a variation in their diet they had little control over. Today, we have the ability to vary our diet at all times, which can work for us and against us.
I go into ketosis every summer and eat more good fats and protein than I do in the winter, when I eat more healthy carbs. Like Ben, I�m very fat adapted, yet still able to stay in ketosis while eating a lot of plants in my diet. I intermittent fast in the morning and by the afternoon I�m burning high ketones.
One of the popular diet trends these days is the Paleo Diet, where a person is instructed to eat large amounts of protein. Quite frankly, I am not a fan of this diet. I have read many studies on high-protein diets and feel they are not healthy. Eating too much protein can cause weight gain, extra body fat, increased stress on the kidneys, dehydration and other health issues.
If you include the dangers of eating grain fed beef instead of the healthier grass fed beef, we can clearly see how the Paleo Diet could be a recipe for disaster. I tell people as a general rule, eating protein that is equivalent to half your body weight (considering that you�re not morbidly obese) is usually safe and practical. Athletes like Ben (and those who do a lot of strenuous physical exercise) can consume more protein than the average person and utilize it safely. These individuals may require 0.7 to 0.8 grams of protein per day, while the average person only needs .55 grams per day.
Fasting
Ben goes on a 24 hour fast once a month, just to �clean things out a little bit.� He will start the fast Saturday at lunchtime end it at lunchtime on Sunday. Or, he�ll skip dinner on Saturday night and won�t eat again until dinner on Sunday. He�ll drink water, coffee�and tea primarily during the fast, and kombucha on occasion. He also goes on a 12-16-hour intermittent fast daily. The majority of the fast is overnight where he�ll finish dinner around 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. and eat breakfast sometime 9 and 10:30 a.m. During the daily fast, Ben will perform a few low-level exercises in the morning: yoga, foam rolling, or mobility work are exercises of choice.
In addition to daily intermittent fasting, Ben believes a likely factor that helps him to stay lean and maintain a low body fat percentage is taking cold showers. He likes to do one of the following daily:
Fast, perform a low intensity exercises then take cold shower or�
Fast, sit in a sauna for a few minutes, followed immediately with a cold shower.
Ben�s Exercise Regimen
Ben is active all day, but in an unconventional way:
�I generally am active all day long. Today, while I�m writing, doing consults, and reading emails, I�ll walk somewhere in the range of three to five miles at a low intensity like I am right now. When I get up in the morning, I�ll generally spend 20 to 30 minutes doing some deep-tissue work and some mobility work, some foam roller, and some band work for traction on my joints. By the time I get to the end of the day, I�ve been mildly physically active for six to eight hours at just very low-level intensity.
�At the end of the day, I�ll throw in 30 to 60 minutes of a hard workout. That might be a tennis match. It might be kickboxing or jujitsu. It might be some kind of an obstacle course workout with sandbags, and kettlebells, and things like that. It might be a swim. It varies quite a bit, but generally it�s 30 to 60 minutes of something hard in the afternoon to the early evening, then up until that point, low-level physical activity all day long. It�s just tough to quantify because I�m always moving. As far as a formal workout, it comes out to about 30 to 60 minutes a day. We�re talking about a workout where the average heart rate is very close to maximum heart rate, so like a puke-fest style workout. That�s pretty draining from an energy standpoint. Generally, for me to do daily�exceeding 16-hour fasts daily�that gets tough.�
What�s Next For Ben?
Ben is an outdoorsman and wants to experiment with living on the land:
�I�d like to look into more of an ancestral application, a more practical application. I would like to look a little bit more into persistence hunting, something closer to where I live where I�d be going after elk or moose or something like that, preferably in the snow where tracking is a little bit easier, but seeing if it�s doable.
�A five to eight day hunt is realistically what you�re looking at with a bow, or with a spear, or with a close-range weapon, and seeing if it�s possible to actually go and get your own food in the absence of food, just to begin to get people thinking about the state that we live in, the culture that we live in where food is just constantly readily available. What would happen if we didn�t have food but we had to figure out a way to feed ourselves?�
Ben also shares the outdoor life with his children: One day week in the summers, they can only eat the plants they find outside in the garden until dinner. As part of their childhood, he wants them to learn how to take care of themselves. They can use the stove and the blender, stuff like that, but they can�t use ingredients from the pantry, or from the refrigerator. It�s all based on plants.
While many people may think this way of thinking and living is extreme, Ben believes more people can benefit from it if they stay open minded and give it a try:
�I would like to get people more aware of that type of practice because it really goes quite handily with the things that we�ve talked about�fasting and ketosis, and denial of modern food sources and starches and instead just learning how to take care of yourself. I think that there�s a lot of lessons to be had from a health and survival standpoint, and so plant foraging, spreading our message, as well as the potential of seeing the persistence hunting in the absence of any significant sources of calories, to be able to take what allows one to, say, do an Ironman Triathlon with very little calorie intake and then turn that into a more practical level like going out and getting your own meat and stuff. Again, without carrying a bunch of power-bars out with you, I think that�d be a cool little adventure to embark upon.�
A Life of Fitness
Ben believes fitness is a lifestyle, and everyone can incorporate fitness into their daily activities:
If you work in a traditional office setting, put a kettlebell underneath your desk.
Get one of these stools that you lean back on rather than sitting down.
Every time that you go to the bathroom have a rule that you�ve got to do 50 air squats.
�Start to work in those little things throughout the day. You�d be surprise at how fit you can stay and how prepared you can be for a big event without necessarily neglecting your family, your friends, hobbies, or work.�
Ben Greenfield is an inspiration. His research on high fat diets is sure to revolutionize the way athletes view diet and endurance exercise as a whole.
Chronic fatigue syndrome, a baffling disorder that affects an estimated 1 million Americans, has been strongly linked to imbalances in gut bacteria in a new study from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
The researchers found abnormal levels of specific gut bacteria are found in people with the condition — formally known as myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), according to the study published in the journal Microbiome.
The findings offer new hope for an effective new way to diagnose and treat ME/CFS, a complex, sometimes-debilitating disorder that can interfere with activities of daily living.
Symptoms include extreme fatigue after exertion, muscle and joint pain, cognitive dysfunction, sleep disturbances, and orthostatic intolerance (light-headedness, dizziness, or fainting when standing upright).
Up to 90 percent of ME/CFS patients also have irritable bowel syndrome IBS, past research has shown. But the Columbia University study is among the first to disentangle microbiome imbalances in individuals with ME/CFS and IBS.
“Individuals with ME/CFS have a distinct mix of gut bacteria and related metabolic disturbances that may influence the severity of their disease,” says co-lead investigator Dr. Dorottya Nagy-Szakal.
The findings suggest sufferers may be able to ease their symptoms by incorporating certain probiotics — healthy bacteria — in their diets, to balance their gut bacteria.
To reach their conclusions, the researchers tracked 50 ME/CFS patients and 50 others without the condition. They tested subjects’ fecal samples for bacterial species, and blood samples for immune molecules.
The study’s key findings show that:
Levels of distinct intestinal bacterial species —Faecalibacterium, Roseburia, Dorea, Coprococcus, Clostridium, Ruminococcus, Coprobacillus — are strongly associated with ME/CFS.
The abundance of these species appears to be predictive of a ME/CFS diagnosis.
An abundance of Alistipes and low levels of Faecalibacterium are the top biomarkers of ME/CFS with IBS. Increased Bacteroides abundance and decreased Bacteroides vulgatus are the top biomarkers of ME/CFS without IBS.
The researchers also noted the severity of patients’ symptoms — such as pain and fatigue — correlated with the abundance of distinct bacterial types.
“Our analysis suggests that we may be able to subtype patients with ME/CFS by analyzing their fecal microbiome,” says co-lead investigator Dr. Brent L. Williams, Ph.D. “Subtyping may provide clues to understanding differences in manifestations of disease.”
The study also points toward a possible mechanism behind the development of ME/CFS.
“ME/CFS may involve a breakdown in the bidirectional communication between the brain and the gut mediated by bacteria, their metabolites, and the molecules they influence,” explains senior author Dr. W. Ian Lipkin.
“By identifying the specific bacteria involved, we are one step closer to more accurate diagnosis and targeted therapies.”
So far, researchers have not identified the cause of ME/CFS. Nor are there any standard diagnostic lab tests or federally-approved treatments for the condition. For reasons that are unclear, women are two to four more times likely than men to have ME/CFS.
Because MD/CFS is so variable, treatment focuses on individual symptom control. Conventional approaches include prescription medications to treat anxiety, depression, and insomnia; graded exercise, physical therapy, and psychological counseling including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
Adjunctive therapies to help manage pain and fatigue include:
Acupuncture.
Biofeedback.
Deep breathing exercises.
Hypnosis.
Massage.
Meditation.
Muscle relaxation techniques.
Yoga or tai chi.
Preliminary but inconclusive research suggests that some natural remedies may be helpful for ME/CFS, according to the Mayo Clinic. These include:
Magnesium injected into the muscles of people with low red blood cell magnesium.
A combination supplement containing fish oil and evening primrose oil.
Melatonin.
Nicotinamide.
Adenine dinucleotide hydrate (NADH).
Coenzyme Q10.
Propionyl-L-carnitine.
D-ribose.
Although the new Columbia University study suggests that probiotic supplements may be helpful for ME/CFS, more research is needed, experts say.
A 2009 study of 39 ME/CFS patients, however, showed that the Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota (LcS) was associated with significantly reduced anxiety symptoms compared to placebo.
Despite previous reports, Vitamin D supplements are unlikely to reduce the risk of asthma, atopic dermatitis, or allergies according to a new Canadian study.
Carried out by researchers from McGill University, Canada, and the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, Canada, team looked at genetic and health data on more than 100,000 participants from previous large-scale studies to determine whether genetic changes associated with vitamin D levels lead to a greater chance of developing asthma, atopic dermatitis (an itchy inflammation of the skin) or high IgE levels (an immune molecule linked to allergies).
Previous research has linked low vitamin D levels to all three of the conditions.
Contrary to these previous results, the new research found no statistically significant differences between people with or without any of the four genetic changes associated with lower levels of vitamin D and rates of asthma (including childhood-onset asthma), atopic dermatitis, or IgE levels.
The team pointed out that the study did have its limitations, including looking only at white populations of European ancestry, and they now recommend further research in non-European populations and those with a vitamin D deficiency.
However, the team’s findings from a recent study using the same participants did suggest that low vitamin D levels increase risk for other inflammatory diseases, with evidence for a causal link between low vitamin D levels and multiple sclerosis, a common neurological disorder more common in white people of European descent and women.
These findings suggest those at risk for multiple sclerosis should ensure that they have adequate vitamin D levels, while researchers concluded increasing levels of vitamin D is unlikely to result in a reduced risk of asthma or dermatitis in adults and children, with lead author of the study Dr. Despoina Manousaki, adding that, “Our findings suggest that previous associations between low vitamin D and atopic disease could be due to spurious associations with other factors.”
The findings can be found published in PLOS Medicine.
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