Doesn’t it feel like summer is already blasting past?

On the first days of summer, the first thought that comes to many women’s minds (and some men’s minds too) is “how am I going to put on a bathing suit?” The fear of having to don revealing clothing in warm-weather months can trigger some women to adopt extreme diets, dangerously intense exercise routines or even prompt them to become depressed and unwilling to participate in fun summer activities with their friends and families.

What Causes a Negative Body Image?

Feeling unhappy about the way you look can start at a very young age. In fact, a recent study by University of Central Florida researchers found that nearly half of 3 to 6 year old girls surveyed said they worry about being fat, while one-third said they would change an aspect of their appearance, such as their weight or hair color.

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 A healthy sex life is undeniably an important part of a healthy lifestyle, and there is, in fact, research to prove it. Assuming it is done with a partner you can trust, and no sexually transmitted diseases are involved, the benefits of sexual relations include:

You both dream about sex, but you and your partner may have very different things in mind.

• Relief from depression and stress: “The release from orgasm does much to calm people. It helps with sleep, and that is whether we talk about solo sex or sex with a partner,” says Jennifer Bass, the head of information services at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction in Bloomington, Indiana, in an MSNBC article.
• Reduced risk of heart disease: A study by researchers at Queens University in Belfast found that men who had sex three times a week or more reduced their risk of heart attack and stroke by half.
• Pain relief: Levels of the hormone oxytocin surge to five times their normal level right before orgasm, and this releases pain-relieving endorphins in your body.
• A strong immune system: An antibody that boosts your immune system, immunoglobulin A, is 30 percent higher in people who have sex once or twice a week, according to researchers from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
• A reduced risk of prostate cancer. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that frequent ejaculation is linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer.

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Sodium nitrite (or sodium nitrate) is widely used as a preservative, antimicrobial agent, color fixative and flavoring in cured meats and other products.

Why You May Want to Avoid Nitrites. Though this preservative has been studied for more than 50 years, there is still ongoing debate as to whether or not it’s harmful. Some experts say that the health claims against the preservative have “not been substantiated” while others recommend avoiding them in your diet entirely.

Numerous studies have found that nitrites contribute to a variety of negative health effects, which we’ve compiled here.

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Though the thought of counting calories and measuring portions doesn’t bring smiles to most people’s faces, many people succumb to such dieting measures because they believe it will improve their health.

However, according to a two-year study published in an issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, if you’re looking to achieve long-term health improvements, behavior changes and self-acceptance are more effective than dieting any day of the week.

The other half were assigned to a non-dieting group that focused on paying attention to internal body cues about hunger, letting go of restrictive “diet-like” eating habits and working with negative self-image. After two years, the researchers found:In the study of 78 obese women, aged 30-45, half were assigned to a dieting group, which focused on counting calories and fat content, restricting food consumption and monitoring their weight.

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Another article on fish oil was recently published saying that fish oil causes prostate cancer!

Many news outlets including Fox News, Health News, Nursing Times and CNN picked this study up and immediately warned people about a prostate cancer risk from taking fish oil.

Unfortunately, this was misrepresentation by the news media (once again). In point of fact, in the study no fish oil supplements, or any kind of supplement for that matter were were even given! What the study did was look at blood levels of long chain fatty acids such as those found in fish, in otherwise healthy people.

What the study did find was that there was an association between higher blood levels of DHA levels and prostate cancer. DHA is one component of fish oil. Again this was an associational study and certainly does not prove cause-and-effect. All the hysteria was just the news media wanting attention.

The lead scientist in the study Dr. Alan Krystal, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle is quoted as saying “We’ve shown once again that use of nutritional supplements may be harmful”. How can he say that when fish oils were not even used in this study? One can only impute that he was using this as a way to criticize the use of supplements, which in my opinion is just reflective of a strong anti-supplement bias as well as a desire for shocking headlines by the author. There were NO supplements used in this study!

What to do?

As you can tell from the previous article, that shows no benefit for protecting against heart disease by taking fish oil, I’m not a big advocate of everybody continuing to take fish oil.

However I’ve gotten so many emails about this “Fish oil–Prostate Cancer” link, that I feel it only fair that I give you my perspective that this study does not show a relationship between taking fish oil and prostate cancer, because no fish oil was given!

In summary, I encourage all my patients and readers to learn more about the Parent Essential Oils, which I think is the future of our taking oil capsules for our health.

Let me know what you think. I look forward to being in dialogue with you about this.

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A recent major article in the New England Journal of Medicine has once again raised the question of whether there any benefit in taking fish oil to prevent heart disease.

This was a very large study with over 12,000 patients followed over five years. One group received fish oil supplements and one group received placebo.

The conclusion of this massive study was: “In a large general–practice cohort of patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors, daily treatment with n-3 (fish oil) fatty acids did not reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity.”

Wow! What a shocking conclusion after all these years!

A very prestigious cardiologist Eric Toprol, M.D., from Scripps clinic in La Jolla California, who is also the editor-in-chief of the heart.org has posted a video blog HERE, where he reviews this study. I urge you to watch it.

A quote from the video is “I have an awful lot of patients who come to me on fish oil, and I implore them to stop taking it. The present study, with its efficacious dose, arms physicians with data to tell patients who have not had an MI (heart attack) and who don’t have heart failure, that n-3 fatty acid supplementation with fish oil is not effective.” Dr. Topol called fish a “no go”, and he noted that if the supplement had no effect in such a high risk patient population as in this study, it’s hard to imagine fish oil will provide any benefit in lower risk subjects.

He continued on to say “Fish oil does nothing. We can’t continue to argue that we didn’t give the right dose or the right preparation. It’s a nada effect”.

So what should we do about the Oil question?

My recommendation to the majority of my patients is to use Parent Essential Oils (PEOs). We use these oils very actively at the clinic and I invite you to ask me about them at your next office visit.

PEO’s are plant derived and there is a tremendous amount of evidence on how they protect us again Heart Disease, Cancer and Diabetes.

A new book called The PEO Solution is coming out in November 2013 that will review all the data in a layman’s language. You can get information on the book HERE. You can read chapter 7 of the book HERE.

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 Parents of teenagers are likely familiar with the array of media outlets — iPads, TV, cell phones, stereos, video games and computers — that many teens are glued to at all hours of the day.

The lure of these electronics may be damaging kids’ health, causing them to not get enough sleep, nor enough quality sleep, according to a poll of 1,000 teens conducted by the Sleep Council.

The survey of 12- to 16-year-olds found that:

• 30 percent of teens sleep just four to seven hours a night on school nights, instead of the recommended eight to nine hours.
• 23 percent say they fall asleep watching TV, listening to music or while using other electronics more than once a week.
• 19 percent admitted that leaving on the TV or computer impacted the quality of their sleep.
• 98.5 percent have a phone, music system or TV in their bedroom, and over 65 percent have all three.
• 40 percent say they generally feel tired.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Wow! It took them long enough, but the American Medical Association has finally, with great fanfare, declared in a policy statement, that obesity is a disease.

What took them so long?  Other organizations including Medicare have tacitly accepted obesity as a disease, for some years. Even the Internal Revenue service has stated that obesity treatments can qualify for tax deductions.

This new AMA declaration is a good thing because so many other diseases including heart disease, congestive heart, Diabetes, sleep apnea, stroke, hypertension, osteoarthritis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), some cancers, depression and even erectile dysfunction are related to obesity.

There are both benefits and liabilities to this new announcement however. The benefits are that insurance companies will pay more attention to the problem. In addition drug companies and surgery companies will pay more attention to this diagnosis. I am hopeful that integrative medicine clinics will be reimbursed for the diet and lifestyle changes that they help bring about that also reduces obesity.

However the “medicalizing” of obesity which affects one third of the American public, could also lead to greater medical costs. If Medicare starts covering treatments for obesity, what will that do to the national bill for bariatric surgeries which cost up to $40,000? People will demand the surgery as it will be covered by their insurance.

What effect would it have on the government “allowing” junk food for obese people?

All these and many many more questions are brought up by this new annoucement . Only time will bring us the answers.

However as all my patients and readers know my integrative medicine colleagues and I feel that diet and lifestyle changes, are the only real way to manage this epidemic.

What are your thoughts! Let me know by email or in person.

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For a Different Perspective  Click HERE 

Thousands of different types of bacteria exist naturally in our environment. Some are necessary and quite healthy, like probiotics that support digestive health. Others, however, like the ones you’ll read about below, can cause serious disease.

The number of bacteria that can cause illness in humans is only a small fraction of those that exist. So while it’s not necessary, or even possible, to avoid all bacteria, you should be aware of these toxic varieties, and how to keep yourself and your family safe.

1. Staphylococcus Aureus

Staphylococcus aureus bacteria are present in the nasal passages, throats, hair and skin of 50 percent of healthy people, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If concentrated in large quantities in foods, however, it can cause food poisoning that results in nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramping.

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When the thermometer climbs over 80 degrees F, you can easily become fatigued just from being outside in the heat. Once the temperature rises above 90 degrees — a common occurrence during the dog days of summer in the United States — you’re at a very real risk for sunstroke, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

In terms of its potential to harm you, only the cold of winter poses a greater threat than the summer heat, according to the National Weather Service, so knowing how to keep cool is essential to your, and your family’s safety.

This summer, here are the top things that you should AVOID doing to beat the summer heat.

Click here to find out the 12 things to avoid.