I attended a 10 hour intensive Yoga Course this past weekend in LA- all day this past Saturday! I’ve been taking courses like this for the last 40 years, and have grown tremendously from this practice. I am so glad to see yoga getting popularized for all to benefit from.

This past week, Lift Brands, the parent Company to Snap Fitness, announced it was partnering with the largest yoga training program in the world to offer a 24/7-year-old franchise concept called YogaFit Studios.

Peter Taunton,the founder of Lift Brands and CEO stated “Our goal is to open 1000 domestic studios over the next five years‚Ķ We are confident yoga is here to stay and we are targeting aggressive expansion.”

It is now estimated that 20 million Americans practice yoga and spent nearly $6 billion annually in classes, yoga equipment and DVDs and more.

Mr Taunton is offering YogaFit franchises to yoga instructors who want to start their own center. You can learn more about this HERE.

Right on the heels of this exciting announcement is a new study that shows that yoga reduces fatigue and inflammation for breast cancer patients. This study was published in the very prestigious Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Those breast cancer patients who practiced yoga reported about 50% less fatigue than those in the control group and had 20% lower levels of three proteins in the blood that are markers for inflammation. These proteins that are generated by the immune system are known to cause fatigue, headaches and general malaise when we develop an infection.

It was also found that the more times a woman practiced yoga each week, the lower the levels of her tiredness and inflammation. In addition these benefits persisted for three months after the study ended. This is indeed exciting information.

In addition, excessive inflammation is also linked to a higher risk of breast cancer recurrence and most of the chronic diseases that we have in our world today. This includes diabetes, osteoporosis and heart disease. All of these diseases will probably benefit from yoga !

You can read more about it here.

It is wonderfully exciting to me to see this most powerful tool for self centering and consciousness expansion -yoga-being offered on such a widescale to our entire country. Are you taking or teaching yoga classes yet?

A New Movie

Along with the consciousness expansion that yoga offers us, I am delighted to announce a new movie that was just released this past weekend called Fed Up.

This movie expands our consciousness in a different way than yoga does. It shows us what is going on in the food industry and how we’ve all been seduced into eating junk food. This movie is stated to “reveal a 30 year campaign by the food industry, aided by the US government, to mislead and confuse the American public, resulting in one of the largest health epidemics in history.

Katie Kouric stars in the film which is produced by Laurie David and directed by Stephaine Soechtig.

Check your local listings closely. In Los Angeles the movie is showing in only one theater on the west side of LA.

Here is the preview for your review.

In addition I strongly urge you watch this other video on Sugar: The Bitter Truth:

Please watch your children’s diets and educate them to eat healthy to avoid the epidemic of bad health that is expected to occur in our children and grandchildren.

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Like me Facebook where you can leave me questions and comments.

Also remember to visit my Healthy Living Shop where you can get physician quality supplements for you health!

First time buyers can use the code VPP10FT for a one time discount of 10% (before shipping, handling and tax)

Wishing you the best of health!

Dr Soram

Health Interactive LA

Pictured below from left to right are my colleagues Alan Greene, M.D., Myself and John La Puma, M.D.

This past Saturday – two days ago-,I was a speaker at the Los Angeles Health Interactive in Santa Monica California. I was on a panel with John La Puma, M.D., which was entitled “Your Health Questions Answered.” Dr. La Puma and I took questions from the audience, answering everything from “what to do for psoriasis”, to “how to get started meditating.”

I got to meet and hang out with Dr. Alan Greene, M.D., who is a very practical and naturally oriented pediatrician who is endeavoring to putting the care back into children’s health. You can’s visit his site here. He spoke on “Useful technology leading to a healthier America”.

Also, my good friend Ashley Koff, R.D.,pictured with me below, spoke on “Qualitarian Eating”.

The event was a lot of fun, and there were many interesting exhibitors with lots of new health products.

The organizers told me that my session will be available by video and I will let you know as soon as is posted.

Busy Weekend!

After speaking at the Health Interactive event, I immediately headed to Orange County to attend a seminar led by my longtime colleague Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D. The title of the seminar was “Personalized Lifestyle Medicine: the Future of Health Care.”

Aside from Dr. Bland speaking, my colleagues Mark Hyman M.D. and Deanna Minich, Ph.D. spoke about the future of healthcare and the need for personalized lifestyle medicine.

I will give you a more detailed update in a future blog post.

As promised, I want to review some of the highlights from the recent conference on the relation between our gut, our brain, our immune system and our food.

To the right, you will see me pictured with my colleague Joel Kahn, M.D. who was one of the speakers. Joel spoke on the relationship of gluten to celiac disease.I did not realize there was such a strong connection. Specifically, cardiomyopathy, which is an intrinsic disease of the muscle the heart, is one of the most common diseases associated with celiac disease.

Reference

There is an epidemic of Atrial Fibrillation now in our society amongst the baby-boomers. Recent studies have shown that celiac disease can be a cause of atrial fibrillation. In addition, studies have shown a relationship between celiac disease and the functioning of the inner lining of the blood vessels of the heart. Specifically, the study found endothelial dysfunction in celiac patients.

Atrial Fib Reference

Endothelium and Celiac

Finally, I am finding more and more patients with elevated homocysteine levels. Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood. It is analogous to cholesterol but not related to cholesterol or our diet. An elevation of the blood level of this amino acid,increases the risk for heart disease and cancer. This subsequent study found that in celiac disease, patients’ exclusion of gluten would normalize their homocysteine level. This would make it so that it is not necessary to use medications to help people with celiac disease, who have a high [homocysteine]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homocysteine)

Reference

Again, the studies I am mentioning to you have shown the relationship of celiac disease and heart disease. I raise the question of what happens to patients who have “incomplete celiac” disease. I.e. Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity?

I talk to my patients all the time about how health is on a spectrum. Even though celiac disease is way over in the disease column, what about the effects on the heart of gluten sensitivity that is not at this time documented to be celiac disease?

If you have friends or relatives with cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, or elevated homocysteine, suggest to them that their doctor should check them for celiac disease. Hopefully, research will show us whether having Non-celiac gluten sensitivity has any relation to these cardiovascular conditions as well.