Skin Wellness- How to Maintain Your Beautiful Exterior

Posted on May 6, 2013 by mcminnclinic

True story: Her hands were cracked, dried, bleeding and painfully burning. She had tried all of the usual over-the-counter remedies, and had been to 4 different dermatologists. She had been placed on numerous prescription salves, and she had taken oral steroids and other medications. Still she suffered for months on end with no relief. Nothing was working. She came to see me as the doctor of last resort. I started with a history and then proceeded with an examination. She was dry all over, but her hands were in particularly bad shape as described above. After contemplating the issue, I started her on a targeted nutritional program to build her skin health from the inside out. When I saw her back in the office a few months later, I could hardly believe my eyes! Her hands were as smooth as a baby’s bottom. The thick, dry skin was gone. There was no sign of the cracking and bleeding. The patient was relieved that she didn’t have to live a life of suffering with this painful condition, and she was delighted with the outcome. I shared her joy in seeing such an amazing recovery. All of this was accomplished with no drugs, but only by fixing her gut and giving her body the nutrients it needed to heal itself.

I use this story to illustrate the importance of skin health, and to point out that we need to build skin health from the inside out. We tend to take our skin for granted until something goes wrong. Also, we focus on the cosmetic topical aspect of skin care while ignoring the underlying functional and structural integrity of the skin. Certainly topicals may be helpful, but attention to the fundamentals of nutrition, hydration, hormone optimization, detoxification, and stress management plays a crucial role in optimal skin health.

Skin is the largest of all of our bodily organs. It is what interacts with and protects us from our environment; heat, cold, chemicals, UV radiation, and infection. It has many important bodily functions such as: detoxification, regulating hydration, and controlling body temperature. It carries blood vessels, and is home to many of our nerve endings. It houses the fifth sense, which is the sense of touch. Finally, it is the first thing that we and others see, so understandably it is important for our appearance to others and our own sense of self.

It is also important to understand that many underlying medical conditions, including nutrient deficiencies and toxins, may manifest themselves as skin conditions. Drug reactions, cancer, infections, gut dysfunction, rheumatologic conditions, allergies, and more may present as skin conditions. Stress, both acute and chronic, may affect the appearance and health of the skin. All sorts of skin conditions, including eczema, psoriasis, and hives may experience an exacerbation during a time of intense stress.

As you can see, skin is not just something to hold our innards in. It deserves its rightful place, right up there with heart and brains, in the list of complex and important organs. Now here are some tips to help you maintain beautiful, glowing, youthful, healthy skin at all stages of life.

*Attend to the foundations of wellness: Nutrition, optimal hydration, exercise and restorative sleep. All of these affect your skin health.

*Diet: It all starts with what you eat. Start with a whole food (not processed food), mainly plant food diet, with added lean protein, and some “good fats.” Your body needs the fiber to keep the gut healthy which affects the skin. Your skin needs the bioflavenoids for healthy vessels and blood supply for the skin. It needs the protein to help build the skin. It needs the good fats to build healthy cell walls and lubricate the skin.

*Foods rich in the “good fats” include: salmon (and other cold water fish), walnuts, canola oil, olive oil, flax seed, flax oil, and fish oils.

*Maintain good gut health. Good digestion, absorption, and metabolism are important for these nutrients to get to the source.

*Add a good multi-vitamin and multi-mineral

*Also add extra beta-carotene, biotin, and B complex

*Add extra anti-oxidants: Vitamin A, C, E, D, and selenium.

*Antioxidant rich foods such as blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, plums, and green tea may also be helpful.

*Avoid frequent prolonged hot baths and hot tubs.

*Avoid harsh detergents.

*Avoid over exposure to household cleaners and chemicals.

*Avoid lotions, oils, sprays, sunscreens, etc. with toxins and harsh chemicals.

*Acupuncture and Chinese herbals may also be helpful.

*Avoid sugar, simple carbs, and processed food.

*Get your hormones tested, optimized, and balanced. Hormones play a critical role in maintaining skin health.

*Healthy levels of testosterone for men and women are important for skin moisture thickness.

*As women lose their estrogen, everything dries out, creating a significant increase in facial wrinkles. Supplementation with bio-identical estrogen can help tremendously. Also, topical estriol face cream may also be very effective for wrinkles, and skin moisture

*Don’t smoke- this is disastrous for your skin.

*Avoid overexposure to the sun or tanning beds.

*Use natural skin care products without toxins.

*Dry brush exfoliation in the AM before your shower may also be helpful.

*Topical Vit C and Vit E, and regular skin care may also be helpful.

Bottom line: Take care of your skin, so that it can take care of you.

Osteoporosis

Posted on May 2, 2013 by mcminnclinic

Osteoporosis (thinning bones) is one of the most dreaded diseases of women, and with just cause. Like a silent killer it sneaks up on its victim without symptoms, until finally it becomes a potentially fatal disease. About 30 million Americans suffer from osteoporosis, 80% of whom are women. In fact, in the United States nearly 50 percent of all women between the ages of forty-five and seventy suffer from some degree of osteoporosis. About a quarter of these will eventually go on to have a hip fracture later in life, many of whom will die of complications related to the fracture. In fact, the lifetime risk of death from a broken hip for a 55 year old woman rivals the death risk from breast cancer. The ravages of osteoporosis are not confined to broken hips however. Thinning bones also result in other fractures, as well as collapsed vertebrae, disfigurement, disability, and chronic pain. Overall osteoporosis results in an $18 billion price tag for the American health care system.

So why is this becoming such an epidemic? As with many other common diseases, the modern American diet, sedentary lifestyle, and stress have a lot to do with it. In some less developed cultures, osteoporosis is actually quite rare. Our high sugar, processed food, fast food diets often don’t have the vitamins and minerals needed to build new bone. Also, we don’t get out in the sun as much as we used to. This creates a lack of vitamin D, which is necessary for building healthy bones. Weight bearing exercise also stimulates bone strengthening, but more and more, we have become a sedentary society. Finally, our body reacts to this stressed out culture we live in by raising levels of the hormone cortisol, which then results in thinning of the bones.

What actually happens in osteoporosis? Childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood are the prime opportunities for building strong bones. Our skeletal system reaches its greatest density at about the age of thirty. After that we start a long steady decline. With the onset of menopause, women begin an accelerated period of bone loss. In fact white women in America tend to loose 30-40% of their bone mass between the ages of 55-70.

So who’s at risk? Women are at greater risk than men, and caucasian women are at greater risk than African-American women. Asian women fall somewhere in the middle. In general you’re at greater risk if you’re fair skinned and blue eyed, if you’re thin or small framed, if you smoke, if you’re sedentary, if you rarely get out doors, if you drink too much alcohol or coffee, or if you went through long term depression. You’re also at increased risk if you went through late puberty or early menopause, if you have a poor diet, if you have a history of chronic liver or kidney disease, if you took steroid drugs for an extended period of time, if you had a hysterectomy with ovariectomy, if you have a history of anorexia or bulimia, if you’ve had a prolonged absence of menstrual periods, or if you don’t get enough calcium in your diet. Stress and a poor immune system may also contribute to bone loss. Osteoporosis tends to run in families, so if your mom has it, you’re more likely to get it. Some drugs such as those in the Prilosec or Nexium family put the patient at significant increased risk of osteoporosis.

The key is to get tested. Ideally one should get tested with a bone density screening either before or during perimenopause. Although the fractures don’t show up until later, it helps to get a baseline test in order to establish a trend later on.

Hormones play an important role in bone health. In fact, the primary cause of osteoporosis is hormonal imbalances that interfere with the bone-forming cells. Estrogen prevents bone loss. Progesterone, and to a lesser degreee, testosterone, actually help to build new bone. Together, progesterone and estrogen offer a powerful one-two punch against thinning bone disease. DHEA, melatonin, growth hormone, and calcitonin also support sturdy bones. On the other hand excessive levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), and too much thyroid can lead to bone loss. When it comes to using hormones for bone health, I prefer to use bio-identical hormones. Artificial progestins have actually been found to cause bone thinning.

Here is a game plan to help you to keep your bones strong:

*Healthy diet

*Regular exercise (especially weight bearing)

*Stress reduction

*Targeted nutritional supplementation

*Bio-identical hormone Optimization.

The optimal bone- building diet should include foods that are rich in the building blocks of bones such as nuts, seeds, flax, soy, fish, yogurt, broccoli, and green leafy vegetables. At the same time we should avoid excessive caffeine and alcohol, sugar, and refined grain. Eliminate soda from your diet and reduce red meat. Keep a lid on the added salt and avoid processed foods. Supplements should contain calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, boron, silicon, vitamin C, strontium, and vitamin K.

Take care of your bones and they’ll carry you through into your happy, healthy, vibrant golden years.

Yeast Overgrowth Syndrome

Posted on January 2, 2013 by mcminnclinic

“I never got better until they treated the yeast.” I have heard this statement many times from patients suffering from various maladies such as headaches, brain fog, depression, irritable bowel, chronic sinusitis, weight gain, and fatigue. Due to the modern day world that we live in I am seeing more and more people suffering with yeast overgrowth. Old fashioned doctors used to say that “good health starts in the gut.” I think that they were right.

Poor gut health can manifest itself in many ways. Ideally we have a perfect balance in our guts with good bacteria, bad bacteria, and yeast. It is a symbiotic relationship. We can not live without our friends the “good bacteria.” Yet the modern American lifestyle tends to promote poor gut health. The standard American diet (or SAD diet) is full of sugar, simple carbs, and processed food, which is not good for the body, but which is ideal for the overgrowth of yeast. Yeast loves to feed off of sugar. When you combine this with the overuse of antibiotics in our society, it makes for a toxic environment in our guts, and that is often the beginning of a slippery slope to worsening health.

Chronic sinusitis is a classic example. We go to the doctor with a stuffy nose, and the standard response is to start antibiotics. However, according to the Mayo Clinic “fungus (yeast) is the likely cause of nearly all of these problems.” So in the long run, if we don’t treat the yeast, the antibiotics kill the bacteria, promote more yeast overgrowth and they can actually make the problem worse.

At McMinn Clinic we have Yeast Overgrowth Syndrome on our radar screen, and when appropriate we treat yeast overgrowth with a comprehensive and robust anti-fungal protocol. We have been blessed with many testimonials from our patients with stories of recovery, often after suffering with symptoms of yeast overgrowth for many years.

Call McMinn Clinic at 868-1313 and set up your appointment for a thorough evaluation for yeast overgrowth syndrome.

“Good Health Starts in the Gut.”

Posted on August 20, 2012 by mcminnclinic

As I reviewed the long list of initial symptoms, I was happy to hear the patient say that everything was “better, better, gone.”

Dr. McMinn: “How is the fatigue?”

Patient: “It’s much better doctor.”

Dr. McMinn: “How is the brain fog and anxiety?”

Patient: “They’re also much better.”

Dr. McMinn: “How is the diarrhea?”

Patient: “It’s gone.”

This patient had been to doctor after doctor for her various symptoms, but it wasn’t until we addressed her gut issues that she got better.

Old fashioned country doctors used to say that “good health starts in the gut,” and as I have become an older and perhaps wiser physician, I have become abundantly convinced that they were right all along.

Other organs may be “sexier” but the gut is where wellness begins. We marvel at the processing ability of the incredible human brain, and the heart amazes us with it heroic pumping marathon. We manicure our nails, and fuss over our hair. However, we take the lowly gut for granted, as if we’d rather not acknowledge, much less to glorify, a mere poop factory. Yet the oft-ignored gut frequently holds the key to good health, and likewise poor gut heath may manifest in all sorts of bodily havoc. I have seen miracle cures for many different maladies by attending to gut issues. Seemingly unrelated diseases and symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, headaches, rashes, asthma, arthritis, autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, ADD, autism, sinusitis and many more health problems may be linked back to poor gut health.

Let’s take a look at some of the issues affecting gut health:

*Diet: Let’s begin with what we put in our mouths. Certainly the MAD diet (Modern American Diet) has not helped the situation. It’s amazing to me that our bodies can survive the daily onslaught of junk food, processed food, transfats, sugar, and toxins as well as it does. The term “garbage in garbage out” frequently applies to computers. However, the same principle is applicable to the human body. We feed our bodies garbage, and yet we expect this to miraculously turn into healthy cells. Instead, our junk diets wreak a heavy toll on gut health, which then dominoes onto other bodily parts and functions.

*Stress: This is one of the main fundamental causes of disease. Stress can take its toll on just about any body part and the gut is no exception. Stress is often associated with issues such as Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel disease, and chronic diarrhea. Ulcers, leaky gut, cramps, poor digestion, and stomach upset.

Food Allergies and Sensitivities: The gut has the daunting challenge sifting through every single molecule we eat and of deciding what to let in, and what keep out. That’s one reason that we call the gut “the second brain.” To meet this challenge, approximately 70% of our immune system lies in the gut.

For millions of years our ancestors ate a “natural” diet of berries, fruits, vegetables, roots, and leaves. They killed critters and ate fish for lean protein. Now let’s fast forward to the modern American grocery store. Most of the food we might find in the center isles may rightfully be considered by our bodies to be like a foreign body, and thus generate an immune response. This untoward immune response may express itself in all sorts of clinical symptoms. Our food has changed drastically in a relatively short period of time, but our immune system is genetically the same as our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Poor Digestion: Next time you find yourself at the drug store, take a moment to walk down the isles and look at the over-the- counter medications. You’ll find that by far, the number one item is the digestive and gastrointestinal aids. Year after year, Nexium and its acid blocking cousins are at the top of the charts in terms of prescriptions sold. These powerful acid blockers, as well as the seemingly benign antacids like Tums, interfere with our natural digestive ability. As such, we may not get the nutrients form our food that we need to maintain healthy cells.

Bacterial Imbalance (Dysbiosis): The human body exists in an amazing state of synergistic balance with our gut flora. Perhaps an oversimplification, but this mainly consists of “good bacteria,” “bad bacteria,” and yeast. We cannot survive without our “good bacteria.” Unfortunately, we frequently kill off the good bacteria with the antibiotics that we take. Also, with the sugar ladened diets we frequently find our guts in a miserable state of yeast overgrowth. This can result in bowel wall inflammation, and eventually “leaky gut syndrome.” A cascade of inflammatory and immune reactions then take place which can affect the far reaches of the body, including brain, bones, skin, auto-immune disease, etc.

Similarly, parasites may add another twist to the complex milieu of bacterial flora.

A simple plan for gut health recovery involves the 4R program: Remove, Repair, Restore, and Replace. This program is available in the integrative medical literature, and I have had great success by adopting it in my practice.

Step One: Remove the stressors on the gut such as the drugs, alcohol, sugar, caffeine, tobacco, and other poor food choices that we find in the modern American diet. A gut detoxification program may be helpful in this regard.

Step Two: Repair the damage with optimal nutrition, stress reduction, etc. Targeted nutritionals may help such as aloe vera juice, quercitin, licorice root, garlic, tumeric, digestive enzymes, and fish oils.

Step Three: Restore a healthy bacterial balance with high quality probiotics. Cutting out unnecessary antibiotics, treating yeast, and reducing the sugar in the diet may also help.

Step Four: Replace the deficient elements such as digestive enzymes, which can have a major impact on digestion and utilization of nutrients.

In summary, continue to ignore and abuse the gut and you will reap the unhealthy consequences. Give the gut the respect it’s due, and you will enjoy the many benefits in the years to come. Start today with the 4R program; remove, repair, restore, and replace gut health program in order to achieve optimal overall wellness.

Your Weakest Link

Posted on July 4, 2011 by mcminnclinic

Your Weakest Link by James E. McMinn, M.D.

We’ve all heard the adage before: a chain is only as strong as your weakest link. So what’s your weakest link? At the end of the day, what’s going to get you? And just as importantly, what can you do to improve your odds?

Cardiovascular disease: Heart disease is by far the number one cause of death in America. Almost one million Americans die of cardiovascular disease each year. This amounts to about 40%, or 1 out of 2.7 deaths in our country. Your first important decision in avoiding this, the weakest of all links, is to pick your parents well. There is definitely a genetic component for cardiovascular disease. However, much of the risk for cardiovascular disease is also attributable to lifestyle choices, and most of these risk factors are well within your control. Smoking is perhaps the biggest single risk factor. If you smoke, you automatically increase your risk of dying from heart disease by approximately 3 fold. If you smoke, the single most important thing that you can do for your health is to put away the pack. It’s not easy, but the benefits are enormous. Obesity and being overweight are the next major risk factors. In fact, obesity has overtaken smoking as the number one overall cause of preventable death in America. I believe that a few extra pounds is often the beginning the slippery slope of disease leading to a premature death. Many of the other risk factors for cardiac disease are often directly linked to the weight issue, such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and triglycerides. Obesity is also very pro-inflammatory, and inflammation is evermore being appreciated as a major contributor to many disease processes, including heart disease, as well as Alzheimer’s and cancer.

Cancer: Although cardiovascular disease is by far the most common cause of death, cancer is the most feared. Although we declared a “war on cancer” many years ago, this terrible disease has gone unabated. Two out of every five people in America will develop cancer, and one in five will die from it. Approximately one in every eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Even worse almost all men will get prostate cancer if they live long enough. To my way of thinking, the key is prevention. Certainly, diagnostic tests are becoming more and more advanced, but they can’t prevent cancer, they can only find it, and by that time you’ve already got the disease.

The number one rule of cancer prevention is “don’t smoke”. Sound familiar? As it turns out, the same preventive measures pertinent to cardiovascular disease, also apply to cancer. It’s all about diet and lifestyle. Studies suggest that if you take people from a country with a low rate of cancer and put them in a country with a high rate of cancer, once they adopt the diet and lifestyle of the new country, their cancer rate goes way up, to equal that of their new home country. In fact a majority of cancers in our country could be prevented with smoking cessation, exercise, diet, and lifestyle changes. Some specific strategies for cancer prevention include the following: stay slim, get regular exercise, avid saturated fats, eat more fiber, avoid excess alcohol, avoid unnecessary radiation, avoid toxins, This is more powerful than any expensive, high tech treatment on earth. Your mother was right, eat your fruits and vegetables!

Diabetes: It is fair and accurate to say that we are currently in the midst of a very frightening epidemic of type 2 diabetes. Between 1980 and 2002 the prevalence of diabetes has doubled. If this trend continues, we may soon start to see shorter lifespan in America starting with the next generation. Unfortunately, these shorter lifespans will be fraught with complications such as: heart disease, hypertension, stroke, impotence, kidney failure, amputations, blindness, and nerve damage. Diabetes has even been linked with cancer.

I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but here we go again. For diabetes prevention, it’s back to basics. You really are what you eat. Diet and exercise are the keys to diabetes prevention. The basic diet principe is called glycemic index. Avoid sugar and anything that acts like sugar, such as white flour. Sugar hides and goes by many names, so learn to read labels. Often “health foods” are really sugar Trojan horses and heart attacks in disguise.

Dementia: So far we’ve had the most common disease, the most feared disease, and the scariest disease. I’ll wrap things up with what I consider the saddest of diseases; dementia. This tragic disease may take many forms including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and stroke dementia. Your lifetime risk of dementia now stands at about 10-15 percent. Once again, prevention lies in the foundations of wellness: exercise, diet with plenty of antioxidants. Staying socially involved, and keeping your mind active are also helpful.

The list of weak links goes on to include infectious disease, kidney failure, and liver disease. However, by now it is quite clear that the prevention prescription remains largely the same. Most importantly, it all starts with the conscious decision to live a wellness lifestyle. It sounds simple enough, but in our modern day stressed out society full of junk food and toxins, the wellness path is the exception rather than the norm. In addition, it is not enough to make a decision. One must then set goals and devise an action plan for getting there. In America, we seem to be caught up in a “victim mentality” when it comes to our health. Even the phrase “heart attack” implies that this disease lashes out at innocent victims, like a “shark attack.” When in fact, most of us have been knowingly sewing the seeds of that heart attack for many years. It says on the package of cigarettes in bold letters, yet many of us knowingly keep smoking. We know that most processed food is full of junk, and fast food makes us fat, and causes heart diseases, diabetes, and stroke and yet many of us keep eating it.

My plea is that we wake up out of our victim slumber and realize that we, the patients, have much more control than ever before to make changes for the better. Changes that will shore up our weak link, and allow us to live a life of wellness.

Integrative Medicine….The Next Frontier

Posted on May 3, 2011 by mcminnclinic

The patient, the patient, the patient! It’s all about the patient. As a physician, or for that matter any sort of healer, we must never lose our focus as to our most important mission. It is to use our knowledge, experience, listening skills, examination findings, referral network, and test results to help every patient reach his or her maximal potential in mind, body, and spirit. Mother Theresa had a wonderful saying: “one, by one, by one.” Also, in medicine, we must realize that each patient is unique and different, and what therapy one patient responds to, another may not.

Integrative medicine, also called complimentary medicine, attempts to do just that. It is individualized, patient focused, open minded, evidence based, and outcomes oriented. It has an expanded toolbox of therapies. Too many times in this world we tend to put up walls, which define traditional turf battles. The Hatfields hate the McCoys, The Tutsies battle with the Hutus. Alabama and Auburn fans aren’t always the best of friends on game day. Thereto in medicine, healers sometimes lose focus on what is important. Instead of an open- minded search for the best treatment for the patient, we tend to look at the possibilities through a narrowly focused set of glasses. To a hammer, all the world looks like a nail. Likewise, many healers can’t look past their own discipline, training, and bias to consider other modalities, which may ultimately produce the best result for the patient.

Traditional western medicine is a marvel of scientific endeavor. Were it not for this amazing medical discipline, I and many of my family members would not be alive today. I stand in awe of many of the modern high tech capabilities of today’s doctors. However, I and other integrative medicine practitioners also realize that there are also other modalities, which have been utilized for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, which should also be considered while devising the patient’s treatment plan. These modalities may include nutritional therapies, detoxification, mind body therapies, massage, spiritual healing, breath work, hormone balancing, neurotransmitter adjustment, and acupuncture.
I have personally had patients who have responded well with Acupuncture, who had previously found no relief at vaunted medical institutions such as Mayo Clinic.

I do believe that integrative medicine is the wave of the future. Little by little, patients finding that the old model of “sick care” is not working for them. They get sick, go to the doctor, and get on pill after pill. They are awakening to a new approach, which is true wellness medicine. They are demanding a change, and the medical community is starting to listen. Ten years ago integrative medicine was not on the radar screen. Now you will find that Harvard, Duke, Mayo Clinic, Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Cleveland Clinic (just to name a few) all have integrative medical clinics. The tide is slowly turning toward a more open minded and inclusive form of medicine, and in the long run doctors and patients will both benefit.

The Amazing Power of Nutrition

Posted on March 15, 2011 by mcminnclinic

Imagine if you had a top of the line, jet fuel racing car. Fastest car in the world! Unfortunately, the mechanic was having a bad day and he inadvertently filled the fuel tank not with jet fuel, but instead with diesel fuel. OOPS! What do you think will happen to this magnificent machine? Would you win the race? Unlikely. Instead, you’d be lucky to get it out of the garage and make it to the starting line. The substitution of the inferior fuel will surely cause this incredibly powerful machine to sputter, spurt, and die out.

Similarly, just as this car was engineered from the ground up to run on jet fuel, your body has genetically evolved over millions of years to be fueled by a natural diet. Current estimate is that the human race dates back about one to two million years ago. Over 99.9% of that time human bodies evolved as hunter gatherers. They foraged the plains and forests for vegetables, nuts, beans, berries, roots, fruits, and they killed an occasional critter for protein. This was their human “jet fuel.” It’s what their bodies were engineered for, and what made them thrive. Now flash forward to the modern American grocery store. The food on the shelf looks nothing like the food our ancestors ate for millions of years. While our bodies have not had time to change genetically, in the blink of an eye, as far as historic time, we have radically altered our diet. We have gone from jet fuel (whole food, live food plant food diet) to diesel fuel (processed food and junk food). Just like the race car, the processed food, junk food, genetically engineered food, pesticides, sugar, high fructose food, chemicals, and hormone ladened food are causing our bodies to sputter, spurt, and die out.

Example: the other day I saw some kids preparing hot dogs, wrapped in plastic, in a styrofoam tray, heated in the microwave. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. What’s wrong with this picture? Let’s see, where do I start? First of all, the animals the hot dogs came from were most likely raised, not as free range animals, but in factory farms, where they are treated inhumanely, and viewed as a merely a life support system for protein. Thereto, that’s a subject for another article about mindfulness, and the ethical treatment of animals. The animals are usually fed genetically modified corn, which is also not the food that their bodies were engineered to eat, and are they are loaded with hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics. 93% of hot dogs are contaminated with DDT. The hot dogs also contain MSG and nitrates, which have been shown to be carcinogenic, and excitotoxic to the brain. Hot dogs are also fat ladened, which contributes to the obesity epidemic among the children of our country. Then, by heating the hot dogs in plastic and styrofoam, and these agents get onto the food. The styrene from the styrofoam causes GI and central nervous system effects, and the xenohormones alter the consumer’s own fragile hormone balance. Lastly, there is emerging evidence that microwaving causes changes in the molecular and genetic structure of the food you eat. which in turn has an effect on human cells. Finally, we wrap this toxic waste dump of a hot dog in a processed white bread bun, and slather it with mustard and ketchup, which is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, further contributing to obesity and other maladies.

Unfortunately the above scenario is all to common. The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council estimates that Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs per year. However, I don’t mean to pick on hot dogs in particular. The above scenario is just a real life illustration of the way we are poisoning our own and our children’s bodies. One could just as easily point the finger to sugar. The average American eats twenty four teaspoons or refined sugar every day. On the contrary, only about 20 % of college freshman get ANY fruits and vegetables on the average day, and that’s if your count ketchup and french fries. We wonder why there is so much illness in America. Autism rates are skyrocketing. Cancer is all around us. Depression , ADD, obesity, and diabetes are becoming epidemic. Let’s stop ignoring the elephant in the room. When you get right down to fundamentals, most diseases are caused by deficiencies of the good things our bodies need (such as phytonutrients from vegetables), or toxicities of the bad things (like pesticides and heavy metals). A life of wellness v. a life ladended with disease often boils down to what we put into our bodies and how we live our lives. In the current culture of cramming our bodies full of junk food and toxins, it’s amazing that we’re able to survive at all.

Food is not just calories, it’s information for our bodies. T. Colin Campbell in his wonderful book about nutrition called “The China Study” described an experiment in which we could literally turn the genes for liver cancer on and off with diet modification. The “information” we get from our food affects us right down to our cells and even at the genetic level. Two identical twin sisters may have the same gene for breast cancer, but one may get it and her sister may not. What determines if those genes get activated or silenced is how she lives her life; what she eats, toxins, stress, sleep, etc. She may not be able to control which genes she gets, but she has a lot to say about whether or not those genes get activated.

The four basic building blocks of your foundation of health are Nutrition, hydration, sleep, and exercise. When it comes to food, eat whole food, not processed food; live food, not dead food; more plant food such as fruits and veggies and less animal based foods.
In summary, it may be a worn out saying, but it’s true- “you are what you eat.” If you eat junk you will become junk. If you eat a well balanced healthy diet, you will infinitely improve your odds of living a well balanced healthy life.

Going Organic

Posted on January 1, 2011 by mcminnclinic

Organic produce is grown with greatly restricted use of conventional non-organic pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. However, a 100% organic diet may not be possible or economically feasible. Below is a list of the 12 most contaminated produce foods that should be the highest priority to buy organic and the 12 least contaminated produce foods that do not need to be organic.

12 Most Contaminated Produce Items (The “Dirty Dozen”)
*Peaches
*Apples
*Sweet Bell Peppers
*Celery
*Nectarines
*Strawberries
*Cherries
*Pears
*Grapes (imported)
*Spinach
*Lettuce
*Potatoes

12 Least Contaminated Produce (The “Clean Dozen”)
*Onions
*Avocado
*Sweet Corn
*Pineapples
*Mango
*Asparagus
*Sweet Peas (frozen)
*Kiwi
*Bananas
*Cabbage
*Broccoli
*Papaya

Dairy products, eggs, and meats are also available as organic or as having been raised with restricted diets: Bovine growth hormone free, antibiotic free, vegetarian fed, etc. If these items are within your budget and available, they are recommended as well.