Tag Archive for Suzy Cohen

Do You Suffer With Headaches or Migraines? Here’s Some Tips:)

st thomasConfession: Headaches and Migraines aren’t an issue I’ve struggled with very much.  Until 3 years ago, I’d only had 2 migraines, and a handful of headaches.  Then Menopause hit, or rather the tail end of Peri Menopause, and wow, I got a serious taste of some serious headaches.

For me, it was a matter of getting my hormones tested, and getting on some bio-identical estrogen and progesterone for a year. The headaches stopped immediately.  After a year, I went off both because subsequent testing showed that my hormones levels had gone from way too low to way too high.  I went cold turkey on the hormones out of fear, got on some great herbs, and all was well,…for a while.  Then the headaches came back.

A hormone test (January 2015) showed that my high levels had plummeted way back down to those of old Mother Hubbard, so this time I went on a natural progesterone cream(February, 2015), and added flax (oil and seed) very consistently to my diet to up my estrogen level naturally.  I’m due for another test soon, and I’ll let you know what my results are, but I haven’t had a headache since February.

Point of my story:  my headaches were hormone related.

What causes yours and what can you do about them?  You’re gonna need to put on your detective hat, because this is a condition that has so many causes and triggers.  Drugs are a bandaid at best, as they often don’t even work well with migraines; they don’t eliminate the cause of the pain, and they come with too many side effects to ignore.

Those side effects are real and scary. It’s worth the time and effort to figure out your migraine and headache causes, and then experiment with different solutions.

You already have my hormone/headache story. If your headaches are completely centered around your cycle, no matter your age, then you can assume it has something to do with your hormones.  This doesn’t mean – at all – that you need to start taking hormones!  That’s something for you and your doctor to figure out.

There’s other responses that could be triggering the headache (and cravings and PMS too):  low B vitamins, and low magnesium.  Both of which get depleted during our period. (or I should say, your period) B6 and B12 are the most commonly sited Bs when it comes to our hormones shifting and symptoms, but I recommend a good B Complex to every woman I work with.  Magnesium too; as a matter of fact, Magnesium deficiency is very common.  Studies show that at least 56% of our population is Magnesium deficient,  but my point with Magnesium and female cycles, is that it’s easy to become deficient right before your period, even if you aren’t usually.

So B vitamins and Magnesium, recommendations 1 and 2.  (These are the 2 supplements I have my girls on.)

Next, look at your life style patterns.  Do you sleep enough?  Do you drink alcohol?  What drugs are you on? Trigger, trigger, trigger.

Here’s a biggie:  do you eat gluten, or a high refined carbohydrate diet? Both can be HUGE headache/migraine triggers. For a one stop shop on this, check out the Wheat Belly blog.

MSG, artificial colors, flavor enhancers, histamine containing foods, artificial sweeteners, these can all be triggers.

Even healthy foods can trigger headaches for certain people; foods like eggs, dairy, nuts, …..pretty common allergens, and allergens can cause headaches.

One of my favorite go-to’s is America’s Pharmacist, Suzy Cohen.  That woman’s awesome, and prolific with both her free advice and books, so let’s start there.

Resources:  Her book, called Headache Free.  A podcast where she dispenses all sorts of great advice, here.   Her response to a question about tension headaches, here.  Her blog, here. And finally, a great article kind of wrapping up a whole bunch of her advice on headaches, here.

One last trick to try when it comes to headaches, a Liver Detox.  If you work with me, you know that I believe in always “loving my liver”.  I’m constantly taking dandelion or milk thistle, or doing a Biotics liver detox or taking Herb Pharm Liver tincture.  I also make sure to eat plenty of liver loving foods every single day.

If our liver is so overwhelmed with chemicals and toxins and sludge from high fructose corn syrup or trans fats or SUGAR, then of course it’s unable to perform perfectly.  One of the results from that would be toxins circulating through our brain and causing headaches.

If you think this might be your problem, get in touch with me.

You don’t have to suffer!  What I said in the beginning is true:  become a detective.  Headache meds are band aides with side effects.  Figure out your causes, and then work on natural and healthy ways to eliminate them.

86% of our health care expenses are spent on Life Style Diseases, like headaches and migraines.  That’s actually great news, because we can fix our life style and positively effect our health.

Have a wonderful day!

Can You Eat Potatoes ( or other starchy Real Whole Foods) ? Test Your Blood Sugar!

4 girls after walking cere

( I love this pic of my girls! Raise healthy kids!  They’re depending on us!)

Potatoes, corn, carrots, plantains, bananas, beans,…wow, they sure do cause confusion.  Years ago, Dr. Atkins came out with his first book and completely demonized these foods by lumping them in with grains and sugars.

It was a great book, and he had a TON of research behind his initial recommendations, which were that if you’re overweight and want to lose, cut waaay down on the carbs, and consume lots of protein and fat.  He’s right.  Crappy carbs will not only put weight on us – and our kids – but they’re the perfect vehicle for:  inflammation, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, neurological conditions, ADD, ADHD, skin issues, and just about every disease out there.  Crappy carbs cause an Inflammatory Environment in our body – and our kids bodies.

Crappy Carbs are Evil.

But are those Real Whole Foods I listed above “Crappy Carbs”?  No. But that doesn’t mean you get to eat them.  Sorry.  The real answer is, “It depends.”  What do they do to your blood sugar after you eat them?  There’s an easy way to find out:  buy a blood sugar kit, aka, a Glucometer.

IT’S SO FUN – honest!  You might think Glucometers are just for diabetics, but they’re not.  Anyone can buy a kit in any drugstore or Walmart, or off Amazon, anywhere.

If you’re a weight loss client of mine, you probably already own one.  If you’re not a client, but a blog reader, buy one today.  Here’s why.

When blood sugar rises above “normal”, (normal is between 80 – 100, but some labs have lowered that value to 70 – 90), the pancreas releases the hormone INSULIN.  Insulin is an anabolic, building hormone.  Insulin takes the excess blood sugar, the amount that sends the value over “normal”, and stuffs a little in our muscle cells (the empty ones), a little in the liver-glycogen storage (if it’s low) and then…….turns all the rest of the excess into FAT/triglycerides, and stores them in the fat cells.

How does Blood Sugar get above normal?  EASY.  Every single carbohydrate we eat becomes blood sugar in our gut.  EVERY. SINGLE. CARB. Whether it’s from a grain, pure sugar, fruit, veggies, beans, nuts, whatever.  The carbohydrate in those foods is reduced to Glucose.  That’s the gut’s job:  break food down to chemical molecules so our cells can use it.  All carbs become glucose and fructose, 2 tiny, simple sugars that fit in cells easily.  (Today, we’re just talking about glucose; fructose is evil too! More on that later.)

How much blood sugar is too much?  If we weight 150 pounds, we have about 4.7 liters of blood.  “Normal” blood sugar – a measurement of 85 on the glucometer – equals 4 grams of sugar in the whole body.  4 Grams.  4 Grams. That’s 16 calories of carb (1 gram = 4 calories).  More than that, and the conversion of sugar/glucose to fat/triglycerides happen.

A medium French Fry has 47 g of sugar (all carbs break down to sugar).

A can of coke has 39 g of sugar.

Krave Jerky Lime Chile has 39 g of sugar per package.

1 cup of pasta has 43 g of sugar/carbs.

1 cup of orange juice 27 g of sugar.

Those are all obvious Crappy Carbs; the starches become sugar/glucose very very quickly and go from gut to blood stream fast.  But the real reason they’re Crappy is because they’re highly, highly processed and have no nutritional value at all.  None.  They’re so anti-good for us they’re poison!

Conventional wisdom tries to tell us that pasta has B vitamins, or french fries from McDonalds are vegetables.  Bull Crap. Those B vitamins – added/fortified – back into the pasta, were made in a factory in China from synthetic materials.   And those Mc D’s french fries?  19 ingredients!!  Gross! That’s not real!  Read their ingredient list, and several others, here.  Please, read it.  Our kids eat this stuff, and our kids are getting sicker and fatter and sadder than ever.

It’s. The. Food.

So what about YOU, and ME, and potatoes, or corn, or plantains, or all these other starchy fruits and veggies?  How does that affect our blood sugar since we know they’re carbohydrates?

I don’t know how they affect you; I know how they affect me because I’ve pricked my finger and tested a million times in the past 5 years.  Buy the glucometer and test yourself.  They’re cheap and they’re easy to use. Prick your finger 90 minutes after a meal (peak blood sugar), and look at the number.  See how your oatmeal or your pasta or your crackers affected you.

And see how a meal of corn or potatoes or bananas or beans, or any high carb fruit or veggie, affects you.

Five years ago, I had pretty fluctuating blood sugar.  I considered myself “low carb” because I ate a lot of “low carb” foods:  Kashi Go Lean, Low Carb Tortillas, Low Carb Bread, Low Carb Ice Cream, Low Carb Cookies…..  then I bought the glucometer.  Wow.  Did I get a wake up call.  My blood sugars were way too high, and it scared me into action.

No more Low Carb Crap, just Real Whole Foods.  Of course, I worried about the high carb fruits and veggies, and the glucometer showed that yes, they did raise my blood sugar too much.  So I cut way back on them.

In the past 5 years I’ve changed and refined my diet – a lot.   I eat more herbs and spices than ever – every day.  I use essential oils.  I’ve added more fat than I ever thought possible.  I’ve managed to completely delete “cheat days” from my life (thank you God), I’ve become scared of processed foods to the degree that I’m literally afraid of them.  I’ve joined several food co-ops, I go to a couple different farmers markets.

Last summer I went totally ketogenic for a few months.

In other words, I’ve taken several actions, consistently, for several years now, and guess what?  Now when I take my blood sugar ( which I still do all the time – and I take my kids and Mark’s often also), it’s always good.

A few mornings a week I throw a banana into my smoothie – blood sugar stays low.

I eat potatoes or plantains for dinner at least 4 or 5 nights a week.  The other night I measured before dinner, I was 78.  After a dinner of roasted potatoes coated w butter, squash coated with olive oil and parm, a steak, and a piece of dark chocolate, I was 98.

I’VE BECOME SO DARN NORMAL.  It’s awesome!

I believe you can become normal too, with persistence and consistence.

What’s normal?  Normal is when you eat a real whole food, in normal amounts, in a normal diet full of nutrient dense foods loaded with good fats, some protein, and a ton of vegetables, and your body processes it just fine.

Your muscle and liver cells are open to the carbs and the fat both, you sleep well, you don’t feel sick, bloated or brain foggy – ever, and your energy and immune system hum.

By the way, as good as they look, 6 pack abs aren’t totally normal, especially for most women. Having some body fat – is normal.  Being ripped, lean, and shredded, goes against most body types, and the actions needed to get there usually lower thyroid function, lower body fat to unhealthy levels, and mess up our sex and adrenal hormones.

Not normal.

How can you become normal?  There’s only one way: change how your brain things about about your body and food.  No more diet and weight loss focus, it doesn’t work. Focus on your health instead.  Pledge that at least a few times a week you’re going to read something from Dr. Mercola or Suzy Cohen or Dr. Davis/Wheat Belly or if you’re interested in the science behind the Ketogenic Diet (because I really do believe it heals cells and the liver and reverses insulin resistance) check out Dr. Nally here.

Here’s my Cigarette Analogy:  would you ever pick up a cigarette butt off the sidewalk and put it in your mouth? No! That would be disgusting, and there’d be no effort at all in resisting that urge.  I want you to look at a slurpee or a box of cookies or a fast food burger and think:  “I’d never put that in my mouth, that’s disgusting!”.

Here’s something that’s not disgusting, and it’s delicious!  2 Recipes, each I’ve had on here before, but they’re worth repeating.   The first is my Sweet Potato Pizza – Oh My Gosh is it delicious!!

Chipotle Sweet Potato-Zucchini Pizza

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1 large sweet potato
1 large green zuc, ring out water by 20150627_172301twisting in a towel
1 heaping tbsp chipotle powder
3 eggs, beaten
5 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and pat onto a pizza pan. Bake at 425 for 40 minutes. Top with tomato sauce and cheese ( and whatever else you want, I’ve done corn, cilantro, and peppers). Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes.

Roasted Potatoes – kids love this and it’s so much better than french fries-

roasted potatoesScrub and dice potatoes
Pour a couple tbsp of melted KerryGold butter and coat them w it
Salt & Pepper
Bake at 425  50-55 minutes, flip w a spatula half way through.

By the way, these things freeze and reheat beautifully, they’re a great Power Cooking food.

Could OTC and Prescription Meds Be Making You Fat and Sick? Yes!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe chances that everyone reading this is taking or has taken at least 1 over-the-counter (OTC) or prescription drug is pretty high.  We’re Americans, and taking a pill to soothe an ill is normal.

Could “normal” meds like Tylenol or Statins contribute to our weight issues ( ~70% overweight), our moods ( declining ), and our poor HEALTH?  Oh my gosh, yes.  Read on for some scary facts, because all these drugs aren’t good for us, no matter what the ads say.

– America spent $2.4 Trillion on Disease MAINTENANCE in 2007, but according to WHO, we rank #37 in Health Care IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD.  ( Who wants to maintain their diseases anyway?)  We spend more on health care than the next 10 countries studied COMBINED.

– In one study, Americans had the second highest rate of chronic disease in the seven developed countries examined.

– According to the CDC, there’s not ONE disease or condition, NOT ONE, that’s been decreasing or is going to decrease, in the US, in the next 3 decades.  So the drugs aren’t improving anyone’s health in the long run.

The MAJORITY of Americans use drugs for pain, disease, colds, stomach problems, infections, etc, etc.   *****In other words, we’re taking our medicine, we’re just not getting better.  We’re getting worse. *****  As a matter of fact, an article titled “Death by Medicine”, authored in two parts by Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, describes in excruciating detail how the American medical system has bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the US, claiming the lives of nearly 784,000 people annually!

Hospital errors are responsible for part of that, but Pharmaceuticals represent much of that total.  Here’s the facts ( straight from the pharmacist’s RX side effect sheets ) on some of the most commonly used drugs in America, and their potential side effects.

******Side effects can have quiet and long escalations.  Don’t feel comfortable with your drugs just because an obvious side effect, like a big rash, didn’t pop up.*******

Tylenol/Acetaminophen:

* Long-term Tylenol use has been linked to brain damage, increased blood pressure and kidney failure; about 15 percent of the people on dialysis today are there as a result of the damage that Tylenol (and/or aspirin) did to their kidneys.

* Acetaminophen is the #1 cause of Acute Liver Failure in the US.  Google it.  Our liver is supposed to perform over 500 jobs a DAY.  Our weight is intimately tied to our liver. Our metabolism, our hormones, our cholesterol: liver liver liver liver.

NSAIDS, or Non-Steroidal-Anti-Inflammatory-Drugs ( Motrin, Advil,…)

* Each year, an estimated 107,000 patients are hospitalized for NSAID-related gastrointestinal complications.  This is because NSAID’s ruin stomach lining.  We need our stomach lining!

*All NSAIDs, including over-the-counter aspirin and ibuprofen, are associated with potentially serious side effects such as cardiovascular problems, GI bleeding, kidney problems, and hypertension.

* What about the Conventional Wisdom that an aspirin a day is good for preventing heart attacks?  Did you know that the FDA REVERSED that position?  Does your Doctor know? “FDA has concluded that the data do not support the use of aspirin as a preventive medication by people who have not had a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular problems, a use that is called ‘primary prevention.’ In such people, the benefit has not been established but risks — such as dangerous bleeding into the brain or stomach — are still present.”

* Harvard Heath says the  NSAIDs, including the COX-2 drugs, tend to boost blood pressure.

* Between 1999 and 2010, DEATHS from prescription painkillers increased 400% for women and 265% for men.

What’s going on with painkillers, other than that they ruin your liver, kidneys, and brain?  They’re HIGHLY addictive. Most prescription pain killers work by binding to receptors in your brain to decrease the perception of pain. But they also create a temporary feeling of euphoria, followed by dysphoria, which can easily lead to addiction.  Addiction leads to accidental overdoses.

Let’s move on:  Acid Suppressors for heartburn, GERD, and reflux.  In 2012, Americans spent $5.1 BILLION on Nexium alone.  Thanks to an incredibly poor diet and way too much stress, most American’s don’t have ENOUGH stomach acid, causing the food to sit too long and ferment.  The acidic burp that explodes up the delicate esophagus hurts, badly. It’s also damaging.  Acid suppression might seem logical, but it’s not.  You want your food to digest faster, not slower; and that acid – which our stomach should naturally be loaded with – triggers all the rest of the steps of digestion.

Acid suppressors inhibit nutrient absorption, promote bacterial overgrowth, increase risk of infections, increase risk of bone fractures, and increase risks of certain cancers.  The FDA recommends taking acid suppressors for no longer than 8 – 12 weeks because of this.

Let’s move on to Statins.  As of today, 1 out of 4 Americans over the age of 45 is on a statin, primarily as a PREVENTATIVE measure against heart disease.  What a joke!  Statin’s increase the risk for Diabetes, Cataracts, Erectile Dysfunction, Memory Impairment, Muscle Fatigue, and *******Coronary artery and aortic calcification*******.  Wait a second, isn’t that Heart Disease???  Oh, and what’s the #1 reason Diabetics die?  Heart Disease.

Actual PREVENTATIVE measures against heart disease are eating Real Whole Foods, Exercising, Sleeping, and practicing Stress Management.  Zero side effects, plenty of benefits.

I’m closing with a link to an article from America’s Pharmacist, Suzy Cohen.  Someone took her to task for NOT recommending anti-depressants in a case of depression. Instead, Suzy had outlined a supplement program of Nutrients the body uses for correct thyroid function and neurotransmitter status.  ( Hypothyroid and/or insufficient GABA, dopamine, and serotonin are often the REASONS for depression).  Her response was perfect:  no Drug is going to provide the body with the vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, or phytonutrients that it lacked that caused the problem in the first place.  She wraps up with the potential side effects from anti-depressants, and culminates with the FDA Black Box Warning that children and adolescents on anti-depressants have higher incidences of SUCIDE.

Let me finish with a oft repeated statement:  No one is sick because they’re deficient in a Drug.  You’re not inflamed because you’re low in Advil, you don’t have clogged arteries because you’re low in statins, you’re not depressed because you’re low on Prozac, and you don’t have stomach issues because you need more acid suppression.

Poor health is from a lack of nutrients.  BONUS:  Eat for your health, and if you need to lose weight, weight loss will be a side effect.  Focus on Real Whole Food:  plenty of vegetables, good meats and eggs, lots of healthy fats, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy if you tolerate it.  Sleep, move, and deal with your stress.

One more tip:  there really are great supplements out there that contain the NUTRIENTS in concentrated form that your body can use to:  decrease plaque, decrease inflammation, fight bad bacteria and viruses, build neurotransmitters, build magnesium stores, fix your gut, stop headaches, increase energy, etc etc.  If you have questions, ask me, I LOVE this stuff, and I’ve spent a lot of time learning my supplements.  There’s no need to Poison your body in an effort to get well.