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Your Source for Health information on the Web

November / December 2001
 

Give gifts to ourselves

WITH THE ARRIVAL OF NOVEMBER
we move into the time of year which revolves around gift-giving.  It is wonderful that we are so enthralled with the giving of gifts to others and the sharing of ourselves to the point of exhaustion, that we forget to give gifts to ourselves.

THE BEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE YOURSELF 
and those around you is to remain a viable, healthy, human being.  This viability, this spirit which permits us to confront the reality of aging, begins in your mind.  It is not a hysterical and unreasonable insistence on remaining twenty-two or some other mythical age.  It will require you to forget the “script” you’ve written for yourself about what age means.  If you think age is Alzheimer’s, arthritis, walkers, heavy wrinkles, heart problems, asexuality, and general debility, think again.  This is age only if you want it to be.  Ancient and modern medicine now make it possible to remain vibrant and viable, not only to enjoy life, but to be able to benefit from the anti-aging strategies which are just over the horizon.

THE FIRST STEP IN ACCEPTING THE GIFTS 
of new research and ancient wisdom, is to realize that you are a pioneer on a frontier.  How many people do you know who are really serious about confronting the disease we call aging?  How many are willing to self-experiment with a new supplement?  How much experimentation and how far is up to you.  But the first step is an open mind.

NUTRITION.  
Am I really going to discuss this facing the season of sweets, turkeys, roast beef, and champagne?  Yes.  I am.  There is a new word on the diet scene – Paleotechdiet.  (For all its ramifications, I refer you to Oz Garcia’s new book,
The Healthy High-tech Body.)  It is true that the human body is still right off the drawing boards of the Old Stone Age.  According to Dr. Boyd Eaton, M.D., the foremost authority on ancient diet, the human genome has changed very little in the last 40,000 years.  What has changed is the polluted environment, a carbohydrate-and-sugar laced diet, and the development of the idiotic notion that constipation is nothing to worry about.  The point of all this is that the current “diet” is unfamiliar to our genome and causes malfunctions at every level of health.  We are older, fatter, and sicker than we should be.  That doesn’t mean that you have to try to eat everything cavemen ate (unless you really like insects and worms); it does mean merging the Old Stone Age with the new technical knowledge.

            Basically, the Paleodiet was fruits, roots, tubers, nuts, seeds, herbs, vegetables, and all the meat you could chase down.  If did not include bread, pasta, grain, and sugar which wreak havoc with your hormonal system, especially in the production of cortisol and insulin.

Cortisol and Insulin.  
Cortisol is produced in the adrenals and is critical to handling stress.  Stress, to your paleobody, means a brief, but nasty, encounter with a saber-toothed tiger.  It does
not mean the long-term and unremitting stress created by humans – the boss who never stops screaming, a chaotic lifestyle which never slows down, or the phone that never stops ringing.  This man-made stress means overproduction of cortisol and that means premature aging.  Nothing kills brain cells faster than cortisol.

            Insulin either sends what you eat to energy or stores it as fat.  Eventually, given our nightmare diet of carbohydrates and sugar, the system can no longer get insulin from the blood.  Welcome to Diabetes II.  High insulin also produces “bad” eicosanoids or messenger hormones which elevate your blood pressure and destroy your immune system.

SO WHAT DO I DO?  
You take the paleodiet (minus the insects and worms) and dump processed foods (canned, over-sugared, etc. – you really know what they are.)  Give yourself a green tea break instead of sugared, carbonated water (which will leach the calcium from your bones – hello, osteoporosis).  Fight cancer with green tea, apples, nuts, berries, mushrooms, red grapes, raspberries, and peanuts (if you are not allergic to them).

            You need not be limited to Lipton’s tea, if that is what you think “tea” is.  You can get Celestial Seasonings’ Emerald Garden, a lovely fruited green tea, or Sadaf’s Earl Grey in the supermarket.  The Sadaf product is probably shelved with other Middle Eastern stuff.  If you do not receive The Republic of Tea catalog, you can request one from 8 Digital Drive, Suite 100, Novato, CA, 94949, call them at 800-298-4832, or visit their website at www.REPUBLICofTEA.com.  You’ll have so many different kinds of teas to sample you will forget all about carbonated water.

            Consume omega-3 acid: fish, olive oil, nuts (walnuts, pecans, macadamias, pine nuts, hazelnuts, almonds), and seeds.  If a patient comes to the clinic and informs me that s/he doesn’t eat any fat, I am informed that the person has succeeded in depriving the body of omega-3.  Consume lean protein.  The caveman ate meat low in saturated fat – from animals running from predators.  Grain-fed, contented beef is quite different.  There is something called “Smartmeat” sold at Costco which is excellent, low-fat beef and is not, surprisingly, expensive.  Look for it in the freezer. Try also buffalo and deer (venison).  Confine your carbs to those low on the glycemic index (they don’t raise your blood sugar).  Carbohydrates are slowed down if eaten with fat: fish oil, olive oil, sesame seed, butter – not any margarine with transfatty acids.) 

LONGEVITY NUTRIENTS:  
Nucleotides are animal protein, especially fish.  These are the building blocks of DNA.  They repair the lining of the digestive and intestinal traces.  Saponins, basically from legumes and beans, enhance your immune system, lower cholesterol, and prevent cancer.  Protease inhibitors are found in spinach*, peaches, corn, and sweet potatoes.  They protect DNA.  (*Do not eat spinach if you produce calcium oxalate kidney stones.)

            Carnosine, from the exorphin family, is found only in animal protein and protects the brain from free radical damage.  It slows down wrinkling.  This can be purchased as a supplement, Super Carnosine, put out by Life Extension.  A bottle of 90 capsules, 500 mg each, would sell at $75.00 through the clinic.  We do not carry this but will happily order it for anyone who is interested.

            Monoterpines are detoxifiers found in citrus fruits.

            NEUTRACEUTICALS – SUPPLEMENTS:  Some of the causes of the disease we call aging are controllable: chronic inflammation, glycosylation, hormone imbalance, fatty acid imbalance, DNA mutations, immune dysfunctions, excitotoxicity (an aging brain loses control over its neurotransmitters), circulatory deficit, oxidative stress.

            The “new kids on the block” are:

1.      Life Extension mix tablets: 89 super high-potency ingredients
which
target the causes of aging.  A thirty-five day supply.
315 tablets, 1800 mg each.  Cost: $90.00.  We do not carry,
but will order.

2.      DHA  fatty acid.

3.      Choline cocktail by Twinlab.  Willing to order.

4.      Brain Wave by Nutricology.  Will look into.  Contains acetyl-L-carnitine (which we do carry).  Do not take ALC if you suffer from epilepsy.

5.      Xenadrine for weight loss.  I do not recommend this because it contains ephedra.  You might try Thermicorp CRT by Met-Rx.  This is a slow fat burner.

6.      CLA or conjugated linoleic acid.  The Clinic stocks this.  It is a fat burner and a cancer preventative.

7.      Rejuvenex Cream is made by Life Extension for the skin.  One jar is $45.00.  Willing to order.

The old-timers are vitamin e and the newer super E, tocotrienols.  We stock both of these.  Vitamin B (complete), and MSM.  We carry Alpha Lipoic Acid or ALA both in timed-release and regular forms.  We also carry

DMAE –dimethylaminoethanol.  This is the wonderful stuff that keeps you from having age spots and lipofuscin from covering your brain in a slimy film.

            HGH or human growth hormone, somatrotrophin, is still available
            orally.  If you use it, do so advisedly.  It can rejuvenate you and it can
            also cause side effects like edema leading to carpal tunnel
            syndrome. The leading authority on HGH, Dr. Ronald Klatz, in his
           
Grow Young With HGH, points out that the side effects disappeared
            in every case when the dose was lowered between 25 and 50%.

IN ADDITION TO ALL THIS – don’t forget your periodical acupuncture/ moxibustion treatment to balance your system, digestive enzymes if you need them, and probiotics to ensure proper absorption and distribution of nutrients for longevity.  Also remember that you will probably not be able to jump into a new regimen and do everything at once.  Start with the most important thing for you and gradually work up.

Recipe:      

PALEOTECH FILETS MIGNON WITH
SHALLOTS AND GARLIC
(from THE HEALTHY, HIGH-TECH BODY)

     1 pound filets mignon, 1½  to 2” thick, visible fat removed
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil or porcini mushroom oil

Sauce:
1 tbs minced shallots 
1 tsp minced garlic 
1 tbs balsamic or sherry vinegar 
¼ cup water or fat-free beef broth
salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Set the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees.  Place a cast-iron skillet in the oven for 5 minutes.  Season the beef generously with salt and pepper, brush both sides with oil, and place in the hot skillet.  Roast meat for 12-15 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat reads 120 degrees for rare, 125-130 degrees for medium rare, or 135 to 140 degrees for medium.

Transfer the meat to a cutting board and allow to rest 5 minutes.  
(The temperature of the meat will continue to rise.)

To make the sauce, place the skillet over low heat.  Add the shallots, garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and any collected meat juices.  Simmer, scraping up the brown bits for about 2 minutes or until the shallots and garlic are tender.  If the mixture is too dry, add a little water.  Remove from the heat.

Thickly slice meat on the diagonal, distribute among 4 plates, and drizzle 1 tbs of the sauce on each portion.  Serve immediately, passing any extra sauce.

(N.B. – beef is safest close to well-done and also better for the body.)
 
 

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