Dear Friends,

We hope you are enjoying the month of July.

It has been a busy month for us, and we are happy to announce that we will be moving into our new office in Columbia, MD in the second week of August. We will be sharing space with a number of other health practitioners in a wonderful clinic called HeartLight Healing Arts. Once we're settled in, we'd love to have you stop by.

Have a happy and healthy month,

Okay, so maybe you won't be seeing this in a health food store anytime soon, but we are planning on launching our very own brand new supplement line sometime next month. It will be the first in our own brand of supplements called VIS Nutraceuticals. 

The first product (seen here) will be from our “Support” line, designed to give your body the everyday nutrition it needs.  In two convenient packets a day, you will get:

1. Multivitamin/mineral
2. 500mg calcium
3. 500mg magnesium
4. 2000mg fish oil

These are all things virtually everyone needs nowadays.  We will be getting in 12 boxes and will let everyone know when they are available. Stay tuned . . .

What if there was a new drug available that when you took it, you would get the following:

• Increased muscle mass
• Improved long-term memory and learning
• Lower blood pressure
• Stronger immune system
• Balanced blood sugar
• Increased bone density
• Improved metabolism
• Balanced sex hormones
• Fat loss

Would you be interested in it? Of course you would!

But . . . what if there was a drug that did the opposite of all those marvelous things. Would you still want it? Most likely not. In fact, you'd probably avoid it like the plague.

And rightfully so. Such a drug would cause immeasurable harm to our body.

But this substance does exist and most of us already have it inside of us.

The substance is cortisol and it’s not a drug at all.  It is a hormone that our body produces during times of stress and unfortunately it does the following things to our body:

From an evolutionary perspective, cortisol has been very useful as a short-term response to acute, stressful situations.  The problem however, occurs when we are exposed to chronic stressors in our life.  Such stressors include everything from lack of sleep, poor diet, and fast-paced living, to mental/emotional stress, environmental toxins, food allergies, and infections.  All of these things elevate cortisol in our body, which ends up causing problems to many different physiological systems.

In fact, stress and cortisol are implicated as causative or contributing factors in a number of other conditions.  For example:

• Stress lowers thyroid function (hypothyroidism). 
• Cortisol elevates blood sugar (diabetes)
• Stress suppresses testosterone production (andropause in men)
• Cortisol impacts female hormones (menopause)

In fact, elevated cortisol is strongly associated with a variety of unwanted conditions including heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer, to name a few. But if that weren't enough, elevated cortisol also makes it virtually impossible to lose weight.

Lower Levels

So how do you reduce cortisol levels?  Unfortunately in today’s society, it is easier said than done. 

This is because on the one hand, physical stressors such as food allergies, gut infections and elevated blood sugar levels can increase cortisol.  On the other hand, cortisol can be increased during times of mental and emotional stress.  For example, during 9/11 people across the nation were having massive cortisol responses. In other words, it seems just about everything increases cortisol today.

Therefore, the first step is to determine just how much stress is affecting your body.  One way is paying attention to symptoms.  If you have difficulty getting to sleep at night because your mind is racing, this can indicate excess levels of cortisol, especially at night when it should normally be at it’s lowest.  On the other hand, if you fall asleep easily but consistently wake up during the night, you may be suffering from excessively low cortisol levels, meaning your body is so depleted it cannot even make cortisol anymore. 

Incidentally, this is why we run an Adrenal Stress Index on virtually all new patients.  It is rare to find anyone who is not being impacted by stress nowadays, and we like to get a laboratory picture of how people are internally responding to stress.

Secondly, identify the possible source of stress and eliminate it.  Generally speaking this means reducing sugar and processed carbohydrates from your diet, taking time to relax and rejuvenate, doing things like yoga, tai chi, and hobbies, and of course. . . sleep.  There have been numerous studies showing how lack of sleep leads to everything from obesity to cancer. Even the World Health Organization recently classified night shift work a carcinogen!

Stress is the plague of this century, but if we make smart choices we can make sure it doesn't get the best of us.

Our society is stressed. Doctors who have been running the Adrenal Stress Index test over the years say patients have been getting worse over the years and it is becoming very rare to see a "normal" test. Today's modern day lifestyle is the likely culprit in creating a "wired and tired" society who need a jumbo sized Starbucks in the morning just to get going.

The Stress Glands

The glands responsible for helping us through stressful situation are refered to as the adrenals, two small 3 - 5 gram glands that sit on top of the kidneys. They produce a number of chemicals to help our body deal with stress, including cortisol and adrenaline.

The Adrenal Rhythm

The adrenal glands produce cortisol in a rhythm, starting with high levels in the morning when you wake up and slowly decreasing through out the day, hitting a low point when you go to bed. Cortisol levels are highest in the morning around 7am, and are lowest around 10pm at night.

Out of Rhythm

When our adrenal glands get out of rhythm a number of things can happen. Some people have high cortisol levels throughout the day, some eventually get so fatigued they cannot even produce cortisol anymore, and others reverse their rhythm so cortisol is high at night and low in the morning. None of the scenarios is good and can lead to some of the following issues:

1. Energy production - Altered blood sugar, sweet cravings and overall fatigue.
2. Muscle and joint function - Reduced tissue healing leading to chronic aches and pains
3. Bone health - When cortisol is high at night, we do not rebuild bone as well.
4. Hormone balance - Abnormal adrenal rhythm make the transition into menopause harder and worsen postmenopausal hormone imbalances.\
5. Immune health - Our immune system follows our cortisol rhythm, so if our cortisol is off, so will our immune system, leading to decreased resistance to infection and increased allergic reactions.
6. Sleep quality - REM sleep is significantly interrupted by abnormal cortisol values, leading to possible obesity, depression and decreased cellular function.
7. Skin regeneration - Abnormal cortisol rhythms decrease our body's ability to regenerate new skin tissue.
8. Thyroid function - Stress and cortisol suppress thyroid function, leading to lowered metabolism, increased weight gain and intolerance to cold.
9. Impaired Growth Hormone function - Cortisol antagonizes growth hormone, meaning when cortisol is high, growth hormone is low. Growth hormone is considered by many to be the "fountain of youth" hormone and is responsible for helping us age gracefully.

As you can see, stress and abnormal cortisol rhythms can lead to a wide variety of conditions including, lack of vitality and energy, muscle and joint pain, hypoglycemia, migraine headaches, osteoporosis, sleep disturbances, poor memory, alcohol intolerance, low sex drive and weight gain.

How Stressed Are You?

This is a subjective questionnaire to help you determine just how stressed you might be. It only take a couple minutes to complete.

To obtain score, multiply points (column 1) by duration (column 2).

30 or less: Low levels of stress.

31 to 50: Moderate levels of stress.

51 and up: High levels of stress.

The Adrenal Stress Index Test

If you feel like stress might be causing some of your symptoms, we can run an Adrenal Stress Index test on you. It's easy and non-invasive. It is a salivary test meaning you simply have to spit into four separate vials spread out over the course of a day, mail it in and we'll get the results in a couple of weeks. If you are interested, please send us an email (julie@drjuliekniess.com or bryan@drbryanpwalsh.com)

For a quick sample of the Adrenal Stress Index test results, go to www.drbryanpwalsh.com/ASI.html.

We are featuring Cindy this month because in first talking to her, she was easily the most skeptical patient we’ve ever had. She was interested in the detoxification program but was hesitant because, like many people out there, she had tried many programs in the past with little success. Her main goal was to lose weight but she had been struggling with roadblocks that are familiar to many of us - a relentless sweet tooth, a busy schedule, a diet coke addiction, and an upcoming vacation. After many questions she decided to go for it. In only 28 days of our detox program Cindy has lost 10 pounds, completely changed her eating habits, started exercising regularly, and gave up diet coke! Did I mention she made it through her entire vacation without cheating once? She committed herself to our fat loss program to continue her progress. Of course, we are also addressing the underlying causes keeping her from optimal health with the Comprehensive Wellness Profile and Adrenal Stress Index. Those results are pending but we still wanted to feature Cindy because of the phenomenal efforts she has made to transform her lifestyle into one that promotes vitality and wellness.

Great job, Cindy!

"I can't really remember how I happened upon Julie's website but I was glad I did. I am 53 years old, gained 70 lbs with the pregnancy of my second child, and have only lost part of it only to gain back even more. I wouldn’t say my diet is terrible, but I do have a sweet tooth (Look out milk duds!). I thought I knew a lot about serving sizes and proper eating habits but working with Julie and doing some independent reading I am starting to really figure out that food is more complicated than I once thought and portions are much smaller. Learning to eat small meals every 3 hours was challenging at first but now I love it because I don’t feel bloated after eating anymore.  I was surprised that I enjoyed the healthy foods she recommended. I even substitute lemon and cayenne for my “morning starter” instead of diet coke. On vacation, like most people, I drink alcohol and eat plenty of food. But not this year, and I didn’t even miss it. By the end of the 28 days Detox Program I have lost 10 pounds and am looking forward to working with Julie during the Fat Loss Program to lose even more."

Question:

While I was at work today, I glanced at the six pack of Coke Zero sitting next to the six pack of Diet Coke, and I became curious about diet and the effects of sugar.  Actually I'm more curious about the effects of artificial sweeteners on blood sugar and insulin.  What do things like soda (especially those that are artificially sweetened) and Splenda do to our digestive process?  And how do they affect a diet of someone who is trying to loose weight or even just maintain?  I've heard that Stevia is a "better" non-sugar sweetener.  What are your thoughts? 

Answer:

Sweeteners have been debated for a long time, with even some of the "natural" ones come into question. As a general rule of thumb, we believe that the artificial, chemically-made sweeteners are more damaging than sugar. In other words, we'd rather take our chances with sugar and it's effects, than a man-made chemical that is only a few years old. Take saccharin for example - it's now known to be a carcinogen. Aspartame is a potent neurotoxin that caused so many problems in people, the FDA created a hotline for people to call in to report the side effects and, they received more calls about aspartame than any other chemical in history. Oh . . . and they shut down the hotline.

Stevia seems to be a good option, but it's still a sweetener. Some experts seem to believe that any sweetener causes an insulin surge in us because our mouth tastes sweetness and the body reacts accordingly. But the jury is still out on this.  Other options include polyol sugars (i.e. xylitol), and even unprocessed (raw) honey can be a good option.

We look at this issue in the following way:

1. Firstly, why does the person crave sweets?  Is it stress, blood sugar issues, poor macronutrient ratios, or something else?  There is usually a reason we crave sweets and if we can get to the bottom of it, sweeteners become less important.
2. If someone does want to sweeten something, until research proves otherwise, good options seem to include: agave nectar, raw honey, stevia, xylitol (or erythritol).

Please email us if you have questions you'd like answered in Ask the Doctors.

Enjoy a happy and healthy month of June.

Dr. Julie Kniess 443-867-7619 julie@drjuliekniess.com	Dr. Bryan P. Walsh 443-458-8307 bryan@drbryanpwalsh.com