Black elderberries (Sambucus nigra) are high in Vitamins A and C. folate, iron and flavonoids, notably anthocyanins which are found in red and purple berries. Their antioxidant capacity is double that of blueberries and significantly higher than in blackberries, goji berries or cranberries.
Ripe elderberries (Sambucus) in Rochester, Minnesota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
They have a proven track record of strengthening the immune system and getting rid of colds and the flu. Sambucol is a favored brand, but runs $16 for a 120 ml bottle. You can make your own black elderberry syrup from raw or dried elderberries.
Dried elderberries can be obtained online from reliable vendors like Starwest Botanicals, Mountain Rose Herbs or the Frontier Natural Foods Coop. Black elderberry grows over a broad range in North America and other temperate regions of the world. If you harvest your own, avoid the shrubby dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus) which can be toxic. Berries start green, turning red, then black when ripe. Don’t eat the berries raw. Always avoid unripe berries, as well as the leaves, seeds, and bark, which contain a chemical related to cyanide, which is poisonous. The flower is medicinal and 1/4 cup could be added to the syrup recipe below.
Black elderberries can be taken preventatively as well as when sick. You take about half the medicinal dose to prevent illness. Elderberry may help treat cold and flu symptoms by reducing congestion and possibly helping you to “sweat it out. One study suggested that using a standardized and proprietary elderberry extract, Sambucol, could shorten the duration of flu by about 3 days. Another study on sinusitus showed that a proprietary elderberry extract increased the ability of antibiotics when used for sinusitus. Black elderberry has been tested as effective against swine flue (H1N1) in vitro but human studies have not yet been done.
Making your own elderberry extract is easy and less expensive. I like to use either a local honey or one with a high phenol content like manuka or eucalyptus honey. Since heating, which strengthens the flavonoids can reduce the Vitamin C content, you may add a powder of a full spectrum Vitamin C, or dried amla or acerola.
What You Need:
3/4 cup dried black elderberries
2 Tablespoons fresh or 1 Tablespoon dried ginger root
1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
½ freshly ground black pepper
1 cup raw local, eucalyptus or manuka honey
optional: 2 Tablespoons Vitamin C, amla or acerola cherry powder
mason jar or bottle
coffee grinder, spice grinder or mortar and pestle
coarse strainer or jelly strainer
Instructions:
Grind the cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns in a coffee or spice grinder
Put all the ingredients except the honey in a medium saucepan with about 4 cups of water
Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low and let simmer for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes it should have reduced to about half. This makes the flavonoids more bioavailable
Remove from heat, and gently mash the black elderberries
Cook for another 5 minutes
Strain through a coarse strainer
Let the mixture cool
Once it is fully cool, add the honey and stir well
If you like, add 2 tablespoons of Vitamin C, amla or acerola cherry powder
Pour into a jar or bottle
Keep your freshly made elderberry syrup in the refrigerator and take as needed. You can take a preventative dose of 1-2 tablespoons daily. When sick, you will probably want to use one dose of 2-3 tablespoons every 2-3 hours for adults and 1-2 tablespoons for children .
There are no known side effects to black elder but theoretical concerns exist for people taking diuretics, insulin, theophylline, autoimmune drugs or laxatives. It has not been studied for use in pregnancy.
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Resources:
Kong F. Pilot clinical study on a proprietary elderberry extract: efficacy in addressing influenza symptoms. Online Journal of Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics. 2009;5:32-43.
Mikulic-Petkovsek M, Slatnar A, Stampar F, Veberic R. HPLC-MSn identification and quantification of flavanol glycosides in 28 wild and cultivated berry species. Food Chem. 2012;135(4):2138-46.
+Roschek B, Fink RC, McMichael MD, et al. Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro. Phytochemistry. 2009;70:1255-61.
Roxas M, Jurenka J. Colds and influenza: a review of diagnosis and conventional, botanical, and nutritional considerations. Altern Med Rev. 2007 Mar;12(1):25-48.
Ulbricht C, Basch E, Cheung L, et al. An evidence-based systematic review of elderberry and elderflower(Sambucus nigra) by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration. J Diet Suppl. 2014;11(1):80-120
As an herbalist for whom tastes of herbs -sweet, sour, salty, spicy (pungent), astringent and bland- imply specific medicinal actions. Bitterness is something that is often confusing because there is a genetic component to the ability to taste – according to 21 and Me I belong to a snip where 80% cannot genetically taste bitterness. (I am in the 20% that can.) The most often confused tastes are sour or pungent. I cannot attribute a pungent herb like horseradish or a sour taste like lemon as “bitter”. Bitter covers tastes like black coffee, radicchio, karela (bitter melon), dandelion greens, black walnut hulls, gentian, angelica or artichoke leaves. There is often a slightly sweet aftertaste to bitterness.
In herbal medicine the largest category of herbs tends to be bitters, which are anti-infective, anti-inflammatory, digestive causing bile to flow and often antiparasite. Herbalist David Winston categorizes bitter herbs as cooling bitters, warming bitters and antiparasite aromatic bitters which are intensely bitter.
There are two basic qualities associated with bitter taste:
According to the five element systematic correspondence, the bitter taste is associated with the heart system. The alkaloids and glycosides commonly found in bitter plants help explain this relationship, as the Chinese heart system corresponds mainly to the nervous system and circulatory system of Western medicine, the two systems most strongly impacted by these types of active constituents.
According to the taste/action dogma, bitter herbs have a cleansing action (removing heat and toxin). The cleansing action of bitters mainly refers to their antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects, which are found with alkaloids, glycosides, and flavonoids. The bitter herbs also dry dampness, and this refers mainly to reduction of mucous membrane secretions; we can recognize today that increased mucus secretion is usually secondary to inflammation and infection.
Meals should start or finish with something bitter, be it a salad with bitter greens or an aperitif or digestif drink or an espresso after eating. Fernet Branca and Angostura Bitters are two commercial bitters, but I love Urban Moonshine’s Maple Bitters which come in a handy purse spray. Or you can take a slice of lime in water and bite down on the skin. This will stimulate your bile and stomach acid production. (So-called “acid reflux” in people over 30 is usually a problem of stomach acid being too low to stimulate the closure of the esophageal sphincter.) When the bitter taste stimulates peristalsis it helps relieve constipation and even depression. It helps create the optimum conditions for the gut bacteria as well.
Reishi is the Japanese name for Ganoderma lucidum, a mushroom known as Ling zhi in Chinese medicine. Similar species are found from the Amazon rain forest to the Arctic and have similar tonic uses. The mushroom is known to be powerful and features in myths about raising warriors from the dead. While it lacks that specific property, the mushroom is used for everything from increasing blood quality to treating cancer. Mycelial extracts done well on wooded substrates have similar to superior healing characteristics to those of the whole mushroom according to mycologist Paul Stamets. Nonetheless the mushroom itself excites users, with its antler or mushroom forms and red shiny surface.
The ganodermas (black G. lucidum, red G. lucidum, G. oregonense, G. tsuga, G. adspersum and G. applanatum) are tonic, immune strengthening, protect against cancer, have anti-tumor properties, calm the spirit, protect and clear heat from the central nervous system, open the heart, lower serum cholesterol and are good for adrenal fatigue and for depression and anxiety. They enter all five zang organs. They have anti-allergic effects, inhibiting histamine production and stabilizing immunoglobulin levels. They lower blood pressure, are antioxidant, antiviral and antibacterial. Combining with astragalus, atractylodes and Ren shen increase phagocytosis, promote immune globulin formation, promote lymphocyte transformation, and induce the generation of interferon. Chinese mountain climbers use Ling zhi to alleviate altitude sickness by oxygenating the blood.
I learned from a Thai doctor with a cancer practice, Santi Rosswong, to make a water decoction of Ganoderma lucidum (Ling zhi) with 10% cordyceps [Dong chong xia cao] for stamina. But since the polysaccharides in ganoderma are quite long, it has been shown to be more effective if the decoction is taken with not less than 500 mg of vitamin C, and 5 mg of folic acid each time. (The vitamin C is based upon Japanese research by Morishige and the folic acid is based upon Santi’s clinical experience.) Take several tablespoons (or more) every three hours. The most important dose is just before retiring, which should be larger. Take the folic acid and vitamin C with each dose.
There are two types of tinctures. One uses a concentrated decoction and adds alcohol to stabilize it. When I make it, I learned from Chris Hobbs to shoot for 25% alcohol to protect the polysaccharides, to ensure that I got between 22% and 28%, the lower number for spoilage and the upper number being a maximum for the polysaccharide protection. This appears to be the best formulation for immune system effects. The other way is to use a high alcohol formation to get the triperetenes, but I understand that this destroys the polysaccharides and differs significantly from the constituents extracted in traditional uses or from powdered extracts. It may have stronger CNS effects however. I know several herbalists who make a high alcohol tincture and add it to the subsequently decocted marc to get the best of both (and they understand that the high alcohol just makes the polysaccharides clump together on the side of the tincturing vessel but does not destroy them). There is not a consensus.
Ling zhi has various steroidal compounds, long chain polysaccharides, bitter triperetenes such as ganodermic acid and some volatile oils. Unlike Echinacea which activates macrophages, ganoderma is not believed to stimulate the immune system directly. It is probably an immune regulator rather than an immune stimulant. Ling zhi mushrooms get to the bone marrow and induce the marrow to put on more nucleated marrow cell mass, according to Jia. The marrow then increases B-cell production, which in turn increases antibodies. The DNA and RNA made in the bone marrow increases production of lymphocytes. This very deep immune nourishing means that it may be appropriate for AIDS patients although the patient should not suffer from undue dampness. For cancer therapy, combined with other fu zheng herbs, Ling zhi can be quite useful, even for patients undergoing chemo and radiation. Hobbs recommends low dose decocted ganoderma with cinnamon bark and orange peel as a tonic drink (for those not suffering from undue dampness) and I find that preparation, with roasted dandelion or chicory, combines well with coffee, helping neutralize coffee’s negative effects.
(Karen S Vaughan, adapted from Chinese Herbal Academy post 8-26-2000)
Diseases and conditions where stem cell treatment is promising or emerging. Bone marrow transplantation is, as of 2009, the only established use of stem cells. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As many of you know I had a stem cell implant in January at StemGenex in La Jolla California. I had been somewhat discouraged by the effect on my Parkinson’s disease but two different people in the past week have spontaneously remarked that my tremors have reduced. The tremors have spread to the other side, but are less intense. So it may well be that I am not the best judge- I only pay attention when the tremors are active.
I want to say right off that even if I’d had no effects whatsoever from the stem cell implant that valuable information would be derived from the study. We need to learn who responds and who does not. There are considerations of the effects on insulin resistance and gut bacteria, as well as vagus nerve stimulation that affect the success of stem cell implants. We need more experimentation on how and where to administer the cells and what activities will impact their proliferation. (Too bad for nonresponding participants who pay out of pocket but good for science.)
It is true that I haven’t had the dramatic changes that I expected. And I might have done better with stem cells taken from the cord blood of a newborn rather than my own adipose (fat) cells. When you are fat, the fat cells can be hypoxic and less vital. One doctor I spoke with in Mexico said he prefers cord blood because the stem cells are more active, even if there are considerably fewer of them. If you are heavy and are considering stem cell implants you might consider using cord blood. Cord blood is not available in the US, but there are reputable firms outside of the country.
Do I think losing weight prior to a stem cell implant might have helped? Only with a few years lead time and lots of detoxification. The problem is that fat stores toxins to protect the body from the harm they can cause. I have tested high for lead, strontium, DDE and other endocrine-disrupting compounds. Weight loss can dump toxins into the blood stream and tissues as fat cells are broken down or deflated, which is why I have gotten sick every single time I lost weight, even slowly. I did a course of herbal detox and DMPS, EDTA, and Olestra (1) chelation prior to the stem cell implant to reduce toxins but stopped a month before the implant to let my body normalize. Chelation cannot be done after the implant until the cells have finished multiplying.
A friend tells me that our neighbor is still experiencing improvements 2 years after his stem cell implant – and it took a while to build up. He saw the greatest improvement after he started getting deep massage and using a vibration platform late in the first year. So there is still hope. It has been only 6 months. One woman with MS who was going through the implant with me for the third time said that the first time there was no change until 6 months and suddenly she was able to raise her legs two feet instead of two inches. Pazienza, Karen!
Confidence Fitness Vibration Platform. At http://amzn.to/1Ge8Ifw
I was advised by a colleague with Parkinson’s to get a vibration platform to increase the stem cell activation and to reduce Parkinson’s symptoms. I used one last week while visiting my parents and it definitely activates qi and blood, affecting not only circulation but eliciting a strong stretch-reflex contraction in muscle fibers. It is a very efficient anaerobic form of resistance training and they claim that 10 minutes of platform exercise is like 60 minutes of regular exercise. Vibration platforms for the home run between $200- $6000. While the pure platforms without handholds look like they give a stronger vibration and certainly fit better in a NYC apartment, the design looks risky for someone with Parkinson’s. The $250 Confidence Fitness machine has over 700 five star reviews on Amazon. I am saving up for it now.
Handhold- less dual motor vibration plate (what do you do with the remote while shaking?)
Ronald J. Jandacek, James E. Heubi, Donna D. Buckley, Jane C. Khoury, Wayman E. Turner, Andreas Sjödin, James R. Olson, Christie Shelton, Kim Helms, Tina D. Bailey, Shirley Carter, Patrick Tso, Marian Pavuk.Reduction of the body burden of PCBs and DDE by dietary intervention in a randomized trial. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 2014; 25 (4): 483 DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2014.01.002
Ganoderma, also known as Lingzhi or Reishi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Medicinal mushrooms are in great demand because of their adaptogenic effects and their actions against cancer. They improve the immune system, balance the hormones of the HPA axis, are anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, tonify the heart, protect the liver and soothe the nerves.
Taking them in an effective way is not so easy. Eating medicinal mushrooms like shitake or maitake doesn’t release the medicinal value (except perhaps the Vitamin D.)
If you want to take them as a tea (decoction) you need to simmer them for at least an hour to separate the medicine from the chitin. (Yes mushrooms have chitin, like sea shells.) This is the traditional way used in Chinese medicine. Chris Hobbs suggests keeping a pot warm on the back burner at all times, periodically adding water, astragalus, cinnamon and orange peel so you only need to make it every few weeks. Cooking herbs daily can be a bit much and decoctions only last a few days in the refrigerator but it works and I have used this kind of decoction to make ganoderma coffee.
Tinctures or liquid extracts are portable, let you taste them which makes them more effective than capsules, but are not simple to make. You can’t just soak the mushrooms, either fresh or dried in alcohol. The chitin still locks up the medicine. The most important fractions of the medicine are polysaccharides like beta????-Glucens or Mannogalactoglucan which don’t survive even medium levels of alcohol.
Polysaccharides clump together when exposed to alcohol and become inert. Below 30% the alcohol is not strong enough to percipitate out the polysaccharides. The triterpenes like Ganoderic Acid in reishi are also medicinally important and require a high alcohol percentage to be extracted. So to get the most medicine, you need to follow a two step process and combine them with 25-20% alcohol to make a liquid extract.
For 250 grams, slightly over 1/2 pound of mushrooms you will want to make 1 1/4 liters of liquid extract. It will be 30% grain alcohol or 375 ml and 875 ml of decoction.
The first stage is to decoct the the given weight of dried mushrooms in water. You need to simmer below a boil for at least an hour after they rehydrate, longer is better. The bigger the mushroom chunks the longer- Chinese herbal pharmacies sell reishi in thin slices which I usually spin in the Vitamix., but before I had access to those I would chunk as small as possible then run in the Vitamix mid cooking when the mushroom was a little softer. Chaga can be obtained through Mainley Chaga in a coffee grind (but for the medicine decoct it- don’t just run through your coffee maker!) If you wildcraft, slice thinly before the mushroom dries and dry it gill side up in the sun for maximum Vitamin D.
Start with your ground dry mushrooms. Cover with water and let it absorb. Add more water so the mushroom chunks can freely swim. Cover and simmer for an hour or overnight. Strain and squeeze out, measure the decoction in a Pyrex container to see if you have enough, 875 ml in this example, and cook down the decoction to the quantity you need or top up with water. Freeze until the tincture is ready. (Squeeze it out really well.)
Take the strained out marc (which has had most polysaccharides removed) and add Everclear/ grain alcohol to get the triterpenes. For 250 gr mushrooms use 275 mililiters of Everclear. (Because the mushroom pieces will have absorbed water, you need less alcohol than if you were to tincture in alcohol directly and lose the absorbed alcohol.) Store in a dark place for 1-3 months, shaking perodically and strain out really well, squeezing the spongy marc. Mix the finished tincture with the defrosted decoction very slowly, stirring well to get a 30% alcohol level.
(Some just stabilize the decoction with plain 95% grain alcohol but it won’t be as strong. You can also use two batches of mushrooms, one for alcohol and one for decoction in water. You need 7 parts decoction to 3 parts Everclear tincture. It will cost more and you will need more Everclear but it is convenient.)
You can also find Chinese dried granules to rehydrate with warm water, but it won’t have the triterpenes. These can be combined with other Chinese herbs in a formula, although I find granule formulas somewhat less effective than raw herb formulas. (They are convenient however.) And Mushroom Harvest makes a well-done steamed granule that you can put into smoothies. If you purchase tinctures call the company that makes them and find out how they make the tincture- there is a lot of inert or very weak medicinal mushroom tincture out there. You can do better by following these instructions.
Incidentally I have found two new foods that diminish Parkinson’s tremors: watermelon and papaya. I learned about them from a Parkinson’s blogger who calls herself Aunt Bean (after the fava and mucuna beans she grows for PD.) Apparently the late pope used fermented papaya and Aunt Bean has a recipe here. I started out fermenting them. Watermelon was easy: I scooped the pulp into a blender, liquified it and added water kefir grains. It soon turned into a bubbling sour drink. The papaya was harder: I mashed the pulp and fermented it but needed to dry it on fruit leather trays which I don’t have for my dehydrator.
California Papaya grown in Indonesia, cut into half (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
But I also read comments that the unfermented food worked and I noticed that raw watermelon and papaya seemed to reduce tremors. Fermentation does reduce sugar and add probiotics but it doesn’t keep very long. So my dehydrator is going, full of papaya slices (the watermelon is done.)
Now I had no idea why watermelon and papaya work, and they are hardly a cure. But it was tasty and easy to incorporate into a daily diet. I still take the fava beans (note that dopamine medication could interact) but I don’t take them every day any more.
So I went on a search. In Chinese Medicine watermelon is considered a cold medicinal herb, used to drain heat out of the body through the urine and to replenish fluids. Xi gua (watermelon) is known to clear heat, replenishes fluids, regulate urination and expel jaundice- it is used in hepatitis treatment. While the materia medica says that it goes to the Heart, Bladder and Stomach but not the liver, the attributes or meridians named after organs are not identical with those attributed to organs by Western medicine The jaundice and hepatitis indications made me think of the liver and I guessed that glutathione production might be affected. And in fact while I still needed to check scholarly sources, Dr. Oz cites watermelon as a rich source of glutathione. And although short-lived and poorly absorbed from pills, glutathione does reduce tremors.
Watermelon provides 28 milligrams of glutathione per 100 gram portion. A perusal of PubMed shows that watermelon extract can mitigate oxidative damage from X-rays or genotoxicity and neurological balance. To use or make glutathione we need water which is in abundance in watermelon. If we are dehydrated we may not make as much glutathione as we could.
Seedless watermelon Purchased Feb. 2005 in Atlanta, GA, USA The tag had the following information: mini me (TM) AYACO FARMS PERSONAL SEEDLESS WATERMELON #3421 PRODUCT OF NICARAGUA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Glutathione, a compound containing three amino acids, glutamate, cysteine and glycine, is the body’s master antioxidant and when its production is damaged a variety of things can go wrong including tremors. IV glutathione is given in a push to stop symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease but the IVs are recommended 3-7 times a week, not covered by insurance. The landmark glutathione Parkinson’s study, “Reduced intravenousglutathione in the treatment of early Parkinson’s disease.‘, was done by the Department of Neurology, University of Sassari, Italy in 1996. In this study all patients improved significantly after glutathione therapy with a 42% decline in disability. Neurologist Dr. Daniel Perlmutter has been giving it to PD patients since 1998.
Now I would not be so reductionist as to say that it is only glutathione that makes watermelon or papaya work. Watermelon hydrates which provides the a matrix for the hydronium ions that carry qi through fluids, It is high in flavanoids Vitamin A, Vitamin C, B vitamins, and potassium, not to mention cirtulline and lycopene, One slice of watermelon (485 g) contains 152 calories, 3 g protein, 34.6 g carbohydrates, 2.4 g fiber, 560 mg potassium, 176 mg vitamin A (RE), 47 mg vitamin C, 8..5 mg choline, 0.1 mg riboflavin, and 0.96 mg niacin.
Papaya contains enzymes that induce glutathione S-transferase. Papaya latex contains at least four cysteine endopeptidases and other constituents including hydrolase inhibitors and lipase. It has rather high levels of potassium and significant levels of calcium and magnesium. Vitamin C, Vitamin A. A small fruit (157 g) contains 67 calories, 0g protein, 17 g carbohydrates, 2.7 g fiber, 286 mg potassium, 1531 IU vitamin A (RE), 86.5 mg vitamin C, 15 mg folate and 0.5 mg niacin. Since the enzymatic effect is important one should avoid irradiated papayas to get the best effect.
There is evidence that a yeast fermented preparation of papaya is more effective than fresh or dried papaya. It reduces oxidative stress and has been found to protect the brain from oxidative damage in hypertensive rats. Pope John Paul ll was prescribed an experimental treatment made from a fermented papaya to ease symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, I suspect that the fermentation makes a difference compared to dried or raw papaya.
So incorporating watermelon and fermented papaya is an easy way to reduce symptoms. Other fruits that also have glutathione and are rich in antioxidants are berries, oranges, pomegranate, apricots, prunes, avocado, grapefruit, strawberries, peaches, cinnamon, asparagus, legumes, nuts, spinach and bell peppers. Or eat cysteine-rich food including dairy products such as cheese,yogurt and chicken breast since cysteine is used in glutathione synthesis. Add a couple of Brazil Nuts for selenium (or tuna, beef, walnuts, eggs, cottage cheese, or turkey) and we are set!
Nutrition for Parkinson’s Disease has four components: What to Eat, What Not to Eat, Useful supplements and How to Eat, given symptoms of the disease. This will be a four piece series. Some of it is basic: the foods and superfoods that enrich the diet. Some is specific to the typical complaints from either the disease, the medications and the often restrictive lifestyles that PD patients often adopt. And the how-to acknowledges that the disease creates some physical problems that adaptive devices might help.
Mucuna in flower, source of L.Dopa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Nutrition for Parkinson’s Disease Part 1: What to Eat
People with Parkinson’s have some extra requirements in their diet. Because shaking can burn calories, it is easy to become underweight, although that is not universal. Yin deficiency, a kind of dehydration or wasting, is generally seen in symptoms like shaking, muscle spasms, constipation, poorly nourished muscles and skin, as well as dehydration. Blood deficiency can be seen with pale skin, lips and tongue as well as with muscle wasting. While we have limited knowledge of what causes the substantia nigra to stop making dopamine, it is likely that missing nutrients will be implicated in both the production of dopamine and the preservation of brain cells. People with Parkinson’s often suffer from constipation and muscle spasms. So what should you eat?
Berries and other fruits- While people with Parkinson’s who are not overweight can eat fruit rather freely, it is best to deal with nutrient-dense berries. Blueberries, huckleberries, goji berries, blackberries, raspberries, organic strawberries, pomegranates, and cherries all pack a deeper nutritional punch than apples, pears and bananas. All are useful, but especially the berries which are rich sources of flavonoids. Blueberries and organic strawberries can reduce depression, improve memory and slow neuro-degeneration. Goji berries are especially high in antioxidants and can build blood. Cranberries may protect the urinary tract. Tart cherries can help insomnia with their melatonin. Berries can pack in the nutrition especially as swallowing becomes more difficult. Go for organic, especially with strawberries and other berries because chemicals in pesticides can be linked to Parkinson’s. All fruits provide fiber which can counteract constipation. 1/2-1 cup daily.
Purine-rich foods which break down too uric acid and then urates: The chemical urate, a potent antioxidant which is known to cause gout in excess, appears to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Foods that make uric acid include: fructose, asparagus, beer, heart, herring,mussels,yeast, smelt, sardines, and sweetbreads. Just don’t overdo it, especially if you are prone to gout or insulin resistance. A serving a day, but take it in the evening if you are on Levodopa or Carbodopa.
Fatty fish or fish oil including halibut, sardines, wild Alaskan salmon, anchovies and herring are rich in the DHA and EPA, Omega 3 fatty acids which go to the brain and help guard against dementia which affects some 40% of people with Parkinson’s. Fish oil improves cognition, protects against depression, boosts the immune system,relieves arthritis and protects the heart. I do not find flax oil as effective as fish or cod liver oil- it can require 30 times the dose, goes rancid very rapidly and some 30% of the population cannot convert it to DHA. (DHA makes up 20% of grey matter in the brain.) If you eat fish, eat the skin and check Seafood Watch to make sure that mercury levels are low. Beef that is 100% pasture-raised on grass has a fat profile similar to deep water fish but conventionally grain-raised CAFO beef does not. Otherwise get cod liver or fish oil and take enough to get 1000 mg of DHA. Since that can be 5 capsules, I generally get Carlson’s lemon-flavored fish oil or Green Pasture’s cinnamon fermented cod liver oil and use it to wash down supplements.
Iron is linked to dopamine production. Patients with Parkinson’s have lower levels of dopamine produced by the substantia nigra and may respond to iron administration. Iron, as a cofactor in dopamine production, plays a central role in the etiology of the disease. Low dopamine can cause other neurological problems such as restless leg syndrome and muscle spasms. Judging from the Parkinson’s people I see, Blood Deficiency is pretty widespread. I recommend pasture-raised organic red meat, liver once a week,and dark green and dark red vegetables. (Chlorophyll is hemoglobin with magnesium at the center instead of iron, but usually has non-heme iron as well.) To increase iron absorption, tincture of Yellow dock (Rumex crispus) given in drop doses to stomach tolerance, can be helpful. However taking iron as a supplement can be ineffective (hard to absorb), hard on your heart or absorbed by bad gut flora. Dr.Campbell-McBride advises against it :
Most people with abnormal gut flora have various stages of anemia. It is not surprising. They not only can’t absorb essential for blood vitamins and minerals from food, but their own production of these vitamins is damaged. On top of that people with damaged gut flora often have a particular group of pathogenic bacteria growing in their gut, which are iron-loving bacteria (Actinomyces spp., Mycobacterium spp., pathogenic strains of E. coli, Corynebacterium spp., and many others). They consume whatever iron the person gets from the diet, leaving that person deficient in iron. Unfortunately, supplementing iron makes these bacteria grow stronger and does not remedy anemia.” (Gut & Psychology Syndrome)
Vinegars made with live mothers are probiotic
Probiotic Foods help you develop good gut flora that can out-compete undesirable bacteria and to increase digestion. Live blue cheese, yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchee, vinegar with a mother like Braggs, kombucha, unpasturized pickles and olives, miso, fermented fish sauces and pickled vegetables should be taken at each major meal. Pickles and pickle juice helps the body free up magnesium which can reduce cramps. Other bacteria help absorb minerals. I prefer food-based sources of probiotics because you eat them fresh, they come with their own prebiotics which feed them and tend to have a variety of organisms that may not be in pill form. For instance, most probiotic pills only have lactobacillus or bifidobacteria but there may be another 500 species that are present in a healthy gut. If you do use probiotic supplements, look for them in a refrigerated case rather than a shelf.
Prebiotic foods feed the gut flora and can protect against iron depleting strains of bacteria. Prebiotics like fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and inulin feed the probiotic organisms and allow them to proliferate in the gut. They ought to be in probiotic supplements to help keep them alive. However your gut also needs to be receptive to them. Rather than purchasing a prebiotic supplement, eat a serving of Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, onions, leeks, burdock root, garlic (in quantity), shallots, jicama root, chicory or dandelion root, barley or yacón each day.
Nuts from trees are great sources of Vitamin E in its various forms and trace minerals, as well as good fats provided you eat them raw. Roasting can easily change the fat profile and excessive conventional salt triggers indiscriminate consumption. You will absorb nut nutrients better if you soak them overnight- you can puree them into nut butter with a little sea salt, toss them into salad or a stir fry or make your own nut milks. They are storehouses of important trace minerals: Brazil nuts are high in selenium which can help the heart. Peanuts which are ground nuts are significantly contaminated with aflatoxin, a known carcinogen that is twenty times more toxic than DDT. Since toxins can cause some Parkinson’s, avoid peanuts. 1 oz . per day of tree nuts.
Beans in general are good for Parkinson’s because the fiber levels are high enough to prevent constipation while providing protein, reducing blood sugar spikes and providing protection from cancer. They can be consumed daily with herbs like rosemary or bay leaf to reduce flatulence and making them yourself will allow you to change the water enough to reduce that problem. But there are two beans in particular which provide special protection against Parkinson’s: fava beans and mucuna beans. These beans contain levodopa, the same chemical in Sinemet, Madopar, Dopar, Larodopa, and other levodopa-containing medicines used to treat PD which means that adding them to a well-balanced prescription can be problematic, although they can sometimes substitute for all or part of a prescription. According to Dr. Jame’s Duke’s database the entire fava plant, including leaves, stems, pods, and immature beans, contains levodopa, with the highest concentrations in the flowers and sprouting bean. The amount of levodopa can vary greatly, depending on the species of fava and where it’s grown especially since it has been cultivated as a food rather than a medicine for most of its history. Three ounces (about 84 grams or ½ cup every day) of fresh green fava beans, or three ounces of canned green fava beans, drained, may contain about 50-100 mg of levodopa. One small study showed that mucuna had better results than the form of levodopa given as prescription medication and anecdotal evidence shows it tends to work better than fava beans. Doses range from 22.5 – 67.5 g per day divided in 2 – 5 doses. Neither bean should be taken by persons with Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) or elevations in blood pressure may result. If you have favism, a genetic susceptibility where you lack an enzyme called glucose-6-phosphate, eating fava beans could cause a condition called hemolytic anemia. This is ruled out by a test but it is unknown if mucuna also causes this reaction. Lacking either MAOIs or Favism, both beans are potentially good for people with Parkinson’s who work with an herbalist and medical doctor.
Cruciferous Vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, bok choi, kohlrabi, brussels sprouts and mustard, rutabaga and turnip greens help reduce estrogen dominance which reduces magnesium and vitamin B. A deficiency in magnesium causes muscle tightening and that causes people to experience muscle spasms while deficiency in vitamin B can cause neurological problems like neuropathy. Cruciferous vegetables are rich in zinc, vitamins A, B, C, D and E and Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) which is especially beneficial to estrogen metabolism. When I3C combines with stomach acid it creates 3,3-Diindolylmethane, or DIM. The metabolism of DIM overlaps with estrogen metabolism so that it promotes healthy estrogen metabolism. Eat 2-4 servings daily within your 9 servings of veggies and berries. They should be steamed or in the case of kale chips, dried with heat to protect the thyroid.
Coffee and Tea. Coffee has shown to be helpful at both preventing and slowing the progression of Parkinson’s disease in a dose-dependent way. Coffee consumption is associated with 60% fewer cases of Parkinson’s Disease in one study. Caffeinated coffee is better than decaf and coffee reduces symptoms better than other sources of caffeine, indicating that caffeine alone may not be the protective mechanism. (Coffee is much more than caffeine, with magnesium and potent antioxidants like the chlorogenic acids.) Caffeine as an isolate incidentally was associated with better motor control but had very little effect on daytime sleepiness. One caveat: some people don’t do well on coffee and tend to self-select out of the positive scientific studies (try making a coffee placebo!) Follow your own body. Tea has general health benefits from catechins which are powerful antioxidants and at least one study showed a reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease. There is some evidence that symptoms may be reduced with tea drinking, especially in studies of Asian populations.
Other Fluids: Since dehydration is a problem, you need to drink. Drinking more than a half cup at a time triggers the urinary reflex so does not hydrate your tissues. So put your water in a bottle with a drink-through cap and sip it through the day. If you drink coffee or soda, assume that the caffeine will reduce hydration by 25% and tea or iced tea by 10%. Don’t drink soda though, especially cola or artificially sweetened soda which contains potential toxins not known to be safe for Parkinson’s. If water seems too plain, add a spear of melon and a sprig of mint, or sliced lemons or fresh rosemary and orange slices. Coconut water has a good balance of electrolytes and isn’t too sweet. You can also get fluids from fruits like watermelon or citrus. But if you can get fresh vegetable juice with lots of greens, it would be better from a nutritional standpoint. Don’t forget good fats- think of oil floating on water to prevent evaporation.
Mai men dong (ophiopogon tubers) make a mild soup ingredient that strongly tonifies yin. Available at Chinese grocery stores.
Yin building herbs and foods: Parkinson’s disease can be dehydrating, drying out skin, muscles, the colon and joints. This is referred to as yin deficiency and can develop into deficient (friction) heat as it progresses. You need to nourish your fluids and tissues and there are a number of “Chinese grocery store” or food grade herbs and foods that can help. Seaweeds should be included in the diet at least twice a week, but dulse, nori and kelp are also available as sprinkles that can be used like a flavored salt inbetween. Seaweeds are good sources of trace minerals and iodine, since much of our healthy topsoil has blown out to sea. A table spoon or two of slippery elm or marshmallow powder can be stirred into applesauce or oatmeal. Mai men dong bulbs (opiophogon, liorope) are small, bland Chinese vegetables that nourish yin, go well in even western soup and can be found at Chinese grocery stores. So can white lily bulb (bai wei), broken into small bulblettes. Shatavari (asparagus tuber, tian men dong), the yin adaptogen food can be found online powdered, and can be used to thicken soups while nourishing fluids, hormones and tissues. Oatmeal, millet, alfalfa sprouts, artichoke, asparagus, kelp, mung bean sprouts, okra; peas, potatoes, black beans, avocado, aduki beans, seaweed, string beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes (especially tomato paste), water chestnuts, yam, zucchini, berries, apricots, pears, watermelon, fish and shellfish, pork (especially liver and kidneys), beef, goose and duck, coconut milk and nuts all will help keep you supple. 9 servings of yin-tonifying fruits and vegetables a day.
Foods with B vitamins, especially B1 thiamine, B5 pantothenic acid, B9 folate, B12 cobalamin, B6 pyrodoxine help the mitochondria which power our cells . Foods high in B vitamins include purple and green kale, mushrooms, bok choy, collards, rare organ meats like liver, heart and tongue, and very rare muscle meat. Meats are better sources when organic and grass fed. However if you can’t find grass fed liver, the organ has numerous detoxification pathways so you are safe with conventional liver- akin to an apartment building with a full janitorial staff. This is not true of other organs.
Iodine is important for Parkinson’s. It not only necessary for the production of thyroid hormone, it is also responsible for the production of all of the other hormones of the body. Adequate iodine levels are necessary for proper immune system function. Iodine contains potent antibacterial, antiparasitic, antiviral, and anticancer properties. Iodine deficiency disorder can result in mental retardation, goiter, increased child and infant mortality, infertility, and socioeconomic decline. There is evidence that Parkinson’s is more prevalent where iodine is missing in the soil and in areas where goiters are frequent. Long-term iodine deficiency appears linked to abnormalities in the dopaminergic system that include an increased number of dopamine receptors. This raises susceptibility to dopamine oxidation which, in turn, causes deficiencies of the antioxidant enzymes Copper or Zink superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase. Dopamine deficiency also leads to elevated cytotoxic glutamate levels. Iodine is primarily found in seawater in very small quantities and solid rocks (usually near the ocean) that form when seawater evaporates. Iodine can also be found in seafood like halibut, salmon and shellfish and seaweeds like kelp, dulse, nori and hijiki. In fact, seaweed is one of the most abundant sources of iodine because seaweed has the ability to concentrate a large amount of iodine from the ocean water. Seaweeds and seafood should be taken twice a week from low mercury sources.
Kitchen Spices: There is often a loss of taste or smell with PD, and the use of strong spices like thyme, oregano, rosemary, ginger, tulsi (holy basil which is sharper than regular basil), cardamon and star anise are not only strong antioxidants but have penetrating flavor and can enhance cerebral circulation. Do not forget that people with impaired taste can often perceive sour flavors like lemon juice, and vinegar or salty tastes (use seaweed granules, Celtic sea salt, Himalayan salt, iodized sea salt but no MSG.) But turmeric is the king of anti-inflammatory spices. Turmeric is an adaptogen that is strongly antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, which crosses the blood brain barrier and is neuroprotective. It is considered a panacea herb in Ayurvedic medicine. It is used in curries, soups, smoothies and in milk. My favorite way to take medicinal doses is to take 10 oz. dried turmeric, 1/2 ounce freshly ground black pepper and 1/2 oz. ground ginger and mix well. Then stir in a local honey until it has the texture of cookie dough. Take a heaping teaspoon once or twice a day.
Good fats and oils: Most seed oils or conventional cooking oils are too high in Omega 6 fatty acids at a time when the Omega 6/Omega 3 fatty acid ratio (PUFA) has gone from 2/1 to 30/1 today. I recommend avoiding seed oils in favor of fruit oils like coconut oil and olive oil. For cooking you need a more saturated oil like coconut oil that will not peroxidize (go rancid). Ghee or animal drippings from grass-fed organic animals won’t distort under heat either compared to other oils. For raw consumption, avocado, olive oil, black seed oil (see below) and lemon flavored fish oil are useful. Coconut oil with its ketones has, according to case histories, caused a reversal of Alzheimer’s dementia so is worth considering for the cognitive decline of Parkinson’s or Lewy’s dementia. It also offers protection from viral diseases. 1-3 tablespoons in oatmeal or other food. It is being sold as an expensive functional food for Alzheimer’s.
Fresh Turmeric Root
Seeds are something I tend to avoid because we get too many Omega 6 oils in our diet, but a few are outstanding exceptions. Flax seed, hemp seed, black seed and black sesame seeds all help nourish the bowel and help stop constipation, but each has specific virtues. Flax seed has Omega 3 fats that some people can, through genetics and good lifestyle, convert to DHA and EPA. You need to grind it to get the Omega 3s but the lignins in the skin do have some laxative benefit if you don’t. It goes rancid very fast and I recommend getting a coffee grinder and grinding immediately before eating. It is good in oatmeal, over salads, in yogurt and preground in smoothies. Hemp seed is currently either steamed or shelled in the US so that it cannot grow. It is a good source of Omega 3s but can also go rancid easily. I prefer to make hemp milk or to use it in smoothies. Black sesame seed (He zhi ma) tonifies both Liver and Kidney yin, nourishes blood and secures Essence. Black sesame seeds are very rich in iron, magnesium, manganese and copper. There are about 90 mg of calcium in one tablespoon of unhulled (black) seeds It is used in both food and medicine, especially for women and the elderly but since Parkinson’s patients of both sexes are often Blood deficient, don’t let tradition stop you. Black seed (Nigella, black cumin) is used widely in the Middle East, as seed or oil. It smells something like thyme and facilitates a healthy inflammatory response including cell signaling chemicals and hormone-like messengers. Small amounts are put in string cheese and pickled Moroccan lemons, over salads, in pilaf or it is used medicinally. According to Mahfouz and El-Dakhakhny:
Ladybug on Fava bean flower
“Two of the most volatile oils found in Black seed are nigellone and thymoquinone which were fist discovered in the herb in 1985. Nigellone offers both anti-spasmodic and bronchodilating properties which contribute to Black Seed’s potency against respiratory ailments. It also acts as an antihistamine which helps to reduce the negative symptoms of allergy sufferers. Thymoquinone contains excellent anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. It is also a strong anti-oxidant and helps cleanse the body of toxins. Both nigellone and thymoquinone work in conjunction with one another to enhance Black Seed’s action against respiratory ailments. It also provides a healthy alternative to the more commonly prescribed cortisone based therapies used by allergy sufferers. Black seed provides a rich supply of polyunsaturated fatty acids. These ingredients play a key role in daily health and wellness. They help to regulate the metabolism, carry toxins to the skin’s surface for elimination, balance insulin levels, regulate cholesterol, improve body circulation, and promote healthy liver function. A deficiency in polyunsaturated fatty acids can lead to a wide number of health problems including nervous system disorders, uninhibited growths, and skin diseases. Black seed contains over 100 valuable nutrients. It is comprised of approximately 21% protein, 38% carbohydrates, and 35% plant fats and oils. The active ingredients of black seed are nigellone, thymoquinone, and fixed oils. Black seed also contains significant proportions of protein, carbohydrates and essential fatty acids. Other ingredients include linoleic acid, oleic acid, calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin B2, niacin, and vitamin C.”
To summarize, you should get 7.5-8 servings of vegetables per day including at least 2 cooked cruciferous vegetables and the majority from the yin-tonifying list. Choose colored vegetables like butternut squash or cooked carrots for at least one serving. At least one serving should be fermented to provide probiotic organisms (sauerkraut, kimchee) and twice a week sea vegetables (seaweeds). One serving of berries or tart cherries a day and one-half to one serving of other fruit. Wild salmon or other fatty fish twice a week. Liver once a week. Organic pasture-raised meat, preferably organ meat on other days. Beans especially black beans several times a week. One ounce of tree nuts or nut butter daily. Organic eggs, preferably with a raw yolk daily. Spice your food with strong herbs, turmeric and ginger. Sprinkle in flax seed, black seed, black sesame or hemp seed daily. Two to four cups of coffee, two liters of water and two cups of other beverages.
Also see Kathrynne Holden‘s book on nutrition for people with Parkinson’s, Eat Well, Stay Well with Parkinson’s Disease which is available through Amazon or for download here. While she has somewhat more conventional food choices than make it through my Chinese medicine/herbalist lens, she has worked with PD for many years, has special expertise about food/medicine interactions and has dealt with malnourished people with Parkinson’s in both hospital and clinical settings.
I would be remiss if I did not mention Dr. Terry Wahls who suffers from MS but found a way of eating that took her from a tilt-recline wheelchair to riding horses and freely biking today. She eats a variation on a paleo diet that is primarily vegetable based, specifically designed to support the brain and mitochondria. This is especially important for people with Parkinson’s, ALS, Huntington’s, PTSD, migraines, dementia and MS. The vast majority of people do not eat to support life and need some significant changes. I urge you to take the time to watch her TED Talk. If you want more, she has a video class on nutrition and the brain :
Me in Guatemala doing acupuncture outreach, not waiting around for life.
I was recently asked, under the anonymity of a Google comment, how I can be into herbs and health when I am clearly fat, I’m sure the question has been let unasked a lot more than it was voiced. And my first instinct was to get all defensive: the great American herbalist Michael Moore was fat. The great Annishinabe medicine woman and ethnobotanist Keewaydinoquay Peschel was fat. What does fat on your body have to do with what you know, anyway?
The short answer is that once you are fat, unless you are slightly fat or you had a short term weight gain, it is incredibly difficult to reverse. You can lose weight, but it doesn’t last. You can do quite a bit to stay healthy via your diet and lifestyle, but you may end up healthy and fat.
I’ve been fat since age 5, with a short break during my late teens and 20s when I felt like and metabolically was an underweight fat person. Maybe it was my grandmother’s Native genes clashing with a 1960s Standard American Diet- I took after her rather than my parents. Maybe it was a reaction (mine? my parents?) from nearly dying as an infant from weight loss due to digestive problems, although I didn’t notice them pushing food. Perhaps I caught one of those obesity-promoting adenoviruses. Maybe it was all those fattening antibiotics I had for ear infections before anyone considered that dairy might be the culprit. Perhaps my body had to sequester exposures to pesticides painted on the walls at the cabin. Maybe I overate when they pulled me out of my sweet smelling acacia tree to send me to a dismal school and my happiness quotient fell. In any event I was on Metrecal, the Slimfast of the day, by the first grade, embarrassed as we discussed our breakfasts in health class. Junior high was torture, where I was relegated to the few chubette clothes available, until I discovered Guatemalan skirts and peasant blouses. I focused on learning instead of socializing.
I had by this time become quite expert on calories, carbohydrates and food exchanges, not to mention setpoints and portion sizes. My doctors had suggested everything from locking cupboards, to liquid meals to diet pills that left me wired, but I believed there might be better ways. I was under orders to lose weight by any means possible. I biked, swam in the summer, lived on a hill so steep the school bus couldn’t drive up so I walked it instead, went hiking in the woods behind our home, and had daily physical education classes taught by self-hating drill sergeants, I wasn’t exactly a couch potato although I preferred reading, acting in school plays and establishing an underground school newspaper to afterschool sports.
I finally lost weight when I left home, had a new start, and went on a zero carb diet (in Italy, yet.) I kept most of it off when I got home because I lived a mile’s walk from campus and took five 1-2 hour dance classes a week, blessedly subsidized by parents and low tuition. And as a young single who chose a bike rather than a car, I swam daily and went scubadiving on weekends, so it only slowly crept back. But the job ended, I moved to New York where work hours were long, picked up an inactive husband who preferred restaurants to Appalachian trail hikes and saw my weight skyrocket with the hormonal changes of pregnancy. Periods of stress drove my cortisol through the roof. By the time my children were born I was over a threshold where I could lose weight without getting sick or exercise without injury. Not that I didn’t try: Weight Watchers, Optifast, vegan diet, vegetarian diet, Atkins diet, metabolic bump diets, macrobiotic diet, fermented foods, paleo diet, Paul Bergner’s insulin resistance class, hypnosis, therapists, personal trainers, one- hour exercise sessions that didn’t work, two- hour exercise sessions that burned fat but left me too exhausted to work. There was a lot of good stuff in many of those plans. I lost some weight. And I gained everything back.
Was I perfect? Of course not. As a teen I had justified saving calories from eggs for ice cream (after all, a calorie is a calorie isn’t it?) I have caught myself eating emotionally, but it was aberrant enough to stand out and my thin friends do the same on occasion. Portion size may be an issue, but the fat cells themselves call out constantly to eat more, something not true of thinner people. Occasionally I go on tiramisu jaunts. I go between wondering if I am gluten-sensitive or just carb-sensitive and go in and out of drinking milk.
The International Journal of Obesity says that of people who lose 75 or more pounds, 95-98% gain back every pound within 3 years, 2/3 of them within the first year. Even Oprah who can afford cooks, a personal trainer and all the backup possible gains it back. People who keep weight off are a statistical aberration, unless the gain was transient. Younger men who haven’t been obese long and are willing to, say, become exercise instructors or indulge in full time physical labor stand the best chance of joining that elusive 2-5%. as do people who spend the rest of their lives monitoring every mouthful and every bit of exercise. The National Weight Control Registry tracks strategies and data on those who lose at least 33kg and keep it off or 5 years. Even they say that only 20% of dieters are successful at a 10% weight loss for over one year. You have to make your life about keeping weight off and maybe change your work to something physical all day.
Three adult Hymenolepis nana tapeworms. (length: 15 to 40 mm) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I haven’t tried everything. Tapeworms, for instance seemed to work for Maria Callas, but I’m squeamish and like my B vitamins. Nor have I tried surgery, although I did check it out. The painful death of my pharmacist after gastric bypass surgery destroyed any question I might have had about a procedure that creeps me out on the face of it. (What colonizes that empty length of intestine cut off by the surgery?) Two of my obese patients had the surgery and are still fat- and one lost her spleen during the operation. And while a lap band seems less intrusive, I watched one patient struggle for a year with infected ports. For a cool $25,000 plus extra surgery for the sagging skin you get an 80% complication rate and 5 years of becoming thinner before you gain it back. Even if you get thin, you are metabolically fat compared to an always thin person, with every deflated cell urging you to eat at any moment. And the yo yo is harder on your heart and toxin release harder on your brain than just staying fat. Thanks, I’ll work on health at any size.
The truth is, despite Joy Nash’s wonderful YouTube Fat Rants, fat is a matter of shame in our society. We don’t criticize the selfish or the vain nearly as much as the fat. Obesity is treated as a character flaw instead of just extra avoirdupois. It is extra flesh not failure incarnate. Heck we have a worldwide epidemic of obese 6 month olds who probably eat and move much like infants always have, so it makes no sense to blame. And we need to get real about it.
Diagram of a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. (Wikipedia)
I have no question that if I had bypass surgery and lost weight that people would congratulate me on becoming healthier and it might well help me get a teaching job or keep patients. It would not be true. My digestion would be permanently ruined, I’d weaken the muscle in my heart along with all the other muscles (non ketogenic weight loss lowers your muscle mass and the heart is mostly muscle) and I would have scars through my meridians. To be fair my feet and knees would feel better and I might have more energy during the low weight phase, but the assumption of health would be falsely generalized. It is possible that I would live up to 3 years longer, although those figures were not derived by comparing fat and formerly fat people and they certainly didn’t sort out the physically fit fat people for comparison. We aren’t talking decades of life. Besides the most recent word is that thin people with big bellies die sooner than the obese.
What I can do, even if the fat is intractable, is something about is my health and fitness. A low carbohydrate diet including good fats, green vegetables, seaweeds, low glycemic flavonoid-rich fruits and clean protein will keep my blood sugar down and normalize my cholesterol and triglycerides. Exercise will keep my circulation and lung function intact. Weight training will build muscle mass. Yoga, qigong, MELT or Pilates will stretch my muscles and strengthen my core. Regular acupuncture, massage or craniosacral balancing will keep me centered and enough sleep will allow restoration.
Most important I love the work I do and would rather be fat than work at a different, more physical job or spend an additional hour at the gym when I could be spending time figuring out how to affect patients with difficult problems that don’t lead to easy resolution. While my preference for treating zebras, as difficult cases are called, may not make me thin or rich, at least I learn things that help others.
So what have I learned about weight loss?
Statistics on health and Body Mass lump couch potatoes together with the fit fat people. You don’t want to be a couch potato. If you work out regularly and eat well, your main problems will be structural.
Overweight people react differently to dieting strategies than do obese people. Formerly fat people are metabolically quite different than always thin people of the same weight. Don’t assume that everyone can do the same thing to either lose weight or stay thin.
Most fat people do best on low carbohydrate diets, without appreciable grains. Even if you might have done well with grains pre-obesity, your metabolism is probably damaged by long term weight gain. Go Paleo, for good.
If you want to lose weight, you need to restrict food even on a low carb diet. You may be too satisfied to overeat, but many fat people have lost touch with their body’s signals.
Ketosis (not the dangerous ketoacidosis) metabolically causes you to lose fat rather than muscle, provided that you don’t overeat. There are entire civilizations in ketosis (traditional Inuit, Bantu, hunter-gathers) who are not in active weight loss. Nonetheless I know of no better start for fat burning.
To start a ketogenic diet, mineralize yourself with magnesium, potassium, iodine, trace minerals, sea vegetables and kale. Otherwise the first two weeks while you are transitioning from glucose-burning to ketone (fat) burning will be hell. Which is probably why Atkins allowed free consumption of fats during that induction period.
For a long term diet, a food plan that hovers between ketosis and low carb just above ketosis is probably the best. Green vegetables and clean fish or pasture-raised meat, eggs from outdoor chickens and small amounts of berries, yellow fruits and vegetables or pickled root vegetables should be the basis of your diet.
This actually can be done with a vegetarian diet but will be a lot more interesting with animal protein. The infamous low glycemic vegetarian diet that beat the ADA diet for diabetes was basically vegetarian Atkins.
Weight gain after periods of intense stress may be more benign than other self-medication (although others may not act as if it is.) The weight won’t necessarily go away when the stress does or just because you take up yoga, even Birkram.
There is a threshold beyond which losing weight is close to impossible without extraordinary changes, so don’t get there. Overweight is better than obese.
The kind of extraordinary changes that allow weight loss include moving away from family and friends who may reinforce inactivity or stress, changing to a very physical profession, radically increasing exercise and changing the kind of food you need and a spiritual renewal that doesn’t involve lots of sitting or reading. Move to a 5th floor walk-up or work a half hours walk from home to build in exercise. You also need to make peace with monitoring everything you eat, monitoring exercise and monitoring weight.
Some people become fat in reaction to sexual abuse, negative feedback from family members, dissatisfaction with a lack of purpose, or to hide sources of shame. Others pick up a sense of shame after they become fat. Continued emotional eating may or may not play a part in this reaction. Getting rid of the shame is essential to your well-being, whether or not it converts to being thin.
If you suddenly gain weight, loose it as soon as possible so that your setpoint weight doesn’t increase.
When you take medications like steroids, antidepressants, antipsychotics, long term antibiotics or insulin you will probably gain weight, often substantial amounts. Statins can cause diabetes, but are pushed on people with insulin resistance. It may be worthwhile, but consider the effect in evaluating your course of treatment and also whether protective lifestyle changes are realistic.
Most benefits of weight loss happen in the first 10%.
After 10% weight loss, your setpoint tries like crazy to make you regain the lost weight.
While some people can, I have never lost weight from exercise alone but I also don’t lose significantly without exercise, including interval aerobics, weight training and stretching. Don’t skip the stretching, because heavy weight predisposes you to injury if your muscles are in the wrong place.
Chickweed
If you lose weight, you will free toxins locked up in your fat which may be redistributed in your organs. Take detoxifying herbs like dandelion, chickweed, Oregon grape, triphala or coptis and seaweeds to tie them up. Getting sick will derail your exercise program.
Extra weight is especially hard on your feet, hips and knees. A heel spur or knee problems will also derail exercise. Get good shoes, watch Katy Bowman’s biodynamic body DVDs, stand on little balls to massage the small areas of your feet, vary your exercise and be proactive about foot, leg and hip care.
Modify exercises to function like they should, not to look like what thin people do. Maybe that means your toe touch only goes to your thighs. Maybe your push-up is against a wall, not the floor. And you need a total substitute for the plough asana if your bust or belly won’t let you breathe.
Minerals are essential, especially magnesium which is no longer in soils in appreciable quantity, iodine, potassium, chromium and trace vegetables. Seaweeds are the main food source of minerals. Additionally octacosanol will bring down triglycerides.
If your endocrine system is unbalanced, try adaptogen herbs like rhodiola, ashwaganda, ginseng and eleuthero.
Weight loss herbs basically fall into a few categories: detoxification, bulk laxatives, liver support, starch blockers, fat blockers and thermogenic herbs. Studies are minimal and are often done on small groups of slightly overweight people.
Thermogenic (heating) herbs like cayenne are fine if you run cold. Otherwise go to cooler circulatory herbs like turmeric, frankincense, myrrh or chuanxiong. A bit of pepper, long pepper (pipalli) or prickly ash will help the herbs to penetrate and won’t be too hot in small doses.
Starch blockers, from phaseolus beans usually give you gas while you don’t assimilate the starch. Just stay away from starch.
Liver herbs like dandelion leaf, green coffee extract, Oregon grape, berberis and milk thistle will help you convert fat and get rid of toxins that were locked up in your fat. Also see detoxification herbs.
Fat blockers are basically liver herbs that cause you to dump. The pharmaceutical version Olestra (orlistat) can cause explosive diarrhea and deplete you of fat-soluble vitamins and EFAs, but does cause your body to dump toxins. A less intensive intervention using 7 fat free Pringles a day got rid of both persistent organic pollutants like chlorohexabenzene and fat in some studies. Pringles of any sort are not food, but personal experience using fake fats to get rid of artificial toxins were not notably successful.
The only laxatives I would suggest are triphala, a nourishing and detoxifying group of fruits, and if you are constipated, psyllium, flax or cannabis seeds (sterilized and legal in Chinese medicine stores.) If it is really bad one dose of senna, cascara sagrada, aloes, or da huang (rhubarb), but only for the first bowel movement. Eat seaweeds and okra. Take probiotics or probiotic foods. Drink lots of water.
Did I say drink lots of water? And yes, some of that can be coffee or teas. Best to avoid diet drinks, even the fairly benign stevia-sweetened ones. Or save them for special occasions. Taste can trigger your insulin secretion.
Go for periods of time without appreciable carbs, like between dinner and lunch with salmon salad or a veggie frittata for breakfast. When your blood insulin goes up you can’t burn fat or make muscle.
Don’t graze. See above for why.
Eat before exercise, which brings your insulin curve back down. If you eat or swill a sports drink afterwards, you defeat the metabolic effect of exercise. (Marathoners or Iron Men are an exception and aren’t losing weight, but if you have read this far it probably doesn’t apply to you!)
Exercise after eating, even a short spin around the block.
Take pride in what you do well, how you affect the world and in who you are. There will always be people willing to see you as a size rather than a person. Don’t fall for their shortsightedness.
The New York Times just published an article indicating that pickle juice (made of salt, vinegar and spices) was helpful at relieving muscle cramps. In a very small trial, 10 men exercised until dehydrated then were electrically stimulated until they cramped, and were given either pickle juice or water. Pickle juice relieved cramps significantly compared to distilled water. The trainers thought that the pickle juice replaced fluids and electrolytes lost during exercise. The researchers thought it was the vinegar. And many of the readers commented that vinegar alone had relieved cramps for them. (One even thought the vinegar in mustard did the same.) Which got me musing about the value of vinegar, and even acids in general.
Now one way you reduce muscle cramping is to take magnesium. Magnesium has substantially disappeared from the soil and hence the food supply due to industrial farming practices and subsequent erosion. In 1975 the USDA surveyed the level of nutrients in food, publishing the information in a book, Handbook of the Nutritional Contents of Food. Twenty years later they started publishing supplements, which were much less read, although Paul Bergner wrote about it in his excellent book, Healing Power of Minerals, Special Nutrients, and Trace Elements. In the supplemental studies, magnesium had declined by about one third. We do not know how much the decline was before or after that time, but we do know that if we took the entire food supply grown in the United States, assuming none of it was wasted (about 40%) or fed to animals, there would not be enough magnesium for every American. But pickle juice has very little magnesium, or for that matter iron which also can relieve cramps.
Drinking vinegar or lemon juice in water is known to reduce blood sugar spikes, delaying gastric emptying, which is not exactly intuitive. We can understand that fiber might delay gastric emptying and prevent the insulin and blood sugar spikes that plague diabetics. But vinegar?
Researcher Carol Johnston from the University of Arizona recovered data from the 1940’s and found that 2 tablespoons of vinegar reduces blood sugar spikes at an equivalent rate to much diabetes medication. It works better with the insulin resistant, but also lowers blood sugar for diabetics. This confirms what Diabetes writer David Mendosa has been saying for years, and he points out that wine vinegar or white vinegar is more acidic, hence more effective than apple cider vinegar (although it may have other virtues.) Lemon or lime juice works as well.
Now we know that magnesium is involved in lowering blood sugar spikes. But again, the magnesium content of vinegar or lemon or lime juice is negligible. (In fact magnesium and vinegar can be quite explosive.) I had initially just considered the fact that the acid could stimulate bile production in the liver as the explanation. However there is a chemical reason as well.
Magnesium like most minerals, is not well absorbed from foods or solid supplements. Many of us lose stomach acidity after our 30s and do not break down minerals well. (The symptoms of alkaline indigestion are identical to acid indigestion, so many people take the wrong medication when they take antacids- and that explains why many GERD sites recommend pickle juice for reflux.) But most of us have some level of acidity which is necessary to extract magnesium (and other minerals) from foods. And we need it because magnesium is one of the chemicals involved in most cellular reactions.
Chemically, acids have protons, a charged hydrogen ion. When the ion goes into the blood stream, it has a temporary effect of lowering the pH level of the blood. Blood pH is very tightly regulated, so the body then releases minerals to raise it. Magnesium and calcium are activated, in charged form and become available to the muscles.
Lactic Acid fermented foods may have a similar effect, with the added benefits that the fermentation reduces carbohydrate content, the salt replaces electrolytes and the bacteria provide probiotic (good gut bacteria) benefits. So you get muscle relaxation, better digestion and lower blood sugar. Eating the pickle may be as useful as drinking the juice. Sauerkraut, kimchee, and Japanese pickled vegetables are useful sources of acidic fermented foods and water or coconut kefir are good fermented dairy-free beverages. Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions will show you how to make your own fermented foods. Sandor Katz’s book, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods also shows you how to make pickled vegetables and has delicious recipes. And marinades for meat or vegetables are other traditional ways of using acid.
But wait a minute. Shouldn’t we eat alkalizing foods like vegetables and fruits? Vinegar, lemon juice and pickle juice are acids. The entire arena of which foods are alkalizing is inconsistent: lemon juice is said to be alkalizing while vinegar is not and both are acids. Even if you rechatacterize vinegar as alkalizing, which I think is appropriate, based upon its ability to set off complex reactions, the body uses acids and alkalies in different places and for different functions. It is too simplistic to think that one is good and the other is better. For instance baking soda was administered to enhance immune function successfully in the 1918 and 1919 flu epidemic and I have seen other information on its benefits. Additionally vegans commonly get UTIs from having urine that is too alkaline. And the Bantu, who eat primarily meat, milk and blood so are acidic are healthier than their more alkaline grain and vegetable eating neighbors. (Grains could be part of the reason.)
The ideas we held that an acid-forming diet would acidify the blood and cause it to leach out calcium from our bones appears to have been wrong. The body regulates the acid/alkaline balance primarily through the amount of CO2 exhaled in the lungs and the acidity of urine. If the blood pH drops too low and becomes acid, the body will compensate by increasing breathing, expelling CO2, so fewer hydrogen ions are free and the pH will rise back to normal. For too much alkalinity the opposite occurs. Any shifts in acid/alkaline balance in the blood are minor and transient. Some old studies showed that eating a high meat diet could stimulate the release of calcium in the urine, but that effect stops after a few weeks (and the initial studies were only a week or two long.) Research currently in progress at Yale Medical School by Dr. Karl Insogna suggests that while the urine may release calcium, the intestinal uptake of calcium increases so your bones may suffer no net loss. You can acidify your urine, but your blood keeps a tight rein on any changes.
So what about alkaline water? I know a number of friends who swear by their alkaline water, insisting that they drink more of it. Of course drinking more water will relieve a variety of ills in most cases. The Kangan company which sells a machine to break down water into acid or alkaline phases, has some studies showing that it is beneficial. There was a Korean study that found electrolyzed-reduced water inhibits acute ethanol-induced hangovers in rats, presuming that it scavenged free-radical particles. However their control used distilled water which isn’t healthy. Lots of the studies pair the reduced water with other substances. But there seems to be potentially something there. Whether it beats baking soda in water is unknown. Or for that matter vinegar in water.
My take? Both acid and alkalies in water are active physiologically. Compared to distilled water, they have ions available to interact with the body chemistry. People seem to have healthy lives on diets that are either acidic or alkali-rich so long as it is made up of real foods and free of allergens. Drinking acidic water or pickle juice may work on making a small magnesium spike temporarily, but the body will reach acid base homeostasis. There is a value to these spikes in relieving pain or slowing blood sugar spikes, but it has less to do with changing your dynamic body chemistry than with interfering with specific functions. Alkaline foods and liquids may help scavenge free radicals, reducing oxygenation, but oxygen is also helpful in improving body function.
Living Water
Our religious traditions tend to have a special reverence for living water, that is water which has minerals dissolved in it making it slightly acidic or alkaline, charged with oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. It is the active molecules in that water which interact with chemicals in our bodies. Living water and living food will serve us best, across the edible pH spectrum, providing we have some level of diversity.
Sources:
Miller, KC et. al. “Reflex inhibition of electrically induced muscle cramps in hypohydrated humans” Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010 May;42(5):953-61.
Liljeberg H, Bjorck I. “Delayed gastric emptying rate may explain improved glycaemia in healthy subjects to a starchy meal with added vinegar.” Eur J Clin Nutr. 1998 May;52(5):368-71.
Liljeberg HG, Lonner CH, Bjorck IM. “Sourdough fermentation or addition of organic acids or corresponding salts to bread improves nutritional properties of starch in healthy humans.” J Nutr. 1995 Jun;125 (6):1503-11.
Brighenti F, Castellani G, Benini L, Casiraghi MC, Leopardi E, Crovetti R, Testolin G. “Effect of neutralized and native vinegar on blood glucose and acetate responses to a mixed meal in healthy subjects.” Eur J Clin Nutr. 1995 Apr;49(4):242-7.
David Mendosa has for some time been suggesting that using lemon juice or vinegar will benefit blood sugar spikes. Lemon juice, vinegar, even lactic acid fermented foods as suggested in Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions, will lower blood sugar spikes. And the fermentation process by lactic acid bacteria lowers carbohydrates in the food that was fermented, which is why plain yogurt is less harmful than the same amount of unfermented milk. And it adds probiotics to boot, which helps you digest better.
Researcher Carol Johnston f rom the University of Arizona recovered data from the 1940’s and found that 2 tablespoons of vinegar reduces blood sugar spikes at an equivalent rate to much diabetes medication. It works better with the insulin resistant, but also lowers blood sugar for diabetics. And it even caused weight loss.
Herbalist David Winston has for years taught that taking bitters before meals will stimulate the liver to produce bile, the gall bladder to release it and the digestive juices to be produced. It is the taste of the bitters that signals the body from the tongue- taste is more than an aesthetic experience. What I suggest is that you take a half lime, bite into the bitter peel and squeeze the juice into your water before dinner, which gives you both essential tastes. Bitterness requires a much smaller amount than sourness to do its work.
Alternatively you can make a salad of bitter greens like radicchio or endive and then dress it with vinegar. Or take some bitters and eat a pickle before meals. (The Italians say salt should start a meal to enhance digestion, so you get a two-fer here as well.)
Johnston believes that drinking vinegar is too difficult. I have found several ways around that since I believe that taste, not just chemical reaction, is involved. For instance, I mix the unsweetened juice concentrates of blueberry or tart cherry with apple cider vinegar, which makes a decent tasting sour drink. Balsamic vinegar is also less objectionable, although you must account for the extra carbs as with the juice concentrations. (Or make your own balsamic vinegar by soaking white pine needles in an equal amount of apple cider vinegar and let sit for a month before using it.)
From Diabetes in Control:
A Spoonful of Vinegar Helps the Sugar Go Down
2 tablespoons of vinegar before a meal even as part of a vinaigrette salad dressing—will dramatically reduce the spike in blood concentrations of insulin and glucose that come after a meal.
A Spoonful of Vinegar Helps the Sugar Go Down
Carol Johnston is a professor of nutrition at Arizona State University’s East campus. When she started developing menus to help prevent and control diabetes, she began with a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. The diet worked amazingly well, but it involved major changes from the way people usually eat. Johnston feared they would give up and start downing Twinkies in no time. She wondered if there was an alternative.
Johnston struck gold while reading through some older studies on diabetes. Actually, she struck vinegar.
Her studies indicate that 2 tablespoons of vinegar before a meal—perhaps, as part of a vinaigrette salad dressing—will dramatically reduce the spike in blood concentrations of insulin and glucose that come after a meal. In people with type 2 diabetes, these spikes can be excessive and can foster complications, including heart disease
In Johnston’s initial study, about one-third of the 29 volunteers had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, another third had signs that they could become diabetic, and the rest were healthy. The scientists gave each participant the vinegar dose or a placebo to drink immediately before they ate a high-carbohydrate breakfast consisting of orange juice, a bagel, and butter. A week later, each volunteer came back for the opposite premeal treatment and then the same breakfast. After both meals, the researchers sampled blood from the participants.
Although all three groups in the study had better blood readings after meals begun with vinegar cocktails, the people with signs of future diabetes—prediabetic symptoms—reaped the biggest gains. For instance, vinegar cut their blood-glucose rise in the first hour after a meal by about half, compared with readings after a placebo premeal drink.
A few tablespoons of vinegar prior to a meal—such as part of an oil-and-vinegar salad dressing—could benefit people with diabetes or at high risk of developing the disease.PhotoDisc
In contrast, blood-glucose concentrations were only about 25 percent better after people with diabetes drank vinegar. In addition, people with prediabetic symptoms ended up with lower blood glucose than even healthy volunteers, after both groups drank vinegar.
In these tests, vinegar had an effect on volunteers’ blood comparable to what might be expected from antidiabetes drugs, such as metformin, the researchers reported January in Diabetes Care. A follow-up study has now turned up an added—and totally unexpected—benefit from vinegar: moderate weight loss.
Both findings should come as welcome news during this season when sweet and caloric treats taunt diabetics, who face true health risks from indulging in too many carbs.
Johnston was looking for possible diet modifications that would make meals less risky for people with diabetes. While reviewing research published earlier by others, she ran across reports from about 2 decades ago that suggesting that vinegar limits glucose and insulin spikes in a person’s blood after a meal.
A few research groups had conducted limited follow-up trials. For instance, Johnston points to a 2001 paper in which researchers at Lund University in Sweden evaluated pickles—cucumbers preserved in vinegar—as a dietary supplement to lower the blood-sugar rise in healthy people after a meal. The Swedish team, led by Elin M. Östman, reported that pickles dramatically blunted the blood-sugar spike after a high-carb breakfast. Fresh cukes didn’t.
“I became really intrigued,” Johnston says, because adding vinegar to the diet would be simple “and wouldn’t require counting how many carbs you ate.” At first, she attempted to replicate findings by others, focusing specifically on people with diabetes or prediabetic symptoms.
When these individuals showed clear benefits from vinegar after a single meal, Johnston’ group initiated a trial to evaluate longer-term effects. It also explored vinegar’ effect on cholesterol concentrations in blood. The Arizona State scientists had hypothesized that by preventing digestion of carbs in the stomach, vinegar might cause carbohydrate molecules to instead ferment in the colon, a process that signals the liver to synthesize less cholesterol.
So, in one trial, Johnston had half of the volunteers take a 2-tablespoon dose of vinegar prior to each of two meals daily for 4 weeks. The others were told to avoid vinegar. All were weighed before and after the trial.
As it turns out, cholesterol values didn’t change in either group. To Johnston’ surprise, however, “here was actually about a 2-pound weight loss, on average, over the 4 weeks in the vinegar group.” In fact, unlike the control group, none in the vinegar cohort gained any weight, and a few people lost up to 4 pounds. Average weight remained constant in the group not drinking vinegar.
Johnston would now like to repeat the trial in a larger group of individuals to confirm the finding, but that study is currently on hold.
Why? To no one’s astonishment, the study volunteers didn’t like drinking vinegar straight—even flavored, apple-cider vinegar. Indeed, Johnston says, “I would prefer eating pickled foods or getting . . . vinegar in a salad dressing.”
Now, the scientists are developing a less objectionable, encapsulated form of vinegar and testing its efficacy. Although there are commercially available vinegar dietary supplements, Johnston notes that they “don’t appear to contain acetic acid,” and based on studies by others, she suspects that’s the antidiabetic ingredient in the vinegar. Diabetes Care Jan, 2005
Liljeberg H, Bjorck I. “Delayed gastric emptying rate may explain improved glycaemia in healthy subjects to a starchy meal with added vinegar.” Eur J Clin Nutr. 1998 May;52(5):368-71.
Liljeberg HG, Lonner CH, Bjorck IM. “Sourdough fermentation or addition of organic acids or corresponding salts to bread improves nutritional properties of starch in healthy humans.” J Nutr. 1995 Jun;125(6):1503-11.
Brighenti F, Castellani G, Benini L, Casiraghi MC, Leopardi E, Crovetti R, Testolin G. “Effect of neutralized and native vinegar on blood glucose and acetate responses to a mixed meal in healthy subjects.” Eur J Clin Nutr. 1995 Apr;49(4):242-7.
also shows you how to make pickled vegetables and has delicious recipes. And marinades for meat or vegetables are other traditional ways of using acid.
A Spoonful of Vinegar Helps the Sugar Go Down