Are You Suffering From a Nature Deficiency?

This modern, hermetically sealed lifestyle is turning many into indoor zombies — with dulled senses, suppressed immune systems, depressed spirits, and sharply increased risk for illness and disease. One can hardly call that living — particularly when the healing power of nature is so close at hand and, literally outside your front door. If you are suffering from a nature deficiency, and there’s a good chance you are, the good news is that it’s an easy fix — with benefits that have the power to change the course and quality of your life. Here’s how to get started:

Here comes the sun.
Though many of us have been scared off the stuff, sunshine in moderation is essential to our health. It enables the body to create vitamin D, which is key to boosting immunity and warding off serious disease. How to slip in a bit of sun without booking a flight to the Bahamas? Eat lunch outdoors a few times a week. When the days grow shorter, get out there for a brisk walk, point your face to the sun, and get your dose of D!

What’s that smell?
Stale office air, off-gassing office carpets and chemical-spewing copy machines at work all chip away at our overall health. Why steep yourself in it? Get out at lunchtime, even if it’s just to pick up some food from down the street. While you’re walking, take a few deep breaths, and fill your lungs with fresh outdoor air instead of the re-circulated indoor stuff. It will help clear your lungs, boost alertness and reduce your exposure to office toxins. In the evening, take a walk around the neighborhood with one of your kids, to sneak in a bit of fresh air plus that all important quality time. When I was growing up my father used to take a 30-minute walk with either me or my brother several times a week, and I remember how we each relished the time we spent on our one-on-one walks with Dad.

Keep it simple.
Getting into the great outdoors doesn’t necessarily mean climbing Kilimanjaro — although I highly recommend walks and hikes in peaceful locales. Sometimes, the wilderness is where you find it. Even a 10-minute break on park bench in a quiet park or garden will help calm your mind and reconnect you with the natural world. If getting yourself and the kids outdoors is a challenge, make a celebration of it. One of my patients turned an annual summer meteor shower into a friends and family star-gazing event, complete with a picnic dinner for all and kids on the lawn in sleeping bags on the watch for shooting stars.

Listen to the world around you.
Just as honking horns, barking dogs and crying babies can escalate irritation and blood pressure levels, soothing sounds from the natural world can calm the mind and body, and help bring blood pressure back down into the healthier range. When possible, head to a peaceful park, take the headphones off, and listen to the sounds around you. If getting outside isn’t an option, sound machines that replicate the sound of things like streams, running water and soft rains can help bring the sounds of nature indoors — at least until you can get out for a dose of the real thing.

Surprise your eyes.
Make your brain work a little harder by exposing your eyes to the ever-changing light and colors of the natural world. More vivid than any computer screen, the colors found in nature actually force your brain to work a bit harder to process it all — helping to increase activity in the brain and develop those neural pathways. Think of it this way: Step outside and get smarter — now that’s a no-brainer!

Explore new ground.
Hug a tree. Lie in the grass. Dig your toes deep into the sand by the sea. Bottom line: Connect physically with the earth and natural world to energize your body. By making regular contact with the ground, you’ll restore and help maintain the body’s natural electrical balance, thereby promoting your optimal health. To read more about the “earthing” connection to wellness, take a look at the fascinating new research in “Earthing.”

No matter what big pharma would like us to believe, ultimately, true health just doesn’t come in pill form — it comes from the things we do to promote our well-being. Though most of us know that spending time at the beach, in the woods or far beyond the city limits is a rejuvenating experience, it’s important to remember that nature has the power to heal — as long as we give it a chance — so get out there!

For more information on how to optimize your life, visit drfranklipman.com/.

Photo credit: Marina Perevezentseva

Avoid the Flu This Winter

Flu season is headed our way and in a few weeks many will suffer, but you don’t have to be one of them if you start boosting immunity now. Here are 10 simple ways to prep your body so it’s strong enough to repel viral invaders all winter long:

1) Do your D’s.
Adequate levels of Vitamin D are essential for our immune systems to function the way it is designed to. Unfortunately, there are no significant dietary sources of Vitamin D – most of our intake comes from exposure to sunlight. To optimize your vitamin D levels, you’ll need to take a Vitamin D3 supplement daily. This is the most important step you can take to prevent the flu!! To find out how much vitamin D you’ll need, get your 25 hydroxy Vitamin D level checked by your doctor. If that’s not an option, you can self-test your level with ZRT labs. For optimal health, you’ll want your level to be between 50 and 70ng/ml. It may require several months of taking 5,000 to 10,000 IU of Vit D3 daily (especially during winter) under a doctor’s supervision to achieve this – but it will be well worth the effort. Monitor your 25 hydroxy vitamin D status every 3 months until you are in the desired 50 and 70ng/ml range, then cut back to a maintenance dose of at least 2,000 IU a day.

2) Do take a probiotic daily.
A strong immune system relies heavily on having a healthy, well-functioning gut – and probiotics help keep your gut engine humming. A recent study confirmed that probiotics could help fight off colds. Look for a probiotic with 10-20 billion organisms and take one every day.

3) Do stock up on antiviral herbal supplements.
Immunity –boosting antiviral herbs contain thousands of medicinal compounds that attack viruses with a full spectrum of synergistic substances – and without creating resistant viral strains. Four great antivirals are andrographis, olive leaf extract, grapefruit seed extract and elderberry extract. Use one or several in combination as a prophylactic measure, particularly if you spend time in high-traffic areas such as airports, offices, theaters, etc.

4) Don’t eat crap.
In other words, avoid sugar and processed foods. Sugar is a poison which, among other things, dramatically decreases immune function – so lay off the stuff. And processed foods? Virtually all of the nutrients get processed right out of them so they do nothing to strengthen immunity. Talk about empty calories!

5) Do get your greens.
Colorful salads and dark greens are loaded with flu-fighting phytonutrients, so pile your plate high.

6) Do garlic.
Not only does garlic repel vampires, it also has anti-viral properties and is a known immunity booster. My advice? Dig in!

7) Don’t skimp on sleep.
One key to a strong immune system? Sleep! Get plenty of it to allow the body to restore and repair itself while you rest. Shoot for at least 7 hours a night and try taking a 20-minute catnap if you’re falling short.

8 ) Do break a sweat.
Adequate exercise helps keep your immune system healthy and robust, so keep moving throughout the winter.

9) Do chill out.
Reduce stress, particularly during flu season. Do breathing exercises, yoga or simply things you enjoy, to help boost immunity, relieve tension and enhance physical and mental resilience.

10) Don’t wash with antibacterial soap.
Instead, wash hands frequently with good, old-fashioned hot water and chemical-free soap. Skip the antibacterials as they are loaded with toxins and increase the risk of creating resistant bacteria. They also over-dry and crack the skin, making transmission of viruses that much easier.

Best wishes for a flu-free winter!

For more information on how to optimize your health, visit DrFrankLipman.com.

Photo credit: justplainhope

Making a Diagnosis is Less Important Than Asking These 2 Questions

After 30 years of practicing medicine, I have learned that for any chronic illness or ailment, treating underlying imbalances and dysfunctions is more important than making a diagnosis and naming the disease. Ultimately, asking the right questions is more important than giving a label to a set of observations.

This is because most if not all chronic problems, from heart disease to arthritis, migraines to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), depression to fatigue, usually have multiple factors that need to be addressed – this is called the total load. The total load is the sum of the factors that influence a person’s life and health, including diet, exercise, job stress, relationships, state of mind etc. Individually, each of these elements might not cause a problem, but their cumulative effect can overload our normal functioning and cause harm. Everyone’s tipping point is different and each of us manifests or experiences overload in our own unique way.

For example, several patients may all be diagnosed with IBS but the individual factors underlying their illnesses may be varied, meaning that each requires different treatments to address their specific problems. Simply diagnosing these patients with IBS, obscures this critical fact.

When working with patients, I always assess their total load and then try to reduce it by slowly removing the factors that could cause harm. At the same time, I will add new elements that will nourish them in order to enhance the healing process.

Some examples of what may need to be reduced or removed from your diet are, sugar, chemicals, caffeine, or alcohol. Or you may need to lessen the burden of responsibilities, your work load, or how much tension you carry in your muscles. Examples of factors that may be lacking and need to be added are nutrients, sunlight, sleep, down time, play time, love or joy.

To understand the concept of total load, think of yourself as a ship floating in the water. Depending on the load you’re carrying, you are either riding high above the waterline or sinking beneath the waves. And just as you can save a sinking ship by tossing some ballast overboard to lighten the load, your health can be improved by reducing the overall number of factors that cause stress to your system. The good news is that frequently you may only need to identify two or three factors to toss overboard in order to feel better.
Unfortunately, I, like all doctors was never taught this at medical school. Instead, we were taught to name it, blame it and tame it. That is to look at the symptoms, signs and test results, make a diagnosis, name the disease and treat it.

This model works well for the acute or short-lived illnesses that were most common until about 70 or 80 years ago. There is no better model for crisis care management, such as a heart attack or burst appendix, a broken bone or an acute bacterial infection like pneumonia. Due to the incredible success of antibiotics in treating most infectious diseases, we have extrapolated that model, looking for a single cause with a magic bullet treatment, and adapted this thinking to all diseases.

But most complaints today are not acute illnesses, rather chronic problems, which are not served well by this model in which varied complex disease processes are reduced to a single diagnosis. Giving a set of observations a name and treating the named problem does not help us understand the origin of the problem and its causes, which are usually multi-factorial. This name-it, blame-it and tame-it medical paradigm is not particularly effective for the chronic diseases which are so endemic today.

I want to make it clear, a label or descriptive name for a problem is not a bad thing–it is often reassuring to know what we have. I do not want to under-estimate the significance of this. But we have been habituated to assume that if we know the diagnosis and the name of our disease we will know how to not only treat it, but fix it.

Unfortunately, this is not true. Doctors are increasingly practicing from the vantage point of an outdated and ineffective model and are not addressing the needs of the millions of patients who come to them with complicated chronic problems. They give them drugs to suppress symptoms and do not address the underlying physiological imbalances that produce these symptoms. Therefore we do not change the course of the disease and often end up causing more harm than good because the underlying problem persists and many people develop side effects from the drugs.

Luckily for all of us, there is a new little known science-based model for chronic diseases, called Functional Medicine that deals with the underlying causes instead of just suppressing symptoms. It is a true mix of Chinese and Western Medicine. This new medicine is systems-based biology rather than disease-focused. It redefines chronic disease as a functional alteration in the physiological network that requires a systems biology approach to its management, improving both the safety and effectiveness of treatments.

This model helps us understand how the disruptions of molecular pathways cause dysfunctions in various body systems that then result in disease. It is less concerned with a diagnosis and more concerned with the underlying dysfunctions that lead to the symptoms and the disease.

My Chinese Medicine teachers taught me to think of myself as a gardener when I see patients. When a plant or tree is not growing well, when the leaves are drooping and turning yellow, we do not call it yellow leaf syndrome and paint the leaves green or cut off the sick part. The gardener evaluates why the plant is not growing well. He determines whether the plant is getting enough or too much sunlight, enough or too much water, is the soil rich and balanced in order to nourish the plant? And he looks to see if the roots are being impinged upon, and if so, what needs to be removed.

Even though you may have been given a diagnosis, always ask these two questions with any chronic problem

1. What is harming you and needs to be removed to permit the body to heal?

and

2. What is lacking or what does your body need to promote healing?

For more information on how to optimize your health, see http://www.drfranklipman.com/.

Photo credit: Milos Milosevic

14 Ways to Combat Corporatitis

In my integrative and functional medicine practice, hardly a day goes by when I don’t see several patients suffering with a touch of corporatitis maximus (CM). While you won’t find CM defined on Wikipedia or easily searched on Google, you will find it lurking in the minds and bodies of stressed-out, over-extended, over-committed employees of corporations, everywhere.

So what exactly is CM? Well, to be honest, it’s a catchall phrase I use to describe the cornucopia of mind/body ailments that tend to arise when a patient’s life and how they’re living it is in direct conflict with who they are or wish to be. Over time, these conflicts begin to express themselves via a number of physical symptoms that diminish a patient’s quality of life to the point where they feel lousy most of the time, inadvertently setting the stage for larger health complications and even diseases down the road. Simply put, though CM starts in your head, before long, it takes your body along with it. Prolonged periods of exhaustion and being perpetually out of sorts start to wear down our immune systems, eroding the body’s ability to heal itself and enabling the body to slip out of balance with frequent colds that go on far too long, allergy flare-ups, aches and pains, headaches, digestive problems, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, sleeplessness and moodiness, testiness, depression and listlessness.

If all this sounds disturbingly familiar, then you may be in the wrong job. Realistically, though, there are mortgages to pay and kids to educate, so for most of us simply “dropping out” is not an option. The question then becomes, then, “How do we combat corporatitis — short of moving to a hut in Tibet?” I suggest taking the integrative approach and battle the corporatitis beast on both the emotional and physical fronts. To do that, try a few of my corporatitis-busting tips to help restore balance, regain your health and start living again:

Step away from the water cooler. In other words, be aware of office scuttlebutt and gossip, but don’t be an active participant. Gossip is rarely positive and mostly speculative, so why fill your head with scenarios that may never come to pass, or events you can’t control? If you’re going to keep your spirits up, don’t allow yourself to be pulled into the fray.

Allow obsessive thoughts, to a point. Set a time limit — or even an egg timer — on how long you will allow yourself to obsess over a work problem. Be it 10 minutes or 45, when time’s up, move on. Come back to the problem later in the day, but give your brain a rest now, so it can come up with a solution more organically later. Give your head a chance to go with the flow.

Just say no, graciously. Many of us have trouble saying “no” to coworkers, friends and relatives, so we say “yes,” and wind up taking on far more than we can reasonably handle. Next time, instead of saying “yes,” deliver the bad news with a positive spin, using phrases like, “That’s a great idea, but…” or, “I would love to, but…” or, “That sounds wonderful, but…” Follow the “but” with a polite reason why you can’t honor the request. It will make saying “no” a lot easier for you to say, and easier for them to hear.

Push back with finesse. Saying “no” to the boss is a bit more challenging, particularly if you plan to keep your job. One way to do it is to ask the boss to help you prioritize your current projects as new ones are assigned. Not only will this remind the boss of all you’re working on, but it will also make your boss accountable for clarifying and identifying priorities.

Keep moving. Incorporate exercise into your life every day, even if you have to break it into 15 minutes in the morning and another 15 minutes after work. Just move! Exercise will enhance mood, encourage weight loss, calm the mind, improve the function of just about every system in the body and help take the edge off some of those not-so-nice feelings you might have about your toxic boss. Not a lot of spare time to exercise? Then take a tip from one of my patients who recently installed an inexpensive exercise peddler under her desk at the office, and now pedals her way through her daily conference calls.

Then, put on the breaks. Just as important as exercise is relaxation. While it’s unlikely you’ll have the time to stretch out for a lunchtime power nap (a la “Mad Men’s” Don Draper), after work, take time to do a bit of restorative yoga, a short meditation or a few deep breathing exercises. Try self-massage, using your body weight on a foam roller or tennis ball rolled over pressure points and sore spots.

Give yourself a time-out with meditation. Take a few minutes off during the day to try one of the thousands of free guided meditations available online to help refresh your mind and spirit. How to find the time? Download a meditation and listen to it on the train to work or find a quiet spot to tune in during your lunch break. Meditation is a great way to re-center yourself, clear your mind and give yourself a bit of much needed “me time.”

Give yourself a Sabbath, and stick to it. Ideally, try to unplug from your electronic devices for one day a week. If that’s not possible, then at minimum, commit to not being accessible for brief periods of time. Unplug responsibly, though, by letting staff and/or bosses know when you’ll be unavailable.

Unstuff your life. Take steps to liberate yourself from the oppressiveness of keeping up with the Joneses and embrace the joys of a simpler life, a smaller house and the ease of owning (and owing) less. Not convinced stuff makes all that much of a difference? Watch a couple of episodes of “Hoarders” or “Enough Already” to get a sense of the tyranny of too much stuff.

Sleep it off. Corporatitis gains the upper hand when the quality of your sleep is poor or you don’t get enough. Take at least one hour to prepare yourself for sleep. In that transition time, do something relaxing, like taking a hot bath or some restorative yoga. My favorite chill-out pose is reclining belt pose. When it’s time to hit the hay, make sure your bedroom is cool, quiet and dark. Banish light with blackout curtains and cover lights from charging phones, flashing caller ID boxes, sleeping laptops or light-up alarm clocks with a bit of electrical tape. And if you can’t darken your room completely, get an eye mask.

Replace “dieting” with eating intelligently. Stop or cut down radically on sugar, processed foods, refined and junk foods. Slowly switch your diet over to predominately plant foods, ideally fresh and organic if possible. Although you should know how to read a food label, most of the food you eat should not have labels. Try eating a variety of different foods — the more colorful the better. Follow these basic principles as closely as you can to create a leaner, stronger, more resilient body that’s less prone to corporatitis-induced illness and weight fluctuations.

Supplement your health and happiness. Do this not with wine or Ambien, but with natural, health-supporting nutrients and supplements that encourage the body to return to a healthier, sustainable state of wellness. For optimal function, we all need to take various supplements depending on our age, diseases, stress level etc., so work with your health care practitioner to create a personalized supplement plan to help you achieve and maintain optimal health in a challenging world.

Connect with a community. Step outside of the office and connect with a community that’s not work-related. The idea is to broaden your circle of friends and acquaintances to literally open up your world, your heart and your perspective. Be it an informal book group or organized neighborhood committee, joining a community is a great way to step outside the daily office grind and connect with others.

Practice Ubuntu. We all tend to get caught up with our own “dramas,” which keeps us in our heads and takes up a lot of energy. When we stop focusing on ourselves and are sharing or being compassionate to others, we let go of a lot of unnecessary anxiety about our own dilemmas. In fact, we often actually receive more than we give.

For more information on how to optimize your health, see http://www.drfranklipman.com/.

Originally published on HuffingtonPost.com

Photo credit: Oscar D.

15 Ways to Stay Sane for the Holiday Season

1. Don’t Overcommit. Many people overcommit, try to please everyone, rush around and do too much. Sort of like too much total load. So decrease your load and enjoy the fewer commitments you make.

2. Stay Present, or Be in the Moment. The more you are in the moment with awareness, the less you are caught up in your mind and all the things you still have to do or haven’t done yet. Be aware of your breathing. If it becomes short and shallow, you know you are getting anxious. Stop what you are doing and take a breathing break. You will enjoy the time much more.

3. Take Breathing Breaks. Whenever you get a chance, take breathing breaks – not only when you feel yourself getting anxious. Make the time for them, even if it is only 5 minutes at a time; it will re-invigorate you. You can do it anywhere, just find a quiet spot. It will get you back into the present and out of your head and will help you let go of worries and tension.

4. Do Some Restorative Yoga. When you get home in the evening, do a restorative yoga pose for 15 minutes to rejuvenate you. Or do a restorative yoga pose if you feel the need during the day to help recharge your energy. It really does restore you.

5. Use Those Tennis Balls. After running around all day, do the ultimate foot massage and feel the relief in your feet. Or do the neck and shoulder release with tennis balls to let go of some tension there.

6. Move. Try walking as much as you can. Take your dog for a walk. Take a walk with a family member or friend and combine walking with connecting. If the weather prevents walking outdoors, combine a shopping trip with your exercise. Indoor malls are great places to walk. Get there early before the crowds get too heavy. If you are driving to a store, park at the opposite end of the parking lot and walk to the store. When you are home, if you are up to it, turn the music up and dance.

7. Have Your Smoothie in the Morning. The more you fill yourself with good nutrients in the morning (with good protein, fat and phytonutrients), the less space and craving you will have for junk food.

8. Fill Up with Vegetables. If you are at a party with a lot of tempting food, try to start with healthy vegetables and salads. These will fill you up and reduce the temptation to overindulge on the junk. Just a taste of your holiday favorites should satisfy your taste buds. The worst thing you can do is start your meal or eating with sugary snacks or junk food.

9. Don’t Overindulge. Alcohol in moderation, cake and cookies in moderation, sweets in moderation.

11. Be Thankful. It is always good to put things in perspective and realize how lucky you are that your basic needs are being met and that you are actually able to celebrate the way you can. Add up all the things you are grateful for: family, friends, loved ones, the fact that you can celebrate, etc. It will put you in a good mood.

12. Get Good Sleep. Holiday celebrations can often disrupt regular sleep patterns. Try to get to sleep at the same time every night. Avoid heavy foods, sugary sweets and alcohol before bedtime as these can disturb your sleep.

13. Have Fun, Laugh and Commit to Enjoying the Holidays.

14. Give in a Way that Gives You Joy, Instead of Out of Obligation.

15. Practice Ubuntu, which is a Xhosa concept that means: “I am because you are.” As Bishop Tutu says, “My humanity is caught up in your humanity, and when your humanity is enhanced mine is enhanced as well.”