Feeling Spent?

First, a confession. I love music and have been obsessed with rhythm from an early age. I grew up in South Africa, where music and its ritual use are a very important part of the way of life in traditional African cultures. In my home, music was always playing from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. What I did not know then, was that my love for music and rhythm, would be a portal into understanding the way I see health today.

In 1984, a few years after finishing my medical training in South Africa, my wife and I emigrated to the USA and settled in New York City – we could no longer continue living under Apartheid. I completed a 3 year residency in Internal Medicine and for a number of years after that, immersed myself in the study of Chinese Medicine, Functional Medicine, Nutrition, Yoga and Meditation. When I opened my own clinic, the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in Manhattan in 1992, I had a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of my Western training and of all the other systems I had been studying.

Over the years, I started seeing more and more patients coming in complaining of feeling exhausted, depressed, overwhelmed, achy, run down and older than their years. They weren’t sleeping well, had no sex drive and were running on empty. I labeled this “syndrome” SPENT because that’s how these patients were feeling. It is a modern day stress syndrome and has become epidemic. Western Medicine does not have any solutions for it and in fact, does not even recognize that it exists despite so many people feeling this way.

When I started thinking about why this was happening, I realized that the only time I never saw patients who had these symptoms was when I was working as a doctor 28 years ago in KwaNdebele, a rural area in South Africa. I saw diseases symptomatic of physical hardship, of poverty and malnutrition, very different to what I see today in my practice. There was no electricity, indoor heating or refrigeration in KwaNdebele. Folks went to bed when it got dark, arose with the sun and ate whatever foods were available in season. They lived in accordance with the cycles and rhythms of nature, they had to.

I thought about what I had learned in Chinese medicine, that humans are part of the natural world and governed by the universal forces of nature. Human bodies do not exist in isolation; we are creatures of our environment and are subject to the powerful dictates of cyclic rhythm. This rhythm is an integral part of the self-organizing dynamic of nature and so I looked to see if there was scientific research on what I thought was happening. Sure enough there was a field called chronobiology, the science that examines cyclical phenomena in living organisms. Your body has more than 100 Circadian rhythms. They are based roughly on nature’s 24-hour cycle, influencing different aspects of your body’s function, including sleep & wake cycles, body temperature, hormone levels, brain wave activity, heart rate, blood pressure and even pain threshold. These rhythms are part of every aspect of our body’s inner working. Although most of us know that such rhythms exist, we fail to appreciate their power in determining our health. Even in medical circles, chronobiology, the study of physiological rhythm is consistently underrated.

We have internal body clocks set precisely to these rhythms and cycles of nature. The “master clock” is located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a distinct group of cells located in the hypothalamus, which uses signals like light and darkness to know when to release certain hormones and neurotransmitters, which tell us when to wake or go to sleep. Destruction of the SCN results in the complete absence of a regular sleep/wake rhythm. Light is the drummer in our physiological band or orchestra, it keeps the beat, our body clocks try to harmonize themselves with nature.

Then I looked into the field of genomics, the study of genes and I had my Aha! experience on why this was happening.

We evolved over millennia as people who lived in harmony with day and night and the seasons. These cycles and rhythms became imprinted in our genes, which are almost identical to our ancient ancestors. So in our genes we are still our ancient ancestors, but we have outpaced our biology and are living at a pace that is foreign to it. Our modern lives are out of sync with these rhythms and we land up feeling Spent.

For most of us, the only time we become aware of body rhythms and their importance is if we have jet lag. This is probably the easiest way to recognize our internal body clock. Anyone who has flown over a few time zones, for instance New York to London, knows what I am talking about. You get tired easily, feel sluggish, you have trouble concentrating or thinking clearly, your body aches, you have trouble sleeping and you may even have digestive problems. But unlike when you are Spent, after a few days your body clock adjusts to the new time zone and you feel better.

Our lifestyle today simply makes it harder to stay in tune with the rhythms of nature. While no doubt beneficial in many ways, we have created artificial environments that insulate us from the cycles of the seasons and of daylight and darkness. We use artificial light to extend our activities well into the night and even during the day, we spend most of our time under artificial lights, getting very little natural light. It becomes difficult to hear the ticking of our body’s internal clock. The result is that many of us pay a price as our natural body clock gets thrown out of it’s natural rhythm. Our poorly synchronized lifestyles extract a significant toll.

The good news is that when prompted correctly our genetic clocks can reset themselves. The body will move naturally towards healing if we give it a chance. When our rhythms are in sync, we have more energy, everyday tasks are easier to perform, things just seem to flow better. Athletes call this “being in the zone” or having their game on. Finding your “groove” is not just psychological, it is physiological too. By making small changes in your lifestyle, you can feel remarkably more energetic, start sleeping better and reclaim your rightful vitality.

Here are just a few tips taken from my new book, Spent: End Exhaustion and Feel Great Again that will help you to reset your body clock and rediscover your natural rhythm.

* Get some natural light during the day by going for a walk, preferably in nature.

* Keep a consistent daily schedule. Get up at the same time every day, regardless of what time you go to bed.

* Have an “electronic sundown.” At around 10 pm, turn off your computer, TV and all electronic equipment.

* Darken your room completely. That means covering or turning off any of the blinking or glowing lights from the alarm clock, the cell phone charger, the DVD clock and timer, etc. Each little bit of light can stop your melatonin levels from rising, which you need to induce sleep and to reach the deep restorative sleep your body requires. If you can’t darken your room, wear an eye mask.

* Eat in accordance to your body’s rhythms. Since your metabolism peaks at about noon, it is better for your body to have a bigger breakfast and lunch and smaller dinner. Eat good fats and protein for breakfast because that is what your body needs for fuel during the day. Healthy smoothies are a great way to get both of these into your diet. The typical sugar and carb-laden breakfast of a bagel, muffin, toast or sugary cereal are just about the worst things you can have; so avoid those at all costs.

What are you surviving?

Imagine you are a human being thousands of years ago, when there were no cities, no streets, no refrigerators, and no stores. None of the things we consider to be the basic aspects of modern life. Just you, naked under the sun, with a bunch of others, naked as well, wherever on the planet you were born, eating your environment, and spending most of the waking day looking for those parts of your environment that were edible. Whenever you found food, you would eat it, right then and there. Within a day and it may be spoiled.

Whatever we eat will be digested, that is, broken into little pieces, the building blocks of which everything is made of. The main building blocks: proteins, carbohydrates and fats are combined with many ’toppings’ (vitamins, minerals, herbs, tonics, phytonutrients). These are absorbed from the intestinal lumen into our blood. Food is broken down into simple nutrients that will be used by our cells to make more cells and all the hormones and other chemicals of which we are made.

These nutrients that circulate in the blood serve another purpose that is less talked about than the fact that we ARE what we eat, which means that we are made of the food we eat. The nutrients we absorb are supposed to be parts of our environment. The reason this matters is because we are discovering now that our genes are analyzing our blood constantly. Depending on the combination of nutrients, our genes respond by turning some on and others off. Nutrients are our genes periscope to ‘see’ the environment they are living in. At times perhaps the combination of nutrients was so ideal that genes governing sexual behavior and reproduction were activated and genes that would support migration were turned off. For example, a good nutrient content meant that the pregnancy would have a better chance of producing a healthy baby.

The new science of Nutrigenomics studies which nutrients affect what genes.

Our genes, for thousand of years, detected subtle changes in our environment by eating it, breaking it into little pieces and analyzing it in the most complex chemical laboratory, our body. In that way it would turn on and off the genes that would influence behavior and cellular expression to maximize chances of survival. Changes would be subtle. Fruits and vegetables varied according to the seasons. Maybe the autumn nutrients turned on genes for hair production, and winter nutrients turned on the genes for hair thickness. The sun, constantly hitting our skin, provided enough vitamin D. Nature living in nature, eating nature; the design functioning as the designer manifested it. Our cells are always, permanently, constantly, all doing whatever they are doing for one and one purpose only, to survive. This has occurred for thousands of years.

And suddenly, within a time period that has not allowed our genes to respond, we are living in very different conditions. We are no longer naked under the sun. In fact, we invented all kind of chemicals that we dissolve in creams and spread on our skin to prevent the rays of the sun to touch our skin. The boxes we live in are loaded with chemicals that we use to wax our hardwood floors or to retard fire from burning our mattresses like a match in case of a fire. The gases that are released as fumes have been pointed out to be one of the triggers of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Tonight, as I was writing this blog in my flatiron district apartment in Manhattan, I walked to the corner deli and got bananas from Mexico, blueberries from Argentina, a pineapple from Hawaii and kiwis from New Zealand. I wonder what my genes are thinking. I bet they are confused. Should I settle and mate or migrate south where our ancestors always found greater sources of magnesium, or should we turn off those genes and grow hair because the winter seems to have come all of a sudden. Oops, wrong, it was the summer after all. Wait a minute!

Our genes don’t see that we now live in cement buildings, and that we grab our food from fridges. Our genes still analyze chemicals, nutrients (and the lack of them) to get a reading that will reflect the environment.

The chemicals in our food and the combination of nutrients, as well as the quantity and frequency with which we eat, are turning genes on and off to maximize survival. These genes are blind to what it is that they are trying to survive. What we consider ‘disease’, mostly seen as the body being defective in some way or function, is really the result of the highest intelligence attempting to survive. What is ‘diseased’ is that which created the confusion of our genes, our modern lifestyle.

For example, coronary artery disease is the accumulation of plaque inside the coronary arteries blocking the normal passage of blood. Initially, our body, detecting irritation in the arterial wall and inflammation, patches the damage. If things work as they usually do in nature, the irritation would pass because the same chemicals that turned on the genes that directed the deposit of cholesterol also turn on genes that would make the person reject certain foods and move to another location. When the nutrients finally get better, the irritation would stop and the cholesterol patch would be reabsorbed. But modern man stays doing the same thing for years and the plaque keeps growing, until the mechanism of survival, as perfect as it was designed, turns out to be the cause of the worse problems and death.

What is diseased is not the heart. Coronary artery plaque is actually the perfect response of your arteries to try and survive the way you eat and live.

My burning question is, ‘what did humans eat when they were in their original wild habitat, only guided by instinct, geography and season’? Whatever that diet looked like, let’s call it “Instinct Diet’. Since our genes are so slow to change, they still think that the nutrient analysis when eating the Instinct Diet is the most optimal one, and it also should be the diet that contains everything needed for all the body functions to operate at their best. The more we can approximate the nutrient mixture that we expose our genes to, to what they would have been exposed to if they were still living in those times, in the original environment they were designed by nature to live in, the better chances you will have of restoring your body’s natural ability to heal itself. Food and supplements are the tools we have to make that happen. Yes, supplements may be not as you find food in nature, but fridges, boxes, jars and cans ain’t either. Supplements are a less natural tool that may eventually allow us to live in such an unnatural environment as an apartment in NYC.

Don’t ask your doctor if you have any diseases. Instead, ask your doctor “What Is My Body Trying to Survive?”. The answer is not only more likely to show you the truth but also could save your life…

Feeling Beautiful (and Safe) Inside and Out

Mia Davis, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

People deserve to feel beautiful, inside and out. Feeling good about how you look increases confidence, thereby creating opportunities which can lead to constructive change, more energy, and even a more vibrant community. And then you feel even better, and the cycle continues.

Word!

To make yourself look/smell/feel lovely, you probably use cosmetics (creams, makeup, deodorant, etc). Most of us do- on average, American women use 10 a day, men use six a day.

But. There is an un-lovely fact that I hope that you’ll share widely: In the U.S. it is legal for the $50 billion cosmetics industry to put unlimited amounts of chemicals into personal care products, including chemicals linked to cancer and hormone disruption. In fact, cosmetics are among the least-regulated products on the market.

A woman using 10 personal care products a day exposes herself to approximately 130 unique chemicals, some of which can be potent even in super-small amounts. As the day goes on, she is probably also exposed to food pesticides, water contaminants (including hormones), air pollution, flame retardants in furniture, and BPA in plastic water containers. These exposures add up.

Some folks say, “Yeah, but so what? We’re all exposed, and we’re all fine.” I wish that were the case. We’re not all fine.

At the same time that unsafe and untested chemicals have been steadily introduced into our environment, learning and behavioral disorders, reproductive problems, and breast cancer incidence have dramatically risen. A growing body of evidence has linked the pollutants and man-made chemicals in our environment to the increasing risk of breast cancer and other diseases. The Breast Cancer Fund, a founding member of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, has a great fact sheet on some of the cosmetics ingredients of concern.

Now listen up, because this is just whack: While the rates of breast cancer rise (beyond what genetics and increased detection can account for), products marketed to women and girls contain carcinogens – including products that we slather on our faces and bodies, paint on our lips and eyelids, and wash with in the shower while our pores are wide open, on a daily basis.

Women with cancer are no different- they want to feel as well and as sexy (crazy-sexy-well, actually) as possible. Knowing this, the American Cancer Society and Personal Care Products Council (the cosmetics industry trade group) joined forces to create Look Good, Feel Better (LGFB), workshops which provide beauty tips and cosmetics for cancer patients. Sounds like a great service, right?

Well, it would be, if the products in the LGFB kits were free of carcinogens, neurotoxins and hormone disruptors, or chemicals even suspected of having these Über-serious effects. Some of the corporate donors for LGFB are companies that not only use dangerous or suspect ingredients, but actively lobby against legislation that would make cosmetics safer for those of us who do not have cancer and would like to avoid getting it, or those of us living with it and trying to look and feel better. (See my colleague Stacy Malkan’s book Not Just A Pretty Face for the scoop on the trade group’s and big companies’ opposition to safer cosmetics legislation.)

The system is clearly broken when we allow carcinogens in products given to cancer patients. And it is simply egregious that some large companies that could make safer products are not doing so, and are instead launching projects like Look Good, Feel Better, and profiting off of pink ribbons.

This really fires me up, and gets me out of bed in the morning to go work for change via the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

The Campaign is a grassroots coalition- and we need you. Got 2 minutes for cancer prevention and corporate accountability? Please join the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics– and help to make cosmetics safe for everyone. Have more time? Great! Contact us and tell us how you’d like to use your voice, your blog, your skills, your company to tell the public, cosmetics companies and elected officials that cancer is not inevitable, hundreds of thousands of cases can be prevented, and we will no longer allow dangerous ingredients in common consumer products like cosmetics.

Mia Davis is the National Grassroots Coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and an all around Toxics Avenger who has worked on getting bisphenol A (BPA) off of store shelves throughout the country. Mia speaks and writes often for the Campaign, and works in collaboration with a diverse network of activists, citizens, health affected communities and scientists. When she’s not organizing to make the world less toxic she enjoys reading, cooking and eating, and the company of her amazing friends, family and creatures. www.safecosmetics.org, and follow Mia on Twitter @nontoxicissexy

Goddess Group – The Word for the Day is “Protection”

Peaches!

February is turning out to be fasting month!  Hey, wasn’t that a great post by Natalia yesterday?  I can’t wait for part 2!  Today is day 10 of my fast.  No more hunger pains, no more tears, no more fights with my mind.  I’m learning tons about myself, and my body.  Check this cool ditty out.  Our God pod comes with drains. When we eat the SAD diet, breathe in the earth dump or mainline stress and God dammit!, they get clogged.  If we keep on truckin’ we back up.  Like a stuffy septic tank, the toxins spill out onto our physical and psychological lawns.  They have no other place to go.  Pee-u!

Speaking of Pee-u, our biggest pathway of elimination is our colon.  By removing old waste through colonics, enemas, even the temporary use of certain natural laxatives, we allow our lovely livers to dump (gosh does that phenomenal organ need a break).  Here come the dominos!  Once our livers dump, our lymph system has a go at it.  After the lymph system says AMEN, then our cells receive the invitation.  It’s all so magically organized.  Virgos love that!

Our body, being the wizard chamber that it is, does everything possible to protect itself from the onslaught of acids and poisons.  It continually tosses the toxins away from vital organs and into the tissue and streams.  What happens next?  Sick, fat, pimply, tired and glass half-empty mentality settles in.  Then?  Dis-ease.  Remember, we are what we eat, drink, think and don’t poop.  Genetics plays a role in this for sure.  But current research suggests that the role is much smaller than we previously thought – about 5-10%.  Now that’s food for thought!

Imagine eating meal after stuffing/puffing meal (and snackies), and never properly eliminating.  Clearly, we back up and shut down.  We bloat and float.  The mind gets mad, the moods flip-flop, our sex drive withers, our jeans look lumpy.  Enter the self-esteem prison wardens.  They SUCK!  Never a nice word passes from their chapped lips.  No matter what you do, you are never enough.

Have you been taught that abuse is love?

Whether we do it to ourselves or give others permission to flog, this learned behavior is a byproduct of our twisted domestication.  If we are pure sunshine and God breeze then why on earth would we allow anyone (including ourselves) to trample the glow?

Perhaps the road back to the house of health is long.  Big whoop!  You can do it.  But as I have learned, and you have witnessed in my rants, it takes a willingness to be exposed.  Shedding hurts.  Shedding makes you shiver.  Shedding sloughs the barnacles and reveals the cherry red vintage mustang.

Are we really protecting ourselves by staying same ole same ole?

Drink your green juice ladies and gents!  If you’re feasting today remember to stay on schedule.  Check the previous “Goddess” posts for more details.  4-5 quarts of greens with a little lemon, apple or pear (if you need it for taste).  Keep it light and bright but nourish yourself.  Drink lots!

Peace and nudity,

Kris

Ps.  If the delicate butterfly always worried about protection it would never travel thousands of miles home.