Blood test for health: Functional ranges versus lab ranges

Did your blood test for a health problem say you’re perfectly healthy even though you suffer from fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, digestive issues, joint pain, or other symptoms that make you miserable? Does your doctor give you a prescription for antidepressants or tell you to seek therapy because your problems “don’t exist.”

Many doctors dismiss people’s health complaints because of an incomplete blood test that only looks for full-blown diseases instead of trends toward disease. In functional medicine, however, we use a blood test for assessing risk of disease before it develops. This way you can do something about it before it’s too late. For instance, a fasting blood glucose over 100 mg/dL can identify a risk for diabetes long before a diagnosis. Or more complete thyroid testing can explain hypothyroid symptoms when a standard test shows results are “normal.”

Functional medicine uses a blood test for a return to health

Functional medicine addresses the underlying causes of symptoms instead of overriding them with drugs or surgery. One tool we use to accomplish this is to interpret blood tests using functional ranges, which outline the parameters of good health.

In contrast, the ranges most doctors use are based on a bell-curve analysis of all the people who visited that lab over a certain period of time, many of whom are very sick. These lab ranges have broadened over the last few decades as health of the American population has declined. As a result, more and more people with real health problems are told they’re fine because their lab results fall within these wide ranges.

Do you really want to evaluate your health in comparison to all the sick people who visited your lab, or do you want to look at a blood test for what constitutes good health?

Looking for blood test patterns 

Because functional medicine is based on an in-depth knowledge of human physiology and how various systems in the body work together, we also look at a blood test for patterns instead of just looking at individual markers. By doing this, we see how these different systems influence one another to cause a constellation of symptoms.

For instance, looking at different white blood cells reveals whether an immune reaction is chronic or acute, and whether a virus, a bacterial infection, allergies, or parasite may be causing it. Other patterns can help us identify fatty liver, leaky gut, different types of anemia, or even a possible autoimmune disorder.

Blood test for functional medicine is more thorough

A blood test for functional medicine also includes more markers that standard blood tests. For instance, many doctors only look at TSH, a basic thyroid marker, when running a blood test for hypothyroidism. In functional medicine, however, we know that Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disease that attacks and destroys the thyroid gland, is responsible for 90 percent of hypothyroid cases in the United States. Therefore we also test thyroid antibodies to screen for autoimmunity along with other thyroid markers for more information.

A blood test for a functional medicine approach can also help us know what other tests may be necessary, such as a gastrointestinal panel or further testing for anemia.

Principles of functional medicine

Once the potential problems or risks have been assessed, the functional medicine practitioner uses a variety of science-backed, non-pharmaceutical approaches to restore health. These include:

• Adjustments to the diet
• Lifestyle changes (such as eating breakfast, proper sleep hygiene, physical activity, or reduction of stress)
• The use of botanicals or nutritional compounds to improve physiological function
• Other natural medicine approaches customized for the patient based on lab testing

Fatigue Causes & Treatments

Video Transcript

“Hi this is Dr. Ruscio and let’s talk about fatigue.

Fatigue is something that pretty much everyone is going to be affected with at some point in their life and some people will struggle with fatigue. Now what options are there besides reaching for coffee, tea, red bull, and 5 hour energy, what have you? Well there are quite a few things we can do to help the fatigue process and different people will have fatigue for different reasons so what I’m going to do is run through the causes of fatigue and the symptoms that correlate with each cause to help you figure out what might be causing your fatigue.

Fatigue can first be caused by hormones. Now sex hormones can cause fatigue. Imbalances of testosterone and estrogen can cause fatigue. So what will this look like? Someone with fatigue who also is having problems with erection or drive or sexual function as a man or as a woman who’s having problems with sexual function also but is experiencing vaginal dryness, dry hair, dry skin, dry nails, that may be an estrogen mediated form of fatigue. It’s important to keep that in mind because fatigue for these people may be as simple as rectifying imbalance in testosterone or estrogen.

Now thyroid hormone imbalances can also cause fatigue. Someone with a thyroid hormone imbalance induced by fatigue or inducing fatigue may also experience that they have colder hands or feet or they have intolerance to the cold. They may also notice that they’re constipated. They may notice that their cholesterol is going high. They may notice that there is a thinning in the lateral third of the eyebrow or puffiness in the face, just to name a few.

Stress hormone imbalances can also cause fatigue. Cortisol or epinephrine, or adrenaline, both these hormones while they are stress hormones and we don’t want to have very high levels, but we want to make sure we don’t have very low levels either because the right amount of stress hormones will help give you energy. If people are low on stress hormones, which is actually more common than you might think, I see it all the time in clinical practice; this is certainly something that can be contributing to fatigue.

Insulin resistance also and the way that insulin resistance works is you need to get sugar into your cells so you cells can burn it as fuel. If your insulin resistant that means you cells are resistant to letting fuel enter into them so they can use that fuel as energy. One of the keynote characteristics of insulin resistance is people who are tired but also tend to crave sweets or crave starch. Blood sugar regulation ducktails into the insulin resistance piece. Blood sugar regulation can be thrown off into a condition called adrenal fatigue or when people have low levels of stress hormones and how this all ties in is stress hormones in addition to giving you energy help your body keep blood sugar in the appropriate ranges.

 People who have low levels of cortisol stress hormone are also at risk for what’s called hypoglycemia where they have low blood sugar and that can certainly have fatigue. Like we just mentioned a little while ago insulin resistance can also throw off blood sugar because insulin helps get blood sugar from your blood stream into your cells to be used as fuel. If your cells are resistant to insulin signaling then your cells are essentially starving for fuel, and if your cells are tired you’re going to be tired.

Now anemia can also play a role and we have our iron anemia or our b-vitamin anemia and the most common cause of anemia is usually a dietary deficiency oftentimes found in vegetarian dieting or people who have gastrointestinal problems. People who have celiac disease or subclinical gluten intolerance will have damage to their intestinal lining and that will impede their ability to absorb iron specifically and some of these people may also have something known as pernicious anemia which is an autoimmune condition which part of your stomach is being damaged that is needed to absorb be-12 via a factor known as intrinsic factor.

Chronic infections can also cause fatigue. Chronic infections can cause fatigue through two different routes. Now chronic infections, what they’ll look like is in some cases people who have energy for a few days and for a few days they’re tired. This is cyclical fatigue and what this has to do with is a life cycle of certain infections: as the infections goes into a more proliferative phase where it is causing more damage people get more fatigue because they’re immune system tries to rise up, beat down the infection. Once the infection is beaten down their energy gets better until the infection tries to rise up again… Then the immune system has to come back up and when the immune system has to up ramp itself that causes a lot of fatigue in the body because it requires a lot of energy. Infections if they’re in the digestive tract certain worms for example can interfere with the absorption of things like some of your b-vitamins and iron also so infections can cause that anemia factor we talked about a little while ago.

Certain toxins can also be an issue. Mercury toxicity can interfere with hemoglobin production in the body and the ability or the viability of your red blood cells to essentially do their function, carry oxygen. Also toxins can cause problems with your brain chemistry and can cause problems with your hormones. Toxins cause problems with fatigue in a multitude of areas. People who have been exposed to toxins maybe people who work as hairdressers in salons, people who work in an industry where they’re exposed to a lot of chemicals may be at risk for toxin induced fatigue.

Food allergies, someone who has food allergies is someone who is going to eat and then notice they get fatigue shortly thereafter. They may or may not also have digestive symptoms like gas, bloating, loose stools, intermittent diarrhea and things like that. Certainly food allergies will cause an inflammatory response in the intestines and an inflammatory response in the intestines can cause a whole myriad of problems but it certainly will cause fatigue. So if you eat and you notice your fatigue shortly thereafter that’s a tell-tale sign that you have a food allergy inducing fatigue.

Also, problems with brain hormones like serotonin and dopamine. This is someone who is fatigued but they also feel  like they’re sad or they also feel like they’re overwhelmed or they also may even feel a little bit of anxiety because the brain hormones are imbalanced causing these neuropsychiatric symptoms that accompany fatigue.

 Also, finally, sleep and exercise: Sleep and exercise have a multitude of effects in the body but maybe the strongest one is that sleep and exercise will both help keep your hormones in good levels and help keep your hormones balanced.

So, this is a list of the different things that can cause fatigue and I outlined some of the symptoms that are associated with them so hopefully that gives you a little bit of information that can help you navigate this topic of trying to figure out what’s your causing fatigue.

This is Dr. Ruscio, I hope you found this helpful.”

Weight Loss, Paleo Diet & Calorie Partitioning

Video Transcript: 

“Hi this Dr. Ruscio and today I would like to talk with you about weight gain.

Weight gain of course, hugely popular issue, everyone has a solution gadget or gismo for weight loss. Today I would like to talk with you about some simple concepts that have been shown to be highly effective for weight loss. The first and the most important concept that we have to understand and achieve in order to lose weight effectively, and I should say lose fat effectively and really keep it off is to achieve this concept called calorie partitioning.

So, what calorie partitioning looks like is this: Every time we eat food, we end up having calories in our bloodstream and calories, generally speaking, can go one of two ways. They can go into your mitochondria, where the mitochondria will then burn them for energy and so you’ll have energy and you won’t gain fat because your calories are being burned for energy.

On the other side of the coin your calories can go into your fat cells and if you have too much calories going into your fat cells, then you get tired because you’re getting fat. What’s really a tragedy is that sometimes people will have no motivation to exercise and they think it’s because they’re lazy, but more often than not it’s because their calories are going in to their fat cells and they’re getting stored as fat. No calories are going into the mitochondria to be burnt as energy and so people are tired because they’re actually getting fatter.

The really important concept is to try to figure out how can we steer most of our calories or partition them into the mitochondria so we burn them as fuel and so we don’t gain fat, so we therefore have energy also. The way we really achieve this is by having a good hormonal milieu where we have growth hormones where they should be; catecholamines, meaning things like epinephrine, dopamine, noradrenaline, where they should be; and also adequate levels of the hormone glucagon and we’ll go over that in a little more detail in a second.

On the other side of the coin we want to avoid having high insulin levels because insulin will steer calories into the fat cells. Again, you’ll be tired and you won’t have that much energy because all of your calories will be going into your fat cells. How do we achieve this? The most important initial concept is to limit your daily carbohydrate intake to a total intake of 100g or if you’re really trying to be aggressive, 50g per day. The reason for this is because the strongest stimulator of this partitioning is going to be your carbohydrate intake. So the best way to achieve this, again, is to keep your calories in the below 100 or 50 range depending on how aggressively you want to attack this. Also, eat every 3 to 5 hours, generally speaking and opt for more ancestral or traditional foods. Things like healthy sources of protein, healthy fats, and lots of vegetables and some fruit.

This is also known as the paleo diet. The paleo diet is a great diet to be eating from a multitude of perspectives. Now if you want more information on this I will give you a few links. Now one important thing to know is that there are three macronutrients. There are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. If you limit carbohydrates, naturally you have to have an increase in consumption of protein and fat. One of the questions people sometimes ask is: are you saying I should eat more fat and if so doesn’t fat make you fat and won’t fat cause heart disease?

Really this is somewhat of an erroneous group of assumptions to make. While going into that is really beyond the scope of this video. You can see this video here where I’ve reviewed a study published by the researcher Christopher Gardner over at Stanford. He did a great job at elucidating the fact that fat really will not make you fat, generally speaking fat is certainly not bad for your heart if used in the appropriate context so you can see more of that video there which I entitled “low fat vs. low carb.” For more information on how this whole relationship between diet, your hormones, and calorie partitioning all works you can watch my video on diet, hormones, and blood sugar.

So what if you’re someone who tries this and it doesn’t work for you or if you’re someone who has been doing this and it still isn’t working? Usually it’s going to work for everybody to some extent but not everyone will get all the way toward their fat loss goals. That may be because three things are present.

Now the first is digestive problems usually there is an infection or some kind of food allergy. Infections are things like candida or fungus, bacterial dysbiosis, worms, amoebas, parasites, and these things are actually more common than you’d think. Or food allergies, and the most common allergies are gluten dairy, soy, eggs, nuts, artificial sweeteners, and corn, just to name the big ones there. Both of these things will cause someone to have high levels of inflammation. When inflammation is high it can really cause perturbations or problems in this calorie partitioning.

There’s another very important area to look into and that is of your hormones. There’s something called the sex hormone to stress hormone ratio. Oftentimes people are under too much stress or they’ve got internal inflammation. Things like infections that we’ve talked about or food allergies that are caused and their stress hormones go way too high and they have excess of stress hormones relative to their steroid or stress hormones. Stress hormones in high levels cause your body to break down muscle and gain fat. Sex or steroid hormones are euthanizing anti-aging they cause your body to maintain muscle mass and lose body fat so the ratio of these is very important. Having a ratio that is positive on the side of your steroid or your sex hormones is very important so that’s another thing for us to look at cause that will again affect this calorie partitioning like we’ve been talking about.

The third is toxins and toxicity. Now a number of papers have been published showing that different environmental toxins can affect metabolism through different avenues. I reviewed a study published in obesity reviews that showed that certain toxins can affect thyroid function and that can poison the ability of the body to get past a certain limit point of fat loss. I also reviewed another study where plastics, different environmental chemicals have been linked with thyroid problems, weight gain, and diabetes. There are some resources for you within these three causative factors for more reading and/or viewing to get yourself more information.

You can also visit my blog where you can find all this information categorized neatly to help you navigate this. The take home message is the first most important thing you can do is achieve good calorie partitioning so you have your calories going in your mitochondria being burnt for energy and not being stored as fat. That is first and foremost achieved by limiting your daily carbohydrate intake. Secondary to that there are other things like problems with digestion, problems with the sex and steroid to stress hormone ratio and problems with toxicity that may be causing someone not to ideally respond to limiting their daily carbohydrate intake. So this is just a preview to what can be a much more lengthy discussion of each one of these items in detail but hopefully this gives you a basic idea and wets your appetite to looking into this further and try some of this

This is Dr. Ruscio and I hope you found some of this information helpful. Thank you.”

Female Hormone Balancing Testimonial

Female Hormone Testimonial 

“Hi, my name is Deirdra,

I started working with Michael Ruscio, Dr. Ruscio, probably about 4 months ago. My symptoms before were that of depression. I was moody all the time, low energy levels, could never get up in the morning. It would literally take a lot of coffee to get me up in the morning. My hormones were just off the charts. Energy levels up and down just kind of crazy actually.

I started seeing Michael. I was referred to him by a friend and he put me on this program that I've been doing the last four to five months. All these tests that we’ve done, all these things that he’s put me on are all organic and all natural medicine. I’ve noticed a huge difference in myself. My energy levels are what they used to be like when I was a younger teen and my moods are definitely a lot more stable. I don’t have an issue getting up in the morning. I get up at 6am every morning and run. I’m training for a marathon right now.

I owe it all to Dr. Ruscio. He’s helped me so much. I feel so grateful to be where I am right now… in the past… I thought it was depression. It wasn’t. It wasn’t depression. It was an imbalance inside of me that we together, him and I, have worked to balance out. That’s where I am today and I’d recommend this program to anyone out there who has felt the same way that I’ve just explained I felt.”

Email: office@DrRuscio.com

Phone:  (925) 705-7454

Lesser known causes of anxiety

Suffering from anxiety is like being held prisoner in a place where worry infuses every thought, your heart pounds, and the world seems jarring and disorienting. With anti-anxiety medications among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States, Americans are clearly suffering. Though medications relieve the symptoms, they don’t address the cause.

Some causes of anxiety are obvious: stimulants such as caffeine, weight loss pills, energy drinks, or supplements that increase energy. Psychological or emotional stressors, such as having to speak in public or prepare for a major exam, can also bring on bouts of anxiety.

However, chronic anxiety can have lesser-known causes that, if managed, can relieve symptoms and negate the need for medication. Although the cause of anxiety can sometimes be neurologically complex, other times it can be as simple as making some changes to your diet and lifestyle. Below are a few lesser-known causes of anxiety.

GAD autoimmunity and anxiety

GAD stands for glutamic acid decarboxylase, an enzyme that triggers production of the brain’s primary calming chemical, called GABA. Some people develop an autoimmune reaction to GAD, which means their immune system erroneously attacks and destroys it. As a result, they can’t make enough GABA to calm the brain and anxiety goes up. GAD autoimmunity is also linked to obsessive compulsive disorder, motion sickness, vertigo, facial tics, and other symptoms. GAD autoimmunity is more common in those with gluten sensitivity or celiac disease and a gluten-free diet can alleviate symptoms.

Gluten and anxiety

Gluten has other links to anxiety. It’s hard to believe something as innocent as your morning toast or a bowl of spaghetti could cause anxiety, but recent research shows that is the case for many people. Gluten has been shown to trigger inflammation in the brain and autoimmune attacks against brain tissue, which can cause anxiety. Although a gluten-free diet is an important first step, many people find they also need to eliminate other foods such as dairy, eggs, or other grains to dampen immune flare-ups and anxiety. An anti-inflammatory autoimmune diet is a good beginning to address brain health.

Blood sugar imbalances and anxiety

It’s amazing how many chronic health issues stem from a blood sugar imbalance caused by eating a high-carbohydrate diet. Every time you eat too many carbs in the way of breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, desserts, pastries, soda or sweet coffee drinks you send blood sugar and insulin surging and crashing. When this happens daily it can create a multitude of neurological symptoms, including anxiety, depression, mood swings, irritability, and fatigue. Skipping meals and drinking too much coffee also feeds this cycle. A lower-carb, whole foods diet with enough healthy proteins and fats can keep energy on an even keel and tame anxiety.

Unmanaged Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism

The majority of cases of hypothyroidism in this country are autoimmune, meaning the immune system attacks and destroys the thyroid gland. When an autoimmune attack flares, damage to the gland spills thyroid hormone into the bloodstream, which can amp up metabolism and cause symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, and heart palpitations. In this case proper management of the autoimmune thyroid condition can help subdue anxiety.

These are just a handful of possible causes of anxiety typically overlooked in the standard health care model. Ask my office for other strategies on managing anxiety using natural means.

Why sleep is more difficult for women

Is there a torture worse than hitting the sack exhausted from a long day only to toss and turn for hours, unable to fall asleep? Or perhaps you fall asleep but later bolt awake and can’t fall back asleep?

By the time women hit their mid 30s or early 40s, many struggle with sleep. Either it’s difficult to fall asleep, difficult to stay asleep, or both. Although sleep difficulties can have many causes, fluctuations of female hormone prior to and during the transition to menopause can steal many hours of precious sleep.

Female hormone imbalances and sleep problems

When a woman enters perimenopause, her production of estrogen and progesterone begins to decline. Ideally the adrenal glands, which produce stress hormones, take over production of these hormones to ensure a smooth transition into menopause. Unfortunately, most women today enter perimenopause (pre-menopause) in a state of chronic stress and their adrenals glands are either producing too much or too little of stress hormones. To take on the added job of producing sex hormones is simply more than they can handle. That’s when sleep issues can kick in, as balanced levels of estrogen and progesterone are necessary for healthy sleep. Other symptoms may include hot flashes, night sweats, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and more.

Women may also experience sleep issues during certain times of the menstrual cycle when hormone levels fluctuate.

Low progesterone and problems sleeping

Low progesterone seems to have become increasingly common among women and can play a large role in sleep problems. Progesterone is referred to as the “calming hormone” whereas estrogen is more excitatory, and low progesterone is associated with sleeping difficulties.

Chronic stress can impact progesterone levels. Every time you experience stress your adrenal glands release cortisol, a stress hormone. When demand for cortisol is constantly high the body borrows pregnenolone, which is needed to make progesterone and other hormones, to make cortisol instead. This is called “pregnenolone steal” because the body steals pregnenolone from the hormone cascade in order to keep pace with the demands of stress.

Stopping pregnenolone steal may help improve hormone function and improve sleep. Strategies for stopping pregnenolone steal include an anti-inflammatory diet, which eases the body’s burden of stress. You may also need to work on restoring gut health, taming chronic inflammation, or managing an autoimmune disease appropriately, approaches that benefit from the guidance of an experienced practitioner.

Estrogen and sleep problems

When estrogen is too high and progesterone too low, it can cause sleep problems for the obvious reason—there is too much of the excitatory estrogen compared to the calming progesterone and the brain can’t calm down enough to rest. A proper ratio between the two is important.

However, low estrogen can also contribute to sleep problems. Estrogen is intimately connected with serotonin, a brain chemical associated that is converted to melatonin, a sleep hormone. Low estrogen may lead to low serotonin activity and contribute not only to sleep problems but also depression and anxiety. The female brain is highly dependent on sufficient estrogen for normal function in general, and low estrogen can also cause symptoms that include brain fog and memory loss.

Strategies to support hormone balance

Tending to adrenal function and other health issues may help correct hormonal imbalances. This includes not only reducing lifestyle stress, but also eliminating dietary stressors. Eating a diet lower in carbohydrates to prevent blood sugar swings, avoiding foods that cause an immune reaction, not drinking too much alcohol, tending to bacterial gut infections and other aspects of digestive health, and supporting immune balance are all whole-body approaches that can foster proper hormone function and improve sleep.

Ask my office for help in supporting healthy hormonal balance, and improving sleep.

Baby videos can lower IQ; better ways to boost baby's brain

Popping in a DVD for a baby or toddler can provide a brief but blessed break for the harried parent, and playing an educational video takes some of the sting out of the guilt. Unfortunately, even an educational video featuring classical music, shapes, colors, and early words may do more harm than good according to researchers. A child’s brain needs constant physical activity and interaction with the environment to develop properly, and time in front of the screen suspends that development, even if it’s an educational video or computer game.

Research shows the younger a child begins spending time in front of the screen, the lower they score on language tests, despite being taught language on educational videos or television. Unfortunately, almost 90 percent of children spend two to three hours per day in front of a screen by the time they are two years old.

Educational videos overlook brain development basics

A parent who wants her child to read or learn numbers early overlooks some basics of brain development. The timing of left and right hemisphere development is of utmost importance during these first years of life.

A child’s right brain is dominant through about age three. The right brain governs the ability to read emotions, see the big picture, intuition, creativity, and imagination. Experts say teaching more left-brained activities, such as language, critical thinking, logic, and math is not appropriate during this critical right-brain period of development.

In fact, childhood brain issues such as ADHD or autism spectrum disorders reflect lopsided growth of the hemispheres, with the left brain often dominating a weaker right brain. This explains why these children may be academically gifted but have difficulty with such right-brain tasks as reading social cues.

Although watching educational TV or videos won’t necessarily cause a brain development disorder, experts say it can delay the development of crucial wiring and even delay language development.

Better educational alternatives to TV and videos

Physical activity and healthy interaction with the environment are the most vital aspects to a properly developing brain. Babies and toddlers do not need traditional education on TV and videos. Simply becoming part of the world around them is highly educational for them. Ample access to physical movement appropriate for the child’s age (i.e., do not put a child who should be learning to crawl in a walker or leave her strapped in a car seat for much of the day) is vital for proper brain growth, as is playing with age-appropriate toys, loving interaction and touch from caregivers, the ability to safely observe and explore his world, and protection from overstimulation.

Healthy brain development starts in the womb

Although the early years of life are critical to brain development, brain health starts in the womb and is significantly affected by the mother’s health (and, according to newer research, the father’s age—children of men older than 50 are significantly more likely to have autism).

To maximize a baby’s brain power, both parents should start with functional medicine principles before the baby has even been conceived. These include stabilizing blood sugar, eliminating foods that cause inflammation, detoxification, balancing hormone, adrenal, and thyroid health, and repairing the gut, which is the seat of the immune system. The health of the mother’s immune system significantly impacts the development of her baby’s brain, and many women today unknowingly suffer from autoimmune or chronic conditions that imbalance their immune system.

Ask my office for tips on how best to support health nutritionally prior to conception, during nursing, or after your baby is born.

Chew more thoroughly for better health and weight loss

Gandhi’s advice to chew your drink and drink your food has stood the test of time. Although what you eat is important, how you eat deserves equal attention as research shows chewing thoroughly and eating slowly helps prevent weight gain and improves digestion.

Chewing more thoroughly suppresses appetite

A series of recent studies show chewing each bite thoroughly reduces appetite, lowers calorie intake, and can aid weight loss. That’s because the hormones that leave us feeling satiated don’t kick in until 20 to 40 minutes after you begin eating.

For instance, one study measured the release of gut hormones that suppress appetite in subjects five minutes and 30 minutes after they consumed a meal. The results showed eating the meal more slowly increased the secretion of appetite-reducing hormones.

In another study a group of both lean and obese men ate the exact same meal twice in one day. For the first meal they were instructed to chew each bite 15 times and for the second meal, 40 times. The results showed that whether lean or obese, the men consumed 12 percent less food when they had to chew each mouthful 40 times.

Another recent study showed lengthening the time of your meal can decrease hunger, something many European cultures practice regularly. Stretching a meal over two hours by taking breaks makes the food seem more rewarding, lowers grehlin, a hormone that induces hunger, and raises hormones that increase satiety.

Chewing thoroughly improves health

Digestion starts in the mouth, not the stomach. Saliva contains enzymes that begin the breakdown of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Exposing food to saliva for longer periods of time in your mouth creates less stress on the rest of the digestive tract, which frees up more energy so you feel better.

Taking the time to eat slowly and consciously also gives the digestive tract ample notice to secrete stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes, gallbladder bile, and other chemicals to completely digest your food for maximum nutrient absorption. By wolfing down your meal you throw improperly digested food into an unprepared digestive system, which is stressful and can create symptoms of bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, or stomach pain.

Because the immune system resides largely in the gut, chewing thoroughly is one way to promote better immune health.

Healthier foods require more chewing

You may have noticed that many processed and fast foods are so easy to chew you hardly need teeth. Whole foods, on the other hand, tend to require more chewing. Simply choosing a whole foods diet free of refined foods can encourage you to chew more thoroughly.

However, you may need some outside reinforcement to develop a better chewing habit. Here are some strategies:

• Take the time to sit down and calmly eat a meal
• Take small bites
• Count so you chew each mouthful 20 or more times—until your food is completely liquid
• Pay attention to the taste, texture, and flavor of your meals; avoid reading or watching TV while eating
• Try to make meals into lengthy, relaxing occasions as often as possible

Breast Cancer & Melatonin

Hi this Dr. Ruscio and today let's talk about if there's a connection between breast cancer and melatonin...

A study was published in 2001 that noted that women who had retinal blindness had significantly less breast cancer than normal women, and this is a fairly remarkable finding because it was a pretty significant relationship that was noted that w
And now, while we don’t know exactly why this is, some researchers have speculated it is because women who are blind have better production of a hormone in your brain called melatonin. Now melatonin is chiefly released when it starts to get darker. It’s released by a gland in your brain called the pineal gland.

Now normally, as nighttime approaches and we’re exposed to less light, the pineal gland in your brain makes melatonin and melatonin helps make you sleepy. That’s why melatonin is a natural medicine sometimes used for insomnia and one of the things that will derange the production of melatonin is bright light. So, we know that as nighttime approaches if you have the lights on full blast and you’re exposed to lots of light right up until you go to bed you don’t have as good of melatonin production as you could.

So, how does this tie in with breast cancer? Well, melatonin is also a very, very powerful antioxidant and antioxidants amongst other things help protect against free radical damage which can damage DNA and which may promote carcinogenesis or the cancer process.
So, while we don’t know for sure if melatonin therapy will help with breast cancer we do know one thing for sure and that is this study suggests, moderately strongly, that it is a good idea to allow your body to be exposed to light in a natural rhythm of the sun cycle, or the circadian cycle as it’s called.

So, during the day you should be exposed to lots of light, lots of NATURAL light, and then as nighttime approaches it’s really important that you dim the lights and you let the artificial lights somewhat mimic the natural light that would be occurring outside.

This is why many in alternative medicine for a long time have been recommending that as it gets closer to night, in order to have good sleep hygiene, don’t have the lights on full blast, use a softer lower watt bulb or dim the lights because this will enable your body to make more melatonin which will give you more restful sleep and melatonin also is a very powerful antioxidant which may have some protective affect against breast cancer.

So, this is Dr. Ruscio and I hope you found this information helpful, thanks.”

Blindness & Breast Cancer Study

Protecting Your Brain - Quercetin, Toxins & Inflammation

Protecting Your Brain- Quercetin, Toxins & Inflammation
Dr. Michael Ruscio

“Hi this is Dr. Ruscio and I wanted to talk with you briefly about the toxin PCB and if that toxin could be damaging your brain. Now PCBs have been proven to cause cancer, brain damage, and mutations. PCBs are a family of toxins that because of this have been banned. They were banned in 1979.

They were used in a lot of manufacturing, heating, cooling, PVC pipe, piping, as a plasticizer for certain paints and because of their wide spread use they were able to infiltrate a lot of the environment and to this day still cause a lot of environmental pollution. They still contaminate our water, our oceans, and our soil so people are still being exposed to PCB so doing whatever you can do to limit the damage associated with this exposure can be helpful.

Now, a group or researchers asked the question “Could we do something to protect from exposure to PCBs?”  They took a group of rats, and they injected some rats with PCB, and then some rats with PCB and an antioxidant called quercetin. What they found was that the rats that were injected with the toxin PCB and the quercetin actually had a relative decrease in brain inflammation.

So essentially what these researchers found was that the antioxidant quercetin can help protect your brain from the damage and inflammation that can occur from exposure to PCB which we’re all exposed to in varying levels. Quercetin is an antioxidant found in apples, onions, citrus fruits, parsley, red wine, tea, just to name a few, so a healthy diet is certainly going to be the foundation of achieving this.

Now, I myself take a broad spectrum antioxidant supplement that contains quercetin in it, because I want my brain to be functioning for as long as I can. I try to take extra steps to protect myself, my brain specifically, from all the environmental toxins that unfortunately we’re exposed to every day. So the take home is a diet high in antioxidants and also maybe some additional supplementation with antioxidants can help protect your valuable, precious brain tissue from the inflammation that can be caused by some of the toxins that we’re all exposed to.

This is Dr. Ruscio, I hope you found this helpful.”

Quercetin & Brain Inflammation Study

Why eating breakfast prevents weight gain and fatigue

Breakfast is the easiest meal to skip—mornings are rushed and many people don’t have an appetite when they wake up. Some people even feel nauseous in the morning (which indicates a blood sugar disorder). But if you skip breakfast you may be sabotaging your weight loss efforts, increasing your risk of obesity and blood sugar disorders, and robbing your brain of energy.

Skipping breakfast associated with obesity

Numerous studies show skipping breakfast is associated with higher rates of obesity in both children and adults. Some people erroneously think that by skipping breakfast they consume fewer calories and thus aid weight loss. However, skipping breakfast can set into motion an unhealthy metabolic cascade that eventually leads to excess fat.

Breakfast is the first meal after a long night of fasting. In the absence of food, the body must release stored glucose to fuel the brain or create glucose by breaking down muscle tissue. This process is made possible by stress hormones.

Skipping breakfast when your brain and body are starved for energy exaggerates this stress response, forcing the body to continually pump out stress hormones to fuel the brain. These stress hormones also explain why some people wake up feeling nauseous. Although it seems counter-intuitive, eating can actually relieve that morning nausea by inhibiting the stress response.

The habitual stress response caused by skipping breakfast and other meals promotes weight gain, upsets hormonal balance, causes inflammation, hinders brain function, and can lead to symptoms such as migraines, depression, mood swings, shakiness, lightheadedness, brain fog, sleep disorders, and more. Eating meals high in sugar and carbohydrates also contributes to this problem by causing energy to continually spike and crash throughout the day.

Eating breakfast is an important strategy when it comes to preventing weight gain and fatigue.

Skipping breakfast makes you more prone to overeating or poor food choices

Skipping breakfast can increase your chances of overindulging or making poor food choices later in the day. When your energy is crashing and your brain is starving for fuel, downing a caramel latte or package of mini donuts suddenly seems unavoidable. A well-fueled brain is better equipped to make healthier choices and not succumb to a mad grab for the nearest source of quick energy (for which the American food industry seems to be designed).

A recent study validated this tendency, showing participants who skipped breakfast were more likely to seek out high-calorie junk foods and that dieters who skip meals are more prone to gain weight over the long run. Their brain scans showed skipping meals stimulated the brain in a way that made high-calorie foods seem more appealing. Those who skipped breakfast also ate about 20 percent more at lunch.

Breakfast keeps body and brain on an even keel

Breakfast should emphasize healthy proteins and fat (avoid sugary, starchy breakfasts) to start the day on an even keel and maximize brain function. Eat frequently enough to avoid blood sugar crashes, and include protein, healthy fat, and fiber (vegetables) with every meal to sustain energy and prevent fatigue throughout the day.

The importance of keeping a food diary

Whether you want to lose weight or manage an autoimmune disease, studies show keeping a food diary is one of the best ways to ensure success. For instance, diet research shows those who keep a food diary lose 30 to 50 percent more weight than those who don’t.

Keeping a food diary keeps you honest

It’s easy to think you are eating or behaving one way when the reality is strikingly different. Keeping track of everything you eat, portion sizes, and when you eat lifts the veil on bad habits you have managed to hide from yourself, such as how much sugar you really eat, how big your portions are, how frequently (or infrequently) you eat, or how often you eat a food you know causes problems for you.

Keeping a food diary for weight loss

One of the most popular reasons to keep a food diary is for weight loss. Most people underestimate portion sizes or how often they eat. Measuring the peanut butter or mayonnaise may show you’re eating much more than you thought.

Knowing you have to record everything is also great motivation to stick to your plan. That tantalizing dessert loses appeal when you see how those extra calories or grams of carbohydrates are going to kill your numbers at the end of the day. On the other hand, jotting down your exercise feels great.

It’s also good to tie in timing, location, and emotions with your meals. You may notice waiting too long between meals predisposes you to a binge, or that a particular person or situation increases your sugar cravings.

Keeping a food diary for health changes

Food diaries aren’t just for weight loss. Many people must make dramatic dietary changes to manage a chronic health condition. Autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis all respond positively to changes in diet. Tracking both what you eat and your symptoms not only helps with compliance, but also can show you if any foods flare up your condition. For instance, you may be following a gluten-free and dairy-free diet but notice your health worsens when you eat eggs.

Keeping a food diary to find food intolerances

In fact, a food diary is an excellent tool for an elimination-provocation diet. These diets involve eliminating common dietary immune triggers such as grains (gluten in particular), dairy, eggs, soy, and sweeteners for a number of weeks. After the elimination period you add in each food one at a time every 48 to 72 hours and monitor your reactions.

Most people don’t realize they have a food intolerance because either they eat the food all the time or because reactions can happen up to 72 hours later. By removing the foods for a period of time and then introducing them singly, the immune system will typically produce a noticeable reaction if that food is an issue. It’s important to record symptoms as they appear. They can be very diverse and affect the skin, digestive tract, respiratory system, mood, mental function, joints, and more.

Ask my office about tips for keeping a food journal, weight loss, and implementing an elimination-provocation diet.

Are you always hungry? You could have leptin resistance

You would think people who are overweight or obese would never feel hungry—after all, they have all that extra fat to burn. But in a cruel twist of metabolic trickery, carrying excess fat can actually make you hungrier thanks to a phenomenon called leptin resistance.

What is leptin?

Leptin is a “satiety” hormone secreted by fat cells that tells the brain when you have had enough to eat. Eating causes the secretion of leptin, which signals that the stomach is full and it’s time to stop eating. Between meals or during long periods without food, leptin levels drop, triggering hunger and motivating you to eat and replenish the body’s energy stores.

Leptin resistance causes you to always feel hungry

Because fat cells secrete leptin, overweight and obese people should never feel hungry. Unfortunately, the reverse happens. Excess fat secretes too much leptin, bombarding leptin receptors on cells. Eventually these cells become overwhelmed and shut down their leptin receptors to protect themselves. This is called leptin resistance—leptin can no longer get into the cells to deliver their message that the stomach is full and it’s time to stop eating.

Hence the leptin-resistant person always feels hungry and is prone to overeat, even if she or he is carrying plenty of fat. In addition to causing chronic hunger, leptin resistance doubly vexes the overweight person by promoting fat storage and making it tough to lose weight.

Leptin serves other roles beyond hunger and satiety. It is also important for fertility, libido, and puberty. Leptin resistance could explain why obese girls are 80 percent more likely to start puberty earlier than girls of normal weight.

High triglycerides block leptin

High triglycerides have been shown to block leptin. Diets high in alcohol, sugars and carbohydrate-rich foods, such as breads, pasta, rice, and potatoes, raise triglycerides considerably. High triglycerides have been shown to block the ability of leptin to pass into the brain to tell it you’re full.

Diet can reverse leptin resistance and chronic hunger

The key to unwinding leptin resistance is to adopt a diet that will restore leptin sensitivity. The eating habits that typically lead to being overweight or obese—overeating and eating too many sweets and starchy foods, processed foods, and foods fried in industrialized fats—also lead to leptin resistance, high triglycerides, and hence the feeling of always being hungry.

To restore leptin sensitivity, diminish chronic hunger, and release excess fat, consider the following leptin facts and begin making the changes you need to your own diet and lifestyle.

• Regular exercise, particularly strength training and interval training, lowers leptin.
• Sugar, corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup found in sweets and sodas make the brain resistant to leptin. Sweets also raise triglycerides so leptin can’t reach the brain.
• Healthy fats activate leptin’s satiety switch. Eat coconut oil, butter, ghee, olive oil, avocado, salmon, etc. as part of a lower-carb diet.
• Omega-3 fatty acids regulate leptin sensitivity. Ask your practitioner whether a fish or krill oil supplement may help you.
• Overeating causes leptin resistance. Ditch the sodas, sweets, processed foods, and high-carbohydrate foods, which trigger cravings in many people. Healthy fats and sufficient protein curb cravings. Consider hypnotherapy, acupuncture, or other tools to address an eating disorder that may cause you to overeat.

Mother’s inflammation raises risk of child’s autism, asthma, and allergies

While practitioners of functional medicine have long understood the link between the health of a mother’s immune system and the risk of giving birth to a child with autism, asthma, allergies, and other disorders, it is validating to see this information in the New York Times: An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism.

In this article, the author reports one-third of autism cases are the result of an inflammatory disease that began in the womb, thanks to the mother’s imbalanced immune system. Looking back through 20 years of data, researchers discovered that infections during pregnancy increase the risk of autism. Hospitalization for a viral infection (i.e., the flu) during the first trimester tripled the odds for autism, while a bacterial infection (including urinary tract infections) during the second trimester increased the risk by 40 percent.

Maternal autoimmunity increases risk of autism in children

While viral and bacterial infections have declined over the last 60 years, autoimmune and chronic inflammatory disorders are steadily climbing. Autoimmune disease dwarfs cancer and heart disease combined, now affecting about 50 million people, or 20 percent of the population.

Investigation revealed it isn’t the infections themselves that cause autism, but instead the reaction of the mother’s immune system to infection (her inflammatory response), as well as the overall health of her immune system.

One study of 700,000 births found that a mother’s rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, or Type 1 diabetes more than doubles the risk of autism in her child. Other research has connected additional autoimmune diseases, such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, with an increased risk of giving birth to a child who develops autism.

In an autoimmune response, the immune system mistakenly creates antibodies to the body’s own tissue, thereby tagging the tissue for destruction. Researchers have found that some mothers of autistic children create antibodies to the brain tissue of their fetus, meaning the child is a born with a brain already developmentally imbalanced by immune destruction. In fact, research indicates that mothers of children with autism are five times more likely to have anti-brain antibodies in their systems.

Chronic inflammation in pregnancy raises risk of childhood disorders

Other risk factors for autism include maternal asthma, allergies, insulin resistance, obesity, and chronic low-grade inflammation. In other words, when a mom’s immune system is in constant overdrive—never getting the opportunity to rest—the development of the fetal brain is adversely affected and the overall risk for disorders is increased.

Western diet and lifestyle behind inflammation and autoimmunity

Unfortunately, the story An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism veers into the promise of using whip worms—yes, worms—to tame the out-of-control immune system. The theory is that autoimmune disease has skyrocketed in developed nations because we are too clean.

The article fails to mention those other hallmarks of Western civilization besides good hygiene: overabundant diets laden with sweet, starchy, processed foods; chronic stress; a sedentary lifestyle; and daily bombardment of environmental toxins.

Thankfully, practitioners of functional medicine have measures other than the whip-worm therapy to manage autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammation, all backed by peer-reviewed science. These include an autoimmune diet and the use of targeted, customized nutritional therapies.

Ask my office how we can assist you in balancing your immune system and, in so doing, help you to lower the risk of giving birth to a child with asthma, allergies, autism, or other brain and immune disorders.

Is depression causing damage to your brain?

Depression could be more serious than previously thought.  This is because a new study has shown some cases of depression may involve damage to the brain.


This study showed that 54.1% of people with depression had autoimmunity against their brain tissue (serotonin receptors) while only 5.7% of non-depressed had autoimmunity against their brain tissue.

Again,the damage occurs in the form of an autoimmune attack against your serotonin receptors.  Autoimmune attacks are when your immune systems produces white blood cells that attack and destroy your own tissue, in this case brain tissue.  Specifically, your serotonin receptors become damaged in this condition.

Serotonin in your brain is known as your happy mood chemical and low serotonin levels have been correlated with depression and other mood disorders.  The most common treatment for depression is anti-depressant medications.  Most medications act to move serotonin from one part of the brain to another and can provide symptomatic relief but also can have substantial side effects.  What medication will not do is fix this problem if present.  Why does this matter?  Because if you have autoimmunity against your brain (serotonin receptors) and take a pill to mask your depression symptoms, you will have done nothing to stop the underlying damage to your brain that is occurring from the autoimmune attack.  In my opinion, and many others in healthcare, standard management of depression (medications) does little to treat the cause or fix the problem.

In functional medicine we take a cause-based approach to depression.  If you see my video here, you can learn more about what the most common causes of depression are.   The good news is if you have depression with autoimmunity the functional medicine approach has shown excellent results with stopping the autoimmune process.  It is possible to be depression free and feel great without medications.

Click here to read study
J Affect Disord. 2012 Feb;136(3):386-92. Epub 2011 Dec 12.  

PMID:

   22166399


I hope this info helps,
Dr. Michael Ruscio
office@DrRuscio.com  (925) 705-7454

Wake up at 3 a.m. and can't fall back asleep? Consider low blood sugar

Do you consistently wake up around 3 a.m. and can’t fall back asleep? Although the reasons for sleep problems can be complex, waking up too early is often a symptom of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, and can be remedied through dietary changes and nutritional therapy.

Why you wake up at 3 a.m.

The brain is highly active at night, transforming short-term memory into long-term memory and carrying out repair and regeneration, and it depends on a steady supply of energy to do these tasks. When you sleep at night your body goes into a fasting state. In order not to deprive the brain of the food it needs for energy, the body compensates by gradually raising cortisol, an adrenal hormone. Cortisol stimulates the body to release or create glucose to supply the brain with energy during the night-long fast.
Chronic low blood sugar, however, throws a kink in this process. People with hypoglycemia tend to have difficulty making the right amount of cortisol at the right times of the day or night. They also have blood sugar levels that spike and then crash throughout the day. If they go too long without eating they experience lightheadedness, irritability, shakiness, a spacey feeling, and other symptoms that signify the brain is not getting enough glucose.
In these cases, not only does blood sugar drop too low during the night, but the adrenal glands don't produce enough cortisol to keep the brain fueled. In response, the body sounds the emergency alarm by releasing “fight-or-flight” hormones. These stress hormones raise blood sugar back to a safer level. Unfortunately, they also raise stress, which can cause anxiety or panic in the middle of the night. Hence the waking up at 3 a.m. and not being able to fall back asleep.

How to fall asleep if you wake up at 3 a.m.

A quick fix for waking up at 3 a.m. can be as simple as eating a small amount of protein, with perhaps some fat thrown in—a spoonful of nut butter, a little bit of meat, or a hard-boiled egg. For some people this raises blood sugar to a healthier level and sustains it so they can fall back asleep. It’s best not to eat something sweet or starchy (however tempting to your hungry brain) because this will just cause blood sugar to spike and crash again.

Daytime tips to avoid waking up at 3 a.m.

Although a 3 a.m. snack may help you fall back asleep, it’s better to prevent that anxious awakening in the first place. If you wake up regularly at 3 a.m. you may suffer from chronic low blood sugar and need dietary therapy. Symptoms include:

• Sugar cravings
• Irritability, light-headedness, dizziness, or brain fog if meals are missed
• Lack of appetite or nausea in the morning
• The need for caffeine for energy
• Eating to relieve fatigue
• Energy crashes in the afternoon

A diet that stabilizes daytime blood sugar levels will have you sleeping better. This requires that you:

• Never skip breakfast and eat a breakfast lower in carbohydrates. If you have chronic low blood sugar you may have lost the ability to feel hunger and you need to eat in the morning and throughout the day (even if you don't feel like it).
• Eat frequently enough so blood sugar does not crash.
• Ditch the sweets and starchy foods and adopt a lower-carbohydrate diet. People with low blood sugar symptoms typically eat too many sweets and starchy foods (breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.) and also frequently skip meals. Go for foods lower on the glycemic index and eat enough protein and healthy fats to sustain your energy.

A variety of nutritional compounds can further support your blood sugar handling and stress hormone functions so you sleep better. Ask my office how we can help.

Vitamin B12 deficiency more common than thought

Vitamin B12 deficiency is more common than people realize and can mimic or cause other disorders. A B12 deficiency is linked with memory loss, anemia, cardiovascular disease, and autism, to name a few. B12 is necessary for the brain and nervous system to function and for other aspects of health. It’s believed B12 deficiency is due in most cases not to lack of dietary sources but to poor absorption of the vitamin in the digestive tract.

Could your declining brain function be a B12 deficiency?

Because B12 is so vital for brain function, a B12 deficiency can manifest as numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, shakiness, depression, and loss of memory and cognition that can mimic the beginnings of dementia. It’s especially important to pay attention to a possible B12 deficiency in older people as the ability to absorb the vitamin declines with age. Studies show older people with higher B12 levels show less brain shrinkage and cognitive decline than their B12 deficient counterparts.

Is your anemia a B12 deficiency?

Other common manifestations of B12 deficiency are symptoms of anemia, which include fatigue, lethargy and weakness. Many people with B12 anemia discover they have an autoimmune disease called pernicious anemia, which inhibits the absorption of B12. In this case managing the autoimmune disease is important as well as supplementing with B12 sublingually or through injection.

A deficiency in B12 is also linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, autism, autoimmune disease, infertility, and more.

B12 deficiency often due to poor absorption

So what causes B12 deficiency? For many people it’s due not to diet but rather to poor absorption of nutrients.

Many people today have damaged guts due to diets high in inflammatory foods, chronic stress, and food intolerances, such as to gluten. It’s difficult for nutrients such as B12 to pass through an inflamed and damaged gut lining into the bloodstream.

Other factors that can lead to a B12 deficiency include a decline in stomach acid (common in elderly), the use of antacids and acid-blocking drugs, the use of metformin and other prescription drugs, alcoholism, and weight-loss surgery.

Repairing and restoring gut health should always be addressed in the event of a B12 deficiency.

Vegans and vegetarians at risk for B12 deficiency

One group at risk for dietary deficiency of B12 are vegans and vegetarians—B12 is only found in animal foods. Natural plant sources of B12 such as spirulina, algae, seaweed, or grasses are poorly absorbed and may give a false reading of normal B12 on a lab result. This population especially should supplement with B12.

Also, although gut bacteria can synthesize B12, this requires healthy gut function and flora, and most of it is synthesized downstream of the small intestine where B12 is absorbed.

Taking B12

Recommended doses of B12 vary depending on whether you have a deficiency, and you should work with a qualified health care practitioner to determine the best dose. However, there is a low risk of B12 toxicity.

The more bioavailable form of B12 supplementation is methyl B12, or methylcobalamin, as opposed to the more common, synthetic cyanocobalamin. Not only is methyl B12 more neurologically active, it also enhances a liver detoxification process called methylation, which can reduce inflammation.

Are you alkaline enough? How to reduce acidity for better health

If your body becomes too acidic it can lead to health problems—good pH balance is necessary for cells to function properly. Too much acidity plays a role in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, chronic pain and inflammation, autoimmune disease, and other chronic conditions. Fortunately, we can make the body more alkaline simply through changes to the diet.

How do you know if you are too acidic?

Many people are overly acidic today because of the modern diet. Below are some symptoms:

• Muscle cramps
• Muscle twitches
• Constipation
• Frequent urination
• Brain fog
• Poor brain function
• Reduced endurance for exercise
• Swelling and bloating
• Salt cravings
• Difficulty holding breath
• Rapid, shallow breathing
• Poor sleep

Testing for acid or alkaline pH

You can also test your body’s pH. Although a salivary test is a popular way to test pH it does not have much support in the scientific literature. Testing through blood is not accurate because blood pH fluctuates only if there is an acute event, such as poisoning or kidney or lung disease. However, if the blood test markers CO2 and anion gap are outside of functional medicine ranges it suggests acidity.

A urinary test has been demonstrated to be an accurate reflection of how acidic or alkaline you are and reflects whether nutritional therapy or changes in your diet are helping you become more alkaline. Ideal urinary pH is suggested to be between 7.2–7.8. It’s important to note, however, that infections, bacterial overgrowth, dehydration, incontinence, and other issues can affect the results of your urinary pH test.

How do you become more alkaline?

It’s easy in today’s world to become too acidic. Diets high in sugars, simple starches, and junk foods can lead to excess acidity. Caffeinated drinks, sodas, and alcohol promote acidity as well. Eating too much meat and not enough produce is another dietary factor. It is not necessary to become a vegan or vegetarian to maintain a good pH, however a diet based on ample leafy green and colorful vegetables as well as some fruits are at the foundation of an alkaline diet. The alkaline diet is rich in magnesium, potassium, calcium, and other minerals that help your body maintain a healthy pH.

Anemia, asthma, and poor blood sugar regulation can prevent you from being alkaline enough

Certain health conditions such as anemia or asthma can prevent you from being alkaline enough. Stable blood sugar levels are also necessary for good alkalinity. A diet high in carbohydrates and sugars will promote acidity, as will having low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) or high blood sugar (insulin resistance). It’s important not to skip meals or to overeat and to eat regularly enough to prevent your energy from crashing if you want to maintain a good pH.

If acidity becomes too severe it can be life threatening. Diabetes, kidney disease, and lung disease are health conditions that can raise the risk of acidifying the body to an extreme degree and require medical attention.

Nutritional therapy to be more alkaline

Although sodium bicarbonate can quickly alkalinize the system, it is too high in sodium to be used regularly. Instead, in addition to adopting a more alkalinizing diet, some nutritional compounds may help move you toward a more alkaline state more quickly.

Contact my office for ideas on how nutritional therapy can help you to be more alkaline.

Is your blood pressure too low?

We all hear about the risks associated with high blood pressure, but having low blood pressure can also pose health risks. When you have low blood pressure your blood, which carries oxygen and nutrients, is not being sufficiently pushed into the tissues throughout your body, including the brain. This means your brain and other organs are not getting enough oxygen to work as well as they could. A blood pressure of 120/80 is considered healthy and if the upper or lower number deviates by 10 your blood pressure is in an abnormal range.

Low blood pressure associated with adrenal fatigue

Low blood pressure is typically associated with poor adrenal function. The adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys, produce stress hormones and play an important role in regulating blood pressure. Many people today have fatigued adrenal glands thanks to chronic stress, poor diets, low blood sugar, chronic infections, digestive problems, inflammation, or other issues. Chronic stress from any or all of these factors may wear out the adrenal glands, causing adrenal fatigue. As a result, your body has a harder time maintaining health and balance through life’s ups and downs. Symptoms of adrenal fatigue may include constant tiredness, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and low blood pressure.

Feeling faint when you stand up

A common type of low blood pressure is a orthostatic hypotension, a drop in blood pressure when you go from sitting to standing that causes lightheadedness. For the person with orthostatic hypotension, standing up causes blood to pool in the legs. This slows the flow of blood back to the heart and decreases the amount of blood pumped from the heart. Medical professionals diagnose orthostatic hypotension when the top number falls by 20 and the bottom number falls by 10 upon standing.

Although lightheadedness is not cause for alarm, if standing up causes you to faint you should seek medical attention. Orthostatic hypotension also increases the risk of falling for elderly people. Orthostatic hypotension is common among people with low blood pressure and hypoglycemia, although people with high blood pressure can also have orthostatic hypotension.

What to do for low blood pressure and adrenal fatigue

If you have low blood pressure and suspect you may have adrenal fatigue, consider having an adrenal saliva test. This test measures how much cortisol, an important adrenal hormone, your body makes, and whether your cortisol level follows healthy daily patterns.

Although people with high blood pressure are told to avoid salt, those with low blood pressure may actually benefit by adding sea salt to their food.

Also, certain nutritional compounds have been shown to support adrenal function and thus healthy blood pressure. Because adrenal fatigue is always secondary to another problem, it’s important to find out what is taxing the adrenal system and address that as well. Eating a diet that prevents your blood sugar from dropping too low and causing symptoms of hypoglycemia is another important key. Strategies include eating a good breakfast, ditching sweets, starchy foods and sweetened drinks, eating regularly enough to sustain blood sugar, and making sure never to skip meals.

For more advice on supporting healthy adrenal function and blood pressure, contact my office.

Getting the Metabolic Edge

By Dr. Michael Ruscio

The following are some notes from my public lecture on metabolism, please forgive grammatical errors.

Summary:

• The primary driver of metabolism are hormones
• Diet, exercise and internal health all effect hormones profoundly.
• Dietary science has shifted from calorie counting (quantitative) to calorie type (qualitative)
• Exercise science has shifted from calories burnt to hormones secreted
• Inflammation, digestive health, infections and toxicity are the 4 most common internal factors that derange metabolism.  

• Inflammation, digestive health, infections and toxicity are the 4 most common internal factors that derange metabolism.  Aim for a 2:1 resistance training to cardio ratio
• Use body weight/resistance type movements
• Choose movement that require total body or at least more than one joint
• Use higher reps, 12-15
• Do a few exercises back to back with no rest in between.  Push ups, squats, pull ups…rest… repeat.  

Below we see (working from top left in a clockwise direction)

Cushing's Disease, a disease of high cortisol levels

A body builder using mega-doses of steroids (hormones)

Someone with dwarfism due to low pituitry function

An anti-aging physician who injects hormones to have levels of a  25 year old

The worlds tallest man, who also had a pituitary tumor causing high levels of growth hormone

The take away is the hormones dictated how the body would look, tall, fat, muscular, short....  So calories are a slave to hormones.

Why doe this matter?  Because we can impact hormones with diet and exercise very strongly.  

Below is a chart depicting that as we age we decrease growth hormone, which keeps us lean, and increase cortisol, which destroys our muscle mass and causes increased belly fat.

We are able to fight this decline with high VO2 max exercise (sprinting, burst training), essentially working really hard for a short burst.  Note, this is the opposite of 'cardio'.

In fact, the Textbook of Medical Physiology by Guyton suggest we can get more growth hormone from exercise, than from sleep.  

Here is another great study showing that men who weight train end up having better testosterone secretions and less cortisol secretions.  Other studies have show better growth hormone secretions with this type of exercise.  J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1989 Mar;29(1):9-26. PMID: 2671501

So we know we can achieve better growth hormone and testosterone levels with the appropriate exercise.  It will please you to know that if you eat the right way, you can pour gas on this metabolic fire we are creating.  Lets now look at how blood sugar regulation ties in.

A high starch, high carb, high whole grain, etc meals effect on blood sugar.

A lower carb., paleo like meals effect on blood sugar

Now from Lippincott's Textbook of Biochemistry we see the science version of this... When blood sugar goes high, you release insulin are more likely to gain fat and have high blood sugar which can eventually lead to diabetes and other problems.  When you keep blood sugar controlled or in the sweet spot, you have better release of growth hormones and other energizing hormones.  This provides you more energy and a better body comp. 

Here what this change looks like on a cellular level.  A high carb. diet elicits an insulin response, which shunts blood calories (yellow circles) into the fat cells and does not feed the power generating mitochondria.  Result; you gain fat and are tired.  A controlled carb. diet elicits a growth hormone (GH) response which shunts blood calories into the mitochondria to be burnt for fuel and thus generates energy.  Results; you have energy and do not gain fat.  

In summary, it appears better for one to eat less carbs. and to replace them with more fat, some protein and vegetables.  If you are saying, "well if I eat fat won't that cause heart disease and make me fat?" this is being disproven by currently studies.  Here are just a few examples of many.

Essentially these studies showed that low a carb. diet provided better weight loss.  Additionally low carb. dieting was also as good as and ever better than high carb. dieting for your heart in some cases. 

So the diet summary is as follows.  I would make one tweak and that would be to keep you carbs between 25-50 total grams/day if you need to lose weight or if you tend to crave carbs. 

When diet and exercise do not work here is what you should look into.

We just covered a lot.  Sorry if the info is a bit fragmented, but without writing a book I wanted to get across some major concepts.  I hope you find this helpful and feel free to contact me with questions.  www.DrRuscio.com

Dr. Michael Ruscio