By Dr. Mercola
A recent article by CNN1
lists 25 ways to get healthier. Some of the suggestions
certainly have merit, but it was more noteworthy for the many
ridiculous tips they included, and some of the crucially
important ones they neglected.
Actually, no surprises there, as the media is a mere
reflection of the corrupted medical paradigm that focuses on
treating symptoms rather than addressing the foundational causes
of disease.
So, here’s my own list of the top dozen lifestyle strategies
I believe can make the biggest difference in your health as they
address most of the disruptions that are at the core of most
health challenges.
#1. Add Sprouts to Your Diet
One of the most nutritious powerhouses to add to your diet
are sprouts. They are an authentic “super” food that many
overlook or have long stopped using. In addition to their
nutritional profile, sprouts are also easy and fun to grow in
your own home as they don’t require an outdoor garden.
They can contain up to 39 times the nutrition of organic
vegetables grown in your own garden, and allow your body to
extract more vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential fats
from the foods you eat. During sprouting, minerals, such as
calcium and magnesium, bind to protein, making them more
bioavailable.
Furthermore, both the quality of the protein and the fiber
content of beans, nuts, seeds and grains improves when sprouted.
The content of vitamins and essential fatty acids also increase
dramatically during the sprouting process. Sunflower seed,
broccoli and pea sprouts tend to top the list of all the seeds
that you can sprout and are typically each about 30 times more
nutritious than organic vegetables. While you can sprout a
variety of different beans, nuts, seeds and grains, sprouts in
general have the following beneficial attributes:
- Support for cell regeneration
- Powerful sources of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and
enzymes that protect against free radical damage
- Alkalinizing effect on your body, which is thought to
protect against disease, including cancer (as many tumors
are acidic)
- Abundantly rich in oxygen, which can also help protect
against abnormal cell growth, viruses and bacteria that
cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment
Planting and Harvesting Sprouts at Home
I used to grow sprouts in Ball jars over 10 years ago but
stopped doing that. I am strongly convinced that actually
growing them in soil is far easier and produces far more
nutritious and abundant food. It is also less time consuming.
With Ball jars, you need to rinse them several times a day to
prevent mold growth. Trays also take up less space. I am now
consuming one whole tray you see below every 2-3 days and to
produce that much food with Ball jars, I would need dozens of
jars.
I am in the process of compiling more specific detailed
videos for future articles but I thought I would whet your
appetite and give you a preview with the photos below.
About to plant wheat grass
and sunflower seeds – 2 days after soaking
|
Wheat grass and sunflower
seeds – 3 ½ days post germination
|
Sunflower seeds and pea
sprouts – 3 days until ready for harvest
|
Sunflower seed sprouts and
wheat Grass – ready to harvest
|
My two favorites are pea and sunflower sprouts. They provide
some of the highest quality protein you can eat. Sprouted
sunflower seeds also contain plenty of iron and chlorophyll, the
latter of which will help detoxify your blood and liver. Of the
seeds, sunflower seeds are among the best in terms of overall
nutritional value, and sprouting them will augment their
nutrient content by as much as 300 to 1,200 percent! Similarly,
sprouting peas will improve the bioavailability of zinc and
magnesium.
I have been sprouting them now for a few months and they have
radically improved the nutrition of my primary meal, which is a
comprehensive salad at lunch. They are a perfect complement to
fermented vegetables. My current salad consists of about half a
pound of sunflower sprouts, four ounces of fermented vegetables,
half a large red pepper, several tablespoon of raw organic
butter, some red onion, a whole avocado and about three ounces
of salmon or chicken. It is my primary meal. In the late
afternoon, I typically only have macadamia nuts and
coconut
candy in addition to drinking 16-32 ounces of green
vegetable juice. I break it up occasionally by going to a
restaurant with friends.
#2. Make Fermented Vegetables a Daily Staple
The importance of your gut flora and its influence on your
health cannot be overstated. Your gut is home to countless
bacteria, both beneficial and pathogenic. These bacteria
outnumber the cells in your body by at least 10 to one, and
maintaining the ideal balance of good and bad bacteria forms the
foundation for good health – physical, mental and emotional. In
fact, your gut literally serves as your second brain, and even
produces more of the neurotransmitter serotonin than your brain
does.
Cultured or fermented foods are essential for maintaining a
healthy gut. The culturing process produces beneficial microbes,
also known as probiotics, which help balance your intestinal
flora. Fermented foods are also some of the best chelators
available, capable of drawing out a wide range of toxins and
heavy metals. Just a quarter to a half a cup of fermented
vegetables per day is sufficient for most people. Ideally,
you’ll want to include a variety of fermented or cultured foods,
as each food will inoculate your gut with a variety of different
microorganisms.
To learn how to easily ferment your own vegetables, see my
interview with
Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and
an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr.
Natasha Campbell-McBride's Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS)
Nutritional Program. We are currently finishing some
sophisticated DNA sequencing experiments on our new high dose
vitamin K2 probiotic starter culture.
#3. Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels with Appropriate Sun Exposure
Vitamin D, once linked to only bone diseases such as rickets
and osteoporosis, is now recognized as a
major player in overall human health. There are only 30,000
genes in your body and vitamin D has been shown to influence
over 2,000 of them. That’s one of the primary reasons it
influences so many diseases, including diabetes, depression,
heart disease and cancer, just to name a few. But while many
focus on vitamin D supplementation, it's important to
realize that the IDEAL way to optimize your vitamin D level is
not by taking a pill, but rather allowing your body to do what
it is designed to do – create vitamin D from sun exposure (or a
safe tanning bed). Sunlight is superior to supplements for a
number of reasons:
- It is natural. Our ancestors optimized their vitamin D
levels by sun exposure, not by swallowing it in foods.
Although vitamin D is in some animal foods, it is in
relatively low quantities and to my knowledge there are no
known ancestral populations that thrived on oral vitamin D
sources
- When you expose your skin to the sun, your skin also
synthesizes high amounts of
cholesterol sulfate, which is very important for
cardiovascular health. In fact,
Dr. Stephanie Seneff, believes that high LDL and
associated heart disease may in fact be a symptom of
cholesterol sulfate deficiency. Sulfur deficiency, in fact,
also promotes obesity and related health problems like
diabetes
- Most experts believe you cannot overdose when getting
your vitamin D from sun exposure, as your body has the
ability to self-regulate production and only make what it
needs
- When taking a high dose vitamin D supplement, you also
need to boost your intake of
vitamin K2, either from food or a supplement, in order
to maintain the proper ratio. These two nutrients work in
tandem, and vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces
the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes
inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of
your arteries
-
Sunlight has many additional health benefits unrelated
to vitamin D production
#4. Intermittent Fasting
It's long been known that calorie restriction can improve
metabolic disease risk markers and increase the lifespan of
certain animals. More recent research suggests that
intermittent fasting can provide the same health benefits as
constant calorie restriction, which may be helpful for those who
cannot successfully reduce their everyday calorie intake. I
believe it’s one of the most powerful interventions out there if
you’re struggling with your weight and related health issues.
One of the primary reasons for this is because it helps shift
your body from burning sugar/carbs to burning fat as its primary
fuel.
Research has also shown that fasting can boost your body’s
production of human growth hormone (HGH) by as much as 1,300
percent in women and 2,000 percent in men. HGH, commonly
referred to as "the fitness hormone," plays an important role in
maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion
of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your
metabolism. Other health benefits of intermittent fasting
include:
Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which
is key for optimal health |
Improving biomarkers of disease |
Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger
hormone" |
Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage
|
Lowering triglyceride levels |
Preserving memory functioning and learning |
A simple way to incorporate intermittent fasting into your
lifestyle is to simply time your meals to allow for regular
periods of fasting in between. To be effective, the length of
your fast must be at least eight hours long. This means eating
only between the hours of 11am until 7pm each day, as an
example. Essentially, this equates to simply
skipping breakfast, and making lunch your first meal of the
day instead.
#5. Incorporate High Intensity Interval Training into Your
Exercise Routine
Compelling and ever-mounting research shows that the ideal
form of exercise is short bursts of
high intensity exercise. Not only does it beat conventional
cardio as the most effective and efficient form of exercise, it
also provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular
aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone
(HGH), aka the “fitness hormone,” which is essential for optimal
health, strength and vigor.
HIIT has also been shown to significantly improve insulin
sensitivity, boost fat loss, and increase muscle growth. Best of
all, high intensity exercises are so efficient, you can get all
the benefits you need in just a 20-minute session, start to
finish, performed twice or a max of three times per week.
The key factor that makes interval training so effective is
intensity. To reap maximum results, you need to work out at
maximum intensity, with rest periods in between spurts. If you
are using exercise equipment, I recommend using a recumbent
bicycle or an elliptical machine for your high-intensity
interval training, although you certainly can use a treadmill,
or sprint anywhere outdoors. (Keep in mind that if you intend to
sprint outside, be very careful about stretching prior to
sprinting. Also, unless you are already an athlete, I would
strongly advise against sprinting, as several people I know
became injured doing it the first time that way.)
You can also modify your weight training routine to turn it
into a high intensity exercise. This is done by slowing it
down. The super-slow movement allows your muscle, at the
microscopic level, to access the maximum number of cross-bridges
between the protein filaments that produce movement in the
muscle. To learn more, check out my interview with
Dr. Doug McGuff – an emergency room physician who is also an
expert in high-intensity interval training.
An important dietary adjunct that will help you get the most
out of your high intensity training is to avoid fructose.
If you consume sugar or fructose, especially within two hours
post-exercise, you will increase somatostatin (also
known as growth hormone-inhibiting hormone), which will in turn
obliterate the production of growth hormone that you’d otherwise
get from your high intensity exercise. So avoid commercial
sports drinks, juices, enhanced water products and any other
beverage containing fructose, and stick to pure water. If you
need to replenish electrolytes,
coconut water is an excellent alternative but it’s only
recommended if you’re exercising intensely and sweating
profusely. Otherwise, the high sugar content can be
counterproductive.
#6. Get High Quality Sleep
Sleep is such an important part of your overall health that
no amount of healthful food and exercise can counteract the ill
effects of poor sleeping habits. Poor sleep has been linked to a
number of health ailments, including short-term memory loss,
behavioral problems, weight gain, diabetes, increased risk of
heart disease and cancer. Sleep deprivation also prematurely
ages you by interfering with your growth hormone production,
normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep (and
during high intensity
Peak Fitness exercises discussed above). Growth hormone
helps you look and feel younger.
Most people need somewhere around seven to eight hours of
sleep per night, but sleep needs are highly individual, and tend
to vary depending on your current state of health and stress
levels as well. If you still feel sleepy upon waking or feel
like you need a nap during the day, you’re probably not getting
enough.
Whether you have difficulty falling asleep, waking up too
often, or feeling inadequately rested when you wake up in the
morning – or maybe you simply want to improve the quality of
your sleep – I strongly recommend reviewing my special report on
improving your
sleep hygiene.
If you feel well-rested in the morning, that's a good sign
that your sleep habits are just fine. But if not, you might want
to investigate your sleep patterns more closely. ZEO is an
innovative sleep measurement device that allows you to perform a
personalized 'sleep study' from the comfort of your own home.
The beauty of this device is that it lets you evaluate how
various factors affect your sleep. For example, you can evaluate
how your sleep was affected by a cup of coffee in the afternoon,
or how doing computer work past a certain hour impacted your
sleep.
You could actually go through my 32 recommendations for
improving your sleep and evaluate the effects of each one if
you wanted to. I recommend using the less expensive mobile sleep
manager as that will allow you scan your brainwaves without
transmitting the data until the morning when you awake and
manually transfer to your smart phone or tablet via Bluetooth.
#7. Get Grounded
Did you know the energy from the Earth can help you live a
healthier life? The concept is known as earthing or grounding,
which is nothing more than walking barefoot; grounding your body
to the Earth. You can connect any part of your skin to the
Earth, but one is especially potent, and that's right in the
middle of the ball of your foot; a point known to acupuncturists
as Kidney 1 (K1). It's a well-known point that conductively
connects to all of the acupuncture meridians and essentially
connects to every nook and cranny of your body.
Compelling research shows that lack of grounding has a lot to
do with the rise of modern diseases.
When you're grounded, there's a transfer of free electrons
from the Earth into your body. And these free electrons are
probably the most potent antioxidants known to man. Any free
radicals they encounter in your tissues will immediately be
electrically neutralized. This occurs because the electrons
are negative, while the free radicals are positive, so they
cancel each other out.
Another very important discovery, and one of the most recent,
is that grounding thins your blood, making it less viscous. This
can have a profound impact on cardiovascular disease, which is
now the number one killer in the world. Virtually every aspect
of cardiovascular disease has been correlated with elevated
blood viscosity. It can also help protect against blood clots.
The ideal location for walking barefoot is the beach, close
to or in the water, as sea water is a great conductor. Your body
also contains mostly water, so it creates a good connection. A
close second would be a grassy area, especially if it's covered
with dew, which is what you'd find if you walk early in the
morning. Concrete is a good conductor as long as it hasn't been
sealed; painted concrete does not allow electrons to pass
through very well. Materials like asphalt, wood, and typical
insulators like plastic or the soles of your shoes, will not
allow electrons to pass through and are not suitable for
barefoot grounding.
Exercising barefoot outdoors is one of the most wonderful,
inexpensive and powerful ways of incorporating earthing into
your daily life and will also help speed up tissue repair and
ease muscle pain due to strenuous exercise.
#8. Drink Pure Water
Your body requires a constant daily supply of water to fuel
all the various waste filtration systems nature has designed to
keep your body healthy and free of toxins. Your blood, your
kidneys, and your liver all require a source of good clean water
to detoxify your body from the toxic exposures you come into
contact with every day.
When you give your body water that is filled with toxins
leached from plastic, by-products from chlorination, volatile
organic compounds, or water that is contaminated by pesticides,
fluoride, or prescription drugs, you are asking your body to
work twice as hard at detoxification, because it must first
detoxify the water you are drinking, before that water can be
used to fuel your organs of detoxification!
Clearly, the most efficient way help your body both avoid and
eliminate toxins is to provide your body with the cleanest,
purest water you can find. This is easily done by installing one
or more types of water filtration systems in your house.
If you could only afford one filter, there is no question in
most experts' minds that the shower filter is the most important
product to buy for water filtration, even more important than
filtering your tap water. This is because the damage you incur
through your skin and lungs far surpasses the damage done by
drinking water (which at least gives your body a fighting chance
to eliminate the toxins through your organs of elimination).
An even better solution to the problem of harsh chemicals and
toxins in your home's water supply is to install a whole house
water filtration system. There's just one water line coming into
your house. Putting a filter on this is the easiest and simplest
strategy you can implement to take control of your health by
ensuring the water and the air in your house is as clean as
possible. To learn more about different types of water and water
filtration systems, please see my
special
report on this topic.
#9. Limit Processed Foods and Replace Non-Veggie Carbs with
Healthy Fats
Two of the most powerful dietary interventions I know of are
1) limiting or eliminating processed foods and 2) replacing
non-vegetable carbohydrates and excess protein with
healthful fats. Beneficial fats include
avocados, coconut oil, olives, olive oil, butter and nuts.
Wild Alaskan salmon is also a powerhouse of nutrition,
providing critical omega-3 fats. As a general rule, when you cut
down on carbs, you need to increase your fat consumption. Both
are sources of much-needed energy, but fats are a source of
energy that is far more ideal than carbohydrates. Replacing
carbs with more protein is not a wise choice as it can produce
similar adverse hormonal changes as burning non-vegetable carbs.
For a comprehensive guide on which foods to eat and which to
avoid, see my
nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should be looking to
focus your diet on whole, ideally organic and/or locally grown,
unprocessed foods. For the best nutrition and health benefits,
you will want to eat a good portion of your
food raw.
Processed foods are notoriously high in fructose, not to
mention artificial additives. All forms of
sugar (but fructose in particular) have toxic effects when
consumed in excess, and drive multiple disease processes in your
body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major
cause of chronic disease and accelerated aging. Replacing
non-vegetable carbs with healthful fats will also optimize your
insulin and leptin levels, which is key for maintaining
a healthy weight and optimal health.
Most people eat far too much protein. Like many areas of
health there is a “Goldilocks” dose that provides most of the
benefits and minimal side effects. Dr. Rosedale believes that
the ideal amount is about one gram per pound of lean body weight
unless you are pregnant or doing competitive athletics. But that
is a level that will more than supply your body’s amino acid
needs without sacrificing your health.
#10. Avoid Toxins
Volumes of books could be written on modern day toxic
exposures, but while it may be impossible to list every
possibility, if you avoid the most notorious offenders, you’ll
be way ahead of the game. In general, this includes tossing out
your
toxic household cleaners, personal hygiene products, air
fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just
to name a few, and replacing them with
non-toxic alternatives. In terms of specific toxins, some of
the most hazardous yet commonly encountered ones include:
- Mercury – found in dental amalgams and
fish.
- Fluoride – found in toothpaste,
fluoridated water, and
non-organic food (due to the widespread use of
fluoride-based pesticides. For example, conventionally-grown
iceberg lettuce can contain as much as 180 ppm of fluoride –
180 times higher than what's recommended in drinking water).
- EMFs. Electromagnetic field exposures
are becoming increasingly pervasive and they can interact
unfavorably with your biology. So please review the many
previous articles we have written on this subject to learn
more.
- Bisphenol-A (BPA) and Bisphenol-S (BPS)
– Used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics,
bisphenols are estrogen mimicking chemicals that can
leach into food or drinks from the plastic containers
holding them. These chemicals are known to be particularly
dangerous for pregnant women, infants and children.
To avoid plastic toxins such as bisphenols, opt for glass
over plastic, especially when it comes to products that will
come into contact with food or beverages, or those intended
for pregnant women, infants and children. This applies to
canned goods as well, which are a major source of BPA (and
possibly other chemicals) exposure, so whenever you can,
choose jarred goods over canned goods, or opt for fresh
instead. Another good idea is to ditch plastic teething toys
for your little ones and choose natural wood or fabric
varieties instead.
- Phthalates – found in soft plastics
such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), as well as many
toiletries, including shampoo, toothpaste, and cosmetics.
Phthalates is one of the most pervasive type of
endocrine disrupting chemicals discovered so far, and have
been linked to a wide range of developmental and
reproductive “gender-bending” effects. Twelve tips for
avoiding common sources of phthalates, see this
previous article.
#11. Have Great Tools to Address Your Stress
Research has linked emotional stress to a wide variety of
health problems, including physical pain, chronic inflammation,2
stillbirths,3
lowered immune function, increased blood pressure, altered brain
chemistry, increased tumor growth4
and more. Even the conservative Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) reports that 85 percent of all disease has an emotional
element.
Clearly, it is not possible or even recommended to eliminate
stress entirely. However, you can work to provide your
body with tools to compensate for the bioelectrical
short-circuiting that can cause serious disruption in many of
your body's important systems. By using energy psychology
techniques such as the
Emotional
Freedom Technique (EFT), you can reprogram how your body
responds to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life so that
“the little things” no longer pose such a great threat to your
health.
Exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and meditation
are also important “release valves” that can help you manage
your stress. EFT is akin to acupuncture, which is based on the
concept that a vital energy flows through your body along
invisible pathways known as meridians. EFT stimulates different
energy meridian points in your body by tapping them with your
fingertips, while simultaneously using custom-made verbal
affirmations. This can be done alone or under the supervision of
a qualified therapist.5
Since these stressors are usually connected to physical
problems, many people’s diseases and other symptoms can improve
or disappear as well.
#12. Replace Drugs with Natural Alternatives that Address the
Cause
Last but certainly not least, replacing drugs with natural
alternatives, or better yet, addressing the lifestyle factors
that are causing your health problem in the first place, are
your best bets if you want to avoid becoming a disease- or
pharmaceutical-mortality statistic.
Drugs are known to cause well over 125,000 deaths per year in
the US when taken correctly as prescribed. This is not
so surprising when you consider the average drug label lists
70 potential adverse reactions. Overall,
drugs are 62,000 times more likely to kill you than
nutritional supplements, and 7,750 times more likely to kill you
than herbal remedies. According to the US National Poison
Data System,6
the following drug categories are among the most lethal:
Analgesics, sedatives, hypnotics, and antipsychotics
|
Cardiovascular drugs |
Opioids |
Acetaminophen combinations |
Antidepressants |
Muscle relaxants |
Anti-inflammatories |
Antacids |
Anticoagulants |
Antihistamines |
The vast majority of health problems are in fact responsive
to appropriate lifestyle changes – the most important of which
have been covered above. Type 2 diabetes, for example, is not
only wholly preventable, it’s virtually 100 percent reversible
through diet and exercise alone. Even cancer has been shown to
be responsive to such measures. Scientists are seriously looking
into a number of dietary treatment alternatives, such as
ketogenic- and
anti-angiogenesis-type diets.
For example, research led by Dr. Dominic D'Agostino has found
that when lab animals are fed a carb-free diet, they survive
highly aggressive metastatic cancer better than those treated
with chemotherapy. The reason a ketogenic diet can have such a
dramatic (and rapid) effect on cancer is because all of your
body’s cells are fueled by glucose. This includes cancer cells.
However, cancer cells have one built-in fatal flaw – they do not
have the metabolic flexibility of your regular cells and
cannot adapt to use ketone bodies for fuel as all your
other cells can.
So, when you alter your diet and become what’s known as
“fat-adapted,” your body starts using fat for fuel rather than
carbs. When you switch out the carbs for healthy fats, you
starve the cancer out, as you’re no longer supplying the
necessary fuel – glucose – for their growth. Intermittent
fasting, discussed above, is one of the most powerful ways I
know of to become fat adapted.
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.