Dr. McManus and her entire team take a no-nonsense approach to healthcare and look at the root causes of issues. They treat the issues, not just the symptoms. I love that they don’t immediately turn to big-pharma for the answer! They truly care about you and your health for the long-term!
Try this healthy salad dressing recipe for some extra spice. It’s also yeast free and qualified during your Health Reset Protocol.
Ingredients:
½ cup pomegranate juice
½ cup avocado or olive oil
½ cup cashews
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
2 tablespoon xylitol, monk Fruit, or erythritol
Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Ideas:
Resveratrol is found in plants where it is designed to help increase the life span of the plant by making them resistant to disease, injury, and stressors. In the human body, resveratrol is known for a host of anti-aging protective benefits including[1]:
Resveratrol is a polyphenolic compound with antioxidant activity found in grapes, wine, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, mulberries, pomegranate, ginger, and organic dark chocolate or raw cacao. The typical 5-oz glass of red wines contains about 0.5 mg trans-resveratrol. It would take approximately 500 glasses to obtain what is found in one capsule of Resveragen. Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) root extract has been concentrated and standardized to 50% trans-resveratrol. Each capsule provides 250 mg elemental trans-resveratrol[2].
To clarify, drinking wine is not the way to ensure optimal levels! Unfortunately, the alcohol counteracts the resveratrol benefit by elevating insulin levels and having neurotoxic effects. While muscadine grapes are known for high levels of resveratrol, most of which resides in the skin and seeds, this is also a high sugar source, detrimental to your glucose levels, especially if you are insulin resistant. In addition to the foods listed at the beginning of the article, you may want to look into itadori tea, also made from the Japanese knotweed. Optimal levels may best be accomplished through supplementation and should be discussed with your functional medicine provider.
[1] https://articles.mercola.com/vitamins-supplements/resveratrol.aspx
[2] Klaire Labs, 2019 Practitioner Product Catalog, Resveragen, pg. 82.
What in the world is aah-TAAH-fuh-jee you ask? “Auto” means self and “phagy” means eat. Thus the literal meaning is “self-eating”. It is the natural way that the body cleans out accumulated debris, including toxins and damaged cellular components, to make way for regeneration of newer, healthier cells. Autophagy takes place in every cell, except for red blood cells.
We have trillions of cells in the body that carry out numerous tasks. Some give the body shape and form; others take in nutrients from food. Some make energy while others are disposing of waste. Cells build proteins and provide your brain with information. As they perform all of these duties, they suffer some damage. Overall cellular function suffers when the damaged, impaired cells and cellular components are in the way. This is the aging process we experience in life at the cellular level. Damage leads to disease, and eventually to death. There is good news……
Autophagy is the process through which the body works toward self-healing, wherein your healthy cells devour damaged and non-functioning cells. The devoured cell parts can be used for energy, as well as for building blocks to create new cells, proteins, etc. When autophagy is inhibited through poor diet, excessive oxidants, and inflammation, the cellular trash lingers, builds up, and perpetuates inflammation, which affects how well a cell can function, and most often leads to disease and the acceleration of the aging process.
If your goal is to stay healthy and age more slowly, pay attention to autophagy. Thankfully, there are ways to trigger, induce, and enhance autophagy, even in an aging body:
[1] There are 7 grams of protein in 1 ounce of cooked meat.
What in the world is aah-TAAH-fuh-jee you ask? “Auto” means self and “phagy” means eat. Thus the literal meaning is “self-eating”. It is the natural way that the body cleans out accumulated debris, including toxins and damaged cells, to make way for regeneration of newer, healthier cells. Read What is Autophagy? for more information.
Your dietary choices have a direct impact, for better or worse, on processes like inflammation and autophagy. There are several dietary choices we can avoid if we want to stimulate autophagy. We will describe two of the most significant here and then list food-specific do’s and don’ts.
With these two concepts in mind, here are dietary do’s and don’ts for staying young and healthy:
If you are interested in your personal ideal carbohydrate and protein needs, call (281) 298-6742 to schedule an appointment with our Staff Nutrition expert, Nancy Mehlert MS, for a Metacheck and private nutrition consultation.
[i] J.Mercola, Fat for Fuel, (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House,Inc.,2017) p. 51-52.
Apollo applies low frequency, inaudible waves of vibration that are demonstrated in both the lab and the real world to change the balance of our nervous systems through our sense of touch. Apollo waves bring balance to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system and improve heart rate variability (HRV), the most reliable, non-invasive biometric of stress. It can be worn on the wrist or ankle.
Apollo vibrations feel like waves coming and going. This sensation feels natural because it is. Apollo’s modes match a natural oscillation pattern between the heart and lungs when we breathe deeply, which consistently improves HRV. Apollo has seven modes to support life’s activities:
When our bodies feel the rhythm of the Apollo vibrations, it is automatically recognized by the body as a soothing gentle touch, just like a friend giving you a hug on a bad day.
Preliminary findings suggest that the specific vibration patterns used in the Apollo technology increase the ability to focus and remain calm during periods of stress and that these specific vibration patterns improve the body’s ability to recover and be resilient to stress, as measured by HRV. These improvements in HRV are accompanied by proportionate improvements in cognitive and physical performance under stress. Subsequent university pilots and trials have shown that Apollo consistently improves HRV under stress within 2-3 minutes, improves athletic recovery, and supports access to meditative states.
To learn more and/or purchase Apollo, click HERE.
“If you want to heal from the inside out, get to the root cause of your health issues and take responsibility for your health and well being, then TWIHW is the place to heal. Dr McManus and her staff are very supportive and have helped me heal from a health crisis over the last 5 months. I feel great and now know how to prevent the health pitfalls that contributed to my health issues. The services provided by TWIHW are not only restorative but empowering too!”
Bio-identical hormones are hormones that are near identical to the hormones our bodies produce. This is in contrast to conventional hormone replacement therapy (a.k.a HRT) which uses synthetic hormone-like drugs, such as birth control pills and other synthetic hormones used to treat menopausal symptoms in women. One might wonder why doctors would prescribe synthetic hormones when ‘real’ hormones are available. The answer involves understanding patent laws. Nobody can patent things that already occur naturally, so you can’t patent a palm tree, and drug companies can’t patent the structure of a real hormone. Since drug companies are in the business of making money, they want to be able to protect their property with patents, so they created synthetic hormones which they could patent. These are, unfortunately, the only hormones we learn to prescribe in medical school.
Some causes of hormone imbalance include stress, sleep deprivation, vitamin deficiencies, poor dietary habits, toxins, and side effects of various medications. The list of symptoms of hormonal imbalance is long. Some symptoms include fatigue, insomnia, depressed moods, decreased mental sharpness, anxiety, PMS, post-partum depression, decreased sex drive, unexplained weight gain and inability to lose weight, low motivation, headaches, hot flashes, night sweats, and irregular menstruation.
Benefits of balancing and optimizing hormones with bio-identical hormones include improvement or resolution of the above symptoms, improvement in bone density, preservation of brain function, reduced risk for heart disease, and increased overall sense of wellbeing, to name a few. Risks are minute compared to typical HRT with synthetic hormone-like drugs. For instance, there is virtually no risk of blood clots with bio-identical progesterone, whereas synthetic progestins are well-known to heighten the risk. It’s also noteworthy to say that the Women’s Health Initiative Study that revealed an increase in the incidence of breast cancer was based solely on the use of synthetic hormones. Moreover, keep in mind that cancer is the result of a perfect storm of events, and hormones are a tiny piece of that puzzle. Other factors that are linked to cancer that people tend to ignore are stress, sleep deprivation, poor dietary habits, vitamin and other nutrient deficiencies, and toxins.
A wonderful thing about bio-identical hormones is the ability to have them compounded into specific doses. For instance, one person may need 5mg twice daily of progesterone, while another may need 37.5mg twice daily. We can order various doses in various forms, such as creams, pills, lozenges, injections, and pellets. Doses are fine-tuned based on resolution of symptoms and other factors. This is not possible with most commercially-available options.
As has happened in the past, the FDA is again gearing up to issue a ban on compounded bioidentical hormone replacement therapy under the disguise of insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness, when it is just one of the ways the FDA and the government bolster drug monopolies and undermine natural health options. Interestingly, it is the FDA-approved synthetic hormones that are known for common side effects including headaches, breast tenderness, mood swings, fluid retention, weight gain, and loss of libido. They are also associated with an increased incidence of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and blood clots to the lungs. And there are numerous and severe side effects of synthetic hormones listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference.
As a functional medicine physician, I would be very saddened to see compounded bioidentical hormones banned. So please take 60 seconds to join the fight! Click this LINK to sign the petition.
On a final note, while not optimal or easily customized to patients’ individual needs, if bio-identical hormones are banned in the future, there will be some alternatives! There are a few bio-identical hormones that are commercially available, made possible by the drug companies patenting a delivery mechanism, for instance, such as a patch.
If your cholesterol continues to climb, you may be interested to know that one possible culprit worth exploring is your coffee preparation method! There are compounds in coffee called diterpines, one specifically called cafestol, which has cholesterol boosting properties for some people. One review said that patients with high cholesterol seem to be more sensitive to the cafestol in coffee. It is found in both regular and decaffeinated coffee. Cafestol is highest in pressed coffee preparations such as espresso and French pressed coffee. Coffee prepared through a paper filter has the least amount of cafestol. Instant coffee has relatively little. You need not forego your coffee, just save the French pressed for special occasions or run it through a paper filter after you press it.
Reference:
https://www.drweil.com/health-wellness/body-mind-spirit/heart/does-coffee-raise-cholesterol/