Do you ever wonder whether your hormones are balanced?
 
Here’s what wonderful hormonal balance looks like:

• You have great energy levels throughout the day.
• Your moods are stable.
• You don’t experience cravings.
• Your hair is shiny and full.
• Your skin is clear.
• You have a good libido.
• It is easy to maintain your weight.

 
If you don’t identify with this picture then the chances are you are experiencing some hormonal imbalances. One important way to improve things is to takes steps to minimize your stress levels. Here’s why:
 
How does stress impact my hormones?
 

• When you are stressed your adrenals increase production of the hormone cortisol, which raises your blood sugar levels ready for “fight or flight” activity. This increases your body’s production of the hormone insulin to take that glucose to the cells. When your insulin levels are raised your body will start to store fat, typically around the middle of your body, which is the most dangerous place to have extra fat stores.  If your blood sugar is perpetually elevated due to chronic stress and production of cortisol then the cells can become resistant to insulin and it becomes more difficult to control blood sugar levels. This can cause problems with cravings, shakiness between meals, poor mood, anxiety, broken sleep and more.

 

• Cortisol is a steroidal hormone. Other steroidal hormones are estrogen, progesterone and testosterone – our sex hormones. They are all made from the same base ingredient, cholesterol. When cortisol is needed to handle stress our body can find there isn’t enough cholesterol left to make our sex hormones and we can experience symptoms of imbalance. Take a look at my blog on Sex Hormone Imbalance to find a list of possible symptoms.

 

• Production of thyroid hormones is in delicate balance with the production of stress hormones so stress can exacerbate hypothyroid conditions and increase symptoms like mood issues, fatigue and weight gain.

 
I recommend that you do a stress audit. Identify where you are dealing with unnecessary stress in your life so that you can take steps to minimize it.  If you want to learn more about other natural ways to balance your hormones then consider joining me on July 2nd for my 2 hour workshop on Nourishment for Hormonal Harmony. I would love to have you join me.

1. Manage your blood sugar. If you have insulin resistance or diabetes this can increase your number of LDL particles. Reducing your intake of sugar and processed flour is the first place to start.
2. Exercise regularly. Additionally sit less and stand or walk more – this non-exercise activity may have a greater impact on your heart health than your scheduled exercise.
3. Sleep more and stress less. Both have a significant impact on heart disease.
4. Eat cold water, fatty fish and take a high quality fish oil supplement to get plenty of omega3 fats. I’m excited about this Omega MonoPure fish oil, which is 3 times more absorbable than regular fish oil. Call the office for an consultation to see if this is a good fit for you and we can provide you with a referral code to order.
5. Eat mono-unsaturated fats from olives, olive oil, avocado, avocado oil and macadamia nuts.
6. Consume antioxidant rich foods and supplements to prevent oxidative damage (a major risk factor for heart disease). That means eat a rainbow of vegetables and some fruits like dark, leafy greens and berries. Don’t forget that red meat and organ meats like liver are rich in antioxidants like retinol (vitamin A) and CoQ10 that you won’t get in plant foods.
7. Polyphenol rich foods have been show to have a variety of health benefits:

• Dark chocolate has been shown to lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol and improve insulin sensitivity;
• Several studies have shown that hibiscus tea lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension;
• Blueberries have been shown to lower blood pressure and oxidized LDL in men and women with metabolic syndrome.

   8. Soluble fiber binds to cholesterol to help your body eliminate excess and it improves insulin sensitivity. Soluble fiber is found in oats, vegetables like Brussels sprouts, turnips, carrots, sweet and white potatoes, squash and asparagus, and fruits like apricots, prunes, pears, oranges, grapefruit and mangoes. 
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Let us know if you have questions or have had improvements with any of these. We love to hear from you.

There is so much confusion out there about our lipid markers and sometimes our blood test results can be hard to puzzle through. Often we are concerned about an elevated LDL result but an elevated LDL number isn’t the end of the story. To find out if your cardiovascular system is healthy or what you need to do to get back on track, you often have to dig a little deeper. Here’s why….

What are LDL and HDL?
In order for cholesterol (and other fats, fat soluble vitamins and antioxidants) to be transported around the body in the blood, it has to be carried by special proteins called lipoproteins that are soluble in water. These lipoproteins are classified according to their density; two of the most important in cardiovascular disease are low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

Why do LDLs often get the name “Bad Cholesterol”?
Science used to tell us that the amount of cholesterol being carried around the bloodstream was an important measure for heart disease risk. When you get your LDL level tested it is measuring the amount of cholesterol in the particles.

Now we know that it’s actually the number of LDL particles that tells us more. The more particles there are in the blood, the more likely they are to crash into the lining of the artery and penetrate the artery wall. This would be where the damage starts to happen. This is not something your doctor typically measures but more LDL particles doesn’t necessarily mean more cholesterol in the LDLs and vice versa.

Get in touch for a more in depth Lipoprotein panel so you can see what your risk is. Also know that risk factors are just that, risk factors. A high number of LDL particles does not mean that you have heart disease!

What is the most common cause of high LDL particle number?
You’re probably sure the answer to this one is eating animal foods containing saturated fat. But no, that’s not the case!! Recent cholesterol feeding studies show that dietary cholesterol has very little impact on blood cholesterol levels in about 75% of us. This is because the body controls production levels of cholesterol tightly; when dietary cholesterol goes up, production in the liver goes down. The remaining 25% of the population show modest increases in both LDL and HDL, but it does not affect the ratio of LDL to HDL or increase the risk of heart disease. In other words, eating cholesterol isn’t going to give you a heart attack.

So, back to the most common cause…
The typical pattern for high LDL particle number is metabolic syndrome. The more factors for metabolic syndrome that you have, the more likelihood there is that your LDL particle number is elevated. These include insulin resistance, leptin resistance, obesity (especially abdominal obesity), high blood pressure and high triglycerides. Since triglycerides, along with cholesterol, are also carried in the blood by LDLs, when there are more triglycerides there need to be more LDL particles to transport them around even though the cholesterol in the particles may not be high.

If this is you, then eating a low carbohydrate diet is going to be a helpful track to follow to reduce your LDLs. Improving your body’s ability to handle the glucose-insulin interaction by making sure you have the right levels of the micronutrients involved is also key. Let us know if you’d like help navigating this with dietary changes and micronutrient testing.
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Other causes to consider or rule out

• Poor thyroid function can impact LDL levels in a number of ways, impacting production, absorption and metabolism. This can be the case even in subclinical hypothyroidism, where T3 and T4 are normal but TSH is elevated. Make sure you get these tested if you are concerned or have symptoms of poor thyroid function.
• Infections like H Pylori (symptoms include burping, bloating, abdominal pain or burning and nausea) and others can also be responsible for a high cholesterol profile, including high LDLs. The exact mechanism for this is not yet well understood. It is possible that the infections alter lipid metabolism in the infected cells. Alternatively it may be that LDLs have protective antimicrobial qualities.
• A leaky gut can be a cause. When your intestinal barrier is not strong it can leak toxins produced by gut bacteria into the bloodstream and cause an immune response. That immune response involves particles that are carried through the bloodstream by LDLs and so can increase LDL particle number. Let us know if you’d like to check on your intestinal permeability and get help healing a leaky gut.
• Genetics can play a role. Those with Familial Hypercholesterolemia have genetic mutations that impact the ability of LDLs to deliver nutrients to the cell so that they cannot be removed from the blood. Cholesterol levels can be anywhere from 350 to 1000 mg/DL for these individuals.

What else can you do?
Check out my blog next time for my list of heart-healthy nutrition and lifestyle choices. In the meantime, let me know if you have questions or comments. I’d love to hear from you.

​So last time we talked about why it is so hard for people to stop eating sugar and what chemistry is at play that keeps us hooked. So this time I wanted to discuss why we should try to kick the habit.
I’m pretty sure everyone now realizes at this stage that eating sugar is not healthy.  It makes us fat, right?  Empty calories and all that.  Rots our teeth…we all know this.
Well that’s true but that makes us think that if we want to splurge on sugar then we just cut back on calories elsewhere or work a bit harder in the gym and all will be well. And we all brush and floss so what’s the problem?

Well the fact is, excess sugar consumption is detrimental to our health in many other ways that you may not be so aware of:

Glycation
I’m putting this one near the top to appeal to your vanity. It’s not the biggest but maybe it is a motivator for you. Sugar bonds with protein molecules and impairs functioning causing stickiness in joints. It is particularly drawn to collagen and elastin in the skin. Here’s a picture of glycated skin – pretty isn’t it?!

So one of the most crucial anti-aging steps you can take is to get off sugar.

Depletion of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals)
Here are a couple of specific examples that illustrate how sugar depletes our storage of minerals but know that mineral deficiencies can cause leg cramps, muscle tightness, low blood sugar, diabetes, low blood pressure, PMS, ADD, depression and many more!

• It takes 56 molecules of magnesium to metabolize on molecule of sugar leaving many of us magnesium depleted and a prevalence of high blood pressure, poor sleep, neurological problems and immune issues.
• Calcium stores are drawn on to neutralize the affects of sugar.  We see direct links between sugar consumption and osteopenia.

Immune System Repression
White blood cells do not function well in a sugary environment.  It depresses our ability to fight viruses, cancer and parasites and especially bacteria.  1 tsp of sugar depresses the immune system for 5 hours.  Continued sugar consumption results in immune suppression and opens the door to infections and degenerative disease.
In a battle to gain entry to the cell, sugar wins over vitamin C which most of us know is one of our main immune boosting vitamins.

Feeding Cancer Cells
As adults we do not have many actively growing cells in our bodies except for cancer cells. Cancer cells move through each of us all the time and when we have a high sugar levels they gobble it up for growth. Remove the food for cancer cells and it is going to have a harder time taking a grip.

Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes
When our system is continually bombarded with excess sugar our cells start to become resistant to the insulin produced to deliver the glucose. The body tries to compensate by producing more insulin in the battle to get circulating blood sugar levels lowered (high blood sugar is toxic). When insulin is raised continually, the body is storing fat and there is weight gain. The consequent high blood sugar is also causing damage to the nervous system, suppressing the immune system and all that we talked about above.

Stress on the system
High blood sugar causes adrenaline production, which puts stress on the adrenals and the entire system. Many of us live in a constant state of stress anyway so our adrenals are already exhausted.  When your adrenals are working overtime they may be using up resources needed for other systems like digestion, sex hormones, thyroid hormones etc.

Inflammation
Sugar is one of the main causes of inflammation in the body. We’ve talked about it before so I’ll keep it brief here. Inflammation shows up as diabetes, autoimmune disorders, high blood pressure, and even autism, ADD, ADHD, eczema, asthma—even anger and aggression.

Candida
Candida is a fungal organism that is sometimes known as thrush or a yeast infection. The yeast is always moderately present in your intestinal tract but it can actually loom elsewhere in your body. Candida yeast cells live among the bacterial flora present in the gastrointestinal tract, mucosa, esophagus, small intestine, as well as on the body’s surface. In a balanced healthy state, candida is controlled and mitigated by beneficial bacteria and your immune system. Candida is a sugar-fermenting organism, feeding on blood sugar so it becomes problematic when we eat a high sugar diet. Also it can be a problem if we have a weakened immunity or we possess low levels of beneficial bacteria. Women are typically more susceptible to yeast growth but everyone has a potential to develop a yeast condition.


Does that all motivate you or depress you? It’s a tough one I know! Shifting something in your diet is not easy and particularly with sugar because of its addictive nature and prevalence, not to mention it is wrapped up with so many emotional connections (rewards, treats, celebrations). Most people need help to make lasting change in this area and sometimes it is helpful to check your nutrient levels to have something to really motivate you.  We offer support in these areas so please reach out if you need us.