Health Articles

Details: Ben Fuchs

Nothing happens in the body or a cell without the action of a hormone. Hormones initiate activity and all cells respond to them. Bone cells make bone, muscle cells contract, digestive cells secrete their juices, liver cells detoxify, and countless other chemical reactions occur in response to and ONLY in response to the initiating action of a hormone.

Like other cells, skin cells respond to hormones, but recently it’s been discovered that skin cells also make hormones, and many of these hormones are associated with stresses and the defensive response. Their external location, on the outside of the body, exposes them to a plethora of various stimuli including trauma, solar radiation, environmental toxins and chemicals in moisturizers, makeups and other intentionally applied topical products. Via the activity of hormones, the bites and breaks, burns and wounds that skin cells are subjected to, into various physiologic responses including changes in blood flow (as in the response to heat or cold), pigmentation (the tanning response caused UV radiation) and growth and repair (initiated by wounding, exfoliation and laser treatments, and topical nutrients).

The skin’s innate hormonal response can also cause skin problems. For example, dry climate, the sun, topical irritants and blood borne food allergens from the digestive tract are all likely suspects when it comes to stimulating a defensive secretion of defensive chemicals from skin cells. Even emotional and mental stressors can act as triggers for turning on the skin cell's hormonal stress response. This is why many people will notice increases in skin conditions including eczema, acne, and dermatitis in association with changes in weather, poor food choices, digestive conditions or psychological turmoil. Chronic stress hormone (cortisol) secretion can also affect broken skin and wounds, delaying and impairing the healing process. In addition, cortisol secretion following external or internal triggers can create changes in circulation. It can cause the dilation of blood vessels that are characteristic of rosacea, increase the rate of division of skin cells leading to the plaques of psoriasis, as well as the excessive secretion of skin oils evidenced in a condition called seborrhea.

One of the most important ways we amplify this inflammatory response is by eating the wrong kinds of fats. Pro-inflammatory fatty foods including chips, French fries and many vegetable oils (particularly Omega-6 rich ones like sunflower oil, safflower oil, corn oil, and soy oil) can be a major source of hormonally-based skin distress. Likewise, deficiencies in omega 6s, and Omega 3s, as well as deficiencies in fatty vitamins including E and A can initiate or exacerbate inflammation. Because nutrient deficit can cause skin to become much more likely to turn into dermatitis, eczema and psoriasis, deficiencies in the essential (must-have) nutritional fats are an inflammatory response waiting to happen.

Another important way skin cell hormones can be affected is by the actions of food allergens or foods processed incompletely, that seep into the blood through a broken down digestive tract. That’s called Leaky Gut Syndrome, and once these elements get into the blood, they can stimulate the production of inflammatory factors within the circulatory fluids. Once those factors contact skin cells, they can act as a trigger for the production of their inflammatory hormones. Even worse, the deteriorating digestive tract will be less able to absorb nutrients, accelerating the degenerative process. Thus, it's important to have strategies that strengthen the organs of digestion. Taking a tablespoonful of apple cider vinegar and some digestive enzymes can facilitate the work of the stomach. Algae and sea vegetables, aloe, noni and wheat grass can have a soothing and coating effect on surface of the small intestine. Probiotics and fermented food can help restore the health of the large intestine environment. Gelatin, cartilage containing products as well as building blocks like hyaluronic acid, glucosamine (particularly in its N-acetyl glucosamine or “NAG” form), and chondroitin along with vitamin C can help restore the integrity of intestine’s connective tissue.

Keep The Skin and Skin Cells Healthy with These 7 Nutrients

Essential Fatty Acids – Both Omega 6’s and omega 3 are important for skin health and function as hormone substance raw materials.
Zinc – the skin’s favorite mineral, use 50mg of the picolinate form
Vitamin A – one of the skin’s favorite 2 vitamins. 10,000-20,000 iu a day is way over the RDA but the higher dose can provide important benefits that lower doses cannot.
Vitamin C – the skin's other favorite vitamin. Its protective befits are renowned, but less recognized is its importance for the production of healthy skin fats.
Vitamin D – Sun exposure is the best way to get this skin immune-boosting vitamin. Organ meats, especially liver and fish oil, are good sources too. Vegans can get Vitamin D from mushrooms.
Vitamin B3 – All the B’s help fuel the growth of cells like the ones on the skin, but B3 has been shown to have especially significant skin health benefits
Probiotics – All heath begins in the gut, and probiotics (good bacteria) are the most important digestive supplement for everyone, especially for those dealing with a skin health issue. Look for multiple strains of bacteria, and use at least 20 billion units a day. Fermented foods are also a good source of good bacteria .

Details: Ben Fuchs

Dr. Victor Frankl was a powerful man. Not muscle and brawn powerful, but psychologically powerful. Frankel was an Austrian psychiatrist who spent 1944 in Nazi concentration camps, where, in addition to suffering the daily torture and slave labor, he was forced to experience the deaths of his mother, brother and wife.

Out of the tragedy of Dr. Frankl’s heart rending story came "Man's Search for Meaning" his most popular book, a tribute to hope and possibility in the direst of circumstances and one that describes his experience in Auschwitz and Dachau as well as the development of a healing modality called “Logotherapy”. Derived from “logos” the Greek word for “plan”, or more loosely “that which gives reason for being”, Logotherapy, as defined by Frankl, can be thought of as an emotionally resilient way of living that “aims to unlock the will-to-meaning of life”.

What Frankl noticed during his time enduring some of the most inhumane conditions in the history of man was that those around him who did not lose their sense of purpose and meaning in life were able to survive much longer than those who did. Frankl was so impressed by the survival benefits of “meaning”, that he devoted the rest of his life to using it therapeutically to improve the quality of life of his patients.

Logotherapy posits three basic assumptions:

1. No matter what is occurring, all the circumstances of life have meaning.
2. People have a will, an inner drive, to find that meaning.
3. People have freedom to find meaning in the circumstances of life, as disquieting as they may be.

Details: Ben Fuchs

Nutritional Support for Alzheimer's & Dementia

It’s been called the 36-hour day and for good reason. Although the mothers, fathers, sons and daughters that care for the victims of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) don’t really have an extra 12 hours a day of work, for many, it understandably seems that way.

Addressing the daily needs of dementia patients can be a challenging and frustrating experience for even the most intrepid of caretakers. Short term memory lapses require lots of repetition, not to mention the patience of “Job”. Normal bathing, dressing and bathroom activities that most of us take for granted can be particularly tumultuous and communication challenges can make everything more difficult. Sometimes scary, violent outbursts can spontaneously occur and keeping the wandering-prone patient in one safe place may be downright impossible. Ultimately it may become dangerous to leave him or her alone, even for just a couple of minutes. The disease damages senses, balance and judgment; it’s not unusual for dementia patients to start fires or overdose on medications. Aggression and paranoia can make them a danger to themselves and the people around them.

There are 5 million Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s the sixth leading cause of death. For many it’s a progressive condition and rates are increasing dramatically. A World Health Organization paper called “Dementia: a public health priority” states that this number will double by 2030 and more than triple by 2050.

Yet, lately there’s been reason for optimism. A team led by researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory reported, in the May 7, 2009 issue of Nature, that deactivating a gene can reverse the effects of Alzheimer's and boost cognitive function in mice allowing them to regain long-term memories and the ability to learn.

More recently, in a small study conducted at UCLA in 2014, nine out of ten patients in various stages of dementia, said their symptoms were reversed after they participated in a rigorous nutritional and dietary program that included optimizing gut health, strategic fasting, normalizing blood sugar and insulin, and using Vitamin D and EFAs to support cognition.

As it turns out, despite years of medical dogma to the contrary, nerve cells actually do regenerate given the appropriate nutritional environment. Dr. Dennis Steindler of the University of Florida has shown that stem cells in the brain can give rise to new neurons. According to Dr. Steindler “By changing diet and nutrition, patients may be able to limit inflammation of brain tissue and prevent or even reverse these degenerative diseases, by giving neural stem cells the ability to heal the damage”