Radio Naturopath Episode 460: Lisinopril finally! More Weight Loss Basics

This week, I talk about my jump to the Dark Side. Well, not really. Hey, did you know that the term "going to the Dark Side" was popularized by Star Wars? I'm going to try another BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATION, and hopefully this time I can take it and stay on it! We're going to try low dose lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor. The more I talked with various cycling friends, the  more of them I discovered were taking it, feeling fine, and enjoying riding their bikes as much as they liked! So my PCP prescribed it, and first dose will go down the hatch tonight. I'll report on how I'm feeling, hoping for no dizziness!

We continued the series on weight loss, some basic good advice on lifestyle choices that can help. Drinking water, reducing carbs, reducing stress, eating produce and fiber, all good! All of those things are basic habits that are great for healing from anything. Ron also read off some calorie, fat and sugar content of some very large coffee-based drinks available at a popular regional establishment. A large version of one of them had 1100 calories! Pair that with a glazed jelly stick, and that's all your calories for the day! We particularly talked about Neuropeptide Y, which gets stimulated when you eat fat and starch or sugar together. It turns off your satiety signals, so you wind up eating most of the pizza, or the entire pint of ice cream! So avoiding large portions of fat and sugar together is a good idea. 

Radio Naturopath Episode 333: New Year's REST, Then Start On Nutrition and Fitness Goals

we talked about how to deal with the cold weather this year! This week’s discussion turned to healthy habits for the new year, mostly diet and exercise. We also talked about the benefits of taking it easy the first two weeks of the year, since we tend to be overwhelmed from the rush of the holidays and the glut of holiday food and drink. I suggested taking a couple of weeks of no pressure, rest, and once you're feeling like you can't sit still, THAT'S the time to start planning and even implementing healthy habits! For some, that's going to mean getting lots of rest the first two weeks of the year, then starting planning the third week, and getting started in earnest in February. The darkest, coldest time of the year tends to happen in early January, at least in Connecticut. This is a good time to acclimate to the cold weather! We also talked about how to get started on an exercise program. The answer: do what you'll do, and start slowly!

Radio Naturopath Episode 299: Preservatives and Gut Flora, Food Tracking for Weight Loss, Basic and High Intensity Exercise

This week, we had a question about potassium sorbate effecting gut flora, and it was a great question because additives and preservatives CAN affect gut flora. Cutting out processed food can help your digestion!

We went on to talk about food tracking, how services like MyFitnessPal, LoseIt, and Fooducate can all help with weight loss. We compared WW and Noom as weight loss strategies, and were reminded by a woman listener that hormones are important too and Metabolic Renewal worked for her.

We talked about a general period for exercise that can be helpful for most people. Then we discussed tabatas, what they are and how they can help your fitness.

Radio Naturopath Episode 287: New Year's Goals, Intermittent Fasting and Fat Loss

Today we talked about New Year's resolutions, and also intermittent fasting. Only part of intermittent fasting is really about the temporal nature of it; the rest is common sense about how to eat and exercise. So we went through the whole thing again because it bears repeating.

We also had a few good tidbits from Dr. Alan Gaby's store of great information. Elderberry, pomegranate, and almonds!

Radio Naturopath Episode 204: Interview with Karl Goldkamp, N.D.: Healing Crohn's/Ulcerative Colitis with the Ketogenic Diet

This is the story of Karl Goldkamp, N.D., a naturopathic physician, who had some personal tragedies in his life. In short order, his beloved brother, who he supported with natural medicine, finally died of mutliple myeloma. His mother also passed. And his wife was found to have a benign brain tumor. That and the bankruptcy of his Connecticut business led him to severe stress, and an extremely severe case of Crohn's/ulcerative colitis. He tried conventional therapy and that didn't work. While feeling better after a blood transfusion, he sought out answers, and decided to do FMT, fecal microbiota transfer. The donor was his wife! (She recovered from her brain tumor.) This held off the acute symptoms. Then he researched and went to conferences, and learned all about the ketogenic diet. When he started eating this way, his Crohns/colitis completely resolved, and he has no signs or symptoms to this day. He and his wife Judy are mostly carnivores; most days they eat only animal protein, like steak, bacon and eggs, and they have homemade mayonnaise, and very small amounts of vegetables in relish form. They have also come up with a C8 fatty acid, C8-Keto, which is ketogenic friendly and an energizing source of fat. Karl now counsels people on the application of the ketogenic diet for health. Karl also engages in high intensity interval training and feels more fit and healthy than he did in his 20's!

Radio Naturopath Episode 181: Hering's Law of Cure and How to Raise Testosterone, Naturally!

Today it's all about Hering's Law. It's a law in homeopathy that talks about healing occurring from the inside to outside, from top to bottom, and from most important to least important organs. It's related to Treat the Cause. The idea is that if you treat a condition externally, you'll only palliate it and may even suppress it so that it can go deeper into the body. If you're eating a food that's causing intestinal inflammation, and therefore giving you eczema, it's better to stop eating the food, heal the gut with rest and herbs and supplements and food than it is to just put some steroid cream on the eczema! From the top down: that's about healing the BRAIN, which can be the biggest obstacle to cure!

I also talk about how men can raise their testosterone naturally. Exercise, good diet, fat loss, eating good quality fat, some herbs can all help!

Bicycle Talk Episode 109: Riding with Souplesse and Finesse and Getting Mad Skills; TCC Century; High Intensity Intervals for Performance, Health and Weight!

Ron is away so today I talked about bicycles! My Frant was about speed over finesse,. fast over souplesse! It's all about the beauty and grace of riding a bicycle. You can go fast with souplesse, but a lot of people don't. I encourage people to work on their skills and simply enjoy the pleasure of being on a bicycle!  I also shouted out to the Thread City Cyclers for putting on a great organized ride event this weekend!  And, I talked about bicycling and fitness. If you want to lose weight, have a buff body, and have energy, riding too many miles all the time is not the way to get there. However, cutting back on quantity for quality (there's that theme again) is the way to go! Doing short burst intervals, a couple of days of rest or easy rides, and one long ride of 40-60 miles/week will help to get you there.