Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Sat, Jul 09, 2011 @ 12:30 AM
Who saw the local newspaper today that had a first page ad announcing that 1 in 4 Oregonians obese? OMG! Despite all of the weight loss programs, despite Michele Obama, despite doctors and holistic medicine, we are getting fatter by the year. The annual obesity report by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Foundation found adult obesity rates increased in 16 states.
Colorado had the least increase at 19.8% and Mississippi the worse at 34.4%. Oregonians came in at the 35th most obese state. Oregonians obesity rate grew at 80% over the last 20 years. The increase in obesity rates are blamed on soft drinks and inactivity. REALLY? The article also cites poverty and environment as contributors to the increase in obesity rates. 1 in 4 eighth and eleventh graders are obese.
Here is my take on it. I appreciate the statistics. They are startling and frightening. Yet, still putting the blame on just a couple of things is ridiculous. Tell the truth! Then problem is multifactorial. Food, drink, lifestyle are the broad categories at the root of the problem. Go deeper to see the truth. We will continue to get fatter and sicker until people understand the nature of the problem. Look to the cellular level of obesity. Treating at the cellular level with hormonal balances, look at food as a medicine as well as being enjoyably savoring to the appetite. Moderate physical activity is always warranted for one's cardiovascular health, flexibility and weight control. What personal responsibility. Yup, that too!
Instead of treating or eradicating the problem, our society adapts to the problem. Hospitals, ambulance companies, airlines, restaurants all adapt to accommodate obesity with bigger beds, chairs, lifts, scooters, elevators. The cost of health care escalates, the obese are more expensive to treat. There goes the health care budget. So, WHAT, is the answer? RE-EDUCATION for everyone, the obese, the non-obese, doctors, naturopaths,allopaths, chiropractors, dentists, teachers, mothers, fathers, the dogs, cats and yes.....everybody!
We all need to learn how to heal, cure and stay healthy at the cellular level. Looking at the science of cellular metabolism, hormonal ratios and balancing, handling stress and taking responsibility. This is not a rant against large people, but the frustration of the same old treatment processes that are NOT helping the problem. (to be continued...)
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Mon, May 23, 2011 @ 08:42 PM
In previous a previous post we hit on how foods can kill. Well, this post is about how foods can help. Since I believe in foods as medicine, I did a search for foods and/or recipes that tastes good and help with over all health. Well, BINGO!
I ran into a great article about Johanna Budwig, a German scientist that was prosecuted for her findings in treating and curing cancer. She came up with the Budwig Protocol. This protocol enraged the medical society and the drug companies. Budwig was never convicted, but like much important works, her finding were suppressed. Sounds familiar?
In a nutshell, cancer cells love an acidic environment, love sugar and hate oxygen. High fat diets lead to cell pathology by preventing oxygen to get into the cells for normal metabolism. This leads to cellular breakdown and abnormal metabolism which leads to disease and cancer. Getting oxygen to the cells stops the abnormal metabolism. What Budwig discovered was the combination of flax oil and cottage cheese got oxygen into the cells! As simple as that! Flax alone...not enough. Cottage cheese alone...not enough. The combination changed properties of each.. Amazing. Flax is full of Omega oils, essential fatty acids.
So what is the Budwig Protocol. Of course, her recipe, no sugars, no meat products of any time (during active cancer phase, no animal protein,no processed foods, no dairy, no gluten. One DOES eat lots of raw, whole vegetables, vitamin C, fruits, cereals, sprouted breads, cereals and cancer fighting supplements. Again, valuable information suppressed! If you want to read the whole story follow this link: Johanna Budwig
Happy reading!
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Mon, May 16, 2011 @ 11:08 PM
Eating is a pleasurable past time. Who doesn't like to eat? Any more, most of us are trying to eat healthy. The question is "are we really"?
Every knows to stay away from the simple sugars and starches, the ones with high glycemic indexes. Every one knows that organic and or natural foods are best for you. But what many of us do not know is that not all the "good" foods are right for you. Foods should be pleasurable and at the same time, medicinal. Medicinal doesn't sound appetizing does it? Let me explain.
Yes, food should be delectable, nutritious, beautiful and gastronomically satisfying. But, do you realize that foods act as the fuel for the cells in your body? Foods are broken down in to energy and nutrition for the cells. That is how the cells stay healthy thus keeping you healthy. How those foods are used at the cellular level does determine your health. The food is medicine to your cells. What's more important, everyone's cellular needs are different so that even those "best" foods are not the "best" foods for everyone.
Metabolic typing looks at everyone's cellular needs that are specific to the individual. Once the metabolic typing is done, a cell specific diet is designed so that the correct foods are eaten. By correct foods, I mean that if your specific type determines that you need a higher protein ratio than complex carbs or vice versa, then this will be designed for you in your food plan. Once you are eating correctly to give your cells the best possible nutrition, then you are eating to stay healthy and increase your longevity free disease. This is using food medicinally. If you are not eating according to your metabolic typing, your food could be killing you. Tastes good yes, good for you? No.
Janice Vaughn MD
To read more, click on the link below.
http://bodysculptmd.com
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Sat, Mar 19, 2011 @ 06:25 PM
Syndrome X
Ok, so what is this thing called the Metabolic Syndrome? As many of us approach middle age, we put on weight for several reasons in addition to poor diets and lifestyle choices.
- Insulin resistance
- Hypothyroidism
- Adrenal gland failure
- Gonadal failure (especially women)
One of the "syndromes" that occurs because of this change, is the Metabolic Syndrome. When you have a combination of high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDLs and of course insulin resistance you fit into the Syndrome X diagnosis. The Metabolic syndrome places you smack between prediabetes and diabetes out right. Cardiovascular risks and the incidence of type II diabetes increase for those with metabolic syndrome.
How to get rid of this scary and insidious beast?
The only way to get rid of the syndrome is to lose weight and exercise. Most over weight people are insulin resistant or putting it another way, have to much insulin in their system. Insulin is the only hormone that carries glucose into your muscle and fat cells. When there is too much, it acts like a lockdown on the cells, stopping them from releasing fat. With exercise and losing weight, one can prevent the onset of Syndrome X and treat the disease as for those who have it. The other key factor in the treatment and prevention of the metabolic syndrome is the diet, eating the correct foods. Again, what foods do you eat and what are the ratio of proteins-fats-carbohydrates to be eaten?
Metabolic typing plays a large role defining what foods, macronutrient (proteins, fats, carbs) ratios and micronutrients (supplements and vitamins) are needed to treat and prevent metabolic syndrome. Instead of the one diet fit all approach, specific plans allow your body to use what is best for your metabolism.
To learn more about the Metabolic Syndrome or Metabolic typing visit our website at Http://bodysculptmd.com
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Thu, Mar 17, 2011 @ 12:22 AM
The University of Southern California School of Medicine has devised a new formula to determine body fat percentage. Most people are familiar with the BMI or the body mass index. The BMI is calculated by dividing the weight in Kg by the height in centimeters. Now meet the new BAI or the Body Adiposity Index.
The BAI is calculated by measuring the distance around the buttocks where the rear sticks out the most. You take a simple measuring tape to measure the distance around the hips. Take the measurement in centimeters. Here is the equation [hips/(height x square root of height)]-18. The answer is the percent body fat.
To interpret your results follow the guide below.
Women
Above 32% too high
25-31% high but acceptable
21-24% reasonable target for fitness
14-20% trained athlete zone
below 10-13% too low
Men
Above 25% to high
18-24% high but acceptable
14-17% reasonable target for fitness
6-13% trained athlete
below 2-5% too low
This new formula has proved highly accurate in people of Mexican American descent as well as African Americans. Although it has been looked at in Whites and considered useful, the accuracy remains to be validated.
So try measuring your rears for an accurate assessment of your body fat percentage.
Dr Vaughn
http://bodysculptmd.com
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Sat, Mar 05, 2011 @ 06:54 PM
It's amazing to me the extent that big food companies will go to to protect their products. As the war on obesity goes on, the effects of refined carbohydrates and sugars are coming more and more under scrutiny. The gigantic consequences of elevated insulin levels are triggered by the overuse and dependency of people on the very same carbohydrates and sugars. HFCS is one of these sugars. In fact, it is a supercharged sugar made by adding fructose to sucrose.
Here is an article justify or explaining HFCS.
The Fight Over High-Fructose Corn Syrup
Sharon Begley – Mon Feb 28, 9:11 am ET
NEW YORK –
New research is brewing debate over the dangers of high-fructose corn syrup, writes Sharon Begley. See foods packed with the product.
The debate over high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) comes down to this: the corn refiners who make it and the food manufacturers who put it into sodas, baked goods, salad dressing, and hundreds of other products argue—in ads and elsewhere—that a calorie is a calorie. It doesn't matter, they say, whether that calorie comes from table sugar (sucrose) or HFCS. Each has 16 calories per teaspoon. Public-health officials and some scientists, on the other hand, aren't so sure the two sweeteners are equivalent.
Gallery: Foods With High-Fructose Corn Syrup
Now a stream of studies shows that sugar and corn sweeteners differ in important ways, including how they affect the appetite-control centers in the brain. That suggests that HFCS may be partly responsible for the obesity epidemic. (In all, the average American consumes 140 pounds of high-fructose sweeteners, including corn-based sweeteners, a year.) Research to be published in March adds to growing evidence that the brain and body treat the two sugars differently.
The new study is too small to decide the question—it included only nine people—but it fits with other research on both humans and lab animals. Scientists led by Jonathan Purnell of Oregon Health & Science University gave fructose, glucose, or salt water to volunteers and then measured brain activity with functional MRI scans. Over several regions of the cortex, activity increased in people given glucose but decreased in those given fructose, the scientists will report in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Cortical regions that responded differently included the orbital prefrontal, a key player in the reward circuit, and regions that process the pleasurable effects of food. "It's evidence that fructose and glucose elicit opposite responses in the human brain," says Purnell.
The relevance to high-fructose corn syrup isn't clear-cut, though. HFCS contains at most 55 percent fructose and in some forms only 43 percent; almost all the rest is glucose. Sucrose is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. None of the sweeteners people eat are 100 percent fructose, which was used in the Oregon study and several others. "We always consume fructose with glucose," points out John White, a consultant in Illinois who was speaking for the Corn Refiners Association. Testing pure fructose as a stand-in for high-fructose corn syrup, he argues, might therefore produce misleading results.
That caveat comes with its own asterisk, however. When HFCS is made from cornstarch, the fructose molecules are not bound to other sugar molecules. Every fructose molecule in sucrose, in contrast, is bound to a glucose. White argues that whether fructose is bound or not is irrelevant, but the fructose in sucrose must go through an extra metabolic step before the body can use it. Treating fructose as a stand-in for HFCS might not be a bad approximation.
Such differences may explain the effects of HFCS in both lab animals and people. Rats eating equal calories from the two gained significantly more weight on HFCS than on table sugar, scientists led by Bart Hoebel of Princeton reported in 2010. The HFCS-fed animals also had increases in abdominal fat and triglycerides. And in a 2010 review, scientists at the University of California, Davis, noted that, in people, fructose added to abdominal fat and other measures "associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes." HFCS is not the sole culprit in obesity. But the body and brain don't seem to treat it as an innocent bystander, either.
Sharon Begley is the science columnist and science editor of Newsweek. She is the co-author of the 2002 book, The Mind and the Brain, and the author of the 2007 book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain.
Imagine that!!!!
Janice Vaughn MD
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 11:57 PM
Lose Weight with Metabolic Typing and Keep It Off
Metabolic typing can help you lose weight and keep the weight off. Once you have determined your metabolic type, a customized diet is designed for you including your vitamins and supplements. The customized diet is easy, flexible and sustainable. You are eating the right foods. Eating the right foods allows for weight loss and maintenance. For example, if your metabolic typing requires diets weighted in proteins, the diet will consist of 70% protein and fats and 30% protein. If your diet requires a heavier diet weighted in carbs, your diet will consist of 40% protein and 60% carbs. The same is true for your vitamins and supplements. EVERYONE should lose the refined grains, starches an sugar (killers).
Metabolic typing optimizes the blood ph and balances metabolism. It really is about metabolism or how your cells break down food and use it for energy. Eat according to your metabolic type and heal the body, lose weight and improve longevity. Tests to determine the metabolic type includes a questionnaire (physical, dietary and psychological characteristics are determined), vital signs, weight, height, fasting insulin and glucose, Hgb and Hct, fasting triglycerides, Chem panel, cortisol and thyroid levels.
Challenge yourself to lose weight, keep the weight off, improve longevity, feel and look younger.
Janice Vaughn MD
http://bodysculptmd.com
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Sat, Feb 26, 2011 @ 02:26 AM
Have you spent years and hundreds of dollars trying to lose weight? How about losing the weight only to gain it back, you know, the yo-yo thing? To make matters worse, you start to feel guilty, ashamed and depressed. Loved ones will tell you " I love you the way you are". How about telling yourself and others "you just have to accept me as I am". When these things start to happen, it is time to change things. Being overweight is a symptom of something more sinister going on internally. You and no one else should "accept" any of this.
Just as blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancers, depression are symptoms of disease processes, so is being overweight and obese. I know, you have tried everything.... But, try again. This time taking years of research supported programs that can not only make you look good, but reverse some the metabolic disorders and imbalances that lead to being overweight or obese. Treat your metabolic and hormonal health. Correct and or slow down the deterioration that goes along with aging.
The best programs are easy to follow, versatile and easy to adopt as a lifestyle. I hesitate to use the word diet because of the negative connotation that goes along with the "D" word, so I will use programs. When choosing to lose weight and get healthy, look for programs that offer a sustainable long term plan. Eating should be a pleasure, but also medicinal. Food is meant supply the fuel that our body needs to fully operate. Long term eating plans should incorporate the right food for you as well as essential vitamins and supplements. Find a program that look at all of your body systems, endocrine, metabolic, neurological, mental and spiritual. Find a program that understand the needs to enhance the quality of life and longevity.
Dr. Janice Vaughn
Http://www.bodysculptmd.com
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Tue, Feb 22, 2011 @ 10:14 PM
I am so excited! Dr Oz did a show on Hcg. I love what Hcg has done for myself and my numerous patients. I cringe when I hear how some are getting their Hcg. Oz presented both sides of the debate on HCG's ability to aid in weight loss and patients who were successful along with those who had complications. He also commented on the safe ways to get HCG. Here is a quick review of the show along with my thoughts on Hcg based on my research and experience.
The physician who represented the pro side of the argument did a good job hitting key points (we will go over that later). The academic side (a Harvard professor) and a nutritionist represented the con position. Here are the salient points people.
- HCG is not a "true" hormone
- HCG does aid in the loss of weight. Of course anyone will lose weight on 500 calories. But to do it without HCG is starvation.
- Side effects are low to minimum. Some will occasionally experience slight headaches when they detox and move from the usual starchy diet. These are relieved by simple headache remedies. The good Harvard professor mentioned gall bladder attacks. Yes, I have seen this in patients. However, they all have had previous gall bladder attacks in the past. Any rapid weight loss may trigger the gall bladder attack. It is NOT because of HCG directly.
- Most people are short on vitamin supplements while being obese. If they have taken supplements prior to the diet, some is stored in the fat and will be released. Regardless, vitamins and supplements are withheld during phase only because some contain oils (omega 3s). These oils can turn off the effectiveness of Hcg.
- Cancer is not caused by Hcg. Studies are now being done that show women with breast cancer are being treated successfully using Hcg and one of the agents used to prevent estrogen formation from other sources (Arimidex). The combination of hcg and arimidex helping to prevent spread of the cancer.
- Hcg is FDA approved as a testicular cancer marker, fertility drug, delayed gonadal development in boys and the pregnancy test.
- Hcg is a doctor prescribed drug. ANYTHING that is bought over the counter, at the drug store, at the kiosk, on-line is LESS than pharmaceutical grade. You are taking a big risk because you don't know what is in it or what effects that stuff will have on your organs other medical problems.
- Using the HCG protocol does require commitment. To be successful, one has to follow the rules.
So what I liked about the show is that Dr. Oz drove home the dangers of going outside the medical profession to do this program. 500 calories is starvation. The women who had the problems sounded as if they did not use a physician. Despite the controversy, Dr. Oz conceded that he is intrigued and curious about HCG and would like to look further because of the obvious success of so many, including the cardiologist in the audience that did the program successfully. More studies are needed. Weight with Hcg is more than a placebo effect. Yes, mental preparedness and coaching support is needed to help clients to success. But it isn't the "placebo" effect that's working here.
Here it is people, Hcg works safely with minimal to no side effects. Weigh (no pun intended) to the problems of carrying fat around or being obese. This is truly a valuable tool that can change the lives of many people. BUT Hcg is only the beginning. It is important to replace essential vitamins and nutrients (pharmaceutical strength), fix hormonal imbalances, and give the optimal diets (coming soon) to patients to not only to make them look good, but ensure moving toward living healthy.
Hcg doesn't do all the work, there are other factors that need to be addressed as well. If you want to try the protocol and you truly want to look, feel and be healthy, find a doctor who believes in what Hcg does, has the experience and is using quality Hcg. the program will change your life and the lives of your loved ones (they will want to do it too!)
To see the segment on the Dr. Oz show:
(Click Here)
Janice Vaughn MD
Http://Bodysculptmd.com
Bodysculptmd@bodysculptmd.com
Posted by Janice Vaughn Knox on Thu, Feb 17, 2011 @ 01:24 AM
When the weight is gone, the question now becomes how to keep the weight off. Keeping those lost pounds from returning is much harder than losing weight and a huge frustration for those trying hard. Part of the answer lies in replacing missing hormones and nutrients. The omega fatty acids are part of the solution. The omegas are essential fats. The important omega-3 (EPA/DHA) is low in our diets and need replacement. The omega-6 fatty acids are abundant. When the ratio of the omega-6/omega-3 is large, an imbalance is created that leads to the diseases of aging. Most people are aware of the need to replace the omega-3.
The omega fatty acid that is not well known is the omega-6 fatty acid made from Borage oil. This omega-6 (gamma linolenic acid or GLA) has age fighting properties. Studies have shown that GLA fight chronic inflammation, dermatitis, asthma, rhematoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer and OBESITY. These are age-related disease (again, fix the perils of aging and reverse disease processes).
GLA is derived form the seeds of the Eastern flower, Borage. GLA is broken down differently than the other omega-6 essential acids and it's effects are different from the other omega-6 fatty acids so prevalent in the American diet.
Studies have shown that after a year of using GLA as a supplement, subjects that lost weight regained on average less than 5 pounds.
GLA is not only a supplement to use in anti-aging, but also in the fight to harness and reverse obesity.
For more information contact us: www.bodysculptmd.com
Information for this post was found in the January edition of Life Extension.
Janice Vaughn MD
http://bodysculptmd.com