Ketogenic and GAPS Diets that manage the cause of disease, inflammation. Exercise that increase muscle with 15 mins. resistance training per week.
You may remember my blog How Stress Makes you Fat https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/how-stress-makes-you-fat-%ef%bf%bc/
Now we will learn more.
Cortisol is the main stress hormone. If cortisol is too high, it can lead to a lot of different health problems.
High cortisol can potentially lead to issues, such as:
Continue reading “Stress Makes you Fat – The #1 Sign of High Cortisol.”
Cravings are a good indication that you’re missing something in the body.
What causes cravings and how to deal with food cravings?
Continue reading “How to Deal With Food Cravings.”This is an overview of how powerful fasting is for various parts of your body.
BRAIN- Fasting stimulates BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). It is like Miracle Grow for the brain. BDNF helps repair and regenerate neurons. Fasting also helps with stress resistance, neurogenesis (nerve support cells), mitochondrial production, and reducing inflammation. It helps if there is damage as in Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s.
BRAIN FUNCTION- Fasting helps improve the number of mitochondria, the energy factories in all body cells including your brain. You will have better memory. You will be able to focus. You will have better cognitive function.
INFLAMMATION- Fasting decreases inflammation, which is deadly inflammation on the different parts of the body. There is nothing more powerful than fasting to handle inflammation.
Continue reading “How Fasting Benefits Your Body.”Metabolic syndrome (Metabolic Syndrome X) is when your cholesterol is too high, you have insulin resistance, you have high blood sugar, high blood pressure, central obesity.
Metabolic syndrome should really be called hyperinsulinemia syndrome. The conventional view point is that insulin resistance leads to increased insulin. Is that actually true? Is it the insulin resistance that causes high insulin or is it the high insulin that causes insulin resistance?
To figure this out observe what happens after gastric bypass wherethey are bypassing part of the small intestine, which is one part of the body that affects insulin. The other part is the pancreas but there’s something in the small intestine that activates insulin. So when you do gastric bypass you correct part of the high insulin problem, you reduce insulin. They find after this procedure that it reverses type-2 diabetes by 83 %. It also reverses high blood pressure by 63 % as well as reversing high cholesterol by 61 %.
Diabetes type 2, (high blood sugar), hypertension and cholesterol is Syndrome X. Reducing insulin also improves sleep apnea,polycystic ovarian syndrome, fatty liver, GERD (like acid reflux) and even joint pain. This study that I’m basing this on is this very interesting because they looked at 423 other studies but focused on 58 of the ones that actually measured insulin. The direct finding was if you reduce insulin you produced changes with so many different conditions. Metabolic syndrome (Syndrome X) includes several diseases or shall we say symptoms of this high insulin.
When you have high insulin over a period of time the body is going to start to resist it, the insulin receptors are going to start to resist that high-level. It is high insulin that causes the insulin resistance. Once you have insulin resistance, the bio-feedback loops will further raise insulin but only if you keepconsuming the things that trigger insulin carbohydrates, frequent eating.
In type 2 diabetes you have insulin resistance and you also have high insulin for a period of time until the cells that make insulin get weaker and weaker and weaker and your blood sugar’s go higher and higher and higher. So you initially have high insulin and it goes lower.
In obesity you have high insulin as well but you could also have diabetes type 2 and not be overweight you can be skinny and still have insulin. Why is this so important? Well if it is true that high insulin leads to insulin resistance that leads to pre-diabetes and then diabetes thenit would be very important to actually measure insulin early on and not only focus on blood sugars. Identifying through a blood test what your insulin is doing would be the best indicator to predict and even prevent insulin resistance as well as pre-diabetes and diabetes.
But unfortunately there are certain doctors are focused primarily on the blood sugars and the bigger problem of that not understanding this concept is to eventually start prescribing insulin to a diabetic type 2.
Think about this, if you have hyperthyroidism, you have too much thyroid hormones would you give that patient more thyroid hormones. Or you have a hyper cortisol problem it’s called Cushing’s would you give that patient high cortisol? Of course not but you would only know if they had high cortisol or high thyroid hormone or high insulin if you tested it unfortunately that’s rarely tested.
In summary, it’s high insulin that occurs way before the pre-diabetes and diabetes. A person will not have high blood sugars for many years but they may have a lot of other problems that will then be treated separately like they do with the lipids and high blood pressure and a lot of these other things.
The things that trigger insulin are primarily the over consumption of carbohydrates and the frequent eating and the snacking that people are involved with to prevent their blood sugars from dropping.
This post has been condensed from Dr. Berg’s Post Metabolic Syndrome Should Really Be Called Hyperinsulinemia Syndrome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1gB0RTqi-I
Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.
I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.
To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.
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May you Live Long Healthy.
Yours truly,
Lydia Polstra
Do you have an excessive waist circumference, high triglycerides, low HDL, fatty plaques in your arteries, hypertension etc.?
In Part One we covered points 1 to 3.
Topics Addressed:
In Part Two, we will discuss Nutritional Ketosis as a potent therapy to restore metabolic health.
Since 2012 we’ve learned about ketones in particular beta-hydroxybutyrate, which is the primary circulating ketone, as an epigenetic modulator of gene expression and a signalling agent. Eric Virgin’s science paper showed an increase in a whole array of antioxidant genes, as well as at the tissue level, protection from oxidative stress resulting from being in ketosis, in the range of nutritional ketosis.
Beta-hydroxybutyrate, which is produced by your liver while being in the state of ketosis, is an alternative source of fuel for the brain.
Ketogenic diets are anti-inflammatory.
There a couple papers showing on the ability of the Ketogenic diet to extend longevity.
There are hundreds of studies on low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets and obesity. They all show low carb diets do much better than low-fat diets.
One of the real problems is diabetes. Very well controlled one- year inpatient studies used the ketogenic diet to reverse type-2 diabetes in over half the patients in 3 months. Ninety percent of the people in the study prefer follow the Ketogenic diet long term.
Saturated Fat: Historically it has been villainized as being the cause of a lot of chronic disease. The most recent meta-analysis of dietary saturated fat and risk for heart disease shownoassociation. In fact you decrease saturated fat and replace it with carbs you actually increase your relative risk of having a coronary event.
If you look at studies that have actually measured saturated fatty acids levels in the body, whether that be in membranes or in the blood, and risk of heart disease, there is a very consistent association with higher risk for heart disease. So if you have more palmitic acid or total saturated fatty acids in your blood so you’re accumulating saturated fat that does increase your risk for heart disease and type-2 diabetes.
What contributes to accumulation of saturated fat in the body? It’s not dietary saturated fat. Carbs control lipid metabolism primarily through insulin. Carbohydrates in the diet have a big impact on how we process fat. We measured saturated fat levels. We always show saturated fat levels go down more on the ketogenic diet. So eat more saturated fat but actually have less in your body.
It seems counterintuitive but if you are eating Ketogenic diet you switch over to burning almost exclusively fat and ketones for fuel and that includes saturated fat.
If you’re eating saturated fat you have a nice marbled steak and getting a nice dose of saturated fat but if you typically eat that with potato or rice and a roll and dessert, you get the insulin response and you’re going to be more prone to store that saturated fat in your in your body.
See the image of Diary Matrix – You are what you save from what you eat.
On the other hand if you have some non-starchy vegetables, hold the potato and maybe even add some steak butter to the steak suddenly you’re in a different metabolic state. Insulin muted dramatically and you’re continuing to burn fat. It’s very hard to imagine saturated fat having any harmful effects in the body if it’s promptly being converted to co2 and water, which is essentially happening on a ketogenic diet.
The point is: the processing of saturated fat in the body is highly dependent on the carbs that are consumed with it.
Really carbohydrates control lipid metabolism at that level. At the level of the individual, it is the level of carb tolerance a person has. If you’re more carb intolerant you’re going to be more prone to that storing that fat and then a person who’s more carb tolerant.
For athletes, we are challenging that carbs they need carbs. Now a lot of athletes within the ultra endurance community are adopting this and surpassing their own records. While being on the Ketogenic diet, ninety percent of their fuel came from fat.
In the last Tour de France it became known that the first and second place finishers were low carb athletes.
For more information on athlete improving their performance please watch the video link below.
See the image of the Potential Benefits of the Keto-Adapted State
Keto adaptation changes the body in profound ways. There are a lot of changes going on metabolically and physically and physiologically within humans as they adapt to a ketogenic diet.
The main point is we are eating too many carbs. Get the carbs down to a level below which people can tolerate them and maintain health. Ketogenic diets have some unique benefits and a lot of this may be attributed to ketones.
Everybody’s carb tolerance is different. You’ve got to find that level of carb intolerance works. It might be a carb level below which you’re in ketosis but not everybody needs to be in ketosis. It might be a carb level below, which you keep all the signs and symptoms of metabolic syndrome at bay.
Personalized nutrition really needs to focus on is getting the carbs right.
Summary:
Consumption of carbs at levels that exceed a person’s ability to directly oxidize is the driving force behind the obesity/diabetes epidemics.
Ketogenic diets are uniquely potent at restoring metabolic health
What is optimal carb level?
A level below which:
See the Image of the Summary.
This Post has been condensed from the original: Ketones: From Toxic to Therapeutic to Ergogenic with Jeff S. Volek, PhD, RD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRoifq_lWZA
Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.
I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.
To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.
I thrive on feedback. Please let me know that you like the Post by clicking Like, or Commenting on the content.
If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.
May you Live Long Healthy.
Yours truly,
Lydia Polstra
This is Part Two of a series of three Posts. Part Two is a continuation of the FAQ about Type 2 Diabetes. Part Three will cover Gestational Diabetes.
What causes type 2 diabetes?
Genes and environment can play a role in causing type 2 diabetes mellitus. To learn more please go to
https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/?s=Diabetes+Type-2%3A+The+Underlying+Causes.
What are the first warning signs of type 2 diabetes?
The “classic” signs of type 2 diabetes which lead people to see their doctor generally includes excessive thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision, numbness or tingling of extremities, weight gain and fatigue. However, these signs generally show up once someone has already developed diabetes. There are more subtle warning signs that can develop years earlier.
The most common early signs of type 2 diabetes can be fatigue and weight gain, but also surprisingly include symptoms of low blood sugar as well. Signs of low blood sugar generally develop when someone hasn’t eaten for a few hours, and include symptoms like nausea, light-headedness, severe hunger and irritability. This occurs due to a drop in blood sugar between meals, often caused by overproduction of insulin in people who have become insulin resistant. Interestingly, people can experience some of these symptoms, like hypoglycemia and irritability, before they even have a large elevation in their glucose or Hemoglobin A1c. If you are experiencing any of the symptoms listed, you should consider seeing your doctor and getting a blood test for diabetes.
How do I know if I have diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is diagnosed in a number of ways. These include a fasting glucose of > or = 126 mg/dL, a hemoglobin a1c of 6.5% or greater, or elevated glucose on an oral glucose tolerance test. In addition, a random glucose of >200 is suggestive of diabetes.
However, there are a number of signs and symptoms that suggest type 2 diabetes and should make you consider getting a blood test. These include excessive thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision, numbness or tingling of extremities, weight gain and fatigue. Other possible symptoms include erectile dysfunction in men and irregular periods in women.
What are the symptoms of type 2 diabetes?
Symptoms of type 2 diabetes mellitus are as varied as they are unpleasant. If you notice any of the symptoms mentioned in this post, it would be advisable to seek medical attention.
For example, one might notice an increase in urination. A hallmark feature of type 2 diabetes is an elevated glucose (sugar) level in the blood. When blood glucose levels are high, the kidney struggles to filter the excess glucose out of the urine. The urine thus contains more glucose than it should, and this leads to higher volumes of fluid leaving the body through the urine. This is often accompanied by an increase in thirst.
Additionally, type 2 diabetes makes it difficult for the body’s organs to receive dietary fuel in the form of glucose. And when the body’s organs aren’t getting the energy they need to perform as they should, this can lead to fatigue and hunger.
Type 2 diabetes also makes it harder for the body to heal. This can lead to more frequent infections and slow-healing wounds.
Elevated blood glucose levels from type 2 diabetes can lead to blurry vision. Vision can improve as blood glucose levels decrease.
These particularly worrisome symptoms warrant seeking medical attention immediately:
What are the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in women?
In general, men and women have similar symptoms of type 2 diabetes. These include excessive thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision, numbness or tingling of extremities, weight gain and fatigue. However, there are some additional symptoms in women that may signal possible type 2 diabetes. These include frequent vaginal yeast infections or urinary tract infections. High blood glucose levels make infections more common and difficult to treat. While there are obviously many possible cause for these infections, patients experiencing recurrent or severe infections should consider evaluation for diabetes.
Another frequent issue seen in women with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).This syndrome is thought to be connected to insulin resistance, a key component of diabetes, and common symptoms of PCOS include irregular menstrual periods, acne, pelvic pain, and infertility.
In addition, it is important to note that women with a history of gestational diabetes during pregnancy have an increased chance of developing type 2 diabetes in the future. If you have a history of gestational diabetes and have any of the symptoms listed here, it is a good idea to have a blood test for diabetes.
What are the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in men?
In addition to the commonly discussed symptoms for both men and women, another issue discussed less frequently is erectile dysfunction.
How can you prevent type 2 diabetes?
One of the most important first steps one can take to prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is to reach out to a primary care provider.
A growing body of evidence shows that a well-formulated ketogenic diet can improve and even reverse T2DM. The diet significantly lowers blood sugars. Please see the related post on the best diet for type 2 diabetes.
One medication, metformin, has been shown in multiple studies to be effective at preventing the onset of T2DM. Metformin is both inexpensive and without long-term safety concerns.
Learn more at https://blog.virtahealth.com/prevent-type-2-diabetes/
What foods cause type 2 diabetes?
There is scientific evidence that suggests that certain foods like refined grains and sugary beverages are associated (that is, they tend to go hand-in-hand) with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus.
There is a strong association between obesity and developing type 2 diabetes, but not all obese people will develop diabetes.
Obesity, like type 2 diabetes, can be caused by any combination of a number of genetic and environmental factors. Diet and exercise can be modified to prevent obesity.
What is the best diet for type 2 diabetes?
The scientific evidence in support of a well-formulated ketogenic diet to improve the health of folks living with type 2 diabetes is so compelling that the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes recently issued a consensus report in which they acknowledge the value of a low-carbohydrate diet to help people living with type 2 diabetes.
Can a ketogenic diet reverse type 2 diabetes?
Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and manifests as carbohydrate intolerance. Like other food intolerances, the most logical and effective approach to managing carbohydrate intolerance is to restrict sugars and starches to within the individual’s metabolic tolerance.
A well-formulated ketogenic diet can prevent and slow down progression of type-2 diabetes, and it can actually resolve all the signs and symptoms in many patients, in effect reversing the disease as long as the carbohydrate restriction is maintained.
Learn more about carbohydrate intolerance at https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/underlying-causes-of-type-2-diabetes/
How do I manage my medications if I make dietary changes to improve my diabetes?
We strongly recommend that patients with type 2 diabetes consult a medical professional before making dietary changes. Changing your diet, particularly changing to the well-formulated ketogenic diet can be incredibly powerful in improving blood sugar and even reversing type 2 diabetes.
However, because of the rapid blood sugar and blood pressure improvements that are seen, it is very important that you have medical supervision while making dietary changes. This is particularly important in patients taking medications like insulin or sulfonylureas, which can cause dangerously low blood glucose.
In addition, newer diabetes medications such as SGLT-2 inhibitors, can lead to a dangerous condition known as “euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis,” in which patients can have normal blood glucose but dangerous changes in the acidity of their blood.
In addition, due to the rapid improvements that are often seen in blood sugar, it is important to have close monitoring of your biomarkers. This can be difficult for most clinics to provide, but is part of the continuous remote monitoring that is part of the Virta treatment. They sometimes adjust medications multiple times in one day, and often need to be proactive in reducing medications to avoid dangerous low blood sugars.
Does cinnamon help treat type 2 diabetes?
Cinnamon has been extensively studied without showing consistent results.
Type 2 Diabetes Complications
What is diabetic neuropathy?
Elevated blood sugars can damage nerves, usually first in the legs and feet. Read more at https://blog.virtahealth.com/diabetic-neuropathy/
What is diabetic retinopathy?
Diabetic retinopathy can develop when a patient living with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has high blood sugars that damage the blood vessels in the retina. Read more at https://blog.virtahealth.com/diabetic-neuropathy/
Can I reverse diabetic neuropathy, nephropathy, or retinopathy with a ketogenic diet?
We have many anecdotes of reversal of neuropathy, retinopathy, and nephropathy in people with T2D following a well-formulated ketogenic diet but there are not objective data (i.e. published peer-reviewed studies) to provide evidence that this is true. Learn more by watching the in this link https://blog.virtahealth.com/reverse-diabetic-neuropathy-nephropathy-retinopathy-keto/
What are diabetic foot problems?
There are many complications (problems) that can happen to the feet when a person is diagnosed with diabetes. These include problems with the nerves, problems with the blood vessels, and problems with healing. Read more at https://blog.virtahealth.com/diabetic-foot/
What is the treatment for diabetic foot problems?
Checking your feet on a daily basis and avoiding injuries to your feet are the best way to prevent diabetic foot problems. Keeping good control of your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels also helps slow the progression of nerve and blood vessel damage that causes diabetic foot problems. It is also best to have your feet checked by your physician or podiatrist (foot doctor) at least once a year
Read more at https://blog.virtahealth.com/treatment-diabetic-foot/
The source of this information is the Virta Health website. Here is the link, please copy and paste it into your address bar
I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.
I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.
To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.
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May you Live Long Healthy.
Yours truly,
Lydia Polstra
Email: lpolstra@bell.net
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Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
Most of the symptoms that the internet community attributes to ‘Keto-flu,’ ‘Atkins-flu,’ and ‘adrenal fatigue’, insomnia, anxiety, and slow recovery after exercise can be cured by a modest daily supplement of one essential nutrient – sodium (aka salt).
There is no science linking carbohydrate restriction and/or nutritional ketosis to impaired adrenal function (i.e., inadequate cortisol or adrenaline production).
To avoid confusion, we need to differentiate between ‘sodium depletion’ – which triggers the renin/aldosterole pathwaythat reduces sodium excretion – and simple dehydration. Dehydration triggers thirst, which stimulates water consumption. But water consumption alone cannot reverse the symptoms of sodium depletion. Without enough sodium in the body, no amount of water intake can maintain normal volume in the circulation. Dehydration by itself tends to be self-correcting. Sodium depletion are symptoms less specific.
Sodium – Essential But Still Controversial
Sodium has been recognized for thousands of years as an essential mineral for human well-being and function, but the optimum level of intake for humans remains highly controversial. Sodium intake has been linked to increased blood pressure in about 25% of the general population, and given the strong association between hypertension and cardiovascular disease, the assumption has been that we all should consume less sodium to reduce our heart-attack risk. In other words, we are all told to limit our salt intakes because this is assumed to be benign for most of us and life-saving for the minority with what is called ‘salt-sensitive hypertension.’
We must question this one-size-fits-all recommendation. Why? Because no one has bothered to do the obvious study in which people with normal blood pressure restrict their salt intakes for years at a time to see if this improves their overall health, or at least does them no harm.
The Salt/Sodium Adrenal-Hormone Connection
Eat no salt for more than a few weeks and you die. Don’t eat quite enough salt long term and you will develop symptoms that are the same as those described for ‘adrenal fatigue’, such as weakness, fatigue or low energy, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps or spasms, confusion and irritability.
Sodium is an essential mineral found in your blood, specifically in your serum, and in the extra-cellular fluid that surrounds all of the body’s cells. Its level in the blood is guarded by the actions of both your kidneys and adrenal glands. Eat too much salt and your kidneys accelerate its excretion.
Eat too little and your adrenals make a hormone called aldosterone that causes your kidneys to conserve sodium, but in doing so they are physiologically obligated to simultaneously waste potassium. Wasting too much potassium is not good because your muscles, heart, and nerves need to contain the right amount of potassium to work properly.
The reduced amount of sodium available in the circulation that triggers the adrenal gland to increase production of aldosterone also increases adrenal production of the stress hormone cortisol and the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline. Increased cortisol and adrenaline levels are stress hormones that are potent impediments of healthy sleep.
Bottom line: salt, potassium, adrenaline, and cortisol are intimately connected; there is a clear relationship between inadequate dietary sodium and the purported signs of ‘adrenal fatigue.’
How Nutritional Ketosis Affects Your Sodium Needs
With adaptation to nutritional ketosis over a number of weeks, many basic functions of the body undergo profound changes:
For those who are prone to retain sodium (e.g., causing bloating, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, edema/ankle swelling), this accelerated sodium excretion with nutritional ketosis is a blessing. But once any excess sodium and water have been cleared from the body in the first few weeks of a ketogenic diet, a new balance of sodium intake to sodium excretion then has to occur so that adequate blood circulation (aka, circulating volume) can be maintained. However if, in this keto-adapted state, dietary sodium is restricted, your brain and kidneys signal your adrenals to increase aldosterone and cortisol. What this means is that a combination of nutritional ketosis plus salt restriction leads to adrenal stress.
Nutritional ketosis + salt restriction = adrenal stress
Research Linking Ketogenic Diets to Adrenal Stress
Despite the hundreds of published studies of humans on ketogenic diets lasting as long as 2 years, there is no credible scientific evidence for adrenal damage or fatigue.
Research Showing Normal Blood Cortisol During Ketogenic Diets
There is just one paper showing that serum cortisol levels remained normal in 12 men given a well-formulated ketogenic diet for 6 weeks (Volek, 2002).
Why It Is Safe to Recommend Adding Salt to a Ketogenic Diet
First,since nutritional ketosis accelerates sodium excretion by the kidneys, whatever risk might be associated with too much sodium at any one level of salt intake would be less during ketosis than when eating a high carb intake. Stated another way, a high carbohydrate intake suppresses the body’s natural ability to excrete sodium and thus reduces a person’s ‘salt tolerance.’ Insulin is known to be involved in renal sodium metabolism.
The second important point is found in a recently published study that threatens to derail the whole anti-salt crusade. An international group of scientists collected urine samples from over 100,000 adults in 17 countries and then observed their health status for 4 years (O’Donnell 2014). They reported that people consuming less than 4 grams of sodium per day had a sharply increasing risk of death, almost doubling when they got down to 2 grams/day of sodium. In contrast, with higher sodium intakes, the risk of death rose very slowly beginning with intakes above 6 grams/day. For example, as shown in the diagram below, mortality risk was increased by only 15% at 8 grams/day.
See the Chart: ** Estimated sodium excretion and risk of death from any cause
Optimum Sodium Intake During Nutritional Ketosis
Virta’s recommended sodium intake for most people during a well-formulated ketogenic diet is based upon the amount needed to avoid the symptoms of ‘Atkins flu’ or ‘adrenal fatigue’ is 5 grams per day (3 grams in your food, 2 grams from broth/bouillon).
There are still variations between individuals that necessarily modify this advice.
And finally, as always, it is important to distinguish between grams of sodium and grams of salt.
Salt and sodium are not the same.
1 teaspoon of salt = 5 grams of salt = 2.3 grams of sodium (the rest is chloride)
High quality studies published by Virta and others continues to lead us to the scientifically correct view: nutritional ketosis is good for you. In particular, given the emerging view of ketones as both a fuel and beneficial epigenetic signal (arising from nongenetic influences on gene expression), there is unique therapeutic value to nutritional ketosis. And all that is needed to capture these benefits is to supply the daily salt intake required to maintain an optimum balance of sodium and potassium in the body.
Ask yourself this question: if nutritional ketosis has been shown to markedly increase my defense against oxidative stress, and it also makes mice and worms live 13-26% longer, why would I give up these advantages just so I could eat sugar and refined carbs?
This Post has been condensed from: Sodium, Nutritional Ketosis, and Adrenal Function
By Stephen Phinney, MD, PhD, Jeff Volek, PhD, RD, Citations for scientific studies.
https://blog.virtahealth.com/sodium-nutritional-ketosis-keto-flu-adrenal-function/
I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.
I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.
To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.
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May you Live Long Healthy.
Yours truly,
Lydia Polstra
Email: lpolstra@bell.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2healthyhabits/
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Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
Hans Selye, MD was endocrinologist known for his studies of the effects of stress on the human body. He concluded that to reduce stress we must adopt habits that minimize stressful demands.
He discovered that the body’s ability to control or reduce the stress has limits. This limited ability to adapt to stress is even more noticeable when the body is exposed to the stressor continuously.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS):
Stage 1: Alarm reaction
The immediate reaction to a stressor, is the “flight or fight response”. The body perceives a stressor as a threat or danger and releases stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones enable the body to perform activities beyond the range of normal ability.
Stage 2: Resistance
This occurs after the body has responded to a stressor, and the stress level has been reduced or removed. The body’s defenses become weaker, as it needs to divert energy to the damaged tissues and lower the production of stress hormones.
The body remains vigilant, especially when the stressors persist and the body is required to fight them continuously, although the response is weaker than the initial response.
Stage 3: Exhaustion
With long-term exposure to a stressor, the body starts to lose the ability to combat the stressor and to reduce its harmful impact; the adaptive energy is drained. It leads to “burnout” or “stress overload,” the individual is vulnerable to health problems. Catastrophic disease may occur.
How Stress Affects The Body
When the body is stressed, muscles become tense; it’s an automatic response, the body’s way of guarding against injury and pain. With the sudden onset of stress, the muscles tense all at once, then release their tension when the stress passes.
Chronic stresscauses the body to be in a constant state of guardedness. When muscles are tense over a long period of time, it may trigger other reactions of the body and promote stress-related disorders. Tension-type and migraine headaches are associated with chronic muscle tension in the area of the shoulders, neck, and head.
Relaxation techniques have been shown to effectively reduce muscle tension, decrease the incidence of certain stress-related disorders, such as headache, and increase a sense of well-being.
Stress can affect your breathing patterns and your respiratory system. For those with asthma or a lung disease such as emphysema, getting the oxygen needed to breathe can be difficult, the stress can actually trigger asthma attacks.
The heart and blood vessels work together to provide nourishment and oxygen throughout the body, and they play an important role in the stress response. Acute stress causes an increase in heart rate and stronger contractions of the heart muscle. The stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol and noradrenaline) mediate the response.
Blood vessels to the large muscles and the heart dilate, increasing the amount of blood flow to those parts of the body and elevating blood pressure. Once the acute stress is removed, the body returns to its normal state.
Chronic, long-term stress can contribute to problems of the heart and blood vessels.The consistent increase in blood pressure and heart rate, as well as the higher level of circulating stress hormones, take a toll on health. They increase the risk of hypertension (high blood pressure), heart attack and stroke.
Recurrent acute and persistent chronic stress can contribute to inflammation in the circulatory system, especially the coronary arteries.It is believed that it’s such inflammation that ties stress to heart attacks. Chronic stress can also elevate total cholesterol levels.
How Stress Affects Your Health
The stress response is automatic, developed in our ancestors to protect them from predators. Faced with danger, stress hormones flood the body, boosting energy, and readying it to fight the problem. People face multiple challenges every day. Regardless of the source of the stress, the body reacts in much the same way.
When stress interferes with daily life for an extended period of time, it gradually takes a greater and greater toll on the body and mind, leading to fatigue, inability to concentrate, and irritable mood. Chronic stress can cause disease, either because of changes in the body or because of the overeating, smoking, and other high-risk behaviors people employ to cope with stress. Job strain is associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease. Depression and low levels of social support increase risk for cardiovascular disease. When illness occurs, stress can make it harder to recover.
What To Do
Reducing stress makes a person feel better immediately, and can help protect health long-term.
Some simple methods for reducing stress include:
SOURCE Stress 101: Causes, Symptoms & Coping Strategies: https://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/stress-101/
To learn more please refer to the book: Stress Without Distress by Hans Selye
HelpGuide.org has several excellent Posts that provide tips to dealing with stress. Here is the link https://www.helpguide.org/home-pages/stress.htm
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Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
Nutritional ketosis is a natural metabolic state in which your body adapts to burning fat rather than carbohydrates. It is clinically proven to directly reduce blood sugar (HbA1c), improve insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IR) and reduce inflammation (as measured by white blood cell count and CRP).
Dr. Phinney answers viewer’s questions:
Q: I am interested in reversing type 2 diabetes – is a ketogenic diet recommended?? Thx! —Susie T.
Dr. Phinney’s Answer: Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and manifests as carbohydrate intolerance. Like other food intolerances, the most logical and effective approach to managing carbohydrate intolerance is to restrict sugars and starches to within the individual’s metabolic tolerance. A well-formulated ketogenic diet can not only prevent and slow down progression of type 2 diabetes, it can actually resolve all the signs and symptoms in many patients, in effect reversing the disease as long as the carbohydrate restriction is maintained.
For complete answers to this and the other questions please copy and paste this link into your address bar
https://blog.virtahealth.com/ketogenic-nutrition-type-2-diabetes-dr-steve-phinney/
Q: Appreciated your article on the concerns about prolonged fasting. Could you comment on the utility and safety of shorter durations of fasting (i.e. 16 hrs of fasting/8 hrs of eating or 20 hrs of fasting/4 hrs of eating over a period of 1 day)? —Anonymous
Q: Can you achieve this on a vegetarian diet too? A lot of people I know from India, including my wife, are vegetarian and prediabetic or T2D. I am a T1 and now on keto diet, but I am not able to convince the vegetarians to eat meat. —Anonymous
Q: Does the amount of fat I eat in a ketogenic diet interfere with my ability to burn body fat? —Marcos C.
Q: Why are blood ketone values lower in the morning than in the afternoon/evening? —Nikola S.
Q: When I started my cholesterol was fine. Now my glucose has dropped 40%, but my cholesterol is 241. Should I be worried? —Kerry J.
Q: Since families often (and should!) eat together, is there any concern about children who are eating high fat diets at breakfast and dinner with their ketogenic parents, but higher carb foods at lunch/snacks at school? —Tera N.
Q: What are your inflammation biomarkers? —Tekla B.
Q: Can long-term keto diet contribute to hypothyroidism? —Sonia Z.
Q: Why some people’s LDL goes sky high on keto diet? —Sonia Z.
Dr. Phinney: The changes we see in total and LDL cholesterol levels are much less predictable than the changes in triglycerides and HDL cholesterol. For the full answer click the link below.
Q: There is a lot of concern about protein intake and gluconeogenesis kicking people out of ketosis. As stated in your book, moderate protein is .6-1 gram/pound of lean body mass. As long as you stay within that protein range is GNG something to be concerned about? —James F.
Q: Does Diazoxide helps in the ketone production? Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge. Your influence is bigger than you think. —Salomon J.
Q: Does athlete fat oxidation rate vary continuously with carb intake? Or is keto the only way to get it above 0.5g/min?—Norman T.
Q: My daughter has high uric acid on KD, we don’t know if she did before KD, have you seen this before?—Justine L.
Dr. Phinney: Yes, blood levels of uric acid usually double in the first week of a ketogenic diet or with fasting. This is because there is a competition between ketones and uric acid for excretion by the kidneys early in adaptation. As the adaptation process proceeds over a few months, the uric acid level comes down to normal levels even as nutritional ketosis continues, Thus this is a process of clearance (i.e., excretion), not over-production from dietary protein, and this temporary elevation in uric acid is usually harmless unless one is prone to gout. That said, the precursors of uric acid are pretty high in organ meats like liver and kidney, so if these are part of one’s diet, they should be eaten in moderation. You can learn more about keto-adaptation here.
Q: Thoughts on patients suffering from depression and/or hypothyroidism and keto diets? Also, interested in your thoughts on “The Fast Metabolism Diet” by Haylie Pomroy, which encourages a 5x/day eating plan, which includes a couple days of a keto-like diet after some carb and protein-heavy days each week over the course of a month. Thank you for what you do, sir. Appreciate your work. —Tyler S.
Q: Love your and Dr. Volek’s low carb performance book – amongst the ‘good’ fats you talk about high-oleic safflower being acceptable (better PUFA ratio). Are high-oleic SUNflower oils OK and can you cook with them? —Chris B.
Q: Could blood ketones, along with blood sugars, be used to fine-tune insulin dosing? Too little insulin with someone with type 1 and we get DKA. With too little insulin ketones disappear. Could we use ketone levels are consistently below 0.3mmol/L as a signal that we have too much basal insulin? —Marty K.
Q: Does Virta know the benefit of whey protein for diabetes? Not sure in the context specifically of DM, but it is a very high quality protein source – BCAA, immunoglobulins —Salomon J.
Q: Why NOT eat certain oils, such as safflower and sunflower oil? Do these oils impact ketosis or is it for other reasons? —India K.
Q: Can you please explain hair loss on Keto? —Jessy G.
Q: Thanks for all you do!! There are groups that advocate the potassium to sodium ratio at 4 grams to 1 gram per day. Does that fit into your view of those two. Also, is 400 milligrams of Magnesium appropriate? Thank you! My ketone level ranges from .3 to 1.2. —Mark K.
Q: Are you looking at Cardiac Calcium Score? —Lincoln C.
Q: Hi Dr. Phinney. I have chronic pain and take a lot of medications. Also have controlled type 2 diabetes. Do you think taking 4400mg of gabapentin a day could be why I am not losing weight that easily. I am eating under 30 grams of carbs a day and I don’t eat a lot of fat. I eat just twice a day, and only around 950-975 calories. Thank You! —Teresa R.
Q: While someone pursuing a therapeutic ketogenic diet for the management of cancer, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s or dementia may want to reduce protein to achieve elevated ketone levels, do you think someone trying to manage diabetes or lose weight needs to consciously worry about “too much protein” or can they just follow their appetite when it comes to protein intake? —Marty K.
Q: If you are trying to reduce saturated fat but maintain ketosis, what fat sources do you recommend? —Gail K.
For answers to the questions above please copy and paste this link into your address bar
https://blog.virtahealth.com/ketogenic-nutrition-type-2-diabetes-dr-steve-phinney/
For more information please refer to the book that Dr. Phinney and Dr. Volek co-authored the New York Times Best Selling “The New Atkins for a New You” published in March 2010. Available at https://www.amazon.ca/New-Atkins-You-Ultimate-Shedding/dp/1439190275/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539113181&sr=8-1&keywords=The+New+Atkins+for+a+New+You
Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
If you are interested in following my postings, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.
If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.
As always, I am interested in your thoughts on these topics.
May you Live Long Healthy.
Yours truly,
Lydia Polstra
lpolstra@bell.net
2HealthyHabits 