got milk? 8 Reasons to start Drinking Golden Milk and How to Make It

Having recently written about turmeric helping with weight loss I wanted to talk more about the health benefits of turmeric because there is so much more!  It was in that blog I talked about taking turmeric pills in order to have high doses of curcumin, which is the main anti-inflammatory ingredient in turmeric.  Turmeric can be used in cooking, especially Indian dishes.  It can easily be added to a healthy shake as well.  I wrote how it can be used in a health drink with apple cider vinegar here and now I am going to talk about its health benefits and making another delicious healthy drink called golden milk.  For all my nondairy drinkers out there, don't worry, you can use seed or nut milk as well.  My favorite way to make golden milk is with coconut milk.  But first, here are 8 reasons to start adding it in to your diet:

1. Turmeric milk helps build immunity
2. Helps sleep
3. It is a good remedy for digestive problems.
4. It supports the liver.
5. Helps fight cancer
6. Clarifies the skin.
7. Gives relief from autoimmune diseases
8. Good for fighting Alzheimer's disease

When adding it to your diet you need to know that adding black pepper to it helps turmeric become more bioavailable.  Which is another way of saying your body can absorb more turmeric if you add black pepper with it.  Drinking golden milk before bed can help sleep because turmeric reduces inflammation, lowers your blood sugar levels, helps your liver to detoxify, boosts your immune system and eases your digestive system – all of which help you to get to sleep faster, to sleep better, and to wake up feeling refreshed.

How do you make golden milk?
Serves 2

Ingredients

• ½ cup warm water
• 1 cup coconut milk (or any milk you prefer)
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp virgin coconut oil
• ½ inch ginger knob, peeled and grated
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper or 2 black peppercorns, crushed
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• ½ tsp nutmeg powder
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder
• *Optional 2 tsp raw organic honey or pure maple syrup for the vegan version

Preparation

1. Whisk coconut milk, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, honey, coconut oil, black pepper, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan; bring to a low boil. Reduce heat and simmer until flavors have melded, about 10 minutes.
2. Do Ahead. Golden milk can be made 5 days ahead and reheated.

Golden milk powder with the exact ratios of spice can be bought at the office or here.  Just add a teaspoon to simmering coconut milk or almond milk and you're done!

A great place to buy a golden milk latte with almost any type of milk you want is at Dr. Smood with the closest one to the office being on Lexington Ave at 47th St.  

              

Having Trouble Losing Weight? Learn About Weight Loss Resistance.

Have you every tried to lose weight and you are doing all the right things and the scale isn’t budging?  Or you have lost weight but now you have plateaued and working out harder isn’t making a difference? I have just read and researched this weekend about something called Weight Loss Resistance and it was like the light bulb going off in my head.  I couldn’t wait to sit down and write about it.  I do enjoy writing but usually I can wait so excitement has gotten the best of me!

I have helped people lose weight for over 11 years now and while most are successful there are the stubborn few that despite eating well, exercising and supporting their body with the right nutrition through whole food supplements that don’t lose weight like expected.  I have seen it take time due to the adrenals being burnt out.  In these situations the first step is to rebuild the adrenals so the body can then drop the weight.  To learn more read The Truth About Weight Loss.

But in Weight Loss Resistance the body has this underlining inflammation that needs to be addressed for the body to let go of the fat.  You still have to watch what you eat and exercise too. But overcoming Weight Loss Resistance makes those changes work like they’re supposed to. And it makes them stick too.

Once you kill your own Weight Loss Resistance, you’ll never struggle to lose weight again. You’ll never feel like your own body is against you.

 

Scientists gathered together a group of 16,616 men and non-pregnant women. They set out to conduct the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In this experiment they found that overweight people had more of a certain destructive protein in their blood than the thinner people.

This was true for both men and women. And it was true for both young and old too. If one of the subjects was overweight or obese, they tested for higher levels of this harmful protein called C-Reactive Protein, or CRP for short. Excess CRP in the blood indicates one thing: low level systemic inflammation which you will see later doesn’t let the body lose weight. Often CRP is found in people with diseases like gout, arthritis, and lupus. Since these are inflammatory diseases, you’d expect elevated CRP levels. But it was a shock to find the same kind of low-level chronic inflammation in people who had no other issues than some extra weight!

Having this low-level chronic inflammation creates stress on the blood-brain barrier.  The barrier is there to let good things from the blood go in and keep bad stuff out.  The blood pumping through your body right now has nutrients in it. It has oxygen in it. And often it has toxins and bad bacteria too. That’s why we have a blood-brain barrier and it works really well unless you’re overweight! This is because CRP breaks down the blood-brain barrier slightly. It eats tiny holes in the barrier, allowing some of the bad stuff in.  In other words, elevated CRP causes a toxic brain.

Now these are small holes. But they’re big enough to let toxic bacteria get in and damage the brain.  It’s not like brain damage that ruins your memory or harms your thinking ability. But overtime, it’s just as harmful. This bad bacteria that leaks into your brain inflames a gland in the brain called the hypothalamus.  The hypothalamus connects the brain with the hormones by sending out hormone signals that control a variety of metabolic functions like the energy output of your body and nutrient metabolism.  But when your hypothalamus is inflamed, it doesn’t work so well. When it misfires it doesn’t get the signals from the body about how much leptin the body has which is the cause of Weight Loss Resistance.  Leptin is inside every one of our fat cells. The more fat cells we have, the more leptin we have. As we gain weight, our fat cells get bigger. And the bigger our fat cells the more leptin we produce then too. 

Leptin is supposed to signal your brain to put the brakes on your food intake. It’s the hormone that’s supposed to drive us to maintain a healthy weight. Except, as you’ve just learned, when the hypothalamus is inflamed, this pathway malfunctions.  It doesn’t see all the leptin. So, it puts your body in ‘starvation mode.’ And it instructs you to eat more food so you can produce more leptin. This malfunction explains why many overweight people don’t have an ‘off switch’ when it comes to eating and overeating becomes a problem.  Your body is caught in starvation mode, even when you’re clearly not starving.  And no matter how hard you try, your hypothalamus will always be working against you … thinking you’re starving … instructing you to eat more.

So how do we get the CRP level down to heal the blood brain barrier?  We heal this by getting rid of the inflammation.  There are a lot of reasons for inflammation in the body.  It could be our diet.  The most inflammatory foods are white refined sugar, coffee, and alcohol.  It could be heavy metals or chemicals that our body is having trouble detoxing.  It could be immune stressors in the body that the immune system can’t handle like bad bacteria, old viruses, fungus, mold or parasites.  This is why we muscle test for these things in the office.  The whole point of health in the office is to detox the body and with the right nutrition the body can heal.  So besides getting checked for what toxins you have, what is the right nutrition? 

Curcumin (which is found in turmeric spice) has been proven over and over again in clinical studies spanning more than 50 years to be a powerful anti-inflammatory.  In fact, it is the strongest anti-inflammatory I know and it’s been shown to be more powerful than many harmful medications that we take every day. But that doesn’t mean you should be rushing out to the grocery store to buy turmeric. If you’re going to sprinkle turmeric on your food or drink golden milk it will help but if you are going to take a turmeric supplement, you have to make sure it contains curcumin. And it should contain at least 60% curcumin.

So if you are having trouble losing weight at your next visit let’s test what toxins may be causing inflammation and then test curcumin and other natural anti-inflammatory supplements and reverse Weight Loss Resistance!

Turmeric Is a Brain Health Miracle

Are you concerned about maintaining the health of your brain as you age? I wasn't concerned until I read that by age 65, sadly 1 in 8 Americans will suffer from severe cognitive decline, and by age 80, an astonishing 1 in 2 will at the Alzheimers prevention website.

Researchers have been working for years to develop an effective treatment. But one "miracle" drug after another has failed to live up to its promises, and it's becoming more and more apparent that pharmaceuticals are not the solution. Unfortunately, the medical establishment is so narrowly focused on finding an elusive "cure" that scientifically proven prevention strategies are often ignored.

There are a number of natural brain protectors out there, but did you know that one herb has shown more promise when it comes to supporting your neurological system than any other medical finding to date? It's a scientific fact that curcumin, an antioxidant compound found in the root of the turmeric plant, is one of the most powerful natural brain protecting substances.

The hallmark process associated with certain types of cognitive decline is the formation in the brain of abnormal protein structures. Normally when malformed proteins are formed with the brain, the immune system sends out cells known as macrophages, which engulf and destroy the proteins. If this ordinary function fails, defective proteins accumulate in the brain and cognitive decline can follow.

Curcumin works by encouraging the immune system to send macrophages to the brain in order to destroy these abnormal proteins, restoring proper brain function.

For more information on how healthy turmeric can be for you read how turmeric helps with killing Candida and cancer and another blog on 8 reasons to drink golden milk or to add turmeric to your curries, apple cider vinegar drink, smoothies or in supplement form.

Candida Can Cause Cancer, Turmeric Can Kill Both

New research supports the controversial theory that yeast (aka Candida) not only contributes to cancer by feeding cancer cells but can actually cause it. The study was published in Critical Reviews of Microbiology and states:
"There is currently increasing concern about the relation between microbial infections and cancer. More and more studies support the view that there is an association, above all, when the causal agents are bacteria or viruses. This review adds to this, summarizing evidence that the opportunistic fungus Candida albicans increases the risk of carcinogenesis and metastasis. Until recent years, Candida spp. had fundamentally been linked to cancerous processes as it is an opportunist pathogen that takes advantage of the immunosuppressed state of patients particularly due to chemotherapy. In contrast, the most recent findings demonstrate that C. albicans is capable of promoting cancer by several mechanisms, as described in the review: production of carcinogenic byproducts, triggering of inflammation, induction of Th17 response and molecular mimicry. We underline the need not only to control this type of infection during cancer treatment, especially given the major role of this yeast species in nosocomial infections, but also to find new therapeutic approaches to avoid the pro-tumor effect of this fungal species."

The three ways which Candida may contribute to cancer is:
1) Candida produces nitrosamines and acetaldehyde which can cause cancer.
2) Candida causes prolonged, unresolved inflammation which can promote cancer because inflammation damages tissue.
3) The immune system cells that respond to Candida also secrete proteins that increase tumor incidence and growth.



The new research not only substantiates the concept that yeast overgrowth can be a contributing cause of cancer but indirectly increases risk of cancer due to an increase of sugar and alcohol consumption which most people with Candida do because that's what Candida like to eat. This increase in sugar and alcohol consuption skyrockets your chances of cancer. Sugar has not only been found to feed cancer but contribute to the transformation of healthy cells into cancerous ones, read "Research Reveals How Sugar CAUSES Cancer."

Since sugar promotes yeast growth which means sugar is directly AND indirectly a carcinogenic it is really concerning that cancer treatment wards in hospitals give sugary foods and beverages to their patients in the waiting room. It was okay that my father eat Oreos to put weight back on during chemo. There is such a disconnect between nutrition and health when it comes to cancer in Western medicine I only hope in time that more studies like this one keep coming out so Western medicine is not so blind.

So what can we do about it? Well, a new study published in the European Journal of Pharmacology reveals that the primary polyphenol in turmeric, known as curcumin can not only help in killing Candida but also cancer. The study states:
"Curcumin is an up-and-coming drug of natural origin with multi-target properties, and it has exhibited efficient anticancer and antifungal activities alone or in combination with conventional chemotherapy drugs and antifungal agents. The dual pharmacological activities of curcumin may make it a good candidate for the prevention and treatment of cancer and its cancer-related invasive fungal infection related complications. Further investigation is necessary to clarify curcumin's anticancer and antifungal mechanisms for better understanding."

Turmeric is a wonderful spice to start cooking with if you haven't already. If you do cook with it just cook more. I love grating the fresh root. A wonderful, organic turmeric that I like using comes from Wellblends. To read more about it, click here.