Growing up, I was always a very skinny kid.  Starting around twelve years old, I began lifting weights.  I saw the movie Pumping Iron with Arnold Schwarzenegger and wanted to look like those guys in the movie.  So I began to follow the workout routines of these advanced bodybuilders.  These routines in the bodybuilding magazines and books are for men who have been in a gym for five or ten years and who are using, well, let’s call them “performance enhancing substances.”

For a skinny kid who didn’t know anything about eating properly, this type of plan got me nowhere fast.  Hitting the gym regularly for years barely produced any results at all.  I graduated high school a skinny bean pole at just over 150 pounds with five years of gym experience under my belt.  Needless to say, what I was doing wasn’t working.

In the early 1990′s I attended the University of Florida.  I began going to the gym in Gainesville with a friend from my home town gym, Heath Allison.  Health was always one of the big guys and is now a professional strongman.  I learned so much about the proper way to eat that in six month of training with Health, I gained 60 pounds of body weight.  Not all this weight was muscle but a significant amount of it was.  In the following six months, I proceeded to lose 50 pounds of mostly fat and changed my physique forever.  In one year’s time, I went from a skinny 160 pounds, up to a hefty 220 pounds, and back down to a very lean, very muscular 170 pounds, all by learning the proper way to eat and train.

I’ve experimented with just about every diet and exercise plan out there and have learned a tremendous amount based on my own personal experience and the experience of those who have followed this plan.  Being the self proclaimed nerd that I am, I’ve written everything down, what I ate, how I worked out; everything going back about twenty years.

Going through pharmacy school and learning about the different systems of the body, I wanted to develop a system of eating that is socially acceptable.  A plan that will allow you to eat junk food on occasion.  A sensible plan that is easy to follow.   A plan that forced the body to use fat for energy.  A plan that allowed your mind to relax so that you are not constantly thinking about eating.

The 511 Diet was developed.

On many of the popular diets today, you are told what foods to eat every day.  You are allowed to eat this, but not that.  After a period of time, you mentally break down and cheat.  When food was scarce, God made it so our bodies want to consume all the food in front of us.  Now, when food is always a few feet away or at the closest drive through, we have to resist that temptation.

We will create our new body over five days, admire what we’ve accomplished on the sixth day, and rest on the seventh day.  It comes down to eating good, wholesome foods for five straight days, fasting until dinner the sixth day, and eating whatever you like on the seventh day.

Personally, my five days cover Monday through Friday, my work week.  My sixth day is Saturday, and my free day, the day I can eat whatever I want, is Sunday.

Portion distortion

Many people have what can be described as “portion distortion.”  They think a portion size is much larger than it really is.  Look at the size of your fist, this is about the size of your stomach when there is no food in it.  Adding food to your stomach causes it stretch.  Simply put, when your stomach is stretched to a certain point, your brain gets a signal to stop eating because you are now feeling full.

Like a balloon, when you continue to eat too much and continue to overstretch your stomach, it doesn’t quite return to normal size.  After a short period of time, the signal to stop eating gets more and more delayed because your stomach can stretch more and more.  Consequently, you have to eat more and more food to feel full.  As you reduce the amount of food you eat, your stomach will return to normal size.

Protein, carbohydrates, and fats, oh my

Protein consists of chicken, fish, lean cuts of red meat, and eggs.  A trick to tell which cuts of red meat are the leanest is the price.  Fat gives red meat moisture, tenderness, and flavor.  In general, the less expensive the meat is, the lower the fat content.

A portion size for your protein is going to be the size of the palm or your hand, or about the size of a deck of cards.  I prefer using the palm of my hand because I may not have a deck of cards handy.  Remember, your palm does not include your fingers or your thumb.

The portion size for carbohydrates is your fist.  The types of carbohydrates you want to eat are mostly vegetables.  You are allowed some berries, the occasional sweet potato, but mostly vegetables.  If you like fruits, limit those to one small piece of fruit at breakfast.  Although nutritious, fruits contain a high amount of sugar.

When you are deciding on the amount of vegetables to put on your plate, simply make a fist, and put about that much on your plate.  It looks like a large amount, but vegetables contain a high percentage of water and fiber, both of which are good for you.

The hormone insulin plays a major role in fat storage.  When you eat simple carbohydrates like sugar, white bread, ice cream, and white potatoes, your blood sugar goes up quickly.   In response, your body releases insulin to carry that sugar into cells to be burned as energy.  If that sugar, now in the form of glucose, is not used for energy, it gets stored as fat for later use.

The glycemic index is a carbohydrate ranking system listed according to how they effect our blood sugar level.  You can find this information by simply searching for glycemic index on any internet search engine.  Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion, releasing glucose rapidly into the bloodstream, have a high glycemic index; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more gradually into the bloodstream, have a low glycemic index.  It is best to eat foods with a low glycemic index because these keep your insulin level low.

When choosing your food, the best type is the organic, pesticide free for your vegetables and organic, free range for your meats.  These will give you the best overall health benefits but they also come with a higher price tag.  It is your decision if you feel the extra price is worth it.

The next best food choice is the non-organic fresh meats and vegetable found in the supermarket.  These are found on the outside perimeter of your grocery store.  These are the foods I eat.  You can eat healthy by eating foods in the way God made them.  God made avocadoes, not guacamole.  God made broccoli, not broccoli casserole with cheese, butter, and bread crumbs.  If you buy it in a cardboard box, don’t eat it.

After fresh foods, the next best quality of food is frozen foods.  This is a good choice because most of us cannot get to the grocery store several times a week to pick out fresh meats and produce.  Buying a bag of frozen broccoli or frozen green beans is perfectly acceptable on the 511 Diet.

Finally, canned vegetables and canned meats are our final choice for quality foods.  The best example here would be canned tuna.  While it is possible to get fresh tuna, it is much more convenient to keep a few cans of tuna around the house for a quick protein portion.

The third macronutrient we need in our diet is fat.  Yes, we need fat.  You have to eat fat.  Fat is good for you.  Eat fat for your health and well being.  Was that clear?

Fat gives your food flavor.  Fat, along with protein, slows down digestion so you feel full longer.  The portion size for fat at every meal is the size of your thumb.  Remember, there is an amount of fat in the protein you are eating with your meal.  You can add a little butter to your vegetables or use oil and vinegar dressing on a salad, but you need fat with every meal.

The two best fats are coconut oil and olive oil.  I would rank coconut oil as number one simply because you can cook with it up to about 350 degrees and it has a long shelf life before turning rancid.  Coconut oil is also expensive when compared to olive oil.  Olive oil should not be used for cooking as it begins to smoke and break down at a relatively low temperature.  Use olive oil to flavor vegetables or as a salad dressing, it is very healthy, just don’t cook with it.

The third and most versatile choice for fat is good, old fashioned butter.  In butter, I mean butter, not margarine, not yellow spread in the gallon tub, not spray “butter,” I mean butter.  Margarine is a man-made chemical substance not recognizable to the body, don’t eat it.

Here is why this eating plan works…

If you were to go on a traditional diet and eat roughly the same amount of calories every day, your body will adapt, your metabolism will slow, and your weight loss will stop.  Frustrated, the dieter eats even fewer calories, the body adjusts itself again, and the weight loss stops.

Finally, the person gives up, begins to eat unhealthy again, and gains back all the weight she lost, plus a few pounds.  This is the common scenario of the “yo-yo” diets.

The body has a set metabolism level and that is where is wants to be.  When you overeat over long periods of time, your body continues to store that energy in the form of fat with greater efficiency.  This is how you are training your body to be, a fat storing machine.  When you suddenly drop the calories, the body says, “Wait, I’m supposed to be storing this energy, slow down.”

You metabolism slows to accommodate the decrease in calories, and you get to a plateau in your weight loss.  On the 511 Diet, we are keeping your body off balance.  It won’t have time to adjust itself.

During the five days of clean eating, you are giving yourself good, wholesome foods that your body craves.  Notice you read “your body craves” and not “your mouth craves.”  After a couple days, your body will begin to adjust.  Just as it starts getting used to that amount of calories, we switch it up.

Suddenly, day six comes along, and there is no food.  Your body is waiting to be fed and nothing is there, so it must adapt.  You are not eating for about twenty hours.  This does a couple things for you.

Mentally, you must conquer food.  Don’t allow food to control you, you are better than that.  By not eating, you are telling your subconscious that you control your body, not the food.  In reality, all you are doing is skipping breakfast and lunch.  When you feel the need to eat on a fasting day, visualize all the people in the world who also will not be eating that day, not by choice.  You are so fortunate to have the resources to walk a couple feet and eat.  Millions of other do not have that luxury.  I think not eating for a day toughens the mind, it’s good for the soul.

Not eating and conquering food one day a week will make you stronger physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Fasting will help you be healthier, bolster your immunity, detoxify your body, resist disease, lose weight, save money, feel better, and best of all, live longer.

Remember, fasting is not starvation.  You can easily go for two weeks without eating food and be perfectly fine.  You should stop taking your supplements but continue your hormones while you fast.  You can, however, take probiotics, FOS, and L-glutamine to condition your digestive system while it is empty and not “occupied” digesting food.

You are giving your body a rest 52 days a year by fasting once a week.  The cumulative effect here is amazing.

Once dinner arrives on day six, it is a free for all.  Go ahead, eat, enjoy life.  The evening meal on day six is wonderful.  It is your best meal of the week and your reward for six days of being healthy and eating correctly.

Day seven is your “cheat” day, the day you can eat whatever you like.  You will soon discover that you can’t like you used to.  The portions that you were accustomed to consuming are suddenly smaller.  You learn that you cannot physically eat very much food before feeling full.  You body has adapted to surviving on less food by “shrinking” your stomach.  Often times, you will notice that after breakfast on day seven, you won’t feel hungry again until dinner time.

This “cheat” day is also mentally revitalizing because the cravings that have built up over the last six days, are gone.  You can eat the food you want to eat, the ones you have been thinking about all week long.  You will notice towards the end of day seven, that you’ll actually begin to crave the wholesome foods you eat during days one through five.

Once again, your body cannot adapt to either the fasting nor the poor eating because they are too short in duration.

The key factor in the 511 Diet is preparation.  You must prepare your food for days one through five in advance.   This process begins during the late afternoon or early evening of day seven.

During your five days of clean eating, if your food is not ready for you to eat, it will be easy for you to cheat.  It is much easier to go to a drive through or grab a candy bar than it is to prepare a healthy meal from scratch.  It is crucial that all your food is ready for you.  You don’t want to be in a situation on day three or four where there is no food for you to eat.

During your first five days, here is the plan for how to eat.  You are going to eat three meals a day with two or three snacks in between those meals.  Each meal is going to contain a serving of protein, a serving of carbohydrates, and a serving of fat.  You can measure your portions by simply “eyeballing” the right size based on your palm for protein, fist for carbohydrates, and thumb for fats.

The proper amount of fat is going to be the most difficult to measure because there will already be some fat in the protein and carbohydrate.  As a rule of thumb, pun intended, add some coconut oil, olive oil, or butter to your food for flavor.  If you keep the amount low, the portion size will usually be pretty close.

The snacks that you will be eating are going to be half the size of your meals.  Your snacks are quick mini-meals that keep you blood sugar stable throughout the day.

You can use a meal replacement bar or drink for this purpose but you must be cautious not to eat one with too many carbohydrates and too much sugar.  Look at the nutritional information on the packaging to see this information.  Ideally you want an equally number of protein and carbohydrate grams and half that number of fat.  For example, an ideal meal replacement bar could contain 25 grams of protein, 25 grams of carbohydrates, and 12 grams of fat.

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*By using the portion sizes we’ve already discussed, your portion sizes and ratios will generally be pretty close to what is needed.  This next section is for people like me who have to figure out how much protein, carbohydrates, and fats they should eat down to the exact number.  You can use this section as a guideline to see how well you are doing with your portions.

The amount of protein someone should get in their diet has been the subject of controversy.  In my own experience and in the experience of many people I have assisted in their weight loss, the amount of protein you need if you are exercising regularly, is 1.15 grams per pound of lean body weight.

In order to determine your lean body weight, you must check your body fat percentage.  Here is a simple formula for determining your lean weight:

Body fat percentage X 0.01 X body weight = weight of body fat

Body weight – body fat weight = lean weight

Lean weight X 1.15 = amount of protein

Let’s use the example of a 200 pound person with 30% body fat.

30 (body fat) X 0.01 X 200 (pounds of body weight) = 60 (pounds of body fat)

200 (pounds of body weight) – 60 (pounds of body fat) = 140 (pounds of lean weight)

140 (pounds of lean weight) X 1.15 = 161 (grams of protein)

Once you determine the amount of protein, you should determine the amount of carbohydrates you require.  To do this, simply multiply your protein requirements by 0.8.

Grams of protein X 0.8 = grams of carbohydrates

In our example, we need 161 grams of protein.

161 (grams of protein) X 0.8 = 129 (grams of carbohydrates)

For the amount of fat, use half the amount of protein.

161 (grams of protein) ÷ 2 = 81 (grams of fat)

So, our example person should be eating 161 grams of protein, 129 grams of carbohydrates, and 81 grams of fat a day.  This works out to be about 1880 calories a day for those five days.

Divide the total calories for the day by three.

1880 (total daily calories) ÷ 3 = 627

Divide this number by three again to get the calories per snack.

627 ÷ 3 = 209 (calories per snack)

Multiply the calories per snack by two to get your meal calories.

209 (calories per snack) X 2 = 418 (calories per meal)

Phew.  After all that math, our example of a 200 pound person with 30% body fat looks like this:

Three meals a day, each meal about 418 calories

Three snacks a day, each snack about 209 calories.

That doesn’t sound like much food, but here is the good news; as you increase muscle mass with exercise, you can eat more food.  The more lean muscle weight you carry, the more food you can eat.  Losing fat does not require you eat less food.

Another controversial subject when it comes to health is water.  How much water should someone drink?  What is the best kind of water to drink?  You’ll hear health nuts saying to drink eight glasses of water a day, or half your weight in pounds in ounces of water, or divide your shoe size by how many siblings you have and multiply that by three times your kilogram weight, or whatever.

Here’s what I think; God put this incredible thing in our head called a brain.  Inside this brain, we have something called a thirst mechanism.  God made it so that when our body needs water, our brain tells us that we are thirsty, go get a drink.  If you feel better drinking a gallon of water a day, go ahead.  If you just want to have a drink when you are thirsty, wonderful.  I don’t put too much effort into how much fluid I drink because God put a brain in our head that will tell us when we need water.

Losing weight is not the key to weight loss.  Losing fat is the key to weight loss.  You do not just want to lose weight for the sake of losing weight.  With any diet that has you eating healthy foods, you will lose the most weight in the beginning.  This is simply water that your body is forced to hold because of a high carbohydrate diet.  When you bring the macronutrients into balance, the excess water is removed, causing a loss of weight, but not a loss of fat.

Fat as a substance does not use any appreciable amount of energy to sustain itself.  Muscle, on the other hand, burns calories at rest.  Your muscles are living off the food you eat, fat does not.  As you decrease calories, your body will naturally want to sacrifice muscle and maintain fat.  God knew when he made us that we were going to go through periods where there was not going to be food available.  By maintaining the fat, it gives the body a higher percentage of stored energy and a “blanket” to keep warm in colder climates.

How can we be sure we are losing fat and not muscle?  The best way is to check your body fat percentage with a simple, electronic body fat analyzer.  You can purchase these at most department stores or online.  The body fat analyzer will send a harmless, weak electrical current through your body and measure the resistance.

Checking your body fat percentage on a weekly basis is the best way to check your progress.  The best time to check your level is the morning of day six.  This is after the last day of your clean eating and any excess water that your body stored from day seven’s “free for all” will be gone.  You don’t want to check on a daily basis because your percentage will fluctuate with the changes in fluid retention.  Check consistently at the same time every week and monitor your progress.

So, lets review everything we’ve learned so you can get started on a fat loss eating plan that you can live with.  The 511 Diet involves you eating good, clean, wholesome foods for five days in a row.  On day six, you are not to eat any food what-so-ever until dinner that evening.  If you just cannot stand the hunger pangs, try sipping on some clear soup broth, this will help hold you over until dinner.  Dinner begins your free day, which is day seven of the plan.  On this day you may eat whatever you want in any amount you want.  Just remember to begin planning for the five days of clean eating so you are not caught without prepared food.

Natural bio-identical hormone replacement (BHRT) has only come into popularity in the last dozen or so years. Prior to that, women were told to use the synthetic hormones to relieve their menopausal symptoms. Because of the gaining popularity of BHRT, several years ago I began studying and learning about this “new” approach to therapy. Coincidently, while investigating these hormones, the frequency of questions from patients about the therapy increased.

In these last dozen or so years; many doctors, with the help of pharmacists, have been prescribing these bio-identical hormones to tens of thousands of women, as well as men. The hormones can enter the body through the skin, oral capsules, implantable pellets, or sublingual delivery systems. The dosages are individualized to meet the needs of the individual patient. Men and women all over the world have taken and continue to take these bio-identical hormones with great success and virtually no drawbacks.

What not to do

In 2002, one arm of the Woman’s Health Initiative, or WHI, study was abruptly stopped because of side effects. The study was testing the efficacy of combining synthetic estrogen and synthetic progesterone (Prempro) versus nothing. The synthetic hormones increased the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, blood clots, and stroke. The study was stopped after just five years, three years early, because the risks of synthetic hormone replacement were too great.

The study looked at 16,000 women and determined that after five years of taking synthetic hormones, there was a 29% increased risk of breast cancer, 26% increased risk of heart disease, and 41% increased chance of stroke. In August 2003, the British medical journal, The Lancet, published a different study involving approximately one million women. The researchers concluded that in the United Kingdom, in ten years time, synthetic hormone use has caused 20,000 extra breast cancers.

Because of this, both patients and physicians have been inundated with conflicting information regarding hormone replacement. Many physicians are avoiding hormone replacement altogether because of the new findings. These findings after years of prescribing these medications, confused even the most experienced of doctors. Patients began looking into alternatives.

The synthetic hormones increase breast cancer risk because of “unchecked” estrogen in the breast tissue. You have to balance estrogen with progesterone. Taking oral synthetic hormones will also give you a better chance of blood clots due to metabolism in the liver. When the liver has to filter out these synthetics, it produces chemical metabolites that cause blood clots. These blood clots can increase your risk of a blood clot in the brain, also known as a stroke.

The goal of most physicians is to optimize their patients’ health while alleviating annoying symptoms that occur with hormonal changes. With the stoppage of the WHI, many physicians were left scratching their heads. They knew the hormones relieved their patients’ symptoms but, in the long term, did not optimize health. Also, there are no long term, large clinical trials to test the effectiveness of bio-identical hormones versus the synthetics.

Looking for clinical trials to show the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of bio-identical hormones proves difficult. Large, clinical studies are generally funded by big drug companies. They are trying to prove that their patented medication out performs other therapy. Since “Big Pharma” cannot profit from the sale of these bio-identical hormones, they are not going to pay for a study.

Or, as I see it, drug companies have plenty of money to study medication. If they are confident that their synthetic product is superior to the naturally occurring bio-identical hormone, why don’t they test them side-by-side in a long term study? The answer is, because they would lose. If you can’t win, don’t fight.

Some government agencies and colleges have performed studies with bio-identical hormones. While many studies are positive, other studies are inconclusive. This is partly due to the expertise required for proper individualized dosing. Getting the proper dose for the patient is critical when balancing the delicate hormone system.

Go natural or don’t go at all

These hormones are the exact chemical structure found inside our bodies. There is a constant on-going long term clinical trial called life. We, as humans, have had these hormones in our body since, well, since we were created. By simply replacing what our body can no longer produce or supplementing our lowered output is certainly a reasonable goal. Don’t we have enough sense to realize that we are not drugging ourselves but simply restoring our natural hormone levels?

Bio-identical hormone replacement has been sometimes regarded as a way to slow down or stop the aging process. This is untrue as the goal of BHRT is not to bring a 60-year old woman’s hormones to that of an 18-year old. The goal is to optimize the function of the body without causing harm in the form of overdosing the patient. How many 60-year old women would like to return to the menstrual cycle and fertility of an 18-year old? I think the number is very low. God does not want us having children at 60 years old.

Statistics show that nearly 50% of woman who begin synthetic hormone replacement stop within one year. They stop because of side effects like weight gain, spotting, moodiness, and breast tenderness. With the bio-identical hormones, the dose is based on the individual woman, not on a widely accepted “normal” range. The one year continuation rate with bio-identical hormones is reported to be over 90%.

This form of therapy works. It has absolutely no side effects, none, never had, never will. The only unwanted effects are from under dosing or over dosing.

Before we go any further, it is important to know the hormones that are currently flowing through your body. Both men and women should have a balanced level of the big three; progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone. These, along with dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) make up the majority of the hormones we’ll be discussing here.

In short, progesterone regulates the other hormones and preserves pregnancy. Estrogen makes a woman a woman, giving her wider hips, softer skin, breasts, and a higher-pitched voice. Testosterone makes a man a man, giving him a larger frame, body hair, and deeper voice. DHEA can be converted into these hormones. As we age, DHEA levels drop, therefore, our other hormone levels tend to drop.

Later, we will go into further explanation of each of these essential hormones.

What are bio-identical hormones?

Bio-identical hormones have the same, exact chemical structure as those found inside the human body. Bio-identical hormones will provide for you the exact same physiological response and action as those hormones manufactured in your own body. What the practitioner is attempting to do when administering bio-identical hormones is to bring you up to normal levels. This will achieve the same physiological response that would normally happen if your own body were producing the proper amounts of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

These hormones should be administered in a similar manner in which your body excretes them. This provides a more natural and balanced approach. By doing this, we are attempting to duplicate what your body has done for years by itself. You had been running along on cruise control for 30 or 35 years with your hormones directing the show. Now, your hormones have diminished and your body wants its hormones back where they are supposed to be.

Although theoretically impossible to reproduce exactly how our bodies send out the hormones, we do our best to replicate it. Your body will release a small burst of hormones about every two hours, or 12 times a day. This gives an average level as well as high and low levels. Symptoms of hormone imbalance vary but the most common complaint from the menopausal woman is the hot flash.

The dreaded hot flash

It is reported that up to 75% of women go through the “experience” of hot flashes during menopause. A hot flash occurs when blood vessels in the upper torso area open more widely than normal. These blood vessels are generally located towards the surface of the skin and this opening brings more blood to the area. This increase in blood causes the heat and redness in the upper chest, neck, and face region.

Almost immediately the perspiration arrives and you become a soaking mess. Shortly after the hot flash is over you become a shivering wreck because of the cooling effect of the perspiration. Fortunately, this annoyance only lasts a few minutes but you know the next one is on the way.

Of course, there is never a convenient time for this phenomena. They seem to occur while sleeping, at an important meeting, during a speech, or at a job interview. It would be nice if there was a way of controlling these. Fortunately, we can relieve most of these symptoms.

Hot flashes are caused by a drop in hormones and a rise in another hormone called follicle stimulating hormone. The time before a burst of hormones is when the hot flashes occur. The estrogen level gets to a certain critical threshold causing the unpleasant effects. As soon as the hormones are released again, the hot flash is over. Without any treatment, hot flashes will slowly decrease and eventually go away on their own. This process can take up to three years after your last menses.

Are bio-identical hormones “natural”?

Yes, and no. To the general public, the term “natural” means coming from nature. The base chemical structure to the bio-identical hormones are found in the Mexican yam or soy plants. The base structure, called diosgenin, cannot be readily used by the body in the same form in which it is found in nature. So, yes the basic chemical structure is natural, as in found in nature. This structure must then be brought into a laboratory and altered to create the exact chemical found in our bodies. So, no the exact chemical is not natural, as in found in nature.

Well, then is Premarin natural? Yes, and no. Premarin comes from the urine of pregnant horses. The last time I checked, urine is natural. The urine is then brought into a laboratory where the estrogens are concentrated. This product is then pressed into a tablet. So, yes the basic chemical structure is natural. This estrogen from horses is natural to horses, not to humans. To the human body, they are foreign, and therefore not natural.

The term “natural” is more appropriately referred to the system that is using the natural product, not from where it came. In other words, the body “sees” these chemicals as natural because they are the exact same structure as the ones it has produced since before you were born. They are not synthetic as far as your body is concerned. The base could have originated anywhere. It could have begun in a tomato, a mouse, a tree, in ocean algae, it doesn’t matter where it started, it matters where it ends up.

What are phytoestrogens?

Phytoestrogens are very weak estrogen-like compounds. In fact, they are as much as 10,000 times weaker than your own natural estrogen. They can be found in various substances, over-the-counter products, and herbal supplements. What needs to be clear is that phytoestrogens are not hormones and they are not estrogen. They mimic, and very poorly at that, what estrogen does in the body.

There are three basic types of phytoestrogens; isoflavanoes, lignans, and coumestans. Isoflavones are the most popular and the most potent of the three types. Isoflavones can be found in legumes such as soy, chickpeas, red clover, lentils, and beans. Lignans are found in flaxseed, lentils, whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Coumestans are found in red clover, sunflower seeds, and sprouts.

It also takes a long time for the phytoestrogens to build up in the body in order to have any effect. The exact time for this action varies from person to person and is dose dependent. There has not been much in the way of clinical research on the subject of phytoestrogens, especially when it comes to long term effects.

Some scientists are discovering that, depending on where the phytoestrogen is located within the body, it can act as either an estrogen or an anti-estrogen. Studies have shown that soy acts as either an estrogen or anti-estrogen, depending upon where it resides in the body. If you have a normal estrogen level and eat soy products, the phytoestrogens can counteract the actions or your own estrogen, causing an anti-estrogen effect. It does this by attaching to the cell and blocking the normal estrogen hormone from attaching. This causes less estrogen affects. If your estrogen level is low and you eat soy foods, the phytoestrogens act like a weak estrogen. It will bind to the cell and have a slight effect on the cell. Crazy huh?

I’ve been asked many times about the subject of cancer with the phytoestrogens. The thinking is that if the synthetic estrogens cause cells to grow uncontrolled, will these weak estrogens cause cancer like the synthetic estrogens are known to cause. We aren’t sure.

We do know that the phytoestrogens in soy cause uncontrolled cell growth in breast tissue. This means that they can cause cancer. But the actual, real life, results show that women who eat a large amount of soy have lower amounts of breast cancer. Another study concluded that soy lowered your risk of breast cancer if you were premenopausal but not if you are postmenopausal. Other studies concerning endometrial cancer have come to similar conflicting results. While some show an increase in cancer, some show a protective effect.

Some women have begun taking the phytoestrogns before any menopausal symptoms have appeared. By doing this, they may prolong the beginning of the symptoms for a short period of time. This, so far, has not been fully proven nor is the therapy very effective. Remember, by taking these phytoestrogens, a woman may block the actions of her own hormones. This is explained by the phytoestrogens blocking the hormones at the receptor site. To put it another way, the doorway is being blocked by something you do not want to come inside.

A word of warning…
If you have a history of breast cancer, or a family history of breast cancer, I would recommend you avoid using phytoestrogens alltogether. If you include some of the phytoestrogen foods in your diet occasionally, there shouldn’t be a problem. But avoid the supplements containing isoflavanoes, lignans, or coumestans.

Is there a difference between commercially available
hormones and bio-identical hormones?

Yes, a big difference. The big drug manufacturers are now using the term “natural” to describe some of their products. This is in response to the large number of patients who are asking their doctors for natural alternatives to the synthetic hormones. Remember, Premarin could be considered natural because it is derived from natural horse urine. The chemical is natural but it is not a natural substance to the human body. The structure is different and therefore our bodies see it as a synthetic, foreign chemical.

The synthetic, commercially available, patented medicines are chemically different from those found in the human body. They are not the same chemical structure, and do not perform the same functions as the hormones produced by the human body. These drugs only mimic some the activity of our hormones. When you take them the response from the body is similar, but not exactly the same.

One of the main issues surrounding the bio-identical hormone movement is money; yes, money. The pharmaceutical drug manufacturers cannot patent a naturally occurring chemical. Therefore, they cannot make any money from the sales. The only way they can profit from hormone therapy is to alter the chemical structure and patent the new structure.

They can patent how a natural chemical is manufactured and a unique drug delivery system. In other words, a company can protect it’s intellectual knowledge in extracting a natural product from its source, but not the actual product. They can place this natural product in a patch or capsule, develop some unique technology for the drug to enter your body, and patent the delivery system. But they cannot make money from something that is not unique and not manufactured in a laboratory.

For example, you can get natural, bio-identical estradiol in the form of a prescription patch. The medication is not patentable, but getting the medication through your skin by way of a matrix delivery system is patentable. So the drug company took a natural product and impregnated a drug delivery system. They are protected by the patch’s drug delivery system.

Many in the medical community use the term HRT, or hormone replacement therapy, without properly defining the meaning. By using a synthetic product, like Premarin, the patient is substituting natural, human estrogen with a synthetic, horse urine product in the form of a drug. This drug simply mimics the action of estrogen, it does not replace it. The patient is not replacing estrogen with estrogen, she is substituting estrogen with a drug. This definition of the term HRT has led to confusion amongst the medical community.

Let’s use a little common sense. A hormone’s job is to get to a cell and fit into it’s unique receptor site. This fitting is like a lock and key, or two pieces of a puzzle. The hormone molecule fits perfectly into a receptor site located on the cell wall.

By studying chemicals that are structurally similar from our own hormones, we learn that the foreign chemicals act differently at the receptor site. Sometimes they act like our own hormones, sometimes they have no effect, sometimes they have a harmful effect, and sometimes they block the receptor so no other hormone can enter. These are not natural to our body.

The pharmaceutical companies know this and try to formulate a chemical that is similar to our own. It doesn’t matter how close they get, the effects at the receptor site on the cellular level are different from the exact chemical structure of our own hormones. Remember, they cannot patent a naturally occurring substance.

How does it work?

Does it work?

This is an excerpt from an interview I recently did with fat-loss expert Scott Tousignant from FatLossQuickie.com.  During this 9 minute audio, Scott gets pretty passionate about his feelings towards this diet.  You make up your own decision based on what you hear from two experts in the field.

PS That is NOT Scott nor his 6-pack abs

Click Play to listen in…

Download audio file (HCG-Diet.mp3)

Before we get deeper into the issue, we need to define a couple terms…

We have three types of estrogens that are natural to the human body, each with different functions.  Produced in the ovaries and fat calls, they are responsible for the development of sexual characteristics, fat storage, development of the follicle, inhibit bone absorption, improve insulin sensitivity, and many other functions.

Progesterone is made mostly in the ovaries with a small amount made in the adrenal glands.  Progesterone helps with sleep patterns, maintains fluid balance, helps use fat for energy, promotes the build-up of bone, maintains pregnancy, opposes the actions of estrogen, and a host of other functions.

Xenoestrogens are estrogen-like chemicals that have many of the bad effects of estrogen.  They are found in commercially raised meat, dairy products, pesticides, plastics, cosmetics, sunscreens, food preservatives, petroleum products, lotions, dyes, birth control pills, and just about everything surrounding you right now.  Our bodies absorb these chemicals and do not know exactly what to do with them.  Some stick around for years and can accumulate inside our body, acting like estrogen, but without the beneficial effects.

Estrogen dominance is when there is too much estrogen relative to the amount of progesterone.  Estrogen dominance can be caused by:

• very high estrogen with high progesterone
• high estrogen with normal progesterone
• normal estrogen with low progesterone
• low estrogen with very low progesterone

The only way to know for sure what is causing the estrogen dominance (PMS) is to test the hormone levels.  This is best done through saliva testing.

Perhaps the most common cause of estrogen dominance is the oral birth control pill.  When a woman does not ovulate, her progesterone drops slightly for the next cycle.  Since oral contraceptives are taken for several years in a row, a woman’s progesterone can be very low.  Estrogen dominance can also be caused by adrenal fatigue, insulin resistance, poor diet, or thyroid disorders.

So what is a woman to do?

The first step is lifestyle changes.  She needs to reduce her intake of alcohol, caffeine, salt, sugar, and refined carbohydrates.  Increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and protein.  Regular exercise helps to metabolize estrogen and regulate the system.  Stress management will decrease cortisol that will, in turn, increase progesterone.  Diindolymethane (DIM) helps the body to metabolize estrogen and remove it from the body.

Supplements, especially a good multi-vitamin that contains the B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, and calcium is beneficial.  Alternatively, she can take these supplements individually.  Other helpful products include Vitax (Chaste Tree), black cohosh, and DIM.

The most common treatment for estrogen dominance is over the counter progesterone cream.  Low progesterone is the most common reason for these symptoms.

Start by using 10mg of progesterone cream twice a day.  Apply it to your inner forearms on days 14-28 of your cycle.  The first day of your period is day 1 of your cycle.  You can adjust the dose and days based on the response you have to this dose and schedule.

If you begin your period before day 28, stop the cream and that is day 1.  If you have an important event and you wish to delay your period for a couple days, you can continue the progesterone and it may delay your period for an amount of time.

Everyone can dramatically improve their health and well-being by:

• eating a diet of 1/3 carbohydrates, 1/3 protein, and 1/3 fat
• taking a quality multi-vitamin, omega-3, DHEA, vitamin D, digestive enzymes, whey protein
• getting regular weight training exercises
• balancing their hormones

When scientists began studying the outcomes of this therapy, they learned that by 1975 uterine cancer rates increased 600%. One of the complications with giving too much estrogen is breakthrough bleeding, even in a menopausal woman. Because of the bleeding issues and the uterine cancer increase, physicians began using a synthetic progestin, Provera (medroxyprogesterone). In 1998, the uterine cancer rates had declined but breast cancer rates were increasing. In 2002, the Woman’s Health Initiative (WHI) was stopped due to unacceptable incidence of cancer, strokes, and heart disease. The reports of this study caused many women to stop hormone replacement therapy. By 2003, just one year later, breast cancer had decreased 7%.

So what is a woman to do who is suffering with hot flashes, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, low libido, low energy, osteoporosis, and many other symptoms of menopause? I suggest simple, over-the-counter progesterone cream.

In a study by The International Clinical Nutrition Review, 30mg of topical progesterone given twice a day increased bone density 10% in the first 6-12 months and continued to increase 3%-5% a year until they reached the level of a healthy 35-year old. The patients in this study also reported a heightened libido.

More studies…

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry – higher levels of progesterone “exhibited a strong antiproliferative effect on breast cancer cells and induced apoptosis” (In English, that means that topical progesterone stops breast cancer cells from reproducing and also makes sure the cancer cells die.)

Obstetrics and Gynecology – showed that topical progesterone reduced 83% of vasomotor (hot flashes) symptoms

Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology – transdermal progesterone prevents coronary hyperactivity

Nature Medicine – topical progesterone prevents atherosclerosis and may explain why males are at greatest risk of heart disease

Journal of Vascular Surgery – topical progesterone has “a protective role against the artherosclerotic changes associated with type II diabetes.”

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism – topical “progesterone exerts its inhibitory activity upon the reduction of testosterone to DHT” (DHT is what causes prostate growth, hair loss, oily skin, and acne.)

I have plenty more studies but you get the idea…progesterone is important.

In women, the ovaries produce progesterone. After menopause, it is the job of the adrenal glands to supply the needed progesterone.

Unfortunately, our adrenal glands are so overworked and fatigued, progesterone levels are generally low. We must supplement with topical progesterone in order to balance our other hormones, especially the estrogens.

I teach my clients the analogy of a gas and brake pedal. The estrogen causes cell growth, progesterone regulates that growth and tells the cells when to die. If you were to drive your car without a brake pedal, you would certainly get into an accident.

Never take estrogen without progesterone…never.

Generally, when my clients first come to me with hormonal symptoms, I will advise them to use over-the-counter progesterone cream and see if their symptoms improve. Often times the symptoms will improve or go away altogether. If not, we will test her hormone levels and move on to supplying other hormones that her body is lacking.

You can buy progesterone cream at your local health food store. Make sure the ingredients listed on the bottle say “progesterone.” If you see wild yam extract or diosgenin or anything other than progesterone it WILL NOT WORK and do not buy it.

If you are still cycling, use 10mg of topical progesterone twice a day on days 14-28 of your cycle. This will help dramatically with PMS symptoms.

If you are no longer cycling, use 10mg of topical progesterone twice a day, stopping for two days a month.

Don’t think that because the cash price for a drug is $50 and you have a $20 co-pay, the insurance is paying and therefore “losing” $30 every month.  The reason for this goes back to the convoluted pricing system.

A very simple example of how this works follows:
You have a $20 co-pay for a medication that retails for $50.  The manufacturer sells the drug to the wholesaler for $40.  The manufacturer gives a rebate to the insurance (for various reasons) for $8, so the manufacturer nets $32.  The wholesaler paid $40 and sells the drug to the pharmacy for $41, netting $1.  The pharmacy gets a $20 co-pay from you plus $26 from your insurance for a total of $46, a $5 profit.  Therefore, the insurance paid out $18 for your $20 co-pay.  The $18 payment is the $26 it paid to the pharmacy minus the $8 rebate from the manufacturer.

In this example, you paid more than your insurance company did for the medication.  When your insurance company raises your co-pay, you are paying a greater percentage of the retail cost of medication.

One of the reasons the manufacturer gives the insurance company a rebate has to do with prescription coverage of the drug.  The insurance company makes a deal with the manufacturer to cover the medication for a rebate, which in our example was $8.  The manufacturer had to pay the insurance company $8 for each prescription.  If the manufacturer does not want to pay, then the insurance will not cover their medication.  Therefore all the insurance company’s clients will get their medication from another manufacturer.  They are making less profit per prescription, but more prescriptions are being purchased through insurance.  It’s basically; give us money so you can make more money.

The insurance companies also influence the medication your doctor will prescribe for you.  Have you ever tried to get your prescription filled only to have the pharmacist tell you it is not covered?  Your doctor either did not check your insurance formulary or the one he has is out dated.  The pharmacist will probably call the office for an alternate.  Your insurance company is making health decisions based on their profits.  They find the best deal, then cover that drug.

It should be noted that testosterone therapy will not prolong life expectancy.  It will, however, increase the quality of life.  Testosterone deficiency is the most common hormonal disorder in males.  Low testosterone is related to several preventable diseases and still remains significantly underdiagnosed.  Restoring testosterone levels quickly corrects most symptoms of deficiency as levels fall approximately 1-2% per year beginning around age 35.

When levels are restored, men report improvement in energy, well-being, psychosocial drive, initiative, assertiveness, increased libido, more frequent sexual encounters, increased muscular strength and endurance.

In men, testosterone is produced and secreted mainly by the testicles.  Starting with cholesterol, testosterone is synthesized within the 500 million Leydig cells inside the testis.  These specialized cells make up about 5% of the testis volume.  A small amount of testosterone is made from DHEA in specialized areas of the body.  This conversion accounts for a very small amount of your total testosterone.

Interestingly, giving a man DHEA at 50mg a day, will not increase his testosterone to acceptable replacement levels, but it will increase his estrogen level.  However, a woman taking this dose, will see her testosterone increase.

The pituitary secretes luteinizing hormone (LH) in short bursts to signal the production and release of testosterone.  The bursts occur every 60-90 minutes.  Releasing LH in this manner maintains the Leydig cell’s sensitivity to LH and maintains the pattern of secretion.  Constant stimulation and the Leydig cells will become resistant to the signal.

Men produce between 3mg and 10mg of testosterone per day with 4% being converted to dihydrotesterone (DHT) and about 0.2% being converted to estradiol, an estrogen.

DHT is 3 to 10 times as androgenic (male characteristics) as testosterone.  The enzyme 5-alpha-reductase is responsible for this conversion of testosterone to DHT.  In the prostate, 95% of testosterone is converted to DHT by 5-alpha-reductase.  Specific medications can block this enzyme in the prostate.  DHT, along with estrogen, is the contributing factor to an enlarged prostate.  Testosterone has a protective benefit to the prostate.

A small percentage, just 0.2%, of testosterone is converted to estradiol by the enzyme aromatase.  This may seem insignificant but estradiol is 100 times more potent at the cell receptor site than testosterone.  This means that a male needs 100 times more testosterone than estradiol just to have an equal affinity for the receptor.  Approximately 80% of estradiol in males is produced via this conversion from testosterone.

The major determining factor in the removal of testosterone from the body are SHBG levels, the individual’s circadian rhythm, amount of blood flow to the liver, genetics, and environmental factors.  The clearance of testosterone from the body is reduced with lower SHBG levels and reduced blood flow to the liver.

Beginning around age 35, there is a gradual decrease in testosterone and increases in estrogen and SHBG.  The decrease is accelerated and begins earlier with poor health or chronic illness.

Testosterone is transported by binding to SHBG.  SHBG is made and secreted by the liver.  SHBG binds 70% to 99% of the testosterone in a man’s body.  The remaining 1% to 30% is either bound to other proteins or free to move into tissues resulting in an effect on the cell.  The higher the SHBG concentration, the lower the amount of free testosterone available to the body.  SHBG concentration is affected by testosterone levels, estrogen levels, liver disease, obesity, and genetics.  Once bound to these proteins, the testosterone is rendered “inactive” and is taken to the liver for removal from the body.

Testosterone peaks for men in the early morning and slowly declines throughout the day with a low in mid-afternoon only to rise slightly again in the evening.

Many physicians use blood to measure testosterone levels.  This is accurate for testing the total testosterone level but inaccurate for testing the free and active form.  Additional blood tests are rarely performed to determine SHBG and the “free testosterone” measurement is given as an estimate.  This estimate can vary by several fold and is generally considered useless in a clinical setting.  Without additional blood testing, the only true and accurate way to measure free and active hormone levels is through saliva.

Certain diseases and medications will increase the SHBG levels.  A hyperthyroid (fast thyroid) condition will increase the body’s SHBG by stimulating release from the liver.  This will cause low testosterone symptoms while total testosterone levels remain unchanged.

Clinically, testosterone is used to treat anemia, osteoporosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, angioedemia, immune system disorders, lung deficiencies, and muscular diseases.  Chronic heart failure is associated with low testosterone levels.  These conditions are usually treated with newer, more expensive therapies that show only a slight benefit over the much less expensive testosterone.  There are also no side effects to testosterone therapy with correct dosing.  At conventional doses for replacement therapy, there is no need to monitor the liver, kidneys, or electrolytes.

When taken orally, testosterone is quickly broken down by the liver into inactive metabolites.  Because of this, testosterone is best given by intramuscular injection, transdermal cream, or sublingually.

Testosterone production can be completely shut down in men using synthetic progestins.

Abuse of testosterone and it’s anabolic/androgenic derivatives by athletes has produced a stigma surrounding the therapy.  These hormones allow the body to produce larger and stronger muscles in a shorter period of time.  They also significantly decrease recovery time between strenuous activity.  Taking high levels of testosterone also temporarily shuts down sperm production and is associated with male infertility while on supra-physiologic doses.

Limited studies show that short-term, high dosing of testosterone has little medical danger, is not physically addictive, and most abusers eventually stop.  After long-tern use, recovery of normal bodily testosterone production may take up to two years.

Testosterone replacement therapy, when done properly, is an inexpensive treatment to significantly improve the quality of life for males.  The therapy has been used successfully for decades but has recently been associated with abuse among athletes and recreational users.  Because of this, many doctors are reluctant to educate themselves of the risks, benefits, and protocols of testosterone therapy.

Also, since the hormones cannot be patented, pharmaceutical manufacturers cannot make a profit and therefore will not advertise this from of therapy.  The prescription form of testosterone that my patients use costs them about $5.00 a week.

For more information visit Coaching Options

So, you get your thyroid test back and the “doctor” says you are fine. You know you are not “fine” so what are you to do? Here are five reasons that you have hypothyroid even though the standard test says you are “fine.”

1. You could be producing enough hormone but your body cannot convert it into the active form. Your thyroid produces mainly T4. It is inactive and must be converted in the cell membranes into the active form, T3. This issue is usually caused by high cortisol and inflammation.

2. You could be producing enough hormone, your body is converting it to the active form, but too much is being bound to proteins making it inactive. The thyroid hormones are transported by a protein called thyroid binding globulin (TBG). When TBG levels are too high, the thyroid hormones cannot enter the cells. This is usually caused to too much estrogen. Clear out excess estrogen with cruciferous vegetables and DIM.

3. You could be producing enough hormone, your body is converting it to the active form, but you don’t have enough TBG. It sounds counterintuitive but too little TBG, meaning too much thyroid hormone, will actually cause your cells to become resistant to the hormones. Think about the heel of your foot building up a callous. The cells build up a callous to the thyroid hormones. This is usually caused by too much testosterone.

4. You thyroid works just fine, but the signaling gland, the pituitary, isn’t functioning properly. The pituitary “tells” the thyroid to produce thyroid hormones. If the pituitary is not functioning properly because of stress, high blood sugar, infection, or another reason, it will not send out enough signal for the thyroid. Therefore, the thyroid will not produce enough hormone.

5. The thyroid works fine, the pituitary works fine, but your cells are not taking in the hormones. All your lab test will come back normal in this case and there is no way to test whether or not your cells are resistant to your thyroid hormones. This issue is usually caused by chronic stress and high cortisol levels.

Maybe your doctor has listened to you and does write you a prescription. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, you will get Synthroid, which is 100% T4. When you return to say you still do not feel right, you will get an increase in dose. This pattern will continue until you begin to have side effects from the increasingly high dose of synthetic drug.

Unfortunately, most traditional doctors will not look deeper into the issue. They continue to increase the dose. If they would simply pick up a book, stop learning “medicine” from the cute little pharmaceutical sales rep pushing a drug, and actually learn something new that wasn’t standard practice in the 1970s that has been handed down from teacher to student for forty years maybe people can get some relief.

I have a saliva test kit that my doc gave me for 7 tests:  estradiol, estrone, estriol, progesterone, testosterone, DHT and DHEA.  She uses NeuroScience lab and it will cost me $157 out of pocket.  I know you have access to the same test kits – if I can do one through you, any idea what that would cost me?  Would the company you use send me the results or you?  Just looking to save some money.  Thanks

Answer…
That is cheap for so many tests, but I don’t think you need all those.  When you say $157 out of pocket, does that mean your insurance is picking up the rest of the cost?  The lab I use, ZRT Labs, will send you a receipt to turn in to your insurance company for reimbursement…it should be the same codes that NeuroScience would use and should get the same repayment.

The receipt will have the “ICD-9″ or “CPT” codes.  These are the 5-digit numbers that the insurance company uses to reimburse providers.  When you get your receipt in the mail, contact your insurance company and tell them you took a saliva hormone test, paid cash out of pocket, and want to know about getting reimbursed.  All insurance companies are different.  They may just ask you for the codes and the amount you paid over the phone, or they may send you a form to fill out and send back to them.

The saliva hormones from ZRT are $45 each and the test results come directly to me, but my clients always get a copy.  You will not have to guess what your levels are by our conversation and I won’t give you a general answer like, “fine,” “good,” “low,” or anything like that.

A female only really needs to check estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone (initially only for the Rx).  Unless there is a specific reason to test estrone and estriol, it’s not necessary.  DHT, for a female?  No, no reason unless they put her on a real high testosterone dose…this happens because these franchise clinics load up on the testosterone dosing and give too much.  DHEA, maybe as an indicator for adrenal fatigue, but there is a better way to check the adrenals and everyone should be taking DHEA anyway.  I just don’t see a reason to test DHEA when you should be taking it regardless.

You are currently using hormones now, right?  I remember you having several different creams, pretty high doses if I remember correctly.  Too much estrogen and/or testosterone will bloat you and could cause your body to “fight back” against the high doses.

Download this…Medicine Coach Services it’s my rate sheet for the hormone services.

You’ll see the fees in there for the initial set-up and then the monthly retainer fee.  That way you will have unlimited access to me through email (and some voice mail) and will not have to pay another consulting fee as long as you stay on the hormones…just the monthly.

Just so you know, we just launched the lowered initial fee with the monthly retainer to get people in the program.  The pricing for both should be going up very soon so I’d get in the program in the next couple weeks if you are interested before we raise the rates.  Whatever rate you start at, is where you will stay, we are not going to raise the current member’s rates.

Getting all those tests really depends on your situation.  My female clients take a 3 hormone test initially at $135 and then need two hormones (estradiol and testosterone) tested at $90 total every 3-4 months.  I also make sure to test when they are feeling “good.”  This way we know what their levels are when they feel their best.  Those are minimums.  If I think you need other testing, I’ll recommend it to you.

The cost for the prescription is pretty inexpensive compared to other plans also.  The cream I use for women is $60 a month, cash without insurance.  If your insurance will cover it, the cost is less.  How much less?  Who knows, they are all different.

Let me know if you have any more questions.  It would be my pleasure to help you get feeling good and back to your old self again.

West

Growing older is a fact of life, we cannot stop it.  We can, however, actually reverse the aging process to add quality years to our life.

You have two ages: your chronological age and your real age.

Your chronological age is how long you have been alive.  You cannot change your chronological age no matter what you do, it grows every second, every hour, every day, you cannot stop it or slow it down.  This is the age you tell someone who asks, “How old are you?”  Your chronological age is JUST a number.

Your real age is the age your body “thinks” it is.  You can be 30 years old in chronological years but your real age could be 25, 35, or 45.  The real age depends on how well, or how poorly, you take care of your body.  This age can be changed.  You can get much older or much younger depending on your own lifestyle choices.

Real age is an excellent indicator of your overall health.  Beginning at about age 25, unless we consciously change our habits, we begin to lose about 1% of all our body functions every 2 years.  So, by the time we are 45 years old, we’ve lost about 10% of the functioning ability of our heart, our liver, our kidneys, eyes, hearing, lung capacity, everything.  Fortunately, we can restore these processes through lifestyle changes.

Our cardiovascular system is the greatest measure of our real age.  Preventing aging of your heart and blood vessels is the single most important thing you can do to live a longer and higher quality life.  Fortunately, you can slow the aging process of your circulatory system in a measurable and reliable way.

Blood pressure is the most important gauge in determining the health of your heart and blood vessels.  Keeping your blood pressure below the magic numbers of 120/80 will keep this system functioning at youthful levels.  When pressure is high, small tears occur in the walls of blood vessels.  These tiny “cuts” are covered over by cholesterol.  When the pressure increases and the tears become deep, they can go down into the middle layer of the artery wall and cause inflammation in that area.  This causes swelling that further increases pressure.  Also, the cholesterol covering can form sort of a scab over the injury and could possibly break off.  This scab is now called a thrombus and if your body does not dissolve this before it reached the brain, it may lodge itself in the small blood vessels, becoming a clot and causing a stroke.

When blood pressure is high, you also have what is called “end organ” damage.  Your “end organs” are the organs in your body where blood flow goes to “feed” your organs.  Your kidneys are an excellent example.  As blood is pumped into your kidneys, the tiny, fragile, inner workings of the organ are doing their job.  When the pressure is too high, the tiny vessels inside the kidneys get damaged under the intense pressure.  The constant increased force damages the kidneys and they begin to malfunction.  This leads to an increase in fluid and waste products in the blood that would normally be filtered out of the body.  The increased fluid causes blood pressure to further increase and the waste products cause a constant, low-level inflammation.

Take care of your body and your body will take care of you.

Here are 20 quick ways to take up to 67 years off your real age:

1. Getting at least 10,000 steps a day can make your body 2 years younger after just six months.  Many people use the excuse, “I walk a lot at work.”  If that is the case, buy yourself a pedometer and see how many steps you take during your work day.  You can find a pedometer at just about any department or sports related store.  Just mark down your step number every time you get home from work over the course of a week.  If you averaged 10,000 steps per day, congratulations, you get enough walking at your job.  Anything below 10,000 steps per day, go get those magic 10,000 steps per day.

2. While you are outside walking, your body is absorbing sunlight and converting it into active vitamin D.  Thirty minutes of winter sunlight or fifteen minutes of summer sunlight in a short sleeved shirt is all most people need to keep their vitamin D levels adequate.  Darker skinned people may need more sunlight while fairer skinned individuals will require less.  If you do not have any underlying medical conditions, like osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, etc., you should keep your vitamin D level at about 50.  If you do have a medical condition, depending on the severity, keeping your vitamin D levels over 80 can be very beneficial.  Taking 5000 IU of vitamin D supplements can help in this area.  By keeping this level up, you will be one year younger.

3. If you are a smoker, stop.  If you live with a smoker, you will have to avoid second hand smoke in order to shave 7 years off your real age.  Sitting next to someone who is smoking for 15 minutes has been shown to have the same damaging effects as smoking one cigarette.  Keep your distance from smokers.  If your spouse smokes, give as much support as possible to get him or her to stop.

4. Your mother told you to brush and floss your teeth.  If you listened to mom and continue to do that today, you will take 6 years off your real age.  Researchers have concluded that the same bacteria found in the mouths of those with poor oral hygiene, causes aging of the blood vessels.  By keeping this bacteria from growing in your mouth, you will keep it from growing on your blood vessels.

5. Many doctors recommend taking a daily aspirin to keep your cardiovascular system in good working order.  By swallowing 162mg of aspirin a day, you can make yourself 2 years younger after three years.  Swallow your aspirin whole with a full glass of water.  Taking it with water prevents it from sticking to the side of your stomach or getting lodged in your esophagus (the tube leading from your mouth to your stomach) on the way down.  You also should not use a chewable form of aspirin.  Chewing aspirin will increase your risk of developing tooth decay.

6. Managing your finances is something that most people should do anyway but you normally wouldn’t associate this with a youthful body.  Financial worry is one of the most damaging forms of stress and by eliminating that excess tension, you will lower your real age roughly eight years.  That’s extra time to spend your children’s inheritance!

7. Continuing with the subject of stress, general stress reduction will give you another six years off your real age.  Even simple stress reducers like lying down and breathing deeply, scrunching your face and holding it for ten seconds, or calling friends on the phone can help lower body tension.  When you go for your daily 30 minute walk, take a cellular phone with you and call family or friends.  Here’s a tip for you guys out there; call your mother.  If you really want to impress a loved one, go for a walk and call your spouse.

8. Now that you have impressed your wife (or husband), having sex is an excellent way to stay young.  By having sex at least three times a week, you can lower your real age anywhere from two to eight years.  The difference in the age reduction has to do with the quality of sex.  The better satisfying for both you and your partner, the greater the age reduction.  It is not just the act of making love but the love in making the act that counts.

9. After all that love making, you are going to want to get a good night’s sleep.  Getting about seven hours of sleep every night will get you another three years.

10. Having fun makes you feel younger and playing mind games or thinking games will keep your body younger.  Reading, doing crossword puzzles, word searches, or anything that exercises your mind on a regular basis will do away with two and a half years.

11. What you put in your mouth significantly contributes to your real age.  Learning to read food labels and following a few simple rules can shave three and a half years off your real age.  Look on the labels and avoid saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, and anything that says “enriched.”  Corn syrup is in most canned or bottled sauces and actually fools our brain into thinking we have not eaten as much food as we have.  Stay away from food that contains any of those substances listed above in the first five ingredients on the label.

12. Most people know that eating fish is good for you.  Unfortunately, many people put breading on it and fry it in oil.  This counteracts any benefit you will get from eating fish.  Eating non-fried fish at least three times a week will take off three years from your real age.  The oils in fish help to prevent those tiny tears in our blood vessels and decrease inflammation in the body.  If you cannot stomach fish, taking fish oil capsules at a dose of two grams a day is roughly the equivalent of eating three servings of fish per week.

13. Another important part of anyone’s diet should be fruits and vegetables.  Research shows that eating five servings of fruit and four servings of vegetables a day will take one and a half years from your real age.

14. More and more dieticians are recommending that we add nuts to our diets.  Nuts contain a great amount of healthy fats.  Eating an ounce of mixed nuts (peanuts don’t count in this case) every day can reduce real age by four years.  Walnuts have the highest concentration of beneficial fats, just twelve walnuts a day is all you need.

15. Have a fatty appetizer.  Eating a high fat food prior to your regular meal will make you feel fuller faster.  Avocado is probably the best choice here since it contains many beneficial substances along with being a great source of health fats.  Eating half an avocado a day or something equivalent, will take two years off your real age.

16. White food increases inflammation which means increased aging.  Avoid white foods like bread, flour, sugar, white rice, or white pasta.  The only acceptable white foods are fish, egg whites, and coconut.  Keeping all those processed, unhealthy, white foods from going into your body will eliminate three and a half years from your real age.  Cow’s milk is good for baby cows.  It has some good assets and some bad characteristics when consumed by humans.  Limit your cow’s milk consumption.

17. Calcium and magnesium work together in your body in many different areas.  By getting at least 1,200mg of calcium a day and 400mg of magnesium a day, you can do away with another one and a half years.  Your body can only absorb calcium when it has the proper amount of vitamin D (go back to tip #2 if you need more vitamin D).  Also, you can only absorb about 600mg of calcium every six hours.  So you will have to take your calcium two or three times a day to get the proper amount.  If you are a coffee or soda drinker, you will have to increase your supplemental calcium 50mg a day for every cup of coffee or can of soda you drink.

18. Any woman who has been pregnant knows the importance of folic acid.  When cells divide and grow, they need folic acid to properly duplicate the DNA inside the nucleus.  Not having enough folic acid increases the chances of a mutation that can lead to diseases like cancer.  A daily intake of 800mcg of folic acid lowers your real age by one year.

19. I am an advocate for strength training.  Resistance exercise, weight lifting, using resistance bands, pumping iron, whatever you want to call it, keeps you healthy.  This form of exercise will preserve bone strength and add muscle mass to your body.  The added muscle mass burns calories 24 hours a day and keeps your metabolism high.  Averaging just ten minutes a day takes off one and a half years from your real age.

20. Since I am a pharmacist, I have to mention prescription drugs.  Taking your medication correctly will make you another year younger.  About half of the people who are on prescription blood pressure medication do not take it correctly.  In my own experience, about 80% of patients do not even know why they are taking a certain medicine or even the name of their prescriptions.

Even if you can add just ten quality years to your life, what kind of a difference would that make to your grandchildren, or great-grandchildren?  You will carry decades of life experience with you to pass on to future generations.  What pieces of advice can you give to a loved one?  What insight can you give to a family member who is making a major decision?  Think about the future.  Think about your legacy.  Think about the memories your family will have of you when you are gone.  Think of the impact you will make in a child’s life.  Let’s stay on God’s Earth as long as we can.