The Nutrition Doc Blog

Wouldn’t it be incredibly sad if most all of our chronic heath problems were simply the result of our crummy diet over the last few decades?  Cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, autism, Alzheimer’s disease; all because of the way we have chosen to eat.  Researchers, doctors, and lay people are all puzzled.  Why can’t we solve our nations chronic health problems, why are many of our diseases on the increase instead of declining?  We are looking for the answers in all the wrong places and as a result we will never find the solution.

We continue to hide our heads in the sand as if we have no idea as to what is at the root of the problem.  Decades of eating processed and refined foods, meat and dairy has taken a toll on the health of our nation and we are paying a hefty price in sickness and disease.   The solution is not out there somewhere, it’s not found in a test-tube in a lab, or in the latest pharmaceutical drug on the horizon – the solution is here and now, the solution is to change the food we eat!

I’ve just finished up 10 days in Santa Rosa, California, interning with Dr. John McDougall, MD at his 10-day live-in program.  While there I had the priceless opportunity to see 50 plus people, who arrived sick and obese,  go through the program and reduce the number and dose of their medications. Many were instructed to stop their diabetic medications, hypertension medications, and dangerous supplements entirely.

Dr. McDougall instructed his patients to eat freely of all the food that was served banquet style and not to restrict or reduce their portions.  He wanted them to eat to “satisfaction”.  As we went through the buffet line we piled our plates with salads, pasta, beans, potatoes, yams, and rice.  These basic foods were prepared and presented in beautiful, and mouth-watering ways  – all recipes were created by Mary McDougall, Dr. McDougall’s wife.

People ate as much as they desired with no portion control and no feelings of deprivation; many patients saying that they have never “eaten so much food”.  What many people found incredible was that they were losing weight, dropping their cholesterol, dropping their blood pressure while eating to satisfaction.

Dr. McDougall exclaims that all you need to do is “change your food”.

Americans have been brainwashed into thinking the best way to reduce their weight or manage their diabetes is by eating a “high protein, low-carb” diet.  Yet, people are getting sicker and fatter given this information.  The health of Americans continues to decline and we have been sold a bill of lies!  The truth is that humans are meant to consume a starch-based diet, a diet composed of potatoes, beans, and rice with adequate amounts of green and yellow vegetables and fruits.     Dr. McDougall pointed out that “all  large, successful populations” ate a starch-based diet and so should we if we want to be trim and healthy.

Today is day 10 of the McDougall program.  Follow-ups with the patients on Friday and Saturday were lots of fun.  Patients averaged a drop in cholesterol of 3o points (some had drops of over 50 points), blood pressured dropped and blood glucose levels normalized for most everyone.  People had also drop an average of 2 pounds!  These are the results of eating as much as you desired and on a starch-based diet.  Incredible you say?  Impossible?  Doing is believing – don’t just believe me or Dr. McDougall.  Prove it for yourself.

I love it when I’m inspired.  When inspired I feel so full of life, excitement and have a huge sense of empowerment and vision that I can do anything.   It is truly at these times  when we have the most power.  The most power to change our lives.

2012 is just around the corner.  People will begin the new year with the intention to change their lives for the better.   Gyms will be filled with new faces, diets will be started,  some will attempt to quit smoking, or  quit drinking while others vow reduce the stress in their lives.  We all want to better ourselves and will make a brave attempt to do so.  For some, the changes will stick, yet for most they will not.  Life seems to get in the way of our good intent and we end up going back to the way we were.  Disappointed in ourselves we give up trying.

What does it take to be inspired to change our lives?  Inspiration seems to be fleeting and vanishes quickly.   However, it is in these moments of inspiration that we really do have power.  Nurture inspiration.

Nurture inspiration by surrounding yourself with people, articles, information, music, books, classes, and dvd’s  that truly  inspire you.  Read, study, listen and participate.  As you do these things your inspiration will continually grow.  Be excited about the possibilities and challenge yourself always reaching for your fullest potential.    Feel the power and fully live!

Evidence is mounting – Eat your greens!

Greens such as kale, collards, spinach, chard, arugula, broccoli rabe,  watercress, mustard greens, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and bok choy  contain  compounds (glucosinolates) that support the function of our gastrointestinal immune system (GALT).

It’s exciting to find that scientists have now discovered cells  known as intraepithelial lymphocytes (T-lymphocytes) that lie just below the epithelial layer of the small intestinal villi.   These T-lymphocytes function as “guardians of the gate” and are vital for our health as they are a part of the gut barrier that protects our bodies from foreign invaders such as bacteria, viruses and parasites.  When their numbers drop we loose protection against infection.

Scientists have discovered that these cells are dependent on compounds, such as glucosinolates, found in green vegetable matter for their survival and function.   When our diet is low in, or lacks, green vegetables these cells shrivel up and die leaving us defenseless against infection.

Mom was right!  Eat your green vegetables!  Put them in smoothies, soups, raw salads, bean dishes – make them the center of your meals for optimal immune function.

Source: Journal Cell 2011.09.025.  Exogenous Stimuli Maintain
Intraepithelial Lymphocytes via Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Activation. Ying Li., et. al.

As I was browsing the internet today I was struck by all the information there is about diet and nutrition.  I started thinking that the healthiest populations on the planet do not give it a second thought.  However, we here in America tend to always be in search of the latest supplement or diet fad that will bring us health.  Why are we so confused about what to eat?

Nutrition is simple – get enough macronutrients (calories provided by protein, carb, and fat) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) from whole natural foods.  When you observe nature you do not see  animals in the wild confused about what to eat.  They don’t have dieticians and nutritionists design a diet plan for them.  So why do we?

The healthiest and long-lived populations around the world ate their local, whole food natural diet and got plenty of exercise.  They are not concerned about the fat content or the carbohydrate content of certain foods, nor do they count calories or go on diets.  They just eat food, the way it is grown, unprocessed and in its natural state.  Duh….  It’s so simple.  Yet, we make it so hard.

When we are young most of us enjoy vibrant health unless we have a serious disease or disorder.  It appears that when we are young that we can get away with almost anything and that our bodies will never suffer the consequences.  In youth, we tend to bounce back easily and quickly from the daily assaults we place on it from things such as an improper diet, lack of sleep, excessive alcohol, tobacco, sugar, and caffeine. We seem to be “immortal” and our bad habits have little immediate impact on our health.

However, as we enter into our 30′s and 40′s we begin to pay the price.  Our energy may become lower, we experience more general “aches & pains”,  maybe we can’t sleep as well, or gain weight — the “damage” begins to rear it’s ugly head.  Yet, we may stack it all up to “we are just getting older” and that’s what is expected to happen – in the meantime we continue abusing our bodies with our poor diets and unhealthy lifestyles never making the connection between our lifestyle and our poor health.

Disease doesn’t just happen.  The body, in its normal state, is generally healthy and strives to stay that way.  For example,  regulatory systems keep our blood pressure in check, balance our blood sugar, and keep our metabolism running smoothing. These are just a few of the ways our beautifully designed body brings us back to a state of health, or balance,  when those systems are challenged.  It is only when we damage those systems, beyond repair,  that the body begins to struggle with keeping us in a state of health.  As a result of dysreguation, symptoms begin to appear. This should be a wake-up call telling us that something is wrong,  just as an alarm would sound if your house was on fire alerting you to the danger.

However,  as quickly as symptoms appear we are just as quick to mask them with an onslaught of  medications or drugs, supplements and/or herbal concoctions; all along assuming that if we don’t “feel” the symptoms that we have taken care of the problem.  Yet, the dis-ease process continues despite our masking and suppressing symptoms eventually causing more damage and serious health problems down the road.

Health is our natural state of being. Nevertheless, we can really screw this up by the way we eat and the way we live our lives.  The body can only take so much before it breaks.  It does its best to keep us alive despite all the abuse we place upon it.  However, just being alive does not equate to health.  The Standard American Diet (SAD) may keep us alive for about 70 or so years – however, our  quality of  life will suffer greatly.  It’s not so much about just “staying alive”,  its really about the “quality” of  life we have while we are here.  Health is about thriving and having vitality up until your last days.  But, how many people actually experience true, vibrant health through their entire lifespan? Because so few of us really get to experience this, or get to see others living a long and healthy life, we tend to think that it is just a myth and give up even trying!  It is more common to see people living into old age who suffering and struggling with disabling illness and disease.   It seems that the latest medical technology has been able to extend our lifespan, however, it has not  been able to add “quality of life” to those years.  No one wants to become old and sick, living out their lives in assisted care or on life support,  as it is a tremendous burden on families and on society as a whole.

So, how do we stay healthy through our lifespan into a ripe old age?  How does health happen?  HEALTH IS CREATED BY LIVING HEALTHFULLY.  It’s as simple as that.  Problem is, we don’t know what it means to  live healthfully.  Some of us think we know – but do we really?  From youth we are indoctrinated with “health information” coming from the media and other people.  It’s amazing to me to see how many people hang onto every word that Dr. Oz tells them because he is seen as the “expert”.  Some of the information that is dispensed may be helpful – but we are never really given the whole truth.  We are given suggestions, and bits and pieces of information, that really do not make a significant impact on the status of our health.  Health information is dispensed in sound bites and media blurbs. Take this herb for this, or that supplement for that, or eat this superfood to prevent this or that — we are always missing the big picture.  We are NEVER told the whole truth!

Nature provides us with what we need in order to create health.   If we cut our finger, it requires no more than keeping the wound clean, nature does the healing with no further help from us.  If we break our leg, the doctor may have to set it and place it in a cast, but our bodies innate wisdom does all the healing, requiring nothing more from us.  Nature heals if we provide the correct environment for healing to occur.

For health to occur we just need to stop abusing our bodies and begin giving our bodies what they need; the correct environment in which to thrive, not just survive.  It is we who create our own barriers to health – not some outside force that is making us sick.  Examples of the barriers we  create in our lives are things like not getting enough high quality, restful sleep.  Another may be,  living a stressful lifestyle by overbooking ourselves with too many “things to do” and “places to be”.  Many of us have  poor diets that are loaded with animal products, sugar, salt, fat, caffeine, and alcohol.  We worry excessively  about things we have little, or no, control over expecting that worry will change the outcome. We don’t get the appropriate amounts of daily exercise and many of us drug ourselves when we are ill, instead of fasting for a day or two  allowing our body to rest and heal.   Too many of us don’t forgive eachother of perceived or actual wrongs; nor do we forgive ourselves.  Each one of us create our own barriers to health and for healing to occur they must be identified and fully addressed.  Once we recognize that we are choosing the lifestyle that causes us to become ill then we can do something about it.

Doug Graham, D.C., speaks about how we can only be as healthy as our weakest link.  This is such a great way to see our lives.  Each aspect of our life is a link in our chain.  One link may be diet, another exercise, another sleep, and yet another may love in our life.   If any of those areas are weak – then we suffer.  It is about identifying the weakest links – then begin to work on them making them strong.

To begin, let’s choose diet.  This, for most people, is usually one of our most weakest links.   What is the optimal diet for humans living on this planet today?  This is such an area of controversy and confusion and it really need not be.  Is it the Paleo Diet, the Atkins Diet, or a vegetarian diet? What is the OPTIMAL DIET for human beings living on this planet TODAY?

ANSWER: A whole food, plant-based diet is the optimal diet for humans living on this planet today.

A diet that is filled with organically grown whole intact foods, as close to the way mother nature created it as possible.  This diet is composed of plants with zero animal products or products that come from animals such as dairy and eggs.  A whole food, plant-based diet is composed of yellow, green and orange vegetables, starchy vegetables,  leafy greens (kale, collards, chard, spinach, arugula), beans and legumes,  whole intact grains (not flours or processed cereals) with a few raw nuts or seeds.  There is no oil, no animal products, no refined sugar, flour or added salt.  This is the optimal diet for humanity living on this planet today.

Stay tuned —- I will go into more details in my next blog.  In the meantime, seriously begin to think about what I am stating as it can save your life or the life of a loved-one.

Check out the following resources:

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD: www.tcolincampbell.org

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, MD: www.HeartAttackProof.com

As I was saying, I was very, very lucky to find a doctor who opened my mind to the truth. He didn’t have the cure for  my health problems, no one did.  Why do I say I was lucky then?  Because I was to learn that my body had all the answers. All that I would have to do is to “get out of the way” and let my body do what it naturally does, HEAL ITSELF.

Now, I’m going to back-track about a year. Let me go back to a time before I ever stepped foot into the office of my Naturopath.

Looking back, it was a couple of days after the 4th of July… I remained in bed, most of the day, because I was feeling incredibly ill, lightheaded and nauseous.  I felt like I was going to vomit so I got up out of bed and guided myself slowly down the hallway to the bathroom.  Once there I began to vomit dark red, black “coffee grounds” into the toilet.  This really frightened me and I recall slowly lying down on the bathroom floor next to the toilet while continuing to expel dark red, bloody “coffee grounds”.  As fate would have it, my mother was walking by the bathroom as I weakly called out for help.  Amazingly, she heard my call and opened the bathroom door to see me lying in a pool of blood.  She was horrified; I saw it in her eyes.  I remember speaking softly and telling her “don’t worry mom, I am fine”.  She called 911.

The EMT’s arrived and I was rushed to the emergency room of St. Anthony’s Hospital.  While riding in the ambulance I recall thinking to myself, “This is so silly, I will go to the hospital, and they will find nothing wrong with me.”  I don’t  remember anything after that.

I woke up in the intensive care unit, after receiving multiple blood transfusions and a truncal vagotomy/pyloroplasty, (deliberately cutting a branch of the vagus nerve to my digestive tract and surgically opening the pyloric valve so it would remain open), to the voice of my Aunt Joyce. I opened my eyes and the only thing I saw was the clock on the wall – it was 2:00.   I went back into a deep sleep.

I woke again, probably hours later, and was told that my life had been saved and that everything was going to be alright. I went back to sleep. I woke again in a hospital room, days later,  and recall that my sweet daddy was sitting in the room with me.  He had been there the whole time.  I got sick again and vomited…. but this time it was alright because my dad was there with me, holding my hand,  and telling me that “everything was going to be okay” – I believed my dad because he is my dad.

I spent a couple of weeks at the hospital and was released to  go home.  I was so happy to be alive and now able to go home to be taken care of by my dear mom and dad.

At home I was healing.  At least that was what I was supposed to be doing.  I was finding that it wasn’t going to be that simple, in fact, it was going to be a big challenge beyond imagination.  As the days went on, I was not able to eat very well.  It seemed that everything I ate came out  one end or the other.  But before it would find it’s way out of my body I would feel sick to my stomach – that “sickness” would move up to my head.  I would feel pressure build up in my head and face, I’d become very light-headed, dizzy and my pulse would start beating rapidly.   Out of nowhere, I would see, in my visual field,  a shape of a “kidney bean” that glowed brilliantly white.  It would grow in size until it filled my entire field of vision and I  would be blinded by the brilliant white light.  I would begin to tremor and sweat. The sweat would profusely pour out of my pores to the point of completely saturating my clothes.  During these “attacks” I couldn’t speak and would have to lie down where ever I was and just shake and sweat until it was over.  However, it often didn’t end there, most of the time, while sweating and shaking,  I would have to get to the bathroom as fast as I could because runny, watery diarrhea would begin.  During these episodes it would be so difficult to walk that sometimes I would have to crawl to get to the bathroom.

After my “attacks”, as they became to be called, I was very weak, exhausted,  and so extremely ill that  I would have to usually go to bed for the rest of the day.

Okay, maybe I could deal with this if it only occurred occasionally, but, this didn’t happen just once in a while, it was pretty much happening every time I ate.  Sometimes the reactions would be mild, sometimes extreme.  To tell you the truth, I didn’t want to eat any more.  So I stopped.

Follow-up appointments with the surgeon and my primary care doctor didn’t provide any answers.  The doctors would inspect my incision; it traveled downward from my sternum expertly curving around my belly-button, and exclaim how nicely it was healing.   They didn’t hear me.  Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful they had “saved my life” and that my scar was “healing nicely”.  But hey doctors, I’ve got a problem, you saved my life, but I can’t eat anymore — and ironically this will eventually kill me!

My doctors never did really hear what I was telling them.  They insisted that everything was fine and that what ever I was experiencing was all in my “head” and that I would just have to “learn to live with it”.   Humm… all in my head?  That was their answer?  I never went back.  I went home to begin to learn how to “live with it” because it was ” all in my head”.

Living with this wasn’t easy.  However, I discovered that if I didn’t eat I would feel much better so I began to seriously restrict my intake of food.  Anorexia (not eating), a serious condition,  seemed to work fine for me.   The only dilemma  was that I was human and unfortunately I had to eat food to remain alive.  Nevertheless, when I think back on it all, staying alive wasn’t really working for me either.

Now recall, all this was going on while I was still very sick with my London “mystery illness”.  Now comes the time when I just wanted to be left alone to die. No More Doctors!  But, fortunately, this was not the way it was supposed to be.

Back to where I left off in my last blog. Mom drove me up to Boulder, Colorado one snowy evening so we could listen to a gentle man speak about “digestive health”.  This gentle  man was a Naturopathic Doctor.  We listened intently to what he had to say to the group that had gathered in the lobby of his  small office.  What he had said made sense, and after hearing his talk, I cautiously approached him to set up an appointment. I saw him the following day.

Mom drove me up to Boulder again (poor mom) the next day for my appointment.  After allowing me to tell my story, the Naturopath stated that he didn’t know if he could help me.  My heart gasped, if he couldn’t help me, what was I going to do?  He went on to explain that the gastric surgery had destroyed my digestive function. His concern was that my gut may be unable  become fully functional again because of the cutting of the vagus nerve.   Nevertheless,  he stated, that he’d be willing to work with me if I was willing to work with him.  I jumped at this chance – what else was I going to do?  Honestly, he was my only hope.

In the 1970′s, I became very ill after a trip I made to London, England.  I had to cut my trip short and fly back home to Colorado because I had become so very, very sick.  I had gone to a clinic in London, and was given a handful of pain killers and told they didn’t know what was wrong.  By the time I got home to Colorado, my lymph nodes in my neck and groin  had swollen to about the size of marbles, I had severe aching, muscle pain and could hardly walk. I was also experiencing excruciating headaches, had extreme fatigue, and barely able to keep my eyes open because of an overwhelming need to sleep.

Back home in Colorado my parents began taking me to every doctor and specialist they could find in the area. We were in hopes of finding a speedy diagnosis and eventually something that would cure me of this illness. However, in the end our hopes would be dashed and our bubble would burst.  We ended up spending many desperate years, and lots of hard-earned cash, looking for the cure to my “mystery disease” never finding the answers.

During my search, some of the doctors I had seen  told me that I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and that there was no cure; others said it was Fibromyalgia, possibly brought on by a virus (possibly EBV, or other type of herpes virus).  I was even told by one doctor that I had Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis! However, none of the  “diagnoses” were ever definitive.

During those years, Infectious Diseases Specialists were called in to do their poking and prodding, and still none had any answers. No one knew why I was so desperately ill. I felt like I was just an experiment for all those doctors.  They didn’t know what was really wrong,  so they would attempt to palliate my symptoms using steroids, antivirals, and experimental vaccines (at this time BCG vaccine was experimental in the US). They really did give it their best shot (no pun intended), it just didn’t help.

Over the years I really began to hate going to doctors. I hated all the attention I was given and was growing weary of all my conversations with other people only being about “me” and my “illness”.  I hated that I had become “a disease”.  I only wanted to be left alone to die (which was a very real possibility).

After many months of  seeing too many doctors I was not getting any better, and was actually worse,  even though I was taking all my medications.   Finally, one day, a friend of my mothers suggested that I go see a  different kind of doctor, a Naturopathic Doctor, in Boulder.  She thought that he might be able to help.  Well, this was a long shot, what the heck was a Naturopathic Doctor anyway?  Pure desperation and chronic illness does funny things to your mind.  Even though I was absolutely sick and tired,  and didn’t want to have any more to do with doctors, and just wanted to be left alone to die….  I decided to go see this Naturopathic Doctor in Boulder.

It’s funny (not really), that when you are chronically ill and you have literally tried “everything” in order to get well, and you are absolutely certain that you are NEVER, EVER, EVER, going to go to another doctor again because they don’t help and you’re sick and tired of it  – a crazy thought flashes through your  mind, “What if this is the doctor who will CURE me?”  Well, it is only natural that when you are so very ill you don’t want to miss out on anything that might be the answer you have been searching for.  I believe that this is one of the reasons why so many people end up spending so much of their hard-earned money. They are just hoping that this doctor, or that remedy, or that treatment, will be the answer to their health problem so they can finally get well.  Your mind just tells you “If  I don’t explore it, maybe I will have missed my only chance for getting well.”

Well, as it turned out I was very, very lucky.  This time I had found that special doctor who would start me on my path to healing.  However, he didn’t cure me or have a remedy I could take that would heal me – he showed me the truth about healing and the rest was up to me.

I’ll tell you more in my next blog – stay tuned.

I am a Naturopathic Doctor (N.D.) and a graduate of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon (2001). I am a member of the National Health Association/Natural Hygiene Society and practice the Science of Natural Hygiene, Nature Cure and Lifestyle Medicine.

I became very much interested in health in the 1970′s when I was around the age of 20.  I have been on this path ever since (see my story in my post).

My expertise is in helping people with complex health issues.  I see the ones the doctors have given up on.   These people come to me desperately seeking answers and a cure.  As a doctor:”docere” meaning “teacher”, I teach my patients what they need to know to become healthy and overcome all manner of illness and disease.

My intention for creating this blog it to educate, inspire and encourage people to create health for themselves and our planet.

As a Naturopathic Doctor, I believe that we have far removed ourselves, as a species, from our natural world.  Because we have lost contact with nature and are no longer living in an environment that promotes health – many of us are sick as a result!

We keep searching for answers, looking for someone, or something. to treat our ailments, in hope that we will find the right doctor or remedy that will cure us of our disease.

My blog has been created as a response to this mindset.  Health does not come in a pill, a hormone, a supplement, an herb, a therapy; nor is there a doctor or practitioner who can cure you.

Health is created by healthful living!

Believe it or not, most of us do not really fully grasp what that really means.  We think we know what a healthy diet is, we think we know how to exercise, we think we know what supplements we’re supposed to take to make us, or keep us, healthy.

I’m here to tell you we DON’T!  If we did, we would have health and wouldn’t be constantly seeking out information or looking for doctors.  If we knew, doctors and hospitals would be put out of business.

My goal is to give you an opportunity to understand what HEALTH really is, and how you CREATE it.

You will find links, articles, and information on this blog you may not find anywhere else.  I want you to educate yourself and put into practice what you learn. This is the only way you, and your family, will ever have the health and vitality you so want.

Please feel free to make comments on what you read and what you learn.  Jump in and find out what it really means…Health is Created by Healthful Living.

Wishing you success in all you do!

Dr. Connie Sanchez, ND