This is part 2 out of 3 of a series I’ve written for Danish health magazine LNS about why we struggle with weightloss resistance.
Read the full article here (p 18-22): click here.
Read More
Try adding a slice - yes just a single slice - of wholegrain or sourdough bread with your usual veggies, fat and protein lunch and see how much of a difference it makes later in the day. Many people find it helps both with satiety and afternoon cravings to include smart carbs into your meals - simply because carbs are easily converted to fuel for the body and provide a spike in serotonin (feel good hormone) and tends to lower our hunger hormone ghrelin fast. BUT you always want to combine your carbs with protein and/or fats to avoid the downfall of carbs. When carbs are consumed on their own it leads to a blood sugar spike and crash (before it balances out) which leads to an increase in stress hormones and increase in hunger hormone ghrelin!
Feeling fat and depressed on keto? You may have a defect on your carnitine-transporter
Are you following keto and find that you CANNOT lose weight and rather you are actually gaining weight?
Then it may be because you belong to the group that has a defect in the carnitine transporter.
No one is designed to follow an extreme diet like keto for the rest of their lives - but there may be times when restrictions on certain food groups are necessary due to illness and imbalances.
Even though we humans are bio-individual, we are still built very similarly in terms of how we convert energy in the body and build muscles etc.
There is no good science behind all of these come-and-go theories that exclude carbohydrates for everyone, or fat for everyone, or animal protein for all.
Some of us can thrive on these diets because we - perhaps for the first time in our lives - clean up our bad eating habits and decide to now completely exclude junk food and finally eat "real food". It's always a good idea to eat "real food" from nature, but it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the ratio or exclusion of carbohydrates/proteins/fats.
However, for people with a defect in the carnitine-transporter, it can be very harmful to eat keto because they have a reduced ability to convert fat (ketones) into energy - and instead store it in the body.
Read More
Natural vitamins may be superior to synthetic ones
“There appears to be a tendency to label those who profess that natural vitamins are better than synthetic ones as quacks. This broad brush label may be stifling legitimate nutrition research. This paper describes physiochemical differences between certain natural and synthetic vitamins, proven clinical advantages of natural vitamins, and some of the effects this labeling may lead to. It concludes that lessons of history as well as modern science support the view that natural vitamins are nutritionally superior to synthetic ones.”
Read the full study here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11090291/
Read More
Food fears often based on bad science
Food has so many properties that we often draw false conclusions, when we only focus on one aspect: e.g. you can easily be misled into thinking bananas and whole grain products are "unhealthy" when you only look at it from its impact on blood sugar coming from a keto diet point of view. Or you can be misled into thinking that plants should be avoided because they contain small amounts of toxins, and therefore you should follow a carnivore diet (meat-based). The fact is, however, that it is about quantity. Anything can be toxic if the dosage is high enough. And just as exercise and resistance train our muscles - but must not be overdone, because then it breaks us down, likewise fibers and many of these antinutrients actually train our digestion, so that it becomes resilient and results in a diverse and healthy gut microbiome. Now if you are already sick you may of course need a targeted elimination diet temporarily in relation to symptom management short-term - but this will never cure the underlying problem. Eg. mold is linked to IBS, which in turn is linked to SIBO/SIFO, so if you focus on the intermediate or end product, you never get to the bottom of what is causing the inflammation in the intestinal system and the overgrowth of bacteria and fungi in the small intestine and the resulting " food intolerances". Bottom-line: if you struggle with a lot of food intolerances and digestive issues a restrictive diet will not cure it, but may manage the symptoms short-term, yet longterm may make the problem even worse. Restrictive diets are NOT healthy longterm. And if a practitioner is recommending such, it is a RED FLAG.
Read More
How cold therapy is RUINING your nervous system!
Now admittedly I’ve been winter swimming in icy waters in Scandinavia since I was 3 years old (voluntarily following my mom in the ocean, mind you). I’ve always been keen on the benefits of cold-and-heat alternating therapies and how it can tone our vagus nerve and thereby help alleviate stress and build resilience.
However, right now this cold therapy trend is getting out of control.
This trend is being pushed by influencers with no health education or people without an understanding of the nervous system - yes, even researches focusing on one aspect only i.e. how cold therapy can change our fat tissue. However, this is ONLY one aspect of how cold therapy is affecting us. We need to understand the bigger picture of how something is affecting us LONG-TERM and our body as a whole, before we dive in. Most importantly we need to understand how our own nervous system is wired and what therapies is best matched to that. Too many lack the understanding of doing things in short bursts or in moderation to stress the body short-term in order to build resilience long-term - instead they are pushing the body beyond capacity, staying in ice water for 5-20 minutes with the mantra “more is better” or just being solely focused on changing fat tissue without understanding what large doses of adrenaline release does to the nervous system.
Read More
Are you taking synthetic vitamin C?
I am not a big fan of synthetic supplements - and there are plenty of studies supporting that synthetic vitamins are NOT comparable to natural vitamins due to missing co-factors amongst other issues.
Synthetic vitamin C is however what most of us are consuming if we are taking supplements on the regular. And I only recommend synthetic vitamin C if you are acutely fighting an infection as the longterm benefits are severely lacking - on the contrary.
A recent study reported a positive association between supplemental vitamin C intake and kidney stones in a cohort of 23,355 Swedish men; the multivariable adjusted relative risk associated with supplemental use of vitamin C was almost double compared with no use!
Read the full study here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23381591/
NOTE: I absolutely do recommend supplements, but the quality most of us are taking is absolute garbage and not related to better health outcome. The headlines in the newspapers do not differentiate between synthetic supplements and naturally derived supplements, although this is the key issue in the health outcome!
Read More
Who should go vegan?
Yet another vegan “documentary” taking up space on Netflix these days: “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment”. And it hasn’t even been more than a handful of years ago, there was the last wave of veganism driving through the country with the movie Game Changers on Netflix, swiping across the country with more peer pressure than your average influencer’s lip filler. Same arguments, same counter arguments. It gets boring for those of us who live long enough to see the circling trends in health care - same claims, same debunking and on and on it goes. Each generation has to learn from scratch all over again. Yes I sound like I’m a million years. But really, I don’t have patience for this utter nutritional nonsense trendy stuff proposed by self-claimed experts often with no relevant educational background when it comes to nutrition science.
I never really commented much on it, because we are missing the boat completely when it comes to changing our health by focusing so much on meat vs. plants, and the debate has so many emotional ties attached to it, that it rarely seems constructive to dive in.
Read More
Can you have too low homocysteine?
We mostly know homocysteine as something we have to worry about not getting too high. And that is absolutely true: too high homocysteine is directly related to higher mortality and risk of cardiovascular disease.
But can homocysteine also become too low?
It turns out that the answer is yes: low homocysteine levels are actually linked to increased disease risk. For example, low homocysteine has been shown to have a strong association with peripheral neuropathy.
Research shows that a surprising 41% of patients with idiopathic peripheral neuropathy have hypohomocysteinemia (too low homocysteine). And sulfur is absolutely essential for healthy homocysteine levels. There can be several reasons for imbalances with sulfur in the body - e.g. mold can affect sulfur and thereby homocystein levels. Unfortunately, it is not always as simple as just doing a mineral test for sulfur and thereafter concluding when levels are found low to simply eat foods higher in sulfur to provide the building blocks in order to normalize homocysteine levels (aka broccoli, cabbage, meat).
However, mineral, vitamin and heavy metal tests are always one of the first things I do on all clients who come in for a health check-up, because this is basic information we need to know before we can dig deeper
Vitamin, mineral and metal test incl. 30 minutes review can be booked as a separate service on the website and is also included in all health check-ups.
Read More
No, lemon water is not a "health gimmick"
I’ve been drinking lemon or grapefruit juice diluted into water the first thing every morning for decades, literally. Yes decades, without going further into dating myself here.
While I too get real tired of wild claims about this or that diet, mainly because there is never good science behind, I do not tire of the potential of understanding foods therapeutic impact on the body. Having worked with nutrition for 20 years, I have seen so many diets come and go, it drives me nuts, that we have to make something so simple, so very complicated.
It is actually quite simple: stop eating extremes, stop eating restrictive, figure out why your health is not good and treat the underlying cause of that.
Read More
Best sleeping position to detox your brain
The majority of the clients I see, who suffer from headaches/ migraine attacks, describe that their pain tend to start at the left side of the brain. And there is a good reason for that: the lymphatic system of the brain, which is meant to clear waste away from the brain - so-called glymphatic transport system - is situated at the left side of the brain! Furthermore, sleeping on your left side has shown to increase circulation and is often recommended for those with heart disease or high blood pressure. This position allows for better oxygenation of the entire body.
Remember you are only as healthy as your symptoms and/or lab work!
You can be asymptomatic and have “hidden disease” bad biomarkers - why testing is imperative if we want to prevent disease.
You can have symptoms and your blood labs come back within range - why you want to work with a qualified health practitioner who understand different ways of testing and their relevance for your symptoms to get answers to your suffering. Remember: blood work is THE LAST place imbalances show up.
There is no such thing as a symptom “just being a symptom”.
A symptom is the body’s way of telling you something is wrong, why we should be on a investigative journey to find out why we are suffering with certains symptoms and what might be the cause of them.
When dealing with headaches and migraines, a key factor is to test for toxic waste that tends to accumulate over time in the brain.
Especially mycotoxins from mold exposure is known to be a major contributing factor. When our brain is full of toxic waste, the drainage pathways are often blocked and we become overly sensitive to “everyday” toxins like alcohol, histamines, sulfur etc.
Apart from treating the core reasons why we have pain in the brain, research suggests we will benefits from sleeping on our left side to help utilize gravity with clearing out toxic waste from our brain while we sleep:
“Gravity affects the movement of blood and CSF through the brain, and therefore sleep position will likely play a role in the clearance of waste products from the brain. Both intracranial pressure and cerebral hemodynamics are influenced by body posture, and patients with dementia were found to spend a much larger percentage of time in the supine position compared to controls, establishing an association between time in supine position and dementia. An important factor in this clearance pathway is the stretch of nerves and veins in each position. Glymphatic transport is most efficient in the right lateral sleeping position, with more CSF clearance occurring compared to supine and prone”
Read the full study on how to harness lifestyle choices to improve brain health: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/11/868 Feel free to share.
Read More
Did you know that figs actually contain compounds that help the body detoxify from fake estrogens (xenoestrogens from chemicals and mold etc.) in the body?
If you struggle with hormone imbalance don't treat the hormones!
8 out of 10 people struggling with hormone imbalance is due to hormone disruptors present in the body - chemicals, mold and/ or certain heavy metals.
If you fail to test for the causes of the hormonal imbalance, you will be stuck taking often very high dosages of bioidentical hormones. Hormones - regardless of being bioidentical or not, are never without risk. While they can be an absolute game changer for treating issues related to menopause (female hormone decline) and andropause (male hormone decline), what I’ve found in 80% of cases is that you can get the body back to balance with either no hormone therapy or with the bare minimum IF you first treat hormone disruption issues.
This is because mold and various hormone disrupting chemicals often attach themselves to our hormone receptors, blocking bioidentical hormones from attaching.
So treating hormone imbalance with hormone therapy is the wrong way to go in 8 out of 10 cases.
You can read more on how various toxins from mold cause dangerous high estrogen levels here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/zearalenone
Read More
Aloe vera is nature's alternative to neurotoxin botox
Did you know that aloe vera has molecules called sterols, and that these sterols promote the production of collagen and hyaluronic acid, which helps the skin retain moisture.
A study from 2009 in the Annals of Dermatology, found that just 1200 mg/d, a 1/4 teaspoon, of pure Aloe Vera gel will significantly reverse the signs of aging skin within 3 months.
In this study they focused on dietary intake of aloe vera - for best results I’d combine oral intake with using it directly on your face daily.
Read the full study here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2883372/
Read More
Stop injecting yourself with a known neurotoxin!
I am all for reversing signs of aging, but we have to be smart about it. And injecting a known neurotoxin compound straight into our body is both dangerous and plain stupid.
And using it to treat “headaches” and migraines is the most disturbing thing ever - there is a reason why your head is in pain, and masking it by injecting a neurotoxin is not the way to go about it.
Far too many of us have chronic health issues already happening when we are in our mid thirties - a ridiculous early age to suffer “aging” issues and chronic health concerns. This is purely a reflection of not investing in our health early on - and let’s face it: environmental chemicals and wireless harmful technology (emfs) have never been more “present”, so I am not saying it’s easy today, but it is possible.
We need to start connecting the dots of why we are unwell and not expect to look and feel great by masking it up with medicine and toxic injections. This will in many cases come back to bite us in the derriere sooner or later.
Read how botox injections are causing lameness (fibrous myopathy): read the full study here.
Read More
Do NOT take vitamin D in multi-mineral supplements! (it doesn't get absorbed)
It’s not new knowledge, but it is still one of the more frequent mistakes I see done: taking vitamin D mixed with other minerals such as with calcium.
Fact is, when you mix vitamin D with minerals it gets degraded rapidly - which is why you should always take vitamin D isolated in its own supplement, if you want to actually absorb what you are taking.
Read the study here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/326928
Read More
Magnesium is the no. 1 most commonly found deficiency today
It would be optimal if we could eat enough of all the vitamins and minerals, because food is more recognizable to the body and it is easier to absorb. The sources of magnesium in our food products include whole grains, nuts, sprouts, legumes, cocoa, meat and vegetables. However, what I see when I test, is that many lack it - in 9 out of 10 cases, we see a deficit of magnesium. Magnesium is, together with zinc and silica, among the minerals we commonly find is difficult to obtain an optimal level of through our food because the soil is so depleted and our demands for these minerals have increased due to various stressors in modern life.
Read More
ARTICLE feature: Women’s Health - 7 Essential Supplements to Keep You Healthy
“As a woman, you have unique nutritional needs when compared to men. And in a perfect world, you’d meet all those requirements through a balanced diet. But in reality, eating healthy isn’t enough.
“A key thing I see a lot of women struggling with is being undernourished–in large part, due to depleted soil which results in our fruit and veggies only containing a fraction of nutrients compared to what they did 50 years ago,” says Christina Santini, clinical nutritionist and owner of The Nutrition Clinic in Los Angeles, CA. “This is easily a recipe for disaster because both our overall health and hormones along with our appetite control center is tightly regulated by how nutrient dense our diet is.”
So even if you eat a wholesome, balanced diet, proper supplementation is key–especially during the winter. Here are the best women’s supplements to keep you healthy and vital all season long–and for years to come.”
I am interviewed for an article on women’s health in alternative medicine read on here:
https://alternativemedicine.com/vitamins-supplements/irreplaceable-supplements-for-women-in-the-midseason/ and feel free to share it.
Read MoreEssential minerals in today’s world - NEW TALK (Zoom webinar - Danish only) 2nd of March
Minerals are one the single most important factors in overall health status. We will go over the most important minerals to support gut health, immune health, mental health, skin and bones. To sign up for webinar go here: https://tidslerne.nemtilmeld.dk/294/ Please share.
Read More
Study finds: How long-term use of Botox actually accelerates skin aging
A 2016 study published in PLoS One found that Botox leads to loss in tissue density and bone volume, among other side effects. In short: Botox is not harmless and seems to accelerate skin aging (thin skin) when used long-term due to its muscle weakening effect.
Read the full study here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5056741/
Read MoreIs a calorie a calorie? Stanford professor explains bad science.
This is a must see, if you are stuck on counting calories.
Read More
Why I use grapefruit seed extract oil in nose oil for my clients
A majority of clients show decreased drainage of the sinuses when they come in for a thermography scan. Not only does poor nose breathing affect brain functioning, it also impairs fat metabolism and can even negatively affect our facial features!
Many of us women will spend endless amounts of money on vanity stuff like fillers, botox, face lifting, serums and all sorts of stuff that promise to keep us young, yet the secrets to growing older gracefully and looking youthful is a reflection of our inner health. Something to many of us simply scoff at til we are desperately sick. Rarely, do we link our health to our skin elasticity, cellulite and darkness under our eyes - yet we should, because when we show signs of premature aging and early onset of graying hair this is a reflection of biochemical imbalances and nutrient deficiencies. Things that in the long run cannot simply be fixed with hair color in a bottle or a magical serum or filler.
Nose breathing (or rather lack thereof) being a prime example of something few os uf think would affect both our waistline and facial features. Yet it does.
I’ve been custom-blending nose oil mixtures for all my clients showing impaired nasal breathing containing custom blends of essential oil with grapefruit seed extract in order to combat biofilm, mold spores and research has shown that it also is helpful against viral issues incl. covid. And this makes sense since the primary rout of exposure is through our respiratory organs. Click on to read the study.
Read More