As humans we struggle with the concept of balance. Yet science shows that nature wants balance. And instead of completely staying out of the sun, we would benefit greatly from understanding how to reap the health benefits from daily sun exposure while protecting especially our face and décolleté from damage.
Sunlight has several health benefitting aspects - one being: it actually helps us stay lean!
When skin and the eye are exposed to UVR there is a release of α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) which naturally lowers our appetite and increases our energy expenditure.
For those who want the chemical breakdown of exactly how this happens here goes:
In the central nervous system, α-MSH is cleaved from proopiomelanocortin and then released into different hypothalamic regions to act on melanocortin 3/4 receptor-expressing neurons, lowering food intake, and raising energy expenditure via appetite suppression and sympathetic nervous system.
Most of us know this intuitively, as we tend to lose weight without struggle, when we go on summer-vacation. And this is the reason for it.
In the study they found following:
“In our animal studies, ongoing exposure to low dose ultraviolet radiation (UVR, found in sunlight) reduced weight gain and the development of signs of cardiometabolic dysfunction in mice fed a high fat diet. These observations suggest that regular exposure to safe levels of sunlight could be an effective means of reducing the burden of obesity.”
Read the full study here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5086738/ And feel free to share.
Read MoreYet 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 MoreWe 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 MoreLast month I wrote a post about intestinal blockage and how serious a disorder it is - especially because it is high season for this disorder during the holidays. However, now entering January and relentless slimming season, this may also turn out to be high season for intestinal blockage due to the increase in prescriptions of certain popular weightloss medications.
Thinking of kick-starting January's weight loss with medical help?
Ozempic and Wegovy - both drugs where side effects include reducing intestinal peristalsis to such an extent that the FDA issued a letter in the autumn in which they made it clear that they will henceforth warn against acute intestinal blockage on the packaging. The risk of intestinal blockage is something most of us incl. health professionals and doctors have been unaware of with this apparent weight loss miracle drug.
Intestinal blockage is potentially life-threatening and if you already have a history of digestive disorders, you should stay far away from these medicines. Regardless of the fact that obesity is linked to a domino effect of biochemical problems in the body, the risk of intestinal blockage is simply too serious.
Last year, I admittedly also considered whether this remedy could be included as part of a broad-spectrum aid to kick-start weight loss in clients with a particularly addictive relationship with food - both to break the habit but also to change the brain's reward system. Unfortunately, it has become more apparent that the problems with muscle loss (leading to reduced metabolism - and increased tendency to gain more weight after treatment) as well as the side effects around digestion - and especially the risk of intestinal blockage - are not sustainable nor worth it.
Read MoreI’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 MoreDid you know that Christmas is high season for intestinal loops?An intestinal loop is a bowel obstruction which can be a serious condition. It can occur in the large or small bowel. A small bowel obstruction commonly occurs where loops of intestine can easily get blocked or twisted. Christmas is jam-packed with delicious food, and this is definitely not a raised finger that you should fast or replace roast pork with carrot sticks or other life-draining and unrealistic advice. But it's also high season for hospitalizations with intestinal loops, and there's nothing funny about it if it happens to you or yours.
Intestinal loop is a serious disorder, and the mortality rate is approx. 20% for those where operative intervention becomes necessary! Therefore, the best thing you can do - as with all other diseases - is prevention.
Intestinal loop is a condition where the intestine twists around itself, so that the intestine is pinched off. When this happens, you will very quickly experience massive pain in the stomach because the food accumulates and the intestines are distended. If not treated in time, bacteria from the intestines begin to penetrate the gut lining and cause serious inflammation and potentially deadly blood poisoning. What are the symptoms of intestinal loop?
Read MoreMany of us turn to clean skin care products - it has almost become a gimmick at this point in time. Especially as many of the so-called clean beauty products do nothing good for the skin - they don’t contain actually skin benefitting ingredients, but can get a label touting “clean” simply by avoiding the main allergy-triggers.
Although it is a good idea to focus on the health-damaging chemicals around us, it is even more important that we understand how to prioritize our efforts to not get overwhelmed with insignificant details. I.e. it doesn’t matter if a little perfume has been added to a soap (unless we are hyper allergic), but it does matter how clean our drinking and bathing water is and whether we cook and store food in contact with plastic (heat/ acid effect primarily). It is most often from such boring everyday sources that the majority of the chemicals we get back on the lab tests done on clients are derived from. Chemicals related to increased disease risk incl. cancer.
Read More8 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 MoreIt 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“Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.”
Read the rest of the article here: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/we-have-no-reason-to-believe-5g-is-safe/ Remember I am doing a live webinar on where the science stands on EMF (in Danish only) sign up here: https://christinasantini.com/events/2023/5/4/evidence-for-the-tinfoil-hat-why-we-have-to-deal-with-the-radiation-problem and feel free to share.
Read MoreEveryone in Hollywood seems to be on Ozempic these days, but should we be thinking twice before we take the short-cut to weightloss?
The HighWire recently discussed exactly this topic. Click below to watch the video
https://thehighwire.com/ark-videos/the-dangerous-side-of-ozempic/
Read More"Many studies have shown that electromagnetic fields can have destructive effects on sex hormones, gonadal function, fetal development, and pregnancy. So people must be aware of the negative effects of EMFs. Although the impact of the waves varied at different frequencies, it is better to stay as far away as possible from their origin because of the risks associated with exposures to these waves. In addition, people can use natural antioxidants to help reduce the effects of these waves."
A review on Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and the reproductive system: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5014506/
In short: stop carrying your phone on your body especially during pregnancy or when wanting to become pregnant as it may affect both your own fertility as well as your offspring’s development (autism is a big worry right now that seems to be linked to excessive EMF exposure).
Keep your phone 3 meters away from your body to limit EMF exposure when not using it, and stop scrolling on it like it is your best friend, cos it is not. We are all wasting our lives scrolling non-stop on these smart phones and all these smart devices are under suspicion for wrecking our health big time.
Read MoreI’ve written an article based on my 10 years experience working with mold illness cases - part two of the series is out now (Danish only): Click here to read it on p 20. This article is written for the non-profit organization LNS for clients and therapists wishing to integrate conventional and holistic medicine and better transparency in health care. I recommend joining the benefits of this organization by becoming a member. You can read more about it here (Danish only): https://lns.dk/ and feel free to share.
Read MoreChristina Santini has been the first therapist in Europe to treat mold exposure since 2013. Did you know that 25% af astma is linked to mold exposure? How about we treated the cause instead of the symptom! It is important to get a handle on our basic needs for healthy air and clean water before we embark on more advanced dietary trends - especially since diet does not help much if our water and air are highly polluted. Gain insight into whether this is a problem for you and possibly related to your symptoms and get help to find out how it can be best managed.
To sign up for webinar click here: https://tidslerne.nemtilmeld.dk/295/
Please share.
Read MoreMinerals 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 MoreI’ve been treating mold illness as one of the first practitioners in Europe since 2012. To this day it still surprises me how deeply unhealthy homes many of us live in, yet we are hyper focused on our eating habits. However, it doesn’t matter however healthy you eat, if you are literally inhaling toxins with every breath you take.
We need to master the basics of clean air, pure water supply and solid sleep in order to expect any miracles happening our way. These are basics we cannot eat our way out of nor exercise our way out of.
Some of us need to relax and eat a slice of cake and focus on what is really making us sick - which may have nothing to do with what we eat (or don’t eat).
This is why it is a good idea to get checked out, so we are not stuck guessing what is wrong with us and trying every new diet fad under the sun to no avail.
I wrote an article about how our moldy homes are making us unwell - read it here (in Danish only): https://lns.dk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/W2-22_LNS_NATUR-HELSE_2022_Maj.pdf (page 18 and on)
Read MoreI have written about the health issues surrounding man-made radiation from wifi, smart phones and cell towers for the Danish health organization MayDay. Read it here:
https://www.mayday-info.dk/elektrosmog-den-skjulte-sundhedsbombe/
MayDay is one of the organizations I myself have chosen to support, because they do a huge amount of voluntary work to ensure free speech, balanced debate and oppose monopoly on our health - you can support them for only DKK 200 annually:
Support MayDay here: https://www.mayday-info.dk/indmeldelse/
Read MoreStudy shows that exposure to EMF slows growth of beneficial bacteria. This results in that pathological organisms can dominate. In the study they used kombucha to compensate for this mechanism, which showed good results. Nevertheless it is extremely worrying that our gut microbiome is impacted by EMF. Approaches to balance intestinal flora for those of us struggling with EHS or other chronic conditions possibly linked to excessive EMF exposure is needed in addition to most importantly minimizing exposure. Another study showed that certain types of pathogenic gut bacteria gained resistance to antibiotics when exposed to EMFs emitted from WiFi and cellular phones. This can become a problem because as these bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, they become more difficult to eradicate from our gut if we have an overgrowth.
Read MoreRecently I read yet another post from one of the more famous health and nutrition influencers claiming that bread and beans are “inflammatory” and should be avoided by all who wants health. This is one of the most stubborn health myths around, as everyone and their grandma has gone glutenfree these days. And unfortunately many self-claimed health gurus keep pushing this bad science. The majority of the people pushing this have zero education in nutrition, and it shows. They may be great medical doctors, good chiropractors or just savvy businessmen, who now make a living off selling health gadgets after their own history of burn-out. However, this does not make their insight into nutritional biochemistry great - just like I shouldn’t go around offering surgery on everyone and sundry just cause I saw a youtube video about it. That would be pretty crazy, frankly. And I also think it is pretty crazy for everyone to wake up and write books and blogs about nutrition with zero educational background or in-clinic training. There are a lot of issues with this type of bad science being promoted.
Read MoreEverything in life is about timing. We know this intuitively - we can have the right credentials, but if we present ourselves to a potential business opportunity at the wrong time, we lose out. We can meet “the right person” at “the wrong time” - and we miss out.
I’d say the most important thing in life is neither talent nor hard work, but mastering the art of timing.
This essentially means we can get away with working smarter rather than harder in life at whatever goal it is we want. This doesn’t mean lazy, it just means understanding how to roll with resistance and surf on the waves, rather than swim against them and end up utterly burnt out. Which is, inevitable what many A-type personalities do: they keep at it til they are completely beyond exhaustion. While hard work can be admirable, there is nothing admirable about working yourself through to the bone. Life is supposed to be fun and we want to thrive.
And if we want that, the single most important thing to learn is how everything in life revolves around timing.
This applies especially to our body - how it secretes digestive enzymes and hormones at certain times throughout the day. How eating too much too late can interfere with proper detoxification at night and deep sleep. These are proven today to be irrefutable facts according to modern science and its study in circadian rhythm. Ironically this advice has been around since ancient time according to Ayurvedic teachings.
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