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Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 5
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht2e.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 26, 2015
You're listening to RadioMD. It's time to ask Dr. Mike on Healthy Talk. Call or email to ask your questions now. Email: AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call 877.711.5211. The lines are open.
DR MIKE: So, continuing with our conversation about wound healing, I have a question about a dog bite. It's really not about the dog bite.
"I'm recovering from a dog bite. There's no rabies, just a slow healing wound. I read that certain amino acids are critical to wound healing. Can you please review some of these?"
Yes, so this is a continuation from the previous discussion about wound healing where I talked about calories and making collagen and cell proliferation. I talked about carbs, protein fat, vitamin C, zinc, B vitamins, water --all those are important to any wound. It doesn't matter what caused the wound. But this person is specifically asking about certain amino acids that play a role in wound healing.
I had to do some research here. I was more familiar with more the general nutritional suggestions for wound healing but when it came to amino acids, I did some research and found some interesting stuff. And what I discovered--let me go ahead and --there's two amino acids that are really important.
But then, just doing this research, I discovered some other things like bromelains and glucosamine, aloe vera, curcumin. So, let me just kind of first start with amino acids but then I want to share with you some of the other information that I found when I was researching the amino acids.
So, the first amino acid that seems to be really important to any wound is arginine. I think most of you are familiar -- you know we use arginine, traditionally speaking, for nitric oxide production, cardiovascular system, erectile dysfunction for men, that kind of stuff. There's even a link to testosterone. But arginine also - besides all of that more traditional use - arginine is important to a part of the immune system called the cellular immune response. And it's the cellular immune response that fights bacterial infection.
And, as you know, in open wounds that's critical. Often one of the reasons a wound, especially from a bite -- human, dog, cat, doesn't really matter -- is the introduction of pathogenic bacteria and you get this smoldering ongoing infection that's really hard to treat in many cases. And that leads to this chronic wound that never really closes up. Maybe it does eventually close up. It could take months, even years down the line but now you have a nice scar.
Turns out arginine could really help in this process. It says here, I got this from some research coming out of-- let's see this was the Journal of Nutrition from a Dr. Patel in 2005--he was looking at arginine and found that it was not only important to the cellular immune response but it was also important to protein synthesis at the wound site and increases local wound immune function. He was recommending 17 to 25 grams of oral arginine a day and that's in contrast to the normal daily requirement of 5 grams. So, you're talking about a substantial increase in the amount of arginine for a chronic wound.
And again, it's fighting the bacteria and, according to Dr. Patel, it's also increasing protein synthesis at the wound site.
The second amino acid was glutamine. Glutamine is just critical for fast growing and multiplying cells along with B vitamins; along with zinc. I mentioned those before but in this case, just focusing on the glutamine. Glutamine probably has its largest effect, its greatest effect, I should say, on the proliferation of fibroblasts which are these cells that are important to your eating up the necrotic tissue and laying down brand new connective tissue.
So, fibroblasts play an important role in the closure of a wound. Glutamine has a great impact on those fibroblasts. As a matter of fact, there was, in my research, I came across a couple of pathology books that talked about how during the creation of a wound and in a few weeks after that wound was created, glutamine is one of the major amino acids that is lost during that tissue injury.
I thought that was pretty interesting. They didn't really explain why, but glutamine is depleted during tissue injury. So, that really implies a significant role, obviously, in wound repair. We've got to get that glutamine back into your system. According to researchers, glutamine possesses anabolic properties. That's building-up properties which are effective in wound healing.
But you need amounts about two to seven times greater than required in healthy persons and that came from a Dr. Roth in 1990. So they've been looking at glutamine for quite some time now in wound healing. But you've got to do a lot - two to seven times more than what a healthy person might need.
Now, what about some of these other...So those are the two amino acids--arginine and glutamine--for wound healing. But in this research, as I said, I came across some other pretty interesting stuff. Bromelain from pineapple, some proteolytic enzyme, and I've heard about bromelain's healing properties before.
I even know some plastic surgeons that use bromelain to close up wounds, surgical wounds. It just has strong anti-inflammatory properties and is able to break down and dissolve proteins that need to be broken down in the wound so that you can rebuild that connective tissue. There is even a study showing that bromelain led to a faster resolution of swelling and a decreased dependence on pain medications.
Now in that particular study, it was looking at patients with open wounds from fractures. Those can be horrific open wounds, you know? Bromelain was beneficial in those really horrific type injuries. So, that's very promising. That's bromelain. Now, if you eat pineapple you'll get a little bit of bromelain. It does break down protein, as we said. As a matter of fact, you can use pineapple and stuff like that, papaya, as meat tenderizers, because there's bromelain in there and it breaks down the protein. But you're not going to get enough.
You are going to have to look for bromelain supplement. Glucosamine is very important. I think most of my listeners, you guys are familiar with glucosamine as a joint product, right? Glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin, although I don't use chondroitin. It's too big of a molecule. It doesn't absorb well. But glucosamine is classic for joint health, joint repair. And yes, it's great for wound healing as well. It repairs connective tissue. It repairs skin, tendons, ligaments, joints. Animal studies show that levels of glucosamine increase in injured tissue during healing. So, the body knows it's important so when someone is trying to heal, you can measure a certain amount of glucosamine in the healing tissue.
Now, the human studies, when I was doing my research, the human studies on the effects of glucosamine in wound healing really weren't there yet. There's a lot of cell culture studies. There are some studies identifying the fact that glucosamine is in a healing wound, like I mentioned, but there's not a lot out there about the ability of glucosamine to actually heal, to repair, to regenerate and close up the wound.
So, it's hard for me to even give you a dose on this. But I would, probably, if you want to try glucosamine, you're probably going to want to maybe double what you might normally find in a joint product -- so 1500mg, 2000mg, maybe even 2500mg of glucosamine.
Aloe vera has some healing properties, so that's something else you might want to try. An animal study showed that it's helpful in frostbite, electrical injuries, diabetes. And then, of course, one of my favorites, curcumin, is a great anti-inflammatory. So, there are some suggestions but to answer the question, arginine and glutamine -- good amino acids for healing.
This is Healthy Talk on Radio MD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 4
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht2d.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 26, 2015
It's time for you to be part of the show. Email or call with questions for Dr. Mike now. Email AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call 877.711.5211. What are you waiting for? The doctor is in.
DR MIKE: So, my first question is about a non-healing wound. It most commonly occurs in people who are immunosuppressed, diabetics--really anybody with a chronic disease often has issues with healing. And when I mean wound, this could -- you know, I have this question here from a listener. I don't know he or she.
I don't have a name. Doesn't even tell me what caused the wound. But when we say "wound", it could be a surgical wound -- you know, on purpose. Somebody went in and cut you open to, I don't know pull, out a tumor or infection, whatever. Or, it could be from an accident or trauma.
So, I'm using wound very generally here. But it doesn't, at the end of the day, there's a break in the skin and the body is supposed to be able to heal that, repair that and regenerate healthy tissue.
And for whatever reason -- again in those people with chronic diseases, immunosuppression, they often have a hard time in that healing process and it just doesn't work right. Sometimes it even overdoes it. You ever heard of a keloid? That's one of the scars that really kind of builds up and it's very visible. That's called a keloid. It happens in African-Americans more than anybody else for some reason. We still don't understand. So, sometimes you can get the reverse. You get this hyper healing. Let me just get to the question here.
"I have a wound that won't heal. I don't have diabetes. I write that because that's the first thing people ask. What should I be taking or not taking, to speed up healing?"
Now I'm going to keep to the question here. So, this person is asking taking something, right? So, either medicine, supplements – again, it's not about applying anything but about taking. I'm assuming something like a pill and that's what they are looking for.
And I'm going to stay away from the pharmaceutical stuff and I'm going to focus more on what we can do over the counter. Some basic things that maybe this person or, if you're somebody who has a wound that's not healing properly, it's taking a long time. Diabetic or not, immunosuppressed or not, these are some things that definitely can help with wound healing.
And the first thing -- you know there's a lot here -- let me do this, let me just read off probably the most important things and then I'll get into the specifics as much as I can. So, let me just read off the most important things to wound healing. Number one: calories. I'll get to what that means but you got to eat. Calories are important. Carbohydrates are important.
Protein, fats, vitamin A, vitamin C, zinc, and water. So, let's talk about each one of those individually. Calories: it takes a lot of energy to heal a wound. The larger the wound the more calories you need, right? You have to maintain sufficient energy supplies to have a robust immune response that can bring in the reparative cells. You have to have an energy supply that can produce the reparative hormones, like growth hormones in the insulin, like growth factors that are involved in wound healing.
Often what you see, especially if the wound is large and the person maybe even has an infection from it, obviously that infection has to be treated.
But the larger the wound the less active the person is, the less they feel like eating, especially if they are older. That can be bad and detrimental but we need to make sure that we're getting enough calories to supply this reparative process. There was a study published by a doctor named Leininger in 2002.
I don't have the journal here but Dr. Leininger is really one of the world's leaders in chronic wound healing and he has estimated that especially in older people you might need an increase of up to 25 to 30 calories per kilogram of weight. That's a lot! That's a lot of calories. So, yes, we have to make sure that we're eating enough to supply that reparative process. Carbohydrates are important to wound healing.
Carbohydrates have been shown to help meet the body's heightened energy requirements. That's number one. Number two, they aid in fibroblast movement which is vital in wound healing. A fibroblast is a type of cell that can come in there and eat up some of that necrotic decaying material, help to lay down some new connective tissue for the reparative process, and carbohydrates are important to enhanced white blood cell activity to strengthen your immune system. So, make sure you're getting a nice rich source of complex carbohydrates. Protein--very important and necessary for collagen synthesis. You know, collagen is the main connective tissue.
I mean, there's other connective tissue proteins but collagen is the key one and we have to make sure that we are taking in enough protein to do the normal things protein does. But at the same time increase collagen synthesis for the wound healing process. Along with collagen there would be one of the vitamins that I mentioned here and that is vitamin C.
So, you want to increase your protein intake for collagen. but then you also want to make sure you're getting vitamin C, maybe a 1000 to 2000 milligrams a day.
That's far above the recommended daily intake by the way, which is only about, I don't know, 50 to 100 milligrams. Vitamin C plays an important role in helping the body generate collagen, so as you're taking in more protein you need the vitamin C to activate an enzyme called procollagen hydroxylase.
Procollagen hydroxylase is the enzyme that helps to bring these parts of collagen together to actually make it strong. So, we want to increase calories; we want to make sure we're getting our carbs. We've got to bring in our proteins for collagen synthesis and then we got to make sure that we have enough vitamin C on board to activate that enzyme that makes the collagen as well. Fats play an important role, too.
The essential fats, phospholipid based fats, phosphoryl choline based fats are very important because those aid in the cell membrane and cell structure of the new cells that are being laid down in the wound. So, fats are very important. Zinc. You know, some research looking at zinc in wound healing has been very positive. Zinc plays an important role and I might go ahead and add to this B vitamins as well. So, zinc and B vitamins, they play important roles in cell proliferation and cell regeneration.
So, zinc and B vitamins: if you're eating enough calories, you're bringing your carbs, your fats, your proteins, you got enough vitamin C on board. So, you're producing more collagen and all that kind of stuff. But if you're not aiding in the regeneration of healthy cells which make healthy tissues, the whole process could break down and that wound can take a long time to close up. So, zinc and B vitamins play an important role in cell division and cell proliferation in the closing up of that wound.
And then don't forget about water. You know, when you're trying to repair a wound the larger -- this is even more true -- you're almost in a hyper metabolic state and that can leave your body what we call volume depleted. I don't like to use the word "dehydrated" because if you're dehydrated, you'd be dead. Dehydrated is without water. You'd be like a prune. So, I call it "volume depleted". But when you're hyper metabolic, you're activating all of these cell proliferation pathways, collagen production pathways, immune pathways, you're using a lot of water up, so make sure to remain hydrated.
So, calories, carbs--complex carbs--protein for collagen synthesis, fats for cell membrane structure and function, vitamin C for the collagen production along with the protein, zinc and B vitamins for cell proliferation and closing up that wound, and water for the hyper metabolic state. All of those might be helpful in wound healing.
This is Healthy Talk on Radio MD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Why is preventing C. diff (clostridium difficile) important?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht2c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Stephen J. Schrantz, Jr., MD, MA
- Organization C. Diffense
-
Guest Bio
Dr. Stephen J. Schrantz is a board-certified infectious disease physician at NorthShore University HealthSystem. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Schrantz received his medical degree from The Chicago Medical School. After completing his residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Chicago, he went on to complete a fellowship in infectious disease at the same institution.
His clinical interests include: illness in returning travelers, infection associated with healthcare contact, infections associated with implanted devices, new diagnosis HIV or ongoing care, bone and joint infection, fever of unknown origin, skin and soft tissue infection, and prevention of infection.
He has co-authored many articles pertaining to infectious disease and has been featured on the Chicago news stations, WGN-9, ABC-7, and CBS-2, for his medical expertise. -
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 26, 2015
Anti-Aging and Disease Prevention Radio is right here on Radio MD. Here's author, blogger, lecturer and National Medical Media Personality Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. with Healthy Talk.
DR. MIKE: So, let's continue our discussion about C. diff and get into more the prevention of C. diff, which is really going to be the key. Just as a quick review, C. difficile is a bacterial infection. It happens mostly in hospitalized patients who have been on antibiotics and certain procedures. It causes horrific diarrhea and, of course, this is happening in people that are already sick. That's why it can be so devastating.
So, really, prevention is the key. I'm here with Dr. Steven J. Schrantz. He's a Board Certified Infectious Disease Specialist out in Chicago. He's just been all over the media talking about some of the research he's doing in C. diff.
Dr. Schrantz, welcome to Healthy Talk.
DR. SCHRANTZ: Thanks.
DR. MIKE: I went online and researched in Google and I put "fecal transplant" in. I found that there's a Fecal Transplant Foundation. There's people doing in-home fecal transplants for different things. Why don't you explain what you're doing with this as far as treatment for C. diff?
DR. SCHRANTZ: Sure. My colleagues and myself are looking at fecal material transplantation to mostly treat recurrent C. diff. The way we've proceduralized it is to either give it via colonoscopy or to give it by a quick enema at the bedside. Both have shown to be effective. That's one of the things that we are looking at – what's the best way to do this?
Things are really quickly growing in this field. Now companies have been established that are developing products that are mimicking stool or are stool themselves that people are starting to look at in the home to treat recurrent C. diff. The other interesting area is could we be using this technology - technology sounds like a funny word to use for a stool transplant - we are doing that now earlier for treatment rather than just for recurrent. So, we are starting to look at that.
DR. MIKE: But what does it really do? What is the mechanism of action when you transplant the fecal material into a patient? What's going on there?
DR. SCHRANTZ: I think the easiest way to think about it is that we are re-establishing a balance of bacteria in your colon. As we are learning more and more about the body, this is one of the areas that we didn't understand that much about. Now we are beginning to realize that there are over 5000 different species of bacteria in the colon and they are all working together to provide us nutrients and prevent disease. When a lot of them are taken away by the use of antibiotics, we need to think about re-establishing that healthy bacteria in our colon. And that's exactly what we do. We take healthy bacteria from one person and give it to another.
DR. MIKE: The difference between the fecal transplantation and just a probiotic product is the number of healthy bacteria--the number of healthy species, correct? A probiotic might have anywhere between one to seven species but here you are taking just what's naturally in someone's colon. You are getting a balance of all these healthy probiotics. So, that's an interesting treatment. And you're having some success with this initially, right?
DR. SCHRANTZ: Yes, so studies have been done at our institution but also elsewhere and have shown that this is a very effective treatment for C. diff. I don't want to get into it too much, but people are really starting to think about how else we can look at this. What other diseases are being impacted our fecal microbiota?
DR. MIKE: Let's bring this back to C. diff. Dr. Schrantz, when you talk about treatment, you talk about fecal transplant, you talked about enema, colonoscopy. These are all words that people don't like to hear. So, at the end of the day, prevention is obviously going to be a lot easier. What are we doing in the field of C. diff prevention that you think looks really exciting right now?
DR. SCHRANTZ: In the past, all we've had is making sure people wash their hands and trying to limit the amount of antibiotics that people get exposed to. But now we are starting to think even more about how we can robustly prevent C. diff. One of the products that is being invented and being currently studied is a new vaccine product.
We all know vaccines are a fantastic way to prevent disease. Measles, mumps. One of the things that we all get vaccinated for routinely is tetanus. tetanus is Clostridium Tetani, the bacteria that causes that infection. It produces a toxin and it's the toxin that produces tetanus. The way the vaccine is generated there is they take the toxin and they denature it and they give it to you with the hope that your body gives an immune response to that toxin. So, if it ever sees it again, it recognizes it.
We've taken that same idea and we've applied it to its biologic relative, if you will, Clostridium Difficile. There's now a vaccine that's going to stimulate your body's immune response to the toxin. So, if you ever see it, you don't get the disease. This is an ongoing trial. A Phase III trial they say. There are over 200 sites word-wide that are looking at this and we happen to be one of them. We are looking for 15,000 healthy people who are at risk for C. diff to help us understand whether or not this is going to be an effective treatment.
DR. MIKE: Do you see this vaccine being used in the community or is it really just for people who are coming into the hospital and they get the vaccine? Like that's part of their workup now.
DR. SCHRANTZ: I think that's a fantastic question. I think it's hard to know at this time where the best place to use the vaccine is going to be. I can see it easily being used preventatively in patients that are going to be at risk.
We will be able to establish some known risk factors and once we establish those we say, "Okay. You are going to need the vaccine", rather than giving to infants at birth. I don't think it's at that stage. It is certainly something we can target people who are at risk and give them a vaccine that would prevent a serious complication to the hospitalization that might be coming up or that they might be at risk for.
DR. MIKE: Who's eligible for your study?
DR. SCHRANTZ: We are looking at two groups. The first group is people who are over the age of 50, that have been in the hospital at least twice during the last year and have had some antibiotics. The second group of people are people who are planning a major surgical procedure that is going to land them in the hospital for at least three days after the procedure.
Both of those groups are people who are at risk for C. diff. Anybody who has had C. diff, unfortunately, is not eligible for the study. What's unfortunate about it is that those are the people that really know they don't want to get it. So, we are trying to get the word out to let people know that this is a real problem, this is a growing problem and this is something that we are really working hard to find a good preventative strategy to help people stay healthy.
DR. MIKE: You mentioned that this is in Phase III. So, for my listeners this is kind of pre-market research looking for that approval. What is the timeline? If Phase III pans out and you get the results you want, what are we looking at? A year down the line? Two years? Three years?
DR. SCHRANTZ:I think we are looking at two to three years down the line at this point but that's not up to me. I'm just helping out with the study the best I can. The hope is sooner rather than later. I really think this could help a lot of patients.
DR. MIKE: If my listeners are interested in this, where can they go to find out more about this study? Is there a number or a website?
DR. SCHRANTZ: The website people can go to if they are interested in a study is: www.cdiffense.org and if you are in the Chicagoland area you can call us at: 847-570-3558. We can get in touch with you regarding whether or not you'd be able to participate in the study.
DR. MIKE: Well, Dr. Schrantz, we are going to have to leave it there. Thanks for coming on. Awesome work. Please continue what you're doing because we know that this is serious. It's nice to see that we may have a decent prevention down the line. This is Healthy Talk on Radio MD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
C. diff (clostridium difficile) commonly affects older patients in the hospitals or those placed in long-term care facilities like a nursing home.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht2b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Stephen J. Schrantz, Jr., MD, MA
- Organization C. Diffense
-
Guest Bio
Dr. Stephen J. Schrantz is a board-certified infectious disease physician at NorthShore University HealthSystem. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Schrantz received his medical degree from The Chicago Medical School. After completing his residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Chicago, he went on to complete a fellowship in infectious disease at the same institution.
His clinical interests include: illness in returning travelers, infection associated with healthcare contact, infections associated with implanted devices, new diagnosis HIV or ongoing care, bone and joint infection, fever of unknown origin, skin and soft tissue infection, and prevention of infection.
He has co-authored many articles pertaining to infectious disease and has been featured on the Chicago news stations, WGN-9, ABC-7, and CBS-2, for his medical expertise. -
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 26, 2015
Living longer and staying healthier. It's Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, MD. Here's your host, Dr. Mike.
DR MIKE: So, why am I talking about something called C. diff and why am I worried that you might be at risk for it and why did I bring on a guest who is an expert on C. diff? His name is Dr. Steven J. Schrantz. He's a board certified infectious disease physician at North Shore University Health System. He is also a clinical assistant professor at the University of Chicago. He's co-authored many articles pertaining to infectious disease and has been featured on the Chicago news stations--all the big ones like WGN9, ABC7 for his medical expertise.
Dr. Schrantz, welcome to Healthy Talk.
DR SCHRANTZ: Thanks for having me.
DR MIKE: Why don't we just start out with what is C. diff and why am I having you come on talking about this?
DR SCHRANTZ: C. diff is one of those infections probably many of your listeners have not heard of. C. diff is short for clostridium difficile which is a bacteria that can create a horrible diarrhea and I know nobody likes to talk about diarrhea, but we all know it can be absolutely horrible and this is the worst of them. It's generally acquired in the hospital, so most of the patients that we have that are infected acquired it in addition to some other problem that brought them into the hospital in the first place. Unfortunately, this can make patients extremely ill.
Only about one-third of them are actually acquired out in the communities, so this is mostly a hospital problem. With that being said, they're some of the sickest patients in the hospital already and then this, unfortunately, can be a complication that can lead to death. It's a serious bacteria that secretes a toxin and it's the toxin actually that generates the inflammation in the colon that leads to the diarrhea and that's become a big problem. The current numbers on that, there was just a New England Journal article that was published in April that suggested 453,000 cases in 2011 and that lead to about 29,000 deaths.
DR MIKE: Is that a significant increase from past years?
DR SCHRANTZ: Yes, it has been on the rise and it's been on the rise with each year. Since I've been in practice over of the last 15 years, I've seen it increase every year since then. So, since around the beginning of the decade, the beginning of the millennium, we've been noticing more and more cases and they're getting to be more and more of a problem and we're doing more and more in the hospital to try and help our patients.
DR MIKE: So, describe for me, Dr. Schrantz the type of patients in the hospital that's more at risk for this. Is this somebody's that's going through certain procedures or is just any hospitalized person is at risk? Who's really at risk here?
DR SCHRANTZ: We've identified multiple risk factors for patients that may get C. diff infection. The number one would be being exposed to some antibiotics. What happens is, we give antibiotics for all sorts of infections and, unfortunately, some things that are not infections. It's this overuse of antibiotics that has led to this. What happens is, the intestines kind of clean out all the good bacteria inadvertently by treating the bad bacteria that you're fighting with the infection and that kind of sets up a space for this new infection, this clostridium difficile to take root.
Then, once that's there, it secretes the toxin, as I mentioned, and that leads to the diarrhea. So, antibiotic use is number one. The second thing that leads to risk in the hospital is being exposed to the bacteria and that's what we're trying really hard to contain in the hospitals. We'll isolate patients and we'll make people wear gowns to go in the room to try to prevent it from spreading around the hospital. However, as you can imagine, these are bacteria and it's kind of hard to take every last one of them out.
Then, the third thing would be general kind of patient conditions--things that most of our patients don't have any control over and those are the elderly, the ones that have already had some inflammatory bowel disease, the ones that are immunocompromised due to their chemotherapy or treatment for some other autoimmune condition, organ transplant.
So, any time your immune system's down, you're going to be at more risk. The other thing would be if you have chronic kidney disease. These are things we know suppress the immune system and can lead to, vulnerability to another infection like C. diff. The third one would be something that's very common and that would be the use of acid suppressing medication. So, a lot of people are on medication to suppress the acid in their stomach and some studies have shown that can actually lead to this as well.
DR MIKE: So, are hospitals experimenting in researching the use of, say, probiotics for hospitalized patients, vitamin D, kind of some of the classic immune support nutrients? Anything going on there?
DR SCHRANTZ: Yes. So, probiotics have been looked at fairly extensively and, unfortunately, it's kind of been a mixed bag. Some studies have shown that probiotics can help prevent the infection more in the outpatient setting. Some of the studies that were done in the inpatient settings show not such a great result, but part of that is that, as you know, probiotics are kind of a new area. We're still trying to figure out which are the good bacteria, which ones do we really need and those have been challenges for the study to know whether or not probiotics works. So, I would say at this point, it's a mixed bag. I usually tell my patients, try some probiotics. It's certainly not going to hurt you and they could help.
DR MIKE: Right, right. Yes. Yes and there's also some--and I don't have the research at the top of my head, Dr. Schrantz-- but there were a couple of studies looking at healthy yeast species, not the classic healthy bacteria as a probiotic but certain yeast, certain saccharomyces yeast species, for instance, and I wonder if there's been any...Do you know if there's been any good results there?
DR SCHRANTZ: I don't know anything more about new yeast studies. Certainly, saccharomyces is the one that we see most commonly used in probiotic products so that's been the one that's been most looked at. But again, I tell patients, your colon has over 5,000 different species of bacteria and yeast and when we take a probiotic, we're really just replacing one or two of them, so I think there's a long stretch for us to go in this but I have a lot of hope for the future in that field.
DR MIKE: We do want to see more research in probiotics. What about something as simple as vitamin D and its ability to boost the immune system? Anything, any research there that may help some people?
DR SCHRANTZ: Certainly, vitamin D is something that's been linked to immune health. With that being said, there isn't anything robustly studied and it's certainly not in the setting of C. diff. We know that many of our patients living in these cold winters up here in Chicago are going to be vitamin D deficient, but it's true link to see C. diff as poorly understood.
DR MIKE: Well, I want to in the next ten minute segment, I want to talk more about preventing C. diff. Obviously, it's always easier not to get something. That's the easiest thing to do. But, in the meantime, what do we do for treatment? Are we starting to see C. diff resistance to antibiotics? How do we treat C. diff?
DR SCHRANTZ: Thankfully, we're not seeing a lot of resistance to antibiotics. We have a few antibiotics that work quite well at eradicating C. diff. When patients are initially infected, they will take a new antibiotic and the problem is about twenty percent of patients are going to have a recurrence, so we'll take care of it for a little bit and then it's going to come back and we think that's mostly due to a weakened immune system and some of the things we're doing now, and actually we're doing at our institution is, I don't know if your listeners have heard of this, but we're doing what's called fecal material transplantation now. That's where you actually take stool from a donor individual and transplant it into the colon of an affected individual with the hope of reestablishing that normal bacteria in their colon. That's kind of the new thing.
DR MIKE: You're seeing some good results with this initially?
DR SCHRANTZ:Yes. We've seen some excellent results with this. Now, that being said, we're using it just for the returns and the worst of the worst kind of case, but we are starting to experiment and think about how can we move this further into the chain because we have seen such good success with it.
DR MIKE: Dr. Schrantz, real quickly, is there a number you can give my listeners if they're interesting in looking at this study?
DR SCHRANTZ: That's one study. The other study for prevention that we're looking at is the study I'm helping them with the most which is a new vaccine product to prevent C. diff and this new vaccine-
DR MIKE: I'll tell you what, hold on to that, when we come back, let's get into that new vaccine and the importance of prevention and we can give out that number.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in to hear the latest research on AMPK.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht2a.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 26, 2015
Living longer and staying healthier. It's Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, MD. Here's your host, Dr. Mike.
Dr. Mike: Are natural AMPK activators the new Metformin? Now, I guess we need to discuss some parts of this question before we answer it. You might be wondering what is AMPK? You might be wondering what is Metformin? Those are good questions.
Well, Metformin is a commonly prescribed diabetic drug. It's a prescription drug for Type 2 diabetes. It's a good drug. It does--it works well, brings down blood sugar, but it's a chemical drug. It definitely has some side effects to it and any time we can find things in nature that are more natural that can do the same thing, I think that's better. If I can find something in nature that does the same thing as Metformin but without the side effects; that's just a win-win.
Now Metformin, as a prescription drug, when you take it, it's mechanism of action--what we refer to in pharmacology, the pharmacological dynamics, just a fancy way of saying what it does-- it activates an enzyme in the body called AMPK, adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase. This is an enzyme inside the cell.
This is not a digestive enzyme, it's an enzyme inside the cell and it's a sensor or a switch that helps to turn on and off energy pathways. When AMPK is activated, you tend to switch on pathways that generate energy and turn off pathways that consume energy. So, we see things like fat and sugar levels. All those go down because we're not generating them, we're metabolizing them when you're activating AMPK and that's what Metformin does and that's why it's so successful. It's an AMPK activator. What we have discovered now, is a couple of plant extracts that do the same thing as Metformin and without side effects.
Now, I was explaining this to a friend of mine. I do review some of my segments with some friends here and there just to see what they think, or are they following me, that type of stuff. And she said, she asked me a really interesting question and I wasn't expecting it, but it's a great question and I think we need to discuss it.
Well, if Metformin is an AMPK activator and these two plant extracts, that I'm going to describe in a second, are also AMPK activators, so how come Metformin has side effects and these two plant extracts don't? That's a great question and this, I think the simple answer, or the straight forward answer is, well, Metformin is a chemical. It's unnatural.
Now, in some cases, many of our drugs are based on natural compounds found in plants, but then the pharmaceutical companies will change them just a little bit, maybe to get better absorption, greater effect, what have you and now it's an unnatural thing. Maybe the backbone, if you will, of the drug started with a plant but they changed it enough to where's it unnatural now.
Of course, now they can patent it, make money off of it, but once it's becomes changed and unnatural, it's just harder for the body to recognize it and metabolize it so you get more side effects with it. Natural things--plant extracts, antioxidants, essential oils, all that kind of stuff--your body just knows how to deal with those. The body knows which pathways to throw these natural compounds down so you can metabolize them better.
So, yes, natural things often have less or even no side effects. So, what are these, before I go into a couple of these plant extracts and I do think the research is there to support these as the new Metformin, I really do, I'm not saying to stop your Metformin and go to these plant extracts. I'm just going to present the data to you and maybe you go talk to your own doctor about it, but the data is pretty interesting and pretty powerful. Why does AMPK, which is the cellular enzyme, why does it decrease in activity as you get older?
Well, like everything, our bodies just don't function as well; we don't produce hormones as well; we don't produce these enzymes as well; we don't activate things as well. So, the aging process itself decreases AMPK activation. We also know that overeating does, too. In America, we are-- what's that phrase? Overfed, undernourished. Right?
We're eating lots of empty calories that will decrease AMPK activation which means you're not going to manage energy better and the cells become engorged with fat, for instance, and sugar. Chronic inflammation can also lower AMPK activation. There are natural ways to boost it without taking anything: rigorous exercise, calorie restriction, all of that stuff will help, but you're not going to reactivate the enzyme, AMPK, to the level that you need to say, bring down sugar levels for a diabetic. That's going to take either the drug Metformin or maybe even these plants extracts. Let's take a look at these two plant extracts that could be the new Metformins.
The first one is called gynostemma pentaphyllum and this was studied, as a matter of fact, this was studied several times, in cell culture studies, in clinical research with diabetics, with healthy people and I'm just going to go over one of the published research studies here. This had 24 Type 2 diabetics. Here's a study where they're actually using diabetics. Now, these 24 diabetics were not on any medications at this point.
Why? I don't know, but they weren't and they were given six grams of gynostemma pentaphyllum, which is a plant, and they were given it in a tea form. They compared this to green tea, which is known to help a little bit with diabetics--not tremendously, but a little bit. Green tea will improve insulin sensitivity a little bit, bring down sugar levels a little bit, so there is some benefit with green tea.
I thought this was interesting that they are taking this gynostemma pentaphyllum tea versus green tea in diabetics who aren't being treated. It was a twelve week study. That's a decent amount of time. The results of gynostemma pentaphyllum compared with green tea was this: there was a five-fold reduction in fasting glucose. The average drop in fasting glucose in the subjects drinking the gynostemma pentaphyllum was 54 points versus only 10 points for the green tea.
A fifty-four point drop. That's awesome. That's pretty close to what Metformin does, that's why I said is this the new a Metformin. There is a ten-fold reduction in hemoglobin A1C for the gynostemma pentaphyllum subjects. That's two percentage points versus only 0.2 percentage points of those taking green tea. So when you reduce hemoglobin A1C, that's your overall glycation burden coming down.
High levels of sugar will bind to proteins and that's called glycation, so we're bringing that down with gynostemma. And then, there was a near three-fold decrease in insulin resistance, which is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes. This was published in Hormone and Metabolic Research, 2010. Gynostemma pentaphyllum activates AMPK and you're getting some tremendous blood sugar results from it.
The second extract is known as rose canina, also called dog rose. When dog rose blooms and flowers, it produces what is known as the rose hip, which I think more people are probably familiar with, but when you take some compounds from the stems and leaves of dog rose plants, the effects on blood sugar can be pretty tremendous.
Here, now, this was a mouse study, but we got to start somewhere and it was published in Journal of Pharmacology in 2011. They had some healthy mice and they had some diabetic mice and some of them were given the dog rose, some were given placebo. They looked at these mice for 15 days-- just 15 days--and the mice that were given, whether they were healthy or diabetic, if they were given dog rose extract, there was a significant reduction in blood glucose, a significant reduction in triglycerides, and a significant reduction in total cholesterol.
Why? Because you're managing sugar better by activating AMPK. So, gynostemma pentaphyllum and dog rose extract or rose canina, that's the plant. That combination activates AMPK and has some tremendous effects on blood sugar and very well could be the next Metformin.
Don't stop Metformin. Talk to your doctor about it, but there's some really good results here with natural plant extracts.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD.
I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
A new study shows you work out at a lower intensity when talking or texting on your phone, but higher intensity if listening to music with it.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 4
- Audio File train_your_body/1521tb2d.mp3
- Featured Speaker MIchele Stanten
- Organization ACSM
-
Guest Bio
Michele Stanten, a walking coach (mywalkingcoach.com) and ACE-certified fitness instructor, has been inspiring and motivating people to get active for more than 20 years.
Michele is the author of Firm Up in 3 Weeks and Walk Off Weight, and co-author of Walk Your Butt Off! As the former Fitness Director of Prevention magazine, she created a marathon walking program and coached thousands of readers to walk full and half marathons across the country. Michele has also produced and appeared in more than a dozen exercise DVDs and created numerous audio workouts.
Michele has been a presenter at the ACSM Health & Fitness Summit, serves on the Board of Directors for ACE, and is a member of the Every Body Walks Collaborative. She has written for a variety of publications, including Self, More, Weight Watchers, and Shape magazines. Her numerous media appearances include The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Biggest Loser, CNN, USA Today, and NPR. -
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: May 19, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guest: Michele Stanten
Train your body. Here's exercise physiologist Melanie Cole, M.S.
MELANIE: Are there certain things that go against your workout? You think you're doing so great and you're texting your friend or you're using your cell phone. You're listening to music. Does that hinder or does that help your workout?
That's a great question. My guest is Michelle Stanton. She's a walking coach and an A-Certified fitness instructor and she's been motivating people to get active for a long time--almost as long as me.
Welcome to the show, Michelle.
So, let's talk about things that hinder your workout. Let's start with music, since this seems to be something that has stood the test of time.
MICHELLE: It has.
MELANIE: Music and motivation. So, is music good or bad? Does it depend on the music?
MICHELLE: Music is definitely good. Studies show that it can help you to go faster, go longer, it can increase your pace. So, there's a lot of good things. It makes you feel good and they've found that depending on your musical taste you can get benefits from a wide variety of music. But one of the downfalls with the music here is that a lot of us are listening to it on our iPhones or on our cell phones. So, then we have other options of things to do with our cell phones when we're working out, like talking and texting. And those things may not be so good for your workout.
MELANIE: Okay, so maybe just playing the music and it probably should be motivational music. I mean if you're picking some sad Bread song or something, there I am dating myself, but it's probably not going to be the best to work out to. But the fact that you're listening on a device that you that can do other things, is what you're saying takes you away from the task at hand?
MICHELLE: Yes. And a new study from Kent State University just came out showing that music helps people to increase their speed, it increases their heart rate, and it increases the enjoyment. But, when they were talking on their cell phone or texting, it was a big difference.
Talking increased the enjoyment that the people had when they were on their cell phone. However, it decreased their speed. Their heart rate remained about the same. So, you're slowing down and I've seen this even with clients when I have them wearing heart rate monitors and they're walking at a good pace, and then as soon they start to talk to me, their heart rates dropped. So, we're seeing the same thing if you're talking on your cell phone while you're out jogging or running or you're on the treadmill. And, so you may not be getting the best workout. If your goal is to get a workout in, and we're all constrained by time, so a lot of us want to go for those higher-intensity, short workouts. If you're talking on your phone, you're not getting the most benefit.
Texting is even worse. If you're texting on your phone when you're out, your speed decreases, your heart rate decreases, and you don't get any boost in the enjoyment of your workout. So, definitely skip the texting. Talking may have a place. For example, if you're going out for an easier workout, or you're really not motivated to go out and talking can to a friend while you're going is going to get you to go out there. So, it can have some benefits, but, again, if you want to maximize your workout, put your phone on airplane mode so you're not going to be distracted by a text or a phone call, and then play your upbeat music and get out there and go. And that's going to give you your best workout effect, when you've got your cell phone.
MELANIE: One thing that cracks me up. People drive around to get closest parking spot when they're going to the gym.
MICHELLE: Yes, absolutely!
MELANIE: You mentioned some of that. And, I am somebody who my kids say "Mom, really?" because I park as far away in the parking lot as I can.
MICHELLE: Oh, I do the same thing!
MELANIE: You know, to force us to walk. But, we're in the field and we know that these little things make a difference, but when you're at the gym to try and get that front space, that's funny.
MICHELLE: Yes. Or, taking the escalator instead of the stairs to go to the gym if it's on the second floor, or third floor, or fourth floor. So, yes, one of the things. Studies have shown this: that when people initiate exercise programs, not all the time, but some people do, so you have to be conscious of that. They then, in turn, compensate for that by decreasing activity throughout their day. And, we know that we all sit too much. In fact, there was a great study that was done on marathoners and half-marathoners. So, they were training 6-8 hours a week. But, they were still sitting anywhere from 8-10 hours a day.
So, even athletes can sit too much. So, if you are starting a workout, don't let your workout be an excuse to sit on the couch more or to not park farther away. All the research is showing that those exercises, those workouts don't make up for the fact that we lead such sedentary lives.
MELANIE: Absolutely!
MICHELLE: And we need that movement throughout the day for maximum health. To decrease our risk for diseases and by sitting too much, even if you are doing that workout, you're shutting your body down. If your goal is weight loss, you're making it tougher.
MELANIE: Well, and the thing is that people do use that as an excuse. "Oh, I did my workout this morning, so now it doesn't matter if I eat this or if I have a donut for breakfast or if I sit at my desk all day or if I ... because I worked out this morning!" But, really, it has to be something you continually do throughout the day and what do you mean when you say some people focus too much on HIIT, because you know, HIIT Training was at the top of the American College of Sports Medicine's fitness trends. People are doing high-intensity interval training all over the place now and thinking that this is just what they need to be doing. And, I'll tell you what, Michelle, some of my clients will say to me "You're not working me hard enough," if I stop the HIIT training for a few minutes, if they're not breathing heavily, if they're not grasping at their sides, they feel like I'm not pushing them hard enough.
MICHELLE: Yes. Well, and we have this mentality that more is better. And HIIT workouts are fabulous. There are tons of benefits, but these are not meant to be done every day. In fact, some studies have shown that if you over-do these high-intensity workouts, you decrease the benefits that you're going to get. So, you're negating the benefits. High-intensity interval workouts, you are meant to do for short periods of time and only two to three times a week. You need those rest days, those recovery times in between. You don't get stronger and get better and get healthier during the workout. It's that rest period afterwards that your body is rebuilding and getting stronger and if you're not giving it that time to do that, then, again, you're not going to get the best benefits. You're going to over-train, and then you're going to be at more risk for injuries and illness and then that's just going to sideline you even more.
We've kind of lost this low-intensity, long, slow duration types of workouts and in reality, those provide benefits. Athletes--even though they perform at high intensities--the best training regimens for them, to get the most, is they only train at those high-intensities for 10-20% of the time. And the other part of their ... 80-90% of their training is at moderate to low-intensity.
So, we all need to mix up our workouts. In fact, in one study, runners who increased their low-intensity workouts improved their 10K time 30% more than runners who added higher-intensity workouts.
MELANIE: Wow!
MICHELLE: So, there is a benefit and we really need a mix of these types of workouts.
MELANIE: We do.
MICHELLE: So, don't just go all with HIIT.
MELANIE: And, so listeners, you know, as she says, more doesn't necessarily mean better. You don't have to be gasping for breath throughout your whole workout. Some of the workout should involve flexibility and stretching and a little yoga and your abdominals and strength training and cardio-vascular, and mix it all up and for 10 minutes in the workout, jump around. Do your jumping jacks, on and off the treadmill. Whatever it is you want to do, you can do those things, but it doesn't have to be the whole entire time. So, now, in just the last 30-45 seconds, Michelle, wrap it up against the moves that work against our workouts. Things that we're doing that are hindering the results that we get.
MICHELLE: The other biggie is to make sure you're getting enough sleep. That's a key part of that recovery and rest to get the most benefits from your workouts. That's when hormones like our growth hormone are active, and as we age, growth hormone decreases, so now, if you're cutting back on your sleep, that hormone is taking a nosedive. So, you're not getting those benefits. And, they've shown when athletes add extra sleep to their cycle, they get faster, their accuracy improves, their reflexes are faster, and they're happier.
So, that's helping with athletes is going to help all of us. We know that less sleep makes it harder to lose weight and increases our risk for diseases. All the reasons we're working out.
MELANIE: And that's great information. You're listening to Train Your Body right here on RadioMD. Thanks so much for listening and stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Melanie Cole, MS
Choosing the right breakfast foods can help control cravings and reduce snacking the rest of the day.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File eat_right/1521nd2b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Torey Armul, MS
- Organization Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
-
Guest Bio
Torey Armul, MS, is a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics and award-winning nutrition communications expert. She counsels active adults on food and fitness, weight loss, gastrointestinal disorders, prenatal nutrition and emotional eating. Armul also works as a health coach consultant for an employee wellness company and a mobile health app. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and earned a master's degree in Human Nutrition from University of Illinois at Chicago.
-
Transcription
Melanie Cole (Host): Do you know the power of breakfast? It’s often considered the most important meal of the day by health experts. But can choosing the right breakfast foods help control cravings and reduce snacking for the rest of the day? My guest today is Torey Armul. She’s a board certified specialist in sports dietetics, an award-winning nutrition communications expert. Welcome to the show, Torey. So, breakfast. We’ve always heard “the most important meal of the day.” Is it really the most important meal, and can it help us with the rest of our day’s eating cravings?
Torey Armul (Guest): Hi, Melanie. Yes, it really is just about the most important meal of the day, and there’s two big areas to consider with breakfast. The first is the research behind breakfast, so what these studies are actually showing breakfast can do for us. There’s some pretty strong research that eating breakfast, especially something with protein, is linked to increased fullness, fewer cravings, and even reduced snacking later on at night.
Melanie: Okay. So what do you think makes the components of a healthy breakfast but one that’s enough to fill us up and keep us going through the day?
Torey: The best components for a healthy breakfast are going to be protein, especially because, again, that has been linked to increased fullness, fewer cravings, but also fiber. So you really have those two buckets you want to fill. And some good protein options. That may be greek yogurt, other low-fat dairy, eggs, nuts, nut butters, and then some great fiber is going to come from fruits and vegetables. Also, whole grains. So maybe whole wheat toast, wheat pancakes, or oatmeal.
Melanie: Okay. So, eggs. I’m just going to start there because eggs have gotten a bad rap over the years. It’s something I love to feed my children almost every morning, along with their smoothie and a bowl of fruit. Eggs: good, bad? Can we do that?
Torey: I am a fan of eggs. And as with everything you’ll hear dietitians say often, everything in moderation. So if you’re having a few eggs a week, that is perfectly fine. That’s perfectly healthy. And I even like keeping the yolk in. A lot of people think they need to do egg whites only to stay healthy, but the yolk actually has a lot of important nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and even healthy fats that are so good for us and can also help keep us full throughout the day.
Melanie: How can we make breakfast more entertaining, a little bit more varying? Because it seems to be sometimes to be the same thing every day. You’ve got a bowl of fruit; you do something with the yoghurt. How can we make it more interesting?
Torey: The best way to make breakfast more interesting is to have fun with it. Try new fruits and vegetables. Let your kids have a hand in the grocery store what new produce to pick. And also, planning ahead can really help. Some people start their breakfast the night before by making overnight oats, where you kind of simmer some raw oats with some milk and some fruit. So you can really play ahead of time even if you don't have much time in the morning to get ready. Advance planning with breakfast can be very important and actually kind of keep you excited about it and really allot some time for your breakfast.
Melanie: What about on-the-go breakfasts? You see granola bars and now these protein bars. There’s so many on the market, Torey. What do you think about those and when people have no time for breakfast, they grab one of those?
Torey: I usually say when you have a choice between something for breakfast and nothing for breakfast, always go for the something. Now, of course, you want the something to be moderately healthy, so check the ingredients labels. Try to find something where you can recognize each ingredient in that nutrition facts label. You’re going to see all sorts of products with the granola bars, and they really vary, so it’s hard to pinpoint one brand that does it best. So you really need to compare your nutrition facts labels and your ingredient list and see which ones are the most wholesome natural food.
Melanie: Do you have any recipes you’d like to share for smoothies or things you like to get us going in the day, something that you yourself would want to serve?
Torey: Well, when I do smoothies, the biggest consideration is you want to make sure is you have some protein in there. So of course, it’s super easy to make a smoothie at home with some frozen fruits, Greek yoghurt, water, milk, chia seeds. There’s a lot of fun things you can do with smoothies. But the number one consideration is, again, to make sure you add that bit of protein. So that may be some skim milk with the smoothie, some Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese. Sometimes you can even add some peanut butters for more of a savory smoothie. So making sure you’re really kind of adding that protein to the smoothie is important. And that goes with all sorts of breakfast foods, too.
Melanie: Now, if someone is really trying to lose weight, the first impulse is to skip breakfast and then try and make it up at lunch or dinner or snacking throughout the day. If you really want to have that willpower and success in losing weight, what might a good, healthy breakfast look like?
Torey: A good, healthy breakfast is going to have a few different components. First, always make sure you’re having some kind of fruit or vegetable with your meal. We really should be eating about 50 percent of our foods from fruits and vegetables, but of course, very few people actually do that. But it’s really a good idea to have. So making sure that you’re really loading up on the fruits and vegetables, because that’s that important fiber that really helps to fill you up and keep you full throughout the day. You also want to make sure you have that protein again, and then ideally some healthy fats, too. So you can find that in olive oil, in avocado, in nuts and seeds, so those are the three big points that it would be great to hit. And one other thing about breakfast, too, they found that people who eat breakfast are more likely to exercise more often, and it may actually increase the amount of calories burned during exercise. So the importance of breakfast even goes beyond what you’re eating. It can actually translate into how you’re acting and exercising the rest of the day.
Melanie: Torey, people hear avocado, oatmeal, foods that you and I both know are so good for us, but they also worry that those are high in calories, so then they would contribute to weight gain or not help us to lose weight. Clear that up for us.
Torey: Some of the really healthy foods you hear of, like avocado and nuts, can be higher in calories. And part of the reason for that is because they’re chockfull of healthy fats, which tend to be higher in calories gram for gram than protein or carbohydrates. It’s one of those food groups that you want to watch, so keep in moderation. But I'm a fan of healthy fats because they can really fill you up. So I would rather a client eat something with some good, solid healthy fats and maybe 200 or 300 calories and get really full from that than try to snack the rest of the day trying to get full. It’s a really a question of which would you rather, and I would rather a client eat the real food and really go for something that they want and get full from that than keep chasing the satiety with more hundreds and hundreds of calories.
Melanie: What about the sugar levels to keep a stable blood sugar level during the day? Does fruit hurt that? Because it’s pretty high in sugar, vegetables maybe being lower. But people tend to think of fruit with breakfast. Does that mess with our sugar levels in the day?
Torey: I am a big fan of fruits. And even though it does have some sugar, they’re natural sugars. So one thing I say to clients who are looking to lose weight is no one ever gained weight on eating too much fruit. I really have truly never seen that. So I believe that fruit is such an important part of a healthy diet because it’s full of fiber, and that can help fill us up and keep you feeling full and satisfied until your next meal. So it’s not akin to eating half a cup of sugar or eating some candies. Fruit is much richer in nutrients and fiber, so I believe it’s actually a critical part of a healthy weight loss diet.
Melanie: In just the last few minutes, Torey, if you would, give us your best advice for a good, healthy breakfast to keep those craving for snacks down a little bit throughout the day and even possibly help us lose weight.
Torey: My best advice for a healthy breakfast is to, first, make sure you’re having something every day. And that requires some planning ahead. We may not always have 5, 10, or 15 minutes in the morning to make breakfast, so make sure you’re thinking about breakfast when you’re at the grocery store, the night before. You always want to have a plan for a healthy breakfast. That’s first. Second, just make sure your breakfast has some protein and fiber because we know that research shows that helps to fill you up and control cravings the rest of the day. And then ultimately, routine is good when it comes to breakfast, because we talk about willpower and we know willpower is a finite resource. And you don't want to use up all your willpower at breakfast. You have a full day of food choices and other decisions ahead of you. So I'm a fan of finding three or four solid healthy breakfasts and getting them in a rotation so it’s something you don't have to think about, something you don't have to dwell on every morning. It can become very automatic for you.
Melanie: Thank you so much. It’s great information. You’re listening to Eat Right Radio with our good friends from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. For more information, you can go to eatright.org. This is Melanie Cole. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Melanie Cole, MS
What you eat, what you do, how you act, and how you think can heal you.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 5
- Audio File naturally_savvy/1521ns3e.mp3
- Featured Speaker Alexandra Jamieson, Certified Holistic Health Counselor
- Book Title Women, Food & Desire
- Guest Website Alexandra Jamieson
- Guest Twitter Account @deliciousalex
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Guest Bio
Alexandra Jamieson is a Certified Holistic Health Counselor, food blogger, and professional gourmet chef. Part of the dynamic duo behind the award-winning 2004 documentary, Super Size Me, Alexandra has appeared on Oprah, CNN, and MSNBC, among others. She is the author of Vegan Cooking for Dummies (Wiley, 2010), Living Vegan for Dummies (Wiley, 2009), and The Great American Detox Diet (Macmillan, 2006). Alexandra offers one-on-one and group coaching sessions aimed at leading healthier, fuller lifestyles. She resides in Brooklyn, New York.
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received Yes
- Host Andrea Donsky, RHN and Lisa Davis, MPH
Masturbation is often thought of as something to be shameful of; especially in women. But, this natural technique has so many health benefits.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 4
- Audio File naturally_savvy/1521ns3d.mp3
- Featured Speaker Alexandra Jamieson, Certified Holistic Health Counselor
- Book Title Women, Food & Desire
- Guest Website Alexandra Jamieson
- Guest Twitter Account @deliciousalex
-
Guest Bio
Alexandra Jamieson is a Certified Holistic Health Counselor, food blogger, and professional gourmet chef. Part of the dynamic duo behind the award-winning 2004 documentary, Super Size Me, Alexandra has appeared on Oprah, CNN, and MSNBC, among others. She is the author of Vegan Cooking for Dummies (Wiley, 2010), Living Vegan for Dummies (Wiley, 2009), and The Great American Detox Diet (Macmillan, 2006). Alexandra offers one-on-one and group coaching sessions aimed at leading healthier, fuller lifestyles. She resides in Brooklyn, New York.
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received Yes
- Host Andrea Donsky, RHN and Lisa Davis, MPH
Chemical pesticides have been linked to diseases such as cancer. What are some safe, non-toxic alternatives?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File naturally_savvy/1521ns3c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Lisa & Ron Beres, Certified Green Building Professionals
- Book Title Just GREEN It! Simple Swaps to Save the Planet + Your Health
- Guest Website Ron and Lisa: The Healthy Home Dream Team
- Guest Facebook Account https://www.facebook.com/RonandLisaTheHealthyHomeDreamTeam
- Guest Twitter Account @RonandLisa
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Guest Bio
Lisa and Ron Beres are Certified Green Building Professionals, Building Biologists and published authors of several books including Just GREEN It! and the children's book, My Body My House. In addition to testing the health of homes, their consulting business includes celebrities and Fortune 500's. They are award winning television media experts and have appeared on The Rachael Ray Show, The Suzanne Show, The Doctors, Fox & Friends, The Today Show with Matt Lauer, NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams, Discovery’s Greenovate and Chelsea Lately on E!
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received Yes
- Internal Notes repeat guest
- Host Andrea Donsky, RHN and Lisa Davis, MPH
