Transcription:

RadioMD Presents: The Dr. Holly Lucille Show | Original Air Date: April 29, 2015
Host: Holly Lucille, ND, RN

It's time to separate fact from fiction and health in health ads. It's time for the Dr. Holly Lucille Show. Here's Dr. Holly.

DR HOLLY: Hello there. Thanks for coming back and thanks for being with me. You know, we talk about this all the time. I mean, I know I listen to RadioMD and I certainly talk about it every single day.

I talk about, to my patients, our environment. I was at a conference, actually, a couple of weekends ago, and I heard the doctor tell say that if you are not learning more about environmental medicine--and what I mean by environmental medicine is the study of what is happening and evolving in our environment and how it affects our body--then, I can't remember the exact word, but we aren't being great doctors. That's what I heard him say.

I think it's true because when we look at contributing factors and every time somebody kind of steps up, bellies up to the bar, bellies up to my office and starts talking about their issues and what's getting their attention regarding their health, I'm always looking for the multitude of contributing factors. It's very rare that I have a patient come in and they... I do.

I actually have one story that I can remember in the last decade that, well, maybe not, but I'll tell you. She, tripped off a curb and she broke her toe but we also had to sort of understand why at her young age, 37, she was able to break her bone maybe so easily. We got into a little bit of that but for the most part, what I'm saying is there are multifactorial things that contribute to why people are feeling poorly--especially in our day. So, you think about, endocrinal hormone imbalances and the symptoms of that. So, moodiness, hot flashes, insomnia, irritability, weight gain, you name it. So, I've got to talk about this environment and then some stuff we can do about it because, honestly, today I want to focus on women.

But I got to tell you something. This is an equal opportunity issue. I promise you. We are on bombarded with endless toxins from the environment. Well , our body continually works to sort of deactivate and eliminate harmful substances because we have a process to do that. We do! But it's the sheer volume that may challenge even the most optimally functioning detoxification systems.

We do have a process to detoxify things. But when there's an overall body burden that just gets so big our body's ability to deal with these substances maybe further compromised by also nutrient deficiencies in the diet and also by things like lack of exercise; lack of vitamin D or getting out into the natural sun. Obviously, they can also be compromised by too much chronic stress, if that makes sense.

So, what I'm going to talk about are nutrients that are critical in aiding the body's natural process.

So basically, we're not going through a detox that's going to take you ten days without food or if you're just going to be juicing, nothing like that. These are everyday things that you can actually do to aid the body in naturally detoxifying and restoring cellular health and restoring, also, adrenal function. And the result of that which I love the most, is hormone balancing.

So, one of the thing is that, I can't even talk enough about is glutathione. Glutathione is composed of the amino acid glutamine, cysteine and glycine. All three together, they're building blocks and glutathione exists either in a reduced state or an oxidized state. It is the reduced state--this is very important—in which virtually all of the vital biological functions of glutathione are carried out.

That happens a lot in our bodies. We have to kind of do things to them in order to get them available to ourselves. As a consultant in of the natural product industry, I've got to tell you something. It only works if you take it in a cantilever of functional dose. One of the glutathiones that I love the most is something called "clinical glutathione". It's by Terry Naturally and it is something that you can actually can take. It's liposomal, so you suck on it and it has some incredible studies behind it as far as being a very, very powerful antioxidant. It is a vital factor in detoxification processes and a critical component in maintaining really, really healthy cells. I mean, it is the Mac Daddy Mac when it comes to antioxidants, in my opinion.

Also, I think what's really important is targeting nutritional support when we are talking about toxins for the adrenals--the proper balance of stress hormones. So, this is cortisol. You can't have it too high because your thyroid is not going to function well. And guess what? Your thyroid cannot function well if you have too low either. It's an important factor in achieving optimal health.

The adrenal glands are responsible for so many things so many—the synthesis of hormones. I mean, there are sort of fifty hormones that the adrenal glands are responsible for and one of the things that we have that you all have heard about I know and that is adrenal dis-regulation, I call it. Adrenal fatigue or adrenal burnout is where just the chronic stress that we have in our society just leaves us feeling almost like we got bit by a tsetse fly. We are so exhausted or relying on coffee to keep us awake during the day or relying on other things to help us get sleep at night. Our adrenals and the cortisol also sets that circadian rhythm--that sleep/wake cycle. So, it's extremely important to support the adrenal glands. You can do that. Vitamin C is the number one vitamin to do that.

As far as hormone health in this modern day, a hundred percent. Also vitamin B6, which is often depleted by stress. B6 is very, very important. Take 100 mg twice a day. L-Tyrosine. L-Tyrosine is a precursor to both adrenal and thyroid hormones. It's very important. And also licorice root. Licorice root actually increases the half-life of cortisol which allows your adrenal glands to rest even if you keep demanding from them. So, that's really important to understand.

Now as we're moving down and to continue on, these ingredients helping you to detox on a daily basis and really provide optimal health and optimal hormone health. Let's talk about optimizing estrogen metabolism. This is very, very, very important. I wrote a book called Creating and Maintaining Balance: Women's Guide to Safe Natural Hormone Health.

Gosh, it was over ten years ago. It was eleven years ago. The story that I talk about in that book, unfortunately, is still a really prevalent story. Think about it. A book written eleven years ago that, hey, maybe we've gotten that information from all the different ways that we can get information and we've done something about it as a society; as a whole. But, honestly, the idea of estrogen dominance, or that we live in this chemically dependent society and there are these estrogen and endocrine disruptors, they're called.

Theo Colborn. and I read this book a while ago and I kept calling him a "he" and it's a "she". She passed recently. Theo Colborn wrote a great book called Our Stolen Future. It's all about endocrine disruptors or our hormone disruptors and these are estrogen mimickers. They are a big problem but what we can do. They're everywhere. Plastics and pesticides and car exhausts. Soaps and emulsifiers and household cleaning products and health and beauty aids.

I often mention on the show EWG.org, Environmental Working Group.org. They've got a great informational website and you can have a cosmetic database there. You put your cosmetics in. Because you put your cosmetics where? On your face. It soaks up. These endocrine disruptors, they're fat soluble. They can pass through our skin and they start acting like hormones that should not be there. So, two things. Both diindolyl methane or something called DIM.

It's a dietary something called indole that's naturally present in like broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables and it can improve this hormonal imbalance by shifting the way that estrogen is metabolized. And DIM's been in the body building world for a long time. Once again, component of like cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, you name it, that increases lean muscle mass and really helped be an efficient fat burner, too. That's diindolyl methane. DIM. I love estrobalance from enzymatic therapy. Also calcium D-glucarate.

Calcium D-glucarate can help get out these bad estrogens. They bind to those estrogens, alright?

So, really important. Think about really supporting the adrenal glands. Making sure you got an absorbable glutathione on board and also get that liver pumping so that estrogen can get metabolized in a safe and healthy way. You got diindolyl methane or calcium D-glucarate. The impact our modern day influence, I've got to tell you. Environmental exposure, stress and nutrient deficiencies can take a toll.

But with that RadioMD and me to help us through it.

Thank you so much. I am Dr. Holly Lucille. This is Mindful Medicine. You can always follow us on Twitter or Facebook and your RadioMD. We will be right back.