Mind Body & Spirit

by Dr. Matthew Anderson 12/19/2008
Being truthful can sometimes be politically incorrect but it can also be helpful and even liberating. Today I want to share a dark truth about Holidays in America (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, add your own). I also want to offer a few tough-minded guidelines that will help you get through them.

Truth: The media loves to describe the Holidays as full of fun, family, good food, and even love. The fact is, however, for many people, the Holidays suck.

For far too many people, the Holidays are about the following:

I could go on with my list but it is depressing me. You get the point.

Question: Is there a way to get through all this insanity? I have a few ideas that have worked for me.

Dr. A’s Guidelines for Surviving the Holidays

Finally, hold your head up, look around, and pay attention. Another politically incorrect person may be nearby and in need of a hug. Go for it.

This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative health solutions for mind, body and soul.

Natural stress relief focuses on alleviating the symptoms of stress, such as tension, anxiety and mild depression, while also getting the stress response regulated so it will function normally again.

Conventional medicine doesn’t have a lot to offer for those feeling the negative effects of stress. Common anxiety medications get prescribed, but they’re not a cure, nor do they teach you how to manage what’s causing those stressful feelings in the first place. Also, many of these medications have side effects such as headaches, nausea, and dizziness.1

A natural view steps back and takes a look at the whole beyond the symptoms. By working to naturally resolve the effects of stress, you’ll achieve relief along with long-term healing rather than just masking over your symptoms with a pill.

Natural stress relief measures can help you modulate your individual stress response – a response we all have. We also all have some degree of stress in our life. But what triggers the stress response in one person can be completely different from what sets it off in another. Loss of a spouse, a friend, a job, or a home – each of these is a life-disrupting event that can trigger the stress response, and it’s only natural that this response would be high when confronted with one of these major issues.

However, the stress response can get into a pattern where it reacts to a high degree to whatever it’s confronting: a traffic-clogged commute, the aftermath of a car accident, health concerns or paying bills. Add to that worrying events taking place in the world and the daily struggle to accomplish an endless list of tasks, and you have an idea why stress is such a widespread health issue.

There will always be stress in life, so it’s fruitless to hope to eliminate it entirely, and in fact, some degree of stress is good. But when it interferes with your ability to work, your relationships, your eating habits and your sleep, it has gone from a natural response to one tipped completely out of balance. What happens next is the health equivalent of a downward spiral. In many cases of chronic stress, the response has become a bad habit, and it’s one that needs to be broken as soon as it’s recognized. A chronic stress response can and will undermine your health. If it can be caught and turned around before it ignites a chronic health condition, so much the better.

Your body is designed to react to what it perceives as a danger. The pituitary and adrenal glands release stress hormones which initiate physical changes such as elevated blood pressure, increased respiration, a quickened heartbeat and elevated levels of cortisol. These changes are ideal if you are confronted with a life-threatening situation and need to react quickly.

The health problems begin when this crisis-induced stress response has become the normal response for your body. When your body habitually reacts as if it’s in mortal danger, the process itself begins to wear your system down. What’s ironic is the very system that’s responsible for protecting you can end up undermining you and becoming the cause of life-threatening danger.

All of that excess cortisol can lead to a chronic state of inflammation, leading to a smorgasbord of debilitating health conditions that can affect your health, such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Even your brain is affected by stress, with high levels of cortisol interfering with its ability to function, such as in the hippocampus where your memory and learning center is located.2
Another danger to your health that can be directly attributed to stress is how you manage that response: Some people find they eat more, stop exercising, increase their intake of alcohol, start smoking – all in a misguided effort to alleviate their tension. And the farther they stray from healthy habits, the more they’re adding fuel to the firestorm going on inside.

It’s paramount that you bring your stress response back into a state of balance. You need to reverse the health-wrecking habit of a hyper stress-response as soon as possible. To do this may require a multi-pronged approach in order to achieve optimum results.

Effective, natural solutions will actually help boost your relaxation response, which is a healthier habit to develop. Dr. Herbert Benson wrote The Relaxation Response, which became a bestseller. Why? Because so many people have found their stress response to be overactive, and they seek a long-term, effective solution.

A natural stress-relief starter kit

Visualization: Your relaxation response can begin with your mind. Picture a scene that makes you feel relaxed. It could be a beach scene, trees, desert sands – whatever brings you a sense of calm and releases tension. When you feel tension coming on, use this personalized imagery.

Meditation: Researchers have been studying the effects of meditation on stress response, and one study recently found that both meditation and yoga can change your gene response to stress.3 Find a quiet, comfortable spot and focus on a word, phrase or sound. Don’t be alarmed when your mind wanders – just bring it back with your focus word. Your breathing should begin to slow as your body eases into a relaxed state.

Exercise: Study after study shows the positive role exercise can have in reducing stress4. It releases endorphins, the so-called “feel good” neurotransmitters.

Adaptogens: This is a class of herbs that help the body find balance. They include Rhodiola rosea, ashwagandha and ginseng. Each can be found in supplement form.
To normalize your stress response will take a little time and effort, but the very act of doing something to feel better and in control will be a positive incentive to continue the pursuit. You may have to experiment until you find the combination that works best for you, but the reward will be a healthier outlook and a body that has become a less fertile ground for disease to take hold.

References

http://www.adaa.org/gettinghelp/AnxietyDisorders/Medications.asp#b.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050517215308.htm.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113735.php.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise-and-stress/SR00036.
This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative health solutions for mind, body and soul.

by Dr. Al Sears 09/04/2009
Your morning cup o’ joe may protect you from one of the most dreaded diseases of our time. A new study says that drinking five medium-sized cups of coffee a day could lower your chances of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.1

The study followed mice that were bred to develop Alzheimer’s. After two months of drinking water with 500 mg of caffeine added — the equivalent of five 8 oz. cups of coffee or two venti hot coffees from Starbucks — the mice performed much better on memory and thinking tests compared to mice that were given only water.

In fact, the memories of the caffeinated mice were on par with mice that didn’t have dementia at all.

Plus, the mice taking caffeine had a 50% reduction of beta amyloid, a protein often found in Alzheimer’s patients.2

And it’s not just Alzheimer’s. At least six separate studies indicate that people who drink coffee on a regular basis are up to 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s. In fact, the newest Parkinson’s drugs contain a derivative of caffeine.3

Here’s how you can take advantage of coffee’s health benefits:

Drink it fresh. Grind your coffee at the time you wish to drink it. This maximizes the flavor and prevents against oxidation. Coffee’s healing properties are best when brewed fresh.

Drink it black. The best benefits of coffee are delivered in its purest state. Adding dairy products and sweeteners may alter the taste, but it will also diminish the rewards.

Don’t drink coffee close to bedtime. The brain, and your body, both require rest. Caffeine stimulation could negatively affect your sleep patterns.

Steer clear of flavored coffee drinks. The flavors are most likely artificial (i.e., high fructose corn syrups) and are often laden with unwanted calories.

If you’re not fond of coffee, here are few natural caffeine sources to consider:

Black tea/Green tea –Black tea and green tea both contain caffeine. A cup of black tea has roughly 40 mg of caffeine. That’s about half as much caffeine as a regular cup of coffee. Green tea, a popular and healthy drink, contains approximately 20 mg per cup.

Guarana — A popular ingredient in many energy drinks, guarana provides solid, energy-boosting benefits without the coffee jitters. The berry that Guarana comes from is high in healthy fatty acids, which are absorbed slower than water-soluble caffeine. This gives guarana a slower release time than coffee.

Remember, non-organic coffee is heavily sprayed with pesticides. And most popular brands use chemicals in the manufacturing process. So whatever caffeinated beverage you drink should be from organic sources. And if you don’t want to get your caffeine from tea or coffee, I recommend an herbal source, rather than caffeine pills.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, M.D.

References

Arendash G.W. et al. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. July 2009
Chuanhai Cao et al. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. July 2009
Brunilda N. Coffee: the New Health Food? April 12, 2004 www.somalibantu.com.
This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative health solutions for mind, body and soul.

by Dharma Singh Khalsa 11/07/2008
As I write this article, the stock market continues its wild gyrations and the economic and other rampant stress of our times is beginning to take its toll on our health.

This is not just my opinion, it’s also been shown in a recent poll published by the American Psychological Association (APA).1 Money and the economy topped the list of stressors for at least 80% of those surveyed. Finances now overshadow the more usual daily stressors of work and relationships, with 46% of people reporting that their stress is due to worries about providing for their family’s basic needs.

This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative health solutions for mind, body and soul.

My own research clarifies that when you feel you have less control over your stress, it definitely causes you more concern. It raises your internal mind, body, and emotional threat level.2

Women Worse Off

Unfortunately, the brunt of this economic stress is falling upon women more than men. According to the APA’s poll, compared with men, more women say they are stressed about money, the economy, job stability, housing costs, and health problems affecting their families.

Ladies of the boomer generation (ages 44-62) and Matures (aged 63+) are most likely to report the economy as a significant stressor, while women in general rank financial worries above personal health. Female Boomers report increases in stress associated with their job stability and health problems affecting their families.

Moreover, mature women are reporting dramatic increases in stress associated with family health concerns (87%), the economy (92%), and money (77%).

Beyond that, Generation Xers (ages 30-43) and Millennials (ages 18-29) are not immune from financial worries either. Generation Xers are the women most concerned about money (89% report money as a source of stress) and Millennials are most concerned about housing costs as a source of stress (75%).

The current work from the APA clearly reveals that our economic stress is causing more than half of Americans to report irritability, anger, fatigue, headaches, and sleeplessness. What’s worse, these stress sufferers say they self-medicate by over-eating unhealthy foods, over drinking, and generally straying from healthy habits.1

In addition to the above-mentioned symptoms, the rise in stress-related issues can:

Weaken your immune system
Raise your blood pressure
Disturb your sleep
Lead to depression
Cause memory loss
So What Can You Do?

As seen in the picture below, in 1949, a Swiss physiologist named Dr. Walter Hess, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine by revealing that two separate and distinct centers exist in your brain. The one on the left is the stress center, while the other one is an anti-stress center.3

An x-ray of the brain’s stress (left) and relaxation centers (right).

When you are able to activate the anti-stress spot by following the directions below, many wonderful health-promoting events occur. Your blood pressure goes down, your pulse decreases, your unhealthy stress chemicals plummet, and, perhaps most importantly, the amount of oxygen your body needs goes down.

This puts you into a true anti-aging zone, because, when you use less oxygen, you create fewer free radicals, which are a hallmark of the aging process.4

Additionally, as emerging medical research shows, the relaxation response changes your genetic expression for the better. The reason is because unbalanced stress shortens the tip of your gene called the telomere, and relaxation lengthens your telomere because it stops the harmful effects of stress on your genes. This new search shows that relaxation techniques such as meditation, actually “turn off” the disease-promoting process stress causes.5

Over the years, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of research studies revealing many health and healing benefits of regular relaxation techniques such as meditation, prayer, visualization, and so on, including the picture of a much younger brain. Regions involved in memory and attention were thicker in people who meditated regularly. While these areas tend to shrink with age, older meditators were able to ward off some of this shrinkage.6-7

Meditation has many other positive benefits as well. As seen in the illustration below, in many research studies over three decades, meditation has been shown to help your heart, reduce anxiety, soften chronic pain, and increase longevity.6

Regular meditation improves health and reduces disease.

A compilation of studies modeled after an article published by the Transcendental Meditation people many years ago. I wrote about it in Meditation as Medicine.

Here are the four steps needed to enter into the stress-mastering relaxation zone:

Comfort: You don’t have to sit like a pretzel to meditate. You can enter the zone in a soft chair. One caveat is that you don’t want to be so comfortable that you fall asleep.
Quiet: Your relaxation time is a special time, not to be interrupted by checking e-mail, blackberries, cell phones, or pets. Your time to meditate is sacred. If your spouse or significant other doesn’t meditate, they shouldn’t be in the room with you. The same holds true for children.
A Tool: In the basic form of relaxation, your tool can be any thought, sound, short prayer, or phrase upon that you wish to focus. It can literally be anything. Even paying attention to your breath works well. Ideally your word should be something easy. Examples are peace, love, heal, or the word one, which has a long history of being used in the research on basic relaxation and meditation.
An Attitude: Once you begin the process, you’ll be surprised to discover that your mind reacts like a four-year-old child. If you ask a four-year-old to sit still, they will probably end up running all around the room. It’s the same with your mind. At a time when you expect your mind to calm down, it actually speeds up. Why is this so? Well, all the pressure you have stored inside your mind is pent up in there. So, when we begin to elicit the response, it’s as if a trap door opens and “boom,” all these thoughts come flying out:
“Why didn’t I go to the bathroom before I started?

“I have to balance my checkbook.”

“I sure hope we get that mortgage.”

“Where’s my brother? He was supposed to be here an hour ago.”

“Whatever happened to Joan from the first grade?”

When you practice this technique, your mind will be bombarded by thoughts.

I’ve been doing it for three decades and it still happens to me every day. Not to worry. This is simply the normal stress-releasing process and is expected. It’s what you do with the thoughts that really count.

And what you do is — just let them go and return to your word.

As one of my patients from England once said in a great Beatles accent, “Oh, Dr. Dharma. You mean you just start all over again?” That’s right. When other thoughts enter your mind, you just start all over again. The way you do that is by going back to your focus word. For example, let’s say your word is one. When other thoughts enter into your mind, you simply say to yourself: “Oh, well, [your name], “relax, one.” That’s all there is to it.

To end the technique, simply inhale, hold your breath for a moment, and exhale. Then inhale again, slowly stretch your arms up, exhale, and relax. Slowly open your eyes and hold your gaze on whatever you see, for about one minute. Then inhale, exhale, and take your time getting up.

Believe it or not, you only have to do this for 10 minutes at least once every day, preferably before breakfast, to get the full effect. If you can do it a second time in the afternoon, all the better.

You can use a digital clock or even open your eyes and look at your wristwatch. Just don’t use an alarm, because it’s too startling. What you’ll find, with time, is that your mind will automatically know when the time is up.

It’s easy.

Best of Blessings,

Dr. Dharma

This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative health solutions for mind, body and soul.

by Dr. Tim Reynolds 05/12/2009
started my adult life jumping out of airplanes at age 17 as a member of the US Army Airborne and then went on to Special Forces Green Beret training. Talk about learning to live with passion. Everything we did, we did all out. This experience was where I learned the philosophy of work hard and play hard! It was also where I adopted the philosophy of “physical fitness: the difference between self confidence and self doubt,” which I still believe to this day.

I have maintained this philosophy through my adult life and it has served me well. I still love working hard and I still love playing hard.

Since becoming a physician, I have had the privilege to interact with many people and even impact their lives. I have noticed a huge difference between those who live with passion and those who simply live from day to day and how it affects their health. Those who face each day as an adventure and are excited about opportunities coming their way are definitely in better health. They miss fewer work days and are happier about what they do.

Here’s an example. In my clinic we handle many cases related to occupational medicine and workman’s compensation. It is interesting to watch someone with a workman’s comp injury and see how their philosophy of life affects their ability to get back to work. Those who live their lives with passion and are happy with their lives heal their injuries more quickly and get back to full duties in a much more judicious fashion.

On the other hand, those whose life’s philosophy is “what can others do for me?” or “how little work can I do and still get paid?” tend to milk the same injury for as long as possible. In fact, they will begin to become their disease or illness. As they try to get more time off and prove that they are in fact injured, they start to take on the characteristics of a person with that injury even if there is no physical evidence they actually have the injury.

What can we learn from this phenomenon? The mind is a powerful tool and we need to be careful of how we feed it and where we direct it.

Our lives and our health are a reflection of our thoughts. The way we choose to live begins with the things we choose to think about and the things we allow to enter our minds. If we continue to fill our minds with garbage from the media, magazines, and television, our lives have very little chance of taking on the excitement, adventures and opportunities we all hope for.

However, if we take that same time and fill our minds with the opportunity to learn by taking classes, reading good books and listening to positive educational/motivational material, our lives will take on a whole different meaning. It won’t happen right away. At first, you may not even notice a difference. But if you continue to listen to and read from good teachers, you will start to see your life change for the better.

Every day we are blessed with the opportunity to create the life of our dreams. We only get one opportunity to live on this earth (as far as we know), so why not make it everything it could be? Why not take this day to say we are tired of living the way we have in the past and then realize that the past does not equal the future?

Geese fly south in the winter because they are geese — they have no choice and it is what they are programmed to do. We are not geese; we are humans; and we can choose to do something else. We are the only species on earth that can make plans and set goals and realize the physical equivalent of our thoughts.

Health is a journey. It begins with the mind. Your particular philosophy on health and what makes for a healthy body will far outweigh anything you do at the gym. Living a life full of passion and joy and adventure will also lead to a life of health. So make a decision that this is the day you truly turn your life into one of adventure and romance and fun. Live every minute and live with passion.

This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative health solutions for mind, body and soul.

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN

When our eyes don’t take in enough sunlight, we can “experience a serious mood change… sleep too much… have little energy… crave sweets and starchy foods… [and] feel depressed,” according to the National Library of Medicine. Studies link those symptoms to low levels of brain chemicals like serotonin and melatonin. Not only do we need sunlight in our eyes to produce those neurotransmitters, we need sunlight on our skin to produce vitamin D.

We’ve long known that vitamin D is critical for building and maintaining strong bones. But a big surprise in recent years has been that vitamin D also plays a critical role in insulin regulation, making it important for the prevention of diabetes and heart disease. It’s also important for the regulation of your immune system, with studies linking low vitamin D levels to an increased risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancers, as well as to multiple sclerosis (an autoimmune condition).

It’s hard to get enough sunshine during the winter months. And in summer, many avoid exposure to direct sunlight because they’re concerned about skin cancer. In addition, drugs used to treat heartburn, acid indigestion, and ulcers can deplete the body’s stores of vitamin D.

What this means is that you have a good chance of being deficient in this critical vitamin.

It’s easy to restore the vitamin D your body needs. You can get it by spending a few minutes in the sun each day. You can also get it from food sources, especially eggs, fatty fish, and fish liver oils. And if you don’t like fish, there are supplements.

When taking supplements, avoid the old form of vitamin D (ergocalciferol). Vitamin D 3 (cholecalciferol) is the best form to use. Experts are now recommending that we get at least 1,000 IUs per day.

[Ed. Note: It truly is possible to improve your health just by making wise choices when it comes to diet and lifestyle. James B. LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN - founder of the LaValle Metabolic Institute and a nationally recognized expert on natural therapies - can give you easy-to-understand directions for living the healthy life you've always wanted. Learn more here.

Dr. Al Sears and Jon Herring reveal the amazing, life-saving benefits of sunshine in Your Best Health Under the Sun.]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

By James B. LaValle

I read a study recently that could be some of the most important health news I’ve seen in a long time, especially for you “apple” shapes out there. Yet there have been no headlines – at least not yet.

The study – published in the Journal of Nutrition – found that taking in plenty of non-starchy vegetables and more magnesium helped increase the production of adiponectin, a hormone found in fat cells. The researchers were careful to look for any other factors that could have affected the results, but found none.

Adiponectin increases the effectiveness of insulin. In other words, it helps your cells absorb glucose. If you have plenty of adiponectin, your insulin production is lower, your blood sugar is better controlled… and that adds up to a lower risk of diabetes and heart disease. But it may also mean you would have a much easier time controlling your weight.

Unfortunately, when we gain weight – especially in the waist or belly – adiponectin production goes down. (This is one reason belly fat is so harmful for your health.) And, indeed, the researchers found that the higher the subject’s adiponectin level, the lower the subject’s weight. The lower the adiponectin, the higher the weight.

So the big news is that simply by increasing your intake of non-starchy vegetables and supplementing with magnesium, you can increase a hormone that will help you lose that belly fat and decrease your insulin resistance.

Reduce your intake of starchy carbs – especially refined flours and sugars. And eat eight to 10 servings of non-starchy vegetables every day. Non-starchy vegetables are very low in carb grams and calories. They are nutrient-dense foods – loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and other beneficial phytochemicals in a very low-sugar, high-fiber package.

A little extra magnesium helps too. The best food sources are nuts, seeds, and beans. However, I recommend taking in at least an extra 300 mg per day, especially if you show any signs of being low in magnesium (e.g., tense and tight muscles, constipation, or restless leg syndrome). The best forms are magnesium malate or amino acid chelates like magnesium glycinate or magnesium taurate.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

By Kelley Herring

The effect of stress takes a nasty toll on your life. But it doesn’t just damage your psyche. It harms your body too.

Stress increases dangerous inflammatory factors called cytokines… damages the hippocampus, causing memory loss and mood disorders… reduces the brain’s ability to repair itself… increases abdominal fat… interferes with thyroid function… and even increases the stickiness of the blood (which can lead to dangerous clots).

But there’s something very simple you can do to help alleviate the effects of stress. Stimulate your vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve controls the relaxation response through the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. And this anti-stress machine can be turned on in a matter of minutes.

Here is the exercise.

Take a deep breath into your belly to the count of five. Pause. Breathe out slowly to the count of five. Keep your belly soft. Repeat 5 times.

With this simple and effective exercise, you instantly reduce your levels of cortisol and help your body get back to a peaceful state of balance.

In addition to a few minutes a day of soft-belly breathing, you can bolster your body’s defenses against stress by engaging in regular vigorous exercise, eating a clean diet of healing foods, and enjoying fresh air and sunlight.

[Ed. Note: These days, you’ve got more stressors than ever before. If stress doesn’t kill you outright, it most likely WILL plunge you toward all the diseases of aging, much faster than you deserve! Learn how to make your body more resilient to stress, so you can have the health and energy you need to build a brighter future.

Eating right goes a long way toward making you feel better.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

By Kelley Herring

Nuts are undoubtedly one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Research shows that nut noshers have the slimmest waistlines and a significantly lower risk of heart disease.

But the benefits don’t end there. Nuts are packed with life-essential minerals, including magnesium and selenium. And they are a concentrated source of brain-nourishing and blood-sugar-balancing fats.

Still, manufacturers have found a way to meddle with the nut and muck up Mother Nature. In fact, the “Diamond” brand has been turning treasure into trash by adding genetically modified corn oil and BHT to its walnuts, hazelnuts, and other naturally pure tree nuts.

Protected by their shells, nuts are a relatively “clean” plant food – unadulterated by pesticide toxins – even when grown conventionally. But add corn oil – which is high in inflammatory omega-6 fats as well as being genetically modified almost 90 percent of the time – and you’ve completely changed their lipid profile and biochemical nature.

Corn oil itself is a preservative, but Diamond adds BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) to ensure shelf stability. BHT prevents oxidation. It is used to preserve food odor, color, and flavor. It is banned in Australia, Japan, Romania, and Sweden due to its carcinogenic activity. In the United States, BHT is prohibited only in infant formula.

Avoid inflammatory corn oil and carcinogenic BHT by reading the labels before you buy. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that many inexpensive brands of nuts are free of these unnecessary additives. They contain only one simple ingredient: “nuts.”

Just take a few moments to pick the treasure… and leave the trash.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

By Kelley Herring

Do you struggle to lose weight – even though you’re eating a clean diet and getting vigorous exercise? If so, there’s something else you need to do: Balance your bacteria.The gastrointestinal system is home to trillions of microbes that carry out dozens of essential functions. They train the immune system, synthesize vitamins (including B vitamins and vitamin K), and regulate hormones. And new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows they affect weight too.While the “good bugs” in the intestinal tract (Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus) promote digestion and elimination, harmful gut bacteria (including Bacteriodes and Clostridium) slow the motion that propels food forward, causing stagnation and weight gain.

The good news is that “friendly bacteria” can crowd out those fat-storing flora. All you have to do is feed them the right food. Boost your friendly flora with a high-fiber (especially soluble fiber) diet that’s low in sugar. Aim for at least 60 percent of your food to be fresh (not processed), and always opt for organic and naturally raised.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.