Health Issues from Busyness

Most of us are busy.  We have packed schedules, commitments, and are often quite overextended, especially during the holidays. Daily life comes along with endless activities, opportunities, and commitments. Before we know it we are exhausted, fatigued, anxious, and possibly even depressed. All these can lead to a degradation of our immune system which naturally opens the door for chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer.

Let’s talk about the word “busy”.  We wear it like a badge of honor or maybe an Olympic gold medal.  We compare ourselves to others thinking no one can be busier than we are!

Webster defines busy as:

1. engaged in action

2. full of activity

3. foolishly or intrusively active

4. full of distracting detail

My definition of busy (when used as an excuse for not doing what is best regarding health, business, etc.) is the person has not made ____(fill in the blank with health, self-care, business. etc.) a priority in their life. Interestingly enough, when a client comes to me for weight loss they struggle with making their health a priority and/or lack discipline.  However, with a client comes to me with cancer, they have all the time and resources needed to fight it. They are no longer “too busy”.

Health Issues from Synthetic Vitamin Supplements

The knee-jerk reaction to a nutritionally imbalanced diet is usually synthetic supplementation. Why?  It’s easy.  “I didn’t consume enough calcium today (or ever).  Take a supplement, that’ll prevent me from getting osteoporosis or fill it whatever other disease!”

Whether you are taking supplements per a health professional’s recommendation or self prescribing, you could be doing more damage than good! I’d like to share why below.

Did you know that about 40% of supplements are contaminated or they don’t contain what they say the do? Additionally, most people fail to read the nutrition label on supplements or do their research before buying and many supplements contain dyes, preservatives, gluten, soy and even some GMO ingredients. These are things you are likely taking some effort to avoid in your day to day eating but then your nutritional supplement might be containing these things. Also, don’t think because it is in a health food store that is either healthy or safe.

Did you know, if you are self prescribing supplements without concrete knowledge of what you body does or doesn’t lack then you aren’t helping yourself any and you could also be doing some damage?

Additionally, synthetic supplements are unnatural and often times not fully convertible to nutrients in the body, plus they can often be toxic. Joel Fuhrman, MD recently discussed this. He shares that studies linked Folic acid in multivitamins to breast cancer, excerpt of his paper is below:

“Women who take conventional multivitamins may be endangering their health. A nine year study in Sweden found that women who took multivitamins were actually more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Why?

The researchers think that it could be the high dose of folic acid found in most multivitamins.

Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate, one of the B vitamins. Natural folate, abundant in green vegetables, is known for preventing neural tube defects during early pregnancy, and is also important for immune function, cardiovascular health, and cancer prevention.

Taking synthetic folic acid is not the same as getting natural folate from plant foods. The body processes folate and folic acid differently. Real folate from food is protective, fake folate from supplements may be dangerous:

• A study compared breast cancer mortality rates between women who took folic acid during their pregnancy and those that did not. Thirty years later those women who followed the typical recommendations to take folic acid were twice as likely to die from breast cancer.
• A 10-year study on women taking multivitamins concluded that those who took multivitamins containing folic acid increased their breast cancer risk by 20-30%.
• A study investigating both food folate and synthetic folic acid found that only supplemental folic acid increased breast cancer risk. In other studies, women with low levels of food folate intake were more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer.”

Did you know that synthetic vitamins are man made in the lab? They are concentrated chemical ingredients. You heard it, chemical ingredients. Plus, most companies get their “vitamins” or chemicals from a leftover process of some other companies manufacturing process.

Nature intended for us to consume food in its WHOLE form because all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes are together in one package and work synergistically together to bring your body the nutrition that it needs.  When you take one part away from the whole, you get “Synthetic”, “Isolated” or “Fractionated” pieces of the whole, but it is simply not the same.  Often times, since there are missing components when you take a synthetic supplement, your body can’t even use the synthetics. Talk about a waste of money!

If the generally accepted belief is that whole foods are better for you than refined foods why should it be any different for vitamins?

It isn’t any different, the wool has just been temporarily pulled over your eyes.
In summary, be sure you read your labels!  It is important to educate yourself about what you’ll be putting into your body and supplements are no different than anything else.
Whenever possible consume whole foods for vitamins and nutrients and when absolutely necessary turn to a whole foods supplement instead of a synthetic one.  See the difference below where Juice Plus carries a Nutrition Fact Label (which means it is FOOD) and Supplements carry a Supplement Facts label.  Which one would you rather put in your body or your child’s? Plus we provide it free for your child for four full years with an adult product purchase.  It doesn’t get an easier than that!

This is your brain.

This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.  Oh sorry, wrong post.  Talk about effective marketing!? Every time I see a photo of an egg it takes me back to that classic and powerful commercial. Although the commercial was targeting recreational drugs, the sad part is that we are using and abusing prescription medication at a much higher rate and it has become completely accepted in society.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve taken an over-the-counter or prescription medication.  The reason I don’t remember is because it has been such a long time since I’ve used them.  And yes, I’m quite proud of that.  I have God to thank for showing me the power of whole food nutrition to heal my body naturally.  Whole foods have healed my body from allergies, asthma, IBS, obesity, high cholesterol and even depression.

With all the side effects experienced from the medications my doctors recommended for the above list, I decided that wasn’t the route for me.  Many people think that because they are prescriptions, they have to be safe or they wouldn’t be on the market.

According to the CDC, more people die from prescription medication than they do from heroin or cocaine. Deaths from prescription narcotics have increased fourfold.

Prescription drugs are handed out like candy and speaking of candy, it has become socially accepted to place our children on medications for conditions that could be managed through whole foods, discipline and structure. ADD and ADHD are two health issues that can easily be eliminated through whole food consumption and elimination of processed foods.

As for me, my focus these days is on preserving my brain cells.  I did enough damage in my youth and ignorance that it is time to take responsibility and control of my health.  What about you? What is one simple step that can get you closer to improving your health, increasing your energy or losing a few pounds?  Skip the 400 calorie artificial stimulant beverage loaded with sugar? Stop bringing home the soft drinks, chips or cookies?  It’s all about discipline and taking action with one simple step forward. What is your’s going to be?