PART 1
Feel Great: 8 Weeks
to Vibrant Health Basics for Women
By Hyla Cass, M.D. and Kathleen Barnes
Most of us are looking for a diagnosis when we seek medical attention for symptoms that range from weight gain to insomnia, depression, fatigue and memory problems. Instead of a diagnosis that uncovers the underlying causes of these health challenges, we most often wind up with a pill and sometimes a patronizing pat on the head.
Overweight, fatigue, memory loss, depression, joint pain and stomach upsets aren’t diseases. They are symptoms. Unless you can get to the underlying causes of those symptoms, long-term relief will elude you.
Prescription drugs like may address your symptoms temporarily, but they aren’t going to solve the underlying problems or give you long-term relief from your symptoms. In fact, so many pharmaceutical drugs cause side effects that, after your doctor writes those prescriptions, you’re likely to end up with an even larger list of symptoms than you had at the outset.
The truth is that many doctors don’t have the time or even the training to delve into the reasons for your symptoms. Did you know that your doctor only received a handful of hours of nutrition education during four years of pre-med and four years of medical school? That’s shocking considering the large numbers of health challenges that are based on nutritional deficiencies.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. So many doctors have become so reliant on pharmaceuticals that they don’t even consider other treatments that are frequently more effective and cause fewer side effects.
Here’s a typical case from Dr. Cass’ files:
“I remember Jean, a 55-year-old college professor whose story is pretty typical. She was being treated by her internist for high blood pressure, osteoporosis and heart palpitations. She as referred to me, a psychiatrist by training, because of her anxiety, depression and insomnia.
I could find no obvious psychological explanation for these symptoms, except maybe for the stress of her physical illness.
She was taking an array of medications, with their attendant side effects. Based on some simple lab tests and my own clinical experience, I determined that magnesium deficiency was a likely cause of her symptoms.
After a brief trial on this inexpensive and common mineral, together with a multi-vitamin formula and essential fatty acids, Jean was able to decrease her medications. Encouraged by this results, she trusted me enough to eliminate some foods to which she was allergic, which helped her even more.
In a short time, not only were her anxiety, depression and insomnia gone, but she was soon medication-free, depending instead on a list of supplements to restore her normal body chemistry.
Situations like Jean’s leave me with some questions:
1. Why had Jean’s internist been unaware of her mineral deficiency, or even of its possibility? Why hadn’t he at least given her a basic multi-vitamin formula?
2. Why give the prescription drugs first? This approach is like unplugging the noisy fire alarm instead of looking for the fire!”
Many readers will undoubtedly relate to Jean’s story. It is an unfortunately common occurrence.
If your doctor is “unplugging the fire alarm instead of looking for the fire,” the 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health program can help you make some powerful discoveries about yourself and your health.
The first teleseminar offers the basics:
· Starting a Wellness Journal (with online resources)
· Getting enough sleep
· Drinking enough water
· Choosing the right kind of exercise and creating an exercise program that works for you.
PART 2
Become Your Own Health Detective:
from 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health for Women
By
Hyla Cass, M.D. and Kathleen Barnes
Diagnosing your own health problems may sound esoteric, perhaps even a little dangerous.
Doctors diagnose
your health problems based on the symptoms you report, scientific results on
lab tests and their intuition about what might be wrong.
Self-evaluation
is the first step toward discovering –and treating-- the underlying causes of
your health challenges.
In her practice,
Dr. Cass uses a general health questionnaire that gives her insight on what may
be going on with them ad helps them to become familiar with her approach.
You can find that questionnaire here.
The questionnaire
includes sections on lifestyle, and stress, brain chemistry, sex hormones,
thyroid and adrenals, blood sugar, digestive imbalances, toxin overloads and
musculoskeletal problems.
Why use this
questionnaire?
It gives you a
structure to work with and helps you see the patterns into which your problems
may fall.
This is the
beginning of your detective work that will lead you to the underlying causes of
your health issues and allow you to find ways to overcome those imbalances
rather than simply treating symptoms.
For example, if
you have gained weight and have difficulty losing it, the questionnaire will
show you that you might be suffering from a brain chemistry imbalance or a sex
hormone imbalance or low thyroid function.
If you add memory
loss and difficulty concentrating to your list of symptoms, you’ll see that it
is likely your problem falls into either the brain chemistry or low thyroid
function categories.
And if you add
yet another symptom like frequent headaches, you’ve narrowed down your probable
diagnosis to one of brain chemistry imbalance.
From there, the
book will show you supplements, natural remedies and lifestyle changes that
will most likely improve your health.
Dr. Cass’ years
of clinical experience have given her an arsenal of natural remedies scientifically
proven to help address the most frequent imbalances she sees in her women
patients.
In their book, 8
Weeks to Vibrant Health: A Take Charge Plan for Women, Dr. Cass and Kathleen
Barnes detail eight major areas of imbalance:
·
Stress
and lifestyle
·
Brain
chemistry
·
Sex
hormones: PMS to menopause
·
Energy
crises caused by low thyroid and adrenal overload
·
Metabolic
syndrome and blood sugar issues
·
Digestive
disturbances
·
Toxin
overload
·
Musculoskeletal
pain: headaches to arthritis to osteoporosis,
Once you’ve narrowed down your health
challenge to one or two categories, Dr. Cass recommends some simple lab tests.
It may be necessary to enroll the help of your physician for this, but many
tests are now available to consumers.
The results of those lab tests will
provide more definitive information and give you an idea of how to treat your
problems.
PART 3
Balance Your Diet,
Control Your Weight
By Dr. Hyla Cass and Kathleen Barnes
Our Standard American Diet (SAD for short!) is anything but
nourishing. High in carbohydrates and unhealthy fats, sugars, preservatives and
other toxic chemicals, this diet virtually guarantees obesity and ill health.
We’ve actually sacrificed our health and even our lives in the name of convenience.
Sure, it’s easy to stop by your favorite fast food outlet and get a burger, fries and soft drink for you, and even, for your kids. It avoids the hassle of fixing dinner and perhaps buys you a precious hour of time in your stressful life. But what is the long-term cost?
Overfed and
Undernourished
We live in a time when food is more plentiful and cheaper
than at any other time in history. Never before have so many Americans been so
overweight. Yet, because we fill up on all the wrong foods, we are woefully undernourished.
We eat too many processed foods that not only have almost no nutritional value – but they set up a cycle of cravings that keeps us coming back for more and more… and more.
It’s a dangerous addiction! These so-called “foods” are loaded with chemicals, salt, simple (i.e. non-nutritious) starches and, worst of all, sugar. It’s amazing that our bodies can glean even the most minimal nutritional requirements from this kind of diet. Often, they don’t and we become overweight and chronically ill. For example, depressed, tired, foggy-brained and overweight women are often told by their doctors that they need Prozac. What they really need is a steady supply of real food to get their brains and bodies back on track!
Diets Don’t Work
All of us are constantly bombarded with pitches for diet plans. It’s almost impossible to avoid them if you pick up a magazine or turn on the news. Some of these plans may help you to shed extra pounds, but unless you’ve made some basic lifestyle changes, these hard-fought losses will come right back on.
If you ask your doctor about your weight problem, you’re likely to hear the standard misinformed answer: “You need to eat less and exercise more.” That’s because most doctors are still thinking in a linear manner: that is calories in minus calories burned equals calories that turn into fat. However, there’s far more to weight gain than that, since we all burn calories differently based on our body’s metabolic efficiency. True, you may be eating too much, not exercising enough or not doing the right kind of exercise for your needs. But there is much more to the story than that.
Start with the 8 Weeks Wellness Journal and health questionnaire.
You can download the health questionnaire here.
Your answers, combined with selected laboratory tests, will help you find out the source of your imbalances, and how to treat them naturally.
Discover for yourself if you have hormone imbalances, low thyroid, adrenal overload, blood sugar swings, food allergies, or neurotransmitter (brain chemistry) imbalances causing your weight gain.
Don’t simply count calories. Also, use the glycemic load calculator rather than simply the glycemic index of foods. For details and a chart of foods, click here.
Most importantly,
if you have weight issues, here are the facts:
1.
You
are not to blame. You likely have a physiological imbalance.
2.
You
are responsible for taking the steps you need to take to correct the problem.
