Stop riding the hormonal roller coaster

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The hormonal roller coasterride, otherwise known as hypoglycemia is probably one of the most widespread disorders in America and the civilized nations today.

It is not a disease as such, but rather a symptom that arises from a wide range of hormonal abnormalities and imbalances reflecting the irregular function of many glands and organs.

Unfortunately, it often goes undiagnosed and its multitude of symptoms are frequently labeled as emotional or psychological in origin. The symptoms are usually episodic, being related to the time and content of the previous meal and are usually improved by eating.

Symptoms include nervousness, irritability, emotional problems, fatigue, depression, craving sweets, inability to concentrate, cold sweats, shakes, palpitations, tingling of the skin and scalp, dizziness, trembling, fainting, blurred vision, cold extremities, nausea, midmorning and mid-to-late afternoon tiredness, anxiety, indecisiveness, crying spells, allergies, convulsions, and hyperactivity, for openers.

To understand hypoglycemia a bit better a little psychological background is essential.

The body needs a steady supply of readily available energy to function. This energy is derived from food primarily in the form of complex carbohydrates, which are converted into their simplest common denominator, glucose, in the process of digestion.

Glucose is essential for all bodily activity and is especially necessary for the function of the nervous system and brain, which responds drastically to abnormal variations of the blood glucose level (BGL).

Normally, the BGL is kept within a very narrow range variation by various hormones, which respond rapidly to slightest of changes. Insulin from the pancreas is released when glucose enters the blood from digested food, lowering the BGL to its normal range. The sugar is then stored in the liver and muscles in the form of glycogen, or converted to fat for later use. Cortisol and growth hormone counterbalance the insulin action. If any of these hormones are secreted too rapidly or too slowly an imbalance of the BGL can occur.

If the blood glucose level rises above normal, or if glucose is delivered to the blood too rapidly, as it is following a meal of refined carbohydrates and/or excess sweets, the body deals with the excess in two ways.

One, it initiates a sudden burst of insulin to counteract what the body perceives as a very dangerous imbalance, and two, it also begins to convert the excess glucose in certain “glucose-insensitive cells” that are found in the eye, kidney, myelinated nerves, and red blood cells, first into fructose and then sorbitol.

Why this is important is since both fructose and sorbitol are relatively insoluble within the cell and tend to crystallize out, leading to cataract formation in the eye, bottom membrane thickening in the kidney, damage to nerves, and altered oxygen-carrying capacity in red blood cells. This sorbitol pathway is initiated each time the blood glucose levels rise rapidly on the glucose rollercoaster ride that hypoglycemics ride every day.

In some cases of hypoglycemia insulin is often secreted in excess, lowering the BGL too far and too fast. This is often called hyperinsulinism.

The most commonly involved glands are the adrenals, pancreas, and liver. In some cases of hyperinsulinism, normal levels of insulin will appear but a reduced sensitivity to insulin will manifest. The result will be a pre-diabetes type of glucose metabolism where sugar levels remain elevated for a prolonged period and then fall below normal quickly.

The two most significant factors of hypoglycemia in the Western world are diet and stress. The SAD (Standard American Diet) is literally a prescription for hypoglycemia, with its common foods like white bread, refined grains, liquid fat, chicken’s periods, sugar, soda, and coffee.

Sugar and refined carbs are absorbed very quickly into the bloodstream, as they require little digestion due to the stripping of their protein and fiber in the refining process.

This rapid increase in the BGL causes the pancreas to become hypersensitive to sugar. In time the pancreas learns to secrete very large amounts of insulin in response to the rise of the BGL, causing a rapid lowering of insulin in response to the rise in BGL. This then causes a speedy lowering, below normal, of the BGL.

During this low period the symptoms of hypoglycemia manifest due to the deficiency of glucose supply to the brain and the resulting adrenal shock response. The adrenals recognize the low sugar level as an acute danger and effect an immediate and appropriate response. In time the adrenals become overstressed by these up-down emergencies and lose their ability to adequately cope with the situation.

One problem is that most people are clueless about excess white sugar, not only being a refined carbohydrate that can cause disinsulinism leading to hypoglycemia, but excess honey, maple syrup, fruit, fruit juice, dried fruit, and even vegetable juice will create such a quick rise in BGL, that pancreatic hypersensitivity will manifest.

Stress also plays a major role via the adrenals since stress is also recognized by the adrenals as an emergency situation triggering similar responses, once again overburdening the adrenals.

To further aggravate the situation, stress depletes vitamin B complex, which is essential for metabolism of carbohydrates, and vitamin C, both of which are necessary for proper adrenal function. With the carbs being stripped of vitamin B complex, now we need a vitamin b complex for utilization.

So, now we go from the rollercoaster to the merry-go-round because coffee stimulates the adrenals, mobilizing the body’s energy reserves in the liver and muscles removing the body’s fail-safe mechanism to keep the BGl in balance by further abusing the adrenals.

To get out of the amusement park the importance of proper diagnosis and treatment of hypoglycemia should never be underestimated.

Way back when, hypoglycemia was always considered a non-disease. Some MDs said that the label “hypoglycemia” was too often used for any emotional problems that walked into their office.

As times changed and brains began to work, hypoglycemia has clearly been associated with physical, mental, and emotional disorders, including hyperactivity, schizophrenia, anti-social behavior, criminal personalities, drug addiction, impotency, alcoholism, epilepsy, asthma, allergies, ulcers, and arthritis.

In fact, there should be as much attention placed on preventing and treating hypoglycemia as has been placed on diabetes because the two disorders are often manifestations of a similar endocrine imbalance, due to the same causes.

Back in the 60s, the seriousness of hypoglycemia was pooh-poohed. Often an MD would recommend a candy bar when someone complained of weakness. Welcome to the rollercoaster. The short-term solution for the cause of the problem in the first place.

Basically, the solution is to remove the initial causes and reestablish the normal hormonal controlling mechanisms. Problem: once the pancreas has been hypersensitive to sugar over a long period of time, complete recovery is not always possible. But, it can be kept under control with a change in diet and lifestyle keeping the symptoms under control and repressed. But, go back and back come the aggravating symptoms.

What is needed is a diet of high-fiber complex carbohydrates – whole wheat bread free of sugar and high- fructose-corn-syrup, quinoa (a complete protein grain), brown rice, buckwheat, millet, etc., adding legumes or organic soy products for protein. With this, digestion will be slower.

Dried fruit, fruit, fruit juices, and fresh vegetable juices are all rapidly absorbable but should be consumed in moderation. When eating fruit, it’s best to be taken with some protein in the form of nuts or seeds.

Other great foods are non-GMO oatmeal (if you can find it), unsweetened granola, brewer’s yeast (B complex), rice milk, spirulina, avocado, fresh raw salads, baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, steamed cruciferous vegetables, or lightly sautéed, bran, chia seeds, onions, organic coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and apple cider vinegar.

Recommended fruits are papaya, apples, grapefruit, oranges, bananas in moderation and fresh berries.

Stay away from alcohol, coffee and cigarettes. Also, avoid dates, figs, plums, and grapes as they are just too sweet.

Aloha!

Sources:

www.simpleremedies.com

www.commonsensehealth.com

www.lifescript.com/health

Hesh Goldstein
When I was a kid, if I were told that I'd be writing a book about diet and nutrition when I was older, let alone having been doing a health related radio show for over 36 years, I would've thought that whoever told me that was out of their mind. Living in Newark, New Jersey, my parents and I consumed anything and everything that had a face or a mother except for dead, rotting, pig bodies, although we did eat bacon (as if all the other decomposing flesh bodies were somehow miraculously clean). Going through high school and college it was no different. In fact, my dietary change did not come until I was in my 30's.

Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.

After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a "plastic" community would be an understatement.

Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.

I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, " let's become vegetarians". I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, "okay"! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.

So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, "The Little Kitchen".

Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.

I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I'll elaborate on that in a minute.

But right now, back to "The Little Kitchen". Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.

The owner said to me, "Let's make a deal. You do our tax return and we'll feed you as well". So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.

But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, "Hawaii". Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called," Mr. Natural's". I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at "Mr. Natural's." To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened.

So, I'm working at "Mr. Natural's" and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle - it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka'anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.

Since I was the new guy, and didn't really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that's exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.

I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.

Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I'm asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn't thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, "You expected anything less"? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, 'enchilada's at "Natural's" tonight'. I never had to cook anything else.

A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That's when they found out I was an accountant and "Down to Earth" was born. "Down to Earth" became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.

In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD's that would call in asking for my credentials.

My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.

I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii's premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse. She said," If you want to be with me you've got to stop working on naked women". So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.

Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a "chicken" or "egg" or "fish" or "pig" or "cow" was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.

The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.

Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.

For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.

Namaste!