Tag: Dr Jocelin Whitaker

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Unpasteurized or organic apple cider vinegar medicinal uses come from the “mother of vinegar,” which is made up of living nutrients and beneficial bacteria.

Let’s discuss an ingredient that even Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was said to have used and prescribed: apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar (also referred to as ACV) is a type of vinegar made through the fermentation of apple cider. Specifically, it’s made by crushing apples to squeeze out the juice. Bacteria and yeast are then added to the juice to start the alcoholic fermentation process, which turns the sugars into alcohol. Then, in a second fermentation process, the alcohol is converted into vinegar by acetic acid-forming bacteria. Acetic acid and malic acid give vinegar its sour taste.

Most of the apple cider vinegar you buy in the store is then filtered and pasteurized to give it a clean appearance and to kill off all the bacteria to give it a long shelf life — but that’s not the ACV we’re interested in.

Many of organic, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar’s medicinal uses come from the “mother of vinegar,” which is made up of living nutrients and bacteria that you can actually see in the bottom of bottles of raw apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar as an all-around natural health remedy has been gaining in popularity, and when you look at the benefits, you won’t be surprised.

Apple Cider Vinegar for Diabetes
One ACV health benefit that research has suggested is helping with diabetes. It is believed that the acetic acid found in apple cider vinegar may help prevent digestion of complex carbohydrates in your food, which would help to lower blood sugar. A few studies help support this idea. But that’s just the beginning. One study found that two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bed lowered glucose levels of study participants in the morning by four to six percent. Another study showed vinegar improves insulin sensitivity to a high-carbohydrate meal in 19% of subjects with type 2 diabetes and 34 percent with pre-diabetes. The net result is that taking apple cider vinegar with meals can lower blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.

Apple Cider Vinegar as a Weight Loss Aid
Another key health benefit of apple cider vinegar is weight loss. A 2009 study on mice showed that consuming acetic acid (the active component in ACV) upregulates the expression of genes for fatty acid oxidation enzymes in the liver, causing a suppression in body fat accumulation. In another study, a double-blind trial showed that a daily intake of apple cider vinegar might be useful in the prevention of metabolic syndrome by reducing obesity.

In addition, taking vinegar seems to work as a weight loss aid by making you feel full, which in turn helps reduce the number of calories you consume. In a 2005 study, participants who consumed vinegar with a high-carb meal (a bagel and juice) consumed on average 200 to 275 less calories per day. The vinegar also helped lower glucose and insulin responses.

Apple Cider Vinegar for Throat and Sinus Issues
Apple cider vinegar is anathema to all kinds of germs that attack the throat. In effect, it acts like a sponge and draws out throat germs and toxins from the surrounding tissue. It also helps clear up the sinuses by breaking up and reducing mucous. Since it has antibacterial properties, it is also useful in helping with infections.

Apple Cider Vinegar for Skin Issues
Apple cider vinegar can help your skin in a number of ways. A concoction of two parts water and one part apple cider vinegar can be used as a skin toner. You can either apply it directly on a skin irritation or soak in a bath with about one cup of apple cider vinegar to help relieve many skin irritations such as sunburns, bug bites, and poison ivy exposure. It is also said to help fade age spots and acne scars, and help remove warts.

Apple Cider Vinegar for Kidney Stones
Apples, apples juice, and apple cider vinegar contain natural malic acid, but of the three, apple cider vinegar has the highest concentration. This is important because studies have shown that malic acid supplementation increases urinary citrate excretion and urinary pH: both of which help in dissolving calcium oxalate stones, the most common form of kidney stones.

Other Natural Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
In addition to the mentioned uses above, apple cider vinegar also has the following health benefits…

Potassium, magnesium, and other minerals are present in the apple cider vinegar “mother.” Potassium controls the water balance in the body and maintains a healthy heart rhythm. Magnesium is a catalyst in enzyme activity, helping digestion and assisting in the uptake of calcium to form healthy bones. The “mother” is also a rich source of iron, beneficial phytochemicals, and it is high in prebiotics that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut.

ACV stimulates a condition called acetolysis in which toxic wastes that are harmful to the body are broken down and rendered harmless.

Mixing one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with water and a little honey and drinking with meals can be helpful for those with digestive problems.

Apple Cider Vinegar Around the Home
In addition to all its health benefits, vinegar can also be useful around the home for a variety of uses. Because of its antimicrobial properties, vinegar is often touted as one of the best natural cleaning agents. In fact, one study found the key ingredient in vinegar, acetic acid, is lethal to E. coli.  A combination of vinegar and lemon juice may also be effective against salmonella.

Apple cider vinegar is also touted as a key ingredient in an effective natural weed killer formula, a way to neutralize odors in the home, and a key ingredient for a water/vinegar produce bath. For the produce bath, use 10% vinegar to 90% water and briefly swish and soak your produce. However, it is not advised to do this with porous fruits like berries since they can soak up the vinegar and be damaged in the process.

Apple Cider Vinegar is also excellent in many recipes, from pickles to salad dressings. Just make sure you find unpasteurized, organic apple cider vinegar for the real health benefits. The darker or murkier the bottom of the bottle is, the better.

Be sure to pick up your Organic Unfiltered Unpasteurized Apple Cider Vinegar available in pints, quarts, and gallons at Whitaker’s Natural Market!

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Vitamin C shown to improve blood sugar levels and reduce blood pressure in patients with type 2 diabetes

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that fully one third of the American population is prediabetic, with elevated blood sugar (glucose) levels that can – if untreated – lead to full-blown type 2 diabetes.  Diabetes, which currently affects over 30 million Americans, causes the risk of heart disease to skyrocket – and can feature serious complications such as nerve damage, kidney disease, and retinal damage.

Now, a brand-new Australian study shows that vitamin C can lower elevated blood glucose in type 2 diabetics, helping to control dangerous after-meal surges and “spikes.”

The misunderstood health benefits of vitamin C
Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is a potent natural antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune system booster.  Thankfully, a handful of forward-thinking doctors – early vitamin C pioneers such as Dr. Frederick Klenner, Linus Pauling, Dr. Mathias Rath, and Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD – have long spoken out about the ability of vitamin C to treat, and even reverse, a host of serious conditions.

In the 1940s, Dr. Klenner reported curing a variety of diseases, including polio and hepatitis, with high-dose vitamin C – while in the present day, Dr. Paul Marik, Professor of Medicine of Eastern Virginia Medical School, administers a vitamin C protocol that drastically improves survival rates for patients suffering from sepsis, a life-threatening systemic infection.

But the therapeutic value of this non-toxic, inexpensive natural nutrient has been consistently downplayed by the medical powers-that-be. Time and again, the mainstream medical community seems to have greeted even the most impressive vitamin C studies with indifference, suspicion, and even scorn.

Fortunately, well-designed scientific studies on vitamin C’s benefit are accumulating – as manifested by this latest study, conducted by an international team of researchers and published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Study: Vitamin C can reduce blood sugar spikes by a substantial 36 percent
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in 2019 in Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, adult participants with type 2 diabetes were randomly divided into two groups. One group took 1,000 mg of ascorbic acid in divided doses every day for four months, while the other group received a placebo.

Participants were given standardized meals, and their glucose levels were monitored continuously for 48 hours.  The results were clear-cut.

The vitamin C group experienced significantly lower after-meal blood sugar levels – reducing by roughly three hours the time spent every day in hyperglycemia – a state of elevated blood glucose.

Why is this important?

Research has shown that blood sugar “spikes” damage cells in multiple ways, and are linked to heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, peripheral neuropathy, kidney failure, cognitive dysfunction, and retinal damage.

Clearly, the less time spent in hyperglycemia – the better.  However, better glucose control wasn’t the only benefit for the participants in the vitamin C group.

The ascorbic acid also lowered elevated blood pressure – a primary risk factor for heart disease.

The team reported that participants’ blood pressure readings dropped by an average of 7 mmHg in the systolic number (which measures the pressure exerted by heartbeats) and by 5 mmHg in the diastolic (which measures the pressure in between beats).

Incidentally, the vitamin C group also experienced a significant lessening of disease-promoting oxidative stress.  The researchers concluded that the study provided evidence for use of vitamin C as an adjunct therapy to improve control of blood sugar and blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes.

In one study, which was published in Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers evaluated the daily vitamin C intake of 108 men.  They found that men in the group with the highest levels of vitamin C intake had a 66 percent less chance of developing coronary heart disease – the number one killer in the United States – than men in the lowest-intake group.  In other words, men who consumed higher levels of vitamin C were two-thirds more likely to avoid developing heart disease.

Researchers believe that this beneficial effect is due to vitamin C’s ability to prevent and alleviate endothelial dysfunction – the stiffening of arterial walls that interferes with the healthy flow of oxygen-rich blood.

And, in a 2003 observational study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 85,000 female nurses were followed for 16 years.  Women who took supplemental vitamin C reduced their risk of heart disease by a hefty 28 percent.

Researchers credit vitamin C with improving electrical conduction throughout the heart muscle, reducing inflammation, and decreasing clotting factors – which contribute to stroke risk.  Vitamin C also appears to help protect against two other heart problems: atrial fibrillation – a type of irregular heartbeat – and dilated cardiomyopathy, a harmful enlargement and weakening of the heart.

How much vitamin C do I need a day?
According to natural health experts, the current vitamin C RDAs advised by the Office of Dietary Supplements are good for a laugh – and not much else.

Vitamin C proponents note that the ODS recommendations – a paltry 75 to 90 mg of vitamin C a day – are enough to prevent the severe form of vitamin C deficiency known as scurvy, but not enough to maintain optimal health or combat disease.

Knowledgeable integrative and functional doctors usually advise taking anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 mg of vitamin C a day, in divided doses – with even higher levels recommended for serious chronic conditions.

As the studies suggest, daily supplementation with inexpensive, non-toxic vitamin C can provide major protective dividends to the heart – while helping to regulate blood sugar levels. Clearly, having optimal levels of this essential micronutrient is a “win/win” scenario.

Be sure to check out our vast selection of Vitamin C supplements at Whitaker’s Natural Market on your next visit!

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Type 2 diabetes risk linked to a lesser-known vitamin deficiency, multiple studies reveal the truth

According to a 2018 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current number of American adults living with type 2 diabetes stands at over 30 million. 

Why does this matter?
We know that type 2 diabetes, a potentially life-threatening condition, can have devastating consequences that include nerve damage, kidney damage, retinopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and a much greater risk of heart disease.

Yet, we know (based on science) that supplementation with an underappreciated vitamin – vitamin K – can drastically reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

In recent years, researchers have uncovered vitamin K’s role in proper blood clotting and the mineralization of bones – as well as its ability to prevent arterial calcification (plaque).  What is not as well known, however, is vitamin K’s important role in glucose metabolism.

Warning: Insulin resistance can set the stage for type 2 diabetes

Insulin – a hormone produced in the pancreas – helps cells absorb glucose from carbohydrates, thereby reducing blood sugar and providing the cells with glucose for energy.  The trouble begins when the body becomes resistant to insulin – or fails to make enough. Insulin resistance can, in turn, lead to high blood sugar, and the eventual onset of type 2 diabetes.

Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are brought about by environmental and lifestyle factors – such as overweight, obesity, a diet high in carbohydrates and sugar, and lack of exercise.

Unlike type 1 diabetes, which results from autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, type 2 diabetes is preventable.  By the way, it’s worth noting, about 90 percent of all people with diabetes have type 2.

Clearly, an urgent need exists for natural, non-toxic interventions against type 2 diabetes.  And, recent studies reveal vitamin K as a strong candidate.

Study yields clear-cut results: Ramping up vitamin K intake slashes your risk of diabetes

In a 2016 study published in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that subjects who increased their dietary vitamin K intake reduced their diabetes risk by a whopping 51 percent.

The team even discovered a precise formula for measuring the reduction: a 17 percent less risk of type 2 diabetes for every additional 100 mcg of vitamin K a day.  This encouraging study was only the beginning of a cascade of research highlighting the preventative effects of vitamin K on diabetes.

Multiple studies involving hundreds of adult participants have demonstrated that vitamin K supplementation, at amounts ranging from 500 mcg to 1,000 mcg a day, significantly increased beneficial insulin sensitivity and reduced insulin levels – often within four weeks.

If high levels of vitamin K acted against type 2 diabetes, could low levels of the nutrient be linked with the disease?  This was the question researchers set out to answer in a 2018 study published in Journal of Nutrition and Biochemistry.

And, the answer was clear.

The team found that people with type 2 diabetes had blood levels of vitamin K that were 2.7 times lower than those of a control group of non-diabetic participants of the same age.

More good news: Vitamin K combats obesity that can contribute to diabetes

In an influential Dutch study, researchers gave 214 post-menopausal women either 180 mcg a day of vitamin K2 or a placebo for three years.  Keep in mind, vitamin K exists in two forms – vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) from plant foods, and vitamin K2 (menaquinone) from animal products.  Both forms have been shown in studies to benefit glucose control, but some research has shown vitamin K2 to be the more effective of the two.

The researchers found that the supplementary vitamin K2 activated Gla proteins, which are important in bone and mineral metabolism.  The participants in the vitamin K2 group who showed the largest increase in Gla protein activity also experienced significant reductions in harmful abdominal fat.

And the good news kept on coming: the vitamin K group also had substantial reductions in body mass index, waist and hip circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio – when compared to the placebo group. These benefits, of course, translate to a lowered risk of developing metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Vitamin K also appears to fight against obesity and overweight by boosting levels of adiponectin, a beneficial hormone that helps regulate the metabolism of sugars.  In addition, studies have shown that vitamin K reduces the activity of nuclear factor kappa B, a primary driver of inflammation.

In the latest medical research, vitamin K is beginning to receive credit for fighting diabetes through multiple mechanisms.  In an extensive overview of studies published last year in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, the authors credited vitamin K2 with improving insulin sensitivity through its anti-inflammatory and lipid-lowering properties.

Action steps: Prevent diabetes with natural techniques

You can increase your dietary intake of vitamin K with cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens, including broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and kale. Vitamin K is also found in meat, dairy products, and fermented foods – such as grass-fed beef liver, organic chicken breast, yogurt, and raw cheese.

Interestingly, your body produces small amounts of vitamin K as well, courtesy of beneficial bacterial in the gut microbiome.  The National Institutes of Health currently recommends an adequate daily intake of 120 mcg of vitamin K for men and 90 mcg for women.
However, if you are dealing with insulin resistance or blood sugar issues, vitamin K supplementation may be recommended.

Note: If you have already been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, vitamin K can still help control blood sugar levels. And, in addition to helping regulate glucose, vitamin K is believed to help prevent cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis.

With diabetes claiming way too many lives every year throughout the world, it’s time to take this devastating disease more seriously. You can reduce your chances of developing type 2 diabetes by getting sufficient exercise, cutting down on simple carbohydrates, eliminating refined sugars, and eating fiber-rich foods in addition to supplementing with Vitamin K.

Be sure to check out our Vitamin K rich foods such as Grassfed Beef Liver, Organic Chicken, Grassfed Raw Cheese, Cabbage, Spinach, Fermented Foods, and more as well as our Vitamin K supplements at Whitaker’s Natural Market on your next visit!

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The cancer fighting benefits of Coenzyme Q10

Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10, is a substance found in every cell of our body. It is in a variety of foods, and healthy people are not likely to develop a deficiency of this nutrient. But, you might want to think about taking in some extra CoQ10 – especially if you’re taking a statin to lower your cholesterol levels.

CoQ10 has many potential health benefits, including possibly lowering the risk of certain cancers. Women, especially, should take note, since recent research points to links between breast cancer risk and lower levels of CoQ10 in the blood.

Clearing up the confusion about CoQ10
Coenzyme Q10 is technically not a vitamin because your body can synthesize it, so you do not need to get it from food. However, its structure is similar to that of vitamins. Also like vitamins, it acts as a coenzyme functions in your body’s metabolic reactions.

CoQ10 also has powerful antioxidant properties. For example, it helps prevent harmful oxidation of LDL cholesterol, and it supplements the work of vitamin E, or tocopherol. When your blood levels of CoQ10 are lower, your body needs more vitamin E from the diet to carry out heart-healthy antioxidant reactions.

What are the health benefits associated with CoQ10?

  • Lower risk of dementia
  • Improved heart health
  • Increased exercise performance

Can a Coenzyme Q10 deficiency increase the risk of cancer?
Since the 1960s, researchers have noted associations between lower blood levels of CoQ10 and cancer. People with lymphoma, myeloma, and lung, head, neck, and prostate cancers tend to have lower levels of CoQ10.

A recent study looking into links between CoQ10 and breast cancer examined data from nearly 1,000 women aged 40 to 70 in the Shanghai Women’s Health Study. Those who had serum levels of CoQ10 in the bottom fifth of participants had a 90 percent greater chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer than those whose levels were in the middle fifth.

“The current Shanghai Women’s Health Study, with relatively larger sample size and longer follow-up time suggests an inverse association for plasma CoQ10 levels with breast cancer risk in Chinese women,” according to study authors Robert V. Cooney of the University of Hawaii and colleagues. Based on these results, future research should investigate potential effects of supplementation on the risk of breast cancer.

The study also confirmed the association between low CoQ10 and higher risk of cervical cancer, myeloma, and melanoma. This makes the results relevant to men as well as women. This study is far from definitive, but it seems likely that there is a link between healthy CoQ10 levels and reduction in cancer risk.
 
CoQ10 is in a variety of foods, including meat, fish, and eggs, and organ meats, such as heart, kidney, and liver, are especially rich sources. You can also find CoQ10 in plant-based foods, such as cauliflower, peanuts, and strawberries.  Remember, you can obtain additional benefits, with ease, by supplementing your diet with a high quality CoQ10 supplement. 

Be sure to check out our selection of CoQ10 rich foods and CoQ10 Supplements at Whitaker’s Natural Market on your next visit!

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Pomegranate’s Performance-Boosting Potential Confirmed

Pomegranate provides a natural way to boost athletic performance, increasing the time to exhaustion by more than 1.5 minutes among a group of amateur cyclists. Could pomegranate give you a similar athletic improvement?

Pomegranate, the “jewel of winter,” is one fruit you should have on your radar if you’re interested in boosting your physical performance. This applies not only to athletes but also to anyone who’s an avid exerciser — or wishes they were. By enjoying pomegranate, it’s possible that you could gain more stamina for your weekend jog or morning aerobics session, leading to body-wide benefits.

While pomegranate is perhaps most well-known for its antioxidant properties, impressive as they are, this leathery-skinned berry is also a rich source of dietary nitrates — and therein lies their performance-enhancing potential.
 
Pomegranate Increases Time to Exhaustion, Heavy Breathing
Writing in the journal Nutrients, researchers conducted a study involving 26 amateur cyclists, who received either pomegranate or a placebo daily for 14 days.

They then engaged in an exercise session similar to a long-distance cycling race, such that they cycled for 90 minutes at moderate intensity, followed by a more intense stint, in which they increased their intensity every three minutes to the point of exhaustion, as you would in the final leg of a race.

After a five-minute recovery period, they then did six sets up barbell step ups (stepping up and down on a bench) to induce muscle damage, markers of which were subsequently measured, as was their eventual recovery.

For the next phase of the study, the cyclists repeated the test 15 days later but swapped the pomegranate for placebo, and vice versa, so that each participant carried out the exercise tests while taking pomegranate and again while taking a placebo. The results?

Pomegranate significantly increased the cyclists’ time to exhaustion — by an average of 94 seconds. It also led to improvements in what’s known as the second ventilatory threshold, or VT2, putting it off by an average of 55 seconds.

Your VT2 is the point during exercise when lactate has accumulated in your blood, you need to breathe heavily, and you can no longer carry out a conversation. By staving off these two markers, pomegranate could easily mean the difference between winning or losing a race — or in the case of your personal exercising, help you work out a little bit longer and faster.

The study also found that pomegranate could help to restore force in damaged muscles, bolstering a number of studies that have hinted at pomegranate’s benefits to muscle recovery.
 
Pomegranate Power
There are 335 abstracts related to pomegranate research — a signal of just how powerful an ally this fruit can be for your health. In terms of exercise alone, consuming pomegranate makes sense and can:

  • Decrease oxidative damage caused by exercise
  • Accelerate healing of exercise-related muscle damage and muscle soreness
  • Improve whole-body strength and feelings of vitality
  • Enhance blood flow, increasing the delivery of oxygen and thereby likely boosting performance

Pomegranate has been prized since ancient times as both a symbol of love and a powerful medicinal tonic, traditionally used for treating everything from parasites and snake bites to bronchitis and diabetes. If you’re willing to put in the effort to remove the arils — the juicy casings that enclose the seeds – you’ll be rewarded with multiple health benefits, not to mention a tasty treat.

Pomegranate may favorably influence hundreds of diseases, particularly oxidative stress, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and prostate cancer. Pomegranate may offset oxidative stress by enhancing your body’s antioxidant responses – another way it’s useful for athletic performance.

If you’re looking for an easy way to enjoy this powerhouse fruit, wash it well and slice it horizontally. While holding it firmly over a bowl (cut side down), simply hit the back with a wooden spoon until the arils fall out.

If you don’t plan to eat them all right away, pomegranate arils can be refrigerated in an airtight container or frozen for several months. They make a great addition to smoothies and salads, or eat them plain as a healthy snack.

Be sure to pick up some delicious juicy Organic Pomegranates from our produce section on your next visit to Whitaker’s Natural Market. 

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Black Cohosh Better Than Prozac for Menopause

Do you feel fear or worry regarding the onset of menopause, either for yourself or someone you love? Antidepressants and hormone treatments may be the popular prescriptions, but before you take medications with serious risks, learn about the incredible results of black cohosh for those pesky, sweaty, hot flashy nights

Even in the modern day, there are abundant myths and mysteries surrounding menopause, the period in a woman’s life that occurs 12 months after her last menstrual cycle.

Perimenopause, the transition period before menopause, is marked by hormonal changes leading to the cessation of menses.

Both phases, hereafter collectively referred to as menopause, are characterized by physical and psycho-social changes that lend to the stories surrounding women’s behaviors, thoughts, and feelings during this time of transition.

Menopause can range from a few months to several years in duration and is spurred by decreased estrogen production in the ovaries. These hormonal shifts can have associated and, at times, unpleasant side-effects, which may be managed through holistic or pharmacological interventions, or a combination of the two modalities.

Historically, some have prescribed to the belief that “the change” brings about an unwelcome and inevitable reality, both for women and the men in their lives. Is it any wonder that the “fix” has become to prescribe mood-altering drugs, or to attempt to “put back” the hormones that the passage of time is depleting? In truth, this natural cessation of fertility need not be synonymous with a distressing or unpleasant experience.

Antidepressants are widely prescribed for menopause symptoms ranging from depression and low libido, to anxiety and social isolation. Instead of directly addressing the emotional aspects of aging, empty-nesting, and our physiological need for strong social bonds, modern medical dogma is to simply prescribe a pill in hopes that these uncomfortable feelings will disappear.

Beyond the emotional and psychological impacts, vasomotor symptoms are commonly experienced during perimenopause up to full menopause. Changes in body temperature such as flushing and night sweats are frequently reported, and the condition known as “hot flashes” can onset. According to a 2008 study, nearly 80% of peri- and postmenopausal women reported experiencing some or all of these symptoms.

Medicating Menopause: A Risky Prescription
A popular treatment administered to menopausal women in the U.S. is ERT, or estrogen replacement therapy. While it may seem natural to replace fading endogenous hormones with an exogenous supply, warning bell has been sounded regarding potentially harmful side effects. ERT has been linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, among other concerning outcomes.

Another prescribed treatment for vasomotor symptoms is gabapentin, known by the brand name Neurontin, an anti-seizure drug used to treat nerve pain and conditions such as restless leg syndrome. Also prescribed for anxiety, gabapentin has a high potential for addiction and misuse, and can have undesirable side effects such as slurred speech, blurred vision, and impaired motor function. Even worse, Neurontin has been linked to cases of suicidal idealization5s and respiratory failure, among other serious side effects.

Another option frequently prescribed are the broad spectrum of mood-altering and antidepressant drugs. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs, and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, SNRIs are often the first course of treatment when a menopausal patient complains of depression, lethargy, or hormonal issues.     

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women are 2.5 times more likely to be prescribed an antidepressant than men. Nearly 23% of woman ages 40 to 59 are taking antidepressant medication in the U.S., more than any other age-sex group.

Validated by Science: Natural Options for Hormonal Balance
While natural options for managing menopause may not be routinely prescribed by allopathic physicians, science has validated that black cohosh is a viable treatment for several discomforting symptoms of this life-changing transition.

This double-blind placebo-controlled study, found that black cohosh (scientific name: Cimicifuga Racemosa) was “equipotent” to mixed-estrogen drugs for relief from vasomotor symptoms, and for improving markers of bone metabolism, a factor related to osteoporosis.
What’s not equal when comparing most plant medicines to pharmaceuticals are potential adverse effects. Premarin®, a popular mixed-estrogen drug, has a warning label that cites increased risks of heart attack, cancer, blood clots, and stroke, while studies involving a 12-month course of treatment with black cohosh root (the part of the plant used in herbal formulations) show it was administered with no known adverse effects.

Another impressive study pitting black cohosh against a popular prescription involves Prozac® for treatment of postmenopausal symptoms. The 2007 study, published in Advances in Therapy, compared questionnaires from 120 healthy women with menopausal symptoms who rated such factors as quality of life, depression scores, and frequency and severity of vasomotor symptoms like flushing and night sweats.

Women in this study were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups, with one group receiving fluoxetine (generic form of Prozac®) and the other group receiving black cohosh. The women were surveyed before, during, and after the study, for a period of six months. They kept daily diaries recording the number and intensity of hot flashes and night sweats, as well as completing several standardized questionnaires.

Results of this study showed that black cohosh reduced overall scores for hot flushes and night sweats better than Prozac®. At the end of the sixth months of treatment, black cohosh reduced the hot flash score by 85%, compared with a 62% result for fluoxetine.

With improved psycho-social awareness of the stressors women experience mid-life, and better understanding of naturally effective treatment options, we can begin to view menopause as a celebration of life rather than the death of fertility. It’s the dawning of a new cycle, a time ripe for giving of your experience and wisdom. Protect your vitality with naturally effective plant medicine and enjoy all the seasons of your life.

Be sure to browse our selection of Black Cohosh and Menopause Supporting Supplements at Whitaker’s Natural Market.  

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New Insights on Gut Permeability and Depression

If you know what depression feels like – the brain clouding, the flat moods, the tiredness – you’re not alone. Over 300 million people around the world have depression, and yet there’s a lot that we still don’t quite understand.

Thankfully, the medical field is developing some new insights that just might help us understand depression better. In a new 2019 study, researchers decided to examine the potential mechanisms of major depressive disorder in teenage girls and found some evidence that could help us better understand exactly how gut permeability (leaky gut) can lead to inflammation, which in turn, leads to depression.

In this 2019 study, Baylor College of Medicine researchers are directly looking at gut permeability and major depressive disorder, a study that is the first of its kind. With a sample of forty-one 14-17 year-old teenage girls who were medically healthy, the study measured the severity of the girls’ depressive symptoms, the activity of the autonomic nervous system, intestinal permeability, or gut leakiness, and the number of inflammatory cytokines.

To measure whether the girls were depressed, an interviewer performed the Children’s Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) and a clinical interview. The CDRS-R is a rating scale that requires interviews of both child and parent to understand the severity of a child’s depression. Over the past few decades, the CDRS-R has become the most widely used rating scale for assessing severity and change in depression for clinical trials involving children and adolescents. In order to collect data on the autonomic nervous system activity, researchers measured pre-ejection period (PEP) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) data, which are indicators for the activity levels of the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system respectively. They measured the leakiness of the gut using the lactulose-mannitol ratio (LMR), which involves having the teens first fast overnight and then ingesting a premeasured amount of lactulose and mannitol. The researchers then collected the urine for four hours after ingestion. By looking at the ratio of lactulose and mannitol that passed through the gut lining, researchers could calculate the permeability of the gut lining, or how “leaky” it was. To measure inflammation, the researchers took blood samples and measured inflammatory cytokines.

They found that in unmedicated teenage girls between the ages of 14-17, depression severity was associated with increased intestinal permeability, as measured by the lactulose to mannitol ratio. The leakier the gut, they found, the more severe the depression and depressive symptoms. They saw that the higher the concentration of the cytokine IL-1β, the more severe the depression. They also found that increased intestinal permeability may be the path between sympathetic nervous system activation and depression severity. Additionally, their evidence suggested that increased intestinal permeability may activate the innate immune system and push the development of depression.

The result of this study also helps clarify the mechanisms through which activating the sympathetic nervous system can increase gut permeability and activate the innate immune system–two things that are likely contributing to depression symptoms.

The Brain, The Gut, and the Immune System
If you’re wondering why intestinal permeability is related to depression, let’s back up and walk through the whole pipeline.

We start with the immune system. Throughout the last century, psychiatry has been exploring the role of the immune system in certain presentations of depression. Importantly, the gut houses over 70% of our immune system, which makes sense given that the lining of your gut is the barrier between your insides and the outside world. The gastrointestinal epithelium usually forms a single-cell-thick barrier that prevents the free movement of toxicants, microbes, and microbial antigens from entering into the rest of your body. This lining usually does a good job absorbing things we need (like food) and interfacing with foreign things that might wreak havoc–which is probably why most of our immune cells are located in the gut. The relationship between the gut and the brain is both complex and important. We’ve all felt the butterflies in our stomachs when we’re nervous or anxious, but it turns out that the relationship between the brain and the gut is actually bidirectional. Not only can our brains affect how our guts feel, but our gut can relay its state of calm or alarm to the nervous system and send those immune reactions up the vagus nerve to the brain.

To understand how the gut and depression are related, we should first better comprehend the triggers for inflammation, what inflammation is, and how it happens.

Stress Drives Inflammation
So what IS inflammation in the first place? Inflammation is the body’s defensive response to stresses, like injury or the ingestion of bodily-incompatible chemicals. Upon approaching a stressor, the immune system kicks into a higher gear to heal the body.

Stress is a catch-all term, a trigger that links hormones to inflammation. Essentially, when the body thinks something is wrong, the body releases hormones that tell the body to be on the lookout and get on defense, and inflammation occurs. These triggers can come in all forms, many of which are actually staples of modern American life, from sugar to stress to pesticides and pollution to anxiety to beyond. Whether psychological or physiological, stress drives the inflammation response by telling the brain to release cortisol, the steroid hormone that acts as nature’s built-in alarm system and makes it for our bodies to use blood sugar for energy so that we can flee from whatever is causing the stress.

Once inflammation is started, not only does inflammation cause more inflammation, but recent studies have linked low-grade inflammation to depression. When inflammation reaches the brain, cells begin to take their limited supply of tryptophan to produce more anxiety-provoking chemicals like quinolinate. Medical literature has found that inflammation seems to be a consistent marker of depressive symptoms, like flat mood, slowed thinking, avoidance, alterations in perception, and metabolic changes.

How does inflammation get provoked in the gut?
So let’s understand how exactly a leaky gut can lead to inflammation – the body’s language of imbalance.

When the body is stressed, the junctions between cells in the stomach can be less effective than they should be. This allows bacteria and toxicants to enter the bloodstream that can continue to cause widespread inflammation and possibly trigger a far-reaching reaction from the immune system. Having leaky gut cause inflammation sets off a problematic chain of events because the gut has a direct link to the brain through the vagus nerve.

The medical field has been slowly inching up on a fuller understanding of the link between intestinal permeability (“leaky gut”) and depression. Previous studies focusing on depression have found the chemical hints of leaky gut. For example, one study showed that patients with a recent suicide attempt had higher concentrations of an anti-lipopolysaccharides (LPS) antibody, meaning that the immune system had either encountered more of or reacted defensively against LPS, which is a molecule that marks microbe-associated patterns in the body. In another study, compared to healthy controls, adults with depressive or anxiety disorders, who didn’t have any symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders, still had higher concentrations of fatty acid-binding protein-2, which is produced to signify impaired intestinal epithelium integrity. These studies, and the first study we discussed in this article, suggest that intestinal permeability may be impaired in depression.

So What Do We Do?
All of this sounds kind of complicated, but really, this approach to depression-seeing it as a symptom that results in unhealthy inflammatory balance-means that we might be able to do more about it. It means that depression isn’t happening because of genetics or not enough serotonin. Instead, you’re probably experiencing low-grade inflammation that’s happening because your gut is stressed and leaky. The goal is to send your system a signal of safety – from the gut, from the mind, or by lessening perceived stressors and burdens through detox.

Interested in step-by-step support to help you optimize your health?
Be sure to talk to Dr Jocelin about her practitioner grade cleanse protocol which is amazing at detoxifying the body, how to do the Aloe-Silver Gut Reset (developed by a homeopath who reversed his Chron’s Disease), the importance of eating Organic, and the gut health supporting supplements at Whitaker’s Natural Market.  She is also available for in-depth consultations.