The Ketogenic (keto) diet has become somewhat trendy. There is a ton of information floating around the internet about it. What’s missing is a fundamental explanation of why it is so powerful and the more advanced techniques that take it to the next level.
Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet
It can reduce inflammation, clear the skin and mind, give bountiful energy, burn fat, squelch cravings, and more. Fasting is a large part of the diet. It’s important to follow the method properly to achieve those proven results.
The best layout we’ve seen for following the keto diet is on Dr. Jocker’s website. He covers the benefits and breaks down the science of how to follow a cyclic ketogenic diet in a way that is best for your body. You’ll find the philosophy behind it, the different methods, the process, and the program levels.
Functional Medicine uses the ketogenic diet for its specific health benefits in treating certain conditions. We’ll help you create a personal plan that is at a level you are comfortable with. There is a beginner, intermediate, and advanced plan and you can work your way up.
To learn more about how it can promote better health, book an initial consultation with our team. Contact us or email [email protected].
Why are DHEA & Testosterone Important?
Testosterone is a male hormone, right? True, but females need it just as much as males do, just in smaller amounts. Not only is necessary for a healthy libido and sexual satisfaction, but it is also essential for bone health, brain health, muscle health, and heart health. It needs to be in balance with the other female hormones, estrogen, and progesterone (sex steroids), thyroid hormones, as well as our major stress hormone, cortisol, in order to function optimally. The Androgen DHEA is a feel-good hormone. It gives one a feeling of well being, libido, good sleep, muscle strength, and exercise tolerance.
What are the common symptoms of DHEA deficiency?
Common symptoms of DHEA deficiency include reduced sex drive, reduced sexual sensitivity, difficulty achieving orgasm, painful intercourse, low mood and excessive anxiety, poor coping ability, reduced muscle tone and strength, joint pain, back pain, dry skin, poor memory or concentration and urinary incontinence. The symptoms can overlap with hormonal and other medical conditions. Thus, androgen deficiency often goes under-diagnosed and is not often thought to be relevant in females.
Cortisol Steal
So where does it all go wrong and why are we seeing so many women, young and old, with deficiency these days? Cortisol steal. This is exactly what it sounds like. Cortisol is stealing the substrates that our sex steroids and DHEA need to be formed because it is being produced in excess. DHEA becomes depleted and because this is upstream from testosterone (and estrogen), these downstream hormones also become depleted. So it’s the stressed women that get more hormonal issues. It is not the hormones’ fault. They are just responding appropriately to other imbalances in the body. Why would you need to reproduce or have sex for that matter, if you are running away from a lion?
Stress and Hormones
The body interprets internal and external stress as the same thing. It doesn’t know the difference between having a fight with someone vs candida overgrowth in the gut, for example. It responds by releasing cortisol and other stress hormones and neurotransmitters from the adrenal glands. When cortisol is produced in excess, the hypothalamus in the brain perceives a threat. It switches off signals to the adrenals and cortisol is no longer produced. Alongside this, high cortisol triggers DHEA release, which tries to balance the high cortisol. With DHEA and cortisol levels low, the patient experiences stage 3 adrenal fatigue. The new term for this is HPA axis dysfunction/ dysregulation.
Replacing DHEA and Testosterone in Women
DHEA and testosterone can be replaced alone, or alongside each other in women. It should be ensured that the other female hormones are also optimal. In our practice, we prescribe bioidentical hormones, which are hormones that behave in an exact way as our own hormones. They are still laboratory-made but are chemically identical to our hormones. The bad rap that hormone replacement has is from synthetic hormones, which confuse our hormonal systems – like putting the wrong key into a lock. Testosterone is most often prescribed topically, or in certain cases intramuscularly/ subcutaneous. DHEA is most often prescribed sublingually or by mouth, but can also be given topically.
The key to safe hormone replacement is testing your levels (24 hour urine hormone is the best test for this, but blood levels can be used when resources are limited). Once on the treatment, levels should be monitored by an experienced health care professional in order to find the dose that is right for you. This can vary tremendously between women, depending on genetics, underlying factors that caused the hormone deficit and lifestyle (a very active woman requires more DHEA or testosterone, often). You can find your optimum dose by looking at your levels alongside your symptoms.
What else can you do to improve your levels besides taking hormones?
Hormone replacement is not the only answer but in every case, should be done alongside root cause treatment and lifestyle changes. Hormone replacement does not fix the adrenals and other hormones. It is just another patch if done alone. Some women even feel worse on hormones, which tells us we need to work on these root causes.
Other Lifestyle Improvements
So what can you do to help these hormones in your day to day life? Your overall aim is to decrease inflammation and stress on the HPA axis.
Diet
An anti-inflammatory diet is a good place to start. Many hormone disturbances start in the gut, because of a constant onslaught of foods that increase inflammation, upregulate our immune system, change our microbiome, and impact our gut-brain connection. Sugar, carbohydrates, and dairy are big contributors to poor hormone health.
Exercise
Make sure you are getting exercise that is appropriate for your condition. Don’t run a marathon when your adrenals are shot.
Sleep
Make sure you get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Good sleep hygiene is essential and your health care professional may recommend supplements and medications for this.
Stress Management
Make sure you are identifying and managing stress – we cannot always change our stressful circumstances but we can change how we perceive them and what we do every day to find our calm.
We recommend 2 books to find out more: The Hormone Handbook by Dr. Thierry Hertoghe; and, What You Must Know About Women’s Hormones: Your Guide to Natural Hormone Treatments for PMS, Menopause, Osteoporis, PCOS, and More by Dr. Pamela Wartian Smith.
About the author:
One of Dr. Michelle’s greatest passions in life is to help people help themselves. She understands that your current health tells a story and that when you have symptoms of disease, your body is already out of balance. She believes that we should not have to settle for anything other than our most vital self and that her job is to figure out how to put you back on track.To book an appointment with Dr. Michelle, contact [email protected]
One vital component of your health that you might be neglecting is precious sleep. It is absolutely critical for both your short and long term health, and in our modern society, millions of people don’t get sufficient sleep. It’s well known that the ideal amount for optimal health is eight hours. Truthfully, the amount needed varies from person to person. Everybody is different and individual factors like age, overall health, stress level, and activity level can heavily influence how much you actually need.
Sleep Quality & Circadian Rhythm
When it comes to sleep, quality is just as, if not more, important than quantity. Spending nine hours tossing and turning without ever entering deep sleep will not leave you refreshed and ready to go in the morning. What you need is an adequate amount of REM (rapid eye movement) each night. This is one of the deepest sleep phases where you experience your most vivid dreams.
Circadian rhythm or individual internal clock controls the sleep cycle. They developed in our ancestors in response to the natural day/night and seasonal cycles of the earth. It’s the reason why humans aren’t innately nocturnal and tend to be active during the day. These modern times can throw off your circadian rhythm. Artificial lighting, days spent working indoors, an unnatural diet, and night shift work may all contribute to a disordered internal clock. A variety of consequences – ranging from mild fatigue and depression to seasonal affective disorder (SAD) to even worse – can result from living with an out of balance circadian rhythm (1).
Even breaking your sleep cycle by frequently getting up to urinate during the night may cause depression (2). However, there are several steps you can take to get high-quality sleep and maintain a balanced circadian rhythm.
Tip 1: Be Careful with Caffeine
Chances are that you consume at least some caffeine almost every day. While coffee is the most obvious culprit, caffeine is also present in many sodas, teas, and chocolate products. It’s no big deal to enjoy a morning java, but try to limit your intake. Even more importantly, avoid consuming caffeine past about mid-morning. The effects of caffeine can last seven hours or more, so it’s important that it’s all out of your system by bedtime. In fact, a 2014 study reinforced what we pretty much already knew, caffeine can significantly disturb your sleep (3).
Tip 2: Eat Dinner About 4 Hours Before Bed
You certainly don’t have to grab the early bird buffet special at 4 pm, but neither should you eat dinner at 10 pm and hit the sack one hour later. That’s because your body breaks down carbohydrates, or sugars, over time. You don’t need a sugar spike for energy while you’re sleeping, and an increase in blood glucose can actually cause you to have fitful, shallow sleep. Your best bet is to eat a dinner containing complex carbohydrates, like starch, about four hours before going to sleep. This will allow your body time to breakdown the carbs, giving you adequate energy for your remaining time awake while avoiding the middle of the night glucose spike.
Don’t Sleep at the Screen!
Tip 3: Limit Your Screen Time
If you fall asleep with a laptop or smartphone, you’re certainly not alone. Still, this type of screen time is a habit worth breaking. Computer monitors, televisions, and phone screens give off blue light, which interferes with the action of melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that promotes sleepiness and helps you actually get to sleep. Blue light tricks your body into believing it’s still daylight outside and not yet time for sleep. Remember, your body’s systems haven’t caught up with modern technology. Do yourself a favour by discontinuing screen time at least two hours before bed.
Tip 4: Make Your Bedroom Sleep Hygienic
Just like you practice oral hygiene by brushing your teeth before bed, you need to observe sleep hygiene for a good night’s sleep. This means dedicating your bedroom to sleep and limiting distractions. Keep it nice and dark, as studies have shown a connection between melatonin levels and more light exposure, and don’t let the temperature get higher than about 21 degrees C– not a problem during the Albertan winters (4). Finally, try to insulate yourself from any unnecessary noise so that you’re not prematurely roused from restful sleep.
Tip 5: See Your Functional Medicine Doctor
Dr. Lynne Murfin treats all sorts of sleep disorders and can help discover the cause of your issue. Her training and experience are extensive. While there are many different things that can upset your circadian rhythm, there are also many treatments available, many of them natural.
For example, the stress response (“fight or flight”) has a huge effect on sleep quality, but this can be addressed in a variety of ways. Mind-body exercises guided by Dr. Murfin or her lifestyle educator can help reduce the stress and anxiety, and supplements.
Supplements for Sleep
Taking supplements for sleep is another option your functional medicine doctor may recommend. Supplemental B12 taken upon arising in the mornings may “reset” your stress response mechanism. In fact, vitamin B12 shows to have an effect on stress hormones in lab rats (5).
Another supplement that has shown promising results is valproic acid. This compound, in low doses, demonstrated an ability to reduce depression and restore circadian rhythm in a patient with an associated disorder (6).
Hormones for Sleep
Additionally, the use of hormones under Dr. Murfin’s direction can aid you in getting consistent, good sleep. If you’re not producing enough melatonin, small doses of this hormone could help in reducing your sleep latency, or the time it takes you to fall asleep. Melatonin is vital to the circadian rhythm. A study published in the journal Sleep Science even showed a correlation between low melatonin and the development of dementia in elderly patients (7).
Other substances that can have a positive effect include serotonin, gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), and the female sex hormone progesterone. These compounds all frequently become imbalanced by a number of factors and need correction. For example, progesterone may protect against developing obstructive sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder (8).
GABA is a neurotransmitter involved in sleep maintenance. Low amounts of GABA have an association with insomnia, but fortunately, GABA supplements are available (11). Progesterone levels may drop during menopause, but research has shown that hormone therapy can result in better sleep (9).
Serotonin also plays its part in sleep, specifically maintenance. This neurotransmitter makes sure that you stay asleep long enough to truly rest. Serotonin has long been recognized to have a role in depression, with low levels contributing to depressive symptoms. It’s now known that serotonin can also directly affect the adrenal glands, crucial components in the stress response (10).
Controlling your stress response is a vital part of getting good sleep.
Consult a Qualified Physician
All neurotransmitters and hormonal supplements should be taken under the close monitoring of a qualified physician. Dr. Murfin can assist you in getting the best sleep possible. Lifestyle changes, nutrition support, and supplements may all contain the answers to your difficulties. Just remember – the road to good, and continued health – starts with you.
Dr. Murfin is wholeheartedly focused on her life’s mission to help people heal and achieve extraordinary outcomes. She believes that health is more than merely the absence of disease. It is a total state of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing through the creation of a whole and meaningful life. Dr. Murfin leaves no stone unturned to determine the root cause of illness or imbalance.
Brain Health and treating patients with Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative conditions is a new frontier for Functional Medicine. Dr. Neil Nathan, MD’s book review of Dr. Dale Bredesen, MD’s “The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline explains and gives hope. Dr. Dale E. Bredesen MD, an internationally recognized expert in neurodegenerative diseases developed a highly effective protocol named The Bredesen ReCoDe.
The Bredesen ReCoDe for Alzheimer’s
The ReCoDe in Bredesen ReCoDe stands for REversing COgnitive DEcline. This completely personalized treatment program leans towards a ketogenic diet with modifications, requiring no pills or therapeutics.
The Bredesen ReCoDe protocol is seeing amazing results in reversing Alzheimer’s cognitive decline. It is never too early to start looking after your brain. Take a look at some FAQs and sign up on the ReCoDe website here. The ReCoDe Report cannot be accessed outside of the United States. Patients must sign up for the REVERSE program, which is a subscription. Linden & Arc Vitality Institute provides patients with this fascinating protocol.
Alzheimer’s ReCoDe
ReCoDe at Linden & Arc Vitality Institute
At Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, brain health matters. Dr. Bredesen’s ReCODE program is a treatment option at LMMD. As Dr. Nathan writes in the article, “Dr. Bredesen’s ReCODE program provides true hope for improvement and reversal of Alzheimer’s disease.”
At your initial consultation, we will gather your health history and family history. Every detail of your health through your life. We will pinpoint where the triggers to your current health may have come from. We gather more information and test you before populating the RECODE report. This allows us to prioritize your treatment. This will be a multidisciplinary approach. Nutritionists, exercise therapists, neural retraining, intravenous treatments, supplements, and meditation training are all possible aspects of your treatment.
Contact Linden & Arc Vitality Institute at [email protected] if you would like to learn more.
We are not alone! We live in harmony with hundreds of millions of other organisms and a plethora of different good bacteria that are detrimental to gut health. These bacteria are located mainly in our gut, or gastrointestinal tracts. They have a symbiotic relationship with us. We provide them with a warm, nutrient-rich environment and they aid our digestion and fight off harmful microorganisms. This balance is a delicate one.
Listen to Your Gut
A number of factors disturb the gut’s microbiome like poor food choices and disease. As a consequence, we suffer from digestive symptoms, inflammation, autoimmune issues, and poor health. One of the best ways in which to promote gut health is to regularly take probiotics. Probiotics introduce helpful bacteria to the gastrointestinal tract.
These compact, encapsulated bacterial colonies are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Here, we provide guidance on specific probiotics to address each patient’s specific needs.
Benefits of Probiotics
Probiotics Attack Harmful Organisms
The purpose of probiotics is to attack harmful organisms in the body. Bacteria using nutrients, water, and other resources is the recipe for a healthy gut ecosystem. This leaves little room for harmful microorganisms. Probiotics encourage the growth of good bacteria, crowding out the bad ones. Certain probiotics have even shown antimicrobial activity in laboratory settings that mimic the human stomach. In 2017, researchers published results showing that lactic acid bacteria in probiotics discouraged the growth of intestinal pathogens and prevent intestinal infections. 1
Probiotics Regulate Digestion
It has long been known that healthy gut flora is a necessity to retain regulate our bodies and offer good digestion. This is why broad-spectrum antibiotic use causes diarrhea. Antibiotics kill infection and the normal and helpful bacteria in your gut. This leads to poor water absorption and diarrhea. Probiotics are often advertised as helpful for regularity, and this is no exaggeration. Interactions between gut bacteria and carbohydrates keep constipation at bay and help ensure that food flows smoothly through the digestive system. Proper nutrient absorption needs good bacteria.
Probiotics Help Maintain a Healthy Weight
People who have diverse and healthy gut bacteria tend to be leaner. A 2013 study published in Nature confirmed this premise.2
Good gut bacteria helps with a number of metabolic issues, including insulin resistance and lipid status. Functional Medicine physicians find that obese patients lose significant weight.
Probiotics Control Food Allergies
The environment and poor diet affect the normal gut microflora negatively. This can contribute to the development of food allergies and food sensitivities. The reverse is true, as well. Robust and healthy gut bacteria tend to resist the onset of food allergies. A study published in 2017 strengthened this assertion, finding in mice that, “The present study supports the theory that probiotics can treat food allergy by modulating specific genera of the gut microbiota.”3
Probiotics Positively Affect Many Diseases
Research remains in the early stages. Promising evidence exists that probiotic therapy, in conjunction with a healthy diet, may help a wide range of diseases. These include such ubiquitous problems as high blood pressure4, fatty liver disease5, cardiovascular disease6, and even some mental disorders.7
Functional Medicine has always proclaimed body systems are interrelated, with the gastrointestinal system being of particular importance. At Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, we are uniquely equipped to provide advice, diagnosis, and treatment plans. To book a consultation, contact us at [email protected]
Dr. Murfin is wholeheartedly focused on her life’s mission to help people heal and achieve extraordinary outcomes. She believes that health is more than merely the absence of disease. It is a total state of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing through the creation of a whole and meaningful life. Dr. Murfin leaves no stone unturned to determine the root cause of illness or imbalance.
