Best Natural Ways to Increase Your Testosterone

Testosterone is the hormone of manliness. Yes, women make testosterone too, yet men make much more to achieve the body size, muscle mass, bone density and strength associated with manhood.

Low testosterone levels contribute to infertility, loss of lean body mass, increased body fat, moodiness and even hot flashes. Yes, men have hot flashes too.

In men, testosterone is a hormone produced primarily by the testicles. As men age, testosterone levels decline. By age 30, stress, lack of exercise, highly processed foods and exposure to xenoestrogens (synthetic chemicals that have estrogenic effects like those found in pesticides) depletes testosterone levels.

In the past fifteen years the norm for blood levels of testosterone in men has dropped dramatically. Most men have no idea what their testosterone levels were when they were young and virile. By the time they seek medical attention with signs of low testosterone including erectile dysfunction, low libido, loss of muscle mass, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and rising cholesterol levels, their testosterone has dropped significantly.
In severe cases, bio-identical testosterone replacement therapy can be prescribed by an experienced health practitioner. Yet high doses and continual use will diminish your natural ability to make testosterone.


8 Ways to Naturally Increase Testosterone Levels

1. Lose Body Fat

Healthy men should have less than 18% body fat. The American Council on Exercise compares male and female body fat percentages by activity level.

 

graph credit: American Council on Exercise

Notice that women need more body fat to produce hormones specifically estrogen. When men approach female body fat levels, guess what, they produce more estrogen too!

Lose the belly fat by cutting out all refined sugars and starches. Eat only whole grains and get most of your carbohydrate calories from vegetables. Your diet should consist of no more than 30-40% of your calories from carbohydrates. Carbs are fuel. If you aren’t using them as energy, you’re storing them as fat.


2. Exercise Nearly Every Day

High intensity exercise, combined with really slow weight resistance is the best way to increase lean body mass. This means interval training. Do some type of high intensity exercise for short bursts—running, biking, treadmill, rowing, elliptical—about 30 seconds as fast and hard as you can. Then slow down for 60-90 seconds. And repeat the cycle 8-10 times. Do this three times per week and you will burn fat and increase lean body mass.

Once a week, go for a long slow aerobic activity—hike, bike, run, swim. Be sure to stretch after each exercise session and always warm up well. As you get older, you lose flexibility, so warming up for at least ten minutes and cooling down with adequate stretching will prevent injury. Go slow, if you are a former couch potato.

At least once weekly, lift heavy weights really, really slow. Strive for a contraction phase of 40-60 seconds and a release phase of double the time (80-120 seconds). Do just one exercise per body part, and you will increase your muscle strength and endurance significantly. Be sure to get professional help at the gym before tackling heavy weights, so you don’t hurt yourself. And of course, warm up first!

At least once weekly, take a day off. This allows your muscles to repair themselves. You will notice results faster with less injuries, if you give your body a weekly break. Take a relaxing stroll with a loved one, walk the dog, do some light gardening—just no intense exercise.


3. Get Enough Sunshine

Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin. It’s a pro-hormone that allows your steroid hormones to get into the cells. You need at least 15-20 minutes of sunbathing (80% of your skin exposed without sunscreen) to make enough Vitamin D for your daily needs. If your serum levels are low, you may need to supplement with a triglyceride based Vitamin D to optimize your levels. Studies have shown that those populations with the longest longevity average 50 ng/dl of 25OH Vitamin D in their blood.


4. Consume Enough Zinc

Zinc is a mineral that is important for testosterone production. Too much zinc can dangerously lower copper levels, so it is best to get zinc from your diet, rather than supplementation. Zinc is found in meats and fish, raw milk, raw cheese, beans, and yogurt or kefir made from raw milk. Be sure to eat organic grass fed meats and diary products as conventional farming methods rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides which rob the soil of nutrients like zinc.


5. Eat Enough Healthy Fat

Testosterone is a steroid hormone which means it’s made from cholesterol. As your testosterone levels drop, your cholesterol levels rise specifically LDL cholesterol (the large particle type). You need to eat fat to make testosterone. Be sure to get at least 30% of your calories from fat. And one third of those fat calories should come from saturated fats. Saturated fats help create cells membranes allowing hormones to get into the cells through receptor sites.

Healthy fats include: olives and olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, meat, poultry, fish, diary products, and eggs. Fried foods do not count as healthy fats. In fact, high heat adulterates fat and should be avoided.


6. Get Enough Protein

Protein is made up of amino acids which are the basic building blocks of all your tissues. Branched chain amino acids (BCAA) like leucine, isoleucine and valine are needed to build muscle and connective tissue like tendons and ligaments. Whey protein is rich in BCAAs and a safer alternative to using individual amino acid supplements. Animal proteins are the best source of BCAAs, but legumes are a good alternative.
You should be eating 0.5-0.75gm of protein per pound of lean body mass. Your lean body mass can be calculated by subtracting your body fat in pounds from your body weight. For instance if you weigh 200# and you have 15% body fat (or 30# of body fat) your lean body mass (LBM) is 170#. Which means you need at least 85 grams of protein daily to maintain your lean body mass. A 4 oz chicken breast has about 28gm of protein.


7. Reduce Stress

Stress in any form creates a fight or flight reaction. Your adrenals do not know the difference between a tiger chasing you and your worry over a late bill. The reaction is the same—adrenaline surges to get you out of danger, followed by cortisol released to fuel the fight or flight. If you were really running away from a tiger, the stored sugar released by your cortisol surge would fuel your flight. If not, you get to store it as body fat!
Cortisol blocks the effect of testosterone in the body. While testosterone is an anabolic hormone (builds tissue), cortisol is a catabolic hormone (breaks down tissue).

Meditation is a great way to reduce stress. Learning relaxation skills like deep breathing and visualization can help reduce stress. Most stress responses are learned. Seek professional help from a licensed therapist to teach you how to be less reactive to your stressors. Chronic stress is the biggest hormone challenger which will age you rapidly.


8. Balance Your Hypothalamus

Most hormonally challenged men have been testosterone deficient and cortisol driven for so long, their hypothalamic-pituitary axis is disturbed. In the center of your brain, the hypothalamus orchestrates your hormonal response, all of your hormones. The hypothalamus perceives your world through your senses and all the hormones you produce via the bloodstream. It then tells the pituitary what hormones to stimulate according to what is most necessary for survival. If you do not correct hypothalamic imbalance, you will need hormone supplementation for life.

I created Genesis Gold® to help balance out the entire symphony of hormones and optimize hypothalamic response. Plus the whole food phytonutrients help your body metabolize and detoxify your hormones safely. Many of my male patients have been able to achieve optimal testosterone levels by taking Genesis Gold® and following the healthy lifestyle habits suggested above.

Keep Hormones in Harmony with Genesis Gold

Read more about how Genesis Gold® can help you achieve your optimal state of wellness at www.genesisgold.com

Copyright 2015 DMaragopoulos

Is Your Hypothalamus Causing Your Health Problems?

Hypothalamic dysfunction could be root of your health issues, if you have the following symptoms:

• Weight gain and inability to normalize weight
• Hair loss
• Exercise intolerance
• Lack of endurance
• Hot flashes
• Temperature intolerance
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Skin rashes
• Moodiness
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Intolerance of usual stressors
• Forgetfulness or brain fog
• Irregular periods or No periods
• Infertility
• Headaches
• Thyroid disorders
• Adrenal disorders
• Auto-immune diseases

I have been writing articles regarding the hypothalamus for years and finally the public is reading them. When I got this email, I realized that the time is ripe for the role the hypothalamus plays in our health to be appreciated:

I have been doing research on the Hypothalamus and more specifically the disorders that can plague that gland. I stumbled upon an article you wrote which included a link to your product Genesis Gold®. I have to say that I am very intrigued, as the information you have provided speaks to me and the trials facing me. I would like to give you a history, if you do not mind….

Then she went on to describe a myriad of the above symptoms…which she assessed was hypothalamic after many doctors and treatments later had not relieved her of her problems. Her health goals were to:

• Lose fat and gain muscle
• Improve sleep and energy levels
• Balance hormones and improve fertility
• Ease symptoms of  depression

I guess the whole point of this email is to inquire about your products. I am willing to try just about ANYTHING and I am impressed by the "idea" of your products. My main concern is the cost and the validity of your products and company. I mean no offense, but it is so hard to tell what is real, and what is a scam. I find the information on your site to be very accurate, and informative...especially since there really isn't a lot of information on hypothalamus disorders and even more so on what to do about them. I would appreciate it if you would write me back.

Thank you very much.

So I wrote back:

I understand your reservation.

Genesis HealthProducts was incorporated in 2000. The product has been on the market since 2003 and available online since 2007. I waited to make it available to the public to take time to collect data on a wide variety of populations. I seeded the internet with articles in 2008. It’s just been the past couple of years that people are interested in the hypothalamic connection.

GenesisGold® and Sacred Seven® are the only plant based nutraceuticals that focus on balancing the hypothalamus, improving hypothalamic-pituitary axis, and supporting the neuro-immune-endocrine system. I created them because I could not find anything in allopathic or naturopathic medicine that would correct hypothalamic dysfunction.

As you know, there is no way to measure the hypothalamic hormones without killing the lab rat. So we have to make an assumptive diagnosis based on the decline of hormones directly related to hypothalamic function—like those controlled by pro-opiomelanocortin—the thyroid, adrenals, and pancreas.

Since Genesis Gold® has been available, I have seen patients completely dependent on hormone replacement therapy (adrenal, thyroid, sex steroids) with hypometabolism and metabolic syndrome heal.

One of my patients, a woman in her mid 30’s diagnosed with hypopituitarism and an anatomically normal pituitary gland, came to me wanting bio-identical hormone replacement rather than the synthetics she had been taking for years. She had never had a period and only with obsessive exercise and HRT was she able to keep her weight under control.

She did very well on the bio-identicals for years. When I finally got Genesis Gold® manufactured, she agreed to give it a try. Over the next eighteen months, she was able to wean off her hormones, all of them. And had her own periods not induced by exogenous hormones. I told her it was time to think about contraception. She laughed. She still believed what the doctors had told her all her life—that she was infertile.

She gave birth to a healthy baby boy at the age of 43. She has been hormone free since. I suspect that when she gets close to menopause, she may need some transitional hormone supplementation.

She is my most dramatic case. I have others with hypothalamic dysfunction yet not full panpituitary syndrome who have been able to start functioning on their own.

So far fourteen babies have been born to previously infertile women using Genesis Gold®. I have had insulin dependent diabetics be able to cut their insulin dosages in half. I have patients with  thyroiditis normalize their anti-thyroid antibodies and reverse their hypothyroidism. I have seen polycystic ovary and amenorrheic women menstruate normally after just a couple of months of use.

GenesisGold® and Sacred Seven® are the only plant based nutritional supports for the hypothalamus. With glandulars you are limited to six months of use as after that studies show that the glandular is dispersed through the system rather than concentrated in the target gland. We were not meant to consume the glands of animals for more than medicinal purposes.

I wish that I could afford to do the research necessary to support my findings. All I have are case studies. Yet Genesis Gold® sells itself. People see how well their friends and family are doing and start taking it too.

I recently started consulting in a conventional medical practice. These patients are over medicated and undereducated. The physicians do not believe in supplementation. I’ve broached the subject with some of their tough cases. And those who have chosen to take Genesis Gold® are responding quickly. Perhaps that is because they are so very toxic with all the medications and poor diets.

Most of my customers/patients find that Genesis Gold® replaces many bottles of supplements saving them at least half in cost and a whole lot in convenience.

While Genesis Gold® contains Sacred Seven® amino acids, I find that adding extra Sacred Seven® hastens the healing in the toughest cases.

It's about time we got to the root of so many health issues.

The hypothalamus is maestro of the entire symphony of hormones, neurotransmitters, and immune factors. Plus it controls all our basic body functions including those essential for survival.

Thankfully, the hypothalamus is very responsive to nutritional therapeutics. And I created Genesis Gold® to support the hypothalamus. If the maestro gets support, the whole orchestra is more harmonious.

Feed the body what it needs to heal and it will heal.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Yours in Health,

Deborah Maragopoulos MN FNP-BC

Intuitive Integrative Medicine

www.genesisgold.com

Treating Auto-Immune Diseases Naturally

Autoimmunity is a common diagnosis these days. Autoimmune diseases include: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis, celiac disease, pernicious anemia, inflammatory bowel disease, vasculitis, myasthenia gravis,  Ménière's disease, Raynaud's phenomenon, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia.

Autoimmunity is when your immune system attacks your own cells. The immune system's job is to protect you. The white blood cells are specifically programmed by the thymus to know the difference between you and other. When the white blood cells attack your healthy cells, tissues and organs that is called autoimmunity.

There are more than eighty types of autoimmune disorders or diseases. Many autoimmune diseases have similar symptoms which makes getting a diagnosis frustrating and difficult.

The first symptoms of autoimmunity are often fatigue, muscle aches, and low grade fever - early signs of your body attacking itself. Classically autoimmune diseases are characterized by inflammation which can cause redness, heat and swelling. But not always. Some autoimmune diseases are internal like autoimmune thyroiditis where redness and heat are not seen, while swelling of the thyroid comes later.

Some autoimmune diseases can be diagnosed through blood tests which pick up immune markers like rheumatoid factor for rheumatoid arthritis. Some autoimmune diseases can cause an elevation in ANA - antinuclear antibody- which is a general marker found in the blood that indicates inflammation somewhere in the body. While an ANA is not specific and can rise and fall with autoimmune flareups and remissions, it is a good starting point if you suspect autoimmunity.

To treat autoimmune flareups, conventional medicine prescribes cortisone to reduce inflammation. Chronic use of cortisone can cause significant issues with adrenal function. The adrenal glands make cortisone in response to stress but when you take what you should be making you hamper your body's ability to make it. Many of my autoimmune patients treated with long term cortisone have adrenal fatigue. Often untreated autoimmune patients come to me with adrenal issues. Why? Because their exhausted adrenal glands have been working overtime to reduce their autoimmune inflammation.

How to treat autoimmunity naturally:

1) BALANCE YOUR HYPOTHALAMUS

I have found that by balancing the hypothalamus, we can get to the core issue of autoimmunity. You see, the hypothalamus controls the immune system, at night your hypothalamus triggers your pituitary gland to produce prolactin. Prolactin trigger the thymus to program white blood cells known as lymphocytes to know the difference between you and other. Other is any bacteria, fungi, virus, or mutant cancer cell. Your trained lymphocytes, called T-cells, know how to tell the difference between your normal healthy body cells and foreign cells. In autoimmunity, the thymus does not program your lymphocytes properly, releasing poorly trained T-cells into your bloodstream which attack normal healthy tissues. By balancing the hypothalamus, the thymus does a better job at properly programming T-cells.

I use my Sacred Seven® amino acids to balance the hypothalamus. I also use Genesis Gold® to provide nutritional support for the immune system to heal. Genesis Gold® also supports healthy function of the endocrine system including the adrenals which are critical in healthy immune response.

• "Thank you for a great product. It really helps my wife. She has ms (multiple sclerosis) for 19 years Genesis Gold has helped more than anything else we have tried." Bill Pinto, Australia
  

2) CLEANUP YOUR DIET

I also recommend that my patients clean up their diet. I usually recommend my Insulin Resistant Diet, plus bone broths for extra healing nutrition for their gut. The intestine is one of the first line of defense against invasion and becomes hypersensitive to grains, food additives, and chemicals in autoimmunity. Remember the adrenals respond initially to autoimmune triggers with excessive cortisone production and cortisol/cortisone thins the healthy intestinal lining leading to leaky gut syndrome. Once we take away the offending foods, the gut heals well with probiotics, glutamine, and Genesis Gold®.

3) SLEEP IN THE DARK

Remember prolactin controls your thymus' programming of your lymphocytes. Prolactin is produced at high levels at night, peaking about three hours after melatonin peaks and lasting for eight hours. You produce an eight hour window of high prolactin every 24 hours. If your prolactin is dyscircadian, meaning it's high during your waking hours rather than at night when you should be asleep, then your lymphocytes are more likely to attack normal healthy cells. I check an 8-9am serum prolactin on all my patients to see is they are in a healthy circadian rhythm (day-night cycle). Autoimmune patients often have high daytime prolactin. The prolactin level will not necessarily be above the highest range of normal for the patient's gender or age, but anything over 9 after 9am is dyscircadian.

Sleeping in the dark is the first change that must be made. Getting patients to go to bed within a few hours of dark is important to resetting their circadian rhythm. Having them avoid watching TV or getting on the computer, their laptops, iPads,phones or other screens after dark helps them make normal melatonin levels and thus healthy circadian prolactin levels. The blue light from the screens mimics the sunrise which suppresses melatonin production and delays prolactin production resulting in low nighttime and high daytime prolactin which contributes to autoimmunity.  If you must expose yourself to a computer screen, television or other eletronic device after dark, then use pink tinted sunglasses to mimic the dusk and increase your nighttime melatonin and prolacitn levels. Remember prolactin triggers the immune response so having high daytime prolactin is like having an active army patrolling while citizens are trying to work. Innocents (your healthy cells) are going to get hurt.

4) ELIMINATE THE UNDERLYING TRIGGER OF YOUR AUTOIMMUNITY

It's important to find the deep underlying trigger for each individual's autoimmune disorder. Interestingly enough the trigger to autoimmune disease is different for everyone. Some autoimmunity is triggered by stress. Some by toxins. Some by malnutrition. Some by viruses or intracellular bacterium. Sometimes there are multiple causes that trigger autoimmune response. Often people with one type of autoimmune disease will eventually develop other autoimmune disorders.

For instance, I have a patient with longstanding pernicious anemia who developed a blockage in one of her coronary arteries requiring a stent to be placed. Her cardiologist could not figure out why this patient who is not overweight, has low cholesterol, low blood sugar, low blood pressure had a nearly 90% blockage of a main coronary artery. I suspected a form of autoimmune vasculitis. She is responding really well to hypothalamic balancing and a novel therapy designed especially for her case.

It takes some medical detective work to get to the root of autoimmunity. Since each of my patients come with a unique history, I must think out of the box to find what might be causing their autoimmune disorder.

5) UNVEIL THE CORE BELIEF THAT MAY BE CAUSING YOUR DISEASE

This is the hardest part of the treatment. Finding what may be underlying the patient's autoimmune disorder from a psychospiritual level takes some finesse. Thankfully balancing their hypothalamus with Sacred Seven and Genesis Gold can deepen their sleep and often their subconscious reveals the truth to them in dreams. As I get to know a patient, their core issue becomes apparent and when they are ready to deal with it, we do. Sometimes I am blessed to have a new patient come to me for a consult and they are so ripe (ready to heal) that I can "see" what their core issue is, speak it, and the patient says, "Yes, that makes sense!"  Healing is much faster when we deal with the psychospiritual along with the physical.

I've had quite a few patients open up to their core issues after reading LoveDance®. I know it's a novel, but somehow the story unveils deep seated truths so that your self limiting beliefs become highlighted.

I hope this helps you understand autoimmunity a little better!

Give the gift of Health

 Genesis Gold® for the body.

LoveDance® for the soul.

Your Hypothalamus – the Maestro of your Symphony of Health

A biochemical symphony controls your body’s function.  Hormones, neurotransmitters and immune factors act as biochemical messengers that sing to your DNA. If you’re hormones are in harmony, your DNA dances health. 

These "hormones" control all of your body's functioning—digestion, detoxification, growth, repair, sleep, sex drive, reproduction, stress response, metabolism, body composition,  immunity, healing, cognition, learning and memory.

Neuro-immune-endocrinology—the Symphony of Hormones 

 I have been taking care of patients of all ages for nearly 30 years. While my conventional training focused on the treatment of the symptoms of disease, my intuition guided me to search for the underlying roots of dis-ease.  

As a nurse practitioner practicing intuitive integrative medicine, I perceive the roots of dis-ease...biochemical, psychological, spiritual. Yet I believe healing is innate, encoded within our DNA.

Your Hypothalamus—the Maestro

When I left conventional medicine to practice Intuitive Integrative Health, I started to see the most challenging cases. That’s when I began to assess and focus my treatments on the symphony of hormones produced by the neurological, immune, and endocrine systems.

That’s when I discovered, rather rediscovered, the HYPOTHALAMUS.

The hypothalamus is a crucial organ in your brain that runs the entire neuro-immune-endocrine systems.  And when the “hormones” produced by the neuro-immune-endocrine system are out of balance, the body malfunctions which we call dis-ease.

Although, we learn about the hypothalamus in premed anatomy and physiology classes, by the time we begin our health care practice, we forget the importance of this primitive brain structure. We just don’t appreciate the hypothalamus. We cannot measure the hormones the hypothalamus produces, so we don’t deal with it.

Yet the hypothalamus plays a vital role in the orchestration of the symphony of hormones. Hormones directly control the DNA and most dis-ease is a result of hormonal miscommunication.

When Hormones Sing, DNA Dances.

The hypothalamus orchestrates our entire system.  Feed the hypothalamus and harmonize the symphony of hormones so the dance of the DNA expresses health and vitality.
What could I feed the body to tap into the genetic potential for health and wellbeing?  After much research and soul searching, I surrendered and in my dreams a formula was revealed... 

The first seven nights I awoke each morning from my dreams and wrote what I remembered—sets of seven amino acids. Each corresponding to the hypothalamic control of the endocrine glands. Seven times seven. 

After following my intuition and paying close attention to my dreams. I began clinical studies. I believe what we intend becomes. So I mixed the plant based amino acids with the intention to heal the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual body— Sacred Seven®.   

Like any scientist, I was my own guinea pig...

I took the Sacred Seven® along with my patients in the first pilot study. But first I took myself off bio-identical hormone replacement therapy I had been using to treat runner's amenorrhea. I also stopped all other supplementation.

Within two months, I had my first normal menstrual cycle in over 20 years. I also craved meat...which was disturbing since I had been a vegetarian for seven years. But I had decided to "listen" to my body like I instructed my patients...so I ate meat. And felt great! In fact, my mild anemia cleared up. Then I began craving orange vegetables—pumpkins, yams, butternut squash. So I ate them too and did not suffer from the winter blues. Interesting.

Granted I had put on five pounds, my overweight patients do not gain, but most lose the extra body fat. I apparently needed to gain...the same amount of weight I gained each time I conceived. In spite of my gynecologist's warning that with such low body fat, I was probably infertile, my two children came to me in dreams (like Genesis Gold®), so I let my body take over AND it gained five pounds AND I conceived.

Not since my pregnancies had I been so attuned to my body. It was like my DNA was talking...loudly...telling me what to eat, when to rest, and how much to exercise. Sacred Seven® amino acids changed my life. I slept well for the first time...having suffered somnambulance—sleep walking nearly every night for 18 years was exhausting.

Yet I could no longer exercise. Now I usually instruct my patients on regular exercise. But I was fanatic. I only had 12% body fat, I had been running competitively since high school and had competed as a triathlete for seven years before conceiving Sacred Seven® and GenesisGold®. Almost as soon as I began the Sacred Seven® amino acids, I could not even think about running without my Achilles tendon aching horribly. So I walked. I learned to dance. I rode my horse. And when my body said it was ok to run, I enjoyed the scenery for the first time ever.

Once I found the best manufacturer for Genesis Gold®, I switched my alliance. I am better supported with the full formula, no more outrageous cravings to fill in my nutritional deficits. And I eat well. We grow most of our own fruits and vegetables and buy organic, but even I cannot gather all the nutrients necessary to support my body, mind, and soul in our modern world. So now with Genesis Gold®, I can eat anything I desire and I feel great.

Over the past thirteen years, I have maintained that crucial five pounds, no more, no less, without obsessive exercise. And I’m now going through menopause at 52, although my three younger sisters have been menopausal for the past eight years—a testament to how stress robs you of your hormonal competence without the hypothalamic support of Genesis Gold®.

So why do I still take Sacred Seven®? Because as a healer dealing with the Hormonally Challenged, I need extra hypothalamic and genetic support to maintain optimal health. Although Sacred Seven® is in GenesisGold®, the extra amino acids also helps me maintain my creative energies...to help you, my patients, my colleagues and myself heal...body, mind and soul.

May Your DNA Dance Health!

Deborah Maragopoulos MN FNP-BC

Genesis Gold naturally balances your symphony of hormones, neurotransmitters and immune factors

Sacred Seven balances your hypothalamus naturally

 

Treat Insomnia Naturally

Insomnia is the bane of modern society. Since the introduction of the electric light over one hundred years ago, nearly half of the world is lit up at night. Artificial light disturbs natural circadian rhythms.

The pineal gland produces the sleep hormone—melatonin—only in the dark. Without adequate melatonin production, sleep is disturbed, hormones become imbalanced, and the ability to fight dis-ease is diminished.

The pineal gland, located in the center of the brain, is associated with the crown chakra. Light energy affects pineal production of melatonin. Cells located in our skin called chromocytes carry light wave information to the pineal gland. At dawn, the daylight is a blue wave which stimulates chromocytes to turn off the pineal gland. At dusk, the pink light of sunset blocks the blue rays and the pineal gland begins producing melatonin.

Melatonin production peaks about three hours after dark and lasts eight to nine hours in adults, longer in children. At dawn, the drop of melatonin arouses the hypothalamus. Located deep in the brain at the level of the sixth chakra, the hypothalamus controls all vital body functions including temperature, weight, libido, hormones, stress response, the immune system and directs the cascade of amino acids that form neurotransmitters. The hypothalamus is truly the maestro of the body's biochemical orchestra.

Once the hypothalamus wakes up, it needs glucose, so it stimulates the adrenal glands to produce cortisol which releases stored sugar. Cortisol stimulates the production of dopamine which is the neurotransmitter of alertness, memory and learning. Dopamine follows natural cortisol rhythms, remaining elevated until mid afternoon. Schools capitalize on the natural circadian rhythm of the learning hormone by teaching children from 8am to 3pm. The late afternoon slump that makes many of us reach for sugar and caffeine is a reflection of this natural drop in cortisol and dopamine.

Prolactin is another extremely important nocturnal hormone. Released by the pituitary gland, prolactin is very high in pregnant and nursing mothers—its name refers to promoting lactation. Produced by all ages and both genders, prolactin stimulates the thymus to program the natural killer cells that keep our bodies free of foreign invaders and cancer.  Without sleep, we are prone to disease as our immune systems weaken. Prolactin rises three hours after melatonin and is turned off by dopamine.

In the morning, melatonin cascades into serotonin. A calming hormone, serotonin controls our impulses. And the more serotonin made during the day the more melatonin at night.

You can create a natural circadian rhythm by rising with the sun and exercise early in the day.  Exercise promotes cortisol production thus increasing dopamine, the active daytime hormones. Released in response to both physical and emotional stressors, cortisol fuels our bodies for flight away from potential danger.  Dopamine and cortisol can prevent the cascade of serotonin back into melatonin in the evening so beware of exercising within a few hours of bedtime.

Insomnia is often at the root of many dis-eases. Cancer, obesity, immune dysfunction, hormonal imbalances, diabetes, even heart disease have been associated with sleep disorders. Although sleep medications are available as temporary relief, they do not promote normal nocturnal hormone production.

I really did not appreciate how the hypothalamus affects our sleep cycles until I began taking Sacred Seven®.

You see, I suffered from somnambulance—sleep walking—for eighteen years. Rarely did I get a restful night's sleep. Most nights I slept less than four or five hours. Many times I found myself outside clutching a pillow. Kind of scary and definitely not good for my health. I managed my days by running on fumes, exercising obsessively, and eating way too much sugar.

Then I began taking SacredSeven® amino acids and within a month, I began sleeping through the night and my sugar cravings stopped. In fact for the first three months, I slept over ten hours a night—my body trying to catch up with years of lack of sleep.

Balancing the hypothalamus takes time to reset the circadian rhythm, so Sacred Seven® is not an immediate sleep aide, but instead gets to the core issue, balancing the brain chemistry, restoring optimal hypothalamic functioning, and, in time, deepening and lengthening the sleep cycles.

GenesisGold® has the Sacred Seven® amino acids in it to balance the hypothalamus and restore normal circadian rhythm, yet it takes a bit longer, so extra Sacred Seven® may be needed for chronic insomnia.

Sweet Dreams...

Natural Remedies for Insomnia Don't miss the sunset. Remember the pink light of dusk induces melatonin production. Don't watch television or work on the computer after dark. The blue light from these screens acts like dawn and shuts down melatonin production. If you must expose yourself to blue light wear pink tinted glasses while watching television or doing computer work at night. Try eating tryptophan enriched foods in the evening. Tryptophan is the amino acid needed to convert serotonin into melatonin. Sleep inducing foods include: whole grains, nut butters, bananas, grapefruit, dates, figs, yogurt, turkey and tuna.  Heavy protein foods are not recommended before retiring for the night. Be sure to sleep in complete darkness. A cool, very dark room helps the pineal gland produce melatonin. Deepen sleep with soothing sound like water or other night sounds. In the morning, arise with natural sunlight. Help melatonin cascade into serotonin by eating complex carbs and getting at least 20 minutes of sun exposure. Exercise moderately about 30 minutes of aerobic activity early in the day. Sacred Seven® amino acids balance circadian rhythm by supporting optimal hypothalamic functioning which helps with insomnia.

Sacred Seven amino acids formulated to optimize hypothalamic function and restore normal circadian rhythm

Hormones in Harmony® - The Secret to Optimal Health

For Optimal Health Tap into Your DNA

So you think you’re stuck with what you’re born with? Not so.

Our genetic potential has barely been tapped. Most of us only use about 30% of our DNA. What do I mean by that? Well, when scientists finally decoded DNA in 2000 they found that less than one third of our genetic material was being expressed. The rest they called junk. We have since found out that the rest of the "unexpressed DNA” is not junk.

Think of holiday lights taken out of storage. A tangled mess you plug in and only 1/3 of the lights are on. Now with a little work, you can disentangle the lights and figure out which bulb needs tightening or replaced and viola, they all work. Well, same with our DNA. The secret is how to tap into to our highest potential.

Our DNA is a divine blueprint, a set of instructions for how to build and maintain our bodies, how to survive everything life on earth has in store for us, and how to thrive as the energy on the planet shifts from 3D to 5D and beyond. Yes, everything we need to manifest our souls' desires while here on earth.

Yet we were taught that what you were born with is all you have to work with. In other words, there's no turning on more lights. I have never believed that DNA was static.  And in 1984 just a year out of nursing school, I gave birth to a child who proved my intuition. My baby was born intersex. Back then the condition was called ambiguous genitalia and chromosome studies showed the baby to be an XY female.

But wait! Isn't XY the male chromosomes? Yes, but the baby's genitalia appeared feminized. So the top pediatric endocrinologists advised that my husband and I raise our child female. I didn't agree. I had a dream of delivering a blond baby boy. So we kept him as is. The doctors were alarmed, "he'll never masculinize!" Yet by puberty those androgen resistant cell receptors started responding and his testosterone began directing his DNA to become a young man. Now, my son is still intersex. While his body masculinized, his brain functions like a woman as well as a man. He is very special gift indeed. I learned that:

A: What I was taught in my medical training was wrong...DNA is not set in stone, and

B: DNA can shift with nurturing--the physical, the mental, and the spiritual.

In 1997 when I first opened my Intuitive Integrative Medical practice, I prayed to understand how the neuro-immune-endocrine system orchestrated health and dis-ease.  So the universe sent me (or rather, I manifested) an influx of Hormonally Challenged patients including many "learning disabled" children.

Intuitively I knew that these children's brains were starving. These were the children of the new age, of our new earth. They do not learn as we do in old paradigm ways. And they needed highly absorbable nutrition to optimize their genetic potential and help them thrive in the shifting energy.

I developed micronutrient recipes using various supplements that I had their parents feed them. And the children woke up. They spoke for the first time. They began to socialize with their peers. They began to thrive.

In the meantime, more and more Hormonally Challenged patients were coming from around the world. I had great success with bio-identical-hormone replacement therapy, yet it seemed I was creating dependency by replacing what the body should be making. Plus the numerous bottles of supplements needed to enhance the aging or dusfunctional cell metabolism was overwhelming. And the children’s formulas had to be constantly adjusted. Could I do what I was asking my patients to do to be healthy?

No. It had to be simpler. My research led to the maestro of the entire symphony of hormones, neurotransmitters, and immune cytokines—the hypothalamus.

If I could feed the hypothalamus what it needed to orchestrate the system, then the hormones would be in harmony and sing beautifully to the DNA, which would dance health and vitality.  Maladaptive genes that cause dis-ease would turn off so more of our genetic potential could be expressed. The body would have what it needed to heal itself.

My son, the child who started my venture into the science of medicine and the art of healing, advised that I meditate on what I was searching for and then see what came in my dreams. And I dreamt of a unique nutritional formula to support the hypothalamus and optimize genetic potential.

That was over thirteen years ago and my creation, GenesisGold, has helped hundreds of people become healthy in body, mind, and soul. Some have called it therapy in a bottle—as once your body gets what it needs to optimize its genetic potential then old psychological patterns that no longer serve your new healthy self begin to arise to be cleared.

I believe we are tapping into our highest genetic potential…aging more gracefully, becoming free of medications as our bodies heal, knowing innately what we need to thrive—physically, psychologically and spiritually.

Genesis Gold was gifted to me. Now I offer my creation to you.

TREATING ADRENAL FATIGUE NATURALLY

The adrenal glands are one of the hardest working organs in the body.

They control blood pressure, orchestrate protein, fat, and carbohydrate metabolism, influence the immune system and run the stress response.

The catabolic adrenal hormone--cortisol--breaks down tissues. Skin, hair, nails, muscles, and organs. Bones break down leading to osteoporosis. Even the gut lining is affected by high levels of cortisol leading to leaky gut syndrome, food allergies and malabsorption.

Remember the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis? Stress induces an adrenaline response which alerts the hypothalamus which in turn stimulates the pituitary to tell the adrenals to produce cortisol to fuel the fight or flight response.

The hypothalamus is the maestro of the entire system. And it does not know the difference between a tiger chasing you and you being late for work. The adrenal response is the same--adrenaline-- cortisol-- DHEA-- cortisone. Over and over and over again, day after day, week after week, for months, maybe years on end, the stress of modern day life puts a toll on the adrenals. Eventually they become fatigued, producing less and less cortisol and DHEA until you can hardly function.

What are the symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue?

Profound fatigue. You struggle to wake up in the morning. You need caffeine and sugar to start your day. Your energy crashes in the afternoon. Sometimes you get a second wind at night and cannot sleep. A days circadian rhythm is usually early in the course of adrenal dysfunction.

Hair loss. Your nails are brittle and slow growing. Your skin is dry and aging fast, although early in the stress response the high cortisol levels will induce oily, acne prone skin. Wounds heal very slowly. This is partially because of the catabolic nature of cortisol and mostly because of the lower production of DHEA that helps you metabolize protein and fat to grow new you (hair, skin, nails and other more important tissues) if your hair, skin and nails are unhealthy, you can bet that your internal organs do not look so good.

 Sick alot. You cannot seem to recover from illnesses. You keep catching one cold after another. All your old viruses come back to haunt you. You break out in old sores, genital warts, relapse with chronic infections like Epstein Barr and hepatitis. Your immune system does not seem to be working properly.

Cravings. You crave sugar after you eat. When you eat,  cortisol is produced which releases stored sugar so that you have immediate fuel until your food is digested. Tired adrenal glands do not produce enough cortisol and you crave sugar after you eat. 

And then you crave salt. Why? Because your adrenals also make another hormone called aldosterone that regulates salt water balance. Fatigued adrenals do not produce enough aldosterone, so your blood pressure is low. You get up too fast and you feel dizzy. Healthy adrenals produce enough aldosterone to raise your blood pressure twenty points when you rise from a lying to a standing position. Otherwise if you were napping under a tree, how would you be able to get away from that tiger?

Slow metabolism. Eventually your thyroid is affected. That's because thyroid function is controlled by the same hypothalamic hormone as the adrenal glands.

Sex hormones begin to decline. That's because reproduction is not a necessary function whe your body is under profound stress. Most brides experience this stress repsonse when their period shows up on their wedding day. Your adrenals use progesterone to make cortisol. Progesterone stabilizes the lining of the uterus. High stress equals high cortisol production and there is not enough progesterone to regulate the menstrual cycle. Eventually inadeaquately opposed estrogen leads to heavy, painful periods and fibroids. (more info on female hormones here)

Conventional medicine does not recognize adrenal fatigue. Why? Because while adrenal fatigue is not optimal functioning, it is not a disease. Allopathic practitioners treat diseases. Complete adrenal failure is called Addison's disease. Your adrenal glands no longer produce cortisol. You need cortisol to survive, so you are given synthetic cortisone for the rest of your life.

Why wait until you have full blown Addison's disease? Why not stop before you fall off the cliff?

Integrative medicine recognizes less than optimal functioning as something that can be improved through better lifestyle choices, detoxification, and supplementation.

Adrenal fatigue is recognized by integrative medicine as a treatable condition.

Adaptogenic herbs, B vitamins, essential fatty acids  can help adrenal glands recover. Glandular products are also useful initially to support adrenal function. Sometimes bio identical cortisol and DHEA is prescribed to supplement adrenal function.

I believe the body will heal itself given the proper nutrients. So first I recommend a foundational support to heal the adrenals as well as all the organ systems affected by stress. Getting the adrenals functioning properly will stop the hair loss, weight gain, and aging, but the body needs extra nutrients to grow hair and healthy skin,  improve body composition to increase lean body mass and decrease body fat, and optimize health.

Then I recommend hypothalamic support to improve the communication system between the adrenals and the brain. Supporting the hypothalamus allows it to orchestrate the rest of the endocrine system as well as the neurological and immune system to harmonize the symphony of hormones, neurotransmitters and cytokines so your DNA dances optimal health and well being.

Yes, I recommend adrenal glandulars and adaptogenic herbs to boost adrenal activity, but revving the engine without providing gas and oil will burn out the vehicle.

Genesis Gold is the fuel the body needs to detoxify, rebuild and heal itself. Sacred Seven amino acids provides the hypothalamic support to optimize genetic function.

Start your healing journey. Order GenesisGold and Sacred Seven here.

Your Adrenals—How Stress Makes You Fat

Stress—a fact of modern day living and the cause of so many diseases. Stress has been linked to heart disease, cancer, allergies, autoimmune disease, thyroid dysfunction, mood disorders and obesity.

While stress affects many parts of the body, the adrenals are responsible for creating the stress response.

What are the Adrenals?

The adrenals are small glands that lie on top (ad) of the kidneys (renals). These amazing glands have multiple functions. While the adrenals are endocrine glands producing hormones in response to pituitary stimulus that control carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism, the adrenals also respond to neurological stimuli to initiate the fight or flight response, as well as electrolytes circulating in the blood to control blood pressure, and produce cytokines that influence immune function.

That's a lot of responsibility for one pair of glands.

So what happens when you are under stress?

First, the adrenals are stimulated by the nervous system and produce adrenaline. Adrenaline increases heart rate and blood pressure to initiate the fight or fight response.

Then the adrenals produce cortisol to fuel the fight or flight response. Cortisol is a catabolic steroid hormone. Catabolic = breaks down. Steroid = made from cholesterol. Hormone = chemical messenger.

Like most endocrine glands, the adrenals are stimulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary axis in a negative feedback system. Think of a seesaw. Cortisol is on one side and Adrenal Cortico Trophic Hormone (ACTH) is on the other. If cortisol is high, ACTH is low. If cortisol is low, ACTH is high.

Let's say a tiger is chasing you. Your autonomic nervous system stimulates the adrenals to produce adrenaline. Your heart beats faster raising your blood pressure so you can get away. The adrenaline surge stimulates the hypothalamus which checks to see if you have enough cortisol to fuel the stress response. If not, the hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland to produce ACTH which travels via the blood stream to the adrenal cortex and stimulates the production of cortisol.

Cortisol then tells the pancreas to produce glucagon which is the hormone that releases glycogen (stored sugar) from the muscles and the liver. Now your muscles and heart have the energy to get away from that tiger!

Whew! Following the surge of cortisol, the adrenals produce dehydroepiandrostione also known as DHEA. DHEA controls protein and fat metabolism to help repair the damage from the flight or fight. The leftover cortisol is converted to cortisone, a natural anti-inflammatory, to soothe your aches after getting away from the tiger.

At first the high stress response causes a catabolic reaction as tissues breakdown. You might lose weight initially but over the long haul, the high levels of cortisol can cause you to store body fat. Remember cortisol stimulates the release of stored sugar. How can the glucose get into the cells without insulin? So the pancreas also produces more insulin in response to the stress. If you are really running away from the tiger, then of course, you will use the glucose. If not, well then, you develop insulin resistance.

What is Insulin Resistance?

Insulin resistance is your body's way of protecting itself from all that circulating sugar. You see, insulin escorts glucose into the cells. Cells use glucose to produce energy. If the tiger is not really chasing you and you are not expending the energy, then your cells become resistant to insulin. All cells that cannot store sugar become insulin resistant. Your liver and muscles can store about 400 calories worth of glucose. Your heart, on the other hand, cannot store even one gram of sugar. Your heart can only use glucose to beat faster or grow bigger. A bigger heart is not an efficient pump, so your heart becomes insulin resistant.

What does your body do with the extra sugar? It stores it as fat. Thankfully, your adipose cells never become insulin resistant. No, they will store that extra sugar in the form of triglycerides (triple sugar molecules) to protect the rest of your body.

Insulin resistance is why you end up gaining weight after prolonged stress.

My recommendations for stress induced insulin resistance:

• RELAX - first of all, take time to chill out. Yes, meditation, relaxation exercises, soothing music, long walks, just being in nature can help calm the stress response. A regular meditation practice has been shown to reduce the stress response.

• DIET - The best diet to reverse insulin resistance is a plant based, moderate fat and protein, low carb. Click here for my insulin resistant diet. 

• EXERCISE - Yes, exercise is important, but it matters when you do it.  Exercise early in the morning to follow the natural cortisol circadian rhythm. Exercising late in the day and especially after dark creates a stress reaction. Exercise induces cortisol production and cortisol opposes melatonin so you will not sleep deeply.

• WORK - Take vacations. Work to live, don't live to work. If you do what you love, look forward to work, then work becomes as therapeutic as play.

• SUPPLEMENTS - the key to supplementation is to balance the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal response. One of the biggest reasons I created Genesis Gold is to help balance the stress response.  Adrenal function improves, insulin resistance reverses, and metabolism increases when the hypothalamus is supported. Plus the adaptogenic herbs help provide natural adrenal and hormonal balance.

Most people describe a more Zen approach to life when taking Genesis Gold. One middle aged male patient described a new found ability to take a higher perspective when dealing with stressful family situations since taking Genesis GoldÒ.

Years ago, my husband was asked what Genesis Gold did for him. He said he felt more mellow. We all noticed the change, even the dogs. When he would pay bills he would get so uptight that the dogs would hide. Now they lie happily at my husband's feet as he navigates the monthly bills!

Physically, his triglycerides dropped, his waistline slimmed, and he looks younger-- the benefits of a healthier metabolism and less stressed attitude. Of course, I was happy he was taking better care of himself, especially since he worked for 30 years as a police officer—such a high stress job that within a few years of retirement many cops suffer heart attacks and die. He's been consistent with taking Genesis Gold since 2008 and it shows— at 51, his lab tests are that of a healthy thirty-year-old.

So take good care your adrenals and you'll stay trim and healthy.