What is Healthy Exercise?

Are You Exercising in a Healthy Way?

Ask a hundred people, “Does exercise promote good health?” and almost everybody will tell, “Of course!”  Mostly, they’re right.  Exercise is healthy.  It’s what allows your lymphatic system to move waste products out of your body. 

But some people exercise incorrectly.  They’ll sing the virtues of raising the heart rate, and then they’ll work themselves to death in aerobics classes and gyms.  Instead of promoting endurance, fitness, and health, they end of doing just the opposite. 

What leads them down the wrong path is a belief that the faster and more intensely they exercise, the better.  They never learn the difference between aerobic (fat burning) and anaerobic (sugar burning) exercise, and how one can inadvertently evolve into the other.  In fact, lack of proper information about exercise has helped to foster the largest non-microbial epidemic in the U.S.  It’s called ADS, which stands for aerobic deficiency syndrome.

The Spread of Misinformation

During the 1980’s, fitness maven Covert Bailey promoted an early formula for the ideal heart rate which would, if not exceeded, give you optimal aerobic benefit.  (Aerobic is defined as improving the body’s oxygen consumption.)  The popularized formula he used was 220 minus your age times 65-85 percent, depending on your state of health.

But in the early 1990’s, Bailey discovered that the optimal heartbeat rates he published were too high for almost half the population.  At those rates, bodies burn sugar as a source of fuel, instead of fat.  The revised formula is now 180 minus your age, plus or minus points for good health.  

The problem was, few people paid attention to the revised formula, and consequently, the old numbers are still widely accepted as the standard.  These numbers can lead to unhealth.  Let’s see why this is so. 

Burn Fat or Burn Sugar?

The body has two sources of fuel:  fat and sugar.  Fat is the body’s preferred source, because (1) it doesn’t take away sugar needed for the brain, and (2) because it does not create waste products that remain in the body.  Oxygen is drawn into the body through the lungs and is combined with the carbon in fat.  When you burn fat, the waste products –carbon dioxide and water vapor-are expelled through the lungs.  It is a very efficient, clean burning process.  There are virtually no residue or waste products left behind.

But if you enter into strenuous physical activity such as lifting weights or when you run too long and too hard, your heart and lungs can no longer deliver enough oxygen to the muscles, and the muscles stop burning fat as fuel and start burning sugar.  This switchover takes place because sugar can be turned into fuel without additional oxygen.  Once this happens, your exercise has switched over from being aerobic to being anaerobic. 

Anaerobic exercise gives you energy at a price.  When sugar is burned, it creates lactic acid which must be excreted through your liver and kidneys.  It is a very dirty burning process.  If too much lactic acid is created, the buildup creates stress and leads to cramps, headaches, lethargy and fatigue.

Thus, doing aerobics too intensely or spending too much time in the weight room without sufficient aerobic exercise to balance it can be unhealthy because you’re creating more toxins than your lymphatic system (which moves out waste) can keep up with. 

Develop A Sound Aerobic Base

Here are several things you can do to make sure you don’t suffer from ADS:

1.      Keep yourself aerobically fit. This calls for exercising aerobically at least three times a week for a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes, making sure that you do to overtax your body so that it starts burning sugar and storing fat.  You can determine your ideal aerobic heartbeat using the correct formula of 180 minus your age, plus or minus minor adjustments depending on your health.  The most accurate way to monitor performance is with a heartbeat monitor, the kind you wear on your wrist and that gives you on-the-fly reading.  M-F Athletic Company at 888-556-7464 can give you advice on the make and model that best fits your needs.

 2.   If you work out at a gym, maintain a ratio of three minutes of aerobic exercise (treadmill, bicycle, stair machine, etc.) to one minute of anaerobic exercise (weight lifting).

     

 3.    If you want to know if your workout is truly aerobic, monitor your heartbeat immediately after you stop exercising.  For the exercise to have been aerobic, your heartbeat should drop at least 30 beats per minute in the first 60 seconds after you’ve stopped the workout.

         

       4.   Reduce stress wherever you can, since the body’s fight-or-flight response is totally anaerobic (sugar burning).

          5.     Finally, eat balanced meals that give you the right proportions of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.  Consider taking carnitine supplements if necessary.  Carnitine is a biochemical that is derived from food as well as synthesized by the liver and kidney.  It’s needed to transport fat to the portion of the cell where it is converted into energy.  If you have too little carnitine in your body, you’ll find that even with aerobic exercise, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of those fatty thighs and unwanted middle.  Thus, if you want to lose fat, you want to make sure you’re getting enough carnitine by eating sufficient quantities of cottage cheese, seafood, meats, soy products, lentils, and chick peas.  Carnitine is also available in supplement form.  

Live Smarter and Live Longer

For being such a technologically advance nation, we aren’t very smart when it come to our own health.  Do you know that a recent studies show that the typical person spends his or her last 12 years of life suffering from a severe aerobic deficit because of curtailed physical activity?  This undoubtedly shortens the average life span. 

Aerobic exercise is not a cure-all, but it can often work wonders.  Mental and physical fatigue, depression, low blood sugar, and high cholesterol can be partly or completely remedied by a planned aerobic training program.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

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Notes from Dr. G

Every year at this time, the medical community begin touting the benefits of the latest flu shot.  Yet, before you go and get inoculated, you might want to investigate some facts.

Countless studies show that there are many folks who react to flu shots and other vaccination in a negative way and that this reaction can actually weaken the immune system rather than strengthen and protect it.

All vaccines produce antibodies.  Actually,  they produce circulating immune complexes called CICs.  Your immune system ends up attacking these CICs.  When it does, it deflects its energy from it’s more important job -  protecting you from more harmful viruses and bacteria.  Like fighting a war on two fronts, your body is similarly splitting its resources in an attempt to defend you.  In  other words, your immune system is trying to protect you from the vaccine by creating an allergic reaction to it.  If another virus or bacteria comes along, there are fewer lymphocytes left to kill it.

In his book , The Case Against Immunization, Dr. Richard Moskowitz notes that immunizations can lead to certain types of chronic diseases.

“Far from providing a genuine immunity…,” say Moskowitz, “vaccines may act by actually interfering with or suppressing the immune response.”  Moskowitz indicates that the rise in auto immune diseases is an automatic result of injecting live virus and foreign antigens into children.  As a result, the body can no longer tell the difference between good and bad cells and starts attacking itself, producing such auto immune responses as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue immunity deficiency syndrome, and other degenerative diseases.  In fact, there is almost a one-to-one statistical correlation between the incidents of vaccinations and auto immune diseases in this country!

I have personally treated many people who have gotten severe cases of the flu after they have taken a flu shot.  In my many years as a Chiropractic physician, I have concluded that it is better to boost one’s cell-mediated immunity through  natural methods than to  rely totally on the anti bodies in any flu vaccine.

Of course, the decision to take or not to take a flu shot is an individual decision - an informed decision.  No matter your choice, if you experience flu like symptoms or contact the flu, please call me at the Center for Holistic Health (510) 652-2302 and I can do a kinesiological flu treatment protocol on you that , in most cases, will have you back on your feet within 48 hours.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

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Buidling a Strong Immune System III

Here is more of the wonderful 8 Step Self-Care Program that is specifically designed for enhancing your body's immune system. Continued from last week's blog:

 3.  Avoid junk food and too many carbohydrates.  A poor digestive system with too much processed food and not enough healthy protein, roughage, and fruits and vegetables is a big cause of a weakened immune system.  Here is why.

When you eat  a meal that is too high in concentrated carbs -  starches and processed flour -  your blood sugar level rises.  Your body then produces insulin to bring down the sugar level. However,  in 50 % of all people, the blood sugar level drops too far below normal.  Consequently, the body releases cortisone, which is a hormone, to bring the blood sugar back to an acceptable level.

The problem in this cause and effect reaction is that cortisone suppresses your immune system.  It encourages the wrong type of bacteria to grow in your gut.  This bacteria produces organic acids that weaken the wall of the gut, allowing impurities to pass through.  This condition is known as ‘leaky gut’.  Eventually, it will provoke an ‘overwhelm’ in the immune system making it difficult for the system to function properly.   The way to prevent leaky gut is to follow a healthy diet that works for your body type.

4.  Use immune-enhancing herbs.  If you feel a cold coming on, there are natural immune-enhancing stimulants that help build up your immune cells.  These include such herbs as Echinacea, garlic, golden seal root, chamomile, and the Chinese herb astragulus.

5.  Get assistance from holistic health practitioners.  Such practices as applied kinesiology, chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, and massage are all very helpful in getting and keeping the body in balance.

6.  Find time to relax.  Research has shown that chronic tension reduces the effectiveness of your immune system.  So don’t be a workaholic!  Take time to have fun.  Enjoy yourself.  Laughter and a happy heart are the best natural medicines that there are.

7.  Take in emotional support.  Countless studies have shown a strong link between negative emotions and lowered immunity, so it’s important to build a support network of people who care about you.

8.  Find meaning and purpose in your life.  When people become bord or when they develop a lack of purpose, they have a hard time fighting off disease.  Consequently, if life is tiresome and unchallenging, it makes good sense to take matters in hand, rather than remaining at the effect of circumstances.

Eating and exercising right and keeping a good attitude may sound like obvious and uninspired advice, but they are as correct today in the 21st century as they were in the 10th century.   Don’t discount the old wisdom.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

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Building a Strong Immune System II

At the Center for Holistic Health, I make sure that your cell-mediated immune system is working properly.  I do this by way of a nutritional check-up.  In other words, I test to see if your diet is stimulating any inappropriate antibody (allergic) reactions which might be putting your immune system at risk.

Additionally, I use specialized reflex muscle testing to see if your body has an allergic reaction to any of its own immune cells.  If it does, there are ways to re-program your body so it will stop suppressing your immune system.

I can also help to enhance your immunity by assisting it in cleaning up your digestive system.  Through drainage therapy, nutritional supplements, kinesiological therapeutics, and a good body-type specific nutritional diet, I can help ensure that good digestion takes place in your body and that there are no ailments such as leaky gut.  (I’ll explain more about leaky gut in the next segment.)  Of course, these are just a few of the techniques that can help one maintain an optimum cell-mediated immune system, which is the body’s preferred response.

Here is a wonderful 8 Step Self-Care Program that is specifically designed for enhancing your body’s immune system.

1.  Follow a regular exercise plan.  To have a healthy immune system, waste products must constantly be moved out of your cells through the lymphatic system.  The most effective way to circulate lymphatic fluid is through aerobic exercise.  In this type of exertion, the energy is clean burning and moves the toxins and impurities out of the body without creating additional impurities.

2.  Consume enough antioxidants.   Anti-oxidants work to neutralize pollution and other impurities so that your cell-mediated immunity doesn’t have to work so hard.  Look for foods and supplements that contain an ample supply of vitamins A, C, E, carotinoids, selenium, zinc, cysteine (an amino acid), and glutathione.

Well, these just the first few steps in the 8 Step Self-Care Program.   I’ll have more for you in my next blog segment.  In the meantime, if you feel that you would like to chat with me about your health, then please give me a call at (510) 652-2302. We can talk about the ways in which I can help you to boost your immune system.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!  You can do so by using the white envelope icon that is below this Blog~

Building a Strong Immune System 1

In my last blogs, I explained carbohydrate feasting and its role in suppressing the immune system and in creating a myriad of other health problems, i.e., fatigue and blood sugar imbalances. In this current report, I want to explore how to build a healthy and strong immune system. This is an especially timely topic as we are entering the annual flu season. In the next two blogs, look for a special 8-Step Self-Care Program that details helpful tips on how to improve and maintain a health immune system.

All of us want to stay healthy. Yet, most of us don’t understand how to maintain our health and to avoid illness. The immune system is your body’s way of defending itself against invasion by foreign substances produced by the body such as cancer cells.

When a foreign substance (virus, bacteria, etc.) enters your body, one of two types of immune reactions takes place (sometimes both reactions happen). The preferred reaction is called cell-mediated immunity in which T cells are released into your blood supply. T cells are made in your bone marrow and mature in your thymus gland. These T cell are scavengers that circulate throughout the body and destroy the invaders. They do so by directly attacking and digesting the foreign material.

The other kind of immune reaction is called B cell or antibody-mediated immunity. B cells are made in the bone marrow and create antibodies (specialized proteins) that attach themselves to the invading substances. In this way, the bad cells are flagged so that your body’s scavenger cells can identify and destroy them. The attachment of antibodies to invading substances creates a new combination called a circulating immune complex. In this situation, the antibodies simply serve as markers.

The problem with antibody-mediated immunity is that the foreign substances that have been so marked (circulating immune complexes) can travel through the blood and lymphatic system and bind to organs and other tissues such as bone, cartilage, liver, muscle, eye and brain. When the scavenger cells attack the foreign bodies, they can sometimes destroy the healthy tissue to which the foreign substances have attached themselves. This is the basis of auto-immune diseases and reactions to vaccines.

For this reason, cell-mediated immunity is always the preferred response. You want the bad cells to be destroyed by an immediate and direct process, rather than a slower and more indirect one. In this latter case, the bad cells undergo a two step elimination process. First, they are marked by antibodies and then and only then are they destroyed.

I'll have more for you in my next segment. In the meantime, if you feel that you would like to chat with me about your health, then please give me a call at (510) 652-2302. We can talk about the ways in which I can help you regain your energy and stamina.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!  You can do so by using the white envelope icon that is below this Blog~

Carbs and Your Immune System Pt. III

In my last blog, I spoke about the roles that the pancreas and cortisone have in our sugar handling system.  This week, I will explain why folks who eat a high carb diet and experience fatigue also suffer from suppressed immune systems.

What most folks don't know is that cortisone is a powerful suppressant that is used specially to inhibit the immune system after any kind of organ transplant.  When the body has no more glycogen available to convert to glucose, the unattached cortisone roaming through the body provides a similar service to the immune system as when it is used for transplant patients. It inhibits it and makes one more vulnerable to colds, viruses, internal fungi and other pathogen!

And that's not all it does.  The excess cortisone can also confuse your immune system into thinking that some of your healthy cells are pathogens that need to be attached and destroyed.  (Pathogens are those disease-causing agents such as bacteria, virus, fungus, yeast and parasites.)  Yep, I bet that you can guess the outcome of that little drama!  The attack on the healthy cells eventually produce none other than an auto-immune reaction.  If this condition is left unaltered, it will lead to any number of chronic symptoms such as fatigue, Fibromyalgia and Alzheimer's disease.

Thankfully, most of the patients who I see do not suffer from acute illness.  They have chronic conditions with symptoms caused by a malfunctioning immune system.  For example, a consistently carb loaded body ( which has jacked up amounts of cortisone) may feel as if it is arming itself against a virus when, all the while, the real problem is a raging internal fungus.  In this case, the patient will feel a whole range of discomfort and fatigue. 

When helping patients with this problem, I use Applied Kinesiology (AK) methods to carefully diagnose the type of 'bullets' that the immune system is making to kill the pathogens.  This identifies the pathogen(s).  We then find out what complicating factors are present, if any, that may be hampering the immune system.

The most virulent complicating factor is toxic, heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, etc.  Advanced Applied Kinesiological (AK) methods followed by detoxifying foot baths can get rid of the heavy metal.  A second complicating factor is the presence of trapped emotions.  This condition can be released by another AK technique called The Emotion Code.  The third complication can be the load of toxic chemicals in the body.  Potent enzyme supplementation can negate this problem.

Of course, the point of all of this is that there is a better, more efficient way to gain optimal health.  Treating symptoms is fine and has its place in the scope of things.  Yet, finding and eliminating the cause of the ailment does much more for the patient and his/her quality of life.  If you are willing to take some time to discover a proper diet, the right supplements and exercise program, then you really can balance your immune system so that it works effectively.  You can do this.  I know you can.  I'm here to help you.

I'll have more for you in my next segment.  In the meantime, if you feel that you would like to chat with me about your health, then please give me a call at (510) 652-2302.  We can talk about the ways in which I can help you regain your energy and stamina.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher.  He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only).  For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

Carbs and Your Immune System Pt II

The Pancreas and Its Job

In the last segment, I spoke about how carbohydrates affect not only one's weight, but also the blood sugar levels in the blood.  You might remember that the pancreas has a large role in the body's coping mechanism when it is faced with dealing with a carb overload.  Whenever you load up on concentrated carbohydrates such as processed flour and starches, a rapid rise in blood sugar (glucose) levels is generated.  When these levels get too high, the hypothalamus tells the pancreas to secrete insulin.  The insulin  proceeds to remove the excess glucose from the blood and delivers as much of it as it can to our muscles and liver.

The glucose that can't be used is converted into glycogen or stored carbohydrates.  When the body depletes its primary glucose account, it relies on this glycogen reserve to fund it.  Basically, the glycogen receives a signal to break down, convert and send back the glucose into the system.  This process restores the body's glucose levels to a healthy state.  (Note:  Cortisol is naturally created by the adrenal glands.  Cortisone is an artificially made pharmaceutical drug.)

When there is too much glucose to be used either by the primary or by the secondary storage accounts, the glucose is domiciled as body fat.  As we know, if the body fat builds up to the point of obesity, it can result in a myriad of health complications that worsen over time.  

Cortisol:  The Good Guy - Bad Guy Syndrome

For many folks, the pancreas over-reacts to a carb dump by removing more sugar from the blood than is necessary.  So, in order to raise the blood sugar back to a healthy level, the body produces a hormone called cortisol. 

Cortisol triggers the body to turn glycogen back into glucose by attaching itself to the glycogen storage receptors.  This is the good-guy-role that cortisol plays.  On the flip side, this hormone plays the villain when the body produces more cortisol than glycogen.  This occurs when the pancreas becomes depleted in insulin or when the body manifests an insulin resistance.  This condition happens when one's diet is loaded with the high carb foods like bread, pasta, cookies, high carb energy bars, rice and the like.  The excess cortisone that is circulating in the body starts looking for some other thing to which to attach itself.  In other words, when there are not enough available receptors to accommodate the overwhelming quantity of cortisol, then the cortisol looks for another place to go.

What happens next?  The cortisone actually hooks on to the next best thing - the receptors of your immune cells (the white blood cells)!  Why?  Well, its is really a case of mistaken identity in a way.  The receptors of your immune cells (white blood cells) that line the gut look almost identical to the glycogen storage receptors.  So, the cortisone naturally identifies them as handy opportunistic targets and attaches itself to them.   This is definitely not good!  In the process, the white blood cells are immobilized and  they stall in  the performance of their necessary function.  OOPS!

I'll have more for you in my next segment.  In the meantime, if you feel that you would like to chat with me about your health, then please give me a call at (510) 652-2302.  We can talk about the ways in which I can help you regain your energy ans stamina.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed., D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher.  He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only).  For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website drgertler.org.

Dr. Gertler has been designated as a TOP Chiropractor in This Prime Buyer's Report!  Click here.


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