Illness Is Optional Health Blog

Have you ever stopped to wonder who taught a monkey what to eat? I realize that you are here to learn about the benefits of potassium, bare with me a moment, I promise I will give you the answer. for now,, back to the monkey question, it will all make sense in a second…

I am willing to bet that you’ve never given it much thought because, admittedly, the question is quite ridiculous. Monkeys just seem to know what to eat. Through this mysterious force we call “instinct”, most animals exit the womb and just know exactly what to put in their mouths.

Although humans are more than animals, we do have instincts, like our monkey ancestors.

In recent years scientists have been trying to understand what man consumed when we didn’t have government agencies to tell us what to eat. During this time, approximately 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, Paleolithic man was comprised of hunters and gatherers who consumed a diet motivated by instinct. Then approximately 10,000 years ago began the Neolithic Revolution.

The Grand Mistake

During this new age of human development; we adopted more of an agriculture and animal husbandry practice. I imagine this is about the time when those nasty little creatures called “food scientists” came into existence. A “food scientist” is someone who thinks they can make food better, tastier, and more nutritious than nature.

Although the study of the Paleolithic lifestyle is quite complex, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what kinds of foods our ancestors consumed. It’s no surprise to see that most experts in the area of Paleolithic eating suspect that these people consumed primarily fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and some wild game. If you’re reading this list and feel that this is common sense, that “knowing” that you are experiencing is the remnant of your Paleolithic instinct.

Our abandonment of the Paleolithic way has resulted in a number of harmful and even life-threatening nutrient deficiencies…

Potassium Deficiency and the Benefits of Potassium

One nutrient that many scientists believe was much more abundant in our diet during Paleolithic times was potassium.

The Stone Age humans likely consume approximately 15 grams of potassium on a daily basis. Compare that to the recommended daily allowance of 4.7 grams per day. A ridiculously low level, I may add, that most of us never achieve.

In addition to a deficiency of potassium, the average American consumes a large excess of sodium. The sodium to potassium ratio is important for proper function of the body; when this ratio gets imbalanced the body suffers. Our Stone Age ancestors only consumed less than a gram of sodium (0.6 g) and it is estimated that the average American now consumes approximately 3.5 g of sodium and an embarrassing 2.8 g of potassium.

Why Should We Be Concerned With Our Sodium/Potassium Balance?

The balance of sodium and potassium is crucial for the function many cellular systems; some signs of potassium deficiency include:

1. Fatigue
2. Heart arrhythmias
3. Heart failure
4. Muscle weakness
5. Constipation
6. Delayed emptying of the stomach

Isn’t Potassium Dangerous?

Contrary to popular belief, potassium is a safe nutrient when taken properly. In healthy adults without heart or kidney problems, daily potassium intake should not exceed 8 grams.

If you suffer with kidney and/or heart disease, or you are on certain medications for blood pressure, potassium toxicity can occur at lower dose. For this latter group, ask your doctor before taking potassium supplements.

When supplementing with potassium, you must take into account how much potassium you are taking in through diet. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, legumes are all good sources of potassium. It is possible to get sufficient potassium levels from your diet, however, it requires discipline and a hefty appetite for fruits and vegetables.

For the rest of us, supplementation may be required in order to achieve healthy potassium levels.

Who’s At Risk of Potassium Deficiency?

Before we get into the benefits of potassium, let’s talk about the risks of potassium deficiency.

It is important to realize that certain lifestyle habits, medications, and conditions can lead to an increased risk of potassium deficiency, these include:

1. The use of diuretics
2. Diarrhea or vomiting
3. Chronic dieting
4. Chronic kidney failure
5. Magnesium deficiency
6. Strenuous exercise

Keep these variables in mind when considering supplementation. See our Daily Potassium Requirements for Optimal Health for more information on supplementing with potassium.

What Are the Benefits of Potassium?

Potassium is essential for regulating fluid balance, acidity within the body, blood pressure, and muscle function. There are numerous outward benefits of supplementing with potassium, including:

1. Lowering blood pressure – An analysis of 33 published studies have demonstrated potassium supplementation to be of benefit in people who suffer with hypertension. The effective dose used in the research was 2,400 mg daily. (JAMA 1997;277:1624–32
2. Protection from Cardiac Arrhythmias – Studies show that people with low potassium levels are at a heightened risk of arrhythmia. Supplementation with 1,000 mg of potassium was shown to decrease the risk of arrhythmias in people who were prescribed a potassium-depleting blood pressure medication called hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ). (Int J Cardiol 1989;25:93–8)
3. Prolonged life and Improved Quality of life – One study demonstrated that men who consumed high levels of potassium had a longer life. More importantly, those with higher potassium intake enjoyed an improved quality of life. See the article: Potassium for a Longer and Healthier Life – Benefits of Potassium for Seniors
4. Improved energy – Electrolytes, such as potassium, can allow the body to manufacture needed energy. Potassium deficiency can cause physical and mental exhaustion.
5. End to muscle cramps and charlie horses – Potassium deficiency can promote muscle cramps, as can calcium or magnesium deficiency.

As you know, it is the season for flu vaccines. I wanted to take a moment to answer the question on many people’s minds, “should I get the flu vaccine?”

Let’s set aside the safety concerns for a moment and investigate just how efficacious the vaccine really is. According to published studies on previous vaccines (we can’t provide studies on this years vaccine because there are none…yet), here are the findings:

1.     Flu vaccines provide no benefit to children under the age of 24 months. In those over the age of 2 years, only 1 in 3 children received a benefit. (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2008)

2.     Flu vaccine does not prevent asthma attacks. In other words, asthmatic children who receive the flu vaccine do not fare any better than children who do not receive the vaccine. (Arch Dis Child. 2004 Aug;89(8):734-5)

3.     In healthy adults, vaccinations decrease the risk of flu by 6%, which equates to vaccinated adults missing 0.16 (less than one-fifth of one day) fewer days of work. (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2006)

4.     A review of 64 studies in the elderly showed no significant decrease in incidence of flu or pneumonia in elderly inhabitants of nursing  homes. (The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1, 2006)

This brief review of the literature was taken from an article written by Dr. Tenpenny, a physician advocate against unnecessary vaccinations. For the full article, please visit www.drtenpenny.com.

I recently published an article on our website titled, How Not to Get Sick This Flu Season. I encourage you to check it out and implement the recommendations provided.

In a particular medicine you will find two main components: the active ingredient(s) and the inactive ingredient(s). The active ingredient is the product that is supposed to offer the therapeutic benefit. In the case of the vaccine, it is the dead or partially-dead virus that is used to stimulate the immune system. The inactive ingredients within vaccines are components that are present to maintain the integrity of the product until it is injected into the patient. Some compounds are also added to enhance the immune response to the vaccine.

Unfortunately, as you will see, many of the inactive ingredients hold great potential to cause harm. These are things such as formaldehyde (a neuro-toxin and potential carcinogen), aluminum (which has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease), mercury (linked to everything from neuro-toxicity to cancer), monkey-kidney tissue, and many other hard-to-pronounce compounds that have unknown effects within the body.

To view this list, download it directly from the Center for Disease Control website through the following link:Vaccine Excipients & Media Summary

In people who have been taking Fosamax for long periods of time. A spontaneous fracture occurs when the bones break for no apparent reason; an example would be simply walking down the street or standing in a subway. To see the report on ABC NEWS click, Fosamax Scare: Those with Osteopenia Gauge Risk .

In the news story, they interview a doctor who had been taking Fosamax for osteoporosis for many years when the femur, one of the strongest bones of the body, broke in half while standing in a subway train. Another woman they interviewed, broke her femur while simply walking into another room of her house. Imagine just how weak the bone must get in order to break so easily.

This may seem like news to many, however, we reported on this issue a long time ago on our radio show. Fosamax, and any medication in the bisphosphonate class, works by preventing the body from clearing out old brittle bone. Over years, it gives the appearance of strengthening the bone, however, the truth is, it is simply causing the body to retain old, brittle bone. This chaotic bone structure will weaken even if the density appears to be improving or remaining the same. The FDA is stubbornly refusing to alert doctors to this potentially fatal effect of this useless class of medication.

The bottom line is, we must stop looking to the pharmaceutical industry for a solution to a problem that is almost entirely attributed to diet and lifestyle. You can stop osteoporosis in its tracks and even reverse it if you take the proper steps. See ourOsteoporosis Protocol for details.

As this fat builds up it damages the delicate machinery of the cell, ultimately leading to complications and disease. While reading various studies on how this fat gets into places that it shouldn’t, I came across a study that was investigating the impact of high fat versus high carbohydrate intake on the burning of fat. While reading the study I was fascinated and horrified by the method used to block the burning of fat in the healthy subjects who took part in the study. How did they do it? How did they block the healthy participants’ bodies from burning fat?

They gave them a popular blood pressure medication.

That’s right, they gave them a medication called a “beta blocker” that is very commonly prescribed to overweight, obese and diabetic patients with high blood pressure. This class of medication is, more accurately, called a beta adrenergic blocker. This means that the medication blocks certain receptors which bind to adrenaline, a hormone produced by the body which causes the heart to race, the blood vessels to constrict and thus blood pressure to increase. By blocking the beta adrenergic receptors of the body, the heart does not beat as strongly or as fast and the blood vessels relax thus lowering blood pressure. Unfortunately, the beta adrenergic receptors on fat cells get blocked as well and thus a decrease in fat loss occurs as well as an increased propensity to store fat.

Does anyone see a problem with this?

As I mentioned previously, the people who are most prone to high blood pressure are people who already have too much fat in their bodies. These include diabetics, people with pre-diabetes, as well as the overweight and obese. We give these people a medication which further inhibits fat use thus stoking the fire of their metabolic difficulties. Perhaps this is why many studies on these medications have resulted in an increased risk of disease and premature death. That’s right, not only have studies not proven these medications to prolong life, many have even shown them to shorten life.

It never ceases to amaze me how the medical establishment can turn a blind eye to the side effects of their treatments. The use of beta blockers to inhibit fat loss is apparently a standard practice in research studies and yet medicine just brushes it aside and convinces themselves that this class of medication is safe to use in overweight and obese people who are already afflicted with fat-clogged cells.

We need to open our eyes and accept the fact that medications are not nearly as effective as they are made out to be. We need to convince ourselves that the right approach is to take the reins of health into our own hands and although it is not as easy as popping a pill in the morning it is far better than the delusion that there is a medication for every disease…that, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing more than a mirage created by the drug industry.

For those of you who have high blood pressure and may have been prescribed a beta blocker such as propranolol, metoprolol or any other generic medication ending in “olol” I am not recommending that you stop your medication. In fact, to do so may cause a rebound elevation in blood pressure that could put you in the hospital or worse. I am simply saying, perhaps there is a better way to control blood pressure. In our experience, people can start living the right lifestyle can find that the need for the medication decreases or goes away as they get healthier. At this time you can work with your doctor to start weaning yourself from the medication. If you would like to learn more about natural methods for controlling blood pressure, check out our article onHigh Blood Pressure. If you are looking for help developing a healthy lifestyle, learn about First Line Therapy that we offer at our wellness center.



Little did they know that one of these rare mice would radically change the way that we view that glob of fat that hangs out around your midsection, butt or thighs.

In 1902, a French researcher named L. Cuenot began to research a special yellow mouse that was popular among mouse enthusiasts. This mouse, known for its peculiar propensity to gain fat, began a domino effect in the science world that ultimately led to one of the most important discoveries in the study of fat!

As researchers continued to study naturally fat mice, they happened upon a mutant strain of mouse that seemed to suffer many of the same complications attributed to obesity in humans. This mouse, referred to as the “ob” mouse suffered with:

1. High insulin levels
2. High stress hormones
3. Low sex hormones (estrogen & testosterone)
4. Low body temperature
5. Low thyroid
6. Lots of body fat
7. High levels of infertility

The investigation of this strain of mouse led researchers to believe that there was some compound that was lacking in these mice that caused them to gain fat. That labeled this compound a “satiety factor”. Then in the 1970s, a researcher performed some of the most interesting and bizarre research that I have ever heard about. He surgically joined a “normal” mouse to one of his ob mice. The mice were attached in such a way to mimic Siamese twins where the two mice share a blood circulation. When he did this, the normal mouse stayed normal and the fat mouse got skinny. This proved that there was some sort of chemical that the fat, ob mouse was lacking. When the mice were sharing the blood circulation, the “satiety chemical” from the normal mouse entered the ob mouse and thus he became “normal”. That chemical came to be known as “leptin” which is now believed to be the greatest discovery in the bariatric sciences. Scientists were excited because they felt that they could purify this compound and inject it into overweight people to literally “cure” their obesity! They succeeded in purifying it and proceeded to clinical studies.

You can imagine their dismay when they discovered that leptin injections had no effect on overweight subjects. When further study was performed on overweight subjects they discovered that they were not deficient in leptin but instead had far more leptin in their blood than their skinny counterparts.

This just didn’t make sense. If leptin eradicates hunger and stimulates metabolism, why would it not cause weight loss? The only feasible explanination was that the body had somehow lost its ability to register the leptin that was floating through the circulation. This same phenomenon occurs when too much insulin is floating through the system which leads to insulin resistance and ultimately diabetes.

What is leptin and why is it important?

Your body, which is really a community of trillions of smaller individual living cells, must be perfectly orchestrated in order to maintain life. This orchestration is coordinated by certain compounds called “hormones”. Hormones allow the trillions of cells within the body to communicate with each other. Leptin is one such hormone, in fact, leptin appears to be the mother of all hormones. This means that if leptin gets out of balance then other hormones such as insulin, cortisol, thyroid, testosterone and estrogen also follow.

Leptin’s main jobs are to regulate eating, metabolism and reproduction.

If the brain is the President of your body then leptin is her chief of staff. When resistance to leptin occurs, it appears to prevent leptin from getting signals to the brain. The brain then gets a constant signal that the body is starving for food and nutrients. This results in a number of physical manifestations to PERCEIVED starvation:

1. Decreased metabolism – To slow your demise due to starvation
2. Insulin resistance – To enhance fat storage when food is once again available.
3. Thyroid deficiency – Slows metabolism to prevent starvation.
4. Infertility – Reproduction requires lots of energy. If the body feels that you are starving then it does not deem you suitable for reproduction. After all, if you can’t feed yourself how will you feed a little one?
5. Hunger and cravings – This motivates you to find food.

So where does leptin come from?

Scientists use to think that fat cells were nothing more than a depository for fat. The discovery of leptin forever changed fat from an annoying blob of goo to an endocrine organ on par with such big players as the thyroid, testicles, adrenal gland, ovaries and pituitary gland. Now fat is known to produce many hormones that play important roles with everything from fat storage to reproduction. In fact, fat may become known as the most important endocrine organ to ever be discovered!

Leptin, is the fuel gauge of the body. It continuously reports to the brain to tell the brain how much fat we have stored up and thus how likely we are to starve to death should famine rear its ugly head. The more fat we have the higher the leptin levels go and the more leptin signals reach the brain. In an ideal world, as fat builds up the brain gets the signal to stop sending hunger signals and start metabolizing fat.

Having fat stored up protects the body from starvation and thus improves its chances of survival during famine. The body, however, does not want to be “fat” or “obese”. Remember, our body is an outdated model. It is built for Paleolithic days where food was scarce and danger seeming lurked behind very bush. It wants some fat to prevent starvation, however, it doesn’t want you to be the slowest creature in the herd because that would make you more likely to get caught and eaten by a lion. Leptin, therefore, must continuously balance fat stores with being lean and agile. Leptin resistance would never have occurred in Paleolithic days because food was just too scarce.

Now, you can see how important the regulation of leptin is in your fat loss efforts as well as the quest for youth and vitality. Once you understand leptin and what causes leptin resistance to occur you will be better suited to achieve the body and health that you desire!

How do I balance letpin?

1. Cut carbohydrate intake – Carbohydrates cause an increase in insulin levels which can ultimately cause insulin resistance. Anytime insulin resistance occurs, so too does leptin resistance.
2. When you eat carbohydrates choose carb sources that have a very low glycemic load- Low glycemic-load foods decrease the amount of insulin produced.
3. Exercise daily – There is no faster way to improve leptin sensitivity than to start exercising regularly.
4. Try not to eat 3 hours before bedtime – Leptin levels should be highest in the evening and lowest in the morning; thus you should be hungry in the morning and not in the evening. If you are hungry in the evening; this suggests leptin resistance.
5. Sleep at least 7-9 hours a night – Sleep deprivation causes lower leptin and higher ghrelin–the perfect storm for overwhelming hunger.

Researchers estimate that GERD is experienced by 25%-35% of the population which makes Proton Pump Inhibitors, a popular medication used to treat GERD, the third best-selling class of drug.

There is mounting evidence that drug treatment for GERD does not come without potentially serious risk. Such studies suggest that these drugs increase the risk of osteoporosis, depression, serious digestive tract infection, irritable bowel disease and nutrient deficiencies such as vitamin B12 as well as important minerals. Although research has demonstrated these potential consequences, it does not take a multi-million dollar study to be able to reason that medications that interfere with acid secretion in the stomach will also interrupt nutrient absorption while making it easier for harmful organisms such as C. difficile to grow and cause havoc in our digestive tracts.

GERD occurs when the digestive juices back up into the esophagus which results in an irritation to the fragile lining of the esophagus. The chronic irritation to the esophagus potentially results in a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett’s esophagus and then, left unchecked, to esophageal cancer.

This process of progression sounds horrible and, drug companies would have you believe, imminent if left untreated. Research, however, does not support this seemingly rational and unquestionable connection.

In fact, a recent review of the data suggests that the connection between GERD and Barrett’s esophagus is so weak that the reviewing scientists felt that the widespread practice of screening patients with GERD using endoscopy was not warranted. Other researchers found that patients who were suffering with nighttime symptoms, as well as obese patients, were at a higher likelihood of having GERD progress to Barrett’s and ultimately to cancer. These patients may be the ones who require endoscopy as a screening tool.

If you have any comments or questions, post your reply to this post or contact one of our professionals.

I wanted to dedicate this newsletter to proactively attacking the “winter blues” before they hit in full force.

There are a number of neurotransmitters that are important in determining how we feel. Having a fundamental understanding of these neurotransmitters may help you to pinpoint a course of action in controlling this health challenge so that you can enjoy a healthy and happy holiday season.

One of the people at the dinner party asked, “if you could have only one herb, which herb would you choose?” I thought for a second, at which time I replied, “turmeric.” So, why did I choose turmeric?

Read the rest of the article or post your questions and comments here.

You can also go into our Turmeric Supplementation Guide for best Turmeric options in our Professional Supplements Store.

Before I get into this discussion, however, I want to discuss the connection between fibrocystic breast disease and breast cancer. Due to conflicting research, conventional medicine does not acknowledge a connection. I feel that this is a grave mistake, let me explain why.

In many ways, our body works like a vehicle. When anything goes wrong, a little “Check Engine” light pops on. Although the check engine light is not the cause of the dysfunction, ignoring it can cause a breakdown. Fibrocystic breast disease is like the “Check Engine” light flashing. Covering it up with symptomatic treatment and/or surgical treatment could be the sin of omission that could ultimately allow breast cancer to develop.

So what would the fibroids tell us about what is wrong? We simply do not have all of the answers to this question; although, we have found certain correlations, such as iodine deficiency.

You can read the full article Here.

The Health Clinic has lots of resources in this topic, including professional Iodine supplement product comparisons and great deals at the store.

You can also post your questions or comments to this topic here.