You can probably imagine how I felt when I received the following email:
““MORELLA!! WE DID IT!!!
I just called my doctor’s office and got my blood test results! My Cholesterol ratio went from 5.0 to 4.8, my HDL went up a point to 46 and my LDL went down 19 points to 139! So no more conversation about Statin drugs! Thank-you! Thank-you!! Thank-you!!! ”
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels
Why am I sharing this with you?
I’m sharing it because it’s easy to dismiss another email about another health program in the sea of messages, ads and social media posts about this or that diet or health program.
It’s easy to lose faith in our bodies when we’re bombarded with ads for pharmaceutical drugs; when doctors tell adults that “this is the normal consequence of aging”; when fad diets excite you and then fail you.
Pharmaceutical drugs do not heal you; they remove symptoms. Resigning yourself to the ‘fate’ of your age (or your genes) denies the reality that the body is always seeking to heal itself (until the day you die.) And fad diets simply do not work.
Let me tell you a little bit about Judy:
She was well past menopause
She was told by her doctor that statin meds were her only option
She was also pre-diabetic
As often happens, she was receiving the message from doctors (and from the media alike) that since she was “of a certain age” she pretty much should resign herself to seeing her body decline, and that medication was essentially inevitable.
And let me tell you something else about how Judy achieved these results:
This was NOT the result of a calorie counting diet
This was NOT the result of a low-fat diet
This was NOT the result of a Paleo, or Keto, or Vegan, or Atkins.. or Whole 30 diet
This was NOT the result of deprivation
This was the result of her focusing on Pillars 3 and 4 of what I call The Four Pillars of Health.
Pillar #3: Managing Inflammation
What does inflammation have to do with cholesterol?
Very simple: high cholesterol is a symptom of elevated inflammation inside the circulatory system. Cholesterol is NOT the problem, it’s actually what the body is trying to do in order to heal the inflamed tissues that need healing… so forcing cholesterol down with prescription drugs is not a good idea, actually. Because taking a statin drug does not address the inflammation (aka. need for healing) that is present in the body.
With my support, Judy learned what foods to add in order to give her body the healing resources it needed and the anti-inflammation tools to bring the inflammation under control.
Some of the best anti-inflammatory foods include dark leaf greens and wild-caught fish.
She also learned the foods she needed to reduce because of their very high pro-inflammatory effect, such as sugar, boxed cereal, processed grains, and processed foods in general.
Pillar #4: Optimizing Her Metabolism
Your metabolism is basically the rate at which the engine of your body is burning fuel. In other words, it’s the sum total of all the processes in your body… including thinking, breathing, digesting, lifting weights and running a marathon.
Blood sugar imbalances (aka. hypoglycemia, pre-diabetes and diabetes) are metabolic issues. Trouble losing weight is also a metabolic issue.
Judy, having been told she was pre-diabetic would have gotten herself into HUGE trouble if she had followed the standard diet recommendations:
Eat low fat
Eat 3 meals + 2 snacks a day
Eat whole grains
These recommendations are a DISASTER for anyone with diabetes or pre-diabetes. They are sure to perpetuate blood sugar problems and eventually lead them down the horrible cascade of negative consequences of diabetes.
Instead, Judy brought her blood sugar and triglycerides into perfect balance by eating whole foods, not skimping on healthy fats and discovering how to eat for her metabolic type.
In this way, Judy was SO satisfied with her food that she was able to fast for longer periods of time… and being able to FAST is the best sign that your blood sugar is stable and under control.
The ability to fast 12-18 hours (overnight) and the ability to go 4-6+ hours in between meals during the day is a good predictor for longevity.
Needless to say, both Judy and I were delighted that she’d figured out how to eat to help her body heal, reverse inflammation and balance her blood sugar. This meant that her doctors were no longer “threatening” her with medication :)
I’ll tell you more about Pillar’s #1 and #2 in next week’s blog.