Stress Can Kill You!

Did you know that stress can kill us, literally?  Well, maybe I am taking that a bit far, but stress causes inflammation to increase inside of the body, and that inflammation affects the gut lining, brain tissue, arteries, the heart, muscles and joints.

Now, let me re-word what I said.  Stress can be the trigger for what causes our bodies to begin breaking down, prematurely.  What does that mean?  Eventually, the body can have a heart attack, develop a chronic health condition (autoimmune disease), or develop cancer.

That Dang Stress

One thing almost all patients tell me is this, “Dr. King, I have had a very stressful life!” It doesn’t matter if you have Hashimoto’s Disease, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, or just feel worn out…stress will make these health conditions worse.

We can’t avoid stress, that would be impossible.  So, what do we do?

You need to eliminate any physiological stressors that could be causing your stress glands, the adrenals, to overwork. 

Like what, Dr. King?

Here is a short list of what triggers I look for that drive the adrenal glands to kick out more inflammatory hormones:

• Blood sugar fluctuations
• Infections
• Lack of sleep
• Dehydration
• Food sensitivities
• Autoimmune conditions

If those are occurring, the body will not heal, AND…your body will be under more stress causing more inflammatory hormones to be released. 

How Do You Know How Well the Adrenals Are Working?

There can be a few ways of knowing if the adrenals are not working properly:

• Adrenal Stress Index test – this test measures your cortisol levels and maps them out throughout the day
• Basic blood tests
• Simple questions on intake forms

Also, if you can’t stay asleep, it is a good bet that the adrenal glands are not working properly throughout the day. 

Check this out…

Have you, or someone you known, complained of getting up in the middle of the night to urinate? 

Do you think that is normal?  Not at all (unless you have a majorly inflamed prostate gland).  So, why does this happen and what does urinating have to do with the adrenal glands?

During the day, if the adrenal glands are always pumping out cortisol, then at night the “proper levels” of cortisol can’t be secreted.  This makes the body revert to the backup hormones, with adrenaline being one of those hormones.

Now, imagine you are on a safari, in Africa (pretty cool, eh).  And you are lounging around your tent and all of a sudden, a HUGE, ferocious lion approaches you.

What does your body do?  The heart starts to pump more blood to help the muscles get ready to run away, you get that “feeling” in the pit of your stomach (adrenaline), and you may have the urge to urinate.  Why urinate?  Because your body will do anything it can to get you the heck out there, and it doesn’t need the urine in your bladder to run.  So, it will want to get rid of it.

Adrenaline at Night

If you get a spike of adrenaline at night, similar physiological functions kick in:

• Nervous system gets activated (like when the lion approached) – you wake up
• Your heart can be racing – patients tell me that sometimes they feel as if their heart is pounding and that is why they are waking up
• You will need to urinate

Long way to prove a point, but…hopefully, you now know that if you wake up to urinate at night, the adrenal glands need to be looked at.

Gaining Weight

A lot of people know that if the adrenal glands are not working well, they gain weight. 

Cortisol = Weight Gain

This can be an accumulation of adipose tissue (fat) or water weight.  Either way, when people are under more stress, you typically see weight gain (I assuming that over-eating is not a problem).

80% of the Immune System

Ok, what does urinating at night and gaining weight have to do with breaking down the body?

I am glad you asked!!!

High amounts of cortisol will eat away at the gastrointestinal lining, causing Leaky Gut Syndrome (LGS). A healthy GI system is EXTREMELY important for a healthy immune system (the GI tract makes up for 80% of the immune system).

If your GI lining is breaking down, then the immune system becomes weaker and weaker.

On top of that, now the LGS is causing major inflammation in the blood, and the heart has to pump this “bad” blood (breaking the heart tissue down, along with the arteries).

Not the Brain!

We, also, know cortisol in excessive amounts will pass your blood brain barrier. You have a barrier that surrounds the brain protecting it from large foreign particles. Alcohol, medications, and hormones are some of the chemicals that will pass the blood brain barrier.

You know what happens when alcohol passes the barrier! When cortisol passes the barrier, it destroys neurons! Specifically, it targets the hippocampus, which when destroyed will cause dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease (I watched my grandfather struggle with this the last five years of his life due in part to Type II Diabetes).

Now, you have the heart, arteries, gut lining, and brain, all breaking down!  On top of that, you may be gaining weight, have horrible GI symptoms, brain fog, and your hormones are thrown off.

All because of stress and your body’s ability to handle it (or, not handle it).

If you are having some of those symptoms, reach out to me, and let’s get you healthy!  You can click this LINK, to schedule a complimentary, 15-minute phone conversation.

DOWNLOAD THE 67-MARKERS YOUR DOCTOR MUST RUN

Type II Diabetes is COMPLETELY Reversible

I write a lot about thyroid gland disorders, but I have been getting more and more patients requesting help who are suffering from Type II Diabetes.  Did YOU know that Type II Diabetes is reversible?  I mean, completely reversible!!! 

How freaking cool is that!?  Why?  Because, if you reverse diabetes, or at least get it under control, you can help to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease! 

Statistics are showing that Alzheimer’s Disease is on the rise, to the point that it will be right up there with cardiovascular disease and cancer in the next 20 years.

The sad part is that many doctors do NOT know how to “prevent” or “treat” Alzheimer’s Disease.

Finally, the medical model has publicly made a correlation between Alzheimer’s Disease and Diabetes: Alzheimer’s Disease is being called Type III Diabetes!

Blood Sugar is Key!

Check this out, and this may surprise MANY of you…

Question:

Besides insulin and other diabetic medications, what else do most diabetics get prescribed? 

Answer:

Statins

Why?

Most diabetics have high cholesterol.  What do most medical doctors do when a patient has high cholesterol?  They put them on a statin. 

Statins lower cholesterol.  They do!  However, but they also lower the good cholesterol: HDLs.  Cholesterol, in general, makes up the membranes (walls) of your neurons (brain cells).  What happens if you lower cholesterol (some doctors are now wanting it below 150!!!)?  You start to degrade the neuronal membranes = neurons die off = pre-disposes the patient to memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease!!!

HOLY CRAP, BATMAN!!!

Read that paragraph again, please!  What I just told you is the cause of a TON of brain dysfunction in many, many, many diabetics.

Don’t get me wrong, not all diabetics develop Alzheimer’s Disease.  Not all diabetics get put on statins, but A LOT do!

You may be thinking, “the medical doctors, they…they, want us sick!!!”  I will let you be the judge of that one, as that gets into a big philosophical debate.

Controlling Blood Sugar

Many patients learn they are diabetic, or pre-diabetic, and try to control it through food.  Sometimes that works, but in a majority of the cases, the insulin receptors are fighting against them.

Visualize a blue circle, and on this blue circle are two little doors that are open.  Those doors represent what are called insulin receptors.  Most of you have heard of insulin, for those that have not, insulin is what carries glucose into the cell (in this case, the blue circle) to produce energy and keep you alive.

As long as insulin can carry glucose into the cell, everything is working great.  However, if those doors (insulin receptors) begin to shut, the insulin can’t get in.  Therefore, the glucose can’t get in!  This can happen for a variety of reasons, but the number one reason: eating infrequently and then bombarding the receptors with a TON of glucose and insulin at once when you scarf down that huge meal at Applebees!

When this happens, the body will convert your insulin to triglycerides!!!  This process, by itself is extremely inflammatory.  Now, if the insulin can’t get into your cells, your triglycerides begin to show high on a blood test, and along with triglycerides, your glucose will begin to show high on the blood test.

Sooner or later, your doctor diagnoses you with Type II Diabetes and prescribes you insulin/metformin/etc.

Welcome to PILL WORLD!

Open the Dang Doors, Please !

Ok, so you want to know how to open the insulin receptor sites again?  I use the following herbs:

• Alpha Lipoid Acid
• Choline
• Fu-Ling Extract
• L-Carnitine
• Iositol
• PABA
• Vanadium
• N- Acetyle L-Cysteine
• Gymnema Extract

Along with vitamin E, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, pantothenic acid, magnesium, zinc, selenium, manganese and chromium, and some other goodies that if I told you what they were, I would have to…just kidding…but, there are many other herbs I use. 

Don’t worry, these are all rolled into ONE pill.

I play with the dosages to determine what is working well for the patient, and eventually titrate down on the amounts I am using. 

Some patients may stay on a small dosage, and some patients are able to completely come off of them all together, once their blood tests stabilize.

Let’s Prevent Diabetes, First!

Here is a secret…I would much rather help someone prevent diabetes, then help them reverse diabetes!  Why?  It is easier!!!  Preventing diabetes costs less money and creates less damage to the body.

Did you know that in males, erectile dysfunction is very common to see with diabetes?  Along with kidney failure and loss of vision, in both sexes.

Diabetes destroys and destroys, BIG TIME!  Let’s prevent the destruction before it begins.

Ok, are you ready for the “secret” to prevent diabetes?  Are you sure? 

Eat a healthy and balanced “diet” (I really hate the word diet, anyhoo…)!  Eat smaller meals throughout during the day.  Limit your carbs (unless you are burning them off through exercise), increase your veggies, decrease the amount of red meat you consume, and drink plenty of water!

I know, it sounds too easy.  However, many, many Americans eat horribly!  If people would clean up their eating, we would have a lot less chronically sick patients in this country.

If you have been following my Facebook posts (make sure you are following Ask Dr. King on Facebook), you know that Natasha and I recently started a 30-Day Vegan Challenge.

Don’t worry…I will not make you eat like a rabbit, if you don’t want to.  But, I can tell you…I feel great!  Several of you know that I am cycling fanatic.  I have been racing mountain bikes, road bikes, and triathlon for many years…and several of you have seen the injuries that accompany those fun activities (cough cough).

Anyhoo…since starting my Vegan challenge, my performance on the bike has sky rocketed.  I can recover quicker on the bike (if you are a cyclist, you know what I mean by that), and my sore muscles the next day are almost non-existent.

For example, yesterday, in the Texas heat, I cycled for 4-hours, climbing for almost 4,000 ft.  Today, I didn’t even notice I rode yesterday my body felt so good. 

Is that due to eating more plants?  Personally, I think so.  I feel I am not as inflamed due to cutting out meats.

We did celebrate our 30-Day Challenge by having some wild caught Halibut this past weekend.  And get this, Natasha had a very difficult time consuming the fish (not me, HA).  She actually looked forward to getting back on the vegan “diet”.

One thing with vegans, vegetarians, and all the other crazy “diets” lack, quality B vitamins and/or essential fatty acids.  We have found that by adding those in, eating this way, we are not missing a beet (did you catch the joke?  Beet!  Corny…yeah yeah). 

Spread the Word!

If you know of someone that is struggling with diabetes, and they are DETERMINED to clean up their lifestyle and re-gain their health, have them call me: (866) Drking-1. 

WARNING: not many diabetics are willing to do what it takes to heal.  Someone must be committed to get this condition under control, as lifestyle, sometimes drastic, are required.

I spoke to two new diabetics today!  They are extremely excited about getting this condition under control, because they are both care takers for a parent, who is struggling with their health.  After taking care of their parents, these patients are bound and determined to be as independent as possible!

Do you think being hooked up to a dialysis machine takes away your independence?  You better believe it!  What about losing your vision to diabetes?  Or, how about losing a limb from an amputation (yes, I have worked with those patients before)?

So, with that being said…let’s make today be a new day…focused on your health…and let’s kick some behind!

Call me, (866) Drking-1, and I will help you get on the right track.