Grow Healthy
With Dr. Sally's
"Vital Signs" Blog
January offers a new beginning; a time to clean up my act, grow more resilient and prepare for the coming year. There’s never been a better time to power up your immune system, The Good Food Way. Your energy, digestion, and immunity will thank you! So, if you’re ready to shake that “tired and toxic” feeling, then gift your system a reboot with my 5 Cues for a Clean January.
It’s been almost 85 years since Dr. Hans Selye, father of the “stress theory” defined stress as the “non-specific response of the body to change”. Given that we’re living in a world that is rapidly changing, a quick look at his work will help you better understand the stress response in your own body and develop better coping mechanisms.
This Argentinian “green sauce” is filled with flavor and key phytonutrients that support our health. It’s traditionally served with grilled meat but is equally good over veggies, beans and rice, eggs, fish, chicken, pork or beef. Apigenin is the powerful phytonutrient in parsley and cilantro that reduces oxidative damage, supports a balanced immune response, and fights cancer.
If you’re feeling a bit stir-crazy being stuck inside while we wait for the pandemic to resolve, you’re not alone. This IS crazy-making! After all, we are animals that are built to be in motion. Our ancestors were up at the crack of dawn, in constant search of food and shelter so they could simply survive. While industrialization and technology have freed us from heavy physical labor, they’ve led to several generations of “couch potatoes” with a range of chronic diseases. And the pandemic has only made it worse as we’re all living online.
After 2020, it’s high time to support and renew your health. After all, your amazing body is constantly renewing itself: recycling old cells and creating new ones, 24/7. Each and every day, the cells lining your intestinal tract (your “inner skin”) and your “outer skin” cells are shed as a new layer surfaces and the old cells slough off. Every month, your liver regenerates itself and each year, your skeleton is renewed. Automatically, without your conscious thought.
As we head into this fall, almost every patient I see is concerned about the health of his or her immune system. Between hurricanes and smoke from the wildfires, not enough exercise and too much sugar, and feeling run down from the constant stress of this “new normal”, it’s time to take a look at how we got here and make a plan to optimize your health now!
Let’s face it; this fall’s cold and flu season is shaping up to be a real challenge. Almost every patient I see expresses concern about the health of their immune systems and the ability to withstand the challenges ahead. So in this time of unprecedented concern about the global pandemic of COVID-19, you’ll be happy to know that you don’t have to be a sitting duck, just waiting to get sick.
According to a study published this summer in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, people who use omeprazole are more likely to get COVID-19. (1, 2) The long-term, twice-daily use of PPIs doubles the odds of testing positive COVID-19, even after taking into account a range of sociodemographic, lifestyle and clinical variables. Omeprazole is in a class of drugs called “Proton Pump Inhibitors”, or PPIs, which reduce stomach acid output by 99%. PPIs include brands such as Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid.
As we move further into the challenges of this pandemic, my heart goes out to you! Whether you’re working from home, are now unemployed or are on the frontlines battling this virus, we all need help lowering the inflammation that impairs our immune response. We’ve known for decades that the intake of simple carbs (think colas, bagels, chips) reduces phagocytosis, the process by which white blood cells engulf and destroy bacteria, just like little Pac Men!
By now, you’ve joined us Californians in “sheltering in place”. We’re all working from home, spending time with our housemates and looking for ways to find peace amidst the chaos of the COVID-19 outbreak. While this situation may be nerve-wracking, it also offers an incredible opportunity to bring balance into our lives. Let’s use this time wisely to build our health, so we come out of it stronger than when we went into it.
