FIBROMYALGIA THE SCARLET LETTER OF MEDICINE
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Topic: EASING THE PAIN THROUGH D
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Dear Warriors,

THE SCARLET LETTER
OF MEDICINE

BLOGGING

BY SKYE HOLDON
MD


WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO
START LOOKING AFTER YOUR BODY?
IS 2006 YOUR YEAR?

When it is time to face the fact that you could shed a few pounds,
the solution is to first learn to love ad respect yourself.

This may sound bizzare and far out, but in reality, if you love yourself,
and respect your body, you would not put into your mouths half the stuff
you do now. Remember that you are the one putting on the pounds.
Your body is not demanding this. Your emotional state, and your
mind is demanding that you eat more than you should and
choose the wrong foods.

Many of you have written to tell me that no matter what you eat,
you are still ill and in pain. And this is true. But if you really take
the time to understand the mechanism and workings of your body,
you will understand that there are things that you can do to
feel better. You may not cure yourself, but you can help to
ease the pain and discomfort.

And it does not happen in day. It takes weeks for instance, to
get sugar out of your system.

Sugar is detrimental to your health for many reasons.
But just staying away from it for a few days will not make an appreciable
difference in how you feel off the sugar.

Here are the number one steps you should take to optimize your chances
of less pain and better health.

For several million years, humans existed on a diet of animals and vegetation.
It was only with the advent of agriculture a mere 10,000 years
ago - a fraction of a second in evolutionary time - that humans
began ingesting large amounts of sugar and starch in the form of
grains (and potatoes) into their diets. Indeed, 99.99% of our genes
were formed before the advent of agriculture; in biological terms,
our bodies are still those of hunter-gatherers.

While the human shift to agriculture produced indisputable
gains for man - modern civilization is based on this epoch - societies
where the transition from a primarily meat/vegetation diet to one
high in cereals show a reduced life-span and stature, increases in
infant mortality and infectious disease,
and higher nutritional deficiencies.

Contemporary humans have not suddenly evolved mechanisms
to incorporate the high carbohydrates from starch- and sugar-rich foods
into their diet. In short, we are consuming far too much bread,
cereal, pasta, corn (a grain, not a vegetable), rice, potatoes
and Little Debbie snack cakes, with very grave consequences
to our health. Making matters worse, most of these carbohydrates
we consume come in the form of processed food.

That 65% of Americans are overweight, and 27% clinically
obese, in a nation addicted to sesame seed buns for that hamburger,
with a side of French fries and a Coke, is no coincidence

It is not the fat in the foods we eat but, far more, the excess
carbohydrates from our starch- and sugar-loaded diet that
is making people fat and unhealthy, and leading to
epidemic levels of a host of diseases such as diabetes.

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms,
chances are very good that the excess carbohydrates
in your body are, in part or whole, to blame:

Excess weight
Fatigue and frequent sleepiness
Depression
Brain fogginess
Bloating
Low blood sugar
High blood pressure

Through our addiction to grains, potatoes, sweets and
other starchy and sugary foods,
we are consuming far too many.

The body's storage capacity for carbohydrates is quite limited,
though, so here's what happens to all the excess:
they are converted,
via insulin, into fat and stored in the adipose, or fatty, tissue.

Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates generates a
rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rise, the pancreas
secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream, which lowers the
glucose. Insulin is, though, essentially a storage hormone, evolved
over those millions of years of humans prior to the agricultural age,
to store the excess calories from carbohydrates
in the form of fat in case of famine.

Insulin, stimulated by the excess carbohydrates in our
overabundant consumption of grains, starches and sweets,
is responsible for all those bulging stomachs
and fat rolls in thighs and chins.

Even worse, high insulin levels suppress two other
important hormones - glucagons and growth hormones – that
are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle
development, respectively. So insulin from excess carbohydrates
promotes fat, and then wards off the body's ability to lose that fat.
Excess weight and obesity lead to heart disease and a
wide variety of other diseases.

But the ill effect of grains and
sugars does not end there.

They suppress the immune system,
contributing to allergies,
and they are responsible
for a host of digestive disorders.

They contribute to depression,
and their excess consumption is,
in fact, associated with many of the chronic diseases
in our nation, such as cancer and diabetes.

The bottom line is that we need to reduce our intake of grains,
including corn-based foods,
and all sweets and potatoes, dramatically.

A good tip to help you get off these health damaging food items
is to ask yourself

BEFORE YOU EAT

WOULD I GIVE THIS TO MY BABY?

For if you love your baby, you would not want
to compromise
their immune systems or cause them any
harm would you?

Think about this!

THEN WHY DO YOU WANT
TO HARM YOURSELF?

This is where the self love
and self respect comes in.

In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis,
excess sugar may result in a number of other
significant consequences. The following is a listing of some
of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety
of medical journals and other scientific publications.

Sugar can suppress your immune system and
impair your defenses against infectious disease.

Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body:
causes chromium and copper deficiencies
and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.

Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline,
hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating,
and crankiness in children.

Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol,
triglycerides and bad cholesterol and
a decrease in good cholesterol.

Sugar causes a loss of tissue
elasticity and function.

Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected
with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries,
prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung,
gallbladder and stomach.

Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and
can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
Sugar can weaken eyesight.

Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract
including:
an acidic digestive tract,
indigestion,
malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease,
increased risk of Crohn's disease,
and ulcerative colitis.

Sugar can cause premature aging.

Sugar can lead to alcoholism.

Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic,
tooth decay, and periodontal disease.

Sugar contributes to obesity.

Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as:
arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.

Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of
Candida Albicans (yeast infections)

Sugar can cause gallstones.

Sugar can cause appendicitis.

Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.

Sugar can cause varicose veins.

Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses
in oral contraceptive users.

Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.

Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin
sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels
and eventually diabetes.

Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.

Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
Sugar can cause drowsiness and
decreased activity in children.

High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end
products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and
thereby damaging proteins in the body).

Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.

Sugar causes food allergies.

Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.

Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.

Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and
cardiovascular disease.

Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.

Sugar can change the structure of protein and
cause a permanent alteration of the way
the proteins act in your body.

Sugar can make your skin age by
changing the structure of collagen.

Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.

Sugar can cause emphysema.

High sugar intake can impair the
physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.

Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.

Sugar intake is higher in people with
Parkinson's disease.

Sugar can increase the size of your liver by
making your liver cells divide and
it can increase the amount of liver fat.

Sugar can increase kidney size and
produce pathological changes in the kidney
such as the formation of kidney stones.

Sugar can damage your pancreas.

Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.

Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.

Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.

Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.

Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.

Sugar can reduce the learning capacity,
adversely affect school children's grades
and cause learning disorders.

Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha,
and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's
ability to think clearly.

Sugar can cause depression.

Sugar can increase your risk of gout.

Sugar can increase your risk
of Alzheimer's disease.

Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as:
increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS,
and decreasing growth hormone.

Sugar can lead to dizziness.

Diets high in sugar will increase
free radicals and oxidative stress.

High sucrose diets of subjects with
peripheral vascular disease significantly
increases platelet adhesion.

High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents
can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration
and is associated with a twofold increased risk for
delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
Sugar is an addictive substance.

Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.

Sugar given to premature babies can affect the
amount of carbon dioxide they produce.

Decrease in sugar intake can increase
emotional stability.

Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times
more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.

The rapid absorption of sugar promotes
excessive food intake in obese subjects.

Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children
with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Sugar adversely affects urinary
electrolyte composition.

Sugar can slow down the ability of
your adrenal glands to function.

Sugar has the potential of inducing
abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy
individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.

I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water
can cut off oxygen to your brain.

Sugar increases your risk of polio.

High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.

Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.

In intensive care units:

Limiting sugar saves lives.

Sugar may induce cell death.

In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were
put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent
drop in antisocial behavior.

Sugar dehydrates newborns.

Sugar can cause gum disease.

KEEP A FOOD DIARY FOR 2006

If you write down every single mouthful you take,
you will be surprised at how many useless calories
you eat during the course of a day.

Keeping a food diary will educate you and
help you to control your unhealthy eating habits.

Remember that once over thirty, you cannot eat as
you used to when you were younger.

In your forties and fifties, two meals per day
is sufficient with a solid reduction of all breads,
carbohydrates and sugars.

In your late fifties, one meal a day is sufficient.
Or a small breakfast and early supper packed with
vegetables and protein.

Keep your servings HALF SIZE
YES – HALF SIZE

Look at yourself in the mirror.

If you are overweight, REDUCE
YOUR PORTIONS

WATCH WHAT YOU EAT

DO NOT EAT AT NIGHT

FORGO JUNK FOOD

READ FOOD LABELS

EXERCISE DAILY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

DRINK EIGHT GLASSES OF WATER

AND KEEP YOUR CARBS AND SUGARS
DOWN TO A BARE MINIMUM

Before you know it, your weight will
drop and you will actually start to feel better.

Your eating habits
MAKE YOU WHAT YOU ARE!

Over eating can actually stop a thyroid from
functioning properly.

YOU DO NOT NEED THAT MUCH FOOD.

CUT YOUR PORTIONS IN HALF

AND WATCH WHAT YOU EAT

WOULD YOU GIVE IT TO YOUR BABY?

With love and Blessings
for a healthy and happy
and svelte New Year

Sincerely,

Skye Holdon and Family

Garth, Rebecca
and
Fluffy (meow)