Nourish Balance Thrive

Streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) is a type of pharyngitis caused by a group A streptococcal bacterial infection. We've had a lot of people writing in to ask if they should be taking antibiotics to treat their strep throat. The concern has been more about the about the long term harm done by the overuse of antibiotics, but the potential complications of strep throat are serious. Knowing whether or not your sore throat is being caused by the streptococcal bacteria is key to determining treatment.

During this podcast, Dr Busch mentions the 4 Centor criteria: (1) history of fever, (2) tonsillar exudates, (3) no cough, and (4) tender anterior cervical lymphadenopathy (lymphadenitis).

Do you have a question for Dr Busch? Send it to [email protected]

Christian Calma is a Research Coordinator, and Dr. Les Dethlefsen is a staff scientist in the Relman Lab at Stanford University. Dr. Dethlefsen studies the microbiota of the human gut, focusing on how it varies over time, and on what happens when it's disturbed when we take antibiotics or change our diet.

I'm taking part in their study to further the cause and our understanding of how changes in the microbiota relate to changes in our health. I'm also excited about having all the data--80 samples over 34 weeks.

There are three arms of the trial. The first will have no perturbations; the second will receive antibiotics (ciprofloxacin), and the third (my arm) will supplement with resistant starch and Go-Lytely® solution. The resistant starch should build the microbiota up, and the solution should knock it back down.

You can find out more about the trial over at the Dynamics of the Human Microbiota website, and you can find out if you're eligible to take part by completing their online survey.

This week Dr. Kelly Brogan joins Julie to shine light on the physiology and treatment of depression. Listen in as they cover how depression is mistreated in Western Medicine, understanding its causes, and what to do about it. A great discussion complete with an exploration of postpartum depression and the importance of deep nutrition for pregnancy.

Equilibrium is a probiotic supplement that restores the dietary microbes lost as a by-product of widespread food sterilization.

The product is a direct offshoot of research done at the NIH's Human Microbiome Project, a $115 million dollar census of humanity's gut flora. The data tells a clear story: as a society our digestive flora is dying off, and this lack of diversity has causal links to western stomach issues. Using a data-driven approach, General Biotics identified the groups of bacteria that are commonly missing from western microbiomes. GB then worked backwards from these data to locate missing dietary microbes that provide the needed function.

In this episode, David Salamon, CEO of General Biotics and I mention:

• The American Gut Project
• Commensal bacteria protect against food allergen sensitization

Calling all women, this is a don't miss episode! Julie sits down with Stefani Ruper, founder of the blog Paleo for women, and author of the best-selling paleo women’s health manifesto Sexy by Nature: The Whole Foods Solution to Radiant Health, Lifelong Sex Appeal and Soaring Confidence.  Join them as they discuss tackling body image issues, getting out from under PCOS, making sense of female hormones, and how the Paleo Diet is different for women.

Something a bit different for you this week. I want to talk the liver and some markers on a standard blood chemistry that can help predict the onset of fatty liver and Type 2 diabetes. Maybe you've noticed that your fasted blood glucose is consistently above 85 mg/dL. This elevation could be because your liver is not getting the message that there's sufficient glucose and is continually making it via a process called gluconeogenesis.

The first paper I mention is Liver transplantation for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: New challenges and new opportunities.

Pull out your old blood work and have a look at these two markers:

ALT is an enzyme present in high concentrations in the liver and to a lesser extent skeletal muscle, the heart, and kidney. ALT will be liberated into the bloodstream following cell damage or destruction. Any condition or situation that causes damage to the hepatocytes will cause a leakage of ALT into the bloodstream. These would be exposure to chemicals, viruses (viral hepatitis, mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus, Epstein Barr, etc.), alcoholic hepatitis.

AST is an enzyme present in highly metabolic tissues such as skeletal muscle, the liver, the heart, kidney, and lungs. This enzyme is at times released into the bloodstream following cell damage or destruction.

Here are my numbers. August 2013 on the right in red (long after I was feeling better) and January 2015 on the left. Note that I'm always riding my bike and training, so I don't think the damage was due to that alone.

Have a look at figure 3 in this paper titled Banting Memorial Lecture 2012 Reversing the twin cycles of Type 2 diabetes:

Send me your liver questions to [email protected]

Dr Tommy Wood is a qualified medical doctor, graduating from Oxford University in 2011. He has a previous Bachelors degree in Natural Sciences and Biochemistry from Cambridge University. After working as a junior doctor in the UK for two years, Dr. Wood is now working towards a Ph.D. in neonatal brain metabolism at the University of Oslo, Norway.

In this episode, we discuss vaccines! Since recording, I've read the book we mention in the show. It’s called The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child. It's a well thought out book, providing just enough information to make an informed decision without getting overly political or bogged down in the details. Clearly the details are important, but let's start by at least understanding the contents and schedule of the vaccines. See also The Problem With Dr Bob's Alternative Vaccine Schedule.

In the interview, Tommy states that Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, contains thimerosal, but it doesn't, and he has since asked me to correct that statement.

In the show Tommy refers to the following references:

Dan is an entrepreneur and researcher whose life's work is how to facilitate health behaviors in others. He is the developer of Loop Model to Sustain Health Behaviors to help people live a healthy lifestyle in a modern world. He does research in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department at Stanford and the Departments of Neurology and Endocrinology at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Follow him @dansplanhealth.

I've wanted to get Dan on the show since attending the Ancestral Health Symposium in Berkeley last summer and seeing the compelling presentation How Quantified Self Technologies Will Help Us Live More Like Our Ancestors. Dan talked about how education alone may not be enough to enable someone to make a change and improve their health. Up until now education is most of what I do. I find problems with lab work, most of which is due to poor diet and lifestyle choices, and then I try to education the person so that the problem doesn't happen again. A better way would be to also give that person tools that would support better decision-making. Those tools are dansplan.com and the Ideal Weight Program.

Tarah Chieffi is an author, freelance writer, blogger, and holistic nutrition educator in the Louisville/Southern Indiana area. She is working toward her Masters of Science in Health and Nutrition Education from Hawthorn University. She also teaches aqua fitness classes at the local YMCA.

Tarah’s passion is working with pregnant women, new moms, and families to achieve health and happiness through physical fitness and a “real food” lifestyle. She uses a hands-on approach by joining families at the grocery store and in their homes to educate them on how to shop for and prepare whole foods.

Tarah enjoys any activity that gets her outside, reading, and spending time with her husband and one-year-old son. Tarah’s writing has been featured in Paleo Living Magazine and Southern Indiana Fitness Source. Her first book, The Everything® Paleo Pregnancy Book, is available through Amazon.com and nationwide in Barnes and Nobles stores.

From morning sickness to eating to prevent postpartum depression, pre-pregnancy nutrition, breastfeeding, blood sugar control and gestational diabetes, and getting the support you need, this is a great preview of all the great information in Tarah's book and the topics she covers on her blog.

You can learn more by visiting her website, WhatIGather.com.

Paul Jaminet, Ph.D was an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, became a software entrepreneur during the Internet boom, and now provides strategic advice to entrepreneurial companies while pursuing research in economics. Paul's experience overcoming a chronic illness has been key to his views of aging and disease.

Paul and I started by discussing the birth of their new baby Luke, and since I have a 15-month old daughter, I got sleep envy. I regularly use LED lighting to entrain circadian rhythm but I realise I could be doing more of the same for our daughter Ivy.

Paul then announced that he's working on a cookbook.

Next we talked about the Perfect Health Retreat, which frankly sounds awesome. The retreat caters for every aspect of diet and lifestyle including diet, rest, exercise and stress reduction. It's a learning experience woven into a beach holiday.

I was interested in Paul's experience dealing with chronic infections because I too had the same problem. Now I see it everyday in our practice. My advice was if the diet and lifestyle described in the Perfect Health Diet are not working for you, find someone that can help you figure out the reasons why.

Paul recommends getting most nutrients from food, but also has a recommended supplement list.

Finally, we talked about my experience switching over to a low carb version of the Paleo diet. Paul's problems got much worse when he went low carb, whereas my performance improved markedly. It's important to point out that I went through the transition after fixing my chronic health complaints. Paul thinks that the healthier you are, the more likely you are to withstand a carbohydrate deficiency. I'm still not convinced that such a thing exists!

Buy the book on Amazon and join the Facebook group.