Prevent harm over lowering blood pressure….Today's post:  Tuesday, 11-28-2017 

1.  A week ago HSI emailed me about the new guidelines for using drugs to control blood pressure to much lower numbers than they had previously.

Their email points out that the way this was done tends to cause more people to be classified as having high blood pressure.  And, in many cases, when followed this raises costs and even harms some kinds of people.

Worse than that, it ignores suggesting that more people do the things that protect people from high blood pressure and directly reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes and deaths and disability from them.

HSI suggests that this focuses most on increasing drug company sales and ignores the most effective ways to protect people. 

Because some blood pressure drugs are needed when doing the protective things fails to reduce blood pressure below the previous and higher targets, however, what bothers me the most is the failure of these new guidelines to pay three times more attention to suggesting people do more of the things that are far more effective at protecting them as a first priority.

Then it's important to look at different groups of people with different needs and related problems before deciding if these new guidelines make sense to follow.

The second part of this post is their email because I think the points they make are important to take into account and accurate.

The third part of this post is a partial list of things that are proven to protect people from heart attacks and strokes.  Because this is both more important and far more effective than the drugs, it must be the first priority.

Then the better drugs and those only are appropriately used to solve specific problems that some individuals still have. 

2.  Here’s the email I got last week:

“From: Health Sciences Institute

Sent: Tue, Nov 21, 2017 4:06 am

This essay is their feature after the ad "How To Lose 3X More Weight Than Anyone You Know!"

"Dear Reader,

Were you one of the over 30 million Americans who woke up one day last week to find that you'd suddenly developed high blood pressure... overnight?

You didn't even have to go see your doctor to get that news -- you just turned on the TV!

It was one of those "big" medical stories covered by media of every stripe. "Doctors and other experts" from groups such as the American Heart Association (and 10 other organizations) officially moved the "goal line" for what's considered acceptable blood pressure down to readings no higher than 130/80.

And that move is something which will be stuffing a lot of cash into Big Pharma's pockets.

It will also be putting untold numbers of seniors at a very big risk for heart disease, dementia, Alzheimer's, and death... and not because they have high blood pressure.

Forget making your blood pressure soar. This is enough to make your blood boil!

The latest strategy to keep Big Pharma in the black is the most brazen yet -- one that would raise the number of U.S. adults considered to be suffering from hypertension to nearly half the population.

And if you're wondering how this all came about so suddenly, well, it's actually been a few years in the making.

Three years ago, a group of many of the most well-respected heart doctors out there published official guidelines in the top medical journal JAMA that, for once, actually raised blood pressure numbers.

They found no reason for those 60 or older, for example, to start up on blood pressure meds unless their readings are 150/90 or higher (with the systolic, or "top," number, getting shifted 10 points higher than where it had been at before).

And if you were under 60, the "no need to treat" number went up to 140/90.

At that time, the panel that released those higher numbers said that, while lower readings are still healthier, getting to those numbers by using risky drugs isn't.

But Big Pharma has been in a snit ever since, hoping to get those guidelines down to ones more favorable to its bottom line.

The groups behind these latest, higher revisions, of course, claim it's all for your own good -- you know, the hackneyed "ounce of prevention" explanation.

But as we've told you here in the eAlert, blood pressure meds are among some of the most dangerous ones out there.

ACE inhibitors, for instance, can cause sudden, life-threatening swelling of the face and neck... and all these drugs can cause sudden drops in blood pressure that lead to dizziness and falls.

And then there's the risk of artificially driving down your blood pressure too low -- especially true where seniors are concerned.

For example:

A study of the medical records of nearly 30,000 people discovered a link between reducing blood pressure to the recommended low numbers and a substantially higher risk of developing Alzheimer's.

Other research done at Johns Hopkins found that lowering your diastolic, or bottom, number below 60 can make you almost 50 percent more likely to develop heart disease and over 30 percent more likely to die from any cause.

Yale researchers have found that seniors who take blood pressure meds for only three years up their chances of taking a fatal fall by almost 40 percent.

If you're over 60 and being told that it's now time to start up on risky drugs to get those numbers down to meet these new "goals," it's a good idea to get a second opinion from a doctor who practices integrative medicine and will look at your overall health, before you rush off to fill that Rx.

Because this big new announcement didn't change any of the facts -- just the numbers!

To Not Playing a Numbers Game,

Melissa Young”

3.  The things that prevent heart attacks and strokes do take some effort to do.

But they work spectacularly well.  People who do them have far fewer strokes of either kind and far fewer heart attacks. They are less likely to die of any cause.

And, not only do they tend to cause people to live longer, they also help ensure that you are mobile and pain free and mentally sharp so you live more years of life worth living!

a) Here’s one post with a new way to increase this effect and many of the most effective things to do besides that:

This one is from just three weeks ago:

Heart Protection Breakthrough….Tuesday, 11-7-2017 

This information has been out for some time as I remember reading some of it before.

I’ve known and posted that there are known and proven heart attack starters people do to themselves and that stopping them all is protective.  Some like smoking and soft drinks and hydrogenated oils are frighteningly effective heart attack starters.

I’ve known and posted that there are known and proven heart attack preventers that if you stop the heart attack starters and use most of the more effective preventers it can slash your risk of heart disease.  These include eating organic vegetables every day; exercising vigorously in various ways most days of every week – while NOT taking statins or beta blockers; and taking or eating niacin, deodorized garlic, extra virgin olive oil, olive leaf extract, turmeric, curcumin, and ginger. 

(Also eating one piece a day of organic fruit helps AND protects against BOTH kinds of strokes.)

I estimate that two part combination once you fully put it in place for two to six months can cut your risk of heart attack  from over 50% to as little as 5% or less.

The breakthrough:

Wouldn’t it be nice to cut your risk in half while you are putting all that in place?

Wouldn’t it be great to cut your risk to 2% or less?

The good news is that we now know for sure there is one and that it IS doable.

The one downside is that just like the rest of the protective actions, you have to know what to do and spend time doing it every day;  you have to learn to do it well enough; and you have to check regularly to be sure you are doing it well enough since your last check.

Why this information caused this post the minute I’d read it:

I’d read before that gum disease causes heart disease because of the effect of the bacteria involved.  I’d even read before that these bacteria tend to cause harmful lipids with odd numbers of carbon atoms. 

And, I got lucky and discovered that flossing and brushing my gums correctly every day helps prevent gum disease.   Then I got luckier and found out that the SonicCare toothbrush can at least double that effect. 

Then just before I saw the new information, I still had a bad checkup for gum disease at the dentist.  It wasn’t horrible but there were some places not in the OK category. I’ve since added a couple of upgrades to what I was doing to be sure to have everything in the OK category soon and at my next check.

THEN I saw this!  My motivation to improve my teeth and gum cleaning went way up.

AND, I also realized that his WAS a breakthrough that likely could cut the risk in half in people just getting into all the heart protection plus cut the possible risk reduction to near 98% protection!

Why gum disease causes heart disease and foods do so less or not at all!

This was in the Medical News Today email last Friday, 11-3:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319967.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-us

“For the new study, the team analyzed atheromas collected from patients being treated in hospital.

They found that the growths contained chemical signatures of lipids that could not have come from animals. Instead, they matched the signature of fat molecules made by bacteria belonging to the Bacteroidetes family.

Bacterial lipids are 'subtly different'

Bacteroidetes make fats that are quite distinct in that the fatty acids that they contain have branched chains and an odd number of carbon atoms. 

Fatty acids in fats that come from animals do not typically have these features.

One of the researchers, Xudong Yao, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Connecticut, explains that if you compare the chemical makeup of human lipids with lipids produced by bacteria, they show subtle differences in weight.

"We used these weight differences and modern mass spectrometers to selectively measure the quantity of the bacterial lipids in human samples to link the lipids to atherosclerosis," he notes.

"Establishment of such a link is a first step to mark the lipids as indicators for early disease diagnosis."

Prof. Xudong Yao

The team suggests that perhaps the immune system triggers inflammation because when it encounters the fatty deposits in the artery walls, it recognizes that the lipids are not of human origin.

Bacteria deliver 'double whammy'

The researchers also found that there is an enzyme that breaks down the bacterial lipids into starting materials for making molecules that promote inflammation.

They suggest, therefore, that the presence of bacterial lipids has a "double whammy" effect on the arteries. First, the immune system spots them and sets off alarm signals, and secondly, the enzyme breaks them down into materials that assist inflammation.

The researchers also point out that it is not the bacteria themselves that are invading the blood vessels and causing problems. 

Bacteroidetes, which colonize the mouth and gut, do not usually cause harm. Under certain conditions, they can give rise to gum disease; and, even then, they still do not invade the blood vessels. However, the lipids that they secrete can get through cell walls and into the bloodstream.

The team now plans to carry out a more detailed analysis of atheromas to find out exactly where the Bacteroidetes lipids accumulate. 

If they discover that lipids from these specific bacteria are building up inside atheromas as opposed to the artery wall, then that would provide more convincing evidence that fat molecules from Bacteroidetes are linked to atheroma growth, and thus to heart disease.

Clogged arteries may be down to bacteria, not diet
http://mnt.to/du/4KgX
An analysis of the chemical signatures of fatty deposits in clogged arteries found that they matched lipids produced by mouth and gut bacteria.

-----Original Message-----
From: Medical News Today
To: iehealth

My comments:

This kind of fatty deposit outside the artery walls can break loose and cause a heart attack or stroke.  If it builds up inside the artery wall too, that can cause a narrow passage easier to block and tend to cause high blood pressure.

(Taking deodorized garlic may combat both; and NOT smoking DOES do both also!)

The really good news is that acting on this breakthrough can really massively improve your heart protection!

It does take extra effort.  But it is really effective!  “

Here’s a similar post from 8 months before that which makes some of the same points but covers the other protective methods a bit better:

Prevent strokes and heart attacks 3 ways.....Tuesday, 3-21-2017

We’ve posted on a number of ways to do this that work.

This post was sparked by a recent email from HSI that I got detailing the very big risks of something even some educated but very busy people don’t do now.

I feel very fortunate to have found a way to do this effectively in as little as two or three minutes a day.

But this email showing that failure to do this is so very harmful that it sparked this post.

1.  Remove plaque from your teeth almost 100% daily to prevent strokes and heart attacks!

Here’s what that is, what great risk and harm it causes people who fail to do it.

And, here’s a superfast and easy way to do it on the weekday mornings you are rushed, that just tested to be effective in me just a few weeks ago.

*Plaque is a biofilm that the bacteria in your mouth coat your teeth with when you eat.  If you remove it every day, you escape the harm that NOT doing this causes.

But most people don’t yet know how extremely dangerous allowing it to build up actually is. 

They don’t know how to remove it effectively. 

AND, they don’t know an effective way to remove it so fast, they can do it even on the most rushed days so they get it removed EVERY day. 

*We’ve long known that allowing plaque to build up just below the gum line allows it to prevent your gums from staying healthy, getting enough circulation, AND shrinking them and removing their attachment to your teeth.

THAT causes horrible bad breath and teeth that fall out or have to be pulled.  And, the fixes for that either ruin your appearance with missing teeth or cost you a LOT of money for false teeth or dental implants.

This condition has been named, periodontal disease.  

*The even worse news that new research has found that was in the HSI email is that this plaque buildup gets these dangerous bacteria in large quantities into your blood stream.

This has already been found to make heart attacks more likely with even moderate periodontal disease increasing the risk and severe periodontal disease increasing it a lot!

The HSI email quoted a study reported in the British medical journal Lancet that had even worse news.  John’s Hopkins research came to similar conclusions.

Periodontal disease increases your risk of ischemic stroke considerably more than it boosts the risk of heart attacks!

It seems that even mild periodontal disease where your gums bleed just a bit after brushing or when you see the dentist doubles your risk of stroke.

And, severe periodontal disease dramatically increases your stroke risk AND may help cause rheumatoid arthritis, some cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease too!

Perhaps the most important finding was that the level of periodontal disease controlled the harm done.  This didn’t just happen to people over 80! 

The researchers found that young adults with some or severe periodontal disease had the same high risks as older people with them.

I once met a younger middle aged woman who was very, very nice and had been a dynamic athlete who survived a stroke.   To see her need a walker and be able to understand clearly what you said to her & even know a response but be unable to say it was heart breaking.

Oh my!  You don’t want that to happen to you!

*The MUCH better news is that there’s a superfast fix for this that works very well.

I was brushing and flossing as well as I could and my once each 6 months checkups at the dentist, that are no charge in our dental insurance plan, found no periodontal disease. 

But the plaque buildup was still high enough, they had to work at prying it loose each time.

Then the dental hygienist said that a Sonic Care toothbrush with its gentle but superfast vibrations removed plaque better than flossing and that I could use it on days I didn’t have time to floss also.

So besides using the Sonic Care toothbrush AND flossing AND brushing well on Saturday and Sunday, I tried using the Sonic Care toothbrush in just two minutes and brushing as well as I could in one or two minutes.

The combination averaged just 3 minutes a day.

So, at my last checkup, I was curious how well that superfast program had removed my plaque buildup.

WOW! 

The dental hygienist was actually impressed because my superfast but every day program using the Sonic Care toothbrush had removed three or four TIMES the plaque I’d been able to remove with the flossing I’d had time to do!

So, this very doable daily fix, has given me almost 100% protection from this stroke risk from periodontal disease!

2.  Did you know there is an almost easier way to cut your overall risk of strokes in HALF on top of that?

Adding just one piece of organic fruit each day to what you eat a study in the UK found does just that!

Even better, doing this cut the risk of BOTH kinds of strokes by doing this ONE easy thing.

Like preventing plaque buildup, eating a piece of organic fruit at least once a day, cuts your risk of ischemic strokes that the plaque buildup can cause.

AND, it cuts your risk of hemorrhagic or bleeding strokes about twice as much too just by eating a piece of organic fruit at least once a day!

Many kinds of fruit taste good and most people like at least some kinds! 

And, many kinds of organic fruit such as blueberries and strawberries have so many OTHER health benefits, they are listed as “Superfoods.”

3.  There is a third way to reduce your stroke risk that is also about twice that effective in preventing heart attacks!

A UK study found that eating 6 or more servings of an organic vegetable other than potatoes each day cut the risk of death by all causes AND slashed the risk of all heart attacks and also cut the risk of strokes about half as much as fruit.

The even better news is that another study found that eating THREE or more servings of an organic vegetable other than potatoes each day AND doing an effective exercise program most days of every week had much the same effect!

This is great news because eating 3 servings of organic vegetables is more doable and manageable in the kitchen than eating 6 to 10!

And, it’s also great news because doing an effective exercise program most days of every week has a very long list of OTHER health benefits!

Conclusion:

Incredibly, you can cut your risk of heart attacks and strokes even more with many other methods that you can use also.

But just doing the first two has tested to be so effective, if you’d prefer not to get strokes, do these first two alone and you can worry a LOT less!

This is only PART of what can be done to prevent harm from strokes and heart attacks and avoid them totally.

Few people have high blood pressure so high that they should take drugs too!

Up to 150 over 90 or even 159 over 99, a Cochrane study found that for people who do these protective things or even most of the most important ones, adding drugs to lower their blood pressure, adding blood pressure drugs did NOT result in any less strokes or heart attacks or deaths!

Simply put, when these priority protections are put into place, spending money on blood pressure drugs to get below those levels as these new guidelines suggest  is a waste of money.

Not only that, it subjects the people who do it to extremely undesirable reductions in their quality of life and even harm from falls as the HSI article describes!  

Safe and effective way to wash produce ….Today's post:  Tuesday, 11-21-2017 

1.  I once read that a woman used half hour baths in a water solution with chlorine bleach to wash produce.

It seems that some people still do this.

I thought that this was a horrible idea at the time.  She didn’t really show that it worked only that she thought it did.

The scent of chlorine bleach is one of the most disagreeable and unpleasant things I can imagine. 

It’s one of the few things that makes me feel like throwing up.  If that smell is in a room and cannot be washed or flushed or power-fanned away, I leave the room.

Not only that if there is a lot of it or I have to use it, I hold my breath and leave the room as soon as possible because I get instant asthma from breathing the fumes.

Recently, I found out this is no accident and that breathing chlorine bleach fumes can cause lung damage.

2.  Meanwhile even “organic” apples have something sprayed on them and then sealed in with wax.  “Conventional” produce has much of the herbicide and pesticide residue on the skins or just below it.

Trying to remove this with chlorine bleach is just replacing one harmful thing to eat with another.  And that’s if it works!

3.  Given this, an article that shows that:  No indeed, chlorine bleach does NOT work well for this grabbed my attention!

But what was even better is that a safer and cheaper and odor free solution DOES work and works way better on top of that!

Here’s the email I got with this wonderful good news:

I thought I’d post it today as some of you will be preparing Thanksgiving dinner in the next day or two and might like to use it:

“From: Health Sciences Institute

Sent: Fri, Nov 17, 2017 4:06 am

“It's the natural ingredient with more uses than vinegar -- baking soda!

Now, another use for good old sodium bicarbonate was just put to the test by some scientists from the University of Massachusetts, and it could save you from the toxic effects of a whole host of dangerous chemicals.

It turns out that baking soda can remove pesticide residue on fruit. You probably already rinse your produce under the tap, but plain ol' water can't wash away what Big Ag has left clinging to the healthy food you're about to eat.

Now, what the EPA has approved for pesticide removal is a solution of Clorox bleach -- which, believe it or not, is commonly applied to non-organic fruit after harvesting!

Yuck!

So, for the new study, the researchers took some organic apples and coated them with two toxic chemicals, the fungicide thiabendazole and the pesticide phosmet.

To remove them, they tried using bleach (again, the "official" way), plain tap water, and water with baking soda added.

Using high-tech testing methods, the apples were then checked inside and out for levels of the pesticides. The researchers found that the ones rinsed in the baking soda solution had the smallest amounts of the chemicals remaining, with 80 percent of the thiabendazole eliminated, and 96 percent of the phosmet removed.

And it didn't take a lot of baking soda, either -- just a 1-percent solution of it, which equates to about a teaspoon for two cups of water.

While baking soda has long been known as a non-toxic way to scrub ovens and kitchen counters, the way it worked on the apples, the scientists said, was that it made the force of the water much more effective in removing the surface residues (although some of the fungicide was found to have penetrated the skin).

Although this study was just about apples, there's no reason why you can't use a similar method on lots of other fruits and veggies.

Fill a large bowl with cool water and mix in a couple of teaspoons of baking soda. In that solution, you can soak celery, grapes, potatoes, peppers, cherry tomatoes, and lots of other fresh produce items for a couple of minutes, scrub them down, and be sure to rinse thoroughly.

It's something that could be a lifesaver, and it will only cost pennies!

Of course, one of the best ways to dodge eating foods contaminated with toxic pesticides is to buy organic whenever possible -- but it's especially important to buy organic versions of certain types of produce.

These four Thanksgiving staples landed on the Environmental Working Group's most recent "Dirty Dozen" list of produce found to have the most pesticide residues:

celery,

tomatoes,

sweet bell peppers, and

potatoes.

While organic fresh produce was, not too long ago, only available in high-priced specialty markets or health food stores, that's no longer the case.

You should have no problem finding a good selection of organic fruits and veggies at any large supermarket.

But, if what you need isn't readily available in the organic section, you can always go the baking soda route!

To Detoxing Naturally,

Melissa Young”

Whole Foods Markets does a good job of getting in much if not most of their produce from organic sources.

They sell a container with organic Thompson raisins for example.  Raisins are on that "Dirty Dozen" list of produce having the most herbicide and pesticides otherwise.  AND, they are in many holiday recipes, including some for Thanksgiving.

Also, what if you have someone who will be at your Thanksgiving dinner who must have zero soy or wheat or peanuts -- even processed in the same building but was organic to start with. 

These reactions can kill people.  So it’s really important to totally avoid those.

Are there raisins that are both organic and processed all by themselves to avoid this?  Mercifully yes there are!  We got lucky and found them by accident.  You can just learn what we found here:

Newman’s Own sells just exactly that:  “Organic raisins processed in a facility with NONE of those things.”  This is the company that Paul Newman and his wife and daughter created.

Not everything they sell is perfect.  But they are almost always good or better than most.  This is one of their products I think deserves to be on some kind of honor roll!  

My Monthly Fatloss Report November 2017.....

Today's post:  Monday, 11-20-2017

A.  Here's the key news:

1.  Fat Loss Report, measured on Saturday, 11-18-2017

Lost 0.5 pounds from 167.8 last month to 167.3.

(Lost 2.6 pounds from 169.9 three months ago.)

My chest measured 38.  This is still half of an inch bigger than 5 months ago when I was 37 & a half inches.

My waist was little changed measuring about 41 inches to about 42.

My hips measured about 37 and three fourths.   That’s still three fourths more than 37 not long ago.

(My upgraded strength training added muscle; but I lost a bit since last month due to extra stress since then. 

And I’ve not lost the fat off my waist, I’d like to lose. )

2.  My chest and hips were still bigger and more muscular than they were five months ago though I did lose about half an inch since  last month.

I may not yet be eating quite enough protein each week.  But although I am still getting stronger and added to the pushups I can do, my intense concentration on my muscular effort was a bit less due to stress than it was four months before.  

Also, I'm at the point I need to get a heavier dumbbell and add a session once week at a gym with access to more weight.

Part of my strength training exercises are still improving though some are dropping off a bit.

My waist was about the same more or less – way too big! 

But my better strength training did keep most of my gains to my chest measure AND my hip measurement.

Since I also got stronger and my muscles look bigger and my wife says they are harder, it’s clear my new strength training technique is adding muscle!

Mike Matthews says that it’s typical to add 5 pounds of fat when you eat enough protein & carbs and strength train well enough to add 5 pounds of muscle.

(Just one example:  Not long ago I was pleased if I could do 40 to 44 pushups the one day a week I test that each week each Monday.  

Today, I did do 91 pushups total, a new record, this morning up from 89 two months ago.  I did 74-- and after catching my breath a bit I did 12 more and then 7 more more for a total of 91 in about 60 seconds.  That’s up from my record of 90 and 89 two months ago.

The extra effort to exert extra strong tension in the muscles doing the work on the last few repetitions and between each set was a bit less this last month due to stress and needing a heavier weight.  But I have kept doing it on each set.  (I’ve added some extra at the end of each set.  Now as I regain what I was doing during the set too, I think I’ll again add muscle.)

And, by doing so and keeping up my protein intake I’ll keep the muscle I gain or most of it.

I’ve discontinued the 20 mg of Synephrine completely because it did not change my results that much and it DID cause a high rate a couple of times.  [134 instead of 67 to 74 is a bit more than I’m comfortable with!  Heat and stress was a part of that; but since I discontinued it, the stress and heat were there; but my heart rate was normal.]

The bioflavonoid supplement with 100 mg of rutin, I’ve continued once a day since it may help prevent some weight regain.

I did seem to gain muscle without gaining fat when I was taking the Synephrine.

So, for a younger person with far less stress and stress driven slightly high blood pressure might be OK with it.

 3.  My food intake WAS a bit less than two months ago since I did discontinue some daily walnuts or pecans.  

My cardio exercises were slightly better.  I set a new record for my short daily exercise walk/run combo last week.  And my average for last week for the 4 days was close to my previous record!

4. My stress level, already high, went up a bit the last few weeks for several reasons.  

*For me, as for many people, having enough money for at least a minimum OK lifestyle with zero chances of severe money problems reduces stress.  I was under that threat far more the five weeks just before I measured for this month.

*For me, even more than other people who also have it but at a lower level, having an ally who is unusually supportive and of some help sharply lowers my stress level.

 The better news is that as of the last couple of days, I got some extra support.  And it looks like it may be more than some.

If that turns out to be the case, my efforts to add muscle and lose fat may well go up in the next few months!

5.  I'm currently making an extra effort to overcome this recent stress. Emulating the Seal way of using my training and keeping on no matter what IS helping.  

The new nose breathing I posted on Tuesday, 10-5 this month also DOES seem to be helping.  It DOES help to avoid the brain freeze I tended to get when I mouth breathed when under high stress.

6.  I believe my continued persistence and continuing to both follow up on successful efforts and finding new and promising things to check on AND doing so, 

WILL enable me to lose my excess fat remaining and keep it off.

7.  I’m continuing to find new ways to boost my metabolism and add bone and muscle that I’m beginning to use.

As my new strength training method helps me get stronger; I get better at it; and I can get to the heavier weights to use it on, it DOES begin to look like I’ll add enough muscle that by eating about the same and continuing to get better at the lower carb effort,  I’ll finally get back to weighing 161 pounds with far less fat than I have had.

Conclusion:

 I’ll achieve the financial leverage I need.

I’ll get the active allies I need.

 AND I’ll begin to use all of the metabolism boosters I’ve found to add to the ones I’ve been using.

(That includes adding a weekly workout at a gym with heavy barbells and adding these new techniques and trying the BulletProof Vibe.

I HAVE added a special set of exercises once a week that I'm already doing standing in the space the BulletProof Vibe allows.  That way, I'll be ready to go when I get one to try!

The last bit of good news this month is that I’m still getting stronger in the two key exercises in this special set of exercises.)     

Escape nicotine with no fat gain.....

Today's post:  Thursday, 11-16-2017

You may see this today. 

If so that’s great; because tomorrow, Friday, 11-17 is the annual Great American Smokeout sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

And, it’s also good because you found your way here!

Have you wanted to quit but can’t seem to get off nicotine?

Have you stopped smoking but kept doing an alternative that keeps you addicted to nicotine?

Have you wanted to quit but not even tried because you want the typical fat gain even less?

Have you quit and gone back to smoking or nicotine because of stress?

Why is that good news?

There are now highly reliable ways to overcome each of those problems!

Just like anything else you do have to work at it.  BUT some of what will do these things is relatively easy to start and no effort at all to keep doing!

1.  The first one of the 3 posts I’ve included highlights how to escape the psychological craving for nicotine 100% and do it as easily as turning off a light switch.  You do have to learn the method first; but that’s doable.  Then whenever your last cigarette you smoke is, you throw the switch and are a true nonsmoker with zero desire to have cigarettes or nicotine of any kind again.

This first post also highlights one way to overcome severe stress and some ways to prevent the fat gain.  (In some cases people with fat to lose even lose that fat besides not gaining any more!)

2.  The next post has some little known information about how harmful nicotine is by itself and how to beat the physical part of getting rid of it plus some more tips on stopping nicotine and still lose fat.

3.  For stress relief, besides the methods that help you overcome the threats mentally and getting emotional support and expert help in overcoming the threats, you still need to overcome the physical feeling of stress and turn it down enough to function and recover.

Yes it is true that learning and practicing some forms of yoga or tai chi or many martial arts does work to do that. 

But if you don’t already know and practice one, typically beginning them is not doable while the stress or threat is high.

And, the drugs to do this, like nicotine, are ineffective and harmful besides!

To escape all this, wouldn’t it be great to have something easy to learn that you could just set, like turning on a light and just keep doing with no new effort?

The third blog post is about this method!  It does exist!  It’s relatively easy to start doing.  Then it’s turned on for you and your level of excess stress goes way down.  If you forgot, you simply turn it back on when you notice it’s off.

I’ve really needed this myself.  And it has been enormously helpful to me.

Best of all, instead of trying smoking or nicotine which has no real effect on this problem, you can just learn this and turn it on. 

And, you no longer need to turn to nicotine or smoking because this gives you a superior method you already have turned on!

Here’s the first post in this series:

“Quit smoking for sure with no fat gain.....

Today's post:  Thursday, 7-13-2017

*Do you live in California?

If so and you still smoke, you know that cigarettes just went from $6 a pack to $9.

Would you prefer to be a nonsmoker and drop your cost for cigarettes to zero?

*Do you live somewhere other than California but you still smoke and would prefer to be a nonsmoker?

If you said yes to either question, this post is for you.

There are many reasons people who want to be nonsmokers don’t try to quit OR stop smoking but go back to smoking anyway.

*Here’s the news!

There are now solutions to each of the reasons why people don’t try to quit smoking or don’t succeed when they try.  People who use each one well become lifelong nonsmokers.

*You may need more than information to quit smoking. So we are working on a paid coaching program to ensure you learn to use the solutions.  See the end of this post if you want to be on the waiting list to ensure you are included in the first group.

There are two reasons people who prefer to be nonsmokers still smoke.

1.  They don’t think they can do it or they tried and failed before.

*Without knowledge of how to prevent it, people who use nicotine by smoking or vaping or using other tobacco products, tend to psychologically crave nicotine when they stop using it.  

Without turning that off, it is extremely hard to quit and stay off nicotine.

*Then too, some people have more severe physical or cognitive withdrawal effects when they stop using nicotine.

*Lastly, people who don’t know the antidotes who used cigarettes or other nicotine products who suddenly get extra stressed, or are extra stressed now, very often will go back to the cigarettes or other nicotine products they were using.

At that stress level people often need SOMETHING;  and if they have nothing else will retry cigarettes.

2.  Or they know except for very light and very heavy smokers people who quit smoking gain ten pounds or more of added fat because they lose the boost nicotine was giving their metabolism.

If you know that you may want to cause that even less than you would rather not smoke.

I saw a study that found most smokers want to quit but half of them won’t even try because they want that fat gain even less!

But if you have a toolkit and something important breaks, you simply fix it.

*With the solutions we have now, if you prefer to be a nonsmoker, learn these new tools and use them and you will be a nonsmoker the rest of your life.

*The man who unlocked the door to all this had a stroke of genius.  It turns out his new insight was and is accurate.

The man who did this was a very heavy smoker.  Once he had this new understanding based on the careful analysis he did, he realized it was true.

His name was Alan Carr. 

After he smoked his last cigarette with this new understanding he was a nonsmoker because he had no reason to have any more ever again. 

Did he have cravings for nicotine or cigarettes after this? No he did not.  It literally could be called The Great Escape!

The wonderful news is that once you completely understand what he discovered, you can do it too. 

Thousands of people who have read his book about it also have escaped nicotine craving totally!

There are three ways you can learn this.

*From the description here just reading it and following the logic might do it for you.

Simply put he realized that when he smoked to relieve stress when he was bothered by the physical discomfort from having his nicotine level go down, what happened was the slight physical discomfort left OK. 

But all that did was to restore him to where he would have been to start with had he been a nonsmoker.  He realized at that point he STILL had to deal with the stress!

Had he simply been a nonsmoker he could have STARTED there and saved all that fuss and mess and expense.

If you understand this and its implications, you stop craving cigarettes and nicotine psychologically.  It’s total & immediate.  Once you get by the much less addicting physical withdrawal symptoms you are a nonsmoker.

(Also, you can see why in our system ALSO teaching you a way to deal with severe stress that works better the greater the stress is helps ensure that you quit nicotine and not even go back if some disaster strikes after you quit!)

*To help people believe him and force them to think about it in enough ways to internalize it, he wrote a book.

The people who got the book and read it all the way through as soon as they had a copy, got the same result he did.

Alan Carr:    Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking    Nov 17, 2011     Paperback   $ 11 .99

It’s currently available on Amazon

For people who need more than the book there is coaching and there will soon be a lot more!

*In the UK where he lived his followers set up a group coaching program for people who could use his discovery to quit but needed some help initially to do it.

(Without the new added help we are adding, the people in the UK coaching program to learn Alan Carr’s method were six to eight times more likely to quit than people in old style programs a research study showed!)

*Our coaching program, when we launch it, will do the coaching online, but it will give you extra power and leverage to make upgrades to your health to help ensure your success.

It will also give you tools to overcome physical nicotine withdrawal symptoms if you have them.

It will give you a way to overcome severe stress that works BETTER the greater the stress AND which uses zero drugs.

It will give you ways to overcome physical nicotine withdrawal problems with no drugs AND a way to simply turn them off psychologically that works better than morphine.

It will give you extra and effective ways to rapidly turn down the health risks smoking was causing you.

Two of those have each been shown to make success at quitting twice as likely.

The coaching itself has been shown to make success at quitting more than twice as likely.

Those risk reduction methods turn off so many things that make people fat that many people will avoid fat gain from just doing them!

AND, we’ll give you ways to boost your metabolism to add to the fat loss those things make likely.

(We think our method as it now exists will help people quit and get LESS fat instead of gaining more. 

And, we will work to improve our methods to increase the percentage of people that do completely avoid fat gain after they quit nicotine whether from smoking or vaping or patches or other tobacco products.)

To get on the waiting list for our online coaching to quit smoking for sure with no fat gain, email me, David Eller at davideller7@yahoo.com . “

Here’s the second post in this series:

“Ways to make quitting smoking work better….Today's post:  Tuesday, 10-10-2017 

Bulletproof promotes a low carb plus good fat way of eating with some calorie restriction or intermittent fasting to help people stay healthy and lose and keep off any excess fat.

Some people like their style better than I do for personal use after I’ve tried some of it.

But they do have some useful strategies and often provide worthwhile health information in their own blog posts.

My strategic method post about a very effective way to quit smoking was: 

Quit smoking for sure with no fat gain.....Thursday, 7-13-2017

I read this Bulletproof blog post below and added my comments.  That’s today’s post:

https://blog.bulletproof.com/how-to-quit-smoking-without-medication/?utm_source=bulletproofexec&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter100817&utm_content=weekly_roundup

"...smoking cigarettes serves up your nicotine with a side of toxic heavy metals and carcinogens. 

Isolated nicotine has its problems, even if you get it from a pure source. First off, it’s toxic at high doses, and lethal even at lower doses for a pet or a child. 

It messes with your heart rate, blood pressure,[7] and it causes inflammation.[8] 

[Inflammation helps cause cancers and Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease.  So that’s significant. 

Sudden boosts of heart rate or poor heart rhythm plus boosts in blood pressure are the likely causes of nicotine triggering heart attacks in people who would have escaped them otherwise.]

And it’s addictive. As with all addictive drugs and foods (like sugar), nicotine activates the pleasure pathways in your brain. The more you turn on the lights in your pleasure pathway, the less pleasure you feel with the same dose. 

So, you need stronger and stronger stimulation to get any enjoyment out of it, and after a while, you’re so acclimated that you need whatever it is you’re dependent on to function at a baseline level.

[This is Alan Carr's key insight.  After you use nicotine to get to a baseline level when the effect wears off, if you do use nicotine, you are at the same level that a nonsmoker starts with!  

That means that nicotine gives you zero help with stress and the like not available to non-smokers.  If you want effective help with stress or depression, skip the nicotine which is useless for the purpose! -- and get effective help with stress or depression instead!]

[Quitting works best when you engage your thinking & planning brain and are able to NOT use your "Labrador" short term pleasure fixes brain.]

Sauna

Withdrawal is a detox reaction, and anything you can do to get the yuck out will help things along. A few sauna treatments while you’re withdrawing will help increase circulation and eliminate waste through your skin.

[So will exercising hard enough to sweat for a few minutes several times a week.

AND, taking or eating omega 3 oils turns the extra irritability down or off!]

Glutathione

When you’re detoxing anything at all, you want to get poisonous residues out of your body quickly.

Your liver makes glutathione, your body’s master antioxidant. [Glutathione helps the liver detox faster & better in short.]

You can support your glutathione production by making sure your liver has the precursors it needs to make its own, and the building blocks are all in whey protein. Two to four tablespoons per day are all you need.

[Taking NAC and alpha lipoic acid also boosts glutathione.

And, whey protein is the best kind for building and keeping muscle.

So these points are both interesting and useful.

It’s good to know that nicotine itself is harmful and that stopping it is both worthwhile to protect your health and to help ensure you stop smoking cigarettes.

Then too it’s worthwhile to know that these methods of detoxing help you get rid of the side effects of nicotine withdrawal by removing it from your body faster.]“

Here’s the third post in this series:

Doable and low cost way to reduce stress for fatloss.....

Today's post:  Thursday, 10-5-2017

As regular readers of this blog know, there are two effective ways to remove fat that you can keep off.

1.  Reduced calorie and carb high protein eating plus exercise including some strength training.

2.  Eating in a way that puts you in ketosis with almost zero carbs or close to it and making that your permanent or frequent eating style on a long term basis.

Doing them well and having them work well however only tends to work if you can keep your level of stress in your body quite low most of the time!

There are three reasons for this:

a) Eating bit too much or eating too many foods with carbs or sugars as a stress reliever tends to derail both methods. 

If you have already completely stopped eating the several worst foods and ingredients for harmful carbs; and  very excessive use of sugars and have already completely stopped drinking all soft drinks, this will be less and you’ll tend to level off rather than gaining fat. 

But you won’t lose as much fat as you could or any at all!  Boo!

b)  Research found that fat you gain while stressed, has a substance that makes it strongly resist being used when you are in a calorie deficit or in ketosis. 

This apparently is part of our built in famine protection.  In the past, when our ancestors were very stressed too often, famine or severe food shortages tended to exist or arrive shortly.

Supplements to lower cortisol don’t seem to help this much.  When you are stressed enough, your body generates so much cortisol it overwhelms them and deposits this locked down fat anyway!

This is true of all your fat it seems. But it has been shown for sure to be most true for belly fat and internal fat that begins to strangle your internal organs known as visceral fat.

c)  We also found and posted on evidence that stress reduces your metabolism. So with the same food and exercise, you burn far fewer calories. 

That can add fat when you would otherwise have lost it!  As I’ve been under extra stress during my cut down weeks, this is exactly what just happened to me apparently.

How to avoid that kind of stress:

Clearly, prudent choices that prevent stressful situations helps to prevent such stress:

Always wear your seat belt.  Brush your teeth well every day.  Obey the laws that are enforced and have harsh penalties.  Be well organized and do the work necessary to be ready for and deal well with known and upcoming challenges.

And, because it gives you more resources to turn off or escape threats, a high, reliable income combined with savings and good credit that is lightly used really helps. 

I’m still working on this one myself.  But those who have it ARE far less stressed and have this level of stress far less often.

It also has been shown to help to frame dealing with a threat as a challenge instead of a disaster

--no matter how severe the threat -- and listing and systematically trying potential solutions.

So does having good relationships with family and friends and capable experts who are sane and will give you advice or help.

No one escapes such stress and many have it often; but when stress is temporary and you overcome it and rest, these fattening effects don’t happen.

BUT that’s only true if your body turns off its stress response so you can rest effectively.

There ARE ways to ensure your body turns off its stress response after you remove the threat or if you cannot yet remove it.

The level of meditation of Buddhist monks and daily tai chi do this best. 

For some people, yoga works.  Less lengthy meditation works but not as well.

These alternatives DO work for some people.  But they take time daily and they have to be done well or they fail to work.

In my view, the best ones are yoga that avoids injury but does cause moderate exercise and increased flexibility and tai chi that builds balance and leg strength and burns calories as you do it.

But both of these require you to have an instructor teach you to do them well.  That takes time and money you may not have.

There are 3 ways that can do more than this that look likely to work:

Two require equipment and are not yet available for home use without a prescription.

*One reads the response of both your hemispheres in your brain to stress and uses biofeedback to reduce the stress level response AND it balances so that both hemispheres are the same.  That’s very important because in many people who react badly to stress one side is severely out of adjustment and one isn’t too bad.  By making them both react well and in concert and exactly the same, it’s quite effective!

*The other one is less high tech and can provide the high heart rate and blood pressure reduction that people and doctors who don’t know any better have used the dangerous and harmful beta blockers to achieve.  I hope it is available soon and becomes the standard therapy!

It works as well for the useful effects; but unlike beta blockers that stay on when people need to exercise or move quickly in an emergency it does not do so! Nor does it have the harmful side effects including directly causing depression that is virtually incurable.

By placing small medallions that induce a heart rate consistent with relaxation on key blood vessels it physically reduces the too high heart rate and blood pressure.

The third one that triggered this post is doable and no-cost! 

AND since it is either always on or something that takes extra effort but only during exercise when you are making an extra effort already, it’s very valuable to know about!

Slow breaths tend to reduce heart rate and stress response. 

AND they have two other important benefits. 

They cause your body to make more red blood cells and add more oxygen carrying hemoglobin on each red blood cell.  Slow breaths put less oxygen into your blood so your body compensates enough to supply you with the oxygen you need anyway.  That means you have more reserve when you do intense and rapid exercise.

Taking slow breaths increases the CO2 level in your blood.  It’s not widely known.  I didn’t know it until this past Monday, but slightly high CO2 in your blood is directly calming and stress relieving.

Very low CO2 creates a feeling of panic or severe anxiety.  That I had heard of because it happens when people hyperventilate; and the treatment is to breathe into a bag so that you bring up your CO2 level.

I had tried various methods to breathe more slowly from using a Resperate to counting as I breathed in and counting as I held my breath and counting as I breathed out.  That last one can help if you are suddenly too stressed.

But invariably, I’d forget to do them often enough to do much good or not have time to do them when I most needed the effect.

The surprising solution is to be breathing slowly through your nose ALL the time! 

It’s just like setting a thermostat that is always on.  Once you get used to it, you just set it once well and keep doing it all the time.

Instead of having to do something extra, you just have to resume it if you find you have stopped!

Even better, there is no extra time used for a treatment or dollar cost to use it!

During exercises where you move rather than strength training with low reps, you build your oxygen reserve best by continuing slow breathing through your nose until you literally feel like gasping for air. 

As this practice increases your oxygen reserve and you increase your mental control you can do this longer and at more intense exercise levels. 

Since Monday, I’ve been using it on my fast abdominal exercises and brisk walks.  It does take concentration at first and as you approach your current capacity; but it clearly works!

Yes there IS a book on it:

The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter    by Patrick McKeown

      Published:  Nov 29, 2016

It’s too early to tell if it will help my fat loss though it certainly looks likely to do so. 

But it IS surprisingly doable.  AND, I can tell it will increase my fitness level with the same exercises I already do!