Admin – Claremont Colonic and Nutrient Resource Clinic

Slash Your Risk of Diabetes Naturally; It’s More Successful Than Drugs

If you’re among the 79 million Americans with prediabetes – higher-than-healthy blood sugar levels that pave the way for diabetes and other health concerns – we’ve got sweet and sour news.

The sour news? New evidence says high levels of blood sugar double age-related brain shrinkage. That translates into shrinkage of memory and thinking skills.

The sweet news? It’s easier than ever to say “no thanks” to prediabetes. Small upgrades in your life (a little weight loss and a little activity) work best. They slash your risk of progressing to diabetes by at least 58 percent; drugs manage only a 31 percent improvement.

Wondering if you have prediabetes? One in three adults does – including half of all people over age 65. Yet fewer than 10 percent of these folks know that their blood sugar is creeping into the not-so-sweet danger zone. So before you say, “Hey, Dr. Mike and Dr. Oz: How did I get diabetes?” get hip to what raises your risk. The hit parade: being older than 44, a bit overweight, exercising fewer than three times a week, eating fried food or red meat more than once a week, having close blood relatives with diabetes or having a family background that is African-American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander. Women who’ve had gestational diabetes or who have delivered a baby weighing 9 pounds or more also are at higher risk.

If any of those MOs sounds familiar or if you’re feeling run-down, hungry, thirsty and have some vision issues, it’s past time to get your blood sugar level checked. If you find out your numbers are even a bit high, try these steps to bring them down:

Lose a little. Shed 7 percent of your body weight – that’s 15 pounds if you now weigh 220! It’s enough to shrink deep abdominal fat, which churns out inflammation-boosting compounds. Those culprits interfere with your body’s ability to process blood sugar, or as we docs say, “Fat, especially abdominal fat, promotes insulin resistance.”

Trade one TV show for a walk … or move while you watch. A half-hour stroll instead of those daily reruns of “Friends” is all it takes to lower your risk for diabetes by 30 percent. Sitting on your bum watching TV for two hours a day raises your risk by 23 percent – a great reason to march in place or spin while watching “NCIS”!

Sip something new. Switching from sodas to seltzer flavored with a squeeze of lemon or a tall glass of water doubles your chances for losing weight. You sidestep sugars that boost blood glucose and fire up diabetes-promoting inflammation.

Snack at the farm stand. The fiber! The vitamins and minerals! Being a produce fan cuts your risk for blood-sugar problems by 30 percent. Pair juicy, fresh fruit and veggies with whole grains (blueberries on your oatmeal, fresh tomatoes over whole-grain noodles).

Go nuts. Almond butter at lunch, crunchy almonds in your morning yogurt, a handful of walnuts for a late-afternoon snack – these nuts contain good fats and help your blood sugar, too.

Choose smart fats. Try a diet with your only fats coming from odd-numbered omega fatty acids. Omega 3s (found in canola oil, salmon, walnuts and avocados) and omega-9s (in olive oil) may be a key to reversing prediabetes. Also, supplementing with DHA omega-3s and purified omega-7 seems to decrease triglycerides, and some early human studies indicate that purified omega-7 also may lower LDL cholesterol and inflammatory markers, reduce insulin resistance and boost HDL.

Find your tribe. We’re excited about diabetes-prevention programs at YMCAs, hospitals, community centers and other locales. They let you meet other smart people who are on a mission to slash their diabetes risk and give you the chance to work with a trained diabetes-prevention coach. Some insurance companies cover these programs; we think they all should! To find one near you, check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online locater at Diabetes Prevention Recognition Sweet!

Contributors: Dr. Michael Roizen & Dr. Mehmet Oz – Alternative Daily

Diarrhea-Causing Parasite That Can Contaminate Raw Produce Causing Misery Across Several States

Summer is peak season for hot weather delights like fresh berries and salad greens, but for now, you may want to consider cooking or at least thoroughly washing raw fruits and veggies. A parasite called Cyclospora, which can contaminate raw produce and causes ferocious and long-lasting bouts of diarrheal illness, is making people sick across several states.

Michigan, which typically identifies about 50 cases of cyclosporiasis in a year, has reported almost 600 cases as of July 4, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

New York state, excluding New York City, has seen 107 cases, since May 1. It typically logs 500 to 700 cases statewide each year, according to the New York State Department of Health.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s typical for case counts to rise in the summer. Nationwide, 145 cases were reported by 17 states between May 1 and June 16, and at least 20 of those have been hospitalized, according to the CDC. Michigan’s recent cases are not included in CDC’s total.

Federal and state health officials say there is no evidence of a single multistate Cyclospora outbreak linking all cases. Investigations to identify potential clusters and sources of illness are ongoing.

Cyclosporiasis is caused by a single-cell parasite that’s carried in human feces. It gets into food when water contaminated with feces is sprayed on crops. Once on plants, in the humid environment of a farm field, it begins to multiply, said Dr. David Freedman, professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It can often be a problem for travelers, though the CDC says the cases currently under investigation did not report travel in the two weeks before they got sick.

Though no specific food has been implicated in the current outbreaks, Freedman said there are two categories of produce that seem to turn up often as the source of outbreaks: what Freedman calls the “basil and herb” category – “cilantro, basil, plants that grow and that you might put in a salad or use as a garnish” – and the fresh berry category, which he describes as “strawberries, blueberries, melons, things that grow in fields.”

The parasite is killed by heat, so cooking normally takes care of it, but when the weather warms up and people look for ways to leave their stoves off, this stomach-churning bug finds an opening.

To keep from getting sick, it’s important to thoroughly wash all fresh produce before eating it.

“Just the act of washing it with a lot of water is certainly going to get the organisms off of there,” Freedman said.

Thoroughly washing hands and kitchen counters, as well as cutting surfaces, is important, too.

But be aware, Freedman said, that bleach doesn’t kill the parasite. So Clorox wipes used on the go or at a picnic won’t do the trick. Instead, thorough handwashing with soap and water and a follow-up with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer are safer bets.

Freedman says the primary symptoms of infection are frequent bouts of watery diarrhea, loss of appetite and a low-grade fever, and these can start two to 14 days after eating contaminated food.

Staying hydrated and replenishing electrolytes with a drink like Gatorade or Pedialyte is important if you get sick, he added.

“If you’re having really bad diarrhea and you’re having some fever, I would probably seek medical help right away,” Freedman said.

Contributor: Brenda Goodman – CNN Health

New Client Deals!

How Bangkok Is Becoming a Global Hub for Biohacking and Medical Wellness

The city famous for traditional massage is embracing a clinical approach to wellness. Hotels are partnering with clinics to offer epigenetic testing, cryotherapy and personalized longevity plans.

The first thing you notice at Bangkok LIFE, a wellness facility on the 15th floor of the St. Regis Bangkok, is what you don’t smell.

Walk into almost any spa and the scent reaches you before you see the receptionist. It’s usually a signature blend of lemongrass and eucalyptus, pumped through the vents and inducing your nervous system to relax.

At Bangkok LIFE, it’s clean, almost clinical. Maybe that’s because this isn’t a spa that’s also a medical clinic. It’s the other way around.

In one room, there’s a cryotherapy chamber chilled to minus 110 degrees. In another, an intense pulsed light machine fires at the sun spots and pigmentation on your skin. There are intravenous (IV) drips, a hydrafacial that deep-cleans the skin, lasers for photo rejuvenation and tattoo removal, and an OligoScan that reads the heavy metals and minerals in your body. There’s a team of licensed doctors and nurses on hand to make sure all the treatments go according to plan.

Aphitchaya Boonkhong runs the place. She describes a shift that goes well beyond the massage table.

“Medical longevity is science-based and proven,” she says. “Now we go to another scale. People can analyze and choose the longevity lifestyle that fits them, personalized to the individual.” There’s a name for this combination of medical and spa treatment: biohacking. It’s a word that means measuring your biological age rather than the birthday in your passport.

Where to find biohacking clinics in Bangkok

Bangkok LIFE is hardly alone. RAKxa Integrative Wellness, on the green island of Bang Krachao at the edge of the city, pairs traditional Thai medicine and Ayurveda with a medical clinic run in partnership with Bumrungrad International Hospital. It also offers genetic testing, IV therapy, cryotherapy and a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. At the Aman Nai Lert Bangkok, which opened last April, two floors are dedicated to wellness, including a medical clinic run by the Bangkok beauty brand Hertitude that offers blood-panel analysis and an IV nutrient lounge.

And a growing number of standalone clinics, such as Healthi Life in the Ekkamai district, market doctor-led longevity programs built on biomarker testing.

The patient and the spa guest are starting to look like the same person. And for the informed guest in search of a true wellness experience, that can be a little confusing. Some of these treatments are unproven, so caution is advised. The most reputable clinics have licensed doctors on staff to make sure you are getting the best treatment—and not being sold something that won’t work.

The biohacking process: DNA testing and personalized longevity protocols

The biohacking process starts before you arrive. A guest gives a blood sample for local testing and for offshore epigenetic and DNA testing. When the results come back, the guest gets a reading of biological age and recommendations as specific as which foods suit your genes and how to sharpen your memory, according to Boonkhong.

From there, the team builds a personalized protocol around nutrition, sleep, movement, mindfulness, wellbeing, and biological regeneration aimed at heading off chronic disease years down the road as well as greater near-term energy and confidence.

Bangkok LIFE is the city version of a concept that started at the beach. Last year, Minor Hotels, the Bangkok-based company that owns the brand, opened Layan Life at its Anantara resort in Phuket.

That facility is built for guests with two weeks for a full wellness makeover. It has a Moti postural-analysis machine that scans your gait and a resident herbalist who brews custom teas, which are said to benefit your health.

The Bangkok facility runs the same method with a smaller footprint. It caters to residents of the building and executives flying in across 11 time zones who want maximum repair in minimum time.

The merging of hospitality and healthcare

The merging of hotel and hospital is the larger story, and it is happening all over Bangkok. The city converted a $10 massage culture into one of the world’s most ambitious wellness laboratories.

Nida Wongphanlert, managing director of the 137 Pillars Suites & Residences in Bangkok, has watched the two industries move toward each other.

“The hospital business wants to get into the hotel business,” she says. “And the hotel business wants to get into the medical business. There are now a lot of things in between.”

Bangkok LIFE sits squarely in that space. The medical side operates separately from the spa side, a split Thai regulations require for a licensed medical facility.

On one side of that line are doctors, blood work and diagnostics. On the other are the body scrubs and massages and the lavender-and-magnesium body treatment that smells faintly of a garden. It’s a clinic and a spa under one roof, and the brand is betting that the combination is what travelers now want.

Does combining medical and wellness work?

Bangkok’s spas are not waiting around to find out. Longevity is one of the fastest-growing corners in travel. The market for longevity clinics, the kind of medical-wellness facility that Bangkok LIFE represents, is worth about $6 billion and is expected to rise to more than $9 billion by 2030.

Affluent travelers are increasingly willing to pay a premium for personalized health programs, and clinics built inside luxury resorts and wellness hubs are chasing that money.

Here’s where a skeptical traveler should slow down. The science behind a lot of these treatments has not caught up with the marketing.

For example, biological age tests based on epigenetics or telomeres are often presented to clients as definitive scores, even though their precision and clinical usefulness are still being debated. In a recent review, scientists cautioned that clients can walk away overwhelmed by data and technology while receiving advice that isn’t fully supported by evidence.

The broader field has the same challenge: A survey of longevity clinics around the world found that many sell treatments that aren’t backed by science. Those include stem cell treatments that aren’t proven to extend your life or prescriptions for medications to treat conditions for which they weren’t FDA-approved.

Clinics like Bangkok LIFE are at the more conservative end of this spectrum. Its menu leans on diagnostics, IV drips and recovery treatments rather than stem cells or experimental biologics.

Boonkhong is careful to describe the goal as prevention. And there is a real argument that gathering health data on guests over many years could eventually teach us something about aging that traditional medicine misses.

The treatments at these clinics may leave you feeling sharper and better rested. Whether they add a single day to your life is something no one at Bangkok LIFE, or anywhere else, can promise—yet.

Contributor: Christopher Elliot – Forbes.com