On Cleansing, D#1 - Kicking Caffeine

What is your most irrational fear? As you titrate with us off caffeine, gluten, dairy, alcohol and sugar, what are you most afraid will happen? Let's start with caffeine.

Today is D#1 of the Gottfried Cleanse, and I'm kicking caffeine - or at least I'm starting the process. Why is it so hard to decaffeinate? What's stuck and repetitive in my thinking about caffeine and what it does for me? Are you similarly addicted? What are the reasons? Better energy? Better concentration? More creative? More on your game?

Many of my patients look at me blankly when I suggest they detox off caffeine. A doctor has never told them to decaffeinate before - and that may have something to do with the fact that 90% of doctors are addicted to caffeine. Yet the same patients tell me they're exhausted, they don't get restorative sleep, they're sleep is disrupted with awakenings at 1am or 2am or 3am or 4am or all of the above, they have a hard time winding down, they're "wired but tired." We check their labs and cortisol is too high after their cup of Peet's, and there's a muffin top emerging in their mid-section. They have blood sugar instability, and get irritable unless they eat frequently. Even worse, caffeine increases inflammation, which is the final common pathway for many bad things from bad aging to cancer.

All related to caffeine. Kick the habit with me, slowly over the next 7 days. Substitute real sources of energy rather than fake sources. Exercise in the morning instead of your cuppa Joe. Meditate. Take maca capsules or add maca powder to your smoothie. Check your adrenal function.

"But I only drink decaf!" is another common refrain in my practice. I drink decaf too, well Blue Bottle Decaf Noir to be precise. It has a fair amount of caffeine (usually 1-3% to comply with international standards), and the process for decaffeinating is not exactly good for you. Here's that chemical process as described by Wikipedia:


In the case of coffee, various methods can be used. The process is usually performed on unroasted (green) beans, and starts with steaming of the beans. They are then rinsed with a solvent that extracts the caffeine while leaving the other essential chemicals in the coffee beans. The process is repeated anywhere from 8 to 12 times until it meets either the international standard of having removed 97% of the caffeine in the beans or the EU standard of having the beans 99.9% caffeine-free by mass. Coffee contains over 400 chemicals important to the taste and aroma of the final drink: it is therefore challenging to remove only caffeine while leaving the other chemicals at their original concentrations.

I've taken a fair amount of chemistry and biochemistry courses, and I can tell you that "solvent" is almost never a good thing.

I'm taking my Detoxification Support Packets, which really helps the liver with getting off caffeine with minimal side effects. For more on the two phases of detoxification and how the packets help, click here. To order Detox Packets, go here and search "detox."

Today: white tea, third infusion only. No decaf. Lots of herbal tea including ginseng. My canary: hot filtered water with Meyer lemon and two pinches of cayenne. I'm lovin' my liver again. xoxo

Beginnings of the Ends: Telomere Storytime

I've been talking up telomeres a lot lately, which are emerging as the key biomarker of biological aging. Think you look younger than your chronological age? Here's your marker. Telomeres are a lot like the plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces - in this case, telomeres keep DNA on the ends of chromosomes from fraying, and help cells divide more crisply (which they typically do 60-100 times before sinking into the hot tub of senescence).

For my friends with attention deficit -- SHORT VERSION -- short telomeres are bad; long telomeres are good. Stress shortens your telomeres (see research on mamas in distress, below) and here's what lengthens them: meditation, whole food, mostly plant-based and a little estrogen.

I'll highlight first some of the studies that I did not mention but you may find interesting, all out the lab of Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn at UCSF.

Estrogen helps: it lengthens telomeres after menopause. Endogenous estrogen exposure is associated with longer telomeres in postmenopausal women at risk for cognitive decline, as reported last October, 2010.

This is major on depression: telomeres are shorter in depressed folks, and can predict treatment response, published this month in Nature.

Even beginning meditators can lengthen telomeres. A significant change was noted as soon as 3 months after beginning meditation as reported last month.

For men, read how yoga, meditation and eating right can improve your risk of prostate cancer right here along with lengthening your telomeres.

Exercise buffers how chronic stress shortens telomeres in postmenopausal women, as reported last year.

Telomeres lengthen when you eat whole foods, mostly plant-based and meditate. Results of this studyhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18799354 (www.lancet.com), demonstrated that intensively improved nutrition and meditation increases telomerase. Telomerase is the enzyme responsible for maintaining telomere length. Telomeres are the ends of chromosomes that influence how long we live. This is the first time that any intervention, even drugs, has been shown to significantly increase telomerase.
  

Elizabeth Blackburn also showed that mothers caring for their sick kids have shorter telomeres when they report that their emotional stress is at its greatest. Acute stress actually increases telomere length (via increased telomerase), whereas chronic stress shortens length.

Want to test your telomere length? That'll set you back $350, not usually covered by insurance. Hopefully that fee will reduce as more competitors join the field.

Lots of new data, lots of promise here for those of us trying to slow down the decline of middle and old age. Best news to date: meditate regularly and eat right (Dean Ornish way, according to these data, although I'll take that with a tablespoon of oil, thank you very much) and your telomeres will stay nice and longy.

For Those Who Hate to Meditate

Just finished a video (7 min) on two meditation options for those who hate to meditate: shell fava beans or nadi shodhana. The sounds is not great on this video - not sure why.



In the video, I mention 4 proven outcomes of the practice nadhi shodhana:

1. Lowers your pulse
2. Lowers your blood pressure
3. Increases deep breathing (peak expiratory flow)
4. Improves problem solving

These were proven in a randomized, controlled trial - the gold standard of highest quality evidence.

Also thought I'd post the protocol used in the 2005 study I cited to teach nadi shodhana. Here it is:

1. Open the right hand and bend index and middle fingers against the palm. The thumb was used for closing the right nostril while the fourth and fifth fingers were used for the left nostril.
2. Place the right thumb against the ala at the end of the nostril to close it and similarly press the fourth and fifth fingertips against the left nostril.
3. Start the exercise in the ‘Sukhasana posture’ (SG note: simple seated pose, such as cross-legged or half-lotus), with relaxed attitude and concentration as below.

• Exhale slowly and deeply without closing the nostrils but being ready to do so.
• Inhale slowly and quietly through the left nostril while closing the right.
• At the end of the inhalation, close both nostrils and hold the breath for a while (not more than 1-2 seconds).
• Keep the left nostril closed and exhale through the right as quietly as possible.
• After exhaling completely, inhale slowly and quietly through the right nostril.
• Close both nostril and wait for a while, then open the left nostril and exhale slowly and silently.
• Inhale through the same nostril and continue.
• Perform for 20 minutes.