Last Updated on March 9, 2015 by Patricia Carter

SUMMARY:  The ‘blue/black white/gold dress‘ incident is a really good way of acknowledging that people see and perceive things differently and one way is not necessarily superior to the other.  I see and appreciate this in every diet conversation I have.  I focus a lot on diet; but lifestyle tweaks help many achieve wellness when clean diet isn’t enough.  Initial microbiome studies show that stress can result in changes to the gut microbial community, specifically bacteria in the genus Lactobacillus are consistently reduced.  If clean diet isn’t enough, move onto stress busters that data shows literally reduce inflammatory markers — affirmations and meditation do such.

I use data, and you understand physiologic birth and breast feeding, OTC and prescription drugs like Proton Pump Inhibitors and oral contraceptives, antibiotics, NSAIDs, and about food and their choices: gluten, GMOs, sugar...   I use data and you understand the bi-directional relationship between the gut and brain and body organs… that cytokines are messengers that travel and communicate through the vagus nerve & microglia [a type of glial cell that are the resident macrophages of the brain and spinal cord, and thus act as the first and main form of active immune defense in the central nervous system (CNS)] that they interfere with feedback loops, hormones, immunity, and trafficking of neurotransmitters. I decimate and show false, the boundaries between immunology, autoimmunity, neurochemistry, and endocrinology.  

You understand there is no one magic diet for all as you arrive at your most anti-inflammatory diet based on your own unique genetics, epigenetic alterations, and goals.  But in so doing, how do you deal with that fishbowl feeling, be it with your health care provider, family, friends, or peers?  Affirmation and meditation are incredibly powerful stress busters as they literally reduce inflammatory markers; use them in addition to other strategies  such as exercise, reading, music, fishing, hiking, socializing…. How powerful are affirmations and meditation???

Affirmations, meditation, and yoga reduced inflammation-related proteins:   10% lower level of TNF-a,  11% lower IL-6, 15% lower IL-1B,  up to 20% reduction of inflammation, improved sleep, and a 57% decrease in fatigue.  Researchers believe the meditation and breathing aspect was the main contributor to reduced inflammatory markers.

The study:  In 200 breast cancer patients who had undergone surgery or radiation treatment, significant inflammatory marker reductions were realized:

Findings for 12 weeks of yoga  (researchers felt breathing and meditation aspects were main drivers of results):  Participants were first injected with a compound that provoked an immune response before giving blood samples.  Average lower levels of the inflammation-related proteins than the controls were: 10% lower level of TNF-a, 11% lower IL-6, 15% lower IL-1B, improved sleep, up to 20% reduction of inflammation, and a 57% decrease in fatigue. The study also showed the more yoga the women practiced, the bigger the improvements in fatigue, vitality, depressive symptoms, accompanied by increased reductions in two of the inflammation-related proteins, IL-6 and IL-1B.

There are many aspects to yoga, including meditation, breathing, stretching and strengthening. But the researchers think for this study, the parts that produced the most benefits were the breathing and meditation practice.

We think improved sleep could be part of the mechanism of what we were seeing. When women were sleeping better, inflammation could have been lowered by that. Reducing fatigue enables women to engage in other activities over time. So yoga may have offered a variety of benefits in addition to the yoga exercises themselves.

Health problems are linked to chronic inflammation, including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Studies have also tied it to age-related frailty and functional decline.  –Yoga’s Impact on Inflammation, Mood, and Fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Trial and MNT, Breast cancer survivors benefit from yoga.

Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Use of Integrative Therapies as Supportive Care in Patients Treated for Breast Cancer (full text) reported on randomized controlled clinical trials in patients receiving treatment for breast cancer. The use of behavioral therapies (eg, meditation/mindfulness, relaxation) and yoga for mood improvement in the context of depression and anxiety during cancer treatment received a strong recommendation rating (Grade A).  A lower grade of recommendations (Grade B) [still considered worthy of patient consideration] was made for massage and stress management for mood improvement and energy conservation in the context of treatment-associated fatigue.

Why should you suck up the fishbowl feeling and try diet management for chronic disease?  “In short, bold [food] policies have been based on fragile science, and the long term results may be terrible.“

This is such a powerful statement on food policy by Dr. Richard Smith, the former editor of the British Medical Journal, after combing through five of the most popular nutrition science books of the last several years.  In this sentence, he perfectly encapsulates why we have been led astray on food. -One sentence that explains why nearly everything we think about food is wrong

Trail blaze your own anti-inflammatory diet/lifestyle prescription using stress management strategies including affirmations and meditation to deal with the naysayers.  Persevere until you achieve reset;  it really works.

Trailblazer Dr. Peter Attia is one such example as he realized metabolic insulin resistance reset for Type 2 Diabetes after 4 years of following his prescription diet/lifestyle.  That is a long time to follow a specific protocol under the magnifying glass of carrying the MD title none the less while also shaking up the nutrition circuit.  I can relate to that fishbowl feeling as my autoimmune prescription is now going on six years and I have found, as Dr. Attia, that diet rules can bend after that long of a biologic, metabolic, and microbiome reset.  It is after all, long term diet (and lifestyle) that changes the resilient stable microbiome…  Of course we’ve talked about this before… Dr. Rob Knight’s findings,  OPTIMAL MICROBIOME DIET FROM AMERICAN GUT DATA.

I first found Dr. Attia’s work relevant for diet and lifestyle answers for management of Type 2 Diabetes which in summary is:

“The more sugar you eat, the more insulin resistant you become.  The more resistant you are to the effects of insulin, the more insulin your pancreas needs to secrete in response to all carbohydrates, including the not-so-bad “non-sugar” ones. The more insulin your pancreas needs to secrete to manage your glycemic load, the higher your average insulin levels, which is manifested by higher levels of circulating insulin at all times – fed and not fed. Higher levels of insulin lead to less fat oxidation and more fat storage (from both ingested fats AND ingested carbohydrates – de novo lipogenesis).  This, not surprisingly, leads to greater insulin resistance, and so the cycle continues… Western diets, where we don’t consume much omega-3 PUFA, and it is very difficult to avoid omega-6 PUFA (they show up in virtually every processed and packaged food we touch, not to mention all sauces and dressing, and even our grain-fed meat), may predispose us to greater insulin resistance and inflammation…  There is a reason “vicious cycles” are called “vicious.”

 When I began my nutritional journey, for over 18 months I still consumed a modest amount of carbohydrate, probably on the order of what a typical person in Japan would consume.  The biggest elimination in my diet was sucrose, HFCS, and “junk” carbohydrates. The results were impressive.  I went from being about 200 pounds at 25% body fat to being 177 pounds at 10% body fat while still consuming some carbohydrates (by that point I was down to maybe 100-150 gm per day).   However, I was able to get leaner (170 pounds, 7.5% body fat) and further improve my risk profile for disease by going below 50 gm per day (i.e., entering nutritional ketosis).  Was this last step of nutritional ketosis necessary? Of course not, but it was a nice way to experience the full spectrum of carbohydrate restriction.  Will I ever go back to eating 100-150 gm per day of the “right” carbohydrates at some point? Probably, provided I don’t go back to eating sugar and stuffing my face with carbohydrates.  It will depend on what I’m optimizing for.

My point is this: Just modifying your diet by the 3 factors I mention in this post — elimination of sugar, less total glucose load, and improved omega-3/omega-6 profile — even if you are not genetically programmed to be lean, will probably deliver 80% of the value in terms of disease risk and body composition. -How do some cultures stay lean while still consuming high amounts of carbohydrates?

I stop here as my post is not about diet management for Type 2 Diabetes; for that I refer you to Dr. Attia’s site… for now.  I do however share his Type 2 Diabetes prescription and other musings at the bottom of this post should you be interested.  Getting back to Dr. Attia’s questioning the allopathic mainstream guidelines for diabetes and obesity:

Just 40 years ago the prevalence of obesity in this country was about one-third of what it is today, and that of diabetes about one-fifth. Is this all because Americans have become too gluttonous and slothful and the food industry figured out how to make food cheap and addictive enough? That they simply are too lazy and stubborn to do what we’ve been telling them to do—eat a little less, exercise a little more—for fifty years. Maybe. And I trust many good minds are already working on solutions to address that hypothesis.

However, what if the problem isn’t about non-compliance but about the nature of the advice we’re passing along. Maybe it’s our failure in that we have a simple idea about what causes these diseases, and like many simple ideas—paraphrasing Mencken here—it just happens to be wrong. It’s hard to fathom that two out of three Americans are simply too lazy to be active and too stubborn to eat healthy, despite losing their lives and their loved ones to the negative sequelae of these diseases.  I find that hard to believe.

So, what if the problem is that our dietary advice is wrong in the first place? And incorrect dietary advice has resulted in an eating environment where the default for most people is a diet that causes obesity and diabetes? -Success versus Failure: A stark juxtaposition

Returning to that dress and extending it’s lessons learned

Going one step further, the oversight of recognizing that people see and perceive things differently, and one way is not necessarily superior to the other, has weighty consequences in adhering to your day to day life diet/lifestyle prescription, not to mention in clinic ramifications with your health care providers, family, friends, and peers.  In short, when you feel like you’re in a fishbowl, don’t stress; continue to follow your unique diet and lifestyle path to wellness using affirmations, meditation, and other stress busters.  Incredibly powerful diet and healing affirmations are:  

I see and perceive things differently and one way is not necessarily superior to the other.

This affirmation allows you to deeply support your needs while embracing compassion for others’ sensitivity deficiencies.

I eat healthy and I stay healthy.

I choose food and do so in total peace.

My immune system is very strong and can deal with any kind of bacteria, germs and viruses.

Every organ in my body is healthy and functions at its optimal.

I breathe deeply and every breath energizes me.  

This actually has a double bang; few of us breathe deeply and yet this increases metabolism as well as enabling a key detox function.

A word about Affirmations;  Say them daily:

This is all about mind over matter which studies show actually reduces inflammatory markers.  The Power of Affirmations:

“Affirmations will help you to create your new reality, lead to an awakening and create the belief that you have something unique and meaningful to contribute, as we all do, because we are all part of the interconnected whole.”

“Whatever you withhold, the universe withholds from you, as well. Perhaps you are withholding because in your heart of hearts you do not feel you are good enough or smart enough… But when you do believe you are good enough (and you are!), your body will respond with more vitality and focused energy to create the changes you want. Affirmations are an aid to get you there.”

What Affirmation should you say?

Affirm the positive, as if it has already been achieved. Always use the present tense. Start with something along the lines of, “I am fit and healthy,” or come up with whatever positive body description, specific organ, or disease condition… that you like. Write down all the areas in your life that you’d like to focus on, body-related and otherwise, and create positive affirmations around them. Remember to affirm what you want as if you have it now, and make sure that your affirmations generate authentic enthusiasm.

At first it may feel unnatural to say these things out loud, but affirmations are the best way to begin creating energetic (and biological) change. Resistance is greatest when you are operating on the surface of your mind, which is bound up with ego. By declaring your affirmations, you can push past this surface level and delve into deeper levels, where change is possibility. Affirmations are a way of saying yes to your true nature and essence. Remember, you are powerful, and your thoughts are powerful.  -The Power of Affirmations

Affirmation achieves mind over matter, literally.

A fun place to visit is the Visual Meditation Room

Organic Spa Visual Meditation Room takes you to reasonable length (5 to 10 minute music and scene immersion) where you can choose mountains, waterfalls, oceans, forests, skies… for meditation or affirmation; give it a try – what do you have to lose?

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Need more meditative type direction?

Learn from Dr. Alejandro Junger (Clean and Clean Gut author) at Detox Your Mind in 5-Minutes: The Power of Quantum Cleansing and test drive a 5 minute guided meditation with him.