Dr. Galland's Holiday Health Guide

Leo Galland, MD is one of my favorite people and is a real pioneer in the field of integrative medicine and health (and also the author of a highly recommended book, The Fat Resistance Diet.

He and his family have prepared this new animated video to help you and your loved ones eat healthier this holiday season.

Whether you are shopping, going to a party or entertaining guests, this video shows 5 simple steps that can help make this your healthiest holiday season ever.

Dr. Galland and his family have graciously given me this video to send out to all readers of "In Step With Jonny". If all that extra sugar and fat in holiday treats make you feel stuffed and fatigued, I think you'll enjoy this.

Enjoy!

50% Off "23 Ways to Improve Your Life" in December

This is your chance to give the gift of health (at a very special price), and contribute to charity at the same time!

When I first wrote and recorded "23 Ways to Improve Your Life" it was inspired by a question I was continually asked at seminars across the country. In one version or another, the question went like this:

"I have relatives and loved ones that I really care about who aren't going to make substantial changes in their diet, who aren't going to join a gym, who aren't going to give up all their junk food.... Is there any hope for them? Is there anything they can do to improve their health and their life without having to make radical changes?"

So I started to think about it and realized that there are actually many things you can do that would make a difference. Relatively easy, relatively small things- like add one or two critical supplements, or eat one portion of a certain food every couple of days, or do one kind of stress reduction or relationship building exercise that takes only minutes a day.

I came up with 23 things that I think can make a real difference in anyone's life- regardless of whether or not they're exercising and dieting- and put them together on this entertaining 3 CD set: 23 Ways to Improve Your Life.



Now don't misunderstand me- you'll get tons of great information and even more value if you do these things- or even some of them- while eating a healthy diet and exercising every day. But you don't have to- every one of them provides benefit to your health and well-being no matter what else you're doing.

We offer this 3 CD set all year round for 59.95 and it's one of our most popular items, but during December I'm offering "23 Ways to Improve Your Life" for only 29.95 and free shipping!

This is a CD set you can give as a gift to anyone- a parent, a sister, a friend. (After all, not everyone on your list is trying to lose weight!)
If you want two for your gifts, the second copy is only 19.95- that's two for 49.90, a savings of 76.80!!

And best of all, 15% of all net profit on this- and any other product or vitamin you buy from the web store this month- is donated to NEADS- the organization that provides service dogs to disabled veterans.

The Silver Lining in the Economic Downturn

If you've ever listened to any inspirational speaker you've heard talk of finding opportunity when the universe presents a challenge. In fact the "opportunity in a challenge" theme runs through just about every inspirational talk I've ever heard. It's the meaning of popular comforting sayings ranging from "When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade" to "The Universe Never Closes One Door Without Opening Another", not to mention the classic phrase by Nietzsche, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger".

That stuff is all "easy to say" but hard to remember (let alone apply!) when times get really tough. Yet the truth is that the economic downturn really has presented itself with some opportunities, and we'd all do well to spend a few minutes thinking about them.

There'll be no shortage of commentators on how to learn from this mess on a personal and financial level, so let me concentrate on the opportunities in the areas of health and nutrition.

First- If you can't eat out as much, consider counting that as a blessing. We eat out way too much anyway. Use this period of belt tightening as an excuse to start eating home more. Every study over the last several decades has confirmed that the more meals you eat out the more likely you are to be overweight. Prepare some of your own food, and learn to put mindfulness into it.

Two- Since most folks have less dollars to spend frivolously, spend your food dollars wisely. Make coffee at home a few days (or more) a week and skip the $4 lattes. (You can buy an awful lot of fruits and vegetables on a Starbucks budget.)

Three- Since there's less money for gas, not to mention going out and "doing stuff", use that as an opportunity to rediscover the home (and the people who live there with you). I know it's a really "retro" concept, but what about meals together as a family? There are studies on that as well, and every one of them shows better performance in school, better well-being and better mental and physical health in kids who eat at least one meal a day with their family.

Four- If you're cutting back on expenses, cut back smartly. If you eat meat, for example, continue to eat the expensive grass-fed kind but eat much less of it. (As Michael Pollan put it, "spend more, eat less".) I'd rather have one grass-fed burger a week than 7 Happy Meals. Believe me your body will thank you for that choice.

Five- Rediscover your own ability to amuse yourself. Those of us who grew up a few decades ago know well that it's actually possible- amazing as it sounds- to survive without constant texting, iPods, messaging, social networking, YouTube and even Google. I'm not suggesting you turn everything off, but you might use this extra "stay-at-home" time to discover how interesting actual old fashioned conversation can be when you do it with people you like (or love). Not to mention really old-fashioned entertainments- like reading!


Finally, consider this post that I found on one of the financial message boards the other day that really inspired me. We had just had one of the worst days in the market, and people were discussing what to do with their diminishing portfolios. There was a clear mood of panic all over the place. Here's the post that caught my eye:

"What's the worst that could happen? That we'd lose all our money? This has just gotten me to focus on the important things we do have- our health, our family, our kids, our dog. If we lose it all, so be it. We can rebuild. As long as we have our health and our love, we'll survive this. It's only money."

What a great time to reassess your life and focus on what's really valuable and be thankful for what you do have.

Alli- what's the story?

So guess what. There's a new over-the-counter weight loss pill just approved by the FDA.

It's called Alli, it's made by GlaxoSmithKline, and early reports are that it's flying off the shelves.

So what's the deal?

Alli is actually Orlistat, which is actually Xenical. Xenical has been around for a while, didn't work very well, and has now been given a face lift; they took it off prescription-only status and repackaged it as Alli.

This is not the first time the clever marketers at Big Pharma have done this. Not too long ago, Eli Lilly took Prozac, dressed it up in nice pink and purple colors and rechristened it "Sarafem" for PMS.

But I digress.

So what do we know about Xenical (oh, excuse, me, Alli)..

Well let's start with this: it didn't work very well in the first place when it was known as Xenical. I'm not sure why changing the name and making the dosage smaller would fix the problem, but hey, what do I know?

Alli is a member of a category of weight loss drugs that might be called "digestive inhibitors". It blocks some of the fat that you eat from being digested and assimilated, and it does this by blocking the digestive enzyme lipase- which breaks down fat. The result? As much as 30 percent of the fat you eat doesn't go to your hips. Questions, anyone?

How 'bout this one: "What does it do to the fat that's already on your hips?"

Answer: Zip-i-dee-doo-dah.

People lose weight on Xenical- 'scuse me, Alli- because it essentially lowers caloric intake automatically. If you, for example, were eating a nice hefty 2500 calories a day and 30 percent of them happened to come from fat, you would normally be taking in 750 fat calories. By taking Xenical with a fatty meal, about one third of those fat calories aren't absorbed, so the 750 calories becomes, theoretically, 500 calories. You've "saved" 250 calories while eating the same meal (note the operative word theoretically). Stick to that plan for a week and you've "saved" 250 times 7 calories or a grand total of 1750 calories or... let's see... ummm... one half pound?

Yup.

And that's theoretically.

Nowlet's go to the videotape.

The first big study to put Xenical on the map was a two-year European study which showed that patients on Xenical lost between 2 and 3 percent more weight than those on a placebo. A second two year European trial put obese patients on a reduced-calorie diet and gave them 120 mg of Xenical 3 times a day. At the end of the year they had lost about 9 pounds more than the placebo group. Read that carefully. Nine pounds a year which translates to 3/4 pound a month.
A similar study in the US produced 1/2 pound per month for Xenical users.

So is Alli the answer? Hardly. Unless maybe if you're a stockholder in Glaxo.

Can it help if you're already doing all the right stuff, like eating well, eating clean, exercising, and taking care of yourself in a profoundly nurturing way? Maybe so. Maybe it can add a little tiny extra that could be meaningful to some people.

But unless you use it in conjunction with all that other good stuff- that so many people seem to want to bypass- it's just not going to do diddly squat.

autism- what's the story?

For years people have been battling over whether or not childhood vaccines cause autism. It's hard to think of a better example of opposing views fueled by (understandable) passion, each bolstered by statistics which- like all statistics- lend themselves to multiple interpretations depending on whose side you're on. It has the usual cast of characters - activists (usually parents) feeling betrayed and ignored and lied to, apologists maintaining steadfastly that the protesters are delusional and the science doesn't support their views.

Sound familiar? Hint: silicone breast implants.

Now this week for the first time, the case is going to court. Sort of. A special court will pit scientists against activists in the debate over whether vaccines cause autism. There's a test case involving a 12 year old Michelle Cedillo of Arizona and more than 4,800 cases are pending, filed by parents who believe the vaccines caused their kids autism. They're seeking payment under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The US Court of Federal Claims has set up an omnibus hearing in Washington and the first case is expected to last three weeks.

The nay-sayers say the issue is settled and that vaccines are not linked to the disorder. And there's good science- meaning statistical correlations- to support their case.

Now hold that thought for a moment.

Recently there was a terrific study done on diet and weight loss out of Children's Hospital in Boston (I'll blog about it in more detail this week). They wanted to test whether low-glycemic diets do better than standard low-calorie diets for weight loss, blood lipids, all the usual stuff. They divided everyone into two groups, gave one group the low-cal diet, one group the low-glycemic diet.

No difference.

But wait, there's more.

The researchers tested everyone in the study with a glucose tolerance test. This basically shows how your body responds to sugar- some people secrete a ton of insulin, some.. not so much. Then, with this info in hand, they re-analyzed the data. And found that when you looked at the sub-group of people who were "high insulin secretors", there was indeed a huge, significant difference in how the two diets worked. High insulin secretors lost way more weight and did much better in general on the low-glycemic diet. But in the larger picture, this sub-group was "lost" in the general statistics, and there was no significant difference between the two overall groups.

Back to autism.

I'm absolutely, unequivocably convinced that there is a subgroup of kids who can't detox the mercury in vaccines. This subgroup is "lost" in the overall statistics allowing apologists to say, "hey, vaccines don't cause autism". But if you were to somehow isolate this subgroup and analyze the stats on them, you'd find a big correlation between the vaccine and the onset of autism. I can't prove this but I'm sure of it.

Think about it. Our liver puts out enzymes called the cytochrome P-450 enzymes, that are involved in two distinct phases of detoxifcation. It's a complex process. Among individuals there are huge variations in the amount of these enzymes, their effectiveness, their activity. It's no doubt true that when you look at the statistics on autism and vaccination on millions of people, a correlation doesn't show up, much like it didn't on the low-glycemic and low-calorie diet study. But if you were to somehow identify a sub-population who had less than optimal cytochrome P-450 enzyme activity, and then analyzed just that population, I'm pretty sure you'd see the mercury- autism connection boldly and clearly. It's just masked when this subgroup is folded into the overall population.