One of the big challenges when trying to lose weight is our brain.  We may experience an exaggerated appetite or cravings, which can sabotage any weight loss goal. Most weight loss programs are focused on caloric restriction and providing medications, one being  phentermine for appetite suppression.  A safer, more effective alternative is Amino Acid Therapy (AAT) can be very helpful for appetite suppression for weight loss. The goal in weight loss is not to restrict calories which will only result in slowing the metabolism and rebound weight gain, but to change the metabolic hormones.  Phentermine is amphetamine and is not only unhealthy to take, but as soon as you stop it, the appetite comes back with a vengeance. Amino Acid Therapy (AAT) is helpful in reducing the cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrates.  AAT influences and balances the neurotransmitters in the brain to help you avoid temptations and refined carbohydrates. When we eat refined processed foods, sweets, and desserts there is a rise in dopamine.  This increase in dopamine makes us want to eat that same food item again and again. If we can balance dopamine with AAT, then the cravings for the refined carbohydrates decline.  AAT also balances the serotonin in our systems as well.  By raising or restoring serotonin, you can reduce your cravings for processed foods.  AAT is a powerful tool and is also used for other conditions such as Crohn’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, helpful in weening off anti-depressants. The AAT we utilize is based on the work of Dr. Marty Hintz.  For more information about AAT you can visit neurosupport.com.  AAT needs to be managed by a professional healthcare practitioner, but it is a very safe with little to no negative side effects and is not habit-forming. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, you can contact us directly. The post Appetite Control Using Amino Acid Therapy | PYHP 007 appeared first on .

One of the big challenges when trying to lose weight is our brain.  We may experience an exaggerated appetite or cravings, which can sabotage any weight loss goal.
Most weight loss programs are focused on caloric restriction and providing medications, one being  phentermine for appetite suppression.  A safer, more effective alternative is Amino Acid Therapy (AAT) can be very helpful for appetite suppression for weight loss.
The goal in weight loss is not to restrict calories which will only result in slowing the metabolism and rebound weight gain, but to change the metabolic hormones.  Phentermine is amphetamine and is not only unhealthy to take, but as soon as you stop it, the appetite comes back with a vengeance.
Amino Acid Therapy (AAT) is helpful in reducing the cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrates.  AAT influences and balances the neurotransmitters in the brain to help you avoid temptations and refined carbohydrates. When we eat refined processed foods, sweets, and desserts there is a rise in dopamine.  This increase in dopamine makes us want to eat that same food item again and again.
If we can balance dopamine with AAT, then the cravings for the refined carbohydrates decline.  AAT also balances the serotonin in our systems as well.  By raising or restoring serotonin, you can reduce your cravings for processed foods.  AAT is a powerful tool and is also used for other conditions such as Crohn’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, helpful in weening off anti-depressants.
The AAT we utilize is based on the work of Dr. Marty Hintz.  For more information about AAT you can visit neurosupport.com.  AAT needs to be managed by a professional healthcare practitioner, but it is a very safe with little to no negative side effects and is not habit-forming.
If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, you can contact us directly.

The post Appetite Control Using Amino Acid Therapy | PYHP 007 appeared first on .

Up until fairly recently, a popular dietary approach for weight loss was to consume several small frequent meals throughout the day.  The rationale behind this strategy is that eating every 2-3 hours would increase metabolism and the pounds would drop off. A popular new dietary strategy called Intermittent Fasting is questioning this previous approach.  We know that employing a caloric restriction based diet will always fail to produce lasting weight loss results. Successful weight loss is about changing hormones, not reducing calories.  This is of course easier said than done.  It is easy to drop calories, it is a bit harder to change hormones, specifically insulin. The goal behind Intermittent Fasting is to lower the body’s insulin burden overtime by eating less frequently.  Excess insulin makes the body store fat, but unfortunately also inhibits the body from burning fat effectively.  If the insulin burden is reduced, this will allow the body to easily burn more fat.   There are two keys to Intermittent Fasting, the first is to consume a low carb – high fat (LCHF) diet and the second is related to the timing of meals.  There are several fasting strategies, but a common option is to skip breakfast, then eat lunch and dinner within a 6 to 8 hour window.  For example, you would eat lunch at 12:00 pm, then dinner would be between 6:00 to 8: 00 pm.  This  allows you to fast for roughly 16 – 18 hours everyday, which helps to lower the insulin burden overtime.   Keep in mind, the low carb part is relative.  It not intended to be another version of a ketogenic diet, so there are no daily carb maximum.  Typically, ketogenic diets recommend 20-50 grams of total carbohydrates daily depending on the person.  Because carbs are only being consumed at dinner, the overall grams of carbohydrates is important, but not critical.   One mistake many people make with low carb diets is that daily calories drop as well as carbs.  This is the proverbial double whammy – low carb and low calorie.  Low carb is fine, but it should not be both.  The high fat part is important to control appetite and to increase daily calories, so caloric intake does not drop too much overtime.  Plus, fat only has minimal impact on blood sugar and insulin.   In conclusion, the key to remember is your body burns what you give it, so by having fat first thing in the morning, it encourages the body to burn fat more efficiently.  Plus, having a decent amount of healthy fats in the morning helps to improve energy, manage appetite and minimize cravings later in the day.  Having carbs with dinner will help to raise serotonin levels and may help to improve the quality of sleep There is no magic bullet or a way to speed up the weight loss process without negative consequences.  The key to weight loss success is a good strategy, consistency and time.  However, the nutrition strategy someone implements needs to be simple, easy to follow and the most important is it needs to be maintainable.  Consider Intermittent Fasting as a viable weight loss strategy.   If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, you can contact us directly. The post What is Intermittent Fasting? | PYHP 006 appeared first on .

Why do we have so much trouble losing weight and keeping the weight off over time?  This is an important question that millions of people are struggling with everyday.   For decades, doctors, fitness professionals and even the government have promoted  the idea that weight loss is simply a calorie problem.  To have success, all you have to do is follow the simple math concept of reducing your calories and increase your exercise and then magically watch the pounds drop off. What seems to be a logical premise of eating less and exercising more, does not result in long-term weight loss success.  The body is too complicated for this simple math equation to work. This is because weight loss is a hormone problem not a calorie problem.  Do calories matter?  Yes, calories do matter to an extent, but actually the body is more sensitive to a drop in calories than an excess of calories over time.  When someone starts a calorie restriction based diet, they lose weight initially in the first 3 to 6 months, but then end up regaining the weight over the next 6 to 12 months. The body has an elaborate, hormonal mechanism to compensate for a drop in calories, which is what causes this inevitable rebound weight gain. What matters more then calories is the body’s hormone landscape, specifically the hormone insulin, which is secreted from the pancreas in response to a rise blood glucose.  Also, insulin is the only fat storing hormone in the body, so it has to be in the discussion about weight loss. In a new book written by Dr. Jason Fung, which is titled The Obesity Code also talks about insulin resistance and the role it plays in the weight loss process.  Dr. Fung is an Nephrologist in Canada who deals with lots of diabetic patients that end up having kidney problems, which is a complication related to diabetes.   In order to help his patients improve, Dr. Fung helps them lose weight with a nutrition technique called Intermittent Fasting.  Using this nutritional technique, the goal is to lower insulin over time, which will result in weight loss and improved diabetes status. Type I Diabetes accounts for only about 10% of all Diabetes, with only about 90% being Type II and continues to rise.  With Type I Diabetes, there is a lack of insulin production, whereas Type II Diabetes there is an excess of insulin.  They are very different diseases, the only similarity is that both result in a person having high blood sugar levels. Metabolic Syndrome Criteria: (3 or more) Fasting blood glucose > 100 mg/dL Waist circumference (women 35 inches / men 40 inches) Elevated triglycerides > 150 mg/dL Reduced HDL (<40 mg/dL in men and <50 mg/dL in women) Blood pressure (systolic > 130 mmHg, diastolic > 85 mmHg) Diseases Related to Insulin: Weight gain / obesity High cholesterol (specifically triglycerides) High blood pressure Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) Type 2 Diabetes Heart Disease Alzheimer’s / Dementia Cancer (breast and colon) Dr. Joseph Kraft was a pathologist in Chicago who performed over 14,000 glucose tolerance test with insulin response tests and found that people develop Type II Diabetes well before they ever get officially diagnosed. Reference Range for fasting Insulin:  2 – 20 uIU/mL Ideal fasting insulin level should be between 2 – 7 uIU/mL If you are curious and would like to get your insulin level tested then check out our Weight Loss Panel in the store. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, you can contact us directly. The post Weight Loss is a Hormone Problem | PYHP 005 appeared first on .

A very common and obvious indication of a hormone imbalance is Premenstrual Syndrome.  PMS is not actually a disease, but instead a collection of several physical and emotional type of symptoms that a woman can experience prior to the start of her period. For many women, the symptoms of PMS can begin 7 to 14 days before the period starts and range widely in severity from woman to woman. Also, it is typical for a woman get some relief and feel slightly better once menstruation starts. Most Common PMS Symptoms:  Irritability / anger Mood swings Acne Water retention Bloating Insomnia (waking in the middle of the night for hours) Low libido Breast tenderness Cramping Heavy periods Cravings for refined carbohydrates and sweets. Conventional treatments for PMS are birth control pills and often times the use of antidepressant medications. These are not ideal treatments and are actually bandaids, not to mention the side effects from these medications. The goal is to balance the hormones, specifically Progesterone Insufficiency.  PMS is usually the effect of the progesterone not rising sufficiently or it is dropping too fast in the female cycle.  PMS is not usually related to Estrogen Dominance, as in the estrogen is too high.  Most females have sufficient levels of estrogen, it is the lack of progesterone levels that cause the PMS.  If a female does have high estrogen levels being produced in Estrogen Dominance, then she is usually not as irritable but more sad and weepy. The best way to test for PMS is to get the subjective symptoms and do blood work on day 21.  Day 21 of the cycle is when the progesterone is going to be the highest in her cycle.  That will give us some objective data on her level or lack of progesterone. Balancing the hormones to alleviate PMS can be prescriptions for progesterone for the appropriate individual, lifestyle changes, dietary changes, thyroid and adrenal optimizing and supplementation. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, or you can contact us directly. The post Why Do I Have PMS? | PYHP 004 appeared first on .

Adrenal Fatigue is also known as Adrenal Insufficiency or Adrenal Dysfunction.  There are many hormones released from the adrenals and it would take hours to go over all of them.  In this episode we are going to give a overview about what Adrenal Fatigue is, where it comes from and options to work on this condition. Adrenal Fatigue is not Cushing’s disease and it is not Addison’s disease.   The adrenal glands are responsible for our flight or fight reaction.  We do not live in a world where we are put in life threatening situations. But the repetitive stressors we do deal with on a day to day basis can cause a repetitive reaction from the adrenals in the form of a flight or fight reaction. This results in an increase of adrenal  hormones meaning we are in running more on a sympathetic nervous system level and less on the parasympathetic nervous system and over time will cause Adrenal Dysfunction.  The main hormone that is affected is the cortisol.  Cortisol is released in a diurnal curve, highest in morning and will reduce at night. In repetitive stress or trauma, this curve is upset, resulting in low morning cortisol and elevated levels of cortisol at night. Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue: Low energy Morning lethargy/sleepiness Weight gain in stomach, Insomnia Sugar/carbohydrate cravings Memory loss / brain fog Menstrual issues Mood issues Allergies Frequent colds Blood sugar and insulin regulation is very important in working on Adrenal Fatigue as well as balancing the sex hormones, thyroid optimization.  Lifestyle management, stress management, dietary, supplementation and medication are also options for treating Adrenal Fatigue. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, you can contact us directly.   The post Functional Approach to Adrenal Dysfunction | PYHP 003 appeared first on .