At the store, whenever customers ask about Vitamin D supplementation, we give them The D Report, an excellent summary of the “need to know” information, written by Forrest Beck, N.D.

This information is so valuable, we want to share it with you online as well. Download this free PDF and learn how you can dramatically improve your health by paying attention to Vitamin D.

• The D Report, by Forrest Beck, N.D.

Sleep – Evenings are dark. Crawl into bed early with a good book and add an hour or two of rest.

Eat Garlic – Yum.  1-2 cloves of cooked garlic per day.  I love to roast veggies with a bit of olive oil and loads of garlic cloves.  I even bring them to the store to munch on!  Garlic is anti-microbial and Anti-inflammatory

Take care of your Terrain!  Your intestines are your garden & this garden keeps you healthy.  70% of your immune system is in your digestive tract (your garden). Tend the garden well:  Eat active cultured yogurt, kefir, kimchee, kombucha, miso, tempeh and raw sauerkraut, all foods with naturally occurring probiotics.  Dr. Guy Devin, PhD, says “if you can only do one thing, take a probiotic”.  They are that important to health.  Eat a wholefood diet and drink water – in order for the garden to grow, it needs water!

Eat foods that are sources of prebiotics (the food for probiotics): Asparagus, barley, bananas, cabbage, onion, steelcut oats, garlic to name a few.

Avoid Sugar (especially when you are sick).  Bacteria loves sugar and sugar slams your immune system.  Wonder why so many people get sick over the holidays?  Think sugar!

Take D3!  The typical adult doseage is between 2,000 & 10,000 IU’s.  Remember to take your D3 with fat.  Vitamins A,D,E & K are fat soluable.  D3 helps with seasonal mood swings, and higher blood levels of D3 help you to avoid colds and flu.  Get tested!

Add Vitamin C to your daily supplements:  Stimulates antibody production. Take up to bowel tolerance level.  Adults 3000-5000mg, children 1000-3000mg.  A good daily dose is 500mg. twice daily.  Increase if you feel a tickle coming on.

Daily supplements that help boost immune:  Garlic, Mushrooms: Stamets 7 and MyCommunity (mushrooms have the closest DNA to humans of all plants), Wellness Formula – 30% off right now, is a favorite.  Oregano, Ashwaganda and more.

Just catching a cold?  GAIA’s Quick Defense works like a charm.  Take the entire bottle over the course of two days. Works wonders.

One of our favorites for flu prevention is a product you can find at your naturopaths, such as Dr. Molly Forces office (now sharing space with Dr. Rienstra, across from the Port Townsend Athletic Club), Mucoccinum.  To heal faster from the flu, our Oscillococcinum is great to keep on hand.  Mountain Spirits Kick Ass Cold & Flu is another store favorite too!

If you feel like your catching something, or it has gotten you, come talk to us.  You CAN get better faster with nutritional support.  If you do come in sick, just let us know.  We know what to do to keep from catching whatever you have and so appreciate knowing when you are not feeling well.

My own personal recipe for avoiding colds and flu (1.5 years so far), is Mucoccinum, MyCommunity daily, exercise, laughter and good healthy food!  The minute I feel ‘off’, even if I’m not sure, I increase my vitamin C intake and if needed, take GAIA’s Quick Defense or take a few doses of Larix or Arabinex for a couple of days.  Does the trick every time!

Traveling by plane? Talk to us first!  Don’t ruin your trip by catching something in that recirculated air!  I have my favorite ‘recipe’ for this too.

Juliet, our newest staff member and licensed as an herbalist in Ireland, is a wiz with herbal remedies and she knows teas as well!

Here’s to a winter of laughter and health!

The Brain is 60% Fat.  Fat holds toxins. Detoxifying/taking an antioxidant is very important to brain health.  Eating healthy fat is also important.  Without the right fats, neurons won’t fire.  Focus on Omega 3′s and 9′s. Omega 6′s are more inflammatory, but not to be avoided all together.  Taking a combination of fish oil and flax oil/seed provides a health balance.

We have receptors in our brains for hormones.  Too much, or too little causes imbalances. Solution – have your hormone levels tested with a Naturopath.  Balancing hormones will not only make you happier, it may make you smarter!

Stress causes cortisol levels to escalate (by the way, cortisol is a hormone).  Cortisol causes blood sugar to rise.  Increased blood sugar causes a host of issues, including inflammation.  Too much inflammation isn’t good for the body and it isn’t good for the brain.  Solution – eliminate all stress (hah!), or meditate, make sure to incorporate daily pleasure into your life, laugh, eat an anti-inflammatory diet (Suzy’s weight release program, The Positive Solution, teaches you how to not only lose weight, but it also promotes an anti-inflammatory lifestyle and blood sugar balance).

For some, dairy can act like morphine in the brain due to a missing enzyme.  You can be tested for this, and autistic children are usually missing this enzyme.

Diabetes and high blood pressure ages the brain.  Again, eat healthy, exercise, reduce or mediate stress.

Helpful supplements:
Omega 3
Holy Basil for cortisol balancing support.
*Ginko helps with blood flow from the trunk to extremities and the brain.
May assist with mental acuity:
N Acetyl Cysteine
L-Tyrosine (taken in the morning).
L-Theanine from Green Tea (taken in the morning)

5HTP is the pre-cursor to Serotonin. Helpful for S.A.D.
GABA is very helpful for ADHD.  Calms neural transmitters.  For a mind that won’t shut down in the evening, Dr. Clement suggested a combination of Melatonin and GABA.  I tried it.  I slept! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A store favorite for mental acuity and brain health is Lions Mane.  Concerned about Alzheimers?  CuraMed has medicinal levels of curamin (the active constituent of Turmeric) reported to be helpful with Alzheimers.  For someone with Alzheimers, you may want to research our Cell Food as well.  NewChapters Turmeric is one of the most potent turmerics on the market.

Please note that aspirin, omega 3′s, ginko, tumeric, flax oils curcumin and others, all act as blood thinners.  Follow suggested doses and don’t cross-over with several different supplements that may also cause too much blood thinning.

Our brains have 100 million cells/neurons, 100 trillion connections, 100 million miles of blood vessels.  A combination of stress, inflammation, toxins and lack of nutrients makes ‘thought’ challenging.  For beautiful skin and beautiful minds alike – eat healthy, live healthy, laugh loud and play like a kid

Suggested Reading:  The Mood Cure, by Julia Ross.

That’s it in a nutshell, but I’m sure there is more…what was it?  Hmmm.

Resolutions are a decision to make a change.  But what drives change?

A recent study showed that when doctors tell heart patients they will die if they don’t change their habits, only one in seven will be able to follow through successfully.  Desire and motivation are not enough: even when it is literally a matter of death.

According to the authors of ‘Immunity to Change’ by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey our individual beliefs create a natural but powerful immunity to change.

Lahey and Kegan suggest choosing ONE big improvement (personal growth goal).

Let’s look at weight loss.  You want to lose weight, but what are you doing instead?  They then suggest listing all the benefits, as if you have already achieved your [weight loss] goal.  Next list all behaviors you are doing, or not doing that undermine and get in the way of your goal.  From these lists, competing behaviors begin to emerge.  I call this becoming ‘mindful’.  What is the connection to the behavior that keeps you from choosing foods and making lifestyle choices that will support your goal?

To reach your goal, decide what you want – then what you are willing to do – to get what you want and stick to it.  Identifying the behaviors that are getting in your way are paramount to your success.  You have all read the fine print “before starting any weight loss program, consult with your physician”.  I would add, “before starting on any weight loss program, check with your psyche”.

Make the first step of embarking on a lifestyle program (notice I did not say ‘diet’)  – the step of observation.  Spend a week in total awareness.  When do you eat, why do you eat, what emotions make you eat, how do you feel when you eat, what ‘excuses’ do you use for not exercising or reaching for unhealthy food?  Write them down, in fact, write in the moment.  Carry a journal with you.  When you reach for food, stop and write down what you are feeling.  This step alone, could be your final ‘resolve’ to making change that sticks for a lifetime.

One  such “essential element” that we recommend at Uptown Nutrition store is a good strategy for combating inflammation. In this video, Suzy talks about the importance of managing inflammation as part of your overall health plan. Diet is something we want to watch closely, and in some instances, appropriate supplementation. Watch the video to learn more.

We who live here in Western Washington are soaked to the bone. It’s gray, cool, and unbelievably wet!   The weather affects our mood, which affects our movement, which affects how we eat and so on…here are seven steps to follow – get back on track, or on the track to feeling great!

#1:  Move. No rolling of eyes.  The most important step that can be taken to keep your mood ‘up’ is to move. Grab the raincoat and go!

#2:  Sleep. Sleep is essential to the spunky feeling.  If sleep eludes you, stop in and talk with us.  Many factors including stress, blood sugar imbalance and hormones can cause sleep challenges.

#3:  Eat well! Mood food is not pasta and pastries.  Try the wheat free challenge!  Eliminate all gluten/wheat for two weeks and watch out – you’ll be feeling so good you will forget it ever rained!  Remember that what goes in, counts.  Fill up on nutrient dense foods, not nutrient void foods.

#4:  You eat when? Never go more than three hours without food.  Set your watch, set your cell phone…and eat every three hours.  Cut back on portion sizes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and add in healthy snacks, such as fruit with a few nuts.  Hard boiled eggs, 1/2 half a Zing bar (save the other 1/2 for the afternoon).  You get the picture.  Eating this way will begin to balance your blood sugar.  You’ll experienced sustained energy and may even sleep better!

#5:  Energy feeling low – don’t caffeine up. It’s natural to not feel as energetic in this soggy weather.  Curl up and read a good book and allow yourself to move a bit slower (that is, after your walk around the block).

#6:  Eat less. Yup.  You’ve heard it before, but did you know that eating less could actually increase your energy?  Why?  Eating large amounts of food, burdens your digestive system.  Energy goes to digesting the food, instead of moving your body. And by eating less, you will live longer.

#7:  Laugh. Laughter IS the best medicine!  Keep your sense of humor.  We are all soggy together.  By lifting someone elses spirit, you will be lifted as well.  Go ahead – flash that soggy smile!

And lastly, yes, we may be very wet, but perspective is good…keep those encouraging and caring thoughts going for all those in Japan who have tremendous hurdles to cross.