Change Your Health Destiny
I have two interesting things for you this month…both can be very helpful regarding your health and both are widely available and both are free! How often does a doctor say that! I am always on the outlook for tools and techniques that can improve your health and you need look no further than your smartphone.
First up is an app for those of you who want to try intermittent fasting and need a little motivation or advice. The app is called Zero…its produced by Dr. Peter Atia who has made healthgevity his lifelong mission. This guy has done every conceivable experiment on himself in regards to exercise, diet, supplements etc. and has produced this app to help with what he (and most people in the health improvement arena) thinks is an effective and important strategy to improve your health.
He is a big insulin guy as well. As I have written previously, keeping your insulin low is important to keep your inflammation low and intermittent fasting is one way to do that. Most of us eat from the time we get up until we tuck ourselves in at night and that’s a lot of work for your pancreas. If you can limit the time frame in which you eat to 8 hours or less that can help lower your overall insulin and improve your health. Of course, the most restrictive time frame besides completely fasting is a 2 hour window. This is the one meal a day model which studies have shown is very healthy and results in very low insulin and inflammatory markers but most of us don’t have the fortitude for that. My suggestion is to skip breakfast…(don’t break fast) and eat between noon and 8 pm. Work your way towards that and use the Zero app to keep yourself honest and answer questions like taking supplements when you are fasting etc. There is a premium version of the app but you can get plenty of milage with the free version. Peter Atia is all over podcast and Youtube so you can see for yourself the guy behind the app. Also for more on intermittent fasting and insulin etc., I refer you to the great Dr. Jason Fung who you can youtube. (Did I just use a noun as a verb? )
While you are at it, ask your doctor to check your fasting insulin level. It’s very simple.. the lower your fasting insulin the overall healthier you are. And visa versa. It’s a cheap, simple, independent test of your health and you should ask for it. Your doctor has been trained to check your glucose but your insulin level will reveal your metabolic status years and years before you would otherwise be considered a diabetic. Don’t take my word for it, ask Drs. Gundry, Mercola, Attia, Saladino, Knobbe, Gregor, etc…these doctors may have very different opinions on the best diet to improve your health but they universally believe that a low insulin level is desirable.
Now the second app is really a series of apps and again it’s oriented towards trying to help you with your resolve and motivation. You don’t lose weight because you should, or could you lose weight when you must. As Tony Robbins says you meet your musts.
I could, I should, I think…those are not change words…I must, I will, …those are change words. But the apps are not about changing words, they are about changing your focus and attention. These apps, which are also free at the app stores, work via hypnosis. You can get hypnosis apps for weight loss, for drinking issues, to improve sleep etc. Before you start fumfering around that you can’t be hypnotized, let’s look at how well you are doing with your bad habits on your own. Most of us need help changing habits. You can join a group, zoom, or journal, but what’s really important is changing your motivation and outlook and that’s where hypnosis comes in.
Hypnosis is a state of relaxation with heightened and focused attention. It was first made popular by a German physician named Franz Mesmer who invoked the concept of animal magnetism. Later, a British physician named James Braid coined the term hypnosis from the Greek god of sleep hypnos. None less than Sigmund Frued took it up but later abandoned its use in favor of free association techniques he later championed.
I am not talking about stage hypnosis. I am talking about one on one sessions with a trained practitioner to see if you can work on a particular problem. That’s what I have always recommended to my patients having trouble with making progress on a particular health problem. We have several well established hypnosis practices in the Central New York area.
Now, however, as apparently everything will be, it’s available on the smartphone. Why not give one of the many apps a try and see what happens. I have personally seen the effects of hypnosis and the literature is full of support for this modality. If the app helps but not enough, then perhaps, seek out an in person experience with a qualified professional.
Take control of your health. Take control of your behavior. Change your health destiny. Until next month…get well…stay well.
