Here is the basic rule of teen skin – hormones + sugar + bacteria = acne eruptions.  It is often as simple as that.  As the pores of your skin are producing more sebum or oil in response to hormonal changes and sugar ingestion, when bacteria enters the picture – boom!  Eruption city!  So teens, for just a few weeks of these small changes you will notice a remarkable difference in your skin:

1.  If your skin is particularly inflamed to start with (red, rashy, pimply and lots of scarring), work with a qualified beauty therapist to start the clean up process on the surface of the skin (I recommend Maxwell’s Skin and Body Clinic in Main Beach – Julie is down to earth, super experienced in recovering troubled skin and uses natural products that are safe and easy to use).

2. Make a list of all the sugar added foods and drinks you ate last week, and next to that column, write down a list of alternatives you can swap with – then swap them! If you need help with this, contact me for the list I have done – it contains great tasty suggestions which all have a skin health benefit.

3.  Immediately take all soft drinks out and bring back water, lemon in water, soda water is fine and fresh vegetable juices.

4.  Gentle exfoliation once a week and good moisturising for both boys and girls is an important step in skin cleansing – aim to use products that do not contain a lot of alcohol as the drying effects upset the oil balance creating more spots.

5.  Get regular exercise and shower daily – if you are brave try finishing off your shower with a splash of cold water to stimulate circulation to the skin – this helps to flush away toxins and bring healing nutrients to the skin.  Ocean swimming is ideal for this.

6.  Make sure you are having a daily bowel movement if not two – if they are not comfortable this may be a clue into the level of toxicity circulating through the blood system and to the skin creating more infection.  I have some great remedies to reduce this toxicity and seal up the gaps that leak out toxins to the skin.

7.  Avoid fried foods and foods that have been baked – donuts, hot chips, battered products, muffins, cakes, pies, sausage rolls and most fast foods are laced the inflammatory fats and sugars that acne just loves to also feed on.  The kinds of fats your body will use to help acne are avocado, nut butters (not peanut), coconut, fish, fish oil supplements and wheatgerm or flaxseed oil.

8.  Use probiotic formulas to help balance the good bacteria in the digestive system which will influence the balance of bad bacteria affecting your skin.  Super Kids Food in a smoothie or yoghurt once a day will do the trick!

9.  Try herbal medicine to balance the hormones – some formulas are specific for boys and others for girls – combined with a good liver tonic these can be very effective in managing the hormonal stimulus for acne production.

10.  Maintain a positive outlook on life, utilise the best attributes and elements of the look you have been given (or style yourself differently to make yourself feel better), have loads of happy things posted in your room, get regular sun exposure and turn your self talk to encouraging and uplifting words.

Remember – your skin is simply a reflection on what is going on inside and just under – from food to thoughts – keep it clean and not mean…

You may find this article below quite compelling considering it is written by a very experienced cardiac surgeon – please take the time to read it through – it backs up what us Naturopaths have been working towards with our cardiac risk patients for years.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/242516-Heart-Surgeon-Speaks-Out-On-What-Really-Causes-Heart-Disease

How about that? Here are my suggestions for managing healthy cholesterol – even if you have a genetic historical link in your family – remember these genetic links will be more likely to reveal themselves if the nutrtional and inflammatory environments favour their expression…

1.  Maintain the intake of healthy fats – avocado, fish oils (krill oil has been found to have more potent activity than regular fish oils), nuts, seeds, butters made by nuts and seeds and a small smattering of organic butter is quite fine.  Even the yolk of an egg (which is a balance of lecithin which carries cholesterol and the fat itself) is a safe option – just don’t over do them as per normal recommendations.  There is a small amount of research that supports the use of coconut milk/oil as it helps to raise the production of good cholesterol (HDL) in the body.  Most of these oils have an anti inflammatory effect in the body – so avoid the trans fatty acids as mentioned in last weeks post and Dr Lundell’s article.

2. Make sure you are getting adequate sleep – the higher your cortisol (adrenal hormone) levels the more cholesterol you are likely to produce. Conversely if the day is stressful on you consistently, stress hormones will also drive your need for cholesterol up – so get on top of your response to stress and learn how to rest and nurture yourself more frequently. I suggest to prioritise this over diet.

3.  Consider heart healthy nutrients, adrenal support, anti inflammatory nutrients and liver detoxification support when exploring supplementation – this is best done on a case by case situation with a qualified practitioner – do not tackle this one on your own.

4.  Get plenty of dark green leafy vegetables that are packed with magnesium and loads of other cleansing elements to assist with reestablishing the balance.

5.  Consider the HCG diet – have a read and discuss with your practitioner – there are some promising results coming from this program and a lot of this centres around weight loss via changing the inflammatory pathways of the body.

6.  Immediately stop taking any and all of the major fast food chain offerings – they are laced with plenty of sugar and trans fatty acids – perfect environment for creating inflammation.  Also move away from donuts, commercially made muffins and muffins made with margarine and loads of sugar, hot chips and battered products.

7.  Regularly move your body in a fun and enjoyable exercise program that creates a lift in your emotional wellbeing (not feels like a chore and a duty).  Fun is the operating word here – you will produce a much better balance of sleep inducing and anti inflammatory hormones this way.  Join a running/walking group, start boxing, hit the water with a paddling, yoga or swimming group or simply dance.

8.  Keep your water intake up – flushing your system is paramount here.  For extra green pizazz - add a few drops of Liquid Chlorophyll to green up your day!

Remember, elevated cholesterol need not be a permanent sentence and is a sign your lifestyle (not just diet) is out of balance.  Focus on vitality and happiness – you can’t go wrong!

 Lifestyle factors are essentially the first place to start when managing the elevation of fats causing disease in the body, but it is not all just fats that are the problem.  In fact, medicine is now admitting they have had that part all wrong up to now and with recent revelations that statin drugs are creating adverse effects in the health of the brain (an organ that absolutely needs healthy fats to fire properly) – it is time to look at ways we can manage better using the basics again. 

The chemicals and responses to those chemicals that your body produces under these ‘insults’ can create the necessary changes that will comprimise the membranes of your arteries (and other structures) – therefore effectively trapping the circulating cholesterol.  Elevated triglycerides is essentially a modern day condition – with the bombardment across the day of an ‘innocent’ intake of refined carbohydrates (muffins, white bread, white rice, white pasta, donuts, sweets, additional brown sugar, white sugar, syrups, alcohol) combined with trans fatty acids (margarine, palm oil, canola oil).

Research now shows us that it is not the saturated fats from animal foods that are the evil here – your body can produce at least 4 times more the amount of cholesterol that you can ever consume during a daily intak e of animal product.  Essentially everytime you need to make a stress hormone – your body needs cholesterol to manufacture these. Therefore this is just one of the ways your cholesterol levels can increase.

Having elevated cholesterol is a sign that a few things may be out of balance.  Here are a number of factors that elevated cholesterol may be indicating are out of order and therefore should be checked in your initial assessment and testing (not just a cholesterol test on its own):

1. Homocysteine – a by product from poor folic acid metabolism – if elevated increases the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In both elevated cholesterol and blood pressure, this is an essential (and easy to manage) nutrient by product to check.

2.  Vitamin D – much research is now showing that lowered Vitamin D levels are implicated in elevated risk factors and cholesterol levels.

3.  Leptin receptor resistance – the hormone that is released when you are ‘full’ during a meal.

4.  Iron and copper deficiency – both requiring an acidic stomach and good hydrochloric acid production for absorption.

5.  Alterations in cortisol production – an adrenal hormone that impacts both glucose and fat metabolism and is often raised at night in persons that are suffering insomnia.  It is a stress hormone.

6.  Thyroid function problems – in particular iodine deficiency.

7.  Infection – your cholesterol levels may elevate during an infection due to the elevated immune hormone production required to fight infection.

8.  Inflammation – either caused by stress or other disease processes such as arthritis – your cholesterol levels in conjunction with pain and stress are a sure fire indicator your body is in inflammation.

Inflammation is essentially at the seat of elevated cholesterol – you reduce that – you can go a long way towards managing this naturally.  Next week, my recommended management strategies for cholesterol and triglyceride elevation will be revealed – stay tuned!

Remember – cholesterol is not an evil substance, it is a necessary chemical in your body and has an important function.

Here are my top ten tips for maintaining the internal ‘control’ over your instinctive responses and reducing the impact of shocking news:

1. When things are going well, acknowledge it and use that time to build your stress adaptation through regular exercise, healthy eating and balanced rest – restorative yoga is and excellent way to comfort your mind and body – certain poses will help to support your nervous and adrenal systems.

2. During the initial impact of the news, keep an eye on how you are breathing – naturally you will shallow breathe, so force yourself to deep breathe when receiving the news

3. Avoid using alcohol, food or recreational drugs to hide from the uncomfortable feelings you are experiencing – if you completely feel them, you will build emotional resilience to future events. Eat simple foods – even soups at this time is wise as it is easier to digest and absorb.

4. Consider using adrenal and nervous system focused herbal medicine to assist in the production of adrenal and mood supporting hormones. It is easy for the production of these to slow down leaving you exhausted and depressed over a period of continual insult.  It is recommended to consult a professional so that all considerations of combinining herbs and your current health responses and medication do not adversely interact with each other.

5.  Prioritise sleep and focus on making that an important part of your management approach. When your sleep is constantly interrupted, your other body systems will show health issues very quickly, so above all, do whatever you need to achieve regular refreshing sleep.  IF you have to resort to sleeping medication, give yourself a guilt break for a few weeks and commit to slowly weaning off with herbal/nutritional support when you are past the main impact period.  The herb Valerian can be helpful but consult a herbalist prior to self prescribing.

6.  If nausea and anxiety are occurring at the same time when you ‘engage’ mentally or emotionally in the event, there are a couple of excellent homeopathic solutions that can bring on the spot relief.  These can be used anytime you recall the event then start to feel queasy or panicky.

7.  Reduce your non essential commitments and just attend to the immediate priorities – this will leave you some room to allow extra relaxation and recovery. Let a few people you trust know what is happening so that they may be able to take up the commitment on your behalf.

8.  Absolutley seek some form of counselling support so that you can get skilled up on handling this and other up coming issues.  I personally find that this is crucial in breaking your own patterns of destructive thinking around an event which left unchecked, seem to hold you in a pattern of pain and fear.  This is an excellent way to free yourself from the issue emotionally and identify what you need to focus your attention on and off going forward.  Essentially it also helps you understand that the other person’s motives (in the circumstances where personal attack is being perceived) aren’t always a personal attack on you, but more an inability to manage their own boundaries and emotional responses.

9.  Be gentle on yourself and surrounding family members/friends – the situation is often hard enough on everyone – if you can be focused on softening the blow rather than resisting and rebelling against it (seeking retribution), you may not get everything you want out of the outcome, but you will be much healthier and happier in the end (and better equipped for next time shocking news comes your way).

10.  Avoid eating high sugar or processed foods (fast foods).  Your body is trying to produce pain and mood relieving endorphins – help it along with some 70%+ dark chocolate, protein rich foods, B vitamins and Magnesium as well as plenty of fresh filtered water.  Contact me for a list of foods in these groups or my Shock Management diet if interested.

Remember that even after the event, everytime you think back, remember, recall or repeat the event – your body starts the flight and fight response again, so keep these tips up until you no longer feel an emotional charge and are strong and resilient again.

We are finding more so now than ever that the ingestion of sugar in many forms can be potentially harmful in the body and in some cases detrimental to a young child’s body. Research shows that refined sugars in snack foods, soft drinks, juices and bakery items are the main contributors to childhood obesity, cardiovascular disease in children and adults, digestive challenges, poor absorption of nutrients,Type II Diabetes and metabolic syndrome and just plain irritability.  But if we are ‘removing’ sugar, what do you feed your children?

The very fact that this poses a challenge is part of the problem.

Our children are being raised on a palate of sweet not savoury far too eagerly (even some commercially made cooked potato chips are sugar coated).  The taste buds for sweet tastes are at the tip of the tongue, so they are easily pleased.  In a healthy diet, the other tastes (salty, sour and bitter) are meant to be tantalised as well so to create a balanced palate (therefore body).

I have recently restricted the breast feeding mother of a young infant on her sugar intake (including fruit for a short period of time) and powered up her digestive system for better absorption and in just one week, her child was feeding comfortably and wasn’t showing signs of silent reflux as he was prior to the changes.  It can make a dramatic difference!

I would suggest that when you restrict your child’s diet, you do this in consultation with a professional following their advice and that you transition this as fast or as slowly as you know they will be able to handle it within their normal environment. Sometimes an all or nothing approach works, sometimes easing them in is more successful.  No matter what you do, there will always be some form of rebellion (it happens in adults too!).  Sugar is very addictive, so be prepared for a kick back, cold or flu like symptoms and irritability (which can be supported with specific homoeopathic remedies or herbs). Here are my top 10 Transitional Foods which can then become a part of the usual diet:

• Boiled eggs
• Veggie sticks or skewers and a savoury home made dip like hummus or guacamole
• Nut butter or seed butter (tahini, sunflower seed paste) made into snack balls – see my recipes page for Super Protein Ball recipe
• Organic Non Genetically Modified, no sugar added Corn flakes/coconut butter/raw cacao powder patty cakes
• Soup – ready made chicken/vegetable
• Brown rice risotto balls
• Chicken thighs rolled in egg, tamari sauce and corn flakes or sesame seeds and baked
• Tuna and crackers or piped through celery
• Frittata with a medley of vegetables
• Cream cheese blended and vegetable sticks/crackers
• Flat bread cut into shapes, sprayed with olive oil and sprinkle herbs or himalayan rock salt and bake till crunchy – store and they are a great ‘chip’.

This is an inexhaustible list of options but should make the way through a little easier!

Remember, when the other tastes on the tongue are given a chance to play, the craving for sugar soon disappears!  Try it yourself!