Studies have shown that when we eat a high GI breakfast we feel hungrier and eat more throughout the day than if we have a Low GI breakfast. This study in teens illustrates this well – no wonder I feel fuller for longer with my breakfast shake, and its so quick to prepare! There was actually a measurable difference in glucose levels, insulin levels, and how soon extra meals and snacks were requested. Dr Alison Grimston

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/111/3/488.abstract

Ball SD, Keller KR, Moyer-Mileur LJ, Ding YW, Donaldson D, Jackson WD. Prolongation of satiety after low versus moderately high glycemic index meals in obese adolescents. 2003. Pediatrics 111:488-94

Prolongation of Satiety After Low Versus Moderately High Glycemic Index Meals in Obese Adolescents

1. Shauna D. Ball, MS*,
2. Kelly R. Keller, MS*,
3. Laurie J. Moyer-Mileur, PhD*,
4. Yi-Wen Ding, MS*,
5. David Donaldson, MD‡,
6. W. Daniel Jackson, MD§

+ Author Affiliations

1. *Center for Pediatric Nutrition Research
2. ‡Division of Endocrinology
3. §Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Abstract

Background. One in 5 American children is overweight, despite a decrease in total fat consumption. This has sparked an interest in the carbohydrate composition of diets, including the glycemic index (GI).

Objective. To investigate whether a low-GI meal replacement (LMR) produced similar metabolic, hormonal, and satiety responses in overweight adolescents as a low-GI whole-food meal (LWM) when compared with a moderately high-GI meal replacement (HMR).

Methods. Randomized, crossover study comparing LMR, HMR, and LWM in 16 (8 male/8 female) adolescents during 3 separate 24-hour admissions. The meal replacements consisted of a shake and a nutrition bar. Identical test meals were provided at breakfast and lunch. Metabolic and hormonal indices were assessed between meals. Measures of participants’ perceived satiety included hunger scales and ad libitum food intake.

Results. The incremental areas under the curve for glucose were 46% and 43% lower after the LMR and LWM, respectively, compared with the HMR. Insulin’s incremental area under the curve was also significantly lower after both low GI test meals (LMR = 36%; LWM = 51%) compared with the HMR. Additional food was requested earlier after the HMR than the LMR (3.1 vs 3.9 hours, respectively), although voluntary energy intake did not differ.

Conclusions. Differences in insulin response between the meal replacements occurred, and prolongation of satiety after the LMR, based on time to request additional food, was observed. We speculate that the prolonged satiety associated with low GI foods may prove an effective method for reducing caloric intake and achieving long-term weight control.

What if you knew surefire techniques for improving your health and increasing your energy on a daily basis? You’d do them, right? In my last couple of posts, I’ve been addressing vital tips for boosting energy levels to show you how to plan your lifestyle to enhance your wellbeing.

If you’ve been following my advise, by now you should be experiencing increased vitality and feeling better than ever before. To keep you on the path of upward momentum, I’d like to offer one more vital tip for increasing your energy:

Take good quality nutritional supplements.

If you are anything like I was 3 years ago, you think that a good diet should contain all the nutrition that you need. I was taught at school that, “nutritional supplements just make expensive urine.” This can certainly be true – in fact for the commonly found, high street supplements, you will be lucky if it reaches the urine, as the tablets can legally contain as little as 20% of the stated nutrients in them, and are often not tested for absorption or bio-availability.

However, there are several reasons why I now feel that supplements are essential for optimal health, and are particularly important for diabetics.

Firstly – our need for supplements has increased. As our bodies are exposed to more toxins, radiation and stress, our cells have a greater need for good quality vitamins, which are part of the chemical pathways needed for energy production and the other functions of the cell.

Secondly – our supply of vitamins is reduced. Nowadays it is rare to find someone who shops daily for fresh fruit and vegetables, and even rarer for people to grow a full complement of vegetables themselves. Our vegetables are often picked unripe and travel for many miles to get to the store shelves, in many cases while being artificially ripened. Frequently, our foods are processed and bought pre-packaged. In many cases, food is grown in soil that is measurably poorer in the nutrients that we need our foodstuffs to provide for us. All of these aspects will reduce the vitamins and minerals in the food we eat by the time we eat them.

Thirdly – as we begin to understand the mechanism for diabetes more thoroughly at a cell level, we recognise that we need to support the insulin receptors on these cells more closely. These receptors have a particular need for chromium and vanadium among other minerals, and these are often deficient in a normal Western diet.

By taking good quality nutritional supplements, you can combat all three of these problems and take control of your health and wellbeing. Make sure that your body is receiving all the nutrients it needs to function at optimal levels and you’re sure to see a drastic improvement in the way you feel from day to day!

Take care of your self and stay tuned for more great ways to manage your diabetes and take charge of your wellbeing.

Love and health,
Alison

Would you like some more information on this? Listen to my podcast.

What is health? I believe that true health is a feeling of wellness that allows us to enjoy every day to the fullest. Believe it or not, you have a lot of control over your health, even if you’ve been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

Taking the time to learn what steps you can take to bring about change for yourself will give you the opportunity to take charge of your wellbeing.

In my last post, I began a series on tips to increase your energy levels. In this post we’ll look at my second vital tip for improving your daily life:

Eat a good quality diet, as low in glycemic index (GI) as possible.

This may be a new one for you, but my clients and I have found that changing our diet from the classic “low fat” to one that is focused more on “low glycemic” content has improved our energy drastically. I have had people come to me after just 2 weeks on the low GI diet absolutely amazed by not only their improved energy, but also by the weight loss that has been kick started by the process – even middle aged men who are notoriously difficult to inspire to change their eating habits.

Fundamentally, low GI means tweaking your food so that you introduce low glycemic foods in place of any high glycemic ones. For example, swap orange juice and white toast for breakfast (both high GI) for a glass of water with a slice of lemon in it, an orange, and wholemeal toast high in whole grains and seeds. Even better to omit bread altogether (which is what I have done) and substitute porridge or a recognised low GI shake with fruit.

Obviously this is a complex process, which I do not wish to make sound threatening. If you are anything like many of the people I have talked to, you are fed up with the roller coaster of going from one diet to another, only to gain the weight lost in the interim. This approach is different, and is fundamentally a change to your lifestyle.

I assure you that simply eating a diet of low glycemic foods will increase your energy and boost your overall wellbeing. Try lowering your glycemic index for a couple of weeks and see how your body reacts.

Stay tuned for my next post on a highly controversial topic: nutritional supplements. I look forward to sharing my views and insight with you very soon.

Be well!
Alison

Would you like some more information on this? Listen to my podcast.

Are you a person with Type 2 diabetes who is fed up with feeling exhausted halfway through the day? Do you find it difficult to focus and wish you could be more productive?

I find that a lack of energy is a common side effect of diabetes, often more so when it is poorly controlled. I also find that people who do not yet realise that they have pre-diabetes may experience tiredness and lethargy as an early sign.

Over the next few posts, I will be outlining some vital tips that can help you increase your energy levels so that you can start living your best life possible.

The first tip that I want to address may seem to be an obvious choice:

Drink plenty of water every day.

I frequently find that diabetics who are having problems with energy, as well as complications like migraines and other headaches, are simply not drinking enough water.
Having a tall glass of water with a slice of lemon in it is a great way to start the day. In addition to the improved flavour, the lemon slice gives you extra Vitamin C while also acting as an alkalising agent. So many of us in the modern world are eating diets heavy in too many processed foods, animal fats and grains, which gives us an acidic skew to our systems. Adding the alkalising agent of a lemon slice helps to combat that.

Once I started to begin each morning with a glass of water, I quickly began to see a difference in my energy levels. I now follow my glass of cold water with 2 additional cups of hot water with 3 slices of lemon in it, putting a little cold water in first so that I don’t steam out all of the Vitamin C. I started taking these as a refreshing alternative to tea when I recognised that I didn’t need as much tea as I was drinking and I’ve gotten great results.

Give these methods a try some time – they taste great and I think you may be pleasantly surprised. And, keep your eyes peeled for my next post on how to control your glycemic index (GI) to keep those energy levels on the rise!

Be healthy!
Alison

Would you like more information on this? Listen to my podcast.

Evidence based medicine

Evidence-based medicine has taken the medical world by storm in the last 10 years, yet it is actually impossible for anyone to keep up to date in their speciality, and for a generalist to keep up to date is a non-starter.

A recent comment in the newsletter for the British Holistic Medical Association sparked off a train of thought for me. The BHMA is an organisation of doctors, therapists and interested parties who are determined to keep a holistic approach to health management central. In fact, the by-line is “medicine as if people matter”. This is not to imply that non members believe that people don’t matter, but to remind us to keep the person we are talking to or dealing with central in our management plans.

http://www.bhma.org/

The BHMA team write:

Is evidence-based medicine a reality?  To keep up to date in any one medical speciality you would need to read 17 articles a day for 365 days a year.  The former editor of the BMJ, Richard Smith, writes an interesting editorial article on information overload in the Christmas issue of the BMJ  (BMJ2010: 341 7126).  Another useful fact is that only 30% of recommend medical treatments in practice are evidence based.  

Invoking Mind Body and Spirit is key in Holistic Medicine

My take on this subject:

Until 2005 I was convinced that I had to keep up to date with everything. By that time I had about 200 various medical journals and magazines piled high in my house – the ones I had not managed to read.

Let’s face it, as a doctor, every medical journal I picked up had something that I felt I “should” know and didn’t. In 2005 I let go of my ultra perfectionist, logical tendencies for ever. For the first time, I accepted that I would never be the “perfect” doctor, and while always striving to improve, I could safely let go of perfectionism and be happy to be “good enough”.

Having let go of that perfectionism, I am happier, easier to live with, easier to work with… the list is endless. In our world of information overload, an understanding that we can never know everything is fundamental to survival. I have survived, and I feel that I am a better doctor, employer, wife and mother as a result.

As for the fact that 30% of medical interventions can be said to be “evidence-based”, this is absolutely true. I tried to point this out in a discussion on a forum a few years ago, but found myself shouted down. If you take evidence based medicine in its purest form (which I believe removes our ability to heal ourselves from the equation), it is not possible or ethical to do trials of certain established interventions.

How would you like your child with appendicitis entered into a randomised controlled trial of appendicectomy versus “sham” surgery. just to see if the appendicectomy patients fared better? It would be a non starter, and put your child at risk.

This debate will go on and on, but I just wished to highlight that we doctors (and I’m sure other professionals such as lawyers and accountants) are overwhelmed by information. I also feel that this is the reason why most doctors do not have time to make themselves aware of the huge evidence base in favour of lifestyle advice and nutritional supplementation, as well as other complementary therapies, for patient care. Again, a debate that will run for decades.

For now, have a great week!

Alison

Healthy Eating doesn't have to be boring!

If you currently do not eat a healthy diet, it can seem difficult to get started. However, healthy eating is important for living the best life you can, and giving yourself the best chance possible of being healthy into old age. If you struggle with healthy eating, then you know that breaking unhealthy habits can be the most difficult part of the process. However, if you truly want to live the best lifestyle possible, it is important to find the motivation within to start eating a more healthy diet.

A good beginning step when you want to start eating more healthily is to rid your home of everything that does not fall into healthy categories. Keep junk foods and beverages out of your house so that you will not be tempted to snack during the day. If you are worried about getting hungry, keep healthy snacks like carrot sticks, yogurt, fresh fruit, or whole-wheat crackers on hand. If you find that you just cannot bear to toss out the sweets, try keeping something tiny on hand, like good quality chocolate chips. Eating a few of these won’t ruin your diet but also will give you that little sugary fix you crave for. A handful of dried fruit and nuts makes a delicious alternative.

Another great step to healthy eating when you are first starting the process is to take a few moments to learn about what foods are the healthiest for you and how they work in the body. Most people understand that fruits, vegetables, and low-fat meat and dairy products are good for the body, but few people understand why. The key is learning about nutrients. When you understand how specific nutrients work in the body, you will be more likely to make these healthy choices for your body. Knowledge really is power! However, few people realize the damage that high glycemic foods, often processed or grain-based, do to their food cravings and other aspects of their diet.

When getting ready for a new healthy diet, you should also take into consideration your schedule for meals. If you often eat in a rushed hurry at odd times of the day, you probably are not getting the best foods possible. Plan ahead! Instead of grabbing a fast food lunch on the go, take a bagged lunch or box of salad to work, or a healthy wrap and some fresh vegetables. Plan ahead for healthy meals in the evening as well -  cook ahead if you are not currently getting healthy dinners and have little time to cook when you get home every night.

Start with baby steps. Even if you only replace one soda a day with a glass of water, you are really improving your calorie intake. If you eat fast food everyday for lunch, try replacing that even half of the time. When you start by taking small steps, it does not seem like you are cutting out all of the foods you love and you can take your time to learn about healthy foods that you can love equally as well.

With best wishes,

Allie

Dr Alison Grimston

Join me on the Ultimate Weight Loss Bootcamp – It’s not too late to join us!  Take alook at our free introductin on http://bit.ly/adwkEG

Dr Alison Grimston (the Ultimate Energy Doctor) is a doctor, mentor and coach who helps entrepreneurs, coaches, trainers and athletes to build up the energy levels they need to do what they love. She also has an effective system for helping them to lose weight. As part of her work, she recommends the best, pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements which are guaranteed contaminant-free – especially important for athletes.
 
Disclaimer: The content of our website and Emails is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.

*These Statements have not been evaluated by the Food Standards Agency. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease

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Sound affects us in many different ways; we are all aware that we react differently to different sound tracks on films, giving us a feeling for the event that is about to happen; we all feel discomfort when we hear a pneumatic drill, or peace when surrounded by birdsong (a constant while I am working at my home office!). Now Julian Treasure shows you why – the scientific basis for these reactions. Take a few moments to check this out!

Have a great Monday!

Allie

Dr Alison Grimston

Dr Alison Grimston (the Ultimate Energy Doctor) is a doctor, mentor and coach who helps entrepreneurs, coaches, trainers and athletes to build up the energy levels they need to do what they love. She also has an effective system for helping them to lose weight. As part of her work, she recommends the best, pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements which are guaranteed contaminant-free – especially important for athletes.
 
Disclaimer: The content of our website and Emails is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.

*These Statements have not been evaluated by the Food Standards Agency. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease

Breast cancer continues to occur at a high incidence in Western women. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last summer indicated a surprisingly high incidence of Vitamin D deficiency in breast cancer survivors. It is difficult to take conclusions from the study, as we are not told what the incidence was in those who succumbed to breast cancer, nor are we told the incidence in a control group of individuals.

Vitamin D influences pathways related to cancer development, but little is currently known about vitamin D status in breast cancer survivors. Recent data taken from the Health, Eating, Activity and Lifestyle (HEAL) study showed a correlation between vitamin D status and breast cancer survivors. Vitamin D concentrations from 790 female breast cancer survivors were obtained and vitamin D insufficiency was found in 597 individuals – or 75% of participants. Average vitamin D concentrations were even lower among African American and Hispanic women.

Controlling for various factors such as body mass index (BMI), race/ethnicity, geography, season, physical activity, diet, and cancer treatments showed that stage of disease independently predicted vitamin D levels.

In this group of breast cancer survivors the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency was abnormally high. Based on these results, health professionals and clinicians might consider monitoring vitamin D status in breast cancer patients in addition to administering appropriate cancer treatments.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 88, No. 1, 133-139, July 2008

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Dr
Alison Grimston is a holistic doctor who works with complementary therapies and
nutritional supplements. She only recommends the best, pharmaceutical grade
nutritional supplements, such as those on www.holisticdoctor.usana.com.

Disclaimer: The content of our website is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.

Headaches are boring, aren’t
they?

Many people around prefer to pop
a pill to get rid of headaches. Paracetamol or Ibuprofen work quickly and
usually well. However, it is not always best to take tablets; it is habit forming
and exposes you to risks from overuse of any particular kind of drug. 

One or two bouts of headache a
month is considered natural. However, if it becomes repetitive or persistent,
it is definitely a matter of concern. You may require a medical check in such a
situation.

But first, let’s see what causes
headaches? Well, there are hundreds of causes, but the most common ones for
catching a headache are exposure to cold or hot sun, congestion, circulatory
problems, fluid deprivation, flu-like illnesses, and tension or excessive
stress. 

Sometimes weird reasons such as
indigestion and acidity can also trigger a headache.

So, what do you do when you have
a headache? 

There are numerous approaches to
curing a headache. Here, I will dwell only on some of the natural ways of curing
a headache that are of the non-repetitive type , which you can very well apply
all by yourself without taking any pill, be it a drug or a herbal product.

When you’re having a headache,
take a warm bath or shower. This improves blood circulation in your body and
helps you to get relief. 

Make sure you have drunk plenty
of water; the commonest cause I see in general practice is reduced fluid
intake. Water really is better than alternatives; it is more thirst-quenching,
too!

You can also apply an ice-pack on
the painful area, particularly the forehead, temples or the back of your neck
for quick and natural relief from headache, especially if the hot sun is
considered as the trigger. 

A gentle massage of the sore area
can not only relax the sore tissues and muscles, but also improve circulation
in the affected area making you feel better. You can use your index finger
and/or thumb and apply a rotating pressure for 10-15 seconds and then release
it. Do it for some time and I’m sure you’ll get good results.

As headaches are sometimes caused
by overstraining, rest can provide relief from headaches.  Simply take a nap, or sit down quietly in a
low-lit room. Keep your eyes closed and try to release the tension in your
neck, back and shoulders. 

Some light exercises are also
known to naturally relieve headaches quickly. I’d always suggest taking a walk.
However, if you’re in no mood to strain your legs, simply stand before an open
window where you can breathe in some fresh air. Take a deep breath, hold it for
some time and then slowly release it through both the nostrils (and not the
mouth). This exercise accelerates blood flow inside the body, particularly in
the region of the heads and gives you quick relief from headache…naturally.
   

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This is the blog of Dr Alison Grimston, a United Kingdom GP and spiritual healer who works with animals and people. Here she offers insights and information on integrating the best of complementary and scientific medicine in human and animal care.

Disclaimer:

The content of our website is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.