Listen to Dr. Dog

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When I’m traveling, I often scan the airline magazine. This past weekend, I found an intriguing article about dogs and disease.

A woman had an unexplained weight gain after she moved across country several years ago. She also had repeated UTIs, bladder infections, and abdominal pain unexplained by digestive issues. She was treated and seemed to recover, but her husky kept sniffing her abdomen. She tired of it and shooed the dog away, but the dog would hide in the back of a closet whimpering. When her abdominal pain came back, she put two and two together because of the dog’s actions and sought a further diagnosis. She was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer. It’s returned once and the dog acted the same way.

In another case, a women’s dog kept trying to bite the back of her calf. She finally looked at the area and found a dark spot. She had melanoma.

The ability of dogs to smell thousands of times better than we can seems to be related. Cancer releases proteins that dogs can smell. I’ve got more to research on this but for now, if your dog is trying to tell you something in some strange way, listen.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Southwest Travel Magazine. 02-2020.

No Memos???

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The devastating chest cold that’s been wiping out West Michigan came to our house early last week and stayed—that’s why there have been no Memos this week. We all got the congestion and cough, but other symptoms seem random: Riley had fever, Paula had chills, and I had muscle fatigue. Worse yet, it fogs the brain and if I can’t think clearly, I can’t accomplish anything. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for Paula because she has a history of sinus infections, and two weeks is a long time to have such thick congestion.

We’re recovering slowly because there’s no hurrying this recovery. My optician said she’s had the cough, albeit less severe, for six weeks. As we recover, the Memos will return on a regular basis.

We’ve focused on the Super Bowl Webinar at noon on Sunday, Super Bowl X Webinar: Energy for Life. Luckily I’d already written it, and my voice has recovered, so it’s on. Because I’m sending out the log in information later tonight, you must have signed up or contacted me by 9 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. Pacific Time). If you’re occupied then, you can register and I’ll send you a link to listen later.

Our daughter-in-law Kerri is a pediatric respiratory therapist. After a couple days of restricted breathing, we have enhanced respect for what she does, so a special thank you to all the RTs, researchers, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who keep us breathing.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience; we really hate to let you down. We’ll be back to normal soon. For those of you on the webinar, talk to you tomorrow.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

HIIT Will Get You Fit

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An Insider emailed me a link to a press release about high-intensity interval training, or HIIT for short. I’ve always used interval training, when I was a serious runner, and now as a way to increase my fitness level faster. That’s why I was a little surprised that a study suggested that you have to do intervals that are at least a minute long and shouldn’t rest more than two minutes. I checked out what I could find.

The research was presented at a conference and as much as I tried, I couldn’t get the abstract. Fortunately, the press release contained just enough information to figure out what was what. The researchers recruited 26 previously sedentary subjects and put them on a HIIT program. They either took part in 60-second intervals of high intensity with 60 seconds rest or intervals that lasted 30 seconds with 120 seconds rest. While both groups saw similar changes in body composition and arterial stiffness, the 60/60 groups saw bigger improvements in max VO2, a measure of aerobic fitness. In fact, the release included comments from the lead author that the subjects didn’t improve their fitness level at all.

That didn’t make any sense to me. If the intensity was high enough, 30 seconds of all-out effort would need two minutes to recover. I found the problem. One of the purposes of the study was to use exercises people could do at home, so they used calisthenics: push-ups, squats, sit-ups and exercises such as that. That’s admirable, but it made the headline and her comments misleading—extremely misleading.

Using sedentary subjects means they had to overcome localized muscle fatigue. The localized muscle pain may get the heart rate to increase but it’s limited by muscle stamina, especially in sedentary individuals, until they could actually do enough push-ups, etc., to challenge their cardiovascular system. A six-week study is not long enough for them to really master the movements and do them fast enough in order to get a good aerobic training effect.

The Bottom Line

HIIT can be effective if done properly; running and cycling are still the best options to do that. You can reach aerobic exhaustion in 30 seconds if the intensity is high enough, and if you do, you’ll need every one of those two minutes to recover before the next interval begins. You must make sure your cardiovascular system is ready for it, so get your doctor’s clearance before you attempt it.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Resistant Starch and Your Gut

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After last week’s Memos on resistant starches, I received a couple of emails asking me to talk about related topics. I think they’re both important, so here we go.

The first was something I mentioned but didn’t focus on. You may remember that I said that resistant starches can act as prebiotic to produce short-chain fatty acids. The process is by fermentation, so that means it will produce gas. For some people, the gas production is so uncomfortable, it can negatively impact their life; they have to avoid some resistant starches. The good news is that the variety of foods that contain resistant starches is vast, so there are some foods that are less intrusive.

That leads to the second question about resistant starches and leaky gut syndrome. One of the issues with leaky gut is that the mucus layer on the inner gut is not as developed in some areas, and that leads to problems with nutrients and bacteria entering the blood stream directly. Resistant starches have been shown to be beneficial for leaky gut. However, the same issue with fermentation may happen until the bacterial colony grows sufficiently. The approach would be to slowly increase resistant starches to prevent over-fermentation.

There have been many questions, but I’ll wrap this up on Saturday and keep some questions for another time.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Thyroid Function and Cruciferous Vegetables

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A long-time friend and Memo reader asked this question: “Some Internet health experts and websites say to avoid raw broccoli if you have an underactive thyroid; I did that and my scores improved. Why?” The answer is complicated, but here’s what I found.

Raw cruciferous vegetables contain phytonutrients that are important to our health. However, in people with iodine deficiency, those phytonutrients may interfere with the production of thyroid hormones. Cooking broccoli, even a quick steam, negates that impact.

If you’re concerned, here are three things to do. First, get your iodine levels tested to see your iodine status. Most multiminerals have iodine, but you may need even more and your doctor can help you decide that. Second, if your iodine or thyroid hormone levels are low, always cook any cruciferous vegetables you eat. They’re healthy for you, but maybe just not raw.

Finally, and I think this is the most important, always take your thyroid medication without eating for at least a couple of hours (a little cream in your coffee is okay, but not a meal). How do you do that? Most of us don’t have a couple hours to wait around to eat before the day begins. You can take it at bedtime, or you can put it next to the sink and take it when you get up during the night.

Most people avoid dairy because calcium interferes with thyroid meds, and I found after researching this, there are many others foods that also interfere. Just take the thyroid medication by itself. Check with your doctor about other oral medications that may have an impact as well.

If this is a reminder that you need to eat more cruciferous veggies, I couldn’t agree more. Here’s a way to eat more in a targeted way: get my book Real-Life Detox. It includes some tasty recipes, including “I Can’t Cook” Detox Cabbage Soup that requires nothing more complicated that opening bags and turning on the cooktop. You can get both the paper book and e-book for a special price at drchet.com; as always, Members and Insiders get their discount.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Unusual Question: Resistant Starch and Food Prep

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Resistant starch (RS) has qualities that are somewhat unique. As it’s being touted today, RS will help reduce the glycemic response to some carbohydrate-based foods. The issue is that when and how an RS containing food is prepared and consumed seems to be important. Let’s take a look.

Food Preparation Methods

The most natural forms of resistant starch to eat, regardless of preparation, are beans, seeds, nuts, and legumes. The food preparation doesn’t seem to impact the RS in any way, so these are the best ways to get RS.

Eating bananas and plantains when they’re green provides a high amount of RS. The more they’re allowed to ripen, the higher the sugar content and the less RS.

Raw potatoes also seem to have a high amount of RS. Because most people don’t eat raw potatoes, the type of preparation impacts RS levels. The longer the potatoes are cooked, the more the starch is changed into sugars or starches that don’t contain as much RS. In a review study of potatoes, the cooking method that contains the most RS was baked, followed by deep-fried, and finally boiled. The problem with deep-fried is the additional fat.

Does Cooling Increase RS?

We rarely hear about nutrients being increased by food prep, but RS may be the exception. A lot of the recent focus on RS surrounds the possibility of increasing RS by cooking and then cooling the foods before eating. The RS that degenerates during cooking is partially restored in cooling, particularly in rice and pasta.

However, in a study that examined the difference between rice that was eaten immediately, kept at room temperature and eaten eight hours later, and cooled for 24 hours and then eaten, the amount of fiber increased by 0.64 grams, 1.3 grams, and 1.65 grams per 100 grams serving. Stated slightly differently, in a half-cup portion, there was an increase of one gram of fiber per serving. While it’s true, it’s not meaningful in the real world and probably not worth the additional effort.

RS and Type 2 Diabetes

Another benefit of RS is to reduce the amount of sugar that enters the blood stream. In the rice study, the cooked and cooled rice was fed to 15 healthy volunteers. Their glycemic response was reduced. While I think that’s great, there’s no indication that this will happen in T2D. On top of that, think about the additional steps required to achieve that. I think there’s a better way.

The Bottom Line

Resistant starch is legit; it acts as a prebiotic and reduces the glycemic response, but I don’t think we need to go out of our way to get more of it. Increasing our intake of beans, seeds, legumes, and nuts will increase our RS the most without jumping through hoops. If you like green bananas, eat them. Cook your pasta al dente and that maintains some of the RS in pasta. If you like to cook extra rice and pasta to use in later meals, now you know there’s a nutritional benefit. You don’t need to do anything else but eat the foods that naturally contain RS. Simply put, just eat better.

Next week is all your questions, so send them in if you haven’t already.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. Nutrients. 2018 Nov 14;10(11). pii: E1764. doi: 10.3390/nu10111764.
2. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2015;24(4):620-625.

Unusual Questions: Resistant Starch

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Recently an Insider asked what I knew about resistant starch and whether it can help control blood sugar in someone whose blood sugar was higher than normal. Here’s what I found.

Resistant starch (RS) is found in many vegetables and some fruits. It resists digestion and absorption, especially in the small intestine. One of the problems: RS is described on the Internet as not digested and absorbed, but that’s not accurate. It resists digestion and absorption in the small intestine but doesn’t block it completely. Because it doesn’t break down to sugar molecules, RS will not spike blood sugar the way non-resistant starch might.

RS is digested by gut bacteria in a fermentation process. Because the RS feeds healthy bacteria, it produces, among other substances, short-chained fatty acids—fats that can be used for energy without being processed by the liver. The highest amount of RS can be found in beans, grains, potatoes, bananas, and plantains.

However, it’s not quite as simple as that because food preparation happens to be important in this process. I’ll cover that as well as some other research on RS in Saturday’s Memo.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Unusual Questions: The Grit in Pears

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Let’s kick off the 2020 Memos a little differently. Every health website is focusing on weight loss and fitness resolutions. Of course they are—it’s that time of year. But let’s be non-conformist and start by answering questions that may seem a little unusual, such as: is there any truth that cooking rice or pasta and then refrigerating it increases the fiber content? I’ll start with one Paula asked: what are those little gritty things in pears? You know, like the fruit has little pieces of sand in it.

My first thought was that it was some type of fiber. Wrong. It turns out that there are different types of plant cell-wall components. Some are flexible, some are not. Sclereids are cell-wall components that are rigid; clusters of them cause the grittiness in pears. The seed coats of beans, peas, and most other seeds are also made up of sclereids. They’re indigestible and just pass through the digestive system. Are they fiber? The don’t seem to be, but because they’re not digested, they’ll add bulk to the stool. That explains why peas and corn seem to seem to look the same exiting as they do entering.

I can’t let you go without a little nutrition talk: pear and cheese is one of our most frequent evening snacks. You can’t go wrong pairing any kind of pear with our favorite Costco Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar in the black wrapper. Or try a green salad with pear, blue cheese, dried cranberries, glazed walnuts, and balsamic dressing; add leftover chicken, and you’ve got a meal.

The idea of refrigerating pasta and rice was interesting, so I’ll be writing about resistant starch the rest of the week. If you have any questions that seem to be a little out there, send them to me and I’ll answer them next week. If you want to know, I guarantee others do as well.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Chapter 3: Cells, Tissues, And Organs: The Microscopic Components Of Plant Structure. J&P Learning.

Happy New Year!

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Another year has begun, filled with our hopes and dreams of what is possible. It’s a time of setting goals, developing a plan, and then working on seeing those dreams become reality. Most of you probably have a revamped healthier and fitter body on your list.

The question is: what does that mean to you? How do you define health? How do you define fitness? The answers could be different for everyone. That means that you may need a specialized plan to reach those goals.

For 2020, I’m designing the information and programs you need to do just that. As the month and year proceed, I’ll tell you how I’m going to help you achieve those goals. One thing for sure is this: it will all come down to how you answer one question.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Merry Christmas!

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From Paula, myself, and our extended family, we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday! And I guarantee our Elf on the Shelf gets into more mischief than yours.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet