Saturday, August 17, 2013

Zeff's Spectrum Resources

Introduction

Since Dean Ornish, MD published his revolutionary paper on heart disease in 1990, ( 


 ) the foundation of his program has been diet, stress relief, and exercise. He calls his program The Spectrum ( http://www.ornishspectrum.com/ ) and achieves remarkable results curing heart disease. Mimi Guarneri ( http://www.mimiguarnerimd.com/ ) adopted the same three pronged approach and achieves similar remarkable results at her clinic. The Pirtikin Longevity Center ( http://www.pritikin.com/ ) also uses Ornish's three pronged approach and achieves the same results. All three of these organizations regularly publish their results in peer reviewed journals. There are many, many papers. And there are many hospitals and medical centers around the country that are adopting the program.

Besides heart disease, there are many papers on telomerase, gene expression, prostate cancer, diabetes, pre-diabetes, hypertension, depression, ... For example, Ornish shows that his program will suppress oncogenes, express tumor suppressor genes, and put early-stage prostate cancer into remission (  http://nutritionfacts.org/video/cancer-reversal-through-diet/ ).

So, I will address all three: diet, stress relief, and exercise. Well, I only have very, very little to say about exercise.

Caveat Emptor: These are what work for me. They may not work for you.


Shopping

To start a vegan diet, first learn what foods to buy and what not to buy. Then, acquire some cookbooks, and finally, know how to eat in restaurants.


Novick's Rules

Jeff Novick ( http://jeffnovick.com/ ) is a well know speaker and advocate of the vegan lifestyle. He has developed some very easy rules to help one shop in a grocery store.

Read the label how to make quick judgments. He has simple steps.

1. Look at the calories per serving.

2. Look at the fat from calories per serving. The fat from calories per serving should be no more than 20% of the total calories per serving.

3. Look at the salt per serving in mg. The salt per serving in mg should be less than the total calories.

4. Make sure there is no refined sugar or other toxins.

That's it. He has a wonderful DVD that explains this in very simple terms ( http://jeffnovick.com/RD/Fast_Food_Vol_3.html ). In the DVD, he visits a Whole Foods grorcery store and comments on specific products, explaining the label and what to take into account.

A short web page that explains the rules in detail can be found at ( http://www.healthscience.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105:understanding-food-labels&catid=75:healthy-eating&Itemid=123 )

The DVD contains extensive notes on products carried by Whole Foods in PDF form that can be printed and taken to the store.  You can find the PDF files in my public Google Docs directory at (  https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By4NsPMHLJ_sZkhPVVp5MXpVUnc&usp=sharing ). Please download them and print them for yourself.


Supplements

I have found understanding supplements, when to use what, and the interactions a very difficult field. Moreover, there are not regulations about sufficient labeling and product formulation. So, when you supplements at the grocery or almost any supplement store, you do not know what you are buying or how it will work.

There are supplements, however, that are formulated to the same standards as prescription drugs. They are used by medical doctors for patient protocols. Farmacopia ( http://www.farmacopia.net/ ) in Santa Rosa, CA sells these supplements. Almost anything you need is available and you know what you are getting.

To understand what you should take and how it might interact with other supplements you are taking contact Lily Mazzarella at Farmacopia ( 707-528-4372 ). She is very well trained and can help you develop a program and protocol that will work for you. Personally, I read a lot in Natural Standard ( http://www.naturalstandard.com/ see below ), then call Lily.


Recipes

Books



Food Data

But what is the food content of the items in the recipes. How much omega 6 is there in an avocado or coconut milk. One is wonderful and the other is very toxic. Where is the data? You can find a complete analysis of the natural foods at ( http://nutritiondata.self.com/ ). The information is presented in nutrition label style format. Quantity conversions are simple. You can easily compute the data for your recipes.

Alkaline Body Chemical Balance

Russell Jaffe

80% of you calories should come from alkaline foods from the left side of the chart. Down load the chart here ( https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By4NsPMHLJ_sZWtnYTd6aUROOWs&usp=sharing ).

Smoothies


Vega One

Balanced Omega-3 and Omega-6, protein, fiber


http://myvega.com/


http://myvega.com/product/vega-one-nutritional-shake/

15 g protein. 6 g fiber. 1.5 g omega-3 and 1 g omega-6. 

Wrote for soluble and insoluble content on 10/1/13.

Need Calories and sugar and salt from label


Raw Fiber

Contains 6 g protein. 9 g fiber per serving. 5 g soluble, 5 g insoluble.  1 g Omega-3. Calories 85, calories from fat 35. Should have only 20% fat but is 41% fat. Balance fat against rest of daily diet.  2 g sugar. 0 g salt.

Wrote for omega-6 contents on 10/1/13. Contains coconut. Could be high in omega-6.

http://www.gardenoflife.com/Products-for-Life/RAW-Digestion/RAW-Fiber.aspx


                  |    Vega One     |    Raw Fiber   | Total |
protein           | 1  15g | 3  45g | 1  9g | 2  18g |   63g |
soluble fiber     | 1   ?g | 3   ?g | 1  4g | 2  10g |   10g |
insoluble fiber   | 1   6g | 3  18g | 1  5g | 2  10g |   28g |
omega-3           | 1 1.5g | 3 4.5g | 1  1g | 2   2g |  6.5g |
omega-6           | 1 1.0g | 3 3.0g | 1  ?g | 2   ?g |    3g |
calories          | 1 141  | 3 423  | 1 85  | 2 170  |  593  |
calories from fat | 1  29  | 3  87  | 1 35  | 2  70  |  157  |
salt              | 1 135mg| 3 405mg| 1  0mg| 2   0mg|  405mg|
sugar             | 1   3g | 3   9g | 2  2g | 2   4g |   13g |



Restaurant Guides



Happy Cow

http://www.happycow.net/


Also has Android and iPhone application. Good international coverage.


Bay Area Restaurants


A very good guide to San Francisco

http://daveola.co2m/Vegetarian/Restaurants/
4

http://lydiasorganics.com/the-sunflower-center.html

To try in SF http://www.thistleandryesf.com/

Web Sites for San Francisco Bay Area Vegan Activities


Bay Area Vegetarians


http://www.bayareaveg.org/

VegSF


http://vegsf.com/

The San Francisco Vegetarian Society


http://sfvs.org/

MeetUp


Nutrition Science


The Science of Raw Food Nutrition

The Living Light Culinary Institute ( http://www.rawfoodchef.com/ ) offers three courses on vegan nutrition: The Science of Raw Food Nutrition I, II, and III. See the web page at ( http://rawfoodchef.com/NutritionPrograms/IntroductoryNutritionCurriculum.html ) for a summary of the courses.

These courses are about vegan nutrition in general and not specifically about raw vegan nutrition. Also, the courses are very comprehensive and answer almost all general questions one may have about vegan nutrition.


The courses are taught by Dr. Rick Dina, D.C., and Dr. Karin Dina, D.C. ( http://rawfoodeducation.com/ ). You can see more about the courses at ( http://rawfoodeducation.com/?page_id=45 ). The first course takes a weekend. The second and third courses each take four days. An FAQ on the courses can be found at ( http://rawfoodeducation.com/?page_id=353 ).


I took courses I and II in 2011 and course III in 2013. I have scanned all the notes and they are available for download from from my Google Docs public directory at ( https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By4NsPMHLJ_sUk5RVGdOd1VGa0k&usp=sharing ). 


There are about 400 pages of course notes written by Rick and Karin. They really are notes. I do not advise you try to read them without help. However, if you have a question, you can download the notes and we can arrange a telephone call in which I can explain a particular section and how the science relates to your question.



Natural Standard

http://www.naturalstandard.com/


If you have any questions on integrative health I have an online subscription to Natural Standard and can provide a quick answer to many questions. Natural Standard is well indexed and can provide answers to questions such as "What are all the supplements that might treat a specific symptom? or What are all the uses for a specific supplement? Natural Standard is not so much about nutrition. It is more about supplements and therapies.


"Natural Standard was founded by healthcare providers and researchers to provide high-quality, evidence-based information about complementary and alternative medicine including dietary supplements and integrative therapies. Grades reflect the level of available scientific data for or against the use of each therapy for a specific medical condition."

For the Natural Standard, I need to login and do the query. If I know you, I will make a PDF of the query results and email it to you.


Michael Greger, MD

http://nutritionfacts.org/

Dr. Greger scans every nutritional and medical journal, every year, for every article about vegan nutrition. He gathers together important new research into themes and make short two to five minute videos on specific topics. Every video is based on articles from peer-reviewed medical journals yet they are very easy to understand. On http://nutritionfacts.org/ you can find citations for the original papers. You can follow links to the original papers. If you start reading the references to the original papers, you will soon discover there are thousands of studies behind the research in these videos.



Dr. Greger can, at times, be overly enthusiastic. And, at other times, he can be too simplistic. If you have any doubts at all, I strongly recommend you both read the original papers and consult Natural Standard.


Dr. Greger's personal web page is at ( http://www.drgreger.org/ ).


I have been following Dr. Greger for a few years and have watched every video. If you have questions and you cannot find answers on his site, ask me. I may remember where to find an answer.


PubMed

Often, when you follow the links in a Greger video, you can only see the abstract. To see the complete paper, you must have access to PubMed.




"PubMed comprises more than 22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books."


Again, if I know you, I will login to PubMed and email you a copy of the paper.

Stress Relief

PolyVagal Theory ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Porges#The_Polyvagal_Theory )

The Scientific American article "Psychology beyond the brain" explains the Polyvagal Theory and the connection to heart rate variability (HRV). "In particular, heart rate variability (HRV), variation in the heart’s beat-to-beat interval, plays a key role in social behaviors ranging from decision-making, regulating one’s emotions, coping with stress, and even academic engagement. Decreased HRV appears to be related to depression and autism and may be linked to thinking about information deliberately. Increased HRV, on the other hand, is associated with greater social skills such as recognizing other people’s emotions and helps people cope with socially stressful situations, such as thinking about giving a public speech or being evaluated by someone of another race." ( http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-heart )

"The Coherent Heart: Heart-Brain Interactions and Psychophysiological Coherence by Molly Roberts, MD, MS are slides from a talk I attended that outline the importance of HRV in healing. ( https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By4NsPMHLJ_sMXpQb3JvOXM4clE/edit?usp=sharing ). Over many years, The HeartMath Institute as studied HRV ( http://www.heartmath.org/ ). I have collected many of the research papers in my Google Docs directory at ( https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By4NsPMHLJ_sYjcxOTdkNDUtNWI1OC00MTdlLWI5NGYtOWNlOWJlOGNkYTJk&usp=sharing ).



I have found the HartMath emWave very effective for helping me achieve a coherent heart ( http://store.heartmath.org/ ). Some of the emWave manuals are available in my PolyVagal Google Docs directory.


Focusing

Background and Ann

PDFs

CDs and DVDs

Lee Pulos, PhD

http://drpulos.com/

Recordings at

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By4NsPMHLJ_sZFd1c09YVTFKTTg&usp=sharing


There is no research that shows the recordings work. But, they seem to work for me.


Posit Science

As we age, our fine discrimination skills and memory seem to deteriorate  There is a lot of stress associated with this. Here's something one can do.

https://brainhq.positscience.com/play/brainhq

Not only does the stress diminish, but one can hear better, see better, remember names better, ... All good stuff.

There is lots of research and peer reviewed published papers showing this works.


Exercise

Swimming

For cardio exercise. Cannot put pressure on joints; walking, treadmill, elliptical  ... damage me. My experience.

Pilates

For strength building. Watch joints; equipment, weights, yoga damage me. Need to train instructor.