My Top 4 Tips to Achieve Optimal Health

There are a million never ending rabbit holes that you can find when digging through various natural health and functional medicine resources on the internet. There are people that say one thing is a perfect health fix, then others that say it’s the worst thing ever. How can you ever begin to understand what is actually healthy and what isn’t? That’s a loaded question. The answer to that is that you must first understand what exactly YOUR version of healthy is. Keep reading to hear my top 4 tips to achieve optimal health.

Eat Properly

I’ve found that if I ask my patients how their diet is, the answer is very often “good”, “great”, or even “I eat super healthy, so I don’t think my diet is an issue”. Most people that I see do a great job of eating the right things, but quantities and timing tend to be where problems lie. I always recommend whole foods that are organic. Meaning unprocessed meats, eggs, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and some grains. The old adage of only buying groceries from the perimeter of the store holds true with my recommendations.

Foods to avoid as much as possible are things such as trans fats, processed seed oils, processed sugar, food dyes, MSG, and artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols. My recommendation against these is across the board for all people. These things just aren’t good for you for so many different reasons.

Timing of meals and amount of food plays a HUGE role in hormone regulation, which most people often don’t realize. If you eat enough protein and fat without overdoing the carbs and space meals out properly throughout the day, it’s possible to completely remove the body’s hormone dependence to regulate blood sugar. Those who tend to under-eat will produce cortisol to increase blood sugar, which leads to feelings of stress, anxiety, and feeling “hangry”. People who eat too many carbs and sugars will produce too much insulin. This leads to weight gain, tiredness after meals, and eventually can evolve to type 2 diabetes. Click here for another article that digs into the specifics of proper meal timing.

Eating properly doesn’t mean eat the same things at the same time as everybody else. Every person has a lifetime of wear and tear in addition to the inherent genetic predisposal to certain conditions and sensitivities. For this reason, I cater recommendations to each patient and the situation. SIBO, histamine intolerance, insulin resistance, food sensitivities, and other issues can all require different recommendations. I encourage everybody to LEARN about their health, so that they can make the best decisions possible to move towards optimal health.

Eliminate Inflammation

Inflammation is this word that most people throw around without truly understanding what it is. When stuff hurts, the immune system increases its function to remove damaged cells and tissue. I find that people often say they have a lot of inflammation when everything hurts, and this is very well true. But, inflammation encompasses so much more than just musculoskeletal pain. Inflammation involves anything that an immune response leading to tissue breakdown. This includes sickness, allergies, heavy metal toxicity, gut overgrowths (like SIBO), bladder infections, mold, and more.

If all of these things drive inflammation, then how can you possibly figure out which of these are the main issues? My short answer would be to go see your neighborhood functional medicine doc, preferably a Systems Health Care practitioner. That isn’t feasible for some people, so my next advice is to pay attention to the signs and symptoms that are associated with specific types of inflammation and what you can do to remedy these.

If you’re sick with some virus or bacterial infection, some great immune boosting nutrients are vitamins A and D, zinc, and glutathione. Add those in with some anti-microbial herbs and you’ll set yourself up for success. Allergies can be due to increased histamine or even food sensitivities. Pay attention to what your triggers are and try to avoid those. Vitamins A and C, and activated B9 and B6 are all good anti-histamines. Metals can have systemic symptoms involving fatigue and brain fog, but they’re often associated with skin issues such as eczema or dermatitis. Antioxidants and charcoal are both options to help with this. D-mannose with cranberry and uva ursi in combination are a bladder infections worst nightmare. Load up on those to kick that quick. Gut dysbiosis and mold can be a bit more tough. Low FODMAP and keto diets can help alleviate the symptoms, but anti-microbial herbs are necessary to clear out unwanted bugs.

Omega 3 fatty acids, or fish oils, are great natural anti-inflammatories for general inflammation. Get those from a good source (food or reputable supplement) and it will help clear inflammation through the same pathway that ibuprofen or aspirin work. Without the negative consequences, of course.

Prioritize Sleep

Sleep is the foundation for our body’s ability to repair itself. During sleep, energy reserves replenish, the immune system functions efficiently, and tissue rebuilding happens at exponentially greater rates than when we’re awake. Without proper sleep, not only are all of these functions inhibited greatly, we are also plunged into a downward spiral of increased stress hormones and decreased inhibitory neurotransmitters that will make sleep even worse over time. This leads to a disruption in the autonomic nervous system, which will lead to increased susceptibility to infections and decreased energy.

There is a lot of debate about how much sleep is necessary. Some people say 6 hours, some say 7, and some say 8. As with all of my other recommendations, my goal is to personalize care to meet the needs of each individual patient. Some people who have an increased stress load might require more sleep because their metabolic need for repair and energy replenishment has increased. Individuals who aren’t stressed might require less.

The way that I recommend that my patients modulate their sleep habits is to pay attention to the balance of energy required for work, exercise habits, and normal life activities. If you’re over-exerting yourself day in and day out, then your demand for sleep will increase. Unfortunately, that means that most people sacrifice sleep, which is the last thing that your body needs!

I very often see patients that try to sleep, but just can’t. A lot of them struggle to fall asleep while others wake up numerous times throughout the night. Many struggle with both. There are a couple different solutions to these problems on my end, but first, you need to do your part to prepare for sleep properly. Blue light is one of the worst things for disrupting your normal sleep/wake cycle. Electronics and. Artificial light emit blue light and trick your pineal gland into thinking that it’s daytime. Use warm colored light at home or get some blue light filtering glasses to help ensure a proper circadian rhythm. Beyond this, a warm shower or nighttime relaxation routine are great ways to ease into sleep.

Lack of sleep contributes to stress, but stress also contributes to lack of sleep. Chemical stress caused by blood sugar dysregulation is one of the leading causes of waking up throughout the night. Revisit my blood sugar article here to learn how to fix that!

The other component of stress is its negative effect on production of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter. GABA calms all of the excess neurologic “noise” that goes on in your brain. It’s what prevents your mind from racing at night with all the thoughts about your stressful day that keep you awake. When there isn’t enough of it, you’ll be staring at your ceiling all night. Deficiencies in zinc and magnesium can contribute to this, but these tend to be low due to some other issue. Some herbs that boost GABA production are passionflower and valerian root. Try one of these. It just might knock you out!

Invest In Your Health

If you forget to change your brake pads, you can always replace the rotors on your car. It’s an expensive mistake, but it’s a problem that can be solved. None of us are blessed with the luxury of getting a new body every few years like some people do with their cars. We NEED to take care of the body we have. I encourage you to identify your weakest links and double down to fortify them. Eat organic, whole foods and exercise often. Regulate your blood sugar by eating PROPERLY. Supplement vitamins and minerals that are clean and pure. Utilize nature’s healing power with herbs that naturally fight infection, boost sleep, and fortify health. Our world is full of things that will rob you of health. Invest in yourself to get healthy and stay that way. Stack the odds in your favor!

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and thank you for making it to the end! If you have any questions about your health or would like some deeper insights into your health strategy, book a free 20 minute phone consultation here. If you’d like to find a local doc who practices like me, click here. For more health articles, click here. Your health can be difficult to navigate on your own. Find someone willing to help. You’ll never look back!

In health,

Dr. Timothy Augustyniak, DC – Functional Medicine and Applied Kinesiology

Call: (479) 310-0589

Email: doc@draugustyniak.com