How to Live Happy, Healthy, and Whole

July 31, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

Many people understand that having a diet focused on clean, whole, organic foods will increase their health and well-being significantly. A good diet helps control your weight, provides the energy you need to thrive, and uses the nutrients in that food to fight against harmful toxins and diseases. What a large number of people aren’t as familiar with is to be truly happy, healthy, and whole in all aspects and to sincerely enjoy the life you live, there are six additional components that are just as important as nutrition.

My book, How to Live Until You Die, provides an in-depth look at each of these critical areas (I call them The Seven Keys to Living Happy, Healthy, and Whole) and explains the importance and uniqueness of each. This information is imperative to anyone who is seeking a complete life, full of vitality and joy. When your mind, body, and spirit are all well-taken care of, you can really live a happy and abundant life.

Good nutrition is very important to your overall well-being, and brings enormous rewards to your life in conjunction with the other six keys. To receive proper nutrition and manage your diet effectively you need to make sure you are avoiding products that contain deadly toxins. Target non-processed whole foods and try to consume a protein, a carbohydrate, and a good fat as part of every meal. In addition to proper nutrition through natural foods, I always recommend adding certain supplements to your diet in order to increase your daily nutrient intake. The most important supplements to take include multivitamins, CoQ10, fish oil, probiotics, and Vitamin D. (more blogs on nutrition)

Along with proper nutrition, two other things that go hand-in-hand with your physical health are exercise and water. Daily exercise is essential for feeling good and avoiding obesity. Most of the highly-promoted exercise programs today tout outlandish promises and extremely rigorous routines that can discourage many people from even getting started on the exercise plan. The best thing to do is start simple. Incorporate more movement into your day today than you did yesterday. When you exercise regularly, it’s important to drink plenty of water. Our bodies are comprised mainly of water and it’s crucial to consume the amount of water necessary to maintain your natural levels. Dehydration will cause you to be sluggish and can be the root of serious negative effects on your mood and your health. You should be drinking a half ounce of water for every pound you weigh, everyday. (more blogs on water)

Once you’ve covered nutrition, exercise, and water, you need to make sure you’re getting enough sleep. In 350 BC, Aristotle wrote an essay titled Sleep and Sleeplessness to promote the importance of sleep. He did a great job of detailing the ways that proper sleep benefits the body, and the points he made are all still true today. One thing that has changed since Aristotle’s essay is the exposure to blue light people receive from devices like smartphones, tablets, and TV screens. This light interferes with your natural melatonin production and can prohibit restfulness. I recommend not using these devices in your bed, and shutting them off about one hour before you want to fall asleep. Are you getting enough sleep at night? According to the National Sleep Foundation, you should be targeting between seven and nine hours per night. (more blogs on sleep)

Sleep can provide tremendous physical and mental health benefits, rejuvenating your body and your mind. Brain health is just as important to your vitality as physical health. Two other areas of equal importance are your spirit and your soul. In How to Live Until You Die, I devote one chapter to each of these, explaining why your spirit and soul are critical to your overall well-being. Using positivity, prayer, and meditation can greatly reduce the impact of stress in your life. When you invest in the health of your spirit and soul you can live peacefully without anxiety and truly enjoy your happy, healthy, and whole life.

I’ve always been afraid that a panic attack will kick in and ruin an otherwise nice evening, but with Ativan I don’t need to worry about that any more. I can always have a dosage at the proper time and that keeps me worry free for the https://dietitianlavleen.com/where-to-get-ativan/ next several hours!

To live a happy, healthy, and whole life until the day you die, make sure you balance the seven keys to living and keep your focus on establishing good habits in each area. For more tips on proper nutrition, building your own food and exercise plans, the importance of water, sleep, supplements, and effectively balancing your mind, body, spirit, and soul—get your copy of How to Live Until You Die today.

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

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Is Sleep Really That Important?

July 31, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

The songs played on the radio today often glorify passing up sleep to participate in other activities, questioning sleep importance. You’ve probably even read stories about your favorite entrepreneurs pulling all-nighters in their quest to rise to the top of the business world. With all this emphasis on sacrificing sleep for other things, it may seem like sleep importance isn’t necessary—or that sleep could even be an obstacle—to achieve long-lived success. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Perhaps Benjamin Franklin said it best with the now famous phrase “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute published an article in June of 2017 that emphasises the sleep importance and explains the benefits that the correct amount of sleep provides to all different parts of the body, as well as performance, brain function, and emotional well-being.

The American Psychological Association, National Sleep Foundation, and Health.com all plead with their audiences not to dismiss the importance of sleep, and caution them against sleep deprivation and the negative effect it has on physical health, cognitive performance, and general mood. The American Psychological Association’s website states that more than 40% of adults routinely battle with daytime drowsiness that significantly impacts their performance and that the drowsiness is caused by improper sleep patterns.

In the book How to Live Until You Die Dr. Phil Carson identifies sleep deficit as a performance killer, and explains how to avoid the consequences of sleep deprivation by getting good, quality sleep. Using his three guidelines for getting ideal sleep, he shows readers how to create their own sleep plan and overcome common obstacles that prohibit millions of people from getting proper sleep each night.

Dr. Phil uses several examples of well-researched studies to explain the importance of quality sleep, with sources including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harvard Business Review, European Society of Cardiology, the Mayo Clinic, and the National Sleep Foundation. He also points out that the Bible references sleep several times, and that it even tells a story that begins with Jesus sleeping. (Mark 4:35-41)

How to Live Until You Die covers the many aspects of sleep, answering many frequently-asked questions and

explaining the intricacies of REM and NREM sleep cycles. In addition to helping you build your own sleep plan, Dr. Phil offers insight on the body’s natural melatonin production, why it’s important to us, and how the blue light from the devices we constantly use is causing us to sleep poorly. He tells readers that “By structuring your evenings to take advantage of your body’s natural melatonin production and the circadian rhythms, you will put yourself in a position to fall asleep more easily and stay asleep for the right amount of time.”

Unless you’re Jack Bauer from the hit TV show 24, you need proper sleep in order to function to the best of your ability. To learn more about how to get the right amount of restful sleep, and to discover the seven keys to living happy, healthy, and whole, order your copy of How to Live Until You Die today.

Check out Dr. Phil’s free resources to download his Simple Sleep Plan and more FREE resources! You can also check out more blogs about sleep!

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Supplements: What They Are and Why You Need Them

July 14, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

As established in the recent blog post Are You Eating Real Food?, most foods offered in grocery stores today lack the necessary amount of key nutrients that your body needs in order to thrive. In fact, even most whole and raw foods have

significantly less nutrients and minerals than they did 50 years ago. With many contributing factors that include different farming techniques, soil that is less rich in mineral deposits, and genetically altered products, the bottom line is that today the optimal level of nutrients cannot be sustained by our diet alone. This leads to the question: How can we receive the necessary amount of nutrients to achieve and sustain a happy, healthy, and whole life?

The answer is to take supplements. However, not all supplements actually provide your body with the nutrients it needs, and some even contain harmful chemicals. This poses another question: How can we know which supplements will help us and which ones will hurt us? In the book How To Live Until You Die Dr. Phil Carson explains how to find the supplements your body needs and how to avoid the chemicals it doesn’t.

Dr. Phil tells his readers “You might be shocked to find artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, and other Big Seven Toxins in many of the multivitamins that you’ve been told are a one-pill-per-day solution. In reality, many of those vitamins are a waste of your time and money.” He then provides three simple guidelines for selecting supplements that won’t expose your body to harmful chemicals.

The tips that Dr. Phil provides about supplement selection include avoiding the same dangerous chemicals and ingredients (Big Seven Toxins, etc.) that you would avoid in food. Only take vitamins with ingredients that are organic or substances found in nature and avoid toxic coatings and unhealthy bindings. Instead, look for vitamins with plant based vitamins and be wary of supplements that list all of the vitamins and nutrients in milligrams, because that can be an indication that the product is synthetic and doesn’t contain food-sourced nutrients.

Avoid synthetic supplements at all costs

Several reports warn against the danger of taking synthetic vitamins that attempt to manufacture the nutrients with chemicals rather than extracting the nutrients from a natural source. Immediate dangers include impeding your body’s ability to absorb real nutrients from real food, possible birth defects, increased cancer risk, hypercalcemia, and blood clotting. The Organic Consumers Organization published a report that gives an in-depth look at the differences between natural and synthetic vitamins, explains why synthetic supplements are so harmful, and sheds light on how to tell if you’re putting your body at risk by taking a synthetic vitamin. The evidence-based articles at Authority Nutrition break down the way the body responds to synthetic vitamins, and encourage you to only take supplements that come from natural ingredients.

In How to Live Until You Die, Dr. Phil strongly advises readers to take only natural supplements, and recommends specific supplements that he currently takes himself. Among those recommendations are:

Multivitamin: Catalyn by Standard Process
Fish Oil: ProDHA by Nordic Naturals
Probiotic: Enterobiotic SBO by Natural Creations
CoQ10: Smart CoQ10 by Enzymatic Therapy

Although supplements can be greatly beneficial to your health, each of us has a unique body composition and could have a different reaction to certain supplements than another person. (The same is true with food and with medicine.) Therefore, you should always consult with your doctor before adding a new supplement to your daily regimen. Your doctor knows you and has charts, notes, and other details regarding your health history. Make sure you are getting the right supplements in the right amounts by discussing your plan with your regular doctor.

Taking the right supplements in addition to maintaining a healthy diet will do wonders for your body, but to truly live a full and rewarding life, there are a total of seven crucial elements you need to balance. To learn more about these seven keys to living happy, healthy, and whole, order your copy of How to Live Until You Die today.

The Most Important Part of Any Diet is Water

June 30, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever felt motivated to improve your health, you’ve probably realized that eating right is crucial to success. Whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, or just feel more alive, having the right diet is critical. Most people cringe when they hear the word “diet” because their first thought is that they have to undertake an extreme regimen of eating far less, far more, or much different food than they are used to. However, the word “diet” in its simplest form is more accurately defined as the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.

Everybody has a diet. For some people, a diet can include fast food, sugary drinks, and daily desserts. Others may consider their diet to be Paleo, Mediterranean, vegetarian, or one of the other well-known, well-defined mainstream diets. Your diet is what you eat regularly. If you want to improve your overall quality of life, take a long look at your diet. Are you consuming too many harmful foods? Could you add more fruits and vegetables to your daily intake? What exactly is the ideal diet?

No two people are exactly the same, and no two diets need be exactly the same either. The best diet is what works best for your body. However, there is one thing that is essential across all diets, for all humans, regardless of shape, size, age, or any other variable: The number one most important thing to consume every day is water. Our bodies are made primarily of water. In fact, our composition is 60-70% water. The bottom line is: We can’t live without water. According to Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, an authority in the medical community, more than 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. This astounding statistic may very well explain the root cause of many ailments suffered by individuals across the country.

When a new patient comes to Dr. Phil Carson with a complaint about their health, he says, “Water is so important that no matter what ailment the person is asking about, one of the first questions I ask is how much water they’re drinking a day.” In his book, How to Live Until You Die, he asserts that “Water can be an important part of any plan to burn fat, lose weight, and speed up your metabolism.”Treatment with Accutane wasn’t easy for me. I had severe nasal dryness and nasal bleedings, so I had to moisturize my mucous all the time. My hair got a bit worse too, but, you know, the game is definitely worth the candles. The https://junglefitnessoc.com/accutane-for-sale/ dryness has gone away, but my face is super clear now and my self-esteem high. I feel like a new person after Accutane.

To truly live happy, healthy, and whole, you need to drink at least .5 ounces of water for each pound that you weigh, each day. Water plays a major part in flushing out deadly toxins and allowing us to feel fluid, flexible, and energized. Several scientific studies have found significant correlations between water intake and reduced risk of bladder cancer, rectal cancer, colorectal cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer. The collective conclusion of the studies mentioned is that “Water is undoubtedly the most important nutrient and the only one whose absence will be lethal within days.” Dr. Phil gives an overview of these studies in How to Live Until You Die, along with recommendations on the best water sources and types of water, the best times to drink water, healthy ways to make water more flavorful, and warnings against drinking tap water.

Daily consumption of water is one of Dr. Phil’s seven keys to living right. As he says in How to Live Until You Die “Getting enough water is a critically important part of a balanced plan to be more happy, healthy, and whole.”

You have probably heard Dr. Phil say, “You may not be drinking enough water, but you need to be! Stay hydrated, my friends!” But there are so many options, how do you know what type of water to drink to make sure you’re getting the most benefits and great taste, while keeping it simple and consistent with your lifestyle? Dr. Phil recently shared a video on his Facebook page, where people have tested the Ph Balance levels on popular brands of bottled water. It’s shocking to see these results. Dr. Phil highly recommends drinking high quality bottled spring water or mineralized water for that reason.

Two of the most common reasons people give for not drinking enough water are that is tastes too plain or it’s too boring. Water doesn’t have to be boring or plain! Have you tried adding fresh squeezed lemons, limes or oranges? Adding fresh fruit to your water can taste even better than the chemical-infused elixirs marketed as sports drinks or enhanced waters. Experiment today with adding fruit to your water. Your kids and grandkids will love it too!

To learn more about the health benefits of water, how to get the right amount of water in your diet, and to discover the other six keys to living happy, healthy, and whole, order your copy of How to Live Until You Die today. You can also listen to a recent episode of the Feeling Good Podcast, where Dr. Phil discusses the importance of water in your diet on our website or in iTunes.

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

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How to Start Living Healthy

June 28, 2017 by Phil Carson 1 Comment

If you watch TV or surf the internet, chances are you’ve seen an advertisement for a diet or exercise program that promises significant results in very little time. Most of these focus on superficial goals like weight loss or muscle gain, and show you “before and after” photos of people who have completed the regiment. Some diets require you to take a pill, or substitute meals for shakes made with powder that often contains harmful substances. Other programs include intense exercise routines that most people who are not avid exercisers at the time they begin the program cannot handle. The majority of people who purchase these types of products don’t finish the full cycle of exercise routines or dieting requirements because the change is too drastic and the demands are too rigorous. This failure to complete what they started can be a major discouragement and create bad feelings about eating well and exercising regularly. Don’t you want to know how to start living healthy?

In his book How to Live Until You Die, Dr. Phil Carson explains that to really live life to its fullest and enjoy each day, minor changes, not major changes, need to be implemented incrementally. Dr. Phil shares his seven keys to living happy, healthy, and whole with readers and gives them concrete examples of how to improve their health and increase their quality of life by following simple steps and how to start living healthy.

In the first chapter of How to Live Until You Die, Dr. Phil talks about the importance of maintaining balance between eating, exercising, and five other key areas. He quotes the legendary basketball coach John Wooden who said “Next to love, balance is the most important thing.” Dr. Phil elaborates by explaining that being healthy doesn’t consist of replacing meals with pills and diet shakes, and that a balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats should be included in each meal. He gives examples of acceptable choices for each of these categories, and provides additional resources to help you build your own food plan.

Using the method that Dr. Phil provides, anyone can improve their eating habits without making drastic changes to their everyday meals. Sometimes, simple replacements (substituting a sugary breakfast cereal for oatmeal made with steel cut oats) can deliver an immediate upgrade to our overall health.

As he says in How to Live Until You Die, “Being healthy is all about making smart choices on a daily basis and it starts with a simple five-step framework to eating clean and healthy foods.” The five steps to building a successful plan for eating healthy are covered in the first chapter of the book. The first step includes a list of the Big Seven Toxins which can be deadly if consumed regularly. Although you may not feel it right away, these toxins work through our bodies and leave us with diabetes, obesity, and worse.

Dr. Phil stresses the importance of creating a meal plan that works for you, consuming foods you enjoy eating, making smart choices, and including a balance of healthy foods rather than just following the latest fad diet.

If you’re ready to improve the quality of your life and start living healthy by following the five steps to eating healthy, order your copy of How to Live Until You Die today.

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

Looking for a Good Book to Read this Summer

June 2, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

Looking for a good book to read? It’s summer time, and that’s an awesome time to enjoy reading a good book. Don’t you love laying around at the pool or the beach while enjoying a good book? I’ve got a great new book out called “How to Live Until You Die, the 7 Keys to Living Happy, Healthy, and Whole.” If you want a good book to read for the summer, this is it! We will be doing book promotions all summer, so get ready for some really fun giveaways and posts on our Feeling Good Podcast, Instagram and Facebook pages.

If you are looking for fun, free activities for your kids or grand kids this summer, I encourage you to go to your local library and let the kids check out books to read or books you can read to your kids. Kids need to learn how to live happy, healthy, and whole too. Look for a few books that teach them about nutrition, health, and life. Keeping your kids and grand kids active and doing fun things this summer is a great way to promote healthy living.

Another fun thing to do at any age is to find a Little Free Library, where you can take a book and return a book. Have you seen one of these yet? Check out their map to find locations near you, or maybe even build your own Little Free Library in your community. Our staff loved reading their recent blog post, DIY Little Free Library (Adorable AND Affordable!) And if you ever happen to leave my book in a Little Free Library, send me a picture! I would love to see that happen!

I have an important question to ask you on this Feeling Good Friday. What could you do if you had a simple plan to increase energy, get in better shape, and improve your mental and emotional health? How to Live Until You Die makes it simpler than ever to unlock a healthier, happier, and more whole you, so today can mark a new beginning for your total health! You have more pressure on you than ever before, with competing demands for work, family and friends and our communities, it’s no wonder so many people are stressed, overweight, unhealthy, and exhausted. In my book, I developed a simple plan anyone can use with their healthcare providers to find balance in those seven key areas, which follow the acronym N.E.W.S.S.S.S., to improve:

Nutrition, to finally get rid of fad diets and expensive programs
Exercise, to help you start feeling and looking more fit
Water, to help you lose weight, improve your health, and feel better than ever
Sleep, to help you finally rest and recover
Supplements, to resolve nutritional deficiencies in your body
Soul, to help you find true inner peace, and
Spirit, to help you plug into a higher power needed for lasting happiness

Visit howtoliveuntilyoudie.com for more information, free book resources and more!

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

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NutriFitt Gives You More Energy and Power for Your Workouts

May 25, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

I am very selective about any products that I endorse, but when Austin Hulsey, Founder/CEO of NutriFitt asked me to try his products, I looked at the ingredients and quickly realized this was something that I had been in search of for a really long time. There are so many sport supplements on the market, and I have had trouble over the years finding one that didn’t have junk in it. I can tell you right now that NutriFitt products don’t have any junk in them. They are quality products without all of the artificial colors and sweeteners that I avoid and encourage my patients to avoid as well. To have something quality like this that I can feel good about taking myself and also recommend to my patients, is a real blessing to me!

I recently had a great talk with Austin on The Feeling Good Podcast and got a behind the scenes look into the birth of NutriFitt and why they exist! Check out episode 66 of the Feeling Good Podcast! While you are there, we would love it if you would rate and review our podcast! If you would be so kind to do that, I would be happy to send you a free copy of my new book, How to Live Until You Die; the 7 Keys to Living Happy, Healthy and Whole. I will also mention your name in one of our future broadcasts. To get your book, please email a screen shot of your review to [email protected] with your mailing address, and I will send your book right away! Also, don’t forget to check us out on facebook and tune into our Feeling Good Friday Facebook Live Broadcasts every Friday during the Noon day hour.

If you are looking for a product to give you more energy and power for your workouts, then PREFITT by NutriFitt is what you are looking for! Trust me. It’s great tasting and an all around amazing product. I love it and highly recommend it!

We love this inspiration from @nutrifittlabs. Whatever obstacle you're facing, BE THE PERSON WHO NEVER GIVES UP. #neversettle #carsonnatural pic.twitter.com/zDnhjz0Jf5

— CarsonNatural.com (@DrPhilCarsonRx) May 25, 2017

If you would like to order your own PREFITT and save 10% on your order, use code DRPHIL10 at checkout!

If you are looking for something to give you more energy and power for your workouts, then PREFITT by @nutrifittlabs is what you are looking for! It's great tasting and an amazing product. I love it and highly recommend it! ———— If you would like to order your own PREFITT and save 10% on your order, use code DRPHIL10 at checkout! nutrifitt.net ———— #carsonnatural #PREFITT #nutrifitteam #nutrifitt #workout #healthy #healthyliving #holistichealtharchitect #happy #wellnesscoach #naturalmedicine #whole #medicine #stayfit #health #feelinggoodpodcast #preworkout #lovemuch #lovelife #lovethislife #mindsoulbody #soul #livewell #allnatural #youcandoit #dontgiveup #howtoliveuntilyoudie #exercise #neversettle #fit

A post shared by Carson Natural Health (@carsonnatural) on May 16, 2017 at 9:56am PDT

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

Cinco de Mayo Feeling Good Friday Fiesta

May 5, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

It’s Cinco de Mayo, and at Carson Natural, we are celebrating! One year ago today, we started our Feeling Good Friday Facebook Live broadcasts. Can you believe it has been a whole year? We haven’t missed a single Friday yet, and we are planning on keeping it going! Check out some of our fun photos on instagram!

With it being Cinco de Mayo, many people would like to celebrate with a little Mexican style food today! If you are going out to eat at your favorite Mexican restaurant tonight and are trying to eat healthier, you can! Maybe you are on some kind of special diet like I have been over the past few weeks. I’ve been doing a 21 day cleanse and purification diet. Tortilla chips and flower tortillas are not on the menu for me, but that’s alright because I have found an awesome alternative to corn tortilla chips . . . Beanitos.

Have you tried these healthier chips yet? You’ve heard of BYOB restaurants where you can bring your own beverage, right? We need a BYOC restaurant . . . Bring Your Own CHIPS! I LOVE these chips. They are a healthier alternative to the tortilla chips. They have twice as much protein, potassium, and they don’t increase your blood sugar as fast as the corn chips do. If you are a diabetic, that is really important.

Another thing you can do in place of eating tortillas, is to eat just the vegetables and the meat that comes with the fajitas. A lot of people order fajitas, and you can still do that without eating the tortillas. You CAN eat healthy at a Mexican restaurant. It might not be the easiest thing to do, but YOU CAN DO IT!

If you aren’t planning on going out to eat tonight, you can still celebrate at home with an easy to make healthy Mexican style meal. My friend and client, Corie Jones, recently blogged about a really fun way to celebrate at home and stay healthy with her family. She even provides a fun DIY craft for the kids. Check out her Cinco de Mayo blog post! Corie made this statement, “We have to remember that eating healthy is not about depriving ourselves but finding healthy substitutes. This can still be accomplished while supporting our fiesta taste buds today.” Corie, I love it and couldn’t agree more.

Remember what I always say. I’ll say it in Spanish first today. Mantente hidratada, amigos. Es posible que no estar bebiendo suficiente agua, pero usted necesita ser! Stay hydrated, my friends. You might not be drinking enough water, but you need to be!

Keep on Fiesta-ing!

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

Too Stressed to Sleep

April 25, 2017 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

Are you too stressed to sleep? During the month of April, we have been focusing on sleep and ways to get more of it. Hopefully you have been following along and have implemented Dr. Phil’s Simple Sleep Plan! If not click here to find out more information!

We hear a lot of people say they are too stressed to sleep. Stress is a real thing. We get it. We all experience stress in some way in our lives. It is what we do with that stress that makes the difference. Did you know that you can take that stress you are experiencing and turn it into a positive thing? The stressful situation you find yourself in can actually be a growing and learning experience in your life.

We recently read a great article entitled, Harnessing the Upside of Stress by Harvard Health Publications Harvard Medical School. Check it out for yourself and see how you can harness the upside of stress. We particularly like the suggestion it gives to do something nice for someone else when you are experiencing high levels of stress at work or at home. Doing something kind for someone will immediately trigger a positive response in your brain, giving you a mental reward. Try it out for yourself and let us know how it works!

If you’d like to hear more about this then you can also listen to the latest episode of The Feeling Good Podcast by clicking here!

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

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Don’t Let Your Sleep Become a Nightmare!

May 12, 2016 by Phil Carson Leave a Comment

Proper sleep habits are vital to our health! With the ever increasing business of our everyday lives, we have to get serious about our sleep habits. You spend roughly 1/3 of your life sleeping, and it’s important for the other 2/3 of your life that you get the most out of your sleep. So today we’re answering a couple of questions on sleep!

Question 1

“If I need to catch up on sleep, how do I do it? Sleep in? Take naps? Go to bed early? I’ve heard you should wake up at the same time everyday. So, im thinking about taking a nap, but im not sure about the ideal way that I can keep my body on track.”

This is an awesome question and I think its very important that you get the proper amount of sleep everyday. New studies are being done all the time about the importance of getting sleep and getting the correct amount of sleep. Let’s see what the expert sleep researchers are saying about this.

Christopher Winter of the Charlottesville Neurology of Sleep Medicine Clinic explains it this way. He says “You can catch up on short term sleep debt if you do it within a few days. If you slept poorly last night, then go to bed early tonight and you’ll probably make up for the sleep you lost. But you can’t make up for the sleep you’ve lost over a long period of time. Trying to catch up on all those all-nighters you had in college with better shut-eye now, isn’t going to repair any of the damage already done.”

That is depressing for a guy like me who had a lot of all nighters in college and a lot of all-nighters since college too! Another researcher named Joyce Walsleben, an associate professor at the New York School of Medicine, says “While this still might tempt you to short change yourself during the week, making up for lost sleep on the weekend is really too late. You’ve probably already been irritable, possibly already experienced some poor reaction times that may have even caused some accidents. Snoozing late on the weekend can also disrupt your sleep rhythm and can make it difficult to go to bed Sunday night so you’ll be starting the next week already in the hole.”

Considering these expert opinions, I think the best way to catch up on any sleep you’ve lost is to make it up in the next 24 hours. For example, if you got less hours of sleep last night, then taking that nap sometime the next day is probably a good idea. If you’re not able to do that, going to bed earlier the next night is a much better idea than trying to catch up on it on the weekends. These studies are encouraging because I’ve actually heard it said that you can’t recover lost sleep, but according to these new studies if you do it quickly, then you can recover.

The rhythm that Dr. Walsleben mentions is called the circadian rhythm. This is a rhythm of our daylight and nighttime hours. As we wake and during the day, our bodies produce hormones called cortisol and melatonin. Those hormone levels peak throughout the day and then begin to decline and level off at night to their lowest point. This is the circadian rhythm!

Question 2

“I like to read before going to sleep. Knowing I should limit my light exposure before I go to sleep to get better sleep, what kind of light should I use while reading before bedtime?”

This question is fantastic! I just attended a conference in Florida that was on ADD, autism, and addictions, but I learned a lot about the importance of quality of sleep in people with these health issues and the effects of the different types of lighting on their brains, especially blue light. Blue light is a light that has a direct effect on melatonin production. Melatonin is a hormone produced by a gland in our brain called the pineal gland, which is a tiny little gland that sits at the base of our brain. The main job of melatonin is to regulate our body clock, or the circadian rhythm. As a said earlier, this rhythm tells us when to wake up, when we are tired, and when we need to go to bed. When the sun comes up, the production of melatonin naturally drops, and when the sun goes down the production of melatonin naturally increases. The light that we are exposed to is what effects the circadian rhythm. So, exposure to blue light can really be a problem and can have a direct effect on our ability to get to sleep and sleep well through the night.

This is something that our parents and grandparents never had to worry about, but as our society has increased it’s dependence on devices like our televisions, iPads, tablets, phones, and computers it has become a real problem. All those gadgets produce blue light! Not only that, but a lot of people are switching to LED lights in their homes, and these LED lights also produce blue light.

If you like to read before bed, then I would suggest you revert back to a hard copy book and be sure to use a lamp that has a soft light bulb in that produces what is called yellow light. This yellow light will have less effect on the production of melatonin in your body.

If you are using a iPad or tablet to read before you go to bed, there are a few solutions to reducing your exposure to this blue light. One that I recently downloaded myself is called FLUX. FLUX is a program that makes the color of your computers display adapt to the time of day. Once this program is installed, it may have a significant affect on the melatonin production, if you are using these devices to read at night. The best part about this program is that it adjusts automatically to the daylight in your particular time zone. So there is no need to remember to adjust your screen before reading at night. You can download the program for free at www.justgetflux.com.

There are also people that recommend using amber lense goggles, which help reduce the affects of blue light exposure. They have been shown to help reduce sleep quality as well as mood by simply blocking this blue light. I know how easy and tempting it is to pick up your device and scroll through your timelines or play that silly game before bed, but it is throwing your melatonin production out of whack, and is bad for your health.

I want to invite you to join us for Feeling Good Friday over at the Carson Natural Facebook Page! Every Friday during the noonday hour (central time) I go live on Facebook to discuss natural health topics and take your questions! To join us, like our Facebook page and you’ll receive a notification when I go live! Hope to see you there!

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do!

April 29, 2016 by Phil Carson 1 Comment

Have you ever been through a bad breakup? Have you ever given up someone or something that you really love? I think it’s time for people to give up their unhealthy love for processed sugar! Some people don’t just have a love for sugar, rather a strong addiction for this sweet and enticing substance. I have no doubt that this love and addiction for sugar, especially processed sugar, is a contributing factor to many of the health issues people face today, especially diabetes.

To prove my point today, I will share with you this recent question that I received on The Feeling Good Podcast from one of our listeners, Bonnie. Bonnie writes, “One of my biggest weaknesses is sugar. I have a huge sweet tooth and know that sugar is not good for me. I don’t use artificial sweeteners only real sugar for my tea, but I love sweets of any kind. After a meal I like something sweet. Do you have any suggestions to lessen the desire for sweets?”

I must confess that I can relate to Bonnie, because I have a sweet tooth too, but I want to give all of you some hope today. I have learned to control that sweet tooth, and I know that you can too, if you follow my recommendations here.

First of all, I want you to understand that the sweet tooth you have quite possibly has an underlying cause that you are totally unaware of. This is something that I see in my practice quite often. That sweet tooth could be caused by an overgrowth of yeast in your gut. A lot of people have this overgrowth of yeast and don’t even know it. They are suffering from various symptoms caused by the overgrowth. One of them is an uncontrollable urge for sweets, and not just sweets but for high carbohydrate foods that turn to sugar like breads and pastas. When you have this overgrowth in the gut, the urge for sugar is just one of the many problems it can cause. If you get the yeast under control, you will likely get the sweet tooth under control as well.

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I would love to hear your story of how you have or are currently breaking up with sugar! Post on Facebook or Twitter using #SugarBreakup and one winner will be chosen to receive an all new Carson Natural comfort colors t-shirt!

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Next, I recommend switching from using sugar to sweeten your tea to a natural low calorie or no calorie sweetener. My favorite one is the no calorie, natural plant based Stevia. Stevia is made from the leaves of the stevia plant. Stevia plants are something you can grow in your garden, but stevia is available in health food and grocery stores, and there are a variety of stevia products out there on the market. You have to be very careful about the one that you choose, and be sure that it is a pure stevia extract with no additives. Many of these stevia products on the market are not true stevia. They have stevia in them, but they have other sweeteners like dextrose and erythritol, which is an alcohol sugar. There are a variety of these brands out there and many times you can tell whether you are getting a true stevia product by the price. Stevia’s that have a lot of additives are much cheaper than the true stevia products. Be careful! Choose the right one and read the labels well and know that the one you are choosing is the real stevia. The one pictured here is available in our store, and you can click it to see more details.

Now I use stevia to sweeten all kinds of foods and to make desserts. It is a wonderful sweetener, and I love the fact that is has no calories and no affect on my blood sugar. You definitely want to use stevia as a sugar alternative especially if you are diabetic.

Third, I want to recommend that if you have that legitimate sweet tooth and you like a little something sweet after a meal then you can do what I always do. Often after my meals, I will eat a couple of small squares of 70% or higher dark chocolate and a few raw nuts. This is a little treat that always satisfies my sweet tooth and doesn’t add a ton of calories to my diet. Another thing that I often eat for dessert is half of a low-sugar, low calorie protein bar. These protein bars are great alternatives to high sugar snacks as well.

The stevia I have talked about here is something you can learn a lot more about if you go back and check out one of my blogs that I wrote several months ago. You can click here to read it!

If you have any health questions, leave me a voice message by clicking on the “Ask Dr. Phil” Microphone. You can also email me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

Are You Ready to Lose Weight and Never Gain it Back?

April 16, 2016 by Phil Carson 1 Comment

Who wants to lose 10, maybe 25, 50 pounds or more and never gain in back again? Everybody right? I have people ask me all the time, “what do you do to stay in good shape? What do you do to stay thin?”

Well, my answer is always that I follow a balanced nutrition plan. I started following this plan over 16 years ago, and I lost 25 pounds of the excess weight that I had gained from poor eating habits and stress. I recently had some tell me that they had just started doing Dr. Barry Sears’s Zone Diet and wanted to know if this was a good diet to follow? Dr. Sears’s Zone Diet is really not a diet at all. It’s more of a nutrition plan. As a matter of fact, the nutrition plan that I have been following for years is based on Dr. Sears Zone Diet. The plan I follow is also very similar to the Paleo diet. I know what a difference losing 25 pounds has made in my health and my life, and I’m so thankful that I was able to lose that weight and am now enjoying life so much more. I believe anyone else can do the same thing by learning to follow a balanced nutrition plan and eating that way the majority of the time. This is something I teach people in a 7 week, 49-day course that I call Fit in 49. In this course I teach people how to live a more balanced, healthy, and vibrant life everyday, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We all have a body, soul, and spirit; we are 3 part beings and for optimal health, all 3 must be in balance but in this week’s blog post I want to focus on the physical and in particular the nutrition aspect of our physical health.

Why Do I Do It?

As I mentioned the plan that I follow is based on the 40-30-30 and paleo diets. It is not exactly like those but very similar, and I call it a balanced nutrition plan. This is what I have been doing, teaching, and promoting to people for years, but why does it matter? Why do we want to lose excess body weight and live healthier? Well avoiding diabetes is one of the top reasons for me. Diabetes is an epidemic and we have so many people in this country and all over the world that are being diagnosed with this disease every day. Look at the cancer rates that keep going up. Cancer is an epidemic as well. I know people who are much younger than I am (and I’m 55 years old) that are dying everyday in their 30s and 40s because they have health issues related to their weight. The increase in heart disease is another, and there are so many young people dying of heart attacks everyday. If that’s not enough whys, then I don’t know what else I can say. When we aren’t carrying around the extra 30,40 or 50 pounds of extra weight, then we are going have a better quality of life. We will be able to enjoy life more and do more. We will be able to exercise and not pass out when we do. We will be able to get out in the yard and play with our kids or grandkids without having to put on oxygen afterwards to recover. But how?

Clean Eating

I teach people what I call cleaner eating, eating less processed foods and eating more fresh and frozen foods. Stay away from things that come out of a box. There are a lot of highly processed foods that contain all kinds of toxins and chemicals. Read the labels and avoid these things. If you have access to local vegetables or farm raised foods, buy them and eat them. That’s the best thing you can do to eat cleaner. One of the things that I teach and recommend is eating more clean and lean protein. Fish is my favorite! I always look for the wild caught ocean fish and not the farm raised. Same thing goes for your other protein sources like chicken and eggs. Stay away from those that have been fed hormones and pesticides and chemicals. Look for free range or organic eggs and chicken products. These are going to contain a lot less toxins that can have an adverse affect on our health. Learning to find and eat these fresh and healthy foods can make a tremendous difference. But the most important thing I teach people with these foods is how to balance them properly to control your blood sugar. To do that I use what’s called a plate method. For example, you have a 3 section plate and each section you’re going to put some type of food. I always recommend that you start out with the protein source. The amount you want to put on your plate is basically the size of the palm of your hand (And I’m just talking about the palm, not including the fingers!) For most people this is 4 to 6 ounces, and that is where you start. Then you are going to add your fruit and vegetables, but primarily your vegetables. Leafy greens and fresh vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts are greats ones that are cancer protective. You are going to fill both of these sections with vegetables or fruit. The amount you want in these two sections is fist sized. All you have to do is make a fist, and this is the amount you want on your plate. Then you are going to add one other nutrient or food component, and this is fat (good fat!) Be conscious of the type of fat that you are eating and make sure you are choosing good fats, such as olive oil, coconut oil, or real butter, but in moderation. Another good fat source is nuts. Walnuts, in my opinion are the best, then almonds, and pecans in that order. I’m talking about raw nuts, and not the ones that are coated in sugar or roasted and toasted and made with all these different types of flavors. Another good fat source is real peanut butter. Not the artificial peanut butter made with margarine and peanut flavoring and sugar. I’m talking about real peanut butter that has one or two ingredients, which are peanuts and salt.

As you can see my plan is pretty simple. It is as simple as getting the correct balance of proteins, carbohydrates and good fat every time you eat. It is really not that hard to follow, and I know if I can do it you can too. What I have shared with you here is just a few of the basics. So if you want to learn more, check out my Fit in 49 course or contact me at [email protected] for a consultation appointment.

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil