Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

If I had to choose just one thing that would help people improve their health it would be: get enough good quality sleep. It is not just a nice to have; it helps lower inflammation in the body and brain for a start - and I happen to think more and more that most illnesses are inflammatory at their heart - so that is enough reason to sort your sleep out if you need to. 

I saw Dr Frank Lipman, an expert in sleep and insomnia, has brought this new book out recently. It includes a 10 day sleep plan you can follow, which looks pretty good to me. 

Oh, and someone asked me the other day what non-toxic mattress I recommend. I bought one of these Artisan Naturals ones last time in a sale and made sure it was a returned item so it had already had time to offgas. Clever, huh? Not perfect, I'm sure, but it worked for me and I am VERY sensitive, as you know.

In honour of Father's Day this month (20th), here's one for the guys. Although I'm not sure any man would want this as a present...

I’ve been asked about this a few times in my career, and I know it is pretty distressing when it happens. Thankfully, it’s also quite easy to do something about in most cases.

People always want a quick fix for this and I recommend Libido-Stim, which can help. This will help if low testosterone and oestrogen dominance is an issue particularly. 

However, don’t miss out the causes – which might be stress, a lack of DHEA to make testosterone out of, oestrogen dominance, depression, a lack of zinc, cardio problems, low thyroid etc, and correct anything found there.

The most common finding is that DHEA is low. You can test that using an Adrenal Test. I find it low a lot. It is basically a precursor to making testosterone. Check this out especially if your testosterone is on the low side of normal, not just way out. In that case, use the DHEA Boosting protocol in the Adrenal Plan to correct it. Don’t take it unless you’ve tested – you don’t want your hormones over-egged. That’s just as much a problem as if they’re low.

Is Erectile Dysfunction A Sign Of Cardio Problems Developing?

Yes, it certainly can be. One common cause of ED is vascular ie. a lack of blood flow to the penis. This can happen because of so-called ‘endothelial ED’, which is much more prevalent than people think. It’s sort of an inflammatory process plus low levels of nitric oxide. Interestingly, Endothelial ED is termed ‘painless angina’ because often the first place a cardio problem will show is in the tiny blood vessels of the penis.

Here’s a two-part article for you on that. Do read it.

When More Testosterone Doesn’t Help Erectile Health – Part 1 of 2

Improving Erectile Health – Part 2 of 2

If you feel that cardiovascular issues could be a part of your picture, check. See the Cardio tests here. I truly wish more people would do them as they give such a lot of useful information, and we could ward off future problems if we just had that teensy bit of information to hand.

If you need to improve your nitric oxide and vascular circulation levels, try this kind of thing by DoH. You’ll need to register using 4Y2AE7 the first time if you wish to trigger commission for me for the research/writing, ta.

Recipe of the Month

Menopause Cake

This is such a great idea from Liz Earle. As she says, it's not going to sort all your menopause symptoms out, but it is packed full of phyto-oestrogens so will boost your oestrogen levels to an extent. It's also full of soluble fibre so great for your gut. And it tastes nice. What's not to like?

Personally, I'd change the spelt flour for a GF version or even soya flour for more phyto-oestrogen content. If you don't want oats, just leave them out and add a tad more flour and linseeds.

You can get the full recipe here and see Liz make it below.

She does also mention the Menopause Tea Loaf, which is in her Menopause Guide.