Episode 67: A Clinical Pharmacist’s Thought on Metformin, Stop the Holiday Stress Eating, and Getting a Rash from Caloric Deficits? w/ James Lavalle

Chantel Ray:                 Hey, guys. Welcome to this week’s episode. Today, I am so excited. We have James Lavalle and he has spent forty years of his life passionately teaching all these natural therapies. He’s written twenty books. He’s taught in medical and pharmacy school and just has done an amazing job. We are so excited, ’cause today we’re just talking about helping healing the body naturally. Which, I know so many of you are passionate about as well. We’re just so honored to have you on today’s show. Welcome.

James Lavalle:               It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Chantel Ray:                 Now, I just did a broad overview of everything you’ve done in the last forty years, but I want you to talk specifically about one of your books, Cracking the Metabolic Code. You talk about things like cancer, diabetes, depression. I’d like you to talk about that for just a second.

James Lavalle:               Sure. I wrote Cracking the Metabolic Code because for years, I would have hundreds of people a week coming into our facility. We always did personalized care. So, I would be explaining, “Well, what are the big things that cause you to have these metabolic road blocks that make you feel tired midday? You’re gaining weight. You’re having trouble sleeping. Maybe you’re feeling bloated. Digestive problems.” There’s all these issues that create, well, why do I feel the way I feel? I think a lot of times people are disconnected and don’t feel empowered as to, what actual steps can I take to correct my chemistry?

James Lavalle:               I really wrote Cracking the Metabolic Code as a way for people to uncover, “Well, what’s going right in my body? What’s going wrong with my body? What do I do to correct it?” Then, really start to look at things so that people understand nothing happens alone or is isolated. The chemistry of your body is this network of communication, and that network can take you down that path of feeling energized, vital. Maintaining your weight. Not having inflammation. Less pain, better sleep. Less anxious. Or it can take you in another direction.

Chantel Ray:                 I would say what we are getting a lot of questions on lately is thyroid. It seems like almost every person … We’re getting more and more questions about thyroid. We’re getting more questions about people saying their doctor … Let’s say that the normal thyroid range is between 1 and 4.5. And then people are saying they’re going to the doctor and they’re landing on that 4.5/5.5 range and they’re going to the doctor and some of them are advising that they should take meds. Some are saying no, you’re still in the normal range.

Chantel Ray:                 What is your opinion on the Synthroids or Armour Thyroid, and so forth?

James Lavalle:               I think first of all you have to understand, “Why is my thyroid off?” Most of the time your thyroid will be off for a few reasons. One is you don’t have enough Iodine or you don’t have enough of an amino acid called Tyrosine, you can’t make enough thyroid hormones. If your diet isn’t good, and you’re not getting enough nutrients that your body needs to make thyroid hormones, well, your thyroid-stimulating hormone will probably go up.

Chantel Ray:                 What would be foods that you would recommend that would increase your iodine intake?

James Lavalle:               Things like fish. You can use iodized salt. Greens can be really good, so kelp and those kind of things can be good.

James Lavalle:               So that’s one piece. And then the other piece is, if you’re under chronic stress, if your cortisol is elevated. So if you’re stressed out, cortisol will…

Chantel Ray:                 It’s kinda like right now, who isn’t stressed out?

James Lavalle:               But that’s why you’re getting so many calls on thyroid, right?

Chantel Ray:                 Yes.

James Lavalle:               Everybody’s jacked up. Everybody’s worried about the next thing that’s gonna get posted on their Facebook. In addition to 200 emails, in addition to traffic. When you get under stress it slows your thyroid hormone down.

James Lavalle:               And then the third would be, probably the more I would think of next is environmental burden. You’re hearing all this stuff about glyphosates and pesticides being a problem for the gut, but really one of the biggest areas that pesticides affect, and it’s been published in journals for a long time, is thyroid. For me, if you even look at the American Society of Endocrinology, so you can look at the most conservative group that’s out there, they say anything over a TSH of 2.5 probably needs treated. So this is what happens all the time. People, they have dry skin, they’re losing their eyebrows. They feel sluggish, they’re gaining weight, they’re getting depressed, you’re getting constipated. And they’re going, “Holy crap – I literally feel…I just looked it up, and I have low thyroid.”

James Lavalle:               But then they go to their doc and the doc goes, “You’re close. Wait ’till you’re really out of balance and then we’ll medicate you.” And I think that one of the biggest things that people need to understand is that medicine’s an art, not a science. It really it is art. On thyroid hormones, yes, I like Armour Thyroid if you don’t have antibodies to thyroid, meaning if your immune system isn’t attacking your thyroid. Then using something like Armour or Nature Throid makes a lot of sense. I like those. Once you have antibodies and your body’s attacking thyroid tissue, I don’t think we should put thyroid tissue in your body. And that’s what Armour Thyroid and Nature Throid is. I would use something like Synthroid or we would do, at our institutes and what we teach, because I coach here at the American Academy of NH Medicine, so we teach thousands of [inaudible 00:06:27] a year, is that you would use T4 and T3. You would use something like Synthroid, but then you would use T3, which is the most active form of thyroid [inaudible 00:06:40].

Chantel Ray:                 But Synthroid just has T4.

James Lavalle:               Right. That’s why you’d have to do both.

Chantel Ray:                 Synthroid just has T4. When you talk about Armour, Armour and Nature Throid have both.

James Lavalle:               That’s correct, but the problem with that is, if you have antibodies to your thyroid, meaning that you have Autoimmune Thyroiditis, you’re taking a gland extract that your immune system is going to attack when it gets to your gut.

James Lavalle:               When I’m talking about giving Synthroid or Levothyroxine, you would additionally add Triiodothyronine or Cytomel. So you would blend the two of those while you’re teaching somebody an elimination diet, because you’ve got to get them off of the big food allergens. You have to heal their gut, and then you may be able to get back to using Armour. I like Armour. I think Armour and Nature Throid are awesome. But when people have an immune reaction and they can’t take that, I need to heal their body and then get them to be able to get back to taking Nature Throid or Armour.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay. I want you to say that one more time, because I think that’s really important. Talk about that. You’re saying your choice is, you can either take Synthroid that’s just T4 and combine it with something like Cytomel which is just T3, and you kind of are making almost like your own combination of an Armour or a Nature Throid. Which around here, which is crazy, I’ve heard tons of people around here, they can’t even get Nature Throid around here because it’s prescribed so much that there’s only one pharmacy in town that can get it. That’s how many people are on it right now.

James Lavalle:               I know. First of all, I know a lot of people that get on thyroid and it doesn’t help them a lot. Because they’re not fixing the problem. Why I wrote The Metabolic Code was you may look like you have a thyroid problem, but could really be your problem is that you have food intolerances and your gut’s leaky and that’s causing your immune system to react and cause your thyroid to slow down.

James Lavalle:               The point being is, A. I like it when people use natural options. And depending on where your numbers are, you could start with some Tyrosine and some Iodine, and Chromium’s really important. Or you could decide, “Well, I wanna try Armour Thyroid or Nature Throid.” If you do your lab tests and you’re found to have antibodies to your thyroid, then it really is better if you did a T4/T3 combination and mimicking what you get from Armour, but you don’t have the animal gland, the thyroid gland in it that your body is starting to teach your immune system to attack. That’s the whole reason that you look at all the options and go, “Alright. Which one’s right for me?” And hopefully you find someone who’s sharp that can help you make those decisions and get you on a program that’s gonna really help you to repair yourself.

Chantel Ray:                 I wanna ask you a question. I went to a cottonseed plant, which was very interesting for me. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to one.

James Lavalle:               I have not.

Chantel Ray:                 We have one here locally in Hampton Roads. What happens is that we literally went to the plant. This is the plant that sells Fruit of the Loom their cotton. They sell these huge brands, right? And so I was looking at it. When he was talking he was like, “Okay. Now this is the cottonseed, and they separate the cottonseed, then here’s the cotton.” And then they have all this other stuff that they take and they combine it and kind of mix it up. They’re selling that to farmers to sell for food. Instead of eating grass they’re eating this cottonseed “stuff,” it’s a combination of all this stuff. And when I started looking it up I saw that feeding that has glyphosate, which could be toxic. Do you know anything about that? I wanted to do some more research on it. Do you know anything about that topic?

James Lavalle:               I do. Not specifically cottonseed being fed to cattle, but that without a doubt, animals that are fed in a non-organic way alone [inaudible 00:11:45] changes their immune profile, it changes their gut microbiome. And that means it’s gonna change everything about that animal. I think in general when you look at feed and our farming and what we’re spraying on plants, all of the things that we do to our animals and plants end up accumulating in us. Unless you wanna become a breatharian and go somewhere where the air’s clean, which I think is pretty hard. [inaudible 00:12:24] breatharian nowadays. I’m a big advocate for wild-caught, grass-fed. If I use gland extracts in our practice I get them from New Zealand, because they only grass feed all organic cattle that they make their gland extracts from. I think it’s a really important aspect to try and to maintain your health, especially your thyroid-related health, because there’s plenty, in the Journals of Environmental Medicine, there is all kinds of evidence that pesticides cause thyroid volume enlargement and cause problems with your chemistry because of it.

James Lavalle:               I’ve been measuring toxins in people for thirty-five years and helping them get them out of their bodies, so I don’t want them putting them back in their body by eating foods that are tainted.

Chantel Ray:                 Yeah. I’ve heard you talk about fasting and how you recommend eating a certain schedule, and at least a couple days a week doing a longer fast. What’s your personal fasting schedule and what do you say to people who ask what is the ideal fasting schedule for healing their body?

James Lavalle:               Good question. I basically operate, three or four days a week I go noon to seven in my eating window and then the other three or four days a week I include something at breakfast. A lot of it has to do if I’m just really hungry and I’m working out, because I work out a fair amount. A lot of it has to do with feeling that cycle out. I think the first thing about fasting I think that’s important to understand is that I think people think that they have to eat every few hours to keep their metabolism up. Honestly, people ate about 1.5 meals a day in 1900, and people were working manual labor. They were working on farms, all fourteen hour days. The problem when your blood sugars are dropping all the time is probably, once again, fix the problem of your blood sugar. Don’t put a Band-aid on a bullet hole by eating every couple hours.

James Lavalle:               There’s a program that was developed out of the Keck Center for Medicine here at the University of Southern California called ProLon. That’s an interesting diet because it’s a five day fasting mimic diet. So what’s actually going on is you’re getting the effective fasting by eating these specific foods at a specific time and those effects of fasting are profound. One is that it helps eat up waste proteins in your body so it decreases inflammation signaling. It helps with restoring what I call more normal metabolism. When I have people that have trouble losing weight, I use this five day program and then I follow with time-restricted eating. I also get them to eat low allergen during that time, and then we figure out what the right mixture of their macros are, carbs, fats, and protein, as we’re moving through their process so that they can really start to understand what they need.

James Lavalle:               But what I really love about the other piece about that ProLon is that it also induces stem cells, so you get cell renewal. If you have the chops for it and can do it in a supervised way, to do a five day water fast, you can accomplish those same things. The problem is, in today’s world, I think it’s very difficult for people to stop everything they’re doing for five days and do a water fast. I think it needs to be supervised. I think there’s a lot of complications to it. More people are fragile. What I like about this is is I can do it for five days, I get the same effect. People aren’t quite as far off.

James Lavalle:               There’s a lot of different ways to attack that fasting message. I personally think a consistent way of eating, doing time restricted eating. I mean a real evolution has taken place. There’s a bar that just came out in the market called a Fast Bar. It’s basically a real high fat bar that mimics the effect of fasting. If you wanna eat something light for breakfast you could eat a bar and then you can go to, I’m a big fan of eating vegetables. I want people to eat lots of vegetables, quality lean proteins. Make sure they’re getting things like legumes. Because in general, when people ask me about fasting a lot of times, I just say, “Look. What I have found over close to forty years and really designing weight loss programs for about a half a million lives, people eat too much. They eat too often. They eat the wrong foods. They eat too late at night. They don’t exercise. And at the same time, they don’t sleep enough.” When you start there, you can start having an honest discussion with someone about, “Alright. Here’s the effect of stress on your chemistry. Here’s the effect of thyroid on your chemistry. Here’s the effect of environmental burden, of your genetics. Maybe what drug therapies you’re on.” There’s a lot of things that go into molding what your health is. But those things I just mentioned, too much, too often, not the right stuff, eating too late, right?

Chantel Ray:                 Yeah, it’s so true. Let’s talk about blood sugar for just a second. We’ve been getting a few questions lately about Metformin. There’s a lot of people that they are saying that their doctor is, they’re borderline, they’re not quite in the diabetic range, but they’re in that pre-diabetic stage, and so they’re suggesting that they take Metformin. What is your thoughts on that?

James Lavalle:               First of all, when people are pre-diabetic, thirty-eight percent of the U.S. population is pre-diabetic right now. It’s very common. I really want people to try to change their lifestyle before they result to a drug, so I’m [inaudible 00:18:33] on not eating as much, choosing the right things, not eating as late…

Chantel Ray:                 And reducing that sugar. Reducing that sugar.

James Lavalle:               A lot of sugar, a lot of carbs. They get stressed out. Look, the bag of potato chips becomes your friend. You lick your finger and you go into the bottom of it to get the last nook, to get that craving done. You wanna rub that last cookie that’s in that row of cookies you just ate right on top of your head. You don’t even wanna eat it. It’s just cooling your head off.

James Lavalle:               The point is, with diabetes…

Chantel Ray:                 That’s the last resort.

James Lavalle:               It’s a great drug. It’s an awesome drug. I really encourage people to get out and walk 30 to 45 minutes five or six days a week. And walk. Don’t dawdle, move. Try to get that down. I like people eating lower carbohydrate. Learn how to eat lower carb. Learn how to watch that sugar. People don’t even count their carbohydrates. I think it’s so important that people learn to count their carbs for their level of activity. And I think that what they’ll be able to do is they can get that blood sugar to come down. Now keep in mind, low Magnesium status is the number one nutrient deficiency associated with development of pre-diabetes and diabetes. If you’re not eating nine servings of vegetables and fruits a day minimum, you’re probably not going to be getting enough Magnesium. You’re gonna need a lot of greens. Magnesium helps, Chromium helps, Zinc helps. Obviously there’s herbs that can help. Get those trace minerals in, especially Magnesium, along with what we talked about, and it’ll be a great step forward.

James Lavalle:               And if you do go on Metformin, you have to take Coenzyme Q10, and you have to get your B12 levels checked, because it depletes B12 and can cause neuropathy or numbness and tingling in your hands and feet.

Chantel Ray:                 Angela in Northern Virginia: “I recently had some bloodwork done to see why I wasn’t feeling normal. My doctor told me that my bloodwork showed some Hepatitis B. She said that the Hepatitis B is not active currently but that it was in my system at one point, and I’m trying to figure out what caused this.

Chantel Ray:                 How recent would I of had to have had it in order for it to appear in my bloodwork, and what are some of the most common foods that cause it? Could this be part of the reason I don’t feel like my liver is functioning correctly even though it apparently is no longer active?”

James Lavalle:               If it’s not active at all, I doubt that it’s having a big impact on her liver. When people complain of fatigue, and I haven’t seen Angela’s labs, so I don’t really understand, there could be a lot of things, but a lot of times they’re deficient in B12. A lot of times they’re deficient in other B vitamins like Folic Acid and B6 and that can cause fatigue. If her Hepatitis B is showing absolutely no activity, it was just an antibody that showed up in her blood but there’s nothing going on, not a lot of alarm or concern at this point.

Chantel Ray:                 What are some of the causes for Hepatitis B?

James Lavalle:               It’s interesting. That’s why people get Hepatitis shots at birth, right? It could be because of their sexual preferences. It could be because of drug use. It could be that you potentially picked it up, maybe there’s a blood transfusion. There could be a contamination event that occurs. But the most common things are what’s your sexual orientation, maybe what you’re doing that way. Drug use is a possibility. Those are the biggies.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay. It’s Patty in Greenville. “I’ve always considered myself a hot-natured person, even if everyone else around me is comfortable. I’m usually hot and clammy. One of my best friends is the complete opposite. She’s always cold.

Chantel Ray:                 Is this just the way we’re wired, or could this be something deeper? We’re both in our thirties to our knowledge and we don’t have major health issues. Should we look into this?”

James Lavalle:               Feeling warm, if your body temperature’s normal, that means your metabolism is probably just fine. If your fingers are cold and your feet are cold, a lot of women can have something called Raynaud’s, where they get under some kind of cold temperature stress, like they walk into an air-conditioned room and their hands and feet automatically go cold. If people are really cold, there’s a couple things that usually relate to that. One is low thyroid, that we talked about earlier. Low body temperature, low thyroid. You could be insulin-resistant and your body temperature be low. If your body temperature was abnormally high you think of chronic low-grade infection. But I think what she’s saying is hey, I feel pretty good. I’m just always warm. I don’t have an issue. My friend’s always cold and being cold all the time, insulin resistance, low thyroid, high stress hormones, those are the most common reasons.

Chantel Ray:                 Okay, perfect. This is from Rosario. “I have two questions. I’m relatively new to fasting and I’m breaking out with a rash. I did some research. Supposedly it’s because of the less income of caloric intake. Please tell me if this is temporary or there’s steps I’ll need to take. I decided to just take a break for a few days. This rash hurts.

Chantel Ray:                 Also, when I’m in my fasting window, does a splash of lemon in my water break my fast?” Rosario.

James Lavalle:               Yeah, the splash of lemon in your water doesn’t break your fast. I typically look at those kinds of problems as more of a detoxification mechanism so when you’re fasting you’re breaking down fat. That fat contains a lot of toxins. You can trigger some histamine release which is what happens with a rash. Really doesn’t have as much to do with how many calories…

Chantel Ray:                 Yeah, that’s definitely not true. That piece of what she said is definitely not true. The less amount of calories is not going to cause a rash. That’s for sure.

James Lavalle:               Usually if you go from fasting to like, “Hey, I was eating whatever I wanted and now I fast” and you break down fat, you’re going to release a fair amount of…the more fat you have, the more toxins you store. It’s directly correlated, because they’re lipid soluble. So I personally think you’re releasing more histamines from the gut. In addition to that you’re creating a problem with the release of the fat from your tissues into your circulation. I’ve seen that over the years because the person had poor lymphatic drainage that couldn’t get rid of those toxins. Get them doing maybe a little mini tramp stuff, move that lymphatic tissue around, and see if you can prevent that from happening.

Chantel Ray:                 Alright, this is from Brian in Alabama. “My father had Type II Diabetes and I watched him experiment with every medication. Blood thinners, insulin – anything that his doctor said would help. I am twenty-five now and pay really close attention to my health and my blood sugar. Everything looks good, but I know it can be hereditary. I don’t wanna be a slave to medicine like my dad was.

Chantel Ray:                 What are some things I can start doing now that are preventative? If I do become diabetic, what is the best way to treat Type II naturally?”

James Lavalle:               Let me tell you, Brian is right on that forward edge of what’s going on in America. This is the story. I talk about this all the time. My father is diabetic. My grandmother was a fingerless, toeless, blind diabetic. All of my aunts and uncles, very strong Italian family, everyone is diabetic. I’ve written a lot on this.

James Lavalle:               First of all, just because your dad was a diabetic it doesn’t mean you will be. The pillars of managing Type II Diabetes are active lifestyle. You have got to move. You’ve gotta get out, you gotta exercise, you gotta burn that blood sugar up, and you’ve gotta improve the way your insulin receptors are working. That’s one.

James Lavalle:               Two is you’ve gotta manage stress. Everybody’s got stressful lives today like you said earlier. Learn how to deep breathe, three minutes twice a day. Learn how to decompress. It’s super important. Get enough sleep. We know for a fact, if you only sleep five hours a night, you’re seventy-eight percent more likely to become obese, and your signaling for insulin alters.

James Lavalle:               The next piece is, really watch what you’re taking in, that you mentioned it, watch the sugar intake. You’ve gotta change your lifestyle. I don’t look at a cookie and go, “Wow, I miss that cookie.” I look at a food, maybe a big salad, and go, “Wow. I get to eat that.” I wanna change my framework of how I’m eating and how I’m looking at my world. Because Type II Diabetes for the most part, not a hundred percent, but for the most part’s a lifestyle disease. Yes it’s true, pesticides can cause it, yes it’s true toxic metals could do it, there’s those issues out there. But for the most part, people do it because once again, they eat too much, they eat too often, they eat the wrong foods, they eat too late. These are all very common things people do.

James Lavalle:               And then, how do I treat it naturally? First of all, I think Metformin’s a really good drug, so your first line of defense in Metformin is justified and I think it’s worth it if you understand the risk benefits of that, it’s fine. Once you get past that…

Chantel Ray:                 But talk a little bit more…talk a little bit more, because, I’m with you, obviously I feel like I am so anti-drug, do whatever it takes to not be on a drug. The two drugs I would say are better on the scale of, there’s some others that are so bad, like the Armour Thyroid or the Nature Throid or Metformin. I’ve seen people taking Metformin that just love it. That’s the one drug that they say really lowers their blood sugar and gets things stable.

Chantel Ray:                 Talk about what the cons are, though, of Metformin.

James Lavalle:               Sure. If you look at Metformin, it can deplete B12. So you have to have something called Methylboronic Acid measured in your body. When you deplete your B12 that means you could be prone toward diabetic neuropathy. It means you get numbness and tingling in your hands and feet, which is not fun. And how do you prevent that? You take B12. That’s one.

James Lavalle:               Two is, in some people it depletes Coenzyme Q10. If it depletes Coenzyme Q10 your muscles are gonna ache and you will have trouble in terms of exercise and moving around. Your energy will go down.

James Lavalle:               Those are the biggies. And obviously the biggest one that you concern with with Metformin is the fact that you can get a loose stool. You can get Metformin-induced diarrhea which obviously is a big side effect. You don’t wanna run around with diarrhea, it create dehydration, it’s a problem. There is some evidence that was published recently about a risk maybe for Parkinsonian increased risk for Parkinson’s.

James Lavalle:               So those are the risks. I’ve seen a lot of people get tremendous benefit from Metformin. They lose weight, their blood sugars are better, their food cravings go down, it makes sense. Because when you start to use your insulin the way you’re supposed to, you can get glucose into your cell and now your body isn’t starving for fuel.

James Lavalle:               I like that drug. But at the same time, get your Chromium levels up. So nutrients: Chromium, Mag, Zinc. You’ve gotta get it in. And most people don’t take enough Magnesium. They should dose it by their body weight. So at a minimum of seven and a half milligrams per kilogram of elemental Magnesium. That means if you buy a bottle of Magnesium, that capsule, eighty percent of that capsule, is basically the binder to the Magnesium and the other is the Magnesium. You need to measure the amount of Magnesium that you’re taking. So that’s really important.

James Lavalle:               And then there’s some interesting herbs. Bitter melon is very good. [inaudible 00:31:29]

Chantel Ray:                 Say the last one that you said again?

James Lavalle:               Bitter melon. B-I-T-T-E-R melon. Bitter melon standardized extract, the bitter melon, really good for blood sugar. Alphalipoic Acid’s a biggie. ALA really helps your insulin receptor to open up. When people get messed up, it’s not about how much hormone you have in the body. It’s about how well your receptors are opening up to catch the hormone. You need the receptors to function. I like Alphalipolic Acid because it enhances both thyroid receptors and insulin receptors to open up and catch the thyroid or insulin, the two hormones that you’ve got floating around in your body, that are incredibly important.

Chantel Ray:                 Gotcha. Okay. It says, “I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for about three to four months.” This is from Anonymous, they didn’t give us a name or anything. “And have been doing great. Trying to eat clean while allowing myself the occasional splurge so I don’t feel deprived. However, the past few weeks have been so hard for me. I always get stressed around Christmastime. Some people starve themselves when they’re stressed, but I tend to overeat. I don’t wanna spend my entire December like this and carry it into winter, which is always a blue time for me. Do you have any advice?”

James Lavalle:               Sure. First of all, whoever wrote in, Anonymous, she or he is like everybody else out there. Most people eat more when they get stressed. Only when it’s a really big crisis do you find people, you know…

Chantel Ray:                 That’s right.

James Lavalle:               When it’s everyday stress, it’s like, “Where is the cookie jar? Where’s the pasta? Where’s the pizza? In fact, I’m gonna pour chocolate on my pizza.” Right? You know what I mean? It’s like, “Get outta my way. I have to eat.” I’ve only done this for forty years, talking to people, that’s why. These stories are real. You know what I mean?

James Lavalle:               Here’s some strategies. One is, she should…she or he, it sounds like a she, but it may be a he, they should get their Vitamin D levels checked, especially if they’re blue during the winter months. If you’re in a colder climate and your Vitamin D levels are plummeting, it’s gonna make you have more risk for Seasonal Affective Disorder and you’re gonna be blue.

James Lavalle:               In addition to that, I love the intermittent fasting and I love the fact that she or he was treating themselves a little bit here and there just because they wanted to be able to stay with their regiment. I like that. I like having a treat every once in a while. There’s nothing wrong with that. People at treats in the 1940s and everybody wasn’t obese back then. The problem is today there’s a lot more…

Chantel Ray:                 It’s portion size.

James Lavalle:               Yes it is. And the last one would be that they could use something like Relora, R-E-L-O-R-A, that’s a magnolia and philodendron extract that actually works very well with reduced stress-related craving behaviors. And they actually have an FTC claim on that ingredient for stress-related cravings. So that’s a really good ingredient. You typically take 250 milligrams three times a day. I tell people during this time of year it’ll just keep you from stress eating. You’ll feel less stress, you won’t crave carbs, everything’s good.

Chantel Ray:                 The next question actually just relates to what you just said. It’s Dawn in Oregon. She said, “My bloodwork came back showing I was very low in Vitamin D. I wasn’t surprised considering this is called the ‘Sunshine Vitamin’ and it’s cold in December. I never thought of Vitamin D of being super important or talked about it. What are some of the functions that are affected by it and since it’s not realistic for me to lay in the sun, what are the best sources for me to increase my Vitamin D levels naturally? Do you recommend tanning beds or red light therapy?”

James Lavalle:               I love red light therapy. I worry about tanning. There’s just too much bad news on tanning. There is some interesting sunblocks out now that actually filter the Vitamin D but she’s in Oregon. Lotta rain, lotta overcast. Probably running pretty marginal D levels all the time.

James Lavalle:               I just found with people in general they need to take a Vitamin D supplement to get their Vitamin D up. And why it’s important: Vitamin D is needed to make your insulin receptors work. Vitamin D is needed for mood. It’s intimately involved in keeping your mood up. Probably one of the most important nutrients for keeping the gut lining intact so when we talk about leaky gut or gut permeability problems, when you have low Vitamin D you’re gonna have more gut permeability problems. Gut permeability problems equals food sensitivities, food intolerances, which means I’m gonna be chronically inflamed. I’m gonna gain weight, I’m gonna ache, I’m not gonna think clear. I always tell people, “You’re probably gonna feel like you’re pushing a thought through Jell-o.” I talk to a lot of folks and they’re like, “Oh my God – how did you know that? That’s exactly how I feel.” Well, as soon as you get inflamed, your brain gets neurally inflamed and now all those connections slow down. So Vitamin D is important for the nervous system, inflammation, joints, blood sugar, immune function. Four thousand reactions in your body are dependent on adequate Vitamin D.

Chantel Ray:                 Wow. Well, this has been such a pleasure talking with you and super, super fun. Now if people wanna find out more about how to get one of your books or how to reach out to you, where do they go?

James Lavalle:               Real simple. Go to Jim Lavalle, L-A-V-A-L-L-E dot com. If they wanna see what we’re doing, out there working with doctors, they can go to metaboliccode.com. That’s our cloud-based information system that figures out where things are wrong in you and what to do about it. All that stuff is covered on the JimLavalle.com site.

Chantel Ray:                 I love to see – you are offering something for free. So tell us about it. If you go to our Facebook and comment and share the post, we’re giving away one book for free. Tell us about it.

James Lavalle:               Yeah, we’re giving away my latest book called Your Blood Never Lies. Your Blood Never Lies talks about how to look at your blood tests for health and identify trends that are off before you get a diagnosis. And it tells you what to take, how to eat, what the lab values mean, why it’s important it’s trending. It’s been a great book. Yeah. Your Blood Never Lies.

Chantel Ray:                 Well, if you have a question that you want answered, go to questions@chantelrayway.com. Thanks so much for joining us. Have a great day. Bye.

James Lavalle:               Buh-bye.