• The Importance of a Healthy Cholesterol Level
• Tips for Controlling Allergies
• Poor Dietary Habits of Americans: The Sugar Addiction
• When Your Lab Results are NOT What You Expected

---

Dear Health Conscious Individual,

Welcome to the second issue of House Calls with Dr. Cutler!

Today I’d like to share with you the importance of healthy cholesterol. We’ll take a look at what cholesterol is, where it comes from, and how to manage your cholesterol to help ensure it stays within the healthy and normal range.

I’ll also share with you some of my tips for controlling those annoying and sometimes dangerous allergies.

And finally, I want to share with you some facts on Lyme disease and treatments as well as some natural ways to address hormone imbalances.

Yours for healthy living,

Michael Cutler, M.D.
Medical Advisor, True Health™

---

The Importance of a Healthy Cholesterol Level

The American Medical Association now officially recognizes that the blood cholesterol level is the best general index of how much sludge is being deposited in your arteries. There seems to be universal agreement that we should always keep it below 200 mg/dl. and, if possible, below 180 mg/dl. up to age 50.

What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a complex fatty alcohol. Your liver produces more in a day than you’re likely to eat unless you are living on eggs and lobster. Some is converted to bile acids, some to various hormones, and Vitamin D. The excess goes to two types of cholesterol called lipoproteins.

Cholesterol in the high density lipoproteins (HDLs) is good cholesterol. It is the cholesterol being swept off the arterial walls. Cholesterol in the low density lipoproteins (LDLs) is bad cholesterol. This type is deposited on the walls of the arteries.

The Bottom Line
There are two objectives we have for cholesterol. One is to reduce the total to as close to 150 as possible. The other is to maintain the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol below four, preferably about three. These two measurements together are excellent predictors of heart disease.

Why Does It Get Elevated?
Cholesterol becomes elevated for a number of reasons, but each one affords an opportunity to reduce it by dietary means.

The liver uses cholesterol to produce bile acids. The more bile acids the liver is called upon to make, the less cholesterol there is available to clog your arteries.

A low fiber diet is bad news because it allows the bile acids to be reabsorbed into your system. Is there a way to trick the liver into producing more bile acids? Yes, there is.

A high fiber diet binds the bile acids so they can’t be reabsorbed. The liver must use more cholesterol to make the extra bile acids it needs, so less cholesterol is released into your arteries, and the outcome in lower total cholesterol and higher HDL cholesterol.

Being overweight produces elevated cholesterol, especially that frontal paunch you see in many men. Lose that weight!

Excessive simple carbohydrates are another cholesterol elevator. In other words, excess sugar elevates cholesterol. Cut down on those sugar-soaked snacks.

The more saturated fat in your diet, the more elevated your cholesterol. Saturated fat is generally sold at room temperature while unsaturated fats are liquid. Saturated fats include: lard, animal fat, many dairy products, coconut, and palm oils.

The simplest thing to do is reduce fat to less than 30% of your calories, preferably below 25%. That means no red meat, baked desserts, or high fat dairy products. You’ll get your meat protein from low fat fish and the white meat of skinned fowl. It will naturally have a good portion of unsaturated oils.

All of these steps will help lower total cholesterol.

What About HDL (good) Cholesterol?
The next thing we need to do is to elevate your HDL cholesterol. You don’t have to become a runner, cyclist or swimmer. All it requires is consistent good exercise. For example, walking vigorously for 45 minutes four times weekly will work.

Soluble fiber, the gooey type of fiber you get in oatmeal, some fiber supplements, and the fiber in fruits and vegetables helps to elevate HDL cholesterol. It’s all part of removing the bile acids I talked about before. So eat lots of oatmeal, beans, fruits, and vegetables, and use a good fiber supplement, E.P.A. (eicosapentaenoic acid), and other fish oil. All of this helps elevate HDL cholesterol.

Suppose Your Deck Is Stacked By Heredity
Let’s say you’ve got elevated cholesterol, and your ratio is high. Don’t despair; there is a lot you can do. It takes perseverance and it may require medication, but it can be done.

Get on a very low fat diet. Exercise! I don’t care how out of shape you are. Get some comfortable shoes and start walking 45 minutes daily. If you can jog, so much the better, but get started! Keep a food diary! Learn to identify your weak points. It may seem corny, but it works and that’s what counts.

---

Tips for Controlling Allergies

• Keep rooms free from dust.
• Use a hypo-allergenic air filter on your furnace.
• Avoid exercising outside if pollen count is high.
• Don’t smoke or breath second-hand smoke.

Ask your integrative practitioner about the allergy detection ability of the computerized kinesiology systems used today and how to eliminate what is detected.

Some patients use vitamins B complex and vitamin C with bioflavenoids. Some use the herb Bee Pollen to help with allergies. Some find that Bromelain with Quercetin takes care of them. Keep a diary of the foods and the activities you do to determine what causes reactions.

---

Poor Dietary Habits of Americans: The Sugar Addiction

Let’s look at some facts about the American diet. Each year the average adult consumes:

• 100 pounds of refined sugar
• 55 pounds of fats & oils
• 300 cans of soda pop
• 200 sticks of chewing gum
• 5 pounds of potato chips
• 7 pounds of pretzels, corn chips and popcorn
• 18 pounds of candy
• 20 gallons of ice cream
• 50 pounds of cakes/cookies

Is there any question what is making Americans fat? How in the world could our bodies process such excess amounts of sugar?

Would you like to know more about sugar? Did you know that sugar (glucose) comes directly from sugar compounds, meaning groups of sugar molecules called disaccharides or chains of sugar molecules called polysaccharides?

Starch is nothing more than huge sugar chains that can easily be broken down by digestive enzymes to their component parts, monosaccharides, or glucose. So when you read high fructose corn sweetener, you must also know it is another fancy name for refined, worthless sugar.

We like to count sugar in terms of carbohydrate grams. Please know, however, that all man-made sugars are far worse that the naturally-occurring forms. But the fact remains, Americans get far too many carbohydrates in their diet as compared to proteins or healthy oils (fats). In fact, approximately 2/3 of American diet consists of sugar and other refined carbohydrates that are quickly broken down in the body to sugar.

Let’s take a typical breakfast, for example. The toast (64 grams of carbohydrates) and sugar cereal (96 grams of carbohydrates) are the refined, man-made carbohydrates (sugars) up to 1/8-cup sugar. But the other part of the breakfast consisting of an orange (17 grams) and a banana (20 grams) have the fiber, vitamin and enzyme complexes, mineral cofactors, and the life force of the proper combinations of these molecular compounds because they were made by nature.

---

Q & A

Each week in the Q & A section of House Calls with Dr. Cutler, I will share with you some of the many questions I get every week from subscribers to my monthly advisory newsletter, Easy Health Options™. For more information on Easy Health Options™, visit www.easyhealthoptions.com.

When Your Lab Results are NOT What You Expected

Dear Dr. Cutler,

What is your answer to lyme disease? Also to someone who has a low T3, low DHEA, and too much estrogen?

Sincerely,
Toni

Dear Toni,

Lyme disease is not an easy one for me using natural therapies. The current medical treatment for Lyme disease is a course of therapy using doxycycline, amoxicillin, penicillin, or erythromycin. These are taken orally except in severe cases in which they may be administered intravenously instead. Many of those who become infected spontaneously recover within days or months even without antibiotics (the bacteria usually eventually succumbs to the immune system).

For those who have the infection for months prior to treatment without improvement, antibiotics may be needed for several months before the infection finally resolves. Sometimes it becomes a chronic condition when the bacteria become resistant to antibiotics or the immune system. So, any and all things that build the immune system would be valuable if it becomes a chronic illness.

Low T3 and DHEA can be supplemented with these hormones. Too much estrogen can be balanced by progesterone (bioidentical compounding preferred). Alternatively increasing androgenic herbs or progestogenic herbs would down-balance estrogen:

• Herbs to balance estrogen and progesterone are Vitex-agnus castus (Chaste Tree); Dioscorea (Wild yam) or Blue Cohosh which promote a more progesterone effect; Black Cohosh, False Unicorn Root, Red Clover, and White Peony to promote a more estrogenic effect.
• Herbs to support the adrenal glands so they can normalize androgen levels are Glycerrhiza glabra (Licorice), Panax ginseng or Eleuthrococcus
• Herbs to promote androgen activity: Rehmannia or Sarsaparilla; Tribulus terrastis daily increases LH which increases testosterone and decreases estrogen levels in men; Chrysin blocks testosterone’s conversion to estrogen.
• Supplemental DHEA. Five percent of women may get new acne or facial hair which is reversible.
• Strict high-density nutrition. This is a lifestyle that is critical to learn and keep.

To your optimal health!
Michael Cutler, M.D.