Brando's Blog

Great Healthy Young Looking Skin - Part 3

In the next two posts, I will explain the factors that require addressing of you wish for great, healthy, young looking skin. In this post, i will be focussing on hydration, nutrition and the digestive and immune systems.

Hydration

Bad skin is often caused by an overworked detoxification system  that is backed up like a blocked toilet. So the solution to pollution is dilution.

We need to ensure we are fully hydrated at all times. This includes drinking a minimum of 0.033 litres of good quality water per kilogram of body weight per day per day. So if you weigh 50kg, you would be required to drink at least 1.65 litres of water per day.

Good quality water includes reverse osmosis filtered water, Evian and Vittel.

Drinks that should be avoided are tap water, caffeinated drinks, fizzy drinks, alcohol and fruit juices.

Nutrition

To be adequately nourished, you need to:

• Eat right for your metabolic type®
• Eliminate foods that you are intolerant too (MRT® Test)
• Eat organic.
• Use organic ‘real’ supplements in accordance with your metabolic type®
• Eliminate blocking factors such as tap water, metal fillings, non-stick and aluminum cookware and toxic cosmetics and toiletries.

Digestive & Immune Health

Your skin is only as healthy as your digestive system.

Psoriasis is an over-stimulation of the immune system that has not shut off. Most of your immune system is in your small intestine which is a major digestive organ. To ensure optimal digestive and immune health it is advised to test for

• gut health (liver overload, protein breakdown, oxidative stress)
• immune function (intestinal barrier screen)
• infections.(fungal, bacterial, parasitic)

If your immune system is under constant attack due to the above why would it shut down? It is crucial to find out what might be causing the stimulation of the immune system and the way I do this is by testing. After all as Paul Chek would say, “if you’re not assessing you’re guessing”. I do not like to guess when it comes to your health!

Stay tuned for Part 4, when I will outline details of the other factors involved in acheiving great healthy, young looking skin.

Great Healthy Young Looking Skin - Part 2

In the last post, I described how skin conditions affect many people, how they can be debilitating and what the general beliefs and approaches are to skin conditions.

A New Perspective

If you were to have a plant in your home and it started to wilt and turn brown, what would you do? Would you paint the leaves and branches green and reinforce the stem with a stick? Most sane people I know would consider what they are putting into the soil, i.e. the nutrition of the plant.

So why is it that when we look to improve the health of the plant we look to its nutrition and when we consider our own health, we do not consider what we put in our mouths?

People today spend £100’s, if not £1,000’s per year on fake tanning products, cosmetics and toiletries and other treatments to look and smell good and to stay looking young. Yet what most do not realise is that the very things they are using are highly toxic and contributing to bad skin and aging skin.

Good Skin – The Factors

So, to improve your skin, you have to improve the health of your internal systems. To do this you need to have optimal:

• Hydration levels
• Nutrition
• Digestive system health
• Immune system health
• Detoxification system
• Elimination system
• Hormone balance.

Stay tuned for Part 3, when I will explain each factor in detail.

Great Healthy Young Looking Skin

In the next few posts, I hope to show you how most skin conditions are a good indication of your internal health and how to achieve healthy, young looking skin.

Skin Condition Statistics

Whilst there are many skin conditions, I wish to look at three common skin conditions. I will be focusing predominantly on acne, eczema and psoriasis.

It is estimated that acne affects an estimated 3.7 million people in the UK and 18.4 million in the USA. Eczema affects an estimated 3.3 million people in the UK and 15 million people in the USA. At the same time psoriasis affects an estimated 3.7 million in the UK and 18.4 million in the USA.

From the ages of 13-31, I myself suffered from severe acne and have also suffered from eczema from time to time too. I can speak from experience how debilitating skin problems can be.

Skin problems are known to cause:

• Psychological damage
• Physical scarring
• Itching
• Loss of self confidence
• Loss of self esteem
• Relationship challenges
• Embarrassment
• Non attendance of activities and social events
• Development of psoriatic arthritis in 10-15% of psoriasis sufferers
• Physical pain.

 When I first visited my Doctor at the age 13 or 14 in the hope that he could help me reduce the acne, I was given a topical cream and was suggested a skin cleanser to use. After using these products, the acne became worse and my skin became very dry. After some time I went back to the Doctor and he decided to put me on anti-biotics. I asked my Doctor if my diet had any affect on my skin and he said categorically, “no, your diet has no affect on your skin”.

For a few weeks and months, the acne did improve after beginning the anti-biotics. However, after this time, the acne began to continually worsen. I would have some good weeks interspersed with very bad weeks. This continued until my early thirties. For most of this time all my Doctor would do was give me different ant-biotics in an attempt to help me, sadly for me with no success.

It is generally believed in the medical community that acne is caused by a bacterial infection which develops due to an over-secretion of oils from the sebaceous gland which is believed to be caused by androgen (male hormone) stimulation. There is some validity in this theory.

Eczema is believed to be an interaction of genetic and environmental factors. This is an interesting view as every living thing is an interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Some more open-minded Doctors also believe there is a link between certain foods and eczema.

The cause of psoriasis whilst believed to be an auto-immune disease, the actual cause in medicine tends to be classed as unknown.

Tune in next time to discover a new perspective on skin problems.

Client Experience

When I first began Brando's Blog a few years ago, it was always my intention to share wth you some of my client's experiences of their journey with me.

This week, out of the blue, I received a testimonial from a client of mine who I worked with a year ago. His testimonial read:

"I went to Leigh Brandon in summer 2008 to get an all round health plan. Going to a personal instructor wasn’t exactly what I wanted; I needed an all round plan encompassing exercise and nutrition. Leigh was more than able to fit the bill. I had spent several years in sport getting fit for a ski season or triathlon event but almost always I would get injured during or just after an event and never really feeling like I was taking it to the next level.

I had seen an article on CHEK Practitioners in a Men’s Health magazine and decided to try it. Leigh was able to come up with an exercise and nutrition plan within the first few visits and ended up designing a programme for me to follow throughout the year. 

I learned so much from the visits, exercises and nutrition studies that I improved markedly over the next few months and this year after having the best ski season of my life, I was able to step up the triathlon training and completed my first Ironman this summer. I recommended Leigh to a friend who was having back pain and he not only eradicated the back pain, but he was able to complete his fastest ever marathon time.

What Leigh did more than anything was educate me on what was right for my body so I feel I don't need to see anyone else to improve."

Stephen, Skier and Triathlete.

This kind of feedback is why I do what I do. It is very rewarding to help people to achieve their goals and in the process help them to achieve a healthier and happier life.

Until next time...

A Too Familiar Story

Today, we hear of the sad loss of two celebrities at a relatively young age.

Patrick Swayze, (57) the hollywood actor died of pancreatic cancer and Keith Floyd, (65) celebrity chef died of a heart attack.

Cancer and heart disease have become the big killers since the beginning of the 20th century and even more so since the end of WWII, with almost all of us in the western world statistically due to die from one of these chronic degenerative diseases. The sad thing about these diseases which are killing people in their millions is that it is cutting people's lives very short and these diseases are completely man-made and completely preventable.

In native tribes around the world who have not been exposed to westernised foods like white flour, sugar, processed salt and pasteurised dairy, many elders live very healthily well over 100 years old. By following a few simple lifestyle tips every day, you can stay healthy and lead a vital, energetic, happy and productive life for much longer than most people live today.

Ultimately, it more important to live a healthy and happy life than a miserable long life. However, when you discover what great health actually feels like, you will know what it is to really live!

Until next time.

The 10 Secrets of Weight Loss - Part 7

Here are the final set of actions to ensure you can achieve your ideal body size and shape:

Hormone Balance

 

1. Get your hormones checked. Ensure you are checked for DHEA, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, cortisol and melatonin
2. Receive help from a trained professional to help re-balance any hormonal imbalances
3. Incorporate all the other advice given on the other nine secrets to weight loss.

 

 

Sleep Patterns

 

1. Get to bed by 10-10.30pm and sleep for eight hours each night
2. Sleep in a totally dark room. Use black-out curtains
3. Avoid any electrical sockets near your bed
4. Avoid bright lights after 8pm
5. Avoid stimulants after midday.

 

So there you have it. For those of you who have wondered why you can’t lose weight even though you've tried everything, this should help you to understand why.

 

If anyone wishes to find out more information as to why these factors are important, please feel free to contact me by posting a response on this blog.

The 10 Secrets of Weight Loss - Part 6

Here are your action steps seven and eight:

Detoxification & Elimination

 

1. Ensure you are hydrated by following the recommendations above under ‘Hydration’.
2. Ensure you are passing at least 12 inches of well formed, earthy (not stinky) smelling stools per day.
3. Obtain professional on how to use coffee enemas, herbal colon cleansers, and liver/gall bladder flushes two to three times per year.
4. Avoid toxic substances like non-organic foods, processed food, tobacco, alcohol, mercury from fillings, non-stick cookware, tap water, non-organic toiletry and cosmetic products.
5. Perform ‘breathing squats’ daily to help the general flow. Breathing Squats can help with constipation.

 

Exercise

 

1. Exercise every day
2. Find out the right kind of exercise for you. If you are under a lot of stress, you will need to focus more on ‘working in’ than ‘working out’. Working in exercises include Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Walking Meditation and  Yoga
3. If you’re able to work out without getting exhausted, weight training is the way to go. Lift heavy weights and change your programme every three to six weeks. Train hard, then rest hard!
4. Avoid too much cardiovascular exercise unless you REALLY love it and are prepared to do a lot of it to keep the weight off. Interval type training is preferable over long steady state training for weight loss.
5. Increase your activity as much as possible. Walk where you can instead of using the car, use stairs, not escalators, clean the car, clean the house and walk the dog. Go for a short walk each lunchtime

Stay tuned for the final installment next time...

The 10 Secrets of Weight Loss - Part 5

Here are your fifth and sixth secret tips:

Digestive System Health

 

1. Ensure you’re hydrated prior to a meal. Drink two glasses of water 15 minutes before you eat. Do not drink during or for up to one hour after eating
2. Chew your food until liquidised
3. You may require digestive supplementation such as hydrochloric acid and enzymes in accordance with your metabolic type®
4. Obtain a gastro-intestinal test to identify whether your organs of digestion require support and to establish whether you have any fungal, bacterial and parastic infections
5. Avoid all processed, packaged and fast foods and minimise refined carbohydrates like sugar and flour.

 

Immune System Health

 

1. Obtain an intestinal barrier test to see how well your immune system is doing
2. Avoid stress as much as possible.
3. Use stress relief techniques like meditation if required
4. Avoid toxic substances like non-organic foods, processed food, tobacco, alcohol, mercury from fillings, non-stick cookware, tap water, non-organic toiletry and cosmetic products.
5. Get to bed by

   10.30pm

   and sleep for eight hours each night.

Stay tuned for secrets seven and eight...

The 10 Secrets of Weight Loss - Part 4

Here are your third and fourth action to follow:

Hydration

 

1. Drink at least 0.033 litres of good quality water per kilogram of body weight
2. Good quality water includes Evian, Vittel and reverse osmosis filtered water. If buying bottled water, glass bottles are better than plastic. If using reverse osmosis filtered water, add a pinch of organic sea salt per litre of water.
3. Eliminate fizzy drinks, diet drinks, fruit juices, alcohol and pasteurised dairy
4. Don’t drink tea or coffee after 12pm midday

 

Nutrition

 

1. Only eat organic meats and vegetables and wild fish.
2. Eat according to your Metabolic Type®
3. Obtain an MRT® Test. This is the most advanced and accurate form of food sensitivity testing. This will help you to avoid foods that could be causing your excess weight
4. Use only natural supplements in accordance with your metabolic type®

Stay tuned for steps five and six next time.

The 10 Secrets of Weight Loss - Part 3

Here are your first two sets of actions to follow:

Thoughts and Emotions

 

1. Write down your goals
   1. What will you look like when you are successful?
   2. How will you know when you are successful?
   3. What will your waist measurement be?
   4. When will you achieve it by? What date?
2. Plan/write down what you are going to do every day/week to ensure you achieve your goals
3. Plan/write down what you are going to have to do less of or give up in order to achieve your dream
4. Say to yourself at least once every day your goals in the present tense, e.g. “I look lean and trim and I have a 28” waist, I look and feel fantastic”.

 

Breathing Mechanics

 

1. Spend at least 10 minutes per day focussing on your breath as described below. Just before bed is a particularly good time.
2. As you breathe in your abdomen should move outwards and as you breathe out your abdomen should move inwards
3. Breathe in through your nose as much as possible. If you cannot breathe through your nose, consider taking the MRT® Test (described below). Keep your tongue on the roof the mouth behind the front teeth.