If you’ve ever considered working with a life coach, this is the show for you! Kathleen Barnes and several other life coaches will join Dr. Tranquility Lydia Belton at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10 to discuss how life coaches can help you.

If you’re not familiar with life coaching, think of your coach as someone who can help empower you to change your life in whatever way you feel is needed.

Do you want to lose weight?
Improve your relationships?
Get a job or a better job?
Get your stress levels under control?

You can listen live at BlogTalk Radio or you can listen to the archived version anytime.

Call-ins are welcome during the live show. The call in number is 714-868-0221.

Sign on early. There will be lots of great giveaways to those on the live show.

Join Me for a No-Cost Webinar
Wednesday, Nov. 16
7:30-8:30 Eastern

To Register, e-mail Kathleen@KathleenBarnes.com

Want to get rid of excess weight? Have you tried every diet under the sun without success?

Now is the time for success with the Super Simple HCG Diet.

Kathleen Barnes has done it and you can, too. Kathleen, author of The Super Simple HCG Diet, got rid of 100 pounds of unwanted fat in 9 months with HCG and the accompanying diet.

Whether you have 20, 40 or more pounds to shed, you can do it with The Super Simple HCG Diet.

If you’ve searched HCG diet online and been daunted by how strict it is, not to worry. Kathleen has developed a simplified version that allows you stick to a healthy low-calorie, low-fat low-carb diet and achieve significant weight loss quickly and without strenuous exercise.

The HCG Diet works for men and women and is especially effective for women over 40.

Learn all about what you need to do to be successful and manage your weight for the rest of your life with the Super Simple HCG Diet.

During the webinar, you’ll get information about upcoming group coaching sessions and special pricing for those who attend the live webinar. There will be one replay of the recording scheduled a few days later.

Please feel free to pass this e-mail on to others who might be interested.

Space is limited, so please register early. To register, e-mail me: Kathleen@KathleenBarnes.com

I’m looking forward to connecting with you on Nov. 16!

Title: Super Simple HCG Diet introductory webinar with Kathleen Barnes
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011
Time: 7:30 – 8:30 PM EDT

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

It’s breast cancer awareness month again and pink ribbons adorn packaging everywhere from dog food to t-shirts, jeans, tennis balls, toasters, frozen dinners DVDs, M&Ms, perfumes, cocktails. You name it, everybody wants to get on the breast cancer awareness bandwagon and get the resultant PR benefits of appearing to support breast cancer research, hypocritical or not.

There are two problems here:

1. A process called “pinkwashing” defined by Breast Cancer Action as “a term in which the activities of companies and groups are criticized for positioning themselves as leaders in the struggle against breast cancer while engaging in practices that may be contributing to rising rates of the disease.

Cosmetics that contain carcinogenic substances including phthlates and bisphenol A (BPA) are frequently the subject of pinkwashing” criticism.

BMW, for example, gives $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure each time you test-drive one of their cars and Ford is touting a special edition Mustang with pink accents, even though pollutants found in car exhaust are linked to breast cancer.

2. Public relations campaign pressing women to have annual mammograms over the age of 40, despite a large body of research that shows mammograms deliver high levels of cancer-causing radiation (1,000 times the quantity in a chest X-ray) to sensitive breast tissue potentially aggravating small hidden cancerous growths.

For women who have had annual mammograms for more than ten years, more than half will get the dread phone call –in error — that they may in fact have breast cancer (called a false positive). Follow-ups will most often find them cancer-free at the cost of great emotional distress and, for many of them, disfiguring biopsies.

In addition, there is no proof that mammograms save lives when compared to breast cancer survival rates among women who perform monthly breast self-exams.

Safe alternative

Thermograms show patterns of heat and blood flow. They are a safe alternative to mammograms for a variety of reasons:

1. They are non–invasive. Nothing touches your body. There is no compression that may actually rupture growths, seeding the cancer.

2. There is no radiation.

3. A heat-sensing camera detects early formation of blood vessels that feed cancerous tumors and inflammation that may indicate breast cancer long before it approaches a dangerous size.

4. They can show signs of hormonal effects on the breasts that increase the risk of breast cancer before it actually occurs. We know that lifetime exposure to estrogen is the single greatest risk for breast cancer, so this is an important element of thermography.

5. They can be predictive, giving you as much as ten years head start to make lifestyle changes and be vigilant in monitoring your breast health to stop the growth of cancer cells.

Sisters, please don’t fall for the hype about mammograms. They could cost you your health or even your life. Instead, do your monthly breast self-exams and give serious consideration to including thermograms in your annual health regimen.

Find a thermography center near you.

by Kathleen Barnes

Great news for chocolate lovers: Two new studies show that those who regularly eat chocolate, especially dark chocolate, have a significantly lower risk of heart attack and stroke.

The first, a British study from Cambridge and published in the British Medical Journal, shows that those who eat the most chocolate have a 37% lower risk of heart disease and a 29% lower risk of stroke.

What’s more, the study says that chocolate eaters have a surprisingly lower risk of cardiometabolic disorders. That’s a fancy way of including diabetes and metabolic syndrome in the mix, both disease conditions that are triggered by excessive sugar and fat consumption and obesity.

The second study, which looked at dark chocolate consumption among more than 14,000 adults in Jordan, found at those who ate four dark chocolate bars a week had substantially lower blood pressure, even among those with a family history of high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is a major cause of heart attack and stroke, so the Jordanian study validates the British study in its finding that chocolate consumption can prevent these potentially deadly diseases.

Researchers theorize that the wealth of antioxidants found in chocolate is responsible for these happy results.

CAUTION: This does not mean it’s OK hog out on chocolate. Chocolate has a high sugar and fat content. A 1.5-ounce milk chocolate mini-bar (think or it as a two-biter) has 235 calories and 13 grams of fat. Dark chocolate is a better choice: It’s about 20% lower in calories and fat, but chocolate in any form cannot in any way be considered a diet food.

Moderation is still the key. An ounce a day should be more than sufficient and I think the Jordanians who chow down four chocolate bars a week may have lower blood pressure, but they are almost surely fatter.

My regular readers know that I have recently shed more than 100 pounds of unwanted fat. Chocolate has absolutely not been part of my regular eating program. However, now that I am phasing off the diet, I think there is reason to add a couple of ounces of dark dark chocolate to my diet each week and the addition of 200 to 300 calories on a weekly basis is a worthy investment for the health return I can get from it. (Oh yes, and there’s the element of pleasure, too. Chocolate stimulates the cannaboid receptors in the brain, producing a feeling of well-being.)

That “dark dark” chocolate was not a typo. If you’re a chocolate lover as I am, you’ll discover that really dark chocolate (60% cocoa or more) is much more satisfying than milk chocolate, so an ounce or so is sufficient. I know the milk chocolate and its high sugar content triggers sugar cravings for me and probably for many others, leading to taking in hundreds of unwanted and unneeded calories.

My neighbor likes to call her nightly Dove dark chocolate habit her ”heart medicine.” It turns out, she’s right!

By Kathleen Barnes

Oh, my aching back! Ninety percent of all Americans suffer backaches at some time in their lives – and doctors say women are at high risk since periods, pregnancy, carrying groceries and kids, housework and high heels can all cause pain-triggering muscle and joint injuries. Two out of five women have suffered back pain in the last year and for 80% of sufferers, the pain is long-lasting— starting more than a year ago.

Doctors often recommend bed rest, prescription medication or even surgery to deal with the nagging pain. “More and more research is showing that natural is the way to go for better relief in the long and short term, fewer side effects and more side benefits,” say Brattleboro, VT herb researchers Thomas Newmark and Paul Schulick, master herbalist, authors of Beyond Aspirin. In fact, groundbreaking new research shows natural supplements can stop even the worst back pain – and speed healing for the pain stays gone for good!

Try these for relief:

Willow bark extract: This herb contains salicin, a pain-relieving anti-inflammatory compound similar to acetylsalicylic acid in aspirin that puts the brakes on your body’s production of pain-producing prostaglandins. Recent Israeli research shows that a 240-milligram dose daily got complete relief from back pain in 40% of sufferers in just four weeks. German researchers looking into willow bark say it works better than aspirin for long-term pain relief because it helps prevent cartilage destruction and has a lower risk of side effects.

“Like aspirin, willow bark can be irritating to the stomach, so it’s a good idea to combine it with something that would prevent those effects, like ginger, itself a powerful anti-inflammatory which soothes the stomach lining,” say Newmark and Schulick.

Find relief with: Willow bark capsules or extract containing 40 mg of salicin three times a day until the pain is gone.

MSM: An estimated 30 million people worldwide are taking this sulfur-compound derivative, with results that are nothing short of miraculous, according to Stanley Jacob, MD, professor of surgery at Portland’s Oregon Health Sciences University and author of The Miracle of MSM. And for good reason: Jacob’s research showed it cuts pain in half for most sufferers within four weeks or less. Some patients find their pain eases within days, but complete relief may take a month or even two.

Jacob, who personally treated more 18,000 people with MSM (methylsufonylmethane) for chronic pain, said, “Seventy percent of them got complete relief—even those who had no peace from any other type of treatment. I know it works and it works better than any other treatment available.”

Jacob and his colleagues at Oregon Health Sciences University learned that MSM relieves pain by working as an anti-inflammatory and it also softens scar tissues. But Jacob theorized that MSM is far more than a pain reliever: It promotes your body’s own natural healing power by dilating blood vessels and improving blood supply to injured areas. It also helps reduce muscle spasm.

Find relief with: Up to 8 grams a day in capsules or a powdered form, which is less expensive and have a bitter taste and should be dissolved in juice or water. Jacob’s suggested dosage: Start with 2 grams a day (about half a teaspoon) and slowly work up to as much as 8 grams until you get relief. If you get diarrhea, go back a notch.

Capsaicin: Derived from hot chili peppers, this heat-producing compound is used in creams like Zostrix literally blocks the pain where you need it most. British research has shown capsaicin, when applied directly to the painful spot, depletes a neurotransmitter called substance P, literally stopping pain signals to your brain! And German scientists found that nearly two-thirds of long-time back pain sufferers reduced the pain by at least 30% in just three weeks by using capsaicin cream. . You may feel a sensation of heat when you apply the cream, and that means it’s working, says Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council in Austin.

Find relief with: Creams containing .025% up to 1% capsaicin. Apply several times a day until the pain disappears.

Turmeric: Michigan State University scientists say it’s three times more effective in cutting pain and inflammation that aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen. Look for formulas like Gaia Herbs or New Chapter that contain no more than 20% curcumins and take up to 800 mg a day.

Ginger: An herbal powerhouse that contains no less than 477 active ingredients that inhibit prostaglandin production and bring a gentle internal warmth just where you need it. Take ½ tsp or 100 mg in capsules twice a day.

Holy basil: A cousin of our favorite kitchen spice, Michigan State researchers found it has at least six of the same compounds found in NSAIDS, including the powerful anti-inflammatory ursolic acid. Take one or two 400 mg capsules a day.

by Kathleen Barnes

I am so excited about the 40 pounds of unwanted fat I have shed in the past 11 weeks on the HCG Diet, including a two-week hiatus for the holidays.

Since so many people are asking me, I’ll give you the basics and then you can figure out for yourself if this is the diet for you.

What is HCG? How does it work?

HCG is human chorionic gonadatropin, a hormone secreted by pregnant women. In fact, this is the hormone that gives you the positive results on those home pregnancy tests.

Why would a pregnancy hormone work to help you lose weight? First of all, you’re only getting about 100 IUs a day, compared to the millions of units secreted by a pregnant woman. It doesn’t in any way mimic pregnancy, but what it does suppress appetite and helps burn fat in the most problematic areas: belly, thighs, hips.

Shed 3 to 5 pounds a week

Both of those are key to the HCG diet, which in the simplified form I am using, means you eat 700 calories a day. Most people shed 3 to 5 pounds a week on this diet. This strict form only allows 500 calories, which, in my mind, is too low for a long-term weight control program.

Still, 700 calories is not much, and of course, anybody would lose weight on 700 calories a day, that’s true.

HCG makes it possible to remain on this low-calorie, low-carb, low-fat diet for an extended period of time. Most of us simply wouldn’t be able to “tough it out” without some help. I know I don’t have the willpower, but this program simply has not been about willpower at all.

What you eat

I eat what I need to eat:

4 cups of low glycemic index vegetables a day
7 ounces of extremely lean meat: low fat fish, chicken, beef
2 pieces of fruit
100 calories of whole grain bread or tortilla or flatbread
It doesn’t sound like much, but it is actually a large amount of food if you pare it down to the basic healthy stuff– fresh veggies, good fruit, unlimited salad greens. And I am satisfied.

Here’s a great example: My husband (who doesn’t need to lose a pound) and I were eating dinner one night. He was having a big plate of organic basmati brown rice, chicken curry and some fresh sliced tomatoes. It was a good healthy meal.
I was having 3.5 ounces of grilled chicken, a whole green pepper, a large salad and a large bowl of vegetable soup.

My beloved pointed out that I was eating a lot of food. I agreed, so compared the calorie counts of our meals: He was eating nearly 900 calories and I was eating about 300.

My only complaint is that I am really cold most of the time and I wish I had started last summer when it was warm.

Most effective for those who want to shed more than 25 pounds

I think the HCG diet is most effective for people who have more than 20 to 25 pounds to shed (Note: I don’t say “lose,” because I think that triggers a subconscious thought that you are losing a part of yourself). You can lose 20-25 pounds in 4 to 6 weeks, but I think that is too short a time period to re-examine your relationship with food and the types of food you eat.

The HCG diet has given me a chance to take another look at what I thought was a healthy diet. It really wasn’t bad, but learning to center my eating around vegetables rather than my former love affair with bread, pasta and rice has made a huge difference in my weight and my energy levels.

I’ll get a new photo taken soon so you can see the difference. You’ll see even more in a couple more months.

HCG injections and drops

How do you use HCG? This is a deal breaker for some people. I have been using a daily injectible form. I’m not at all squeamish about injecting myself and it’s just a little insulin syringe, anyway. It’s no worse than a mosquito bite.

But daily injections may just be too scary for some people, so you can get HCG in homeopathic drops. I personally think the injectible form is probably more effective, but many people have gotten excellent results from the drops.

Injectible HCG is available only by prescription.

If you choose HCG, you need some medical supervision. Yes, you can buy HCG online, but buyer beware: some of it is useless. I get mine from my doctor, Hyla Cass, who is very excited about the results she has seen.

In my next post, I’ll talk more about where to get your HCG and who you can trust.
I promise, I won’t turn this blog into a day-to-day blow-by-blow pound-by-pound account of my diet. But I do promise to give you the basics and answer your questions.

The House of Representatives has voted to make the new credit laws effective immediately in the face of flagrant abuses by credit companies hoping to beat the February deadline by raising interest rates into the stratosphere.

The Senate has not yet taken up the measure, and it is uncertain what will happen there, but Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) is pressing for legislation that will freeze interest rates on existing balances until the new law takes effect.

The Federal Reserve has released a bank survey in which 50 percent of the banks responding admitted they are increasing interest rates and reducing credit lines even on credit card holders with good credit scores.

Even more disturbing is a study by the Pew charitable trusts reported by the New York Times on Nov. 9 “Concludes that the 12 largest banks issuing more than 80 percent of all credit cards, are continuing to use practices that the Fed considers ‘unfair or deceptive’ and in many cases have been outlawed by Congress.”

What can you do?

Contact your Senators and urge them to make the new credit card law effective immediately, as the House has done.

Sept 28, 2009

Here‘s a little rant about social networking.

In recent times, you were nobody if you weren’t on Twitter. It was an essential business and personal branding tool.

I am on Twitter (@KathleenSBarnes) and am approaching 2,400 followers. Not too shabby. I have some wonderful followers who post interesting stuff.

But lately, I find I have to make myself to go Twitter and post a couple of pithy 140-character comments each day. I actually miss a lot of these.

Why? Because I find my inbox inundated with new followers that offer nothing less than spam. There are the ads to get thousands of new followers effortlessly, multi-level marketing companies promising untold riches and folks who want to sell me coaching packages for “only $997.”

That’s not even mentioning the uptick in pornography. Hey folks, I’m not a guy. Not many people named “Kathleen” are guys.

When Twitter began, it was frankly, silly. I mean, who cares if you’re at Starbucks drinking a latte or sitting in the dentist’s office?

Then Twitter hit its heyday in 6 or 8 months ago with interesting people saying interesting things, folks tweeting from the plane that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, even tweeting news stories before the conventional news media caught on to the fact that news was breaking and the people on the scene had already gotten the word out. News organizations even began creating Twitter accounts so they could get the early scoops. Who could forget the power of the tweets that came out of Iran after the stolen election? That was social networking at its zenith.

During that heady time, I could hardly wait to logon in the mornings and dip my toes into the unending stream of interesting and thought-provoking information. I found myself enticed back there several times a day. I used TweetDeck to stay up to date with group of followers whose tweets I found the most useful. I probably spent too much tie there, but I know I learned a great deal and I am richer for the experience.

I hope that, in return, I offered information that was of value to them. I will continue to do so, although perhaps less frequently.

I’m waiting out this deluge of scamsters, get-rich-quick schemes and other mindless nonsense. Hopefully, this will pass and Twitter will regain some of its fascination for me. If not, I’ll move on to something more exciting and useful.

Until then, I’m choosing to spend less time on Twitter. Call it asocial networking. I’m spending more time on some exciting new projects I’ll be telling you about soon. It’s more productive and more personally satisfying. I promise not to scam you or spam you. Ever.

Unprecedented shortages of dessicated or natural thyroid hormones like Armour thyroid and Nature-Throid are causing serious problems for patients with hypothyroidism.

Shortages of Armour thyroid have become fairly common in recent years, but the recent shortage of Nature-Throid indicates the pressure to take patients off the natural hormones that have been available for 100 years and force them onto synthetic thyroid hormones.

Minimum 90-day back order

Both Armour and RLC Labs, manufacturer of Nature-Throid and a similar formula called Westbrook, have announced that the most commonly used strengths of their products are on back order for at least 90 days and quite possibly considerably longer.

Is FDA forcing naturals off the market?

Thyroid patient advocate Mary Shoman has written on About.com that the FDA is attempting to force the manufacturers to go through a new drug application, a process that typically takes years and is patently absurd for a medication that has been in safe use for more than a century.

Dr. Hyla Cass, who works with many patients with hypothyoidism, suggests that patients shop around. She also suggests they consider taking a natural compounded T3/T4 formula.

Steve Metcalf, R.Ph., owner of my little compounding pharmacy in Brevard, NC, says he is unable to get dessicated thyroid in any form . He is currently using up the last of his supplies of tiny 1/4 grain tablets.

“We don’t know where this is going, but if you can find it anywhere, I suggest you buy a year’s supply or more,” he said.

Shomon writes, “Bottom line: at some point in the next several months, some patients will likely face a complete unavailability of all desiccated thyroid drugs, manufactured and compounded.”

Dessicated thyroid hormones are made from pork thyroids. Shomon reports that the raw materials supply has been interrupted and suggests that manufacturers may be abandoning their efforts to produce the hormones.

If you’re among the millions of Americans diagnosed with hypothyroidism, you know how difficult it is to get diagnosed and to find a hormone that works for you. To have the rug yanked out form under us is simply unacceptable.

Take action

You can make your feelings known to the FDA through its website, or by phone at: 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332):

–Kathleen Barnes

Two really important studies crossed my desk recently, both showing profound advantages of vitamin supplementation in reducing markers of heart disease and in prolonging life in those at risk of heart disease.

I’ve long been an advocate of supplements since we know that it is nearly impossible to get all the nutrients we need from our food grown in nutrient depleted soil.

These studies underscore the importance of multivitamins and vitamins C and E for a long, healthy life.

Vitamin C deficiency

Canadian researchers found that nonsmoking young people (ages 20 to 29) deficient in Vitamin C had elevated risks of serious chronic disease. The study showed that 47% of the 979 subjects had suboptimal or deficient blood levels of ascorbic acid, the major ingredient in vitamin C.

Those with low ascorbic acid levels had higher levels of C-reactive protein, higher blood pressure, larger waist circumference and higher body mass index.

Voluminous research shows that this combination of health issues vastly increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

The researchers from the University of Toronto attributed the vitamin C deficiency in their study subjects to poor diet and warned that not only do these risks factor present a very clear and present health danger, the long-term dangers become extremely serous when we take into account the compounding of these factors over the coming 20, 30 or 40 years.

Multivitamin and vitamin E supplementation

The second shows that multivitamins and vitamin E supplementation can be protective against death from heart disease,

The recent large study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle involved 77,719 people ages 50 to 76 over a 10-year period, showed that and those whole took multivitamins nearly every day had a 16% lower risk of dying of heart disease. Those who took more than 215 mg. of vitamin E daily for ten years or more were even more protected with a 28% lower risk of dying of heart disease.

Interestingly, the Fred Hutchinson study did not find any reduced risk for those who took vitamin C daily, although other studies have shown the importance of vitamin C for heart health, particularly in keeping blood vessels open.

The take home message here is that vitamin C certainly has an important role in your nutritional arsenal against a host of chronic and potentially fatal disease. The place of a good quality multivitamin is unquestioned and these studies add to the evidence in favor of vitamin E.

–Kathleen Barnes

Resources:

Cahill, L, Corey PN et al, Vitamin C deficiency in a population of young Canadian adults. American Journal of Epidemiology 2009 Aug. 15;170(4):464-71.

Pocobelli, G, Peters, U et al. Use of supplements of mulitvitamins, vitamin C and vitamin E in relation to mortality. American Journal of Epidemiology 2009 Aug.15;170(4):472-83.

Frikke-Schmidt, H, Lykkesfeldt R, Rise of marginal vitamin C deficiency in atherogenesis: in vivo models and clinical studies. Basic Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology 2009 Jun;104(6):419-33.