The Cellular Secret to Health

Cells are the basic structural and functional units of the human body. This means everything that happens in our body- happens on the cellular level. If we are striving for health, a simple yet enormously important key is to get the cells "happy and healthy". When our cells are working right… Our Body Works Right !!!

Each cell is surrounded by a cell membrane. This cell membrane is vitally important to the function of the cell. Understanding the composition and function of this membrane will inspire us to make sure ours are healthy. This membrane is a phospholipid bi-layer membrane. This means that it is made of lipids (aka fats) and phosphatidylcholine which is essentially the same as lecithin.(If you are taking lecithin make sure it's at least 30% phosphatidylcholine). The best fats for the cell membrane are the omega 3's DHA and EPA aka fish oil. The presence of good fats and phosphatidylcholine are necessary for healthy cell membranes.

These membranes are the "guard wall" of the cell, so to speak. They are complex structures which control what enters and leaves the cell. Everything healthy in life has movement. If we move we stay youthful and as a person ages they get stiff. The same is true of the cell membrane. The capacity of the cell membrane to move is called membrane fluidity. A healthy cell membrane is a very fluid cell membrane. When this is the case things like insulin, hormones and other substances can more easily attach to the cell membrane and unlock the membrane, so to speak, to allow things to enter and leave. Trouble begins when the membrane becomes stiff.

Bad fats are the number one thief of cell membrane fluidity. Unfortunately, Americans in general eat tons of bad fats in the standard American diet (SAD). Actually, if you take a trip through the grocery store you will find numerous bad fats on just about all isles where there are prepackaged refined foods. The worst fat in our food supply is, hands down, trans fats. They are not essential to humans. They are man made, not digestible and are actually plastics that accumulate in the body. Are you catching on? Where do you think they love to accumulate? Right- the cell membranes!!! Plastics are not very fluid are they?

Lets say I was treating a patient with hormonal imbalances. If I accurately treat a patients imbalances with bio-identical hormones it does not insure results if at the same time I don’t fix the cell membranes. What if this person was trying to loose weight and just could never get results? You can now see how important the cell membrane is to forward motion!! Lets say that I was nutritionally helping someone with impaired energy metabolism, like chronic fatigue. This patient needs help with the mitochondria or energy centers which are found inside the cell. They have a cell membrane of there own and I can’t get the proper nutrition into their mitochondria if I don’t fix their cell membranes. In all these cases I could give supplementation with no success. This is why I always address cell membrane health with my wellness patients. It’s powerfully important to making a difference and dietary changes must be embraced to renovate existing and future cell membranes.

The first dietary change that must be embraced is an "oil change". Bad fats have to go and good fats must be added and supplemented. Tomorrow we will talk about the trans fats that must go. I’ll share the dirty little secret that the food industry is not being upfront with you about when they label a product "trans fat free". You will then want to check your pantry for all breads, crackers, cereals, cakes, cookies, muffins, protein and granola bars, and salad dressings to name a few of the foods that trans fats are in.

So today just be thankful that your cell membranes will soon be healthy once again!! Remember it’s often little things that can make a big difference and this is definitely the case with cell membranes!