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MY PERSPECTIVE—BY DR. STEPHEN GANGEMI
Dr. Stephen Gangemi, a chiropractor who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his family, has pursued advanced training in applied kinesiology, nutritional biochemistry, functional neurology, acupressure and meridian therapies, and other holistic body therapies. Dr. Gangemi is a six-time qualifier and finisher of the Ironman Hawaii World Championship Triathlon. He has completed fifteen Ironman races as well as countless other triathlons. He has been an all-American triathlete twice, in 1997 and 2004.
I first heard of Phil in the early 1990s after visiting a local chiropractor who insisted that I read In Fitness and In Health. Phil’s book inspired me, as I was becoming interested in health care, not disease care, while still in high school, and I was an avid athlete, starting to race in triathlons. Like many others, I figured my heart-rate monitor was either broken or just didn’t work for me, because my heart rate was much higher than I could have expected. I wore it but didn’t train according to Phil’s principles; it was more of a reference device to see how hard I could push myself.
My diet consisted of what most athletes ate in the late 1990s—the high-carb, low-fat, pasta and bagel diet. I raced well, but I was constantly injured. I eventually had them all—low back pain, neck pain, plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, iliotibial band syndrome, shin splints, muscle aches. There was always something wrong going on, one injury after another. I was a hard-core highly conditioned triathlete, so I pushed through the injuries either by seeing various doctors who knew nothing more than to look at my symptoms or by treating the ailments myself. Anti-inflammatory drugs were a staple, and healthy fats were to be avoided. After all, I was taught they’d make me fat and slow me down.
Then about five years later I began longer distance racing—half-Ironman and Ironman distance races. At this time I was also in chiropractic school and became fascinated with applied kinesiology and the link between biochemistry and neurology. I ran into Phil at the popular St. Anthony’s Triathlon in Florida. He took my then-vegetarian wife and me out to dinner that night to a sushi restaurant! She was pissed, to say the least. I knew Phil was a good coach by the time we left. My wife had gone from being on a 100 percent “nothing-that-was-once-alive” diet for over ten years to leaving that restaurant having eaten raw fish.
Fast-forward fifteen years to 2010. I have had the unique perspective of putting Phil’s principles to work not only as an athlete, but as a health-care professional. I’ve completed fifteen Ironman races as well as countless other endurance events throughout the United States, all without any major injury or illness. Proper training principles and dietary guidelines have been the reason for such success. Rarely do I train without a heart-rate monitor.
I think the main message behind Phil’s teachings is this: Do whatever you can to reduce stress and optimize your health and fitness potential. It’s not just about training. It’s not just about your diet. It’s not about fitness or race performance. It’s about achieving your maximum physical and mental health, and it can’t be done by just practicing one principle. You can exercise aerobically your entire life and still be aerobically deficient if your diet is riddled with refined carbohydrates. You can have major hormonal imbalances, particularly high cortisol and low sex hormones, if you’re under significant mental stress, even if you eat a diet that is high in good fats and high-quality protein. It’s all got to come together. I see this time and time again in my practice dealing with patients who are under a significant amount of stress.
You’ve got to change what you can in your life to reach the maximum potential available to you at the time. In other words, if your job is extremely stressful and you’ve adjusted to it to the best of your ability, then diet and exercise become even more critical to balance out the work stress. Though your body will crave caffeine and refined carbohydrates, which are most likely readily available in your workplace, adjusting your diet as Phil describes will have a huge impact on your overall health and make the work stress much more manageable. So whether you are looking to cut some body fat, cut some minutes off your 10K, or cut your chances of developing any of the many diseases lurking out there, following an aerobic lifestyle is the foundation for it all.
It’s important to note that both estrogen and progesterone work together. In a real sense, they balance each other when in their natural state. Taking one form without the balance of the other often creates stress.
Testosterone is also a naturally occurring hormone made by both men and women. It’s important for healing, helps build and maintain muscles and bones, increases sex drive and overall energy, and is a very important hormone for other areas of the metabolism. The synthetic version is methyltestosterone, with side effects including hormonal imbalance, intestinal distress, increased cholesterol, hair loss, depression, anxiety, and others.
All these hormones, and others made by the body, are important for optimal endurance and health. The ideal scenario is to have your body make the types and amounts of hormones necessary for you. That amount varies from day to day and year to year (even from minute to minute). If reduced health interferes with this delicate mechanism, imbalances can occur.
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If you have signs and symptoms related to hormone imbalance, measuring your hormone levels by testing your saliva is very important. A reevaluation of the same tests will help you know whether improved lifestyle habits or any replacement therapy is successful.
It’s important to ask your health-care professional about these alternatives as many are by prescription. And, it’s important to understand the legal ramifications of using natural hormones in sport. For more information, contact the Women’s International Pharmacy (800-279-5708, www.WomensInternational.com), Hopewell Pharmacy (800-792-6670, www.HopewellRX.com), or another reliable source.
Some non-prescription hormone products are also available. Pro-Gest, for example, is a natural progesterone cream that can be absorbed through the skin rather than taken by mouth (your liver breaks down much of the natural hormone taken orally). For those who require both natural estrogen and progesterone, a cream product called OstaDerm is also a non-prescription preparation of both natural hormones.
For menopause, premenstrual syndrome, or other hormone-related imbalances, the use of natural hormones can improve your quality of life. What’s most important is to understand that no one has to live with the pain, displeasure, and discomfort that too many doctors have told patients are normal with aging.
I can’t emphasize enough that preventing and correcting hormone imbalance by improving adrenal function and overall fitness and health is the most effective and best first option. And, athletes with hormone imbalances often have an undiagnosed overtraining syndrome.
