Night time wakening

Have HIGH CORTISOL, especially at night? In the first stages leading to adrenal fatigue, your cortisol levels can go high. This reflects the early and persistent stress on your body.  As your adrenals start to become fatigued, you can find yourself with a mix of highs and lows, and with nighttime levels too high.  If so, you can supplement with 300-800 mg. Phosphatidylserine, aka PS. Take it before bedtime. You may need to be on the higher end of the range above to lower it. Lowering high nighttime cortisol can help improve your sleep!! I found myself with high cortisol and kept waking up at night. Upon taking PS when I went to bed, I completely stopped waking up all night along and woke up FAR more refreshed. To read more about PS, click here: http://qualitycounts.com/fpps.html

  Melatonin is another good choice for better sleep; treatment 1-3 mgs before bedtime. It may take a few weeks to notice the difference.  Be careful with melatonin as taking it more than a few weeks can serve to lower morning cortisol. Taking zinc one hour before bedtime has also worked well, but make sure you have food in your stomach to prevent stomach upset.  50 mg – 100 mg has worked well to lower high cortisol. New Chapters has an all food zinc that is easier to take.
I think too that reducing the inflammation in your body by eliminating wheat, dairy and sugar really helps to lower night time cortisol.
Here is a picture of things that effect your adrenals
 

Eat good food, love and pray. All good for the adrenals.
Healthy life.
Suzanne

Why I love coconut milk?

There are so many benefits to coconut milk. We enjoy it a lot. We make chocolate pudding and lots of coconut milk ice cream.

Benefits of Coconut Milk:

Following are some of the health benefits of coconut milk:

1. Helps to maintain blood sugar places:

Glucose intolerance may cause manganese deficiency in your body. Coconut milk is a rich source of manganese. Nuts are some other excellent sources of manganese.

2. Keeps skin and blood vessels flexible and elastic:

Copper is a very important mineral for most of the bodily functions. Copper and vitamin C help to maintain the flexibility and elasticity of the skin and blood vessels.

3. Aids in building strong bones:

Coconut milk is not rich in calcium, but it is rich in phosphorus. Phosphorus is an essential nutrient that the body needs for strengthening bones. It is must to take phosphorus with calcium particularly to prevent bone loss because it supplies phosphate to the body.

4. Helps to prevent anemia:

Lack of iron is the most common nutrient deficiency among the people throughout the world. Iron deficiency in body does not allow the body to develop enough hemoglobin for keeping sufficient oxygen levels in red blood cells, resulting in anemia. Each cup of coconut milk supplies the body with nearly a quarter of daily value of iron.

5. Relaxes muscles and nerves:

Whenever you feel muscle cramps or muscle soreness, have some food along with coconut milk. It is rich in magnesium and can help you in relieving the problem. One of the functions of magnesium is it acts as a gate block in many nerve cells. If magnesium is not present in body, nerve cells become very active because of calcium that activates nerves. Excess contraction of muscles is caused by over-active nerve cells.

6. Helps in Controlling Weight:

This can be good news for people who are trying to reduce weight. Coconut milk makes you feel full very quickly because of high concentrations of dietary fiber.

7. Decreases the risk of joint inflammation:

Selenium is an important antioxidant. It controls the free radicals and thereby helps in relieving the symptoms of arthritis. It is observed that people with low levels of selenium may suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.

8. Helps in lowering high blood pressure:

People who are concerned about their blood pressure will not face any problem consuming foods containing potassium. Potassium helps in lowering blood pressure levels in the body.

9. Helps in maintaining healthy immune system:

Coconut milk helps in warding off colds and coughs by keeping the immune system healthy. It supplies vitamin C to the body which boosts the immune system.

10. Promotes the health of prostate gland:

Zinc plays a vital role in promoting the health of prostate gland. A preliminary study showed that it slows down the activities of cancer cells. 

I hope the above mentioned information helps you in understanding the relation between health and coconut milk. It can also be consumed by people with cow’s milk allergy. It is free from gluten and soy. Hence people who are allergic to these substances can also use coconut milk. 

 Even some of my family who can eat dairy find the taste of the coconut ice cream better than regular ice cream from the store. 

Healthy life

Suzanne

 

Dairy Free Coconut Ice Cream

This has been a year for firsts. We've been able to have donuts with the SCD donut recipe and now we can have ice cream and even sometimes a gluten free ice cream cone.
Here is the recipe that is so easy for the ice cream machine. I have the Cuisinart machine that I got at Costco but I believe that it is available from other stores.
 

Vanilla Coconut Milk Ice Cream

2, 14 ounce cans of full fat coconut milk
1/3-1/2 cup of honey
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Combine all of the ingredients well. I usually have to use a whisk to get the honey to combine with the coconut milk. Pour into the ice cream maker and make according to the directions on your ice cream maker. Meanwhile put bowl in freezer to be really cold when you scrape it out. “Ripen” in the freezer for a few hours and serve. Will last a week or two in the freezer. I like to use an alcohol based vanilla extract as it seems to help keep the ice cream from getting as hard.

A variation I like is:

Raspberry Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Feel free to play around with the recipe, by changing what sweetener you use, taking out the lemon zest, or adding in lemon juice instead (lemon juice won’t be quite as strong as the zest).

2 cans of coconut milk (full fat), whisked until smooth
zest from one lemon (make sure you don’t get any of the bitter pithy white part)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups of raspberries, fresh or frozen (defrosted slightly)
6 tablespoons of honey

Directions: Blend the raspberries in a food processor or blender with a little bit of the coconut milk until completely pureed. Add to the rest of the ingredients and make according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Freeze to “ripen” the flavor for at least a few hours and serve.

 

 These may not be SCD or Paleo but for the kids it is a summer time treat.

Enjoy the taste of summer once more for those of you who have to be dairy free.

Healthy Life

Suzanne