1st eBook By Dr. Frank Aieta, ND

One of the first lab tests that I recommend to patients to get them on the proper track to determining which diet or types of foods are best for them as an individual is a food sensitivity test. The included video on Food Sensitivity explains the differences and why it's an important test.

The first group of blood tests that should be performed look at how well your body is metabolizing the sugar and carbohydrates that you are ingesting in your diet on a daily basis. These tests are extremely important because if you are taking in more sugar or carbohydrates than what your body can burn, they can build up in the blood leading to conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Most people when asked about cholesterol simply equate it to heart disease yet they don't realize that cholesterol is actually vital for human life.

The adrenal glands enable our bodies to respond to every kind of stress (whether it’s physical, emotional or psychological) through hormones that regulate energy production and storage, heart rate, blood sugar balance, muscle tone, inflammation and other processes that enable us to properly cope with stress. First and foremost are your clinical signs and symptoms and secondarily, your blood levels for a more complete picture.

Female hormonal disorders, such as PMS (premenstrual syndrome), PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), Peri-Menopausal and Post-Menopausal Syndrome can present with a variety of different clinical signs and symptoms in women. The book discusses each of these disorders in detail then reviews the proper lab tests and ranges for all the female hormones.

For men, the adrenal gland and thyroid hormones have the same effect in the body as they do for women. Instead of menopause, men go through something called andropause. This marks a change in hormonal function with testosterone and DHEA declining and estrogen elevating. With a decline in testosterone, men can not only lose valuable lean body mass and put on body fat but may also suffer from a list of conditions .

The thyroid is a small gland located in the neck and is responsible for producing hormones that regulate the rate at which our cells utilize the fuel that we take in from our diet. These thyroid hormones can have a major impact on how we feel on a daily basis. A dysfunction in this gland can lead to wide array of negative signs and symptoms that book discusses in detail.

Inflammation is a normal process in the body that occurs when we are dealing with a trauma or insult to the tissues of the body. When that inflammatory response becomes too great or chronic then disease will eventually set in.

There can be countless chronic viral as well as bacterial infections that can be screened for through the blood, but without going overboard and beyond the scope of this book, I’d like to discuss one in particular that I see quite often in my practice.

When discussing brain chemistry, we won’t be going over any particular blood or laboratory test but rather a questionnaire that I use in my practice to evaluate patients for potential neurotransmitter imbalances. Based upon the results of the questionnaire, I will then recommend an individualized treatment plan for them.

Government agencies, the media and the majority of the general population consider a diet that is low in fat to be a healthy one. If you walk into any conventional grocery store in the country you will see the words, “Low Fat,” plastered on the label of most food as a selling point for the consumer to buy and consume that product. For more than half a century this is what we have been persistently taught despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The consumption of dietary fat in the diet has never been the culprit in why we get fat or become unhealthy.

Leaky gut is the informal term for something called intestinal permeability. Essentially what happens is that the lining of the small intestine, over time can become damaged. When this very selective barrier becomes damaged it allows food particles, toxic waste and bacteria to pour into the bloodstream. I suggest that if you are experiencing any of the symptoms that I discuss in the book or feel that this write up exemplifies you, then I suggest addressing this condition first and foremost before getting into treating any nutrient deficiencies that have been determined via your blood testing. My rationale in treating the gut before adding in any nutritional supplements, even if you find that you are severely deficient in certain ones, is that if your intestinal tract is impaired you really won’t absorb your nutrients well and will have a harder time achieving optimal health.

I want to make the dietary component discussed in this book extremely easy for everyone to follow and to adhere to long term. One of my main goals is to make you more cognizant of the amount of sugar, carbohydrates and starches that you are consuming on a daily basis as well as the quality and nutrient density of your food.

There are essentially 3 plans that I will be recommending in this book and which one you start with, and possibly stick with long term, is determined by the questions answered in the book, complete with charts and reference material for helping you formulate your individual diet plan.