The "STARTS" of feeling your best!
“If you are always tired, or struggling with a chronic health issue, it should be obvious that whatever you have been doing to alleviate your problem is not working. You need to confront that truth, accept it and be willing to let go of the concepts and recommendations that you have been given by your doctor and others that have not provided you with the relief you are looking for…so that we create the space and the opportunity for ourselves to discover what actually is true and does work.”
The RCP or Root Cause Protocol, developed by Morley Robbins, has been the topic of our discussion these last few posts. Today I am going to begin discussing the STARTS of the RCP so that you can begin reaping the rewards of this protocol right away. Don’t forget that you must implement the STOPS first or at the same time.
There are 3 phases to the STARTS, plus a phase labeled “X.” Morley is very careful to explain that you don’t have to implement these in their exact listed order, nor should you think of this as a recipe to follow exactly. The goal is to continue to move forward. Implement a phase at a time, and move on to the next phase when you feel you are ready. I will cover each Phase in a separate post, so that you are not overwhelmed.
Let’s begin.
PHASE 1: FOUNDATIONS
1. START Taking adrenal cocktails
2. START Taking mineral drops or applying transdermal magnesium
3. START Taking whole food vitamin C (WFC) complex
4. START Taking magnesium
5. START Eating grass-fed organic beef liver
1. People with fatigue MUST support their adrenals. You can make your own cocktail using fresh-squeezed orange juice, coconut water, and Redmond’s sea salt. You can also get it from Jigsaw, but I would go with the pills, the powder tastes like pickle juice (unless you like that…). Take it mid-morning and again mid-afternoon (if needed). Your adrenal cocktail should contain about 375 mg of potassium, 460 mg of sodium, and 60 mg of whole food vitamin C. This will help regulate your cortisol and aldosterone production. Just adding this step alone could be a complete game changer for you.
2. Getting your macro- and micro- amounts of minerals daily is crucial to your energy levels. Your body cannot make minerals, you must consume them either through your mouth or your skin. We take Shilajit to get our trace minerals (plus it has other amazing benefits), and we apply magnesium spray nightly as well. We also add trace mineral drops to our drinking water.
3. The RCP recommends you take a whole-food vitamin C complex in addition to the adrenal complex. Take 400-800 mg per day (start at the lower end and work your way up). Our favorite is this brand.
4. We have talked about magnesium before. YOU NEED MORE THAN YOU THINK. I cannot say this strongly enough. Taking magnesium changed my life. I personally take upwards of 800 mg per day, and I plan to keep working up to over 1000, simply to support my heart, metabolism and relaxation. Magnesium is responsible for over 80% of your metabolic processes, and we have already talked about its vital role in energy metabolism. It is essential for your muscles to contract and relax properly, and for proper heart function, reducing your risk of heart disease and stroke. Every beat of your heart requires magnesium. Plus, higher stress burns more magnesium, as we discussed earlier. Magnesium is also very calming and will help you relax and sleep. If you have never taken Magnesium before, you will probably have to slowly work up to your proper dose. Morley recommends 5 mg per pound of body weight. So if you are 150 lb, you need at a minimum 750 mg. That will be your baseline. Higher stress on your body will require more. Take magnesium in divided doses throughout the day. The form of magnesium is very important for absorbability. Do not take straight up magnesium oxide. We take a variety of different magnesium supplements every day, not just one kind. We recommend MagTech, Mag-ATP or making your own Magnesium Bicarbonate drink to sip using a SodaStream. At night, take MagSoothe.
5. Ah yes, beef liver.
“It’s hard to emphasize the importance of this one source of food that is overflowing with life-enhancing nutrients that our ancestors took for granted. It is among the richest sources of bioavailable copper…choline, retinal, hyaluronic acid…legendary sources of real B vitamins. The key to this food, however, is eating it from cows allowed to eat their natural diet of grass.”
So eat up, my friends. I order our beef liver from White Oak Pastures and cook it on our Traeger, after salting very generously, just 3 minutes a side at 420 degrees. Some cut it into bits and then freeze the bits so they can swallow them raw. You can also order freeze-dried Beef Liver here or desiccated beef liver here, however, if you are in bad health, you REALLY need to consider eating the real thing. Start small with an ounce at a time, and try to get in 3-5 ounces per week. Then add more until you are have 3 ounces several times a week. Figure out the best way to cook it for yourself and your taste buds. Add the freeze-dried liver (and other organs) on top of that daily. Just make sure your sources are always from grass-fed and grass-finished beef.
We will cover Phase 2 in our next post.