Archive for Gut bacteria

Poop’s on Beards, Computers, Desks, CounterTops..Better Build a Healthy MicroBiome!

family

Family get together last night:)  That’s my dad, my mom, and my Uncle Fred, my 3 sisters, 2 of my daughters, and a few nieces and nephews.

Recently, Consumer Reports came out with data that had many people scared to eat meat.  The Report found that beef does indeed contain bacteria that can become pathogenic, like e coli and salmonella.  The report also found pretty big differences in the amount of bacteria, and anti-biotic resistant bacteria, in CAFO cattle (cattle raised in feed lots), compared to cattle raised on grass;  grass fed steers had less bacteria in the finished product.

Comments at the end of articles and on social media had people claiming that this would be the end of their meat eating as obviously, meat was just crawling with germs.

Hold on.

Meat accounts for about 20% of all food borne illness;  fruit, vegetables, and nuts accounts for almost 50%.

More bad news:  beards are loaded with poop.  Actually, germs are literally everywhere: our kitchens, our phones, our toothbrushes, toys, sponges, towels..From Philip Tierno, a microbiologist at NYU, and author of The Secret Life of Germs:  “To focus on beards is to miss the point. We, as a society, are literally bathed in feces,” Tierno said. “Wherever a man touches, there are feces and fecal organisms present.” Even to focus on toilets is to sort of miss the point: One study compared surfaces in the bathrooms and kitchens of 15 homes and found that the toilet was among the least bacteria-laden places tested.

Here’s the bottom line, bacteria are EVERYWHERE.  We have a few pounds of it on ourselves, and in ourselves.  It’s time to quit being scared of germs, and instead make sure our MicroBiome is healthy and cared for.  Apparently, our personal ecosystem is like a garden, and we either feed and water it correctly and give it plenty of sunshine (yep!), so it works for us; or we ruin it with a diet of sugar, processed food chemicals, and a bad lifestyle (no sleep, no exercise, no sun) and get sick, sad, and fat.

(Scientists say our inner bacteria play a role not just in our immune system, but our personality, temperament, and mood. )

Hopefully, you’ve been convinced that we don’t need to starve ourselves in order to avoid bad bugs.

We also shouldn’t be using hand sanitizers (plain soap and water suffice), or keeping our homes too clean.

So, what can we do to strengthen our immune system?  Lots!

1) Don’t eat Sugar or Processed Foods.  Sugar suppresses white blood cell function, destroys bacterial balance in our gut and feeds both bad bugs and cancer cells.   Emulsifiers in processed foods, such as Polysorbate 80 and Carrageenan, also cause damage to our eco-system.

2) Open the windows in your home.  We’ve got bad stuff floating around, don’t keep it trapped.  Have you ever heard of the book, Slow Death By Rubber Ducky?  Scarier than than beef, I promise you.

3) Eat more plants, not just for their vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, but because they feed our good bacteria, they make them strong!

4) Eat your probiotics: kim chi, saurkraut (fermented, not vinegar), kombucha, keifer, good yogurts, fermented veggies…  these foods are loaded with beneficial bacteria.

5) Avoid antibiotics unless absolutely necessary, they wipe out everything, the good and the bad.

*******Use your common sense here.  If you have an obvious bacteria infection, they’re probably necessary.******   Overuse is famously common.

6) Consciously develop a lifestyle that’s Immune Strengthening, instead of Immune Weakening.   Get to bed at a decent time, don’t over-do alcohol, get sunshine, exercise, pray, meditate, develop and nurture relationships.

7) Eat plenty of garlic, onions, ginger, and other foods that are, literally, powerful medicine.    Real Whole Food is our life’s blood.

Want to learn more?  Read this, and this.

Back to the beef:  the boogy-man is us.  Really.  For the most part, we either make ourselves strong, and help our children develop habits and patterns that make them strong, or we make ourselves weak.  The choice is ours.

You’re Not Lazy and You’re Not Crazy; It’s Just Your Hormones.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI recently tested my estrogen and progesterone levels – at home. 🙂  I’m 50 in a few weeks, and passed the “12 months no period = menopause” mark in January. I was curious.

It’s not the first time I’ve tested my sex hormones.  Three times in the past, I went through my OB-Gyn for hormone blood tests, covered by insurance; and then 3 times I did both saliva and blood spot tests through a Functional Medicine doctor, and payed a fortune out of pocket.  I also tested my cortisol levels throughout the day.

Not this time!  Same lab, same tests, I paid $70, and had the results sent right to me.  Freedom! I’ll explain how you can do this at the end of this post.  First, let me explain why I think it’s a good idea to know what’s going on with our hormones.

Hormones Rule Us.  This isn’t a Post on menopause, it’s a Post about body weight, and how we can use information to really tailor that whole “Food is Medicine” thing.  It’s also a Post to reinforce that our body is a Chemistry Set, not a Math Equation.  The whole calories in/calories out….. we don’t run that way.

Let me bullet point some facts about food and hormones to illustrate the futileness of believing that weight loss comes from calorie deficits, and the hormonal effects when we employ traditional diet methods, or even a Standard American Diet.

* The thyroid gland slows down production of thyroid hormone – which slows down metabolism – as soon as it even suspects a lack of food.  Our thyroid gland is supposed to protect us from starving.  The result of a few rounds of dieting?  A thyroid that stays sluggish even when calorie consumption rises.

* When we eat grains and sugar (all grains digest to sugar in the gut), the result is high blood sugar.  High blood sugar induces high levels of the hormone Insulin.  Insulin is a building, storage hormone, it’s also a caustic damaging hormone when in excess.  For most Americans, insulin is in excess.

* Studies show that chronically high blood sugar actually destroys the thyroid gland, lowering metabolism even more via less thyroid hormone.

* When the hormone Insulin is elevated (say, after a breakfast of cereal, or a dinner of pasta), our cells are literally prohibited from burning fat for fuel.  They’re only allowed to burn sugar. In our body, that’s a rule we can’t change.  It’s part of our design.

* What happens when Insulin remains high – a la Insulin Resistance?  Insulin resistance leads to Leptin resistance.  Leptin is a satiety hormone.  “Resistance” means the hormone can’t get into the cells to deliver it’s message.   Leptin resistance means constant hunger.

* Ghrelin is a hunger hormone. It’s supposed to rise when our stomach is empty, and fall after we eat.  Studies show that in people who eat “diet food”, ghrelin doesn’t fall, or fall properly.  The result:  we stay hungry.  We need Real Whole Food to make the hunger hormones and the satiety hormones function correctly.  Diet Coke with a Protein Bar won’t work; actually, that’s a recipe for hormonal disaster.

* Estrogen Dominance is pervasive today, in men, women, and children.  Too much estrogen causes low testosterone in men.  Excess estrogen causes low progesterone in women.  These are both hormonal situations that lead to weight gain.

* Cortisol is a hormone produced in the adrenal glands in response to the brains perception of stress, any kind of stress, even fake stress as in a scary movie.  Cortisol production inhibits sex hormone production.  Chronically high cortisol means chronically low sex hormones.  Chronically high cortisol is linked to insulin resistance ( it blocks insulin receptors on cells) and belly fat – and heart disease.

* Lack of sleep messes up more hormones than we can count.  One of them is ghrelin.  Lack of sleep raises ghrelin, which increases hunger.

* Thyroid hormone – again, responsible for our metabolism – is negatively affected by consumption of soy, fluoride, and chlorine.  Think protein bars, processed food, and municipal water.

* Drinking alcohol, any alcohol, causes an enzyme called aromatase to convert testosterone into estrogen.  This happens to both men and women, and it causes “estrogen belly”, formerly know as “beer belly”.

*A diet full of processed foods, flour, sugar, and chemicals, severely disrupts our gut flora (even if this diet is low calorie).  Our gut flora are highly involved in whether we burn predominantly fat or sugar.  One example, and there’s many, is that the more diverse our gut species are, the better our liver gets rid of old hormones, like estrogen.  Poor gut flora means poor elimination, and those hormones stay dangerously high in the blood.

* Numerous studies show that Vitamin D – which is actually a hormone, greatly influences both weight loss and inflammation levels.  Vitamin D deficiency is epidemic!

* Numerous studies show that excessive exercise and chronic dieting raise levels of cortisol in the blood.  Just like when Insulin is high, when cortisol is high, the body doesn’t burn fat, it burns sugar.

* Both Fructose and Trans Fats (present in most prepared foods, “diet” or not) both cause Insulin Resistance and raise markers of inflammatory hormones, again, inhibiting fat burning in the cell.

All that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Hopefully it was enough to convince you that losing weight isn’t about starving yourself, mini meals, excessive exercise, and diet foods.  All that stuff does the opposite of permanent weight loss; those kind of diet efforts put you into a hormonal state that makes weight loss impossible.

How does this tie in with me testing some of my hormones at home?  My health doesn’t come from my doctor; my health – and a healthy weight – comes from me paying attention to my body and making changes when I need too.  Having normal levels of sex hormones is really important, to my weight, my brain, my energy, my immune system.

Everything is so connected.  We’re not a bunch of individual parts that work independently, not even close.  I also test my blood sugar, at least a couple times a month, and just recently I did an A1C ( which shows a 90 day average of blood sugar – a great marker for Alzheimer’s and inflammation ).

Food is medicine, or food is poison.  When I know what’s going on in my body, I can literally use food as my medicine.  For instance, now that I know how low my estrogen is, and that I’m fully menopausal, I’m using particular foods and herbs to naturally raise my estrogen, and progesterone.  I’ll test again this summer and see how that’s working.

Last year I got really into Bikram yoga.  A friend of mind wondered if that level of heat stress caused a cortisol release, which causes high blood sugar.  So I took my glucometer to the studio and tested a couple times.  I’ve also tested after I’ve taught some tough boot camp classes.  Exercise doesn’t stress me, I know that now because my blood sugar was good each time.

However, I’ve also tested after tornados blow through my house and seen that my blood sugar is high.  ( we’re a big family who loves each other but … stress happens. )

Testing at home is fun, affordable, and while a full CBC panel can be confusing to interpret, a hormone panel, blood sugar numbers, and A1C aren’t, at all.  And they give you some real black and white answers about the state of your health.

I encourage all my weight loss clients to regularly test their blood sugar as it’s such a strong tool for weight loss:  if blood sugar’s high, the hormone Insulin is high.  When insulin is high, fat loss doesn’t happen.  Notice I said fat loss not weight loss.  You can starve some weight off, but if insulin is high, and worse, if the hormone cortisol is high from the stress of dieting/hunger/excessive exercise, the weight comes mostly in the form of muscle tissue, not fat tissue.  Less muscle tissue means a lower daily calorie burn.

Again, we’re a big cycle.  Here’s the links to the tests, if you want help with using them to lose weight or get healthy, or both, contact me and let’s work together.

To order the hormone panel:http://www.johnleemd.com/store/prod_test_kits.html

To buy a glucometer/blood sugar meter:http://www.amazon.com/Diabetes-Testing-TrueResult-TrueTest-Active1st/dp/B00PX2T58I/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

To buy an A1C:http://www.amazon.com/4303514-Bayer-hBa1C-Waived-Diabetes/dp/B00D7C6YWQ/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YN868HAH518CN8NCF45

All About Poop, Because Constipation is Epidemic, Abnormal, and Unhealthy.

Did you know that Constipation is the #1 digestive complaint in the US?  In 2010, there were 48,459 hospitalizations for constipation, up from 21,000 in 1997.  Wow!  The medical establishment defines constipation as fewer than 3 bowel movements a week.  Many in the medical and scientific community disagree and consider moving our bowels at least once a day normal.  Put me in that camp.  If I only went 3x a week I’d be miserable!  Besides, I eat 3x a day, I want the left overs out, not packed in my 100 degree colon, rotting.

So many of my clients deal with constipation that I thought I’d devote a whole Post to what normal poop is, and how you too, can be a normal pooper.   For all my clients with diarrhea or any type of Colitis, the situation is different, but the solutions are the same.

What we all need and want is to be NORMAL, right?  Drugs don’t make us normal, drugs often make situations worse in the long term.

Normal poop comes from normal digestion.  Normal digestion comes from Real Whole Food, good sleep, exercise, and stress management.  Same things that cause Normal Weight and great health.  Let’s break that down, but first, a little science about our gut.

We eat food, and it goes to the stomach, where enormous amounts of stomach acid should be present.  That stomach acid, aka HCl, stimulates the protein digesting enzyme Pepsin, kills pathogens, and triggers digestive enzymes and bile.  What depletes the necessary amounts of stomach acid?  OTC and prescription drugs, stress hormones, sugar, grains, and chemicals; aka, the American Diet and Lifestyle.

Next, the food, now known as “chyme”, goes to the Small Intestine to become tiny molecules that can be absorbed somewhere in the 20 or so feet of the small intestinal tract.

Finally, undigested fibers, resistant starch, and sloughed off cells, and a teeny bit of water, move into the Large Intestine.  The first part of the large intestine, the ascending colon, goes “upwards”, then it goes across, then down.  It’s between 5 and 8 feet long. We should have hundreds of trillions of beneficial bacteria in our large intestine, and they have MAJOR jobs to do, here’s a few: make B and K vitamins that go on to nourish other body parts, make fatty acids that go on to nourish other body parts, they make serotonin and dopamine for our brain, and they compromise the largest component of our Immune System.

Those bacteria also, via their fermenting of the fibers, make poop.

Our large intestine, where the constipation ( or diarrhea ) happens, is responsible for our immunity, our mood, our heart health, our metabolism, and I could go on and on. Bottom line (pun intended), it matters that we keep it in great health.

Digestive disorders aren’t a signal to take medications, they’re a shout out from our body that we’re messing up, and need to correct the situation.  Our body wants to be normal, and healthy.

How do we become normal?  The above list: Real Whole Food, Good Sleep, Exercise, and Stress Management.

1) Real Whole Food (RWF)- Our digestive system literally falls apart in the face of the Standard American Diet (SAD).  White flours, sugars, grains, trans / hydrogenated fats, and toxic chemicals wreck havoc from our mouth to our butt. There’s not one thing in that list that promotes or nourishes anything good in our gut, all those substances do the opposite:  ruin stomach acidity, cause leaky gut, destroy beneficial bacteria and feed pathogenic bacteria.

Parents – this is happening to our kids when we let them eat crap.  Skinniness is NOT indicative of health, ever.  Quit telling yourself that a little McD’s or frozen pizza doesn’t matter, because it does.  Every bite matters.

RWF in the context of remedying constipation:  if high fiber and a ton of water ( along with laxatives ) have been your fix, ask yourself this:  How’s that working for you?  Because everyone I work with STILL has constipation despite YEARS of that plan.

It’s time for a new plan.

Back off the fiber supplements; sometimes they work initially, eventually though, they make stool drier and bulkier, which makes them even harder to pass. Just like GERD meds, laxatives are ONLY supposed to be used occasionally, and briefly.  To quote one of the best scientists I know of on this subject ( resource at end of Post ): ..”herbal laxatives are actually contributing to constipation and colorectal damage because they irritate the intestinal mucosa, damage the nerve endings, kill intestinal bacteria, cause painful cramping, and may provoke severe diarrhea.”    and  “Cleansing” with insoluble fiber, such as bran, is even more dangerous, because undigested fiber keeps piling up on top of already impacted, hardened stools. This may lead to obstruction, fecal impaction, and other complications, such as diverticular disease, megacolon, prolapsed hemorrhoids, or colon perforation — which is a mostly lethal condition.”

What does work?  Fat’s essential, here’s why.  Fat is the ONLY nutrient we eat that stimulates the expression of BILE into the small intestine.  Bile not only breaks down fatty acids ( so we can use them – and YES, we need those fatty acids to make ourselves! ), but bile stimulates the intestines to contract and move.  Low fat/no fat diets, or diets that have crappy fat like trans and hydrogenated?  They screw up the process God intended.  It’s that simple.

Cholesterol’s also vitally important.  The cells that line our whole digestive tract, including the large intestine, have incredibly fast turn over times.  Cholesterol is a major component of EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY.  It’s also an anti-oxidant that our body uses to repair damage.  Eat a SAD and there’s a lot of damage.  Good cholesterol from healthy fats is broken down and used to make our digestion normal, as in, a good poop every day.

Finally, you know my RWF list:  a TON of vegetables, clean meats, healthy fats, some fruits, some nuts and seeds ( for constipation and diarrhea: a tablespoon of flax seed, chia seed, and hemp are ideal), and some real, whole fat dairy – if you digest it well.  These foods contain the nutrients that our body uses to be NORMAL.  A normal, healthy body is a body that’s a normal, healthy weight.

2) Good sleep.  Our body is a beehive of activity when we sleep, that’s when Repair and House Cleaning happen best.  It matters that we get to sleep BEFORE midnight; the hours before midnight, and also between 12 and 3 are crucial.  Our body runs on a Circadian Rhythm whether we honor it or not.  If we don’t give our body the sleep it needs, we’ll suffer the consequences.

In addition to repair and upkeep, when we’re lying prone our gut has the best chance at moving our waste UP the first part of the large intestine.  That’s why so many people go to the bathroom in the morning.

3) Exercise.  No, exercise doesn’t make up poop.  Exercise makes us NORMAL.  Our body needs and wants the physical stress that exercise causes.  Exercise doesn’t make us thin either, like I always say in my classes, ” it’s just a few hundred calories, we’d burn the same amount walking, cleaning the house, or working in the garden.”  Our body was created for movement, and not moving is the “new smoking”.  Several recent studies have conclusively linked inactivity and sitting too much with increases in colon, endometrial, and lung cancer.  

4) Stress Management.  Excess flight-fight hormones aren’t good for anything, ever.  While a little jolt of cortisol here and there can cause diarrhea in some, chronic excess cortisol messes everything up.  Here’s why:  if our brain perceives stress-danger, then “living” becomes the priority.  Not pooping, not digesting, not making sex hormones, not all the normal things we’re supposed to be doing.  When excess cortisol or adrenaline or any of the other stress hormones are in the blood, the body is in a survival mode, which is very different from a everyday normal mode.

One more BIG CAUSE of constipation:

5) Drugs.  Both OTC and prescription meds come with a long list of side effects, and “causes constipation” is a common one.  Pain killers, mood drugs, ANTIBIOTICS, cold medications, cholesterol drugs, etc etc, they’re a pill for a symptom that just causes MORE symptoms… constipation ( and diarrhea ) are a symptom that we’re doing something wrong.

If constipation or any gut issue is your problem, get in touch with me.  You’re fixable, no matter how long you’ve been dealing with it.  Here’s some great resources so you can learn more:

http://www.gutsense.org/gutsense/transition.html

http://www.gutsense.org/constipation/main.html#13

http://undergroundwellness.com/podcasts/306-5-steps-to-permanent-gut-healing/

http://undergroundwellness.com/podcasts/286-belly-fat-gut-bacteria-and-obesity/

http://www.brendawatson.com/

Feeding Our Skinny Bacteria More Important Than “dieting” To Weight Loss

Do you know that we have trillions of bacteria in our gut that determine whether we’re lean or fat, and every day we feed and nurture them?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve pointed out several times that Calories in/Calories out as a weight loss strategy is false, it doesn’t work. Neither does dieting; that’s a statistic.   We’re not a Math Equation, we’re a Chemistry Set.  I’ve harped on the HORMONAL actions that happen when we eat grains, sugars, and processed foods:  fat storage, muscle breakdown, slow thyroid, etc, etc.

Science (the Human Microbiome Project) is showing that our BACTERIA are just as important as our Hormones when it comes to our weight.  We’re supposed to be filled, and covered, with bacteria; we actually have more bacteria than human cells.

To be healthy and lean, we need to have predominantly BENEFICIAL bacteria.  If we have an imbalance, and the pathogenic bacteria outnumber the beneficial bacteria, we’re in trouble.

What determines our bacterial well being?  A lot.  Antibiotics support pathogenic bacteria.  Most drugs ( OTC and prescription) change the pH of the stomach, which allows pathogenic bacteria to thrive.  Stress does the same thing.

A biggie:  our FOOD is our BACTERIA’s food, and what we put in our mouth determines who gets fed best, the Lean strains or the Fat strains.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) of 60% carbs (mostly from grains and sugar), not only initiates Fat Storage through high blood sugar and hormones, but it feeds PATHOGENIC strains, because they thrive on sugar.  Beneficial bacteria eat FIBER, from vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.

So let’s feed our Skinny Bacteria! I’m including links to learn the nuts and bolts, but here’s a snippet:  Studies are showing that lean people have a bacterial population that includes more “bacteroidetes” bacteria. Bacteroidetes is an umbrella terms for several different species. Overweight people have more “firmicutes”, again, an umbrella terms for several species.

If you have more Firmicutes than Bacteroidetes, you’re going to have a hard time losing weight, no matter what you do. Firmicutes bacteria harvest more calories from our food, encourage more fat storage, and less fat burning. Who wants that? There’s also the brain signals I mentioned earlier: “slow down the thyroid, slow down the metabolism, she’s dieting again and I don’t want to starve to death!”  Our gut bacteria and our brain are intricately linked.

Here’s some tips on how to feed our Bacteroidetes, and not our Firmacuties.

Tip #1:  Eat 3 meals a day of Real Whole Food, with plenty of good fat, clean proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and maybe some dairy if you tolerate it.  Fermented and cultured foods are a must.  DITCH THE GRAINS AND SUGARS.  ( Fat Bacteria THRIVE on grains and sugars) Our body was literally designed by God to run on Real Whole Foods. This means cooking.

Tip #2:  Have an Eating Plan that includes enough food at each of our 3 meals to genuinely Satisfy Our Hunger.  WE’RE NOT DESIGNED TO ENDURE HUNGER.  The brain just won’t allow it; it takes too many nutrients to do the constant upkeep and repair that happens all day and all night.   Again, our brains have an intricate and intimate relationship with our gut bacteria. Firmacutes bacteria – the sugar eaters – contribute to those annoying brain signals that conspire to make us search out more sugar ( who searches out more broccoli ?).  Bacteroidetes strains don’t do that!  Bacteroidetes thrive on Fiber and Resistant Starch in vegetables.

We have a lot of power when it comes to reducing our Firmicutes and increasing our Bacteroidetes.

A Real Whole Food Diet is so honestly and totally best for us.  We feed the good bacteria and signal hormones that trigger satiety in the brain.  The desire -or compulsion- to eat CRAP ( and feed the Firmicutes ) abates and abates every single day we eat like this.

Notice that feeding our skinny Bacteria is the same advice as building a strong immune system.

This whole Microbiome science is fascinating, and I encourage you to learn more about it – which is really learning about ourselves. The more we know, the easier it is to make good choices. Here’s some links:

Read:

http://www.rocksolidnutritionandwellness.com/ebola-enterovirus-and-our-immune-systems-better-get-strong-now/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/17/human-microbiome.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Belly-Fat-Effect-Intestinal-Bacteria/dp/0991070313

http://www.rocksolidnutritionandwellness.com/natural-cures-theyre-real-learn-what-you-can-do-for-yourself-and-your-family/

Listen to:

http://undergroundwellness.com/podcasts/306-5-steps-to-permanent-gut-healing/

http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/the-llvlc-show-episode-876-brenda-watson-says-out-of-balance-gut-bacteria-at-the-heart-of-obesity/23639

Holiday Eating Gone Bad? 8 Facts To Scare You Straight.

me:girlsIt’s the holiday season, you’re busy, you’re struggling, you want motivation, so I’ll be fast and effective.

I’ve had several emails and comments in the past two weeks full of regret and remorse over Eating Gone Bad.  There’s definitely the sense of, ” I couldn’t help myself because…”

A client friend said to me yesterday, ” I want to become scared of flour and sugar, like you are.”  I want ALL OF YOU TO BECOME SCARED OF FLOUR AND SUGAR, like I am!  Let me scare you straight, quickly.

Simple carbs from Grains and Sugar cause high levels of sugar and insulin in your blood/arteries/veins. The negative health effects from this are PROFOUND:

1) Excess blood sugar ( from sugar and grains) is converted to Triglycerides and stored in our fat cells.

2) Excess blood sugar “GLYCATES” proteins and lipids in our blood and body.  EXAMPLES OF GLYCATION ARE WRINKLES, AGE SPOTS, AND IMPOTENCE.   Alzheimer’s is being called Diabetes Type 3 because of the plaques/glycation of the brain, which is composed of fats and proteins.

3) Alzheimer’s, Migraines, Dementia, and all sorts of Neurological Conditions, including ADD and Mood Disorders, are highly associated with high blood sugar and insulin.

4) Cancer cells are covered with Insulin Receptors.  Cancer cells eat SUGAR.  The insulin receptors that cover cancer cells make sure those cells get all the sugar they want and need to grow and thrive.   APPLY THAT THOUGHT TO YOUR KIDS THE NEXT TIME YOU FEED THEM MAC N CHEESE WITH A SIDE OF BREAD.  Seriously.  That stuff is poison!

5) Heart disease is caused by several conditions initiated by sugar and insulin:  excess sugar thickens the blood; excess sugar robs the heart of it’s favorite mineral – Magnesium, and it’s favorite vitamin – the Bs ( that’s because digesting/metabolizing sugar requires an enormous amount of Magnesium and B vitamins ); and excess sugar and insulin severely damage artery walls, in several ways.

6) Damage to the artery walls ( whether those arteries are near your heart, in your neck, or MEN:  IN YOUR FAVORITE ORGAN THAT FILLS WITH BLOOD!!) means they need to be “fixed”.  In an effort to mitigate the damage we do, the liver puts together PLAQUE patches, and sends them to the sites of the damage.  This keeps us alive for years, but eventually, the high blood pressure, the thick blood, the extra stress on the heart, comes back to Bite Us In The Butt.

7) Excess sugars can completely change the Bacterial Composition of your entire gut: from the stomach, which needs to have just a tiny bit of H-Pylori and a TON of acid to be optimal, to the small intestine, which should be intact but more often then not is “LEAKY” or plagued with SIBO ( small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.  If you bloat badly, ask me about this.),  to the large intestine, which should house at least a few POUNDS of beneficial bacteria that perform literally THOUSANDS of jobs for our bodies.  Constipation, Bloat, Reflux, Diarrhea: NOT NORMAL!  It means you’re not breaking down and absorbing your nutrients which sets the stage for all sorts of disease and dysfunctions.

8) Excess sugar and insulin suppress your immune system, IMMEDIATELY, for up to 24 hours.  This means if you let your kid eat a breakfast of pop tarts or crappy cereal, and then send them to school to sit by someone on the bus or in the classroom who’s coughing or sneezing, they’re an EASY TARGET for the germs to set up house and proliferate. Same for you: a quick muffin or sugar/chemical drink at Starbucks, then off to an office/gym filled with bad germs?  You’re a sitting duck!

I could go on and on, but say this to yourself:  Food Is Medicine, or Food Is Poison; for me, and for my kids.

Then, delete the ancient notion that eating well means Dieting; eating low fat/no fat chicken and steamed broccoli is a recipe for a Rebound Binge.

That’s why I love the Paleo Diet:  Real Whole Food with plenty of good FAT, good meats and proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and GOOD dairy if you can tolerate it.  The Paleo Diet even includes Real Whole Food DESSERTS, what’s not to like?  ( Christmas Paleo Party at my house, 12/12/14, from 12 -2. Everyone’s invited, and you’ll get to see just how good Real Whole Food is!)

If Food Addiction is your struggle, then all the common sense/information in the world doesn’t help too much.  Read my last post.   If you have trouble staying away from grains and sugar, know that they contain compounds that trigger addiction centers in your brain, and your child’s brain.  That doesn’t happen with Real Whole Food. 

Finally, in this stressful, busy season of the year, acknowledge that “eating for stress relief” doesn’t actually Relieve Your Stress, it makes you MORE STRESSED afterwards.  Just the opposite of sitting down to a Real Whole Food meal, which actually satiates your mind and body.

Change today.  Don’t wait til the season is over.  We’re talking about your health, your mind, and the example you’re instilling in your kids.  The food you put in your mouth matters.  I’ll say it again:  Food is Medicine, or Food is Poison.

Action Plan to End Food Cravings, Forever.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhether you have a weight issue or not, cravings can be a bear.  Cravings are incredibly powerful; and weight loss with cravings is almost impossible.

What to do?  Here’s several ideas, but first, what creates cravings?  Low calorie diets, low fat diets, and low nutrient diets, fatigue, stress, and habits.  Sound daunting?  If I eliminated my cravings, you can too.

Here’s a Big List of How-To’s:

Get rid of your fear of fat, now.  Fat satiates; and not because it fills you up, which it actually does, but Fat triggers satiety hormones – really!  Fat makes our Brain say, “aaahhh”.

L-Glutamine, an amino acid that helps build Dopamine ( an anti-anxiety neurotransmitter ). L- Glutamine also helps balance blood sugar.  Anxiety and low blood sugar ALWAYS causes cravings. ( I use Biotics, and I LOVE this product. I also take it on heavy leg days, and I suggest it to all my leaky gut clients.  L-GLutamine is used by muscle cells and endothelial cells to rebuild themselves.  It’s a different dosing/timing than when using for neurotransmitter building.)

Stop eating sugar and grains, which trigger hunger hormones and addiction centers in your brain. Sugar is more addictive then cocaine in lab studies.  No one in your house needs this stuff. A little here and a little there?  It just keeps you addicted.   SUGARS AND GRAINS ARE 99% OF ALL CRAVINGS, RIGHT?  No one’s craving broccoli.  Stop buying the stuff.  Seriously.

Hot drinks mid morning and mid afternoon:  Bullet Proof Coffee and Bullet Proof Tea:  organic tea/coffee with (Kerry Gold)  grass-fed BUTTER and (Biotics) MCT oil or coconut oil.   This is delicious, and the fat knocks out appetite and cravings while at the same time stimulating your brain.  (Ditch the Mad Scientist concoctions they sell at Starbucks, they’re loaded with sugar, artificial sugar, and chemicals.)

5 HTP, an amino acid that helps build Serotonin.  We need level moods to not have cravings. Again, I use Biotics brand.****Serotonin builds Melatonin, Melatonin helps us sleep well.  Fatigue is a HUGE inducer of cravings.  I know a couple other great supplements for sleep, email me.

L-Tyrosine, I LOVE this and have used it every day for 18 months.  It’s an amino acid that helps build your catacolamines.  That means it helps with energy ( among other things ), and we often drift to snacking/cravings when tired, right?  ( I use Biotics)

( ****   One of my favorite ENERGY/DON’T SNACK tricks:  mid afternoon tea with a little MCT oil, and 2 tyrosines.  It’s magic. ********)

Digestive enzymes and HCl.  (again, I use Biotics products).  You might have the best diet in the world, but if you’re not breaking down your food so that nutrients can be absorbed, you’re Nutrient Deficient.    Nutrient Deficient people are loaded with cravings.

Probiotics, probiotic foods, probiotic drinks. Cultured and fermented vegetables, keifer, kombucha, and real yogurt. There’s millions more bacteria in cultured food than in any probiotic supplement. If you’re trying to improve health, use the pills along with the foods/drinks, at least initially.    If your gut bacteria is out of whack, you’ll have cravings for sugar, because that’s what Bad Bugs eat.  Candida is a prime example of this. 

Exercise APPROPRIATELY.  If your workout leaves you STARVING, which leads to cravings, you worked out too hard. Dial it back.

Clean your liver.  Our liver plays a vital role in getting nutrients into our cells and “trash” out of our body. But did you know our livers are the BIGGEST source of calorie burning in our WHOLE BODY?  Our heart and brain are next, and then comes our muscles.   A slow, clogged, overworked, exhausted liver craves nutrients. Drink alcohol, take a lot of meds, eat sugar and chemical/processed foods, eat late at night, I guarantee it’s over burdened.  I use a Biotics liver detox twice a year, and 2 tinctures by Herb Pharm every couple of months:  Milk Thistle and Liver Health.

Go on a Ketogenic Diet:  High Fat, Moderate Protein, and a TON of greens and cruciferous vegetables.  This literally knocks out cravings of any kind, honestly.  Check this out for meal ideas and guidelines.  

Stop eating Processed Foods.  They’re created in a LABORATORY and specifically designed to trigger desires in your brain for more and more and more.  Really.  McDonald’s milkshakes and Doritios are NOT delicious food creations, they’re chemical cocktails created by PhD’s to get you hooked.

Eat bigger meals, and ONLY eat 3 times a day.  Multiple ” Mini-Meals” are DUMB. They’re guaranteed to make you (1) hungry (2) have cravings and (3) mentally habituated to eating all day.  Besides, “mini-meals” are a joke; studies show American’s are pretty incapable of actually having a mini-meal; in reality, the multiple mini-meals turn into “too much food all day long.”

( Moms, we  have to apply the “Stop Eating Sugar/Grains/Processed Foods” guidelines to our kids; they’re sugar/carb/chemical addicts.  The snacking, the cravings, the “can’t stop eating”….. we have to HELP THEM develop great eating habits. )

Work on your habits and thought patterns.  It’s all so mental, isn’t it.  This is just about my favorite area when it comes to health. Our subconscious rules over the conscious, always.  If your subconscious is constantly sabotaging your health efforts, get in touch with me.  It’s not Rocket Science, but you’ll need a plan.

My wrap up?  Eat Real Whole Foods, consume plenty of fat, eliminate addictive grains and sugars, use Smart Supplementation, and train your brain to work for you, not against you. Cravings are a sign that your body, your mind, and your hormones, are “off”; they’re not a sign you’re weak.  You don’t have to be a slave to bad habits.  Let me know if you’re ready for help with a food plan, habit change, or supplements. ( The amino acids need to be dosed and taken on a specific time table.)

Ebola, Enterovirus, and Our Immune Systems – Better Get Strong Now!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve done Post’s before on the Immune System, and what we need to do to beef it up; but I get so many questions about it and hear so many incorrect comments about how we get sick ( or how our kids get sick), that I’m doing another one.  Plenty of resources are included at the end of this.

Here’s the Fact:  When you, or your child, or loved one, gets sick, it’s not because we’re a Victim of the Mean Sick Person who came to school/work/the pool/ etc with their germs.   Germs are all around us, germs are normal and we’re LOADED with germs BY DESIGN.  Science is leaving us with NO doubt that super clean environments actually debilitate our immune system instead of strengthen them.

WE GET SICK BECAUSE OUR IMMUNE SYSTEMS ARE WEAK.  In laboratory studies to test drugs, people are purposely infected with bacteria and virus;  some people get sick, AND SOME PEOPLE DON’T. They’re not magical people;  their immune systems were strong enough to kill the pathogens.  That’s all.  That’s what our immune systems are supposed to do.

That’s why when a stomach bug goes around an office or a classroom, some people get it and some people don’t.  Everyone was exposed, just not everyone was weak enough to be susceptible.

Our body houses hundreds of TRILLIONS of bacteria, on our skin, and though out the entire digestive tract, from the stomach to the rear.  We’re all very, very different from each other in our bacterial composition, and that composition evolves throughout our life from our parents, our environment, the drugs we take ( not just antibiotics, but any and all OTC and prescription drugs affect the gut), and *******THE FOOD WE EAT******.

Our entire body is literally made, every day, from the food we put in our mouths.  Crap In doesn’t just equal Crap Out.

Crap In equals a Crappy Immune System.  Not sleeping 7 to 8 hours equals a crappy immune system.  Excessive exercise equals a crappy immune system ( research shows that more than 90 minutes suppress the immune system for about 72 hours ).  Bad moods, anxiety, and depression suppress the immune system.  Excessive alcohol suppresses our immune system.  High Blood Sugar Suppress Our Immune System. 

( Parents, is it any wonder our kids get sick so often??  We have enormous influence over their actions: cut out the processed foods, don’t buy them!, pack them a healthy lunch, and get them to bed at an hour that allows the sleep they need.)

Our actions make us or break us;  are you the type who gets sick regularly?  Here’s what you can do:

Daily, incorporate as many of these as possible:  herbs and spices like garlic and ginger; onions, cruciferous vegetables, green vegetables, richly colored vegetables, seasonal fruits, quality proteins from animals allowed to eat their natural diets, and plenty of good fats ( EVOO, coconut oil, pastured butter, etc).   Stay away from Sugars, Grains, and Chemicals, always.

The scientific literature is PACKED with decades of studies detailing specific compounds in all those foods with specific beneficial effects on all the various aspects of our immune system.  Remember, the bulk ( 70-80%) of our immune system is housed in our gut:  bacteria, the lymph system.., but there’s more.  Our skin is a first line of defense,  it’s acidic ( normal is 5.5) to kill pathogens that land on it, we need to support the health of our skin ( nutrients), and we need to keep all the bacteria that LIVE ON OUR SKIN – there’s about a TRILLION – healthy and functioning ( quit using AntiBacterial Soaps – they mutate the bugs, and if those mutated bugs get in us via a cut or an opening, we’re in trouble. )

Our stomach is supposed to be HIGHLY HIGHLY acidic, MORE ACIDIC THAN BATTERY ACID – HONEST.  God made us that way:  that acid is supposed to kill any pathogen that gets in our gut via our mouth. ( That acid also triggers many of the necessary digestive actions from the stomach to the anus.)  Antacids, alcohol, birth control pills, sugar, grains, anti-inflammatories, all these either destroy the mucus lining of the stomach that makes the acid, or suppress the cells that make the acid.  Either way, it’s bad news for us.

Support your gut function by avoiding the above list, and feed your gut the nutrients it needs to be FULLY acidic:  apple cider vinegar, digestive bitters, fermented foods, assorted herbs and spices, and bone broth.  There’s supplements that are amazing too, email me if you need help here.

We need to make T cells and B cells and Natural Killer Cells, they’re made from Nutrients;  we need all our bacteria to be in CORRECT proportions, sugar and crap feed the WRONG bacteria.  Did you know that we’re SUPPOSED to house E coli and Strep bacteria??  We are! Let them get out of whack/proliferate with your diet or lifestyle, and trouble begins.

With all the scary news about Ebola, and the Enterovirus, and even rampant Lyme disease, along with all the many normal illnesses that come along and interfere with our life, it’s absolutely essential that we take steps every day – all day to make ourselves as strong as possible instead of weaklings.

More scary news:  Antibiotics aren’t working so well anymore.  Viruses are incredibly difficult to kill with drugs.   “Remedies” for cancer literally DESTROY the immune system.  Vaccines don’t insure you won’t get the targeted disease and come with an enormous amount of side effects.

And all the over-the-counter remedies?  They just suppress symptoms. THEY DON’T KILL BACTERIA OR VIRUSES EVER.  Did you know that SYMPTOMS are actually our immune system trying to kill virus and bacteria??  A fever cooks pathogens; coughing and sneezing expels pathogens, as does the production of excess mucus.  Taking OTC drugs that suppress symptoms can actually keep us SICKER LONGER, plus, they’re LOADED with side effects both short and long term.

Here’s some great resources on the immune system:

Me!  Contact me for tricks/tips/ and assessments on how to become stronger.  It’s a lifestyle.

Subscribe to the Natural Cures Summit this week, it’s totally free, and there’ll be over 30 presentations by doctors and scientists with the facts on how to naturally work with different medical conditions.

Herbs, Spices, and Remedies, from Organic Lifestyle

How to feed your Microbes, and why it’s important, Chris Kresser

Why Vaccines are NOT a sure-fire bet for immunity, by Dr. Kurt

School’s About To Start, How’s Your Immune System? How’s Your Kid’s Immune System?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve got a great reader question about Strep Throat, but I’m going to morph that into a Post on the Immune System.   After all, that’s what it’s all about, right?  Here’s the email:

 I was hoping to find out more about which brand of probiotics I should be taking.  I have a long history of frequent occurrences of strep throat and still get it frequently in adulthood. I have always been given antibiotics so I’m thinking I do not have even close to the amount of good gut bacteria that I should have.  I have noticed over the years that when I get strep throat the symptoms have become more and more severe with higher fevers and a horribly sore throat.  Do you think this could have anything to do with all the antibiotics I have put into my body?
In addition to probiotics, are there certain foods that will increase good bacteria more than others? And for the next time I get strep, do you think its too late for me to try natural remedies after a lifetime of antibiotics?

Strep, and sore throats, used to be my Achilles Heel also.  For everyone reading this, take out “strep” and put in whatever illness is your primary problem, because it’s not the Bug that’s our issue, it’s our immune system.  It’s either weak or strong, and for the most part, we have a lot of control over that.

If you have a weak immune system, and start building it TODAY, in a year, you could be a completely different person.   It’s never too late to build a strong immune system, but it does take consistent effort for the rest of your life.

The bacteria that cause strep, Streptococcus pyogenes,  is actually a NORMAL bacteria for us.  As a matter of fact, our skin and mucus tissues ALWAYS have bacteria on them, this strep bacteria being one of them.  What happens is sometimes it, or other “Normal Flora”,  overstep their bounds and become pathogenic.  Why?

We compromise our immune system with chemicals and/or sugar.  How?

The primary chemicals in ANTIBACTERIAL SOAPS, triclosan and triclocarbon (T&T), actually ******mutate all the bacteria they come into contact with, both the good and the bad.  By the way, our skin is a PRIMARY line of Immune Defense; that means God made it literally teeming with BILLIONS of bacteria that work FOR US.  Studies show that when these bacteria are exposed repeatedly to triclosan and triclocarbon, Genetic Mutations Happen. This is bad. I can’t even link to one study – there’s too many. Google it if you’re interested.

When good bacteria are mutated, they’re UNable to fight off bad bacteria.

Studies also show that T&T disrupts thyroid function, muscle function ( your heart is a muscle), and imitate estrogen ( a xenoestrogen). So, it slows thyroid, muscles, and imitates estrogen? Hello body fat, fatigue, and moobs!

Another reason to stay away from antibacterial soaps? Triclosan was introduced in 1969… as a Pesticide; and today it’s still registered as a pesticide.

It’s time – right now – to throw away any and all bacterial soaps you have in your house and switch to just Plain Soap.  Look for brands that have FEW ingredients and no chemicals:  Dr. Bronners and Kirks Castille are two we use in our house.  There’s several options in your stores Healthy Aisle.  If you’re rubbing your babies butts or your kids hands with chemical laden wipes, stop now and find a better brand.  They also contain T&T, along with assorted other cancer causing, immune disrupting, chemicals.

Reason number 2 for a weak immune system:  Sugar; it suppresses the immune system IMMEDIATELY, and for hours; and it’s Bad Bacteria’s FAVORITE food.  ( Cancer cells also thrive on sugar.)

Scenario:  You and your child wake up and have a glass of OJ, a bagel or bowl of cereal, and a banana.  Boom:  there’s now anywhere from 70 to 100 grams of sugar in you, or 17 to 25 Teaspoons of Glucose in the blood.  White Blood Cell activity, the exact activity we need when the kid next to ours sneezes, or we push open the door loaded with bacteria at our office/store/gym, won’t be coming to the rescue.  It’s suppressed from the sugar, and possibly mutated by antibacterial soap.

Reason number 3 for a weak immune system:  Too much Bad Gut Flora and not enough Good Gut Flora.  Our large intestine is supposed to contain about 100 TRILLION beneficial bacteria.  It turns out that these bacteria have hundreds and hundreds of jobs, and one of the biggies is interacting with all our Fighter Cells, like T-Cells and B-Cells.

A single round of plain old antibiotics, for strep, may wipe out strains of beneficial bacteria that may never, ever come back.

Our Lymph System, which is heavily involved with our Immune system, runs through our large and small intestine, completely and literally intertwined.  Our gut bacteria and our lymph system work together to create our Immune System.

It matters that we have Great Gut Function:  good strong stomach acid, plenty of digestive enzymes, we poop every day, and that our food goes from one end to the other WITHOUT gas, bloat, indigestion, or reflux.  Those conditions aren’t normal and indicate big problems with your gut.

Problems with your Gut mean problems with your Immune System.  We’re a big cycle.

What to do here:  Evaluate: do you bloat/burp/reflux?  You probably need to supplement with stomach acid (HCl) and/ or digestive enzymes. ( I use Biotics brands. Email me. )  Been on several courses of antibiotics?  Focus on Probiotics and *******Fermented and Cultured foods******.  Probiotics are great and often necessary, but even the expensive ones with billions of organisms don’t approach the numbers and strains in Real Whole FERMENTED Foods.     (BTW, that link highlights an interview with Caroline Barringer, she was my main Instructor when I was in school at the Nutritional Therapy Association. )   Good brands of Probiotics:  Biotics ( email me), Dr. Ohhiras, and Culturelle.  There’s more, and it’s a good idea to rotate them.  Apparently, our bacterial microbiome is literally as individual as our fingerprints, and it’s very varied.

Second evaluation:  do you get sick often, colds, flu, sore throat?  Correlate your weak immune system with the health of your gut.  Fix your gut first, and strengthen your immune system with Real Whole Foods ( which also help fix your gut).  If you have an over active immune system ( auto-immune conditions, like allergies), you probably have Leaky Gut.  You’ll need to heal and seal the intestines; again, email me for a supplement list.

If you have an aversion to fermented foods, ( real saurkraut, keifer, kumbucha ), get over it.  Buy some, and commit to eating a little bit every single day.  Pretty soon, that tart taste goes from bad to good.  Our taste buds do evolve, honest.  Two of my favorite brands of cultured food are Wildbrine and Bubbies Pickles.  If you buy any of the cultured beverages, make sure it has LITTLE TO NO ADDED SUGAR.  Sugar feed bad bacteria.  Add a little liquid stevia if it’s too tart, or add your own berries or fruit to thick keifer and blend them in. ( p.s. Cultured/fermented foods and drinks are ALWAYS in the refrigerator section.)

What else can we do to strengthen our Immune System in addition to cutting back on the sugar and upping cultured foods?  Lots.

1)  Eat garlic, onions, ginger, oregano; they all contain nutrients that make good bacteria thrive.  Those same nutrients are also used by our entire gut lining to rebuild, repair, and reduce or eliminate inflammation.  They also have STRONG anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. 

2) Eat PLENTY of fiber; that’s what our gut bacteria eat to thrive, be strong, and do their work.  Bacteria in our gut eat fiber and resistant starch, they don’t eat fatty acids or amino acids.  After they eat, they produce ( think, “poop out”) by-products, like vitamins and fatty acids that are used through-out the entire body for different jobs.  One by-product they produce is called Butyrate, and it’s a fatty acid that they eat themselves, and send to inflamed areas of your body.  Butyrate has enormous Anti-Inflammatory action; research is showing it also has Anti-Cancer properties.

3) Butyrate is also found in Grass Fed Butter ( like Kerry Gold), and other FULL FAT dairy products from COWS THAT EAT GRASS.  (remember, butyrate is a fatty acid)  Butyrate is made in the cows gut by their gut  bacteria from nutrients in GRASS, not grain.   Read your labels and look for Grass Fed dairy. It’s getting easier and easier to find grass fed dairy products in the stores.  If you’re interested in Raw, Grass Fed dairy from a farm, and you live in Virginia, search www.localharvest.com.
We belong to 2 great raw milk co-ops, and another raw cheese co-op.  Look for a farm convenient to you.

Wrap Up:  Sugar, grains, and chemicals ruin our body. Unnecessary / excessive antibiotics destroy our beneficial bacteria.  For a strong immune system, and to repair damage from a weak immune system, live by the premise that every bite matters.  Every thing we put in our mouth either makes us stronger or makes us weaker.

We don’t get sick because people around us spread their germs, we get sick because we’re not strong enough to fight those germs.

Strengthen your body every day.  Eat Real Whole Food with plenty of good fats, clean proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy if you tolerate it.  Pledge to have fermented or cultured foods several days a week.  Take good supplements.  Drink good water, move, rest, control your stress levels.  And stay away from foods that make you sick, weak, and miserable.

Blood Chemistry Analysis and Health Pearls

5 of us snorkelingMy blog’s been a little quiet lately because I’m having a few issues with it. I’ve got help on the way and by the end of this week, all should be well in Rock Solid Land:)

I’m writing regardless because I have so much information to pass along.   I attended a seminar this weekend where I was trained in Blood Chemistry Analysis!  Oh My Gosh was it fascinating!  I’ve got a computer program which allows me to input data from any blood panel, along with personal and specific health information.  The computer uses an algorithm to look at all the test results and information from an Integrative, Comprehensive point of view, and then spits out recommendations based on WHAT CAUSES THE SYMPTOMS, as opposed to a focus on just the symptoms alone.  It’s Brilliant!!  It also recommends supplements and foods to address those issues.

For instance, why is your blood pressure high? why are your cholesterol numbers off?  what’s up with the thyroid?  why are your sex hormones off?  what’s going on with your white blood cells? and so on and so on.

I’m installing the program this week, and after I work out the bugs, I’ll let you know.  I can’t wait to use this!

The doctor teaching this has FOUR medical degrees, plus he speaks multiple languages – smart man.  The pearls of health wisdom didn’t stop flowing, so let me pass some on in no particular order:

* If you have unresolved constipation, despite loads of fiber filled fruits and veggies, and a ton of water, think GALLBLADDER.  The gallbladder squirts bile into the small intestine. That bile is supposed to break down fats and CREATE PERISTALSIS IN YOU INTESTINES.  No Bile, No Peristalsis.

* Pumpkins and Sunflower seeds contain several nutrients that are good for bringing down an enlarged prostate.

* Raw eggs are Nutritional Powerhouses ( YES ME!!)  Their nutrients are more potent when undamaged by heat;  very gently cooked is good too.  Don’t do this with STORE BOUGHT EGGS.  Only with Farmer Eggs.

* Cortisol shuts down Gut Function.  Shuts It Down.  If you’ve worked with me, you know I talk about this all the time.  You can have the most perfect diet in the world, but it’s not benefitting you much if physical and/or mental stress are causing cortisol problems.   You’ll need to either employee stress reduction techniques and / or use adrenal supplements to normalize your cortisol.

* PPIs and other acid reducing drugs cause SEVERE NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES AND EVEN DEATH. ( What did you think is the end result of severe nutrient deficiencies??)  Our body builds, runs, and repairs from nutrients.  We need a HIGHLY ACIDIC STOMACH, like the one God designed, to break down our foods, kill pathogens in the gut, trigger the pancreas and the gallbladder, and essentially flip the switch of every single digestive action from the gut to the butt.

* PPIs (acid reducers)  are only approved to be used for 6 to 14 weeks, and they’re NOT approved at all for children and babies.  Do you really want your child to NOT be able to get their nutrients?  They’re trying to GROW!

*Alzheimer’s and Dementia are the fastest growing conditions in the US.  7,000 Americans a MONTH are being diagnosed.   The brain is 60% fat.  Feed it, and don’t poison it with sugar, grains, or chemicals.

* Have you seen the recent news on pregnant women taking SSRIs and the link to Autistic babies?  Google it.

* Licorice ( not the candy kind, but the real herb) can raise low blood pressure, and DGL ( deglycerized licorice) can lower it.

*Take your Magnesium at bedtime on an empty stomach.  Magnesium binds to fat which can inhibit absorption.  You want that Mg inside your cells.

* Avoid prescription drugs as much as possible – their side effects are very real.
Every year, more than 2 million Americans suffer from serious adverse drug reactions. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these reactions cause about 100,000 deaths per year, making prescription drugs the fourth-leading cause of death in the country.

* If you’re eating real Sushi, raw meat, or  even cooked fish, take your HCl.  It’ll kill the bugs. ( Hydrochloric acid, the same thing our stomach makes – if it’s working.  It’s not working in most people.)

* You need great gut flora/bacteria to convert your T4 to T3 ( these are thyroid hormones).  You need lots of acid in the stomach to have great gut flora in your large intestine.

* Americans take about 75% of the Pharmaceuticals In The WORLD, yet remain fat and sick.   CDC predicts weight and disease rates will continue to climb for at least the next 30 years.  How are those pharmaceuticals working for us?

* Our health depends upon us treating our bodies like temples, not destroying it with drugs, sugar, grains, chemicals, and stress.  Take control of your health.  It really is in our own hands.

 

Chronic Constipation Isn’t From a Lack of Laxatives

Wow, I didn’t expect so many responses to Monday’s post on Amanda, Miralax, and the Manuka Honey!  Thank you all for your concern; she’s recovering, going to class, trying to be normal, and so far the new seizure drug isn’t causing any mood side effects; hope that continues to be the case.  She’s still a little beat up, but should be back to normal in another day or two.

vintage exlaxI definitely shocked a lot of you with that report on Miralax, as many of you wrote that your doctor has prescribed it for either your children, your older parents, or you’ve used that or other laxatives yourself.  American’s don’t spend $700 million a year on laxatives because they’re fun, Americans are chronically constipated.  NO ONE’S CONSTIPATED BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ENOUGH LAXATIVE IN THEM. NO ONE.  Laxative’s don’t even work for a lot of people, and yet, they keep taking them, or worse, they take more in an effort to make things work.

Here’s another shocker:  high fiber grains, and high fiber supplements can make things worse.  Grains/flours get reduced to glucose/sugar in the gut, and then they go on to wreck havoc with blood sugar, pH, and gut bacteria.  Fiber supplements? Here’s the ingredients in Benefiber:

Ingredient: Wheat dextrin                            benefiber
Benefiber Orange also contains Wheat dextrin, citric acid, natural orange flavor, potassium citrate, aspartame, gum acacia, acesulfame potassium, maltodextrin, lactose (milk), triglycerides, sucrose acetate isobutyrate (adds a trivial amount of sugar), modified cornstarch, yellow 6, red 40

GROSS! Wheat, chemicals, artificial sweeteners, food dyes, and cornstarch. YOU DON’T HAVE CONSTIPATION BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT CONSUMING THIS. Honest.

Why the chronic constipation?  So many reasons:  OTC and prescription meds ( which either change the pH of the gut, the motility of the gut, or both),  a diet full of sugars, grains, and chemicals;  sitting too much; not enough exercise;  EMOTIONS greatly affect the gut via either constipation or diarrhea;  and of course, the biggie what you’re NOT eating: tons of vegetables, fermented/cultured foods and drinks, fruit, good fats, good proteins, and lots and lots of water. ( hey, that sounds like a Real Whole Foods prescription!)

What if you’ve been on laxatives and fiber supplements for years?  You’ve upset the hairdolaxnormal bacterial environment, the normal pH environment, and conditioned (addicted)  the muscles along the gut wall that they’ll be stimulated by chemicals.  It’s going to take some time, along with a real consistent program, to get regular again.  Unfortunately, if living “kind of healthy”, with the occasional/few times a week meal or snack of constipation causing foods or meds is your norm, it’ll be hard to correct the constipation.  Persistence and consistency will be key to reversing this, but wouldn’t “normal” be great?  It’s within your grasp, you just need to be patient and vigilant about the habits and actions of your every day life.  There’s no secrets or tricks, it’s always about planning, shopping, packing, and cooking.  Always.

However, if you’re addicted to chemical stimulants to make you go to the bathroom, get in touch with me.  You’re going to need a program.

Our body wants to be fed it’s necessary nutrients every day, every meal.  Food ALWAYS has an effect, either good or bad.  Always. There are no neutral foods.

I’m going to link to a TED talk by Dr. Terry Wahls.  She’s not known for her work with constipation, but no one demonstrates how food affects us like she can.  No one.  She’s an MD who’s REVERSED her Multiple Sclerosis with FOOD.  Food is Medicine, or Food is Poison.  It’s an incredibly slow acting poison (thanks to our body constantly trying to repair itself), so the eventual toxicity/effects can take years to manifest. ( The average disease, from cancer, to heart disease, to diabetes, takes 20 years to develop.)  I honestly can’t think of a better example to demonstrate that our body and our brain, are the result of the manuka garlicfoods we eat every day.  Your child’s body and brain are the result of what they eat every day.   If you’re struggling with staying on track with a Real Whole Foods eating program, watch this youtube.  It’s short, but it’s very, very powerful and motivating.

Oh! One more thing!  About the Manuka honey, here’s my tried and true Immune Boosting Magic Elixir:   garlic that’s been allowed to “air” for 15 minutes (that activates it’s beneficial nutrients) with the honey.  I swear, it kills germs FAST.  Swallow fast without chewing and it’s no big deal, honest.