Paleo Lifestyle

Holistic Nutrition for Optimal Health and Wellness

Ideas of what makes for an ideal dietary intake are numerous. The bottom line is that regardless of your dietary pattern, it should be a holisitic nutrition plan and follow the principles set forth by the Paleo Diet. Holistic nutrition conforms to the needs of the body as it changes with time and various demands placed upon it. This is the opposite of the ones size fits all diet idea. Diets are temporary changes that rarely show any long term benefits, and they certainly do not universally apply equally to everyone.

Do you Really Want to be on a Diet . . . Neither Does Anyone Else!

Let’s face it, no one wants to be on a diet. Diets are boring and monotonous. What is worse is that they feel restrictive. The very nature of a diet makes you feel like you are going to give something up. Do you like giving things up? I don’t and you shouldn’t have to in order to obtain an improvement in your health. In fact, since I started eating a more holistic nutrition, or Paleo Diet, pattern, the number of foods that I now consume has vastly increased. The restrictions that are part of a diet also make them not a good fit for most people. We are all unique and have our own requirements. Each person’s body functions different. This is a fact that I have become very understanding of after practicing functional medicine and holistic nutrition for over a decade.

What Holistic Nutrition Offers You

First off, we have to move past the idea that what worked for our friend or the person in the magazine is going to work for us too. This may not be the case at all. Why? The answer is that each person has their own individual makeup that alters the way that they respond to the foods and the nutrients that they consume. There are some core concepts that we should all adhere to, but even within this context, we are all unique. As an example, your friend may be able to lose weight by consuming higher fats and lower carbohydrates. Yet when you need to drop a few pounds, that same dietary approach left you frustrated because the scale would not budge. This was not the right approach for you.

To accurately apply holistic nutrition, there are a couple of key tools that I use. The first of these is going to be advanced lab testing. This is not the out-dated traditional lipid / cholesterol panel that leads to a generic recommendation of eat less fat. Instead I am referring to assessing your genetics and looking at the use of numerous aspects of your nutrition from your diet to any supplements you might be taking. This is the way holistic nutrition is best practiced. Only from this can you establish your inherent dietary and nutritional needs. We are not clones; therefore we have no reason to think that we are all going to respond equally.

What Can Holistic Nutrition do for You?

Holistic nutrition is the basis for good health and wellness. Without it, you have one option, sickness. Do you want to be a statistic of the traditional medical system? Of course you don’t. And the dirty little secret that is rarely talked about is that a growing number of the clinicians that work in traditional healthcare don’t trust their health to it either expect in the most dire emergency situations. This is because most everyone had rather take care of themselves than end up in a doctor’s office. But holistic nutrition is not just about prevention. I run into patients all the time that don’t have a basic understanding of nutrition, so from the start they are on a path to bodily dysfunction that starts as symptoms and progresses into disease.

The great thing about nutrition is that with a little effort the basics are easily understood. So with that said, I want to impart probably the most important concept that you need to understand to set you on the path to a lifestyle that incorporates holistic nutrition to support your entire body. This concept is eating real foods as close to the way that you would find them in nature as possible. It does not matter version of the Paleo diet you are eating, the key is eating real foods. The great part is that this is consistent with everyone’s genetics. Regardless of your most unique needs, your body only wants clean, unrefined, pure forms of food. So therefore, when you are curious about where to start with your journey into holistic nutrition, or even maintaining it, you should always come back to one of the most core ideas of the Paleo diet; eat real food.

Paleo Dog Nutrition . . . Not Exactly the Same as Humans

I am a big fan of dogs. I enjoy spending time with my two mutts (said with the utmost endearment) and watching them interact with their world with instinct as opposed to logically as we as humans do. Having said that, it probably comes as no surprise that I want my animals to eat as close to the way they would have in nature as possible. Of recent, I have been on a recent pursuit of finding the right things for dogs to eat. Sure there are some reasonable foods out there that have been prepared, but this is just not the same as the way our animals would eat if they were in the wild.

Is the State of Pet Healthcare Really that Different than Human?

Paleo Dog Nutrition

Paleo Dog Nutrition

A trip to an emergency vet will get you thinking. No one wants to go to an emergency visit, but unfortunately it happens sometimes. On a recent visit with my female mix, one thing became very clear to me; there are some striking similarities between the healthcare that humans get and that delivered to our furry friends. God bless the vet who was on staff the night my dog started having an unexplained anaphylactic (allergic) reaction. I still to this day am not certain what initiated it, I just know that the vet was great at her job and helped me get control over the immediate inflammation that had occurred. However, for as good of a job as this vet did, my dog still suffers from subtle, not severe skin itching. To help, I tried seemingly numerous options, both conventional and alternative. If the treatment was reasonable and did not impose harm, we tried it. This allergen free food, that round of allergy shots, this supplement cocktail, etc. Nothing seemed to make a significant difference expect going to pure, raw food.

The Frustration of a Pet Store

Having narrowed down the list of reasons that may have triggered my dog’s immune reaction, I decided to spend some time in the dog food aisle attempting to find the cleanest food I could find. What I found instead was disappointment that turned to anger. The dog food industry is as crooked as the human food industry. Maybe even more so since domesticated animals are mostly defenseless. The ingredients I found should never be consumed by a dog and they would not be except for the fact that they have been enhanced with flavors. Since dogs use their noses extensively, stimulating that region in the brain with smells tells them to eat.

The ingredients I found include, but were not limited to, grains, canola oil and alfalfa, just to name a few. The problem with grains is just as severe in dogs as it is in humans. None of the canola showed that it was from a non-GMO source and since the alfalfa was not defined as organic on any label, one has to assume that it is not. This means that it was sprayed with Roundup, most of which stays in the plant at the time of harvesting and is then ingested by dogs. In a nutshell, it is slowly poisoning an animal. What else is wrong? I was not able to find the source of any of the meats. Not one bag actually listed the meat source. It would state the type of meat; chicken, fish, beef, but not the origin of it. I could continue, but I won’t. So this does not leave many options for food choices.

What Paleo Dog Nutrition Should Look Like

A study of our canine friends will teach us that they are not completely carnivores, although mostly. They do have an herbivore side to them as well.  Therefore, Paleo dog nutrition is mostly a protein, or meat, based diet. I have enjoyed turning my dogs loose in the woods only to watch them come back having taken and dined on some small quarry that they caught. It is a natural instinct for them. However, it also amuses me when we are walking that they will like the grasses and start nipping at them. They also seem to rather enjoy a few fresh vegetables as well.

Duck patty and asparagus

Paleo Dog Eating Duck patty and asparagus

With more meat based options becoming available such as raw patties, it is becoming easier to support the health of our canine friends. I like to make their food or use the patties and supplement with safe vegetables and fruits. Here are just a few that I have found to be safe from researching.

Fruits: apples, apricots, bananas, blueberries, cantaloupe, mango, orange, pear, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries and watermelons

Vegetables: asparagus, bell pepper, carrots, celery, cucumber, green beans, pumpkin, spinach, sweet potato

Stopping the Cause of Pet Diseases

Just like humans, chronic pet diseases are on the rise. Who would have thought that diabetes and hypothyroidism would be things that we would be talking about in the canine population? What almost seems crazy, but it is now a reality. As the food of humans has continued to stray further from the original sources and methods of gathering, so too has the increase in human diseases, especially those related to immune dysfunction. Therefore, it is no surprise that the shift in the diet of dogs may equally be responsible for the shift towards increased diseases. Maybe the time has come to consider Paleo dog nutrition as an initial approach to the well-being of our animals.

Please note, by writing this I make no claims of being an animal nutrition expert.  However, I am observant and an informed pet owner.

Are Toxins Making You Fat?

Just the word toxin sounds scary enough, but did you know that toxins may be making you fat. That’s right! The toxins that you are exposed to in your environment may be the reason that you are not losing weight. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the conditions that wish to never deal with such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease can trace part of their roots back to toxins and how they cause fat tissue to become overactive.

Here is what you must understand. Toxins are going to keep making you fat. You are not going to get away from toxins. Why? Because our environment is continually being polluted by a growing number of chemicals. These are not harmless chemicals. Rather they are extremely harmful. What is even worse is that many of these toxins are passed off to the public as safe. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They may not cause immediate effects, but the cumulative effects are traumatic to our health. How big is this problem? Well according to the Institute for Functional Medicine, more than 80,000 new chemicals are released each year. That is a massive amount.

Even You are Toxic!

At this point, you may be saying, “but I am not toxic, otherwise I would know.” You may be surprised to find out that according to recent research, nearly everyone has appreciable levels of toxins that have built up in their body (Neurotoxicology 2012 May 31). You don’t necessarily know that you are toxic. The onset is usually slow and you become more toxic over time. So the take away is that if you are having trouble losing weight, it is not a question of are toxins making you fat because they are.

Are Toxins Making You Fat? – The Rationale

Here is exactly what happens. You encounter toxins, of which there are many sources. Some of the most common are refined foods, non-organic sources of food, plastics, medications and water. When we think of toxins, it is common to think of chemicals that are clearly marked as hazardous. However, we rarely realize we have encountered most of the toxins that we do. Once you have encountered these toxins, they are going to find their way to fat tissue in the body. The reason that toxins go to fat is not because it is a storage depot, but rather that many toxins are fat-soluble. They have a natural affinity for fat. Yet once the toxin reaches the fat, then problems for our fat tissue start to kick in.

Fat and fat with toxins embedded in it is not the same thing. Fat with toxins embedded in it does not look natural to our body and as a result, it sets off alarm signals. The answer to these alarms comes from the immune system. The increased activity of the immune system stirs up an inflammatory storm that causes the fat tissue to increase in size. This is how the toxins are making you fat. When the inflammation flares, the fat cells become more active. Worse yet, they also create problems elsewhere in the body that affect appetite control and blood sugar regulation. Clearly a seemingly harmless toxin is anything but harmless. It could be the stimulus to not just making you fat, but causing chronic disease. (Environ Health Perspect. Feb 2013; 121(2): a61.)

How to Detox

There is a way to overcoming the effects of toxins on your fat tissue. It starts with eliminating the sources of toxins that you can identify. For many though, this is simply not enough. If your body has been overwhelmed by toxins, you will need additional support. Supporting increased toxicity means supporting your body’s own detox systems. Before you jump to conclusions, we are NOT talking about purging your bowels which may actually make you more toxic over time. Rather there are specific nutrients to support detoxification as our body performs it. Replenishing these nutrients is the key to successful removal of toxins, and moreover dropping those stubborn extra pounds of fat. But you cannot stop there. Again, you must eliminate what you can and that means eating a cleaner diet without all the foods that are refined and contain chemicals. Do this and not only will you detox, but you will start dropping fat as well.

Why the Fatty Acid Composition of the Standard American Diet is Harmful

Most of us don’t put a lot of thought into the foods that we eat.  At most we might consider if a food is healthy or unhealthy.  We are instinctually designed to eat for survival, not to ponder over the composition of our food.  Yet, in the modern world of the agriculture and food industries, what we take for granted as being a good food is often far from it.  This is exemplified nicely with fat.

It is difficult to completely avoid every aspect of the standard American diet.  This certainly comes at a cost.  One of these prices that we have paid for the convenience of the standard American diet is the loss of our traditional fats as a staple in our diet.  As part of the primal diet known as the Paleo Diet, fats were consumed without prejudice.  They were consumed in meats, nuts and to lesser degrees in some plants.  Yet, now we almost have to seek out quality fats.  Worse yet, there is great confusion surrounding the consumption of fat.

Fat-phobia (Fatty Acid Avoidance)

I seem to remember a saying that goes something like this.  “Tell the lie often enough and loud enough and the masses will believe it.”  While this applied to other parts of history, it also applies to the food industry.  It started with the premise that if you eat fat, you would become fat.  This was falsehood number one.  Second, fats, especially saturated fats which contain cholesterol, were manipulatively linked to cardiovascular disease.  And from here the lies abound.  We were lead to believe that the fats that man had lived off of for centuries as part of the primal diet were now somehow detrimental to our health in the 20th century.

Fatty Acid Replacements

What we were literally sold in return was not a better form of fat, but a fat that would sit on the shelf longer and make the food manufacturers more money.  They even came with catchy names like margarine.  Yet what we now realize is that this form of fatty, what we call trans fatty acids, was something that our bodies could not easily process.  This toxic substance was in fact more harmful to our health than the saturated fat that it was supposed to replace.  While these foods are less popular in years past due to the acknowledgement of their inherent disease promoting qualities, the standard American diet still suffers when it comes to fat content.  What was once margarine has been replaced with partially hydrogenated soy bean oil.  However, don’t let the fancy name fool you, as it is still a trans fatty acid.

Let’s have some fat

Do you like flavor in your food?  If so, then you will appreciate the role that fat plays.  Fat is flavorful.  Not only that, it is a critical component to our diet due to its role in helping make hormones, nourishing our brains, helping us control inflammation and supporting regeneration of tissue when necessary.  Yet these benefits are only available when consuming fat that is part of the primal diet.  The fats that are typically part of the standard American diet have just the opposite effect and are significantly damaging to the health of the body.  Fats from the primal diet are derived from grass fed meats, wild game, fish, nuts, seeds, and grasses.  This should make sense as these are food that would be available to our paleo ancestors.  So as we attempt to mimic them through the paleo lifestyle to optimize health, we want to consume the same foods.

The standard American diet is full of pitfalls and there is hardly one filled with more mistruths and outright lies than the story of fats.  Full of inflammatory fats that rob your health, the standard American diet is devoid of the anti-inflammatory omega 3’s that so many Americans are deficient in.  Thus, when it comes to fats, you will not go wrong my consuming a primal diet high in quality fats.

The Standard American Diet is Not Going to Promote Weight Loss

Super size it!  Give me a size large!  I will take a Big Mac, or a Whooper!  Just listen to some of the things that are stated as the norm in our society when it comes to food now.  All of these statements suggest an increase in the portion size of the food consumed.  The more there is the better, correct?  Not likely.  Along with this increase in food portion size has also been an increase in waist size.  Needless to say, if we are going to talk about weight loss, we are not going to be talking about the standard American diet unless we are referring to what not to do.

The Problems with the Standard American Diet

There are so many problems with the standard American diet that it is almost difficult to find a starting point.  Foremost, let’s take a look at what we call food.  Food should have sufficient nutrient content and health promoting qualities.  This makes sense.  We consume food to nourish our bodies.  Most of what the average American diet is made up of does not meet these criteria.  Foods that are refined, boxed and packaged do not have life sustaining qualities about them.  Rather, they have been stripped of these qualities.  Therefore, if you are eating a substance that does not provide you with nutrients and health promoting qualities, how can you expect to promote health?  You cannot.  In short, this food is taking the life from you to help process and metabolize it.  You are literally losing more nutrients to try to process this food in your body than you are deriving from it.

The Correlation between the Standard American Diet and Weight Gain

Weight gain does not happen without explanation.  It is a culmination of things that collide to create a state of dysfunction in the body.  Weight gain is the symptom.  The dysfunction is the problem that needs to be addressed.  To do so, means that you have to start with the standard American diet.  If this is not the central focus, weight loss will not take place.  The standard American diet promotes weight gain because we are literally starving ourselves of the nutrients that we need to create an optimal metabolism to burn fat.  Fat burning does not happen with the standard American diet due to the fact that the foods included as a part of it create hormone dysfunction, highlighted by blood sugar problems, result in multiple nutrient deficiencies that often go uncorrected, and lead to a severe state of inflammation that is at the root of nearly every chronic disease.

How to Accelerate Weight Loss

Just as weight gain does not happen by accident, weight loss only takes place with the right actions.  Most importantly this means dumping your dietary habits that are part of the standard American diet and following a primal caveman diet as part of the paleo lifestyle.  The primal caveman diet, what many think of as the paleo diet, is almost the opposite of the average American diet.  It is full of high quality nutrients that help charge our metabolism and reduce inflammation.  This reduction in inflammation coupled with the inherent hormone balancing effects that the primal caveman diet offers makes it the optimal choice to promote weight loss.

The protocol to weight loss is simple.  It begins and ends with abandoning the ideas that have become commonly accepted as to what makes up a reasonable diet (and I use the term reasonable very loosely here!) and transitioning into the paleo diet as the foundation of a healthy lifestyle, aka, the Paleo lifestyle.

What is the Paleo Lifestyle?

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At first mention, you might think of cavemen and chasing animals with primitive weapons when someone mentions the paleo lifestyle.  However, we live in a world far different than our predecessors.  Vehicles and the ever-so-convenient grocery store have taken the place of walking and gathering or hunting our own sustenance.  Yet what has not changed is the way that our bodies function.  We are still the same creatures we were hundreds of years ago regardless of the technological changes around us.
Our Ancestors Environment

In more primitive years, we lived a slower paced life where we had only a few obligations, most of which revolved around survival.  In fact, for most of the existence of mankind, this has been the case.  Survival is probably best defined in this context by t

he action of gathering food and seeking shelter.  Our ancestors’ day would have looked much like this.   Start off with waking at the rise of the sun and the stimulation of sunlight.  This would have likely been followed by a day of considering the most easily obtainable food sources with constant movement throughout the day.  The conclusion of an active day would have been at the onset of darkness.  No artificial light would have kept the primal human up.  I ask you, how many of us live this paleo lifestyle?

The Modern Human’s Day

After considering the paleo lifestyle that man lived on for numerous years, it is a wonder any of us are healthy.  Our world is much different today.  Consider your own life and habits.  Do you routinely wake up slowly and steadily as the sun rises?  Not likely.  If you do, you are among the few.  Most of us wake up to the sound of an alarm clock chirping at us that we want to slap just to get it to shut up.  And then there is nothing like starting the day off with a good rush of adrenaline from this style of waking to start you off down the wrong path.  This is already followed by a day of activity and nourishing foods, right?  Wrong!  The commute to work and grind of sitting stationary for hours on end, only to feel the stress of the fast pace of our daily lives, leaves us reaching for quick and simple food options that are far short of being a nutritious selection.  None of this screams paleo lifestyle.  So what is the paleo lifestyle you might be asking?

The Paleo Lifestyle Defined

The paleo lifestyle is the mimicking of our ancestors lifestyle of diet, activity and rest.  These are core elements to good health.  Our ancestors applied them simply as a part of their lifestyle.  Our world has changed, and now to apply this same ideology means that you have to make a conscious effort.  The effort is worth the payoff however.  Often the application of the term paleo is limited to the primal caveman diet that our predecessors consumed.  However, this is merely one aspect of the lifestyle.  The primal cavemen diet, while essential is not the only core element of good health.  A good diet with limited rest and activity does not support health.  If we truly want to live the paleo lifestyle, a proven pattern to promote health, we have to not only eat a primal caveman diet, but we also must consistently exercise and get adequate amounts of sleep at the right times.

Paleo Diet Prevents Consumption of Toxic Foods

Our bodies were not meant to eat the diet we are eating..

The more I learn about functional medicine and all of the toxic foods out there and what they can do to our health, the more difficult it is to not be paranoid. It’s like every corner I turn I find something else that offensive to my health.. And I know sometimes I’m right, but also some times I’m making it out to be worse than it is. But for once, I know I’m not being paranoid about one thing, our diet. The way we eat now is nothing like our ancestors ate. We are now eating foods that our bodies are not designed to process. And that is why compared the our forefathers, we have so many diseases and thats why we have so much dysfunction in our bodies.StandardAmericanDiet1

The Standard American Diet (Aka The S.A.D. Diet)

So I’m sure you are wondering how this is possible? If it’s labeled food, and it’s edible, then it should be considered food right? Couldn’t be farther from the truth.. To be honest, what people are eating these days, when they are in a rush, I’d be hard pressed to call food. It carries almost no nutritional value. And with that said, there are many foods that we should not eat as they don’t promote long term health. In fact, many of them promote disease when consumed regularly.

Are you sure that your food is really food?

Do you know what is the in the food that you are consuming? Another good question is do you really know what you are consuming? Is it what you think it is? I bet you may be surprised to find the answers to some of these questions. So much of our food supply is contaminated with chemicals in ways we would not even expect. From growth hormones to pesticides and herbicides, the food we eat leaves our detoxification system begging for support. Add to this the stripping of valuable nutrients and fiber and you are left with . . . . Well I’m not totally sure what the best description should be, but it hardly resembles the food you would find in nature.

Our food supply has been altered

Food as we have come to accept it, is the byproduct of industrialization. We have let “big money” take over agriculture and control the food supply. We were duped into thinking that big agriculture was the best way to feed the population. This is problematic on a number of levels, but one of the many reasons is that you are getting food that is adulterated all the way down to the genetics. The rouge science of genetic modification has created foods, and I use that term very loosely, that are not tolerated by our bodies any longer. In fact, these are the foods that are likely most responsible for the rapid increase in autoimmune disease in such a short period of time.

The Paleo Movement

If you are beginning to feel a little anxious about the food you eat every day, you should. But before you become too uptight about this topic, know that there is an answer. There is an army of us out there that refuse to accept the fact that we should eat what we have been told by the government and FDA. Rather, we prefer to eat the Paleo Diet, the diet of our ancestors that kept them free of disease. The Paleo Diet is optimally implemented with the consumption of organic sources, but if you cannot afford organic, you can still derive great benefit. The longer I practice, the more I am convinced that for the average portion of the population, the greatest insults come for grains and dairy. These foods as they are produced now are different from what our forefathers had in numerous ways.

 paleo pie chartThere is a better way

As we know the Paleo Diet mostly focuses on eating non grain plants and animals, and the results of that diet are very very different compared to the results from the typical diet we consume in this country. My main goal is to make sure you understand that you don’t have to eat that toxic mess that is called our food supply, you can choose to take a different path. Just because those lifeless foods are in front of you, or cheaper, or easy access, does not mean you have to eat them. You can choose to take the extra step or put in a little more effort, after this is your health we are talking about. Instead trust the Paleo Diet, follow it and you will see results. I should know, it’s the only way I eat now. The Paleo Diet is the foundation of all diets ever existing for mankind, it has literally been proven for thousands of years to be the best diet for humans. It will free you of this toxic burden, guaranteed.

Gastrointestinal Health

Without a healthy gut, nothing will function properly

Change is inevitable, we all go through it sometimes on a larger scale sometimes on a smaller scale. Most changes are good, some are not. We have gone from living a  hunter-gatherer lifestyle, to agrarian, and eventually for too many of us have become a  city dweller society, and with these changes we have undergone changes within our bodies that have had an adverse effect on our health in general. Considering that our GI system has a huge impact in all areas of our health, having a healthy GI tract is very necessary.  The GI tract is the keystone for the health of the rest of the body. Without a healthy gut, no other system in our bodies can be expected to function normally. So you can see how very very important it is to keep the gut functioning the way it should, and if you are trying to improve your health your GI tract cannot be discounted.

The Standard American Diet

To really understand how the evolution of human foods have affected our gut, all we have to do is look at our diets. The negative affects of the Standard American Diet (or SAD diet) creates problems and dysfunction for every aspect of our health.  For most people this is the very reason that causes the GI tract health to be so unhealthy and damaged. The SAD contains foods that are the very cause of the sluggish bowel movements, and all the refined meats, the sugars, bad fats, snacks  and any refined foods really, with minimal fiber, causes the bowels to become acidic. When this happens the lining of your bowels become damaged and this is where the entire function of your gut is, in the mucus lining. When your lining is damaged, your colon cannot do their job. This includes acting as a primary barrier against microorganisms and undigested foods, absorption of vitamins, minerals and proteins and supporting the health of the immune system.bad pyramid

What is Leaky Gut?

Once the bowels begin to move less than 2-3 times each day, putrification of proteins begins to occur resulting in the production of acids. The resulting environment is one that is inhospitable to the resident beneficial bacteria known commonly as probiotics. It is these bacteria that act as part of the immune system and maintain the balance of “good” vs. “bad” microorganisms in the GI tract. With declining numbers of probiotics, the growth of harmful microorganisms increases, resulting in a greater production of acid. Additional acid further compromises the GI lining, compounding the situation and making the integrity of the lining worse. As a consequence, leaky gut develops.

Leaky Gut is more appropriately termed hyperpermeable gut, meaning that things are allowed to pass through more easily than they should. A primary characteristic of the GI tract is a process known as selective permeability. This means that various substances have to carried across the GI lining rather than just being able to filter directly across. Simply, they have to ask for permission. If the substance checks out okay, it is given permission to cross. If it does not check out okay because it is too large or looks foreign, it is denied. Hence, the GI lining is selecting what it wants to grant access. These are the events that take place under ideal circumstances.

It’s like pouring water through a pipe that has slits in it. It leaks.

Yet, we know that most individual’s GI tracts are not healthy because of things such as diet, antibiotics, high stress, and poor brain signaling, to name just a few. When this is the presentation, selective permeability is lost and for this reason we then label the GI tract as hyperpermeable. In this state, the cells of the cells that make up the GI lining are not longer touching each other and have gaps between them, whereas they should all be touching tightly. You can akin this to pouring water through a pipe that has several slits in it. Everywhere a slit is present, water will leak out and there is no way to stop it. This is the case in a leaky gut presentation. Foods, microorganisms, and anything else in the GI tract are leaking past a barrier that they should not.

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Without a healthy gut, your immune system weakens.

While a leaky gut has many consequences, the most significant is the loss of regulation of the immune system and the resultant inflammation. From this, a very dire situation can result since on average 60-70% of the immune system is found in and around the GI tract. When the immune system becomes overactive, inflammation is the consequence. It is this scenario that is part of the cause, and at other times the sole cause, in many chronic disease states.

Leaky gut is just the beginning of your worries..

Many diseases states have been shown to be linked to GI dysfunction. The common thread is the inflammatory cascade that is secondary to the dysfunction. It would be easy to see a link in leaky gut and GI disorders such as Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. However, the state of health does not have to be this grim to have an active leaky gut. More common day to day presentations would include skin disorders ranging from acne to psoriasis, a weakened immune system, brain fog and sinus congestion or infections. However, leaky gut has also been linked to conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. In fact, we now know that the cholesterol and blood fat model of cholesterol has become secondary to the inflammatory model with the GI tract being a likely source of the inflammation. Ironically, detoxification programs incorporating proper bowel function often show dramatic reductions in elevated cholesterol levels. The most complex category of conditions associated with leaky gut is autoimmunity. Loss of regulation of the immune system causes it to turn on itself leading to damage of the body’s own tissues by a system designed to protect it.

You can only heal your gut with the right nutrients

Identification of a hyperpermeable GI state is best done through specific testing. Ideal methods include stool and monitoring of antibodies to foods and human tissues. These antibodies should only be produced against what our immune system perceives as harmful, not against food and our own body. Diagnosis and treatment of a hyperpermeable gut often centers around bringing back balance through restoring the GI lining, replacing the necessary missing constituents such as digestive enzymes and acid and probiotics, and eradicating any infections when present. One cannot hope to resolve a chronic disease state and heal a leaky gut by not addressing the necessary components listed above. Often in this state, a reasonable degree of inflammation exists at the GI lining. To allow the cells of the GI tract to move closer together and seal the lining, it becomes necessary to add the nutrients in that this environment is dependent on as well as to soothe any areas of inflammation. Oddly enough, this is something that prescription anti-inflammatories are incapable of as many of them actually breakdown the lining of the GI tract further and have been shown to lead to bleeding in some instances.

But what leads to the leaky gut in the first place?

If this was driven by a poor diet, this must be remedied by dietary modification consisting of consumption of high foods rich in a variety of nutrients, high in fiber, low in sugar and rich in healthy fats. When infections are identified, these must be eliminated. Such infections may include bacterial, fungal, or parasitic. These can be elusive at times, but persistent treatment pays off and eventually results in their elimination. Common to find along with an infection is a decrease of the probiotics. Probiotics being bacteria are susceptible to the effects of antibiotics and sometimes other antimicrobial treatments, yet they can also proliferate themselves once enough of them are in the GI tract. Building up these colonies adds stability to the body by strengthening the immune system, producing nutrients such as vitamins, and inhibiting the growth of foreign microorganisms. One of the factors that can lead to the presence of an infection is lower levels of acid production. Acid has been made to be the villain in our society, yet it acts as our first line of immune defense in the GI tract and initiates the protein breakdown process. When combined with the enzymes produced in the mouth and pancreas, the digestive juices breakdown foods into their smallest possible components causing them to be non-reactive to the immune system.

Your brain, hormones and gut are all connected

Just as important for a healthy GI Tract is healthy brain and and stress functions. When you are experiencing a lot of stress, you are also weakening your immune system because the lining of your intestines, the protective mucus lining inside your gut, will start thinning which in turn lowers your immune cell count gradually. When that mucus lining is damaged, it also makes it difficult for the intestines to repair themselves. All these dysfunctions are connected, and when you are having  this much dysfunction in your gut, your brain will be impaired as far as signaling to create the digestive juices needed. When you get to this point you need to look outside of the GI tract to correct the functions.

As you can see based on what I have been discussing here, all of our systems are connected to our GI Tract. The GI system is of utmost importance when it comes to delivering the nutrients each system needs to keep our immune systems functioning correctly. It is a portal that can accept and reject the things we need or don’t need. It is the gateway to our bodies. If you are setting out to address a condition you may be having, the GI tract has to be considered.  Through a proper diagnosis, with the right testing to make sure all bodily functions are considered, a precise treatment plan can be created that can specifically start fixing the many aspects of your GI function inside and outside of your GI Tract.

 

Why am I always tired?

Fatigue is Rampant

If you are fatigued, you are not by yourself. Fatigue is one of the most common complaints presented to healthcare practitioners. Just look around on the shelves in checkout lines in the grocery stores. They are filled with energy support products. Better yet, visit your local convenient store and look in the cooler. You will see an entire section devoted to energy drinks. Are we all fatigued? Indeed we are.

I often ask my new patients if they experience mid-afternoon fatigue. A surprisingly high number answer that they definitely see a slump in energy in the afternoon. Many times they will go on to tell me about fatigue happening at other times as well. Knowing that I have hit on a key concern that they might not have even realized was a problem, the quote that I often get in response is, “Why am I always tired?” There are many answers that could be given for this question. However for many, the answer starts with the diet.

 

The Forgotten Effects of Fatigue

I am going to share something with you that most professionals know about, but rarely think about in terms of fatigue. If you feel fatigued on a day to day basis and are asking yourself, “Why am I always tired?”, something that you should know about that is the fatigue that you are feeling is happening in all areas of your body. For example, the brain is not producing energy and your mental function is not 100%. This results in things like brain fog and lack of mental clarity. Another good example would be the cells of the liver, which are needed for detoxification and removal of harmful chemicals from our body, would not be able to work as efficiently.

The Link Between Diet and Fatigue

Are you eating real food? That may seem like an odd question to ask, but unless you are eating a diet of unprocessed foods that have a high nutrient content, your diet is likely part of the problem. The diet is directly related to fatigue. Foremost, conquering fatigue means having a steady source of nutrients that the body can use to produce energy. These include such things as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Diets low in these types of foods leave the body lacking in its ability to function. If you don’t have adequate vitamin and mineral status, you don’t produce energy. The key to producing energy is being able to take living food and convert it to molecules of energy. When you are consuming a diet high in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, you will produce energy more readily. All of those quick fix solutions you see on the shelves will be a distant memory.

This is not the only way  that diet is related to fatigue. Diets high in carbohydrates promote fatigue also. This happens for multiple reasons, but one of the most common reasons non-Paleo diets create fatigue is as a result of the blood sugar roller coaster. Eating more carbohydrates than you need on a daily basis causes highs and lows in blood glucose that prevent the production of consistent energy by the cells. If this pattern continues, it can lead to diabetes. Yet well before  the development of diabetes, you will notice lulls in energy.

Are You Fatigued?

Here are a couple of key questions to ask yourself.
1. Do I have less energy on a day to day basis than I did 1 year ago?
2. Am I less productive during the day than I have been in the past?
3. Do I still feel unrefreshed when waking in the morning?
4. Do I have a drop in energy either mid-morning or mid-afternoon?
5. Do I often start my day with a cup of coffee to get me going?
6. Do I routinely consume energy drinks to give me a pick up during the day?
7. If I start reading, do I easily fall asleep?
8. Do I get tired when I drive?

Take the First Step to Battling Fatigue

The first step to beating fatigue is changing your diet. Energy is a product of good bodily function. Just like you are not going to get the best function out of your car with inferior components in it, you are not going to get optimal function out of the body without putting the best foods in. This is where the Paleo Diet fits in. High in nutrients critically needed to support energy production and devoid of non-living foods that rob your body of nutrients, you will soon find that the Paleo Diet will have you feeling like a fine tuned sports car. Moreover, the blood sugar highs and lows that are so commonly a part of fatigue will soon go away and you will find yourself more productive and feeling like your old self again. Now, if you are not sure where to start, the best advice I can give is to have a resource that will provide you with several Paleo options to get you started on the right track. When you do this, you will soon wonder why others aren’t making the change and feeling the same new spark of energy that you have found!

Contact Dr. Hill

Could Taking Omega 3 Fats Help Reduce Your Cancer Risk?

The Cancer Scare

Cancer is on the rise.  Most all of us know someone that has had cancer.  It can be the most dreadful thing to hear from a doctor.  “You have cancer.”  Those three words invoke more fear than almost anything else.  The very thought of the reality of those words sends chills up your spine.  And if it is you that hears it, all you can think about are all the precious aspects of your life that you may no longer be able to experience or may soon lose.  Cancer is without question a scary situation, regardless the type and stage.

Why Are we not Winning the War on Cancer

Cancer is becoming a mainstay word in our society.  It comes up more frequently in the healthcare arena than it should.  There has long been a war on cancer.  In fact, Richard Nixon even signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 to more or less document the initiation of this initiative.  In the 40 plus years since that time, little has been done to decrease the incidence of cancer.  We are seeing new improvements and better management of the condition.  Yet with such advancement, we are failing to address the underlying causes of cancer.  This is no different than most other conditions.  Traditional medicine ignores the dysfunction that leads to the disease.  Why do we wait when we can be proactive?  We know the risks, so why not act on them?

The Statistical Paradox

Add to this conundrum the paradox that some say we are winning the battle on cancer.  To understand this comment, one must understand the definition of success.  Success is defined in some circles as reducing the death rate associated with cancer.  This is a noteworthy achievement and one that is appreciated by nearly all that have been diagnosed.  However, what we do not see in these number is the case of newly diagnosed cancer.  According to the National Cancer Institute Cancer Trends Progress Report – 2011/2012 Update, there were roughly 474 new cases of cancer per 100,000 individuals.  In a population of almost 314 million people, that equates to 1,488,360 newly diagnosed cases of cancer in one year.  I ask you.  Are we winning?

Can Anything Be Done?

With such daunting numbers, it may seem like almost nothing can be done.  However, the advantage of having medical science on our side is that researchers have been able to define many contributing factors.  This means that we do not have to proceed blindly, but rather can use the information of numerous creditable studies to know where to best support and protect ourselves.  One of the least controversial and most well accepted risk reduction techniques is omega 3 fatty acids.

Omega 3’s Provide Hope

The American Journal of Epidemiology states, “These results suggest that intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids may reduce risk of total and cancer-specific mortality.” (Am J Epidemiol. 2014 Feb 3).  This furthers the point that risk of death associated with cancer can be reduced.  Moreover, there is equal evidence stating that there may be a protective role associated with the consumption of omega 3’s with various types of cancer.

How Omega 3’s Benefit

Omegas 3’s have clearly established themselves as having a role in protection against cancer as well as other aspects of this life-threatening condition.  Even in light of the occasional controversial media piece, omega 3’s are one of the most well accepted intervention strategies to protect not only against the ailments of cancer, but multiple other conditions as well.  With their well-known role as an anti-inflammatory and immune system modulator, and their difficulty in obtaining adequate levels in most individuals diets, you will be hard pressed to find a better start to your cancer prevention strategy than the incorporation of omega 3’s.

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