Improved nutrition may be an important component in optimizing your health. The food you eat breaks down into chemical compounds that are used for energy, and cellular and neurological function. The ease or difficulty your body has in breaking down your food, and the ability of your intestines to absorb the nutrients from your food, will affect the functioning of your cells, and in turn the functioning of the organs that are comprised of these cells.
Unfortunately, due to demineralization of the soil, over-processing of foods, poor eating habits, and now genetically altered foods, it can be difficult to obtain all the nutrients that are useful.
If it applies to you, we will make suggestions about your diet. We may recommend individual supplements that will help you. Most of the products we use and recommend are "nutriceutical" (pharmaceutical-grade nutritional supplements).
For brain-involved, nervous system, and cognitive-related conditions, particular dietary nutrition and nutritional supplements can make a big difference. The mind can't function properly without the essential nutrients needed for neurotransmitters, other chemical messengers, and proper brain cell functioning.
What’s my intestines got to do with it ?
“You are NOT what you eat; you are what your intestines absorb from what you eat, and what your cells can utilize!”
Dr. Geoffrey H. Saft, D.C.
In Canada, many of the things we blanketly believe, things that have mass acceptance, are oftentimes contrived. In other words: somebody paid for it.
Fortunes have been spent to insert “ways of thinking” into your head. How do you quench your thirst like an athlete ? What should you do if you have a headache ?
Do you think your answers ARE your ideas ? The slickest marketing becomes our thinking without us even knowing about it. The slickest advertising becomes our opinions, our wants, and our needs.
With just a little research, many if not most of these ideas can easily be proven false as “the best” thing for you.
Does your blind trust in your doctor or the pharmaceutical companies replace any healthy skepticism that would alert you to the side effects from medications you have been taking, sometimes over a period of years ?
Have you ever taken a few minutes to look up the Adverse Reactions, Side Effects, and Warnings to your medications in the Physicians Desk Reference, available at any library or on the internet ?
We have been made almost-addicted to the things that are poisoning our bodies: both medications and “food-stuff”.
If you are one of those people who have been on a long journey, going to different doctors and specialists, going from one medication to another; And yet, not great progress has been achieved . . . well, this is probably something you will find very useful.
To Begin: Almost all Americans have undigested, processed, “food” that is lining the walls of their intestines. This limits the absorption of nutrients, which lessens the quality and amount of nutrients delivered by the blood to the cells to utilize for their functioning. Undigested, processed food accumulates in the intestines. It accumulates along the lining so that your food can still move “down the pipe”. It remains for years and years because it is extremely difficult for the body to dislodge by any of its regular methods. And the most persistent of these methods is . . . . . The Inflammatory Response.
Rotting food in the digestive tract sets up a condition that gastroenterologists call Leaky Gut Syndrome.
It happens like this:
Over time, undigested and eventually rotting food breaks down the cells of the epithelium (gut lining) mainly by choking off the blood supply to these delicate cells (ischemia). The gut wall is normally very selective about what it allows to be absorbed into the blood. Hyper-permeability takes place when there is so much cell damage that the intestinal cells can no longer be selective. Substances that were not supposed to get through the membrane begin to infiltrate. Large molecules of partially-digested fat, protein, and carbohydrate are absorbed intact through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. Once in the blood, these (now foreign - because they do not belong there) molecules can lodge in any joint, tissue, or organ. As such, they can be responsible for many diseases or health problems. Since these are molecules of rotting food in the wrong location, the body reacts to them like toxins. Now we get irritation and inflammation. This may bring about an allergic response. It can also bring on an auto-immune response. I will explain . . . .
But first . . . . Chronic buildup of undigested food signals two main deficiencies within the body: enzymes and flora. It will become obvious why most of us are deficient in these.
1. ENZYMES
Digestive enzymes are inherent in your body, and, if your food is not highly processed, enzymes are also found in your food. In short, enzymes are what has been removed from food in order to make it last as long as possible on the shelves of our supermarkets. Enzymes are necessary for the breakdown and digestion of food. Without them, the body still makes a valiant effort to employ its own digestive enzymes to do the job. But this is usually not enough. The problem is, so many of the so-called-foods we eat today, are brand new to the human species within the past 75 years. You see, your grandmother did not eat “Cheesy-puffs” , and McNuggets, hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, and genetically altered corn and tomatoes, etc. If you read ingredients, you will see that your “food” is often more chemicals than actual food. New chemicals and preservatives have been introduced into our food supply for flavoring and preserving. Common sense would dictate that almost all of these should not even qualify to be called “food”. Except in the world we NOW live in, the chemical and food lobbyists have made it so that there is no distinction between eating food and eating chemicals. How can cheese be called cheese if it is made without any milk ? How can they use the same chemical ingredient in most ice creams as in your car’s antifreeze ?
Most adults and children don't eat a good, healthy variety and quantity of vegetables, fruits and nuts, and even “real” meat, They are more prone to eat pizza, fries, chicken “nuggets”, processed peanut butter, Oreos, potato chips, Big Macs, and Taco Supremes. And what about beverages ? The American soft drink industry was at $54 billion per year, 8 years ago. ( Wall Street Journal 18 Sep 98). That is 57 gallons per year, per American. (Appleton). But don’t get me started on soft-drinks and coffee !
Pasteurized milk has no enzymes because they’re killed by the heat of pasteurization. Canned food has little or no enzymes left. Dairy products, salad dressings, soft drinks, ice cream, processed cheese, pastries, fried food, most snacks . . . . the inherent enzymes are destroyed by the processing. So what, you ask? So John Wayne and Elvis; according to the county coroner's reports, these men had 44 and 20 lbs. of undigested food in their respective colons at their time of death.
What to do ? The best remedy would be to eat NON-processed, good quality, real food. This way, more of your food will have its enzymes intact. The next-best remedy would be to take quality supplements of digestive enzymes. Or do both.
2. FLORA
Flora refers to beneficial bacteria. They are also called probiotics, and include species like Lactobacillus, L. Salivarius, Acidophilus, and many others. An important job of theirs is the final phase of digestion. Without them, food continues to rot in the colon. Rotting food becomes cemented within the inner folds of the colon's lining, destroying the mucosal cells, preventing normal function, and eventually slowing down proper elimination. Rotting food leaks back into the bloodstream, lodging anywhere it can in the body.
An international authority on probiotics, the late Dr. Khem Shahani, described flora as the Second Immune System. Your natural flora has the ability to destroy toxic stimuli and allergens, in this case undigested food molecules.
Why do most of us Americans have suppressed flora? These beneficial bacteria are fragile life forms existing in the normal body in a dynamic balance along with pathological (harmful) bacteria, fungi, and viral forms. These beneficial bacteria are killed by the following:
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•antibiotics we take intentionally
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•antibiotics that trickle into meat and dairy we eat
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•antacids, like Zantac, Tagamet, etc.
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•NSAIDs, like Advil, Tylenol, Excedrin, Motrin, etc.
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•other prescription and over the counter medications-
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•white sugar
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•carbonated drinks
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•antihistamines
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•chlorinated drinking water
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•fluoridated drinking water
In a normal, healthy person’s body there are some viruses, some Candida, and some potentially pathogenic bacteria at all times. But the majority of bacteria in a normal, healthy body are probiotic. When in good health, both are kept in balance.
But, as the beneficial flora get killed off by chemicals, “foods”, and medications we ingest, the harmful bacteria begin to multiply. With insufficient beneficial bacteria, it becomes increasingly more difficult to keep the harmful bacteria in check. Fungal and yeast growths can now increase.
What to do ? Stop ingesting the things listed above that kill your probiotics. The next-best remedy would be to take quality supplements of probiotics. Or do both.
What else ?
The foregoing has to do with processed, undigested foods as a contributor, or cause of health problems. This doesn't even begin to consider the pesticides, hormones, and all the chemical preservatives, additives, and contaminants which end up in our food as the results of preparation, processing and packaging. Nearly half of all antibiotics produced in the US today are for animals. Animals we eat.
Sprayed pesticides work their way into the inner cells of supermarket fruit, and do not wash off. In our bodies such poisons are fat-soluble: stored in our fat cells.
Until the mid 1980s, sulfur dioxide compounds known as sulfites were commonly sprayed on french fries, meat, and salad bars to keep them from browning too quickly. Sulfites were also routinely added to wine, to prevent further fermentation. Sulfur dioxide is toxic, and the cause of thousands of documented allergic reactions reported to the FDA in the 1980s, some of them fatal. Although sulfite use on meat and raw produce has been banned, they still appear in bronchodilator sprays, and also in wines, as long as the label states the percentage. (Randolph, p83)
Food-related toxins are bio-accumulative. In addition to the digestive tract, undigested toxic residue is stored in fat cells where it is . . . . stored !
Keep in mind, the preservatives in your food, are ending up in your cells where they are stored in your fat. So now, when you try to lose weight, you have to get rid of “preserved fat”. And many of you know the challenge there.
The rancid, oxidizing fats of fries and chips and most fried foods are extremely difficult to digest. Our bodies expend a lot of energy trying to break them down. After a certain amount of trying, the body gives up. This is called “Tolerance”.
TOLERANCE
Tolerance is both a consequence of Leaky Gut Syndrome, and a source of trouble. Tolerance occurs when the body, over time, gets used to an irritant and then gives up trying to expel it. Like when a person moves from the countryside to a large polluted city. At first, the eyes water and sting from exhaust fumes etc. After a few weeks or months of breathing those fumes every day, the body gets used to it and doesn't try so hard. The sensitive mucous membranes in the mouth and nose toughen up a little, and the body learns to "deal with it." The body is becoming less sensitized to a poison; carbon monoxide in this case. This doesn't mean it isn’t bad for the body, it just means the body is getting accustomed to that degree of being poisoned. The irritant is no longer triggering such a strong cleansing response as it used to.
The same is true with someone learning to smoke for the first time. At first, you cough and choke, but you soon get the hang of it. The body's ability to reject these toxins becomes gradually weakened resulting in . . . . tolerance.
AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES
Thirty years ago you couldn't use the word autoimmune in conversation unless you were speaking with a physician. With the astronomical increase in autoimmune diseases today, even your hair stylist or baby sitter will know what you're talking about, because someone in their family probably has an autoimmune condition.
Autoimmune means the body is attacking itself. It means that for some reason, the body is getting the idea that part of itself is foreign and must be expelled. It reacts like this with any allergen, or antigen, or in this case: undigested molecules of food. Your body’s response usually begins with inflammation. Then comes swelling, followed by the onset of fibrosis (crunchiness, from the laying down of poor-quality tissue), and finally, if unchecked, actual calcification. Pain can occur at any time.
Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus erythematosus, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, scleroderma . . . . . nowadays, most of us have at least heard of these. What do they have in common? According to the textbooks, they're all of "unknown" origin,. They can't be cured by drugs. They're all progressive. They're autoimmune. And they are all on the rise.
These diseases are expressions of the same process . . . . toxemia. (Tilden) This means toxins in your body are poisoning you. Another term is autointoxication, or self-poisoning. In this scenario, it is simply that your food has putrified in your digestive tract. It then leaks through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream in its undigested form. These molecules are then free to lodge in any location they can find, where the inflammatory process will promptly begin.
All that your blood can do is to attack the “foreign matter” with white cells to wall it off, or to engulf it in fat cells or calcium.
And remember, the inflow of your food never ends. With the American high-fat, processed diet, more and more debris gets past the intestinal walls in undigested forms that were never meant to get into the blood. This is Leaky Gut Syndrome. Day after day, week after week, these undigested food molecules accumulate in the joints, arteries, and tissues, infiltrating wherever it can. After awhile the body can no longer distinguish between the undigested food particles and the tissues in which they are lodged. It sends its army - the immune system - to attack the foreign area, no longer just the foreign cells. So whatever the organ, whatever tissue in which the rotting food accumulates, that part of the body will be attacked as foreign. And it’s called an autoimmune response. This auto-immune response is really not such a mystery. It's completely natural. These empty, nutrition-deficient, man-made foods of marketing and lobbyists, simply don't belong inside your body. They were never food in the first place; they were just packaged and sold to look like food. And that, my friends, is very big business.
What you are reading here is not big business. There is not a lot of money to be made with these ideas. I am not trying to sell you a diet or a pill. I have no lobbyests in Washington. I am suggesting that you consider the physiology and pathophysiology involved here and think for yourself.
MEDICATIONS
Many people are prescribed medications to resolve symptoms and signs that result from this underlying problem. These medications usually cover up (stop) the body’s normal, healthy, inflammatory response. But, isn’t this shutting off the fire alarm while the house still burns inside?
How can it be this simple? Why doesn't everybody know this? The reason this information is not mainstream starts with a Dollar $ign. The medication industry is big business, both prescription and over-the-counter. Changing one's diet and buying a few supplements is not. It goes back to the beginning . . . . . Fortunes have been spent to insert “ways of thinking” into your head.
In Closing : Marketing has made us almost-addicted to “foods” and drugs that are poisoning our bodies. Of course there can be other causes, other irritants: environmental toxins, chemicals in housing materials, cleaning materials, cosmetics, clothing, bedding, heating and air conditioning, But why search the house high and low for some elusive unknown something, when there's a sick elephant sitting right in the middle of your living room?
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
