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In a recent study by Australian researchers, children with strong peanut allergies were given a daily mixture of peanut powder and a probiotic. In 80% of cases, the children stopped having any reactions to the peanuts, and 70% of them still had no reactions 4 years later.
This is great news, and we are very pleased that the medical profession is becoming aware of the strong link between digestive health and the state of the immune system. There has been some good research in this area in the last few years.
Every case is different, however in our Brisbane Naturopath Clinic we usually find that a major factor in food intolerances and allergies is a condition known as ‘Leaky Gut Syndrome’. This is where the small intestine absorbs particles of food that are too large, and when they enter the blood, the immune system thinks they are a foreign invader and attacks them. The bacterial balance in the large intestine also plays a crucial part in the health of the digestive system (which is why giving the probiotic was so helpful in this study).
If you have digestive problems, food intolerances, allergies, or an auto-immune problem, consider taking advantage of our free Comprehensive Health Assessment.
If herbal medicines can help people with dementia and Alzheimers to retain and improve their memories, it stands to reason that they’d be able to help the rest of us maintain and improve this aspect of our health. Here are some herbs that have been shown to have a positive effect on cognitive function.
Ginkgo Bilboa
The Journal of the American Medical Association has published studies showing the positive effect of this herb on dementia leading to Alzheimers. It’s particularly effective in patients whose memory problems are the result of aging.
Ginseng
Studies have shown that ginseng is fantastic for all aspects of cognitive function, including memory. It’s easily available over the counter, but consult with a herbalist to ensure you’re getting the right dose and a good quality supplement.
Rosemary
Rosemary is an herb with a lot of carnosic acid; it’s an antioxidant, and goes directly to your cerebral vascular tissues to dilate them and improve memory. Just smelling rosemary has been shown to have a positive effect.
Sage
Scientists from the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria performed trials which proved that those given sage performed much better on a word recall test than those given a placebo. Sage makes a great addition to many savory dishes, especially soups and stews.
Does the right diet help you fall pregnant? Numerous studies have shown that specific changes to the diet can improve fertility, prevent recurrent miscarriages and support a healthy pregnancy. Everything in our body is made up of what we have eaten, so the right nutrition is essential for a healthy body and reproductive system. The building blocks for hormones are found in the foods we eat. The antioxidants, which help protect the egg and sperm from free radicals, come from the foods we eat. And just as the nutrients in foods can improve fertility, there are some foods and chemicals added to foods that can be harmful to your health, falling pregnant and carrying full-term.
The Natural Fertility Diet assists your body in its reproductive efforts. It includes foods which are high in specific nutrients needed for hormone production, hormone function, hormonal balance, foetal development, egg health, sperm health, blood health, and much more. It is a diet that is designed to help your body with any fertility issues that you may have, build up nutrient stores and provide all of the building blocks for a healthy child. It is also focused on giving you a healthy pregnancy and your child the best start in life.
Did you know that
Eating a Natural Fertility Diet is something everyone can do regardless of age, time, or fertility issue. Since we have to eat, why not eat in a way that improves your fertility?
Nature has created foods to help nourish and feed the body. When the body is optimally nourished and unhealthy foods are avoided, the body is then able to repair and rebuild itself. This is very helpful for fertility, especially if there is an underlying imbalance or fertility issue. The cells in the body are constantly dying off and new cells are being created to replace the old cells. This is occurring in every organ, muscle, tissue, etc. of the body constantly. The building blocks of these new cells are provided from the foods that you are consuming. The Natural Fertility Diet is also designed to help support a healthy body which in turn can heal itself and create healthier cells.
The Fertility Diet is a combination of modern scientific research and thousands of years of ancient wisdom and experience.
While all nutrients are important for health, there are some that have been specifically shown to have a direct impact on fertility. Below is a list of these nutrients and the best food sources of them.
Micronutrients (Antioxidants, Vitamins & Minerals for Fertility)
Vitamin D: Vitamin D is needed to help the body create sex hormones which in turn affects ovulation and hormonal balance. Yale University School of Medicine conducted a study of 67 infertile women, where it was discovered that a tiny 7% had normal Vitamin D levels.
Best food sources: Eggs, fatty fish, dairy, cod liver oil. You can also get vitamin D from exposure to the morning sun for 15 minutes per day.
Vitamin E: Vitamin E has been shown in studies to improve sperm health and motility in men. Studies have also shown a diet deficient in Vitamin E to be a cause of infertility in rats. The meaning of the name for vitamin E ‘Tocopherol’ literally means to bear young. Vitamin E is also an important antioxidant to help protect sperm and egg DNA integrity.
Best food sources: Sunflower seeds, almonds, olives, spinach, papaya, dark leafy greens.
CoQ10: Necessary for every cell in the body for energy production, CoQ10 has also been shown in studies to increase ova (egg) and sperm health. It is necessary for good sperm motility. It is also an important antioxidant to protect the cells from free radical damage and to prevent DNA (genetic) problems.
Best food sources: Found in seafood though it is very difficult to obtain enough through the diet. Levels in the body also decline with age.
Vitamin C: Vitamin C improves hormone levels and increases fertility in women with luteal phase defect, according to a study published in Fertility and Sterility. As for men, vitamin C has been shown to improve sperm quality and protect sperm from DNA damage, which helps reduce the chance of miscarriage and chromosomal problems. Vitamin C also appears to keep sperm from clumping together, making them more motile.
Best food sources: Vitamin C is in many plants and fruits including red capsicums, broccoli, cranberries, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and citrus fruits. However levels are decreased by cooking and decline with storage.
Lipoic Acid: Lipoic acid is a very important antioxidant because it helps to protect the female reproductive organs, has been shown to improve sperm quality and motility, and helps the body to continually re-use the antioxidants in the body.
Best food sources: Found in small amounts in potatoes, spinach and red meat.
B6: Vitamin B6 may be used as a hormone regulator. It also helps to regulate blood sugars, alleviates PMS, and often helps relieve morning sickness. B6 has also been shown to help with Luteal Phase Defect.
Best food sources: Banana, turkey, salmon, cod, spinach, capsicums, garlic, cauliflower, mustard greens, celery, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts.
B12: Vitamin B12 has been shown to improve sperm quality and production. It also may help to boost the endometrium lining in egg fertilisation, decreasing the chances of miscarriage. Some studies have found that a deficiency of B12 may increase the chances of irregular ovulation, and in severe cases stop ovulation altogether.
Best food sources: Clams, oysters, mussels, caviar (fish eggs), fish, crab, lobster, beef, lamb, eggs.
Folic Acid/Folate (B9): One of the best known vitamins required for pregnancy is folic acid, the supplement form of the naturally occurring folate. This vitamin helps prevent neural tube defects as well as congenital heart defects, cleft lips, limb defects, and urinary tract abnormalities in developing foetuses. Deficiency in folic acid may increase the risk of pre-term labour, foetal growth retardation and low birth weight. Deficiency may also increase the homocysteine level in the blood, which can lead to spontaneous abortions and pregnancy complications, such as placental abruption (where the placenta peels away from the lining of the uterus) and pre-eclampsia.
Best food sources: Folate is found in many foods, especially lentils, asparagus, spinach.
Iron: Studies have shown that women with low iron levels may suffer anovulation (lack of ovulation) and possibly poor egg health, reducing their pregnancy rates to only 60% compared to women with sufficient iron stores in their blood.
Best food sources: Lentils, spinach, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds (raw), beef.
Selenium: Selenium is an antioxidant which protects the eggs and sperm from free radicals. Free radicals can cause damage to chromosomes, which is a known cause of miscarriages and birth defects. Selenium is also necessary for the creation of sperm. In studies, men with low sperm counts have also been found to have low levels of selenium.
Best food sources: Snapper, cod, halibut, salmon, sardines, shrimp, Brazil nuts from Bolivia (just one nut contains nearly 100% of the RDA for selenium).
Zinc: In women, zinc works with more than 300 different enzymes in the body to keep things working properly. Without it, your cells can not divide properly, your estrogen and progesterone levels can get out of balance and your reproductive system may not be fully functioning. According to The Centers for Disease Control’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Report, low levels of zinc have been directly linked to miscarriage in the early stages of a pregnancy.
In men, zinc is considered one of the most important trace minerals for male fertility; increasing zinc levels in infertile men has been shown to boost sperm levels, improve the form, function and quality of male sperm, and decrease male infertility.
Best food sources: Oysters (hence the idea that oysters are an aphrodisiac), beef, lamb, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, yogurt, green peas, prawns. Zinc can be damaged by cooking so it is important to eat some foods high in zinc in their raw forms.
Essential Fatty Acids: Omega-3 acids have been shown to improve fertility by helping to regulate hormones in the body, increase cervical mucous, promote ovulation, and overall improve the quality of the uterus by increasing blood flow to the reproductive organs.
Omega-3 fats also contain two acids that are crucial to good health: DHA and EPA. These two acids have been shown to help many forms of disease. Low levels of DHA have been linked to depression and other mental health issues. During pregnancy, a lack of DHA may be associated with premature birth, low birth weight and hyperactivity in children.
Best food sources: Flax seeds, walnuts, salmon, sardines, halibut, prawns, snapper, scallops, chia seeds.
Macronutrients (Protein, Fibre, Fats, Carbohydrates)
In addition to the micro-nutrients, macro-nutrients are important as well. This is a time for nourishing and providing building blocks for your body in preparation for conception. The foods that should be focused on are nutrient dense foods to provide the following:
Proteins: Eating healthy amounts of protein from a wide variety of sources is an important part of a healthy fertility diet, as the amino acids from protein are the building blocks for every cell, organ, enzyme and hormone in your body and your baby’s body. Make sure to include both animal sources and vegetable sources of protein daily.
Fats: A wide variety of fats are very important for fertility and the development of the foetus. Not only are essential fatty acids important, but saturated fats and good quality cholesterol are important as well. Cholesterol is a precursor to all the hormones produced in the body, including progesterone. Just make sure it is from the right foods like coconut oil, grass-fed meats, fish, nuts and seeds, and avoid hydrogenated oils and vegetable oils cooked at high heat.
Fibre: Fibre helps your body get rid of excess estrogen and xenohormones (man- made chemicals that disrupt your own hormonal system), and keeps your digestive tract functioning properly.
Eat Organic Vegetables and Fruits
Regular produce contains harmful herbicides and pesticides which have been shown to be very detrimental to both male and female fertility. Studies have also shown organic vegetables and fruits to have more nutritional value. (See The 5 Major Causes of Low Fertility, and The Solutions for Them for more details.)
Eat Organic, Grass-Fed, Whole Fat Dairy
Organic, grass-fed, whole fat dairy is the best choice of dairy sources. Take note that dairy foods such as milk and cheese may be congesting to the body, so in cases of congesting fertility issues such as PCOS and Endometriosis, dairy foods may aggravate the imbalance. Many people are lactose-intolerant or have a dairy intolerance, so check your tolerance by substantially increasing your dairy intake temporarily and observe how you feel. Dairy which is not organic should be avoided, as it contains added hormones and antibiotics which can contribute to increased estrogen levels in the body. There are many healthy alternatives to dairy such as fresh almond milk.
Eat Cold Water Fish
Fish provides important essential fatty acids (omega 3) to your diet. These fatty acids are needed for hormone production, to reduce inflammation, and they help to regulate the menstrual cycle. Fish is also a great source of protein and vitamin A. Avoid large fish at the top of the food chain, such as shark (flake), swordfish, barramundi, gem fish, and southern bluefin tuna, as these often contain higher levels of toxins. Also stay away from warm water fish; as a general guide, the warmer the water, the lower the omega 3 fatty acid level. The best fish are herring, sardines and mackerel, as they have high omega-3 fatty acid levels and are low in toxins. Tinned salmon are also very good, but look for brands that state they are wild caught.
Choose Meat that is Grass Fed and Organic
Conventionally raised cattle contain high levels of added hormones and antibiotics which can contribute to estrogen-dominate conditions. However grass fed meats are a good source of essential fatty acids, are low in saturated fat, and are a great source of protein. If you are experiencing endometriosis you may want to reduce the amount of red meat that you eat as a study has shown a connection between high red meat consumption and endometriosis.
Choose Free Range/Organic Chicken
Conventionally raised chickens are fed antibiotics and colourings to make the egg yolk an orange colour (whereas the yolks of organic free-range eggs are orange because of the antioxidant-rich diet of the hens). Organic and free range chickens will be pesticide and chemical free, and contain higher omega 3 levels.
Eat Grains in their Whole, Natural Form
Whole grains are filled with fibre, important vitamins, and immune supporting properties. Fibre is important for helping the body to get rid of excess hormones and helps to keep the blood sugar balanced. Avoid processed and refined white foods and grains such as white bread, semolina pastas, and white rice. Instead choose whole wheat or sprouted bread, rice or whole wheat pasta, quinoa, and brown rice.
Eat High Fibre Foods with Each Meal
Fibre helps to regulate blood sugar levels, which assists fertility issues such as PCOS, immunological issues, and promotes healthy hormonal balance. Examples of high fibre foods are fruits, vegetables, dark leafy greens, and beans.
No Soy Except Fermented (such as miso and tempeh)
A study has found that a compound in soy known as genistein impairs sperm as they swim toward the egg. Even tiny doses of the compound in the female reproductive tract could destroy sperm. When researchers exposed human sperm to genistein in the laboratory, the soy chemical was found to create a premature reaction in the sperm, forcing them to peak long before they could fertilize an egg.
Avoid Refined Sugars or Fruit Juices (unless freshly juiced)
Most pasteurised juices such as bottled apple juice, orange juice, and other bottled fruit juices contain concentrated sugar, which can disrupt your blood sugar levels and negatively affect your immune system. Also avoid any processed/refined and artificial sugars. Some great alternatives are stevia, or honey in small amounts.
Drink Enough Clean Water
A rough guide is to drink 2 litres of clean, purified or filtered water daily, however the colour of your urine is the best guide. Your urine should be a light straw colour, so if it is darker than this you are drinking too little, and if paler you are drinking too much. It is best to avoid bottled water as some of the plastics in the bottle such as BPA can contribute to hormonal imbalances due to their estrogen mimicking chemicals. Avoid unfiltered tap water, due to the variety of chemicals it contains.
The foods mentioned below are high in the nutrients most important for fertility, and are all nutrient dense, meaning they pack a lot of nutrition per serving.
Eggs – Vitamin D, B12, Protein
Nuts and Seeds – Omega 3, Zinc, Vitamin E, Protein
Eat nuts and seeds in their raw form as essential fatty acids and zinc are sensitive to heat and can be destroyed if cooked.
Grass-Fed Meats – Omega 3, Iron, B12, Protein
Grass-fed meats are high in omega 3, have been raised without antibiotics and hormones.
Dark Leafy Vegetables – Iron, Folic acid, B6, Vitamin E
Fruit – Vitamin C, Flavonoids, Antioxidants
Antioxidants are heat sensitive, so to get their benefit eat your fruit fresh, ripe and raw.
Colourful Vegetables – B6, Vitamin C
The colour of a vegetable will tell you what nutrients and benefits it will provide for your body. For instance vegetables that are red or green in colour are high in vitamin C, vegetables that are orange have high vitamin A, white ones tend to have sulphur, etc. The easiest way to get a high dose of nutrients is to eat a wide variety of vegetables. Make sure you are eating a variety of colours daily.
Fish and Shell Fish – Vitamin D, Omega 3, Zinc, Selenium, B12, CoQ10
Fish provides an abundance of these nutrients.
Liver – Vitamin D, Zinc, Selenium, Iron, Folic Acid, B12, CoQ10
One way that you can make liver tasty is to make pâté with chicken liver and have this with whole grain crackers 1-2x’s a week. Make sure to use liver from grass-fed/free-range animals only.
Lentils and Beans – Iron, Folic Acid
You can use them to make soups, hummus, as a side dish, or in stir-fries.
Sugar
Caffeine
Studies have shown that caffeine can affect your hormonal balance, increase your chances of a miscarriage and prevent you from ovulating.
Soy Foods
Fat-Free Foods
Foods which are altered to be reduced in fat or fat-free are highly processed and high in sugar. The right fats are very important for fertility and health.
Maca
Maca is a wonderful superfood from Peru that helps to balance the hormones, increase egg health, increase sperm count and sperm health, and is a tonic for the hormone system. Maca also helps increase progesterone if your body is low in this crucial hormone. A high-quality Maca in capsules is available from our clinic.
Have you been trying for a family for months with no rewards? Some of the other causes of decreased fertility include hormonal imbalances, oxidative stress damage, excess chemical load, sluggish blood supply, and nutritional deficiencies.
For over 20 years, our naturopaths have been providing support for couples to conceive, stay pregnant, have an easier and safer birth, and to produce a healthy baby. In that time we have learnt what works and what doesn’t. With any condition, to get good results it is important to treat the causes of the problem, not just the symptoms, and even more so with natural fertility. Otherwise you could end up wasting a huge amount of time and money on treatments that aren’t effective.
Our approach is to only offer treatment when we have completed a thorough, detailed assessment to establish:
That way we can give you the correct advice on how you can fall pregnant as quickly and easily as possible. Some of the areas a Comprehensive Fertility Assessment covers include:
Once we have completed your Fertility Assessment, we explain in clear and simple terms exactly what is going on in your body. If you like, we can then design a treatment program for your specific fertility needs.
Acupuncture and Fertility
It is becoming more common for our acupuncturists to work in conjunction with medical fertility specialists whilst a woman is undergoing ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies such as IVF, IUI and ICSI). There is continuing research about how acupuncture can assist with the effectiveness of IVF treatment, and there is also broad agreement by acupuncturists and other health practitioners about using acupuncture in these cases. Please contact our Principal Therapist if you would like to find out if acupuncture may be able to assist in regard to your specific situation.
The outcome of acupuncture for fertility Brisbane treatments depends on the skill and expertise of the therapist, and on the methods that they use. We only use Japanese acupuncture techniques at our clinic, since when performed by a highly-trained therapist, we have found this style to be more effective that the standard Chinese acupuncture. (All of our acupuncturists were originally taught Chinese acupuncture, but since being trained in the Japanese style they now only use that method.)
Normally an assessment such as this could cost $500 or more, however we are currently have a special offer of a Comprehensive Assessment free of charge. (Limited places are available.) There is absolutely no obligation whatsoever attached to your Assessment.
Whenever possible, please book your partner in to our clinic for an assessment too. We also recommend you and your partner attend each other’s assessment, so that you don’t miss out on any key information.
If time keeps ticking by, and you are looking for answers on why it seems everyone you know is getting pregnant except you, please call our Brisbane clinic now on 3376 6911 to book in for your free Comprehensive Fertility Assessment.
How is your immune system? If you came through the cold and flu season without coming down with anything, you would assume that it is pretty good. But preventing colds is only a small part of what the immune system does. And looking after it can make a huge difference to your future health. Imagine how our streets would end up if we had no police force and no rubbish removal system!
Your immune system is designed to maintain your body by
1. Dealing with any attack
2. Repairing any damage
3. Controlling your own cells
4. Helping your body adapt to changes in temperature and climate
There are far more microbes living in our body than you would think- around 100 trillion of them! So our immune system is constantly fighting to keep the right balance of good and bad bugs in and on our bodies.
If your immune system is not strong, it won’t help your body cope well with changes in temperature, season or climate. This is why many people get colds and flus after they are exposed to a cold wind or draft (get a ‘chill’), or during the cold and flu ‘seasons’, when the temperatures are fluctuating as the seasons change (especially around the start of winter or spring).
If your immune system isn’t working well, you can end up with
Allergies and food intolerances occur when you immune system is overstimulated and reacts to something that has come into your body or on your skin. The number of people with allergies is increasing rapidly, with 1 in 4 children now suffering from them. Autoimmune conditions happen when your immune system is so overstimulated that it starts attacking parts of your own body. It is thought that one of the main reasons for all three conditions is because we have made our environments and our bodies too clean and sterile. We have removed many of the evolutionarily protective microbes (bacteria, viruses, parasites) we have evolved to have in our bodies, under the assumption that all such bugs are harmful[1]. So your immune system cannot behave and act in the way it was designed to. Biologists used to think that the human body is capable of doing all it needs to on its own to exist. However, recent research shows that the right bacteria in our bodies provides vital help with many of the body’s basic functions, including growth, digestion, and self-defence[2]. And upsetting the balanced ecosystem between the correct bacteria in our bodies and our own cells could be causing unprecedented numbers of children to develop autism, ADHD, food allergies, asthma and many other chronic problems.
Another very common cause of food intolerances and allergies is ‘leaky gut syndrome’. Under normal circumstances, the epithelial cells that line your small intestine are joined tightly to each other. This makes the lining of your intestine nearly leak-proof, and only fully digested food molecules are allowed to pass through. If there are strong stresses on these delicate structures, these tight joins may start to separate, creating gaps between the cells. These gaps make your gut ‘leaky’, and then large, undigested food molecules can pass through into the body, where they are collected by the bloodstream and lymph vessels of your intestine.
When your immune system spots these large molecules, it decides that they are too big to be digested food, so it must be a foreign invader into the body, such as a virus or bacteria, and it attacks them. Your immune system attacking these food molecules in your blood can cause a very broad range of problems. (For more details, please see Food Intolerance Testing Now Available.)
Getting your immune system in good shape involves five things.
1. Getting rid of any focal infections
The sinuses are the most common area for focal infections, so these need to be carefully checked and treated if needed.
2. Strengthen your nutrient levels
Vitamin C and Zinc are the most important, but other nutrients, such as vitamin D, are also essential. (Vitamin D is necessary for the ‘killer T-cells’ to hunt down and destroy cells that are infected with germs or that have become cancerous.)
3. Improve any lifestyle factors
Low energy and stress both drag your immune system down. If it is not possible to change your lifestyle factors, naturopathy and acupuncture can help compensate. Sunlight is the best source of vitamin D, but not too much!
4. Getting your bacterial ecosystem right
Since 70- 80% of your body’s immune cells are in your digestive system[3], it is crucial to have the right bacterial balance in your gut to have a good immune system. If your diet isn’t right, you will end up with bad gut bacteria, and these bugs send the wrong messages to the immune system, creating illnesses in the body. (For more details see our article How Bad Gut Bacteria Can Cause Diabetes, Asthma, Ulcerative Colitis, Multiple Sclerosis, Autism, Allergies & Autoimmune Diseases.) Probiotics can provide the good bacteria we need, however since our internal ecosystems are so complex, there is no one probiotic that can sort out everyone’s systems. For example, we supply ten different probiotics for different purposes. (These are Practitioner Prescribing Only products, so a trained therapist has to determine which is the correct one for you.)
5. Address any allergies or food intolerances
We can check the health of your digestive system, and also perform a Food Intolerance Test. Treatments for leaky gut syndrome, overactive immune systems, food intolerances and allergies are available.
If you want to take care of your immune system, or if you have any immune issues or weaknesses, please book in for a Comprehensive Assessment at our clinic. We can then have an in-depth look at what is happening in your body, what is causing the problem, and what can be done to sort it out. These Assessments are very thorough, and you will learn a lot about how your body is working. Our clients find them very helpful, interesting and informative. We currently have a limited number of free Assessments available, so please contact the Clinic soon if you would like to book in for one.
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841828/
[2] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ultimate-social-network-bacteria-protects-health/
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10564096
I was asked by a client the other day if I take vitamins, and they seemed surprised that I do. They didn’t believe taking supplements was necessary if you eat properly and take good care of yourself. However, there are 3 reasons why I will always take some form of supplement.
Most fruit and vegetables are grown to maximise their size and appearance, not for the best nutrition. The CSIRO did a comparison of the nutritional value in Australian-grown fruits and vegetables for 1948 and 1991, and found a huge drop in many of them. The level of Vitamin A in carrots dropped by a whopping 99.96%! (Download the Nutrition in Food Comparison Table.) How something tastes can often tell us how nutritious it is; you know how strawberries these days look amazing but taste like cardboard. There are some fruits that I love to eat when I am overseas where they taste fantastic, but I can’t bring myself to eat them in Australia, because here they taste so incredibly bland.
One of the reasons for this, is that Australian farming soils are becoming more and more depleted of the essential nutrients that are needed by the plants (and by us). Some foods are being kept in storage for long periods before being sold, or picked green and artificially ripened, and these also decrease their nutrient levels.
Without eating foods grown organically in good quality soils, it is virtually impossible for us to get the optimum level of nutrients we need from our diet alone.
I have a very busy and sometimes stressful life, so my body’s demand for some nutrients is higher. I am also around sick people all the time, so I need to keep my own health and immune system in very good shape.
Everybody is born with health strengths and weaknesses, and as we get older, these weaknesses start to show up more. Most people accept that their bodies will deteriorate as they get older – I don’t! I want to live long and be healthy, so that I can enjoy my life to the full. To do that, I have to be proactive, to be aware of any health weaknesses in my body, and to look after them properly now so that they don’t develop into problems later.
Stress, illness, increased physical activity, pollution, coffee and tea, medications, and many other factors all increase our nutritional requirements. Very few people eat all the right foods all the time, or have the perfect lifestyle. Our bodies are made up of what we eat and drink, and if we don’t give them what they need, sooner or later something will start to go wrong in our body. Our future is determined by what we do now, and it is far easier to treat a small problem now than a big problem later.
However, not knowing what nutrients you specifically need and just taking a multivitamin won’t help you much, and you could even be wasting your money. Australians spend more than half a billion dollars a year on vitamin and mineral supplements, and most of the time they see little or no results from them. To maintain or improve your health, you need to have a professional assessment of what your body’s specific needs are, and then take the right quality and quantity of supplements to get results.
If you have a health issue, we recommend booking in for a free Comprehensive Assessment at our clinic. We can then look at what is going on in your body, what is causing the problem, and the best way to sort it out. (Terms and Conditions- the Assessment is a completely free service, with no obligations whatsoever.)
This herbal tea is a great booster for the immune system and a cleanser for the body. Autumn has just started, so now is the time to start strengthening your immune system for winter.
Zen Zai Immune is also a powerful digestive tonic, and is calming to the nerves. This loose-leaf tea contains 7 different organic herbs- lemon grass, ginger, licorice, spear mint, peppermint, echinacea, and black pepper. Each herb has been carefully sourced to ensure the highest quality possible.
Zen Zai Immune is locally made, and is only $15 per packet (less 10% for Gold Health Members). It will be on display at our front counter this month, and there is also a tester jar, where you can smell the wonderful aroma of this blend.
(This article is a condensed version of an ABC Catalyst program dated 21 August 2014, titled Gut Reaction Pt 2, which follows on from the article on Part 1 in our previous newsletter. We have taken out sentences and phrases to shorten the article without detracting from its content, and added headings. You can watch the full TV program, or read the entire transcript, at www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4070977.htm .)
New discoveries about food are rocking the foundations of medicine and nutrition. I think this is one of the biggest developments in medical research. I really think we’re encountering a revolution, that maybe we can prevent diseases by simply changing our diet. The bottom line is the modern Western diet could be making us very sick, contributing to heart disease, diabetes, asthma, emphysema, multiple sclerosis, even autism, and the list goes on.
The reason for the revelation that a good diet is even more important than we thought is the discovery of the many trillions of new contributors to our health – the tiny good bacteria living in our guts. In a nutshell, if you eat a bad diet, you end up with bad gut bacteria, and these bugs send the wrong messages to the immune system. You could wind up sick.
Now it’s all very well to know that the modern Western diet is causing health problems – but what do you do about it? Well, that’s what this second episode is all about and I can tell you now it’s more than just changing the food you eat.
The reason the modern diet is so unhealthy is it’s drifted far from the diets we evolved to eat. While there was no one caveman diet, there was one thing all these diets had in common – a lot of fibre. We saw this in the last episode with Africa’s Stone Age Hadza people.
An average man or woman in the West is consuming less than 20g a day of dietary fibre; six-month- to one-year-old Hadza kids are eating 50g to 200g of fibre a day, every day, and they do this throughout life.
The gut is a container with an entire world inside of it, with hundreds if not thousands of species. Just as all the plants and animals in nature live in harmony together as an ecosystem, so do the species in our intestines. And like any other ecosystem, the gut will be tipped out of balance if the creatures in it don’t get one of their fundamental foods. For the bugs living in our gut that is fibre. That’s why the low-fibre food we eat these days can be so damaging. To see the effects of that, in the last episode we met Gideon – a young, fit gymnast. The two of us took a junk food challenge. After a typical high-fat, high-sugar feed, we had our bloods measured to see the effects. And Gideon was shocked to learn that while he was fit on the outside, on the inside, my much older body was performing better than his. His body needed two to three times as much insulin as mine, and he was on the road to diabetes.
Gideon Cordover: “This is a huge shock to me and quite nerve-racking.”
Almost all of Gideon’s diet is processed food. When we eat these foods, it generates a whole lot of bad bacteria in our body that promotes inflammation.
So, we put a proposal to Gideon- four weeks of healthy meals.
Gideon: “I’m nervous that I won’t like the taste of some of the food that I’m gonna be eating, and I’m a bit nervous that I will feel hungry all the time because I’m used to eating huge quantities of fast food.”
The plan is we’ll look at Gideon’s gut bacteria before and after his new diet, and we’ll also remeasure his insulin response after four weeks of eating this healthy high-fibre food.
The most important thing is to have a balanced diet and lots of high fibre. But we’ve also shown that with a lot of the studies we’re doing in animals now that supplementing the diet by giving vinegar can actually stop things like asthma.
The idea of using vinegar medicinally has been around for thousands of years, back to the Egyptian times, the Greek times. The beneficial effects of vinegars in society have been known for a long time. Even Italians – a lot of vinegar on salads, a lot of vinaigrette – they have very, very low incidences of inflammatory disease.
In fact, even the research on eating a good diet has an air of ancient wisdom about it. Hippocrates said ‘Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.’ And we agree with that entirely.
The reason vinegar could be a medicine is because it contains acetate – the molecule we met in the first episode, the one our good bacteria make. We now know that acetate can stop the immune system from overreacting, which promotes good health. Professor Matt Cooper developed asthma at about 18.
Professor Cooper: “I ended up taking a puffer twice a day and I was taking steroids two or three times a day. I had several incidents where I was really worried, I was almost gonna go to hospital, it was that bad. I was taking puff after puff, I could barely breathe. It hurt my chest a lot when I coughed.”
“But now I’ve started eating more fibre and using liberal quantities of vinegar. Now I probably have one puff a year, if that.”
Dr Alison Thorburn showed she could reduce asthma in mice by simply feeding them high-fibre food. She then gave them acetate in their drinking water, which also reduced their asthma.
So the simple stuff we splash on a salad may help treat a disease that plagues the Western world. And when pregnant mice were given a high-fibre diet, their offspring didn’t develop asthma; they were protected against it developing.
Gut bacteria are tied up with a lot of other diseases, too. Mice that have emphysema get an improvement in symptoms after taking in the bacteria of healthy mice. The good gut bacteria have treated them.
They are trialling a procedure for another debilitating disease thought to be connected to bad gut bacteria – ulcerative colitis. It’s an inflammatory bowel disease and Anna has suffered it for more than half a decade.
Anna Demasi: “So I was sick at about 22, so I’m 29 now, and I had really bad diarrhoea, you know, I couldn’t control it, going to the toilet, you know, 30, 40 times a day. And I couldn’t sleep, fevers, sore back. Those 30, 40 times a day was not food, it was mostly just blood and water.”
“You can’t go anywhere. You can’t plan for trips, can’t plan anything, can’t even go to the shops to buy something.”
This inflammatory bowel disease can be treated with powerful drugs but they can have terrible side effects.
“My face would blow up like three times the size in a matter of days. I’d put 10, 15 kilos in a matter of a few weeks. And then the mental things, you’d get quite anxious and very aggressive. And you also couldn’t sleep at night. So just a horrible, really horrible drug.”
So a new treatment for the condition is being trialled at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital – a faecal transplant. You’re implanting live bacteria into another person’s system, to try to change their flora to that of a patient without inflammatory bowel disease.
And did it work for Anna?
“Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It worked. So I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the shops so much before. You know, I can go for walks, I can play with my kid in the park, I don’t have to sort of worry ‘Where’s a toilet?’, bring a change of clothes with me, all that sort of stuff.”
We don’t know yet if this works for everyone or even if it’s a permanent cure, but if it does treat inflammatory bowel disease, the way is paved for other ailments, like emphysema and even multiple sclerosis.
In many ways, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis are related on an immune level. The cells that attack the gut in inflammatory bowel disease are very similar to cells that attack the brain and the central nervous system in multiple sclerosis.
And the possibilities don’t stop there. It has even been found that autism seems to be related to gut bacteria. Small molecules released by gut bacteria can travel through the circulation, and potentially enter the brain and affect brain function.
Intriguingly, people with autism do often have gut problems and have different gut bacteria. When we administered a special probiotic to animals that had autistic-like behaviour, not only were we able to correct the gastrointestinal symptoms but we were able to also correct many of the behavioural symptoms that these mice exhibited, the behavioural symptoms that are associated with human autism.
Our long-term goal, is to potentially treat multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, asthma, a variety of different autoimmune and allergic disorders, because the immune response that we believe triggers all of these disorders is very, very similar, and so the tissues may be different for these diseases, but the immune response is similar.
Gideon: “I’m well into the second week now of my high-fibre diet. I’m so much better now. Last week, I was just complaining. I take it all back.”
How would Gideon’s gut bacteria be after his four-week high-fibre diet? Well, his results showed more good bacteria and a greater diversity. To see if that translated to better health, we gave him another fast food challenge and remeasured his bloods.
The results are spectacular- Gideon’s blood sugars, fats and insulin response were vastly improved. It took half the amount of insulin to clear the same amount of carbohydrate out of his system as it did the first time round. So everything is working so much better. The body senses food and responds to it almost immediately, so you can actually effect improvements in health within two or three days of changing your diet.
Gideon “It was relatively easy to get a really remarkable result and my insides are clearly much healthier now than they were before, so that’s really inspired me to keep going, because if it is that easy, why not keep it up?”
Using food as thy medicine is so simple yet so powerful… and open to all of us to put into practice.
From a natural therapy point of view, it is wonderful to see that modern medicine is starting to realise the importance of a healthy digestive system and immune system, and the crucial role that diet and a good digestive ecosystem play.
It is also important to include a variety of healthy foods in your diet, as there is a huge diversity of bugs in a healthy gut ecosystem.
If you have a health issue you would like to sort out, please book in for a Comprehensive Assessment at our Brisbane Naturopath and Acupuncture Clinic. We can then have an in-depth look at what is happening in your body, what is causing the problem, and what can be done to sort it out. These Assessments are very thorough, and you will learn a lot about how your body is working. Our clients find them very helpful and interesting.(Terms and Conditions- the Assessment is a completely free service, with no obligations whatsoever.)
We currently have a limited number of free Assessments available, so please contact the Clinic soon if you would like to book in for one.
This article is a condensed version of an ABC Catalyst program dated 14 August 2014, titled Gut Reaction Pt 1. We have taken out sentences and phrases to shorten the article without detracting from its content, and added headings. You can watch the full TV program, or read the entire transcript, at www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4067184.htm.
In our next blog we will cover the subsequent program, including how good bacteria can be used to treat diseases.
In the first of this two-part special, Dr Graham Phillips reveals new research about the interplay between food and the bacteria deep within our guts.
I think this is one of the biggest developments in medical research. I really think we’re encountering a revolution. Maybe we can prevent diseases by simply changing our diet.
The remarkable new discoveries are telling us that our current eating habits could be making us sick. Very sick. Indeed, our food might be contributing to heart disease, cancer, asthma, allergies, arthritis, autism, depression, multiple sclerosis, diabetes – the list goes on.
We’ve been hearing for years how we should be eating healthy food. But this research is different. It’s all about the bacteria that live in our intestines. Eat good food, you end up with good bacteria. Eat badly and you get bad bacteria in your gut. Now, it turns out your gut bugs have an enormous influence on your health.
I think you can extend your life span by years, if not decades, with a healthy diet. And all the evidence is pointing to that.
The gut bacteria story starts at the beginning of life. During the messy process of birth, a newborn gets covered in microbes. If you were vaginally delivered, the microbes that you’re coated in initially mostly come from your mother’s vaginal community. Baby also acquires some of mum’s gut bacteria from traces of her faeces. A bit like inheriting a gene, you can also inherit the bacteria from your mother.
And nature’s even provided food for those fledgling gut bugs. Mum’s milk has more than just nutrients for the baby. Breast milk contains a lot of sugars that the baby can’t metabolise, but they’re important for promoting the growth of particular kinds of bacteria in the gut that are good. Also there’s increasing evidence that the milk itself is produced with bacteria in it.
Living on us and inside of us are an enormous number of bacteria. In fact, the bacterial cells outnumber ours by 10 to 1. So when you think about it, they’re not really OUR bacteria, we’re THEIR human.
Some scientists now say we’re a supraorganism, like a termite colony or a beehive, where individuals are just part of a whole. An organism that’s consisted of both human cells as well as microbial cells, all working together for perhaps the common good.
Together, the bacteria weigh about 1.5 kilograms, as much as our brains. And most live in the gut.
You eat your food, any what’s left over gets into the large intestine – the bowel. And that’s where most of the gut bacteria are. Most of us think of bacteria as generally nasty bugs rather than friendly organisms.
We’re learning why these bacteria are critical to our health. And one of the main reasons is they help educate the body’s defences. We now know that the bacteria inside us control a lot of our immune system. They produce small molecules that regulate our immune responses.
It’s mainly in the gut that the immune system learns what to and what not to attack. And our bacteria don’t just affect physical health. They also have pathways to our brains. There are probably many different types of connections between gut bacteria and the brain. So your bacteria may influence how you think.
If our health is tied up with our bacteria, what bad effects could the modern world be having? Caesareans, for example, now account for up to 1 in 3 births. C-section babies are not readily inoculated with natural bacteria.
And in fact children born through caesarean section have got microbes that look more like the microbes that live on our skin, than children who are born in natural birth that have got microbes that look more like microbes that live in the intestine.
The literature in allergy and asthma indicates that children born to caesarean section are more likely to develop these types of disorders than children born to natural birth. Bottle feeding is also likely to result in different gut bacteria. Children that were breastfed are likely more protected against allergy and asthma than children who were fed formula. And I think these principles can extend beyond just allergies to autoimmunity, to neurological disorders.
While these possible health problems from entering the world unnaturally are disturbing enough, what about the unnatural diets we eat these days? Our gut bacteria change depending on what we eat. Eat bad food and you support bad communities of bacteria. And there seems to be one main bad food culprit – we’re eating too many low-fibre meals these days. Indeed, a lot of research is now pointing to low fibre being largely responsible for that long list of diseases.
It’s very exciting times now and we’re starting to understand for the first time how what we eat defines a lot of disease, and how we can actually avoid that disease by looking at diet. The people who take the highest levels of fibre are the ones that are living the longest.
And it’s not just diet and the early years of life that are changing our gut bacteria. So are antibiotics. They’re a bit like dropping a nuclear bomb on your gut bacteria. Particularly vulnerable to antibiotics are young children.
The relationship between microbial ecology of the gut and the priming and training of the immune system is such a critical thing in the development of a child, that if you mess with that too badly, then that may be responsible for problems.
By the age of three the gut microbes look adult-like. And so I think that there is this critical window very early in life when gut microbes could affect the immune system or the metabolic and the nervous system.
Our low-fibre diets, antibiotics and Western ways have left us with very low diversity in our gut bacteria.
The most diversity we’ve ever seen is with the Hadza (a tribe in Africa who eat a diet similar to what our distant ancestors would have). So let’s take a healthy adult in Australia. They might have 1,000 to 1,500 species of bacteria; a similar-aged Hadza might have two to three times that much.
So all the health problems on that list may be connected to a lack of diversity and to the wrong type of bacteria disturbing the immune system, leaving our bodies in a perpetual state of inflammation. Inflammation is one of the body’s defence mechanisms and involves immune cells being released. But these defences can do harm if they’re not properly controlled.
The cells which are built to kill bacteria are actually doing damage to our own tissues. And that’s usually an inflammatory disease. That’s what happens in diabetes or in asthma or in rheumatoid arthritis. And you can add obesity to that list.
In Australia, 62% of us are overweight or obese. It’s the majority condition now.
Now, the common view is just too many calories are the cause of obesity. But could it be more complex than that? Maybe there’s more to losing weight than just exercise and eating less. Maybe you also have to change your gut bacteria.
There’s a famous experiment. They took a strain of mouse that’s genetically predisposed to obesity, rendered it free of bacteria, then they gave these mice new gut bacteria from thin mice. Incredibly, they now tended to stay thin. Gut bacteria could be helping to make the modern world fat. Back in the day obesity was a rarer thing, there could have been better gut bugs as a result of eating less processed food – in other words less sugar, fat, and more fibre. That’s a stark contrast to the modern world. But there’s good news if you’re overweight. Your gut bacteria community can be altered.
You can change it by changing your diet. And so if you manipulate the combination of protein, fat and carbohydrates in the diet, you can shift the composition – the community ecology, if you like – of the gut really quite profoundly.
In short, to do this, you have to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables. And another disease that was rarer in old times but growing at a frightening pace today is type-2 diabetes. And, again, bad bacteria from eating too much processed food could play a key role.
Dr Alison Thorburn – “It was pretty tough and annoying, because you’re always that kid in the playground with the Ventolin in your pocket. I remember my mum limiting what we could eat, which was really strange. I remember one day she said we’re not allowed to have oranges anymore ‘because you’re sister’s allergic to oranges. It makes her asthma worse.’ So I was really annoyed at my sister that I wasn’t allowed to have oranges. No orange juice. Also wheat and yeast and Vegemite at some stage. So I used to always say to my Mum, ‘Why? Why can’t I eat this?’ And she couldn’t give me an answer.”
Alison’s scientific curiosity in asthma had been sparked. Now Alison is a postdoctoral researcher at Monash University. And she’s found a new treatment for asthma – well, in mice at least – which is incredibly simple. She just puts them on a high-fibre diet.
“We know that when we give the mice a high-fibre diet compared to their normal diet, their gut bugs, their bacteria, change dramatically; the mice end up with more good bacteria.”
“There are really good bacteria that produce great things for our health, in particular short-chain fatty acids, which are the molecules we work on. Dietary fibre gets broken down to produce these short-chain fatty acids and then they do amazingly good things in the gut and also throughout the body.”
“One is acetate. Now, it’s important to have acetate in your body, particularly in the digestive tract, because it helps dampen the immune system. It’s a natural anti-inflammatory. Because they’re anti-inflammatory chemicals, they help prevent inflammatory diseases like asthma.”
Next time we’ll discover ways we can all have better gut bacteria and so live healthier lives.
Natural therapists have long believed that a good digestive system, including the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut, is absolutely crucial to good health. And research such as this is helping to confirm it. In the past, doctors have generally looked at the body like a car, with parts that sometimes break down. However, it is becoming clearer to researchers that the digestive system is an ecosystem, with a huge variety of organisms (including us) interacting with each other to create a balance. Of course, some ecosystems are healthier than others, and some can even disintegrate and become toxic.
Having the right bacteria in your gut, and having the right diet to maintain your internal ecosystem, are essential to good health. Probiotics can provide the good bacteria we need, however since our ecosystems are so complex, there is no one probiotic that can sort out everyone’s system. For example, we supply ten different probiotics for different purposes.
| PROBIOTIC | USE |
| Probex | An anti-inflammatory probiotic for Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
| Ultra Flora Digest | For healthy digestive function and improved immunity, with fibre |
| Ultra Flora Immune | For increased immune function |
| Ultra Flora LGG | 1. For eczema and food allergies in infants 2. Reduces the frequency of diarrhoea |
| Ultra Flora Plus | High potency probiotic which also inhibits bad bacteria |
| Ultra Flora Plus Dairy Free | Dairy free version |
| Ultra Flora Restore | For restoration of healthy gut flora during and after antibiotics |
| Ultra Flora Restore Dairy Free | Dairy free version |
| Ultra Flora SB Dysbiosis | For the treatment of excess bad bacteria, including diarrhoea |
| Flora Care for Kids | For a healthy digestive and immune system in children |
Please note that these are Practitioner Prescribing Only products, so a trained therapist has to decide which is the correct one for you. If you are interested in looking after your digestive and immune systems, your long-term health, or if you have allergies, auto“immune problems, asthma, or other inflammation disorders, please book in for a Comprehensive Health Assessment. We can then have an in“depth look at what is happening in your body, what is causing the problem, and what can be done to sort it out. These Assessments are very thorough, and you will learn a lot about how your body is working. Our clients find them very helpful and interesting. We currently have a limited number of free Assessments available, so please contact us soon if you would like to book in for one.
We recently had a client who was trying hard to improve her health, so she was making and drinking plenty of fresh vegetable and fruit juices. However, after a while, she found that she was putting on weight instead of losing it, and was getting digestive issues such as stomach discomfort, bloating and gas. What was going wrong?
Kale is very popular at the moment, and with good reason. It is an excellent source of many vitamins and antioxidants- one cup contains 180 percent of the recommended daily dose of Vitamin A, 200 percent of Vitamin C, and 1,020 percent of Vitamin K. All three of these vitamins are antioxidants that help protect the body from certain types of cancer. Kale’s unusual amount of vitamin K in particular helps the body with blood clotting and bone health. Kale is rich in calcium and iron, and it contains a massive 45 different flavonoids, with a huge variety of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
However, it is often the case that anything that can have a powerful good effect on the body, if used incorrectly, can have a negative effect. Excessive use of kale, such as juicing it every day, could cause problems such as
In a word, no! It has many wonderful nutritional benefits. But just because something is excellent in moderate amounts, doesn’t always mean it is even better for everyone in higher doses.
There are two ways to avoid nutrition imbalances. One way is to have everything in moderation. Done correctly, juices can be fantastic, however keep in mind that they are highly concentrated, so don’t have them all the time, and have a variety of ingredients. An even better approach is to have a proper assessment by a good Brisbane naturopath, who can determine which foods are best for you and which ones you should avoid.
The big food buzz at the moment is the Paleo Diet, and paleo-themed cafes are opening all over Australia. Pete Evans from My Kitchen Rules is a big supporter of this diet, and his own TV series, The Paleo Way, will screen on Channel 7 this summer. In 2013 it was Google’s most searched-for weight loss method.
So is it really a wonder-diet or just a fad?
The Paleolithic diet is based on the idea that if our Paleolithic (Stone Age) ancestors didn’t eat it, we shouldn’t either. It is also known as the caveman diet, the Stone Age diet, and the hunter-gatherer diet. Mankind has been around for millions of years, but our diet has only included significant levels of grains, legumes and dairy for around 10,000 years (since agriculture and domestication of animals), so maybe our bodies haven’t evolved enough to digest these foods properly, let alone the recent highly-processed and high-calorie processed foods. This is believed to cause many modern-day health problems such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Supporters of the diet claim that eating according to the guidelines will help you to enjoy a longer, healthier, and more active life.
There is abundant scientific evidence that grains can be detrimental to our health and lead to various illnesses. For example gluten (in wheat, barley, rye and oats) is believed to be a potential cause or exacerbating factor in all of the roughly 100 auto-immune diseases currently recognised. (Auto-immunity as a whole is considered the third leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the industrialised world!) Recent studies have shown a 400% increase in coeliac disease (caused by gluten intolerance) in the past 50 years. However, these problems may be due to modern grains often being over-refined (particularly white flour).
However, according to Dr Tony Bird, Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Food Futures National Research Flagship, we need a mix of three types of fibre for optimal health:
What both sides of the debate have missed is that no two bodies are the same, and each person’s nutritional requirements will vary. In particular, different body types have different diet requirements. If you have an apple shape (with most of your weight around your abdomen), carbohydrates (even the whole-grain kind) will raise insulin levels in your body. You are already prone to high blood sugar levels, which can lead to diabetes and heart disease, so you need to watch your carbohydrate intake. You will still need some complex carbohydrates in your diet, so a small amount of unrefined grains is good for you.
If you have a pear-shaped body, you need higher levels of protein in your diet, and you can safely cut out grains. Your body is very fat-sensitive, so provided you keep your fat intake low, a Paleo Diet will suit you well.
(For more information on body shapes, see our article about successful weight loss.)
Frank Oski M.D. was the Department Chairman of Pediatrics at the State University of New York, from 1972 until 1985 and as the Department Chairman of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University from 1985 until 1996. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the author or co-author of about 300 academic papers and 20 books. In 1977 he wrote a book called Don’t Drink Your Milk in which he said
“The fact is: the drinking of cow milk has been linked to iron-deficiency anemia in infants and children; it has been named as the cause of cramps and diarrhea in much of the world’s population, and the cause of multiple forms of allergy as well; and the possibility has been raised that it may play a central role in the origins of atherosclerosis and heart attacks … In no mammalian species, except for the human (and the domestic cat, is milk consumption continued after the weaning period (the period of breast-feeding]. Calves thrive on cow milk. Cow milk is for calves.”
One of the signs that drinking milk may not be ideal for us, is that about 65% of all people on the planet can’t do it without experiencing gas, bloating and digestive distress. According to Professor Loren Cordain of the Colorado State University “The lactose evidence is like a canary in a coal mine, and hints at even greater health problems with milk and dairy consumption.”
An experiment at the University of Lund in Sweden showed that colic symptoms disappeared in 89% of babies when cow’s milk was taken out of their diet.
For many years, peptic ulcers were routinely treated by patients drinking milk and cream on a regular basis throughout the day. However, the fatal heart attack rate in ulcer patients who used this diet was a staggering 42%! This may be because high dietary calcium tends to cause an imbalance in magnesium levels, and magnesium helps prevent heart disease. Because milk’s calcium to magnesium ratio is quite high (about 12 to 1), too much dairy products in our diet can raise the calcium to magnesium ratio in our bodies to about 5 to 1, which can result in heart disease.
So it is best not to only rely on dairy for your calcium intake. Some of the best natural sources include:
If you want to keep your bones strong, it is important to keep in mind that weight-bearing exercise (including walking, golf, etc.) stimulates the body to put more calcium into the bones that are taking the weight, and that if your body is too acidic, it will take calcium out of your bones to help make your blood less acidic.
Maintaining the correct levels of calcium and magnesium in your body is a complex area, so if you wish to reduce your dairy intake but still look after the strength of your bones, I strongly recommend you book in to see our Brisbane naturopath and nutrition specialist Margaret McNamara.
Excess sugar, whether from naturally sweet sources or refined sugar, causes you to gain weight, accelerates the ageing process, is addictive, and has a cumulative effect, meaning it builds up in our systems over time. Following the Paleo Diet helps you avoid these sugar problems. (Both apple and pear body types need to avoid sugar as much as possible.)
It is generally accepted that the average person’s diet contains far too much salt, as it is added to almost every food that has been processed in some way. Those with an apple type of body are also very salt-sensitive, so this part of the Paleo Diet would be especially helpful for them.
What we eat is usually the single most important factor in our long-term health. As the saying goes, what you eat today walks and talks tomorrow. There are many other aspects of the Paleo Diet that we haven’t covered (such as eliminating almost all processed foods), and most of the requirements are excellent to follow. So this diet is a great starting point for the average person who wants to improve their health! However, as we mentioned earlier, everybody’s food requirements are different, and what suits some people may not be good for another. In the end, there is no substitute for a detailed consultation with an experienced therapist who can identify what is best for YOU. This is even more important if you have a specific health problem, as your nutrient requirements will be very different.
If looking after your health is important to you, you can take advantage of our special offer of a free Comprehensive Health Assessment. If you would like to feel better, have more energy, or look after your health properly, we can have an in-depth look at what is happening in your body, if there are any areas that aren’t working properly, and we can let you know what can be done to improve things. The Assessment is very thorough, and most people find it very interesting and helpful. Please contact the Clinic if you would like to book in while this offer is still available.
Valued at $120, your Assessment will help to uncover:
All this will be fully explained to you, and you can ask as many questions as you like. That way we can be sure to give you all of the right information, understanding and advice you need. Terms and conditions: This is a free, no obligation offer.