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Posts tagged ‘Inflammation’

Toxins Are Making You Fat…

Excess adipose tissue around a male's mid-section.

Image via Wikipedia

It’s that time of the year again when people make New Year’s resolutions (that they can hopefully stick with until the motivation goes south). Perhaps, the best thing to do is to plan ahead but take things a day at a time. If things don’t go your way or to put it another way, if you blow it, just forget about it and go back on your merry way. No use crying over spilt milk, as the old saying goes.

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight. It’s not as easy as it used to be when simply cutting down caloric intake could do the trick. Nowadays, one has to consider the role that toxicity, stress, hormonal imbalance, inflammation, food sensitivities, and yes, even chronic pathogens, play in people’s health problems, including that of obesity.

Let’s first discuss the role of toxins in the obesity epidemic. Toxins are natural or man-made products that could wreak havoc on our physiology. With well-functioning organs of elimination, it’s not usually a problem. However, since we’re dealing with so many toxins in our food, air and water, it’s important that we assist these organs of detoxification and elimination in any way we can. Vitamins, minerals, herbs, essential oils, and homeopathic remedies are among the things we could use to facilitate that. Other activities that could help include exercise, fasting, massage, dry skin brushing, enemas/colon hydrotherapy, and Ayurverdic practices such as pranayama and abhyanga.

Toxins, if not metabolized and excreted, could accumulate and affect every system in the body. The once thought to be impenetrable blood-brain-barrier (protecting the brain) could actually be “infiltrated” by circulating toxins.

One popular theory behind the accumulation of fat in certain areas of the body is that these fat cells are actually trying to protect vital organs from these toxins. It’s a adaptive mechanism, if I may put it that way. Toxins are basically stored in fatty tissues. These toxins are subsequently released during a weight loss program. This explains why most people feel bad in an unsupervised, non-holistic weight management program. A holistic approach would consider adding a liver support protocol, among other things. It’s also wise to have someone’s baseline body composition measured prior to starting a program. Doing this initially and at regular intervals during the program guarantees that a person is losing fat and not muscle tissue.

Anyway, a natural result of detoxifying the body is fat loss. Therefore, anyone considering losing weight should begin with getting rid of junk internally (from their bodies) and from their environment (basic clean food, air and water).

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Super Bugs: No Problem! Supercharge Your Immune System!

Ebola, AIDS, MRSA, Vancomycin-resistant Pseudomonas, chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium (cause of Malaria). These are just a few of the super bugs that we could all possibly encounter in our world that’s rapidly getting smaller every day due to air travel. In recent times when sea travel was the main mode of transportation, people who were still asymptomatic would usually show signs and symptoms before they arrive at their destination. In today’s world of faster air travel, people infected may not show signs and symptoms until they arrive somewhere. This can cause the rapid spread/transmission of communicable diseases. This is especially true in a stressed-out, nutritionally-deficient, and unhealthy population.

What is the traditional answer to this issue? I think that we all know the answer to that. Suffice it to say, this reactionary approach (the race to find cures) doesn’t work well because these bugs are smarter than we think. By the time so-called cures are available, they’ve already mutated to a form that’s resistant to the “cure”. That’s one of the reasons why we have MRSA and Vancomycin-resistant Pesudomonas, among many others.

There is no one to blame for this scenario. Health care practitioners (by indiscriminate use) and patients (by insisting that they be given a medication) alike are responsible for the proliferation of super bugs.

What then can we do about it? I would say that we adopt what the traditional Chinese medicine practitioners did in earlier times. A doctor at the time would only get paid or compensated when their clients are healthy. If their clients get sick, the doctors don’t get paid. It does make a lot of sense to do this. This preventive approach would save billions of dollars in health care.

What are the things we can do to fortify our immune system? Let’s start with the basics before we even discuss specifics. Having a healthy diet, adequate water intake, enough exposure to sunlight and the earth’s electromagnetic energy, rest, exercise, good relationships and stress reduction all go a long way in building our immune defenses.

There are ways to strengthen the immune system with the use of dietary supplements. Here are just a few examples;

mixed carotenoids (natural vitamin A)- good for the mucous membranes (respiratory and intestinal tract protection)

vitamin C complex (natural vitamin C with bioflavonoids)- traditionally used to boost the immune system against infections and tumors but also good for formation of collagen, along with L-lysine and L-proline

vitamin D3- studies show that it could protect against the flu (low levels of exposure to sunlight during the winter months make one vulnerable to the flu) and against certain forms of cancer

selenium- one of the co-factors in the formation of glutathione, which is abundant in the spleen and lymphocytes, both involved in immune system health

zinc- has antimicrobial properties and also good for prostate health in men

manganese- helps in the production of SOD, one of the antioxidants endogenously produced in our bodies

probiotics- an essential nutrient especially if one has taken antibiotics in the past, helps prevent bacterial and fungal overgrowth in the intestine

clove- has the highest ORAC (antioxidant levels) level among all natural substances, has antimicrobial properties as well

thyme- its constituent thymol has antifungal properties

lemon- has d-limonene which has anti-carcinogenic properties, has anti-viral properties as well (along with other citrus oils)

cinnamon- has antibacterial properties, also regulates blood sugar

rosemary- antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory

oregano- antimicrobial

chlorella and spirulina- immune stimulants

raspberries- rich in ellagic acid, which has anti-carcinogenic properties

apricots- rich in vitamin B 17, also has anti-carcinogenic properties

wolfberries- also stimulates release of HGH from the pituitary

broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables- lowers xenoestrogens, cleanses liver

frankincense- helps repair DNA

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Written

on December 1, 2010

Baby, You’re A Firework! The Role of Chronic Inflammation In Premature Aging

Foreign seeds can be caught anywhere, includin...

Image via Wikipedia

One of the common issues associated with aging is chronic inflammation. This manifests as symptoms a lot of people are so familiar with, such as arthritis, allergies, headaches, asthma, weight gain, etc. Inflammation in general, is a natural process that protects us in certain situations. Chronic, unregulated inflammation however, could cause more harm to our selves more than we all know. It is a major factor in all chronic degenerative diseases or the aging process in general.

One of the reasons behind this surge of inflammatory disorders lies in our diet. A deficiency in omega 3 fatty acids due to the process of refining our foods, has led to this epidemic. Studies show that a person needs at least 4,000 mg. of EFAs to prevent symptoms of deficiency. In my practice, I’ve recommended 8,000 and upwards of EFAs for cardiovascular and neurological problems. I always start with dietary recommendations like the avoidance of hydrogenated oils or trans-fats. I recommend primarily a plant-based or anti-inflammatory diet. There are those people who actually do better with animal protein in their diet (small, cold-water fish; organic, free-range poultry; grass-fed beef; wild game; etc.). What this really means is that, we need to consider each person’s biochemical individuality when it comes to making dietary and supplement recommendations (even exercise recommendations, for that matter). Regarding the use of EFA’s, the key words to look for when purchasing them are “molecularly distilled” and “free of PCBs and heavy metals”. It’s best to refrigerate the bottle once it opened. More info on this in future blogs.

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Written

on November 29, 2010

Toxic!

Danger

Back in school, I never understood why the cause (or etiology) of a lot of chronic medical conditions (such as cancer or autoimmune diseases) was unknown or idiopathic. Perhaps, we were not taught to look deeply enough at that time. For whatever reason, it doesn’t make sense to just treat symptoms with synthetic drugs (or even natural ones). It’s always better to look for the cause or causes of illness and address those while also treating symptoms with the appropriate remedies. Otherwise, if the cause/causes are not addressed properly, the illness tends to return and get worse with time. One of the more common causes of chronic degenerative diseases are heavy metal toxins (other causes such as nutritional deficiencies and neurotoxins will be discussed later). These include mercury, lead, arsenic, aluminum, and cadmium among many others. Where do we get them from? Practically everywhere. Indoors and outdoors. It’s from our food, air and water. It’s found in natural and synthetic products. You don’t even have to try hard to get exposed to them. Guess what? Even babies are born with heavy metals present in their system. What are the overall effects of these toxins? Basically, they could deposit in any part of the body, particularly those fatty areas (since these metals are lipophilic) including the nervous system. They would then interfere with physiological processes by causing free radical damage as well as inflammation. It’s always a good idea to screen who presents with vague symptoms (or anyone for that matter, for preventive purposes) for heavy metal toxicity. Screening for heavy metals could be done through the blood, urine, hair and actual tissue samples. There are pros and cons to each type of specimen used for screening, of course. I recommend working with a holistic health care practitioner versed in detoxification or chelation therapy if levels are found to be elevated.

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Written

on August 21, 2010