Monica

The medical world is still playing catch-up when it comes to intestinal permeability – more commonly known as leaky gut syndrome.  It may sound like something you’d call on a plumber to fix!  Then again ‘friendly’ bacteria didn’t sound very medical either when it first arrived on the health scene, but look at it now.  Recognised by most as an essential part of your healthy gut population.

Speakers at January’s “Heal your Gut Summit” discussed leaky gut at length, explaining that people experiencing allergies, especially multiple sensitivites, or eczema, asthma, or psoriasis, unresolvable digestive problems, or suffering an IBD or an auto immune condition, should consider leaky gut as being part of the root cause of their symptoms.
Please note that I write this row of ‘or’ intentionally since you may only have one, or a couple, of the above-mentioned symptoms/conditions.  You don’t need the lot to have intestinal permeability.  And it’s not something to be scared of – just aware of, so that you can start an action plan either on your own or with the support of a therapist.

A healthy gastro-intestinal tract is like a tightly woven mesh of tissue, working as a barrier and keeping undigested food particules, or bacteria, from entering into your bloodstream.

When you experience chronic inflammation in the gut, brought on by a bacterial imbalance (not enough of the above-mentioned ‘friendlies’ or a hidden infection a.o.) or a poor diet, or toxic overload (environmental toxins a.o.), or chronic stress, this mesh loosens.  The junctures in the gut wall let undigested food and harmful substances ‘leak’ into the bloodstream, causing an immune reaction.

This, in turn, leads to inflammation throughout your system, and can lead to symptoms such as bloating, food sensitivities or fatigue or joint pain, headaches or skin problems and more.
And It also means you won’t be absorbing all the important minerals and vitamins from your food – or from the supplements you’re buying.

The interesting point to keep in mind is that leaky gut does not necessarily mean you will have obvious digestive or gut problems (and I speak from my own experience here).

Your leaky gut may be linked to your skin or bronchial reactions to something like dustmite or pollens.  Or it may be linked to joint pain or brain fog or to low immune health (because you’re not absorbing enough nutrients from your food, due to leaky gut).  Also, you may have no digestive symptoms because you intuitively – or through long-forgotten experiences – avoid foods which ‘don’t agree with you’, thus escaping any regular digestive challenge, and keeping your gut in a fairly stable state.  And if you do have an occasional glitsch, you might be putting it down to eating too much, or a very ‘heavy’ protein meal or a stressful day – all of which would certainly be implicated.  The presence of multiple sensitivities is a good benchmark for leaky gut – and of course any of the above-mentioned symptoms, or conditions.

There are numerous studies which have been done on intestinal permeability, and many link it to the onset of all disease – which aligns with the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, who said, ‘All disease begins in the Gut’.

Considering that about 70% of your immune system is in your gut, it makes a lot of sense to begin your body’s overall healing process by starting with your digestion.

And the best place to start is by REMOVING foods which are irritating or damaging your gut.  This is probably the hardest first step for anyone.  Often they are the very foods to which you are addicted, or ones which form part of your daily routine.  And routines are comforting.  They often define who you are, hence changing them may feel very difficult, or make you feel out of your comfort zone or just ‘not you’.

“I know bread makes me bloated but..”,  or, “I love cheese but it doesn’t agree with me”, are common statements I hear in clinic but there’s just so much abuse a digestive system can take.  In the end, it’s little wonder you feel unwell, or get some inexplicable symptoms – joint aches and pains, headaches, rashes, chest congestion, repeated infectioins –  after years, or decades, of eating that same ‘ole something which ‘doesn’t agree with you.’

If you keep in sight the reason you’re removing these foods  – to feel better and happier if your symptoms are making you miserable.  Or to stop current health ‘niggles’  from progressing to something more difficult to support, such as an auto immune condition, then the dietary changes will be easier to make.
And sometimes the removal of your culprit foods will be short-term (all depends on your health status.  Your own individual symptoms).  Over time, once gut health has improved, you may find you can eat small quantities with no adverse reactions at all.  Or you may just decide you’re better off without these troubling foods.
Having family support is wonderful but not essential.  In the end it’s your choice, your body and your health.

Alongside removing culprit foods, you should be REPLACING them with healthier options – supporting GI tract health with collagen and glutamine foods (think chicken soup or the currently trendy bone broth), fermented vegetables or coconut products such as coconut kefir or yoghurt (to replace dairy).
Then the focus is on REPAIRING and REINOCULATING your gut with specific supplements whilst REBALANCING with a few different probiotics.   This is bascially the same 5R approach which I’ve talked about in an earlier post.  A logical peeling back of the layers before repairing and replenishing.  Lots of ‘Rs’!

If you think any of the above is singing out to you – but you want more specific, individual advice do contact me.  And if you really want that written proof to help you make the necessary dietary changes, there are laboratory tests for intestinal permeability as well as tests to measure your nutrient levels  Email or call me for details.

The Christmas gatherings, lunches and parties are in full flow!  And what better time to talk about alcohol 🙂
Several factors are in play when you over-drink, especially if you’re over-drinking as a rule – with one factor, “dehydration,” sounding like a walk in the park compared to the rest:
Acetaldehyde accumulation (chemical poisoning), metabolic acidosis (inflammed stomach), alteration in glucose metabolism (blood sugar crash), increase in cardiac output (that heart attack feeling), inflammation of the immune system (feeling like you’re coming down with something, possibly a slow death), vasodilation (mega throbbing headaches), sleep deprivation (wide awake at 2am realizing death may be coming faster than you initially thought), and, finally, and quite majorly, malnutriton.
If you don’t normally over-drink, you can discount malnutrition, but basically the rest are happening, even if you only have ‘one drink too many’.

Here’s a Fact Sheet to help get you through the next few weeks so you can start the new year with a healthier spring to your step – and with a good chance of seeing in the year after.

• Alcohol dehydrates.  The ethanol in that drink you’re holding increases urine production so you will not just be needing the loo far more, but you will also be getting very thirsty (hence you will then drink more alcohol).  Dehydration not only causes thirst, but it will give you that awful headache, a dry mouth and make you feel lightheaded or even dizzy.
  Top Tip:  have a glass of water next to your wine or spirit glass, and alternate.  One sip alcohol, next sip water.  That way your glass of alcohol will last longer, and you’ll be hydrating your body with water.  And did you know that fizzy drinks speed up the alcohol absorption into your system – you get drunk faster, with an additional whammy that you’r drinking a bucket-load of extra calories in those sweet carbonated drinks
• Alcohol irritates your stomach lining – in fact it inflames the lining of your gut. Not good if you have a sensitive tummy at the best of times.  Alcohol will increase stomach acid and delay stomach emptying, both of which can lead to nausea, vomiting and pain.
  Top Tip:  never drink on an empty stomach.  Eat!  Preferably eat dinner, but if that’s not possible, eat some soup before you go out, or some of the healthier snack options on offer.  Nuts would be good…avocado or humus dips….something that will give your stomach lining a buffer before alcohol lands (and if only pizza and chips are on offer, eat those – just don’t go without food).  You could have a  thick winter soup in your fridge – something with lots of alcohol-absorbing starch, like parnsip or sweet potato –  and have a cuppa-soup before you head out.
• And because alcohol irritates the gut lining, you are likely to wake up feeling nauseous or downright sick.  Hair of the dog does NOT work.  It will overload your system, esp your liver, plus it’s just a delay tactic – eventually you’ll have to face the music coz there’s just so much hair of the dog a person can take.
  Top Tip for the morning after:  keep it simple.  A fry-up is not the healthy option, but certainly eating foods like scrambled egg or your usual oat breakfast or a bubble and squeak creation from left-over veg will work.  Nothing fancy because your stomach may heave (and fried food for many may qualify as ‘fancy’).
• Alcohol will have depleted you of those invaluable water-soluble vitamins, including the wondrous B complex vitamins which are so important for nervous system support a.o.
  Top Tip:  When you are hungover you will need all the nervous system support you can get, Keep a good multi, or a B complex, in your stockpile and give your body a dose for a few days after you’ve indulged – take with meals, or you may feel worse.
• The ethanol in alcohol is metabolized into acetaldehyde which is far more toxic than alcohol itself.  If you’ve drunk excessive amounts of alcohol it’s going to take time to break down that acetaldehyde toxin into acetic acid – during which you’ll experience all the symptoms of acetaldehyde exposure, aka chemical poisoning (look it up – not nice).
  Top Tip: drink in moderation.  No way around it.
• Alcohol can cause a blood sugar drop, and if it falls too low you might feel weak, shaky, irritable… and downright exhausted.  Some people may experience seizures!
  Top Tip:  make sure you’ve eaten something beforehand – that cuppa-soup?  Don’t arrive at the party and remember you forgot to eat breakfast and lunch that day.  Blood sugar needs to be balanced otherwise it can play havoc with your health long term.  Don’t skip meals…and healthy snacks are fine for a lot of people (no matter what your mother told you about eating inbetween meals…a few nuts and some apple may save you from one heck of a hangover too).
• Alcohol makes you sleepy…but not for long.  You will either wake up at 3am feeling terrible but unable to go back to sleep.  Or you will have poor quality sleep and wake up feeling tired and washed out in the morning.
  Top Tip:  what can I say?  Moderation…..
• Alcohol will cause blood vessels to expand – which leads a.o. to headaches.
  Top Tip: rather than taking a paracetemol, drink water (not just a sip) before you crash into bed after your debauched drinking.  When you wake at 2am it’ll be too late
• If you have to choose between the greater and lesser evils, research shows that dark liquors such as rum or brandy, contain higher amounts of congeners (which are impurities produced during fermentation and which contribute to hangovers).
  Top Tip:  so, logically, clear liquors like vodka and gin will have less congeners (and also less calories), but research states they should be drunk neat (or with some ice) not with sweet juices  – and, most importantly, sipped, not slung back in a gulp.
• Moderation is the bottom-line.  Enjoy the occasion but drink consciously so you not only relish the taste, but you also have a vague idea of how much you’re drinking.  Have some plain water in between drinks, and why not have a quick bite to eat before you head off.  These simple steps will make all the difference to how you feel the morning after – your body and head will love you for it.

  I’ll be posting more healthy Christmas tips next week!

Can a baby be allergic to her mother’s breast milk?  This question came up in an online practitioner discussion recently, and seemed an apt starting point for some health chat about intolerances in babies and toddlers.

Regarding the above question, it’s more likely to be an allergy to an antigen in the mother’s diet than to the breast milk (a case in point why nursing mothers should be careful with their own diets, especially if allergies and intolerances run in families).

However, it’s often difficult to determine the specific antigen in question.

The easiest and most affordable way is to try an elimination diet.  Removing a food that’s in your (or your toddler’s) daily diet and observing if any symptoms improve.  Then moving onto another daily food after that, and seeing if you get results.

All very straightforward.  It requires keeping a food diary and being vigilant, especially if you’re excluding something like gluten, which is in so many of today’s meals – from cereals to pasta to most grains.  In fact, it’s as difficult as trying to eliminate sugar, which is added to endless processed foods, although often under an alias such as glucose, fructose, corn syrup, maple syrup, brown rice, barley malt…and another 50 odd names.  All of these do the same thing to your health, namely increase inflammation, add calories and no nutrients, plus worsen any chronic condition.
As regards allergies or intolerances, eating less sugars can only improve things!

You can take the elimination diet a step further and do a ‘challenge’ test.  This is to be absolutely certain if there is an intolerance going on.
Exclude the food for 4 or 5 days, then ‘challenge’ your (or your child’s) system by reintroducing that food in a big way over a day (eg. In the case of gluten you could eat cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner).  Watch for symptoms and then wait 3 days before trying the exclusion of another food (as there may be an overlap in symptoms due to the previous challenged food).

So what foods would you start with?

The following are the most common allergens: gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, shellfish, citrus and soy.  However, we are all individuals and you or your child may be reacting to apples or stone fruit or fish or anything….
So look at food with a critical eye.  Exclude one at a time esp those being eaten on a regular basis, and see if symptoms reduce.  Often the very foods which are problematic are the ones you don’t want to let go.

Excluding these short term, and following an anti inflammatory diet, will give your gastro intestinal tract a rest & time to heal, especially if you also supplement with immune- and gut-supportive nutrients.

Whether you then want to completely avoid a culprit food long term is another question, a hotly debated one, and very dependent upon your – and your child’s – individual reactivity.  It will also be dependent on the food in question.
If there is a large number of foods to which your youngster seems to be reacting, then seek nutritional advice.  You should not be restricting too many foods for any length of time otherwise your toddler will be deprived of nutrients that are vital to growth and repair.

Functional tests are very useful as they can reveal possible underlying causes such as a gut infection or parasites or insufficient commensal (‘friendly’) bacteria, or something called permeable intestine (leaky gut), which is often in play when there are multiple allergies.  All these can cause gut discomfort, pain, loose bowels, rashes, headaches…..

There are low allergenic diets which you can also try out with your toddler, such as the GAPS diet  – healing the gut with a short term restrictive diet (short term being a key word).  Here is a link about it:
http://www.gapsdiet.com/gaps-introduction-diet.html

In addition, there are some really effective nutrients and  supplements which focus on healing the gut microbiome and mucosal lining as well as giving that overall immune function support a hypersensitive system can benefit from.  The choice of what to use will be determined by the root cause, symptoms and individual health status.

It’s rarely going to be a quick fix, so consider other factors apart from nutrition.  Your environment and the home in which your toddler is living.  The chemicals in your cleaning products & washing powders or perfumed sprays and candles or treatments on the furnishings…or consider if mould is a problem in the house, or dust mites, or if animal dander may be exacerbating symptoms.  And what about the toys your baby or toddler is playing with?

So there’s a lot you can do: the elimination or challenge diet, reducing sugars and simple carb foods (those high glycaemic, low nutrient ‘white’ flour foods), increasing fresh foods, reducing processed foods, plus removing chemicals from your environment.
And if you’d like more specific advice or information on functional testing you can email or call me.

Magnesium is an essential mineral needed for every function in your body.  It activates enzymes, contributes to energy production, supports your immune and nervous systems, helps maintain a healthy heart, build strong bones, healthy muscles… and the list goes on. Magnesium is the most basic, essential anti-inflammatory (do you know that If someone is rushed to hospital with a severe asthma attack, they may get an IV drip of magnesium sulphate if their attack is life-threatening or if high doses of the reliever medicine haven’t worked?)

Magnesium is involved in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body.  Anyone with IBS or ulcerative colitis, diabetes, hyperthyroidism or kidney disease will be deficient.  Also anyone consuming too much caffeine, fizzy drinks or alcohol…or adding too much salt to meals.  These days a lot of people’s magnesium is likely to be on the low side – and stress depletes it even more.

A number of anxiety and sleep issues may be related to low magnesium – the reason for its tag: nature’s tranquilizer.

Deficiency of this wonder mineral can thus lead to an array of symptoms such as restless leg syndrome, abnormal heart rhythms, palpitations, high blood pressure, migraines, and to the bigger-picture diseases, such as cardiovascular, diabetes, osteoporosis and cerebral infarction.

Back to the asthma link mentioned above:  low magnesium intake in childhood is correlated to lower measures of several lung functions (eg. airway flow and lung capacity; American Journal of Epidemiology, 2002).  Interestingly, in another study, researchers found that lab animals severely deficient in magnesium had much higher blood levels of histamine when exposed to allergy triggers.  Hence, they believe that magnesium deficiency may be causing the release of substances that can act on immune cells such as mast cells, making them hyperactive and more likely to release histamine and suffer an allergic reaction.

Even though there are contradictory opinions regarding the effectiveness of supplemental magnesium and chronic asthma,  a study published in the Journal of Asthma (Kazaks et al, 2010) looked at the effect of 6 months of magnesium supplementation (170mg taken 2x daily) on pulmonary function tests, asthma control and the quality of life in patients with mild to moderate asthma.  They found that the 6 month supplementation improved objective measure of asthma alongside their quality of life and asthma control.

If you suffer from frequent involuntary muscle spasms, or eye twitches, anxiety attacks or palpitations it might be worth considering taking a magnesium supplement for at least 3 months, and see if it helps (keep to the daily recommended dose on the bottle, usually 200-400mg).

In spite of our soils often being depleted of minerals, it’s definitely worth adding some top magnesium foods to your diet:

Almonds (and, to varying degrees, all nuts), leafy greens especially spinach, eggs, bananas, avocado, soya, kidney and pinto beans, potato, brown rice and cocoa.

And remember that prolonged stress will zap your levels, so now’s the time to start those yoga, pilates or mindfulness classes you’ve been intending to do since January 1st!

Last week’s cover story in the New Scientist, “Bitter Truth”, explained how the food industry is taking the bitterness out of our greens to satisfy the general public’s love of sweetness. Surely not!

The catch is:  the same chemicals making fruit and veg bitter are also the ones giving them most of their health benefits.

Many of the healthy traits of green tea, dark chocolate, rocket, endive, broccoli, red wine a.o. are due to these very phytonutrients.

Food manufacturers are now removing many of these substances which, according to the article, is turning a lot of these ‘bitters’ into empty calories. They are breeding out the bitter compounds to satisfy public’s sweet tastes, and by doing so they are also stripping our food of essential vitamins and minerals.

We all love sweet; we are programmed to love sweetness! It promises a ready supply of energy, the same way salty food, with its sodium, is necessary for our bodies to function properly.
However they are currently both being eaten in excess hence the rise in diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular disease and most other chronic illnesses.

The article goes on to explain that bitter has always indicated possible toxicity, which is why our natural reaction may be to spit it out.
However, over the past decades, research has proven that these bitter phyto nutrients – as natural protectors for plants against their enemies – also give the host – us, in fact – some important protective health benefits.  Huge health benefits, in fact, which is why I use so many of them in the “Detoxathon” recipes.

This mechanism is called hormesis or the hormetic effect, defined as “favorable biological responses to low exposures to toxins and other stressors”.

And hormesis is why we nutritionists love pushing certain high phytonutrient foods in our clinics, from broccoli to green tea to brussels spouts and wild blueberries (the much stronger and sharper ones than those in supermarkets).
Hormesis, btw, is also why small amounts of stress – which you are then supposed to turn off after exposure to that toxin! – can be beneficial.

Another interesting point about bitters is that bitter receptors are spread along the GI (gastrointestinal) tract.  These are now known to play a vital role in many GI mechanisms.  Appetite regulation for one.
According to this article, getting rid of bitter compounds may also impair our capacity to regulate food intake.

So, not eating bitters may actually increase our waistlines.

It could be that more people are eating vegetables because they are now less bitter, however, with this loss of bitterness the health benefits will also be diminished.  In the end, those amazing anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-ulcer properties will disappear as well.