Too much salt nukes your gut bacteria and inflames you

A high-salt diet has long been connected with cardiovascular disease. Too much sodium in the bloodstream causes fluid retention, which makes the heart work harder to move the extra volume of blood. This can stiffen blood vessels and lead to high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, and kidney disease.

However, a recent study shows a high-salt diet also raises blood pressure by damaging healthy gut bacteria. This destruction increases the inflammation that contributes to high blood pressure and the development of autoimmune disease — when the immune system attacks tissue in the body. Common autoimmune diseases include Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis.

Mice. The study shows that mice fed a high-salt diet killed off beneficial Lactobacillus murinus bacteria in the gut. It also raised blood pressure and activated pro-inflammatory immune cells.

The mice also showed signs of encephalomyelitis, an autoimmune condition similar to multiple sclerosis in humans.

When the mice were given supplementary Lactobacillus, their blood pressure and inflammation came down.

Humans. The humans in the study experienced similar results. Consuming a high-salt diet for two weeks killed off their Lactobacillus bacteria and increased inflammation.

However, if they took probiotics for a week before starting a high-salt diet, their Lactobacillus levels and blood pressure remained normal.

Can gut microbes protect against a high-salt diet?

While the study showed probiotics can protect against a high-salt diet, the researchers cautioned that taking probiotics cannot protect you from the damages of a high-salt, fast-food diet.

Manage your salt intake with good daily habits

While the average American consumes a whopping 3400 milligrams of sodium a day, the USDA recommends no more than 2300mg of sodium a day — about a teaspoon of table salt.

However, some people are more sensitive to the effects of salt than others, so it’s recommended that individuals with hypertension, African Americans, and middle-aged and older adults should limit intake to 1500 mg of sodium a day.

Adopt these habits to lower your salt intake:

• Read food labels.
• Choose foods low in sodium.
• Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Consume foods that are rich in potassium, such as leafy green vegetables and fruits from vines.
• Potassium can help blunt the effects of sodium on blood pressure. The recommended intake of potassium for adolescents and adults is 4700 mg/day.
• Flavor food with pepper, herbs, and spices instead of salt.
• Choose unsalted snacks with savory flavors.

Build good gut bacteria to protect your health

The digestive tract is home to roughly four pounds of bacteria — your gut microbiome. Some strains are helpful, some are harmful. Both have roles to play, but it’s important to support your “good” bacteria for healthy immune function, brain function, and mood, and to avoid leaky gut, SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth), and systemic inflammation that leads to autoimmunity and other chronic health conditions.

It’s easy to support a healthy gut with these simple habits:

• Eat plentiful and varied produce; this is the best way to support a healthy gut environment.
• Supplement with probiotics; they work best in a gut environment that’s already being supported with plenty of fiber from fruits and veggies.
• Avoid excess sugar.
• Get regular exercise.
• Drink plenty of filtered water.

What if I have low blood pressure?

Adequate blood pressure is necessary to push blood carrying oxygen and nutrients into your tissues. Chronically low blood pressure can result in reduced brain function and neurodegeneration.

Low blood pressure is also often a sign of chronic stress, adrenal fatigue, autoimmunity, or chronic infection.

If you have low blood pressure you need to get it up as close as you can to 120/80.

Salt can help raise blood pressure. While a high-salt diet is not recommended for most of the population, people with chronically low blood pressure may need to consume more than the recommended daily amount of salt. It’s a matter of experimentation to see what level of salt intake is appropriate for you without raising symptoms of inflammation.

Glycyrrhiza. Extracted from licorice root, this natural compound increases the hormone aldosterone, helping to retain sodium and raise low blood pressure. You can use a liposomal cream version or an oral licorice root extract.

When you work with salt and glycyrrhiza to raise your blood pressure, you will need to purchase a good home-use blood pressure cuff. Measure your blood pressure throughout the day and experiment with dosages. A return to normal blood pressure typically results in a dramatic increase in overall energy and brain function.

For help with low blood pressure or dietary management of salt intake, contact my office.

Stress can cause PMS, menopause problems, and more

It’s not easy being female — the hormonal ups and downs each month through puberty and then menopause can range from mildly irritating to downright debilitating. Although many, if not most, women suffer from some degree of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), the extreme health and mood imbalances associated with PMS and menopause are a sign your system is out of whack, most likely because of stress.

Hormone balance is very sensitive to stress, inflammation, toxins, poor diet, sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, too little sunlight, and other common factors of modern life. Because the reproductive hormones play an important role in brain health, mood, and brain inflammation, when they’re off, brain function and mood suffer.

In women, imbalances are characterized by excess estrogen, insufficient progesterone, or too much testosterone. Stress and blood sugar that is either too low (hypoglycemia) or too high (insulin resistance) are the most common culprits of PMS symptoms and a miserable menopause transition.

Symptoms of hormonal imbalances in women include:

• Frequent or irregular menstruation
• Mood instability
• Depression 
• Problems sleeping 
• Changes in weight or appetite 
• Crying easily 
• Irritability 
• Poor concentration 
• Anxiety 
• Fatigue 
• Low libido 
• Migraines

Low progesterone from chronic stress

One of the more common reasons for hormonal imbalance is low progesterone caused by chronic stress. This is a mechanism called “pregnenolone steal,” when chronic stress robs the compounds needed to make progesterone in order to make stress hormones instead. This leads to PMS and sets the stage for a miserable menopause transition.

When it comes to stress, the brain does not know whether you are angry at traffic, soaring and crashing after snacking on a glazed donut and triple-shot caramel latte, or narrowly escaping being trampled by a bison. All it knows is to prepare for fight or flight and that reproduction hormones can wait until things have settled down. But for many sleep-deprived, over-stressed Americans fueled on caffeine and sugar, settling down rarely truly happens.

The fix isn’t necessarily in a tub of progesterone cream; first address the sources of stress. A primary stress-buster is a diet that stabilizes blood sugar. People often either eat too infrequently and too sparingly, or they overeat and eat too much sugar. Both are stressful for the body.

Here are some other common causes of chronic stress that lead to miserable PMS and menopause:

• Sugar, sweeteners, starchy foods (rice, pasta, bread, etc.), too much caffeine
• Food sensitivities (gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, nuts, grains, etc.) 
• Leaky gut and gut inflammation symptoms — gas, bloating, indigestion, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, irritable bowel 
• Sleep deprivation 
• Pain and inflammation — joint and muscle pain, skin rashes, respiratory issues, brain fog, fatigue, depression 
• Autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism 
• Overdoing it, over exercising, not taking time for yourself 
• Bad diet of junk foods, fast foods, processed foods

Restoring hormonal balance naturally

Ideas to halt pregnenolone steal include an anti-inflammatory diet, stabilizing blood sugar, restoring gut health, dampening pain and inflammation, and managing autoimmunity. These are functional medicine basics. Make sure you are eating the right amounts and kinds of essential fatty acids. Additionally, certain botanicals are effective in supporting female hormone health and the body’s stress handling systems. Ask my office for more advice.

Study confirms autoimmune paleo (AIP) diet works

A recent study confirmed what functional medicine has long since known — the autoimmune paleo (AIP) diet is highly successful for managing chronic health disorders. The first-of-its-kind study showed the majority of participants quickly achieved and maintained remission of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis on the AIP diet. A number of participants were even able to discontinue drug therapies.

Many people follow the AIP diet to manage not just Crohn’s but also chronic pain, Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, irritable bowel syndrome, skin rashes such as eczema or psoriasis, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, brain-based disorders, diabetes, autoimmune disease in general, and other chronic health problems.

People are surprised to find that not only do their symptoms fade but also they enjoy more energy, better sleep, weight loss, increased libido, less stress, and a general overall improvement of their well being.

A primary reason the diet is so effective is because it helps repair leaky gut, a condition in which the lining of the gut becomes inflamed and porous, allowing inflammatory compounds into the bloodstream. This creates inflammation throughout the body and brain and leads to a wide array of chronic gut, metabolic, and autoimmune disorders.

Anti-inflammatory is the key to the AIP diet

An anti-inflammatory diet focuses on whole foods and is free of inflammatory foods, additives, fillers, and artificial colors. It includes an accompanying protocol of appropriate sleep, physical activity, rest, and positive socialization and self-treatment. Certain nutritional compounds that gently cleanse and detoxify the body may boost the success of the diet.

AIP diet sites and articles abound, but here are basics:

• Eliminate all processed foods, fast foods, desserts, coffee drinks, sodas, etc. Your anti-inflammatory diet should consist of whole foods found in the produce and meat sections of the grocery store, with an emphasis on plenty of vegetables. Also eliminate processed vegetable oils and hydrogenated oils and stick with natural oils.
• Eliminate common inflammatory foods, the most common culprit being gluten. Many people’s symptoms resolve simply on a gluten-free diet. However, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, grain, and nightshades are commonly immune reactive as well. Eliminate these foods for about six weeks to see whether you react upon reintroducing them one at a time.
• Eliminate sweets. On the anti-inflammatory diet you will avoid all sweeteners. This helps curb cravings, stabilize blood sugar, lower inflammation, and lose excess fat. Enjoy low-sugar fruits instead, such as berries.
• Eat lots of vegetables. Not only do plenty of veggies load you up with vital nutrients and fiber, new research shows they create a healthy gut microbiome – the bacteria in your gut that profoundly influence your immune and brain health. A diet based around veggies creates an abundant and diverse gut microbiome and thus better health.
• Get enough sleep and exercise. Sufficient sleep is a major inflammation-buster, as is regular physical activity. Overtraining, however, can cause inflammation so watch out for that.

Boost success with gut repair and detoxification

Adding in specific nutritional compounds can help repair a damaged gut, lower inflammation, support the liver, and detoxify the system. Ask my office for more information about a detoxification and gut-repair program using the AIP diet.

Handling store receipts raises levels of toxic BPA

A new study that had subjects handle store receipts showed BPA absorbed through the skin stays in the body much longer than ingested BPA. The study had subjects handle common store receipts for five minutes, then wear gloves for two hours before washing their hands.

BPA measurements in the subjects’ urine showed BPA levels highest for the first two days after handling the receipts. After one week, three of the six volunteers still showed BPA in their urine.

However, when the subjects ate a cookie with BPA, follow up urinalysis showed BPA levels spiked after five hours but was cleared after a day. The scientists concluded that the body can more quickly metabolize and clear ingested BPA than BPA absorbed through the skin.

BPA toxicity in everyday food and beverages

BPA (bisphenol-A) is the main component of polycarbonate and is found in water and beverage bottles, plastic lids, the lining of tin cans, food storage containers, dental sealants, contact lenses, and electronics.

Store receipts aren’t the only place people come in contact with BPA. Canned foods often contain significant amounts of the chemical — the lining in a soup can can deliver 1,000 percent more BPA than fresh soup.

Plastics beverage bottles are another common source of exposure, especially if the bottle has been exposed to heat, light, or acids (such as soda).

Plastic food containers, especially if they have been heated, are another common source. Plastic coffee lids, straws, and any other plastics that come in contact with foods deliver BPA as well.

BPA on store receipts

Store receipts aren’t the only source of BPA that can be absorbed through the skin. Other sources of thermal paper that contains high amounts of BPA include fast food receipts, ATM receipts, airline tickets, gas station receipts, lottery tickets, fax paper (if anyone still uses that), etc.

Although this latest study had subjects handle the receipts for five minutes, previous studies have shown handling a receipt for just five seconds transfers BPA through your skin and into your bloodstream. Your skin absorbs ten times as much if your fingers are wet or greasy.

You can even absorb BPA from handling cash that has been stored with receipts.

Why BPA is toxic to the body

Studies have shown BPA to be problematic to human health in various ways. It has estrogen-like properties that skew hormone balance. Rodent studies have shown BPA causes reproductive defects, cancer, and breakdowns in metabolic and immune health.

BPA is especially toxic to a developing fetus, raising the risk of causing chromosomal errors, miscarriage, and genetic damage.

The chemical is also linked to poorer sperm quality, early puberty, reproductive dysfunction, cancer, heart disease, thyroid problems, insulin resistance, and obesity.

BPA raises the risk of triggering autoimmunity

Recent studies have also shown that BPA can both trigger and exacerbate autoimmune diseases due to its disruptive effect on the immune system. It has been linked to autoimmunity to nerve sheathes, the common target of attach in multiple sclerosis, and to Hashimoto’sthyroid autoimmune disease.

BPA-free is no guarantee

Unfortunately, products listed as “BPA-free” are not a green light either. Many non-BPA plastics also contain synthetic estrogens.

How to reduce your body burden of BPA

Reduce your exposure to BPA as much as possible by not handling receipts and avoiding plastic food and beverage containers. Additionally, help buffer the damage of BPA and other toxins by eating a whole foods diet and supplementing with nutritional compounds that support detoxification and cellular protection. Ask my office for more advice.

How do you really know what’s in your supplements?

The United States enjoys liberal access to nutritional supplements. We can buy virtually any supplement from multiple sources either at the local grocery store or online. Other countries can be more stringent when it comes to access and don’t enjoy near the wide range of variety.

However, the freedom around nutritional supplements in the United States means consumers must be wary of shoddy, fraudulent  and even unsafe supplements with misleading claims. It’s important to learn how to be a smart supplement shopper to make the most of our supplement-shopping freedom. You may be surprised to learn the worst supplements aren’t from some shadowy corner of the internet, but rather usually from your local drug or grocery store.

At the same time, it’s also important to protect consumer access to supplements. The FDA’s approach to the industry is often viewed as unnecessarily aggressive due, it is widely believed, to the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. As the rates of “untreatable” or “mysterious” chronic diseases and dementia continue to skyrocket, people increasingly turn to alternative health care and nutritional supplements to address their health concerns. This has turned the supplement industry into one worth many billions of dollars.

What supplements to avoid

The supplement industry has created its own standards of quality that manufacturers can choose to comply with in order to reassure their buyers only the purest ingredients are used.

Avoid cheap, mass marketed supplements comprised of synthetic or inflammatory fillers (such as wheat and corn), poor quality ingredients, inactive ingredients, and artificial colors. There is also no way of knowing how shipping and storing has affected the ingredients.

What to look for in quality supplements

For starters, avoid fillers that use wheat, corn, starches, and magnesium stearate. Also, research the origin of the ingredients. Herbal ingredients can come from heavily polluted areas in other countries and be loaded with toxins. Good companies test their ingredients for toxins.

Research the brand. Are they formulated with a health-care professional and scientific advisory board? Are there peer-reviewed studies to back up the ingredients? Does the company test purity?

What is their marketing like? Do they use sleazy snake-oil selling tactics? Or do they cater to licensed practitioners and provide educational seminars to teach about the products and how best to incorporate them into a health care plan?

Also, look for supplement companies that send their products out to independent labs to test for quality and purity.

If you are interested in learning more or scheduling a Free Discovery call with out office to learn whether we can help you with your issue, please click this link.

NSF International, and independent organization, certifies supplements on three levels of quality:

Certified Good manufacturing practices (CGMPs): Guidelines that assure a product conforms with what’s listed its label.

American National Standard for dietary supplement products: Testing that ensures products contain what is on the label and not undeclared contaminants.

NSF Certified for Sport: Screens for athletic banned substances.

Functional Medicine Approach to Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases are one of the top 10 causes of death in women under the age of 65, and of the second-highest cause of chronic illness, and the top cause of morbidity in women in the United States. Additionally, autoimmune diseases have been reported to be on the rise in the U.S. and around the world, making this poorly understood category of disease a public health crisis at levels comparable to heart disease and cancer.

Autoimmune diseases come in many different varieties,including rheumatoid arthritis,thyroid disease, lupus, psoriasis,multiple sclerosis, and more.They can cause many different types of symptoms all over the body,that range from mild to severe in nature.Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system,whose usual job is to protect us from outside pathogens(bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc.), gets confused and ends up “attacking”normal tissue instead.The body then forms antibodies to healthy tissue and disease results.A typical example is Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. In Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the body makes antibodies that are directed against normal thyroid tissue.These antibodies and the associated inflammatory process can ultimately destroy the gland.Similar processes occur in other autoimmune diseases.

Autoimmune diseases can affect various tissues in the body,and are difficult to diagnose.Autoimmune disease symptoms can vary widely based on which organ is being attacked and the severity of the attack.Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of damage at a cellular level for abnormalities to show up in lab work or imaging studies, leading to a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis.

Although there are many different types of autoimmune diseases and they can affect many different organs, at their core they are all similar in that they are an immune response caused by systemic inflammation that leads your body to attack itself. Your immune system has a very sophisticated system for keeping you safe that leads it to identify all of the foreign substances that enter your body or that you come into contact with. If your immune system teams anything dangerous, it will produce antibodies to ward off the harmful intruders.

Autoimmune diseases are born when your body is working hard to defend itself against something potentially dangerous,  such as an allergen, a toxin, and infection,  or even food, and it fails to differentiate between the intruder and parts of your body.  Mistaking certain types of tissue for harmful substances,  your body turns these antibodies against normal tissue, wreaking havoc on your body.

Causes of Autoimmune Diseases

Numerous underlying factors  cause people to develop an autoimmune condition. There certainly is an underlying genetic component.  However, whether these genes get expressed or turn on is caused by a host of other factors,  such as toxins from heavy metals like mercury or mycotoxins from molds ,infections like Candida, Epstein-Barr and the herpes simplex virus, and most significantly, chronic inflammation tied to food sensitivities – particularly intolerance.  There is a significant link between autoimmune disease and leaky gut.

Symptoms of Autoimmune Disease

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, especially a combination of several of them,you may have an autoimmune condition.

•  joint pain, muscle pain or weakness;
•  weight loss, insomnia,  heat intolerance or rapid heartbeat;
•  recurrent rashes or hives, sun sensitivity, a butterfly shaped rash across your nose and cheeks;
•  difficulty concentrating or focusing;
•  feeling tired or fatigued,  weight gain or cold intolerance;
•  hair loss or white patches on your skin or inside your mouth;
•  abdominal pain, blood or mucus in your stool,  diarrhea or mouth ulcers;
• dry eyes, mouth or skin;
•  numbness or tingling in your hands or feet; and
•  miscarriages.

Factors that Play a Critical Role in Causing Autoimmune Conditions

A quick glance at today’s supermarket shelves reveals that the American diet is overloaded with highly processed foods, most of which have little to no nutritional value, but are loaded with harmful chemicals and other ingredients.  Even some so-called health foods are often lacking essential vitamins and minerals.

Mental health and stress also have a direct impact on physical health.  Today’s world provides more chronic stress than any other time in history.  Television and other media provide a constant stream of violence, crime  and sad stories. Few people get enough sleep every night. most people are over scheduled, overbooked and overrun –  with no time for meditation and rejuvenation.

Pesticides,  antibiotic overuse,  heavy metals,  EMF pollution,  pharmaceuticals,  GMOs,  heavily processed foods, poor water quality,  smog and pollution runoff are just a few of the components of our daily lives that regularly serve up a load of toxins and impurities.

 

 

How Are Autoimmune Diseases Treated?

Autoimmune diseases are chronic conditions and treatments usually involve attempts to control the process of the disease and to decrease the symptoms, especially during flare-ups.  The following are some of the things that you can do at home to help alleviate the symptoms of an autoimmune disease:

• Eat a balanced and healthy diet;
• exercise regularly;
• get plenty of rest;
• decrease stress;
• avoid any know triggers of flare-ups.

The following therapies also have been shown to provide relief for some people:

• herbs;
• chiropractic therapy;
• acupuncture;
• hypnosis;
• nutritional intervention; and
• lifestyle modification.

Final Thought

It is very important to remember that when an autoimmune disease goes untreated, the risks increase for additional autoimmune diseases to develop.  It is not uncommon for a person to have multiple autoimmune conditions when first presenting.  When a person is equipped with knowledge and is empowered, the symptoms from the autoimmune condition can be minimized to the point where you can live your life an overall sense of health and well being.

When a person is equipped with knowledge and a plan, that person is empowered.  And when a person is empowered with knowledge and a plan, they can live an empowering lilfe.