Autoimmune Vitality Conference Series: more great insights from our speakers!
The first blog in this series that I published back in February was very popular so below are some more great insights from our speakers. There is of course a lot more of those golden nuggets of information to come in Part 2 of the Autoimmune Vitality Series so make sure you add those dates to your diary.
Tissue Repair & Restoring Immune Tolerance (May 21 - 28, 2018)
Click here for the event agenda.
So here you are:
Watch out for magnesium stearate in supplements and medications as many people with autoimmunity are sensitive to it. Magnesium stearate does nothing for the human body nutritionally and it is only used for a manufacturer convenience (it is a synthetic cheap filler). Vegetarian sources of stearic acid (part of magnesium stearate) include cottonseed oil (highly likely to be GM), canola oil (highly likely to be GM), and palm oil (sustainability issue). Remember that everything we consume has to be metabolized and detoxified by the liver, and then assimilated or excreted. Adding unwanted or unnecessary additives, such as magnesium stearate, can burden our elimination organs and diminish the overall benefits of the supplements they are a part of. So go for veggie caps instead.
If you have salicylate sensitivity, you should pay attention to your urine pH. Salicylates are a group of compounds derived from salicylic acid and are found in foods, medications and other products that can cause adverse reactions in people who are intolerant. Plants produce salicylates as a defence against harmful elements like insects, fungus and other pathogens. This is why salicylates are found in such a wide array of foods. Salicylate sensitivity is thought to be caused by an overproduction of leukotrienes, inflammatory mediators that have been associated with a variety of conditions, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. Salicylate sensitivity is therefore more common in patients with these conditions due to the build-up of leukotrienes in the body. Some symptoms of salicylate sensitivity include: stuffy nose / blocked sinuses, nasal and sinus polyps, diarrhoea, gas, abdominal pain, gut inflammation, hives, and tissue swelling. If your urine is acidic (less than 7 on the pH scale), you cannot excrete salicylates easily out of the body. Increasing your urine pH to 7 results in 70-80% more salicylates being excreted in urine. You can increase your urine pH through dietary modification.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) cause thousands of deaths every year due to intestinal bleeding. They also commonly cause heart attacks, liver and kidney disease. NSAIDs destroy the housing complex where our good bacteria lives, leading to dysbiosis and leaky gut. NSAIDs should never be used continuously for longer than a few days without medical supervision. There are many natural pain-killers and anti-inflammatories (e.g. ginger, turmeric, cat’s claw, magnesium, and many others). Plus, as mentioned previously, exercise (e.g. walking) and meditation (self-hypnosis) are extremely effective for managing chronic pain.
Fresh herbs are the second most nutrient-dense category of foods (after organ meats) plus they add so much flavour to your food! To maximize the nutritional content of your meal, add a whole bunch of fresh herbs right at the end of the cooking process. Alternatively, juice them or add them to your green smoothie.
Your oral microbiome is closely connected with your gut microbiome, and it is often a major source of endotoxicity in the body. Endotoxicity in turn is one of the main possible root causes of auto-immunity. In order to promote a healthy oral microbiome, you need to have your cavitations and root canals dealt with by a biological dentist. You must also be reducing the amount of pathogenic bacteria in the mouth on a regular basis. In order to achieve that, add hydrogen peroxide to your Waterpik bath. Make sure you never use alcohol mouthwash because alcohol mouthwash destroys healthy oral microbiome in a similar way that oral antibiotics destroy the gut microbiome. Smoking and sugar are also major contributors to oral dysbiosis.
GMOs have been linked to many health problems including autoimmunity (via disrupting the gut and microbiome) and cancer. Numerous studies on GMOs show unintended changes in nutrients, toxins, allergens and small molecule products of metabolism. Unfortunately, safety assessments are not adequate to guard against potential health risks associated with these changes. Top GMO foods include corn, soy, beef, milk, vegetable oils but there are many others affected. Organic farming does not allow GMOs but it does not require testing, which means buying organic does not guarantee your food is GMO-free. You need to make sure that your food is labelled non-GMO. This problem is worse in North America as in 2015 a majority of European Union nations decided to block the cultivation of new GMO crops within their borders. However, most of the nations that prohibit GMO cultivation still allow GMO products (particularly animal feed) to be imported so people in those countries still need to be vigilant and research how their food is produced.
Our bedroom is where we are likely to spend most of our time in our home. Furthermore, it is during sleep that our body does the most healing and regenerating so we really do not want to disrupt that process by bombarding the body with electro-magnetic radiation (EMR). You can safeguard your bedroom against EMR by removing ALL electronic devices (cell phone, cordless phone, etc.). Make sure you switch your Wi-Fi off overnight and have the router as far away from where you sleep and spend most of your time during the day as possible. For best result, you should disconnect everything (i.e. have nothing plugged in) and also pull your bed at least 20-30 cm away from the wall if there are wires in it (if there are light switches or sockets, there are wires). If you want to take it further, disable your bedroom electricity circuit.
When it comes to building up toxicity in the body, your bucket starts filling in utero. E.g. a fetus absorbs a lot of lead as a result of the mother’s bone breakdown. In addition, the levels of mercury in a baby’s brain are directly proportional to the amount of mercury in the mother’s dental fillings. The baby also gets its share of all the toxicity from air, food, drink, cosmetics, household products, etc. that the mother is exposed to. We then continue to accumulate toxins in our tissues as we go through life from the environmental chemical exposure, as well as due to mechanical and emotional stress. Then one day we get an infection or suffer a trauma and that is what causes the bucket to overflow and we get ill.
Digestive enzymes are adaptive / inducible. This means that they are produced when they are needed, as opposed to constitutive enzymes which are produced all the time. If you have not eaten a certain food group for a while, e.g. meat, your body downregulates all the digestive secretions responsible for breaking it down. It is therefore recommended that any re-introductions must be slow to give the body an opportunity to upregulate the enzymes that are needed and also to help the microbiome readjust. Our microbiome can change in a matter of days, depending on the dietary choices we make, but we do not want to shock it by making sudden changes.
“Our hormones do not decline because we age – we age because our hormones decline”. Here are just some of the symptoms that can indicate hormonal insufficiency or imbalance: vaginal dryness, cystitis, yeast infections, hot flushes, night sweats, insomnia, joint pains, irritability, fatigue, osteoporosis, painful periods, muscle weakness, lethargy, overweight/obesity. As we know, autoimmune disease is more common in women than men and the most plausible explanation is that there is more hormone fluctuation in women. It is therefore critical to address any hormonal insufficiencies and imbalances as they are one of the major contributing factors to autoimmunity. This can be achieved with bioidentical hormone supplementation (often applied topically) after appropriate tests have been done.
Brain tissue takes the longest to detoxify. It can take years. Exposure to glyphosate drives other toxins deeper into the brain tissue. Bioaccumulation of all of those toxins is one of the main reasons behind the ever-increasing incidence of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, incl. dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. We have no other option but to continuously detoxify our bodies and our brains if we are going to prevent these awful problems later in life. It is important to be aware that symptoms such as brain fog, forgetfulness, memory loss, depression, migraines / headaches, and moodiness are some of the early signs of brain tissue being toxic.
More will follow soon!
