Friday, April 29, 2016

FOODS THAT REMEDY A LEAKY GUT

I thought that this was a pretty thoughtful article explaining how to repair a leaky gut.  The article is penned by Dr. Josh Axe.

He points to probiotics and bone broth, two of my favorite foods.  He begins by defining what a leaky gut is:
Leaky gut syndrome is a condition also referred to as increased intestinal permeability where the “net” in your digestive tract gets damaged which allows proteins (like gluten), bad bacteria, and undigested particles to pass into your blood stream.
These particles cause systemic inflammation and an immune reaction over time.

Where does a leaky gut begin?
The leaky gut disorder begins in a very important organ your small intestine. The small intestine is vitally important because the majority of the vitamins and minerals in the foods you eat are absorbed there.
In order for these nutrients to be absorbed, the small intestine contains very small openings so the nutrients can be transferred into the bloodstream. Once transferred, the nutrients are then shuttled and deposited all around the body by the blood.
But isn't the intestinal wall already a little permeable so that food can pass through it into the bloodstream?  Yes, it is.
The wall of the intestine is considered a semi-permeable. This means the pores (junctions) only allow certain things to enter the bloodstream and block other things from entering the bloodstream.
For instance, specific molecules and nutrients are allowed to pass through but toxins and large undigested food particles are blocked.
That last bit is a word of good news.
The first symptom I would presume of a leaky gut would be inflammation. But where?  I've experienced inflammation the lower legs and hip.
With leaky gut, your pores can continue to widen (like getting a larger hole torn in your net).  And as this happens, the undigested foods particles that are supposed to be kept out pass through into your bloodstream and then circulate throughout the body.  This causes systemic inflammation and leads to an immune reaction.
This doesn't sound too good:
Often times then your body will begin to recognize certain foods as toxic and will facilitate an immune reaction whenever you eat the food.  If this problem continues, leaky gut can then progress to autoimmune disease.
Some of the initial symptoms of leaky gut can include food allergies, skin issues like acne and eczema, digestive issues like bloating, gas and IBS.
In order to repair leaky gut you must make specific diet changes and look to leaky gut syndrome natural cures.
FOODS THAT REMEDY A LEAKY GUT
Here is a list of foods on the leaky gut diet. These foods support healing because they are easy to digest and can help repair the lining of the intestines.
Bone broth – Bone broth (made from scratch) provides important amino acids and minerals including proline, glycine and potassium that can help heal leaky gut and improve mineral deficiencies.
Raw cultured dairy – Probiotic rich foods like kefir, amasai and yogurt can help heal the gut by destroying bad bacteria like candida.
Fermented vegetables – Try to add fermented foods such as coconut kefir, kvass, sauerkraut or kimchi.  These fermented foods contain probiotics essential in helping repair a leaky gut that work by balancing the pH in the stomach and small intestines.
Steamed vegetables – Non-starchy vegetables that are cooked or steamed are easy to digest and are an essential part of the leaky gut diet.
Healthy fats – Consuming healthy fats in moderation like egg yolks, salmon, avocados, ghee and coconut oil are easy on the gut and promote healing.
Fruit – Consuming 1-2 servings of fruit daily is good on a leaky gut diet.  You can steam apples and pears to make homemade apple sauce or fruit sauce. Fruit is best consumed in the morning and not later on in the day and keep fruit intake in moderation.

FOODS THAT CAUSE A LEAKY GUT
Here are the biggest culprits that cause a leaky gut by creating intestinal inflammation and candida:
Gluten – A gluten free diet can help improve the symptoms of leaky gut. Gluten is the sticky protein found in most grain products including wheat and is difficult to digest unless it’s been brought through a sourdough or sprouting process. On the leaky gut diet you will want to avoid all foods that contain gluten and wheat products.
Cows Dairy – The protein in cows dairy, called A1 casein, can trigger a similar reaction as gluten and therefore should be avoided. In fact, A1 casein may be 26x more inflammatory than gluten!
Sugar – Feeds yeast and bad bacteria that can damage the intestinal wall creating a leaky gut. If you are going to use a sweetener raw local honey is your best option but even that should be consumed in moderation at 1 tbsp daily.
Unsprouted Grains – Grains and soy when unsprouted and unfermented contain phytic acid which can irritate the intestines causing leaky gut.
GMO – Genetically modified organisms contain herbicides and pesticides that damage the gut lining. Studies out of the Journal of Environmental Sciences have found GMO foods destroy the probiotics in your gut and cause organ inflammation.

TOP 5 REMEDIES FOR A LEAKY GUT
In following a leaky gut treatment plan you will want to take specific supplements to support digestion as well as protect the gut lining from further damage. Here are the most important leaky gut supplements you should consider taking:
#1 Probiotics (50-100 billion units daily)Probiotics can help re-colonize the gut with healthy bacteria.
#2 L-glutamine powder (5 grams 2x daily)Glutamine is an amino acid that helps repair the digestive tract, especially important for people with chronic diarrhea.
#3 Digestive Enzymes (2 before each meal) These enzymes will improve nutrient absorption and help break down food particles.
#4 Aloe Vera Juice (1/2 cup 3x daily) Aloe is healing to the digestive system.
#5 Fish oil (1000 mg daily) Fish oil contains the essential fatty acids EPA/DHA which reduce inflammation.

ESSENTIAL OILS FOR A LEAKY GUT
I've never heard of using essential oils for a leaky gut, but the ones he selected absolutely do sound promising.  And he suggests adding them to a beverage that you can drink.  I never would have thought of imbibing essential oils.  Put into baths and apply on compresses, yes, but not drink them.  So that is interesting.  
Essential oils of ginger and peppermint can soothe intestinal inflammation and support the healing of leaky gut. 

Interesting.  But I would suggest his next suggestion would work better if done at night or in the morning where you know you're not going out of the house for a few hours.  
Take 2 drops of of each oil internally in a glass of water.  Also mix 3 drops of oils with coconut oil and rub over abdomen 2x daily.

To learn more about how to repair leaky gut, read this article on 4 Steps to Heal Leaky Gut.

Monday, April 25, 2016

"The area of your life that is most controlled, regulated, and impacted by the government is your refrigerator." 

"Americans used to enjoy one hundred variety of apples.  Some farms offer twenty.  Today's supermarkets offer cardboard.  They are long-distanced, trucked apples, often kept in cold storage for long periods of time.  The loss of value and quality to our food supply because of the regulatory framework has been so immense and detrimental on so many levels both just from an aesthetic, enjoyment perspective what America offers culinarily in the standard grocery store and through the standard food system is appalling." 

"USDA just approved that chickens raised in America can be frozen, shipped all the way to China to be processed, then be refrozen, and then shipped all the way back to America and the label will never tell you that your chicken just enjoyed a dual transpacific flight . . . or whatever." 

"And why does the USDA and FDA not want you to know that your chicken did that, . . . at the same time a farm like [his] is only allowed to butcher a very limited number of chickens on farm under the governmental regulations.  Like the Prime Act introduced by Congressman Massie." 

"Why is beef from New Zealand cheaper than beef from his next door neighbor?  It's the insanely biased regulatory structure . . . ." 

The area of your life that is most controlled, regulated, and impacted by the government is your refrigerator and what's inside it.  There is no area of American life that is as twisted and out of sorts as our diets and our farming system and it's all because of the government.  Government subsidies, government regulations, so many different things.  You'll find an organization whose goal is to restore farm and food freedom."

Farm to Consumer.


Your Digestive System

Someone asked me the other night which part of the intestines does food get digested first.  I said the small intestine.  The sequence is like this:  


First, the mouth: chewing and mixed by saliva.  After the mouth, food passes through the esophagus for a bit more digestion.  That's second. Third, the food reaches the stomach where it is chemically and muscularly destroyed by the stomach muscles and powerful hydrochloric acid.  From the stomach, you food transports to the small intestine, where the majority of your foods nutrients are absorbed.  The large intestines absorb water and render your food more suitable for waste.  There is some digestion in the large intestine as well.  Check out the photo:


The primary functions of the small intestine are to break down food by means of chemicals and to absorb some of the food's nutrition through the intestine walls. Food enters the small intestine from the stomach and travels through the intestine by means of peristalsis. The first section of the small intestine, called the duodenum, receives digestive juices from the pancreas that aid in the breakdown of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. These digestive juices also help to neutralize acid that accompanies the food from the stomach. Bile from the gall bladder enters the duodenum to further aid in the breakdown of fatty substances. 

The walls of the small intestine contain small protruding components called microvilli, and these small structures help to increase the wall's absorption capabilities so that large amounts of nutrients may pass through the intestine walls into the blood stream. The remaining waste passes into the large intestine for later expulsion.  

Next is how to take care of it, the whole thing, as well as the different parts?  How does one avoid a leaky gut? Where does it usually occur?  

This you already knew:
The most acidic part of the human gastrointestinal tract is the stomach, which is generally around pH 1 to pH 3. The high acidity in the stomach fights bacteria that are ingested with food. As the distance increases from the stomach, the pH level gradually increases. The large intestine is pH 5.5 to pH 7.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Dr. Mary Ruwart on the FDA, Libertarian Party, Licensing, and More . . . .


Show comments start here.  Date on this show is two years old, April 20, 2014.

"When you use morally acceptable means, you get good results.  When you use aggression as your means to an end, you get aggressive [possibly violent] results."  Whether it's banking, small business, pollution, or foreign policy, case after case you get aggression if you use aggression.  Aggression boomerangs on the perpetrator. 

One of her favorites is the FDA.  These regulations 1962, in the wake of the Thalidomide tragedy, have left people to die waiting for life-saving drugs.  AIDS community tested and used blackmarket drugs.  By the time the FDA gave its approval to test on humans, every AIDS patient in the country who wanted her drugs said they'd already had them and had developed resistance to them.  Wow!!  So she had to wait for new diagnoses before she could actually do the tests.  Incredible.  FDA is tragically behind the curve.  Regulations that take choice away from the consumer actually harm the consumer.  F"DA is going to keep some effective drugs off the market, but it does its job to keep people safe, so maybe it's just a wash" asks Dr. Woods in the hypothetical.  Her answer?  "Well, actually, it's not a wash.

FDA regulation because we want to be protected from poisonous drugs, particularly from 1962 with the thalidomide tragedy, takes 5 to 15 years to get life-saving drugs to the market.  By the time AIDS drugs were marketed, they had to change the drug because people became . . . .

FDA drug policy is not a wash.  Problems with drugs are due to the fact that we don't have enough science to test them.  We're so different genetically.  With the foods we eat.  A small group reacts poorly to some drugs--even penicillin--can kill people because drugs have side effects.  Adding 10 years to development time increases the costs and time so much, that life-saving drugs aren't developed.  People can die from allergic reactions.  Development time does not give us protection at all.  New life-saving drugs aren't developed because it's too difficult to please the FDA.  She has a patent for liver disease.  But if you've got a patent or a drug to cure, she doesn't know how much to give.  By the time you get the drug to market, your patent has run out, it goes generic, and you can't recover your costs.  Long timeline increases costs so much that companies aren't willing to take a chance to design a cure. 

"What about licensing?" Tom asks.  Certification.  It gives people greater choice.  With licensing comes monopoly.  With certification you've got more choices.  Still can have bad players in the market, but certification at least gives you the opportunity to go elsewhere.  Whereas licensing only allows you to go to someone else within the same licensed system.  You get certification from certain professional groups where you have to meet certain requirements.  Beauty is that you always have a choice as a consumer.  Certification does signal testing.   Example: 



Friday, April 15, 2016

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?


I don't ask that question with any endearing tones.  Far from it.  I can certainly respect professionals who represent their field and profession well.  Anybody in uniform, ah, I get nervous.  People in white coats or blue scrubs, ah, they make me not a little nervous.  Maybe the profession has changed.  Maybe it's been filled with more thoughtful, ethical people.  Maybe.  . . . maybe not.  Maybe those new to the profession are under strict enforcement to a narrative that serves the patient last.  Maybe.  Maybe people need to learn more about doctors in general and more about their specific doctor in particular.  Doctors are not in the business of healing.  What!!

Nope.  Sorry to disappoint you.  "But I thought that . . . ."  Yeah, we all did.  But the study of medicine is different than the study of nursing.  In fact, some of the advanced degrees in nursing probably offer more in terms of healing than a doctor can.  That's not to slam doctors.  They certainly are studied and trained in their field.  But what exactly is a doctor trained for?  What is his focus or training?  

So I thought it would not hurt to know what your doctor's designation is.  I was just assigned a new doctor, part of a medical group that has at least 10 different doctors.  More actually.  And I am not sure that all of them are doctors.  While a few are MD's, I have already seen physicians or practitioners (how broad of a term can that be!!!) that come with the designation PA-C and FNP-C.  So what are these?

A PA-C is a Certified Physician's Assistant. 

An FNP-C stands for Certified Family Nurse Practioner.

A PN is Nurse Practioner. According to Wikipedia, the typical curriculum for a Nurse Practioner

. . . includes courses in epidemiology; health promotion; advanced pathophysiology; physical assessment and diagnostic reasoning; advanced pharmacology; laboratory/radiography diagnostics; statistics and research methods; health policy; role development and leadership; acute and chronic disease management (e.g., adults, children, women's health, geriatrics, etc.); and clinical rotations, which varies depending on the program and population focus.

There is also ANP, Advanced Nurse Practioner. 

An MD is a licensed doctor. 

A BSN is a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing.

An ADN is an Associate's Degree in Nursing. 

An MSN is a Master's of Science in Nursing. 
People who have a master’s degree in nursing have several career options. Some of those options include: teaching and becoming a nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist or clinical nurse specialist.  A nurse practitioner is someone who is trained to perform many of the tasks that doctors perform. Nurse anesthetists have received training in administering anesthetics. They usually work under the direction of an anesthesiologist. A clinical nurse specialist is a nurse who specializes in a certain area, such as pediatrics or cardiac care.
A friend writes that the difference between a nurse and doctor is the degree of knowledge and training.  And he reminds me that there is a world of difference between the study of medicine, which doctors study, and the study of nursing, which nurses study.  Whereas nurses are in the practice of executing a doctor's instructions toward the best or optimal results for a patient along medicinal lines, given his medical history, age, and retrieving one's health along a plan mapped out by the doctor, the doctor's main task is akin to a quarterback calling the plays.  He writes 

Degree of knowledge and training.  I would not expect an NP or PA to do surgery or long-term drug therapy.  But I would be very comfortable with either of those doing follow-up care on that surgery or follow that drug therapy. In short, it is a way for insurance companies to pay less for medical services to have non-MD's to do day-to-day medical issues.

What's not clear to me are all of the different nursing and medical designations.

An MD stands for Doctor of Medicine.  What does that mean?  First, it means that he has a Ph.D. in medicine.  Does that qualify him as a healer?  I have my doubts.

This might be of some use to folks:

Profession Comparison Chart (updated September 2015)

Programs vary and the following represents averages for each vocation.

CategoryMedical AssistantNurse
(RN, BSN)
Nurse PractitionerPhysician AssistantPhysician
(Family Practice)
Prerequisite Education
None
None
Bachelor Degree in Nursing
& clinical hours
Bachelor Degree
& clinical hours
for most
Bachelor Degree
Learning Model
-
Medical-Nursing
Medical-Nursing
Medical-Physician
Medical-Physician
Time in Classroom
134 hrs
Varies greatly
by program.
500 hrs
1000 hrs
2 years
Time in Clinic
160 hrs
Varies greatly
by program.
500-700 hrs
2000 hrs
2 years
Total Post
High School Education
1-2 years
2-4 years
6-8 years
4-6 years
8 years
Residency
None
None
None
Optional
1-2 years
depends on specialty
3-8 years
Degree or Certification Awarded
Certificate or Associate Degree
Associate or Bachelor Degree
Master's Degree
Planned Transition to Doctorate by 2015
Physician Assistant Certified (PA-C)
Most also award Master's Degree. Some now pursuing PHD
Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)
Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.)
Recertification
60 education points or exam every 5 years
1000 hours practicing in area of certification  specialty OR exam every 5 years
1000 professional practice hours AND ~15 CE credits/year OR exam every 5 years
100 education hours every 2 years
Exam every 10 years
MD: 50 education hours every year & ABMS certification recommended
DO: 120 education hours every 3 years & ABMS certification recommended.
Base Salary U.S. National Average 2010
$29,708
$66,220
$97,990
$97,280
$185,151

Duties Performed

Independent Practitioner
18 states allow NPs to practice independently
X
Complicated or High Risk Cases
VARIES
ASSIST
X
Perform Surgery
ASSIST
ASSIST
X
Deliver Babies
X
VARIES BY STATE
X
Write Prescriptions
X
X
X
Prescribe controlled substances
VARIES BY STATE
VARIES BY STATE
II-V in MOST states
X
Conduct Physical Exams
ASSIST
X
X
X
Diagnose
X
X
X
Treat Illness
X
X
X
X
Order & interpret tests
ASSIST
X
X
X
Patient counseling
X
X
X
X