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Finding the fine line between over-sterilization of the food supply, building our immune systems by eating raw foods, and avoiding food-borne illness.

For the last two weeks Canadians have been unable to avoid the daily barrage of news about the Listeria bacterium outbreak from packaged deli meats manufactured at the Maple Leaf Food Plant in Ontario, and then distributed throughout the country under various brand names like Schneiders, Shopsys, and Hickory Farms. Deli meats, hot dogs, and sandwiches have been pulled from store shelves across the country, and eight people thus far have died. For the most part, listeriosis is not a problem for children and adults that are healthy and have a good immune system. Pregnant women however, are particularly susceptible and should be careful to avoid foods that may be contaminated. Because Listeriosis can be troublesome for infants, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems , questions have been rightly raised as to why hospitals and nursing homes which tend to house that population, would regularly feed packaged meats to their patients. (Feel free to read my previous hospital food rants here and here.)

Packaged meats may be a convenience, but they do not provide the nourishment unprocessed meat from animals eating their natural diet does, and not only are they risky with respect to food-borne illness, but they are also linked to cancer due to the preservatives, colourings and flavourings added to them. I don’t think processed meat should be part of a healthy diet at all. But, that is not what I wanted to write about today.

After a food-borne illness outbreak, there is always talk about what can be done to prevent the problem from occurring again – a worthwhile conversation in my opinion. But the talk always turns to what can be done to kill more bacteria, and I never hear talk about what can be done to improve the immune systems of the people. Even Louis Pasteur, who discovered that heating foods kills bacteria, stated that the problem is not the germ, but the terrain. So the result is more food irradiation, more food pasteurization, and chemical methods of food sterilization, which not only kills the bad bacteria in the food, but also the good bacteria which is vital to our health, the live enzymes, and many of the vitamins in the food making it less nutritious, further compromising the health of the population, making us more susceptible to food-borne illness in the future. Over-sterilization of our food supply is becoming a more and more serious health threat in my opinion. Those that want to eat raw food are having their choices limited by government regulation more and more frequently. For example, as I stated in a previous post, “raw” almonds are not actually raw anymore. They have been sterilized, so the nutritional value of almonds has been lost.

Furthermore, we actually need bacteria in our gut not only to digest our food, but also to strengthen our immune system. We want lots of “good” bacteria in our gut, to help fight the bad bacteria like Listeria should we come in contact with it. If all our food is sterilized, we can’t get adequate good bacteria from our food to help keep us healthy. It is also worth realizing that our immune system becomes strong by coming into contact with various bacteria and viruses, so it can develop an ability to fight them. Furthermore, the rising numbers of children that have life-threatening food allergies is strongly related to the lack of contact the immune system has with bacteria in food and the over-clean environment. If we avoid exposure to microbes by using anti-bacterial soaps all the time, cooking all our food to death, avoiding touching dirt or having pets, I think we are not improving our health, but actually harming it. I actually think having a dog or cat in the house along with an infant is a very good idea for health reasons. If the environment is too clean, we develop allergies and are more susceptible to becoming sick. Immunity only comes with exposure to microbes.

Those of you that have read my blog / e-zine for some time know that I promote GRASS-FED raw dairy – something that makes most in the medical profession shudder, especially after a food-borne illness scare. I think that for most, if the cattle are healthy, not given any drugs or hormones, and are NOT FED ANY GRAIN, the taste, and nutritional benefits of raw outweigh the risks. Included in the nutritional benefits of raw GRASS-FED milk is “good” bacteria which populates the digestive tract and improves the immune system. Do your own research, and see what you think!

For those that are immuno-compromised, perhaps a way to begin building up good gut bacteria is to take a probiotic supplement, and include raw vegetables that have been washed well in the diet. Fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, unpasteurized sauerkraut or kimchi, can be added into the diet in small amounts initially. Eating the highest quality real food one can afford, and avoiding sugar, flour and other processed food is key to maintaining good gut bacteria.

In order to be able to successfully treat those that suffer from food-borne bacterial infections like listeria or salmonella, it is important that we prevent the bugs from mutating and becoming resistant to anti-bacterial drugs. So, avoiding anti-bacterial soaps and running to the doctor to get an antibiotic for every minor sniffle is important. And if for some reason an antibiotic is really necessary, it is critically important to take probiotics after the prescription has run out, to repopulate the gut with good bacteria again.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

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Some ideas that may help reduce the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, and possibly bring the disease into remission.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease where the body attacks itself – specifically the synovial linings of joints causing swelling, pain and inflammation, and also on occasion, various organs of the body.

What causes rheumatoid arthritis is unknown, but it has been noticed that many if not most people with RA had some kind of emotional trauma in their past, which may have decreased immune function enough to allow an infection that may precipitate the disease. RA seems to be more prevalent in women, and tends to first affect people between the ages of 20 and 50.

As with all diseases, I feel it is important NOT to treat the disease per se, but rather the person with the disease, by looking at what is going on with the individual. Every person would need a different treatment depending on what is found through functional-medicine testing.

The obvious place to begin the search would be food allergy and food sensitivity testing, as studies have shown that 30-40% of RA sufferers can bring their RA into remission by vigorously eliminating any source of allergies and food sensitivities and staying away from the offending foods.

Some people have even managed to discontinue drug treatment and remain well for over 12 years. We know that fasting will reduce symptoms in almost all RA patients within 3 to 5 days, and that may be because all the sources of food irritations have been completely removed. Elimination diets take up to 20 days to begin working, perhaps because some foods that are pro-inflammatory are still being eaten.

Sorting out what foods one is allergic or sensitive to can take some time, as the various tests (blood tests (IgE, IgG),saliva tests (IgA), scratch tests (IgE) etc.) test for different kinds of antibodies and none catch everything in one fell swoop, except for possibly vega testing, which works on an energetic level.

The most common allergens/sensitivities for RA sufferers are the nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, red, yellow and green peppers), gluten grains and their flour (all grain except for rice, buckwheat, millet and corn), dairy (lactose and casein), soy, and frequently beef, pork, shellfish and eggs. Testing is necessary, because it may be other foods than these listed above that are the source of the problem.

The second part of the diet strategy can be generalized to everyone with or without RA, as these guidelines would improve everyone's health. Eat the highest quality, unprocessed food one can afford, organic and raw if possible.

I've written extensively in the past on increasing the ratio of omega 3 fats to omega 6 fats, in order to reduce whole-body inflammation. Clearly that would be particularly important in inflammatory diseases like RA. Foods to include (assuming no allergies or sensitivities) would be fish, fish oil, flax oil, walnuts, and foods to reduce or eliminate would be omega 6 vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, grape seed, margarines, and vegetable shortenings made from these oils etc.) and grains, which are also high in omega 6 fatty acids.

Tumeric and ginger have anti-inflammatory properties. All forms of sugar should be avoided, as they negatively alter intestinal flora, as well as all processed food as the chemical additives they contain may be
allergenic or toxic.

Caffeine, tobacco and citrus fruits seem to make RA worse, so these foods should be avoided as well.

It would also be highly beneficial to do the metabolic typing test, to learn what foods work best with the metabolism of the individual.

I think it is also important to get a mucosal-barrier test done.

This functional-medicine test looks at the lining of the digestive tract from mouth to anus by looking for a leaky gut among other things, which would explain why food particles are getting into the blood stream causing a full-blown immune response in the body. Lack of good gut flora is linked to RA (taking a good probiotic can remedy this, as can kefir if there is no dairy allergy), and so is a reduced amount of HCL in the stomach.

If your food sits in your stomach for a long time, it takes very little food to feel full, and you have a particularly hard time digesting meats, a lack of HCL may be the problem. Taking an HCL supplement (betaine) with meals can completely remedy this problem.

Since stress is highly associated with RA flare-ups, and is linked to getting the disease in the first place, it may also be worth doing a stress-hormone panel test, so that hormone levels can be brought back into balance appropriately, based on the test results. Dealing with the underlying emotional issues would also be very helpful.

Parasympathetic exercise (exercise that does not activate the body’s stress response) such as walking, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, and slow movement with the breath may help a lot by keeping the joints lubricated and mobile, in addition to increasing fitness levels.

Another piece to consider is getting adequate vitamin D, preferably from the sun if possible. Sun screens block out the ability of the body to make vitamin D from the sun’s rays, so it is worth while spending some time in the sun without sunscreen. It is important not to let oneself burn, of course.

If sun exposure is not an option, cod liver oil, liver, lard, eggs and butter provide some vitamin D in the diet. Vitamin D3 supplements are also a possibility.

Although most people with RA (and even in the general population) are very deficient in vitamin D, it is toxic at too high levels, so ask your doctor to monitor your vitamin D levels via the blood test. (It is interesting to note that one can’t get toxic levels of vitamin D from the sun – only from dietary sources.)

Dr. Mercola has used Dr. Brown's Minocin Protocol with great success, although he is moving away from an antibiotic protocol, as he finds it is unnecessary to get good results.

However if you have RA and are sceptical that it is possible to reduce RA symptoms without drugs, you can discuss this form of treatment with your physician.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

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“When the emotional brain is out of order, the heart suffers and wears out … The proper functioning of the heart turns out influence the brain as well.”

Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD goes on to say that “Some cardiologists and neurologists go so far as to refer to a “heart-brain system” that cannot be dissociated.” The brain and the heart are connected via the autonomic peripheral nervous system, which is not under conscious control and regulates organ function.

As I’ve discussed in many other tips, the sympathetic branch (fight or flight), raises heart rate, blood pressure etc. whereas the parasympathetic branch slows heart rate, lowers blood pressure etc. The goal for optimal health is to have the two branches balance each other, rather than have one branch (usually the sympathetic one) racing out of control.

It is now known that the heart  produces some of its own hormones, and actually has its own perceptions, which can influence the function of the whole body including the brain. It sends messages back to the brain via direct nerve connections also, creating an interconnected loop. So, learning how to control the heart can make a huge difference in our ability to come to peace with the emotional brain.

One of the ways to see the connection between the brain and the heart is by looking at the variability in heart rate in response to the constant demands of the sympathetic (accelerator) and parasympathetic system (brake).

It is not normal to have an extremely steady heart rate, where the space between each beat is identical for long periods of time – there should always be minute variations and adjustments, which is a reflection of the give and take in the nervous system.

When the emotional brain is not happy – when we are depressed, anxious, worried, overly stressed or angry, our heart rate variability lessens, and the beat becomes more chaotic, showing up on a biofeedback graph as jagged, disorderly beats.

When feeling joy, happiness, love, gratefulness, compassion or other positive feelings, our heart responds by "smoothing out" the rhythm, making the wave on a biofeedback graph appear harmonious and coherent.

On a biofeedback graph, the space between the peaks won't be even, reflecting good heart-rate variability, but the graph itself will be less "jagged" if that makes any kind of sense at all. Look at the graphs here to see the difference between a non-coherent and a coherent heart rhythm.

When the heart is beating in coherence, the brain works more quickly and more accurately, the autonomic nervous system stabilizes, our respiratory rhythms and our blood pressure variations synchronize, and our emotional state can dramatically change.

When we are suffering emotional distress, our heart will beat in a chaotic fashion. This can happen for a few minutes or for much longer periods of time over the course of a day, depending on how we are coping. No wonder so many of us are tired all the time, and some of us suffer from heart palpitations and anxiety attacks.

In the same day, our hearts may be beating in coherence for periods of time too. The more time spent in coherence, the healthier and happier we are. And thankfully, we can train heart coherence, and it is a very effective way to deal with negative emotions via the body, as I was explaining last week.

And when we get good at achieving heart coherence, we can use it when we are under emotional stress to keep our physiology working well, so we no longer live in a state of chronic stress, which has such negative consequences for the body.

Although there are many software biofeedback programs on the market now that measure heart coherence and can be very helpful to learn how to bring oneself into coherence at will, they are not necessary.

One can achieve coherence by taking a few minutes to set aside one's troubles, sit or lie down, and focus on the action of taking a few deep breaths. Be an observer, and watch the air pass your nostrils, fill your lungs, and feel the ribcage expand.

Then without forcing, watch the air come out, being mindful of the feeling as it passes through your throat and out your nose. Breath easily, long, deep and slow for a few breaths.

Then focus in on your heart, and feel as if you are breathing through your heart or the centre of the chest, washing the heart in fresh oxygen with each inhale, and removing the waste with each exhale.

Pay attention to any warming feelings or feelings of your chest emotionally expanding. Think of someone you love, or perhaps your favourite place in the world. Think of something you are extremely grateful for, or a time where you did something that made you feel wonderful. When you feel that inner glow, you have achieved heart coherence.

With practice, one can achieve coherence quickly, even in stressful situations. Coherence provides a good opportunity to access both the cognitive and the emotional brain, as the system is in balance. It can also provide a direct line of communication into the emotional brain.

Once in coherence, one can ask the heart a difficult question, and look for the reaction – greater warmth and comfort, or a feeling of withdrawal – and know how the emotional body is viewing the situation.

It is said that we are happiest when we follow our heart, so learning to hear what our heart is telling us can be very valuable indeed.

The ideas in this tip come from a book I really enjoyed – The Instinct to Heal – Curing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress without Drugs and without Talk Therapy, by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PhD. Do read the book for more details.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

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Servan-Schreiber, David MD, PhD. The Instinct to Heal: Curing Depression, Anxiety and Stress Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy Rodale Inc., US, 2004.

Marek Malik et al. Heart Rate Variability
Standards of Measurement, Physiological Interpretation, and Clinical Use Circulation 1996;93:1043-1065.

Tiller WA et al. Cardiac Coherence: A New, Non-invasive Measure of Autonomic Nervous System Order Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 1996; 2(1): 52-65.

Ginsberg JP et al. Improving Cognition in Recently Returned Combat Veterans with Post traumatic Stress Disorder by Heart Rate Variability Coherence Biofeedback Shirley L. Buchanan Neuroscience Laboratory, Dorn VA Medical Center, Columbia, SC., 2008.

McCraty R et al. Impact of a workplace stress reduction program on blood pressure and emotional health in hypertensive employees. J Altern Complement Med. 2003 Jun;9(3):355-69.

Luskin F. et al. A Controlled Pilot Study of Stress Management Training of Elderly Patients With Congestive Heart Failure Preventive Cardiology 2002;5(4):168-172, 176.

McCraty R. et al. Heart Rhythm Coherence Feedback: A New Tool for Stress Reduction, Rehabilitation, and Performance Enhancement Biofeedback 2002;30(1):23-25.

Doc Childre et al. Psychophysiological Correlates of Spiritual Experience Biofeedback 2001;29(4):13-17.

McCraty R et al. Analysis of twenty-four hour heart rate
variability in patients with panic disorder Biological Psychology 56 (2001) 131–150

McCraty R et al. The impact of a new emotional self-management program on stress, emotions, heart rate variability, DHEA and cortisol Integr Physiol Behav Sci. 1998 Apr-Jun;33(2):151-70.

McCraty R et al. The Effects of Emotions on Short-Term Power Spectrum Analysis of Heart Rate Variability American Journal of Cardiology. 1995; 76(14): 1089-1093.

Rein G. The Physiological and Psychological Effects of Compassion and Anger Journal of Advancement in Medicine. 1995; 8(2): 87-105.

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

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When our emotional (limbic) brain and our cognitive (neocortex) brain are in conflict, we suffer negative emotions like depression, anxiety, jealousy, or guilt.

Think of our brain as having two components, one component sitting inside the other, much like a yolk sits inside the white of an egg. The deep and primitive emotional/instinctive component of the brain is known as the limbic system, and it is found in all mammals. It is our unconscious, survival part of the brain which runs our autonomic nervous system, regulating breathing, heart-rate, sexual drive, hormones etc. It takes in all kinds of information, most completely below our level of awareness, and forces us to pay attention to stuff that it perceives may harm us. We don’t feel the emotions of our limbic system in our head; we feel them in the body – nervousness in our gut, love in our heart, fear in our throat or in the hairs of our skin, for example. It is said that all our emotions are stored in the body. The limbic system is the source of our passion.

The neocortex (literally the “new bark”) is much newer in terms of our evolutionary history, it surrounds the emotional part, forming the cognitive component of our brain, and is our source of rational, logical thought. The neocortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex just behind our forehead, is the source of reason, and is what separates us from our fellow creatures on this planet. The neocortex and the limbic components don't communicate with each other very well – they each do their own thing and come to their own conclusions.  Rational thought seems to stay in the head, whereas our emotions are communicated via the body primarily.

When the conclusions they come to regarding a particular topic are different, we suffer emotional distress. The cognitive part can be good at overriding messages coming from the emotional part. Your gut is saying one thing, but your rational mind is saying another, whether it is about staying in an unhappy relationship, taking that promotion that is going to have you working like a dog, or going to that meeting instead of your child’s school play. Many of us are quite good at squelching our emotions because it is not always acceptable in our society to express them. For example, especially men are not supposed to cry in public, and we are all supposed to get over and stop talking about the death of a loved one in about a week. Less frequently passion dominates over reason, in love triangles for example. Great literature has been written about conflicts between reason and passion, and the despair this causes. And if disharmony between the reason and passion are the rule rather than the exception, stress diseases like heart disease, cancer, extreme fatigue etc. can develop.

As language and cognition have limited access to the emotional part of the brain, getting over emotional pain by logically dissecting an issue to death may not work too well. This may be the reason why talk therapy takes so very long. One may logically understand why we are feeling what we are feeling which can be helpful, but that does not necessarily help us stop feeling the negative emotion. Perhaps a better way to deal with difficult emotions is through the body, since the body is the limbic brain’s communication system. Many people have found themselves suddenly crying at a painful memory that unexpectedly pops into their mind while having a massage for example. Next week I'll discuss a method of tuning into the body in order to control one's stress.

The ideas in this tip come from a book I really enjoyed – The Instinct to Heal – Curing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress without Drugs and without Talk Therapy, by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PhD.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related tips
How hormones, neurotransmitters and steroids work
Mind and body; psyche and soma
Acute vs chronic stress

Servan-Schreiber, David MD, PhD. The Instinct to Heal: Curing Depression, Anxiety and Stress Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy Rodale Inc., US, 2004.

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

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Poor posture not only leads to musculoskeletal pain, but can also impair organ function.

I discussed in another post how our function determines our posture (habitually sit in a slouched position and our posture hardens into having rounded shoulders and a forward head), and today I want to discuss the other direction – how our posture determines our function (how well our body works.)

I’ve just returned from a fabulous Integrative Neurosomatic Therapy course presented through Paul St. John’s clinic in Clearwater Florida, where this point was driven home. Poor posture does not only cause musculoskeletal pain, but can also impair organ function. Think about it. If one stands with one’s ribcage tilted to one side, the organs that sit on that side (like a kidney) are going to be squashed, which could very well impair its function. If one stands or sits with a collapsed chest and rounded upper back (the posture common to those suffering from depression) the diaphragm can’t descend properly with each breath, which may impact the lungs, and prevent proper oxygenation of the blood. Not only that, but the entire digestive tract would be squeezed making it harder to digest and assimilate one’s food. Also, with the chest tipped forward like that, the major blood vessels (aorta and vena cava) as well as the esophagus, (the tube the food goes down to get to the gut) may wind up slightly kinked as they go through the hole in the diaphragm designed for those vessels, potentially irritating the vagus nerve, which is near by. So maybe your acid reflux is not an acid problem but a postural problem! A flat cervical spine (neck) may be the root cause of a thyroid issue, because the area in the front of the neck may not be getting adequate blood.

If there is a functional or anatomical leg-length discrepancy that results in the pelvis being tilted in standing (one hip higher than the other), there will be a corresponding tilt in the opposite direction somewhere higher up in the spine to ensure that the head is sitting straight, and that the eyes are level. This is why frequently those will low back problems also have neck problems, and why leg-length discrepancies are often a primary cause of scoliosis. The areas that are tilted are vulnerable to wear-and-tear and injury, such as disk bulges, SI joint problems, hip degradation and pain (usually on the longer leg).

According to Friberg who studied army recruits and verified his findings on Xray, up to 60% of us have an anatomical leg-length discrepancy of 5mm or more. I had previously believed that most leg-length discrepancies were functional – a muscle imbalance problem in the pelvis – but if one takes the pelvis out of the equation by just examining the legs in standing, the numbers with anatomical leg-length differences are extraordinarily high. Many of us have a small hemi-pelvis – one side of the pelvis is smaller than the other, meaning that while sitting the pelvis is tilted. A high hip/pelvis in either sitting or standing may also result in squished organs on that same side. Anatomical leg length differences and smaller hemi-pelvises are very common structural issues that can cause all kinds of pain and possibly disease processes, they are easy to fix through shoe lifts (not heel lifts!) and butt lifts, and are generally not looked for at all by most health practitioners. Not everyone with a leg-length discrepancy is in pain, (those that are using appropriate stabilization strategies will be more able to dissipate the forces away from the joints), but a tilted pelvis will affect wear at the joints (hip, SI, spine, even possibly knee and foot) over time, increasing the potential for pain at some point. Children should be checked because if caught early enough before the epiphyseal plates in the bones close, a shorter leg can actually catch up with proper shoe-lift treatment.

So, who is your structural integrator? We all need a functional medicine doctor, a dentist, and I would argue, we need someone to help us with our structure. Integrated Neurosomatic Therapists are trained to look for leg-length discrepancies and smaller hemi-pelvises, and can help restore good structure through massage therapy techniques, by releasing tight muscles that are holding bones in a poor position. KMI Practitioners and Rolfers are also structural integrators and can help us realign our posture through massage. Corrective Exercise Specialists such as CHEK Practitioners can also help you improve your posture by suggesting particular exercises that will strengthen weak muscles, thereby bringing your body back into alignment. Yoga, with its emphasis on good postural alignment, can also be very helpful.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

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